#and later on they fought in the republic's war

[elizabethwydevilles]

Frankly weird that you can analyse pretty much everything else in Star Wars in regards to its real life implications, but if you look at the Jedi Order as an institution that helps to legitimise a corrupt Republic through acting as it's negotiators and later on as its command structure in a war… and it's stamping feet and 'nuh uh' and 'you think Jedi children deserved to die'.

[metamorphesque]

Monte Melqonyan/Մոնթե Մելքոնյան (1957-1993)

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. He's one of those extraordinary individuals about whom countless books could be written and numerous movies could be made, yet still, so much would remain untold. You might wonder, "He's a National Armenian Hero—cool, but why should I know about him?" My answer is simple: if the world had more people like him, especially in today's times, it would be a much better place. He fought for justice, embodied culture and education, and radiated a deep love for his people and humanity as a whole. I believe everyone should aspire to have a little bit of Monte's spirit within them, regardless of their nationality.

Now, it's important to note that some things written about him in the Western press can be questionable and inaccurate. So, I would advise taking most of the information from those sources with a grain of salt.

Monte was born on November 25, 1957, into an Armenian family in Visalia, California, that had survived the Armenian Genocide. From 1969 to 1970, his family traveled through Western Armenia, the birthplace of his ancestors. During this journey, Monte, at the age of twelve, began to realize his Armenian identity. While taking Spanish language courses in Spain, his teacher had posed him the question of where he was from. Dissatisfied with Melkonian's answer of "California", the teacher rephrased the question by asking "where did your ancestors come from?" His brother Markar Melqonyan remarked that "her image of us was not at all like our image of ourselves. She did not view us as the Americans we had always assumed we were." From this moment on, for days and months to come, Markar continues, "Monte pondered [their teacher Señorita] Blanca's question Where are you from?"

In high school, he excelled academically and struggled to find new challenges. Instead of graduating early, as suggested by his principal, Monte found an alternative - a study abroad program in East Asia. The decision to go to Japan was not random. He had been attending karate clubs and was the champion of the under-14 category in California. He also studied Japanese culture, including taking Japanese language courses. After completing his studies at a school in Osaka, Japan, he went to South Korea, where he studied under a Buddhist monk. He later traveled to Vietnam, witnessing the war and taking numerous photographs of the conflict. Upon returning to America, he had become proficient in Japanese and karate.

Having graduated from high school, Monte entered the University of California, Berkeley, with a Regents Scholarship, majoring in ancient Asian history and archaeology. In 1978, he helped organize an exhibition of Armenian cultural artifacts at one of the university's libraries. A section of the exhibit dealing with the Armenian Genocide was removed by university authorities at the request of the Turkish consul general in San Francisco, but it was eventually reinstalled following a campus protest movement. Monte completed his undergraduate work in under three years. During his time at the university, he founded the "Armenian Students' Union" and organized an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.

Upon graduating, he was accepted into the archaeology graduate program at the University of Oxford. However, Monte chose to forgo this opportunity and instead began his lifelong struggle for the Armenian Cause.

In the fall of 1978, Monte went to Iran and participated in demonstrations against the Shah. Later that year, he traveled to Lebanon, where the civil war was at its peak. In Beirut, he participated in the defense of the Armenian community. Here, he learned Arabic and, by the age of 22, was fluent in Armenian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Persian, Japanese, and Kurdish.

From 1980, Monte joined the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA – I promise to tell you more about them later) and quickly became one of its leaders. In 1981, he participated in the planning of the famous Van operation. In 1981, he was arrested at Orly Airport in France for carrying a false passport and a pistol. During his trial, Monte declared, "All Armenians carry false passports—French, American—they will remain false as long as they are not Armenian." Over the following years, he perfected his military skills at an ASALA training camp, eventually becoming one of the group's principal instructors.

Monte with his wife Seda

After being released from a French prison (once again) in 1989, Monte arrived in Armenia in 1991, where armed clashes between Armenians and azerbaijanis had already begun. He founded the "Patriots" unit and spent seven months in Yerevan working at the Academy of Sciences, writing and publishing the book "Armenia and its Neighbors." In September of the same year, he went to the Republic of Artsakh to fight for his fatherland and its people. Due to his military expertise, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Martuni defense district in 1992. His sincerity and purity quickly won the love and respect of the local population and the Armenian community as a whole.

Throughout his conscious life, Monte fought for the rights of Armenians, recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the reclamation of Armenian homeland.

There are various versions of Monte Melqonyan's death circulating in both Armenian and azerbaijani media. According to official Armenian information, Monte was killed on June 12, 1993, by fire from an azerbaijani armored vehicle.

Monte remains a lasting testament to the incredible potential unleashed when the Armenian patriotic heart unites with sharp intellect.

In case you'd like to put a voice to the face and hear about the Artsakh struggle directly from Monte, here he is speaking about it in English.

[disconnectedkat]

On Judging Older Rep By Today's Standards

This wall of text inspired by this take that bioware are pussies for not having an all-pan romance cast until Veilguard. This idea that all past representation is mediocre or bad because today's is better is very irksome. I'm irked.

To begin, a little history:

Bioware has been including queer romance in their games since the early 2000s. First in 2004, when they released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game had a character you could recruit named Juhani. Juhani would become the first LGBTQ+ Star Wars character. She could be romanced by a female player character, though it basically amounted to a couple lines of dialogue. Why so little? Because it was 2004 and they practically had to sneak even that much in.

In 2007, Mass Effect 1 released. This game had arguably the 'safest' queer rep, an attractive woman kissing and having a fade-to-black implied sex scene with another attractive (alien) woman. A while later a mainstream media outlet (Fox News, you may have heard of them) ran a hit piece on the game. They ran the usual stuff, degenerate porn simulator, think of the children, etc. This was a big deal, as having a mainstream, large and popular (unfortunately) news channel targeting your game is not great for several reasons.

Keep in mind this was the, again, arguably the safest queer rep you could go for, and it still received that level of attack.

In 2009 Dragon Age: Origins released. Not much to say here, some time had passed and DA managed to avoid the targeted hate that Mass Effect received, despite having a bisexual man and woman as romantic options.

Mass Effect 2 is believed to have suffered the most from the Fox News debacle. Jack was originally planned as a pansexual character, and while I don't recall if the devs have stated exactly why that was cut, the obvious guess is they feared another round of attacks.

Alrighty, history recap over. Now to address the issue:

"They should've done it years ago." Well, they actually did with DA2 and it received a good amount of flak. Because that was 2010, and this is 2024. Representation is a social thing. It changes and grows as we do. In 2004 Juhani, with a minimal amount of actual content, became the first LGBT Star Wars character. You do what you can and try to push the envelope a little more each time. People struggled and fought for all that old rep you see as not good enough by today's standards.

"They bowed to the bigots because of money." Games, and all media, take money to create. They then need to make money to create more. There would be no Veilguard without the successes of previous games. And unfortunately, in the past that sometimes meant choosing your battles. Frustration is understandable, but misplaced.

None of this is to say that Bioware, (or any company or media, this post is just focusing on them) is beyond reproach as long as they're trying. There will always be things to criticise, and areas to improve, of course. But that isn't what I'm seeing here.

This to me is indicative of a common sentiment I've been seeing far too often in queer and leftist spaces recently, people judging older rep by today's standards and decrying it and it's creators without understanding the history.

[memories-of-ancients]

Just curious, why do you think Rome fell?

OMG do you really have to ask such a big question right before I was going to bed anon? Well, here are the primary reasons IMO as a Roman history buff.

Lots of Civil Wars --- The Romans going way back to the days of the Republic were constantly fighting over who was going to be boss. Sulla fought a civil war and took over Rome and declared himself dictator, ditto Julius Caesar, and of course Octavian did the same and became the first emperor. During the empire there were many civil wars over who would be emperor as the Imperial system often lacked rules for succession resulting in dynastic struggles and civil wars. Not that it would have mattered if they did, as they probably would have just ignored the rules. In the 3rd century the empire underwent a 50 year period of near constant civil war known as the Crises of the Third Century. Constantine became emperor after killing all his opponents in a civil war. The later half of the 4th century had more civil wars. Even in the 5th century factions were fighting each for control of an empire that was collapsing all around them. No side wins a civil war because they are bloody, destructive, there are no spoils of war. There is only self destruction, they are about as helpful to a country as would a person shooting himself in the foot. All the money and resources that went into fighting civil wars and rebuilding after the war was money and resources not being used to maintain infrastructure, maintain public works, regulate the economy, defend from outside threats, and maintain the government.

2. Political Instability --- Most emperors did not die of natural causes, most emperors were murdered, or committed suicide, or died in battle, or died in a prison cell. Roman government was chalk full of power hungry psychopaths who were willing to murder their way to the top. Sometimes emperors could come and go quickly, with reigns lasting 2-3 years or less in the 3rd century.

Roman political history was rife with intrigue, assassinations, and coups occurring all the time. It was like Game of Thrones except instead of lasting 8 seasons it lasted 500 years.

3. The Army Became a Powerful Interest Group --- If you were a Roman emperor the army was a double edged sword. They were good in that they maintained peace and order in the empire and protected it from invaders. They were bad for you in that they could revolt and murder you, replacing you with someone they liked more. Even your own guard, the Praetorian Guards, couldn't be trusted as they could easily slit your throat in your sleep and declare someone else as emperor. To make sure the army was happy, you gave them big pay bonuses called donatives. Basically official bribes paid to keep the soldiers of the army loyal and happy. With each successive emperor the annual donative became bigger and bigger and thus a greater strain on the Imperial Treasury. If an emperor didn't pay up, he could be murdered by his own soldiers. Thus a lot of public money was paid just to keep the army happy so they didn't end up starting another civil war.

4. A Fucked up Economy --- Maintaining a large standing army to defend a large empire is expensive. Fighting civil wars is expensive. Rebuilding after civil wars is expensive. Constant regime change is expensive. Political intrigue is expensive. Eventually it got to the point where there just wasn't enough money to pay for all that. So emperors just minted more money, decreasing the silver content and minting more copper coins until eventually Roman money became worthless.

Today Roman money is still worthless. Go on ebay and find the cheapest Roman coins you can buy. Except for rarer collectibles Roman coins are still very plentiful and thus very cheap to collect. Worthless money made trade and commerce difficult, and thus the economy suffered. Not to mention constant bloody and destructive civil wars were damaging the economy. Political instability also damaged the economy.

5. Growing Disparity in Wealth --- Over time with civil wars and political instability the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Eventually wealth became so concentrated in the upper class that the middle class disappeared entirely by the late 4th - 5th century. By then the average Roman was in a bad way. They had no opportunities and most Romans were forced to live as tenant farmers, essentially sharecroppers.

6. A Corrupt Tax System --- Meanwhile the wealthy became so powerful that they were able to wield that power so that they did not have to pay taxes. They could exploit loopholes, manipulate laws in their favor, or bribe their way out of paying. To try to make up the revenue, tax collectors attempted to squeeze the lower classes, which of course, didn't have any money. Thus by the late 4th - 5th century the empire was severely underfunded. This resulted in the degradation of infrastructure, public works, the army, the weakening of the government, and less investment in the economy and commerce.

7. Patronage --- By the 5th century the average Roman was out of opportunities and the middle class was gone entirely. More and more the lower class Roman was being squeezed for tax money, money which they didn't have. So in order to survive, Roman lower classes sold their services to a wealthy patron. The patron would house you and protect you and take care of your tax problems. If you were lucky and had special skills like a craftsman or artist you could make a good living under a patron. If not, you probably ended up a tenant farmer tied to the land of the patron, essentially a sharecropper, a serf, or a peasant. Due to this change in the socio economic system power was drawn away from the Imperial government and was redirected to the wealthy patrons. Thus the empire was becoming decentralized.

This would become the basis for medieval feudalism.

8. No One Wanted to Join the Army --- Why would you? You're dirt poor and have no opportunities. If you joined the army you may not even get the opportunity to defend the empire, as you're gonna get killed in a stupid civil war fighting a fellow Roman who is also dirt poor and has no opportunities. Your government is corrupt, your emperor is a snobbish entitled incompetent dipshit who was out of touch with reality, the tax man is trying to squeeze you for money you don't have, you have no rights, you've been forced to become a peasant to a proto-feudal lord, and it is clear the empire is dying. By the mid 5th century most Romans were like, "let it fucking die". As a result, the army suffered severe manpower shortages. Right at the time when Goths and Franks and Vandals and Huns are going to start swarming into the empire.

These to me are the primary reasons for the fall. Anyone have anything else to add in addition to this?

[twilights-stuff]

So remember that Star Wars x Gravity Falls Au post I did a while back? So I decided to go back to it and create some doodles for the au. Problem is I haven't finished them considering I put way too much effort on Stan's mando armor. I'm yet to finish Ford too so that's something I'll dive into next. Can't wait to share those doodles in the future!

Also changes to the lore of this au:

• Stan and Ford are born on a tropical beach planet (still deciding what) and were separated at 14 (same age as Dipper and Mabel in this au) (I know Jedi usually take Force-sensitive kids at a younger age but I'm gonna bend canon a bit on this one)

• Stan was sold to slavery by his own father in order to pay off his debts in gambling shortly after Ford left and after their mother died.

• Stan was then brought to Tatooine where he would later be bought out of slavery by a Mandalorian belonging to the "Children of the Watch" cult, who then took Stan under his wing and trained him to become a Mandalorian.

• After growing up and swearing the Creed, Stan would later get kicked out by his cult and get consequently kicked out by other Mandalorian factions that he would later come to join in the future before obtaining his own ship and crew (Wendy and Soos) and becoming a bounty hunter whose also keen on gambling.

• This all happened before the rise of the Galactic Empire.

• Meanwhile, Ford would be trained under Bill Cipher and would eventually succeed his Padawan trials and become a Jedi Knight, even having his own padawan (Fiddleford) in the process.

• Unbeknownst to Ford, his master was secretly working along side Sidious and Tarkin in order to bring about the fall of the Jedi Order and the Republic.

• Set to be killed by his former master during Order 66, he and Fiddleford tried to save as many Jedi as they can but was forced to run away in an effort to escape, unfortunately leaving his padawan and the rest of the surviving Jedi to fend for themselves.

• He would later be caught by Bill and would be forced to train to become an Inquisitor, even go through a series of torture designed to break him and turn him into a shell of his former self.

• Ford would then escape and hide from the Empire before joining and aiding the Rebellion from time to time. As he helped the Rebels, he also made it his mission to take down Bill and the Inquisitors.

• On the other hand, after learning about Order 66 and the fall of the Republic, Stan would try to search for his brother hoping for the possibility that he was still alive. He never found his brother and eventually mourned him.

• The brothers would then reunite shortly after Stan met Dipper and Mabel when both kids found themselves lost on the underworld of Coruscant and ran into a six- fingered stranger who protected them from the eyes of stormtroopers. Though, unbeknownst to the kids, this man also happened to be their Grunkle's bounty.

•Ford protected Dipper and Mabel after sensing they were Force-sensitive. But, when a Mandalorian bounty hunter came to get them, Ford did not hesitate to keep the kids safe. Though, unbeknownst to him, the Mandalorian he just fought with turned out to be the kids' great uncle and his twin brother, whom he has not seen since they were 14.

That's all I have for this Au! Can't wait to share more with y'all in the future.

[theotterpenguin]

Katara's Legacy in LOK: "Healer Wife of the Avatar" (part I)

I only recently finished watching all of The Legend of Korra from start to finish. Based on the analyses I’ve read from the time the show was airing, there seemed to be a decent amount of backlash against how the adult gaang was portrayed - particularly Katara. LOK’s fanbase has grown since then, though, especially during the 2020 renaissance, and I was surprised by how many recent positive comments I’ve seen from fans on Katara’s role.

Because if you paid attention at all to Katara’s characterization compared to Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, it’s clear just how much Legend of Korra has tarnished her “legacy” or lack thereof.

I will be splitting this analysis of lok!Katara into two parts:

First, I will break down her portrayal in the show compared to the other members of the gaang to demonstrate how Katara received the worst treatment from the writers. Though I did have problems with the other characters’ portrayals as well, I don't have time to discuss them in-depth in this post. Then, I will counter common arguments used in defense of lok!Katara’s portrayal on the grounds that they do not provide an adequate in-universe explanation for her character’s drastic change from ATLA.

For part 1, I decided to examine everything we know about the gaang after the original series only based on the information provided via Legend of Korra (excluding poor Suki, who is never mentioned at all). For each character, I will answer the question “What do we know about [character] based solely on their role in Legend of Korra?”

Sokka

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Sokka based on LOK?

Well-respected for his wisdom and leadership, as he was Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, a councilman in Republic City (Representative of the Southern Water Tribe), and the chairman of the United Republic Council

Played a significant role in Yakone’s bloodbending trial - moderated the Council’s deliberations and announced their decision to find Yakone guilty

Worked together with other political/military leaders - Zuko, Tenzin, and Tonraq - to protect Avatar Korra by designing prisons for Red Lotus members that would be impervious to their bending

Toph mentioned they were friends in their youth, describing a time he was stuck in a hole when she was trying to teach Aang earthbending

Sokka, Toph, and Aang seemed to have remained friends into adulthood as they all worked together to defeat Yakone

Fond of his trusty boomerang, which he claimed to have used to win a fight against a man with combustion abilities

Due to his achievements, has a statue built in his honor in front of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center in Republic City

Zuko

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Zuko based on LOK?

Former Fire Lord and co-founder of the United Republic, who worked with Avatar Aang after the 100 years war to transform the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations

Zuko and Avatar Aang had a rocky start, as Zuko described a time when he once hired a man with combustion abilities to kill Aang in his youth, but they eventually became close friends

Acted as Aang’s counsel and was described as being the person who knew Aang better than everyone else, leading Korra to turn to him for advice

Good friends with the Southern Water Tribe - worked with Sokka, Tonraq, and Tenzin to imprison Red Lotus members that wanted to kidnap Korra, specifically working with Unalaq and Tonraq to build a prison to hold P’Li

Years later, continued to work against the Red Lotus when they broke out of prison

Investigated the prison break of Ming-Hua, sent word to Lin Beifong to protect Korra, then flew off on his dragon to stop the Red Lotus from breaking P’Li out of prison

Fought Ghazan using his firebending during the Red Lotus break-in

Discussed the Red Lotus situation with Lin, Korra, and the others, before leaving early on Druk (his dragon) to return to the Fire Nation and protect his family

Despite being in “retirement,” remains an active participant in international relations - makes appearances as Prince Wu’s coronation and Jinora’s airbending master ceremony, along with engaging in discussions with President Raiko, Tenzin, and Tonraq about the future of the Red Lotus after Zaheer was imprisoned again

Highly respected and honored for his achievements - Bolin and Mako were impressed to meet him, statue was built in his honor in Republic City

Had a close relationship with his Uncle and his surviving family include his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, and his grandson, General Iroh II

Toph

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Toph based on LOK?

Previous Chief of Police in Republic City, founder of the first metalbending police force, founder of the first metalbending academy

Renowned for inventing metalbending, which is utilized for the development of modern technology and innovation in Republic City and the Earth Kingdom (particularly, Zaofu, is regarded as the safest city in the world due to it being made entirely out of metal)

To honor her metalbending achievements, there are several statues of her in Zaofu

Good friends with Avatar Aang, whom she affectionately named Twinkletoes, and was his earthbending teacher

Worked with Aang to arrest Yakone and was present at Yakone’s trial

Acted as a mentor to Korra, helping Korra face her fears and trained with her

Despite her old age and grumpy personality, Toph remained a strong fighter - easily able to beat Korra during training sessions, take down Kuvira’s sentries, and successfully break into Kuvira’s prison using her earthbending and metalbending abilities

States that her fighting days are over due to her old age, but has no problem fighting to save her family when they are captured by Kuvira (twice)

No interest in involving herself in current political problems in the Earth Kingdom, but will defend her family from political forces that threaten them

Strained relationship with her daughters (Suyin and Lin) because of how busy she was with her job, giving them too much freedom as she didn’t want to be as strict as her own parents

Covered up for Suyin’s crimes to save her reputation, leading her to retire early from guilt

Eventually repairs her relationship with her daughters - admitting she wasn’t a great mother but had great kids

Spent rest of her life living alone in a swamp, mentioning she has previous experiences with the visions it produces

High reputation in Republic City - has a statue of her built in front of police headquarters, Asami is impressed by her, Bolin calls her his hero

Aang

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Aang based on LOK?

Previous Avatar before Korra, negotiated relations between people of all nations to keep peace and balance and served as the bridge between the Spirit World and natural world

Worked with his closest friend Zuko to transform the Fire Nation Colonies into the United Republic of Nations after the war

Lost his entire culture of Air Nomads to genocide during the hundred year war and was devastated - his greatest dream was frequently described as rebuilding the Air Nation and reviving Air Nomad culture

He began to do this by founding the Air Acolytes, who preserved the culture, practices, and teachings of the Air Nomads passed on from Aang

Placed all of his hopes and dreams for the future on Tenzin's shoulders, his only airbender son

Deeply connected to the Spirit World and was an esteemed spiritual leader, hoping his son would one day experience the same

Traveled the world with Tenzin so he could learn as much as possible, but was so focused on doing his duty to the world that he never had time for his other kids, Kya and Bumi, whom he had with his wife, Katara

Kya and Bumi felt like a disappointment to their father for not being airbenders and Bumi never felt connected to his father’s culture until he became an airbender later in life

Aang’s acolytes did not even know Aang had other children besides Tenzin

All of this seems to indicate Aang valued the ability to airbend the most in his children, leading to his waterbending/nonbending kids being neglected

Greatest flaw mentioned as his tendency to cut and run when things get tough

Despite all this, he was highly respected and admired by most characters in the show for all his achievements as Avatar and his wisdom

Assisted in the arrest of Yakone with Toph, a friend of his, and used energybending to remove Yakone’s bending

Gave Korra advice along with restoring her bending and bestowed upon her the ability to energybend

His grandkids (Meelo, Jinora, and Ikki) enjoyed hearing stories about his youth, such as his visit to Wan Shi Tong’s spirit library and his time with Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple

Described as natural leader by Tenzin, sweet-tempered by Lin, and was good friends with Iroh

He built the air temple on Air Temple Island and in his honor, Aang Memorial Island was named after him and a statue of him was built

He’s so well-known and respected that there are even Aang-themed carnival games at the South Pole

Katara

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Katara based on LOK?

Described as the best healer in the world, responsible for teaching Korra how to heal, and mentioned to be a waterbending master

Monitored Korra’s avatar training and spoke to the Order of the White Lotus when Korra was ready to begin airbending training

Declared bloodbending illegal, but was not present for Yakone’s capture or trial

Attempted to restore Korra’s bending after Amon took it, but failed

Failed to heal Jinora when she was trapped in the Spirit World

Tries to guide Korra’s healing process after she is poisoned, but is unable to heal her on her own

Worked to heal the injured after Unalaq’s attack

According to Toph, Katara didn’t get involved in the civil war taking place in her homeland because of her old age

Mentions to Korra she knows what it’s like to go through a traumatic experience but doesn’t elaborate, instead describing Aang’s trauma

Married to Avatar Aang and had three kids - Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi - and three grandchildren - Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo

After Aang and her brother died, she was incredibly lonely, prompting Kya to move to the south pole to be with her. Misses her family that has passed away.

Her kids don’t visit her much, Meelo doesn’t even recognize his grandmother. She cries when Tenzin and his family leave.

Never speaks about her own life, but Jinora asks her once about what happened to Zuko’s mom, indicating they may have known each other.

By reading those summaries, it should be obvious just how differently Katara’s character was treated by the writers compared to the others. Katara’s legacy is reduced to simply being the “healer wife of the Avatar.”

And before anyone tries to twist my words: The problem is not that she is a mother, a wife, and a healer. The problem that is all she is ever allowed to be. Her entire identity revolves around:

Trying to heal people

Being the Avatar’s wife and occasionally offering random pieces of advice about what Aang would do (instead of, you know, giving advice based on her own experiences)

Missing her family

Again, none of these characteristics are inherently negative - the problem is how poorly they are written for Katara’s character. We are told things about her that just don't match up with what is shown in LOK canon. We're told that she’s a world renowned healer, but every time we see her use these abilities, she fails. We’re told that she’s the Avatar’s wife, but he was closest to his friend, Zuko. We’re told that she’s a mother who cares about her family, but we don’t know anything about her relationship with her children (and in fact, we know far more about her children's relationship with Aang).

Katara has no characteristics, no personality outside of her relationship to others - whether she’s acting as a healer, a mother, or a wife (this is some textbook misogynistic writing). She never speaks about herself, never mentions having any friends - only ever speaking about her husband, never describes her life before being a mother or a wife, is never shown to be honored or respected in the way the rest of the gaang is, has no political titles, and has only one post-atla accomplishment to her name. This is in contrast to Aang, Zuko, and Toph - all of whom have children but are never reduced solely to being a parent, all of whom are implied to be close friends, and all of whom have made multiple important contributions to the world of LOK. Even Sokka - who is barely in the show - is shown as having more achievements than Katara. I’m not sure how anyone could see this as doing Katara’s character justice.

I want to end with this excerpt from the book Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy - while not from Legend of Korra, this letter written by Katara to her and Aang's son, Tenzin, is a perfect demonstration of Katara's poor characterization post-ATLA. Despite being written by Katara, this entire letter is about Aang. I'm honestly not sure why the writers didn't just have this letter written by Aang himself because there are no insights that Katara adds to it.

The letter starts with Katara saying that she hopes this letter will help Tenzin "feel the pride of [his] heritage and gain a deeper understanding of who [he is]." And yet this letter never discusses the fact that Tenzin is the son of a waterbender and an airbender, never discusses any of the lessons Katara has learned in her life or the hardships she's overcome, never mentions any part of water tribe culture, never even mentions her own brother or father or mother (family is important to Katara, but apparently the writers only think that her family with Aang matters). The letter is entirely about Aang's struggles and triumphs because post-ATLA Katara doesn't matter outside of her relationship to her husband and kids.

Part 2

[penelopwgarcia]

comparing obi wan's to anakin's trajectory is a jackass move cause yeah, obi wan never had it easy and had plenty reasons to fall as well but he didn't have the pressure to be perfect as chosen one, he didn't have a fucking vulture preying on his relationships and overall life; he didn't have to take of a 14yo on the middle of a war when he was 19, yes he watched his mentor die but that's quite differently from dreaming about your mom being tortured to death for days and not been able to save her to then years later you have the same goddamn dream about your wife. the order you serve isn't the same anymore the republic you fought for isn't nearly as perfect and your mentor is asking you to spy on the only guy that seems reliable to you - but the same mentor lied to you before, you thought he had died, what more lies do the council are telling him now?

so yeah anakin lost many things and a lot of things happened to him but it's unfair to compare with obi wan life - who did lost many people - because they're way different. Anakin not only lost people and confidence and security he was also manipulated into slavery again and I'm so done with people treating him like a whiny baby that did stupid because he truly believed palpatine was going to help him - what evidence shows he wouldn't? palpatine preyed and groomed anakin since he was 9 and the jedi thought it was cool a child hanging out with a stranger but everyone going to point at the victim to choose what seemed the only way for him

[saphronethaleph]

Clickbait

“Okay, there we go,” Birka Mars said, finishing with her keypad and pushing it away. “Piece finished.”

Her boss looked at her.

“What?” Birka asked. “Like I said. Piece. Finished.”

“Is it properly finished, this time?” Hemarr said. “You remember what happened last time we ran a story you hadn’t finished.”

“I’d finished the writing,” Birka defended herself. “I just hadn’t got all the sources quite lined up. And it was true anyway, right?”

Hemarr rubbed his temples.

“Yes, eventually,” he said. “After a five month court case and a visit from the Coruscant Guard. We’ve been over this, Birka – your gossip pieces earn you big bucks but they have to be weighed against the risks.”

“Right, right, I get the point,” Birka muttered. “Okay, okay. So send it over to Legal. What kind of issues could there be, anyway?”

Hemarr opened up the file on his own datapad, and scrolled through it.

“Senator Amidala’s baby bump,” he said. “Well, at least you’re not accusing anyone of… you didn’t, did you?”

“Not at all,” Birka said. “I made sure I only ever insinuated without ever actually asserting.”

“It’ll probably do,” Hemarr muttered, scanning down the page. “Experts say… they did, right?”

“Geetwo said there was a ninety-four percent probability,” Birka replied. “And he is an expert, he’s got the programming for it.”

“That droid needs recalibrating,” Hemarr said. “But his ninety-four is probably good enough for us to be covered… all right, there’s only one thing you missed for us to be sure.”

“I thought I caught everything,” Birka protested.

“Almost,” Hemarr replied. “But you said ‘out of wedlock’. That’s an actionable claim.”

“Oh, come on!” Birka said. “Senator Amidala isn’t married.”

“Then make sure we can prove it,” Hemarr told her. “Look, I know gossip pieces are time sensitive, but but they’re not that time sensitive. Go to Naboo, confirm it, get some interviews with her family and we can roll them in as soundbites if they’re particularly good.”

Birka Mars was still smarting two days later.

“Really,” she muttered, flicking through paper files of all things. “Naboo could do with being a damn sight more… up to date. Let’s see… Amaryllis… Amecorian… Amidala, let’s do an exhaustive check…”

Her grumbles trailed off, as she held the one document with that name on it up to the light.

Then checked again.

“Padme Amidala, daughter of Ruwee and Jobal Naberrie,” she said, frowning. “That checks… Naberrie is her birth name, since Amidala is a regnal name. But…”

Birka put the paper down, slowly and reverently.

“Oh,” she said, and hugged herself. “This is… this is so much better! I have an article to rewrite!”

Some days later, two matched Jedi Starfighters landed on one of the temple landing pads.

Anakin was out first, and he jogged over to Obi-Wan’s starfighter as the cockpit opened.

“So?” he asked. “Willing to accept that you’re actually an all right pilot, yet?”

“Believe it or not, Anakin, I can accept that I’m reasonable at something without at any point deciding that I like it,” Obi-Wan replied, with a sigh. “Which is where I currently sit with regard to flying a spaceship. It’s not something I get on with well.”

He lifted himself out of the seat, and clambered down. “Well… now we need to report in.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Anakin conceded. “What do we know, anyway?”

“We know – for sure – that the Sith were involved with the clones,” Obi-Wan said. “That’s useful and potentially vital information, for the Republic and for the war. But we still have questions.”

He shook his head. “And it may be that sharing this information will simply lead the Senate to dislike the clones, or… we don’t know, that’s the truth of it.”

Then he looked up, as someone came running up – Bant Eerin, a Mon Cal Jedi who was one of his oldest friends.

“Bant!” he said. “It’s nice to see you!”

“It’s nice to see you, too, Obi,” Ban replied, but her attention was mostly on Anakin. “Is it true?”

“...is what true?” Anakin asked. “We fought Dooku, but he got away.”

“You did what?” Bant said, then shook her head. “No – not that, I mean… you know!”

“I’m afraid he doesn’t,” Obi-Wan noted. “And nor do I, I fear. We’ve been out of touch recently.”

“Oh, yeah, the mission you were on,” Bant realized. “Oba Diah, right? I guess it must have been serious – but – are you really married to Senator Amidala?”

Anakin froze. Completely.

Obi-Wan shot a sideways glance at his former Padawan, and decided that his good friend’s brain was probably in the process of trying unsuccessfully to recover from a boot loop.

“...people are asking about that?” Obi-Wan asked. “I assume they must be, if you assumed that we must have heard it.”

“There was this gossip column that published a scoop thirty hours ago,” Bant explained. “Said that they’d analyzed the Senator and found she was pregnant, and that she’d been married to Skywalker a couple of years ago.”

“But – what?” Anakin said, finally breaking out of his paralysis. “I – it was a secret marriage!”

“Yeah, they said it was filed as paperwork of all things,” Bant said, with a laugh. “Guess Naboo really is old fashioned about some things, right?”

“There was paperwork?” Anakin asked. “But… secret. Marriage…? Secret?”

“You know, Anakin, perhaps it would help to meditate on what a marriage actually is?” Obi-Wan suggested. “It’s a legal contract. That’s what separates it from having a girlfriend, after all – in many ways a marriage without a legal contract simply doesn’t exist. So the contract has to be there if someone looks for it.”

He folded his arms. “No, Anakin, I’m very disappointed in you. Because the other thing about a marriage is that it’s meant to involve your closest friends. If you were going to elope you could at least have told me about it – I’ve had the robes to wear as your best man picked out for two years now.”

Anakin turned utterly frazzled eyes on Obi-Wan.

“You knew!?” he asked.

“Anakin, when you came into the arena you were kissing,” Obi-Wan said. “I assumed she was your girlfriend, and that you were going to get married and quit the Order when the war was over. The Code forbids marriage, because it’s a formal statement that you prioritize the other person over the Jedi Order and the Code respects that, but it merely looks down on love.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, shall I?” Bant asked. “Also, uh. Fair warning? Don’t leave the temple, or you’ll get swarmed by reporters.”

[jokeroutsubs]

Yugoslavia and yugo rock

Joker Out’s new song, Šta bih ja, was inspired by yugorock! Not sure what that means? JokerOutSubs has got you!

‘Yugo rock’ or ‘Yu rock’ is rock with some elements derived from traditional/ethnic/folklore music, as well as other musical genres, including blues, country, reggae, jazz rock and rockabilly. They were added to appease the public, since rock itself was considered a western influence. 

Rock music in Yugoslavia became popular in the sixties. Before that, after the second world war, partisan songs were more popular. This is music associated with resistance groups that fought German occupation across Yugoslavia, Italy and other parts of Eastern Europe. However, in 1956, the Cominform (a coordinated body of communist parties across Europe, designed to keep all communist governments following Stalinist principles) was dissolved. After this point, the connection with the Soviet Union was severed and music tastes began to change accordingly. 

With influences from the west, rock music started gaining popularity. At first, musicians only sang covers of foreign songs (as closely to the original as possible) but in the sixties, bands such as Indexi started making original music. In the seventies, Bijelo dugme were formed and became incredibly popular. At the same time, Parni valjak were also rising to fame. However, the ‘new wave’ of Yugo rock was said to be started by a group called Buldožer.

Some characteristics of New Wave were more political lyrics and taking inspiration from punk. The most famous New Wave bands in Yugoslavia were Azra, Idoli, Prljavo kazalište, Električni orgazam, Psihomodo pop and, in Slovenia at the time, Lačni Franz, Buldožer and Pankrti (an interview with their singer Peter Lovšin can be found at    • [ENG SUB] Bojan Cvjetićanin about roc...  ). 

A second New Wave generation from Belgrade emerged in later years. Among their representatives were Partibrejkers (formed 1982). They combined the blues with British R and B, rockabilly and classic rock and roll. 

In 1982, the groups Ekaterina Velika and Disciplina Kičme (Disciplin A Kitschme) were established, contributing to the second New Wave generation, along with Slovenian group Videosex (formed 1983) with singer Anja Rupel. One of their most famous songs, a cover of 'Zemlja pleše,' can be found at    • Videosex - Zemlja Plese - The Original

The New Wave was characterised by a burst of creativity and activity in the music scene across the region, with many artists emerging and creating excellent music in a short period of time. Many have drawn parallels between the New Wave era and today, where in Slovenia many young bands are gaining recognition. This parallel is only strengthened by the fact that Joker Out, one of the most successful young bands in Slovenia today, have a song named Novi val (New Wave). 

The socio-political significance

Yugoslavia (1918–1992), a federal republic, was made up of six republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia). Despite the differences between the republics one could argue that the pop-cultural identity was so strong, having influence that went beyond government control and the ability to connect people through the region, that it could be named as the seventh republic. Besides sport, yugorock was one of the last connecting links within a  country that was drifting apart in a variety of areas, including economic. 

Important yugorock bands 

Bijelo Dugme: Considered by many to be the biggest Yugo rock band, Bijelo Dugme were formed in 1974 in Sarajevo. They were the biggest trendsetters in rock music at the time. They had a huge influence on Joker Out since their earliest days as a band. In the 'Kofi brejk' interview Bojan shared that the first concert he ever attended was by Bijelo Dugme, and they were also mentioned several times by Joker Out as having had a big influence on the whole band. In addition, Joker Out covered two of their songs, ‘Selma’ (Radio Koper, 32 min) and ‘Djurdjevdan’ (Belgrade concert, 3.11.2023). You can check out some more of their songs on our playlist linked at the bottom of this post!

Plavi orkestar were formed in 1983 in Sarajevo and had a rich career with eight albums, releasing hits such as ‘Ako su to samo bile laži’, ‘Lovac i košuta’, ‘Odlazim’, ‘Bolje biti pijan nego star’, ‘Suada’ and many more. Some media outlets, like Jutarnji list and Mladina have compared Joker Out’s style to theirs, and Bojan also mentioned Plavi orkestar as one of the bands that influenced him.

Parni valjak are a Croatian band, formed in 1975 in Zagreb. They had many ‘evergreen’ hits, including ‘Sve još miriše na nju’, ‘Jesen u meni’ and ‘Zastave’. In the Carpe Diem series, when asked whom they would listen to forever if they could only choose one artist, Jure chose Parni valjak. At Arsenal Fest in 2023, Bojan interrupted an interview to sing along to ‘Jesen u meni’ as they were playing in the background! 

Indexi were a Bosnian band, who were active from 1962 to 2001. They were extremely influential, with hits like ‘Svijet u kome živim’ and ‘Negdje u kraju, u zatišju’, and became known as the ‘pioneers of psychedelic rock and roll.’ In the Kurir interview, Bojan mentions them as one of his musical role models.

Ekatarina velika, sometimes shortened to EKV, were a Serbian band who were active between 1982 and 1994. They are considered one of the most influential artists in the yugorock scene, with popular songs like ‘Krug’, ‘Par godina na nas’ and ‘Srce’. In the Rdeče in črno interview, Bojan’s voice was compared to that of the lead singer in Ekatarina velika. 

Idoli were one of the most remarkable new wave bands based in Belgrade, active during the early 80's. They are regarded as one of the most outstanding and influential representatives of the Yugoslav rock music and their album 'Odbrana i poslednji dani' ('Defense and The Last Days') was voted as the greatest Yugoslav rock album of all time. During the Kurir interview, Bojan mentioned that ‘Ona’ was inspired by Idoli and their unique sound.

Songs Joker Out have mentioned 

‘Računajte na nas’ by Đorđe Balašević is a very important yugorock song in Joker Out’s history, as it inspired the lyrics of ‘Carpe Diem’. While ‘Računajte na nas’ (‘Count on Us’) is about a generation standing up and fighting for peace, Bojan switched the lyric to ‘ne računajte na nas’ (don’t count on us), meaning that you cannot count on them to join in with the ‘game of hatred’ pervasive in modern society. 

‘Kreni prema meni’ is a song performed by Partibrejkers, a Serbian rock band from Belgrade, known for their rebellious energy, both in sound and spirit. The band is still active and well received all over former Yugoslav countries. The song was covered by Joker Out at the Lent festival in 2018.

‘Sanjao sam moju Ružicu’ by Leteći odred was covered by Apokalipsa, Bojan’s former band, in 2015 during Vičstock Avdicija. Bojan also sang it at the Prulček bar with Buržuzija, Kris and Jan’s former band. Leteći odred is a Croatian pop band with a prosperous and successful musical career and performances for over 30 years.

In September 2016, Joker Out posted a setlist from one of their earliest gigs on their Instagram. It included three notable yugorock song covers - ‘Frida’ by Psihomodopop, ‘Motori’ by Divlje jagode and ‘Ne Zovi Mama Doktora’ by Prljavo Kazalište.

If you’d like to listen to any of these artists or songs, check out our curated playlist on YouTube or Spotify!

Sources:

Kregar, Tone, et al. Za domovino - z rockom naprej! Jugo rock: slovensko-srbske paralele. Muzej novejše zgodovine Celje. 2020.

Perković, Ante, and Lah, Klemen. Sedma republika: pop kultura in razpad Jugoslavije. Zenit, 2018.

[vulnonapix1234]

Caleb and his foundling

Or the worst emotional roller-coaster that Depa Billabas Battalion was ever on.

This is for my "Star Wars fix it au", where order 66 doesn't happen, but Padme and Anakin still die (Rip Padme, you deserved better)

The first hours after General Obi-wan had given them the message were the worst.

The men who were made for them, fought side by side, died for them where a gun pointed at their chests.

All of them had chips in their brains that would strip them of their humanity their personhood, and their identity.

It was no wonder that the camp was in panic, no matter how much General Depa tried to calm her men down.

They were scared. Scared of hurting her and her Padawan. Scared of losing themselves.

Some of them tried to run, to be as far away from them as possible when those horrible chips activated.

Others tried to take their own life as long as they still were themselves.

It was a horrible time.

Then Caleb disappeared because the force was calling him, which made the troops only more panicked.

They were torn between wanting to go with him and being glad that he wasn't around. Both reasons were because they were worried for their little commanders' safety.

Then, a few hours later, everything was over.

Or at least, it seemed that way for all the men who only knew war.

The chancellor was the sith and created this war. He was killed by Mace and his close supporters were imprisoned for betraying the republic.

Master Anakin Skywalker fell and betrayed them. He was killed by Master Obi-Wan after murdering Senator Amidala.

The technicians in the Jedi temple created a way to block the signal of the chips, saving them from mind control till they could get it taken out.

So effectively, the war was over, they won and the clones lost most of their usefulness.

Even if they still had their personhood, they still weren't safe. Not when most of the republic saw them as nothing more than meat droids.

It was at this time that Caleb returned with a newborn and no one knew where the little guy could have possibly come from.

They were in the middle of a battlefield and the padawan couldn't have walked so far in the few hours he was gone.

The teen himself didn't know how long he walked or where he went.

He had trusted the force and the force brought him to the little baby and the corpses of his parents, who appeared to be reporters of some kind.

Cue panicked clones who just went through the 5 stages of grief and are now fearing for the wellbeing of a little thing that was barely bigger than their hands.

They just pushed away the fear of their post-war existence because none of them were trained in child care.

To be fair, the only one who knows how to carry and feed a baby is Depa, who is glad that her padawan came back without any injury.

Even if the baby (a possible grand padawan?) was a suprise.

A nice surprise that brought her men out of their fear clouded minds, but a suprise nonetheless.

[elbiotipo]

The Rise and Fall of the Fantasy Roman Empire (part one(?)

I have said in many other posts that the popular fantasy genre, especially in TTRPG settings (official or homebrew) is almost married to the European Middle Ages aesthetics while in fact often presenting a more "early modern" society, with the results of intercontinental trade, widespread printing, growing literacy and urbanization, etc. This isn't limited to the fantasy genre though. In space opera science fiction, though not as common nowadays, the idea of a Galactic Empire (or a Galactic Republic that turns into an Empire), in some way or another, was considered a staple of the genre. Why is that? (long post incoming)

Perhaps the most notorious thing to note here are the parallels to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, as in, straight up retellings of it sometimes (Isaac Asimov's Foundation). The Roman Empire is considered in many ways to be The Empire, its influence on Western culture cannot be overstated and people project their own fears and anxieties when analyizing its rise, decline and fall, which is perhaps one of the most complex areas of historiography for these reasons.

And I'm going to take a stab at this incredibly complex topic and its influence on fiction, so this will be inevitably simplified, but as you might be aware, the Roman Empire really didn't fall just like that. Of course, the Byzantine Empire survived in the East, and if you're one of those annoying Paradox Interactive Byzantine fans you know they called themselves "Romans" right to the very end all the way in 1453 CE (for reference, the last Western Roman Emperor was deposed in 476 CE, almost a thousand years before). And also, the theory of the "barbarian invasions" is overstated, while there was certainly conflict and violence, it wasn't that the last legionaries fell to hordes of barbarians. In fact, many of those barbarians WERE Romans themselves, fought for the Roman empire as allies, and after they built their own kingdoms they kept using Roman titles and administration. On the other hand, you can see a decline on quality of life, literacy, trade, public works, administration, in many places, that would not be surmounted until late in the Middle Ages.

So, some say the Roman Empire never truly fell, other say that it was just replaced by feudal goverments as it declined, and yet others say that there really was a sharp catastrophic decline that justifies the idea of a "dark ages". So, what really happened?

Well, again, to oversimplify the most debated topic ever in historiography, the Roman Empire was big, and when it fell, different places took it differently. As I've said, the Byzantine Empire survived with a highly modified society but still "Roman" in a sense, for centuries, with a centralized state and army, though it also hit hard by wars with the Persian Sassanian Empire and later Islamic empires and it turned more and more to feudalism as time went on. However, the big urban centers, goverment bureaucracy, literate society (for the time), trade centers in the Middle East... might have declined, but never dissapeared. In fact, when the Islamic caliphates conquered the region, their rule (again, to oversimplify) was a version of Roman administration, and it was the abundance of classical literature and literacy found in the region that impulsed the Islamic Golden Age.

Meanwhile... Western Europe didn't do so great. I won't stay to analyze the entire reasons for it, but the Roman administration was replaced first by ad-hoc kingdoms and then a complex feudal system which you might be familiar with, where noble families and aristocrats ruled their own pieces of land and titles, swearing fealty to a king, much unlike the more state-based Roman bureaucracy (you could even go to an extreme and say there was no state per se, just alliances and fealty among aristocratic families). There was a sharp decline of literacy outside of the church, there was not an state that could guarantee the public works and vibrant Roman economy, and wars and plagues were devastating (sometimes against the "Roman Empire" itself, like in Justinian's attempts at reconquering the West). In places such as France and Italy, you could really talk about a huge decline.

The place that probably took it the worst, however, was Britain. Roman Britain was part of the Roman Empire, connected to its trade routes, economy, and cultural dynamics. The separation was devastating (at least to the Romanized Britons, perhaps it was good for other peoples in the island). Anything resembling central authority in Britain just ceased to be, replaced by warlords. Cities were abandoned. There was no trade with the rest of the world. Literacy declined so much that little is known about the period. Post-Roman Britain is the closest thing to a true "Dark Ages", in fact, it might be the prototypical dark ages for the English-speaking world.

And this is where I was getting at. The decline of the Roman Empire left a strong impression in all of Europe (hence the Rennaisance, praised at the time as the return of classical culture, but that's another overly complex historiographic topic). But it was in Britain that it left the most strong impression of a true Dark Ages. This was reflected in one of the English-speaking world's most prominent works, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. So prominent that it inspired Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy almost beat by beat (someone joked, I don't remember where, that because of the number of Galactic Empires in science fiction, Gibbon is the most influential sci-fi writer)

And you can guess where this is going with fantasy. While I can't say Tolkien, the grandfather of modern popular fantasy (the father is Gary Gygax) copied Gibbon 1:1, you can feel the same conception of the British Dark Ages sweeping through his work. Ancient ruins of the glorious past in what could be termed, a bit tongue-in-cheek, as post-apocalyptic fantasy. Lord of the Rings reads sometimes like something set in the Early Middle Ages, the so called "Dark Ages", not so much elaborate plate armor and vibrant cities, but rather chainmail armor and abandoned ruins (like the romantic conception of the Fall of Rome, I haven't even touched on romanticism here...). This is of course not a coincidence. Tolkien's favorite inspirations (Beowulf, Norse myth) were from the Early Middle Ages.

And since this scenario was already popular in the English-speaking world, and RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons (again, the father of popular fantasy) were based on Tolkien, you can see how this shaped our conception of not only the real-life Middle Ages, but also the fantasy genre in... general. You know the "Points of Light" "setting" for D&D 4e? Read all I've told you, and think about it. Really think about it.

As an addenum, I'm from Latin America of course, and unfortunately, our own fantasy and science fiction was never as popular as the English ones. However, there is something interesting to consider here. The Roman Empire in Iberia "fell" to the Visigoths, which tried to keep a kind of Roman administration, as successors to them. The Visigoths were in turn replaced by Al-Andalus, one of the most unique cultures of all times. It was the struggle between the Christian and Muslim kingdoms (the so-called Reconquista, a simplified and supremacist narrative that forgets about all the cultural interaction that existed for centuries) and then the conquest (or rather plunder) of America which left the most striking markd in Spanish and Portuguese classical (pre-XIX century) literature. What marks did those events leave in our fiction here in Latin America? Which on its own has become its own thing beyond Iberia...

If you want to read more about the *fall* of the Roman Empire, I cannot recommend enough this three part series from the blog ACOUP (I'll leave you to figure the acronym) which I took much information for what I said in this post from, and goes into much more depth which I could ever hope to: 1, 2, 3.

For my part, I actually intend this to be an introduction to a topic I've been wanting to talk since forever (a few days ago): Space Empires. Galactic Empires and Republics. You might think they are a dead trope, you might think "'well, they're more of fantasy than realistic science fiction", but I'm not exactly to prove that Star Wars is unrealistic, but rather to talk about the worldbuilding and narrative choices (and yes, perhaps more than a bit bit of economics, politics and logistics as well) of space empires, and what are some other options you could consider if you're building a space setting.

If you liked this post, and would like to read more like above, please, feel free to follow, and also consider donating to my ko-fi, as I intend to write more in the future:

[gffa]

THE MANDALORIAN TIMELINE

50 Years Ago - Grogu was born ?? Years Ago - The Mandalorian Civil War.      Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn were sent to help Duchess Satine Kryze and protect her from insurgents as her people were embroiled in civil war, killing most of them.  Jango Fett fought in these wars at some point. ?? Years Ago - Din Djarin doesn’t have an exact age, but he’s likely in his 40s, so he would have been born at some point in here. 41 Years Ago - The Phantom Menace, Boba Fett is born 31 Years Ago - Attack of the Clones, the Clone Wars begin, Kamino’s clone army is discovered, Jango Fett dies on Geonosis 31 to 28 Years Ago - The Clone Wars      While Mandalore attempts to remain neutral in the conflict between the Republic and the Separatists, Death Watch uses the rising tensions (and are secretly working with Count Dooku of the Separatists) to stage attacks on Sundari, attempting to kill Duchess Satine Kryze and take over the planet.      At some point in the war, there seems to be an attack on Din Djarin’s home planet and they’re shown being fired on by Separatist battle droids, when Mandalorians come to rescue him.  The Mandalorians are wearing the symbol of Death Watch (despite that they’ve previously been allied with the Separatists?), though, it’s unclear what the connection between Death Watch and the Children of the Watch is.

     Pre Vizsla of Clan Vizsla is the governor of Concordia (a moon of Mandalore), voiced by Jon Favreau, secretly leads the Death Watch and reveals that he has the darksaber when he fights against Obi-Wan Kenobi after its revealed that Pre is part of Death Watch.       Clan Vizsla is one of the most central Clans of Mandalore, including the only known Mandalorian Jedi (Tarre Vizsla, creator of the Darksaber) was from their House, which is why Pre feels entitled to it, despite that Tarre left it with the Jedi.  Paz Vizsla is also likely from this clan.      The Children of the Watch were also hidden on Concordia at the time of the Great Purge, which is how they survived the genocide of their people.      Bo-Katan Kryze is also part of Death Watch at this point in time.

27 Years Ago - Bo-Katan and Ahsoka meet when Death Watch invade and occupy a village on the planet of Carlac, though, they are enemies at this point in time. 28 Years Ago -  Darth Maul (who was found still alive on the garbage planet of Lotho Minor and rescued by his birth mother, Mother Talzin, and another Nightbrother from his clan, Savage Opress) was defeated and stranded, but is rescued by Death Watch.      They use the Sith for their Force abilities and connections to crime syndicates for resources and to play the invader while they play rescuer to get the Mandalorian people on their side.  Their ruse works and Duchess Satine is overrun, placing her in prison, while Death Watch rules a puppet master Prime Minister.      Because Death Watch betrayed Maul once they had taken over Mandalore, he fights his way to the throne room, battles Pre Vizsla and wins the Darksaber (decapitating Pre), as well declaring himself ruler of Mandalore, having won the fight.      While most of Death Watch kneels and swears allegiance to Maul, Bo-Katan refuses to follow an outsider as ruler of Mandalore and leaves Death Watch.

     Maul uses the prisoner Duchess Satine to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi to the planet so he can have revenge, killing her and forcing Obi-Wan to retreat, leaving him in charge of Mandalore with no one to oppose him.      Not much later, Sheev Palpatine (Darth Sidious) decides Maul has become too much of an unknown variable and thorn in his side, so he travels to Mandalore to fight him.  He kills Savage and secretly imprisons him, but the puppet Prime Minister (Almec) remembers that Maul freed him previously (after he was imprisoned for being corrupt) and sends Gar Saxon and Rook Kast to free him.     After rebuilding himself for a bit of time, Maul regains the Darksaber and returns to Mandalore to take it over once again.     Bo-Katan, having left behind Death Watch, gets in touch with Ahsoka Tano and asks for her help in fighting off Maul, who agrees and they go to ask the Jedi and the Republic to send troops.

     While the Republic has no legal standing here--and is in danger of violating several treaties, as well as this is an invasion of a neutral planet, but Mandalore needs taking care of, because Maul is dangerous--they send enough clone troopers to defeat Maul’s Death Watch.      Ahsoka defeats Maul and Bo-Katan is left in charge of Mandalore (the clones staying behind to help clean up the mess, but within a day or two, Order 66 is enacted, the Jedi are genocided nearly out of existence, and the Empire rises, folding Mandalore into its clutches and they are no longer a neutral system.     Emperor Palpatine leaves Gar Saxon as Governor of Mandalore and the clans of Mandalore go along with this, because they are in too bad of a shape to resist. (It was a busy year, okay.) 11 Years Ago - The crew of the Ghost (from Star Wars Rebels, including Sabine Wren, of Clan Wren, of Mandalore) come across the Darksaber and take it with them.  It passes into Sabine’s possession.       Fenn Rau works to convince Sabine, as the daughter of House Wren of Mandalore, to take up the darksaber and unite Mandalore with it.  It’s a symbol of House Vizsla and the other clans greatly respect it, so if Sabine of Clan Wren, a vassal of House Vizsla, were to show up with it, she could unite them.       Sabine briefly trains with the Darksaber, but struggles to decide how to proceed with it and her contentious relationship with her family.  Returning to Krownest (a planet in the Mandalore sector, home to the Wren clan) to talk with her family, Sabine’s mother Ursa Wren gives the Darksaber to Gar Saxon. When Saxon threatens to kill off the entire Clan Wren, aiming for Ursa first, Sabine steps in to fight him with Ezra’s lightsaber, defeating him in combat for it. 10 Years Ago - Sabine Wren, having won the Darksaber in combat, rallies her family into deciding to fight back against the Empire’s occupation of Mandalore but gives the darksaber to an initially reluctant Bo-Katan Kryze.         Leaders of several clans of Mandalore swear allegiance to her and they vow to fight the Empire, after many years of living under Imperial rule.

~9-10 Years Ago - Mandalore is united under Bo-Katan’s leadership and they fight back against the Empire, but it does not go well and the Empire basically glasses Mandalore, a planet that was already devastated by years and years of civil war, the only habitable zones being under glass domes.      "Or perhaps the decommissioned Mandalorian hunter, Din Djarin, has heard the songs of the Siege of Mandalore, when gunships outfitted with similar ordnance laid waste to fields of Mandalorian recruits in the Night of a Thousand Tears." --Moff Gideon

9 Years Ago - A New Hope, the Death Star is destroyed, the crew of Rogue One die in getting the plans for it 6 Years Ago - The Empire Strikes Back 5 Years Ago - Return of the Jedi, the Second Death Star destroyed, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and Yoda all die, the early formation of the New Republic happens, Boba Fett fell into the Sarlacc pit      Operation: Cinder takes place just after Palpatine’s death, it was a backup plan devised by the Emperor that, if he should die, several key worlds would be orbitally bombed out of existence, because if the galaxy failed to keep him alive, he wanted it punished.       Not much longer after the ending of ROTJ, Boba climbs out of the Sarlacc pit and is taken prisoner by the Tusken Raiders. 0 to 5 Years Ago - It’s unclear the exact timeline of The Book of Boba Fett’s events, but he must stay with the Tuskens for several years because he was taken in by them shortly after ROTJ (4 years ago) and is shown regaining his armor in season 2 of The Mandalorian (0 years ago), which he has in the current day flashbacks of TBOBF. 4 Years Ago - The Battle of Jakku happens, widely considered when the Empire fully fell.  The wreckage on Jakku that Rey is scavenging in The Force Awakens is from the massive battle over the planet. 0 Years Ago - The Mandalorian, season 1     Din Djarin meets Grogu and is tasked with finding a Jedi to deliver him to, meeting Bo-Katan Kryze and Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker along the way.  In rescuing Grogu from a kidnapping, he wins the Darksaber in combat (end of season 2) and is still in possession of it during TBOBF.      It’s unclear how much time has passed since season 1 started, but it’s unlikely to be more than a year or so.  (Pedro Pascal said not much time passed between s1 and s2, so it’s probably safe to assume not much time passed between s2 and TBOBF, maybe a few months.)

[confused-rat]

A Rat’s List of 50 Villain’s that had a Point

So beforehand, here’s Lily’s dumbass fucking rules for the list. 

Have a point 

Successfully navigate still being a villain

Are written well

From other lists I’ve seen, I think some people have either misinterpreted or ignored the “have a point” bit. (Or maybe I have.) Having a point means the villain was correct on a certain issue, but otherwise failed with their handling of it. (Leading to the second rule, is still a villain despite having a valid point.) So I’m going to try and explain what issue each villain I’ve listed was correct on, and why they’re still a villain. 

But I’m also ignoring rule 3. Because it’s stupid. ☺️ Spoilers inbound.

Ardyn Izunia, FFXV — The point, the gods ruined his life and to correct their mistakes, set up a prophecy that would ruin/kill countless other lives in the process, forcing everyone into roles they had not consented to. Why he’s still the villain, lost himself in the role he was forced into, killing needlessly and mentally torturing others for the dramatics. 

Emet-Selch, FFXIV — The point, the world is a fractured existence, where its inhabitants live infinitely shorter and arguably strife-filled lives, their souls 1/14 of what they originally were. Reality itself is broken. Why he’s still a villain, mortals still have the right to live and better themselves and if fixing the world means mass genocide across 14 different versions of reality, maybe let it stay broken?

Nidhogg, FFXIV — The point, the Ishgardians renege on their alliance and unjustly slew his sister for power, eventually rewriting their own history to place the blame on the dragons to justify their centuries long war. Why he’s still bad, genocide is never the answer. Also was just tossing hatchlings out to war to satisfy his own hatred.

Zodiark, FFXIV — The point, was created to stop the end of the world. Did that. Quite successfully for thousands of years. Why was it still bad though? Because it was gonna sacrifice millions to fulfill the wishes of its summoners after the fact. (See: Emet-Selch)

Vayne & Venat, FFXII — The point, humanity was being controlled by fantasy mindflayers, who routinely destroyed nations to keep their status quo. Vayne and Venat wished to free humanity from them, unfortunately, they decided to do that by invading and conquering other countries and killing thousands. 

Megatron, TFA — The point, Cybertron created his people as a slave race for war and denied them basic rights. Why is he still a villain, thinks colonizing and genocide is needed to provide for his people.

Megatron, IDW — The point, Cybertron’s government was a functionalistic hellscape where dissent was punished with anything from brainwashing to amputation. Why is he still a villain, lost the plot and murdered millions, innocents who were victims of the same system he was, eventually was guilty of the same crimes as the people he originally fought against.

Megatron, TFP — The point, another functionalist society, one where dissenters were sent to gladiator pits. Why is he still a villain, became essentially a terrorist when he bombed a theme park and later whole cities, again murdering fellow victims. 

Silco, Arcane — The point, despite being ruled by the same government, the Undercity received no support from Piltover and was left poverty stricken and oppressed. Zaun deserved its independence. Silco, however, is a drug lord, so he’s still a villain.

Count Dooku, Star Wars — The point, the Jedi Council and Republic were actually corrupt. Why he’s still the villain, worked with the absolute worst person in the galaxy. He tried to fight fire with an active volcano, very not smart.

The Architect, Dragon Age: Awakening — The point, was trying to give darkspawn and other blighted creatures back their self-awareness and control, eventually stopping the Blights entirely. Why he’s still the villain, abducted Grey Wardens to drain of blood and experiment on to achieve his goals. 

Teyrn Logain, Dragon Age: Origins — The point, Orlais was actually trying to secretly conquer Fereldan through a political marriage to King Cailan. Why he’s still the villain, let hundreds of his own people die to secure the throne, including the Grey Wardens, who had nothing to do with Orlais’ plans. 

Solas, Dragon Age: Inquisition — THE POINT, WHICH HE DID HAVE, both times he fucked with the Veil, he was trying to essentially stop an unjust social hierarchal system that supported slavery. Why he’s still the villain, he admitted it would likely kill a lot of people and we do not want that actually? 

Handsome Jack, Borderlands 2 — The point, Pandora is FUCKED. It needs some kind of intervention, people are wearing face masks made of FACES. Why he’s still a villain, it’s. It’s Handsome Jack? He airlocks people for fun, and that’s TAME compared to the other shit he’s done. 

Colonel T. Zarpedon, Borderlands the Pre-Sequel — The point, wanted to prevent the powers of the Vault from being misused. (Points at Borderlands 2 and 3) How she’s still the villain, decides to blow up the moon and all the people on it to do so.

Akechi Goro, Persona 5 — The point, Shido was a vile person who appeared to be above the law as he used his influence to ruin countless lives. Why Goro’s still the villain, murdering innocents in a long-con revenge plot isn’t justified. 

Louis Guiabern, Metaphor: Refantazio — The point, he’s essentially trying to end fantasy racism. Why he’s still bad, his solution to ending said fantasy racism is nonconsensual body modification on a worldwide scale. 

The Flame Emperor, Fire Emblem: Three Houses — The point, the church was corrupt and allowed atrocities to be committed to meet its status quo. Working with arguably worse people (reluctantly) and allowing other atrocities to occur to defeat said church is still bad though.

Miquella, Elden Ring — The point, the Golden Order is flawed and shunned many of the Lands’ Between’s inhabitants. Why he’s still the villain, you can’t brainwash an entire country into being nice, that’s insane. 

Shadowlord, Nier: Gestalt/Replicant — The point, oh man, where do I fucking begin? Shades are all just disembodied souls trying to reunite with their clone vessels. If they don’t reunite, said vessels will eventually die, as both are connected. Unfortunately, the clone vessels gained sentience, dooming humanity. The Shadowlord is just trying to save his daughter/sister, but he’s essentially sacrificing another version of her to do this with neither’s consent. No bueno. 

The Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz — The point, Dorothy totally did steal her sister’s shoes off her corpse. The death was accidental, but the theft was deliberate. Theft isn’t a murdering offense though, also Toto was just a dog? Wtf. Still a villain.  

The Gnome King, Return to Oz — The point, the Emerald City did in fact steal all his emeralds. Why he’s still the villain, sore loser. Tried to eat a child. 

Shere Khan, the Jungle Book (LA) — The point, mankind sucks. That is all…. Also the wolves totally broke the rules by keeping Mowgli, they could’ve just dropped him off at a village. Why he’s still the villain, preferred child murder to relocation. 

Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty — The point, you do not FUCK with the Fae? Don’t be rude? Why she’s a villain, did not stop after making her point. Sore loser. Cursed the baby instead of the rude parents. 

Ursula, the Little Mermaid — The point, technically, Ariel made a deal with the witch of her own free will. Why she’s still the villain, also a sore loser. Sabotaged Ariel to get the trident. Not a girls girl. Boo.

The Creature, Frankenstein — The point, was shunned and ostracized by literally everyone, including the man who created him, for something beyond his control. Victor owed him (child support). Why he’s still a villain, literally killed a child to spite his creator. He literally. Killed a child. And framed the nursemaid. To torment Victor. He also threatens all Victor’s friends and family, innocent people who had NO HAND in his creation. 

Dracula, Netflix’s Castlevania — The point, radical religious zealots killed his wife (and others) unprovoked. Why is he still a villain, did not stop at the zealots. (This iteration isn’t a predator, you empty-headed fuck ass, as a MLP enjoyer, you should understand the concept of MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF ONE CHARACTER??)

Lucian, Underworld Trilogy — The point, werewolves were slaves and fantasy racism got his lover and unborn child killed. Why he’s still the villain, kidnapped and helped experiment on countless people (who also died) to create a hybrid to facilitate his revenge. 

Red Queen, Resident Evil — The point, she was literally stopping the zombie infection from breaching contamination and destroying the entire world. Why she’s still the villain, told nobody, explained nothing, boom laser hallway. 

Ozymandias, Watchmen — The point, literally just watch the movie. Dude united global powers and ended a Cold War by creating a fake obstacle to scare them, but that’s bad because he killed a lot of people to do that. 

The Count, Gankutsuou — The point, he was unjustly convicted by three corrupt men who abused their positions of power and got away scott-free for years. Still bad because he dragged many innocent people into his revenge plot. Franz did NOT deserve all that. 

Knives, Trigun Stampede — The point, humanity destroyed their own planet and was actively using his people as portable life support batteries and slowly killing them. Why he’s still the villain, genocide is not a valid solution. 

Kyubey, Madoka Magica — Fuck you Lily, Kyubey isn’t a psychopath, it’s a manipulative little shit that doesn’t have humanity’s morals. The point, the universe is dying and they’re trying to stop that. Why they’re still the villain, their solution was the emotional and physical torture of children in a never-ending cycle of despair of death. 

Bandit King Bakura, Yu Gi Oh — The point, the then Pharaoh literally massacred his entire village to create the Millennium Items. Why he’s still the villain, once you fuse with a Great God of Evil, it’s kinda hard to argue for your continued righteous vengeance. 

Shōgo Makishima, Psycho Pass — The point, the Sybil System is flawed, criminalizing innocent people while letting dangerous sociopaths like him walk free (until they get brain jarred). Why he’s still the villain, he decided to demonstrate the system’s flaws by orchestrating so. many. murders. Like. So many. 

Luke Castellans, PJO — The point, the Gods didn’t care for their kids equally and left many to fend for themselves. Why he’s still the villain, trying to murder your fellow campers cause they won’t join your cause is bad actually. 

Medusa, PJO — The point, was unfairly cursed while Poseidon got away scott-free. Why she’s still DEFINITELY a villain, turns innocent people to stone, was gonna turn a child because she’s still not over her ex, getting dealt a raw hand doesn’t excuse CHILD MURDER. 

Poseidon, Odyssey — The point, Odysseus could’ve just avoided all this if he had just killed Poseidon’s son. 🤷 Why he’s still the villain, he would’ve raised the tides so high that all of Ithaca would’ve died, cause he had beef with ONE (1) MORTAL MAN. 

Lord Cutler Beckett, Pirates of the Caribbean — The point, uhhh. This may come as a surprise, but. Pirates… bad? Why he’s still a villain, he did not stop at pirates. Blackmailed and killed basically bystanders. ACAB. 

The Bane, The Underland Chronicles — The point, the Underlanders were originally a colonizing force that poisoned and killed the original inhabitants of the caves they took for their own. Why he’s still a villain, HE EATS PEOPLE? Many of the species underground are sentient and HE EATS THEM?

Tsaritsa/Fatui, Genshin Impact — The point, Celestia has a chokehold on humanity, controlling people’s fates and harshly punishing any dissent. They need to be stopped. Why they’re still villains, essentially is fighting fire with fire, manipulating Nations and experimenting on/killing folks to pursue their own goals to topple Celestia. 

Tsumugi Shirogane, Danganronpa V3 — The point, just doing her job, allegedly the entire class signed up willingly to play the Death Game. Why she’s still the villain, broke her own rules, also, cool motive, still murder?

Chris Walker, Outlast — The point, is trying to keep a highly dangerous swarm of nanites from breaking containment. Why he’s still the villain, does this by breaking others’ spines. And necks. And everything really.

Charioce XVII, Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul — The point, Bahamut is a world ending threat that almost succeeded two separate times in the past, and was guaranteed to awaken again in the imminent future to finish the job. Charioce wanted to stop it. However, waging a war with Heaven and enslaving the demon race to build a weapon to combat it was an awful way to go about it.

William Moriarty, Moriarty the Patriot — The point, England’s class system was allowing the rich to get away with absolutely abhorrent crimes. Murder is still murder though. 

Azure Lion, Lego Monkie Kid — The point, the celestial realm really doesn’t care about the mortal realm and is arguably very corrupt. Why he’s still a villain, broke the universe despite multiple people telling him to Not Do That. 

Toffee, SVTFOE — The point, wanted to get rid of magic, which kind of did fuck a lot of people over. Why he’s still the villain, child murder 🎶 is not 🎶 okay! 🎶

Oropo, Wakfu — The point, sought to replace seemingly uncaring gods with their abandoned offspring. Why he’s still the villain, was going to nuke the world to topple said gods. 

Julith, Dofus — The point, was unjustly framed for the murder of her lover because of fantasy racism. Why she is still the villain, sacrificing a stadium’s worth of souls to bring back your deceased lover is not okay.  

Prince Nuada, Hellboy 2 — The point, humanity had forgotten its truce with the Fae and was actively poisoning the planet. Dooming Nuada’s people and other creatures to a slow death and extinction. Why he’s still bad, genocide 👏 is not 👏 a valid 👏 solution!!

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 21 July 1936 one of the most iconic photos of the Spanish civil war was taken on the rooftop terrace of what is now the Iberostar/Apple store buildings in Barcelona. Taken by German photographer Hans Gutmann, the photo depicts 17-year-old socialist, Marina Ginestà. Although she is captured holding a rifle, it is doubtful that Ginestà actually fought on the front lines during the war. Instead, as she was partially brought up in France and spoke fluent French, Catalan and Spanish she worked as a journalist during the war and more notably as a translator and interpreter for the Soviet correspondent form the Pravda newspaper, Mijaíl Koltsov. Gutmann had come to Barcelona to cover the anti-fascist Popular Olympiad games and at the onset of the war decided to stay to cover the conflict. He then castilized his name to Juan Guzmán. A communist himself, he had easy access to what was formerly the Hotel Colón, a building taken over by the PSUC (the Catalan Socialist Unification Party) where he took many of his renowned photos. When the photo was taken of young Ginestà she never had held a rifle in her hands - Guzmán offered it to her to pose with and the same rifle appears in another photo in the same hotel of the writer Ludwig Renn. Ginestà survived the war and fled to France as a refugee. She later escaped the Second World War by fleeing to the Dominican Republic. With the rise of the dictatorship under Trujillo Ginestà moved to Venezuela where she settled for many years working as a journalist and a novelist. In 2014 she passed away in Paris, France aged 94. Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcasts episode 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=665675658938986&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[reconstructionlegacy]

Ngani Zho Coerced Custody Of Theron

[Zho] had told the Jedi Council and the leaders of the Republic military that he had sent Satele on a vital mission— something he could not speak of for fear of endangering her life. Given Master Zho’s impeccable reputation, none had questioned him. Now, however, the mission was over. It was time for her to return; the Republic had fought too long without their champion. The Sith Empire’s relentless advance had gone too far. She could no longer ignore the Republic’s need. [...] “You promised you would take him,” Satele said softly, gazing down into the child’s wide, wondering eyes. “I will,” Ngani assured her. “If that’s still what you want.” “What I want has nothing to do with it,” she muttered as she reluctantly handed the child back to her Master. [...] As he took the child from her arms, the moment of greatest joy she would ever know ended.

— Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation

BACKGROUND

Ngani Zho trained, according to Lost Suns (admittedly according to Zho the manipulator), Satele Shan, Syo Bakarn, Jaric Kaedan, and Bela Kiwiiks. Obviously, that is not possible for full Padawans, and Satele was under Kao Cen Darach's mentorship in the first trailer (and then he died), so my theory here is that Zho stepped in to "foster" mentor at least some of these promising young Jedi (and gain influence with them).

WHAT HAPPENED

Zho was somehow trusted by the Council (maybe because he partially trained a third of them). Satele became pregnant, went to Zho for advice, and rather than saying "let's talk to the Council, the normal Jedi support structure, which trusts me," he said "I will cover this up. For you." Like a favour.

He said to the Council that she was on a mission, which put a time limit on the 'plan' ("Always with the plan, aren't you?" Zho asks Theron in Lost Suns). By lying to the Council on her behalf, he made it impossible to go to them for support, or at the least heavily implied to Satele that her pregnancy was somehow wrong or shameful.

By isolating Satele from everyone but himself, and putting a time limit on her seclusion, he arranged for her to have no real choice but to give him custody of Theron. (The scion of a powerful bloodline... and possibly even blackmail material against the future Grand Master.)

Then, having secured the custody of Theron, he proceeded to isolate him as he had isolated Satele, and thoroughly abuse him. This is detailed in Lost Suns, and I will not detail it here; suffice to say it began at the earliest when Theron was five, and Theron's life was endangered by Zho, who abandoned Theron upon realizing he was not Force-sensitive.

(SOME OF) THE AFTERMATH

Years later, when Theron is an SIS officer, under convoluted plot circumstances (that is: the plot of Lost Suns), he reencounters Zho. Zho takes another young person, Teff'ith, under his wing, which Theron is unhappy about. (Teff'ith asks Theron, who has used the term 'childhood trauma' about Zho by this point, and will later elaborate with horrific detail that I, once more, decline to repeat, "Scared of him?". Theron says 'no' - you know, like a liar. Anyway -)

(My theory is that Zho was Star Cabal, Revanite, or both, and wanted complete control of the training of the Blood Of Revan... but fuck knows why he did any of this. Your guess is as good as mine.)

I do think, in the text, Zho's treatment of Theron is framed as abhorrent, especially given the cited and open trauma and abuse. There is also a line in Annihilation about him glaring at Satele in a way that reminds me of Theron's textual panic attack when Satele mentions Zho to him elsewhere in the book. Given this, I think it is an entirely reasonable conclusion, even ignoring the fact that he is baby-stealing Jedi georg, the only Jedi known to have actually stolen a baby, that he mistreated Satele, too.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

At any rate - Ngani Zho coerced Satele into giving him custody of Theron. Theron does not know this, and assumes Satele chose freely to gave him up.

We can't know what her decision would have been, because she didn't truly get to make one. She may have chosen to give Theron up. She may not have. But as it was, as it happened, she did not have a genuine choice.

TL;DR: Tie-in material makes it quite clear that Ngani Zho, the "Master Zho" in one of Theron's combat lines, coerced Satele into giving the infant Theron into his custody. This was terrible for everyone involved, except Zho.

[whencyclopedia]

Ptolemaic Dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Macedonian royal family that ruled Ptolemaic Egypt from 323 to 30 BCE. It was founded by Ptolemy I, a general and successor of Alexander the Great. They built Alexandria, including the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Great Library of Alexandria. The dynasty ended when Rome conquered Egypt in the reign of Cleopatra VII.

The dynasty presented themselves as both Greek kings and Egyptian pharaohs. They never assimilated into Egyptian culture, and their reign began a process of Greek immigration and acculturation in Egypt. The dynasty practiced incestuous marriage, with most rulers marrying close relatives.

The Ptolemaic Empire expanded rapidly before civil wars, territorial losses, and natural disasters weakened it in the 2nd century BCE. The final generations of Ptolemies were reliant on the Roman Republic for military support.

Origins

The Ptolemaic dynasty was founded by Ptolemy I (336-282 BCE), son of Macedonian nobles Lagos and Arsinoe. Ptolemy was one of Alexander's somatophylakes, trusted bodyguards and generals. The dynasty later encouraged a myth that Ptolemy was really the illegitimate son of Philip II of Macedon (r. 359-336 BCE), making him Alexander the Great's half-brother.

Ptolemy was present during Alexander's conquest of Egypt (332 BCE), which was under the oppressive rule of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander was welcomed by the Egyptian people and proclaimed pharaoh in Memphis. He made offerings to the Egyptian gods, demonstrating his desire to uphold Egyptian tradition, a policy that the Ptolemies would imitate. He also founded Alexandria, a classical Greek city on the coast of Egypt.

visited the oracle of Ammon. But perhaps more significant for the future was Alexander's assumption of the religious titles and honors of the Egyptian king, especially upholding the kingship's linkage to the god Ptah, which ensured the lasting support of his priesthood, a significant factor that continued into the time of Cleopatra.

(Chauveau, chapter 2)

The death of Alexander the Great in Babylon in 323 BCE created a dispute over who would inherit his empire. His half-brother Philip Arrhidaeus was eventually named king, and Alexander and Roxanne's son Alexander IV of Macedon became co-ruler after his birth. Perdiccas took the role of regent, making him effectively its ruler. Alexander's generals, called the Diadochi (lit. "successors" in Greek), became satraps of its provinces. Ptolemy was made satrap of Egypt, the wealthiest and most desirable province.

The Diadochi, including Ptolemy, Seleucus I Nicator, Lysimachus, Crateros, and Antipater, resisted Perdiccas' attempts to control them. In 321 BCE, Ptolemy stole Alexander's mummified body from Perdiccas, who was attempting to bring it back to Macedon. Ptolemy buried Alexander in Memphis, later moving the body to Alexandria, to strengthen his connection to Alexander's legacy. This theft escalated the tension between Ptolemy and Perdiccas, who unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was killed by his own mutinying troops.

Ptolemy I Soter

Marie-Lan Nguyen (Public Domain)

Philip Arrhidaeus was murdered in 317 BCE, followed by Alexander IV in 310 BCE. The Diadochi finally proclaimed themselves autonomous kings in 306 BCE. This act formally established the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled for another 300 years. The Wars of the Diadochi and their descendants fighting over territory resulted in the Syrian Wars (274-168 BCE) fought between the Ptolemies and the Seleucid Empire. Ptolemy I conquered Cyprus, Cyrene, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia, forming the basis of the Ptolemaic Empire.

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