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For the first time in my life, I was seen.

With these words, AMCs Interview with the Vampire thrusts us into the gothic, twisted romance of vampire husbands Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Point du Lacone of the worlds most iconic, queer vampire relationships.

Interview with the Vampire is the first book in the Vampire Chronicles, a thirteen book (yes, you read that correctly) series by Anne Rice, which began in 1976. The novel follows Louis, a vampire who inflicts his life story upon a young journalist called the boy, later named as Daniel Molloy. Louis recalls a life spanning long, distraught decades, filled with loving and losing the famous French vampire named Lestat, adopting Claudia, a young girl who they bring into cursed immortality with them, and eventually finding his way to Paris, where things go from bad to worse. It is an emotional, sensual gothic horror novel that looks deeply into what it means to be a monster, what it means to be human, and is deliciously queer.

Despite being a major title in the gothic horror genre, theres been some argument as to whether Interview with the Vampire can truly be considered a quintessential queer gothic horror novel. This is probably because blatant declarations of queerness occur later in the series, after Interview with the Vampireafter many modern readers gave up and decried that subtext was not enough for them.

The 1994 adaptation certainly did not help. It never defines the nature of Lestat and Louiss relationship, nor Louis and Armands. Its representation of race is no better: after Louis dramatically frees his slaves, we never see another Black person again.

When AMC announced their plans for a TV show, I assumed their adaptation would remain as close to the book as the 1994 film had. Imagine my surprise when I learned that AMCs show was not only set in the early 20th century, but that Louis and Claudia were being played by Black actors.

As a Black, queer fan of the book, I was skeptical about this. Interview with the Vampire is many thingsgothic, haunting, lyrical, emotionalbut conscientious about race is not one of them. In the novel, Louis is a slave owner, and all the Black characters are enslaved, preyed upon by Lestat, and completely disappear after the characters leave the plantation.

I was skeptical about the production teams ability to portray a faithful queer relationship, and even less hopeful about their ability to portray a Black, queer man in a toxic, abusive romance with a white, queer man with substantially more power than him. The issue of being seen is one deeply entrenched in every queer person of color I know. It is so incredibly rare to see the experience of the double bind of racism and homophobia portrayed well.

Ironically, it is this very topicthe topic of sightthat lies so centrally to AMCs Interview with the Vampire. It is truly an adaptation in every sense, as it expands on the themes and relationships in the novel with new, modern insight. It cannot be divorced from its queerness (unlike the film) nor its Blackness (unlike the novel). Despite this, it manages to remain in conversation with both because, here, it is the power of being seen that matters most.

Screenshot: AMC

This adaptation does not fear the blatant queerness of its source material. Any fan of the Vampire Chronicles will tell you that the queer relationships are the beating heart of the series. AMCs Interview is spiritually in keeping with this: it is Louis and Lestats love story, embracing all of its yearning, vampiric coffin sex, and messy, tragic violence.

Framed as a response to both the film and the novelthe first episode establishes that this is Daniels second time interviewing Louis, which parallels the fans experience, since its our second time watching an adaptationyou can feel the conversation the adaptation is having with both the novel and the 1994 film.

AMCs Interview is the story of Louis coming to terms with his sexuality, of tryingand failingto build a family for himself after losing his own, something that is so resonant for many queer viewers. Even the source of Louis and Daniels relationship is queer, as the two met while flirting in a gay bar in the 1970s (in keeping with the original short story Anne Rice wrote about Interview, before she expanded it into a novel).

Instead of being enslaved, here the Black characters are given center stage. The season follows Louiss pushing back against rich white men who exploit his labor, with his grieving family, with raising Claudia as a young Black woman, and even with Lestat. Claudia, too, learns to navigate the world as she comes-of-age, both as a Black woman and as a vampire. The Black characters are no longer a negligible part of the story, they are the story.

In this Bridgerton-era of colorblind casting, the relevance of Louis and Claudias experience as Black peopleand Louiss experience as a queer Black manis refreshing. Never has the power imbalance between Louis and Lestat been more textual. Louiss struggle to find himself in a world where he knows one other queer, Black man, is one that is intimately familiar to queer people of color, especially queer Black people. The pilot episode sees him rushing headfirst into a relationship with Lestat, who sees him for the man that he istrapped in the double bind of racism and homophobia alike, forced to play a palatable role to survive the expectations of a white, heteronormative world. This is the double bind that Lestat frees Louis from. It is seductive, it is rich. It will be his undoing.

Louis and Claudias Blackness alienates them from Lestat, while deepening their bond to each other. Louiss newfound power as a vampire directly informs the way he pushes back to racism. This isnt the colorblind casting that has become so popular within recent diverse worksthis is an adaptation that genuinely wants to explore the Black queer experience, adding a new complexity to the power struggles between the trio that makes up this strange, toxic vampire family.

Screenshot: AMC

While Claudias own voice leaves much to be desired, with her own words in her diary often being ripped out, it is clear that the series wants to dig into these questions of power and of voice. Who decides who gets to be seen? How do we decide how much of another is seen? Is it another persons place to decide how much of another person can be seen by the world?

To see, to truly see, is to know. And to be seen, to truly be seen, is to be known. And what is more beautifully tragic than the mortifying ordeal of being known? To be seen and loved in tandemwhat more can any of us desire? What violence would we forgive to be seen and, in that same moment, to be loved?

Ultimately, I see AMCs adaptation as more than a modernization. It is in direct conversation with the novel and the 1994 adaptation. More importantly, its daring to go where its predecessors did not. It expands and modernizes the themes of the novelquestions of desire, power, intimacy, what it means to love and be loved in return.

I read Interview with the Vampire for the first time when I was thirteen, and Ive been in love with the series ever since. I was a grieving, depressed, queer girl and, ironically, the books made me feel seen. These are the themes I am so glad to see presented in AMCs adaptation, so gloriously explored and given the weight and power they deserve.

Interview with the Vampire will always be the perfect gothic horror love story. It is beautifully messy, it is brilliantly horrificbecause isnt love, at its core, always a little terrifying?

Interview with the Vampire will always have my heart. It understands, so intimately, the dangerous ordeal of being known.

Ashia Monet is a novelist and essayist from Pennsylvania. As a lifelong fan of myth and poetry (especially Sappho), her fantasy novels explore various forms of magic and monsters. Online, shes @ashiamonet on Twitter and @ashiawrites on Instagram and Tiktok. Her website isashiamonet.com.

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The Power of Sight in AMC's Interview with the Vampire - tor.com

Warning: contains spoilers for FCBD 2023: Avengers/X-Men #1A prelude to the upcoming reboot of Uncanny Avengers, which debuted in FCBD 2023: Avengers/X-Men #1, depicted Deadpool's mutant daughter Ellie and her adoptive mother Emily Preston being threatened by Feilong's new Stark Sentinels, a threat of violence that will make Wade go into a murderous rage like few times in his life.

Uncanny Avengers will follow a group of mutant and human heroes, led by Captain America, as they attempt to hunt and capture the illegitimate Captain Krakoa while dealing with the ongoing ramifications of the X-Men's Fall of X. Deadpool will join the team, fighting for mutantkind in the name of his daughter, who possesses the X-Gene.

The FCBD 2023: Avengers/X-Men #1 'Uncanny Avengers' story - from writer Gerry Duggan and artist Javier Garron - shows the anti-mutant hate group Orchis escalating their attacks against Krakoa, including a terrifying Stark Sentinel and apparent SHIELD agent approaching Preston's house to threaten Ellie, something that Orchis will most likely deeply regret, given Deadpool's history with his daughter.

Eleanor Camacho first debuted in 2013's Deadpool #19, daughter of Carmelita Camacho and Wade Wilson, although it was revealed that Wade heartbreakingly rejected his daughter when first introduced to her, thinking she was too beautiful for someone like him to have created. Slowly though, Deadpool and Ellie's lives became intertwined, and upon meeting again Ellie instinctively knew that Wade was her father, and since then she has become a central figure in Wade's life and an integral part of his growth into an antihero. Wade has had a lot of horrible things happen to him throughout his life, but both his daughter Ellie and his friendship with former SHIELD agent Emily Preston have been major highlights, with Deadpool placing Ellie in Emily's care permanently.

When Deadpool finds out that Orchis is threatening his daughter, he is going to absolutely lose it, and kill anyone in his way to protect Ellie and get her home safe. While the SHIELD agent who appears at Preston's home is wearing a SHEILD uniform, it is tinted red, a sign that this is an Orchis agent coming to round up Ellie. Deadpool has done some really brutal things to people who have threatened or hurt Ellie, like slaughtering every single member of the U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. organization after they tried to kill Ellie and the Prestons, and even giving up his costumed identity to keep them safe. Protecting Ellie brings out Deadpool's dark side like nothing else, and is one of the few times fans saw who he really is under the jokes - a stone-cold killer.

It was revealed in Deadpool vol. 5 #34 that Ellie has an X-Gene and is a mutant, and while her powers have not activated on Earth-616, a version of Ellie in the Marvel 2099 timeline showed that Deadpool's daughter has the powerful healing factor of "resurrective immortality," which causes her to resurrect as her teenage self whenever she dies. On Earth-616 this has not been canonically confirmed, so while Wade knows she is a mutant, her powers have not manifested and she is an incredibly vulnerable young woman, who he has fought tooth and nail to protect. It's likely that Cap doesn't know what he's doing inviting Deadpool into the Uncanny Avengers, as there's very little chance Wade will leave anyone who threatened Ellie alive.

While Deadpool treats most everything as a joke, the safety and happiness of Ellie are something that he takes incredibly seriously, since she is the best thing in his life. While slaughtering U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. was extreme, that organization didn't have the membership or funds of Orchis, and this time Deadpool will truly have to burn a SHIELD-sized organization to the ground to guarantee Ellie's safety. Wade's daughter being violently threatened by Orchis and Feilong's Stark Sentinels is going to go very badly for Orchis, as Deadpool will explode with rage when he discovers that Ellie is being hunted - and fans will have a ringside seat.

FCBD 2023: Avengers/X-Men #1 from Marvel Comics is available now, with Uncanny Avengers #1 coming August 16.

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Deadpool Is About to Lose His Mind Like Never in Marvel History - Screen Rant

I titled this little essaywellyou know. But really? The battle today is about being not a dumber person. The forces of ignorance, in all their guises and forms, have us surrounded today. Encircled. Theyre laying siege to us. Our societies, our communities our minds. From ban the books!! to shades of burn the witch!! we live in an era that feels profoundly dislocating because something strangely unfamiliar is happening.

The world is getting stupider.

Now, that might sound funny, but only because its only a joke in the sense that its not. Think about history for a second. What was true, for a very long time? The world was getting smarter. I dont mean that in a linear way, or a universalizing way. But by and large, for most of parents, grandparents, even grandparents lifetimes a great trend in human civilization was that the world was getting smarter. Great systems of education were built, then advanced across gender and castes and races. Universities opened their doors to all. Science became a true public good, and anyone could access it, or at least enough of it. And sothe world got smarter.

This was an essential part of the story of human progress. But as now know, human progress has flatlined, and is going into reverse. And part of that Great Reversal in human progress is the facepalm-inducing fact that the world is getting stupider.

Theres a reason it feels as if all the people around you are getting dumber: They are. A study published in the journal Intelligence found that American IQs are dropping for the first time in ages. An analysis of 394,378 scores on intelligence tests taken between 2006 and 2018 showed that IQs had fallen in every category except for spatial reasoning. In logic and vocabulary, computation and mathematics, and visual problem-solving and analogies, scores dropped.

Now think about howweird everything feels. How everything feels so bewildering, unfamiliar, dislocating, strange, even sinister. Its not everything. Its justpeople. Scientists are still out there making advances, thinkers thinking, writers writing, artists arting (can I say that?).

But these days? You dont know. Youre sitting at the cafe, in line at the store, walking down the street. Hey, is that person amaniacwho believes that climate change is a hoaxand wants to wipe out the nearest girls school, gay bar, or library, with an AR-15? Maybe theyre just an everyday Trumpist or DeSatanist (can I call them that?), and are on a human hair trigger, ready to turn you in forreading a book with a gay character in it. Maybe they deeply, genuinely believe in the Satanic conspiracy to rule the world with microchips that are in vaccines so that Hillary Clinton and the Illuminati can gain immortality by drinking kids blood (thats Qanon, folks.)

Why do you have that creepy feeling when you dare to venture outside the door? Thats the feeling of the world getting stupider.

So the fight today isnt just to get smarter. That parts easy, actually. Here, let me tell you the secrets. Read. A lot. Real books, not bestsellers, and while they can overlap a bit, its rare they do often. Pick a favorite academic journal or three. Read those, too. Find a favorite mind, and read everything theyve every written. Do that for the living and the dead. Make an hour every day, without fail, at least, to reflect on what youre learning. Choose an activity that helps your mind do it lets it just tick away without even really thinking explicitly running, having a bath, making music. Turn off Netflix, Twitter, Facebook for all that time. Be uninterrupted. And finally, take some personal tuition reach out to people for coaching, advice, lessons, learning, whatever the subject is.

Got all that? The problem isnt that, really, though. Its the forces of ignorance encircling us, and laying siege to our societies and minds. So that far too few of us are capable of ever doing much of that. So lets begin with the meat of the subject. How to become a smarter as in less stupid person.

Number one. Dont politicize science. You know whats odd about today? Sciences claim to truth has been unseated socioculturally. Let me put that in plain English. Go on YouTube, and there, presented to you as equals, will be videos saying that climate change is a hoax!!and it actually exists. Therell be plenty more of those saying its a hoax, or it doesnt matter, or so forth, in fact, because, well, theres more money to be made that way. And for that reason, writ larger both-sidesing its now become a social norm to politicize science.

And this norm has come to dominate our societies. Its now perfectly acceptable to take some kind of flagrantly anti-scientific, anti-reality stance. To play the contrarian. And youll get plenty of time, in newspapers and on cable news and so forth, because for them, controversy sells. Demagogues license all this, by not just politicizing science, but actively legislating against it. Think of how many American states have a climate change plan LOL. Meanwhile, an impoverished country like Pakistan has a Climate Change Minister.

Think of Ron DeSantiss Florida. Why do demagogues attack science? Precisely because they need to unseat truth, so they can claim the throne for themselves. Only if science has been delegitimized can their Big Lies have room to grow, spread, multiply, proliferate. Demagogues need to claim their own big mouths as the one truth, gospel, objectivity, the final word thats how you exert authoritarian control over a society.

It wasnt always like this, by the way. Science and I use the term broadly here, to include everything down to social science was respected, once upon a time. In the 50s, 60s, 70s? Nobody was crying that the moon landing was a hoax. Even in the 70s when abilities like ESP or telekinesis go ahead and chuckle were a fad, they were scientifically investigated, even by, LOL, the CIA. Science had a legitimacy it doesnt enjoy today, and were all the stupider for it.

How did that happen? Well, decades of disinformation took their toll. People lost trust in institutions and systems as they got poorer, as downward mobility bit. And the watershed moment was probably Covid, where far too many even intelligent people, whole societies fell prey to incredibly foolish myths, like herd immunity. Even today, Covids been declared over whileitsstill one of our leading causes of death. LOL. And you expect people to believe in science when youre giving them that kind of free pass not to? When leaders treat truth with contempt, in order to claim its mantle for themselves we can hardly expect the average person to have much respect for it.

Two. Dont idealize philosophy. Treating science with contempt instead of reading it, engaging with it, learning from it, from climate change to biology to physics to sociology to economics is the first step in a process of radicalization. The next step is that person getting radicalized is told that their opinions count more than objectively established truths as long as they have the backing of some usually ancient philosopher.

You can see this happening on YouTube, too. Philosophys all the rage. Hey! I believe women and minorities arent really people, because this guy said so! And he said it because, hey, didnt someone say that human nature is cruel, and were only here for powers sake! And didnt the guy before him say that tradition and ritual is all there is? Or else were just animals!

LOL. Look philosophys just that. Its not meant to be idealized. When we begin to treat it as gospel, we make a serious mistake. Lets take a pretty simple example. Once upon a time, there were plenty of guys who said that democracy wasnt a worthy pursuit. People couldnt do it! Even if they did, what point was there! And over the last several centuries or so, something remarkable happened. The world became more democratic, and an explosion in living standards and human progress went hand-in-hand with that. What do we learn from this?

Philosophy is just ideas. Ideas meet the real world, and they can be road-tested. Every philosophy we encounter should pass a certain set of tests: hey, has this old beater been taken out on the road yet? How did it do? Did itgo anywhere? If not, that philosophys a failure. The second one goes like this: does this philosophy comport with what we know to be true? Plenty of philosophers have said and still do that some people are superior to others. What do we know from, wait for it, science? Thats not remotely true. Were all profoundly the same. Plenty of philosophers have said that human beings are innately cruel, selfish, etcetera. What do we know? Were all born profoundly empathic, giving, curious, and relational.

Dont idealize philosophy. Any philosophy. Life is here to be lived. Not according to the dictates of anyone, really, but you. You already know everything you need to know to live a fulfilling and sane and moral life thats the part about being born empathic, loving, curious. The rest is really just acting on it. In that respect, it was probably Aristotle, amongst philosophers, who got it right.

This drama has become a charade. Lets go back to radicalisation or as I call it, watching some poor soul get stupider. First they learn to hate knowledge itself, treating science with contempt. Then, theyre told their opinions not really theirs, the ones disinformation puts in their heads are bigger and better, because This Ancient Philosopher Agreed. And that makes a certain kind of person feel Very Smart. Wow, look at me! ImImDiogenes over here! Why, Im goddamned Pythagoras in the bathtub, shouting Eureka!!

No, youre not. And of those great, ancient minds? If they were alive today, you know what theyd be doing? Theyd be marveling at how much we know. Learning it, voraciously. And then philosophizing. About what it all meant, said, taught us. In moral, human, social, civilizational terms. About who we are, why were here, what were made for, etcetera. See the lesson? You have to know before you philosophize. Otherwise youre just engaging insophistry.

Do you want to know what one of the big problems with our world today is? The rise of modern day sophists. Whats a sophist?

In the second half of the 5th century BC, particularly in Athens, sophist came to denote a class of mostly itinerant intellectuals who taught courses in various subjects, speculated about the nature of language and culture, and employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes, generally to persuade or convince othersSophists did, however, have one important thing in common: whatever else they did or did not claim to know, they characteristically had a great understanding of what words would entertain or impress or persuade an audience.

The boldings mine. See the parallel? Make you chuckle for a second? Todays sophists are called pundits. Influencers. All these crackpot, wackjob figures that surround us. Who dont actually know much of anything but will opine on subjects they dont know about for hourson podcasts, videos, cable news, bestsellers, newspaper columns. And like the sophists of old, there they are, pretending to teach young people, who are dazzled, often, by their seeming display of intellect. But its mostly just rhetoric. Plus a change. Sophistry surrounds us because we have a sophist industry now, thanks to YouTube, Instagram, CNN, etcetera and its making the world painfully, shatteringly stupider.

That brings me to point number three. Dont devalue the arts. I mean that as an act. In the way you live your life. How do you.read? Listen to music? Do you ever evenI dont knowwatchdance? Ballet? Opera? How about music from around the world? Ever tried to learn another language?

You see, we live in a world now where the arts have little to no value, and I mean that almost in a literal economic way. Theyre fields which have imploded. Streaming pays so little that your favorite bands cant earn a living from it. Writing, such a meager income your favorite writers are perpetually struggling, unless theyre basically CEOs of their own industries, like, say James Patterson.

We can all stream, download, collecteverything and anything now. And yet precisely for that reason, the arts have no value, and its making us stupider. We have now a model of shallow engagement with a trillion things and depth with none. You listen to a song for 3.5 seconds, over and over again, and appreciate almost none. You put Netflix on in the background, surf the internet, barely pay any attention to both, and your brain is numb by the end of it. We need to choose depth over shallowness when it comes to our own attention and thinking if we want to be smarteror not just get dumber.

Let me give you an example from my own life, which is always risky, but its an interesting one. I make music. Disco. One of my favourite singers is French. I asked her to do a song with me. She said yes. I was thrilled. I went back to my song, and had a thought: wouldnt it becoolif half of this was in French? Problem: my French isrusty. LOL. Its definitely not up to lyrical standards. So I had to improve it. And it wasa marvelous and beautiful thing to experience. Writing lyrics in another language? Like poetry. And now I could see why French poets swore by the language. Write lyrically in it, compared to English, and its on another dimension of expressivity, beauty, purity, truth. The song was way better for it, but thats not the point the point is that I didnt want to devalue the art, and I challenged myself to learn something instead.

Art is there for a reason. Sure, therell be four guys, grad school freshman nerds, wholl want to dispute that Im sure your professor would love to. But in a real sense? Art is there for a reason. It teaches us. About ourselves. What it means to be us. Human, finite, frail. Tiny things, on a spinning ball of dust, in an endless universe of light. The struggle. You see it another person, a character, a protagonist. Whichever one it is, theyre all the same struggle and this is arts secret. Love. Grief. Longing. Death. Existence.

Art teaches us how to exist in this world. And when we devalue it as our systems almost force us to do these days, downloading it, streaming it, in quantities more fit for databanks than human engagement, intellect, thoughtour lives are diminished. We grow stupider, in the deepest way. Morally, socially, emotionally. We dont even recognize our pain as pain anymore, and then it becomes hate, spite, violence. The cycle of human folly repeats itself. Demagogues laugh. Sound like the world today? Yup, as in getting stupider.

Me? Theres a thought that runs through my head these days. I dont know how to exist in this world anymore. Its not just the spite, hate, ugliness, resentment, cruelty, lies. Not just the demagogues, their flocks of the fanatical, their legions of the murderously virtuous. Itsmore than that. How do you live in a world getting stupider? And isnt that a pretty good starting definition of dark age, anyways?

I guess, in the end, you fight em or you join em. Me? Im weary of the fight. Against human folly. Ignorance. All its names, from violence to war to cruelty to spite. But here I am. Because I cant join em, either. And that leaves me right here. I dont know how to live in this world anymore.

Good thing we have all that knowledge, all that art, all that philosophy, all that science, isnt it?

UmairMay 2023

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Three Ways to Be a Smarter Person | by umair haque | May, 2023 - Eudaimonia and Co

The following contains spoilers for Hell's Paradise Episode 5, "The Samurai and the Woman," now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hell's Paradise is a stunningly brutal anime that delivers on all fronts -- from its jaw-dropping fight scenes to its intricate worldbuilding. The first few episodes of the anime are proof of that. After all, each episode showcases multiple characters being mutilated in various ways. However, Hell's Paradise isn't just an action-packed franchise. It also offers interesting interaction between the characters, especially the ones between the Yamada Asaemons and their respective prisoners. And this is only made possible because they have granted the executioners the liberty of choosing their criminals.

There are two major groups of human fighters in Hell's Paradise. The first one is the group of criminals who have been sentenced to death. Given that their crimes have a wide range, they have different fighting styles and abilities. The other is the Yamada Asaemon, the executioners assigned to eliminate the criminals should they have any weird thoughts. Their goal is to find the Elixir of Life, which is said to grant immortality. The criminal who succeeds in finding it is then granted a pardon for their crimes. This dangling prize and the Asaemon's choices are what make their respective relationships compelling.

RELATED:Hell's Paradise Just Added the Perfect New Ally to Gabimaru's Team

The show's narrative benefits from the Asaemons' ability to choose their prisoners because it creates more opportunities for character development and exploration. This allows a dynamic and diverse set of relationships between characters, further adding depth to the otherwise shallow motivation of simply wanting a pardon.

As Hell's Paradise main characters, Gabimaru and Sagiri obviously benefit from this treatment. Sagiri has personally sought Gabimaru after hearing of his remarkable feats of survival. She experiences them firsthand and confirms Gabimaru's extraordinary abilities. After confirming and affirming his will to live, she extends the offer for a pardon. She tells him the mission of going to Shinsenkyo and fetching the Elixir of Life. However, that is not necessarily how Sagiri is saving Gabimaru.

The main reason Gabimaru can't accept death is his wife, who has taught him how to be human. He originally trained to be a stoic assassin incapable of feeling emotions, but ever since he met his wife, he slowly learns what it means to be human. However, his training isn't something to be completely forgotten. There are still instances where his dark persona comes out, and the one who reliably manages to reel him back to his senses is Sagiri. Similarly, Sagiri's choice isn't a mere act of goodwill. She chooses him in order to prove herself as an executioner and clear herself from her doubts. Albeit mostly unconsciously, Gabimaru offers her wisdom that clears Sagiri's doubts and also strengthens her resolve.

RELATED:Why Some of My Hero Academia's Anime Scenes Appear to Be Darkened

Another pair who has benefitted from this setup is the bandit leader Aza Chobei and his executioner Aza Toma. While their relationship at present is that of a death row criminal and his executioner, the two shares a long history. The two are actually brothers who eventually became bandits. Unfortunately, Chobei is eventually captured. He sacrifices himself so that his brother can escape. Even so, he hasn't lost hope yet. He has instructed his brother to do his best to rescue him from captivity just as he is being captured -- and that's what Toma did.

Toma infiltrates the esteemed Yamada Clan and hones himself to become a fine executioner. Interestingly, he does so in just a mere one month. Toma is then eventually allowed to do an execution, and he chose his brother Chobei as his subject. However, it isn't a mere execution. He shows him the pardon that is being offered by the shogun to whoever finds the Elixir of Life. Naturally, that equates to Chobei being freed. And after eliminating other criminals, Chobei ultimately gains the right to head toward Shinsenkyo.

Chobei and Toma's greatest edge over the other pairing is their shared history. They have not only gone through numerous hardships together, but they are also blood brothers. Needless to say, they have each other's backs, which is definitely a very important asset as they traverse the dangerous island of Shinsenkyo. Even still, that's not all they have to offer. Toma is shown to have some sort of overdependence on Chobei as well as a hint of envy. Chobei, on the other hand, is headstrong but caring. This combination opens the path to numerous possibilities, like tests of brotherhood, sacrifices, and perhaps betrayal.

RELATED:These Anime Are Perfect for People Interested in Money and Economics

One partnership that is arguably one of the most interesting ones -- even more than Gabimaru and Sagiri -- is Tenza and Nurugai. They have just been introduced in Episode 5, yet their stories already offer a new perspective on the show's narrative. While the show has already established a clear hierarchy of power between the Yamada Asaemons and the death-row prisoners, Tenza and Nurugai's introduction sheds light on the societal injustices that exist beyond that system. After all, Tenza doesn't just see Nurugai as a criminal he ought to slaughter. He actually wants to save the death row prisoner. And he has a good reason for it.

Nurugai is the last member of the Sanka, a peaceful group of people living in the mountains. But since the Sanka don't pledge their allegiance to the shogun, they are labeled as criminals. The shogun's samurai set out to massacre them, and without knowing any better, Nurugai is the one who pointed them to their settlement. The samurai then massacre her tribe, leaving her alive as a death row prisoner in the hopes of her leading them to the other Sanka settlements. But before she does get executed, Tenza appears and shows her an out to her execution.

Given Tenza's adamance and perseverance to save Nurugai, it is likely that he knows the unfortunate lass' backstory. As to how he has come to such knowledge is yet to be known. Nonetheless, their relationship offers a breath of fresh air from the others' past, as they are not bound by the usual power dynamics between Asaemons and prisoners. Instead, they share a common enemy in the corrupt government that labels innocent people as criminals and uses their power to oppress them. With their dynamics, they may also be the rare shippable relationship among Hell's Paradise's rowdy cast.

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Hell's Paradise: The Criminal Asaemon Pair With Deepens the Story - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Joe Pavelski is going to be front and center in the Western Conference finals.

Forget the narrative of the old guy without a Stanley Cup victory, joyfully along for the ride. Pavelski is the old guy who could lead the Stars to a Cup.

Against the Seattle Kraken, he scored eight goals, three of them game-winners. For good measure, the clinching goal in the decisive Game 7 came from Wyatt Johnston, the 20-year-old tenant who since September has lived with the Pavelskis to learn what it means to be a pro.

When the Stars are in focus, Pavelski will be in focus. He is hockeys Benjamin Button, destroying aging curves and tipping pucks past goalies in the process.

If the Stars pull it all off, win the eight more games required for immortality, the Cup pass to the 38-year-old Pavelski will be shown in NHL commercials in perpetuity. Move over Ray Bourque. There would be a new standard for playoff excellence by an aging hockey star.

It would be a remarkable story. It also would overshadow the other old guy without a Cup, the one who would be completing the first pass.

Jamie Benn is 33. Thats young by human standards, but ancient by hockey standards because of the rigors of a physical game he plays, which had him in the discussion as one of the top five players in the world at his peak.

For years he lived in the spotlight. It was the Jamie Benn Show, co-starring, well, the rest of the Stars. But it was never enough to deliver the long-awaited championship. When Benn was at his peak, his teammates were mediocre. When they had true Cup potential in 2016, the goaltending faltered and Tyler Seguin went down with a slashed Achilles.

In 2020, when the Stars went on an improbable run through the COVID-induced bubble in Edmonton, injuries robbed them of a fighting chance against the Tampa Bay Lightning. What if Seguin wasnt playing on two bum hips? What if Ben Bishop was healthy enough to play? Sure, Tampa Bay was the favorite, but the deck was stacked against Dallas.

Benn took the series-ending Game 6 loss the hardest. In a clip that went viral, Benn sat in full gear even after all of his teammates had filtered out. Later, through a clunky Zoom interaction with the media, he struggled to find the words to explain what the run had meant.

Benn was only 31, but with his play seemingly diminishing and the Stars staring at the injury fallout from the bubble run, his silence in the postgame press conference spoke volumes about a player who deep down realized he may have just been the closest hed ever come to winning the Stanley Cup.

The next two seasons were tough for the Stars. They really never threatened to make the playoffs in 2021, and only Jake Oettingers heroics made last seasons first-round series against the Calgary Flames feel competitive.

Heading into the 2022-23 season the Stars needed a change, a refresh. And part of new coach Pete DeBoers deliverance on that mandate was allowing Benn to move into the shadows. His ice time dropped, his name was replaced on the marquee, and big stories out of Dallas no longer focused on No. 14.

And in the shadows, Benn thrived.

Micro-load management by DeBoer revitalized Benns game-to-game energy. His minutes dropped, but he was more effective in the time he was on the ice. Pavelskis line with Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz took top billing, drove the stories, grabbed everyones attention. But behind them, Benn quietly finished with 78 points, 32 more than he had the previous season and his most since he had 79 in the 2017-18 campaign. He played a full 82 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since his mid-20s. He set a career-high with a plus-23 and a career mark for face-off wins, taking more than 60 percent.

He hadnt found Pavelskis fountain of youth, but the Bennasaince is real.

The Stars are partly in the Western Conference final because Benn allowed himself to be overshadowed. He embraced the supporting role on the ice, but he never relinquished the leadership responsibilities off of it.

Players who have left Dallas, and Ive spoken to many, often talk about Benn as one of the best captains theyve ever played for. Hes an everymanhis nickname is Chubbs for both his physique and the way he carries himself. Benn, even in his superstar days, has never asked a teammate to do something he wouldnt.

When the Stars have needed a scapegoat, Benn has taken the public blame. As much as he dislikes any interaction with the media, he is often the one available when the team is at its lowest. He says little, but by wearing it each and every time, he often shifts the focus away from teammates who have been struggling, those who need to be protected. At his core, Benn believes the Stars are like a family; hes Dom Toretto on skates, sans the catchy one-liners.

But unlike Fast and Furious, the Stars never jumped the shark. For a time, Benns career aged poorly, and he was exposed as a human instead of the indestructible machine he seemed to be in his twenties. Instead of being forced into a starring role, he took a step back and embraced his position in the background. He thrived in a new standard of excellence, individual attention be damned.

As the Stars prep for Game 1 against the Golden Knights on Friday night, Benn will primarily be an afterthought. Even on his own line, Johnston and Evgenii Dadonov will be larger storylines. Johnston is the new stud, like Benn once was, and Dadonov will face the franchise that tried multiple times to trade him during the 2021-22 season, even violating his no-trade clause in the process.

Benn likes it that way. Its when he does his best work.

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Sean Shapiro covers the Stars for StrongSide. He is a national NHL reporter and writer who previously covered the Dallas

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Jamie Benn Is Still Here - D Magazine