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term-repost · 3 months

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originally posted by user Kenochoric / Kenochoric-moved / Trans-Haunting

About Damselpunk

Damselpunk was originally "coined" here back in November 2022. I outlined some things I had been thinking of on the post, but now that I've sort of outgrown your typical coining-post format, I thought I'd actually explain what I made the label for, and what it means.

However, when I first made it, I realize when looking at it that it was incomplete. It was a good start, but it was really only speaking for my experience. And how I- someone who is TME, who is white, experience womanhood and negative stereotypes associated with it will differ from how trans women and women of color will experience it (among other examples.) Not only that, but even from within my own groups my experience isn't universal. As examples....

The stereotype that women are frail, weak, and purely feminine little fairies, from what I've heard, is often different for some women of color and trans women. I've heard accounts of other women being painted as aggressive, as hypermasculine, and as dangerous for being people of color. Similarly, I've heard many stories of trans women being treated as an inherent danger to the cis women around them, as overly strong and as needing to force themselves into roles that made the people around them more "comfortable." To be clear, I really can't speak on these experiences or their nuances, so I don't feel comfortable going over every single thing I've heard, but I didn't recognize this nuance in my original post and it was absolutely an oversight.

What a "lady," or a "woman" is in different cultures, countries, and just general social groups differ. The things I outlined in my post, like being "dainty" and "proper," are absolutely real stereotypes, but they are far from the only ones, and the stereotypes and expectations elsewhere can be just as restrictive and misogynistic even if those expectations are different from the ones I grew up with.

Reclaiming womanhood from something formerly traumatizing is absolutely a real thing, but the way I specifically said "growing up" centered my own experience, and was unintentionally excluding a lot of trans women. Finding womanhood formerly painful because of how it was put onto you, and then reclaiming it again, is not a purely adolescent thing, and is not exclusive to people who were ""raised as girls."" The notion that it is, even though I didn't intend it to be, was transmisogynistic.

Damselpunk is just as much about rejecting systemic misogyny as it is about rejecting interpersonal acts of it. I didn't outline enough examples of systemic oppression in my post when I should have. It is very much so about combating systemic misogyny in all of its forms, as well as recognizing intersectionality and groups of women who are affected differently due to other institutions of oppression working in tandem with misogyny.

So, with all of that out of the way, what is damselpunk? Why did I make it? What does it mean to me, and what can it mean to other people?

Damselpunk is ultimately a movement about rejecting women's oppression and mistreatment, in all of its forms. It is about rejecting the idea that women are less default, less normal, or inherently the "other" compared to men. It is rejecting stereotypes and roles placed onto women regardless of what those roles are. It is self respect and autonomy for oneself, and valuing yourself as a person who is deserving of respect, individuality, and care. It is rejecting the idea that there's only one way to be a woman and live as a woman, considering there are countless different variations and experiences that can exist between different women.

The term Damselpunk was chosen due to how in countless stories, the woman is the "other," or the prop device in a man's story that is not allowed one's own development or thoughts. The Damsel is fundamentally disregarded and not considered their own person, as is part of their "role" within many narratives. It is less about how the Damsel needs to be rescued ("damsel in distress"), and more about how the Damsel is rarely if ever counted as a true character beyond a device for someone else- however, the "damsel in distress" narrative may also resonate with some women as a trope that ought to be flipped on its head, I simply didn't want to paint that as universal, since some women may also enjoy that trope and like the idea of being "rescued" or "swept off their feet." I like that there's multiple ways to interpret the term, regardless. Ladypunk was also coined as an alternative, for people who prefer it.

But, the notion of damselpunk goes beyond the often-shallow parade of "women can do anything! women can be anything!", it goes further than that. It is also about rejecting misogyny, and the system that perpetuates it. Of course, misogyny and the oppression of women takes many, many forms and in what way it presents itself depend on a wide variety of factors. For some women, it's being painted as frail, as dainty and inherently feminine. For others, it's being painted as aggressive, dangerous, predatory, and in need of "protection" from. For others, it's being ignored, having one's needs and desires swept aside and seen as secondary. It is also a broad rejection of the idea that women's rights do not matter, that feminism is unnecessary or "dead," and that it isn't worth caring about. It is also strongly against the notions that misogyny and women's rights only takes form in one way, that empowerment is only one thing that presents in one way. Exclusionary forms of feminism, and the broad strokes people try to provide for women's empowerment (such as making every female character "the one with the braincell," the "strong one with no feelings," and otherwise) are not the point of Damselpunk and do not represent the movement. This goes especially for forms of feminism that is intentionally bigoted or attempting to remove groups of women from the movement, such as TERFs.

Any type of woman can exist. Womanhood is not just frilly dresses and long hair, but it can be- those things can be deeply empowering, even! For other women, embracing gender non-conformity, masculinity, or gender-fuckery are incredibly important, and just as whole as another form. Womanhood is also not intentionally binary, nor is it tied to the body. It can be dissociated from the binary, alongside other genders, or even be a form that is completely disconnected from binary notions of it. It is a malleable thing that we have given a word to, and may be played and experimented with in a variety of ways. Putting women into an inherent box- that they must be this, or that, or the other thing, regardless of its intention is narrow-minded. A woman may be of any race, of any weight, of any appearance and of any place. They are just as much of human beings as men are, and are not less "normal" or "default" than another gender.

When writing all of this, it puts into perspective how malleable damselpunk itself is. It can be as varied as women themselves are, and so trying to put one set of experiences or expectations onto the label is simply not how it can be.

Now, for the symbol and flag I created for the term:

This symbol is called the Damselblade. It's different from the original symbol, because frankly, I don't think the original was very proper. It had been trying to make the original female symbol look partly like an X, but it was just a mess. So! I instead flipped it upside down and moved the horizontal bar close to the base, making it resemble a sword or blade. Hence: Damselblade!

And here is the flag, both with and without the damselblade! No changes were made between posts besides the symbol itself.

Now, just as a bit of an epilogue before I end this already-huge post: Even through all my attempts and corrections, I want to make it clear I do not represent every damselpunk experience, yes, even as the creator. Part of making a term for an entire group of people (women) is recognizing that you have some blind spots. I can't speak for women of color, or trans women, even though they're fully welcome in the label. Some of the things I've outlined might not fully encompass people whose lives I haven't lived.

So! I encourage people to see damselpunk in their own way, and to not just experience it from within the lens and views of the creator. So long as you're a woman, a girl, what-have-you, you can be damselpunk, and that comes with the inherent footnote that I won't be able to include all those nuances. If you have any criticisms or anything like that, please send them to my inbox and I'll take it to heart! (Just be respectful, please)

Should be fairly obvious, but TERFs fuck off or get blasted by the damselblade

originally posted by user Kenochoric / Kenochoric-moved / Trans-Haunting

#damselpunk #coiner: kenochoric #flag: kenochoric #long post #mogai term #mogai #mogai community #mogaireal #mogai heaven #liom #liom community #liom coining

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celiaelise · 10 months

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Just read chapter 169 of Shadows House, and I am so excited but so concerned for the new kiddos!!!!

Stella and Candy really intrigue me, because they have a lot of parallels to Kate and Emi! The fact that the first shot of them is Stella's shoes and socks, which look remarkably similar to Kate's? And that Stella named her something dissimilar to her own name, the red and the bows, and she's eating bread that she "shares" with Candy. (the physics of that accident seem debatable lol, but I will try and ignore that.) And that Candy's face is fully unveiled??? Hinting at her individuality/humanity? Much to ponder... Though, obviously Stella doesn't share Kate's temperment. She kinda seems like...the "Kate" Edward wishes he got at her debut.

There are a lot of pretty obvious parallels between these five pairs and Kate's cohort, as well, in both their personalities and color schemes. However, none seem to have as weak a connection as Shirley and Rum did. Even though we didn't see Laurel speak, (though the last speech bubble in their wide shot was a little ambiguous to me, so maybe we did?) Lulu spoke to her several times, and they're clearly used to making physical contact. The most ambiguous is Danny and Dan, but I wouldn't think Danny would be that powerful if Dan had been withdrawn like Rum?

I think it's very sweet how Mattie seems to be on top of things for Matilda! Very adorable that she brought a picnic basket; queen of being prepared. They seem to be the John/Shaun pair of this cohort.

Okay, so I went back to the chapters about Margaret's, um, episode, and, in addition to, of course, Stella and Candy, Matilda and Maddie seem to be among those who Patrick evacuates. And likely also Laurel and Lulu?? See below:

I wonder if the soot reached into their rooms, or if they were already breaking the rules? ALSO:

This seems like it could be Oscar and Oskar?? (very confusing name choice btw) and this panel follows Patrick observing that all the children with powers, specifically, have been captured. (Though it doesn't seem like he was entirely correct about that) So that might give us some information about Oscar? And explain how Matilda already knows him. Doesn't explain why he headed out for a 11:15am appointment at four in the morning, though! Absolutely unhinged behavior. Please get some sleep, gentlemen.

So, if I'm correct, out of these five pairs, we have: at least four of them have been out of their rooms prior to the debut, likely interacting with other children both within and outside their cohort. All of them seem to have formed strong shadow/face bonds. (to the point where one pair showed up holding hands and one shared "nice" bread in front of everyone) One of the faces is an independent enough thinker to have packed provisions without her shadow's oversight. Matilda, at least, knows they'll be spending time in the garden during the debut. And the current star bearers expressed the intention to coach all of them before their debut. I can't help but feel that Edward is in for another miserable debut day.

Also, is the implication of the first few panels that Kate has copies of the paperwork on the debutantes?? If so, love that for her. I'm a big fan of this new "spymaster" direction her arc is taking.

#shadows house spoilers #shadows house #shadows house 169 #by elise #oh wow i did not think this post was gonna be this long 😬#can you tell I'm procrastinating something?#i didn't go back and compare their stats with our original cohort bc...i don't want to #and i don't feel like the stats tell us that much anyway

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claire-starsword · 10 months

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Shining Force Unused/Removed Content

“But Claire didn’t you have a world book to translate?” Yeah! And then I had to check a tiny detail on another book, and saw something weird, and TCRF wasn’t helpful, so I went down a 140+ page long forum thread and downloaded a ROM editor. It happens. And now you’re gonna hear about it.

So, usually i gloss over the gameplay data on these guide books because I assume people have this information elsewhere already due to hacking and FAQ and the like. That might have been a mistake though, look at this peculiar entry on the encyclopedia’s monster data:

Mephisto

Movement: 6

Weapon: none

Uses Demon Breath. As a boss monster, regenerates HP every turn.

If you don’t know/remember, Mephisto is the JP name of the Shining in the Darkness final boss, later revealed to be Darksol and Mishaela’s kid. Looks like he skipped on helping his dad here.

The encyclopedia notes the HP regen of every other boss, but none use this specific phrasing of “as a boss monster”. This makes me think he was gonna be a boss on some battle, and then a regular enemy later on.

The cut feels understandable to me though, he and Darksol are pretty much identical, no point in having both in a game. And if there was any idea already of establishing a lore/connection between the characters as well, putting him as a regular enemy would ruin that. Given that there’s no artwork to go on, it’s also possible that this was actually a generic demon enemy, and the name was just a coincidence and would be confusing. I kinda doubt this possibility though since there’s plenty of other connections between this game and SitD, at least when it comes to design. Hard to believe they’d forgot or ignore the big bad.

Sadly that’s all the info we have to go on for this guy. I’ve looked over with the editor and found no trace of him. Most I can say is that there are a couple Yogurt placeholders among the enemy map sprites, and a couple unused data entries for Dark Mages. But that could be anything. Unless there’s some oversight with the editor, Mephisto was either fully removed, or never implemented to begin with, and the guide book just published out-of-date info by mistake.

The next monster is the opposite, though

Green Golem

Movement: 4

Weapon: none

Can move on water, and has high attack.

I’m legit afraid that this is an enemy from the game that i just forgot and am embarrassing myself here, because the beast is complete. Graphics, data, you name it.

By graphics I mean it is just a color swap of the regular Golem, as its name implies. Stats wise, it has -3 attack and -2 HP compared to the Golem, meaning it’s an weaker enemy. Makes sense since it’s likely made for the naval battles in chapter 5, while regular Golem debut in chapter 6. Still, with how hard Golems are to hit in the regular game, i’m very glad they did not put a thing with the same defense in the previous chapter.

Well, not that glad. On the other hand, according to the editor...

Its localized name is Weed.

And I kinda need to see this in an actual screenshot right NOW.

I do need to finish this post first. Here’s the last, smaller oddity in the encyclopedia’s monster data:

Storm Rover

Movement: 6

Weapon: Swords

Be careful as it can attack with lightning.

Storm Rover is the JP name for the Shellfish enemy of the naval battle. In the final game they can poison, not attack with lightning. It seems the naval battle went through a lot of changes at some point.

Saying they equip swords is also weird but there’s a lot more mistakes about weapons in this guide, like saying the dragonewts use swords and the conches uses spears, so these might be just mistakes. Anyway still shows that this list is goofed and was probably printed by mistake.

That’s it for enemies, but there’s a few more unused NPC sprites, i think.

I don’t remember any of these in game, but do let me know if i’m wrong, it’s hard to remember all NPCs. I will be kinda mad if the cat is in and i just forgot, given that it’s cute as heck, and cats were my first act of hacking in a Shining game. Why was the SF2 cat not like that to begin with.

Now, on to text data. The thing about text data is that it is a list of 2000+ strings. And even though the event data is beautifully organized in diagrams in this editor, I cannot emphasize enough that it is a very elaborate editor, it’s still tough to sit and comprehend all that, especially in a single day. So I can’t say I have fully checked everything out for now, but you know me by now, i definitely did try. Here’s what I’ve noticed.

Lines 41 and 42 here from Simone’s introduction seem to go unused. To be fair, they don’t add anything.

Alef has a line set up for the boat HQ, even though she isn’t available until after the boat battles. The other late game characters (Torasu, Lyle, Bleu, Musashi, Hanzou, and Adam) all have empty strings for this instead. [Update: I have since investigated and this is an issue in the english version only. Shoutout to whoever in the localization loved Alef very much.]

Khris seems to have a surprised line set up for if you manage to enter Alterone’s castle before the merchant puts in a good word for you, which should not be possible in regular gameplay. [Update: I have since investigated this one too and it can be seen with walk through walls cheats, showing Khris is also in a different position of the map as well. The JP version is even more scandalous.]

Anri also seems to have an extra line to continue to reject Max when they meet for the first time, but from what i recall, Nova immediately comes up to convince her he’s telling the truth. Perhaps you were meant to do something to convince her instead.

Otrant also seems to have a line reacting to Max being turned into chicken, however from what i recall, his room is inaccessible when that happens.

Plenty of other inaccessible NPCs seem to have lines set up for this as well, however they are just reusing lines from the NPCs you do talk to. Those generic lines like “what’s a hen doing here?” and such.

Update: I’m sorry for Spreading Misinformation Online, you can explore all of Manarina as a chicken in this game so these lines are not unused, you can even heal yourself off the chickening by leaving Manarina or entering the next battle. The GBA version fixes this oversight by locking you out of a good chunk of the map so i got confused.

But enough of these minor details. We’re here for deleted content. We’re here for plot lines being dumped in the trash. Bring in the kings.

That’s right baby, it’s Adam and Cain losing plot lines again, it’s not just the localization that did it to them. Ever noticed how Adam do not get the usual “character has joined the force” message, and kinda just appears in your team during the Chaos battle? Yeah, that might have been a hasty fix. There are traces of a bigger scene here with Adam, Darksol and Cain, upon which Adam would join the force with the proper message.

Only a single line of these events has survived, in which Adam urges Max to take the Chaos Breaker. This might mean you would have the sword before fighting Chaos, as the pre-battle dialogue with Chaos is right after this in the data. The remaining lines have been wiped, though the code referring to them remains there along with the code for loading character portraits, which is how we get the handy diagram above.

Unfortunately I don’t know enough of this editor to check if there’s leftover animation data on this cutscene. Sprite data relating to it does seem to be present in the map though, check it out:

does this remind you of something?

put this one in the pile of “the GBA version is just what the devs intended all along” with the others. Granted, “intended” might not be the correct word since they did cut it. Why? Who knows. One possibility I see is that they might have felt a flashback would be confusing, the game doesn’t do any kind of perspective change, unlike the GBA version which does hop between Max, Narsha and Ramladu’s POVs every chapter. While Adam loredumping in the og version might be a more boring way of conveying the plot, it is also more in line with the game’s presentation. A flashback might have also posed technical difficulties, like adding a sepia tone to the screen when no other scene requires it, etc. Though SF2 does have a sepia scene, so if that was the case they figured it out eventually.

Another reason might be that avoiding this scene helps hiding how messy it is. Cain and Chaos get beaten up and corrupted, which makes sense. Max on the other hand also gets beaten up enough to get amnesia, and yet does not get captured or killed, but instead, blown across the ocean??? Somehow???? The GBA version adds the concept that Cain’s armor can warp space and teleport, though seemingly putting a heavy strain on the user’s body. While it’s not explicitly said, we can assume Max’s armor is the same, and that he used it to escape, making his injuries and amnesia not just from Darksol. I’m still connecting a lot of dots on my own here, but it’s something of an explanation, while the classic game had no foreshadowing for this. Even if the deleted dialogue here explained, it would feel more coming out of nowhere.

That’s all speculation though. There might be more clues on unused lines of the japanese version, but i don’t have an editor for that. I have heard tales of a debug mode though, so i’ll look into that. For now i leave you with this monster of a post

#shining force #shining series #ressurection of the dark dragon #sf adam #sf max #sf cain #sf darksol #sitd mephisto #sf chaos #oh boy 1 am. where did the time go haha

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aniamra · 9 months

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Federated Privacy

Lately I've been checking out Misskey-based instances, specifically misskey.io and a fork of misskey called firefish.social. They're a microblog system but with additional features such as 4K character limit, 16 images per post, emoji reactions with even additional custom reactions per instance, a gallery feature that is unique, not just a media tab of all your media posts, built in custom color themes with the ability to make your own, and the choice of 3 layouts that are full screen with customizable widgets: a twitter-like layout, and a tweetdeck/mastodon-like layout with the multi-column view. It's one of the few services that doesn't just try to make twitter again but tries to do something its own and I very much appreciate that for it. I almost want to use it despite my aversion to microblogs.

However, when I was discussing this service with other people there were a lot of people were like 'that's great but it doesn't comply with GDPR so I can't use it.' And I thought that was kinda odd so I looked around and a LOT of misskey instances say this and I thought this was curious but then I started to think about it more and…. I'm not sure any federated service is GDPR compliant, even if they claim to be.

So, my only frame of reference is Mastodon, I can't speak for any other federated services, but I know when one Mastodon instance was just taken offline with no warning the history of those accounts still remain on my account on a different instance that follows them. To be more specific, this happened with snouts.online. The instance was very popular among furries and shut down without notice, giving the users no time to initiate profile transfers or deletions. But, my account that follows some of those snouts online accounts? I can still see their entire post history. And there is nothing the account owners can really do to get those deleted. If I understand correctly, (correct me if I'm wrong if you're familiar with the tech) they would have to go to every instance that had followed their account, and request the data be removed. But even then, if someone with less technical knowledge is running the instance, I don't know if they'd be able to. Because as far as I can tell, nothing is in place on mastodon to be like 'hold up, this server is no longer around' and auto-scrub the info. And if that's the case, that would mean no mastodon instance is GDPR compliant, either. I hear they have flags to send to other servers in the case of an account deletion request, but it feels like nothing is in place for a server just straight up being taken offline, is an egregious oversight.

It's just really getting me thinking that privacy on a federated service might be even worse than privacy on some of the less above board private services. So many cases of the information being available on multiple services leaves so many more issues with privacy being breached or circumvented. What if someone is following you on an old mastodon instance that has a vulnerability that isn't updated and it exposes your followers-only and or 'direct message' posts? You wouldn't even know it's happening because it's not the instance you're using personally. Server owners are only responsible for contacting the people directly using the service, they have no obligation to contact to any other instances that are also interacting with their service and could also be effected by the breach. And how are they even supposed to know who to contact? I'm sure there's access information buried in the server but that's not something everyone is going to know how to find, especially since Mastodon in particular is 'marketed' as something everyone can set up.

Federation is a cool thing, and even with this issue I'm pointing out I don't want this to be taken as 'federation bad'. But I do think people need to be more technically educated on what they're working with. I also don't like when federated services are seen as inherently 'better'. They're side-grades, another way of communicating with one another, with it's own pros and cons as any other service. But for me, personally, I'm not much keen on making any federated service a 'home' or anything I can rest comfortably in. I can use it, I guess, but I just don't want to 'live' there, if that makes as much sense as it does on the internet, lol.

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nyortor · 1 year

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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I’m a big believer that Dick’s independence and self-reliance isn’t in any way rooted in him just being stubborn, prideful or self-destructive. I view it as being in his eyes a necessity….because on a deep, fundamental level….Dick doesn’t trust anything to be permanent.

I’ll always go back to the fact that his character archetype isn’t that of the everyman, because he was of lower class origins compared to Bruce’s extreme upper class background.....but rather that given that Dick Grayson was allegedly exceptional from his debut, a child prodigy capable of feats of acrobatics few in the world could match....he could never actually be classified as an everyman. Rather, his core archetype is that of the fish out of water. The individual taken from the comforts of his original pond and thrust into a limelight of an entirely different nature from the one he grew up in, with the two not at all being interchangeable, and necessitating he change and adapt in dramatic and often unanticipated ways just to keep his footing in his new environs.

Its not incidental that his initial tragedy wasn’t JUST the loss of his parents, but rather the loss of his old routines, extended family, environment, way of life, expectations for the way his future would play out....it ALL vanished on the same night, never to return again. The loss of his parents was tragedy enough all on its own, but its really only one part of what Dick lost that night. He lost his entire footing. His frames of reference. Everything his life had previously prepared him for and everything he could have used as a familiar comfort or source of stability to lean on, if it had been ‘just’ his parents that he lost.

And I fundamentally don’t believe you ever get over THAT loss, no matter what peace you make with the loss of your loved ones or specific elements of that. Once you’ve experienced a shake-up of that size, once you have a bone-deep, visceral awareness of how completely your life can change in the blink of an eye, how you can effectively be set back to zero as though nothing you’ve previously accomplished matters (remember, he went from a kid whose name drew crowds on its OWN merits, based on what HE was capable of due to his own work and skills, the youngest of the Flying Graysons, capable of an acrobatic feat barely anyone else in the world could master......to being a kid who was only ever identified as in the context of Bruce Wayne having taken him in, as though his existence and worth were defined by someone else’s act of compassion rather than based on anything he’d ever done on his own, when the fact of the matter is even by age eight, he’d already accomplished a LOT)....

Like, the point is, you can’t go through a shake-up like that and ever fully FORGET how complete and total a change it was, how big a rewrite of your entire life story.

That’s a trauma all its own, one that goes largely unacknowledged, and one that I don’t think Bruce and Alfred or anyone else fully realized was even there TO need addressing in the first place. So of course how could they ever fully address it, without realizing a need?

And I think Dick’s constant moves and self-reliance are actually born of that primal awareness that there are no guarantees, that nothing is truly permanent, that anything can be taken away in an instant.

He’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everything to be taken away again - as people have pointed out in other posts, Dick can never seem to have nice things. Even the apartment building he lived in while in Bludhaven….that wasn’t some height of luxury by ANY stretch of the imagination…was lost to him, along with all the friends and neighbors and community he’d built among them, something evidenced by how highly they all spoke of him, even to a total stranger. And that’s not even getting into how even the CITY he sought to establish himself as a guardian over, like, he lost the city itself. The CITY!

Dick, I believe, insists on holding down 9-5 jobs and paying his own way and only touching money that comes from Bruce originally, when like…he has no other option or its to help someone else….just like he’s resistant to ever fully putting down roots, at least none so deep that he can’t uproot himself and quickly relocate without ripping off a piece of himself and leaving it still buried in the ground behind him.

Because deep down, he’s always bracing for the next seismic event that’ll rip everything away from him, and he wants to be prepared. He WANTS to make sure he never takes anything for granted. That if he loses it all - hell, if he and Bruce fight again and Bruce decides once and for all to take it all away from Dick, cut their ties, something that would very much be a deep-rooted insecurity for a kid with as massive of abandonment issues as Dick must have given his childhood and a number of events after that…

Dick I think needs to trust that he’ll be capable of surviving, of standing on his own two feet, if the worst should ever happen again and he’s left on his own again. His self-reliance and obsessive need for independence aren’t a REJECTION of anyone else or anything Bruce or others have ever done for him.

They’re simply the defense mechanisms of a boy who was once upon a time torn away from everything he knew and in certain origins was then on top of that plunged into hellish circumstances before finding a refuge with Bruce….

And the man that boy grew up to be, who is determined to never be caught in a situation like that again, where his very survival might otherwise require the kindness of a stranger….with Dick knowing better than to count on lightning striking twice there, and him getting lucky a second time.

So in a lot of ways, my core perception of Dick having spent more time growing up in the luxury of Wayne Manor than any of the other kids is that its largely irrelevant to who he grew up to be. Because he was still more than old enough by the time he arrived that he had formative experiences all his own that no amount of time was sufficient to overwrite and exchange for new ones.

His experiences are so extreme in terms of the loss of all forms of stability, that the SHAPE that stability takes in the periods where his life IS stable, is largely unimportant. Because its the absence of stability that’s the defining recurrence in his life. Even the stability offered by his childhood in Wayne Manor eventually gave way to canon where he left the Manor before he was even eighteen, as well as canon where no matter how it was ultimately reversed, he was for a time affected by having the ability to call the Manor his home STRIPPED AWAY FROM HIM. Thus even when Bruce did ultimately welcome him back, there still retained an awareness that even the fact that this had happened in the first place was a reminder that even THIS was something Dick could lose, that no matter how stable his childhood there had been at times, it couldn’t in and of itself be COUNTED as a source of stability due to the simple fact that his ability to call it his home HADN’T turned out to be an irrevocable constant.

And so this is another of those areas where I think its fundamentally an oversight to have members of the family commenting on Dick’s self-reliance or tendencies to relocate himself, let alone in any kind of critical capacity......

If there’s not going to be an acknowledgment within the family or by the people raising these criticisms like, what kind of a role the family themselves have played in Dick feeling a NEED to have these tendencies in the first place.

If someone doesn’t trust in any place he lives in to ever truly be a constant in his life, truly permanent, that anything can be taken away in the right circumstances....and you yourself have done something that has made him feel or given him reason TO leave a place he’s found stability in at some point in the past....you kiiiiiinda forsake your right to be critical of his inability to see any place as permanent or constant, y’know?

Like, insert Miranda Whatshername gif or Meryl Streep peering down her glasses and going oh I see, you think this has nothing to do with you.

So I’d argue that Dick’s insistence on simulating the average person’s reality of livelihood, even when he has other means and funds available to him….just as his insistence on being as solely responsible for the well-being of the place or people he sees as his responsibilities, being single-minded about relying only on himself for tasks that he sees as ultimately having nothing to do with someone other than himself, etc....

All that is in my opinion BECAUSE he’s so firmly attached to the reality that anything and everything can be taken away, at ANY given moment. That he can be reduced to having nothing and no one he can depend on BEYOND just his own innate skills and experiences, the only things he trusts to be truly unable to be stripped from him by others.

If you ask me, one of the core aspects of Dick’s characterization throughout his adulthood in canon is SPECIFICALLY his fear that everything he cares about, or trusts, or relies on…can be taken away from him or lost.

And his determination to make sure that he’ll be able to survive even if that should ever happen again.

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neon-junkie · 3 years

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Hey everyone,

This will be my final post addressing the fandom conflict that has quite frankly gotten out of hand. Although it’s very likely this post will be picked apart, no matter how well intended it is, I will no longer be addressing, interacting, or responding to any further accusations made against me. Of course, if people have questions from a genuine place of interest, I will be happy to clarify anything for you, either via DM’s or non-anon asks. I will not be answering anonymous asks on this, as I do not want anything else posted on this topic.

As a side note: For anyone tempted to wade into the debate, I sincerely ask you not to get involved. Do not make yourself a target, do not feel you need to ‘pick a side’, and please do not think you have an obligation to reason with either side. It seems to be well past the point of that, so please find people you get along with in this fandom and curate a space for yourself away from all this conflict.

Warning: This post will contain uncensored slurs, mentions of racism, paedophilia, transphobia, LGBTQ+ phobia, death threats, threats of violence, targeted harassment, and abusive language.

To start off, I want to apologise to everyone who has somehow gotten drawn into this mess by either defending me, following me, or interacting with my content. This whole situation with me began well over a year ago when I wrote a crack-smut fic featuring Javier/Micah, posted back in August 2019. A crack fic is defined as “a work of fan fiction that is absurd, surprising or ridiculous, often intentionally.” It was inspired by a camp interaction between Micah and Javier, and like many other fanfiction writers, I decided to write smut about it. The fic was titled ‘Dirty Fucking Greaser’, and if that shocks you, I’m sure you can imagine how shocked I was to be informed afterwards that ‘Greaser’ was in fact a very serious 19th century slur for a Mexican individual. My first encounter with this word as insult was via RDR2, where it was used like a very casual insult. My only prior knowledge of this term was in regards to the greasers youth subculture, so the severity was lost on me. This obviously does not excuse my ignorance, and I should have researched the term better, but this is just again to apologize for that oversight, the insensitivity, and to highlight that my use of this term was not meant maliciously. Following this being pointed out, I proceeded to make 3 separate apology posts [Unfortunately I can only find the third one: HERE], renamed the fic, and added slur warnings in both the tags and the fic description. When I continued to receive complaints and increasingly aggressive abuse (which included being told my apologies weren’t good enough and I should delete my account and even kill myself), I attempted to delete the fic and mistakenly abandoned it instead. I contacted AO3 to see if it could be removed, but they said there was nothing they could do. I contacted their DMCA takedown team, who also said they couldn't remove it. Please note that all this happened 7-8 months ago, and has been dragged on for almost a year.

So, from this one unfortunate incident, I’ve been branded a racist, and someone who attacks POC, when all I have done is tried to defend myself and correct my past mistakes. I could have done this more gracefully in the past, but frankly when you’re suddenly the target of unrelenting callout posts and nasty anons, it’s very hard to be open to criticism of this sort, but this is what I’m trying to move past.

Over the course of the year, this one mistake has spiralled, and the crusade against me has somehow coincided with moral conflicts over certain characters and ships. This has devolved into dehumanizing abuse, witch hunts, death threats, doxxing, anon hate, and much more unpleasant behaviour.

I have been in fandom for a very long time, and at the heart of all fandom circles is the fear of censorship and subsequent purges, so the ‘ship and let ship’ mentality was more or less the pinnacle of fandom philosophy. And yes, this can be problematic in some contexts. People have their right to be uncomfortable with content, have a right to be offended by content, but that is not content meant for you. This argument has devolved into ‘what material is morally right to engage with’ and that is a mentality in which fandom will not survive, because for every person who is telling me I’m an awful person for writing about Micah, there are three other people telling me how much they appreciate me making that content. For every fic in which I characterize Javier and Flaco a certain way, some people are made uncomfortable by it and others tell me they enjoy it. And this isn’t just white people, but POC too, which makes it very difficult to know whether I am genuinely in the right or the wrong, especially when it comes to the concept of ‘fetishization’ which I have been made aware I need to educate myself on. I intend to do so, but I disagree with the common accusation that finding non-white men romantically and sexually attractive is inherently fetishistic and makes me racist. It’s pushing a catch-22; don’t find POC sexually attractive? Racist. Find POC sexually attractive? Racist.

I am always willing to be (politely) approached about anything my readers may be concerned about, but if it’s something I’ve specifically tagged for (such as themes, scenarios, etc.) I’m afraid you consented to reading it and with that I cannot help you. You are just as responsible for curating your space and what you see/read just as much as I am responsible for tagging it appropriately.

On the topic of racism, I want to bring up my prior use of ‘white racism’ which has obviously been a point of contention among both white and people of colour. The (literal) black vs white concept of racism is incredibly American-centric, and as someone from Europe, which has a history of oppression against white cultures and those of people of colour, it feels inaccurate. However, this has recently been discussed with me and I came to the realization that while growing up, especially in the UK, ‘xenophobia’ and ‘racism’ were marketed as one and the same. So, with this little revelation in mind, I will no longer be using ‘white racism’ (Or ‘reverse racism’) to identify the abuse I have been receiving, but will instead call it by what it really is; dehumanizing, debasing, xenophobic, puritanical.

Very briefly, I will also touch on the NewAustin situation, which has also been dredged into this. I did not ‘chase a POC from tumblr’. NA was a minor who for some reason was on my 18+ blog and took issue with me, likely from the ongoing discourse regarding my fic and initial mistake, as well as my interest in Micah. They were subsequently harassed into deleting their account by anonymous hate following various conflicts with other users for their support of me or their ships in general. I have never encouraged my followers to target anyone, and have always asked to be blocked and blacklisted by those who do not like me or my content. When NewAustin messaged me following the deletion of their blog, I was admittedly indifferent to the point of being unkind, and accused them of sending the hate themselves. This was based on the anon hate being racially-driven without there being any prior knowledge or publication that NA was a person of colour. This aside, I should have at the time, whether I believed it was my followers or not, condemned this behaviour. Regardless of the issues I’ve had with these people, it is never ever ok to send hate to anyone, no matter the motivation behind it, and that should have been stated at the time.

All I can do at this point is acknowledged and apologize for my past mistakes, and try to improve myself going forward.

It is not my place to dictate the morals of the character/ship-aspect of this argument, and I am not interested in waging a war of opinion. This post is simply to clarify how I am involved in this, and why I am so viscerally targeted. You can draw your own conclusions, but I am no longer interested in this endless back and forth.

To my mutuals/followers, I stand by my request to not interact and to block and move on, as this is what I’ll be doing too.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope it makes things from my perspective a little clearer.

-RAT <3

EDIT: Just after this post was made, the fic in question was finally removed. I had to go through a DMCA take down, which can take months, since I originally abandoned the fic, thinking that meant delete. I explain this in more detail above. Said fic is gone, and has been gone since this post has been around.

#the tea #apology #long post

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yukipri · 3 years

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Bad Batch end of season thoughts/ramble, bc it's been a week and I just wanna get it all off my chest...

(end of season spoilers and very disorganized rambling)

First off, I do want to say that I enjoyed watching the show. It fulfilled its primary purpose: entertainment. It was nice having something to look forward to every week, and even though it wasn't quite what I was expecting, it was fun. The animation was gorgeous, I liked all the references and tie ins. I will likely watch it again, and will watch season 2. This is by no means meant to be a hate post.

That being said, it is critical so please just skip if you're not into that!

The thing is...it takes very, Very little for me to love a clone. He doesn't need lines, or a face, or even a name, and the default is that I will love him. He can even be a little bastard, like Slick, and it's fine. I always want to know more about them, and wish they had more screen time and time in general to develop their characters. So given that we were getting 16 (20 eps total if we count TCW S7 pilot arc) centered around these guys, I was expecting to absolutely adore them by the end.

And I wanted to love the Bad Batch, I wanted to love them so damn much, and I tried. But I think one of the reasons why they never fully clicked for me was that their thing seems to be "we're unique, we never fit in, we're outsiders in our own home, among the people who are supposed to be our own family, and so we've found our home with each other."

Which! That's usually a wonderful message, and not a particularly rare or unique one either for stories! I usually dig these kinds of stories!

The problem here is the extremely unique situation of the clones. They are literally created to be identical, brain washed to be uniform. They must conform, or are killed off by their creators, and their conformity isn't a choice in the slightest, but one of fear and necessity.

Their uniformity is something that they are also entirely aware of--it's unavoidable, they're clones. Once out in the real galaxy, they all strive to find and establish unique identities for themselves, struggling against a galaxy that just wants them to be faceless products. It's a shared struggle, and all they have are each other, and their brotherhood is sacred as a result. Shunning unique identity is the opposite of who a clone is--it's what they all want.

So on one hand, it's understandable that the Batch stuck out (when all others who would have also stuck out were culled, when individuality isn't allowed). It's understandable that they would have yearned for the brotherhood shared by the other clones, and when they couldn't have it, they stuck closer to each other. It's even understandable that they would feel bitter, having experienced bullying at the hands of the other clones (but isn't it also understandable that the other clones would feel bitter that the Batch gets special treatment, when their own brothers with less-than-beneficial mutations were taken by the Kaminoans to never return?).

And so we have this batch of clones, who the Kaminoans call "mutated," but also specify that their mutations are "desirable" (implying what happens to mutations that are undesirable...). They have their own unique unit, in which they're able to improvise and act freely with seemingly little to no oversight, so long as they complete their mission. No Jedi to obey, no nat-born officers who look down on them. In fact, they look so different from standard clone troopers that most of the galaxy probably don't even know they are clones. They have their own ship (personalized), they have their own possessions (which we don't really see any other clones have), they have their own barracks (probably also very unique), and they even have access to superior weapons and armor (most of the Batch, minus Echo, seem to be wearing modified Katarn-class armor which is supposed to be for Commandos. we KNOW it holds up better than standard trooper armor).

So I'm sure they had some unpleasant experiences growing up, and I do get it. But at least at "present" end of clone wars, they honestly seem to be living infinitely better than all other clones? They still need to follow orders but they have more freedom, and perhaps most importantly, they have clear uniqueness that is denied almost all other clones. And yes, some of the clones on Kamino bully them, but we've seen NONE of the "regular" clones that we know to be particularly nasty to them, and in fact it's Crosshair who starts it by calling them "Regs."

And how does the Batch respond to this situation? By acting superior. It's Crosshair who says and it believes this firmly, and I do feel that the others are likely mostly influenced by this, but it's also true that Hunter, Wrecker, and Tech don't really deny this either. They don't like the "regs," they do act like they're "better." Poor Echo, who they repeatedly seem to forget is in the room, and who they call "machine" and such...yikes yo

So I guess the point is, I just really struggled to feel sympathetic towards them, and was already on a kinda eh about their premise. They're marketed as "the special clone squad"--and yet they're not nice to the clones I love. I thought that wasn't great, but also hoped that the series would work towards them understanding the other clones better, and I love character development so that woulda been fine--but, nothing. A glance from Hunter at Howzer. Extended camaraderie from Gregor, who I feel they mostly just tolerate for the mission, other than Echo who genuinely cares.

And on top of feeling not feeling particularly sympathetic towards what I saw as a pretty privileged group of clones, the Batch seems to place primary blame of their woes on the "regs" themselves, who again, honestly seem far worse off! There isn't blame directed at the people who demanded the conformity from the other clones in the first place, that made it so the Batch couldn't fit in. The Batch was modified due to the Kaminoans (and implied specifically Nala Se). She's the reason why they don't fit in. And the Kaminoans are also why the other clones have to be so uniform, why they must fight to be people and not products.

Bitterness and pettiness can be fine in characters. But it's frustrating to see in a group supposed to be competent and elite, especially when those feelings have consequences. Sure, it sucks when someone throws a food tray at you. You can throw food back. It's not an equal reaction to feel no remorse when you shoot that guy dead in a blaster fight, when for all other clones, having to kill another clone is one of the most horrible, tragic things that one can do (thanks, Umbara).

Fives was the only clone to actually point a blaster at Nala Se.

We know Omega has deeply personal history with Nala Se. She was Nala Se's personal medical assistant. We see her cry when she takes off her head ornament that matches Nala Se. We know that being back in the lab gives Omega complicated, and probably not entirely positive feelings. But we barely learn more about this relationship, other than these glimpses.

And I get the feeling that to Omega at least, Nala Se wasn't all terrible. If Omega grew up with mostly only Nala Se for company, she had to have gotten her sheltered outlook on life, and her willingness to help others from somewhere. Nala Se intentionally let Omega go, to be "safe."

I think Omega's adorable, and I do like her. But I wasn't able to fully love her to the extent I wanted to, because there was always the fear that she was involved in the creation and implantation of the chips. She knows about them, she would have been positioned to do so. I want to think she would never, and I was hoping the show would reassure us of that, but it never did. We don't actually know how Omega feels about Nala Se, or even the chips and their presence in other clones. Instead, all we know is that Omega doesn't like "regs."

And again, "they call me lab scrubber," and "I helped put (or am complicit in putting) mind control devices in their heads," are kinda, unequal. Again I hope it's not the case. But it definitely kept me feeling uneasy throughout the show.

It really boils down to I don't trust or forgive Nala Se, and the Batch's lack of stance against her and the other Kaminoans, and clear distaste for their other clone brothers, really puts them in a situation that makes it difficult for me to take their side entirely.

And then gosh, Hunter. During Crosshair's whole "you never came back for me," spiel, I couldn't help but think he's kinda right. He had 15 episodes. Sure, it's difficult to get Crosshair back. But they could have done something. They could have done research. We could have had scenes of them wondering where Crosshair is, discussions on how best to find him, even if that discussion ended in, "but we can't risk it right now." They could have grilled Omega for information on the chips, which they really shoulda done either way, but especially since that knowledge is important to understanding what (they thought had) happened to Crosshair. Instead, they just ran every time Crosshair showed up. The show could have done better to show that they cared, and were trying, instead of just, y'know, doing chores for Cid. One, "I kinda miss him," doesn't really count as working on getting him back, at least in my books.

The sole exception to all of this, of course, is Echo. Who really, he works with the Batch fine, he's a former ARC and can more than keep up. Skillset-wise, he fits in well enough. But this season really made me wonder why he's with them at all. Crosshair's revelation and true feelings at the end of the season were no surprise to me, as they're consistent with what we've seen of him from TCW S7. But for Echo, a former "reg" to have to work with someone like Crosshair...even if Crosshair thought Echo was "different" enough to accept him, those are his brothers that Crosshair thinks he's so superior to, and has no issue speaking disdainfully about.

The increasing tension between Echo and Hunter, Echo's interest in helping Rex, in helping other clones, in doing something...I do hope they reach a point where Echo demands they go help, or he's leaving.

They gave Crosshair a chance, despite the fact that his choices were willing. I really hope Echo can convince the Batch to help save the other clones who don't have a choice. Because even if the Batch doesn't consider them their brothers, they're certainly Echo's. They matter just as much as Crosshair, and I really hope season 2 shows it narratively.

To conclude, again I'm interested in seeing what happens next, and I want answers about Omega and Nala Se. I find it interesting that they tied the facility where they took Nala Se in with the scientist dude collecting data on Grogu in the Mandalorian and those cloning labs. All of this is interesting, but at the same time I feel like it's trying to build up to Snoke/Palpatine stuff in the sequels which...I don't care nearly as much about, but who knows, could be neat ^ ^;

I'm okay with, and have made peace with the fact that the Bad Batch probably isn't the "clones-centric" show I wanted, and that they'll continue their own story, and probably continue to not care much about other clones in upcoming seasons. That's unfortunate, but alright. I'm interested enough in their story too.

But at the same time...I can't help but think man, if they have the time and budget to do a season 2, after seeing what was (or wasn't) accomplished in season 1...I wish they'd also make a Rex/Cody/Wolffe/"regular clones" show, because in the end, if you're going to do a "clones show"....that's who I want to see most.

If you got to the end, thank you for reading, and being an ear to my ranting ^ ^; Again this is literally just getting this off my chest. If this take isn't one you agree with, please just ignore. For people who did fall in love with the Batch, I'm happy for you, and regret that it just couldn't happen for me. But, I'm hoping that S2 will change my mind, but we'll just have to see! ^ ^;

#the bad batch #bad batch #YukiPri rambles #really i'm not interested in a debate i just want to ramble

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linkspooky · 4 years

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Gojo and Sukuna: The Strongest vs The Strongest

Gojou and Sukuna are both pictured lounging on top of a pile of skulls: the people they’ve climbed over to reach the top of their respective worlds. Gojou is the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer, and Sukuna is the strongest cursed spirit. As they both carry the title of the strongest they actually have a lot in common, and are destined to duke it out one day - more details UNDER THE CUT.

1. Individualism

Gojo and Sukuna are both characters who base their entire identity around their individual strength. Their number one priority is the development of themselves. They need to stand out. They need to stand out on top. That’s why they share the phrase: “Throughout the heaven and earth, he alone is the honored one.”

Selfish and self-centered is a personality trait that typically has negative connotations, but being a selfish person is not necessarily a good or bad thing. All it means is you prioritize yourself first, your own thoughts, your own world view, your own sense of self.

“I alone am the honored one” is actually a phrase of self enlightenment. It’s said that after the Budha Sakayuni was born he took seven steps from his mother and said that while pointing to the heaven and earth [x].

Gege has confirmed in his author comments he uses it to confirm the arrogance of the characters, and in doing so he portrays both the good and the bad of having such a sense of arrogance. See, selfishness is considered a bad quality, but what about self-confidence? Self-esteem? Believing in yourself can lead you to good things. Doubting yourself may seem humble, but it can lead you to making mistakes, or even lashing out at others. These aren’t necessarily good or bad they’re just qualities that people have. Personal enlightenment means becoming the best version of yourself that you can possibly be (if I’m WAYYY SIMPLIFYING). Gojou and Sukuna know themselves, and what they desire better than any other characters in the series.

Gojo and Sukuna have such high confidence in themselves that they believe they can do pretty much anything, and usually they can. In their world view if you have the strength to do it, then anything is possible.

Gojo calls this philosophy swinging for the fences. They are both like star players on the team, who do everything they can to stand out and be the best. Their are two competing needs in the story, the individual good, and the collective good. Gojo insists you don’t have to sacrifice yourself and put yourself down for the good of others, which is why he tries to assert his individual will on the world. He wants to make the world better how he sees fit. He generally thinks he’s right, and more right than others. Sukuna is the same way to a more extreme extent.

The flaw of this thinking is that eventually they both tend to see themselves as above other people. When they stop seeing other people and cut themselves off like this, they start to believe they have to do every single thing alone. Instead of asserting their own will over others, it becomes more and more like their own will, their own ideas, their own thoughts and feelings become all that exists to them. That’s when their thinking starts becoming warped.

Collectivism and Individualism are ideas that seem to contradict each other but that’s wrong, they’re actually complementary ideas that coexist. People are individuals. People are a collective group. Both of these ideas exist at the same time.

Gojo’s self confidence, his selfless fighting for others always using his strength for the sake of others, trying to make a better world as he sees fit are all good things, but the fact that he believes no matter how strong he becomes no matter how hard he fights he’ll always die alone because it’s not worth becoming close to others in the Jujutsu World is just... sad. It means ever since Geto left, Gojo has trouble accepting other people and becoming close to them. Whereas Sukuna just doesn’t care. The flaw of doing everything alone is exactly that, you’re eventually alone, you become the only person on earth.

2. Collectivism

Gojo and Sukuna both have an individual mindset, but where they differ is how they use their massive strength. Gojo believes in himself above all else but, he uses his strength for the collective good of the jujutsu world, whereas Sukuna only ever uses it for himself. Gojo parallels Yuji’s grandfather’s advice at the beginning of the manga pretty much exactly. He’s strong, so he’s obligated to help people.

Gojo and Sukuna believes their strength makes them capable of anything, but Sukuna takes that one step further. Sukuna’s strength means he can do whatever he wants to others. Whereas, Gojo holds himself back. It’s why Sukuna is the king of curses, but Gojo isn’t the king of sorcerers.

Gojo is at least capable of acknowledging other people in a way that Sukuna isn’t. Sukuna believes that the world should be run on strength alone. Gojo acknowledges that he’s perfectly capble of slaughtering everyone at the top and declaring himself king, but that he doesn’t really think that will change things ultimately.

The thing is other people exist, even if Sukuna wants to ignore this inconvenient reality. No man is an island, yadda yadda. More importantly though, other people play a big role in individual identity too. If you were a person who never interacted with other people in your life, you’d just be insane. You’d be feral like an animal. You wouldn’t even have a sense of individuality. The individual ego is shaped just as much by our interactions with other people, seeing how we’re similiar and different to others than it is by how we view ourselves. Gojo and Sukuna both grapple with this idea. One thing they have in common is they both have awful peresonalities.

They’re not even lousy, they’re childish. They play games with other people. Gojo makes constant references to video games and pop culture like he’s a really hip teenager. Sukuna makes every fight into a game where he viciously mocks his opponent because he’s just so bored. The reason is because as individuals they’re also stunted, specifically because they have such trouble acknowledging other people and other people have such an influence on our peresonalities. Gojo doesn’t really need to grow up because he’s always been stronger and smarter than all the adults. Sukuna is a thousand year old spirit who acts like he’s thirteen.

This longing to understand other people exists in both of them. Sukuna’s one redeeming feature is that when people are strong he will acknowledge them. He reaches out and connects to Jogo before his death. The problem is if you don’t meet his own personal definition of strength, then by his rules you’re basically nothing.

Gojo seems much more aware of the fact that he’s not good enough to change things alone. What he wants is allies who are just as strong as he is, people he can rely on, people he can stand together and fight with.

Sukuna genuinely doesn’t care about others. In fact, he views the desire to have companions, equals as a weakness. If you accept other people in any other regard, it weakens you and your individual will + desires as a person.

But as I said, acknowledging other people is just as formative in your identity in ackonwledging yourself. Sukuna is just flat out wrong here. He’s the extreme result of Gojo’s tendency to do everything himself. For Sukuna other people just straight up don’t exist. The only people he acknowledges are the ones who meet his standards, his servants like Ura-Ume, and the one he plans on using like Megumi and that itself is a weakness. An oversight.

3. Gojou vs. Sukuna

Sukuna has been planning, since literally the introduction chapters and the very first arc of the manga how he’s going to take Gojo down when he eventually claims Yuji’s body as his own.

However, even if Sukuna were at full strength in Yuji’s body, Gojo would still win. I don’t think Gojo’s being cocky here it’s a genuine assessment of his strength. Which is why Sukuna has gotten crafty. We saw a long, long time ago he took an interest in Megumi the moment he learned he was a shikigami user.

Sukuna notices that Megumi a shadow based shikigami user should have been easily able to beat a one finger curse, and asks why he didn’t. It’s after this point he takes a special interest in Megumi. He sees much more potential in Megumi, then Megumi even sees in himself.

He places his bets in the personal development of Megumi Fushigoro. Over time, we’re reminded again and again the itnerest Sukuna has only in Megumi, and it’s slowly revealed why piece by piece.

We learn two things about Megumi over time, that he intentionally holds himself back all the time, even though among the first years he’s the closest so far to developing a domain expansion. Number two is what we’ve learned in the last chapter.

Megumi actually has an insanely strong Jujutsu ability that he was born with. Among the Zen’in family it’s the only one that could ever possibly equal the six eyes. In the past it was a six-eyes user and a ten shadows user who fought to the death as equals. Megumi is someone who has had the capability to surpass Gojo all along, he just doesn’t believe himself capable and inententionally holds himself back.

Which is why we learn this chapter, the insanely strong spirits that Megumi can summon with his ability we finally get a clue as to why Sukuna has taken an interset in him. Even if everything goes swimmingly and he takes over Yuji’s body, he still has to fight Gojo.

Sukuna is keeping Megumi alive because from the beginning, being a thousand years old he knows this ancient history between the Zen’in and the Gojo families, and he knows that Megumi being a ten shadows user has the potential to be an equal, or even stronger than Gojo.

The Gojo and Sukuna fight is going to happen eventually in the manga and when it does, Sukuna’s planning on using Megumi as a tool against Gojo. That’s what we’ve been building to all this time. That’s Sukuna’s plans for Megumi.

#sukuna #ryomen sukuna #gojou satoru #gojo satoru #megumi fushigoro #jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen theory

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theggning · 3 years

Text

Codsworth Is So Underrated, You Guys

ALTERNATE TITLE: Codsworth and the Totally Understated Mindbending Evolution of Artificial Consciousness

I find Codsworth is often the most underrated of the 16 companions in Fallout 4. Your faithful robot butler is among the very first you can recruit and an excellent early-game ally, but he has a few disadvantages in gameplay that mean he’s often sent back to Sanctuary before long. Codsworth is a mid-to-close range fighter only, cannot wear armor or be equipped with weapons. He cannot be healed by stimpak, which makes him a liability if you’re playing on Survival mode. He has no companion quest of his own, so unless you particularly enjoy him there’s not a compelling reason to keep him for a long time. He also becomes recruitable exactly 2 minutes after adorable puppy Best Boy Dogmeat, so he is often (understandably) replaced just as soon as he’s made available.

But there is this great, completely understated facet to Codsworth, so understated that the game does not draw attention to it in any way. And yet, it is a wonderful reflection of many of the themes of Fallout 4 and, I believe, a pretty strong indication of its thesis statement.

Now what in the hell am I talking about?

Like many sci-fi/fantasy universes, the Fallout series is home to many highly-advanced robots. Robots were commonplace before the Great War, and many have survived the bombs intact and in working order. Others have been built or modified by wastelanders to serve various tasks (Percy, Ada.) The most important thing to understand about robots, though, is though they may have vivid personalities programmed in, they are widely accepted to be objects. They are thought of the same way as an appliance, a machine built for a specific purpose and programmed to follow a strict set of protocols.

Many jokes revolve around the relatively rigid intelligence of robots. Pre-War, many were deployed in inappropriate jobs or designed haphazardly (Mister Handies acting as nurses in a hospital, “paramedic” Protectrons with massive deadly tasers for hands, military robots constantly going haywire and erupting in friendly fire.) Others continue to man businesses and play out daily tasks as they were programmed to do over 200 years ago. Most robots are incapable of understanding anything beyond their initial programming, and most pre-War robots are completely unaware that the Great War ever happened.

When the Sole Survivor reunites with Codsworth at the ruins of their home, it seems like he, too, doesn’t understand what’s going on. He talks about tending the (dead) garden, references the (ghoulified) neighbors, and generally acts like the chipper robot butler Sole left behind on their way to Vault 111.

But there is something slightly… off in Codsworth’s dialogue here. Though he acts like the war never happened, he also specifically mentions details that suggest it did:

Player Default: Codsworth! You're still... fully operational?

Codsworth: {Defiant} Well of course, mum. You can thank the fine engineers at General Atomics for that! At least, you could have. Had they not been... vaporized.

A bit over 210 actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished.

You've no idea the desperation for human contact one develops over 200 years. {Upset, recalling bad memories of encountering raiders and scavengers. / Disgust} And when you do encounter them? Oh the cruelty! You're either... target practice or... spare parts!

Even stranger, Codsworth mentions details that are plainly made-up (or some kind of delusion):

Codsworth: It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers. Or perhaps charades. Shaun does so love that game. Is the lad... with you...?

Player Default: Codsworth... listen to me carefully... have you seen him? Have you seen Shaun?

Codsworth: Why, sir had him last, remember? Perhaps he's gone to the Parker residence to arrange a play-date?

(Shaun is an infant. He is too young to play charades or to go to the neighbors for a play-date.)

So at once, Codsworth does and does not acknowledge the war. He does and does not seem to understand what’s happened, and he does and does not seem to follow Sole’s urgency regarding their spouse’s death and Shaun’s kidnapping.

And then, after a speech check, Codsworth finally snaps and breaks down sobbing in despair. Not only does he understand that the war happened, he has developed the ability to get depressed about it. Longing for human contact and with nothing else to do, he’s even developed coping mechanisms to help him try to deal with his loneliness and despair—futilely trying to do his chores and deluding himself into pretending everything is completely normal.

Wait a minute. Sobbing? Despair? Depression? Coping mechanisms and delusions? This Is all pretty sophisticated stuff to be programmed into a robot, and if you spend more time with Codsworth, the reality of what’s happened to him becomes apparent:

Codsworth has evolved beyond his programming. In his 210 lonely years of existence, he has developed emotional reactions and self-awareness far beyond that of most other robots, and, indeed, has basically evolved an artificial consciousness.

“Emergent intelligence” is the theoretical ability of an AI to eventually develop something resembling human thought processes, and it seems that our dear Codsworth has undergone this. Traveling with him, he displays many sophisticated thoughts and behaviors far beyond what most robots are shown to be capable of. He has memories of pre-War time and places, and understands how various locations have changed. He is capable of learning new information and forming opinions on it, gaining his own understanding of the people and factions in the Commonwealth. He can feel happiness, sorrow, fear, disgust. He can anticipate things, predict danger and imagine how people might respond to your actions. The mere he fact he has opinions and a moral code that he applies to you shows he has free will, something even other robot companions don’t (Ada has a personality, but absolutely does not care about your actions.)

He’s also smart enough to make many wry observational jokes, and to lay one hell of a sick burn on you:

{Joking - Found an old bowling alley. / Amused} Fancy a game, mum? Something tells me the bumpers are no longer available.

Codsworth’s intelligence is even more sophisticated than that. He displays stunning self-awareness, frequently referencing the fact he is a robot and what that means. He is very proud of his background as General Atomics’ finest, and seems pleased with his robot nature and his lot in life. (Unlike Curie, I don’t think Codsworth would ever really want to gain a synth body. He seems quite happy as he is.)

Here he is making reference to still feeling the tug of his programming:

{Seeing an office with chairs arranged in a circle. / Neutral} I've the most incredible urge to rearrange those chairs in a more perfect circle.

Understanding when other robots are restricted by theirs:

A pity. It appears Deezer's programming is too severe to allow for normal conversation. Ah well.

And when they’re actually not:

Codsworth: Greetings, sir. Good to see another robot in town. That chef hat becomes you.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?

Codsworth: Takahashi you say? I'm Codsworth, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?

Codsworth: Is that so? Well, we both know RobCo is no General Atomics. It's not surprising it failed, shoddy work and all. {Friendly - trying to cheer up another robot. / Friendly} Chin up, though. Never know when parts may turn up.

And here’s Galaxy Brain Codsworth ruminating on his own state of being and contemplating his nature:

{Disappointed that he can't be 100% human sometimes. / Sad} It's unfortunate that I lack the proper design to consume liquids. Something about camaraderie over a few drinks is very inviting.

I suppose if I had the hardware, I'd have the software as well. I'd hate to see how that'd affect my honesty and manner settings.

{Reconsidering what he thought was a good idea. / Thinking} Indeed. Perhaps I should rethink my initial desire.

Hilariously, Codsworth does not seem fully aware of how remarkable his intelligence is. He occasionally says things like “if I had feelings” and “if I could feel things,” indicating that in some ways he still believes he is only a robot and defines himself by what a robot is and does.

But as we can see, our humble robot butler has essentially evolved to become the smartest, most emotionally intelligent and person-like robot in the Commonwealth*, and potentially in the series.

([SIDE NOTE: Other FO4 robots nearing Codsworth’s level of consciousness and developed personality include Captain Ironsides, KLE-O, Whitechapel Charlie, and perhaps Takahashi. Curie is close, but also receives the unfair advantage of being uploaded into a synth body with a human brain. Jezebel also functions off of a human brain. Nick is not a robot, he’s a synth (though he does jokingly refer to himself as one) and also has the advantage of a human brain encoded on his processor.])

Also hilariously, the game basically does not acknowledge Codsworth’s impressive evolution. At all. There is absolutely no direct mention of it in the script. It is all left to ambient dialogue and the player’s own observations. And because so many people overlook Codsworth as a companion, they may not even realize exactly how unique his expanded consciousness is.

Now, you might call this total lack of mention a mistake, an oversight on Bethesda’s part, or that old chestnut “bad writing.” I don’t think it is. I think it’s a deliciously subtle little detail to include in a story about humanity, machines, artificial intelligence, and what makes a person.

Many of the themes of FO4 revolve around synths—distinctly not robots, but androids, artificially created beings with fully organic human bodies. Most of the storyline factions have strong beliefs about synths and the relative humanity thereof. The Institute believes that synths are objects, tools, machines no different from a robot who are only simulating their personalities through programming. The Brotherhood believes synths are monstrous abominations, a danger to humanity itself, technology run amok which needs to be destroyed. The Railroad believes they are people. Not humans, but people, built instead of born, free-thinking beings that deserve to be treated with respect and given rights.

Through quests, dialogue, notes, worldbuilding and other venues, players explore these questions. What makes someone a person? If your personality and memories can be rewritten or programmed, then who are you, really? Where do we draw the line between humans and machines, and how do we decide who belongs where?

Meanwhile, as the player contemplates the nature of personhood and the definition of intelligence, their robot butler quietly evolves into a fully-conscious person on his own, right beside them.

Codsworth is unquestionably a machine, but also unquestionably beyond the appliance he was built to be. Which to some philosophies and players should really beg a few other questions. If a robot can be considered a person, then what makes synths so different? And how many excuses do we have to make to pretend otherwise?

Ya boy Codsworth may not be flashy, or powerful, or kissable. He may not be the most glamorous companion around. But he is a good friend, a beloved member of the family, and above all else, a loyal butler—content to serve, quietly and humbly doing his job where some may never even notice him-- or the fact that he’s casually become his own person and sent generations of roboticists and philosophers spinning in their graves.

#fallout 4 #fallout meta #codsworth #hey tumblr fuck you i win #i was forced to do an involuntary second draft #but i like it better now so hey

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fallout-lou-begas · 3 years

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A lot of people have accused yjj of being racist, particarily in regards to one of their comics involving Joshua graham, and in general saying that they glorify colonization. I mainly understand the other things they’ve done, but the racism seems inexusable. A lot of people have also been saying that yjj and their followers have harassed people. I want to get both sides of the story on this, so basically I’m asking what the deal with all this is?

Hi, anon. I'll provide my thoughts since you asked politely.

This post is quite long and can be considered an extension of my previous post on the matter.

Besides the infamous and self-admittedly ill-informed chancla comic, for which they've apologized, essentially all of the claims that Yesjejunus is racist stem from their depiction of the Dead Horses and Sorrows relative to their depiction of Joshua Graham and their original character Joan in their fanfic No Light (and to a lesser extent Learnin’ the Blues), which is heavily grounded in the setting of Honest Hearts. I think it's unambiguous that the depiction of vaguely defined "tribals" in Honest Hearts, assembled through a mishmash of disparate signifiers and recycled stereotypes and named like Warrior Cats and completely helpless without Joshua Graham's guidance, is indeed thoroughly racist, even if it was intended to be more nuanced and came from a place of self-admitted ignorance on the part of the developers. What I struggle to understand is that the developers and writers of Honest Hearts—and of Fallout: New Vegas as a whole since the entire game is rife with such mishandled, insufficient depictions of "tribals" with no explicit inclusion at all of any specific Indigenous people or presence—are given miles and miles more sympathy and leeway for their poor handling of these characters in the source material than a fanfic writer is for using the tools and setting that they were given by that source material, including the "lore" and naming conventions of the Dead Horses and Sorrows, to tell a story that means a lot to them personally, inspired by their own deepest fears and experiences with abuse, and ignited by their charismatic yet deeply and blatantly monstrous interpretation of Joshua Graham. Given that it uses the setting of Honest Hearts as a backdrop, there aren't any living characters in Honest Hearts who aren't "tribals" besides Joshua Graham and Daniel, and post-canon, Daniel wouldn’t be there. When Yesjejunus is accused of sidelining the Native characters or relegating them to the background, it's because they're just not writing a fanfic about Follows-Chalk or Waking Cloud as main characters: they're writing a specifically intentioned story about the Courier and Joshua Graham, a story that for better or worse remains faithful to the source material’s depiction of Joshua Graham’s unilateral authority over the tribes in Zion, a baked-in element of Honest Hearts and a critical narrative component of No Light. To accuse Yesjejunus of being racist on this principle in and of itself would be like accusing me of being lesbophobic if I wrote a Dead Money-set fanfic with Father Elijah as the main character instead of Christine. If you want something that centers these other characters then you'd just have to read a different story, or write it yourself.

As a final note, I do think that Yesjejunus is a skilled writer. This thought exists simultaneously with the acknowledgement that like everyone else in fandom, they're writing as a hobby and do not have the oversight of an editor on the work that they produce personally and for free. It's not lost on them that there's things about their story that they could have handled differently or more sensitively, such as the oft-cited example of the death of the pregnant Dead Horse character in No Light, with more forethought or planning at the time—even if they were bound by the constraints of Honest Heart's own setting (such as the dearth of non-tribal characters who could have possibly been in the scene instead) while writing the story. Everyone is free to critique this aspect of the story as much as they are to critique any other aspect, or to be discomforted by the whole thing (given it's a very intentionally uncomfortable story throughout), but the suggestion of so many of these "callouts" that Yesjejunus must have been cackling maniacally about the plight of poor access to medical care among real Indigenous people is a suggestion made entirely in bad faith, and one that I simply don't care to entertain.

As for the point about harassing people: if anyone's only evidence of being "harassed" by a single, specific person is anonymous messages on tumblr dot com, then I don't believe the evidence. If people are accusing Yesjejunus' "supporters" or "associates" of harassing people, then if the accusation is that this harassment is occurring either on Yesjejunus’ behalf or otherwise with their approval, then it is also going to require more evidence than the mere existence of the mean anonymous messages themselves. This goes for the rumor that they have "spies" in fandom Discord servers or whatever, too, which is a rumor that I think has only manifested among its spreaders by either self-appointed individuals speaking on no one's behalf but their own, and by the metaphorical snake eating its own tail in paranoia. Yesjejunus, and I, and all of our mutual friends have been nothing but annoyed at best and horrified at worst by the efforts of some self-appointed individuals to "defend" them with such excess vitriol. Speaking plainly, we generally avoid literally any kind of anonymous or public interaction with anyone who's vocally opposed to us as a rule, specifically to avoid this kind of debacle, and when I say "we" and "us" I'm not referring to some sort of shadowy cabal of conspirators scheming to advance the nefarious YJJ agenda, but to a group of friends. I don't know how to explain to some people who question why we praise their work or share their art sometimes how normal friendships work online.

I also take severe umbrage with the validity of the breadth of these anonymous harassment accusations because of how patently fraudulent several other claims are. Yesjejunus has recently been accused of "grooming,” for example, an accusation only even worth considering if one temporarily forgets what grooming actually is and pretends that grooming is when someone older interacts in literally any capacity with someone younger. Some will say that they’re not accusing them of grooming per se, or not of grooming by that name, but in any case, the meaning is that Yesjejunus has interacted with minors and this on its own is intended to scare and upset you. I have seen only two users actually named as "victims" of these “interactions,’ however, sas-afras and comrade-shrimp, but both users have publicly refuted this accusation because neither of them were minors when they first interacted with Yesjejunus. Frustratingly, though, these literal refutations from the literal so-called "victims" are either dismissed out of hand or muddied by hand-wringing mutterings of "well, I could have sworn they were actually minors, though" and "well they claim that they weren't actually groomed, but who really knows." The spreading and trust in completely anonymous accusations, combined with the total rejection of statements from the only people named in these accusations when their statements contradict the accusations, suggests to me that the existence of these actual interactions (and assuming these interactions occurred both intentionally and with Yesjejunus’ being fully aware of the other person being a minor) is not nearly as important as pushing the narrative that "Yesjejunus is a groomer" or “preying on minors” onto the fandom, and ensuring that anyone who doesn't take this claim completely at face value appears complicit in something horrible. As for anyone who still feels "uncomfortable" at how sas-afras or comrade-shrimp or me or anyone who is very much an adult but just so happens to be younger than Yesjejunus could ever become endeared to them, I reiterate that sometimes I don't know how to explain to people how normal friendships work online.

I want to conclude by saying something that I've said many times before: you don't have to like Yesjejunus (or me, or everybody, or literally anyone else) and no one is holding a gun to your head to befriend them or read their work or look at their art. The block and filter and unfollow buttons are very conveniently located on your dashboard and are totally free to use. Everything I've written here is not intended as some argument as to why everyone on the planet needs to be following their blog and leaving kudos on Learnin' the Blues. Still, while I think everybody has the right to curate their own dashboard and remove the content that they don't want to see, I also think it's reasonable for me to not want my friend to get their name dragged through the mud by the exaggerated and misinformed claims of petty, grudge-bearing brigadiers and self-aggrandizing fandom security guards when they'd like to just dump funny shitposts about the Burned Man's chode in peace.

#asks #anon #yesjejunus #discourse

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thegreenmeridian · 3 years

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@honeybeelullaby tagged me on an “infodump about your interests” meme!

My interest is a bit more ghoulish than most but fuck it!

I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of plane crashes. My final essay for my degree module was supposed to be about monolingual vs multilingual workplaces, and I turned that into a whole thing on plane crashes.

It’s the factors involved that fascinate me. Rarely is an accident caused by a single thing. It’s a chain of events, little slip-ups and oversights that by themselves are unlikely to cause major problems. On occasion, these chain links are forged decades prior to the accident.

Take the 1996 midair collision of a Saudi 747 and a Kazakh Il-76 over Charkhi Dadri in India. On the face of it, a simple case of pilot error — the Illyushin pilots descended below their assigned altitude and strayed into the Boeing’s path. What’s really interesting is why that happened.

For starters, the airport at New Delhi did not have secondary surveillance radar. Secondary radar communicates with the planes’ transponders, allowing the air traffic controller to see the speed, altitude, and identification of each blip. Primary radar, however, is simply dots on a screen. The controller must place tracking pins on each dot to keep track of who’s who and rely on the pilots for fast and accurate reporting of their altitude, and has no way of knowing if a plane deviates from its assigned altitude.

Another issue at New Delhi was the sheer number of flights using the same corridors - routes in and out of the airspace. At most major airports, departing planes travel along one corridor and arrivals another. At New Delhi, all civilian flights travelled the same corridor. Think of it like all cars using the same side of a motorway to leave the other side free for military vehicles. If that sounds dangerous to you, well, it is.

Still, planes generally came and went from New Delhi without issue, thanks to the highly professional ATC teams in charge of keeping the skies in order. So how did the Kazakh flight end up at the wrong altitude?

The captain was highly experienced, with 9200 hours under his belt, only a few hundred less than the Saudi captain. But where he got those hours of experience matters.

Kazakhstan was only 5 years into its independence at the time of the accident. The pilots, like their plane, had come of age under Soviet flight regulations which were considerably different from Western regulations.

Where the Western world demanded a high standard of English (Aviation English being the industry-wide language), the Soviets did not. For the Kazakh pilots, this left them with only one man in the cockpit able to understand the air traffic controller, the radio operator. This is a position that simply does not exist in Western manufactured aircraft. It’s a matter of design philosophy. Western aircraft were built specifically for the civilian market, and Soviet aircraft were largely adapted from military designs in which a separate radio operator’s position is the norm.

For the crew of the Kazakh flight, this resulted in a translation delay between radioman and pilot, and a radioman who did not have his own instrumentation and thus had to either peer over the pilots’ shoulders or request updates. In theory, it’s doable. In reality, no member of the Il-76’s crew had the entire picture of what was happening.

Another disparity between Western and Soviet flight rules was what measurements were used. New Delhi’s controllers were giving the assigned altitudes and distances in feet, and the radio operator was having to convert to metres. The inevitable confusion caused by this was a frequent matter of complaint for New Delhi’s operators when dealing with flights originating in former Soviet states. Soviet pilots would also rarely repeat back instructions — standard among Western pilots to ensure correct understanding for both pilot and controller — instead simply replying “roger” and switching their radios off.

And the final issue caused by Soviet flight regulations? Crew resource management. An operational technique that grew out of the 1977 Tenerife disaster, CRM training encourages cockpit cohesion and an atmosphere where the captain listens to their subordinates, and subordinates feel empowered to correct a captain’s mistakes. It’s a primary factor in why air disasters have become increasingly rare since Tenerife. Look at any accident report since its inception and chances are, you’ll find a recommendation that the airline(s) involved need to improve their CRM training.

For Soviet pilots, CRM training was nonexistent. In the chaos after the Soviet split, when airlines were disintegrating and changing hands and money was tight, few took up the challenge of providing CRM training to their crews. This was arguably a result of Soviet attitudes towards aviation safety, in which little, if anything, was learned from previous accidents — which were generally seen as an inevitable part of flying. Add in the suppression of information surrounding accidents with state operated airlines such as Aeroflot, and you start to see why Soviet aircraft and aircrews were considerably more dangerous to fly with than their Western counterparts.

So, what did all this mean for the crew of KZA1907?

ATC cleared the inbound Kazakh flight to descent to 15,000 ft. Coming from the opposite direction, the departing Saudi flight was cleared to climb 14,000 ft. About 8 minutes after the transmission, KZA1907 reported that it had reached its altitude. In fact, they were at 14,500 ft and still descending. This was later determined to be a result of poor communication among the crew.

As was standard, the ATC operator reported the oncoming traffic, warning the Kazakh pilots that a Saudi 747 was about 8 nautical miles ahead and, so he thought, a safe 1000ft below, and asked them to report when it was in sight. The radio operator’s reply of “now looking 1907” was the last anyone heard of the Kazakh flight.

Rather than the level flight at 15,000 ft that he’s reported to ATC, the radioman noticed at last that the plane was at 14,000 and slowly descending. Ironically, had he not noticed, the two planes might have just barely missed each other. Instead, the captain pushed forward on the throttles to climb to the correct altitude. Moments later, the tail of the Illyushin clipped the left wing of the Boeing, sending both plummeting to the ground and killing all 349 people aboard both flights. The deadliest midair collision in history.

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anakinisvaderisanakin · 3 years

Text

Memento - (Ahsoka and Vader’s thoughts at the end of TCW oneshot)

****

Ahsoka regarded the saber in her hand. Smudged, dented. Its weight sodden against her palm, a sombre reminder of what was no more. As the dust settled around her, the crudely painted helmets of her squad served as the only reminder of what had transpired. Jesse, loyal til the end. Forced to kill his friends, willing to die because of one fatal final order. Behind her, she felt Rex’s forlorn eyes on her. The smell of embers and ashes burned her nostrils, the crackling of burning wires and melting durasteel dying away with the winds mournful wail.

What was to become of her now? The saber was her only tie to her roots, to her legacy. Was she to remain a fugitive forever? If the Jedi had all been targeted, surely any stragglers would be hunted down.

The saber. Her last tie to the order. To her upbringing, her religion, her family. To Anakin. Anakin, who had saved both her weapons; hopeful, perhaps naively so, that she would return to the Jedi. To him. Where she belonged. Anakin, who had been so excited to see her again. Anakin, who had eagerly approached her only for her to shoot him down. Anakin, who was only going to save the Chancellor, to finally end the war. The war was over, but at what cost? Was Anakin even still alive? There were so many things she’d meant to tell him, how she wished she’d left master Yoda with a message. He had inquired, and yet she’d hesitated.

What about Maul’s supposed visions? Anakin was groomed to be the Sith Lord’s new apprentice. Darth Sidious. The Chancellor, now Emperor. No. Anakin was kind, and good, and brave. He’d never fall so far, never stoop so low. Ahsoka refused to even entertain the idea, refused to imagine a world in which invincible Anakin could succumb to darkness. She’d felt his despair, she’d felt the shrill cry through the Force. She’d sensed his conflict, his fear, his pain - and then he was gone.

She reached out, but found nothing as if grasping at straws. Emptiness, and a raw wound where their connection had been bluntly severed. Anakin would never purposely shut her out, never willingly break their bond. That left only one option.

Sighing, body sore, aching and weary from the struggle to survive; Ahsoka admired the saber. Where its twin had disappeared to, she couldn’t say. Lost somewhere in the turmoil, as she and Rex fought tooth and nail to persevere. Once its blade had been a vibrant green, now a royal blue. Anakin’s doing. She hadn’t minded. It had felt like a gesture of affection, of appreciation. Something to tie her closer to her former master, the man who had become like her older brother. Closer to Obi-Wan, too.

What about him? Had he managed to get to Anakin in time? She couldn’t sense him either, the Dark Side streaming through the living Force like an infection, like a festering, deadly disease. Rotting all that was good and warm away, leaving her to fumble blind in the vast darkness of infinity.

Ahsoka stroked the pad of her thumb over the ignition button, faltering for a moment. The saber had been a gift, a token. It was her life, as Anakin had once said - something he, in turn, had been taught by Obi-Wan. Still, if she kept it as a memento, allowing it to be a weakness, it may do more harm than good. A lightsaber was a Jedi’s weapon, and as far as she was aware, all Jedi must die. If she left the saber, perhaps - if it were found - she would be presumed dead? Swallowing stubbornly against the ball of unshed tears lodged in her throat, she took in the weight of the saber that had saved her life uncountable times in her hand. Allowed herself to think of Anakin, of how she owed her life to him. Of how she wished she’d been able to come to his aid. They were supposed to have more time.

Hand going limp, Ahsoka let the saber hilt fall to the rough ground with a dull, metallic clunking noise. It rolled over and came to a skidded halt, and she shut her eyes tightly together; lips pursed with the last of her resolve. The Jedi were gone. The Republic was gone. The clones, the entire 332nd wiped out in an instant. Master Yoda, Master Plo, Master Sinube, Master Kenobi.

Anakin.

Tipping her head back, Ahsoka’s chin quivered as she regarded the billowing smoke spilling from the ruins of the star destroyer that had become the tomb of her friends. The tomb of her past, of her present; of her reality. She felt the burn behind her eyes, the bridge of her nose red hot and prickly. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. Blinking rapidly, she slowly shifted to turn her back on the rows of graves she and Rex had dug for his brothers. Their brothers. Avoiding another glance at the carnage, at her discarded Jedi identity, she let the makeshift cemetery fade away in the distance. She was alone now, and so was Rex. Perhaps the last of the Jedi, as well as the last clone with his free will intact - the only clone without Jedi blood on his hands.

At least they were alone together. As she dragged her feet up to join Rex by the beat up bomber that had become their saving grace, his bruised face seemed hollow. His half smile was weak, dishonest. An attempt at calming her, at reassuring her. Watching his hollow dark eyes, still glassy as he mourned his fallen brothers; she caved. Warm, salty tears rolled down her cheeks as she hid her face in her trembling hands and cried.

****

Vader regarded the saber in his hand. It was smaller, lighter than he remembered it. Frail, fragile. Snow and ice clinging to its freezing durasteel exterior; even as he used a still somewhat clumsy hand to brush it off. It gleamed in the cold sunlight, air crisp with the howling of the wind. The Jedi had meant for this specific saber to be a gift, and a plea. A plea for his lost padawan to return to him, to the Jedi order. The Jedi had been cowards, traitors and liars. A sect, envious of The Jedi’s powers, of his capabilities, of his potential. They had been foolish, and naive. Backwards, stuck in a bygone era. The padawan had been the first to fall by the wayside, their first oversight, their first sacrifice. The Jedi had tried to dissuade her, begging her to stay. He hadn’t betrayed her, he’d believed in her innocent. He’d been the one to clear her name. Still, she abandoned him. Still, she thought only of herself.

The Jedi couldn’t be blamed for the order, and their hubris. But the padawan had been his responsibility. He had failed her, just as his old master had failed him. A lineage of tragedy. The padawan wasn’t a Jedi, not anymore. Still, the lone saber and its dented, damaged exterior spoke a painful truth where it lay discarded among the wreckage of a republic star destroyer. Lonely, forgotten. Left behind.

The padawan would never let it go, would never willingly abandon such an important part of her identity. If she had lived, it would have brought her comfort, reminding her of The Jedi - a foolish young man that Vader refused to admit was all too present. His ghost, and the mistakes he’d made, haunting his nightmares; his every waking moment imprisoned by the chains he himself had forged. The padawan would want to keep the saber, to remember her master as he was - unaware of what he had become.

Shifting, Vader took the dainty saber hilt awkwardly in both hands, silently admiring its familiar silhouette as he flicked the ignition. The blue blade appeared with the expected hiss, slightly wobbly but intact. The padawan’s eyes had spoken of her gratitude when she’d accepted it; taking the gift The Jedi had reserved only for her. He’d hoped she may return, even when his master had half convinced him to give up. Perhaps it had been a self indulgent decision to change the colour from green to blue, the work it had taken not insignificant. It had felt like an homage, a sign of respect. A way for the padawan to remember him, wherever she may wander.

Vader hadn’t executed the order. The Jedi would have maintained the belief that the padawan might have survived, his naivety a luxury Vader could not afford. He knew better. Time had gone by in a flash, and yet it seemed to drag painfully slowly on. The padawan was no Jedi, but it wouldn’t have mattered to the clones. The Jedi would have rushed to find her remains, urgent to locate her final resting place. As Vader gazed solemnly at the snow covered ruins that marked the padawans grave, reaching out one final time with an uncertainty - fearful, perhaps of his master’s ire, perhaps of what he may find - all he could grasp was emptiness. A piercing, sullen nothingness as he stared wordlessly at the sky through the red tinted lenses of his face plate.

When the war is over, The Jedi had thought. The padawan was to go to Mandalore, to capture Maul. He was to go to Coruscant, to rescue the Chancellor. The Sith Lord. Palpatine. Peace, he had fought for. Peace was all he’d ever wanted. Peace, as he left the order behind. Peace, as he and Padmé raised their baby on Naboo, by the lake as she had wished. His old master perhaps visiting, being the brother and father The Jedi had blindly sought approval and praise from. Prosperity. The padawan returned to the life where she belonged.

As snow crystals danced past his vision, the heavy cape he wore following the same silent tune; Vader turned off the saber. Another soft hiss, and he clutched the weapon harshly; feeling the durasteel creak and protest against the might of the mechno that had replaced his dismembered limbs. The padawan was gone, there was no other explanation.

Why had he needed the confirmation to begin with? The Jedi and his past meant nothing to him. The padawan and her sarcastic remarks, her coy expression, her jests and jabs. A hand on his shoulder for support, the way she spoke The Jedi’s name when she was concerned for his well being - a scowl on her face, her lips pursed. Perhaps it was for the best. She would never need to come to terms with the events that had triggered the purge, would never be forced to reevaluate her perception of her master. He would forever remain a beacon of hope, a hero, someone to look up to. The Jedi would remain untainted in her mind, for she was no longer alive to learn the truth.

Vader glanced down at the saber still in his grip, almost fully engulfed by his large, gloved hand. He should leave it were he found it, it was of no use to him. Still, he found himself unable to let the weapon go. Opening his hand; he regarded the thin, jagged dents and scrapes travelling along its once pristine surface. A melancholy swept over him, making his stomach churn and he snarled silently at his own weakness. He was better than this; he was stronger than The Jedi. He would not succumb to sentimentality, would not falter. Where had that left him? Anger simmering just beneath the surface, bitter and infernal; Vader turned his back on the poetic scenery.

Still, as he trudged back the way he had come through the snow - he held in his hand the lightsaber that had once belonged to Ahsoka Tano.

****

I got feels after watching the mastercut of Revenge of the Sith and The Siege of Mandalore remastered into one movie, and I was reminded once again of the painful ending of TCW. Hence, I wanted to write a little fic dedicated to it - also first new fic I write and post since I was banned from my old acc. Anyway, enjoy - if you can call it that!

Ao3 link below:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647357

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rickmctumbleface · 4 years

Text

Good advice to Dems regarding SCOTUS seat steal

If we accept the premise, as it seems to me we must, that there is no way to stop Republicans from confirming Amy Coney Barrett before next Inauguration Day,the following analysis and advice seem like a great approach to the confirmation hearings to me: (Attributed to Bill Svelmoe, associate professor of history at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame. And an author, etc. ) “A few thoughts on Amy Coney Barrett, our new Supreme Court justice. - As noted above, she's a done deal. So Democrats should not waste time trying to besmirch her character, focusing on her religion, trying to box her into a corner on how she will vote on hypothetical cases. The People of Praise is not a cult. I've had half a dozen of their kids in my classes, including some men who heard about me from their female friends. Almost without fail, these have been among the best students I've ever had. Extremely bright. Careful critical thinkers. Wonderful writers. I loved having them in class. So don't go after the People of Praise. By all accounts Barrett walks on water. I've had that in a roundabout way from people I know at Notre Dame, including from folks as liberal as me, who actually look forward to seeing her on the court. I have no first hand knowledge of her, but take the above for what you will. So Democrats should not take a typical approach with her. - Stay focused on the election. If the election were tomorrow, Biden wins comfortably, and the Democrats likely take the Senate as well. The latest polls were taken after RBG's death. No gain for Trump. In fact the majority of Americans think the Supreme Court seat should not be filled until after the election. Watching Republicans ram Barrett through helps Democrats. So don't mess with her. Let Republicans do what they're going to do. As a great man once said, It is what it is. If the Democrats take the presidency and the Senate, none of this matters much. A Democratic administration will not let a conservative court mess with Democratic priorities. Lots of avenues, including adding justices, passing a law that no act of Congress can be overturned by the Court except by a seven vote majority, etc. So keep the focus where it matters. On November 3. So how should Democrats approach these hearings? I've seen one good suggestion today. Turn all their time over to Kamala Harris. I like that one. Here's a few more suggestions. - Don't show up for the hearings. There is no reason to dignify this raw exercise in political hypocrisy. Don't legitimize the theft of a Supreme Court seat with your presence. This also shows Barrett that the nation knows she is letting herself become a pawn in Trump's game. That in itself says something about character. - Schedule high interest alternate programming directly opposite the hearings. Bring together all 26 of the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault. Let them tell their stories on air. Or interview liberal justices that Biden will add to the court next year. Hearings with only Republicans extolling Barrett's virtues will get low ratings. It shouldn't be hard to come up with something people would rather watch. Hell, replay the Kavanaugh hearings! Bring in Matt Damon to reprise his role on SNL! I'd watch that! How about a show "Beers with Squee"?! - If Democrats do attend the hearings, they should not focus on Barrett's views on any future cases. She'll just dodge those questions anyway. They're hypothetical. She should dodge them. Don't even mention her religion. Instead Democrats should focus on the past four years of the Trump administration. This has been the most corrupt administration in American history. No need for hypotheticals. The questions are all right there. Judge Barrett, would you please explain the emoluments clause in the Constitution. [She does.] Judge Barrett, if a president were to refuse to divest himself of his properties and, in fact, continue to steer millions of dollars of tax payer money to his properties, would this violate the emoluments clause? Then simply go down the list of specific cases in which Trump and his family of grifters have used the presidency to enrich themselves. Ask her repeatedly if this violates the emoluments clause. Include of course using the American ambassador to Britain to try to get the British Open golf tournament at a Trump property. Judge Barrett, does this violate the emoluments clause? Then turn to the Hatch Act. Judge Barrett, would you please explain the Hatch Act to the American people. [She does.] Judge Barrett, did Kellyanne Conway violate the Hatch Act on these 60 occasions? [List them. Then after Barrett's response, and just fyi, the Office of the Special Council already convicted her, ask Barrett this.] When Kellyanne Conway, one of the president's top advisors openly mocked the Hatch Act after violating it over 60 times, should she have been removed from office? Then turn to all the other violations of the Hatch Act during the Republican Convention. Get Barrett's opinion on those. Then turn to Congressional Oversight. Judge Barrett, would you please explain to the American people the duties of Congress, according to the Constitution, to oversee the executive branch. [She does so.] Judge Barrett, when the Trump administration refuses time and again [list them] to respond to a subpoena from Congress, is this an obstruction of the constitutional duty of Congress for oversight? Is this an obstruction of justice? Then turn to Trump's impeachment. Read the transcript of Trump's phone call. Judge Barrett, would you describe this as a "perfect phone call"? Is there anything about this call that troubles you, as a judge, or as an American? Judge Barrett, would you please define for the American people the technical definition of collusion. [She does.] Then go through all of the contacts between the Trump administration and Russians during the election and get her opinion on whether these amount to collusion. Doesn't matter how she answers. It gets Trump's perfidy back in front of Americans right before the election. Such questions could go on for days. Get her opinion on the evidence for election fraud. Go through all the Trump "laws" that have been thrown out by the courts. Ask her about the separation of children from their parents at the border. And on and on and on through the worst and most corrupt administration in our history. Don't forget to ask her opinion on the evidence presented by the 26 Trump accusers. Judge Barrett, do you think this is enough evidence of sexual assault to bring the perpetrator before a court of law? Do you think a sitting president should be able to postpone such cases until after his term? Judge Barrett, let's listen again, shall we, to Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape. I don't have a question. I just want to hear it again. Or maybe, as a woman, how do you feel listening to this recording? Let's listen to it again, shall we. Take your time. Taking this approach does a number of things. 1. Even if Barrett bobs and weaves and dodges all of this, it reminds Americans right before the election of just how awful this administration has been. 2. None of these questions are hypothetical. They are all real documented incidents. The vast majority are pretty obvious examples of breaking one law or the other. If Barrett refuses to answer honestly, she demonstrates that she is willing to simply be another Trump toady. Any claims to high moral Christian character are shown to be as empty as the claims made by the 80% of white evangelicals who continue to support Trump. 3. If she answers honestly, as I rather suspect she would, then Americans get to watch Trump and his lawless administration convicted by Trump's own chosen justice. Any of these outcomes would go much further toward delegitimizing the entire Republican project than if Democrats go down the typical road of asking hypothetical questions or trying to undermine her character. Use her supposed good character and keen legal mind against the administration that has nominated her. Let her either convict Trump or embarrass herself by trying to weasel out of convicting Trump. Either way, it'll be great television ...”

#SCOTUS #amy coney barrett

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phoenixonwheels · 4 years

Text

(Attributed to Bill Svelmoe, associate professor of history at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame. And an author, etc. )

“A few thoughts on Amy Coney Barrett, our new Supreme Court justice.

- As noted above, she's a done deal. So Democrats should not waste time trying to besmirch her character, focusing on her religion, trying to box her into a corner on how she will vote on hypothetical cases.

The People of Praise is not a cult. I've had half a dozen of their kids in my classes, including some men who heard about me from their female friends. Almost without fail, these have been among the best students I've ever had. Extremely bright. Careful critical thinkers. Wonderful writers. I loved having them in class. So don't go after the People of Praise.

By all accounts Barrett walks on water. I've had that in a roundabout way from people I know at Notre Dame, including from folks as liberal as me, who actually look forward to seeing her on the court. I have no first hand knowledge of her, but take the above for what you will.

So Democrats should not take a typical approach with her.

- Stay focused on the election. If the election were tomorrow, Biden wins comfortably, and the Democrats likely take the Senate as well. The latest polls were taken after RBG's death. No gain for Trump. In fact the majority of Americans think the Supreme Court seat should not be filled until after the election. Watching Republicans ram Barrett through helps Democrats. So don't mess with her. Let Republicans do what they're going to do. As a great man once said, It is what it is.

If the Democrats take the presidency and the Senate, none of this matters much. A Democratic administration will not let a conservative court mess with Democratic priorities. Lots of avenues, including adding justices, passing a law that no act of Congress can be overturned by the Court except by a seven vote majority, etc. So keep the focus where it matters. On November 3.

So how should Democrats approach these hearings? I've seen one good suggestion today. Turn all their time over to Kamala Harris. I like that one.

Here's a few more suggestions.

- Don't show up for the hearings. There is no reason to dignify this raw exercise in political hypocrisy. Don't legitimize the theft of a Supreme Court seat with your presence. This also shows Barrett that the nation knows she is letting herself become a pawn in Trump's game. That in itself says something about character.

- Schedule high interest alternate programming directly opposite the hearings. Bring together all 26 of the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault. Let them tell their stories on air. Or interview liberal justices that Biden will add to the court next year. Hearings with only Republicans extolling Barrett's virtues will get low ratings. It shouldn't be hard to come up with something people would rather watch. Hell, replay the Kavanaugh hearings! Bring in Matt Damon to reprise his role on SNL! I'd watch that! How about a show "Beers with Squee"?!

- If Democrats do attend the hearings, they should not focus on Barrett's views on any future cases. She'll just dodge those questions anyway. They're hypothetical. She should dodge them. Don't even mention her religion.

Instead Democrats should focus on the past four years of the Trump administration. This has been the most corrupt administration in American history. No need for hypotheticals. The questions are all right there.

Judge Barrett, would you please explain the emoluments clause in the Constitution. [She does.] Judge Barrett, if a president were to refuse to divest himself of his properties and, in fact, continue to steer millions of dollars of tax payer money to his properties, would this violate the emoluments clause?

Then simply go down the list of specific cases in which Trump and his family of grifters have used the presidency to enrich themselves. Ask her repeatedly if this violates the emoluments clause. Include of course using the American ambassador to Britain to try to get the British Open golf tournament at a Trump property. Judge Barrett, does this violate the emoluments clause?

Then turn to the Hatch Act.

Judge Barrett, would you please explain the Hatch Act to the American people. [She does.] Judge Barrett, did Kellyanne Conway violate the Hatch Act on these 60 occasions? [List them. Then after Barrett's response, and just fyi, the Office of the Special Council already convicted her, ask Barrett this.] When Kellyanne Conway, one of the president's top advisors openly mocked the Hatch Act after violating it over 60 times, should she have been removed from office?

Then turn to all the other violations of the Hatch Act during the Republican Convention. Get Barrett's opinion on those.

Then turn to Congressional Oversight.

Judge Barrett, would you please explain to the American people the duties of Congress, according to the Constitution, to oversee the executive branch. [She does so.] Judge Barrett, when the Trump administration refuses time and again [list them] to respond to a subpoena from Congress, is this an obstruction of the constitutional duty of Congress for oversight? Is this an obstruction of justice?

Then turn to Trump's impeachment.

Read the transcript of Trump's phone call. Judge Barrett, would you describe this as a "perfect phone call"? Is there anything about this call that troubles you, as a judge, or as an American?

Judge Barrett, would you please define for the American people the technical definition of collusion. [She does.] Then go through all of the contacts between the Trump administration and Russians during the election and get her opinion on whether these amount to collusion. Doesn't matter how she answers. It gets Trump's perfidy back in front of Americans right before the election.

Such questions could go on for days. Get her opinion on the evidence for election fraud. Go through all the Trump "laws" that have been thrown out by the courts. Ask her about the separation of children from their parents at the border. And on and on and on through the worst and most corrupt administration in our history. Don't forget to ask her opinion on the evidence presented by the 26 Trump accusers. Judge Barrett, do you think this is enough evidence of sexual assault to bring the perpetrator before a court of law? Do you think a sitting president should be able to postpone such cases until after his term? Judge Barrett, let's listen again, shall we, to Trump's "Access Hollywood" tape. I don't have a question. I just want to hear it again. Or maybe, as a woman, how do you feel listening to this recording? Let's listen to it again, shall we. Take your time.

Taking this approach does a number of things.

1. Even if Barrett bobs and weaves and dodges all of this, it reminds Americans right before the election of just how awful this administration has been.

2. None of these questions are hypothetical. They are all real documented incidents. The vast majority are pretty obvious examples of breaking one law or the other. If Barrett refuses to answer honestly, she demonstrates that she is willing to simply be another Trump toady. Any claims to high moral Christian character are shown to be as empty as the claims made by the 80% of white evangelicals who continue to support Trump.

3. If she answers honestly, as I rather suspect she would, then Americans get to watch Trump and his lawless administration convicted by Trump's own chosen justice.

Any of these outcomes would go much further toward delegitimizing the entire Republican project than if Democrats go down the typical road of asking hypothetical questions or trying to undermine her character.

Use her supposed good character and keen legal mind against the administration that has nominated her. Let her either convict Trump or embarrass herself by trying to weasel out of convicting Trump. Either way, it'll be great television ...”

43 notes · View notes