#NOT BECAUSE HER MORALS WERE RIGHT BUT BECAUSE THE PROGRESSION OF HER MORALS WAS THE MOST NUANCED AND APPROPRIATE

[strawberryraviegutz]

Can we PLEASE be normal and agree that all kpop demon hunters ships are valid instead of shitting on/writing off ships and or thinking that a ship is a moral failing or “less progressive” just cuz said ships are m/f.

Are yall forgetting the target audience for this movie?? Like yeah the movie is for queer ppl too since there’s a queer allegory in the movie’s overall message and kpop fanbases having a huge queer community, but this movie also had in mind women and young teenage girls who obsess over kpop boy bands along with shipping themselves and or other kpop stars with said boy band members both male and female.

I still wanna enjoy hunterix yuri so bad bad because im a multishipper, but at the same time even as i was watching the movie I already knew ppl were gonna start shitting on Rujinu, zoestery, miromabby, and the Saja boys and the ppl who like these ships and the Saja boys as a whole and it’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Hell even before the movie came out ppl were jumping this one person who made a ship post about Mira and Abby. And yes representation IS important but that doesn’t mean m/f ships should just be disregarded as “not progressive”.

When did we suddenly start deciding that a woman and a man being attracted to each other is a detriment to the feminist/progressive movement?? Like yall do realize that CisHet allies exist, right? You’re not automatically “more progressive” by shipping gay ships.

I’d argue it’s more misogynistic to send a message to women that if they’re attracted to and or want to have relationships with men then that means they’re a danger to the feminist/progressive movement or have “less value” which does nothing to help our movement at all and just ends up excluding other women which also goes against our movement.

Feminism and the progressive left movement as a whole is all about EQUALITY. Feminism quite literally involves helping men too because EVERYONE is negatively affected under the patriarchy.

Men may not be oppressed for being men but that doesn’t mean that the patriarchy doesn’t affect them negatively. Feminism isn’t men vs women, it’s everyone vs misogynists/the patriarchy. Also bold of u to assume that Rumi and Jinu are straight.

Considering the parallels to Rumi’s story and the way many queer ppl feeling about their own identities feeling like they need to hide themselves because of shame, it’s obvious that she’s not straight and could be bisexual. Just cuz a bi woman falls in love with a man doesn’t make her any less bisexual/queer.

And Jinu is a 400 year old demon. He probably had centuries to experiment along with the fact that queerness did exist in Korea and Asia as a whole and was a normal part of their cultures pre colonization hundreds of years ago and the same goes for the other Saja boys. Mira and Zoey can be attracted to girls too of course but them being shipped with men wouldn’t make them any less queer especially if the men in question are also queer.

Plus we all saw how all three of the hunterix members reacted when they first saw the Saja boys(especially Mira and Zoey who had LITERAL HEART EYES WHEN THEY LAYED EYES ON THEM. Along with Abby’s Abs continued to make their eyes do the popcorn thing 2 times later on in the movie and Mira literally calling them hot the first time.).

Any of the hunterx x Saja boys ships could quite literally be bi 4 bi or bi 4 pan(with the saja boys being pan with the reasons being my previous statement about them being over a hundred year old demons who had plenty of time to experiment.)

Why can’t we just agree to disagree and ship whatever we want without putting down/sending vitriol towards other ships and or the ppl who ship these ships?? We’re already in a low empathy crisis as is and yall are just making it worse. Focus that same anger and hatred yall put into sending hate towards ppl over pixels on a screen towards calling ur senators/reps about pushing back against the facist regime that the orange man is trying to plunge the US into.

Like seriously guys what will it cost u to not be an asshole to others for liking something that you don’t like? Get off your high horses and BE NICE TO EACH OTHER AND RESPECT ALL SHIPS.

[shitpostingsapphic]

Why I don't feel disappointed by Vi's arc, but you might

I usually have pretty strong and polarizing opinions when it comes to my takes on Arcane, but this is one where I wanna open up the discussion a bit more and invite people to my perspective, and it's fine if you don't see it this way.

I think there are two primary reasons why people feel disappointed by the arc of s2 Vi. The first, being that Vi had stronger voiced concerns about the state of Zaun in the first season. The second, being that she spent the whole show wanting to be with her sister and she didn't end up getting that.

Why I actually feel fulfilled in Vi's arc has to do with these two points, and I invite you to sit with what I have to say next.

Both of these parts of Vi have to do with her fatal flaw: her neglect of self.

We know two things based on what the creators have said about the show: the theme of Arcane is the cycle of violence, and the entire show was written together, instead of season 2 being written after season 1 production. From this, I can then ask: what do the creators want to tell their audience about this message, knowing they wrote it all out together, knowing the events of season 2 were very purposeful, using Vi as a conduit for that message?

If violence is a cycle, can one person defy it? No, of course not. At the start of Vi's arc, she wants to be a person that breaks it, though. She wants to change things in Zaun, wants a better life for her sister. As season 1 continues on, she wants to pick up where she left off with Powder without truly processing the gravity of the years between them. She thinks she can hold the world on her shoulders and fix any problem that comes her way. She thinks she can use her fists to make progress, thinks she can physically reach out and create change, but it only contributes to the cycle. And that's not because she's morally in the wrong when she does so, but she doesn't grasp yet that her fists can't fix everything. Vander tries to tell her as such in act 1, and it's a lesson that goes beyond just the literal application.

Vi's tendency to try and fix everything around her leads to her neglect of self. Inevitably, when you try to change things you have no control over, it leaves wounds. It leaves a person feeling like something is deeply wrong with them. And we watch Vi go down this spiral. I actually find myself really brokenhearted watching Vi in the first 2 acts, because I think she represents a lot of us: we see pain and devastation around us, but we don't know what the right thing to do is. We try different tactics and try to fix things and are left wondering why things feel worse than how they started.

I think that's something a lot of viewers could benefit to reflect on: I think in watching a show with strong political messaging, we yearn for a message that tells us the answers to these big problems. Truthfully, most of us don't have a fucking clue what we're doing. We want change but don't know how to see it through. That includes the writers. This isn't a show about the solution to political strife. It's about the cycle of violence. It's about not knowing how to change something that's been continuous throughout history in some form.

If we put ourselves in Vi's shoes, it would eventually take a toll on us to try and change something that isn't within our ability to change. Vi can't fix the problems in Zaun. Vi can't change the way time and distance and pain has warped her sister into someone else. In season 2 act 1, she's still trying to take responsibility for things that are outside of her control. She blames herself for the way Jinx has changed and has to tell herself that the only way to fix it is to end the cycle with her own fists. She teams up with Caitlyn because she's convinced herself it's the only way she can help. She sees how violence has devastated not only Zaun but innocents in Piltover as well, and she feels responsible for it.

BUT SHE IS NOT AT FAULT. And she cannot fix it any more than she could have created it.

Perhaps people may feel Vi's arc is lacking because they wanted to see more of her involvement in the revolution of Zaun. They wanted to see her be able to change the situation with her sister and for them to live happily together. But because of the circumstances surrounding both, for Vi to do so, she would inevitably lean into her fatal flaw. She cannot do either of those things without neglecting herself. That's not who she is.

The whole point of a character arc is for someone to be a changed person from beginning to end. If Vi starts out as someone passionate about enacting change to the point of self-destruction, what would a resolution for a character like that look like?

Vi needs to choose herself. Vi needs to release herself of the responsibility of changing the world. She can't do it. There are ways to contribute to positive change that don't involve putting the world on your shoulders, and Vi has yet to put herself first in any situation. Vi choosing love is how she does it.

Amanda Overton, one of the main writers that contributed to Vi's character and the Caitlyn and Vi dynamic and relationship, said about Vi: "If she has no one left to protect, she would fall in love". If Vi finally lets go of this crutch of hers to protect, to fight, to take responsibility for things that aren't her burden to bear, she would fall in love. She would finally be able to choose something for herself.

This is why I find her arc fulfilling. I feel like it's not an arc we really see a lot. It's not every day we have a character that starts out like the classic anime slash marvel protagonist, and instead of being the person that saves the world, they accept they're not a superhero and it's okay to choose love and personal happiness.

If it applies, and you're reading this, I want you to ask yourself: are you perhaps disappointed with her arc because you expected her to be the superhero? And would you be okay with accepting that she isn't and doesn't need to be? That it would be better for her to choose herself?

[perkwunos]

But there’s a cruel reality behind the decision to track right: The campaign, once it hitched its wagon to Biden’s policy of unqualified support for genocide in Gaza, really had no other choice. In 2020, the Biden campaign tentatively rode the progressive wave of the George Floyd protests, anger about Trump’s racist border policies, Covid activism, and anti-war protests against Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen to energize the Democratic Party base to defeat Trump. It was, in retrospect, mostly lip service, and certainly no one at the time thought Biden a firebrand progressive. But the broader theme of the campaign was that everyone would have a seat at the table, even if the plate would most likely end up being empty.

Harris made no such pretensions, because any strategy that played to similar themes would have had to address the elephant in the room: the Democratic Party’s ​“ironclad” support for Israel’s elimination of a people in whole or in part. And this simply would not have worked. One can’t really bank on activist energy, youth turnout, and base-mobilizing when those involved — while canvassing together, or running phone banks at each others apartments, or getting drinks afterwards — have to awkwardly address the fact of genocide and their candidate’s support for it. This isn’t to say there was no activist or youth energy in the campaign — clearly there was. But those in charge quickly decided against making this their central theme and vote-gathering strategy, given the uncomfortable questions that would naturally arise from campaigning in these spaces. So Liz Cheney and her negative-2 favorables it was. 

Countless pro-Democratic Party pundits tried to warn Harris. Polls were commissioned. The Uncommitted Movement very politely, and well within the bounds of loyal party politics, begged Harris to change course. But she refused. The risk, to her, was worth sticking to the unshakable commitment to ​“eliminating Hamas” no matter how many dead Palestinian children it required, or the degree to which images and reports of these dead children would fuel cynicism and create an opening for Trump to win. 

... Turning every party advocate into a dead-eyed trolley problem expert triaging which genocide was morally preferable may have made cold logical sense, but it was hardly an inspiring message. Making it less compelling was that, by and large, it was not a position emanating from Palestinians themselves, as virtually every major Palestinian organization and the sole Palestinian-American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib, refused to endorse Harris.

[the-knight-of-the-stars]

Are we gonna talk about how that finale entirely erased any conversation about class divisions or are we too focused on ships?

Are we gonna talk about how Caitlyn for a good chunk of the season willingly enforces violence and opression against the lowest class, no doubt directly causing more deaths and suffering, and she is forgiven by the narrative without any meaningful reflecting?

Her great moment getting together with Vi is right after she JUST had a conversation with Jinx where we see she STILL doesn't recognize any class bias she clearly has, insted making it about HER.

Her and the other enforcers are treated like noble heroes in the final battle, all the blame put on Ambesa. Vi's happy ending is getting into a relationship with the exact type of person who perpetuated all the suffering she endured as a child.

Are we gonna talk about how Jayce never leaves his privilege pedestal, never actually reflects on how he was also enforcing violence to the people of the undercity and living on his bliss of progress at THEIR expense?

Jayce, who got help on every step of the way to get to where he is, who wasn't disabled, who never lived the kind of poverty or class obstacles Viktor did, who never recognized the harm he enabled and was complicit to, HE was the one to tell Viktor "People build their own destiny." and "There is beauty in imperfection" ?????

Not to mention the whole bit where he implies Viktor did all that because he wanted to "eradicate what he thought was weakness"??? Didn't we stablished Viktor wanted to HELP THE PEOPLE FROM THE UNDERCITY TO HAVE BETTER LIFE CONDITIONS?? don't try to gaslight me.

I know this is just a TV show, but I need to remind everyone that what perpetuates opressive, discriminatory and violent systems as long and as deeply as they do is indiference. Is turning your head and enabling others to stay ignorant.

Edit: You guys are misunderstanding me. And I admit it is probably my fault, I wrote this high with emotion I wasn't as eloquent.

Jayce's exact choice of words or his time living in the alternate world is nowhere near my point.

My point is, that the narrative is establishing that the privileged character, is the one that has to show (and is quite literally, textually, always the one to show) the underprivileged character that "he was looking at life the wrong way." Forgetting that Viktor's journey of feeling powerless was greatly influenced by the fact he was poor and from the undercity.

That's what I meant by it erasing the part of the plot about class systems. In the end, the story only requires Jayce to understand Viktor's struggle on a superficial level, but the text never recognizes that it as the product of a deeply rooted SYSTEMIC ISSUE. One Jayce and even Viktor on some level, benefited from and perpetuated.

Understanding Viktor still doesn't give him any moral ground, and nobody ever challenges him on that because the story isn't interested in that anymore.

And the same with Caitlyn. She knows what she did what's wrong, fine, she feels bad. Like I said, she still has a class bias, and no character challenges her on it again because the story derails to magic and fighting and whatnot.

The plot just forgets (or ignores) that layer of the story despite it being so prominent up until now.

And ignoring the class discussion does a disservice to every single character because they were initially built on it. You can see it in how they lose the essence they had on s1.

I know y'all love the characters and want to empathize with all their motivations, okay? But the fundamental issue is that characters also represent things, and more so in a story as political as this one. We also have the right to point out that the show told us they represented something and then abandoned that narrative.

What do I think they could have done differently? If I tell you scene by scene we could be here for an entire year. The gist of it is: I think they should have stuck to the character themes they already had established.

Vi as someone fiercely loyal to the undercity beyond her relationship with Powder/Jinx, and being "cursed" by the role of the older sister. Jayce as someone with good intentions but who is ultimately limited by his blind idealism. Mel as a cunning politician who thinks she is on the right path because she isn't violent like her mother, not realizing she is still perpetuating it. Caitlyn as someone kind and compassionate who realizes the institutions she believed in are fundamentally flawed, and because of the way they are built will never be on the side of kindness. Etc, etc.

None of that gets any meaningful resolution.

I am glad if you liked it, or got something from it, you are entitled to your opinion.

I wanted to say this because I was angry, and still am. Because there was so much incredible potential, and honestly, to me, it feels like the writers chickened out on actually saying something in the end.

That's all I have to say about that.

[peachdues]

THE WIND AND MOON

PROLOGUE ♢ SANEMI SHINAZUGAWA X LUNAR PILLAR!READER

A/N: oh boy! The fic that started it all is back in progress (with a slight title change).

This will be a slightly canon-divergent AU, wherein Lunar Breathing is inherited and there's actually some power involved with the breathing techniques as a whole (as opposed to the styles just being nice sword movements with illustrations lmao).

Reader will be Sanemi's tsuguko for a time, and she will eventually become a Hashira. This is their story.

This will be a multi-part fic. Be warned: the Reader is a very morally gray character (but we love her for it).

@ghost-1-y thank you for reminding me of my love for this fic.

Massive CW: 18+, canon-typical violence, graphic violence, gore, child death, and implied S/A. Smut to come. MDNI.

Sanemi was there that day; the day she became part of the Corps.

The day her world ended.

It was fucking freezing that morning. The sky was a muted gray as snow drifted down from the heavens in wet, fat clumps. It had started sometime the previous night, and by the morning, the village had been covered in its thick blanket.

The carnage, however, was fresh, and so the snow was not white.

Only an hour had passed since the watery gray light of dawn bled into the sky from the east, when Sanemi’s crow swooped low over his head, tugging frantically at his hair. Beside him, the Flame Pillar ducked as his own crow joined the panic.

“Northeast! Northeast! Right at the base of the mountain! A horde of demons attacked the village!” They cried in tandem.

Not just one. A horde. A swarm of demons had descended upon a moderately populated merchant village, tearing it and its people to shreds. 

Both the Wind and Flame Pillars furiously made their way northeast, one of the crows bleating that Tengen and Iguro were also en route. As they ran, the birds alternated in snaring what little information they had of the village, and what had prompted the attack. 

It was because of her; or rather, her family.

The head of the village was a merchant known for his imports from the West. His success meant the village prospered as a whole, and it was popular for its numerous small shops and tea houses which lined the streets, always crowded with locals and travelers alike. 

Demons had no use for money or exotic baubles; but Muzan Kibutsuji had a keen interest in obliterating Lunar Breathing from the world.

So he had. 

The very merchant whose business prowess bolstered the local economy with his imports was directly descended from the clan which had created Lunar Breathing, Breath of Sun’s powerful, dark twin. The merchant was the youngest and only living relative of the aging head of the Lunar Clan, a retired Hashira who’d never taken a wife. But unlike the other breathing techniques, Lunar Breathing was an inherited talent, and without an heir, there would be no one to continue the great family’s legacy. 

That burden was thus placed on the surviving eldest child of the merchant whose village both Sanemi and his comrade now rushed to.

There had been an elder son, Rengoku’s crow revealed, but he had died a few years prior from illness. And so, the merchant’s middle child was made the new heir, tasked with the mission of becoming a demon slayer so that she could continue on the Lunar Breathing tradition. 

Her.

There was no word as to whether she had been present for the attack. Final Selection ended only a few days prior, and it was entirely possible that she either had been killed on the Mountain, or that she was still making her way back to the village, unaware that no one would be there to welcome her home.

There was certainly no greeting for the Pillars when they finally arrived at the mountain’s base. The village was eerily silent as Sanemi and Rengoku crossed over the small bridge abutting its ravine; still. Dawn had given way to a dark gray sky, and visibility was not ideal.

Not that it would’ve taken much effort to see the blood and gore that littered the village’s once lively streets.

“What on earth?” The Sound Pillar’s familiar voice broke the silence, as he and Iguro approached their comrades from the Eastern gate of the village. Behind them, trailed a group of nearly thirty Kakushi. 

The Hashira slowly took in the nightmare around them, stunned into horrified silence as they beheld the level of destruction which had befallen the village just hours before.

“Kakushi. Spread out. Look for any survivors. They may be buried or hiding.” Rengoku’s voice was steady but uncharacteristically grave, his face stony and hard. “Shinuzagawa, we should make our way to the Lunar Merchant’s estate. We need to send word to the Clan head right away if-“

“You didn’t hear?” Iguro interjected. “The head of the Lunar House is dead.” Though the lower half of his face was covered, the anguish on the Serpent Pillar’s face was evident. “That’s where Uzui and I just came from. He was ripped to shreds.”

“Fuck,” Sanemi hissed, a toxic mixture of anger, guilt  roiling in his gut. An entire clan — and entire village— had been decimated in a matter of hours, and no one had been able to protect them.

They hadn’t been able to protect them. 

“Have we any word on the Lunar heir?” Rengoku asked quietly. Iguro and Uzui shook their heads. “Then she likely is lost, too.” The Flame Pillar turned back to Sanemi, his face a mirror of his own. “Let’s go.”

The snow and wind picked up just as the two swordsmen approached the Lunar Merchant’s manor, obscuring part of the wreckage before them. From the corner of his eye, Sanemi swore he spied movement out of the back corner of the estate, but when he turned to examine it, all was still.

Beflre he could inquire further, a sharp gasp to his right snapped his attention back to the Pillar at his side. But Rengoku was not looking at him; rather, he was staring directly ahead, right to the courtyard of the manor.

“Heavens above,” the Flame Hashira whispered. 

Sanemi followed his gaze through what had been once-proud iron gates, though only half of it remained hinged. The other had been ripped from its stone setting, twisted by some unfathomable strength and thrown carelessly to the side. Just past the gate, Sanemi beheld a single, bloodied arm. 

His heart dropped sickeningly to his stomach at what lay beyond it; for there was not an inch of ground that hadn’t been saturated with blood and bits of gore.  

Chunks of flesh and torn limbs bearing harsh jagged teeth marks were strewn across the snowy garden. Broken glass and wood from the manor littered the ground, and the few walls that remained standing had been showered in a thick coat of crimson.

But the carnage did not end with the massacre on the courtyard. Sanemi forced himself to look upon the half-severed bodies of those who’d been stuck to the sloped roofing  of the Manor, as though some demon had plucked fleeing humans from the yard to feast on them mid-air, adorning the handsome estate with a shower of bloodied entrails. 

He did not notice the small group of Kakushi that had arrived at the Manor until he heard their gasps and cries of horror. Behind him, Sanemi heard one or two begin to retch, unable to stomach the carnage before them.

“Move!” Sanemi barked, his voice scratchy over the lump forming in his throat. “Fucking look for survivors! Anyone!”

A few paces ahead, Rengoku called up to the crows checking above. “Do you have a description of the heir?”

“She is around eighteen, Lord Rengoku!”

Not helpful, given that most of the bodies around them were unrecognizable. But it was something. 

Rengoku turned back to Sanemi. “I will check inside the house. You!” Rengoku called to a small group of three Kakushi nearby, “With me!”

Sanemi continued to make his way through the debris and body parts in the courtyard, lifting stone and wood in hope that he might find someone — anyone — who had managed to hide. Yet that hope dimmed with every stone he turned, as he found only the scraps of the people who’d once called the Manor home.

He came across a large chunk of curved, chiseled stone that was half-embedded into the soft ground below. Grunting, Sanemi heaved the rock aside, thinking it was perhaps part of some fountain or statue.

His stomach lurched as the stone toppled heavily over. For there, crushed beneath the weight of the rock, was the small body of a child, severed completely at the torso. Her two halves lay next to one another, a ragged seam torn between the two as though pulled apart by force.

Sanemi felt the bile rise in his throat as his gaze fell upon the child’s face, utterly frozen in fear. Though death had snuffed out the light of life from her eyes, it had done nothing to conceal the terror she’d felt in her last moments, the girl’s mouth stretched wide, fixed in her final scream. 

She was no older than ten. 

He could not help it. Sanemi turned away from the grisly sight and vomited into the snow, every inch of him trembling. He wretched until his stomach was empty and his throat burned from the acid and strain of his dry-heaving. 

With great effort, he managed to straighten, his breath short and choppy. But he forced his legs to carry him forward, though any hope that they would find the Lunar Heir or any survivor grew dimmer by the second.

Even as Hashira, Sanemi knew he’d never seen wreckage quite like this.

He neared the center of the courtyard, and halted before a large, circular stone inset that had been smashed to gravel, leaving only a single, large piece of rounded stone wall standing.

Found the fountain, Sanemi thought bitterly. Another sharp, icy gust of wind whipped its way through the courtyard, disturbing the little bit of snow that wasn’t packed down with the carnage. But the wind also stirred up something else, something dark and wispy. 

Had the Wind Pillar’s lilac gaze been focused anywhere but that piece of stone, he would have missed it softly fluttering up before disappearing beneath the lip of the fountain. 

Lips mashed into a tight line, Sanemi moved to examine the other side of the broken stone. As he did so, Rengoku reappeared on the outer steps of the engawa surrounding the Manor, a frown etched deeply on his face.

“Shinazugawa, something is off. The demons’ presence is obvious, but the house looks like it was ransacked— jewels, silks, valuables, all strewn about. Some of it seems to be missing —“

“I found her.” Sanemi bit out, gruffly. “The heir.”

It was her hair, Sanemi realized. Her hair was what had been disturbed by the wind, a few strands having drifted up before settling back down upon the bloodied shoulder of the lifeless girl collapsed before the fountain.

Had there not been a thick spread of red-stained snow and earth beneath her, Sanemi almost would have thought she’d been sleeping. Her face was almost devoid of any injury, save for a few fresh scratches along her jaw and temple. Her eyes were closed, long dark lashes tickling a soft, and unblemished cheek, as pale and smooth as the Moon. And there was a serenity to her expression, a calmness that posed a stark contrast to the chaos and horror which surrounded her.

The rest of her had not been left untouched. Sanemi noted that while she appeared to have maintained her limbs, her back was soaked in blood, no doubt the source of the large stain beneath her. Grimly, he noted that her blood still oozed from an unknown wound between her shoulders. Her left arm was stretched out before her, wrist bent at an unnatural angle, its skin mottled from a mixture of the cold and an attempt to bruise before her blood had ceased flowing in her veins. 

Beneath the torn and bloodied haori around her shoulders, were a pair of pants and a fitted, long sleeved top which had clearly seen better days. Her clothes hosted various tears and stains, and she was so caked in blood and mud that it was difficult to further discern her body’s condition.

The crows had said the Lunar Heir was around eighteen years of age, but as Sanemi stared at her lifeless form, all he could think about was how small she looked; how young she’d been, when she lost her life to the brutality of demons.

The thought made his blood run cold.

“No doubt this is her,” Rengoku said heavily, nodding at wounds Sanemi had not noticed on her hands. Squinting, the Wind Pillar spied bruises and cuts in various stages of healing dotting her knuckles and fingers. 

He suspected more lay beneath her soiled clothing.

“Final selection wounds,” the Flame Pillar confirmed. “She must have just returned from the mountain when the attack began. Perhaps she even stumbled into the middle of it.” Rengoku shook his head. “She didn’t stand a chance.”

It was well known that even if one survived final selection, they would likely descend the mountain with some degree of injury. Seven nights without access to shelter, food, or water was difficult enough, but the added danger of starving demons almost guaranteed that one would not emerge unscathed.

She must have been wounded, and severely enough to slow her return home by a few days. Even if she had the skill to hold her own against the swarm of demons that had attacked her village, whatever injuries she sustained during final selection likely sealed her fate.

Sanemi swore, looking over the last of the Lunar Breathing Clan, the acrid bite of guilt and pity seeping hotly into his veins. The poor girl survived the controlled horrors of final selection only to meet an even more grisly end at her home — where she was supposed to be safe. 

Cruelty; utter cruelty, and a damn tragedy.

“She will get a Slayer’s burial, in the Master’s garden.” Rengoku declared firmly, raising his voice so the nearby Kakushi would hear. “She passed Final Selection; she’s one of us.”

“No,” Sanemi said, voice hoarse. “Bury her here with her family.” His eyes returned to the girl’s face, an inexplicable bitterness coating his tongue. “She fought to return to them; let her be with them.”

He lifted his eyes back up to the ochre gaze of the Flame Pillar. Rengoku stared at him for a long moment, before nodding, turning back to the Kakushi. “You heard Shinazugawa. Let’s give them all a proper burial.”

The Kakushi began to move, thorough and efficient even among the horror around them. Sanemi readied himself to assist, moving to stand when his eyes snagged on the girl’s torso, his gaze drawn to the sizeable swath of smooth skin that was exposed to the icy bite of the snow. His frown deepened as he took note of the odd way that her clothes sat around her exposed abdomen. The girl was half laid on her side, but the front of her shirt was bunched and twisted together, like it had been gathered and shoved out of the way. 

His eyes lowered a fraction to the front of the girl’s pants. At first glance, all seemend normal, her trousers fitted at her hips, but that was precisely what caught his eye. The waistband on the girl’s pants slotted across her lower hips, not higher up on her waist as it should have been. One side was noticeably lower than the other, almost as though they’d nearly been tugged off.

Almost as if-

Sanemi felt the hairs on his body rise. Looking over the girl once more, he noted the suspicious lack of claw marks and bite marks to her body; the way that she seemed intact, compared to the bodies of her friends and family scattered in pieces around her.

And her blood — her blood appeared more fresh than what was caked in the snow around them, as though she’d been attacked right before the Corps arrived at the manor’s gate.

“Rengoku,” Sanemi said sharply, and the Flame Hashira was back at his side in an instant. Sanemi jutted his chin toward the girl’s body and Rengoku followed his gaze. He could see the gears turning in his comrade’s head, the owlish Slayer steadily taking note of the odd skew of her clothes and her lack of demon-like injuries.

“How many demons do you know that try to-,” Sanemi ground his teeth at the word that came to mind, his blood boiling hot. “Have their way with victims before eating them?”

“Not many,” Rengoku conceded darkly, a similar anger simmering in his eyes. “Though not unheard of. It is… rare. Most can’t resist their hunger.” 

He fell silent for a moment, contemplating.

“Didn’t you say the house had looked ransacked?” Sanemi turned his gaze away from the girl and towards the broken doors of the manor.

Rengoku’s eyes widened. “Yes. As if someone came in and grabbed anything they could.”

Sanemi nodded. “Bandits. Probably heard about the attack and got excited to loot. Found a body that wasn’t completely torn apart by demons and tried to take advantage.” 

Rather than bile, Sanemi felt anger, hot and lethal, threatening to spill out of him. 

If he found them, they would receive no mercy, human or not.

Rengoku exhaled sharply through his nose, a weariness clouding over his features.  “Though I don’t suppose we can really know for sure. There isn’t enough left of anyone else to compare.”

Rengoku clasped his hands in front of himself, and he closed his eyes, offering a small prayer for the girl. “Whatever happened to her, she’s gone now. Let us ensure she can rest.” 

He turned to head back to where the Kakushi had begun digging graves for the deceased, leaving Sanemi alone once more.

He’d stared the spot where the girl’s body had lain long after a pair of Kakushi gently removed her to ready her for her burial, watching with hollow eyes and a hollow heart as the one of them — a female — tenderly brushed the girl’s hair from her face and straightened her haori. They’d crossed her arms over her middle and gingerly carried her to join the remains of her family.

Hers was the last of the graves to be prepared. The Kakushi were just beginning to pack the mud and snow over her body when one of them collapsed from exhaustion. The group resolved to take a small water break before finishing, and neither Shinazugawa nor Rengoku had the desire to object. 

After all, digging nearly twenty graves was no easy task.

Both Hashira assisted with the effort, and their combined strength and stamina had streamlined the task considerably. While the Kakushi rested, Rengoku departed for the front gates to update Uzui and Iguro, who’d been dealing with the wreckage within the village, assisted by reinforcements of both Kakushi and lower rank slayers called in to assist with the clean up and burial.

In total, over two hundred graves were dug, and not a single survivor had been found.

It was a heavy day — perhaps one of the darkest in the Corp’s history, and its crowning poisoned jewel was the eradication of one of the oldest breathing styles.The news that there was one less defense against the demons was not a welcome one. 

Sanemi had gone to the other side of the courtyard, away from the voices and graves and rising stink of death. Out of sight from any prying eyes, he found a tree and shoved his fist through it, clear to the other side. Splinters of bark exploded around his arm and bit into the skin around his knuckles and palm, but Sanemi could not find it in himself to care; he sought only to break through the silent numbness threatening to consume him.

Because he’d taken refuge on the other side of the courtyard, away from the new burial site, Sanemi did not see the hand and arm that shoved through the pile of earth resting atop the last grave. He did not see clawed fingers sinking into the mud and snow, desperately seeking purchase as the body attached to the arm hauled itself — herself — from beneath the earth, the remnants of her grave skittering to the side as she heaved her body out.

Sanemi did hear the terrified shriek of the Kakushi, and immediately he drew his sword. In the distance, he could hear Rengoku roaring orders at the terrified attendants, though he could not discern the specifics. 

The Wind Pillar came into view of the gravesite right as the girl spilled out from the hole in the ground, using her bare hands to pull herself forward as the rest of her body remained limp.

Sanemi Shinazugawa was not a pious man; in fact, he considered himself rather skeptical of the idea of faith. If there were truly any gods out there, then Sanemi wanted nothing to do with them. They chose to let chaos and devastation run rampant. They chose to let demons exists.

But hell apparently had frozen over, and Sanemi found himself offering a prayer for the girl’s forgiveness as he prepared to behead her demonized form. He hoped she would understand; after all, she’d  joined the Corps intending to rid of the world of the very thing she’d now become.

It was what he hoped one his his fellow Hashira would do for him, if he ever found himself in that situation.

As the Swordsman cocked his blade, ready to strike the crawling demon from behind, Rengoku cried out. “Shinazugawa, NO!”

Sanemi stuttered,  his arm in mid-swing as he neared the demon’s neck. A flash of violet and white shot towards him, and a piercing shriek of metal tore through the sky as Uzui’s blade parried his, the force of the clash knocking him out of the air. A frustrated grunt echoed from his chest, and with great effort, Sanemi twisted mid-air to avoid falling flat on his ass, just barely managing to land swiftly on the balls of his feet.

“What the fuck,-“ His vicious snarl faltered at the expression on the Flame Hashira’s face, frozen and gaping. In that moment, Sanemi’s ears picked up on the faint thumping of a heart beating rapidly and unevenly below him. His nose suddenly burned with the strong scent of iron. The stench of blood so metallic that it could not have been anything but fresh. 

Ears ringing, the Wind Pillar shoved past his stupefied comrades. Only when he was face to face with her did Sanemi finally understand why the Flame Pillar had been so desperate to stop his sword from hitting its mark. 

The three Hashira were not looking at a newly turned and bloodthirsty demon. Instead, dragging her way across the bloodstained, muddied snow, was the Lunar Heir, deathly pale and trembling.. 

The girl whose death they feared doomed the Lunar Breathing House had clawed her way out from her grave with nothing but her hands and sheer will. She’d not been dead, after all.

Slowly, so slowly, her eyes lifted to glare up at the one standing directly before her. Though she strained to raise her head more than half an inch, her silver eyes met Sanemi’s lavender gaze, and a violent chill shot up his spine as he beheld what simmered within them.

Defiance. 

Pain. 

Rage. So, so much rage, relentless and raw. And so very human.

She reached another quivering hand out before her to further drag herself away from her tomb. A thin sheen of sweat coated her pallid skin, and fresh crimson began to seep into the snow beneath her. 

Sanemi’s eyes flit to the stain on her back, where fresh blood oozed from the deep wound.

She was panting, clearly fighting every urge in her body to give in, to let death beckon her back into its sweet embrace.

“I-I’m not dead!” She grit out in between shallow, uneven breaths, her jaw clenched tightly enough to crack her teeth. 

The three Hashira remained dumb and silent for half a heartbeat before-

“What are you all standing there for?” Uzui bellowed. “Help her!” 

The Kakushi sputtered into action, several of them crouching down around the girl to aid her. 

“Don’t touch me!” She screamed, eyes screwed shut and her head bowed defensively over her hands as she clenched her fists into the earth. The Kakushi fell back, looking anxiously to the Pillars to await further orders, but even they were at a loss. After several, harsh breaths through her nose, the Lunar Heir turned her face up, her gaze clashing with Sanemi’s once more.

He recognized the fear in her eyes, visceral and deep. Whatever she’d experienced over the last few hours had overtaken all her senses. She had no logic, no ability to rationalize that she was among other humans, among comrades. 

Instead, all that drove her now was the primal instinct to survive.

And to her, they were another threat.

She continued to try and crawl away from them, but her movements grew even shakier, more unstable, as the blood loss combined with her physical exhaustion. Rengoku caught his comrades’ eyes, waiting to confirm their next move. 

A quick shared nod sent Sanemi stepping quietly into her blindspot. Swiftly, the Wind Pillar struck the pressure point on the back of the woman’s neck with his hand, and she crumpled against the ground, unconscious and still. Gingerly, Sanemi lifted her over his shoulder, mindful of the open wound on her back. 

Once she was secured, the Hashira and their Kakushi began their frantic sprint toward the Butterfly Mansion.

COMMENTS/LIKES/REBLOGS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

[blackflash9]

That Time When AC3 Flipped Indigenous Portrayal

I always liked that AC III flipped familiar tropes about Native Americans in media, particularly regarding the language barrier and cultural awareness. Ziio mocks Haytham for assuming she can’t speak English, subverting the usual narrative where the comedic effect of not knowing the 'language of the land' is on the indigenous.

It is also Haytham - not Ziio - who causes the bar commotion despite his rather arrogant and baseless assumption that her culture would make her more prone to violence despite only being in the country for roughly a couple days. This also highlights that she understands the land and its people far better than he does.

Redcoat: "Oi, where you goin’, cully?" Redcoat: "No. The other cock robin." Haytham: "Well, I uh… I WAS leaving." Redcoat: "Oh? And now?" Haytham: "Well, now… I’m going to feed you your teeth." Kaniehtí:io: "And you were worried I was going to be the problem."

This also extends to Connor, as he regularly defies expectations by displaying more morality and virtue than many of his colonial counterparts. He criticizes the manipulative nature of the media for countering lies with more lies.

Sequence 5: Stop the Presses (Transcript)

Samuel Adams: "So now you've had a chance to see how it all works. Untoward actions will upset the citizens and inevitably lead to the guards being called. Depending on the severity of your transgression, they may simply search a bit before giving up and returning to their posts. But should you offend them severely or repeatedly – they'll become much more aggressive in their pursuit. I've shown you three ways to turn the tide. Remove wanted posters, bribe town criers, or visit a printer to create your own propaganda." Connor: "This feels wrong. Why not just speak to someone and explain my innocence?" Adams: "You can't be serious?" Connor: "We counter one lie with another. Words on paper instantly taken as truth. And all of it without question."

Calls him out on his hypocrisy in fighting for freedom while owning slaves.

Sequence 6: On Johnson's Trail (Transcript)

Samuel Adams: "Of course. I'm headed to a meeting with some men who should be able to help. Why don't you come along? It's good to see the people finally taking a stand against injustice..." Connor: "Says the man who owns a slave." Samuel Adams: "Who, Surry? I practice what I preach, my friend. She's not a slave, but a freed woman... At least on paper. Men's minds are not so easily turned. It is a tragedy that for all our progress, still we cling to such barbarism." Connor: "Then speak out against it." Samuel Adams: "We must focus first on defending our rights. When this is done, we'll have the luxury of addressing these other matters." Connor: "You speak as though your condition is equal to that of the slaves. It is not." Samuel Adams: "Tell that to my neighbor—who was compelled to quarter British troops. Or to my friend who's store was closed because he displeased the Crown. The people here are no freer than Surry." Connor: "You offer excuses instead of solutions. All people should be equal and not in turns."

And even stops Israel Putnam from kicking a dead enemy’s body - emphasizing that even someone as ruthless as Hickey was still a man.

Sequence 8: Public Execution (Transcript)

Israel Putnam: "At ease, men! At ease! I said lower your goddamn guns! This man's a hero! The General can be so stubborn sometimes. Piffle, he said, when we warned him something like this would happen! Piffle!" *Israel Putnam kicked Thomas' body* Connor: "Stop." Israel Putnam: "He wanted to kill the Commander. Nearly killed you as well. He was a scoundrel." Connor: "But still a man." Israel Putnam: "Hmph. You're nothing, if not consistent."

Assassin’s Creed III challenged the traditional portrayal of Indigenous people as either savages or passive victims, instead presenting them as individuals with intelligence, morality, and deep cultural awareness. The narrative highlights their ability to navigate complex social and political landscapes while exposing the hypocrisy and shortcomings of colonial figures. Rather than being depicted as primitive or completely naive, characters like Ziio and Connor demonstrate a greater understanding of their environment and the moral contradictions of their time. The game doesn’t just critique the British - it questions the American revolutionaries, revealing how their rhetoric of freedom often excluded those who did not fit within their social order.

Through Ziio and Connor, AC3 asserts that Indigenous people were not merely bystanders in history but active participants who approached their world with wisdom and integrity.

[admhawthorne]

Ramblings on Kathryn Janeway

I hate it when people criticize Kathryn Janeway by calling her inconsistent thus incompetent. She was not. She was new to the job.

People who are new to something have a lot of growing pains before they come into their own, even if they've done a similar job for years before.

Voyager was her first solo command assignment, and her first mission was supposed to be low hanging fruit. All she had to do was run into the Badlands in this state-of-the-art ship that, in theory, should very easily be able to catch the banged up Ford Pinto of a ship captained by Chuckles.

There was never an intention of sending her on some extended mission in which she was isolated from literally every person in Starfleet Command.

New-to-the-Job people leaders are not left alone to solo command in a vacuum because they still need mentoring and training on the job. Like all people in new positions, they need oversight as they learn and grow. Like all people in command positions, they should have easy access to counseling so they can further develop their emotional intelligence.

She had NONE of that.

What she had was a history in which she was raised by a career Starfleet officer and officer's wife, a solid Starfleet career of her own, and the ethics and morality that comes from those two things combined. In the world from which she came, which was post TNG but pre-Dominion War, she was exactly the right officer to be promoted to captain because she strongly held onto the belief that the Prime Directive was to be followed, exploration to be expected, and people above all else.

However, as she progressed through the Delta Quadrant, she had to learn and come to terms with the fact that all three of those things were no longer absolute in their truth. We see those growing pains in episodes like 'Tuvix' and 'Equinox'.

She wasn't inconsistent. She was floundering because what she thought she knew didn't align with her actual reality, and she had no one to turn to for guidance, mentoring, or support.

The Kathryn Janeway we know at the end of Season 7 is not even close to the Kathryn Janeway of Season 1. The older Janeway is road wary, jaded, a little cynical, and, while she still believes in the Prime Directive, exploration, and her people, she has learned through trial and error that all of those things live in a gray area, that it's all relative. It is not an absolute. She hits that stride around Season 6, and that's when you see her start to make command decisions not just on the ideals and principles of Starfleet but on her own judgement based upon the experience she's finally gained as the CO.

In the seven years we watched her, what we saw was her growing into her rank. You don't get promoted and are immediately a well-seasoned, strong, agile commander. A lot of that comes with time, experience, and mentorship. She had two out of three of those things.

All things considered, she was a damned good captain and extremely competent.

[unknown-cold]

I want to talk about the people who are overlook Caitlyn's trauma and the suffering she went through in two seasons, to the point where it's really annoying and suspicious, honestly.

There are people who unironically believe she deserved the worst in season 1 alone. S1 when she did nothing wrong at all. On the contrary - she's trying to do a lot of good, she's being selfless and compassionate. On the other hand, characters who did commit crimes are being excused.

The artist is: @roosdrawsthings on Instagram and @RoosDrawsThings on Twitter/X

Like some people see her as privileged and as someone who suffered enough not like Vi and Jinx (she only lost her mom, she had a funeral when Zaunites don't) so she can't be a victim and feel pain and lost. This is so fucking stupid!

rich people can also be in grief and a target for manipulation. They are human beings too, a shock that has nothing to do with social status or job. And here are the reasons I think people so easily villainize Caitlyn:

Before that there is something important I have to talk about there’s also such a problem with people viewing things as either completely right/good or completely wrong/terrible and with people not able/willing to admit when they’re wrong or when someone has changed their mind.

Opinions are mistaken for facts. Differing viewpoints are attacked with ferocity. Hateful things are said about fictional characters who are supposed to bring us joy/comfort. It’s freaking ridiculous and has become such a massive problem in several of my top fandoms and I’m exhausted.

So back again to Caitlyn their reasoning is she comes from a privileged upbringing, is part of the oppressive higher social order and is a member of the police force that frequently harasses the citizens of Zaun. All of these come together to make her appear as someone that we as a progressive and morally just society are meant to frown upon and judge, cause those types of people are often to blame for many of the issues in our society.

With those pieces in place they see her as this inherently morally wrong person who needs to be dragged through the fire in order to redeem herself. They hold her to an almost impossibly high standard and will tear her apart if she even slightly steps over the lines they have laid out for her. That's why they like to paint her as genocidal war criminal for releasing The Grey and choose to ignore the obvious that she used it strategically rather than flood the whole city like Jinx did(who btw will get endless passes and excuses for her actions cause she is the "true victim" of the story). Jinx is not the only victim on the show.

And there is something else I want to talk about it, and it's modern liberal spaces, especially among young people. Most people have become obsessed with putting people in little boxes and making assumptions based on that alone. They are unwilling or incapable of seeing people as PEOPLE instead of just labels. It's like re-inventing the racism wheel all over again. We put labels on people and decide if they're good or bad, we don't look at what they do or listen to what they say because that's harder. It's easier to just discriminate against someone based on how they were born. And then the irony is people will accuse Caitlyn of discriminating against others when actually they're the ones discriminating against her, based on her background. It's just a maddening endless cycle of hate.

They also don't quite realize that not everything in the show is meant to be an allegory for real life political turmoil. The concept of a privileged society oppressing another through force has been done in many stories and while they may have been inspired by real events that doesn't mean they were intentionally sending a politically driven message to the masses.

Caitlyn's haters also brush over her trauma a lot too, not only of her mother's death and wanting to avenge it. But to also wanting to kill the person who kidnapped her and almost killed her twice. She hasn't had the time to really process it all and all those wounds are fresh in early season 2 so of course she ends up going dark for a time.

Caitlyn went through grieving, angered, depressed, vulnerable, and... alone. Not a single voice of reason or support around

• Father? Also grieving and distant.

• Childhood friend? Disappeared.

• Vi? Pushed away.

And that’s the vacuum Ambessa mentioned when talking to Vi. People still didn’t understand that? Wow, I guess not everyone throughly watches the plot of series, I suppose.

So in the end Caitlyn for me has one of the best arcs, if not the best, while not being a clown, like Jinx (I like Jinx tbh, but least be real guys). Some people just hate it. Some envy it. Bc much of Cait's hate is simply irrational. Just ugly whining babys out there.

They are literally make Caitlyn the only villain in Arcane. There's Jinx who committed acts of terrorism and murderer. There's Silco's right hand ( I mean Sevika) happily enforcing his rule through violence. There's Silco himself, who tried to kill an entire family and forced the children to work in the Shimmer factories and he suppressed his people himself so that they would obey him, and there is Ambessa the character who committed the most evil acts in the show. And Viktor, who wanted to kill and control all the people of the two cities of Piltover and Zaun. But no, it's Cait that is the worst 🤡

Make it make sense.

[dlxxv-vetted-donations]

The Dohan family needs your compassion.

My other promotions

Note: I do not often make posts for campaigns I am not focusing on, and I won't be updating this. I encourage others to adopt this campaign (because I can't right now) and make sure it gets the traction it needs.

Updated: Sep 19

Member(s): @kareman2221 (current), @karemandohan1999

Verification: 90-ghost

Payment methods: Paypal, Venmo, Google Pay, credit/debit

Summary: The Dohan family's campaign is currently prioritizing living funds for the survival of the family, including a 1.5 year old child. However, it is moving very slowly. At the time of writing this post, they haven't received a donation in 16 hours.

Current progress:

USD $ 8,472 / 50,000

Campaign details:

Kareman questions where compassion and humanity have gone after seeing her campaign's slow progress. At the time of writing this post, they haven't received a donation in 16 hours.

Kareman and her husband Ayman have a 1.5 year old son named Hamoud.

The faculties and equipment for their jobs were destroyed in the war, leaving them with no income.

The family has been displaced several times and live in a makeshift tent built from sleeping bags. It provides inadequate protection from the elements and things will get worse as the weather gets colder.

They live next to a garbage dump and the stench damages morale.

After the Rafah crossing was closed, the campaign is now focusing on increasingly expensive food, water, and medicine to help the family survive.

Hamoud often gets ill from contaminated food and water.

Tagging random ppl. I'd really appreciate a share and donate if possible. Want off my 'mailing list'? Please message me!

@vampyrobot @jectica @summerflavoreddew @stanuristheman @officialgleamstar @lune-tic @frey-bur @bloodmagehawke @floof-ghostie @othellodonryan @tododeku-or-bust @poetrylesbian @thatdiabolicalfeminist @meatcute @beguines

[himikochan]

The doors to the real conclave have shut (livestream of the chimney here) so while all the cardinals are locked up and the @howisthepope poll has concluded, it's time to elect an ANTI-POPE

that's right, there were a few candidates that I felt didn't get a fair shake: some of them were up against folks with funnier names- and I'm declaring myself head of this conclave with Miss Pumpernickel assisting me.

I do encourage you to read the propaganda for each candidate- but clowning and buying your fellow elector's votes are encouraged as well! Additional propaganda is encouraged!!

I'm not sorry the pictures are all different sizes, I wanted pictures of them smiling and I’m doing this on mobile

starting off strong with my boy (and also alphabetically)

Konrad Krajewski

I'm limiting myself so hard on the propaganda here but his full time job is the Papal Almoner which means he goes around using the money of the church to provide direct aid including: sending money to transgender sex workers who were out of work during the 2020 pandemic, gifting ambulances to Ukraine and driving one of them there himself, and being super modest about it!!

He helped open a laundry and showering service for a tent city in Calabria! ““This offers a way to restore dignity to people who are not dying of hunger but are dying because they feel invisible,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner, told Vatican News.”

"Cardinal Krajewski described how he had climbed down a manhole and removed seals covering a switch in order to turn the building's power supply back on. "I intervened personally last night to reattach the meters. It was a desperate gesture. There were over 400 people without electricity, with families, children, without even the possibility of operating the refrigerators," he told Italy's Ansa news agency. "I didn't do it because I was drunk," he reportedly added."

On matters of doctrine and tradition: he's generally deferential to the church's teachings and I'm guessing would decline the actual papacy because he prefers doing direct action over deciding what the church should/shouldn't do.

Reinhard Marx

my beloved mutual's wife's blorbo! what a great endorsement! Marx is her bishop and "he seems to be a very chill and decent guy in person according to her." I think a chill pope would be dope as hell!

He's pro immigrant, a strong voice against religious extremism, and with LGBT sympathies!

According to the college of cardinals report:

"He argued for the blessing of same-sex unions, and [...] he called for Church approval of same-sex “encounters.” [...] Marx has also joined other progressive prelates and priests [...] in calling for a change in the Catechism to effectively normalize homosexual activity in the Church, and has also said he supports the ordination of homosexual men. Cardinal Marx’s efforts to influence Catholic doctrine and morals have accelerated in recent years, often under the guise of reform and the sexual abuse crisis. He and his supporters argue that doctrine “can develop, change.” He has stated “the Catechism is not set in stone” and that one is allowed to doubt what it says."

Pietro Parolin

Okay so this guy is actually super qualified to be pope, just looking at his resume/age/the fact that the Italian Cardinals seem to be pushing for their last chance at another Italian pope, and I think it would be funny if we decided he was (anti-)pope before the real conclave did!

He's currently most senior Cardinal under 80 with long diplomatic postings!

According to the college of cardinals report: "He has also emerged as an ardent opponent of the traditional liturgy, seeing it as contrary to a “new paradigm” for the Church, one that is decentralized, more global, and synodal. [...] To his critics, Cardinal Parolin is a modernist progressive with a globalist vision, a pragmatist who will place ideology and diplomatic solutions above hard truths of the faith." He's also at least sympathetic to the blessing of same sex couples and changes to priestly celibacy.

Luis Tagle

Tagle is another irl strong contender for the papal throne and people have described him as holding views and attitudes similar to Pope Francis! Tagle has spent large parts of his career living modestly, is pro-synod (reform/re-evaluation), he's a strong defender and authority on Vatican II, and goes by the nickname Chito!

"Tagle led the Lazarus Project, a social media campaign for Easter which called for greater acceptance of people traditionally judged such as sex workers, the homeless, and LGBTQ people in catholic churches using the hashtag #ResurrectLove."

In 2008, Tagle said, "The Church that lives the life of Christ and offers his living sacrifice cannot run away from its mission to unearth the false gods worshiped by the world. How many people have exchanged the true God for idols like profit, prestige, pleasure and control? [...] How many factory workers are being denied the right wages for the god of profit? How many women are being sacrificed to the god of domination? How many children are being sacrificed to the god of lust? How many trees, rivers, hills are being sacrificed to the god of “progress”? [...] How many defenseless people are being sacrificed to the god of national security?"

[huggywuggysuppy]

once you finish Empires S1 i'd like to hear your thoughts about esmp1!gem. she's genuinely one of my favorite characters to analyse because she is so nuanced and interesting in so many ways anywhere you look at her. her twisted determination to achieve peace at ANY cost, her rigid thinking and neurodivergency, her relation with symbols like her tower or the end and the moon, or her genuine wish to be a good person and so many other things. there's so much that is impossible to grasp at first (<- <- me, lesbian who is really normal about her favorite gem)

She's right.

Essentially, Gem understands the role a wizard PLAYS in a story. She's never the cause of something, but she sure amplifies both the problems and the solutions. She's morally gray, she's playing both sides, but nobody ever challenges her on that because of course Gem's helping the heroes too -- they need artifacts! She's a plot device, a questgiver, a weapon. She's the voice of reason, the straight man in any comedy duo, yet makes the same questionable decisions as anyone. She's experimenting, she's out of her comfort zone, she's having the time of her life. Wizard Gem is, ultimately, a real wizard.

That's the short answer anyhow. Longer analysis, well, I'm so glad you asked. I can't talk about character without diving into the content creator metanarrative (feature not a bug) so let's get into the noodles! What about Wizard Gem makes her so fantastic?

Wizard Gem is a catalyst.

From the beginning, Gem is mixing up dynamics and forcing new inspiration by opposing what's static. The way the rest of the Wither Rose Alliance sort of? Molds? Around her. How Sausage and fWhip are beefing until the day she alliances with Pearl and suddenly the four are besties. How she adds moral nuance to the villain side, both by mixing relations with the hero side, and just by insisting the Wither Rose are seeking peace, really, they're trying their best! This stops things from being so cut and dry and basic. Instead of Xornoth's vain forces against the heroic bumbling fish people (with the plant and animal empires in between), there's all sorts of messiness and drama. And Gem's aware of this, of how she's changing things, and so the effect is amplified.

On a CC level, even her origins are experimental. Gem was originally planning a more naturey plant wizard, but since Shubble, Katherine, AND Pearl, were plant based (& arguably Joey too) she adapted into amethyst and rocks. And it turned out amazing! That foundation of experimenting made it easier to take larger risks both content and character wise. All the empires folk enjoyed the lore centric storytelling: only getting deeper into it through the season, but Gem especially paved the way for embracing rp and outfits and items and fun.

But back to C! As the Wither Rose alliance progresses, terrorizing the server included, Gem maintains her peace loving stance. Taking on the role as fWhip's (and later Sausage)'s PR managers is genuinely so important to me. She never really stops them from doing bad things, but she's always discouraging them and talking them down one or two degrees. Ultimately loyal to her alliance, she's also taking responsibility for the consequences. Helping out Jimmy behind the scenes to lessen the blow, both for him but also herself.

At her core, Wizard Gem wants peace.

For herself and friends at least. Unfortunately, the Crystal Cliffs aren't in a bubble, so she keeps having to save the world anyway. She dreads conflict at best and fears it at worst. Her concerns are her kingdom, her neighbors, whatever magic / building she's invested in right now, and maybe a light shenanigan here or there. She'll help fWhip get out of trouble because they really do love each other, he's always helping her out too in his own ways (ex: making her stuff,) and she'll protect the realm so the problems stay far away from their doorsteps. When things do eventually fall into her lap, she definitely deals with them. Just... not 100%. Enough that they stop breaking the peace for now.

Let's be honest, Wizard Gem is firmly in denial. She's down for burying the corruption and letting it claim whole towers of her base. Often she'll just accept whatever another player brings to her: buying Scott and Katherines plush, whatever weird scams Lizzie tries on her, etc. When Scott gives her the Elsa curse, she hangs out in the nether, takes Shrub’s dodgy Xornoth cure, and stubbornly "it's fine"-s her way through avoiding a real solution until fWhip drags her to Katherine. It's telling that her (short-lived) corrupted evil version is more confident, while others become hyper or angry. This isn't laziness: it's fear. She doesn't want to step on any toes and start any conflicts. You can see it in how she talks to Jimmy and fWhip: giving them what they need not to win, but to end things.

This is how Gem maintains the story role of a wizard: she's always trying to stop things, so she's never starting new things, only making them better or worse. But how does Gem get away with it? She's simultaneously one of the most invested players in the lore, yet playing a character who'd rather be anywhere else. That dichotomy is entertaining, sure, but there's something else here.

Wizard Gem is loyal, curious, and moral. Just... not obviously.

Gem is unfathomably loyal. While she plays both sides, she's always standing alongside her allies in battle and all her actions are ensuring they're safe. She may be exasperated, yet treats her immediate alliance members with kindness. How fWhip drags her into things, but he never asks her to, it's always Gem CHOOSING to follow him because what else is she gonna do? Let him do it himself? How Sausage makes her laugh with his absurdity, even when they're fighting. How she's always a little uncomfortable, even in her great empire, except in the quiet simple moments with her allies between schemes.

(Still can’t believe roseblings isn’t canon. Like fWhip’s line about how he blew up relations with Scott because he messed with Gem, "it's okay fWhip I'm fine now," their tones, ohhhh devious work. They don't need to be canon, nonfamilial platonic relationships and all that, but STILL. I'm only human.)

(EDIT: nevermind they’re canon !! big win for the girlies)

Gem's also invested in magic and learning more about it, and she learns to trust and share that with others. The Crystal Cliffs Academy demonstrates growth: from solving problems herself when they’re too big to ignore, to actually addressing things at the source. Explicitly, the goal is to strengthen other empires magic knowledge so less crises happen. That’s preventative instead of reactionary. Even choosing the Ocean Queen as her first student is intentional: not an ally, causes a lot of medium scale ruckuses, in text Gem sensed her using transformation magic that wasn’t hers and wanted to guide Lizzie towards at least controlling it. Start of season Gem would’ve just kept handling any crises herself.

Essentially, Gem is trying SO HARD to be good. As anon said, she has a sort of rigid thinking (again, fun contrast between CC experimental and C rigidity) that creates this fantastic mix where she's staying true to the Wither Rose because she loves them and wants to keep them safe as their friend, but also trying to act for the greater good as a wizard, even though she'd rather focus on her own things. It's not a stable point of view, and is constantly challenged, creating the amazing series of events that we get to see unfold.

Also, Wizard Gem is straight up cool.

Regarding imagery, Wizard Gem has a distinct style that’s so fun to build and draw and write about. She's magical and otherworldly (dragons, the end) but also ethereal and magnificent on a human scale (towers, the moon.) Amethyst itself is inherently unique: something about forming deep under pressure, growing slow and beautiful, sought after as thrones and paths alike. These aesthetics have infinite storytelling potential, and look cute doing it.

And all these things are carried into Gem’s imagery as a whole! Losing her eye to and getting corrupted by the end portal in Life Series, building dragons and towers and villages all across her mc worlds, often using the moon in builds like her hc10 lighthouse. She’s solidly the moon in shinyduo sun/moon dynamic (while they both employ sun/moon all the time, Pearl builds and lores solidly more sun, let alone their comedy dynamic.) Even the struggle between embracing/chasing excellence versus holding herself back out of fear: that's Gem in every world! Emp1 is combining a lot of Gem's themes into one single character. And turns out she's really awesome!

This character wholeness lets Gem maintain her signature exasperated excellence over the other players. Like PVP prowess and building skill, she's an expert here too, and delightful to watch and interact with. Wizard Gem is amplifying everything, trying to keep her loved ones safe, learning that she needs to make peace herself, all while staying true to her beautiful masterful self.

Finally, CC!Gem is delighted to roleplay like this.

Every time she turns to the camera to give disclaimers and talk about her character, there's an infectious joy and "I can't believe this is my job." She often compares it to D&D, which ohh the parasocial brainrot is taking so normally, but also there's an unapologeticness to it. If you don't like her character / the roleplay / etc, stop watching, whatever, this is fun for the rest of us. Her and other CCs have talked about the crippling pushback from playing antagonistic characters -- and there's no shortage of that in emp1, she has to put disclaimers on the RP portions! But unlike Life Series where she's constantly fighting demons (it's own post, really) Wizard Gem is having too much fun to care. I think that's why emp1 hits different, at least for us Gem girlies. She's taking this seriously, and she's having the time of her life.

I originally posted about Worldhopper/Watcher Gem because that adds an extra layer of spice to her in all series, but it's still really awesome by itself. Summoning the dragons from ANOTHER WORLD? Hello?? Don't think I missed her using the nether portal to change skins either. Giggling during convos with Xornoth, undaunted by the Empires Crown, the list goes on. One day someone will assemble all her characters into the same room to compare notes and that someone will either be me or Geminitay herself.

In short, Empires S1 Gem is a Wizard. She's a catalyst, she ultimately wants peace, she's loyal curious and moral, she's straight up cool, and she's having fun. And isn't that just the most magical joy of all?

Anyway, accepting empires fic recommendations in reblogs / directly into my inbox. What a privilege to get to watch so much great art. Thank you for reading!

[lookingforasphodels]

Sometimes I think the real betrayal wasn’t even D&D. It was the audience's reception. The part of the audience that followed Daenerys Targaryen’s story for years, the girl who was sold, the child who walked through fire, the woman who broke chains, crossed deserts, built cities from nothing, spoke to the forgotten, and still accepted seeing her turned into the mad queen, the threat, the final mistake of the story.

The truth is that Daenerys was always meant to be the central figure. Not one protagonist among many, not the love interest orbiting someone else’s arc, but the actual driving force of the story. That’s clear in the structure of the books, it’s written right there in the title, A Song of Ice and Fire. She is the fire, not as a symbol in the background, but as a living principle. She is the energy that refuses stasis, the fire that consumes dead systems so something new can be born. She wasn’t just a plotline, she was the temperature of the entire myth. Without her, there’s no ASOIAF.

But the way the show and a large part of the fandom responded to her story tells us something deeply, deeply unfortunate. We are still uncomfortable with women who possess power that isn't granted or allowed by someone else. Daenerys is Show!Sansa anthitesis. Daenerys wasn’t powerful because she belonged to someone, or because she was the daughter of a king, or the wife of a warlord. Daenerys’s power sprang from her will to conceive a radically different world and to act upon that vision. She aspired not merely to survive a broken world but to reforge it entirely.

That’s where the discomfort starts. Because the moment a woman says out loud that she wants to break the system instead of inheriting it, people flinch. That kind of ambition gets rebranded as madness. That kind of clarity becomes extremism. And that’s how she was rewritten, her character retconned to serve the comfort of viewers (readers too) who crave familiar patriarchal rhythms.

Men in that story destroyed cities and murdered innocents, and we called them calculated, burdened, tragic. Wherever Daenerys acts from fury and/or grief, it’s framed as a personal collapse. Even her victories are weighed with suspicion, as if her righteousness was always waiting to tip into tyranny.

And when the time came, they didn’t even let her fall through a real confrontation. She wasn’t undone by an equal, or even a villain. She was betrayed by the man who said he loved her, and silenced in the name of peace (by cowardly deceit to boot!) But peace for whom? For what world? For which vision of the future?

A lot of the audience and fandom accepted it. That’s what hurts. They said it made sense. They pointed to the signs. They said it was always going to happen. As if foreshadowing were a moral justification. As if showing the possibility of a fall means that the fall is deserved.

But myth does not compel us to follow predetermined breadcrumbs. We choose which myths to uphold, which voices to center, which futures to fight for. And in the end, the writers chose to extinguish the character who never lost faith in the possibility of renewal.

This is not only about feminism, although it is also that. It is about narrative imagination. Daenerys represented a kind of leadership that did not rest entirely on lineage or diplomacy or soft power, but on vision. She wasn’t flawless, she wasn’t always right, but she was real in a world that rewarded nothing but control. And instead of letting her challenge that world, they killed her to RESTORE it. Targaryen’s restoration suck y’all, except the feudal one approved by the Stark King. Now that we can get behind!!!! Long live the rightful Royal Family!!!!! Yay for progress…?

This isn’t just about representation. It’s about how narratives respond to disruption, to radical agency. Daenerys wasn’t a threat because she lost control. She was a threat because she challenged control itself. She questioned the structures, the cycles, the moral logic of the entire political world around her, and she stopped believing that playing by the old rules would lead to meaningful change.

What happened in the final season wasn’t a tragic arc unfolding. It was a political and symbolic containment of a character who had outgrown the ideological frame she was supposed to stay within.

Her death didn’t serve the story. It RESTORED the familiar order.

And the fact that so many viewers accepted it as “necessary” says more about our collective discomfort with revolutionary agency (especially when embodied by a woman) than it does about Daenerys as a character.

[unfortunate17]

I have been thinking about both Wille’s and Simon’s character progression throughout the series and I have realized that it sort of looks like Wille has a pretty good character progression and has been pretty profoundly affected by Simon and their relationship (in a good way). But I don’t really see any of that for Simon. It sort of look alike he has had more things “taken away” by their relationship. He has lost his privacy, and gets hate to the point where he has had to delete his SM and he gets a rock thrown his window. In a way if they hadn’t gotten back together, it looks like all Simon would’ve gained from this period is trauma. Do you think he gained any positive things from this relationship (in the case they hadn’t gotten back together)?

So I’ve spent a long time thinking about this since you sent me this and I have a lot of thoughts about it, but they’re kind of all botched together. Hopefully I do a decent job explaining myself:

In my opinion, Simon definitely has an arc, it’s just more subtle and not as “flashy” as Wilhelm’s. This is genuinely fine with me for multiple reasons: 1. Simon just isn’t the main character of this story - Wilhelm is. So he’s not going to be the one to go on a life-altering journey 2. Simon, narratively, functions has the moral compass around which Wilhelm centers his life around. He’s there to push Wilhelm into embarking on this life-altering journey.

That being said, Simon’s story arc is really simple and very personal, but no less beautiful. We start in S1 with Simon being loudly himself, and Wilhelm adoring him for it, but this quickly becomes an issue - namely, Wilhelm starts to lowkey take advantage of Simon’s generosity and kindness, and ultimately betrays him. Which is why we get that big argument with Sara where she accuses him of “letting people piss all over him.”

Moving into S2, we see a Simon who’s taken that conversation to heart - he’s firm with his boundaries, he doesn’t want to give Wilhelm a second chance, he doesn’t want to forgive because he thinks Wilhelm isn’t sorry. Then, he has another conversation with Sara, where she basically tells him, hey, love is crazy, it makes you do crazy things. And yes, she’s projecting here, but once again, Simon takes her words to heart and decides to follow his feelings. He essentially “gives in” to his love for Wille and decides that no matter what, he wants to make this relationship work because he’s in love, damnit, and he wants to be with Wille no matter what.

And this is the mindset that Simon enters S3 with. That’s why we see him making himself small and trying to appease everyone. He’s just so in love, and he wants it to work so badly, until he just can’t anymore. Notably, he doesn’t end things for his own sake - he does it for Wilhelm. He sees that being with Simon is hurting him because it’s allowing Wille to use him as an emotional crutch and stay stagnant in life. So he leaves, starts to close himself off again. And then - dun dun dun - he has another conversation with Sara. He tells her, damn, you were right, I need to stop being a pushover and she shoots back with no Simon, YOU were right, we should give people second chances. And thus, Simon gets out of the car and gives Wille one more chance.

So what does Simon gain out of all of this? Basically, he’s learning to trust himself and his feelings. His entire arc is him basically learning: hey, my morals were right from the start! This is how I want to live my life! Which makes sense really because this is the role he’s playing in Wilhelm’s arc. And it’s not a particularly sexy discovery, but it’s a really powerful thing to learn, especially in your teenage years.

As for specifically Simon’s relationship with Wilhelm and what he gained from that outside of his arc: Wilhelm adores Simon for exactly who he is. And I think it’s a really profound, valuable thing to experience what it feels like to be loved and be in love with someone who really sees you and wants to stick by you through thick and thin. In many ways, Simon has always had to earn love, but he never has to earn Wilhelm’s love. And that’s kind of life-altering in and of itself - to know that love like that exists and that you are deserving of it.

But what do I know fr 😭

[legendary-lunatic]

I love the Frankenstein core of Michael and Gertrude

We all know Michael Shelley is a reference to Mary Shelley, but I think the thematic parallels are also great.

Gertrude Robinson is the Victor Frankenstein to Michael’s monster, and proves herself to be the evil in his story with her inhumanely cruel treatment of him. She took something beautiful and innocent and twisted it into something grotesque and unnatural, and now Michael is a monster haunted by his resentment for her; so much so that his emotions of injustice and pain even get in the way of what/ who he actually is or has the potential to be.

And when you think of Michael by comparison to other avatars and their capacity for morality as well as how they also evolved into monsters, or even compared to Helen, there is a discordance in himself that constantly draws questions to his identity/humanity and the choices he makes. Michael resents himself and his creation to a degree far more severe than Helen, and I think this is not just because Michael Shelley was the antithesis of the Spiral, but because of how he was made and what it caused Michael to Feel. Much like Frankenstein’s monster it is the betrayal and the isolated abandonment that makes Michael’s Emotions so overwhelming it makes existence difficult. Helen didn’t have a problem with Jon because Helen Richardson didn’t. If Michael Shelley were truly gone what sense is there in having a vendetta against the archivist? Why be so frustrated by Michael Shelley’s weakness and insist his existence meant nothing and isn’t present?

Because the Distortion is a liar. Helen has no problems affirming her identity, and yet Michael insists it doesn’t have one. Just like the Monster hates himself and hates humanity. Michael’s hatred for the Archivist mirrors that of the Monster’s quest for vengeance against Frankenstein, and ultimately Michael died because Michael Shelley himself progressively warped into anger during its conjoined existence and it made him a liability.

I also think it could be said that the way Michael is uncanny in his appearance as the distortion, and how he’s essentially a human and a thing smashed together, is a parallel to the Monster- which was an amalgamation of beautiful parts that became disturbing as a whole.

Gertrude, much like Victor, fancied herself a genius with the right to mess with life for the supposed progression of humanity, and do so in a way that I believe stroked their ego and superiority by inflating their importance in the world by imposing the weight of their actions onto their victims- only to be proven wrong for their hubris.

Elias telling her the rituals meant nothing at the end is the climax for her story arc because it puts all of her actions into perspective for the reader, similarly to how the narrative shift to focus on the Monster’s capacity for understanding undermines Victor’s. Their actions resulted in needless suffering and amounted to nothing, and as their creations terrorize they make justifications for what they did as if their good intentions absolve their sins or covering their own ass is a reason to let someone else take the downfall. Then as they die finally fully aware of what they’ve done guilt is primarily tied to regret in being horrifically wrong rather than remorse for the suffering they caused. They lament that their creatures exist but they do not truly empathize with their pain because they are narcissists.

And the narrative of Viktor being an abusive parental figure could also be compared to Gertrude beyond just Michael in how she treats Gerry. Gerry and his relationship with Gertrude, while never soft, could have been perceived as his one attachment and opportunity for something akin to affection- and yet despite understanding the pain of being bound, despite Eric asking her to look after his son, she skinned him to the book and left him. And you could argue that this is probably done to prevent him from turning into an Avatar, but then again she is choosing to play god with someone else’s life.

Who is she to choose and deny him the right to live after leading him right into the hands of the fears, as if for some moral reason when she herself perpetuates the pain of others? And to do so in a way that inherently violates him in a way so specific to his abuse from his own mother, and cram him in the very book that haunts him is beyond sadistic. She proved to be the same as Mary Keay.

The real kicker is that Gertrude leaves him, just like Frankenstein refuses to confront the monster he made and abandons his newborn creation to suffer existence on its own once he realizes what he’s made. And Gerry points this out himself in his statement when he says “I think… I think I finally understand why she brought me back. I just don’t understand why she left me behind.”

And that’s because for all she’s made out to be a badass, she is a coward, as all abusers are. And it sucks because just like with the monster, with that abandonment there is probably not one single person who genuinely cared for Gerry save for Jon, who finally let him die.

[godofliestreacheryandrebellion]

Veilguard & Solas' Atonement

I have since played through both da2 and dai, but as someone who started with Veilguard I was still pretty disappointed by the "good" ending, and Solas' fate.

The only knowledge I came into the game with was "fantasy rpg" and "bald guy betrayed us at the end of the previous game and we hate him for that", and still I ended up rooting for Solas the whole way - He was utterly charming, had a lot more depth and sincerity than some of the others, and always had good explanations as to why he was doing what he was doing.

But despite the fact that I went into this as a pretty blank slate, the ending still didn't feel appropriate or even consistent with the tone or message of the rest of the game.

For the whole game it's building up this theme of redemption, acceptance of wrongdoings and moving on from them. Not necessarily atonement, but forward progress, becoming something better than before.

The companion quests are a massive part of this. Each companion has a "good" ending and a "bad" ending, I use quotations because both endings could be interpreted as good - in fact, if they were in one of the earlier games then the "bad" ending would probably be considered their good ending.

For Veilguard, the "good" ending is usually the companions either forgiving someone:

Lucanis has to forgive Illario

Taash has to forgive their mother & her parenting type

Harding has to forgive the fate of the titans

Neve has to forgive herself for Brom's fate

Davrin has to forgive himself for the Griffon's kidnapping

Emmrich has to forgive himself for Johanna's fate

Bellara has to forgive her brother's fate & his secrets

Some of these quests have stronger themes of forgiveness, but all of them have undercurrents of it.

And Solas' own story has so much emphasis on his regrets, and how he can't forgive - not Elgar'nan and not himself - and that's why he's stuck in this cycle of revenge and "making things right".

The game repeatedly emphasises that that's not helping. Even the companion quests sometimes reflect that sentiment. It even locks you in to the "bad" end with either Lucanis or Neve - both of which force them to enact revenge (although, it's a very tame revenge).

In general, the companions "bad" ending has them clinging to the past in some way:

Lucanis will not forget Illario's betrayal and punishes him for it

Taash clings to the culture their mother fled from

Harding holds onto the anger of the titans

Neve takes personal revenge on Aelia

Davrin facilitates the servitude of the Griffons

Emmrich cannot overcome his fear of death

Bellara continues spreading the old elvhen culture

All of which just continues to feed into this ongoing theme of forgiveness and redemption = good.

Solas himself feeds it by enacting his plan to "fix his mistakes" - he's clinging to the past, unable to forgive, and that's what's making him the bad guy of the story.

In order to be considered good by the themes of the game, he needs to forgive his mistakes and move on from the past.

So his "good" ending (the ending of the whole game - honestly does make me wonder why the change from Dreadwolf -> Veilguard, because ultimately the overall ending is tied up in the Dreadwolf and his choices) should involve him moving on from the past, giving up on revenge or atonement and forgiving himself for his actions.

Instead, he's forced to atone for what he did no matter what? He will always end up tied to the Veil and banished into solitary confinement, the only difference is how he arrived there.

It's so strange to me that this game has such massively differing morals concerning it's characters. Solas gets a much worse punishment than any other villain - like Illario.

Solas attempted to:

Improve the lives of the elves (even before Inquisition he had a network of loyal elven spies), the most oppressed people in all Thedas.

Undo an apocalyptic event that he caused and regrets.

Prevent any further Blights, a plague that left massive swaths of land barren and dead, as well as inflicting horrors on the people of Thedas (Ghouls! Broodmothers!!).

Imprison powerful, influential tyrants who repeatedly abused their people (slavery, blood magic experiments, ritual sacrifice) and who would continue to do so if given the chance.

Illario attempted to:

Kill his cousin/brother so that he could ascend to a position of power for selfish reasons.

Ally with known blood mages who experimented on and killed people for their own selfish reasons.

Kidnap, imprison and possibly even kill his own grandmother.

Forcibly take power over an entire organistation that he had little claim or loyalty to.

Both Solas and Illario grew up in hostile, fear-mongering environments full of gruelling experiences.

Illario was abused as a child (Crow Training is canonically pretty evil), blatantly passed over for his cousin by his guardian, all of which occured soon after his parents were assassinated. And then he was forced to remain in the society that killed his parents and inflicted that pain on him.

Solas is more of a mystery, but he was undeniably manipulated into a physical transformation that he didn't want and regretted. He was probably either in servitude to Mythal, or isolated enough that she was his only confidante for a long time. He was then forced into the Titan War, and watched as multiple authority figures in his life took power that wasn't theirs and used it to abuse others, threatened the world (the Blight), and then slandered him for daring to oppose their abuses.

Both come from bad situations, but only one is given the chance of freedom.

The same game that beats this theme of forgiveness in every corner it can find, that allows betrayals like Illario to go virtually unpunished, this same game will then say that Solas, whose motivations were far less selfish than Illario's, deserves to be isolated for the rest of his immortal life.

Thematically, Solas' "good" ending doesn't fit with what the rest of the game is trying its damndest to push on you.

It gets worse when adding in the context of his Inquisition self.

His worst fear, beyond death or torture, is to die alone, and you condemn him to that - the "good" ending feels almost worse as he can be convinced to be condemned his worst fear williningly.

And althroughout Inquisition he's building friendships and connections, something that Veilguard more or less confirms he had little of in his life prior to the Veil.

But the Veilguard not only denies him a reunion with people like Cole, Iron Bull or Cassandra, but denies him the mere possiblility of a reunion with anyone other than Varric, Morrigan and the Inquisitor - not even Dorian gets to have a conversation with him.

The game also has an undercurrent of focus on atoning in a way that helps others, not just your own conscience. This appears in a few quests, but specifically Neve's. Her "good" ending revolves around her listening to others and letting them decide the fate of the villains.

Her "bad" ending has her taking the law into her own hands and ignoring the pleas of people like Rana.

Both Solas and Neve try to take their own redemption into their own hands and make decisions for others.

Neve is framed as "bad" by the game (just by virtue of this being the worse option that it forces you to take by not saving Minrathous) but is otherwise allowed to continue exactly as she is, unpunished and unopposed.

Solas is framed as "bad" as well, but is not allowed to go unpunished despite doing the exact same thing that Neve does.

This point, of listening to how others want you to act rather than deciding that for yourself, can even be explicitly brought up during the finale:

But in order to make amends the right way, the way that the game is pushing for, he needs to be able to talk to others in the first place. The finale is fairly clear that Solas and anyone who followed him to the Fade was isolated from the rest of the world.

So the game is contradicting itself - it wants him to listen to others, but doesn't want him to be able to hear them in the first place?

A better ending, to fit with the theming at least, would be to redeem him through negotiation and hard work. Get him to actually sit and listen to what the people of Thedas, other elves even, want for the world.

Even if that ended with them deciding that the Veil was a bad influence on the world (creating demons, preventing immortality and creating a power gap between mages and the rest of the world), and needed to be taken down, it would still redeem him through Veilguard's established themes - by giving Solas a chance to forgive himself and be forgiven by allowing the victims a voice to decide their own fate.

From a Doylist perspective it would also be a good opportunity for the story to actually spell out why the Veil is good/bad. It's left very vague which also makes Solas' morals very vague, which has created this divide in players - side with or against Solas. Even if the pros and cons were equal in weight, there wouldn't be this argument of "maybe this" and "maybe that".

The "good" ending we got was not good, not within the context of Dragon Age as a whole, and not within the context of only Veilguard either.

[hayanwulf]

“How much do you love Pepper?”

The question came out of nowhere. Tony pulled himself out from where he was neck-deep in machinery, and looked up at the Wizard who sat occupying one of his several workshop chairs, his eyes still fixed on the book in his lap.

“More than the world,” Tony replied honestly. “It’s scary, honestly.”

It truly was scary, the lengths he knew he could go to for the people he loved.

Stephen did look up from his book, then.

“Let’s just say, hypothetically—” Tony raised an eyebrow at that, “—that Pepper was in love with someone else. And they loved her. And they were very happy as they were.”

Tony could sense there was something deeper going on here than simply hypotheticals. What, exactly, he wasn’t sure. Yet.

“And let’s say,” Stephen continued, “that you had the power to change that. You had the power to keep her all to yourself, to make her forget all about that person, and that person all about her. Literally. And no one would ever know what you had done, or that things had ever been any different than the reality you fabricated. She would love you, would never know what she has lost, and you’d never give her a reason to feel any less happier. And before you ask, no, it will not create any unfortunate side-effects for anyone or anything.”

Tony’s brows progressively creased at the very dubious description of this hypothetical.

“If you had the power to do all that,” Stephen concluded, “Would you?”

Tony opened his mouth to give the obvious answer that no, I wouldn’t do that, because that’s wrong.

But then he paused, jaw snapping shut, as he realized something after rerunning Stephen’s words through his head.

Stephen was talking about a scenario where consequences stopped mattering. Where, perhaps, morals stopped mattering. Because no one would ever know that Pepper’s life had been manipulated — not even Pepper herself — not only that, but Tony knew he would treat Pepper the way she deserved, would give her all his love, his soul, heck, the world if she asked for it.

He knew that he would keep her happy, and that she would do the same for him. Because that was how it was, in present, in the reality.

So, with all that in mind, even if it was morally wrong to play with someone’s memories, to fabricate a reality that hadn’t always been the truth, did it really matter that those things had been done? Because at the end of the day, there would be no consequences, no repercussions, nothing negative that would come out of it.

Suddenly the question felt a lot more terrifying. It almost felt like a test, of sorts, of a person’s integrity. And Tony did not have a lot of integrity to spare. No, he was more than willing to bend the rules sometimes if it meant that it would help him achieve what’s best for this world.

(Except, he wasn’t very good at telling what qualified as ‘best for this world’ either, now, was he?)

So.. if he were to be tempted into it.. wouldn’t he give in? Wouldn’t he want to have Pepper? He wanted to say no, that he wouldn’t let himself fall into that pit, because there was no getting up from it ever again. But..

But power corrupts.

It would corrupt him, too.

Tony bit his lip and focused back on Stephen.

It was then that he realized that Stephen had his eyes keenly fixed on Tony throughout the silence of contemplation. There was something in his eyes.. akin to anticipation? Except, it was way more intense.

Something clicked in Tony’s mind. Or perhaps it was several pieces clicking together, solving a puzzle that had been right in front of his eyes all along but he had somehow missed for so long.

The question wasn’t hypothetical. It wasn’t hypothetical, because Stephen had that kind of power. Didn’t he? Tony would think so, after he’d watched the man take down a Titan with 4 infinity stones, prevent their planet from being eaten by a planet-eating cosmic entity, and defeat a witch who could warp reality and create kids out of nothing.

Stephen was in love. Stephen was in love with someone who he couldn’t be with.

The thought made something constrict painfully tight in Tony’s chest. But there would be more time, later, to think on that.

Right now.. right now Stephen was on the verge of falling apart. He loved this person so much that he was willing to go to any lengths, if it meant he could be with them. (The vice around Tony’s heart tightened even more, but really, this was no time to process that.) Even if it could be considered extremely immoral. And..

And he was, in a way, asking Tony’s permission for it. Perhaps to assuage himself that it was fine to do it. Perhaps to convince himself that it wasn’t wrong, that anyone would want to do the same.

Tony swallowed. The workshop’s air, that had been cool and pleasant just a minute ago, now hung with a damp sort of heaviness.

This was extremely hypocritical of Tony, given that moments ago he had admitted to himself that he.. that he wouldn’t be entirely opposed to using that kind of power to have Pepper to himself.

But Stephen.. he couldn’t let Stephen break. He couldn’t. Not like this. Not for this. Losing morality was a slippery slope. You couldn’t stop once you’d started.

He couldn’t let that happen to Stephen. He couldn’t.

(And if a small, insignificant voice in his mind screamed, you’re doing it only out of selfishness, he shut it out.)

“No,” Tony said. “Because.. even if no one would know the truth, I would know.”

“Because it would haunt your conscience forever?” Stephen asked.

Oh, Tony had no doubt that it would. He also had no doubt that his own conscience would slowly convince him that ‘it’s fine’ that he ‘did the right thing’. It would feed him lies, and he would make them his life’s truths.

That was, in essence, how the slippery slope of amorality started. Always.

Tony shook his head. “No. Because the Pepper that lives in here?” He tapped at his chest, right where his heart rested, “She’d hate me for it.”

Stephen’s eyes traced down to that little hand gesture, and stayed there even after Tony’s hand fell away. For a second that seemed to stretch for hours, Stephen simply stared at the spot where Tony had tapped his finger, and Tony grew just a hint distressed, that perhaps it hadn’t worked. Perhaps he didn’t manage to convince Stephen. That he would lose Stephen into this spiral of wrongdoings and never be able to recover him—

Stephen’s eyes flickered up to Tony’s, and something flashed in his expression, gone as quickly as it had come. Tony still caught what it was, though.

Self-disgust.

Before Tony could speak again, Stephen interrupted him, getting up as he shut his book with a slam. “Apologies, there’s an emergency at the Sanctum.”

And before Tony could do anything else, Stephen was already disappearing through a portal.

“Stephen!” He called out as he stood up, but it was no use, the portal already closed, the last of orange sparks showering down on his floor.

Stephen was gone. Stephen was gone, and Tony knew that no immoral reality-bending, mind-altering magics were going to be performed today. But Stephen was gone, reeking of shame and disgust for himself, gone to lament in whichever secluded place he always disappeared to, not to be found by any force of the universe unless he wanted to be found.

That hadn’t been Tony’s intention. That hadn’t been Tony’s intention.

But he could do nothing but stare at where the sparkly portal had stood, wishing that it had been him who Stephen loved with such intensity.