Saturday, November 21, 2009

Dara O'Briain Quotes

I get a little pissed off when people say that crime is going up when the numbers are *definitely* going down. And then if you go "but the numbers are going down" they go "but the *fear* of crime is rising." Well so what? Zombies are at an all time low level but the fear of zombies could be incredibly high. That doesn't mean we need to have government policies to deal with the fear of zombies.


Homeopaths get on my nerves with the old "well, science doesn't know everything." Well, science *knows* that it doesn't know everything otherwise it would stop. Just because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean you can *fill in the gaps* with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you.


The great thing about homeopathy is you can't overdose on it.
No, but you can fucking drown.

Friday, November 20, 2009

The First Duty

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform! I'm going to make this simple for you, Mr. Crusher! Either you come forward and tell Admiral Brand what really took place, or I will!"

- Jean-Luc Picard, to Cadet Wesley Crusher

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Maho Shojou - Flotsam and Jetsam

I do not think I have ever posted about my magical girl on this blog.

Flotsam and Jetsam are the two eel minions of Ursula, the Sea Witch, in The Little Mermaid. After King Triton discovers Ariel's secret trove of human artifacts, and hears her confess her love for a human, he blows a gasket and destroys everything. As Ariel weeps amidst the ruins, Flotsam and Jetsam swim in and tempt her on behalf of Ursula. Despite knowing that Ursula is bad news, Ariel decides to go with them.

I can see Scrolltearer having twin minions like Flotsam and Jetsam. The defining characteristic of the eels is their heterochromia iridis (different color eyes). Each has one white and one yellow eye, on opposite sides (mirror images). Ursula, earlier in the movie, showed the ability to look through their eyes (one from each eel, which then glowed yellow; though it is difficult to determine if it was the yellow eyes or the white eyes that she used). Scrolltearer's F&J would have a similar heterochromia but she would not be able to see through them because she cannot use magic.*


*Scrolltearer got her name from tearing up magical books and scrolls. My original idea for her motivation was that she was incapable of using magic, a very rare, very deeply scarring affliction for a dragon, and she took out her frustration by depriving others of their magic. However, maybe she should have some ability at magic. A rampaging dragon whose only offensive recourse is to claws, muscle, and acidic breath is much more in line with boys than girls. Girls tend to have magical conflicts that end via magical means.

Beware Hello Kitty

From a blog post found at random on the internet:

The post had to do with someone else's outrage at President Obama bowing before Emperor Akihito of Japan. It ended with the line, "Apparently, the appropriate wingnut protocol in this instance would have been spitting in the Emperor’s face, then kicking him in the rubber parts before shouting “This, Mr. Slanty-Eyes, is for Pearl Harbor, Hello Kitty, and Toyota!”"

The following exchange then took place in the comments:

Do conservatives really know about Hello Kitty?
All that matters is that Hello Kitty knows about them. (emphasis in original)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Princess Tutu's Mistake - Mytho's Heart

I am only seven or eight episodes into Princess Tutu, so what I say is based on speculation perhaps wholly unrelated to the actual telling of the story.

Princess Tutu had gathered two pieces of Mytho's heart, loneliness and fear. An unfeeling person who suddenly feels only loneliness and fear is in bad shape. Mytho understandably comes to fear Princess Tutu as someone who brings him only pain and suffering.

Princess Tutu goes through a crisis of faith, wondering whether her attempts to return Mytho's heart are actually beneficial to him. Seeing the pain she has caused, and hearing him explicitly cite her as the source of his pain and fear, she resolves to give up. However, when she sees him in danger, she once again comes to his aid and he reveals that he wants his heart back, despite the pain. It is as this point that Fakir (especially) and Rue step up their attempts to interfere with Princess Tutu's plans (though, initially, not explicitly; they desire to keep Mytho's heart broken and scattered).

Rue is a terrible person. She loves Mytho but in a manner so twisted I shudder to call it love. Instead, she desires Mytho as an object; she actively fears the thought of him possessing a heart and exhibiting feelings, even feelings of love for her. She wants a puppet, a plaything, just a body that she can utterly control. One wonders whether she is more fearful of emotional intimacy or more desirous of control over another human being. Separate from her psychopathic interactions with Mytho, she is also the villainous magical girl Kraehe (which I am guessing is German for crow or raven).

Fakir's motivation is not as transparent, initially. He has all the trappings of the evil stepmother who locks Cinderella away "for her own good." You get the simultaneous vibe that he cares for Mytho (trying to protect him) and does not care for Mytho (has no qualms with hurting him or cloistering him in his room). His reaction to Mytho regaining his heart is not the disappointment, fear, and hatred of Rue but a fear that something bad will happen, something larger than Mytho.

Princess Tutu and Fakir faced off in the last episode I watched. Fakir wielded a sword that could shatter Mytho's heart again but failed to land the blow. Mytho, too, tried to dispel his fractured, hurtful heart but Princess Tutu convinced him to bear the pain until the rest of his heart returned.

This is where my rumination starts. The backstory of Princess Tutu is that the Prince (Mytho) fought against a demon raven. In order to seal away the raven, the Prince had to shatter his own heart with a magic sword. So Princess Tutu is unwittingly acting to free the demon raven through her kind and loving attempt to return Mytho's heart while Fakir is consciously acting to keep the raven imprisoned by opposing her. However, while Fakir may well know the history of Mytho's shattered heart, Princess Tutu seems ignorant of it.

In the past, as the Prince, Mytho chose to shatter his heart. He knew that was the only way to keep the demon raven sealed in its prison. Now, heartless and ignorant of his own past, Mytho consents to Princess Tutu's aid. However, as the Prince Mytho entrusted his well-being to Fakir. Fakir's duty is to keep Mytho's heart shattered; Mytho freely chose this fate for himself and asked Fakir to maintain his heartless state for the good of all. So the question is, which of Mytho's choices should be honored? Can he change his mind while ignorant of his past choice and absent his heart? Is Fakir justified in countermanding Mytho's current choice in favor of his previous decision? If informed of the past, of the demon raven and Mytho's free will decision to shatter his heart to imprison it, is Princess Tutu justified in returning his heart to "make sure that is still his choice"?