#meanwhile rampage just terrorizes children

[lave-ium]

sky au depth charge and rampage!!! dc is a manta (obviously… cuz thats his og alt mode too duhh) and rampage is a krill!!

and heres a little comic i did based on how you can ride the mantas in daylight prairie (ft my old sky kid before I LOST MY ACCOUNT💀💀💀💀)

#meanwhile rampage just terrorizes children #hes friends with the crabs so im sure they help him in his weird antics by just BULLYING PEOPLE #and bullying depth charge #well more than just bullying but u get it #transformers #transformers fanart #maccadam #lavesartstuff #transformers art #beast wars #transformers beast wars #depth charge #rampage #rdc

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Frenzy Swap Anon~ Today I’m feeling the Mirelands

At first, she believed the earthquake to be a punishment from Almighty Sinnoh.

Calaba had only narrowly avoided death when the Misfortune Sisters attacked. She had underestimated the danger—she had tended to things far angrier and more venomous than a few slighted children in her day. No, what had almost done her in was her pride, the Crogunk attacking from behind as she lectured Coin for turning her back on her people. Bibarel had only narrowly deflected the blow, leaving her to tend her friend as the bandits made off with the wall fragment.

The earthquake followed almost immediately, causing the old ruins to tremble. Calaba had been forced to carry Bibarel out for fear of a cave-in. The shaking continued, making the Psyduck and Carnivine scatter in terror. Calaba could not reach for her flute to call Lord Ursaluna, hands full of Bibarel. To her shock, a copse of trees not far away erupted in a shower of mud and splinters as a massive golden creature came barreling through. She knew her Lord, even like this. The Pokémon smashed through more trees, paws ploughing the soft dirt, sending the local Pokémon scattering. Calaba quickly set Bibarel down. Her partner whimpered and tried to stop her, but she shushed her. She had to tend to Lord Ursaluna—such was her sacred duty. If the Diamond Clan saw the Lord of the Mire like this…

She pressed the flute to her lips, playing the notes with an unfamiliar shakiness. The bear’s aged golden eyes shot up sharply, glaring at her with unnatural ferocity. Lord Ursaluna was not known for its temper. But apparently, it did not matter now. Calaba staggered back. Get him away from the Pokémon. Get him away from Bibarel, who surely couldn’t fight in her weakened state. Get the Lord to the Sludge Mound. Maybe he will calm down, maybe he needs medical attention—she ran as fast as she could, hoping to divert Lord Ursaluna. The Lord had poor eyesight, having to rely on its nose. She hoped this would give her time to distract it.

But she was not fast enough. Her knees rebelled, stiff and already weary from the bandits attack. The mud of the Scarlet Bog flooded her sandals. She could hear the Lord following, snuffling as it searched for her. A powerful wave rumbled through the sludge, like a localized earthquake. Calaba slipped, her head striking a rock under the water’s surface.

A gust of wind blew a cloud of golden dust across her and the pursuing Lord. She dimly saw a figure with hair as red as the bog, and a tall creature in green leaping towards her. Lord Ursaluna’s breath was hot on her back.

Her last thought, before the darkness closed in, was of Almighty Sinnoh, and how thoroughly she had failed them. But her mind settled instantly, and she dropped into slumber.

AAAA MAN THIS ONE SOMEHOW DIDN'T GO THROUGH INITIALLY BUT yes yes holy shit so much yes

calaba's not used to not knowing everything, not anymore. she's outlived everyone and has studied the pearl clan's history and legends since she was made warden but never has she heard of something like this. golden lightning infusing a noble, maddening it into lashing out at anything– 

–no, that's not quite true. she can recall one situation where ten pokemon were struck by lightning from the heavens. but surely this, this can't be sinnoh's will.

meanwhile, lady lilligant is occupied keeping lord ursaluna in a deep slumber, because if he wakes and starts rampaging again the diamond settlement will be in grave danger. and of a different clan or not, calaba is still a deeply respected eldest warden and arezu does everything in her power not just to rescue her (of course) but give her any aid she needs afterwards. she just has one dilemma: her duty to the diamond clan demands she inform adaman as soon as possible of the new threat, but her duty as a warden demands she defer to lord ursaluna's keeper in what to share. so she's keeping a secret... for now, as long as lilligant can keep it from becoming a pressing issue

(of course, maintaining the concentration of sleep powder required to keep a frenzied noble under is a taxing job, even for a pokemon that's a noble itself. if they can't find a solution soon, arezu worries for her own lady's health...)

#the nemesis speaks #the nemesis answers #anonymous #frenzy swap

[hrodvitnon]

Abraxas Chapter 17 Preview (3)

Good progress being made! We might just get a complete chapter in a few days!

Mothra screeches again, reaching a pitch that could crack the sky.

BLASPHEMY!  VIOLATION!  BAD ENOUGH TO HUNT AND KILL AND TORMENT MY CHILDREN... WORSE TO POISON THEM!  WORSE YET TO DENY THE DEAD THEIR REST!  ALL THAT LIVE SHOULD KNOW BETTER, EVEN GHIDORAH!

With a tremendous beat of her wings Mothra rockets into the sky, and Thor feels an impact within him, like the hand of a vengeful spirit taking him by the heart; even before she voices it he knows the force of an alpha's call, and is compelled to follow the queen into battle.  His thoughts turn to the young hybrid and a fire blazes to life inside him – the memory of his fallen cub flashes in his vision, and Thor's armor pulses with blue electricity.

The two-headed hybrid is not his cub, he knows.  But when young ones or humans are in danger, the spirit of vengeance will not be refused until all which threaten the small and weak are slain.  To obey the will of an alpha's call is not a choice, but a compulsion.  The others will follow as well.  Thor beats his barrel chest and bellows his war-song into the air.  Mothra soars higher and higher, swiftly vanishing above the clouds and leaving a trail of angry red bioluminescence in her wake.  It won't be long before her call screams all around the world.  All he needs to know is where the enemy is hiding.

Down in the outpost, the foundation vibrates with every beat of Mothra's wings before eventually subsiding; but soon another infrasonic rumble leaves the place rattled with subtle quakes.  Madison grabs her father's arm as voices rise to a murmur almost indistinguishable from the rumbling.

"That can't be good," Brooks almost whispers.  His face is covered in a sheen of sweat.

"No."  Ling's voice is quiet with reverence, and just a touch of fear.  "But now we have an idea of just how bad the situation is."

Even Mariko has to be pulled away from the windows by security guards when whatever build-up of force causes the glass to vibrate.  Suddenly Madison's ears ring and the windows crack – sound explodes around them as though a wind god shrieks, high-pitched and guttural, and the sheer force of it knocks her off her feet.  The windows shatter; Mark and the Chens use their own bodies to shield Madison and Ziyi and Yong from the flying glass shards.  Meanwhile the whole facility is rocked by the force of the sound and power fluctuates wildly.  One has to wonder what kind of damage would be sustained if Mothra had unleashed her call while on the ground.

Actually, she remembers something like this.  Terror wakes up at the memory of Ghidorah's hellish wails awakening dormant Titans all around the world and calling them to rampage, but Madison stows her fear.  This is Mothra's alpha call, that of a protector, and she's rallying the Titans to go to war.

haha mothra alpha call go *NAZGUL SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*

#fic: abraxas #preview

[aion-rsa]

Venom: Let There Be Carnage – The Comics History of the Symbiote Rivalry

https://ift.tt/3APMTrk

Something that impresses me with a superhero movie like Venom is when it doesn’t rush directly into the expected villain. When there are four different Fantastic Four movies, and they’re all about emphasizing Dr. Doom, it’s a breath of fresh air when, say, Man of Steel only makes an Easter egg reference to Lex Luthor instead of going directly for that confrontation. The MCU Spider-Man has yet to meet an Osborn, guys like Thanos and Darkseid started out as ominous benefactors, and the existence of Heath Ledger Joker was merely a cliffhanger tease in Batman Begins.

Much like how the Justice League movie decided to take its time by giving us Steppenwolf of all people, the first Venom movie had Carlton Drake (who hasn’t appeared in the comics since the early 9’0s) and Riot (the most forgettable of all of Venom’s comic children). By letting Venom build himself up on his own, flanked by some rather mundane villains, it gave more meaning to Cletus Kasady showing up in the post-credits. Carnage, Venom’s main villain, gets more fanfare by appearing in the sequel where our hero is fully formed.

Since Carnage’s first appearance in 1992, the idea has always been to make a darker, scarier Venom. Venom was a villain at the time, sure, but he was also on the border of becoming more. Outside of his personal delusions and anger issues, he still claimed that he wanted to help the innocent and punish the guilty. Even when he was able to accept that Spider-Man was good, they couldn’t co-exist due to their different natures as vigilantes. Carnage was simpler because he was full-on evil and had no potential for redemption. He was something so sinister and malevolent that both Spider-Man and Venom knew it was worth it to put aside their differences and take this creep down.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage has hyped Carnage up as being out of Venom’s league and that was the initial push of the character. Over time, the two became roughly equals as Carnage became the go-to bad guy for Venom to punch.

So let’s take a look at the history of Venom vs. Carnage. For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to define “Venom” and “Carnage” as characters wearing their respective symbiotes (excluding Peter Parker), or the symbiotes themselves. I’m not going to count Eddie Brock as Toxin, or Flash Thompson as Agent Anti-Venom or whatever.

Carnage’s Debut

Not counting cameos and build-up, Carnage’s first major appearance was in Amazing Spider-Man #361, starting off a three-parter. Spider-Man came to realize that he wasn’t enough to stop Carnage and he was going to need help. Specifically, he was going to need Venom. This was an awkward decision as Venom was at the time living his best life on an empty island, thinking that he had succeeded in killing Spider-Man.

Once Venom fully understood the situation, he accepted the temporary alliance. In the very first Venom vs. Carnage confrontation, Venom and Spider-Man tackled Carnage, got slammed into each other, then thrown into opposite walls. Carnage then caused a distraction by putting a baby in danger so he could escape. While he was dominant in that very brief scuffle, he still needed to run off, so I’m calling this a draw.

The handicap match continued into the last issue of the arc at a rock concert. In one-on-one exchanges, Carnage had Venom’s number, but Spider-Man was always there for the save. Spider-Man was able to use the sonics from the amplifiers to take out both of them. Technically a draw again, but it’s also a situation where Carnage regularly kicked the shit out of Venom and Venom only survived because he had help.

Maxium Carnage

Insert your Green Jelly cassettes and press play because it’s time for Carnage’s big ’90s crossover story. After the previous story’s popularity, Marvel decided to add more heroes, more villains, and make the whole thing a whopping 14 issues!

As Venom was a San Francisco vigilante at the time, he flew to New York to stop Carnage’s reign of terror. The first fight wasn’t even shown, as after the reveal that Carnage had Shriek and Doppelganger on his side, it cut away. A brutalized Venom was later found passing out while knocking on Peter and MJ’s door.

As Maximum Carnage was filled with so much filler and extra characters, there were various fight scenes of a group of heroes brawling with a group of villains. Venom and Carnage talked smack a lot, but nothing much ever really happened in terms of fighting. The story finally kicked into gear when Venom used a stolen sonic gun and blasted Carnage while Firestar assisted with her microwave blasts. This would have done the job, but Spider-Man got in the way and Shriek simply cut Cletus’ face open, causing his symbiote to respawn and bring him back to 100 percent health. Carnage and Shriek overwhelmed Venom and carried him off, along with the sonic gun.

Venom spent several issues being tortured until coming up with the plan to sneak some of the symbiote into the sonic gun so that Carnage would splatter Venom with more Venom. He punched Carnage down and escaped with gusto, hiding the fact that he was in no condition to fight.

It isn’t until the last issue that we FINALLY got a real Venom vs. Carnage fight. Venom was physically busted a bit, but Carnage was mentally busted. The heroes hit him with some MaGuffin device that caused him to be haunted by those who screwed him up in life. Venom pretty much just kicked Carnage’s ass around the city while Carnage tried in vain to escape. Every now and then, Spider-Man would appear and go, “B-b-but Eddie! Killing is wrong!” for the sake of giving Carnage a second wind.

Eventually, Venom punched Carnage so hard that Carnage’s brain ghosts went away. Knowing Carnage was more of a threat this way, Venom tackled him into a transformer. After the explosion, Cletus was knocked out and Venom got to weakly sneak away. Hey, good for him!

Venom: Carnage Unleashed

Venom was so popular that we got Carnage. Carnage’s initial storyline was so popular that we got Maximum Carnage. Maximum Carnage was so popular that we got a Maximum Carnage video game. Then we got Venom: Carnage Unleashed, a comic based on the popularity of the Maximum Carnage video game. It…wasn’t all too popular.

Still, it did give us the rarely used plot device that symbiotes can travel through phone lines and the internet! Symbiotes really are like pre-Crisis Superman where you can give them whatever power and people will just go with it no matter how ridiculous. As Carnage escaped from Ravencroft and commandeered a security tank, Venom eventually caught up with him and they had a fight on a runaway vehicle through traffic. Carnage eventually won when Venom got slammed by an oncoming train.

Their final battle here is a big pile of “That’s not how any of this works!” The two characters send symbiote tendrils into the internet, which were rendered on the Times Square big screen as the two brawled in cyberspace. Venom destroyed a nearby heatsink, which blasted both and knocked them out of the internet.

Carnage was ready for another go, but his kidnapped psychiatrist set him on fire and caused him to fall out a window. Venom reached through the phone lines and out the window to catch the falling Cletus because dying is WHAT HE WANTS. Which… no, that’s not true at all. Hell, even in Maximum Carnage, Cletus was freaked out about the possibility of dying.

Venom: On Trial

So there was a big Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider/Venom team-up called Planet of the Symbiotes that culminated in a 40-foot-tall Carnage, but there was never a specific Venom vs. Carnage moment, so I won’t go into it. Venom’s ’90s antihero run did have a storyline where Eddie was arrested and put on trial for all of his many crimes. Cletus Kasady was brought in as a star witness, which was an invitation for him to freak out and go on a killing rampage. I mean, seriously, guys. Come on. You should know better.

This story went all-in on Venom wrecking Carnage. Again, Spider-Man would interrupt and give Carnage a chance to turn things around. This time though, Venom decided to ride the wave by sneaking away while Spider-Man and Daredevil took on Carnage. Realizing that the two didn’t have a chance, Venom picked up a couple syringes filled with dopamine blocker and sprung into action. He smacked Carnage around, injected the blocker into his neck, and watched as the symbiote retracted into Cletus’ body.

Venom Triumphant

Howard Mackie wrote Spider-Man comics for a long while and he had an annoying tendency when it came to storytelling. He would come up with an interesting, if nonsensical, idea that would shake up the status quo, but instead of following up on that and using it to tell an actual story, he would just forget about it and move to the next idea that popped into his head. He was one of the main reasons why the Spider-Man Clone Saga was such a mess.

In the 10th issue of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, Venom broke into the prison where Carnage was being held. Despite the legion of heavily armed guards with flamethrowers and sonic guns, Venom killed them all so quickly that the artist didn’t even show it. Cletus, for some reason, figured Venom was trying to break him out of prison, but instead Venom was there to absorb the Carnage symbiote. Carnage barely put up a fight. Pieces of the symbiote were on him, but he didn’t fully transform or try to defend himself. Venom simply pulled the symbiote off of him and ate it, becoming stronger.

After this issue, there was barely any follow-up to this.

Venom vs. Carnage

This miniseries came out at a really weird time for those involved. Carnage was just a couple months away from being torn in half by the Sentry and being written out of comics for years. Venom was appearing in Marvel Knights Spider-Man where Eddie Brock got rid of the symbiote and it bounced around to different hosts until landing on Mac Gargan. Meanwhile there was a Venom ongoing that was more about a symbiote clone where Eddie Brock only appeared for a couple late issues.

In other words, in the Venom vs. Carnage miniseries by Peter Milligan and Clayton Crain, even the creative team had no idea who Venom’s host was supposed to be. Luckily, the story wasn’t about Venom or Carnage, but a new character who would quickly fall into obscurity anyway.

Venom and Carnage swung around New York City, giving the exposition. The Carnage symbiote was pregnant and Venom was explaining that there was nothing to do to stop the creature from going into labor. Venom was all about protecting the new spawn while Carnage wanted to destroy it, immediately. Carnage got the better of Venom by flinging him into the distance. Regardless, the explosive birth wore out Carnage so much that he could only plant the baby onto a nearby cop and escape to rest up.

When the two had a rematch, Venom was there to save the baby symbiote (Toxin) and its host (Pat Mulligan). As if getting revenge for that Carnage Unleashed story, Venom brought the fight to the subway and pushed Carnage into an oncoming train.

And… that’s really all the Venom vs. Carnage we get in Venom vs. Carnage! Once Venom sees that Toxin is a good guy and capable of kicking Carnage’s ass, he gets afraid of Toxin befriending Spider-Man and decides to team up with Carnage for once.

Carnage, USA

Carnage returned from his maiming at the hands of the Sentry, albeit without a bottom half. By then, a lot had happened with Venom. The symbiote was removed from Mac Gargan and joined with war hero Flash Thompson. Agent Venom went on to join the Secret Avengers.

Carnage, USA told the story of Cletus expanding his symbiote to overtake an entire town in the middle of nowhere. When various heroes went to oppose him, the Carnage symbiote ended up taking over Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and the Thing. When gaining a moment of clarity, Cap called in Agent Venom for help.

Read more

Movies

Venom 2 Trailer Breakdown – All the Marvel and Carnage References

By Gavin Jasper

Comics

Venom: Who is Carnage?

By Gavin Jasper

In their first meeting, Agent Venom easily took down Carnage with some explosive projectiles that came with sonic shrapnel. Then when getting ready for the kill – say it with me everyone – Spider-Man got in his face and went, “No! Don’t kill!” Carnage recovered, and overwhelmed Venom with his army of Carnage’d heroes. Then another obscure symbiote hero, Scorn, popped in to run Venom and Carnage over with a bulldozer and bring them into a facility that would blast their symbiotes off the hosts.

While Cletus and Flash had a fight based around the novelty that both were legless, the Venom symbiote latched onto a gorilla and ran for its life against an entire zoo full of animals with the Carnage symbiote. After almost being taken down by a Carnage lion (Spider-Man with the save), the gorilla returned to Flash and gave him the power to bring Cletus into custody.

As for the town-wide Carnage symbiote, most of it was taken out by an airstrike.

Minimum Carnage

Following up on Agent Venom, he had his own team-up arc with Scarlet Spider (Kaine) with the fun dynamic of a Venom who doesn’t want to kill and a Spider-Man who does. The two chased Carnage into the Microverse, where Carnage was able to create an army of symbiote clones. While Agent Venom was able to decapitate Carnage, the villain had attained some level of power where his body is more overall fluid and animated. In this case, Carnage could just reattach his head with no problem.

Although Flash had sedated his own symbiote and lacked the monstrous advantage, he was able to wipe out a bunch of the clones by amplifying his own inner sorrow outward through the Venom symbiote. Strangely, that’s not the first time Venom was able to do that. What’s left of Carnage slinked away, cackling.

Carnage and the clones returned to Earth and Voltron’d themselves into a giant Carnage. As Carnage tried to devour Agent Venom, Venom shoved a sonic grenade down Carnage’s throat and let the blast do the rest, taking out the enlarged Carnage symbiote almost completely. In the aftermath, Scarlet Spider jabbed one of his claws through Cletus’ eye and lobotomized him.

Venomverse

Venomverse is about a series of Venom hosts from different realities coming together to fight beings called Poisons. Under normal circumstances, Poisons are harmless. If one of them makes physical contact with a symbiote and its host, it transforms them into a nigh-unbeatable crystal-like creature with the Poison in control. By this point, Eddie Brock was Venom again and joined with all sorts of random symbiote heroes to the point that he came off as just a regular dude.

With their back against the wall, Eddie came up with an idea. They brought in Carnage from an alternate universe as a ringer. At first, Carnage fought against the Venoms, but they were reluctant to fight back. Once he saw the Poisons and understood that the Venoms wanted him to kill an army of twisted superheroes, he gladly joined their ranks. He just let them know that once he was done with the Poisons, he’d kill them next.

He ended up being a huge help, especially since the Poisons had a hard time bonding to the Carnage symbiote. Carnage died in an explosion fighting Poisons alongside Poison Deadpool (who was able to bypass his Poison’s mental control).

There was a sequel to this called Venomized where the Poisons returned and tried to invade Earth. They kidnapped Cletus, forced him to bond to an alternate universe Venom, and then bonded that to a Poison. While he was referred to as “Carnage” at times, the Carnage symbiote was never involved, so I’m going to skip this one.

But where was the Carnage symbiote during all of this?

The Red Goblin

At one point, Norman Osborn became the host for Carnage to give us a climactic villain to finish off Dan Slott’s lengthy run on Amazing Spider-Man. Knowing that Spider-Man was out of his league, J. Jonah Jameson decided to fight fire with fire by calling up Eddie Brock and blackmailing him into aiding Spider-Man. This led to a brief fight of Spider-Man, Venom, and repulsor-wielding Mary Jane against the Red Goblin.

Venom and Red Goblin brawled for a bit, but Red Goblin appeared to be immune to the usual symbiote weaknesses, so only Venom took damage. While he got some hits in, Eddie was too exhausted to continue. Instead he offered the symbiote to Spider-Man to give him the extra boost. This brief team-up allowed the two vigilante enemies to finally bury their lengthy rivalry.

Absolute Carnage

Now we get to Donny Cates’ bonkers run on Venom. Cletus had been resurrected and turned back into Carnage via a bunch of cultists who worshipped Knull, God of Symbiotes. Carnage then started going around eating the spines of those who were once host to a symbiote, getting stronger by the meal. Dark Carnage first fought Venom in a subway and easily overpowered him. Still, Venom got the win by grabbing onto the third rail while holding onto Dark Carnage. It was enough to knock Carnage loopy while Venom could get away and seek out help.

Venom and Spider-Man sought out Norman Osborn (who believed himself to be Cletus Kasady after the Red Goblin episode) and were ambushed by an army of inmates possessed by Carnage symbiotes. Overwhelmed, the two heroes broke through a wall and swung off into the night.

Venom got involved in another big fight against an army of Carnages and could have killed Osborn, but instead chose to save a wounded Mac Gargan nearby and brought him to safety. The Venom symbiote wasn’t happy with this and later left Eddie for Bruce Banner, giving us a fight between Venom Hulk and Dark Carnage. This turned out to be a dire choice, as Dark Carnage tore into Hulk’s brain, caused him to shrink back to Banner, then ate his spine. Carnage was stronger than ever.

Meanwhile, mad scientist the Maker had a machine that took the “symbiote codex” stuff Carnage was looking for out of former hosts without the nasty “tearing out their spinal column” part. Eddie unleashed the codex collection onto himself, turning him into a more powerful version of Venom. As he took on Cletus one last time, Carnage made note that Venom was screwed no matter what. Either Carnage killed and ate Eddie’s son Dylan or Eddie killed Carnage, which would wake up Knull and drive him to Earth.

Venom summoned the Necrosword to cut through Carnage, destroying him once and for all. For a time, at least.

Prelude to Knull

Wouldn’t you know it, killing Dark Carnage caused Eddie to absorb the Carnage symbiote into himself. Soon he was separated from Venom and stuck on an island while being bonded against his will to the Carnage symbiote. Dylan was able to remotely control the Venom symbiote and transformed it into a giant Venom T-rex. Like it wasn’t even bonding onto a dinosaur or anything. It was just the size and shape of a tyrannosaurus just because.

Eddie and Dylan had a dreamlike meeting in their minds while Carnage Eddie chopped down at the Venom dino. Eventually, the power of familial love was enough to overpower the Carnage symbiote and blow it up. Eddie rejoined with the Venom symbiote, and a little piece of Carnage latched onto a nearby shark to swim off and fight another day.

Okay, then! Phew! Going by every Venom vs. Carnage fight, I’ve judged them so that there have been six draws, eight victories for Carnage, and nine victories for Venom.

Congratulations, black ooze. Here’s hoping your red offspring doesn’t turn the tide at the box office.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage will be released in theaters on Oct. 1.

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The post Venom: Let There Be Carnage – The Comics History of the Symbiote Rivalry appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[rompstompchomp]

Rampage Origins: Harry The Yeti Part 2: Animated Abominables (Updated)

The Abominable Snowman/Bumble (Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, 1964)

The Abominable Snowman was a recurring antagonist throughout the special, described by the narrator Sam the Snowman as “mean”, “nasty” and “hates everything to do with Christmas”. Although the creature never really displayed any particular hatred fro the holiday and most acted as a hungry predator, stalking Rudolph and his companions. While the beast was strong and displayed the ability to use stalactites as clubs, he was easily tricked and had the weakness of not being a strong swimmer. Though thankfully for prospector Yukon Cornelius and his sled dogs, the creature was able to bounce himself and them back t safety after falling from a high cliff. Loosing his teeth and being humbled by Cornelius also seemed to give him a change of heart, as he was willing to help put Christmas decorations up in high places decorations and was much more friendly in subsequent specials he featured in. The Abominable Snowman is often cited by many as having terrified them as children with his frightening appearance and roar.

Great Watchuka (Godzilla 1978 animated series  Season 1, Episode 12: The Sub-Zero Terror, November 25, 1978)

The protagonist joined one of their old colleagues on a an expedition into the Himalayan Mountains to search for a reputed source of geothermal energy in a dormant volcano. Once they reached the volcano, the creature appeared and tried to bury them in an avalanche. Godzilla was then called, who protected the group while the creature escaped. Inside the volcano, the group discovered a race of intelligent, human sized hominids called the Watchuka, the source of the stories about the yeti. Their advanced technology turned out to be the source of the geothermal energy, with Great Watchuka being their guardian. The race intended to conquer the world, leading into conflict with the protagonists, who were able to call on Godzilla for aid. Godzilla battled the giant Watchuka, eventually leading it to fall off a cliff to its presumed death as Godzilla used a massive rock to seal the Wachuka village inside the volcano.

Blizzard (Primal Rage video game ( 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, 32X, Amiga, Arcade, Atari Jaguar CD, Game Boy, Game Gear, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1994, 1995)

One of Blizzard’s alternate skins:

Much like George within the Rampage game series, Blizzard was the face of Primal Rage. An ancient,giant yeti-like deity with cryokinetic powers, Blizzard was trapped within a huge glacier in the Himalayan mountains for millennia until the great meteor stuck the Earth, causing an apocalypse-like event, with the surviving humans being forced back to Stone Age living and renaming the planet Urth. The blue tribe worshipped him due to his virtuous nature and he descended from the mountains to stop the chaos caused by the Destructive Beasts. In his ending, he was successful in that mission and after restoring peace, returned to his mountain abode. While it was stated that he would be called on to save Urth once more, the sequel game was cancelled. Despite being considered a heroic figure, Blizzard still needed to eat flesh in order to keep his strength up, something his followers willingly provided by allowing him to eat them.

Robo-Yeti (Godzilla The Series Season 1, Episode 15: Competition, March 6, 1999)

In order to combat the growing numbers of gigantic, mutant creatures, the Japanese government funded the development of the Robo-Yeti as a countermeasure, with the developers covering it synthetic flesh and fur to make it appear as just another mutation. It eventually encountered Zilla Jr. near Mount Fuji, and with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces believing Zilla Jr. to be responsible for recent human disappearances, a battle soon ensued. The robot used missiles and cables that produced electricity in an attempt to best the creature, holding its own for a large portion of the battle. However, the real culprit of the disappearances, King Cobra, soon made an appearance, attacking both the Robo-Yeti and Zilla Jr. The Robo-Yeti was quickly repaired, helping to save lives and making a last stand against King Cobra before being crushed beyond repair in the mutated snake’s powerful coils.

Yeti/Cyber-Yet (Kong The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 14: Top of the World, 2000)

As the protagonists sought out a manuscript detailing information on the Primal Stones in the Himalayan mountains, they ended up crashing their plane and being rescued by the members of a secretive monastery. Kong meanwhile had a brief encounter with De La Porta’s gang, which resulted in him falling into a cavern with snow covering the entrance. He gained some unexpected help in the form of a giant yeti, who he bonded with after some playful sparring. Elsewhere, the villains stormed the monastery in search of the manuscript as the monks summoned the yeti (followed by Kong) for aid. However, De La Porta forced one of his men Rajeev to merge with the yeti via a Cyber-Link, forcing Kong and main protagonist Jason to merge in order to fight the hybrid. One of the other protagonists had to remind the hybrid Kong of his and the yeti’s friendship to stop the battle going too far. The yeti returned to normal as the villains were defeated. The yeti then bid farewell to Kong before heading off to where humanity would be unable to find it again.

#Player 1 (OOC) #Graphics (Images and Aesthetics) #harry the yeti #rudolph the red nosed reindeer #godzilla 1978 animated series #primal rage #godzilla the series #kong the animated series

[pinkysfaultorbrainsfault]

pinky and the brain - s1e3a: tokyo grows

episode summary: inexplicably existing in post-war japan, brain hijacks a shrink ray he just found laying around in order to make it a growth ray. he intends to dress pinky up as terrifying local monster gollyzilla, and pretend to defeat him, so the japanese people... elect him... president. of. japan.

all i’m gonna say is shinzo abe’s replacement has a hell of a lot coming to him if that’s a job requirement.

the rundown:

IT IS TOKYO IN 1956.

you can tell because it says “tokyo 1956″ in big letters at the bottom of the screen.

as we take a detour into acmeshito labs, senior-ly produced by tom ruegger,

we see a fellow sacrificing his shoes to the shoe gods. (sorry about that weird line at the bottom. vlc player has just decided it’s doing that now, i guess. nothing i can do about it.)

inside, some other lads, who have all been produced by peter hastings (my, the man gets around) are shrinking tvs for fun and giggles.

“at last! professor mifune! you have perfected the process of shrinking electronic devices, so we can sell them to americans for a lot of money!”

hm.

“yes, shimura, and now i say to you! miniturisation will be very,

BIG.”

and then they both shuffle over to stand in front of each other and laugh in a weird stilted way.

HA. HAHAHA. HAHAHA. i’m not sure if this is making fun of japanese people, or a common trend in japanese media (or voice acting?) at the time, but, um, i’m uncomfortable.

thankfully, the newly miniturised radio advertises that Legendary Prehistoric Monster Gollyzilla has been spotted, and apparently

the emperor wants mifune’s scientific opinion on gollyzilla

GOLLYZILLA

so maybe it’s best for mifune and shimura to get the fuck out of dodge.

so the two of them make a hasty retreat - after toeing their shoes back on, of course.

but who are these two!

brain looks pensive. i don’t know what’s in that waterbottle, but he’s having a tiny mousie crisis. pinky is narfing at him with little to no concern for his mental state.

still, crisis or not, brain has a world to take over. he mentions to pinky that the scentific equipment before them will be “invaluable for his plan to”

“TAKE OVER THE WORLD.” we really do get one per episode, huh.

“you mean you’re going to shrink down all the electronic so only mice can operate them?”

which is a reasonable idea, i think. brain counters it with “don’t be absurd, pinky, there’s no future in minaturisation,” and clarifies that is is big things that strike fear into the hearts of humans.

like that ridiculous legend of gollyzilla. <gay little hands on hip pose>

as pinky ponders whether Kay Ballard is In The Union (sorry, pinky, she’s dead) brain explains that his intent is to alter the shrink ray into a growth ray, to “become a four hundred foot tall mouse and save the world from gollyzilla.”

“but you just. said there was no such thing as gollyzilla, brain.”

“there is now, pinky.”

did we really need another closeup for that line, guys? really? is it not enough to have the mouse say his lines without shoving the camera into his face? must the man deepthroat the camera every time he has things to say?

anyway brain’s plan is to dress pinky up as gollyzilla and “save tokyo” from him. you can tell because the camera angle makes it look like his head is on gollyzilla’s body.

this random man takes a toke from his old timey pipe. “yes, i see.” he says. this is not explained.

as brain reverses the shrink ray into a growth ray, pinky makes his debut.

TADAAAAAAA POIT.

“what do you think, brain? pretty scaaaaaaary, eh?”

“yes, pinky. terrifying. stand by.”

boop.

there probably won’t be a lot left of the lab when brain is done, unfortunately.

but hey! check this out!

“narf.”

“where are you, brain? i can’t see you.”

“i’m down--”

bonk.

well, he’s clearly dead, so i guess that’s this review over.

jokes, of course. lucky for us, brain is still alive, and he has brought a little megaphone with him! awwww.

“now, go on your rampage, gollyzilla!” he’s very hype for that, it appears. pinky tries his best not to disappoint.

NARF POIT I AM PINKZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS

AARGHGGHGHH RAAARGHGHG ARGH.

it’s this random man again. “yesss, i see.” i don’t know who he is, or why he’s here, and i am scared.

but never mind him. we cut to this adorable straight couple chilling on this bridge.

“i love you, fumiko.”

“and i love you, hershel.”

awwww.

unfortunately, famously heterophobic legendary monster gollyzilla is here. “hello!” he says, cheerily. “i’m on a rampage. narf.”

fumiko and hershel get the fuck out of dodge.

still, pinky’s having fun, and that’s what matters.

though bits of his costume are coming off.

“oooh, i can’t see through this thing!”

“oh.”

“oh no! the giant monster is moulting!”

rip that guy, i guess. upon attempting to recover his lost glove, pinky accidentally spikes his tail on a nearby building in the process.

“egad. i’m all a tangle!”

he gives it a yank, for good measure,

and ends up catapulting himself into the abyss.

the random man is back. “yesss, i see,” he says. what does he want? what is he doing here? please don’t smoke in front of me, sir. i have real bad asthma.

meanwhile, brain is making himself “the largest mouse on earth, and hero of the planet.”

donk.

this frame is terrifying so obviously i’m making everyone look at it.

“people of tokyo! do not fear! i, brainodo, have come to save you!”

i’m not sure they’re convinced. the army have shown up, by this point.

“it’s another giant monster! even more ugly than gollyzilla!”

rude.

brain suggests that, perhaps, he is actually an artificially enlarged labmouse here to save them from gollyzilla, and maybe they could thank him by making them emperor.

the military do not agree.

so, yknow, maybe it’s best that he goes to look for pinky.

“how can i save the city from gollyzilla with no gollyzilla!” yells brain, as he steps on a school bus and either, 1, kills like 40 children, or 2, ruins the setpiece for melanie martinez’s 2019 music video “wheels on the bus.”

(no one’s watching us don’t give a fuck wheels on the bus ou ou)

anyway it’s a good thing that pinky has decided to spontaniously burst out of this lake. man’s really commiting to the role, huh.

again, he’s having fun.

brain is less impressed.

after admonishing pinky for running off,

brain reminds him to “make the battle look realistic”. their plan, of course, depends on it.

TAKE THAT, YOU HORRIBLE BEAST

ouch.

pinky sure is putting a weird amount of effort into this battle. and pyrotechnics??? yeah.

bonk.

bonk.

yeet.

as brain unflomphs himself, and prepares to strike back, pinky comes over to see what’s going on.

“scuse me, brain.”

“go away, pinky. can’t you see i’m fighting with pinky?”

“oh, but. wait.”

“how can you be fighting with me over there, if i’m over here?”

“it’s a very simple principle, pinky! it’s because!”

“that’s the real gollyzilla.”

and by the looks of things, he’s not very happy.

conclusion:

pinky’s first instinct, upon seeing The Real Gollyzilla (please stand up, please stand up) brandishing a building at them, is to pick brain up and flee in terror.

it’s very cute. he just scoops him up and nopes him away. not today, gollyzilla. not today.

gollyzilla, unfortunately, seems pretty bloody determined to make it today.

unfortunately, in his quest to deliver brain to safety, pinky walks right into a pylon.

bonk. they fall over. ):

and unfortunately, they fell directly onto what was once acmeshito labs, which activates the growth ray in the process.

it’s this guy again.

who are you??? what the fuck do you want?? why are you just smoking your pipe and looking at me like that and saying yesss, i seeeee. what do you see??? did the newslady send you??? what do you want from me??????

he gets shot by the growth ray. good. die.

the mice, as you can imagine, are not having a great time of things right now.

gollyzilla is fully prepared to bonk them on the head.

but oh! what is this?

random man? is that you? are you our hero, random man? is this your redemption arc?

do you see now, random man? what do you see?

well, he just yeeted a building, so jot that down.

he seems to be preparing himself to yeet gollyzilla, too.

same.

the mice duck out of the way as the fearsome creature is launched like an olympic sport. good thing tokyo 2020 got cancelled, i guess.

air lizard. nyoom. unfortunately they land on the remains of acmeshitu labs,

and nudges the growth ray in the process.

it goes a bit haywire.

the mice look on, perturbed, as it starts firing at random objects.

like this building.

and that fire hydrant.

and that building.

and this, uh.

city?

um????

oh dear.

at least acmeshito labs is going back in for repairs.

“it’s a shame we’re not giant any more, brain.”

“we are, pinky. unfortunately, so is everything else. our relative smallness remains.”

alright. that’s the end of that one, i guess. that’s going down as a solid outside influence.

brain: 5 ½ pinky: 6 ½ outside influence: 11

brilliant, brain!

but oh, wait, no. is earth like, 400 times its’ previous size, now? surely that can’t be good for the universe????

what are your thoughts, bbc science focus?

well. that’s not good.

#patb #pinky and the brain #before each night is done they'll prove their mousey worth #by the dawning of the sun they'll cause the biggest extinction event earth has ever seen #they're dinky.

[cobieeliseforsh]

I'm getting pretty annoyed with the amount of bullshit in the media right now. I just read an article about the "antisemitic" conspiracy theory Qanon. Calling Qanon antisemitic is like calling the KKK a group opposed to the career of Will Smith - technically true, but clearly a small subsection of a greater whole.

So, to remedy this...

COBIE'S FRUSTRATED GUIDE TO QANON FROM SOMEONE WHO LOVES CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND WISHES THIS ONE WOULD FUCK OFF BECAUSE IT IS BORING AS SHIT BUT NOT FIZZING WITH ENERGY, EVEN ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL, BECAUSE IT IS A DUMB AND LAZY REHASH FROM THE 80S OR EARLIER!

PART 1: DA FUCQ IS QANON?

Qanon is a grooming organisation for the Christian Far Right Death Cult that has held the Republican party in its sweaty hands since the ascent of Reagan in the 1980s. They believe in some bullshit I won't reprint here because I have no intention of spreading their ideology, but if you've heard of the Satanic panic, this is Satanic Panic 2: Now With Pizza!

Qanon is, by definition of their own supporters attacks on Muslim terrorism, a terrorist organisation. And, though it seems impossible, they're stupidier than ISIS ever were, because at least there was some twisted logic behind ISIS: poor young men fighting revolutionary wars against what they see as corrupt and immoral authorities and ideologies is nothing new. Qanon is literally the powerful declaring war on those without power out of fear that those without power (Satanists) live only to physically abuse their ugly, fat, prejudiced, stupid children. Despite the statistically most likely people to abuse them being them themselves, and there being plenty of evidence that many of these hypocrites have done that in the past (numerically many - one thing I believe Qanon followers on is that the majority are gullible Maud Flanders types, so statistically it won't be that many).

Donald Trump supports them over the "violent" Antifa (Antifa haven't killed anyone since 1993 (and that was a suicide), aren't actually an organisation, and are against facism, which Trump also claims to be against), despite Qanon followers carrying and firing weapons regularly, having shot up a pizza place in a terrorist act, refusing to wear masks, and other acts of violence designed to terrorise people.

PART 2 WHO DO THEY HATE?

Um... like, 98% of people.

Qanon is primarily an Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult. They believe in what they call SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) which happens at such a low frequency as to make it as serious a problem as being invaded by pookas. You might find anecdotal evidence here and there, but the majority of cases are hearsay spread by people who weren't there who were a part of or raised by people who were a part of the Satanic Panic. If you hear about it, it's likely bullshit. Just look at the West Memphis 3: accused of Satanic Ritual Abuse, they were sent to prison for wearing black clothes and being teenagers without any evidence. Now, whoever killed those boys is still loose, because Qanon, like all right-wing groups, is about being obeyed, not about justice.

So, with Satanic Ritual Abuse being fucking vapour, they can accuse ANYONE. And if there is no evidence, they cry COVER UP. There is no way, at all, to prove this mindset is wrong as it always self corrects, because being religious in origin, it is driven by BELIEF, not evidence.

So, whoever they believe is evil, is, as far as their reality tunnel goes.

Muslims? Evil child abusers. "But there is no evidence of that. In fact, the Muslim community is actually very protective of their children and other children. They're amongst the kindest people you can meet, even if their political leaders in their own countries are jerks." Well, says Qanon, that's because their community covers up the abuse. There wouldn't be any evidence. But my cousin went to school with a girl who was groomed by a Muslim. It's clear it is something all Muslims do. "But that's stupid. That's like saying that because Ted Bundy, a heterosexual white Republican, murdered loads of women, all heterosexual white Republicans want to murder women!" Now, says Qanon, you are just being silly. Besides, I believe Muslims are bad and Republicans aren't. You can't question my beliefs.

But we can, and we should.

Qanon followers use this vague structure to create complex webs that link up various conspiracy theories, but they aren't a complex web. They're just a list of petty grievances they have from living in their own personal echo chamber.

They hate women, they hate girls, they hate boys who don't conform to their expectations, they hate men who vote left-wing, they hate gay people, bi people, really anyone who isn't heterosexual, they definitely hate trans people (see: trans people want to use bathrooms to abuse children as merely an extension of the Satanic Ritual Abuse claims), they hate people with coloured hair, bright clothes, they hate Jewish people, they hate Muslims, they hate anyone from a fringe religion that doesn't look right, they hate foreigners, black and brown people... anyone they define as different. And to back this up, they claim to be "the majority" being dictated to be a "minority" - they aren't. They're a minority of gobby cunts, a Karen of Nazis (Karen being the best collective noun to describe these childish crybabies who were so desperate to remain in a state of childlike innocence they embraced both religion and then keep insisting their imaginary friend, Jesus, is following them everywhere, like a psychotic stalker ghost).

PART 3 WHERE DOES THEIR BULLSHIT COME FROM?

This is probably the most important part. Not what they believe, but where these ideas come from, and why they aren't new.

Qanon is a mixture of young-and-edgy YouTube/8chan influencer, white supremacist religious manipulation, pro-Capitalist Protestant religious "life is shit, embrace misery" ideology, pedophile hysteria, and "we hate the idea people have rights because we're power mad, but we're going to frame this as a backlash, normal people making their voices heard, a culture war, or whatever else we can rebrand PREJUDICE because even we don't want to admit we are bigots".

So, first of all, the angry white online teenagers: have always existed, will always exist. Their parents don't give a shit about them unless they cause trouble. So, they learn quickly that the best way to get attention is to cause trouble, which leads to kinship with other troubkemakers, forming an echo chamber of escalating troublemaking. But they're also angry, and often poor (in their eyes, or in actuality), so they're drawn to outrage, and like causing it. They're attracted to movements like this because they believe it's a chance to get some attention, someone to notice them.

And who notices them? White supremacists are always on the lookout for recruits. They feed their need for outrage and attention by misrepresenting everything. They take puff-piece news articles and shoddy journalism and further twist them into movements around positions that have no basis in reality. Vaccines? Designed to hurt you. "Uhhh, no," you say. "That's literally the opposite of what a vaccine does." I don't believe that, they say, and you can't question my beliefs. BLM? Terrorism. "No, they just want to not be shot." No they don't, they want to take over and put the Jews in power, and you can't question my beliefs! "You have no evidence!" COVER UP! they scream.

So it goes, so it goes.

Meanwhile, the Protestan work ethic of, "If you didn't suffer, you don't deserve it," goes on and on. They believe that shit things just happen, you can't stop them. Capitalism is founded on this very, very relugious principle: work should be pain for it to have value. This justifies promoting assholes, and making things difficult. But it also promotes the idea that you can't do anything to combat inequality, as that is natural, and you can't do anything to stop bad things happening, they always will, so why try? This lends Qanon a specific pattern: complain, do nothing, complain nothing is being done, still do nothing, repeat. It's wrong to intervene, you see. This allows them to say racism is bad, but God wants us to suffer so we deserve phony-heaven, a paradise they think is built on bricks of human misery... does that sound glorious to you? And if you have something, clearly you did suffer to get it, and so you are worthy, which is why Trump is a hero to them and they believe his every utterance of verbal diarrhea about him being persecuted (to be fair, he is, but he deserves it because he's lazy and incompetent).

Pedophile hysteria is also generally religiously motivated. Children should be protected, but they are not innocent angels. I've worked with children. Some are nice, some are sneaky, some are violent bullies, and so on. The one thing that unites all children is that they are ignorant. That's why we send them to school. And there are people who want to prey on children. The world we usually use to describe those who most often hurt, abuse and damage children is, "family". Promoting the idea of gangs of rampaging pedophiles snatching children into vans and harming them in shadowy rooms, or murdering them in some Satanic ritual, is laughable compared to the epidemic of children being harmed by those parents terrified the pedophiles are out there. Such fear motivates them to do untold harm to children, restricting their freedoms and their growth, teaching them that all sex is bad so they never enjoy it, forcing them to be things they aren't, and turning a blind eye to obvious abuse because those doing it are not the model of abuse being put out by the press and Internet communities. In that last way, Qanon is a driver of child abuse: it actively encourages Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult members to nit even ask the obvious question: if Epstein was abusing kids, and Epstein was hanging out with Trump, was Trump maybe involved in some way?

And then there is just the prejudiced crowd, most notably the American-exceptionalism delusional whack jobs. Let me be clear, all forms of exceptionalism are prejudiced, as they suggest that those who are exceptional are better and mire deserving than others, and the real world does not contain such hierarchies, just stuff that happens until it stops happening. A monkey may be the alpha, but one day they won't be. It's not a hierarchy, it's just a thing that happens that we project a power structure onto. Who knows what monkey culture is like? Maybe to them deference is more honourable and respected than being in charge. No-one has asked monkeys for their views of ideology or power structures.

This often manifests itself in ideas of, "We shouldn't be ashamed!" and that movements they don't like are, "Against us!" Well, if you're setting out to hurt people because you believe you are better than them, you should be ashamed. That queer Pakistani girl you keep out of college could have been the one to cure cancer! She might have had the unique perspective to make that breakthrough. And, yes, some of us are against Qanon, because Qanon is hurting people. That is the point of the movement: to harm its enemies, by denial if freedom all the way up to outright murder. It isn't a Pride parade or BLM demanding equality and an end to deaths, its a hate movement driven by a desire to punch down, and ultimately perpetuate the very system that isn't even working for those who follow its own ideology.

It's based on fear of the new, even if that new place is better than the old one, change can be scary. They think equality will hurt them, the way collective bargaining would hurt them. But we don't live in a system where resources are so finite you have to do without, we live in a system where resources are finite but we throw away an excess because capitalism couldn't make rich people richer by giving it to those who need it, so they dispose of it and introduce scarcity to drive up the cost. Working together would force them to stop doing that, which is why movements like this exist: to perpetuate a form of exceptionalism more like a cult, where only the leaders reap the rewards.

PART 4 WHAT IS THE END GOAL OF QANON?

It doesn't have one.

Qanon is a right-wing movement. Right-wing movements are about winning arguments now, and then feeling smug, even when the damage is undone later. It's about a sense of self-satisfaction, and not anything else.

Plus, Qanon has so many stake-holders who hate each other that the movement will eventually descend into cannibalism as all these things do.

Finally, being primarily religious in its design, it won't take long for many religious types to realise Q is kind if a God-like figure, a false idol, and when that happens, plenty if their leaders will become worried that their followers are so focused on Q they might "stray from the path" of donating all their money to their church.

Unless it turns out that Q is Q from Star Trek, in which case their end goal is to test Jean-Luc Picard.

PART 5 SHOULD WE FEAR QANON?

Nah. It's a group of fringe lunatics whose time in the spotlight will be fleeting. As I've already said, even their ideas aren't original - this is the Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult version of Fortnite stealing dances: everyone goes crazy about it for a bit, but it's so insubstantial in its original form, nevermind the cover band version, that almost all people with a lick of common sense will dismiss it. Plus, it doesn't serve any agenda: Trump could easily find himself on the receiving end of it, that one Qanon politician just elected will likely be marginalised the moment Trump vanishes, and having a single person won't sway any votes in such divisive times, which means they'll be proclaimed ineffectual soon enough, and with Epstein it is already showing that it isn't something which helps the powerful, meaning a lot of people who do have secrets will want it gone sooner rather than later lest it bite their own hands. Plus, they are actually harming people - and say what you like about the Republicans, they don't tend to respond well to the PR disaster of groups they side with directly attacking or killing people unless they are their own ACAB stormtroopers.

Plus, it's a bunch of saddos on the Internet. Chances are if you see someone screaming about Qanon and waving around a gun, they'd have done the same and screamed about lizards had it never got started.

PART 6 WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Stop giving them attention. This is one of the most BORING conspiracy theories ever created. Seriously, since 9/11, conspiracy theories have really gone downhill. They used to be about aliens and subterranean kingdoms, and now they're just attempts to misdirect pedophile hunters from the right-wing types who have covered up child abuse, and tie it to phony "think of the children" and "Satan is out to get us" religious hysteria.

With covid-19, the press is having a very slow news cycle, so they're desperately grabbing at anything that can drive search engine algorithm clicks to their sites, so they're covering Qanon because they've seen it trending. I doubt most people involved with it really believe in it, but it is so directionless that it wouldn't matter if they did. Qanon Con would descend into bloodshed fairly quickly because everyone would be angry and arguing that the tater tots are secret SRA code for cannibalising children or that it reveals that Hilary Clinton buries children beneath fields of potatoes. It's stupid, the people involved with it are stupid, and the bigger question is what they believe that led them to this:

Disenfranchisement. Having to respect the beliefs of others. Prejudice. Anger.

Well, boo-fucking-hoo. If these shitbags actually want to stop harm to children, maybe stop supporting gun rights so kids aren't being gunned down in schools, and black kids don't keep getting gunned down everywhere. Until you do that, Qanon, you're the child abusers.

[hphm-etched-engraved-everlasting]

24. Em

Author’s Note/Table of Contents

I was not prepared to see the statues.

Hearing Beatrice scream about the onset of the curse all those weeks ago was enough for me. I didn't want to see what the curse looked like at all, let alone go anywhere near it, but the pain in my arm decided to protest otherwise and by this point the agony was unbearable. The entire time we walked to the hospital wing, Diego's arm never left my shoulders. His face morphed into one of concern, his expression guarded, and I couldn't help but wonder what had gotten into him now that made him want to look out for me.

Not even his presence prepared me for the statues that were laying on two of the beds in the ward, along with the sights of Professors Dumbledore and Snape and Madam Pomfrey crowding around one of them, whispering in low voices. Just a simple glimpse of the stone that encased their flesh was enough to make me want to scream, the terror gripping at my throat to choking point. Their eyes, wide in shock and terror, would never blink again. Their hands, lifted to the heavens for help, would never feel anything, hold onto anything, until the worst of the rampage comes to pass.

No one would ever hear their last scream.

"So. You're here to investigate the curse, too?"

I haven't heard Ben's voice in a long time, but it wasn't one I would forget so easily. I quickly turned around now to see him approach me and Diego, his face looking rather sour as he stared me down.

"No, Ben. As a matter of fact, I'm here to see Madam Pomfrey so I could get something for my elbow," I decided to tell him.

"Don't you already have it immobilized and placed in the cast? Though if you ask me, the person who did it must have done quite the sloppy job."

"Look, I'm here for my reasons, alright? I didn't want to see this," I snapped, gesturing to the statues. "And I didn't want to talk to you."

"Shame. I would have liked to talk with you further, actually," Ben said then, folding his arms. "Then again, I do have other witches and wizards to interrogate in Knockturn Alley. I was actually in the midst of talking with one certain Dark witch with five teeth and demanding her for Rakepick's whereabouts when your sister decided to step in with an owl and asked me to come back to Hogwarts due to an emergency."

I should have known Ben would continue to sneak about Knockturn Alley after my sister told me of his strange behaviour the last time she caught him there. Funny how we didn't cross paths with him when Jacob showed up though. Then again, I haven't seen him since the first time we met in the Artefact Room, so I assumed he was avoiding us. Total contrary to what he's telling me now.

"Well, I'll have you know that Sickleworth has recently been spotted on Hogwarts grounds," I reported. "I suppose that's why my sister would want to get in touch with you. You know how to find him, after all."

"Me. Find Sickleworth. For you?" Ben shook his head, a scoff escaping his lips. "Last year, when Sickleworth went missing, your sister told me I was obsessed with finding him. And now you're asking me to help you search for him."

"Only because you know where he might be. You know Sickleworth best out of all of us," I snapped again. "And what is it with your attitude, anyway? If you ask me, I'd rather you go ahead and face Rakepick straight away without any preparation whatsoever. I'd like to see how that duel would go."

I wouldn't normally pose such a threat, but Ben was supposed to be one of Clara's friends. If he's acting this snarky, though, there's no way the label still applied to him.

"Aw, look at that. Little badger with a broken arm decides that I'm the one who needs help," Ben mocked with a roll of his eyes. "What is up with you, anyway? Aren't you supposed to get your nose out of this business?"

"Not if my older sister and brother are involved," I responded to him pointedly. "Besides, the victims of this curse are partly my responsibility, too."

Apparently the professors chose that moment in time to approach us, and I stood my ground, wincing slightly as Diego squeezed my shoulder and Ben stepped away from me with folded arms.

"Ah. Miss Lin, Mr Copper, and Mr Caplan," Professor Dumbledore said, a stern look on his face as he glanced at the three of us. "I hope your visit does not mean you are trying to break the Statue Curse."

I shook my head at the prospect. "No, sir. I only wanted to see Madam Pomfrey about my arm. Eunice Ahn from Slytherin fractured my elbow pushing me onto the ground earlier today."

"And we're also looking for a missing Niffler," Diego added with a nod.

"I hope so. I'm sure you three are well aware that searching for the final vault would be breaking my rules," Professor Dumbledore reminded us. "You should all spend your time in school becoming the best witches and wizards you can be, not putting yourselves in needless danger. We will take care of the Cursed Vault and Statue Curse."

"I suppose that's something you remind my sister constantly as well?" I inquired, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Indeed. This curse and everything it pertains are no laughing matter," Professor Snape responded, glancing pointedly at us.

"But you haven't seen a Niffler around, have you?" Ben asked.

Professor Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Mr Copper. Rest assured that if we do see one, we will let you know."

"Thank you." Ben nodded and shot a dirty glare at me--an expression that looked strange on a face that once projected so much fear.

Meanwhile, Madam Pomfrey came around and took a careful look at my elbow in the makeshift cast. "Oh, dear," she murmured. "This looks very serious. I'll see if I can find a Wiggenweld potion for that...might have to use Episkey if it comes down to it, too. Just sit tight, Miss Lin."

"Did you really have to do that?" I hissed at Ben. "You're not the Sickleworth compass, okay?"

"I know." Ben shrugged and folded his arms, his eyes briefly trained on Madam Pomfrey sorting through her various medicines in her cabinet. "I was asking on your behalf, and clearly he's not here."

"You don't seem so eager to look for him anyway," Diego noted, glancing from me to Ben. "So why are you still hanging around here?"

"I thought it'd be a good chance to study the Statue Curse up close," Ben responded, his gaze shifted to Diego. "You see, I've been thinking of becoming a Curse-Breaker when I graduate."

Now my jaw dropped to the ground at this piece of news before it was closed again by Madam Pomfrey tipping the goblet of Wiggenweld Potion into my mouth. The slimy liquid almost caught in my throat, and I choked slightly at the foreign taste before swallowing the rest of it down.

"Well, it would seem you are...interested," Diego spoke for me, his face scrunched up in thought.

But I shook my head, wiping my mouth to recover from the coughing fit. "No, Ben. I don't think it's safe. Who knows what would happen when people see you as a Curse-Breaker? They'd want your service everywhere, and you know it's not always for the greater good."

"Should have known you'd oppose," Ben said, scoffing at me. "If it were your sister I'm sure she'd think differently."

I sighed as I finished the rest of the potion in the goblet, and Madam Pomfrey quickly sped up the healing process with Episkey. As I turned to leave, though, I saw Sickleworth shoot past out of the corner of my eye, the white feather still wedged in his mouth.

"Sickleworth!" I whispered, taking my wand out just as the Niffler darted away. "Oh, come on!"

Ignoring the dull throbbing in my elbow, I quickly burst out of the Hospital Wing and sprinted down the corridors, the same way I did my sister heading to Knockturn Alley--and just in time, I saw it disappear down a corridor I have never seen before.

Huh. I peered into the dark corridor, but there was nothing there--nothing that screamed immediate danger. Still, I didn't feel safe. The last thing I wanted was to be the victim of either a dark unforgivable spell or disastrous prank.

That was when I heard a distant crash, and the sound of tinkling glass skidding across the stone floor immediately caught my attention.

I should have expected a Niffler to cause a wreck with its presence, working with the enemy or not.

"Lumos," I murmured, setting my wand alight as I held it up like a torch. The brilliant beam of light stretched on for miles in the dim hallway, landing over the benches and books and gleaming stained glass windows that decorated the corridor walls. On silent tiptoe I crept through the dark, and just as I shone my light through a door open ajar, I swore I heard someone shout and yank me right through the door, a firm grip over my shoulder.

"Oi!" I exclaimed quietly, whirling around to confront my captor...only to find that it was Jacob who had grabbed me. Still, my face didn't exactly soften at the somewhat familiar face.

"You shouldn't be creeping around like this when you know you could be in danger!" Jacob hissed. "What were you expecting, little Em? Rakepick?"

"Jacob, I--I was just following Sickleworth..." I faltered at his stern expression, not at all like the softer expression he had in Knockturn Alley the last time we met.

"Without a clue where he could have been going?" Jacob asked. "Merlin's Beard, Pipsqueak! If he actually lead you to Rakepick, you know R would have a field day planning on how to kill you, Merula, and our sister all in one."

"I'm not all that helpless, Jacob," I reminded him. "Just because I have a fractured elbow doesn't mean that I can't put up a good fight. I've had friends who helped me learn a few advanced spells, and one of Clara's friends actually brought me to the Duelling Club once to help me hone combative magic."

"Still, you have to be extremely careful. Imagine what would happen if either of our parents learn that all three of her children have become reckless and--"

"What's happening in here?"

Crud. Clara somehow came along with a very concerned expression on her face. Jacob and I immediately turned as she came into the room, her eyes fixed on Sickleworth.

"Did Sickleworth lead you here, Em?" she asked me.

"Yeah." I nodded slowly and sighed. "I'm sorry, alright? I should have at least called for you or someone before even going down this corridor leading me to whatever this room is."

"It's my old research room," Jacob told me. "You can see all the old research I did on the Cursed Vaults here." He gestured then to the bulletin boards covered with pictures and red yarn, his desk piling with notebooks and samples of things he found at different sites.

"What are you even doing here, anyway?" Clara asked him. "How could you not tell either of us you were in Hogwarts again? Why didn't you come to see either of us if you had to step into Hogwarts at all?"

Jacob heaved a sigh and looked over at Clara. "I only meant to get in, grab a few things to help me find Rakepick, and get right back on her trail. But then Sickleworth showed up with a White Quill and--"

"Wait." Clara pointed a finger between Jacob and the little Niffler. "You know Sickleworth?"

"And what's a White Quill?" I asked. "I thought R communicated using Black Quills."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Jacob answered. "I don't have all the answers either, but I'll tell you what I do know."

I was surprised this quill was white, after all. R used to leave Transfigured messages in Black Quills--that was where, supposedly, Clara got information about R's intentions to infiltrate the school with all these Curses. Their tampering with the Cursed Vaults lead to endangering most of the student population. If Jacob assumed they, too, contained secret messages, then it's about time I started freaking out. After all Clara's trying to do to ensure that I wasn't getting carried away in danger, here I was getting involved, and it could potentially end up with me dead or worse.

Eventually, Clara Untransfigured the quill with a quick flick of her wand, and as she picked up the parchment I swore I saw a couple of Chinese characters marked across the page in black ink. I didn't get to read all of it though, but the expression on Clara's face, now morphed into fear, said it all.

您仍然欠我们一个朋友的生命，我们打算收集。

"What does it say?" Jacob asked.

Clara's hands trembled as she gripped tightly onto the paper, the corners quivering with her fear. "You still owe us a friend's life, and we intend to collect," she translated quietly.

"No." I shook my head in disbelief. "No, it can't be."

"What can't be?" Jacob asked me. "What's going on?"

"Jacob, this message is for me," Clara told him. "Last year, an unknown messenger in a red hood gave me a warning that one of my friends would die at the end of the year. We managed to foil their attempts, but it seems like they haven't given up."

I gently took the parchment from Clara and glanced at the words myself, at the characters etched in the paper spelling out the warning she never thought she'd receive again. I couldn't imagine what life would be like without a friend walking beside you in this world, lost to a casualty that was entirely preventable.

"But who could have sent this to us?" I asked, placing the paper down. "And how did Sickleworth get a hold of this White Quill?"

"He must be delivering messages for R," Jacob said. "So if I follow Sickleworth, he might eventually lead me to Rakepick. Of course."

"Then let me come," Clara decided.

"No."

"What--why?! Why won't you let me help you?! We'd make a great team!" Clara exclaimed. "When we reunited in the buried vault, it was like nothing had changed."

"I can't risk putting either of you in danger!" Jacob fired back. "It was enough when I heard that an assassin is after you, but now that little Em's at Hogwarts...if they find out anything about her, I don't know what I'd do to help you. I've done enough damage to this family already! And if anything happened to both of you, I..."

Served him right for leaving us, then. He left our parents arguing for ages with me relying on lies like security blankets to retain my sanity. It was already enough for me to contemplate on the initial happiness I felt followed by all the mixed emotions of fear and guilt and anger...and the fact that he actually admitted that he did all this to us made me feel even worse for him. I wasn't even sure what to feel anymore.

"I understand, but I can't just sit here and do nothing," Clara said with a shake of her head. "You can follow Sickleworth. I'll try tracking down the white owl that the White Quill's feather came from--and don't talk me out of it. I've made up my mind."

"And what about me?" I asked, folding my arms. "You're just going to leave me alone?"

"You need to have one normal year at Hogwarts," Jacob said firmly to me. "It may seem like your responsibility, Pipsqueak, but we've got enough going on as it is. We don't want the Cursed Vaults to affect all of us. At least promise me you'll have one normal year at school, with good friends and a bright future."

"That's what Dumbledore said to me in the Hospital Wing," I recalled. "But if there's anything I can do...just let me do it. I want to help you too."

For a second, Jacob looked like he was going to argue. Then he sighed, nodding as he looked at the both of us solemnly.

"Alright. I can't argue with the both of you, so you do what you need to," he said. "But be careful. Now more than ever, I'm sure you're being targeted..."

#so this is the end of chapter 7 #I may end up taking time to write up the next chapter #because initially i rushed through it #we have a lot of time to expand on the plot here #so i might as well do that #anyway #hphm spoilers #year 6 spoilers #hogwarts mystery #hphm jacob lin #hphm em lin #hphm clara lin #etched engraved everlasting #hphm ben copper #hphm diego caplan #sickleworth #and with that let's play the waiting game

[lunatunacat-14]

Chapter 3: Tears go to Rage then to Confusion.

"My name is Ink?" His voice was scratchy and barely Audible. It took our purple heart eyed skeleton to really think about what the other had said, but his thoughts couldn't get far. For his worry had overcome it, the winged skeleton or as we now know him as Ink.

Right as he spoke harsh coughing came from him, black inky blood dripping slightly from his mouth as he coughed harder. The heart eye skeleton panicked slightly, thinking of when the ambulance was going to get here. Almost as if on cue, the distance sounds of sirens came near. He almost sighed in relief, going closer to the winged skeleton.

"Okay some people are going to come here and help the pain your feeling, okay so don't freak out please." He tried to explain to the other but his voice got drowned out by the sirens. The ambulance stoping right next to them. As a human and a goat monster of some sort ran out with a hospital bed on wheels. The human trying to pick Ink up, as said skeleton scoots back in fear. 'What do these people want with him? Are they planning to hurt him!' He didn't trust these Unknown people, so he backed up and lifted his hand up in defense. The monster tried to help get the skeleton up, but he just backed away further. Suddenly having the energy to do so.

Our purple eyed skeleton didn't know what to do at first but then decided to try and convince Ink that it was all going to be fine and that they weren't trying to hurt him. But when that failed he had to resort to using his magic, a purple glow went around Ink as he began to levitate and was put on the Hospital bed. Him trying to fight back, screaming despite his hurt throat. As little Inky tears fell from his eye, as he was being rolled into the ambulance. The heart eyed skeleton asking if he could go, though he was denied unless he was family of some sort. So wanting to make sure that this skeleton got proper care, he lied.

"I'm uh his brother! Now please I need to be with him, I need to be there!" Though it did seem a bit dramatic, they let him on. Closing the door, as it started to move. He having been sat down, as the other gave up on struggling. Seeing as it has weakened him, though the silent tears continued. As the doctors on board did what they could to help at the moment.

When they finally got to the hospital, the heart eyed skeleton was forced to sit down in the lobby as he couldn't go in the back. He began to think on why he had done this, he didn't have to care for a stranger but he did. And he didn't know why, could it be how lonely he really his. Or maybe something about this skeleton made him want the other safe. He didn't know and he doubted he ever would.

■■■■■

Meanwhile, our beloved Error was doing the job he so hated. He had always hated his job, but now he hated it even more. For obvious reasons. He was going to the last AU of the Night, it was a weird copy of underlust. Where everyone had made it to the surface and somehow, became more normal because of it. Though was much as he would rather keep this one instead of the original, his job had to be done. Though ever since he died, he had to only destroy a few every month. As for some reason his son could not help create AUs yet like he could. He didn't know why but, that doesn't mean AU still weren't being created because they were. Just not as often as they used to. With that thought out of the way, he began his destruction. Finishing off with destroying the code and quickly getting out of there. The portal leading him to his grave. Though at first he didn't know why it had done that after all, he wanted to go see his son but saying goodnight to him would be nice. After all, he had always loved it when they would sit in bed and repeatedly said goodnight to each other. Until one decided to shut the other up, usually that would be Error. So with a sad smile he walked up to the grave and his expression had changed almost instantly. To one of sadness and slight happiness to pure horror. It looked as if someone had dug up his grave or, something crawled out. He honestly didn't believe the latter, after all. He would have known if his lover was alive, right?

So he looked down hatefully, the only other reasonable option was that someone had dug it up. He thought of Nightmare, thinking that he had finally came back for some sick revenge but. He had not been seen ever since his lover had died, and wouldn't it make sense to do it sooner? He honestly didn't know, so the next thing that came to mind was that some disrespectful group of kids dug it up. Thinking that made him want to just about destroy this universe, but he knew he couldn't.

Stepping closer he saw that there was claw marks, it could have been a dog but. Something about it didn't seem like that, it seemed like. Tears fell down his face, he couldn't be alive. Not after 100 years. He shook his head, wiping his tears with his sleeve. No, he wouldn't believe something so outrageous. No one can be reborn, not even someone like Ink. Right? It had to be.

His eyes went red with anger, no he wasn't alive. This was probably the job of some stupid teens. With rage in his heart he began to destroy this universe, him having no self-control. He was going to find who ever did this a show them to never mess with the dead ever again.

■■■■■

After what felt like hours, he was told that he could see the winged skeleton. Though he was asleep. But he didn't mind, so a nurse escorted him to room 168. Which was the room our little Ink-bot was in, sleeping heavily on the soft cushions of the hospital bed. He looked at the other for a second before sitting down on a chair. The nurse leaving the two.

His thoughts once again went back to why, but he deemed it as he was just lonely and seeing this skeleton that looked to be buried alive seemed like he had no one either. So maybe they could help each other. He was probably thinking a lie, this skeleton probably didn't trust him or wouldn't. He rested there for a little while before an alarm went off, scaring the winged skeleton wake as well as himself. What was happening? He thought, looking out the window seeing everyone freaking out and screaming about how someone was destroying the town. His face paled slightly, as he looked at Ink. He had to get them out of here, there was no way he was just going to let the other die like that. So he picked the winged skeleton up, being careful of his healing wounds. Then he bolted out some exit, freaking out as he saw some skeleton on a rampage. Probably for revenge of some sort.

The skeleton in his arm had awoken, looking at the monster in terror of what they were doing. Him crying as he tried to scoot away from them.

"Shhh it's okay we'll just hide in. . ." He began to look around as he ran in the opposite direction of the destruction. So far nothing seemed to be safe. Not for something with that power. He began to look lost thinking that they both may probably die or get hurt. He froze slightly, feeling the other in his arms shake out of fear or the cold. He looked around for something, but then decided to cover him with his jacket. It was a little too big, but it seemed to work just fine. Covering his face so the cold didn't hit him. He picked the other up again and went to run, but suddenly a glitched skeleton went crashing into a wall near the two. It was him! The one destroying everything. He went to run away but tripped slightly, Luckily catching himself and Ink. But unluckily the skeleton looked at the two. He froze in fear for a second. God was this skeleton terrifying. Then he snapped out of it and began to run but was caught in blue strings, ripping himself away from the winged skeleton. Said winged skeleton screamed, his tears falling as he fell too. The hood still covering his face. He looked up at the stranger that helped him, then too the one hurting everyone. His tears falling faster as he screamed to his savior from before, his wings flapping around in panic. Causing the glitched skeletons attention to go to him. He was about to attack this weird bird skeleton, until said winged skeleton pushed him. Him getting at look at their face as he fell. Though he didn't see much, he did see that ink splotch on their cheek he knew all too well. But before he could get over his shock they were already helping this version of lust.

The purple heart eyed skeleton, or lust looked at ink worried for them. There was no way that they could keep this much energy for this long. He stood there crying and scared his legs becoming weak. He didn't like this. Not one bit. Lust knew that right here was not safe so he grabbed inks shoulders and told him that they had to get away from the bad skeleton. Ink just cryed in response as he fell down. Lust catching him.

By now he had got out of his shock, not believing what he just saw. He was dead, that couldn't be him. Though he didn't have time to figure out, because the two had already ran and Error honestly didn't feel like destroying anymore. He just felt lost, everything just fell apart in one moment. His glitches began to cover his body as he made a portal to the one place he could calm and think. Outertale.

■■■■■

They made it very far lust setting the frightened skeleton down near a tree. He had ran to a forest, where his parents house was. Though they were dead so it belonged to him, because they had no other children. So after their small rest he picked Ink up and went to the house. Setting him down on the bed, as the winged skeleton passed out almost immediately as his head touched the pillow. Lust tucking him in and sitting on the bed himself. Thinking back on what just happened, it was all too much for his mind to comprehend. The weird skeleton, his power, how he froze up when he saw the winged skeleton next to him. He just didn't understand any of it, but he shouldn't worry about that right now. He was more worried for this stranger next to him. His mind wondered of how their past was, or why he found him on the verge of dying. He groaned slightly, all this thinking began to hurt his head. He needed sleep. So with his final thought, he soundly slipped into slumber.

'Good night'.

●●●●●

Oof well I hope that didn't make people who actually kinda liked this hate me now. I didn't bother to edit this, so if there a mistake. Well it's staying there cuz I too lazy to fix.

Btw if y'all want to input your ideas for this story, I may or may not use them. But I would love to see how you guys want future chapters to go, itll be like we all are writing the story.

Also, Error can still hear the voices so if you want to say something to him or ask something. Then please do, it would be interesting to put it into the story.

[thekoshertribble]

“I'm not some simple shepherdess you can awe” Women of Star Trek #19 “Who Mourns for Adonais?” Lt. Carolyn Palamas

Oh boy, I am not looking forward to writing this one.

Before we begin: I don’t usually find myself identifying in any way with the characters I talk about on this blog, but this one is an exception. Carolyn Palamas’ story is one of the worst I’ll be discussing in this series. I think anyone who’s seen the episode, and knows what happens to her would agree with that, but for me it’s personal. I know how she felt. I’ll get to that later, but for now let’s talk about Carolyn.

(Before I go any further, I should caution you that I’ll be discussing some rather sensitive topics: abusive relationships, physical and psychological abuse, implied rape and unwanted pregnancy.)

If someone asked me “what role would you serve in Starfleet?” I would answer: A&A officer.

An oft forgotten role, the A&A officer is a starship’s science division expert on archeology and anthropology. He or she is well knowledged in not only the civilizations of earth, but those of other planets. Imagine studying the ruins of a lost civilization on another planet, or reading ancient texts from the mythology of an alien species! This is Carolyn Palamas’ job on the Enterprise, and why she was chosen for the landing party to Pollux Four. But first, we meet her on the bridge, presenting her findings about the planet to Kirk: “Here's the report on Pollux Five, Captain. This entire system has been almost the same. A strange lack of intelligent life on the planets. It bugs the percentages.” Kirk asked her to run the same analysis on Pollux Four, then McCoy remarks she looks tired. Palamas explains she was up “all night” working on the report. (I don’t understand why Palamas was given this job when it could have gone to Spock or one of the other astonomists in the science department. It bugs me.) Kirk and McCoy are impressed by her work effort, and Scotty steps up to offer her to have coffee with him, rather eagerly. She smiles and accepts his invitation, and the two exit the bridge together. Kirk and McCoy have already suspected, correctly, that Scotty is attracted to Palamas, a fact which worries McCoy:

MCCOY: I'm not sure I like that, Jim.

KIRK: Why, Bones? Scotty's a good man.

MCCOY: And he thinks he's the right man for her, but I'm not sure she thinks he's the right man. On the other hand, she's a woman. All woman. One day she'll find the right man and off she'll go, out of the service.

Okay, I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent here, but this conversation is worth discussing. Two things are clear: one, McCoy has analyzed both Scott and Palamas, and foresees the relationship will be one sided. (He seems to acknowledge, however, that he could be wrong.) Two, it’s immediately assumed that if Palamas were to marry, she would leave Starfleet. This was written in the 60s, when married women were expected to stay home, not work. So does that mean those same expectations are present in Starfleet? I say no. In “Balance of Terror” we saw two officers get married, and no mention was made of either of them leaving the service. So it doesn’t appear to be a regulation or cultural expectation that McCoy is referring to. Considering his knowledge of the crew, I think McCoy has heard from Palamas at some point that she planned to leave Starfleet if she were to marry, but she sees that as being unlikely to happen anytime soon. Kirk meanwhile, is more concerned about Scotty being preoccupied by a romantic interest rather than his job. And as we’ll soon see, he’s not actually wrong...

The Enterprise arrives at Pollux Four and is immediately captured by Apollo, who insists Kirk comes down to the planet with some of his men to rejoice and “remember together” their Ancient Greek heritage. Kirk naturally brings along Palamas, as well as McCoy, Scotty and Chekov. Apollo reveals his identity and tells his “children” that they must stay here and worship him as they did before. Kirk and Scotty warm him that they’ll resist any attempts to keep the Enterprise here forcefully, while Apollo claims the crew is his to cherish or destroy. In the middle of this back-and-forth threatening, Carolyn steps in, not with a warning but with a question: “But why? What you've said so far makes no sense at all.” Apollo’s face softens and he turns his attention from Kirk to Palamas. He approaches her, studying her. 

APOLLO: How like Aphrodite and Athena. The beauty, grace. And you seem wise for a woman. What is your name?

CAROLYN: Lieutenant Palamas.

APOLLO: I mean your name.

CAROLYN: Carolyn.

APOLLO: Carolyn. Yes. You are beautiful. You would do Aphrodite credit. I will tell you a thousand tales, stories of courage and love. You will know what it is to be a goddess.

Scott immediately protests to this, telling Apollo to back off. Apollo then blasts Scott’s phaser out of his hand and turns his attention back to Carolyn. He decides her Starfleet uniform doesn’t look good on her and changes them (Trelane-style) to a Grecian dress. Satisfied with this change, Apollo begins to lead her away from the others. Again, Scotty tries to save her, but gets thrown over the table. Kirk also appears to protest but Carolyn stops him, saying quietly: “It's all right, Captain. I'll go.” Apollo applauds her lack of fear, and disappears, taking Carolyn with him.

This scene tells us two very important things about Carolyn. First, as a scientist she has a curious mind that instinctually seeks answers. Apollo demands the Enterprise crew worships him? Carolyn wants to know why. Despite the threats Apollo makes, she is still wants to know how he, an ancient deity from a planet light-years away, ended up on an alien planet. She might have seen this as a career-changing mission. This is the kind of opportunity most of her fellow anthropologists and archeologists dream of. But it is not without cost, leading to the second item: Carolyn is not so brave or curious to not be aware of the danger she is in. She’s read Greek legends. She know what Apollo is and what he’s capable of. And she knows that women in Greek mythology rarely get happy endings. She has every right to be afraid, and she is. She is not “without fear” as Apollo wrongly observes. She goes with him for two reasons: one, so she can continue to observe him, and two, to prevent Apollo from hurting any other member of the landing party. That’s it. Yes, in the next scene Apollo asks her if she’s frightened of him and she says no, but how could she not be afraid? He nearly kills Kirk by Vader-style choking him, knocks out Scotty and threatens to crush the Enterprise like an egg! She knows could do the same to her, but she hypothesizes that his affection for her will shield her from his wrath. His “love” for her is the only thing that stops Apollo from killing Kirk with force lighting:

KIRK: We're tired of your phony fireworks!

APOLLO: Mortal, you have earned this!

(Apollo points his finger at Kirk’s chest)

CAROLYN: No, don't!

(Carolyn puts herself between Apollo and Kirk)

KIRK: Lieutenant!

CAROLYN: A father doesn't destroy his children. You said you were gentle and understanding.

KIRK: Lieutenant!

CAROLYN: How can they worship you if you hurt them?

KIRK: Lieutenant.

CAROLYN: Apollo, please. (taking his hand) You know so much of love. Please don't hurt them. Please.

APOLLO: I shall be lenient with you, for her sake.

In a sick kind of irony, Carolyn has become both incredibly powerful and vulnerable as Apollo’s newest object of lust. Apollo is extremely dangerous and quick to anger - his violent acts toward her crew mates tell Carolyn what will happen if she refuses him - so she is trapped with him. However, she knows he wants to please her. She becomes an intermediary between him and her crew, and in the scene above, she’s the only person that can stop Apollo from going on a deadly rampage. In the next scene Carolyn learns that is not just an object of affection for the Apollo, she is central to his plan to restore his godliness. He sees her as a lover and a means to an end.

Which leads us to the beginning of the finale. Apollo sends Carolyn back to the landing party alone, to speak with Kirk, to try once more to persuade him to stay. She appears to them with in an oddly relaxed state, smiling and speaking softly:

CAROLYN: He wants us to live in peace. He wants to provide for us. He'll give us everything we ever wanted, and he can do it, too.

KIRK: All right, Lieutenant, you can come down from Mount Olympus now. You've got work to do.

CAROLYN: I don't understand.

KIRK: He thrives on love, worship, attention.

CAROLYN: Yes?

KIRK: We can't give him that worship, none of us can. Especially you.

CAROLYN: What?

KIRK: Spurn him. Reject him. You must. You're special to him.

CAROLYN: Yes. I love him.

Let’s pause right here, shall we? Now some of you are probably thinking: hey koshertribble I’ve watched this episode x-many times and it seems like Carolyn was falling in love with Apollo. She kissed him in the last scene, remember? When she says she loves him, she’s telling the truth, right?

Wrong.

She doesn’t. Period.

So why would she lie? Because when you’re trapped in an abusive relationship, that’s what you do. You don’t want to lie, but you lie because it’s the safest thing to do. At this point Carolyn has gone into what I call “survival mode.” She doesn’t see a way to escape this planet and Apollo’s (literal) grasp. In this moment she has accepted her sitauation and is adapting, surviving, accordingly. She tells the landing party to do the same: try to accept their fate by looking at the “positives.” Kirk, meanwhile, is still trying to find a way out. He’s figured out that Carolyn has influence on Apollo’s actions; her rejection of him could be their salvation, but rejection is the last thing on her mind right now...

KIRK: Lieutenant. All our lives, here and on the ship, depend on you.

CAROLYN: No, not on me.

KIRK: On you, Lieutenant! Reject him, and we have a chance to save ourselves. Accept him, and you condemn all of us to slavery, nothing less than slavery. We might never get help this far out. Or perhaps the thought of spending an eternity bending knee and tending sheep appeals to you.

CAROLYN: Oh, but you don't understand. He's kind, and he wants the best for us. And he's so lonely. What you ask would break his heart. How can I?

Again, Carolyn doesn’t really believe what she says, nor is she trying to justify what Apollo is doing. She’s defending herself, not him. When she asks “how can I” she’s not asking “how could I hurt Apollo because I care about his feelings” she really means “ how can I get out of this impossible situation without getting killed?” At this point Kirk gives one of his trademark speeches to remind her who she is:

KIRK: Give me your hand. Your hand. (she does) Now feel that. Human flesh against human flesh. We're the same. We share the same history, the same heritage, the same lives. We're tied together beyond any untying. Man or woman, it makes no difference. We're human. We couldn't escape from each other even if we wanted to. That's how you do it, Lieutenant. By remembering who and what you are. A bit of flesh and blood afloat in a universe without end. The only thing that's truly yours is the rest of humanity. That's where our duty lies. Do you understand me?

CAROLYN: Yes. Yes, I understand. He's calling me.

KIRK: Lieutenant. You have your orders and your duty.

CAROLYN: Yes, sir. My orders and my duty.

To be honest I think that Kirk was under the impression that Carolyn actually loves Apollo. If he had read her words deep down, and seen the fear underneath, that Rousing Kirk Speech would have gone differently. But it get the job done. Carolyn returns to Apollo afraid but determined. And she does what Kirk tells her to do - remember who she is: Lt Carolyn Palamas, Enterprise A&A officer and scientist.

CAROLYN: I must say, Apollo, the way you ape human behaviour is remarkable, but there are some other things I must know. Your evolutionary patterns and your social development.

APOLLO: My what?

CAROLYN: I'm sure they're unique. I've never encountered a specimen like you before.

APOLLO: I am Apollo. I've chosen you.

CAROLYN: I'm sure that's very flattering, but I must get on with my work now.

APOLLO: Your work?

CAROLYN: I'm a scientist. My particular specialty is ancient civilisations, relics, and myths. Surely you know I've only been studying you.

APOLLO: I don't believe it. You love me.

CAROLYN: Love you? Be logical. I'm not some simple shepherdess you can awe. Why, I could no more love you than I could love a new species of bacteria.

(Carolyn turns to leave)

APOLLO: Carolyn! I forbid you to go. I order you to stay.

CAROLYN: Is that the secret of your power over women, the thunderbolts you throw?

Unfortunately, but predictably, Apollo has a full on meltdown, summoning a storm to chase Carolyn down through the woods. It’s hard to say exactly what happened in this scene - we see her knocked to the ground screaming as Apollo’s giant face appears in the sky getting closer and closer. When she appears in the final scene with Scotty her face is bruised and her dress is torn. The final cut of the episode doesn’t make clear what might have happened but since a final cut scene reveals that Palamas is pregnant, which suggests she was raped as well as beaten... I don’t want to think about it. Luckily she survives his assault, since Kirk orders the Enterprise to fire on the temple, weakening Apollo and forcing him to attack the Enterprise. Carolyn gets back to the landing party and the temple is destroyed. Apollo, devastated, turns to Carolyn once more: “Carolyn, I loved you. I would have made a goddess of you. I've shown you my open heart. See what you've done to me.” He then disappears, leaving Carolyn sobbing not tears of grief, but relief.

You may see this episode a different way, but this is the only way I see it now. Why? Because years ago, I was Carolyn. For ten months I was trapped in a relationship in which I was not a person, but an object to be paraded around as a “girlfriend.” Everyone thought we were happy together, and He thought we were happy together but I wasn’t. I was scared of him. No, he was never violent with me, but he had a short temper and did get into fist fights with some other friends. He claimed he was a “Hellenic polytheist,” worshiping Apollo as his patron god. He regarded me as his damsel in distress to rescue, like Andromeda was saved by Perseus. I was separated from my friends (I could only spend time with him), and I was afraid to refuse him anything. It took months to build up the courage to end it. And even then, he didn’t give up trying to get us back together. It was a nightmare, and seven years on, I’m still working through the after-effects.

So, final takeaways? Carolyn found herself trapped in an abusive relationship with a god. It doesn’t matter that Apollo loved her - he took possession of her, isolated her from her shipmates, threatened them (and her) with violence and assaulted her when she tried to free herself of him. She was only able to free herself (and her shipmates) from him through great risk to herself. She had to decide whether to live in fear or free herself at the risk of death. I hope you never find yourself having to make that decision in your life. But if you have been there, or are there now, please keep remembering who you are, and that there is a way out. I know that’s odd sounding advice, but when you’re in a relationship like this you forget you’re a shadow of yourself. I’ll stop here with the advice because I’m not a professional and my experiences may not be the same as yours, so I’m leaving these links below:

https://www.thehotline.org/2017/02/16/supporting-someone-returning-to-abusive-relationship/

https://www.joinonelove.org/signs-unhealthy-relationship/

So that’s all I really have to say for this episode. It was challenging for me to revisit this episode and the personal memories associated with it, but I hope you found it interesting. Thanks for reading.

Next Episode: “Mirror, Mirror”

#star trek #star trek tos #star trek women #star trek the original series #women of star trek #who mourns for adonais #carolyn palamas #abusive relationship #apollo

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 050: Hunting Down Villains

Previously on BnHA: Deku and Gran Torino had a fierce fucking fight, during which Deku successfully utilized One for All LIKE A MAN, bouncing all over the damn place and increasing his body’s strength and speed. It was very badass, and he even managed to graze Torino’s cheek, although he was tired out afterward. Over at the Villain Bar, Stain rassled with Tomura and lightly stabbed him a bit to test his mettle, and apparently he was impressed enough to hold off on killing him for now. Then he headed back to Hosu, presumably to fuck up Iida’s shit ffffff.

Today on BnHA: Deku and Gran Torino hop on a bullet train trip to do some training in the city. Iida’s field training mentor Manual warns him not to try anything stupid like hunting down the guy who maimed his brother. Stain and Tomura arrive in Hosu. Tomura is annoyed and craving some mayhem, so he goes and summons THREE FUCKING NOUMUS to go wreck some shit. Deku and Gran’s train is attacked by one and Gran flies off to fight it. Iida spots Stain about to kill a dude in an alley and ignores everything Manual said and goes to confront him, announcing that he’s the hero who’s come to take down Stain in his brother’s stead: Ingenium.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 123 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

apparently we’re already on day 3 of the internship! we’re also just about a quarter of the way through the whole series now which is also cool!

this chapter is titled “Kill ‘Em Dead” so. that promises to be fun

looks like Deku has gotten his ass kicked again. but he wants to keep going!

“time for phase two... the actual internship!” oh yeah, that. I was wondering if he was ever going to actually do something hero-related. he hasn’t gotten much in the way of practical day-to-day experience thus far

off they go to hunt down some villains

bad villains, really bad villains, talkative villains, mysterious villains, fabulous villains, lame villains, surprise villains, tragic villains... there are a lot

Deku doesn’t think his heart is ready for this. even though he already fought like three of the worst ones out there

even Gran points that out, and says this won’t even come close to how bad that was. well, good

(ETA: this just goes to show that YOU CAN’T SEE THE FUCKING FUTURE, GRAN TORINO)

apparently there isn’t enough crime in this quiet neighborhood, so they’re taking a taxi and then the bullet train

there’s a whole map explaining where they are in Japan, and I’m ashamed that I don’t know enough about the geography of Japan for it to mean much to me. I do know that Shibuya, where they’re headed, is basically the Times Square of Tokyo, though

apparently they’ll be passing through Hosu on their way, which gets Deku thinking about Iida again

he’s thinking to himself that maybe he’ll get in touch with him later, so clearly something terrible is about to happen

“meanwhile in Hosu City” oh lord. bracing myself

the guy Iida’s interning with is apologizing that things aren’t more exciting. but Iida says it’s better that way

because this guy was not, in fact, born yesterday, he finally asks Iida if he’s after the Hero Killer. since it’s pretty obvious that this kid, who recently tied for third place in the sports festival and is the younger brother of a bigshot like Ingenium, probably had a few more exciting prospects than his little agency

he’s telling Iida not to be motivated by personal grudges. I’m sure Iida will take all this to heart and drop the whole thing immediately

actually that’s interesting to hear that they don’t have authority to make arrests. basically they just capture the bad guys and then let the cops and the courts deal with it from there

(ETA: although the way this rule is applied at the end of this arc is frankly mind-boggling to me. it should have been “thank you, children, for apprehending this serial killer who’s been terrorizing the country, and for saving Apache Chief’s life. we’re incredibly grateful to you and so very sorry that we fucked up so badly our own selves so as to make your actions necessary to begin with.” but nooooo, they get chewed out for having the fucking gall to take action in a life or death situation. and they’re told their actions can’t ever be made public or else they’d have to be punished since they broke! the! rules!! oh gosh. really the cops just didn’t want to deal with this on top of everything else and this was the laziest way they could sweep it under the rug.

sorry for that impromptu rant lol.)

Iida says he appreciates the warning. like I said,this gives me a ton of confidence that he’ll just go ahead and let this go

he is staring off into the sunset and clenching his fist

this kid got bitten by the vengeance bug real bad

now we’re back on top of that water tower where Kurogiri first met up with Stain

for whatever reason, Tomura has decided to tag along

“sacrifices” oh lord

Stain says the title of “hero” should be reserved for only the truly great, and that too many of them are just in it for the money and are undeserving

(ETA: Stain’s Annoying Rant Counter: 4)

now he’s jumping off, presumably to go kill some more of those money-grubbing heroes

as soon as he’s out of earshot Tomura immediately starts dissing him

(ETA: it’s amazing how much I sympathize with Tomura in this arc)

but Kuro says the other cities Stain has appeared in have actually seen drops in their crime rate, and that it seems to tie in with “an increase in hero awareness”

Tomura’s like, great, isn’t that the exact opposite of what we, the evil villains, are shooting for

and he wants Kuro to bring out Noumu so they can go on their own rampage

wtf. Noumu who’s supposed to be in police custody right now?

yeep

oh my god, fuck you and your s-less plurals you stupid misleading sneaky Japanese language

so these guys just have Noumus by the barrel, just lying in wait ready to be used at a moment’s notice, then??

THREE FUCKING NOUMUS

one of the Noumus has FOUR FUCKING EYES because WHY NOT

so basically these guys are their fucking Sentinels

back to Deku and Gran on the train!

it’s going to be nighttime by the time they make it to Shibuya. awesome. Gran is happy because there should be more crime to put a stop to now

oh my god Deku is waiting for Iida to reply to his text. omg. I’m having a “millennial reads a gen z manga for the first time” moment once again

FIRST OF ALL, I didn’t post the panel right before this, but basically Gran is like, “ON YOUR PHONE AGAIN?! KIDS THESE DAYS,” and OH MY GOD. GRAN IS LITERALLY NINETY PERCENT OF ALL BABY BOOMERS I’VE EVER MET

SECOND, DEKU HAS HIS READ RECEIPTS ON BECAUSE HE DOESN’T TRUST HIS FLAKY CELLULAR NETWORK

THIRD, HE HAS A PICTURE OF ALL MIGHT AS HIS OWN TEXT AVATAR, I AM FUCKING DONE. FOREVER!!

also, Iida read that shit and didn’t say a damn thing. that’s some shady fucking shit, Iida. up to no good

(ETA: I would also like to take this opportunity to complain about this translation, because in this version Deku has abbreviated the word “you” as “u” and ARE YOU KIDDING ME Deku would never)

oh shit they’re making an emergency stop

IS IT VILLAINS, IS THE TRAIN BEING ATTACKED

...okay yeah, I would say that is a yes.

yep. same

oh SHIT, it’s the Noumus. of fucking course they got those guys rather than Stain

so Deku immediately recognizes the familiar exposed-brains-and-vacant-expressions aesthetic, but before he can do anything, Gran shouts at him to stay put. and now he’s springing off into action

fucking shit. even All Might was only just barely able to beat the last Noumu, and that was with him using his full power and then some

oh shit the train hasn’t stopped yet!

shiiiiit

DAMMIT GRAN YOU SAID THIS WOULDN’T BE AS BAD AS LAST TIME

so now Deku, looking out at the city which is aflame, realizes that they’re still in Hosu, and...

and now we’re cutting back to Iida and his pal. and his pal is telling him to get a move on and that they need to head toward the scene, but all of Iida’s attention seems to have become focused on this random dark alley nearby, and now he’s taking off in that direction

(ETA: what a fucking coincidence though that Stain just happens to be in the alley right next to them though. like, come on)

and it’s Stain... he’s looking towards the explosions? presumably? and complaining to himself that “that idiot” is being too flashy

so the explosions were what was drawing the attention of Iida’s hero pal, but Iida himself probably saw this guy. and just ran over without thinking

I mean, Stain’s clearly about to end this guy though

the poor hero dude apparently can’t move. just like Kurogiri in the last chapter

and Iida’s appearing in the frame behind Stain now

oh godddd

!!

GHKHHKHFKH

LOOK AT THAT. GLASSES CAME FLYING RIGHT OFF. WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY EARLIER

now Stain is asking Iida who he is. does Stain not watch the U.A. Sports Festival broadcast along with the rest of the country

wow he’s telling Iida to leave

I left out “honorable villain” from my previous list of villain types, but this guy increasingly seems to fall under that category

(ETA: nope, already had him covered under “talkative villain”)

hoh boy Iida has his rage face on

but while he’s busy being dramatic, Stain cuts him off and points his katana right in his fucking face omg

he says he can tell from his eyes that he’s out for revenge. OH CAN YOU. YOU DON’T SAY. THOSE EYES, REALLY? THEY’RE SO FRIENDLY THOUGH

“watch your mouth or your age won’t be enough to save you”

I didn’t mention this before because I was too caught up in everything, but Stain must be the first ever person in history to look at Iida fucking Tenya and immediately think, “child”

maybe it’s the lack of glasses. if Iida still had his glasses on he’d have immediately been pegged as forty and would now be fucking dead

now Iida’s pissed off all over again because Stain doesn’t consider him a threat

look at this fucking monologue

IS HE GONNA TAKE HIS BRO’S NAME AFTER ALL OMG

HE TOOK HIS BRO’S NAME

and Stain is all “oh really? time to die then”

and the chapter ends

why are heroes so brave and stupid

BONUS:

oh cool, I think this is Iida’s hero pal and I was wondering what his name was

“Manual” omg. like manual as in training manual? instruction manual?

“favorite things: equilibrium.” favorite color: beige. favorite food: oatmeal. favorite musician: phil collins

I actually love him now and I hope we get to see him more and that he somehow manages not to become collateral damage during this arc

#bnha #boku no hero academia #makeste reads bnha #gran torino #midoriya izuku #stain (bnha) #shigaraki tomura #iida tenya #manual is the fucking best though #no pretensions to him whatsoever #just a simple guy living a simple hero life #favorite sport: golf #favorite word: the #favorite appliance: dishwasher

[unpretty]

i lack self-control and there’s other shit i should be doing so it’s time for the first installment of

Let’s Read: Kraven the Hunter

Kraven the Hunter's first appearance is The Amazing Spider-Man #15 from August 1964, written by Stan The Man himself, which is how you know it's gonna be batshit. Every comic writer has strengths and weaknesses, and in many cases you kind of have to overlook those weaknesses to really enjoy the strengths.

Stan's strength is also his weakness, which is that none of his plots ever make any goddamn sense and all his characters come off as weird assholes, and whenever you finish a comic you are left with a vague sense that literally everything that happened in that issue could have been avoided if they'd just stopped being weird assholes for five seconds.

Some writers attempt to remedy this later. Those writers are wrong.

Stan Lee still writes the newspaper comic strip version of Spider-Man, as far as I know, and for years I thought those strips were just nutso because Stan Lee was old and out of fucks to give. Then I read some old-ass comics and realized that Stan Lee is just Like That, and always has been.

He also writes credits like these.

If there is a space where a man can reasonably fit more words, Stan Lee will find more words to put there.

Early Spider-Man comics feature a lot of weird old-timey bank-robbing gangsters? Like, straight-up Dillinger Gang motherfuckers. So anyway the issue starts with some old-timey gangsters, bla bla bla, the Chameleon bla, curse you Spider-Man, etc. We don't care about that part. What we care about is that the Chameleon (who is also, to be clear, kind of an old-timey gangster) decides he's gonna call in Kraven the Hunter to solve his Spider-Man problem.

Here are the first things we learn about Kraven, in order:

He's been in Africa, where he defeats terrorbeasts single-handed and with his bare hands.

He's a fucking hunk.

"You know what the ladies love? Rectangles. I’m gonna build a man entirely out of rectangles. For the ladies." - Ditko, presumably.

I know that what the creators were thinking was, 'let's give him an outfit like a circus strongman or something, to emphasize that he's tough', but what this implies is that Kraven the Hunter thinks this outfit is a good idea. He deliberately chose to dress like he got his wardrobe at the circus. Maybe he did! We don't know. Anyway never trust anyone who tries to take away Kraven's ballet flats and leggings because they are just as Iconic™ as his lion vest and I will not hear otherwise.

Okay but anyway the second thing that happens, after we learn all about what a fine cut of beefcake Kraven is, is that all of the animals Kraven has brought with him to New York have escaped.

This is not the only time this happens, presumably because Kraven has no interest in catching animals that aren't wily enough to try to escape en masse.

Since Peter Parker is on location to snap some sweet pics of Kraven's pecs, he makes an attempt to save the day, only to get beaten to the punch by Kraven before he can get his fucking pants on.

Just casually flinging some fucking cobras into a bucket, nbd. Hey, you know that weird fucking belt Kraven always wears?

Belt tusks. He wears fucking tusks full of drugs on his belt, in a constant outward stabbing position. Anyone who tries to remove Kraven's belt without Kraven's consent is getting knocked the fuck out. I mean he also has some Vulcan nerve punch shit going on, but more importantly, belt tusks.

Peter... please. You are a child. You are in high school. Control yourself.

I'd like to note that this was in no way part of any kind of 'fucking with Spider-Man' plan. There is no indication that Kraven even thought Spider-Man would be watching. This is just How He Do. However, Spider-Man was watching, and then had to leave to change into different pants again, meaning he failed to do either his hero job or his day job.

Peter. You should have had your camera out to take pictures of Spider-Man anyway.

Peter.

Did it seriously not occur to you to snap a single fucking picture while you were watching Kraven do sweet ape tricks.

Anyway here is where things really start to go sideways.

Now, personally, if I saw a dude save a bunch of people from rampaging gorillas, then refer to me as 'more beast than human' and 'the most dangerous game', I might consider taking him aside and letting him know that I am actually an orphaned teenager whose only family is an old woman with heart problems and also I get picked on in school. I mean, not to give too much credit to a guy who says 'man is the most dangerous game' without irony, but I'm pretty sure his stated goal of Kicking Ass is not furthered by beating up nerdy children. You don't even have to tell him your secret identity! Just show him your chin and explain how long you've been trying to grow a beard! This whole fight could be avoided and Kraven would go back to the Chameleon to laugh at him about how he got his ass kicked by a baby.

But this is Peter Parker, so instead of that he just regrets getting out of bed and considers building a nest in his bedroom and never leaving.

Incidentally, the b-plot of this comic is that everyone thinks Flash’s girlfriend Liz wants to bang Peter. His crush Betty is mad, Flash is mad, Peter does a lot of moping about how life is uniquely difficult for him and only him. His boss is mad at him, just because he didn't do his one and only job! A hot girl he likes is jealous of the other hot girl who likes him! It's hard and no one understands. I don't know if Stan Lee intended for this to be aspirational, or relatable content, but I'm kind of into it.

Either way, 'teenage boy would rather mope and then fight a grown man to the death than admit he's not worth fighting' is a pretty realistic beginning to a blood feud.

IT'S THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF A BULL ELEPHANT and also Kraven mentioning his total willingness to just drink weird shit in the jungle if he thinks it will help him punch better. Based on existing Marvel canon, I think it's totally possible that he drank something made from some kind of weird super soldier plant that exists in their universe. But also, if he had not specified Africa, I would probably assume it was coca. He seems like a guy who'd do a lot of coke and punch an elephant.

Also I'm pretty sure the Chameleon just gave him a bunch of articles from the Daily Bugle as research. SPIDER-MAN TERRORIZES CITY, SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE US FROM THIS MENACE, read headlines. "Yeah okay," says Kraven. FAMOUS HUNTER GOES NUTS AND TRIES TO KILL SPIDER-MAN FOR SOME REASON read headlines later this week. "What the fuck," Kraven will say.

Oh my god the best fucking part of this fight is that Kraven does one of his nerve punches and disables Spider-Man's arm, causing him to have to flail his limp arm around like a dipshit.

GOD I know this isn't what's happening here but I just really want Kraven to be trying to have a serious fucking fight with what he assumes is a grown man with the unholy powers of a spider, only to have a teenager furiously windmill his limp arms at him. Where is the Spider-Man comic we deserve about this.

Now, plenty of comic book villains are hypocrites, but rarely do you meet one as good at self-justification as Kraven. Bare hands! Mano-a-mano! Except, Spider-Man has spider powers, and that's cheating. Not like Kraven, with his drug powers. He got those fairly. But Spider-Man is cheating by having super strength, and the only way to level the playing field... is more drugs.

I love how consistently they use the word 'potion'.

"Look, this is totally fair. I, too, am on drugs." - Kraven, probably.

Incidentally, Kraven has from day one had this problem of being really weirdly sexually menacing. Bisexually menacing, even. Like, later comics writers absolutely used Kraven as a vehicle for their weird fetishes, but this has been a problem with Kraven from the start.

Kraven please listen to yourself.

GUYS THIS IS ALSO THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF KRAVEN'S NOT-BONG

YEAH THAT'S DEFINITELY A CARAFE, FOR THE TEA HE'S DRINKING. ABSOLUTELY IN NO WAY GIVING OFF MAJOR HIGH-VIBES. SITTING ON A DESK. Why is he sitting on a desk? Why is his leg like that? Why is he holding his cup like that? Is that bong on another, different table? Who arranged the furniture in this evil lair and why didn’t they put in more chairs?

Meanwhile Aunt May is trying to hook Peter up with her neighbor Mrs. Watson's niece. THIS IS THE FIRST MENTION OF THE ELUSIVE MISS WATSON. Right after Kraven's not-bong. Mary Jane is not named in this comic, she’s just the niece. Peter's lady problems with pretty girls being thrown at him continue apace, and he is as annoyed about it as ever. You know what else is annoying?

KRAVEN IN JJ'S OFFICE PROMISING TO KICK SPIDEY'S ASS

From Kraven's perspective this has to be just, the weirdest shit. OUR CITY IS BEING MENACED BY A MONSTER MAN, read headlines, while JJ's like "okay but don't break the law while freeing us from this reign of terror".

Kraven's clever plan is to let Chameleon pretend to be him, so that he can suckerpunch Spider-Man while Spider-Man tries to suckerpunch him. It's flawless.

"God, I'm awesome." - Kraven, literally just now in that panel.

Thanks, Stan. Every single word in these panels is very necessary. Thank you.

EVERY TIME I SEE THIS FUCKING PANEL I LAUGH MYSELF TO TEARS. KRAVEN LITERALLY MADE CHAMELEON PLAY THE FUCKING BONGOS TO DISORIENT THE ENEMY. THE ENEMY IS SPIDER-MAN SO IT FUCKING WORKED. PETER HAS NEVER BEEN SO DISORIENTED AS HE IS NOW, HEARING THESE SICK BEATS. WHY IS HE RUNNING LIKE A CONFUSED DOG THAT GOT OUT OF THE YARD. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FUCKING PANEL IS GOLD AND I WANT IT FRAMED.

I have turned off my caps-lock for readability but please know that there is a caps-lock on in my heart. My heart, which also knows that this is fetish gear. Kraven just put Spider-Man in magnetic manacles with bells in them.

I'm like 99% sure that at some point Kraven figures out that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, and when he does, I wonder if he ever does the math and figures out he put a high schooler in weird bell manacles.

GOD.

Anyway Spider-Man eventually figures out that HE CAN WEB UP THE BELLS. IT TAKES HIM LIKE THREE PAGES. HE'S JUST JINGLE JANGLING ALL OVER THE FUCKING PARK FOR, IDK, TWENTY MINUTES PROBABLY BEFORE HE REMEMBERS HE'S GOT WEBS. FUCK. That's when Kraven retreats because discretion is the better part of valor and you gotta know when to fold 'em.

What the fuck are spider beams.

God. What the fuck, Peter. Kraven's springs forth from the shadows with an action-packed punch and Spidey's just like HEY. CUT THAT OUT. EXCUSE YOU.

Why are you reinforcing the idea that you are an inhuman monster you fool.

He could have said... literally anything else. Anything. I mean, he's Spider-Man, so insulting his villains is kind of his whole deal, but like?? YOU ALREADY WON. YOU WATCHED THIS MAN SAVE A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING YOUR BOSS AND LOVE INTERESTS. HIS ONLY CRIME IS TRYING TO KICK YOUR ASS, A CRIME OF WHICH THE ENTIRE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND FOOTBALL TEAM ARE ALSO GUILTY.

... also conspiring with the Chameleon. But like? Chameleon is implied to be a terrifying crime boss. You didn't even ask why he was conspiring with the Chameleon. You just assumed.

There's kind of this thing, which starts basically in this panel but which continues onward forever, where Kraven and Spider-Man seem to bring out the worst in each other? And part of it is that Kraven thinks Spider-Man is the Most Dangerous Game for some reason (possibly arachnophobia), but I'm pretty sure it's also that instead of just besting him in honorable combat like men, Peter insists on completely humiliating and mocking Kraven every single goddamn time. Starting with this one. Kraven kind of has a huge ego?? Being tough is his whole deal??? Peter said the exact wrong thing if he didn't want Kraven to come back for vengeance??????

But also Peter Parker is a teenage boy and Kraven is a grown-ass man who wants to hunt him for sport, and that's pretty goddamn terrifying. Covering fear with mockery is pretty par for the course. It just happens to be the worst possible thing to do to a man with a massive ego built around kicking ass who assumes you are a grown man who isn't human. Is all. It's a comedy of fucking errors, is what it is.

Anyway JJ rewards Peter for his pictures of the eventual arrest with a chocolate bar (WHICH HE KEEPS IN A FUCKING SAFE), and Betty apologizes for being so mean about assuming that Peter would want to go out with another girl, and proceeds to ask him out. Which he turns down, because he has a secret date with Mary Jane. But Betty foolishly assumes he has a secret date with Liz! Which is totally different from his actual secret date, which he is only going on to please his Aunt May. Life is hard.

Meanwhile KRAVEN IS BEING DEPORTED

to... South America? Apparently they just asked where they wanted to go, and then sent them there. Instead of actually sending them back to Russia. Which is a neat thing I guess the cops do sometimes instead of arresting people.

Hey, here's a question: WHY IS PETER RELAXING BY GOING TO THE FUCKING DOCKS IN COSTUME

So anyway, that's Kraven's first appearance. He shows up in New York to deliver some animals, saves everyone at the docks from gorillas armed with cobras, tries to rid the city of the webbed menace, and ultimately gets deported. It's a weird week for Kraven.

(Next Time, or, The Mess So Far)

#original #kraven readalong #kraven the hunter

[esonetwork]

Timestamp #205: The Next Doctor

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/timestamp-205-the-next-doctor/

Timestamp #205: The Next Doctor

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (Christmas Special, 2008)

  The Doctor who wasn’t really the Doctor.

The TARDIS materializes under an archway in a snowstorm. The Doctor strides out with a smile on his face, happy to be in London for Christmas in 1851. His joy is interrupted by someone screaming “Doctor!”, and he finds a growling creature behind a door wearing a copper Cyberman mask, a frantic woman, and a man claiming to be the Doctor.

This other Doctor, armed with his own “sonic” screwdriver, tries to lasso the primitive assimilation as it runs up a wall. The Tenth Doctor grabs on and the pair finds themselves dragged along until companion Rosita cuts the rope with a hatchet. The Doctors laugh about their adventure while Rosita chides them. While she goes to check the traps, the Doctor rambles along, mistakenly believing that the other Doctor is a future regeneration. He soon figures out that the other Doctor has memory loss, something that happened just before the Cybermen arrived.

The Tenth Doctor adopts the John Smith alias as the other Doctor rushes off to a funeral.

The Cybermen, led by a new Cyber Leader and a human ally named Mercy Hartigan, review the Cybershade’s surveillance footage while they prepare for the rise of the Cyber King. These Cybermen are the Pete’s World variety, somehow left behind when the worlds merged.

The other Doctor and Rosita observe the funeral procession of Reverend Aubrey Fairchild before springing into action. Rosita heads to the “TARDIS” while the other Doctor investigates the house of the deceased. He’s joined by Mr. Smith, and he explains that the Cybermen presence is linked to a number of murders and child abductions across the city. The rash of crimes started with the death of a man named Jackson Lake and have led to the reverend’s demise by some advanced form of electrocution.

The pair find a pair of infostamps, one of which contains the history of London from 1066 to 1851. The other Doctor has a flashback to his “regeneration” and memory of another infostamp. They also uncover a Cyberman home invasion and have to run. While they flee, John Smith reveals himself as the real Doctor and the other Doctor bypasses the safeties on the infostamp to overload the pursuing Cybermen.

The other Doctor is troubled by the happenings. The Doctor promises to help him.

At the reverend’s graveside service, Miss Hartigan crashes the proceedings with an admission: The reverend had to die in order to get the mourners in one place. She dispatches the Cybermen to attack them, sparing only a few as the rest are deleted.

The Doctors return to Rosita’s side at their home base. Jackson Lake’s belongings are stacked by the wall, kept as evidence of his disappearance, and the Tenth Doctor finds another infostamp in the luggage. The other Doctor shows off his TARDIS – a gas balloon, fueled by the local gasworks for a substantial fee, long-form called Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style – and dreams of flying it one day.

The Doctor now knows that this man is not him. He shares the story of the Battle of Canary Wharf, presuming that some of the survivors fell through time and landed in London, 1851. He draws the parallels between Jackson Lake and the man’s memories, even showing him the JL inscription on his fob watch. The man, truly Jackson Lake, was flashed with an infostamp that contained all of the Cybermen’s information the Doctor, thus side-booting his brain with an alternate identity.

There’s still one missing piece that Jackson can’t remember, but the Doctor helps him remember based on the amount of luggage on hand: Jackson remembers how the Cybermen invaded his home and killed his wife Caroline. His fugue state ends as he breaks down in tears.

While Jackson Lake mourns and is consoled by Rosita, the infostamps start to chime. The Doctor finds a whole cache of them and realizes that the Cybermen are on the move. The Doctor rushes out, and Jackson sends Rosita after him.

Miss Hartigan fits her survivors with Cyberman EarPods and uses them to fulfill tasks for her. The Doctor and Rosita find the survivors marching children from their workhouses and orphanages to the River Thames. The procession is guarded by Cybershades and Cybermen, and it ends at the court of the Cyber King.

The Doctor and Rosita are ambushed by Miss Hartigan and the Cybermen. The Cybermen don’t recognize the Doctor because of the corrupted data on the infostamp, but they repair it. The Cybermen march on the Doctor and Rosita, but are stopped by Jackson Lake and his cache of infostamps. The trio run (after Rosita sucker punches Miss Hartigan!) and Jackson reveals that his cellar may be a gateway into their operations.

Miss Hartigan, in it for her own social liberation from this patriarchal society, takes control of the child workforce after killing the EarPod-clad men. Meanwhile, the Doctor’s trio finds a Dimension Vault in Jackson’s cellar. The Cybermen used the Dalek technology to travel through time and escape the Void. They follow the tunnels to the enemy base as the Cybermen attempt to convert Miss Hartigan and provide her liberation (from her anger and rage) as their Cyber King.

Unfortunately for them, she’s too strongwilled for conversion. Her mind is too powerful to control, and she uses her new powers to obliterate the Cyber Leader when it tries to intervene.

The conversion has also moved up the CyberKing’s timetable. Since they’re no longer needed, the Cybermen try to delete the children, but the Doctor and Rosita free them instead. While the children run, Jackson remembers that the Cybermen had also abducted his son, and he finds the boy among the workforce. Unfortunately, Frederic is trapped on a ledge, so the Doctor swashbuckles his way up and rescues him.

As the base ignites around them, the Doctor, Jackson, and Frederic run. Outside, a giant mechanical CyberKing rises from the Thames with Miss Hartigan on the throne, ready to convert millions into Cybermen as it rampages through London. Jackson, Frederic, and Rosita rush to safety.

The Doctor grabs the Dimension Vault and uses the “TARDIS” balloon to look the CyberKing in the eye. He offers Miss Hartigan one last chance at mercy, extending the opportunity for the Cybermen to travel using the Dimension Vault to a place where they can live in peace. She rejects him, so he uses the cache of infostamps against her. The assault breaks the cyber connection and leaves her mind open to see what she’s become. The shock and terror of her reasserted humanity destroys all of the Cybermen, leaving the giant automaton to stumble about until the Doctor uses the Dimension Vault to transport it into the time vortex where it will be disintegrated.

Jackson Lake addresses the onlookers and rallies them to cheer for the Doctor as he drifts above the city. Later on, they discuss the Lake family’s future, including Rosita as Frederic’s new nursemaid. The Doctor offers Jackson a look inside the real TARDIS. Jackson is amazed by the sight, but Jackson has had quite enough adventure. He asks the Doctor about his companions, to which the Doctor turns maudlin.

Jackson offers the Doctor a Christmas dinner in honor of all those that they’ve lost. The Doctor accepts.

  I’m of two minds about this story. The Jackson Lake mystery is simultaneously amusing and tragic, adding a compelling throughline to the Cyberman invasion plot. The flip side is that the climax of the Cyberman story – the Pacific Rim-style CyberKing – is utterly ridiculous.

It’s a shame, really, because this story balloon really flies along until the cyber-mech lets the air right out.

There are some good but minor things that help tie things off:

The sequence with the boy at the beginning is a direct reference to A Christmas Carol;

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen makes yet another appearance as a fairly generic Christmas song, continuing from The Dæmons, The Curse of Peladon, The Unquiet Dead, The Christmas Invasion, and The Runaway Bride;

There are direct ties to the previous nine incarnations of the Doctor, once again breaking any claims that “nu-Who” doesn’t connect to the classic era;

The scene where the Cybermen “identify” the Doctor is an homage to Earthshock;

The Cybermen in the snow reflects The Tenth Planet;

Li H’sen Chang’s show poster appears as an easter egg in the background.

The infostamp memory files of the Doctor’s lives come from The Time Meddler, The Ice Warriors, Terror of the Autons, City of Death, Arc of Infinity, The Mysterious Planet, Time and the Rani, Doctor Who (The Movie), The Parting of the Ways, and The Family of Blood, none of which are actuallyCyberman stories. The War Doctor does not appear in the library files, which makes sense from a production standpoint, but doesn’t quite jive from an internal chronological standpoint.

Finally, I also love the character development as the Tenth Doctor considers that his time may be coming to an end. He’s excited to think that he won’t be the last of his regenerations, and his joy is infectious.

I just wish that the cyber jaeger hadn’t been a thing.

  Rating: 4/5 – “Would you care for a jelly baby?”

    Keeping in mind that the Timestamps Project is following the franchise chronologically at this point…

UP NEXT – Sarah Jane Adventures: From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

#Doctor Who #Tenth Doctor #Timestamps Project

[gyrlversion]

The Jewish boy assassin who humiliated Hitler

Herschel Grynszpan, 17, murdered German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, 29, at the German embassy in Paris in 1938

Trembling uncontrollably with the shock of what he had just done, Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager, dropped the smoking revolver he’d bought a little over an hour earlier on that morning in November 1938.

It now lay on the floor of the German embassy in Paris, the price tag of 210 francs still tied on with red string.

‘I don’t intend to escape,’ he told those who grabbed him. As he was led away, he shouted out again and again his defiance: ‘Sales boches!’ (Filthy krauts!).

A few yards away, the victim of the shooting, a young diplomat of the Third Reich by the name of Ernst vom Rath, clutched at his stomach as blood poured from a shattered spleen and a pierced pancreas. 

He was alive but mortally wounded. Two days later, after an emergency operation failed to save him, he died.

His assassination was the pivotal point in a remarkable and little known story of one individual with the temerity to pit himself against the full might of the Nazi regime.

A new book tells how, against the odds and in the face of humiliating defeat, he won a sort of victory for which he’s rarely been recognised.

Brave, self-sacrificing Herschel Grynszpan was the pawn who was exploited by Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels as a tool in their persecution of the Jews. 

But then, in his own small way, he turned the tables and check-mated them.

His was a one-man crusade — though, in truth, he could barely be called a man. The self-confessed killer was no more than a kid, really; just 17 and baby-faced, as a photo taken at the scene of the crime shows, hunched in an over-sized trench coat and with the surly stare of an adolescent lost in his own thoughts.

Grynszpan told police that he murdered vom Rath because he had picked him up at the Place de la Republique and paid him for sex in a hotel room

A thin and frail youngster, he had come to France on his own two years earlier, in 1936, sent away from Germany by his parents who could see all too clearly the foul, anti-Semitic way the wind was blowing under the Nazis.

Discriminated against and abused, adult Jews could only leave if they surrendered all their possessions, but children were allowed to go without penalty, so the boy was shipped off to his Uncle Abraham in Paris.

But France was not the haven he wished for. He could not get a visa to enter and had to slip across the border as an illegal immigrant.

His application for a residence permit was turned down as the French government — unwilling to annoy its powerful neighbour and itself riddled with anti-Semitism — cracked down on Jewish refugees like him. He couldn’t get a job and had to live on a meagre allowance from his uncle.

A brooding type, with a hair-trigger temper and a tendency to depression, his mind focused, not unreasonably, on the increasing persecution of what, with tears welling from his eyes, he called ‘my people’.

Grynszpan’s murder therefore became a crime of passion rather than one with political motivations and he avoided a show trial 

‘We have a right to exist on this Earth,’ he insisted, yet ‘if you are a Jew, you . . . are hunted like an animal.’

With the French police on his tail in order to deport him, he went into hiding, locking himself into a small room in his uncle’s flat and always on alert for a knock on the door and a demand to see his papers.

News came from Germany that his family — who originated from Poland — had been stripped of all possessions and brutally expelled. 

With 18,000 others, the Gestapo had rounded them up, transported them by train to the Polish border and dumped them in no-man’s-land without money or food.

Grynszpan went mad when he heard.

‘The constantly gnawing idea of the suffering of my race obsessed me,’ he said later. He was determined to hit back in a very public way that would wake up the world to what was being done to Jews.

‘Germany’s conduct provoked me beyond measure. I wanted to create a stir.’

He’d never fired a gun before and the man behind the counter in the shop had to show him how to load and fire it. From there, he made his way on the metro to the German embassy down by the River Seine. 

He told the receptionist he had important documents to deliver to one of the senior diplomats and was shown into an office where vom Rath was sitting in a leather chair.

‘You’re a filthy kraut!’ he shouted at the top of his voice as he pulled out the pistol from and fired five shots. Then he waited, unresisting, for his chance to tell the world why he had done it and thereby expose the evils of the Nazis.

Brave, foolhardy, naive, self-sacrificial, suicidal: his action was all those things. But Grynszpan had made his point.

Except that it instantly backfired. He got publicity all right — but not the sort he wanted.

In Germany, Hitler was planning a nationwide terror attack on Jewish properties, to be disguised as a spontaneous outpouring of disgust at ‘World Jewry’ by the people. The assassination in Paris was just the pretext that he and Goebbels were looking for.

A trial date was set in May 1942, but as the time approached, the Nazi hierarchy grew increasingly uneasy. Goebbels conveyed his ‘grave doubts’ to a rattled Hitler, who had his closest henchman, Martin Bormann, announce that the trial was postponed to an indefinite date and Grynszpan had his victory

Herschel Grynszpan would be their unwitting scapegoat

The expert Nazi propaganda machine went into top gear, hailing vom Rath as a hero and a martyr for the cause (which was a lie, as privately he likened Hitler to the Antichrist). His assassination by a Jew had to be avenged.

‘The shots in Paris will not go unpunished,’ screamed Nazi party newspapers.

News of vom Rath’s death on November 9 unleashed what became known as Kristallnacht — the night of broken glass. Hitler’s brown-shirted thugs went on the rampage, ransacking and burning down thousands of Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues and randomly beating Jews. 

As the state-sponsored terror spread around the country, hundreds of Jews were killed and injured; 30,000 were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

When, in his prison cell in Paris, he heard what had been done in retaliation for his crime, a grieving Grynszpan was devastated.

‘The thought that I caused this catastrophe brings me closer to madness,’ he wrote in despair to a friend.

Vom Rath’s state funeral — attended by the Fuhrer and broadcast live on the radio — wound up German indignation to breaking point, as Hitler and Goebbels had intended.

And perhaps, they plotted, there was an even greater propaganda victory to be won.

Nazi investigators set about trying to assemble evidence that he had not acted alone as he claimed, but was part of a Jewish-led world conspiracy.

Once proven, this, they reasoned, could be presented as the Jews declaring war on Germany and justification for the ultimate sanction being planned for them all: extermination in the death camps.

Meanwhile, Grynszpan faced a murder trial and the possibility of the guillotine. Frightened as any 17-year-old would be, he was still defiant and welcomed his day in court to have his say and damn the Nazis to the world.

That day never came.

Grynszpan languished in prison for 20 months, during which time the outbreak of war in 1939 pitched France against Germany.

In Berlin, he had not been forgotten. He still topped the wanted list, and a special Gestapo unit eventually tracked him down to a prison in Toulouse, where he’d been evacuated by the French.

He expected instant execution — a bullet or a noose. Instead, he was flown to Berlin and a basement cell in the Gestapo’s headquarters, where he was surprisingly well-treated. Not a hair on his head was to be harmed, for now.

He was to be the star of a show trial which would demonstrate that the Jews were the aggressors, not the Nazis, who had acted simply to protect themselves. This, Hitler was assured, would ‘strangle’ any foreign compassion for the Jews and justify his policy of exterminating them.

The intention, says author Stephen Koch, was that the Final Solution — the Holocaust, as it came to be known — would be legitimised.

When he realised he was being kept alive solely with some major propaganda purpose in mind, at the end of which he would likely be publicly hanged or beheaded, Grynszpan dedicated himself to preventing that show trial from happening.

At 17, he had wanted to make the whole world aware of his plight: now, he sought invisibility.

The tactic he adopted was one that had been suggested to him during his incarceration in Paris.

To get off the murder charge, his clever French lawyer told him, he should claim that his victim, the handsome but unmarried vom Rath, was a cruising homosexual who had picked him up on the streets and corrupted him. That’s why he had shot him — a crime passionel not a political one.

The very idea apparently baffled Grynszpan, an innocent in sexual matters. It had to be explained to him what a homosexual was (and did), and when he was told he laughed at what he saw as the absurdity of it.

He rejected the idea at the time, but now, two years down the line and in German custody, it seemed to him to be an excellent story to tell in court and cause maximum embarrassment to the Nazis.

The martyr and hero vom Rath exposed as a pervert? That would undermine any show trial and might even prevent a trial taking place at all.

So this was the new and tacky story he spun to his interrogators; that the 29-year-old diplomat had picked him up in the Place de la Republique and taken him to a seedy hotel for sex. Money had changed hands.

Afterwards, Grynszpan was ashamed and disgusted and wanted to end the liaison but he was constantly stalked until, out of exasperation, he went to the embassy to confront vom Rath.

There, tempers flared, insults were exchanged and he took out his revolver and shot him. In a further elaboration later, he said vom Rath had promised that, in return for sex, he would protect Grynszpan’s family in Germany, but then they were deported. That was another reason he killed him.

It was all a lie — and the young man’s Nazi interrogators knew it.

When told what his defence would be in open court, Goebbels railed at the story as absurd and insolent and, in his twisted logic, typical of squalid Jewish duplicity.

But dare he risk letting the story be aired in public and leaving a doubt in people’s minds? Allegations of vom Rath’s homosexuality would doubtless hog international headlines and, worse, muddy the waters of a Jewish plot.

One solution was for the court to go into secret session, thereby excluding the Press, to hear Grynszpan’s testimony. But then the whole idea of convincing foreign observers that his actions were part of a Jewish world conspiracy would be compromised.

A trial date was set in May 1942, but as the time approached, the Nazi hierarchy grew increasingly uneasy. Goebbels conveyed his ‘grave doubts’ to a rattled Hitler, who had his closest henchman, Martin Bormann, announce that the trial was postponed to an indefinite date.

Herschel Grynszpan had his victory. ‘The manoeuvres of one insignificant but clever Jewish boy’, as Koch puts it, had stymied the Third Reich.

He’d been used as an excuse for Kristallnacht but managed to avoid being presented to the world as a justification for an even bigger crime: the wholesale slaughter of millions of his people.

The callow youth — now a man in his 20s — probably never realised he’d won the duel of wits with his Nazi captors. All he was told was that the trial had been postponed but he had every reason to think it would eventually happen.

His precise fate is unknown. The best guess is that he was put to death in the autumn of 1942, probably in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His Gestapo minders came there to get him, ostensibly to shift him to another camp.

But there was speculation among the other inmates that this was a fake transport and he was instead driven to Sachsenhausen’s execution block and disposed of.

His name had made headlines for the slaying at the German embassy, his face staring out from front pages around the world. He died in obscurity — but the fact remains that he outsmarted them all.

Hitler’s Scapegoat by Stephen Koch is published by Amberley, £20. © Stephen Koch 2019. 

To order a copy for £16 (offer valid to 23/3/19; p&p free), visit www.mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640. 

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[republicstandard]

Anglican Bishops who Support Shamima Begum have no Vocabulary for Evil

Remember the “two drifters off to see the world” as in Audrey Hepburn’s ‘Moon River’ song from Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, both 29, quit their jobs and bicycled off to see the world. Suckered by the Goldilocks fairy tale of liberalism they rejected the narrative of evil.

While pumping the pedals, Austin paused to pontificate on his blog:

“People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil. People are ax murderers and monsters and worse.” Austin trumpeted how “no greater revelation has come from our journey” than the discovery that “humans are kind.”

“Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own,” he sermonized. Soon after, in the Shangri-La of Tajikistan, he and his flower-power companions met the wicked witch from the Brothers Grimm. Two ISIS terrorists, overflowing with the milk of global goodness, rammed them with a car, then stabbed and shot them.

As with our two drifters imagining the world to be like the Garden of Eden before the Fall, evil is a verboten word for the well-meaning but notably naïve ninnies who roost in the House of Bishops. Not a whisper of condemnation has passed their episcopal lips when horrendous evils are being perpetrated against the most vulnerable in this land.

Name one bishop who has stood against the genocide of abortion, which at the current figure of 9 million far surpasses the Holocaust? Has a single bishop said a word against the industrial-scale rape of white underage and underclass girls by Pakistani Muslim men? Could you dream of a woman bishop flying like Mary Poppins to help girls who have their clitoris chopped off? While Bishop Philip Mounstephen of Truro scribbles his Independent Review of globally persecuted Christians, is he independent enough to raise a stink over a local black man who was arrested in London for merely preaching the Bible?

The silence of our shepherds on the slaughter of our most vulnerable lambs reminds me of John Cage’s kooky composition 4’33” in three movements. It is four minutes and thirty-three seconds long and is written for any instrument or combination of instruments. The score instructs the performer(s) not to play their instrument(s) during the entire duration of the piece!

But this symphony of silence suddenly erupts into a fortissimo of ear-shattering outrage when Britain refuses to open its doors to the traitorous ISIS jihadi-bride Shamima Begum. Now, its Mahler gone mad with the bishops banging cymbals, blowing trombones and jumping up and down like giant tadpoles on the timpani.

Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, leads the rampage of pious pachyderms calling the government’s intention to strip Shamima Begum of her citizenship “morally reprehensible.” Wearing his bleeding heart on his media sleeve, Cottrell pleads for Begum’s “child and its future.” Cottrell admits ISIS has “caused havoc, horror and misery” but “we do not help the situation by failing to act with decency ourselves.”

Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, drones on about the “Christian responsibility to protect the vulnerable.” He can’t make up his mind if Begum is “still a vulnerable person” but her baby qualifies for the status, he says. Bishop of Chester, Peter Foster, thumps his pulpit summoning the government to amend the law.

Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester, who knotted himself more intricately than a Turkish rug by refusing to acknowledge Bishop George Bell was “innocent” of child abuse, is fretting over how Begum’s banishment will affect “community relations.” He’s losing sleep over “the most vulnerable person in this whole situation” as the baby will have to face “lifelong” consequences.

Cottrell quotes Psalm 85: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” He might want to play Bible Bingo and reverse the numbers to Psalm 58:

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear. O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!"

In a twist of delectable irony, our Muslim Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Begum’s Muslim neighbors in Bethnal Green, Muslim leaders and Shamima’s own father all disagree with the bishops. Ahmed Ali, the father, said he was shocked by his daughter’s lack of remorse and “she doesn’t deserve to come back to Britain.” He’s now done a flip-flop, perhaps intending to convert to woolly Anglicanism?

Meanwhile, more home-grown jihadis are pounding at the doors of welfare state Britain. Jack Letts, aka ‘Jihadi Jack’ wants to return to England because he misses pasties, Dr. Who and his mum. Maybe Justin Welby should plead his case, eh?

If only our bishops would stop fighting the bogeymen of progressive mythology like global warming and transphobia and Islamophobia and the gender pay gap and would put down their copies of the Guardian and pick up a copy of Islamic State’s magazine Rumiyah, they might just wake from their long slumber like Rip Van Winkle and recognise that a revolution has changed the face of Britain.

Rumiyah follows Dabiq, ISIS’s earlier publication. I’ve got a folder on my Mac with every single issue of both publications if Lambeth Palace is interested. Rumiyah is published in English, German, French, Russian, Turkish, Uyghur, Pashto, and Bahasa Indonesian, and is targeted at an international audience.

Rumiyah is the Arabic name for Rome. It symbolizes Islamic State’s conquest of the “Roman Empire” (i.e., the Christian West). Dabiq, as I explained in a previous column, is a town in northern Syria, where the great battle between the forces of good and evil will be fought, according to Islamic prophecy.

Although the narrative of radicalization is consistent, we see a stunning shift in emphasis from Dabiq to Rumiyah. While Dabiq calls jihadis to emigrate to the Caliphate, in Rumiyah the warriors of Islam are asked to return and carry out terrorist attacks in the home country.

The series ‘Just Terror Tactics,’ which details exact procedures for attacks series appears in five of 13 of Rumiyah issues and lists places like parades, shopping malls, and trade fairs as ideal for terrorism. Rumiyah suggests that individuals use low-cost assault tactics with Molotov Cocktails, knife attacks, or driving cars or trucks into crowds. Articles citing religious texts encourage jihadis to kill all Christians and apostates of Islam.

“Journeying to the Caliphate is no longer the primary objective of radicalization. In Rumiyah, young people are being asked to relocate the battle to their home countries, which we associate with the territorial losses of the IS,” concludes a study of the above articles in the Journal of Deradicalization. This is mainly because ISIS is losing large areas of its former territories in Iraq and Syria and showing signs of structural disintegration.

Is this why Shamima Begum, Jihadi Jack and hundreds of others are seeking return to Britain, France, the US, and other Western countries? The evidence will not turn the bishops from virtue signaling and inadvertently abetting the jihadis of Islamic State. Even if they did, they would have no language to address the phenomenon of evil that is unparalleled in recent times.

Ruth Grant describes the paradoxical situation we face in the postmodern West:

“A gulf has opened up in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources available for coping with it. Never before have images of horror been so widely disseminated and so appalling—from organized death camps to children starving in famines that might have been averted... The repertoire of evil has never been richer. Yet never have our responses been so weak.”

The problem is that our progressive bishops have fallen prey to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s pivotal argument that human beings are born good and evil is the product of systemic forces. That’s why they speak of jihadi-brides as vulnerable victims who were groomed. They are closet Pelagians who believe humans have the capacity to act virtuously and secure salvation through their own efforts, and so they dare not use the heavy artillery of moral condemnation lest they be judged as judgemental.

Will the bishops say that jihadis like Begum, who got her kicks from gawking at severed heads in Syrian trash bins, are evil? Or will they use the language of moralistic therapeutic deism and like clinical psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen “explore how people can treat each other cruelly not with reference to the concept of evil, but with reference to the concept of empathy”?

Shamima Begum, our bishops would say, is suffering from “empathy erosion.” And our bishops, we would say, are suffering from a complicated case of the erosion of moral clarity and terminal snowflakitis.

Might cure them if they hopped on two wheels and cycled around Syria on a magical mystery tour, no?

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[animeindoblog-blog]

Mahoutsukai no Yome – 19

New Post has been published on https://animeindo.org/blog/2018/02/19/mahoutsukai-no-yome-19/

Mahoutsukai no Yome – 19

「Any Port in a Storm」

Having some experience with the source material for Mahoutsukai no Yome, there have been a few arcs that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing adapted (principally this one and the “Kingdom of Cats” arc).  It’s not because they aren’t good – quite the contrary, in fact.  It’s just that mangaka Yamazaki Kore pulls no punches when she goes dark, and while it doesn’t happen all that often, she can go very dark indeed.  There’s no despair fatigue to blunt the impact as is the case with something like Devilman Crybaby – when Mahoutsukai goes for the throat, you really feel the cut.

Such is certainly the case with this arc, which was teased by last week’s (weekly) cliffhanger ending.  We spent a good deal of time getting to know dragons young and old in the early days of this story, and they all made a big impression in their own way – both on Chise and the audience.  So when dragon children are kidnapped by poachers – still worse when they’re shown to be working for Cartaphilus – it certainly sets a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.  This is not going to be pleasant, that much is obvious – though just how unpleasant it turns, and how quickly, may be a bit of a shock.

As always, Mahoutsukai finds time to drop in a few interesting teasers about the mysteries of the story – like the mention that Chise is officially dead in Japan (not to mention Chise musing on whose face Elias “borrows” later in the episode – but we’ll get to that) – while it lays out the plot.  As Chise lies asleep, Mikhail is in London working with a pair of students – Adolf Stroud (Suzumura Kenichi) and Tory Innis (Konishi Katsuyuki) – to try and prepare to track down the missing dragons.  As it happens these two are college students – but this too is a teasing reference to something deeper in the story, a college whose nature Elias seems keen not to share with Chise.

Chise, meanwhile, has a rather disturbing vision/dream where she meets Cartaphilus in London.  He seems not himself – his memories not fully intact, roiling in agony from his stolen arm – but his nightmarish visage is enough to finally wake Chise from her two-day repose.  The full cast from the college is there, along with Lindel’s Selkie familiar, and it’s clear that they’re all very keen on bringing Elias into the rescue effort.  This is a pattern we’ve seen repeat itself numerous times – Elias would just as soon mind his own business, but is more or less forced to help by Chise’s insistence.  And given her relationship with the dragon children, there’s no chance Chise is going to be persuaded to sit this one out.

The path of least resistance is to simply purchase the dragons when they come up for auction, and to this end Chise enlists the help of Seth, the agent who brokered her sale to Elias.  But this is going to take an enormous amount of money – more, perhaps, than even the combined wealth of the college and the money Seth tells her she (and Elias) is owed from her own sale.  There’s another offer of help, too – from a mysterious woman who catches Chise’s ear when the auction seems to be going badly, but is invisible and inaudible to everyone else.  Elias, meanwhile, has taken on a form which gives us an insight into his inner thoughts that’s considerably more informative than his usual visage.  It’s quite a revealing development for his character in many ways.

In the end, though, all this takes a back seat to what’s happened to the dragon child – and we’re spared none of the gut-wrenching depth of his despair.  From being experimented on by Cartaphilus to being bound and manhandled in a cage, the creature has been driven to madness by terror and pain – and Chise is able (whether she wants to or not) to share his emotions.  We’re not told the exact details of how the dragon’s transformation happens – whether this is something all magical creatures are capable of it driven to it, or only dragons, or whether it may be a result of Cartaphilus’ experimentation.  But whatever to cause, it renders the auction price moot quickly enough – and leaves an enraged fire-breathing dragon rampaging in London (it’s as if Boris Johnson were mayor again).  Rarely in Mahoutsukai has the potential for tragedy seemed to exist on so many levels – and to be unavoidable.

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