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The cult control tactics of online "social justice" activism

I know I'm far from the first person to say that toxic online "social justice" activism is like a cult. But hopefully I have something new to say as someone who lived through religious right cult stuff in childhood, and later on got into critical social justice before that whole scene got really weird. It has been strange seeing the same coercive mind control and emotional abuse tactics emerging on the "left." Not just outliers on Tumblr or fringe campus stuff, not just anonymous false flag trolls, but defended by established institutions, mainstream media, and public figures.
These are some of the methods of cult control and how they play out.
Pathologizing personal boundaries and defense mechanisms. If someone insisted your firewall and virus scanner are evil and you needed to disable them indefinitely in order to fix your computer, you'd know they're up to no good. But cults routinely succeed in mind control by pathologizing natural defense mechanisms. There's that part of you that starts to think, "Hey, I'm not being treated right" but you suppress it because the cult has taught you that saying "no" is selfish, and that your natural intuition is a sign of brokenness. The entire concept of "fragility" is that any hesitation or questioning of the dogma comes from a place of selfishness and entitlement. Leaked documents from Seattle Public Schools used quotes about the "lizard brain" and false fear from the amygdala in order to pre-emptively head off objections. The accusations of "self-hatred" and "internalized oppression" are lobbed at people who disagree with the activists who claim to speak for them. Similarly, the old right-wing groups were fond of condemning disagreement with spiritual authorities and insisted on "giving up rights."
Gavin DeBecker's The Gift of Fear, in contrast, stresses the importance of listening to one's gut feelings even if it's considered impolite. Denigrating the mark's potential hesitation also fits with the "Typecasting" and "Discounting the Word No" parts of DeBecker's pre-incident indicators. Ironically, a movement that champions feminism and #metoo is using sleazy pick-up artist tactics.
How do people fall for this stuff to begin with? Well, cults rarely start with insulting their marks. They often say the decadent outside world is already hopelessly evil -- something people are much more likely to relate to and believe -- and from there they persuade you that you have been already compromised by the world system, and that the cult is the only way to heal from the oppressive system and return to your "real" self. The catch is that the "healing" requires access to your most personal and private thoughts, and you're not allowed to say "no" to it.
So, once your personal boundaries have been pathologized and dismantled, and the decadent outside world has been denigrated as an evil that can only be resisted by the cult's dogma, you're open to let the cult control every aspect of your personal life -- and your mind itself.
The pettiness is the point: micromanaging personal lives and thoughts. In a healthy church or activist group, people are given general moral principles and then allowed to use their own judgment for what that looks like in their daily life. If strict rules are part of the faith, then the rules are consistent -- not ratcheting up the goalposts. There is room for "adiaphora," which is the idea that some aspects of life -- with rare exceptions -- are morally neutral, such as one's personal preferences in food or music or hobbies. Not so for right-wing cults or the woke left. Smurfs are Satanic. Paw Patrol is racist. Hallmark Movies are fascist. Beethoven is problematic. Unpack your Spotify playlist, decolonize your gardening, and interrogate your knitting. Only watch shows that "give glory to God." Critically examine your favorite TV characters because "the personal is political." If you like the wrong thing, you might be betraying your community. The idea of "art for art's sake" and "let people enjoy things" is judged as a complicit or sinful or privileged take. You don't have the right to self-determination anyway, since you are living on stolen land.
This is an endless feedback loop: You further hand over your judgment and autonomy to the cult, the cult's morality system is always on your mind, you never get to just relax and enjoy things, you continue to think your ordinary likes and dislikes are sinful and problematic, and you don't trust yourself for the most trivial choices let alone major life decisions. The cult takes over all aspects of your life -- and most of it has nothing to do with actual faith or justice. In addition, you are socially isolated from people with less strict tastes, and therefore more psychologically dependent on the cult.
Christian Scripture points out that this kind of life isn't even effective in resisting the oppressive world system -- it is actually playing right into it: (Colossians 2:20-23).
You'd think people would not want to waste their time obsessing over trivial matters, but part of why they do is:
Magical thinking. I remember when leftist activism was more grounded to the real world and material cause-and-effect. To the extent that "social justice" made any demands on people's private lives and hobbies, it was more like: Try not to accidentally fund genocides or child labor with your consumer purchases. Beyond that, policing other people's personal likes and dislikes was not on the radar.
But something changed in recent years -- and I've actually seen comments justifying harassment campaigns over hobbies where they actually believe doing fanart and fanfiction wrong will be butterfly-effected to real-world violence down the road. While the Left has postmodern fairy dust, conservative Christian cults believed cabbage patch dolls were demon possessed and that a mystical "umbrella of protection" would keep you safe as long as you obeyed the authority figures.
For some cult followers, this intense scrutiny of everyday life is a feature, not a bug. They are drawn to the idea that their boring office job, domestic life, and mundane hobbies are actually a cosmic battle of good and evil -- especially if they get to hassle other people's mundane lives. The argument of "Let people live their own lives, as long they're not harming anyone" doesn't work on them, because their definition of "harm" is meaninglessly broad. The idea of "mind your own business" doesn't work on them, because getting into other people's business is considered heroic evidence of how much they care.
This magical thinking, when tied in with the other elements I described before, has a profoundly unhealthy effect where people lose their sense of self-awareness in a strange combination of low self-worth and overbearingly high self-certainty. Believers are told, for reasons I described above, that the little personal things which are part of being human are toxic -- but these things never go away, they're just outsourced to the spiritual world. This Twitter and Tumblr attitude of "My personal likes and dislikes are more critically pure than yours" has become the new "God told me to do this thing (that I was going to do anyway)."
Personal story time: this was the point where I realized I was getting burnt out and dangerously close to the left end of the horseshoe -- and that I needed, for my own mental health, to step back a bit from the social justice thing. (Mind you, this was years before there was this creepy totalitarian push for "social justice" to take over every aspect of your personal life. Nobody was asking me to be this way. I was self-radicalizing without the outside social pressure that young people have today.) I didn't want to become simply the left-wing version of the right-wing legalism I had earlier rejected. I had to stop trying so hard to be a Good Person and accept that it was okay to spend time on things solely because I enjoyed them. (I suppose this is what you all call the Grill Pill? Or, as it was called in the old days, a chill pill.)
Anyway, the magical thinking that outside influences and normal lifestyles are inherently harmful also gives justification for isolating people who offer different views. So...
Cutting off contact from outsiders. When a believer cuts someone out of their life for being too "worldly" or too "problematic," it is primarily the believer who is being isolated. The cancelled or cut-off person at least has the chance to find freer and healthier friendships. The believer, meanwhile, is stuck in the suffocating authoritarian circle, having burned their bridges with normies.
You may say, "That's still not what a cult is. A cult is a unique religion and standalone institution with a central authority figure and a formal initiation rite." That's what they thought back in my day, too, which didn't take into account:
Social contagion and institutional takeover: Things happen very quickly. My family's lifestyle changed overnight, even though we never formally joined the main cult we were affected by, or any of the other right-wing organizations that influenced us. These authoritarian fundamentalist groups weren't even acknowledged as cults until recent years. It is obvious in hindsight, but back then people thought only new standalone religions could be cults. In reality, cult dogmas got into mainstream evangelical churches and even a few secular institutions.
So, once the cult worldview has become widely accepted or the social circle has become an echo chamber, people start trying to outbid each other for moral authority, becoming a purity spiral rewarding the strictest interpretations.
The Twenty Mattress Fallacy. In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea," a house guest is proven to be real nobility -- not just an ordinary commoner -- because she was sensitive enough to feel a pea placed at the bottom of the bed even with twenty mattresses on top of it. Similarly, cults and echo chambers believe delicate sensitivities and extremist opinions are signs of purity and nobility of thought. This leads to constantly moving the goalposts. Back in the heydey of Christian Right purity culture, it wasn't enough to save one's virginity for marriage: if you were really committed, you saved your first kiss for your wedding day. Or better yet, didn't touch each other at all. Then they started saying you were ruined if you even had a crush.
The online left has a similar dynamic: you're never good enough and the work is never done. You have to go above and beyond the "bare minimum" on things that are performative and inconsequential to begin with. Something that was okay five minutes ago is worthy of cancellation now, so you are always kept on your feet. It is considered a sign of empathy and insightfulness to see covert fascism in everyday life (and thus to treat everyday people as fascists).
This is also part of:
Dichotomous thinking. You're either completely with them, or you're "of the devil" or "a literal Nazi." If you criticize spiritual abuse, it's the same as criticizing Christianity itself. If you are a civil libertarian or class-first leftist, it can only be because you secretly want to oppress people or benefit from oppressors. If you don't agree with the people who claim to speak for you, you must be self-hating. If you are against cancel culture, you must be against social justice itself. Persuasion doesn't get immediate results, so coercion is virtuous. If you don't publicly agree with their exact worldview, you're "lukewarm" or "complicit." (By the way, one "tell" of this dichotomous thinking pattern is the rigid and easily recognizable vocabulary. If someone unironically accuses random nobodies of "complicity" it's time to run for the hills.)
Since the real world has nuance, truth gets chucked aside in favor of:
Image more important than reality. Cults and individual abusers are notorious for making their apathetic or unwilling victims go along with the motions and pretend to be happy in order to make the movement appear more popular than it really is, or to make the relationship look better than it really is. The toxic "left" has a trend of trying to coerce random people into repeating slogans or putting pronouns on their social media bio. This defeats the purpose of real safety. Coercing random people to pretend to be allies -- when some of these random people could be actual racists, misogynists, homophobes, and transphobes -- what could possibly go wrong?!
Part of the false image aspect is not only coercing others, but constructing a false image of one's own self as being always right... and projecting their flaws onto dehumanized scapegoats. They are often fond of harassing others and lecturing their targets that they can't have real problems... while they are harassing them.
And so, because there's no such thing as being oversensitive, and there are no shades of gray, and image is more important than reality, this all leads to...
Punishment disproportionate for the alleged offense. This is an abuse tactic where the bully's escalated anger is somehow supposed to reflect badly on you. It is also part of the abuser's desire for validation and catharsis. When I was elementary age, my adult abuser berated me frequently, threatened to ruin my life, wanted to make me feel as sinful as possible for normal distractible kid behavior, claimed I was deeply harming and offending others left and right, pried into my private thoughts, forced me to make confessions and dramatic written or spoken apologies (over tame jokes or even nothing in particular), felt entitled to hold me accountable for things that were none of her business, accused me of centering myself when she succeeded in getting the emotional reaction she wanted all along, and made herself out to be the real victim when I tried to reach out for help. So now, watching online "left" circles check all the boxes above has just been wild. They claim cancel culture doesn't exist -- but if it does, then it is okay if they are doing it.
Which is an example of...
Morality based on who you are, not what you do. It's a huge red flag that speaking out against abuse and harassment is considered "both sides-ism", and thought leaders can get away with mistreatment as long as they call dibs on "the right side of history." In conservative patriarchal cults, there are explicit double standards for men and women, and criticizing authority figures is frowned on. On the authoritarian left, people only exist as extensions of their Census demographics -- I get an Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe when there are news articles like: "Officer Thao exists, so we Asians have to repent of collective racism" or "White women who voted for Biden need to feel guilty because other white women voted for Trump" or, of course, any reference to "black and brown bodies." Your individual actions matter less than your role in society.
This "us and them" dynamic tends leads to escalating abuse, as described by Eric Hoffer in The True Believer: Thoughts On the Nature of Mass Movements. People who consider themselves "good" while mistreating their "bad" targets know they are wrong somewhere deep down -- but the pain of their guilty conscience is further projected to their target. This is consistent with what happens to targets of online harassment and doxxing -- when they try to defend themselves, the perpetrators just get angrier and escalate things further.
Because abusers like this believe they are righteous victims not needing limits and not capable of doing wrong, this also leads to the conclusion that...
The most vulnerable are considered acceptable collateral damage. When the righteousness of a cause and protecting the reputation of its thought leaders is prioritized over actually treating all people well and respecting their boundaries, it is inevitable that abusers will be empowered and the most vulnerable will get hurt. Authoritarian ideologies also tend to attract predators who may or may not actually believe in the cause itself. Some of these are sex offenders. Others are just bullies who seek soft targets and put their desire for validation and release above basic decency, honor, and reality itself. After all, they are the ultimate victim -- there is no such thing as stooping too low.
Give it another ten or so years -- as long as people are free to speak out at all, there are going to be stories about how bad it is now, especially from kids who were not given a choice but to grow up under the suffocating and soul-sucking "right side of history."
The authoritarian Left, however, has unique issues that don't have any parallels to the right-wing cults I grew up with. Reactionary religious groups never took over large, mainstream, secular institutions in a way that the average person would have been affected. And the flak that people may get for leaving a Christian cult's lifestyle tends to stop at the cult itself -- I've never heard of campaigns to get people fired from their secular, outside job. As far as I know, that extreme sense of entitlement to all the employers and universities in North America is exclusive to the illiberal left.
As mentioned earlier, I am (or was) the old-school version of "woke," trained in the basics of social justice theory before it went mask-off with the cult dynamic. To me, it makes a difference whether the cancel culture and thought control "always has been" the end goal of these theories -- or whether it was something that was cynically co-opted by corporate political interests which have the most to gain by making useful idiots of authoritarian activists.
Either way, there is a disturbing trend of pushing invasive self-interrogation on ordinary people -- just like the biblical image of a hypocrite trying to remove a speck of dust from someone else's eye when they have a whole-ass plank in their own.
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A master thread of idols supporting LGBTQ+

I saw a post by u/jinsmangoricbe saying how they'd love a master thread of idols being supportive of LGBTQ+ and I felt super compelled to do it so here it is! Of course this won't be a comprehensive list with every single idol ever but I will try my best to list down as many as possible. I will go through the groups I know from A-Z and try to include groups I'm not familiar with as well. I just want to apologize in advance to the fandoms cause I will probably miss a L O T of stuff so feel free to comment whatever I didn't include! I'll edit the post and add them to the list since I want this to be a master thread after all. Also I apologize if I can't find the source for all of them. Some are just things I remember seeing a while back but I'll try my best to include links/sources as much as possible!

MALE IDOLS

ASTRO
ATEEZ
BTOB
BTS
Cravity
Cross Gene
Day6
Eric Nam
EXO
GDragon
GOT7
Heechul
Hoya
Jo Kwon
Jonghyun
Key
Monsta X
NCT
N.Flying
NU'EST
ONF
Pentagon
Seventeen
Stray Kids
THE BOYZ
TOO
Woosung

FEMALE IDOLS

APink
Blackpink
BoA
Brown Eyed Girls
CL
Dreamcatcher
EXID
Grazy Grace
I*ZONE
IU
Loona
Lunarsolar
Mamamoo
Red Velvet
Sunmi
Taeyeon
Tiffany
TWICE
WEKI MEKI
WJSN
EDIT : TIL reddit posts have a character limit
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Kang Daniel Appreciation post (Write-up)

I'm back with another write-up! This one might not be as long as the others because I'm kind of more of a casual fan of Kang Daniel, but I wanted to write this because I rarely see him getting talked about or mentioned (plus people keep associating him as only Jihyo's ex) which I think is unfair because even as a casual fan, he is someone I respect a LOT and he has lots of amazing qualities about him that should be appreciated more. I'm really sorry if a lot of this info is surface-level as I'm a casual fan but I'll try to research as much as possible and hopefully do him justice. Also DANITYs feel free to comment anything I missed/got wrong!

WHO IS KANG DANIEL?

Kang Daniel is well-known for winning 1st place on Produce 101 S2, being the center of Wanna One and now as an established soloist. Since his debut as a soloist, he has released 3 successful EPs with Color On Me, Cyan and Magenta. He also established his own company in 2019 and is now the CEO of Konnect Entertainment which handles all his activities in the entertainment industry. He will be making a comeback sometime this month with Paranoia. (Semi-related but do yourself a favor and check out Waves, his collab with Jamie and Simon Dominic. It's legit one of my favourite collabs ever)

WHY YOU SHOULD STAN

TALENT
VISUALS
OVERCAME LM ENTERTAINMENT's BS
Kang Daniel was in a legal dispute with LM Entertainment over contract negotiations and it was messy af due to LM and their bullshittery throughout the whole process which ended in contract termination. A full timeline of events can be found here which y'all should read if you wanna see the full extent of LM's bullshit but TL;DR :
God bless him for coming out of that whole mess not only fine, but successful af. To quote the iconic lyrics of Formation by Beyoncé "you know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation, always stay gracious best revenge is your paper"

PERSONALITY

HUMBLE/POLITE
I can't understate this enough since this was one of the main reasons I became a fan of his but every time I see him he comes across as very down-to-earth and humble, even though he's one of the biggest KPOP idols ever. From what I've seen people who have worked with him have nothing but praises for the guy and a bunch of celebrities are fans of him.
"Daniel has a very pure soul. When my recent drama ended, he was the first person to send me a message and congratulate me. He said in the message, “Thank you for your hard work hyung”. I think he is a dongsaeng that makes me feel very comfortable. I like him." - Lee Yi Kyung
"Kang Daniel is very pure, just as he seems on TV. He definitely gives people a boost of energy." - Loco
"He’s like a 12 year old boy. If he’s sleepy, he’d ask “May I sleep a little?” and he’d play games behind the stairs when it was break time. It’s surprising to see Daniel had this innocence about him and shows his real self, without putting on any airs." - Lee Yoon Hwa
"Because we heard about his popularity, we had quite a bit of prejudice against him. But after meeting him I realised how kind, bright and humble he is. He said that he feels lucky to have so much popularity after having only trained for two years. He’s so grateful for his popularity and has good manners, he is someone who will make it even further in the future." - Jung Chul Min
KIND/CHARITABLE
  1. He posted a video on Wanna One's instagram account of him doing the ALS ice bucket challenge and donating 2 million won through the Seungil Hope Foundation which caused a bunch of his fans to donate and and spread awareness which caused their website to crash. Jinusean's Sean who is a director later made a positive post regarding this on instagram thanking Kang Daniel and his fans for their support. His Daum fancafe DeumDaniel even matched his donation, donating 2 million won themselves.
  2. Sometimes it's Kang Daniel who matches the charity of his fans! When South Korea announced a national emergency regarding on of the largest wildfires affecting Gangwon province, over 4000 of his Korean fans were able to donate as much as 150 million won to Hope Bridge Disaster Relief. Kang Daniel responded by making a 30 million won donation himself.
  3. He donated 30 million won in DANITY’s name to The Snail of Love, a social welfare group for the deaf and hard of hearing. Within a week, his fans donated over 95 million won in his or DANITYs name after his donation. The Snail of Love chairman reported that Kang Daniel had personally visited their offices to see the first 10 children who will receive a cochlear implant due to his and DANITYs donations. The organization also held a ceremony for Kang Daniel and DANITYs to thank them for their combined donations.

RANDOM CLIPS/INFO

FINAL THOUGHTS

I didn't watch Produce 101 S2 when it first aired, I just knew that afterwards there was a breakout star named Kang Daniel and I saw him everywhere. I'm going to be 100% honest, when he first debuted with Wanna One, then as a soloist I didn't know much about him or W1 and I didn't understand the appeal. Afterwards, I watched Produce and a few of his appearances on variety shows. Now I totally see why he's one of the biggest idols ever. People can say what they'd like about his skill or whatever, but it's hard to deny how easy-to-like he is. Now that I'm a fan, I get sad when people only know him as Jihyo's ex, or they say things like he doesn't deserve his fame just because he isn't the best singer out there. Whenever I see him whether it's on Produce, or in Wanna One or now as a soloist he just always comes across as a caring, humble person + he has a kid-like quality to him that is super endearing.
Also while doing the research for this post, can I just say I'm genuinely impressed by DANITYs? Most of the people I interact with are multis, so color me surprised when I look into DANITYs and most of them are dedicated stans of Kang Daniel only. They mostly mind their own business and interact with each other exclusively. As a casual/multi fan, that was pretty cool to see in it's own way. Not to mention DANITYs countless acts of charity inspired by Kang Daniel's own acts of charity. Through the process of making this post I have a new found appreciation of both Kang Daniel and DANITYs. If there are any DANITYs reading this, y'all are great and I am in awe of y'all. I hope you liked this post!
submitted by MSkyDragons to kpopthoughts [link] [comments]

Armadillo, Marcus Aurelius, and The Strange Man

Today I was exploring Armadillo when I came across something interesting. In the town's post office, you can find a book in one of the side tables. It's not possible to pick it up or interact with it in any way, but the reason why it caught my eye is that it's not just any book: it's Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
Marcus Aurelius' Meditation in Armadillo's post office
Now, my graphic settings aren't great, and I'm not certain if the text is more visible at higher settings, but you can easily make out "Marcus Aurelius" and I have absolute confidence the line below is "Meditations" as the collection has always been significant to thinkers from every age. The last line seems to be "Vol I." Below is a slightly edited screenshot (cropped, flipped, brightness increased) and another with added highlights by me. Compare the two and see for yourself.
​
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations Vol I, close up
Before I go into why I think this is relevant, a small note: I don't know if this is a reused asset. If it is, I'd be happy to hear where else in the world people found it, so we can find out together whether my speculation and theories hold water or if this is a simple coincidence. With that out of the way, let's backtrack a bit and understand the context of this book and its author.
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor (from 161 to 180) and a Stoic philosopher. He was one of the most respected emperors in Roman history and known for his interest in philosophy and intellectual pursuits. I won't go into details about his life or rule because it's not truly relevant to this post, but if anyone is interested, his Wikipedia page with the myriad of citations is as good a place to start as any.
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. It is unlikely that Marcus Aurelius ever intended the writings to be published. The work has no official title, so "Meditations" is one of several titles commonly assigned to the collection. These writings take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs. A central theme to Meditations is the importance of analyzing one's judgment of self and others.
Stoicism, which has already been mentioned a few times in this post, is a school of Hellenistic (i.e. Ancient Greek) philosophy founded in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to happiness is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or by the fear of pain, by using one's mind to understand the world and to do one's part in nature's plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly.
The takeaway from all this is that Stoicism teaches control over one's actions, reactions, and emotions and emphasizes the importance of treating others justly; and that Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a pivotal piece in understanding this philosophy.
With that in mind, let's dive into how this all ties in with the events and people of the RDR world.
Consider Armadillo: a town with a long history of misfortune, being struck by one plague after another. Certainly, in the midst of such misery, one might be compelled to turn to the teaching of Stoicism and find strength in accepting one's role in the universe as is, controlling the inner workings of the mind and the reactions it brings forth, instead of trying to change the outside world. The Scarlet fever outbreak, the desert plague, the typhus outbreak, and the cholera plague of 1907 are not events that can be changed or controlled in any easy or readily-available way (especially considering the time period and the limitations regarding hygiene and medical care,) no matter how willing someone might be. Neither can the resulting illness be simply willed away. The only aspect of all this tragedy that could be controlled is the reaction to it. Then, perhaps, this is reason enough for Meditations to be found in Armadillo-- as inspiration and motivation to push through all hardship. Take this quote from Meditations, for example, illustrating this point perfectly:
"Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint."
Yet there's more to Armadillo than plague and ways of coping with it: the town has an undeniable connection to The Strange Man. At Bayall Edge, a map of Armadillo can be found, and along with it the phrase "I offered you happiness or two generations, you made your choice," alluding to Armadillo's shopkeep, Herbert Moon, and the story of his daughter. I won't discuss this particular portion of RDR lore here because it's been studied plenty of times before, and I'm only pointing it out as a link between Armadillo and The Strange Man.
The map at Bayall Edge. Source: https://charlotte-balfours-garden.tumblr.com/post/624048818760105984/bayall-edge
The Strange Man has been analyzed by the fandom for years now, primarily from angles that would mark him as The Devil, God, Evil itself, Death, The Grim Reaper, just to name a few. And while all these sound plausible enough, finding Meditations in Armadillo got me thinking, and after a fair bit of research, I would like to propose another lens to see The Strange Man through: Stoicism.
This is where the discussion becomes speculative...
In the first game, The Strange Man is always polite, well-mannered, inquisitive, reflective. He doesn't cast judgment on John's actions, but he does question them-- or rather, pushes John to question them himself. Though a popular interpretation is that he's meddling with people's lives maliciously, casting death and suffering wherever he goes, I think another way to look at it is that The Strange Man is, in a way, the very embodiment of the ongoing process of self-questioning and self-assessment in order to achieve happiness, as understood through the teaching of Stoicism. I'm aware this is a bit convoluted, so I'll try to explain it better.
The Strange Man guides John towards certain moral dilemmas that will require him to take control of his own actions and decide what's the ethical thing to do. Despite the honor system in the game, I don't believe The Strange Man is a gauge for the concepts of honor vs dishonor. He's neither judge, jury, nor executioner. Rather, he's very similar to that voice inside people's head-- in this case, John's-- asking questions and wondering if this or that is the right thing to do. The Strange Man knows so much about John but it's all information John would already know about himself, whether he wants to knowledge it or not, both old things buried in his subconscious like the shooting of Heidi McCourt and very recent events like the decisions John takes in the quests given by The Strange Man. He's not an outside influence, but a force coming from the inside-- the process of self-questioning I mentioned above.
In the dialogue between The Strange Man and John, several themes are tackled that overlap with basic tenets of Stoicism:
Another thing to note is that Stoics held that unhappiness is the result of human ignorance of the reason in nature, and therefore the solution to evil and unhappiness is the practice of Stoic philosophy: to examine one's own judgments and behavior and determine where they diverge from the universal reason of nature.
Following this line of thought, Herbert Moon is not unhappy because his daughter married a Jewish man and decided to go against his wishes-- but because he is an antisemite, and refuses to see the universal truths of nature in that that all people are equal and his own role in the world is no greater than someone else's. John Marston isn't unhappy because the world is changing and there's no place for outlaws in it anymore or because people from his past intervene with the new life he made for himself-- but because, as Arthur aptly puts it, he tries to be two different people at the same time. And relating to this, a quote from Meditations becomes relevant:
Put an end once for all to this discussion of what a good man should be, and be one.
The games are certainly no strangers to concepts relating to Stoicism, an immediate example that comes to mind is RDR2's soundtrack, "Unshaken."
There is a lot more to say and speculate as there always is, but this post is already long enough, so I will stop here for now. Ultimately, I'm not trying to say that The Strange Man is x or y; I don't believe there is anything that definitive about him and, additionally, there is no reason why he couldn't be more than one concept/person /etc. at the same time. My main intention with this post is to provide a different light under which we can continue to study the enticing mystery The Strange Man is.
Let me know what your thoughts are and if you've spotted Meditations anywhere else in the world. Thank you so much for reading!

TL;DR: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a well-known collection of thoughts on Stoicism, can be found in Armadillo. Given the town's connection to The Strange Man, I speculate that he represents the ongoing process of self-questioning to achieve happiness as understood by Stoicism.

P.S. It is well past midnight as I'm posting this, so I apologize for any typos!
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[Web Animation] That time a fish and a bird were a popular ship and half a fandom lost its collective minds (the story of RWBY and Fair Game)

So what's RWBY and what's its history with LGBT rep?
RWBY is a web show made by Rooster Teeth that focuses on four girls with big weapons who fight monsters. Originally advertised off the hype-factor of showrunner and lead animator Monty Oum, the series has gradually progressed from a garage project with a shoestring budget to Rooster Teeth's flagship show, elevating the company and being sort of a big deal. It's a very contentious show that depending on who you ask is the biggest deal for pop culture since the invention of the flip book, the worst thing since the Hindenberg exploded... or just an overall 6/10 show with good moments alongside bad ones that's just good enough to not drop but frustrating enough that you wish you could. To quote the HBomberguy review of it, "I want to just call RWBY bad and move on with my life, but it's not that simple."
I think for anime fans, nothing sums up the general reaction I see to RWBY more than the quote "It's Sword Art Online if made by the West." The first seasons aren't very good and are made on very bad animation software with footage that wasn't even rendered. RWBY's production in general is a mindfuck that I could and have in the past talked at extensive length about, which I may do next time I want to write something without it being academically inclined.
As the series has progressed, it's begun tackling more mature themes and has done more in the realm of representation, both racially and sexually. As the series has gone on, RWBY has introduced a variety of female LGBT characters, ranging from lesbian Ilia Amitola, Coco Adel, Saphron and Terra Cotta-Arc, and May Marigold, who is transgender. I would include two of the protagonists, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long in there as the show is teasing a relationship between them, but after Supernatural's eleven years of queerbaiting, let's make sure they don't go to Super Hell before we cast judgement.
However, for all these leaps in representation, there has been one category left quite unfilled, and that's the topic of male LGBT representation. With the exception of one named character (who himself had two lines of dialogue and hasn't physically appeared in show for half a decade), RWBY has never had a male LGBT character on screen. It codes a lot of men as queer (coding being a term that means "the subtextual portrayal of a queer character in media whose identity is not explicitly confirmed within canon") but when it comes to pulling the trigger, the series often falls flat. As the years have gone on and the series continues to introduce more female LGBT characters, the fact that Scarlet is the one proper example has rankled some fans, especially as the confirmation was second hand- it came from a Twitter account promoting the mangas, with the account runner simply saying that writer Miles Luna had the idea and suggested it to the author of that issue (I've also written a thing in the past specifically covering why Scarlet is terrible representation). Not helping was that prior to Scarlet's reveal, the crew commentary for Volume 5 and a post-season AMA revealed that a popular character nicknamed "Pilot Boi," was meant to have a line indicating a husband in his hometown, but as the character died in his second appearance, the writing team had to be told that Pilot Boi would be a case of Bury Your Gays- a trope that describes situations where gay characters are killed. The writers even admitted in a tone-deaf manner that had they been aware of Pilot Boi's popularity, they would have stuck to their guns and kept him gay.
It's worth noting that this isn't an isolated incident in Rooster Teeth's backlog or anime in general. Many Rooster Teeth shows include female LGBT characters such as Skout in Nomad of Nowhere, Ohio in Red vs Blue and the female-presenting Val/entina Romanyszyn of gen:LOCK (who is genderfluid and expresses that they wish to transition to identifying as male during the series). The closest any Rooster Teeth product has come to a male LGBT depiction has been in Red Vs Blue season 15 which queerbaits the idea of protagonists Grif and Simmons having had a one night stand due to outside forces.
(Just to get the description out of the way here, queerbaiting is the practice of teasing LGBT representation so you can make money from that audience but then not deliver- again, Supernatural and Super Hell is a case for that)
As the series continues, one of the most popular (and really, only) candidates for a queer male character on the show is Qrow Branwen. Introduced in Volume 3 as the cool mentor uncle for protagonist Ruby Rose, Qrow is inarguably the most popular male character in the series. He gets the good fights, he looks cool, he talks good, and he's a big softie with a Tragic Anime Backstory and the series itself never giving him a break (literally, his custom superpower is an AOE bad luck ability that he can't turn off and his theme song is called Bad Luck Charm). As the series has gone on and made most of the other male cast either explicitly only into women, made them villains or have them be too young/old for their prospective shipping partners, Qrow has remained the largely unproblematic favorite pick for a hopeful male LGBT character. This is also amplified by portions of his writing that queer fans have felt draws from their experiences- in particular, that Qrow is born with something he can't control (sexuality or in this case, his bad luck Semblance) and drives a wedge between him and his family, leading him to have self worth issues that are eventually resolved as he meets more people like himself.
Volume 7, which aired from 2019 to 2020, added another notch to the bow for people hoping that Qrow or another character would become LGBT. In Episode 2, Qrow shared an intimate hug with James Ironwood, a ship called "IronQrow" that already had a pre-existing shipping group since Volume 3. But the bigger dynamic would come in the following episode, when Qrow shared screentime with Clover Ebi, the fish in that title above.
Meet the Lucky Fish Boi
(just to explain the fish jokes, Clover's fairytale inspiration is A Fisherman's Good Luck from Aesop's fables and his weapon is a fishing rod named Kingfisher)
Clover is introduced as the leader of General Ironwood's "Ace Operatives" often shortened to the Ace Ops (as they're all based off characters from Aesop's Fables). In Episode 3, we get to see Qrow and Clover interact, with Clover revealing that his Semblance is good fortune (because shippers love nothing like they love narrative parallels), alongside winking at Qrow in a way many found flirtatious. Partly because the animator for that scene confirmed the intention was for it to be read as flirty, especially after someone compared it to a scene from Volume 4 where a waitress winked at Qrow in a similar manner, right down to both character saying "Lucky you" to Qrow.
From there, Fair Game went thermonuclear in how popular it got. As it turned out, RWBY had a lot of fans who had been waiting for the slightest crumbs of male LGBT material and when they finally got it, they went hog wild. Fair Game shot up the shipping charts in a way no new ship since Volume 4's "Rose Garden" between Ruby and Oscar had. On Archive of Our Own, one of the largest fanfiction communities on the internet, Fair Game became one of the five most popular ships for the entire franchise in under a year. All of Qrow's past ships were blown out of the water in comparrison, as Fair Game quickly began pushing past franchise-wide staple ships.
And the fans were receiving a rare thing- what seemed to be validation from the crew themselves (linked post is a masterpost showing screenshots of all the crew members hyping up Fair Game). Several members of the team shared Fair Game content, saying that they liked the ship. The official RWBY Twitter shared images and video of the two interacting, something they only normally do for the bigger ships that are going to be canon like Renora (Ren and Nora) or Bumblebee (Blake and Yang). Clover's bio in the phone game RWBY: Amity Arena (which the developers have confirmed several times that all bios are proof-read by RWBY's writing team to make sure they're canon) leaned in on the connection between Qrow and Clover.
With these two mystical Semblances colliding, this is the first time we hope Qrow is defeated by someone else, because this might be the only chance for him to catch a break.
"I was honestly expecting things to go a lot rougher." -Qrow (moments before meeting Clover's Bolo Ties)
I'd like to say here that personally, I wasn't shipping Fair Game. I did not have the horse in the race due to preferring IronQrow, and I wasn't aware of how big it got until the hiatus. My thoughts on Fair Game were just "Yeah that could be cool."
So throughout Volume 7, Fair Game is building up a lot of speed and popularity; it's becoming a very popular ship and all eyes are on the series as people grow to like the ship and care for Clover and wish for Qrow to catch a break... and then episode 12, "The Enemy of Trust" happens.
Some context for those who don't watch RWBY: Main villain Salem is fully immortal, and cannot die. General Ironwood, who has long struggled with paranoid tendencies, has just sacrificed one of his arms to defeat one of Salem's generals in a fight, and comes back to his office to find a black chess piece on his desk that sets off his PTSD. Salem then sends in a conference call, warning that she's coming to Atlas personally to steal the plot devices that will give her godlike power. Ironwood decides there and then that the only safe option is to sacrifice the city of Mantle and elevate the city of Atlas out of the atmosphere, above the clouds and out of Salem's reach. Team RWBY are opposed to this and Ruby gets out a distress call that Qrow, Clover and others pick up to warn them of Ironwood's plan.
Meanwhile, Qrow, Clover and local vigilante Robyn Hill have captured a separate member of Salem's cabal and are transporting him to prison. Clover gets a separate message showing an arrest warrant for RWBY and Qrow, reluctantly informing Qrow that he has to take Qrow in as well. While Qrow is willing to go along with the arrest until he can talk to Ironwood himself, Robyn starts a fight on the ship that leads to Tyrian, the aforementioned agent, freeing himself and killing the pilots on the ship, leading to it crashing in a tundra.
Qrow checks on Robyn, finding her unconscious, and Clover repeats his intention to arrest Qrow due to his loyalty to Ironwood. The two fight, and Tyrian shows up. Qrow tries to focus on Tyrian due to him being a bigger threat, but Clover keeps attacking Qrow, leading to Qrow teaming up with Tyrian temporarily. It's a really good fight scene if you ignore how everyone besides Tyrian is a giant moron to allow the fight to happen but hey, it's still a good fight in a vaccum. When Clover's Aura is broken, he repeats his trust in Ironwood, only for Tyrian (who had been immobilzied with Clover's bolas several meters behind Qrow), grabbing Qrow's sword that had been knocked aside, getting around both of them without either of them seeing, and then stabbing Clover in the back, again, without either fighter noticing Tyrian doing so until Clover's iron intake drastically shot up.
I said the fight was good. Not well written.
Either way, Tyrian gleefully rubs in the killing wound to Qrow, mockingly saying that he's looking forward to the next round of their rivalry death matches, and runs away while Qrow rushes to Clover's side. As the sun rises on the tundra, Qrow insists that he'll make Ironwood pay for this, with Clover's last words being "Good luck..." as the light leaves his eyes, the final shot of the episode being Qrow screaming in agony over Clover's corpse as we fade to black and get a credit sequence with no music.
The aftermath of The Death
The screaming was mirrored by the fanbase, and presumably some members of the crew because things got ugly afterwards. Some fans latched onto desperation tactics, ideas such as "Oscar is going to use his Semblance to rewind time and prevent Clover's death" or "A medical team will arrive in time to patch up the wound and Clover will be fine," or "Clover will be resurrected by the Staff of Creation/Salem's Grimm magic/Watts having a Frankenstein Semblance."
Then the finale aired, and after the dust cleared people began wondering whether or not they had just been queerbaited. Remember how I said I didn't have the horse in the Fair Game race? Even I was one of the people who after watching episode 12 went "... did I just get baited?" It seemed so obvious in the moment, surely CRWBY wouldn't be that tone-deaf, especially concerning a Tweet from a crew member (that I couldn't find while researching for this) that saw someone saying that portions of episode 12's animation had made them nearly throw up in anticipation for the fandom response, which to the FG fans felt like the crew flipping them the double birds.
And then it came out that what CRWBY intended and what the audience saw were entirely different beasts. The wink that got animator approval? Was an add lib, one of many that the animation staff are encouraged to do to liven up storyboards. Clover and Qrow's easy-going dynamic? Per the commentary for Volume 7, the intention was that Qrow start out hating Clover, only to develop a camraderie over the season that would lead to Clover's death. Clover seemingly being LGBT at all was never something considered by the team until Fair Game became popular, with Clover's actor knowing from the day he got that part that Clover was a dead man walking. They legitimately did not realize how harmful they were accidentally being by getting the fanbase's hopes up. By this point people were desperate for any shreds of mlm rep, and here the crew were seemingly offering them a four-course meal. One member of staff even outright apologized for accidentally baiting fans. What definitely didn't help the immediate response was that following Volume 7's finale, some of the first merch made was Fair Game themed, which many took as salt on an open wound.
CRWBY's usual response to criticism is to bury its head in the sand and hope it goes away unless the issue becomes too big to ignore (such as Volume 5's disaster production necessitating assurances that the primary flaws would be resolved for V6, or an expose about their working conditions in 2019 requiring massive overhauls in the production process), but one writer, Eddy Rivas, a newcomer for the team in Volume 7, took it on himself to discuss the blowback. For better or worse, Eddy became the face of the writers when it came to the Fair Game backlash as he had written the episode Clover died in, talking about how while the intent was never for Qrow and Clover to be a romantic couple, he in retrospect could see what people were latching onto and apologized for leading those fans on, saying that with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been best to just warn people up front that the ship wasn't going to happen. Eddy was also quick to say that the marketing and writing teams were separate, so events such as the Fair Game merch were done by a different group than the people who wrote about Clover getting shivved.
Fans didn't really care about Eddy's reasoning though, with some angry, and a lot of people just... disappointed. A common hashtags used by Clover fans was #CloverDeservedBetter, as many of his fans felt ire towards the writing that led to his death or just sorrow at his demise. It saw people who had been defending the show and saying it wouldn't queerbait and being forced to admit otherwise following the episode's airing. There wasn't much anger in January or February about Fair Game that wasn't tinted with regret or sorrow. When combined with the pre-existing issues mlm fans had about RWBY's lackluster rep (especially following the high-profile queerbaiting in Voltron), the Fair Game backlash feels inevitable in hindsight. If it hadn't been in Volume 7, it would have inevitably happened somewhere else in the fandom down the line. Fair Game simply provided many mlm fans of the series a chance to finally get on the podium and use it, regardless of whether or not the speaker even liked the ship, because finally attention was on the side of the fandom that had been left out in the cold for years.
And then after this, the fandom started getting... weird about Fair Game and the backlash.
The fandom kinda whitewash/downplay the whole thing
This is the weird part of the story personally, but around March or April, there's a deliberate whitewashing of the Fair Game backlash. Presumably just as many of the FG fans moved on, a narrative began to be pushed where "Oh Fair Game never had a realistic shot, this is just a few toxic stans harassing the crew."
Now, allow me to be clear: There were and still are toxic Fair Game fans. Regardless of how justified their anger was at Clover's death, going as far as to harass members of the crew, Eddy especially for being willing to address the situation to the lengths that he did, is never an acceptable response to fandom drama. I've spoken with several fans of other Qrow/men ships since V7 wrapped and heard plenty of stories about Fair Game fans being douchebags, including timing ship weeks (weeks where prompts are made in the open so fans come together to make a lot of content for those characters) to overshadow smaller ships. There is also a meta criticism of Fair Game and how it's frequently depicted where Qrow is down on his luck and struggling with mental health, only for Clover to resurrect the 2000s as he's usually written to be a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who solves all of Qrow's problems with his attitude and a lot of sex.
(also an alarming trend of making Ironwood abusive to Qrow which I kinda stopped caring for after the fifth fanfic did SURPRISE ABUSE)
But, that condemnation of toxic fans does not itself excuse the historicial revisionism that then occured. Gradually on /RWBY, posts about Fair Game received more and more vitriol, more people saying "It never had a chance, stop." Fair Game content never makes it it onto the sub's front page, even as it reposts years old-fanart for the 16th time. Art of the two is lucky to get a hundred upvotes on a community where front-posts get over a thousand. Things came to a head on February 15th, where a user made a thread titled "Why the events surrounding Clover and Qrow devastated a large portion of RWBY's LGBT+ fandom." It's a decent post that basically explains why the OP believed there to be queerbaiting with the intent of explaining to people less versed in the LGBT community. It got some gilding here on Reddit and a bunch of people with accounts made in the last year coming in to agree. Which set off alarms on the moderation team. Some of these accounts were new (ignoring that Volume 7 had brought interest towards the series, and they'd had an AMA with the Ace Ops voice actors earlier that year). Clearly, to the mod team, this was proof of brigaiding (a site-wide illegal action on Reddit). The post was taken down, and branded with a mark of shame. It's the one post in /RWBY history to bare the flair BRIGAIDED. It also includes an exceptionally weird quote where one person goes (in context of how the show has basically no mlm rep) that "The writers are not and should not be obligated to represent everyone."
And when an actual moderator for the subreddit (who since deleted the comments but one of them has them openly admitting to intercepting reports about their posts and bragging about it) is openly mocking users who liked the essay by searching their post history and account age to see if they were new accounts or not, it's a really bad look in general for such a hot-button topic. Especially when they're being this condescendingly arrogant towards people they suspect of coming from off-site to push the post:
In short, a bunch of people coming from another platform to promote their agenda here, while using mass upvoting and downvoting to attempt to enforce it is rude at best. Not to mention the fake "this post is amazing" comments from people like yourself who totally had nothing to do with it.
Additionally, when said agenda is an attempt at "educating" the members of the other platform it continues being rude. When that agenda is questionable as fuck from a factual basis, includes several people who have been banned from this platform for attacking Rooster Teeth staff members, those that take part in the brigading are frowned upon.
You want to engage with people here about a subject, coming with a thesis and demanding the community accept your opinion is not the way to go.
I won't go as far as to say that /RWBY had a deliberate anti-Fair Game agenda to try and kill the ship and its popularity so they could stay in Rooster Teeth's good graces and get collabs such as AMAs, but I'll definitely point out that many of the top upvoted posts on the ship during the Volume 7-8 hiatus were largely about disproving the ship as explcitly romantic and downplaying the queerbait accusations, with prolific posters from the sub harassing Fair Game fans off-site by largely strawmanning the backlash as just a few people being salty that their headcanons and ships didn't become true. Again, there were people like this who took it too far, but using the actions of a few toxic fans to discredit an entire ship is... kind of a morally dark action, especially when in context RWBY gets very annoyed at people using the actions of a vocal minority to discredit portions of the fandom such as the Bumblebee ship or the show itself given the RWBY's fandom's reputation as being short-tempered and unable to take criticism. Especially when you're acting worse than the people you condemn as toxic. To the point where you outright compare people who were hurt to fanbases focused around a character who groomed a child and a real life sex pest.
And as such that's where the story ends. Fair Game fans are still in the corners writing fanfic, making art, all that general jazz, some of the more toxic accounts got deleted or mass-reported so I couldn't find much of the supposed harassment that was used to discredit the movement outside of people just replying to RWBY tweets with the Clover hashtag. Will RWBY have learned from their mistakes with marketing, fan expectations, and telling the team to be careful what they say on social media, especically regarding shipping? Who can tell. But I'm leaning on it not being very likely.
submitted by GoneRampant1 to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]

Why you can't hate Illumi Zoldyck

this article isn't mine. i copied it from a website
this is the main article: https://mikashiblue.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/why-you-cant-hate-illumi-zoldyck/comment-page-1/?unapproved=53&moderation-hash=3267b7380005a7aa7be6f9320f1bf29e#comment-53
“He is such a jerk.”
“What a useless character.”
“He can only do mean things to his brother.”
While the above sentences are only a tiny representation of the commentaries we have often encountered about Illumi Zoldyck, here are a few arguments we would like to share as to dig deeper into his character and perhaps, make us understand him more.
The Zoldyck family has been working as elite assassins for generations and generations. With that said, they have strong morals and values, they have an image and pride to protect, and they also have to guarantee the family members’ safety at all costs as their job inquires about dangerous and criminal work.
Let’s skip all the details. As Hunter x Hunter fans, everyone knows about how Silva Zoldyck and Kikyo Zoldyck use torturing and abusive methods in raising their children. According to the World Report on Violence and Health, the four types of abuse are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. In this context, it is likely that the Zoldyck family has been practicing methods that would be considered as physical and emotional abuse. Just think about the many times Killua Zoldyck has mentioned what he’s been through in his childhood; absolute monstrosities that we will not be listing here.
So, as it has been done for many generations already, Silva has a duty to fulfill: raising his children for them to become perfectly trained assassins, especially the one that will end up being the heir (thus, the one who will be taking on the lead and representing the family in future generations). Keep this in mind and now make the link with Illumi being the first born.
First of all, even in today’s society, we believe that the first borns are the ones who have it rougher and that, for many reasons. Concerning Illumi’s case, you can imagine him being the first experience or the first test subject and we are not just talking about raising a kid in normal humane conditions, we think of those scientific and technical experiences you see in the movies: think of that, but on a human who’s barely just a few years old.
Illumi is the one who suffered the most, in every possible way. He’s the first concept; the one who first received all the pain, the abuse, the twisted way of loving others; in other words, it is some real brainwashing work. It is evident that the parents exploited him as a first learning experience to see how much it was possible for them to break a child beyond their capabilities; all of this would serve as lessons for Silva and Kikyo and would help them into raising their future children and future heir in a perhaps, more effective and human way.
Again, Illumi is the first born. He was the child who couldn’t even stand up on his own and another detail that everyone should take into account is the fact that he had absolutely no one by his side to guide him otherwise, if not his parents and grandfather who had already put him through all of these atrocities since the very beginning. How was he supposed to handle things on his own? As a kid, your instincts naturally tell you to follow in your parents’ steps, and it’s no surprise Illumi turned out the way he is now as he only sought his parents’ validation.
It is apparent that people who have dealt with abuse throughout their childhood will end up having trouble apprehending and accepting the basic concept of love, resulting in them associating love with abnormal circumstances and a conception, an understanding of love that is completely deviated from its real meaning. “Love comes with guilt and torture,” is this how one is supposed to perceive love? Because that’s how he perceives it and that’s what he has always been implanted with.
It is fair to say that the affection the parents offer to Illumi is the toxic and unhealthy kind. Indeed, they use the Authoritarian Parenting method that does not allow the children to have two-ways-communication, and will use threat and intimidation to keep them “under control” so as to limit their options in behaving, airing opinions, and even thinking; and by all means turning them into a complete robot.
Everything is about perfection (in terms of what and how he does it), so whenever he received love, it wasn’t towards his being, but towards his professionality; all the while instilling in his head that he should always obey the one fundamental principle that “family comes first no matter what”.
By the time Killua—the third child and chosen heir—was born, Silva might have wanted Illumi to teach Killua alongside him. During the Hunter Exam Arc (episode 20 in the 2011 anime version and chapter 36 in the manga), Illumi mentions the following quotes to Killua:
“You won’t become a hunter, because your vocation is to be a killer. You‘re just as we taught you, father and I. The only judgement you’re able to pass on a human is to know if you can kill him or not; because that’s what we taught you.”
And it becomes their one and only main goal; to turn Killua into the utmost definite, strongest, supreme descendant who will carry on their duty as assassins.
Being the subordinate child, Illumi followed Killua to the Hunter Exam to supervise him (under his mother’s request), and to bring Killua back home so that he could face his so-called fate and live his life as the heir of the family.
“Mom was crying. She was confused. (Imitating the mother) ‘Succeeding in educating that way gives me such pleasure… But I’m worried to see him leave right now.’ After thinking a lot, she called me. It’s an unexpected meeting. She feared you’d like to be a hunter.”
By now, we already understand Illumi’s distorted way of viewing the conception of love. Not being able to distinguish the right or wrong, he turned out to be inhuman, with only in mind that he has to do his job correctly and professionally, no matter the consequences. Already having that kind of mindset, Illumi presumes that he knows what is best, which is how he’s been taught to function after all: fill in his parents’ request and bring Killua home, to protect the future heir and hence, to protect the family. As the consequences do not matter like we mentioned earlier, it is absolutely normal for him to force his brother back home and brainwash him (just like he was in the past) with one of his needles as to make him understand the importance of his position and responsibilities in the Zoldyck family.
Just as his parents treated him in a twisted way in the past, Illumi also projects his intentions in the same way; for it’s the only thing he has ever known in his entire life.
Small details we’d like to add: we have stumbled upon many good reviews on the internet so far and a few arguments caught our attention. For example, sadrobotworld on Tumblr mentioned interesting facts, the following ones in particular:
One thing that’s stuck with me so pointedly from the official HxH novelizations is the way Satotz describes Illumi to Gon: “Illumi was a beautiful young man but with his eyes so empty that not a single emotion is visible in them, as if he has lost all the will to live.” Let that sink in, and then remember what Illumi says to Killua.
“You are a passionless puppet of darkness. You have no wants or desires. You feed yourself with shadows, and your only pleasure is from watching people die by your very own hands. And you’re like that because Dad and I raised you to be.” Doesn’t it sound like Illumi is talking about himself, rather than Killua?
(…)
Why love Killua but hate Illumi? After all, they come from the same family, they have the same story.
However, here’s when the differences surge up: it’s too late for Illumi, he is already stuck in that loop and he could never escape; it would have been impossible even back then because all eyes were on him, and we’re sure it was impossible for such an afterthought to cross his mind. Even if Illumi is stronger today, his past is already too unbearable for him to realize he has to get out of it. His parents’ influence is still without a doubt too strong and completely blinds him.
Killua, on the other hand, was and is still able to free himself from the loophole because he has experienced other types of interactions and was lucky enough to socialize with different people: his older siblings, his friends from the Hunter exam, and he even had Alluka Zoldyck (whose age gap is not that far from him) during his childhood life, which leads him into having a sharper mind and a broader vision of life.
Once again, in Illumi’s case, this does him no good because he was at least 5 years old when Milluki Zoldyck (the second and spoiled child) was finally born, which means that he already had the time to develop his own social skills during those first 5 years in his own particular way. Before that, he had no examples of what “socializing” or “creating bonds” could be, other than with his parents; which results in a huge lack of communication and understanding between him and the others.
Let’s move onto Illumi’s nen.
Nen is a technique that allows a living being to use and manipulate their own life energy (which we call aura). As we all already know, there are different types of nen, though we will only be focusing on the manipulation one for this case. Indeed, in very simple terms, the manipulation ability allows its user to control animate and inanimate things and Illumi happens to fall into this specific category. We will be skipping many of Illumi’s skills for this part and we’ll focus on only one of his main abilities—his needles—to have a better comprehension of how he functions with it.
Illumi uses three sets of needles (that we know of), and each set can be used for different purposes. Here are the most important ones:
  1. Needles that allow him to change his own physical appearance (when he disguises himself as Gittarackur for example) and those of others as well
  2. Needles that allow him to manipulate others by brainwashing their thoughts when a needle is implanted in the body (which is exactly what he did to Killua during the Hunter Exam)
  3. Needles that allow him to have what we call a Needle Person: basically, Illumi uses people and force them to obey to his rules no matter what, they become vegetables, literally (and that’s also what he exactly did in the last arc when he threw his needles at innocent civilians)
His abilities sound rather cool, but there is much more to it than just that. Indeed, we believe that Illumi’s abilities have a lot to do with his personality, as well as the way he perceives himself and the others around him.
Illumi has mentioned before that he sees others as puppets, putting them in a state of hypnotization and making them do things based on his will. However, Illumi also uses his needles on himself, which shows us that Illumi sees himself as a mere puppet (for his family). He doesn’t think about himself more than that and the fact that he would change his physical appearance or use his own abilities on himself really, once again, highlights how much he isn’t conscious about himself or other people in general; adding more to the previous aspects that he might experience something close to lack of self-identity, as he shows no emotion most of the time.
With that explained, this proves us that the way his parents have been controlling and manipulating him automatically puts him in no position to defy or to go against their rules. Another example would be the following one: Silva and Kikyo see Alluka as a potential threat to the family. Thus, they do not see her as a member of the family. In this context, it’s easy to understand that Illumi’s mind—crude and unfiltered—directly tells him that Alluka is indeed not a member but a peril that needs to be disposed of, which leads him into chasing Killua and Alluka during the Election Arc, all the while keeping in mind that he has to protect Killua at all costs. Illumi is so hopeless that sacrificing himself for the sake of his family is an act he defines justifiable and righteous, when it’s absolutely not the case.
“If you can sacrifice those two (Tsubone and Amane) to kill me, then you should have no problem sacrificing droves of innocent people to save Gon. If you just say ‘Yes’, then I’ll be happy to die, and your inner mission will have been a huge success, correct?” (Hunter x Hunter manga, chapter 330)
From these lines, we can clearly see that Illumi was trying to bargain with Killua into handing Alluka over by bringing up the subject of how Killua would eventually sacrifice and murder people for his own personal needs. However, the next line (presented in an internal monologue) shows Illumi’s truer intention and motives as to why he would try so hard to interfere and steer his brother’s life without his consent:
“No one human can have multiple wishes granted in a row, and even if Rule 5 has an exception where it doesn’t apply to Killua, I don’t mind dying as long as it means the rest of my family will be safe. Killua will suffer for the rest of his life, and I will live on forever in Killua’s heart.” (Hunter x Hunter manga, chapter 330)
“If my death means no other family will die, that’s acceptable.” (Hunter X Hunter anime (2011), episode 143)
These lines are concrete proof that all Illumi cares about is the safety of his own family, even if he is not included in it. To conclude, if Illumi does not experience what Killua was able to experience (aside from what they’ve been taught), Illumi will never be aware of the possible opposing point of view and what his wants and needs could truly be, leaving him stuck in the grey area forever.
For the many people who have said that Illumi is a useless, boring character with no development (plus many other statements that we will not mention here), the following paragraphs will focus on the reasons why we personally think Illumi is one of the most important characters in the Hunter x Hunter world.
In the fictional plan, the Zoldyck family, especially Illumi, has a presence that is way too powerful in both the story plot and Killua’s character development. Indeed, without Illumi (and his family), Killua would have not become the child he is today. His brother’s wrongdoings are part of the main reasons why he was able to wake up from his nightmare and realize that he was stuck into this Zoldyck loop. Killua is an amazing character, there is no doubt, almost everyone loves him; but if we really think about it, Killua can also have his negative sides resurging up because of how he has been taught during his younger years. If Illumi had not implanted his needle into Killua, if Killua had not faced his fears (his brother’s manipulation and removing the needle), then he would have never realized about his fate and would have probably turned out like Illumi, if not worse. What if Killua had been born first and then Illumi, as the heir? Or, what if Illumi had been born into a “normal” family? Perhaps he would have turned out different. Remove Illumi from Hunter x Hunter, then there would surely be no fun, no challenges, no barriers to overcome. He also plays a major role in the newest arc (manga) which we can unfortunately not talk about here.
Furthermore, after everything he has experienced in the past, Illumi was able to endure it all, sustain and deal with everything that was thrown at him, making him the way he is now. Even though we are talking about a fictional character in a fictional world, if we put him into a more realistic aspect of life, Illumi is a splendid example that represents our societal thoughts. Indeed, these inconsiderate and abusive manners are actions parents still use towards their children today and that, around the entire globe. This representation of Illumi can be a valuable lesson for every parent out there with a message that says: treat, care for and love your children in the most gentle, appropriate, reasonable, respectful and proper way possible. If not, the outcome can become really ugly and unbearably sad.
Last but not least, Illumi is not just a character that is absolutely well-studied, but he is also presented in the most unique, eccentric and extraordinary way imaginable. His skills are on point and impressive: he masters speed, has an advanced stamina and has an immense pain tolerance. Illumi is highly intelligent and is a “master thrower”, perfectly aiming his needles at his targets. He has an attractive, elegant, appealing physical appearance from his long jet black hair to his large and pupil-less eyes, his tall and muscular build; a perfect mixture and combination of both masculinity and femininity that is displayed through his strong presence and identity.
To sum this up, despite all his wickedness and malignancy that are mostly present in the Hunter X Hunter series, Illumi is a character that people need to put more thoughts on. Understanding his past helps us empathize with him more, though actions are still not considered as just or fair. Illumi is undoubtedly one of the most significant and crucial characters in the series, making him just as important as the rest of the characters. Essentially, his life story serves as an implicit reminder of how healthy parenting should be like; a profound, virtuous message that might cause a good change and guide people to representing humanity in the most civilized, ethical, and cultured way possible.
submitted by biibiichan to HunterXHunter [link] [comments]

This is the best oppurtunity you will EVER get. Reflections on porn addiction and PIED.

I went nineteen days without porn or masturbating. Then, three days ago, something told me that a little peek just couldn't hurt. I've been such a good boy these past three weeks that daddy needed a bit of a reward. Just a peek, nothing more.
When it happened, I was sitting in the dining room, which is connected to our living room. My family sat in there watching TV and chatting while the dopamine in my head from the porn on my phone screen was flowing like a waterfall. I lost control and couldn't resist rubbing one out... I nutted inside of my pants... while sitting in pretty much the same room as my family... while hearing them talk... with the possibility of them coming to me without me noticing at any moment....
I'm a sick man, I thought, what in the FUCK is wrong with me? I'm a sick, pathetic person, who does shit like that?
It didn't even feel that good, at least it couldn't even compare to my feeling of disgust, defeat and worthlessness which inevitably followed afterwards...
Fast forward three days, to today. I've been PMO'ing every day. Those nineteen days of recovery that I did are washed away. All for nothing.
Man, imagine if I simply didn't take a peek at the dinnertable, then none of this would have happened and I would've had TWENTY TWO days clean.....
That's the thought that always strikes afterwards.... woulda, coulda, shoulda...
To quote Ray from Trailer Park Boys:
That's the way she goes... Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't, she didn't go, that's the way she goes
Shit happens, upsets happen.
But guess what, tomorrow is(most likely) going to happen. And the next week is going to happen. And in a month, you will either be thirty days closer to overcoming porn addiction and PIED, or you will still be stuck at square one.(Or probably, somwhere inbetween)
Which one would you rather choose?
This is the youngest you will ever be. This is the best chance you will EVER get at bettering your future.
I guess this entire post is just me saying hurr durr plant a tree best time was 20 years ago hurr durr ooga booga next best time is now bla bla bla however it goes. But it is true though.
It might feel pointless right now, but time WILL pass. In years you will look back at yourself when you were just NINETEEN, a little kid, and think to yourself, man, that was the golden oppurtunity to change your future for the better. Why didn't I?
So why don't you?
submitted by yunglean6969 to pornfree [link] [comments]

The mystery surrounding the Wu-Tang Clan & 'Once upon a time in Shaolin'

Most people here will now the Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most influential rap groups of all time, and including all the other (solo) work produced under the Wu-Tang umbrella without a doubt the most influential and largest 'franchise' in hiphop.
Many of you will also know critically acclaimed and bestselling albums like Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Wu-Tang Forever, or well known members of the group like RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Method Man, Inspectah Deck and the deceased Ol' Dirty Bastard.
Lesser known is that the first non-American affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan is Tarik Azzougarh (1979), a rapper-producer from The Netherlands of Moroccan origin, better known under his stage name Cilvaringz.
Legend has it he impressed Ol' Dirty Bastard (ODB) after a concert in the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam in 1997, by 'freestyling' on the stage after Wu-Tangs performance. Apparently security threw him off the stage but ODB later recognized him at the backstage entrance and invited him in. After that he was invited to New York, and after several trips to NYC he joined Wu Tang Records in 1999.
Before that he was a bit of a Wu Tang 'superfan', who posted on several online hiphop forums in detail about the groups music, lyrics, etc. After he joined the clan in 1999 he did the opening acts for RZA, Method Man, Raekwon and other members, and released a critically acclaimed solo album in 2007 - simply titled "/".
He also founded his own entertainment company called RPEG and served as Vice-President for the AiM Biennale, an arts festival in Marrakech (Morocco), whose founder is Vanessa Branson, sister of Sir Richard Branson.
It would be safe to say with all of this a dream came true for Cilvaringz, whose passion had always been hiphop and whose parents came from a poor part of Morocco and left to work in the Netherlands in the city of Tilburg.
Things get interesting in 2008, when he starts working on his grand project called Once upon a time in Shaolin. This double album took six years to complete, with guest performances by the entire Wu-Tang Clan as well as Cher, Redman, Dutch Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten and even several players of FC Barcelona.
Cilvaringz wanted to recreate the original sound of the Wu-Tang Clan - the sound he grew up with - but when the album was finished - it wasn't going to be released.
At least, not in the traditional way. Instead of pressing albums, there would only be one copy available (stored in an ornate casing in a vault in the luxury Royal Mansour Hotel in Marrakech) which would be auctioned to the highest bidder. Cilvaringz and (Wu-Tangs head producer) RZA decided to do this 'Renaissance' approach because they felt robbed by piracy and illegal downloading. In 2014 they wrote on their website:
"The music industry is in crisis. The intrinsic value of music has been reduced to zero. Contemporary art is worth millions by virtue of its exclusivity ... By adopting a 400 year old Renaissance-style approach to music, offering it as a commissioned commodity and allowing it to take a similar trajectory from creation to exhibition to sale ... we hope to inspire and intensify urgent debates about the future of music."
Little is known about the album. Besides the mentioned guest performers its length is 128 minutes and the names of its 31 songs. Producer Andrew Kelley (who heard an unfinished version of the album) wrote:
Ringz’ new Wu-Tang album, it took me right back...Song after song he played gave that old feeling we have missed from the Clan in the last 10 years or so. The beats, the rhymes, the skits, the interludes… The posse cut single… He did it. He got that time machine working and really captured the spirit & essence of those days we lived so many years ago. Every Clan member is present spitting some of the best verses you have ever heard from them....The next time I sit down with RZA I will definitely be speaking with him about this album. Finish it up Ringz, all Wu-Tang fans deserve that “time machine” moment."
However, OG Wu-Tang member Method Man has called the album 'fake' and 'BS', and DJBooth Magazine even called it a 'conspiracy' and wrote:
Being tricked isn't the worst feeling. Being tricked when you should have known better is the worst feeling.
So is this album actually real or not? We know for sure that the auction did happen, and the single copy of the album was sold to Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli for 2 million dollars. (Much less than the projected 5 million dollars btw)
Since then, the album has never been heard in full. In a rather bizarre twist of fate, Shkreli promised to release the album if Donald Trump won the 2016 election. We all know how that ended, but Shkreli only streamed excerpts after Trump won.
Why did RZA choose to release only a single copy? There are several theories on that. Some people think RZA was afraid the album would overshadow his own projects he was working on at the time. After all according to DJ Booth magazine RZA was 'like a dictator' and 'wouldn't even let (Wu-Tang) members hear their own verses after recording'. Forbes magazine wrote at the time:
'According to RZA...the plan is to first take Once Upon A Time In Shaolin on a “tour” through museums, galleries, festivals and the like. Just like a high-profile exhibit at a major institution, there will be a cost to attend, likely in the $30-$50 range...Once the album completes its excursion, Wu-Tang will make it available for purchase for a price “in the millions.” Suitors could include brands willing to shell out for cool points and free publicity...or major record labels hoping to launch the album through the usual channels.'
The tour never happened. However one theory is by doing/proposing this RZA would downplay Cilvaringz role and make it seem like he had this in mind all the time. However Cilvaringz himself said (also in Forbes):
“It took a long time,” says Cilvaringz. “After five years, I’m sitting here and I’m like, ‘Am I really going to release this record and see it die after a week?’”
Whether the album actually exists or not seems not much of a debate anymore. Entertainment company Complex, Rolling Stone and Vice writer Allie Conti (during an interview with Shkreli) all heard parts of the album.
Why this album was auctioned as a single copy 'piece of art' and what role RZA and Cilvaringz played - we might never know.
The biggest question that remains is: will we ever hear Once upon a time in Shaolin**?**
Those chances seem very slim unfortunately. According to the Wiki-page about the album:
In March 2018, following Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him worth $7.36m, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Shkreli's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said the album was now "probably worthless"
At the time of writing Cilvaringz is living with wife and children in Marrakech.
EDIT 1: Many thanks for all comments, questions and even awards. This got a little bit bigger than expected. I don't have the opportunity to answethank/clarify all of the comments, but I will try to expand a little bit in the second edit. And no I am not Cilvaringz as somebody suggested :-)
EDIT 2: First of all I missed some crucial information, most important the opposition of 'senior' Wu-Tang Clan artists such as Method Man to the project, f.i. because (quote Method Man) 'this B-level Wu guy' (Cilvaringz) was 'fucking with the fans.' There was also an issue over money: the Wu members had been paid by Cilvaringz for their verses/contributions, but wouldn't get a share of the millions generated by the auction.
Also I didn't mention the clause that states that 'the right to release the album (to the highest bidder) would be transferred only after 88 years have passed.' Therefore the album may not be released to the public until the year 2103, and that Cilvaringz said he worked on the project 'in secret'.
Some of you asked why Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten was involved, and if this was true at all. This was widely covered in the Dutch press in 2014 and also confirmed by herself on Twitter at the time. Like Cilvaringz she is also Dutch, so they probably know each other through the (small) Dutch artist circuit.
Some of you have stated that the album (probably) is 'crap' or 'total crap'. I have added links below (thanks u/I_no_verylittle and u/ComprehensiveTrain65) of the released parts so you can judge yourself.
Several people asked why the album is now "probably worthless" as Shkreli's lawyer said. Personally I think it is not, considering all the Wu members (even ODB) are on the album and all the mystery and publicity surrounding Once upon a time in Shaolin. The official website (also added below) states: 'As of September 2020, the album is in the ownership of the United States Department Of Justice as part of an asset forfeiture of Martin Shkreli’s possessions following a 7.36 Million dollar judgement and a six year federal prison sentence for securities fraud.'
EDIT 3: Brad Pitt is producing a movie about Cilvaringz' 'life story' for Netflix (see The Work on official website listed below)
TLDR: The only non-American artist-producer of Wu-Tang Records is a Dutchman of Moroccan origin, best known under his artist name Cilvaringz. He worked 'in secret' for six years on a double album called Once upon a time in Shaolin, of which only one copy was sold to the highest bidder.
Further reading:
Official website of the project (interesting Q&A with RZA/Cilvaringz under '88')
All released material on Youtube
Shkreli streaming the album
Wiki page about Once upon a time in Shaolin
Guardian about Once upon a time in Shaolin
DJ Booth article
Andrew Kelley's Tumblr post about the album
submitted by BuckChintheRealtor to UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]

Judy Hopps (ENFP) The Happy Idealist, Who Always Believes It's Possible that Anyone can be Anything - Zootopia MBTI

Judy Hopps MBTI ENFP - Zootopia MBTI Types
Judy Hopps ENFP - Zootopia Myers-Briggs Typings
It's time to do a post on one of my favorite characters ever, Judy Hopps, and explain why she's a in my opinion obvious ENFP and not a ENFJ character at all which I think in my opinion is a major mistype she gets commonly mistyped as all the time online as you'll see. After reading this post and opinion I hope you'll have an open mind and see why in my opinion Judy Hopps is definitely a Ne user and Fi, Te user and Si users as a ENFP character for herself and is not even close to being ENFJ at all as a Disney character like for example a famous ENFJ character who is ENFJ is Mufasa for instance, Mufasa and Judy Hopps have almost no similarities at all as characters or personality wise except being ENFXs haha, but she does have a ton of similarities to Simba another ENFP Disney character for instance, which makes sense since Judy Hopps is a ENFP character herself. But of course she's a ENFP girl so she's more similar to ENFP girl Disney characters like Ariel, Moana, Anna, and Rapunzel who are all ENFP girl Disney characters that are all famous and wildly popular in the world as we all know. But anyways the point is, I strongly think and type Judy Hopps ENFP and a Ne user and Fi user and so on and hopefully this post will convince with evidence of why from the film, so if you disagree feel free to be patient and relax and just read the post out all the way through and see if my post and any of my points in it can convince you Judy Hopps is ENFP and not ENFJ at all like some people think stereotypically speaking at least for what you expect from a cop main character in a film or show, cause I get where people are coming from I know, but I feel people aren't looking at her actions and behaviors in the story correctly in my opinion and missed noticing her Ne, Fi, Te, and Si and so on in the the film that makes her a ENFP character definitely again in my opinion. So with that long winded introduction as usual, if you made it this far thank you, enjoy the read down below if you want to see me convince you on why Judy Hopps is a clear ENFP character to in my opinion, thank you for all the support as always and also thanks again for reading and feel free to tell me what you think yourself down below.
Judy Hopps went against society and always believe there was a possibility to be a cop even if she's a bunny and its never been done before. Her Ne saw the possibility of becoming a cop no matter what and her Fi believed in her heart to do it no matter what the odds or what anyone said, the perfect combination for a ENFP character like herself in this film with the world being against her and telling her she can't do this and to listen to the rules of society, which she also ignores as a lower Si inferior user as ENFP as well. When the movie starts and she states her future police officer dream to the world and during their play, she says to everyone and Gideon, "It may seem impossible to small minds, I'm looking at you Gideon Grey! Just 200 hundred and 11 miles away stands the great city of Zootopia, where our ancestors first joined together in peace and declared anyone can be anything!" With that speech and especially last line being a perfect Ne line for seeing possibilities and potential in all people and Judy's Ne, Fi, and Si believing in this quote so strongly here and her whole life. Her Ne sees possibilities to be a bunny police officer as a kid against all odds regardless of what society says and sees possibilities for the great city of Zootopia and its people with her Ne, that she always dreamed of with her Ne again and of going to one day when she eventually follows her dream to finally become a cop in the future like she always wanted too. Judy Hopps is always seeing multiple possibilities for everything she sees and everyone with her Ne as a ENFP girl and character and different scenes in the movie show us that about her from ever since she was a kid always dreaming about it with Zootopia and going there one day as a cop herself in the future and with when she travels and arrives there and so on with her amazement of Zootopia and its people which we'll further see and get into later in this post.
Her parents give her a SJ Si security based speech on being secure and not trying anything new and not failing and being safe job wise which is a common theme with most parents as we know, both in life and in fiction. Judy just shrugs it off and says she likes trying with her Ne and Fi and acts very happy go lucky and excited like most ENFPs are known for being and we also see her early NF idealism as a kid and constant dedication for things no matter how unrealistic they sound or are. They mention how hard and difficult and impossible her dream will be of achieving and they try to end it off by saying there's never been a bunny cop ever, Judy Hopps responds by saying "Oh...well then I guess, I'll have to be the first one! Cause I'm gonna make the world a better place!" Her NF idealism and perseverance of her Ne seeing the possibility of being the first bunny cop ever drives her to do it cause the possibility exists to her and her Fi believes in her heart she can do this no matter what even if its never been done and she lives by her inner Fi values completely separate from society and its values and what they say she shouldn't do in life right here in this scene and of her living by her strong Fi values the entire film and movie too even after this scene.
Sometimes people mix up the functions and types and how they are and can be and even mix together values, both Fi and Fe users both can care about people, society, the world, fighting for what they believe in and wanting to help people and the world in life. Yes most Fe users are group and society based with their values and personality traits and what they focus on, but that doesn't mean Fi users don't ever focus on the group, society, or want to make the world a better place and its people in life happier and more positive too, I know many ENFPs that love to help people and society with those are a major motivation for their drive and goals in life, of course they do, they're people too! And plenty of INFPs, ISFPs, and ESFPs as well that love to help people and society as well. You don't have to be a ENFJ, INFJ, ESFJ, or ISFJ to want to save the world and all its people in it and society, even if again they are really known for it and Fe users are known for that alot with how Fe works generally, Fi users care alot about that stuff and helping people, especially with their standpoint of their strong Fi values and beliefs driving them inside and carrying them throughout life with whatever they believe in so strong in their lives so much and for their motivations, a lot of activism and voices of change and better and helping society are Fi users and NFPs in life, not just Fe users or NFJs, just had to clarify all that, so yeah a bunny cop that wants to serve the community and society doesn't mean ENFJ and Fe automatic and can be an Fi user and ENFP too, just like Judy Hopps is here as a ENFP girl character herself in this film. Keep reading on for more reasons on why Judy Hopps is a clear ENFP character in my opinion if you need any more convincing and thank you so much for reading up to this point, I appreciate it. I guess you can see the Fe in me since I'm an INFJ haha, but ok moving on.
Her ENFP and NF idealism shows through when she says he's right, I don't know when to quit and we proceed to see some awesome inspiring scenes of her training and failing and getting back up again until she succeeds and finally become a cop like she's dreamed and head over to Zootopia after she gets her badge after the ceremony.
She gets on the train and she's amazed by everything she sees with her Ne, her Ne sees possibilities for everything she looks at and then finally the big dream like Zootopia amazing city shes always dreamed of going to as a kid. She's curious about everything and is amazed by Zootopia when she gets there with her Ne again as the movie goes on and she arrives in the city. She arrives in a positive optimistic attitude and is very innocent and curious as she goes there and she can't wait to get started and begin her journey here as a cop here which are all common ENFP traits. The movie goes on and she starts as a parking attendant which she hates of course but still tries to go above and beyond doing it. When she meets Nick and gets tricked by him with her bright bubbly optimism and innocence, we see her naïve side as a ENFP which is a common trail with them and INFPs a lot. She's a bit naïve and overly nice and cheerful and believes Nick and the elephant boy too easily here in this scene with a very bright and happy go lucky ENFP attitude.
She says, nobody can tell me what I can or can't be, especially not some jerk who never had the guts to try to be anything more than a popsicle hustler" Judy ENFP. More Ne lines seeing possibilities and believing in herself on what she can be in life and not listening to others and what the general public says about her, Ne and Fi. She's dreaming of doing the impossible no matter what anyone says and always sees the possibility to be something great even if she's a bunny rabbit and almost became a carrot farmer like Nick deduced earlier from her as a
ENTP and Ne user himself too. She uses a ton of Ne and Fi with seeing possibilities and always believing in herself and others and the city of Zootopia and what's possible of it. Her Ne sees possibilities for herself in the future as a great cop and her Fi believes in herself and inner values. And Judy Hopps is insanely idealistic as a NF girl herself too. Her lower Si is apparent though because doesn't pay much attention to details and focuses on what she's looking at or thinking about or a curious thing she sees and then ignores everything else around her sometimes because she's a bit airheaded with her Ne, a good example of this is when she walks straight into wet cement and starts sinking into it and doesn't even realize it until Nick points it out to her and she looks down to see she's stuck in it. This scene shows she always has her head in the clouds as a dom Ne user and ENFP and is very airheaded and misses details around her a lot of the time, and is more focused on her curiosity of the things she sees around her and forgets anything else around her also after that or focuses on what she cares about strongly to the point she misses all or most details again with her lower Si inferior and her high dominant airheaded Ne as a ENFP herself again here. An ENFJ wouldn't be as airheaded as this even if they are intuitives too and don't care for details as much, they still have Se third and see details more often than a ENFP does who has Si inferior as their last stack in their main functions and also Se as a shadow function too as well. So this scene alone proves Judy Hopps is a airheaded head in the clouds Ne dom and ENFP girl all in this one scene alone with her sinking in the quicksand and not realizing it at all until pointed out to her that its happening to her. Again true there's some mild stereotyping with this statement and point but I'm just speaking generally here even if I know ENFPs can of course pay attention too which I know of course and sometimes have even airheaded ENFJs too, I'm just saying generally speaking Ne users and ENFPs miss details more often compared to ENFJs and are generally more airheaded with their head in the clouds with their Ne more often, if we had to compare the two side by side for the reasons stated above. Judy Hopps fits those Ne airheaded stereotypical head in the clouds descriptions here perfectly all in this one scene showing she's definitely a ENFP character and girl for sure and not even close to being ENFJ at all because of this airheaded ENFP moment she has here in the movie. This is one of my major points I'll use here for my case for her and argument.
She's reckless, spontaneous and breaks the rules all the time and debates with others and goes against what people say. She jumped right in and ran after the weasel guy without following orders and chased him without hesitation, thinking, or any planning at all. Sure it was a emergency situation, but she didn't call anyone, call for backup, do any safety precaution of any kind in the scene and just focused on running after the weasel spontaneously and proving herself no matter how impulsive or reckless the action was on her part, this recklessness and spontaneity traits are more common in perceivers and ENFPs than ENFJs since ENFJs are more structured, safe, and organized people which Judy is nothing like in this film or scene here as a ENFP character for herself again. Her lower Si has her disregard and ignore the rules and guidelines even if she sometimes states them a cop and debatably Si user, but her lower Si is apparent when she focuses on possibilities, curiosity, and dreams of anyone becoming anything with her Ne over Si traditions, rules, and the way things should be and listening to what people say and her ignoring all that since she hates tradition and rules and wants always do something new never done before and doesn't care for rules, structure, and all that and again prefers the new and interesting and new possibilities for herself, other people, and Zootopia and what could be for each of them in the future. Which all is her reasoning for her of like lines she says of always wanting to try so that she can do something new, make the world a better place, and so anyone can be anything in the future in life, all major Ne lines again and motivations here in Judy Hopps as a ENFP and ENFP behaviors coming out of her too like in this weasel chase scene in the film. Stereotypically speaking ENFJs are more known for following rules and guidelines more often compared to perceivers and ENFPs in this case and example, of course this isn't always the case but generally speaking ENFPs tend to follow their heart and ignore rules and guidelines if they don't make sense to them in their eyes and heart and there not afraid to rebel if its unjust, they don't want too, or those particular rules don't feel right to them inside and so on. Whereas ENFJs do focus on and care alot more about rules usually and society and its values and so on with their Fe and Ni too you could say also. Anyways moving onto the next scene, Judy Hopps gets roasted and scolded by the ESTJ Chief for abandoning her post, recklessly putting helpless people in danger, starting a scurry and panic and so on, I explained and pointed out all these reckless and doing things without thinking points above already on the whole ENFP vs ENFJ points debate here in this scene and part of the film.
She's witty, jumps from idea to idea with her Ne and is good at talking herself in and out of things like when she hustled Nick and creatively talks just like him which makes sense since he's a ENTP. Anyways she spins his words on him in a witty manner, counts up his lack of taking taxes and criminal activity, and flips his words against him with her recording causing him to be forced to work with her. She thinks ahead, is good at coming up with ideas on the spot with her Ne and continues to hustle Nick through the film easily, like for example of coming up with the Ne idea of tricking him again by throwing the pen over the gate and threatening to arrest him for climbing the fence suspiciously all to force him to keep helping her still on the case.
We see more of her Ne curiosity and always asking question with her Ne curiosity all the time with things and people as a ENFP in the film, with the perfect example being when they get taken by the polar bears to see Mr. Big. She sees different polar bears of different sizes enter the room and says and asks the question with her Ne curiosity, "Is that Mr. Big?" Nick says no, Judy continues to ask the questions with her Ne, "What about him? Is that him?" Nick continues to say no in anger and frustration trying to shut her up with all the questions in this scary situation. She ends it off saying that's gotta be him and Nick continues to get mad and tells her to stop talking, her Ne was curious and constantly asking questions in this scene and was curious who Mr. Big could possibly be with her Ne and what he looked like, class Ne behavior and ENFP personality traits coming from Judy Hopps here. Judy Hopps is a Te user is cares about efficiency at times quite often and can be even bossy and commanding with the things and goals she wants and gives Te orders to Nick all the time with her sometimes bossiness to him. She speaks to Mr. Big with confidence and tells him what she's going to do regarding the case and all the things and how she's going to efficiently find out what she thinks he did to that otter if its the last thing she does she says to with full confidence in this scene all with her headstrong Te as she talks down to Mr. Big. The whole film she's thinking about Te efficiency and getting goals done in a efficient fashion, she uses Te all the time in the film and has a very strong Te mindset and mentality throughout since she was a kid all the way up till now with her as a adult ENFP girl and her Te goal driven focus and efficiency drives her the whole film and his motivations to get things done and as effectively as possible, along with her Fi and Ne of course driving her too even if Te is still low in her stack being third and isn't her strongest function overall as a ENFP still, she still uses Te decently well and consistently throughout the film anyway as a ENFP character again.
She asks where does that road go curiously with her Ne when they track the car together after Nicks Ne idea on finding them. She comes up with the Ne idea to start a howl to distract the wolves which works, perfect Ne idea moment for Judy Hopps in this scene, so much so that Nick told Judy your a very clever bunny right after her great Ne idea she came up with there. She also came up with the Ne idea to use the toilet to escape from the jail.
Judy Hopps is very intuitive with her Ne and learns things quickly with it and sees patterns and makes connections easily as a character and cop, similar to Nick as well as a ENTP for him. A good prime example of this is when she came up with the idea push Doug out the train and steal the train to get to the police and then intuitively learned with her Ne how to move the train even if she's never done it before, this is a classic scene of her using her intuition to learn something new spontaneously on the spot and it working even if she never done it before, her strong intuition in this scene as a ENFP even amazes Nick when she uses her Ne here to figure it out, even though he's a ENTP himself and also a Ne user.
She said in her ending speech at the end, how she dreamed of Zootopia of being this amazing place where anyone can be anything. Her Ne dreamed hard with this one and led to her amazing speech in this scene. She encourages to try and go for it and do something no matter how hard or difficult. You have to try is her message in the speech as always, she implores everyone to try to make a change and make the world a better place since now she learned life isn't as simple as the Zootopia slogan she always grew up with and believed and that life is more complicated than that, she learned all of this with her Si holding onto that in the past for so long and learning from all her new experiences as a Si users up till now with her current experiences as a adult and living her cop dream finally. She says we should try to learn and understand each other and our differences, only after we try to do that can we make the world a better place for all of us and its something we all have to have the courage and bravery to do for the each of us, which is a beautiful and perfect inspiring message for a ENFP character like her to have and with her Ne and other functions too like Fi and and Te too and even learning from her Si as well, all this fits perfect in line with her ENFP personality and Ne and other functions and her anyone can be anything and we have to try to make a change inspires us to enact it and the practice in our own lives to be less discriminatory towards others and accept peoples differences in life and continue to work to make the world a better place each and everyday.
Judy Hopps believes the slogan of Zootopia the whole film as a ENFP, that anyone can be anything in the future with her Ne and Fi and believes there multiple possibilities for all people in the world and for the people of Zootopia as a Ne user and ENFP again who believes in this mentality stated again as I already said this whole entire post. And now she finally finds the true meaning of that saying just like she's always wanted since hidden deep meaning to things is everything to her and new possibilities for all things and people too too, she finally truly understands the meaning of that phrase after all her experiences and learning through life now up to this point and finds out anyone can be anything and we can all get along and respect our differences as people and animals but we again just have to try, a perfect message that comes commonly from a ENFP person or character, she says we have to try so that anyone can actually be anything and respect and understood as a individual who is more similar to you than you think, even if they may look scary or different from you on the surface, how you look or are born as doesn't matter in life, its about who you are inside and the possibilities of who you can become in the future are endless! And Judy Hopps Ne saw those possibilities all along ever since she was a kid and still up till she was a adult up to know in the story and film of the amazing movie Zootopia, she was right as a ENFP character with this messaged she believed the whole film, no matter who you are or what you look like on the surface, anyone can be anything and can make a change in their life and for other people in a positive way, we just have to try together to see that and make change happen for all people and respect each others differences so that change can happen with each other, and continue to make the world a better place in the process.
Here's fictionalcharactermbti's Zootopia post and Judy Hopps being ENFP also being mentioned by them and them talking her here:
https://fictionalcharactermbti.tumblr.com/post/140649856749/zootopia-mbti
Here's a individual Judy Hopps ENFP post made again by fictionalcharactermbti, this post is more in depth with her character as a ENFP so be sure to check it out when your free anytime, its a great post:
https://fictionalcharactermbti.tumblr.com/post/190123879489
Here's a post me and my friend made together Ringz, on Personalitycafe forums awhile back. We both knew Judy Hopps was a ENFP years back, so we made this post on the PerC forums to explain why to everyone our shared opinion on that together here. Check it out if your interested, since especially Ringz brought up some great points for her and the film, which makes sense since Ringz is also an ENFP themselves too:
https://www.personalitycafe.com/threads/judy-hopps-is-enfp-from-zootopia-mbti.1184481/
My Simba ENFP Post for other Disney Movies:
https://www.reddit.com/ENFP/comments/iwi47t/simba_enfp_the_curious_speculative_idealist_and/
submitted by muddy120 to mbti [link] [comments]

Lucifer was trained an analysis [SPOILER]

(Imma warn y’all from the beginning it’s hella long.)
Or an alternate title would be: Lucifer is not that big of a jerk and I hope he doesn’t confess. So here’s an awfully awaited (by like 10 people but let me have my moment) Lucifer Analysis. I had a really hard time writing this so hope it was worth it. I have come to realize that Lucifer is a reaaaally well written character but is HIGHLY misunderstood. Don’t worry I’m not gonna make excuses for his abusive behaviour, just giving you another point of view. So let me get this straight: Lucifer was trained and the only reason you think he’s a jerk is because you’re seeing him throught Vicky’s eyes.
Now, DON’T KILL ME JUST YET.
Let me introduce you to what I call «Reset Training», it’s really hard to explain and understand so I’ll do my best. To summarize it’s a mental or physical trainning that’s meant to reset anything you’ve learn and correct it. It hurts a lot but works very well and is almost impossible to destroy. It can be done to you on yourself, you on others or vice versa. It’s a really simple 4 steps process (But I’m not gonna teach you how to do it, don’t do that) that mainly consist of breaking someone at such an extent that they don’t care anymore. It mostly come with a lot of depression/anxiety/mental breakdown first before the goal is reach, as I said, not fun that’s why I’m not teaching it. If you’re confused I’ll give you a quick example: I was trained (by myself don’t worry) to control my ADHD at such a perfection level that they had trouble diagnosing it 20 years later and most recently I was trained not to emote anymore. AND If you’re still confused about «Reset training», the thing that comes the closest to it is something called «The Theory of Positive Disintegration» you can learn more about it here. That’s it for the explanation now let’s get to the real analysis.
To simplify my writing I’m gonna use the abreviations: RT= Reset Training; RTP=Reset Trained Person; HSU= Heaven’s Secret Universe
Now as most of you, when I first played HS I couldn’t stand Lucifer, he was the biggest jerk ever than I realized that it was because I was seeing him throught Vicky’s eyes and let me tell you she doesn’t know how you’re supposed to act arround an RTP. Because yes, there’s things you should and shouldn’t do arround an RTP. For simplification purpose I’m only gonna talk about Emotionnally trained people, so that’s the kind I’m referring to when I say RTP.
I- CONTEXT
It’s important to know the environnement you’re brought in because that define who you’ll become: As far as we know Lucifer is an only child living with only his father who’s the Devil himself.
So to survive in the HSU: Don’t trust anyone, Don’t have weaknesses, Be powerful and smart. And Lucifer did a pretty good job at those.
II-How Lucifer was trained
Personnally, from what we’ve seen, I think he was trained:
Others signs that tells me he was trained are:
III-What Lucifer really is (I didn't have a better title)
So originally, I was supposed to do a detailled scenes by scenes explanation and how it could’ve gone better but that’s just an unecessary addition of text and I hope at this point you understand that if you replay again but acted differently (mostly choices that doesn’t exist in the story) you might know a totally different and more likeable Lucifer.
RTPs we like strenght, logic, intelligence, and playfulness. That’s how you spark our interest and the game did very well depicting that with the prompts that went something like «Lucifer liked your courage», « Lucifer is impressed», «He looked at me proudly», etc. And also everytime Lucifer kinda snaps back telling her he hates weak people like her, that her life was worthless, asks why is she interested in things thas doesn’t matter, etc. It’s so real. Like yeah dude could’ve said it more nicely but he chose brutal honesty and not everyone like that, wich gets me to my next point.
MC is not great for him. I’m sorry but it’s true, at least her character now is not great for him. Why? Because she doesn’t understand him! Now I’ll give it to you, if you don’t have the RTPs manual you cannot understand us or will most likely misunderstand us. It’s like everyone wanting Lucifer to confess and I’m screaming internally and praying the writers don’t make him do it. From the very first day she doesn’t know how she should talk to him, she doesn’t know how to react and in the end she gets over-attached and confused, I don’t want that for her! And I also do not want him to change because IT’S UNREALISTIC we might tame training but will almost NEVER purposefully erased it, it’s who we are, it’s what we love, we don’t want to change it.
I don’t want either of them to change for the other. I think MC goes great with Dino or Mimi (can’t talk for Andy), because they’re great match. But Lucifer? Nope. She lacks detachement, playfullness, mental strengh and so on…
Because if he doesn’t care and only want fun, have fun with him ! Impress him, focus on yourself and he will care but it’s not her! Like Lucifer and Sebastian(SIF) are both RTPs and that’s why I love them because I understand them without effort but as much as I love Brandon (SBR) and Alex (CY) I couldn’t for the love of God date them in real life becausewe wouldn't be a great match.
And I don’t know how else I can make my point man so I’ll just finish here.
IV- Controversial Scenes
Let’s talk about it, now I’m don’t do double standards so I’m gonna hold him as much as MC accountable.
Now Lucius, as far as I know there’s 3 controversial scenes: The cell scene, The sex scene, and the result of the sex scene.
BONUS – Why he souldn’t confess his love – Peter Pan effect.
«Peter Pan effect» is referring to a wrong depiction of character. In Once Upon A time, there was the greatest vilain EVER, Peter pan. The fans fell in love with him but everytime you looked for a oneshot/fiction/imagine the MC was ALWAYS fragile, turned him into a good guy and they lived happily ever after. And thankfully, one day, a tumblr users talked about it and how it’s wrong and it would be out of character for him and she also wrote the best imagine ever for him with the girl being a strong vilain and not changing him.
Lucifer is an emotionnally trained RTP, and for some reason he find interest in MC, so he have fun with her. Now in real life it would take a LOT more than what we’ve seen to get the reaction Lucifer had in S2E6. But I get it, we would be here for 80 seasons before a reaction so I’m actually okay with that, they have a decent relationship so it works. But I hope they don't push it to far, aka the L-word. Let me explain, he haven’t showed that he trust her, keep in mind that if he does he allows himself to have a weakness = the thing he worked so hard to NOT have. He’s going to have to fight against himself and he has to be sure that she’s worth it. That imply a deep connection and a loooooong verification (like 6 months mininmum) to make sure that’s a good decision. And that’s just to know if he COULD take the risk. So I’m not against him confessing, I just don’t want it to be rushed, like they need a stronger connection first but a REALLY strong one. Because most RTP don’t confess their love, EVER, or at least not before a veeery long time, we show it in different way and you understand it = Love languages. That’s why I really liked that it took Sebastian (SIF) 5 freaking seasons and what felt like 50 years before telling Adelaide about his past, because that’s how it really is!
CONCLUSION: Now if you made it until here, I applaud you. So to summarize the whole analysis: Lucifer’s not that big of a jerk he just don’t care. I pray he doesn’t confess his love. Him and MC are not a great match. And I’m basically Lucifer. Thanks for reading.
A/N: Keep in mind that this is the most condensed/short version of the analysis I could do and A LOT of things didn’t make it to the final cut, like it could’ve easily been a 3 part series, so if you disagree/don’t understand something it’s probably that the explanation was cut out (like the explanation for his arrongance) but feel free to ask questiosn and I’ll be glad to answer. As always this is just my personnal opinion feel free to think otherwise. Also I don’t claim to be a licence therapist just a girl who loves studying human beviour, can identify with a character and has too much time on her hand for long analysis. And most importantly I do not condone toxic/abusive behaviour and was in NO WAY defending Lucifer on his.
submitted by _Roseam to RomanceClub [link] [comments]

bettering yourself tumblr quotes video

See a recent post on Tumblr from @lostmailbox about bettering-yourself. Discover more posts about bettering-yourself. 45. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. If you love yourself then you should not compromise on who you really are. 46. No one is going to love you if you don’t love yourself. Before you can start loving somebody else, you must first love yourself. 47. Don’t forget you’re human. It’s okay to have a meltdown… Aug 1, 2020 - Explore larry lemery's board "bettering yourself" on Pinterest. See more ideas about me quotes, great quotes, inspirational quotes. When people feel that the only thing they’re in control of is their own body, they begin to cause harm to it. Either by cutting, starvation, or takings drugs and alcohol. It eventually becomes addicting because through those actions, you feel as though you’re bettering yourself even though you aren’t. The desire to be in control at all ... ― Jim Rohn – Self Improvement Quotes. Knowing who you are, how you tick, what makes you YOU, is the most powerful education you could ever give to yourself. 7- “You are essentially who you create yourself to be, and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.” ― Stephen Richards – Self Improvement Quotes Self Improvement Quotes. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”. “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”. See a recent post on Tumblr from @riffatmatinpoetry about keep bettering yourself. Discover more posts about keep bettering yourself. Jan 3, 2021 - Explore Niya Burnett's board "Better yourself quotes" on Pinterest. See more ideas about quotes, inspirational quotes, words. Quotes About Being Happy With Yourself No Matter What. Quotes about being happy with yourself are as important as bathing, you need to read these quotes every day to reinforce your confidence and reaffirm your sense of self-worth.. If you have ever found yourself thinking such thoughts as “I just want to be happy with my life” or “Will I always be lonely and sad? then you know enough ... Here are 12 quotes that’ll motivate you to work on yourself and improve your life, one small action at a time. 1. “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you’ve ...

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bettering yourself tumblr quotes

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