#and like corpse desecration

[mylittlestims]

Day 9 of heartnosehalloween: something / someone you’d love to dress up as for halloween

(X) (X) (X)

(X) (X) (X)

(X) (X) (X)

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[xantchaslegacy]

[silna-pdf]

Reforged into demise

Afflicted by dread, I strike you down

Prepare the funeral dirge

As it was told

[merchantphoto]

our upscaled and enhanced photo of Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) with his arm on House's (Hugh Laurie) shoulder at House's dad's funeral

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

The Many Names of Peace (pt.2/?): Compassion

Inspired by Why We Did Nothing by BairnSidhe

Part I | Part II

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Genocide (discussed). The Dral'han/Excision is mentioned and spoken about for a few paragraphs.

Child murder (discussed). Padawan hunting is haunts the narrative, and one of the victims was the main character's brother.

Corpse desecration (mentioned). Padawan braids and beads are found in Mandalorian art and stolen Lightsabers are carried on belts.

Missing children (discussed). A Master and a very young Padawan have disappeared in a high risk field post.

"But… still" Terith swallows hard, shaking their head. They don't like it, but they understand where the Jetiise of that time were coming from. But the present… "The Dral'han was a time long ago, and you offer much to nearly everyone else. Yet you never reach that benevolent hand toward Mandalore. You've never even tried to repair what they destroyed." 

Terith has seen Manda'yaim. They know how much damage the Dral'han did to the planet. They know many people died, they know entire Clans were wiped out from existance. Sometimes, they wonder how many of the dead had nobody left to say the Remembrances for them.

The Jetiise did nothing. Even if Terith can understand why, it doesn't absolve them. A genocide, the blood of a people, is on their hands.

"We will." Zahara responds, with the easy confidence that comes from faith in her people, from the knowledge of what they have done to help everybody, even those who hurt them.

"That claim has been unfounded so far, Jetii" Terith shoots back, not as angry as before but still furious over the lack of action from those who are supposed to be the guardians of peace and justice. "Despite every petition for aid and reconciliation, despite Mand'alor after Mand'alor swallowing their pride for the sake of their people. Of course people call you heartless, why shouldn't they, when you show no sign of that compassion you claim to uphold? I bet you don't even consider Mandalore beyond History lessons on the barbarians from the Outer Rim."

Zahara can't help it. She chuckles. The Mandalorian doesn't know, cannot imagine how wrong they are. But this time it's only ignorance, and ignorance can be fixed.

Delahm, kyii leo’yth.

"It's actually a favorite assignment for young Jedi Service Corps members" the kage Jedi says wryly. "How to save you, when you exist so close to destruction every day. It's used to teach problem solving, since there are a million ways to do it. I'm not a Service Corps member so I'll admit my knowledge is limited, but according to my… friends, the Corps have been collecting the best ideas for… over seven hundred and sixty years, actually."

Under their buy'ce, Terith's jaw drops. They try to speak, but it only comes out as a wordless sound of disbelief.

"We don't just consider your suffering, we have plans to end it, and we will." Zahara adds, seeing as the Mandalorian is too surprised and confused to interrupt her. Then she shrugs, there are more decisions involved than she has power over —the Senate will have the final say. "One day. Maybe."

"What do you mean maybe?!" Terith demands. "You Jetiise get some sort of sick pleasure of having the keys to saving my people and do nothing to help us out, all for some grudge against long dead Mando'ade?!"

"Who said 'long dead'?!" Zahara snarls, feeling the familiar sharp cold of fury curling in her stomach, her mind conjuring the memory of a light snuffed out, and a familiar braid hanging from a different set of armor.

The Mandalorian's fury swirls in the Force, and it takes all of Zahara's willpower to ignore it. Her mental shields will be metaphorical splinters at this rate. She grits her teeth and slowly breathes in and out.

Kai’an. Soo’yth, kyii kai’an. Bexlyth, kyii maijah.

"If we stood by once because our lives and memories are long, yes, it was petty, cruel and beneath us" Zahara agrees easily. It was wrong and, even if she understands their reaction emotionally, the Shadow will make no attempt to justify it. Unfortunately, there is the milodon in the room yet to adress, and it seems like Terith will not get it until she spells it out for them. "But is pettiness, is it cruelty, to protect our people now? From very real and current threats?

"We will give you the plans, we will give you our aid, we will grant you our forgiveness and friendship" Zahara places her right hand over her heart, in the kage gesture of oath taking. "We will give you everything… when the hunts, murders and desecrations stop."

"Wait. Wait. What do you mean when they stop?!" Terith questions, fighting against rising horror. "The Jetii hunts happened centuries ago…!"

"Two of my Siblings are dead at Mandalorian hands" Zahara cuts them off. Fire burns in her eyes as she remembers the desecrations she's seen, the braids and beads decorating tapestries, the Lightsabers hanging from unworthy belts. She understands ignorance, but she will not let this armored aristocrat dictate a rewrite her of people's tragedy. The kage Jedi will not allow Terith to look away from what their people have done. "The most recent Mandalorian murders of Jedi were mere months ago."

The Jetii steps foward, and Terith takes a step back. The most recent. Two vod dead at the hands of Mando'ade. She makes no more attempts to approach them, but Terith isn't fooled. They know the rumors of Jetiise being able to kill people with their minds. Even without armor, even without weapons —although they doubt she doesn't carry a kad'au, since all Jetiise seem to—, even tied up and blindfolded, the near-human Jetii is one of, if not the, most dangerous being in the area.

"You only draw breath because I don't see braids or beads decorating your armor" Zahara says slowly, wanting to make sure the message sinks in. "Thus I'm going to assume you've killed no younglings of my people, at least recently. As a show of kindness and goodwill. Like I've said before, Jedi are merciful."

There's an explosion close by. The building shakes, and Zahara pulls herself out of her memories. She's not here to get justice that borders on revenge —if it isn't outright—, she's here to find the missing Jaieh-Padawan pair that got caught in the crossfire of her homeplanet's war.

"If you, or any with you, have harmed the Knight or, Force forbid, the missing youngling I'm trying to find" she whispers, so low Terith's buy'ce almost doesn't pick it up, "I'm going to, without a care for the Code against murder and revenge and the Republic restrictions on my people, tear you apart limb from limb."

"Wait. Wait. There's an adiika in this mess?!" Terith exclaims in alarm. "What happened?!"

Zahara sighs, feeling all the anger leave her as quickly as it came. The unexpected reaction from the Mandalorian has knocked all the fight out of her. So, she falls back on the same base all Jedi rely on: the sharing of knowledge.

"A long story involving a Master taking in a youngling older than usual despite the Republic's restrictions, which started a chain reaction of massive proportions" Zahara doesn't say what the massive proportions are. One would need to be a Jedi and have all the details, otherwise they'd find it ridiculous. She's a Jedi and knows the details and still finds it ridiculous. "Said chain reaction led to the Master getting killed in the middle of a war and his grieving Padawan being Knighted in a rush in order to raise and train the youngling."

Terith's heart goes out for the adiika and their cabur. Poor Jet'verd, promoted too soon after the death of their mentor and having to take care of a grieving and lost ad.

"Somehow, this led to the Jaieh-Padawan pair being sent to mediate a corporate dispute on this kriffing planet in the middle of a war, which is not a training post, it's a high risk field post" the Jetii goes on, and her worry for the missing adiika is genuine. "Particularly because of its proximity to space marked as Knight and Master only, because our Padawans, our younglings, don't come back."

"You mean Mandalorian space" Terith says, and there's something in their voice. Not acceptance or understanding, but… resignation. A willingness not to question the Jedi's experiences.

"Yeah" Zahara agrees, "I do."

(Notes under the cut)

Dai Bendu

Delahm, kyii leo’yth — ignorance, yet knowledge

Kai'an — inner balance, inner peace

Soo’yth, kyii kai’an — emotion, yet peace

Bexlyth, kyii maijah — passion, yet serenity

Mando'a

Jetiise — Jedi (plural)

Jetii — Jedi (singular)

Manda'yaim — lit. "Home of the Mandalorian soul", planet Mandalore

Buy'ce — helmet

Mando'ade — Mandalorians. Lit "children of Mandalore"

Kad'au — Lightsaber

Adiika — child, kid, someone under thirteen.

Cabur — guardian, person who's taking care of a child but isn't their parent.

Dral'han is the orbital bombardment of Mandalore, done by the Republic in roughly 800BBY. As Terith says, entire Clans were wiped out from existance. They understand why the Jedi didn't do anything (in fact, they're self-aware enough to know they'd do worse), but they're still angry, rightfully so. Zahara knows it too, makes no attempt to justify it, and explains that most Jedi know it was fucked up and are making plans for reparations.

Terith: *says Mandalorians have attempted reconciliation, that the Mandalorians who kill Jedi Padawans are all dead and that Jedi don't consider the Mandalorians' plight* Zahara: Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong.

Zahara means her enishee and Padawan-sibling. She stumbles over the words because there is no good translation in Basic.

"Over seven hundred and sixty years" AKA since the Dral'han.

Milodons are huge, insect-like animals native to Quarzite, the kages' home planet. Kage Warriors often use them as mounts. And, because kage memory is Like That, Zahara has fond memories of riding a milodon as a toddler. Like most other Jedi, Zahara is very close to the culture she was born in and has incorporated many Kage Warrior traditions into her life (now I'll have brain-rot about this fictional culture we know literally nothing about in order to flesh out Zahara more, yay!).

The right hand over the heart (left side of the chest for kages, humans and kiffars, varies in other species) is the kage gesture of oath taking. However, it's also a Mandalorian salute. Terith is a bit confused, but easily and correctly guesses it's a gesture of oath taking, but incorrectly assumes it's a Jedi one.

"We will help you once we are sure you won't murder our children" is not exactly an unreasonable demand. Unfortunately, many Mandalorians don't know it's still happening because bigots and Jedi hunters have learned to hide their…hobbies. So, to them, it looks like the Jedi still hold a grudge for something that happened (under their point of view, remember different species have widely different lifespans and memories) a long time ago. It's common in fanfiction to depict Mandalorians as diverse, but in the many canonical sources I've checked (Disney and Legends), while there has been alien ancestry mentioned (which isn't a feat considering the size of the galaxy), those considered Mandalorians are nearly always human. It's weird. So I've decided that there are multiple species among Mandalorians, but most of them are near-humans (trogutas, zabraks, twi'leks, kiffars, kages, etc), not netis, kel dors or whatever species Yoda is, so they don't have members of long-lived species that lived through the Excision or the New Sith Wars, unlike the Jedi who do have first hand accounts.

"Two of my Siblings are dead at Mandalorian hands" Drovan her crechemate is the first "sibling" of Zahara's killed by Mandalorians. The other (who hasn't come up yet) is Feemor. Feemor was registered as a Watchman and a Finder, although he was actually a Shadow, and adored kids. His death kickstarts a chain reaction of events of epic, galactic-wide proportions, so any details will be spoilers (Zahara says siblings because there is no good word in Basic to describe Jedi relationships She once claimed Basic sucks as a teenager and hasn't backed down since)

For the record, I'd like to state the Battle of Galindraan has already happened here. I want to state that, despite common fandom misconception, the Mandalorians shot first. While the Jedi had their Lightsabers drawn (perfectly reasonable considering the Mandalorians are enemies nearly as ancient as the Sith), they were a fair distance away and couldn't attack unless they were reflecting blaster shots ie. self defense.

"Armored aristocrat". This misunderstanding is a result of a cultural miscommunication. In the past (when Tarre Vizla was alive and Jedi-Mandalorian relationships were "enemy of my enemy" rather than complete animosity), only those born in important Houses (Vizla, Wren and Kryze) could afford a full beskar armor (those Houses have a few hundred people each). Beskar is, after all, rare and expensive. This is why Zahara assumes Terith is from a noble House, which in her mind translates to "aristocratic bastard". However, the gorane decided, at some point when the Houses' influence had dimmed, to dilute and alloy beskar with other more common and less expensive metals, both to make their jobs easier and to give more people armor. This, paired with the recent trend of passing down armor through families, most Mandalorians have their own beskar'gam instead of just the kar'ta (heart of the armor, where the sigil representing Clan and faction is).

To add to the above point, choosing to make Wren and Vizla important Houses was because, in TCW, it's mentioned that most people want Satine as a ruler and are in favor of, at least, most of her policies and reforms, but the warrior elite hates her guts (which implies most Mandalorians aren't actually warriors, unlike what fanon seems to believe, only the elite can be warriors).

Said warrior elite founded Death Watch to commit terrorism and scare the people enough that they'd accept them ruling with an iron fist. Death Watch members are basically privileged nobles and aristocrats throwing a temper tantrum because they can't get away with being assholes anymore.

The mission to Quarzite was supposed to be simple and easy enough for a young Knight and their very young Padawan. But the Senate is careless with Jedi lives, and sends them on missions understaffed or with faulty intel every other time. A missing Padawan, particularly a Padawan as young as the one missing, is cause for alarm. Hence why Zahara was pulled from the investigation of Feemor's murder and sent to find the missing Knight and Padawan. The Council isn't very optimistic, but they want to have corpses to burn, Lightsabers and kybers to honor them and some consolation of knowing what happened to them.

In case it wasn't clear, the Knight and Padawan that went missing in the middle of a warzone are Obi-Wan and Anakin. Because of course they are, it's Obi-Wan and Anakin we're talking about.

The war Zahara mentions is the one between kages and belugans. The belugans have been subjugating the kages for centuries, and the kages fighting back caused the start of a war. Anakin and Obi-Wan were supposed to negotiate a standard and boring corporate dispute between two belugan corporations. However, Anakin is beginning to learn bad behaviors (mainly from Palpatine) and decided to do something stupidly reckless.

"Somehow". Indeed, the Jedi have no fucking idea of how all those events even fit together. Then they realize Obi-Wan and Anakin are members of Yoda's line and go "yeah that makes sense." Feemor is the only sane one in that crazy lineage, and he's a fucking Shadow that busts slave rings in his downtime!

[fincalinde]

you’ve mentioned a few times in your meta that you view nmj as being hypocritical, and i’m inclined to agree with you! would you share some specific quotes from the text that you feel especially support this reading of his character? 👀

It is one of my favourite words to apply to him, isn’t it! I think that’s because a) it’s true, and b) NMJ’s reputation for righteousness (and his belief in his own righteousness) grant an in-universe illusion of consistency that often bleeds through to external readings of him. So I press the point, because it’s fundamental to his character and I usually see it elided or reduced to all-bark-and-no-bite-grumpy-bear-with-a-heart-of-gold fanon NMJ.

And oh yes, there’s an absolute wealth of quotes supporting this. As always, I use the EXR fan translation because I’m old school.

Christ, this got long. Click for more.

It’s all relative, man

First we need to establish what NMJ’s principles supposedly are.

[Nie Huaisang’s] brother, Nie Mingjue, was extremely resolute when carrying out orders, quite renowned in the cultivation world. […] Nie Mingjue had always taught his younger brother with extreme harshness, particularly caring for his studies. (Chapter 13)

[…] he took over the Nie Sect before he even reached twenty, doing everything in a direct, forceful fashion. (Chapter 21)

When he lived, Nie Mingjue was often exasperated by the fact that his brother didn’t meet expectations, so he disciplined him strictly. (Chapter 21)

In spite of Nie Mingjue being a junior to Jin Guangshan, he conducted himself in a strict manner and refused to tolerate Xue Yang no matter what. (Chapter 30)

Without any hesitation, Nie Mingjue scolded, “Drinking the water he brought you while speaking such spiteful words! Did you join my forces not to kill the Wen-dogs but to make idle talk?!” (Chapter 48)

“A proper man should carry himself with proud righteousness. There’s no need to care for the talk of those idlers.” (Chapter 48)

As we can see, NMJ is all about righteousness, but we don’t get too many details confirming what that righteousness entails. We’re expected to make assumptions based on context: that his values are in line with the ideal values of his society, and that he’s living his life according to those principles (and enforcing said principles on others).

This is worth keeping in mind. We know NMJ is ‘righteous’. We know, in a general sense, what societal standards for morality are in this setting and we see the tension between society’s theoretical standards, its actual standards, and the moral frameworks of characters such as WWX and LXC. And there’s tension between those standards and NMJ’s moral framework, too. But though WWX attempts (and fails) to opt out and LXC attempts (and fails) to find a better way through open conversation and consideration of context, their failures are not due to hypocrisy but instead larger forces at play. In other words, they go up against society and society wins.

NMJ has a problem with society too, but for him the problem is not with its rules and assumptions—it’s with the individuals who make it up. He has no problem with the system. To NMJ, the system is a good thing. If only the people in it would rigidly conform to the rules, everything would be fine. And an outlook like that can only ever lead to hypocrisy, not just because human beings and their actions don’t fit into rigid categories, but because by not attempting to navigate the system (LXC, JGY, JC) or even attempting to opt out (WWX, LWJ, XY), NMJ positions himself above society, as a moral arbiter.

This is why he feels entitled to upbraid JGS, who is a generation above him. It’s why he feels entitled to harass and attempt to murder JGY for not being loyal to NMJ over and above his filial duty to his father. These actions are after he’s reached the point of no return with the sabre spirit, yes, but they didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s just the nadir of a path he’s been on presumably his entire life.

All the information is on the task

NMJ is very good at bending his supposedly rigid principles when it’s convenient for him, while not offering any grace or understanding to others who do the same. And ‘others’, let’s be real, usually equates to JGY. The horror vortex of NMJ’s obsession with controlling JGY really cannot be escaped.

Let’s start with the biggie. JGY is naturally the one who calls NMJ out, because he’s the only one who can see the emperor has no clothes, and by clothes I mean leg to stand on.

“But, Brother, I have always wanted to ask you something—the lives under your hands are in any regard more than those under mine, so why is it that I only killed a few cultivators out of desperation and you keep on bringing it up, even until now?” (Chapter 48)

“Are you saying that all of the people you killed deserved their deaths? […] Then, may I ask, just how do you decide if someone deserves death? Are your standards absolutely correct? If I kill one but save hundreds, would the good outweigh the bad, or would I still deserve death? To do great things, sacrifices must happen.” (Chapter 48)

Chifeng-zun, my man, he has nailed you. The point is not to start drawing equivalences in quite the way JGY is doing—I would certainly argue that if you’re killing undeserving people for the greater good you’d better have one hell of a greater good to be aiming for, even in the crapsack world of MDZS. JGY’s argument is partly a numbers game, but I want to set that aside, because it’s a distraction from his core point, to which numbers are irrelevant: can NMJ truly justify every single murder he has ever committed? Because if he can’t, he’s condemned by his own supposed standards. Note JGY’s use of the word ‘absolute’. NMJ is a moral absolutist! Is he absolutely sure? And if he is sure, does it matter that he’s sure? Why is his certainty more important than anyone else’s?

NMJ never once grapples with these questions. If he did, he might be able to pull the teeth of his own hypocrisy by acknowledging it and engaging with it. But of course he’s not capable of that, certainly not by the time of this scene.

And speaking of NMJ’s hypocrisy re: who does and doesn’t deserve to die…

“Very well! I’ll kill myself after I kill you!” (Chapter 49)

But Roquen, you cry! NMJ says such an utterly mad thing because he’s battered and beaten and not thinking clearly, not to mention past the point of no return with the sabre spirit as he’s been cultivating with resentful energy intensely throughout the war! That’s why he walks it back after LXC intervenes!

To which I say: it is almost as though context matters!

And yes, I’m aware of the context. I’m aware that just before this bit of dialogue the narrative claims JGY pointing out ‘if I hadn’t killed them you’d be dead’ is a subtle way of saying ‘you can’t kill me because you owe me your life’ as though that’s purely manipulative rather than being, you know, true. ‘Even if you refuse to accept I acted for the best, please don’t kill me and I’m going to subtly remind you that you owe me to maximise my chances of getting you to not kill me (after I just risked my life to save yours when it would have been 100x better for me personally if you died)’ is hardly an outrageous position.

It’s interesting, though, isn’t it, that NMJ never again mentions taking his own life as a matter of principle, despite the fact that he subsequently attempts to murder JGY again for the apparently unforgivable crime of … not being able to overrule his abusive father about XY, and then having the temerity to complain to LXC about NMJ’s attempt to murder him.

Obviously the Jin are a huge threat after the war, but these are all pretty feeble reasons for piling on JGY. Sure, maybe JGY would also have tried to protect XY if JGS weren’t around, but the fact is that JGS is around and he’s calling the shots. Besides, once JGS is out of the picture JGY has no issue disposing of XY (with Dr Evil levels of ineptness, apparently), so that’s a fairly decent indicator he’s not ride or die. As for the fact that JGY is making nice to NMJ’s face but complaining behind his back, well. Regardless of any genuine desire to vent to his only friend, I have no doubt he was indeed trying to drive a wedge between NMJ and LXC as a strategic move. But is it wrong of him to do so, considering NMJ is a genuine and present threat to his life and LXC is just not getting it? And does any of the above, including his struggle to maintain his position and all the other work he does for his father mean he deserves death—immediate, extrajudicial and violent death?

Let me put it this way. NMJ is making JGY responsible for his father’s actions and his father’s orders—the question of whether JGY is on board with his father’s instructions is academic, because he has no choice in the matter. JGY cannot opt out of his situation. The only opt out is death, and that is not a meaningful choice because no one else is getting vilified for having the audacity to fight for their place in their world rather than lie down and die. And even if JGY really were a cackling supervillain 100% on board with his father’s diabolical plans, NMJ’s focus on him to the exclusion of JGS is driven by emotion and not by a rational evaluation of the morality and logistics of the situation.

And when he’s insisting that JGY deserves death (and trying to mete it out to him) NMJ never again considers for a moment whether, if JGY really deserves to die, then maybe he does too.

As a third example, to make it a hat trick, we have this:

However, Jin Guangyao wasn’t his subordinate anymore. Only after they became sworn brothers would he have the status and the position to urge Jin Guangyao, like how he disciplined his younger brother, Nie Huaisang. (Chapter 49)

“Brother, it really was my father’s orders. I couldn’t refuse. Now. if you want me to take care of Xue Yang, what would I say to him?” (Chapter 49)

NMJ is perfectly aware that according to the rules of their society and the moral framework he himself subscribes to, JGY’s highest authority is his father. But NMJ can’t accept that. He thinks he should be the ultimate authority over JGY, and though he couches it in moral terms about wanting JGY to follow the correct path, what he really means is what he himself considers to be the correct path. As always, he doesn’t listen to JGY’s perfectly valid points about how it’s not possible for him to do the ‘right’ thing as he just doesn’t have that kind of authority and will only end up making his own life worse. I don’t have a quote demonstrating this, but considering everything we know about NMJ, I think we can infer he would not take kindly to JGY ordering NHS to do something futile and self-destructive in the name of the correct path, purely on the grounds that JGY is now his elder brother.

I’ll acknowledge again that JGY is absolutely an accomplice in his father’s schemes, and the originator of a fair few of them since he’s politically gifted. But it’s just not possible to untangle JGY’s complicity from his need (and his right!) to survive. NMJ is correct to be concerned about JGY as a risk, because he’s a huge asset to JGS. But once again, making JGY a target is not the moral or even the sensible thing to do. We know JGY enjoys aspects of what his father asks him to do. We also know that once his father is out of the picture he gets rid of XY, purges the Jin of corruption and pushes through the watchtower project. When he has agency as a clan leader he doesn’t follow his father’s political agenda to the letter, to say the least! So there is certainly a large dollop of truth in his claims that he has no choice and he’s unhappy and vulnerable.

And then a bonus, something not linked to JGY to demonstrate that NMJ’s hypocrisy extends beyond his personal vendetta.

Nie Mingjue spoke coldly. “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.” (Chapter 73)

Charming. Funny how NMJ says this after spending the war fighting on the same side as the guy who invented demonic cultivation and controls an army of desecrated corpses, violating every possible social and cultural principle they have. But the Sunshot Campaign would have failed without WWX’s contributions, so I suppose NMJ thought that compromise was acceptable. It’s all right for him to stay silent and not oppose WWX, since WWX has been useful to his own agenda. What’s not acceptable is staying silent when the consequence is your own violent death and literally no good whatsoever being achieved thereby.

Aside from being a hypocrite, NMJ is also pathologically incapable of self-reflection.

Finish him!

At the end of the day, NMJ’s principles are inherently contradictory because he’s living in morally relative world where the narrative expects us to take context into account and root for a protagonist who brutally tortures his enemies to death and a romantic lead who find+replaces his ethical framework with ‘Wei Ying’.

It is simply not possible for NMJ to be both righteous and rigid, so when he chooses to be rigid he foregoes being righteous. Even in his moments of flexibility, he continues to apply harsh standards to others that he refuses to apply to himself. That’s what makes him a hypocrite. He isn’t a bastion of absolute morality in a sea of corruption. He’s in denial about the nuanced reality he’s living in, and placing himself on high as a moral authority with no actual mandate. Hypocrisy inevitably results, and the consequences are hugely damaging to everyone around him.

[chronostutter]

orin is everything to me. what if everyone in ur family just fucking hated you because instead of murdering in a normal way you decided to make little art projects out of your victims. faerun hates to see a woman with silly hobbies

[adriles]

im starting to think you guys dont know anything about war crimes and youre only saying you like when i do them because you want to FUCK me

[tavina-writes]

Hey, about the gui dao stuff. Is WWX, like, ruining all those corpses chances at reincarnating when he raises them from the dead?? Because that would in fact uh. be very bad.

Like, the autonomy re: dead people is already skeevy but if he’s also ruining their chances at a next life…

Well! Traditionally, the philosophy is that you can't reincarnate and will be doomed to wander the world as a hungry ghost never to enter the afterlife if you don't die and are buried with a "whole corpse."

This is why traditionally it's hard to get people to go for organ donation btw, it means you uhhhh you're giving up your ability to enter the afterlife. Since your organs are wandering around in someone else's body after you die, you will never be able to journey to the afterlife and onto the next and will end up a hungry resentful ghost etc etc.

(fun fact: imperial eunuchs kept their bits in a jar so they could be buried with those so they could reincarnate. This was so important to them because it concerned their next lives. That's how important this whole corpse thing was, and in some parts, still is!)

I assume that uh, if you know your corpse gets raised in necromancy and then you lose a hand in the war as a corpse etc you also uhhh do not get to go to the afterlife unless WWX came back to bury all those corpses and sort out whose limbs are whose. Which. Well I kinda doubt he was doing that and unless we get scenes or lines about him respectfully re-burying the bodies he raised uh, yeah those people are shit out of luck re: afterlife and the next life lmao.

(This is also why chopping up NMJ's fierce corpse was kinda bad btw.)

This is especially bad in a world where ghosts physically manifest and exist! Which! They do in MDZS!

[sforzesco]

Do you think there s any parallels to Brutus and Cleopatra, after they each have to bury Cassius and Mark Anthony?

oh for sure! I've written a little about the narrative comparisons between the two pairs with regards to HBO Rome.

I have less thoughts about antony and cleopatra in a historical kind of way, but it is interesting that they're like. a decayed narrative parallel to brutus and cassius in the greater theater of history (ends of an era). cassius and antony (gladiators, baby!) both commit suicide, but antony's suicide gets real fucked up: he's straight up denied a clean end to his own life. on the other hand, cleopatra and brutus are such hard opposites to each other, both in politic and reception, that it's difficult to find themes that work for them both the way that antony and cassius have, without discussing much broader subjects like transitional time periods.

but in a way. cleopatra and antony also fulfill the statesman-gladiator pairing. so. there might be something there.

[brw]

I don't think Herbert West killed Rufus outright, but I think he was lying when he said that he was dead when he found him. I think he heard a crash and went to go see and saw Rufus had caught his head in the jar and watched as he slowly suffocated. He loves to lie and manipulate and it's one of my favourite traits of his and I think he is not meant to be believed when it doesn't come to his science experiments!

[mad-hunts]

oh, by the way, it's random headcanon time because i thought y'all should know this: barton's doll motif does, in fact, go deeper than his 'doll-making.' because although his hair isn't always this way, you can always sort of tell when barton is really spiraling, because he will just stop brushing his hair to let it become matted and resemble a ' doll's ' hair more closely. and as for what that looks like, think the ringlets that seem to resemble a doll's that has yarn for hair that i used in my pinned post, except they're blonde. so yeahhh. though, of course, there's nothing really wrong with that. however, comma, did i also mention that he is SO wack that he stitched someone else's arm onto himself and now uses it as his own like one of his ' doll-like ' creations?

and as you guys can probably already tell, there are definitely some things wrong with that 💀 i mean barton just cannot go even one day without causing some sort of horrific upset, am i right, guys? JSJSJ / j NAH i'm kidding, i'm kidding (... actually, i might not be this time. idk LMAO ). but anyhowww, i'll tell y'all more about that later because it will probably be a long post due to the nature of how that came to be, but how are we feeling about barton now with this information? like has your opinion of him changed or is it pretty much the same? i am just genuinely curious so feel free to leave a comment below to tell me.... because i know it is gross to think about and also terrifying, but barton is SEVERELY demented so he doesn't think of it that way personally

[3-2-1-annihilation-station]

everyone giving yuta a hard time for this can stfu because 1) gojo said it was okay and 2) what were they supposed to do? let sukuna win? yeah i don't think gojo would've wanted that so rip too bad so sad we gotta do what we gotta do sorry not sorry cry me a river build me a bridge and get over it

[painsandconfusion]

Is it too fuckywucky if I post a backstory scene I have for an rp villain where a yandere steals a corpse from the grave

[nebulaad]

looking back even on old infomercials from the 90s and 2000s it is literally incredible that any of us got out alive. they did not want you to eat. they hated the idea of you eating. and now it's involved into coded language to make you sound crazy if you say "fuck you I'm going to eat". nobody said anything about dieting, they were talking about eating clean and being healthy and not letting companies poison you. but back then they really did just get on TV and tell you that you were a fucking hideous slob if you [checks notes] ate egg yolks.