Unhappily Ever After

I pointed out before about the odd mismatch between Disney animated films having a strong preference for heterosexual monogamous and married relationships (especially in films like Cinderella and The Little Mermaid), and some Disney stars (those who appear in live action productions and the like) going on to seemingly undermine these values themselves as they grow up. Hayley Mills would be one example who starred in films like The Parent Trap (eventually to be remade in the 1990s starring the red-haired Lindsay Lohan) and Pollyana, who’d go on having an affair with a married older man and then having an affair with a man closer to her age. If marrying a divorced woman, unless if it’s on the grounds of infidelity, is still committing infidelity it still seems strange why the classic Disney animated films promote lifelong monogamous relationships, when some of Disney’s own live action stars fall short of this whenever they get divorced somewhere down the road, especially after having affairs of sorts themselves.

Certainly not all child stars turn out badly as they get older, whether if they worked for Disney or not, but because Disney has become the defacto family entertainment brand for years and one that’s technically more biased towards lifelong monogamous married relationships in a number of its films (The Incredibles, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Zootropolis/Zootopia, among others so far), but wherein the child stars of its live action productions go on having affairs and divorces themselves that it feels much more jarring this way. Moreso than if they came from Warner Bros because Warner Bros is not something that’s strongly this associated with family entertainment the way Disney is for decades, well to the same extent since Warner Bros has already released this much adult-orientated films without putting it under a special label the way Disney did with Touchstone for years and now more recently 20th Century Fox/20th Century Studios at this point.

Even if not all former Disney child stars do this, it still makes for a particularly odd irony between the messages many Disney animated films promote and the lives the Disney stars lead as they get older, where it’s surreal to think somebody who appeared in a live action Disney series called ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’ would go on cohabiting with another former child star. Where one would assume that if Brenda Song were to get into a relationship with Macaulay Culkin, that logically they should get married and she should start calling herself Brenda Song-Culkin by then. To this day they never got married, despite raising children together, and as of late the would-be Mrs Macaulay Culkin still voiced cartoon characters for the House of Mouse. Together with her would-be husband, the Mr Brenda Song in her life. One would wonder what went wrong in the House of Mouse then? Celestial said that those in Hollywood mix occult rituals with sexual abuse, that inevitably ruins people’s souls (and morals) halfway through.

Somebody said that a Disney boss may’ve molested his female colleagues, I wish I could find it but it’s something that I remembered. It’s as if Disney never seems sincere about its intentions and messages, where its yes to a lifelong monogamous married, heterosexual relationship is really a no when you have Disney stars turning out to have affairs and divorces themselves. Christina Aguilera has been noted to have affairs with women, even when she was a married to a man, and with Disney films like Mulan (which she contributed a song to) also centring on a monogamous relationship between a woman and a man that it seems even weirder why in real life she’d go on having romantic relationships with women more than men when the Mulan films were about a married relationship between a man and a woman. Fellow Disney star Britney Spears has had a string of failed relationships with men, three of which ended in divorce, coupled with her aborting her would-be first child with her boyfriend Justin Timberlake is just as jarring when a good number of Disney animated films have female characters who only pine after one man.

She too could’ve been molested by a Disney executive before (and so was Christina) that would explain some things, but it still makes for a weird irony given the lives they lead diverges significantly from their cartoon princess counterparts. When many of the Disney princesses do get into relationships themselves, it’s often with just one man and in some films, they get married eventually and never get into affairs with other people of any sex/gender in any way. They never separate from their spouses, something not a number of Disney live action stars can consistently live up to. If The Little Mermaid’s any indication, if the other woman shows up she’s often on the side of wrong. Yet people like Hayley Mills were also the other women in their lovers’ lives, especially if they have (had) wives of their own when these happened. It makes for a strange irony that’s also found outside of fandom where Disney animated films tend to promote and depict lifelong, monogamous straight married relationships, but its own live action stars frequently fall short of it. Well not all Disney stars fall into this trap either.

But for every Ricky Ullman, there’s a Justin Timberlake. He too also starred in Disney productions, likely got molested by Lou Pearlman, was set to have a child with Spears and isn’t above putting out two raunchy albums himself. The second one even had a Parental Advisory: Explicit Content warning slapped on its cover, his own songs have also been played on Radio Disney before alongside his contemporaries Spears and Aguilera, as well as newer ones like Sabrina Carpenter (also raunchy) and Olivia Rodrigo (progressively potty-mouthed). Explicit fanfiction is one thing, Disney stars coming to do explicit albums is another. One even more depressing transformation is what became of the Jonas Brothers, who all came from a Christian family themselves and likely would’ve been molested by a Disney executive too. The Jonas Brothers have been compared to Hanson, also a similar brother band, but since the former had already starred in big-name musical productions thus giving them a major headstart over the latter.

In the case with the latter, they certainly had their first taste of fame but in local shows that were presumably taped by their family and a few others, meanwhile the Jonas Brothers starred in big-name musicals like Oliver, Les Miserables, La boheme, A Christmas Carol, The Velveteen Rabbit and Beauty and the Beast. But this also makes them more suspectible to worldly influence at any point that they eventually caved into it, Nick Jonas in particular ended up marrying a Hindu woman (Priyanka Chopra) that he could end up converting to Hinduism for real this year in the summer. He might be on his way to getting there, that it does make one wonder what he could’ve ended up doing if he (and the rest of his band) quit the secular showbiz industry earlier. If they swapped showbiz for a life of singing in choirs (and other Christian things), it could’ve turned out better but if Michael Tait’s any indication, the Christian music industry would be far better off not imitating its secular counterpart too closely. Lest it also ends up with the same problems.

Although it’s not inherently wrong to listen to secular music, doable in theory and in principle, but harder to pull off in practise and moreso if Christian musicians are pressured to follow secular music trends, regardless if that sort of stuff risks ruining their inhibitions if they have convictions around things like swearing. At best secular music is something that can be enjoyed rarely, given the potential for idolatry is always around the corner (it’s like this with me with some bands), since much listening time has to be allocated to not only real Christian music (the sort that strives not to follow worldly trends this much) but also to sermons (long or short). Likewise with things like Disney and football, they’re not inherently wrong in and of themselves, but it’s very easy to turn them into idols. At best they can be enjoyed for brief intervals, since much time has to be allocated to other things like sermons and reading the Bible again, given I do struggle with idolatry myself and do harder to not give into it anymore.

I used to watch a lot of secular programmes and listen to secular music for long, but not anymore as of now and Disney is one of those things that’s easy to turn into an idol at any point. It gets much worse when it comes to Disney having a streaming service with so much content to choose from, much of it’s secular, that streaming sermons in a successive go would’ve been more spiritually sensible instead. It’s not unique to Disney itself as it can be found with many more things in life, but being a fan of any these things can make it harder to be a good Christian. Realistically one could learn to live without consuming this much secular media (for as much as they can consistently maintain it, as the flesh battles with the spirit) by forgoing it in favour of its Christian counterparts more, it’s like this with me when it comes to secular music that over time I came to listen to it less and less. As of late it’s really rare for me to listen to secular music, much rarer if I watch something like secular productions like Treasure Island.

That’s not to say I don’t consume secular media anymore, or even sinful ones from time to time, but it’s increasingly tempered by a stronger reliance on Christian media. Even if enjoying Disney and the like aren’t bad in and of themselves, they’re still easy to turn into idols at any point. It’s like this with me with some bands before, as of late I’m trying harder not to have idols even when the urge shows up. But there’s much to be gained from not loving the world much, which Disney’s very much a part of, that also goes for other things like not only Warner Bros but also Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon’s the channel behind things like The Fairly Oddparents, Rugrats and Hey Arnold, with its own issues with sex pests preying on minors (and likely occult acts behind the scenes), and its own child star turning out to be an adulteress in the form of Ariana Grande. Though these programmes aren’t bad in and of themselves as well, they’re also easy to turn into idols at any point as it is with me and Rugrats. The thing with Rugrats is that although it’s about small children having adventures, the 2020s reboot had one adult character get reimagined as a lesbian single mum.

In the earlier version she did have a husband who’s rather wimpy, my siblings called her a soccer mum and there are heterosexual women and couples who’re like these two, making her a lesbian certainly shocked some people. But it seems the more secular media condones sinful actions like not only infidelity (as it is in Rocko’s Modern Life, another Nicktoon by the way), but also homosexuality the more untrustworthy or questionable they turn out to be. Actually it’s kind of surprising in hindsight why something like Rocko’s Modern Life got away with depicting infidelity twice, whereas something like Ren and Stimpy and also Invader Zim get condemned for being too disturbing, why would a parent object to gore in an animated cartoon but not a cartoon woman with such a revealing outfit exposing such huge breasts without realising this would lead people to struggle with lust? (It’s like this from my personal experiences with my late mum.) Though there are Christians who do reasonably object to whatever Disney and co put out, but from my own experience here in the Philippines outrage only happens when it’s outright occult (Gravity Falls).

Even when not all of Disney media is outright occult/LGBT/whatever that obviously offends people, it’s very easy to make an idol out of Disney (or anything else) at any point. The emergence of a Disney-specific streaming service has only made it worse because it could make it easier for one to forgo the need to worship God by listening to a sermon (and reading lectionaries and devotionals while they’re at it) just to bingewatch their favourite Disney movies since childhood, though similar things can be said of others like ESPN to an extent or something like Netflix and Crunchyroll just the same. (On YouTube and Tiktok, things like sporting events are best enjoyed for brief, rare moments since one’s better off using those to stream sermons instead.) Somebody like Angelamarie Ucci went on saying that idols can disappoint people and it’s like this with me with one musician before, it would be no different if it’s a legacy brand like Disney that it would be just as discouraging to read that Uncle Walt molested a young lad in his care. Or anything else really. Well to tell you something about my family, I have an aunt who watches Disney films in her spare time.

She also likely listens to sermons and reads lectionaries, I also have a cousin who went to Disneyland and likely watches Disney films herself. But the latter also struggles with a raging porn addiction that cost the life of her husband and currently her job, that it does make for a weird contrast between the perceived wholesomeness of Disney films and some of their fans indulging in far less wholesome things (I’ve done something similar before). Another one also likes Disney but isn’t above doing porn of its characters himself, then again animator and cartoonist Carl Barks had done something similar before. So did Toby Bluth who’s even the younger brother of Don Bluth, or for another matter Chris Saunders just the same. Where it still makes for a study of ironic contrasts between Disney’s aim to be a wholesome family brand and its employees partaking in less than wholesome activities and obsessions, be they animators, musicians or actors, that it’s going to be hard maintaining this wholesome air when the people working for it doing contrary and contrarian things.

It’s debatable if demons may even use animations to possess people (which makes it like a weirder version of The Exorcist where Pazuzu decides to possess Reagan through something like Sleeping Beauty), or if these same productions get used by witches to bewitch people with, but if bad company corrupts good character when you have perverts working alongside their squarer peers that it’s going to poison the well anyways. It could even poison people who consume such media themselves, that makes it harder to overcome these strongholds if they don’t actively minimise their exposure to these (it’s like this with me with some cartoon characters, though not from the House of Mouse). Add to that Walt Disney made a deal with the Devil to get rich and famous, where it’s going to be really hard avoiding such negative influences if it’s deeply ingrained in childhood. So this might explain the contradictions in Disney as a whole, where you have technically wholesome live action series and animated productions on one hand. On the other hand you have Disney professionals cheating on their spouses and/or cohabiting.

Ucci’s point makes sense when she said something about Beyonce singing the song ‘Single Ladies’ despite being a married woman by now, that it could also apply to Disney where it parades stories about characters getting into lifelong monogamous, straight and married relationships with their lovers. Yet ironically a number of Disney stars aren’t above cheating on their spouses and also divorcing them, others aren’t even above cohabiting with their lovers that both Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song should’ve been a married couple by now. The would-be Mrs Culkin and her would-be husband went on voicing characters in a film about a married couple, a rather jarring irony in hindsight that makes one wonder if Disney as a company actually practises what it preaches. And even when it doesn’t seem to be openly hypocritical, it’s still very surreal why former Disney stars act so contrary to their cartoon counterparts. Disney media doesn’t always outright promote the occult or even rebellion, but there’s still something contradictory about them in some ways others can’t articulate well about.

Returning to the example of Bobby Driscoll, he should have been the coolest kid in his school. But he got bullied, did drugs and died ingloriously, whilst his abuser went on to create a theme park and more of them would be made after both men’s passings, though it’s still haunting why Disney as a company continues to be successful whilst continuing to bury his ghost. Celestial said that a woman whom Oscar killed would be avenged, so it’s logically God might also avenge Driscoll since he seemed to have read church tracts before he died. He might do this by getting the Russian government to dissolve the Walt Disney Company for killing Christians in secret, only to have the remaining assets get bought by Brazil’s Globo. Russia might do a lot to openly publicise the wrongs the Disney company did, essentially posthumously doxing Walt Disney this way. It will even do this for other Disney professionals over the years, effectively shaming many of them beyond the grave, and for the entire world to see and openly so.

But that’s not all folks as Russia will do the same for other US media companies like Paramount, Netflix and possibly a few more, it might not be above doxing American musicians for the same reason as to turn America into an example of what not to do. The Backstreet Boys could be next, given some members aren’t above having affairs with their fans, and one of them’s not above raping women himself that they too will be made into a warning for other musicians to unlearn from. Certainly not all Disney employees past and present are this ethically and morally inconsistent for most of the part, but I feel they wouldn’t be spared from this either and Disney would become one of many bywords of what not to do as a media company. Soyutzmultfilm might take its place as the face of family entertainment, if not it then some other media company would but it wouldn’t be American at all this time. Whatever that is but it’s not going to be American as America would be a massive hasbeen in the future, barely remembered by many then and even those who were around when it was actually powerful and famous, as with the rest of America, before disappearing.

Even much of American influence will be undone throughout the world in many ways that if Globo were to get a handle over characters like Mickey Mouse, most people would end up thinking he’s a Globo character instead. American influence might be greatly undone in the countries it heavily influenced, whether if it’s the Philippines in the East or Canada in the west, that it would be harder to recognise there was even any American influence at all decades later. The Philippines might be more peculiar because for an East Asian country that prides in being Christian-majority, it barely acts the part and doesn’t bother striving to repent either, that nearly all western influence will be revoked there. Not just the American influence but also the Spanish influence, that there will be very little to recognise any residual Spanish influence here beyond the surnames, architecture and religion (which will be about it by then). It would be immediately and greatly substituted by its Chinese and other east Asian counterparts by then, where the Philippines effectively and practically becomes just like any other East Asian county in nearly all regards.

Not just in name order and the like, but also food, mannerism, philosophy, holiday and stuff. Canada could be considered peculiar in its own right where it might stand out as an odd reminder that a country called America existed between it and Mexico (which by then would’ve largely disappeared into the waters and have its remaining terrestrial territories get handed over to these two courtesy of Russia), especially when it practically shares not only its language but also borders and history with it regarding their ties to Britain together. American influence is already getting undone there but America’s defeat in WWIII and its eventual disappearance would both accelerate and exacerbate this, should Canada consent to joining Russia in some way as one of its many protectorates, American influence will get eroded even more this way. Some Canadian politician might get emboldened to revive America on Canadian soil, petitioning it to get renamed to New America, yet he’ll also be seen as a laughingstock by his peers and the Canadian public.

The Saddam Hussein of his generation because Mr Hussein tried doing something similar, something similar to America’s spiritual predecessor in Ancient Babylon, but this results in a very different Canada that’s more indebted to Russia than at present. Or at least a version of Canada that’s more strongly tied to Eurasia than to the United States, culturally and geopolitically speaking in the future. Canadian culture would be Russified and Europeanised a lot, just as the Philippines will be easternised a lot (more like its neighbours in East China like China and Vietnam, should it become socialist following an American collapse), the war on Iran would continue as of late and it’s going to expand to other countries as the rest have turned against America. Since there’s a passage of the monster that Mystery Babylon rode on turning against her, this is a kind of fulfillment of Biblical prophecy in a way regarding how growing numbers of countries feel around America, since it’s been compared to her among prophets multiple times over. Interestingly one of the earliest symbols of America is a woman named Columbia, readily giving way to who the country has to been analogised to by these people, where it is truly Mystery Babylon.

America will get destroyed in the process, both internally and externally, as soon as the earthquake hits California. This will even ruin its multimedia industry a lot, prompting the cancellation of a number of productions halfway through. And this will be the end of America, the end of Mystery Babylon as well.

More on Colin Sallow again

Colin Sallow is a character I created sometime ago but he also came from a dream, he could be seen as the Dio Brando of the story (yellow clothing and knife-throwing antagonist who stops time), even right down to an apparent affinity with birds (Dio has his in Pet Shop Boy). But the rest of his depiction is a grab bag of other influences, including those you’d never expect to be combined in a particular manner. I said many times before that he resembles a younger Liam Howlett, the keyboardist and mastermind of the Essex band The Prodigy. He also exhibits his piano-playing skills, though there’s something else about him that you’d never expect. There’s actually a bit of Ace of Base in him, as in that Gothenburg-based act behind ‘Beautiful Life’ and ‘All That She Wants’, he actually went to the University of Gothenburg himself to study biology (he actually wants to study birds). His classmate there is named Pernilla Berggren, who’s named after the Berggren siblings and one woman that one of the AOB members dated (Ulf Ekberg), who likes cats and slapped him in the face over a remark about cat predation.

All of the Berggren siblings have (had) cats as pets, given Jonas Berggren has a fear of dogs due to a negative childhood experience. Colin Sallow doesn’t seem fond of dogs himself, just like Dio Brando, though it’s explicitly got to do with one dog killing his chickens before. Again there’s a bit of Ace of Base in him, because one AOB member explicitly admitting to not being fond of dogs himself. I remember saying this before that K-Pop musicians and bands never seemed to influence me when it comes to doing fictional characters at all, the way bands like The Prodigy, Ace of Base and Massive Attack do, or increasingly Aqua in some of my poems that’s kind of telling. I did listen to K-Pop bands and musicians before, but weirdly enough I never became really interested in any of them enough to bother archiving any extensive mention of them at all. I even have a habit of archiving old fansites pertaining to bands like Massive Attack, Aqua and Ace of Base, but K-Pop bands and musicians never really strongly interested me much. Not so much out of contempt, as catchy as the music is but they seem contrived and weirdly boring.

I did kind of get into Wonho though not for long and not quite as intense as I would with Aqua to bother archiving any mirrored website mentioning the latter at all, well I could make a character based on an Aqua member and this goes to show you that Wonho doesn’t have much of an influence on me in creating fictions. Let’s say his name is Rene Savard and he’s a raccoon kemonomimi who’s of both Metis and Mikmaq descent, he comes from somewhere in Quebec and had a falling out with his father over his beliefs (he’s a Christian and an aspiring marine biologist to boot), so he goes onboard with a ship to learn marine biology elsewhere and study marine animals wherever he went when he was younger. Mind you he’s based on Rene Dif, the deep-voiced bald member who also had a falling out with his own father enough to leave him for a long time. It doesn’t seem obvious because Mr Savard is a Canadian man of Metis and Mikmaq descent, but it’s there in some other way if you know something about Aqua yourself. Aqua isn’t really that obscure and so is Ace of Base.

But both bands are mentioned far less often on Fanlore and related media, that finding surviving websites in any form would be a massive endeavour in and of itself. There’s a good deal of Ace of Base in Colin himself, he got educated in Sweden for a time being. More specifically in Gothenburg, where Ace of Base came from. Okay I’m pretty much repeating myself but getting influenced by Ace of Base enough to do fictions of some sort, whether if this involves studying Indonesian only to mention AOB members there every now and then, does say something about the state of transformational fandom. One that seems strangely more biased towards men than to women that even when you have a band that’s usually not this demeaning to women whenever women members are frequently present at all (the Berggren sisters anybody?), Ace of Base never inspired this much fanfiction relative to the Backstreet Boys that it seems to lean towards an odd sort of feminism.

Though it’s true neither Aqua nor the Prodigy are any better with their own blunders (Barbie Girl and Smack My B Up), it’s still very odd. A sort of feminism that both rejects misogyny yet reinforces it in some way by excluding any band with a female member (and sometimes more than one female member) around, that feels kind of confusing for a community that calls itself highly feminist. Especially if these bands in question aren’t usually demeaning to or objectify women in any way, let alone if they have multiple female members around, that it kind of reinforces music industry misogyny in a different manner. Creating characters based on actual Ace of Base members in some way or another isn’t really hard, just as it’s not hard to create characters based on their Aqua or even Prodigy counterparts. If Liam Howlett is the basis for Colin Sallow, then Maxim Reality is the basis for Fabrice Tientcheu. Yep, another cat lover but one who is a Cameroonian forensic scientist to boot.

Then both Ulf Ekberg’s girlfriend and the Berggren siblings are the basis for Pernilla Berggren, that’s why she’s a biologist who specialises in cats (both housecats and their relatives) who studied at the University of Gothenburg with Colin before. It’s far from impossible and although Ace of Base fanworks do exist, they’re surprisingly rather rare compared to what happens to Backstreet Boys that lends itself to a kind of Schrodinger’s misogyny. It’s not that hard to put a bit of Ace of Base in him, despite being ostensibly based on a Prodigy member, that goes to you show it’s really not that hard to be influenced by Ace of Base, the Prodigy and Aqua enough to create fictional characters based on them in some way or another. Actually it’s also not that hard to be influenced by Massive Attack either and enough to create fictional characters based on their members just the same, since the economist Gaetano Saturni’s based on Robert del Naja and the lawyer Babatunde Osofisan’s based on Grant Marshall.

It’s not that hard really, even Araki Hirohiko’s no stranger to naming some of his characters after Sananda Maitreya/Terrence Trent D’Arby, Enya, Mariah Carey, Lisa Velez, Ronnie James Dio, Michel Polnareff, Paula Abdul, Vanilla Ice and Chaka Khan, so in a sense he did base his own characters after some of the musicians he listens to or listened to at some point in his life. So logically it wouldn’t be hard basing characters after members from the Prodigy, Ace of Base, Aqua and Massive Attack, just as one would with say the Backstreet Boys, One Direction and Nsync. But I feel a good number of professional writers alive today have cut their teeth on doing Backstreet Boys, One Direction and Nsync fanfic that their own professionally published stories contain some holdovers from their authors’ fanfiction pasts, fanworks based on the Prodigy and Ace of Base certainly do exist as I’ve seen some about the former and a little bit about the latter. They’re definitely not nonexistent, but transformational fandom remains heavily biased towards boy bands.

Not even generally non-misogynistic mixed-gender bands like Ace of Base figure that much in transformational fandom, which makes for a really odd exclusion in the annals of transformational fandom history. Like of all the bands they go after given transformational fandom’s pro-woman stance, they ignore bands like Ace of Base who usually don’t do this to their own female members often and don’t demean women much in their own body of work either, unlike Aqua and the Prodigy even by accident in their cases. One could use bands like The Prodigy and Ace of Base as inspiration for their own fictional characters, but at times it seems transformational fandom’s scope is much more limited than it cares to realise. The sky should be the limit but in transformational fandom, when it comes to real world musicians, it’s usually all about all-male rock bands or boy bands. So again transformational fandom’s scope is more limited in this regard, where bands that don’t degrade women whenever female members are often around are strangely sidelined.

It’s not hard basing characters after members of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam if Jojo’s Lisa Lisa is any indication, or for another matter basing characters off of Enya and Mariah Carey that goes to show you something about finding inspiration in these people and bands. Even if something like Jojo is not above reproach at times, basing non-misogynistic female characters after actual female musicians isn’t hard. If you could name one’s mother and mentor after Lisa Velez, then basing a character after Ace of Base members isn’t a stretch either. Basing characters after members of The Prodigy, Massive Attack and Aqua isn’t entirely impossible either, one could make another character based on Ace of Base called Birgitta Ekberg who’s an ecologist specialising in feral rabbits and it’s not that hard either. Mind you feral rabbits are very much a thing in Sweden as well, that there’s always the potential to base such characters after phenomena happening in these situations.

Actually even stray dog predation’s a thing in Sweden as well, something Birgitta Ekberg’s keen on from time to time and Colin himself’s well-aware of in his Gothenburg stay as a foreign exchange student. He said that he’s seen dogs hunt roe deer whenever their own owners aren’t looking, so using this subject matter as inspiration for stories or even discussions said by the characters themselves isn’t hard either. But it does say something about transformational fandom in its approach to storytelling when some of its own members graduate to doing professional fiction at all, that it’s easier to carry over common tics and obsessions found in transformational fandom, than to venture into rarely explored territories like the Prodigy, Ace of Base and even dog predation in Sweden to make new characters, stories and dialogues with those in mind. It’s even suspected that transformational fandom isn’t really that progressive.

So logically transformational fandom isn’t really that transformative, let alone wholly and consistently so, where it’s easier to stick to celebrities that can be easily pigeonholed into common fanfiction stereotypes than to use rather unexpected sources of inspiration to create very different, albeit fictitious, people instead. This is like using Maxim’s likeness (and to some extent his own mannerisms) for a character who’s unmistakably very African, very much into reading books himself, works in a STEM job, enjoys some stargazing and plays some football too, though it could be argued this has been done with some Duran Duran members before when it comes to a book series by Jemiah Jefferson. She had a website that’s billed as Duran Duran for bad kids, but then again Duran Duran is a fairly common obsession in transformational fandom. So something like Ace of Base would be a much unlikelier source of inspiration, given they don’t appear this much in transformational fandom to start with.

Or the Prodigy for another matter, that transformational fandom is usually rather limited in scope. Possibly more limited in scope than it cares to admit and realise, where it’s easier to stick to heartthrob music groups whose members can be easily stereotyped in fanfiction, than to go for such unusual sources of inspiration only to create characters that aren’t or seemingly not that tangentially a lot like the people they’re technically based on. It doesn’t just stop at creating a character that’s essentially a more glamourous version of Liam Howlett, it also means naming two female scientists after Ace of Base members where it shouldn’t be tricky doing something like these. Michel Polnareff doesn’t necessarily have such an elaborate hairstyle for most of the part, but Jean-Pierre Polnareff’s evidently named after him. Ronnie James Dio isn’t blond, but Dio Brando’s based on him anyways.

Both Chaka and Khan are two men named after Chaka Khan, using black musicians as inspiration for characters isn’t impossible either. But I still feel the usual nature of transformational fandom is to gravitate more towards male heartthrob type musicians, which boy bands (both western and Korean) have in spades, instead of even bands that don’t degrade or sexualise women in their body of work much whenever female members are frequently present at all (Ace of Base for instance). That it’s kind of suspected among some folks that transformational fandom isn’t really this progressive, nor is it this open-minded where it would be quite rare to encounter fanworks based around bands like The Damned, Ace of Base again or Aqua. Fanworks based on the Prodigy do exist but it usually manifests as either fanmade remixes or fanart, that it would be kind of odd basing two fictional characters after two members of the same band.

If because for those who were doing fanfictions based on bands like Nsync, Backstreet Boys and One Direction, some of who get professionally published kind of subliminally base these characters after their favourite musicians on some level. Fanart of bands like Love and Rockets and The Damned do exist, though I feel transformational fandom tends to gravitate towards male heartthrob types at most. Not just Duran Duran but also the true boy bands like New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, Nsync, One Direction, BTS, Exo, Monsta X, Stray Kids and TXT, that basing fictional characters after any one of them is far likelier once some fanfiction writers begin writing for a living. Even if Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is any indication, basing fictional characters off of the likes of Enya, Mariah Carey, Lisa Velez, Sanandra Maitreya and Chaka Khan are already possible, or that Gundam’s Char Aznable is named after Armenian-French singer Charles Aznavour suggests it shouldn’t stop at heartthrob types when seeking musicians as inspiration at all.

Mind you, Ilmar Tuglas is just as based on Kakyoin Noriaki as he is after both Friedebert Tuglas (his namesake) and French songstress Sylvie Vartan (especially in terms of facial features but masculinised), and he works as a financial adviser to people like Graham Knightley (based on Kira Yoshikage) that it shouldn’t really end at heartthrob type musicians when seeking inspiration in music, it could be something like 1960s singers like Sylvie Vartan again. That’s not to say all transformational fandom participants are this narrow-minded, but many of them don’t seem to be the types of people who’d actually gravitate to these kinds of musicians. You’re much likelier to find transformational fan participants going after boy bands than those who listen to Aqua, Ace of Base, The Prodigy, Massive Attack and The Damned, much less the likes of Sylvie Vartan and Charles Aznavour, even though the latter yielded Char Aznable.

No more of these

As Amerca is Mystery Babylon, since God will undo much American influence, that it’s not a stretch much of its influence will be largely undone in other aspects like ACG (animation, cartooning, gaming) for instance. It wouldn’t be entirely undone but that as much of the US ACG canon is very corrupting, even to the point of having demonic cartoon heroes onboard like Daredevil and Blue Satan (this wasn’t lost on David Wilkerson as well), that much of it will be wiped out completely or nearly so at least. Even this will affect authors like Charles M Schulz, a man who used to be a practising Christian before marrying an unbelieving divorced woman, where eventually he slid into unbelief over time and even having an affair with another woman before. There’s actually a book called Schulz and Peanuts, where it does detail his slide into unbelief and admittedly I also struggle with this from time to time too, sometimes losing what was supposed to be there (this happened a couple of times over regarding sermons).

Even if his legacy isn’t entirely wiped out at most, it’s still alarming for somebody like him to slide into unbelief, the more famous he got that even something like Peanuts wouldn’t be remembered much in the future. Both DC and Marvel wouldn’t be remembered that much in the future, as they also promote their fair share of filth, that they too will be largely revoked and forgotten for corrupting people (even myself at times), it would be even more shocking if it was something like Dora The Explorer having the same effect (or can be used in the same way to make kids disobedient and evil). But if these ACG media have been consecrated to demons before, which is alarming as some comics writers also dabble in the occult themselves, resulting in products that cause people to become truly evil, struggle with strongholds and the like, as if these come from a tainted well that should never be used again. I said this many times over the X-Men canon and it bears repeating.

The X-Men comics are actually very spiritually off where they have sympathetic demons as superheroes (Illyana Rasputina especially), where disobedience to elderly authority’s seen as a good thing when it comes to somebody like Kitty Pryde, very irreverent takes on Biblical topics and concepts that it’s shocking why not a lot of Christians chastise the X-Men comics for this. Even before I became a Christian, I noted this double standard right away. But it’s clear X-Men is deeply anti-Christian that a good number of X-Men fans are anti-Christian themselves, certainly not all but it does explain a number of things. Then all of the X-Men canon will be wiped off clean, so that these stories and their authors won’t go on corrupting people again. Nearly all of the US ACG canon will be wiped off the face of the earth, so that these stories and cartoons won’t go on corrupting people all over again. These comics will never be found again even on piracy websites, because by them they’ve already been wiped off.

And God will get rid of these publishers for corrupting so much people, that they will be forgotten to time in the future.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

When it comes to prophecies about a forthcoming US civil war, it’s as if America had been tearing itself apart that what was a culture war will become a proper civil war in due time. America is practically a very double-minded country that will collapse due to economic, civil and physiogeographical instability, where it seems odd of a country to have both substantially thriving Christian ministries and worldly, corrupting multimedia industries. Add to that there are people who say that America is Mystery Babylon, which makes its ability to corrupt the planet with its filth all the more potent when it was a hyperpower. This is one step above being a superpower, where America had unprecedented unipolar dominance over the world. Looking back in hindsight that whilst a number of British and Swedish bands and musicians have international success and popularity, it is the norm for their American counterparts to have the same things themselves.

Even on Philippine radio stations you’re much likelier to hear US acts like Backstreet Boys and Lizzo, than one would with say Italy’s Fabri Fibra and Mina Mazzini. Online streaming does help ease things but only to an extent, since it’s still unlikely for South Korea’s Drunken Tiger to have the same clout like Stray Kids and BTS do. I even think Korean influence is much more limited than one realises, since not a lot of Philippine publishers personally translate Korean books into the Philippine vernacular often themselves. I also don’t think Korean ballads and Trot get played often on Philippine radio compared to K-Pop, even if these two genres have been popular in South Korea before. Whereas Philippine radio doesn’t shy away from playing nearly all kinds of US music genres (US rock, US pop, US rap, US Christian music, US ragtime, US jazz and US film scores), to the point where South Korean influence here will always be a distant second.

There are Philippine fan of Swedish and British musicians and acts as I’m one myself of at least several of them (Ace of Base, The Prodigy, Swing Out Sister, Everything But The Girl, Massive Attack, Sofia Jannok and Lady Sovereign among others), but even then this is kind of tempered by the fact that there are more Philippine fans of their American counterparts. These include the likes of The Platters and Nat King Cole, but I’m not immune to them at various points in my life. There’s actually a line in the Bible where Babylon the Great’s musicians no longer play music, so there’s a possibility American music might become less popular in the Philippines and the entire world (though it already is in some countries to an extent), though one would wonder if it might be unfashionable to enjoy American music yourself once the Philippines turns against America for not saving it from China in time. Celestial even had a prophecy of countries turning against America.

This also extends to the ACG side of things where it’s much likelier to find Philippine people who’re fans of American cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the X-Men, than one would with France’s Asterix and Lucky Luke, ditto Italy’s Dylan Dog and Nathan Never. Ditto Sweden’s Bamse, ditto Norway’s Pondus. Though the Bible doesn’t outright mention it, it’s also likely American ACG media might also fall out of favour in the Philippines, since it already is so to an extent in other countries like Denmark and Canada. The loss of American influence in the Philippines would be so shocking that to make up for such a loss is to intercede for others to cope with say local publishers translating Chinese books and Hong Kong comics, or when it comes to the loss of US influence in Canada that one might intercede for their Canadian counterparts to cope with Canadian publishers doing the same thing but to Russian books and Swedish comics.

It would be a bit more awkward because countries like Russia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia, Poland and Latvia don’t have particularly large comics industries of their own, whilst it’s somewhat better with Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway but not much. The Philippines might fare better because China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong have bigger comics industries than these would for Canada as to make up for quite a big loss, though it would take time to warm up to alternatives (which is how I feel about a certain station’s sermons going missing or certain social media channels just the same). It’s true God might give something better than that, where in the case with one station that I listened to every Sunday since then this year, it would come to air sermons from other ministries and pastors. So for the Philippines and Canada, the answers might already lie in their neighbours and/or newfound allies, should American influence ever get erased over time.

Even then America’s not going to remain the same ever, possibly morphing into a dictatorship before disappearing forever.

He’s a screaming politician

When it comes to characters with preternaturally loud screams, it’s kind of odd why nobody bothered creating a character who parlays this ability into politics, since they could make a good orator this way. Who needs microphones when your sonic scream easily does the job for you in public anyways, well it turns out I have created one in an ageing politician named Walter Edevane. A rival to the much younger Colin Sallow, he has a habit of belittling him when given the opportunity to do so. Inevitably Colin does respond in kind (in a way), though he seems friendlier in public than he is. Walter Edevane is pretty much a married man, never cheats on his wife (and she never cheats on him too), never goes about clubbing and stuff. Despite being wealthier than Colin is, he’s not the sort of bloke who’d spend his money on something this exorbant, maybe same for some things in life.

He’s not the sort of man who’d spend this much money on setting up an elaborate aviary to raise birds of almost any kind (chickens, turkeys, geese, canaries, pigeons, parrots, ducks and quails) the way Colin does, preferring cheaper and more commonplace pets like mixed breed dogs for instance. He leads a simple life where he goes about caring for his mutts, whilst not being above demanding that pigeons ought to be dealt with harshly. He’s okay with driving simple cars, taking the bus or train when necessary and the like, even when he’s not exactly old money himself. He’s okay with living in a simple house with a simple garden, despite his wealth although this could be applied to Mr Sallow in a way. He often rags on Colin Sallow for many reasons, namely his hairstyle (telling him to get a haircut, he looks like a girl), tendency to be really kind of pigeons, for dressing in a certain way (wearing a striped dress shirt with a suit, forgoing the tie) and never eating turkeys and chickens.

I feel a story where you have superpowered characters around yet it’s neither fantasy (not even the urban fantasy variety) nor does it contain combats even when supernatural abilities are involved, even when such a story calls itself a superhero story yet has much more in common with actual crime fiction that the way the stories will unfold will turn out very differently. In the typical superhero setup, whenever a character gains preternatural abilities at all they often funnel these into combat, alongside putting on a showy persona and equally showy outfit. They are often repeatedly tested by a set of recurring enemies (their rogues gallery), but they are expected to win and have victory over their foes. They have to lead a double life, though they actually spend much more time fighting their enemies, than doing what they’re supposed to do at work. It’s actually the thing with Supergirl in the 1970s stories when she became a grown up woman.

She’s really Superwoman by then all but in name, who technically works as a telly host or actress but spends more time fighting enemies. Aside from the other Supergirls that came before her (including Lois Lane for a while), Supergirl in the late 1950s was introduced as a teenager and kind of aged realistically by cartoon character standards where she eventually graduates from high school and goes to university or something, then does a variety of jobs since then. It’s actually not unique to her as it’s very rampant throughout the DC and Marvel canons where you have characters who technically work as florists (Black Canary for the longest period of time), journalists (Superman, Spider-Man), business owners (Iron Man, Batman), teachers (Guy Gardner, Helena Bertinelli), musicians (Dazzler, Luna Snow), scientists (Poison Ivy, Barry Allen, Hank Pym, Harley Quinn) and so on, but spend far more time beating up their foes in whatever manner the writers see fit.

Imagine if the use of a double life was either done away or done very differently from what’s usually portrayed in DC and Marvel stories, albeit one with a stronger crime fiction or even stronger literary fiction influence, that this changes the way characters use their abilities with. Like I said before, Walter Edevane has a sonic scream and is also a good orator of a politician. Therefore he has no need for microphones, he just has to modulate his voice when the situation calls for it (to the best of his abilities). Colin Sallow has the ability to stop time but only in a limited area and it has something to do with gravity as both time and gravity are scientifically closely related, so if he stops time in a certain area somebody else feels heavier this way. He does this whenever he has to do something, both good and ill, like making an escape, making food, sharpening pencils and stuff. Especially when he has to literally take the time to do something.

It seems a lot of superhero comics, especially from DC and Marvel, seem more obsessed with their own storytelling canons instead of venturing out into something new and different, that if they do the latter they’ll get backlash for it. Even racebending earlier characters often prove to be really controversial, to the point where it seems the wiser solution is to create a new DC or Marvel instead. This is pretty much what the blokes during the early days of Image Comics ended up doing, but only one imprint got absored into DC’s canon proper. That is Wildstorm and this was Jim Lee’s baby, before going on to actually helm DC Comics himself. At this point in time the only consistently successful superhero stories Image publishes are Spawn and Invincible, both of them got animated adaptations by the way. It’s possible for a new Wildstorm or Image to emerge, but given America’s declining stature this Wildstorm would have to be outside of the United States in any way.

This is also likely why sometime in the 1980s DC began hooking in British writers, with a feeling their takes on superheroes were really refreshing, especially the better ones who cut their teeth at the magazine 2000AD. Early on a number of British superheroes were evidently derivative of their US counterparts, the Leopard From Lime Street is a feline Spider-Man, Marvelman is a blond British Billy Batson. It’s even telling that Marvel had to instigate its own British imprint, with a young Neil Tennant (of Pet Shop Boys fame) working for it for a while, to appeal to British readers. Years before it would buy Marvelman itself, which arguably speaks volumes about superheroes being rather foreign to British culture. It’s not that all British people dislike superheroes but there’s something un-British about superheroes that makes it harder to support a homegrown British superhero for long, much less one that’s not too derivative of their American counterparts.

Even the general set-up of the superhero school is really strange and confounding where you have characters who technically work a quotidian job but spend far more time beating up bad guys instead in a garish outfit and with an equally garish alias, especially once they acqure such preternatural abilities at all. Judge Dredd and his cronies like Judge Andersons are consistently police officers through and through, but crime fiction seems far better established in British culture than superheroes are if it weren’t for the formative likes of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. That’s not to say an American can’t come up with a Harry Potter before JK Rowling got to it, maybe something close to it but there’s something British about Harry Potter that the closest earliest US analogues can’t come close to. Not that boarding schools aren’t a part of America and other countries at all, but when boarding schools are identified by differing houses and boarding schools are much better established in Britain, then Harry Potter as we know it can’t be American.

If you were to consider the usual US high school fiction, it would have things like a cafeteria, cheerleaders and popular kids. When it comes to something like WITCH, though a Disney property, it was very much developed in Italy first and pretty much likely reflects Italian educational norms and understandings. Cornelia could be the popular girl and equivalent to As Told By Ginger’s Courtney, but she’s very much a part of Will’s social group from the get-go. In that sense there’s something deeply American about superheroes that feels foreign or strange in another country or culture, that if Miraculous is any indication, if another country were to have a successful go with it it would turn out very differently. The US superhero angle is pretty much going to be an adult doing vigilante acts with supernatural abilities, a flashy alias and a garish outfit, albeit done with a really straight face. France’s Felina could be a French Catwoman, a Catwoman where no Batman exists. But she doesn’t appear to have recurring foes, as much as Batman does.

Miraculous is obviously based on American superheroes but it’s also got a strong magical girl influence, where they access to their superhero personas through fetishes the way Sailor Moon and her cronies do. (Not necessarily in the sense of kink, but as in charms and talismans.) US superheroes also seem foreign in Canadian culture, even when Canadians frequently work for US publishers. In the sense that Canada’s unable to sustain its own superhero magazines for as long and as often as America does, where its own takes are either really novel (Angloman using satire more often, or The Pitiful Human Lizard being about a loser) or super-derivative (Captain Canuck for instance). Canada doesn’t even have a particularly substantial superhero canon of its own, that it seems the superhero school is also not its forte either. As if superheroes don’t travel that particularly well in other countries when localised at all, if Miraculous is any indication, it would be tempered by other influences.

Since this story also takes place in Canada and it’s also heavily influenced by straight crime fiction, it’s also proving the point right in a way. I feel in the usual US superhero setup, Colin Sallow being Walter Edevane’s political enemy would become a part of his rogues gallery, also they have to have showy outfits and aliases to go with it. Maybe Colin Sallow will go by the name of Interval as he stops time in a specific area, so logically Walter Edevane would be Protest then. Both characters would have to lead double lives then, in a way their usual presentations wouldn’t do as the original’s more rooted in crime fiction. Additionally many US superheroes aren’t part of government-sponsored teams the way Canadian superheroes are (as Captain Canuck’s associated with PACT or something), but this reflect the US superhero school’s roots in vigilantism where people take law into their own hands when dealing with criminal activity themselves.

Not that vigilantism’s entirely absent in Britain and Canada, but it’s not a prominent feature the way it is in America. Not just in the former wild west, but also in urban America from time to time. There are some people who say that the current superhero school has parallels to the cowboy fiction school, in the sense that both deal with vigilantism and taking advantage of newly acquired land. It could be said that the British wave in US superhero comics is the superhero school’s equivalent to Italy’s spaghetti westerns, taking something quintessentially American and doing something different with it. If the western’s popularity largely died with the Cold War, then it’s conceivable that the superhero’s popularity with America’s own decline in another way. If you believe Christian prophets, America might be subjected to both a forthcoming civil war and new world war. This could spell the end of superheroes as we know them, since you also have these prophets saying America is Mystery Babylon (the future nation–state said to corrupt the world).

Since we shouldn’t despise prophecy (despite failing this at times), there is a chance that America will truly decline a lot in stature and influence, perhaps even witnessing its influence get undone and it already is to some extent, wherein if America were to persist in some way it would really end up as the pawn of another country before disappearing altogether. Perhaps the DC and Marvel superheroes will disappear with it altogether as well, resulting in a fundamentally changed media landscape by then where the Canadian ACG canon would closely resemble its European counterpart more this time. A world where much American influence had already been reduced by then, but where Canada would be in a really awkward position of being Russia’s sole North American territory/whatever after America’s disappearance. If the superhero originated in America, then it would die with America too. Or if it does survive in any way, it would really have to change with the times. It might survive longer in other countries but it would also develop or grow in ways it wouldn’t get to do in America, especially once the genre’s sufficiently cut off from the biggest movers of its canon.

Namely DC and Marvel that it might go from referencing these two a lot to getting influenced by many other things to varying degrees, developing in a manner that’s no longer beholden to either one or both of them. Since I said before that Colin Sallow is actually based on Liam Howlett, the keyboardist for the band The Prodigy, to the extent of even sharing other attributes with him (playing the piano and biking), along with the story being more rooted in mystery fiction that there is a way to develop the superhero story largely independent of DC and Marvel. But this involves opening up to very different influences that are rarely, if ever, utilised in the superhero canon a lot where it seems usual for subsequent superhero publications to have covers homaging other superhero publications. It is very rare for the same to homage something else like popular music, that it would be even more astonishing for it to earnestly reference bands like The Prodigy a lot as there’s another character called Fabrice Tientcheu who’s based on Maxim Reality, let alone even their other contemporaries like Ace of Base or Aqua.

(Well there’s a bit of Malin Berggren in another character called Jemima Szara, since they’re both blonde white women who are neither particularly tall nor particularly short.)

These kinds of influences (well in a way) aren’t necessarily unprecedented in superhero comics as somebody like JH Williams III has been known to allude to Sisters of Mercy (yet another favourite of mine) in his cartooning from time to time, but it’s much more common to find superhero comics alluding a lot to other superhero comics and by extension, comics in general, because it’s clear these kinds of stories have come to appeal a lot to a certain audience that may not necessarily overlap much with people who’re deep into music and vice versa for a good number of people. This isn’t always the case but it’s kind of telling that there are a good deal more comic books about Batman, Superman and Spider-Man than there are those about say Massive Attack, comics about The Prodigy do exist but they’re primarily found in music magazines. One of the Ace of Base members has read comics herself, even though they pertain more to Tintin and Donald Duck than with Superman. Aqua did a song about them called ‘Cartoon Heroes’ and Sisters of Mercy have appeared in comics before, but it’s generally pretty rare finding western comics specifically about actual musicians.

In fact it’s very rare for superhero comics to even bother alluding to actual musicians much, much less using them as inspiration for actual characters (and stories) and one of them is Dazzler, who was going to be black herself as she was based on Grace Jones. Mind you Gary Groth even found these kinds of stories inbred and that’s painfully true when it’s more common for DC and Marvel writers and their ilk elsewhere to repeatedly riff on past stories and covers a lot, where it’s telling these are meant for those familiar with superheroes a lot to begin with. It would be mind-bogglingly rare to find superhero comics from any publisher to reference or allude to the likes of X-Ray Spex, XMal Deutschland, The Klinik, The Damned, The KLF, Cappella and Front 242, if these stories do exist at all in any capacity or shape, that goes to show you the average superhero cartoonist/writer’s not really that big into music themself.

Much less a wider variety of music whereas they’d feel the reverse towards a wider variety of comics in a way (to some extent), it’s even the case with most comics readers themselves where they’re usually more familiar with different kinds of comics than they are with their musical counterparts. But then again for the longest period of time, I actually listened to more music than I do with comics. Maybe not anymore as I actually spend more time listening to sermons these days, it’s still kind of telling that superhero media is weirdly self-referential at this point. A more future-forward superhero story would have to be one open to a much wider variety of influences, however disparate and unlikely they may be, not necessarily entirely unprecedented but different enough to stand on its own now that America’s in decline, so we might see less of DC and Marvel over time from then on.

Modern Marvels indeed

There’s a game that took the world by storm and it’s called Marvel Rivals, it should be noted that earlier Marvel games did exist before. There was something like a Marvel game on Facebook before and another that had Tigra on it, but these disappeared without a trace. There are still Marvel games getting released after Marvel Rivals, but it’s been suspected elsewhere that one reason why Marvel Rivals gained a lot of support and not something like Concord is that the female characters in the former are rather sexualised. Considering that historically the video game playerbase is historically male-majority, well not always when it comes to educational CD-Roms at that which had unisex audiences even, and this is also usually the same audience that’s more supportive of highly sexualised depictions of women that it kind of found this audience. So much so this led to a lot of porn involving them at all, not that this isn’t unique to Marvel Rivals at all but that Marvel Rivals seems palatable to a certain audience.

Given the growing desexualisation of familiar video game heroines like Cammy White from Street Fighter, as well as Kitana and Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat, Marvel Rivals feels like a weird throwback but one that found its audience. Even if not all early adopters of the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter games are male, the way these female characters were depicted in at least a number of the earlier games kind of influenced at least some gamers’ expectations for women. As if to compensate for the rather possibly masculine characterisations is to give them very sexualised presentations, but even then this phenomenon exists outside of video games. It’s even like this in the print side of things where such characters like Kitty Pryde arguably get masculinised over time, particularly when it comes to her characterisation. That’s not to say butch women and girls don’t exist at all in the real world, but it’s kind of hard thinking of Kitty Pryde as an everywoman when her interests and hobbies increasingly diverge from this over time even under Chris Claremont’s pen.

It’s like whenever he’s around at all though she had an interest in ballet before, this got overshadowed by longer lasting interests in or experiences with baseball and combat sports, it’s not that women and girls can’t get into sports at all. It’s not that women and girls can’t have tempers either, be mean to one another and stuff, but that Kitty Pryde came to be written as if she were a male character. Let’s not forget that Chris Claremont (who’s born in the late 1950s) came of age during both the rise of second wave feminism and the sexual revolution that it seems if Kitty Pryde were to be depicted as being into fashion and ballet either much longer or more frequently, there’s the possibility that she’ll be seen as utterly vapid and quite sexist in characterisation. So it seems there’s a tendency for subsequent writers to equate masculinisation with empowerment, not that it’s absent when it comes to fighting sexism, but it does pose new challenges of having to retain the characters’ femininity in another way. So sexualisation is in order to keep them distinct from their male counterparts.

It also risks communicating the message that to be feminised is to be sexualised, whilst other inherently feminine sensibilities like floral garments are disdained or ignored altogether. As if there’s a kind of palatable femininity that feels more reassuring if it were tarted up, well to certain people in the days after the sexual revolution, than if it were domestic and truly dedicated to the family (traditionally feminine vocations). Maybe not necessarily always the case but it does risk feeling this way when it comes to a version of femininity that’s palatable to pornsick people, which likely contributes to Marvel Rivals’ popularity when it comes to the way the womenfolk are depicted at all. If things like Super Mario are any indication, it’s possible to have a long-running and immensely popular video game franchise that doesn’t put girl characters in sexualised garments and give them ridiculous proportions for long, mind you Princess Peach has often worn a ballgown since her inception. It seems games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider were well-intentioned attempts to avoid the damsel in distress meme that plagued a good number of the earlier Super Mario games.

But this also went with sexualising the female characters a lot that even to this day, a nonsexualised strong female character continues to polarise gaming audiences. It’s like this in the other parts of the ACG canon where it seems a number of authors and cartoonists pass off their sexual fantasies as empowerment materials, especially Wonder Woman, that this kind of sexualisation’s painfully inescapable once these charaters become deeply entrenched for years. Even authors who don’t seem to actually put out porn themselves like Takeuchi Naoko find themselves affected by the environment they’re in, it’s the whole bad company corrupts good character thing in the Bible, it’s kind of hard to avoid being in this environment if you’re surrounded by things that would tempt you to do something or even if it doesn’t, it still influences you unconsciously. In the case with video games habitually sexualising female characters a lot that it’s going to desensitise somebody or anybody to it, that it becomes normal to view women as sex objects this way. To the extent a sexualised male character stands out more.

Marvel Rivals might be one of the more recent video games to perpetuate it, now that both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat actively strive to desexualise their own female cast as much as possible, that it seems its own popularity stems from having sexualised girl characters a lot. Concord is an interesting counterpoint in which it doesn’t just have diverse characters (in both senses of the word), but also where a number of its female characters are this desexualised, that it seems to deeply anger certain male gamers like almost no other. Marvel Rivals might not be the only, first or last video game to reintroduce and repopularise this sort of sexualisation that appeases to sexist male gamers a lot, it is the main one (that I can think of) that’s brought this to the forefront. But coupled with America’s decline (which has been prophesised by some) that it’s possible both Marvel Rivals and Mortal Kombat hinge on a nostalgic sentiment, the latter is especially about time travel to the past of sorts as of late.

It might not be evident with the former but it’s clear Marvel still strives to keep itself relevant in the present day, even when other countries’ games like China’s Genshin Impact are gaining people’s affections, it’s clear it still wants to be competitive in today’s market. But it’s still telling that even when a person does try their hardest not to give into peer pressure for most of the part, they’d still be affected by the environment they’re in. To the point where we get sexualised designs anyways, even when the character designer themself is not a pervert.

Gotcha!

Somebody else has a prophecy stating that both Russia and China may succeed in taking over US territories in whatever manner, close to what Celestial’s been saying for years. Not just former US territories like the Philippines but also current US territories like Alaska, mind you Alaska was previously Russian territory since the 18th century I think. Celestial said that this is because the United States is wicked, it doesn’t really defend the helpless and would rather cause trouble in the name of democracy, even socialists have long suspected this without realising the real reason why: America is Mystery Babylon, the nation-state said to corrupt the entire world with its evil and abominations. The Philippines is no better in many regards, as to warrant getting taken over by China as a comeuppance for its own sins.

Canada isn’t any better either really and would probably get invaded by Russia just the same, though America might get the worst treatment of all! That’s by disappearing into the waters for good, leaving little to no trace of America as we know it by tomorrow. Even if there will be vestiges of any discernable or noticeable American influence out in the world, that will all there is to them as much American influence is getting revoked these days. The Philippines might be next in line to willingly revoke much American influence here, the more America alienates it by doing the same thing the Philippines fears about China but to another former Spanish colony like Venezuela. There are even others who say that this may even embolden both China and Russia’s efforts to get territories themselves, because America set such an example this way.

It’s a matter of time when both Russia and China take over US territories and perhaps the US itself, that it’s a case of America getting its just desserts from its biggest rivals. But it might be underway by now given China’s plans to get us in some manner, thus fulfilling Biblical prophecy well. And it’s something we’ll never fight against due to our sins, that America has betrayed us will put us in a very awkward position choosing between America and China. Celestial had these prophecies about Russia taking over Europe due to its backsliding that some European countries may even willingly ally with it, however out of fear to avoid getting destroyed by it in some way. Russia has Ukraine and possibly Poland, though it could get the rest of Europe much sooner than expected. Especially if the US succeeds in destroying not only the European Union, but also NATO that both Denmark and Greenland willingly join Russia instead.

Canada and the countries that make up the United Kingdom (as this will be dissolved in due time, perhaps sooner than ever) will also join Russia, wherein Russia unseats America as the face of western civilisation this time. But Russia tends to fancy itself as a third Rome, which makes America a third Sumer. The first Rome is Rome itself, the second Rome is the Byzantine Empire and the third Rome is the Russian Empire. To analogise this to the United States, Sumer is the first Sumer; Babylon is the second Sumer and America is the third Sumer. Sumer being one of the earliest civilisations to emerge, long predating the coming of the United States by thousands of years. Though Sumer is arguably still around as Iraq, both Sumerian and Akkadian (the languages Iraq historically used) are long extinct.

Egypt meanwhile is witnessing some kind of revival of the Coptic language, which is its indigenous language that predates its current ongoing Arabisation. Egypt’s also one of the earliest countries mentioned in the Bible to get Christianised that it even houses its own longstanding indigenous church in the form of Coptic Christianity, that it’s practically home to one of the earliest devotional writers in the form of the Desert Fathers. It’s weirdly unfortunate that not a lot of Protestants pay mind to Christianity’s Greco-Roman roots, even when a good number of Christian names are derived from both Catholic and Orthodox saints like Barbara and Alexander. Mind you Egypt also became a Roman colony after being a Greek colony, both Egypt and Ethiopia are among the earliest African countries to get Christianised and are also mentioned in the Bible.

It’s kind of easy to overlook this with Egypt as it’s majority Muslim now, but even then you can still access to Arabic-language Bible readings (which a good number of Egyptian Christians likely also turn to), but I feel the strong influence of Zionism and some Protestants’ profound distaste for what seems Catholic makes them more sympathetic to Jews, whom they see as Protestant-lite, makes it harder to realise that there are still Christians in places like Jordan and Egypt, where they even offer free online Bible readings. But in a weird way it does testify to the prolonged survival of Christianity in these two countries, even if it kind of gets overlooked by many western Christians. One would logically wonder if countries like America might be less Christian than they proclaim themselves to be, even if it’s long-suspected by other preaches like AA Allen. Which makes any claim that America is Mystery Babylon all the more valid.

There’s somebody else who said that God’s out to use China, Iran and Russia as his weapons of anger at America and its allies for choosing to do evil without repenting or trying not to do evil, where they went on saying that America is a new Israel that became a new Babylon. America would be the worst-effected by warfare in the future, effectively becoming deserted over time like the original Babylon underwent. Not just by a civil war but also getting attacked by both Russia and China in WWIII at the same time, to the point where America’s truly made desolate as the Bible remains relevant yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is befitting that Babylon is the prototype for America, in the sense of being as powerful as they’re utterly corrupting. AA Allen even pointed out that America has a habit of churning out and exporting filth to the world, no matter how cool they appear to be at first glance.

Books like The Grapes Of Wrath and Forever Amber were even banned in other countries before for being obscene, but come the 2020s and books with even more explicit content aren’t even challenged much in other countries. AA Allen might even condemn dark romance books as vehemently as he would with Forever Amber, he’d probably torch things like paranormal romance if given something flammable to work with. It’s kind of surreal that early 20th century Australia had the audacity to ban sexually explicit books before, though towards the 21st century it’s gotten ironically lenient on it in a way. So America did get Australia to drink its wine, its Kool-Aid if you will, and corrupted it just the same. America is a house that’s deeply divided, becoming very unstable as to house a civil war soon. If Prince William does become the next King of the United Kingdom, expect more end-times prophecies to be fulfilled real quickly.

If this involves having to witness America’s utter destruction at the hands of its enemies, before or even when Britain itself dissolves into three separate countries not seen in years, then Wills would have the misfortune of being at the front seat of experiencing two declining empires. The British Empire will truly end when Britain dissolves into three nations (England, Wales and Scotland, with Northern Ireland getting reunited with the rest of Ireland) as much as others like Jamaica become republics themselves, the American Empire will truly end when it both falls into the worst civil war that’s to be unleashed and gets destroyed by its worst enemies like China, Russia and Iran, wherein the British monarchy will be finished and either his family don’t continue being royals for long or that they all die ingloriously. But even then Wills would be at the helm of the United Kingdom in its last days.

He will even witness its dissolution because he instigated it himself, that ultimately both Britain (as we know it) and America die together or successively so.

Nearly forgotten associations

When it comes to conceiving of the character Ermentrude Wolfenbarger, it’s primarily based on the odd fact that wolves were actually this associated with witchcraft in some countries like Switzerland before (she is Swiss herself). Mind you even their domesticated relatives dogs were also highly associated with witchcraft in countries like France, Germany and Britain at some point, the association still exists in some African countries like Cameroon and Ghana even not all Africans believe in this themselves. Though there are African sermons and devotionals that do bring this up, they also bring out other topics like forgiveness and arrogance for instance. It is one interest but not the only one around, as they also discuss other matters like love as well.

But even then this is one association that does deserve some reappearance, if one wants a break from the usual stereotype, more often than not it’s informed by a very limited experience with certain things and peoples. Very limited interest in such things and peoples as well to boot, that’s why a number of fictions tend to be kind of dyed in the wool repetitive. TV Tropes might be interesting but not to a reliable extent since most of its obsessions relate to modern pop culture or mass culture in some way or another, not so much earlier folk cultures and high cultures alike. For both of these two, you might as well peruse both older documents (including those dating back to the early modern period) and academia to better delve into such subject matters that don’t appear often in modern mass culture.

And if you want to go the extra mile, then you could also peruse inspirational literatures and journalistic literatures on the same as well, but in a way that makes one wonder if American mass culture/pop culture is kind of very selective in some fashion. Maybe not necessarily selective but more in the lines of being really detached from the past, if because American culture kind of came out of the blue when compared to not only Europe but also China, India, Iran and arguably Senegal, Ghana (when it was both the Ashanti Empire and the Gold Coast), Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. From the early modern European standpoint, associating dogs with witchcraft’s rather unsurprising, which goes to show you how common this association was in the past.

It’s not at all forgotten in African countries, if because it’s still relevant to this day. But I feel European countries have gotten more postmodern, alongside the profound American influence that came by. Germany had a vexing attitude to dogs before and still does to this day, only in the past it had a lot to do with witchcraft. At present it’s due to both canine predation and people poisoning dogs out of spite, but either way Germany seems more apprehensive around dogs than America is. The same goes for both Austria and Switzerland, since they also have the same problems as well. It’s kind of befitting that one of the most prominent dogs in Germanophone culture is the demonic familiar of Dr Faust, as popularised by Johann von Goethe.

One that’s more deeply embodied in German culture than what Cujo does for American culture, in some regards a lot moreso. And then there’s Malleus Maleficarum, which brings up the association of wolves with witchcraft. So associating either wolves or dogs with witchcraft in the European mind wasn’t that strange before because it used to be this commonplace, similar associations exist in America as a country but only in isolated pockets among some indigenous communities. This is where the American attitude to dogs diverges from its German counterpart, one that seems more consistently enthusiastic around them. That’s not to say Germans don’t value dogs at all, but it’s undermined by recurring suspicions of foul play. Something America doesn’t have to the same extent, really.

The association of wolves and dogs with witchcraft wasn’t really that strange in early modern Europe, owing to its previous ubiquity, that had a character like Ermentrude Wolfenbarger emerged in say 1618, she wouldn’t have been surprising. She is a witch who not only habitually uses dogs and wolves to attack people, but also bewitches them the same, sends dog spirits to torment them and turns into a wolf herself, a witch who’s right at home in African Pentecostal thought as she would be in early modern European Christian thought. But given Canada’s greater proximity to America that a character like Ermentrude Wolfenbarger would stick out like a sore thumb, as Canada was also formed fairly recently and very much a settler-colony as America is.

On the subject of serial killers and pet dogs, there are instances where such characters do like and care for dogs. Most notably the likes of Harold Shipman (who had a black poodle), Myra Hindley who had a dog named Puppet and Dennis Nilsen who had a dog named Bleep, though the thought of murderers having dogs wasn’t so odd during the witch trials. But that’s got to do with them being associated with or suspected of witchcraft in some way that it was to be expected, Ermentrude Wolfenbarger being a murderous witch who likes dogs is pretty unremarkable in this light and likewise the same would go for Harold Shipman, Dennis Nilsen and Myra Hindley in a way. In modern fiction, the closest equivalent would be Dudley and his dog Muttley, which speaks to a kind of underrepresentation.

As underrepresented as witches with dogs, which are historically interconnected and interrelated in Europe before. To the point where if American fiction is in short supply of villainous dog owners that the only viable alternatives are real life stories of murderous dog owners and folklore involving witches who have dogs for familiars, especially if these beliefs are outside of mainstream American culture (Europe at some point, Africa at present). Ermentrude Wolfenbarger and her dogs would be a return to the earlier portrayal, as found in Johann von Goethe’s Faust, so is her using their wild relatives the wolves to do the exact same thing.

These were even mentioned in the book Demons of Urban Reform, which features mentions of documents encountering similar characters in real life at the time. Ermentrude Wolfenbarger and her canine association might be a controversially refreshing change of pace, a villainous witch who uses both dogs and wolves to antagonise people and animals alike.

What would it be like without America?

It’s still possible for a degree of American influence in ACG media to remain, though that’s only to the extent if/when American influence gets undone the world over, that it seems existential regarding what will replace American influence when this happens. Actually China might be a good contender here, given a number of its games like Black Myth Wukong and Genshin Impact have seen international success before, and its very own Tencent owns America’s Riot Games. But I suspect if one were to make a game at a time when America’s in decline, considering international markets would become much more important. This is something even US film studios have been doing for some time, but this means China’s truly a rival to America at this point.

It’s telling that YouTube rolled out YouTube Shorts because of China’s Tiktok, Elon Musk turned Twitter into a superapp because superapps are popular in China. There’s actually a saying in Mandarin that says that the blue dye comes from indigo, but it’s bluer than indigo indicating that the pupil has surpassed the teacher or is surpassing the teacher, which can be applied to China turning out to be technologically ahead of America in this regard. It’s even popularising the very thing that first originated in America: short form videos were first pioneered in Vine, but TikTok pretty much popularised and refined this. Now YouTube and Facebook are catching up with their own versions of these things, this means China is well-ahead of America technologically speaking.

But given China has a much longer history as a unified nation-state, it’s also ahead of the west sartorially speaking when it comes to women’s trousers. As early as the 18th century, Chinese women were already wearing an outfit composed of a blouse and a pair of trousers, sometime before western women got to it (actually they started wearing this more often towards the 21st century). And Chinese women were already playing ball games without question before western women got to it, so it could be said that nonwestern countries like China and India might be less sexist in some regards. Or Russia, Iran and the Arab states just the same but when it comes to STEM, or Japan and South Korea when it comes to female readers of comics being well-established there.

Even then it does speak volumes about the way western countries evaluate sexism and misogyny, and it’s often on their terms, not those of other people even if sexism and misogyny remain issues in other places as well. What I’m saying is that countries like China, India, Russia, Japan and Iran are ahead of the west in other regards, whether if it’s fashion (women were already wearing trousers in India and China long before western women got to it), comics (there’s already a well-established comics industry specific to female readers in Japan) or STEM (Russia and Iran). It shouldn’t be surprising that given the west’s declining stature that the global east (if it does deserve to be called as such) would also be ahead of the west technologically speaking, especially when it comes to superapps.

A more vexing concern is the area of the arts regarding things like animation, comics/cartooning and gaming (ACG) that once American influence gets mostly and deeply revoked that’s going to lead some shoes to be filled and worn, however awkward the substitution may be (this is how I feel about sermons on bad times). If because we want the real thing real badly, even if the substitute’s just as good, but the real thing is what we want deep down inside. It’s also logistically awkward because of America’s outsized influence on matters like animation and comics/cartooning that if we’re talking about Canada, given Canada shares a border with America that substituting American influence with foreign influences would be pretty tough. The US comics industry is far bigger than its Nigerian counterpart will ever be, or for another matter the Estonian comics industry just the same.

To make it up for a loss of US influence on the Canadian comics industry is to fill it up with a lot of substitutes, given how big US influence is in Canada and much bigger than most would realise. The substitutes might come from countries with smaller comics industries that you’d have to get like a big industry of translated comics from 23 countries to make up for losing a big industry of imported comics from just one country, although Denmark does have a bigger comics industry than in Jamaica it’s still smaller than that of America. Armenia’s comics industry is comparable to Jamaica becaues it’s largely focused on social commentary, and also newspaper orientated in order to make it big in any way. Considering that Canada’s also Francophone that the loss of US influence would result in a Canadian comics industry that’s closer to Europe and even Russia. So translating European comics would be the norm there from then on.

The Canadian comics industry is unmistakably largely influenced by America just by sharing borders with it, to the point of following the same trends there like entertaining cartoon strips, novel-length comics aimed at children in mind and also superhero comics. The loss of US influence in Canada, especially once it gets heavily influenced by both Russia and Europe, would have the entire Canadian comics industry more closely follow European trends more from then on. The Philippine comics industry would find itself in a similar situation, but where American influence gets substituted with a stronger East Asian influence because the Philippines is in East Asia itself. It’s also logistically just as awkward, well at first, because you need to have a big industry of translated substitutes from several countries to make up for a loss of imported comics from just one nation.

Like supposing if it becomes the norm for Philippine publishers to personally translate Japanese comics as well as Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Burmese, Thai and Cambodian comics that the Philippine comics industry would end up closely following the general trend in East Asian comics as well, given the strong US influence here that manifests as entertaining daily strips, graphic novels aimed for children and superheroes. Or Nigeria just the same given it’s more sympathetic to China than the Philippines is at present, so the Nigerian comics industry will follow Chinese trends from then on. It’s kind of telling who they’re affiliated with that’s going influence trends in their comics industries, that in the case with both Canada and the Philippines that given their close ties to America at present that they’ll inevitably follow American trends more.

The loss of US influence in both countries, should each one of them fall to either China or Russia in some way, would have each country follow their neighbours’ trends more. A post-American Philippines would follow wider East Asian trends more, a post-American Canada would follow European trends more. This would go hand in hand with their publishers actually translating their new allies’ and neighbours’ comics more, like if Canada continues to cut ties with America by choosing to join Russia as one of its protectorates, its comics industry would actually become this heavily influenced by Europe than today. It might have done something similar before, but it would become the norm if American influence were to be irreversibly declined further.

This would be the one situation where European comics become really popular in Canada, but to make it up for a loss of American influence in the Canadian comics industry, that relying on European substitutes would be one of many doable resources from then on. Loss of American influence would be where Philippine publishers actively and personally publish Japanese, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Cambodian, Thai, Korean and Burmese comics more, which might even be a good thing because I think the Philippines is far too westernised for its own influence. Whatever Korean influence that exists in the Philippines is rather minimal compared to its American counterpart, like this only involves food, music and audiovisual media.

But not books and comics, even when there are other people who have not much interest in watching stuff, mind you I spend much of my time listening to something while reading like listening to sermons for instance. The argument doesn’t hold water when the Philippines actually gets a lot of books and comics directly imported from the United States that Korean influence at present will be a distant second to the US influence here, it’s even weirder to think the Philippines could’ve easily done the same with Malaysia and Malaysia’s much closer to us than we are to both South Korea and the US. Which should make it logistically easier to import and even translate Malaysian comics and books, or for another matter Philippine television channels dubbing and airing Malaysian audiovisual media.

I still don’t think there’s much cultural exchange between the Philippines and Malaysia, even when they’re much closer to one another than the Philippines is to both South Korea and America. There’s very little, if any, cultural exchanges between the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia, as Indonesian and Thai music don’t get played much on Philippine radio (most likely never at all at present). Considering that the US entertainment industry has an outsized influence over the world for years, that even with South Korea’s ascendance it’s hard to beat America in here without the aid of other countries to the cause. It might change when WWIII starts kicking in for real, though it would take time for American influence to be undone elsewhere, but it might be undone sooner than expected.

And there are even people who say that the US is Mystery Babylon, a prophesised nation-state in the Bible said to corrupt the entire world with its abominations. Some of these things didn’t originate in America per say but America popularises them in a way no other country ever got to it, despite originating it until recently with China’s re-emergence and popularising the very thing America pioneered: short-form videos were there on something like Vine but it’s China’s TikTok that popularised and refined it like no other. A case of throwing the baby with the bathwater, where the good goes with the deplorable. Even if some Americna influence were to remain, that will be all that there is to it. So it seems any nation closely allied with America will also suffer from God’s wrath as well, then American influence will be undone the world over.

Even if the spiritual angle were to be ignored in favour of the naturalistic one, there’s no mistaking that American influence is currently in decline. The spiritual angle is just as credible as the naturalistic one, regarding how and why America was prophesised to decline and then fall into obscurity, or perhaps more credible than the naturalistic one that if God is honest and doesn’t lie, then the spiritual angle’s better at deconstructing America’s downfall than the naturalistic one. America, despite calling itself a Christian nation, seems obsessed with undermining Christian values like no other to the same degree. It has promoted and popularised anti-Christian entertainment like X-Men where the preacher is a villain and the demons are heroes, it’s shocking why it’s hardly ever scrutinised much like others do with Harry Poter, and it’s kind of more than coincidental that a number of X-Men fans are also anti-Christians themselves.

It’s even alarming that X-Men stories haven’t been scrutinised much by Christians over other things like why vindictive, promiscuous characters are portrayed as heroic and do things without lasting consequences, why would somebody like Kitty Pryde be considered a good character when she’s not above murdering people out of anger, lashing out often out of anger, being promiscuous herself and stuff? In real life if she did these two things in real life, she’d actually be a villain. And there are two people who’ve done the same things as she did: Audrey Hale and Axel Rudakubana, they’re also rightfully seen as criminals despite being members of oppressed demographics themselves. Just like what Kitty Pryde is in Marvel Comics, which makes you wonder how morally nihilistic the X-Men canon is.

Perhaps taking out America would ease things, or at least keep it from getting worse than it already is. But it’s also a matter of seeking out the most viable alternatives, as to make up for such a painful loss even when it’s not something people would’ve actually wanted themselves (that’s how I feel about sermons online or on the radio). Not to mention World War III is coming closer than one realises, with Russia out to get Poland before it gets to the rest of Europe, whilst America burns real badly. Britain might not remain a monarchy for long, and even if it were to remain a monarchy in some capacity the current House of Windsor would get replaced by some other royal house altogether. And Britain will also get conquered by Russia just the same, resulting in a new version of the Soviet Union.

Or a new version of the Russian Empire but one where nearly all of Europe and half of North America are included in it, one where Britain, Ireland and Canada are back together but as Russian protectorates or commonwealths of sorts. Australia might go to China as one of its Lesser China satellites as the Philippines will be part of Greater China, along with Vietnam, a reunited Korea, Indonesia, Japan and then China itself. A new global order will emerge from both the ashes of WWIII and the end of America, where we have a Russified Europe (and a Russified Canada to go with it) and a highly sinicised Philippines. Like I said before that once US influence gets revoked in the world, that the Canadian comics industry will strongly follow European trends and the Philippine comics industry will follow East Asian trends more. And even if Britain were to remain, it would not be united any longer.

As a result we’d have England, Wales and Scotland all living as separate countries not seen in centuries, Northern Ireland will be reunited with the rest of Ireland and the latter three’s native languages will get popularised big time. Even if Britain were to remain united in any way, Jamaica will not remain as a British commonwealth for long. Same with Canada but not in a way it likes as it will get conquered by America, before it gets conquered by Russia once the US gets nuked. The United States will be so utterly destroyed, both from the outside and inside out, that it ceases to be a country anymore. Britain too to some extent, supposing if it were possible for it to remain a united kingdom of England, Scotland and Wales, but it’s going to lose Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. Jamaica will secede for real and so will the rest.

Canada might try to secede, only to get conquered twice in a rapid go. And if Britain is just as bad as America is, then British influence might also be revoked to varying degrees as well. Ghana, Nigeria. Uganda, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Kenya might use their native languages more, same goes for Ireland and Malaysia that perhaps this is how Britain might also get snuffed out in another way. If dissolving the British monarchy isn’t enough, we might see the United Kingdom as an institution dissolve when Northern Ireland reunites with the rest of Ireland. And we have prophecies of whatever dark secrets lie in the House of Lords, so this is a sign that even if a United Kingdom were to remain in some fashion, both the aristocracy and the monarchy will be abolished.

And even if it were possible for at least some of the countries to reunite, it’s only by joining Russia’s Commonwealth that this will happen. Meanwhile to counteract or rival this, China might create Greater China including all of its neighbours in East Asia, it would be practically half way between the European Union and the Soviet Union of yore. The Lesser China states (both nearly all the African countries and those in Oceania) would function similarly to the Soviet satellites, which means there might be a reemergence of a bipolar world. But one that’s not a repeat of the original Cold War, where Russia unseats America as the face of western civilisation for years to come.

And even then it’s not going to be a continuation of the days when America was still a superpower, rather it’s the final nail to the hyperpower that was and will never be again.

Love Tore Them Apart

I’m of the opinion that both Adam Dalgliesh and Emma Lavenham really can’t get along with one another in the long run, ultimately because Adam likes to drink to relax and prefers the company of birds and the pub. Emma in return finds company with either her son (in a disturbing way), her boyfriends or feeding foxes, and then getting into fights with hunters over them. Mostly because Adam Dalgliesh never really felt comfortable working in law enforcement for long, since it’s something he did to supplement his dream job of writing poetry, since the latter is something that doesn’t pay the bills much. He’d rather drown his sorrows by drinking beer, cognac, vodka and whisky, sometimes by taking these home and more often than not by going to the pub to relax. Mostly because living with Emma and Mick’s really stressful, like he can’t relax whenever she snores loudly or Mick starts crying.

Adam Dalgliesh never felt happy seeing his wife feed foxes, a sentiment he shares with his son, since they’ll always kill the birds he brings home. Especially if these are chickens he got from farmers, not so much to eat them himself, but because caring for them makes him really happy. But the brasher and more brazen Emma got, the more Adam lived away from her and he’d do this for many months most of the time, preferring the pub more than her company. Not to mention domestic foxes are actually pretty destructive animals in their own right, so this would’ve furthered both Mick’s and Adam’s distaste of them. Emma Lavenham does have a habit of rescuing foxes from fur farms, though much to these two men’s distaste of them, but she keeps only one of them for long, much to his chagrin.

They never really divorced each other but over the years they continued to live apart from one another, given the biggest breadwinner in the Dalgliesh household for long is Emma Lavenham herself. There can be not without a doubt that she wasted his retirement money on feeding her pet foxes, her boyfriends and on groceries for herself and her son, leaving little for Adam. And even then Adam wastes it on alcoholic beverages a lot, so it seems he’s not particularly that financially literate due to his own wastefulness. Emma even beats him up for running away from her whenever she tries to medicate him, despite that she often sleeps around with other men in his absence. Adam Dalgliesh, despite his poetic leanings, is definitely more at home in the pub than he would with Emma Lavenham.

More at home with chickens and geese, than he would with Emma and her foxes. More in love with whisky, vodka and beer, than he is with Emma in the long run. Mostly because alcohol doesn’t nag at him whenever he fails to do right, unlike Emma who angrily guilt trips him whenever he does. Alcohol won’t cheat on him because it’s always there for him in some way, unlike Emma who dotes on either her son (inappropriately so), her boyfriends or her foxes. Also Adam tends to be insecure whenever Emma gets another man in his place, but to the point of feeling always inadequate when it happens at all. Given Adam’s an ageing drunkard and Emma’s boyfriends are often more athletic than he is, it’s not hard to see how and why he doesn’t measure up to them well.

A number of Emma’s boyfriends are athletes themselves, whereas Adam Dalgliesh would rather sulk in the pub whilst drinking. In fact, Adam even composes his poems there. He finds pubs much more relaxing than living with Emma and her boyfriends, since he wouldn’t feel too bad about himself there. He wouldn’t have to compete with her more athletically inclined boyfriends when he could still feel like a man by drinking heavily in the pub, not to mention he actually began his career in the pub–as a songwriter for a local pub band. Upon knowing that it would be hard to make a living from writing poetry, he turned to writing lyrics for this band instead hoping to make ends meet.

When this band sold out or changed genres, he turned to writing poetry for real instead and then to private investigation to make ends meet again. He goes to the pubs because that’s where he started his career there and feels deeply nostalgic for them, he also goes there to relax and unwind as I said before. But given his frequent brush with alcoholism, Emma wasting his money on other things and him being frequently out of the house for long, that Emma’s the resident family breadwinner for the longest time and still is so in her fifties. Mick Dalgliesh is nearly catching up as a DJ and a music producer, but having started in the music industry, he’s got a lot of catching up to do to keep up with his mum at all. Adam Dalgliesh never became the family breadwinner.

Especially the more he gained a family himself, to the point where his own alcoholism frequently got the better of him. In the case with Danielle Mercer’s parents Steve and Janet, Steve’s the clear breadwinner for the longest time because he’s a banker (though he did have another career in another post or so) despite Janet also having a job as a seasoned dressmaker, but since what she does is a cottage industry she’s effectively a kind of stay at home mum and wife. The fact that these two truly love each other and actively care for their daughter is the opposite of what’s going on with Adam Dalgliesh and Emma Lavenham, the latter who became very abusive to both her husband and then her son. Admittedly I feel Emma Lavenham’s not right for him, where she’s easily the sort of person who’ll cheat on him whenever he’s unavailable, which is often the case.

Given Mick also wants to leave her given the opportunity, when he does accomplish this Emma will often force him back home. Especially whenever he starts hanging out with his close friends Abe and Danielle that she’ll do anything to sabotage those relationships, and then have Mick calm her down despite making her boyfriends do the same thing for her. Thus putting Mick in a terrible situation where he can’t really leave her because she doesn’t like his friends, despite bringing home her boyfriends every now and then. Not to mention Emma Lavenham never seemed particularly ladylike in other regards, being what others would call a tomboy in her girlhood years. She loved to lift weights, play football and rugby, in fact she was a shot putter in her adolescence. But an injury had her focus more on studying literature instead, to the point of becoming a literary professor.

Adam Dalgliesh was what others would call a sissy because in his boyhood and even when he was a youth, he seemed to be more given to writing diaries than doing sports and the like. He’d rather cry and weep on his pillow, but being scolded by this often he bottled it up though this lead to a lifelong struggle with both depression and alcoholism as he got older, not to mention he’s actually rather timid and not particularly confident in more social situations. A kind of inverse of the more butch and brasher Emma, who wouldn’t even trust people any longer, which makes for a kind of odd couple where the husband seems like the woman and the wife seems like the man, pardon if it sounds kind of sexist at times. But I still don’t see Emma as compatible with Adam.

One would wonder if Adam feels far more confident in the pub than he ever would with either Emma or the police, given his true heart’s more in lines of music and poetry. But he’s never going to have a satisfying career there because they don’t pay the bills much, so inevitably Emma Lavehanm will end up as the breadwinner instead. Though Emma does have her good moments, she often got so mad at Adam that she’d beat him up for it whenever he fails to do right. Emma does have something of a temper, though it could be said that Adam has it as well, but he’d rather drink in order to keep his cool. Emma also throws fits to get either Adam or her son’s attention, but it’s likely neither man can stand her for long, even if Mick wants to live away from her, though unfortunately he often stays with her against his will.

Also around the time Adam got so drunk that he even frequently pooped and peed in his trousers, which necessitated other people (including Mick but excluding Emma) to change his diapers every now and then. Because both Adam and Emma don’t do chores and don’t like doing chores themselves, whether on their own or together, Mick’s the one who does these himself. Going so far to not only take up a course in cooking, but also work as a part time cook whilst being a university student. (His dream job’s to work in the music industry.) Not to mention early on it’s Emma’s father who did the chores for both of them, as these two are still too reluctant to do chores themselves to do this day. And when Emma’s own father passed away, her brothers had to do chores themselves in his place.

No wonder why this is where Mick got his habit of doing chores from these guys and not from his own parents, who don’t like doing chores and refuse to do so in the present days. Also Emma Lavenham is Jewish on his mother’s side, her own mother being a Russian Jew named Akilina Soifer. But she never passed down much of Jewish culture onto her, having passed away early thus Emma was effectively raised as if she were as Gentile as everybody else are. Her own relatives sometimes tease her for acting more Gentile than they do, given the way she was raised and the circumstances she was in. But she’s also not a particularly devout Christian, despite her father being a priest or something. She in fact dislikes the Church a lot and makes an attempt to rebel against this upbringing.

Beating up people like men a lot, writing porn to make a living, and becoming an avowed man hater before dating men again, two years before marrying Adam herself. But it seemed the more Adam Dalgliesh came to visit his old bandmates at the pub, even writing songs for each one of them as they are well-seasoned in the music industry by then, as well as drinking there the more she came to resent him. Emma resented Adam for not taking his medicine when he needed to, leaving her to her own devices for long (he does this for more than 12 months very often), for preferring his friends to her and for finding ways to undo the effects of medication (I’ve done this before).

She even hates him for willingly living homeless for more than 12 months a year whenever Mick was in primary school and has tried to divorce him, but is unable to afford it due to Adam’s frequent alcoholism. So Adam often stayed away from her for long, both deliberately and accidentally, the latter because he got hospitalised fairly often for his alcoholism. Whatever that happens to him due to his own alcoholism, he rarely stays with his family, let alone for long and the longest he ever stayed with them is really just one week. Adam’s rarely with his own family, preferring the company of the pub and his friends more. And when it came to both his and Emma’s parenting skills, they leave much to be desired. The one who does most of the parenting is Emma’s own brother, Jacob and he often treated Mick as if he were his son.

If not him, then Emma’s own lesbian friend instead. Most other times it’s the reverse with Mick having to parent Emma, having to cook her meals, comfort her despite her bringing in men he doesn’t like so often, clean dishes for her, fold blankets for her, wash clothes for her and so on. Mick pretty much inherited his mother’s deep voice, as Adam Dalgliesh’s voice is rather high-pitched and almost very feminine without trying. So he had to take classes in order to be taken seriously as a man and from time to time, his actual voice breaks out (though it seems as if it were a reverse puberty, vocally speaking). Mick also fits the tall, dark and handsome type, though he usually doesn’t gets to hang out with one of his friends, Danielle, for long because Emma doesn’t like seeing him with her and doesn’t like her (and her mum Janet) a lot.

She’s also like this with Mick’s other friend, Abe just the same. It should be noted that Mick, Danielle and Abe are all the same age, with Emma’s new boyfriend Brian Murphy being a few years older than them. (If you do the maths, Emma would actually be in her fifties at this point, Adam a pensioner.) If Mick does leave Emma for long, she’ll force him back and the one time he spent almost a year with Danielle, Emma sued her parents for supposedly kidnapping him from her, despite her own habit of frequently sleeping around with any man she finds in Adam’s absence. The one time Adam Dalgliesh handed Mick over to Cordelia Gray, who turned out to be fiercely childfree, for a few weeks Emma Lavenham sued her for stealing him despite that she was sleeping around with her husband at the time.

Eventually Cordelia divorced him and became unabashedly single for long, even though Emma Lavenham continued to have affairs with men other than her husband. Lately she’s dating Brian Murphy and has plans of marrying him in the near future, that’s if she can afford to divorce Adam Dalgliesh soon enough. I still don’t think they’re compatible with one another anyways, given Adam likes birds more whilst Emma prefers foxes to him anyways. Especially as time passes that it’s clear they don’t have much in common, Adam’s the sort of guy who prefers rock music to dance music. He grew up liking Bay City Rollers until he had to man up by getting into punk rock and glam rock a lot, namely liking the Clash, Sex Pistols and David Bowie, before delving in pub rock as a songwriter.

When she was younger, Emma Lavenham was much more into rave, Eurodance and electronica. She wasn’t above raving at nightclubs in her downtime as a university student, then she got arrested for overdosing on ecstasy herself. (Emma also particularly enjoyed DMT, LSD and ayahuasca in that period.) Emma gained a hatred of men from being arrested by the police and this persisted well onto her early thirties, until she got a boyfriend and then began dating Adam herself. Even then she never really felt consistently comfortable with him, as he’s often out to drink to calm himself down. Whereas she was left with Mick, even when she’s not good at mothering at all, so she’d leave nearly all the parenting duties to either her father or her brother instead.

If Adam Dalgliesh is the sort of guy to have grown up listening to Bay City Rollers, T-Rex, David Bowie, The Ramones, The Damned, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Queen and Joy Division in real time, then Emma Lavenham’s no different but with The KLF, The Shamen and Happy Mondays instead. As for their parenting skills, Emma’s only contribution is just breastfeeding Mick when he was a baby. She really doesn’t clean his diapers, clothe him, bathe him, teach him and feed him solid foods, which she allocates these to her brother and father instead, Adam has practically no contributions whatsoever to the Dalgliesh household due to his recurring absences and tendency to get drunk often. The sort of man who’d spend nearly all his hard-earned money on alcohol and pubs, at the expense of his own family at any time.

Even then I still don’t think Emma would make a good catch for Adam in the long run, not just because Adam’s often drunk and away from her for long once Mick came into the picture, but that she often does things he dislikes like buying pet foxes and forcibly drugging him whenever he feels bad. To the point where despite not being divorced, both Emma and Adam come to lead separate lives for as long and often as they do.