#armistice spoilers

[cloverboyblue]

get you a man who will give someone permanent brain damage for you but won’t say he likes you

[hobbitkiller]

I’d like to thank all of Star Wars social media for distracting us all by releasing the Loth-cat’s name.

[hoarding-stories]

Oh yeah

This is everybody on the same ground, Aeor-level armistice shit. Sides don't matter when all the pieces are going to be destroyed

[jainaism]

“Heartlands” Chapter 1: Summit at Boralus

Some of my favorite moments, beware of spoilers!

She’d counted ten sunrises since that terrible day. And every night since, Jaina had relived the horror of that moment in her dreams, as the city of light and wonder was plucked from the sky over Khaz Algar like a child’s toy. But that nightmare had been real. And Jaina knew that it was just the start. Another Sundering, another Cataclysm. An evil that had a name. Xal’atath.

Jaina and Thrall watched as Danath Trollbane emerged onto the roof. He paused for breath, chest heaving under his red tabard. “By Thoradin’s blood,” he said, “for such a seafaring people, the Kul Tirans do have a fondness for stairs.” Jaina stifled a laugh—she couldn’t help it, despite her foul mood. Danath was the first to respond to her call. He had been in the city for several days already, helping Jaina prepare for the summit. If he was disappointed by the responses from the other leaders as they trickled in, he had never shown it. Instead, he had been a steadfast companion, an excellent sounding board—and a very good friend.

Thrall rubbed his chin. “Interesting. Who commands this garrison?” “My niece, Marran,” said Danath. “As my diplomatic duties draw me to Stormwind, she stands as regent of Stromgarde. I have had word she has been reinforcing her position with the 7th Legion Auxiliary.” He spread his hands. “Her own decision, but I trust she is—” “Stoking tensions with the Mag’har.” Aggra stepped forward, shaking her head. “The Horde granted the base at Hammerfall to the refugee orcs amid the Armistice. After the Fourth War, Overlord Geya’rah and her people had nowhere to go.

“Marran will listen to you, Jaina. I have heard how well she regards you and your mother. I will write to her as well, to tell her of your coming and to prepare the 7th Legion to march. And while I don’t know Geya’rah, I know you, Thrall. The Horde may not have a warchief, but the Kor’kron are yours to command.”

Jaina reached for her staff. “Then so it will be. I will order the fleet to sail for Stromgarde. By the time they arrive, the strike force will be ready. Thrall, you will go to Hammerfall and negotiate with Geya’rah for the Kor’kron.” “I will come,” Aggra said. She stepped around the table to join Thrall. “Geya’rah is as a sister to me.” She laid a hand on her mate’s shoulder. “I promise, she will listen.” “Agreed,” said Jaina. “Danath and I will go to Stromgarde.” “I am sorry, Lord Admiral,” said Danath, bowing his head in apology. “I have been away from Stormwind too long already. Turalyon has sent word that I am urgently needed to rejoin his court. But on my honor, Marran will gladly receive you and your word on this matter.” He smiled.

Thrall nodded. “Luck, my love,” he said. The two clasped hands, then without another word, Aggra took off, sprinting for the northern hillside, which she deftly scaled before disappearing from view. Thrall watched her go, then turned to Jaina. “To Stromgarde, then.”

Jaina spun, instinctively putting herself between Thrall and the archer. She raised her staff high and cast a protective shield for cover. Another whistle, but this time the arrow glanced off the shield. That moment was all Jaina needed to spot her target. There, by the solitary tree at the top of the hill opposite, came a flash of movement. A cloaked figure broke cover, bow raised, quiver bouncing on their back as they fled.

Cursing, she knelt beside Thrall. “Leave it`, I will be fine,” said Thrall, waving her away. He grabbed the shaft of the arrow, still protruding from his flesh, and pulled it free in a single tug. He held up the arrow to examine it. “I hope, anyway.” Jaina peered at the arrowhead. It was smeared with blood, the liquid near black, but there was something else too—another substance, bright blue, oily. Her eyes widened in horror. “Poison? Thrall, you—” Thrall tossed the arrow to one side, then gave his injured shoulder an experimental roll. He winced; the wound was still seeping. ���I’ll be fine,” he said, then paused. “But we do need to get to Stromgarde, and quickly.” He gestured to the hillside. “Lead the way.”

[lurksunderthebed]

Ghoap Analysis/Meta (1?)

The Evolution of GhostSoap Redux

Continuing thoughts on how Ghost and Soap's relationship has changed over the course of mw(19), mwii(22) and mwiii(23)

Spread out amongst several posts. This will be long 😅

(Part 1)

BEWARE SPOILERS TO MWIII(23) !

I've had time to settle my thoughts on Ghostsoap in mwiii (23) and this will go more into depth of the re-contextualising of Ghost and Soap's relationship in mwii (22) from the verdansk mission: "Flashpoint".

Flashpoint is set 4 years to mwiii(23). The game places it as April 6, 2019. This is important to us because it sets a different potential first mission (meet cute lmao) between the two and thus changes the tone of their interactions in mwii (22)

So let's set up a timeline with the available dates. Thankfully, the game sets some very concrete dates for us. Not all missions are included.*

2019

Flashpoint - April 06, 2019

First canonical appearance of SAS Ghost and Soap

Ghost provides sniper cover for Soap

Price/Soap capture Makarov and transport him to a helo with Ghost and Shepherd

There's a failed interrogation by Ghost and Soap.

Makarov implies he has met Ghost before and thought him dead at an airport

2019 Mw(19)

Piccadilly - Oct 25, 2019

First canonical appearance of SAS Gaz

Gaz is attached to Met Counter Terrorist Police. This implies he has worked largely in his career in conjunction to the Police. It's unknown whether he met Soap or Ghost before.

First meet of Gaz and Price to combat terrorists in London

Old Comrades - Oct 31, 2019

Gaz meets Nikolai

Interrogation scene. Arguably strengthens Gaz and Price's relationship

Into the Furnace - Nov 03, 2019

Last mission, they kill general barkov

Credit Scene - Nov 03-04, 2019* (hypothetical)

Laswell and Price form task force 141

Price seconds Ghost, Soap, Gaz. This implies that Price has worked with Soap and Ghost on missions for x amount of years. It's Gaz who was the surprise recruit.

2020 Cod Warzone

Season 2 - Mar 2020

First appearance of 141 Ghost

Unknown amount of 141 stationed in Verdansk. Ghost asks for backup.

Season 3 - Apr 2020

Armistice dissolved

Price and Gaz show up to help Ghost

Implied- unknown amount of 141 to Verdansk (possible meeting of Soap and Ghost)

Season ? - Dec 2020

Price kills Zakaev

First appearance (via call) of 141 Soap asking for backup in Verdansk

Price, Ghost, Gaz, Farah etc backup Soap who is somewhere else in Verdansk getting pinned down by enemies

2022 Mwii(22)

Strike - July 15, 2022

Ghost calls an airstrike on Ghorbrani with the aid of Shadow Company

Hindsight - Aug 12, 2022

Shepherd/Shadow Company loses American missiles to terroists

Kill or Capture - Oct 28, 2022

Ghost gets assigned Soap as his sergeant for Al Mazhrah mission to kill or capture Hassan

They find American missiles instead

Cartel Protection - Oct 30, 2022

Ghost/Soap meet Ale/Rudy in Las Almas

They fight the Mexican army under control of the cartels

RV with Graves/Shadow Comp.

El Sin Nombre - Nov 01, 2022

Soap infils cartel mansion

Valeria is revealed as El Sin Nombre

They take her into custody

Dark Water - Nov 02, 2022

Boat/oil rig mission with Shadow company

Missile launch averted by Ghost, Soap and Graves

Alone - Nov 03, 2022

Graves and Shepherd betray 141/mexi bros

Ghost and Soap get out of Las Almas

RV at ale's hideout with Rudy

Prison Break - Nov 03, 2022

Ghost, Soap, Rudy break out ale from prison

Meet up with Price/Gaz

Ghost Team - Nov 03, 2022

141 with mexi bros take back mexi bros base

Soap and Rudy "kill" Graves

Countdown - Nov 04, 2022

Stop missile launch in Chicago

Ghost and Soap kill Hassan

2023 Mwiii (23)

Operation 627 - Oct 13, 2023

Makarov breaks out of prison

Reactor - Nov 10, 2023

141 find out that Makarov escaped

141 assaults konni base

Price finds chemical weapons (almost died)

Payload - Nov 11, 2023

141 split up to stop missile launch of chemical weapons

They fail to stop 2 missiles to Russia

Oligarch - Nov 12, 2023

Ghost/Soap island mission to find Makarov's financier

Interrogation of Milena for Makarov's location

Frozen Tundra - Nov 14, 2023

141 ambush konni convoy

Find Shepherd was Makarov's prisoner

Interrogate him on Makarov's location

Gora Dam - Nov 16, 2023

Ghost/Soap split up to stop chemical weapons in Verdansk

Trojan Horse - Nov 21, 2023

141 split up in London tunnels to stop Makarov from using chemical weapons in subway system

So now that's done. I've mostly ignored Farah and Alex and focused on Price, Ghost, Gaz, Soap and Nikolai as it pertains to relationships within the core group of Price/Ghost/Gaz/Soap.

What can we make of this ?

Well, a couple things.

We can now say that from 2019 to the events of "Kill or Capture" in 2022, Ghost and Soap have most likely worked together on missions before. The timeline shows that they at least had to have met in Dec 2020 in Verdansk as Soap had called for backup to Price and group.

That makes it actually at least 3 years of knowledge of each other prior to mwii(22). So a total of 4 years + potentially at the start of mwiii(23).

It also shows us how quickly their relationship changed from the Alone mission in '22 despite the 3 years of prior knowledge they had since '19.

Let it be said that it took 1 week, ONLY 7 DAYS!! to change Ghost and Soap's relationship. 7 days out of a total at least 3 years total.

Ghost started at not even bothering to name Soap in 2019, to presumably basic Soap/Mactavish/sergeant for the next 3 years.

Cut to the events in mwii(22). Lets say beginning at "Kill or Capture" and finishing at "Alone" and suddenly Ghost ends up having made up his own personal nickname that no one else can use for Soap in just those 7 days.

I posit that this was in part due to "Kill or Capture" in '22 being the first mission that Soap has directly worked under Ghost's command.

This is all hypotheticals and guesswork so take it as you may.

Assuming Ghost was mainly a solo mission sort of guy, let's also assume he mostly helped as sniper overwatch if he ever had team missions (like in Flashpoint). Most 141 missions have him taking that position as well, so it's safe to say he is support most of the time.

Given that assumption, it's also likely that Soap and Ghost had to have interacted mainly on comms and any physical meeting would be restricted to transport via heli or otherwise.

It's possible Soap and Ghost have worked together on a more physical basis (aka Ghost leading Soap on a squad), but given how much Ghost seemed to be testing Soap in "Kill or Capture" I find that somewhat unlikely.

In 2019 we see how brusque Ghost is with Soap. It's very likely that Ghost was largely monosyllabic with Soap pre or post missions to Flashpoint.

Considering Soap's propensity to chatter in 2022 and 2023, it's also very likely Soap annoyed the hell out of Ghost on comms. Lol.

This could explain why Ghost was so dismissive of having Soap as his sergeant in "Kill or Capture", despite working together 3 years ago.

I, and arguably most of fandom had theorised that "Kill or Capture" was the first mission that Soap and Ghost ever had together. And we weren't quite right, but we weren't completely wrong either.

With Flashpoint, it's obvious now that was not quite true. It even suggests in it that Ghost and Soap had worked together prior to even that, as there was no formal introduction between the two.

This dramatically changes how Ghost's dialogue and Soap's to a lesser degree can be read in mwii(22) and implies much much more if you consider how they interact with each other in '23.

So why does it matter when Ghost and Soap's relationship started?

With mwiii(23) we can now definitively tell when Ghost and Soap's relationship changed. We now have a rough basis of a timeline and we can track down the differences between '19 -'22 and then '22- '23. Its important because we can see how their relationship deepens and how it changed within a span of 3 years, 7 compelling days and 1 heartwrenching year later.

For all that mwiii(23) was lax with explicit Ghostsoap moments, it's rich in how much context we gain to their relationship. We see how Ghost changes and how his relationships differ between 141. It's an interesting and compelling look at both Ghost and Soap's characters.

In this discussion I separate this analysis into 3 parts. Part 2 will cover the implications of "Flashpoint" on mwii (22), with discussion line by line. Part 3 will most likely go over comparisons a year makes from the events in '22 to '23. (This might be subject to change as I get further into the analysis)

Onto Part 2.

+

[witchy-rook]

Okay I’m a few days late but I keep seeing posts about the Glorious 25th of May and I need to go on a ramble about it and Night Watch as a whole, because I only recently read it and I’m a historian of revolutionary politics and this kind of shit is my jam so hard. So! Major spoilers for Night Watch  (and some of the other Guards’ Discworld books) under the cut  - be warned...!

I love love love the Glorious 25th of May and the events of the Revolution in Night Watch. My area of expertise in my real life is late-eighteenth century and nineteenth century Revolutionary European politics, so everything from the French Revolution up to and beyond the Springtime of the Peoples and the Revolutions of 1848. I loved what was written of revolutionary politics in previous Guards books, like what we hear of Stoneface Vimes in the anti-monarchial Revolution in Feet of Clay. Night Watch is especially exicting to me as it captures exquisitely how revolutions actually progress, and I love that about it.

Because all historical revolutions are, well, historical, we have a tendency to view them with a certain fixed course - after all, they did go a certain way. However, it’s important to remember that, for the people on the ground, they didn’t know where they were going, and so often it was just ad hoc reaction and improvisation. I don’t think many of the people who stormed the Bastille in 1789 would have known that in 1793 they’d execute the King. And that’s the thing: we tend to look at Revolutions like single instances of radical expression, but they’re usually long term, continuous events. They change and shift, becoming more or less extreme as events unfold.

And that’s why I love the Glorious 25th of May and the Treacle Mine Road Republic. The time travel aspect is especially poignant here because Vimes knows how things went because he was there once, but this is a new timeline, and he’s constantly aware that things could go differently if he’s not careful. Through his narration, we are also constantly reminded that no one really intended for things to turn out how they did - most of the events that led to the big revolution in the Shades were only accidentally influential. Everything from the Particulars to the Morpork Street Conspiracy even to the barricades was just people reacting to chance and circumstances. Sure, people like Reg Shoe, Rosie Palm, Madame and the various conspirators dreamed of a better city, a city without Lord Winder, but most of the people manning the barricades on the Glorious 25th were just people who lived there, people who were swept up in the fervour - people who, when the armistice is announced, go back to being normal people, taking their furniture home.

The expansion of the barricades really captures this. It often seems to me that Revolutions are a kind of living social organism that spread. In Europe, the French Revolution (both the one in 1789 and the other one in 1848) inspired other Revolutions. They spread. In Ankh-Morpork, the barricades were just meant to protect Treacle Mine Road, but they get physically pushed out by enthusiastic revolutionaries, caught up in the tide - people who are suddenly energised to push the Revolution further than it was ever originally intended. And, of course, in the real world as in Ankh-Morpork, sometimes this pushing has bad outcomes: people die, revolutionary hopes are betrayed, battles are fought and maybe things don’t change as much as was desired.

I said to my girlfriend once that, I think if magic is real, there’s a kind of magic in the Crowd or the Mob. There’s a way that, when lots and lots of people get together for a common cause, the Crowd becomes its own, emergent entity. If you’ve made it through my ramble this far and would like to read more, I’d highly recommend looking for scholarly articles about the Crowd or the Mob in the 18th or 19th century. ‘Hibernian Sans-Culottes? Dublin's Artisans and Radical Politics, 1790-1798‘ by Timothy Murtagh in La Révolution française might not be a bad place to start, if I may be so bold.

But anyway, that’s besides the point. The point is, the Glorious 25th of May might be a fake revolution in a fake city, but it’s the perfect analogue for real revolutions that happened in real cities. If you were ever wondering why X Revolution went the way it did, maybe you can look to the things Vimes sees, thinks and does in Night Watch, and maybe it will help make it a little clearer.

And if you’ve made it this far, congrats! Please do send me asks about my thoughts on this as a historian if you want, I’d love the opportunity to ramble some more.

[wiltking]

finished Amnesty. can i get a welfare check. on my self

straight up going to get into spoilers because there is no other way to talk about this. it took me a while to get to Amristice after finishing Amberlough because id heard things get different after the first book. and yeah, it was a different setting, but the characters were still there. the stakes were still high. there was still glam and violence and pain and espionage. and Aristide. still kicking. somewhere under a layer of thick sadness and alcoholism.

Amnesty, however, was a shock? im still in shock. first of all, how slow and dull it had all become. the monotony of lillian's life as an imperfect wife and mother. i hadnt expected any kind of followup to her story after Armistice was frankly unsure of this... slow, beige crawl for the entire first half of the story. it was hard to care about her campaigning and meetings and the future of a city just beginning to thaw. after all the fighting has ended. after aristide and cyril's renunion happened in chapter fucking three. while their painful, stifled gravtitational orbit was tearing me to shreds with every scrap of interaction. the way i had to linger, and reread every single word they said to each other. it was hard to be peeled away from that just to be subjected to another scene about lillian and jinadh's cold marriage.

but ari? and cyril? older and colder and sicker and and sadder and alive? despite everything? it made me sick. it made me feel so sick in the head. it made me want to scream and never stop. i dont know what i was expecting, how i envisioned them to possibly fit into each others lives again but it wasnt that, and YET what else could it have been? what else, but this? and from the halfway point to the end i was a goner. screaming in my head with mounting intensity. staring off into the distance. hoping. hoping. watching in horror as i got closer and closer to the end and everything kept going wrong and when they finally, finally................... it was better, than i could have imagined. it was everything and more. and now im sniffling face down in the bed because literally the only thing they have left is each other and it took everything, everything, just to get that. and a red sand beach

[paulgadzikowski]

[Image description: Preview panel for the comic strip at the link below. Osyraa and Admiral Vance of Star Trek: Discovery stand talking in a missing scene from There Is A Tide (2021). Osyraa is saying, “You are seriously making this armistice conditional on putting me on trial??!!” Unfortunately there are not image descriptions at the main Hero Of Three Faces site. End description.] 

The Hero of Three Faces is fanfiction crossovers, but it’s comic strips with stick figures, but they’re triangles. Preview panel only. Click here for full cartoon. Or see the on-site navigation tutorial. Or see this blog’s FAQ, or my archive tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons linked from Tumblr 10:00 (Central US time) daily are the previous day’s new update and the posts are pinned to the top of this blog. Cartoons linked from Tumblr 22:00 daily are from the archive and the posts are pinned only during annual summer hiatus of new updates.

Thanks for reading.

[dramioneasks]

Hello! I'm looking for a fic where *spoiler: Kinglsey is the bad guy*. I think the premise was that there were a bunch of murders happening and Hermione was supposed to be next? I vaguely recall that Draco was assigned to be her protector/guard. Please help!

This?

The Armistice Act - rainsrabble - M, WIP - The next generation will be half blood or not at all. An over-reaching marriage law is passed.

-Lisa

[heroofthreefaces]

Preview panel only. Click here for full cartoon. Or see the on-site navigation tutorial. Or see this tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons linked at about 10:00 Central US are new and link posts are pinned to the top of the blog. Cartoons linked at about 22:00 are from the archive and are only pinned during annual summer hiatus of new cartoons. Thanks for reading.

[Image description: Preview panel for the comic strip at the link. Osyraa and Admiral Vance of Star Trek: Discovery stand talking in a missing scene from There Is A Tide (2021). Osyraa is saying, “You are seriously maing this armistice conditional on putting me on trial??!!” Unfortunately there are not image descriptions at the main Hero Of Three Faces site.]

[shadowsong26x]

A week or so ago, I posted a summary of a BSG fanmix I made a decade+ ago. I made two other mixes around the same time, and yeah let’s go ahead and give them the same treatment XD

This one is Heart of the Machine, and it is a (mostly) complete set of all canonical ships* involving at least one Cylon.

Full disclosure: this one, I’d found at least the tracklist awhile ago, so there weren’t any Surprises on here the way there were for Days Upon Our Knees. And...like...there are a few tracks on here that I could have done better, for various reasons, but there aren’t any that Confused me the way there were on the other mix? I more or less can figure out what I was thinking with each choice. And there are quite a few that are just. Perfect. (I particularly like tracks two, ten, twelve, and sixteen)

*So, I don’t have any of the notes involved in Constructing this mix--it was done for a fandom charity auction back in the day, i think help_japan after the earthquake?--but to the best of my recollection the rules were:

1. Canonical pairs only; meaning the couple had to have an Explicit romantic or sexual encounter On Screen.      1a. There is a pair that I apparently forgot--I haven’t gotten there in my rewatch, but I am told that this actually happened and wasn’t just made up for a TFLN blog so whoops.      1b. Presumably there was a Threshold for what counts as a ‘romantic or sexual encounter’; because there are a few I can think of that are borderline ‘was this just general flirting or could I have included it’ (and there’s another that...even if it met the threshold requirement (which I’m not sure it does) it’s. Like. I’ve built Corinne/Armistice Station Six up in my head recently but she’s not really. Uh. We don’t actually know anything about her so...yeah. but I like her and her name is Corinne in my head which is the main reason I brought it up lol)      1c. There are two others that technically count that I don’t remember being discussed; I’m not sure why Caprica/Head!Baltar was excluded (other than maybe redundancy?); the other is a Spoiler for late S4 and was doing something Very Cruel and Specific and I’m not sure I could have found a song for it anyway.      1d. There were three that were specifically excluded for squick reasons; namely Gina/Cain; Cavil/Boomer; and Cavil/Ellen.

2. The pair has to involve At Least One Cylon.      2a. Fairly self-explanatory, lol.      2b. Eleven of the twelve Cylon models are included here nobody loves Doral      2c. If we count by model, the Sixes (unsurprisingly) have the most tracks, with six (heh) total.      2d. If we count by individuals, the highest number (five tracks) is not actually a Cylon. Three guesses. The first two don’t count.

With those rules in mind, I ended up with the seventeen pairs listed below. The mix is structured in model order--the Significant Seven in number order, then the Final Five. I don’t 100% know why I ordered them the way I did, other than I think I started where I did for Alphabetical reasons but then didn’t stick with it for whatever reason. With one exception, for Cylon/Cylon pairings, I went with the lower model number. That exception made for an Excellent final track, though, so there it is. Within a model number, I went more or less chronologically in terms of when in canon the relationship starts.

...I think that covers it, lol. Lots of notes on this one XD Tracklist (complete with youtube links, as before) is behind the cut! (I should dig up the covers for these, I know I have them saved somewhere...)

1/one/tough!six - so immortal (international victim)      so this is probably the weakest on the list, mostly because...they’re a hard pair to find a song for, lol. i do think it fits, and i don’t think i could do better, but it is what it is. (also i named her vera for serenissima and the name has stuck so whenever i see her i’m like “VERA! :D :D :D” anyway i love her)

2/leoben/kara - on the street where you live (my fair lady)      tell me i’m wrong.

3/d’anna/baltar - dangerous game (jekyll and hyde)      i go back and forth on whether this one works better when it’s gender-flipped or not, but the vibe works. i do think i could do better than this for these two, but i don’t have anything specific in mind, if that makes sense?

4/d’anna/caprica - strange and beautiful (drew sarich)      yeaaaaah i cheated again on the ‘no repeating artists’ rule, like i did with the other mix. i think i did for all three mixes i made...anyway, that aside. this is another pair that’s hard to find something for, because we don’t get much that’s about them. it’s all about either the triad as a whole or the baltar/d’anna arm. that being said, i do like this song for d’anna/for what little we do get of them. (do i remember why i split the triad and picked two songs? nope! but i am glad i did; i might even--if i were doing this now--do three songs; one for each arm (other than the one accounted for Elsewhere) and then one for the triad as a whole)

5/simon/gianna - the next ten minutes (the last five years)      i love this song, and i love the...simon knows what’s coming And Yet. that whole sense of ‘for as long as this lasts’ has a Whole Different Meaning in this context and i think it’s beautiful. basically, i love them, and i think this song really fits for them.

6/caprica/baltar - measure of a man (clay aiken)      so i think this is actually one of the weaker examples on this mix. not because it doesn’t work--it does; it fits where they land at the end of the series--but because there are so many better songs for them. i don’t know why i settled on this one specifically, but i think i’d pick something else if i were doing this now.

7/gina/baltar - lithium (evanescence)      it’s hard for me to listen to this song without thinking of these two and their Extremely Fucked Up This Could Never Be A Happy Or Healthy Relationship dynamic now. not because it’s a Perfect Match necessarily, but...just...the Vibe.

8/lida/baltar - crash and burn (savage garden)      i don’t have much in the way of commentary on this one but i like it. it’s a pretty song, and it suits what’s going on in-story here.

9/boomer/chief - without you (rent)      not much to say about this one, either. but it’s a good fit for how they are in the back half of season 1, after he breaks things off.

10/athena/helo - as long as you love me (backstreet boys)      shut up it’s perfect okay

11/sweet!eight/gaeta - hallelujah (jeff buckley)      i think this works really well for the two of them (and for my best beloved most ironically named man in the universe felix gaeta in general, i think). i don’t know that there’s anything better i could pick, but i almost wish i had found something different? this song is such a heavy hitter, and i wish i’d saved it for...idk, maybe the season 4 mix i never got around to making, or a gaeta mix? ah well.

12/anders/kara - smoothie king (bowling for soup)      HOLY MOOD WHIPLASH BATMAN XD

13/anders/tory - when i’m down (chris cornell)      this is another pair that’s hard to pin down. but they’re definitely sleeping together during crossroads when sam is at his lowest and they’re being pushed towards activation and...i don’t know, it felt right? still does.

14/tory/baltar - spy (carly simon)      don’t really have all that much to say about this one either, lol. but it Works.

15/chief/cally - nothing without you (vienna teng)      this song is less Frantic and Scared and Angry than the moment it lines up with in canon, it’s more...sad. such a hard bit to watch, though, and i can’t say it doesn’t fit. ...also i know enough of the behind-the-scenes about why cally left the show that. well.

16/saul/ellen - grace is gone (dave matthews band)      SUFFER WITH ME. also, fun fact--the recording i have goes ‘take my heart/take my eyes’ (which. i’m pretty sure is taken Way more literally in this context than in the original lol). but EVERY SINGLE VERSION, whether lyrics or an actual recording, that i’ve been able to find online says ‘take my eyes/take my heart’??? and since i got my version on a burned cd and i forget who gave it to me i will Never Know the original source or why it’s different, lol. it’s definitely not because it’s a cover, i know that much for sure. his voice is Distinctive. (i do think heart-eyes flows better than eyes-heart but that’s a separate conversation)

17/saul/caprica - and so it goes (billy joel)      look, we all know this is a find-and-replace relationship. explicitly so on his end, implicit on hers (as upset as she is with the corporeal version at this point in the timeline, head!baltar is still hanging around sooooo). also it’s...just a nice song to end the mix on, i think.

[inoppositionflorien]

Spoilers for a book that's probably about a hundred years old and also All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

I'm fully aware that the Oscars are largely handed out based on bribery, but it's absurd that All Quiet on the Western Front 2022 is nominated for so many when it completely misses the important parts of the book.

It leaves out the whole inability to relate to people back home thing because the soldiers never get leave.

It turns the ending of main soldierman getting shot late in the war and no one really cares to the point his death doesn't merit a mention in the war update into "yeah he would have lived but one really petty high-ranking officer decided that their group should go over the top one last time on armistice day to prove a point so he got stabbed to death by a French guy instead of living". I mean they might have meant specifically being stabbed to parallel how he stabbed a French guy to death earlier but also that's stupid.

It doesn't do the "war sucks because you'll be scarred for life in many ways but also if you die you probably won't even be considered relevant" thing, it does the "one random bad guy got him killed and maybe he had PTSD but who cares really let's get back to hanging around dimly lit locations that sometimes have dead people and doing nothing" thing. I get why the locations are dimly lit of course but I think it would have worked better if they did the leave scene and had things properly lit there instead of the whole movie having the generic war movie color palette and lighting.

It's not as abysmal as every adaptation of Catch-22 has been (which I have a whole other thing about), but it's not very good.

[kavrillia]

Notes to self

Before the next re-read:

Rename Azha

Possibly rename or change the spelling of Wasat

Merge Aurillia and Alnathia into one state with a new name

Demote Pledaria from state to territory

Update references to number of states from 22 to 20

Name the crown and/or throne

Finish the rewrite of the Xorax and Zola sneaking into [spoiler redacted] scenes

Have Zalani present at the 4228 Armistice Charity Ball

Have Zalani compare her relationship with Nartok to [spoiler redacted]'s with Irina

Have Xeebec rant to Zalani after his [spoiler redacted] is destroyed

Maybe work in a reference to Shield Key somewhere just as an Easter egg for the Xeebecquel

[sebeth]

East of West #1: Out Of The Wasteland

East Of West #1: The Promise By Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Rus Wooton.

 Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

  Three beings emerge from a circle in the desert. The group realizes they are missing their fourth member. They roll the bones to discover the location of their missing fourth member.

“He really left us. We were four, but not it’s just us three.”

“Well…that settles it then. We kill him and then the world can follow.”

An extreme reaction to abandonment but everyone grieves in their own way.

A break in the chapter informs us “The things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us.”

The next page lets the reader know this takes place in an alternative history of the United States. Here is a recap of events:

·         “The Third Great Awakening happened ‘round the same time as the Civil War, seizing Elijah Longstreet in its embrace in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two. Preceding that, he had served in the Second Corps, Army of the North Virginia under General Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. Elijah was loyal Gray until the Battle of Chantilly. That’s when he got the Word, abandoned war, and was born again the Prophet Longstreet.”

·         “One year later, Standing Bear, the Ponca chief and only remaining holdout of the Native American tribes, laid down arms before the strong man of the Lakota. Red Cloud became chief of chiefs. There was smoke, oral histories coalesced, and the Endless Indian Nation came into being. Soon, the Union found itself fighting a war on two fronts – righteousness and tyranny, and the resulting quagmire suited their hypocrisy. Conflict drug on until finally reaching a protracted lull a decade later. A war that was not war, lasting twenty more years…until the fire in the sky.”

·         “There are those that say the comet should have struck some other land. That God, like with Joshua and the Amorites, somehow held the world up, kept it from spinning, just so he could deliver judgement.”

·         “Divine intervention or not, that event marked the end of hostilities, the remarking of territory, and the formation of what would become the Seven Nations of America. The Accords were signed at Armistice – the epicenter of the event – on November 9, 1908. It was significant, historic, and the third most important thing to happen that day.”

The panel of the signing shows six individuals at the signing: an unnamed Native American, and unnamed African-American, two unnamed white men, and two men of undetermined origin – possible Hispanic or Asian (it’s hard to tell from the art). Where is the seventh signer?

·         “As in Atlanta, the Prophet Longstreet penned the Second Book of Revelation…and in Chenowee, Red Cloud shared a walking vision with his council of elders. Then upon completion, and by all accounts at exactly the same time, both men collapsed and died. The words spoken and the words written down – interlocking apocrypha, collectively called by believers The Message – remained an incomplete, unsolvable mystery for half a century. Until the day it was completed.”

·         Fast forward to 1958: “On his deathbed, in New Shanghai, the exiled Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong penned an addendum to his Little Red Book. His portion – the missing portion – of the Message. The three were one. And the one…it was the story of the world’s end.”

·         The next three panels show Red Cloud, Prophet Longstreet, and Mao Zedong narrating the Message: “There was a lone man. A broken sparrow…one apart, a son of Night…the first of four, the end of everything,,,”

I love alternate history scenarios and the above is an extreme divergence on American history. How do the Seven Nations of America work? Is there a Parliament where representatives come together to regulate laws and policies? Are the Seven Nations independent of each other and the “of America” is in name only? Did the Seven Nations become involved in world events, or did they remain isolated from global happenings?

The next scene is “now”. A trio enters the Atlas, a bar. It’s not the same trio from the opening scene – those were three individuals of Caucasian skin tones and uncertain gender. The three in the bar are:

·         An albino man dressed as a western gunslinger.

·         A tall, muscled albino man with black circles around his eyes, dressed in a robe with feathers atop his bald head.

·         A black woman, but not a black individual, more of an anti-albino look – she is as black as the others are white.  The exception is a domino mask area of albino white around the eyes and long white hair. She has fringed boots, wrapped bracers around the arms, a metal band on the upper arm, layers of necklaces, and a not-quite skirt – more of what a woman would wear over a bikini bottom at the beach.

The bar has a cyber-western atmosphere.  The bartender offers the gunslinger a beer but rejects the offer when he notices his companions: “Pardon me, but I failed to notice your company. Sir you find yourself today on the edge of civilization...and the edge of late is bloody. So it don’t matter one bit who’s vouchin’ for the unclean, I’m afraid their kind get no service here.”

The gunslinger responds: “The Wolf doesn’t drink.  He’s a particular sort. And the Crow…she would never drink here. So the whiskey is all for me. Now. Pour.”

Why would the bartender refuse the others but not the gunslinger? The Wolf and the gunslinger are both albinos, the Crow is an anti-albino. None of the three have skin tones normally found in the human race. Are the Crow and the Wolf considered “unpure” because their attire represents non-white cultures?

The gunslinger toasts: “Gentlemen. Soldiers. To the fall of empires…and the illusion of republic.”

The toasts angers a group of soldiers wearing a blue uniform with a gold “US” emblem on their hats. I’m guessing these are soldiers from the southern white portion of the Seven Nations of America which would explain the bartender’s “unclean” comment.

The bartender informs the gunslinger that “Perhaps you didn’t understand earlier but this bar is full of Union. Frontier boys from the fringe.”

Union would imply the North, at least in our world. Not that the North was blameless in its ecounters with people of color.

A soldier approaches the Wolf: “Best step aside, savage. This here is the modern world, and progress has a way of rolling right over the indigenous. Me and mine…we are so very progressive. Understand me? Chief.”

The fight/massacre occurs offscreen as the bartender looks on in horror. The gunslinger doesn’t leave his bar stool: “Now that…is a fierce look of dread your face is wearing. You see somethin’ scary? That’s okay. It’s all right to be afraid – you should be. As these are fear-producin’ times. Look around. This is a fractured land. Once whole, now cracked and broken. And that is where fear lives, the spaces in between. It’s stronger than the wakin’ world, finds seed in the darkest parts of your mind. Fear is real. Now look at me, son…See somethin’ worse.”

We get a closeup of the gunslinger’s eyes and see that they are a bright blue.

The bartender has a two-panel flashback. The bartender was one of five individuals standing on a cliff while a sixth person was on an advanced airship similar to SHIELD’s hellicarrier. There was the bartender, a man in an old-fashioned suit with a cane, a woman in a leather bodysuit/uniform. A blond man in a trenchcoat, and a long-haired man in robes. The sixth person is in the background with no identifying marks.  On the plain below, the gunslinger appearing as anti-albino like the Crow, is backed by two figures, presumably the Wolf and Crow. The Wolf is encased in body armor, armed with long staffs and the Crow has a blue electric whip. The gunslinger is engaged in a duel with another gunslinger. We only see the back of the legs and the guns of the other gunslinger.

We return to the present. The bartender gasps: Oh God…you…you’re…you’re…”

The gunslinger replies “Now don’t say my name unless you really mean to call for me. ‘Cause you call, I surely will come.”

The Crow warns “Hey! This place is not what it seems. Something is hidden here.”

Gunslinger: “Don’t care. I have what I came for. You think you could hide from me, Hunter? That your deeds wouldn’t find you out?”

Bartender: “It was just a job. I didn’t even know who I was trackin’. I swear, I didn’t know what they were going to do. I…please…I’ll give you whatever you want.”

Gunslinger: “But you can’t give me what I want. Can you?”

Bartender: “No…I could give you the next best thing – who hired me. They won’t be hard to find once I name them.”

Gunslinger: “Buy an agent, buy his silence. Doesn’t your kind have a code? Never give up a contract?”

Bartender: “Doesn’t your kind have plenty of experience with men selling their souls just to breathe one more breath? Honor gets buried deep with the body…I wanna live. But I’m guessing you’re gonna kill me anyway, aren’t you?”

The bartender rips a page out of his notebook and hands it to the gunslinger.

Gunslinger: “Crossed me once and lived. That’s a mercy you won’t find again. Remember that.”

The Crow informs the bartender that she would have taken his eyes.

The Wolf pronounces the list “not good” as it is “Solid. But look at the first name.”

The Crow agrees: “Ain’t walking the White Tower. Nothing there but lies and the lying mouths that produce them.”

The Gunslinger concurs: “It’s also warded – Bones and Bonded. Two of you couldn’t get within fifty miles if you wanted.”

The Gunslinger’s companions tell him that “the Chalice” won’t be hidden there as it is too public a place to keep a secret.

The Gunslinger states that he will have to have another reason for being there. He tells his friends that he only recognized one other name on the list. He tells Wolf and Crow to find the others and that he will meet them on the second day at the Golden Bridge on the Burning Plain. He then rides off a mechanical horse.

Very intriguing first issue. I’m loving the supernatural cyber-western setting. I don’t know how deep the series will delve into the divergent history of the United States aka the Seven Nations of America but I would love to see how it effected world history.

We’re introduced to two distinct trios – one wants to end the world, the other is looking for a “chalice”. Why does the trio feel abandoned by its fourth member? Extreme separation anxiety? How much earlier did he awaken? Is there a reason he didn’t awaken his partners? What of who is the “Chalice”?  What happened in the bartender’s flashback? I thought he was one of the individuals on the ship but was he the other gunfighter? If he was the other gunfighter, how was he able to survive the confrontation considering he folded like wet tissue paper when confronted by the gunslinger in the bar? Why did the people on the ship hire the bartender? And what did the Crow sense that was hidden in the bar?

So many questions!!!

[punk-scum-of-the-earth]

SPOILERS AND BADLY WRITTEN THOUGHTS AHEAD!!!!!!!

more thoughts: most of the time during the film any momentus scene is shot like *head on shot of cast* *big bwabwabwaaaaa sound affect* *head on shot of 'the enemy' of the scene*. This applies to the scene with the fire, the tanks and the "first french to shoot" scene. I think this is to further that divide of us vs. them where the main cast is very rarely in the same shot as the enemy, or atleast on the same level (in the tank scene they are positioned above the trenches). this is untrue only for a. battle scenes b. after the armistice, when there is no longer that divide and c. when tjaden commits suicide, in this scene the audience is aware of the event a good few seconds before the characters even realise. this could be because it is coming from within there own side this time but i feel like theres probably some more intellectual reason that i do not know. anyway. i like this film.

i am rewatching aqotwf (not the original, though i plan to.) and i really forgot so much about this film. my verdict remaims the same though: absolutely gut wrenching characters, insanely good visually, one of my favourite films in terms of sound design and all around simultaneously beatiful and horrible to watch. i dont love the bits of military high ups talking: its very interesting and i get what it's meant to represent but i think it kind of kills the pacing in parts, though i'll admit that is probably because of what disinterests me personally. apart from that the fire looked all fucked up and fake in parts but so much of this film is practical im not gonna shit on them for not doing like 6 seperate fire stunts all going at the same time. ho hum. #franzdeservedbetter

[midshipmank]

Aristide Makricosta, stomping all over my heart like it’s the stage at the Bee