#finally a new one!!! first one post defending my thesis

[liskantope]

Back in late 2020 I made a post which mentioned as a side comment the impression I get from a lot of the more aggressive SJ people that writing/saying a lot (e.g. writing long, nuanced, qualifying, and/or perhaps defensive-sounding responses) is seen as evidence in and of itself of being wrong in the argument, specifically the type of wrong that comes from a position of privilege (I thought a little later I wrote a short post focusing only on this, but I can't seem to find it now). The example in the above-linked post is in the strangely-proportioned screenshot, where someone who is being attacked for not bowing down to the Correct political opinions keeps responding with lengthy, articulate, nuanced comments (which include some acknowledgment of her own weaknesses) and is met only more vehement attacks declaring checkmate explicitly on the grounds that her comments are long. The end of the exchange happens when she leaves a comment raising her eyebrows at being attacked for long-windedness, and the entirety of the response is "...you and your privilege". It's a finale that's stuck with me.

I was reminded of this today when an unexpected spurt of activity showed up on my Tumblr: an activist with whom I got into a contentious exchange well over two years ago for some reason chose now to abruptly reblog a several of my lengthy responses with pithy remarks (okay, plus one which includes a link to her own independent blog post about it which I don't think I'd seen before), and a minor flurry of likes and replies followed. I don't care to reblog any of this now, or even link to it, because my getting into that debate is something I'm really not proud of: the topic is not a hill I want to die on, and I dislike my awkward defensiveness and repeated apologies and semi-retractions. If I'm going to spend time and energy arguing something really controversial, I would rather it be a discussion where I can be really incisive and not catch myself arguing carelessly and sloppily and feel the repeated need to step back and clutter everything with caveats and apologies. But, if you are curious, I was defending a YouTuber I respect from being cancelled for being Problematic, and this exchange happened in spring of 2021.

The one new bit of substantive information for me coming from today's activity is the link to a separate blog post written at the time, which further confirms that there's no point in me continuing to defend that YouTuber to this activist: apparently among the list of things that makes this YouTuber's case worse and confirms their guilt are (1) publishing an earlier video which made all of the exact right points but which (surprise, surprise) got noticed by more people than a written article by a lower-profile person from the Relevant Marginalized Group making essentially the same points, (2) acknowledging that the Relevant Social Justice Cause is a good one and including a link to a fundraiser, and (3) momentarily sighing with a slight look of exasperation when first bringing up the accusation of being Problematic in a video. (Sorry I'm continuing to be vague here.)

Continuing to argue with this activist would be a waste of time, since our rhetorical values and norms are clearly too far apart for us ever to reach each other. Looking at it makes me grateful to have found a part of Tumblr that does share my basic notions of how discussions should work.

But what strikes me most of all is how my lengthiness itself is somehow treated as evidence of my guilt or wrongness or privilege or something. One of my lengthy reblogs got met today with a single sentence mocking it as a "dissertation" and managing to weirdly characterize my thesis without explanation, while another later one got met with "Have you considered just.... never talking again? Because you are not good at it." Again, these little zingers were fired off probably within a few minutes earlier today, in response to things I wrote back in spring of 2021.

That's the exact same kind of back-of-the-hand dismissal that I mentioned above having witnessed done to someone else (with the "...you and your privilege" comment). It reads like "This person talks too much, that's how you know they're in the wrong, so no need to address any of their points, if I smack them with a one-sentence response saying 'Haha that just further confirms you're wrong!' then I win."

And it's like, usually I consider my ability at cognitive empathy to be quite good, but it's hard for me to figure out what the other party is actually thinking in a situation like this: I can sort of get my head around not respecting nuance in certain selective situations and thinking the ability to feel nuance is a sign of privilege or something, but I can't quite figure out how they justify these one-sentence blanket dismissals on the grounds that the other person's comments are too long without imagining that they must be aware on some level that they're just being domineering-in-an-internet-way and deliberately going for a cheap and empty slam-dunk. This isn't very charitable, but honestly I have a hard time understanding such people's motives any other way.

#vagueposting #discourse #social justice

[spooky-chainsaw-princess]

we love flirting mixed with teasing in this house.. although I am not good at it ʕ⁠´⁠•⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠•̥⁠`⁠ʔ.. I try to be mean or bratty but fold immediately when a pretty girl looks at me... i do love being with brats tho.., all the love in my heart for themʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔ🖤

ma'am I promise I know a lot of random stuff,, not sure how much of it will be at my disposal if you're biting me,, my only weakness..

oooo yes please tell me more, I would love to hear it.. that sounds very interesting. what is your BA in? (BA is an arts degree yea?)

also I have seen that music is big for you and Ive listened to some of the songs youve posted.,, if you're looking for new bands or songs I will recommend the band Rare Americans :), any of their songs really... a specific song I recommend is "I'm so bummed out right now" by bealby point🖤 that one is similar to from the start by good kid that you posted.

(fun fact: Nebraska is the only state abbreviation that has changed, in 1969, it was changed from NB to NE by request of the Canadian post office to have less confusion between New Brunswick CA and Nebraska)

-🍃

Awww it’s honestly so sweet!!

I don’t like being mean while flirting. I love playful banter and getting to know the person well enough to know how to mess with their head in a sweet and playful way.

All I can think now is cuddling, play fighting, biting and you getting so flustered 🥺

I’m so glad to hear! A lot of doms on here keep on talking on how to break a brat or tame them, but I just wish they loved it. Being playful and teasing is a part of who I am, I wouldn’t want someone to take that part of me away.

And as a bratty dom I love playing, getting my sub flustered, doing all the things they’re too shy to admit they want ☺️

Can I bite? I wanna bite. Bite :3

Hahaha of course! My first degree is in Tech marketing, focusing on startup business. My final project was on my own idea for a startup! I had the absolute pleasure of defending it in front of a panel of judges just like in the sharks! It was so fun.

My second degree (that’s what I’m working on currently) is in business management, focusing on marketing and consulting. Im supposed to start my research for my thesis this semester and I’m so excited! It’s about how society is treating women in leading roles.

I might be a whore but a smart one for sure :3

Sorry for rambling, I’m very passionate about this. So I’m not sorry at all 🤭

#666.? #🍃

[imnotgoinganywhereok]

I passed my exam, yall!! I successfully defended my thesis so I’m officially an MA now!! I’ll be honest, at first it didn’t feel real as if my adventure with uni wasn’t over. It got to me after two days, though. I’m finally free!! It feels absolutely great and I love it, I’m so happy I got to do it now and not in September. I can’t even imagine waiting this long - for no real reason, too!

Ahh, it feels so good to finally play some Sims 4 and pick up where I left off! I left the save when Wren just moved out to her new house. It’s Autumn at the moment - Halloween at that - so we have a second “festive” post focusing on the cemetary (after the first one). Seems like celebrities can’t catch a break even after death (>ヮ<) I really love how the place turned out, especially since I had a chance to actually furnish it. As in: all the graves from the deceased Owl family members are here, the more important family additions are there too (Behr sisters etc.), the diplomas of Owls who graduated from universities are on display. It feels more personal this way! If you like it, you can download it here.

I suppose I have no more groundbreaking info for now. Wren started dating the boy from this post, she bought some chickens and runs a nice little garden because I finally could utilise the Simple Living lot trait! I played for around two days straight so I have some nice screenshots ready for the next time. Will I keep this posts-on-Moday format? Who knows! First and foremost, I want to have fun. Be safe, everyone! See you all next time ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

#the sims 4 #get together #graveyard #cemetery #gallery #octavia moon

[englishchinesetranslations]

Hello, Endeavour here. I first remember hearing the phrase “woke capital” being used on the internet by the dissident right in late 2018. The great (once banned, now unbanned) Twitter account under that handle was created in May of 2018. I don’t know if it was this user who coined the phrase, but it has become one of the most potent weapons in the dissident right’s memetic arsenal.

The “woke” as they have become known, present themselves as the defenders of the oppressed and downtrodden racial and sexual victim groups of society against the alleged, straight, white, and male power structure, championing causes like racial egalitarianism, feminism, and LGBT rights. This façade of victimhood and rebellion quickly fades away when exposed to the fact that billions upon billions of dollars are put into pushing these causes by the likes of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs each year and that the entire international media is dedicated to upholding the narratives they are founded upon.

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When viewed in this light, “wokeism” appears, not as a righteous crusade for social justice, but as top-down, social engineering being forced upon Western society by the elite class, which is exactly what it is. There is no better indication of this reality than the now annual tradition of corporations replacing their logos with LGBT rainbow themed versions on social media in the month of June each year.

I first considered making a video on the phenomenon of woke capital in June 2019 to coincide with that year’s over-the-top and ridiculous offerings corporations devote to LGBT Pride Month, but I never got around to it for some reason. I finally decided the time was right when this phenomenon of woke capital reached its zenith (at least so far) in the summer of 2020, after the death of the drug addict and convicted felon, now elevated to progressive sainthood, George Floyd.

I published what is to date my most popular video by far titled ‘The Base and Superstructure of Woke Capitalism’ on July 9th, 2020 after a month of the BLM riots raging across the United States, spilling over into the rest of the Western world. The most shocking thing about those few months in 2020 was not the widespread lawlessness, but the degree to which all institutions in the Western world not only enabled but encouraged it.

The United States experienced the most flagrant violations of rule of law ever seen in a Western country during the summer of Floyd. Rioters destroyed property and assaulted ordinary citizens while law enforcement either stood by doing nothing or in some cases, arrested victims for defending themselves. It was the truest and most extreme form of anarcho-tyranny I’ve ever seen.

What’s more is that every single major corporation responded to this calamity by donating millions or in some cases billions of dollars towards BLM and the so-called cause of “anti-racism”. This is the context in which I made what would become my most viewed video. In it, I tried to explain, why is it that corporations so relentlessly support woke politics. The conclusion that I came to in that video was that they wanted to create a soulless, deracinated, global consumer class whose entire being would be devoted to consumption. The assumption I was operating under was that the goal of corporations is to make money. Therefore, they must be pushing wokeism as a means of increasing their potential to make money.

Looking back three years later, I no longer think this is the case. Instead, I think there’s something else behind the phenomenon of woke capital which is even darker. To give even more context for why I though this at the time, but no longer do, I need to address the even bigger international news story which preceded the summer of Floyd and long outlasted it; COVID. By that point, the COVID era had begun a few months prior, but we really didn’t get a full understanding of the true implications of COVID until a year later during the unprecedented madness surrounding the vaccine.

I’m not going to rehash the whole two years of COVID. For the purposes of this essay, I will say that COVID and the other rabbit holes which it led me down brought me to the conclusion that profit is not the main driving force behind woke capital as I theorized in my video on the subject in 2020.

First of all, the one thing which COVID showed us was that the elites don’t actually care about the economy at all. They were all too enthusiastic to devastate the economy even after it was clear to all that the COVID restrictions were doing far more harm than good. Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that for many, there was a huge financial incentive for advancing the COVID tyranny, namely among the pharmaceutical companies and corporations which thrive off the further atomization of society such as big tech, online shopping, etc.

However, COVID was in effect a wealth transfer as it made the vast majority of people a lot poorer and resulted in the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It didn’t grow the economy, but rather it transferred huge sums of money from the bottom and the middle to the top. Most people have a lot of less an ability to spend on consumer products than they did back in 2019. So, furthering consumerism was not the goal of everything that was done from 2020 to 2022. What really was achieved during that period is in line with what I now consider to be the real driving force behind woke capital.

Moving on from COVID, the past three years have made me a lot more conscious of the climate change and sustainable development agenda. The phrases “The Great Reset” and “Build Back Better” were first heard in 2020 during COVID. They fell out of use a year or two later when they were no longer useful to the regime’s messaging, but what they were essentially referring to is Agenda 2030 or the UN Sustainable Development Goals for which wokeism is baked into the cake along with the environmental policies.Another force I only became conscious of in the past few years which is intertwined with all this is the Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance rating system or ESG. This is essentially a social credit system which rates corporations to determine which are worthy of investment or not. The social criteria for ESG are essentially how woke a corporation is. The more woke they are, the higher their rating. The environmental criteria are mostly related to the climate agenda and how devoted they are to achieving the lauded goal of net-zero carbon emissions.

ESG has existed since 2006, but it became a lot more prominent when BlackRock announced in 2020 that ESG would be taken into consideration for all of their future investments. There is a large overlap between ESG and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and an effort is being made to bring the two fully inline. So, there is a clear link between the driving forces behind the climate agenda and the woke agenda. And this is reflected by the establishment stooges who promote both of these. Take Justin Trudeau for example. As often as he is sure to denounce Canada’s history of racism, sexism, and homophobia, he is just as sure to proclaim his government’s devotion to fighting climate change.

I’ve been acutely aware of anti-white policies such as mass immigration, affirmative action, etc. for almost a decade now, but I largely ignored the environmental policies being advocated by the same individuals and institutions, seeing them as a lot less relevant to the very real threats the aforementioned policies posed. It’s only within the last two or three years that I’ve started to consider the latter of equal importance and the two as inseparable.

As I now see the two agendas as inextricably linked, I’ve come to the conclusion that profit and consumerism are most certainly not the motivation behind woke capital. If there is one thing the climate agenda is definitely not designed to do, it is to facilitate consumerism. On the contrary, it appears that the purpose is to put an end to the consumer society neoliberal capitalism has created. The policies being proposed will kneecap massive industries such as the agricultural industry, the tourism industry, the automotive industry, and more.

And then there’s the ludicrous and dystopian prospect of the introduction of a carbon credit score (which I made a recent video about). Such a system would severely limit the average person’s ability to consume and reduce their incentive to produce given that it could also act as a kind of UBI. This would all be a radical departure from the neoliberal capitalism of the past few decades. So, where does wokeism fit into all of this if the two are so deeply connected? And if profit isn’t the goal, then what really is?

It is now my opinion that the phenomenon of woke capital and its symbiotic relationship with the sustainable development agenda are primarily motivated by control. Ultimately, wokeism is creating a more dysfunctional society. It is facilitating the importation of a class of people accustomed to a lower standard of living into Western countries via mass immigration, deracinating and atomizing the population through multiculturalism, destroying the family unit through feminism and the LGBT agenda, and reducing competency via affirmative action.

In short, it is creating a new people who won’t be able to do anything about the drastic fall in quality of life in the West or the tyrannical system of control the elites have in mind. The easiest person to control is someone with no agency of their own. Someone who is sick, incompetent, lazy, and without an ounce of will. Not only would such a person not resist the system, they would defend it to the end as it is their sole source of both status and sustenance. That is the kind of person being created by woke capital.

If nothing else, the last three years have taught me that elites are not primarily motivated by money, but by power. By definition, someone in the elite is wealthy. They already can afford any material goods they would ever want. When you become that wealthy, what becomes a lot more valuable to you is not further profit but expanding your own power and influence. And that does a lot to explain the phenomenon of wokeism throughout every elite Western institution.

I do not subscribe to the theory of “Go woke, go broke.” Every Fortune 500 company has gone woke at this point and none of them have gone broke as a result. However, going woke certainly doesn’t make these companies more profitable. They do lose money as a result (though never enough to go broke), but they gain power by furthering the broader degradation of a healthy society which they are more than happy to spend the extra money on.

This is perfectly exemplified by ESG. This year, there has been a backlash against ESG in the corporate world for the simple fact that ESG is not profitable. One reason for this is that it rewards companies for hiring people based on their identity (not being White, straight, or male) rather than their actual merit. Another is that it forces companies to reduce their net carbon output which means spending extra money on buying carbon credits from smaller companies.

While it is presented a guide to ethical investing, the real function of ESG is that it funnels investment to a small number of large corporations who have the excess capital to spend on being ESG sufficient and denies funding to smaller firms who simply cannot afford to be so wasteful. This doesn’t necessarily make larger corporation more profitable, but a lot more powerful by crushing opposition.

Now, in my original video and so far in this essay, I’ve framed woke capital as a purely Machiavellian force for attaining more power. I’ve thus far failed to address another major driving force behind Woke Capital. That is genuine belief among the elite in the causes which they profess to support. While I don’t think this is the case for every billionaire out there, there are a sizeable number who genuinely believe that wokeism is making the world a better place. The cause for them is not simply about power, but also about achieving some kind of ideological ends. And they are in many cases willing to put their deeply held principles above both profitability and practicality.

A prominent example of this is ethnic identity among elites of Jewish ancestry. The role which Jews have played in the movements which would later come to be known as “woke” throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century has been well documented on the dissident right. Jewish support for mass non-white immigration into Western countries, multiculturalism, feminism, the LGBT movement, etc. has often been motivated by a desire to dismantle White rule of Western countries which they see as in conflict with Jewish interests.

Among White gentile elites, support for woke causes is often motivated by a universalist, egalitarian worldview. For them, Wokeism is a moral crusade against the ultimate evils of racism, sexism, and homophobia. I suppose you could add climate change to that list as well. While this worldview was primarily developed by Jewish intellectuals during the 20th century with their own ethnic interests in mind, it has been hegemonic throughout cultural and intellectual life in the West for decades now.

The entire current ruling class of elites in the West has been raised and educated in it. As a result, many White elites have internalized this worldview (minus the Jewish particularism) and genuinely believe it is a noble cause. Lastly, there is the newer, but rising phenomenon of non-White elites in the West, primarily from South and South-East Asia. Much like with Jews, woke politics often serve their own ethnic interests too, though in a much more upfront and less deceptive manner.

Whether deeply held principles or a Machiavellian pursuit of power is the main driving force behind woke capital is up for debate. Personally, I think the two feed off each other. One can start from a point of sincerely held beliefs and justify their actions through ruthless Machiavellianism or they can start off as a power-hungry opportunist who eventually begins to believe their own lies. But either way, I do not think that their goal is the furtherance of the consumer society which we’ve become accustomed to over the past several decades.

Instead, the current trends suggest that their goal is to replace it with something else. I’d even dispute the title of my original video which I called “woke capitalism”. Now, the word “capitalism” has lost all meaning over the past century. It’s gotten to the point where self-proclaimed anarchists are the foot soldiers of BlackRock while claiming to be fighting capitalism. However, if we take it to mean neoliberal consumerism, wokeism is certainly not designed to maintain that.

As we can see in East Asia, neoliberal consumerism can still exist within a homogenous society without importing the third world or demonizing the dominant ethnic group. While nihilism and materialism are prerequisites, the full-scale cultural of wokeism iconoclasm isn’t. When you zoom out and look at the broader narratives behind wokeism in combination with the climate agenda on a global scale, it appears that the goal is to impoverish the West in order to bring down to the level of the rest of the world.

Present-Day San Francisco

The cash cow of neoliberal capitalism might end, but those at the top are already so wealthy that they aren’t motivated by further profit, but by the potential for absolute and permanent control on a global scale. If what they are planning actually works, that is. But that’s a topic for another day.

[nempthis]

Problems/painful feelings that I encountered this year and managed to get away with:

Painful feeling:

Got my feelings hurt because SOMEONE who used to be important to me told me that I was annoying and weird. Also felt heavily insecure when this person point out my insecurities and this person's thoughts about me.

Quite nice ending:

I met this person and we actually had a friendly talk to top the spiraling issues for the past months. This person was the one who's more determined to see me when I was actually having second thoughts. This phenomenon is new so I guess we're all good.

The problem:

I did the thing that I was so scared to do in my life and by that I mean... It's just between me and myself. No way I'll reveal on the internet. Well, I spent a lot of time thinking about this thing for the past 4 years that actually gave me anxiety and all the negative feels then one night I actually did it. After that, as expected I got crazy thinking about the consequences and I waited days to confirm whether my theories were rights. Those excruciating days while waiting... But this time I was guilty that I actually took part on it.

Resolution:

Fate spared me for it. Turned out my theories were wrong and that was a good thing. What a breathe of fresh air when I managed to survive it tho. At least I tried, I tested my fear and I got away with it.

Pain in the ass:

Thesis with my groupmates got me feeling like I was dying inside out. I was avoiding to cause drama between my and that one other groupmate but what's a thesis without an argument with one of the members right? So yeah the pressure is on, conflicts between me and this member, mental torture off the roof and of course, the cherry on top which caused me bankrupt, I was the sole finanicer from start to finish because my contribution wasn't enough.

The reward:

After all that, we managed to defend our thesis and we also got the title of being the best thesis defense in our department with the highest score in thesis defense and art of thesis research itself. Conflict between me and that member was resolved and we're back to being friends again.

The issue:

Tenants in our compound kept complaining about my cats but I am not ready to give them up. I just feel sensitive whenever someone tries to break me and my cats apart. I am not the type who causes trouble every now and then but my cats are the ones who bring me closer to it. I felt responsible for whatever they've done but what I can't accept is that I was just trying to do the good thing which is to feed them, that's the least I can do for my cats but these people see my cats as pests so they want them out of here.

Good thing:

Tenants stopped complaining and I still keep my cats here lol. They really can't do anything about my cats because they live here first before you assholes. My cats aren't gonna leave this place as long as they have me.

Bad news:

Neptune was missing for days after I arrived from my trip. You know what happened. The grief and theories and all that heartbreaking feels.

Good news:

Found him days later!!! Not gonna write so much about it since I already had a post regarding the happiness I felt when I reunited with him again.

Rejections:

I applied for jobs and I got rejected by all of it. Felt stupid and not qualified to do anything good. It hurt my feelings. I gave the best I can and was determined but still I failed. No one actually told me that I was stupid, I realized it myself and that's the worst part. It also strike my existential crisis because I am getting older but I still can't do things right, feeling left behind, unsuccessful, unwanted and just the worst of it. I badly need a job too but no one wants to hire me.

Hoping for the best:

After I tried applying for these sickening jobs, I was given a chance to show what I can do and I actually passed the initial round. Just hoping that I also pass the job interview and trainings so I can finally make my life productive and earn money of course.

[colorstreammind]

GVF fandom rant that probably no one's gonna read or agree with — I need to vent

Since this is the only fan account I have, I decided to rant a little, in English this time — that wasn't my goal at all when I got on Tumblr, I just wanted to read fics, post about the boys and say my personal things in my first language, but I've been feeling like this for so long now... Hope my English is alright

Heard from a friend that some US fans are priv quoting latin poc fans' tweets (so mature of them) and being xenophobic and racist... (Racism and xenophobia in the peaceful army? Nothing new, but it seems like I'm one of the victims this time) Seriously, I love GVF (I've actually been writing a looong text about how I had become a fan and have had the most amazing experiences so far, it's so long it could be a thesis lol) but I hate this fandom since the beginning, I never get involved in any of the feuds I usually see in my twt tl because 1. I don't actually know or talk to any gringas fans and it's not like my opinion ever mattered 2. I don't have a stan account there, I try to socialize and people never answer me or follow me back so fuck it 3. I never know enough about the subject they're talking about, and even so, with the little things I know I can realize 4. It's always so annoying. From my friends' pov and mine, it feels like if a gringo fan is feeling bored, they just choose the tinyest problematic thing and try and start a new conversation or get back to another unecessary disagreement just for show, or even worse, they say the worst things and end up being hypocritical, prejudiced... It's like they always need attention...

People can't make mistakes, they have to know everything, they have to be perfect all the time, and if they apologize in a way fans don't like, let them brace themselves for what's coming next... some fans think they have the right to demand anything from the boys or from mutuals, like "someone likes Danny, unfollow them now or I'll unfollow you" like who are you??? And don't get me wrong, I'm all about taking accountability but what is an unfollow spree gonna do for the cause you're supposed to defend?? I don't know if I was priv quoted because I don't hate Danny (I don't care anyway, if that's the case) or just because they are mean, immature people, but one thing I still can't understand is the years of cancelling Danny for some things he already apologized for, AAAND the most nonsensical thing is when those people demand that their mutuals unfollow other fans that like Danny, but still looove the Kiszkas, who are very good friends with him and his bandmates, and those same fans still stan and listen to GVF, I mean, they must know Danny is still profiting from all the streams, tickets and merch sales, as he's still a part of the band as important as the Kiszkas, right? So why the act?? Hate for hate? That's why I have "If you're a Danny anti, leave me alone" in my bio, if you're a fan and you want to interact with me, you can like or dislike who you want in the band and I'll treat you well like I treat everyone else, but don't come with that nonsensical cancelling bullshit on me.

When fans were using the #SpeakUpGVF and Josh wouldn't say anything anytime soon, I've read someone saying — just after they demanded that Josh spoke up — that they wished Josh died in a car accident, like what the fuck?? When he finally apologized and held accountability, people that were saying they couldn't stand it anymore, that they would deactivate and shit just switched to "I knew he would do the right thing, I love him again" all of a sudden... What's the point?? Besides, can't people change? Can't people with different interests coexist and interact without those kinds of arguments all. The. Time? Why aren't those people more reasonable and sensible?? That's not what the guys stand for. I'm so kind and patient all the time but I'm fucking tired, I felt like I should say something. I won't be surprised if this pops up in anti's tls and I'm the one who's getting cancelled next

It's so ironic that it's called the peaceful army and we can't have one peaceful day

#gvf #greta van fleet #sorry for the rant #just ranting #i hate this fandom #peaceful army #what a joke

[fastessaypapers]

How to an Ethics Essay: Hints and Tips for Students

Every part of our lives is filled with making ethical and moral decisions based on our philosophies on what is right or wrong. An ethics essay is an academic paper that expresses your moral code and how you perceive ethics individually and how social influence s your decisions when faced with a moral dilemma. You need to know how to argue about evil and good while showing how you uphold social justice, professional duty, human relationships, and humanity in your decision making process Are you having trouble developing an outstanding Ethics Essay or research paper or essay? Homework help has got you covered.  For essay paper help, click here and follow prompts on 'Write my paper for me.' What are the steps to writing a proper ethics essay?

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Once you have chosen a topic, use the guidelines on your rubric to create an outline. An outline enables you to generate the scope of your argumentative reasoning. The standard structure of every ethical paper maintains the following format. - Proof Prove why the topic that you chose to focus on is important, challenging, and relevant for the moral-ethical issue - Thesis Generate a thesis that outlines your debatable claims within the body of the paper - Arguments Test the arguments from the thesis statement that support your ethical reasoning - Counterarguments Respond to the counterarguments while emphasizing on your thesis while acknowledging the opposing points - Conclusion Write a summary of your debatable claims in your thesis statement while highlighting the significance of the points Homework help helps you in writing excellent research papers, term papers, coursework, discussion posts, and any other type of writing. Order a customized paper here and click on 'write my paper.'

Step 3: Start writing the first draft of your Ethics essay

Introduction of the ethics essay - Give a popular misconception about the issue using questions, quotes, or interesting facts as a hook for your essay. - Write a concise and precise introduction that focuses on your points. Start by determining the scope of your reasoning and the side you shall defend - Then give a description of how your paper will flow to give the reader an understanding of your angle. - Briefly indicate the main debatable claims within your essay in a thesis statement at the end of your introduction. Body - Set each body paragraph as a step-by-step structure with each paragraph arguing the debatable claims made in your thesis Note: Separate your points by paragraphs to give clear argument details and evidence instead of jamming more than one points in a paragraph Conclusion - Give a rephrased thesis statement while avoiding any new information that is not discussed in the paper. - Mention the importance of your ethical issue -  End by stating your main position and why it is right In need of homework help in writing essays and research papers? Click here and follow the prompt of 'write my paper.'

Step 4: Edit your final draft for submission

- Take some time to relax either by strolling, taking some tea, or short exercise to rejuvenate your mind while developing fresh eyes for your writing. - Then, using the guidelines above, make sure that you have adhered to them by rereading your first draft. - Check out for weak arguments or inadequate supporting evidence. - Cut unnecessary information that has no relevance to the topic while adhering to the given word limit. - Add important information that you might have left out, yet it strengthens your main arguments. - Make sure to have started with the strongest argument in the first body paragraph. - Make sure your paragraphs have a topic sentence, explanations of the topic sentence, sufficient evidence supporting the topic sentence, and a summary that connects with the next argument using transitional words. Avoid - Rhetorical questions - Complex words - Unclear and unconcise phrases - Unnecessary adjectives and adverbs - Unethical sources As you can see, writing an ethics essay is easy and straightforward if you follow the steps above. Read the full article

[roxyandelsewhere]

More of me trying to fix purgatory, this time going off of what I said in this post. Hands referenced from Bernini’s The rape of Proserpina and Goya’s Saturn devouring his son.

Prints now up on Inprnt!

#finally a new one!!! first one post defending my thesis #spnart #spn art #fanart #spn #spn fanart #mine #purgatoryfix #yeah that's gonna be the tag for these #alright so. i had so many ideas for this one. there was gonna be halos and angel wheels and shading in pointillism #but 1. it would have probably looked too busy and 2. i don't know if i have the skills to do all that in one drawing and make it look good #so i figured it's best if i don't put all the ideas in one drawing and space it out across several. hehehe #so there will be more eventually #and yeah the core of this was the hands. see this as a text with a thesis on purgatory an those hands are quotes. citations even #i could have done more to make the reference clearer but unless it was a collage i don't think it would have ever been Clear clear #and again if i have the skills to make that look good skdfjg #there was also gonna be those pointillism purgatory trees in the background but that would have probably been too much. idk. #also there's some imperfections in the solid black parts that if you zoom them are not actually solid black #i digitally corrected that in the trueforms but didn't in this one bc i think it adds to the effect #i smudged some silver on some parts and i think it all meshes together #anyways. purgatory like this. society IF #the red and white kinda remind me of christmas decorations (derogatory) but that might be bc of the shitload of christmas ads i've endured #recently #and i tried not to put the red white and blue together much bc of Flag Connotations that aren't what i wanted #hopefully it all comes across right

[funkymbtifiction]

INTJ or ENTJ?

Hi Charity,

I'm hoping you can help me figure out my type, I’m stuck between INTJ or ENTJ. I feel like neither of them fit completely, but I know that I use Ni/Se and Te/Fi.

I relate a lot to the Ni posts you made. I have a very personalized worldview, that I find impossible to explain (I have confused a fair amount of people in attempts made). I think things through before engaging most of the time....

You give stronger evidence for INTJ than ENTJ. Most of your "tert-Se" behaviors are more likely for inferior Se (sometimes leaping in too fast, miscalculating, but being sensory-aware and enjoying pleasures and aesthetics) than a Te/Se looper (ENJs tend to lose sight more of how things will rebound on them and make short-sighted tert-Se decisions when problem-solving sometimes, just to "rush" the process to completion) and you seem emotionally mature in a tert-Fi way (ETJs have real trouble connecting to people on an emotional level and not substituting physical contact for emotional closeness).

#question #intj #mbti

[thisizaraisu]

In/spectre vs The Detective is Already Dead: Every Masterpiece Has its Cheap Imitation

So I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. While I did only give In/spectre an 8/10 due to its admittedly weak pacing, it was also one of my favorite anime to come out last year. I love the character chemistry and banter, it was enough to make me forgive the pacing a million times over. And The Detective is Already Dead sets itself up similarly to In/spectre with some great character interaction and a main girl that reminded me a LOT of Kotoko (and you can take one look at my profile picture to know how I feel about Kotoko). But if you’ve been reading my posts, you’d have seen that The Detective is Already Dead was the first show I dropped this season. So while I was initially very interested in everything the show had set up, there was a point where it all went wrong, and admittedly I don’t think it was Episode 2. Today I wanna take a deep dive into both series, and explain why one is a masterpiece and one is a disappointment.

Structure

The Detective is Already Dead has the most screwed-up story structure I’ve ever seen in an anime... and I watched God of High School. My biggest problem with the way the show is structured is that the chronology being completely random isn’t my only issue. We gleam two major facts from episodes 1-3: Siesta has passed away, and her heart is within the body of another girl. For whatever ungodly reason, knowing this we go back to a flashback where Siesta is fighting a kaiju with toxic breath that could wipe out the entire nation of Japan. Now tell me, if Siesta were to be killed by this monster, would she have any salvageable body parts left over? Hell no. And therein lies my problem: the way that the story has already gone through its motions leaves NO room for feelings of stakes or tension in these flashback sequences. It’s not just the chronological whiplash that bogs the whole thing down, but the fact that we already know Siesta’s fate makes these “intense” flashback sequences utterly pointless (I’ll get to why “intense” was put in quotations later). I honestly did not mind the idol arc at all, but at the end of said arc, a new character was teased, only for her to not be introduced in the following episodes. There are SO many structural issues that I was baffled, it continually left me with more questions than answers and not in the way a good mystery series does so. More often than not, the question it left me with was “What the fuck were they thinking?”

In/spectre on the other hand is structurally sound. It jumps around occasionally but it covers events that are entirely relevant to the lives of our two lead characters and their relationship. Additionally, while the pacing is admittedly lackluster, it’s not confusing. We see the high-stakes war between Kotoko and Rikka unfold in real-time, with Kotoko’s plan to rid the world of Steel Lady Nanase encoutering numerous logical hurdles. Again, I’ll get into why this works down the line. But for now, I wanna talk a bit more about:

Character Chemistry

The chemistry between Kotoko and Kuro is a real saving grace for the show. I’m gonna be bringing up the term “saving grace” a few more times for In/spectre, and I do realize that the term is typically used for good qualities of bad media, but here’s where I’m coming from on this: pacing is something that I typically put a LOT of stock into for an anime. However, when the other qualities are so enjoyable that I can put weak pacing to the side, I consider those qualities a saving grace. All that being said, every interaction between Kotoko and Kuro brought a genuine smile to my face. The witty banter and innuendo shared between them is not only well-written, but reserved for the right moments. It never breaks the tension that the show has worked so hard to build up, rather it’s present in their initial meeting, their moments shared in the hotel, and after the conflicts they encounter have been resolved. There are occasionally tongue-and-cheek jokes thrown into the preludes to action sequences but they’re very quick laughs as immediately after we’re thrown right back into the action. The timing and writing in In/spectre is just top-notch and they’re a direct result of how naturally Kotoko and Kuro’s conversations flow and how well the two completely different leads compliment each other.

The only character Kimihiko had good chemistry with is fucking dead now. Moving on.

Action

In/spectre is not very heavy on the action, but two scenes in the show’s runtime did make my jaw drop: the conclusion of episode 1, and the scene where Kuro pulls his body across the I-beam impaled into his chest to punch Nanase in the face. Kotoko and Kuro have a bit of a “brains and brawn” dynamic going on. While Kuro is by no means unsmart, Kotoko is definitely more of the master strategist, while Kuro can use his immortality to keep their target at bay. This present is incredibly present in the fight with Steel Lady Nanase. Kuro is constantly knocked down, battered, bruised, impaled, yet he keeps rising back up to give Kotoko enough time to work her magic. It’s a plan that promises nothing but searing pain for Kuro, and throughout it all I was constantly wondering, at what point will Kuro break? This has been happening for numerous episodes, when will he not be able to get back up? The fact that In/spectre made me feel that there were stakes for an IMMORTAL BEING is, in hindsight, kind of amazing.

In direct contrast, The Detective is Already Dead really falls off after the first fight. While looking back on it, it is really dumb that Siesta was able to bring a gun onto an airplane, on first watch I honestly really liked what I was seeing in the fight between her and tentacle boy (I don’t remember his name and I don’t feel like looking it up). And what got me REALLY invested was the way Siesta didn’t actually kill him, rather faking his death and having him imprisoned. I was invested for a key reason: the show’s title isn’t exactly spoiler-free, but it got me wondering, is Siesta ACTUALLY dead? Is she truly gone from this world, or is her “death” in name only like Tentacle Boy’s, and do I actually get to see more of this enjoyable, In/spectre-style character dynamic? Sadly, this was thwarted by episode 2′s reveal of the girl that received Siesta’s heart. Again, a horrifically paced sequence between episodes that kills any momentum the series had built up.

Additionally, it was during the fight between Siesta and Petelguise that I felt the show had genuinely hit rock bottom, because they made a fight between a cute waifu in a mech suit and a kaiju that could wipe out all of Japan in a moment’s notice BORING. I didn’t touch on it much during my initial explanation of why I dropped the show, but I wanna elaborate a bit. First of all, as I said previously, there are no stakes to be found. We KNOW that Siesta can’t die here. Secondly, the movement is just so wooden, there’s no attempt at animating the fight in an exciting way, rather it just feels like they’re going through the motions to convey the words of the light novel without trying to get it to translate to video form. Finally, there’s WAY too much dialogue and it drags down the entire sequence by making the chase scene way longer than it needs to be, and given the show’s propensity to really over-season every scene with dialogue, I imagine this was the same for future action sequences as well. I dropped the show as soon as Siesta jumped onto the clock tower with Petelguise, because it was in that moment I realized: I feel literally nothing right now.

The last point of comparison I want to draw between these two shows is:

Bullshit

Thinking about the very different way these two shows use the art of bullshitting is honestly the reason I wanted to make this post. Kotoko’s solution to the entire Steel Lady Nanase conflict is, after all, the art of bullshitting. What makes it work is the fact that it’s the perfect solution to what the situation calls for. I know this is a bit of an odd comparison, but In/spectre is like a reverse version of Elf starring Will Ferrell. Unlike how at the end of Elf, they wanted to make everyone believe in Santa to restore his power, Kotoko’s ambition is to get the Internet to toss out their belief in Steel Lady Nanase to rid her of her power as a “monster of the imagination.” If people maintain their belief in this monster of Rikka’s imagination, there’s no realistic way to stop her. Here lies the biggest obstacle, however: the power of imagination is so strong that Nanase has become a very real entity, responsible for multiple murders. Kotoko can’t just magically find an incriminating piece of evidence that outs Nanase as superstition, so her only solution is to trick the people of the internet and convince them that she’s a myth. As she does this, her invented inference runs into skepticism and she has to continue to bullshit her way out of it until finally, she’s created an explanation for the recent string of murders with no holes in its argument. It’s an arduous process but one that does have to be drawn out as Kotoko very clearly and intentionally sets up explanations that would draw skepticism before inventing an excuse that refutes any potential counter-arguments. It’s honestly the equivalent to someone writing a 50-page college thesis with no research and successfully defending it.

Siesta, on the other hand, is the most annoying kind of supergenius character. Personally, I love Siesta. I think her character design is great, I think she’s funny and that she shares some really enjoyable dialogue with Kimihiko, so when the show isn’t butchering fight scenes I actually really enjoyed her screen time. So it’s not Siesta herself that bothers me, but it’s the way that the plot is so willing to let her make perfect deductions with the most minimal knowledge given to her. This also reminds me a bit of Sherlock in Moriarty the Patriot, with his ability to make perfect deductions from just a glance at the scene of the crime, but it works well in Holmes’ case because all of the necessary evidence is in that confined space. Siesta on the other hand is just magically able to decipher a villain’s motivation and weaknesses with a two-minute conversation... yeah I don’t buy it.

So that’s about it, I probably could have drawn up more contrasts if I had actually continued watching The Detective is Already Dead, but it became such an abject disappointment that I just ended up going back to In/spectre instead. You know, a mystery show where the writers and animators knew what they were doing.

#anime #anime review #in/spectre #kyokou suiri #tantei wa mou shindeiru #The Detective is Already Dead #Seasonal anime #winter 2020 #summer 2021

[cupstealer]

Re: your last ask.

I am also no longer into the fandom side of hockey anymore and hardly ever read fan fic anymore. (A senior thesis will do that to a person 😔) Buut I want you to know that I think about contact high on a regular basis. Once a week maybe type of regular, when I’m wishing I was reading something fun and not a science journal. Is that weird?! I mean I know that sounds a little crazy- but it might be the greatest fic I’ve ever read. While I was reading it I got the sense that it would be one of my favorites, but I had no idea how much it would still ruminate with me a year and a half later. I don’t think I can recall a single other rpf work like I can that one. You are such an amazing writer! And I hope you continue to write- whatever it may be that your writing about! 💕

(Sorry to keep putting these on y’all’s dash, but it’s the only way I can THANK these anons and they definitely need thanking.)

Your timing OP ;.; I really got this ask when I needed it most. 💕 Thank you thank you thank you! Sorry for the delayed response—it’s so hard to figure out how to thank somebody and explain how much words like this mean while not sounding like a flu patient or something.

To answer your question, it’s not weird! There are absolutely fics that live rent-free in my head to the degree that I’m basically sponsoring them on a permanent residency program [cut to footage of bring it if you really want it by staraflur]. And god, what an honor that Contact High is like that for you 🙏 Contact High is my favorite thing that I’ve written. A lot (pfff, all) of the content was so self-indulgent for me, just utter wish-fulfillment, which I usually try to dial back, but I wanted to see what might happen if I really leaned in instead. (The thing with toothpaste/walking in on someone actually happened to me when I was staying over at a friend’s house in high school... Sorry again to her brother, I promise I barely saw anything.) There isn’t a single element of that fic that I wasn’t excited about while I was writing it. And it’s that much more touching when the work that feels the most ‘me’ is someone’s favorite.

Anon, I hope you get some free time to read fun stuff soon! You deserve it. And good luck on your thesis! Defend that sumbitch like you’re Connor Murphy (no idea if it’s the kind of thesis you defend, but you get my meaning). Thank you again 💕

I am still writing, by the way! Just as slow as ever though, and for a very mixed bag of subjects! No hockey lately, though I have a few unpublished 1988 WIPs that I haven’t touched in a long stretch yet haven’t let go of either. Every fall, I pump myself up to roll up my sleeves and edit/finish this genre-confused frankenstein of a haunted house-type fic, and I haven’t given up hope yet! (Plus if I finish it, I can finally read jezziejay’s witch Jonny fic—which got posted while I was writing mine, and I made myself bookmark it for later so I wouldn’t be influenced or in my head about any overlap even though they’re almost certainly totally different in every way. I’m dying to read hers ;.;)

Hmm I hesitate to say this, but... If anyone is really interested regardless of fandom, there’s also an unorthodox fic I wrote as a Christmas present for my sister back in 2017 that she keeps telling me to post. (I know, and it gets weirder from there.) I think I want to but I’ve hesitated for several reasons. First: I need to re-do the ending now that I’m not scrambling to finish it on Christmas Eve. Second: It is a pairing that does not exist and kind of bananas. More info under the cut if you’re interested.

Basically, years ago, one of my sisters and I had a looong conversation about who was worthy of being shipped with Stacker Pentecost from Pacific Rim, and when none of the characters from the movie satisfied us, we reached out into the vast universe of basically anyone from any media to find him love, guess-and-check style. After literal hours, I brought up one of my favorite under-appreciated characters, Linus Caldwell from Ocean’s Eleven (Matt Damon). Which makes no sense, but doesn’t it a little? It became a running joke, and then a running a joke that I was gonna write it, and then not a joke. Ain’t that the way?

So yeah—Third: I’m hesitant to get somebody excited about a new hockey fic only to open the email and see it’s a batshit crossover that literally no one (except my sisters) is asking for. That being said, I started it as a joke/challenge, but ended up making something that I find quite a fun little ride because I was so loose with it (because, like, who’s ever gonna see this, right? Some real dance like nobody’s watching shit). I’ve written a bunch of stuff never meant to see daylight, but this fic in particular feels complete. It just has a lot going on (Hidden identities! Never Been Kissed-style fake student/professor tension! Chase scenes! Cameos! Close-up magic! Heist crew banter! Idris Elba’s North London accent! My total lack of military knowledge!). Also it’s over 30k words. (Yeah.)

Is there any interest in me posting this?? To be clear, I’m definitely not expecting it to be popular or anything, but taking the time to fix it up only makes sense if I know at least two people will lay eyes one it, lol. You don’t have to know both films really well for it to make sense, but familiarity with the Ocean’s trilogy and characters probably helps a lot for context since it takes place in between those movies. Goes without saying that no offense will be taken if there isn’t clamoring demand amongst hockey rpfers for 30k of Pacific Rim crossed over with a George Clooney movie franchise in a fic that has neither giant robots nor giant monsters (nor George Clooney, in any appreciable quantity)... Think I’m capable of taking that sentiment on the chin. 🤙

#replies #lOng replies damn #fic stuff

[thoughtsofanexcitedspacechild]

Kataang: An In Depth Analysis

Hello again! I apologise for the inactivity. It’s been a busy month as far as school goes for me, so let’s just say I’m a lot busier solving chem equations and working on stuff for AP art. Don’t get me wrong though! These analysis and essay format posts are my favorite and I wish I could do them more often! Seriously, it’s the only thing that keeps me wanting to write! I’ve also decided that I’m going to make these little intro paragraphs separate to the actual essay, because while I’m at this, why not kill two birds with one stone and practice writing essays for my actual AP Lang. class? I mean I’m obviously not gonna turn them in or show them to my teacher, (unless this gets 1000 notes or more, in which case  I’ll show this to her ;)) but this is a good way for me to work on formatting a thesis and developing arguments, all while doing and talking about something I love! Speaking of which, let’s dive right on into today’s topic; the much debated, and thoroughly analyzed ship: Kataang. (Buckle your seatbelts hotmen, because this is gonna be one hell of a sky bison ride) I got inspired by a creator on Tik Tok that I follow, Amanda Castrillo, to write this. Her username is @theamanda2d and I highly recommend you go check her out and give her a follow. A lot of the arguments in this are my own, but I also sourced a lot of information and arguments for Kataang from her series “a case for Kataang”, which I highly recommend you go watch. I’ll insert her quotes directly so you know exactly where her points are coming from as well as mention where I elaborated on a point she made but didn’t directly quote her. I’ll also be sourcing a lot of information from the show and including exact episodes and scenes that support my case. So without further ado, here is my *unofficial* case for Kataang.

     In our lives, there’s usually one point at which most of us make a choice. That choice is to love someone. Yes, you heard me right. You make the choice to love someone. Of course, the feeling that most people know as love, but is really just sexual or romantic desires, tends to be confused with real love. Authentic love that comes from the choice to love someone. This kind of love persists through even through the darkest times. This kind of love truly does burn brightest in the dark. 

 It stems from a strong base of mutual understanding and friendship first, and doesn’t rely on a spark of passion to keep burning although it can fuel the flame that already burns strongly. There are many great examples of this kind of love, both in our own world and daily lives, but also in literature. One of the greatest examples of this, is the relationship explored between the fictional characters Aang and Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender. (Oh, what? You don’t think Avatar is a legitimate form of literature? Pity, you must not have read my previous posts or even watched the show at all, because it IS.)

     From the time I first watched the show, I was rooting for them to end up together. Right off the bat, Aang and Katara have this instant connection. Within the first episode, they already become friends, and not only that, they act as if they’ve been friends for years, almost like they were meant to meet each other. Aang finally getting together with Katara just feels right, but there’s more to their relationship than the feelings that Katara and Aang both experience and the feelings that we the audience feel seeing them together. Throughout the series we see them both make the choice to love each other, not only as lovers, but as friends too. Their relationship thrives, and we’re able to see them both grow as people and better themselves because of each other.

Firstly I want to address the counterargument that many people bring up and that is that Kataang, in and of itself, is one sided. Fans (often Zutara shippers. More in depth analysis on why this ship DOESN’T work out realistically to come) will argue that Kataang is forced and one sided, and that Katara doesn’t share Aang’s feelings. Although I can see where this is coming from from a first time viewer’s perspective, this argument can be extinguished by looking deeper at Katara’s actions and intentions towards Aang. We see them bond as friends very early on in the series, but the earliest hint at a romantic relationship actually shows up in season one episode four, when they go to Kiyoshi Island. Katara acts snarky and jealous when Aang gathers quite a fan club of little girls. 

Nevertheless, when this fan club fails to stick around for Aang’s encounter with the unagi, Katara’s the one that’s there making sure he’s okay. (S1, Episode 4, The Warriors of Kiyoshi) This is ultimately foreshadowing for their relationship as a whole. Although his role as Avatar lands him many friends, and in this case fans, the only person that truly stays with him the whole time is Katara. She’s the one who shows up and has his best interests at heart. Most of her intentions are in fact platonic in this episode, but the hint of romance comes out when we see that Katara doesn’t like the idea of Aang with another girl.

     After half way through season one, specifically the Fortune Teller episode, we do see that Katara does in fact have feelings for Aang, albeit complex ones. In this episode we see her pester Aunt Wu for information about her future husband and she’s informed that he’s a very powerful bender. She doesn’t consider Aang until Sokka mentions that it freaks him out how powerful of a bender Aang is while Aang protects and saves the village from it’s demise by an erupting volcano. Her hopes were set high on a muscley, extremely strong looking bender, and I’d like to imagine that before her realization, Katara was probably picturing someone more like Haru or even post redemption Zuko as her future husband. For the first time, that image is replaced by Aang, and she doesn’t mind it. (S1, Episode 14, The Fortune Teller) We see these new found feelings develop further in the Secret Tunnel episode, when Katara is finally forced to confront the romantic feelings that she’s pushed down while trying to sort them out. At this moment, Katara finally acknowledges her romantic feelings and attraction to Aang. (S2, Episode 2, The Cave of Two Lovers) The creators intentionally showed us the story of the two lovers for a reason. “Avatar is a very smart show,” says Amada Castrillo, Avatar fanatic and creator of the Tik Tok and youtube series “A Case for Kataang,” “and we’re never told or shown anything for no reason...A war was keeping them apart maybe not physically, but romantically.”

     Later in the series during the season finale of season two we see her absolutely distraught when Aang nearly dies and she does everything in her power to save him. We see her almost break. Only when he wakes up does she feel better, and start to be happier again. She doesn’t care about anything else but making him feel better, and even when he does wake up, she still focuses mainly on healing him. Here we see Katara make the choice to love Aang both in sickness and in health. (S2, Episode 18, The Guru/The Crossroads of Destiny and S3, Episode 1, The Awakening) She of course would have done this for any member of team avatar, but the way in which she treats Aang when he’s nearly taken away from her points to the extreme love and affection that she carries for him every day. This happens multiple other times throughout the series, with many of the occurrences being in book three. When Zuko joins the Gaang, she flat out tells Zuko that if he were to hurt Aang, (not Sokka, not her, not Toph, but Aang specifically) she would personally see to his demise. (S3, Episode 11, The Western Air Temple, 23:30) (Some Points taken from, but not directly quoted from Amanda Castrillo’s “A case For Kataang Part Nine: Text and Subtext”) This is why the assumption that Kataang is one sided can be proven wrong.

     Two other arguments stem from the previous argument, one being that Aang is a simp, and/or that Katara is a trophy. First of all, the later argument is easily disproved by the fact that Katara is not a prize to be won. “Katara is, and was never a prize for Aang,” says Castrillo, “And to say that she was, grossly mischaracterizes and undermines her as a character.” (Amanda Castrillo, (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang: Chapter 2, Katara the trophy) Katara is shown multiple times throughout the series being able to speak up and defend herself without Aang’s, or anyone else’s help. 

Aang, although viewed as a simp, is not. Yes he respects Katara, and all other women for that matter, but he doesn’t fawn over her. He allows her to defend and take care of herself. The definition of the word “simp” is the abbreviated term “simpleton”, meaning “a silly or foolish person.” Although Aang is silly at some points, he’s also not foolish. He’s a smart and capable individual that many fans fail to recognise as legitimate because of his innocence and softness. So no. Aang isn’t a simp that bases his entire self worth on his status with Katara.

     Another point that must be acknowledged is the fact that Aang and Katara are actually complementary characters. Although many people would bring up the argument that Air and Water aren’t opposite elements, the type of bender they are doesn’t necessarily tend to point to the exact type of person they are. The creators aren’t dumb, and the characters in this franchise are so well developed, that there are many sub personalities in each type of bending, and all of them can be analyzed further than the type of element they bend. Judging a character solely by the element they can bend is like judging a person on the color of their skin or a book by it’s cover, and when diving deep into each of their personalities, we can see that their personalities are actually complementary. Katara is high strung and anxious while Aang is usually calm and collected. Aang is very good at regulating his emotions while Katara is not. This aspect extends further than their personalities as well. Katara grew up in a very family oriented and close family while Aang only had one parental figure in the form of Gyatzo and occasionally a few friends. Katara is also more grounded and a home body while if he could, Aang would probably continue to explore whatever corner of the earth that he could. (Some points taken, but not directly quoted from Amanda Castrillo (@theamanda2d), “A Case for Kataang: Chapter 10, Balance”)

     Another thing that I found is that when looking at color theory, Aang’s signature orange toward the end of the series and Katara’s signature blue are actually complementary colors. I’d like to think that as Katara develops and explores her feelings for Aang, Aang’s color palette changes slightly. It goes from being red and yellow in the beginning when Katara didn’t know she had feelings quite yet, to eventually shifting to orange when we see her feelings start to fully become clear. I thought this was a super interesting detail and despite it being a bit far of a stretch, I think it must have been planned. If you consider the time when we see Katara start to develop feelings, it’s about the same time that Aang’s outfit choice shifts to orange. Of course, this piece of evidence is mostly based on my personal observation and knowledge of color theory, but it’s a detail that I personally found super compelling.

     Kataang also works because of the extremely well executed communication and dialogue that happens between them. There are multiple different examples throughout the series and as their character’s develop, we’re able to see a beautifully efficient and respectful form of communication between them. We see Aang clearly express his feelings of anxiety to Katara, and in return, Katara is able to help him and offer advice on what he’s feeling. Katara also is able to confide in Aang in return and oftentimes he’s the one that she’s most comfortable being vulnerable in front of. We see her almost mother Aang alongside Sokka in the first season, but her relationship with him changes and shifts to one where both her and Aang feel comfortable and contribute and receive equal care from each other.

     One issue in particular also comes to mind when talking about this ship, and that is the issue of boundaries. Counter arguments against Kataang often bring up one scene in particular, specifically in the Ember island players episode about halfway through when Katara confronts Aang on the balcony. (S3, episode 15, the Ember Island Players) Episode Aang is understandably upset with the way that he and specifically he and Katara’s relationship is portrayed in the play. He obviously has feelings for her and at that point we know that Katara also has feelings from a few episodes prior when they kiss before the invasion. That kiss was mutual, and she kissed him back, meaning that from that point on, both of their feelings towards each other are very clear. The night of the play on the balcony, Aang does cross a boundary that had been established. The kiss before the invasion made sense, and Katara didn’t do anything to stop him from doing it, and Aang had her consent in this case. Aang’s kiss on the balcony was a mistake, and in this case it was uncalled for, but many people misread Katara’s feelings of confusion. When Katara mentions being confused, she’s not saying she’s confused about her feelings for Aang. Since season one, we’ve seen her show multiple forms of affection towards Aang, and not only that, she was usually the one initiating the many hugs, cheek kisses, etc. 

She’s not confused about how she feels about Aang. She’s confused about the timing and if it’s a good idea or not. (Some points taken from, but not directly quoted from, Amanda Castrillo (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang Part 7: The Camelephant in the room)

     Regarding the consent for the kiss, yes. That was Aang’s mistake. He’s human, and he did mess up there. But his intentions weren’t meant to harm anyone. He, like so many of us watching at home, read Katara’s confusion to be about him, and wanted to see what she really felt. Afterwards, he knows he messed up, and feels bad about it. “...[Aang’s] very self aware. He knows how he feels about Katara, and he’s said it multiple times...Aang is human. He f***s up. He says the wrong thing. He makes mistakes. And he was just as confused as Katara at this moment.” (Amanda Castrillo, (@theamanda2d) “A Case for Kataang Part Seven: The Camelephant in the room)

     Lasty, I want to acknowledge the visual and audio parallels portrayed in the show and how they can effectively work towards supporting Kataang. If you observe the angles at which characters are shown as well as the framing, it visually sets up and can represent how two characters feel about one another. First let’s consider the framing of a scene from the very first episode after Katara breaks Aang out from the ice. Aang is lying down and katara is directly positioned above him. When he wakes up from being trapped in an iceberg for 100 years, her face is the first that he sees. 

This positioning and framing is shown multiple more times throughout the series, establishing their strong connection. So is this one:

(For a better visual reference please see Amanda Castrillo’s video “A Case for Kataang Part Four: Parallels) “Its built up and set up for us time and time again. Their interactions aren’t framed like that for no reason. Scene framing matters.” (Amanda Castrillo, “A case for Kataang Part Four: Parallels.”

There’s also the fact of the score and what specific music points to what character or what mood the creators were trying to enforce with the music. Avatar’s score is genius and every song and note was hand crafted to set the tone for each scene and help explain what’s happening. (This is one of the many reasons Avatar would translate well to be a musical or even a ballet. Post/informal rant on this later to come.) There are many great examples, like how Azula is represented by a clash of chords, (To quote my previous post: “I love how Azula is just represented by a pair of clashing chords and when you hear it you know that she’s about to f*** s*** up.”) or that Aang has a lively flute melody that plays when he gets really happy/excited, but perhaps the best example of the use of music in the franchise is the use of the “Avatar’s Love Theme.” It’s my personal favorite song from the show, and it’s used extremely effectively and efficiently throughout the show to provide a very specific and recognisable feeling: romantic love. When you hear it play, Aang is ALWAYS with Katara. Go back and listen to the times where it plays, and it’s always when he and Katara share a special moment together. We only hear part of the melody for the majority of the series, but in the final episode, right towards the end when Aang and Katara are left alone on the balcony looking above the city by themselves, we hear it play again, and this time, we hear all of it. The kiss between them also happens right at the crescendo and peak of the music, emphasizing and establishing that Aang and Katara are officially canon. The music plays a huge part in this story, and all musical elements as well as visual point to Aang and Katara being a team, and not just that, but a romantic couple.

In conclusion, Aang and Katara are a couple that was meant to happen. Throughout the series, their love is shown through their undeniable chemistry, complementary characters and personality, and the visual and musical elements set up for us within the show. Aang and Katara love eachother very much, and although their feelings were often being confused by looming threats to their lives or tainted by the war they were both fighting, in the end they’re able to fully and completely allow themselves to love each other. Despite their romantic love, they are ultimately friends before they are lovers, and don’t rely on a spark of passion to be able to keep their love for one another burning. They love each other wholly and in so many different ways, and that my friends, is why Kataang works and will always work.

#avatar: tla #kataang #katara #aang #atla

[nakedpersimmon]

Yesterday afternoon, it was brought to NP’s attention that this post had been made on Michael Nesmith's personal Facebook page. In the post, I (Miss Mini) am called out by name, mentioned as someone instructing others to call the police on Nez, and otherwise painted as a deranged fan who is harassing him and his employees. Further, "Nez" implored his fans and followers to "hurl insults" at me, along with two other women who were also named.

I never wanted to write this post. I never wanted things to get this bad, to where a fandom I once loved so deeply could be in utter shambles, and leave me reduced to tears over an unwarranted and completely baseless attack. But I can't stay silent any longer, nor can I watch as me and others are dragged through the mud and beaten down, with the people doing it using someone I care about as their primary weapon.

Some have said I don't have much in the way of weaponry against these particular individuals. For most people, it would be a daunting prospect, to go up against these people who have become the gatekeepers of the fandom. So I am using the one weapon I do have. The one thing that I have held onto for all these years, and that has kept me sane: The truth.

In 2011, I started talking to Michael Nesmith online. What began as private messaging in Videoranch3D ("whisper," as it's called there) soon became chatting on GoogleChat, and then a few months later, he asked me to Skype with him. I still remember the first time we spoke on video, when he asked me to "have lunch" with him. I remember the Annie Chun Miso Soup bowl I'd microwaved, and how it sat untouched on my desk the entire time because I was too nervous to eat.

I remember defending and passing my Master's thesis a few months later, and Nez being the second person that I told. I remember talking to him for hours, in text chat and over Skype, on topics as far-ranging and wide as God and metaphysics and religion and sex and love. I remember coming home from seeing one of Micky's solo shows at Parx Casino and Nez asking me how it went, eager to know if "Mick" had sold a lot of tickets. I remember having a three-way Skype chat with him and my best friend Lynsey Moon, who was a DJ in Videoranch3D at the time and how--without pretense or prompting--he played music for us.

I remember finally meeting Nez in person in 2013, after one of his solo shows in Somerville, Massachusetts. I remember seeing another show of his later that year in Englewood, New Jersey, and hanging out in his dressing room after. I remember how, again unprompted, he took my hand and held it all the way down in the elevator until we got to the parking lot. I remember another show that same year in Bay Shore on Long Island, sharing laughs and stories with his wonderful band, and how his keyboard player gave me a plate of rigatoni when I said I hadn't eaten, and made me a drink from the bar on the tour bus.

"Gin," I said to Nez as he sat across from me. "So I can say that I went to a sophisticated party where I got a little drunk on gin." He gave me such a pointed, hilarious look, but later insistently asked if I was okay to drive home.

And I remember this comment, in this photo. I'd written about being asked to speak at the United Nations for World Autism Awareness Day, and out of nowhere, Nez commented, and said that he was proud of me.

It was March of 2011. We'd only known each other for two months. He knew me when. And he was proud of me.

I have loved the Monkees since I was 12 years old. I remember watching the show on Nick At Nite's Summer Block Party, and how much of a comfort it was, when I was being bullied so badly in school and already contemplating suicide because of it. The Monkees were four friends that I didn't have then, and who saved my life without even knowing it.

Fifteen years later, one of those men I admired so greatly, who was a hero of mine, told me that he was proud of me.

There just aren't words.

I never wanted to be someone who uses their relationship/friendship with someone to make a point. That is why I haven't talked about any of this publicly, haven't posted endless photos with Nez or video or any of the other countless receipts that I have.

Because I know where I stand with him.

Because at the Chiller Theatre convention in 2017, when I ended up in tears due to a stupid misunderstanding, Nez came over and took my hands again, and asked if I was okay.

Because that is who Michael Nesmith is.

That is the man I know. And that is why I have been heartbroken and worried as I've watched the two women in his employ, one of whom is his assistant, manipulate and use him for their own ends--regardless of what it's doing to his reputation and legacy, and not noticing or caring that all of this is the opposite of everything Nez has ever stood for.

Which brings us to yesterday. To the post that we are meant to believe Michael Nesmith wrote, telling his fans and followers to attack and insult me and two other women. A post that not only does not sound like it came from him, but that is so out of character as to nearly be laughable.

But I'm not laughing.

I know that some people will believe whatever they want to believe, no matter what I say. I know they will believe that I am jealous, because I don't work for Nez, and because the people who do have told them that I am. They can choose to believe that, and I can't do anything to stop them.

I can only say that I have nothing to be jealous of. And I have nothing to hide.

All I can do is share my truth, and that is what I have done. This post is public and will remain so, to be shared freely.

Thank you for reading, and please take care of yourselves and each other.

(This post was originally shared on Facebook.)

#michael nesmith #mike nesmith #the monkees #monkees #sad state of affairs #what kind of fuckery is this? #thank you to those who have sent messages of support #i've been half-numb and in a bit of shock since yesterday #so that's why i haven't responded #this is also not even getting into fanfic and Nez's stance toward it #which still seems to be a point of contention #when it is entirely a non-issue #fandom woes #monkees fandom #public service announcement

[tooanxiousforrivers]

been struggling real hard since the start of the year (2021, not academic year or whatever (although let’s be real the academic year as a whole has also been pretty bad)) and this culminated in me deciding to take a leave of absence from my research as of this week. I am already struggling to honor the things I was feeling that led me to this point, so here goes a diary post

first of all, I am increasingly convinced that I was just never really trained properly for the project I ended up working on. last year, prior to COVID shutdown, I was being trained on separatory techniques for carbon nanotubes. I was starting to independently push forward on new nanotube separations when COVID hit, and I spent all of shutdown reading papers about carbon nanotubes... But then when I came back to lab I was suddenly working on organic synthesis, which utilizes precisely zero of the skills I had been developing beforehand. There were a few reasons behind the change, and I initially gave it an ok when another grad student double-checked with me that I even wanted to do this new project, but what I didn’t realize at that time was that my in-lab mentor would not be able to help me with the majority of the work (basically she knew how to make one half of the molecule I wanted to make, but not the other half). that other half of the molecule turns out to be NOTORIOUSLY difficult to work with, and the only way to make any progress on it is to just work at such large scales that even a 5% yield is “good enough.” But no one working with me had the wherewithal (or cared enough) to tell me that, so all my newcomer enthusiasm died with months of failure trying to make that molecule.

so I’m working really long days, not really making anything other than “an earnest effort,” and then in November the most senior member of the lab who is a week away from defending his dissertation fucking loses it at me and one other second-year about how we are wasting time, etc, etc. We have since moved on from that as people, but it still sort of traumatized me and left me very very uncomfortable existing in that space. ended up feeling like I was under a microscope, any second not actively spent with my hands on something was a criminal offense, not eating/taking breaks... this was obviously not very sustainable and I ended up working even fewer hours, which made showing up at all even more agonizing, as I anticipated eventual future blowout. rinse and repeat. losing sleep and not getting anything done outside of lab with the anxiety of it all.

by January, I’m seriously losing it, and finally make a meeting with my advisor to try to explain things to him. I also disclose having ADHD and pin a lot of my struggle on “working on a treatment plan.” He is sympathetic and wants to help however he can, but I can’t think of anything he can do for me, so we leave things unfinished. A week later, he sets up a meeting with me (and two other second-years, all separately) to tell us we’re not spending enough time in lab, we are going to delay our prelim exams, and we’re now going to work one-on-one with a post-doc in the lab. While it was not very cool of him to do it the way he did, I actually did feel genuine relief at the time. Like maybe I would finally be able to fill in the gaps in my technical abilities with this change

HOWEVER, working with this post-doc was... not it. The first thing he suggested to me was to stick with one synthetic target (as opposed to the three I had in total), and just keep pushing on that front until it was done. This resulted in me making intermediate, purifying it, trying the next step in the synthesis, having it fail, and having to go back and make more intermediate OVER AND OVER AGAIN for weeks. It was about this time that I started uncontrollably weeping in the lab on a daily basis. (side note: the corner of lab I work in is pretty thinly populated, so no one ever saw me cry despite weeks of this going on! hooray isolation!) oh, and let’s not forget that the second-years are all TAing this semester, which conveniently chops of my schedule beyond the point of usefulness.

last week, I suddenly felt like this just wasn’t worth it anymore. could not even recognize what “it” was that was supposed to be worth it all along. professorship is a) extremely rare, b) very arduous to attain, with possibly a decade or more of grueling research, and c) possibly not even the dream job I thought it to be, once attained. I was thinking about how my husband is a fucking lawyer and can provide for us if needed. I was thinking about how this is the only life I get to live and I can’t justify spending over a decade of it literally tormenting myself and inhaling/pouring carcinogens on myself with no real promise of substantial payoff. spent all day Friday talking things out with senior lab members (actually the same guy who screamed at me in November, he’s an odd one), as well as the director of graduate studies. I resolved to get back on nanotube work, and just try to better manage my stress by getting support from others... by Sunday when I met with my advisor again, I had convinced myself that “I have all the resources I need to succeed, I just need to utilize them.”

Monday, I met with my psychiatrist, who literally asked me why I wanted to be in grad school at all. I floundered and said something vacuous, and she kinda nodded then prescribed me Prozac. I also spent Monday and Tuesday trying to get back into nanotube work, but by midday Tuesday I was already feeling the dread creeping in... and my threshold for adversity was just nil at that point, I guess, because I literally went and found both my the senior people I was working with and just flat out told them I quit. My friend helped me pack up my desk that day, and I was out the door by 3:30. Emailed my advisor after I got home. by the end of the day, I rationalized that the “precipitating event” was realizing that I don’t want to be on antidepressants, since I’ve been down that road before, and that this is not worth that.

so, spending the last couple of days talking to others and thinking about what to do next, I still don’t have an answer. everyone’s first piece of advice was to find some masters-level industry job, but right now I still feel too close to it to even see myself doing chemistry at all, or a 9-5 at all. like, part-time tutoring is the most I can entertain in my mind right now. but I know it’s better to keep the door open, and my advisor is still SOMEHOW my #1 fan, so this is just a leave of absence for the time being. the details of that will be hammered out once I meet with the director of my program, but right now I know I’ll continue my TA work (since I hope I’ll get to still be paid) and I’ll finish the class I’m taking since my advisor told me the whole grade is just going to be some 30 minute presentation at the end of the semester, and I am pretty sure I can pull that off rather than end with a W on my transcript.

the main things for me to figure out are: (1) do I want to pull together a non-thesis master’s defense in the next month, to secure a master’s in case I decide not to return after my leave of absence? (2) do I feel that a leave of absence will make a difference at all? Will coming back to the lab after some time away resolve the problems I’ve been having, or will it all just build up all over again? and (3) do I still want a Ph.D-dependent career? What do I even want to do?

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

The Journals Of Derek Grady Part 1

This is a story set within my Bioshock Rebirth AU. A reimaging/reboot of the Bioshock franchise. https://geekgemsspookyblog.tumblr.com/post/626141727587270656/bioshock-rebirth-timeline-this-is-a-timeline-of-an Just as a heads up if anyone is wondering about the context. I’ve had some stories in my drafts for a long time now and I’m finally publicly sharing them.

I made a post talking about this. There is this character named Derek that was in one of my pilot stories for this AU. But I felt strangely ashamed of how I wrote him. But I’d feel it’s best to use him in better context. In something very intriguing. Mainly the point of view of the Rapture Civil War from someone who fought in it. 

There is this silly theme of certain characters being named Derek in some AU’s of mine. Usual they are men that seem well intentioned, but their mind isn’t always in the best place. I’m just gonna make this because this is something I wanna make.

This was first started/made on December 23rd 2020. I’m not gonna have this beta read. It’s time I just upload this shit. I got the two tags done with. But I would like to mention I was heavily or so inspired by the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic story. Especially with the first journal from this character being inspired by the, “Knightfall” level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lgG2ENW5Ac Spoilers ahead.

12/31/2001. The attack on the Kashmir restuarant.

I was a young kid when I first arrived in Rapture. I was naïve like many others. Many of used to believe in Andrew Ryan’s so called, “Great Chain”, until things started to fall apart. Especially after the death of scumbag Frank Fontaine. I find it funny he tried to put on a nice guy act whenever he met someone new or when he was in public, but I’ve heard the stories. The stories of the type of man he was.

But after Ryan nationalized Fontaine Futuristics in January 1999, a lot of people weren’t happy. It was surprising how long it took something to happen. So much dividing of social classes, so much shit that had happened during those years. What was gonna happen tonight would change everything forever...

I’ve been on Atlas’s crew of bandits since July. I felt joining Atlas was the best decision I made in my entire life. Because I felt I fighting for the right thing, a good cause. But what Atlas had planned sounded to me almost like terrorism. 

Yet when I thought about it, I really thought hard to myself. After everything we’ve suffered, how Ryan started to push everyone away, how he tried keep himself in power. Even though Rapture was supposed to be the perfect paradise...Andrew Ryan, Brigid Tenenbaum, Augustus Sinclair, Sander Cohen, Yi Suchong, Sofia Lamb, and so many others...how they treated us.

First it was just riots, but now it was time for Ryan and everyone who supported him knew what we were. What we stood for. They were gonna find out we weren’t some bandits who kidnapped some rich assholes to get payback or robin hood archetypes helping poor folks. 

There was no more talk for peace. Because Ryan never gave a damn...he never did.

1/31/2002. The Civil War starting. Apollo Square. Atlas and crew.

It’s been a month since we launched an attack on Kashmir. Things started to really change because the war for this city finally had truly begun. I have never been in war, but with the skills I’ve learned from Atlas and Daisy. I’d felt I was ready, because I needed to be. Not many of us were actual soldiers. But that didn’t matter to us. We knew what had to be done.

But we didn’t knew that Ryan would try to make Apollo Square a prison camp. Yet that didn’t matter, when those so called security officers first started to set people ablaze when they tried escaping. We shot any who would tried to do such things again. When they were hanging people, we fought back because we got tired of their bullshit. We didn’t fuck around. I felt proud when I shot one of those damn officers in the head. 

Apollo Square was practically our paradise. Sure Ryan’s army kept trying to get in, yet we always defended it. Yet even without Ryan, we still had others to worry about.

I feel pretty damn grateful a lot of our weapons were smuggled from the surface. We kept some of the weapons Ryan’s men had as well. 

But I think what I felt more grateful was our leaders. Daisy Fitzroy was practically Atlas’s 2nd in command. She was a tough woman, she didn’t take shit. Considering she worked for that weird kinky lady known as Ava Tate, I can’t blame her becoming that. She’s one of the bravest and smartest women I’ve fought with. I’m surprised she didn’t form our rebellion first.

Bill was lucky enough to be convinced by Atlas to join us after he resigned from the council. But Bill was like us. Even though he believed in Rapture, he was just an old man who wanted the best for people. I found that admirable of him. I also think he’s grateful we hid his ass after he left Ryan. Considering how Ryan gets upset with whoever betrays him, he’d rather want them dead...yet that might of been different considering he was best friends with Ryan himself. 

Diane was new, she was a hostage once with Julie Langford. But when Ryan never paid her ransom and practically didn’t care for her. But I do think she noticed those Jasmine Jolene posters throughout the city, making Ryan’s betrayal seemingly more worse. She originally came to Apollo Square to yell at us of how we possibly ruined her life. But when she saw the shit we were going through, she soon understood even more of the situation. Especially when we heard it wasn’t made better when hearing Ryan’s thoughts on people like us.

She joined us rather quickly, she was like Bill in a way. Diane was honestly a kind woman, it always felt nice to have more supporters. I do find it surprising from what I’ve seen that her and Daisy seemed to have developed a thing. Yet I found it surprisingly adorable...mainly because it was so strange to see Daisy seem soft to another person. But I think it gave the ladies more of a reason to keep fighting on.

But Atlas...he was something else. There was a reason people followed him. I followed him for plenty of good reasons. He seemed like a action hero you see out of those films from Hollywood. But I have never met a man so kind, yet so humble. He was the best of us...or that’s what I thought. You can have a good laugh with him too while having a drink. The man had a family, but he didn’t spoke of them much to keep them safe. I also remember hearing he was a captain in the Irish army. Which gave us an advantage in some ways over Ryan’s men.

He was the perfect anti-thesis to Andrew Ryan. Atlas was someone many genuinely respected and loved. Men wanted to be him, women loved him. To me and others. He wasn’t just a friend. Atlas was sometimes like a brother, or even a father.

Sure he wasn’t perfect and did some questionable things. But we knew it was for the best. Atlas is our best shot at winning this war. And I’m proud to fighting side by side with him, no matter what. 

2/1/2002. Johnny Topside.

I never met the man, but Atlas knew him only for a year. The way he talked about Johnny. I’ve heard stories of him, well that’s because Atlas didn’t want his memory to die. Atlas said Johnny Topside was a diver who had discovered Rapture years ago and for sometime was forced to live in Rapture until he finally had enough. 

Johnny Topside was the start of our rebellion. He was the one that planted the seeds. Johnny was the first to stand up to Ryan, but it resulted in tragedy. No one knows fully what happened to him. But Atlas said Ryan had tried to erase Johnny’s memory from history, and that it was very likely he may of been turned into...a Big Daddy...the idea of that horrifies me.

When Atlas spoke of him, he spoke of him so highly. Saying that Johnny was like a younger brother to him. You could of even seen at times Atlas nearly choked up when talking about him. I can’t blame him, losing someone that was like a brother to him. I’ve would of been nearly tearing up.

The story of Johnny Topside was something that kept us going, it inspired us. Hell, it even inspired me. Atlas didn’t want his memory to die, because what he was doing wasn’t just for everyone. But it was also justice for Johnny...justice for everyone that had enough of Ryan.

My only disappointment is that I never got to meet Johnny...because when Atlas says he’d would rather had him lead us...that says a helluva lot about Topside.

2/3/2002. Booker Dewitt and Ryan’s personal guard.

I’ve heard the stories of Dewitt...he merely sounded like a ghost. But he wasn’t. This was the man that shot down Fontaine, and most likely helped captured Johnny Topside.

Captain Dewitt was known to the citizens as, “The Grim Reaper Of Rapture” and he damn well earned it. But he was also Ryan’s new best friend after Bill left. Dewitt kept Ryan’s enemies in check. Whether by killing them when no one was looking, or capturing them. 

Security was fine, but Ryan’s personal guard and when Dewitt was leading them...that was scary. I think what scared us rebels was whenever he showed up. He always wore that mask...which gave him more of a reason to call him a grim reaper...because he damn sure was.

Ryan’s personal guard weren’t just police officers enforcing Ryan’s rule, they were literal soldiers. They were formed when Johnny Topside had discovered Rapture. The guard was basically a better version of security.

They were made up of men who either genuinely believed in the, “Great Chain” or just were looking to be paid by Ryan. Some of them were ex soldiers, mercenaries, and they were all just horrible people. 

The guard weren’t pushovers, they had years of experience or training by Dewitt. They were merciless, brutal, and effective. The fact Ryan had now decided to use them even more now showcased he truly wasn’t fucking around anymore. He wanted to win this war. But we weren’t gonna let that happen.

I think we were just thankful they didn’t really use Plasmids...if they did...then I felt this war may be over already. But it also gives us a easier chance to kill them all.

2/15/2002. Splicers.

Over the years since ADAM was discovered. Splicers became thing. Poor folks who used too spliced too much...they were once people...but they were sadly monsters now. I think what surprised us is how some of them were on our side...but not many. Unless they controlled themselves.

The Splicers of many types were a pain in the ass for Ryan and Atlas. Killing the rebels or Ryan’s personal guard. They had no allegiance...all they wanted was ADAM...they were basically drug addicts. I remember seeing one time a woman shanking a man for his ADAM, we had to put her down.

I didn’t really use Plasmids much, or some of the others like Atlas, Daisy, Diane, and Bill. It seemed good for Atlas that some of the rebels didn’t try to splice up. Which meant we can deal with less people turning into those...things.

There was one time I had to put down one of them. The man was just 21, but he had spliced up so much that he had gone insane. He tried attacking Daisy and Diane, but me and Daisy took him down shot him in the chest. But he was still breathing.

...I shot him in the head...I hesitated at first for about five seconds...he was younger than me. I wanted to make his death as quick and painless...it gave me a haunting reminder of why we were still fighting. All this pain and suffering...it started with the discover of that damn thing called ADAM...

I’m surprised I haven’t spoken about Tenenbaum yet...I feel like she was 2nd in place for me to kill after Ryan.

3/15/2002. Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and Brigid Tenenbaum.

I think the other thing that haunts me a lot and so many others is these two...I’ve seen them countless times and I have fought them when I joined Atlas.

Big Daddies are practically these...monsters that used to be people...slaves to protect what were once literal children...

These monsters looked like literal giant diving suits at times...some had drills, some had guns. They were tough sons of bitches. These things could kill a man easily, or even a group of a men if you weren’t careful. 

But it’s the Little Sisters that horrify me and other rebels...not because they are dangerous or that they are killers. It’s the fact of what they are. They were children...or possibly still are...forced to collect ADAM because they were implanted with some...damn sea slug Tenenbaum discovered...

There is no known cure for them. I think many of us want a cure. But the only way to help these girls is something horrific...harvesting them. Atlas said it was to put them out of their misery. They had ADAM in them.

From what I’ve seen, some rebels harvested them, some didn’t. Daisy didn’t do it. Neither did Diane or Bill. I remember seeing Atlas making the most sickened face after harvesting one, he didn’t enjoy it at all.

I think it may of bothered Atlas some didn’t harvest them...but it’s understandable why some wouldn’t. Because I remember seeing one 37 year old man, after he had harvested just one Little Sister. The man about 5 minutes later literally put a pistol under his jaw and killed himself.

We all understood why he even did that. Because after you witness a child being horrified by you about to harvest them...it’s a sight you’re never going to forget.

I can still hear those girls screaming. Daisy and Diane do too...it’s in our nightmares. For some reason...the harvesting of a Little Sister scars me than seeing a Splicer or whatever else...I don’t know why...I think it’s because all that innocence was lost...or actually taken. Because there was no other way to help them.

It was all because of one woman, Brigid Tenenbaum. I heard she worked with Frank Fontaine to help make those girls into what they are. I’ve heard she’s had a hard life, but that doesn’t excuse what I find one of the most horrific crimes I’ve ever seen. She’s been in hiding for 4 years after being exposed for what she did.

If we ever find Tenenbaum...I want to put my foot on her throat...whatever what we want to do to her. To be honest, I think I want to kill her more than Ryan...because I don’t know how you can be forgiven for doing that to a child.

God forgives, and whenever I have to put down a fellow rebel because they spliced up too much, I make it quick and painless as possible...but Tenenbaum...quick and painless is not gonna mean anything if we ever find her. 

6/3/2002. SOS and Archie Wynand.

After six months of war with Ryan’s personal guard and the Splicers. Whether some were controlled or not...things were going south for us. We fought hard, we planned as best as we could. But nothing was working, because Ryan was nearly winning.

There was panic among us, we were fearing that all of this could be for nothing. But Atlas revealed something, which he said was a risk in case. He somehow gave an SOS message to the surface to whoever would get it. Because he knew we weren’t gonna win this on our own anymore. We needed help, we needed the surface to discover Rapture. But also, we needed someone to help us take down Ryan. It was on Sunday Atlas gave out the message for help. We prayed someone would answer it. Luckily for us, someone did answer it.

Despite his aircraft was shot down by Ryan, and being the only survivor of his squad. Someone had arrived. That someone was a young man named Sergeant Archie Wynand. An Army Ranger sent by the US Government to discover where the SOS came from. 

To be honest, I was worried by the fact only one man had survived. I’d feared we still didn’t stand a chance. But after I saw that man enter combat and killed so many Splicers, I have never seen a man fought hard like that. He was still young like me, but he was like a commando in his way. It was as if someone like Atlas again had come to save us. 

Me and him never really talked, but from what I’ve seen. That man is the bravest soul I’ve ever seen. He’s loyal to a fault and unbreakable, it was like seeing a warrior unlike any other. I will admit, I felt a bit jealous when Atlas has giving him a lot more attention than me. 

But Archie was important. Atlas sent him commands and he followed through. But I think what confused me the most was something Atlas had revealed earlier. Which resulted in ordering Archie to go to a certain building, a tower in the middle of Rapture. 

6/4/2002. Elizabeth.

A day before Archie had arrived. There was this strange new information Atlas had discovered. That there was some girl in this tower in Rapture. Her name was Elizabeth. Atlas had discovered it when raiding a building near that tower. 

We were so confused on why Ryan had a girl in this tower. In fact? Why was she there? Who was she really? Even Atlas was confused, but she seemed important.

But I feel our questions were answered when Archie saved her. I didn’t get to talk to her personally, but I have seen her in action with my own eyes. Along with some footage. 

Somehow, this young girl had some powers of an unknown source. She was able to summon old sentries, and other things. It felt unnatural. Sure the Plasmids and other discoveries in Rapture were very special...but what this girl could do...it made us question even more who the hell she was and why Ryan had her locked away.

Gonna admit though, she was honestly adorable.

6/5/2002. Elizabeth’s purpose, and what the Hell is Archie? What the Hell is going on?

I think it horrified me and the rebels of what Elizabeth was supposed to be. Why she was kept secret from Rapture. What Atlas had discovered more is that she was secretly a weapon Ryan would use in case against someone like us. A sleeper agent that would of slipped through our ranks or anyone else...almost like a female fatale Ryan wanted to make personally...it confused me because from what I’ve seen, she’s nothing like that.

But I think we surprised us more is that she had been in Rapture since 1983. For about 19 years, Ryan had her in there, with hardly anyone knowing. I think it sickened me a bit more hearing Ryan was gonna use a young woman as a secret weapon in case someone like Atlas came along. It was almost like what happened with the Little Sisters.

Yet the other thing that’s been on my mind is Archie. I’ve talked about how much of a warrior he was. Ever since he rescued Elizabeth, she’s been by his side ever since. I haven’t seen such a effective team. It was like they were perfect for each other.

But again, it’s Archie that has me thinking. Sure he’s a soldier...but compared to any of us...and even compared to Ryan’s personal guard. I have never seen a man be so efficient in what he does. This was a young man, yet he fought like he was like some sort of super soldier. Hell, I don’t even think Atlas and Daisy are that efficient. He’s fast and strong.

He was also using so many Plasmids without mutating. I couldn’t get it? He wasn’t becoming spliced up. I couldn’t believe it? I had lost count of how many times he injected a Eve Hypo into his wrists.

I think the scary part is how many Big Daddies he’s killed...how can one man kill so many. I didn’t understand it? But from what I’ve seen from footage is...him curing the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it.

Where were he and Elizabeth staying at? I heard Atlas yesterday say they were at Tenenbaum’s...I couldn’t understand...I’m confused...

6/5/2002 A bigger Big Daddy.

I didn’t understand nor could I comprehend what I had witnessed. Ever since Archie arrived...things were changing. What made me think this way was when I saw...something I didn’t think was possible.

Out of all the Big Daddies we’ve killed. I had never seen one so big. He was about 12 feet tell...he looked older than any of the Big Daddies. He looked similar to the Alpha series Big Daddies...I couldn’t understand. I was lucky to have lived, but I witness it killed so many rebels, Splicers, and Ryan’s army. This Big Daddy was vicious. It seemed like he was on a mission. As if he was tracking down Elizabeth.

I’m just in disbelief...I don’t understand.

I was a witness also to see Elizabeth teleport it somewhere...I think it’s dead...I’m not sure.

6/6/2002. The war soon coming to an end.

To be honest, I was fearing we may never win. But somehow we made it. Captain Dewitt was beaten yesterday, and now Ryan is soon to be dealt with. 

I’ve learned from Atlas that Tenenbaum had created a cure for the Little Sisters...I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I asked him again if he was telling the truth, and he was. That’s why Archie and Elizabeth were staying with Tenenbaum somewhere. 

It still sounded so crazy. But the next piece of news is that these three would be coming to Atlas’s headquarters, our base of operations. I couldn’t believe I was seeing Tenenbaum...I had...weird feelings.

The plans were while Archie and others went to Ryan’s office to finally take him down. There was hardly anyone left to defend him. While Elizabeth and Dr. Tenenbaum stayed at Atlas’s headquarters. It...an experience meeting this young girl...even after everything she’d been through, but so kind. 

But I wasn’t gonna be staying for long either like Archie. Atlas sent me and some men to take over Fort Folic considering Archie and Elizabeth’s recent visit there. As if the freak that was Sander Cohen had finally left somewhere. It was no longer locked up.

I felt genuine hope for the first time. As if this whole nightmare will finally end. But I will admit, I wanted to kill Ryan as much as anybody else. I had my orders, and I listened. Besides, taking back Fort Folic was a huge win

I do recall Ryan playing golf at times. Hopefully when Archie gets to his office, he’ll beat the Walt Disney lookalike of a fuckhead with his own golf club. It’s what Ryan deserved...it’s what many of us wanted.

6/7/2002. Atlas...and the end...

...I don’t even know what to say...the war is over...it’s actually over...

But it didn’t end with Ryan dying or getting captured...

Atlas...our leader...my hero...my best friend...the anti-thesis to Ryan...was Frank Fontaine.

He’s dead...he was brutally hung...by Archie...his corpse is hanging for everyone to see...he...looks like half of a monster.

Everything we’ve done...everything we stood for...I feel betrayed, but I feel relived. I think others are feeling a similar way...I need no I want answers...

6/8/2002. The birth of the Vox Populi. Tenenbaum discovering these journals.

I think what happened on Thursday and Friday...changed so many of us...even myself...I thank Daisy and Diane for explaining it to me.

There was a huge meeting with the remaining rebels. Archie, Elizabeth, and Dr. Tenenbaum joined in as well. So many discussions were had. Rapture was finally ours...

While Splicers were still a thing, and some rich assholes were still around. Considering half of the city was still going, but we came together to formulate a plan. 

There won’t be another Andrew Ryan, or even another Frank Fontaine. The end of the Rapture Civil War was only the beginning of something much better. 

We weren’t just called rebels anymore, we were officially given a name now. The Vox Populi. It was Daisy’s idea for the name. We were basically the reformed version of Atlas’s rebellion. But now, we had genuine people who actually gave a damn. Who wouldn’t use us as puppets. That we will strive for a better tomorrow. 

For peace, a better community. So we can help out every Little Sister we can find out there, and help whoever else is in Rapture. We’re gonna make this shithole of a city a better living place. No more tyrants, no more conmen, no more rulers, just people wanting to make this place a better place for everyone.

Justice, peace, and all that...I think many of us are still getting over what happened with Atlas...I’m still getting used to it...I’m just grateful it’s over.

But before this the huge meeting, Dr. Tenenbaum discovered my journals...she read what I wrote about her...our struggles. I apologized to her, but she said it’s okay. She said she doesn’t blame me for being angry. I think what surprised me more was the one person that her the most was herself...

For some odd reason, I forgave her...she just stared at me with surprise. She gave me a small smile...and then I said I think I could forgive her after everything she’s tried doing to fix her mistakes. Because I told her trying to fix your mistakes is better than doing nothing.

#bioshock rebirth #derek grady