Day: June 1, 2022

Let’s talk about Deshaun Watson.

I want to start this by saying I am not defending this man in any way shape or form. He is an idiot. He is an idiot in exactly the same way that Micheal Vick was an idiot. In saying this I am going to acknowledge the embedded racism that makes the Watson and Vick cases front page news that may ultimately cost the latter a chunk of his career as it did the former. I am saying this largely because of the quick and dirty dismissal of the Robert Kraft incident where he solicited sex from a massage parlor and was arrested (charges dropped) and the people giving the massages (and sex) were also arrested, prosecuted for sex trafficking, and later jailed. I can’t even begin to get into the nonsense of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder and his 15 cases of sexual harassment. These owner cases vanish as quickly as possible–with Snyder’s being the catalyst for a much needed name change as an obvious way to deflect attention.

But this isn’t about right, wrong, or even racism. This is about a very dumb man who entered into an arrangement with a woman who enabled his behavior (including with her own daughter–by her own admission) and empowered him to put women is terrible situations. Let me be clear: Watson may not be willing to say it (legal reasons) but he went to these women with the intent of having a sexual encounter. He admitted to having sex with three of them, and the fact that he went to at least 40 different women indicates that this is some sort of fetish he is into. The problem is that this fetish doesn’t take into account the feelings or rights of the women being solicited. They are being abused, and while some are okay with it, some are not. He is clearly of the mindset that massages end with a ‘happy ending’ and that is not right.

So, we have established him as the bad guy. Now let’s acknowledge the culture that gave him that stupid idea.

When life beats you up, fall into fiction!

I’m going to dive a bit deeper into the Itokolian Duelists. After watching the first two episodes of Obi-Wan, I am in the mindset of trying to create something in the moments I can find inner peace. The something in this particular instance is a costume and a backstory for that costume. I’m thinking about the hair and what that hair should look like. I don’t have a ton of hair to begin with so I’m going to consider shaving vs. adding. Styling through shaving seems to be the look here–something with lines of hair reflective of a clan pattern.

That brings us to clans. In my mind the Itokolians are a clan based culture and each battled–largely as a sport and a way to settle land disputes. While most clans were roving, a few were stationary, and they represented the ‘elders’ the way the Lenape represented the elders of the native tribes of early east coast America.

I want the garb to represent that to an extent–the long cloth on only one side being a mark of defensive posture and or how they ride their beasts of burden. For this I plan to load the light sabers (oh yeah, they definitely used those and were NOT Jedi) on the right side–one logn on the back and one short on the leg.