#discussion of genocide

[xclowniex]

I'm going to add my 2 cents as someone who lives outside of the US on the original post and it's reblogs.

Patriotism can not be compared to zionism as they have two very different definitions. Zionism is just the belief that the state of Israel, either in its current form or in another should exist. I am not a New Zealand patriot. There are so many flaws with our country including treatment of our indigenous population. Which is funny when I say that as when it comes to treatment of our indigenous population, as most leftist liberals would cream themselves if they could have the same treatment of indigenous folk as we do. Yet I and so many other kiwis (new zealanders) find flaws in our system. Most liberals would cream themselves if they had our political landscape too considering our major right wing party is the equivalent to the democrats. Our political landscape including our right wing parties are far more left than the US is. That last bit is just so you can get a basic idea of what I'm working with in terms of politics in my country.

Whilst the person you (thehoneybeet) are replying to does mention the US, your response makes it seem like you view the Pro Palestine movement as very US centric.

Sure Pro Palestine folk from the US and maybe Canada may view US colonization as a big deal, but that's not the case with folk from other countries. I know fuck all about American history as it's not taught a whole lot. Most kiwis know about the Civil rights movement and the civil war in simple terms. Most people in my country just know it as, white Americans oppressed poc, slavery happened, black people fought back.

Which I think is a lot more than you know about New Zealand.

Opposing Israel is not an extension of opposing the US. They are two different countries. Yes they are allied and share tactics and stuff, but the US isn't Israel's only ally. By your logic, it would also be by extension opposing all of Israel's allies which is simply not true.

Palau sides with Israel in UN meetings more than the US does. I bet you probably don't even know where that is or what their flag looks like.

I know I've might have gotten a bit heated and I do apologize for that. It's just that you have a very US centric take on the pro Palestine movement.

I am not talking about anything you have blatantly said is US specific. I am talking about when you refer to the pro Palestine movement or when you have made other US centric takes on things that happen not only in the US.

There are even zionists who are US centric. Do you know how many replies I have deleted due to people assuming I'm American? I've recently decided to just reply and say I'm not American instead of deleting to hopefully have people stop thinking that. Like I will get people assuming I'm American on posts which don't even mention America or on asks that I have sent.

To summarize what I am saying in a concise way so I don't continue to ramble, yours and many others opinions on the current war is extremely US centric which is bad as this is not a US issue. It's okay that US politics is all someone knows, but you shouldn't apply that to a non US issue. Its also okay for US citizens to talk about how they biew an issue from a US lense. What is not okay is assuming that everyone online is from the US, applying US poltics to a non US conflict instead of using it as food for though and centering the US in the war is also bad as the US does not have the power to call for a ceasefire to end the war

it's interesting to me that people use zionist as an epithet and yet there's no comparable epithet for "people who think the US should exist" nor are there witch hunts about them, nor are celebrities getting cancelled for thinking the US should exist. before anyone posts that comic, this is not saying "gotcha, israel can't be colonialist cause then the US would be too!" it's that a lot of y'all do have an analysis that the US is colonialist it's just... not... a big deal to you the way Israel is.

like the absolute level of vitriol, of people hoping israel receives karmic punishment and harassing anyone who is pro-israel, cheering on the death of israelis... i've seen more nasty shit directed at israel and israelis and zionists in the last ten minutes than i've seen directed at america and americans and and people-who-support-the-US in a span of probably years

is america just too big a target or are y'all just antisemitic or do y'all not give a fuck about native people or afghanis or everyone the US harms? like what is going on?

and all the responses to this post will be "why are you justifying gaza being bombed? did you know gaza is being bombed?" instead of answering the question.

[glitchdollmemoria]

please can we stop describing bigots as delusional. please. im so fucking tired. someone being sucked into a hate group surrounded by others who believe minorities should be oppressed and encouraging them to believe in conspiracy theories that the rest of the group believes, is fundamentally different from someone having a mental illness that causes delusions.

delusions, by definition, cannot be explained by things like cultural background - such as having a belief constantly reinforced by intentional attempts to rationalize it for the sake of maintaining power over minorities. yes, someone can be both delusional and a bigot, and yes conspiracy theories can feed into delusions, but the two are not fucking synonymous.

i did not spend my teen years convinced that i was being stalked by demons just to hear so many of you people equate my disability with incel behavior and genocidal propaganda. stop reinforcing harmful connotations about mental health struggles.

[radiant--as-the--sun]

do people really just wanna be fans of the hunger games and not mention palestine at all? like honestly? do you really wanna just support fictional uprisings and fighting back against fictional oppression but don't actually give a shit about it in real life? did y'all genuinely learn and internalize nothing from this series????

[bixels]

The idea that uni protesters are "elitist ivy-league rich kids larping as revolutionaries" on Twitter and Reddit and even here is so fucking funny to me if you actually know anything about the student bodies at these unis. Take it from someone who's going to one of the biggest private unis in the US, 80% of the peers I know are either from the suburbs or an apartment somewhere in America, children of immigrants, or here on a student visa. I've heard about one-percenter students, but I've never met one in person. Like, don't get me wrong, the institution as a whole is still very privileged and white. I've talked with friends and classmates about feeling weird or dissonant being here and coming from such a different background. But in my art program, I see BIPOC, disabled, queer, lower-income students and faculty trying to deconstruct and tear that down and make space every day. So to take a cursory glance at a crowd of student protesters in coalitions that are led by BIPOC & 1st/2nd-gen immigrant students and HQ'd in ethnic housings and student organizations and say, "ah. children of the elite." Get real.

[ancientvamp]

my updated thoughts on the noah grossman situation as some one who's been calling him out since this all started

minor intro for anyone who doesn't know what i'm referring to: noah has been accused of zionism bc of past clips of him bragging about his grandfather being a part of the 1948 nakba as well as tweets that were much more recent that made it seem he was either a centrist in the discussion of the palestinian genocide or was defending israel.

from the beginning, my main issue with noah was that he was being accused of believing in something awful but he never made any effort to deny it. he also, unlike other members of smosh, never made his support for palestine deliberately clear. he just sat back and stayed quiet about it on social media. staying silent on the discussion of an active genocide is just as bad as supporting it, especially when you have a platform like smosh that's proven time and time again to be able to raise millions of dollars for their charity streams. this is all to say that from the beginning, i was against him.

with everything happening recently with the dropout scandal, i wanted to reflect on my thoughts. i'm a fan of dropout tho i do not watch them regularly and have only learned about them through other creators who i watch more frequently. i don't believe they deserve to be harassed for "platforming a zionist" anymore than smosh does for still having noah in the videos.

do i think noah is a zionist? i dont know, i dont know the guy personally. do i think it's a red flag that he hasn't deliberately spoke up on the matter? absolutely. he needs to speak up and make his stance clear- it's been over a year since the genocide started.

form your own opinions, don't harass dropout or other smosh members, stay educated, and go donate to a palestinian family in need

[ratbastarddotfuck]

maybe this is just a me problem but if you're calling Trump "the orange cheeto man" in 2024 I really can not take your politics seriously. this is a violent, powerful fascist looking to become a dictator, not some fuckin YA TV villain of the week. you literally just look silly.

[mxtxfanatic]

Ngl, I’m actually pretty uncomfortable reading my old posts defending the goodness of the common people and their right to defend themselves—as persecuted groups or as individuals—from hierarchical tyranny, given how easily in this current irl moment a not-insignificant amount of people have fallen into supporting an active genocide, because I cannot separate this from how much pushback I got (and still sometimes get) for being consistent in my politics

[goldkirk]

Disclaimer for everyone: I need to avoid a lot of the unhelpful noise about recent events so I’m not going to be online for more than a couple minutes at a time here and there for several days.

My main priority with political and world event topics is the hard and careful discussions about them I have with specific people I have ongoing inroads with who are still in high control situations. I don’t have time and energy to engage with anyone about leftist moral superiority and bickering. Full stop. I’m donating money I can spare and I’m actively and constantly working with people still in the same high-control/cult groups I came out of.

Don’t come into my inbox again with more claims I’m supporting evil by not trying to bring about an immediate revolution against colonialism and capitalism while I’m just trying to keep some people alive and critically thinking long enough to get out of high control groups and actually vote, volunteer, and change policy. I hear you. I understand your anger. I’m not your real target though. Please focus somewhere else.

Thank you.

[metanarrates]

I like how every time someone discusses how the democrats are increasingly mask-off racist and genocidal war dogs someone in the notes is like "voting 😤😤 is like a bus 👏👏👏 we don't need it to be perfect to get to a better destination than the other guy 🤯🤯🤯🤯" like ok thank you. can we get back to discussing how fucking evil the establishment is now

[sylhorn]

I’m kind of baffled about the state of dawntrail discussions having two parties in regards to Living Memory, one being “shutting it down is amoral” and the other being “it’s moral and not at all like what Emet-Selch wanted to do with us”. It’s like a lot of people refuse to engage with the narrative from any other perspective other than their own when the game essentially hits you over the head with the message.

Yes, the existence of Living Memory is unsutainable and amoral and, frankly, pointless – you can make the very valid argument that the people there were just AI chatbots trained on the memories of a given individual, leeching off of the souls of others, their existence demanding the genocide of the entire universe in the end. I agree, in our eyes, Living Memory is an affront to life, sure!

Nobody seems to talk about that this is the exact same perspective Emet-Selch had about us, or when mentioned, people say that it isn’t the same. It is? He very explicitly tells us that the people living on the shards today are pale imitations to what he considered to be life, and thus shutting it down and trying to undo his mistake IS the solution (he is very much like Solas from DA in this regard), because in his eyes there’s nothing to lose but everything to gain. Emet-Selch saw us in the same light we see the people of Living Memory, and the game is painfully unsubtle in drawing this parallel. Even with the differences (we are not recreated memories but actual souls being reborn from the aetherial sea, etc-etc), the game WANTS you to make this connection between Emet and what we do. It is quite literally the point!

Yes, Living Memory has to be shut down because its biggest drawback is that it’s unsustainable and would continue to destroy what we deem to be lives. It is also arguably an affront to what we consider life and its natural end (directly opposing the message of Endwalker). The Endless aren’t even too hung up about this shutdown, bar Sphene. Shutting down Living Memory is necessary.

But you can’t say it was morally good and unquestionable if you can’t give Emet’s views the same grace. In the end, both his plans (and the Ascians at large, frankly) and Living Memory had to be stopped because that means survival for us, but to divorce the two narratives to maintain the WoL and co.’s moral superiority is disingenuous and does the story a disservice.

[ultimatefartwizard]

EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND SUBTEXT THATS NOT EVEN SUBTEXT

It's been a while since I have posted as I've been busy with finals, but I saw a post that absolutely made me spur a headache with just how utterly fatuous of a take I saw on Transformers Earthspark and the messages it sends.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THIS POST TO ATTACK OR HARASS ANYONE, THIS IS ONLINE DISCUSSION OF A WORK OF MEDIA.

THIS ALSO COVERS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1 OF EARTHSPARK, IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SUCH A TOPIC PLEASE REDIRECT YOURSELF.

@monocle-teacup Won't repost your post as the way tumblr reposts works would have everything funnel onto your account, but I'll be pinging you and I did screenshot your post for viewer's context:

I have ALOT to talk about here, while also being completely in shock and disbelief how you end up BELEIVING THE SIDE THAT IS A GENOCIDAL LUNATIC WHO SEES THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN AND A DISEASE ON THE EARTH??? AND IS WILLING TO FULL ASS MURDER AND MUTILATE PEOPLE? From here any * you may see is likely a footnote mark to check details I put at the end for clarity. If I miss something, let me know and I will clarify.

Before I get into the meat of dissecting your clearly ill-informed and definitely not thoroughly thought out post, I need to get something out of the way because I believe you'll use this as a means of shielding yourself from incoming critique: It's okay to like and enjoy characters who are clearly bad people. There is a CLEAR difference between enjoying a fictional character and agreeing with whatever they might do or say. I enjoy many bad and morally reprehensible characters, including Mandroid/Doctor Meridian, but that doesn't mean I agree with them or don't find their actions and ideas deplorable. If you find yourself agreeing with someone who sees another group of people* as being subhuman or a danger to society you need to reconsider your ideologies and thought processes. Like ASAP.

Okay onto the actual deconstruction of your statements, why they are blatantly lacking a thorough reading of the messages in Earthspark, or even lead into uncomfortably ignorant territories both with Transformers and very real-life, human related things.

As a first point, you state that you hope this show re-examines the fact that hatred towards another group of people (even if they are fictional) automatically makes them a terrible person, and bring up the statement that the show makes GHOST's detainment of transformers look "cartoonishly evil" but does absolutely nothing to address Dr.Meridian's statements of transformers being dangerous.

Yes. Yes it ABSOLUTELY DOES address that throughout the entire show. In fact, the whole season is literally about deconstructing the notion that BOTH Dr.Meridian's and GHOST's ideals and methods are harmful if not downright discriminatory towards transformers as a whole.

GHOST's method of control is a guise under the US government by detaining any transformer they deem as "a threat", this can even mean autobots or non-aligned transformers who don't want to join their organization or are just doing their own thing. They will willingly classify them all as "Decepticons" to justify their inhumane treatment of them. This is paralleling how humans will stereotype and conflate other groups of people, as being all associated with one singular event or organization of people that is seen as bad or a danger to society* and use that stereotyped ideal to weaponize it against them and justify harming them in multiple ways; which is what Dr.Meridian ALSO DOES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SHOW. Dr.Meridian is a scientist that literally works with and is a huge provider of technology to GHOST, he literally works with them and experiments on the detained transformers. You can't say "oh GHOST bad Dr.Mer not so bad" when he's LITERALLY PART OF GHOST AND YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THEM. HE IS EXTREME AND OUTSPOKEN ABOUT HIS HATRED THROUGHOUT THE SHOW AND ACTIVELY IS SHOWN TO BE ENTIRLEY IN THE WRONG BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND ACTION WISE. You clearly have not watched with a critical eye if you think they never address his points or somehow he is right about something. He never is and it shows just how harmful his mentality is. You don't even need words spoken out loud to know he's ALREADY HEINOUSLY WRONG AND BIGOTED.

Why should the show, one that shows transformers having to battle against racist and xenophobic hatred towards them from humans, re-examine that relationship? People are being discriminatory to people they don't like, and to them it doesn't matter if they are decepticon or not; they're all the same and dangerous in their eyes. Yes, there was a war brought onto earth's soil from pure happenstance of where the Ark and members of the two named groups had landed, and yes it was bloody and many lives were lost like any war is. Should the war, as well as atrocious acts of violence by a few and the circumstance that which the birth and type of being transformers are deem all transformers as dangerous? OBVIOUSLY FUCKING NOT. That's literally stereotyping. That's what Dr.Meridian is doing. He's literally grouped them all into one conglomerate in his head and sees them all as pests to be exterminated.

The transformers are both immigrants and refugees of war that had lasted thousands of millions of years and a desperate attempt to find any source of energon because they would STARVE TO DEATH IF THEY DIDN'T AND RESOURCES WERE DANGEROUSLY SCARCE ON CYBERTRON. They are thousands of lightyears away from home in a place that doesn't have the cultures they are familiar with and structures built for them which accommodates their needs. And to add onto it, most were never originally outfitted with guns and shit. They had to ARM THEMSELVES TO PROTECT AGAINST ATTACKS. JUST BECAUSE YOU SEE A GUN POP OUT OF THEIR BODY DOESN'T MEAN THEY ARE BUILT LIKE THAT NOR DOES IT MEAN THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ALL DANGEROUS. The only ones who are theoretically "built for war/violence" are war-frames like seekers, but they didn't even CHOOSE THAT LIFE OR WANT IT! THEY ARE COLD CONSTRUCTED* AND LITERALLY ENSLAVED INTO BEING CANON FODDER FOR WHATEVER SKERMISH THEY ARE DEEMED NEEDED FOR. Starscream wasn't even a warrior before this, he was just some nerd ass scientist. Cold constructed bots and War-frames are already deemed subhuman by other transformers. The entire war that you see is a continual millions of years struggle which the origins are in a fight against their own horrible systematic oppressions to try and bring freedom and put an end to the horrible reign back on Cybertron. How does them being robot organisms displaced by ongoing war, a continual brutal and bloody struggle for freedom back at home, and dangerous resource scarcity make them any more dangerous than your average person? And the "they are robots/walking death machines" argument doesn't count because you're only seeing them from a nonhuman lense in that case. Take off those nuts and bolts covered glasses and think of how this would be if they were all humans instead. The visuals of only seeing them for their robotics are blocking your ability to view this group as simply a mirroring of humans in nonhuman bodies. Humans are just as dangerous and ostracizing as them. Literally humans slaughter other humans frequently; bring upon hatred and obscene actions onto one another with or without robotic attachments and aid of machines. Just because the transformers are robotic extraterrestrials who are "different biologically/mechanically" makes it no different from the dehumanization and other forms of racism and xenophobia. Transformers are literally just... humans in a robot shell. You can't argue against this at all because most if not all have human forms, ALL of them have human minds, and just happen to come from a planet they need to be insanely large sized on, as well as already pre-armed due to conflict that they have escaped from.

The whole story of Earthspark is LITERALLY about the experiences of the Terrans; first generation descendants of immigrant refugees navigating the struggles that come with being just that. They make whole episodes surrounding their feelings of alienation and their struggle to have a place in the world, their culture and history and who they are. They want to feel they belong and feel they have a place in this world and be seen just as human and belonging as their human family. Their government and the world around them alienates them and treats them sub-humanly despite them being just as human, flaws and all, as us. Since I'm praddling on about this topic, did you even ABSORB ANY OF THE EPISODES HOME PART 1 AND 2???? IT'S ABOUT THIS TOPIC AND TEACHES HOW THIS MENTALITY OF TREATING THE TRANSFORMERS AS SUBHUMAN ALIENS THAT NEED TO GO AWAY OR NEED TO BE CLASSIFIED AS DANGEROUS/A INVASIVE "SPECIES" THAT NEEDS TO BE REMOVED IS BAD. IT SHOWS THE RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA THAT ESPECIALLY COMES WITH BEING CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE ISOLATION THEY FACE.

Please, I heavily implore you to go back and watch them. You somehow miss the entire point of the show and ESPECIALLY this episode. Many episodes cover different points of their existence as first gen children and the reality that the transformers have to face in general while being refugees on a planet with others being hostile and degrading to them but this particular episode is the one that tackles the points I make in this post the most. It may not go super deep into it due to forced time constraints and other executive nonsense that makes it harder to go into more detail but it still covers the topic very well.

Humans getting nipped at the heels for being bigoted towards transformers isn't some "ouugh you can't think the decepticons did bad things" type of nonsense and I absolutely hate the "oh because you can't be bigoted towards a group of people it means you suddenly can't criticize the actions of someone who happens to be someone of that group" mentality you seem to be concocting out of thin air. It's them associating the entire race of transformers as all bad, unbelonging or worthy of being seen as dangerous and to be wary around them or like they need to not be on earth and "go back where they came from". You go between "decepticons" and "transformers" interchangeably and seem to do exactly as the show heeds against heavily; conglomerating the actions of a FEW to encompass the overall worthiness of a WHOLE POPULATION OF PEOPLE.

Doctor Meridian is wrong and genuinely evil and disturbing with how he treats them and him seeing them as dangerous and a pest needing to be eradicated nor should any of his views be agreed upon, no matter how much you may try to defend him. There's more I could add but for simplicity's sake but that's what I mainly will state. The rest of clarity can be discussed in the comments.

I'm not sure whether your lack of understanding of the show and its messaging you are discussing or your love for one of the major villains is clouding your judgement, but please read EVERYTHING here to its fullest extent. Nothing here is intended as an attack on your character (if you're somehow seeing it that way) but as a heavy critique of your views on this show and how you are analyzing things. I might sound like I'm yapping to yap or "it's not that deep", but it literally is. The show and it's writing make it a big point and I will refuse to accept any iteration of "you're making a mountain out of a molehill" type statements. If you have any questions or comments you're free to bring them up.

-With confusion and annoyance, Wizard.

-Footnotes- *By group of people, I refer to sapient (human minded) beings who are grouped by either race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, etc. By this classification, Transformers are considered a group of people; even if they are "nonhuman" *If you are somehow seriously confused or appalled by me pointing out real world racism and xenophobia as parallels to what is being done by GHOST, Dr. Meridian, and your average run of the mill civilian, you need to reread absolutely everything. Racism and xenophobia are a huge talking point in the show and I refuse to retract this statement. *Cold Constructed means the transformer was made in a factory, more often than not to be a worker slave for whoever is demanding they be produced. Two characters off the top of my head who are cold constructed is Starscream and Megatron.

[estrogenism]

idk i wish people would talk more about papua when it comes to occupied nations.

free papua.

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

The Many Names of Peace (pt.2/?): Compassion

Part I | Part II

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Genocide (discussed). The Dral'han/Excision is mentioned and spoken about for a few paragraphs.

Child murder (discussed). Padawan hunting is haunts the narrative, and one of the victims was the main character's brother.

Corpse desecration (mentioned). Padawan braids and beads are found in Mandalorian art and stolen Lightsabers are carried on belts.

Missing children (discussed). A Master and a very young Padawan have disappeared in a high risk field post.

"But… still" Terith swallows hard, shaking their head. They don't like it, but they understand where the Jetiise of that time were coming from. But the present… "The Dral'han was a time long ago, and you offer much to nearly everyone else. Yet you never reach that benevolent hand toward Mandalore. You've never even tried to repair what they destroyed." 

Terith has seen Manda'yaim. They know how much damage the Dral'han did to the planet. They know many people died, they know entire Clans were wiped out from existance. Sometimes, they wonder how many of the dead had nobody left to say the Remembrances for them.

The Jetiise did nothing. Even if Terith can understand why, it doesn't absolve them. A genocide, the blood of a people, is on their hands.

"We will." Zahara responds, with the easy confidence that comes from faith in her people, from the knowledge of what they have done to help everybody, even those who hurt them.

"That claim has been unfounded so far, Jetii" Terith shoots back, not as angry as before but still furious over the lack of action from those who are supposed to be the guardians of peace and justice. "Despite every petition for aid and reconciliation, despite Mand'alor after Mand'alor swallowing their pride for the sake of their people. Of course people call you heartless, why shouldn't they, when you show no sign of that compassion you claim to uphold? I bet you don't even consider Mandalore beyond History lessons on the barbarians from the Outer Rim."

Zahara can't help it. She chuckles. The Mandalorian doesn't know, cannot imagine how wrong they are. But this time it's only ignorance, and ignorance can be fixed.

Delahm, kyii leo’yth.

"It's actually a favorite assignment for young Jedi Service Corps members" the kage Jedi says wryly. "How to save you, when you exist so close to destruction every day. It's used to teach problem solving, since there are a million ways to do it. I'm not a Service Corps member so I'll admit my knowledge is limited, but according to my… friends, the Corps have been collecting the best ideas for… over seven hundred and sixty years, actually."

Under their buy'ce, Terith's jaw drops. They try to speak, but it only comes out as a wordless sound of disbelief.

"We don't just consider your suffering, we have plans to end it, and we will." Zahara adds, seeing as the Mandalorian is too surprised and confused to interrupt her. Then she shrugs, there are more decisions involved than she has power over —the Senate will have the final say. "One day. Maybe."

"What do you mean maybe?!" Terith demands. "You Jetiise get some sort of sick pleasure of having the keys to saving my people and do nothing to help us out, all for some grudge against long dead Mando'ade?!"

"Who said 'long dead'?!" Zahara snarls, feeling the familiar sharp cold of fury curling in her stomach, her mind conjuring the memory of a light snuffed out, and a familiar braid hanging from a different set of armor.

The Mandalorian's fury swirls in the Force, and it takes all of Zahara's willpower to ignore it. Her mental shields will be metaphorical splinters at this rate. She grits her teeth and slowly breathes in and out.

Kai’an. Soo’yth, kyii kai’an. Bexlyth, kyii maijah.

"If we stood by once because our lives and memories are long, yes, it was petty, cruel and beneath us" Zahara agrees easily. It was wrong and, even if she understands their reaction emotionally, the Shadow will make no attempt to justify it. Unfortunately, there is the milodon in the room yet to adress, and it seems like Terith will not get it until she spells it out for them. "But is pettiness, is it cruelty, to protect our people now? From very real and current threats?

"We will give you the plans, we will give you our aid, we will grant you our forgiveness and friendship" Zahara places her right hand over her heart, in the kage gesture of oath taking. "We will give you everything… when the hunts, murders and desecrations stop."

"Wait. Wait. What do you mean when they stop?!" Terith questions, fighting against rising horror. "The Jetii hunts happened centuries ago…!"

"Two of my Siblings are dead at Mandalorian hands" Zahara cuts them off. Fire burns in her eyes as she remembers the desecrations she's seen, the braids and beads decorating tapestries, the Lightsabers hanging from unworthy belts. She understands ignorance, but she will not let this armored aristocrat dictate a rewrite her of people's tragedy. The kage Jedi will not allow Terith to look away from what their people have done. "The most recent Mandalorian murders of Jedi were mere months ago."

The Jetii steps foward, and Terith takes a step back. The most recent. Two vod dead at the hands of Mando'ade. She makes no more attempts to approach them, but Terith isn't fooled. They know the rumors of Jetiise being able to kill people with their minds. Even without armor, even without weapons —although they doubt she doesn't carry a kad'au, since all Jetiise seem to—, even tied up and blindfolded, the near-human Jetii is one of, if not the, most dangerous being in the area.

"You only draw breath because I don't see braids or beads decorating your armor" Zahara says slowly, wanting to make sure the message sinks in. "Thus I'm going to assume you've killed no younglings of my people, at least recently. As a show of kindness and goodwill. Like I've said before, Jedi are merciful."

There's an explosion close by. The building shakes, and Zahara pulls herself out of her memories. She's not here to get justice that borders on revenge —if it isn't outright—, she's here to find the missing Jaieh-Padawan pair that got caught in the crossfire of her homeplanet's war.

"If you, or any with you, have harmed the Knight or, Force forbid, the missing youngling I'm trying to find" she whispers, so low Terith's buy'ce almost doesn't pick it up, "I'm going to, without a care for the Code against murder and revenge and the Republic restrictions on my people, tear you apart limb from limb."

"Wait. Wait. There's an adiika in this mess?!" Terith exclaims in alarm. "What happened?!"

Zahara sighs, feeling all the anger leave her as quickly as it came. The unexpected reaction from the Mandalorian has knocked all the fight out of her. So, she falls back on the same base all Jedi rely on: the sharing of knowledge.

"A long story involving a Master taking in a youngling older than usual despite the Republic's restrictions, which started a chain reaction of massive proportions" Zahara doesn't say what the massive proportions are. One would need to be a Jedi and have all the details, otherwise they'd find it ridiculous. She's a Jedi and knows the details and still finds it ridiculous. "Said chain reaction led to the Master getting killed in the middle of a war and his grieving Padawan being Knighted in a rush in order to raise and train the youngling."

Terith's heart goes out for the adiika and their cabur. Poor Jet'verd, promoted too soon after the death of their mentor and having to take care of a grieving and lost ad.

"Somehow, this led to the Jaieh-Padawan pair being sent to mediate a corporate dispute on this kriffing planet in the middle of a war, which is not a training post, it's a high risk field post" the Jetii goes on, and her worry for the missing adiika is genuine. "Particularly because of its proximity to space marked as Knight and Master only, because our Padawans, our younglings, don't come back."

"You mean Mandalorian space" Terith says, and there's something in their voice. Not acceptance or understanding, but… resignation. A willingness not to question the Jedi's experiences.

"Yeah" Zahara agrees, "I do."

(Notes under the cut)

Dai Bendu

Delahm, kyii leo’yth — ignorance, yet knowledge

Kai'an — inner balance, inner peace

Soo’yth, kyii kai’an — emotion, yet peace

Bexlyth, kyii maijah — passion, yet serenity

Mando'a

Jetiise — Jedi (plural)

Jetii — Jedi (singular)

Manda'yaim — lit. "Home of the Mandalorian soul", planet Mandalore

Buy'ce — helmet

Mando'ade — Mandalorians. Lit "children of Mandalore"

Kad'au — Lightsaber

Adiika — child, kid, someone under thirteen.

Cabur — guardian, person who's taking care of a child but isn't their parent.

Dral'han is the orbital bombardment of Mandalore, done by the Republic in roughly 800BBY. As Terith says, entire Clans were wiped out from existance. They understand why the Jedi didn't do anything (in fact, they're self-aware enough to know they'd do worse), but they're still angry, rightfully so. Zahara knows it too, makes no attempt to justify it, and explains that most Jedi know it was fucked up and are making plans for reparations.

Terith: *says Mandalorians have attempted reconciliation, that the Mandalorians who kill Jedi Padawans are all dead and that Jedi don't consider the Mandalorians' plight* Zahara: Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong.

Zahara means her enishee and Padawan-sibling. She stumbles over the words because there is no good translation in Basic.

"Over seven hundred and sixty years" AKA since the Dral'han.

Milodons are huge, insect-like animals native to Quarzite, the kages' home planet. Kage Warriors often use them as mounts. And, because kage memory is Like That, Zahara has fond memories of riding a milodon as a toddler. Like most other Jedi, Zahara is very close to the culture she was born in and has incorporated many Kage Warrior traditions into her life (now I'll have brain-rot about this fictional culture we know literally nothing about in order to flesh out Zahara more, yay!).

The right hand over the heart (left side of the chest for kages, humans and kiffars, varies in other species) is the kage gesture of oath taking. However, it's also a Mandalorian salute. Terith is a bit confused, but easily and correctly guesses it's a gesture of oath taking, but incorrectly assumes it's a Jedi one.

"We will help you once we are sure you won't murder our children" is not exactly an unreasonable demand. Unfortunately, many Mandalorians don't know it's still happening because bigots and Jedi hunters have learned to hide their…hobbies. So, to them, it looks like the Jedi still hold a grudge for something that happened (under their point of view, remember different species have widely different lifespans and memories) a long time ago. It's common in fanfiction to depict Mandalorians as diverse, but in the many canonical sources I've checked (Disney and Legends), while there has been alien ancestry mentioned (which isn't a feat considering the size of the galaxy), those considered Mandalorians are nearly always human. It's weird. So I've decided that there are multiple species among Mandalorians, but most of them are near-humans (trogutas, zabraks, twi'leks, kiffars, kages, etc), not netis, kel dors or whatever species Yoda is, so they don't have members of long-lived species that lived through the Excision or the New Sith Wars, unlike the Jedi who do have first hand accounts.

"Two of my Siblings are dead at Mandalorian hands" Drovan her crechemate is the first "sibling" of Zahara's killed by Mandalorians. The other (who hasn't come up yet) is Feemor. Feemor was registered as a Watchman and a Finder, although he was actually a Shadow, and adored kids. His death kickstarts a chain reaction of events of epic, galactic-wide proportions, so any details will be spoilers (Zahara says siblings because there is no good word in Basic to describe Jedi relationships She once claimed Basic sucks as a teenager and hasn't backed down since)

For the record, I'd like to state the Battle of Galindraan has already happened here. I want to state that, despite common fandom misconception, the Mandalorians shot first. While the Jedi had their Lightsabers drawn (perfectly reasonable considering the Mandalorians are enemies nearly as ancient as the Sith), they were a fair distance away and couldn't attack unless they were reflecting blaster shots ie. self defense.

"Armored aristocrat". This misunderstanding is a result of a cultural miscommunication. In the past (when Tarre Vizla was alive and Jedi-Mandalorian relationships were "enemy of my enemy" rather than complete animosity), only those born in important Houses (Vizla, Wren and Kryze) could afford a full beskar armor (those Houses have a few hundred people each). Beskar is, after all, rare and expensive. This is why Zahara assumes Terith is from a noble House, which in her mind translates to "aristocratic bastard". However, the gorane decided, at some point when the Houses' influence had dimmed, to dilute and alloy beskar with other more common and less expensive metals, both to make their jobs easier and to give more people armor. This, paired with the recent trend of passing down armor through families, most Mandalorians have their own beskar'gam instead of just the kar'ta (heart of the armor, where the sigil representing Clan and faction is).

To add to the above point, choosing to make Wren and Vizla important Houses was because, in TCW, it's mentioned that most people want Satine as a ruler and are in favor of, at least, most of her policies and reforms, but the warrior elite hates her guts (which implies most Mandalorians aren't actually warriors, unlike what fanon seems to believe, only the elite can be warriors).

Said warrior elite founded Death Watch to commit terrorism and scare the people enough that they'd accept them ruling with an iron fist. Death Watch members are basically privileged nobles and aristocrats throwing a temper tantrum because they can't get away with being assholes anymore.

The mission to Quarzite was supposed to be simple and easy enough for a young Knight and their very young Padawan. But the Senate is careless with Jedi lives, and sends them on missions understaffed or with faulty intel every other time. A missing Padawan, particularly a Padawan as young as the one missing, is cause for alarm. Hence why Zahara was pulled from the investigation of Feemor's murder and sent to find the missing Knight and Padawan. The Council isn't very optimistic, but they want to have corpses to burn, Lightsabers and kybers to honor them and some consolation of knowing what happened to them.

In case it wasn't clear, the Knight and Padawan that went missing in the middle of a warzone are Obi-Wan and Anakin. Because of course they are, it's Obi-Wan and Anakin we're talking about.

The war Zahara mentions is the one between kages and belugans. The belugans have been subjugating the kages for centuries, and the kages fighting back caused the start of a war. Anakin and Obi-Wan were supposed to negotiate a standard and boring corporate dispute between two belugan corporations. However, Anakin is beginning to learn bad behaviors (mainly from Palpatine) and decided to do something stupidly reckless.

"Somehow". Indeed, the Jedi have no fucking idea of how all those events even fit together. Then they realize Obi-Wan and Anakin are members of Yoda's line and go "yeah that makes sense." Feemor is the only sane one in that crazy lineage, and he's a fucking Shadow that busts slave rings in his downtime!

[nyaskitten]

Originally I was gonna make some post calling out how ridiculous Her behavior is, vandalizing the Chima Wiki and straight up lying about shit, and just being a very rude and toxic person, but I think at this point everyone knows she is in fact not a nice person.

[anotherpapercut]

it's kind of scary and disgusting the way people are responding to the fact that Joe Biden is enthusiastically participating in genocide with "no candidate is morally pure" dude this isn't about whether or not he shoplifted in his 20s. thousands of people are being murdered and he is going out of his way to make sure that doesn't stop

[havegaysex]

Why are you telling people to vote for the guy committing genocide :/

because voting is not an endorsement it's harm reduction.

Trump is going to be at best doing the same as Biden and likely much worse for Palestinians and all the countries suffering from American Imperialism than Biden is.

Republicans want to bring back child labor and get rid of social security, medicare, Medicaid. As someone who is surviving on Medicaid and social security I don't want those taken away. The Republican majority house already put a lot of limits on food stamps in this past term and I don't think we'll still have food stamps if we get a republican Congress and a Republican president.

They've made it pretty clear that if they get a republican Congress and a Republican president they're going to enact project 2025 and call a conference of states and try and take our rights back to the days when only wealthy white men had any rights when women and racial minorities had no rights, they want to make it illegal for LGBT+ folks to safely exist in public and get lifesaving healthcare.

In short

Do I support every single thing Biden has done as president?

No.

Do I like him?

Not particularly. But I'm still voting for him because apathy is not a choice.

Do I think that Joe Biden having another term means that we can actually make more progress for labor rights, trans healthcare, abortion access, advancement of the rights and protections for disabled people and so much more?

Yes absolutely.

Do I think that the genocide in Gaza needs to end and the United States needs to stop sending weapons to israel?

Yes, I think that un restricted flow of humanitarian aid into Palestine needs to happen, the siege needs to stop, and the country of Israel and the United States need to be held accountable at an international level. I think that the soldiers of the IDF/IOF need to be held accountable for their war crimes and pillaging that they continuously post evidence of on social medias. I'm trying to put a read more here so ce I've put a few linked articles and quotes from them.

A quote from the article below:

"While our map focuses solely on high school aged youth (age 13-17), some states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, have considered banning care for transgender people up to 26 years of age. "

I've seen lawmakers in some states try to make it felony punishable by life in prison to get your trans child healthcare to keep them alive because they want to make it illegal for us to exist and a legal for anyone who helps us exist.

some quotes from the article above:

"Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024. With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers. “We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking. “This is a clarion call to come to Washington,” he said. “People need to lay down their tools, and step aside from their professional life and say, ‘This is my lifetime moment to serve.’” The unprecedented effort is being orchestrated with dozens of right-flank organizations, many new to Washington, and represents a changed approach from conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending. Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing. The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first years in office, when the Republican president’s team was ill-prepared, his Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers and even Trump’s own appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals. While many of the Project 2025 proposals are inspired by Trump, they are being echoed by GOP rivals Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy and are gaining prominence among other Republicans. And if Trump wins a second term, the work from the Heritage coalition ensures the president will have the personnel to carry forward his unfinished White House business. “The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state,” said Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official involved in the effort who is now president at the conservative Center for Renewing America. Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired. Biden had rescinded the executive order upon taking office in 2021, but Trump — and other presidential hopefuls — now vow to reinstate it."

"There’s a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice, particularly curbing its independence and ending FBI efforts to combat the spread of misinformation. It calls for stepped-up prosecution of anyone providing or distributing abortion pills by mail."

Personally I think that voting for Joe Biden is better than someone who wants to enact this stuff on day one. It's like they read handmaid's tale and want to make that the reality of this country.

"Chapter by chapter, the pages offer a how-to manual for the next president, similar to one Heritage produced 50 years ago, ahead of the Ronald Reagan administration. Authored by some of today’s most prominent thinkers in the conservative movement, it’s often sprinkled with apocalyptic language." Ronald Reagan is a big reason we have a lot of problems we have today with our economy and with a lot more things. The people that supported Ronald Reagan do not need another term in office.

A quote from the article linked below:

"Trump has given no indication that he would be more sympathetic to Palestinian claims, nor that he would place more pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. “The approach of the United States would be that Israel needs to win this war, it was attacked brutally,” Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, describing how Trump would act. Friedman is now a campaign surrogate for Trump."

Personally I think Trump telling Israel to finish the job is indicators that another Trump presidency doesn't mean that weapons would stop being sent to Israel from United States

I fail to see how another term of Donald trump will be any better for the victims of the ongoing genocide in Palestine than President Joe Biden.

i think our system is absolutely messed up and broken but I don't think abstaining from voting is going to actually help.