“Because of their efforts, the story of politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic is, ultimately, a tale of courage as well as cowardice, compassion as well as bigotry, inspiration as well as venality, and redemption as well as despair.”

-Randy Shilts, And The Band Played On

The text leading up to this point mainly focuses on the failures of people and institutions in the face of tackling the AIDS epidemic before shifting briefly to those who rose to help. The opposing terms presented in this quote, then, stresses the significance of this latter group of people because this positive language has been made a part of the descriptions of this era in time, but it is presented with the background that things were majority ill intentions.

“Without his hold to drape around my shoulders, to shore me up, I sank into hot, wordless grief. TWO MONTHS LATER, I squinted at a video of a gleeful Cardi B chanting in a singsong voice: Coronavirus, she cackled. Coronavirus.”

- Jesmyn Ward, Witness and Respair

The jarring and stark change in imagery from loss and grief to joyful mocking presented in this quote conveys the cruel truth that the world moves on, and that most people live blissfully unaware of the pain of others. These two moments mentioned back to back can also paint a sense of injustice that the author may have felt regarding the loss of her husband while others lived on happily and ignorantly.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”

-Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Juxtaposing "best" with "worst" and "wisdom" with "foolishness" to describe the state of society sheds light on the dichotomy of man. As well, it also implores readers to consider both sides of the spectrum regarding any topic; few things are only perfect or only terrible.

“Folks who have no vices have very few virtues. “
-Abraham Lincoln

Putting "vices" and "virtues," words that represent completely opposing ideals, in conversation with one another rather than in contrast forces deeper analysis of Lincoln's point. Both the vices and virtues are mentioned in similar quantity: lacking. Therefore, these concepts that are typically portrayed to exist as one without the other are being placed on the same "side" to convey an image of coexistence and cooperation.

ANTITHESIS

//A paladin who devoted their life to contrasting ideals of violent justice and divine protection. By embodying these two opposing concepts, they strive to exhibit the equal importance of the two while also portraying the potential harmony in divergence. Antithesis’s morals forces deeper consideration of how they are personally defining their values.

// PALADIN

//In a fight, they’re on the front lines, protecting their allies with violence and being protected by their patron deity.

“I kill to protect with the trust my sins will be pardoned.”

REFLECTION

Initially, I wasn't sure how I wanted to portray Antithesis. I thought of a rogue class for the contradicting ideas they may present, but I was set on having Ellipsis be the rogue. Therefore, I began to think if any classes were antithetical themselves and settled on the paladin. Since they're fighters who also take oaths and devote themselves to a religion, I thought this image of war vs prayer would be good to portray this term.