#But when THAT'S the only conflict you're talking about or rallying for/against

[counterpunches]

Very much worth putting these replies publicly

How the fuck can you say you disagree with the terms “genocide” and “apartheid” what world of haze are you living in?

I'm going to refer you back to this post

As for apartheid, the West Bank is a mess that has been in hellish limbo since the fall of the Oslo Accords and the illegal Jewish settlements are despicable and have no business being there. But as for Israel proper, I must disagree. Is there discrimination? Absolutely. Is that wrong? Yes. Does that make it apartheid? No.

I'm going to repeat tags from this post

#innocent people die. that is the horror of war and the motivation to use it sparingly #but war does not automatically equal atrocity on the grandest scale. it is not always a genocide #it just. sucks. #and it could happen to any of us #so maybe people need to sit with that uncomfortable thought for a while

[pencopanko]

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are very similar (if not the same), actually

So I was scrolling down the #palestine tag for any updates and important information, and I came across this:

And I think we need to sit down and talk about this.

I am a Muslim. I live in Indonesia, a country that is predominantly Muslim and a lot of Muslims here also support the Palestinian cause. Hell, even our government supports it by not only allowing Palestinian goods enter the country without fee, but also by taking in Palestinian refugees and even acknowledging the status of Palestine as a state while not having any political ties with Israel. The topic of the Palestinian tragedy has been spoon-fed to us at schools, sermons, media, etc., so your average Indonesian Muslim would at the very least be aware of the conflict while non-Muslims would hear about it from their Muslim friends or through media.

However, there is a glaring problem. One that I keep seeing way too often for my liking.

A lot of them are antisemitic as hell. The sermons I would hear sometimes demonize Jewish people. Antisemitic statements are openly said out loud on social media. Some are even Nazi supporters who would literally go to anime cons and COSPLAY as members of the Nazi party. This is not just an Indonesian Muslim problem, no, but this is a glaring issue within the global Islamic community as a whole. Today, this sense of antisemitism is usually rooted in general hatred towards the Israeli government and its actions against the people of Palestine, but antisemitism amongst Muslims are also rooted in certain interpretations of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith mentioning Jewish people and Judaism (particularly the Bani Israil), but in a way that is more ridiculing instead of life-threatening when compared to how antisemitism looks like in the Western world.

As someone who prefers to become a "bridge" between two sides in most cases, I find this situation to be concerning, to say the least. While, yes, it is important for us Muslims to support Palestine and fight against injustice, we must not forget that not every Jewish people support the Israeli government. A lot of them are even anti-Zionists who actively condemn Israel and even disagree with the existence of Israel as a state as it goes against their teachings. A lot of them are also Holocaust survivors or their descendants, so it is harmful to think for one second that Hitler's actions and policies were justified. It's just like saying that Netanyahu is right for his decision to destroy Palestine and commit war crime after war crime towards the Palestinians.

As Muslims, we also need to remember that Jewish people (the Yahudi) are considered ahli kitab, i.e. People Of The Book along with Christians (the Nasrani). The Islam I have come to know and love has no mentions of Allah allowing us to persecute them or anyone collectively for the actions of a few. While, yes, there are disagreements with our respective teachings I do not see that as an excuse to even use antisemitic slurs against Jewish people during a pro-Palestine rally, let alone support a man who was known for his acts of cruelty toward the Jewish community in WW2. They are still our siblings/cousins in faith, after all. Unless they have done active harm like stealing homes from civilians or celebrating the destruction of Palestine or supporting the Israeli government and the IOF or are members of the IOF, no Jewish people (and Christians, for that matter) must be harmed in our fight against Zionism.

Contemporary antisemitism is similar to (if not straight up being the exact same thing as) contemporary Islamophobia, if you think about it; due to the actions of a select few that has caused severe harm towards innocent people, an entire community has been a target of hate. Even when you have tried to call out the ones supporting such cruelties, you are still getting bombarded by hate speech. It's doubly worse if you're also simultaneously part of a marginalized group like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. as you also get attacked on multiple sides. This is where we all need to self-reflect, practice empathy, and unlearn all of the antisemitism and unjustified hatred that we were exposed to.

So, do call out Zionism and Nazism when you see it. Call out the US government for funding this atrocity and others before it that had ALSO triggered the rise of Islamophobia. Call your reps. Go to the streets. Punch a fascist if you feel so inclined. Support your local businesses instead of pro-Israel companies.

But not at the cost of our Jewish siblings. Not at the cost of innocent Jewish people who may also be your allies. If you do that, you are no different from a MAGA cap-wearing, gun-tooting, slur-yelling Islamophobe.

That is all for now, may your watermelons taste fresh and sweet.

🍉

Salam Semangka, Penco

[infini-tree]

welp, ok trailer dropped and processed in my brain time for me to look at The Frames/talk about how i think the plot will go.

PO: Being the Dragon Warrior-- it's who I am! What do I know about being a spiritual leader? SHIFU: What is it you're hoping? [...] You were chosen to be something more than you already are.

the main throughline for the movie, anyone? i don't know, it kind of feels like a retread of the conflict of po learning to be a teacher and how to achieve that.

assuming the hope slant, it's most likely going to relate to how he'll somehow rally an ensemble of criminals to fight against the Chameleon and actually stick with doing that as opposed to leaving when it gets tough.

i'm only making that guess on account of the pangolin making a remark along the lines of "why should we help you?"

the Darkest Hour is probably all the criminals making up po's side fleeing (including zhen), which leads to his capture and the Chameleon acquiring po's qi(? unclear, more on that later). then zhen makes a big speech inspired by what po taught her and all the criminals fights again.

(also as a sidenote, man the Violence Bunnies give me kfp3-era baby panda marketing or is that just me?)

ok, now for Chameleon talk. i think she's neat! i wish they leaned even more into unique chameleon features like the eyes or exaggerated the crest even more, but that's just me.

that being said: once again, the powerset still feels really similar to kai's except instead of doing some sort of Form, she just... eats the qi(?)! i do like how they utilized the chameleon tongue at least.

(as much as i lowkey hate the "we're not so different" line as a trope and its most likely not that deep. imagine if the points of commonality she saw in po was their shared gluttony or how some feeling of inadequacy that she decided to just steal masters' abilities? idk i am spitballing.)

the Chameleon's shapeshifting is close, but not exact. you can see here that when she's tai lung, the pants are still the reds from her robes as opposed to tai lung's purples.

there's also the additional uncanny fact that the surface texture is still scales approximating the look of fur. hell, even the spikier fly-away cheek fluffs are spiky scales! GOD it looks unsettling to look at.

as for tai lung himself... i have mixed feelings on his cameo here. i don't know, i think he should have stayed dead! and if you are going to bring him back, have shifu and/or tigress actually react to him?

[randomnameless]

Also, the fact that Edelgard assumes every person fighting against her is one of the goddess' vanguard is fucking stupid. People are fighting for their lives because of a war SHE started and invasions SHE started. But if they defend themselves, if they don't want to be turned into New Adrestia What's Fodlan, they're just "the goddess' vanguard" now. Not, you know, people defending themselves/their home/their families. You're either on her side or a vanguard of the goddess. There's no for her or against her for her violent actions causing the deaths of your countrymen, friends and family as she tries to reform your entire land into New Adrestia.

She doesn't care about the people. She cares about wiping out the Nabateans and conquering Fodlan like every Adrestian emperor before her has tried to. She wants to wipe out the Nabateans and the other leaders because she doesn't want anyone else to exist who is powerful enough to stop/kill her in the future.

I want to say it's so gross that people actually defend this shit and say that she's a heroic figure who is "uwu progressive", but that's not really even a strong enough word anymore for what they do and the lengths they go to defend her. I bet if this happened to them in real life, what she does to other people, they would change their tune REAL quick.

Eh,

Given what is happening right now in a certain server, I don't even want to guess what some people who think this writing presents her as a "progressive" character are actually thinking.

Back to the game,

Her reasoning - explicited in Nopes - is clear, you are either with her, or against her. And if you are against her, it must be because you oppose her reforms/uwu ideals.

No one gives a fuck about the "blood pooling" at her feet, unless it's to express her sorrow at the sacrifices she had to make to reach her goals.

(that's what I ranted about in the Zahrofl post about Claude and consequences, who deals with consequences of people dying in a war ? Dimitri, who has to deal with Flèche's resentment. There's no Flèche on Supreme Leader's route, aka a NPC that gets a special event where they try to kill her to avenge someone she "had to" cut down in her path of conquest!).

And as Supreme Leader makes everyting about her war centered on "war against church'n'the goddess" PR, while leaving the "MAGA" motive only for the narrator or Hubert to give any exposition, the game cannot have anyone oppose her because, no, they don't want to be part of Adrestia - m-ass-terful writing strikes again, the only person who "complains" about her conquest receives the award winning "no u" explanation, and the game leaves this "issue" at that, no one gets to call her out on her war of conquest, and actually challenge her.

:/

I still find it fascinating how, in CF, Supreme Leader explicitely calls for Dimitri's head - when she can let Billy spare Claude - because she realises (something Nopes erased from her character because elsewise no "uwu what if golden route uwu") Dimitri, aka Faerghus, cannot exist if Adrestia has to be Great Again - Dimitri will always want to oppose her vision and Adrestia's expension in Faerghus (and people will rally behind him).

Opposing Nabateans though, while I think Rhea would be opposed to a continental MAGA war, if Adrestia never targetted Garreg Mach, I wonder if she would have lent the KoS to either the Alliance or the Kingdom - she might try to stop the war and asking for peace talks or what not, but intervening in a human, on-going conflict ? Remember, she only stepped in when Loog already defeated the Adrestian Emperor, aka when Adrestia "lost" to act the end of the War.

So, imo, taking Rhea out isn't due to her possibly opposing with her knights a conquest of Fodlan, but it's more due to the shape of her ears - FE16!Supreme Leader really really really doesn't like Nabateans, and the idea that they can exist and have any sort of influence on "Humanity" - Rhea has to go beause her ears are pointy.

[ulyflynn]

When Asher says he wants to make sure that Uly was okay, it had the opposite effect on him than those words usually did when they fell from the mouth of anyone else. His instinct is to rally against it, to pull at a thread until it unravelled due to his own distrust that there was anyone who cared about him in that manner.

Not then. Not with Asher.

For a man that trusted in so little, including his own better judgement, he never found himself doubting that his best friend meant what he said whenever he said it.

His eyebrow twitches when he tells him it's not his fault that his dad was the way that he was, a sentiment that was in direct conflict with what his old man used to spew every time the pair of them went head to head. He had always pissed him off, always acted up, always brought it on your damnself even before he was old enough to know what it was he did that made him so mad all the time.

Too loud, too dumb, always asking for asking for shit like a leech.

He had once worried that he would forget his father's voice altogether after this long, but those same old words echoed through his memories in the man's pitch with such crystal clearness that his head turned every so slightly like he was worried he might have materialised behind him to remind him himself.

He wasn't there.

Or maybe he was in a way, in the shape of Uly's nose in the mirror or his quickness to anger when he felt overwhelmed by every other feeling or in his carelessness with everyone he had ever cared about.

That was a scarier thought than his father ever could be.

"I think I know that on some level, I know he was just an asshole and that he would have been shitty to any kid he was raising. But that doesn't make suck less either that the only parent I got never figured out how to love me." He feels vulnerable admitting that, even though he knows that he was in a safe space to do so. He never did like how it felt to be upfront about what he was feeling when he felt it.

He much preferred to smother it with whatever substance was nearest by.

The reassurance that Asher wouldn't be another name on a long list of people he had driven away calms him some, and he hopes that it's the case. He could and had bounced back from plenty, but even as just a prospect that would be a blow he's not so sure he could withstand.

He reaches a hand up then, scratching behind his right ear with his index finger while he tried to take in what it was Asher was saying. Most of it at least.

"C'mon man, you know I don't know what copacetic means." His tone was light when he says much, certain he wasn't even pronouncing the word right.

"You sound like you're talking about someone specific though."

Asher tilts his head, trying to smother the confused but entertained grin curling the line of his mouth. His suggestion had not been intended to go in that direction, amusing as it is. It's a wonder how Uly got there, except there is a part of Asher that does believe it's a polite way to reject the idea with adding humor to it.

"Uh, no. Not what I'm implying. Double pass." A giggle is trapped behind his lips in an attempt to stifle it as well as the very brief, very vague idea of a threesome of all things. Not necessarily with Gillian and Uly, but just generally thinking. He almost wants to ask Uly if it'd been awkward at all during. He thinks it would be, handling two people at once.

Is it a fortunate thing that he isn't given a chance to linger on that thought with Pearl being the real topic of conversation? For one, he is relieved his imagination hadn't began to run before it, but this had always been a sticky topic. Here he is, still trying to be mature about it and focus on Uly and the potential damage left in her wake (aside from the thrown liquor bottle) rather than the fact that she is gone.

"Yeah, well, maybe not her. But, uh… you?" The game on his phone is abandoned entirely. It takes a few moments for him to actually turn it off when he realizes the cartoonish sound effects don't make for a great backdrop to this conversation. "Just want to make sure you're okay. I know it's cheesy and dumb, but it's okay to not be okay."

The nonchalance does nothing to ward off his concerns. Fortunately for Uly, Asher isn't about to call him on the walls he is putting up to protect himself. How he discards Pearl, no matter how much Ash hoped for this day, sounds like a vicious but clean cut. Shaking it off like it's nothing either means she meant nothing to him, or he's trying to snub out his own feelings. He briefly considers the conversation he had with Edie at the pool.

Edie, who comes up in the next unexpected tangent that, admittedly, Asher is more than happy to listen to. Not for the darker parts, he isn't a sadist who finds entertainment in someone's suffering. It is that Uly is opening up. After brushing off Pearl so easy, something switched and the flood gates opened and it's a lot, but not too much for Asher. It never would be even if he isn't emotionally equipped to handle topics with this sort of depth. The worst emotional support system, but he will give it his all. Anything to make Uly feel seen and heard, and to remind him over and over until it sticks in his thick skull that he isn't the fuck up he thinks he is.

"It's okay." A short, lame start, but it's the first thing he can breathe out when he notes the break in Uly's speaking.

"It's not your fault you had a shitty dad. It's not your fault he wanted to hurt you, either. Didn't mean you deserved it." A basic start as the Edie part, what he remembers from talking to her, it's trickier. As Uly had meant well, but he went about it in a way that unraveled so much. Swallowing thickly, he presses on, skipping on both of the girls and to reassure. "You don't gotta worry about me. I'm clingy, and insistent on sticking out. Try your hardest, I'm not going anywhere."

Whether it's a blessing or a curse is for Uly to decide, but if asked for the other way around, Asher would consider Uly a blessing in his own life. The first person who made Aurora Bay feel like home to him. Los Angeles was a stepping stone, he was never meant to stay there.

"Shitty things happen, but, I don't know - it doesn't decide tomorrow or next month or nothing like that. And-" he swallows, hoping this isn't overstepping, but to be safe he does keep it vague. "Not everyone who's left your life has left forever either. I think you're trying to protect yourself with this... whatever it is. Cutting them off and walking off acting like everything's copacetic. I mean, some people deserve to be, but, uh, yeah."

[armageddon-generation]

Improving Crimes of Grindlewald

Just watched this movie again, and I’m not touching the representational/ethical issues, but here are some ways to streamline the movie.

(some small changes to the first movie, since this is already fantasy)

Newt comes to New York because he suspects Obscurus activity, and wants to make up for not saving the one he keeps in his case as a reminder. This connects Newt emotionally to Credence and his B plot

Make the locations more magical - Central Park Zoo is cool but give it a Wizarding dimension: A museum with magic exhibits about how 'dangerous' Magical Beasts are, and MACUSA hunting many to extinction. Newt and his beasts 'accidentally' destroy this misinformation. There's a War Memorial hidden in the Park like the one for the Potters in Godric's Hollow. Newt and Jacob bond over their experiences.

Instead of the beast in that random building, have one go to Coney Island. A magical old-timey Fairground is the perfect setting for a Beast chase.

The shit ‘Graves was Grindlewald’ twist didn’t happen, he’s just a follower. Use him to build up Grindlewald's appearance in this movie

Establish Credence could be a Lestrange (MACUSA found adoption records when covering up the death of Mrs Barebone - President Piquery mentions to Newt "I believe you're familiar with the Lestrange family") to set up the twist in this movie

Newt helps set Queenie and Jacob back up at the end, including restoring his memory - it's consistent with Newt’s disregard for both authority and segregation

Opening and Prison sequence

Start with a montage (newspaper headlines and moving photos, like in the first movie) of MACUSA cracking down on Wizard/muggle segregation and escalating tensions as they grow more paranoid about Grindlewald - establishing the theme of the Ministry being their own worst enemy

We see Queenie and Jacob - trying to live happily in secret - get busted, arrested and separated. This is scary, aggressive.

Queenie tries to protect Jacob (a frightening Jean Grey - style attack with her Legilimensy, to establish how far she'll go for him) but she’s outnumbered, and the fan-favourite character from the last movie is knocked out and wrestled away.

A terrified Queenie is transported to the American wizard prison for processing as a criminal, where Percival Graves is awaiting transfer to trial. He and Queenie make eye-contact as he passes

Highlight MACUSA treating Queenie as a dangerous freak because of her Legilimensy

Grindlewald breaks into the prison and frees Graves. This is our first time meeting him and he subverts expectations; charming and benevolent  to his follower where Voldemort was abusive.

Grindlewald and Graves save Queenie and set the other wizards being processed for No-Maj fraternisation free

This sets up Queenie’s conflict of wanting marriage equality without turning her into an unstable psychopath - she has no home, no job, and can’t turn to Tina because as an auror, technically Tina should arrest Queenie

Grindlewald’s Followers

Graves replaces that random woman as Grindlewald’s right-hand. There is one corrupt auror 

This auror leads the attack and arrest of Queenie in the opening sequence, but it isn’t revealed he’s working for Grindlewald until later

 Then he is one of the aurors the Ministry sends to hunt down Credence, with Theseus Scamander.

Gindlewald’s agent kills the House-elf when the aurors confront Credence. Then, at the end when the agent betrays the aurors and tries to join Grindlewald, Grindlewald kills him to show both Queenie and Credence he’s on their side. Thus Grindlewald gets to be rutheless like in the original, but he’s also a master manipulator

This way we roll 3 characters into 1 (the American who helps Grindlewald escape, the English guy who kills the House-elf, and the follower Grindlewald kills)

Ministry scenes (+ Dumbledore)

Same scene with the Ministry trying to recruit Newt to kill Credence, only this time they turn to Theseus after he refuses - putting Theseus in direct conflict with Newt

Dumbledore scene without the safehouse, have him recite the poem that he only namedrops in the original, to give the audience more context clues for later.

Include the conversation cut from the original where he explains why he sent Newt to New York - to help Credence - and establish Newt and Credence as Dumbledore and Grindlewald’s respective champions. Kindness vs Raw Power

Cut the sequence at Newt’s house and save the creature stuff for the circus

Theseus

Include the deleted scene of he and Leta at the party to establish their relationship - except instead of the floating baby (already in the Boggart scene) the pure bloods try to persuade Leta to join Grindlewald, creating ambiguity in her morality that will be resolved in the finale

Expand Theseus' character by touching on his PTSD. The Ministry pick him because he's a "war hero", but Theseus is clearly uncomfortable with that title - "I was just a soldier, Sir. And this is meant to be peace time."

When Theseus confronts Newt about choosing a side, have him draw on their respective experiences in WW1 - "While you were down the line playing with your dragons some of us had to stand and fight."

This is why Theseus doesn't want to provoke Grindlewald's followers - he can't face another war, or the peace he fought for breaking down

Much as I hate the idea of Grindlewald stopping WW2, framing Theseus' character this way means the rally and prospect of another War has a big emotional impact on him

Credence attacking the aurors after the House-Elf's death triggers a PTSD flashback - as he heads back to the Ministry we see a flash of wizarding WW1, dragons etc

Centre the Plot Around the Circus - Getting the Characters Together

Tina has tracked Credence down to the Magical Circus moving through France. She wants to protect him (like she did in the last movie) from the aurors trying to kill him

She contacts Newt; he’d be perfect for this situation because

the circus is full of magical beasts

Credence has befriended a Maledictus, whom Newt would know about because of their close connection to beasts

Newt knows  and cares for Credence

This allows us to naturally incorporate more fantastic beasts into our Fantastic Beasts movie; Newt gets hired as the circus’ beast master (the ring master thinks his name will draw in a crowd) 

It also gives Newt a concrete reason to be there without being the ‘chosen one’ of the story - he just wants to make up for letting Credence down last time

It also cuts the stupid ‘Tina read gossip in a magazine and now she won’t talk to Newt’ subplot, and all the time wasted looking for her

Use this portion of the movie - travelling across France to Paris in the circus - to build the dynamic between Newt, Tina, Credence and Nagini, so we care about them.

Nagini (recast as a different ethnicity) uses her experience living with a curse to teach Credence how to control his Obscurus, creating a sense of responsibility for him

Newt talks to Nagini about her condition: Explore the emotional toll of being a Maledictus - Newt is initially weirdly jealous of the idea of turning into a beast, which Nagini finds funny

Insert the ‘creature caring’ sequence from Newt’s house here - the characters bond through the creatures.

Parallel the burgeoning romance between Credence and Nagini with the awkwardness of Newtina

Credence explains he survived because Grindlewald saved a part of his Obscurus while MACUSA was attacking, and released it just before he was captured. Credence then spent months stuck in that form, rebuilding himself, which also helped him control his Obscurus

This immediately puts Credence in Grindlewald's debt: he was able to save him when Newt couldn't

Insert the Hogwarts scenes and flashback here. Leta mentions her father in the present and past - e.g. when she and Newt talk about going home (CUT MCGONAGALL!) to better set up her story at the end

Paris

We arrive in Paris. Leta’s brother Yusuf attacks the performance and Credence stages his escape against Newt and Tina’s wishes.

The beast escapes as in the movie

The group gets split up - Credence and Nagini, Newt and Tina

Newt, and Tina chase Yusuf into Paris’ sewers, where they get pinned in a firefight. Newt attracts an urban water demon (the kappa from the circus?) that incapacitates Yusuf.

Tina interrogates Yusuf. He explains his version of events - Credence is Corvus Lestrange. Now we don’t get two twists straight after each other at the end

The escaped circus beast causing chaos outside distracts them enough for Yusuf to disapparate. They catch the beast as in the movie

Cut Nicholas Flamel - he’s gratuitous fan-service adding little to the plot

Grindlewald

Present Grindlewald to the audience as the characters see him - charming, personable, the exact opposite of Voldemort

This means no baby-killing 

Make him look normal but attractive (Depp looks inhuman and off-putting, a poor-man’s Voldemort)

Forget the albino hedgehog, we need to believe this man could charm the pants off Albus Dumbledore

Queenie uses her Legilimency to probe his mind.

He uses Oclumency, and we see a battle of the minds wage in the background as they talk. 

Grindlewald lets her in to selective thoughts - namely his beliefs about marriage equality and his wholehearted ‘belief’ in them

He also reveals to her his relationship with Dumbledore, as a way to convince her he’s doing the right thing - “Dumbledore wasn’t willing to fight for what was right, but he still agrees with me” and that he can relate to her struggle with Jacob

Grindlewald is the first person to praise Queenie’s mental powers and encourage her to embrace her Legilimensy - her whole life she's been Othered and objectified, in the first movie even Tina hid Queenie away

Queenie’s persuasion takes at least a few scenes - every time we see Grindlewald, check in on Queenie’s fall

Especially given the setting between the World Wars, use this as a way to explore how fascism works - the dangerous seductiveness of that mentality manifested through our villain

Cut the scenes with Queenie in the French Ministry/wandering Paris

Finding Credence

Credence and Nagini run free together through Paris (include the scenes cut from the original, including the one where the pheonix chick arrives)

They find the House Elf, but Theseus and the aurors arrive and the attack plays out as previously described

Theseus leading the aurors drives a wedge between Credence and Newt by association in the finale

After Credence escapes the aurors go immediately to the Mnistry to report

A scene of Theseus and Leta supporting each other in the Ministry, while he’s making his report (after his PTSD attack)

Leta: I don't trust them. You've already sacrificed so much for these people and their wars. Just... Let the others die first, alright?

Theseus [laughing]: you're such a Slytherin.

Leta: And you're far too much of a Gryffindor for my liking. It's going to get you killed.

This sets up Leta's sacrafice in the finale.

Newt and Tina now have to find Credence

They know about the House-elf because Credence told them in the circus, so they go to that address to find it destroyed

This is when they travel to the Ministry, to look at the Lestrange records

The corrupt auror with Theseus gets there first and runs with the information both Leta and Newt want

The demon cats attack Tina even though she is Ministry personel because Queenie is considered an associate of Grindlewald - Tina finds out her siater was arrested midway through this action sequence and Leta saves her while she’s distracted

Tina and Leta working together to protect Newt from the demon-cats

Theseus realises what is going on and tries to stop the corrupt auror but he escapes. Theseus then helps Newt, Tina and Leta escape

They release the circus beast as in the movie

Credence and Nagini meet Grindlewald, with Queenie. Grindlewald tells them about the informaton in the Lestrange crypt and lets them be.

Finale

Only Leta has to explain her story, then the rally plays out much the same (which is f*cking problematic but that’s not why I’m here)

No blood pact because it fucks with canon - Dumbledore is just reluctant to fight Grindlewald directly because of their relationship and the Elder Wand. This way Newt has the same frustration as the audience - why didn't you go?

Queenie tries to persuade the others to come with her, and reveals Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindlewald as justification, shaking Newt, but they refuse.

The corrupt auror who killed the house-elf and arrested Jacob is killed for Credence and Queenie’s benefit

Queenie and Credence are disapparated away

Then Grindlewald attacks Theseus’ aurors, but without the fire dragons; his speech was about not hurting anybody, so trying to destroy Paris straight after is stupid. Show Grindlewald's power with a 20:1 duel

Personally I wouldn’t kill Leta because she’s so interesting, but if she does die have it be here, holding Grindlewald off while the others escape (Tina, understanding, pulls Newt away and Newt pulls Theseus).

Leta's sacrafice is what directly inspires Newt choosing his side

When they meet Dumbledore in the last scene Newt is angry and upset about what Queenie told him, and tells Dumbledore his lovers’ quarrel got Leta killed

[yellowjets]

Response to Ilhan Omar 2.0

Two undeniable truths about Ilhan Omar: she hates Trump and she hates Israel. You cannot argue this. Omar has made it her mission to cause fear of Israel in the Democratic party, misrepresent them, use that fear to incite more hatred against Trump, rally against him, and further her own political agenda.

1. "Under pressure from Donald Trump"

What the average American may not understand, is that Bibi doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. Trump's comments may have been the green light to go ahead with this decision, but it is highly likely it would have happened anyway. Israel gets pressure from many world leaders about other issues and Bibi chooses not to listen. Trump does not hold some sort of power over him, and Omar suggesting otherwise is really just an attempt at causing more fear of Trump on the left.

2. "Trump's Muslim ban"

Ahh yes, the old Muslim ban, something that never actually happened. Again Omar uses a false American concept to sweep the real reasons she's been banned under the rug. Both Omar and Tlaib are supporters and advocates of BDS, a movement that is widely accepted as not only anti-jewish, but also has been proven to heavily effect Arabs living in the West bank in a negative way. All it does is breed hatred towards the Jewish state and leads to boycotts of Jewish businesses outside of Israel. (Remember the last guy who did that?) This is the reason they are refused entry, not because of faith. You really think the leader of any other country would allow people in who directly call for the boycott of said country and its people? Absolutely not. But of course, Omar knows she can lie about this because people are ignorant and will not bother looking for correct information.

3. "Limits our abilities to learn from Israelis"

Yay! The first true statement. Unfortunately it's irrelevant considering its pretty difficult to learn from people you're busy boycotting. Literally no one, not a single person on this planet actually believes you want to "learn from Israelis". This was an expose Israel mission from the get go. One that has been conducted many times before, and usually ends up with not much to expose, and turns into some libellous exercise instead. Recently there was an assertion in a final year test in Australia that the IDF destroys homes in the West bank because the Muslim population refuses to accept Judaism. This is unbelievably untrue, and extremely damaging to Jews everywhere. This is the sort of mess Omar and Tlaib would have come back spouting. If you don't believe me, two seconds ago Omar was talking about a non existent Muslim ban in Israel.

4. "Resisted peace efforts"

Now I'm not exactly sure which peace efforts Bibi has participated in, but when the most recent peace deal has been rejected by the Palestinian government, Hamas is still firing rockets from Gaza and organising protests that involve incendiary kites and balloons, as well as Molotov cocktails and burning tires, the Palestinian government is still encouraging terrorism from the West bank by paying out families of terrorists, and changing the schoolbooks in Palestinian classes to be even more anti-jewish, when all of this is realised, it really fair to say that Israel has resisted peace?

5. "Restricted movement of Palestinians"

I think you spelt "Israelis" wrong. Palestians, while yes they do have to go through rigorous security and checkpoints between borders, are able to move freely between all areas of the West bank and Israel. Israelis, however, are unable to go to many parts of Palestinian run areas in the West bank, many of which include holy sites for the Jewish people. A Palestinian, may take any bus in Israel or the West bank, an Israeli may not. Unless of course Omar means Israel blowing up terror tunnels... That would tend to restrict Palestinian movement, but I'm sure any normal person would agree to that one.

6. "Limited public knowledge of the brutal realities of the occupation"

My FAVOURITE! Just because you, Omar, seem to have very limited knowledge of pretty much anything Israel/Palestine related, it doesn't make that Bibi's fault. The truth is out there, maybe like, go on Wikipedia as a starting point. The reality of the "occupation" is that Gaza is uninhabited by Jews, and has had no IDF presence for the last 5 years. The West bank has areas totally run by the PA where Jews cannot enter, and an IDF presence to limit terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians. That is the reality.

7. "Aligned himself with islamaphobes like Donald Trump"

Fair point, also irrelevant when you yourself align with and support terrorists who openly call for the destruction of the Jewish state, and the wiping out of the Jewish people.

8. "It is my job..."

It is not your job to lie about the realities of the conflict, to express biased support for one side, attempt to go to a country with the intent to "expose" (read: lie about) it, and then whinge about how you weren't allowed the opportunity to learn from them when you have already expressed intent to boycott those who could teach you.

9. "Insult to democratic values"

My right to kill someone is outweighed by their right to live. Your right to go to a country with the intent of supporting it's enemies, who have called for its destruction and the murder of its people is similarly, outweighed by their right to live.

Final thoughts:

Israel made the right decision. These women would have come in with the intent to slander Israel when they got out. That would inflame the already existing conflict even more and potentially cost lives of both Jewish and Palestinian civilians. For Omar and Tlaib to sit there and whine about it is pathetic. They know why they can't go, they know by making a fuss they will gain support, but Israel knows the cost of letting them in will be greater.

[bountyofbeads]

"what we have is a Republican Party that has just completely become the party of 'us versus them.' They have not just accepted this; they have become champions of it."

"[Trump] is utterly clear about his white nationalism and his racism and you just have to call it what it is and not suggest that it's being misunderstood," he said.

'FACE OF EVIL': FASCISM SCHOLAR CALLS OUT TRUMP RALLY CROWD CHANTING 'SEND HER BACK, SEND HER BACK'

By Chantal Da Silva |Published 7/18/19 at 5:11 AM EDT | Newsweek | Posted July 19, 2019 |

An American philosopher and expert in fascism says the country is "facing an emergency" after what has been branded "one of the single most racist moments in modern American political history" at a Trump rally on Wednesday night.

"The word 'emergency' is tricky to use because 'emergency' is a word that anti-democratic people use all the time to justify non-democratic measures," Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley told Newsweek in an interview on Thursday. "But, what we have is a Republican Party that has just completely become the party of 'us versus them.' They have not just accepted this; they have become champions of it."

"Trump is trying to define America in a very negative way," he said. And, he said, "we need to call this racism very clearly."

The night before, Stanley had been left "shocked" after watching video of President Donald Trump's rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where supporters chanted the words, "send her back," as the U.S. leader renewed his racist attacks against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia when she was just eight years old.

"I am not easily shocked. But we are facing an emergency," the Yale professor and author of the book How Fascism Works wrote on Twitter.

Journalists must not get away with sugar-coating this," he said. "This is the face of evil."

In his post, Stanley shared a tweet from writer and activist Shaun King, who described the moment the "send her back" chants broke out at the rally as "one of the single most racist moments in modern American political history."

"As Trump began attacking my friend, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the crowd began chanting, 'SEND HER BACK, SEND HER BACK.' It's utterly despicable and dangerous," King said, adding: "We are here. We are in THAT time. UGLY."

Trump had used much of the campaign rally to launch a fresh series of racist attacks on Omar and three other Democratic representatives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who have collectively branded themselves "The Squad."

During his speech, the president branded the four congresswomen, who are all women of color, "hate-filled extremists," in a renewal of the racist assault the U.S. leader launched on Sunday when he tweeted that Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley should "go back" to the "crime-infested places from which they came."

Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 at the age of 17, while the three other representatives were born in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens.

In his interview with Newsweek, Stanley warned that the president was demonstrating a "deep-seated commitment to fascism," in addition to clear racism.

"This whole administration has been orienting itself around attacking and vilifying ethnic minorities," he said. "It's horrifying to see."

"Fascist ideology is based upon the vilification of 'outsiders,' you know. It's an ideology that has, at its very center, panic and fear about outsiders. All fascist movements are toxically anti-immigration," he said. Adolf Hitler, for example, ran by "raising rants about lax immigration laws constantly."

"Fascist ideology says there's the nation and the members of the nation and they are ethnically defined and they face this mortal threat from leftism, communism, socialism and foreigners and so you would think the president has a choice: he could run saying well you know the economy's strength or he could run with one of the most toxic ideologies the world has ever seen... and that's what he's doing," Stanley said.

After branding the Trump rally "the face of evil," the philosopher explained that "evil is a moral concept and obviously we're talking about political systems, but trying to get Americans to identify with hatred of others as a defining feature of being American... the president is saying that being American is hating foreigners."

Stanley also stressed that today's journalists have a responsibility to be clear in identifying the president's rhetoric as what it is: racism.

"Journalists have two competing pressures: one is to represent the different sides in political debates and, two, is to tell the truth. These run into conflict with each other when you have a very extreme situation like the one we now face where, with one political side, there is no reasonable way to represent it."

"[Trump] is utterly clear about his white nationalism and his racism and you just have to call it what it is and not suggest that it's being misunderstood," he said.

Since Trump launched his racist attack on Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley, world leaders, including Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May, have spoken out to condemn the president's rhetoric, joining lawmakers in the U.S.

In a 245-187 House vote on Tuesday night, U.S. representatives officially condemned Trump's racism, with 240 Democrats in favor of and 187 Republicans opposed to the resolution, which is a statement of opinion and not legally binding.

Only four Republicans, Reps. Will Hurd, Susan Brooks, Fred Upton and Brian Fitzpatrick, voted in favor of the measure, along with Independent Justin Amash, who parted ways with the GOP earlier this month.

In a tweet, Omar appeared to respond to the president's renewed attacks on Wednesday, writing: "I am where I belong, at the people's house."

"You're just gonna have to deal," she said.

[greatwyrmgold]

You're not wrong in any of the details, but I think you're wrong about the big picture.

Double Standards

First off, Cauldron in general and Doctor Mother in specific absolutely have the sort of double standard junebugtwin is talking about. Let's start with the obvious—if Contessa was working with Taylor, she'd need her power to stop Taylor from drinking the first Eden vial. [Citation: Khepri] Doctor Mother is perfectly happy to risk the lives of other people to further her plans, but doesn't risk her own until Scion is literally carving his way into Cauldron HQ.

Saying that half of Cauldron took the vials, and therefore they are taking the risks they subject others to, is a bit disingenuous. You're not wrong, exactly, but I think you're looking at it backwards. Alexandria, Eidolon, and the others weren't members of Cauldron who drank experimental Eden juice; they were test subjects who joined after they survived the process. The only member of Cauldron who did stuff with them and then drank a vial is Manton, and he only drank the vial after quitting.

The Last Battle

And on top of that, for all that Doctor Mother spent decades planning alongside two of the best Thinkers on the planet, the best plan Cauldron could come up with for the confrontation with Scion—the whole point of every crime against humanity they committed—was basically just to get a bunch of parahumans together and see what neat power combos they could come up with. I mean, yes, there's a little more to it than that, but not much.

And I'm not impressed by the "a little more". It feels like Cauldron didn't really think about the parahumans they were commanding as people, but as powers—as cogs in a para-machine they were constructing. They had plans, they told people what to do, and they hoped everything worked right—that Scion was affected as they hoped, that everyone followed orders, that personality conflicts between the people in a power combo didn't ruin everything. (Reminder that one of the power combos we saw onscreen involved one of the S9K clones working with superheroes who had been fighting the S9K mere hours earlier. Personal compatibility was clearly not a factor.)

It did work well for a bit. Scion's a big threat, and Cauldron had successfully constructed the façade of a group who knew what was going on and had a plan to stop it. By the time the Oil Rig attack fell apart, though, this façade was smashed to pieces. No wonder the entire army collapsed into a mess of desertions and infighting immediately thereafter. What else could have happened?

Maybe conspiracies are bad actually?

Maybe this is just my personal bias against self-appointed Dudes What Know Best trying to control everything from behind the scenes "for the good of the world" speaking, but I feel like Cauldron hamstrung themselves when they decided they needed to do everything secretly, with no input from anyone else and nobody else knowing anything about their mission. Aside from the terrible plan that some outside opinions probably could have improved (a teenager thought of something more effective in a matter of days), this also left Cauldron any anything they built vulnerable to...exactly what happened in canon.

The Protectorate was supposed to be the sort of institution the world would rally around when shit hit the fan—a way to make heroes work with Russian parasoldiers, African warlords, South American vigilantes, world-renowned criminals, and anyone else that Cauldron could scrape together. It lost its ability to be that (or at least to be that effectively) when a few of Cauldron's secrets leaked to a few dozen heroes who were fighting Echidna, to the point that they decided the shadowy conspiracy lead by people nobody knew would make a better figurehead at the last battle. And what was Cauldron's plan for avoiding this disaster? Don't let anything leak. In a world with Thinkers, Masters, and the effing Simurgh.

TL;DR/Conclusion

junebugtwin's criticisms of Cauldron are accurate. So are other criticisms.

Cauldron were willing to make sacrifices to achieve their goals—and those ends were just, however cruel their means. But they didn't shoulder the risk as much as everyone else, especially if you leave out risk shouldered before Alexandria et al started working for Cauldron.

Plus, their plan kinda sucked. I've gone into more detail about this elsewhere*, but Cauldron appointed themselves the guardians of humanity, the people who knew everything, the only people who needed to know the plan, or even that there was something that needed to be planned. And this meant there was nobody who could point out the holes in their logic, the factors they didn't consider.

And they didn't really consider any human factors, beyond "Will humans figure out what's going on before we tell them?" Whether because they relied on alien virus shards for most of their planning or because that's just a blind spot Cauldron's leaders have is unknowable and probably irrelevant. Doctor Mother gathered a bunch of people who'd never met her, told them to execute specific plans with people they may not have known existed, and expected everything to work out IRL as it did on paper.

Did Cauldron think this was the best plan possible, did they not realize other possibilitis exist, did they not consider other options? Does it matter? Cauldron is bad and their plan was bad, and that makes it really hard to defend their actions by saying they wanted to stop something even worse.

*Specifically on Sufficient Velocity—I've been meaning to collect all my "Cauldron sucks" points into one place for a while, but haven't gotten around to it.

P.S.

This isn't a critical point or anything, but Cauldron's activities are awfully similar to what Eden's would have been. And Wildbow has also commented on this, saying that Cauldron inadvertently reproduced Eden's regulatory role in the Cycle, so it's not just one Tumbrina being weird about stuff.

Also, I realize I'm bad at TL;DRs.

you know, it strikes me, that for all her ‘my way or the highway’ attitude, and frustration with others not immediately agreeing with her plans/moral framework- Taylor never asks anyone to do anything that she isn’t going to do herself.

Taylor is not Alexandria- or Cauldron for that matter, even though at a passing glance they share similarities- she’s not willing to let others suffer the shitty parts while she stands aside, smug and with all the cards in her hands. 

She holds everyone to the same standards she holds herself. 

The problem is that the standards she holds herself at are absolutely bum-fuck wild! She fights Lung on her first night out with an incomplete costume, no lethal weaponry, no martial arts or combat training of any kind, with a power that his almost completely counters! But she heard that he was going to kill a bunch of kids! What was she supposed to do?? Run away all call the PRT like and normal fifteen year old????

Sure Coil has a terrifyingly all-knowing thinker power, millions of dollars, an army equipped with tinkertech, and is literally one of the high ups in the PRT- he kidnapped and drugged a child!!! So what if she could do so many important things with the money she gets doing jobs for him, and so what her literal only friends in the world won’t stop working with him and she’ll inevitably snap like a baby carrot if she’s left completely alone without any anchors??? Did you not hear about the part with the drugged child!!!

Yes of course she’s going to an Endbringer fight even though Leviathan no sells her power and her power is bugs and she has like zero allies and also a grown man is trying to kill her during the Truce! And okay yeah of course she’s going to get up close and personal with the creature that can swat Alexandria like a fly and literally just fucked Armsmaster within an inch of his life- that’s just the decent thing to do!

She’ll work with Lung- even though he publicly, loudly, and clearly announces he wants her dead- and she’ll work with Sophia even though yes technically Sophia did kinnndaa bully her into triggering for literal shits and giggles. She’ll help Eidolon out of a tight spot even though she’s pretty sure that he’s literally part of an evil interdimensional cult full of people who have never heard of informed consent- because, well, Echidna! 

Flechette can fuse a literal crossbolt into bone, and Rachel can almost get her captured in the middle of a fight, and Amy can threaten to give her cancer while her spine is broken because she decided to risk her life 1v1ing Leviathan- and okay, she doesn’t love any of that, but she can still work with them- still help them, despite any grievous bodily harm that may or may not have occurred. 

She realizes that the chances are so so slim that she’ll survive the fight with Scion- that any of them will- but she still fights with every last thing she has and then some, because that’s just who the fuck she is. 

And more to the point- it’s who the fuck she wants everyone else to be too.