#chapters &&. the second war

[licorice-and-rum]

This may be a hot take but people who hated Babel because they think of it as anti-white have never thought critically about a single second of any History lesson they ever had

I literally just read a hate review that was like that and my head just went ??????

You're reading a book about colonialism in its peak and you think white people will be anything but racist?? IN EUROPE??? IN ENGLAND?? In the middle of colonialism at its peak????

Enlighten me about how your mind works, please

[the-acid-pear]

Not to get into drama the first fucking moment I open my eyes after but calling the Phoneys slaves is such a bad take because the whole game is about that not being true. Like the whole fucking point is that by All Means they're not people. Not to the law, at least, and much less to Freddy's. This is the narrative you've been sold on since the very first game and that it's trying to disprove. Trying to show you thru their back stories and ending dialogue that, hey, these are actual people too!

Sure Jack can still be a turbo cunt to them but the Phoneys still do whatever the fuck they want if they so wish. Jake LITERALLY threatens with walking out on you like on the first month he's in. But this is also a major part of the plot like Where Else will they go if they're not here. Their choices are fucking dying or working at Freddy's Independent of Jack. AND THE POINT ALWAYS TENDS BEING FOR JACK TO BE BETTER BOSS THAN EVERY ONE THAT CAME BEFORE (unless he's evil but he rips Dave's head off he's just off the shits there he killed a baby dude c'mon he's no point of comparison for anything.)

Like to boil it down to "jack x phoneys bad because they're slaves" is literally Ignoring the whole game and all its trying to say. People starting these dramas are probably still in school you can't be so bad at reading baby it's concerning.

[psychomusic]

so. I've been reading some posts on the jedi order tag AND i won't talk about my opinion on "are jedi good or bad discourse" BUT i wanna point out some lore to everyone who's complaining about the jedi taking kids into their order: (in the EU) it wasn't always like this.

if you take swtor era (more than 3000 years before the prequels) there were many jedi who joined at an older age. like, for example there was a guy who broke his engagement to become one. most jedi remember their families because they were old enough when they decided to go.

THEN in darth bane's book trilogy (circa 1000 yesrs before the prequels) there is a passage where two sith lords are talking about taking bane, already an adult, to study at korriban. one doubted him because he was too old, ans the other told him he sounded like a jedi, and that ONE DAY jedi will have to accept only kids into their ranks if they really want to find "pure" people that can learn their lessons quicker.

one day!! so it wasn't always like that!! the ongoing wars with the sith, who corrupted and killed many of them, had pressured them into taking always younger people into their ranks.

also, consider a thing that this video explains super well: training to become a jedi is not like exercising, because there is a transformative lesson at the end of the training that changes everything. you can't just do as much as you can, but not finish.

the transformative lesson, as the video explains, is that through the force, everything is the same - from rocks and ships to life and death. at the end of the training you have to understand this fundamental truth.

yoda says "you have to unlearn what you have learned". during times where they were constantly killed off or corrupted by the dark side (and if you haven't learned this lesson you are more susceptible to this corrupting), younger people were taken in to actually finish their training (a training that was ultimately about being a good person AND that you could leave at any point if you weren't sold on that, too)

(remember that for the sith failure = death. like. that was the alternative for force sensitive kids. it's not like sith had any moral problem with taking kids away without consent. sith don't have moral problems: they believe that them being stronger in the force means they can do whatever they want as long as their strong enough to go and do it. there are MANY passages in many different star wars stories, even in different mediums, that say this out loud)

AND (this is more of a critical thought than just stating the lore) the fact that they started doing it out of necessity doesn't mean it's 100% good BUT you know. the whole set up of the prequels is that we're starting off the story in a period of crisis and decadence all around. most of the systems of the times were about to fall. OF COURSE they had problems. if they didn't, we wouldn't have the story to begin with.

that doesn't automatically mean jedi = bad and sith are better, tho. you wouldn't take the last, chaotic and decadent period to jugde something, would you? it's like deciding that the athenian democracy sucked because people at the times of Demosthenes failed at recognizing the new schemes in which the world was evolving into, and still believed that their city would be important as it had been in the previous century. They just didn't fucking expect the Macedons would conquer half the world known and more, and have the subsequent political power. Still, their experiences in the 5th century with democracy were very good, even better than ours on many fronts, if you contextualize a little. the jedi had flaws, and most importantly, they didn't fucking know the future and everything that ever happened, ever, so they made mistakes. that doesn't automatically make the system ill, or bad, or not-working. systems can have setbacks when the world changes. (just like athenian democracy had one when they lost the empire that was funding the democracy. they even had a tyranny for a while and then fixed the problems. that doesn't diminish retrospectively their democracy)

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT! Congratulations on the last chapter, as always! Lately my brain has been fixated on a detail that I find very interesting. I can't help but think that any adult in LH who is preparing for war has at least once thought while looking at Draco "ok, this could definitely help us in the future". And I find it almost hilarious because I love the way you characterize Artur and Molly and their protective instinct towards the kids... but let's be honest, Hermione, Ron and Harry have ensured the heir of the greatest house in the wizarding world to the cause.

One of the interesting parts about the Harry Potter series is that both sides of the conflict use child soldiers, and you get to see a realistic range of reactions to that from the adults around them. There's Molly, who's reasonably unconditionally opposed to it on the grounds that They're Children, and then Sirius, who unreasonably supports it on the grounds of being himself a stunted teenager, and then Mad-Eye, who reasonably supports it on the grounds of "they're going to have to fight anyway," and Dumbledore, who is some combination of these viewpoints depending on the situation — most protective of Harry when the danger is real, but perhaps necessarily the most realistic about Harry's role in ending the war. Lionheart has a slightly different cast of adults, because it's a different POV, but you still see a range of opinions from Narcissa ("you'll harm my son over my dead body, but also he needs to be able to defend myself") to Snape ("careful, Draco") to Moody (the same, arguably more so, because he's thinking of the long game) and Dumbledore (again, some situation-dependent combination of viewpoints). The kids are often so caught up in their own part of the conflict that it doesn't occur to them the strategic decisions that are happening over their heads — when you're a teen and an adult tells you you're too young for something, the kneejerk reaction is "fuck off" — but there are always conversations happening in other rooms, especially in Grimmauld Place.

[thaliagrayce]

y'know what we don't talk about enough? Hazel died. We talk about how she grew up in the 30's and 40's and we talk about how out of place she feels in the modern world, but! She died! She was dead! She has spent more time dead than alive, and not by a close margin!

How does that effect a person??? We got some of it in the flashbacks, but once those caught up with her present timeline and she shared them, they just kind of... disappeared. And she was a regular girl with some weird past experiences. That's one way of doing it, sure!

I think it would have been a lot cooler if she was just a touch creepier. If she felt a little bit Wrong. Yeah, in general she's more approachable than her brother, she's more sociable and less closed off, but. If you actually spend any time with her, it can be difficult to tell which child of the underworld is actually more unsettling.

Hazel is bright of personality and has a dazzling smile, but sometimes she'll just... shut down. She'll go completely blank for like half an hour and nobody knows what to do with it. Sometimes she forgets she's alive. Sometimes she'll spout the grimmest shit you've ever heard like it's nothing, she won't even notice it's weird until the room goes quiet. She spent decades in Asphodel, which is designed to make people forget about themselves and wander around for eternity, only she didn't have the luxury of forgetting! Wild! After she comes back to life, sometimes she forgets that she's allowed to Do Stuff now. She can spend so long sitting and staring at nothing. Sometimes she'll start crying on cloudless days because it hits her again that she can actually feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and she can hear birdsong. Every little mundane experience is a blessing and she will make you remember that in the most foreboding way possible.

[argonaut--keene]

Okay fuck it, even if I don't finish it anytime soon or ever, I have 40 chapters of this fic that have been waiting to see the light of day for years and you know what, they're good, so I'm going to share them. Get ready, it's time to find Another Way

[plusultraetc]

oh how the poor sleeping habits tables have turned

[badassindistress]

🍓🍰✨~Anyone want a bedtime story?~✨🍰🍓

My reading of my Shire Pastoral Romance is now complete! Enjoy two hobbit lasses falling in love over berries and embroidery, now in audio format!

[my-fancy-hat]

I don't think the fate of Asa and Yoshida is settle in this conflict nor that Yoshida's strike is aimed to kill Asa (fjmt is an expert in making us believe things that aren't), for the simple reason that both of them still have not completed their own personal arcs nor have reached the culmination of their development, especially Yoshida, a character who remains a mystery for what he allows us to see from him. However, this last chapter showed a new facet of Yoshida which overthrows a previous assumption that us readers had about him.

Kishibe himself praised Yoshida for his combat skills and his templance as a devil hunter: a few screew loose reflected in a malicious almost childish smile while killing a man barehand. It comes natural for him to act as a weapon, the problem is to be human while being trapped in a problem/system way bigger than him. This time, he's about to kill Asa Mitaka, another enemy for PS, but the feeling is not the same as we saw in part 1: he's tired, definitelly sad. He knows he won't find joy in getting his hands dirty with her blood. It's safe to assume he doesn't want to do this. But, why now? why Asa? what change?

The maximum exposure of his personal conflict was through his conversation with Mitaka about the advantages of solitude through the construction of parasocial relationships, and how both of them should better continue down this path, an advice he assumed it would help her to content her need of connections: his own theory of happiness.

This topic is what later drags Asa Mitaka into a depresive episode due to the dissapointment of her attempts to connect with people, and how she cannot stop herself from becoming attached and creating expectations from relationships that barely exist to only end with her feeling stupid and miserable, where the last nail of the coffin were Denji standing her up on their second date and Yoshida rejecting her feelings again all in the same day. Why do I mention all of this? If you think that Asa is quick to create ideas in her mind out of her extreme emotional starvation, we can say the same thing about Yoshida. His phylosophy of interpersonal relationships takes an expector seat in the movie about his own life, where his feelings are well secured out of the reach of what the screen projects, where he's away from the pain and dissapointment to interact with the reality of rejection. While Asa suffers because she's stubborn and doesn't give up trying again and again to someday end her pain, Yoshida accepts and lives with it as an unchangable reality.

Yet, I believe his theory started to fail to him even before he noticed, during his time in highschool his world-view started to crack little by little (most likely by Denji's influence on him). Even if he didn't share significant moment with the rest of the cast, he enjoyed his time as a highschooler and, well, it isn't what parasocial relationships are about? happiness comes from the ilusion of companionship, and during all this time we've seen Yoshida chatting with someone or reacting about his surroundings in a group, especially with Denji at his side, feeding this needed ilusion of belonging. After all, the deep of these bonds doesn't matter but they're still important/meaningful to the person in question.

Maybe this expression shows that he does care about the people he spend time with pretending to be human just as them, maybe feels sorry to destroy this little life he believes doesn't fit into but had the opportunity to experience. He wants something like that for him too, a normal life where his lack of humanity isn't in the way to his desire of connection.

This is why I find this line very powerful for him to say, he apologize because he couldn't be of help to Asa, to have separate her from Denji while securing her to follow his theory of happiness, and by that to have made her situation worse than before and for things end up like this. He failed to fight the unchangeable once again.

[letsplaythermalnuclearwar]

tbh I can’t imagine not leaving comments on fics. when a story gives me feelings, I want to talk about the feelings. and AO3 provides a little box! right at the end of the story! for you to talk about the feelings! as a bonus, the person who wrote the story can hear all about the feelings!! this is so cool!!

[alms4oblivion]

Friends with my Ex

The thing that first got me to write Warrior Nun fanfiction (as opposed to reading it endlessly) was the idea of what would happen if Ava and Beatrice fell in love with someone else. What would that look like? How would that happen? How would they navigate a friendship, with everything that had passed between them? How would their separate relationships bring out the aspects of their love that were most precious and beautiful? By the time I was done, I had this: angsty, funny, fluffy at times, and with the happiest possible ending I could think of for a post-canon fic (and the happiest such ending I've seen so far).

[licorice-and-rum]

Dude I began to read Babel by R. F. Kuang and...

You're crazy if you believe I won't talk about the essential role of language in humanity's History while I rant about colonialism, orientalism, and the building of Identity when I finally end Babel and recover from it (which, thinking about it, may be never indeed)

[haleynwriter]

Chapters: 1/6 Fandom: Star Wars: The High Republic: Phase III - Various Authors, Star Wars: The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life - Various Authors, Star Wars: The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness - George Mann, Star Wars: The High Republic: Temptation of the Force - Tessa Gratton, Star Wars: The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight (Comics) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Avar Kriss/Elzar Mann, Stellan Gios & Avar Kriss & Elzar Mann Characters: Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann Additional Tags: Jedi Code (Star Wars), friends to lovers to friends to lovers, Friends to Lovers, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Survivor Guilt, Book: Star Wars: The High Republic: Temptation of the Force - Tessa Gratton, Temptation of the Force Spoilers, Romantic Soulmates, Longing, Yearning, Lovers separated across a galaxy (literally), Avar Kriss Needs A Hug, Elzar Mann Needs A Hug, (don't worry they hug each other), Grief/Mourning, Healing, Reunion Sex, Stranded, High Republic Era (Star Wars), Love Doesn't Equal Attachment (Star Wars), Hyperspace Travel (Star Wars), Chapter 1, chapter 36, Chapter 53, Jedi Can Form Attachments (Star Wars), Jedi Can Have Relationships (Star Wars), Jedi Can Have Sex (Star Wars) Series: Part 2 of Practice Makes Perfect Enough - Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann Summary:

Five times Elzar and Avar were separated; one time they weren't....again.

[gatorinator]

Ok the parody book covers had me rolling, and I was delighted to get snippets from two of them on the website. Sadly (although also probably luckily) I’m not sure they did one for the Book of Mormon parody

Again, probably for the best. But as someone who is LDS, and who has read the Book of Mormon extensively, I figured I’d take a crack at a snippet of what could be in this version of the Book of Bill.

3 Bill

Chapter 5

Followers of Cypher call themselves the Anti-Bill-Cyphies—They are commanded to build a portal— A man like the cedars of Lebanon breaks the portal—Cypher causes a famine on purpose not by accident—Those who intercourse around will find out. About 2084 B.W. (Before Weirdmageddon).

1 And it came to pass that in those days, the followers of Cypher did go forth unto the land, to build a portal.

2 And they called themselves the Anti-Bill-Cyphies, for they were the followers of Cypher.

3 And it came to pass that I, Cypher, spake unto them, saying, Hey idiots! Wanna have the time of your lives? Why don’t you take a crack at portal building? I’ll make you rich and famous, all the babes will love you! Their feet are gonna be tinkling with sooo many bells, you guys are into that right?

4 And they built a portal after the manner in which I showed them, which was sick as hell.

5 And they did pray unto me, saying O Cypher, we know that thou art a god, and we know that thou art the sickest god, and whatsoever that means we know not, but we do believe it.

6 And it came to pass that there was a twerp, who was like unto the cedar trees of Lebanon, who did come. And in the night, he snuck into the portal, and verily he did take a big old stick and bash it to pieces.

7 And on the next day, when I saw what he hath done, I did not throw a big tantrum, don’t believe what hath been written. I remained very calm and collected, and then caused every animal in the vicinity to lose their teeth. And thus the animals couldn’t eat, and a famine came about the land, which was totally what I meant to have happen.

8 Yea, and even the man like unto the cedars of Lebanon starved to death, THAT WILL SHOW HIM. And thus we see that those who fornicate about, will thusly figure out. Amen.

[varpusvaras]

Chapter 4 is up!

[cienie-isengardu]

I don't think comparing Kuai Liang in other timelines is a good comparison. For one, previous Lin Kuei were slaves of Sektor and brutalised in body and mind. They weren't Kuai's enemies willingly. Even then, Midway Kuai took years, maybe a decade to return and free them when Sektor was already weak. In NRS, he doesn't think of saving them till much later. Beating the Cyber Lin Kuei was easy because you just needed to kill Sektor.

MK1 Kuai is up against flesh and blood who chose to hurt him and his loved ones not because there was a program onto them. And he has been away for months now and only just getting some resources. He and Tomáš could do nothing. For now.

Comparing Kuai Liang to his previous incarnations, to me at least, seems like a natural thing, because to whom else should we compare him? To Hanzo, grieving the loss of his wife and son and extermination of the whole clan? After all MK1 Kuai Liang’s character arc is based on the younger Sub-Zero’s story from original and alternative timeline, just in a new way and with addition of different Scorpion vs Sub-Zero’s legacy to bear.

The Lin Kuei were raised from young age to be killers, the same as they are in new timeline, this time just under the blessing of good guys. Having no choice but continue father/family's tradition? Check. Having doubts about Lin Kuei's morals and goals and rejecting it? Check. Being hunted for leaving the clan? Check. Taking an action against "corrupted" Lin Kuei? Check.

(Also, those who hunted MK1 Kuai Liang too may not wish his death or harm, but they do as ordered, because obedience and loyalty is what they swear to Grandmaster and Kuai Liang choose on his own to not obey. Like, from their perspective, Scorpion is traitor while they are the good, loyal members and duty demands to take action against the traitor, the same as duty demanded from Kuai Liang to stand against Bi-Han. The Cyber Lin Kuei or new Lin Kuei are still just pawns in the war between Kuai Liang and the Grandmaster.)

And yes, I’m aware the new game is different, the same way an alternative timeline was to his origin, so I don’t expect a full copy of events. Especially since MK1 Kuai Liang is not a lone figure on the run against his former associates anymore. You say “he has been away for months now and only just getting some resources. He and Tomáš could do nothing. For now.”, but as the intro dialogues claim, he and Smoke aren’t hiding and doing nothing. They are active players in the war between Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei, as they A) recruited and train their own army (clan members), B) try to hunt down Bi-Han themselves and C) promise to deal with Lin Kuei’s threat to Outworld and Earthrealm countless times. So if you say “MK1 Kuai is up against flesh and blood who chose to hurt him and his loved ones” then well, I don’t see any regret or restraint from his side either. He is ready to burn down Lin Kuei and reshape it to his liking and values, so fighting against his supposed people (blood ties?) doesn’t seem that troubling for any brother - except Tomas, who would want brothers to reconcile rather than fight to death. 

And let's not forget that Kuai Liang already assumed Cyrax and Sektor would support Bi-Han over him, but that does not explain how two warriors (so far not officially related to ruling family) could so easily “detrohizing” a legal heir. Especially, if he confronted Lin Kuei as Tomas thought he should after defeating and capturing Bi-Han in the main storyline. Kuai Liang being born Lin Kuei does not mean he must have that close and loving relationship with his people in the first place but he still has a legal claim to his homeland and father's legacy. So why there was no one to back him up besides Tomas? Though it is worth to note he blames Bi-Han for “corruption” of them more than members of Lin Kuei itself. But that is sadly one more thing not explained by NRS at all. At least for now. The same as with previous timeline, I think we could argue if Kuai Liang cares for Lin Kuei people as a whole or just for Lin Kuei as principle but I’m afraid we would need to wait for next game(s) to see how he interact with Lin Kuei beside Bi-Han (and Tomas). 

There is also a vital contradiction between story mode and Kuai Liang’s ending, as the letter states he and Tomas were hunted down by Lin Kuei right away after defeating Titan Shang Tsung while Liu Kang claims: 

"As you know, Bi-Han and his Lin Kuei have abandoned their roles as Earthrealm's guardians. His brother Kuai Liang has agreed to build a new clan, the Shirai Ryu, to take its place. I must go aid his efforts."

which raises a question, did Liu Kang aid him and provide protection when Kuai Liang and Tomas were at the most vulnerable against Lin Kuei’s wrath or not? Because the game and intro dialogues imply Scorpion has way more allies, resources, firepower and chance to strike back at Grandmaster than original Kuai Liang had.

Ultimately, each fan has their own expectations in regard to storyline, themes and characters’ development. Personally, mine haven't been met so far but I’m sincerely happy for anyone that enjoys the changes and I hope the expanded story will please them too. After all, we can always agree to disagree while having our own interpretations of source material 🙂