#and I also don't think the Grand Revolution is going to happen. I think we need to work with what we have. sorry.

[captainjonnitkessler]

I think being on the internet has given a lot of leftists a drastically skewed view of how popular our beliefs are.

Most politicians support Israel because most Americans support Israel - only 8% of the population thinks the US should publicly criticize Israel.

Bernie didn't lose the primaries because the Democrats were just too scared of having a real progressive in office so they rigged the election, he lost because socialists are the least-electable people in America and because fewer people voted for him. That's how elections work. ( In b4 'but everyone else dropped out in a coordinated effort to concentrate votes behind biden!' - yeah, if your candidate can only win when the vote is split eight ways that's not a viable candidate. And I voted for Bernie!)

As of 2021 only about 15% of Americans support defunding the police, 47% would like to see increased police funding, and the number of people who think violent crime is a "very big" problem jumped 20 percentage points up to 61% in one year.

And it's just really frustrating to see internet leftists being super condescending as though everybody should already know everything and be on board with this stuff or else they're a Bad Person, driving people away from leftist ideology or making people too afraid to ask questions lest they be branded as a Centrist or worse, a Liberal, or refusing to engage in politics until they're being specifically catered to even though that would be political suicide (and would therefore not accomplish anything anyway.)

And like. It's fine to think that people who support Israel or more police funding are bad people, frankly I think a lot of them are. But I think even more are just misinformed or not really informed about alternatives at all. And not everyone is in the headspace to do education or outreach, but when you're only 10% of the population I think you need to make a choice about whether you want to feel good about being right on the internet or whether you want to be effective. It's frustrating to have to walk someone step-by-step through why genocide is bad, but it's a lot more likely to change minds than shouting at someone that they're obviously just a genocide-loving racist is.

[sandraharissa]

s2 intro was so fire. and I thought like s1 it showed/hinted at the things that would happen during this season. but most stuff didn't happen or it didn't live up to the imagery used in the intro

Vi smudging the VI tattoo. it implies that she would struggle with her identity and the name connected with it and the legacy connected with it, like Jinx did in s1. maybe this could even be her going so far as to reject the name itself, like denying that she's The Vi to keep a low profile. like how Jinx would insist that she's not Powder in s1. but none of that ever happened. Vi never struggles with 'being Vi' or what it means to her or with being Vander's prodigy even tho he's brought back from the dead.

this shot implying that this was gonna be a story about the sisters, but also that Jinx is Vi's burden or her shadow or a demon on her shoulder. but to explore Vi's feelings on her sister and what she's become they'd have to try to explore Vi at all

this shot which implies to me 'Jinx being Jinx' cos it's a callback to when she does the finger gun in s1, but even more so to when she does it as a kid in the Enemy MV. in the scene she, when she still went by Powder, aims a finger gun at enforcers and as she pretend fires at them it flashes to Jinx standing there. so a 'Jinx was always Jinx' message. but it also alludes to her having a target like the firelight in s1 or the enforcers in the MV, who she always hated.

the two times we see Ekko he reverses time, which ig he technically does but the meat of his story is him going to a parallel universe, not going back in time. idk ig I thought that time travel would be more relevant to Ekko's story than parallel universe travel. in the end time travel is only meaningfully used for the timebomb angst scene even tho it's not really necessary there. ig I thought the powers would be more relevant to Ekko's whole character and arc. in an Ekko lol short he reverses time to defeat the bad guy and when he finally succeeds it's at the cost of the destruction of the mural for dead kids, and so he goes back in time again. that's more meaningful than anything they did with firelights in s2 (and arguably more meaningful than the timebomb scene). why did they drop the sick tree plotline? the firelights? his past with Jinx? his involvement in the revolution? the past vs present and saving the things we love? I swear they were teasing me with an epic time travel episode but delivered a parallel universe (derogatory) episode.

this type of shots made me think that Cait would actually struggle internally to an extreme degree with her actions and how the power corrupts her etc. that she'd become horrified of what she's become. and how she'd hate and struggle with maintaining her appearances to the public.

the first shot made it seem like, just like Cait, Jayce would struggle with public attention and maybe scrutiny, considering he was the head of the council in s1. but then the first thing he does this season is resign and that's that for him being a public persona and struggling with his reputation even tho s1 and his lol lore focus on that. like that stuff's so juicy don't get rid of that.

the second shot hints to me at him discovering smth grand/important connected to the arcane, which ig kinda happened but what it ended up being is that Jayce got transported to a bad universe and learned that arcane bad. meanwhile this shot evokes to me smth more awe-inspiring, idk like smth mystical and magical, arcane, you could say. with white bright light often being used in media to communicate divinity. wild runes mumbo jumbo and Jayce being transported to a bad arcane universe seem so pedestrian compared to like, heavenly lights ig.

both concepts for Jayce's story that were introduced in the intro and the eps delivered on neither.

I don't remember the french revolution ending with the ppl teaming up with the royalty. I also don't get the impression that there are any french revolution stories out there with the hero thinking the revolution is an irritating nuisance. this parallel is so extremely unwarranted and borderline offensive.

Viktor did turn out to be evil and he did get a cult as this shot implied but the mask obvs references his lol mech suit that he never gets. there was no reason for him to be designed the way he was, as an arcane deity with specifically a mask, outside of for the purpose of having the faintest similarity to his lol design. the mask, the cult, all that third arm imagery in s1? it all references his lol lore, for nothing, cos they took his character in a drastically different direction. talk about blue balls. and same thing with the light as with Jayce, the light coming from the mask implies Revelations connected to the mask but also loss of identity/being consumed by it. maybe a glorious evolution? idk it again just feels like someone knew what the fans wanted but it wasn't the writers. but someone still put all this in the intro. teasing a better story that we'll never get to see.

there's also all the Black Rose imagery that seemed important even tho they weren't in the end. it being connected to Mel (politician) and Ambessa (politician/warrior) made me think that they would focus on the Black Rose being a political organization that wants smth connected to Piltover and the PnZ conflict, with all the imagery of holding the rose/squishing the rose/being the rose/picking up the rose alluding to the political scheming between Ambessa/Mel/the Black Rose. but they went the route of out of nowhere making Mel magic. imagine if in a random ep of s1 they made Silco magic.

why? why why why why why?

the intro did more for all the character arcs than the episodes themselves

[zedecksiew]

How To Play The Revolution

So: I do not like the idea of TTRPGs making formal mechanics designed to incentivise ethical play.

But, to be honest, I do not like the idea of any single game pushing any particular formal mechanics about ethical play at all.

So here I am, trying to think through the reasons why, and proposing a solution. (Sort of. A procedure, really.)

+

Assumptions:

1.

Some genres of game resist ethical play. A grand strategy game dehumanises people into census data. The fun of a shooter is violence. This is truest in videogames, but applies to tabletop games also.

Games can question their own ethics, to an extent. Terra Nil is an anti-city-builder. But it is a management game at heart, so may elide critiques of "efficiency = virtue".

Not all games should try to design for ethical play. I believe games that incentivise "bad" behaviour have a lot to teach us about those behaviours, if you approach them with eyes open.

2.

The systems that currently govern our real lives are terrible: oligarchy, profit motive; patriarchy, nation-states, ethno-centrisms. They fuel our problems: class and sectarian strife, destruction of climate and people, spiritual desertification.

They are so total that the aspiration to ethical behaviour is subsumed by their logics. See: social enterprise; corpos and occupying forces flying rainbow flags; etc.

Nowadays, when I hear "ethical", I don't hear "we remember to be decent". I hear "we must work to be better". Good ethics is radical transformation.

3.

If a videogame shooter crosses a line for you, your only real response is to stop playing. This is true for other mechanically-bounded games, like CCGs or boardgames.

In TTRPGs, players have the innate capability to act as their own referees. (even in GM-ed games adjudications are / should be by consensus.) If you don't like certain aspects of a game, you could avoid it---but also you could change it.

Only in TTRPGs can you ditch basic rules of the game and keep playing.

+

So:

D&D's rules are an engine for accumulation: more levels, more power, more stuff, more numbers going up.

If you build a subsystem in D&D for egalitarian action, but have to quantify it in ways legible to the game's other mechanical parts---what does that mean? Is your radical aspiration feeding into / providing cover for the game's underlying logics of accumulation?

At the very least it feels unsatisfactory---"non-representative of what critique / revolution entails as a rupture," to quote Marcia, in conversations we've been having around this subject, over on Discord.

How do we imagine and represent rupture, to the extent that the word "revolution" evokes?

My proposal: we rupture the game.

+++

How To Play The Revolution

Over the course of play, your player-characters have decided to begin a revolution:

An armed struggle against an invader; overturning a feudal hierarchy; a community-wide decision to abandon the silver standard.

So:

Toss out your rule book and sheets.

And then:

Keep playing.

You already know who your characters are: how they prefer to act; what they are capable of; how well they might do at certain tasks; what their context is. You and your group are quite capable of improv-ing what happens next.

Of course, this might be unsatisfactory; you are here to play a TTRPG, after all. Structures are fun. Therefore:

Decide what the rules of your game will be, going forward.

Which rules you want to keep. Which you want to discard. Jury-rig different bits from different games. Shoe-horn a tarot deck into a map-making game---play that. Be as comprehensive or as freeform as you like. Patchwork and house-rule the mechanics of your new reality.

The god designer will not lead you to the revolution. You broke the tyranny of their design. You will lead yourself. You, as a group, together. The revolution is DIY.

+++

Notes:

This is mostly a thought experiment into a personal obsession. I am genuinely tempted to write a ruleset just so I can stick the above bit into it as a codified procedure.

I am tickled to imagine how the way this works may mirror the ways revolutions have played out in history.

A group might already have alternative ruleset in mind, that they want to replace the old ruleset with wholesale. A vanguard for their preferred system.

Things could happen piecemeal, progressively. Abandon fiat currency and a game's equipment price list. Adopt pacifism and replace the combat system with an alternative resolution mechanic. As contradictions pile up, do you continue, or revert?

Discover that the shift is too uncomfortable, too unpredictable, and default back to more familiar rules. The old order reacting, reasserting itself.

+

I keep returning to this damn idea, of players crossing thresholds between rulesets through the course of play. The Revolution is a rupture of ethical reality like Faerie or the Zone is a rupture in geography.

But writing all this down is primarily spurred by this post from Sofinho talking about his game PARIAH and the idea that "switching games/systems mid-session" is an opportunity to explore different lives and ethics:

Granted this is not an original conceit (I'm not claiming to have done anything not already explored by Plato or Zhuangzi) but I think it's a fun possibility to present to your players: dropping into a parallel nightmare realm where their characters can lead different lives and chase different goals.

+

Jay Dragon tells me she is already exploring this idea in a new game, Seven Part Pact:

"the game mechanics are downright oppressive but also present the capacity to sunder them utterly, so the only way to behave ethically is to reject the rules of the game and build something new."

VINDICATION! If other designers are also thinking along these lines this means the idea isn't dumb and I'm not alone!

+++

( Images:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-23-fronts-and-generals.1497106/

https://www.thestranger.com/race/2017/04/05/25059127/if-you-give-a-cop-a-pepsi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

https://nobonzo.com/

https://pangroksulap.com/about/ )

[yayroos]

anyway i've been saying this in like replies and tags but here's my take on the MCR thing here's my theory ok

so according to the caption under the video

a) it's been 17 years since the band The Black Parade was sent to the MOAT

ok so 'MOAT' is clearly an acronym but also they were sent there they didn't go, so someone did this one way or another.

b) In that time, a great Dictator has risen to power

ok so the fascist and the regime came about at some point after The Black Parade was sent away - if it was fairly soon after, then i would say the MOAT is probably complicated fascist political prison for people who might be useful someday. I don't know what it stands for but i have a vibe of what it is.

c) bringing about "THE CONCRETE AGE", a glorious time of stability and abundance

ok so that's a song title. like. come on.

d) in the history of DRAAG.

so 'DRAAG' is another acronym, presumably for the name of this country. It's phrased to imply that the country existed before the regime, but fascists like to make shit up to make themselves look good, so I'm gonna say maybe there was a very different place called that in the past and then the regime took over and is basically co-opting that because that's what regimes do

e) His Grand Immortal Dictator wishes to celebrate our rich and storied culture, fine foods, and musical entertainments by welcoming you to these great demonstrations of power and resolve.

politicians across the spectrum and for a very long time have taken and twisted and used music and culture to serve their own ends. This happens all the time. Other people have said it better in the last day or so but like think of who's played what songs in campaign rallies and on tv ads and shit over not just recent election cycles but for 30+ years at this point. This is a constant of politics, and only gets amplified when fascism enters the picture. This is propaganda, this is using people's memory of what The Black Parade used to be before to give legitimacy to the regime.

f) And lending voice and song for the first time in six thousand two hundred and forty six days,

that lines up with the 17 years, and IRL with their last Black Parade performance and 'the black parade is dead'

g) their work privilege ceremonially reinstated

this tells us a huge huge amount about the nature of the regime and makes it clear that the band was, we'll say, forcibly retired, at some point

h) will be His Grand Immortal Dictator's National Band... The Black Parade

the regime and the dictator have claimed them, even though we know from the start they 'were sent to the MOAT' before the regime actually rose. That means that after 17 years and a complete change in regime, the cultural identity still tied to The Black Parade is still valuable enough to bother wheeling them out at this point. That's a long time for a seemingly inactive band to stay relevant.

Knowing what we know about MCR and politics and the current political moment, The Black Parade then were political enemies of the rising regime. They've been off hidden away somewhere but the people still remember their music, which makes them prime material for the quiet little rebellions from which revolution grows. The regime then gets word of this, and brings the band back to a) take away the power of it being from before by rebranding it under their own banner, and b) try and squash the resistance by demonstrating that their rallying cry is actually totally on the regimes side (no don't worry about how they were 'sent to the MOAT' 17 years ago they were totally on board the whole time...)

So The Black Parade will perform, but we know MCR and we know Gerard and we know the moment we're in, so that's not the whole plan here. The show will start heavy on the regime themes, but the band will break out somehow and instead of doing what the regime plans for and shutting down the rebellion, it will fan the flames and tear the whole thing down.

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

The Postman

The novel is much better than the film. It's about a man in a post apocalyptic environment accidentally rebuilding the United States by being a dedicated civil servant. He pretends to be a postal worker.

Twenty years after World War III, Gordon is robbed and finds an old postal uniform in an abandoned truck. He takes it to protect himself from exposure, and is accidentally mistaken as a postal worker by a nearby settlement. He then decides at the next settlement to deliberately pretend to be a postal worker representing the "Restored United States". People are desperate for hope and believe in him. They remember fondly the old days of mail, and the postal workers. But more than that, the concept of the United States as one unified country is revived, how we're all the same.

Funny enough, the author actually brings up several obvious points about how this could be a scam(which it is at first!). In the best scene in the novel, he shows off his uniform, which they point out he could've taken from a corpse, and he shows off documents that he could've faked. The thing that makes them believe him is he legit DOES bring the mail! You can easily see that as desperate as they are for hope, there are people who see through his lies, but don't bring it up because he's providing a vital service.

He also deliberately doesn't push his luck. This scam is quite clever: he claims to be from the restored United States, but that he's a scout, there won't be anyone else coming for a long time. He's just here to deliver the mail, he is not threatening local warlords' powers. He fakes a document of rules the "new congress" "created", but they're all simple things that don't mess with local authority for the most part. So there's no reason for the warlords to challenge him.

What ends up happening though is he accidentally creates a revolution: the Restored United States becomes real through Gordon's efforts.

Civilization and it's symbols are what the book is centered around. By being a symbol, Gordon is accidentally able to recreate the country. It shows that government isn't some nebulous entity, it's a construct made of people, and that people can repair it as much as we tear it apart. It's not Gordon who overthrows the warlord, it's the common folk. He shows them, and reminds them, of what they used to be, and what they can become again. There's a heartbreaking scene where he visits a town that's having a dog fight. It's horrible, but what makes it so is the mounting depression Gordon instills through his disapproval. The mayor of the town thinks to himself, "what's happened to us? I was a member of the ASPCA!" The dog fight is stopped as they remember. It's not through some grand act Gordon brings about a revolution, it's a reminder of the good things the government does. It delivers the mail, and fixes the roads. Civil servants are the backbone of society! Through this little scam Gordon accidentally reminds people of what they are.

One of the best things about the book is Gordon. He's not a goody goody, he's a con man! The film casts Kevin Costner, when they should've cast Michael J Fox. Gordon is a former college student and national guard trooper who just wants a place that's civilized: he wants to find someone who's doing *something* to rebuild! All he wants is a place with electricity, showers, and hot food. He is NOT mad max. I think the writer was commenting on tropes of the time, Gordon HATES living in the squalor of the apocalypse! He doesn't think of himself as a hero, or a decent person. He acts pretty decently for a con man, and in fact constantly kicks himself for not being a ruthless monster that he views as being better for surviving this world. He survives not through gunplay, but through his wits and his skills. He kills few if any people that I recall. He's a scholar, not Mad Max. You feel sorry for him a lot, he's just some guy who wants somewhere to go, and a leader to follow. Yet he also retains a "civilized mind" as the book calls it. He laments this fallen world, how the US sent probes to Jupiter, how they were building genuine Artificial Intelligence before the war, and now they were reinventing serfdom. He's moved to tears by the little last stands made at the end of the war, by the last efforts of the mailman who's uniform he took. He's just a guy who wants to go home, but there's no more home left. And yet through his idealism, through his memory, and his wits, he recreates the world he lost.

I would put the book weirdly into the same category as The Handmaid's Tale, which I have yet to read. It's difficult to articulate; rather than the central theme being women's rights, The Postman is about civilization, yet spoken about in the same way as the Handmaid's Tale. The Handmaid's Tale was a commentary on the 1980s evangelical Christian ultra right wing nationalism that made itself known under Reagan. Women's rights falling apart was not an irrational fear: it happened in Iran in 1979. Check out photos of Iran from the 60s and 70s, women are all wearing western clothing, smoking, going to college, Iran was a very modern country. There is an American movie filmed months before the revolution which has a female police officer as a major plot element.

The Postman is criticizing the same types of people, and there is real similar precedent. Reagan was talking about government being "evil", and his administration deliberately destroyed and undercut tons of government social safety nets and services. He fired so many air traffic controllers it was years before they could train more! The right wing is STILL trying to dismantle the postal service!

In the novel, civilization and government wasn't destroyed by the war itself, it was the conditions that came after. There is a faction of these nutty hyper survivalists who are all but stated to be white supremacists; basically every ultra macho racist misogynistic doomsday prepper you've seen. These guys deliberately destroyed reconstruction efforts and ruined what remained of society. Just like the Handmaid's Tale was a commentary on right wing politics of the 80s, I think The Postman is commentary on the exact same part. It really drives home that civilization, and government itself, is a positive thing despite its flaws, with more good than bad. The heroes are dedicated to rebuilding lines of communication, recovering all that was lost. We see over and over again that while we've stumbled, it wasn't government that destroyed civilization it was barbarity and cruelty, a *lack* of government. Society can train armies, create medicine, build roads and towns, and stop people from being hurt and dying. The war itself didn't even destroy civilization, it was neglect and the destruction of order. These people aren't trying to merely survive; they *are* surviving, they want to *live*. And that means rebuilding everything that was lost. Building cities, fixing libraries, and having dedicated civil servants. There's no hope that help will come from elsewhere, we must take action into our own hands. The book emphasizes that government is not this alien monolith, it's us, it's people, and without people, everything falls apart. It is so effective at delivering this message, it drives home a very moving and nuanced view of patriotism. Our heroes are farmers, workers, and postal workers. They're not rich folk, or macho men, they're everyday citizens who want things to get better. Our hero is a skinny little con man! "Don't you want more out of life?"

One can even argue the book is a battle between two views of the United States of America specifically. The survivalists have a right wing view of the country and the world, might makes right, individualism or death, manly man things, greed is good, and how everyone should be "independent". One of them is a former stock broker for crying out loud! Others are these ex military guys, many of whom rape and pillage. Gordon and his friends have a more left wing view of government, equality for all, might *for* right(if might is even in the equation), the ants must work together and stand together, that the smallest among us deserve as many rights as the largest; united we are strong, knowledge is power, and community is for the benefit of all, for justice, for peace, and for the future. Our hero is a lanky college student turned postal worker, others are a coalition of scientists, feminists, and *hippies*.

The book is surprisingly progressive with regards to women's rights. There's weird 80s attitudes toward feminism, but I would argue it's much more charitable than others. It's very clear the author does care about women's rights, and his heart is in the right place, he just doesn't quite grok all the issues. He puts feminism firmly on the side of the heroes. The female lead who is declared to be a feminist is depicted as naive, but it's more about her than feminism itself. And it feels more like the characters than the narrative. The one who calls her "an old school feminist" is a middle aged scientist, and Gordon is very jaded. His attitude is more about how he doesn't want anyone else to die more than being anti feminist. And the reason for her naivety might be more subtly implied to be that she learned her attitudes purely from books rather than lived experience. She manages to get female soldiers into an army at one point, and the problems aren't with that itself, but the army overall is in trouble. By contrast, the villains want to completely annihilate women's rights as a whole, again, A Handmaid's Tale. The ending has a segment that I'm not sure where to fall on, but I think remains in that thought that the writer very clearly has his heart in the right place but doesn't quite understand.

The book is, to quote another post I saw, filled with infectious optimism. Gordon is a fun hero who's not some macho loner, he just wants a bed and a hot meal, and accidentally causes a massive revolution. It's about how government is what we make of it, and is a force for good more often than not. We have to create the future, or others will do it for us.

[smidgingtonblogs]

Memory and Crowley

We can all agree that Crowley has an issue with memory, most commonly when it comes to people he knew from before the fall. The only angel he does seem to remember is Aziraphale.

What's really interesting to me, however, is how inconsistent and strange that memory loss is. Crowley remembers building nebulas and star systems, but not Saraqael. He remembers going to do dubious battle with 'Lucifer and the guys', but not that Furfur was one of 'the guys'. Even his recollection about falling is inconsistent, however this could be an avoidance tactic from trauma.

Crowley also seems to be the only demon with these memory issues, as no other demon is seen having them and Furfur even seemed genuinely hurt by Crowley not remembering him. If other demons had had this treatment, both Furfur and Saraqael might have been more understanding of Crowley's memory loss.

This tells us two things - what happened to Crowley's memory was not common practice (at least at the time), and it was not done cleanly.

So, what did happen?

I posit the theory that shortly before falling, Crowley either became aware of something, or saw something, he wasn't meant to. Whoever was involved or caught panicked and hastily took the memory of the incriminating event, accidentally taking other memories with them. This doesn't appear to be common knowledge, so whoever did it did so without authorisation. It may have even been the first time memories were tampered with, allowing angels to perfect the process years later.

So who and why?

There are a few suspects. Let's get started:

Saraqael - they know how to wipe memories and even seems eager to wipe Gabriel's memory during his trial. However, presently, there is no known motive.

God - if anyone could tamper with memory, it'd be God. And if Crowley learnt something about the Grand Plan, something that could destabilise the angelic order further than what the dubious battle did, she'd have notice to remove Crowley's knowledge of it. However, being God, it's unlikely she'd cause so much damage to the rest of his memory. It also doesn't seem like her M.O.

Speaking of M.O, let's talk the Metatron - removing Gabriel's memory was the Metatron's idea. If theories about Muriel are also proven correct, then there's precedent for this kind of behaviour. The Metatron, being the voice of God, might also be keenly interesting in keeping the Grand Plan a secret and might do anything to protect God's secrets. Or he might have his own Grand Plan that Crowley stumbled upon during what I'm going to call 'Question Time with A. J. Crowley'. The Metatron also seems to have a distinct dislike of Crowley, which Crowley doesn't actually seem aware of. If someone dislike me with the intensity of the Metatron for Crowley, I don't think I'd be quite so blaze about the guy walking into my friends bookshop and whisking him away to chat. Crowley genuinely seems obvious to the Metatron's attitude towards him, possibly unaware of any history between the two. Personally, I think the Metatron is the most likely culprit.

But let's look at one other likely suspect, the Great Adversary himself, Satan - again, Crowley could have stumbled upon a secret Satan had, possibly again during 'Question Time with A. J. Crowley'. This secret could have been to do with a possible connection between God and Satan, a fraternisation if you will. We're they colluding towards the Grand Plan? Wouldn't look good for Lucy's revolution, would it? Or that Satan didn't have any Grand Plan of his own, that millions of disgruntled angels had followed him into battle, and he was making it up as he went. This seems in character for the Good Omens Satan, honestly.

A lot of this is pure speculation, but I still wanted to share it.

Please let me know you're thoughts.

[tigger8900]

The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz

⭐⭐⭐⭐

In the distant future, Sask-E is a privately-owned planet on the cusp of commercial development, courtesy of the Verdance corporation. Thousands of years ago, the first terraformers had arrived, planting the seeds of the oxygen-rich atmosphere needed to support homo sapiens and other compatible lifeforms. Now the planet is up for sale, with wealthy investors eager to see the virgin land and claim a piece for themselves. But both Verdance and Sask-E are hiding secrets, the consequences of which will echo through the better part of the next two millennia.

I loved the grand scope of this book. Despite taking place over roughly 1,600 years, Newitz's choice to focus on three distinct, pivotal moments prevented the timeline from muddling together the way many long epics tend to. Each section of the book brought its own cast of characters — with a few crossovers — that still managed to feel loosely connected to each other through mentorship and family. In addition, the evolving maps(who saw that third one coming?) and subtly different narrative styles brought a different flavor to each of the three parts. If the idea of getting to know three different sets of characters in one novel seems daunting, perhaps think of it as reading three closely-connected novellas.

For the most part, I also found the characters to be a major strength. They do have a distinctly Becky Chambers vibe to them, though with variations on human and animal genomes rather than alien physiologies. This book has homo sapiens, neanderthal throwbacks, designer human genomes, robotic drones, sentient infrastructure, intelligent animals, collective beings, and many flavors of mechanical enhancement to biological bodies. The explorations of personhood were particularly intriguing, if horrifying when pushed to their inevitable conclusion under capitalism.

And yes, this is an extremely anti-capitalist book. In fact, if I'm going to point to anything as its flaw, it's probably related to that. Specifically, the two primary villains, the faces of the evil corporations, felt very one-dimensional to me. I'm someone who appreciates a nuanced villain. I see where Newitz did try to add some layers to the two of them, a cycle of revenge spanning hundreds of years, but ultimately it felt like their primary motivation to be evil was because they're part of a corporation, and didn't you know corporations are evil profit-suckers? I especially felt that the primary villain of the last section escalated from like 25% evil to 125% evil out of nowhere. I suppose it could have been a result of the 900-year time skip between sections two and three, in the sense that having so much time to stew might drive anyone to extremes. But there were other long-lived characters who didn't fall off the deep end while we weren't watching, so if that was Newitz's idea there(and I'm speculating, really), I think they needed to explore that contrast a little more in order to do those ladies justice.

This book has a number of LGBTQ(and probably some other letters that don't exist yet) characters, for those who are interested. Minor themes of chosen family might also be relevant to many readers. There are a few sexy scenes, skimmable if that's not your vibe. Nothing massively plot-relevant happens in them, just character development and curious physiology(I'm never going to look at a flower the same way again, there's knowing flowers are sexy and then there's knowing). All in all, I'd recommend the read. As I said before, parts of it feel cozy, but there's also a violence and sense of revolution to it that contrasts very nicely with the cozier parts. It also ends on a note that's undeniably hopeful, yet not saccharine.

[onetruesirius]

If Harris gets in, we have a shot, just a shot, at bugging these assholes enough to stop.

We buy ourselves a bit more time to even be listened to at all, to pressure the dickheads in power to stop bombing Gaza, to make our dissatisfaction more-than-known, but felt, at every layer of governance.

We have to get the Dems into office and THEN we crucify them at every single turn until they fucking stop sending bombs. We have to get people into office who will maybe have a 10% chance of listening to us, and THEN we get to scream at them for 4 years. If the people in office won't listen to us at all, there are no more chips in the game.

And before you even fucking think it, get "violent revolution" out of your mouth. The Second Coming of Christ Karl Marx isn't happening, I don't care what Fred from work said. There is no shining garden on the other side of an apocalypse—there is only day after day after day after day. There is only taking care of each other, there is only doing what we can, every single day.

ONE of these ghoulish fucks has a CHANCE of being able to be bargained with. The other does not.

We will not be listened to whatsoever under Trump. Trump has said, on record, he wants Netanyahu to "finish the job". Fuck's sake—what do we even think that means here??? He is going to accelerate the flow of weapons to Israel, and he is not going to listen to anyone if they tell him to stop, he will not listen to protests even the tiniest little bit this time, and we have to acknowledge that reality.

I've heard a lot of "no lesser evil when it comes to genocide" lately, encouraging people to split the democratic vote and get Trump into office, just like Nixon and Reagan. My frustration with these individuals is both unceasing and empathetic, because I do get it.

I understand. I do, deeply. The desire to sit down and cross my arms over my chest and withhold my vote and play chicken with the Republicans and teach the Dems a lesson runs deep in my soul as well. I swore on my life that I wouldn't vote for Biden and I was sticking to my guns about that, because fuck it, what he's thrown himself into wholeheartedly should be enough to get him tried at the Hague. Kamala has time to change her mind, even if it's after the election. I resent what's happening, I hate that my government is bankrolling the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. I'd would stop it if I could. I would ease it if I could. That also means I would do whatever I could to prevent it from intensifying further, even if it stings my pride and offends my sensibilities.

With the things that Trump is more or less promising to do to Gaza? I would never be able to forgive myself if I did nothing to stop him, and he got into office. My inaction would be complicity in the intensified violence at home and abroad. There were candidates in the past that we COULD play chicken with to make the Dems quake in their boots. That is not the 2024 cycle. Trump is not a man to play chicken with—he is in a cement mixer and you are not going to win against a cement mixer.

If there was actually a 3rd party candidate who was opposed to the genocide entirely, and who I thought could actually win in the General Election, I would vote for them in a heartbeat.

But I don't have that right now.

A viable 3rd party candidate this late in the game is a pipe dream, and there are no dreams here, no wishful thinking, there is only what is—what is right in front of me. The list of things I would change and the list of things I dislike will always be at least a mile long and I can't act on any of it in any meaningful way right now. There is no grand scheme, there is no Revolution coming to save me. There is only day after day after day after agonizing day. There is no "I don't want-", there is only what I DO want. Tempering that, there is only what I can actually GET, reasonably. I can't get everything I want right now, which sucks because I want world peace. I want my friends to stop being in danger when they go back to their ancestral lands, to stop having their family killed, to stop being at risk of violence right here in their own country for the way they look... and that's not happening right now. All I can do for now, is pressure my representatives and make sure that me not getting my way isn't going to cause me to hurt other people in my frustration and hurt my cause. As a person living here, exercising civic rights, I'm already a part of this. I'm already conplicit. I can't afford pipe dreams, I have to give my friends a chance to be listened to.

It would be an unimaginable luxury for me to simply sit down and cross my arms over my chest to pout because I'm not god-emperor of everything, and in so doing allow even more harm to come into the world, just so I can have a slightly-cleaner conscience while everyone suffers.

I will be very begrudgingly and very resentfully placing my vote behind Kamala Harris with both my whole chest AND a promise to keep fucking shit up until she listens to the voice of the people.

For fucks sake don’t vote 3rd party.

I would LOVE to not have a 2 party system. It’s a cancer on our country and we need to take action to dismantle it, but just pretending like the bad thing already doesn’t exist anymore and making decisions based on that is a TERRIBLE idea. It won’t change shit and it’ll just prevent us from making actual headway. Trump will win if Kamala doesn’t, that’s the system we live in, the notion that that 200 year old monster of a problem is gonna change in 100 days is absolutely absurd. So let’s just establish that before going any further.

I see people all the time saying to vote 3rd party because “Kamala is just as bad as Trump, democrats just wanna LOOK progressive.” (And before that it was Biden but you get my gist.) because of Biden’s deplorable refusal to stop arming Israel. Respectfully, no tf she’s not, even by just a hair. Kamala isn’t the one with a laundry list of straight up legal atrocities she’s publicly planning to commit if she wins. Being genuinely scared of project 2025 and worrying about ourselves because of that isn’t proof that someone calling for a free Palestine is performative. Genuinely, GENUINELY, what the hell do you think is gonna happen to Palestine if Trump wins? Letting our own country possibly be set back several steps and many of our own citizens’ lives be destroyed to “take a stand” for Palestine when it won’t do shit to help them is just as performative. Actually it’s infinitely MORE performative.

[erigold13261]

Personally, I think Overthinker by INZO is a very DJSS song

Oh yes absolutely this is a DJSS song to the max!

I specifically think this is a song that he would either make or listen to/appreciate AFTER the events of the Rock Revolution (sometimes I like to pretend real songs are mad by NSR characters, and this one feels like one DJSS would make).

It has the complexity of questioning life and existence that we all know and love Nova for, but it also has a sense of togetherness and accountability that I do not see pre-revolution Nova having.

Nova is absolutely a person who overthinks, especially about their own place in the galaxy. They want to be remembered forever (perhaps because of a fear of death, or it might just be a fear of being insignificant in the grand scheme of things), so they think of ways to be remembered.

They are so bent on how they will be perceived in the future that they barely cared about how they acted in the present day. I can see them still having trouble living in the moment, instead of only looking to the future, but they have gotten a bit better about that after being humbled by B2J.

He probably puts a bit more emphasis on humanity as a whole, which is why I love the last line "We must go on" because it is such a good line, especially tied into the idea of space and the future.

Humanity is not (or at least to me it shouldn't be) defined by one singular person. It's a collective. We all have to work together, respect the past, be present, and look to the future, so that humanity as a whole can be remembered.

I don't think that is something Nova is truly comfortable with. He still wants to be important, still wants to have meaning, but I can see him also seeing strength in people after the revolution.

Like sure, he is still going to be an ass and think he is better than most people. He'd still want to represent the Earth as a whole one day, but I think he would start to just think more about present day.

I feel like I am not reading this correctly for some reason. I know I am most likely mischaracterizing Nova a bit, but this song does make me think he would be able to see things a bit less logically and selfishly. Maybe not to the point he starts truly caring about any random person out there, but enough to start thinking about humanity as a whole with strengths together instead of him having to be the best of a group.

I don't know, this song was really good though. I prefer the parts with talking that are mellowed out more-so than the instrumental, loud parts (which kinda feel too explosive for a DJSS song to me but I could be wrong).

Just the intellectual lyrics where it is putting emphasis on togetherness and to stop doing shit for the views/clout online. Like, it makes me think of the Lorax "UNLESS someone like you // cares a whole awful lot, // nothing is going to get better. // It's not."

Just having lines about people only caring about things the day after, or if they are photographed. So many people can't enjoy the moment and so only care about things afterwards if they can show others what happened. Because to many people, what's the point of caring about something if you can't show it to others.

That is a mindset I think DJSS heavily falls into. Why should they care about anything if they can't share it with others. If other people aren't going to see the fantastical things that Nova could do, why should he even try? Is humanity even worth the effort at all? If not, then there must be something out there in the farthest reaches of space that will be able to appreciate him for what he is and what he has done for such an insignificant species.

After the Revolution I still see Nova as having this kind of thinking. But he's been humbled a bit and so is not as deep into this mindset, at least to the point that it is actively hurting others through neglect (as we can see in his district being the most neglected one out of all the Megastars).

So yea. This song very much has DJSS vibes to it. Mainly the lyrical parts themselves over the instrumental parts. However, if this is a song he would potentially make AFTER the Revolution, I can definitely see him having that type of harder stop-go kind of EDM instead of his more flowey-spacey vibe. It's hard to describe over text but I hope that makes sense.

[qqueenofhades]

Hey, i just wanna say thank you for your political posts because this is the first time in literal years that i've felt any sort of understanding of the american political system and why shit is as bad as it is. Honestly I've even come out of reading a lot of then with optimism as weird as that may sound, because it seems like things CAN be made better and thats something i really needed to know.

So yeah uh, thanks. I guess.

Aha, you're welcome. I do try. There is so much toxic and illiterate political misinformation out there, from both right and left, that I am not always sure how much good it does, but at least I'm saying it, so, yeah. Ever since I started posting more regularly about politics, my block list has grown exponentially and looking at my notes is often an.... interesting.... experience, but there you have it.

The last six years have been unprecedented in American history, and even if we've grown more or less numb to the constant cavalcade of disasters, we shouldn't normalize them. Nor should we think that everything is totally fucked and beyond any kind of fixing. That sort of "nothing matters so just either give up or put all your hopes in a fantasy revolution to fix everything!" thinking is never going to do any good for anyone, and it's not even reflective of what's really going on. It's hard to tell among all the GOP screaming and extremism and threats, but 2022 is (at least thus far) representing the first sustained move away from Trumpism that we've seen since Trump first got elected. Things are getting better, and if there's a good result for Democrats in November, they have a chance to continue doing so. Even the professional liberal handwringers and concern trolls extraordinaire at MSNBC just ran this graphic:

Yes, the Republicans are so dangerous that they can't be allowed to get anywhere near power again, and I worry that too much of the country doesn't see that (and will be helped out by Democratic voter apathy, but we did just have that barn-busting result in deep red Kansas, so... yeah, I think Team Blue is paying attention). Yes, the Supreme Court will kill us all if it doesn't get fixed, and soon. But people who are acting like "oh it doesn't matter that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, nothing is going to happen" like... what? The reason the Republicans are screaming about how it has never happened before is because it has never happened before. Because while we have had shitty terrible crime-adjacent ex-presidents before, none of them have been as bad as Trump. We don't know what yet, but this means something. I have been as skeptical of Garland as anybody, and I'm still waiting to see what comes when the J6 committee finishes its hearings. But this increases the public pressure for accountability, and the FBI followed up the raid by seizing cellphones belonging to Trumpy members of Congress (including coup-supporting GOP PA Rep. Scott Perry). The recovered documents are reportedly so sensitive that the FBI had no choice but to send in the gang to execute a search warrant, signed by a Trump-appointed federal judge and a Trump-appointed FBI director. Welp.

Anyway, the point is: boy, do I also struggle with the "things are terrible and there's nothing to be done" mindset. But it isn't true, the people who are telling you that have a vested interest in your disempowerment, and for all its flaws and failings, there's absolutely no reason we have to abandon our venerable old democracy to the absolute worst of what America has to offer. People voted en masse in Kansas and defeated Republican extremism -- IN KANSAS! There are some great progressive Democrats running for Senate, and getting just a few more will rid us of having to kowtow to God Emperor Joe Manchin and Grand Vizier Kyrsten Sinema every single time we want a bill passed. And we got that whole above list of accomplishments done in the worst possible political circumstances, so, uh. Maybe the Democrats actually do know what they're doing, just a little. (Also, I will personally pay ten dollars to anyone who can actually, thoroughly, and satisfactorily explain to me how the Democrats "are really a right wing party!!!" Just saying).

So yes. Things can get better. Things ARE getting better. Things can continue to get better if we continue to act in a way that makes that possible. Etc etc my favorite quote about how to engage with a flawed and frustrating reality: "you are not obliged to complete the work, but nor are you free to abandon it." Because. Indeed.

[canmom]

Hi! Question about the Baru Cormorant series for you! Any chance you could expand on Barhu finally discovering that the blood of Empire of gold? (Or do you do that in your analysis series? Maybe I missed it) It doesn't seem like a realization many other 'dystopic'-ish works address.

hiii! always glad to talk Baru, but I admit I'm a little confused about the question. guessing like, the blood of Empire is gold? implicit in the metaphor of bleeding Falcrest by siphoning its circulating wealth out through Baru's trading concern? but I think it's pretty likely I misunderstood you!

anyway I talked about Baru's grand plan in Butchering an Empire - that's where I went and learned about the history of John Law in France, which was a bold new financial scheme that collapsed on itself when it turned out that colonising Louisiana wasn't as immediately profitable as expected, and the British 'South Sea Bubble', which was an elaborate insider trading scam around slave trading. what I said there was that while those were both financial disasters for their host empires, and may have checked their ambitions to expand and even laid some seeds that affected the later French revolution, they clearly weren't fatal. when the financial system broke, the governments tore it up and made a new one, because the collective fiction of money was no longer serving their interests. call it a blood transfusion if you want.

but Baru aspires to more than that - not merely to pop a speculative bubble but to usurp the actual flow of goods so the Oriati Mbo can cut Falcrest out of the equation by force. in that case the analogy is like uhh... you're a vampire and you drain someone's blood before having a boxing match with them?? anyway would that work? maybe! then I go into a long aside about denazification and its limits as an analogy for what might happen afterwards, because destroying a financial system and political structure doesn't put an end to ideologies and social relations and such.

so I'm not sure how far that answers what you were asking about. i can take some guesses like circulatory system : body :: economy : empire. we could be more specific e.g. money is the universal equivalent which allows the capitalist optimisation process to quickly redirect its efforts, at least in theory. is the circulatory system analogous? it circulates oxygen and glucose, which we could liken to fungible raw materials like yards of linen (;p), and ig you could say like, when part of the body demands oxygen and glucose (a muscle in the leg when you're running), blood flow increases to match, so that's kind of a similar function: directing resources to where they are in demand. and by this analogy disrupting a financial system is like... an artery getting clogged, resulting in getting tired more easily. i can see it being a productive analogy as they go.

i actually don't know how the body directs blood flow too much. i assume something unconscious in the brain controls heart rate? but what about how capillaries open and close to help manage temperature, is that determined more locally? would be interesting to look up.

anyway, as i understand, part of the theme of book 4 is going to be deflating this whole idea of baru's that one sufficiently clever person can have such an outsized influence on historical events. but also it sounds like the redrafting process is pretty brutal even by seth's standards lol, so i don't really know where it's gonna go.

anyway, i agree that the economic angle of Baru and its ability to make that immediately engaging does a lot to help the setting of baru feel solid, and thus its model of colonialism in a bottle feel meaningful. it uses it to greater effect than for example the stories of Daniel Abraham that I've read, which use economics for flavour...

...but at the same time it's still a shell game, like all fantasy. I am certain that Seth didn't work things out in spreadsheets behind the scenes, because it's not about simulation, nor should it be. it's an exciting, dramatic story that dresses itself in the exciting parts of the history of economics. because it's a story about the worldview of someone indoctrinated to view the world in that light, as a huge deterministic machine, that she needs to solve.

no idea if that's a proper to your question, anon. lmk!

[pilferingapples]

eee ok this is an EXCITING bit so bear with me if I ramble a little

Historical Context A: The Napoleonic Era was huge for Hugo's generation of French writers. Like...what WWI was for the Jazz Age, you know? They'd all grown up with this image of the Emperor, this larger than life figure, and then POP he was gone--but he left a really massive legacy effect, not just on the macro level of new alliances, national borders, etc, but in the daily life of every French person, thanks to the Napoleonic Code (the effective legal system for AGES) , major changes that he had set up in society, etc.

which all leads to :

Literary Point A: one of the big themes going on in Les Mis is that it's time to move on from the concept of the Great Man of History and focus on regular people. That history is and should be made now by just people, that Jean Valjean is as important as Napoleon. So as you read the Waterloo section, look for the way Hugo talks about why Napoleon loses-- the emphasis on weather , on the way Napoleon treats his conscripted peasant guide, on how the effect he's having on history is out of favor with God.

Making this argument , Hugo still grants Napoleon and the French a LOT of glory, here. Saying "only GOD could stop Napoleon" is pretty complimentary, after all! And there's plenty of praise for individual leaders in the French army. Which brings us to...

Historical Context B: When Hugo wrote Les Miserables, he was in exile, an opponent of the current ruler of France , Napoleon.

...well , Napoleon III, Louis Bonaparte.

which leads to

Literary Point B: Hugo and his publisher were both sincerely concerned that Les Miserables might get banned in France, or be so heavily censored that it would effectively be banned. This had already happened with some earlier work he'd written in exile!

And Les Miserables is, frankly , a call to revolution , of one sort or another. It's extremely pro-socialism and pro-republic, and France was operating with neither system at the time. It is super political and Hugo's politics were Not Welcome with the people currently running the country.

But! the Waterloo section of Les Mis was really super positive about France and Napoleon's army, even while denouncing Napoleon as incompatible with Progress. Hugo actually pushed for the Waterloo section to be released if anyone wanted a preview , saying :

“If we give quotes, insist on Waterloo, bring out (focus on) what the book has of the national (cause/identity), what stirs the French fibers(/soul), make Persigny ashamed to stop a book in which justice is finally done to Ney, grandfather of his wife, make the seizure impossible by saying it is the battle of Waterloo won by France, etc…”

( more of that letter, and more on those background politics, here!)

As I say at that link, I don't think Waterloo is just chaff for the censors; Hugo didn't say anything he didn't mean to say. But the way he said it was always , of necessity, with consideration of his chances of publishing legally. (Hugo wasn't new to this. Writers in 19C France were always working around censors from one government or the other. It's a fun thing to think about when considering Why X Said It That Way! ) Waterloo is very relevant to that!

And, just for fun, Purely Literary Point C :

Les Mis looooves its parallels and antitheses. That's Hugo's stylistic jam. Les Mis reflects on itself and outwards in endless fractals. So Waterloo is this big grand last stand marking the end of an era... and then one of the major sequences in the narrative's present is a big grand last stand marking not an ending, but hopefully the beginning of a beginning. To be direct: keep an eye on the details in Waterloo, they will echo and counter-echo in surprising ways on the barricade.

(Also you can check out this fantastic post about it! it really helped me understand the emotional core of this section way back when)

(and all this said.... skip Waterloo entirely if you need to. The most immediately relevant chapter is the last one, with the post-battle looting. You can come back and read it later, with the rest of the book fresh for making connections, and it will still be good! But all this makes the whole digression a lot more interesting for me now. )

so part 2 is called Cosette

why the fuck am I reading about Napoleon for ages

[rphelperblog]

Winter Book Quote Rp Meme

final book in the Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer- feel free to edit quotes or change pronouns for rp purposes- part one

“Yeah, but broken isn't the same as unfixable.”

“See that eye roll? It translates to, ‘How am I possibly keeping my hands off of you, Captain?” 

“I'm going to make it a law that the correct way to address your sovereign is my giving a high five.'

“Careful is my middle name. Right after Suave and Daring.”

“Do you even know what you're saying half the time?”

“She was prettier than a bouquet of roses and crazier than a headless chicken. Fitting in was not an option.”

“And they all lived happily to the end of their days.” 

“What did you bring me today? Delusional mutterings with a side of crazy?” 

“She would be brave. She would be heroic. She would make her own destiny.” 

“If this emperor thing doesn’t work out, you might have a future career in espionage.” 

“May I request a new uniform? A towel seems inappropriate for the position.” 

“Right now, a kiss is the going rate for near-death experiences. It's kind of a point system.” 

Oh, I fully intend to form an alliance. I just intend to put a different queen on the throne first.” 

“You should hate me. I’m an idiot. I made a mistake.”

“You may be an idiot, but I assure you, you’re quite a lovable one.” 

"We're not putting rice in my head.” 

“I am a criminal mastermind, I am here to take down this regime.” 

“I passed out from stress? That’s it?”

“I believe the princess term is fainted,”

"Brilliant speech. Such gumption and bravado."

“She definitely has a crush on you. It's about the size of Jupiter.” 

“I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. That's what happens when you *stop talking*.” 

“They're the first crew I've ever had and most of them even call me Captain. I'm going to miss them.” 

there is an assassin under my bed.”

“It’s not proper for seventeen-year-old princesses to be alone with young men who have questionable intentions.”

“I am your guard. I'm here to protect you and keep you out of trouble, and that’s it.” 

“Princess, you have got to stop collecting these rebels.” 

“And what about young men who she’s been best friends with since she was barely old enough to walk?”

“She’s our lost princess. And she’s coming home.” 

“Oh, stars. I don't know his real name. How can I not know his real name? What kind of alpha mate am I?” 

“She shot me in the arm once.”

“You think I’m perfect?”

"I told you I could get him to call me the captain."

"So while I'm not going to tell you that I am the smartest or, by any means, the most experienced person in this room, I would suggest that no one use my youth to believe that I am also ignorant.” 

“Fear was a weakness in the court. Much better to act unperturbed. Much safer to act crazy, when in doubt.”

“You’re the only person in the galaxy who would ever call me lovable.”

“I’m the only person in the galaxy crazy enough to believe it.” 

“We may be animals, but we will never again live in your cage.”

“People do not put their faith in phantoms.” 

“You are the capital U in Unhelpful.” 

“When do we start planning a revolution again?” 

"I had a picture of him taped to my wall when I was fifteen. Grand-mere cut it off a cereal box."

“I didn’t know if you were dead or being held hostage, or if you’d been eaten by one of the queen’s soldiers. It’s been driving me mad not knowing.”

“Brave, stupid girl,” 

“I’m still thanking all the stars, one by one.” 

“No. She will never be queen.”

“There is no safer place for me than at your side.” 

“Greenwich is a funny word, isn't it? All green and witchy. Like soup.”

“You mean she doesn’t intend to blow me up before the ceremony?”

“She was going to have to train herself not to stare at him quite as often as she was used to. That would be no easy task.” 

“You and your taste buds can stop bragging anytime now.” 

“It did not feel like home. It felt like a place that had been built to be paradise, but had become a prison.” 

“If anyone dies today it will be because they finally have something to believe in. Don’t you even think about taking that away from them now.” 

“I would have killed everyone of them to get to you. I would have done anything to get you back. Knowing that we were coming here was the only thing that kept me sane.”

“Just kissing my girl,” 

“Do I have permission to take control of you first? Just your bodies, not your minds." "I've been waiting for you to admit you wanted my body.” 

“Patience, friend. They're coming for you.” 

“She screamed like a thousand birds were picking at her flesh. She screamed like the palace was burning down around her.”

. “There was also a time when I could come visit you without feeling like I was supposed to toss bread crumbs to earn your favor.”

“Bread crumbs? Do I look like a goose?”

“I will not play fetch, but I might howl if you ask nicely.”

“I have returned and I am here to take back what’s mine.” 

“I’m going to tell her I’ve fallen for one of my captors and the wedding is off.”

I'm sorry that I'm not sort of pretty anymore.” 

“This miserable, awful woman still had no idea what it meant to be truly beautiful, or truly loved.” 

“I expected palm trees and red carpets,"

"I need him as much as he needs me. But that doesn't make it love."

“The young princess was as beautiful as daylight. She was more beautiful even than the queen herself.” 

“You, my queen, are fair; it’s true. But the young queen is far more fair than you.” 

[romanovsonelastdance]

I've been trying to plan out a historical fiction story about OTMA in England for ages (George V didn't withdraw the offer of asylum but changed it to just the children and Alexandra didn't want to let go of Alexei, tweaking the timeline of the girls getting measles, typical historical au fiction stuff), and I've been trying to figure out marriages that would make sense for them post revolution. What, if any, royal marriages would make sense for them, and would it be plausible for any of them to marry into the British royal family (like, say, if we're gonna be really crazy...Olga and Bertie?)? Love your blog, by the way!

I think it would be plausible for them to marry into the British Royal Family. After all, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna married one of Queen Victoria's sons, so there is precedent. It might get a little dicey with Nicky having been deposed and they're not technically Grand Duchesses anymore, but I think it could still work. When the Crown Prince of Sweden wanted to marry Louise Mountbatten there was a whole thing about whether it would be considered an equal marriage or not because she had been demoted from Princess Louise to Lady Louise but in the end it was decided she was royal enough and the marriage went forward. OTMA has a more impressive pedigree than Louise, so I think it would be easy to sell them as still “royal enough.” 

I think either Olga or Tatiana with Bertie could be a good fit. Especially if you're still planning for David to do the whole Wallis Simpson abdication thing. I could imagine that KGV and May might not be super enthused about a future Russian queen given, you know, the revolution and all that, but they might be willing to go for a second son and then WHOOPS we get Queen Olga/Tatiana/whoever anyway when David abdicates. If we want to avoid a Russian queen, Anastasia could marry Henry or George. Anastasia might find Henry kind of boring, though, and George might be TOO exciting for sheltered OTMA given some of his escapades in the 1920s. 

I know I said I didn't think Dickie/Mashka would happen, but in THIS scenario, with them in England, I'd say the chances are somewhat improved. Especially if--and I don't know what your plans are here--Nicholas and Alexandra have been killed in the revolution. I'd imagine in that scenario Aunt Victoria and Uncle Louis would be their guardians and they aren’t Orthodox and wouldn’t have the first cousin hang up. Whether Maria herself would have a problem with the first cousin rule I don't know, but if Dickie could really sweep her off her feet, her romantic streak might overrule it. And obviously the unequal marriage thing is no longer really a concern, either.

Otherwise I’d browse wikipedia for Dukes and Earls. It wouldn’t have the potential political messiness of a Romanov marrying into the British Royal Family, but these other aristocratic families would probably love to brag about having a grand duchess (former or otherwise) as a daughter-in-law. Or you could use England as a base to introduce them to other royals. Olav of Norway is a little young (born 1903), but his mother Maud was a British princess. The Danish princes Frederik (1899) and Knud (1900) are also options. Also George II (1890), Paul (1901) and Christopher (1888) of Greece. 

Also maybe look up Russian nobles living in exile in England? Xenia’s sons all married Russian nobles in exile, I could imagine OTMA ending up with something like that too. For example, Nina Georgievna married Prince Paul Chavchavadze (1899) in London; OTMA could have met him or someone similar in England, too. 

[skipps-writes-for-gojo-satoru]

A lot of people are theorizing that Gojo might die in the manga or lose his eyes, and honestly, I thought so as well!

However, Gege had made it very clear in the manga that without Gojo, the world wouldn't be able to keep up with the rising strength and number of cursed spirits. Currently, there's only 2 jujutsu schools in Japan and not even 30 students. There's only 4 special grade sorcerers, now 3 without Geto, Yuki has her own agenda, and without Gojo, that just leaves Yuta to take on special grade curses.

The students are strong themselves, but they weren't even able to defeat Jogo or the octopus guy, let alone Mahito (who has since evolved) and Hanami (Gege implied in an interview that he would reveal Hanami's domain expansion later, which made fans go "wait, he's not dead?" Although, Gege might have chosen to forget about it this, but we shall see). Gojo himself was nearly defeated by Toji in his teen years due to Toji's intellect. Therefore, the students are going to have an incredibly tough time defeating the "brain" that has the intellect of a being who has survived for hundreds of years (over 150 years at least, since that's when Kamo Noritoshi had helped create the Cursed Wombs).

Even if they do find a way to defeat it themselves, they'd need help (let's also remember Choso almost killed Yuji, and Naoya almost beat Choso. The struggle is very real, especially since cursed spirits aren't the only enemy but politics are working against them, as well). The Gojo clan itself is only a one man team of just Gojo, and in the Shibuya arc Gege cemented the fact pretty clearly that if anything ever happened to Gojo, the world would pretty much be lead into an apocalyptic state or become overrun with curses- and that's exactly what's happening within the manga now. Because of Gojo's birth, cursed spirits were forced to become stronger, and the new age of curses won't even be able to be classified as only "Special Grade." Even right now, without Gojo, the Jujutsu sorcerers are struggling to keep curses at bay even in one city, let alone the whole country.

Even without the world's current trip to destruction, there's the matter of Yaga's execution. Who else, other than Gojo, is going to be able to stop this? Gojo is the only one who was able to convince the higher ups to at least stall executions. His students are still just that- students. In order to stop the higher ups' corrupt politics, Gojo, with his knowledge of jujutsu society and his silver tongue, is the one who has to intervene. Although it's possible, I wouldn't think that the students themselves would end up replacing the higher ups- if strength was all that mattered, Gojo would have taken over Jujutsu Society a long time ago. However, politics are not that simple, and I doubt Utahime, Shoko, or anyone else associated with Gojo is going to replace them anytime soon- not with Yaga on the chopping block as a supposed "traitor" for his affiliation with Gojo.

If the story is going to end with reformation of Jujutsu Society, an adult will have to take over the higher ups' places (unfortunately, Nanami, the adult of adults, cannot do so). Therefore, Gojo will have to lead, just as he dreamt of, with his "army" of strong students, his followers. Jujutsu Society needs someone with the intellect and persuasiveness Gojo has in order for change to occur- Gojo was able to convince the higher ups for many things, after all. He has the charisma to lead future Jujutsu sorcerers and teach them well. This is the role he has worked for all these years, after all. It would only make sense for Gojo to take over. Having Gojo die and the students kill the higher ups would be counterintuitive- Gojo could've done that years ago.

Gege also said that the one to tell Megumi about Toji has to be Gojo in an interview, so Gojo is definitely getting out of the box eventually to have that talk with him. However, I don't think Gege is going to kill him off afterwards- just Gojo being sealed is already putting the world into danger. The world needs Gojo's ability in order to get rid of all the curses quickly. If Sukuna ends up killing Gojo for whatever reason, I don't think having a Yuji/Sukuna combination will help the world because there will definitely be a power struggle between them (even if Yuji can withstand 15 finger Sukuna, 20 finger Sukuna is a whole other level, that's the complete manifestation of the King of Curses from a thousand years ago in a 15 year old's body! Even if Yuji is a special grade cursed womb, power doesn't win battles. He'll need willpower, trust, and wit. He's only just decided to kill Mahito, he's got a lot more to learn. There's also the matter of the 1 minute pact between them and what Sukuna will do to Fushiguro). Without Gojo, Yuta might end up having to kill Yuji/Sukuna in order to stop Sukuna from killing people (Yuta's ability to copy techniques will likely help), but losing Gojo AND Yuji will be very harsh on the world's state, leaving only Yuta to defend it and whatever crippled version of Megumi will appear after Sukuna's done with him (and the story. Yuji's development will go to waste if he's just killed by Yuta and then we'll have to see how Yuta plans to continue Gojo's dream of changing Jujutsu Society. Will Yuta become a teacher to create strong sorcerers like Gojo did? Will the world even still exist by that time? Killing the King of Curses won't change the world like Gojo dreamt. In fact, the story might just repeat itself with Yuta becoming a teacher instead). Still, if anyone had to kill Yuji, it should be Gojo, but if Gojo is to be the one that ends up killing Yuji to kill Sukuna, no one else will be capable of killing Gojo. Therefore, Gojo likely won't die.

Either way, I feel like it would be strange to kill off both Yuji and Gojo.

Gege also said that the "brain" can't control Gojo either, because it would be impossible for the brain to kill him. If the brain wanted Gojo's body after Sukuna possibly killed Gojo, I doubt it would be able to control him anyways because Sukuna would have sliced him to pieces. Gege also said there wouldn't be any point in the brain controlling Gojo's body, so Gojo dying for the brain's purposes wouldn't happen, as Gege said himself.

Therefore, I just don't see any good outcome from Gojo's death besides angst or even character development? What other reason is there for Gojo to die? Yuji already lost Nanami and thought Nobara died, giving him the character development needed for him to choose to kill Mahito. The world will also probably crumble if Gojo doesn't appear out of the box soon. Just him being sealed was enough for the Hunger Games: Jujutsu Sorcerer Edition to come out, so Gojo permanently disappearing (i.e. dying) pretty much means the world's gonna end 🤷 After all, if the spirits were gonna start a revolution, they could've done it ages ago, but they didn't because of Gojo. Gojo's very presence, even as a child, is what kept them in line all these years. Just one look at his eyes, even though he was only a child, had that old woman and old man looking cursed spirits sweating. Once Gojo appears again, many spirits will go back into hiding, even if not all. Therefore, his very presence would be a great help in restoring order in the world again. That makes Gojo coming back more useful than his death.

As for losing his eyes, it's possible but again, other than angst I don't see a reason for it. Gege also said that having Gojo be the Strongest is to show how strong Yuji's going to be in the future, so handicapping Gojo would be counterproductive.

Therefore, I doubt Gojo's going to die or lose his eyes in the story. There's just no reason for it, unless Gege intends to keep the world in an apocalyptic state at the end, kill off everyone except maybe one person, and have a new cast of sorcerers appear. Otherwise, Gojo's the only one who can reverse the world back to its original state, or close to it, at least within a few days, weeks, or months rather than years with his ability to exorcise spirits on a grand scale. Gojo might end up losing a few screws in his head, but other than that, I'm sure he'll be (physically) fine. I would imagine that Gege would want to loop back to Gojo's dream of changing society. In that case, who other than Gojo could lead? His students are still children. They're not as versed in dealing with the higher ups as he is. If the moral of the story is that such a thing is impossible, what bigger angst is there than to have Gojo live on as the Strongest as everyone he loves dies?

Of course, there was this one interview where Gege said his plan for the ending of Jujutsu Kaisen was that (of the 1st years and Gojo) to keep everyone alive except one person, or everyone dies except one person. In the former, it would easily have to be Yuji who ends up dying while everyone else lives since he's the one who's supposed to be executed from the very beginning. In the latter, as I said, Gojo being the only one left alive while everyone dies could happen just to show the burden and loneliness that comes with being the Strongest- just to show the difference in universes him and the others are living in (however, I will say that this outcome would be unlikely because Gojo's world will only reset to the day Geto had betrayed him. He would start from scratch, raising a new group of students, and then the story would repeat itself in a training montage. In a writing perspective, this ending would only occur if the author forgoes everything just to make you cry, that's it. It would work, but it would ruin the complexities of the story to reset everything by killing everyone for a new set of characters. Reminds me of the Walking Dead by TellTale games. Too many deaths and too many new people with only one of the original cast left. Pretty bad writing, that was).

Either way, if Gege is being serious in what he said about the ending of JJK and having all die except one or vice versa, Gojo is likely to survive either outcome.

However, if it does happen that Gojo dies while his students live, there's the matter of keeping Sukuna at bay and previous reasons stated above.

The only way I could see Gojo dying is if Yuji ends up surpassing Gojo enough so that he's no longer needed to keep balance in the world. Or, as Gege had described in why he killed Nanami (his favorite character, might I add), if Gojo no longer has any use in the story. In that case, Gojo would die, or it'd be alright for him to die because Yuji would take his place. Still, it's doubtful Gojo would become a character that's no longer needed when the world is hardly able to function without him.

If we're talking about Gojo's usefulness in the story being what determines whether he lives or dies, I'd say even if Yuji surpasses Gojo, Gojo would still remain useful- in politics, at least. Let's remember that without Gojo, the beginning of change in Jujutsu Society would not have happened. Yuta would've been executed, as would Yuji, Megumi would be in the Zenin clan, Maki would've never been recommended for 1st grade without Gojo paying off Mei Mei, Nanami might've not come back (Nanami said he hates the way the higher ups do things, but he trusts and has faith in Gojo even if he doesn't respect him). There are so many things that Gojo has done throughout the story, and if Gojo hadn't done one thing- if he let Yuta die, for example, or kept Megumi in the Zenin clan, the story would've been drastically different.

In other words, even if Gojo's physical abilites are somehow gone, Gojo's mouth still has plenty of uses. If the guy can talk his way out of his students' execution, he can likely talk his way out of his own, or at least Yaga's. Gojo's got a lot more uses than just exorcising curses, after all. As long as Gojo has use in the story, I'd think it's safe to say he'll survive. Hell, Gege might even keep him around just to hate on him some more. Though, the reality is that Gojo basically wrote Jujutsu Kaisen with how his actions created the ripple effect into what we have now- another parallel between the author and Gojo, since it's been said that Gojo has a lot of similarities to Gege (Could Gojo be Gege's self insert? 😳 Even their names are similar!)

Also, Gojo had planned ahead enough for Yuta to become a double agent and trick the higher ups into thinking he'd killed Yuji. It's likely he has more up his sleeve than that and is sitting in the prison realm waiting for other traps he had set to go off.

Here's the Q&A translation where Gege said the brain can't kill Gojo:

https://twitter.com/_zanzou_/status/1379431624262094868?s=19

Other Q&As I've read are from Shiro, JJK Fanbook, and Ducky on Twitter and JujutsuFact on Insta, etc

- 🤔 (Sorry if this one seems a bit rushed or hard to read! I'd have to reread the Shibuya arc to explain more in depth but the pain is just 😭 I'm going off of my thoughts while I was reading this awhile ago cause I got told Gojo might die in that arc and I remember thinking all these things to myself to convince myself he won't die and wanted to share!)

WOW JUST WOW now I've learned more from this post than all of my classes combined. I never knew about some of those things. That's very interesting 🤔 anon! Mann just reading this I'm literally trying to picture how the manga will go...and yes gojo ain't dying no if someone says he is imma slap them with this post. THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN OH GREAT 🤔 ANON. We really appreciate all the research you do and I absolutely love reading them!! ❤❤❤ I LOVE YOU

[arom-antix]

As someone who does know a good bit about skating lemme just add to this point by point.

First: He was in the final. It's absolutely correct that that would basically make him 6th in the world even if the Grand Prix is technically not Worlds. He is good. This is the type of event most skaters, even on an international stage and in the top of the top, never reach. It's really impressive. I've talked at length about it here.

Something I didn't mention in the post was the GP qualifiers and how they're decided. I won't go into specifics but Japan always hosts a qualifier known as NHK Trophy and with hosting comes the privilege of getting a couple free spots (exact number depends on discipline) in the lineup to debut skaters in the GP or give a skater only assigned once otherwise a second assignment. The thing to note here is that Yuuri is not assigned to NHK. In figure skating language this means that Yuuri definitely earned both his assignments purely of his own merit, no NHK advantages needed.

Second: He's Japan's Ace. Multiple things here:

1) Having a nickname that prevalent is an achievement of its own. There aren't many who have nicknames which leave smaller skating communities and him being Japan's Ace seems like a universal nickname. That's his title everywhere. I'm sitting here trying to think of all the skaters I know who have sticking titles like this and my list is currently quite short.

2) He's Japan's ace because he's the best skater in the country. This is confirmed by the fact that, well, we don't hear of any other Japanese skaters in the GP. They might've just been left out for time but still, if they were good enough, they would've been considered someone to watch out for and have been mentioned.

Another confirmation is that on the JSF website, Yuuri is the skater on both figure skating banners. If they had literally anyone else to put there, they would've* since this is basically the JSF admitting that the Japanese figure skating field is very shallow. Not even just men's, they could've put a woman, a pair, ice dancers, anyone, they could've put goddamn Minami but they didn't. They do not have anyone else this big. He is the top of Japanese figure skating. Oh, and he's also the only men's skater listen in top certified athletes on the JSF website.

*I imagine there's some fan service here, people wanna see Yuuri. The other banners are just the same pic which was probably for time but they took the time to draw two Yuuri's when they, as shown above, have two women's skaters with faces right there. Just draw any woman skating, slap the given hair onto them and bam, you've got another skater to put on the banner. Either the JSF are doing everything they can to market figure skating as a men's sport to attract male skaters or the women here are not even close to Yuuri's level (which sounds unlikely but anyway, Yuuri being on two banners was a deliberate decision).

Third: His trademark elements. Let's just go in order:

The triple axel is, to put it midly, really fuckin hard. It's 3,5 rotations in a split second and the only triple jump categorised alongside the quadruple jumps because of its difficulty. Sure, it's everywhere in the top of men's figure skating now but this show took place 7 years ago, at the start of the quad revolution (this probably happened a little earlier in universe but still) and while 3A's were very much still commonplace in the top, they weren't seen how they are now.

SO, take this information and then add that it's his signature jump. He's known for his ability to perform it beautifully. Sure, the 4A is Ilia Malinin's jump just because he's the only one in who can really land it but Yuuri doesn't have that luxury, the 3A was first landed 1987. It's his signature for the reason the 2A is Kaori Sakamoto's. He's just that good at it.

Step sequences are in large part the mark of artistry in a program. There's a lot more to it, but if your step sequences are gorgeous, you've usually got the other stuff down as well but if you're so good at steps that you're known for it, you're a certified artist in skating. I wouldn't be shocked if Yuuri's the type to get level 4's on his step sequences (level 4 basically means it was very difficult and complex). Actually,

the element list from Yuuri's short program in Sochi shows that he got a level 3 on his step sequence (StSq3) and considering he barely landed his 3A and, ya know, wasn't doing so hot at that final in general, that's still pretty good. (Also, I will go insane if I hear someone say Yuuri did poorly at the Sochi GFP ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR TO G-)

Spins are one of the harder trademarks to get, at least in my experience, since they're hard to judge as the average viewer. To the untrained eye, they all look really fast and incredible. Even people who I'd expect to be known for their spins, because they're consistently really good, aren't.

Then again, it can sometimes be a little random what people get as signatures since it's more what people latch onto, not necessarily that said skater is the best of the best at said element. But you need to be pretty good in either instance so yeah, his spins are excellent, trust that.

Fourth: Viktor is impressed by his musicality. That's it. The best person in the sport, the most decorated figure skater ever, the 5 time World and GPF champion who outscored second place at the Sochi GPF by 34.30 points, basically admitted that Yuuri's musicality is beyond his. And Viktor doesn't suffer from an I suck mentality, he knows he's good but still thinks Yuuri's got the stuff to win. He knows good when he sees it.

Fifth: Yuuri is the most unreliable narrator ever and should not write an autobiography. Every time he puts himself down, there's canon proof to diprove his point. Failed miserably at Sochi? Read this meta and the first point of this reblog. Dime a dozen? See JSF website, he's the only male skater in the top and the one on the banners. Give me any selfdegrading statement of his and I bet I can find canon proof of it being blatantly untrue.

Like OP said, Viktor also calls him out on this and Yuuri admits that he's insecure and thus unreliable in his view of himself. It's just straight up canon. No pussling it together required.

Sixth: He knows. Yuuri might be insecure but even he can see that he's a very good skater, even if it's often interrupted by his anxiety. He wouldn't have made it as far as he did if he had no confidence at all. Friends, family, and coach can only do so much to push you to keep going and I love the Katsukis but I don't see them being the ones to keep pushing.

He might be known as "The Skater With the Biggest Glass Heart" (I can't remember the actual wording, feel free to correct me) but he sure ain't weak. He's canonically stubborn as hell and doesn't stop for even his anxiety. Get lost, brain chemicals, Yuuri's gotta go slay.

So uh, TL;DR: Yuuri is a very good skater.

I'm not saying anything new, I'm probably being annoying repeating things we all know. But I feel like talking about how skilled Yuuri is, from the perspective of someone who hardly understands anything about skating.

I know he was at the GPF and that's a big deal. He was the 6th best skater worldwide.

I know that he's called Japan's Ace, so he's the best skater of his country.

I know his signature jump is incredibly hard, and that he's known for both his step sequences and his spins.

I know that Viktor, the person at the top of the sport, is impressed with his musicality.

I know that he calls himself a dime a dozen, but that I shouldn't believe him. Because when Viktor points out he has the skill to win, Yuuri says he lacks confidence - basically telling me he's unreliable where it comes to judging his own skill.

He can challenge Viktor. Viktor knows it.

Also, Yuuri knows he's great.