#but i thought about the quote “some children are born with tragedy in their blood” and thought of Ron | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

toujourspur13 · 3 years

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The Black family / Walburga Black / canon.

As I said before I do not care that much about canon/fanon/headcanon because transformative works by definition include a wide variety of different interpretations. However, I am forever perplexed when I see uncompromising opinions on the Black family - particularly the unwavering certainty that Sirius Black’s parents were psychotic abusers. All personal opinions aside - why is this so popular?

I mean - it’s absolutely ok to headcanon this version and to play with it - but saying 'don’t you dare say they did not physically and emotionally abuse Sirius' is a little strong, isn’t it?

This is a mystery to me. So…let’s discuss my favourite subject…Again.

Let’s stick to the facts. The frequently cited things proving the abuse in the Black family are as follows:

Sirius said his parents were awful maniacs (pureblood ideology)

he ran away from home

he was severely depressed in OoTP

Kreacher

Portrait

So…when you say that Sirius’s parents were abusive…you mean exactly what? These people got cold feet when they saw the real nature of Voldemort - I guess it somehow implies that they did not share his methods…that they were against violence as a tool to get purebloods in charge.

But then it usually goes this way: ‘well at least he was verbally and emotionally abused by his family’ - but is it so? Is this based on the portrait of Sirius's mother? She insulted strangers who took over her house and her runaway son - how does this prove anything about how Sirius and Regulus were raised and treated when they were kids? I agree it’s rather impolite - jkr did a good job showing how purebloods perceived others ( those below them) -but in all honesty, this has very little to do with Sirius and his childhood.

Why to make Sirius a victim at all? - c’mon he was tougher than this, he spent 12 years in Azkaban; are you actually saying that a portrait throwing insults at everyone is worse? I doubt that. And is it such a surprise that a mother who lost her son (that said son actually ran away and abandoned his duty) would be that furious at him when seeing him again...even if it’s only a portrait...I believe it to be a rather unpleasant experience for a parent when a child runs away.

We already talked about the portrait a lot - I don’t even want to mention it here- - I feel we should rather pay more attention to the fact that Sirius himself was not an angel.

I am not saying the colourful vocabulary of Walburga Black should be used…but Sirius himself upon seeing Snape immediately recognised his weakness and went for it without any hesitation …we are talking about Sirius who in fact was quite a renowned bully ( I mean - we know for a fact that from time to time Sirius and James got carried away)…

And it was Sirius who sent Snape to meet and chat with a real werewolf (yes, I agree - he was not thinking this through - he probably was just vexed and fed up with Snape and thought he wouldn’t go there, would get cold feet or idk run away…But it actually changes nothing. If a drunken driver hits someone it will be 100% his fault whether he means it or not. Whether he is in a fragile mental state or not - such situations are definite. It’s the same with Sirius - even if he did not mean anything bad he should have understood the cost of his mistake - all teenagers make silly things but not all of them send their classmate to meet a werewolf - James thought it not a very good idea as I recall… -

So we see that Sirius was not an angel from the start and I can hardly believe he was a victim by nature. His behaviour loudly manifested that he used to get what he wanted with no thought of the consequences.

And all those pictures of bikini-clad girls on the walls in his room prove that he was quite a spoiled boy who had nothing to fear from mum and dad. Harry himself noticed «Sirius seemed to have gone out of his way to annoy his parents». All this shows that Sirius was not afraid of his parents at all. What kind of masochist would suffer for motorbike posters? That would be ridiculous.

Let’s move to Kreacher: If Sirius’s mother had been a monster why even mention her heart? JKR wrote this for a purpose and this heavily implies that Sirius's situation was never meant to be ‘the abusive heartless parents vs the poor helpless victim’.

The fact that Sirius ran away and hence broke his mother’s heart says against the popular idea that he was not loved by his family, that he was always the second one, that they abused him. I’m 100% certain that Kreacher told the truth in that scene. Why would he say something like this if it were not the truth - something like…that his beloved mistress having been so upset over Sirius running away that it broke her heart. Just tell me one reason that would have justified such a lie - why to say this at all?

Then this: “Leave?” Sirius smiled bitterly and ran a hand through his long, unkempt hair. “Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal … my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them … that’s him.”…. “He was younger than me,” said Sirius, “and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded.”

I’ve already said it before - this ‘better son than me’ is exactly what insecure 14-year old kids like to say. Well...he’s a bit older but it’s not as if he had a life and a chance to mature. Moreover, I don’t know if it comes as a great shock but a lot of teenagers like to badmouth their parents…usually, it involves something like ‘those bloody uptight retrogrades know nothing of the real world’ (it fades away when they get closer to thirty).

To be serious, I find that it’s just another example of similarities between Sirius and his mother. They clearly did not know what it means to be composed, polite, and respectful. Yeah…I think that, on the whole, parents are owed their children’s respect (unless they are completely inadequate - somehow I don’t believe this was the case). Someone should teach both of them what mutual respect means. Anyway, there is nothing in this quote that says that Sirius was subjected to any forms of abuse - it’s about how Sirius justified his running away, how he saw the situation.

There’s also the fact that Sirius was incredibly unhappy because he was back at his childhood home and having to spend time around anything that reminded him of his family: “Hasn’t anyone told you? This was my parents’ house,” said Sirius. “But I’m the last Black left, so it’s mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters — about the only useful thing I’ve been able to do.” Harry, who had expected a better welcome, noted how hard and bitter Sirius’s voice sounded”.

Here it comes…the severe depression that makes people question the severity of his abuse… I have thought a lot about this because it is the reason why some consider ‘the abusive blacks' canon while others believe it was more of a tragedy of the family rather than the banal brutality.

Of course, Sirius was upset in that house - but I don’t think he suffered the memories of his unhappy childhood - I think he suffered from the strong feeling of guilt. Being in that house meant an everyday reminder that he was a failure. And it’s not even a lie. If you look at his whole life you’ll see that he literally failed everyone in his life: he failed James and Lily - they were dead and he unwillingly became the reason. It was his plan that turned everything into a tragedy.

And, to some extent, he failed Harry- he was not around him like James and Lily would have wanted. Sirius did not give him the real family - he only promised they'd be the one «when it’s all over».

And finally - he failed his parents, his brother, his own family.

Is it possible to live with so much guilt in your heart?

I don't think that Sirius completely forgot who he was born to be. If the family keeps traditions and can trace its existence back in centuries you can't shake it off even if you want. I doubt Sirius switched it off just because he had griffindor friends. He was the last Black - it is tragically poetic that he was once the hope of his family and then this family died with him. If Sirius had heart (and I truly believe he had a heart) he knew exactly what it meant to be trapped in the house that represented the death of his family. A constant reminder that he was the last one.

“The others’ hushed voices were giving Harry an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person”.

I think that the scene when he threw his father's ring away - he threw it away because it was all over for his family. It was the end of the dynasty - and for him it was all over long before he met Bellatrix for the last time.

Well, I admit Sirius' situation is open for wide interpretation but I don’t think the abusive black household is a canon thing - of course, it’s fanon. It makes Sirius a hero who broke the chains when in fact he ended up being a victim of his own life.

You know, it always seems strange to me that fandom when discussing Walburga usually overlooks the simple truth of life - that even if you are clever enough and mean good for your loved ones it is still possible to end up on the losing side, on the dark side. However, mistakes don't automatically turn humans into monsters.

To some extent Sirius’s story represents the consequences of war. No-one is protected; the whole families could be wiped off the face of the earth. It’s a simple yet profound idea. It correlates with the main idea of hp books far better than the ‘abusive psychopaths’ (there are already Voldemort and Bellatrix - there is no-one who can beat them in this department).

All I say - it’s okay to imagine them bad if you want- your right - but don’t write everywhere that it’s canon because it is not.There is no need for such inflexibility especially when it comes to the fandom - a place where everyone should be welcomed and their views on the books be respected.

#the noble and most ancient house of black #hp meta #harry potter #sirius black meta #walburga black #orion black #regulus black #harry potter meta #Order of the Phoenix #Sirius Black

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wits-writing · 3 years

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What’s so Funny About Vengeance, the Night, and Batman? – Two Superhero Parodies in Conversation

Back in 2016, the first trailers for Director Chris McKay’s The Lego Batman Movie hit. A spinoff of the take on the iconic hero, voiced by Will Arnett, from 2014’s The Lego Movie. Those trailers spelled out a plot covering how Batman’s life of crimefighting is turned upside down when Robin unexpectedly enters the picture. It was a funny trailer, promising another insightful comedy from the crew behind The Lego Movie. A promise it handily delivered on when it came out in February 2017 with an animated feature steeped wall-to-wall jokes for the sake of mocking Bruce Wayne’s angst filled crusade that can only come from understanding what’s made the character withstand the test of time.

But there was a thought I and others had from seeing that trailer up to watching the actual movie:

“This seems… familiar.”

Holy Musical B@man! is a 2012 fan-made stage production parody of DC Comics’ biggest cash cow. It was produced as the fifth musical from YouTube-based cult phenomenon Starkid Productions, from a book by Matt and Nick Lang, music by Nick Gage and Scott Lamp with lyrics by Gage. The story of the musical details how Robin’s unexpected entrance ends up turning Batman’s (Joe Walker) life of crimefighting upside down. Among Starkids’ fandom derived projects in their early existence, as they’ve mainly moved on to well-received original material in recent years, Holy Musical B@man! is my personal favorite. I go back to it frequently, appreciating it as a fan of both superheroes and musicals. (Especially since good material that touches on both of those isn’t exactly easy to come by. Right, Spider-Man?)

While I glibly summarized the similarities between them by oversimplifying their plots, there’s a lot in the details, both major and minor, that separates how they explore themes like solitude, friendship, love, and what superhero stories mean. It’s something I’ve wanted to dig into for a while and I found a lot in both of them I hadn’t considered before by putting them in conversation. I definitely recommend watching both of them, because of how in-depth this piece goes including discussing their endings. However, nothing I can say will replace the experience of watching them and if I had included everything I could’ve commented on in both of them, this already massive piece would easily be twice as long minimum.

Up front, I want to say this isn’t about comparing The Lego Batman Movie and Holy Musical B@man in terms of quality. Not only are they shaped for vastly different mediums with different needs/expectations, animation versus stagecraft, but they also had different resources at their disposal. Even if both are in some ways riffing on the aesthetic of the 1990s Batman movies and the Adam West TV show, Lego Batman does it with the ability to make gorgeously animated frames packed to the brim with detail while Holy Musical often leans into its low-fi aesthetic of characters miming props and sets to add extra humor. They’re also for different audiences, Lego Batman clearly for all-ages while Holy Musical has the characters cursing for emphasis on a regular basis. On top of those factors, after picking through each of these for everything worth commenting on that I could find, I can’t say which I wholly prefer thanks in part to these fundamental differences.

This piece is more about digging through the details to explore the commonalities, differences, and what makes them effective mocking love letters to one of the biggest superheroes in existence.

(Also, since I’m going to be using the word “Batman” a lot, I’ll be calling Lego Batman just “Batman” and referring to the version from Holy Musical as “B@man”, with the exception of quoted dialogue.)

[Full Piece Under the Cut]

Setting the Tone

The beginning is, in fact, a very good place to start when discussing how these parodies frame their versions of the caped crusader. Each one uses a song about lavishing their respective Batmen with praise about how they are the best superheroes ever and play over sequences of the title hero kicking wholesale ass. A key distinction comes in who’s singing each song. Holy Musical B@man’s self-titled opening number is sung from the perspective of an omniscient narrator recounting B@man’s origin and later a chorus made up of the Gotham citizenry. Meanwhile, “Who’s the (Bat) Man” from Lego Batman is a brag-tacular song written by Batman about himself, even playing diegetically for all his villains to hear as he beats them up.

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Holy Musical opens on a quick recap of Batman’s origin:

“One shot, Two shots in the night and they’re gone And he’s all left alone He’s just one boy Two dead at his feet and their blood stains the street And there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can do!”

We then get a Bat-dance break as the music goes from slow and moody to energetic to reflect Batman turning that tragedy into the driving force behind his one-man war on crime. Assured by the narrator that he’s “the baddest man that there’s ever been!” and “Now there’s nothing, no there’s nothing he can’t do!” flipping the last lyric of the first verse. For the rest of the opening scene the lyrics matter less than what’s happening to establish both this fan-parody’s version of Batman and how the people of Gotham (“he’ll never refuse ‘em”) view him.

Lego Batman skips the origin recap, and in general talks around the death of the Waynes to keep the light tone going since it’s still a kids movie about a popular toy even if there are deeper themes at play. Instead, it continues a trend The Lego Movie began for this version of the character writing music about how he’s an edgy, dark, awesome, cool guy. While that movie kept it to Batman angry-whiteboy-rapping about “Darkness! NO PARENTS!”, this one expands to more elaborate boasts in the song “Who’s the (Bat) Man” by Patrick Stump:

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“In the darkest night I make the bad guys fall There’s a million heroes But I’m the best of them all!”

Batman singing this song about himself, as opposed to having it sung by others aims the crosshairs of parody squarely on the hero’s ego. His abilities make fighting his villains effortless, like this opening battle is more an opportunity to perform the song than a life-or-death struggle. Even Joker’s aware of that as he shouts, “Stop him before he starts singing!” This Batman doesn’t see himself as missing out on anything in life, even if he still feels that deep down. Being Batman is the coolest thing in the world that anyone would envy. He’s Batman, therefore everyone should envy him.

The songs aren’t only part of the equation for how these two works’ opening scenes establish their leading hero. While both songs are about Batman being cool, they’re separated by the accompanying scenes. Lego Batman keep the opening within the Joker’s perspective until Batman shows up and the action kicks in. Once it does, we’re shown a Batman at the top of his solo-hero game. Meanwhile, Holy Musical’s opening is about B@man building his reputation and by the end of the song he has all the citizens of Gotham singing his praises with the titular lyrics. Both are about being in awe of the title hero, one framed by Joker’s frustration at Batman’s ease in foiling his schemes yet again and the other about the people of Gotham growing to love their city’s hero (probably against their better judgement.)

That’s woven into the fabric of what kind of schemes Batman is foiling in each of these. Joker’s plan to bomb Gotham with the help of every supervillain in Batman’s Rogues Gallery is hilariously high stakes and the type of plan most Batman stories, even parodies, would save for the climax. Neatly exemplified by how that’s almost the exact structure of Holy Musical’s final showdown. Starting with these stakes works as an extension of this Batman’s nature as a living children’s toy and therefore the embodiment of a child’s idea of what makes Batman cool, his ability to wipe the floor with anyone that gets in his way “because he’s Batman.” It also emphasizes Joker as the only member of the Rogues Gallery that matters to Lego Batman’s story, every other Bat-villain is either a purely visual cameo or only gets a couple lines maximum.

The crime’s being stopped by B@man are more in the “Year One” gangster/organized crime category rather than anything spectacle heavy. Though said crimes are comically exaggerated:

Gangster 1: Take these here drugs, put ‘em into them there guns, and then hand ‘em out to those gamblin’ prostitutes! Gangster 2: Should we really be doing these illegal activities? In a children’s hospital for orphans?

These fit into that model of crime the Dark Knight fights in his early days and add tiny humanizing moments between the crooks (“Oh, Matches! You make me laugh like nobody else!”) in turn making the arrival of B@man and the violence he deals out a stronger punchline. Further emphasized by the hero calling out the exact physical damage he does with each hit before warning them to never do crime again saying, “Support your families like the rest of us! Be born billionaires!” Later in the song his techniques get more extreme and violence more indiscriminate, as he uses his Bat-plane to patrol and gun down whoever he sees as a criminal, including a storeowner accidentally taking a single dollar from his own register. (“God’s not up here! Only Batman!”)

A commonality between these two openings is how Commissioner Jim Gordon gets portrayed. Both are hapless goofs at their core, playing more on the portrayal of the character in the 60s TV show and 90s Burton/Schumacher movies than the serious-minded character present in comics, Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, and other adaptations. Lauren Lopez’s portrayal in Holy Musical gets overwhelmed by everything thrown at him, eventually giving up and getting out of B@man’s way (“I’m not gonna tell Batman what to do! He’s Batman!”) Hector Elizondo’s Gordon in Lego Batman clearly reached the “stay out of Batman’s way” point a long time ago, happy to have “the guy who flips on the Bat-signal” be his sole defining trait. While the characterizations are close, their roles do end up differing. Lopez’s Gordon sticks around to have a few more comedic scenes as the play goes on, where Elizondo’s exist to set up a contrast with his daughter Barbara and her way of approaching Batman when she becomes Police Commissioner.

These opening sequences both end in similar manners as well; the citizens of Gotham lavishing praise on their respective Batmen and a confrontation between Batman and the Joker. Praise from the citizenry in Holy Musical comes on the heels of a letter from B@man read out on the news about how much they and the city of Gotham suck. They praise B@man for his angsty nature as a “dark hero” and how they “wouldn’t want him any other way!”, establishing the motif of Gotham’s citizens in Holy Musical as stand-ins for the Batman fandom. Lego Batman uses the praise of the Gotham citizens after Batman’s victory in the opening scene as a lead in to contrast their certainty that Batman must have an exciting private life with the reality we’re shown. Which makes sense since Lego-Batman’s relationship to the people of Gotham is never presented as something at stake.

Greater contrast comes in how the confrontations with the Joker are handled, Lego Batman has an argument between the hero and villain that’s intentionally coded as relationship drama, Batman saying “There is no ‘us’” when Joker declares himself Batman’s greatest enemy. The confrontation in Holy Musical gets purposefully underplayed as an offstage encounter narrated to the audience as a Vicki Vale news report. This takes Joker off the board for the rest of the play in contrast to the Batman/Joker relationship drama that forms one of Lego Batman’s key pillars. While they take different forms, the respective citizenry praise and villain confrontation parts of these openings lead directly into the number one common thematic element between these Bat-parodies: Batman’s loneliness.

One is the Darkest, Saddest, Loneliest Number

Batman as an isolated hero forms one of the core tenants of the most popular understanding of the character. Each of these parodies picks at that beyond the broody posturing. There’s no dedicated segment in this piece about how these works’ versions of the title character function bleeds into every other aspect of them, but each starts from the idea of Batman as a man-child with trouble communicating his emotions. Time’s taken to give the audience a view of where their attitudes have left them early in the story.

Both heroes show their loneliness through interactions with their respective Alfreds. Holy Musical has the stalwart butler, played by Chris Allen, try to comfort B@man by asking if he has any friends he enjoys being around. When B@man cites Lucius Fox as a friend he calls him right away, only to discover Lucius Fox is Alfred’s true identity and Alfred Pennyworth was an elaborate ruse he came up with to protect Bruce on his father’s wishes. Ironically, finding out his closest friend was living a double life causes Bruce to push Alfred away (the play keeps referring to him as Alfred after this, so that’s what I’m going to do as well.) After he’s fired he immediately comes back in a new disguise as “O’Malley the Irish Butler” (same outfit he wore before but with a Party City Leprechaun hat.) That’s unfortunately the start of a running gag in Holy Musical that ends up at the worst joke in the play, when Alfred disguises himself as “Quon Li the Chinese Butler” doing an incredibly cringeworthy “substituting L’s for R’s” bit with his voice. It’s been my least favorite bit in the play since I first saw it in 2012 and legitimately makes me hesitate at times to recommend it. Even if it’s relatively small bit and the rest holds ups.

That disclaimer out of the way, that conversation between B@man and Alfred leads into the title hero reflecting on his sadness through the musical’s I Want Song, “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight.” The song’s split into two halves, the first Alfred reflecting on whether he played a part in Bruce’s current condition and the second B@man longing for a connection. The song does a good job balancing between the sincerity over the hero’s sadness and getting good laughs out of it:

“Think of the children Next time you gun down the mama and papa Their only mama and papa Because they probably don’t have another mama and papa!”

The “I Want” portion of the song coming in the end with the repetition of the lryics “I want to be somebody’s buddy.”

Rather than another song number, Lego Batman covers Batman’s sadness through a pair of montages and visual humor. The first comes after the opening battle, where we see Batman taking off all his costume except for the mask hanging out alone in Wayne Manor, showing how little separation he puts between identities. Compared to Holy Musical where the equivalent scene is the first we see of Bruce without the mask on, which may come down to practicality since anyone who’s worn a mask like that knows they get hot and sweaty fast. Batman is constantly made to appear small among the giant empty rooms of his estate as he eats dinner, jams on his guitar, and watches romantic movies alone.

Ralph Fienne’s Alfred coming in at the end of this sequence witnessing Batman looking at a photo of himself as a boy with his parents for the last time. Alfred outlines Batman’s fear of being part of a family again only to be met with Batman denying he has any feelings ever. Pennyworth’s role as a surrogate father gets put into greater focus here than in Holy Musical, as we get glimpses of Alfred reading a book titled “How to Deal with Your Out-of-Control Child.” Also shown in smaller scenes of Alfred dealing with Batman’s insistent terminology for his crime fighting equipment, like calling his cowl an “armored face disguise.”

Batman’s denial of his pain contrasts how B@man wallows in it. Though he’s forced to confront it a little as the Joker’s plan ends up leaving him with no crimefighting to fall back on to ignore his issues. This montage gets set to the song “One” by Harry Nilsson and details Batman, unable to express his true feelings, eventually letting them out in the form of tempter tantrums. There’s also some humor through juxtaposition as Batman walks solemnly through the streets of Gotham City, rendered black and white, as the citizens chant “No more crime!” in celebration, while flipping over cars and firing guns into the air.

A disruption to their loneliness eventually comes in the form of a sensational character find.

Robin – The Son/BFF Wonder

Between both Bat-parodies, the two Robins’ characterizations are as close as anyone’s between them. Each is nominally Dick Grayson but are ultimately more representative of the idea of Robin as the original superhero sidekick and his influence on Batman’s life. The play and movie also both make the obvious jokes about Dick’s name and the classic Robin costume’s lack of pants at different points. Dick’s origin also gets sidestepped in each version to skip ahead to the part where he starts being an influence in Batman’s life.

Robin’s introduction to the comics in Detective Comics #38 in 1940, marking the start of Batman’s literal “Year Two” as a character, predating the introduction of Joker, Catwoman, and Alfred, among others. Making him Batman’s longest lasting ally in the character’s history. His presence and acrobatics shift the tone by adding a dash of swashbuckling to Batman’s adventures, inspired by the character’s namesake Robin Hood, though both parodies take a page out of Batman Forever and associate the name with the bird for the sake of a joke. Robin is as core to Batman as his origin, but more self-serious adaptations (i.e., the mainstream cinematic ones that were happening around the times both Holy Musical and Lego Batman came out) tend to avoid the character’s inclusion. These two works being parody, therefore anything but self-serious, give themselves permission to examine why Robin matters and how different characters react to his presence. Rejection of Robin as a character and concept comes out in some form in each of these works, from Batman himself in Lego Batman and the Gotham citizens in Holy Musical.

The chain of events that lead to Dick becoming Robin in Lego Batman are a string of consequences for Batman’s self-absorption. A scene of Bruce barely listening as Dick asks for advice on getting adopted escalating to absentmindedly signing the adoption paperwork. Batman doesn’t realize he has a son until after his sadness montage. Alfred forces Batman to start interacting with Dick against his will. The broody loner wanting nothing to do with the cheery kid, played to “golly gee gosh” perfection by Michael Cera, until he sees the utility of him. Batman doesn’t even have the idea to give Robin a costume or codename because he clearly views the sidekick’s presence as a temporary measure for breaking into Superman’s fortress, made clear by how he lists “expendable” as a quality Dick needs if he wants to go on a mission.

This makes Robin the catalyst for Batman’s shifting perspective throughout Lego Batman. When Robin succeeds in his first mission, the Dark Knight is hesitant to truly compliment him and chalks up his ward’s feats to “unbelievable obeying.” Other moments have Robin’s presence poke holes in Batman’s tough guy demeanor, like the first time Batman and Robin ride in the Bat-mobile together, Robin asks where the seatbelts are and Batman growls “Life doesn’t give you seatbelts!”, only for Batman to make a sudden stop causing Robin to hit his head on the windshield and Batman genuinely apologizes. They share more genuine moments together as the film goes, like Batman suggesting they beatbox together to keeps their spirits up after they’ve been imprisoned for breaking into Arkham Asylum. Robin’s representative of Batman gradually letting people in throughout these moments.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, B@man needs zero extra prompting to let Robin into his life. Nick Lang’s Robin (henceforth called “Rob!n” to keep with this arbitrary naming scheme I’ve concocted) does get brought into his life by Alfred thanks to a personal ad (“‘Dog for sale’? No… ‘Orphan for sale’! Even better!”) but it’s a short path to B@man deciding to let Dick fight alongside him. The briefest hesitance on the hero’s part, “To be Batman… is to be alone”, is quelled by Rob!n saying “We could be alone… together.” Their first scene together quickly establishing the absurd sincerity exemplified by this incarnation of the Dynamic Duo. An energy carried directly into the Act 1 closing number, “The Dynamic Duet”, a joyful ode between the heroes about how they’re “Long lost brothers who found each other” sung as they beat up supervillains (and the occasional random civilian.)

That song also ties into the contrast between the Batman/Robin dynamic and the B@man/Rob!n one. While Holy Musical is portraying a brotherly/BFF bond between the two heroes, Lego Batman leans into the surrogate son angle. While both are mainly about their stories’ Batman being able to connect with others, the son angle of Lego Batman adds an additional layer of “Batman needs to take responsibility for himself and others” and a parallel to Alfred as Batman’s own surrogate father. It also adds to the queer-coding of Batman in Lego Batman as Batman’s excuse to Robin for why he can go on missions is that Bruce and he are sharing custody, Robin even calling Batman’s dual identities “dads” before he knows the truth.

In the absence of the accepting personal responsibility through fatherhood element, the conflict Rob!n brings out in Holy Musical forms between B@man and the citizens of Gotham. “Citizens as stand-ins for fandom” is at it’s clearest here as the Act 2 opener is called “Robin Sucks!” featuring the citizens singing about how… well, you read the title. Their objections to Rob!n’s existence has nothing to do with what the young hero has done or failed to do, but come from arguments purely about the aesthetic of Rob!n fighting alongside B@man. Most blatantly shown by one of the citizens wearing a Heath Ledger Joker t-shirt saying Rob!n’s presence “ruins the gritty realism of a man who fights crime dressed as a bat.” It works as the Act 2 opener by establishing that B@man and the citizens conflicting opinions on his sidekick end up driving that half of the story, exemplified in B@man’s complete confusion about why people hate Rob!n (“Robin ruined Batman? But that’s not true… Robin make Batman happy.”)

Both Robins play into the internal conflict their respective mentors are going through, but what would a superhero story, even a parody, be without some colorful characters to provide that sweet external conflict.

Going Rogue

Both works have the threat comes from an army of villains assembled under a ringleader, Zach Galifianakis’s Joker in Lego Batman and Jeff Blim as Sweet Tooth in Holy Musical. Both lead the full ensemble of Batman’s classic (and not so classic) Rogues at different points. As mentioned before Joker starts Lego Batman with “assemble the Rogues, blow up Gotham” as his plan, while Sweet Tooth with his candy prop comedy becoming the ringleader of Gotham’s villains is a key turning point in Act 1 of the play. Part of this comes down to how their connections to their respective heroes and environments are framed, Sweet Tooth as a new player on the scene and Joker as Batman’s romantic foil.

Lego Batman demonstrates Batman and Joker are on “finishing each other’s sentences” levels of intimate that Batman refuses to acknowledge. Shown best in how Joker’s plan only works because he can predict exactly how Batman will act once he starts playing hard to get. When he surrenders the entire Rogues Gallery (without telling them) and himself to police custody, he describes it as him being “off the market.” He knows Batman won’t settle for things ending on these terms and tricks the hero into stealing Superman’s Phantom Zone projector so he can recruit a new, better team of villains for a take two of his masterplan from the start. Going through all this trouble to get Batman to say those three magic words; “I love hate you.” Joker as the significant other wanting his partner to finally reciprocate his feelings and commit works both as a play on how the Batman/Joker relationship often gets approached and an extension of the central theme. Batman is so closed off to interpersonal connections he can’t even properly hate his villains.

Sweet Tooth, while clearly being a riff Heath Ledger and Caesar Romero’s Jokers fused with a dash of Willy Wonka, doesn’t have that kind of connection with B@man. Though there are hints that B@man and his recently deceased Joker may have had one on that level. He laments “[Joker]’s in heaven with mom and dad. Making them laugh, I know it!” when recalling how the Clown Prince of Crime was the one person he enjoyed being around. This makes Joker’s death one of the key triggers to B@man reflecting on his solitude at the start of the play.

What Sweet Tooth provides the story is a threat to B@man’s new bond with Rob!n. Disrupting that connection forms the delicious center of the Candy King of Crime’s plan in Act 2. He holds Rob!n and Gotham’s people hostage and asks the citizens to decide via Facebook poll if the sidekick lives or dies (in reference to the infamous phone hotline vote from the comic book story A Death in the Family where readers could decide the Jason Todd Robin’s fate.)

With the rest of the villains under the leadership of the respective works’ main antagonists, there’s commentary on their perceived quality as threats. When Holy Musical has Superman talking to Green Lantern about how much B@man’s popularity frustrates him, he comes down especially hard on the Caped Crusader’s villains. Talking about how they all coast by on simple gimmicks with especially harsh attention given to Two Face’s being “the number two.” Saying they’re only famous because B@man screws up and they get to do more damage. Which he compares to his own relationship with his villains:

Superman: You ever heard of Mr. Mxyzptlk? Green Lantern: No. Superman: No, that’s right! That’s because I do my job!

Lego Batman has commentary on the other villains come from Joker, recognizing that even all together they can never beat Batman, because that’s how a Batman story goes. The other villains get portrayed as generally buffoonish, struggling to even build a couch together and described by Joker as “losers dressed in cosplay.” Tricking Batman into sending him to the Phantom Zone provides him the opportunity to gather villains from outside Batman’s mythos and outside DC Comics in general. Recruiting the likes of Sauron, King Kong, Daleks, Agent Smith from The Matrix, and the Wicked Witch of the West, among others. When I first saw and reviewed The Lego Batman Movie, this bugged me because it felt like a missed opportunity to feature lesser-known villains from other DC heroes’ Rogues Galleries. Now, considering the whole movie as meta-commentary on the status of this Batman as a children’s toy, it makes perfect sense that Joker would need to go outside of comics to break the rules of a typical Batman story and have a shot at winning.

The Rogues of Holy Musical get slightly more of a chance to shine, if only because their song “Rogues are We” is one of the catchier tracks from the play. They’re all still more cameo than character when all’s said and done, but Sweet Tooth entering the picture is about him recognizing their potential to operate as a unit, takeover Gotham, and kill B@man. The candy-pun flinging villain wants all of them together, no matter their perceived quality.

Sweet Tooth: “We need every villain in Gotham. Cool themes, lame themes, themes that don’t match their powers, even the villains that take their names from public domain stories.” (Two Face’s “broke ass” still being the exception.)

Both Joker and Sweet Tooth provide extensions of the shared theme of Batman dealing with the new connections in his life, especially with regards to Robin. However, Robin isn’t the only other ally (or potential ally) these Dark Knights have on their side.

Super Friends(?)

The internal crisis of these Caped Crusaders come as much from how they react to other heroic figures as it does from supervillainous machinations. In both cases how Batman views and is viewed by fellow heroes gets centered on a specific figure, Superman in Holy Musical and Commissioner Barbara Gordon (later Batgirl) in Lego Batman. Each serves a vastly different purpose in the larger picture of their stories and relationship to their respective Batmen. Superman reflecting B@man’s loneliness and Barbara symbolizing a new path forward for Batman’s hero work.

Superman’s role in Holy Musical runs more parallel to Lego Batman’s Joker than Barbara. Brian Holden’s performance as the Man of Tomorrow plays into a projected confidence covering anxiety that nobody likes him. Besting the Bat-plane in a race during B@man’s Key to the City ceremony establishes a one upmanship between the two heroes, like Joker’s description of his relationship with Batman at the end of Lego Batman’s opening battle. Though instead of that romantically coded relationship from Lego Batman, this relationship is more connected to childish jealousy. (But if you do want to read the former into Holy Musical B@man, neither hero has an onstage relationship with any woman and part of their eventual fight consist of spanking each other.)

B@man and Superman’s first real interaction is arguing over who’s the cooler hero until it degrades into yelling “Fuck you!” at each other. B@man storming off in the aftermath of that gets topped off by Superman suggesting he should get the Key to the City instead, citing his strength and longer tenure as a hero (“The first hero, by the way”) as justifications. This only results in the Gotham citizens turning on him for suggesting their city’s hero is anything less than the best, which serves both as a Sam Raimi Spider-Man reference (“You mess with one of us! You mess with all of us!”) and another example of the citizens as stand-ins for fandom. Superman’s veil of cocksureness comes off quickly after that and stays off for the rest of the play. Starting with his conversation with Green Lantern where a civilian comes across them, but barely acts like Superman’s there.

One of the play’s running gags is Superman calling B@man’s number and leaving messages, showing a desperation to reach out and connect with his fellow hero despite initial smugness. Even before the first phone call scene, we see Superman joining B@man to sing “I want to be somebody’s buddy” during “Dark, Sad, Lonely Knight” hinting at what’s to come. The note it consistently comes back to is that Superman’s jealousy stems from Batman’s popularity over him. This is a complete flip of what Lego Batman does with the glimpse at a Batman/Superman dynamic we see when Batman goes to the Superman’s fortress to steal the Phantom Zone projector. The rivalry dynamic there exists solely in Batman’s head, Lego-Superman quickly saying “I would crush you” when Batman suggests the idea of them fighting. Superman’s status among the other DC heroes is also night and day between these works. Where Lego-Superman’s only scene in the movie shows him hosting the Justice League Anniversary Party and explaining he “forgot” to invite Batman, Superman in Holy Musical consistently lies about having friends over (“All night long I’m busy partying with my friends at the Fortress… of Solitude.”)

Superman’s relationship to B@man in Holy Musical develops into larger antagonism thanks to lack of communication with B@man brushing off Supes’ invitations to hang out and fight bad guys (“Where were you for the Solomon Grundy thing? Ended up smaller than I thought, just a couple of cool guys. Me and… Solomon Grundy.”) His own loneliness gets put into stronger focus when he sees the news of Rob!n’s debut as a crimefighter, which makes him reflect on how he misses having Krypto the Super-Dog around. (The explanation for why he doesn’t have his dog anymore is one of my favorite jokes in the play and I won’t ruin it here.)

Where Superman’s a reflection of B@man’s loneliness, Rosario Dawson as Barbara in Lego Batman is a confrontation of Batman’s go it alone attitude. Her job in the story is to be the one poking holes in the foundation of Batman as an idea, starting with her speech at Jim Gordon’s retirement banquet and her instatement as commissioner. She has a by-the-book outlook on crimefighting with the omnicompetence to back it up, thanks to her training at “Harvard for Police.” Babs sees Batman’s current way of operating as ineffectual and wants him to be an official agent of the law. An idea that dumps a bucket of cold water on Batman’s crush he developed immediately upon seeing her, though that never fully goes away.

Her main point is that Batman “karate chopping poor people” hasn’t made Gotham better in his 80 years of operating. A contrast to Holy Musical’s Jim Gordon announcing that B@man has brought Gotham’s crime rates to an all-time low (“Still the highest in the world, but we’re working on it.”) She wants to see a Batman willing to work with other people. A hope dashed constantly dealing with his childish stubbornness as he tries to foil Joker’s schemes on his own, culminating in her arresting Batman and Robin for breaking into Arkham to send Joker to the Phantom Zone.

Barbara’s role as the one bringing grown-up attitudes and reality into Batman’s world does leave her in the role of comedic straight woman. Humor in her scenes comes from how she reacts to everyone else’s absurdity rather than anything she does to be funny. This works for the role she plays in Lego Batman, since she’s not there to have an arc the way Superman does in Holy Musical. She’s another catalyst for Batman’s to start letting people in as another character he grows to care about. Which starts after she lets the Dynamic Duo out of prison to fight Joker’s new army of Phantom Zone villains on the condition that he plays it by her rules. Leading to a stronger bond between Batman, Robin, Alfred, and her as they start working together.

The two Batmen’s relationships to other heroes, their villains, Robin, and their own solitude each culminate in their own way as their stories reach their conclusions.

Dark Knights & Dawning Realizations

As everything comes down to the final showdowns in these Bat-parodies, the two Caped Crusaders each confront their failures to be there for others and allow themselves to be vulnerable to someone they’ve been antagonizing throughout the story. Each climax has all of Gotham threatened by a bomb and the main villains’ plans coming to fruition only to come undone.

Holy Musical has Sweet Tooth’s kidnapping of Rob!n and forcing Gotham to choose themselves or the sidekick they hate sends B@man into his most exaggerated state in the entire play. It’s the classic superhero movie climax conundrum, duty as a hero versus personal attachment. Alfred, having revealed himself as the “other butlers”, even lampshades how these stories usually go only for that possibility to get shot down by Bruce:

Alfred: A true hero, Master Wayne, finds a way to choose both. B@man: You’re right, Alfred. I know what I have to do… Fuck Gotham, I’m saving Robin!

B@man’s selfishness effectively makes him the real villain of Holy Musical’s second act. Lego Batman has shades of that aspect as well, where Batman gets sent to the Phantom Zone by Joker for his repeated refusal to acknowledge their relationship. Where the AI running the interdimensional prison, Phyllis voiced by Ellie Kemper, confronts him with the way he’s treated Robin, Alfred, Barbara, and even Joker:

Phyllis: You’re not a traditional bad guy, but you’re not exactly a good guy either. You even abandoned your friends. Batman: No! I was trying to protect them! Phyllis: By pushing them away? Batman: Well… yeah. Phyllis: Are they really the ones you’re protecting?

Batman watches what’s happening back in Gotham and sees Robin emulate his grim and gritty tendencies to save the day in his absence makes him desperately scream, “Don’t do what I would do!” It’s the universe rubbing what a jerk he’s been in his face. He’s forced to take a look at himself and make a change. B@man’s not made to do that kind of self-reflection until after he’s defeated Sweet Tooth but failed to stop the villain’s bomb. He’s ready to give up on Gotham forever and leave with Rob!n, until his sidekick pulls up Sweet Tooth’s poll and it shows the unanimous result in favor of saving the Boy Wonder. Despite everything they said at the start of Act 2, the people want to help their hero in return for all the times he helped them. All of them calling back to the Raimi Spider-Man reference from Act 1, “You mess with one of us. You mess with all of us.”

Both heroes’ chance at redemption and self-improvement comes from opening themselves up to the people they pushed out and dismissed earlier in their stories. Batman takes on the role he reduced the Commissioner down to at the beginning of the movie and flips on signals for Barbara, Alfred, and Robin to show how he’s truly prepared to work as a team, not just with his friends and family but with the villains of Gotham the Joker pushed aside as well. Teamwork makes the dream work and they’re all able to work together to get Joker’s army back into the Phantom Zone but like in Holy Musical they fail to stop the bomb threatening Gotham. Which he can only prevent from destroying the city by confessing his true feeling to Joker

Batman: If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have learned how connected I am with all of these people and you. So, if you help me save Gotham, you’ll help me save us. Joker: You just said “us?” Batman: Yeah, Batman and the Joker. So, what do you say? Joker: You had me at “shut up!”

The equivalent moment from Holy Musical comes from B@man needing to put aside his pride and encourage a disheartened Superman to save Gotham for him. This happens in the aftermath of a fight the two heroes had where Superman tried to stop B@man before he faced Sweet Tooth, B@man winning out through use of kryptonite. That fight doesn’t fit into any direct parallel with Lego Batman, but it is important context for how Superman’s feeling about B@man before Superman finally gets his long-awaited phone call from the Dark Knight. Also, the song accompanying the fight, “To Be a Man”, is one of the funniest scenes in the play. What this speech from B@man does is bring the idea of Holy Musical B@man as a commentary on fandom full circle:

B@man: I forgot what it means to be a superhero. But we’re really not that different, you and me, at our heart. I mean really all superheroes are pretty much the same… Something bad happened to us once when we were young, so we dedicated our whole lives to doing a little bit of good. That’s why we got into this crazy superhero business. Not to be the most popular, or even the most powerful. Because if that were the case, hell, you’d have the rest of us put out of a job!

This speech extends into an exchange between the heroes about how superheroes are cool, not despite anything superficially silly but because of it. Bringing it back to the “Robin Sucks!” theme that started Act 2, saying “Some people think Robin is stupid. But those people are pretentious douchebags. Because, literally, the only difference between Robin and me is our costumes.” The speech culminates in what I genuinely think is one of the best Batman lines ever written, as B@man’s final plea to Superman is “Where’s that man who’s faster than a gun?” calling back to the trauma that created Batman across all versions and what he can see in someone like Superman. So, B@man sacrificing his pride and fully trusting in another hero saves Gotham, the way Batman letting Joker know what their relationship means to him did in Lego Batman.

Each of these parodies ends by delivering a Batman willing to open himself up to a new team of heroes fighting at his side, the newly minted Bat-Family in Lego Batman and the league for justice known as the Super Friends in Holy Musical. Putting them side by side like this shows how creators don’t need the resources of a Hollywood studio to make something exactly as meaningful and how the best parodies come from love of the material no matter who’s behind them.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 3 years

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Psychological Terrorism by The Unification Church at Cheongpyeong

Dae Mo Nim (Hyo-nam Kim) pours guilt on the Japanese

Hyo-nam Kim uses the story of the Korean comfort women to manipulate the Japanese members.

Fear, guilt and shame used to trap the Japanese members.

However, the facts about the comfort women need to be explored. They are not as Hyo-nam Kim would like the members to think. There were few Japanese soldiers in Korea. They were busy fighting elsewhere.

The Japanese military set up a vast comfort station network. In the 1930s most of the women were Japanese, then they began using other nationalities. There was huge suffering and many women died. Not all those that did survive could face going back to their home countries.

However, there are other important facts. In Korea there were newspaper adverts for comfort women (the pay was exceptional), and women signed up. Most of the comfort women brokers in Korea were Korean men AND women. Many of the comfort stations which had Korean comfort women were run by Korean men and women. The early books written about the comfort women have been discredited. The often quoted figure of 200,000 Korean comfort women has been discredited. The comfort women issue has been used for political purposes, especially by the North Koreans.

Dae Mo Nim: August 17, 2013, Cheongpyeong “Japan’s responsibility” “There are many of our members in the world. Why has Japan been instructed to focus on the providential mission? If you go anywhere in the world, there is no place where there are no Japanese members. Japanese missionaries have become the center of the providence. True parents came out of the Korean people. If you look at the preparation process, Korean culture was created to welcome the Parents of Heaven and Earth and mankind who is the true Messiah. God (Heavenly Parents) raised the Korean people as pious men and women. God’s (Heavenly Parents’) providence was to bless the pious men and women and raise them up as preparation for the Messiah. However, Satan and evil knew it [the providential plan]. From the chosen nation of the Korean people, men took women into forced labor to be comfort women. As a result of doing this, the providence of restoration has been much extended. God blessed and raised the Korean people to be pious. He prepared them for the providence and brought the messiah to bless this nation and all the nations [of the world]. However, the history of restoration was delayed. A social epidemic of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sexual problems has spread. Before you can be blessed by God (Heavenly Parents), and go to the Blessing, you must make conditions to restore every mistake of your ancestors.” from Mr. Yokoi (Japanese lecturer). Translated from the Japanese. [Comfort Women – taken as prostitutes for the use of the Japanese military from the late 1930s to 1945. Most of them were Korean women. The Japanese liked the racial similarity. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_women] The Cheongpyeong Providence and the Way of Blessed Family Published by Cheongpyeong December 25, 1999  Editorial Committee on Dae Mo Nim’s Words,  Cheongpyeong Spiritual Training Center You will be shocked if you can see spirits kick and scream. Really unimaginable things take place. Some evil spirits were recklessly fumbling with the embryo in some member’s womb. Some spirits were holding tight a leg of an unborn child, and this would have permanently disabled his leg after birth. If spirits fumble with an unborn child’s brain, he will have cerebral palsy, autism, or other symptoms after birth. These phenomena, arising from the failure to separate the spirits, are ineffably miserable. Hence, we should help the people all over the world, not to mention all our members, to understand the Cheongpyeong providence as soon as possible. Another important reason why the separation of spirits is necessary is based on the fact that the problem does not just concern our lives on earth. Living in sickness and agony on earth is a secondary problem. Without expelling the spirits from our bodies, we will be unable to enter the spiritual world properly after death. Also, when someone dies, the spirits that used to inhabit his body move over to the body of the dead person’s descendants and continue their malicious undertaking, and this is the source of hereditary diseases. Hence, separating the spirits is the foremost task to be taken up on earth. We should realize that failure to separate the spirits not only suppresses the growth of our own spirits but also leaves our offspring exposed to the plight of life. … As we can see, it is not easy to remove the pathogenic and fatal spirits that are parasitic on our bodies. Their plea and scream are so vehemently full of grudges and vengeance that they will not be quieted unless the most extreme efforts are exerted. Dae Mo Nim explained that these were spirits of wrath who died as comfort girls [comfort women] or in forced army service [as prostitutes] in the Japanese colonial period or spirits who died unfairly as a surrogate mother in traditional Korea who had said when alive, “I will surely revenge myself even after death. I will never forgive.” These spirits cling to the members so strongly that they cannot be detached even by hard endeavor of special angels unless the people concerned repent and make pious spiritual efforts. 1) The Necessity of Separating Spirits In removing the inhabiting spirits, absolutely good spirits and angels in Cheongpyeong work together. But angels do not remove them unconditionally; angels can operate only when our members shed tears of contrition for the vices of their own and their ancestors. The role of the angels in Cheongpyeong is to separate these resentful spirits from our bodies and lead them to salvation, a work of resurrection of life. One of the reasons why we should dislodge the spirits from inside our bodies is that they subject us to illness and death. Even an innocent member of the Second Generation may be led away by strong spirits unawares into endangering his own life. If blessed families can see such heinous scenes, they will make all sorts of efforts to shed these spirits. To take an example from the Japanese colonial period, Korean women taken to the Japanese army as comfort girls sometimes ran away when such a life became unbearable to them. Because they were weak women, however, they became recaptured right away and brought back, whereupon Japanese soldiers put them through all kinds of abuses. In front of many other comfort girls, they dragged the escapees by cars by pulling them on the neck as a warning that all future escapees would meet the same fate. They drove fast with the victims, and they died, with their bodies covered with blood and bones smashed. How vehement the vengeance must be, of the spirits of the women who died this way? Imagining the scene of that time will make anyone shudder and help understand these spirits easily. Through Dae Mo Nim’s words, we have been able to understand the passion of the comfort girls’ spirits to satisfy their vengeance. 2. Invasion of the Spirit of a Comfort Girl The spirits of those who were dragged away from Korea, were forced to serve as comfort girls under the Japanese colonial army, and died are spread all over Japan. These resentful spirits cause troubles among Korean-Japanese Couples such as infertility, breast cancer, and uterus cancer. I counseled one Korean-Japanese couple. This couple could not bear a child even though they waited for a long time and came to me to receive special prayer. I found something incredible while was counseling them. When I saw spiritually the Japanese wife, she had an even more serious problem than having no children. Her uterus was in the process of rotting from its outer wall. If this process continued, her life would be threatened by uterus cancer, not to mention her being unable to bear a child. So, I quickly began to pray for her and laid my hands on her uterus area. And I asked the spirit who was causing this infection of the uterus why. That spirit confessed that she was a comfort girl who could not bear such a life and tried to escape but was caught by the Japanese soldiers. She became a resentful spirit because she was killed by cutting off her uterus from her body. She explained that she wanted to kill this Japanese member by rotting away her uterus in order to revenge herself. The wife of that Korean-Japanese couple was a descendent of that Japanese soldier who had killed her. The condition of the uterus of Japanese wife was in shambles. I thought that sexual relationship would be impossible with this problem and asked her if she was having relationships with her husband. However, her answer was unexpected: she had thought that sexual relationship was supposed to be that painful. I felt such a pity for her after hearing this. I prayed and placed my hands on her for a long time and finally I was able to separate that spirit from her. She was grateful that pain stopped and she felt fresh. Actually, she had had tremendous pain but could not tell that to her husband. She visited many hospitals. She even confessed that she had visited famous spiritualists and even shaman. She had lived with this illness alone, hiding it from her husband. Had she visited Cheongpyeong a little late, she could have met with a serious tragedy. 7. Evil Spirits Attack an Unborn Child Those who are pregnant feel the joy of bearing a child but at the same time are concerned whether or not their baby will be born normal without any defects. They worry if their baby will be all right. Not only blessed couples but all pregnant mothers and fathers have this kind of worry. There are many causes for birth defects. When I see pregnant women spiritually, to my surprise I find quite a few cases of abnormal fetus. The evil spirits in the body are holding the neck of the fetus. I saw some unborn children suffering greatly in the hands of the spirits of comfort girls. Even though I can see the womb very clearly as if on a TV screen, I have a difficulty of not being able to tell the members about it. There is a tendency in our members to listen to their doctors very well, but not the advice from the spiritual diagnosis. I always pay special attention to pregnant women who visit Cheongpyeong. One day, seeing an unborn child in a dire situation, I prayed earnestly and pleaded with God, saying, “God, should your child be born in such a terrible form? If you can help, please help.” On the next day, I heard that the pregnant sister felt acute pain and had a miscarriage. When I visited the hospital and saw the miscarried fetus, it was severely deformed. There are many cases among the Japanese sisters where atopy disease gets inside their womb. If there are evil spirits attacking an unborn child, there is a high probability of that child having atopy, autism, or deformity. This is caused by a deep bodily penetration of the spirits of surrogate mothers in the time of the victim’s ancestors, of comfort girls in the Japanese army, or of fornicators. I have seen that when members came to Cheongpyeong and diligently separated the evil spirits, these problem gradually disappeared.    Dae Mo Nim January 13, 2013 Unofficial notes by David Carlson Now, many pregnant sisters are here also. I can see that the baby in the womb has no ear, or one leg is shorter than the other, because Satan has grabbed that body part. But through chanyang, we can take out such an evil spirit and the baby can be born healthy. Through the Messiah, True Parents, Dae Mo Nim could separate the evil spirit and could make Absolute Good Spirits. Other spiritual groups cannot do this. Only True Parents can do this! Other spiritual groups cannot do this. They may take out an evil spirit temporarily, but the evil spirit always comes back. But True Parents can make these evil spirit become Absolute Good Spirits. Because Dae Mo Nim can go into the body of the person, and take that spirit out, and there is also ancestor liberation, when Dae Mo Nim can go into the spirit world and educate them.

See:

The Comfort Women controversy Contents of the webpage: 1. Meet Miki Dezaki, Director of the film, Shusenjo: The Main Battleground Of The Comfort Women Issue. 2. Thousands of Korean men and women tricked, kidnapped or forcibly abducted Korean girls to be ‘comfort women’. Statistical Yearbook of the Governor-General of Korea, from 1931-1943. 3. U.S. military documents featuring Korean POW testimony discovered at U.S. National Archives 4. Korean testimony documents highlight ethnic and gender discrimination under Japanese colonial rule 5. “The Comfort Women” (2008) book by Professor C. Sarah Soh (352pp) 6. “Comfort Women of the Empire” the battle over colonial rule and memory (2014) 帝国の慰安婦植民地支配と記憶の闘い by Professor Park Yu-ha, 박유하, 朴裕河 (336pp) 7. Mun Ok-chu’s memoir 8. Chart of Comfort Station managers, revealing they were Korean 9. The Korean “Comfort Station Manager’s Diary” 10. Comfort Women Urgently Wanted – Ads in Korean newspapers 11. Comfort Women rescued by Japanese military police 12. Kim Tŏk-chin was recruited by Koreans at 17 to be a ‘comfort woman’ Various historical documents and oral histories 13. In 1965 Japan gave $800 million as reparations for Korean occupation 14. Military commentator Ji Man-won raised “fake comfort women” question

Footnotes 1. Interview with Professor C. Sarah Soh 2. Extract from a presentation by Professor Soh 3. Behind the Comfort Women Controversy: How Lies Became Truth by Professor Nishioka Tsutomu 4. No Organized or Forced Recruitment: Misconceptions About Comfort Women and the Japanese Military by Hata Ikuhiko Professor Emeritus, Nihon University 5. GSOMIA lives, but what’s next for Japan and South Korea ties?

Kim Tŏk-chin was recruited by Koreans at 17

2 minute video: Jan Ruff O'Herne talks about her experience as a ‘comfort woman’. The Netherlands-born Australian was captured by the Japanese in Java in 1942 and spent three and a half years in prisoner of war camps. She wrote a book entitled ‘50 Years of Silence: The Extraordinary Memoir of a War Rape Survivor’ (ISBN: 978-1741667462).

Korean fathers and brothers who sold their daughters and sisters, Korean prostitution brokers who took women away on false pretenses at times and Korean town chiefs who encouraged those acts – they all should be held accountable someday.

Comfort Women info on Wikipedia

Sun Myung Moon: “Women have twice the sin”

S Korean forces killed more than Japanese killed in 36 years During about 36 months in 1948-1951 South Korean forces killed more South Koreans than the Japanese killed in the 36 years of their occupation of the country. There were some 1,222 probable incidents of mass execution without trial by the South Koreans.

Japan gave $800 million in 1965 as reparations for Korean occupation

In Korean: Korean blog with Comfort Women newspaper articles

_____________________________________

Understanding Sun Myung Moon’s attitude to sex by taking a look at Korean history

Koreans who experienced the Japanese annexation of Korea explain some facts

Excerpts from Korean comfort woman Mun Ok-chu’s memoir

Almost all these Comfort Station managers / owners were Korean

Thousands of Korean men and women tricked, kidnapped or forcibly abducted Korean girls to be ‘comfort women’.

“About 100 Korean women were abducted by Korean prostitution brokers but were rescued by Japanese military police.”

Japanese woman recruited by the Unification Church and sold to an older Korean farmer

6,500 Japanese women missing from Sun Myung Moon mass weddings

#Comfort women #fear #manipulation #Unification Church #Cheongpyeong #human trafficking

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sparda3g · 5 years

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Attack on Titan Chapter 122 Review

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Ever since the anime season this year ended, the momentum has been phenomenal. Some would believe this would not only lose it but fall off of a cliff alas jumping the shark. Fans have followed since the beginning and remain loyal to this day. After 122 chapters, I can safely say this series still got it. That itself is amazing, but what this chapter delivered is unfathomable. It didn’t just deliver the explanation we have long desired for, it rewarded us for being loyal to this very day.

It opens up with Frieda and Historia’s flashback, centering on the story of a young girl who was loved by everyone. She was called Ymir. She was deemed as “ladylike;” an inspirational figure if you may call her. As fans know, she is the founder of the Titans. They also know her loyalty is to the Royal Family alas a slave. Basically, her figure can be seen as a role model, but her background and history say otherwise. It transition to Ymir’s backstory and from there, the truth is far colder than I can imagine.

It’s heartbreaking, disturbing, and probably the darkest of the series, and that says a lot. As the chapter’s title implies, it takes place 2,000 years ago. Ymir was only a child; a slave who worked hard in the midst of agonizing environment. Throughout the backstory, she never speak a word, but her expression tells tons. This is Isayama’s finest artwork delivery. The amount of effort put in is astonishing, and it only gets better.

The king wanted the culprit who set the pigs free and all the slaves pointed at her. We don’t know if she was even the culprit, but the painted image of everyone backstabbing her for the “greater good” is hard-hitting. She must take the fall and so, she accepted it. That’s purely corrupted and disheartening. Blame a child for your foolish act. But it didn’t matter; the king took it and free her to the forest, where she will be running from death by her own people.

I like to point out how disturbing it is to use the phrase, “You are free,” in a very cruel manner. It makes me believe the ending page of the series is about her. It’s still a speculation, but the chance has increased. Her suffering aches me and the flashback just started, let alone her character. She found the giant tree and entered inside for shelter. But instead, she fell down to the river with a supernatural object that resembles a spinal cord swimming towards her. They fused without a dance and thus, a titan is born. What a great sequence.

I love how it plays off as a phenomenal event and rightfully so. It’s the beginning of everything. It has to be treated as the second coming or the Holy Grail. It’s interesting to see a supernatural element in this series. Granted, a lightning strike, changing into a giant form, and Shifters wielding a special power are supernatural, but this is the origin, before titan became a thing. It has to start somewhere, so this is acceptable. I strongly doubt we will see more of supernatural entity like aliens. This is more of mythology use, the Tree of Life if you may, and Isayama is no stranger.

One would think Ymir’s life would turnaround for the better with her newfound ability. It did not; amazingly, it’s much worse. The King paid much “respect” towards her, thanks to her titan power. By that logic, this means she is “rewarded” to be his wife. The sad part is, earlier in the chapter, she witnessed a wedding that was presented as a blissful moment for the two. She’s no longer a slave to do labor work; she’s a slave to do everything. She’s rewarded a marriage and yet, she’s left cold and depressed. It’s disheartening to say the least.

She does all the works the King command. From being sent to destroy Marleyans to bearing the children for weaponized reason, she’s a mess. Every moment should be filled with happiness, yet not once you see her happy. Not even a baby birth made her pleasant; instead, saddened and broken. Year after year of the same procedure, her life was long gone. We the fans are only seeing her in pilot mode or in other words, emotionless.

What’s interesting is the moment when she was killed. You would expect her death to be glorious or end with a bang, but it wasn’t the case. One of the soldiers took out a spear from underneath the sand and threw at the King, only for Ymir to jump and take it instead. She could have recovered, knowing she was a Shifter. However, she lost the will to live, so she never did; essentially, passed away. It almost happened with Reiner back at Marley, so it makes sense for her to go out like a normal human. I love the imagery of her soul fading away with the sight of a flower. What struck me is her family watched her dead with sadness, only for the next moment to destroy the sensation and embark a really dark scene.

If you once believe the King has any soul towards her, you’ll be dead wrong. After a shock, he recovered and angrily yelled at her to get back up and work. That’s seriously messed up. He had no remorse for her death; not even seeing her once as a person. He flat out called her their slave. It only took a chapter to hate the guy so much. It gets worse as he decided to feed his children with her corpse. That’s unbelievably disturbing. I’m surprised at the raw image as well as disgusted. At least we know the walls are named after the three children; better not reveal that history. How this series not Seinen? I guess it was missing one cuss word to be qualified.

The most heartbreaking part is, even in the afterlife, Ymir is still a slave. In the King’s deathbed, his last wish was an order for his children to spread Ymir’s blood through generation after generation. Not even a touching moment for them; selfishly placed dictatorship over family. Sadly, they obeyed his last wish and through countless generations, the titans have grown.

It explained how the titans essentially break into different traits alas Shifters, including Jaw and Colossal Titan. After spreading for so long, it eventually formed a new type. It’s bizarrely insane. The King can enjoy in hell, while Ymir is forever a slave, creating countless titans. She outclassed all the suffering characters; bar none. It’s pure tragedy. She cannot be freed for 2,000 years and counting. Her life is only used as a weapon; nothing more, nothing less. The backstory ends here. The next scene, oh boy, here we go.

Eren finally reveals his true color and the sole reason to obtain her power: to end this world. Out of context, he would definitely been seen as a villain. Joker, watch out! But seriously, it’s the Rumbling and like he said at the beach, he’s going to put an end to this madness. While the request can definitely be interpreted as a villainy act, the intention is dare I say reasonable.

The idea I get is he wants to factory reset the world. The damage was done 2,000 years ago and its effect goes on to this day. Evil brought upon the titans to its existence. The irony approach to put an end is to use those colossal titans inside the wall. What stared the madness will end with madness. I don’t remember who said this quote about World War, but the third war will be the worst war of our time; the fourth one will have people use sticks and stones. It’s something like that. Basically, it means the world will restart after mass destruction, and that’s what Eren is going to unleash. Not necessarily kill his friends, but end the tyranny war.

I love the last psychological battle between the brothers. Eren wants Ymir to know she is only human; not a God nor a slave. As for Zeke, he wants to stop Eren from unleashing hell on Earth. Out of context, this sounds like Zeke is the good guy, but it’s complicated. Their choice of words to persuade Ymir are night and day. Not because of what they wished for, but what they cared for. When it’s all said and done, it’s perfectly clear which argument matters more.

The major key difference is how they approach to her. Eren may want the world to end, but he believes it’s up to her to decide. More importantly, what she truly feels. With Zeke, all value was lost when he yells at her to grant his wish because he ordered her. He believed he’s right because he carried the blood of the Royal Family; symbolically, history repeats itself or more like, the chain never ends. Eren wants to end it and apparently, so does her.

It is clear Isayama has planned this far ahead as well as improved his artwork tremendously.Thankfully so, because the delivery is powerful. Ymir’s emotion with tears is raw; I felt her agony and now, she can finally let it go. I love the fact Isayama didn’t show her eyes until now; making this moment impactful. You feel free along with her. The pain must end now. To top it all off, alongside with great artwork, it also contain the perfect circle; one that rewards the fans for supporting the work for a long time.

Eren may have a villainy idea, but his heart still contains purity. He wanted her to let go; end her misery. He knows deeply for 20,000 years, she waited for anyone to free her, and he is the guy. It finally hits me that this chapter’s title resembles to the first chapter. It was a message to Eren to save her; this time, it’s the reply she has been waiting for. Absolutely magnificent. Now I get those panels that resemble to Eren’s dream. Not to mention, the tears. It must mean he felt the pain of a poor girl. I’m convinced the ending will have Eren carrying Ymir to let her know she’s freed. I can be wrong, but I wouldn’t mind being right. Ymir makes her decision, and by God almighty, what a crazy ending.

The last couple of pages are incredible. Isayama seriously went all out on his art. Back to reality, Eren’s spine reattach his head; basically, escape death. The image is jarring in a good way. The battle is stopped with the wall crumbling down. By this point, my jaw was dropped. The scenery is intense as hell. Gabi, the one who thought stopped the mayhem, is now witnessing it in front row. The wall is gone; out comes the mass of Colossal Titans. Translation: we’re in the endgame now.

What else can I say? Probably a lot more. The bottom line is, this chapter was outstanding. It delivered a really dark, cruel, and depressing backstory of Ymir that answered many questions and gave us reasons to feel awful for her, which ultimately led to the defining moment. When it comes down to it, the stories we heard from Eldians and Marleyans were true and false. Eren and Zeke’s final debate was mesmerizing. The full circle twist was so rewarding. The visual is among the best Isayama has delivered; perhaps the best. The atmosphere, the angle, the expression; everything is top quality. The ending got me hyped beyond the maximum level. This is it. It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from here…

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #chapter 122 #review #spoilers

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julibf · 5 years

Text

WHY I BELIEVE JON SNOW WILL FATHER A BASTARD.....

So, this is one of my theories that I will very happy if I am wrong, but that is starting to look more and more probable to happen for me. I have been using the Search of Ice and Fire in the past few days looking for foreshadow of Jon fathering a bastard and voila, its actually a quite theme to find on Jon’s story.

"You don't know what you're asking, Jon. The Night's Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor."

"A bastard can have honor too," Jon said. "I am ready to swear your oath."

"You are a boy of fourteen," Benjen said. "Not a man, not yet. Until you have known a woman, you cannot understand what you would be giving up."

Jon felt anger rise inside him. "I'm not your son!"

Benjen Stark stood up. "More's the pity." He put a hand on Jon's shoulder. "Come back to me after you've fathered a few bastards of your own, and we'll see how you feel."

Jon trembled. "I will never father a bastard," he said carefully. "Never!" He spat it out like venom.

A GAME OF THRONES – JON I

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"But it's a lie," Jon insisted. How could they think his father was a traitor, had they all gone mad? Lord Eddard Stark would never dishonor himself … would he?

He fathered a bastard, a small voice whispered inside him. Where was the honor in that? And your mother, what of her? He will not even speak her name.

A GAME OF THRONES – JON VII

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"My steward and squire, Jon Snow."

"A bastard, is it?" Craster looked Jon up and down. "Man wants to bed a woman, seems like he ought to take her to wife. That's what I do." He shooed Jon off with a wave. "Well, run and do your service, bastard, and see that axe is good and sharp now, I've no use for dull steel."

A CLASH OF KINGS – JON III

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“You are a free man now, and Ygritte is a free woman. What dishonor if you lay together?"

"I might get her with child."

"Aye, I'd hope so. A strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that?"

Words failed him for a moment. "The boy . . . the child would be a bastard."

"Are bastards weaker than other children? More sickly, more like to fail?"

"No, but—"

"You're bastard-born yourself. And if Ygritte does not want a child, she will go to some woods witch and drink a cup o' moon tea. You do not come into it, once the seed is planted."

"I will not father a bastard."

A Storm of Swords - Jon II

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When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirwood that had his father's face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn't, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night's Watch. I will not father a bastard, he told her. I will not. I will not. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she whispered, her skin dissolving in the hot water, the flesh beneath sloughing off her bones until only skull and skeleton remained, and the pool bubbled thick and red.

A Storm of Swords - Jon VI

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They still think me a turncloak. That was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit.

A Storm of Swords - Jon VII

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A couple of them saw Jon looking down from atop the King's Tower and waved up at him. Others turned away. They still think me a turncloak. That was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit.

A Storm of Swords - Jon VII

BTW, those quotes its what made me believe in the Political Jon theories. A bastard child born from lust and deceit fits boatbaby like a glove.

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Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

A Storm of Swords - Jon X

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Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. "I'm Prince Aemon the Dragonknight," Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, "Well, I'm Florian the Fool." Or Robb would say, "I'm the Young Dragon," and Jon would reply, "I'm Ser Ryam Redwyne."

That morning he called it first. "I'm Lord of Winterfell!" he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell."

I thought I had forgotten that. Jon could taste blood in his mouth, from the blow he'd taken.

A Storm of Swords - Jon XII

There is a reason why George RRMartin made Jon repeat so many times that he will never father a bastard. This has to be one of the most foreshadowed events of ASOAIF. Jon Snow will father a bastard child with Daenerys Targaryen. But I believe that the decision of hiding this girl will also involve Sansa.

Sansa its only true born child from Ned and Catelyn that had to live as a bastard herself in order to survive her family tragedy. She even got the feel in her own skin how badly bastard children are seeing and treated on Westeros

*******************************************************************************************

"Varys has informers everywhere. If Sansa Stark should be seen in the Vale, the eunuch will know within a moon's turn, and that would create unfortunate . . . complications. It is not safe to be a Stark just now. So we shall tell Lysa's people that you are my natural daughter."

"Natural?" Sansa was aghast. "You mean, a bastard?"

"Well, you can scarcely be my trueborn daughter. I've never taken a wife, that's well known. What should you be called?"

A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI

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"You are in the Falcon Tower, Ser Harrold," Alayne put in. Far away from Sweetrobin. That was intentional, she knew. Petyr Baelish did not leave such things to chance. "If it please you, I will show you to your chambers myself." This time her eyes met Harry's. She smiled just for him, and said a silent prayer to the Maiden. Please, he doesn't need to love me, just make him like me, just a little, that would be enough for now.

Ser Harrold looked down at her coldly. "Why should it please me to be escorted anywhere by Littlefinger's bastard?" ……..

…..A lady's armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry. "As you wish, ser. And now if you will excuse me, Littlefinger's bastard must find her lord father and let him know that you have come, so we can begin the tourney on the morrow."

The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

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"The world is full of horrors, sweet. By now you ought to know that. You've seen enough of them."

"Yes," she said, "but why must he be so cruel? He called me your bastard. Right in the yard, in front of everyone."

"So far as he knows, that's who you are. This betrothal was never his idea, and Bronze Yohn has no doubt warned him against my wiles. You are my daughter.

The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

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To make this theory even more possible, we have this scene on season 3 Episode 2 that was written specifically for the show, this dialogue never happened in the books. In the scene, Catelyn tells Tallissa that at some point she thought of telling Ned to make Jon a Stark, “to give the boy our name and make him one of us”.

CATELYN - When my husband brought that baby home from the war, I couldn't bear to look at him. I didn't want to see those brown stranger's eyes staring up at me. So I prayed to the gods, take him away. Make him die. He got the pox. And I knew I was the worst woman who ever lived. A murderer. I'd condemned this poor, innocent child to a horrible death all because I was jealous of his mother. A woman he didn't even know. So I prayed to all seven gods, let the boy live. Let him live and I'll love him. I'll be a mother to him. I'll beg my husband to give him a true name, to call him Stark and be done with it, to make him one of us.

TALISSA - And he lived.

CATELYN - And he lived. And I couldn't keep my promise. And everything that's happened since then... all this horror that's come to my family... it's all because I couldn't love a motherless child.

Then in A Storm of Swords - Sansa II we have what I believe a very big clue from George RRMartin himself.

She pictured the two of them sitting together in a garden with puppies in their laps, or listening to a singer strum upon a lute while they floated down the Mander on a pleasure barge. If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya.

A Storm of Swords - Sansa II

Here we have Sansa dreaming about her future children, yet she never calls the little girl her daughter, the text makes sure to describe the child as “a girl.”

This passage always reminded me of this one from A GAME OF THRONES.

Ned thought, If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know, against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would I do? Even more so, what would Catelyn do, if it were Jon's life, against the children of her body? He did not know. He prayed he never would.

A Game of Thrones - Eddard XII

Notice that Ned never thinks about Jon’s name while naming his children? This was one of our biggest clues who lead us all to R+L=J.

Since I believe that Jon and Sansa will marry on season 8 and rule Westeros together I now believe that both of them are gonna lie in order to protect this girl. If anyone finds out she is the Queen of Ashes daughter, her life would be in great danger. Jon and Sansa will do the opposite of Ned Stark.

Ned brought a true born prince home and raised as his bastard child in order to protect Jon; Jon will bring home his bastard daughter, and raise her as trueborn child in order to protect her. I believe Sansa will lie and tell people that the child its hers. They will give them their Stark name and raise the baby as one of them. Sansa will love the child and be a mother to them. The story of Game of Thrones started with Ned Stark starting a war to prevent a bastard son of Cersei Lannister to sit in the Throne and it will end with a bastard daughter of Jon Snow as the heir of the Throne.

History repeat itself and in the end, there wont be much difference between Starks and Lannister, they all lie to protect the ones they love.“The things we do for love” will still be the theme of the story in the end….

Remember when I wrote in another meta that now I believe Jon will pass HER name to all HIS children? Yep, I believe that they will make boatbaby a Stark to protect her. BTW, this would

A FATHER’S DAUGHTER....

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE its many tales in one; this is a tale of a dragon prince madly in love with a Wolf girl; this is also a tale about home and families; about the things we do for love; its also a story about slow learners who make several mistakes but that eventually do learn in the end........but ALSO, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is a story about father’s daughters. And that’s exactly what Arya, Sansa, Cersei, Daenerys, Brienne all are. These women are their father’s daughters. That’s why the show gave so much importance on those character’s fathers and hardly touched the mothers relevance. (if we remove Catelyns, the mothers have almost been non existenting in the show)

No one thought Sansa and Daenerys had much of their fathers in themselves, those two characters were always associated with their mothers, yet they will prove to all of us that they carry much of their Eddar and Aerys inside of them in the last part of this story.

SPOILERS – We also have this casting call for season 8, that asked for a young girl with sad eyes and to me, this screams Jon Snow daughter, so, that’s another reason I am basing this theory.

Now, I totally agree with @theirwinterfell when she says that Sansa will have a son with Jon, but remember that George RRMartin told Alfie Allen that the story will be similar to Star Wars ending, and in that story, a queen gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. So, I am starting to believe that Sansa will give birth to a son, but both Jon and Sansa will present their “twins” to the court, which is why they hinted that Sam may assist in a birth in the future. If they want this secret to be kept at all costs, the only person allowed in the birth room would be Sammuel Tarly, Jon Snow most trusted friend. Just like Ned trusted Howland Reed to keep Jon Snow birth in absolutely secret.

PS- Now, I want to make sure that I do not like this theory. I find quite offensive, no woman should in order to prove they are a good mother, love her husband bastard children or the children he may have with other women. Sansa does not need to be a loving mother to Jon Snow bastard child to prove she is a good mother, or she is not like her mother (something the fandom believes to be a negative point); she already proved she is different from Catelyn whe she embraced Jon as a real Stark on season 6. But this is George RRMartin, and when I was studying Jon’s story arc, the foreshadowing of him fathering a bastard is quite simple too big to ignore, sooooooo

#jonsa #jonsa is endgame #sansa stark #jon x sansa

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soloragoldsun · 6 years

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My Review of “A Wrinkle in Time”

Okay, so I just got back from “A Wrinkle in Time,” and I want to talk about it while it and my most recent reread of the book are still fresh in my mind. I’ll list the pros and cons, and give my overall review at the end.

Spoilers ahead!

Pros:

-Meg and Calvin: Both of these characters were portrayed perfectly! Meg is an unsure, suspicious, awkward kid who hates herself and isn’t sure why she was chosen for this quest. Calvin is a kindhearted person who sees the beauty in Meg, and is a kid who is forced to hide behind his popularity and success from his abusive home life and the pressures he feels due to his position in school.

-Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which: These two were completely true to their book counterparts, with Mrs. Who quoting other people because she can’t verbalize thoughts on her own, and Mrs. Which being more of an immense entity, and rarely adhering completely to a human form. Mrs. Which was especially good. Kudos to Oprah!

-Alexander Murry: Chris Pine did a great job as Meg and Charles Wallace’s father. He has always been a great actor, and he was perfect as the loving, but goal-oriented father in this. His best moment was probably when Meg found Dr. Murry and he realized that he was on Camazotz for four years. Superb acting!

-The cinematography: Visually, this was a gorgeous film. The CG was used to its fullest potential, especially when they were on Uriel. The scenes taking place on Earth were also well-shot.

-That scene in the film when Meg asks if it’s possible to tesser back as someone else, and Mrs. Which tells her to think about all the choices, all the circumstances in the universe since the beginning of time that led to her being born exactly as she is. As someone who struggles with feelings of self-hatred, this was a very important and beautiful scene that I think everyone should see.

-The chemistry between (some of) the characters: I’ll get to why some of it didn’t work in a moment, but where the character chemistry worked, it worked! Meg and Calvin, Meg and her father, Meg and Mrs. Which, Calvin and Mrs. Who, Meg’s parents... Through most of the movie, I strongly believed in the bond between these characters and in what they were saying and doing while interacting. Most of the people in this movie acted out their parts very well.

Cons:

-Mrs. Whatsit: Two of the three ladies were flawless, but I’m sorry to say that my favorite of them, Mrs. Whatsit, was utterly ruined. In the book, she was the youngest of the three, but that manifested in a charming way, with her talking too much and getting over-excited about things. In the movie, she acts ditzy, snarky, and downright mean sometimes.

Also, she expresses her disbelief in Meg throughout the plot, when book Mrs. Whatsit was her strongest ally. She believed in her from the beginning, and they had the strongest bond out of all the bonds between the humans and the ladies.

-Charles Wallace: I can’t believe they ruined Charles Wallace so completely. I’m not sure why they decided to make him adopted in the movie, first of all. In the book, it’s stated that both he and Calvin are “biological sports,” meaning that they carry qualities that their families don’t possess, despite their blood relation to them.

Also, he was meant to be an introspective child who could read his mother and Meg. He never talked to anyone outside the family and the ladies. Calvin was the first other person he talked to. In the movie, he’s loud and obnoxious, and his abilities, along with his mental connection to Meg, aren’t properly explored.

He gave in too quickly to IT, as well. In the book, his pride is what causes him to get absorbed. He thinks that his mental abilities are strong enough for him to go into IT and figure out what IT was, so they can then defeat IT. Instead, he is overcome. In the movie, he just recites some multiplication tables, and is taken over in an instant.

-Sandy and Dennys: Or rather, the complete lack of them. The twins weren’t major characters in the first book, but they are important in their own way throughout the series, and even get their own book later on. I guess this means we won’t be getting a Many Waters adaptation any time soon...

-The removal of the star scene: Not only was Mrs. Whatsit’s character ruined, but her backstory was removed from the movie. In the book, while they are with the Happy Medium, the ladies show the children a star defeating a portion of the Darkness before going out. It is revealed that Mrs. Whatsit used to be a star, but she died in that form in order to keep the Darkness at bay. While she can manifest in other forms, she can never be a star again. That act of sacrifice adds a whole new level of tragedy to her character, while showing the children that the Darkness, while strong, can be defeated.

-The Happy Medium: I don’t know what they were thinking with this interpretation of the character. The Happy Medium is supposed to be a cheerful entity who uses a crystal ball to view the good things in the universe, and expresses reluctance at showing the unpleasantness of Camazotz and the Darkness engulfing Earth. The Happy Medium in this movie isn’t cheerful at all. While he’s certainly empathetic and good, he’s too stern and sarcastic overall to really be what he’s supposed to be.

Side note: In the book, the Happy Medium is a woman. I’m a bit disappointed that Ava DuVernay, who wanted this movie to have a diverse cast, missed a perfect opportunity for lesbian representation. When Mrs. Whatsit first referred to the Medium as “cute,” I got super excited. Oh well.

-Camazotz: So, imagine a world that used to be like Earth, a world where individuality and emotion have been forcibly sucked away. Imagine a world where a pulsing beat overcomes everything and everyone, even the children at play. Imagine a great, gray building that is the center of it all, full of workers dressed exactly the same, processing the same paperwork under yellow lights that turn their faces a sickly green color. Imagine rooms that are used to reprogram people who deviate from the norm, including a little boy who dares to bounce his ball outside the rhythm of the pulse. Imagine a world where, if you become sick, you are killed so that you won’t be an inconvenience to anyone. Imagine being in the center part of the gray building, in the presence of a brain that is just large enough to be truly repulsive, where a pulsing light goes into you, making even your breaths and heartbeat adhere to the unrelenting rhythm that permeates everything.

Now, look at the movie, which briefly shows the scene of the children playing in rhythm, followed by a random beach scene, and the man with the red eyes, who almost immediately takes over Charles Wallace. There’s no talk about what IT has done to the planet, no look into CENTRAL Central Intelligence. No scene with the little boy. Not even a look at the fear that fills the inhabitants of Camazotz. No, they just make the planet a magic place that changes forms, and throws tornadoes at our main characters. The hell?!

Also, the climax when Meg is fighting IT is too loud and overblown. IT isn’t supposed to be an Eldritch Horror that tosses her around and physically attacks her. IT is literally a brain sitting on a dais. IT enters the mind and destroys you from within, not by throwing you around with tentacles and bashing you until you’re unconscious.

-The removal of Ixchel and Aunt Beast: Arguably one of the most important scenes in the book is after Dr. Murry tessers Calvin and Meg away from Camazotz, leaving a possessed Charles Wallace behind, and they arrive on Ixchel, a planet inhabited by blind creatures that can detect the very essence of the world around them, seeing not what things look like, but what they are like. During this time, Meg, who was nearly overcome by the Darkness, is in the care of a kindly creature who she calls Aunt Beast. She has to fight the Darkness in her, and overcome her feelings of betrayal and anger toward her father for leaving Charles Wallace behind. It’s here that the ladies return and inform her that she’s the only one who can return to Camazotz and save Charles Wallace.

In the movie, she just refuses to tesser, and we go right to the climactic showdown with IT. Her father leaving without Charles Wallace isn’t addressed, and Meg isn’t properly able to overcome her grief and her realization that her father isn’t perfect.

-Mrs. Whatsit’s love: Again, Mrs. Whatsit is unfairly shoved to the side. In the book, when Meg is sent back to Camazotz, Mrs. Whatsit tells her “You have my love.” Also, Mrs. Which tells Meg that she has something that IT can never have or understand. When Meg is trying to get through to Charles Wallace, IT tells her that Mrs. Whatsit hates her. This causes her to remember Mrs. Whatsit giving her her love, which leads to her realizing that her love for Charles Wallace is what separates her from IT and what allows her to save her brother.

Overall, I was disappointed. The movie did come close to grasping the essence of the book several times, especially in the scene with Meg and Mrs. Which, and most of the actors did a great job. However, too many vital scenes were cut out, taking away from the overall meaning. Also, the ruination of Charles Wallace and Mrs. Whatsit, two of the most important characters in the book, convinced me that enough time was not paid to actually reading and understanding Madeleine L’Engle’s masterpiece.

A Wrinkle in Time is about many things: love, the fight between good and evil, the bonds between people, overcoming your own demons, and forgiveness. Several of these things were touched upon, sometimes very well, but it unfortunately fell short of what it could have been.

That being said, I hope this movie will end up being successful enough to allow for an adaptation of A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I hope that Ava DuVernay reads the reviews of her movie and is able to do better, because I do think she, and the cast she has put together, can do it.

In the meantime, if you want to see a more faithful adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, check out the 2003 movie, also done by Disney. I think it did a much better job overall.

#a wrinkle in time #spoilers #review #meg murry #calvin o'keefe #charles wallace #mrs who #mrs which #mrs whatsit #pros and cons #it #madeleine l'engle

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jolina-martir · 4 years

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Humanity

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi this is the most meaningful quote I can compare to the topic about "hope for humanity" as a person living in this world many things I have seen inhumanity in people. But even so, I can see the ugliness of other people; I still hope that the situation will change, such as during times of tragedy, disaster, and other problems, you will see humanity helping other people. This is an example of humanity working together. in reality, we do not always see humanity helping each other because nowadays life is hard no one thinks much about helping others we need hope for humanity to have a better community for all and the future generation ahead of us.

First of all what is humanity? Humanity is the human race, which includes everyone on Earth. It’s also a word for the qualities that make us human, such as the ability to love and have compassion. The word humanity is from the Latin humanitas for "human nature, kindness.” Humanity includes all the humans, but it can also refer to the kind feelings humans often have for each other. But when you talk about humanity, you could just be talking about people as a whole. When people do bad things, it tests your faith in humanity. When people ask for money to help feed starving children, they're appealing to your sense of humanity.

Hope for humanity is a beautiful thing and can create peace. Sadly it disappeared years ago. also because of self-interest the love of power in politics or other things sought to achieve people have forgotten the word humanity because from what I see at the moment I will only help you when you get something in return for and to make their image beautiful. Before discussing hope for humanity we will instead think about how important humanity is in the world.

Religion is a broad entity that should add some higher purpose to one’s life and keep you grounded. It is not just a set of rules and teachings that you must devote your life to. It’s what you take from any religion that’s important. All religions give the teachings of love, peace and unity. It should be something to believe in, and not just something to define our very actions and thoughts. The most important requirement is peace. Where there is peace there is abundance. For me the most important religion is humanity - just being a good human being defines you everywhere. All that you need to work upon is being helpful to the needy at all times and every place. Being loving and caring towards all living beings even plants and animals, and above all to understand another person’s problem and realize the situations they are in and be considerate. Humanity means caring for and helping others whenever and wherever possible. Humanity means helping others at times when they need that help the most, humanity means forgetting our selfish interests at times when others need our help. Humanity means extending unconditional love to each and every living being on Earth. If eating and having fun is only what we are born to do then we should keep one thing in mind; even animals can do this. One does not need a hefty bank account to contribute towards humanitarian activities. Paying our domestic help fairly is also humanity. Lifting the heavy bag for an old woman is humanity, helping a disabled person to cross the road is humanity, helping your mum in chores is humanity; in fact helping anyone who is in need is humanity. As soon as we understand the importance of humanity in day to day life, the purpose for which we are on Earth is automatically fulfilled. "Hope for humanity" but how can we have hope for humanity if we losses humanity itself the loss of humans is the inability and disconnection of reasoning from the things around us. Without the ability to think and invent things human being will be use and daft to get anything done. But because our sensory build differs from that of animals. Our senses develop faster and able to do exceptional things. However, why humans are progressive we also suffered retrogression in our society due to the inequality we have and the mishandling of the life f people. This itself had led to a great loss in humanity where people have to do the most harmful to survive. Without mentioning far this hideous incident left in our doorstep of civilization. One painful is the integrity, ability, development of people to think mentally and consciously things about their society and what they feel about it. But due to ignorance people were left to perish in perpetual demerit, failing to see the reason why people are castrated to living what they never choose to have. The loss of our society begins from the period when class took the Centre stage of human civilization. That is why our life as humans begins to have clause. In a time when the 24-hour news cycle bombards us with stories of tragedy, heartbreak and deceit, it can be difficult to keep our heads up and remain optimistic about the world we live in. But amid the tragedy and sadness, we receive daily glimpses of hope and happiness—moments when our spirits are lifted and we’re reminded of the generosity and kindness of others. The following is a mixture of tales, both personal and newsworthy, that restored our faith in humanity. I know we heard a lot of bad news that change your perception in humanity but there are still stories you didn’t heard like A Sudanese woman, Alik, who was pregnant and had two young children in tow, arrived in Fort Worth, Texas, without her husband, Dyan, in 2012. Upon leaving their refugee camp in Egypt, Dyan wasn’t able to make the journey with his family because the couple had no official proof of their marriage with them. Alik was processed as a single mother, who bumped her to the top of the resettlement list, and her husband, a single man, was moved down to the bottom. Over the next four years, two women with The Village Church in Fort Worth helped Alik and her children get their lives started in the U.S. The women also called congressional representatives, spoke with attorneys and met with social workers in an attempt to help Dyan come to the U.S. After four years, Dyan was finally reunited with his wife and three children, including the baby Alik was pregnant with when she left. Video footage shows Dyan dropping to his knees in a tearful prayer of thanksgiving after being reunited with his family by Jamie Friedlander. They all said that All Dogs Go to Heaven More people are adopting or fostering old dogs than ever. One such dog is Danny Boy, an Australian cattle dog diagnosed with blood cancer after landing at Muttville Senior Dog Rescue in San Francisco. Foster parents Russell Utley and Marie Macaspac checked off a bucket list for the pup. They took happy-go-lucky Danny to Half Moon Bay, California, to eat crabs bought off a boat, dressed him for fancy fundraisers, fed him homemade food and took road trips. Given three to six months to live, Danny stretched that to 15 months. In that time, Danny transformed the lives of his owners. “Old dogs have a wonderful spirit,” says Utley, who now fosters 16-year-old blind and deaf Chachito for Muttville, which pays for veterinary care and last year found hospice homes for 85 dogs. Senior dog rescue groups have popped up around the country in the past decade. The Thulani Program in California has saved more than 290 senior German shepherd dogs to date, with a goal of finding homes for 100 every year, says director Bob Jachens by Sally Deneen.

There is the time that we feel like we lost our faith in humanity but you are not the first, neither is you going to be the last to have lost faith in humanity as a whole. It is likely that either your experiences or your interpretation of all the horrific news about humanity, or both, has brought on such feelings towards your fellow men and women. Perhaps you have filled your head with movies and books that are loaded with violence, greed and all the other negative aspects of humanity. Perhaps you have friends and family who share those same traits. So…what do you do? Start by filling your head with positive thoughts, find positive-thinking friends, and keep troublesome family members at arm’s length. You may be experiencing a depressive state as well, which means you may need some medical support. Often those that have given up on humanity have really given up on themselves. If that is the case, then start being your own best friend and take care of yourself by eating in a healthy manner and exercising both your body and your brain. Take up running, you will find why so many are addicted to it… it kicks out the ‘feel-good’ endorphins and your brain feels on top of the world and humanity won’t look so bad at least for a while. There are many people in this world who make a very positive contribution to society you just need to find them, and perhaps be one yourself.

The current generation is full of young, intelligent, and enthusiastic minds all ready to change the world. These traits may not be a part of every person you meet, but they do exist. Is it not closed-minded (even plain disrespectful?) to think that no one has the ability to change the world? Or moreover, that no one even believes any member of the current generation has the ability to change the world? The minds of today, both young and old still have an unbelievable capacity to change the world in unimaginable ways. Stop thinking the current generation lack the ability to test the contemporary zenith of modern society. Just because you’ve seen a few bad stories on the news, doesn’t mean the whole world is a bad place. The world is actually a great place if you look for it. In a world of 7 billion people (and counting), don’t let a few bad eggs spoil the basket. Perhaps the lack of humanity comes from your perception of it? Instead of hunting for all the negatives in a good situation, why not try the opposite? Look for the good in every situation. Accept that bad things will happen, but realize that it is your decision to let those things affect your happiness. It’s always up to someone else to bring humanity into the world is it? Instead of watching the world go by and expecting people to be nice to each other, why don’t you go out and set the standard? Sure not everyone you show kindness to will show kindness back, but most will. And at the very least you won’t go to bed feeling like an asshole. Stop complaining about all the “lack of humanity” in the world. Be the change you want to see in the world. I always do have hope in humanity regardless of what is happening or what others have gone something wrong instead an act of kindness that you ask people to pay forward So, instead of losing faith in humanity and doing nothing about it, why not start with yourself by helping those around you. Not necessarily by making some grand gesture, but starting small and building hope step by step. Here is the time that we feel like we lost our hope in humanity but People can be totally rude, but that's no reason to lose hope in humans having hope for humanity reminds you that perhaps we aren't all that bad, after all.

#@queenlupitajones

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cosmicmadwoman · 7 years

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Adam and Eve Chapter Seven: Daddy Dearest

Summary: Betty and Polly finally talk to their long lost brother and Betty and Jughead have a moment by the river.

If you want to read the whole thing from the beginning:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11360046?view_full_work=true

Rating: M

Word Count: 3789

Thank you all for reading! Means the world to me :)

Betty left Jughead standing in the Blue and Gold office in search of her family, specifically her sister. Polly's reaction was more predictable and after all, she was the one to finally get Betty thinking she should give Scott the chance to know his sisters. The blonde wondered if he knew anything about them but decided not to contact the family that abandoned him in favor of keeping face. The Coopers were so consumed with appearances it dictated their relationship with the first born child.

Polly and Cheryl were sitting in the crimson adorned chatting with giddiness about baby names and matching outfits. The tell tale hollowed cheeks of Betty's face told the girls they needed to shut up and listen.

"Cheryl, I need to talk to my sister alone please," Betty's tone wasn't rude, but exact and determined.

The fiery redhead just nodded and left the room to make a plate of strawberries in the kitchen. Betty had noticed Cheryl's odd obsession with the fruit much like how the rest of her family was overly passionate about maple syrup. Maybe the next Blossom venture would use strawberries to cover their drug cartel the next time around. As she saw red hair swish out of side, she made a mental note to find a time to search Cheryl’s room for the incriminating heels. Now just wasn’t the time for detective work.

"Everything okay, sis?" Polly asked.

"Well, depends on how you take what I'm going to tell you," Betty gave an awkward laugh.

Polly didn't say more, just nodded waiting for the younger blonde to continue. Polly had the feeling there were no longer any huge bombs that her family could drop on her that were worse would she already had endured.

"Jughead found Scott. He is a zoo keeper in the city," Betty revealed softly. "We can see if he wants to meet us. Would that be something you would want?"

"Is that what you want?" Polly countered, trying to feel out her currently stoic sister. Polly knew when things were too overwhelming, Betty shut down.

"Yeah," Betty paused, "I do."

Polly smiled in a warm, motherly way and Betty was struck by the thought that Polly would be a good mom. She got up and gave her little sister a hug, the bulge in her belly keeping them further apart than normal.

"We will get through this," Polly whispered. "We always do."

Betty started crying and she didn't know why. Polly joined and the girls shared hot, happy tears. The world around the Cooper girls would be forever changed. Their little family was growing by the second. Cheryl moved in, Polly was due with twins in mid February and they were going to welcome a wayward brother into the fucked up family trees of Riverdale.

"Can we keep this between us just for a little?" Betty asked as they broke the hug.

"Yeah. I agree, no mom and dad right now. Especially dad. I don't want Scott to be overwhelmed," Polly said.

Betty giggled lightly, "He is going to be overwhelmed with us Coopers no matter who meets him!"

The girls embraced quickly again and Betty gave a lopsided smile. Betty skipped down the stairs feeling much lighter on her feet after agreeing on this with Polly. They made a tentative plan to give him a call tomorrow afternoon after school and while their parents were still at work. Her mother sat on the sofa with a strained look on her face, more sad and trapped than her usual grimace.

"Hi, mom. Running a slanderous article on the late Fred Andrews sure is tiring work, right?" Betty smiled a signature don't-mess-with-a-Cooper-scorned smile.

Her mother sighed in response, clearly tired and not interested in accusations from her own children. "People aren't always who they appear to be on the surface."

"Oh please. We both know Mr. Andrews has only always been squeaky clean. What I want to know is why you pushed a phoney article in the first place. What's your motive?"

"I don't need to be questioned by my own daughter," Alice said through gritted teeth.

"So you admit you published the article for reasons other than 'informing the public,'" Betty used air quotes, further antagonizing her mother.

"Leave. It. Alone," Alice got up and turned on her red bottom heels and marched up the stairs to the master bedroom.

Betty cursed the tight lipped nature of the Coopers. She knew if there was ever a chance Hal or Alice were involved in Fred's murder, it would take water torture for either of them to crack. Hell, it took how long for them to admit out loud they had a third child? She honestly believed once everything and it Jason came out, Riverdale would settle down. Instead, more bodies surfaced from the dirt.

It was times like this, when Betty's mind was racing, that she just needed to be alone, far from everything. She had a lot to digest and no one gave her time to just slow down. There was school, the paper, the Vixens, her mom, her dad, her sister, her brother, everything with Archie; God could the noise in her head shut up and cut her some slack?

She doesn't remember how she got there but she walked to the bank of Sweetwater river. The dusk of the sky left swirling oranges and purples dancing on the water. Not even the purity of water was safe from the treachery of the population of Riverdale. Betty looked at the beauty and all she could see what the darkness. A dead body floated in this river. The body of someone who was loved. A son, a brother, a boyfriend, a father. Left bobbing in the current like driftwood. She clenched the sand underneath her and used the substance to keep her nails from digging into her palms. After Archie noticed her scars, there was an embarrassment that flushed through her instead of an acceptance she felt with Jughead. She wanted to stop harming herself and with Jughead she knew she could take her time healing. Other people knowing made healing feel like it was to please others. Her face grew hot with need for a distraction. She texted Jughead to join her at the embankment. She couldn't think of a better distraction than being cradled by her boyfriend.

Jughead was doing laundry at the Carter's when he got the text from Betty. He turned the knob to choose his settings and quickly strapped on his bulky black boots. RJ stood by the door frame and watched silently.

"Going to see Betty?" The boy asked.

Jughead nodded in response and shrugged on his leather jacket. It was the warmest coat he had and living on the Southside, it wasn't crazy and controversial to own a Southside Serpent jacket. Most did.

"Cool," RJ said awkwardly. "Uh, I've got nothing going on."

Jughead sensed where this was going. He had been where RJ was so many times before, a friendless weirdo and when Archie was around, he was a third wheel with whatever flavor of the week the redhead had.

"I'm sorry, man, Betty is having a hard time right now and needs some support. We aren't doing anything fun. I'm sure Betty would love to go to Pop's with us sometime, though. We are just talking down by the river," Jughead let him down as easily as possible. And it was all the truth, too.

"Uh, yeah I understand. I'll look forward to it," RJ gave a weak smile and went back to his room.

Jughead felt for him, but Betty needed him. Her text was plain but there was an undercurrent of dread. I'm at Sweetwater. Let's talk please.

He rode the bumper of a Prius all the way from his foster house to Pop's. He needed to get to her. All Jughead think of was a vision of his blonde beauty curling her fingers, blood pooling around where she sat, or floating down the river in a sheer white gown sticking to her honey skin.

When he pulled up to the edge of the beach, he could see Betty with her arms cross huddling at the edge of the river. He went up silently to her. She was wrapping her arms around herself to protect from the chill. Jughead interrupted her thoughts when he draped his leather jacket around her. She looked up startled, then smiled at him. He sat next to her wordlessly and rested his arm on his raised knee.

"You know, growing up, I wanted to live here forever. I liked the idea that my 2.5 children would have the same teachers I did. Archie and I would be married, he would work for his dad and I would inherit the newspaper. Now, this is the last place I want to be. I don't want Archie and I don't want my kids to grow up in this shit town," Betty explained. "I've never hated anything as much in my life as I hate Riverdale."

Jughead was silent for a moment. He had thought those things most of his life and there was a hint of relief in Jughead's sigh. He hadn't admitted it to her yet, but he wanted to spend eternity with Betty. If that meant staying Riverdale he would, but he was ecstatic she didn't want to either anymore. Even if the revelation came from tragedy after tragedy.

"We can get out of here. You and me. Tonight," Jughead said, but Betty quickly shook her head.

"I'm like a ghost. I have unfinished business here before I cross over," Betty joked, "but then, Juggy, I'll be ready."

"I have nothing keeping me here, Betty," Jughead added, "Just say the word and I'll be ready."

Betty smiled incredibly brightly and looked hopeful. "I never knew I could love another human being as much as I love you."

"Oh, Betty Cooper, I've loved you since kindergarten. Only in my dreams did I think you could fall for me like this," Jughead admitted shyly and hung his head down.

Betty lifted his chin and forced their blue and green eyes to meld together, "Let me show you how much I love you."

Jughead nodded modestly, like it was there first time, and responded softly to the kiss his girlfriend bestowed upon his lips. Betty grabbed onto the collar of Jughead's flannel and deepened the kiss, gliding her tongue of her bottom lip begging for entry. He complied and ran his hands over Betty's torso, stopping at the hem of her sweater and crept up to cup her breast. She moaned into his mouth and leaned into his touch. Betty pulled away quickly only to place the jacket on the sand and push Jughead back onto it. The excited boy peeled off his flannel and his t-shirt too.

"You're going to be cold," Betty teased as she straddled his hips.

"I like the cold," Jughead said darkly.

Betty unbuttoned his skinny jeans and pulled out his member to kiss the tip. After leaving kisses all along the shaft, she enveloped him with her mouth and bobbed up and down gently. Jughead let out an involuntary moan and covered his mouth with the hand gripping the sand and it ended up getting in his mouth.

"Fuck, Betty," Jug groaned, "I need to taste you."

Betty looked up at him with a smile and licked her lips. "This time is about you."

"No, we are one, Betty. This is about us," Jughead said as he pulled Betty up for a kiss and expertly turned her over. She giggled as he pushed up her loose fitting skirt and pushed aside her panties for a languid lick. His eyes met Betty's has he continued to probe her hole with a flat and pointed tongue. All they could hear was the panting of Betty, the rushing river and... a twig snap?

Betty put a hand on her boyfriend's head to signal him to stop.

"Did you hear that?" Betty asked, "Like a twig snap?"

Jughead wiped Betty's liquid excitement from his mouth and shook his head, "Probably an animal. Now come on, let's make love." Jughead wiggled his eyebrows in jest and Betty laughed, instantly lightening up.

Betty reversed the position again and removed her panties before sinking down on her boyfriend's cock. She loved looking at the hairs circling his nipples, trailing down his chest and gathering around his member. She rode him slowly before he gripped her hips and met her plunges with deep thrusts. Betty threw her head back and screamed out, letting them open air swallow the noises of their lovemaking. Jughead reached his hands up and pinched Betty's pink nipples, the sudden sharpness causing her to clamp around him and cum. Jughead followed soon after, feeling the rush of liquid coming from Betty, the sensation too much to bear. He bit his lip as he came in her. Betty settled next to him and cuddled into his side on the leather jacket. She touched his chest and felt the hardness of his dark nipples against the cold. He was so beautiful like this, she thought. Jughead reached between Betty's legs and looked down to see his milky seed leak from her.

"What are you doing?" Betty laughed.

"I've just always wondered what it looked like, me coming out of you," Jughead confessed, "it's not dirty like they make it seem. It's my love for you. It's beautiful."

Betty didn't know how to answer, so she just cuddled into him more. Jughead felt sleep begin to take him, so he nudged Betty.

“We need to go home,” Jughead murmured into her golden hair.

“Polly and I are calling Scott tomorrow,” Betty said, “Mom and Dad don’t know yet.”

Jughead nodded and slapped Betty’s hand when Betty pinched his nipple. She giggled in response and moved to find her panties.

“Drive me home?” Betty asked.

“Of course.”

Betty snuck into bed late that night and couldn’t get to sleep. She kept wondering what Scott looked like, but she couldn’t bring herself to look him up. The first time she sees him she wants it to be in person. He has your eyes, Jughead said. Betty drifted off around 4:00am, green eyes and lions swimming in her vision.

The rest of the day at Riverdale High was blurry as the young blonde hurried through the day to get home to call her brother. Archie and Veronica knew about Scott, but Jughead was the only one who knew her intentions to contact him.

She was heading out the main doors to walk home when Archie caught up to her, jogging easily come up and match her stride.

“I need some help with my math homework. Do you have some time after school?” Archie asked, his pearly white smile beaming at her.

“Not today, Arch. Sorry. I have something going with Jughead,” Betty answered. Sometimes it was just easier to lie.

“You guys can have sex some other time. I really need your help,” Archie whined.

Betty stopped in her tracks and looked at Archie with raised brows. “Excuse me?”

Archie shrugged, “It was just a joke.”

“Please don’t talk about Jughead and I like that. He supports me, loves me. It’s more than just sex,” Betty’s voice gets louder and kids start looking in their direction as they left for the day.

“Well, you guys do have sex.”

“And you fixating on that is really weird. You have Veronica. She loves you. You should feel lucky,” Betty said.

“Then why do I feel like I missed out on something?” Archie’s brown eyes showed sorrow. He stepped closer and Betty stepped back.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. V is my best friend and Jughead is your best friend. You need to get your priorities straight,” Betty told him and turned to go home without waiting for a response. That was going to be the last time Betty was going to have that kind of conversation with Archie.

Polly was waiting patiently on the couch in the living room. She had her phone in her hand. Cheryl had plans with her mother and Grandma Rose to find another home, so the sisters were truly alone.

“I’ve been sitting here for two hours waiting for you to come home. I can’t think about anything else, I can’t focus,” Polly explained as she slumped her shoulders when Betty sat down next to her. She set her backpack on the chair and held onto her sister’s hands.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Betty offered a smile.

Polly nodded and dialed the number Jughead had gave them that Polly managed to memorize after spending all day staring at it. Polly put the phone on speaker. The ringing was laborious and the girls felt burning in their chests waiting for an answer. Their hearts were in their butts.

“Hello?” his voice was deep and adult sounding. He was only four years older than Polly, but he seemed so much more worldly than them in just that one word. Betty desperately wanted to know what made him seem that way.

The girls looked at each other wondering who would answer first. Polly elbowed her sister and Betty hissed in response.

“Hello?” Scott repeated.

“This is Betty and Polly,” Betty said. Polly raised her eyebrows as if she was saying he doesn’t know who we are….

“Uh, hi, Betty and Polly. I don’t think I know anyone by that name. Perhaps you have the wrong number?” Scott was so polite it killed them. He was such a Cooper.

“This is Scott Darrow, right?”

“Yes, this is…” his voice was still skeptical.

“I know this is really weird, but we are your sisters. Betty and Polly Cooper. Our parents were in high school when they had you and put you up for adoption,” Betty’s voice wavered after saying that outloud, all in one go, for the first time.

“You’re right, this is unexpected! I was wondering if I would hear from you! I tried to contact my birth mother a while ago, but was not well received, I’ll tell you honestly. But that was when I was eighteen, many years ago,” his laugh was breezy and carefree despite what he was divulging, “but I hope I would hear from my siblings, if I had any.”

It was a lot to digest, and both girls had many questions. Alice had rejected Scott? Her own child? She was a grown woman now, no longer a teenager, she could handle it. Maybe she wasn’t ready to tell her girls. But they had a right to know. All of them.

“I’m so sorry she did that,” Polly piped up, leaning into the phone, “she can be very.... standoffish. It’s her defense mechanism. We didn’t even know about you until a few weeks ago. Maybe she wasn’t ready to tell us.”

“I’m glad you called. I would love to get to know you, but could you keep our mom out of this? I don’t have a desire to meet her after the way she treated me,” Scott explained, “but I won’t hold that against you two. She made me feel like I was a dirty little secret, a burden.”

Betty sighed. She expected more from her mother, considering how torn up she was when she revealed what happened when she was in high school. Betty thought she would actually want to meet her son. “Did you get to talk to Dad? He could have a different reaction.”

“There was no father listed on my birth certificate. I thought it was really weird, but the adoption agency said that happened sometimes back in the day when unwed teen mothers had affairs with their teachers or married men.”

Betty and Polly exchanged a worried look. “That’s impossible. The father was her high school boyfriend, our dad Hal,” Polly cried.

Scott could hear the distress in their voices and tried to lull the conversation. He had had years to process this information, since he was 18, and this was a whole other level for the girls. “I’m done searching. I have Brenda and George who raised me and they are my parents. But I would love to meet you girls. I can meet you in Greendale so you don’t have to trek up to the Bronx to see me,” he offered.

“That would be lovely,” Betty said. She really was enthusiastic, but her voice squeaked at the news that there was something else their mother was hiding from them.

“I’m free next weekend. I know a coffee shop in Greendale that’s nice and public. I’ll text this number the details. I’m really happy to hear from you,” Scott said.

“We are glad you took kindly to our call,” Betty said. Polly seemed unable to speak. “We look forward to seeing you Scott.”

The siblings said their goodbyes and hung up. Alice stood at their entry way when they looked up from the phone.

“How long have you been standing there, mom?” Betty asked in mock sweetness, knowing the were caught.

“How did you find him. How did you find Scott?” Alice’s face and voice were both tight with frustration.

“The internet is a beautiful thing,” Betty quipped.

The standoff between mother and daughter had begun, their green eyes meeting in defiance, but Polly interrupted.

“Who is Scott’s dad?”

The house was silent.

“Hal. Your father,” Alice responded smiling and sat down next to Polly. “I don’t want your girls meeting Scott. He’s been into drugs and is a horrible person.”

Betty stood up and curled her fists. “No he is not mom! Can you be honest to us for one goddamn minute!”

Alice stood up too and was astonished that Betty would swear at her. “Elizabeth Cooper!”

“We deserve the truth mom,” Polly said quietly below them.

Alice sighed and put her hands up in surrender. She removed Betty’s backpack from the chair and sat down haphazardly, almost like she was hoping the lazy fall would break her arm and she wouldn’t have to continue.

“A Serpent approached me three days ago and said if I didn’t post the damning article about Fred, he would tell you girls who Scott’s father is. I was foolish to think keeping this a secret would be that easy,” Alice laughed darkly.

“I knew something was off,” Betty said referring to the article. “Why would they want you to lie about Fred? How would the Serpents even know who Scott’s father is?”

“Because the father is one of the. The father of your brother Scott is… FP Jones.”

Betty thought she was going to vomit.

#riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #bughead #bughead fanfiction #bughead smut #jughead jones #betty cooper #multichap

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ghostmartyr · 7 years

Text

SnK 93 Thoughts

So.

So, so, so.

Ahem.

Some will win Some will lose Some were born to sing the blues

Oh, the movie never ends It goes on and on, and on, and on

Isayama has always had a way of indulging monstrosities. When it comes to people being terrible, he’s pretty negligent with restraint. During the coup arc, he makes the similarities between the chaotic hunger of titans and humans so blatantly clear that it’s easy to feel like you’re being bashed over the head with a hammer. When he wants to make a point, he makes a point.

Since Marley’s been part of the show, it’s existed almost entirely as a How To guide on how not to be a person. Their entire military force is based in bigotry of one sort or another, their entire reason for attacking Paradis is feeling entitled to their resources, and most everything we’ve seen of how Eldians are treated in general makes the thought of a meteor eliminating the whole nation a lot less sad than that usually might be.

In this chapter, the scale is dialed back, and we’re given a chance to see the Marleyans as more than caricatures of evil.

We see humans who are worried about what their decreased military power means for their nation. We see them discussing their options in quiet offices and rooftops.

In its own way, that’s as disturbing as everything else Marley has done. They are still the people who view Eldian lives as exploitable trash. They still have no issues throwing people out of planes to be their mindless, helpless weapons. The morality of attacking a nation that has done absolutely nothing to provoke them never enters into play.

Every appalling act of inhumanity performed by their country has been backed by human beings. They aren’t actively setting out to be as evil as possible; they just take in their options, and when the only thing standing in their way is moral decency, decline to let that be a factor.

After Reiner and Bertolt break down Wall Maria, thousands of people are killed. What’s easy to forget so many years later is that thousands of those people die because their government decides that it’s easier for everyone if they write off their lives.

Marley has gotten away with adopting that decision as a lifestyle. Largely because they don’t have to deal with the pesky consideration that Eldians are people.

Essentially, minus the flagrant bigotry, they’re everything that Paradis escapes becoming. On Paradis, after a hundred years of being cowed into complacence and letting some of their worst human vices take over, people start to wake up. They’re given a glimpse of hope, and a future, and enough people are willing to believe in that to change the cruelty that’s been smothering them.

The Marleyan Eldians, the only people who have serious personal stakes in maybe not doing things this way anymore, don’t have much hope. The greatest option for a better life is training as hard as possible to be selected to die in thirteen years.

That’s a cycle that’s been going on for a hundred years. It hasn’t broken. The system’s just found a way to make Eldians compliant in their tragedy.

I don’t know how the chapter title works out in Japanese, or what references Isayama may or may not include, but in English, the title, “Midnight Train,” makes it hard to think of anything but Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.

There’s a literal train a the end of the chapter, of course, and. it is arguably around midnight at the time it’s running, but that’s less fun.

I could probably go to more effort weaving in and out of how the two can relate, but for the purposes of this second, I’m just going to quote fast and get out.

Payin' anything to roll the dice Just one more time

On its own, those lines easily call to both the Warriors and the Survey Corps. Countless Scouts have given up their lives for the barest hint of a chance that something might go right someday.

Warriors see how they’re treated by their country constantly, and know that this didn’t start yesterday, and they each still approach it with the thought that they’ll be the ones to make everything okay for their people.

Some will win, and some will lose.

For Marleyan Eldians, Marley is the house, and they’re handing the players loaded dice.

Some were clearly born to sing the blues.

Anyway, that’s a lot of nothing saying that I appreciate the less blatant evil going on in this chapter. It makes the worst of it all hit harder. Things aren’t always train tracks and mustache-twirling. These are real human beings, choosing to enact real horrors.

Though. All the same.

There is no part of this sentiment that is not fucked up, and I’d really like to stop reading about Marley now.

What else, what else...

Well, confirmation that no one on Marley’s side knows about Zeke’s royal blood; except for maybe Zeke. We also get explicit verbage about Shifters inheriting their predecessors’ memories.

Along with the implication that Zeke went around stabbing every single person in Connie’s village with needles full of his spinal fluid.

...I. Do not know which implication is worse, there. Does... Zeke keep a stock of his spinal fluid? I mean, Marley would be more likely in that case, but that’s pretty thoroughly worse.

Getting spinal fluid out is considered pretty painful, to my knowledge. ...Does he stab himself when he’s all alone on random islands?

...Was there ever a reason given besides, “for funsies,” that he transformed Connie’s village anyway?

I think I’m just not going to think about that one too hard unless the manga starts shining a giant spotlight on it. Not caring is usually a pretty good ally in lore things.

In other news, Reiner continues to be a horrible person, adding threatening small children to his list of faults. At least he only scares the one who doesn’t like him much half to death.

It continues to amaze me that you can develop a character who is unfailingly loyal to the point that it psychologically breaks him to be a traitor, and still make him such an asshole. When he isn’t jumping in front of things for people, he’s making them feel like crap.

Unless your name’s Connie.

Then he’ll just loudly suggest that you’re a moron for hearing weird things around your mother’s titanized body.

...

Reiner should not be allowed to people.

He also has a weird obsession with turning boys into white knights.

Krista?

I shall save you, girl whose name I have yet to get right!

Bertolt has a thing for Annie?

You must rescue her as is becoming of the princely way!

Falco has a thing for Gabi?

You shall save her, valiant young steed!

He gives this poor kid a traumatizing lecture on the honor Warriors are bestowed with, and then drags him into a grueling grind of training to surpass Gabi so that he’ll be chosen (things to be included: comfort with standing in front of enemy lines in your underwear with not but a bunch of bombs for company), and then terms it as saving the damsel in distress from the horror that is being a Marley Warrior.

Reiner doesn’t just want to be a fairy tale knight.

He wants everyone around him to be one too.

If Galliard didn’t hate him, he’d be spending all of his time telling him to protect the fair maiden Pieck.

That’s Reiner’s real character arc: He’s just this poor guy trying to get an RP group going. No one ever plays the scene out right, so he’s condemned to misery for the rest of his lonely two years.

Alternatively, he has no clue how to deal with his own emotions, so he’s constantly shoving them off on other people who are just barely well-adjusted enough to maybe get something done.

“I’m a lost cause so I’m going to yell at children” is a staple of the genre.

I don’t know if Reiner’s still doing his Soldier/Warrior split (I’m guessing not, since he’s so definitively in Warrior territory, and has been for several years now), but his psychological health has somehow succeeded in getting worse.

Maybe try killing less people.

So far, I like Pieck and Galliard. Pieck obviously garners immediate sympathy because the Cartman train apparently isn’t allowed to stop during a war, and having Galliard obviously care for her is cool. These two haven’t betrayed anyone yet, or been spotted attacking people they aren’t actively at war with, so it’s easier to see them as people.

Galliard’s dislike of Reiner is just a bonus.

It’s also kind of sad. “Kind of” meaning very. No one but Reiner understands the weight of everything that happens on Paradis, but Galliard is the one whose squad left him behind. Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, and his brother are all chosen ahead of him, and he has to watch them head off to save their people while he just stays put.

Then the only person who comes back is the one whose spot he was in direct competition for. His brother and the friends he could like are gone, and Reiner has the audacity to stay standing.

Unfortunately, I think that brings us to the only reason any of you are probably reading this post.

Jaws is the Dancing Titan.

Galliard is the successor of Ymir’s power, by proof of his abilities and new memories.

That would indicate that Ymir is dead.

Every single thing we know about canon says that Ymir is dead.

Deceased. Nommed. Gone.

We have flashback panels to before she’s eaten. Galliard remembers her by name. He has memories of Reiner’s time as a soldier.

Short of a body, which, um. Let’s just say would not be around, given the circumstances, that is pretty damn conclusive.

So.

I have a problem.

My problem is a pretty simple one.

This is really fucking stupid.

And I really, really, really wish that in a capslock rage kind of way, because I feel like I would have an easier time defending that. Sadly, I don’t mean it in that way.

What I mean is that the story has failed so spectacularly to establish logic in this chain of events that I’m not convinced that this is the end.

Which means that I’m probably going to continue getting asks about why I think Ymir’s alive (though that isn’t... precisely true).

Despite being handed a chapter that pretty much shouts, “SHE’S DEAD,” as loudly as possible.

Yeah.

Assuming that there’s at least one person who’s interested in why in between laughing at me or unfollowing in disgust or any number of other things that make me think that being in mourning would actually be easier, I guess I’ll keep typing and try to explain why.

Ymir’s fate has happened to come up a number of times here, but I think the best explanation for my belief in her continued longevity is the one I went with most recently.

I’m no stranger to looking askance at Isayama’s writing choices. However, one thing he has always stayed true to, with a consistency that any writer would find admirable, is the characters. You see signs of who all of these people are far before the traits become relevant. He has a talent for breathing life into his creations, and however long they live for, they are distinct individuals without any notes to them that ring untrue.

With the facts currently at hand, for the first time, we have a jarring development that feels more like an instrument of the plot than something that a character would actually do.

Galliard and Reiner both say that Ymir volunteers to die.

Putting aside the fact that Reiner is a complete jackass for letting Ymir do that for him and Bertolt (what the hell is wrong with you that you present the woman who saved your life to be eaten alive), I do not know how to begin with this.

Because I know that this is one of those positions that means I basically can’t ever have a civil conversation with anyone again in this fandom, I’m going to try to be as direct as possible about my reasoning.

The issues start with... wow, I really don’t like doing this.

At the simplest level, nothing we have seen of Ymir since her time on the wall with Reiner and Bertolt suggests that this is a decision she’s happy about. She looks like death (ha) in this chapter, and she doesn’t look much happier writing out her love letter.

This isn’t the scared-but-willing face she puts on during Utgard or the kidnapping arc. It isn’t the smile when she talks about being a goddess. It’s desolation.

There are parts to the end of volume twelve that could point to this as a legit ending. I think one of the things I brought up in regards to Bertolt’s death was that the second his development landed on the idea that everything is inevitable, his death joined the list, because this is a series where if you don’t fight, you most assuredly do not win.

If you wanted to go there, making the case that Isayama can be lax with the amount of evidence his character decisions have, but they are always available, then Ymir’s line, “I’m tired out. I’ve just had enough. ...I’m done,” is perfectly prophetic, the end.

My problem with that is it happens post-Utgard and kidnapping arc. I don’t think any other set of chapters is as committed to sleep deprivation as those ones, and basically all of the decisions Ymir makes during the kidnapping arc are shortsighted and corrected by someone having half a second to think about them.

I’m using “problem” like it’s singular a lot. I do that. It’s annoying, and I’m going to continue doing it.

The more pressing issue here is that if this is how Ymir’s story ends, she has absolutely zero value as an individual.

She lives and dies only for other people.

She does it in her first life, then again in her second.

She has an active desire to avoid that.

Oh well.

I don’t think I know how to put into words how thoroughly this end would turn Ymir into a satellite character.

Every life lesson she ever learns for herself has zero effect on her life. As far as character development goes, if this is how things play out, she doesn’t really have any. She begins her life living only for the happiness of others, and ends her life dying only for the happiness of others.

In a lot of stories, that wouldn’t be such a problem. There is definite tragedy in someone’s own nature betraying their desires. That’s practically what tragedy is.

But with Ymir--first off, as mentioned in the above link, we’ve already done this at Utgard. This is exactly the problem she faces at Utgard, finding that she has too much love in her heart to save her own skin at all costs. Saving Reiner and Bertolt is a dull repetition of that revelation already.

And that’s before saving them involves moving forward to be eaten alive.

This is actually painful: She has a life on Marley, dies because she’s a tryhard. She has a life on Paradis, then Utgard happens and oh no, she cares about people. Then kidnapping happens, and oh no, she still cares about Historia. THEN THE CONCLUSION OF THE KIDNAPPING HAPPENS, AND OH NO, SHE CARES ABOUT REINER AND BERTOLT.

Following all of that: OH NO, DESPITE WONDERING WHY THE HELL THIS IS A DECISION SHE’S MADE, YEP, STILL GONNA DIE FOR THEM!

(you know, those people she threatened with death an hour ago for a chance to see Historia one more time)

You can make the argument that she’s consistent, but there’s a huge difference in automatically shielding people from immediate danger, and walking up to the gallows and tying the knot yourself. For that final save, that’s what the story is asking us to believe happened.

Additionally, all of the above only benefits other people. If this is the end, Ymir’s basic function in the story is being Historia’s love interest and keeping plot-essential characters breathing. On her own, she has a personality, but you might as well stamp tool to her forehead and be done with it.

Seriously, playing along with exactly what the text says, with dead Ymir: Remove Historia from the story and then examine how much worth Ymir’s story has to any of this. If she’s dead, she’s more plot device than person, which Isayama has always been good about avoiding.

...Okay, I don’t think I can say that without someone at least thinking of Floch, to which I say that if Ymir and Floch are at all comparable in value, you know something’s gone sideways.

There is no solid logic for Ymir to hand herself over to Marley. By dying, she spares Bertolt for what, two months? Reiner would have died as well if not for being Reiner. She also gives Marley a shiny new toy, with no guarantees on this new person caring at all about Historia.

Oh yeah, and she’d be dead.

She kind of spends several pages during 47 having a meltdown over imminent death.

And in that case, she’s facing it for Historia.

That girl she loves or something.

Who she’s still willing to put at risk just to see her one more time because she’s a selfish teenager who has things to live for.

But, you know, things happen. Characters aren’t always as important as you think they are, that’s the way it goes, and so on and so forth.

Except it does matter that Ymir’s arc is concluding this way. With no other character besides Historia (who has an extensive arc dealing with the emotional threat this represents) could you have an ending that flies so directly in the face of everything they stand for. And for crying out loud, Historia’s arc is pretty much learning to use everything Ymir teaches her.

You can’t have Ymir fail her own beliefs this badly without any elaboration.

Like.

You’re going to kill yourself, the ultimate act of submission. Is that how much you want to please the people who treated you like a nuisance?! Why are you trying to hurt yourself?! If your will is that strong… then shouldn’t you be able to change your fate?!

We get a whole character arc that starts with Ymir deriding her for abusing her suicidal desires. Willingly walking into death without fighting like hell to stay alive is not something Ymir does.

If this is really the end, it’s appallingly disrespectful to everything Ymir is as a character, using her only to keep the key players alive and sane--and maybe as a reason for a queen of some island to have a serious grudge.

None of which involves treating Ymir as a person who matters as an individual.

And that’s the crux of the thing for me.

Which is sad, since I don’t really want more people telling me how very wrong about life, the universe, and everything I am.

Here it is, though:

Despite all evidence pointing to Ymir’s death, and despite everything we know about canon only supporting that she must be dead, Isayama has such a long track record of respecting his characters that I do not believe that this is her end.

There is no grounding in canon for thinking that Ymir is alive (I’m not even sure she is alive in the traditional way, if there’s more to this). There is only suspicion built on the author’s history. That isn’t much. By the standards I prefer, it’s absolutely nothing.

Shifters aren’t great about remembering that first nom, and we know nothing about the ninth titan yet, but there’s also no reason to believe either of those things might be relevant.

I don’t like being the person who looks at mountains of evidence and shrugs it off. I really don’t like it when character deaths are involved. I hate it, actually, but I’m guessing that until the manga ends, even when the inevitable volume release finally has an X through Ymir’s picture, I’ll be holding out for something amazing happening with her.

Because I’m a moron.

Well.

And it enables me to end the post in this fashion.

DON’T STOP BELIEVING

HOLD ON TO THAT FEEEEEEEELING

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 93 #Ymir #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post #so ends anyone ever taking me seriously ever again #maybe that's a good thing #but I don't like being alone

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criminalmindscastandquotes · 7 years

Text

Criminal Minds Opening and closing Quotes: Season 6

Season 6 Episode 1 The Longest Night

JJ: “A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one other it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.” The Buddha.

Season 6 Episode 2 JJ

JJ: Jean Racine said, “A tragedy need not have blood and death; it’s enough that it all be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.”

Season 6 Episode 3 Remembrance of Things Past

Rossi: Marcel Proust wrote, “Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”

Rossi: Mark Twain wrote, “When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. But my faculties are decaying now, and soon I shall be so that I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.”

Season 6 Episode 4 Compromising Positions

Prentiss: “We all wear masks, and the times comes when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin.” Andre Berthiaume

Garcia: Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, be a good one.”

Season 6 Episode 5 Safe Haven

Morgan: “All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.” Mahatma Gandhi.

Morgan: “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” Robert Frost.

Season 6 Episode 6 Devil’s Night

Hotchner: Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, “If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.”

Hotchner: Thomas Kempis wrote, “Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of its trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.”

Season 6 Episode 7 Middle Man

Hotchner: “Without heroes, we are all plain people and don’t know how far we can go.” Bernard Malamud

Hotchner: “The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Season 6 Episode 8 Reflection of Desire

Garcia: “Fame will go by and, so long, I’ve had you, fame. If it goes by, I’ve always known it was fickle. So at least it’s something I experience, but that’s not where I live.” Marilyn Monroe

Garcia: I believe humanity was born from conflict. Maybe that’s why in all of us lives a dark side. Some of us embrace it. Some have no choice. The rest of us fight it. In the end, it’s as natural as the air we breathe. At some point, we’re forced to face the truth. Ourselves.

Season 6 Episode 9 Into the Woods

Morgan: Ralph Ellison said, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”

Hotchner: Elise Cabot said, “Evil endures a moment’s flush, and then leaves but a burnt out shell.”

Season 6 Episode 10 What Happens at Home

Hotchner: “When we were children, we used to think that when we grew up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… to be alive is to be vulnerable.” Writer Madeleine L’Engle

Rossi: “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.” Writer Oscar Wilde

Season 6 Episode 11 25 to Life

Morgan: “There is no such thing as part freedom.” Nelson Mandela

Morgan: “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them.” Galileo

Season 6 Episode 12 Corazón

Reid: “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Reid: “The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller.

Season 6 Episode 13 The Thirteenth Step

Prentiss: Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “What really raises one’s indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering.”

Prentiss: William Glasser wrote, “What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today.”

Season 6 Episode 14 Sense Memory

Morgan: “Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they are in the game.” Comedian Paul Rodriguez.

Prentiss: “Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.” Novelist Vladimir Nabokov.

Season 6 Episode 15 Today I Do

Prentiss: “There’s no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Rossi: “It’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.” Sally Kempton

Season 6 Episode 16 Coda

Reid: “Tomorrow, you promise yourself, will be different, but tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.” Author James T. Mccay

Ian Doyle: Honore de Balzac once said, “Most people of action are inclined to fatalism, and most of thought believe in providence.” Tell me, Emily Prentiss, which do you think you’re gonna be?

Season 6 Episode 17 Valhalla

Prentiss: Lao Tzu said, “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”

Prentiss: Journalist Dorothea Dix wrote, “Confession is always weakness. The grave soul keeps its own secrets, and takes its own punishment in silence.”

Season 6 Episode 18 Lauren

JJ: Psychoanalyst Walter Langer wrote, “People will believe a big lie sooner than a little one, and if you repeat it frequently enough, people will sooner or later believe it.”

Prentiss: “The secret to getting away with lying is believing with all your heart. That goes for lying to yourself, even moreso than lying to another.” Author Elizabeth Bear.

Season 6 Episode 19 With Friends Like These…

Reid: Lizette Reese said, “The old faiths light their candles all about, but burly truth comes by and puts them out.”

Morgan: Siddhartha Buddha said, “It is not his enemy or foe that lures him to evil ways.”

Season 6 Episode 20 Hanley Waters

Morgan: Poet Antonio Porchia wrote, “Man, when he does not grieve, hardly exists.”

Season 6 Episode 21 The Stranger

Seaver: “Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false naming of real events.” Adrienne Rich

Hotchner: “Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.” Stephen King.

Season 6 Episode 22 Out of the Light

Rossi: Agathon said, “Of this alone, even God is deprived, the power of making things that are past never to have been.”

Hotchner: Doménico Cieri Estrada wrote, “Bring the past only if you’re going to build from it.”

Season 6 Episode 23 Big Sea

Rossi: “The sea has never been friendly to man. At most, it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.” Joseph Conrad

Morgan: “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.” John F. Kennedy

Season 6 Episode 24 Supply & Demand

Hotchner: Thomas Hardy said, “And yet to every bad there’s a worse.”

Rossi: “What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.” Aristotle.

#Criminal Minds #aaron hotchner #jason gideon #derek morgan #david rossi #elle greenaway #emily prentiss #Penelope Garcia #dr spencer reid #Jennifer Jareau #quotes #famous #popular #enlightening #inspirational #inspiration

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courtiers · 7 years

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@ocean-settler in regards to ‘jamie is azor ahai’

there are a few necessary things for someone to be a candidate for the prince who was promised/azor ahai:

be born under a bleeding red star

be born of salt

be born of smoke

live whilst “the darkness gathers”

have the “blood of the dragon”/descended from aerys and rhaella targaryen

wake dragons from stone

wield lightbringer

have links to ‘the song of ice and fire’

most of these can be pretty nicely applied to jaime, i think

being born under a bleeding red star

there are four possible events that could count as “when the red star bleeds”: the comet that was seen during the year of aegon targaryen’s birth; the red messenger comet that appears during the events we see taking place; oberyn martell’s death; or elia martell’s death.

the comets are the things everyone cites as fitting this part of the prophecy – they’re literal red stars that are described as looking like they’re bleeding – but oberyn and elia’s deaths slip under the radar as possibilities. but thinking about it, what is the banner of house martell? a red sun – a red star. so “when the red star bleeds” could refer to the death of a martell. two major martells die at important junctures during the story, oberyn and elia. either of them could be the red star.

so what was jaime doing during these events? was he being reborn? well, yes.

the year of first red star, aegon’s comet, was either 281 AC. jaime was raised to knighthood and joined the kingsguard in 281, a kind of birth as he becomes a new person and dedicates himself to a cause. interestingly, 281 was the year of the false spring – it’s certainly notable that jaime’s ‘birth’ into knighthood happened in a year with not only a bleeding star, but also what appeared to be a winter’s end.

the second red star’s bleeding is elia martell’s death, which, admittedly, jaime had little to do with directly. however, he was in the red keep, murdering aerys, at the same time as clegane was murdering elia. in other words, jaime was reborn as the kingslayer in the same building, at the same time as a red star bled.

the year of the second comet, the red messenger, signals the beginning of jaime’s character development. his journey during a storm of swords and the relationship between him and brienne changes him from someone with a relatively poor code of honour (his association with cersei’s schemeing and his pushing a kid out of a window are two examples) into a more honourable man (saving brienne from rape and from the bear pit despite it being in his best interest not to).

the last bleeding red star is oberyn’s death. jaime, although his name is never mentioned during tyrion’s trial by combat, was not only almost certainly present, but in the aftermath of the trial and oberyn’s death had a significant change of heart, siding with tyrion instead of his sister and beginning along the path away from loving her. their relationship, at least in the books, essentially fizzles and dies at this point, marking a new page in jaime’s life.

any or all of these events could be the bleeding red star the prophecy refers to – it’s extraordinarily notable that jaime was actively changing during all of them.

born of salt and smoke

there are two ways the “births” in the azor ahai prophecy can be interpreted: the birth of salt and smoke is a single event, or the birth of salt and the birth of smoke are two different events. either way, i think they could be applied to jaime.

if they are the same event, then one answer is his de-handing by vargo hoate (and zollo). here’s the full passage:

Still, still, long after they had snuffed out the torch they’d used to sear his bloody stump, days after, he could still feel the fire lancing up his arm, and his fingers twisting in the flames, the fingers he no longer had.

He had taken wounds before, but never like this. He had never known there could be such pain. Sometimes, unbidden, old prayers bubbled from his lips, prayers he learned as a child and never thought of since, prayers he had first prayed with Cersei kneeling beside him in the sept at Casterly Rock. Sometimes he even wept, until he heard the Mummers laughing. Then he made his eyes go dry and his heart go dead, and prayed for his fever to burn away his tears. Now I know how Tyrion has felt, all those times they laughed at him.

the smoke being that from the fire used to cauterised his wound, the salt being his tears due to the pain. in many ways, it’s similar to rhaegar’s idea that the “salt and smoke” was summerhall, in that the smoke was from the flames and the salt was from people weeping for the tragedy.

the other possibility is in his last chapter of a feast for crows. in this chapter, jaime dreams of his mother, a vision essentially telling him to abandon the lannister dreams of glory and success. in the dream, his mother cries, and he wakes up to a letter from his sister asking him to come to fight in her trial by combat – a letter which he burns. tears = salt, burning paper = smoke, and jaime is reborn as he forsakes his sister completely.

while subtle, both of these possibilities work well, though it must be acknowledged that it’s also entirely possible that jaime’s birth of salt and smoke is an event which happened yet, and may in the future be a much more significant revelation of his status as azor ahai.

live whilst “the darkness gathers”

this is perhaps the most obvious one, being the beginning of winter and the rise of the Others, and is not jaime specific since it can be applied to any azor ahai candidate

have the “blood of the dragon”/descended from aerys and rhaella targaryen

this one is... trickier.

there’s a relatively popular theory going around that tyrion is not actually a lannister, but instead the child of aerys targaryen and joanna lannister. it’s stated in-text that aerys was sexually interested in joanna, so it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that she sired his child.

or children.

because there’s no reason to discard that idea that it might not be tyrion that’s aerys’ bastard, but jaime and cersei instead. in fact, it would be a pretty satisfying poetic justice if tyrion was tywin’s only trueborn son, instead of the twins he was so proud of.

it’s textually stated that jaime and cersei are unlike tywin. cersei thinks she has inherited tywin’s intelligence and ability to scheme, but with every turn she proves herself incompetent. likewise, jaime is told by his aunt that

"You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak... but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you."

it appears in a metaphorical context, but what if this is not only metaphor, but foreshadowing as well. if jaime and cersei are in fact aerys’ children, then they truly have the blood of the dragon.

the problematic element here appears to be that they don’t have rhaella targaryen’s blood. barristan selmy tells daenerys that the ghost of high heart apparently prophesised azor ahai would be born of aerys and rhaella. however, when examining the actual quote, that’s not necessarily true:

“Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince was promised would be born of their line.”

not born of them, born of their line. the targaryens were so inbred that they had no new genetic material entering their line – marrying brother to sister kept the bloodline ‘pure’. aerys and rhaella, through centuries of inbreeding, were essentially genetic copies of each other – any child of aerys’ would essentially be of rhaella’s line too. therefore, it doesn’t matter that jaime is aerys’ child and not rhaella’s. he is still the child of their bloodline, and thus an azor ahai candidate.

however, if this theory turns out not to be true, then jaime is still not necessarily discredited. “born of their line” sounds almost too straightforward to be a direct quote from a prophecy. i would kill for the exact wording of the woods witch’s prophecy, but i reckon it would more likely have been worded something like, “the prince who was promised will have the blood of rhaella and aerys”. and even if jaime is not aerys’ son, he still has aerys and rhaella’s blood.

he has their blood on his hands. he directly killed aerys, literally soaking him in targaryen blood, and also stood by and did nothing whilst knowing that elia was being raped and murdered on the other side of the castle. jaime has their bloodline on his hands no matter his parentage

wake dragons from stone

this part of the prophecy is linked to the blood of the dragon. if cersei and jaime discover their true heritage, it will be the metaphorical ‘awakening’ of two dragons – two new targaryens. and the stone they wake from? casterly rock. the dragons born on the rock will wake up. as simple as that.

if the twins are not secret targaryens, this becomes more difficult. several theories:

the dragonstone volcano erupts (highly unlikely but AWESOME)

skaagos volcano erupts (see above)

aegon gets greyscale and is cured (boring)

the dragon carvings on dragonstone come to life (ALSO AWESOME)

the petrified dragons on dragonstone get cured of greyscale (AMAZING)

there are dragons on skaagos (too obscure, maybe?)

sansa/alayne stone marries aegon and has a kid (highly questionable but i kinda like this one)

someone slow to anger gets pissed off (think viserys’ “waking the dragon” threats) (kinda hilarious)

eh i don’t know. i just feel like dany’s dragon’s and jon’s lineage are too obvious answers

wield lightbringer

lightbringer, “the red sword of heroes”, appears to have been recreated during the books by several characters – stannis, beric dondarrion, perhaps even daenerys (some suggest that her lightbringers are her dragons). some theorise that the actual historical lightbringer survived through the ages as ice (the stark sword), or dawn (the sword of house dayne).

i’d like to suggest another potential sword to become lightbringer: oathkeeper

in a storm of swords, jaime sleeps against the stump of a weirwood tree and has a dream about a burning sword. here’s the full text:

“Give me a sword, at least.”

“I gave you a sword,” Lord Tywin said.

It was at his feet. Jaime groped under the water until his hand closed upon the hilt. Nothing can hurt me so long as I have a sword. As he raised the sword a finger of pale flame flickered at the point and crept up along the edge, stopping a hand’s breath from the hilt. The fire took on the color of the steel itself so it burned with a silvery-blue light, and the gloom pulled back.

From behind came a great splash. Jaime whirled toward the sound . . . but the faint light revealed only Brienne of Tarth, her hands bound in heavy chains. “I swore to keep you safe,” the wench said stubbornly. “I swore an oath.” Naked, she raised her hands to Jaime. “Ser. Please. If you would be so good.”

The steel links parted like silk. “A sword,” Brienne begged, and there it was, scabbard, belt, and all. She buckled it around her thick waist. The light was so dim that Jaime could scarcely see her, though they stood a scant few feet apart. In this light she could almost be a beauty, he thought. In this light she could almost be a knight. Brienne’s sword took flame as well, burning silvery blue. The darkness retreated a little more.

this dream sword is oathkeeper:

tywin says “i gave you a sword”, referring to oathkeeper, which jaime is given by tywin later on (that this is a weirwood dream makes it understandable that jaime has knowledge from the future)

“i swore an oath” directly parallels the sword’s name, oathkeeper

dream-brienne gains a sword with the same characteristics as jaime’s dream-sword. the only sword jaime and brienne share is oathkeeper

the evidence against this sword being oathkeeper is that the blade is silver-blue, not grey-red, but then again visions have never been the most reliable when pertaining to azor ahai (or how else could melisandre have been so mistaken about stannis?). the only other explanation i can think of for this is that it’s symbolic, representing jaime becoming more like brienne, the ‘blue knight’ of renly’s rainbow guard.

regardless of whether or not the sword is oathkeeper, it cannot be ignored that the swords in jaime’s dream have burning blades, something specified in the azor ahai prophecies.

furthermore, we know two things for certain about oathkeeper: it is valyrian steel, and it is red.

that it is valyrian steel matters here – whilst it has not yet been confirmed in the books, the tv show has revealed that valyrian steel is one of the few materials which can kill white walkers. i would be extraordinarily surprised if this doesn’t turn out to be true in the books as well.

lastly, as tyrion notes in a storm of swords:

Most Valyrian steel was a grey so dark it looked almost black, as was true here as well. But blended into the folds was a red so deep as the grey.

“red sword of heroes”, anyone?

have links to the song of ice and fire

here’s a nice quote from grrm himself:

I mean... Fire is love, fire is passion, fire is sexual ardor and all of these things. Ice is betrayal, ice is revenge, ice is… you know, that kind of cold inhumanity and all that stuff is being played out in the books.

if this doesn’t describe jaime better than any other character in the series, i don’t know what more i can do to convince you

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devinsena · 5 years

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Looking Back On New York

On the 46th anniversary of Roe v Wade, New York passed the “Reproductive Health Act” (RHA) which stripped back any restrictions on abortion, allowing abortion to be legal for all nine months up until birth. For details of the new law, please check out fellow HDI contributor, Chloe Kilano’s article. As Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law, the room full of smiling abortion supporters cheered and applauded.

Seeing this brought to mind the quote spoken by Natalie Portman’s character in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, “So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause.”

That line was spoken as the evil emperor announced his newly established empire that would go on to mercilessly slaughter millions of innocent lives across the Star Wars universe. In a similar fashion, the RHA will allow for millions of innocent human beings to be mercilessly slaughtered.

As of 2014, there were 95 abortion facilities in New York state alone. The only other state to have more abortion facilities is California, which has 152. In 2014, New York City had the highest abortion rate with 34.8 abortions for every 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-44) and the highest abortion ratio with 575 abortions for every 1,000 live births. In 2016 the New York State Department of Health reported that there were 87,325 abortions in that year alone. The numbers and statistics are horrifying, and with the passing of the RHA, we can expect those numbers to skyrocket.

I have been involved with the pro-life movement for over eight years now and this week is one of the biggest weeks in my memory for the abortion issue. The issue has been on my mind more than usual lately, and has caused me to think more in depth about the ramifications of the RHA.

One thing that has hit me hard is the allowance of late-term abortions. I have seen videos and pictures of late-term abortions and read multiple accounts from doctors on the details of the procedures. Even though I know full well what happens in those abortions, I realized something I had never thought of before. With late-term abortions, especially in the third trimester, the vast majority of children would be viable outside the womb. According to information from the Quint Boenker Preemie Survival Foundation the likelihood of survival for a baby born in the third trimester is 90-95%. There are many pro-abortion advocates who claim third trimester abortions are necessary to save the life of the mother. Looking at the statistics of the survival rates above, combined with testimonies from doctors, that is proven to be false.

The day after the RHA was made into law Board Certified OB/GYN, Dr. Omar L. Hamada, who has delivered over 2,500 babies, tweeted: “There’s not a single fetal or maternal condition that requires third trimester abortion. Not one. Delivery, yes. Abortion, no.”

After posting that Hamada started receiving death threats.

Hamada’s testimony echoed that of California OB/GYN, Dr. Lawrence K. Koning, who said “As an ob/gyn physician for 31 years there is no medical situation that requires aborting / killing the baby in the third trimester to 'save the mother's life'. Just deliver the baby by c-section and the baby has 95+% survival with readily available NICU care even at 28 weeks. C-section is quicker and safer than partial birth abortion for the mother."

Tennessee board-certified OB/GYN, Dr. David McKnight posted, “I need to say publicly and unequivocally, that there is NEVER a medical reason to kill a baby at term. When complications of pregnancy endanger a mother’s life, we sometimes must deliver the baby early, but it is ALWAYS with the intent of doing whatever we can to do it safely for the baby too…. God help us.”

You can read more medical testimonies regarding the passing of the RHA here.

In a third trimester abortion, the child is killed in the womb, and then labor is induced to deliver the corpse of the child. A woman literally has carried a child to term, gone through the pain of childbirth, but delivers a dead child instead of a crying, living child. That is literally the only difference. It is disgusting.

Many remember Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who is currently serving three life sentences in prison for his illegal abortion activities, including three counts of first-degree murder of newborns. In his late-term abortions, he delivered the fully-developed child and “snipped” the baby’s spinal cord with surgical scissors. Under the RHA, actions like his would be made completely legal.

There is Hope!

As awful as this new law may be, I believe it could work in favor of pro-life legislation and activism. I have seen many people on my social media feeds talking about this law who never talk or post about abortion. Some even went as far as adding “frames” to their profile pictures stating they were pro-life. It was super encouraging to see so many of my friends talking about it. I have friends from across the political, religious, and moral spectrum and I have yet to see anybody say anything positive about the RHA.

When I first started pro-life activism in college, my mentor told me to “be the one who never shuts up about abortion.”

I took that advice to heart and I am very vocal about it. It is something I post about regularly on social media, now there are so many others talking about it. It is refreshing to see so much civil dialogue about the issue of abortion.

One of the most beautiful and heartfelt posts I saw on my newsfeeds is written by my friend Joseph Phillips:

“How far we have fallen

How calloused our dignity has become

The nazis were conquered by the world for what they did

Hitler is demonized for his actions in utter disregard for human life

But what he did pales in comparison to what the killers of our time, in our states do and have done constantly

The abortion mills are drenching our land in blood using our money and it is become normal to just accept it

Life is searched for and grasped at in space but an unwanted beating heart down here is given the cold shoulder and killed without a chance.

Blood is soaking our ground and we are letting it happen. Will you join to stand against, resist, and labor in prayer?”

Most people I have seen online talking about the RHA seem to have no idea that Roe v. Wade and its sister case, Doe v. Bolton actually allowed for abortion during all nine months up until birth for any reason. The RHA simply shows those landmark cases in their rawest form, without any restrictions.

I believe this tragedy in New York will help people see just how horrific Roe v. Wade is. I believe many people who “supported” Roe, without any knowledge of what exactly it entailed, will change their minds about it after learning about the RHA.

As horrible as this is, I believe it will bring many people into the light about abortion. Although we might be sad and disheartened about New York, it is up to pro-life advocates to help educate these people during this time.

I want to close this reflection with Dr. Robert P. George’s reaction to the Reproductive Health Act in New York. Dr. George has been heroically fighting for the preborn for many decades and is considered one of the country's leading conservative intellectuals.

“Despite the tragedy of New York, we will prevail in the fight to protect human lives at all stages and in every condition--but only if we refuse to yield to the temptation to hate or hold in contempt those responsible for this inhuman atrocity. Oppose them? Yes. Resolutely? Certainly. But not "by any means necessary." I repeat: Not "by any means necessary." We must answer the falsehoods on which the abortion license has been constructed with truth. Truth is powerful. It is luminous. Let it be spoken. We must respond to the lethal violence of abortion with love, and never with violence of our own. Let us be guided by the example of Martin Luther King in the struggle against racial injustice. We must refuse to permit the interests of women to be posed against those of their unborn children. We must love--and care for--both.

We must recognize, as the pro-life movement to its enormous credit has done from the beginning--that pregnant women do sometimes find themselves abandoned or in danger or dire need, causing abortion to appear to be the only option (scarcely the "choice" that abortion activists like to talk about). We must provide practical assistance, as thousands of pro-life citizens--mostly women--do every day in pro-life pregnancy centers and clinics across this broad land. And we must labor tirelessly in the political sphere. Again, we mustn't hate the Andrew Cuomos of the world--hate is not the answer: but we must defeat them. That is a practical requirement of love in the face of evil worked by and through the mechanisms of politics and law.

Let no one say, "the answer is to change the culture, not politics." That is as false as it would be to say, "the answer is politics, not changing the culture." The truth is that work in the culture and in politics (which is, after all, part of culture and helps to shape it) is necessary. Culture and law cannot be separated. And while our efforts will unavoidably be incremental, let us never fail to be moving forward. Let us never lose sight of our goal: A nation in which every child is welcomed in life and protected by law. A nation in which mothers and children alike are recognized as bearers of profound, inherent, and equal dignity and, as such, to be loved, respected, and cared for. A nation in which we truly provide, and do not merely give lip service to, liberty and justice for all.”

source http://humandefense.com/looking-back-on-new-york/

#prolife Christian Bible LoveBoth abortion prochoice

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topmixtrends · 6 years

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CALL ME A KILLJOY but I am sick to death of hearing about Karl Marx. I am sick of his name, his -isms, his undoubted genius, and his “philosophy.” I am sick of him “having reason,” as the French say, or “being right.” But most of all I am sick of his “relevance.”

As someone whose parents were born and grew up in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and who missed the same fate by the skin of her teeth, I know perfectly well what Marx’s relevance amounts to. Marx gave it a name, even if for him it meant something else than it did for the people of Yugoslavia. I am talking about the oft-quoted and seldom understood “religion of everyday life.”

In post–World War II Yugoslavia, Marx’s “relevance” was to be a member of the ruling communist party. Outside of that supra-religious institution no substantial share in the social wealth was possible. “[T]he life-process of society,” as Marx observes in what turned out to be a weird prediction, “which is based on the process of material production, does not strip off its mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely associated men, and is consciously regulated by them in accordance with a settled plan.”

The constitution that enshrined this religion in law and etched it in the consciousness of Yugoslavs did not survive the county’s horrific civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2001, resulting in the deaths of 150,000 and the displacement of 4,000,000 people; in all, more than one sixth of its total population. And yet remarkably its “religion” survived, despite the fact that today it’s the “freely associated men” — or the freemasonic cabals that rule over the remnants of Yugoslavia like buzzards circling a herd of listless cattle — whose mystical veil is in urgent need of being torn to shreds.

Imagine if Marx had been a theater producer. That was surely far more his style. He certainly knew how to flatter egos, as he did when Ferdinand Lassalle asked him to appraise the manuscript of his dud of a play Franz von Sickingen. “I must applaud both composition and action,” Marx lied, “and that’s more than one can say of any other modern German play.” It might have been his true vocation, putting on dramas and musical comedies at London’s Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, the street where the German Workers Educational Society held its meetings, and where its members could partake of recreational activities, from poetry to fencing. I wonder if Marx ever lamented during those irreproachable sessions the fact that all the world’s a stage, and that he was overseeing the wrong one.

I can’t resist citing that hilarious Mel Brooks film The Producers, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, in which a washed-up theater producer’s accountant persuades his client to deliberately stage a Broadway flop in order to avoid a hefty tax bill. When Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden becomes an unexpected and inexplicable hit, Mostel’s livid reaction is worthy of Marx himself (Karl, not Groucho) for its topsy-turvy contrariety: “I was so careful,” bemoans the producer. “I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast — where did I go right?”

Is it too outlandish to speculate that in Marx’s case the critique of political economy had been the stand-in for a juvenile passion? Poetry was Marx’s Thing (das Ding an sich), the Real that a combination of his father’s bitter chastisement and his encounter with Hegel’s “craggy melody” managed to cure him of during his Berlin student days. The prospect of earning a living to provide for his future wife, the Baron von Westphalen’s daughter, no doubt helped to tear the veil of his metaphysical illusions. Like a restless artist, Marx’s lifelong fanaticism might thus be read as a nostalgic yearning for an irreplaceable fetish-object, “the sensibly super-sensible” (sinnlich übersinnlich) as he calls it in Capital. Nothing could ever compete with art, no amount of critical veil-tearing could ever substitute for Marx’s love of lyrical poetry. And so he took the only career path left open to him. He became a producer instead; an impresario in the art of critique.

We are living in a culture that sees tragedy everywhere: that fetishizes it. It’s something of a neurotic obsession. In mid-19th-century England, around 60,000 people, including many children, would die each year of tuberculosis. When Charles Darwin’s daughter Annie died of the disease in 1851 he wrote in his diary: “We have lost the joy of the household, and the solace of our old age. […] Oh that she could now know how deeply, how tenderly we do still & and shall ever love her dear joyous face.” Another child, Mary, died in early infancy. But people don’t refer to Darwin’s life as tragic.

High birth rates were normal for Victorian families irrespective of class. Marx’s wife Jenny gave birth to seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood; the Darwins had 10. There is nothing tragic about this high mortality rate. Indeed, Darwin accounts for it himself in On the Origin of Species, noting that the number of individuals of a given species is governed by natural selection, which determines how each individual’s inherited characteristics aid and abet it in the “struggle for existence.” Only a culture profoundly anesthetised to the causes of human suffering would dare mention tragedy in relation to infant mortality, given that it’s derived from the Greek word for “goat” (tragos), whose blood sacrifice would have been lamented in song at the Theatre of Dionysus in fifth-century Athens. For all their apparent lunacy the producers were clearly carrying on a long tradition.

Although Marx’s favorite poet was the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, his was certainly not a tragic life, at least according to the historical definition of tragedy handed down to us from Aristotle. It was sad. And of course it was defined by struggle. But it was not tragic, since the mere fact of being born, becoming ill, then dying, sooner or later, is a biological fact. In order to be a tragic figure the deaths in question would need to be attributable to an act of hubris on the protagonist’s part. But there is no evidence to suggest Marx committed any such act in the case of any of his four deceased children.

It was arguably Charles Dickens — like Darwin, Marx’s contemporary — who was largely responsible for this perversion of the idea of the tragic or sacrificial death, which he memorialized through his depictions of children and their poor unfortunate souls, to such an extent that the plight of almost any Victorian child is today thought of as “tragic.” But this Dickensian propensity for melodrama is more worthy of a satyr play. As Oscar Wilde put it: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”

To be honest, one knows why Marx is so often portrayed as a tragic hero. It is to humanize him, thus attenuating any controversial aspect of his thought. By depicting Marx as a “19th-century life,” to borrow the title of Jonathan Sperber’s wholly unconvincing biography, one relativizes the man and his ideas. One quarantines it, much like the dangerous animals one locks inside cages at the zoo, so much the better to prod and gawp at the exotic creatures, in clear ignorance of the social context that facilitates such saccharine objectification.

Marx is not a tragic specimen, and I for one am not prepared to let him off the hook so easily. To say that his was a 19th-century life is to forget that his name and ideas only entered into common currency in the 20th. If the specter of communism makes any sense today then it’s because the thing itself was barely stirring when Marx and Engels prophesized it in 1848. It would be another hundred years before Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and their supporting cast succeeded in turning one third of the global population red.

But! his devoted fans insist, Marx cannot be blamed for the crimes carried out by the inheritors of his political legacy! Which is like saying that the makers of gunpowder cannot be blamed for its misuse. That is perfectly true — assuming we can agree on what might constitute “misuse.” Gunpowder isn’t intended for washing the dishes. It’s made for the express purpose of blowing things up.

Let us remind ourselves that Marx was the inventor of historical materialism. And this “science of history” advances the following basic principle: “men” make history in unforeseen circumstances. History takes us for a ride. We are all subject to its petulant whims; slave to its organic rhythms (something akin to being battered by a wave and thrown head over heels — you might say one “adapts” to the experience). Those fortunate enough to gain a foothold on the train of history must hang on as best they can. But ultimately the “natural laws of capitalist production” work with “iron necessity toward inevitable results,” meaning woe betide anyone stupid enough to get in the way, for they shall be steamrolled. Like the Slavs who Marx describes as being “incapable of progress and civilization,” and Engels as “residual fragments of peoples” whose “whole existence in general is itself a protest against a great historical revolution.” Despite being “destined to perish before long in the revolutionary world storm” the Slavs might at least take heart from knowing that their brute existence served some purpose in the long march toward civilization. But then Marxists have been feeding the same message to the Slavs for the last century and a half.

I have a suggestion to make. Given the un-tragic wrongness of Marx’s thought, why not make a case for the great man’s contemporary irrelevance? After all, is there today anything more incongruous, perverse, and patently absurd than the call by self-styled communist philosophers like Slavoj Žižek for a Marxist-communist renaissance or “idea of communism,” which looks suspiciously like the idealism or “German ideology” that Marx spent his youth meticulously taking to pieces?

Experience shows that there are two sides to every contradiction. And one would be stupendously naïve to think that anti-Marxism hasn’t for some years now been an article of faith as robust as the genuine article. “I am not a Marxist,” Marx was alleged to have told his son-in-law Paul Lafargue, when the latter brought news from Paris of French “Marxists.” But there is no reason to believe him. Marx was no less vain and insecure in respect of his own intellectual legacy than most of his rivals and opponents, which explains why so many of the letters people sent him went missing, no doubt destroyed by their correspondent. It is difficult to believe that Marx would have been indifferent to the propagation of his own mythology, and to claim that he wasn’t a Marxist is about as convincing and self-critical as Groucho Marx’s hilarious assertion that he wouldn’t wish to join any club that would have him as a member.

Not quite an irrelevant legacy, then. But without doubt patently absurd. Whenever I watch The Producers I can’t help thinking of Marx, and like Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom I wonder to myself how he could possibly have gone right.

Ana Stankovic graduated with a master’s degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts Belgrade in 2013. She is a practicing painter whose work has been exhibited in Serbia and Switzerland. She is currently undertaking research at Kyung Hee University in the Department of British and American Language and Culture.

The post I Am Not a Marxist appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://ift.tt/2GzCoxg

#Los Angeles Review of Books #topmixtrends

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clubofinfo · 7 years

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Expert: The attack outside and inside London’s Westminster Parliament just before 4 pm local time on Wednesday 22nd March resulted in five deaths, including the assailant and forty injured. The confirmed British-born attacker, Adrian Elms – but with a number of alias’ including the much quoted Khalid Masood – drove a grey Hyundai SUV over Westminster Bridge, which spans the River Thames as it flows past Parliament, mounting the pavement and mowing down pedestrians crossing the great span, with it’s panoramic city views. Some forty people were injured, twenty nine treated in hospital, with seven initially in a critical condition. Speaking in Parliament the next morning Prime Minister Theresa May listed the injured including twelve Britons, three of whom were police officers returning from an Award ceremony, three French children, two Romanians, four South Koreans, one Pole, one Irish, one Chinese, one Italian, an American and two Greeks. Killed was American Kurt Cochran who ran a recording studio from his home in Utah who, with his wife, Melissa, had been touring Germany, Scotland and Ireland before arriving in London to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. It was the last day of their visit. Melissa was seriously injured. Also killed was Aysha Frade, originally from the municipality of Betanzos, Spain, an administrator and Spanish teacher at a nearby College, on her way to collect her daughters, aged eight and eleven, from school. Seventy five year old Londoner, Leslie Rhodes also died from his injuries the following night. The car turned left at the end of the bridge, driving outside the Parliament building, crashing in to the wrought iron railings. The driver then ran through gates in to the New Palace Yard entrance, just below Big Ben, reportedly armed with two knives, fatally wounding unarmed Parliamentary Protection Officer and former soldier, PC Keith Palmer who attempted to stop him. An act of courage and compassion came from MP Tobias Ellwood, Minister for Middle East and Africa, who gave CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to PC Palmer, in spite of the chaos breaking out after the attacker was shot, ignoring possible threat to his own safety. Ellwood’s attempts failed and his bent body as he looked down at Keith Palmer, his mouth and face smeared with Palmer’s blood as the cuffs of his formerly immaculate shirt and suit are both a haunting image of grief and a tribute to one who gave no thought but to trying to save a familiar face. There was courage from countless police, paramedics, doctors and nurses who rushed unhesitatingly towards potential danger with emergency equipment from the nearby hospital to help the injured. Ellwood himself is no stranger to violent tragedy having lost his brother Jonathan in the 2002 Bali bombing. He wrote a searing account of dealing with the seemingly endless official bureaucratic “red tape” involved in both countries in trying to bring his brother’s body home whilst stricken with grief. “I actually ended up nailing the lid of the coffin down myself,” he said. “That can’t be right.” Not everyone showed the courage of Mr. Ellwood and others. As Parliament went in to total lockdown with MPs and all staff trapped inside for hours, The Guardian reported: Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was rushed into a car 40 yards from the gates outside Parliament where shots were fired minutes after the incident occurred, according to footage filmed by a member of staff. She was ushered by at least eight armed undercover police, some with their firearms drawn, into a waiting black vehicle in Speaker’s Court, the footage seen by The Guardian shows. Loud bangs can be heard in the background as she is ushered into the car, but it is unclear whether the bangs were gunshots. Safely back in her official residence, behind Downing Street’s fortified walls and soaring iron gates, guarded by colleagues of PC Palmer, she paid tribute to the emergency services: “ … these exceptional men and women ran towards the danger even as they encouraged others to move the other way.” She talked of terrorists targeting Parliament because they hated the “values our Parliament represents – democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law” and the “spirit of (it’s engendered) freedom that echoes in some of the furthest corners of the globe.” It has to be wondered whether those still under bombardment from the UK or its ally the US, in Afghanistan after sixteen years, Iraq after fourteen years, in Libya, Syria, Yemen; Palestinians remembering the decimation the Balfour Declaration has wrought on them for generations – when May had declared that in this, its centenary year, it is to be remembered in special UK “celebrations” – share quite such a starry eyed view of the “values”, “human rights” and “freedoms” etc., emanating from ”the Mother of Parliaments.” She concluded: Any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure. Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal. We will come together as normal. And Londoners – and others from around the world who have come here to visit this great City – will get up and go about their day as normal. They will board their trains, they will leave their hotels, they will walk these streets, they will live their lives. And we will all move forward together. Never giving in to terror. Breathtaking stuff from the woman who gave in instantly, running away, protected by eight armed guards, in a bullet proof limo, rather than remaining in solidarity with her colleagues and the extensive staff who were in lockdown, not knowing whether further unhinged potential assassins were prowling Parliament. No doubt if challenged she would say that such an emergency demanded she convened the COBRA group – another silly acronym which refers to the crisis response committee that meets in instances of national or regional crisis. However, there are plenty of telephones in Parliament and an on line conference is not exactly rocket science. The following morning she told MPs: Yesterday an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy, but today we meet as normal, as generations have done before us and as future generations will continue to do, to deliver a simple message: ‘We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism’. Her “resolve” it seems not so much “never wavered”. It collapsed in a pile of dust. What a contrast to President Bashar al Assad and his wife, who with their children, have never fled in terrorist attacks on their country ongoing since March 2011, terrorist attacks which include entirely illegal, massive bombings by UK and US air power. See, for example, for just one month’s UK decimation from the UK government’s very own horse’s mouth. A week before the Westminster attack a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Syrian capitol, Damascus, Palace of Justice killing reportedly thirty nine people. President al-Assad and his wife stayed put in their residence in the city. Their “resolve” has absolutely “never wavered in the face of terrorism”, indeed “never giving in to terror”, plotted from inside the US Embassy in Damascus in 2006 and in Washington well before. He has been called by the US, UK and their allies a tyrant, a despot and a war criminal. The Western backed “moderate” head choppers are now a mere several kilometres distance from Damascus, still the first family remain. “I was born in Syria and I will die in Syria”, the President has stated. Given that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi also refused to abandon their people in the face of Western onslaughts and remembering their terrible fates, whatever observers varying views, it is undeniable Assad shows a particular kind of towering courage seemingly rare in the West. George W. Bush, of course, on 9/11, although already over 1,000 miles away in Florida, was rushed to a top-secret military bunker in Louisiana. Not alone the standards but the language differs in the West. Attacks in Paris, Brussels, Nice, London, are undoubtedly “terrorism.” In Syria attacks of enormity are declared “a rebel offensive” usually quotes provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is allegedly funded by the EU and another government, thought to be the UK. The founder, Rami Abdulrahman, with a couple of other aliases “… has direct access to former (UK) Foreign Minister William Hague, who he has been documented meeting in person on multiple occasions at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and shares (Abdulrahman’s) enthusiasm for removing Assad from power.” The reaction to an attack in the West also differs. The UK Prime Minister’s office received condolences from Heads of State across the globe. The lights of the Eiffel Tower were shut off at midnight, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate was lit, in marks of sympathy. President Putin also conveyed his condolences, in spite of the street level insults he has received from the British parliamentary establishment. The UN Security Council observed a minute’s silence in respect of a tragic, horrific incident, but nevertheless one which would be an unusually quiet day in any of the countries the UK is enjoining in occupying, bombing or has invaded. A friend also commented succinctly: ‘If “terrorists will not succeed” in the UK and other Western countries, why should the West expect the Syrian government and its allies to allow the Western, GCC, Israeli-backed terrorists, to succeed in Syria and seize control of the country after six years of global terror?’ Terrorists from up to ninety countries gaining access via the borders left open by the occupiers of Iraq from the time of the 2003 invasion and via NATO ally Turkey’s borders and blind eyes. Coincidentally, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said on the morning of the Westminster attack, after a series of verbal spats with European countries, that: “If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. Europe will be damaged by this.” A few hours later he stated that: “Turkey feels and shares deeply in the United Kingdom’s pain” and that it stood in “solidarity” with Britain “in the fight against terrorism.” If “a week is a long time in politics”, so, clearly, is six hours. In Iraq in just two “catastrophic” “liberation” assaults on Mosul’s ancient, beautiful city, US “coalition” bombings killed up to three hundred and fifty souls, wiping out entire families in the week before London’s one man attack: “Journalists saw children and a pregnant woman among at least 50 bodies recovered from the rubble, with limbs and shoes protruding from destroyed houses.” No condolences from world leaders, no Eiffel Tower or Brandenburg Gate markings for them. A spokesman for the US led Mosul slaughter: Operation Inherent Resolve”, responded with: “The coalition respects human life, which is why we are assisting our Iraqi partner forces in their effort to liberate their lands from ISIS brutality. He has clearly forgotten what the US has demonstrated in Iraq – with a brief break – fourteen years of their “respect for human life” – and the comment from a bewildered senior US military man to Major General Antonio Taguba during his investigation into the horrors, torture and death inflicted by US forces at Abu Ghraib: “But they were only Iraqis.” Another friend provided me unwittingly with the conclusion for this inadequate piece on towering double standards. Thank you: Do we not all bleed the same? 8/3 Kabul, Afghanistan – 49 dead. Silence 9/3 Tikrit, Iraq – 30 dead. Silence 11/3 Damascus, Syria – 74 dead. Silence 15/3 Damascus, Syria – 40 dead. Silence 16/3 Al-Jineh, Syria – 46 dead. Silence 21/3 Raqqa, Syria – 33 dead. Silence 21/3 Westminster, London – 5 dead. 22/3 Mosul, Iraq – 240 dead. Silence They say we are all born equal. But only the (Western deemed) “worthy” die as humans. The others are simply forgotten. UK residents have responded with generosity to funds for Westminster’s injured and grieving families with large sums being raised including £500,000 for the family of PC Palmer. Muddassar Ahmed set up the Muslims United for London page after witnessing the attack from Parliament’s Portcullis House: “I happened to be trapped inside the building yesterday, and saw the carnage …” His appeal raised £3,000 in the first hour. Last weekend hundreds of Muslim women joined hands along Westminster Bridge in memory and solidarity – as the UK continues to bomb or threaten many of their countries. Their gesture should both humble and shame. And since the perpetrator of the London attack is dead, it will likely never be known whether it was a coincidence that the attack was on the first anniversary of three suicide bombers killing thirty-two people and injuring three hundred and sixteen in Brussels on 22nd March 2016. In another coincidence, on 19th March, armed anti-terror police carried out “a terrifyingly realistic” boat drill a little further down the Thames: A sightseeing vessel became the scene of a fierce mock-gun battle between armed officers and police volunteers posing as terrorists shortly after 11am on Sunday … At least one “body”, played by a police volunteer, was cast overboard, and officers were deployed in an effort to assess the effectiveness of rescue operation tactics in life-like conditions.’ The multi-agency operation was carried out between the Met, the Port of London Authority, London Coastguard, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade. Police stressed that there was no specific threat but with London on high alert for two years: “I do hope there is a deterrent effect in this when they see how effective our people are.” After last Wednesday’s attack Romanian architect Andreea Cristea was pulled from the Thames, alive but badly injured. It is uncertain whether she jumped to escape the car or fell off in the chaos. On the day of the 7th July 2005 London tube and bus bombings, Visor Security were running a live exercise outside every tube station affected. Managing Director Peter Power told the BBC: At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now. Tragic fact really can truly be stranger than fiction. http://clubof.info/

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