#financially or otherwise and it's something that the 'elites' do | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

finniestoncrane · 1 year

Note

How would each of the Riddlers ask for your hand in marriage, and what would the wedding be like? 💍💒

Marriage

Riddler Headcanons ok so i don't think they would all be on board, but i think they could be persuaded, if not for nefarious or sneaky reasons u-u wanna make them all my malewives i swear, sister wives if you will 💚 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi • masterlist minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: some suggestive things

dano

he has so many ideas for a proposal!!

he could have bombs go off around the city, spelling it out!

he could have some rats bring it to you in their little paws!

he could spell it out in the blood of the corrupt gotham elite!

all very romantic and creative gestures

and he'll live stream your wedding!

a quiet affair, just you, eddie and the judge he's holding hostage

a public marriage will really show everyone who said he was a loser

arkham

he is 100% only marrying you if the situation calls for it

and not romantically, more financially or for the sake of visitation

since only spouses are permitted private 'meetings'

don't assume that your conjugal visits will be hot and sweaty

you're there to conspire with him and plan his escape

also he will marry someone out of spite

but there won't be a proposal

more a sort of vague suggestion and then a certificate to sign

gotham

you really have to want to marry him

because only then will you be able to focus your energy

otherwise his little treasure hunt for the ring will bore you to death

but he's so excited because he loves riddles, and questions

and "will you marry me?" is the best question!

the wedding will be so sweet, so vintage, so fun

swing music for your first dance obviously

but there's always a chance oswald will gatecrash

btaa

it would take him a while to admit that you were too good to let go

luckily miss tuesday is on side to convince him to propose

with a spouse, that means less work for her to do

you can bet the proposal will be creative, artistic... criminal

a grand gesture, perhaps involving a helicopter

which you two can then make a grand escape in

officiant waiting on board as you make your getaway

you don't want to spend your honeymoon in the conjugal rooms

capullo

he would get married, sure

it would make him look better, like someone wanted him

not that people don't want him, but a binding contract

that might be necessary for someone like him

he's not having a wedding though

he'd like to be able to keep his options open

not make a public statement that he's off the market

OH COME ON HE'S KIDDING come back, please marry him

young justice

definitely going to need you to propose

there's absolutely no way he'd have the confidence to do it

why would someone like you ever say yes to someone like him?

but that's ok, because he's adorable

and you'd do anything to keep him forever

it'll be a small wedding, too many people makes him nervous

mabye you could elope!

that way he can get to the sweet kisses and hugs and other stuff sooner

telltale

marriage for him is more of a comfort arrangement

he needs someone to look after him in his old(er) age

but if you annoy him less than other people

he'd be keen to make sure you stick around as long as possible

the wedding would be a very traditional one

but he'll insist that you don't wear anything "virginal white"

that's a treat to himself, an inside joke

making sure everyone knows he's already had his way with you

twojar

he absolutely loves the idea of having a spouse

someone to come home to, to spoil, to take trips with

also, it would be good to have something to use when begging

"please, i have a wife, don't beat me batman"

just enough that he can distract him before smacking him

i think it's the shirtless thing

but he's definitely a beach wedding guy

white linen pants, matching shirt wide open, bare chested "i do's"

unburied

an excuse to be the centre of attention?

to get dressed up and look like a fancy little gentleman?

for people to bring him gifts and say nice things to him?

yeah, sign him up!

get ready for the most eddie-centric, expensive affair ever

he won't propose though, he's not the begging type

he's malewife material, a kept husband if you will

and he'll reject you if the ring isn't big enough too

#finnie writes #riddler x reader #riddler x you #riddler headcanon #ridler scenario #gotham riddler #arkham riddler #young justice riddler #dano riddler #zero year riddler #batman unburied riddler #bu riddler #telltale riddler #twojar riddler #riddler #the riddler #btaa riddler

221 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 5 months

Text

Out of 8 billion people on the planet, there are only 16 million Jews—but far, far more anti-Semites. I sometimes joke that if I had fewer scruples, I wouldn’t report on anti-Jewish prejudice; I’d contract myself out to the more numerous and better-resourced bigots, and help them get away with it. Because in more than a decade covering anti-Semitism, I have become a reluctant expert in all the ways that anti-Jewish activists obfuscate their hate.

People must learn to recognize and reject these tactics, because too many communities have developed ways to excuse or otherwise ignore anti-Semitism. Today, such prejudice is growing in high and low places because powerful people around the world are running the same playbook to launder their hate into the public sphere.

Here’s how they do it:

1. They become too big to fail. Over the past six months, Elon Musk has publicly affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history, claimed that Jews and Jewish organizations cause anti-Semitism, and echoed extremist conspiracy theories about the Jewish financier George Soros. As a result, the billionaire has lost a few advertisers on his social-media platform, and even got rapped by the White House. But as The New York Times reported, even as the U.S. government criticized Musk, it continued to buy things from him.

In fact, in recent months, Musk has raked in Pentagon cash, including more than $1 billion in exchange for launching spy satellites and other intelligence assets into orbit through his lucrative space-exploration venture, SpaceX. In September, days after Musk attacked the Anti-Defamation League and suggested that Jews cause anti-Semitism, he met with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss artificial intelligence. The magnate subsequently signed a deal worth up to $70 million to provide the U.S. government with a secure satellite communications system. “Rarely has the U.S. government so depended on the technology provided by a single technologist,” the Times wrote. Meanwhile, diverse actors ranging from the ADL to Representative Ilhan Omar keep advertising on Musk’s social-media site, his rich friends continue to defend him, and, last week, he was featured at a Times event.

Musk has similarly been wooed by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government, who—like Ukraine’s leadership—want to stay on the entrepreneur’s good side so that he doesn’t use technology like his Starlink satellite internet to harm their war efforts. Precisely because Musk plays a leading role in so many industries that are essential to humanity’s future—electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, space technology—no country can quit him, not even one as powerful as the United States or as Jewish as Israel. Likewise, no matter how many dinners Donald Trump has with anti-Semites such as Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Holocaust deniers such as Nick Fuentes, he will not be penalized for it by Republicans, because he is too essential to their party to be discarded.

This characteristic is what separates the big-league bigots who get away with it from those who don’t. Ye’s mistake was that he invested his talents in producing music and sneakers rather than something more indispensable to human flourishing, such as precision-guided ballistic missiles.

2. They don’t say the quiet part out loud. Those who want to fulminate about the Jews but lack the singular clout of Elon Musk still have plenty of options. They just need to be slightly more subtle about their prejudice. Take Tucker Carlson, once the most-watched man on cable news, who used his show to popularize a sanitized version of the same “Great Replacement” theory that Musk recently endorsed, which posits that Jewish elites are plotting to supplant the white race through the mass immigration of brown people. This white-supremacist fantasy motivated the 2018 massacre of worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, among other recent attacks. How did Carlson get such an unhinged idea on television? He repeated the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory—“They’re trying to change the population of the United States, and they hate it when you say that because it’s true, but that’s exactly what they’re doing”—but left out the word Jews and let the audience fill in the blank.

This time-honored technique provides even the most pointed prejudice with plausible deniability. In particular, whenever you see politicians or celebrities darkly ruminating about an amorphous “they” covertly controlling events, chances are good that you are seeing this strategy in action. Consider Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has led Turkey, a member of NATO, since 2003. In 2014, he began darkly referring to a “mastermind” behind the country’s ills:

Don’t be misled. Don’t think that these operations are against my persona, our government, our party. Friends, these operations are rather directed against Turkey itself—its unity, its peace, its economy, its independence. And as I have said before, behind all these steps there is a mastermind. People ask me, “Who is this mastermind?” Well, you have to figure that out. And actually, you know what it is.

Erdoğan was not talking about the Amish. His allies subsequently produced a movie titled The Mastermind, which aired on pro-government TV stations and helpfully opened with an image of a Star of David. “At every stage,” the Turkish commentator Mustafa Akyol wrote at the time, “the film reminds us how the Judaic ‘mastermind’ has oppressed humanity for thousands of years.” As Erdoğan has consolidated his essentially unchecked power, he has become more forthright in his anti-Semitism, and faced no international consequences.

3. They replace Jew with Zionist. In 1934, Representative Louis McFadden of Pennsylvania took to the floor of Congress to complain about Jewish control of the American financial system. “Is it not true,” he bemoaned, “that, in the United States today, the gentiles have the slips of paper while the Jews have the gold?” Today, this sort of rhetoric is frowned upon in polite society, but aspiring anti-Semites have a work-around: substituting each instance of Jews with Zionists or Israelis. Then: The Jews control the world. Now: The Zionists control the world.

With this simple switch, prejudice magically becomes mere criticism of Israel. Social-media companies won’t moderate it, and many activists will defend it. People can even make their anti-Semitic argument live on CNN, as Pakistan’s foreign minister did in 2021, when he claimed that Israel controls the media. In this manner, an ancient conspiracy theory is updated to appeal to partisans in the 21st century, many of whom will insist that they don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in their body. Of course, Zionism warrants critique like any other political ideology, but conspiracism is not criticism. This is what Martin Luther King Jr. was referring to when he said, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”

One person who has mastered this maneuver is the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, the man responsible for the most anti-Jewish violence in the world today. In 2021, he posted on social media: “The Zionists have always been a plague, even before establishing the fraudulent Zionist regime. Even then, Zionist capitalists were a plague for the whole world. Now they’re a plague especially for the world of Islam.”

In case the references to rapacious capitalists and comparisons of people to disease didn’t give it away, Khamenei was also not talking about the Amish. He was taking garden-variety anti-Semitism, replacing the word Jews with Zionists, and relying on his audience being too dense or partisan to care. Similarly, when the Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted a video on her Facebook page declaring that “Zionist supremacists” were “breeding us out of existence in our own homelands,” she was drawing from the same poisoned well. Coded language has always served to smuggle bigotry into the public discourse, and anti-Semitism is no exception.

4. They say they were just “supporting Palestine.” Earlier this month, the actor Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency. It was a mostly symbolic gesture, because the celebrated performer continues to get work and others will be happy to represent her. But almost immediately, viral posts on social media viewed more than 50 million times claimed that she had been punished for her pro-Palestinian advocacy. This popular narrative had only one small flaw: It was false.

As Deadline reported, the words that got Sarandon in trouble were not about Palestinians or Israelis. At a rally in New York, home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, the actor referred to rising anti-Semitism in America and declared, “There are a lot of people that are afraid, afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.” In reality, since the FBI began tracking hate crimes, Jews have been subjected to more anti-religious attacks than all other groups combined, despite constituting just 2 percent of the American population. This includes the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, multiple synagogue shootings in California, and a Texas congregation being taken hostage in 2022. Erasing anti-Semitism and attempting to pit American Jews and Muslims against each other in some sort of debased oppression Olympics is not “support for Palestine.” It’s ignorance at best and malice at worst, which is why Deadline accurately headlined its story “UTA Drops Susan Sarandon as Client Following Recent Antisemitic Remarks She Made at a Rally in New York.”

On social media, none of this mattered. Sarandon was misleadingly cast as a martyr for the Palestinian cause and celebrated by a diverse array of notables, including the journalist Glenn Greenwald, the presidential candidate Cornel West, several prominent progressive activists, and even the head of a human-rights group. None of these people linked to or acknowledged the actual substance of Sarandon’s remarks, even when confronted by commenters who raised them. None has corrected their claims.

Sarandon apologized on Friday, two weeks after her original statement. But the sleight of hand others used to defend her—in which apologetics for anti-Jewish violence are disingenuously recast as Palestinian advocacy—is endemic to our current discourse. Last month, an activist told a public-radio journalist that he’d been receiving “50 hate calls an hour” over a pro-Palestinian speech he delivered at an October 8 rally. But what he actually did was explicitly cheer the murder of civilians and declare, “I salute Hamas—a job well done.” This fact appeared nowhere in the published story, which said only that he “spoke in support of Palestine.”

Pro-Palestinian activism is not the same as anti-Semitism, which is why it’s important that when people say bigoted things about Jews or support violence against them, their words should not be conflated with Palestinian advocacy. But unfortunately, too many anti-Semites wrap themselves in the Palestinian cause, and too many partisans are happy to let them do so. This does not help any Palestinians, as it tends to tar their cause with prejudice, but it does insulate a fair number of anti-Semites from the consequences of their words or actions. That’s why in recent weeks, many bigots have attempted to use the Palestinian plight as their alibi, vandalizing Jewish institutions around the world, including synagogues and kosher restaurants, with “Free Palestine” and related slogans.

Every community has biases—toward the rich and powerful, toward ideological allies—that lead it to excuse bad behavior it would otherwise repudiate. But such excuses for prejudice work only because we allow them to. Covert anti-Semitism tends to turn into overt anti-Semitism. Until we start seriously confronting the former, we can expect more of the latter.

44 notes · View notes

dye-it-rouge-et-noir · 1 month

Text

For April Fools, I rewrote Casino Royale but Uno as a crack fic. I'm not sure if I am going to regret this later, but I think this is something! 800~ words and it's fairly unrefined.

Within an ornate Montenegrin casino, an Uno tournament had been hosted with the cash prize of 100 million in USD. Though an eccentric option for a casino that typically hosted the likes of poker and baccarat, it had caught the attention of social elites. More importantly, a financer for a myriad of terrorist organizations had joined in. Le Chiffre had taken advantage of the opportunity to recuperate from his financial losses.

M had nominated Bond to join in the game due to his high win streaks in the MI6 breakrooms. Though, he didn't need to exactly win. He simply needed to make Le Chiffre lose, drive him up into a corner, and figure out who his superiors were.

The rules followed that of the original code laid out by the game's creator, Merle Robbins. Each player starts out with a hand of cards, matching one of their cards with the color or number that coincided with the top card on the discard pile. In order to win, they would continue matching until they had none left over. If there were no matches, they would have to draw another card.

However, the game held some complexity that differentiated it from being a mere colorful imitation of Go-Fish. There was the inclusion of cards that could cause the next player to draw more cards, wild cards that allowed the next color to be chosen, and a card that could reverse the order of turns. All of these could be deployed to one's advantage to shift who was winning and who was losing.

Though a standard round of Uno would last approximately the time it took for someone to eat lunch, the game began to stretch over the span of a few hours. That was because of one special additional rule of Uno.

When one's hand thinned down to a singular card, they had to call out the titular word uno before someone else did. Otherwise, they'd have to draw two cards. This rule was abused throughout the game to effectively bar someone from getting close to zero.

Bond kept a watchful eye over everyone's cards, in case anybody had forgotten that rule. As Le Chiffre's hand slowly waned, the spy was waiting for the moment when his hand had a singular card.

That moment was now.

The paymaster had placed a card on the discard pile, leaving him with one card.

This opportunity would not dare be wasted.

"Uno," Bond called out.

Le Chiffre's head turned towards Bond, "I beg your pardon?"

The spy simply nodded, "You have to draw two cards now."

"He's right," The croupier flipped through a tiny uno handbook, "You have to draw two cards whenever someone calls uno before you do."

After a harsh glare sent towards Bond, Le Chiffre reluctantly drew two cards.

For that move, Le Chiffre retaliated in response later by poisoning Bond's martini when break was called.

Never in his life did Bond think that he'd nearly lose his life over a colorful card game, but it happened.

With Vesper's timely aid, he had managed to narrowly survive and could continue playing Uno.

The rest of the night had proceeded like an usual Uno game (an absurdly long one), albeit some of the other players had forfeited the match due to its prolonged length and increasing frustration. Even as the player count slowly dwindled, the tense atmosphere remained.

Le Chiffre placed a red six on the discard pile, leaving him with one card.

"Uno," The paymaster said, not allowing himself to make the same mistake as last time.

Bond looked at his hand of two cards remaining, one was a blue seven and the other was a wild card.

He had saved the wild card for good reason. Not only was it capable of being used without regard to the last discarded card, it had the ability to determine the next color to be used.

Judging by Le Chiffre's confident demeanor, he guessed that the other card in his hand would have been none other than either another red or six. Though, there was the lurking possibility that the paymaster held a draw four or even another wild card in his possession. Considering that wild cards only determined the color of the next card, Bond had to decide upon blue if he wanted to discard his other one.

Placing the wild card into the discard pile, hoping that luck would be on his side.

"Blue. I would also like to call my uno."

Bond wasn't going to let his opponent call Uno before he did at the very end of the game.

Watching the wild card get placed, Le Chiffre drew a card from the draw pile.

With that, Bond had secured himself the victory. He promptly placed his other card on top of the stack silently with a smirk.

He was pretty certain that Le Chiffre would try to kill him again later, but he wanted to revel in the victory for as long as he could.

#james bond #007 #casino royale #april fools day #my writing #(i need to QUICKLY cover this up with my other actual james bond stuff this is no longer april fools but now april FLOOD)

12 notes · View notes

globalrebrand · 1 year

Text

Work Life Balance:

Ever wondered how Vil balances his yandere tendencies with his career as a high profile model and actor?

Author's Note: Structural Abstract is my knock-off Architectural Digest lol.

Warnings: Manipulation, extortion, financial abuse, controlling behavior, isolation, mentions of having children.

It's not easy keeping the extent of his obsession with you under lock and key, but Vil manages it rather gracefully. By virtue of his career he cannot hide his darling away, but there are other ways to isolate them from the larger world.

Vil has to be extremely strategic with the media attention given to him and his partner. In the early stages of the relationship, Vil makes it well known that he has a partner, living in a celebrity-dense metropolis and being seen going on dates and various outings. He brings them as his plus one to all the award shows and important galas as well as paints a healthy narrative of their relationship on his magicam. However, behind the scenes, he pulls some strings to make his darling's public life without him incredibly stressful. If he's dating a fellow, lower profile celebrity, he secretly tips off paparazzi about their whereabouts so they can't catch a break from media attention. And if they're just an ordinary individual, he'll stage some traumatizing invasive encounters with the paparazzi. He'll also create anonymous accounts to start rumors about his partner and encourage the bullying of his darling on their various social media platforms if they have them. All while he'll make statements about how he's appalled at the negative treatment his partner receives. He does all of this so that when he eventually proposes to his partner and marries them, it all makes sense when he sweeps them away to a large estate outside of the city and they delete all of their personal social media accounts. If you're a celebrity as well, he'll allow your manager to run your social media accounts, but eventually, he'll try to consolidate things. Forcing you to move to work under his talent agency and taking it upon himself to become your social media manager.

The estate is vital to his scheme as well.(For reference I'm imaging something like this)It's absolutely massive. It sits on over 500 acres of land far removed from easily accessible roads. It's also likely completely self-sustaining. The estate has its own greenhouse, vegetable garden (really a small farm), a chicken coop. Not to mention all of the recreational amenities, like the home gym, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis court, flower gardens, running trails, and film screening room. Vil will do a home tour for a renowned publication like Structural Abstract, showing the two of you living comfortably in your massive home, but after a wave of favorable press, he'll appeal to the public to allow you two privacy. Citing your move from the city to the country primarily as a need to get you away from prying eyes. After marrying his darling he becomes one of those celebrities who are high profile but obscured from excessive media attention. He does this to conceal the truth about the nature of his relationship.

If you work a normal job, you don't anymore. Vil takes you with him to all of the shoots and film sets that he's allowed. Otherwise, there's plenty to entertain you at home. He wants a house spouse, someone he can raise beautiful babies with and will serve as the perfect accessory to his elite lifestyle.

If you are a fellow model or actor, he'll force you to leave your management team and join his, where he'll begin to delegate your work and roles. He loves the idea of being a power couple with a very obvious #1 and #2, but he'll force you to retire by 30 and cripple your self-esteem in the process. He'll go on about how you just can't get work anymore even though he works all of his connections on your behalf and how it's better that you announce an early retirement and save yourself the humiliation of slowly becoming a has-been. You never brought in nearly as much money as him anyways, and you probably couldn't even pay for a tenth of the estate you live on with your earnings.

Once trapped in your luxe domestic paradise with Vil, he completely overruns your life and schedule. You both run in the mornings and complete a yoga session led by Vil shortly after. Then you shower, do your skincare routine, have smoothies as breakfast, and then start the day. If Vil has to work, you'll be tagging along with him, and if you can't, he expects you to be on your best behavior at home.

He becomes lenient only when necessary. Once, someone commented on one of his magicam posts of the two of you at the Film Actor's Union Awards posted a very liked comment that read:

" Ever notice how Vil only lets _____ out of the house when he's with them? 🤔"

" Lol ikr what basement does he keep them in? 😂😂😂"

"Not to start conspiracies buuuuut since they got married I've never seen _____ not with Vil 👀"

It was probably just a joke, but for Vil, it was too close for comfort. He knows the way he treats you is abusive and that if others found out, this career would be ruined, so now Vil makes sure that you go on outings with friends at least three times a month and are seen running errands with your family members. He tracks your location and sets strict limits on the time, and will punishseverelyyou if you ignore his rules. But these opportunities to be away from him come far and few between. He's quick to take away your monthly outings if you misbehave, and he lovebombs you to try to entice you to stay home when he knows you've had something scheduled on the calendar for weeks. And if you spurn his affection in favor of your plans, he'll leave you lonely and wanting for weeks after until you're begging for his touch.

Vil tries to keep you happy. He provides for you materially so long as it's to his tastes. He'll even allow you to keep pets, and your immediate family is allowed to visit the estate on holidays when Vil's father is also present. You can keep a phone, but Vil monitors it very closely at every opportunity. Of course, he doesn't allow you the same unfettered access to his phone. As I mentioned before, Vil will take you on dates and excursions as often as his schedule allows. However, you're really just like a purse dog to him. Something docile and cute that's always by his side, fun to show off, and has moments of occasional friskiness to keep things interesting.

Ultimately Vil's potential yandereism is severely crippled by his job. He can't be connected to any illegal deeds, so murdering his love rivals is out of the question. However, he certainly blackmails and extorts his love. He'll threaten to release the nudes he's taken of you if you try to leave him, and he'll financially starve you if you don't obey his every word. He keeps all of your travel documents under lock key, so it's basically impossible to leave the country without him.

Vil charms your loved ones and never lets them see his mistreatment of you. So when you try to complain about him, they have a hard time believing you. It's frightening how strategic he can be with maintaining his deeply obsessive relationship with you, but you'll only have that realization far far too late.

#yandere vil schoenheit x reader #vil schoenheit x reader #vil schoenheit #vil x reader #vil #yandere vil schoenheit #yandere twisted wonderland #yandere vil x reader #twisted wonderland imagines #twst imagines #twst x reader #twst wonderland

277 notes · View notes

wenja45 · 1 year

Text

The Church and Nobility do not feed of each other

Our good friend laulink and to a lesser extent Raxistachio (obviously not involved but hey he makes idiotic claims all the time so sooner or later this would occur) made a ridiculous claim that the Church and Nobility feed of each other which is utterly bonkers how these people keep injecting themselves with Copium based products to make ridiculous claims such as these.

Rhea wants to keep Fodlan in stasis until she brings Sothis back. She's done that for a thousand years and will keep doing it for as long as she needs to. How did she do it ? By making the powerful (the Crest-bearing descendants of the Ten Elites) dependant on her. She made their strength (their Crest) dependant on properly following and supporting her Church, instilling in Fodlan's societies the belief that a family won't produce Crest-bearing heirs any longer if they oppose the Goddess. The Crests are therefore both a mark of the Goddess' favour, granting nobles their "divine right to rule", and a pair of shackles binding them to the Church. If the Church falls and the commoners don't believe in the Goddess any longer, they also won't believe in the nobles' divine right to rule anymore and will rebel against the caste system. Therefore, the nobles need to enforce belief in the Goddess by showing how devoted they are, as Ferdinand and Lorenz explain is their noble duty to guide the commoners on the path of the faithful, and by giving the Church money to keep its influence and prestige ; otherwise, the nobility itself will be at risk.

This is the reverse of what happened though as explained in VW.

The 10 Elites won the hearts and minds of the people by using their Crests and Heroes Relics to protect them. This is generally how Feudal governments form. If you have multiple foreign cultures who all regularly raid you, people will follow those who have the strength to repel the attacks.

Then the war between Seiros and Nemesis happened. Seiros won, but the descendants of the 10 elites still had the support of the people and continued to rule (and protect Fodlan from the foreign raiders).

The story about crests being a gift from the goddess (sort of true) was used to give The Church authority over the massively destructive Heroes Relics. (That is the primary think Rhea cares about other than reviving Sothis, keeping weapons of mass destruction out of human hands)

The nobility would full well be able to continue ruling without the Church as they are actively using their Crest given powers to protect the lands. That is how they got to rule in the first place after all. (Before Seiros)

Three Hopes touches onto this by showing us Rhea's attempts at killing the Bishop of the newly restored Southern Church. She doesn't try to get him killed because Edelgard was the one to choose him, she tries to kill him because this Southern Church represents a threat for the Central Church she leads, and she doesn't accept that.

How is the Southern Church a threat ? Two possible, non-exclusive ways :

The Southern Church's teachings are in opposition to the Central Church's teachings : we don't know exactly what those teachings are, but if the Southern Church's teachings imply that the Central Church's ones are fake, it would put their legitimacy into question. Which brings us to the second point :

The Southern Church is trying to become more prominent than the Central one : the Southern Church was dismantled about 200 years before the start of the game for being "dissident" and is now being revived with Edelgard's support. It doesn't even matter what it teaches the people : it fills a gap in the Imperial citizens' lives. By doing so, and by being morally, publicly and financially supported by the new Emperor, it earns the support of the faithful of the Empire and takes it away from the Central Church, in part at least.

There is a third option. Edelgard believes the assassin trying to assassinate Bishop Varley was sent by the church, but she could be wrong. (If they wanted to directly state it was The Church, they would have said The Church sent Shamir, not The Church sent an assassin)

The Third option, is that TWSID continued to agitate for the war even after being ousted from Enbar. They are the faction who truly wants to destroy the church.

So, in conclusion : no significant change to the system can be made and kept in place for more than a few years, a decade at most, without national level of armed conflict at the very least because the Church and nobility will ally and fight tooth and nail to preserve their power. Taking apart the nobility cannot be done without destroying the Central Church at the same time, for one will always try to save/bring back the other to justify its own power. If Edelgard hadn't started the war, Rhea would have ; if Edelgard hadn't invaded and conquered the Kingdom and Alliance, their nobility would have attacked her in order to avoid her reforms giving ideas to their own population, or the population would have rebelled and started a bloody civil war in order to win their freedom, which would have likely caused more casualties, especially civil ones and children, than a fight between two actual armies.

Absolutely no reform, whatsoever, in any territory, could have been achieved and lasted with the Church still standing. Why ?

That alone is ridiculous given how Dimitri instigates a bunch of progressive reforms in Hopes including letting commonern into all positions of power. And neither the Church nor most nobles voice any issues, they seem very supportive. They dont critize Edelgard mertiocratic reforms either.

The Church themselves lets commoners and heathens into their ranks with no issues, so why would they? They collaborate with them (so does everyone) but they clearly dislike the nobles, Rhea most of all.

The problem between Rhea/Edelgard in Hopes seem less about the reforms and more about the fact that while both loathe seperation of Church and State they cant agree on how should be superior. Rhea thinks she should meddle into secular affairs (which Edelgard hates), and Edelgard thinks she should meddle into Church affairs (which Rhea hates). And both think themselves as natural Guardians of Fódlans destiny.

Edelgard deciding to appoint a corrupt incompetent noble piece of garbage as bishop, without asking and Rhea deciding assasination is the solution triggers the war.

Def could have been avoided if they just stayed in their lines. The idea that the War was unavoidable because Dimitri/Claude/Rhea and co would come south to protect Aegir Seniors noble privileges seems a bit far fetched.

Why? the Nobility can function perfectly well before the church. In fact they did exist before the church.

The Church exists with its current power because Seiros won the war against Nemesis, but even that was not enough to turn the people away from The nobility. The best Rhea could manage was to be the custodian of the Heroes Relics when they did not have to be used in the defense of Fodlan.

Why would Rhea have started the war if Edelgard didn't? Rhea rarely acts preemptively, for the most part she is reacting (but when she does react, she does not show mercy). The only thing she does preemptively is trying to revive Sothis.

Some of the nobility in the Kingdom / Alliance would see Edelgards reforms as a threat, for example the group who were aided by TWSITD to kill Lambert when he had similar ideas. That does not justify preemptively invading another country. It also makes no sense that Edelgard lets the specific group that killed their King for doing what she wants to do be the ones to rule the occupied Kingdom territories. In any case, The nobility would have had to rebel against Dimitri / Claude firs since both of them agree about the core principals about what Edelgard wants. Until that happened, neither The Kingdom nor The Alliance would be a threat to Edelgard.

You may claim that there would have been a war anyway, but Scarlet Blaze gives a good indication that it was not necessary for Edelgard to improve conditions in The Adrestian Empire. She had a choice there to declare war or not, and the outcome if she didn't declare war might not be so bad.

The further this Scarlet Blaze literally tells us straight that peaceful reforms were indeed likely to occur and all Edelgard needed to defeat to defeat TWSITD are the help of the Church and Claude and Dimitri. Also Scarlet Blaze literally proves Edelgard wrong the route that is an improvement on the mess of a route CF just proves that Edelgard was wrong.

#edelgard critical #edelgard discourse #edelgard von hresvelg #edelgard positive

17 notes · View notes

joandfriedrich · 2 years

Note

I always felt sad about Amy's future, she gives up her art because she's not 'good' enough and no one tells her otherwise, no one tells her to put herself out there it's like no one even cared, and then she marries a rich man that wasn't interested in her at all until her sister rejected him and then she became a housewife who only did her art as a hobby. When you put it that way, there is just something so utterly depressing about her fate.

First I would recommend checking out the story behind the real-life Amy March, May Alcott Nieriker.https://open.spotify.com/episode/56x7YDg0n58U4Hm7Y6kqqw

When it comes to Laurie, he was never in love with Jo either. In the book Laurie wants Jo to be more of a Nanny to him. He was incredibly selfish, he took his privileged position as granted. He didn't have to worry about money. He didn't like work or school. Amy literally woke him up, and that started a process of self-discovery within Laurie and that self-discovery eventually led him to fall in love with Amy. This could not have been started by Jo, because Jo saw Laurie more as her child.

youtube

Amy's art parallels Laurie's storyline. He realizes that "not everyone who liked music was meant to be great composers". Amy realizes that she has talent, but she is not a great artist, and what I mean by great is that her style probably did not fit the current art trends.

As an illustrator myself I can say that the artist themselves are most critical about their own art, but it is also true that, especially in the world of high art, there is always a level of elitism. In some ways, I see Amy's behaviour, as a reflection of its time. Louisa May Alcott herself, was often quite embarrassed when people talked about her works and she never stopped dreaming of writing "a masterpiece". She couldn't see Little Women as a masterpiece.

What Amy ends up doing is just as admirable. She decides to help young female students to get their careers going. This is something that May Alcott Nieriker also did. She wrote a book to encourage young female students. In Bhaer Academy Amy was in charge of the art department, or at least that was the impression I got reading "Jo's boys" so she never was "just a housewife". Amy also says in the very beginning that she is going to marry a rich man, and the only reason why Amy got to Europe to paint in the first place was thanks to aunt March, but especially during those times, if Amy did not have her aunt to support her financially, she could not have become an artist, as sad as it is, and even if a person does not make art for a living, but still makes art every day, I would still call that person an artist.

-Niina/ Little Women Channel

-------------

And I would just like to add in my utter confusion and disbelief in this question. All I could think of was this gif:

Like, I'm sorry, but did we not read the same book? Sure it can sound depressing if it was actually written like that, but it isn't like that at all! I highly suggest you re-read (or maybe read, can't tell if you had actually read the book in the first place) and stop reading into the fandom's version of the story. You'll find a much better and happy story than something like Gerwig's version provided.

-mysoftboybensolo

#amy march #little women #answered asks

6 notes · View notes

talisidekick · 1 year

Text

The issue with AI "art" generation isn't rooted in the fact the creators of the AI "shamelessly" build it using other artists work to form it's understanding of art and it's basis of image generation. It's no different than what a human would do; referencing artwork, and extrapolating across multiple pieces to create something new. After all, you can't copyright an art form.

And as far as I've looked into these systems, the AI doesn't store the artists images but rather a textual breakdown to later generate images in a similar style. Arguably, and from a legal standpoint, the human brain does more raw image storing than the AI does. The AI simply isn't "stealing" art. It's generating a text reference. A non-visual description it can understand.

The issue is mass production and the devaluation of artwork.

These AI can functionally create images on the same level of artists who take years to perfect their craft, some their entire lifetimes, and perform it en mass in a matter of minutes or moments. Art that would take weeks or months to complete, can be initiated in moments with a prompt, and tweaked to the requestors satisfaction where otherwise the commissioner of the work is left with the artists vision of the prompt given. Art has always been a reflection of the artist, and it is being cheapened by mass production.

Quality can now be achieved at the speed of quantity, at the low cost of humanity.

There are art AI's you can pay for instead of an artist that depends on their work to make ends meet. The AI analyzes someones hard made, soul poured work, deconstructs it to a description, and pumps out facsimile's for cheap. This is the problem.

AI's are cheapening art.

Mass manufacturing has it's place in making the harder aspects of survival more convenient. Making raw materials, foods, and "to be assembled" general components for construction and creation easier to obtain and less of a struggle. It does this at the cost of employing less people, but the general consensus is the easier the harder aspects of labour are made, the better off people are. However, art isn't one of those "necessary labours" that could be benefitted from by complete automation. It's not a need we need filled en-masse, not in a society that holds homelessness and starvation over the heads of everyone should they not "benefit" society in what the richer elite deem "enough". All AI does in this case, is attack the livelyhoods of people on the bottom end of society. Big name artists won't feel the pressure, but smaller artists doing profile picture and OC commissions to pay bills will suffer.

This "advancement" is harmful.

To get plain: The issue of AI art and AI story generation is the devaluating nature of mass manufacturing and the impact it will have on artists who already struggle to get by. AI generation harms people. And if you build an AI that does any of this intentionally, you are deliberately harming artists, writers, and creators to the point of pushing them into a worse financially precarious state. You are intentionally harming human beings. And if you use these AI, or pay for them, you are supporting harming hardworking people who's lives depend on their work.

Stop. It's not a fun project. It's an attack.

Think: How would it feel, programmers of AI, to have an AI that could write code equal to or greater than you with the typed prompt of a corporate executive? If 5.99 a month could replace you, how would you live, how would you make ends meet?

#ai art #ai art generation #art #artificial intelligence #art theft #copyright #ai writing #ai story generation #mass manufacturing

4 notes · View notes

nycterent · 1 year

Text

@unadvised left a message: it's a gift, or a curse, depending on who you ask.

bruce smiles slightly behind his glass, magnanimous, listening so politely. it's not always a mask. sometimes it's letting something rise to the surface that isn't really there, a charm that he's absorbed from other people. from memories of his parents. from harvey, back before everything. from just watching for all those years.

and in doing that, in making yourself a pane of glass through which shine a thousand other people's tendencies, something else happens. you learn to see through people. back when he first started at the bat, it was all about careful deduction. it was about facts, about crime scenes and what he could collate from them into a theory. he's always been good at that. it was easy for him to study the textbooks, to see little details that would stick in the back of his brain until they finally all fit together.

people were more difficult. he'd never liked looking at them until he had to, because if he didn't he was always missing half the story.

when he looks at this woman, the two of them keeping to the corners of yet another gala for gotham's elite, the first thing he thinks is: i don't know you. the second thing: you're looking at them the same way i am, just a little. it's not obvious. less obvious than him, unless you're outright looking for it—and no one in this room besides him is looking for it. she's hiding it behind a drink the same way that he is, a barrier between them both and the world around them. degrees of separation. she's good at hiding it.

bruce has managed the usual rounds, one person to the next, and has managed to quietly make his way here, the two of them on the outside edge of the party as it begins to wind down. she's been watching him, too, but that's less surprising. his name on the gala. his name on too many buildings in the city stretching its arms around them. all of this, thanks to the wayne family name.

but he hasn't accused her of observing. bruce just settled there, drink in hand, and easily pointed out that there, in the corner, andrew laurier, east coast real estate magnate, is incapable of holding his liquor. and if someone actually takes the time, it'll take a minute or two for him to start spilling secrets—financial, personal, and otherwise.

"what?" he says, light, easy, and charming. it's bruce wayne with nothing really there behind the eyes, "knowing all that, or having to be around laurier when he gets enough drinks in him?"

#unadvised #answered.#these two are so. like. different and separate and yet also weirdly overlapping skillsets

1 note · View note

red-tintedglasses · 2 years

Text

Red Tinted Glasses: Lore

THE GANG OF CROWS is a cult that motivates its members to murder using a point's based system. There are monthly meetings held by low-level sect leaders, where activity and news over the past month are brought up and discussed, and plans are made. The Children of the Crows are a group of children within the cult who are elite in some way compared to the other Crows, whether it be in high point numbers or relationships. They will train and learn to be the next Leader of the Crows. A banquet is held each year to tally up points and determine the next addition to the Children of the Crows. The Crows have a very interconnected, fast, reliable network of communication and surveillance, meaning the Crows are rarely compromised. Members are inducted by the threat of instability, financial or otherwise, exploited emotionally, and/or are born into the cult.

THE DEN OF FOXES is a rival cult that kidnaps, brings up, or scams children in to a life of training to murder. Victims are often people who have wronged the Foxes, whether it be people who compromised the cult or petty revenge. Vulpines are people who watch over, train, and punish the children, called Foxes-to-be or Cubs. Cubs do not grow to be Vulpines and the term 'Foxes-to-be' is meant to misguide Cubs into thinking something better awaits. Reynards are the business side of the Foxes. They do paperwork, assign victims, keep records, keep track of employees, etc. The Vulpines and Reynards rarely interact aside from work and are neutral with each other. The Foxes use most resources to provide minimal food and resources to Cubs, and thus do not have as thorough of a network as the Crows. Surveillance cameras are set up or hacked in to near the warehouse the cult is located in,

JIMMY [REDACTED] is aloof, giggly, overly affectionate, and constantly intoxicated by cult- and self-induced drugs and alcohol. These cause memory loss and delusions. Severe childhood trauma means that Jimmy rarely eats or drinks. Jimmy frequently uses pet names (Darling, hun, etc.) regardless of who he is talking to, and is reckless and cocky especially when it comes to his killings. HIs biggest and only interest is Garfield, resulting in many, many plushies and encyclopedic knowledge on the character and comic. Jimmy is in the Children of the Crows, a small group of people inheriting the Crows. They has an exceptionally high point count.

CYRUS WILSON is morbidly curious, well-read, vocally expressive, human-hating, and animal-loving. They are a Caretaker for the Den of Foxes, and although their punishments are never fatal, they are very physically and psychologically traumatic. Cyrus enjoys internet horror, miscellaneous reading, psychology, writing, being a hopeless romantic about literally any aspect of life (from clouds to fur physics), animals, and various 2009-esque fandoms.

MISC.:

Unoffical RTG Youtube Playlist

#mod syd - [posted by Syd / @willwoodisntreal

#mod robbie - posted by Robbie / @autumneclipse1478

Proper trigger warnings will be added befoee the chapter if necessary.

•These are thoughts.• •They are distinguished from each person by plain, italics, or bold• •Use context clues to know who is thinking what!•

#red tinted glasses #mod robbie #roleplay #writing #novel #creative writing

3 notes · View notes

madchild-dennis · 1 year

Text

Today I watched the rebroadcast of All Angles on the oil spill and the dead fishes in a Ewarton River, topic.

I watched it already this week live, but wasn't paying attention or left early or went to bathe at part of it.

However this morning I heard the parts I missed. And YESS I was furious about the whole thing especially the amount given, and the contract they had to sign. However, I see where they barely could have done anything else, on everyone else's part, because they have to eat, survive, provide and more. So suing takes time. And as much as I can tolerate, take or don't mind a little suffering for something better. They may not, nor have the capacity to do so, therefore I understand why they took the funds and sign the contract.

However, it's the fucking minister or government official or whatever he is. Who was literally was so cocky, rude and disrespectful. Him had the audacity to say that because it's the first time in history a government in Jamaica financially compensated Fisher-people. That they should be grateful and that's why they did not leave the door open for them to ask more money. So basically because they, this government, take SOME accountability by giving SOME compensation (not enough, only one month worth, while 9 months later NOT fix the issue). Or frankly just the fact that they got some money from the government for the mistake/fault by government/government entities. That basically these fisher-folks should be grateful they get any compensation.

THE FUCK!!!

THE AUDACITY!!!

THE GALL!!!

THE IMPUDENCY of that Minister and this Government is RIDICULOUS!!!

NO BITCH. You should be grateful you still have a fucking JOB!!! THIS IS NOT A DICTATORSHIP. The people of Jamaica is NOT at your MERCY and your leniency because you are ministers of whatever.

YOU ARE TO FUCKING SERVE NOT RULE Jamaica and it's people. ALL it's people. ESPECIALLY THE LOWER CLASS!!!

(Even the British Monarch, which is by law, the ruler of many countries, including Jamaica, don't project a ruling hand. This is because they KNOW if they do so they might die by the hands of the people they try to rule. Just like the Czar of Russia, a relative of that monarch.)

SO KNOW YOU FUCKING PLACE. YOU WORK FOR THE PEOPLE OF JAMAICA not that they are your subject, your slaves or that they're at your fucking mercy.

You know what.

These people in power are severely disgusting me. That statement made me take a different stance than before. The stance is that the JLP MUST BE REMOVED.

I change my mind (as it is my right to do so) and will be voting in the election. I will be voting against the cocky, disgusting and impudent JLP. I will vote PNP.

They getting from bad to worst.

If the people of Jamaica choose otherwise, they shall reap the consequence of their actions.

Also, if they're SOOO GREAT. Tell me one thing they do to that positively benefit the lower class Jamaicans long term, that wasn't performative/to gain votes? That to this day, if you dig deep or investigate the whole thing is still good months, years or days later. Also that there's continual benefits and progress for Jamaica, Jamaicans and the most vulnerable/the least of us.

I'LL WAIT!!!

Exactly.

All I see/hear or more that the JLP do to benefit Jamaicans are the elite, educated or affluent!!

This government remind me of the racist and GREEDY white people who destroyed countries of Africa then create MAJOR organization, foundations and humanitarian Projects to "Help" the people they desplaced, destroyed or robbed. Which is all performative and does NOTHING good to the country's economy, the people or more, long term.

The Government create the poverty, the criminals and more. Then do NOTHING substantial to fix the issue. But make performative projects/jesters/organizations/more that keep them poor and more but does GREAT PR. This government (nor the current PNP leader) has NOT done (nor the opposition plan to do) anything GOOD (Genesis 1 level of Good, which is not the humans' view of good that is subjective to the view) for the majority of Jamaicans/the lower class Jamaicans.

The JLP HAS TO GO.

There's no argument there. Those cocky, disrespectful, and disgusting leaders got to GO!!! You do NOT disrespect those hardworking men and women who aren't even demanding more money but demanding for you to FIX YOUR FUCK UP as promised!!! SHIT!!

Talking bout the JLP care and did the most for the Lower class.

ARGUE WID YUH MUMMA ON THAT SHIT!!!

0 notes

nametonki · 2 years

Text

Starmancer vent

#Starmancer vent mod#

#Starmancer vent mods#

An Emphasis on Story-Telling and Immersion > Custom tutorial options for each start, teaching new techniques and skills to succeed in that role. > Start as a mercenary, with a powerful financial backer and a small elite strike force. > Start as a pirate, with a reputation throughout the sector and a small raider wolfpack. > More starting ship choices and options based around play-styles. New Starting Options and Role-Playing Scenarios > New paintjobs for existing ships - sometimes dramatically changing features and load-out options. > New ships spread across all hull classes and factions. > Smaller weapons, more weapons per ship- designed to mimic a cinematic combat experience inspired from multiple movies and games. > Fighters are smaller, faster, more numerous, and can deal extra damage to ships' weapons and engines. > A story introducing a few of the new and existing factions' characters. > A customized tutorial that introduces new mechanics, ships and factions. > Explore the sector to learn more and find your play style. > New factions have their own music, portraits, tech and skins. > New and existing factions will react differently to your dialogue choices based on their motives, personality and other factors. > Over 15 additional markets including 2 new systems of various factions added to the Core Worlds campaign map. > New thematic factions with distinctive ships, weapons, culture, backstory and tactics. > Use marines to protect your commodities and prevent boarding attacks on your vessels. > Negotiate with allies to reinforce your position or attack enemy factions' fleets and installations. > Get tactical advice from your officers, who will have an opinion of you that will effect their dialogue and performance. > Demand commodities or payment from fleets using your strength and influence. > Negotiate cease-fires with hostile captains or bribe your way out of combat situations. > Request commodities and war funds from anyone you meet. Mod Features - More Dialogue Options for Fleet Encounters

#Starmancer vent mods#

Feature mods and utility mods are generally ok and will not break the TC's combat balance though they may change campaign experiences.ĭirections to Enable Nexerelin and Other Non-Utility Mods: Any mods that change skills will likely not work though a workaround is available and you can ask on the forum thread or through PM and I will help you with it.

#Starmancer vent mod#

Including mod factions might cause weird things to happen or imbalance Nex campaigns so results and experiences may vary. * Compatibility details for adding additional mods: Faction mods are technically compatible and won't crash in the majority of cases, however, they are not balanced around Archean Order's combat balance because they are balanced around the standard Starsector combat balance. Even if the source seems to clearly be another mod in the stack trace/log, the TC nature could be causing something unintended and you should not bother the mod author until I can verify I am not causing it. If Archean Order is on the mod list and you are using other mods and encounter what looks like a bug, please do not post on any thread other than this one for bug/behavior reports. This makes adding additional mods have a few limitations that could otherwise cause crashes or unintended behavior. Important Please Read: Archean Order is a TOTAL CONVERSION and this means that it changes/overrides a lot of core files. Descriptions are either missing or inaccurate.

#Starmancer vent

0 notes

veworforest · 2 years

Text

Soundcloud monstercat connection mix

#Soundcloud monstercat connection mix how to

#Soundcloud monstercat connection mix series

If you believe your post or comment was removed in error, check the rules and include a link in a polite message to the moderators.Ĥ. Search the subreddit and resources before making a post. If you're new to pr oducing, read the Newbie FAQ. Mods will not look at the content of the post before the removal. Threads that do not conform will be removed without notice. The purpose of your post must be clear by reading your title.Violations of this rule will result in a 1-day ban. Questions that don't warrant a thread go in the "There Are No Stupid Questions" Thread. Collab calls should go in the Collaboration Thread. All products/services should go in the Marketplace Thread. All postings of your own music (thread or comment) for any reason should go in the Feedback thread. Weekly Threads are listed in the top bar.We occasionally will make exceptions to threads that create insightful discussion. Use the subreddit search, read the Ira Glass quote, or check out other subreddits such as /r/getmotivated.

#Soundcloud monstercat connection mix how to

Lower-effort "motivational" threads asking how to get through an artistic slump may be removed because they've been answered quite a few times before.If your post is calling someone out for something, it's probably not appropriate here. This is a community for the technical aspects of production and for production discussion, not drama. This is not the place for posts about discovering people stealing songs from other artists or producers using ghost writers, etc.7 day ban on first offense, permanent ban thereafter. Linking to piracy-centric subs also prohibited. Advocating, asking for, or giving advice on how to pirate is prohibited.If you're not sure if your post will fit or not, message the moderators. Users posting links to tracks for views or feedback, soliciting/offering services, promoting fan pages, using follow-gates/download-gates, or otherwise benefiting financially from the sub will be banned for a day and informed to read the rules. Spam & self-promotion (outside of the Marketplace thread, where ads are encouraged) will be removed.Keep it productive, intelligent, intelligible, and constructive.If your thread is vague, unclear, or easily answered by searching ("does anyone else.?" "Any suggestions for.?") it may be removed. If your thread is only tangentially related, it is probably considered off-topic. Please submit only content and discussion that is specifically relevant to music production.Repeated or egregious offenses will be countered with a ban. If you disagree with something, make your case politely. No flame wars, disrespect, condescension based on level of experience, or tactless posts stereotyping any group of people will be tolerated. Posts and comments are expected to be civil, even when there are disagreements.Please report threads and comments that violate the following rules: Be respectful This is so insane O.This subreddit is for those wishing to discuss electronic dance music production. Ok sombting good is starting Comment by Razu This mix is pure magic, congrats! Comment by Malcolm Mielle Listening from Small Town Las Vegas New Mexico Comment by HideakiĪZEDIA - Precipitate Comment by ZenMasta420 I really enjoyed this music I really like the monster cat Comment by Inacia Martin Theres the good stuff! YES! Comment by lightning zoom infinity one What songs are these mashed together its driving me crazy not knowing Comment by Blake Bilby Comment by Meteoīruh monst3r and duality killed this Comment by Marcos I still like this scale, unique in the song. Now you can re-experience the memorable performances from our Sansar Winner’s Showcase featuring all our finalists including each of our Elite Judges along with our 2020 Mix Champion Feathervane!ġ1:46 Icesolate - Season 5 Finalist (USA)Ģ1:16 Beatplant - Season 5 Finalist (Netherlands)ģ1:19 Monst3r - 2019 Mix Champion (Elite Judge)Ĥ6:49 Duality - 2018 Mix Champion (Elite Judge)Ġ1:01:53 Rocketman - 2016 Mix Champion (Elite Judge)Ġ1:18:38 StreaK - Season 5 2nd Place (Canada)Ġ1:39:28 Feathervane - 2020 Mix Champion (USA)

#Soundcloud monstercat connection mix series

Over the past several weeks, 8 Home DJs from all around the world competed through a series of unique challenges to earn the votes of our Elite Judges. Monstercat takes its iconic contest to new heights in search of their next Mix Contest champion.

#Soundcloud monstercat connection mix

0 notes

clearsummers · 2 years

Text

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li — Good Premise, Not Quite There

Immigration stories and unfamiliar history, what it was like to grow up knowing you had more than all your ancestors combined. Privilege, responsibility, all those words that sometimes had a weight too heavy to bear. In the end, that was what this heist was: a way out. If they could do this, it might be enough.

This is a spoiler-free review!

Should you read this book? I really think this was wrongfully marketed as a heist story, and I didn’t love when the book got into the grounded and emotional moments of its characters. Neither the action nor the more grounded moments worked for me. Overall, I would say no.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Portrait of a Thief is great in what it attempts to do and in creating a common core for all its Chinese characters. These are college-age kids searching for something new, for financial stability, and for freedom to be more and find something meaningful in their lives. In this, Li succeeds.

However, Li struggles with juggling five perspectives in this book. The voices of her characters often blur and many of them aren’t given enough time to distinguish themselves and for them to really show who they are. I found that sentiments and traits were repeated so often for people, especially Irene. She’s described as beautiful and charming, slightly cold, so many times that I wanted to say, “Yes, we get it. Please move on.” I like people who know they’re beautiful and will manipulate their beauty for their own gain, but I prefer there to be an element of skill in it still. Charming someone involves body language, reading the target correctly, and connecting with them in some way to render them emotionally vulnerable.

Because the characters were shallow, the romances in Portrait of a Thief suffered too. I understand how people bonded but the chemistry was not there for me.

That brings me to another issue I had with the characters, which is that their skills didn’t feel earned. The heist aspect of the book is rather shallow and flat, and will not be satisfying for people looking for a good heist book. The characters have skills like being able to hack security systems, use sleight of hand, and race cars very well, but it’s not impressive when they use these skills. I wanted to see them practice and feel wowed by them so I could believe their heist escapades more.

I think this problem shows why heist movies are most successful (often, with exceptions of course). You can show the thief utilizing their skillset and immerse the viewer more easily in the action.

The character that I liked reading the most about and the one that stood out to me was Daniel. Daniel’s relationship with his father, with Will and Irene, his gentle empathy, and his desire to rebel was wonderful to read and more moving (though he shares many traits with the other characters, too).

Otherwise, in good faith, I cannot say that I rooted for the team. They are so privileged in many ways that their theft didn’t feel dissimilar to the other team, full of rich kids, of thieves. These are kids that have jobs at Microsoft and Google, who are going to med school, who have cruised their way through life (with the exception of Lily, who is distinctly working class).

Art that has been placed in museums has always been elitist (think of the money, the transportation, the free time you need to spend your time at a museum) and this book doesn’t address that elitism. It addresses the racism and colonial theft of Western museums, but doesn’t go more into unraveling the other ways museums can uphold oppressive structures. This makes it one-note because, as a book discussing the power art has, power is shown in only one way. It also doesn’t address how even our heroes, our gang of thieves, wield their own power and that no one should have ten million dollars, no one should have so much power. This quote at the end of the book says it all:

Irene thought of power, how it might be inherited, how it might be held. Someday she might want to be there too, to know how it felt to hold your hand over the pulse of a country.

Note: …#girlboss, I guess?

Overall, I like how Portrait of a Thief called out imperial theft and how art is about power and access. It is empowering to read about five Chinese and Chinese American students taking back stolen Chinese art, but the execution did not satisfy me.

I recommend reading “Do the right thing : Mainstream Museums and Galleries need to end their racist and elitist practices and become genuinely inclusive institutions, argues Carlos Tortolero” available here as an introduction to the power of museums. Some of the things Tortolero brings up are addressed upon by Portrait of a Thief, but others, including the elitism I talked about, aren’t.

#Portrait of a Thief #Grace D. Li #Book review

0 notes

unwhitewashthebadbatch · 3 years

Text

Disney Email Draft 2

(going under a cut because it's much longer. Here is the Google Doc link for anyone who would like to comment directly)

Reminder that we are encouraging critiques and comments regarding this email!

To Bob Iger, Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, Jennifer Corbett, and the creative team of Star Wars: The Bad Batch:

We hope this email finds you all well. We are fans of color, disabled fans, neurodivergent fans, and Jewish fans writing out of concern for the portrayal of our communities in the Disney+ series Star Wars: The Bad Batch. For several months now, we have been campaigning on social media to spread awareness about these concerns through #UnwhitewashTBB, a movement we began to raise awareness about the ways in which the series has poorly represented several minoritized groups of people.

Just like the creators of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, all of the creators of #UnwhitewashTBB grew up with Star Wars as the backbones of their childhoods, and for many of us, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was crucial to our development as artists, writers, creators, and lifelong Star Wars fans. We are all firm believers in the phrase “Star Wars is for everyone”, and we would like to see Disney support that message by hearing our plea.

As fans of color, as disabled fans, as neurodivergent fans, and as Jewish fans, we’ve seen ourselves on screen in both good and bad ways, but recently it has been more the latter than the former. One such reason is Star Wars: The Bad Batch, a show whose premise piqued many fans’ interest, but whose main cast has left an increasingly sour taste in the mouths of those who watched.

The series follows an elite squad of clone troopers who have named themselves The Bad Batch, due in part to their series of mutations that gives them an edge over regular clones on the battlefield. These mutations drastically altered the appearance of each of the members to a generally lighter, more Caucasian appearance--one that is inconsistent with how the original Jango Fett actor Temuera Morisson looks. Fans take issue with the implications in the writing and design of The Bad Batch: that in order to be elite, special, and better than one’s contemporaries--in order to have a story worth telling--one must also be white or as close as possible.

Merriam-Webster defines whitewashing as “to alter (something) in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as to alter (an original story) by casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character” The #UnwhitewashTBB movement comes with two carrds explaining the grievances of the fans. A summary for each character is given below:

Sergeant Hunter, the leader, closely resembles Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo character, despite being a clone of a man of color. The importance of his character, the fatherliness he has with Omega, and his centrality to both their Season 7 appearance in The Clone Wars and the series itself sends the message that important people look

Wrecker is the demolitions expert, and he’s the only member of The Bad Batch with features similar to that of a Maori man’s, like Temuera Morrison/Jango Fett. He’s large with broad features, brown skin, and is a stereotype of men of color. His personality as first introduced to the audience was that of a loud, aggressive, impatient, slow man who called frequently for violence/destruction. He falls into the “Loveable Brute” trope, an observation that is supported by statements from supervising director Brad Rau and voice actor Dee Bradely Baker that Wrecker is like a little boy and has a heart of gold.

Crosshair is the sniper on the team, and he’s the most derisive of the “regs”--the regular clone troopers. Taken in conjunction with his appearance (inspired by Clint Eastwood), the various messages being sent by the writing and appearance of the other team members, and his comment about the regular troopers--the he and the Batch are superior and thus should join the Empire--his character pushes forth a message that there is superiority inherent in whitened or fully white features.

Tech, the technology specialist, has incredibly light skin and hair compared to the regular clones. His mutation made him a genius, with an IQ that outpaces that of any other clone in the Republic. Fans of color are upset that Tech’s genius mutation apparently also affected his skin color, as now this creates a direct link between intelligence and appearance/race. Contrast Tech with Wrecker, who is the exact opposite in every way, and this harm becomes only more apparent. In addition to this, many Autistic fans of The Bad Batch have noted that Tech, being “on the spectrum” (according to Dee Bradley Baker) is a popular stereotype of Autistic people: a nerdy-looking white man with a formal way of speaking who’s a genius but dismissive of others’ feelings. Baker also plays Tech with a British accent, further cementing the harmful message that intelligence is in some way connected to ethnicity.

Omega is the newest member of The Bad Batch. Despite being a pure Jango clone, she’s come out looking nothing like Boba Fett--she has lighter skin than he does, as well as blonde hair. Fans are concerned about the connection between genetic purity and light skin/blonde hair, as this is directly harmful to the people of color who don’t sport those features.

Echo is the ARC Trooper of the team, but many fans--disabled fans especially--fear that his series of disabilities have reduced him to the “droid sidekick”. Echo does not have a prosthetic, instead sporting a scomp-arm attachment that allows him to plug into computers but would otherwise hinder him greatly in daily tasks. He rarely is the focus of an episode, and the series has not given him as much attention as it has given characters like Hunter and Omega. Disabled fans worry about the lack of attention given to his medical trauma, and fans of color note that his skin color goes beyond what a brown man who’s been without sunlight for a few months would look like.

The issues do not stop here. Asian fans noticed and were harmed by a Tiananmen Square parallel in 1x10, “Common Ground”--a recreation that was led by an Eastern Asian-coded woman. Jewish fans are hurt by the antisemitic stereotype in Cid the broker, a greedy lizard woman who speaks with an accent commonly associated with New York Jews--and who is played by Jewish actress Rhea Perlman. Black fans were harmed by the whitewashing in Saw Gererra and the one other Black character in The Bad Batch being a Black woman who works for the Empire and burns civilians alive.

The full analyses can be found in the official #UnwhitewashTBB carrd: unwhitewashthebadbatch.carrd.co. We respectfully ask that you read this carrd and give a public statement in response to these criticisms.

Our movement has only gained traction since its inception on March 30th, 2021. A few months later, we wrote and released an open letter on Change.org to be signed by supporters of #UnwhitewashTBB, and every day it gains new signatures and draws nearer to the next milestone. A survey we released over a month ago has received over 1,100 responses and also continues to climb. The latter displays a range of opinions regarding The Bad Batch, but one sentiment stands out: Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, Omega, and Echo are written in stereotypical and actively harmful ways. Respondents were shocked at outdated portrayals of Autism, sickened by antisemitic stereotypes, and confused at how, in this current social and political climate, a family-friendly corporation like Disney could greenlight a series that sends a message that is the complete opposite of “Star Wars is for Everyone”. Some sample responses are below:

“I would just like to elaborate on the ableism aspect. As a amputee myself, I don’t like how Echo’s trauma has been ignored. The whole reason he is with the BB is because of what he went through. Losing one limb, never mind multiple, it’s extremely difficult. They made it seem like just because his prosthetic can be of use on missions, that means he isn’t grieving the loss of his actual hand. There is no healing or evolution. It also feels wrong to only address the fact that echo uses prosthetics for the sake of hacking into machinery. Prosthetics are so personal and become a real part of who you are as a person.” - Respondent 130

“...I can't believe Star Wars is still doing this, and that an entire team of animators with a huge budget can't get skin tone right. I didn't even know the clones were supposed to have a NZ Māori accent until a friend told me. That's a big deal, since I live in NZ and hear it every day…” - Respondent 209

“As someone who is neurodivergent myself, Tech and Wrecker just. sting, you know? in a “is that really what you think of us” kind of way. I grew up in an environment where intersectional equality was heavily discussed, and I can still miss things. Having Jewish friends does not mean that Cid’s antisemitic implications can’t go right over my head until someone points them out (thank you).” - Respondent 87

“As a fan of color, its irritating and painful to watch and be brushed off as "lighting issues" and see justifications made by white fans and producers...It also feels very bad to me that TCW spent 7 seasons with several arcs emphasizing that the clones were all as individual as a 'normal' person, but then undo all that with TBB, which centers a group of "special" clones (who are suspiciously white) and have them treat the "regs" as a homogeneous group who are lesser than them, and then expect us to find it within ourselves to put that aside to enjoy the MCs. The way the treat "regs" is very offputting and it made me dislike them since their introduction...Star Wars is no stranger to racist and antisemitic media, but I must say, the blantancy of Sid, a greedy lizard who essentially financially enslaves the protaganists, being Jewish-coded and being protrayed by a Jewish voice actress is really next-level even for Star Wars. As a Jewish fan, it really grates on me.” - Respondent 40

“I’m disabled and autistic, and the ableism is appalling to watch. Watching Echo be treated as subhuman for needing machinery to survive makes me feel like having implants to keep my spine from breaking itself would have me be the pitied member of any group. I am disgusted by the blatant antisemitism, as a fair number of my friends are Jewish and it hurts me to think that people can so easily hate others based on internalized stereotypes. Me and my friends have also critically analyzed the fact that, despite being clones of a character portrayed by Temuera Morrison, for some reason the bad batch look nothing like him in any way. No resemblance in any way: just a bunch of someone’s badly worked characters fraught with disgusting writing decisions and design choices that make no sense. It makes me angry to think that the writers for this show, and to an extent any modern writer, would believe that using harmful tropes to make a story is acceptable and someone brings in profit. I tried to watch it out of fact that my family likes Star Wars and we all grew up watching it, but all of these unhealthy assumptions and terrible choices in terms of writing and design leave a bitter and nauseating feeling.” - Respondent 605

In the survey, various questions were asked about fans’ feelings about The Bad Batch. Before reading the carrd, 34.7% of fans answered that writing was their least favorite aspect of the series, with the next being the main characters. Elaborations in the following free write made clear that the whitewashing and stereotypical writing were huge factors of these opinions. One a 1 to 5 satisfaction scale, 68.1% of respondents rated their satisfaction at a 3 or lower--again, due to the whitewashing and other issues respondents perceived in The Bad Batch. When asked to analyze pre-post carrd-reading feelings regarding the above issues, every category saw a marked increase in awareness of the issue at hand. The perceived prominence of the whitewashing went from 81.3% to 91.4% in respondents. The awareness of ableism jumped almost 30%, from 52.6% to 84.4%. The majority of respondents (59%) were not aware of the antisemitism in the series, but after reading the carrd, that statistic flipped to 80.5%, a near 60% increase from the original 26.7%. Regarding the other racist issues, the respondents went from 63.1% to 83.7%.

Fans of color, neurodivergent fans, disabled fans, and Jewish fans have been waiting for the day where we can see ourselves on screen a level of attention and care that makes us feel even more at home in the Star Wars community . If Disney’s message is truly family-friendly, if Star Wars is for everyone, then Disney needs to support these views with not just words, but with actions. Resolve the racism in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, take out the antisemitism, and treat your nonwhite, disabled, and neurodivergent characters--and fans--with the respect and dignity they deserve.

This will not be a benefit solely to the fans who are asking to be represented properly. In today’s time, popular media is facing a reckoning; media that is inclusive of and respectful towards minoritized groups ends up with leagues more popularity, high ratings, and good reviews than those that don’t. A recent and prominent example is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a movie for which the inclusion of Asian-Americans at nearly all levels of production boosted its image and aided in its successful box office release. Black Panther is another prominent example--a movie spearheaded by Black people that completed its box office run at more than five times its initial budget in total revenue. The proper representation of people of color is a two-fold benefit.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch already has beautiful animation that reminds many longtime Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans of their childhood.

It is our hope that you will take our concerns as well as the concerns of others into account, and address the issues that we have outlined in order to better reflect the Walt Disney Company’s commitment to inclusive, diverse entertainment for audiences of all ages. Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Respectfully,

Fans of The Bad Batch

#mod CH #email #disney #star wars #the clone wars #the bad batch #unwhitewashtbb #swtbb #racism #antisemitism

40 notes · View notes

ckret2 · 3 years

Text

GVK spoilers below, about conspiracy theories

I’m gonna get around to posting all my GVK reactions but this one got long so I’m putting it in its own post.

The Monsterverse series, in both KOTM and GVK, has some pretty interesting things to say about conspiracy theories and ecofascism; but, unfortunately, it doesn’t REALIZE that it’s saying any of them, so it keeps dropping the ball and missing opportunities to explore them.

Starting with KOTM, “there’s too many humans so we’ve just gotta let some die and that’ll fix pollution 🤷” is like false ecofascist claim #1 but at no point in the movie was it challenged as unfactual, it was just presented as a sad truth that people have to do morally ambiguous things about. Except that it’s just literally mathematically not true!

Emma could be such a GREAT, believable character—especially in this world with, like, frigging QAnon nonsense getting such widespread traction—showing a compelling, realistic tragedy of how this normal, intelligent, well-educated white mom who otherwise is likely left-leaning (pro-environmentalism, pro-nature conservation, got a doctorate and generally more academia correlates with more liberal ideals) got sucked into a far right ecofascist doomsday militia that combines hokey pseudo-environmentalist propaganda with “in balance with nature” semi-religious mysticism, because she was exploited at a time when she was emotionally vulnerable (when her kid had just died) and was lacking healthy emotional support (when her husband turned to alcohol and then ran off).

... Except the movie never says that her “overpopulation” beliefs are WRONG. It says that they’re RIGHT, and she was just forced to choose between two losing scenarios—deliberately kill most of humanity to hopefully save a few, or watch humanity kill itself.

Nobody bothers to mention that the size of the population isn’t the problem, it’s the disproportionate pollution coming out of first world countries. Nobody bothers to mention that when Emma talks about “overpopulation” and shows a screenshot of an overcrowded neighborhood, it ain’t affluent downtown skyscraper condos in Europe or America that she’s highlighting, but large masses of poor people whose neighborhoods look “dirty” to the white woman’s eyes, despite the fact that they’re contributing the least to humanity’s carbon footprint.

Emma’s beliefs are empirically wrong, and if KOTM had ever demonstrated that, it would’ve been brilliant. Instead, it tries to say “she was right, she just went too far,” and in doing so loses an opportunity to make Emma a deeply believable, timely, realistic, well-meaning but wrong villain.

And now we’ve got GVK, which has swerved away from the ecofascism but doubled down on the conspiracy theories. Here, Emma’s daughter, who was raised for five years with what amounts to a survivalist doomsday cult’s beliefs, when faced with the grief of her mother’s death and the struggle of trying to reconnect to her estranged father, turns—again—to conspiracies to make sense of the world around her. Because that’s what Madison’s been raised with, and even though she got disillusioned with the particular “we know something special that the normal people can’t handle” beliefs that she was raised with, that kind of thinking is still what she knows. She’s still doing what her mother raised her to do! She’s still pulling the “hypercompetent highly-trained lone wolf ‘survivor’ saves the world” shtick that Jonah’s gang taught her to do—but it’s never brought up that it was screwed up to raise a child like that and it’s screwed up for her to still be interacting with the world like that.

At least THIS conspiracy theorist isn’t literally advocating for global genocide. Bernie’s focus largely seems to be on “this corporation is trying to screw people over and screw up the environment—” (because in Monsterverse, as in Toho monster movies as a whole, kaiju/titans and the environment are symbolically conflated, so if a corporation is messing with Godzilla then they’re messing with nature as well) “—so I’m gonna find out what they’re up to and be a whistleblower.” Which is great! Solid start! We’ve got a guy taking aim at big business and who says “when the weather Godzilla acts erratic, it’s not random chance, it’s because a big business is doing something it shouldn’t,” so it looks like we’ve got a leftist conspiracy theorist, that’s different, could be interesting to explore.

Except then he starts talking about governments serving a “global elite” and facilities built by “lizard people” and then we’ve swung right back around to the far right by casually dropping in a couple of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Add that in with the whole “hollow earth” thing and damn, we’re namedropping a lot of antisemitic conspiracy theories, aren’t we? Granted, most conspiracy theories ARE antisemitic—but like, they could have dug around for some that aren’t. Have him talk some more about Roswell. Have him bring up things that we’ve actually got documentation happened and theorize that MKUltra research was used in Apex’s development of their pilot’s psychic mind link to Mechagodzilla. Have him bring up tailor-made-for-the-Monsterverse conspiracy theories that don’t exist here, “Monster Zero is actually the secret weapon of a nearby ‘Planet X’ that’s gonna invade,” whatever. Instead, nah, we went with the antisemitic ones.

Now, do I think the writers behind KOTM and GVK intended antisemitism? Do I think they’re closet alt-right trying to dogwhistle the fascists in the audience? No, I think they think they’re making fun of—or playing around with—what they see as harmless, unbelievable, way-out-there conspiracy theories. I think they know just enough about “hollow earth” and “global elites” and “lizard people” to make references to them, but not in a way that promotes the common antisemitic understanding of those theories as true. (Monsterverse’s hollow earth, a weird underground jungle where King Kong lives, sure doesn’t resemble the usual conspiracy theory.) To me, the way they were used suggests the writers didn’t deeply understand (or at least, didn’t deeply think about) what the theories really mean—nor what they imply about the beliefs of the characters who espouse them. Which is the crux of my issue with how the movies deal with conspiracy theories and ecofascists and so forth (beyond the fact that, hey, I just don’t like seeing likable characters casually referencing antisemitic beliefs): the writers didn’t think about the implications.

Because these things do imply a lot! For example, if, say, Josh, total newb to conspiracy theories, had asked about lizard people, I would have grimaced to hear it but I would have believed that he’s a teen boy that picked up the term at school and doesn’t know anything about what’s behind it. But on the other hand, I can’t believe a guy so deep in the conspiracy theory world that he bathes in bleach doesn’t know exactly what those conspiracies mean—or, even if he does somehow staunchly refuse to believe that “lizard people” is a code for “Jewish people,” that whatever circle of conspiracy theorists he runs with doesn’t use it as a code. Bernie didn’t pick up those beliefs in a void. I really doubt that’s what the writers wanted to imply about the goofy likable underdog with a podcast.

And sure, the “global elite” and “lizard people” references are presented like a “haha look how far out his beliefs are” joke—the same as the fluoride reference, which is basically Hollywood code for “bogus nonsense only complete lunatics believe” thanks to Dr. Strangelove—but at the same time, they’re never really disproven. Nothing he believes is challenged. Nor are any of Madison’s beliefs that she’s picked up from him. Everything they both believe is either a “wow that’s wild” throwaway joke, or else they’re presented as totally right, e.g. about Apex being up to dubious crap that’s irritating Godzilla.

Just like Emma, who was presented as in the wrong not because she was incorrect but because she WAS correct but took the wrong actions. And just like Rick in KOTM, who kept bring up the hollow earth theory like a running joke but then the joke was that he was right.

And that’s at the root of the issues with both movies’ portrayals of conspiracy theories. Aside from the jokes that are never explored (and therefore, never disproven), the movies say that, every time it matters, the conspiracy theorists on the fringe are correct, the heroes that need to be believed. Even though all (excluding Rick) are characters who have suffered deep loss, who have been hurt, who you can imagine as passionate but grieving people who turned to dangerously wrong extremism in their search for meaning... the movies don’t portray them as people who have been led astray by their pain, but enlightened by their pain. Which is what they themselves think they are, sure, but that doesn’t line up with reality.

The movies never forces them to grapple with how far they’ve gone astray from reality—and I think they should. I’d like to see them processing the revelation that their beliefs are wrong. Whether it’s as big as somebody trying to convince Emma that killing half the population doesn’t fix the pollution caused by corporations rich enough to weather a global hurricane, or as small as Bernie looking at Apex’s financial records and realizing the company’s money is going to the CEO’s vacation home rather than a reptile government and deciding to rethink those beliefs after they’ve checked out Hong Kong.

“Conspiracy theorist is right about everything” is already a common enough trope that Monsterverse isn’t breaking any new ground with it. And in a franchise like Godzilla, whose movies are rife with messages both allegorical and literal about environmentalism, corporate exploitation, the futility of military action, international politics, war crimes... letting the conspiracy theorists be wrong and showing that they’re wrong and what that wrongness can lead to would mesh far better with the themes of Godzilla.

Think about Jonah and Emma unleashing Ghidorah (who emerged from a destroyed ice cap and immediately caused devastating hurricanes—a perfect metaphor for climate change), and what that could say about how ecofascists who purportedly joined the movement because they support environmentalism are actually far more in bed with the destructive industries really at the root of environmental damage... if the movie acknowledged them as ecofascists.

Think about how Jonah collected Ghidorah’s head at the end of KOTM and by the time of GVK it was in Apex’s hands, and how this exchange demonstrates that “I want to unleash titans to destroy humanity to save the environment” Jonah the ecoterrorist and “I want to beat the titans to protect humanity” Simmons the billionaire CEO actually have far more similar ideals beneath the surface of their opposed goals—ideals that have less to do with the environment or with humanity and more to do with securing personal power and control... if the movie had explained how this exchange took place.

Think about how Madison’s mother died trying to mitigate just a little of the damage she did under the thrall of a doomsday cult’s skewed beliefs, how even though Madison broke free she found herself embroiled in similarly skewed beliefs just three years later, and how powerful it would have been if she recognized that she herself had walked right back into the kind of fringe beliefs her mother had led her into as a child, and if she had then resolved to learn how this kept happening to her and break this pattern... if the movie had ever let her realize that she was making the same mistakes, or even acknowledged them as mistakes.

There’s so much potential there, so many things you can see happening right beneath the surface... but the movies never touch on them. And so it looks like, in Monsterverse, all fringe beliefs are either right or harmless. And we never get the “disillusioned conspiracy theorist” story that could be so brilliant and that, right now, would be so relevant.

#gvk #godzilla vs kong #gvk spoilers #godzilla vs kong spoilers #godzilla #kotm #meta

51 notes · View notes