Aris Katsaris

A diagram

2009-12-08T01:25:55Z

A diagram I made a week or two ago, to help clarify some of my political thinking:

The grid's leftmost column and its central colors are based on the colors of the flag of the French Revolution - blue for freedom, white for equality, red for fraternity (solidarity).

The grid is circular -- the history of many revolutions shows us how egalitarian ideas have transformed to group loyalty, which transforming itself into privilege eventually creates a new aristocracy and a new tyranny. (Social Fascism).

On the right of that, ideas of unrestrained competition based on sheer meritocracy, fail to take into account that the accumulation of wealth, experience, position, inevitably tilts subsequent competitions towards the already powerful, thus eventually creating again a new aristocracy. (Corporate Capitalism).

The only model that may avoid aristocracy is that of Social Democracy -- in which the prosperity created is used in a spirit of solidarity to support the weakest members of society so as to level the field as far as possible for subsequent competition. (Social Democracy)

---

Some hasty definitions:

The MERITOCRATIC column.

COMPETITION: The conflict over limited resources.
-Contesting: Most common in athletic competitions, a conflict with a clear winner or loser, without the choice being dependent on an external judge (who, if they exist at all, take a limited role). The faster, or the stronger, or the most capable wins, regardless of what either the establishment or popular will demands. The purest form of Meritocracy.
Problems: Instead of increasing one's own potential, one may choose to sabotage the adversary's potential instead. In the international arena this form of contesting becomes known as WAR.
-Electing: Any form of competition in which the winner is decided by popular will -- or any form of competition in which the electors are larger in number than the contestants and who elevate the winner above them. Most common in democratic processes, but also in situations such as companies competing over market share.
Problems: potential of deception and deceptive populism, manipulation of ignorance and group loyalty.
-Bidding: The converse of electing: any situation in which the number of potential contestants is larger than that of the decicion-makers - and possess a higher position than even the one offered. Most common in job-hunting.
Problems: Nepotism and other such favouritism (e.g. party membership), personal biases (racism, sexism, etc), exchange of personal favours taking advantage of both the winner ("I had to sleep with the director.") and disadvantaging the losers ("I wouldn't sleep with the director.").

MERIT: Any productive ability or quality.
-Talent: Morally neutral inborn abilities which one either has or lacks to a lesser or greater decree. Eventually DNA manipulation may move this aspect of life rightwards - where the rich could genetically gift their children with extra potential at a genetical level.
-Experience: All abilities, especially knowledge, which can be trained or grow with use. The accumulation of experience becomes an asset which can tilt subsequent competition.
-Virtue: Using one's asset according to society's value-system. Sometimes a work-ethic that directly boosts own's capabilities, other times just useful to pretend to have in the case of elections. But in contests and biddings, true virtue is often detrimental as it prevents one from unethically taking advantage of rivals' weaknesses.

ACHIEVEMENT: The fulfillment of personal desire.
-Prosperity: All aspects of quality of life which usually can't be easily traded away or hoarded: Health, longevity, leisure time, availability of information, communication, and transportation. When prosperity spreads to the whole of society, it becomes practically indistinguishable from the square on its left: freedom, especially from fear and want.
The abundance of prosperity has the potential pitfall of SLOTH.
-Wealth: Material possessions which can be exchanged or hoarded. The accumulation of wealth creates one of the potential forms of aristocracy (plutocracy) - material dominance, which is the square on its right.
Accumulation of wealth beyond one's actual benefit is GREED.
-Recognition: Which unlike prosperity can't be infinite, not even potentially, but unlike wealth can't be easily hoarded, exchanged or even lost. Many times it's indistinguishable from position, which grants a benefit to the owner of such -- other (rarer) times it becomes a detriment.
Its lack of clear benefits means that its accumulation is an issue of PRIDE.

---

It's getting late, ended up writing up only about one third of what I planned. Will complete this in a future post, with possibly one more diagram.

Two events of great political significance tomorrow

2009-11-03T00:50:28Z

Two important decisions tomorrow: First, the Czech Supreme Court has to decide whether the Treaty of Lisbon is consistent with their constitution. If their decision is negative, I'm guessing the European project will be stalled for a decade or so -- both in its enlargement and in its integration (widening and deepening).

The second is the referendum on the state of Maine in the United States regarding same-sex marriage. It has the best chances of affirming SSM from any of the referendums that have taken place so far -- and it'll be a first for the USA if the people of Maine so maintain SSM.

Here's hoping.

Dreaming mythology and zombies

2009-10-30T00:37:51Z

Had a dream last night, about a war between zombies and the leftovers of humanity. It also included some gender-related commentary: the chief defender of humanity was Wonder Woman, and the battle started turning in favour of humanity when a friend/mentor of hers (at the cost of her own disappearance and possible death) summoned Goddess Athena via a portal. Athena subsequently took charge of the war and routed the zombies, but there was simultaneous commentary that some few of the "boys" had defected, because they couldn't tolerate both the leaders of the war being female.

My point of view alternated between being a reader (I remember figuring out like a reader that in this alternate universe Batman never existed, and Superman did exist but he seems to have been originally a villain and so was generally mistrusted and thus incapable of leadership) and a participant (being instructed how to distinguish between zombies and simply "angry people" :-) Some details I'm also forgetting. I'm pretty sure there were some other deities in there, some in the opposite side. Hecate on the side of the zombies? I don't really remember much more.

The end of multi-party democracy in Greece.

2009-10-26T22:23:23Z

In Greece we're currently seeing the attempted murder of multi-party democracy. A vast portion of the political establishment + media is arguing about how it'll be all for the good if the new leader of the "New Democracy" party is elected not only by its members, but also by the "friends" of the party.

Meaning no restrictions: Any Greek citizen ought vote for who the leader of the ND party is. Because obviously what's more democratic than the fascists of the far right and the far left helping determine the leadership of one of the two centrist (and major) parties.

This logic leads inevitably to one-party regimes. When every citizen votes for the leadership of every party, then the very meaning of the words "political party" disappears, and multi-party democracy is defacto dissolved. We might just as well be voting for different committees of the same party.

Much of the point of multi-party democracy had already disappeared with Papandreou's own utter lack of opposition to Karamanlis during the last 5 years. Now with Karamanlis departure, the political establishment is terrified that Bakoyanni might gain the reins of ND and offer some actual opposition to Papandreou, instead of the "national" ethnic co-leadership that Samaras promises.

LAOS wants Samaras because he's a fascist just like them. KKE and SYRIZA want Samaras because Bakoyanni is friendly to Europe. And PASOK wants Samaras because Samaras has already handed them victory once back in the 1990s when his departure caused the collapse of the ND government.

So basically every party wants Samaras, except New Democracy itself. Her own party perceives, however dimly, that Bakoyanni would be a genuine political leader, whereas Samaras is a muppet. That's why the election process of the party leader must be perforce extended beyond the actual party! Because the actual party would vote for her, and the rest of the political establishment knows it.

Of course the three philo-fascist and/or philo-terrorist parties themselves (LAOS is the former, SYRIZA is the latter, KKE is both the former and the latter) never extend this grand invention to themselves. It's only the two semi-democratic parties that must be corrupted by the fascist ones, not the fascist parties that should ever be moderated by the input of outside forces. The fascist tiny parties must remain pure and unsullied, even as the centrist parties ought open their gates to welcome them.

Though I'd say they act less like Trojan horses, and more like parasitic wasps.

an old blood donation, and a future possible laser surgery

2009-10-23T08:33:01Z

I was searching though some old medical papers, and was somewhat amused to discover that I had donated blood on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

Of course it had nothing to do with the twin towers -- the morning of 9/11 on Greece was still the previous night in the United States. It was about my grandmother's leukemia, instead.

--

I've pretty much decided that I am gonna have laser-eye surgery done. I'm gonna meet with my ophthalmologist this evening after work to discuss it with her, though am probably not gonna set a date for certain yet.

EDITED TO ADD: Turns out my astigmatism is high enough that it'd be a more complicated and tricky procedure than I originally thought -- and since my myopia has also risen some since 3 years ago (my last visit), we'd have to monitor it to see if it rises more. So the issue will be revisited in 6 months or so :-).

Till then I've got my prescription for my new glasses.

Gunnerkrigg court fanart.

2009-09-20T17:52:41Z

Gunnerkrigg Court has become my favorite web comic by far. Though art and storylines begin off very simply in the first few chapters, these keep improving -- and the increasing set of characters and ever-developing plot and art all have something unique to offer.

The SP Studio is a lovely site that allows you to create South-Park style characters.

I decided to use the latter to make some fanart tribute for the former -- a tribute for all the young couples of Gunnerkrigg court to be exact, whether romantic or just close friendships (or anywhere in between).

The bad poetry is *very* knowingly bad -- I considered improving it, but I figured that bad poetry fits better with teen relationships.

Clicking the image would take you to my DeviantArt page -- though currently there's only this and my Penny & Aggie piece there.

Here's the primary references I used from the comic, for each couple, in the remote possibility anyone interested:
Parley & Smith: #370, #386, #586
John & Margot: #474 (and the links underneath the comic)
Winsbury & Janet: #238 & #615
Gamma & Zimmy: #453
Blue & Red: #330
Annie & Kat: #93 & #144

Temporary style/icons change

2009-06-16T05:37:19Z

Temporary colors/icons change in solidarity to Iranian protests.

Dreamwidth and Worlfram Alpha

2009-05-18T17:24:12Z

I have created a dreamwidth account for myself -- thank you very much giandujakiss for the invite code! I had started to get displeased/annoyed with LJ for a long time, and I decided to follow everyone on the mass exodus. Useful crossposting feature. Very useful importing feature: If nothing else, it'll serve well as a backup of post and commentary.

I haven't set it up fully yet, mind you -- there's hardly anyone in my subscription list yet, for starters. Still learning about all the features.

I now have two invite codes to give out as well, if anyone else wants an account. Let me know if anyone's interested. First come, first served.

--

I tried out "Wolfram Alpha" a bit :
Question #1: "kirk vs picard"
Response #1:'Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input'

I decided to try out something a bit less fannish:
Question #2: 'murder rates in the united states'
Response #2: 'Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input'

Too many words I thought.
Question #3: 'abortion rates'
Response #3: Basic dimensions: '[time]^-1 [abortion]', Standard unit for abortion rate: abortion per year

How very utterly useless.

Is there anyone out there who has discovered anything useful (even infinitesimally so) to do with Wolfram|Alpha?

Watchmen and Dollhouse

2009-03-21T16:35:33Z

Yesterday's Dollhouse (1x06) was both the first good and the first EXCELLENT episode of the series -- the first episode that made me feel I was getting two episodes' worth for the price of one, rather than a 10-minute idea stretched to hourly lengths.

5 bad-to-okay episodes followed by an excellent one. Let's see how the 7th one goes.

---

Saw Watchmen last Sunday. Excellent or mostly excellent faithfulness to the characters and the story. Even those plot points that changed (notably one near the ending) were changed mostly for the better.

The thing I didn't like was the aesthetics: Too much blood and gore - It's notable how some OFF-panel killings in the comic (the prisoner whose hand gets cut off, or Rorschach's first murder) are turned into ON-screen killings in the movie.

This increase in onscreen gore also has the side-effect of the probably only characterization violation between comic and film: in the comic it's implicit that Nite Owl and Silk Spectre DON'T KILL (they're the more standard sort of costumed hero, not the barbaric sort that Rorschach represent), and it's explicit they didn't know Rorschach was about to kill someone in the toilet.

In the film on the other hand, it seems explicit that they do kill (atleast in self-defense), and it also seemed to imply they were aware of Rorschach about to commit murder in the toilet.

The sex-content was also over-lengthy in the film. A few panels in the comic are stretched to minutes in the movie. And seriously, I love the song "Hallelujah" but it should NEVER be played during a sex scene. That's the apotheosis of lame.

The increase of needless sex and gore not withstanding, which is an aesthetic choice I dislike, I felt it to be a very good movie, and an EXCELLENT adaptation.

Scans Daily, and the strife of the classes

2009-03-01T20:23:21Z

I was actually was about to write a post about how the impermancy of the Internet is depressing: my main instigation for this feeling, was that I was no longer able to locate what's probably my all-time favourite fanvid, "Higher than Hope" by Freddo, which beautifully chronicles Willow's magical, psychological and romantic arcs in seasons 4, 5, and 6. (I have it saved in my hard disk, but I can no longer locate it on the Internet)

Then just so as to make my thoughts even more relevant, Scans_daily is now taken down, after Peter David notified Marvel about copyright violations of its "property".

Here's what I posted in commentary to Peter David's blog:

--

My point of view on this is strictly strife-of-the-classes: I don't see why I should care about the copyright claims of the same CORPORATION that has trademarked the word "superhero" (alongside DC) and is forbidding any others to use it.

I wouldn't have a problem if Peter David took down SD over copyright violation of his own work. But he simply sided with a corporation instead. He seems to consider that a reason to blame him less: I see it as a reason to blame him more.

I don't see why I should care about the copyright of CORPORATIONS that want to extend their rights to perpetuity. The corporations that force the deletion of some "derivative" works of art as fanvids, because they use a song. The copyright laws that forced e.g. Sluggy Freelance to remove the lyrics of songs from its "Fire and Rain" chapter, even though those lyrics perfectly set the mood.

The enemies of SD all speak about the intellectual property rights of ARTISTS, but we're not talking about the property rights of ARTISTS here, we're talking about the property rights of a corporation.

Yes, Mr Peter David, the law is on Marvel's side. The law is on the corporations' side, we knew that already.

Then the revolution comes, and the law will no longer be on its side, or the state is powerless to enforce it.

I recently donated $20 to Gunnerkrigg Court, a webcomic offered freely on the internet: more than I've paid to Marvel my whole life. I've donated to Penny & Aggie, I've bought books of Order of the Stick. The model of comics is changing, Mr. David, away from the corporations -- the Internet has empowered the individual, and the revolution is upon us.

Yes, the sales of Marvel and DC will fall, perhaps both corporations will collapse. Are you sure that will be bad for the artists involved? (And even if it's bad for the artists, I'm not at all sure it will be bad for the art)

Yes, you have the law on your side. That's exactly your sin: you sided with a law benefiting the corporations.

Writer's Block: Know by Heart

2009-02-09T03:21:00Z

Have you ever thought you knew the words to a song and then been shocked to find out what the lyrics really were? What was the song? Did you like your version better?

View 500 Answers

I'm still surprised that every lyrics page I've ever seen claims that Tanita Tikaram's "Twist in my sobriety" says "timid smile and pause to free" rather than "timid smile and poised to flee". I'm even more surprised that Tikaram actually does seem to sing "pause to free" rather than "poised to flee".

I have no clue what the former is supposed to mean. I like my heard version lots better.

Things i've been watching and reading

2009-01-26T00:17:34Z

The past year I started watching many series that previously I had only been hearing about: preeminent among them Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural, but also Farscape, Medium, Jonathan Creek, and the more recent Mentalist and Sarah Connor Chronicles.

In December I saw the whole of "Death Note" and the first three seasons of "Dexter" (only the first two seasons of the latter were any good, btw). Both these series were vaguely depressing, with the serial-killer protagonists and all, so near the end of December I decided to switch to something lighter and checked out "Kim Possible" instead. But Kim Possible won't be the one animated series to stick to my mind from this past season.

- Most people in my friendlist already know that Avatar the last Airbender is gonna be made into the most blatantly whitewashed adaptation in the history of movies, surpassing the previous champion, that one being the adaptation of EarthSea.

The grand achiever of this will be none other but Shyamalan, the same director who made Lady in the Water, my personal all-time Worst Movie Ever -- and which ought have convinced everyone to keep Shyamalan as far away from moviemaking as possible.

In retrospect he had already revealed himself to be a little racist gnome from back then: That movie used made-up Korean myths, and the funny foreign-speaking people were depicted as even more Other and hard to communicate with (more varelse to use a Speaker for the Dead expression) than the actual non-humans in the story.

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to say is simply this: After the initial fuss was made about this whitewashig, I had a look at the Avatar the Last Airbender series, which I had not seen up to that point. It's absolutely fabulous, among the two best animated series I've ever seen (the other one being Gargoyles): and I'm not sure which of the two is now my all-time favorite. Its style is actually very different from Gargoyles, that one having been much more episodic and open-ended despite its long character arcs, while Avatar is a single finite story told in 61 episodes. But in worldbuilding and characters Avatar excels, same as Gargoyles once did.

Since, I'm not likely to find the series in DVD stores here any time soon, I thought of subtitling it in Greek myself, but happily just yesterday I saw Greek fansubs for it starting to appear in www.tvsubtitles.net -- in turn that led me to www.subs4free.com where I saw pretty much all the episodes having been subtitlesd There's some issues with the synchronization in some eps that will have me need to partly correct them or figure out the correct rip before I can use them, but still: great coolness.

- Speaking of the benefits of the modern anarchist economy, I had my first real encounter with DRM when I decided this weekend to use Fictionwise to download three books. I'd already used Fictionwise to buy e-versions of Analog and Asimov's magazines, but this times the only formats available were ones secured with DRM. Having bought them, eReader needs my credit card to allow me access, and Microsoft Reader not only needed me to register and then "activate" but Microsoft's activation services are "down for maintenance".

So I did what every good conscientious citizen ought do, said "Bollocks on that", and then used EMule to download unlocked versions of the books in question for free. Good job encouraging me to buy more books, DRM. Next time I'll be just downloading DRM-locked books for free from the start: there's no moral sense in rewarding people that go out of their way to increase the levels of annoyance in the world.

- I saw City of Ember with my brother during the Christmas holidays. Kinda liked it. It didn't ever "wow" me, but it was quite pleasant. One thing I rather agreed with him was that it seemed almost incomplete: The point they end it could very well be the beginning of a book, not the end thereof.

Of course the reason for that ended up being that it's based on a series of "Young Adult" books, and there are indeed sequels to the story. And that's why one of the books I bought/downloaded for free being the first in the "Books of Ember" series, by Jeanne DuPrau.

The other two books I bought/got for free were Nation by Terry Pratchett, and Freakonomics by some people I never heard of.

- Last but not least: fanvidding. I've been getting into it, right now only as a watcher, hopefully eventually as a creator thereof. I've already got some ideas, but I've been hitting barrier after barrier software-wise, and it's frustrating that I won't have the time to do anything until at least after February. Either way I'm guessing it'll be be many many months before I have something watchable.

I'll need do a separate post with vids I recommend people watch for their sheer awesomeness.

Post-election thoughts.

2008-11-06T02:19:48Z

Post election thoughts:

- The relief and joy for Obama's victory is diminished by the defeat of gay rights via Proposition 8 in California. Sigh... Steps forward accompanied by steps backward, always, always. So very frustrating.

- Barack Obama's comment some months back about bitter people clinging to their guns and religion was probably the one he was most bashed for throughout the campaign. Of course, now, after his victory, one can visit conservative forums and see the two main things urged by bitter Republicans: "Pray" and "Hold tight onto your guns".

Yeah, no correlation there.

- This map is both amusing and significant:

Other than the very minor expected gains by the Republicans in Arizona and Alaska (the Republican candidates' home states) -- the gains for the Republicans this election have pretty much only been in Appalachia. And the most concentrated ones have been in Arkansas (homestate of the Clintons).

That Clinton's homestate shifted more towards the Republicans than McCain's homestate did... Um, I don't know what this means, but it's amusing nonetheless.

- Either way, the Republicans have now diminished themselves to the party that caters solely to Straight Christian White Males (SCWMs?). Even their attempt to attract woman voters with Palin backfired since she has absurdly anti-female policies (e.g. so anti-abortionist as to want raped women to carry their rapists' children to term).

Where do Republicans go from here? They've so far been the alliance of four separate forces:
A) Fiscal libertarians
B) Hawks
C) Social conservatives/religious nutjobs/anti-intellectual.
D) Racists. Their power and significance is decreasing with each passing generation, but they remain strong.

One thing to keep in mind is that there's nothing that made this alliance inevitable -- and there's lots of things that make it contradictory (fiscal libertarians ought hate the way tax money is used in distant wars, for example). It was only some decades ago that the *Democrats* were the party preferred by racists, for example.

But there's not yet motivation enough for these forces to split. McCain who was mainly known for B appeased the Cs with the anti-feminist pro-moron candidacy of Palin, and raised Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbachel as his flagbearer to satisfy the As.

Both the "rising stars" of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal, come from faction C. Both are choices that would completely fail to appeal to anyone except the Republicans very narrow base. (And Jindal wouldn't satisfy the Ds either)

The Republicans would have their best shot with Schwarzenneger in 2012, but their D faction again would never agree to an amendment permitting non-natural born citizens. Unless they decide to break with said D faction, which I don't see likely.

Much depends from how Obama's presidency will go. If he's a halfway decent president, and assuming no nuclear attacks happen anywhere in the world, he ought easily win a reelection in 2012.

- Lastly, this also amused me:

final thoughts before election

2008-11-03T21:34:35Z

I have detailed commentary on the "Prince Caspian" movie which has been a few paragraphs away from posting for the past half month... but honestly now is not the time, just before the US elections.

Random thoughts about the election:

- Obviously I support Obama. Not because I'm certain he'll be a good president (nobody can be sure of that about any candidate), but because I am quite certain McCain/Palin would be horrid ones (and that's something one can be reasonably sure about -- certainly Palin at least seems to WANT me to consider her a terrible candidate).

- I expect many exit polls to wildly screw-up at the beginning: Too much early voting done by Democrats. I'm guessing some exit polls will hand states to the Republicans (e.g. North Carolina) that may very well go to the Democrats once the actual votes are counted. So, please, nobody panic if some exit polls show a much closer election than it's likely to be.

- I like reading conspiracy theories. My favorite one this time around was not the "Obama's birth certificate is a forgery, he was really born in Kenya, and thus is ineligible to run for president", (which is a rather lame conspiracy theory as conspiracy theories go) but rather the "Obama is actually the son of Malcolm X, and his mother married Obama Sr. as a mere ruse to hide that fact" which has it all: secret romance, hidden bloodlines, political drama, etc. Not to mention that it cancels out the importance of the former conspiracy theory (as the child of two citizens is a natural-born citizen no matter where it was born). It's fun when conspiracy theories cancel each other out. :-)

- Recently Adam Cadre posted an article which pretty much epitomizes the reasons I read his articles -- when he makes observations that combine psychology/sociology/mythology/current, medieval and ancient politics and elucidates points of history in a unique way. http://adamcadre.ac/calendar/12682.html One minor point I'm not certain I agree with (Medicine as a "Mercurial" profession? Mythologically that doesn't make much sense to me - Asclepius was the son of Apollo) but on the large: YES.

This essay provided datapoints which support my position and which I wish I knew about when a few months back I was arguing with my brother about the role of Jewish communities in America and Russia. (My brother was basically arguing for a religion-related POV which claimed that Protestantism and its focus on the Old Testament was one of the reasons the Jewish community prospered in America.

This was making less than zero sense of me. It was making NEGATIVE sense. I was making the class-related argument instead: it's very reasonable for a highly educated class of people to thrive in a new land which didn't deny them opportunities -- same as it was reasonable for such a class to strive in Russia for the overthrow of the old older which had them as perpetual 2nd-class citizens.)

But I lacked datapoints to further support my view -- this essay provides them, by referencing similar success stories by the Indians in East Africa, the Lebanese in South America, the Chinese in Southeastern Asia, the Armenians -- and framing them with the Apollonian/Mercurial division of professions -- which once upon a time were divided between the insiders of the community and the outsiders.

- Which reminds me also this -- how the older Olympians seem like forces of nature (Zeus - sky and lightning, Poseidon - sea, Hades - death, Demeter - earth and the circle of seasons) while the younger Olympians seem more related to professions and human behavior: Ares for the warriors, Dionysus for drunkenness and maniacal destruction, Apollo for sober toil, Hermes for services. Hephaestus for the smiths, Athena for all craftsmen.

The article I linked to notes the decline of the Apollonian professions, and their replacement by Mercurial ones as the backbone of current society. But it seems to me that as the Apollonian professions declined with industralization, most Mercurial ones will also inevitably decline with sufficient computerization. What will remain then?

Perhaps:
Athena - for the scientists and teachers (and programmers :-)
Hercules - for the athletes
The Muses - for the artists
Aphrodite - for the sex workers and supermodels.

- Which brings me back to the topic of the current elections. I bet a small amount of money in Intrade -- it's one of the longshots, Obama winning Georgia, so I fully expect to lose it, but that's okay, I didn't bet much. But in retrospect, as I turned it around in my head, I didn't much like it either way. It's not wealth-creating toil, it's not artistry, it's not craftmanship. It's not even a Mercurial "service" in the sense of actually helping someone out, it's Mercurial in the sense of "god of thieves and gamblers". I still hope I'll win the bet, of course, but it feels distasteful even as a principle.

So the main thing I learned? Though I have nothing against Hermes, I'm definitely not his. I still belong to Athena.

VP debate

2008-10-03T03:04:03Z

Stayed up late to see the VP debate.

Up to now I hadn't seen Palin speak. As such I had thought that the SNL/Tina Fey sketch was a caricature of her. But no, the caricature is actually nicer and more intelligent than her actual self. When she started with the "doggone it" and such stupidities, I couldn't believe my ears.

I hope I'm not totally off-base but I think Obama/Biden just secured the victory -- not because of the Palin-stupidity thing: half the American population seems to have a great fondness for stupidity after all (they elected Bush not despite it, but because of it). But rather because the whole "liberal are so aloof and can't connect" thing was the Republicans' sole remaining card on the table, after they chose to ditch the "experience" thing.

And in this debate, you get Palin being almost contemptuous towards Biden and Obama while performing some sort of elaborate comedy sketch, while on the other hand you get Biden choking up in memory of his own dead family. I'm sure it'll make Palin look like a complete ass in retrospect -- and even she seemed to figure it out since her behavior in the remainder seemed to me to be slightly more serious afterwards, less comedy routine-like.

Anyway, enjoy:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Google Chrome, Mystery series, Sea of Insanity

2008-09-28T23:27:19Z

Google Chrome
Gave Google Chrome a few minutes' try when it first came out, but some oddities gave me a bad first taste of it -- bookmarks only appearing when you click the "new tab" button for example. I wasn't in the mood of fiddling with it, so I dropped it and went back to Firefox.

A few days ago I gave it another try. This time I fiddled with the options -- added the things that were not present in the defaults: bookmarks now appearing as a toolbar all the time, homepage icon added. And voila -- I'm suddenly loving it. Chrome is fast, elegant, and I keep loving that Google-style simplicity of its interface. I made it my new default browser.

Only one major failing compared to Firefox, and one minor one. The major failing is that when I'm downloading a file it doesn't seem to store the location for my next download -- that makes it a burden when I'm e.g. downloading five dozen wallpapers into one particular folder - I ended up switching to Firefox for that task.

Minor failing is some search-engine oddity. I've not seen yet as easy way to search wikipedia as there was in Firefox.

Mystery series
Ended up downloading several crime/mystery series lately. "Jonathan Creek" - a British series about a magician's assistant solving mysteries. "Numb3rs" - a series about a mathematician using the power of um, mathematics to solve crimes. And "Medium" - a series about a psychic using her own powers to solve (or prevent, or punish) crimes.

I abandoned Numb3rs after a few eps, once I realized that the *only* thing I liked about it was the application of the math, skipping everything that wasn't math. I disliked pretty much every character, with the possible exception of the mathematician's physicist mentor.

Jonathan Creek had both great and lame eps -- at its best an ep has several interconnected mysteries, none of them with obvious solutions (or with several obvious solutions, none of which are actually workable), and punctuated with humor. At its lamest (and the writers' laziest), an ep only has one mystery that I solved in five secs flat -- and it was utterly implausible that Creek wouldn't solve it even faster. Creek's female co-protagonist (Maddy) is utterly unlikeable to me though -- a lying manipulative scumbag who lies more often than tells the truth, even to Creek himself. I'm glad they switched her away eventually, though I'd have been even gladder if they'd had her, you know, apologize to him, grow as a person, forgo her evil ways, etc.

I've only seen five or six eps of Medium so far, but up to this point I seriously like: Much more likable characters than either Jonathan Creek or Numb3rs -- the medium's daughters especially are cute as hell. But in that series there's *nobody* I don't like so far. The medium, her boss at the DA's office, the husband, the kids... all great characters.

Sea of Insanity
Sea of Insanity is back. This was one of my top favorite webcomics some years back -- but it suddenly and inexplicably stopped updating. Turns out the reason was the creator's personal life meltdown. Anyway, it's back now. Enjoy.

First lines meme

2008-09-17T08:55:53Z

"Post the first line from your 25 most recent fanfics and try to find a pattern." Gacked from homasse.

Well, I've not written nearly that many fics, not even if I include ficlets, but here goes:

1) Europa held her new-born baby next to her breast and sang to it, sometimes in her own Phoenician tongue, half-remembered songs of her childhood, sometimes in the alien tongue of the Cretans which she was quickly learning, in fragments and hesitant pieces.... ("Names and Forms" - Gargoyles fic)

2) It had been more difficult for Simon than for anyone else. ("Reticent Confessions", HP fic set in Barbara Purdom's "Psychic Serpent" universe)

3) "I have been here before... " ("Dreams of the Kisei: A Prologue" HnG fic)

4) She had moaned his name once, in the throes of passion, as he was thrusting inside her, as he was bringing her to the cusp of orgasm. ("Broken souls: Entr'acte, in the dark" HnG fanfic, sequel to the previous)

5) “My father said what?? Oh father, father! You can be so unthinking sometimes.” ("Mighty" Tolkien ficlet)

6) "Please, some money, dear sir! Our mother is sick, we need--" ("Traits Revealed" HP 100-word drabble)

7) She cuts herself, she screams names at teachers, she burns her diaries and runs away from home. ("Hateful Memories" Buffy 100-word drabble)

--

Common element in all of the above? I guess that I tend to begin with a scene indicating the emotional state of an individual: Europa's parental love, Simon's desolation, Hikaru's uncertainty, Akari's need, Luthien's amusement, some random kids' despair and poverty, Dawn's complete emotional meltdown.

I think I miss writing fics.

back to IF

2008-04-24T00:16:50Z

This amused me: Hillary Clinton's path to victory

On other news, I'm getting back into interactive fiction -- past few weeks I've tried some of the best games that have come out (and I've therefore missed) the last few years, at least as judged by the results of the annual IF competition, the XYZZY awards and the Spring Thing.

Next few weeks I'll try to start again on a rather *big* idea for a work of interactive fiction that I've had for several years now.

Somewhere in between the two, I'll be writing a lengthy criticism/suggestion list for Inform 7, which despite its several flaws will almost certainly be used by me in aforesaid game, as it's pretty much the defacto replacement for Inform 6, which is the only IF language I'm familiar with.

Buffy ficlet

2008-04-19T00:45:20Z

100-word ficlet. SPOILERS for the 5th season of Buffy.

Hateful Memories

She cuts herself, she screams names at teachers, she burns her diaries and runs away from home. Nothing will ever be right again.

Weeks later they're watching TV, when she muses, seemingly at random: "Do you remember Ted? How we despised him?"

Buffy snorts. "Sure. What about it?"

"I wasn't there. You must have been loathing him all alone."

And Dawn smiles at her big sister. "Good for you."

She'll be pursued and kidnapped, she'll be ritually cut and bled, she's going to lose mother and sister. But right now, for this brief moment, the universe feels okay once more.

As an addendum to the previous post...

2008-04-10T23:16:35Z

As an addendum to the previous post about improving the last season of Buffy...

... when Angel decided in its 5th season to make an episode about:
a) Evil puppets with nefarious schemes
b) Angel himself being transformed into a puppet...

Wouldn't it have made better sense if they had combined the two ideas to be about evil puppets with a nefarious scheme to transform people into more puppets?

It'd have been a radically different episode ofcourse, but one that would make a bit more sense plotwise I think.

The way I'm thinking it would be one single person (Fred preferably) keep seeing more and more puppets walking about -- the first time it's just a "Wow! Magical puppet walking about? Is that an employee?", and then she keeps seeing more and more puppets around, until she sees people she knew already having transformed into puppets, and nobody remembering that anything had ever been otherwise.

Kinda like Beverly Crusher in that TNG episode where more and more people keep disappearing. Here they wouldn't disappear: They'd just transform into puppets, until the whole nation had like a 10% (and growing) puppet-American minority. Fred becoming shrill about a puppet-conspiracy while the rest of her friends just shaking their heads sadly and thinking to themselves that they can't believe Fred's such a bigot.

Fred telephones Willow for aid -- and then we have something like the following (in a parallel with the 2nd season ep 'Disharmony' of course):
Fred> There's puppets everywhere! Angel's a puppet! Puppets are taking over the world! We need to do something!
(moment of silence)
Fred> You are? Well ...good for you.
(switching us to see Willow -- who we see is now also a puppet)
Willow> (sarcastically) Thanks for the affirmation.

Anyway I think such a version of 'Smile Time' would have allowed the writers to have much more fun, both with the concept of reality manipulation (which is always nifty and would be thematic for a Season 5 Angel episode), and giving them a chance to make fun of bigotry/conspiracy theories in general.

PS: Amusingly enough, I wrote all of the above (including the Willow scene) and only then remembered that Willow's character is also supposed to be Jewish in ancestry -- that's cutely fitting since the ep as I reimagined it would have of course been partly (but not solely) a parody/mockery of anti-semetic conspiracy theories.

Buffy season 7

2008-04-04T00:33:04Z

Last whole month was excessively busy at work, we ended up working even during weekends and the national holiday... This week's much easier, I took Wednesday off and decided to get paid for the other days I had worked extra (rather than use them as additional holidays).

Anyway, I hadn't had the chance all last month to write my commentary on the final season of Buffy -- here goes.

Thoughts (and ways to improve) on Season 7 of Buffy -- MAJOR SPOILERS

Season 7 of Buffy suffered IMO from several plotting issues. Plot points were either underused, overused, and above all they were unconnected with each other.

I don't have any problem with the story direction as a whole -- the very opposite: the First Evil, the destruction of the Watcher's Council, the awakening of hundreds of Slayers worldwide, tying all this with the creation of the First Slayer, the closing of the hellmouth and Sunnydale's destruction. These are all perfect as concepts. But as I said, major badness in the way the writers connected them. This season was under-plotted.

Examples given below, alongside with the way that *I* would have chosen to do them, if I was plotting the season:

- SPIKE

The main problem with Spike in this season is that they've added too many unconnected elements affecting him -- He has his soul, he has the microchip, he has the trigger implanted in him by the First Evil.

Here's where the multiplication of needless unrelated plot points begins, to such extent that they end up treating it as a joke even within the series. The trigger should have been bloody well implanted him by the Initiative *via* the microchip. That would have perfect sense as the Initiative wasn't only seeking to restrain monsters but to actively control them. The First Evil ought have merely been *activating* the trigger that the Initiative installed: that the First Evil is dependent in such a way on using the evil that humans commit would not only have made perfect plotting sense, it would have made thematic sense as well -- and put an ironic twist on the idea of the First Evil being, you know, the *First* Evil. It may have been First but its persistence is only because the million other evils committed by people after it.

Plus you know -- further irony: The microchip that had been forcing Spike not to do evil when he was lacking a soul being the very same thing that was leading him to do evil when he now possessed a soul and no longer needed it.

Speaking of souls, a second problem with the portrayal of an ensouled Spike, is that the writers had been pretty much writing him as if he had had a soul from at least the 5th season onwards, where he was already prepared to risk unlife and limb for the sake of Buffy and Dawn. So, unlike the Angelus/Angel contrast, this simply isn't. Of course it's not even meant to be -- even from the 2nd season we knew that while Angelus was "pure" in his demonicity, Spike was "tainted" with love.

But still. The presence of a soul in Spike is very weakly perceived in the 7th season in comparison to what had come before. Some great lines of course: "Angel should have warned me [...] They put the spark in me, and all it does is burn!" but on the whole it's just bleh. When near the end of the finale, the amulet is activated and he says "My soul - I can really feel it!" this is pretty much meaningless, because he hasn't been doing much of anything that indicated its presence.

Here's how I would partially rectify this part of the finale (besides rewriting the whole of seasons 5 & 6 to make Spike more dangerous, more demonic, and more all-around psychopathic): In the final fight, have one or two of the slayers (perhaps even Faith herself) tumble over the edge -- when Spike catches them just in time. As they dangle, Buffy is stabbed (same as in the actual finale) the First Evil taunting her and one of the uber-vamps going for the kill. Spike sees all that but he can't go to Buffy's rescue because he can't let the people he's holding drop to their deaths, these strangers. Anguish, etc for a handful seconds, should he let them drop -- and then he makes the correct choice and turns his attention back to the people he's holding and helps them up.

And with that action, the action he *couldn't* have made without a soul -- namely sacrificing the life of one he loved for the sake of the life of stranger -- the amulet is activated, and the ubervamps are destroyed.

It's the only really meaningful sacrifice the writers could have had Spike make -- showing him willing to let Buffy die. His own "death" was meaningless because he was bloody well willing to let himself die for Buffy's and Dawn's sake even back when he was *soulless*, in season 5.

- WATCHER'S COUNCIL, SLAYER LORE, and CALEB.

Oy, the poor watchers' council, glimpsed only to see it go kaboom, without even a proper sendoff. The underuse and misuse of the Watchers' council has been horrible throughout much of the series, but it's *especially* not made any sense at all since season 5. There was one particular bad episode in season 5 when Buffy and the Watchers' council reestablish their alliance - on Buffy's own terms. Did that episode somehow drop out of reality? Is it non-canon? Hopefully! Because if the Watchers' Council had been since that ep again an ally of Buffy, it'd make no sense at all that she'd have the monetary problems in season 6 we saw her have.

The watcher's council, underused and misused - both before their destruction and after it, alas, alas. I've already described in my last Buffy post of one major way the Watcher's Council ought have been used -- with their traditional task of fighting supernatural evil throughout the world to protect humanity, it'd have made perfect sense if in season 5 it had been a splinter group of the Watchers' Council that had been hunting after Dawn (instead of the Knights that said Key).

And in season 7, what would have made perfect sense was if Caleb had been a member of the Watchers' Council. *That* would have explained a) how the First Evil was able to know of the locations of potential Slayers (to be murdered) throughout the world, b) that Caleb was able to plant the bomb that took it out, c) that Caleb both knew of and had managed to secure a Slayer artifact (the Scythe) that even the Slayers themselves didn't know of.

Just one tiny tidbit: Caleb being a member of the Watchers' Council, and it'd have explained all those plotpoints that currently stand a) unexplained, b) unexplained c) bizarre, deus-ex-machiney, and unexplained.

After the Council's destruction, have Caleb alone escape with the half-buried Scythe (he chooses to salvage the tool of power from the council's vault) and have Giles salvage that shadow-theater thingy instead (he chooses to salvage an instrument of *knowledge* instead).

- THE AWAKENING OF THE SLAYERS

There's no sense in Buffy figuring out that all the slayers can be awakened at the same time. She has no real knowledge of how the scythe's magic works whatsoever.

It ought be Willow that realizes this thing can be done, or at least Willow in combination with Buffy. And it ought be made possible only through the Scythe as it is shedding Willow's willing lifeblood, a requirement that Willow didn't let Buffy know was necessary.

Blood activated the statue in the finale of season 2; and Angel's life demanded to close it. Blood was what opened the dimensional gates in the finale of Season 5 and closed them up again. Blood is what opened up the door to the hellmouth in season 7. As Spike said it's always about the blood. And as *I* say, it should always be about the sacrifice.

Willow doesn't need to die. But in order to unlock the Slayer's power she need be absolutely convinced that she's going to die. So, here's the rough draft of how I'm sort of envisioning this scene:

(Willow with her hands on the scythe, mystical energy coursing through her, she chanting over it, etc... suddenly she seems to slow down and pause)
Kennedy> (Worried) Is something wrong?
Willow> (sad) Nothing's wrong. Nothing. Prevent! (magical barrier appears around Willow)
Xander> Wil!?
Willow> Don't blame Buffy for this. She had no idea this would be necessary. But it's always about the blood.
Xander and Kennedy together> Wil, NO!

(as Willow suddenly impales herself on the scythe, a magical burst of energy floods the room -- followed by Buffy's flashback explanation of awakening Slayers worldwide -- after some scenes of fighting down in the hellmouth, we return to Willow -- where Kennedy and Xander have been trying to take the scythe away from Willow but the force-field repels them)

Willow> I love you guys. (To Xander) You taught me to love. (To Kennedy) You showed me I hadn't forgotten. Thank you.
Kennedy> We would have found another way, damn you!
Willow> No other way. Too much power needed. Too much power in me. Never used to balance it properly. I killed a deer for Buffy's resurrection. That's where the whole thing started. My fault.
Xander> (pacing frantically, and his voice verging on hysteria) Willow -- it was Buffy! I'd have made that choice in a heartbeat!
Willow> (voice fading) My point exactly... too easy a choice... but only life we're allowed to sacrifice... is our own... (she seems to be dying, her eyes rolling backwards, and the shimmer of the force-field fading)
Kennedy> Willow!
Xander> No. NO! (He rushes forward and impales himself on the scythe as well from the other side -- there's another burst of light and both Willow and Xander are knocked backwards, the scythe dropping on the floor in the middle)
Willow> (Looks at her wound closing) What?
Xander> (Who looks unharmed as well) I'm alive?
Willow> You're an idiot.
Kennedy> You're both idiots!
Willow> (Smiles) And you're a vampire-slayer. (Nods towards the scythe) Take that to Buffy. I think we'll be okay.

New icons

2008-03-17T20:04:28Z

New default icon -- I colored the version that Jason Waltrip drew of me (alongside a few dozen other fans) for the anniversary strip of Fans!

Also finally updated the European Union icon - more than a year late. :-)

Voices

2008-03-16T19:48:13Z

I opted in for Emily Short's coverart drive for works of Interactive Fiction, and as a result Josh Lawrence made the following for my game "Voices". I like!

Other worlds...

2008-02-10T23:50:51Z

Three movies, all of them adaptations of books, which I saw the past December/January. HEAVY HEAVY SPOILERS for both movies and books to follow:

The Golden Compass

I came very close to calling this that rare thing -- a movie adaptation that's actually better than the book, (same as I believe the Chronicles of Narnia movie to have been). I'll have to not exactly cancel but perhaps postpone that judgment for the reason I'll mention later -- but let me begin with what the movie did *great*.

One of the things that the movie did better than the book was connect from the beginning the "Dust" to the idea of sexual maturity, an idea which in the books blossoms too late to actually seem consistent with what preceded it (only really appears in the third book, I believe). And in making that connection more explicitly, the image of people performing obscene operations ("a simple cut") on children to prevent such maturity, in obedience to Authority, becomes at the same time more horrifying and more relevant to *our* world -- to female genital mutilation in its most extreme form, to religious male circumcision in its softer version.

The second thing that the movie did very very well was replace the book's references to the Church to vaguer references to the authority of the "Magisterium" -- which is still pretty obviously religious but not explicitly Christian. Some people am sure are seeing this as some sort of chickening out, that the movie didn't dare to portray the Christian Church (even a Christian church set in a different universe) as the archvillains.

And perhaps the real reason was indeed cowardice on the part of the producers, but personally I see this change to be enhancing the movie -- helping clarity of thought. The true problem with the Magisterium isn't that it's (supposedly) Christian -- indeed the Gnostic deity they obey and that the characters end up fighting against in the (mostly sucky) third book, really doesn't have much of anything to do with Christianity (or with Islam or with Judaism) as currently existing. The true problems with the Magisterium are two: that it's blindly obedient to Authority, and that it also sets itself up as an authority to be blindly obeyed -- that it's a slave and at the same time wants to make slaves of the rest of us too.

This is of course true of the Christian church, but not significantly truer of it than a hundred other systems of thought and of obedience. The true problem is not Christianity, but Authority -- and that one the movie does indeed call by its proper name. :-)

So far so good -- indeed so far *better than the book*. My only objection through most of the movie, was a minor aesthetic grievance -- I didn't like the visual effects when Lyra was receiving the knowledge from the Alethiometer; they seemed like visions rather than the intuitive understanding it properly is in the book, which begins slowly at first with half-reasoned half-hesitant uncertain answers but by the end become to Lyra immediate and accurate intuitive understanding of what the golden compass is telling her...

This is but a minor grievance really. My bigger grievance concerns the end.

See, the book's ending was possibly one of the strongest book endings I have read. World-shattering, literally. Moving. A combination of hopelessness and sheer determination, as Lyra, having utterly failed in everything she hoped for, betrayed, alone, is still unbowed and chooses to travel further to the unknown, leaving everything familiar behind her. The movie ends instead a few chapters too soon, leaving the events above to be put in the second film. And that's just weaker, every way I see it. For the first movie we're left with a much smaller and much more vague, much more happy and much less significant ending. Just plain disappointing.

But all in all a marvelous movie, greatly recommended despite its wimpy and weak ending.

Stardust

Stardust as an adaptation works and fails in the opposite ways of The Golden Compass. I have no complaints about the plot -- it helped combine the different threads in a way more efficient and elegant in some ways. I can still recommend the movie as a great fun adventure story.

But -- and this was something really seen only in the finale of the movie, but it's present from the start -- the movie completely negates and reverses the great *dignity* that the book was giving all its characters in the end, and in the end it negates and reverses the dignity of the whole storyline.

In the book, Tristan's original love, Victoria was a foolish girl who in the end deeply regrets that she immaturely sent Tristan to such a dangerous quest -- she apologizes to him, and is prepared to fulfill her original vow to marry him (even though she doesn't love him). Tristan, again dignified, responds by telling her she'd made no such vow -- her vow was to give him his hand *if* he asked it, and he now asks her to marry the person she truly loves. We are given to understand that Mr Monday (her current fiance) has been made aware of the whole unfortunate vow situation, and even if he doesn't appreciate it he still understands the choice Victoria was making.

In the movie, Victoria is merely a silly immature girl throughout, and the final confrontation between her and Tristan, is one where Tristan maneuvers her in a position where he can *ridicule* her for maximum effect, thus also losing the dignity he himself possessed in the book. Far from dignified, her fiance in return attempts some swordfighting intimidation, but Tristan is better at it. And at the end of the movie it's also implied Victoria's fiance won't stay faithful to her.

In the book, there's no final violent confrontation between the witch and the protagonists -- they merely outrun her until when she reaches them she has no power left to fight them, merely talks with Yvaine and they exchange some brief conversation before they let each other be and go on their ways.

I understand how in the movie they wanted a more climactic ending, and I have no problems with such. The sad thing is how *close* they came to achieving great dignity for the witch, and then they just snuff it away. They all fight, and they manage to kill her sisters before she has them at their mercy -- and then when she sees her dead sisters, she suddenly realizes that immortality/power/beauty, these are all meaningless without the only people she loved in the world -- and she lets Yvaine and Tristan go.

*Excellent* ending. Beautiful, meaningful, dignified... but then they suddenly have her turn and say "no I was kidding, am glad those bitches are dead, means more heart for me, mwahahaha".

WTF? Were the makers of the movie intentionally going out of their way to make the ending *less* meaningful, *less* character-based, and yeah (let me repeat that word again) less dignified?

The whole dignity-issue is part-and-parcel I guess of how they have them both become stars in the end. The world doesn't work like that and neither does Faerie -- whose rules are just as strict as the world's, even if different. In the book it's clearly stated -- stars can fall, but they never get back up. Some wounds don't heal (to make my obscure LOTR reference). The final scene in the book is how after a very long life, Tristan dies and Yvaine (with a limp that still hasn't quite healed from the first time she fell to the earth) is left remembering him and watching the stars.

In the movie they just have a very long life and then they keep on having a very long life, except now as stars, back in the heavens.

Thanks, but no thanks. Stars fall but they don't return to the skies once fallen. MORTALS DIE. And any story about Faerie that denies that, is at the end a false story.

The Bridge to Terabithia

And I guess that makes Terabithia a very true story instead. In "The Bridge to Terabithia" trailers and packaging was false advertising, leading prospective viewers to believe that it's a Chronicles of Narnia-redux. Couldn't be further from the truth. Instead of a imaginative tale about different realities like Narnia was, Terabithia is a painfully realistic tale about imagination.

Won't say much about this one -- I haven't read the book for this but I understand it was a faithful adaptation. I loved the movie, but I believe it'd be one that'd be painful to rewatch (in all the best ways), and so I probably won't

I was worried near the finale, I briefly feared they'd show us Jess retreating further and further into the Terabithia fantasy, until it becomes a life-destroying and reality-denying delusion. However my worries didn't come to pass -- Jess instead uses Terabithia to repair the rift between him and his little sister.

That's just marvelous, and a lovely ending -- imagination not as delusion, but as relief. Not as a cage, but as a bridge. Nice.

Recommended.

Thoughts on the final arc of Buffy's 6th season.

2008-01-31T02:14:32Z

Now seen through Buffy's 6th season and Angel's 3rd.

Thoughts on the final arc of Buffy's 6th season: (HEAVY HEAVY SPOILERS ABOUT EVERYTHING)

I had unfortunately been spoiled myself for most of the events that would be happening in these last few eps... so pretty much nothing came as a surprise, and I can't judge the eps on that basis... on other aspects, there was the good and then there was the bad.

Emotionally I was opposed to the writers -- when Buffy (and the eps' writers) obviously were trying to prevent Willow from killing the trio, I was hoping she'd flay alive *all* three of them, or that they'd have similarly gruesome death as Warren did (who hey, died way too easy -- I'd prolong his death by about 50 years of torment if I had been in Willow's place).

Rationally of course, all the arguments Buffy & friends made were proper, that'd they lose Willow, that her addictive-tendencies personality would now get addicted to the bloodlust. And the moral perspective about the wrongness of vengeance, etc -- all very good. But they had no place in Willow's heart, and yo, since i was cheering her on, I guess not in mine either. Not when the love of her life was dead.

So yeah, on an emotional level I'm rather disappointed the twerps escaped with their lives.

But critically these last eps only disappointed me in one place really, when midway through the last ep, Willow's goals changed from "I want to kill the murderer and his associates, and will destroy anyone who stands in my way" to "I want to destroy all the world to make the pain go away".

I would have preferred it if the continuously more unhinged and ruthless dark magics she was using had instead made her go "I need to destroy the universe in order to create a bubble dimension where I'll trap myself and Tara's soul and we can live together happily ever after remolding all of existence to our whims" -- this would be consistent with the idea that the dark magics weren't actually changing her motivations (bringing Tara back, vengeance when she can't do that), just making her increasingly (and insanely) ruthless about the way she goes in pursuing her goal.

And it would have actually been subtle in the sense that now instead of seeking something bad (vengeance) in a ruthless way, she'd now be seeking something good (a joyous existence with Tara) in an even more insanely cosmos-destroying way -- consistent with the idea that her last infusion of power came from Giles's good magic, unlike the first two infusions which came from evil sources (the dark magic books and Rack)

So, yeah -- this point: also disappointing. "Destroying the world to make the pain go away" isn't even remotely compelling or new as an idea. Who hasn't felt like that from time to time? :-)

However in the end this whole sequence is redeemed in its perfect resolution, which is merely the fact that Willow can choose to destroy the whole world but she can't choose to destroy Xander, not when he's standing in front of her and keeps telling her he loves her. A tactic which works perfectly exactly because it's the opposite of all the previous failures to appeal to rationality and to morality -- it's utterly irrational (Willow *logically* already knew that destroying the world includes killing Xander) but it goes straight to the heart (and hey, consistent with Xander being the heart of the group, same as Giles is the mind, Willow the spirit, and Buffy the hand -- as defined way back in the 4th season).

It also reminds me of one of the climaxes in "It's Walky" when Sal goes uberpowerful and uberinsane and same as Willow, her envisioned destruction of the world doesn't seem to include the one person she couldn't hurt and confronted with that inconsistency, the ruthless mask shatters and, same as Willow, Sal collapses in tears.

I loved it in "It's Walky" and I loved it here. You don't need to debate morality when you can still reach someone's humanity. Feeling is deeper than thinking. This single scene was worth all the final arc of the season for me.

--

One point which is really vague and confusing to me though, is why would Buffy get over her depression because of the events of these eps. Is this a case of having to argue the worth of living to Willow ending up convincing herself? Feeling relief that the world isn't destroyed making her realize she still wants to be part of it?

Because objectively speaking, Buffy's life seems at the absolutely worst right now, with a friend murdered in a attempt directed against Buffy herself, another friend turned insanely evil as consequence, another person she had trusted having recently attempted to rape her, and she not yet knowing whether Giles is alive or not.

Perhaps it's just that existence has hit so much rock-bottom that she realizes there's no other way but up -- but frankly despite all the explanations I can potentially give, it all seemed utterly arbitrary to me, just the way the writers chose to say "hey, Buffy won't be so gloomy and broody next year as she was in this one".

Arbitrary. So that point is also rather "bleh" -- but am looking forward to the 7th season nonetheless.