#decisive leadership

[teledyn]

[pebblegalaxy]

Narendra Modi: A Leader with Rare Qualities @narendramodi

Narendra Modi, the 14th and current Prime Minister of India, is one of the most influential and powerful leaders in the world. He is known for his unique leadership style, which has made him popular both in India and around the world. His leadership qualities are unparalleled, and many of his traits have never been seen before in any other leader. In this article, we will delve into some of the…

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

jake in the pirate au has a better memory for who elected him leader than jake in canon lmao

I am FASCINATED by that line in #50 where Jake says "You know why I was in charge in the first place, Cassie? Because once upon a time, a long time ago, Marco said I was.” [emphasis added] Okay, yes, Doylisticly it's probably a continuity error. Tobias declaring Jake the leader was 49 books ago and all.

But in-universe, it says something about how much the team dynamics have shifted by that point in the series. Tobias hasn't believed in Jake The Hero since the first book. He's the first to question Jake's decisions (e.g. #11, #16) and calls Jake out for excluding Cassie more than anyone else in #51 - 53. He knows and resents the fact that Jake "worries about [him] more than anyone" (#22) hates having to rely on Jake (#3), repeatedly sides with Toby against Jake (#23, #34, #47), and hates Jake's habit of putting their friends in danger (#11, #26, #33, etc). Tobias and Jake are also in a uniquely awkward position at that point: "We'd almost traded places. Tobias the orphan suddenly had a mother. Jake, the poster boy for the all-American nuclear family, was alone. Living in somebody else's house, the way I'd always had to" (#49).

Marco, on the other hand, has never been more pro-Jake. Marco has, by his own standards, already won the war: "my mom was back. Happy she and my dad were still nauseatingly in love... I practically had to tie myself to a tree to keep from running up and down the valley, arms spread wide, belting out show tunes" (#51). He's utterly confident that "Jake knows these things," that "Jake's our general" that Jake will win them the war (#51). NOBODY ELSE (except maybe Eva) still thinks this about Jake as of #51, least of all Jake himself. But Marco (and Eva) got those rose-colored glasses because Jake already pulled off killing Visser One.

Which is an interesting reversal from #1, where Tobias insists "you're the leader, Jake" and Marco laughs in Jake's face when he tries to lead, saying "This is reality. You don't know anything about reality, Jake. Nothing bad has ever really happened to you" (#1). How things change, over 3 years and a few hundred hopeless battles.

[backjustforberena]

Princess Rhaenys + the positions of power that were never hers and yet...

[vi-is-badass]

Arcane Season 2 - The Base Violence Necessary for Change

I think this shot is the most interesting part of the trailer. We see a shot of Jinx as a painting on a wall. A symbol. A leader. Her actions stand for revolution in Zaun and I think this could be an interesting expansion of Arcane’s exploration of violence and the idea that there is a base violence necessary for change.

Silco is framed as an antagonist in season 1 because of his actions against the undercity people specifically.

In act 3 he’s not the revolutionary he positioned himself as and is instead hurting the people of Zaun through his leadership. He’s doing as much to hurt topside as Vander was in act 1 (meaning nothing at all). He’s even got the sheriff working with him just like Vander, but, unlike Vander, Silco is hurting his own people to facilitate power and he’s not even fighting for that freedom he claimed to want so much.

We see the damage his actions have wrought. We see the shimmer addicts, forgotten and exploited. We see that he's created a hierarchy rather than a community.

And it’s contrasted with the firelights. People considered terrorists to Piltover, who do use violence to fight back against Silco and topside, and yet offer the biggest glimmer of hope. They aren’t villainized. The act of fighting back isn’t villainized and it shouldn’t be.

Because it’s not the violence in and of itself that’s the issue. It’s what that violence is used for.

The series hammers this idea home through Vander. 

Vander’s staunch stance against violence is flawed as well. It comes from a good place. A desire to protect what he loves rather than destroy what he hates and it did create a time free of the death revolution brings, but it’s made it so no ground could be made to free Zaun and create a better world for the people in it. It created stagnation. 

The people of the undercity are still stuck in a cycle of crushing poverty, growing up without parents, dying young due to pollution or violence wrought by desperate people or oppressive enforcers.

It didn’t move the needle because Piltover and the system in place wasn’t going to change just because the people of the undercity were playing nice.

The unrest and anger felt towards Vander for his ideal was understandable. His views on the cyclical nature of violence and the fact that if you fight you will lose people (“What are you willing to lose”) is correct, but that doesn’t make this option the ideal one.

Which brings me back to that shot in the trailer of that painting of Jinx.

Season 2 looks like it’s going to be a season of opposites and rediscovery where it flips what we expect of Jinx and Vi on its head and further explores these ideas of violence, oppression, and revolution.

And I think this season might possibly do that by reversing how Vi and Jinx reflect Vander and Silco.

In the first season the siblings were direct reflections of their respective father figures, but now they’re inversions. Jinx can become the good to be found in Silco’s ideals and Vi the pitfalls of Vander’s.

Jinx’s actions in season 1 weren’t those of a revolutionary. Her actions weren’t meant to free the people of the undercity or improve their lives. She didn’t steal the hexcrystal to bring hextech to the undercity and improve their lives and she didn’t kill the enforcers on the bridge to get rid of dirty cops. She didn’t kidnap Caitlyn for a greater cause.

But we know that Jinx isn’t only the violence she enacted. That she is “the monster they (the system and people around her) created”. Her actions weren’t heroic in the first season, but they were driven by the life that was forced upon her. Her hurt and anger are justified.

Now that she’s away from Silco, no longer a part of his machine and actively participating in his actions that were hurting the undercity, her actions and anger can take on a new light. She can rediscover herself away from his manipulations (this isn’t to say he didn’t love her but what he did and said isolated her and allowed her issues to fester) and become that symbol we see on the wall.

Jinx could be in a way what Silco could have been if he didn’t let his own self interest get in the way of his ideals. Not quite as forward thinking as Ekko or as idealistic, but still a symbol for resistance that fights for Zaun.

Whereas Vi is sort of on a path to becoming a darker reflection of Vander’s ideals.

Vi becomes a part of the system she used to rage against.

 Based on the season 2 teaser that was released in 2021– 

“Nobody else needs to get hurt.”

–I think it’s likely that Vi believes she can prevent more death or can stop Piltover’s violence against the undercity if she takes Jinx in.

Vi sees herself as a protector who has failed at every turn to protect those she cares about. She lost her parents, Powder, Vander, Mylo, Claggor, etc. and she is constantly desperate to try and save what she loves and that will likely drive her decision to become an enforcer.

Vi, like Vander, wants to save what she loves and as a result isn’t going to fight back against topside. This is a much more extreme version of Vander’s ideals. Where she “compromises” in an attempt to prevent bloodshed but as a result enables (or in her case helps) the system in place.

This decision will have negative consequences (and deservedly so!) because no matter what thoughts or feelings are the driving factor in it she is still siding with her oppressors and ultimately helping the system that is the root cause of that loss and pain in the first place. 

Based on the clip released at Annecy and what people have said the writers explained about Vi’s arc in season 2 it seems like Vi will be ostracized for this decision and deservedly so. She won’t belong anywhere. To the undercity she’s a traitor and to Piltover she’s nothing more than an undercity rat.

She will have lost everything. She will have no one to protect. And who is Vi if she’s not a protector?

Vi will be forced to re-evaluate who she is and what she wants. Just like Jinx, Vi will have to redefine herself when she loses everything.

I can’t wait for season 2 and what the team at Fortiche has in store for us. The way the show tackles complex themes and ideas is incredible and Vi and Jinx are some of the most compelling and complicated characters I’ve seen on tv. I’m looking forward to November.

[littlefankingdom]

Dick: The Titans don't want me to be their leader. :(

Bruce *who already has put in the Justice League plans and systems that if anything happens to him, Dick becomes the leader, even tho Batman isn't the unique leader of the JL*: Making mistakes is an important part of growing up.

[savagechickens]

Decisive.

And more leadership.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.

- General George S. Patton

Patton never minced his words because he lived them out. The great World War Two general believed he could not lead his men effectively unless he got his hands dirty himself. That way he could understand exactly what he was asking of them. Hence his belief that a good leader should, “Do everything you ask of those you command.” His inspirational style and aura rubbed off on people fighting beside him, and it came from setting a personal example.

[queencaramilflinda]

The real message of Lucy vs Buddy is that worshipping a divinity is about following the values that the god puts forth, not about preaching or praying or evangelizing.

When Buddy was offered to die a Helio worshipper or live with a different god, he chose to abandon the faith he claimed such devotion to. When Lucy was offered the same thing, she looked to her values as they related to her religion and decided that she would not add to the coldness of the world. Lucy, even in death, remains a light in the dark, the warm memory in the coldness of the ratgrinders. That’s true devotion. That’s the point of religion.

[the-real-sasuke-uchiha]

Konoha’s leaders though the Uchiha had the means to control Kyubi and yet, they sent them away instead of having them stopping the attack. They had an obvious solution in hand, and still, they preferred to let the beast go rampant, causing death and destruction, ready to sacrifice as many lives as necessary. Just because they though the Uchiha could take the opportunity to end their reign of oppression.

Will of Fire and “greater good” all you want. Unless the “greater good” comes at the price of a remote, unrealistic chance of losing power.

[sainteddie]

i’m starting to think performance anxiety is a direct nod to careful what you wish for. 👀

[crookedkingdom]

here's the thing i supported their patreon (at their lowest tier but still) because i genuinely liked them and wanted them to succeed and i felt like i was contributing to that even if it was in a very small way. but i did that voluntarily and because i could afford it and it helped them make content that was free for people who couldn't afford it. forcing people to pay for your previously free content- which is currently just one 30ish minute video a week- feels greedy and dismissive of the goodwill and love they've built up within their fanbase

[thepersonalwords]

If you compromise your core values, you go nowhere.

Roy T. Bennett

[fangsandfeels]

I know that Kagha is super easy to hate, but I really feel how much Jerra hates Kagha.

She is generally NOT impressed by the Grove. Maybe there is something she doesn't know and understand about balance and shit, but for the gods' sake, this Grove fought Dark Justiciars and Shar's monsters!

They have all the power, all the positioning to fight back against goblin hordes. Moreover, they have a fucking responsibility. It's carved into every plaque around the grove.

And yet, druids walked past reminders of their duty and choose to avert their gaze, hiding away, whining, and placing blame on people tons more vulnerable than them (and yet these vulnerable people were the ones defending the Grove's gate, getting killed and learning to kill for the first time).

Pathetic.

The "we don't have a leader oh if only Halsin was there" was another lame excuse to her -- many of Grove's denizens were centuries older than her.

And they still needed a nanny to get their shit together?

Given all that, Kagha still managed to make herself a particular target for Jerra's scrutiny.

It wasn't just about the sheer audacity of a grown ass woman stating that a child led goblins to the Grove, lamenting about having to do her job.

It was also about the same smug crap Jerra heard long, long time ago (and still couldn't forget):

She knows this kind of narrative all too well. Years may have passed, but she still remembers how her family's vulnerability was exploited. How the "debt" for the food, and water, and refuge was held over her parents' heads and how they were constantly kicked down from ever leaving the status of victims, denied their dignity and turned into expendable fodder.

To people like Kagha, vulnerable people are always nothing more than a convenient target - the ones to become scapegoats for others' mistakes, the ones to be used, the ones denied their dignity.

No wonder that when the Shadow Druid reveal happened, Jerra didn't waste her breath on persuading Kagha and went straight to:

Once again, Kagha had centuries to wizen up. If she didn't learn to make better choices by the time she crossed paths with Jerra, then it's her funeral.

[jessrilley]

i feel like im the only person in this fandom having any fun with season 4 😭 like yeah its goofy and not the best but look at how everyone is bonding idc if its bad its like realistic bad

[bluemoonrabbit]

I decided to read the Animorphs because hey, I love body horror and complicated endings, and they're all free online!

Mistake!!! There are 50-something of these fuckers and I cannot stop reading a thing til it's done! I'm fucked!