From the trope page:

The traitor, Goro Akechi, also pretty much fits the bill apart from being male. They're a bastard child who was passed around an assortment of abusive foster homes after their mother committed suicide out of shame, their father having abandoned them before their birth. As such, their ultimate desire is receiving love and affection; Akechi not only revels in the public adulation he receives as "the second coming of the Detective Prince", but willingly becomes The Dragon for his evil birth father as part of a twisted revenge plan to make his father finally acknowledge him. On top of that, Akechi has the same "Wild Card" power as the protagonist; however, Akechi's borderline sociopathy means that unlike the protagonist, he's unable to cultivate the genuine friendships needed to unlock the wide assortment of Personas available to the hero. Finally, they're incredibly envious of the protagonist, as shown in their Motive Rant:

From his character sheet:

The Spear Counterpart is what he is, at his core. He desperately wants the love and affection neither parent gave him, preferably from his actual living parent. Unlike most examples of the trope though, he can't let himself accept anything less.

I don't know if I like some of the phrasing, but maybe I'm just too much of a fan to be objective.
What do you think of this assessment? Is this an accurate trope to apply to Akechi?
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In the larger system of existence, each person’s life can be understood as a unique timeline. This concept explores how these individual timelines interact and influence each other, creating a complex web of interconnected experiences and perceptions.
Individual Timelines
Every person represents a distinct timeline. This timeline includes all their experiences, choices, and personal growth. It is the fundamental aspect of their existence within the larger system.
Interactions and Impressions
When two people encounter each other, they create impressions of one another. These impressions act as "containers" within each other's timelines. Each container holds the other person’s image and experiences as perceived from their own unique perspective.
Container Dynamics
The main person (the one whose timeline we are discussing) has some control over how they present themselves, which influences the initial impression formed in the other person’s timeline. However, the actual container—how this impression is held and perceived—is shaped by the other person’s timeline. This means that while you can control your actions and presentation, the way another person perceives and experiences you is constructed within their own reality.
Mutual Influence
Through ongoing interactions, the main person can actively engage with the other to modify and influence their perception. These interactions allow the main person to change the impression container held within the other person's timeline. For example, by showing kindness, clarity, or consistency, one can gradually reshape how they are perceived by another.
Higher Self Perspective
From a higher self perspective, the main person can utilize the impression container to experience life as perceived by another. This creates a feedback loop where both individuals shape and are shaped by their interactions. It allows for a deeper understanding of oneself through the eyes of another.
Changing Perceptions
The main person can change how they are perceived by the other through conscious interactions. Over time, these interactions can significantly influence and reshape the container in the other person’s timeline. This highlights the importance of mindful and intentional behavior in relationships.
Deep Interconnectedness
This concept underscores the deep interconnectedness of all individuals within the larger system. Each person not only navigates their own timeline but also participates in the timelines of others, creating a web of shared experiences and mutual influence. It emphasizes that we are all co-creators of each other’s realities.
The Larger System and Facilitating Growth Through Interacting Timelines
The larger system utilizes the concept of interacting timelines and impression containers to facilitate growth and learning among individuals. This dynamic interplay is a profound mechanism for personal and collective evolution.
The Snapshot Concept
When two individuals interact, they create impression containers of each other within their timelines. These containers capture a "snapshot" of the other person at the moment of interaction. If these two individuals sever their connection, the containers remain but are no longer updated through direct interaction.
Growth Through Internal Reflection
After the disconnection, any changes or developments within the container are derived from the individual's internal processing rather than new interactions. This shift from external influence to self-driven reflection offers a unique opportunity for growth.
Life Review and Self-Discovery
From a life review perspective, examining these static containers can provide profound insights:

• Self-Reflection: Individuals can reflect on their perceptions and assumptions about others. They can analyze how these impressions have evolved in the absence of further interaction and what this says about their own growth and biases.
• Personal Growth: The static nature of these containers allows individuals to recognize patterns in their thoughts and behaviors. This can lead to greater self-awareness and the identification of areas needing improvement.
• Empathy and Understanding: By reflecting on the snapshot container, individuals can develop a deeper understanding of others and themselves. This can foster empathy, as they realize how their perceptions might differ from reality and how they have changed over time.

Facilitating Growth in the Larger System
The larger system uses this mechanism to encourage continuous growth and evolution:

• Catalyst for Change: The disconnection and resulting static container act as a catalyst for internal change. Individuals must rely on their inner resources to process and learn from the past interaction.
• Autonomy in Growth: This process emphasizes personal responsibility and autonomy in one’s growth. Without new external input, individuals are guided to seek internal solutions and insights.
• Integration of Lessons: Through self-reflection and life review, individuals integrate valuable lessons into their personal timelines. This integration enriches their overall vibrational state and contributes to the collective evolution.

Practical Implications

• Mindfulness in Interactions: Understanding this concept encourages mindfulness in interactions, knowing that these create lasting impression containers that influence ongoing growth.
• Embracing Disconnections: Recognizing the value in disconnections can shift the perspective from loss to opportunity. It becomes a chance to delve deeper into self-discovery and personal development.
• Enhanced Life Review: In life reviews, individuals can see the static containers and understand how they have internally processed and grown from past interactions. This can provide clarity and closure.

"Always tune into the higher self of others. See them as successful, just as you would wish for yourself. Sometimes we might think that the path we traveled would be impossible for them, but do not think that. Their path may be different, but the end result will be the same. Everyone can be successful. Simply tune into the version of them that you want to interact with.
Do the same for yourself: tune into your higher self and feel what that feels like. Your body will not know the difference, and this is how you jump timelines. Do not worry about how you will get there-your higher self will work out the entire journey for you to remember and experience."
Tuning into the Higher Self of Others:
1. Seeing Success in Others: Concept: By visualizing others as successful, you create a positive impression container within your own timeline for them. This positive container can influence their reality through the interconnectedness of timelines.
Application: When you interact with someone, consciously see them achieving their goals and being successful. This mental tuning helps both you and them align with higher vibrational states.
2. Path and Journey: Concept: Each person has a unique path, but the end goal of growth and success is universal. Acknowledging this helps you respect their journey and trust the larger system’s process.
Application: Do not impose your experiences or paths on others. Trust that their unique journey will lead them to success, just as yours has.
Tuning into Your Own Higher Self:
1. Self-Alignment: Concept: Aligning with your higher self means tuning into the best version of yourself. This self-alignment creates a positive impression container within your timeline, fostering personal growth and success.
Application: Regularly visualize and feel yourself as successful and aligned with your higher self. This practice helps you embody these qualities, making them a part of your reality.
2. Jumping Timelines: Concept: By aligning with your higher self, you can shift to a timeline that resonates with your highest potential. This shift occurs because your vibrational state changes, attracting experiences that match your new frequency.
Application: Focus on the feeling of being your higher self. Your body and mind will adapt to this state, facilitating a timeline shift where your higher self’s attributes are realized.
Trusting the Process:
1. Letting Go of the 'How': Concept: The larger system orchestrates the details of your journey based on your alignment with your higher self. Trusting this process means not worrying about the specific steps but focusing on maintaining your vibrational state.
Application: Release concerns about how you will achieve your goals. Trust that your higher self, in connection with the larger system, will guide you through experiences that lead to your desired outcomes.
Practical Implications:

• Interactions with Others: Consciously see others as successful and support their journeys. This positive reinforcement can help elevate their vibrational state and yours, creating a mutually beneficial dynamic.
• Self-Practice: Regularly visualize yourself as your higher self. Engage in practices like meditation, affirmations, and mindfulness to reinforce this alignment.
• Trust and Surrender: Let go of the need to control every detail of your path. Trust the larger system’s process, knowing that aligning with your higher self will naturally guide you towards your goals.

Each container represents a life to be experienced, serving as a veil from which the main timeline emerges.

Something I wish was taken into account more in Fairy Tail was circumstances and how they play into battles. There's two major kinds of powerscaling I've seen in fiction; linear and nonlinear.
Linear powerscaling seemingly refers to a concrete system in which the power structure is solid and nigh-unbreakable, those who are stronger can almost never be beaten by those who are weaker and if they are, its considered an asspull or nonsense. Meanwhile, nonlinear powerscaling is seemingly a way of powerscaling where yes, a character can be definitively far stronger than their opponents, but circumstances can allow a far weaker person to overcome that snd pull out a win anyway, and not just with a power up.
A good example of nonlinear powerscaling is the Light Novel series "A Certain Magical Index." The Novels have many examples of this so I'll mention one that's prominent in the first series of Novels (later subtitled Old Testament). Accelerator is the #1 ranked Level 5 Espers in Academy City. And because of this, he's one of the strongest characters in the series despite a significant weakness caused by brain damage. Accelerator posesses Vector Control and reflection, but because of this, he's never trained his body and is physically weak to basic physical attacks like punches and kicks if someone can bypass his reflective barrier (which is difficult, but can be done).
Another example is the fight with Great Ape Vegeta in DBZ. Now I know DBZ is popular and has been around for so long, but I'll still spoiler tag it just in case. DBZ is when Power Levels were introduced and for the most part, they're consistent even if they go crazy in the sense that having a stronger Power Level typically grants someone the win and that pushes the heroes to aim to get stronge. But against Great Ape Vegeta, Yajirobe saves the day. And not because he's stronger. But because he cuts Vegeta's tail off. Now, Toriyama, may he rest peacefully, could've had it be that the tails are so durable that only something on par with an Ozaru Saiyan could cut it off. But that's not the case and so Yajirobe could take him out of that form with his sword.
Now, there can be overlap. Selene for example is significantly stronger than Georg and stomps him into the ground. Natsu beat Dobengal with one punch because of his strength. And as I mentioned, Dragon Ball Z has an example (and others I could probably think of) of a circumstantial win rather than "I'm stronger." But as could probably be extrapolated from my Fairy Tail examples, I think Fairy Tail as an example of a series that strongly features nonlinear powerscaling, where circumstances are important to the outcome of fights, which I don't think gets taken into account enough.
This isn’t to say that strength doesn't matter in fights, it does. Characters get stronger and that plays into how fights go. But I don't think that means it's impossible for Characters who are weaker power wise to win and that if they do, I don't think it means the Character they beat is a fraudulent fodder.
I could use examples like Ultear vs. Zeref to explain this. But I think a really good example is Sting vs. Larcade. Larcade was stated to have the potential to fight against Acnologia, but gets called a fraud or this fight gets insulted because he lost to Sting, who is not on the strength level of other characters.
Now, people are entitled to feel how they want to about a fight, none of this is to tell people how to feel on fights or to not criticize them. But the thing is, Sting's victory, while impressive, wasn't, in my view, about stronger or weaker, nor was it the "power of friendship BS" some will call it as. Larcade wasn't strong as or stronger than Acnologia, but Acnologia still had the potential for the desires Larcade could effect and Larcade wasn't stated to have the limit of Brandish where his spells can't effect those with greater Magic Power (we also saw that despite the fact that Sting can eat and counter White Magic, he could be effected by those spells). And while I think Sting is strong, I don't think it was solely strength that gave him a win against the 3rd strongest Spriggan. He and the others fought through the desire-based spells with willpower, he could counter Larcade's White Magic attacks, got a boost from Rogue's Magic, help from Kagura to enter his shadow, and used a decently strong finisher.
It's not like Sting strong armed Larcade and defeated him because he was the stronger of the two (not downplaying Sting, just saying I think he's strong, but not as strong). And it's not like Larcade is above Acnologia. He defeated Larcade because circumstances helped. This doesn't mean that "Sting didn't do anything, it was all happenstance!" No, their efforts were of course the major factor of why Sting one. When I say circumstances, I mean things like how powers interact, the help of certain allies, and the nature of certain powers. The Index Novels actually had something similar to the Larcade-Sting thing with a character whose ability to effect some similar concepts could help against a broken character and this did not cause her to be called a fodder when we see that she's not on this character's level and weaker characters could beat her.
So this brings us to today's Chapter. Yes, Raj lost in one Chapter and 2 hits. I understand that's happened a few times and people don't like it. And people have the right to not like that. But I think that Raj's Fire Illusion Magic; being able to trap people in illusions which eventually cause them to burn up, is incredibly broken. He activated it remotely, with his victims unaware, and a convincing enough illusion can probably seal the deal for his opponents. Yet, he's already getting crapped on for his loss and there's a high chance he'll just get called a fodder without taking into account how potentially broken his capabilities are, instead just saying "he lost in 1 Chapter" or "the Exceeds kicked him.". Yes, he's not highly durable. Why does he need to be? We already knew very early on that Mages often don't train their physical bodies and a Mage like Raj in particular literally fights remotely. Being strong in this series isn't always about being able to take a bunch of hits, because not all Mages train for that and someone like Raj wouldn't be inclined to do so.
My point is, I feel like circumstances could be taken into account more when it comes to fights. I gave only a couple examples, but sometimes it's like "Natsu is Dragon God level because he's beat Dragon Gods," "this character lost in this many Chapters so they're fodder," etc without acknowledging circumstances and the role they play in the fights.
Nonlinear powerscaling is a good perspective because fights in a series like Fairy Tail aren't always about "Bickslow beat Giorgio (just making up a name) so Bickslow is far stronger and Giorgio is fodder," its not always about "Giorgio lost in 1 Chapter so clearly he's a loser fraud" who is expected to lose all matchups he's put in without analyzing his capabilities, and it's not always about "Giorgio is stronger so it should be impossible for Bickslow to beat him and if he does its 'power of friendship nonsense' or an asspull."
Maybe Giorgio is far stronger than Bickslow and has a power that can defeat most enemies, but Bickslow used a bunch of his dolls to distract him and struck him on the back with one doll he didn't see, it struck him in the back, and he has a bad back.
This isn’t to say "don't complain about 1 chapter fights, quick losses, and one/twoshots." No. I just wish characters with potentially broken powers didn't get reduced to fodder in matchups without explanation on how characters overcome their abilities because "he was one shot by so and so," "he lost in 1 Chapter," etc. Circumstances and capabilities matter.

My boyfriend (47M) and I (43F) are planning to move in together in about two months. We are both formally diagnosed with MDD, anxiety, and PTSD. I regularly see a psychiatrist and am pretty well-regulated with medication.
My boyfriend tried psychotherapy and medication around five years ago and had a bad experience. He quit his meds cold-turkey at the time and cut off his therapists. He steadfastly refuses to see a psychologist or psychiatrist ever again. We both believe he exhibits symptoms of BPD, and he said one doctor suggested it as a possibility, but he was never formally diagnosed. I recognize that neither of us are doctors and neither of us are diagnosing him, but he really does check a lot of the boxes.
We have a mostly wonderful, loving relationship and really want to make it last. However, he is very hypersensitive, insecure (at times), and can spiral and rage for days over things that would roll off most people's shoulders. If he feels a friend has slighted him (like if they cancel plans, not committed an unforgivable betrayal), they are dead to him forever. This is behavior that is completely foreign to me and I am trying my hardest to show patience, understanding, and love when he has these episodes.
That said, it can be difficult for me when this happens. He has never lashed out at me besides the occasional snarky remark, but when he gets angry about something else (for example, a coworker making a rude comment to him), he will become sullen and detached for days. He will tell me he is a loser, that he would be better off dead, and I would be better off without him. It breaks my heart when he says this and I wonder if he wants me to break up with him. I will tell him how much I love him and am there for him, I will reach out to hold his hand, but he will pull it away and not respond to my assurances. I will ask him if he wants space and how I can best support him and he cannot give me an answer. He acknowledges that his reactions to certain things are totally over-the-top, but he has no way of controlling it. I have struggled with codependency in the past and feel like some of my reactions to him are highly codependent.
At times I feel angry and resentful because I feel like I am doing everything I can to comfort him and he is pushing me away and stonewalling me. Like, what did I do to deserve this? And then I become depressed and anxious until he feels better again and things are back to normal. The ups and downs can be very emotionally draining. Therefore, I have some concerns about taking that next step to cohabitating unless he agrees to work on developing some healthier coping mechanisms. I fear that one day I will just reach the end of my rope and tell him I'm done. I have the kind of personality where I am extremely patient until I am not--but it takes a long time to reach that point. But when it does, I am done.
I have read about DBT and have broached the subject of us both getting a DBT workbook and working on it together (since he refuses any type of therapy). I recognize that I have my own mental health issues that may benefit from DBT and I don't want him to feel like I am saying he is flawed and needs improvement and I am perfect just the way I am.
If anyone has any advice for how I can best support my partner, while also protecting my own mental health, I am all ears. Have DBT workbooks or any other non-therapist/medication routes worked for you? How do you feel your partner can best support you when you are struggling?
I hope this post has been respectful and does not feel condescending in any way. And if it has, please explain why so I can be better. I understand the hopelessness of my own deep depression and what it's like to have others not understand my struggles or think I should just "snap out of it", so I hope I am exhibiting more sensitivity and empathy than they have with me.

So I should open by saying I don’t really browse this sub much, because I haven’t found much call irl to ID as genderfluid. I never change my Casual Friday androgynous presentation much, because I have a hard enough time getting acknowledged as nonbinary even in that. I’m also on the spectrum and have alexithymia, so most days I can’t even tell what my gender feels like without extensive meditation. Then I’m second guessing because I’ve overthought it.
Anyway, this year’s gender census got me thinking about all the possible sublabels that apply to me, and I realized as I listed them out that I am de facto genderfluid because I can’t feel them all at once. I may tell myself I’m maverique, but days where I insist on that feel different from days where I need to socialize like my AGAB and slide into old demifem habits. And some days the relative kinship with men and physical dysphoria hits hard and I’m completely transmasc. But because of the aforementioned self perception difficulties, it was hard for me to even recall other days where a different gender mood was at the forefront. It took a while to get past the personal labels page, because I kept getting imposter syndrome every line.
So I want to ask the more experienced fluid folks: how did/would you fill out the identity questionnaire? Do you try to find combo microlabels (I put Anderselkie, as an example) that cover most of your identity? Do you just list the far ends of your personal gender spectrum and not bother putting down the in-between identities? How do you tell the difference between a genuine gender identity and circumstantial mindset? Does it matter if it’s part of your life & behavior anyway?

I struggle a lot with complex post-traumatic stress symptoms despite not really understanding how my level of trauma warrants that kind of reaction. Recently I've been talking with my therapist about how my mom was a bit overbearing growing up and idk it might explain some of it? But I feel like I'm over exaggerating

• My mom is very loving and cares about family. Despite this she barely knows me as a person.
  
• I think my mom always wanted a daughter she could do girl things with, which meant I connected with her less and less as I grew into my own person. It's not that she directly judged me for things that didn't fit her image of me...she just, would only acknowledged the parts she wanted to see.
  
• All of the gifts I get from her--if they aren't for interests she "sees"--are always super (stereotypically) feminine or just stuff she likes that she thinks I'll like.
  
• Judgemental of things I do with my appearance if they don't fit her standards. Like, when I was a teen and trying hard to fit in, doing makeup and dressing super feminine, she was always very supportive, despite those being the most miserable years of my life. When I do things with my appearance I like she never comments, or she spins it in a way that's either passive aggressive, or turned into a compliment for being feminine
  
• Uhh.. so yeah, I am trans, came out when I was a young teen, and since the worst years of it, we basically pretend nothing happened. She still holds all the power in the conversation. I broke down trembling n crying the last time I tried texting her trying to start a convo about it
  
• She was always afraid of something bad happening to me as a kid, like for example if I slept over at friends' places their parents would kidnap me ???
  
• She would often just do things for me as a kid and also talk for me. Like way beyond when she should have. She never taught me how to do laundry or clean the house or cook meals. When I visited home she got angry when I was telling her to let me pack my own suitcase or do my own laundry??
  
• She would often just label me as like, naturally good at things, and my brother slower on the uptake. Despite me having the same struggles as him. She was still very encouraging n loving of us both so I don't think it was intentional
  
• Arguments have usually always = getting yelled at by a brick wall that keeps repeating "I'm your parent I have complete authority in this conversation. I know you better than yourself"
  

It's been 3 weeks since talking to my therapist about it and I just feel like I'm collapsing from the inside out. Ashamed and also like I'm making a big deal out of things. I'm back to old thought patterns I thought I was over, distrusting everyone around me and not feeling comfortable alone with myself.
Idk yea outside perspective appreciated. thanks and have a wonderful day

I've been thinking about it lots. I used to not care how I looked, and I just thought that every girl around me would grow up to look the same. Now, I pick out the bad things about my appearance every time I look in a mirror, and hardly acknowledge what I like. Some examples of this go something like
"I hate my legs. That scar makes them look ugly." (I have a scar from falling and I always look at it, thinking it'll never heal) "I have so many blemishes on my skin compared to everyone else." "My thighs are so chunky, they look so fat when I sit"
Those are my main things that I'm insecure about, but the MAJOR thing I hate when I look at myself is my stomach and my waist. I hate how my frame looks so boxy, and how my stomach isn't as flat as the other girls in my class. I've exercised tons, I've tried avoiding certain foods, I've even tried barely eating anything. I feel like how much I hate how I look has grown so much in only a year. All I want is to be pretty.
​

I realize this may be one of those things we’ll never be privy to (and that’s okay), but I am curious about the dissolution of the pod with the third host. I think it’s obvious that an NDA is in place, but my curiosity is getting the better of me.
Aside from the cover story of Kenyon moving to India, the air has never been cleared. There has never been another mention of her name on the pod since then, not even when the gals are telling a story of their past friendship shenanigans. Since officially leaving the show, it doesn’t appear Kenyon has ever said anything either.
When I Think Not changed hands, the hosts said at the top of their first official episode as owners that there were things they couldn’t talk about and things they didn’t want to talk about. It was nice to hear some sort of acknowledgment in the show to make everyone understand that they’re not just brushing it under the rug.
Maybe their hands are really tied and saying nothing is the best move. I totally respect it… but I’m just soooo curious about the logistics of it all. Are NDAs really that ironclad with zero wiggle room to even address that they can’t talk about something? Has there been a threat of a massive lawsuit if even a name is mentioned? Are the remaining gals feeling like they can finally flex their creative muscles and have move power over what W&C gets to do now that it’s just two of them (for example, all the upcoming international trips they are planning now…I wonder if that was something they couldn’t agree on so never did before).
Just a curious gal over here.

I've put together a write up on CBOX below, let me know what you guys think!
~Thesis Summary~
CBOX is an owner-operator, positive cash flowing business with a significant growth run way that could see it double its revenues within the next 4 to 5 years. Recent events (website security breaches, accounting irregularities and a high inflationary environment) have led to a depressed stock price, however, the company has proactively rectified these issues, maintained a healthy balance sheet, and continued to execute its growth plan. At time of writing the share price is £1.70, in my opinion, a conservative valuation estimates the fair price to be between £3.31 to £3.91 provides a 64% to 79% margin of safety.

~Company Overview~
CBOX is a franchisor of small unit stores that sell egg free celebration cakes. It was founded in 2008 by Sukh Chamdel in London before franchising its first store in 2009. CBOX caters to a core niche market of people with religious dietary requirements (such as Hindus and Sikhs) which prohibits the consumption of eggs. However, their quality of cakes also appeal to the wider population too. At IPO in 2018 CBOX had 100 stores and have now grown to over 215 as of 2023. The management have set a target of reaching 400 stores across the UK (no specific timeframe has been provided), therefore, there is a significant opportunity for further growth.

~Business Model~
From small store units that are often based outside of city centres, CBOX provide customers with eggless fresh cream cakes. Customers can purchase in store, online or have the cakes delivered to their home. The cakes are reasonably priced and offer a personalised message as part of the purchase price. I do not claim to be a cake connoisseur, however, after trying their cakes myself, they tasted fresh, light, and those in my company also thoroughly enjoyed them. The process of purchasing in store with a personalised message was also extremely quick and simple.

There are three revenue streams – the initial franchisee setup fee (approximately £160k per store), margins on products which are purchased through the CBOX website and their largest source which is the franchisee’s purchasing of raw product.

Supplies (sponges, fresh cream, etc) are delivered to the franchisees across the UK via three warehouse and distribution centres based in London, Coventry, and Bradford. Each individual store is deemed ‘mature’ after operating for 12 months or longer. On average each store makes £6700 per week (£350k yearly turnover) and takes approximately 18 to 24 months for the franchisee to pay off their initial franchise fee. Management talks of a 70/30 split between franchisee and franchisor and emphasises the point of caring for their franchisees. Culminating all revenue streams, historically around 46% of revenue from franchisees made its way through to CBOX.

The barriers to entry into the cake industry are low and it is a highly competitive market. Competitors include small independent stores, large supermarkets, internet-based bakeries, cafes, and a CBOX imitator named Eggless Cake Shop. In my opinion, there is no lollapalooza moat demonstrated by CBOX, however, there are several smaller advantages that they execute well. They differentiate themselves with a niche offering of eggfree cakes and offer customers a personalised message. This sets them apart from the likes of the supermarkets who do not offer the personalisation nor eggfree selection. There are also several tailwinds in the sector that could assist CBOX. In the UK the Asian population has seen the greatest rise out of any minority group in the last decade (a 27% increase according to the 2021 census) which is continuing to grow. In addition, over the last decade there has been a shift towards plant-based diets. Although egg free cakes are not vegan (due to the fresh cream and butter), they may provide an alternative to those that have allergies or are more conscious of their consumption of animal products. CBOX has also recently brought out a vegan selection which is another growing market they be able to capitalise on. According to the European Good Food Institute, the plant based market is a £1 billion market and growing rapidly. Time will tell if they are successful here.

~Financial Health~
The business is asset light, carries a low amount of debt of £10 mil (which could easily be offset with their £7 mil of cash or paid off within three years using their free cash flow (not including dividends)) and have been cash flow positive since IPO. Revenues (from 2017 to 2023) have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 30% with owners’ earnings during the same period compounding at 25%. ROE and ROIC have remained steadily above 20% since IPO which suggests that management is deploying capital effectively. The company has also demonstrated its durability as it grew during the great recession, the COVID-19 pandemic and most recently during the high interest rate environment.

~Management~
The CEO and co-founder Sukh Chamdel has significant skin in the game and owns 25.41% of the company. As demonstrated in the ROE and ROIC above, to date, Mr Chamdel has allocated capital well. Both ROE and ROIC dipped in 2023 which was attributed to inflationary pressures, labour shortages and the Ukraine war which seem like plausible reasons. He has also grown the company’s book value from 0.06 (per share) in 2017 to 0.44 in 2023. In 2021 Mr Chamdel sold shares at the peak of the market to diversify his wealth. Since IPO no additional shares have been issued and Mr Chamdel has commented that he has no intentions of raising equity which could dilute current shareholders.

Since 2019 the company has paid a dividend to investors. Last year (2023) £3 million was paid out in dividends which was 75% of owners’ earnings. This is a significant dividend and in some ways is positive that they are repaying shareholders. However, in my opinion, I would prefer to see this capital deployed in areas, such as, marketing (to increase brand awareness which is still limited within the UK), and potentially share repurchases (this may become more attractive as the company matures). In FY23 CBOX spent £308k on advertising which they have not done previously. This suggests that management is beginning to explore this option.

In 2021 financial irregularities were identified within the annual report. It is important to note that this did not result in criminal proceedings. The company responded by replacing the CFO (who was the co-founder) and employed other experienced individuals, such as, Michael Botha who held senior roles with Dominos. In my opinion, this was a good appointment as he is a qualified accountant (the previous CFO was not) which may help to reduce further irregularities and arrives with experience from a successful franchise business. This incident was a concern and should not be dismissed, however, it appears to be the result of a young growing company adapting to the public market as opposed to something more sinister. However, this should continue to be monitored.

~Risks~
As mentioned previously the baking/cake industry is highly competitive which could impact on CBOX’s market share and ability to grow. This could come in the form of a supermarket providing an eggless range. At present there is no evidence of this (although supermarkets have been expanding their “free from” ranges). If this was to occur, CBOX could still differentiate themselves with the personalisation element. It is noted that Waitrose (a large higher end UK supermarket) does offer personalised messages to their cakes, however, from their website they require eight days’ notice for this service, CBOX can do this in store or on the same day. CBOX’s size and ‘nimbleness’ to change and adapt may also be an advantage here against larger supermarkets. There are other examples in the baked food industries where smaller stores (by square ft of floor space), such as Greggs, have lived side by side with supermarkets which offer similar products (pastries and other baked goods) which suggests CBOX could do the same.

An emerging competitor could also enter the market and steal market share from CBOX. At present CBOX is the dominant player nationally in the egg free cake market, they are executing well, providing customers with value and continuing to grow their store count. In my opinion, it would be challenging for a startup to compete with CBOX directly due to their size, infrastructure, and relationship with vendors. The closest example to this at present is Eggless Cake Shop who according to their website have 26 stores which are largely based in the Midlands. CBOX have over 200 stores and so arguably could use their size to negotiate favourable terms with suppliers. Although smaller competitors are a threat and should be monitored, it is also encouraging that there are imitators which is further evidence of the market growing and CBOX’s successful and attractive business model. In my opinion a greater threat to CBOX would be a larger competitor, such as, a supermarket or Gregg’s with greater resources moving into eggless cakes.

If CBOX suffered further accounting inconsistencies this would be a concern and suggest there may be something more sinister at work or that they had failed to fully rectify the previous issues which would indicate incompetence at management level. As mentioned previously, it appears that management have been proactive in resolving these difficulties and there has been no further evidence of this since.

Utilising the franchise business model has advantages such as minimal capital requirements for further growth, however, a drawback is that they have less control over their franchisees. This can lead to poor quality franchisees damaging the reputation of the company if they perform badly. To date there is limited evidence of this, however, as the store count grows management will need to be proactive with quality control and maintaining ties with franchisees. From review of Mr Chamdel’s presentations and interviews, he consistently talks about developing the franchisor – franchisee relationships and references issues that Dominos had when they failed to maintain ties. This gives me confidence that management has insight into the importance of this. Nonetheless it remains a risk that needs to be managed in the future.

~Future Outlook~
As mentioned previously, CBOX currently have 205 stores and are targeting a total of 400 across the UK. This suggests that the company still has a significant run way for growth domestically, particularly, across northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (some of these territories have very little (if any) penetration; see table 2 below for details). Management have not indicated an approximate timeline to reach their 400-store target and refer to it as a “longer term target”. Over the last 5 years the company on average has opened 24 stores per year (the CEO has a bonus incentive to open at least 24 per year). If the company were to continue opening 24 stores per year, they would reach their 400-store target in around 8 years. It is acknowledged that as the company matures, and the market begins to saturate that the store growth count may slow.

In addition to the growth in store count, CBOX have made investments in other areas of the business that could add value. Over the lockdown period in the UK they invested heavily in their website which has saw an increase in online sales. Online sales which grew 4.1% in FY23 (to £13.8 million, which previously grew 41% due to COVID restrictions) have continued to grow and will help to optimise the stores. Management have also experimented with selling their produce through kiosks within supermarkets (currently 18 as of 2023). As the kiosks are a new concept, they have not detailed how profitable they have been.
The vegan market and international expansion are also other avenues for growth. Mr Chamdel expressed that he is focusing on the UK market (which in my opinion is sensible) and nowhere in the annual reports is international expansion mentioned. However, during an interview for a podcast Mr Chamdel noted that New York and Toronto would be appealing destinations due to the high population of Sikhs. This appears to be a longer-term growth plan following the saturation of the UK market.

~Valuation~
Below I provide two means of company valuation. Firstly using a DCF: in FY23 CBOX reported operating income of £5.8 mil (which was significantly lower than the previous year due to higher interest rates and inflationary pressures). In my opinion this is likely to improve as revenues continue to grow, and these pressures alleviate. CAPEX is generally between £1 to £2 mil, erring on the side of caution this leaves us with £3.8 mil of free cash flow. The table below (table 3) displays the cash flow projections over the next 5 years discounted back at a 15% required rate of return and a 2.5% terminal value. Since IPO, free cash flow has grown on average at 24% compared to 15% over the previous 3 years, EPS on the other hand has grown at 20% and 11% respectively. Therefore a conservative growth rate of between 10% and 15% seems reasonable. With these assumptions (and after subtracting total net debt of 2.8 mil) CBOX’s fair value is estimated to be between £9.72 and £11.85. There are a number of assumptions to make with DCFs which can significantly impact on the outcomes, therefore, my preference is for the valuation method below.
An alternative and more simplistic means of valuation is to look at the numbers after they achieve their goal of 400 mature stores (a similar valuation is presented here). Four hundred mature stores would produce around £66 mil in revenue for CBOX which is just under double what they reported in FY23. If we assume that in this final phase CBOX returns to their average of 18% net margin we can expect a profit of £11.8 mil. This translates to an earnings per share of £0.3. For a company with limited growth prospects, in my opinion, a reasonable multiple to pay would be between 8 to 10 times earnings which works out at £2.4 to £3 per share. Adding back what they do not pay out as dividends over the next 5 years which is estimated at 0.91 per share which results in a price range of £3.31 to £3.91 per share. At the current stocks price (£1.70) this provides roughly a 64% to 79% margin of safety. It is also important to note the 5% dividend yield that CBOX is also paying.

Another useful CBOX write-up can be found on Value Investors Club here.

At some point, you've probably thought about the traditional idea of heaven as it is described in Christianity. The thought may have crossed your mind that it would get pretty boring at some point - and you'd be right. Sure. you can't suffer, and this would be nice at first, but you'd always be experiencing the same thing. Always some state of bliss, only positive vibes. Eventually, the positivity would lose all value and meaning, because there would be nothing to contrast it. Light cannot exist without the presence of darkness. This is why life has to contain a balance of both.
Whether they realize it or not, when new-age spiritual people describe their future vision of humanity as being perfectly peaceful, living in a high vibe reality where negativity and conflict cannot exist, they are describing this very same concept of heaven. They simply replace the angels and fluffy clouds with benevolent pleyadian aliens and crystalline cities.
It is a necessary stage in personal and collective development for people to acknowledge and accept their "lower" aspects, such as anything animalistic and primal within themselves, sexuality, physical desires, attachments, darker thoughts, and their sense of ego and individuality. These things are not in fact "lowly" at all, not to be ashamed of, and are just as much of an important part of life as "higher" aspects such as spirituality, awareness of the non-physical, empathy, oneness, and consideration of the collective. Being in full acceptance and expression of both your "higher" and "lower" parts is real balance.
In fact, the reason that physical life and incarnation exists at all is so that we can experience ego and duality. We are not here in physical bodies on the material plane as some kind of punishment, test, trap, or school. We are here because we WANT to be, for FUN. It really is that simple. On the "other side," we are actually non-dual, we are at peace, we are all one, and we are aware of everything, so there's nothing new to do there. So that is why we choose to forget that non-dual state for awhile and come here. To try to turn physical life into what the spirit realm is like would defeat the purpose of physical life.
Dismissing and ignoring your "dark side," acting as if you will permanently escape the "lower" as humanity "ascends," is a form of coping and denial that many people wholeheartedly believe is the ultimate goal of our species. People will continue trying to do this until they realize it is a dead end, it doesn't work. But, humans do actually have a real reason for feeling as if they should escape physicality or live in a perfectly peaceful world.
Humans are in a unique circumstance compared to other intelligent life in the universe.
Advanced aliens, those who have existed for millions of years longer than we have and have figured out how life is supposed to work, do not look, think or act like humans. Since accurate information on what aliens are like is not exactly widespread, we lack the perspective of what physical life is supposed to be like. So we assume that the only solution to our dilemmas is to transcend physicality or eliminate all conflict in the world. But physical matter and the presence of negativity was never the problem - the problem lies in humans being ill-equipped to properly contend with these things.
When you leave people to imagine and create whatever they want, you tend to end up with things such as Dungeons and Dragons, and video games where the hero goes on a quest to defeat someone or something. There are very few completely non-violent works of fiction in comparison. This is because people deeply desire that kind of adventure, and when they can't enact it in real life due to limitations of human society, they turn to fiction to express what they on some level know life is really supposed to be like.
Even though the creators don't consciously realize it, many of these works of fiction are full of channeled information about alien civilizations, and it is far more accurate than 95% of the channeling or theories you will find in spiritual or conspiracy communities and books.
If you were to go out right now and try to lead the kind of life you'd live in The Elder Scrolls, Divinity 2, Baldur's Gate 3, or Dungeons and Dragons, you'd soon be thrown in prison or a psych ward. This is because humans err on the side of safety, comfort, structure, and conformity. Some degree of these things are necessary to keep a civilization in working order, but humans have way too much of it, so we are heavily imbalanced. It is obvious that something is deeply wrong and unnatural with the way we live - mental illness is rampant, un-aliving rates are high, so many people feel hopeless and bleak about the state of the world. We feel stifled because of the excessive structure we impose on ourselves and our overabundance of artificial accommodations.
So why do humans have a tendency to become imbalanced in this way? The root cause is our biology. No, not physicality as a whole, specifically the human body. Before, I mentioned that other intelligent life in the universe does not look human, and there is a good reason for that. Before you all raise your torches and pitchforks, I want to say that the human body is not exactly "bad or "wrong," it's just incomplete. It is a work in progress. It's not meant to stay as it is forever.
You might wonder how a species can be "incomplete" when evolution is an on-going process with no end. The thing is - humans are unlikely to have evolved 100% naturally. There is a reason we still can't find the "missing link" between prehistoric hominids and more recent versions of humans.
Yes, we are a project species. Advanced non-humans visiting earth once decided that the native apes on earth hundreds of thousands of years ago were good candidates to hybridize with alien DNA, and we are a mid-level step in that process. We look like more "refined" versions of those apes, gaining the intelligence and upright-bipedal body structure from our alien DNA donors. But, that is where our physical similarities to them end, for now.
In the games I previously mentioned, you might notice that one of the things all of them have in common is the inclusion of animalistic people of some kind. Dragonborn, Aarakocra, Argonians, Khajiits, you get the idea. Of course they also have humans and human-like species such as elves, but this is only because these games were made by humans. In the actual worlds these games are based on, the animalistic people are the only ones.
In order to live in the kind of world depicted in this media - a world where you are free to choose an "alignment" of anything from lawful good to chaotic evil, a world that is wild and dangerous yet full of unrestricted possibility, a world truly balanced between dark and light - the only kind of world that actually works well for any living being - having this kind of animalistic body is not only preferable, but necessary. A human body is ill-equipped to live in a balanced way for several reasons.
For one, we lack many of the built in biological survival tools that these animalistic aliens have. We don't have fur or feathers to insulate from the cold, we don't have strong scales to protect from injury, we don't have claws for climbing and fighting or tails for jumping and balance, and our 5 senses are not particularly sharp. The retort people have to this is usually "But we don't need those things, because we are civilized and intelligent and can use tools and make clothes and keep ourselves safe in houses."
But if you look at what we're doing to our planet because we use an overabundance of artificial accommodations like these, then it comes into question whether we really don't need any of these animalistic traits. We create sprawling cities and suburbs, paving over miles and miles of land, building against wilderness instead of with it, all because we have thin skin that doesn't contend well against the elements. We pollute the environment and oceans with plastic packaging for our convenient processed foods all because it is hard for us to hunt and catch our own food.
It is also important to understand that a species' body has a massive impact on their psychology and thinking. A person can only run the "software" that their "hardware" allows for. I'll go into detail on the human face, because it's the part of the body that has the most effect on our psychology and social relations.
The human face looks neotenous, which means the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. It is very soft and flat with a lot of rounded features and a small jaw relative to most animals. This actually makes us feel and act neotenous, whether we realize it or not. We are psychologically sensitive and fairly easy to traumatize. So we don't deal with disasters very well. Generally speaking, we are prone to being submissive and following anyone who appears authoritative, and as a result excessive social control and structure easily takes hold in our world.
The face of an alien, in contrast, has a more beastly and mature appearance and is never flat- the dragon-like reptilian for example possessing a snout, and the regal hawk-like avian having a beak. This predisposes them to more fearsome psychology and behavior. When faced with the threat of social control, they'd be far more willing to fight back. Their biology facilitates expression of will and defiance in a way ours does not. They would see a disaster as an opportunity to move onto new adventures and build something new, not something to remain upset over.
When these beings visited earth in a more public manner thousands of years ago, they inspired many of our legends and mythologies, and were thought to be gods and goddesses. Dragons, gryphons, minotaurs, nagas, the entire Ancient Egyptian pantheon - these were all inspired by alien visitation, not merely human imagination.
To paint a clearer picture -
Think of a 7-9 foot tall bipedal/upright reptilian being standing on spring-like, digit-grade legs with feet resembling that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, possessing a strong tail that makes them adept at balance and can be used in combat. They possess curved claws on their hands, and are clad in shining, armor-like scales that might be any color of the rainbow. They may or may not have wings. Their neck is fairly long and flexible, and their head looks like that of a regal dragon - long horns, spikes and frills, piercing eyes with slit pupils, along with a muzzle containing rows of razor sharp teeth.
The other alien species that live alongside these reptilians, often living on the same worlds - including bipedal gryphons, avians, snake people, minotaurs, canines, and felines, are similarly impressive.
Despite living in worlds that resemble medieval fantasy, these species do possess incredibly advanced technology, otherwise they would never have been able to visit earth. However, it does not dominate their daily lives like it does for us - they use technology for manufacturing, construction, space travel and genetic engineering rather than social media, television and video games.
They do not even feel the need for those things because their regular daily lives bring all of the excitement and adventure an open-world video game could offer, and more.
Seeing as this is the kind of form that works best for life, it goes to say that we will end up looking more like them at some point, out of necessity. Humanity's next step is not just spiritual transformation, but very much a physical transformation as well. This is what "Ascension" really means, this is what the "New Earth" entails. Since they had a hand in creating our species in the first place, it is very unlikely they would leave us in the dust at this point. They will finish their project.
However, there are likely some alien groups in support of having humans remain in human bodies, wanting to give us a chance in our current form. Other alien groups oppose this, and consider humanity a "project gone awry," acknowledging the dysfunction and suffering among us. A lot of you have probably come across the idea that the "reptilians" are "harvesting our negative energy," and this is actually true to some extent, but they do not use it as food (This would make no sense) instead what this really means is that some of them have a hand in perpetuating and accelerating conflict on the planet, but this is not to oppress us. It is only so humans become more aware of our weaknesses and limitations - the harder things get, the more apparent it becomes that we need to become something more.
This is a harsh method but with a noble goal in the end. It only speeds up the realization that humans can't stay human for good. It's still an inevitable part of our collective development, but it would take much longer otherwise, all of this dysfunction being stretched out for centuries longer. Think of it like ripping the band aid off quickly instead of drawing it out.
This has probably left you all with some questions, so I'll answer the ones I think I'm most likely to get:
Q: "But what about all of the experiences people have reported with aliens like pleyadians and greys?"
A: I believe these may exist in some form but aren't what people think they are. I don't think they are species from another star system. Their biology would cause them to run into the same problems as humans and they'd never reach the level of a space-faring civilization. They were created right here on earth primarily to be used as "stand ins" or cover-ups for the real aliens, as most people haven't been ready to know what real aliens look like. The same goes for any other "alien" you've ever heard about with a flat, human-like face. When it comes to past life memories and astral or dream encounters, note our minds have a tendency to "humanize" the memories of beings we encounter because we have a harder time relating to anything else. So for example if we actually saw a blue-feathered avian, we might just remember a human with blue skin.
Q: "So if we become more like these animalistic aliens, what exactly will that look like and how will it happen?"
A: At first it seems most realistic for us to be slowly influenced over time, gradually taking on more of these traits through genetic engineering (so it looks like natural evolution.) But the problem is, there is not enough time for this. We are at a tipping point where we will exponentially destroy more of ourselves and our planet if something doesn't happen soon. If we are left to our own devices, calamities caused by climate change will likely leave us unable to survive so we simply incarnate into another species. If ETs take a more "hands on" approach, it'll probably look like transferring the consciousness of humans (only those who agree to do so) to new bodies grown in tanks (Think kind of like Avatar.) As for what we'll look like, some kind of bipedal reptilian is most likely, but a bit smaller and more "earthy" than the ones I described before. Possessing advanced tech, but also having a wild and tribal culture and lifestyle, emphasizing connection with earth. Any animalistic form could technically work, but this is what I consider most likely considering the planet's history of being dominated by reptilian life - this is something some alien groups hold dear, and they want to bring this back in some form.
Many humans will of course stay as they are because nobody can be forced into this, even if they tried that approach would backfire. The remaining humans will live alongside the nonhuman beings on the planet, benefitting from the strengths and attributes they bring to help balance us out.
Q: "But my favorite channelers and books say we have to transcend all conflict and that this is what "highly evolved beings" are like, were they all wrong?"
A: I think all of these channelers and works - ones I've read that come to mind are Law of One, Daniel Scranton, and Conversations with God - contain bits of truth, but the "love and light" and non-duality narrative is perpetuated by the beings that are channeled in order to placate people and calm them down so they become more open and accepting towards alien contact and involvement with earth. This narrative is a lot simpler and easier to accept than the full truth. Many of these works talk extensively about extraterrestrial life, and out of necessity it is not entirely accurate, because the goal of this content is to simply open us up to the idea of aliens - and they must do so in a way more palatable to us.
So, to summarize -

• The world of butterflies and rainbows that many new age spiritualists wish for is not actually viable, because light without dark becomes meaningless.
• Balance is necessary for a species or civilization to function properly.
• Balance entails acceptance and expression of both light and dark - peace and chaos, mind and matter, spirituality and physicality.
• An animalistic form is more suited for this balance than the human form.
• Most advanced intelligent alien life possesses this kind of form - they look like beastly and regal mythical creatures, not little grey men.
• Humans are a work in progress project species and some of us are headed in the direction of becoming more like them.

Please note that when I advocate for duality, I don't advocate for the form of duality currently found on earth, I think we are all in agreement that the current state of affairs is not a good thing. I advocate for a form of duality where people are free to explore both dark and light, but are properly equipped and empowered to do so.
I only hope for more people to think outside of the box and challenge the dominant narrative in spiritual/conspiracy communities. The world is going in the direction of improvement, and I support that just as much as any of you do, it is just that it may mean something different from what you think it means.

Timestamp: https://i.imgur.com/Xm3QicX.jpeg
As much keyboard pictures I can provide + example of major vs minor fading: https://imgur.com/a/jyDKlGR
It's my baby but I found myself more inclined to using Keychron's flatter keyboards and just lost interest in it. Though I can't justify leaving a $100+ build sitting in the dust.
It's not the most perfect thing in the world but you can easily fix most the issues except the keycaps.
Let me go over what's included:

• Keyboard: As nature of a product used around 3 years (R1) may have some scuffs and marks though nothing glaring or serious.
  
• PCB: Has been treated to protect against water damage by a conformal coating on the sensitive electronic components. I do not endorse getting your keyboard wet. This is a replacement board as the one from R1 randomly crapped out. I think it is the KBD67 MKII V3 Hotswap PCB.
  
• Switches: Durock POMs, lubricated with 205g0. Worked in over the past years I've daily drived it. Buttery smooth linears. 63.5 bottom out.
  
• Keycaps: This is where the record scratch happens. As expected with wear and use, the A-Z legends on the ePBT set may have shine. I don't know what happened to it during storage and cleaning, but there's major fading on sides of caps.
  
• Novelties: These playfully replace the numbers and side keys with GMK Godspeed. I will include the like-new ePBT extras if you hate this. Minor fading on sides of caps.
  
• Back of Keyboard: Sticker-bombered with a cutesy-animal aesthetic. If you hate this, it's likely very easy to remove with steam or gently peeling + isopropyl to remove any remaining adhesive.
  
• Note: One of the rubber feet has been replaced with a makeshift blob of silicone. If this bothers you, 8 x 2 mm rubber feet/bump-ons are very cheap and easy to find. If you're a big keyboard builder you might even have some lying around.
  

Asking price: $100 Shipped to CON-US. (Open to reasonable offers) $100 + Ship to other countries, preferably close countries like CAN, PM for discussion.
Please ask questions down below as my DMs notifications are shoddy. If you want me to part out, it's a hard ball cause selling extras is difficult.
I've done my best to clean and restore the keyboard to the best of my ability, I will include whatever accessories and parts I can find related to the keyboard.
Please acknowledge the imperfections and flaws before purchasing, thank you :-)

I don't feel like my in-laws respect me at all, and it's been years of observing these patterns of lack of decent care. My daughter (8) spends the night once or twice per month at my husband's parents house. My MIL is typically the one responsible for caring for my daughter, I can't rely on FIL to do anything. When my daughter was younger, MIL would babysit and I'd always bring a packed lunch for her. The lunch would always go untouched, even after pointing it out. I can't tell you how many soggy PBJs I've had to throw away because MIL would feed my daughter something else, or just forget to feed her altogether. When my daughter would spend the night, upon picking her up, she'd still be wearing yesterday's clothes, meaning she slept in them, and her hair is unbrushed. My daughter has super long, butt length hair that NEEDS brushed every day, no exceptions. It's very thick and if it doesn't get brushed even one day, her hair takes me about 30 minutes to fully brush through. I'd always pack a toothbrush, then found out MIL was having my daughter use this old toothbrush that's been sitting in the bathroom for years. I sneakily threw it away one day, because that's absolutely appalling.
Funny thing is, my MIL is a caregiver at a facility for mentally handicapped people. It's her job to make sure they're clean, dressed and fed. I think she's a supervisor now, but I know she spent years actually caring for the individuals. It's baffling to me that this knowledge and experience doesn't translate into her grandmother job. My daughter isn't mentally handicapped or anything, but she's only 8, she can't be expected to automatically get dressed and brush her hair, or to reach for her own lunch we brought. Occasionally she'll mention that she asked my daughter to get dressed, and my daughter would protest. Then the subject would get dropped. Like, OF COURSE a small child is going to protest basic rules. They're TESTING YOU to see if you have any boundaries. You're showing her that you don't have boundaries and that she can always get her way.
I'm just trying to build a good foundation for my daughter, to teach her some basic self respect, get into good habits of good hygeine and caring about herself, and I seem to be the only one who cares. My husband doesn't think it's a big deal. He also isn't the one tasked with brushing her hair every day like I am. On the rare occasion he brushes her hair, he gets about halfway through and gives up. I point out that he gets dressed every morning, he doesn't have to brush his hair but he still makes sure it looks good, he cares about how he looks. Why do you not care that your daughter doesn't care how she looks? How do you suppose she'll understand how to care about these things if we're not implementing them now?
It all came to a head this weekend when my daughter spent the weekend at the in-laws camping with them and my husband's sister's family. She's 9 years older than us and her kids are much older now. Not to mention, they're all boys. My daughter is the only girl in the family right now; no one in the family has ever dealt with hair like hers. My daughter spent the night with everyone then my husband and I came the next day, in the afternoon. My daughter was still wearing the same clothes, and they were wet. Hair is a damn rat's nest. Everyone was just hanging out, all the adults were talking and my daughter suddenly gets into a very bad mood when she found out my husband and I brought some Doritos that weren't the usual flavor we get. Like, unusually bad, she's throwing sticks around from the campfire and storming around, extremely pissed because we brought the wrong chips. I asked her, what did you eat today? She said basically nothing. MIL pops up and said she had half a biscuit with some jelly and a few bites of cereal she didn't like. "She just wanted to keep playing!" MIL said cheerfully. I checked the clock and it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I'm like, does she at least have a water bottle around? Did you bother with any sunscreen? Everyone's been outside all day. Especially if she's running around, she needs decent food and water so she doesn't devolve into this terror that throws sticks around. My daughter isn't like this. Husband goes inside to find something to feed her. I'd long given up on bringing my own food for her by this point, but I really wish I did. MIL comes out a few minutes later with three mozzarella sticks that are absolutley glued to the plate from being in the microwave too long, and a giant orange that she'd only cut in half like a grapefruit. My husband peeled the orange and finished slicing it up, and the mozzarella sticks ended up in the trash, inedible. I KNOW my MIL isn't this unintelligent.
My FIL and SIL are real good at running their mouths and are constantly saying bad things about other people who are in the family, but not really in the family. Every time I'm around these people, they're making jokes at others expenses, but never make jokes about anyone that was born into the family. They only make jokes about people who have married into the family, like me. Given that I've heard "jokes" (rather, insults) about damn near every other person who has married into the family, I often wonder what they say about me behind my back. I've seen this happen over and over for 12 years, I've been married into the family for 8 years now. I literally never know what to say about these insults so I sit quietly while everyone else is roaring with laughter. My husband doesn't participate in this, that I'm aware of. My husband's cousin was talking about her dad, someone she doesn't see often because she's attached to her mom and they've been divorced since she was little, and FIL made a joke about the cousin's dad not being very smart. He doubles down and says he's not very bright, just repeating what he's saying, trying to make eye contact with anyone until someone acknowledges his "joke" and laughs at it. FIL loves talking shit about the cousin's husband, too, as they're currently going through a divorce. MIL actually had to tell him to stop because the son was right there, hearing terrible things said about his dad. SIL was talking about some board game they were all playing recently, I didn't hear what it was, but SIL kept saying it was an inappropriate game. She was kind of laughing it off like playing this game was just a wild idea. Someone asked who brought the game, SIL said (her son's fiancé's name) and said, does THAT tell you much? It's definitely not a secret SIL doesn't like her son's fiancé, but never says anything to her face. The fiance has become a friend of mine and told me SIL told her son she didn't like the wedding dress. I sided with fiance like yeah, it's really not her business and her opinions should just be kept to herself. But SIL likes running her mouth. She's a midwife and I've overheard plenty of conversations of her on the phone with other midwives saying ridiculous things about her patients and generally just having a shitty attitude. She was my midwife too, so I wonder, what have you said about me behind my back?
Today I found out SIL's oldest son just bought a house and apparently took my daughter to see it while they were camping. SIL didn't bother mentioning it to me or my husband. MIL didn't mention it either, and she was the one who was supposed to be watching my daughter. They had an entire day to bring it up and they didn't. Idk how my daughter didn't even mention it until today. I don't even care that they took her, but I'd like to know about it. Just a quick Hey! Going on a little field trip to see a new house! The most respectful thing would be to ask for permission, but I realize I'm in too deep to ever expect THAT. But I need to know where my daughter is. Can't I at least expect that?
I've brought up all these issues to my husband several times and nothing gets done about it. It happens over and over again and I'm truly so sick of it. I try to be a reasonable person, I try to mull over my feelings and try to make them make sense, try to calm myself down, but the conclusion I always come to is that I'm not respected in this family because I wasn't born into it. My husband's cousin's son is a couple years younger than my daughter and my in-laws are CONSTANTLY asking permission from the cousin about things with her son. Since my daughter was born I tried establishing certain rules about sugary foods and just expressing my general concerns about things I find important for child development, and those rules were always broken. For SOME reason, (maybe because she was born into the family,) the cousin's rules for her son are absolutely respected, and they're pretty much the same rules I had. All weekend long I heard several questions to the cousin about her son, and thinking to myself huh, you've never bothered to ask me that. You'd just do it, sometimes you'd say, hope that's ok, with a sheepish, fake apologetic smile.
Am I wrong to expect my husband to be on board with me, and to unequivocally devote his loyalty to me and our daughter over his biological family? He doesn't like confrontation, and the slighest thing makes his mom sob. These are just the latest examples but I feel like I can write a novel at this point. Am I wrong to expect him to get his family on OUR page, and to show a little more repect for the way we're raising our kid? I would never expect him to handle issues with my family. We don't even see my family as much as we see his so his in-law experience has been pretty damn easy. My in-law experience has been quite hellish and I simply can't take it anymore. Am I overreacting?
TL;DR I don't feel respected by my in-laws and my husband doesn't seem to care.

I don't feel like my in-laws respect me at all, and it's been years of observing these patterns of lack of decent care. My daughter (8) spends the night once or twice per month at my husband's parents house. My MIL is typically the one responsible for caring for my daughter, I can't rely on FIL to do anything. When my daughter was younger, MIL would babysit and I'd always bring a packed lunch for her. The lunch would always go untouched, even after pointing it out. I can't tell you how many soggy PBJs I've had to throw away because MIL would feed my daughter something else, or just forget to feed her altogether. When my daughter would spend the night, upon picking her up, she'd still be wearing yesterday's clothes, meaning she slept in them, and her hair is unbrushed. My daughter has super long, butt length hair that NEEDS brushed every day, no exceptions. It's very thick and if it doesn't get brushed even one day, her hair takes me about 30 minutes to fully brush through. I'd always pack a toothbrush, then found out MIL was having my daughter use this old toothbrush that's been sitting in the bathroom for years. I sneakily threw it away one day, because that's absolutely appalling.
Funny thing is, my MIL is a caregiver at a facility for mentally handicapped people. It's her job to make sure they're clean, dressed and fed. I think she's a supervisor now, but I know she spent years actually caring for the individuals. It's baffling to me that this knowledge and experience doesn't translate into her grandmother job. My daughter isn't mentally handicapped or anything, but she's only 8, she can't be expected to automatically get dressed and brush her hair, or to reach for her own lunch we brought. Occasionally she'll mention that she asked my daughter to get dressed, and my daughter would protest. Then the subject would get dropped. Like, OF COURSE a small child is going to protest basic rules. They're TESTING YOU to see if you have any boundaries. You're showing her that you don't have boundaries and that she can always get her way.
I'm just trying to build a good foundation for my daughter, to teach her some basic self respect, get into good habits of good hygeine and caring about herself, and I seem to be the only one who cares. My husband doesn't think it's a big deal. He also isn't the one tasked with brushing her hair every day like I am. On the rare occasion he brushes her hair, he gets about halfway through and gives up. I point out that he gets dressed every morning, he doesn't have to brush his hair but he still makes sure it looks good, he cares about how he looks. Why do you not care that your daughter doesn't care how she looks? How do you suppose she'll understand how to care about these things if we're not implementing them now?
It all came to a head this weekend when my daughter spent the weekend at the in-laws camping with them and my husband's sister's family. She's 9 years older than us and her kids are much older now. Not to mention, they're all boys. My daughter is the only girl in the family right now; no one in the family has ever dealt with hair like hers. My daughter spent the night with everyone then my husband and I came the next day, in the afternoon. My daughter was still wearing the same clothes, and they were wet. Hair is a damn rat's nest. Everyone was just hanging out, all the adults were talking and my daughter suddenly gets into a very bad mood when she found out my husband and I brought some Doritos that weren't the usual flavor we get. Like, unusually bad, she's throwing sticks around from the campfire and storming around, extremely pissed because we brought the wrong chips. I asked her, what did you eat today? She said basically nothing. MIL pops up and said she had half a biscuit with some jelly and a few bites of cereal she didn't like. "She just wanted to keep playing!" MIL said cheerfully. I checked the clock and it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I'm like, does she at least have a water bottle around? Did you bother with any sunscreen? Everyone's been outside all day. Especially if she's running around, she needs decent food and water so she doesn't devolve into this terror that throws sticks around. My daughter isn't like this. Husband goes inside to find something to feed her. I'd long given up on bringing my own food for her by this point, but I really wish I did. MIL comes out a few minutes later with three mozzarella sticks that are absolutley glued to the plate from being in the microwave too long, and a giant orange that she'd only cut in half like a grapefruit. My husband peeled the orange and finished slicing it up, and the mozzarella sticks ended up in the trash, inedible. I KNOW my MIL isn't this unintelligent.
My FIL and SIL are real good at running their mouths and are constantly saying bad things about other people who are in the family, but not really in the family. Every time I'm around these people, they're making jokes at others expenses, but never make jokes about anyone that was born into the family. They only make jokes about people who have married into the family, like me. Given that I've heard "jokes" (rather, insults) about damn near every other person who has married into the family, I often wonder what they say about me behind my back. I've seen this happen over and over for 12 years, I've been married into the family for 8 years now. I literally never know what to say about these insults so I sit quietly while everyone else is roaring with laughter. My husband doesn't participate in this, that I'm aware of. My husband's cousin was talking about her dad, someone she doesn't see often because she's attached to her mom and they've been divorced since she was little, and FIL made a joke about the cousin's dad not being very smart. He doubles down and says he's not very bright, just repeating what he's saying, trying to make eye contact with anyone until someone acknowledges his "joke" and laughs at it. FIL loves talking shit about the cousin's husband, too, as they're currently going through a divorce. MIL actually had to tell him to stop because the son was right there, hearing terrible things said about his dad. SIL was talking about some board game they were all playing recently, I didn't hear what it was, but SIL kept saying it was an inappropriate game. She was kind of laughing it off like playing this game was just a wild idea. Someone asked who brought the game, SIL said (her son's fiancé's name) and said, does THAT tell you much? It's definitely not a secret SIL doesn't like her son's fiancé, but never says anything to her face. The fiance has become a friend of mine and told me SIL told her son she didn't like the wedding dress. I sided with fiance like yeah, it's really not her business and her opinions should just be kept to herself. But SIL likes running her mouth. She's a midwife and I've overheard plenty of conversations of her on the phone with other midwives saying ridiculous things about her patients and generally just having a shitty attitude. She was my midwife too, so I wonder, what have you said about me behind my back?
Today I found out SIL's oldest son just bought a house and apparently took my daughter to see it while they were camping. SIL didn't bother mentioning it to me or my husband. MIL didn't mention it either, and she was the one who was supposed to be watching my daughter. They had an entire day to bring it up and they didn't. Idk how my daughter didn't even mention it until today. I don't even care that they took her, but I'd like to know about it. Just a quick Hey! Going on a little field trip to see a new house! The most respectful thing would be to ask for permission, but I realize I'm in too deep to ever expect THAT. But I need to know where my daughter is. Can't I at least expect that?
I've brought up all these issues to my husband several times and nothing gets done about it. It happens over and over again and I'm truly so sick of it. I try to be a reasonable person, I try to mull over my feelings and try to make them make sense, try to calm myself down, but the conclusion I always come to is that I'm not respected in this family because I wasn't born into it. My husband's cousin's son is a couple years younger than my daughter and my in-laws are CONSTANTLY asking permission from the cousin about things with her son. Since my daughter was born I tried establishing certain rules about sugary foods and just expressing my general concerns about things I find important for child development, and those rules were always broken. For SOME reason, (maybe because she was born into the family,) the cousin's rules for her son are absolutely respected, and they're pretty much the same rules I had. All weekend long I heard several questions to the cousin about her son, and thinking to myself huh, you've never bothered to ask me that. You'd just do it, sometimes you'd say, hope that's ok, with a sheepish, fake apologetic smile.
Am I wrong to expect my husband to be on board with me, and to unequivocally devote his loyalty to me and our daughter over his biological family? He doesn't like confrontation, and the slighest thing makes his mom sob. These are just the latest examples but I feel like I can write a novel at this point. Am I wrong to expect him to get his family on OUR page, and to show a little more repect for the way we're raising our kid? I would never expect him to handle issues with my family. We don't even see my family as much as we see his so his in-law experience has been pretty damn easy. My in-law experience has been quite hellish and I simply can't take it anymore. Am I overreacting?

From The Question Concerning Technology
APPENDIX

1. Such reflection is not necessary for all, nor is it to be accomplished or even found bearable by everyone. On the other hand, absence of reflection belongs to a very great extent to certain definite stages of achieving and moving forward. And yet the questioning belonging to reflection never becomes either groundless or beyond all question, because, in anticipation, it question concerning Being. Being is for it that which is most worthy of questioning. Reflection finds in Being its most extreme resistance, which constrains it to deal seriously with whatever is as the latter is brought into the light of its Being. Reflection on the essence of the modern age puts thinking and decision into the sphere of effective working that belongs to the genuinely essential forces of this age. These forces work as they will, beyond the reach of all everyday valuation. In the face of these forces, there is only a readiness for their decisive issue, or, instead, an evasive turning away into the ahistorical. In this connection, however, it is not sufficient to affirm technology, for example, or, out of an attitude incomparably more essential, to set up “total mobilization” as an absolute once it is recognized as being at hand(*21). It is a matter of constantly grasping in advance the essence of the age from out of the truth of Being holding sway within it; for only thus, simultaneously, is that which is most worthy of questioning experienced, i.e., that which radically carries forward and constrains a creating into the future, out beyond what is at hand, and lets the transformation of man become a necessity springing forth from Being itself. No age lets itself be done away with by a negating decree. Negation only throws the negator off the path. The modern age requires, however, in order to be withstood in the future, in its essence and on the very strength of its essence, an originality and range of reflection for which we of today are perhaps preparing somewhat, but over which we certainly can never gain mastery.

[*21. Heidegger refers here to the central theme of Ernst Jünger’s “Die Totale Mobilmachung,” first published in 1931 as the preliminary sketch for his monumental book Der Arbeiter [The worker] (Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlaganstalt, 1932). Originally, on the basis of his experience of World War I, Jünger sees “total mobilization” as the fundamental characteristic of modern warfare. Primarily a confrontation between man and technology, war shows itself to be a “gigantic labor process” (gigantischer Arbeitsporzess). (See “Die Totale Mobilmachung” in Blatter und Steine [Hamburg: Hanseatische Verlaganstalt, 1934], p. 130.) In the evolution of Junger’s thinking, the meaning of the term “total mobilization” extends itself to denote the phenomenon which for him is the essence modern times: man’s dominating of the earth by means of his technological will. “The war front and the labor front are identical” (Der Arbeiter, p. 109). Viewing Jünger’s thinking in the light of Nietzsche’s, Heidegger understands “total mobilization” as the final realization of the metaphysics of the will to power, or as the final phase of “active nihilism.” See The Question of Being [Zur Seinsfrage], trans. William Kluback and Jean T. Wilde (New York: Twayne, 1958), pp. 41 ff.]

1. The phrase “ongoing activity” [Betrieb] is not intended here in a pejorative sense. But because research is, in essence, ongoing activity, the industrious activity of mere “busyness” [des blossen Betriebs], which is always possible, gives the impression of a higher reality behind which the burrowing activity proper to research work is accomplished. Ongoing activity becomes mere busyness whenever, in the pursuing of its methodology, it no longer keeps itself open on the basis of an ever-new accomplishing of its projection-plan, but only leaves that plan behind itself as a given; never again confirms and verifies its own self-accumulating results and the calculation of them, but simply chases after such results and calculations. Mere busyness must at all times be combated precisely because research is, in its essence, ongoing activity. If we seek what is scientific in science solely in serene erudition, then of course it seems as though the disowning of practical activity also means the denying of the fact that research becomes ongoing activity, and in that way mounts to its proper level of performance, the more constantly does the danger of mere industriousness grow within it. Finally a situation arises in which the distinction between ongoing activity and busyness not only has become unrecognizable, but has become unreal as well. Precisely this balancing out of the essential and the aberrant into the average that is the self-evident makes research as the embodiment of science, and thus makes the modern age itself, capable of enduring. But whence does search receive the counterpoise to the mere busyness within its ongoing activity?
   
2. The growing importance of the publishing business is not based merely on the fact that publishers (perhaps through the process of marketing their books) comes to have the best ear for the needs of the public or that they are better businessmen than are authors. Rather their peculiar work takes the form of a procedure that plans and that establishes itself with a view to the way in which, through the prearranged and limited publication of books and periodicals, they are to bring the world into the picture for the public and confirm it publicly. The preponderance of collections, of sets of books, of series and pocket editions, is already a consequence of this work on the part of publishers, which in turn coincides with the aims of researchers, since the latter not only are acknowledged and given consideration more easily and more rapidly through collections and sets, but, reaching a wider public, they immediately achieve their intended effect.
   
3. The fundamental metaphysical position of Descartes is taken over historically from the Platonic-Aristotelian metaphysics and moves, despite its new beginning, within the same question: What is it to be? That this question, formulated in this way, does not come to the fore in Descartes’s Meditations only proves how essentially the change in the answer to it already determines the fundamental position. Descartes’s interpretation of what it is to be and of truth first creates the presupposition underlying the possibility of a theory of knowledge or a metaphysics of knowledge. Through Descartes, realism is first put in the position of having to prove the reality of the outer world, of having to save that which is as such.
   

The essential modifications of the fundamental position of Descartes that have been attained in German thinking since Leibniz does not in any way overcome that fundamental position itself. They simply expand its metaphysical scope and create the presuppositions of the nineteenth century, still the most obscure of all the centuries of the modern age up to now. Indirectly those modifications confirm the fundamental position of Descartes in a form in which they themselves are almost unrecognizable, though they are not for that reason the less real. In contrast, mere Cartesian Scholasticism, with its rationalism, has lost all power further to shape modern times. With Descartes begins the completion and consummation of Western metaphysics. And yet, because such a consummation is only possible once again as metaphysics, modern thinking has its own greatness.
With the interpretation of man as subiectum, Descartes creates the metaphysical presupposition for future anthropology of every kind and tendency. In the rise of the anthropologies. Descartes celebrates his greatest triumph. Through anthropology the transition of metaphysics into the event of the simple stopping and setting aside of all philosophy is introduced. The fact that Dilthey disavowed metaphysics, that fundamentally he no longer even understood its question and stood helpless before metaphysical logic, is the inner consequence of his fundamental anthropological position. His “philosophy of philosophy” is an outstanding form of the anthropological abrogation - not the overcoming - of philosophy. This is why every anthropology in which previous philosophy is employed at will but is explained as superfluous qua philosophy has the advantage of seeing clearly what is required along with the affirmation of anthropology. Through this, the intellectual situation finds some clarification, while the laborious fabrications of such absurd offshoots as the national-socialist philosophies produce nothing but confusion. The world view does indeed need and use philosophical erudition, but it requires no philosophy, since, as world view, it has already taken over a particular interpretation and structuring of whatever is. But one thing, surely, anthropology cannot do. It cannot overcome Descartes, nor even rise up against him, for how shall the consequence ever attack the ground on which it stands?
Descartes can be overcome only through the overcoming of that which he himself founded, only through the overcoming of modern, and that means at the same time Western, metaphysics. Overcoming means here, however, the primal asking of the question concerning the meaning, i.e., concerning the realm of the projection or delineation, and thus concerning the truth, of Being - which question simultaneously unveils itself as the question concerning the Being of truth.

1. The concept of world as it is developed in Being and Time is to be understood only from within the horizon of the question concerning “openness for Being” [Da-sein], a question that, for its part, remains closely conjoined with the fundamental question concerning the meaning of Being (not with the meaning of that which is).
   
2. What belongs properly to the essence of the picture is standing-together, system. By this is not meant the artificial and external simplifying and putting together of what is given, but the unity of structure in that which is represented [im Vorgestellten] as such, a unity that develops out of the projection of the objectivity of whatever is. In the Middle Ages a system is impossible, for there a ranked order of correspondences is alone essential, and indeed as an ordering of whatever is in the sense of what has been created by God is watched over as his sense of what has been created by God and is watched over as his creature. The system is still more foreign to the Greeks, even if in modern times we speak, though quite wrongly, of the Platonic and Aristotelian “systems.” Ongoing activity in research is a specific bodying-forth and ordering of the systematic, in which, at the same time, the latter reciprocally determines the ordering. Where the world becomes picture, the system, and not only in thinking, comes to dominance. However, where the system is in the ascendancy, the possibility always exists also of its degenerating into the superficiality of a system that has merely been fabricated and pieced together. This takes place when the original power of the projecting is lacking. The uniqueness of the systematic in Leibniz, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling - a uniqueness that is inherently diverse - is still not grasped. The greatness of the systematic in these thinkers lies in the fact that it unfolds not as in Descartes out of the subject as ego and substantia finita, but either as in Leibniz out of the monad, or as in Kant out of the transcendental essence of finite understanding rooted in the imagination, or as in Fichte out of the infinite I, or as in Hegel out of Spirit as absolute knowledge, or as in Schelling out of freedom as the necessity of every particular being which, as such a being, remains determined through the distinction between ground and existence.
   

The representation of value is just as essential to the modern interpretation of that which is, as is the system. Where anything that is has become the object of representing, it first incurs in a certain manner a loss of Being. This loss is adequately perceived, if but vaguely and unclearly, and is compensated for with corresponding swiftness through the fact that we impart value to the object and to that which is, interpreted as object, and that we take the measure of whatever is, solely in keeping with the criterion of value, and make of values themselves the goal of all activity. Since the latter is understood as culture, values become cultural values, and these, in turn, become the very expression of the highest purposes of creativity, in the service of man’s making himself secure as subiectum. From here it is only a step to making values into objects in themselves. Value is the objectification of needs as goals, wrought by a representing self-establishing within the world as picture. Value appears to be the expression of the fact that we, in our position of relationship to it, act to advance just that which is itself most valuable; and yet that very value is the impotent and threadbare disguise of the objectivity of whatever is, an objectivity that has become flat and devoid of background. No one dies for mere values. We should note, for the sake of shedding light on the nineteenth century, the peculiar in-between position of Harmann Lotze, who at the same time that he was reinterpreting Plato’s Ideas as values undertook, under the title Microcosmos, that Attempt at an Anthropology (1856) which still drew sustenance for the nobility and straightforwardness of its mode of thinking from the spirit of German idealism, yet also opened that thinking to positivism. Because Nietzsche’s thinking remains imprisoned in value representation, he has to articulate what is essential for him in the form of a reversal, as the revaluation of all values. Only when we succeed in grasping Nietzsche’s thinking independently of value representation do we come to a standing-ground from which the work of the last thinker of metaphysics becomes a task assigned to questioning, and Nietzsche’s antagonism to Wagner becomes comprehensible as the necessity of our history.

1. Correspondence [Die Entspechung], thought as the fundamental characteristic of the Being of whatever is, furnishes the pattern for very specific possibilities and modes of setting the truth of this Being, in whatever has being, into the work. The art work of the Middle Ages and the absence of a world picture in that age belong together.
   
2. But did not a sophist at about the time of Socrates dare to day, “Man is the measure of all things, of those that are [der seienden], that they are, of those that are not, that they are not?” Does this statement of Protagoras not sound as though Descartes were speaking? Most importantly, is it not true that the Being of whatever is, is grasped by Plato as that which is beheld, as of whatever is, is grasped by Plato as that which is beheld, as idea? Is the relation to what is as such not for Aristotle theoria, pure beholding? And yet it is no more the case that this sophistic statement of Protagoras is subjectivism than it is that Descartes could carry into execution nothing but the overturning of Greek thought. Certainly, through Plato’s thinking and through Aristotle’s questioning, a decisive change takes place in the interpretation of what is and of men, but it is a change that always remains on the foundation of the Greek fundamental experience of what is. Precisely as a struggle against sophism and therefore in dependency upon it, this changed interpretation is so decisive that it proves to be the end of Greek thought, an end that at the same time indirectly prepare the possibility of the modern age. This is why Platonic and Aristotelian thinking has been able to pass for Greek thinking per se, not only in the Middle Ages but throughout the modern age up to now, and why all pre-Platonic thinking could be considered merely a preparation for Plato. It is because from long habituation we see Greek thinking through a modern humanistic interpretation that it remains denied to us to ponder the Being that opened itself to Greek antiquity in such a way as to leave to it its uniqueness and its strangeness. Protagoras’ statement runs: Panton chrematon metron estin athropos, to men onton hos estin, ton de me onton hos ouk estin (cf. Plato, Theaetus, 152). *23
   

“Of all things (those, namely, that man has about him in customary use, and therefore constantly, chremata chresthai) the (particular) man is the measure, of those that presence, that they presence as they presence, but also of those to which it remains denied to presence, that they do not presence.” That which is whose Being stands ready for decision is here understood as that which presence of itself within this sphere, within the horizon of man. But who is man? Plato gives details concerning this in the same place, when he has Socrates say: Oukoun houtos pos legei, hos hoia men hekasta emoi phainetai, toiauta men estin emoi, hoia de soi toiauta de au soi’ anthropos de su te kai ego: *24 “Does he (Protagoras) not understand this somewhat as follows? Whatever at a given time anything shows itself to me as, of such aspect is it (also) for me; but whatever it shows itself to you as, such is it in turn for you. You are a man as much as I.”*25
Man is here, accordingly, a particular man (I and you and he and she). And this ego is not supposed to coincide with the ego cogito of Descartes? Never. For everything essential, i.e., that which determines with equal necessity the two fundamental metaphysical positions in Protagoras and Descartes, is different in the two. What is essential in a fundamental metaphysical position embraces:

1. The manner and mode in which man is man, i.e., is himself; the manner of the coming to presence [Wesensart] of selfhood, which is not at all synonymous with I-ness, but rather is determined out of the relation to Being as such
2. The interpretation of the coming to presence [Wesensauslegung] of the Being of whatever is
3. The delineation of the coming to presence [Wesensentwurf] of truth
4. The sense in which, in any given instance, man is measure

None of these essential moments in a fundamental metaphysical position may be understood apart from the others. Each one always betokens, from the outset, the whole of a fundamental metaphysical position. Precisely why and in what respect these four moments sustain and structure in advance a fundamental metaphysical position as such is a question that can no longer be asked or answered from out of metaphysics and by means of metaphysics. It is a question that is already being uttered from out of the overcoming of metaphysics.
To be sure, for Protagoras, that which is does remain related to man as ego. What kind of relation to the I is this? The ego tarries within the horizon of the unconcealment that is meted out to it always as this particular unconcealment. Accordingly, it apprehends everything that presences within this horizon as something that is. The apprehending of what presences is grounded in this tarrying within the horizon of unconcealment. Through its tarrying [das Verweilen] in company with what presences, the belongingness of the I into the midst of what presences is. This belonging to what presences in the open fixes the boundaries between that which presences and that which absents itself. From out of these boundaries man receives and keeps safe the measure of that which presences and that which absents. Through man’s being limited to that which, at any particular time, is unconcealed, there is given to him the measure that always confines a self to this or that. Man does not, from out of some detached I-ness, set forth the measure to which everything that is, in its Being, must accommodate itself. Man who possesses the Greeks’ fundamental relationship to that which is and to its unconcealment is metron (measure [Mass]) In that he accepts restriction [Massigung] to the horizon of unconcealment that is limited after the manner of the I; and he consequently acknowledges the concealedness of what is and the insusceptibility of the latter’s presencing or absenting to any decision, and to a like degree acknowledges the insuspectibility to decision of the visible aspect of that which endures as present. Hence Protagoras says (Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker: Protagoras B, 4): *Peri men theon ouk echo eidenai, outh hos eisin, outh hous ouk eisin, outh hopoioi tines idean. **27 “I am surely not in a position to know anything (for the Greek, to have anything in ‘sight’) regarding the gods, neither that they are nor that they are not, nor how they are in their visible aspect (idea).”
Polla gar ta koluonta eidenai, he t’ adelotes kai brachus on ho bios tou anthropou.*28 “For manifold is that which prevents the apprehending of whatever is as what it is, i.e., both the nondisclosedness (concealment) of what is and the brevity of man’s historical course.”
Need we wonder that Socrates, considering Protagoras’ circumspection, says of him, Eikos mentoi sophon andra me lerein: “We may suppose that he (Protagoras), a sensible man, (in his statement about man as metron) is not simply babbling on.”
The fundamental metaphysical position of Protagoras is only a narrowing down, but that means nonetheless a preserving, of the fundamental position of Heraclitus and Parmenides. Sophism is possible only on the foundation of sophia, i.e., on the foundation of the Greek interpretation of Being as presencing and of truth as unconcealment - an unconcealment that itself remains an essential determination of Being, so that what presences is determined from out of unconcealment and presencing is determined from out of unconcealedness in its particularity. But just how far removed is Descartes from the beginning of Greek thinking, just how different is the interpretation of man that represents him as subject? Precisely because in the concept of the subiectum the coming to presence of Being as experienced by the Greeks - the hypokeisthai of the hypokeimenon - still resounds in the form of a presencing that has become unrecognizable and unquestioned (namely, the presencing of that which lies fixedly before), therefore the essence of the change in fundamental metaphysical position is to be seen from out of that coming to presence of Being.
It is one thing to preserve the horizon of unconcealment that is limited at any given time through the apprehending of what presence (man as metron). It is another to proceed into the unlimited sphere of possible objectification, through the reckoning up of the representable that is accessible to every man and binding for all.
All subjectivism is impossible in Greek sophism, for here man can never be subiectum; he cannot become subiectum because here Being is presencing and truth is unconcealment.
In unconcealment fantasia comes to pass: the coming-into-appearance, as a particular something, of that which presences - for man, who himself presences toward what appears. Man as representing subject, however, “fantasizes,” i.e., he moves in imaginatio, in that his representing imagines, pictures forth, whatever is, as the objective, into the world as picture.
[*27. “As to the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist” (Nahm).
*28. “For many are the obstacles that impede knowledge, both the obscurity of the question and the shortness of human life” (Nahm).]

So there was a recent thread that got me to look back on the original plans for the 2.0 expansion material and I ended up digging through it a bit more than I ever had before. I figured it might be fun to write up a full breakdown of what I was able to gleam from my digging.
Before I begin, I should mention that the information available is spotty and inconsistent in places. For example, according to the TORCommunity database, a lot of these files were added in version 1.3 and 2.0. However, going back to the files that are in those patches (I love you Jedipedia), a lot of those files are not present in those versions. I assume this is internal marking, and is based on the dev's versions and not the live versions. In fact the Sith Warrior dialogues only show up in live in 5.0.0. I have no idea why those dialogues just suddenly popped into existence there.
Generally speaking I have four types of files available to look through.

• The first are the cnv (conversation) files, which are the most useful as they give the actual dialogue thereby telling us what the plot was. We have these for Bothawui for all republic classes, Ziost for Sith Warrior, "open world" (term used for quests between planets or for small instanced planets) for all five of the above, and one random Imp World arc file for Yavin IV. There are some that are blank, but the majority have something.
• The second are quest files for the quests. We have quests for all of the classes on Bothawui, Ziost, and Open Worlds. We have quests for Jedi Knight on Sleheyron. We have world arc quests for Yavin IV for both factions, and side quests for every planet. Unfortunately, these are a bit more hit and miss in their usefulness because some of them are missing strings. So sometimes we can get what all the steps of a quest were going to be, other times the only things we can learn are a name the quest used to go by and how many steps the quest was supposed to have. Even the ones that have all their strings aren't necessarily useful. For example, we have all the steps for the Sith Inquisitor quest, "A Warm Welcome." Step 1, " Take a Shuttle to Your Estate." Great, now we know the SI has an estate! Step 2, " Talk to the Sith Lord." And the usefulness is gone.
• The third type are creature files. These tell us who was planned to show up where, but they are of limited usefulness without context as to what the NPC was doing. For example, I can't immediatly tell the difference between a friendly, an enemy that starts friendly and turns hostile after a conversation, or someone that appears via holo-recording.
• The fourth "type" are "phantom files" that are listed in TORCommunity's databases, but are missing from what I am able independently datamine. I trust that TORCommunity's listings are correct, but there also isn't much to gain from these files since they are all empty (included in these are some of the missing cnv files).

Overall Plan

So to begin, it should be noted that all of these cnv files are located in the directory cnv.exp.01. This is the same naming convention used for the released Rise of the Hutt Cartel files. This makes it difficult to tell what Makeb's original role in the expansion was. It appears that it was intended to be part of the expansion as there is the following line from the Supreme Chancellor that appears to vary based on whether a Smuggler did Makeb before starting Bothawui.

(Did not do Makeb) "Of course I am. The Voidwolf's defeat is the only reason I can ignore being referred to as "Madame Chance. "
(Did do Makeb) "Of course I am. Your success on Makeb bought you considerable leeway with me--but "Madame Chance" is pushing it. "

Additionally according to TORCommunity's "added in patch" data, the majority of Makeb's cnvs were initially added in 1.3, which was the same patch that most of the other files were added for the cut content.
So in addition to Makeb, the planned planets appear to have been Bothawui (Pub), Ziost (Imp), and Sleheyron (Both). These three planets were intended to have class stories and side quests (no evidence of a world arc, but I don't know if none was planned or if they just didn't get to it). There is no evidence that Makeb was ever meant to have any class stories on it. Additionally, there is one conversation file for Imp Yavin IV. It was early on in development when they stopped working on it since the dialogue is just a summary of what happens in the scenes (e.g., a shuttle crashes), but there are quests and NPCs for both Pub and Imp world arcs, so there was more planned.
So in summary the plan appears to have been something like:

• Makeb (Shared Planet with World Arcs)
• Bothawui/Ziost (Faction Exclusive Planets with Class Stories)
• Sleheyron (Shared Planet Class Stories)
• Yavin IV (Shared Planet with World Arcs, placement uncertain but has to be before or after the class stories as an NPC that is kidnapped in a class story is a quest NPC)

Now before I start on discussing the content from each planet, it is worth mentioning that I have little context for most quests and NPCs, so I'm just going to be putting them in alphabetical order.

Bothawui

The overall setting for this Planet seems to have been that the Republic is going on the offensive and the Imperials are going scorched earth while they get pushed off planet.
Something that is well known (I think) at this point is that Dantooine on live is a modified version of the map that originally made for Bothawui. From the dialogue files that I've looked through, I'm betting the dam in the portion of the map we are on was originally called the Bosnar Dam, which was a set piece for one of the JK missions. Also probably worth noting that the there are multiple mentions of Bothawui being an important source of food, which probably factored into their choice to reuse the area since Dantooine is also a farming planet.
Quests

• Storm of Destruction
• The Butchers of Bothawui
• The Stone Ray's Lair
• Wet Work
• (Bonus)
  • Search and Rescue

Ziost

I'm really not sure what the state of Ziost was supposed to be. SW seems to be dealing with Pubs having taken over the planet defense grid. SI and IA seem to be dealing with internal politics. And I have no idea of what BH is up to.
Quests

• [HEROIC 2] Battle of Xeno District
• Caged
• Gateway to the Empire
• [HEROIC 4] The Horror at Black Forge
• (Bonus)
  • Cathar Fury
  • Counter-offensive
  • The Ritual of Naga-Sadow

Sleheyron

Honestly I have less of an idea for Sleheyron than Ziost since Sleheyron is either the least finished planet or the planet with the least files that has slipped into live.
Quests

• (Pub General Quests)
  • Castles in the Skies
  • Devotion to Duty
  • The Battlefield of Tomorrow
  • Tibanna Exchange
• (Imp General Quests)
  • Doomsday Virus
  • Master Logrus
  • Quantum Javelin

Yavin IV

I have very little idea on the Pub side of things. There are some clues for the Imp side though. While he lacks a creature file, the Imp quests make mention of reporting to Servant One. So that means Imps were probably here on a mission for the Emperor. My first instinct is reviving the Emperor, but I don't have enough info. General Heskar also made a return. Oh Imps also spoke to Naga Sadow's force ghost as part of their world arc.
Quests

• (Pub World Arc)
  • Crossing the Guard
  • Kagan's Endgame
  • The Interceder's Vengeance
  • Triumph by Fire
  • Under the Stone
  • (Bonus)
    • Endgame For All
    • Preparing the Temple
    • Prison Camp Sabotage
• (Pub General Quests)
  • Unforgotten Deeds
• (Imp World Arc)
  • Doom
  • Extraction
  • Into the Jungle
  • Meeting the Massassi
  • Rise
  • The Cursed Legacy of Naga Sadow
  • The Empire's Last Stand
  • The Fate of the Empire
  • To Face a Dark Lord
  • (Bonus)
    • A Shrine to Defeat
    • Friendly Competition
    • Marching Orders
    • Old Idols
• (Imp General Quests)
  • For the Emperor
  • Slash and Burn
  • War Games
  • (Bonus)
    • Burning Legacy

Jedi Knight

So the JK's overreaching plot for seems to have been working together with the Protectors (the rescue team we met on Makeb) in order to help evacuate people.
There are multiple mentions of a place called Talravin, which I'm guessing is where the story would start as the JK helps evacuations there. From reading between the lines, it appears that the JK would be sending the refugees to a new world called New Euphrades...and of course the story finishes with us fighting a Sith in orbit as he is trying to destroy it.
Based on quest names, it seems we were meant to go to Alphelion Six, which does not have a wookiepedia article so I guess it was a new planet, at some point. Since the finale seemed to be New Euphrades, I'm guessing this happened between Bothawui and Sleheyron. Whenever it happened, the Protectors were apparently going to join you there.
Seems that there was an ending choice for the JK between joining the Protectors full time or becoming the Battlemaster. There is a lot of dialogue regarding the role of Jedis, so this seems like a conclusion to that arc as the JK chooses whether to be a protector or a warrior? Scourge also mentions that he had additional visions, but doesn't provide anything useful just kind of says "yeah I totally knew you were going to make that choice" after you made it.
Rough Map

• Talravin to start the plot?
• Bothawui to rescue civilians from the fighting
• ??? (Alphelion Six?)
• Sleheyron to ??? (probably rescue more civilians)
• Area where Talaravin gets the shield codes for New Euphrades
• Battle over New Euphrades
• Report to the Chancellor where you get the choice between joining the Protectors and Battlemaster

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Crisis at Alphelion Six
  • Improving Performance
  • Soft Targets
  • The Parting Blow
  • The Price of Eternity
  • Welcome Captain Maddox
  • Welcome Doctor Kantos
  • Welcome Tefani
• Bothawui
  • A Rude Welcome
  • Blight of Bothawui
  • Double Time
  • Not a Drop to Drink
  • (Bonus)
    • Double Time
    • The Road to Vellik
• Sleheyron
  • A Hot Lead
  • Emergency Detour
  • Project Sever
  • The Ortis Problem

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Captain Maddox - Leader of the Protectors that are joining the JK. He joins you on your ship (like members of the Rift Alliance did for the JC?). Also dies, so I assume you might be taking his role if you joined the protectors.
  • Doctor Kantos - Head medical officer for the Protectors. She also joins the JK's ship. You could flirt with her, and she seemed to be receptive to both genders. There are confrontations at the end of the story for both Kira and Doc where you have to choose between your LI or her. So I guess she was planned as a continuous love interest...not sure how that would have worked since she wasn't a companion.
  • Tefani - Tech head for the Protectors who also joined the JK's ship.
  • Darth Legius - Praetor of the Dark Council's army (no idea how that is different than the normal army). He appears to be the main villain for the JK. He had sworn vengeance over us for "lying" about killing the Emperor. Also he had two apprentices that get the one-off villain treatment on Bothawui. Our final battle would have taken place aboard his flagship, the Vindicator after he pissed off the Dark Council. One dialog implies that at some point he becomes the first Sith to publicly acknowledge the death of the Emperor.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was (probably holo-call with Legius?), but he is in the JK files
  • General Var Suthra - He could reappear during the Aphelion Six quest
  • Master Orgus Din - He appears in the Soft Targets files, so I guess we were meant to get more force ghost lessons from him?
• Bothawui
  • Garith - Local resistance fighter who is your initial contact when you arrive
  • Colonel Blight - Villain and probably part time Captain Planet villain. He is an efficiency expert who has been brought in to kill as many civilians as possible as the Imps retreat.
• Sleheyron
  • Agent Galen - Our old cybernetic buddy could show up

Jedi Consular

The JC's arc seems to be the most clear cut. The JC gets a vision of the galaxy burning because of Torwin Vehls and then sets out to find them and stop them. On Bothawui, the JC discovers that Torwin has the power to give power to others, and this includes giving force sensitivity to non-sensitives (and also to animals).
The JC fails to catch Torwin on Bothawui and must continue chasing after him before he find "the Shrouded Ones," which were something related to the Rakata. "The Shrouded Ones were built to be the end of everything. A solution, to our empire's final problem." Not sure if they were something new or something that already exists given a mysterious name. There are talks about them that makes them sound like they are machines powered by the force, but I'm not sure how that solves the Rakata's final problem or meshes with Torwin's power. Then again the Rakata were evil jerks, so maybe their solution was to just murder everyone so they didn't go down alone?
I feel like there is a good chance that this unused arc is the inspiration for at least part of the current arc since one of the powers Darth Nul is mentioned as having is awakening force sensitivity in those unaware they had it (slightly different, but if anyone starts mentioning Shrouded Ones, we know that is not a good sign).
Rough Map

• Get a vision somewhere (Voss diplomatic mission?)
• Bothawui to hunt down Torwin
• ??? (Remnants of Natukar? You work with Darth Kallomena to find a Rakata map to the Shrouded Ones)
• Sleheyron to hunt down the Shrouded Ones
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Remnants of Natukar
  • The Shrouded One
  • The Stack
  • Unforeseen Circumstances
  • (Bonus)
    • Clearing the Stack
    • Meeting the Delegates
    • Remnants Resistance
    • The Droids Within
• Bothawui
  • A Man of Vision
  • Broken Shield
  • Interpretations
  • Long Left Behind
  • (Bonus)
    • Healing the Land
    • Lured Beasts
    • Plowing the Fields
    • Skirmish at Narless
• Sleheyron
  • Conspicuous Consumption
  • Falling Sky
  • Groundbreaking
  • Into the Eye

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Kallomena - A masked Sith that the JC encounters on Bothawui. She is also seeking Torwin because he is her charge or something along those lines.
  • Gnost-Dural - Shows up in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest
  • Voss - Several Voss also appear in the Unforeseen Circumstances quest, seems to be a diplomatic conference about the Voss wanting to send their commandos home to deal with the Gormak. No Gaden Ko though
  • Hallow Voice - Has some dialogue talking about the Shrouded Ones
• Bothawui
  • The Custodian - A Rakata that was made force sensitive against his will by Torwin in an attempt to bribe The Custodian into giving info on the Shrouded Ones
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Smuggler

Trying to describe this plot feels like a fever dream, but maybe that is appropriate for a continuation of the OG Smuggler story. So the Smuggler gets dragged into the story after an attack on Port Nowhere by a criminal gang.
The Smuggler tracks them down to Bothawui where you learn they are the Womp Family and that they have gotten ahold of a Superdreadnaught, which they refer to as a "space mansion." And they aren't just called the Womp Family, they actually are a family. The plot is essentially that a bunch of hillbillies got their hands on a...fully automated aircraft carrier(?) and are now going around launching air strikes on people that tipped their cows. They literally launch an orbital bombardment on the Smuggler at one point. Not his ship or base that he is at. Just the Smuggler after the Smuggler corners one of their members. They are also trying to extort the Republic. I don't know how things ended, but I imagine the dark side ending has the Smuggler getting a larger ship.
Rough Map

• Port Nowhere is attacked
• Bothawui to look into who was behind the attack
• ??? (Bothawui ends with Risha going to research Barabbula, so I assume we followed up on that lead next)
• Sleheyron to ???
• ??? (Probably the opportunity to steal the Superdreadnaught, but I don't have that dialogue)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Confidence and Influence
  • Days of Infamy
  • Decontamination
  • Party Down
  • Spoiling the Surprise
  • (Bonus)
    • Securing Valuables
    • Threat Recognition
• Bothawui
  • Bothan Beatdown
  • Camp Shatter
  • Clean Sweep
  • Harsh Introductions
  • (Bonus)
    • Hidden Reset Phase (probably not actually a quest)
    • I Was Never Here
• Sleheyron
  • Celebrity Spotlight
  • Lab Samples
  • Public Spectacles
  • The X Particles

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Master Sumalee - She would have returned! And she had a fade to black! Also revealed that Satele dropped the prohibition against romance off screen. She seems to serve as the Smuggler's contact with the Republic (which was her job for one of the Smuggler endings).
  • Beryl Thorne - Don't know what she was up to, but she apparently reappeared in Party Down
  • Barrabula the Hutt - Owner of the superdreadnaught that was somehow stolen. Also the Supreme Mogul of the Cartel three hundred years ago.
• Bothawui
  • (Nobody I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Trooper

Trooper is leading the front lines of the battle on Bothawui with a reporter in tow. Had a scene that would have been interesting to see where the Trooper was to get airdropped in a bomb modified to serve as an entry craft. The reporter mentions having enough footage on Bothawui, so I'm not really sure where the expansion long arc was supposed to go from there. Immediately after Bothawui, you are the guest of honor at a party held by the Chancellor, so I guess the Sleheyron mission pops up there.
Rough Map

• ???
• Bothawui to liberate the world and get footage
• Be the guest of honor for a party the Chancellor is holding
• Sleheyron to ???
• ???

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Elements of Surprise
  • Freedom from Fear
  • Mercy Mission
  • (Bonus)
    • Surprise Party
• Bothawui
  • Battle of Liahstarn
  • Firing Solutions
  • (Hidden) Speak with Jonas and Chall (Chill?)
  • Reversal of Fortunes
  • Tactical Payload
• Sleheyron
  • Grasp of Shadows
  • Picking Up
  • Sleep Wake Cycle
  • Two for One

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Rylo Kann - Journalist that joins the Trooper for at least part of the expansion.
  • Jaxo - So I guess she was meant to reappear if alive.
• Bothawui
  • Jonas Balker - He would have returned. And he would have had a fade to black...something he still doesn't have on Live yet.
  • Dagger Wing - They would have returned from Belsavis to provide support on your campaign. They have an interesting choice where they ask you how to handle the reporter as he wants to interview them (unaware of the whole accidently war crimes backstory?).
  • Raven Squad - You were supposed to meet them on the battlefield, which would have included them calling bombers on your position. No idea if their current iteration is meant to be the same as this group, but they almost certainly reused the name since it wasn't otherwise being used. Their commander in this iteration is named Varis.
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Warrior

Sith Warrior is the only one of the Imp classes that I have dialog for. On Ziost, the SW is in charge of getting the planetary defenses back after Pubs take them over. However the planetary defenses might only be a distraction because there is dialogue referring to the Sith Warrior saving the Voice who is a necessary component for reviving the Emepror.
The overarching plot seems to be a conflict with Gnost-Dural who seems to be looking into ending the Emperor for good. While the SW is dealing with Ziost, Gnost-Dural prepares to attack the hidden fortress where the Hand resides. The attack starts while the SW is reporting on their success in protecting the Hand. Once here Gnost-Dural captures all of the Servants except for Servant Twelve who goes to the SW for help. Servant Twelve drops the tidbit that if the hand was severed than (in this timeline) the Emperor can no longer revived. Gnost Dural seems unaware of this as he puts the Servants in stasis and carefully probes their minds to get information about the Emperor without hurting them.
Interesting to note that one of the quests is called Showdown on Ossus, so that might have been the inspiration for Gnost-Dural being on Ossus in Jedi Under Siege.
Also there is a dialogue that mentions the Sith Warrior putting down two Dark Council members. Not entirely sure which Dark Council members they were though. Checking the NPC list for all the Sith Warrior locations, the only Darths that are mentioned are Darth Baras and Darth Vowrawn. So I guess they were including Baras. I'm thinking that Vowrawn might have actually sided with Gnost-Dural? There is a line in a conversation during the Hand's Fortress that states, "His source remains a mystery--not even Darth Vowrawn or Zujen Vale knew our location." Zujen Vale is mentioned to be a traitor in a different conversation. So I guess Vowrawn being opposed to the Hand on Rishi might have been inspired by the original plan to make him opposed to the Emperor? And now I have Emperor Vowrawn on live instead. Funny how these things work.
There is also mention of the Sith Warrior making a speech during/after Ziost, which appears to have been about reform and appears to have been directed at the Dark Council. So I guess a LS option to try and put the fear of Wrath into the Dark Council after the Wrath did some house cleaning.
Rough Map

• ??? (The Final Revenge of Darth Baras?)
• Ziost to take back the planetary defenses and save the Voice
• Hand's Fortress to save the Hand
• Sleheyron to track down Gnost-Dural by following a data drop off
• ??? (Track down Gnost-Dural for final confrontation? Showdown on Ossus?)

Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • End Times
  • Fracture
  • Showdown on Ossus
  • The Blood Splattered Talz
  • The Emperor and His Wrath
  • The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • (Bonus)
    • Breached and Boarded
    • Shattering the Jedi Seal
    • The Emperor's Secrets
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Approaches
  • The Fires of Ziost
  • The Hunt Begins
  • Voice in the Darkness
• Sleheyron
  • Echoes of Gnost-Dural
  • Hook Line and Sinker
  • Shutter
  • Solar Spear

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Servants 1-11 - Whole family reunion in this one
  • Servant 12 - Only one of the Servants to not get captured. Spends some time on your ship after the Hand's Fortress is raided. She is completely uninterested in the SW's attempts to flirt. Unlike the Protectors for the JK or Rylo for the Trooper, Servant Twelve does not have a creature file for the ship, so she might have been cutscene only.
  • Master Gnost-Dural - Seems to have been the main "villain"
  • Darth Vowrawn showed up in Fracture
  • Darth Baras could show up in The Final Revenge of Darth Baras
  • Lord Qet - Vowrawn's apprentice shows up too
  • Zujen Vale - A Sith you meet on Ziost. Secretly works for Gnost-Dural
• Ziost
  • Armageddon Battalion - They return to assist the Sith Warrior
  • Voice of the Emperor - Here to be rescued
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Sith Inquisitor

I have very little idea of what the SI was supposed to get up to. The SI seems to be hobnobbing with the Dark Council on Ziost, but beyond that I'm not quite sure what is going on. You did apparently get your own estate on Ziost though. So neat?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • A Party to Remember
  • An Empire Divided
  • The Sanctum
  • (Bonus)
    • Crast's Betrayal
• Ziost
  • A Warm Welcome
  • Convergence
  • Lost Army
  • The Emperor's Tower

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Dark Council - Between An Empire Divided and a Party to Remember, I think we have a good chunk of the Dark Council showing up. I don't remember who was on the Council at this time, so I'm just listing all the Darths in the two quests and hope I'm not giving anyone a promotion. Arkov, Marr, Soverus, Acina, Mortis, and Ravage.
  • Lord Qet - I guess Vowrawn is represented by his apprentice while he's off doing things (and being killed?) in the SW story?
• Ziost
  • Moff Pyron - Everyone's favorite lackey showed up
• Sleheyron
  • (no NPCs in files I have)

Imperial Agent

At least part of the IA storyline seemed to be focused on cleaning up after Malgus's rebellion as there are NPCs with Malgus in their name. I'm not sure whether that was the focus of the entire expansion or if you stumble onto something else while dealing with "the betrayer's spymaster."
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • The Beast Awakens
  • The Broken Colonel
  • The Nightmare
  • The Player of Games
  • The Vigil
• Ziost
  • The Betrayer's Spymaster
  • The Grandfather of Terror
  • The Hidden War
  • The Secret Compact
• Sleheyron
  • Doppleganger
  • The Catcher and the Cage
  • The Highest Authority

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Ardun Kothe - Every IA's best friend can return! Although I guess it makes sense as I assume he becomes your handler if you give him the Black Codex
  • Shara Jenn - She would have returned...and gone by the name Nexus? I'm really not sure where that comes from. Weird thing is that her creature file is named shara_jenn, but for whatever reason IA has some NPCs with names. Had her creature file just been named Nexus, I would not have known it was her
  • Colonel Niar - This seems to have been a recurring character who even joins you on your ship (no creature file for him though). I've seen someone say that the IA storyline got converted to be the Imp Makeb storyline, and I suspect this NPC is where that idea originated from. I don't have any dialogue associated with the NPC, but I feel confident is not Katha Niar from Makeb since this NPC is a male (and the gender attribute is properly assigned on other unfinished NPCs). Sort of off topic, but it seems Katha Niar was originally named Kiar Onila.
  • Darth Marr - No idea what his role was, but he shows up
  • Ocean - I guess this is a code name for someone? You bring them to an escape shuttle at one point
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • Saresh - Not sure what her role here was

Bounty Hunter

I have no context to make sense of the info I have for BH. An NPC named Zedania seems to be important. I can't tell what his role in the story was though. I think in one mission we are saving him though? So a client I guess? Also someone named Brand that we get a lot of holocalls from, so either an ally or a very mouthy antagonist?
Quests

• Off World/Multi World
  • Meeting the Board
  • Nebula Station
  • Socio Pathfinding
  • (Bonus)
    • Resorting to Violence
    • Security Shakedown
• Ziost
  • All or Nothing
  • Biding Time
  • Poised to Strike
  • Set the Sky on Fire

Notable NPCs

• Off World/Multi World
  • Darth Tormen - You don't get to lose your boss off screen in this timeline
  • Darth Marr - Dude was busy in this expansion. I'm guessing he was meant as an alternative for Darth Tormen
• Ziost
  • (Nobody that I recognize)
• Sleheyron
  • (Nobody that I recognize)

Random Observations and Quotes

• HK-51 and the ship droid both got reactions to the content in this 2.0. I think HK actually has some in vanilla that is no longer available since 4.0, but Ship Droid has none except for maybe some environmental reactions on Makeb?
• Smuggler (romancing Risha) after getting buried alive
  • If we only have a little air left, I say we use it up vigorously. How's that for a plan?
  • Like all your schemes, it's poorly thought-out and likely to end in violence. I'm in.
• Treek was not originally in the plans for this version of 2.0 as she is missing from the majority of companion reactions, but a small number of lines that mention her appear so I think they had decided to add her in the future before the scope was cut
• Servant One to the Sith Warrior
  • We also bore witness to your speech. The Empire's transformation does not concern the Emperor, but others may prove less tolerant.
• Kira to JK who has been flirting around
  • I'm starting to think that's true. I've been having all these violent urges lately... usually whenever I see you, or Doctor Kantos. And when I see you together? I mean, wow... kind of makes me want to hit you upside the head, you know?
• Elara after a flirt option (not sure if it is a kiss or fade to black since I only have dialogue) while waiting for a shuttle
  • I'm going to file an official commendation for the Bothan shuttle scheduling authority.
• Smuggler talking to someone he saved on Coruscant
  • Randomly shooting Imperials is one of my trademark moves. Glad you enjoyed the show.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed looking at this what if. If anyone has any questions about what is in the files, I can try to answer, but I can't make promises that the answers to your questions exist in the files.

Please forgive me for the possibly stupid question: I've noticed that some past participle adjectives (I think this is what they're called?) can only be preceded by 'be' verbs to function (of course, an adverb could sneak in there, too) e.g. The bars in the old part of the town *are frequented* by hip young students.
This is different to the verb 'frequent' e.g. She once *frequented* that part of the city.
Am I right in classing these as past participle adjectives? If so, is there any term that separates them from adjectives that can go in front of nouns?
Other examples:
I was completely *floored* by the movie's ending.
You are *outvoted*.
Below is another example, though I acknowledge is can sometimes be added in front of a noun:
Motor vehicles are *prohibited* from driving in the town centre.
This has been bugging me for a while and I'd like to get to the bottom of it. Many thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

There’s a lot of backstory to this (over a year’s worth of lore if I’m being honest) so I’ll try my best to summarize it.
Last year I became friends with three other people: Naomi, Nick, and Adam (fake names). Before long, Adam and I started dating despite my reservations about it (different religions, not sure if I was into men, school stress, etc). After about a month I had had enough (he was super clingy and insecure and was dumping all those issues on me) and broke up with him. Around the same time we broke up was when Nick and Naomi started talking to each other but this was after Nick had rejected her once. Then over the summer he dumped her (idk why, never got the details despite asking).
Over the summer he and I bonded over going to the movies (we watched like the same three films but while everyone else in the group would vary, he and I were the common people). We had become really close platonically, he even got me a surprise birthday gift (MF DOOM ring). So by the end of summer Nick and I had matching lockscreens, matching headphones, matching rings (he got an MF DOOM ring for himself too), and matching interests. He was the best guy best friend a girl could ask for.
Then the school year started and Naomi still had a thing for Nick. She asked him a few weeks into school about his feelings and he stated that he “had feelings, just not strong enough to act on them”. So bam, third rejection. Despite that Naomi was really persistent even though she kept denying that she had feelings for him.
Her behavior irritated me because any time I would try to talk with Nick (even if it was for something as mundane as an assignment for class), she would tag along.
A few months pass and Naomi and I stop talking as much. Then after she goes on an MUN trip with Nick and Adam, she cuts me off for not being “supportive” (It’s a really long story, I can post the screenshots later on if yall want me to).
It’s after she cuts me off that I find out just how much she is disliked by a lot of people in our grade and that’s when I came to terms with just how much of an emotional manipulator she is (I saw the signs back when we were still friends and I think that helped me subconsciously stop talking to her).
So leave the friend group because I'm only on good terms with one person and that is Nick. And i didn’t notice this till recently but he progressively stopped talking to me both irl and online. Before we could talk forever on a topic but then it just turned to nothing but reels on his part.
Then the week before exams Naomi and Nick hard-launched each other by showing up to “dress-as-your-type-day” in each other’s clothes (though I and many others knew beforehand because Adam spilled the beans).
So news got out that they had been dating in secret since around the same time that Naomi cut me off (so like 5 months). And people were not happy (again because Naomi is severely disliked by a lot of people).
After this Adam “distanced himself” (his words, not mine) from Naomi because he was “disappointed” in her actions because she had broken her promise to “end the situation ship” between her and Nick, and kept it a secret from Adam.
Like Adam, I felt betrayed as well, because I had told Nick about how much Naomi had hurt me and others over the years (again, long story, but I can explain upon request) and he still decided to date and even fuck her.
After their big reveal, Nick tried ‘talking’ to me (mostly signaling with his eyes which is how we used to silently communicate back when we were friends) and I think he just expects me to accept and be supportive of them when I really am not.
And the last weeks of school had been me just avoiding conversation with him as much as possible (I would’ve talked had it been about him and Naomi but I could tell that he wasn’t going to talk about that a single time with me). And it’s been over a month since I’ve last replied to his messages (they’ve just been unrelated reels).
I get the sense that he’s realized that people don’t like his girlfriend and was scrambling to find at least one person not in their friend group who would still talk with him and that’s why he kept trying it with me but to no avail.
Anyways at our graduation anytime I would turn to talk to the person next to/behind me my eyes would have to pan across him first (because of how we’re seated) and that’s when we would try to maintain that eye contact (again to no avail because I decided to ignore him).
After the ceremony I caught him introducing her to his family (I was eating with my sister, not facing them, they were a few meters away and talking REALLY loudly about it; they even moved up closer to where I was [the only occupied table amongst at least six or seven empty ones])
And the night after we had a banquet dinner, where you can choose to sit with a friend/classmate. Where I was seated I could see directly across the table to Nick’s table, where his and Naomi’s families were sat. There was a gap between my family members sitting across from me and anytime I would face that direction to talk to them (instead of talking to someone at my side, for example) Nick would turn in his seat and stare directly at me in a manner which I know to mean he wanted some acknowledgment of his existence. (I might post like a diagram to help visualize this).
Anyways I explained all the eye contact instances that I can recall because I need you guys to understand just how often he does it and that it’s not coincidence or me just searching for signs.
So yeah I’ve ghosted him for over a month and now that we’ve graduated I’ve been considering making the first move and texting him about how I feel but I get the sense that he wouldn’t take it seriously enough. So part of me also wants to continue ignoring him (which will become a much easier task now that we are no longer attending the same school), even though I know it’s mean…
Would I Be The Asshole If I Continue Ignoring Him?

I've noticed that, when watching old TV shows supported with ad breaks, some services just drop the ad breaks in random spots, sometimes right in the middle of a scene or even a line of dialog. Then there are the ones that seem to go through and carefully put their ads in the same place where a commercial break would have been when the show was on TV. TV was specifically edited to allow for ad breaks, and I just wanted to acknowledge the unsung heroes who, be it out of care or corporate mandate, take the time to make sure the ad goes where it belongs and doesn't interrupt the show itself.
Example: Started rewatching Batman: The Animated Series for some nostalgia on Amazon Prime and the ads slide right into the commercial break slots. Not sure this is universal across Prime, but it's the one that inspired this post.

As a preface, I’m trying to make this as short as possible as to not be an overwhelming brain dump but this could probably be elaborated on for days so I’m looking forward to the discussion in comments!
We know Taylor loves a garden reference, but it wasn’t until the religious undertones of TTPD that I began to equate that to the Garden of Eden/Paradise Lost
Just as a refresher, here’s just a few of her garden references going all the way back to Fearless:

• Love Story: So I sneak out to the garden to see you
• Cruel Summer: And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate
• Betty: Would you tell me to go fuck myself or lead me to the garden?
• I Hate It Here: I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind

Which brings me to The Prophecy, specifically the line:
“And it was written, I got cursed like Eve got bitten, Oh, was it punishment?”
But in the Bible, Eve does not get bitten (which Taylor surely knows). Eve bites the apple from the forbidden tree. She is the bitER. So in making this comparison, Taylor is either saying:

1. Eve wasn’t bitten, so I’m not cursed, end of story. Or…
   
2. In the same way that Eve CHOSE to bite the apple, my “cursed” fate is of my own deciding…I am cursed because of my own choices/actions/decisions. I AM cursed, but it turns out I am the cursER because I chose this path (this is how I’m interpreting the line) And it’s important to note for later that while Eve IS responsible for her own actions, she was also fooled/deceived by the Serpent who told her it would be okay and that she wouldn’t really die by eating the apple — and in her naivety, Eve listened.
   

So if Taylor feels like she CHOSE her destiny and sealed her own fate in the same manner as Eve did, that brings us to this verse from The Prophecy:
“Cards on the table Mine play out like fools in a fable, oh It was sinking in Slow is the quicksand Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand Oh, still I dream of him”
In the Bible, once Eve bites the apple, both she and Adam become aware and ashamed of their nakedness. And as punishment for disobeying, God not only cast them out of the Garden but he also says to Adam in Gen 3:17-19:
“17Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I told you, “Do not eat from it,” the ground is cursed because of you. By hard work you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your face because of hard work, until you return to the ground, because you were taken from the ground. You are dust, and you will return to dust.”
It’s important in context because Eve/Taylor feel like fools for the fate that they ultimately chose and we can infer that they both would like to go back in time/take it back (“Who do I have to speak to About if they can redo The prophecy?”) — and wound of the pricked hand I think directly relates to this idea in Genesis: You will have to work endlessly hard for the rest of your life but NOT in the Garden you once desired, because you are now cursed to thistles and thorns. (See also: Call It What You Want “all my flowers grew back as thorns”) The curse is longing to go back to the Garden but you can’t.
AND SO (hang with me I’m almost there)…this brings me to a common question I see coming up between Gaylors/Hetlors of why doesn’t Taylor just come out? If she’s gay why doesn’t she just say it…..plenty of other artists have done it recently and have been fine, look at Billie Eilish as a prime example. But if you look at Taylor’s NYU commencement speech that she gave on 5/18/22 (and which I believe she was purposely pointing us to in the pap pic of her and Matty in New York from 5/16/23 where she’s wearing the purple NYU sweatshirt), I think she’s telling us the answer already….
“See, I was a teenager in the public eye at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day ‘running off the rails.’ That meant a different thing to everyone person said it me. So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life.”
Taylor, at least early in her career, felt paralyzed by the fear of not fulfilling HER ROLE in the prophecy/curse that SHE CHOSE — she has been America’s sweetheart for her entire career, partly due to the age that she became famous but also partly because of how she presents herself; even when chastised for her dating habits it was never in a scandalous light, the worst people could say is that she’s just a boy-crazy good girl who bounces from relationship to relationship.
And while at the end of the day, it was TAYLOR’S choice to make that her public persona (she was the one who cursed herself, she was the biter) at the end of the day she was also a naive kid listening to her brand, managers, parents etc who fooled her into thinking that it would be fine and that it was THE way to success/happiness…..which is very much like Eve being deceived by the serpent and believing what he said.
Which FINALLY brings me to Clara Bow — “You look like Taylor Swift, you’ve got edge she never did”
The reason you can’t compare someone like Billie’s coming out to Taylor is that Billie has always been “edgier” than Taylor, that’s the brand/image that BILLIE built for herself. Billie coming out really isn’t all that shocking even in the straightest of fandoms bc it fits her image, it makes sense, it doesn’t crumble the “idea” of Billie. When looking at the NYU speech and the weight that Taylor feels of the children of America looking up to her, I’m not sure that Billie has ever shouldered that pressure, which makes her coming out a much more manageable hurdle for her.
Somebody in another post commented whether or not Taylor is bitter about all these other younger pop stars coming out as queer today when it’s been a decade+ long battle for herself — I think the way that Clara Bow and The Prophecy are so beautifully tied together is that I think Taylor is acknowledging that the role that TAYLOR plays in THEIR success as queer artists. I think it’s more of a fact than opinion to say that Taylor would not have had her level of success if she came out as queer in her earlier albums in the 2000s or even 2010s. And not knocking artists like Billie/Olivia etc at all bc they are insanely talented and would be 100% be successful in their own right….but I DO think that part of their appeal to fans is that they brought a new, edgier side to the table as compared to good girl artists like Taylor Swift….a lot of people first liked or noticed them because they were an “edgy Taylor Swift, like Taylor Swift with some sass, etc”….those artists would not have the space to be THEM if Taylor Swift wasn’t Taylor Swift (or at the very least, the space would be different). By playing the straight good girl America’s role model, Taylor created the avenue for edgy/queer artists to succeed by COMPARISON to her, because the machine keeps turning and fans love to consume and compare artists as slightly different variations of existing artists. Taylor is cursed(and chose) to be Taylor The Brand in the Clara Bow lineage so that the next artist can be edgier than she was (and in that edginess is the lack of fear that Taylor carries to come out).
So to wrap it all up, I think The Prophecy is using the Biblical reference of Eve’s choice to acknowledge that Taylor is COMPLICIT in her situation….she CHOSE this path of thorns and thistles and even though she may have been deceived and fooled into thinking it was the right choice, ultimately SHE is the one who has cursed herself to live in a world where she has to be who she is because all of the Sarahs and Hannahs are looking up to her — but deep down she wishes she WASN’T the one that’s held to that standard and that she could just go back to the Garden with Betty (“please let it once be me”). She wants to be one of the queer artists coming out so easily today but she knows she can’t bc that’s not her role in the Clara Bow industry machine. She’s grappling with the fact that she’s “so afraid I sealed my fate” and begging for somebody to change her role in the life she chose….which is just so so sad 😞
ETA for clarity: I don’t think her garden references are a literal call to the Garden Of Eden but the notion of a place where she can be her true self, her home that she’s been banished from (I can go anywhere I want just not home). Just like eve was banished from Eden, Taylor can’t publicly go to her “garden” anymore, she has to sneak through the gates undetected or visit them only in her mind.

Well, perhaps that's an overstatement. I don't dislike The White Album, but it certainly isn't one of my favourite Beatles albums. I probably prefer it to Help!, but to me it's worse by some distance than every album from Rubber Soul to Abbey Road bar Yellow Submarine, and even that's not too far off, nor is Let It Be.
First of all, it's too long. The next longest Beatles album after The White Album is Abbey Road at 47 minutes, while The White Album sits at a whopping 1 hr 33 min, long even by a double album's standards (The Wall is 1 hr 20, Blonde on Blonde is 1 hr 12).
I'm generally not a fan of double albums anyway, I find them to be self-indulgent, bloated and often full of half-finished ideas. The White Album has no shortage of any of these. Wild Honey Pie and Why Don't We Do It in the Road? are blatant examples of boring, short tracks that add nothing to the album.
There are also plenty of longer tracks that feel unfinished or overly simple. Bungalow Bill, Piggies, Rocky Raccoon, Don't Pass Me By, Birthday, Mother Nature's Son, Sexy Sadie, Honey Pie and Savoy Truffle and Revolution 9, while they might have some charm either go on too long or are overly repetitive.
Bungalow Bill has too much chorus, Piggies is too simple, Rocky Raccoon is a bit too long, as is Don't Pass Me By, the rest of them just don't interest me musically, and Revolution 9, well, it's Revolution 9. A pretentious, self-indulgent 8 minute snooze fest with nothing of interest to offer.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the great songs this album does feature, though; Dear Prudence, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, Martha My Dear, I'm So Tired, Blackbird, I Will, Julia, Helter Skelter, Long, Long, Long, Revolution 1, Cry Baby Cry and Good Night are good/great tracks.
Disc 1 is actually pretty consistently good, even Back in the U.S.S.R., Glass Onion, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (even if it is too long) and the songs mentioned in the last paragraph, are solid. Disc 2 much less so, too many incomplete tracks, eight-minute soundscapes and no great songs, just a few good ones.
A hypothetical one-disc album where Yer Blues replaced Wild Honey Pie, Helter Skelter replaced Bungalow Bill, Long, Long, Long replaced Piggies, Revolution 1 (which I actually prefer to the single version) replaced Rocky Raccoon, Cry Baby Cry replaced Don't Pass Me By and Good Night replaced Why Don't We Do It in the Road? on Side 1 with the track listing changed to improve cohesion, would be a good, 8/10 record, still probably their worst from Rubber Soul to Abbey Road, again, bar Yellow Submarine, though it might even be better than Rubber Soul and certainly one of the best rock albums of all-time. (which I know a lot of people would say it is regardless.)
In essence, The White Album, while it has its highs, which are, it must be said, very high, its lows are equally as low, lower than those of any Beatles album since the band transitioned from an unremarkable pop boy band to groundbreakers of rock music. It's bloated, full of unfinished throwaway songs, and the tension within the band is certainly palpable when listening to this record, and not in a good way. I give it a 6/10, a 7 on a good day, but, at the end of the day, it is a Beatles album, and it's brilliant in its own right.

1000g of 0.2% shea butter-based gel (1mg estrogen per 0.5g dose) - 2g raw estradiol powder 44g orange oil (d-limonene is a good penetration enhancer) 44g olive oil (contains a lot of oleic acid) 100g propylene glycol (solvent and penetration enhancer) 800g of shea butter or a possible premade cream (solvent and base) 500g of 0.2% estradiol gel (1mg estrogen per 0.5g dose of shea butter. The little problem is to calculate the dosage. I guess a pump bottle or dilution or experimenting to see what was best for each of us should be enough)
I tested the estrogen-based butter on myself choosing to jump the gun and for one day to not use my homemade gel. I haven’t been able to do blood tests yet but there had been periods before where simply because of laziness or other things, I didn't use my gel and in return my body made me pay for it with tiredness, headaches and sometimes hot flashes. It wasn’t the case this time. I felt more than fine. It's just had been a day but it already seems promising. My next blood tests will be in three months but even without them, I feel like my hormones are probably at the levels I wish they were if not more. I honestly think that using Shea butter itself with a hormone and maybe a little bit if any penetration enhancer would be enough due to the fact that Shea butter is mostly made of acids naturally acting as penetration enhancers.
I'm sure a lot of people will still doubt but even science shows that it is possible. We first have to acknowledge the fact that Shea butter is a fat (also a natural emollient ) mostly made of Oleic acid and Stearic acid, two skin penetration enhancers (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shea_butter). The typical levels of the major fatty acids present in shea butter are – oleic acid (C18:1) 34 to 62%, stearic acid (C18:0) 20 to 55.7%, palmitic acid (C16:0) 1.9 to 10% and linoleic acid (C18:2) 1 to 11% (https://kumarmetal.com/shea-butter-properties-applications/#:~:text=The%20typical%20levels%20of%20the,2)%201%20to%2011%25.).
-Oleic acid is widely studied and has been shown to disrupt the stratum corneum lipids, enhancing skin permeability. - Linoleic acid has been reported to increase skin permeability by altering lipid organization in the stratum corneum. - Stearic and palmitic acids have also been noted for their ability to modify the lipid bilayers of the skin, thereby enhancing drug penetration Effectiveness of Oleic Acid**:(Badran, M. M., Kuntsche, J., & Fahr, A. (2009). Skin penetration enhancement by a microneedle device (Dermaroller®) in vitro: dependency on needle size and applied formulation. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 72(3), 511-523.
Linoleic Acid Studies**: - Godin, B., & Touitou, E. (2007). Transdermal skin delivery: predictions for humans from in vivo, ex vivo and animal models. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 59(11), 1152-1161.
Stearic Acid as Enhancer**: - Osborne, D. W., & Henke, J. J. (1997). Skin penetration enhancers cited in the technical literature. Pharmaceutical Technology, 21(11), 58-68.
Palmitic Acid**: - Williams, A. C., & Barry, B. W. (2004). Penetration enhancers. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 56(5), 603-618..)
There is also substantial evidence that lipid-based formulations, including those with fats and oils, can be effective for transdermal drug delivery when properly formulated. These formulations often include a combination of oils, emulsifiers, and penetration enhancers. - Example: Various commercial transdermal products use lipid-based carriers with added penetration enhancers to ensure effective delivery. - Reference: Hadgraft, J. (2004). Skin, the final frontier. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 285(1-2), 3-12. This review discusses the potential of various formulation strategies for transdermal drug delivery, including lipid-based systems.
Secondly, Steroid hormones (SHs) like Estradiol, Estriol, Estrone, even testosterone are lipophilic molecules (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10874567/#:~:text=Steroid%20hormones%20(SHs)%20are%20lipophilic,oestrogens%20and%20progestagens%20or%20progestins). ) which means that they can dissolve in fats and oils, which includes shea butter.
There are probably a lot of other proofs that could be used but in clear, it is possible to use shea butter as a way to deliver drugs transdermally. Last if not least, I chose shea butter originally because more than having a lot of it around that I wasn’t using, Shea is one of the only if not the only butter that is both hydrating (https://www.laroche-posay.fl-acide-ferulique-un-anti-oxydant-puissant-pour-la-peau---la-roche-posay/quels-sont-les-bienfaits-du-beurre-de-karite.html#:~:text=Des%20propri%C3%A9t%C3%A9s%20nourrissantes%20et%20assouplissantes&text=Le%20beurre%20de%20karit%C3%A9%20est%20un%20excellent%20hydratant%20et%20%C3%A9mollient,pr%C3%A9venir%20et%20att%C3%A9nuer%20les%20vergetures. https://www.byrdie.com/shea-butter-skin-care-benefits-and-beauty-recipes-2442773 ) and moisturizing. I think it would only be beneficial to use a shea butter-based cream than an alcohol-based one when alcohol based cream particularly when used on the private parts under for better absorption can sting.
Depending on the dose and the formulation, an estrogen-based Shea butter could be used for skin care ( already made a post about it yesterday) or for delivery of transdermal drugs. I'm going to continue to apply it in the long term to have more data. I hope others here could join me or try to do other similar things. It could be fun and interesting
PS: here is a study showing the effectiveness of different oils as penetration enhancers( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6264261/)
PSS: I based this recipe on the one of deathmetaltransbian. She's the true MVP here. Not sure if she's gonna see it but thank you for what you did. I would have never have thought about doing what I'm actually doing without the seeds planted by you and so many other cool people
PSSS: the best shea butter is the one that is raw, unrefined because most of the time, refined Shea butter lacks the things and the vitamins that make it great and is often modified by the people seeking it in some ways