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ruby-whistler · 3 years ago

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I feel like if we really want to take a closer look at the topic of c!Dream’s obsession with c!Tommy, we have to look into both his reasons for it, and the tactics he employs to achieve his goals concerning it.

[ /dsmp /roleplay I did not tag this that way but this entire analysis is hugely c!Dream critical and focuses on the various facets of his manipulation, so if you’re not in the mood to read that, you have been warned not to. ]

Interestingly enough, before the SMP was actual heavy roleplay, back during the original disc war, the reason c!Dream listed for keeping the discs was to use them as bargaining chips, because he knew c!Tommy wanted them back, as they were hard items to get at the time, and knew he could use them for that purpose.

He had just gotten mugged and repeatedly killed by c!Tommy, who had also participated in a conflict beforehand, and only gave a half-hearted apology in the end. He had also seen him cause problems on the server before that. The discs were meant to be something he would threaten to destroy if c!Tommy started acting out of line, because he didn’t trust him to keep his word and wanted a guarantee. That was the reason he insisted on keeping the discs after getting his armor back, which is why he originally stole them.

And I feel like c!Dream’s train of thought, while skewed and twisted with irrational mindsets, is rather straightforward in essence. Conflict is what he actively stands against and what stops him from having a united server, hence in his mind, he needs to destroy things that bring conflict, and control what he can’t or doesn’t want to destroy. He thinks c!Tommy brings conflict, so he feels like he needs to find ways to control him.

Sure, we all know about the systematic abuse and isolation he employed to make c!Tommy believe he was his friend, but one of his major tactics since the beginning has also been intimidation, or a particular type of manipulation that leads to people fearing him or thinking that he has more power than he actually does. In his mind, if people are scared of him, they’re much more likely to listen to him. And the most fascinating thing is that it works.

During the initial exile conflict, despite him being just a single person with no official political power, he assures victory by aggressively, and very intelligently, threatening his way through the negotiations. c!Tubbo is scared of him, and that is not a coincidence. It’s purposeful.

Seeing as he planned to give L’Manberg technical independence either way - he said that there was no real way for him to stop them from pursuing that anyways, so that wasn’t the intention - even the war seems like a very likely ploy to make the revolutionaries fear him enough so that they wouldn’t start conflict after seceding. c!Wilbur is careful not to start anything with the Greater Dream SMP after this, because c!Dream has shown that he can and will ruin them if they do. c!Tubbo also knows exactly the lengths c!Dream will go to if he promises war thanks to this, and that if he says he’ll build a wall and keep them from leaving it with force, he’s going to do it. When c!Tubbo is faced with an ultimatum, seeing as his goal is to keep New L’Manberg safe and peaceful, he knows he has no option but to give in.

Another variation of this tactic is making himself seem more dangerous and unpredictable than he actually is and obscuring his motivation. If people don’t know what he wants, they are less able to devise effective tactics to stop him from getting it. The element of surprise is something that he utilizes constantly throughout warfare, and psychological battling is no different. For instance, during Doomsday he begins talking about how the server will “be at peace now” thanks to L’Manberg being gone, before c!Tommy barges in, and begins implying he did this all because he hates him.

DREAM Tommy… Look. In all destruction *looks at the falling TNT* there is a new beginning.

TOMMY You- you did this…! To all of us! Not just to me, but to everyone here…!

DREAM Beautiful. You know… the unfinished symphony, right?

…

TOMMY Why…?

DREAM The server will be at peace now.

TOMMY Why, Dream…?

DREAM Because I didn’t-

TOMMY Couldn’t you just- couldn’t you just burn the discs…? Couldn’t you just do it to me? Why did you have to…?

DREAM This is much more fun.

[ credits to @dsmptranscripts on twitter ]

Although c!Dream’s motivation for destroying L’Manberg was actually that, much like with c!Tommy, he thought that it bred conflict and division, he picks up on this and switches to saying how he did indeed do this all to hurt c!Tommy because he finds it fun.

He talks very inconsistently plenty of times, but it’s rather easy to spot a pattern of him being honest about his motives with his allies but straight up lying to his enemies. This makes sense, and it is usually employed as a deliberate tactic.

Intimidation is something he also uses to manipulate people during his time in prison. Ever since he got locked up, it became a mental fight. If people fully realized that he was powerless to stop them from hurting or killing him, his life only hanging by a thin strand on the concept of the revive book, he would’ve lost the control he needed to assure his survival.

The difference is that before then, c!Dream had actual physical power, however the manipulation gets harder to pull off when he has none, even with people he finds naive enough to fall for it. He still risks it because he’s desperate, and has nothing but his own life to lose, which is something he believes to be protected by his possession of the revival book. He had never been big on self-preservation besides staying alive to reach his goals.

He first tries this on c!Sam, who, rather unpredictably, begins to get morally corrupted by the power he has over c!Dream, on top of other factors. c!Dream talks to c!Sam about exile and about c!Tommy because logically, if he’s afraid of him, he’s less likely to try to hurt or kill him. This backfires because this new, unexpected version of c!Sam begins to fiercely hate c!Dream instead, hurting him further.

The same thing happens with c!Tommy - when he realizes that he can’t influence him through repeated visits anymore, he attempts to scare him into obedience again. He establishes himself as someone dangerous who has the power to escape and hurt c!Tommy as well as his friends, which he hopes will subconsciously sway him to not do things that he would disagree with. We can see him pretending to be the one in control throughout the stream after c!Tommy first got revived.

He also tells him that he can bring back the person who he’s afraid of the most and get him on his side, which is precisely the bit that ends up backfiring, but it doesn’t really matter, and trying was still the best thing he could’ve logically done.

If he hadn’t, at some point people would realize he actually has no power at all, and pay back the fear he’d instilled in them previously. This happens with c!Quackity, who began to take advantage of c!Dream’s lack of control as soon as he realized how easy it was to strip away the last bit of power he has, which is also keeping him alive.

Getting back on track, c!Dream essentially tries to control c!Tommy first by manipulating him into believing he is his friend, then believing he is a threat to him when that fails. We can see this from the way the Finale is prepared to be somewhat of a final showdown between the two, and also by him actually revealing the tactics he used to employ during exile, for example talking about taking away the invites to the party and not actually being his friend. This also proves he knew exactly what he was doing during that time, and he could easily switch between tactics because the end goal of controlling c!Tommy was more important to him than what c!Tommy thought of him.

And that’s it.

It’s all just a ploy to control him because he finds him one of the hardest people to stop from causing conflict.

Controlling him is as important to c!Dream as destroying L’Manberg and dethroning c!George and collecting people’s attachments, because what is important to him is achieving his goals through whatever means necessary, not the means themselves.

As for people, while he has no desire to actually kill them - or feels he cannot, because they could still be useful to his plans in the future - he treats them as either tools or obstacles he needs to deal with, especially if they ever get in the way of his plans, and he isn’t particularly attached to them. He does this to himself as well, and doesn’t seem to care about his own well-being or reputation as long as he achieves what he wants. While he’s focused on the ends to his means, that is the only thing that is important to him.

You could argue this does stem from thinking of the people he wants the server to be united for as important, since cc!Dream said his goals are for “everyone to get along”, but that doesn’t change the fact that the ways in which he works towards that goal doesn’t treat others’ or his own feelings as consequential at all. In the case of people who stand against him, their entire well-being is put to the side until what needs to be done in his mind gets done.

c!Dream isn’t “scared” of c!Tommy per se, nor does he seem to be obsessed with the guy himself, but he finds him something necessary to get out of the way to accomplish his goals, and he does so, ruthlessly as ever.

And even though the goal of eradicating conflict and uniting the server is something that he is so focused on that it could definitely be called an obsession, c!Tommy really isn’t that important within the equation at all.

This wasn’t a post to excuse or downplay any of his actions, nor do I agree with the “logical” thoughts I mentioned. There is a reason why I used phrases like “he finds” “in his eyes” “he thinks” “in his mind” “he feels like” a whole lot throughout this essay.

The character has an extremely flawed worldview that I in no way agree with (and although that should probably be pretty obvious, you really don’t know with this fandom). All this post is for is to analyse certain traits that are assigned to him, and figure out through logical reasoning whether they’re a mischaracterization or not.

And as far as the evidence goes; c!Dream isn't obsessed with c!Tommy, he is obsessed with his goal, and he sees Tommy as a big obstacle to achieving it, which makes him focus on him. These feelings he puts on display are an illusion to distract people from his real goal so they don't know how to get in his way - because, just like cc!Dream said, he “likes to withhold information; withhold plans; and withhold feelings” from everyone else.

#dream smp #c!dream #not really c!dream positive so not tagging w/ drblr #anyways #gotta go out with a bang #huh?#haven’t done analysis in a long while #this one’s a doozy

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 4 years ago

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Could you talk about the Statute of Secrecy? Or the Ministry’s corruption in General :)

Well, those are two different things. Given that I believe I have an ask floating somewhere in my inbox on the Statute, I suppose we’ll talk about the Ministry of Magic today.

I feel like this is such a broad topic though that I’m not quite sure where to start. I guess I’ll just throw spaghetti at the internet wall and see what sticks.

The Ministry is a Reflection of Society Who Never Admitted They Were the Death Eaters

In the ministry of Harry Potter’s era the Ministry is hopelessly corrupt and filled to the brim with spies (more on this in a later section). Lucius Malfoy, very high up in an unofficial capacity in the Ministry and owner of the Ministry’s mouth piece: The Daily Prophet, was a known Death Eater with a very flimsy excuse.

How is he even able to wield so much influence, you ask? Well, I think it’s not just because of Fudge picking the wrong friends.

I think most the population probably does believe Lucius Malfoy is innocent the way Fudge does. I think it’s a very small subsection, i.e. Dumbledore’s lackies, who go “Nah, ain’t buying it.” I think that, in 1981, when it came time to reveal just how many were Death Eaters and how far this went many people just couldn’t handle it.

Because it was to the point where the nation wasn’t battling Death Eaters, Death Eaters were the nation. Look at the members, these are and were the most influential and prominent families in the country, who combined hold a non-small minority of seats in the Wizengamot. More, these were only the participants, combine those who given anti-muggle and muggleborn sentiment (which I believe are pervasive even among those who claim they fight for the rights of muggles and muggleborns) and you get a nation that is suddenly facing a huge cultural issue that was never previously acknowledged.

We’re talking an entire purge of the Wizengamot, of the Ministry, of the major families and cornerstones of this society. The Black family is completely and utterly destroyed.

People were and remain throughout the 1990′s, desperate to believe it was not as bad as it was or isn’t as bad as it is. If Lucius Malfoy says he was never really a Death Eater then he was never really a Death Eater.

The Ministry is Lousy With Corruption and Spies

What’s hilarious to me is not only is the Ministry incompetent. It is positively flooded with spies. Given the ministry’s overbloated, it’s not even a sizeable minority of employees, but nonetheless every major department has at least one person (if not more) who works for somebody else.

Most work for Tom Riddle. He seems to have intelligence in every department. Through Lucius, who is working pretty much as an unofficial aide to Fudge, he has access to Fudge, complete control of the Daily Prophet, and a voice on the Hogwarts’ board of governors.

Through Rockwood, Tom has direct access to the Department of Mysteries which Lucius is then able to take full advantage of.

Lucius is able to set up an ambush in the Department of Mysteries, getting escaped convicts into the building with the none the wiser, and, had his sole purpose not been a prophecy that only Harry Potter and the Dark Lord can touch, he would have been able to take what he liked. (Though it was always odd to me that the plan was to get Harry Potter to do it, when the better solution would have been to polyjuice Tom Riddle into someone else, set up a tour with the department, and then Tom wanders off conveniently to pick up the prophecy. My theory, I suppose, is that chasing after the prophecy was mostly an exercise in punishing Lucius. And then Lucius fucked up.)

And of course, in book seven, Tom Riddle makes a puppet minister. Point being, to me, it always said a lot that in Book Seven Tom just sort of walks into the building and says, “I’m in charge now” and everyone says “okay”. There was no second Wizarding War, it was a bloodless coup that met zero resistance from anyone but angry school children.

But that’s Tom’s spies, we also have other spies. Who am I talking about, Dumbledore’s folks of course.

Shacklebolt, Moody, Tonks, and Arthur Weasley are all spies, they just don’t have the introspection to even realize it (which really tells you something about the state of corruption in the ministry). They all work for the ministry, yes, but they in fact pass on information to and serve another master, whose goals do not always align with the government and was a hop skip and a jump away from overthrowing the government at any given moment.

And they don’t even really realize they’re doing this! There doesn’t even seem to be a thought of “I’m doing this for the greater good”, they don’t seem to acknowledge that what they’re doing is very very very bad. Arthur, in fact, is appalled when Percy refuses to do this (well, he’s upset for a lot of reasons, such as that he thinks Percy is spying on Arthur for the minister, but in there is also that Percy refuses to help out with the Order or follow Dumbledore without question).

Harry paints the Dumbledore’s Army threat that Umbridge saw as something utterly ridiculous, but honestly if I was the ministry I would be worried about this. Dumbledore’s people have infiltrated the ministry just as deeply and badly as the Death Eaters, Dumbledore’s known for recruiting children into his vigilante organization, I don’t know what he’s doing with an army of schoolchildren but I can smell a coup coming.

Anyway, I’m getting off track, point being though that corruption is not only expected and accepted by the ministry, they cannot recognize what it even is. They’re at the point where paying bribes is allocated in their budget.

I Don’t Blame the Ministry For Not Thinking Tom Riddle Was Anti-Jesus

Fudge is designed to get a lot of flack for his outright denial that Voldemort had returned from the dead. He, and other denier characters, are meant to be fools with their heads in the sand who can’t see the obvious.

I ask what about it was obvious?

The only witness to Tom Riddle’s resurrection, Harry Potter, has a known history of erratic behavior.

The previous year, he’d performed illegal magic on his muggle aunt and run away from home. During the previous school year, Harry was revealed to be a parselmouth in a time when the Chamber of Secrets was presumably opened and the mystery was never fully solved (remember, that it was a possessed Ginny never comes to light for more than a few people.) Beyond that, since his first day of school, Harry is routinely in and out of detention, constantly out after curfew, and only seems to not be in serious trouble because he’s openly favored by Dumbledore (who gives him hundreds of points for breaking one of his school rules, during the Philosopher’s Stone fiasco in first year). In 1994, Harry is entered into the Tri-Wizard Tournament under very suspicious circumstances.

We know why all this happens to Harry but from the outside he looks like a delinquent. In fact, he kind of is a delinquent.

Point being, the only witness is not only Harry Potter (who is already sketch) but it’s Harry Potter holding a dead body of a rival in the tournament.

And he’s claiming that a man who has been nearly fifteen years dead, a man who held the nation in terror and Harry Potter is beloved for destroying, has returned from the grave and conveniently murdered Cedric.

Why is Cedric dead? Well, you see, he and Harry both touched the goblet at the same time because they were going to share the reward. The goblet, a national treasure, was turned into a portkey so that Voldemort could kidnap him.

Why didn’t Voldemort just kidnap him at any other point during the year where he’s guaranteed not to get tag a longs or the wrong kid? Uh... VOLDEMORT IS BACK (for the record, I think it’s because Barty got hung up on the goblet scheme and was determined to ruin his father’s day.)

Where is Voldemort at this very moment? Being evil, somewhere, that is not right here. No, Harry has zero evidence this happened.

Frankly, I wouldn’t believe Harry either.

And when Dumbledore goes about promoting this as sound evidence that Tom Riddle has in fact returned, it starts to get even sketchier. Rather than sounding the alarm, Dumbledore is using this boy’s madness to stir the public into a panic that he, perhaps, plans to take advantage of.

After Dumbledore does that, I would suspect that, even if Harry does give me a memory of the graveyard scene that his head had been tampered with by Dumbledore.

And it’s so convenient that, of all the names Harry picked, it’s Voldemort who killed Cedric. It seems like a ploy to not only deflect the fact that he murdered Cedric but

Harry’s very upset when some don’t take him at his word but Harry’s also a dumbass and a psychopath. He hates everyone who doesn’t agree with him.

More importantly, necromancy isn’t a thing in the Harry Potter universe. People don’t rise from the dead. Horcruxes exist, but they’re extremely rare, and it seems like no one ever really makes use of them.

So, yeah, not unreasonable that Fudge didn’t immediately go, “My god, Voldemort has risen from the dead! LIGHT THE BEACONS AND SUMMON ROHAN!”

So yeah, it’d take me seeing Voldemort waltzing through the Department Mysteries to go “... Goddammit, this man is more unkillable than Sheev Palpatine.”

After the Epilogue, I am Certain It’s Still the Same Damn Ministry

People hate the epilogue, but in a way, I love it, because it confirms many of my headcanons: these people don’t learn a goddamn thing.

Nothing in their society seems to have changed. Instead of one set of families holding all the power it’s now a new set of families and friends holding all the power. The difference being that they are now all in some way connected to Harry Potter.

Nepotism’s still the name of the game, we still see only human children boarding the Hogwarts Express so you know shit hasn’t changed for the goblins, Draco Malfoy’s alive and well and holds a position in the Ministry that Kingsly graciously allows him to have, it’s just now you have Hermione writing all your laws for you.

The Wizarding World is still the Wizarding World in every single capacity. The only difference is that Voldemort is dead again. Hooray.

Harry and friends simply don’t have the introspection to even realize it.

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #the ministry of magic #cornelius fudge #albus dumbledore #anti albus dumbledore #anti harry potter #voldemort #tom riddle #lucius malfoy #harry potter epilogue #meta #headcanon #opinion #the wizarding world

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darlington-v · 3 years ago

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I know different interpretations of a work are generally enriching and cool... but c!dream villan interpretations is like how to tell me you only watch Tommy without saying you only watch tommy.... which would be fine but its not a great place to be making statements about the whole nature of the dsmp lol

Wild speculation, but sometimes I wonder if like, because the dsmp didn't really start as a narrative, and a lot of fans don't nessecarily enter it expecting a narrative, but then there is one and the fandom is really discourse heavy and everyone is sort of excpeted to have an opinion while maybe not expecting to form one from the begining or not having a ton of experience with narrative in a way that would "expect" them to have an opinion or not take things at face value??, I don't know if I explained that well at all... and I don't really even think thats right nessecarily... but like wow sometimes some of the takes about power and government and villany...

Honestly, it makes sense!!!

I think something interesting is like.... looking at how animatics have shaped the like tone and culture of the fandom essentially. Like, an interesting fact that I didn't really fully grasp until SUPER recently is like...

c!Wilbur out the gate admits he is manipulating c!Tommy. Like his first youtube video on the Dream SMP he admits his goal is to manipulate c!Tommy and people like c!Tommy into helping him achieve a potion ("drug") empire to monopolize on potions because there were a lot of people on the server who like to min-max, which is to put all of your effort into this one specific skill essentially. so like... i know minecraft doesnt have a skill tree but if it did, it would be putting all your points into that one specific branch of a skill tree. So he wanted to exploit the labor of all the TommyInnits to.... maintain a Potion Empire.

THIS IS A LONG POST BC I GOT CARRIED AWAY SO BUCKLE UP

And I don't think a lot of the fandom who joined later on knows this. I certainly didn't until like a week or so ago? Like... I knew c!Wilbur had been manipulative from the start because I'm a mod of (shameless self promo incoming) @dsmpanalysis and we have a lot of different POVs in that mod team and discord and we talk about it really frequently. I joined the fandom as someone who was really big on L'manburg ESPECIALLY crimeboys, and have turned into.... *gestures vaguely to my blog*

And ngl I owe a lot of it to @1-michibiki-1 in terms of c!Dream "Apologism" but all of the mods there have expanded my thoughts and views on the storylines of this narrative.

My application consisted of like largely essays about like... how I think Dream was the villain but he was meant to be the villain because you don't get any insight into his character WHICH.... IS A FAIR ASSUMPTION AT FIRST GLANCE. People are easily villainized when you cannot get a glimpse into their thought process. It's easy to dwindle someone down into this flat character and starting out I knew Dream didn't stream the SMP on purpose.

And I personally came to the conclusion of "Oh! So Dream is supposed to be the villain." However as the story continued and I learned more about what Dream went through I began to realize that... it's more than likely a form of a red herring. My opinions on this were immediately solidified when I watched Ranboo's 2 MIL stream because both Ranboo AND Dream agree on enjoying red herrings.

There have been MANY times were Dream has said that c!Dream is a complex character and he's not a wholly evil guy and there have been times where the narrative has honestly just proved that.

Anyways, what's important though was that... I learned most of this from other people who were more focused on c!Dream rather than myself. Eventually I shifted from c!Tommy to c!Ranboo and c!Techno after c!Tommy betrayed c!Techno and I began to realize.... everything I learned before hopping in wasn't exactly what it seemed.

Part of this is because I'm older, I heavily identify with c!Techno's sense of loyalty and philosophies on government, but I especially identify with the anguish c!Techno voiced in... a lot of lore but especially the lore around Doomsday.

I'm not 16 anymore. I don't always feel wronged by adults, or older people in my case, whenever they absolutely have done something wrong by me, but I do feel wronged by my close friends. I also felt like c!Tommy's sense of loyalty didn't line up with mine after what felt like him constantly flip-flopping and refusing to understand c!Techno's morals on government didn't line up with his.

In short, it was easier to identify with Tommy in these animatics versus in the actual stream content because c!Tommy is played by a 16 year old. I'm not a teenager and my line of thinking doesn't entirely line up with people that age anymore. It's harder to place myself in the same shoes of someone's OC who is played closer to their actual age, because I'm not that age.

Regardless, I was still on the c!Dream is a villain train. I wasn't ever like... c!Dream is repulsive I hate him, but I was like omg hot villain lad go brrr.

Even when the first like... mellohi, panic room, Ranboo lore stream popped up I thought "Oh! c!Ranboo corruption arc?"

And I was excited because I really wanted this shy, nervous character to turn into villain buddies with his good pal c!Dream. I'm a total sucker for villains and corruption arcs and all that good shit.

SO I STARTED GETTING REALLY INTERESTED IN ENDERSMILE. I'VE BEEN ON ENDERSMILE SQUAD OUT THE GATE. NOT THE SAME WAY I AM NOW, BUT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED THEM TO TEAM UP.

So... upon not really keeping up with c!Dream and being relatively??? indifferent? I don't think I started arguments on c!Dream back then, but I might have. But I remember like... starting to participate more whenever c!Dream came up and looking more into Dream's character BUT ESPECIALLY TALKING WITH OUR SERVER'S C!DREAM SPECIALIST MICHI ABOUT DREAM A LOT MORE.

And because Michi has been a watcher since day one and was a DTeam fan rather than a SBI fan, she was able to provide me with more information on how the server worked pre-Tommy but especially pre-Wilbur.

Now, you could definitely argue well Michi probably has clear bias but it made sense to me when I looked back on how the storyline had been constructed and was going along, and everyone in the server talks a lot about our own biases and how we want people to maybe not lean so hard on them. Michi would also provide like anecdotes on what had happened and I'm sure links were probably provided at one point but the point was I felt like Michi had no reason to lie or manipulate how the story was told and if she did, eventually someone would have pointed it out because... Group of like... right now it's around 20 or more analysts but I don't remember how many at the time there were. POINT BEING, WE'VE ALL GOT POINTS TO PROVE AND IN MY EXPERIENCE NOT MANY OF US HAVE BEEN SHY TO PROVE THEM.

So if anyone ever had any differing opinions they would be talked about and we literally had and still have discussions.

REGARDLESS.... I DIDN'T FACT CHECK IN DEPTH BECAUSE I THOUGHT PEER REVIEW WAS ENOUGH WHEN YOU HAVE LIKE HOURS UPON HOURS OF STREAMS TO WATCH.

Anyways. Eventually I started paying closer attention and looking more into c!Dream lore but only recently have I started to triple check before speaking about c!Wilbur lore because I know everyone has biases and while I did trust everyone's thoughts and analysis in the discord, whenever I make essays I typically like it to be largely air tight and if theres a mistake, I want it to be because I forgot not because I just trusted what was said. Plus, I wanted to get down to the specifics of how Wilbur had always started with manipulation on the mind.

SO I WATCHED HIS FIRST VIDEO ON THE DREAM SMP.

AND WHAT I WAS NOT BY ANY MEANS EXPECTING WAS WILBUR TO SAY WORD FOR WORD, VERBATIM,

"SO WHY DON'T I START AN INDUSTRY WHERE I USE THE TOMMYINNITS OF THE WORLD TO WORK FOR ME, TO CREATE THINGS THAT THE MIN-MAXERS OF THE WORLD WILL WANT."

Like... this is in no way an attempt to like hardcore villainize c!Wilbur like everyone does Dream, it's just more so to like REALLY outline how far off a lot of fandom interpretation of c!Wilbur is....

Because of SBI focused animatics.

Now, when I joined I watched A LOT of animatics that really highlighted like... Wilbur being this self-loathing JD-esque, "I destroyed it because I had to because the world was against me because no one loved us, Tommy" type of character. At least... that's what it came across as.

And it definitely highlighted the fact that Tommy was a victim, which he is. He is undoubtedly a victim and no not even any dream apologist can change my mind otherwise. Tommy, despite being an instigator sometimes, didn't deserve the abuse he received.

But these animatics never shown the fact that c!Wilbur started L'manburg as a shady ploy to exploit people like c!Tommy and vilify c!Dream so he could have power.

And that was easy because Dream and Tommy had wars before. They had spars and pranks and here's the plan to take back my disks and here's the plan to out smart the thieving little child etc etc.

And all of the animatics I watched never mentioned this. Neither did the recaps though. The recaps gave the events flat out, there didn't sound like there was bias, and honestly I don't really know if there was rather than like... a lack of nuance. And it's hard to provide a recap with that much nuance in a short period of time for a youtube video, to be perfectly fair.

However, this creates a perfect formula for entirely rewriting the history of a server. c!Wilbur quite literally fucking succeeded TO A META LEVEL. He slandered and ran smear campaigns against Dream and like he even does that with Sapnap in the beginning. But what's crazy is that it transferred over into the meta! Most of this fandom understands Wilbur as a victim of mental illness, and yeah maybe? He definitely wasn't mentally well by the end of pogtopia, but he never started out with honorable intentions. L'manburg was never a victim, only its citizens. The TommyInnits of the world.

I just think it's like... such an interesting case study. Because this is like... an opinion like shared by at least half of the fandom, but the vilifying of c!Dream is shared by MOST of the fandom I would argue. Which is like even more crazy for me because that was c!Wilbur's goal!!!

LIKE I GO INSANE WHEN I THINK OF THIS BECAUSE HIS REACH IS JUST TOO POWERFUL. HE'S NOT EVEN ENTIRELY REAL, JUST A MANIPULATIVE PERSONA OF SOME BRITISH GUY.

And I mean... maybe people who have watched Wilbur's video on the SMP still maintain this idea that Wilbur wasn't always the bad guy, but honestly... I wouldn't be surprised if their introduction was still an animatic. Like bias is hard to check and I'm not going to lie I could have sworn I watched both Wilbur's AND Tommy's video on the SMP in the beginning and yet I STILL was a ride or die for tragic yet on some level still honorable Wilbur and a resilient Tommy.

Like... upon watching Wilbur's first video... possibly again I was surprised because I thought I did watch it like right before I even started watching the streams and yet I was still so invested in c!Wilbur as this tortured anti-hero.

It took 6 months of... not being in an echo chamber, full of multiple different people of different ages, different stream POVS, and people who joined the fandom at different points in time.

IDK IF THIS WAS EVEN ENTIRELY RELEVANT IT JUST FELT TANGENTIALLY RELEVANT AND THIS WAS SOMETHING I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR A HOT MINUTE AFTER LIKE WATCHING WILBUR'S FIRST VIDEO AGAIN.

TLDR;

SBI CENTRIC ANIMATICS HAD A LASTING AFFECT ON THIS FANDOM AS IT'S HARD TO GO BACK AND ACTUALLY CHECK THE NARRATIVE FOR SOLID FACTS FOR YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION BASED ON THE FACT THAT THIS NARRATIVE SPANS OVER HUNDREDS OF HOURS WORTH OF TWITCH STREAMS.

#asks #anon #dream smp #dsmp #dsmp analysis #dream smp analysis #dsmp meta #dream smp meta #my analysis #long post

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potteresque-ire · 4 years ago

Note

Hello! I have a question related to your answer for your previous anon's question (WQ and WWX backup plan).

So the book fans knew about the backup plan and the actress who played W/Q got cyberbullied. I wanna ask why did that happened (sry if this is a dumb question), because even though she's the one who's playing W/Q, wasn't she just went with the script? I mean she wasn't the one who get to decide wether to film a backup or not.

I can understand the displeasure of the book fans, but is it 'normal' (I can't find the right word for it, English isn't my first language, sry) to get to the point where she was bullied for that? Is there any similar incidents occured to other actor(s)/actress(es) in the past because of the change of script/story?

Hello Anons! I apologise for the especially long wait for one of you. I was debating for a while whether I’d like to get into the old rumours surrounding The Untamed that weren’t immediately related to the genre of its source material.

I’m not really a follower of the finer details of c-ent—my interest in it wanes rapidly with the subject’s distance from Gg, Dd and BL/Dangai as a genre. I’m also a very late comer into the BJYX fandom, and I’m never quite in The Untamed fandom to begin with.

The more important reason, however, is this: it’s very difficult to pull out facts. There are just so many rumours, so many lies told about … everything and everyone. All for the sake of profit.

So this is likely the last time I’ll address rumours concerning the actors of the show. I’m answering these asks as you two reached me before I make this statement.

First of all, I’d like to kindly ask everyone to please consider disregarding the negative things said about The Untamed’s development and its participants. The series is about to reach its 2 years old birthday by airing date, and 3 years old by its start-of-filming date. Many things ... don’t really matter anymore. The Untamed has become an international success, and whatever was told about anyone has very likely changed.

(People change.)

To answer these asks, it’s important to understand that despite being a Communist country by name, China is at heart a highly capitalistic society, and money REALLY talks in the major industries including c-ent. Corruption is also rampant and is often associated with families with political power; anti-corruption laws are inconsistently and selectively enforced. Both the acts of corruption and the acts against corruption are therefore intimately tied to politics and related to politics, something that I haven’t talked about largely because it’s highly complex and my knowledge of it is limited — the infighting between the different factions of the Chinese Communist Party. Supporters and beneficiaries of one leader—a faction—competing for power, for money and resources with the supporters and beneficiaries of another, often equally powerful leader.

The main point of mentioning Chinese factional politics here is this: what seems to be a regular business war in c-ent, a simple competition for viewership and profit by different media companies, can actually be a battlefront of top political factions fighting for power, or more accurately, for the money that comes from with the power—not only the profit, but the bribes paid to different departments to make things happen, to bypass different laws and regulations.

Facts about the cash flow in c-ent are therefore very difficult to track down, as both the powers-that-be and the media they control make sure the political ties and conflicts, the under-the-table negotiations and the money changing hands, are kept well away from the public eye. Example: c-ent used to be an even more lucrative industry than it is now, before President Xi began an anti-corruption campaign around 2018. There have been whispers that while corruption was indeed a major issue in the industry, the campaign was also a ploy to funnel c-ent’s profit, a significant fraction of which was once held in the hands of the Jiang faction (supporters of former President Jiang Zemin), into the hands of Xi faction (supporters of President Xi). (Here’s a good article about the once top actress Fan Bing Bing, who was made an example in the anti-corruption campaign, and how the campaign affected the people who actually worked in the industry).

What this also means is this: c-ent is an industry where rumours and lies can REALLY thrive, their spread propagated by powerful commercial interests that are often (secretly) backed by even more powerful government interests. These are people who can afford to pay, who often have the right connections to not have to worry about the legal consequences.

With these two factors alone, they can make almost any rumour sound true.

I’ve looked more closely into c-ent in the recent months, and as of today, the lesson I’ve learned is this—I can’t believe in almost any of its so-called “entertainment news”. For every article that sells a viewpoint, a set of facts, there’s another one that sells exactly the opposite, and the pair of articles happily sit beside each other, waiting for their readers to pick the one they wish to read—the one praising the show and actors they like; the one dissing the shows and actors they don’t.

Yxh, water armies...c-ent is an industry where “facts” are often constructed by money.

Entertainers are often swept into the whirlpool of falsehoods just because they happen to work on a project / for a company another side or faction wants to take down. With the exception of a very few, they don’t have much of a way to defend themselves. There have also been longstanding whispers that beautiful actors and actresses are often forced to … service, for lack of a better word, the higher-ups in the government / commercial forces (and their families) in exchange for opportunities or even survival in the industry. While such “unspoken rule” (潛規則) is, to a certain extent, true in many entertainment industries around the world, that the higher-ups in China hold very concentrated power makes it much more difficult for the entertainers to refuse to cooperate, or ask for help.

That entertainers are traditionally held in very low regard—their “career ancestors”, 戲子 (roughly, “showperson”), being one of the “lowest 9 professions” (下九流) that included prostitutes—doesn’t help their case.

Back to your questions, Anons: the consequence of c-ent money flow often being hush-hush and potentially politically sensitive is that, when a production team receives money, it doesn’t always try to look very hard at where the money comes from. Because of this, it’s easy for Yxh and Antis to make up rumours about participants of a project bringing in cash in exchange for making themselves more at the centre of the spotlight—increase the screen time for an actor / actress, for example. And when it’s pointed out that a starlet, in particular, cannot possibly have that kind of money to bring into a project, the rumour mill can conveniently explain away this lapse in logic by implying that the starlet is sleeping with someone.

This was essentially what happened to the actress who played WQ, despite her denying the rumour with a public statement and no evidences existed to suggest any truth in the rumour — that she‘d brought in money into The Untamed’s production team in exchange for a romantic plot w/ WWX as the female lead. She wasn’t paired with WWX in final version of The Untamed; WQ died pretty early on in the show. Nonetheless, the rumour (and the poor reputation it brought) has stuck with her since. It can still be found on the internet.

About the actor who played Wen Ning… I haven’t really paid much attention to him (sorry!). A quick search online shows that at some point, he said something that was interpreted to be not as friendly towards Gg, compared to how much he seemed to like Dd. After 227, however, he spoke out for Gg and personally, I think that’s what really counts because anyone who spoke out for Gg at the time also risked being harassed and boycotted. I don’t know of any successful effort in creating a popular cp between him and Dd. Since all that is required to create a supertopic on Weibo, including a cp supertopic, is sufficient seed membership (10 people) plus a moderator with demonstrated familiarity and popularity in the platform, however, is it possible that this cp, if it existed at some point, was simply because some fans wanted to explore this rare pair? I don’t know (if anyone would like to jump in with more info, please do!). But I think it doesn’t have to translate into judgement of the actor’s character at all.

#pie metas #yizhan #bjyx

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joaqqquiin · 4 years ago

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POLITICAL DYNASTY - AMPATUAN

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Politics in the Philippines have been quite a contentious and fragile topic for the past decades. Politics have led to numerous outcomes such as disunity, distrust, dissension, dispute, and even violence. These are some of the factors that have contributed to how society in the Philippines acts in the present which commonly affects the atmosphere the people work and dwell in, the socio-economic status of Filipinos, and most importantly, the well-being of individuals. One example of a hot topic in the past is regarding the feud between late former president Ferdinand Marcos and the Aquino family. This topic is a topic that a number of people would call controversial due to the mixed views and feelings people have in regards to the topic. A riveting concept the two families have in common is that they are both political dynasties in the Philippines. Some people and politicians would consider political dynasties as a root cause of issues that arise such as poverty, bias, impunity, and even quarrels between political dynasties that may get in the way of making rational decisions and lead to neglection of appointed duties. A case in point which proves that political dynasties are nothing but problems was the largest massacre that the Ampatuan dynasty committed.

The Ampatuan massacre, or popularly known as the Maguindanao massacre, is a carnage which was a ploy made by the Ampatuan family to gain the upper hand against their rivals. This unfortunate event that the Ampatuan dynasty planned was recorded as the single deadliest event for journalists in history. Being a journalist is a reputable job as one is tasked with the obligation to inform the public with the news, however, the Ampatuan family has dented the country’s reputation of being a safe space for journalists as 32 were killed in the massacre. The Maguindanao massacre alone may show that the Philippines is not an utterly safe place not only for journalists but in general. The Ampatuan family has contributed greatly to putting the Philippines in a position where press freedom is attacked, impunity is exercised, and power is corrupted. The Ampatuan dynasty jeopardized the credibility of the nation as a fun and safe place to spend time with your family.

CHAPTER 2

SUMMARY

Background

The Ampatuan family is considered the largest political dynasty present in our country with over 51 members. A few prime members of this family are considered to be the most politically involved and have had the most transgressions. The late Andal Ampatuan Sr. was a patriarch of the Ampatuan clan and was also a main suspect of one of the largest massacres in the Philippines, the Maguindanao massacre. Before the case was resolved, Ampatuan died after falling into a coma caused by a heart attack. Andal Ampatuan has 4 sons, namely, Andal Ampatuan Jr, Sajid Ampatuan, Zaldy Ampatuan, Anwar Ampatuan Sr.

Andal Ampatuan Jr. was the 8th child of Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Bai Laila Uy-Ampatuan. He was known as the mastermind of the Maguindanao massacre and was convicted of 57 counts of murder alongside his brother, Zaldy Ampatuan. He is currently located at the New Bilibid Prison where he is sentenced to a maximum of 40 years without parole.

Sajid Ampatuan was among the accused of plotting the massacre. He claims that he had already cut ties with his family and said that he assisted his wife who was filing her candidacy at the time of the massacre. He was not present during the promulgation of judgement and was given 5 days to reason out his absence. Due to this instance, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with graft charges and lost his chance to appeal since the rule of court states that absence during the promulgation is not justified.

Zaldy Ampatuan was a governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) however he was expelled from office due to his participation in the massacre. It was said that he planned the Maguindanao massacre alongside his brother, Andal Ampatuan Jr. However, all charges against him were dropped, citing lack of evidence. This was until Justice Secretary, Alberto Agra, restored the murder charges against Ampatuan due to new findings.

Anwar Ampatuan Sr. is the brother of Andal Ampatuan Jr. He was part of the mastermind group and was also convicted with 57 counts of murder. Unlike Anwar Sajid and Anwar Jr. who were identified as first-class convicts or those who had plotted and fired at the victims, Anwar Sr. fell under the second class of suspects or those who had prior knowledge of the crime but were not at the crime scene.

Political History

The Patriarch of the Ampatuan clan, Andal Ampatuan Sr. was already a vice mayor in charge of Maganoy when President Marcos appointed him as mayor. Maganoy is now Shariff Aguack. However, in 1986, due to the People Power Revolution, President Marcos was departed, and Corazon Aquino came into power. As she came into power, she replaced every locally elected official with officers-in-charge. Ampatuan Sr. was also replaced by another Ampatuan, Datu Modi who served for two years in that capacity.

In 1988, after the 1988 local election, he served as mayor for 10 years as he had been winning three consecutive local elections 1988, 1992, and 1995. In his 10th year as mayor in 1998, he was elected as governor and started to accelerate his Clan activities. His family occupied almost all the political costs in the area, the family tried to widen the range of the power, and even, eighteen of the mayors in Maguindanao were once members of the Ampatuan clan.

In 2001, his clan solidified its hold on power by keeping a close friendship with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The reason for this is because Arroyo assumed the presidency after EDSA People Power II. And His choice was excellent. The family was appraised by the “Popular support” and openly supports Arroyo. In 2004, during the 2004 presidential elections, Arroyo came into power succeeding the previous president Joseph Estrada and dominated the polls in Shariff Aguack and most of Maguindanao.

And lastly, in 2006, Arroyo issued Executive Order 546, allowing local officials and the police to deputize local militia to aid in the fight against insurgents. This greatly contributed to the establishment of power in the Ampatuan Clan. The Executive Order was issued shortly after an assassination attempt on Andal Ampatuan Sr. and the end of the Clan's history and relationships was dreadful.

Issues they were associated with

It is no secret that fear is often instilled to control people. The Ampatuan clan, despite being popular and influential, they were feared. Numerous journalists would say, “They own the people'' or “The word of the Ampatuans was the law. The lives of the people living in Maguindanao would lie in the hands of the Ampatuan family as they had a private army consisting of 2000-5000 armed men composed of government-supported militia, local police, and military personnel. An instance when this private army was put into use was on the 23rd of November back in 2009. This instance was the Maguindanao massacre which would be the biggest issue of this political dynasty.

Maguindanao mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. was challenged by Buluan vice mayor Esmael Mangudadatu as he was going to file his certificate of candidacy (COC). Vice mayor Esmael received death threats from his rivals so he thought that inviting journalists to his filing of COC would lessen the chances of ambushes. Esmael invited 37 journalists with him to file his COC. Along with the 37 journalists, there were also reporters, lawyers, aides and his family. As 58 of them were on their way to the Elections provincial office, they were kidnapped and murdered. Some were even raped before they were killed. There were at least 198 suspects including Andal Ampatuan Jr., Andal Ampatuan Sr. and several other members of the Ampatuan clan who were charged with 57 counts of murder. However, this was not the only issue the family had. They have a history of killing people way before the Massacre.

Back in 2005, 25 armed men in the military uniform killed the wife and child of Mando Tambungalan. He had identified that the suspects were hired killers on the Ampatuan payroll since he had been targeted by the Ampatuans for running for vice mayor of Datu Piang in 2001. In 2006, the Ampatuans planted a bomb which exploded near the Shariff Aguak market, killing five people, including Ed Mangansakan who was a known weapons supplier for the Ampatuans. Another instance of their wrongdoings was when motorcycle-riding gunmen, linked to the Ampatuan clan, shot and killed Judge Sahara Silongan while he was driving his family home. A relative of the judge believes he was killed for failing to issue an illegal warrant of arrest demanded by the Ampatuans. As well as in 2008, a cousin of Ampatuan, Jr., and his armed men allegedly shot and killed eight members of the Lumenda and Aleb families. One gunman told the Human Rights Watch that he and the others were ordered to shoot the family because the Ampatuans doubted their loyalty.

CHAPTER III

REFLECTION

Abad, Anton Angelo T.

My thoughts about the Ampatuan clan is that I'm surprised to see that they haven’t all been imprisoned and even some of them are still not arrested. I was shocked to read that they are responsible for the massacre and that they only did it because they didn’t want to get arrested. I think that people should learn more about these clans and start to plan a way to prevent them from gaining too much power. Because just like the Ampatuan clan they have so much power that they have their own private army and were able to delay there inevitable arrest for 51 murder.

Golamco, Janise Kate A.

The Philippines suffers from widespread corruption. From embezzlement, nepotism or police brutality, the common denominator to these actions is greed. Political dynasties such as the Ampatuan family are a huge factor to further influence these acts. Yet, people continue to tolerate their wrongdoings by doing nothing to prevent them. Because of fear, people have been silenced by their own timidity. Because of their own selfish desire, civilians were caught in the crossfire resulting in one of the largest politically involved massacres. The innocent lives lost cannot compare to merely a few years of imprisonment.

As students continue to grow and learn, it is vital that people know of the things that harm their society and strive for change. Influential families, such as the Ampatuans, use their power at their own disposal and further contributes to socio-economic inequality. It is why knowledge is greatly needed in order to stop corruption. By learning about the vulnerabilities and impacts of misconduct citizens are given a chance to end impunity once and for all.

Lee, Noah

After exploring the largest political dynasty in the Philippines, there are a number of things left on my mind. It has been 19 years since the gruesome mass murder took place and threatened the Philippines. But I would appreciate that still now, we are studying this and learning about that happening and being reminded to be wiser in how to live as people in this country. We have to know what is currently happening, and what is harming or damaging the order of our country. It is our duty to argue for justice in our society and politics and to heritage it to our next generations. To achieve our duty, we all have to have a bright notion about the corruption of power that someone longs for enough to commit mass murder.

However, the most damning aspect of the report for me was the support of the Ampatuans by the state, the police and the military, allowing them to consolidate their power. I strongly oppose the idea of making use of the public power for the private benefit of chosen families. It is said that there is no person above the law but I feel irritated about the fact that there is a person who takes advantage of the laws. Until we can generate real justice, we should keep our eyes on our country.

Velasquez, Joaquin Gabriel D.

Having the power to be able to do everything we want is something that if not all, most people dream of. The power to be exempted from the law, the power to generate money, the power to rule the world, or the power to make this all come true. To be able to obtain that amount of power is like living everyone’s dreams, but no, it makes us corrupt. Corruption of power is one of the deadliest aspects that can not only destroy an individual but also a whole nation. Corruption has been present in the Philippines for decades already, it has never left the country and I think it does not plan on leaving anytime soon. Corruption has many factors, it can be through pocketing money, abusement of power, and even the act of impunity. Impunity is as dangerous as corruption as it serves as an immunity pass to those with power. There have been several occurrences in which both impunity and corruption have been present, working hand in hand. A famous case is in the presence of political dynasties. Political dynasties have been believed to be the root cause of far-reaching problems in the Philippines.

The Ampatuan dynasty or family is one of many political dynasties present in the Philippines. The Ampatuan family is known for planning the biggest massacre which ended up killing around 57 people. Several suspects have been charged with 57 counts of murder. However, due to impunity, a large number of suspects are still at large. In respect to this, I do not condone the presence of political dynasties in our country. As a part of the youth, it is important that we are aware of when corruption and its likes are present, lurking around us. I may not have the power to be able to do everything I want but I have the power that not everyone has the ability to do, speaking up and using my voice to amplify the voice of those who are silenced by the effects of the wrongdoings of these political dynasties. Raising one’s voice does not necessarily mean joining rallies but spreading awareness regarding the wide-ranging effects of the influential families sitting in power. Not speaking up and allowing corrupted families in power to continue and degrade the country’s socio-economic status will make us all accomplices to the destruction of our nation as a whole for failing to protect it.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

The Ampatuans remain a powerful and dangerous force with which to be reckoned. For years, the department of justice and the military has been trying to get the Ampatuan family to pay for their actions yet they haven’t achieved full justice. A police officer once asked, “what do we do? This is an influential family.” The Ampatuan family is a powerful family with many connections making it hard for people to stand up against them. The trial of the Ampatuan massacre is a case that has far-reaching implications not only on press freedom in the Philippines but also on one of the biggest threats to the country’s democracy, impunity.

With impunity present in our country, killings and other illegal doings happen all around with no one to be held accountable. Thousands have been killed with impunity in the Philippines’ illegal war on drugs alone, how many more innocent people have died from other activities and remain greatly suppressed, away from where the world can see. In these cases, it is imperative that we equip ourselves with the proper knowledge and be a voice to those who are voiceless.

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littlesailorinthesun · 4 years ago

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elf primer

As part of a larger joint project (a lore reading order timeline), I wanted to write a post documenting all of the elf and kindred-related weirdness in the story. Once you start diving really, really deep into trying to piece elfkindred information together, you'll find that lots of things contradict each other or become jumbled. This is in part due to our server's translation and in part just because the story legitimately retcons itself. There were also a lot of theories and misconceptions which I wanted to spend some time discussing. So here is some information that will help those who are interested in reading.

By the way, huge spoilers ahead for the newest CN hell event, which has been given the fan nickname “Moonless Voyage”. The translations I used are linked at the end!

Main Cast

Chloris: The duty-bound Prince of Forest Elves. He participated in the war between kindred and elves a thousand years ago. He has very few desires as he's very focused on the well-being of the forest. He's also very powerful. Has been kept in the dark about his family history.

Cesare: The brother of Chloris and the current Lord of Kindred. He was exiled to Shadow City, the world within Lake Bovaly, a thousand years ago. Strongly wishes for Kindred to be simply allowed to live in the forest again, after that right was stolen from him when he was young, and secretly wishes he and Chloris could be normal brothers. Now, he also wants to break the Blood Curse because it affects all Kindred even if they just have the desire to hurt others (not for the same reasoning as Nidhogg).

Lakris: The second Prince of Forest Elves. Stated by Cesare to simply be "a part of him" that was taken. Looked just like Cesare.

Elven Queen: The mother of Chloris and Cesare. Anti-war and fiercely protective of the elves even at the cost of her own Kindred loved ones.

Helsin (Blood Lust): The Lord of Kindred who served as the leader of Shadow City while Cesare was missing. Her primary goal is to break the seal of Shadow City once more.

Evelyn (Flickering Pistill): An elf who was invited to Shadow City by Helsin and subsequently tortured. She became the final seal for Shadow City, never truly dying. Her story is well-known among those in the Pigeon Forest and Shadow City.

Timeline

(Note: Next to the occurrence, I wrote where you can find the source/a more detailed description of the lore.)

Many years ago: Forest Elves (Chloris' kind) guarded the Pigeon Forest since it came into existence. (Chloris 1)

Elves who sought to cleanse the world were corrupted by the miasma they encountered, and became the Kindred. (Moonless Voyage)

>1000 years before Year 680, New Era: Chloris and Cesare were born to the Elven Queen and the Lord of Kindred, who were lovers but could not be together. The two twins did not meet. (Jealous Phantom)

~1000 years before Year 680, New Era: Tensions broke out between Kindred and Elves. The Elven Queen persuaded the Lord of Kindred to take all of the Kindred out of Pamir Forest (north of main Pigeon Forest) and bring them to Shadow City so there would be no more war. Lord of Kindred obliged, and opened up Shadow City, an action that took most of his strength and ultimately killed him. Every Kindred in Pamir Forest went to Shadow City. (Jealous Phantom)

Cesare's father died, Cesare became the new Lord of Kindred, and the Elven Queen made one last visit to him to say her final goodbye. Cesare pleaded with her to change her mind, but she turned her back on him and left. (Jealous Phantom)

The Elven Queen died (as was told to Cesare) or went missing. (Jealous Phantom/Wake Up from Dream)

Cesare would occasionally watch Chloris play the harp from the other side of the lake, aware that Chloris was his brother. (Jealous Phantom/Flower Feather)

Cesare continued to fight the elves. During a fight, the Elven King (Cesare's uncle on his mother's side) told him that his mother had left some words for him before she died. This was a ploy to distract him and disarm him. Elven King then picked up Cesare's sword, Dark Verdict, and stabbed him with it. Cesare sank to the bottom of the lake. (Moonless Voyage)

Lakris appeared under the Tree of Life for the first time. However, he was asleep during the war. (Wake Up from Dream/Chloris 4)

At some point, the King also died in battle. (V2: 4-2)

[Assumption] Any remaining Kindred that were in Shadow City left, and so did Elaine, leaving the elves and her sister Rachel behind in the forest. The seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest formed. (Minstrel of Time)

Helsin became the Kindred Lord and the most powerful person in Shadow City and amassed many followers that feared her but respected her. (Moonless Voyage)

Helsin, who wants to break the seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest, invited Evelyn to Shadow City to torture her. Evelyn doesn't die; instead, she ends up becoming the final seal, believing it to be atonement for everybody who participated in the war. (Blood Moon)

Year 670, New Era: Cesare stayed at the bottom of Lake Bovaly for nearly a thousand years until Nidhogg one day swam down and retrieved the Dark Verdict sword, stabbing him and releasing him from the seal that the Elven King had placed on him that trapped him there. (Mentioned in Ice Abyss Echo, Dark Verdict suit, and V2: 4-SS2. The year and more clarification on what happened is given in the Miraland Civilization Files book.)

Cesare returned to Shadow City, to the surprise of Kindred there, who worshipped Helsin and viewed Cesare as only a legend considering how long he had been in the lake. (Moonless Voyage)

Infighting began between Kindred who were loyal to Helsin and Kindred who were loyal to Cesare, but Helsin declared her loyalty to Cesare, who went forth and did his best to improve the quality of life in Shadow City. (Moonless Voyage)

Year 680: Cesare and Kindred spirits gather power in Pamir Forest again, using Noah as an agent to stir up chaos and attract the attention of Chloris. Chloris and Lakris go to investigate, and Lakris disappears into a heavy fog as they walk. Chloris goes to the Kindred castle alone and meets Cesare for the first time. It's implied that Lakris was the elven part of Cesare all along, and Cesare reclaims Lakris. Cesare disappears in the light of the Dawnblade. (Chloris 4)

Nikki, Mela, and Momo accidentally get hoodwinked and sent into Shadow City where they nearly get eaten alive by some hungry Kindred. Chloris finds this out and makes the decision to remove the seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest to save them. (V2: Chapter 3)

Most of Chloris's strength is used in removing the seal. Cesare escapes Shadow City and bites Chloris, transferring his memories and weakening him further. (V2: 3-SS2)

Elaine and Rachel (boat lifetime sisters) along with Nikki and co attempt to find a way to heal Chloris but he falls unconscious. (V2: Chapter 4)

When the seal is removed, Evelyn (Helsin's prisoner) disappears. Helsin goes mad with desire and experiences severe backlash from the Blood Curse, so she asks to be restrained. (Moonless Voyage)

At some point, Chloris wakes back up. (That one Pigeon welfare suit)

Cesare decides to break the Blood Curse. He recruits Helsin for help and they leave Shadow City and go back to Pigeon Forest. Helsin fights off Elven soldiers with her whip while Cesare tries to remove a giant crystal within the Tree of Life that binds Kindred under the Blood Curse. Chloris approaches and Cesare explains his reasoning for trying to remove the crystal, also dropping the bomb about the secrets behind their parentage. (Moonless Voyage)

Chloris conducts some elfin glowing crystal magic that renders the Kindreds immobile. Peace falls over the entire forest. The backlash of the Blood Curse that the Kindred constantly experienced disappears. (Moonless Voyage)

Cesare orders all the other Kindred to return to Shadow City. He does another bonding ritual with Chloris which seems to transfer energy to Chloris. Though it's not over between them, Cesare returns to Shadow City once more. (Moonless Voyage)

NOTE: Some assumptions had to be made for this timeline. The biggest one is that even after Shadow City had been opened, the war between Kindred and Elves continued until the seal was formed at a later date. Without this assumption, multiple events described in the story do not make sense.

FAQ

How much time passed between the war and the year 680?

Certain parts of our translation refer to it as "thousands of years", but truthfully, it was actually just a thousand years that passed. (Thank you Athena for clearing this up!)

This is almost definitely not an exact number, especially given everything else that was happening with the timeline across Miraland, as well as how many different events were written as occurring a thousand years ago.

Are Chloris and Cesare half brothers?

For a long time, this is what most people (including myself) believed. This is at least in part because of a few lines within the story suit Jealous Phantom which stated:

"Cesare often think[s] about his mother while sitting on bough in the forest, imagining how his brother, who has the blood of the Elven Guardian, spends days with mother under the bright sunlight."

This seemed to indicate that Chloris had some elven parentage that Cesare did not, which both made him a "full" elf and afforded him privileges Cesare couldn't have.

However, we learned recently that this is not true. With the release of the most recent hell event, both Chloris and the fandom was confronted with the truth, which is that Chloris is also born of Kindred and they are full brothers.

Cesare: “and you, the great Elven King, my fated twin, are also born of kindred blood.”

[...]

(a truth he has tried to ignore revealed, Chloris felt dizzy. He closes his eyes tightly.)

(Translation: RavenBlue)

We also learn that the old Elven King was actually Chloris' (and Cesare's) uncle, not his father.

What if Cesare was lying? To tell you the truth, it is highly unlikely that that's the case. Firstly, even Chloris himself recognizes the truth that he was born from a kindred. Secondly, it's very uncommon for half-sibling twins of different parentage to occur, to the point where even fans were second guessing and wondering if this was really what the writers meant to imply. Thirdly, we now don't even have another candidate for Chloris' dad now that we know the king was his uncle and not his father.

Does this make Chloris kindred, per se? Not really. He doesn't display any of the symptoms of being a kindred. The most likely explanation is that he just "didn't get the Kindred gene" while his fraternal twin Cesare did.

How did Cesare fall to the bottom of the lake?

There are now three different versions of this, only one (the most recent one) which actually seems canon-compliant:

First Wind: The Elven King stabs Cesare with the Dawnblade; his body is later dropped in the bottom of the lake.

Jealous Phantom: Cesare was watching Chloris play the harp when his sadness and the light overwhelmed him and he toppled into the lake. (This one could be metaphorical, even though the metaphor doesn't match the other explanations.)

Moonless Voyage: The Elven King stabs Cesare with his own Dark Verdict; his body falls to the bottom of the lake.

The most canon-compliant one is the Moonless Voyage one, which matches the other bits of interconnecting lore about how Nidhogg acquired the Dark Verdict.

Is Evelyn the mother of Chloris and Cesare/the Elven Queen?

This is a long one so buckle in. (Yes, I touched on this briefly in my last post.)

First of all, I want to reiterate that this was never explicitly stated anywhere. Evelyn was never called the queen and was never described as having children, and the Queen's name was never given. I still believe this is up to interpretation. So here, I'll just lay out all the evidence for both sides. Right now, I don't think it's possible to say one way or another.

Some of the evidence for this theory includes the following:

In Chloris' fourth Dreamweaver, Moon Night Poem, Chloris' mother is mentioned by Cesare.

Duke Cesare: "He was so brave and fearless... even when all hope was lost, he refused to surrender, going so far as to put his life on the line. I simply obliged him... nothing more. That's typical of the forest elf, just like your mother."

This indicates that Chloris' mother had sacrificed her life or was self-sacrificing in some way. Of course, Evelyn is also well-known for her sacrifice, as she became the final seal of Shadow City, and her sacrifice is discussed throughout volume 2, chapter 4:

Nikki: "Those Kindred and elven specters in the Shadow City... They longed for sunlight even they knew it would burn them. Evelyn wanted no bloodshed and she sacrificed herself for peace."

Does Cesare and Chloris' mother make a sacrifice? Well, it's said in Jealous Phantom that it's a very difficult decision for her to banish the Kindred, including her lover and Cesare, to Shadow City for the sake of the elves. That's the only thing I can think of that would qualify as a sacrifice.

One potential hint that Evelyn could have been the queen is from this line from Flickering Pistill:

Evelyn guards the quiet Pigeon Forest. When she bleeds, the reflection of stars will turn to white flowers.

However, in my opinion this is pretty weak evidence because pretty much every forest elf is said to guard the forest (as stated in basically any Chloris dreamweaver you look at).

As well, their circumstances also seemed to line up. In the spirit items from Chloris' fourth dreamweaver, Destined Twins and Wake Up from Dream, it's stated:

Every generation, elves will have 2 guardians who protect the Pigeon Forest in turn, a Sword and a Moon.

Chloris is the first guardian and Lakris didn't appear under the Life Tree till Elf Queen went missing.

We also know that Evelyn herself leaves Pigeon Forest to go to Shadow City forever and act as the seal. However, this is largely viewed as a choice (a "sacrifice") and Evelyn herself was willing to take this on. Again, it's really up to how you read it.

Here's the evidence against Evelyn being their mother:

In the most recent CN hell event (Moonless Voyage), we get confirmation that Helsin was the Lord of Kindred while Cesare was in the bottom of Lake Bovaly for nearly a thousand years. Now that Cesare has been woken up, Helsin is subservient to him. The story of Evelyn is mentioned to him, and he knows about it, but he simply does not care. It's explicitly stated that he has no interest and only cares about Helsin for her power.

Cesare’s Underling: “Ever since the seal of Shadow City was broken, Evelyn, who was previously imprisoned, disappeared. Since then, master Helsin’s desires became more and more cruel, and the backlash on her body became stronger and stronger…..”

(Cesare has heard of the struggle between Helsin and the elf she imprisoned. But he holds no interest in this. All he needs is Helsin’s power.)

(Translation: RavenBlue)

Cesare was told that his mother was dead (mentioned in both Jealous Phantom and Moonless Voyage). In the year 680, he also still seems to believe his mother sacrificed her life for something (see the quote from Chloris 4 I posted above). It's incredibly weird that he would show no interest in this development if she was his mother; it's displayed elsewhere in Moonless Voyage that he still showed interest in his mother even after she abandoned him. But it makes perfect sense narratively if Evelyn is not actually his mother and is just the self sacrificing elf of legends.

The next part is that the timeline does not line up.

It makes much more sense if everything regarding Evelyn, and all of Blood Moon, happened after Cesare fell to the bottom of the lake.

The war between Kindred and Elves already seems to be over as described in Flickering Pistill, as Evelyn is "atoning" in part for the winners of the war.

Helsin is described as the Kindred Lord in Blood Lust, but we know from Jealous Phantom that Cesare inherited the position from his father. Considering we know Helsin was the one in power while Cesare was at the bottom of the lake, it only seems logically consistent that she would only obtain that title after he disappeared.

Lastly, there is simply no reason to not say so if Evelyn is Chloris and Cesare's mother. The story of Evelyn is well known in both Shadow City and Pigeon Forest, and even Cesare who has been asleep for a thousand years knows it. If Cesare knows they are the same, and a great deal of Kindred lore is told from Cesare's perspective and centered around his character development, I literally see no point in continuing to talk about both Evelyn and their mother and not just say they are the same. The same is also true for Chloris, who would also have heard of Evelyn. There is nobody left who cares about Chloris and Cesare's mother to reveal the plot point to. But LN definitely seems to be fond of pulling stunts like this, so it's still hard to say.

What about Wind's Whisper?

There is another character called Evelyn in Wind's Whisper. Evelyn is described as a tree spirit in this, and it distinguishes her from "Pigeon Elves" because she hibernates. However, after asking about the original Chinese text, I have learned that there was a word left out in our translation; Evelyn is a tree elf/spirit, but she hibernates unlike other Pigeon elves.

The words for spirit and elf in Chinese are related, and it's possible that Evelyn is the same type of elf as Chloris even though it's written differently in Chinese.

While I'm not really sure if the Evelyn from Wind's Whisper has anything to do with the rest of the story, it's a moot point to me because whether it does or doesn't, it doesn't add any additional understanding or insight.

Thank you to Athena, RavenBlue, and bamboo snek for clearing this up!

Translation Credits

RavenBlue#2752

for their wonderful and speedy translations of the new hell event stages

for their official Miraland timeline translation

As well to athena#2202 and bamboo snek#3897 for sharing and explaining the original Chinese meaning for parts where our translation got butchered! (Noted above)

#love nikki #love nikki lore #love nikki theories #elves #character: chloris #character: cesare #character: evelyn

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dragoni · 5 years ago

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Greg Sargent of the Washington Post goes further, “Mike Pence knew exactly what he was doing” #UkraineGate

“It’s really hard for Pence to claim that he didn’t know exactly what he was doing.”

He heard about the extortion directly from Trump. According to Trump himself, Pence was one of three administration officials (including Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mick Mulvaney) that Trump initially informed of his decision to withhold aid from Ukraine.

He got the memo. According to The Washington Post, Pence “probably would have received the detailed notes of the president’s call”—that is, the five-page memo clearly showing the president’s quid pro quo—well before his sit-down with Zelensky.

His top adviser was on the Zelensky call. Pence’s national security adviser, retired Lt. General Keith Kellogg, was reportedly one of several administration officials who listened in on the July 25 call as it happened.

Try as he might to stay out of the spotlight, Pence is directly implicated in Trump’s shakedown of the Ukrainian government. Trump made him the messenger in his corrupt ploy to turn America’s foreign policy into a tool for his personal political gain.

And then there’s ALL of this:

Trump throws Pence under the bus — 2 days after Nancy Pelosi announced the Impeachment Inquiry.

“I think you should ask for Vice President Pence’s conversation because he had a couple of conversations also,” Trump - Sept 26, 2019

Oct. 3, 2019: Pence declared himself ALL IN

"The fact that my predecessor had a son who was paid $50,000 a month to be on a Ukrainian board, at the time that vice president Biden was leading the Obama Administration’s efforts in Ukraine, I think is worth looking into." - VP @mike_pence

Oct. 4, 2016: Pence said foreign interference was illegal

“This is basic stuff. Foreign donors — and certainly foreign governments — cannot participate in the American political process.”, Mike Pence

U.S. Code § 30121

"It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,"

PENCE WAS NEVER INNOCENT #RussianAsset

#mike pence #lying mike pence #ukraine #ukrainegate #pence coverup #trump coverup #republicans complicit #republican coverup #russia #russiagate #dirt on biden #rigging 2020 election #election rigging #campaign violation #treason #treasonous pence #impeach pence #impeach trump

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 6 years ago

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Episode 104: Kindergarten Kid

“I'm smarter than your average Peridot.”

Oof. I need a break. Do you need a break? Let’s take a break.

When I was a kindergarten kid, my family had a firm policy against “commercial TV,” as in any children’s television programming that included commercials. Our house didn’t get Cartoon Network until 2003-ish regardless, but this meant pretty much everything that wasn’t PBS (and later Disney Channel, which had commercials but not for toys) was restricted to friends’ houses until I was about eight. I was born in 1990, so the ban lift came right on time for Digimon and Pokémon to debut (in that order, fight me), but until then my access to cartoons was largely limited.

So yeah, unlike others of my age group, I didn’t grow up with Rugrats or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and due to the continued lack of Cartoon Network I also missed out on Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls until reruns in the aughts. But I did have The Tapes, and The Tapes had Looney Tunes, so I was more than satisfied.

I still remember sitting up straighter when I first realized what Kindergarten Kid was doing back in 2016. The southwestern setting is a pretty big hint from the start, but we were cleverly introduced to the area in Beta and Earthlings and aren’t primed to see the Road Runner and Coyote connection until the plot revs up. And yes, these rivals are the clearest inspiration for Peridot’s futile attempts to outsmart a faster, “dumber” foe with intricate traps. But with an exception here or there for comic relief, Messrs. Coyote and Runner are silent, while Peridot is anything but. And as much fun as it would’ve been to go full throttle and make the entire sequence silent, I’m so glad to see Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco instead have Peridot emulate another icon from the Looney Tunes roster. And no, it’s not Porky Pig.

It’s ironic, because his best work sees him fail to come out on top, but I legitimately can’t think of a better cartoon character than Daffy Duck. Like, out of all cartoons, from every country, from any time period, period. Bugs Bunny is no slouch—he follows the legacy of Loki, Anansi, Reynard, and Maui as modern America’s most notable trickster deity—but Daffy perfected an archetype that’s largely unrepresented in myths of yore, and stands head and shoulders above all other examples, including Wile E. Coyote himself (and Daffy’s fun but better-in-the-comics counterpart, Donald Duck). Aptly referred to in Babylon 5 as “an ancient Egyptian god of frustration,” Daffy evolved from a perfectly good screwball character (Daffy Doodles is the best of this era) to the embodiment of self-inflicted pain.

I’ve already compared Peridot and Ruby to the little black duck before (seriously, stop what you’re doing and watch Daffy Doodles if that weird nickname doesn’t ring a bell), but Kindergarten Kid seems to go out of its way to evoke the essence of Daffy. Wile E. Coyote’s ploys may have the same convoluted detail as the Peri-Plans we see, but going on at length about how a scheme is going to work only for it to immediately fail? That’s Daffy Duck. Puffing up in confidence at the infallibility of said plan, and having it collapse in the middle of a smug victory lap? That’s Daffy Duck. This episode pulls its pacing straight out of the Hunting Trilogy (from which we get the famous “Rabbit Season!” “Duck Season!” debate), with Steven subbing in for both Elmer Fudd and Bugs depending on who Daffy is allied with at any given time, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

We even get variations of classic gags to keep things fresh. It would’ve been acceptable for Peridot to slowly dismantle an injector to crush Gem Runner, only for it to not fall until she’s right beneath it. But no, she realizes the risk, takes a step back, then gets crushed by falling rocks. I still would’ve laughed if her cannon refused to fire until she stepped in front of it, launching her over the horizon. But the recoil launches her backwards, crushing her with more rocks. Rehashing the exact same classic gags would’ve been an easy way out, but the gags are classic for a reason and I would’ve appreciated the tribute; that we see actual creative changes instead brings Kindergarten Kid to even higher heights. Yes, the final plummet is directly based on Wile E. Coyote’s own falls (sadly without the sound effect), but there’s a level of innovation here that’s compelling for an episode referencing the past so vividly.

Still, the biggest difference between Kindergarten Kid and vintage Looney Tunes is that unlike Daffy or Coyote, Peridot can make a change. The episode is similar to Barn Mates, in that both are a series of sketches that show Peridot and Steven trying and failing to accomplish a goal (which is perhaps the most clinical way to describe the standard Looney Tunes short). Both episodes end with a victory for Peridot when she realizes she must rethink the core problem, but Kindergarten Kid works better by halving the number of characters that need to grow. Barn Mates is by no means bad, but it’s hard to balance the story of its two leads, so Lapis is left without much focus behind her actions. This time the opponent is something of a force of nature, so we can spend more time digging into why Peridot’s plans aren’t working.

Peridot has already changed quite a bit, but her superiority complex remains a central tenet of her personality. It’s been tempered when Steven is involved, but she still treats most other Gems as intellectual inferiors even when she gets along with them. So of course she sees outbraining a Corrupted Gem as a cakewalk, and of course Steven teaches her the error of her ways with a lesson in empathy. These are obvious story beats, but old habits die hard, and I like that Peridot still has issues with her ego despite how far she’s come as a Crystal Gem.

It’s hard to compare any voice actor to Mel Blanc, in the same way it’s hard to compare any English-speaking playwright to Shakespeare, so I’m not gonna give praise that lofty, but Shelby Rabara still nails the fury of a gremlin who's smart but thinks she’s way smarter. It’s not easy on the throat to shout this much, and in such specific nonverbal ways, but I still think her best moment is when her confident front falters, and she yells that she’s doing the best she can. She’s as angry as ever, but that glimpse of vulnerability shows that she’s not a lost cause like Coyote.

Steven also returns to old habits, focusing all his energy on helping Peridot and not mentioning his mother once. I can see how this might make Kindergarten Kid seem too flippant, but as we’ll confirm in Mindful Education, our hero is pushing down the bad feelings instead of dealing with them. I think it’s crucial to have a few episodes where he seems okay to lull us into the sense of security that his breakdown destroys, and just like Bubbled, it’s clear that his coping mechanism is putting others before himself. He never complains about the physical injuries caused by Peridot’s poor planning, instead making sure his friend is okay.

Like Log Date 7 15 2, the show leans into Peridot’s brand of comic relief to cool us down from a major event. This is an even sillier episode, to the point that the other Crystal Gems are watching it for entertainment value, but it comes after an even more harrowing Diamond reveal. And because this one has more to do with Steven, he gets more to do in the episode: he’s not reliving a Peridot montage, he’s participating in her adventure, and the episode is stronger for it.

I understand that comedy is subjective. For instance, I’m not huge on meta humor in the style of our next episode; I acknowledge that it’s done well, but it’s not for me. So I don’t expect everyone to be huge on this episode, especially if you tragically lack a childhood full of ducks getting their beaks blown off and rabbits dancing up to bulls to slap them in the face. But hopefully folks who were let down in their first viewing, expecting more drama and lore in our post-shattering reality, can give Kindergarten Kid another look, perhaps after downing some classic cartoons, and enjoy it for the outstanding love letter that it is.

(I still don’t know why she references Yogi Bear, that’s a whole other era of cartoon, but nobody’s perfect.)

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

I know it’s absurd to nitpick unrealistic elements of such a cartoony episode, but Steven’s endless bag of marshmallows bugs me. At least it gives us another Peridot-as-raccoon reaction.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It barely misses the cut, but boy do I love this episode. Like any great Looney Tunes short, I can watch it and laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it; the gags are so pure that rather than getting bored of them, I now chuckle in anticipation before the hits even come.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

(I’m almost happy there’s no promo art for this one, because hot damn do I love this pic from Dark Tarou.)

#kindergarten kid #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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for-gold-and-glory · 6 years ago

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Weekly Events for April 15th to April 21st

Here are some events G&G Members will be involved in during the week. Or just events that I think are really cool and you should definitely go to. If you’re interested in joining these events just show up or send a message to Aegir or Lirilith Maellan. Or join our discord: https://discord.gg/dCRSWTx ————— Monday - G&G Weekly: The Hero Drink @ 9:30pm EST - Goblet, Brimming Heart, Ward 6 Tuesday - Twin Fates Pt 4 @ 7:00pm EST - Castrum Oriens , The Fringes Tuesday - Musical Silliness at Club Crescent @ 8:30pm EST - W18, P5 Wednesday - Severance, Part 3: The Palace of Spring @ 9:30pm EST - Namai, Yanxia Thursday - The Curious Case of X-51 @ 7:00pm EST - Goblet W6, P5 Friday - Knights of the Oasis: All In the Family - @ 8:30pm EST - Little Ala Mhigo Saturday - Twelvewood Healing Clinic @ 4:00 - 5:30pm EST - Botanist Guild, Old Gridania Saturday - Eorzea!Beat Rave Party @ 8:00pm EST - Goblet W6, P5, Basement Sunday - Day at the Races @ 5:30pm EST - The Gold Saucer Sunday - Garlean Weekly: Welcome to STELLA, a whole New World @ 8:00pm EST - TBA ————— Event Status Guide: * Open, come join us = anyone who reads this is welcome to come join the RP! * Open, please check the link = used for fun events run by other people, its an open event, but check the link to see if there are any special instructions * Semi-Open = anyone who reads this can still join the RP, but contact the GM first so they can introduce you to the plot * Open to “X” = open to anyone who plays a character that fits “X” (usually Garleans), new members and alt friendly * Closed = rarely seen, but used sometimes if the event is not accepting new members, usually for plot reasons

Monday - G&G Weekly: The Hero Drink @ 9:30pm EST - Goblet, Brimming Heart, Ward 6 http://for-gold-and-glory.tumblr.com/post/184214156690/the-hero-drink-930pm-est-goblet-brimming - Congratulations! You have been selected (”selected”) to test an exciting new product from the Crawford Coin & Chemical Hero Returns Collection! Introducing HD-764-V022, the Hero Drink! This prototype honey flavored energy booster (allegedly) enhances ALL levels of performance, specifically strength, stamina, and wound regeneration! You will be the very FIRST lucky adventurers to test out the limits (and side effects) of this wonderful product, under the careful supervision of Crawford Coin & Chemical alchemists. OOC: This is a fun, light hearted sparring event where each participant will get to try out the effects of a prototype hero drink: a potion that increases all of their abilities, especially their ability to take damage. This event is designed to let people go completely HAM in combat without worrying about seriously injuring their opponents. Let’s keep things light hearted and fun. Status: Open RP, come join us! System: Grindstone System, first three hits wins the experiment Genre: Sparring, Comedy GM: Aegir Tuesday - Twin Fates Pt 4 @ 7:00pm EST - Castrum Oriens , The Fringes - The time has come, the hour is at hand. The adventurer's have learned of the main base of operations for the Burning Leaves... And it's right in the fringes. It's time to end this once and for all! Status: Open RP, please join us! Genre: Adventure/Investigation GM: Aedwen Tyrer Wednesday - Severance, Part 3: The Palace of Spring @ 9:30pm EST - Namai, Yanxia - Kazumi's quest continues. Despite a rather dramatic showing for her companions on the last few adventures, it seems that most are, if not trying to help her, at least trying to deal with the trail of corruption that continually turns up at these ancient Yanxian sites. With the scroll from Gensuiji Temple guiding them and the incensory of King Ganen to open the way, it seems that the mysterious Spring Palace is open. But what horrors await them inside..? Thursday - The Curious Case of X-51 @ 7:00pm EST - Goblet W6, P5 - A new adventure begins! A strange visitor has arrived at the company house... With an equally strange request. Status: Open RP, please join us! Genre: Adventure GM: Aedwen Tyrer Friday - Knights of the Oasis: All In the Family - @ 8:30pm EST - Little Ala Mhigo - The Knights are hired by an Ul'dahn crime lord, under the pretense of bringing back an old comrade's son back. What the Knights don't know is that it is a ploy they're normally good aligned senses have fallen for. Will they still be able to save the day, or will a son pay for his father's crimes? Status: The Knights of Oasis is a group of primarily dark knights who are dedicated to helping people in need who can’t afford to hire adventurers. You don’t have to be a dark knight to join though, you just need a good heart! Everyone is welcome, join us! Genre: Action/Adventure GM: Dato Koelklin Saturday - Twelvewood Healing Clinic @ 4:00 - 5:30pm EST - Botanist Guild, Old Gridania http://for-gold-and-glory.tumblr.com/post/184228892910/balmung-twelveswood-healinc-clinic-april-20th - Recreational medicinal healing products to be sold. Status: Open Shop, join us! Genre: Shop, Comedy GM: Aegir Saturday - Eorzea!Beat Rave Party @ 8:00pm EST - Goblet W6, P5, Basement http://for-gold-and-glory.tumblr.com/post/184212217735/for-gold-and-glory-for-gold-and-glory - Welcome to an all night rave inspired by the wonderful orchestrations created by Thavnairian entertainment mogul Gylbwynsyn Disney! Deep in the bowels of the Gold & Glory, the floors have been converted to look like Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, only with much more wub-wub-wub! Join DJ P0Mander, DJ Imperial Skillz (AV3P0M) and DJ Carvion the most magical night on Hydaelyn, 4/20! Status: Open Rp, please join us! Genre: Dance, Performance GM: Aegir Sunday - Day at the Races @ 5:30pm EST - The Gold Saucer - It’s an exciting day at the races for the Gold & Glory as Anthony coaxes the adventurers to come gambling with him. This has nothing at all to do with a current promotional tie-in running in the Gold Saucer. Kweh-kweh, wark, wark. Status: IC excuse to rank up our racing chocobos, come join us! Genre: Racing GM: Bragi Odinson Sunday - Garlean Weekly: Welcome to STELLA, a whole New World Pt 1 @ 8:00pm EST - TBA fustuarium.tumblr.com - STELLA’s first official mission finds the imperials and their allies catching a transport to the New World! An imperial colony has gone dark, seemingly vanishing into the mist. The locals warn that there is a curse placed upon the land, one that has permeated the region for generations. Does the Empire have the know-how and the resources to solve this century old mystery, or will they be the next thing swallowed up by the Dreamer. Status: Open to imperial characters and imperial allies, new members welcome! Type: Investigation/Adventure GM: Aegir

#ffxiv rp #balmung rp #weekly

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dexcidium · 6 years ago

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Without ideals, our lives would be meaningless. Without empathy, humanity cannot advance. And without dreams, we have nothing to strive for.

Hey folks, it’s ya boi back with another rambly thingo where I vomit words onto a screen. Don’t worry though, this does relate back to FGO, Guda and even the Fate series and what it represents as a whole. So I just finished Camelot. And without contest, it is hands down the best piece of writing that’s come out of FGO (In NA at least) so far. Of course who else could have written it but the madman himself? That’s right. Kinoko Nasu. The man who started it all, and the creative genius behind the Fate series, and the Nasuverse as a whole. Hence, the name ‘Nasuverse’.

Before my hand gets tired with jerking off Nasu, let’s move on to… well, I guess it’s more accurate to say that we should take a step back and look at the Fate series as a whole. Do something for me: what comes to mind when you think of Fate. Perhaps it’s its most basic premise: heroes of the past duking it out in a battle royale. Perhaps it’s even a specific character that you love in the series. And perhaps even one of the series’ multitude of flaws. But to me, it comes down to a single word:

Idealism.

We all have our own ideals. And we all live with certain beliefs that complement those ideals. Way back when during the Stay Night era of things, we had Emiya Shirou. The embodiment of idealism. He wanted to be a hero of justice, to save everyone. But that’s just what it was. An ideal. Shirou was fundamentally weak. His magecraft at that point was so useless in actual combat besides making things harder. He trained his body, sure. But a single man can’t save the world. And this persisted as the narrative went on. No matter how much he did get stronger, he will never save the world. Even with sacrifice. Even when his literal future self came to fucking kill him because he knew that his hands will never hold anything. This boy kept going towards those ideals.

It was unshakeable and it was clear that there was nothing (besides death) that’d get him to stop. Of course, Shirou doesn’t seem human at all. His thought process is rather… robotic in this case. He exists to keep going for those ideals. Sure he has his hobbies, family, and friends. But all of that is surface level. At his very core, his ideal lies. To become a hero of justice. Though I’m pretty sure there’s a couple of endings that has him giving those ideals up in Heaven’s Feel. But nine times out of ten – he doesn’t stop. And in a way, he’s rejected his humanity and become a machine of heroism. But a hero isn’t just about saving people. There’s so much more to it. And it’s a lot darker than it sounds.

Enter Emiya Kiritisugu. A nihilistic, broken man who seems to have lost it all only to find that he hadn’t lost it all, but then loses it all anyway. He was cursed in so many different ways. And he too, wanted to be a hero of justice. But his fundamental ideals were different. Sacrifice the few to save the masses. If he’d had to kill his own wife and daughter. He’d do it. Sacrifice was the only thing Kiritisugu knew. And this was reflected when he was engulfed by the grail in the 4th holy grail war. It showed him exactly how he was to save the world: to slaughter what he cares about the most in order to save the masses. But there was an err. A logical error. His wish was to save the world. But he didn’t know how and this corrupted piece of magical shit could only grant wishes the way the user knew how. And so even this omni-potent wish granting device couldn’t save the world. Because the man who wanted to save the humans who inhabited said world, was no longer thinking like a human. He too, as his son would, would become a machine that saved people using his own principles. But he had lost his idealism. His own wasn’t a perfect world. Which is a contradiction to what an ideal is. A person’s perfect view. What they wanted they wanted the world to be like.

But that no longer existed. Kiritsugu had seen humanity at its cruellest. With him participating in that same cruelty.

He was a monster of logic. Who only saw war as beyond hell. And violence as a tool of achieving a goal. Idealism is in itself is an unfair, and unrealistic view on life. And as a young boy who had a rather small world, only for that to be constantly taken from him again and again and again and again. Happiness didn’t exist for Kiritsugu . And when he did find happiness. It was always temporary. And it was always burnt away with the rest of his ideals. Every. Single. Time.

This is why he hated Arturia’s ideals so much. To him, a man who barely talked to this paragon of idealism, Arturia is nothing but a lie within herself. While Arturia saw battle as honourable and chivalrous, Kiritisugu knew war to be worse than hell itself. He was pragmatic, and cruel. Exemplified by how he took out Kayneth, his fiancé and his servant. Nothing about it was honourable. It was cruel, calculated and worse of all… it lacked human empathy. The very same thing that has corrupted humanity since our very existence. Without it; can you really be human? Or are you just a monster of war?

Kiritsugu is a hypocrite. He hates war but uses tactics prominent in war. He hates violence but uses nothing but the cruellest, efficient of ways to achieve his targets. Seeing the King of Knights battle witch such honour and respect… it irked him in such a way that he had to show this Saber exactly how war was nothing but a ploy to achieve his goals. But Kiritsugu was just as wrong as Saber was. While to him, Saber had been romanticizing the act of war, he had been so far devoid of the human aspect in ‘war’ that he forgot that humans were the ones making war. Often times, war is fought by people who never truly grasp the situation.

I’m sure you all know of the Christmas of 1914. The first world war. It’s a famous story where both sides of the war stopped just for that one day. No man’s land became populated with both sides of the coin. People were exchanging gifts, even playing ball for a time. They had so much in common after all. Both sides lived in terrible conditions in trenches, both sides just wanted to be back home with their families, and both sides just wanted the war to stop. And the most interesting of all… they both thought they were fighting for freedom. Both sides thought each other was the oppressor without ever truly realising what they were really fighting for.

And Kiritsugu lacked this fundamental understanding. War was indeed worse than hell. War wasn’t a grand, chivalrous battle either. But in his nihilistic views, he forgot the human factor. No normal human wants to make war. We’re not tools of war either, yet Kiritsugu had become one.

He was trying to use war to end war as a concept. But again. He didn’t know exactly how to go about that. And Saber, while you might think was ONLY being constantly being berated for her idealism, was proven to be somewhat right. Her lonely path did pave the way for her kingdom to prosper for a time. Even if it did fall: she did much more than Kiritsugu ever did. Gilgamesh in this case found her to be nothing but amusement. The contradiction in her idealism, and how Excalibur represented how brilliant those ideals were. And it was a beautifully animated, and breath-taking scene where that golden light, symbolising that perfect king… but Iskander? He saw it as a shame. A regretful view. He saw it for how it truly was: a little girl never getting to partake in what she wanted in life. She never experienced that normalcy. She never got to experience what it meant to be a normal human being. As a result… she was distant and lonely. With little to no sense of what a normal human being is. And for the King of Conquerors… he was different. His idealism was something that he mostly achieved. The thrill of conquering, and the beauty of striving and achieving for more and more goals. He didn’t realise until the end that the journey was the thing that mattered to him the most: not the ideal. Saber was to be the Once and Future King. Saber was to be the Perfect King. Saber… no, King Arthur was the perfect picture of idealism.

And the Lion King is the King Arthur that went too far.

Enter Fate Grand Order. You, the protagonist, the most human of human that has ever human’d, are now on your sixth major mission. You, some kid from Tokyo who happened to see a flier at some time. You, an average joe who lived the most normal of lives. You, a normal person who just wanted to do some good in the world. A naïve kid who didn’t know what you were in for. And before you knew it, you’re all alone in your job when there were supposed to be forty-eight of you. All the responsibility now lies on you and you alone because you’re the only master around.

But you’re never truly alone. You’ve got people there who’ll support you in your endeavours. Even if you’re the only one in that role, those other people can lighten the burden by quite a lot. You’ve done a lot at this point. Endured the ravaging of the French country side against a tyrannical, twisted and idealised version of one of the most famous saints in the world. The awful writing that is the entirety of Septem. Survived the harsh seas of Okeanos with your very own pirate crew. Solved the mystery of London and encountered for the first time, the eventual end game. And just previously, you went on a round trip of the USA in its earlier days, fighting against the Celtic invasion with a thirsty ho at its reigns. Now, you’re on perhaps your most difficult journey as you go further back into the past.

This time, you’re seeing the aftermath of the ninth Crusade. Six months this singularity has been allowed to exist. And the irregularities in it are immediately prominent. Immediately, you’re thrusted into the harshest weather conditions you’ve had to endure in your career. And as you go on and on, you meet people who have been living here for those months. Learning how everything changed and deviated from normal history. And how drastically worse their lives even after the crusades were done.

You see, the Crusades were absolutely terrible. It was about Christians taking back the holy land. Even the first crusade was just the crusaders ransacking, pillaging and taking EVERYTHING from even their own countries, and everything between the holy capital and Jerusalem. It was a terrible time for everyone that happened to be in the way. And to preface this: Muslims had Jerusalem for 450 years already at that point. That’s about as long as when Columbus “discovered” America and now. As Gawain described: they were grave robbers. Now the ninth crusade was meant to be the last one.

And now, imagine seeing the holiest of knights fending off those crusaders. Saving you and your home town. You’re just a kid. You were glad, overjoyed even. These Knights promised a utopia.

But there was a catch.

There was always a catch. Only those of the purest of hearts, incapable of evil would be allowed into this new holy city of Camelot. Everyone else?

They were to be slaughtered. They weren’t needed. Now your mother is selected. But you weren’t. And this Knight who literally brought sunshine where he had walked orders for your death. Thousands of people. But only three were selected.

The “saviours” that had saved you from the constant ransacking of your home, and your people’s home for a very long time are now telling you that you have no value as a human being. These holy knights so corrupted by their king’s ideals… that most of them no longer thought for themselves.

Now you’re just but an innocent boy. Your mother refuses to let you go. She was pure of heart after all. She didn’t want to let you get slaughtered. And so, in a last desperate act, saves you from a fatal blow. In the middle of a commotion, there was a small group creating a ruckus. A ruckus that allowed some people to run away from these unholiest of knights. But you don’t really notice. You’re too caught up in what was happening in front of you. Though, you didn’t quite realise your mother was now dead. And now, you’re vulnerable to the same fate. But just as you were about to meet that fate, someone saved you. A girl clad in purple with a big shield. And comes along this… seemingly normal-looking person in the midst of this crazy war filled with super humans, shouting out commands to people who were a hundred times more capable and powerful than them. This time, you were saved not by the people who promised a selective utopia. But some complete strangers who were just passing by.

This was the case for the NPC in the singularity, Rushd. A young boy who was smarter than the innocence he gave off. He was the few survivors of the tragedy that had plagued that area. The Holy Knights of Camelot. The Knights of The Round Table. Or what remains of it anyway.

Chaldea. Their goals were to preserve humanity. There isn’t an ideal in that. It’s simply just… self-preservation of one’s own species. One of the most basic of instincts as a human being. Now, this Camelot singularity was a result of King Arthur who had gone too far because she hadn’t gone and died as she should have after the battle of Camlann. Having summoned the Knights of The Round, and purging those who did not agree with this new promise of a utopia… even her own brother and relatives were amongst those. And now, this new Arturia… now known as The Lion King bestows these gifts to the remaining knights. But no, they were no gifts. They were restraints to ensure that they remained loyal to her. It was a curse.

Some were blinded by their loyalty, another was completely reversed from who they were as a person, another had lost all of their own goals and simply became suicidal… without realising it. They had lost their sense of self. They were no longer their own people. They were now only the Lion King’s Knights. Where free thought wasn’t encouraged, and individualism was a sin.

At its core, the utopia was no more than a glass cage. Preservation, yes. But then the people in it would cease to become human. They were to be eternal as humanity. But they had lost their humanity. That utopia was nothing but a false promise of a former human who had transcended humanity.

No, it isn’t quite correct. Rhongomyniad had taken control of Arturia’s body. Make no mistake. This was not Arturia Pendragon. The Once and Future King. This went beyond that idealism, too far into it. The distance that Arturia had as the King of Camelot back in her actual time had grown into an infinite. Because she already lacked that fundamental humanity to understand her subjects, she became a divine spirit. Simply an avatar of a greater power.

The spear of ends. Goddess Rhongomyniad.

She had transcended her humanity. Now, this king no longer viewed humanity as a human but as a goddess looking into a glass cage that must be preserved at all cost. Humans were essential to the world after all. But they were tools. Nothing more.

An idealism taken to its logical limit. And this shows how terrifying an ideal it is. About how good people can become monsters given this twisted circumstance. This essentially serves as a cautionary tale on how obsessing over an ideal isn’t a good thing. It’s actually fucking terrible. Because ideal is perfection. And there’s no such thing as true perfection. There will always be flaws. Always.

Now this was a terrifying reality. Arturia achieved this ideal with an iron fist, not caring about the emotions of the people she had taken into her lance. She had become a machine of ideals. And nothing but that. She had lost everything that made her into that character we knew at the end of Fate Zero and Fate Stay Night. That Arturia who had been discovering for the first time, what it means to be normal. It was quite nice to watch after seeing her struggle with her own ideals… realising that while yes, she had her regrets, those ideals didn’t matter. She had been happy. She had been so much happier being a simple girl than being that lonely king taking all that burden.

But now, there isn’t a shred of that left. This is the extreme end of how Arturia would be if she had not died when she had.

Now then comes along this normal-ass dude. This person was just helping people as they saw. They, and their group committed simple acts of human kindness as they went about their noble goal of correcting human history. Helping those people weren’t in their mission. They just did it because you know, people need basic human empathy to survive. Without it, humanity in its entirety would be nothing but machines of war and self-preservation, fighting against each other for their own beliefs. It’s be a shitty world without it.

Even the trashiest of the Fate universe, Fate Apocrypha hammers this into the viewer’s head. Shirou Kotomine’s ideal world was humanity’s salvation… but the way he would do it was taking away free will. And at that’s why Jeanne D’arc resisted so goddamn hard. Because that’s now humanity works. We were sinful creatures, yes. But there was also good. There needed to be a balance, not an idealised world where no one was allowed freedom.

Anyway, as Guda walks along through this new situation that they’ve been force in, having seen what they’ve seen, their basic instinct is telling them to help. But they’re realistic. They can’t help everyone. And they don’t obsess with that either. They do what they can. After all, they’re not super human. And even those super humans can’t possibly save everyone. Again, they’re just doing what they can. This was shown in Camelot were they could only let a few of the refugees survive because that was all they were capable of at the time. They still risked their asses by fighting the knights by doing so. But it does pay off.

They don’t strive for a ridiculous ideal. They understand after so many similar cases, after losing the rest of humanity to the King of Magic, after being burdened with the task of saving a world that won’t remember that they saved them, that they can only do what they can do. The obsession on idealism is potentially deadly to the human mind. It can poison one’s thoughts with nothing but high standards that this world can’t possibly meet. And then, no matter what one does, they’ll be let down. It’ll always end in disappointment.

But Guda takes that in stride, and just rolls with it. They go with the flow. That’s who they are. Yes, they’re always seemingly bright and happy. In this messed up world, somebody has to be. What they do may not be the most efficient things ever. But it works out for the better. You see, those little acts of kindness. That basic demonstration of human humility – it got them out of a myriad of tough situations. Each group they help, came back to help repay them in full. The people they rescued along the way, came back to help them take down Camelot. Nitocris, who they had rescued from Hundred-Face, continued to help them out and help evade the Raider Knights. And she continued to help them for helping her, and understanding her stubborn and proud nature. Showing respect and courage against Ozymandias had him respect them back and in turn, help them in the final show down. Showing that same zealousness against King Hassan had them gain his help. Cursed Arm was ready to lay down his life for this campaign. Guda continued to gain the trust of the other Hassans with their willingness to help. Of course, this also attracted a certain clumsy monk who was instrumental in breaking through the front gates of Camelot. And then there’s Arash. A good man in every sense of the word. He too, laid his life down so that Guda could finish their mission.

And of course, Bedievere. The knight who had lived 1500 years just so he could correct his mistake. You could say that he too was drowned in his own ideals. Again, he too was a cautionary tale. Living 1500 years is not something a normal human can do. And yes, Bedi was not a servant. He was a living being in Camelot. One that lived that long so he could see the king he had devoted his everything to smile once again. He gets what he wanted but… this destroyed him. It cost him so many life times. It too, was something that humanity wasn’t going to remember.

Going back to Guda, they were only successful because they understood that the future wasn’t predetermined. However, they never truly understood that their basic human kindness would actually pay off. They were just doing what they thought was right. There was no need to over-simplify things. Because they were just acting as who they were. No ulterior motives. Everything was as clear as Arash’s beautiful smile. They were honest and lived that life honestly. Things fell into place because they accepted help from people unlike the people that came before them. They actively sought out that assistance because they knew their limits. They were doing what they can, and for things that they couldn’t do, they asked someone to help. It’s as simple as that. They weren’t consumed with this idea of idealism because what was the point? They’d never be the ideal person for this job. Some dude from Tokyo was all they were who happened to exhibit basic human kindness: something anyone is capable of.

Yet, they get so angry at the fact that Goddess Rhongomyniad had treated them like cattle to be watched behind a glass cage. Because humanity meant more than self-preservation. I went beyond Chaldea’s goal. Because to be human is so much more than that. And they understood that humans aren’t lonely creatures but one who needed companionship, not hostility. So they meet everyone with that same positive attitude. It wasn’t their job to be cautious. That was on someone else who was more capable of that. And that’s fine. Because their role was to be everyone’s master.

Blank enough for servants to project their own wants upon on, but enough of a personality to be their own self. That is who they are. And despite seeing atrocities beyond what a normally raised human being, they continue to be that shining beacon of light. They had people with them. They weren’t alone. They were just being themselves. They lovely, goofy, ‘I’ll go along with anything’ person. Always ready to tackle a new problem with an upbeat attitude. A complete shitlord of a magus, but because they didn’t have that traditional magi attitude that their natural charisma easily shines and leads on their servants. Encouraging them to be much more than to be weapons of war, and live a new life in Chaldea that could make them feel truly alive again. Best of all, they were making do despite the looming incineration of humanity. They were just being them. And that, is the most human thing they can provide for their servants.

In terms of being a protagonist, they had a couple traits that Kiritisugu, Shirou and Arturia lacked in being successful: the realization that the path to saving the world isn’t a lonely one, that you can’t save everyone, that connecting with other humans is important, and to never let go to that sense of normalcy that you’re fighting to save in the first place. Those three had lost it. They became a slave to their own ideals. Guda didn’t have super powers. Nor did they hold some grand ideal.

They’re just some dude who saw a flier that one time who happened to save the world.

#[...ooc]#this was 4000 words #kill me

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nooooah · 4 years ago

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POLITICAL DYNASTIES - AMPATUAN

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Politics in the Philippines have been quite a contentious and fragile topic for the past decades. Politics have led to numerous outcomes such as disunity, distrust, dissension, dispute, and even violence. These are some of the factors that have contributed to how society in the Philippines acts in the present which commonly affects the atmosphere the people work and dwell in, the socio-economic status of Filipinos, and most importantly, the well-being of individuals. One example of a hot topic in the past is regarding the feud between late former president Ferdinand Marcos and the Aquino family. This topic is a topic that a number of people would call controversial due to the mixed views and feelings people have in regards to the topic. A riveting concept the two families have in common is that they are both political dynasties in the Philippines. Some people and politicians would consider political dynasties as a root cause of issues that arise such as poverty, bias, impunity, and even quarrels between political dynasties that may get in the way of making rational decisions and lead to the neglection of appointed duties. A case in point that proves that political dynasties are nothing but problems was the largest massacre that the Ampatuan dynasty committed.

The Ampatuan massacre, or popularly known as the Maguindanao massacre, is a carnage that was a ploy made by the Ampatuan family to gain the upper hand against their rivals. This unfortunate event that the Ampatuan dynasty planned was recorded as the single deadliest event for journalists in history. Being a journalist is a reputable job as one is tasked with the obligation to inform the public with the news, however, the Ampatuan family has dented the country’s reputation of being a safe space for journalists as 32 were killed in the massacre. The Maguindanao massacre alone may show that the Philippines is not an utterly safe place not only for journalists but in general. The Ampatuan family has contributed greatly to putting the Philippines in a position where press freedom is attacked, impunity is exercised, and power is corrupted. The Ampatuan dynasty jeopardized the credibility of the nation as a fun and safe place to spend time with your family.

CHAPTER 2

SUMMARY

Background

Political History

Issues they were associated with

Back in 2005, 25 armed men in the military uniform killed the wife and child of Mando Tambungalan. He had identified that the suspects were hired killers on the Ampatuan payroll since he had been targeted by the Ampatuans for running for vice mayor of Datu Piang in 2001. In 2006, the Ampatuans planted a bomb that exploded near the Shariff Aguak market, killing five people, including Ed Mangansakan who was a known weapons supplier for the Ampatuans. Another instance of their wrongdoings was when motorcycle-riding gunmen, linked to the Ampatuan clan, shot and killed Judge Sahara Silongan while he was driving his family home. A relative of the judge believes he was killed for failing to issue an illegal warrant of arrest demanded by the Ampatuans. As well as in 2008, a cousin of Ampatuan, Jr. and his armed men allegedly shot and killed eight members of the Lumenda and Aleb families. One gunman told the Human Rights Watch that he and the others were ordered to shoot the family because the Ampatuans doubted their loyalty.

CHAPTER III

REFLECTION

Abad, Anton Angelo T.

Golamco, Janise Kate A.

Lee, Noah

Velasquez, Joaquin Gabriel D.

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expatimes · 4 years ago

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In Algeria, a new constitution protesters did not call for

A referendum on a new constitution hailed by authorities as marking the beginning of a new era in Algeria is reviving tensions, with opposition leaders and activists denouncing the vote as a ploy to further entrench the ruling elite's hold on power.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has since his election in December presented the flagship initiative, set to be put to a vote on November 1, as the best guarantee against a slide towards authoritarianism, saying the charter would lead to a strong parliament capable of counterweighing the head of state's hitherto unchecked powers.

Analysts say the revised text is unmistakably aimed at assuaging angry citizens, whose participation in a year-long pro-democracy movement was only brought to an end by the coronavirus pandemic.

The demonstrations - which initially began in February 2019 in response to a re-election bid by Tebboune's predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, despite his failing health - quickly transformed into demands for systemic change.

While Tebboune, a former prime minister and erstwhile Bouteflika ally, was quick to sing the praises of the unprecedented show of people power, critics have come to doubt the 74-year-old's commitment to democratic reform.

The sentencing in August of Khaled Drareni, one of the country's better-known journalists - to two years in jail over accusations of “inciting unarmed gatherings” and “undermining the nation's territorial integrity” - may have highlighted authorities' apprehension for free speech.

But it is in the interior regions, where government critics enjoy less exposure, that the crackdown on dissent is being most passionately waged - and acutely felt. This was the case with Yacine Mebarki, an activist from the city of Khenchela, who was handed a 10-year jail sentence for “offending Islam”.

'Any different?'

Nacer Djabi, a professor of sociology at the University of Algiers, said several issues made the new constitution problematic, draft starting with the government's insistence that a committee of experts the text.

“This isn't what people were calling for when they went out to protest,” Djabi told Al Jazeera. "How is this any different from Bouteflika's style of governance?"

"Experts may be called upon to provide clarification on certain technical aspects of the charter after it has been discussed by the population at large ... But they can't possibly replace an entire people."

Bouteflika had throughout his 20 years in power revised the constitution twice, first in 2008 to allow himself to run for a third term and again in 2016 to reimpose the two-term presidential limit.

Heads of state are still limited to two consecutive or separate terms in office under the new constitution, it is the charter's claim of enforcing the principle of separation of powers that is drawing the most criticism.

If approved, Tebboune would continue to enjoy much the same prerogatives as his predecessors, with the president still able to name and remove a sitting prime minister.

Mustapha Bouchachi, a prominent lawyer and former member of parliament, said the head of state would moreover be able to veto laws by one of two methods.

In the first instance, Tebboune may demand a second reading of the law, which would then require a two-thirds majority in parliament for the motion to be approved.

Tebboune would also be able to vote down a law once it is passed on to the senate - where a three-fourths majority to approve a bill is not possible without the green light from a third appointed by Tebboune.

“When it comes to the judiciary, he [Tebboune], as the president of the High Council of the Magistracy, would also appoint and dismiss judges, ”Bouchachi told Al Jazeera.

“So the president is directly involved in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. What's more, Tebboune would also be in charge of all regulatory bodies, including those responsible for auditing government expenditure. This constitution gives the president the powers of an emperor. ”

When it comes to rights such as freedom of speech, Bouchachi said that while such rights are enshrined in the new charter, bylaws voted on behind closed doors, including authorization to stage protests, make their practice all but impossible.

Rubber-stamp parliament

Djabi said authorities from the very beginning showed their disdain for the protest movement by consistently refusing to entertain demands for a national dialogue conference or constituent assembly that would, following a predetermined calendar, submit a draft to public debate.

The fact that lawmakers belonging to what many Algerians see as a rubber-stamp parliament that onceged its allegiance to Bouteflika only exacerbated tensions.

The chamber's credibility took a hard hit when a parliamentarian at a corruption trial claimed seats at the assembly were sold for roughly 460,000 euros ($ 540,800).

This is in addition to concerns that the timing of the endeavor was not going to lead to a real debate.

Still, while agreeing that the new constitution does not meet most opposition parties' demands, Lahouari Addi, a political scientist at Sciences Po Lyon, said political liberalization was under way in Algeria.

He said authorities were reluctant to open up political space in an abrupt and definitive manner because they were afraid of being held accountable for their actions during the country's civil war, which pitted government forces against Islamist fighters who took up arms after a coup deprived them of an all-but-certain electoral victory in the 1991 legislative elections.

“Power is still in the hands of the military and when you address them, they say we have nothing to do with the running of the country,” said Addi. "Yet nobody is allowed to get involved in politics without their approval."

“They were astonished by the protest; they never imagined people would rise up in such a way. They are convinced of the need for change, but they want it to happen gradually over 10 or 15 years, which would then allow them to withdraw ”and evade prosecution.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=11916&feed_id=9982

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kerahlekung · 5 years ago

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Najib Received RM2.6 Billion Kickbacks From 1MDB...

Najib Received RM2.6 Billion Kickbacks From 1MDB....

U.S. Securities Commission –

No Saudi Donations...

For as long as one can remember, Najib Razak has denied any involvement in the 1MDB scandal, despite caught with his hand in the cookie jar – a jaw-dropping US$681 million in his private bank accounts. Instead, he claimed that the huge sum of money was donations from Saudi royal family, a claim that could not be officially and fully substantiated. Najib, former prime minister of Malaysia and chairman of 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad), had been consistent with his claim – until he was grilled by Al-Jazeera journalist Mary Ann Jolley last year. Finally, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He said he actually “assumed” the funds came from the Saudi government, claiming the dead King Abdullah had promised to give him money. But in September 2018, Najib released documents which he claimed are proof that the Saudi Arabian royalty had indeed donated to him. He proudly uploaded to his Facebook page the document of a donation totalling US$100 million. Najib also unleashed a letter supposedly written by Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud dated February 1, 2011. Subsequently, another letter dated March 1, 2013, was issued to Najib – gifting him with another US$800 million. Both letters, hilariously, carried different signatures, despite claiming to be from the same Saudi prince. The biggest joke was some of the contents of the letters were similar to a letter written by Eric Tan Kim Loong to Jho Low (both individuals believed to be the same person). Like a storyline in a video game, the letter said – “In view of the friendship that we have developed over the years and your new ideas as a modern Islamic leader, I hereby grant you a sum of United States Dollars One Hundred Million (USD100,000,000) Only (“Gift”) which shall be remitted to you at such times and in such manner as I deem fit.”

Najib Razak and Sheikh Arab Jho Low - 1MDB

However, Najib failed to produce all the documents to substantiate the entire US$681 million, which he claimed were donations from the Saudi royal family. What he had produced was just a fraction of the documents to justify the RM2.6 billion found in his bank accounts. Even if the documents were genuine, it cannot prove that the “money” came “directly” from the Saudi government. Besides, the contents of the letter appeared to be an afterthought ploy and probably were composed by Jho Low (full name: Low Taek Jho), the partner-in-crime of Najib Razak. The letter was begging the readers to believe that the money was donations. Exactly why was the letter addressed to Najib’s residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, and not the Prime Minister Office, is beyond comprehension. Amusingly, Najib’s hotshot lawyer – Shafee Abdullah – didn’t think it’s important to produce Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz Al-Saud as material witness in the ongoing 1MDB corruption trials against his client. Did not the letter from Saudi praise Najib’s contribution to the Islamic world, hence the donations without any strings attached? Why did the Arab royal house refuse to save a good Muslim like Najib now? That’s because Saudi had never paid a penny to Najib Razak, despite what the disputable (and probably fake) letter says about the free cash for the disgraced premier. Only the fools would believe that the late King Abdullah was damn worried about Arab Spring in Malaysia, a country which is 6,461-km away, and had sought to pay Najib regime a large sum of money to preserve stability. While Najib and his lawyers could not produce complete documents to verify the US$681 million donations, let alone Arab witnesses to support his fairy tale, the United States is able to do so. According to latest documents released by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Najib Razak has been identified as the person who had received kickbacks from bonds issued by 1MDB.

US DOJ Indicts Jho Low, Tim Leissner, Roger Ng

The documents released were in relation to SEC’s settlement with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive Tim Leissner. In detailing the background of the case, the SEC said that Leissner had helped to raise US$6.5 billion (RM26.9 billion) for 1MDB under the guise of supporting projects meant to benefit Malaysians. But the money raised didn’t go to the people of Malaysia. The commission said – “Leissner and others instead planned and executed a scheme to misappropriate more than US$2.7 billion and distribute the money as bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. Including but not limited to Najib as well as to other participants in the scheme and their families, including Leissner.” After the stunning defeat of Mr. Najib in the historical May 2018 General Election, apparently the panicked Leissner hurriedly sought negotiations with U.S. prosecutors to potentially plead guilty to criminal charges, especially to a violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits the use of bribes to foreign officials to get or keep business. On Nov 1, 2018, the United States revealed criminal charges against not only Tim Leissner but also another Goldman Sachs banker, Ng Choon Hwa (Roger Ng), together with Malaysian financier fugitive Jho Low. Roger Ng was arrested in Malaysia while his former colleague Tim Leissner pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and to violating anti-bribery laws. Tim Leissner agreed to pay US$43.7 million (£33.6 million; RM182 million). It was a good deal considering he had admitted to enriching himself – acknowledging that more than US$200 million in proceeds from 1MDB bonds flowed into accounts controlled by him and a relative in Hong Kong. This sweet deal means that Leissner had agreed to turn witness in the explosive scandal.

After he pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate the looting of billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, Leissner, who is married to model and fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons, has also been banned for life from working in the securities industry by the U.S. regulators. Still, Leissner is scheduled to face sentencing on June 11 in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Months ago, the U.S. prosecutors revealed that the three bond sales for 1MDB, code-named Project Magnolia, Maximus and Catalyze, had resulted in more than US$2.7 billion of the US$6.5 billion raised diverted into accounts controlled by Jho Low, Tim Leissner and other crooks. Money stolen was used to pay bribes to government officials, including the purchase of jewellery for Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor. Now, the U.S. Securities Commission agreed with the U.S. prosecutors, saying – “Leissner also knew at the time that Najib Razak and government officials from Abu Dhabi and 1MDB officials would receive money from the proceeds of Project Maximus that passed through various shell companies beneficially owned and controlled by himself, Low and others.” Under “Project Maximus”, the second of two bonds issued by 1MDB in 2012, which is called the Aabar BVI phase, Najib received US$30 million. But the juiciest kickbacks came from the “Project Catalyze”, which is also known as the Tanore phase in 2013 where the despicable former prime minster received a further US$681 million misappropriated from 1MDB. It was also during the “Project Catalyze” that kickbacks, including “transferring approximately US$1.3 million (RM5.38 million) to the account of a New York jeweller to pay for jewellery for the wife of Najib” happened. This is in reference to 27 different 18-carat gold necklaces and bracelets Jho Low had bought for Rosmah Mansor from the 1MDB money siphoned. Najib loves to drum the fact that US$620 million (out of the US$681 million) of the so-called donation money had been returned in August 2013. What he refuses to tell his dumb supporters is what actually happened to that money thereafter. Nope, the money didn’t go back to the Saudi royal house’s account, but stayed in the Tanore Finance Corp account in Singapore.

SA Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir and Najib

In fact, a month after the US$620 million was returned to the Tanore, the money was used to purchase a 22-K pink diamond necklace worth a staggering US$27.3 million for Rosmah, after US$32.76 million was transferred from Midhurst to a DBS Singapore bank account for Blackrock, one of many accounts held nominally by fugitive Jho Low under the alias of Eric Tan. Yes, Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor had earlier been exposed to have had purchased a 22-carat pink diamond necklace – worth a stunning US$27.3 million – using money siphoned from 1MDB. According to U.S.-DOJ investigations, Jho Low had arranged for jewellery designer Lorraine Schwartz (also known as “Jewish Queen of Oscar Bling”) for the pink diamond on June 2, 2013. Now that the U.S. Securities Commission has established that the US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) discovered in Najib Razak’s bank accounts were kickbacks from 1MDB bond deals, it proves that the much hyped Saudi donations did not exist at all. From the beginning, the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI had found no evidence of donations from Saudi in their investigations.

Despite Najib’s attempt of claiming ignorance in his current corruption and money laundering trials, the U.S. SEC has pointed out that upon 1MDB’s formation, Najib assumed a position of authority in 1MDB, and had the authority to approve all appointments and removals in 1MDB’s board of directors and 1MDB’s senior management team. He knew what he was doing until he is put on trial.

To make matters worse for the crooked Najib, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir confirmed in October last year that the RM2.6 billion “donation” which former prime minister Najib Razak proudly claimed to have received had nothing to do with the kingdom’s government. Mr. Najib is really screwed. He has not a single material witness to back his story. - FT

SD Azilah vs Sumpah laknat Najib...

2-3 hari ini hangat dengan SD pengakuan Azilah tentang pembunuhan Altantuya..sebenarnya aku tak berapa minat kes kes lama diulang tayang semula.. bagi aku hari ini masa untuk Move On dengan membangunkan Ekonomi dan negara.. Tapi bila Najib sendiri dalam status dia dok ulang ulang cabar kerajaan PH dakwa dia, Memang dia silap besar lah.. Atok memang pantang dicabar... Jadi sendiri cari pasal lah.. itu lah perangai Najib, Dia selalu cabar troll orang, Bila kena menangis kononnya jadi Mangsa.. Kalau kes ni disabitkan dengan pendakwaan saja, maknanya hari pertama didakwa, Najib tidak akan dibenarkan ikat jamin, dan akan terus ke Penjara.. Jadi biar lah Tun yg selesaikan..ini bukan urusan kita..

Bagi aku nasiblah Tun yang jadi PM..sebab dia bukan Pemaaf seperti Ds Anwar.. jadi biar Tun Mahathir selesaikan.. moga selepas Ds Anwar jadi PM ,Ds Anwar tidak akan dibebankan dengnan semua kerja jahat regim lama ini lagi..jadi bagi Tun Mahathir selesaikan.. Najib biasa lah.. Dulu orang tanya pasal Jho low pun dia kata tak kenal.. Dia tak kenal sapa Jho Low.. Dia Cukup yakin duit itu dari Putera Raja Saudi, Siap publish Dokumen ada Cop Mohor saudi lagi.... akhir dalam Mahkamah, Dia kata dia ditipu Jho Low.. sebab Yakin Jho Low begitu rapat dgn saudi.. Disini pun dah nampak Najib kaki temberang.. Kalau dia yakin degan Jho Low, dia ditipu dgn Jho Low, tang mana dia tak kenal Jho Low.. Begitu juga dalam Kes Altantuya.. Dia kata tak kenal Altantuya.. tapi semua kes Melibatkan Kes Altantuya, Melibatkan urusan transaksi ,urusniaga dengan orang dan kenalan rapat dia, Melibatkan Kementerian dia..

Sumpah laknat...

Razak baginda itu penasihat dan pembantu Najib, Sirul dan Azilah itu juru iring dan pegawai peribadi Najib..Altantuya itu pula jelas berurusniaga soal kapal selam berkaitan dengan Kementerian Najib dan Razak baginda jelas terima komisen dalam urus Niaga itu.. Kalau kata Najib tidak terlibat pun, jelas kes ini amat dekat dengan Kementerian Najib.. dan pasti jika ini jenayah peribadi melibatkan Azilah, mana mungkin mudah Bom C4 digunakan untuk meledakkan jasad Altantuya.. mana mungkin rekod keluar masuk,,Imigresen melibatkan Altantuya dipadamkan..

Jika ia bukan dilakukan Najib, dah pasti ia juga bukan dilakukan Azilah dan Sirul secara peribadi.. dan Misteri inilah yang perlu dirungkai.. dan bagi aku pendedahan ini akan lebih menarik jika semua persoalan ini terjawab..biarpun sukar untuk sabitkan Najib selepas bukti dihapuskan sekian lama..

Ostad kesayangan yg membimbing Jibby Al Penyamun bersumpah laknat...

Bagi aku nak sabitkan seseorang dengan kes Bunuh.. tambah kes lama yang mana segala bukti , jasad dan keterangan sudah dihapuskan agar sukar.. Ia berbeza dengan tuduhan melibatkan salah laku Kewangan... Biarpun kamu hapuskan segala bukti, dokumen transaksi,Dokumen Audit.. Transaksi, "Money Trail" itu masih boleh dijejak sebagaimana kes 1MDB dan SRC.. hatta kamu tutup akaun,Bunuh Pengasas Am Bank pun, jejak kewangan itu masih mampu dikesan.. Memang benar.. Najib mungkin boleh terlepas dari pertuduhan, tapi bagi aku yang penting siasatan semula akan membongkar segala persoalan misteri.. Jika ini berlaku.. Bukan salah PH, tapi salah Najib sendiri.. Siapa pergi pandai pandai cabar Atok.. Cabar Tun Mahathir.. Tun Mahathir tu orang yg pantang dicabar.. dia bukan mcm Najib, Pandai Troll jer..Mengaku darah Pahlawan..padehal Pondan.. - Ipohmali

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Secebis nasihat utk Najib

oleh seorang sahabat....

Najib nak bersumpah laknat. Eloklah. Cubalah bersihkan diri. Apa yg berlaku kpd Najib hari ini, mungkin ujian buat kita semua, khususnya Najib yg barangkali menzalimi isteri pertama dan anak2 dengan isteri pertama. Mungkin isteri pertamanya dizalimi ketika Najib jatuh cinta dengan Rosmah Mansor. Ingat yer, doa org yg teraniaya, khususnya isteri dan anak2, tiada hijab antara mereka dengan Allah. Hari ini, apabila berlaku semua ini, kita menoleh sejenak ke belakang, apakah perbuatan kita dahulu, telah menghambat kita. Boleh sahaja berkahwin lain, menambah isteri tetapi jgn sesekali menzalimi isteri dan anak2. Kita semua tidak terlepas dari melakukan kesilapan, sementelah kita adalah manusia biasa.

Jadi, bertaubatlah. Ada sesiapa boleh sampaikan kpd Najib, bertaubatlah. Mungkin ada lagi pendedahan demi pendedahan akan muncul nanti. Duit yg selama ini digunakan utk membeli penyokong dan pengikut tidak selama2nya dpt menambat hati mereka. Habis duit, habislah kesetiaan. Najib, sekali lagi diingatkan, bertaubatlah. Cukuplah berpolitik. Cukuplah menyerang org sana, menyindir org sini. Zaman skrg, zaman awak perlu berlawan dengan “masalah awak sendiri”. Tak perlu berlawan dengan PH, dengan Tun M atau dengan Khalid Samad. Itu bukan musuh awak. Musuh awak yg sebenar adalah “semaian awak sendiri, yg kini membuahkan hasil” yg tidak tertuai dek tangan.... - Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik

cheers.

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