#The Pursuit of Power

[empirearchives]

Napoleon as a rallying cry during the revolutions in France during the 19th century

July Revolution (French Revolution of 1830):

French Revolution of 1848:

Source: The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, Richard J. Evans

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Rage Form

[spaceistheplaceart]

once again thinking about @void-dude's static ford. ough.

check this out

[maesonc-artistic-adventures]

Daughter of the Red Moon.

[group-dynamic]

Very Minor Spoiler for Episode 7 (S2) of Rings of Power

Thinking casually about Galadriel's declaration earlier this season that caring for that which is most fragile and most dear is the duty entrusted to all elves and how Celebrimbor's gentle care in noticing and greeting that little mouse is what allowed him to see past Sauron's deception. :)

[brynnmclean]

I think if Mairon had to acknowledge exactly how fucking messed up he is because of Melkor and everything he did to survive Angband and what he built himself into during the First Age, I think he would-- well. I think he wouldn't, is the thing.

I think he can't allow himself to think about it too hard. What was it Charlie Vickers said about him still putting himself down through the rabbit hole-- he's been moving forward so long that he can't stop and look his own darkness in the eye. None of this can be about him, about fixing him. He utterly refuses the self-scrutiny. It has to be about fixing the world, about finding that perfect peace at any cost. I really don't think he thought about the elvish rings healing him. And actually I think if he put Nenya on and had a moment of-- idk, peace or healing or some distance from the scars Melkor left, I think it would be absolutely agonizing to him.

And you know, if he got to the end of his ruthless pursuit for perfect order and got everything he thinks he wants, I don't even know if he could look at the ruin of himself and what all the means have done to him in pursuit of an end.

I don't know that he could stop! He's been running so long!!!! I like to think that part of his refusal to plead with the Valar for pardon and mercy-- in addition to not wanting to be shamed and beholden to other people for the work of repair-- is that he can't listen when anyone says, you need to sit down and look at the trauma in you, it'll feel so bad, but you need to do it to really move past it, and then you'll need to see the steps you took in His shadow, as His shadow-- he can't, he can't, he doesn't want to, he won't, he'll keep running, there is no stopping--

[kavalyera]

prince stop fucking ur primogen challenge

[bonefall]

Maybe I'll make a post on this at some point but like, something deeply fucked up about TNP and Po3 that people have totally forgotten about is how badly they try to whine that "Tigerstar Had Good Traits :("

Firestar does it, Brambleclaw does it, and they keep doing this after it becomes this GRAND irony that Firestar almost gets Tiger'd to death in a fox trap because he was too trusting. Bramble gets his pity award of keeping deputyship and then cries to his son about how No One Saw The Good In Tigerstar :(

And it's wiiiiild that no one else in this fandom has done anything with the fact that Leopardstar broke the Warrior Code to appoint Hawkfrost, who had no apprentice, an extremely aggressive and warmongering Tigerclone who says things like "Tigerstar wasn't the worst cat to look up to." ONLY qualifying trait was being kinda like Tigerstar.

And she practically did that the SECOND Mistyfoot went missing. And then Leopardstar continued to be one of the most violent and xenophobic leaders through Po3, joining with WindClan to attack ThunderClan.

What I'm getting at is that like, a few years ago, with books like "Blackfoot's Reckoning" and "Shadow in RiverClan" it's like they suddenly decided to retcon in a bunch of "redemption arcs" in hindsight. They just pretended like there was this grand high reckoning with TigerClan, when there literally wasn't, and if anything that caused SERIOUS problems for the cast that the authors didn't fully acknowledge as such.

And now ppl haven't actually read the main series and are just working with their recent memory of all these retcon books.

But TNP and PO3 are still there, and you can go and see the ACTUAL timeline where Leopardstar is really not apologetic at all, and Blackstar is a useful stooge for the very next wannabe dictator that strolls in, in spite of the new side content that COMPLETELY mischaracterized them for their plots to work.

[staab]

Trying new styles with queen bee

[mammalsofaction]

The fact that the Doof had been paired and proved most compatible with Perry, canonically and repeatedly proclaimed to be one of OWCA's best agents in the field, is curious to me.

Some fics have a throwaway line or two talking referring to his compatibility with other agents. I think, also, about the canonical fact that he remains as third most dangerous evil scientist in OWCA's ledger.

I also like thinking about the fact that we have been proven, multiple times, in VARIOUS dimensions and fluctuations to the time space continuem, that were he not continuously thwarted throughout his career, he would not only have achieved tyrannical rule, he would have EXCELLED in it, and perfectly undefeated, EVEN BY HIS EVIL PEERS that people loved to pretend were always more competent than him.

Like. I think about that. Why? What makes Heinz so dangerous? What made everyone else incompatible to a point OWCA realized they needed to send their best, and he needed to be on call ALL THE TIME?

Curious

[sleepyorchidmonster]

What about a genshin event where Furina and Neuvillette go to Sumeru? Maybe as a way to improve diplomatic relations, since both Sumeru and Fontaine had a change in their governments?

Just Furina having fun, meeting Nilou and Nahida while thinking of enrolling in the Akademiya (she can be classmates with Hatguy in Vahumana), almost getting adopted by Faruzan, going shopping with Dehya and Candace....

As for the diplomatic meetings, it was just Nahida and Neuvillette drinking tea while Wanderer, Cyno and Clorinde acted as bodyguards. Neuvillette decided that Nahida did nothing wrong and gave up on judging her. The sages are being drowned, though.

They also take a detour and meet Apep, who is much nicer this time around. Mostly because she finally found another dragon sovereign. And that's how we get more dragon lore!

Apep decided that Focalors is the only archon that she likes.

Also Neuvillette has a new target: Dottore. He talked a bit with Wanderer and Collei and Sumeru almost flooded.

[empirearchives]

Some of the Napoleonic reforms undone by the Pope was vaccination against smallpox and street lighting.

Source: Richard J. Evans, The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914

[cult-of-the-eye]

The OIAR is literally just middle management between eldritch creatures like they're the morally grey clipboard people standing behind the monster and telling it who to maul

[paarthursass]

The thing that's so incredibly tragic about Hades killing Heron (and dooming not just himself, but everyone else in the process) is that, if he had just talked to Heron about what was going on, Heron would probably been amenable to finding a different solution. Heron had just actively aided Seraphim (who killed his mother) and spared and forgave Hera (who made his life a living hell and directed Seraphim to kill his mother). Heron is, all things considered, a pretty reasonable guy! But Hades is so used to the mindset of the gods - stubborn, never changing - and to being isolated and abandoned for so long that it probably never even occurred to him to ask for help.

[dateamonster]

[ripping out my hair] rebecca was not an evil master manipulator and rebecca was not a girlboss. rebecca was a woman whos entirely life was dictated by her desirability to men. but also rebecca was an upperclass woman who threatened and used people especially those below her because what she wanted more than anything was the level of power only men of her class possessed. rebecca wanted to live with a rich white mans freedom but the best that was available to her was becoming a rich white mans wife and having domain over the estate which represented his patriarchal power. and still no matter how she went behind his back no matter how she deliberately provoked him she only became a true threat to him when he realized her affairs might lead to an illegitimate heir inheriting that estate. the only real power she ever really held over him was that of the potential unborn male that existed within her and that! was a lie! she was infertile! her only fear in life was of a slow death by sickness! because sickness would cause her to lose her beauty and ability and at the end of the day those were the only things she had! and when her worst fears were realized she killed herself for the slim chance that her death might be a final fuck you to the men that could only be infatuated with her but never love her! AHHHHHHH!

[moongothic]

Quick point to re: is Croc openly trans or not

So Ivankov's ability to change someone's biological sex is kind of a "myth" in the OP world, right? The way Bon-chan talked about Ivankov was with an aura of legend, how they had heard all these incredible things about Ivankov but couldn't even be entirely sure the person truly even existed until they got to meet face-to-face, because the stories told about Ivankov were just so incredible

Of course, between Iva-chan's imprisonment 6-5 years ago and the actual difficulty people would have genuinely finding them to begin with (being a Rev and travelling around the world sometimes and othertimes just hanging around in the Calm Belt on Momoiro Island), the word about their deeds would turn into Stuff of Legend as few would be able to actually verify it, see it for themselves and tell others all about it, but those stories had to start somewhere, right?

And we do have an interesting note here, as this prince mentioned his mother visiting Kamabakka Queendom 15 years ago (pre-timeskip)

Now one could think that hey, maybe this is where The Legends about Ivankov's miraculous abilities began, but think really about it for a moment; Why would some ruler of a kingdom go out of their way to travel to Kamabakka Queendom, ruled by a member for the Revolutionary Army (=potentially dangerous for a monarch), if they hadn't heard about Ivankov's ability from somewhere else first?

And that's where the timeline mention gets interesting. Because guess who was born just two years before this prince's mother made her brave journey to see Iva-chan?

I'm just saying, if Crocodile went missing for like 4-9 months and then came back fully transitioned out of nowhere, and Morgans made a huge god damn deal about it on the news, letting the whole world know about the Warlord magically having become a man, yeah, that would start some rumors about who what where and how this even happened. And needless to say, this could easily send a lot of people out to the seas to try to find the Miracle Worker who transed Crocodile's gender, including some monarchs who have the resources to both verify the legends but also actually make the journey to find Ivankov (Also, if the inciting incident that started the legends about Ivankov happened due to Crocodile like 17-19 years ago, that would add to that aura of myth Ivankov has around them, as it would've been a long ass time ago when the first rumors about Emporio Ivankov would've gotten out there)