#it just overrides him being evil cause the reason he's evil and bitter in the first place is TO KEEP THESE KIDS SAFE GODDAMMIT

[aroaceleovaldez]

i am not immune to making aus where Luke is inexplicably there as a protagonist and ends up accidentally adopting at least one member of the Argo 2 crew

[honourablejester]

Well that got my back up right off, oof.

I was browsing through the TV Tropes character page for Ravenloft, because it gives a nice intro to older lore, and I came across this entry on Addar, Darklord of the Phantasmal Forest:

“Mentioned in the writeups for the Shadow Unicorns, Addar was promoted to Darklord status in the Kargatane's Book of Sacrifices netbook. Hailing from a sylvan forest on an unknown Prime world, Addar chafed against the traditions of unicorns submitting to elven maidens as bonded steeds, seeing such an act not as a bond of partnership and purity, but a symbol of humiliation and servitude. Though the other benevolent fey spirits of his forest recoiled from such bitter, poisonous prejudice, darker spirits rejoiced in it. Most prominently, a female nightmare, who began to contact Addar in his dreams, seducing him with stories of a new forest, far away, where he would become a great champion and worshiped like a god, much like the guardians of his own forest. Even as Addar's ego grew on this noxious fuel, the elder fey strove to break him of his arrogance; they arranged for an elven princess of unparalleled purity and grace, a mighty paladin-in-training, to be given his name and told she was to invoke the pact with him. When she came to summon him, however, Addar fought with all his might, recoiling against what he still saw as an attempt to enslave him and reduce him to a mere beast of burden. His defiance allowed the nightmare to slip between the worlds and attack the elf-maid, setting the forest alight with her burning mane and hooves. Free of the spell, Addar began to flee, only to realize the elf-maid was caught by the flames; choked by the smoke, she couldn't hope to escape on her own... but Addar's pride would not allow him to let her ride to safety on his back. Instead, he turned and abandoned the screaming princess to her death, following the nightmare into the mists. Upon her, he fathered the first Shadow Unicorns, and became ruler of the Phantasmal Forest; a foul and dismal place of dead, dying trees whose black, noxious soul nourished only weeds and evil plants, inhabited only by dark fey and predatory beasts.”

So, okay. I just gonna … I’m gonna side with the Darklord here? Yeah.

Not on the whole ‘seduced by a dark spirit with promises of being worshipped like a god’ thing, that’s fair enough as a villain origin. Carry right on. But the bit where he saw being bound to someone as servitude, and the response of the people around him to that …

Right. So. To sum up. Addar saw being bound to an elf as being bound into servitude, and the fey around him saw this as possibly racism and definitely pride, and their ‘benevolent’ solution … was to send someone to punitively and magically bind him into said servitude against his will, specifically for the purposes of ‘breaking him of his arrogance’?

Um. Explain to me how that’s not slavery?

It doesn’t matter how pure and beautiful a paladin she was. It doesn’t matter that the bond is normally not slavery because (I’m assuming) the other unicorns consented. In this case it absolutely, one-hundred-percent was slavery, because Addar did not consent to it and they tried to magically force him anyway, and I feel like every ‘benevolent’ fey involved in the decision should have slipped immediately over into Lawful Evil, for valuing their tradition over the will and consent of one of their own.

Like, this is phrased in such a hostile way to his interpretation of what was happening to him? I just … I love how this frames him as entirely unreasonable here. That his wanting not to be bonded to anyone is ‘bitter, poisonous prejudice’, that his recoiling while being bound against his will is only struggling against what he saw as an attempt to enslave him, as if he’s wrong about that and it was blindly willful of him to fight. That this binding is explicitly meant to correct him of his arrogance, that he’s being bound to someone to humble and punish him, and somehow this is not slavery? That it’s his defiance that allows a dark spirit to slip into the world, but if you didn’t force him against his will, maybe he wouldn’t have to fight and let nightmares into the world? It’s his ‘pride’ that causes him to abandon the woman who attempted to enslave him to her death, not an entirely reasonable unwillingness to help someone who just tried to force him?

Sorry. I had a surprisingly strong reaction to this, is all.

But. This is just the TV Tropes summary of the story, so I went to look up the original, in case TV Tropes was leaving stuff out or putting a slant on the story in the process of repeating it. And … sort of. The original does gentle a few things:

Addar was not aware of the nightmare’s nature at first

The fey spirits were not aware of the nightmare at all, since she was only approaching the unicorn in his dreams

The spirits could feel a corruption in his soul as a result of the nightmare’s temptations, and without knowledge of her presence, his hatred of ‘servitude’ was the only thing they could tie that corruption to. This doesn’t make their ‘solution’ any better, but it explains a bit why they were so adamant, if the nightmare was having a tangible magical effect for the worse on him

The spirits didn’t think of it as ‘breaking him of his arrogance’, they thought of it as teaching him ‘a lesson about the virtue of sharing and partnership’

The elf they chose had no knowledge whatsoever of any of this, she was just told that Addar was a unicorn who wished to bind with her and was given permission to perform the ritual

She spammed the ritual repeatedly despite his resistance because she didn’t know what was happening and thought he might be trapped somewhere

He realised she was in danger, and turned away from her truly because he didn’t want to bear any elf, and he thought another unicorn for whom that wouldn’t be a problem would reach her in time

Things the original story doesn’t help, though:

It still seems to imply that a unicorn must bind with someone pure, whether they want to or not, and everyone is apparently fine with that

“Such bitter thoughts, coming from an average person, would normally be seen as mere prejudices, and might even go unnoticed by most others. But it was no less than an appointed guardian of Goodness and Nature who was spitting those poisoned words, and that was seen with concern by some inhabitants of the forest, and with joy by others. These last were, of course, creatures of darkness and foul spirits, who were barely tolerated by others as part of the natural balance.” Virtue and goodness mean surrendering your right to autonomy, but for other people wanting to not bind yourself to someone is okay?

“She was training to be a noble warrior-priestess, and the ancient spirits dictated that Addar should be her steed. So, she was told Addar's name and given permission to tame him. The spirits thought he would finally accept the noble partner and once again become true to his nature, leaving the perverted ideas behind forever.” She’s beautiful and virtuous, so she deserves to ride him, and he should leave all ‘perverted ideas’ of bodily autonomy behind him

The ritual is still explicitly a forceful spell, an enchantment that does not require the consent of the unicorn, and can wear away their strength to resist: “Addar, who was finally losing his powers to resist the enchantment, suddenly felt free once again, when the nightmare took his place.”

“As he turned around one last time to see the princess choking to death, he knew in his corrupted heart that he was never going to allow anyone to ride him, under no circumstances. He would be king of his own forest.” This is meant to be the heart of why he’s a Darklord, the epitome of his corruption, and yes it’s extremely selfish to refuse to carry someone out of a literal fire that was burning her to death, and yes to the whole ‘prideful desire to be king and ruler no matter the cost’ thing, but on the other hand is it really meant to be evil to not want people to feel free to use your body against your will just because of your species?

I just … this whole thing sort of rubbed me completely the wrong way. It’s an odd thing to get riled up over, I know. But the whole … Ignore bodily autonomy, ignore consent, take someone’s species as license to bind them into service, declare them evil for not wanting to allow that, if they object too many times just magically force them anyway …

Look. The base fact is, the binding of the ritual is slavery and is not a ‘partnership’ and ‘a prize and honor for both beings’ in this case, for the sole and simple reason that Addar did not consent and everyone else ignored that and tried to force it on him anyway. Partnership requires consent on both ends, and forcing someone into servitude against their will is sort of the definition of slavery.

I just … I’m gonna side with the Darklord here. Not on the whole ‘allow myself to be corrupted and move to my own world where I’ll be king’ part, but on the whole ‘refuse to allow someone to use my body against my will and rebel when they attempt to magically force the issue’? Absolutely yes. The spirits were completely in the wrong there. The elf maiden not so much, because she didn’t know and acted in innocence towards someone she thought had consented, and it’s definitely tragic that she died for that, but I’m mostly going to put the blame for that on the spirits as well. Addar maybe should have helped her when he saw her dying, but they’d given him literally every reason not to by tricking her into, essentially, trying to enslave him and override his will. If someone tries to magically enslave me no matter how hard or long I fight, and winds up in mortal peril because of it, I’m not going to be too pushed about helping them out of that mortal peril either. Gonna be honest.

I reacted really strongly to this. Oof. Sorry.

It’s just … is it just me, or does D&D sometimes have some problems with consent, particularly when it comes to issues of magic, as well as some really dodgy views of ‘virtue’ and ‘evil’, particularly when it comes to magical species and what’s expected of them?

[oldthe-overgrowth-zone]

The ‘Blight of Nature’ Arc, or the Overgrowth Zones answer to Sonic Unleashed & Sonic X

Cosmos tribe creates several wmds during the war of thirds, one of which was a pair- the Gaia weapon, and the Metarex Blight. Gaia was built to cause mass destruction, while the blight intended to transform and kill any who contracted it, bar Seedarians who would simply gain a more powerful form from it. the entire project backfires horribly, leading to mass death among their people. their leader flees deep into the jungles to avoid Gaias wrath,and it is sealed away by a force of Mobians and Overlanders. they bury the knowledge of what they'd done, creating a narrative blaming the very people they'd attempted to use the weapons on…

In modern times, Earthia's husband, Lucas, discovers things discussing the weapon in a dusty royal archive. he, bitter and distrustful of Mobians and Overlanders like many of the tribe,  has been rallying some of the people to go to war with the rest of the factions and let the Seedarians rise to power despite his wife's objections. looking for knowledge on ancient weapons, he accidently breaks open an old sample of the Metarex Blight, which makes many fall ill while transforming some with powerful mutations. he blames the other factions and rallies those transformed to storm the resting place of Gaia and wipe out the rest of Mobius for their transgressions, even going as far as to hold coup d'état against his wife…

His wife takes many of her people and flees in the night, going deep into the jungle where the Metarex cannot find them, seeking medicine for the ill. Over the months, many die, and her teenage daughter Cosmo becomes convinced- despite years of stories of Mobian and Overlander cruelty- that they must seek out help or they will all die out. Her mother forbids it, but she sneaks out one night with her sister Galaxinas help, after revealing that she herself had been infected with the blight and thus will too die if they do not find a cure.

 Eventually, Cosmo, nearing the edge of the jungle after a long trek, meets a Mobian named Sticks, who has lived a secluded life there since childhood. Sticks is wary of outsiders and paranoid about this new stranger, and Cosmo elects to leave rather than bother her. However, sticks, realizing that Cosmo is clearly very sick and may be harmed if she doesn't help her, follows after her…

Meanwhile, Eggman begins getting strange reports from his observer robots about some group calling themselves the Metarex destroying his robots and attacking Mobians. Eggman send battle bots to investigate, which report back the Metarex's plan. Eggman, realizing what this highly advanced ancient weapon could do, contacts Sonic & Co and calls for their aid in stopping the Metarex. They distract his army, and Sonic goes on ahead to stop their leader in the ancient compound... Sonic  manages to disrupt the process of awakening Gaia midway through with a bomb supplied by eggman, and uses a chaos stone to chaos control out of the blast radius. Only to pass out in pain, having been infected with the Metarex Blight, which will only continue its painful transformations as time goes on…

 Sonic awakens later on in the night and, dazed and confused from the blights transformation, looks around the blast zone wondering why his friends didn’t find him- only to find a small fairy-like being curled up in the rubble. He rushes over to make sure they're alright, and they awaken only to discover they've lost their memory. Assuming the explosion must have been the cause, he offers to help them figure out who they are while he seeks out his friends. They stop at an ice cream cart since this new friend apparently has never had any and sonic is hungry after the fight and transformation. This earns the fairylike friend the nickname of 'chip'. Sonic and Chip soon learn that part of the Gaia weapon escaped confinement and is now causing havoc throughout the land from his friends via a badly damaged communicator.  Despite the continuing spread of the blight, Sonic is determined to help since it's his responsibility, and he and Chip set out. Along the way, Chip learns of the world…

In the meantime,  the team continues to deal with the ongoing threat of the Metarex, who are continuing to unearth dangerous weapons and causing general havoc. Shortly after sonic had activated the explosive and the Gaia weapon had escaped, they had managed to saved a badger by the name of Sticks and a sick Seedarian called Cosmo from a rockslide caused by the destabilized ground. Sticks offers her reluctant help, given that the Metarex are a threat to her livelihood as well, and Cosmo insists on helping given her familiarity with blights and the fact that she could do with Cream's medicinal knowledge. Along the way, Cosmo learns about Mobian and Overlander culture, and finds they are not so different after all…

 These two plots eventually come together. Dark Gaia is revealed to be just a part of a sapient learning weapon-  the part with only power and instinct, no ability to reason or feel sympathy. Cosmo is shocked by the revelation that the cruel Metarex are in truth her own people, effected by the same blight. Earthia, having followed Cosmo out of concern for her welfare, is forced to reveal the truth that the Seedarians are to blame for these terrible weapons- not the Mobians or the Overlanders.

Cosmo is disgusted that her mother would keep this a secret- and even more so by the fact that she would allow the narrative of the cruel and evil other factions to prevail when they were just as bad.

Rejecting the centuries long hatred, Cosmo elects to physically and verbally confront her father with this new information, and in the ensuing fight he is gravely injured by one of the weapons.

 Realizing his destructive path has lead to the death of hundreds of his people and the illness of his own daughter, he apologizes to Cosmo and Earthia for his ignorant hatred, offering to help defeat Dark Gaia to atone.

Sonic notices that one of the Seedarian artifacts Lucas has matches Chips necklace, and brings it to him. Chip regains his memories and realizes that he is in fact the other part of the Gaia weapon- the part designed to avoid such mindless destruction. Realizing if they can get Chip to Dark Gaias core he may be able to override it and stop the destruction, they set out.

 During the ensuing fight, the team gets bogged down fighting Dark Gaias minions, and Sonic & Chip are having touble making it to where they need to go. Lucas and the blighted Seedarians use an ancient and unstable Seedarian boost serum, to fight and give Sonic and Chip the chance they need. Cosmo takes the White Emerald with her with Creams encouragement, hoping to prevent their deaths…

Sonic does his best to help fight Dark Gaia, but the blights effects have taken their toll, and even he is having trouble. Chip manages to wrestle control over part of the system and assists in the fight. Eventually, Chip realizes that the only way to win will be to reintegrate into the Gaia weapon, and thus lose himself…

 Gaia returns to dormancy, a bioorganic learning machine with all the potential Chip had. Sonic considers himself lucky despite the heavy weight of his new bracelet on his heart, simply because he has not permanently lost two friends today. Despite the blights toll and the boost serums unstable reactions with many of the blighted Seedarians, its regeneration function works, perhaps due to the White Emeralds effects …

 While Earthia takes most of the resulting seeds home in order to regrow those she can over time, she elects to leave Cosmo with her new friends. She reasons that, after all the years of seeking out the outside world, Cosmo deserves to be a part of it. The plant will bloom far more quickly with contact with chaos energy, anyway. Galaxina elects to leave with her mother, reasoning that the tribe will need a new leader after all of this, one who is not as stuck with the old ways. She wishes everyone the best and leaves her sister her rescued cane.

  Cosmo's plant sprouts extremely quickly thanks to two parts rabbit care and one part Emerald energy. Knuckles allows the healthy plant to be put near the Master Emerald for a short time, hoping that it'd encourage growth even more- only for Cosmo to pop out of the now massive plant the next day. Chaos Energy really is amazing like that. Cosmo, for the most part, is happy and healthy- although not without effects from her time fighting the Metarex Blight. Aside some minor discoloration of her right eye and wing, and one of her flowers being permanently removed, she has a tendency to limp- and spastic paresis of her right arm. Cosmo has had some trouble adjusting to these permanent disabilities and her return in general, but she's happy to have a place as a permanent member of the team, and she's enjoying learning about the world outside the jungle.

 Sticks meanwhile hates the toaster at amys because it keeps overcooking her toast.

[thoughtfullychaoticeagle]

LIFE AND FINDING HAPPINESS

--J. Barmann, BS Life as a human being is always filled with suffering and sorrow. Once a person understands this concept they enable themselves to do something about it. So what is the answer? How does one cope with the stress, the pain, the sorrow, the suffering? What is the secret to be happy in the face of these adversities? The key in finding happiness, peace and contentment is not anywhere outside of one’s own self-awareness. To understand the infinite nature of the human spirit; that mankind’s Natural state is spirit and not physical places one upon the path to understanding. As spirits we exist as immortal entities. Forever, is defined as there never was a time that we did not exist and there never will be a time when we do not exist. We shall always be, always has no beginning and no ending. Everything that has a beginning also has an ending. Things that exist within the environment of “time” are all illusions. All are fleeting glimpses of possibilities and mere shadows of reality. For all things that are real are Eternal, forever and infinite. Our True Selves exist outside of Time. Time itself is an illusion create by mankind's Collective Subconscious. Love and Forgiveness are the hinges the gates of Heaven rest upon. Jesus the Christ is the Prototype for the Human Race; our destiny in our evolution is to become a Christ. One of the main messages Christ brought us is that: No matter how much hate, violence and abuse you thrust upon my person, even to the point of the most gruesome death it is powerless against the Love of God. The Love of our Creator for His Children is the Supreme Power. A man passed by a field every day on his way to work. It was just an ordinary field, just like every other field. One day, however, he discovered from a verified source that just beneath the field lay a treasure of gold and precious gems; a fortune beyond any man’s wildest dreams. The man immediately went out and sold everything he possessed, borrowed all he could and made the most costly sacrifices to purchase this field. This was a parable told by Jesus. The field is the human body. Just beneath the outer appearance lies a limitless treasure of the human soul, the eternal spirit. A wonder beyond compare lies hidden within us. When we discover this we should do everything within our power to obtain this treasure, the spiritual wisdom that is our birthright and our legacy. To find happiness in the physical world of matter, we need to meditate on the impermanence of our own physical existence. To contemplate our physical mortality and to recognize our enemy, The Human Ego, helps place our lives in proper perspective. The Human Ego has been the cause of every problem within the human race since time began whether personal or on a national or global level. The Human Ego contains the spirit of the Anti-Christ. The inclination for vices instead of virtues. Hate in the stead of Love; bitterness in the stead of Forgiveness. The opposite-poles go on and on for good and bad evil and benevolence. The point is the Human Ego is very dangerous. In Eastern Theosophy it is taught to conquer the Ego, to subdue it completely. In some cases, using the phrase: To extinguish the ego. They call the Mind, "The Mad Monkey" due to its inclination to jump around aimlessly at times, seemingly out of control. The Buddha taught: “Learn to let go; that is the key to happiness.” –Buddha (Circa 500 BC). When Jesus told the Parable: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. (John 6:56.) This parable confused many people and many stopped following Jesus because of this statement. However, a basic understanding of signs, signets and symbolism is able to see the meaning immediately. What Jesus was saying is that to eat his flesh and drink his blood was to “become him” was to do what he was doing and pick up their cross and follow him, giving up all else. Jesus was simply asking us to become him. To emulate his actions and follow in his footsteps. So as difficult as it may be we need to learn to take life on a much lighter note; never being too serious. To see life through the eyes of a child. We must distinguish between happiness and pleasure as two separate ends; never being the same. We must recognize that “true happiness” is something no one can take from you. It is also something you take with you when you leave this world. True happiness consist of your love for God, family and friends. The love others have for you and the love the Creator has for us all. These things remain with us regardless of where we go. When we gain the knowledge in life from experience and studies, we can turn this knowledge into Wisdom by applying it to everyday life through the tool of “understanding.” That involves understanding how to apply knowledge in a proper and beneficial manner to our environment and circumstances that surround life day by day –and our ability to adapt to change. Happiness is elusive and nebulous but still obtainable through education and persistence. Each human being’s “free will” overrides any possible future that time may hold for an individual. So we must remember that “The mightiest power in heaven or earth is the Power of Thought” –The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ; this becomes our “Power to Choose.” In reaching our goal of happiness we must remember to protect our thoughts. In fact, we need to “purify” our thought patterns; never gossip and always think positive, creative thoughts. We must remember that “Thoughts are things, as solid as a post or a tree.” –Edgar Cayce (Circa 1930.) Happiness is also Mankind’s birthright and legacy. If a dog can wake up every morning, happy and cheerful then I assure you so can you and so can I. Think about it. The reason there is so much unhappiness in the world is because we are taught as human beings to be unhappy and our brains function with what expert psychologists call a: “Negative brain bias.” What this means is one must put effort into becoming positive and viewing life through a different perspective than normally experienced today. To help others with their problems is the best way to forget your own. And when you are able to forget your own problems you’re able to remember the true happiness you possess in life that no one can take from you. In Love and Forgiveness. God Bless You All.