#forced conscription is evil

[tuttle-did-it]

FUCK. THE. TORIES.

They have refused to increase wages whilst forcing the cost of living to skyrocket so high that nearly all of us are counting pennies to pay bills. If we can pay them.

They intentionally and gleefully forced us into a horrible economic (and cultural) depression through Brexit, and not one of them had a single consequence for the constant lies they told to get it passed. This will only get worse.

They have intentionally dismantled the NHS by underfunding it to the point where the NHS staff are all burnt out (having nervous breakdowns, leaving the country for far- better paying jobs or just leaving the field completely) just so they could sell it off to privatised companies worth billions just so they can fill their own pockets. Oh, and the incredible capable staff (medical or support) who were all from Europe have been told they are no longer welcome here and they have returned home because Britain is a cesspool of bigotry and hate

They are dismantling the social care systems for the disabled and elderly, to try to force us back to work even though we are physically and/or mentally incapable of work by stripping away our incomes.

They're doing everything they can to keep us from living by making sure we cannot afford food, housing, utilities, water, and tax.

They are living on taxpayers whilst having millions, even billions in the bank for themselves.

The corrupt politicians fill their bank accounts and buy third and fourth houses across all Europe, another boat— whatever— and they have scandal after scandal with absolutely no consequence, and we can do absolutely nothing.

Their handling of COVID was criminal, and aside from wasting an incredible amount of money, they are responsible for many deaths by not acting fast enough and by forcing people back into the workplace when they knew it was not safe because they wanted to improve the economy they collapsed.

Oh, and don't forget all those lovely parties they had during COVID lockdowns when we were all in our houses and not allowed to see family members who were dying-- or even go to their funerals because of COVID restrictions.

They are intentionally fuelling the hate at queer people-- specifically trans people. This, I assure you, will get so much worse.

They keep sending money from taxpayers over to fund wars in other places-- including genocide-- with no way for us to fight back.

They keep making law after law making it more and more difficult for us to protest against everything they are doing.

Now the Tories expect you to do 12-18 months (+4 reserve years) of mandatory conscripted service in the military so you can go help countries commit war atrocities and genocide. And if you refuse, you are sanctioned. And they are making more and more laws restricting protest and free speech, so if we fight back, we're punished-- criminalised.

Do you understand what is happening right now?

Anyone who can still vote for the Tories after all of this, I have only a deep seeded concern for their sanity, and revulsion at their lack of morals.

FUCK EVERYONE WHO WILL OR HAS EVER VOTED FOR THESE MONSTERS.

FUCK.

THE.

TORIES.

FUCK.

THEM.

ALL.

[deqdyke]

A revolution can not succeed without armed resistance, but neither is armed resistance the only necessary component of a revolution. Both these things can be true.

[bubmyg]

idols/people who do this aren’t “overachievers” they’re bootlickers. stop attributing it to jeongguk. hope this helps.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

this thread is just a perfect storm of demented internet communism slapfighting

you have the vectors for the anticommunist braiun fungus regurgitating a hodgepodge of half-remembered largely baseless anti-soviet propaganda talking points at the mere mention of the evil empire

you have the op herself regurgitating (or at least implying) what has to be among the most outrageous widespread mischaracterisations of the mature postwar soviet planned economy—that ordinary civilian employment effectively consisted of mass conscription and forced labour—and then bizarrely announcing that this nonexistent programme of population-wide slavery was somehow to the soviet unions credit

several ppl chiming in to agree with op bemoaning the fact they have been robbed of the convenience of being enslaved

the op exasperatedly replying to ppl pointing out that she is giving a ludicrous mischaracterisation of the soviet employment system by admitting that she knew this before she even wrote it, leaving us to infer ????

truly a testament to the omnidirectional deranging effect of this topic on all internet dwellers to come across it

[self-loving-vampire]

Conscription is evil to begin with. Forcing people who already left back into the country in order to draft them is an inexcusable escalation of that.

[expectopatronum18]

One thing the fandom does tht annoys the absolute crap out of me is making Dumbledore out to be this evil villain manipulating kids into fighting in a war and inturn being the cause of all their losses and resultant trauma. He did what he did in the circumstance of a war. And thts still saying something coz hp paints and incredibly black and white picture of war and good vs evil in general

Ofc he's not going to be completely morally right, but given tht the choices r risking losing the war or being morally wrong, u can see the obvious pick.

He didn't manipulate anyone into joining the war, the marauders and lily volunteered(and we hv no evidence of forced conscription in the wizarding world). It's a choice they made right after school and they deserve all the credit for it without reducing it to 'dumbledore raised a child army'. He even offered to be james's secret keeper, but james chose his friends instead, thts not on dumbledore. Seems lyk fandom has a real problem with grasping the concept of characters making their choices without being forced into it, whether good or bad. Even in Harry's era the kids called themselves 'dumbledore's army' and he had nothing to do with it, he even took the fall for their foolishness and saved them from being expelled.

Yes, he manipulated Snape into becoming a double agent early on (he wud hv protected the Potters anyways) but srsly, look at the choices in front of him, what is he supposed to prioritise? a) having a spy in voldemort's circle and gaining information tht cud save countless lives, b) sm death eater crying abt saving only the muggleborn he loves in exchange for her infant son. Also he might hv been manipulated in the very beginning, but adult Snape chose to continue in this role (as shown by the yule ball scene in the Prince's Tale), reducing tht to 'dumbledore manipulated poor, helpless uwu Snape' cheapens his redemption.

Now, with regards to raising Harry lyk a pig for slaughter....what other choice did he have? Smother baby Harry coz he was marked for death? It's definitely his least prettiest move, but what wud u choose btw saving the world and saving one kid? Also he hardly does it out of spite, he really did love Harry, which is y he doesn't tell him about the contents of the prophecy earlier.

Ultimately, he was a very flawed man, but he did what he had to do to win the war and 90% of the cast would be dead without him. He is a complex, flawed, and much more interesting character character without being reduced to evil incarnate, so y bother?

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

[geniemillies]

Hybern headcanons for my fic and and!!! Drawing Niamh and KoH finally for father and daughter bonding time omg I had to draw them else i lose my miND

He teaches forces her to learn spells since she was a lil wee baby 🤏 In Hybern, children are branded with golden cuffs and the third sons/daughters are given to the authorities so they may start their training. Because I always wondered where the hell he's getting his armies from.. KoH really said military conscription is rated E for EVERYONE 💥💥 now who does that remind me of... Niamh is not an exception, but she is trained both in magic and the sword. She learns forbidden spells KoH is willing to feed her, magic that goes beyond the limits of normal fae's natural reserve of power, making her a witch, against her will tho bc what is she going to say? no 🤨?? He also likes to do experiments. On people. But that's for another day I fear it will get dark

This is their theme song fr bc im a musical girlie and so is KoH probably. He gives me theater kid vibes don't ask can you not see him breaking into an evil musical number anytime he enters a room bc i can..

[raeynbowboi]

Playing a Heroic Necromancer in DnD 5e

Necromancy is one of the most evil-skewed powers in just about any fantasy setting. However, unless you're running a villain campaign, most DnD parties are made up of heroes who won't like having an evil character in their midst. You want to play a necromancer, but you also realize that DnD is a very collaborative game. So, how do you make your party more amicable towards the thought of you raising a family? Here's some possible backstory ideas that can fuel a heroic necromancer for your next campaign.

The Scholar

The taboo, illegal, or forbidden nature of studying necromancy drew your interest. Whether you studied with a secret sect, uncovered a grimoire of necromantic magic, or made a deal with a devil for profane knowledge, you were driven by a desire to study magic. The sparse availability of necromancy forces you to remain mobile, making party formation easy. You may be hunted by law enforcement, clerics of Kelemvor, or other necromancers angry at you for stealing their arcane secrets. And now that you know what so many tried to hide from you, it's your choice how to use it.

The Chronicaller

History is written by the victors, the rich, and the powerful. But every life holds valuable knowledge and secrets. Ancient bones know things lost to time. Knowledge that was never written down. Stories which have not been spoken in centuries. Opinions of the common people during a historical event. Experience with phenomenon that can no longer be encountered. The Chronicaller wishes to unearth the secrets of the past already laid to rest.

The Physician

The Frankenstein of Necromancers wishes to understand the medical and scientific elements of life and death itself. To understand the body by inspecting it and digging into it. They may study how to cure diseases or how to spread them. Try to find a way to slow or even halt the slow decomposition that turns the body elderly and frail.

The Thayan Rebel

Once a Red Wizard of Thay, you have left Thay and the Red Wizards, letting your hair grow back slowly as you seek to expand your arcane talents beyond the limitations of Thayan conquest and oppression. The Red Wizards and Szas Tam become personal antagonists for your character and party as a result.

The Undead

Be they a Revenant, a Dhampir, a Vampire, a Lich, or something else, they are already imbued with undead power. They simply embrace their anti-life energy already flowing through them, channeling a power most others would avoid. You may be undead, but you desire to staunchly defend the living from other undead who are less compassionate.

The General

A wizard with a soldier background and optional martial multiclassing, your undead horde is your army of loyal soldiers, putting their lives on the line again and again to serve their general. An Oathbreaker 7/wizard 6 adds your CHA mod to undead within 10 ft, and proficiency bonus to all undead you control. But the steep dip into paladin locks you out from higher level spell slots for stronger undead minions.

The Noble

Similar to the general, the undead serve you out of loyalty, not fear or force. But where the general commands their soldiers, the Noble may command their staff of servants, their commoner citizens, their knights and soldiers, or their own noble ancestors. The Noble utilizes their horde to fulfil the services and duties of their noble house. They're just as likely to conscript skeletons to pave a road or build a bridge as they are to form a wave of zombies to break up a smuggling ring in their city.

The Immortal Guardian

You have or want to become immortal not out of power hunger or greed, but to protect the innocent forever as an unwavering guardian against evil. Everyday people can't protect themselves, and even legendary heroes die eventually. Only an immortal protector can be an eternal defender of the people.

I hope if nothing else, this gave you some ideas for some good and noble necromancers you could bring to your next table. Did I miss any Heroic concepts that you thought of? Let me know, and help make the world a more morbid place.

[tuttle-did-it]

I'm incredibly lucky to live in a country with an NHS. But it's a disaster. And it's killing patients, it's burning out doctors, it's just a complete disaster. Which is how the Tories want it.

[incoming rant about how broken the UK NHS system is]

The very evil Tories have intentionally sabotaged it-- not paying doctors and nurses enough, not funding them enough, too much workload, not helping them when they're getting burnt out, not giving them enough to run the tests they need, not funding the departments enough to even stay open so the waiting lists are incredibly long, etc. They have been selling bits and pieces off so they can privatise it to America and make a killing (literally and figuratively). And after the abomination that is Brexit, the brilliant doctors from Europe no longer feel safe/welcome here, or they can't get a visa to stay, so they go elsewhere.

So now they pretend to be shocked when Junior doctors and nurses are leaving the field because of the disaster that was Covid, and older doctors have become jaded and tired so they don't really care anymore. The ones who do can go to Europe for 3x the money our horrible government pays them. So they're all going over there. The doctors here don't have time to research or check into anything, so I've had them tell me to go home and google the symptoms and figure out what it could be-- and then when I come back and tell them, they tell me to stay off google because they're the experts. 😑 It's so disheartening-- aside from the fact that we all desperately need the NHS, it's just cruel and disgusting to use people like tissue paper.

So, because of that, we have ended up in a similar boat- you go in saying this, this and this are happening, and then told to just deal with one at a time. Even if you know they're connected. So a correct diagnosis takes years as you sit on waiting lists, they can only go for the cheapest treatments, etc. So if someone has a treatable form of cancer, they're put at the bottom of the wait list-- and most of the time, by the time they get treatment, it's progressed further. It's exhausting. I am incredibly grateful to have the GP I have because she listens really well, takes everything I say seriously, has never tried to convince me that a displaced hip was actually depression like several of the doctors here.

It's a train wreck. I feel so bad for the good doctors and nurses here-- they deserve so much better. They kill themselves trying to keep the NHS afloat and help people, but the Tories have rigged the system to collapse, and that's just what's happening.

(sorry for the rant I'm just very very tired and I hate the Tories so, so, so much. It makes being chronically ill truly unbearable)

one of the most annoying things about chronic illness and having multiple conditions is that neither you nor your doctor know when to take a new symptom seriously or not. Is it a side-effect from all the meds? is it just a new thing that your body is going to do from now on? is it a new/unrecognised condition that has gone undiagnosed? Is it serious or just a one-off? is it stress? or is it just a Thing That Happens Once In A While with no good reason?

[twstmagica]

Staff Meeting

Crowely dragged Yuu and Crewel to a room where Trein, Vargas, and Sam are waiting. Later Yuu will wonder why the campus shopkeeper was included.

Crowely tells the staff that last night one of the “mutated blot monsters” had snuck onto campus and attacked a student.

All the staff are disturbed

Trein asks why a student was at the abandoned dorm in the first place

Crowely tells them that since she was not sorted into any dorm, he had generously offered to let Yuu live there.

The others berate him for trying to dump someone in that wreck.

Looking for a distraction, Crowely prompts Yuu to explain what she knows of the so called “blot monster”

Okay, so! Magica (magical girls/boy) Champions of Hope! A formally recognised position in which a child has been conscripted by an otherworldly power to battle against the evil forces of Chernabog. Scholars theorize that the reason they are chosen so young is due to the pure quality of a child's hope, making it so that as a magica grows they become more powerful than if they were chosen at an older age. magica can apply for a vigilante license, allowing them to apprehend nefarious forces and get excused absences from school if needed.

A magica’s powers are granted in moments of great hope born from great despair. Once granted, the champion is able to boost their body and magic with the power of hope. This gave humanity an edge for a while and things seemed to be getting better. 

When Chernabog learned that kids were being empowered so that they may one day fight his army, he ordered his servants to kill them while they're young. Tactically this was a smart decision, but still a dick move in Yuu’s opinion. The various world governments have tried to set up programs and systems to stop this, but most magica grow up fighting at least once a week. 

Yuu’s home has been under attack by Chernabog’s fiend army for nearly millenia. 

She names and describes a few of the most common fiend types.

The staff are dubious of Crowely’s claims of another world, but can't deny Yuu’s knowledge of these ‘fiends’ as she called them.

[bubmyg]

im glad the person who said “it would be very yoongi to leave without saying bye aha 🤪” on twt got jumped for two reasons 1) we have far less tolerance for this weird view of yoongi and 2) was the tour not enough? or the album? or the documentary? why are u owed a goodbye? let him rest? SHUT UP?????

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Propaganda under the cut.

Tanya von Degurechaff:

A salaryman gets pushed in front of a train by a guy he fired and God stops time right before he's hit to ask him why he's an atheist. The salaryman answers that he can't prove that he's atually God instead of the Devil or some other being, dubbing him Being X. Then he insults Being X's business strategy and says he has never needed to pray to a higher being since he's never been in dire straits. So Being X decides to reincarnate him as Tanya Degurechaff, an orphan girl in an alternate universe Europe on the cusp of their first world war and since she's reborn in a country in which mages are conscripted into the military Being X also makes sure to load her with magic. Since she's going to be forced into the military anyway Tanya volunteers in order to get better treatment and opportunities, resolving to get promoted to the rear and live a long and very atheist life. As part of her plan to get promoted she presents herself as the perfect soldier: patriotic, ruthless, courageous, rule-following, etc. This often backfires on her as it makes her superiors think she wants to be on the front lines so she instead gets her own mage battalion that gets sent all over the front. She's called "The Devil of The Rhine" due to her effectiveness and apparent joy in killing enemies.

Fang Runin:

she has it all. war crimes. war crimes. more war crimes. she doesn’t believe in gods, she believes in power. absolutely feral and unhinged!!!

[whereserpentswalk]

9:00 - Imperial standard calendar - Midwinter 31st - The sun rises above a small imperial world. The largest city on the planet, Varel Imperios, shines with architecture thousands of years old, as people awaken and go to work. Though they're safe here, the looming threat of war against the federation still loom above them, as war now looms in all of human space.

9:45 - ISC - MW31 - Some soldiers stationed in the city do their best to take their mind of things in one of the local pubs. Fresh human troops still aren't fully comfortable with the cyborg troops they're stationed with, and the younger cyborg troops aren't fully comfortable with their new bodies. A soldier, still wearing part of their power armor, tosses a few silver coins to the owner of one of the bars to play a song only they would know from their home planet millions of lightyears away.

10:30 - ISC - MW31 - An early class makes time feel like it lasts forever at an imperial university in a building hundreds of floors tall. A student looks out from the window at the city below him and starts talking with his classmate. He asks her what her major is, and she tells him she doesn't know yet. He starts info dumping about his major, studying alien cultures, she's impressed but he wonders if she'll want to talk to him after that.

12:00 - ISC - MW31 - Infront of the governors fortress a crowd of young people protest the war. At the moment the protest resembles a festival more than a rally, but that could change if the imperial guard shows up. A young woman stands among strangers, she's already a cyborg, and already estranged from her parents for that reason, she's trying her best to avoid imperial conscription, though that order has yet to hit this planet. She ends up talking to some other protesters, and after a few minutes they aren't strangers anymore, she hopes she can see them again tomorrow.

2:15 - ISC - MW31 - below a massive temple, in front of a large statue depicting a horned war god in power armor, a young priest looks out to a city street that looks so different from the quite perfection of the temple inside. He looks out at a beggar on the side of the street, that he should probably shoo from the temple, but he hands him a coin instead, thinking about what the first emperors would have done.

4:00 - ISC - MW31 - The commander of a federation fleet finally brings his ships above the city Varel Imperios, he thinks about how many troops must be stationed there, how much of a tactical victory an attack on it would be, and how many imperial bastards would die in the attack. He gives the orders to strike, completely blasting the city to nothing but ruins from orbit. He thinks about the glory of destroying just a small part of the imperium, thinks about how much suffering and hate the imperial people have caused, and how much he will prevent from destroying them. He can see the lasers destroy the governor's fortress and the imperial university, from space, he can even see the temples to their dark gods crumble. The federation celebrates this strike agasint the forces of evil. As the dark city is seen brought to ruin, the people of the federation as reminded that good can triumph in this war.

[fantasyinvader]

I was thinking about how Pat localized Cornelia's death quote again.

In the Japanese, owing to the subtext that Edelgard is manipulating everyone, she dies realizing that while TWSITD believed they were the ones in control Edelgard had them dancing to her tune. In essence, while TWSITD are the force operating in the shadows behind the war Edelgard isn't being controlled by them. She's the one actually in charge, and planning to wipe them out after the war is over. Edelgard is simply using them to achieve her own goal of hegemony over all of Fodlan.

Pat's translation simply has Cornelia dying while saying Edelgard is acting according to TWSITD's plan. Like removing the line about her using an information campaign to sway the commoners to her side (when she isn't executing those who resist being conscripted and forced to fight), it seems to downplay Edelgard's manipulative nature in order to make her look more heroic.

But think about what's being said here. Everything Edelgard is doing is according to TWSITD's plan, just like how VW makes it out that TWSITD manipulated her and the Empire into starting the war in order to kill Rhea. Edelgard starting a war to eliminate Rhea IS the Agarthan agenda, the reason why they experimented on her, killed her siblings and turned her father into their puppet. Thales even tells her this in White Clouds.

Pat's localization is basically saying that everything Edelgard does in Crimson Flower is her being a puppet of TWSITD. They, the people the game makes out to be behind Fodlan's ills, were the ones who pushed Edelgard down this path. From this, it kinda makes sense why some people are upset we aren't meant to sympathize with them rather than the Nabateans.

Pat might try to make Edelgard out as a good guy, but her victory is tainted by this. All she did was play into the hands of the games cartoonishly evil cult, killing or exiling the people who were heroes of the other routes. She still is shown as a liar though, and per the developers comments the worldbuilding is full of evidence to support Silver Snow's narrative that Edelgard is the villain with Edelgard's final boss theme playing at the end of Crimson Flower. Pat might make Edelgard to be about freedom, but she is still a hegemon and hegemony is incompatible with freedom as it's about one person or force dominating the rest. Edelgard is still dominating the continent after her war of conquest is won, including controlling the people's faith. There is still Hubert spying on the people and putting down those he deems as a threat, as well as would-be rebellions against Edelgard. Her ideals are still shown to be toxic, yet she'll put them above the people. And this is the result of the player siding with the person manipulated by the bad guys into being their weapon. Death of the author can not ignore thi, as the evidence even in English can't be ignored.

Funny how Edelgard's manipulative nature still damns her even when the translation downplays it.

[tainbocuailnge]

garlemald was inevitably going to be hard to write about in endwalker bc it started out being the cartoonishly evil empire but i think the writers also made it even harder for themselves during stormblood bc the tone was more serious but the empire still evil so the list of crimes got more detailed and heinous. and ala mhigo liberation arc isn’t really the right time to start humanizing the oppressor but the longer they put that off the harder it got to pull off and now i have people in the notes of my art saying wol is completely justified in massacring garleans actually. helping garlemald is the right thing to do because the people dying out on the streets are not the ones who signed off on the imperialist policies but the more nuanced takes on garlean imperialism and propaganda came so late in the game that all the garleans who don’t immediately denounce the empire's evils look like fucking idiots for taking pride in cartoonish evil, even though given the premises set up in universe their stance is understandable if unsustainable.

it would've gone a long way if there were some garlean deserters in the ala mhigan resistance or something bc until maxima and his populares in stb postgame the only garlean we meet who's not a raging imperialist is like. cid. nero is a deserter but not really for moral reasons he just wants to bother cid and gaius in stb postgame still believes in imperialism just not the ascian kind. all the others we see desert were forced conscripts to begin with. typical scrambling to recover from stormblood botching its execution situation tbh. i also think ew postgame is resolving diplomatic tensions with garlemald way too easily but that's more personal preference for complicated and difficult situations than an actual failure to write the story they're trying to write here.