Author: HolyHarlequin

Electric Boogalo: Hope can’t be built on Negation

/ HolyHarlequin / Leave a comment

When beloved and iconic franchises, myths, and legends aren’t being conformed to what Critical Drinker would call

They’re being weighed down by excessive tragedy and darkness for the claim of

“raised stakes, consequences, adversity, and struggle”

Which to me is becoming another brand of bolierplate jibber-jabber to make everything like Game of Thrones, not unlike the the buzzwords

“Diversity, Equity, Inclusions, and Modern Audiences.”

Which used to push for socio-political messaging in franchises.

But to be fair, the former claims still have merit because there’s still more leeway for debate and come with real substantial standards as opposed to the latter upon questioning with the tinest morsel of distaste will get you branded a bigot.

But in my experience, that wiggle room is shrinking and those standards are becoming more legalistic and scrupulous. Mostly for an understandable reaction to the lack of standards and consistency in modern storytelling, especially in regards to the respect of lore and a need to perserve a mythology’s identity.

But the issue I speak of is another trend while not nihilistic in intent which many other critics seem to mistaken, it certinally is the ineveitable result.

Nihilism isn’t the intent, it’s the by-product the real intent is to base hope on pure negatives which is supposedly force the individual to assert themselves into some sort of Ubermensch or Uberfrau and become their own hope, morals, and values, as what I have read of Nietzsche.

And when I mean “Negatives” I don’t mean pessimism or being a doomer, again that is the by- product of this philosophy.

What I mean by “Hope built on Negatives” or to be more accurate, “Hope built on Negation.” is hope that is defined only by negative reinforcement as well as what it negates, sacrifices, who it kills off, and the dissatisfaction it leaves the audience feeling. It seldom define hope what it is and more often than not defines hope by what it is not

Basically,

"What is hope?"

"Well its not this." or "its not that",

“thats not the focus the story so it has to be sacrificed on the altar of hope which isn’t that.”

“Nope, that person can’t live they have to die the greater good of hope which can’t include them.”

“hope cant be shown in thesse kind of ship because their surival would be deterimental to the narrative for some reason which certinaly doesn’t involve them living.”

“Oh your disatisfied and frustrated? Good. Thats the nature of fiction and it will make you grow as a hopeful person which isn’t what you wanted which you obviously had no good reason for wanting.”

its a phenomena The Distributist has dealt with when asking internet Atheists what positive views of the universe can their beliefs produce that are better than theism of any kind, and all they could just harp on “Atheism is a lack of belief” and could only define Atheism by what it negates when not resorting to dishonest response videos to theistic YouTubers

That was the case in my experience with RWBY, when I was sore about Pyrrha and Arkos being tragic, I was met with smug fans saying they weren’t the focus so they had to die and how they themselves embraced that along with the other character deaths V3 because of “so hopeful they were while being aware about the harsh reality of the real world” in other words so hopeful while embracing negation

Then when I tried to scrape by and give RWBY another chance with BlackSun, Iceberg, and Renora, they all got negated, which to be fair Iceberg’s negation didn’t bother me too much, and all got supplanted with ships I felt nothing for like Bumbleby and what might be White Knight(or not idc) and the fact Oscar’s soul was going to be erased by Ozma’s made me sick to my stomach and honestly furious

I was told thats good because “dissatisfaction is the very nature of fiction” and it was “pathetic and sad” for writing AU fanfiction for being disappointed, once again this person using this as an oppertunity to morally grand-stand of being hopeful in spite of the pure negation.

Much like the SJW’s this camp despises so much, they enjoy this trend because it gives them a way to virtue signal and give themselves a sense of cultural, intellectual, and moral superiority over others and justify forcing their way onto others with a complete disregard about the negative effects it has on entertainment, literature and others in general.

and to be fair, the stories they use to push their way aren’t always bad, but its clear they use these stories as weapons of force to attack what others create and enjoy. They often ride on the coattails of other writers and sincere audiences and start locking down concepts, qualites, and what the writer does with them into neat little theories and formulas, arrogantly assume they are the objective end-all-be-all and “interesting”, and rule everything else out as worthless “boring” garbage which then they force onto aspiring writers

But the point is this excessive need to show struggle, pain, and trauma to show fortitude of morality, courage, and hope leads many wearing down overtime to the point of fragility and break down into nihilism and despair. Most people can’t run on fumes forever.

When you use such story beats you need to fill the void left behind with something that while not replace the character, or ship, is similiar enough to remedy the pain and help the audience move on

One Piece for example does this brilliantly with inherited will and dreams being one of it’s major themes. Sabo for this particular case.

When Ace died at the hands of the authoritarian Akainu, Sabo returned from the dead organically to inherit his power, remedy Luffy’s pain from his loss, and filled the void for us fans that Ace’s death had left.

Sabo like Ace is cocky, rougish, witty, has a strong sense of brotherhood, but is also affected by Ace’s death as badly as Luffy as regret and guilt haunts him from regaining his memories in the worst way possible and failing to be with his sworn brothers.

Plus with the vague implications of an afterlife, all of this helps the Audience heal, recover, find peace, and move on from the pain along side Luffy.

Because Sabo being similiar enough to Ace, but not too similiar to the point of being a carbon copy, and Ace’s death affecting Sabo himself just as much as Luffy and now wielding the powers of The Flame-Flame Fruit, Sabo has inherited the role, dreams, and will of Ace in the most respectful way.

But these people who pride themselves on runing on pure tragic hopepunk believes that this inhibits one from moving on for some strange reason. Often calling it “deterimental”

Its like saying The Classic Star Wars Trilogy somehow nullifies the tragedy of the Prequel Trilogy or Fate Unlimited Bladeworks somehow undoes the raised stakes and consequences and suffering of Fate Zero.


Real hopeful people assert themselves in a black hole of negativity apparently.

To be a true warrior of hope and change, you must have nothing to lose all the time, you must be stripped down to a bloody skeleton and force yourself to laugh in spite of the screaming agony and never heal, at least not entirely or else you’ll regress.

Real hope doesnt need any sort of romantic or familiar anchor to be good, it denies itself of any joy to force oneself to be joyful while undergoing nearly constant torment.

And even then, if it seems to be too joyful to the powers-that-be with their nebulous measure of what is “not enough” or “too much”, or what is “interesting” or what is “boring”, that self begotten joy must be negated as well.

“Superheroes are not allowed to have happy personal lives” Thus spake Dan Didio the infalliable former chairman of DC comics

And like the SJWs, these concieted edgelords pretending opposing voices don’t exist except when to blame them, complain about them, insult them, and try to corall them into little pens of restrictive dissent which in this case is often romcoms, sitcoms, slice-of-life anime, or alternatives while are objectively well written, aren’t exactly what they are looking for.

Spy x Family for example is one of their dumping grounds for all dissent. While it is a great show and has some lovable characters and couples to root for, it doesnt always scratch peoples very spefic itches.

Not to mention these snobs treat as “a noble exception” that they “the right people” approve of for nay-sayers because their voices are the only voices that matter while everyone else gets poo-pooed away.

Which turned me off from watching Spy x Family for a while because I felt like I was being herded into a little pen like a sheep by these jerks told to shut up and be content with that. It felt like they wanted to contain and control me, not actually listen to what I wanted and help me find what I was specifically looking for.

And these sophists like the woke see themselves as some sort of resistance to the system, when in reality they are just as part of the system.

Because as many have seen with the New Atheist Movement, when you try to create a vision for the world on a negative idea, it does not lead to an improved set of morals and sense of purpose but rather a sucking vaccum, which is being filled by the very ideology this camp as many others despise and rightfully so.

But either this group is either oblivious to their own contirbution of the problem, or just dont care and still want their niche taste to be the foundation of all epic science fiction and fantasy.

Its like what Critical Hub said in his videos critiqing the Jedi Order by the time of the Clone Wars

They basically taught their padawans emotional supression and feelings and attachments were a disease, even those that were of the very Light Side they were supposed to represent.Then acted shocked when their unhealthy approach to emotions contributed to Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side and turn to Darth Sidious who was the only one to actually adressed what the Jedi Order refused to consider other than “just meditate harder.”

To be fair, I’ve been told my taste and approach to epic sci-fi and fantasy is niche. Fine, maybe it is. But I’m not saying my camp is the majority or minority nor am I trying to claim I a speak for everybody. I’m not trying to hide anything. I’m selective. I like some niche things, and I like some broad things. Everybody does. I am selective when it comes to tragic romance. Sometimes I spare the pairs, my faith influences my writing and worldbuilding and morals. I’m not denying any of this.

All I know with bumping into others online and those liking and rebloging my posts on various social media platforms, I know I am not the only one who feels this way or at least there people who despite their differences with me, can humor me in good faith knowing I do have something to say.

I’m not saying my camp is bigger than the opposing one, I’m just saying it exists and by the looks of it, we’re big enough.

And with the rise of indie content and fanfiction’s positive attention there’s now an oppertunity for people like me to make our voices heard without jumping through beuracratic hoops and abiding restrictive petty limitations of so-called “literary experts” or corporate entertainment overlords.

And these edgelords seem to be complaining a lot about that, that those they disagree with now have just as much as a platform as they do and those on the fence are willing to listen. Mostly because those formats do with concepts and export characters into the stories that Western Mainstream Media has almost completely abandoned for a dialectic of either pure marxism or pure tragic negation which many are now trying to escape.

This group had poisoned the well of fanfiction for years. Lumping it indiscriminately with bad fanfic or the fact it allegedly doesn’t follow “conventional storytelling” and supposedly “too idealistic” in their narratives even when written well, so therefore it ultimately doesn’t count.

As well as indie voices not getting any real attention.

And their discouraging of others from reading fanfiction and indie writers who they didn’t like as well as the dominance of big entertainment allowed them to feel secure.

But thats not the case anymore, and like the Skeptic Community reacting to the resurgance of Christianity and more people questioning the credibility of said community, they have begun spiraling into petty egotistical whining

“How dare these uncultured swine enjoy these frustrating works and not abide to our expertise! We are important figures in pop-culture and literature who they WILL respect!” they ranted

While crying crocodile tears over lovable character’s deaths the trillionth time to prove to themselves and everyone else how much righteous martyrs they are.

It reminds of one of my favorites movies, UHF staring Weird Al Yankovic as the main character. In the movie, the protagonist gets a uhf station from his uncle to start his own local tv shows

and is brushed off by the Channel 6 Station headed by the concieted and egomanical RJ Fletcher who’s crew bullies the other whenever they cross paths.

But once the station starts picking up steam and starts gaining more positive attention of the town, Fletcher is outraged and tries to forcibly buy it off from Weird Al’s uncle who needs to pay off a lost bet. Which in response our hero starts raising money to pay off the debt which with his main star leading the charge.

RJ in one last attempt to stay in power gets his goons to kidnap the star of the station and try to starve off the income. During this time Weird Al’s girlfriend tries to convince RJ to leave the station alone which RJ keeps denying anyone actually enjoying UHF, but when the leading lady keeps insisting otherwise and points out the fact that competition is necessary for a healthy community, RJ finally acknowledges the community’s appreciation for the rival station.

But intstead of doing so to come to terms with this very fact, RJ proceeds to insult that very community that appreciates Al’s station as well as his own.

And later on after the footage is recorded by Weird Al’s friend Dr.Philo and when RJ Fletcher tries to frame UHF is an immoral subversive force within the city.

He then, like the smug RWBY V3 fans I encountered, talks the talk of doing this out of being a concerned and virtous citizen.

But the footage plays over his broadcast and the mask of civility and nobility that he has worn for decades breaks with Fletcher railing against that very community he claims to serve.

and finishing with the only value he sees in this community as a crowd he can bend to his will and elevate his station for his own personal glory and ego.

Of course Weird Al pays off the bet and keeps the station and RJ Fletcher looses his as the price of his own arrogance and cruelty.

This group of militant “Anti-Nihlists” who ride the coattails of writers of hopeful tragedy who’s works they use as weapons to attack others and SJW’s who see franchises as a means to broadcast their utopian vision, both have some things in common with Mr.Fletcher.

They are a pair of people who had managed to make their way to the top and stay in power, they controlled the options for the masses, managed to keep others from listening to opposing voices, they were two dueling monopolies who when not busy ripping each other’s throats out would be gaslightining, bullying and patronizing the masses who they saw as cattle to lord over and heard around.

Because they annointed themselves as the all-knowing, all-seeing arbiters of epic sci-fi and fantasy who as one would say “have it all figured out.”

When the people grew weary and turned to the very people and places these snobs told them to stay away from and actually begin to consider the viewpoints of the supposed crackpots and idiots, these huaghty self-annointed arbiters of epic storytelling began to spiral out of control and started lashing out at the very people they claimed to speak for.

As well as dissident demographics who as I said before they kept insisting were non-existant execept when to complain about them as either unwashed masses of sheep or minority of vermin who shouldn’t ever get what they want.

All justifying their behavior, hypocricy, and boulde standards in morals and logic with the attitude of “we know better than you.”

These two sides while they may despise each other, are willing to put up with each other and even make deals with each other under the table in order to force those in the middle to chose their respective side. As well as their ideologies both about being “subversive” of a common enemy which from my perspective is tradtional Christian values and western values as a whole

which both parties percieve to be blame for everything wrong in the never existed in the first place.

deceptions and mistakes of culture that are supposedly to world, never did any good for anyone, and probably should

and more-sweet-than-bitter stories for making people soft and gets a negative contations now-a-days, or enforcing

The edgelords blaming noblebright
weak and “saccharine” which often
“patriarchal, heternormative, Christo-Fascist values” by the Marxists.

CS Lewis spoke about this dilemma in explaining of how The Devil decieves the world. Old Nick loves to send his lies in pairs of polar opposites. He relies on us to choose one out of our hatred for the other when those of the faith are called to walk the narrow path.

I experinced this with the RWBY Fandom with both those who are unhappy with RWBY and those who were fine they way it was.

I shipped, and still do to this day, Arkos, BlackSun, IceBerg, Renora, and RoseGarden among other few minor ships all of whom I thought should have survived and had a happy ending.

I felt RWBY V3 onward was becomign too dark and aimlessly grim.

Anyone who has seen my RWBY Redux video(a project I decided to cancel due to personal reasons and export these characters and ideas into new stories instead) I had a lot of unorthodx ideas of what RWBY, it’s world, it’s characters, and mythos could have been instead

All of which are based on my own personal tastes and distastes as well as my moral believes, especially my beliefs as a Christian, Roman Catholic to be exact.

In the past during my younger days on social media, I was lectured, patronized, and even berated for this by the unhinged amongst both camps because one side saw me as not dark enough and wanted everything to be all “sunshine and rainbows” or “ice cream and sugarplumb faries” and the other side saw me as not woke enough and was “heternormative”, “homophobic”, and “forcing my religious beliefs onto others”

They both would tell me nobody in the RWBY community, or anyone in the human population of earth for that matter would find my ideas interesting, which again I explained to them that they were given how they were defending RWBY V3 onward from naysayers and while we may not be bigger than themselves, we exist, and we’re big enough.

Which then as I have said before the two camps only acknowledge the existence of the potential audience only to bemoan them, belittle them, and how they should all just shut up and watch Disney or a sticom.

It seemed to me the reason they both hated my values was because they displace these two factions as the measure of all things by something and someone higher than themselves who takes things into account which the other won’t touch with a 50 foot pole and would reasonate with certain demographics of people who these two waring factions both couldn’t stand breathing the same air as them and those who while may disagree us, dare to have reasonable dialogue with us in good faith.

Because as What The Egad has pointed out in his free speech values video, reasonable people live the the uncomfortable space in the grey area due to the fallen, yet redeemable, nature of man, while acknowledging objective morality and values.

Which is ironic because both the radical left and the edgelords will chide others for “seeing things in black and white” while they sort to the same extreme black and white thinking when it suits their agenda because once again, they belive they have the higher knowledge and understanding to do so.

Fandom Woes: Self-Righteousness of Modern Tragedy

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I think I want to explain my case better about my beef with modern tragic/more-bitter-than-sweet fantasy/sci-fi, such as RWBY, Code Geass, and D.Gray-Man and it’s not necessarily the stories in of themselves

It’s the Self-Righteous Martyr/God-Complex of toxic contingent within these fandoms, to me they seem to ultimately not care the message the tragedy and suffering of these stories are trying to convey, but rather enjoy them and flaunt them for their own self-righteous megalomania

And I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it’s the tone, attitude and behavior of these people that give me that impression 

For example with Code Geass and RWBY and the tragic deaths of Euphemia Li Britannia, Shirley Fenette, Pyrrha, and Penny respectively

As soon as that happened, many among the fandom would come out and theatrically proclaim the necessity of these tragic deaths, how it is so realistic an shows “thats life”, and brag how ultimately hopeful the stories still are and how it taught them how to be oh-so hopeful despite the odds, and I can see them act that way towards the burden of Allen Walker if the fandom was still active today as it was back then.

In any these cases, these people act as if they themselves were righteous martyrs, prophets of God,Life,Reality, usually the latter two because they claim “that’s life” or “that’s reality” all in a tone that reeks of holier-than-thou arrogance and vanity.

Or worse, they speak with ghoulish glee and bragging about because doing so and enjoying these tragic fates gives them a feeling of power over these fictional characters as if they themselves are God almighty and it bleeds into how they treat real people who didn’t like it by passive aggressively or belligerently belittling, judging, shaming, gaslighting, and sneering at them, implying the worse reasons of their distaste, and tell them to go watch a sitcom or slice-of-life anime or something

Then they are quick to condemn other fictional characters like Suzaku from Code Geass for being such a SOB and cheer on Watts putting Cinder on Full Blast, all while implying themselves to be such better people than both.

Then they brag about what story was told with these ideas and concepts to be the end-all-be-all of these concepts in any fantasy/sci-fi epics that have even the slightest tinge of darkness and conflict and, lock them down into little theories, formulas, dogmas, and rule out everything else as a corruption, heresy, or a worthless little parasite, because they themselves are the infallible, all-knowing, and all-seeing “literary experts” who got everything all figured out and everyone else, wether the majority or minority, as peon reprobates.

Which then they pressure onto creatives with less power than them, especially when they disagree. All while they themselves can do whatever they want with things they are unhappy with because “we know better than you”

I have experienced this expressing my ideas of what RWBY could have been instead, both as a reimagined AU and Original work and been told it could only work as a slice of life anime or a sitcom, or otherwise what I do with this stuff is ultimately meaningless and heresy and spiteful

All while they supported things like His Dark Materials Trilogy which is the Anti-Narnia written by a Atheist who hates CS Lewis and Christianity with a passion because he made the concepts more “interesting”

Or how making a sexy magical Captain Marvel with her own sailor scouts like the titular Kamen America and her Kamen Corps because the creators were unhappy with what was done with the concept of Captain Marvel is nothing but a “Porno Captain Marvel Rip-Off”

while making an evil superman like Homelander and other nasty rendition of superheroes in The Boys by a guy who despises superheroes is totally fine because he knows what’s the “interesting” end-all-be-all of these concepts.

All these things I describe can be summed up to figures in the Bible, The Pharisees

“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”-Matthew 23:4

They brag about the virtues and necessity of tragedy at the expense of fictional characters and real people, and boss around other creatives on what they do with this stuff, especially when they are unhappy, all whilst they themselves do whatever they want because they are supposedly so “objective”, they don’t need to follow the rules like everyone else

These prigs will tell others to “broaden their horizons” and give them the benefit of the doubt, but will refuse to give others the exact same courtesy because once again, “We know better than you.”

They will tell us when we are dissatisfied and frustrated that “that’s the nature of fiction” and we should embrace it and grow as people, but when happens to them, it’s unacceptable and needs to be rectified immediately because once more 

“We know better than you, so it’s different when it’s us.”

These self righteous people seem to only enjoy these stories not because of the message the tragedy and suffering is trying to convey, thats just a shield for them, but rather for their moral superiority and the thrill of power over others and being the measure of all things, for they know how life exactly works for specific individuals in specific genres and they know how to carry it out exactly.

They they know with a “G”(gnosis) what’s the end-all-be-all of specific concepts in ideas in specific genres and how to carry them out and they alone are the alchemists who can turn lead in to gold and everyone else is subjective and suffer from false consciousness.

In fact, I compare them to Digory’s Uncle Andrew in The Magician’s Nephew who though he could control other people by using their values against them to get them to do what he wants, while he himself doesn’t need to follow the rules, and basked in self congratulation of being a “great magician”

“Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freedw from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”

And while we’re at it and Code Geass is on the table, let me point to one of the antagonists of Akito The Exiled, Gene Smilas

He was the mentor and surrogate parent of Lelia Macal who sought to bring Europe to a brighter future, often invoking the tale of the venerable St.Joan of Arc.

But when the time came to supposedly save EU, did he bet on his own life like the Saint did?

No.

He decided to position himself as God and Lelia as Joan of Arc, planning for her to die as a martyr for his own gain and become Emperor of Europe, because she happened to be a young lady with good morals who wasn’t afraid to fight alongside her troops.

Like Uncle Andrew, Gene was nothing more than a peddling magician, but worse, he saw himself as God who controlled Lelila’s destiny all while basking in delusions of righteousness in his quest for power. While Uncle Andrew was at least scared straight by Narnia.

To use a description of the Pharisees from the TV Series Jesus of Nazareth(1977) but slightly tweaked,

He bowed before the Story of Joan of Arc, but violated the heart of it. And that’s why I am so irritable about Tragedy in these kinds of stories, it feels like they are no longer enjoyed out of humility, compassion, truth, goodness, and beauty.

But rather out of pride, vanity, power, cruelty, and moral superiority

and sometimes it tempts me want to write my inspired stories in a way that gives them all the finger rather than for what I saw these ideas and concepts could have been, just so I can give them a taste of their own medicine

I know that’s wrong, but these people test my patience, especially when they keep invading other people’s spaces, bypass other people’s “curations” because “there’s nothing subjective about this, I need to correct and educate you”, and getting away with this kind of nasty behavior

Waking this blog up

/ HolyHarlequin / Leave a comment

Noticed some people liking my previous posts, which I deleted because looking back, I felt like those were just complaining and whining. Probably wasn’t a good choice either.

But it’s mostly because I haven’t used this blog for primarily giving perspectives and reviews of other works and working on the fictional universe whose title this website bares.

Now I’m going to try do just that and promote indie works of individuals I’ve come to know and appreciate

So to those who recently followed me and still follow me, thanks for putting up with my procrastination

Conan The Barbarian: From Übermensch to The Knight of The Faith.

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Conan The Barbarian in both Film and Books is seen as a Nietzschean fantasy that declares that God is Dead and we must rely on ourselves. But after my own personal soul searching to strengthen my own Catholic Faith and looking up the works of Christian existentialist Soren Kierkegaard, I’ve come to see that Conan the Barbarian, weather intentional or not, is a story that starts with the philosophy of the Nietzsche but transforms with its titular protagonist to the philosophy of Kierkegaard(though its done in a morally crude manner), which then a true and authentic religion blooms. Just as God did with the primal faith of Abraham to grow and evolve into the True Religion, The True Myth, as all things he creates grow and transform under his guidance.

Experience comes first, and then from that experience is doctrine born, as experience makes sense of doctrine.

“How so?” You ask.

One simple answer, or should I say name, Crom

Crom is the chief God and supreme deity of the Conan universe worshiped by Conan’s people, The Cimmerians. Though the way he is worshiped is a lot how Soren Kierkegaard describes how one becomes a Christian, not by doctrine, but rather an experience. Soren often used examples of Abraham and Mary and finally Jesus Christ himself.

Crom rarely intervenes, taking the role of an ancient monarch. He neither wants sacrifices of animals or temples, those are for the other gods who serve him. Rather, he gives his followers a will and courage, and then they must fight in combat to feel what he feels, and then when that experience builds up to a battle with no certainty of winning, they must pray to him for courage. Then with victory, can a warrior’s newfound faith make sense of all things.

This is not too uncommon with Soren’s idea of “The Leap of Faith” which is accepting the faith outside of reason when it feels like there’s a dead end. The only thing I disagree with, is that’s where it ends. Christians, especially Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Mainline Protestants in general need to take a leap of faith so they can understand their religion better. Once you do, you feel God and soon everything falls into place.

The Leap of Faith is something I would call organic

So lets now look at the film

Conan’s village and parents worship Crom through their work, blacksmithing in particular. After Thulsa Doom and his followers raid the village and slaughter Conan’s family, he is sold off as a slave. Here as we see him grow as a slave and a gladiator, he follows Nietzsche which gets him pretty far as he becomes an Übermensch. But soon the movie shows something that I myself had theorized after reading bits of Soren.

If the Übermensch and the Eternal Recurrence do exist, they are the end of the first chapter, not the end of the story. They are but a crude accumulation of natural theology.

Conan grows bored of his savage and lecherous ways and decides to hunt down the man who killed his family and as he does, he slowly starts to restrain and reserve his primal traits. Soon he makes a friend of a thief named Subotai and learns to trust, then he finds a woman named Valeria who after looting a temple of Doom’s cult learns to love(though in a way not approved in my faith), then after being essentially hired by the King to reclaim his daughter from Doom, are sen’t off to the wilderness where finally Conan meets an old wizard name Akiro and learns wisdom.

But he foolishly goes off alone again to infiltrate the gnostic-like cult that Doom leads. Here he is captured and brought before Doom where he chastises Conan for stealing from his temple, but Conan like the primitive Übermensch he is rants and berates at Thulsa for what he did to his people. Doom nonchalantly told him why, the “riddle of steel” which his interpretation is Nietzsche called “The Will To Power”, to command people around like cattle. Afterward, Conan is crucified alone on a tree where he seemingly dies and then rescued by Subotai.

The director said its God abandoning him in opposite of Jesus Christ.

But I think what the director missed is Jesus was crucified in front of a jeering mob, which is just as bad as being alone, and like Subotai, only the faithful few where mourning him, the faithful individuals who he would send to inspire a reborn faith not only to Jews, but to Gentiles which grow into some so much greater than what Israel already was, something truly special that would even touch the heart of the Roman Empire itself and carry on where it collapsed.

Anyhoo, after resurrecting Conan from the brink of death, Valeria and Subotai accompany him back to raise hell and reclaim the princess. Sadly this ends in Valeria dying, but Conan learns to hone his anger and restrain himself. He and Subotai perform a funeral pyre for her, but she burns so bright that her corpse is gone the next day without a sign of ashes.

Finally as Doom sends his henchmen to pursuit Conan and company, Conan sets traps but knows thats not guaranteed to work. So in against all odds, Conan finally prays to Crom, understanding what he wants of him, and with that, Crom intervenes by reviving Valeria who has been transformed into a Valkyrie like state, in some kind of rough allusion to a Patron Saint before she returns to the barbaric heaven of Valhalla with the words.

“Do you want to live forever?”

After this, Conan finally understands the faith of the chief God of his people, he is no longer the crude Übermensch of Nietzsche who selfishly leads and pragmatically commands.

No, he has been reborn as Soren’s Knight of Faith, which now he can not only deliver justice to his people, but save and re-inspire those Doom has lured. For now Conan knows empathy and compassion of them and those whom Doom has turned them away from.

Friendship, Love, Wisdom, Loss, Empathy, all what he needs to become the king he will become in the future.

With this virtuous nature, he finally breaks the princess from the spell, ends Doom’s life and terrible reign, and the crowds return their respective kingdoms, homes, families, and gods.

Conan than sits at the steps of the temple, contemplating what Crom wishes for him to do next, and now with a clear mind and making peace with the past, he burns the temple and reunites with his friends. Those who would join him as his subordinates as he becomes a king chosen by Crom and raises a Kingdom in his honor and glory.

When the world was lost, God start with a seed of faith in Abraham, that grew into Israel which then God sent his son Christ, from there Christ sent his disciples to Rome as Israel fell as Christ and the Book of Revelation foretold, and from that came the Church and from the Church after the fall of Rome came the glorious West we know.

Great things start as a tiny seed, and when Great grows weary, it condenses its greatness into another seed, and the process goes on and on until the Last Day.

Because Good, will always prevail no matter it be collective, or individual, because they are ultimately one and the same.

Kentaro Miura: a Eulogy

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Kentaro Miura, the creator of Berserk, has passed away. Now granted, I’m not into the story. It’s just to dark and freaky for my taste. I’m just picky about darkness in general, probably acts more of a vice at times than I admit.But I still feel respect for the man, from what my friends have told me, especially one who spoke highly of him, his story is as ProfessorGeek on YouTube would call a “Cathartic Motivational” epic.

The main character Guts and his love interest Casca show you that life can be hard and dark but we can’t give into the darkness.Not this is not to say stories like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Lord of The Rings and other epics don’t show this, of course they do, but Beserk, as I understand it, does it on a VERY extreme level, and Guts and Casca, figuratively speaking here, go through the 9 circles of Hell together. Kinda like Joseph and Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, if thats a good comparison, maybe it isn’t, I dunno.

But I think I still owe this man because while *I* may not be into epics like his, there are many epics I do like, which some, in anime and manga in particular, came about because their creators were inspired by Mr. Miura and if it wasn’t for him. They probably would never be inspired and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy those epics and in turn be inspired by them.

Heck, Warhammer 40k inspired my own fictional universe, PUNKS, and I have a friend who is a FERVENT 40k fan while I’m not too into it.

All art, wether it be paintings, sculptures, music, architecture, literature, plays, movies, comics all were influenced by someone. As such, that person has inspired another creator who’s work you enjoy and are even inspired by, even if you don’t like or agree with that artist’s own inspiration.

Modern Corporate Culture likes to have us think we are better than what came before us or even are some kind of correction to what came before us. But in reality that could never be further from the truth.

So I say thank you Kentaro Miura. You may not been my inspiration, but you probably were the inspiration for creators who’s work I enjoyed.

*batteries not included: A flawed but delightful tale of Magic Metal Space Munchkins

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During the 80s and 90s the New Hollywood Renaissance had began reaching to its height with family films, notably revolving around science fiction, families, and either aliens or robots. The most well known of these kinds of films were ET and the Short Circuit Duology. But one under-appreciated film that combines both ideas in a story takes place in New York in a run-down apartment/diner, a group of its occupants, a sinister corporation and its leg breaking toadies, and a tiny family of saucer robots who fix things and eat electricity

This is the movie *batteries not included directed by Matthew Robins, this film was his debut as a screenwriter

Taking place in East Village in New York, the owner of the apartment/diner complex, Frank Riley(played by Hume Cronyn) struggles to keep the place from being torn down by property developers whose manager Lacey(played by Michael Greene) has hired a gang a thugs led by Carlos(played by Michael Carmine) to harass and loot the place to pressure the owner and his wife Faye(played by Hume’s wife Jessica Tandy) who unfortunately suffers dementia reliving the past. Also part of the apartment is a pregnant single mother Marisa Esteval(played by Elizabeth Peña), a struggling artist Mason Baylor(played by Dennis Boutsikaris) and quiet former boxing champion Harry Noble(played by Frank McRae). After Carlos tears up the diner and chases Franks friends out and the police are unable to act without Frank risking retribution, Frank quietly begs for someone to come and help them or face the possibility of him and Faye retreating to a retirement home.

The old couple are very sympathetic, especially Frank. He actually reminds me so much of my late grandfather on my Mother’s side. Frustrated and rightfully so with the despicable behavior of young people and the callous nature of those in charge while trying to make the best with his wife’s condition. As someone who has a grandmother on his father’s side suffering from mental deterioration, this hit me deep. Faye while suffering natural mental illness, she manages to retain cognitive thought to some degree, and her sympathy and never-ending compassion for her husband, the other occupants, and the Fix-Its. By being stuck in the past, she seems to produce some timeless wisdom that isn’t seen in this day and age.

Later that night, that plea Frank made was answered

Two small saucer-bots, who are later dubbed “The Fix-Its” fly into the home and the feminine one, exhausted and low on energy, plugs herself into the kitchen to recharge. Afterwards, they find one of the broken frames from the diner and fix it and find and fix the diner as well. Faye wakes up and is greeted by them, and she allows them to make a nest in the shack on the top of the building, which Frank and the others meet the morning after.

Mr. and Mrs. Fix-it are very cute, they seem to have a somewhat animal-like behavior, something I would compare to birds. They speak through whirring servos and bizarre sounds of beeps and various pitches of what sound like power-drills and buzzsaws

Later on its revealed that Mrs. Fix-It is “pregnant” as she is having cravings. So the folks of the apartment start feeding her all sorts of metal objects and a steady flow of electricity which results in her birthing three “baby” robots. Jetsom, Flotsom, and Wheems, the last seemingly stillborn, only to be resuscitated by Harry using parts of his TV set. The robot family helps fix the apartment and in turn the occupants provide them shelter and babysit the little ones which is provided by Mason, Marisa, and Harry.

The children are even cuter than their parents, and like they’re parents they have behavior akin to birds, chicks to be specific. They don’t do too much like their parents, but they don’t need to. The babies, Wheems to be precise, have a role to play later on. As Carlos damages the father and scares away the children and burns the apartment down, the former seemly drives the family away when they are reunited, but later revealed that Wheems returns to try to fix the apartment by himself, only to be joined by his family who were actually getting help as they return with an entire fleet of their kind to rebuild the ruins. The Development company concedes defeat and merely builds around the apartment

Now the plot, there isn’t much but it mostly revolves around the humans. It’s revealed later in the story that Faye and Frank’s son had died in a car crash some time ago and Frank had some very rough words with their son before. Faye seems to mistake Carlos for his son, but it’s never clear if this denial is deliberate or not, but I assume it partially to cling on to what cognitive function she has left and even by the end of the film we don’t know if there’s some resolution.

But I can’t help but feel the real issue I have with this story is Mason as his personality is rather inconsistent when interacting with the Fix-Its. At one point he is completely flabbergasted by their ability to reproduce, then he’s quick to dismiss a tragic stillbirth from the same little robots, and soon enough he’s the babysitter of the little tykes. I just cannot help but feel Mason’s character development wasn’t thought out in terms of chronological order. Meanwhile his love story with Marisa and his search of artistic inspiration while not bad in concept, doesn’t show too much in development, it just goes along a bit too quickly.

Speaking of Marisa, the biological father of her children happens to be a musician who’s part of something I would call a modern caravan, but sadly her story in regards of her pregnancy or her quasi-deadbeat boyfriend even gets less attention than Mason and Mr. and Mrs. Riley

Carols seems like a stereotypical hooligan, but it seems more like he’s a desperate man trying to get his own decent lifestyle as he lives in the Ghettos of New York, unfortunately they only explore this once with his interaction with Faye but once again the audience seems to be left guessing on what exactly his deal is, but we at least see he has regrets as he desperately tries to save Faye from the fire that engulfs the complex.

The whole film seems enjoyable in terms of the major overarching plot and the moments with the Fix-It family, but sadly the subplots seem to me a bit sub-par. I believe the reason this is due to the overarching plot taking up too much space for the sub-plots to have the proper pacing they need.

The Fix-It family was designed by Star Wars designer Ralph Mcquarrie and The legendary Industrial Light and Magic

The Music composed by James Horner

Would I recommend this film, yes. I really do love this movie in regards to overarching plot and the adorable robots, but I would request that you don’t put too much thought into the sub-plots. For me at least they don’t seem to do get much developed and left either resolved too quickly, or left with a rather nebulous conclusion.

I give *batteries not included Seven Comedy Masks out of Ten