1. First impression: w-who is this person talking about misogyny in the micaiah tag oh they follow me2. Truth is: you`re very… interesting! one of the strangest people to leave messages in my inbox but i can`t really picture my blog without its new hats-san tag now3. How old do you look: i dont think ive seen a picture of you4. Have you ever made me laugh: YES5. Have you ever made me mad: no???6. Best feature: your ability to seem like you`re on some sort of substance at all times7. Have I ever had a crush on you: no8. You’re my: hats-san9. Name in my phone: n/a
Screw Lois and Clark, screw the Dibnies and Hawks, Barry and Iris are probably the best marriage in the DCU and not only that, they are also probably the best role models for any marriage! If Barry dates anyone else in the New52 It's going to feel like cheating xc
Gasp! I can't believe you just said that! My Dibny heart may never forgive you...
I'd say that Barry and Iris have a very realistic, but also very happy and reasonably undramatic marriage.
The Hawks' love in incredibly strong, but also obsessive and hurts both parties. The Dibnys have a relationship that is never doubting, and never blaming. Which....doesn't really happen. That often, at least.
I think that Barry and Iris's relationship, together with Lois and Clark's and the Bakers, are the marriages in the DCU to strive for. They encounter bumps in the road from time to time, but they solve their problems together, and move forward.
I liked better when Black Canary used a wig and Ollie didnt used a mask (everybody knows Ollie! they just dont care!). Why does he keep using the mask? Mia and Connor told him hundread times the goatee gave his identity away (Oh and Dinah likes the goatee! Its canon!).
Not sure why he went back to the mask, since his reasoning for ditching it was pretty solid. And it's not like it covered a huge chunk of his face anyway. But honestly it looks cooler imo. Still, mask and wig are not nearly as important....As. That. Beard.
These are some thoughts prompted by this post, which I thought raised some interesting questions. I would have done this as a reblog, but I realised I had too much to say for it to look convenient as a reblog. I hope you don't mind, lordofthehats!
Lordofthehats' post jumps around a bit and makes quite a few assertions, so I'd like to try to narrow down what I think the core challenge is. I think it's this:
Ike, and certain other characters in Radiant Dawn, make statements in support of cosmic Chaos. This Chaos has to be identified with war and struggle, in the context of Radiant Dawn's plot. It is firstly rather self-interested for Ike to say this, since as a mercenary he directly profits from war and violence, and secondly very immoral, considering the evils of war and Chaos.
For my response, I want to step aside from criticisms of Ike as a character, because I think the issue is more general than that. Other characters say very positive things about chaos and war. The most dramatic example I can think of is this:
Tibarn: Do you all feel as... alive as I do? This is proof that we need a little chaos. Everyone understand that now?
Elincia: Yes, but it doesn't make me fond of war. I know we can't stop, but...
Tibarn: I understand, Elincia. Your path is important, too. Leave the rough stuff to us.
Now, I can't be the only one who would like to call Tibarn on that. It seems clear that war is part of what Tibarn has in mind. He makes that statement in the aftermath of the battle against Valtome, after he has been energised by fighting, and Elincia's response - to state her own personal distaste for war - suggests that she understands him as, well, being someone who likes war.
Isn't Tibarn being rather patronising here? Isn't it tempting to say, "No, Tibarn, war is not something that we all need a little of. I do not 'understand' that sometimes it's good for armies of screaming maniacs to hack each other apart on the battlefield, and I believe that the way you idealise the warrior is morally repugnant. The only valid reason for war is to seek peace. If by chaos you mean war, then chaos is only ever a necessary evil, at best."
I think you could validly answer this by admitting that, okay, Tibarn is morally questionable at best and probably rather evil (let us not forget that prior to the restoration of Serenes, Tibarn had the hawks attack and murder Begnion sailors, and in the meeting of the laguz kings in Path of Radiance, suggested that he wanted to '[eradicate] all human scum'; Tibarn is not a nice guy), but even so, Chaos is not war. Certainly it seems to be the case that Yune, the Goddess of Chaos, quite likes people, has genuine empathy for them and loves them (in a sense), and isn't totally malicious. You might also point out that the Goddess of Order does some quite unspeakable things as well.
Well, not to labour the point, but most of the time when Chaos or chaotic energies are mentioned, in both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, it's in a negative context. Nasir describes the danger in the Mad King's War as being 'the spirit of chaos', spreading across Tellius, in a way that directly correlates with the spread of war. When Greil touched Lehran's Medallion and went berserk, it is consistently described as being as a result of touching chaos. (Sephiran describes it thus: 'the chaos bound within sent him into a rage beyond reason', and Ike says 'He went crazy when the spirit of chaos in the medallion touched him'.) When Lehran sees the Serenes Massacre, he struggles in pain, saying 'Chaos... madness... So much... anger... so much... pain...', and these were apparently the emotions that were going to wake Yune. We notice also that when Yune awoke, the chaotic energy knocked Rafiel and Leanne unconscious. The herons are without a doubt the people of Tellius most attuned to the spirit of Order and the least chaotic in nature, and that might tell us a little bit about Order and Chaos. When the heroes consider the consequences of the Laguz Alliance's war for the Medallion, Titania quotes "Chaos is born of strife." (The quotation marks are there in the game script. Presumably she is quoting some prophecy or scripture.) It's hard to see strife as a good thing. When Volke describes Elena's death to Ike, back in Path of Radiance, he explains 'Beorc and laguz are made up of two forces: balance and chaos. In this, there is no difference between us. It is the proportion of balance to chaos that determines how much the medallion affects a person.' Notice that he says 'balance and chaos', and not Order and Chaos. Interesting choice of words.
I don't mean to take this too far, because there are also a wealth of positive comments regarding Yune. I am not saying that Yune is evil. Yune is not perfect - and she does show a rather unpleasant indifference to the wellbeing of humans, including a willingness to possess the bodies of others without asking permission, heedless of the stress and emotional pain it causes others - but she's clearly not a creature of mindless evil, and it's a genuinely good thing that she helps the heroes to defeat Ashera.
Nonetheless, I think it is fair to say that war is an example of chaos, in the Tellius games. Not all chaos is war, but war is chaos.
I think you can argue that Ike does display an awareness of the evils of war, and suggests solutions for how people can express Chaos peacefully. For example, at the end of the game:
Ike: Hey, you aren't quite over the hill yet yourself. You know, I always wanted to go one-on-one with you, just once.
Caineghis: Hah. I would have expected you'd had your fill of fighting.
Ike: I've had enough kill-or-be-killed to last me a lifetime. But something simpler, some way of testing our respective strengths...
Caineghis: You mean controlled matches, with all the little rules they have. In a peaceful world, we need such things. Especially we laguz. Without a fight now and then, we go a bit strange in the head.
Ike: That's the honest truth. I'd rather try to order a river to change course than stop a bunch of rampaging laguz!
This reads like Ike and Caineghis are saying, "War is a terrible thing, but a little competition is important. We should find ways to test our martial strength without the devastation of war."
On the other hand, there are a few conversations in Radiant Dawn that come off as awkwardly pro-war. For instance, there's this one in 3-3:
Ranulf: He says he looks forward to what the little strategist will say next. It looks to me like Soren's charmed his way into the most powerful position in this army.
Titania: I'm glad to hear it. He's changed, hasn't he?
Ranulf: Yeah, I think so. He still doesn't say much, but he's a lot more at ease these days. He used to be completely closed off, rejecting anyone who tried to get close. Like he'd lock himself away, all alone in his own little world.
Ike: We all lost and gained something during the Mad King's War. Maybe it wasn't a complete waste, after all.
Ranulf: Do you think we'll feel the same way about this war when it's over?
Ike: Who knows? We'll have to survive it first.
Ranulf: Fair enough.
If they are seriously implying that the Mad King's War was worth it because they made friends, then that's clearly a very perverse and twisted way of thinking. I don't read the conversation that way myself - I think that they all agree that the Mad King's War was awful and should never have happened, and are trying to find just one or two things of value - but I can see how you could take the logic further.
I suppose what I am saying is that we should careful in how we read this game. I am also suggesting that certain characters, Tibarn in particular, are darker than they appear. Perhaps we should be a little more skeptical of Chaos. War is terrible, Chaos is clearly associated with war, and it is a little sick the way Tibarn implies that war is good or valuable. It is not a case, as Tibarn implies, of different types of people having different 'paths': of war being good for some people and bad for others. War is bad full stop; and speaking on a personal level for a moment, I suppose I will always have more respect for a person who reluctantly and regretfully wages war to save her people and bring about peace, like Elincia, than for a person who wages war because he enjoys it, like Tibarn. I can also see how some might put Ike in the Tibarn camp. I don't think Ike is in that camp, because Ike displays a genuine awareness of the horrors of war, and is clearly capable of finding better ways to express his competitive instincts, but if Ike has a dark side, that's definitely the place to look.
I dont think Its Satire, just mocking characters. I feel like the comic Its laughing at me and not with me, like a practical joke where they trhow me a comic that is actually aimed to be stupid where superheroes are petty girls fighting over boys. Maybe I would get the one with Sinestra because of reasons... like the fact Im a straight guy with a man crush... please dont judge me...
Yeah, and that sort of mocking just doesn't work for me. Especially since it might as well be straight up serious.Hahaha no I actually find that sort of awesome. I can definitely understand having a man crush on Sinestro. And I'm happy I have such a lovely follower as you.
