Don't tell me the mission was a success

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I'm going to ramble, and say some things that some folks might find depressing, talk about Young Justice spoilers, and use a foul word for full effect.

Lately Young Justice has been tremendously suspenseful, groundbreaking, profound, and devastating. The last particularly with what happened to Blue Beetle. The way they did it was unexpected and genius- not a big overdramatic reveal at the time, but a word from Impulse, the person devoted to preventing this and saving his friend, reflecting the use of the word 'perfect' running throughout the episode--which I realized upon rewatch was used in just the same way by Aqualad before we know he's really not evil. And then the terrible thing becomes gradually clearer over the next episode until we see for certain that the thing everyone dreaded and was desperate to prevent has happened. And now with the latest episode, things only get more desperate. They make him stab Impulse in the back and everyone is left to die.

It's amazing how the scenario in "Failsafe" was a crystallization of what's happening in the second season. No matter what, things get worse. There are so many parallels and foreshadowings, and I am continually amazed at how dark this cartoon has managed to get. And not dark for the sake of pretentious edginess, but the true reflection of a life standing against the tide of evil. Maybe that's why, disregarding its popularity, they're cancelling it. Anyway, I've been very very sad for the past fortnight over the situation with Blue Beetle. It's a profound distress, but not destructive, but I do feel like crying all the time and have difficulty keeping an appetite. And then, today, the Pope announces his resignation due to failing health.

You may think I'm about to say that this jerked me back into reality and made me realize I was frivolous caring so much about a cartoon.

No.

Many people think of stories as an escape from reality. And while it is true they let us forget certain unpleasant things in our lives, that is not what they are. Good stories, stories with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, reveal reality more fully than any news report or statistic. They reveal what it means. And what it means here is what a sinful world does to good people. Since his election, (which still feels like just a little while ago to me) Pope Benedict XVI has set in motion many things that promise a new rejuvenation in the Church's mission. Banalities creeping in because of misinterpretation of the second Vatican Council are being shunted away or dying of datedness, strains of Jansenism and abuse from before the Council are shriveling in the light of day, and historic stands against relativism and healing the wound of Protestantism are beginning. But at the same time, the Holy Father has been under constant attack of the vicious hatred of people who hate the Church and/or the fact that the Church says its wrong to kill innocent people and fuck whatever you want. And while he's stood strong and charitable against such things, I'm sure he's suffered.

In the state of mind that the grim situation in Young Justice has put me, the Pope's resignation strikes me as a very sad event. And I'm worried, too; I'm sure a lot of people and powers will scheme to put a man of the world on the Papal throne. But the rock of Peter is sure. Life is a process of getting everything you care about ripped from you. The world will always hate people who try to be good, will always do terrible things to them, deceive them, infiltrate them, betray them, violate them, torture them, brainwash them, crush their skulls and steal their oxygen. Crucify them. Only death awaits. But after death, goodness is reality and is a Sempiternal Rose of all-penetrating Light, and evil is a self-imprisoning speck. But that's a secret for now.

Lent is coming.