eepy

You can argue about the diligence of the Rat Grinders vs. the utter uselessness of their work vs. the Bad Kids saving the world vs. their blithe assumption that they'll always be able to avoid the tedious work they don't feel like doing - the real enemy here is the rules they're all operating under. It's not fair.

It's not fair that Riz has done all the work and still might not be able to go to college. It's not fair that you can't learn to be a wizard unless you're rich. It's not fair that a teacher's bias can keep you from your academic goals. It's not fair to be a teenager with no parents and a goddess relying on them to revive their religion. It's. Not. Fair.

And underneath it all, there's the essential plaint that every teenage adventure story has in common, because it's necessary in order for the adventure to happen in the first place: it's not fair that the adults in our lives have failed us.

A precondition for kids to save the world is that the grown-ups who are supposed to care for them and to solve these problems aren't doing their jobs. Aguefort is off flouting his responsibilities as an educator and Gorgug, Fig, and Riz are the only Bad Kids whose parents are even halfway showing up at this point. Adults made the rules that said a student can skip an entire year of schoolwork by finding the Rogue teacher, that you have to pay for your own spell components, and that you can graduate an adventuring academy without fighting anything bigger than a rat (not to mention passing for two years without ever attending class).

Adults failed to tell the kids about their academic options from the start so they could make informed decisions. Adults created an opaque multiclassing system completely beholden to the whims of individual teachers. Adults said a strudel shop job can only have eight-hour shifts. And kids just have to live with it, little paper hat and all. It gives a very Terry Pratchett kind of rage - the petty injustice and hilarity all in one.

🙃 Regular reminder that while Hozier has amazing love songs, he is ALSO very outspoken about his leftist politics, specifically anti-fascism, anti-racism, reproductive rights, Palestinian rights and more.

Take Me To Church and Foreigner’s God are scathing critiques of organized religion, specifically the Catholic Church and the colonization of Ireland.

Moment’s Silence is about oral sex but it’s ALSO about how that specific sexual act is often distorted to a show of power rather than that of love.

Nina Cried Power is an homage to various (mostly Black) civil rights activists from the US and Ireland and a call to follow their path.

Be criticizes anti-migrant policies and Trump and his ilk.

Jackboot Jump is about the global wave of fascism and about protest and resistance.

Swan Upon Leda is about reproductive rights and the violent colonial oppression of Ireland and Palestine.

Eat Your Young is about the ruinous way the 1%/capitalism and arms dealers prioritize short-term profit over everything else to the detriment of the youth/99%

Butchered Tongue is about Irish and other indigenous languages being suppressed and erased by imperial powers.