OSUViking

The whole point of balance is that harnessing the dark side can lead to indulgence. It's like one end were the Sith who gave no fucks and did what felt good for them (indulgence), and on the other end were the religious fanatics that compartmentalized emotions and rejected attachment. Neither are healthy in excess so that's what the balance is. I've no doubt that Rey could harness some darker techniques but it's about seeing her struggle to avoid indulging. With Luke we could see it when he runs off to Bespin (indulging fear) and when he goes apeshit on Vader. Not trying to compare the two character arcs but those were clear examples that Luke had an internal struggle regarding his powers. Think we could have used more of that with Rey in the first two movies.

I was going to mention this actually but figured I'd hold off until I got to watch TLJ again. I think one of the weaknesses with Rey so far is that her inner struggle has felt more like them telling us she struggles instead of us seeing it. I think it's a valid criticism but I'm sure others disagree. I think the concept of looking inward and accepting that the darkness is within her, and not some external thing she can easily confront, is very interesting.

I like what they've done with Kylo and Rey in general though I think if they'd approached Kylo a slightly different way he'd have more appeal. But I like how they're both kind of takes on people from different backgrounds both struggling with something inside them.

I disagree with this. Not everyone can flip a switch like Ngata and it's oversimplifying it to say it's young people skirting personal growth. Don't forget the financial aspects that Razor mentioned. I think the overwhelming majority of people who go into parenthood without a clue of what's expected of them will fail in many ways, overall their kids will still have some opportunities to recover but it's clear to see these generational cycles are difficult to escape. I can only speak from anecodtal experience and so I won't pretend this is universally true, but I see people of all ages walking around with a ticking time bomb of the emotions they're incapable of processing. A parent putting a child through that is going to have negative effects regardless. The information is there for parents to understand what's expected of them. The ability to reflect on ones emotions and learn from them is possible without children, in fact that's a skill people should learn as they age and not as they're facing the choice of terminating or completing a pregnancy. People can mature and educate themselves about parenthood before having kids.

I liked the hole in the island scene (assuming I am remembering it correctly). I think I will watch the movie again tonight so I'm not working off faulty memory again but I recall it being her reflection going as far as she could see in either direction. To me that's saying the darkness is innately in her. She's looking for some external, scary thing to give her something to rally against so she doesn't fall, but it turns out it's been in her all along.

Hmm Ngata I think we agree on the suffering aspect. People can suffer tremendously but they can also experience plenty of incredible things in life. I agree that perspective is clouded by the life I've lived here in the US but I think it can be true for many. It's like, with life you can suffer and you can also persevere, without life neither of those options is possible. It is one of the things that has helped me with certain uncomfortable thoughts. I can agree that it's not an issue to be taken lightly but that's something for the mother (and possibly the father) to concern herself with and not the government. Edit: hopefully I get this in on time. The argument about suffering can apply to childhood trauma but it's such a mixed bag. You can have people like me with serious emotional neglect issues but let's take a step back. I don't want to take away from others experiences but I can do it with my own. What is emotional neglect compared to being raped by a caregiver for their early life? One can still recover but I agree with you that it's just such a heinous thing and there's no reason for a kid to grow up in that. Our social network is not capable of stopping this from happening. I'd agree I'd rather these people throw their romanticized concept of parenting out the window and accept they would be awful parents and just terminate the pregnancy.

I would rather see a woman accept that she her and her partner (if she has one) would be awful parents and not subject a child to that kind of environment. Adoption isn't the 1-to-1 match that provides a nice alternative. Personally I don't see a moral issue over this, but I also don't think that life is as inherently valuable as other people. It just is; if we *really* came from higher power who instilled incredible value in each life, I might think differently, but at least the second part is not true by default. I tend to think life with suffering is better than no life at all, but I don't expect people to agree with this universally. If a woman thinks a pregnancy would be bad for her for whatever reason, more power to her, at least she's honest with herself. I imagine people thinking that women like get off on being able to have abortions. It's not like it's a pleasant experience. I do agree we should educate young people about sex but who are the ones blocking that? The same hypocrites who decry the plague abortion has brought on the world. To be fair to you, Bware, it's hard for me to look at the pro-life argument as rational because I spent my life in Catholic schooling which pumped students full of emotionally charged messages. They worked on some and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum it made me think pro-life people are just as snowflakey as those they decry. I'll try to avoid lumping you in with that lot but I'll admit it's hard for me to see a rational side to your argument. Edit: I'm not sure I can even relate this to your post Bware, apologies if it's a cluttered mess. I think it's best to sum up my perspective as this. I agree we should address the issue of unwanted pregnancy at it's source, before the pregnancy occurs. Educate people aboit safe sex and make those resources readily available. However we can't rely on that as the end-all to unwanted pregnancy and the moral argument against abortion isn't appealing enough for me to say abortion shouldn't be an option for any woman. A lot of human sexual behavior comes down to a woman making a choice regarding a mate, I see no reason they shouldn't have agency over a reproductive process that happens at their expense.

Phil do you go as far as saying that mental illness is something fake as well? I can't remember if I've had this discussion with you.

What would stop them from federally banning it? Sounds like they're going to have social progress by the balls the next few decades so I'm having trouble understanding why they wouldn't just try to kill it.

My opinion of the movie is more nuanced than my knee jerk reaction would indicate. I don't think I'm in a good position to sort out my thoughts about it plus it's apparent that I'm working off an incomplete memory of the film. I'm gonna withhold further comments until these circumstances change.

Is Roe v Wade pretty much done if the GOP gets another justice on the Supreme Court? I don't know what would stop them from going after Obergefell v Hodges argument from 2015.

That's fair. I didn't remember those parts of the dynamic which in many ways elaborate on the irrational things that I perceived in their interactions.

To each their own. I know people who can understand where I am coming from and still disagree. Some enjoyed the movie in it's entirety. I enjoyed everything but the casino my first time through but it hasn't sat well with me as I've thought back on it more. I shouldn't have come out asserting my opinion as if it was fact. I don't know what you mean by not ruin Rose for you. How would I do that? I've said already I think the backlash the actress has received is not justified at all, and otherwise I've expressed an opinion that Rose was poorly written. I don't know how any of that is capable of ruining the character for you.

I edited my post to clarify why I perceived feminist undertones in it. I don't think Poe was written well either. I think the tension between them was awful and forced. The whole reason he is in a position to fuck things up at the end is because he was completely left out of the loop. I agree that he was idiotic and irresponsible, but then again I think that plays into writing characters into a corner so they have to confront each other in ridiculous ways. I can't remember what rank Poe has, if he's just a pilot or if he has some form of power in the chain of command. I thought he was an asshole in the movie and the actor's charm couldn't cover the lack of substance this time, but there are ways to explore the dynamic between Poe and the commander without the idiocy that played out. Let's take feminism out of this entirely, I think it's still poorly written with a desperation to reach a certain level of tension down the line, without much care dedicated to how effectively the tension builds. It feels like an older sister giving the silent treatment to her annoying little brother in the hopes that it will make him behave.

My favorite is the one where they give the robot a sense of humanity.

Hmm, would enjoy your perspective as to why I'm "wrong" instead of you asserting it. There was no need for any of that nonsense to be in there. Perhaps it wasn't put in explicitly for feminist undertones but it was an awful part of the movie. It was unnecessary tension that could have been developed otherwise. As is the dynamic played out like "gun-ho pilot wants to take action, commander gives him stern warnings, then proceeds to do nothing to resolve the conflict". Why give him the stern warnings and do nothing to resolve the conflict? So that we have the shitty tension later in the movie? I'm not even criticizing the casting of a different actress for the commanding role. Some wanted Mon mothma or whatever and some wanted Akbar, either way it doesn't matter if the dynamic plays out like that. It's shitty tension that to me only seemed to offhandedly mock men for trying to be authoritative with women who hold power, as if they deserve it. What's the point? Oh cool, she put Poe in his place! And as a result of her character's ensuing incompetence like half of their remaining forces needlessly die. Great writing. Edit: I'll clarify as to why I thought it was mostly put in for feminist reasons. I thought it was basically put in as a power trip for a woman over an ambitious man. I didn't like Poe in this movie either, but they way they wrote the commander it felt very heavy handed and almost like it was meant to be "empowering". Maybe if the dynamic was effectively developed, where instead of stooping to Poe's level she puts him in his place but addresses his concerns, I wouldn't be up in arms about it. As is it seems like people trying to shove a poorly written dynamic down our throats and then passing it off as an empowered woman, when really the character was an idiot who shouldn't be thought of as competent at all. I don't give a damn about feminism or diversity in movies. I'll extend that to say if Rose and the relevant subplots were well written I don't think I'd have any issues with the character. I don't even have any issues with her relating to my understanding of feminism. But I don't want this kind of stuff in movies if they're going to half ass it and dismiss criticism of it as "oh men just don't want to see women in prominent roles". Has nothing to do with it. If it had been Akbar doing this, I'd be criticizing the dynamic but I wouldn't have the impression that there was a feminist undertone beneath the way the situation was written. But it was a female commander, and I walked away thinking the dynamic was set up to make her seem intentionally more powerful than Poe, as if it was explicitly written in instead of it being implied through the interactions of characters. It felt forced for no reason other than, in my opinion, to send that message and to set up suspense down the line. If you keep the female commander but make her an intelligent, competent character then I wouldn't be here talking about this.

Lol I understand that whistleblowers break the law in a sense but those laws can be so arbitrary. The govt could decide that sharing any bit of information violated national security if it wanted to, and if it really wanted to it wouldn't have to justify it because it'd stir up some partisan issue to distract people. I think it gets touchy when we delve into the realm of putting troops' lives on danger but when it comes to exposing the govt for the POS it is let the whistleblowers tell their stories.

I think the idea is that if Richardson plays his role well, they won't be able to give exclusive attention to either Griffen or Hunter without being dominated in the middle. Here's to hoping that works out. It sounds like he was effective in Seattle, but I remember character concerns stemming back to his time in Buffalo. If we manage to keep Barr and Diggs still, then praise be to Spielman. Still we would have to deal with Waynes (potentially), Sendejo (not too difficult to replace but would be unfortunate to lose him), Richardson (1 year contract), and probably Thielen because dude deserves some serious cash flow (unless he is for some reason willing to accept a team friendly contract that still sees him live a very comfortable lifestyle).

I will say I love what they did with Snoke and Rey's parents. But there are narrative failures and simply bad script writing that were completely unavoidable. The whole "muh feminism" with pink haired lady was unnecessary and really did nothing but kill time on the ship for no reason than... "Muh feminism". I will only be able to watch it if I can skip the casino bit. As much as I didn't like Rose as a character I think it's terrible how people react to the actress.

I don't even like Wisconsin but I was pumped to see Corey Clement do well and even contribute to a SB campaign. A lot of people seemed to write him off and he seemed to respond well. Good for him. I'm hoping that Raekwon McMillan has a nice bounce back, maybe Gareon Conley too. Would love for Conley to bounce back and have a productive career.

I haven't had the time to follow this immigration stuff. Dealing with a budding episode ATM and just trying to push through. But I'm going to do something I don't usually do and indulge an emotional, perhaps irrational response. This is disgusting. Splitting up families will be devastating to these kids plain and simple. From what I know about child and family psychology it's hard for me to just brush this under the rug as something I don't care about. I do not have any potential solutions in mind as again I've had other priorities to think about. I think we will look back on this similarly to the Japanese internment camps. EDIT: I realize now I basically posted this already. My bad.

I read an article that makes the Twolves situation seem like a disaster. Forever feeding into my pessimism...

Knowing what I know about child psychology makes this even more disturbing.

(Anecdotal in my case) Almost every older person I know voted for Trump. How ironic.

Apologies for the delay, happy birthday blots. Also, thank you for posting that comic. I looked up the artist and his comics are incredible.