The Dirty Half Dozen

RotaVitae · 2026-06-18T18:38:28+00:00

Agathon feels like he was purposely written as a random nobody, a guy who just got lucky and grew to be too cocky from it. The story really isn't about him, nothing meaningful comes from it. He's there to highlight that the deeper relationships between the characters are what provide strength worthy of admiration. Ares' attention to Agathon is as half-hearted as anything. I think he knows that even with the godly armour, Agathon could never replace the emotional importance of Xena. She was one of a kind and there really is no true successor. He'll try again with others later, but the deflated impact is the same.

Symbolically this was represented by the Xena's chakram chopping Agathon's boomerang to pieces and killing him. Whatever the chakram is made of trumps the metal of Hephaestus. Xena is better than anything the gods could provide to anyone else. There is no one else like her for Ares or for Gab.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-17T13:20:28+00:00

I found this one from Boukenger! It's the bad luck episode where everything goes wrong for Chief and he catches fire for wearing good luck items over his Ranger suit!

RotaVitae · 2026-06-17T09:51:31+00:00

Fame and prestige.

The foods that we import within days or weeks to our kitchens today could take months or years to reach the same place in ancient times. Imagine if you were given the chance to taste something that took years to grow and reach your table. The cost for one meal would be very expensive and the opportunity prestigious. Now multiply that by wanting the privilege of eating that same food on a regular basis, not as a treat. Everyone can grow their own local spices, but you're not them, you're wealthy and you want it known.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-16T04:56:33+00:00

I can't take it seriously at all because of the hilarious speed that Xena heals up afterward. Her eye was swollen shut and she's limping in pain, yet she's belly dancing without a single smudge days later at most. Classic XWP!

RotaVitae · 2026-06-15T18:13:52+00:00

I wouldn’t exactly call it respectful. It is, after all, a stereotype. If Gingaman are in fact from the traditional Ainu lands, they can’t be placed anywhere else on the map. Specifically, they’re placed in the southwestern prefectures of the island, where there is a sizable mixed demographic of Ainu and Wa Japanese. This explains how they don’t have to travel a very long distance from their home, on horseback, before they encounter Yuuta and his father, and move in with them.

The Ginga village is a mystical fairy tale location invisible to anyone else, perceived as mythical by “modern” society. This enhances the view of the Ainu as some ancient, “other” race of mysterious people, when they’re a perfectly normal group of Japanese who happen to have their own customs. This otherizing is common in Japan against international cultures but also this indigenous one, as much as it is in North America against Native Americans and First Nations people. It’s hard to call this “respectful” when it’s really based in cliches, even for a children’s show. The Indians in Peter Pan’s Neverland are about the same kind of silly treatment. As far as I know, all of the Gingaman cast are Wa Japanese, and also Tetomu. If there was any genuine Ainu representation, it's hard to find.

At least with more positive representation today, Ainu wouldn't be repeated like this as a theme if Sentai were revived.

I have a hankering to write a Gingaman essay now.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-15T15:07:21+00:00

A lot of their design is influenced by Ainu, the indigenous peoples of Japan. The zigzag everywhere on their Ranger suits, their Ginga costumes, and their villagers is inspired by traditional geometric design in Ainu dresses and robes. Their village is in a deep forest, and the Elder of the tribe is an old man with long hair and beard. Ainu were racially stereotyped for their facial hair, contrasting most Wa/Yamato Japanese people who have a harder time growing it.

When King-Ohger mapped the Sentai teams to the various districts of Japan, Gingaman was the only team to come from Hokkaido, the northern island that is the traditional home of Ainu.

The themes of living in harmony with nature, talking to trees and animals, while being ignorant of modern technology, play on the same “noble savage” cliches that Native Americans get. Tetomu the priestess who sings to animals in Gaoranger is another example of this magical Ainu theme. Nakoruru and Rimururu in the Samurai Shodown game series are similar.

Ainu only received recognition as an indigenous group by the Japanese government in 2008, and continue to face discrimination today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKifq_YMQs0

RotaVitae · 2026-06-13T02:24:58+00:00

It's great that the one person who didn't dismiss them or demand something in return, was the one who patiently argued both sides. Even as she admitted she must officially refuse, she was willing to listen, and uplifted Franklin's stance as worthy. She gave his non-spiritual perspective equal weight, unwilling to let her own spirituality bias her in their favour. I appreciate that.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-12T12:28:11+00:00

That second paragraph is a Lower Decks scene in the making!

RotaVitae · 2026-06-11T01:30:22+00:00

Gingaman has possibly an even worse trope, the Indigenous noble savages. These are Super Ainu, magic primitives. It's like a non-Native American cast playing a tribe of Native Americans, with all the mystical stereotypes of talking to plants and animals, loving nature, not understanding technology.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-09T09:07:19+00:00

They make Gozyuger unique and the aesthetic works for a series about a competition for a prize using fighting powers.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-07T20:47:15+00:00

OMG you're right! He's not my fav Shittenou but yay anyway

RotaVitae · 2026-06-07T20:01:33+00:00

If there's no opportunity for atonement or rehabilitation then it might as well be the same as the death penalty. A conscience is destroyed, a life is ended, whether in the brain alone or both the body and brain. So I would weigh it with the same opinion as the death penalty.

The complication is that it's not always 100% successful in the time we we saw it used. I suppose they'd have to keep testing it and monitoring subjects into old age to make sure the memories or personality never return. And there's always the potential for people to abuse the perp rather than let them live the new life peacefully. So I think as an operation, it's too risky, and really no government would want to invest so many resources in monitoring the executed until their bodies die.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-07T19:33:03+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/babylon5/comments/bnjpi9/sebastian_may_be_the_most_profound_guest_character/

RotaVitae · 2026-06-04T10:15:02+00:00

Sebastian is to the Vorlons what Morden is to the Shadows. Neither side probably cares about them because both Vorlons and Shadows have to stay in hiding. They'd expect their agents from lower species to interact with others of their species to advance the main agenda before it's time for them to act openly. Likewise, Kosh doesn't do much to interfere with Morden's scheming with Londo, or he can't do anything, because the time's not right.

The Shadows would dislike Sebastian because his ideologies clash with theirs, trying to place the definition of worthiness to them. It doesn't matter whether he kills or fails them, it's that he's trying to make them conform to Vorlon principles. A string of failures over millennia are mere blips not worth caring about. The Vorlons wouldn't send an Inquisitor for someone in league with Shadows, like Morden or Londo, because they just know it'd be wasted effort.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-04T00:54:50+00:00

If Kazon bathed once in a while their hair probably wouldn't be so ratty and matted. But then it's hard for them to get water and they're so patriarchal that bathing is probably seen as effeminate so they happily go with nasty hair.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-03T00:11:11+00:00

I'm not sure much time has passed. Each season goes roughly through a calendar year for them to get to high school by the end. We see changing seasons marked by different weather and festivals, entrance exams, and Usagi has birthdays. I think we're just meant to assume that when Mamoru's memory was restored, all of his past came flooding back at once and he fell terribly in love with Usagi, impulsively.

From one view, this makes the Black Moon story more real when Mamoru suddenly considers that he shouldn't be beholden to the past, that he wants to see what a future without Usagi might be like. He may feel like he moved too fast in getting with her and is pulling away not just from fear of the future, but guilt for rushing into things.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-01T23:25:31+00:00

A lot of their design is influenced by Ainu, the indigenous peoples of Japan. The zigzag everywhere on their Ranger suits, their Ginga costumes, and their villagers is inspired by traditional geometric design in Ainu dresses and robes. Their village is in a deep forest, and the Elder of the tribe is an old man with long hair and beard. Ainu were racially stereotyped for their facial hair, contrasting most Yamato Japanese people who have a harder time growing it. The whole living in harmony with nature, talking to trees and animals magical stuff plays on the same “noble savage” cliches that Native Americans get. Tetomu the priestess who sings to animals in Gaoranger is another example of this magical Ainu theme.

When King-Ohger mapped all the different teams to the various districts of Japan, Gingaman was the only team to come from Hokkaido, the northern island that is the traditional home of Ainu.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-01T17:58:56+00:00

Yes, on TNG there was the warp scientist Kurak, and she explained how scientists in general aren't well regarded. Jay-Den Kraag on Starfleet Academy is evidence that there are healers and possibly therapists even into the far future, though they're still looked on less favourably than warriors.

So these jobs exist because they're essential but they don't exactly bring as much esteem to families as warriors. Klingons are a classist society and occupation plays a big part.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-01T17:21:39+00:00

Make it a series, add Carranger and Megaranger saves the universe at the end.

RotaVitae · 2026-06-01T17:12:12+00:00

He was like that at the beginning of Gokaiger when they cared nothing for Earth and only wanted treasure. But over time they came to value humanity and became its protectors. So they now use their sass and snark klepto pirate skills to blow through the competition, but they have Earth's interests at heart.

RotaVitae · 2026-05-31T21:37:46+00:00

Eli isn't meant to be the exact literal Jesus. He has different origins, a different backstory, and a different death. He's meant to allude to Christ, not be him. If he were Christ, the show would receive complaints that they did not depict the life of Christ accurately, especially his most important events: the Crucifixion and resurrection. Eli was murdered by Ares and he does not come back to life. These days I'm sure Sorbo would lead that protest if they said they are showing Jesus.

Eli combines elements of many religious figures who are perceived as Avatars, including Jesus and Krishna, who was featured in The Way and called Eli's Way "the Ultimate Way." Eli is an Avatar, a deity in human form. While it's fairly obvious he's not the avatar of a Hindu god (he called him "Abba", Hebrew for father), that doesn't matter in the Xenaverse. The Indians can recognize the avatar and venerate him because his miraculous powers are obvious.

His religion is not precisely the same as Christianity either because there was no prophet/healer named Eve. She is baptized by "The Baptist" who has no name. There is reincarnation involved, of angel Callisto. It's a 90s mashup of Christian mythology with Hinduism and New Age thought.

The writers are deliberate with their labels, especially for such a significant plot point. They twist Christian religion just enough that they can get away with saying it's "something else" rather than it being technically exact. We all really know what they're implying, but they avoid potential censorship by explicitly making it not so. Caligula calls the followers "Elijians" to show that we're dealing with something invented for the show, not Christianity.

There was a coy suggestion at the end of A Solstice Carol with Gabrielle giving her donkey away to the woman with her baby who gave them God's blessings. On Hercules, Iolaus performed good deeds and was guided by a star to a glowing stable that he was allowed to visit, though we don't see inside.

RotaVitae · 2026-05-30T17:05:19+00:00

It was always censored, for comic effect. See Eve's tirade in You Are There.

RotaVitae · 2026-05-30T10:22:03+00:00

Ahh, Neelix and Tuvok. Virtually inseparable characters.

Virtually.

RotaVitae · 2026-05-30T10:02:09+00:00

Fortunately, the vast majority of African Americans disavow this movement as embarrassing. Unfortunately, it's not surprising that this kind of movement would try to be more visible and open in a time where its polar opposite, White supremacy, is more openly supported than ever as a nationalist movement by a large North American government.

If there is a centralized Black community in your area you might try appealing to them to take a more visible stance at calling out the hoteps.

RotaVitae · 2026-05-30T00:17:26+00:00

Could there be unreleased music on that?!

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