#Lionize

[driftward]

Title: FFXIV Write 2023 - Free Day 4 - 24. Lionize Characters: Aemilia sas Valentina, Katerina van Tullia, Nyx Blackmoon Rating: Teen Summary: On the right side of history, just at the wrong time Notes: Incomplete.

Her career started quietly.

A full blooded Garlean citizen of no note, joined the military to make a difference. Grew up under the shadow of Emperor Solus and his Magitek miracles. A few sorties, some success, canny intelligence, honorable but vicious.

No especial note was made of her. Another ambitious officer.

She climbed the ranks, if not easily, at least steadily. She learned from her errors and corrected her mistakes. She was a reliable part of the Garlean war machine, moving with her legion into new territories, conquering in the name of the Empire, forwarding the cause of Garlean hegemony.

Notes began to be made and compiled. It was important to know who she was, where her loyalties lie, guess at what she would become.

She gained a reputation as Garlemald gained its empire, and soon she was not a part of her legion, she was her legion, and then her legion was hers by right and in name, its Legatus, and she rode forward to victory, iron will riding her steel pride.

Now of course she was known, and the instruments of the Empire were at her disposal. The Iron Lion had become.

Conquering done, she switched to rule, and in this, the steel hammer was replaced with the velvet glove. While the rule of the day was to command with an iron fist, the Iron Line did no such thing. She was merciful in her leadership, showing an uncommon compassion to her subjects and subjugated. Work programs were put forth that paid fair wages and provided paths to, if not citizenship, at least comfortable and safe homes. Conscripts were treated well, and their tours were kept short. She did not turn on her populace with secret police and harsh adjudicators, instead allowing them largely to manage themselves, only the most egregious of offenses drawing the ire of Imperial ruthlessness. Many Legatuses on her position expanded, but the Iron Lion instead consolidated, and slowly, her province went from a war torn land to a rich source of food and material with which to feed the empire.

The Iron Lion no longer roared, and as she handed off her fiefdom to another Legatus - one hand picked by her to continue her efforts - she changed her aims, from military to political. With a groundswell of popular support and the loyalty of those who had known her, the Iron Lion sued for a spot in the Senate, and won.

The Frumentarium, of course, took careful note of this new trajectory.

An empire was not built in a day, neither Garlemald nor a more personal one. The Iron Lion, retired from a life of duty, now took up a life of service, as Katerina van Tullia. She took her place among the Imperial senate. Her power base was small, at first, buoyed by a successful military career and popularity at home. However, her views proved popular with an increasingly progressive Garlean citizenry, grown fat on military conquest and now warming to a life of leisure, as well as a sense of burgeoning responsibility, as conquerers now enjoying the fruits of their labors.

Power flowed and some with power began to view their privilege with a sense of noblesse oblige, and chief among those voices was that of the former Iron Lion.

"How are we to show the savages the value of civilization if we do not allow them the chance to participate in it? How can we uplift them from their dependence on their false gods if we cannot share with them the fruits of Imperial rule? We conquered them, yes, not only to retake our ancestral homes, but also, to prevent the ravaging of the land by their dread Eikons. But we must turn our faces towards the future, and I would reach out a hand, and offer it to them. Show them the benefits of being free, free from false worship and false deity. Then, I assure you, we need not conquer them anymore. They will come, of their own free will. This I decree!"

Katerina raised a hand to a cheering crowd, gray mane framing a proud face. The Iron Lion roared, and her voice could still be heard, it seemed.

Aemilia sas Valentina was amongst the crowd, and she clapped along as they cheered, even if somewhat less enthusiastically. No frown creased her forehead, because she was a professional. But she looked around, noting several in the crowd, noting how this meeting had been larger than the last, and larger than the one before that. Despite herself, she did allow herself to spare a glance up into the ceiling. High above the meeting hall, she looked - and saw.

In the dark, a gleam. The silvery ring of the eye of the lever she would need.

She sighed. Well. The Empire needed yet to grow, and to continue to do so, it seemed it would need some pruning.

[thefreaklovesmusic]

Lionize - Nuclear Soul

[australet789]

HH: TLK AU: The Hazbins

More with TLK AU, this time with the Hotel staff!

Vaggie's flower is a Petunia and yes, it was a gift from Charlie

Alastor is going to have his own post btw, i didnt forget about deer boy

[lucius-morningstar]

GalacticJaguar was the lovely artist of this piece ^^

[mollysunder]

The funniest thing about Jayce is that while yes, he's juggling other peoples' interests/loyalties, he's only sort of malleable and mostly kind of uncontrollable. People can tell Jayce something and he will in fact listen to it, absorb the new information, but it's a genuine gamble to guess what he does with that information.

Heimerdinger tells him exactly how to avoid punishment for his trial and Jayce DOESN'T do it. Jayce decides to defend himself and the merit of his work. The Medardas want hextech weapons (for varying reasons), Viktor says no, meanwhile Jayce already has blueprints laminated and framed in his room.

Jayce didn't ask to be a Councilor, but he immediately throws himself into rooting out corruption. When Mel tells him he's gonna need to play ball to stay alive politically, Jayce goes, "Ball is life". Then Jayce manages to amass enough political capital to kick off HEIMERDINGER of all people.

Second to Jinx, Jayce is the character that asserts the most agency in the cast. People really try to pull Jayce in this and that direction, but his character, his morals, just who he really is pushes at any supposed binary others try to place him in. The choices he makes always align with his core, and it inevitably puts others in a position to accept the consequences of bringing up the issue to him in the first place.

[scintillyyy]

i gotta say while i'm definitely happy they went with "dana is a nice woman tim likes & gets along with & is a good stepmom who isn't trying to take tim's mom's place" i do wish they had leaned into the slight tension from her first introduction in prodigal just a lil bit longer. i just think there's a little more to dig into re: like. tim's mom just died & her & jack were fighting prior & tim knew that & then she dies and his dad has now like completely idealized her & their relationship as a whole & now he's with a new woman who he actually gets along with & that's gotta sting y'know....

[amanrafromveranda]

BES scraps

[silverskye13]

I get how Wels is really protective of the Hermits, but I think part of that has given Tango some prejudices about the Helsmets. I feel like he thinks of Tanguish as a defanged lion or something, like "oh Helsmets are dangerous, but mine's not so I can hang with him" and he's trying to convince his "parent" to let him keep the wild animal he's found. I feel like Tanguish trying to convince him the other Helsmets don't mean any harm is never going to work, but Tango is also not aware of some of the struggles the Helsmets can go through and doesn't realise they are capable of actually being nice to each other without tearing the other to shreds.

Tango has made one of my favorite blunders in media: he has mistaken no intent to harm with harmless. A harmless thing couldn't hurt you even if it wanted to. A thing with no harmful intent could do a great amount of harm, but does not wish to.

I think you're very right in saying he treats Tanguish like a tame lion. He isn't really a person. He's certainly more of a person to Tango than he is to Welsknight, but he's still a step down. Tanguish is his pet hype man, a rubber duck that happens to occasionally have opinions, a toothless predator.

Personally! I think this is less a flaw of Welsknight's influence, and more a flaw in Tango. Welsknight has done a lot to heck up the situation, don't get me wrong, but his has more to do with making Tango doubt his relationships. Tango didn't treat Tanguish like his own person before Wels found out about him.

[dr-ralph]

I refuse to give OP notes, so here

Reminder that people like this

Are cowards, and they cannot even begin to imagine or understand someone actually choosing to give up their life for someone else

Have absent/ineffectual fathers, so they cannot imagine anyone else's dad being better than their own

Want people like this man rendered broke & suicidal by societal ostracization because of how they believe he thinks. They will never offer anything except the least charitable interpretation of his actions.

Just be prepared for more hot takes like this

[so-i-did-this-thing]

I am begging people to learn who the credible independent reporters are within a marginalized group, especially if you share that marginalization.

Yes, verify, verify, verify, and get those primary sources. But if you are only getting your news from traditional outlets, it is coming in too little, too late, and often with a ton of bias baked in.

[avrorean]

I need you guys to look at this from high approval wynne, i adore her with all my heart but can you imagine saying this to a teenager

"As a Grey Warden, you are a guardian of men. And you guard them because their continued existence is more important than you are." Are you trying to get me to end things with Alistair? "You may have to. To save one.. or both of of you unnecessary anguish later." "You would not have been happy living a dull, uneventful life, dying in obscurity." "The Maker put us all on our path for a reason, and fighting our intended course is what causes so much anguish." "There is joy in self-sacrifice; if you put others before yourself, then their well-being is yours, and their happiness is your happiness."

mentorship course desperately needed

[jdrider02]

silly transformers related twitter doodles

10-20-2023

[lesbiancolumbo]

the film community is so misogynistic. have not forgotten the time they dogpiled on a reviewer on LB for calling Oldboy sexist bc that movie rocks and how can a stupid bitch find a movie I think rocks sexist? :( I am a super cool leftist man and very progressive, I just don’t give a shit if my favorite director is accused of sexual misconduct and I mock women for pointing out misogyny in any form of media (unless ofc it is a feminist movie and/or directed by a woman and in which case it is Problematic and Discourse worthy and can’t women see how stupid they are to like it bc ackshually it’s anti-women somehow) and I make memes about how only men are into art house and have to trick their girlfriends into watching it ahahaha and somehow the only actors and directors and creatives I take seriously are white men geez you stupid bitches have had 100 years to make films worth my time that I haven’t seen any of not my fault men are just intrinsically better at film making. Oh and for a while every two weeks another man was exposed as a sex pest on film twt and everyone was like oh noes how could we have known and then he had a history of “ironically” degrading women and dogpiling on them. but remember ladies they’re progressives! feminists! how could they possibly be misogynists, misogyny in film circles doesn’t exist :/

(sorry for the rant, I didn’t realize I had so much on my chest)

are you me? why are you me? i'm me!

misogyny in film circles doesn't exist but the research team of That Famous Film Podcast is rife with men who have openly stated that they don't care about women's opinions on film and fucking hate women. and that's just one fish in a pretty fucking large pond.

anyway that's why i give out the energy that i do. until we live in a society where women are given the same consideration as men in this industry, i'm gonna give male filmmakers/film creatives exactly what they deserve: DUST.

[australet789]

Lion King AU with Lucifer and Charlie!

[lucius-morningstar]

She's trying to do her job Charlie.. But it's okay, Charlie is just rewarding her for working so hard, Vaggie is doing everything not to break that stoic stare. She's not going to break, it doesn't matter how cute Charlie is being, or how loving she is. Vaggie will do her job. She keeps telling herself she has good self restraint, But Charlie is doing her best to prove her wrong. She's coming very close to succeeding. Art was done by the amazing creator rainorld on DeviantART.

[mollysunder]

The one thing I don't understand about the theory where Piltover and Zaun are teaming up to fight Noxus in the end, is why are Vi and Ekko flying towards Jinx's supposed airship if they're on the same team? Why does Vi NEED to confront Jinx in the middle of a warzone?

We see Ekko in garb that looks like he's on Jinx's side, but we mostly see him with the Firelights in those scenes, and they not decorated in Jinx's colors. Even minor background characters that are on Jinx/Sevika's side have a pink X on the right side of their chest. The Firelights are completely free of any graffiti or markers that would identify them with Jinx, and Vi is in an enforcer uniform. We don't see any other Zaunites in the crowd, but for some reason Vi and Ekko are centering their concentration on Jinx.

I think what's happening is that Ambessa's forces are fighting against Piltover's enforcers, but Jinx isn't helping, she's taking advantage of the chaos. Jinx is probably in Piltover to do something big that Piltover can't defend against since they're preoccupied with Noxus. Jinx will probably think the fight between Noxus and Piltover is the best opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Vi and Ekko will probably object, they'll say her plan goes too far, and it'll get people killed. The whole scenario will probably be a more extreme mirror to whatever the Silco flashback will reveal about what went down on the Day of Ash and why Vander tried to kill Silco, except this time with magic.