#as a deterrent for future attempts

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

(William had a dream, once. A strange one. He wrote about it in his advanced Brindisian course at the Guild wherein the teacher declared that students were to: Write a short story about a dream that could have been a memory. Make sure to use the conditional tense throughout. And William opened his little essay with: I once dreamed my father killed a man in our kitchen as February turned into March. It could have been a memory, of course. He received a middling mark. Not for a lack of prowess with the language, for he grew up speaking it, but because he didn’t follow the parameters of the assignment. Mr. Downey, you were to write a dream that could have been a memory. You just wrote a dream.)

(William would have been seven if the very vivid dream that got him marked-down in his Brindisian course had happened in real life. Maybe eight. Maybe six. Somewhere in there. He would have come down the back-stairs and huddled against the railing watching his father work in the kitchen which is why William thinks his teacher likely right, that this must be a dream because his father never works in the kitchen.) 

(There would have been a man appearing suddenly and he would have had a knife and William would have been frightened and then the man would have been on the ground and his father would have been beating him with a fire poker until the man stopped moving then Amos could have come into the hall where he would have been eye-level with Willian, as William was on the stairs, and Amos could have looked his son straight in the eye and said, gently: go to bed, William.) 

(And William likely would have done as his father said. But he might have watched from his window as his father and mother took a large object out the back gate into the alley and from there William wouldn’t have known.)  

(But the thing is, William doesn’t remember this. It’s a feeling, not a story. It’s a dream, not a memory. He’s never asked his father and never will. What a horrible thing, to have your son ask you if you’re a murderer. They’re getting along. They’re learning about each other, for the first time in over a decade. William doesn’t want to ruin things and he knows he has a bit of a talent for that. Anyway, Amos doesn’t work in the kitchen. Has never worked in the kitchen. No, no, he works in his counting room. Always. Therefore, it was a dream.) 

(Oh, well, except when there have been floods and the counting room suffers a little damage because of it—spring melt off, poorly maintained riverbanks—and Amos would work at night in the kitchen, then.) 

(Anyway. None of that matters.) 

never underestimate Amos’ stress level at the end of financial quarters. 

[astraeus-tree]

Chapter 2

『Wanna see you, wanna see you but I gotta resist』

Disparities Between Our Souls You and your husband fight the anomaly in your home-universe while attempting to avoid the gaze of your family Disclaimer(s): Fight scenes are definitely not my forte and Damian is the only batfam with a proper screen time in this

Chapter 1 <- Chapter 2 -> Chapter 3

You felt the wind on your body was you swung across the city towards the anomaly. The adrenaline coursed through your veins as you tried to clear your mind of your racing thoughts. In the corner of your eye, you see the familiar red of Miguel’s laser webs and you were able to fully focus on your task at hand and not your future problems.

Once the Doc Ock finally made his way into your full view, it was certain that he was anomaly. He looked like he came out of a steampunk movie, a stark difference to the modernity of Gotham.

You two went with your usual plan, Miguel would distract the villain of the day while you would transport the civilians or at least warn them. You made quick work transporting the citizens away from the expected vicinity of the fight.

You made your way back to your husband after dropping off the final citizen to safety. You were greeted to the sight of multiple pairs of mechanical arms reaching for Miguel as he avoided them with ease. You made eye contact with him, another silent agreement made between you two.

You shot a web towards the Doc Ock, taking his attention away from your husband, his rage now aimed at you. His barely coherent shouts weren’t a deterrent to you as you taunted him. While he was distracted with you, Miguel had easily snuck up on him and punched him square in the face.

But that wasn’t enough to take him down, it was never that easy. He was quick to get back on his feet and reach the tentacles out at both of you. You and Miguel jumped in sync, shooting a web at either side of the anomaly. You delivered a quick kick to the stomach and back flip out of the way before Miguel prepared to deliver another blow.

The fight felt almost one-sided, with the Doc Ock barely landing his punches on either of you. But this was good, the faster you finished this, the less chances that one of Gotham’s vigilantes would see you.

The comms were unusually quiet tonight, so Damian definitely wasn’t surprised to hear that a new villain was out to make a name for himself in Gotham. He was quick to move to the scene of the crime, but what he saw was something definitely not expected.

Two figures were fighting with this new villain— which speaking of, looked out of place in Gotham. The two new heroes were wearing skin-tight suits with an animal theme, specifically spiders, not unusual for heroes.

They moved expertly around the offender. like dancing around a ballroom. In fact, Damian had stopped himself from interrupting their fight in fear of ruining the clear rhythm they had together. Their moves were calculated, landing their punches and mostly avoiding getting hit themselves. These were not some vigilante or hero-wannabes. No, they were trained, their experience clearly showing through their movements, the way they took down the rogue with little to no difficulty. They fought with him as if they had gone head to head multiple times, moving as if they could read his mind.

“Robin, what’s the hold up?” Barbara’s voice snapped out of his daze. He remained silent for a few more seconds, attempting to examine the figures more closely and find out their identities. The villain itself was certainly going to be easily identified, with his face not even being covered. However, the two others would be harder. Not a single patch of skin was left uncovered.

“Oracle, does there happen to be two heroes that have been operating under our radar for a while? Say, for at least 2 years?”

“No way, that’s basically impossible.” Barbara said, in disbelief of the implication of Damian’s words.

“Apparently it is. There’s two people fighting against the rogue and they’re handling themselves pretty well. It’s almost as if it was the norm for them.”

“Hm… Let them handle the problem then. Follow and investigate them when they finish.”

“Duly noted.”

He stayed perched high above, watching and studying the two as best as he could. When the fight finally finished, he watched the two wrap the now unconscious rogue in a web-like substance and inject him with a liquid. They spoke to each other before one of them picked up the villain. The other swung in front of them, as if they were leading the way to some place. Damian stalked after them, making sure to stay as close as he could without getting noticed.

He was surprised to find that the one leading knew their way around Gotham, like they had gone past these streets multiple times. The place they ended up in seemed oddly familiar to Damian, but he wasn’t able to pin point what it reminded him of.

He watched as one of them pressed the doorbell hesitantly. When it opened, Damian was finally able to reason why this place seemed so familiar. It had been the place that you grew up in. The face of his only blood sibling’s aunt was practically engraved in his head after you had gone missing 5 years ago. Your aunt had called and visited the manor almost every day for a year after you disappeared. Now she was standing next to an opened door.

While you and the rest of the family hadn’t always been on good terms, they still cared for you and tried everything they could to find any traces of you, including Damian himself, albeit, a bit reluctantly. While they still hadn’t given up, the hope in finding you was slowly dwindling. After all, if the world’s greatest detective couldn’t find their own child, the who could? Your aunt had been distraught when she was given the news that you were basically a cold case.

So imagine his and your aunt’s surprise when he sees your face after one of the figures pulled off their mask. It wasn’t identical to the face he last saw 5 years ago, there were a few minor changes, like new scars, and you definitely looked older, but hew knew it was you. You had the same smile, the one he was greeted with when he was first introduced to the manor, the same one he always rejected because you were bound to be a liability with your softness.

Clearly, Damian’s assumptions were wrong. Clearly, you were able to not only defend yourself, but also other people, as shown form the fight he witnessed not even 20 minutes ago.

He was dumbfounded. You disappeared for 5 years and now you come back, suddenly having extensive knowledge in the battlefield, with another person fighting alongside you. He had so many questions. Where did you go? Who was this other person? Why return only now? But those weren’t the most important matter at hand. Right now, he had to inform the rest of the family about your status.

“Oracle, open communications to the whole group.” He could hear the words of the other members in his ears.

“Robin, report.”

“I’ve found the identity of one of the vigilantes.”

“Well? Why is it so important that the whole group had to listen?”

“It’s [Name].”

The silence was even more deafening than the usual chatter.

You stood in the aftermath of the battle, rubble everywhere. Bruce would probably pay to fix this later. Thankfully, the civilians got your warning and didn’t wander back into the vicinity of the fight, but you didn’t expect anything less from the citizens of Gotham.

You called out your husband’s name, catching his attention.

“I have a place we can go to. The person that owns it is someone I’ll trust with my life, don’t worry.” You shot down any possibility of arguments as soon as you could. Miguel grunted in response, injecting his venom into the anomaly before pinking it up and carrying it like a football under his arm.

“Lead the way.” You shot a web towards the roof of a tall building and started swinging in the direction of the place you grew up in, your aunt’s house.

Your nerves started acting up again. What would you aunt think of the new you? You may look the same but you weren’t the same person you were 5 years ago. So much has happened, what if she doesn’t approve of you? Or worse, not even recognise you?

You walked up to the door you knew all too well. Your mind raced with so many negative thoughts. In the moment, the realisation hit you like a train wreck. There was a chance that she didn’t even live here anymore; a lot can happen in 5 years, you would know.

You held up your hand to the doorbell, the one that you made her install after you moved into the manor. But instead of pressing it excitedly like you used to do all those years ago, your hand stood still right in front of it, as if your hand had been frozen.

“Mi corazón, it’ll be alright. Didn’t you say you trusted this person with your life?” Miguel’s words put an ease to your nerves. You smiled gratefully at him before taking a deep breath and pressing the doorbell.

The time it took for the door to open felt like centuries, but when it did, you couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief. Your aunt’s face was as beautiful as ever, aged but beautiful nevertheless.

The exhaustion and confusion was evident on her face when she greeted you.

“Hello? What do you need?” The cautionary tone and her rigid stance hurt your heart a little bit, but you couldn’t blame her, she lived in Gotham after all.

“Auntie. It’s me.” Her eyes softened when she heard you voice. When you pulled your mask off, you could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

“[Name]?” She asked, full of doubt, but a hint of relief as well. You smiled warmly at her.

“In the flesh.” You let out a small chuckle. Next thing you knew, a pair of arms enveloped your torso. You heard and felt your aunt’s sobs on your shoulders. You hugged her tightly in return, a few tears of your own rolling down your cheeks. When she let go, you instantly missed her warmth, but you pulled yourself together and prepared yourself for the myriad of questions you were bound to be bombarded with.

“Where have you been?!” Yep, you were correct.

“It’s a long story.” You looked to Miguel for help, but unfortunately for you he only smiled at your misery and on top of that, your aunt had seen the small interaction.

“We have all the time in the world. At least answer who this man is at first.” With that, you aunt allowed the two of you, and also the anomaly, inside her house.

Miguel placed the Doc Ock down gently, in fear of destroying any of your aunt’s items. He fixed his posture and adjusted his hologram suit to reveal his face ad he introduced himself.

“Hello. I’m Miguel O’hara, [Name]’s husband.”

“What?!” You expected this reaction. “[Name]! What have you been doing these last few years without me?!”

“Like I said, it’s a long story. It’s better if we get comfortable first.”

“Fine. You better explain everything, especially that… thing over there.” She pointed to the Doc Ock on the floor of her living room. As she did, he glitched, momentarily shocking your aunt.

“We will, don’t worry.”

...

After a long conversation and Miguel occasionally reinjecting the anomaly with his venom, your aunt was finally caught up with your life.

“So, let me get this right. You’re a superhero, alongside your husband, and you two use those watch things on your wrists to help you but they’re broken, which is why you’re here.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Why didn’t you visit me once? Will I ever see you again when they’re fixed?” Your aunt asked dejectedly. Your heart broke at her words. You had just learnt that although your other family had been providing her with money, she chose to stay here to preserve the memories she had with you and you mother, when she was alive. She also still had hope that one day you would return to her, and so she waited expectantly everyday for you, which ended up being worth it, for you were here in her house again.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to. Like I said, this return wasn’t even planned. I’ll try to come back when we fix our gizmos, but it’s not a guaranteed chance that we’ll figure it out.” Your aunt visibly deflates at your words.

“Well, if what you want is to return to your new home, then I’ll do my best to help you. Your happiness is the most important thing to me, sweetheart.” A new wave emotions passed through you at her words. You truly were lucky to have her as your aunt. You smiled at her and pulled her into another hug.

“Your the best family anyone could ask for. I love you so much.” Your words were shaky and mumbled as your poured your emotions out. Your aunt hugged you back, patting your back as you hiccupped onto her shoulders.

“I love you too.” She reaches her arm out towards Miguel. He seemed taken aback before hesitantly joining in the group hug. You couldn’t help but mentally laugh as you felt his stiff arms surround the both of you. Your aunt was the first to break apart from the group, with you and Miguel following soon after.

“Now, what do you need to fix that watch of yours?”

Taglist

@kik1010 @cxcilla @00hellohello00 @bluepanda08 @frankie-moon3 @guyfuitty @lumi320 @type-ink @kye-chen-r @sugasweettea @sillyheartmoonnyx @definitely-not-sammie @birbtweettweet @itsberrydreemurstuff @bellethesleepypotato @yaoizee @bat1212 @mybones537 @cim0nnin @ninihrtss @redkarmakai @a-lurking-fae @1abi @lettucel0ver @leeiasure @chericia @yotokx @amber-content

Asks are greatly appreciated as they give me motivation and ideas <3

And Chapter 2 is finally done! I really don't like how it ended, I feel like it was a bit too cheesy but oh well, the pen writes what it wants to write, not me

The aunt was never supposed to play this big of a role in the story but apparently she does now! If you guys want a name for her, let me know and I'll make a poll for everyone to decide

Also I lowkey wanna change the layout of my posts but I'm not sure, so let me know if you guys want me to

Sorry this came out so late, I got busy on the weekends and I thought I had time to do it in school but school's honestly been pretty bad. So far, I only understand like 3 of my subjects and that's cuz 2 of them are revision and the other is literature

You guys know the routine! Mistakes are free to point out and will be fixed as soon as possible

This weeks title comes from the song 'Cabo' by Rick Montgomery, go give him a listen if you haven't already!

[frownyalfred]

Sometimes I see people illustrate the Jason-Bruce difference in ideology by quoting Punisher (“You hit them and they go down. I hit them and they stay down.”) and trying to show that killing prevents criminals from getting back up and causing issues again. However….Batman is putting these guys down hard. Like hospital, multiple broken bones hard.

Punisher was saying that line to Daredevil and I’m pretty sure in that same episode there’s a scene where bad guys keep rolling into the ER screaming with pain talking about how they’re never doing this shit again.

Batman absolutely puts people in the hospital badly enough they quit working for Black Mask or the Penguin or whoever. He hits them hard enough, as I once said, to defy any and all future attempts at physical therapy. He breaks arms and legs in ways people will never fully recover from. And you’re telling me that’s not a deterrent in any way???

[mauvewalker]

You know one thing I’ve noticed being parroted around a lot are about how ‘sweet’ the strong boys are, just repeating what the protagonist Rhaenrya views her sons as she has stated it within the show herself. (Which is fine as people are entitled to their own opinions). I suppose it doesn’t help with the way the team black boys have been casted, younger actors & an actual teen matching the character’s age, looking all cherub/innocent like with the awkward hairstyles emphasises their youthful ages & the framing by show is heavily in the favour of the blacks.

Compare this to the team green boys Aemond and Aegon (both phenomenal actors perfectly cast to portray them) but considering Aemond is supposed to be a teen what 16 or 19? (the show-runners can’t seem to do basic maths, lol) however, as an audience member subconsciously Aemond is viewed as an adult & treated/judged as such with his actions. Again the negative framing by the show of him in manipulating the GA perceptions of the teams, I’m really surprised they didn’t play a villainous theme tune as like with Darth Vader every time he appeared on screen but I think that would have been a-bit too obvious, lmao. It’s not like the camera framework & Aemond’s get up in black, heavy smirking in the background isn’t already doing so.

Anyways having watched the show, I happen to be believe that they are not these sweet harmless little princes, in particular, Jace hides a much darker personality, imo. For instance, in the courtyard back at Kingslanding with Luke he says “it doesn’t matter what they think” so on the surface you could argue oh how sweet he is trying to comfort his brother but shows his self-entitlement in viewing the other lords/people as beneath them & we know Rhaenrya has told him “you are a Targaryen that’s all that matters” so it has been instilled in him this belief in the Targaryen exceptionalism being closer to gods than men because of their dragons. Also, that line mirrors young Rhaenrya with “their wants are of no consequence” about the small folk again showing self-entitlement & an attitude that would make them poor future leaders.

Jace having this belief instilled in him, I feel it would explain why they all picked on Aemond because whilst Aemond may be a legitimate true-born prince who was undeniably a Targaryen with the Valyrian looks, what didn’t he have? A dragon!! so Jace with his inferiority complex/issues & superiority complex combined, knowing he was a bastard targets/bullies Aemond unfairly for this (for being what he should have been if he was fathered by Laenor) to make Aemond feel bad, inferior & inadequate like him, which they were successful in.

As we saw this made Aemond risk his life attempting to claim a dragon with helaena saying “he did it again” (hinting that Aemond at 10-12 risked himself numerous times) and it was shown twice with his failed attempt with dreamfyre & his successful attempt with vhagar. As Rhaenyra has instilled in him being a Targaryen is the most important BS & the biggest symbolism of this is having a dragon. So, when Aemond finally claims a dragon, Jace is now unable to see or convince himself as better than or being more Targaryen than Aemond.

Hence, his anger when they all jumped him 4v1 beating him & when Aemond was managing to defend himself & calls them for what he is “a bastard” Jace’s rage comes out, not because he thought Aemond was going to kill Luke with a rock as he had lowered his hand holding it. It was Aemond saying “lord strong” which made him pull out the knife & slashing with the intent to kill him. Again Aemond managed to defend himself & the knife dropped on the floor, so obviously Aemond lifts the rock up again to use as a deterrent as there is now also a knife bought in the fight. The strong boys shared a glance & threw sand in his face blinding him & Luke slashed his eye.

We all know what happened after, they didn’t get punished for it, viserys sided with them reaffirming his favouritism & threatening to remove tongues for questioning their legitimacy. Rhaenyra didn’t care to discipline them for it, thus, reaffirming their self-entitlement that they are correct in their behaviours & did nothing wrong.

Another example of Jace self-entitlement, inferiority complex & bullying behaviour was during the toast speech. It was Aegon who pissed him off & some with an optimistic view would argue his toast was trying to bury the hatchet with “fond memories of our youth”, however, he was looking at Aemond with a slight smirk knowing full well it may have been fun for him it was not for Aemond- he was targeting him again when it was Aegon who bothered him & Aemond was minding his own business. The reason for this? Because he is comfortable to be looking down/belittling/bullying Aemond.

Again, with the dance with helaena, some would argue how chivalrous of Jace for feeling sorry for Heleana being alone but it was to piss off both Aegon & Aemond. Moving on, with the speech & then Luke laughing at the pig, Aemond loses his temper, rightly so. As all he was trying to do during the dinner was ignore them, both Jace & Luke have triggered him with the past, so he gives the infamous strong speech, to push back & give them a taste of their own medicine.

Jace is the one who then loses his temper & his first typical reaction when he does?? is to be physically violent & throws the first punch & which side does he purposely target?? Aemond’s blind/injured & vulnerable side of his face. The punch was laughable, Aemond didn’t even spill his drink & with one push was thrown down. Exactly like his younger behaviour showing no growth, he get back up & during this altercation, Luke had tried to join to gang up on Aemond again. So both brothers are unable to take the heat that they dish out & fight fairly 1 to 1, but, really what could’ve Luke have really done, lmao.

They should of known when they saw Aemond earlier that day in the courtyard training. At the time, it’s clear both strong boys didn’t know it was him (with the typical targaryen blonde hair they maybe could of mistaken him for Aegon) & were super impressed with his prowess/skill, before he turned around with the eyepatch & their faces said it all, like ‘oh shit’ & then soured that the person who they perceived weaker/beneath them during childhood is a skilled swordsman, unlike them. Another thing that Aemond has/is that the strong boys don’t to add to Jace’s list, alongside having both of a mix of a inferiority complex & superiority complex, a ‘sweet prince’ he is not.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Last week, Senate Democrats strongly indicated that the liberal wing of the American political establishment is woefully unprepared to face the future that the US—as both the world’s biggest imperial power and a leading architect of the climate crisis—has helped create. In an attempt to score a win ahead of this year’s federal election, Democrats proposed a piece of legislation that is, in effect, a laundry list of hard-line anti-immigrant policies demanded by Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress. In so doing, they conceded the right-wing framing that an increase in immigrants and asylum seekers at the southern border—already a real phenomenon—represents a “crisis” that requires a series of punitive solutions. This marks a shift in tone and policy from the Trump years, when Democrats rhetorically placed themselves in opposition to the xenophobia of the White House and tended to downplay the idea of rising immigration pressures. It also reflects an even deeper conception of the border as a bulwark against the savage hordes that would destroy life as we know it if we let our guard down. As it happens, that is exactly how the Israeli government talks about Gaza (and like Gaza is how the American right is beginning to talk about the border). Even in the short term, the Democrats’ turn is a huge mistake; as Adam Johnson and Kate Aronoff argued forcefully in separate pieces last week, going head-to-head with the right over border toughness is a losing battle, since Democrats will have a hard time beating the Republicans at their own game (racism). But more importantly, there is no indication that deterrence can counteract the long-term economic, political, and ecological forces animating population flows. Even if it were sensible policy, there is no way to shut down the border that is not itself a time bomb for political violence. Thus, by taking the hard-line approach—or, to put it another way, by embracing the Gaza model—Democrats risk losing elections, while harming national well-being where and when they do take power.

[redpenship]

As requested, here is an edited version (although I left some stuff in that doesn't really need to be there, like the whole section on the NPT) of my paper on nuclear strategy in the Sonic Adventure series:

None of this is good, Vector. That’s why it’s called war. 

- Knuckles the Echidna, in Sonic Forces (2017)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a very weird video game series. 

(Author's note: the quality of this paper does not reflect the majority of my academic writing. It was for a 200-level (beginner's) English class wherein I was encouraged to do whatever I wanted and not worry about tone, topic, etc. I also wrote it in less than a day after having written 3 other papers the same week, and was suffering from sleep deprivation and brain fog while writing it. I have not included my references in this post because they were done in Chicago footnote format and don't paste into Tumblr well. If you want more info on anything I mention, I will gladly provide sources on said topics! Ty ty)

---

Sonic the Hedgehog is a very weird video game series. 

This statement has nothing to do with its varying quality of gameplay. Sonic the Hedgehog is weird because its surface presentation as a colourful, furry-adjacent Dragon Ball rip-off disguises its extremely fascinating perspectives on warfare. The games frequently feature weapons of mass destruction in its stories, which allows for interesting analysis on the strategies used in-game and how it relates to American perspectives on nuclear war. The first game analyzed will be Sonic Adventure, which depicts an attempted nuclear strike on an American city. The second game analyzed will be Sonic Adventure 2, which features an attempt at WMD-boosted bargaining. These games will be used to answer the following research question: which side does Dr. Eggman take in the Borden-Brodie debate on nuclear weapons strategy? 

As a brief explanation, the Borden-Brodie debate is about how nuclear weapons will actually be used in a nuclear war between two states. This debate emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as theorists attempted to predict the future of war after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Borden predicted that nuclear weapons would be used as “big artillery” to support regular military attacks, whereas Brodie predicted that the devastating effects of nuclear weapons would make war between two nuclear weapons states (NWS) inconceivable. Brodie appears to have won the debate as nuclear doctrine shifted to favour deterrence during the Cold War, but we must consider the following idea: perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, there has not been a conflict worth using them for just yet.

What is the geopolitical situation in Sonic the Hedgehog? Technically, the series takes place on Earth, but it’s a little different. Instead of the United States, there is the United Federation, instead of Greece there is Apotos, and instead of Africa there is Mazuri, because even the fun cartoon animal game cannot keep itself from generalizing the entire African continent into one entity. These countries are predominantly inhabited by humans, who live on the continents, and the animal-people (like Sonic and friends) live on small offshore islands. There has never been an explanation for why this separation exists, and while it could be fun to explore potential reasons, that is not the point of this paper!

Dr. Eggman typically begins his campaigns of world domination on these islands. He captures small animals to be used as batteries in his machines and builds extractive industrial plants, such as oil refineries and chemical plants. Sonic opposes him in the earlier games because he is harming the environment, and this has turned into a standard rivalry as the games have continued and Eggman’s evil plans have grown in scale. As soon as the games give the characters spoken dialogue in Sonic Adventure, Eggman’s schemes move away from resource extraction and towards using huge weapons and awakened ancient gods in order to conquer the planet. This is where the weapons of mass destruction come into play.

The first depiction of a WMD in Sonic the Hedgehog is in Sonic Adventure, where Eggman attempts to murder-suicide Station Square (in-universe San Francisco) by firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) at the city while he is still in it. He does this because he is upset that his plan failed, although perhaps he was attempting to show us mercy by wiping all the Silicon Valley bros off the face of the planet. Regardless of exact intention, his attempt to nuke Station Square says a lot about his perspective on nuclear war, which will be discussed below. 

When dealing with an enemy, their perception of you and their own weapons are crucial to understand. The norm in nuclear doctrine is that nuclear weapons are used in retaliation to extremely high levels of threat. However, this has not always been the case—in the 1950s, they were generally perceived as really big bombs that could be used in combination with normal artillery. This theory was emphasized most by the radically anti-communist William Borden, also famous for testifying against Oppenheimer in his security clearance review, who argued that nuclear war will target military infrastructure and end when one side in the conflict has run out of weapons. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the United States to possess as many weapons as possible because it is the quantity they possess that will render them victorious. City-busting occurs after the war, when you are free to hurt your enemy’s civilian population without fear of retaliation. Or, perhaps, when you have nothing left to lose—which is exactly what happened in Eggman’s case. 

Borden predicted that nuclear weapons states would disperse their launchers and military bases to make them harder to strike. He likewise predicted the use of nuclear missile-equipped submarines (SSBNs), which are used strategically for second strikes; submarines are hard to find, and can be positioned close to the enemy, making them very useful for retaliation. This is precisely in line with Eggman’s attack in Sonic Adventure 1, which used an SSBN close to the enemy’s civilian population as a last resort punishment after he incurred heavy losses. Whether or not this was a smart thing for Eggman to do is up in the air—the SLBM appeared to be an attempted surface burst on a city, which would actually minimize casualties when compared to an air burst detonation, so it is very likely that he cares more about building cool bombs than understanding how to use them properly—but it is clear that he is a champion of the Borden expectations of nuclear warfare nonetheless!

Eggman’s arguably insane, vengeful attack on Station Square stokes fears of nuclear armageddon that were hyper-present during the Cold War. Although he has been referred to as Dr. Eggman exclusively so far in this essay, this is not the case in Sonic Adventure—Tails, the character present in the city while the attack happens, refers to him as “Dr. Robotnik”. The character’s “real” name is Ivo Robotnik, which was given to him by American translators in lieu of “Eggman” when the classic games first released. It may not be surprising that American translators at the end of the Cold War decided to give an industrialist who primarily wears red an Eastern European sounding name. Russians are disproportionately featured as enemies in video games, eclipsing both the Axis Powers (typically Germany or Japan) and Arabs (as terrorists) in studied games. In wartime, framing one’s enemies as irrational is a core component of propaganda. Depicting someone named “Robotnik” as a self-driven madman who is willing to nuke an entire city when he loses feeds into assumptions that the enemies of the United States are not rational, which is then used to justify US hegemony on the international scene—someone has to keep these unruly states in line! This is especially true for the non-proliferation regime, which has been regarded by some states as neocolonial. India, a nuclear weapons state, has argued that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is discriminatory because it does not ban vertical proliferation. This stance generally purports that non-proliferation treaties are used to keep nuclear weapons out of “undesirable” hands while allowing nuclear weapons states to maintain and build on their own stockpile (vertical proliferation). Fears of certain states (such as Iran or North Korea) acquiring arsenals are presented as imminent dangers because enemies of the United States are always inherently irrational, and therefore cannot be trusted with such powerful weapons. The idea of “rationality” has been weaponized in service of white supremacy—and to a lesser extent, the patriarchy—for centuries and it should surprise no one that an international nonproliferation regime, largely built by and for states who were founded and are sustained on the premise of white supremacy, would prop up inequality and keep nuclear weapons only in the hands of those who “deserve” them. Although Russia is not a victim of this regime, it is frequently depicted as irrational and untrustworthy with nuclear weapons. Robotnik’s attack on Station Square is reminiscent of this rhetoric. 

Of course, Sonic is a Japanese video game, which should grant it some leniency in the depiction of a nuclear attack as inherently irrational and violent. But for American players, who are meant to perceive this as an attack on a fictionalized version of their country, the implications are more specifically anti-Russian.

Sonic Adventure 2 flips this script a bit: as it would turn out, Eggman is American, and members of his extended family were killed in a coverup operation by the Sonic equivalent of the US military, Guardian Unit of Nations—typically abbreviated to GUN. His grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, was commissioned to research immortality and weapons of mass destruction aboard the space colony ARK. One of his creations was the Eclipse Cannon, a giant laser capable of destroying the planet. 

Between games, Eggman has seemingly underwent the same attitude shift as every other NWS during the Cold War, because he has now discovered that WMDs can be used to threaten your enemies into getting what you want. On the ARK, Eggman activates the Eclipse Cannon and does the following:

1. Uses its laser to destroy part of the moon in a show of force; 

2. Threatens to use it against the Earth unless he is crowned emperor of the planet; 

3. Gives Earth 24 hours to accept. 

Did Bernard Brodie predict the plot of Sonic Adventure 2? In his earliest work The Absolute Weapon, he argued that the absolute power of a nuclear bomb would make wars too costly to fight. The primary purpose for governments would therefore be to avoid war at all costs, since any of them could result in devastating nuclear war. Brodie also wrote many pieces laying out strategies of nuclear deterrence, which continue to be used to this day. 

There is a common knee-jerk reaction to Eggman’s story that I see in fan discussions of the game. Many comments feature the following logic: “Why would Eggman blow up the planet he wants to rule? Either the writer is stupider than me, or Eggman is lying!” This is a very understandable way to perceive his threat with the Eclipse Cannon—why would someone make such an unreasonable threat? Does he really expect it to work? Who is going to buy this?

The game provides no insight into the general reaction to this by the world’s governments. However, Sonic and friends believe his threat right away, and race to the ARK to stop him. They are correct to do so—Eggman does end up trying to use the Eclipse Cannon against the Earth, but it does not work because Gerald Robotnik programmed it to fail if ever used. Therefore, we know that Eggman was not bluffing about his threat to destroy the planet at all. We know that he was actually going to do it. So, why do fans of the game continue to argue that Eggman’s threat was pointless? 

Bernard Brodie’s concept of the absolute weapon has become the mainstream view of WMDs in the public consciousness. We fear nuclear weapons because of their destructive power and believe that no conflict could ever require their deployment. We believe other NWS hold the same concerns. This perspective is then projected onto Eggman by fans, who mistakenly assume he should foster the same feelings about WMDs. The assumption that Eggman was not willing to go through with his plan, or that the world’s governments would not surrender to him, requires Eggman to value his own life over the success of his empire. The first Sonic Adventure game has Eggman attempt to nuke a city he is standing in. A suicidal, last-ditch plan to take over the world is perfectly in-line with his character. What is the point of living if he cannot have his way? What is the point of a planet’s existence if he is not the one in charge? These are the questions driving Eggman’s decisions in the games. 

Sonic Adventure 2 does not reject Brodie’s theories, but does provide a counterargument: deterrence breaks down when one’s ambitions outgrow the potential retaliation for acting upon them. Eggman’s dream of ruling the world was stronger than his will to live. Mortal terror was not enough to curb his imperial ambitions, and the Earth was almost destroyed as consequence of this perspective. 

When the two games are measured against one another, it becomes apparent that Eggman has taken a very clear stance on the Borden-Brodie debate: he is a supporter of the Borden perspective on nuclear war! He does not believe in absolute deterrence and treats WMDs as usable tools in his arsenal, even at a potential detriment to himself. His actions in Sonic Adventure 2 align his views with one of Borden’s biggest theories: the winner of a nuclear war will not be the state who inflicts the most damage on their enemy, but rather the one who does not run out of nuclear weapons first. Eggman is determined to be the last one standing—even if it means standing alone atop the ashes of the world. 

[dontforgetukraine]

The West Deliberately Refuses to Understand What Russia Is

Pick up any map, and you'll easily spot a vast country called Russia. But make no mistake—this is no nation; it has no national interests, only imperial ambitions. Bizarrely, we justify Moscow's criminal actions eagerly at our own peril, despite the threat it poses not just to Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland, etc. but to the entire world and, paradoxically, to the population of Russia too. Don't take my word for it, ask the people of Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Dagestan or any other Eurasian folk Moscow had colonized. The veritable prison of nations spent decades, if not centuries, attempting to erase their identities, languages, and cultures. Our stubborn refusal to face the facts is confounding. What is holding us back from processing the lessons of Russia's bloodstained history, from believing Russia when it tells us it plans to commit what I see as genocide? Why can't we act decisively on this knowledge? Given an opportunity to restore deterrents, rebuild our credibility, and reassert our commitment to the values we profess, we flounder time and again. To help Ukraine defeat the aggressor is not charity, it's in our strategic interest. Any other outcome creates a much more problematic future for each of Ukraine's allies individually, and all of us collectively.

Excerpt from "Russia Gaslit Me for Decades. It's Doing the Same to You"

[girlactionfigure]

HURT - DON'T HEAL THE ANTISEMITE

The attempt to disabuse the world of antisemitism has been a monumental failure. 

Despite decades of educational outreach things are the worst they’ve ever been. 

The hatred against us is at fever pitch and from multiple fronts. 

The alleged gains that have been made teaching the world about the Holocaust and antisemitism have not been worth the investment of time, energy and resources. 

The facts speak for themself. 

We are in the most precarious position any of us have ever experienced, with most of us wondering where our future lies.

To increase our safety we need a new approach.

This new approach requires us to stop projecting our Jewish belief in education onto the world. We need to stop expecting the world to react in the same way we do to the facts, reason and appeals for compassion we present. We need to stop assuming antisemites are simply ignorant and must confront the truth that they simply hate us and that they enjoy hating us.

We need to make this a less enjoyable pastime for them.

The future of Jewish safety is not in teaching the world to be better people - but in teaching them to watch their step. We need to stop attempting to teach our haters to be nice to us, but rather teach them there’s a cost to their transgressions. Putting it bluntly: we need to teach the world that we will fuck up anyone who tries to hurt us. That is the lesson we need to be pushing. It matters not one jot that they know where antisemitism leads for the Jews. We need to show them where antisemitism leads for them, the perpetrators of antisemitism. They don’t need to know what happened to the Jews in Auschwitz so much as they need to know what happened to the Nazis. They need to know the Nazis got fucked up, killed and destroyed. They need to know that Germany got levelled, destroyed and went up in flames. They need to know that German bodies and minds got broken beyond recognition. Antisemites need to know what happens to the antisemite - not the Jew. And we need to show them.

Those who attempt to kill us must be neutralised - and perpetrators of antisemitic speech and action need to have their lives attacked and diminished so that they experience the greatest personal cost we can extract. They need to suffer consequences to their reputations and their livelihoods. They must be shamed, exposed, humiliated, damaged and degraded. They must experience emotional and mental discomfort. The law must be used to punish them. They must lose their freedom if applicable. Whatever means is available to hurt them should be used to the fullest extent. Their suffering must be harsh and without pity and serve as a deterrent to others. If others don’t pay heed to that deterrent - then they must also suffer. And it must be without pity.

Do we risk antisemites not liking us?

They already hate us. 

Now let them fear us.

And some of you must stop this narcissistic impulse to want to redeem your abusers. This has nothing to with making the world better. It’s about satisfying your saviour complex and making you feel self-righteous. Stop prioritising your abusers. That in itself is a symptom of the abuse you’ve experienced. You have every right to prioritise yourself. Your abuser has not earned a right to your ongoing time and energy. 

Furthermore, trying to generate a couple of feel good stories about an antisemite turned good is an inefficient use of our resources - something we can ill afford when so many active enemies must be thwarted.

It also sends the wrong message. There is no deterrent if they know abusing us is a revolving door that offers them automatic reputational rehabilitation. 

Let’s hurt our haters and move on.

Let it be seen they have been hurt.

We need to stop educating people to like us. We need to teach them to fear us. We need to show them we are mean, nasty and will inflict pain without remorse. 

We need to hurt antisemites - not heal them.

Do some of you feel a little anxious hearing this kind of talk?

Does a Jew being aggressive and spiteful make you feel uncomfortable and anxious?

Good.

That’s how our enemies should feel.

Maybe then they’ll think twice about fucking with us.

LEE KERN

[starlightwoofwoof]

I'm not sure if this has been asked already, but does holy water play a part in this au? I was thinking that after the first incident with Kevin, Radford and him try to use the holy water as a deterrent for the akuma-

For example, Kevin and Radford having a bad day at the Candy Club and are thinking an Akuma might come in if it gets any worse, so they dump the holy water on themselves as an attempt to keep the Akuma away....only to see that it either

A. Doesn't work at preventing anything and that it's virtually worthless

B. Stops it for a little while, but the effect fades over time (whether it be quickly or not is up to you)

Or C. Some other thing

I randomly thought of this and wanted to see what you think!! I hope you stay hydrated and are having a good day!

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

okay- uhhh I haven’t even thought of that outside of Gregor using it for combat

but I like the idea of it having effects outside of that- I think the whole idea might be good for a side plot point in a future chapter of my fic, and I think idea B might work best

kinda feel bad for Rad and Kevin tho, I think they’re getting a tiny bit paranoid now- (understandably)

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

[nonsensical-shitposting]

Decided to comb through a few separate playthroughs of Indigo Park with the intention of tracking down potential bits of foreshadowing that I haven't seen anyone recognize as such yet. Here's what I've got in no particular order, along with a few accompanying theories:

The player's screenname on the Discord expy seen in the opening cutscene is eEnsign. My first instinct is to say this is just a hint towards their surname, as their presumable first name is Ed and Indigo Park has already established a precedent for alliterative names: so, their full name could be "Ed Ensign." I do think there could be more to it symbolism-wise, though, so I'll just leave you with these definitions I grabbed from Wiktionary and let you come to your own conclusions about the potential implications for Ed's backstory, narrative role, and/or fate:

Could just be me reading too much into it, but Rambley's "or did you just get plastic surgery?" joke may be a hint that Ed will suffer some form of facial damage or alteration in a future chapter.

The power generators don't feel like they were "originally" part of the park, but rather seem to me as if they were a more recent addition- the only question is when and why. Rambley says the employees stopped showing up before the guests, so maybe they were installed during the time before the last employees ditched the park in an attempt to keep it functioning in their absence for as long as possible. Alternatively, maybe Mollie made them after the park was evacuated: she's already been established as good with machines, assuming her plane-building habits carried over from the character to the mascot.

Salem's cardboard cutout is bisected at the waist, which could be a hint that a similar fate has befallen the "real-world" mascot (there's precedent for this sort of foreshadowing with the headless Mollie standee at the park entrance). Similarly, on the cluster of screens Rambley appears on after the Rambley's Railway section the screen over where his right eye "should be" is noticeably deactivated, which could be a hint that his mascot counterpart (if it exists) is missing its right eye. Alternatively, Rambley might suffer a similar kind of damage in a future chapter- in that case, I'd interpret the potential foreshadowing more metaphorically in that the damage'll leave him "half-blind" in a sense, such as something that knocks out most of the park's security cameras or just locks him out of using them.

I think the general consensus by this point is that the Critter Cuff's resuscitation ability Rambley mentions will be unlocked and/or come into play somehow in a future chapter, but I haven't seen anyone dwelling on the implications of this- or, rather, the implications of this coexisting with how we've seen Rambley simply unlock a higher access level on Ed's cuff with zero physical modification to the device and no on-site capability to physically modify the cuffs that we've seen yet. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that the resuscitation ability is likely pre-installed on all Critter Cuffs but only gets unlocked for the higher access levels, which. Y'know. Doesn't say great things about how Indigo Park treats its human employees or its customers. (I'm not saying this is a plausibility issue, mind you- as far as we know, Indigo Park is located somewhere in America- but still!)

I've watched over the scene where Lloyd attacks Ed multiple times now, and it looks to me like Lloyd specifically goes to grab at his nose/muzzle area when the Critter Cuff starts emitting the high-pitched frequency that drives him off. Building off of this and the fact that Mollie appears to be bleeding from her beak immediately prior to and throughout her chase sequence, my theory is that the park set the mascots up with some kind of multi-component implant located in the nasopharynx and Eustachian tube, and the implants themselves are what triggers the Critter Cuff to start emitting what I'm just going to refer to as "the deterrent frequency" from here onward for simplicity's sake. My best guess would be that the implants and Critter Cuff work in tandem via proximity detectors in both the implants and the cuff, which are in turn linked back to the heartbeat monitor and mood ring features of the Critter Cuff to determine whether a visitor seems to be in danger of being attacked by a mascot and automatically sets off the deterrent frequency if these conditions are all simultaneously present. (Granted, this does seem a bit advanced for the time period if we're working under the assumption that this was all developed before the park closed down in 2015-ish, but Rambley's AI would also be anachronistically advanced for even the present day, let alone 2015, so I don't think it's a stretch to say that Indigo Park was working with some pretty cutting-edge technology before its closure. Either that, or the Indigo Park universe is just more technologically advanced than ours.) If I'm right about the implants/their placement, the deterrent frequency probably drives the mascots off via both the high-pitched noise we already know of that hurts their ears and by screwing with their middle-ear pressure... which I think would induce some form of barotrauma in the long run, especially if it's repeatedly used? I'm not a doctor and I don't know if the game's going to go that deep into scientific explanations, though, so don't take my word for it without researching the topic yourself and/or seeking input from an actual medical professional.

Anyway, working from this assumption about how the deterrent frequency functions, this suddenly explains the apparent weirdness in Mollie's chase sequence. It seems clear that she was watching when Ed's cuff set off the deterrent frequency to drive Lloyd away, which would've tipped Mollie off that the deterrent frequency is still functioning; I think that this led to her deciding to tear out her implant beforehand. This would explain why she's visibly bleeding in the leadup to the chase sequence and why Ed's Critter Cuff never emits the deterrent frequency when she first appears or starts chasing them down, and it also explains the different high-pitched frequency heard at the very end of the chase sequence: based on the above theory, my assumption is that Rambley tried to set off a backup deterrent frequency to get Mollie to leave (which didn't work because Mollie tore out her implant), and when that failed he panicked and slammed the door shut.

I feel like Ed having been employed on the spot by Rambley is going to be of major relevance later. If it ends up being important for the ending, maybe there'll be some kind of weird legal loophole where, due to Ed being the only person working at Indigo Park at the time, ownership thereof automatically defaults to them? If the full game has multiple endings, this would also be an easy way to make choice-based multiple endings work, as if you do something that rubs Rambley the wrong way he could easily send security recordings of Ed breaking into Indigo Park to the authorities to ensure Ed can't exploit the loophole to gain ownership of Indigo Park, while on the flipside having Ed's hard work pay off with them getting rewarded for helping Rambley restore the park (rather than the company just swooping in after the fact to reassert control and reaping the benefit of Ed's work while Ed gets nothing but a fine for trespassing) could be a nice way to close things out... or alternatively, it could be a conduit for an anticapitalist "you cannot fix the system by working within its constraints, the whole rotten edifice must be dismantled" message, especially if Ed turns out to be more of a morally-gray character than we thought.

This is more instinct than anything else, but the references to Indigo Park as a "kingdom" that appear in the trailer and in Rambley's song feel like something that's going to be a recurring thematic motif rather than just a metaphor that gets used in a few throwaway lines. Not quite sure what relevance this could end up having, though.

I don't think I'm the only one to have noticed this, but Rambley seems to have a tendency to become more animated and use more in-between frames the more he opens up and/or deviates from what was likely programmed into him. However, I don't think this is an automatic or unconscious thing, but is instead an active choice to communicate genuineness and sincerity. He has been left running without pause for almost eight years, which as far as I know is Very Bad for computers, so if anything I'd be shocked if he had the remaining system resources to fluidly animate himself 24/7; as such, I think he physically can't do the higher-quality, more fluid animations all the time, so he chooses to save them for when it "matters" most.

[pokemonshelterstories]

my accelgor just ate 2 medium-size cupcakes (one vanilla, one matcha). my family is visiting tomorrow and i got some cupcakes just for them. i saw 2 of them were missing, until i found them with my sneaky little ninja bug... it's been an hour and she seems okay, but i am scared, especially since the matcha one has caffeine

please don't ask a blog about veterinary advice. if your pokemon eats something you're worried about, you need to get to a pokemon center. food poisoning can kill a pokemon far faster than i'm likely to see a message.

for future reference, caffeine can be lethal to a variety of bug types in high enough doses, as plants developed caffeine largely as a deterrent for pokemon that eat them. thankfully, accelgor does not seem to be one of them, though there's little research on the matter. one study did show that shelmet that consume caffeine can experience evolutionary stasis, but it requires consistent exposure to a baseline quantity over an extended period of time. it's unlikely that there was enough caffeine in the cupcake to cause problems.

my greater concern would be the high amount of sugar and flour, which accelgor's digestive system is not intended to process. excessive sugar consumption can cause dehydration as the body attempts to stabilize blood sugar levels. dehydration is devastating to an accelgor, so this is something that needs to be actively monitored when it happens.

[a-d-nox]

animal spirit messages: earth and water

this is based on my experience reading from an animal spirit deck, and what i commonly see in the wild (this can be used as a quick reference guide). this is all my experience as it aligns with the card means and what happened surrounding the crossing of a real life animal (not the card) and the period of life/situation.

paid reading options: astrology menu & cartomancy menu

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bear

you might be near a spiritual awakening. you could be making slow but steady progress in an area of your life and this is the universe's way of encouraging you. the universe could be signaling you to go in a new direction. you might be undergoing a personal transformation. there could be a family matter that will effect you heavily in the near future. the universe could be signaling you needing inner strength. the universe could be telling you to get ready to grow/change, stop withdrawing, and/or get moving.

deer

use love, compassion, and grace with the situation ahead of you. you must rely on your intuition to show you the way and tell you what to do. your mother or motherhood might be relevant in a situation upcoming. try to be fully present upcoming and focus on the world around you. make sure you are nurturing others and yourself. there is a new phase of life upcoming. you are protected from what is ahead of you.

earthworms

might signal you are hesitating at a pivotal point in your life. the universe might be asking you to start something new. could be encouragement that not knowing what you are doing is not a deterrent from continue to try something or not to feel intimidated. the universe make be asking you to have hope. it could be encouragement you're on the right track. the universe could be telling you to get a fresh perspective, be earnest, don't feel self-conscious, and/or speak up.

fish

it is time to move on. embrace what exhilarates you. you should be weary - there is slipperiness in a situation/person in your life currently. you could lack of goals/intentions and the universe is asking that you find some.

fox

you are smart, clever, and wise - use that to your advantage. this is a sign that a partnership is heading your way or that your current partner is perfect for you. follow your intuition - your initial thoughts are accurate. trust that you can adapt well to what is about to happen, be it known or unknown. commitment is coming. use your charisma to your benefit.

horse

keep moving - momentum will carry you forward even when you feel like slowing down. loosen up a bit. look for reliability and support upcoming - something is sure to change and you will need the stability. if you feel like giving up now is not the time to do so. if you need to hear it then hear it - anything is possible.

rabbit

you might be experiencing anxiety or feel overwhelmed (or soon you will be) but the universe has got your back. the universe is asking that you not let paranoia and being scared stop you from attempting whatever has been on your mind. stop being your own worst enemy. being sensitive does little for your survival at this moment in time - you need to listen to others and stop over explaining.

spider

prosperity is in your near future. think creatively in the upcoming days - straightforward thinking is not the answer. your hard work is going to pay off - have patience for yourself and situation. trust the process. abundance is in your near future. make sure you are appreciating the small things in life.

turtle

find what makes you feel grounded. trust those around you if you are wavering. try to be more hospitable. truths are likely to come your way very soon - believe that you are being shown and told the truth. you are aligning with your meaning of life. peace is about to find itself in your world. it is time for you to slow down and appreciate what you have.

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© a-d-nox 2024 all rights reserved

[obsidiancreates]

Concerning Hobbits Who Cause A Great Deal Of Concern

Sequel to There and Back Again (Starting From The End)

Bilbo picks over the pile of supplies in front of him. "Extra clothes, good, maps, good, plenty of water jugs- won't be making that mistake twice, not after that holiday when Frodo was a lad-"

Gandalf clears his throat in the doorway, and Bilbo waves him in without looking up. "Come in, come in. Do you suppose I could find a good walking stick somewhere out in the desolation? Nevermind, I expect not. Let's see here- ah! Yes, yes, perfect." Bilbo holds up a small chain, meant for a delicate pendant. "Frodo wore the ring on a chain such as this, to resist it's temptations. I think I shall follow his lead. He was the one to do this quest first, after all."

"Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf says, slowly entering the decrepit supply room of Erebor's less ruined halls. "You owe us all some answers, I think."

"I explained it already, didn't I? I've been sent back from countless years in the future to prevent- well, prevent it all." Bilbo rifles through the pile some more. "The war, the misery, the deaths. I'm making grand plans for the coming years, Gandalf. Frodo told me as many stories as he could in the years before my return, and there's more souls in need of saving than I'm prepared for yet. We'll have to finish up this quest as quickly as we can, if I'm to settle in here and then get back to The Shire before poor Drogo and Primula meet their ends."

"Every word you utter brings more questions than answers," Gandalf huffs. "You told Gloin his son would face Sauron himself, prophesied my death and resurrection, and in the same breath pulled Thorin Oakenshield to your lips and have left him in a daze ever since!"

"I've tried telling him to come help me pack," Bilbo mutters. "Of course he's dazed, Gandalf, I myself didn't realize what exactly I felt until after his death before! It's only been a couple of days, he'll shake it off."

"Bilbo." Gandalf puts his hand on his dear friend's shoulder. "I ask you as not only a friend, but a wizard concerned for the safety of Middle-Earth... and your own mind. What did you see, before facing the kings?"

"I 'saw' nothing, Gandalf, I lived. And it's hard to say, exactly, what I lived. After my hundred and eleventh it all goes a bit... hazy, and grows hazier the longer I'd gone on, frought with only fits of clear mind. But I remember enough." Bilbo pulls a broken spear shaft from the pile, tests it's weight and width in his hand, and then grabs a small whittling knife and begins to attempt to shape it into a good walking stick.

Gandalf sits next to him. "Then help me be prepared, my friend. You seek to lead us all into the heart of Sauron's very fortress. What did your young nephew face on his same journey?"

"Well, we shan't be taking quite the same path, I think." Bilbo pulls a map out of his bag. "He went somewhere along this path, lead on by that foul creature Gollum from about here to here. I shouldn't like to encounter the mother of the Mirkwood spiders like he and Samwise did- but I shouldn't like to go to the Black Gates either, if they yet exist."

Gandalf watches Bilbo with his pipe sitting unpuffed in his lips and palm, his ancient eyes fraught with concern. Bah. Bilbo's seen that look for- well, not even he knows how long. It's hardly a deterrent.

"How often have you used The Ring, Bilbo?"

"I expect you have your suspicions. I used it first in the goblin tunnels, of course, and then again in Mirkwood- terrible, terrible business in Mirkwood. Such a strange thing, Gandalf, to have it guide my hands. I knew it was evil then, but also that I needed it." It's hard to push the words out, though one would never guess by Bilbo's strong and steady tone.

Some part of him still shrieks to keep it secret, safe, unknown to others. But that part is very new, very young, and the older feeling of Obsession mingles with it in a way that diminishes them both- like adding together equal parts vinegar and honey, until it taste like neither and is altogether repulsive to taste.

"And then in Thranduil's halls, of course- did we ever explain that part of the journey to you? Ah, Thanduil mentioned it when I brought the Arkenstone, so I'm sure you don't need me to. Again with Smaug, though it was very little use against him. Then again when I ran to Ravenhill, and again to kill Azog. That's how often I've used it in this life and body, at the very least."

"And in the life before?"

"Too many times to count," Bilbo groans. "I used it to hide from unwanted visitors and relatives! Can you believe it? The thing that could destroy all of Middle-Earth, and I used it to avoid neighbors. Well, I didn't know any better, I suppose, and I'll admit I'm likely to miss the ability when I return home- not to stay, mind you. I left Erebor all those years ago because I couldn't stand living here when Thorin, Fili, and Kili weren't around to fill it. Thorin most of all."

Bilbo shakes his head. "But I'll still need to settle things with Bag End! I hope you're grateful, by the way, Gandalf. In the past before I returned home within thirteen months of running out my door and they'd already auctioned off most of my belongings. I expect I'll get home to a smial full of Sackville-Baggins belongs and a Shire full of my scattered heirlooms. It'll take me ages to round it all up again to leave for Frodo and Sam and Sam's sweet. Perhaps this time I'll get to know those children as they grow- Sam was always telling us about how impressive his children were, heh."

Gandalf finally puffs on his pipe, seemingly relaxing. "You're quite a different fellow in your old age."

"Yes, it does tend to do that," Bilbo mutters. "As do a great many other things. I should like to blame some of my later eccentricities on The Ring, but in truth I think I should have become so odd even without it." Bilbo gives up on the broken spear shaft with a huffs. "Right, I'm going to search outside for something more suitable."

"Perhaps take a companion with you." Gandalf's eyes twinkle. "A certain wide-eyed Dwarf king is in great need of some air, after you stole it from his chest."

"Ha!" Bilbo grins, wide and bright, in a way Gandalf has rarely seen- if ever. It's full of hope and promise. "Good idea, old friend."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bilbo leads the way as he and Thorin go out to the mountain side. Thorin watches him, wary and wondering all at once, and Bilbo could savor the feeling of it forever.

"Alright now, Thorin, I'm the same Hobbit as before," Bilbo says, bending down to try an ancient branch broken from a burned tree corpse. "No need to get all strange about talking with me."

"But are you?" Thorin watches Bilbo with analyzing and admiring eyes. "You speak differently than you did only days ago."

"Alright, I've gotten wordier in my years," Bilbo admits. "And more sure of the words I wish to say before I say them. But that doesn't mean I'm some strange new hobbit unknown to you."

"Does it not?" Thorin picks up a stick as well, though it's clear he's not focused on it, merely feigning participation in the activity. "The Bilbo I knew wasn't one to..."

"Pull you in for a kiss?" Bilbo guesses. "Believe me, I wanted to, but I only admitted it to myself when it was... too late. That kiss was ages overdue, Thorin."

"How long overdue?" Thorin moves even closer. "How long did you live, beyond my death?"

"It's hard to recall, exactly." Bilbo pauses, hands on his knees, looking out at the snow-dusted mountainside. "I can't seem to track the years after I went to Rivendell again, but I was a hundred and eleven then, and I know a great many years passed after that. I could be thousands of years old now for all I know, though few of those years lived in a stable state of mind, so I don't know if they should count."

"Is a hundred and eleven... old, for a hobbit?"

"Well, my grandfather Old Took lived to be one hundred and thirty, so it's not impossibly old, but I barely aged until I passed The Ring to Frodo. And then it all sort of... caught up to me at once. I'd intended to return here, but deteriorated far too much by the time I made it to Rivendell."

Thorin picks up another stick and offers it to Bilbo for examination. "So you know very little of the quest ahead of us."

"I know enough," Bilbo says pointedly, shooting Thorin a look. "I know that if we wait, Sauron will grow armies larger than even what we faced already, and whole kingdoms will fall to ruin under his heel. I know that Gimli, only a lad as he is now, will venture into Moria with his Fellowship and find the bodies of our very own Balin and Ori before losing Gandalf to Durin's Bane."

Thorin sucks in a breath. "Durin's Bane? It still lives in the depths?"

"Lives and rages, and my terrible Took cousin leads it right to them," Bilbo says, shaking his head. "I'd often thought Fili and Kili had been reborn as hobbits, when Meriadoc and Peregrin began their antics." Bilbo's mouth twitches into a smile, a familiar expression to Thorin and something Bilbo had been told he'd stopped doing on a rare visit from- well, he can't quite remember which dwarf it was who came to visit, actually. Only that they'd said he'd changed quite a bit, but it wasn't bad change- simply unexpected.

'Like you lot,' he remembers saying back, 'Nearly knocking down my door.' He remembers they'd laughed. He still can't place who it was. Perhaps his memory is not as sharp as he'd hoped it'd be, in this new life, new youth.

Now, in the New Present, Bilbo finally finds a suitable walking stick- it just needs a little adjusting and it'll be perfect.

"Now that, is an amusement," Thorin chuckles. "I can't imagine it."

"You won't have to, someday." Bilbo puts his hand on Thorin's arm. "I intend to make trips to Hobbiton every few years, after all- I should like to save dear Frodo's parents, save his heart from that grief, but I won't remove myself from his life for the sake of it. He'll go mad without my stories, as will little Sam. I hope you're prepared to have about... four more nephews."

Thorin's eyebrows raise. "Very presumptuous of you, Master Baggins."

Bilbo rises to his tip-toes and pecks Thorin's lips. "I don't believe it's an unfounded presumption, though. The mithril shirt is a bit of an obvious show, I think."

Thorin blushes.

"Worth more than the entire Shire, apparently. And here I'd tucked it into a chest for sixty years."

"Into a chest?"

"Don't look like that, I was in grief. Besides, I passed it to Frodo, and it apparently served him very well."

"I'm impatient to meet this nephew of yours. He sounds like he'd belong with us as much as you do."

"No, no. He's a brave, kind, worthy soul, but a soul who belongs to the little rivers and rolling hills of The Shire more than he belongs to the world at large. Perhaps it'll be different this time, with no need for a terrible quest, but I have some doubts. Still, I think you'll get along. He has great spirit."

Bilbo, arm-in-arm now with Thorin, leads them both back to the entrance. "Dain will do very well looking after Erebor while we journey, by the way. I'm sure you knew it already, but I thought it might help to know that he was a great ruler in my life passed- according to passing stories, anyway."

"It makes leaving no easier."

"I know." Bilbo rubs Thorin's arm with his thumb. "But we'll be home soon, Thorin. And then we can truly rebuild."

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

The University of Florida (UF) has handed down severe and potentially life-altering punishments to seven pro-Hamas rioters who participated in occupying the campus in an attempt to intimidate officials into boycotting and divesting from Israel, according to Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the university’s College of Journalism and Communications.

UF’s disciplinary body was set on slapping the students’ wrists, sentencing most to probation only based on recommendations from “hearing bodies,” until its new dean, Chris Summerlin, intervened and issued full suspensions for as many as four years. The harshest suspensions — including four years for Allan Hektor Frasheri, 21, and three years for other students — while not being formal expulsions, are long enough to make it unlikely that the students serving them will return to the University of Florida.

The seven students have reportedly submitted appeals to overturn their punishments that are pending.

Summerlin’s suspensions may not be the only consequences that the students will face.

According to Fresh Take Florida, the students were part of a group of nine that were arrested by local law enforcement for trespassing and resisting arrest, charges that are being prosecuted by the Alachua County State Attorney’s Office. They are taking their chances at trial, the news service added, noting that all nine have rejected “deferred prosecution,” an agreement that would require them to plead guilty, or no contest, in exchange for the state’s expunging the convictions from their records in the future so long as they abstain from committing more criminal acts.

One of the nine, computer science student Parker Stanely Hovis, 26, — who was suspended for three years — proclaimed on Tuesday that they will contest the state’s cases.

“We did not resist arrest, and we are prepared to fight our charges,” Hovis said in a statement. “We’re standing in solidarity with each other, and collectively demanding that the state drop the charges against us.”

The University of Texas at Austin has also meted out lengthy suspensions to pro-Hamas protesters who violated school rules, a course of action that experts believe is a deterrent against similar behavior in the future.

[emptymanuscript]

Wow. Again. What even do you say about that?

On the one hand, at this point, existential exhaustion is kind of the goal.

On the other hand, this is so profoundly doofus stupid… it’s like an axe murderer killed your family, framed you for it, arranged all of it perfectly, and then shit the bed, too. Like just had to get that last misdeed in. It’s a little hard to work up the indignation over the bed stank.

Like, way to go. Ouch. That hurt me. And now your dna is at the crime scene.

That’s a legal document that is now permanently filed into the court’s records about the case - which was about Trump & Co offering money for an NDA - where Trump & Co offers 30k for an NDA.

It doesn’t matter that it’s 30k off a bill, this time, instead of a 30k payment to her. It’s the same damn thing. It’s literally the thing these legal fights involving her are about.

AND this was the fight HE WON!

He WON!

He won 600k + interest.

He got away with that.

And THEN he shit the bed.

He just did, on paper, legally filed - lawyers have to keep all these, they have to be recorded - what he said she defamed him by falsely claiming he did.

Truth is an absolute defense against defamation, slander, etc.

AND! AND!!! Jesus… AND!!!

Between him winning and getting away with it and all that and this stupid attempted pay off / discount for silence, another court case has legally convicted him of actually doing the crime he sued her for defamation for claiming he did.

A settled case will almost certainly not be reopened. It’s pretty unlikely that she’ll get a court to redo the case, let alone find her innocent and force Trump & Co to give the 620k back. He won. He got away with it. All he had to do was nothing. This fight was over. He won. First place. Top of the hill. There was nowhere to go but down. But he went there anyway.

This isn’t a secret document. I don’t think it’s even terribly privileged. It’s just there now. Easy to get as evidence. Admissible in future court cases about these events. Including the sentencing for the actual underlying felony that these cases have in common which has yet to occur.

A significant part in the leeway of criminal sentencing is the court’s consideration of current remorse and potential recidivism. Does the convicted feel sorry for what they did, indicating that they will try not to do it again and be a good little citizen from now on? What circumstances are the same or different indicating that they are more or less likely to ever commit crimes again? Ideally the crime they’re convicted of but our system rarely operates ideally.

Now, AFTER having been convicted of this crime, while the case is still before the court, Trump & Co just did it again. On the record. This is literally recidivism. He recommitted the crime he was convicted of while awaiting sentencing for the earlier time.

I can’t think of a better LEGAL argument against remorse and for the likelihood of recidivism than this. Here is evidence that he knew this was bad because we just told him and he still did it again. AND - sweet Jesus h. Christ on a goddamn pogo-stick: AND!!! - fuck! AND the evidence shows he didn’t need to commit the crime at all because he settled for both the money off and not getting the product of the crime. He didn’t NEED it. He just WANTED it. It’s proof of criminal mindset. This is the kind of thing he does because he wants to, even though he knows from recent events that it’s wrong and he’ll be punished for it.

It’s the exact argument for deciding the expected punishment is insufficient and stronger deterrence is needed. So the leeway should be used to ramp up the punishment actually doled out.

And it’s a separate crime. So if he loses the election, while he is just sitting around in jail, he can be tried for this as well. Now with the established pattern of recidivism.

It’s so profoundly dumb. It’s literally bad strategy… tactics? I can never keep those things straight. Bad whichever is the overall plan for the war.

Actually, it’s both since he lost the particular fight as well, gaining neither of the goals of 30k more or the NDA.

Fuck. Elmer Fudd is more qualified to be president than Trump. At least Elmer Fudd requires Bugs Bunny to foil his intentions. So goddamn stupid. Fuck!

And it’s not new. It’s the same shit. Over and over again. On his own bed. And it’s not the last time. We know he’ll do it all again. Breaking news. Fuck!!!!

<this is my inarticulate scream of existential rage at an unjust universe exemplified by a moron who might destroy it>

[moltz23]

The Achilles Heel of Fodlan's Most Fantastic Weapon - Analysis & Theory.

As a mere concept, futuristic missiles showing up from nowhere in a medieval-western fantasy setting like Fire Emblem makes for some pretty neat spectacle. In Three Houses, though? This unfortunately comes with some questions left unanswered, forcing people (like me) to come up and find answers of our own. So after considering what 3H tells the player about these fantastic weapons, as well of our current world’s (known) weapon development, I think I might have finally stumbled across why, as cool and seemingly overpowered the “Javelins of Light” appear to be, are ultimately highly impractical pieces of tech which should honestly get whoever worked on them fired.

I feel I must stress however, that at the end of the day, no matter how much in-game evidence I used to back things up, a portion of this analysis should fall into the theory spectrum. Also, I’m not a weapon/missile expert by trade, so there’s that.

So without further ado, here’s the introduction to our topic at hand:

What are the “Javelins of Light”?

Live footage of the things in action.

In Three Houses’ Fódlan, the “Javelins of Light” are “those who slither in the dark” ‘s trump card; highly destructive yet suggested to be impractical (more on this later) missile-shaped objects that fall from the sky and explode upon impact.

Lore-wise, the Javelins of Light - or Pillars of Light, as the Agarthan that wrote Romance of the World’s Perdition (found in the DLC Shadow Library) calls them - are mentioned to have been built by the civilization of Agartha over 1000 years before the main story, for the purpose of killing Sothis. And in spite of all the destruction and death caused, they weren’t enough to do the job, forcing Agartha’s survivors to flee and hide as Sothis erased their civilization from the map. Many centuries later - after Nemesis’ defeat, but before the War of the Eagle and Lion -, “those who slither in the dark'' attempted to use the javelins to blow up the Holy Tomb, but were redirected thanks to a spell Sothis had placed in the area which disrupted their trajectory, blowing up Ailell instead and turning it into Fodlan’s equivalent of Lethal Lava Land.

Afterwards, TWSITD refrained from using them ever again… For a few more centuries at least.

in the Verdant Wind & Silver Snow routes, the trump card returns once the story mission that takes place in the Empire’s Fort Merceus is beaten, blowing up the fortification to smithereens just as Byleth’s faction luckily avoids the danger by chasing the Death Knight (who was all to aware of what would happen, luring the gang on purpose). After Edelgard’s death, Hubert reveals post-mortem that he detected the exact moment when the sorcery triggering the missiles was used, and somehow used that to find the Agarthans headquarters, which he discloses in a letter. And once Shambhala is invaded and Thales (TWSITD’s boss) is defeated, as a last resort, the dude summons multiple missiles to destroy his enemies, but fails due to Rhea literally tanking some them for Byleth and his crew, causing Thales to die from random debris, and Rhea to be wounded lethally (whether she dies or not in SS depends on the player’s choices).

This shot will never not crack me up. Honestly.

In the Crimson Flower path, Thales - masquerading as Edelgard’s uncle, Lord Arundel - arranges a few javelins of light to drop on the Kingdom’s Arianrhod as revenge once he gets the confirmation from Edelgard that Cornelia’s death - in truth, Cleobulus and an Agarthan plant - was fully intentional, and the choice of words used (“I will be praying [...] that the Empire will not become another Arianrhod”) make clear his move was meant to be a deterrent against future backstabs. Given how Edelgard quickly covers up the event and later unleashes the Imperial army over the Agarthans sometime after dealing with Rhea and the Kingdom anyways, Thales’ gambit ultimately ends up being for naught.

Lastly, no javelins of light are ever used in the Azure Moon branch, though incidentally, it’s also the only non-Edelgard route which kills Arundel before Byleth’s chosen faction makes their way to Fort Merceus…

…Oh, and as far story-purpose goes, in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, they’re used to having Byleth and co. go to Shambhala, while in Crimson Flower they’re used to explore further Edelgard’s relationship with the slitherers.

The Implications Behind the Trump Card

First, let’s go over what the game suggests about the things which make them so damn impractical:

Two routes point out that the weapons can't be abused at their leisure. For what’s worth, TWSITD blows up Fort Merceus in Verdant Wind and Silver Snow only because they were confident Byleth and co. would be there, and not to mention, both Hubert and the Death Knight knowing it would happen all but states Byleth’s group was intended to be killed there).

The only other instances where the “pillars of light” are used rashly are either because: 1. Thales has been cornered and has nothing left to lose (VW/SS): and 2. Thales is visibly pissed over his “pawn” killing his spies like nothing, and is trying to exert some control over her (CF). This stands out a lot given the Agarthans have a serious problem of hubris clouding their judgment at times, so seeing them being so careful with their usage implies a lot of how much they value them.

Thales has exclusive access to them: He’s seen summoning them in Shambhala in the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes; in Crimson Flower, he alludes something will befall Arianrhod upon finding out the circumstances behind Cornelia’s death - which turn to be the his trump card-; and in Azure Moon… Thales dies before everyone goes to Fort Merceus, and no missiles ever rain over the location. Thus, it would be criminal to ignore him entirely for his analysis given how much the story points out all the “javelins” employed are due to his will.

Whatever happened with Ailell was an exception, not the rule: Ailell by the time the plot takes place is a living wasteland of lava due to the “javelins of light”, and yet, none of the missiles used in animated cutscenes or even described in person carry this much destructive potential. Meaning, either Ailell was a dormant volcano before missiles fell on it, or the specific “javelins” used were, simply put, “built different“ and are no longer an option.

How a ballistic missile works, courtesy of Wikipedia.

By now, it goes without saying that the biggest criticisms the “javelins of light” have as a plot device, is that their weaknesses are never openly addressed and just merely “suggested”, and that’s understandably an issue if one’s trying to convince beyond reasonable doubt that there’s a good reason why the slitherers use them so seldomly, and prefer to scheme and attempt to manipulate important people in Foldan instead.

So in the end, how do we prove these fantastic weapons have an achilles heel at all? Well, I think we can reach a highly likely (yet ultimately theoretical) answer to this dilemma… By answering yet another question:

What truly are the “Javelins of Light"?

I’ve seen many, many people call the “javelins of light" online as nukes or ballistic missiles/ICBMs. But given what in-game evidence we have, both proposals just can’t be true:

First, and as previously mentioned, none of the weapons deployed in the present ever reach a comparable amount of destruction to a nuke, and Aillel’s aftermath being such a peculiar case makes it more of an exception rather than the rule of thumb.

And second, none of the missiles are even seen being launched from the ground. In all cutscenes they appear, the first thing that pops up are purple rings, which are then followed by the “javelin” falling through the path those rings set for it. This happens even near Shambhala, where one would otherwise expect them to launch from the ground if we go by the assumption these are indeed ordinary ballistic missiles/ICBMs Hubert used to find Shambhala’s location through analyzing their trajectory…

How a ballistic missile works, courtesy of Wikipedia.

In turn and, by process of the elimination, this leaves us with one kind of missile that fits behavior of the Javelins of Light to a tee, which as of this post, is still just hypothetical.

The Kinetic / Orbital Missile.

The idea behind them is simple; have missiles fall from the sky anywhere you would ever want, and let the kinetic force - AKA, the fall - do most of the job. And not only that, these can be - design wise - as simple as a giant pillar as a result, leading many people to nickname this idea as “rods from god” due to the weapons being seemingly launched from the heavens themselves. Sounds familiar?

If all this sounds too good to be true, then that’s because it is. As stated before, the concept behind this type of missile is still - currently - just an idea due to the logistics behind them being nothing short of a nightmare. Most importantly for the topic at hand though, a key step in setting them up involves sending them to space first, so they may later be launched from a satellite or something floating in the atmosphere.

And it’s right here where 3H’s lore screws the Agarthans hard, as the only existing reports where there’s anything remotely hinting the missiles were launched from the ground at some point (knowingly, implied, or otherwise) comes from “Romance of the World’s Perdition”:

"The False God must be defeated before the world sinks into a watery grave. To this end, the children of men have erected pillars of light upon the land. Thinis, Malum, Septen, and Llium were utterly destroyed. Those lands have vanished from this world. Yet even still, the False God stands. And soon, a flood aptly named Despair will drown this world."

As a quick reminder, this book is pretty much a relic from the era the Agarthan civilization that existed over 1000 years before the main story, as all of the cities being blown up mentioned in the book no longer exist in Fodlan. The missiles clearly were once on land before, but not anymore, given how they always drop from the sky…

The Achilles Heel of the “Divine Retribution”

In the end, with all the evidence at our disposal, I believe it’s possible to identify - to a theoretical level at least - why the “Javelins of Light” aren’t truly a “press the button to win” for the Agarthans. This achilles heel is split into 3 key points:

Finite number: If TWSITD doesn’t have the means to send new “pillars” into space, then logic dictates they just simply have a very finite number of missiles they’re forced to work with, so it’s best to make every one of them count. After all, if they had found a solution to the javelin problem (which didn’t give away the location of their HQ so blatantly, like teleporting them through magic or something), chances are they would have already used it.

Thales: Besides being the one that calls the shots on the javelins used, people often forget that the dude at his core is a schemer, not a fighter. Unless you really force his hand/piss him off, he will give the missiles the most strategic use possible, and will refrain from abusing them if he sees value in other methods and ideas, such as in CF where he wants to keep his partnership with Edelgard and the Empire going post-war and even have her potentially conquer the world later (it never pans out, but it’s the thought that counts).

Garreg Mach/Holy Tomb has a jamming spell. Sothis did something to the area so it’s 100% invulnerable to missiles, thus forcing the Agarthans to come up with another way to get rid of the Church and Rhea. Incidentally, this is why Thales never uses the missiles during his final fights in both Scarlet Blaze and Azure Gleam routes from the Warriors: Three Hopes spinoff; because it would be a resounding failure.

Thales, probably having to remind his cronies every century or so why blowing up Fodlan up with missiles isn't an option.

So in Conclusion…?

Whatever FE game we get later down the line that puts similar emphasis to lore as 3H did really needs to be clear on why your antagonistic forces can’t brute-force their way into victory. Truth be told, It’s not a dealbreaker to me (more so once I figured all this out), but it definitely adds to the frustration and belief the Agarthans should not have been in Three Houses to begin with (which is easier said than done, but that’s a topic for another day…)

And like always, many thanks to those who have kept up with all this wall of text up until now! If I had to ask a question to y’all though, it would be something like: if you had the choice to change something about the “Javelins of Light”, what would it be?