#as i die for a failed revolution for the betterment of the people

[marsconer]

i go on this app every day pretending i wouldn’t call kazz brekker a class traitor. i’m done with a rouse, i love him but realistically speaking a man that devoted to profit would give me the ick

[vasilissadragomir]

people often use snow’s experiences with lucy gray as an explanation for how he engages with katniss, but i think that the true story of his downfall lies not in how lucy gray and katniss are similar, but rather in how they are different.

snow knew that it was never him that made the games what they are. it was lucy gray, with her scrappy, passionate artistry, that put on the show that kept people watching. more importantly, it was lucy gray that put on the show that kept HIM watching. all he ever did was give her the stage.

ergo, snow recognizes that the person with the power to usurp him is his natural counterpart, someone like lucy gray, who possessed both the charisma and humanity that he sorely lacks. however, in his mind, those traits are not real; they’re performed in order to obtain power. how could he know better, when he’s never experienced them himself, and the only person he ever truly believed possessed them betrayed him?

so snow keeps his eye out for performers, people with gravitas who could capture the heart of the nation, and squashes their spark as soon as he can. people like haymitch. people like finnick.

and that’s where snow goes wrong. he doesn’t see katniss’ similarities to lucy gray from the start, because while they both demonstrate astonishing, intriguing bravery at their reapings, their actions and motivations are completely different. lucy gray is motivated to perform by anger for herself, and katniss is motivated to sacrifice herself by fear for her sister.

but then katniss starts to put on a show for the audience, kissing peeta and being willing to die with the berries at the end of the 74th games. snow starts to see an entirely different side of katniss that resembles lucy gray to a concerning degree. he sees how, with peeta at her side, she could beguile the nation the same way lucy gray had. and, even worse, she was using the poor, helpless boy who had the misfortune of falling in love with her to survive. the moment katniss started performing, he finally sees lucy gray within her. but it’s already too late.

by catching fire, katniss is the spark fanning the flames of the resistance, but snow fails to understand why. as far as he’s concerned, katniss’ star power comes from her connection to peeta. he tries to weaponize their “love” for his own gain, but it doesn’t work, not because people don’t believe that she loves peeta, but because, for the first time, a victor offers their winnings to the family of a fallen tribute.

snow is caught in a catch 22 of seneca crane’s making—if he kills katniss, she becomes a martyr. but if he lets her live, she’ll be a revolutionary icon. either way, she’s the spark. so he has no choice but to allow the spark to flicker, just for a little while. enter the 75th games. snow knows he needs katniss to die a tragic death in the games. more specifically, he needs it to be a brutal death at the hands of a tribute, not the gamemakers, because he understands that as long as the districts see the capitol as the one who ended the life of katniss everdeen, she’ll still be a martyr.

but snow still doesn’t get it. in the quarter quell, the prey does not become predator. katniss’ allies protect her, ensuring she survives until district 13 rescues her. why would they protect this girl, assuming such a steep personal risk? why would they put everything on the line for a revolution they personally stand to benefit little from? he doesn’t know. but he does know that lucy gray katniss is at the center of it all, so he tries to eliminate what makes her look best: peeta.

and that is snow’s fatal mistake. what he, coin, and everyone but haymitch fail to understand is that it was never peeta that made katniss look good—it was katniss, who befriended and put faith in rue. katniss, who recruited mags, wiress, and beetee as allies. she is the source of revolutionary inspiration. it isn’t her charisma or even her compassion, and it certainly isn’t how well she performed those virtues.

katniss becomes the mockingjay because of her solidarity.

lucy gray was charismatic, like peeta, and compassionate, like both peeta and katniss, but she did not demonstrate solidarity. she was never truly “district” in the way katniss is. she showed kindness to jessup, not because he was from 12, but because he showed kindness to her. lucy gray left behind everything and everyone she loved when she left coriolanus, because she was first and foremost a survivor.

katniss was a survivor her whole life, but she survives exclusively to ensure the people she loves are protected. she always does what she can for people more vulnerable than herself. lucy gray couldn’t have sparked a revolution on her own because she lacked the solidarity that makes a hope for a better future authentic to others. katniss is the human manifestation of solidarity, and to a people divided by a common enemy, that’s the most inspiring thing a person can be.

only in the end, when katniss shoots coin, does snow realize none of it was a performance. choking on the blood of his countless adversaries, snow’s final moments are consumed by what he got wrong. what made lucy gray and katniss different ends his reign, but ironically, the final nail in his coffin is an act that both lucy gray and katniss share in their last moments with snow. they both prove, unequivocally, that he is not the center of their worlds like they are his. lucy gray put her own survival before her love for him, and katniss puts the future of her nation before her hate for him. in the end, he simply doesn’t matter. and that’s greater justice than could have ever been achieved if katniss had fired her arrow into his heart.

the greatest enemy to coriolanus snow could only be the person who reignited the embers of a dying revolutionary fire, who demonstrated to a broken people that while one spark alone might not be enough, thousands of sparks uniting in solidarity is an unbeatable force.

and really, he should have known better. after all, even when snow lands on top, fire melts snow.

[manda-kat]

Okay I'm finally doing the rant!

Even if somebody deserves to die (which is not our judgement to make) or needs to die for the safety of others (which is also a difficult judgement to make and must be a last resort) their death is still a tragedy and should never be praised or cheered.

You can believe that somebody's death was a neccessary evil while still understanding that it was evil nontheless. I don't think it's acceptable how many people right now are cheering for others to die. The death of an evil person is just one more person who will never be able to better themself.

I'm just begging people to research things like the French Revolution where the need for justice was turned into a desire for violence and nothing more. I'm asking you to wonder where it ends. Every CEO can be replaced by one with better security. Every politician can be replaced by one with more extreme policies to keep you in line. Your neighbor who works at an insurance company can be replaced by the boss, but her kids will never see their mom again.

Isn't that serious? Isn't that a big deal? Or will your 'great revolution' be carried out without fail, only hurting those with power that truly deserve it? Once all the big bads are gone, who'll replace them? Just another one of their buddies. Unless you take complete control so you and YOUR buddies get to make the unethical decisions! I mean, you've already killed several people to get here, might as well keep killing anyone who threatens your power! Oh- but you'd never do that. You're one of the good people! You've proven your goodness by salivating over the idea of waving a politician's head on a stick! Good people never look for peaceful solutions!

Empathy is just... gone it seems. People who disapprove of violence or question the helpfullness of this 'street justice' aren't thoughtfully debated, they're called 'bootlickers' and 'facists' and told to kill themselves.

You can believe that a system is corrupt and needs reworking without murder being your first choice! Murder should be the last choice! Maybe if you care about a system being changed you should research the system and attack it in ways that won't get people killed.

Stop cheering for murder!

(Oh, and don't bother ranting at me in the comments. I wrote the rant for you to save you the time:)

"Well as an [insert oppressed group here] what you're saying is actually really harmful due to the damage that these bad people cause the world. You don't understand the painful lives people live that make killing other human beings morally justifiable. I'm going to argue that killing people is okay, even though your original argument is towards the mindset of cheering evil acts like murder and thinking of oneself as a hero who can never make evil decisions rather than towards the neccessity of said evil actions. Some people laugh about murder to cope, you abelist! And you're also a hypocrite because you're totally okay with gay disabled people being murdered despite never saying anything that would imply being okay with that! I will continue to project my own beliefs onto you, turning you into a villain until I am pleased with the thought of your violent death! There is nothing wrong with me and I don't need to work through these issues rather than spread them online! I don't know you, but I hate you! Kill yourself, you facist!"

Seriously I could not care less what you comment. If your argument is that murder is good and people should be killed without trial and that I am somehow a bad person for questioning the morals of your belief, then... your opinion kind of means nothing to me..

[centaurianthropology]

One thing that I think a lot of Disco Elysium meta misses (likely because a lot of it is very clearly written by young Americans writing from an intensely American-centric cultural perspective without even really realizing it) is that one of the singular and central themes of the game is massive-scale generational trauma in a home that is economically collapsing as its resources and people are being drained by an occupation.  People have noted that no one tries to help Harry, despite the fact his mental illness is incredibly obvious to everyone around him.  He tells Kim that he completely lost his memory, and Kim politely asks him to focus on the work.  He tells Gottlieb that he had a heart attack, and Gottlieb tells him that if he’s still alive it couldn’t have been that bad.  That he’ll drop dead sooner or later, but then so does everyone.

And that’s the most important thing: so does everyone.  Look at Martinaise.  Look at the world in which Harry lives.  It is not our own, but it is adjacent to ours.  More specifically, it is clearly adjacent to the states of the Eastern Bloc: overtaken and occupied by a faraway government that clearly doesn’t care about Revachol or its people.  And that is obvious in every tired face, every defeated citizen, everyone trying to eke out a little happiness or meaning in spite of the overwhelming trauma and damage around them.  The buildings are still half-destroyed.  The bullet holes are still in the walls.  The revolution was decades before, but it still feels to the people there like a fresh wound.  The number of men of Harry’s generation who are not alcoholic or otherwise deeply fucked up are very few.  Some, like Kim, hide it better, but the deeper you dig into his history, the more you realize how damaged Kim is.  He’s more than a little trigger happy, and hates that about himself, but he is a product of his environment: Kim’s entire life is seeing people he cared about shot and killed, so his instinct now is to shoot first himself, to protect those few people left who still matter to him.

Harry is not unique in his trauma.  He is a distillation of an entire culture of people who tried to rise up and make something beautiful, and were instead routed and occupied.  He is trapped between the occupation and the people on the ground, along with all the rest of the RCM.  Their authority comes from the occupying government, but it is implied that they were formed out of the remnants of the citizens militia which sprung up from Revachol itself as a way to try to mitigate some of the horrors being committed on its streets.  The Moralintern sure as hell wasn’t going to get their hands dirty, so they happily conscripted (and therefore could better control) this group, who are only recognized in certain places, and whose authority mostly amounts to giving out fines.  The RCM is corrupt, but it is corrupt in the same way its culture is.  Bribes are considered standard with them, not a moral failing, but a necessity, so long as those bribes are correctly logged as ‘donations’.  It’s how the RCM stays afloat, and the rest of Revachol completely understands that.  Everyone would take a bribe if it meant they kept eating.  Everyone would take a little under-the-table money if it meant keeping a roof over their heads.  The officersof the RCM certainly don’t make enough to see a doctor.  They have an in-house lazarus, and if he can’t fix them they just die.  Mental health care?  What mental health care?  Harry doesn’t get it for the same reason no one else does: it doesn’t really seem to exist.  There are no counselors, no psychologists, no psychiatrists.  How would they even start?  If the world is what is broken, if everyone is suffering a similar catastrophic amount, it makes sense that Harry’s trauma would simply get rolled up with all the rest.  Kim asks him to get on with the job because Harry’s suffering is not remarkable in Revachol.  He is one of an entire generation who have an astronomical number of orphans from the revolution, and so many younger people are left more or less orphans as their parents drink themselves into oblivion like Cuno’s father.  So Harry’s truly unique attribute is embodying all that trauma, having it all inside of him, filling him to bursting.

To really engage with the themes of the game, engaging first and foremost with the reality of Revachol is imperative.  Imposing our own reality onto Revachol, particularly if coming from an American perspective (which tend to have the habit of both viewing the world through an American lens and not realizing they’re doing it because they’ve never experienced a different lens), will always feel shallow to me because of this.

All that is to say, I would love to hear some more explicitly European meta about this game, and especially Eastern European meta.  If anyone can point me to some good, juicy essays from that perspective, I would be grateful!

[eroguron0nsense]

Garp, Fascism, and Parental Failure

Garp is truly one of the most interesting One Piece characters for me because of the extent to which his dogged, relentless devotion to a fascist system–and the supposed "order" it promises to uphold in the face of anarchy or rebellion–perseveres no matter how many times it fails him and his son and his grandsons. He's fully aware of the deep-seated corruption and atrocity, and feels some kind of moral obligation to bend its rules to protect the innocent (as we can see with his attempts to protect Rouge and Ace), but when faced with widespread femicide and infanticide, genocide, slavery and endless examples of egregious cruelty, he is unable to comprehend the notion that the system is indefensible, or that the only moral choice he can possibly make when faced with that level of atrocity is to leave and resist it. His son recognizing the inherent, inexcusable failures of the World Government and its armed enforcers–literally quitting the force to start a revolution– changes nothing. The order to slaughter pregnant people and infants at Baterilla can't convince him otherwise. The countless instances of bribery, the tolerance of atrocity from state-sanctioned privateers, everything about the history of the Valley of the Gods are all things he's aware of, and takes issue with, but never comes to the conclusion that he cannot affect positive change within a system designed for oppression. The public execution of his grandson–a prime example of the marine's fundamentally irrational, arrogant, vindictive cruelty clearly bound to blow up in all of their faces even before their Pyrrhic victory at the summit war–makes him waver, but even when confronted with this obvious, indefensible injustice against a child he raised and rescued by people seeking to murder him on live TV and desecrate his corpse as a show of power, he cannot bring himself to act against it in any meaningful way no matter how much it hurts him to leave his grandson to die. If he can't veto it, he'll stay Vice Admiral and suffer through Ace being sacrificed on the altar of fascist state control, and functionally leave Luffy for dead in the process while he's at it. He fails every single person he wanted to love–Ace, Luffy, and almost certainly Dragon–and allows himself to be reluctantly complicit in countless crimes against humanity again and again and again because he's so deeply steeped in this notion of preservation of order through state control that he convinces himself that even this disgusting, atrocious, fundamentally flawed and untenable excuse for a government is better than abolition, better than revolution, or just the act of expecting accountability or literally anything better from the systems that issue false promises to protect you. Dadan beating the living shit out of him and calling him a failure as a grandfather, as a self proclaimed defender of the people, is one of the most important scenes in the Postwar Arc because a lesser series might frame Garp as a tragic, helpless figure suffering more than anyone else due to conflict of love and duty, but One Piece refuses to whitewash his actions/inaction or allow the grief and suffering caused by systems he's complicit in to take precedence over its real victims: the D brothers.

There's so much I could say about statism and anarchism and the ways people have internalized the supposed necessity of state violence to the extent they can't oppose that violence even when it ruins them or their loved ones, but that horrible indoctrination and its devastating consequences for both him and his family are what makes Garp so fascinating to watch and so thematically/politically important to One Piece as a whole.

[dothestarsshine-art]

EDIT: definitely turned into a massive rant about Vander's politics, I tried to not be petty and I failed, I can't fix it with another draft, he drives me nuts. In this unassigned essay I literally will...

Vander criticism incoming because I re-watched the Sevika rematch in the last drop and holy moly did he do Vi dirty (What his guardianship style meant for Powder, Mylo, and Claggor all deserve their own posts) and I can’t think about Vi’s struggles without thinking about VanderLand™. Not saying he didn’t do good, not saying he couldn’t have been worse, just that…:

Vander preached against fighting, but lived (comparatively) large off of his reputation for fighting AND through the exchange of a blind eye from the enforcers in return for keeping his own community under heel. Grayson saying, “I keep out of your business and you keep your people off of my streets” or whatever, suggest to me the passes that Vander has enjoyed in his interests over the years.

His thriving business, the life he projects, no fighting oppression, only bar-keeping, but we see him throw his reputation around as a favor to to his friends, like Huck and Babette. Would the undercity merchant/business owner class want your protection if they knew what was up? Maybe, Benzo was on board. What about the rest of the undercity that aren't enterprising? Silco saying, "Not JUST for the Lanes, but for the whole of the underground," is huge.

It pays to be Vander’s friend, but no one else could possibly realize the success that I think he pretends he did. The lifestyle he's trying to get Vi to subscribe to (VanderLand) doesn’t actually exist. Everyone is seeing that but him and Vi is boiling over in confusion and frustration and self-doubt and anger.

If any other kids had caused the damage in Piltover that made Marcus go all ham, their parents would not have had the luxury of negotiating with Grayson, and I honestly don't believe that Vander would have turned himself in to protect them. When Vander or Grayson die, the little pocket of safety that he's carved out for the lanes will be lost, this only benefits a select few for as long as Vander can pull it off.

Bless you Sevika for leaving him behind, my god. The way he claims all responsibility for the day of ash is honestly just insulting. If you hadn’t led them across that bridge, maybe someone else would have, my guy.

Look at the lengths Sevika and others go to to fight YOU so they can have another chance to fight the real enemy without you protecting your cushy life (and kids, yeah, yeah, but it’s still painfully short sighted. People had kids the first time around, some people in the bar calling to fight back with Sevika surely also have kids. That’s -why- they want to fight) all over the conversation. He talks to vi like he opened and closed the book on revolution - get out of the WAY OLD MAN.

To Vi he’s like, Yes, I live a better life for myself, my family, and my friends leveraging just the sheer -memory - of when I used to fight, but you can’t.

There's a difference between self-defense in dangerous streets and planning a heist to steal your way through life, but he seems to lump them together. Then in the same conversation telling her that fists aren’t the answer, he checked quality assurance checked that she kicked Deckard’s ass, because ultimately that is what he expects from her. Attacking the root cause of gangs like Deckard's is immature and selfish, but you better be a good enough fighter to beat the shit out of them on call. WHAT a moving target.

What I saw in Vi’s delirium in the bar in the Sevika rematch was Vander dissing her guard and telling her she has no choice but to keep fighting, that she’s needed, whether she’s wanted or not. And yeah, it’s not Vander that said that, it’s in Vi’s head, but it's reminiscent of things we did see him tell her as a teenager, that message of “you are the only hope that the people you love have, you're responsible for everything that happens when you interact with them, you're not allowed to not interact with them, in fact you must -lead- them. Also, you're stupid.”

For that to be what her brain cooks up for her mentor to say to her to stay conscious and in the game, the way that she accepts it with a huffed laugh and it actually HELPS HER is so gaahhhhhhh.

Fundamentally, (in the admittedly very little we saw in act I of uniquely stressful time,) I feel that he offloaded the effort and responsibility of mentoring, nourishing, and raising all four kids individually, to Vi. He literally made the others leave the room before giving the soft side of his lecture in the basement, then barked at, confiscated from, and threw stuff at the Mylo and Claggor on his way back upstairs. To expect Vi to take his guidance in, make sense of it (impossible), and redistribute it to the others is not cool, and that's why he makes me grump.

[qqueenofhades]

I also think leftists view liberals and centrists as worse than right wingers because liberals and centrists maintain the status quo, thus prolonging capitalism. In the case of accelerationists, they think a revolution is only possible if people are desperate enough to want one and so they often align themselves with right wingers who they know will make things worse (see MAGA communism as one example). To them it doesn't matter if the fascists will take power because they believe fascism always fails and communism will naturally follow. All the deaths will be worth it in the end.

I hit ask before I finished. I meant to add in parentheses that all of that is of course an oversimplification, but those are pretty much the arguments I saw in multiple leftists subreddit, on tumblr and twitter in the past few months. I know leftists irl are more normal.

See, this is what I mean when I point out that Online Leftists have become just as much of a zero-sum radicalized death cult as the MAGA Trumpists. They're willing to embrace any atrocity, global disaster, terrible people, and massive death toll as long as they think it'll bring their Shining Ideology (TM) to fruition, and then of course this will last a thousand years and never be changed and humans will bow down as a group to this Shining Ideology and destroying everything will be Worth It In The End. Apparently. This is complete ahistorical genocidal nihilistic gibberish, where any progress to fix the world and make a better future for the billions of people alive right now is actually Bad because What About the Glorious Revolution?!?! It is Totally Real! It Will Work! O Bow To Us Great Keyboard Warrior Dipshits! If You Don't Want to Violently Die With Everyone You Love, You Are Part of the Problem!!!!!

Now, I don't know about you, but I sure as fuck don't feel like sacrificing everyone and everything is a great tradeoff for whatever Communist Utopia these cosplaying pissbabies think would be the ultimate fruition of their labors. It's lazy, it's dangerous, it's stupid, it excuses them from ever having to do any effort to make the world better right now, and it feeds into the worst impulses and movements of humanity and the same mistakes that have been repeated in history over and over. This is basically what the late 19th-century and early 20th-century Communists thought: people would rise up in a Great Socialist Revolution, overthrow capitalism and fascism and every other bad thing in the world (which would somehow never ever come back, I guess) and then the future would be bright and shining forever. In practice, it resulted in tons of bloody and pointless deaths, a lot of failure, and some communist regimes that were absolutely zero improvement whatsoever on the oppressive systems they had replaced (and often were in fact MORE oppressive, but online leftists don't listen to people who actually grew up in these regimes and are not eager to see them come back). And guess what? Capitalism and fascism were not actually defeated Once and For All Time! Because yet again, you cannot just Violently Revolute your way to Ultimate Morally Pure Power once and for all, kill the Right People (aka everyone) and then everything is fixed forever. If it was ever going to work, it would have already done so. It has not. This fallacy is the cause of pretty much all the evil in human history. So. Yeah.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

What do you mean Nikolai Lantsov was a morally grey character? He was a selfless hero!

Literally Nikolai Lantsov:

Befriended and convinced already disoriented and ignorant Alina that the Darkling was a bigger issue than the First Army and the people turning on Grisha and executing them, a brewing civil war that would most likely happen even if they killed the Darkling, Fjerda and Shu-Han casually invading their territory, etc. That they should abandon negotiations with the Darkling and prepare for war even though the country can't take it. Also, his reasoning that he should become the King? Nikolai: Oh yeah, I'm a bastard with no claim to the throne who has never actually done anything to change Ravka for the better, I was too busy playing pirates. And I just gave the rapist King who doomed this country a nice retirement and more servants to rape, while your friend Genya who he raped gets a trial for attempted regicide, be grateful she will be spared.

"Fouche did not miss the boat: Befriending the revolutionary leader Robespierre, he quickly rose in the rebel ranks. When Fouche arrived in Paris to take his seat at the convention, a violent rift had broken out between die moderates and the radical Jacobins. Fouche sensed that in the long run neither side would emerge victorious."

While Alina and Darkling were watching each other, Nikolai was watching the throne. Darkling got rid of the King and the only legitimate heir for him, so all Nikolai had to do is march into a disbanded army and declare himself a war hero and the King. Nikolai: Maybe we should just abolish absolute monarchy in Ravka because it's 20th century already, some of the countries no longer have it and no one even wants it anymore? Don't be ridiculous. My mother was an oyster and I'm the pearl or something.

"Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution, or even of those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion. That was the side Fouche wanted to be on.

At a certain moment, however, he called a halt to the killings, sensing the mood of the country was turning, and despite the blood already on his hands, citizens of Lyons hailed him as a savior from what had become known as the Terror."

Nikolai to the remaining Grisha after the civil war: Right, so I know I used my big guns to slaughter you, the oppressed minority, because you sided with a man who gave you shelter, saved you and was your respected general instead of a girl who was prejudiced against you, never trained, and abandoned you, BUT I need an army. So, here's your pardon and you can once again become serfs to the monarchy who failed you for centuries. Also, the drafting age has been lowered for Grisha and now we're sending unprepared children to missions. Freedom for Grisha? Letting them buy land? Don't be ridiculous. Can't you see I have more important problems to deal with? The Darkling still exists trapped somewhere in the form of a ghost!

If only the author would acknowledge in KoS duology that he has flaws and selfish ambitions. Let him be a complicated character with layers, it's not the end of the world.

[alchemyfire]

Anxious Maxime

I bring you short text, inspired by this picture by @octavodecimo:

Steps on the stairs. Is that door really locked? What if they got all the way to the house and are going to finish what they couldn't before? They won't let them in. Reliable people, your friends, are watching outside. Friends? I don't have friends. Really? I think you are wrong. Antoine is not in Paris. Couthon is ill… Your family won't protect you? Augustine, the Duplays… could those killers hurt them instead of me? Maybe… if you hide in the dark like a rat. Didn't you say you welcome death? That you would be willing to undergo it when the time comes? Sure, but my time hasn't come yet…there's still so much to do. You're right, there's always plenty of time to die. That is the talk of cowards. You spoke differently in the club. Who will follow you if you don't face your fear? That's not… Isn't it fear? Who do you want to lie to? You're shaking - look at your hands. Okay, I'm really scared. I'm scared that everything will end with me. The Revolution will lose direction, the republic will collapse or be destroyed. Because everything depends on you? Do you embody the Revolution? Aren't you a bit conceited? Don't laugh. That's not conceit, that's reality. Only I have the good of people at heart. I want to lead it to something better, higher, more ideal. But I am surrounded by so many enemies of virtue, so many conspirators and murderers. Perhaps you would succeed better as a martyr to the Revolution. They would honor your name, celebrate your sacrifice. While this way… While this way what? You know how it all ends, don't you? And you really don't know? Can't you feel it? The hatred, jealousy, deceit and betrayal… I feel… every day, every hour… they gather around me like wolves. But that's why I still have to live to defeat them. Otherwise, everything we've built will crumble. And what if you fail? Then I will die with honor. But that won't happen today. So why don't you go down? They're calling you, can't you hear? I'm afraid…

[arkiwii]

Kristen Arknights is giving me brainworms this cannot continue

Before Lone Trail, I was really convinced that "ah yeah so she's really evil", like what, she approved and conducted the Diabolic Experiment? She approved the experiment at Site #359 and was probably looking at the giant Hub from her window, presumably while eating popcorns, and when Saria arrived to scream at her "WHAT THE FUCK" Kristen just replied "Oh hey I knew you would solve it"? She also funded Loken's Watertank and collected his data on children experiments after he got arrested??

Any sane person would be calling her an egoist, a betrayer, a seeker, a loner

And yet, she was a pioneer.

Lone Trail dropped and now, I don't even know what to think anymore of this character. Like I don't approve what she has done, but also, I don't hate her. She put me into a state of mind I can't think straight anymore. This dog is TRULY fucked up.

She was obsessed, truly obsessed by her dream. She wanted to achieve what her parents had failed to do. She wanted to honor her family, to prove something to the world. To find the truth. To break the sky.

And she fucking did it. She absolutely did. She achieved it, she had done what nobody has ever done before. Regardless of the methods, regardless of morals and ethics, what she did was HUGE. That night, everyone on Terra looked up at the sky. She made a huge step forward, she revolutioned and changed things. The moment she pierced the starpod, a page in the history of the world had been turned, a new era has started. This event was major. And countless scientists will look up upon her, and for ages, her name will be praised.

And she did at what cost? Everything. Her own life, her friends.

I can't stop thinking about how much she tried to keep Saria away from her. I thought that Kristen was using Saria, that she didn't care about her, but actually it's... Something else. She does care about Saria, but it's Saria who was completely obsessed with Kristen. It's Saria who refused to let go. Of course, Saria devoted her life to protect Kristen, she wanted to stay with her until the very end. Kristen did not wanted it, she wanted Saria to continue to live on. It's her dream, and she's ready to die to achieve it. Not Saria's. Nor Muelsyse's.

I can't stop thinking about how she tried EVERYTHING to stop Saria. She studied her Arts, found ways to supress them, created Power Armors to neutralize them, she showed coldness to Saria to keep her away. But god, Saria was clingy as hell. If Kristen had to get to install a trap door in her spaceship SPECIFICALLY for Saria, that's to say how much Saria did not want to let go.

Saria was ready to die for Kristen, she was ready to stay with her until the very end. But Kristen always had in mind to go alone.

And in the end, she had to show Saria that she deserves to live, to continue, that there's still people who need her. Rhine Lab needs her. Ifrit needs her. Silence needs her. Rhodes Island needs her. She can't join Kristen like that. She can't die yet.

Even if Kristen was obsessed by her dream, she was still able to care enough for Saria and the people around her.

And god fucking damn I'm crying

Kristen is absolutely the best antagonist of all Arknights there's absolutely no way we can't do better, I'm standing on my ground

[nesiacha]

Last letter of Babeuf to his family before his execution

“Good evening, my friends. I am ready to wrap myself in eternal night. I express myself better to the friend to whom I address the two letters you will have seen; I express my situation to him better than I can do to you. It seems to me that I feel nothing for feeling too much. I entrust your fate into his hands. Alas! I do not know if you will find him in a position to do what I ask of him; I do not know how you will be able to reach him. Your love for me has brought you here through all the obstacles of our misery; you have sustained yourselves amidst pains and deprivations; your constant sensitivity has followed every moment of this long and cruel procedure from which you have, like me, drunk the bitter cup; but I do not know how you will manage to return to the place from which you came; I do not know if you will find friends there; I do not know how my memory will be appreciated, despite believing I have behaved in the most irreproachable manner; finally, I do not know what will become of all the republicans, their families, and even their suckling children amidst the royal fury that the counter-revolution will bring. Oh my friends! How heartbreaking these reflections are in my last moments!… To die for the homeland, to leave a family, children, a beloved wife, would be more bearable if I did not see at the end the lost freedom and all that belongs to sincere republicans wrapped in the most horrible proscription. Ah! my dear children, what will become of you! I cannot defend myself here from the most intense sensitivity… Do not think that I regret sacrificing myself for the most beautiful of causes; even if all my efforts are in vain for them, I have fulfilled my duty…

If, against my expectations, you could survive the terrible storm that now rumbles over the Republic and all that is attached to it; if you could find yourselves in a peaceful situation and find some friends who would help you triumph over your misfortunes, I would recommend that you live well united together; I would recommend to my wife to try to raise her children with great gentleness, and I would recommend to my children to deserve their mother’s kindness by respecting her and always being obedient to her. It is the duty of the family of a martyr of freedom to set the example of all virtues to attract the esteem and attachment of all good people.

I would wish for my wife to do everything possible to educate my children, encouraging all her friends to assist her in whatever way they can for this purpose. I invite Emile to lend himself to this wish of a father who I believe is well-loved, and of whom he was so fond; I invite him to do so without delay and as soon as he can.

My friends, I hope that you will all remember me and that you will speak of me often. I hope you will believe that I have loved you all very much. I could conceive no other way to make you happy than through our shared happiness. I have failed: I have sacrificed myself; it is also for you that I die.

Speak often of me to Camille; tell him a thousand and a thousand times that I held him tenderly in my heart.

Say the same to Caïus when he is able to hear it.

Lebois announced that he would print our defenses separately. It is necessary to give my defense as much publicity as possible. I recommend to my wife, my dear friend, not to give to Baudouin, to Lebois, or to others, any copy of my defense, without having another accurate one kept with her, so as to ensure that this defense is never lost. You will know, my dear friend, that this defense is precious, that it will always be dear to virtuous hearts and friends of their country. The only good that will remain of me will be my reputation. And I am sure that you and your children will find great solace in enjoying it. You will love to hear all sensitive and upright hearts speak of your husband, your father: He was perfectly virtuous.

Farewell. I cling to the earth only by a thread that tomorrow will break. That is certain; I see it too clearly. It must be sacrificed. The wicked are the strongest; I yield to them. It is at least sweet to die with a conscience as pure as mine; all that is cruel, all that is heartbreaking, is to be torn from your arms, oh my tender friends, oh all that I hold most dear!… I tear myself away; the violence is done… Farewell, farewell, farewell, a million times farewell…

One more word. Write to my mother and my sisters. Send them by coach or otherwise my defense, as it will be printed. Tell them how I died, and try to make them understand, these good people, that such a death is glorious, far from being dishonored…

Farewell then once again, my dearly beloved, my tender friends. Farewell forever; I wrap myself in the bosom of a virtuous sleep.”

Source:

[lyledebeast]

Power, Coercion, and Seduction

One of the most bizarre popular interpretations of The Patriot for me is the idea that Colonel Tavington forces Benjamin Martin to become involved in the Patriot war effort when he targets his family. This reading presents Martin's violence as merely a reaction to Tavington's choices. What it overlooks is not only that Martin has agency, but he has more than anyone else in the story. That agency should come with some responsibility; instead, all responsibility for Martin's violence within the narrative falls on the shoulders of a man who has to ask his general for permission to terrorize civilians in the film's third act. For all the pearl-clutching over Tavington killing surrendering soldiers first, he is also the only officer in the film to take prisoners, which only happens because General Cornwallis ordered him to give quarter. Do we not think he would have been torturing civilians for information about The Ghost before the militia was even trained if Cornwallis had allowed it?

People often use Tavington's desire for power to contrast him unfavorably with Martin, but Martin has no lack of power to produce a craving. Colonel Harry Burwell gives him orders when he puts him in charge of the militia, but he follows or does not follow them based on his whims. He allows his men to murder surrendering soldiers until his son and subordinate calls out his hypocrisy. His orders are to target supply trains, but he uses his force to rescue his own children and attempts to do the same for his friend, John Billings' family. When they fail, he gives his men a week's furlough and marries off his son, all while the Continental Army is planning a major engagement with the enemy. Either Martin has extremely poor communication with the Army, which the film never addresses, or he is simply a law unto himself. While Tavington languishes in impotence because his general will not allow him the brutal tactics that ultimately prove so effective, Martin is riding around doing exactly as he pleases, the Ron Swanson of the American Revolution.

He even makes plans to leave on the eve of battle after Gabriel's death, and all Burwell can do is plead with him in the words of his late wife to "stay the course," that his men need him and . . .

That's desertion, Harold. If one of your Regular officers tried that, you'd court martial him. Clearly, no one can make Martin do anything he does not want to do, least of all Tavington.

Since Tavington actually is subject to the authority of his superior officers, he is reliant on seduction and manipulation to get what he wants. In the case of Cornwallis, he offers the general glory free from consequence, a tall order that he definitely cannot fill . He gets what he wants from Captain Wilkins, who is under his orders, not by threatening him but by appealing to his desire to save face. Wilkins said those who stood against England deserved to die traitors' deaths; Tavington frames himself as giving him the opportunity to prove it, and it works. Burning the Patriot civilians in Pembroke Church is Wilkins' choice like granting Tavington carte blanche is Cornwallis's choice.

Coercion compels a person to do something against their desires; seduction gives a person permission to act on desires already present. When Tavington murders Thomas, he does not transform Martin from a pacifist to a man for whom violence is the only option in that moment. Martin already has a stockpile of weapons in waiting. He knows exactly where to find his French and Indian War buddies, and he has better battle plans than any of the Continental generals. When it comes to violence, Benjamin Martin stays ready.

I would argue that killing Martin's sons is an act of seduction as well as an incitement to violence, but as is the case with the other two men, these acts have only as much power as Martin gives them. The face-off in which Martin tells Tavington "Before the war is over I am going to kill you" and Tavington replies "why wait?" represents another attempt on Tavington's part to seduce Martin into violence, but this time he fails. In a later scene, cut from the theatrical release, he tries and fails to seduce Cornwallis into assuring his reward, and the two scenes share striking visual similarities. Both feature over the shoulder shots that position the two men far closer than they need to be for the purpose of conversation. The scene with Cornwallis is more on the nose. Tavington's shirt is open, his hair is loose, the orderly leaves without bidding as the two draw closer, almost as though similar scenes have played out between them recently that had very different endings to this one. But there is no lack of heat between Martin and Tavington at the gate of Fort Carolina, particularly compared to the single seduction scene that actually precipitates sex, between Ben and Charlotte. Yikes.

Neither Martin nor Cornwallis gives in to Tavington's seduction in these scenes, which should reinforce that they are in charge of their own behavior and thus culpable for their choices. And to the extent that blame for the British defeat falls on anyone but Tavington, it falls on Cornwallis. That seems fair enough; he is the general of the British Army in the southern colonies. But when the blame for Martin's poor choices somehow also falls on Tavington . . . the story loses me. But I suppose that is part of the fantasy for the film's intended audience. Martin gets the benefit of both ultimate authority over his actions and complete immunity to their consequences. Perhaps he should have run against George Washington given that these are the very qualities some Americans seem to look for in a president.

[mmavey]

c!Technoblade- a What If take on his backstory.

Technoblade, for many, both as a cc! and a character has always been enigmatic and someone we are drawn to. In contrast to this, many people fail to understand fundamental parts of his character as well as his motives.

I feel, personally, the reason many people do not fully understand him is because we do not have a solid backstory for him. It is common knowledge that the Antarctic Empire was canon, that he and Phil are old immortals with a long history, but what about before? What came before his days as a conqueror, his days as an emperor, and, of course, his days as an anarchist? When did he become associated with the Blood God? Surely one could not be born with a connection such as that. Unless... No, aus are for another day- this is about headcanon, not aus! (I'll talk about Blood Demigod Techno another day, promise /j)

I remember reading a post by @becauseplot that questioned what made c!Philza and c!Techno go from being emperors, kings, conquerors with power beyond our imagination, to anarchists. The points in that post were incredibly well thought out and I thought about it for quite a long time, scoured Techno's dynamics and even went back to watch a few EarthSMP episodes to get a better view on Emerald Duo as a whole. The notion that they fell so far from that had always been shocking to me, someone who favored them as characters, but hadn't been around to see the Earth SMP.

Now? It's not so hard to believe.

Sometimes, when I think about this post, I also think of Passerine.

Yes, the fic- but what occurs in this fic? Philza and Techno, as they had on SMPE, were at one time co-leading an empire. One thing that I often associate with Philza is that with such a long life, with no death in sight, he often loses track of time- any mortal love hes had is a mere blip in his timeline and his children aren't any different. One day, the Angel of Death vanishes from their kingdom, and never returns. Technoblade is left to himself, stumbling in this similar feeling of Philza being gone as suddenly as he arrived. What if something of this volume had occurred? Or, perhaps, even something worse. Betrayal? Bloody wars bringing loss of people important to him?

Whatever ended the Antarctic Empire is up to interpretation. I'm not especially interested on touching that- I have my personal headcanons about that, but it's really what comes before and after SMPE that really counts. There's unaccounted time in both periods, depending on how long the time between SMPE and DSMP is. (Keep in mind, SMPE isn't considered canon to a lot of character's stories- but it IS canon for Philza and Techno. This is IMPORTANT and I will die on this hill.)

Let's start from the beginning of my headcanon for c!Techno.

He is old- as immortals are- old enough to have seen a world that was calm, peaceful, before governments. As a child, or a teen, or whatever he happened to be- in his early years, Techno got the grand privilege of enjoying a world with little conflict, full of cooperation and kindness. Over time, though, of course, human error comes into play. There are no perfect people, and so, anarchy in its purest form becomes chaos.

(The factual definition of anarchy: the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government; anarchism.

NOWHERE does this say that anarchism is about chaos. C!Techno's goal isn't chaos, it isn't to kill everyone on the server, it is to BRING COOPERATION WITHOUT CONTROL. His ideals are based upon the factual definition of anarchy, as are Phil's. In their eyes, the things that they did in Man vs. Pog, Doomsday, etc- they're just forms of revolution. They're not revolting to create their own government like the L'Manbergians. They're revolting to abolish them.)

Lighthearted anarchy is the optimal condition for humanity. But, human error naturally creates people who desire control, and all it likely took was one person for things to begin to snowball. Conflict sparks, the world begins to tear apart- his strength, the fact that something is different about him (his immortality, given later, will set him even further apart), it makes him someone the people of this old and fresh out of the schism world want on their side. They want him as a weapon. And, so, the Blade is born, figuratively. As time goes on, government solidifies, this condition of desiring control, power, death, blood- whatever it happens to be- it spreads, becomes commonplace. Techno is pulled along for the entire ride, his views, as everyone else's were, becoming warped as he is compelled to fight and conform to the more popularly accepted norms.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the Blood God.

Technoblade fights, he fights for everyone, a weapon of human error's creation, a solider (a true conqueror) that only continues to douse his hands, his blade, his arrows in blood as he moves forward, becoming a figure so haunted by death that voices of those he'd bloodied begin to fight for his attention within the confines of his brain.

Such a daunting man, hoglin, pigman- whatever your personal headcanon of Techno and his species happen to be- would not escape the notice of the Gods, and especially not one so engraved with war. The Blood God, reaching down from wherever the gods happen to be at, has to meet this conqueror that has been bathed in his favorite substance.

At first, as anyone would be, Technoblade, still young in his long, endless life, was unnerved, bothered by this deity coming specifically to him. But, perhaps, he realizes, it's not so hard to believe. He's infamous, a conqueror so powerful and renowned that he is on the same level as the Greek hero Achilles, or even Hercules, to be more accurate. It's natural for him to feel prideful about that, at the time, when he considers being a conqueror a good thing, and it's natural for a God to take notice of his abilities and seek him out.

Essentially, where this headcanon ends up going is as follows:

The Blood God, impressed by Techno's abilities, makes him immortal. Immortality comes at a dire price, and Technoblade must take the god as his patron deity for as long as he walks the earth, and he adopts both the phrasing "Technoblade never dies" and "Blood for the Blood God". This gift, his immortality, floods him with more pride, more dedication- and it also quadruples his value to any rulers that could have him in their army. A warrior beyond death, with more knowledge and intellect than any architect, philosopher, or strategist in any land. As time passes, progressing quickly, endlessly for Technoblade, he learns of the way people view him as a weapon, something to use to further their reach and power.

In retaliation, he begins to take his title as a conqueror very literally.

And, so, the reputation of Technoblade being a noble, grand soldier of the old times twists into him being a man capable of butchering entire armies, strolling through towns and cities and leaving wreckage claimed in his name behind. Technoblade is no longer a tool, a weapon, yes, but only for himself and for the God of Blood. He becomes an Emperor, a conquerer comparable to those we know such as Alexander the Great, or any others that have managed to spread an empire across a vast amount of land and still maintain control of it.

Surely, before the schism of the world, when everything was peaceful, early on, he had a family- mother, father, siblings, grandparents, even- but over the centuries he begins to forget, the memories of things before the deity granting him immortality becoming a grey sludge, fading further and further into nothingness.

He loses himself in human error, in leadership, in the blood-

The Blade is solidified as a legend, a legend of death, blood, war, and conquerors. His name is whispered across the old world, known truly, by some, but feared by all.

There is only one who is equally as feared as he, in this early time of conflict- The Angel of Death. Rumors and whispers he has heard are quite similar to those about he, himself, and this is both intriguing and threatening.

One day, they meet.

And the rest is history. ...Literally, they're old LMAO

THAT WRAPS IT UP FOR TONIGHT

this headcanon is based around the thoughts of @becauseplot , but it also takes some ground from the Passerine fic by blujamas and thcscus.

(heres a link if you havent read passerine, gogoggogoggogo!!!! ^^)

i didnt end up having the energy to finish the bit thats gonna elaborate on the time between SMPE and DSMP so if youre interested on further elaborations of my headcanons lmk!!!!!

(i say this like anyone will read it)

this is going out to like. hardly anyone but I FELT THE NEED TO RANT OKAY SO ENJOY IT /j

some thigns may be mildly innacurate but i wrote this wild tired and its been fueled by two cans of orange fanta. read /j

edit because i missed something: the primary idea of this hc is that the reason technoblade ends up becoming a total anarchist after the failure of the antarctic empire (for whatever reason it ended- this also contributes to his reasoning obviously) is that he vaguely remembers a time before governments, before conflict and war- peace through the dictionary definition of anarchy, not chaos. hes old enough to have seen a world before all of these things, and he ends up wanting it back after everythign goes so horribly wrong.

and hes not afraid, and hasnt ever been, to use force /j

THE ACTUAL END NOW- /j

[wocs]

yall want black people to be the sacrificial lamb in this revolution as well as election bc you have to be so fucking stupid to think voting for harris = zionism! esp considering tr*mp said he would finish the job in palestine. yall seriously lack nuance in these conversations about revolutionizing, building communities, and voting because you are hurt and emotional and only thinking of yourself, therefore, completely abandoning the intersectionality that plays into all of these things. black people have been the punching bag for america since the beginning of it’s existence and yet youre telling us we’re just as bad as our colonizers bc we’re choosing the lesser of two evils to vote for????? what im understanding now is yall want black people to die for the better world yall want to live in bc that world to yall is better bc it’s without us. and to that i say, youre on your fucking own then. dont ever ask me to to post anything for any social movement that isnt for black people bc yall fail to address your own anti-blackness in moments like these and we not here to unpack that for you. go to hell.

[alaffy]

The Umbrella Academy, Ep. 4x06 – The End of the Beginning (Spoilers)

Ok, any show that begins their series finale revolution with a Muse song can’t be all bad. 

I have mixed feelings about this ending, but it may not be about what you think.  And I’m not really going to do an in-depth recap here; just a general summary.  I more want to delve into my thoughts about this season and what I thought did and did not work for this finale.

So, really general summary.  The siblings try to stop Ben and Jennifer; but fail.  We find out that Abigail started the cleansing…well, she thought her death was justice for her hubris.  And now she’s dealing with Reginald’s hubris of releasing Marigold into the world all so that he could bring her back.  The reality is, the moment that the Marigold was released into the atmosphere and caused women to suddenly become pregnant, was the moment that the Sacred Timeline (I mean, it might as well be) started to fracture.  And, basically, these universes all form and die because of the siblings trying to save the world.  The only way to restore the timeline back to one timeline is The Cleansing.  And the only way to make sure The Cleansing works is if all of the Marigold is destroyed.  Meaning the siblings must not only die, but essentially erase their existence from all of history.  So, the siblings make the great sacrifice, the timeline is restored, and everyone they’ve ever met (including their own children somehow) live together in a happy timeline.  Don’t think about that last bit too much.

Okay, so here’s the thing….the siblings were destined to die.  I know that some people will be disappointed with that ending; but that’s what the show was headed.  We are shown again and again how their very existence effects the timeline and effects those around them.  It’s not their fault; they sure as hell didn’t ask for this.  However, the only way to guarantee that their timeline stays safe is to remove the one constant in every destruction; them.   So, I don’t have a problem with how the series ended as I do think there was enough evidence to show this conclusion.

My problem with this episode, and this whole season, goes back to the tangents.  You didn’t have to have one last Klaus escapade or the whatever-the-hell that was between Five and Lila to make the ending work.  Hell, it felt weird, even for this team, for them to be just sitting around and wondering why Viktor hasn’t contacted them.  Because the reality is, you had everything you needed for a good ending right from the first episode.  Several years have passed; everyone has their own lives and their own family.  Of course, they’re not going to want the world to end or give up seeing their family again.  So, they’re going to fight and try to stop The Cleanse.  And you still would be able to have that moment where Lila almost decides to go with her children; her having her tryst with Five didn’t cause that.

Most importantly, by just focusing on stopping The Cleanse and saving Ben, there might have been better closure.  Because, while I do think their sacrifice was always where this show was heading, I also think they rushed the ending.  There should have been more time to process this.  More explanation about how and why Abigail created Marigold and Durango. We should have found out Abigail was Sy in episode four.  We should have had The Cleanse start at the end of episode five.  Have episode six start with the fight and then, after they fail, have Abigail explain to Reginald and the siblings why The Cleanse must happen.  At which point, you can have the ending where they gather the family; where Lila almost goes with them; where they sacrifice in the end and it doesn’t feel so…abrupt.  It’s like the first three seasons where climbing up a large mountain in order to set up the story; but then, instead of climbing back down to the conclusion, they just jumped off a cliff.  They didn’t give enough time for the conclusion and it isn’t because of the shortened episode order; it’s because they put things in the last season that weren’t needed. And that annoys the hell out of me, because this could have been so much better.

Now, the last season doesn’t ruin the show for me.  I still think, for the most part, this is an excellent show.  But they didn't stick the landing.

[trashratsaws]

Something I've been finding quite irritating about the lack of media and culture literacy we're seeing - because of course the least educated people speak the loudest I fear - is that it's almost forced me to become an advocate for art I don't particularly enjoy. I don't enjoy modern or contemporary art. I don't like it, I think it's overblown, and I think a lot of modern/contemporary movements are juvenile, underdeveloped, and crude. I will also defend modern and contemporary art until I die from white tiktok women who claim that they could make better art from the comfort of their upper middle class couches because apparently despite pretending to be cultured by going to the museums where modern art is housed and proclaiming to their thousands of followers that they have done so - which was a choice, by the way, they could have really gone to any museum that served their one-note tastes all the better - they simply cannot be bothered to do any sort of research or reading on what the modern/contemporary art actually means, how it was created, the backgrounds of the artists who create it, etc., or even to read the plaque next to the piece while they stand next to it making their videos about how lifeless and uninteresting they find it.

There is a huge difference between disliking something because you understand it vs. because you don't. Please for the love of god, if you're going to loudly dislike something, please be the person who dislikes it because you understand it, and spare me the trouble of trying to shout just as loudly that, well, yes, Jackson Pollock was the worst, but please leave his genre alone because you sound like quite the toad when you speak.

Anyway I lied before, so here are some avant-garde movements/artists/pieces I really like/find very interesting to do some more research on for yourself.

the Die Brücke (The Bridge, German expressionist group)

Mexican Muralism (Mexican artistic movement post-revolution of 1910)

Brasilia (failed Brazilian capital city with some crazy architecture. Also utopianism in general)

Neo-Dadaism/Post-modernism (generally cheekier movement than the abstract expressionists who took their work and mission far too seriously)

Marjorie Strider (woman pop artist who critiqued a lot of sexism in the art world with her work. See also The Girlies Exhibition)

Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Betye Saar

One and Three Chairs and Conceptual Art (this is the one people like to complain the most about)

Yayoi Kusama (particularly Narcissus Garden. Very good stuff)

Felix Gonzales-Torres (if you don't already know him. Tell me you can look at Perfect Lovers without crying)

Rhythm 0 (imo the single most impactful, raw, gut-wrenching work Marina Abramovic ever produced. Performance art. Devastating)

Shigeko Kubota (Vagina Painting. almost a direct fuck-you to Pollock's macho vibe)

Earth Art (exactly what it sounds like - work that relies on nature. The Lightning Field is on my bucket list)