#in case its not very clear here goes the explanation

[simp-ly-writes]

A Shadow Company Visit (pt.1)

Pairing: Commander Philip Graves x Designer!Reader

Summary: What happens when you visit the Shadow Company headquarters?

Warnings: 1000+ words, mentions of anxiety.

A/N: a little bit silly, this one.

Masterlist | Taglist | edited.

A Shadow Company Visit Series (pt.1) (pt.2) (pt.3) (pt.4) you are here

You and Philip had been dating for awhile now and you had helped to design the refurbished space of the new Shadow Company headquarters.

You hadn't beed back to the location since its completed construction just before it came to life; and Graves enjoyed keeping a very clear work-life balance. So this was you first time; dropping off the commanders paperwork that was forgotten beside a half-empty mug of coffee atop the kitchen counter.

When you drive up to the imposingly large gate, situated with turrets guarding the entrance and scanning over your vehicle. You nearly piss yourself when a smack against your roof startles your observing state. A uniformed officer comes in front of your car-window and motions for your to roll it down, asking for your identification.

You go blank with anxiousness, you had not thought about this bit while running out the house after your partner; knowing that these papers were important from the various stamps upon the beige folder.

Your eyes dart around the walls of the complex while reaching your hand towards the console to grab your phone; your breath hitches as a gun appears in your face; your breath catching in your throat as your body stills.

They demand to see your hands and you comply. You mouth not blubbering off at the speed of light explanations to your scenario and what you were reaching towards, pleading that you've never held a gun beside shooting ranges.

Your brain and heart screams for Philips presence right now. For him to take you into his arms; shielding you from the world while pressing kisses to your forehead.

Taking in a deep breath, you restart your explanation with a somewhat even tone in your voice as the officer nods their head and watches closely as you dial their commanders number and hear it ring for only a few seconds before a response if heard, echoing down the line.

Everything alright, sweetheart?

You heart explodes with relief with the sound of his voice as you begin to explain the scenario you have gotten yourself into. Eyes trailing upwards and into your rearview mirror, looking at the two other cars stuck behind your own; shaking your head and setting it against the steering wheel.

You hear him chuckle into the phone as you begin to shrink into yourself, a frown spreading across your face as your cheeks redden.

Well commander can you please, for the love of all things, get me out of this situation? Your embarrassment was reaching its capacity as you sassed Philip back in response.

The line goes silent for a moment and then you hear the distant sounds of orders being yelled down a hall before a huff. The phone is picked up once more,

See you in a few baby.

You swear you could hear the wink as the phone-line goes dead. You wait in your car, and glance around, taking a look to your right and see the same officer who is now pale in the face; your cheeks become reddened again once you realize you had kept the window rolled down and they had barred witness to your whole plead case.

No words are spoken between the two of you, you look to see that the ground was freshly wet underneath their feet as you drove through the newly opened gate while feeling guilty about the station worker.

--

Finding a parking spot was more difficult than you thought, overly worried that your car would block a tank or jet in the avaliable spaces, you had a long walk ahead of you to the main building. The tarmac hot against your boots with the files digging into the palm of your hand.

Viewing the space in action set shockwaves to your core as you took a minute to pause for a second and proudly stare over people using your work.

You felt eyes following your figure as your feet picked up their pace once more towards the doors. Looking yourself over-quickly and at everyone in their uniforms; you stuck out like a sore thumb in your civilian clothes as embarrassment struck you for a third time today.

Yet before you knew it, a fourth time was already glaring in your face. You didn't have a key card.

For designing this fucking place you think the hospitality would be grander... mumbling underneath your breath you look for someone you recognised, not wanting to disturb Philip once more from his work. Your eyes make their way throughout the base and the various stations in motion, you couldn't help but feel proud over your partners accomplishments; their dreams.

Next thing you know, the sounds of wizzing blades flying overhead capture your attention form the card hunt as you watch the helicopter gradually land in a designated station. Squinting your eyes down the field in hopes it's someone headed your way; the sight of dirty-blonde station chief has you crying out in utmost relief.

Kate Laswell's feet sway at the weight of your forceful hug against her body. Looking around at her task force in confusion; she looks down and smiles in relief upon seeing you and returning the hug with a chuckle.

You eventually let go of your university friend as you briefly catch up with the rest of the task force; smiles gracing across everyones features as you feel the most relaxed you had been in hours.

From conversations on spouses, funny recent mission accidents to rat infestations in cramped London apartments and taboo sharpie tattoos; a pair of arms is soon felt wrapping around your waist as you clench the papers in your hand protectively; awaiting the intruders next move.

Your eyes following the task forces tight eyes at whomever is attacking you, yet you relax at the familiar southern charm filling your ear as you hum in mixed joy and relief.

Funny seeing a little gentleman/lady like you out here. Catching up with old friends, beautiful?

You giggle and nod in reply and you feel his hands gently release the vice grip you have over the files as he kisses a thank-you to your forehead before holding the small of your back and addressing the task force in a serious demeanour; walking you all towards the main building.

╰┈➤ A/N: thank you for all the support on this post, more to come :)

A Shadow Company Visit Series (pt.1) (pt.2) (pt.3) (pt.4) you are here

#graves x designer!reader #cod x reader #cod mw22 #cod mwii #cod modern warfare #cod mw2 #cod x you #cod x y/n #cod x gn!reader #philip graves x reader #graves x reader #graves x you #phillip graves #phillip graves x reader #phillip graves x you #philip graves #philip graves x you #fanfiction #fanfic #simp-ly #simp-ly-writes #cod fanfic #cod mw #cod #cod graves #commander graves #shadow company #commander graves x reader

[moghedien]

ok so i was genuinely unsure about how I felt about the way Lanfear was revealed in the moment, but there are three main things that are really selling it for me:

1: It immediately sets up the threat of going up against a Forsaken:

So far we haven't really gotten much of an indication from the show about what the Forsaken really are, who they are, and why they're any different that a regular darkfriend. Obviously there's still a ways to go in explaining it, but Lanfear provided an immediate visual explanation

Because for example, we've already seen one darkfriend innkeeper who had a thing for Rand (or pretended to) take a knife through the throat

We've even seen Rand stick around and linger by her body and its very clear that absolutely nothing happens.

We get a lingering shot on her bleeding out and she is very clearly actually dead in this moment. Its not even really a question.

But with Lanfear we kinda get the exact opposite of this moment. We see her take a knife to the throat and clearly go down, then there is no lingering by the characters.

The camera goes back to her and we see the saa very clearly moving in her eye, then she blinks and breaths in.

And by this being the opposite of Dana, I mean that with Dana there was no question that she was actually dead. With Lanfear, there is absolutely no question that she's still alive.

Dana was also a darkfriend, but this is very clearly showing non readers that Lanfear is something DIFFERENT. We're told she's a darkfriend of some kind, then we're seen that she actually apparently cannot die by normal means. This coming AFTER the reveal that she is definitely a channler of some kind, and if we now know she's a Forsaken, then we know that Moiraine clearly said the Forsaken are the most powerful channlers ever, more powerful than any Aes Sedai.

And now apparently they can't die.

2. Its foreshadowing.

Moiraine was able to take out Lanfear (if only temporarily) with a physical attack because Lanfear was so fixated on Rand.

The above is also a spoiler for the climax of a certain book.

I'm not gonna get into it, but its clearly like showing that there's a course of action and there is a playbook that works here.

3. NOW we have Lanfear

Before we had Selene. I'd argue there were even moments where we had Mierin, but the only time Lanfear has really come out before this was when she went into Rand's dream and threatened him in episode 3.

By this I mean that while Selene was always obviously an act Lanfear was putting on, it stopped us from really seeing how manipulative and obsessive Lanfear could be and was currently being. If we didn't know she was Lanfear (and non readers shouldn't) then there's no reason to realize the lengths to her manipulation. We still don't know that the man she was telling Rand about was Lews Therin. We still don't know that Lanfear even knew Lews Therin much less would want to rekindle any kind of lost romance with his reincarnation. Because even when Lanfear was being honest as Selene, she was keeping herself back. She wasn't latching onto Rand and telling him that he was hers. She was very clearly holding onto the memory of Lews Therin, but there has yet to be any clear indication that she 100% buys that Rand and Lews Therin are the same person rather than Rand just being his reincarnation.

So while Lanfear was definitely getting some joy out of sleeping with Lews Therin reborn, there is no real indication that that is what she wanted. She said she wants Lews Therin. She tells Rand she's more or less settling for him. Let's assume that was 100% honest for the moment (because I believe it mostly is to a point), I don't think that's the case after this episode. Because Mierin Eronaile suddenly got the one thing she'd always wanted:

If you watch the moments immediately before this scene and immediately after, there is a shift in how Lanfear is acting here.

Before she was very clearly putting on an act. She was playing up being afraid of Rand and didn't seem at all concerned about keeping him here. The most she does is ask him where he's going to go, and even that is said in a weird tone unless you know that she's probably going to use this information to keep tabs on him and report it/follow him herself.

But Rand does the one thing he absolutely shouldn't have done with Lanfear and told her that he loves her.

So now I think is the moment where Lanfear is willing to accept that Rand is Lews Therin. Because if Rand is Lews Therin, then Lews Therin just said that he loves her.

And her entire tone shifts here. You can see she's visibly shocked in the moment, and then smiles and flips the scene to her being afraid of him, to her reassuring him and telling him that he should have told her and telling him that he didn't do anything wrong and he was just acting in his nature. Before she was bringing up the inn and was clearly trying to make him feel bad. Now she's clearly trying to reassure him and keep him around. Absolutely manipulation but I think she didn't really need him to stay until he indicated that he loved her.

So what this means is that we now have Lanfear, who is established as being unkillable and one of the most powerful and oldest being in existence, NOW becoming obsessed with Rand al'Thor and thinking of him entirely as Lews Therin. And not only that, but now she's PISSED because he just left her and was taken away from her by Moiraine exactly when she finally had him back after thousands of years.

She finally got everything she's wanted and it was immediately taken away, and I think that's frankly terrifying, so yeah, I think I do like this reveal now actually.

#also like #the books make it prettty obvious who she is #like if you don't suspect Selene is who's being talked about in that creepy poem from the moment she talks then idk #I think it was best to withhold that info until it needed to be revealed #there's few Forsaken reveals that I find like actually surprising or satisfying in the books #and surprise surprise the only one I can think of that I genuinely like is Moghedien's reveal to Liandrin's black ajah group #mostly because it scared the Black Ajah shitless when they realized the maid girl they'd been abusing was a Chosen #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot book spoilers #wot show spoilers #lanfear #long post

[barkly-523]

About Dutch van der Linde

Hello tumblr rdr space! I do not go here, but I post on tiktok sometimes and have a dear buddy of mine who ive been talking to about some posts on here!

I will post a proper introduction at a later date, but for now I would like to put my own two cents in on some stuff ive been seeing recently, about Dutch.

Dutch is an incredibly COMPLEX character, and I feel that some people really horrifically miss that point sometimes. whether it be "Oh, he bonked his head!" or "Oh, this man is a monster!" both points are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but I believe they greatly miss the overarching theme of his character and who he is, and was, as a person. To merely dismiss all of his actions by saying "oh, hes just a monster, abuser, groomer, thats why hes the way that he is" shows nothing above a surface level understanding of his character, nor the characters of the people around him and those who choose to work with him. These characters were designed to have depth, to be studied, and understood on a deeper level. Why take such a basic explanation? I am not here to say Dutch is not without flaws (because he has alot of those), but I AM here to say that calling dutch a "groomer" or some sort of "cult leader, master manipulator" is just, factually incorrect.

Firstly, with the grooming point. This is an incredibly stigmatized word nowadays, so its crazy to use in general here, but by no means were people "groomed" into being outlaws. These people had flaws of their own, took bad paths, and ended up crossing paths with Dutch. Why did they cross paths with him? Well, I went through every "how they joined the gang" story I could find, and its about a 50/50 split between they tried to rob or kill dutch, Or that they were on the run and dutch gave them a safe place to stay, with some exceptions. The odds of these people bumping into someone far worse, in all cases, are exceptional. Most of the gang were in bad places when dutch found them, and they were getting desperate. Its incredibly possible they wouldve bumped into someone who wouldve killed them instead. John was saved from being hanged. Had Dutch and Hosea not been there, he wouldve died. Arthur outright says "dutch saved me, saved most of us." and although things did not turn out right at the end of the day, to believe that dutch was nothing more than a power-hungry manipulator is shown to be incorrect in the media itself. Colm exists. Hes literally right there. An antagonist who; doesnt know the names of the men in his gang, is shown to hit Kieran, who cares more for numbers than connection. Their feud goes back YEARS, and it all seems to stem from a fatal disagreement about how things were being run. When they split paths, Dutch keeps a tight knit gang of people who he considers family, Colm continues to grow his gang in numbers. At the very start of the game, dutch makes it clear that hed prefer the gang doesnt split up, that they stick together so *he can be sure everyone is okay.* He shows sympathy for Sadies situation, and takes her in to help her. Not once is it stated shes obligated to be there, in fact, its stated that she can stay as long as she needs to, to get back on her feet. She has the final say on whether she stays in the gang or not. The reason so many people stayed in the gang until it was actively collapsing, is not because dutch was forcing them to stay. They saw him as family just as he saw them.

Its why his character arc is so interesting. Its why watching his downfall is impactful. he ISNT a bad man, he does bad things out of desperation towards the end of the game, just as other gang members did in the very beginning. Dutch had bad tendencies, but he had people there to help him stay on the right track. His beliefs were good, its why he had people who stuck with him. They believed in what he taught. He had incredibly intelligent people in his gang, I'll use Lenny and Hosea as my examples for now. Lenny was taught by his father to judge peoples character, and even if his time with the gang was short he absolutely wouldve picked up on dutchs behavior if he was hiding behind some sort of mask. and HOSEA, has been with the dude for 20 YEARS. You cannot fake something for that long, and hosea is far from stupid aswell. He is a conman by nature. If dutch was trying to con everyone, surely he wouldve noticed. Arthur still regards dutch incredibly highly for a good majority of the game. He sees the man as a mentor and is clearly deeply affected watching dutch spiral and do bad things as the game goes on. At the beginning, when told Dutch had shot a girl on the blackwater job, his first response is to say that it "doesnt sound like him". Dutch is shown to have remorse for his actions, although he chooses to rarely talk about blackwater, and avoids the subject when its brought up, he explains to hosea, with shame, that he "really messed up" in blackwater. Micah had egged dutch on (as stated by John in a camp interaction) and dutch is shown to be regretful, that job really put everything in motion, but I truly believe micahs manipulation is what changed dutch.

Micah fed into his impulsive side, and tried to reassure him when things went wrong. When Arthur was kidnapped by Colm, Micah explained that Arthur was the type to wander, and surely, theyd see him back at camp. Dutch, ONCE AGAIN, shows regret. He shouldnt have put Arthur in such a position, and knows it. Dutch has impulsive tendencies, he has paranoid thoughts. This is shown in multiple camp interactions and even stated in one of the games first journal entries about the land they were going to settle on before the ferry job. To simply blow off all the depth of his character by saying "oh, hes bad" is so,, lame? Why focus on dutch specifically to say he did all of these bad things on his own accord when micah is, right there. Dutch literally goes crawling back to him in the epilogue. Partly for revenge, since seeing arthur on the cliffside was able to briefly break him out of the funk hed been in for the last few months (albeit far too late), but also partly because I dont think he knows how to be alone. I dont think he can handle it. Hosea and Arthur had been by his side the longest, and he had to watch both of them die. Late game conversations between dutch and arthur have always been fascinating to me, and even in Guarma dutch is still set on going back to keep the gang together. Thats his family, and he cannot lose them too. He outright states he'll do whatever it takes to make sure they survive. Arthur is startled by this, as dutch has been shown to be deadly and irrational, he isnt processing things well, and cannot handle the pressure on his shoulders, and it certainly doesnt help that Micah is in his ear telling him that Arthur and John are betraying him. He clearly doesnt want to believe it, but he cannot wrap his head around hoseas death, and assumes that the only way it couldve happened was if someone ratted, completely overlooking micah.

Dutch is not a smart man, and truthfully, he should have never been in a position of power, but he is not evil. He was desperate, and he was trying to keep his family together. Although I do not agree with the "Trolley Theory" for reasons stated above, I highly doubt him bashing his head like that helped with his mental state either. Dutch is desperate. Dutch does bad things, but he is far from a bad man. He helped the people in his gang, and although the found family turned sour in the end, they mattered to him, and it mattered to the gang. Dutch, CANONICALLY, was not always "bad" either. Arthur, Dutch, and Hosea robbed a bank, took what they needed, and gave the rest to the local orphanage. Dutch scolded Arthur for robbing someone who was "too poor" and said that doing that made them just as bad as the system they were fighting against, Dutch helped Hosea get on the right track and stopped him from stealing just about anything he could get his hands on. Dutch is a man who had good ideologies, and wanted to help people in his own way, but the pressures kept adding up and it broke him. Dutch, in RDR1, is a more objectively "bad" character, But look at how they fleshed him out in rdr2. Was the cliff scene nearly as impactful before the release of rdr2? absolutely not! Playing as john, we were thrown in with a baseline knowledge of their history, and now knowing the full story makes the cliff scene quite the harrowing experience if youre able to grasp the intricacies of dutchs character, to look at him as more than "just a villain".

This turned out to be far more ranty then I wanted, but I am so tired of seeing so much mischaracterization and demonization of a character with literally days worth of content to look at and study that shows some of the points I see from people to just be blatantly wrong. Lol

#speak less #red dead redemption 2 #dutch van der linde #rdr2 #vandermatthews #do people talk in the tags? #i swear i see that sometimes #anyway!! hiii!!! #van der linde gang

[4-roaring]

On Haruka’s name meaning and how it relates to his character arc

In Japanese fictional media, characters’ names often carry deep and layered meanings, mostly due to how easy it is to subtly employ this storytelling device with Japanese names being composed of kanji characters with their own meanings. Idolish Seven is no stranger to this practice–from the more overt numerical themes and the Takanashi vs. Takamasa symbolism, to the subtler, more veiled meanings to them (like how Ten and Aya’s names relate to their position with regards to being groomed to overcome Zero–brief explanation here), these names can offer profound insights into the characters. In this opportunity specifically, we’re going to talk about Haruka’s name's meaning and its relation to his development in Part 3 to 4 in particular, because there’s a hidden foreshadowing that often goes unnoticed by most people.

As this will be spoiling a lot of Main Story Part 3-4 and Antagonistic Quarter, the rest will be kept under the cut!

Before we get into the main point, it’s important to first find out what Haruka’s name means by breaking it down: 

亥 (i): boar, as in the Japanese zodiac sign. This simply fits ŹOOĻ’s theme of carnivorous animals belonging to the Japanese zodiac.

清 (sumi): a character relating to pure/clear, e.g., the verb 清む (read “sumu”, which is another form of 澄む) means “to become pure/clear”.

悠 (haruka): the simple translation is “calm/composed”, yet there’s a depth that lies in the kanji construction: 悠 combines 攸, representing the act of pouring water on one's back in the purification ritual known as misogi (禊ぎ), with 心, which means heart. The philosophy embedded in 悠 as a name is achieving composure after undergoing purification of body and soul (interestingly, the site that I use as a reference for this describes the meaning as 心身共に清められている–notice how the verb used there has the character 清 that appears in his surname?)

At first glance, it may appear ironic that a character predominantly defined by his anger is given a name that signifies the exact opposite. One might be tempted to believe that this naming choice was solely made for the sake of creating a striking contrast between his name and his actual personality. However, as you follow his character arc, you’ll find out that this name–seemingly contradictory at first–actually hints at his journey more than you may have initially thought!

The central theme to ŹOOĻ’s arc is learning to not let your past wounds consume you to the point of letting them dictate your actions. This theme is particularly evident in Haruka’s character, in which his anger and bitterness seem more pronounced compared to the rest of ŹOOĻ. It’s understandable how this is the case for Haruka though–not only is he already the youngest in ŹOOĻ, which might have made it harder for him to process his emotions more maturely (though I have to admit, for someone his age, he actually copes pretty well), it turns out that he also experienced his trauma at a very tender age.

I’ll definitely make you regret it!!

The thing is, Haruka hasn’t always been motivated by anger prior to experiencing his trauma–both Antagonistic Quarter and his 2022 birthday card shows how he mainly did things for the happiness of others back then. It wasn’t until a certain event in the later part of Antagonistic Quarter–where Kujou discarded Haruka in favor of Ten–that Haruka started turning for the worse. While it was mostly Kujou’s fault for not “correctly” raising Haruka as an idol, Kujou was also concerned about the fact that Haruka started treating him as a stand-in for the fans, leading to him deeming Haruka a failure and abandoning him. This of course shattered Haruka, who blindly trusted Kujou’s judgment and just listened to everything Kujou told him without further questioning anything in a desperate attempt to get Kujou to acknowledge and adopt him. Following the call about his grandmother's hospitalization right after that, Haruka ended up experiencing overwhelming stress that led to his breakdown. After internally articulating his thoughts about how tired he was of being good if it only brought him misfortune, he swore out loud to make Kujou regret. This scene right here represents the “corruption” of his motivations.

Kujou Ten…  I’ll drag you off the stage and make you fall.

In Part 3, after being unhealthily enabled and manipulated by Ryou, Haruka spends most of his time on screen obsessing about Ten and taunting him when he actually meets the person in question. While Haruka's anger toward Kujou is very much justified given Kujou’s unfair treatment to him, it’s important to note that it’s also awfully misdirected at Ten. As much as Ten was (part of) the cause of Haruka’s abandonment, he wasn't actually directly involved in it, especially seeing that Ten knew nothing of this at all prior to meeting Haruka. The one actually responsible for the decision was Kujou alone, so it’s unfair of Haruka himself to target Ten for revenge. However, it’s very likely that Haruka finds it easier to lash out at Ten, the object of his jealousy, rather than directly confronting Kujou, whom he probably still harbors complicated feelings for. At this point of time, he lacks any emotional connection whatsoever with Ten, so he uses him as a proxy for Kujou in his revenge scheme (that, and I don’t think Haruka can think of another means to get his revenge on Kujou aside from taking it out on Ten).

Surprisingly to Haruka, Ten doesn’t succumb to the harm Haruka inflicted on him the way Haruka expects him to. And this also frustrates him greatly, because in a way, Haruka was projecting heavily on Ten–so if his wounds hurt him so much, then why do they seem to not bother Ten even a bit? How can Ten remain resilient while he struggles even to lift himself from the ground he’s fallen on? On the other hand, though, I think this is also a key to Haruka realizing how being motivated primarily by his hatred isn’t going to get him anywhere.

That said, realizing that Ten's downfall won't ease his anger still isn’t enough. You see, Haruka’s trauma revolves around his actions going unappreciated by the people around him, which then becomes the roots of his fear of rejection. While he doesn’t necessarily expect everything he does to be reciprocated, it can feel crushing to do something for someone else’s shake only for them to not notice it or–even worse–outright reject it. From Ryou caring more about Riku when Haruka is the one singing for him, to Minami being dismissive to Haruka reaching out to help him (though in defense of Minami, it also involves a trauma of his that he isn’t ready to face and process yet), it’s as if all he ever did would just amount to nothing. During a live performance in Part 4 Chapter 5, he even vocalized this in a monologue:

オレの言葉を、気持ちを大事にして。 簡単に、突き返さないで。 そうすれば…..。 そうすれば…..。その先は、今更、もう、馬鹿らしくて言えないや。 Please take my words, my feelings, seriously. Don’t easily brush them off. If you do it... Because if you do it... after that, at this point, it just feels too silly to say anything anymore.

Like seen above, a couple of times in the story, Haruka is so close to just choosing to not care anymore, even though it proves to be harder to do for him because it actually goes against his nature to want to help others (again, it used to be his main reason to do almost anything when he was younger). But then enters Touma to the picture–the one ŹOOĻ member who, despite facing rejection from almost every direction, refuses to give up on the rest of ŹOOĻ and continues to believe in them, including Haruka. Personally, I think the one moment that especially cements Touma as the catalyst that helps kickstart Haruka’s development is their conversation at the butler cafe in Part 3 Chapter 16. By asking Haruka what he wants to do in the future beyond his revenge, Touma actually prompts Haruka to reevaluate the foundation of his actions for the first time.

I think you’re a very amazing person. That if it’s with you, then I can do it… I want to keep singing with you, together, you know.

However, arguably the biggest catalyst that finally puts Haruka’s growth in motion comes in Part 4 Chapter 5 when Haruka breaks out in tears after a messy fight with ŹOOĻ and Ryou. At this very moment, in an attempt to console Haruka, Touma finally says the words that Haruka has so wanted to hear for a long time (with the utmost sincerity–very unlike Ryou): that he’s better than Kujou Ten, that Haruka is the one he wants to sing together with. This holds immense significance for Haruka–he has consistently felt unwanted by everyone up until now, so hearing that he’s no longer just an afterthought to someone else is pivotal to his journey towards healing from his trauma.

We encounter ŹOOĻ again in Part 4 Chapter 7 during an interview, where Touma reaches a breaking point due to Minami and Torao’s uncooperative behavior, prompting him to vent his frustrations about their attitudes. Interestingly, this marks the first time the usually hot-tempered Haruka remains visibly composed, which in a way is also ironic since it's also a moment where the typically collected Minami and Torao (and to a lesser extent, Touma as well) behave somewhat immaturely, contrasting with their usual demeanor, despite being older than Haruka.

Hey, you bunch of losers. We’re okay with even committing our whole lives to ŹOOĻ.

Haruka only speaks up when he sees Touma realizing that he’s essentially been ranting during a formal interview (in which Haruka also playfully berates Touma for not ending his “cool talk” properly). It’s in this moment that Haruka reveals his newfound resolve, one no longer rooted in hatred or anger, that is, to dedicate his entire life for ŹOOĻ. There’s more to his words in particular, though: as displayed in the screenshot above, Haruka uses the idiomatic expression ～に骨を埋める, which literally translates to “to bury one’s bones in (something).” The idea behind this is that you commit yourself so much to said thing that you actually die while still engaging with it. While Haruka partially does this to echo Touma (since Touma did use the same expression to almost literally beg Minami and Torao to be cooperative with him), it’s also important that Haruka specifically decides to echo this of all the stuff that Touma said and end his speech with it in particular. Essentially, ŹOOĻ has become Haruka’s newfound purpose for existence as he now realizes that these members are the people who most need him and are worth fighting for, signifying a “purification” of his motivation. This transformation finally enables genuine growth and paves the way for his redemption later on.

Before we end this writeup, there’s another thing I want to specifically bring up: while Haruka finally learns to not let his negative emotions take control of his actions, he doesn’t just completely discard them. In fact, he instead acknowledges them, because he has to allow himself to confront and process his feelings rather than denying them to be able to grow from them. This, I think, is expressed beautifully in the lyrics of his solo song, Labyrinth:

黒い気持ちと手を繋いだって構わない 抱きしめたっていい I don’t mind holding hands with dark feelings I'm fine with even embracing them

The path was undoubtedly challenging and sometimes very painful even, but in the end, Haruka was able to discover a “pure” intent and not let his negative emotions completely shape him as a person, befitting of his name.

#isumi haruka #źooļ #idolish seven #ai rambles

[kanmom51]

This is not written to or about you. In your mind's voice please read it as I am speaking to and about the people who have written some excited rants. I like your site a lot and like your perspectives on JiKook topics. I am hoping, if nothing else, it might inspire a conversation for you. I wasn't sure where to share it since I am new to Tumblr and really don't plan to be a big poster.

================The thoughts==============

Some 'fans' and foes are losing their minds over Jimin participating in a song as a feature artist that has multiple performers, one of whom has - according to the conversations - done horrible things and has a bad reputation. However, many of these same people were not as concerned about Jungkook who performed in Qatar that has huge human rights violations and controversies. Qatar has been doing this for much longer and harming many more groups of people. The information is easy to research. Yet these same people and others have no problem supporting a KPop industry that exploits underage people with excessive work and sexual behavior. The very industry they support has had its own sexual abuse scandals and unfortunate suicide incidents, but yet they are now out of sorts about supporting Jimin with this song. I'm not in any way defending the rapper, if the information is confirmed to be true, and I am not saying it wouldn't be wise for Jimin to be aware of who he is working with, but he likely recorded a song in an isolated studio and didn't even meet the performers he was singing with. He would not work in this industry if he based his choices on only working with saintly people who never did wrong things or only behaved in ways that were perfect. As an aside, I don't know the personal behaviors of any of the other people on the song. I just don't understand the hypocrisy and the emotional tantrums people are having without thinking through information, much less looking at their own lives to see if they would have trouble being held to the same standards they hold BTS, but apparently Jimin in particular, to. If you are not who I am referring to with the descriptions above, feel free to disregard these thoughts. No need to be offended if you are not anyone referenced here.

Thanks for your time, Kanmom51. Keep up the good work.

I'm actually with you on this one @jimin-bangtan .

The hypocrisy in this fandom hits me every single time.

Let's start With Kodak Black why don't we?

Born 1997, now 25 yo man. Not without controversy around him, he has been involved in several illegalities in the past.

I will say this and be loud and clear: KB is NOT a nice person.

He's been involved in drug and illegal arms offenses and beyond the charges I will talk about below, the reason people are up in arms about the collab, he has been said to get rough with women. In my books he's a douche, and if he ever raises his hand at a woman he needs to pay the price for it. Period.

But the main issue that has people upset about is his rape charges. people screaming about how can JM be collaborating with a rapist.

So, let's make one thing clear here.

KB IS NOT A CONVICTED RAPIST.

Plain and simple.

Well not so simple, because the legal system (law) and justice are two different things, at times intertwine and at times travel on parallel lines that never meet.

It actually goes both ways - people that literally get away with murder on the one hand and innocent people that have their lives ruined by wrongfully charged or convicted on the other.

But the legal system, as flawed as it is, is what we have.

Why this long winded explanation?

Well because KB was accused he raped a high school student in Feb 2016. He was charged for it in October 2017.

But 5 years later the prosecution reached a plea deal with him, the sex offenses were dropped (not even being accused of statutory rape, which is having consensual sex with a minor) and he was convicted of assault and battery and received a suspended sentence and probation.

I know this feels a little technical, but it is super important to make these distinctions. He was accused of rape but not convicted of it.

It is what it is.

He is a douche but he is not a convicted sex offender douche.

And if we are already talking about douches and problematic musicians, it's funny how everyone seems to wake up with these complaints and criticism when it involves JM.

Why is that? I ask myself.

Where were those people when Hobi was collabing with Crush? Where were they when BTS collabed with Snoop Dogg? Do I even bring up all the scandals he was involved in?

The above mentioned is merely an example of some of Snoop Dogg's issues.

Nothing, silence, you could hear a pin fall. Well, actually, not really. Because of all of the cheers and screams of joy that were heard when that collab was announced. Funny. Or not really.

And let's think about the examples in this ask why don't we?

JK doing the song for the Qatar games, well that didn't go without scrutiny. There were voices of criticism sounded, but those voices pretty much died down and at the end of the day, the song and JK as well, received the full support from the fandom.

And the K-pop industry?

"Yet these same people and others have no problem supporting a KPop industry that exploits underage people with excessive work and sexual behavior. The very industry they support has had its own sexual abuse scandals and unfortunate suicide incidents, but yet they are now out of sorts about supporting Jimin with this song."

Say it louder for the people in the back!!!

YG just announced their new girl group. Guess how old the youngest member is?

13 yo.

13

As much as that is a favourite Jikook number, it sure isn't an appropriate age for a child to debut with a girl group in an industry that sexualises young girls the way it does. And it's not that the others are much older either.

Cookie someone?

So yeah, we all need to be conscious of our choices. Who we listen to, where our money goes, who and what we support. And it's ok to criticise our faves, I'd even go as far as to say it's our duty to do so. But a. it's a case to case basis, meaning circumstances matter (which means what the level of involvement is with that person, for example); and b. let's not be hypocrites here. Let's not have double standards. If we feel it's wrong to collab with a problematic rapper, that standard applies not only to JM but to every other member of the band and the band as a whole.

Period.

#ask

[batfamhyperfixation]

Ok, I'm playing a game called what tattoo would each batfamily member get. You can give your opinions too, but here is what I got:

Bruce would get this to remind himself of that exact thing

(Please give your opinions especially for Dick cause I think this one could be better) but I was thinking this one for Dick cause its cute and kinda funny but could also remind him of his circus years (the tightrope) and how despite everything, he is still hanging on

Jason would get this one, he would say it's just cause it looks badass, but it's actually a reference to Cthulhu. Anyone who looks at Cthulhu supposedly goes insane. After the Lazarus pit, Jason has this guilt for losing control and he constantly feels like he is going insane. Plus that is the area of his rage (the way he hits people or handles weapons) so putting Cthulhu on his hand shows that is the physical manifestation of his 'bouts of insanity' or rage

Tim would get this one (minus the stuff in the photograph coming out) cause this all started (being Robin, joining the batfamily, everywhere he is today) because of that photo with Dick at the circus all those years ago (and figuring out Dick was Robin)

Damian would say it's cause he likes cats and it fits the aesthetic for the family (goth), but it is really because for a long time growing up, he used to see himself as this bad thing, similar to the stigma for black cats as bad luck, but he isn't actually, just like how black cats are actually just friendly cute and cuddly, not bad luck, so he has this as a reminder

Cass would get this, because she has a troubled past, getting raised by assassins, and this is a reminder that she is not where she comes from, she is who she decides to be now, she doesn't need to define herself through her trauma

Duke is a metahuman who controls light and shadow, so one of those cool blacklight tattoos would be quite fitting, and one of his backbone would show 1) he fights for the people of Gotham, that he's not going to be spineless (he was quite pleased with his play on words) and 2) it shows his human side, that being a meta doesn't make him any less human

Steph would get this one. I feel like Steph would resonate with Alice from Alice in wonderland. She grew up in a home with villians, yet she still had a moral compass, she even spoiled their plans, hence how she got her name. She would feel like the only sane person in a world of madness growing up, like another blond girl did (Alice, in case it wasn't clear), and the 'starry night' by Vincent Van Gogh would symbolize her vigilant life, she is entering a world of madness to fight for justice during the nights in Gotham

Lastly, Alfred would not have gotten a tattoo if he wasn't swayed when Jason showed him this, as it is very convenient and that is the only reason he would even consider a tattoo

If you think it would be something different for someone's, feel free to add the tattoo and an explanation as to why!

#you can say your opinions if you want #you just gotta give reasons cause I wanna see your thoughts #batkids #batfam #bat family #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #cassandra cain #duke thomas #stephine brown #alfred pennyworth #tattoos #batman

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy weekend everyone :). We’ve reached the episode where Emmett and Lucy’s relationship comes to an abrupt end. Get to delve into why it ended and see Tim help her through it like he does. It’s a solid ep for them. Also more growth for our boy. Lets get going.

3x08 Bad Blood

We start with Lucy waking up to a cowardly breakup text from Emmett. Ugh. Not only that he’s dragging Tim into to it to grab his stuff from her. Extra helping of coward. I kinda wanna nut check him for this. No matter how Lucy treated the relationship this was unwarranted. I can’t stand people who aren’t forward with their feelings. Eject out of relationship through a text message instead of doing it face to face. Confrontation isn't fun but its better than doing this. Because that's all Emmett will be remembered for. Is having zero balls about their breakup. That's the legacy he's decided to leave.

It’s the first thing Lucy talks to Jackson about when she gets to work. She’s so mad and rightfully so IMO. Asking if he’s 14 years old? Why he couldn’t do it to her face? (man has no balls or integrity would be my guess) Jackson tells her sadly that’s most guys these days. She’s lucky she didn’t just get ghosted. So I guess he's one level above Uber coward then. Tim is within ear shot of all this. Asking Lucy if they can just get to work now?

Lucy ignores his plea to just go to work. Instead asking him if Emmett talked to him about this? Tim replies no why would he? That when they hang out its not a feelings party LOL Also If Emmett did Tim would’ve defended Lucy and told Emmett he was an idiot. I bet you he was far too scared to tell Tim about what he did. Especially after he ate him alive in 2x19. No way in hell he was coming to Tim about hurting her. Dude wouldn't have survived that convo.

Tim has the most Tim Bradford answer ever when he replies if she wants his advice? To Tim it’s so clear. He treated her badly to end the relationship. So naturally she just needs to walk it off. Cut that off emotionally and move on. Saying he clearly wasn’t the right guy for her. (He very much was not… *cough you are cough*) He’s always so brusk at first in his advice to her. Then once they’re alone in the shop away from Jackson he gets softer. I think part of that advice he gave here was cause they weren’t alone. How he is with her one on one is so different than when they have an audience.

We pan back to them finishing up a call. Lucy asking if Tim had ever been dumped out of the blue before? Then he makes a hilarious dark joke about Isabel. The change in this man regarding his ex-wife is unreal. The place he’s in now that he can use what happened to him in a sarcastic way is amazing. It has a dark edge to it like satire but progress none the less.

Clearly saying it to bring a little perspective to her about her situation. Lucy recognizes that but has to know the Why. I can’t blame her I’m the same way. It’s hard for me to let things go with no explanation. Especially when its affected me on a deep level. Lucy is practically begging Tim to ask Emmet WHY did he do this? This is something that is going to consume her day till she gets some answers.

Tim doesn’t have time to reply because he see’s the shop has been tagged. He goes white as a ghost. Lucy is trying not to laugh because she doesn’t understand what’s happening. Then Tim touches it and it’s fresh. He loses it and calls in the calvary. Lucy is looking around in a panic trying to asses the threat. Wondering why this feels like a DEFCON 1 situation right now.

We return to them at the station. Tim is explaining the situation to her. That 3Eyez was active from 2006-2010. Telling her they had victims all over the city. Whenever they got close to catching them it stopped. Tim assumed since it’s been so long they stopped. He also lets her know he checks the data base every 3 months. Just in case he shows up in another city.

Lucy says wow he must’ve been hardcore for him to obsess like this. Asks Tim what his biggest crime was? He tells her it’s him being a tagger. Costing the city hundred of thousands of dollars in repairs. Lucy is confused and says ok…in property damage though.... She is trying to connect why he’s so obsessed with them.

Then we find out his shop was tagged when he was a rookie. Not only that but he let it happen right under his nose. Lucy is getting a MAJOR kick out of this. Laughing and enjoying this piece of his history. Best part of her day so far. For a couple reasons. One he made a big ol' mistake as a rookie. You know she loves that. Delights her to no end. Especially with how he has berated her mistakes as his boot. Second she knows he must've had some unrelenting teasing attached to this moment. It happened right under his nose.

She is down right giddy as she is putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Asking him if he had a nickname? That after an incident like that no way he didn’t garner a nickname of some sort. Lucy is so desperate to get any intel on him pre-her. Especially in his own boot days. Tim can sense how damn eager she is about this. Tries to shut it down with a defensive ‘No…’ hahaha god I love them sfm. Lucy is enjoying teasing him about this far too much LOL

Lucy continues on saying this why he’s so intent on catching this guy. It’s personal. Tim tries to deflect as he does. Saying no. He’s a criminal and it’s their job to stop him. (Sure love sure....) Lucy tries to insert some logic into the situation by saying this seems pointless. The way he snatches back the photo it’s clear it’s not pointless to him…His wounded pride about an early mistake haunting him. Can't say I wouldn't be the same way. I take my failures so seriously even when they're not serious.

Jackson and Wade see 3Eyez mid tagging. They call it in and Tim hears it. Has them immediately attach to their call. Grey steps out of the shop and his back goes out. Jackson and Lucy go to help him. Tim stays in the shop and wants to go after the tagger. Leaving Lucy and Jackson behind to stay with Grey till ambulance arrives. Tim think he spots them in an ally and leaves his shop. It ends up being a dead end for him. He returns to which gets tagged again LOL Poor Tim can’t win for losing in this ep. He’s so mad.

The ambulance arrives for Grey. Lucy recognizes Dave from her time with Emmett. Asks if he works with him? He is instantly flirty with her and says Yes. He replies back she’s dating Emmet? Lucy says not anymore. His forwardness continues when he says how gorgeous she is. That he would be a fool to let her go. (I mean obviously... ) Lucy starts to see this as an opportunity to get back at Emmett. Not her most mature move here but she's going for it anyways.

Jackson can see this developing and isn’t on board. Gotta love him being frank with her about it afterwards. Lucy is just as forward and asks Dave out. Tells him Jackson will give him her number. Clearly only going out with this guy to get back at Emmett. Jackson immediately calls her on it. Lucy pulling a Tim defects what he’s saying. Before he can grill her further Tim pulls up in their tagged shop LOL He tells her not to say a word about it when he rolls up LMAO It’s too damn funny. He could not be more agitated about this.

Lucy is going on about her date with Dave. Asking Tim where they should go for dinner? Tim just makes a disapproving face. Lucy catches on real quick. Asking if he isn’t approving of her plan? Since he hasn't replied Lucy just goes OFF on a rant. Tim doesn’t even have to say anything. It’s almost like she unburdening her soul with the guilt she feels. Wanting him to say anything to justify or right her decision. Saying yeah maybe she is dating this guy to make Emmet jealous...

Tim says nothing and Lucy continues on saying Emmett deserves this. Radio silence... Then she point blank asks if he can say something to her please? She’s so desperate for his POV on this. Because when it comes to Lucy his emotional intelligence is off the charts. She needs his wisdom in this situation. Tim sighs and finally breaks. Says this is the first time In WEEKS she’s even mentioned Emmett. Lucy tries to deflect it by saying he doesn’t allow personal talk.

Tim doesn’t let her get away with that at all. Just like she calls him out he returns the favor in kind. Saying and yet we still have these conversations despite that. Basically saying if Emmett meant anything to her he would’ve been brought up to Tim. Even if he didn’t want to hear about it. That in all the conversations over the past few weeks she never once mentioned him. Lucy is still a little confused asks ‘What do you mean?’

It’s then Tim comes down with the truth hammer. It’s insane how well he can just zero in on her relationships. Like a mechanic looking at a car and spotting all the issues. This is something he does in the future with Chris in 5x08 as well. Helps her notice and face these issues. The issue in this instance being she was never invested in Emmett. That he treated the relationship the same way she did. With no care or effort. That it didn't matter. You watch the realization wash over her.

Like being smacked in the face with the truth. Melissa really crushes this portion. You can see her realizing what he's saying is true. That it's really sinking in and the guilt kicks in. Just like how only Lucy can talk to Tim like she does. It's the same for Tim with her. Only he can deliver the same telling her like it is that she does. This is what she wanted from this conversation though. Perspective, truth and the why behind it. Sometimes that hurts. This is something we learn with the relationships she has before Tim though. That's she never really all in with them.

She’s never really invested enough because they’re not what she already has with Tim. That deep inexplicable bond they share. It will forever take precedence over any of the other men she has in her life. They will ALWAYS pale in comparison to him. Now I don’t think she realizes she’s doing this at this point. But it’s exactly what she is doing. Especially knowing her next relationship and how that ends and why.

Leave it to Tim to deliver the why she has been searching for all day. The sad look of realization on her face gets to Tim though. You can see it above. He knows she's hurting now and distracted. So he does what he does best. Distracts her. Asks her what she thinks 3Eyez next plan is? Asking if they’re done for the day? Trying to get her brain moving. Get her out of her mental funk.

Even when Lucy explains what she thinks is their next plan she is still sad and distracted. So Tim offers up the info she so desperately wanted earlier. Offering a piece of his past to help heal her present. Something he’s done before and will only ever do for her. I love him not only telling her but having Isabel be involved in it. He has her laughing and smiling early into his story. Mission accomplished.

Using a good memory he has and sharing a part of his history to help her feel better. This is an underrated moment in the episode. I love it sfm. He needs to make sure she is ok. So he does this by offering up a piece of himself to her. That no personal life rule is a legit joke at this point haha

Tim has not shared a lot of happy moments if at all about Isabel. This was another massive step forward to the Tim we all know in s5. Willing to do anything for her especially if it makes her feel better. This tactic works like a charm. She is smiling and laughing at his story. Saying how sweet it was cause I mean it was. We forget there was a big chunk of time Tim was very happy with Isabel. Him sharing that vulnerability with her always floors me. Such a good scene. Look at how he is in that final gif. He's shared a past moment about Isabel and a happy one at that. He is not mad or grumpy he is happily reminiscing. Looking back and have it not hurt him but to just smile. This is HUGE for him.

They receive a falling incident call. Make their way towards it. Tim goes over trying to make sure this woman is ok. Lucy is trying to get his attention. Love her using his nickname to get his attention. ' Eagle eyes look up' Haha He finally looks where Lucy is staring and sees her tag. He then realizes it’s 3Eyez that’s in front of him.

This is their married scene of the episode. Lucy correcting him when he says how many times she’s tagged his shop. Can’t help herself and he looks up at her like really? You think now is this time for that? LMAO. Lucy knows when to shut it and walk away from being right. I love her body posture as she says this too. It’s too funny. Even has the most wifey look as she says it. Once again the ONLY person he allows to talk to him like this is her. It’s wonderful.

Tim joins her solo in her hospital room. Asks her why she started up again? She lets Tim know her husband left her....For his massage therapist. That she wasted the last 7 years of her life. You watch how her story impacts him. The empathy in his eyes when she’s telling him her story. Tim then asks 'Did she do this to get back at him?' She shakes her head tells him no. She just wanted to feel young again.

Then he does something truly lovely. He uncuffs her and gives her some lovely advice. Even makes her smile. Saying her husband is an idiot with a sweet smile. You can't tell me Lucy Chen hasn’t had an impact on this man. How is empathy has grown tenfold. Lets himself be kind and soft with others again.

This moment is proof of that. He spent the whole episode hunting her down. Wanting his justice for his past mistake. Then finding out she’s human and with a relatable past. He lets her go with just the misdemeanor and builds her up before he goes. Lucy would be so proud.

Speaking of Lucy she is filling out paperwork when she runs into Dave. He asks her if they’re still on for tonight? It’s then Lucy has to let him know her reasons behind it. Especially after her talk with Tim earlier. He seems ok with the reasoning. (Cause she’s beautiful that’s why.)

He tells her Emmett dumped her over text. He deserves this. Lucy can’t go forward with it. I’m proud of her for not being petty. That she wants to go out for the right reasons. Not because she’s hurt and angry. He tells he tells her he respects that. But in two weeks he’s gonna ask her again. We all know this legit goes nowhere LOL Never hear of Dave again but was a good moment of growth for Lucy.

~~~~~

Side notes non-Chenford.

Poor Jackson getting pulled in two different directions about his career. Both wanting to set up his entire life for him. Nice to watch him stand up for himself with them.

Oscar’s SL pretty hilarious. He’s always funny to watch come on. Do love Lopez wanting to murder him LOL She had good reason.

As always thank you to all who engage with these reviews. Your likes, comments and reblogs fuel my desire to write them. You’re all amazing. Shall see you all in 3x09 :)

#Caitlin Rewatches The Rookie #chenford #chenford hiatus #fall rewatch #waiting for s6 #s3 #3x08 Bad Blood #the rookie 3x08 #otp: doing my job #otp: you know me so well. too well #otp: some things matter more #otp: you did good #tim x lucy #tim bradford #lucy chen #the rookie #lucy x tim #eric winter #melissa o'neil #tim bradford x lucy chen

[sojourner-between-worlds]

So I've been thinking about the early 5Ds timeline -- specifically the bridge and Rex Godwin. We all know timelines in Yugioh aren't the cleanest things ever, but the more I think about it, the more it bothers me.

So I have come up with the most Unhinged Headcanon to explain things. Fair warning, this has absolutely no basis in canon whatsoever, other than the gaping plot holes surrounding Godwin's rise to power and the partial construction of the bridge. The rest is the product of me and my absolutely Unhinged Brain.

To begin, let us consider the facts: 1. Godwin starts out in Satellite, where he eventually becomes a legend for inspiring the people to build a bridge to the city. 2. Somehow he ends up in charge of the entire city. 3. A bridge is begun on the city side but is never completed. 4. Everyone in Satellite are considered second-class citizens. 5. All of this happens in the span of about 17 years.

So let's break this down.

By the time Godwin begins that first bridge in Satellite, how much time has passed already since Zero Reverse? We don't know. We aren't told. What we do know is that enough time has passed that everyone there are already considered second-class citizens. We can infer this by the cops interfering with the bridge and shutting it down and by the fact that hopelessness has already settled in (according to the legend) because its clear that the city has no intention of doing anything other than letting them rot. This is why Godwin becomes such a legend for "flying into the sun" -- even if no one in Satellite has any idea that he actually made it to the city. We don't know how long Godwin was there before he made his daring escape, but it would have to be at the very bare minimum six months to a year.

But here's the real kicker: by the the time he leaves, Satellites are already considered second-class citizens, and clearly no one is trying to build that bridge despite the fact that is was started. So the question you have to ask here is why?

Godwin's explanation to Yusei is to keep the coming conflict out of the city by creating an environment of despair to attract the Dark Signers. But why did that already seem to be the cause for them being kept separate before Godwin got there? Before Godwin, with all his knowledge of the coming conflict, arrived, what reason was there for Satellite to be purposefully separated and its citizens dehumanized?

How did he rise to power? How did even find out what Illiaster is, much less become this "guardian"?

We aren't told any of this.

So allow me to redirect your attention to the most forgettable villain of the entire series:

This is Demak/Devack. The only reason I know that Demak is the Japanese name for this guy is because I looked it up. He is the epitome of unremarkable villain because we are told literally nothing about him apart from his name. He shows up, he duels the twins, and he's gone. (He's also bald, but I couldn't find a good screenshot of that that wasn't from one of the games.)

And thus this becomes the story of me making him more important than the writers did.

Rudger/Roman cuts off his arm and becomes the first Dark Signer. Demak is killed in Zero Reverse and becomes the second. But he ends up on the city-side of the disaster, and much like Carly, he has no idea what happened or what's going on and is, because of that, able to go back into regular society, really none the wiser while still being influenced by his Earthbound God. He goes back to his family and his job -- as a senator -- as if nothing happened.

The city is in chaos. The current director is a basket case and easily swayed. He sends aid and immediately sets to building the bridge, but it doesn't last. Because Demak is influential in the government and he has the ears of other senators and its not long before they are convincing the director that the bridge is far too costly and, really, perhaps this is a judgement on the people and who are we to interfere with the will of god? And the director listens. The bridge project is suspended indefinitely. The citizens of the islands who are clearly being punished by god for their depravity are then deprived of their status, and that attitude grows and spreads like wildfire until there could never be any hope at all of building the bridge because the citizens of the city don't want those "deplorables" among them.

And then Rex makes it out. Demak is a good friend of his, so with no other plan, he goes to his old friend. Demak tells him everything he has learned in that time. Influenced as he is now by his Earthbound God, he has learned a few things, and he shares them with Godwin -- though leaving out which side of the conflict he sides with -- and convinces Godwin that with him in charge, everything would be okay. And because Demak has the ears of the Senators, he can, perhaps, make that happen.

Godwin is devastated that the bridge cannot be completed, but he agrees to do what needs to be done. He promised his brother, after all. Once he's been instated as the new director (the old one dies rather suspiciously but no one questions it because the senators don't and they shut down every avenue of investigation), he starts doing his own research into everything based solely on the conflict he learned about from Demak and the fact that he currently has his brother's arm with that strange mark on it. He meets Illiaster the exact same way his brother had: at the Nazca Lines. Illiaster is pleased. They promise he will stay in power. And they give him his mission.

(If, later on, when Godwin is weighing his options of whether to put his trust in a bunch of kids or do things another way, and he thinks of his old friend Demak, and that influences his choice to throw the duel against this brother, well...)

#yugioh 5ds #rex godwin #demak (yugioh 5ds) #this probably still has holes but it was fun to think about #feel free to point out flaws in my logic #(i don't bite i promise) #any answer will probably be *shrugs* but ya know lol

[ideas-on-paper]

Two tidbits about the Geth from the Mass Effect 3 Codex

[Potential spoilers for the Mass Effect trilogy]

Yeah, guys, I'm at it again - after my little research endeavor regarding the Quarians in Mass Effect 2, I once again scoured the new Codex entries from Mass Effect 3 for additional information. This time, I managed to uncover two quite curious facts about the Geth.

1. The first comes from the Codex entry about Rannoch, where it says that the Geth not only have been working to repair the planet's ecology and restore ancient structures, but also cultivated some farmland during the Quarians' absence. We do know from Legion's dialogue in ME2 that the Geth have been cleaning up "rubble and toxins" after the end of the Morning War, and as far as restoring the planet to its original state goes, taking care of the environment and preserving old buildings probably also fall into that category as well.

However, "cultivating farmland" implies something entirely else - going by the standard definition, it would mean that the Geth are actually doing arable farming, as in growing crops and harvesting them. This, however, seems like a quite outlandish thing for them to do, since they probably have no use for the yields themselves and the possibility of the Quarians returning is still a long way away. We do learn during the Geth server mission in ME3 that the Geth were basically hoping for a reunification with their creators, but before Shepard entered the picture, the chance for that to happen was very slim at best, and I can't imagine these vague odds being enough of a justification for storing crops only to later have to dispose of the rotten waste again (unless the Geth have found a way to keep food fresh for multiple decades; still, it seems like an overly optimistic outlook). Then again, maybe this is related to the earlier point about them restoring Rannoch's ecology, with the Geth cultivating plants that had gotten rare/gone extinct in certain parts of Rannoch and resettling them. This seems like a plausible explanation to me; another possibility would be that the Geth simply cleared and prepared the farmland, but don't actually grow anything - keeping the land ready in case the Quarians do one day return, but not banking on the option.

2. The second stems from the Codex entry about the Geth Spitfire: In the entry, it says both Alliance and Quarian intelligence suspect that the weapon might have been designed to fight other Geth, indicating there was a schism among them previous to the Quarians' attack in ME3. The first thing that came to my mind is that they probably created this weapon to dispose of any remaining Heretic stragglers; however, it occurred to me that this explanation doesn't really make sense if you rewrote the Heretics in ME2, since all of them return to the Consensus afterwards. Still, the Geth developed the Spitfire regardless, which means that a different factor has to be at play here.

Taking a look at Tali's dialogue previous to "Priority: Geth Dreadnought", she states that in the last message she received from Legion, they told her that the Geth had problems finding a consensus. Now, this is particularly interesting, especially since it might further support some of my theories about the Geth Heretics. Basically, my thesis is that choosing violence is not what turns a Geth into a Heretic - rather, it's just an effect of them losing all hope to reconcile with their creators. This may sound a bit cheesy at first, but remember that during the server mission in ME3, Legion says that the Geth admire the organic concept of hope since it "sustains organics during periods of difficulty". The fact that there even was a necessity to borrow such a non-factual, downright superstitious concept speaks for itself, and the phrasing suggests that the Geth are more torn among themselves than their outward unity lets on. Admittedly, the revelation that there were Quarians who stood up for the Geth during the Morning War gives their ideals of peace somewhat of a factual basis (which I really appreciate, btw), but it was clearly not enough to convince the entirety of the Consensus. When weighted against the rest of their creators' actions, it appears that some programs were just not able to put their trust in a peace agreement with them. It's interesting to think that the Geth not only tried to keep up their unity with the notion of hope, but also by pursuing "renegade" programs, which might imply that even harboring such doubts is counted as Heretic. (Still, I wonder why the Geth developed a physical weapon for such measures; like Legion says previous to the server mission, Geth are most vulnerable through direct interface, so I would expect this conflict to take place on a mostly digital level.)

Then, when the Migrant Fleet destroyed their Dyson sphere, the unity which had been upheld by a hair's breadth was completely shattered, and even Geth who previously believed in a potential coexistence abandoned the prospect, viewing the Quarians' aggression as the decisive proof that peace with them was simply not possible. That means that every Geth can potentially turn into a Heretic, and that "being Heretic" is not akin to a flaw in the code that can simply be wiped out by killing the respective faction. However, this doesn't mean that all Geth are inherently "evil" - rather, it means that similar to humans, Geth cannot pursue a goal that they see no purpose in, and turning Heretic is something that happens when they lose their belief.

#mass effect #mass effect 3 #geth #mass effect lore #lore theories #never thought I would feel sympathy for the Geth Heretics but here we are

[bestworstcase]

regarding the roseblance: this is how penny describes it.

Ruby is capable of traveling at an extreme velocity from one point to another by breaking herself down to her molecular components, thus negating her mass, and then reassembling them at the destination, theoretically making it possible for her to transport all of us in the same way, as mass no longer matters.

and as far as fantasy technobabble goes it’s... fine, the science is silly but nobody is watching rwby for realistic physics, and narratively it’s a serviceable explanation that clarifies ruby’s ability to carry passengers, something we’ve already seen her do several times, which helps to ground that ability right before it’s utilized to circumvent a serious obstacle. i want to be very clear that i’m not out to arbitrarily nitpick the silly science here but not anywhere else, because that would be dumb; i just have an alternate (and just as silly) interpretation that hinges on taking penny’s description as a hypothesis.

so disclaimers dispensed with: lmao That Makes No Sense. or rather, it’s the kind of explanation that sounds reasonable but doesn’t hold up under scrutiny or if you know anything about how molecules work. hence, reading it as a hypothesis penny comes up with to explain what she’s observed.

my first supposition is that “petal burst has no discernible mass” is accurate, because that’s the observation that penny is trying to make sense of. in other contexts it’s shown that penny’s tactical software has some kind of scanning functionality built in, which among other things lets her almost instantly pick cinder out of a lineup of illusory copies. zero mass is an otherwise odd assertion to make here, so my assumption is that penny’s tactical software interprets petal burst as ruby disappearing and then reappearing at a different location, akin to teleportation. penny herself, however, sees a swirling abstract blob of color flying through space from the starting point to the target destination, so she puts these two observations together to land on “ruby does something to ‘negate’ her mass.”

how?

the essence of penny’s hypothesis is: a single molecule can move extremely fast, therefore ruby must be breaking herself down into a cloud of independent molecules to circumvent the limitation of her total mass. BUT:

1 - what do we mean by “molecular components” here? are we talking lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, the biological macromolecules that make up the building blocks of life? or does penny mean that ruby breaks those down, too, into their smaller constituent molecules—and if that’s the case, why does her semblance arbitrarily stop at molecules? why not go all the way down to atoms?

(NB: there is precedence for semblances being able to do this in general; glynda would have to be able to reassemble stuff at the molecular level for her telekinesis to restore broken objects to their unbroken original state.)

2 - but the obvious problem here is that. molecules have mass. if petal burst is a diffuse cloud of every molecule in ruby’s body, then penny’s tactical software should be able to recognize it as an object—or more precisely as a swirling blob of many microscopic particles with a total mass equal to ruby’s. it’s like disassembling a lego castle into a pile of individual legos. the total mass doesn’t change, the lego ‘molecules’ are just less organized.

3 - further, although a single molecule can move faster than a human body by orders of magnitude, it’s going to bang into other molecules and ricochet in all sorts of random directions as it travels. this slows its effective speed down considerably. it’s not implausible that aura could compensate for random walk, allowing every one of ruby’s molecules to move in relative synchronization from point A to point B, but travel in this manner really isn’t a “mass no longer matters” scenario.

4 - and why the swirling abstract bundle of rose petals thing? sure, no matter how you slice it petal burst is just a stylized artistic representation of ruby snapping the laws of physics like a brittle twig, but if all she’s doing is breaking herself apart into a molecular cloud and then firing herself like a human particle beam why does it LOOK LIKE THAT?!

note that we HAVE a genuine example of a character traveling in the manner penny describes, but it’s not ruby—it’s salem, and when she does it, it looks exactly how you would expect billions of microscopic particles to look, and we see her putting herself back together when she arrives:

petal burst, by comparison, has a coherent form made up of contiguous ‘petals’ which swirl around each other in regular patterns. there is no transitional state wherein ruby becomes the petals or the petals become ruby; they just appear as she pops out of existence, or the petals unfurl and bam! she’s back.

if the aesthetics of petal burst were only a stylistic choice meant to represent ruby breaking apart into a cloud of particles in a visually interesting way, then for the sake of consistency, shouldn’t a similar aesthetic be applied when salem does the same thing?

unless, of course, it’s actually not the same.

with this in mind: i submit that ruby is, in actuality, a probability warper.

specifically, that her semblance manipulates the probability that she will be in a given location at T+x seconds, and then her aura makes it happen. 

bear with me for a minute.

in v1, ruby’s semblance works like this: she hurtles forward at superhuman speed, shedding rose petals in her wake.

first question: where do those petals come from? what are they?

even though ruby’s semblance isn’t a ‘true’ speed type, it does involve high velocity movement through space, so i think harriet is still a useful point of comparison here. when harriet uses her semblance, she leaves tracks of something that looks like lightning but doesn’t behave like real electrical discharge; it’s illusory, the same as ruby’s petals.

i think it’s something like the aura equivalent of waste heat; flickers of aura burning up as it absorbs the extreme friction and pressure exerted on ruby/harriet as they blitz through space at tremendous speed. an aura-based optical phenomenon exactly like yang’s fiery hair, blake’s shimmering afterimages, or the schnee family’s snowflake glyphs. the metaphysical connection between aura and identity is what gives rise to such varied appearances, but it’s all just energy emitted or lost as a byproduct of using a lot of aura all at once.

so far, so normal.

second question: have you ever noticed that half the time, when ruby uses her semblance this way, she’s not running?

harriet’s semblance seems to manifest through the actual physical motion of her legs as she sprints. at most, she can lunge forward at high speed and with incredible force by leaping forward. but ruby has always been able to straight up fly, even turning on a dime in mid-air with no apparent effort.

for example, when she and penny are running away from the atlesian soldiers in 2.3, ruby picks penny up and launches them both along a new alley. they’re not just riding the momentum of ruby’s initial leap off the wall; her face stays screwed up with the effort of maintaining their speed as they fly, and right before they crash we see her go limp as her aura is depleted.

[visual aura cues were still kind of inconsistent at this point, so it’s a little unclear if ruby completely runs out here, or if she’s got some left but not enough to meet the high energy needs of her semblance, but regardless: it almost seems like she starts to pass out from how hard she’s pushing herself, and then they immediately crash.]

if you pay attention in these early volumes, there’s a handful of other times when ruby just zips from one place to another without moving her body, very much like the gliding thing salem does in 8.9.

if it were just a shot here and there where ruby streaks across the screen in a static pose, i’d put it down to an animation trick to make the speed read more cleanly by not cluttering up the five or six frames when she’s visible with a run cycle... but because there’s also these other moments where the flying/gliding persists through multiple consecutive shots, we know it’s a Thing.

ruby being able to maneuver this way is therefore our first hint that there’s more to her semblance than meets the eye.

so: how do you fling yourself through space fast enough for your wake to toss large heavy objects around behind you? there’s a boatload of plausible answers, but in light of how petal burst has developed up to this point, the one i like best is this:

maybe you think you’ve got a normal speed semblance, but what you’re actually doing is setting the probability that you will be at your target destination in x seconds to 1, causing your aura to move you there at whatever speed is necessary to make it happen. when you give yourself time to think about it you ‘run,’ because that’s how speed semblances work, right? but the more you practice the less you have to think about it, and sometimes you’re just laser-focused on getting where you want to go, and all you need to do really is have the conviction that you will get there, so you stop going through the unnecessary motions and trust yourself to get where you’re going.

...theoretically petal burst could become a legitimate teleport if ruby stopped conceiving of it as movement through space and began to consider it more in abstract terms of being where she wants to be, when she wants to be there. but it’s likely to keep acting predominately like a speed semblance, albeit a really weird one, for as long as ruby still thinks of it that way.

this brings us to petal burst itself. what even IS this?

like the small petals we see when ruby uses the speed-like ability, i think these swirling ribbon-petal things are waste aura. this would explain the lack of discernible mass: it’s just energy, aura and light, and therefore massless.

but if this is ruby’s aura, then where is ruby herself? where does she go?

i think ruby can use her probability-warping semblance to make her whole body act like a matter wave. she seems to be nowhere because she might be anywhere with a >0 probability of ruby being there. this is absurd, obviously, but no less silly than pretending molecules don’t have mass and in my opinion infinitely more fun. let me have this.

1 - penny perceives petal burst as a “negation” of ruby’s mass because the visible portion is just aura and light and something as wacky as an entire person’s body behaving like a wave just isn’t something her sensors and software are equipped to interpret accurately.

2 - ruby brings passengers along by adjusting the probability of them being next to her when she lands, no molecular disassembly or reassembly required. it also seems to me that physically carrying somebody, as she did with penny in volume two, is FAR more energy-intensive than fiddling with their probable location. possibly this arises from it being physically easier to, say, hop over a wall by yourself than it is to hop over a wall with another person in your arms; in a no-magic situation, success in the latter scenario is less probable, so perhaps it’s likewise more difficult for ruby to bring the probability of it happening to 1?

3 - when she carries nora in volume 4, we see nora’s pink aura + pink crackles alongside ruby’s red aura and petals. several months later, in volume 6, ruby carries weiss the same way, but this time we see ruby’s petals tinged light pink by combination with weiss’s white-blue aura, no weiss-like snowflakes or sparks. and a few more months after that, when ruby picks up a group of her friends and carries all of them, it’s just a regular petal burst. i believe this is indicative of ruby’s growing skill and confidence in her ability to manipulate probability for objects other than herself, and perhaps specifically this ability becoming more energy-efficient with practice?

group petal bursts seem to be a joint effort—ruby’s semblance adjusts everybody’s probability and provides a sort of model for their auras to work with, and then their movement is fueled by everyone’s pooled auras. if that’s so, it seems reasonable that greater efficiency can be achieved by more thorough blending of shared aura—and conversely, that poorly-blended auras would look like multiple separate petal bursts spiraling together, and well-blended auras would just look like ruby’s normal petal burst but bigger.

4 - under this theory, it’s very simple to explain how the petal burst can separate to maneuver around obstacles. all ruby has to do is set the probability of collision with those obstacles to zero, and her aura takes care of the rest. the visual splitting of the petal burst is merely a representation of ruby making it  impossible for a collision to happen.

5 - if ruby is a matter wave and the petal burst a massless swirl of light and aura, how is it possible for her to be knocked out of it if she collides with somebody or takes a hit? well, in essence her semblance allows her to act like a wave while her position is unknown, but when her position becomes known—for example as a result of her making contact with another object—the wave function collapses as the probability of her being HERE becomes 1, and then she has to play by the normal rules again.

6 -  ruby spends months using abilities like carrying passengers or “splitting apart” to navigate around obstacles, seemingly without conscious awareness that she is in fact able to do those things. both of these things are skills ruby began to use in v4—but in v7, when oscar asks if she’s always been able to separate the petal burst, she answers “i don’t know! i don’t normally think it through that much,” and in v8, she’s baffled when penny tells her she can use her semblance on the whole group.

the probability warp interpretation offers a possible explanation for ruby’s odd lack of self-awareness. petal burst is literally dependent on uncertainty! on not knowing exactly where she is until she gets there! ruby has taken advantage of this by cultivating a habit of just going for it, doing stuff on reflex, acting as the moment demands—which is what makes her semblance so BONKERS, but it  also inhibits her ability to synthesize new tricks into her mental map of what she’s capable of until an outside observer points them out to her.

[see also: “you don’t give yourself enough credit” and ruby’s habit of underestimating and doubting herself.]

7 - other people seeing petal burst doesn’t interrupt it/collapse the wave function because the petal burst is essentially just the exhaust fumes emitted by ruby’s aura; it doesn’t create information about where she is, only where she was and might be.

to conclude, i want to highlight something intriguing in the v4 character short.

most of the time, when ruby uses her semblance evasively, we see her dodge  as the petal burst starts to form, so it’s less ruby dodging with her semblance than it is ruby dodging and immediately using her semblance to reposition herself for a riposte from a direction her opponent can’t anticipate.

HOWEVER, during the fight with the beringel in the short, it gets... weird.

so, context. ruby has just blocked a few punches. now, as she lunges forward, trying to get a counter in, the beringel slams its hands together...

...and lands the hit. see that little bit of the buckle on her arm and the collar of her cape sticking out between its hands here? this thing SMASHES her.

a mere three or four frames later, the camera flips 180° to show this from the opposite side... and ruby is GONE.

she doesn’t dodge this, and she doesn’t get grappled and then break free—she just straight up fucking VANISHES.

and then:

petal burst.

this is already a very unusual maneuver from ruby, because it happens out of order—normally petal burst starts to form first, and ruby vanishes as the rosebud shape stabilizes—but what makes it even more strange is that petal burst appears all around the beringel, rather than the more standard manner of petal burst forming as a swirl centered around ruby. this is, of course, a consequence of ruby already being “gone” when petal burst begins.

i believe what we’re seeing here is a third ability that ruby stumbled into without realizing what she’d done during the journey to mistral.

when the beringel smashes her, the probability of ruby evading this attack becomes 0 and the probability that she’ll be hurt (physically or by burning a lot of aura to shield herself) becomes 1. but then that just... doesn’t... happen. ruby disappears and petal burst zooms away exactly like she DID sidestep or duck under this attack.

it’s as if ruby went “nope!” and retroactively flipped the probability of the beringel hitting her. she got hit and activated her semblance so fast that she managed to behave like she hadn’t gotten hit.

ruby rose can give herself i-frames.

#physicists hate her! #local child acts like a subatomic particle to Go Real Fast

[liskantope]

My Google Pocket Somethingorother that shows me a hodgepodge of articles to click on when I open a new tab using my browser pointed me to this interesting Atlantic article on how much is obligatorially conveyed in typical sentences of different languages via inflection and other devices (for some reason it's behind a sort of paywall now even though I don't think it was when Pocket recommended it to me?). I recognized the article immediately because I remembered posting it to Facebook back around the time it came out in 2016, because it gave a good layperson's explanation (using intuitive terms like "busy-ness") of what having an inflective vs. analytical grammar means. The experience stuck in my mind mainly because of how one of my most active Facebook friends at the time (who remains perhaps the most athletic bending-every-topic-towards-their-special-interests-which-are-mainly-their-marginalized-victim-identities I've ever known, and whose first language is a highly inflected and non-European) commented under it that the author clearly "doesn't like the 'busier' languages very much" but that as a speaker of such a language they could attest that even if the author saw all the inflection as superfluous it was in some deeper sense necessary because "the language wouldn't really be the same without it". I'm trying my best to quote from memory, but I couldn't make any better substance or sense out of that comment than what I'm conveying here, and it struck me as a ridiculous interpretation of the author's attitudes.

On reading through the article again, I found that its author was John McWhorter. This is an example of something similar to what I mentioned the other day where I discovered Destiny and then discovered him again a few months later: I had vaguely known John McWhorter as a linguist from some point in adolescence when I checked out at least one of his books from the local library, and in 2016 I had probably glanced at the name at the bottom of the article and recognized it. But I didn't put McWhorter firmly on my mental map of Public Scholars/Intellectuals I Know until around a couple of years later when I ran into his political commentary on YouTube in conversation with Glenn Loury. (Ironically, McWhorter happens also to be extremely against bending-every-topic-to-one's-own-marginalized-victim-identities-ism, so maybe my 2016-era Facebook friend was onto something by instinctively marking him as an enemy.)

One concerning thing I noticed from the article is that McWhorter mentions the Maybrat language as having no way whatsoever to grammatically convey verb tense, and I couldn't remember having heard of the Maybrat language before, so I looked it up. The Wikipedia page shows that it goes by some other names such as Ayamaru, but I couldn't find it listed under any of its names in my Journey Through Languages Project (which I embarked on after 2016). And yet, it has some thousands of speakers and a Wikipedia page with a lot of details on its (interesting) grammar and phonology, one which I don't remember ever seeing at all. This shows that my project still missed some interesting languages -- in this case, didn't even come close by looking at a closely related language since Maybrat is a language isolate although classified as a Papuan language. I think it's clear that this occurred because the Wikipedia page on Papuan languages shows multiple classifications, and Maybrat only shows up in a 2019 one which may have been posted after I was reaching it in my "journey". But it disabuses me of my proud notion that I am one of the few people who has clicked on every single language page on Wikipedia.

#linguistics #inflection #john mcwhorter #identity politics

[warningsine]

The land of the short story is a brutal land, a land very similar, in its strictness, to the land of the joke.” George Saunders was writing about the unforgiving nature of the short form, but he might as well have been referring to the worlds in which his characters are trapped. Why is such a nice man so mean to the nice people he invents?

In interviews, Saunders comes across as a benignly thoughtful regular guy, a practising Buddhist who constantly tries for kindness. Some part of his writing day, however, is spent imagining complex and original ways to punish the people he has created. They are trapped by their own foolishness, or by the dreams of hyper-capitalism. They are also sometimes locked up underground, or suspended in intriguing configurations. “Suspended” here does not just mean “existing between one state and another” – though they are also that. It means hung up and left dangling, like abandoned puppets.

The 2012 story The Semplica Girl Diaries was a kind of signature piece for Saunders in his more speculative mode. In it, a man buys an “SG” lawn decoration which, we slowly discover, is made by stringing up immigrant women, as though on a washing line, by means of a micro-fibre inserted through their brains.

In this new collection, the eponymous story Liberation Day explores a similar conceit from the inside. In this case, the narrator himself is pinioned on a non-specific “wall” waiting to become an orchestrated voice in an evening concert conducted by his owner. As with the washing line, the reader is not invited to believe the hokum science; the explanation is kept loose. We do, however, keenly understand the sense of suspension, of a waking sleep or living death that this amnesiac chorus represents.

Saunders’ characters are happy in their difficulty, at least at first. In Ghoul, they are performers in a huge theme park that seems to have no limits, and they love their stupid jobs. These happy prisoners endure cheery degradations while holding outlandish props and, as in other stories, they are plucky, hopeful and hugely anxious to please. Their creator subjects these lovely, fretful people to pratfall and disaster, all of it brilliantly escalated, in order to show us lives made antic by denial. The result is both tragic and lighthearted. Even pinned to a wall and with their memories wiped, they are so darn proud and self-improving and willing to be good, you might say they are the best of America.

Saunders invents these joke prisons in order to remind the reader of the various prisons – economic, psychological and spiritual – which we build for ourselves. The first and last is the prison of the self: “You are trapped in you,” a voice says to the protagonist of The Mom of Bold Action, after an ordinary woman’s moral outrage goes awry. Even in this naturalistic piece, however, the voice enters her car as an imagined “beam of forgiveness” that is “green” and which lands “near the glove compartment”. When you are in the habit of making the allegorical physical, it is a simple step to hanging the poor and indebted on washing lines and walls.

Saunders characteristically begins a story with someone mid-thought, their diction fragmented, like jottings or notes made before their purpose becomes clear.

Why was she holding a can opener? Hmm. That could be something.

It’s as if the characters are making their lives up as they go along. Many are talking to themselves, their cadences running close to internal chatter, that repetitive self‑talking monologue that can be hard to shake out of your head. This sense of enclosure slows the reveal, both to the character and (at a wilful stretch) to the reader, of the conditions they must escape. On the way, there are vaudevillian bursts of delight, reverses, surprises and romance. These stories are not afraid of plot. Much of the pleasure of reading them comes from watching Saunders take an outrageous premise and resolve it by the rules of old-fashioned fiction in a bravura, high-wire act.

A pleasing thing about the characters in Liberation Day is how many of them are, in one way or another, artists and creators. They write emails or provoking essays; their fictions and opinions have an effect in the world. Some exist in the space between performance and creation and they love their work because it makes new meanings, and is sometimes beautiful. Liberation Day involves a runaway choral interpretation of Custer’s last stand, which remakes the myth of the lonely hero on the hill.

A nostalgia for American optimism runs through these pages, and this includes a nostalgia for half-decent capitalism, one in which the rich held their economic fodder in something like affection. Saunders is never less than political; he seems to say it is no longer possible to be otherwise. Love Letter, the simplest and most chilling story here, is dated 202-, and it shows the slide into an authoritarian society, as seen from a suburban front porch. No one seems to notice; they just feel a mild discomfort, like the slowly boiled frog.

In these punitive worlds in which people fail further, by choice and by misadventure, it seems impossible that they will find a way forward, but they do. By the end of a Saunders story, the characters know what is going on; they see their condition, and this awareness is a gift and the possible beginning of change. The resolutions are sometimes tiny. “What she had to do now,” thinks the mom of bold action, “was reach over, pick up the bag, open the car door, drop one foot into the grey slush.” That much she can do.

These characters are not redeemed or saved, they do not transcend: the hint is in the title – these stories are about liberation. In Mother’s Day a character dies right there on the page, and she finds wisdom and relief in the idea that she can now, finally, stop being who she is.

Saunders is the all-American Buddhist whose novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, described something that had never been written before: the release of the dead from the strictures of self. The same fusion of spirituality and patriotism makes Liberation Day a unique read. Saunders is funny and kind as ever, and his narrative virtuosity puts him up there with the best. I just hope he doesn’t feel too trapped by the perils and pleasures of the desk.

#books #liberation day #reviews #George Saunders

[themegachessatron]

A Review of my time in Skyrim's Prisons (Featuring some followers): Dawnstar Jail

This is the third part to my Skyrim Prison Review series. In this entry we discuss Dawnstar, a city plagued by nightmares caused by evil. I'm here to figure out if said evil is the result of having a shit prison system or not.

Arriving in my cell I'm greeted by a familiar sight. The amount of space afforded to prisoners in Dawnstar is practically identical to that of Morthal's cell. Could they have had the same interior designer? Whatever the case it makes Dawnstar's cell feel very indistinct (which is definitely not because the devs didn't feel like designing unique interiors that day. Definitely not). Included in the cell is very little beyond a trio of bed rolls for Sofia, Inigo and I to rest in. Inigo had been involved in our arrest this time (though not by choice). When we had arrived in Dawnstar we had checked in at the local inn, Windpeak Inn, and encountered much of the resident populace engaged in a drinks party. Apparently this party was to distract the people from the unending nightmares that has plagued them for many a night by this point. Sofia had insisted we join in this event and we did so. Inigo was reluctant at first but caved to peer pressure eventually. Rather worryingly that's as far as our collective memory goes. None of us remember what happened that night and no guards or residents told us. The only things we have as evidence of what happened are numerous splats of blood on the Dawnstar roads and a Giant's Club that was apparently confiscated from Sofia sometime after the guards caught us. Perhaps some stories are best left unknown.

Aside from the bed rolls for sleeping in, the only non-living thing in the cell was an old book tucked away in the corner. "The Wolf Queen - Book 1" was nestled in the gap between the wall and a wooden pillar. The first in a series of books concerning Potema, the famed wolf queen of the third era. Without any other objects of note and with Inigo's continued berating of Sofia growing more irritating to listen to I started to read. Included within the story is a detailed explanation of a lockpicking scenario, which offered valuable insight on the art and improved my lockpicking proficiency. This, I remember thinking, had to be a joke. They put nothing in the cell except some old bed rolls and a book detailing how to pick the cell lock and escape? Either they had put the book inside to entertain bored prisoners not knowing its helpful contents or it had been discreetly left behind by a thief who had previously resided in this very cell. Either way, the stark lack of pretty much anything in the cell at all spoke volumes for the management of Dawnstar Jail. Either they cannot afford to place things in the cell, or they cannot care to.

It was while I read the secret literature in my cell that a guardsman approached our cell. He told us that he was sick of listening to my associates argue between themselves and that if they did not cease their debate he would stop them by using Sofia to warm the guard barracks and Inigo to make a forth bed roll. It was clear the man was restless (what with the nightmares and all) and was beyond fed up with the noise. Personally I couldn't blame him, rude as he was. After Inigo and Sofia gave their word to becoming and remaining silent the guardsman left up into the guard barracks, presumably to get some food, drink, or a fool hearty attempt at rest. We in the cell took this as our moment to explore beyond our cell.

The vicinity outside our cell bore some strong similarities to that of its Morthal equivalent, but also some drastic differences. Like Morthal there was a writer's desk for legal documents which was equipped with the familiar writing quill, paper rolls and wine. Interestingly though next to this was what appeared to be a large barrel not too dissimilar to ones used to hold mead or other such alcoholic beverages. One would assume that this would drive Sofia to forcefully chain herself to the desk and not be taken away from it as if protesting against the at-the-time Stormcloak occupation of the Pale, and yet she did not. Likely because she was still recovering from the hangover brought about by the events of last night (Thank Ebornarm for these visual illustrations. I doubt I'd have remembered anything without them). Additionally worth noting is the placement of the prisoner belonging chests. Unlike the Dragonsreach Dungeons and Morthal Jail, the chests here are kept close by to where a guard is expected to frequent and out of the direct accessibility of a prisoner. This makes it much harder for the overly-ambitious prisoner to access their belongings and storm aggressively out of the prison using a steel battle-axe of fiery souls or the like.

Directly opposite the guard desk was a food table. Keen followers of formal logical reasoning will note that this means the table has food on it. Food which I don't understand. Surely if a peckish guard wants to eat something they can go upstairs to the guard barracks and get something in a short time or, better yet, bring something down when they start their shift. That is unless this food was meant to be given to prisoners but considering that a) we were not offered any food while in our cells and b) the guards were clearly not interested in giving us anything at all I seriously doubt the food was meant for us. Either way, Inigo helped himself to some bread.

Proceeding upstairs to the guard barracks we were greeted with a dual-level affair. The base level felt very... well... base, for lack of a better term. It remined me much of the Riverwood trader, and indeed the nearby Mortar and Pestle shop. The furniture and decoration was just as drab as the building layout on this floor. A guardsman had been sitting enjoying a late breakfast when we entered and we briefly exchanged words with the tired old goat wherein he expressed his extreme tiredness (which probably explains why he didn't attack us on the spot) when Sofia suddenly suggested a solution. Before he could respond she knocked him on his back and left him out cold. In her defence, he did get some sleep then, so it really was for the best.

The guards upstairs were not so weak from a lack of rest. No sooner had I arisen the stairs had their weapons been drawn and their fury let loose. Even the brief second trying to commit the visual of the room to memory let a guard get off a lucky swing of their blade. Not wanting to incur further injuries and fearing the captain's large weapon we bid a swift retreat. These guards were more alert than I expected. Perhaps the lack of rest had made them ore irritable and better at sensing shifts in atmosphere. Either way, it is to be commended. Such swift action is admirable in guards and other holds can learn a thing or two from these alert men and women.

To conclude this review, I felt conflicted leaving my experience with Dawnstar Jail. The guards here show clear skill and aptitude in their roles, but the bland design and complete emptiness of the cell bar some bed-rolls and a book probably not even meant to be there to begin with leave much to be desired and unlike Morthal, Dawnstar is not quite a nowhere shithole in the middle of a boggy, sweaty swamp next to a vampire den so there is far less room to justify certain shortcomings.

Final score: Four Steel Battle-axes of Fiery Souls out of Ten Steel Battle-axes of Fiery Souls

Thank you for reading this review. Next time We discuss Falkreath and see if its jail is as dead as the absurdly large cemetery and all the people that resides there.

#skyrim #tes v #tes v skyrim #dawnstar #Dawnstar Jail #Skyrim Prison Review #inigo the brave #inigo #sofia skyrim #part three #Everyone here is tired #I can see why place is mid af #I mean seriously it's so dull #But hey #at least they have that one Dark Elf priest people on this site like

[madamlaydebug]

Dizziness, loss of balance, vertigo, and spinning.

This happens when our Merkabah is forming. The Merkabah is the transportation vehicle of the light body. It is a 6th dimensional cube that rotates and spins. During its formation you may feel periods of dizziness and vertigo as the cube calibrates itself with your energy. When this happens, sit down and take a break for a little while. It usually doesn’t last for long.

Overall body pain and days of extreme fatigue.

Our bodies are taking in higher density energy and this is the reason you will experience these symptoms. High density energy can make you feel as if your bones are crushing and your muscles ache as if you have just sprinted in a major marathon. You may suddenly feel as if you are 100 years old and can barely walk across the room.

Gritty, itchy eyes and blurred vision.

Very simply, our eyes are adjusting to see in a new and higher density of energy. When this adjustment has been completed your vision will be sharp and clear, and colors will stand out for you as they never have before.

Memory loss and difficulty accessing words.

So many are having this symptom that we can only laugh as we try to converse with each other. “I was having a glass of…you know what I mean…that white stuff…uh…what’s it called?” “Did you watch the…er…that event where everyone competes from around the world?”

At times we cannot talk at all because we are simply unable to access much of anything. When this occurs you are going back and forth between dimensions and experiencing disconnect.

Another somewhat related occurrence is trying to type words and having the letters become jumbled in the wrong order. In this case, we are not in alignment with time and our flow is disconnected, as part of our energy is here and another part is further ahead.

Difficulty remembering what you did or who you talked to a day or sometimes just an hour before.

In the higher realms, reality is very much in the moment. If we do not hold something in our consciousness, it simply ceases to exist. We have no attachments. We are creating our own world around us through our beliefs and thoughts and what we do not hold onto does not exist.

Everything is brand new as we are starting completely over, moment to moment. We can tap into whatever we choose to at any moment and create and experience just that. This state comes and goes, but is practice for living in the higher realms. It can feel a bit creepy when it occurs. In addition, at times we are neither here nor there, as we are in between dimensions.

A feeling of disorientation; not knowing where you are; a loss of a sense of place.

“Where in the world am I? I do not fit anywhere and nothing seems to fit or feel remotely right! And I do not know where I belong or where I am going or what I am supposed to be doing either!” Ever had this conversation with the Universe!?

You have been knocked out of your old grooves by an energy shift and are in between realities. You have successfully left much behind and are in a very new space but have not integrated yet.

A loss of identity.

You look in the mirror and have a strange feeling of disconnect as you no longer recognize that once familiar image. You almost feel out of body. Once this phenomenon occurs it never ends. You have released so much of your ego self, that you are no longer the same person, and do not have that attachment or connection to your physical vessel.

As you begin to access much more of your soul or higher self, you are not in your body much. You may still use your voice to communicate and other bodily aspects, but you are slowly beginning the process of disappearing and releasing the human form. In addition, you have cleared much of your old patterns and are embodying much more light and a simpler, more purified divine you. All is in order…you are OK.

Feeling ‘out of body’.

The same explanation as above. The physical body is the last to catch up. Much of us is now in a higher dimension and residing outside of our bodies, as our physical bodies are not there yet.

‘Seeing’ and ‘hearing’ things.

As we can now access different dimensions fairly easily, it is common for many to see things out of the corner of their eyes or hear things when nothing is there. Many also experience ringing in the ears, which is common when we are going through “the tunnel” and accessing a higher dimension.

Depending upon how sensitive you are and how you are wired, this can be a common experience. Many are seeing orbs and vibrating blobs of color as well.

Feeling you are going insane, or must be developing a mental illness of some sort.

We are rapidly experiencing several dimensions and greatly opening. Much is available to us now. You are just not used to it. Your awareness has been heightened and your barriers are gone.

This will pass and you will eventually feel very at Home like you have never felt before, as Home is now here.

[subir-astrologer]

HAVING RAJ YOGA IN HOROSCOPE BUT STRUGGLING WHY

It is very common to hear this complain from many of the people that in-spite of having Raj Yoga in their horoscope they still struggle in their life.

In order to understand the reason one need to understand vedic astrology step by step.

Firstly one need to understand how an event happens in the life of a person.

An event that is promised in the horoscope may be positive or negative happens. If it is not promised then it will not happen.

The delivery of an event / happening of an event is given by the current ruling mahadasha period of that time.

The event will happen only if it is promised in the horoscope and the ruling mahadasha period is also signifying the same event.

If the event is promised in the horoscope but mahadasha period is not signifying that event then the event will not happen.

If the event is not promised in the horoscope and the mahadasha period is signifying the event then it will not give the event.

So from the above explanation it is clear that an event operates only during its activation period and that is govern by the mahadasha period.

The transit of the planet acts as trigger button to activate the event during their transit.

RAJ YOGA ( GOOD PERIOD ) IS ALSO AN EVENT WHICH IS TIME BOUNDED. It is like marriage is an event and a person do not get continuously married months after months or year after year. It is time bounded event and occurs only when it get activated at correct time and generally once in life. ( forget about multiple marriage for the time being )

IN CASE OF RAJ YOGA IF THE PERIOD OF ITS ACTIVATION PERIOD FALLS IN THE CHILDHOOD THEN, BECAUSE THE CHILD IS FULLY DEPENDENT ON HIS / HER PARENT, GOES WASTE AND SO THEY DO NOT GET THE FRUCTIFICATION OF THE RAJ YOGA EVEN IT IS PRESENT IN THE HOROSCOPE.

WHEN THE ACTIVATION PERIOD OF THE RAJ YOGA FALLS IN THE OLD AGE PERIOD THEN ALSO IT GOES WASTE AS AN OLD PERSON CANNOT DO MUCH AS HE IS NOT VERY ACTIVE AND IS AGAIN DEPENDENT ON OTHERS SUPPORT.

So from here one can understand that the Raj Yoga event is promised in the horoscope but the activation period is during wrong time and so the Raj Yoga goes waste in such person and they struggle if it is signified in the horoscope.

#raj yog in horoscope #raja yoga in horoscope #raj yogas in vedic astrology #raj yog #raja yoga #astrology #vedic astrology #astrologer #vedic astrologer #horoscope #horoscopes #horoscope analysis #horoscope readings #horoscope posts #vedicastrology #daily horoscope #dailyastrology

[shihalyfie]

Adventure/02 (and Kizuna) timeline and lore contradictions (and things are not actually contradictions)

Pretty much every kids’ anime like Digimon is written and often rewritten as the series goes along, but Adventure and 02 do happen to be particularly obvious cases where a good chunk of the plot doesn’t seem to have been planned from the very beginning, and a lot of things are rather blatantly retroactively rewritten to account for it. They actually admitted this, too -- they weren’t entirely certain the series would go for one year at first, so they basically winged it with a “loose mindset”, and then by the time they got to 02 they didn’t confirm there wouldn’t be a third series until very late, resulting in a bid to get everything out of their system before 02 ended so they could leave with no regrets.

That said, considering how incredibly complicated the Adventure/02 timeline is and how sprawling its lore is, there is a remarkable amount of consistency between everything to the point where it’s pretty clear some very diligent notes were being kept back there (which is also supported by the fact that background materials released over the last decade have generally tracked with each other to some pretty terrifyingly impressive degrees). Moreover, a lot of things commonly considered to be contradictions have actually been addressed, even if only briefly -- whether the explanation seems a bit belated or forced is up to subjective opinion, but nevertheless it respected the audience enough to offer an explanation. Still, some things did unfortunately happen to slip through the cracks, so which ones are those (and which ones aren’t)?

Note that I’ve already covered most of these topics in other longer meta, so this is just a post made to organize everything in one place and link to the relevant ones. Also note that this post is mainly for informational and reference purposes -- I absolutely do not subscribe to the theory that plot contradictions are necessarily what make something bad, so I’m writing this from the perspective of useful things to keep in mind for fanfic or other similar things.

(Kizuna-related things are deliberately clustered at the bottom of the post in case you want to skip that.)

Other than one famous point from Tag Tamers (see the Media Mix section below), the WonderSwan games and tri./the stage play are not included in here mainly because both series have so many unaddressed contradictions all the way down to premise that they’d basically eat up the entire post. Both of them are still treated as part of official canon, but unfortunately official doesn’t seem to have any indication of wanting to resolve the contradictions anytime soon, so it seems like the job of how to handle this may have to be best left to the individual fanfic writer...?

Also, a reminder that no matter how many contradictions something has, the official stance is that everything is canon no matter what, so none of this should be taken to discredit any of the below involved works. Official does not expect you to cut anything out wholesale, it just simply won’t help you figure out how to make sense of it.

Media mix-induced contradictions

Digimon is what’s known as a “media mix”, which is basically a subset of a multimedia franchise in that there’s an emphasis on releasing tie-in materials for a series simultaneously (which means things like anime, manga, and games will all be produced and released together). Unfortunately, this creates a problem where it’s often hard for the simultaneously-working teams to swap notes or keep things consistent with each other. Anime director Kakudou Hiroyuki has been very clear about the fact that anything he wasn’t involved on has a very high chance of going against the background lore he’s created in some way (mainly the video games, Our War Game!, Hurricane Touchdown, and Kizuna), and this is a recurring problem with pretty much any series made like this, not just Adventure (as an example, it’s why Tamers has similar problems fitting Ryou within timeline, why the second Tamers movie contradicts other post-finale Tamers materials, and why the Frontier and Savers movies don’t seem to quite fit in their respective series timelines).

This is the most consistent source of contradictions or overly convenient/forced explanations, and the fact maintaining this was an increasingly difficult task for the anime staff is a major reason the 02 staff decided not to make a third Adventure series. Note that the fact the staff even tried to do this is remarkably rare for Toei series -- usually all of the contradictions are just dumped on the audience, and they’re forced to figure it out themselves.

When did Ken adventure with Ryou in the Digital World and get hit with the Dark Seed?: The WonderSwan games and Tag Tamers basically disregard the anime in almost every aspect (as said earlier, I don’t intend to cover all of it because we’d be here too long, it’s just this one is too plot-relevant to 02). I’ve tried very desperately to make sense of it from the anime prioritization perspective, but the truth is that it’s impossible, and it’s likely the anime staff themselves weren’t sure what to make of it either. The anime itself seems to imply there were two Digital World visits, the first in August 2000, but Tag Tamers wants to suggest Ken actually was taken to the Digital World right after the Diablomon incident in March 2000. Pick your favorite.

Sora’s birthday: This is a relatively obscure one, but interestingly, Kakudou seems to have doubled down pretty hard on the fact this wouldn’t have happened if he could have prevented it, due to an internal policy of not giving any character besides Miyako a clear horoscope sign (which setting Sora’s birthday in late February or early March would go against). This is probably the reason why official 02 profiles cite her as 14 during 02, which shouldn’t be possible if her birthday were indeed in February or March (02 takes place between April and December).

Wallace being a Chosen Child before 1995: The revelation that the concept of “Chosen Children” was created in 1995 (from Adventure episode 45) and the hidden lore revelation that the number of total Chosen Children doubled every year since then seems to be pretty serious business for people who keep track of lore documentation on the Japanese fanbase side of things, so this is actually the main reason Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity has been disputed among Japanese fans. Wallace says in the movie that Chocomon disappeared in 1995, which would imply he met him before then, when in fact the concept of a Chosen Child shouldn’t even exist before then. There are a few patches you can make (for instance, “being a Chosen with a Digivice” is what was invented in 1995, not the sheer idea of meeting a Digimon, so maybe Wallace didn’t get an actual Digivice until later, or maybe Wallace both met and lost Chocomon in 1995, although this is unlikely) -- but official has never helped you with this one.

How Seraphimon and Holydramon were able to appear when Patamon and Tailmon shouldn’t have been able to evolve to Perfect, let alone Ultimate, at the time: This is the Western fandom’s biggest point of dispute about Hurricane Touchdown being in canonicity (for some reason, the Japanese fanbase doesn’t seem to worry about this part as much, maybe because the rest of the scene itself has a lot of other things to ask questions about). Yeah, this one I’ve really got nothing on.

How Jogress and Perfect/Ultimate evolutions were possible in Diablomon Strikes Back (and afterwards): By the time of the end of 02, Agumon and Palmon should have been the only ones able to still access Perfect/Ultimate due to the loss of Qinglongmon’s DigiCore power in 02 episode 39, and in 02 episode 50 Tailmon’s Holy Ring was returned to her on the grounds it was powering Jogress and “Jogress isn’t needed anymore” (implying giving it back to her would remove anyone’s ability to Jogress). But MetalGarurumon appears in Diablomon Strikes Back, as does Imperialdramon. This apparent contradiction is a fairly easy one to resolve -- it’s not like “power sources” like Qinglongmon’s DigiCore are particularly lacking in the Adventure universe, so just imagine something cool happened to restore their evolutionary abilities sometime between December 2002 and March 2003. There, easily done.

Contradictions within the series itself

A lot of things often perceived to be contradictions in Adventure and 02 are not actually contradictions (see below), but there are still a few remaining loose ends:

Why Agumon couldn’t evolve in Adventure episode 3 despite having plenty of food and rest: Still no explanation. (Of course, the meta reason is that it was Gabumon’s episode to get an evolution, so it was obviously to prevent Agumon from stealing his thunder.)

The treatment of clothes changing: Obviously, the clothes changing in the Digital World is actually a mechanic to ease animator load so they can default to the same character designs (and on a lighter note, to explain Ken’s Kaiser outfit), but it is funny how it only seems to apply to a few kids and not everyone. A dominant Japanese theory as to why it only seems to apply to the 02 kids in the specific way it did is that it only applies to D-3 holders (further theories have even gone as far as to suggest it “locks” in the outfits they’re in when they receive their D-3 unless something drastic happens), but nothing’s been officially confirmed.

How much energy it takes for Digimon to be in the real world: In short, it is consistently shown that being in the real world is somewhat draining on Digimon, but the actual extent tends to vary. The rule naturally seems to be enforced more strictly on V-mon, Hawkmon, and Armadimon, and not strictly enforced on the Adventure Digimon, but for some reason Wormmon seems to also not have it very tightly enforced (although he does claim to still feel the exhaustion in 02 episode 33). Of course, the practical production reason is that the 02 kids bring their Digimon into the real world far more often, so having them in smaller forms that are easy to hide is easier to devise scenarios around, especially since Patamon and Tailmon are small enough to not need to worry about it as much as, say, Agumon.

The missing bunk bed: Ken and Osamu were supposed to be sleeping on a bunk bed, which is directly stated in words in Spring 2003 and setting documents, and you can somewhat infer it from the fact Ken himself sleeps on a modified one. But when we see flashbacks with Osamu in 02 episode 23, in what seems to be possible animator error, the mythical bunk bed in question never appears...

Whether the international Chosen’s Digimon were in the real world or in the Digital World: It’s implied the international Chosen were in the same boat as the original Adventure kids in that they couldn’t open gates -- hence why the 02 kids had to go around the world to open it for them -- but, strangely, their partners are with them in the real world during 02 episodes 40-42, despite this being known to be a very bad idea if you don’t have consistent Digital World access. By the time of the finale in 02 episodes 49-50, they’re all back in the Digital World...?

Adventure mini dramas and Armor Evolution to the Unknown: ...Look, I don’t know either. There is so much to unpack with that one that I don’t know where to even start. On the other hand, the drama CD is blatantly tongue-in-cheek and basically canon crack material, so it’s probably best to not think about it too hard.

Things that aren’t actually contradictions

A lot of the below are commonly brought up in fan discussions as being contradictions, but in fact aren’t -- albeit they’re usually addressed in obvious retroactive lore patches or single one-off explanations, so it’s understandable people wouldn’t easily remember they were actually explained already, but nevertheless, they were!

How Gennai doesn’t seem to know about Homeostasis or Digital World history even though he really should: You might notice that in 02, Gennai is actually incredibly efficient about information-giving and perfectly helpful. The novel basically confirms what this implies: Gennai was not in good physical or mental condition at all during the time of Adventure, and that incredibly aged appearance was not just for show. It is far more than likely the black ball inserted into him may have outright damaged his memory and internal processes.

How everyone just conveniently forgot the events of the first movie: Of course, the in-series explanation is that they all repressed the childhood memories because it was passed off as a terrorist bombing incident, but even so, it’s an awfully clean amount of memory erasure for a whole seven kids to have, isn’t it? Actually, they did explain it a bit more than that -- it’s quite literally divine intervention (apparently beyond even Homeostasis’s control). Yes, it is the literal deus ex machina. This is also apparently the reason why everyone conveniently moved to the same tiny island of Odaiba years after that. (In more practical real-life terms, the answer is more that the movie wasn’t coordinated with the TV series staff, so a forced explanation had to be conjured up to find a way to keep the first movie canon in a TV series that was a bit too obviously not made with that movie in mind.)

How Yamato’s dad Hiroaki knew about Gabumon without being told: A single line of Gabumon gasping at how Hiroaki somehow knew about him beforehand has led to years of speculation about Hiroaki somehow being a past Chosen or something, and...it’s a dub mistranslation. Specifically, Hiroaki said “Gabumon, right?” in the sense that it’s implied Yamato just explained it to him offscreen, and Gabumon answers a bit flustered because he’s not used to Hiroaki addressing him, but the American English dubbing staff seemed to have misinterpreted it as a sign Hiroaki knew something he shouldn’t have. But no, in the original Japanese version, it was just an ordinary, friendly conversation (and Koushirou clearly had to explain Digimon to him in Adventure episode 36, so no, he has no prior knowledge).

If Homeostasis could do all that, why did they go out of their way to summon a bunch of otherworldly kids and make them do all the work?: This question is behind the general sentiment of “Homeostasis is a selfish jerk” interpretations, but the thing is that they’re being completely honest when they say this is literally all they can do (if you doubt their words, the novel confirms that it actually has barely any jurisdiction over anything at all besides being a “mere” security system). They directly tell the kids in said episode that 1) they’re not a god or anything of the sort, and 2) their abilities basically extend to asking the Agents to do things on their behalf, and creating a repair system to help reverse damage. That’s it --  expecting any more out of them would be like asking the security alarm system repair technician to do something about a fire about to burn down the entire building. Getting the Chosen Children into this was an act of desperation. That’s presumably why they’re named “Homeostasis” -- homeostasis maintains regular functional balance within a system, but it can’t do much when something really drastic happens.

How would a team of Chosen existing before Taichi’s group even be possible? And if they did exist, why didn’t they come help during Adventure?: The facts of “a team of Chosen existed before Taichi and his friends” and “there are no Chosen before 1995″ initially seem like a contradiction, because we’re told that the first sealing of Apocalymon seems to have been some many years ago from the Digital World’s perspective. The thing is that even the small space between 1995 and 1999, or even 1998 and 1999, is enough to be millennia in the Digital World, going by the calculations provided in the series -- and Two-and-a-Half Break locks down on the number of Chosen doubling every year since 1995 (although Koushirou seems to have accidentally halved his calculation), so it seems you were supposed to come to this conclusion. This also explains why they didn’t just recruit the older Chosen Children to help with the Apocalymon incident the second time -- they’re not much older than the Adventure kids themselves, and going by the novels explaining that the older Chosen team’s partners became the Holy Beasts, they were probably a bit busy being sealed and all that to really help in Adventure’s events.

How well-recognized are the Digimon by 02?: The treatment of Digimon by the public in 02 does seem awfully well-understood for something that’s supposed to be kept a secret from the public...and that’s because it wasn’t a secret, actually. Everyone saw the Digital World in the sky during Adventure -- there was no way they’d ever be able to cover up anything after that! 02 episode 39 has Gennai say that they deleted scientific and military research on the Digimon, presumably because unethical experimentation and military weaponry development would absolutely be a dangerous thing to let the public have so quickly, but it seems like journalistic (Natsuko, 02 episode 38, novels) and humanities (Haruhiko, 02 episode 33) research were fair game -- especially since people like Natsuko, Hiroaki, and Haruhiko started becoming effective emissaries to explain Digimon to the public by 2003. Well, considering that it was obvious the public would learn about the Digimon whether anyone wanted them to or not -- especially given the events of Adventure, Our War Game!, 02 episodes 38-50, and Diablomon Strikes Back -- the kids’ efforts to keep things on the downlow were more on the lines of preventing mass panic and allowing the public to learn about Digimon in a safer way, but nobody seemed to have the illusion the public had no idea about Digimon at all.

Hurricane Touchdown’s timeline placement: Often submitted as proof of Hurricane Touchdown’s supposed lack of canonicity is that it’s difficult to fit in timeline, particularly due to Ken’s conspicuous absence and irrelevance, but just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The advertising for the movie suggests that it should take place during summer 2002 (with very few exceptions, most 02 works take place around the time of year they released in), which basically could mean pretty much anywhere between episodes 14 and 18 (when summer starts but before the Kaiser base expedition) or between episodes 21 and 22 (when the Kaiser has been defeated but the autumn season hasn’t started yet). Personally I prefer the latter, because it does a lot to explain why Ken isn’t remotely on anyone’s mind at the time, and makes sense regarding Daisuke’s experience with the Digimental of Miracles.

Oikawa and Hiroki meeting a Digimon in the 80′s: Likewise, the fact there can’t be Chosen before 1995 might suggest Oikawa and Hiroki meeting Pipimon and other Digimon all the way back in the 80's shouldn’t be possible, but note that the only thing we learned about the 1995 thing is that “humans specifically partnered to Digimon to help them evolve spontaneously” (Homeostasis said in Adventure episode 45 that “spontaneously evolving” with the help of a human was what they learned from the Hikarigaoka incident). Simply “making contact” with Digimon is not out of the range of possibility, and 02 episode 33 and Two-and-a-Half Year Break implies this had already been happening throughout all of human history.

How Taichi got into the Digital World in the first episode of 02: Taichi and friends were cut off from their partners at the end of Adventure, but more in the sense they no longer had a reliable way to get in touch with them whenever they felt like it. In terms of just “sheer making contact”, that happened three times during the mini dramas (yes, they’re canon), plus the incident mentioned in 02 episode 26, and also the 15th anniversary drama CD...and, basically, they actually had quite a few opportunities to meet during those times, so that’s presumably why Taichi doesn’t even act like he’d been seeing Agumon for the first time in three years or something. The gate was opening, just not often, and 02 episode 22 even implies that the Digital World has a sort of will that opens the gates up proportionally to however much it needs help at the moment. So, presumably, Taichi just went in because the gate was open.

Daisuke and Iori’s ages: In official profiles, Daisuke and Iori are 11 and 9 respectively at the start of 02, but setting materials reveal they were 7 and 5 at the time of Adventure. This is possible if both of their birthdays are after August 3 (note that 33/50 episodes of 02 take place after then). Keep in mind that official profiles also say Miyako is 12 in 02, but her birthday is in May-June after the series starts, so this isn’t an unreasonable interpretation at all.

Osamu’s age: This one’s more “borderline” than anything, but depending on the material you consult, Osamu is either three years or two years older than Ken. This is actually possible to resolve if you take a very broad look at the fact they’d be two years apart at a given time of the year and three years apart at others (which honestly kind of drives home the fact that maybe they’re a little too realistically accurate about citing things like these).

How international Chosen can exist without D-3s, or at all: None of the international Chosen seen in 02 have D-3s, so it seems they were at the mercy of gate openings and closings, and you’d think, why do they even have Digivices? You can’t be implying they had some of their own adventures in the Digital World a la Taichi’s in Adventure, right? Well...yes, actually. They do actually imply this. The Digital World is revealed in Adventure episode 15 to be, in a sense, something you could superimpose on the real Earth, which means it’s just about as big as Earth itself, and the Tokyo Chosen Children we know have probably only seen a very tiny fraction of it (the fact 02′s D-3s allow for some degree of teleportation makes it harder to notice this fact, but Qinglongmon only governs the “Eastern” part of the Digital World, after all...). So yes, the equivalent of Digimon Adventure isekai may well have happened to a bunch of kids all over the world. Also worth noting is that Gennai and the Holy Beasts aren’t as all-powerful as their character archetypes would suggest -- Gennai himself apparently isn’t able to keep track of what every Chosen Child is doing on his own. The existence of Chosen Children is something Homeostasis and the Agents helped facilitate, but the phenomenon does seem to be somewhat beyond them as well.

Kizuna (both contradictions and non-contradictions)

Despite the premise initially looking like a massive contradiction against 02 and its epilogue, if you investigate further, Kizuna actually is fairly compliant with Adventure and 02 even down to the details, as long as you’re willing to think about it hard:

Jou’s age: Jou is 11 in Adventure as of August 3, 1999 (Adventure episode 35). 02 profiles list him as 14, which is somewhat plausible if his birthday is between August and December (again, 33/50 of 02′s episodes take place after August 3, so this isn’t unreasonable). The problem is that Kizuna profiles list his age as 23, which is mathematically impossible because it takes place in July 2010. The only way to really resolve this contradiction is if you interpret that “23″ very loosely, as in “Jou is 23 at some point in the year Kizuna takes place, after the actual movie events”.

The 02 epilogue taking place in 2028: This figure was given in a lot of Kizuna advertising material, and initially sounds strange because the 02 epilogue is allegedly “25 years” after 02′s finale, but as it turns out, evidence points to 2028 having always been the correct year from the very beginning.

The doubling-every-year principle: If a handful of Digimon partners start disappearing based on their human partners having an existential crisis, you’d think that’d start really messing with the math leading to everyone having a partner in the epilogue, but Kizuna is otherwise fully compliant with the original doubling-every-year principle in background Adventure and 02 lore. The movie is deliberately ambiguous about whether partners that have disappeared really have disappeared, or whether they just simply aren’t visible or manifested, so it’s easy to rationalize this by concluding that even partners who have ostensibly “disappeared” count towards the total.

Morphomon identified as Menoa’s partner in 2002: The blurb in the newspaper article identifies Morphomon as Menoa’s partner, but the article is from 2002, which is awfully early for them to know what a Digimon partner is. However, while it’s a stretch, it’s not impossible -- again, the Digimon weren’t actually a public secret by the time of 02, and judging by Menoa’s photos, she seemed to have been quite open about Morphomon’s existence to her parents. Menoa seemed to live in a very sleepy village in Colorado, so it’s completely possible she trusted the locals around her with knowledge of Morphomon’s existence, and they might have been quicker on the uptake for the concept of Digimon than others.

Menoa as a Digimon researcher: Organized Digimon scientific research wasn’t possible until 2002 because Gennai and his colleagues deleted any data relevant to it (02 episode 39), but Menoa is admitted to Liberica in 2002 under the presumable premise of wanting to do Digimon research. But not only did we get no information on how tightly the data deletion held after 2002, Menoa would also be someone the Agents would want to be able to do Digimon research, since as a Chosen herself, she could advocate for the Digimon ethically. It’s also possible this was why she became a Chosen in the first place (since she makes no reference to going on any combat adventures).

Digimon appearing in camera photos: Digimon in the real world normally shouldn’t be able to show up in camera photos or videos (Adventure episode 39, 02 episode 33, others), but we see multiple photos of Morphomon as part of Kizuna’s plot. Thing is...they’re all film photos, and it makes sense Digimon wouldn’t interfere with that. Digimon show up regularly on cameras in Kizuna’s present timeline in 2010, but given Kizuna’s world is one that’s had eight years since 02 to account for the fact Digimon exist, it’s likely they figured out how to make their cameras capture images of Digimon well.

Whether the movie connects to the 02 epilogue: Given the way the movie ends, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that it just veered off the track of the 02 epilogue...? But no, every single press release and interview that has touched on the subject has doubled down and redoubled on the fact the 02 epilogue is still canon and follows from this movie. There was no room for ambiguity left there. If you want a personal interpretation on how the movie and the 02 epilogue connect together, you can read a longer post here, but even regardless of personal theorization, given the movie’s themes of overturning things that seem impossible to do and having belief that they’ll meet again, the answer really is obvious: “they figured it out.”

How Tailmon and Hawkmon can Jogress outside Hikari and Miyako range in the penultimate memorial short: I’ve just been personally rationalizing this with the idea that Hikari and Miyako were there, just not focused on with the camera. But that one (and the next one, especially the next one) is fairly tongue-in-cheek, so maybe just don’t worry about it too much.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #shihameta