#and i think they'd apply it to being a ruler too

[slotumn]

I actually have a whole thing in my 3H worldbuilding where some of Morfisian "magic" is actually remnants of advanced tech from the past and that's why they're so secretive about it. At some point Almyra pulls off a heist on Morfis to grab their secret advanced tech™ to use for themselves, and the result is guns. Like not modern automatic guns but still, guns.

So when Almyra sends auxiliary troops to Fódlan in VW, they also send guns with the troops, and while the guns are still too expensive to supply to everyone, the upper military leadership does get a taste of their power, and when trade opens with Almyra after the war one of the first things Byleth does is buy more guns. The idea is to replace Relics with something both powerful and accessible; along the way people like Hanneman are involved with further refining it for wider use.

But what does Byleth specifically use all these guns for, you may ask. Well obviously they make firing squads to execute separatist movement rebels with. No better way to show your authority and legitimacy than to demonstrate that the state is plenty powerful even without Crests and Relics!

[astrophileblogs07]

Astro Observations pt.17

~If you are a female and if you have your Venus poorly aspecting Saturn, (sometimes in rare cases, Venus in 10H) your dad might have compared your physical appearance to other females. Applies to males too, may have been compared to people of your gender with respect to physical appearence.

~This one is a bit more obvious, but I have seen soooo mannnyyy Capricorns being hella secretive about their personal lives, esp. their romantic lives. No one will ever know that they were dating someone until you get invited to their wedding!

~No matter how fierce they seem, but Aries moons exude a 'motherly' vibe. Like people are attracted to them becoz they think they'd take care of them. (Bonus points if you have 2H placements)

~I have seen two people having same sign, but one in ascendant and the other in Sun do not get along, and that is becoz the ascendant, which is the first house is ruled by sun itself. The problem is, Sun is about ego. So these people often have ego clashes, hence they do not get along.

~But on the contrary, if two people share a sign,but one in ascendant and other is moon, then they can potentially have a very good bond with each other. Becoz what other feels in subconscious (moon person) is what other thinks/says (asc) and since it is the same sign, most probably both would agree on each other and are less likely to fight.

~ A Neptune/Pisces/prominent 12H placements need so much of sleep like a baby! I have Neptune in 12H and believe me, without a good sleep, I am just a walking mess. (Running into things and people, dropping things lol🤣)

~Jupiter 9H is such an aspect where if a person decides to follow a certain god/religion, then the fruits of their prayers are brought to them effortlessly than the people who have been in that religion for ages. (I am not saying those ppl are not putting much effort, but the placement does that.). ~Also such people are very religious too. This is because in the vedic astro, the 9th house is about your religion, and the planet along with the aspects indicates your relationship with your religion. (To an extent this applies to Jupiter 1H too.)

~Sun 9H can have really bad daddy issues. It can worsen if Saturn and Sun are poorly aspected.

~When your Rahu (North Node) negatively aspects your natal Moon, then you have possibly have obgyn problems. Can be transit or Natal chart. (similar to Moon in negative aspect to Saturn)

~If you are facing any problems related to your birth chart, find the ascendant and its ruling planet. And focus on strengthening that planet. (follow this according to the vedic Astro) This is because the chart ruler won't try to mess up its own chart. For example if you're a Capricorn ascendant, then your chart ruler is Saturn. If your Saturn is in a not-so-favourable place then try Saturn remedies to obtain favours from that planet.

Thank you for reading my loves! Hope you're having a great day/night.

[fantasyinvader]

More things hit me, things that should have been obvious. It explains Shez's arc, and the meaning of Hopes in general.

Remember what the Buddhism says makes human's human? What separates us from the animals is our ability to control our instincts and impulses, which allows us to use reason, have morality, and act in a humane manner. What happens when we take that and apply it to Shez?

Shez has two options in whichever route he picks. They can follow the plan at the time, focusing on completing the objective and putting the war ahead of their desire to avenge their previous defeat to Byleth. Or Shez can throw all that away to fight Byleth. In essence, the game asks at this point is Shez a human or a beast.

I mean, it's implied Shez is from Agartha and because of that they have Arval buried within them. If Shez keeps his impulses in check, Byleth will be recruited to Shez's side. However, because of this Arval won't be able to hold back his true nature, that of the Agarthan Epimenides. Epimenides takes control of Shez, and in the end it's a fight for Shez not only to return to Fodlan but remain in control of their body. It's Shez proving their strength to Arval in this regard. This earns a reward, as well as a nicer ending for Scarlet Blaze.

Alternatively, Shez can give into the impulse, kill Jeralt which in turn causes Sothis to snap. The implication seems to be that her Crest Stone contains not just her memories but her soul as well, and that Sitri wasn't a separate individual from Sothis. Sitri was Sothis without the memories, living life as a separate incarnation, falling in love with Jeralt before dying giving birth to Byleth. That is why she snaps when Jeralt dies, and why she wants revenge bad enough she'll take of Byleth's body, becoming a mirror in her rage to Epimenides. This ends with Sothis defeated by Shez's hand, Shez proving their strength.

Byleth doesn't give into the same rage at the death of their father, Byleth is the one to retain their humanity in this scenario and dies because of it.

A few more things to add is Shez's obsession with strength, how they'd do anything to be strong and best Byleth. This includes jumping off cliffs, which would have killed them prior to the start of the game if not for Arval. Shez's impulse would have killed them, but even then think about how strong Shez is. Shez is strong enough to take out all three houses by themselves in the mock battle, just because they were running around confused. Think about that compared to the likes of Dimitri or Edelgard, two powerhouses, yet Shez is still seeking further strength to avenge their loss. They can talk all they want about the mercenary life, how common death is and not being too attached to companions, it instead makes it sound like Shez's issue is simply because Byleth beat them rather to avenge their fallen comrades. That Shez's pride was hurt by this, so they seek revenge.

It's Shez being an Agarthan, even if they don't realize it. Meanwhile, killing Sothis unlocks the Epimenides paralogue, showing us the war of heroes from their POV.

But it's not as simple as saying “Shez keeping their humanity is good,” because just because humans have morality doesn't mean they always act in a moral manner. This is a Shez who can follow Edelgard without issue as she conquers the continent, fully knowing that she's oppressing the commoners, and whose path Houses made out as evil through the animal path symbolism as well as hadou. Shez can still support an immoral ruler, while in Romance of the Three Kingdoms the officials/generals/ministers of Wei are called out for that exact same thing. If Shez is good and keeps their humanity, we get the symbol of the Agarthans' control over Edelgard Aymr as a reward. Likewise, Claude can go full Sun Quan, in part because he follows Shez's advice, and Shez will still support Claude, unlocking Blutgang which has the same crest stone as Amyr, linking it to the devil arcana and the idea that Claude has become corrupted by Shez. Even Dimitri, falling short of the world arcana/enlightenment with a crest stone tied to the judgement arcana instead, and Dimitri goes on to wage a punitive campaign against the Empire over the war they started even with knowledge Edelgard was used... and likely goes against Claude when his attack on Rhea causes chaos and suffering in it's wake. Under Dimitri, Shez is their most moral but they'll still go along with the revenge ride even if they didn't give into their own desire for revenge.

Unlike Byleth, Shez is not a leader. Shez can have all this knowledge and skills, knowing life outside of being a mercenary, but they're only moral if they follow moral leaders. They won't lead the Eagles away from Edelgard or properly guide Claude and Dimitri, paths linked to enlightenment, meanwhile Byleth knows nothing except being a merc initially and yet they're meant to be one of Fodlan's best hopes for leadership provided they don't join Edelgard. And that's the other kicker, Byleth developing a bond with Edelgard would cause them to instinctively want to protect her and it's by going against this instinct that Byleth can lead Fodlan to a better tomorrow. Byleth giving in and protecting Edelgard is referred to as the animal path, meaning Byleth loses their humanity following her.

Meanwhile, Shez has no choice but to follow their lord and go along with their actions. Shez can't lead Fodlan to a happy ending.

[venturebroes]

ok contining off of my other mlp eqg post , making a higher education list for the humanified ponies yknow!

ok starters , fluttershy! animal caretaker, which i feel is obvious. i mean look at her fucking house. ive seen that you need a highschool diploma which id feel as she would definitely have, and possibly needing a bachelors in something of animal care something of the sorts so, she probably majored in animal husbandry? we know damn well she probably already knew everything pertaining to it tho and minored in.. something. ill go for ecology

ok! rainbowdash! i still think they'd just have a highschool diploma, probably no further education because they'd have the same aspirations as the one in the eqg world. maybe her parents wanted to push them into a community college or something tho and then they went to it for a while then perhaps quit. like that one old mlp series LOL. she'd of course do her best to do whatever the human equivalent of the wonder bolts would be, which is gonna be an athletics team now even tho being a jet flying team would make more sense but whatevs!

aj. of course she would just work on the farm still. nothing past a highschool diploma. she does definitely have a diploma tho and not a GED or anything because she was so young when her parents had passed so she was already used to everything being so fucking hectic so she was able to balance everything (however. i do believe big Mac definitely dropped out of highschool and later in life acquired a GED ) (these mfs HATE cps)

twilight fucking sparkle. the next fucking RULER of GOD DAMN EQUESTRIA. what would she fucking do? the girl who was attending cram school the same time as all of her grade schools by choice, spending her summers at camps for miscellaneous academic upgrades or spent them right under celestias wing. of course she did a 2 year school first, got to butter up the guys that'll give her her undergrad! so im not incredibly sure what a future benevolent totalitarian leader would have as schooling. but since she shows the most interest in science ill say she got an associates in fucking physics or something, then a bachelors in let's say science of business, so she knows how to take care of shit! then of course it's fucking twilight so she'll go on to get her masters and then doctorate in something so. yaknow

pinkie pie, same as eqg she's getting an associates in culinary! with her highschool diploma of course. due to where she grew up id imagine she didn't have a very good highschool schooling experience, with the bare minimum classes and all. perhaps later in life, she'd go and get a degree in business because of how she takes over the bakery later on , so <3

AND RARITY! of course she also went to a 2 year school at first too. but got a degree in dun dun dun... BUSINESS MATH! and then a bachelors in something of the fashion design sorts. she'd probably have a pretty goof amount of school honestly but id imagine she would get her masters much later on in life. probably a business networking thing or something

and the man who inspired it all.... DISCORD!!!!! PRE SCHOOL TEACHER!!!!! the way i know that this man is a fucking genius. and just did NOT apply himself for SHIT in highschool LMAO. only reason he got into college is from a baller ass letter of recommendation. started off with community college probably, and honestly i think he was doing some sort of math. maybe business math like rarity! or mathematical finance even tho they sound like the same thing... and then gets a bachelors in psychology probs! definitely minored in something random as fuck for funzies.. and then at some point i imagine he realized hey, kids? cool as fuck! let me get my masters in education! and he's set since he got that psychology degree

[shvdwscng]

"perhaps  some  form  of  a  telepathic  link?  some  of  these  dragons  act  as  companions  to  faes,  for  the  high  family  and  their  inner  circle."  she  had  been  idly  seeing  which  reptile  belonged  to  who,  and  in  a  few  days  she  had  matched  a  pair  and  the  white  one  being  the  most  obvious  to  the  high  lord  of  the  dusk  court.  "my  concern  is,  do  they  somehow  offer  additional  power  to  the  faes?"  it  was  an  imperative  topic  to  look  into,  one  she'd  slip  to  her  scholar  and  her  spymaster,  already  asking  them  to  work  with  ced's  inner  circle  while  they  were  here.  alina  didn't  have  a  vested  interest  in  their  pet  creatures,  only  that  what  they  intended  for  the  other  courts.  perhaps  she  had  been  jumping  to  the  worst  conclusions,  that  they  might  attempt  to  assert  their  dominance  upon  the  rest.  she  was  also  certain  that  cedrian  would  be  able  to  get  through  the  high  lord,  as  much  as  alina  wished  to  lean  to  her  stronger  instincts,  utilize  methods  that  had  worked  for  her  thus  far,  she  could  not  be  reckless  to  anger  the  ruler  of  this  court.  "it  would  track  with  how  their  creator  views  us."  at  his  words,  her  gaze  falls  to  him  once  more,  "yes,  i  would  never  accuse  you  of  such  a  thing."  a  slight  gleam  in  her  gaze,  though  she  had  remained  unconcern  of  the  opinions  of  other  courts,  it  had  been  far  too  pleasing  to  know  cedrian  did  not  hold  that  view  of  her  court.  it  was  a  bit  odd  to  even  think  that  for  once,  a  solar  and  season  were  aligned.  "that  is  quite  the  delusion  they  hold  if  they  believe  so.  especially  considering  they  relied  on  us  all  this  time  while  we're  in  the  capital.  the  late  king  might  have  looked  down  upon  us,  but  he  knew  very  well  he  needed  us,  and  so  does  his  son."  there's  a  slight  shake  of  her  head,  "it  will  be  so  easy  to  have  enter  into  the  agreement  we've  had.  they've  been  independent,  they  won't  relinquish  that  freedom  so  easily.  i  am  inclined  to  aid  the  king  to  make  that  effort,  if  you  would  be,  too?  not  ideal,  but  if  the  boy  king  can  bring  them  under,  that  might  be  one  less  thing  to  worry  about.  it  cannot  hurt  to  try?  he  won't  be  able  to  do  so  on  his  own,  we  might  have  to...apply  some  form  of  pressure  as  well."  an  idle  hand  traces  along  his  arm,  "the  capital  is  relying  on  us,  the  king  has  not  even  attempted  to  pass  on  instructions  to  us,  so  until  he  says  so,  we  continue  our  efforts.  while  yes,  the  other  courts  are  a  gamble,  i  don't  think  they'd  be  inclined  to  combine  efforts,  but  we  only  need  to  create  an  impression  of  such.  meanwhile,  i  would  prefer  you  make  an  impression  on  the  high  lord."  she  murmurs  in  return,  "let  me  know  how  both  of  your  efforts  go,  and  I  shall  make  mine  afterwards."

cedrian  shrugs  lightly,  “  i  wonder  how  they  communicate.  ”  was  it  weird  to  share  your  mind  with  a  beast  ?  he  couldn’t  help  but  wonder  how  it  all  worked.  he  supposed  it  could  be  similar  to  the  beast  form,  but  that  was  not  quite  a  separate  entity  from  him.  perhaps  it  was  not  quite  something  he  was  supposed  to  understand,  or  wanted  to.  ced  felt  the  bond  was  abnormal,  and  he  distrusted  the  giant  lizards.  cedrian  tried  to  also  put  himself  into  the  mind  of  the  dusk  high  ruler,  apprehensive  to  the  entire  situation  they  found  themselves  in.  it  was  difficult,  he’d  not  know  what  to  do  should  the  roles  have  been  reversed.  for  now,  the  high  lord  of  day  chose  to  wait,  to  watch  what  happened,  and  to  rely  on  his  people  to  do  their  jobs.  “  i  think  that  they’ve  been  taught  as  much.  ”  he  says,  cutting  a  glance  at  the  words  next  muttered.  “  you  must  mean  the  capital.  ”  counters  he,  having  long  decided  he  was  not  his  father.  cedrian  didn’t  see  the  need  to  jump  for  alliances  with  seasonal  courts,  but  the  similarities  between  day  and  summer  were  too  strong  for  him  to  even  act  as  if  his  own  court  was  superior.  “  it  depends  on  what  the  new  king  plans  to  do,  or  if  this  new  court  wishes  to  be  ruled.  ”  mother  knew  they  all  hated  it,  but  chose  to  play  the  game  simply  due  to  the  fact  that  they  knew  war  would  be  the  only  other  reality  they  faced.  peace  under  tyranny  was  easier  than  deaths  at  war.  “  we  are  still  in  their  home,  and  powerless  for  the  most  part.  it  is  not  as  if  we  could  even  all  band  together  against  our  hosts.  we  can  hardly  work  together  with  the  capital  on  our  necks.  ”  he  says,  voice  a  murmur.  “  i  will  reach  out  soon,  i  have  percival  speaking  to  their  own  emissary.  ”

[just-asks-and-answers]

JUST ASKS OLD CONCEPTS | PT 2

I had originally planned on Just Asks being a comic! Independent of an askblog. I wasn't confident that I would get enough attention. Dynamics arc from the original FEAR Event was the only main arc I had thought of for the post-game.

As for the designs shown here, yes Rhythms original name was Beat HGFNGN- I had intended for each of their outfits to have a dangly piece of their clothing that would flow in a weightless kind of manner when they flew. Tempos was his scarf, Pitch I wasn't too sure if I wanted it to be his cape or like??? Ribbons??? Around his wrists??? Yeah I still don't know. Dynamics was the end of her jacket and Rhythms was the tails of her bandanna!

I had some basic character notes for them too! For the most part these concepts still do apply to the characters nowadays! Tempo is the confident leader, Pitch is chill, Dynamic is loud and rowdy and Rhythm is a sweetie! Of course, much has still changed.

Gijinkas!! Old ones at that! Rhythm had a couple names before settling on Rhythm clearly ehehe! Her name was Bass after it was Beat! Tempo and Rhythm have mostly been unchanged in terms of gijinka design. I think Blixers was really adorable to be honest EHEHE- Also o hey Isos.

From this point on these are all largely unseen doodles from after I started the blog! So this is where it gets a bit more familiar!

An ask was sent to Blixer and I was like AWW SHIT!! So for the school day that day I wanted to make a final version of his design. It's pretty close to the design I ended up going for. Torn leather jacket and jeans, leather boots and headphones. But I ended up removing the shoulder spikes, and adding one VERY important and iconic detail.

His head bandages! By this point I had been lurking around the Tumblr community on JSAB and seeing everyones different versions of the boss. Azzies really cute take with Beam. Roses bad boy take with Phae. Bigbys chilled out casual but still specific style by Astral. They'd have headphones or the little fragments around their heads but, I always wondered.. there was no sign or trace of annihilate alot of the time! Some would have massive scars on their head but I wanted to show mine a little differently! As well as also portray Blixer as someone who had been washed up. A defeated villain. The leather jacket he wore as New Game being torn up, having lost all of his flair.. and with the bandages to boot? I wanted to convey that even if he's this big, spikey monster, he's also.. defeated and miserable and pitiable.

Blixer was clearly bothered by it, but after making that promise to Dy, the guilt kinda came in strong. He did wish he could have that power again, but he promised Dy didn't he?

WELP. Guess Dy was right to be scared of him.

Man.. F to Pitch... and Dy.. and everyone for that matter! Yeah Blixer was supposed to go apeshit and take over again. The eventual method he did this in was teaming up with the tower shapes, Into The Zone, Try This and Vindicate Me, since they still supported Blixer being the Ruler of Paradise. They had a HUGE concert in a nearby city, that the Quartet attended. Pitch played with them, completely unaware of his friends plans. When the signal was given, Zedd, Vinn and Ty completely shut the show down tight! Trapping the Quartet and the rest of the attendants while Blixer booked it for the Tree again. Pitch broke out and tried to stop him but.. alas.. it was too late :).

[kristinakyidyl]

"Aerys’s murders are an expression of the Iron Throne’s institutional power. Aerys is stating that the vassals of the Iron Throne cannot expect their right to a trial and by passively acceding to it, the royalists are setting a dangerous tradition."

I agree to an extent, but either they see Aerys as a bad person & king who is breaking the political/social/etc. contract by killing nobles, and the next person who takes over presumably wouldn't be continuing with that (new precedents are set all the time, and the monarch is more or less free to act as they want.), or they see the entire family as unsuitable. In which case people who fought on Aerys's side could still be supporters of the house and the crown, rather than of Aerys specifically. There's a lot of people in Westeros who do terrible things because their vows tell them to or because their vows don't allow them to act otherwise, and I guess I just don't see this as being that different. The Kingsguard did nothing to stop Aerys because of their vows, and so I think that a reasonable person might take Aerys's side not because of him personally but because they're sworn lords and they don't want to break the promise. Which is, IIRC, why Robert forgave some of them after the war to begin with.

Then there's the issue that like...Westerosi standards for what constitutes a decent or even tolerable king are incredibly low. We learn about what a terrible ruler and person Robert is before we learn the details of Aerys's madness and cruelty, so to me it didn't really seem that out of line that some of the Westerosi lords would back Aerys simply because he was king, regardless of what he does or doesn't do. Like this is the same kingdom that didn't care if Aegon IV was terrible bc they could line their own pockets, so I don't really have much faith that people in their culture would choose the side of someone just because they're a decent human being. You're right that a reasonable person wouldn't choose to back Aerys specifically, but reasonable person is not a term I'd apply to a lot of Westerosi nobles. There also was probably also some amount of like "the Targaryens have quashed a lot of rebellions previously, so I think I'm good, thanks". They almost stopped this one, too.

And the Martells didn't really have a lot of choice, bc they'd married into the Targs. But even after the war their reasons for continuing to oppose Robert quietly had everything to do with Tywin's treatment of their kin and nothing to do with the behavior or worthiness of a given Targaryen potential king (IE, Viserys.) and everything to do with Elia and her kids being murdered by Tywin and then the new king marrying the family that did those things to their family. I think that their motivations for being loyal to the Targs just kind of a set a precedent for me that even if I didn't really agree, there were understandable motivations for being a loyalist during the rebellion.

"Rhaegar is MIA, so for these covert Rhaegar supporters, their champion and thus, their plan of action, is in serious jeopardy." True, and this is such a weird part of the war. Like the crown prince simply goes missing and that's not, like...more of a pressing concern for...anyone? I have to think that some people - especially the Starks bc Rickard seemed somewhat less concerned about Lyanna's location than Brandon - knew where he was. No one seemed to act as if they thought he was dead, but you're right that his lack of presence is an issue. It's just a really weird part of the story.

"The kinslaying reason doesn’t make sense, because it also applies in reverse." True. In my brain kinslaying in defense is a different thing than kinslaying offensively. Like "I'm going to kill my cousin" is different than "I'm going to defend myself from being killed and it might result in my cousin's death".

So yeah that's why I personally never had an issue believing that some of the lords would take the crown's side. People Westeros don't seem to act particularly reasonably or rationally when it comes to who's sitting on the throne.

You rightly have pointed out how Rhaegar, by fighting for his father, was condoning his actions and indicating that it was fine for the king to murder Lords and their sons with no trial and to advocate for the Guests Right to be violated. But this got me thinking, doesn't that mean the Lords that fought for the Targs agreed as well? It's an aspect of the Rebellion I've always had a problem with, as I struggle to believe any major House would be cool with the idea the King can just kill them for any reason, yet fighting for the King meant you supported such powers, albeit not directly stating it.

It actually is a problem: no rational actor should have sided with the Targaryens in Robert's Rebellion. Aerys's conduct means that anyone, no matter their status, can be marked for death at any time, for any reason, without any recourse. Anyone sensible would be trying to escape to a safe location and plan their next move, either searching for Rhaegar to offer him support or joining the rebels. This is a set of circumstances which there is no happy ending if you support Aerys - you can fall out of favor at any time. If there's one thing aristocrats could be counted on in the Middle Ages, it was defending their traditional rights and privileges, and Aerys violates almost all of them when he burns Rickard alive and laughs while he does it; not only is Rickard denied his right to trial, his rights are openly mocked in front of witnesses. This is such a flagrant display of tyranny that no one should have ever accepted it. Even grasping grubbers like Mace Tyrell would see that the personal gain is not secure, since Aerys dismissed Tywin after all that loyal service.

The problem with this is Doylistic, it's a background event that was conceived of relatively early on which doesn't really pass the smell test. However, unlike say, Tyrion's tumbling ability, there's no real walking it back given how largely it factors into the characterization.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[darkerthanblack-666]

I'll share my point of view here, I'm Polish (and your example with Trump was a little wtf for me 😅 I can see the train of your thoughts, but it's not the best example). Americans have it easier to speak against their government, because they have freedom of speech in their country and also their culture is dominant online, so we know a lot about it and we understand the language they speak. Russians have limited abilities to share their anti-war views (I've seen some did honestly speak their minds while being interviewed by some youtubers in the streets, but there were also people whose opinions were so horrible that they'd get their asses kicked if they tried to speak like that here, their opinions are diverse indeed), so you need to talk to each person (and sometimes knock some propaganda out of their heads in a blunt way). Like, let's not pretend in countries like Russia or North Korea or Belarus (and any other regime like those) people aren't brainwashed. They are. Their opinions would often piss you off. That's because their rulers are manipulative and even if someone's open-minded they'd still have to take their time to change their mentality (and they need to want to do it, not all of them do). It's complicated. You can't compare it to democratic countries where we can have an open discussion about something. Some people might be completely cut off from a different source of information, they might have access only to one kind of media and that's it (especially when they're poor, not well-educated and live in rural areas). It's only an explanation, not an excuse ofc. Some people still have access to all information and choose to be cunts. Then you can't help it. Also us in EU/Americas often don't understand that part of the world and their mentality. Like, I really have to ask Russian speakers to explain some things to me, because I'm so clueless about everything. It applies to Ukraine, too. We don't speak Russian, so we don't fully know what's going on. Despite being a neighboring country that experienced similar shit during WWII (also from the Soviets, their army hasn't changed at all since that time). Our cultures might seem similar in many ways, but there's also that huge communication gap. We can view the situation through our own point of view, look at it through the lens of our own history and national trauma, but that's all we can do here.

So I think some Ukrainian people don't understand it that us other Europeans being open to a dialogue and giving someone a chance doesn't mean we're pro-war. Here in Poland no one loves Russia and their culture (there's zero good influence it had on ours and we want to keep their politics and army as far as possible from us, and Finland's history with them is equally bad if someone even bothers to open wikipedia and read about it), but if someone uses their brain instead of blindly following the propaganda (sometimes those conversations are difficult, they have so much bullshit shoved into their heads) then they'll be given a chance to redeem themselves. But only then. If they're pro-Putin and imperialist (being anti-Putin doesn't imply someone's views are not imperialist), then they can go fuck themselves. It's still being uncompromising, but willing to give someone a chance under certain conditions. It's always better to educate someone instead of assuming they're a completely lost cause.

In general, it's a huge communication issue and I still don't understand why some Ukrainian people think that way (I tried asking, but it also wasn't an easy conversation and I think we completely didn't understand each other). But it's a big country, so I believe they're also divided and have different opinions and we don't know what some people went through, their response might be affected by the trauma they experienced, we just watch the whole conflict from the outside and that's why our attitude is less influenced by emotions. That's completely logical, for both sides. I can understand why people don't want Russian culture to be dominating, because it affects all of us Slavs. So many ignorant people think that Slavic=Russia and Russia is only partly Slavic (and I think my whole message is a good example of how different we are here and don't understand each other at all). But that's also the fault of Hollywood and mainstream culture, and everyone shoving half of Europe into the label "Eastern Europe" instead of accepting the diversity of each country. We don't want to be perceived through the forced Russian domination in the past, and instead we want to be treated as independent countries with our own cultures. So I can totally see why supporting Russian culture might be seen as a threat, especially to Ukraine right now. The Russians want to dominate way too often and they talk that bs about us Slavs being one big family. Yes we are, but Russia is not included. Ofc it should be judged case by case, depending on its message and who's the artist. So far I haven't noticed anything offensive in Little Big's songs, but I also don't follow them very closely, so if someone has arguments about what exactly is so offensive about them (other than their nationality), they should give detailed examples.

Btw. I wonder why people haven't complained when Käärijä did a collab with Tommy, because Tommy also did collabs with Little Big 🤔. His wikipedia also says "He is reportedly of mixed ethnic Estonian, Russian, and Kazakh ancestry." Wasn't it a red flag to some people already? I am genuinely confused why it's a problem NOW, not before.

(also I hope I didn't make anyone Ukrainian person upset with my opinion, I'm just trying to explain it from my point of view, and why I don't like those kind of arguments people on twitter have)

i’m seeing a lot of ukrainians on twt being mad at jere for hanging out with lb because all russians are bad people.. i obviously can’t tell them how to feel but jere hasn’t done anything wrong

Thes is so weird to me. Like I imagine that a good part of those people must be american. Would it feel right to them if people had started to boycott every american media during the Trump presidency because of course ALL Americans agree with the goverment? This is such an obviously ridiculous statement. So why would all Russian citizens be made responsible for the crazy man governing them? Do they also think that all North Koreans are Bad People® because of their goverment???

It feels extremely performative to me. You know, so that way people around them will know that they're the Good Ones, making people take accountability for Bad stuff that they did. Without thinking if the stuff is actually bad.

Life is more nuanced than that. People are more nuanced than that. You can't choose where you were born, but you can choose how you act with the cards you've been given.

Sonya and Ilya might have been born in Russia, but they have decided to officially turn their backs to their country, to support what is fair. And that speaks volumes, much more than where their passport is from.

EDIT: I just woke up when I answered that ask and completely skipped over the part when you said that these people are ukrainians. Yeah I woldn't want to tell them how to feel either, but they should recognize that their personal feelings about this doesn't make Jere hanging out with people who are blacklisted from their home country a bad thing. Feeling upset about stuff that isn't morally wrong can happen sometimes, and if you recognize that, I see no problem with it. But if you're starting to try to cancel someone over your feelings… urgh