#I am defiance

[starriskiesstuff]

when you fall down a 'but what about the german children' ww2 rabbit hole and read Projekt 1065 and I Am Defiance in the span of a few days (and having read and reread The Wave soon before)

then you have a project in school and you have to write from the perspective of a character in the book your class was reading

and she idolizes FDR

and then you get certain "beginning of I Am Defiance" vibes from what you're writing

and oh shit this was not supposed to happen what have i done

this is my reality

[firstfullmoon]

Jackie Sabbagh, “Having a Great Time Being Transgender in America Lately”

[elodieunderglass]

Having dug out the Unfinished Tales to reference a conversation Tolkien wrote between Gandalf and Pippin (but didn’t publish) I thought I’d share it. Gandalf is talking to Pippin about the history of Thorin’s company, hobbits and why he chose Bilbo.

This is evidence for the grand statement I just made about how Bilbo was intended to be a catalyst that changed his society, and that hobbit society was indeed significantly different after his journey, with large social changes occurring between The Hobbit and Fellowship. But it’s also a very funny passage to me so here it is:

‘And then there was the Shire-folk. I began to have a warm place in my heart for them in the Long Winter, which none of you can remember.

They were very hard put to it then: one of the worst pinches they have been in, dying of cold, and starving in the dreadful dearth that followed. But that was the time to see their courage, and their pity one for another. It was by their pity as much as by their tough uncomplaining courage that they survived. I wanted them still to survive.

(😭😭😭😭. Also the theme of having pity for each other is what redeems both Bilbo and Frodo re: Gollum.)

But I saw that the Westlands were in for another very bad time again, sooner or later, though of quite a different sort: pitiless war.

(This is possibly one reason why this passage didn’t make it to publication - Gandalf shouldn’t have had this much foreknowledge of the upcoming war of the ring.)

To come through that I thought they would need something more than they now had. It is not easy to say what. Well, they would want to know a bit more, understand a bit clearer what it was all about, and where they stood.

(It’s also explaining that Bilbo’s role in Thorin’s company was predetermined both by a more omnipotent Gandalf and by Fate; that Gandalf selected Bilbo to be a social catalyst, to return and provoke hobbit society into a more adaptable, resilient state; therefore increasing their chances of surviving.)

They had begun to forget: forget their own beginnings and legends, forget what little they had known about the greatness of the world. It was not yet gone, but it was getting buried: the memory of the high and the perilous. But you cannot teach that sort of thing to a whole people quickly. There was not time.

(Thus Bilbo was supposed to be changed, and return changed by his journey, to teach his people.)

And anyway you must begin at some point, with some one person. I dare say he was “chosen” and I was only chosen to choose him; but I picked out Bilbo.’

‘Now that is just what I want to know,’ said Peregrin. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘How would you select any one Hobbit for such a purpose?’ said Gandalf. ‘I had not time to sort them all out;

(He is SO funny)

but I knew the Shire very well by that time, although when I met Thorin I had been away for more than twenty years on less pleasant business. So naturally thinking over the Hobbits that I knew, I said to myself: “I want a dash of the Took” (but not too much, Master Peregrin)

(This is brilliant we are always BODYING pippin constantly. NOT TOO MUCH TOOK 👀. We were ROBBED not having this in canon )

“and I want a good foundation of the stolider sort, a Baggins perhaps.” That pointed at once to Bilbo.

(Eugenics! Observing them like laboratory mouse lines! Call him a Charles River BILB/o the way you’re genotyping these poor little bastards for your purposes)

And I had known him once very well, almost up to his coming of age, better than he knew me.

(??? Hiding in the bushes spying or…?)

I liked him then. And now I found that he was “unattached” – to jump on again, for of course I did not know all this until I went back to the Shire. I learned that he had never married. I thought that odd, though I guessed why it was; and the reason that I guessed was not the one that most of the Hobbits gave me: that he had early been left very well off and his own master.

(Was it cos he’s gay as fuck, Gandalf)

No, I guessed that he wanted to remain “unattached” for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself – or would not acknowledge, for it alarmed him.

(I 100% now and for always love a narrator in a constant state of Just Fucking Lies To Everyone All The Time, Giving Us Nothing, Acknowledging Nothing Including Himself. NOPE NOT PROCESSING ANYTHING TODAY THANKS. WE’RE CLOSED. COME BACK TOMORROW. just A Massive Liar about everything and for what!!! Bilbo Baggins my beloved you were born wrong.)

He wanted, all the same, to be free to go when the chance came, or he had made up his courage. I remembered how he used to pester me with questions when he was a youngster about the Hobbits that had occasionally “gone off ”, as they said in the Shire. There were at least two of his uncles on the Took side that had done so.’

You can see why I love this! And I can see why Tolkien didn’t include it, too. Still very fun passage and near enough to canon to be used if you ever want to.

[im-smart-i-swear]

coming back home.

@barrenclan

[runespoor7]

You think JGY ever looked at WWX like a cautionary tale for himself and an object lesson in what not to do (do not ever outlive your usefulness; do not ever forget that biting the hand that raised you up is more dangerous for you than for them, unless you remove it; genuinely is he so fucking stupid that he doesn't get what he's doing or does he not care; why is he throwing all that power away)

was he too jealous (imagine being the sect leader's bastard and being raised as the future second in command! having the future sect leader's confidence! being so fucking familiar with the main family! And then what does WWX do? throw it all away!! like it's nothing like it's worth nothing like it means nothing, god jgy would scratch wwx's eyes out)

does he very occasionally think about it when he's going to sleep. when darth jgy, or xue yang, is whispering aren't you tired of being nice, don't you wanna go apeshit

[bonefall]

Does leopard still have 3 lives in her final battle? Or was that changed?

Yep. I think she drowned her once, then Leopardstar lunges up refreshed, and she gets the upper paw on Mistyfoot with 2 lives to go.

(MAYBE tw gore, but I really did try to be tasteful about a head being smashed on a rock.)

On her back, splashing and thrashing furiously against Leopardstar's claws dunking her head under, Mistyfoot glimpses a wave breaking just over the tip of a stone-blue rock. Her only chance.

With a surge of power, her claws sink into her leader's golden shoulder and they tumble and roll to the right. Before the tyrant even realizes what's happening, she's yanked up, and then whipped backwards with a wet CRUNCH

And then again

And again

And again, until Mistyfoot can't even make out what's left of her leader anymore. All she can see is that it's a red, brown, and yellow blur, because her eyes burning with salty tears and her whole body is trembling.

She drops the corpse onto the stone and it slides into the water, lifelessly. After a moment it spasms aimlessly one last time, like an insect does after its head is bitten off, unlike the deliberate, agonized throes of Tigerstar suffering through his doomed lives. And then it's still.

There's only the tranquil sound of bubbling water, and Mistyfoot's frenzied panting. Her pounding heart makes it hard to hear either.

The blood is carried off by the shallow water in scarlet swirls, but the lake runs pale red as if it's washing it away. Some were aware of this prophecy, but Mistyfoot was not.

It isn't closure to her, or a fulfillment of divine decree. It's just blood that should be on her paws, slicked away by the complicit river. She wished it could feel like it's over, but she's smart enough to know the truth. Has been through enough terrible events like this to understand what comes next.

Her body will move foward. Her mind will need to consider her deputy. Her paw will come down on code-defying cats like Blackclaw and Greenflower. But her heart will stay here, next to the remains of Leopardstar, the same way another piece of it remains at Stonefur's side across space and time.

[maiagaru]

Celebrating 10 years of Defiance

[sharkdays]

"That despite having experienced inhuman suffering, she has nonetheless been able to gain the strength to face life."

[gideonthe9]

i just reached prometheus in hades 2 and WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

[thefirstknife]

I'm here to distract people from the sadness because there's some super WILD shit going on with Avalon and Asher's discoveries within the Vex Network.

So when you find all three secrets (not chests, extra three secrets that involve destroying the three Vex type pyramids with Vexcalibur in each section), you get an extra section to teleport to where Mithrax shows a simulation of what Asher has been working on. He simulated... well. The Veil.

This is exactly the same as the one from concept art, aka where we can see the full thing. The stuff on the left? People theorised egregore, but it didn't look like egregore to me, but also I never figured what else it might be. And here we can see what it is. It's the Tree of Silver Wings.

My other post with pictures of the Tree, both the one Io (which this one is identical to) and the one from the raid (which is more evolved so to say).

This feel like some sort of a joined manifestation of both Light and Dark. Perhaps some primordial entity. Or as the artist put it: "physical manifestation of incomprehensible cosmic energy. Window into the mind and memory of the universe." Something from Before(TM)? From the original Garden or from the beginning of the universe? Something from the Witness' "first victims" as Nezarec put it, but who were they? The Garden itself? I am losing my mind.

The garden grows in both directions. Ulan-Tan's symmetry. Etc etc.

Video with Mithrax's dialogue.

[taonpest]

Do you ever think about the fact that Vorador and Raziel were burning with rage the moment Janos died

[tacticalgrandma]

Idk man imagine if Defiance had actually cared about female relationships. Imagine Petra or Suraya instead of Devrim: getting to learn how Petra and Mara’s dynamic has evolved outside of just them talking about Crow, Suraya bonding with Amanda and challenging Mara with how important she feels Normal People are to the fight. Fucking kestrel jokes with Mara and Louis man idk.

Or even just take what we got! Have Mara and Amanda actually develop a relationship! The lines they had together were already my highlights! Let Mara’s human side be something other than “I’m sad that man sad :(“, maybe let it be the joy and fear of connecting and opening up to another person after isolating so much. Maybe let it be being so shattered after making herself vulnerable then losing someone all over again. Or if you really can’t be assed to develop a relationship between two women, maybe just have Mara talk about her guilt that someone died on the front lines while she stayed safe and guarded, again! About the weight of command! About any of her own feelings, not just men’s!

Christ, I just cannot do another year of seasons pointed squarely into Crow’s navel.

[acommonrose]

Me when I'm kinda okay at a video game I've already spent hundreds of hours on: Wow can't believe I'm the world's best gamer

[elodieunderglass]

in his delicious materials, do you have any thoughts about what chilchuck's daughters' daemons/bee's sons are like? Is puckpatti's even settled yet?

(In reference to His Delicious Materials: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56658973/chapters/144024799)

Bee’s boys - Sangwine, Pantoufle and Eglantine - gave her an absolute run for her money to raise, although given how much they worked away from home in the early years, she left most of the logistics to her wife, a mouse daemon. As a result she and Chilchuck would come home to “do some parenting while you’re here, why don’t you” and incredibly tricky and complex grievances and disciplinary problems, lots of “Bee will hear about this when she’s home!” Which didn’t set her up for much success, in retrospect.

Bee was an impatient and often angry young parent, but tried her best, made an effort to educate herself, and was exceedingly good at carrying her sons around by the scruffs of their necks, which was good - since they all all liked being absolutely unsuitable and enormous things, like ferrets, for a lot of the time in their wild youth. She wasn’t always the bad cop, but they all had very few models of Effective Parenting growing up, so she wasn’t as good then as she would be at it now.

Pantoufle’s the only one who is likely to give Bee grandchildren in her lifetime, but he’s also a little nightmare, so she doesn’t have much hope. Pan isn’t so good at the daemon’s role of “externalising the human’s voice of conscience.” He is, instead, evidence that their middle child has no conscience whatsoever. He has zero moral fiber and criminal instincts.

They are all long, long since settled.

I have no idea what forms they are, though. Literally was not planning on it ever being relevant. I am doing a 65k commission gift fic over the summer and MOVING ON, I said.

Then ended up having a conversation in the comments where it was like . Oh no. The political implications of being the only weasel daemon in your village. that could be genuinely rather funny. Oh no. What if there was a social landslide as a result of Bee settling, with large political implications swirling around, and it’s genuinely Just Some Awkward Scruffy Tall Guy And His Weasel Soul Who Are Pretty Oblivious To It All, and you turn around and suddenly your people’s daemon pool is completely changed in a generation??? Hilarious. Self-indulgent. Nothing to do with any given canon whatsoever, literally just playing in a sandbox. Someone should write that.

And then the baby didn’t sleep for a few nights in a row (oh no):

[benoits-neckerchieves]

Look who’s on BBC One rn looking fiiiine asf

Defiance (2008)

i apologise for the quality i’m taking photos of my tv screen at 1am so y’know

[icarusdash]

season of defiance // the farm