#its another when its not even a campaign situation and then they will be relegated to a pinterest board and playlist

[stilettobitemoved]

🥀 ooc. only went and got myself intensely attached to another call of cthuhlu investigator, didn't i

[warsofasoiaf]

Writing Characters With Believable Military PTSD

I typically write these writing and worldbuilding essays from a dispassionate perspective, offering advice and context to prospective writers from as neutral a point of view as I can manage, with the goal being to present specific pieces of information and broader concepts that can hopefully improve writing and build creators’ confidence to bring their projects to fruition, whether that be writing, tabletop gaming, video game programming, or anything that suits their fancy. While writing this essay though, I struggled to maintain that perspective. Certainly, the importance of the topic to me was a factor, but ultimately, I saw impersonality just as a suboptimal presentation method for something so intensely personal. I do maintain some impartiality particularly in places where historical or academic context is called for, but in other respects I’ve opted for a different approach. Ultimately, this essay is a labor of love for me, love for those who suffer from military PTSD, love for those who love those who suffer from it, and love for writers who want to, in the way that they so choose, help those two other groups out. Thus, this is a different type of essay in certain segments than my usual fare; I hope the essay isn’t an unreadable chimera because of it.

This essay focuses on military-related PTSD. While there are some concepts that translate well into PTSD in the civilian sphere, there are unique elements that do not necessarily fit the mold in both directions, so for someone hoping to write a different form of PTSD, I would recommend finding other resources that could better suit your purposes. I also recommend using more than one source just in general, trauma is personal and so multiple sources can help provide a wide range of experiences to draw upon, which should hopefully improve any creative work.

And as a final introductory note, traumatic experiences are deeply personal. If you are using someone you know as a model for your writing, you owe it to that person to communicate exactly what you are doing and to ask their permission every step of the way. I consider it a request out of politeness to implore any author who uses someone else’s experiences to inform their writing in any capacity, but when it comes to the truly negative experiences in someone’s life, this rises higher from request to demand. You will ask someone before taking a negative experience from their own life and placing it into your creative works, and you will not hide anything about it from them. Receiving it is a great sign of trust. The opposite is a travesty, robbing someone of a piece of themselves and placing it upon display as a grotesque exhibit. And if that sounds ghoulish and macabre, it’s because it is, without hyperbole. Don’t do it.

Why Write PTSD?

What is the purpose of including PTSD in a creative work? There have been plenty of art therapy actions taken by those who suffer PTSD to create something from their condition, which can be as profound for those who do not have it as it is therapeutic for those that do, but why would someone include it in their creative works, and why is some no-name guy on the internet writing an essay offering tips as to how to do it better?

Certainly, one key element is that it’s real, and it happens. If art is to reflect upon reality, PTSD suffered by soldiers is one element of that, so art can reflect it, but what specifically about PTSD, as opposed to any other facet of existence? Author preference certainly plays a factor, but why would someone try to include something that is difficult to understand and difficult to portray? While everyone comes to their own reason, I think that a significant number of people are curious about what exactly goes on in the minds of someone suffering through PTSD, and creative works allow them a way to explore it, much the way fiction can explore scenarios and emotions that are either unlikely or unsafe to explore in reality. If that’s the case, then the purpose of this essay is rather simple, to make the PTSD examination more grounded in reality and thus a better reflection of it. But experiences are unique even if discernable patterns emerge, so in that sense, no essay created by an amateur writer with no psychological experience could be an authoritative take on reality, the nature of which would is far beyond the scope of this essay.

For my own part, I think that well-done creative works involving PTSD is meant to break down the isolation that it can cause in its wake. Veterans suffering may feel that they are alone, that their loved ones cannot understand them and the burden of trying to create that would simply push them away; better instead to have the imperfect bonds that they currently have than risk losing them entirely. For those who are on the outside looking in, isolation lurks there as well, a gulf that seems impossible to breach and possibly intrusive to even try. Creative works that depict PTSD can help create a sense that victims aren’t alone, that there are people that understand and can help without demeaning the sense of self-worth. Of course, another element would be to reduce the amount of poorly-done depictions of PTSD. Some creative works use PTSD as a backstory element, relegating a defining and important element of an individual’s life as an aside, or a minor problem that can be resolved with a good hug and a cry or a few nights with the right person. If a well-done creative work can help create a bridge and break down isolation, a poorly-done one can turn victims off, reinforcing the idea that no one understands and worse, no one cares. For others, it gives a completely altered sense of what PTSD is and what they could do to help, keeping them out, confusing them, or other counter-productive actions. In that sense, all the essay is to help build up those who are doing the heavy lifting. I’m not full of so much hubris as to think this is a profound piece of writing that will help others, but if creators are willing to try and do the hard work of building a bridge, I could at least try to help out and provide a wheelbarrow.

An Abbreviated Look At The Many Faces and Names of PTSD Throughout History

PTSD has been observed repeatedly throughout human history, even when it was poorly understood. This means that explorations of PTSD can be written in settings even if they did not have a distinctly modern understanding of neurology, trauma, or related matters. These historical contexts are also useful for worldbuilding a believable response in fictional settings and scenarios that don’t necessarily have a strict analogue in our own history. By providing this historical context, hopefully I can craft a broad-based sense of believable responses to characters with PTSD at a larger level.

In the time of Rome, it was understood by legionnaires that combat was a difficult endeavor, and so troops were typically on the front lines engaged in combat for short periods of time, to be rotated back for rest while others took their place. It was considered ideal, in these situations, to rotate troops that fought together back so that they could rest together. The immediate lesson is obvious, the Romans believed that it was vital for troops to take time to process what they had done and that was best served with quiet periods of rest not just to allow the adrenaline to dissipate (the "combat high"), but a chance for the mind to wrap itself around what the legionnaire had done. The Romans also recognized that camaraderie between fellow soldiers helped soldiers to cope, and this would be a running theme throughout history (and remains as such today). Soldiers were able to empathize with each other, and help each other through times of difficulty. This was not all sanguine, however, Roman legions depended on their strong formations, and a soldier that did not perform their duty could endanger the unit, and so shame in not fulfilling their duty was another means to keep soldiers in line. The idea of not letting down your fellow soldiers is a persistent refrain in coping with the traumas of war, and throughout history this idea has been used for both pleasant and unpleasant means of keeping soldiers in the fight.

In the Middle Ages, Geoffroi de Charny wrote extensively on the difficulties that knights could experience on the campaign trail in his Book of Chivalry. The book highlights the deprivation that knights suffered, from the bad food and poor sleep to the traumatic experience of combat to being away from family and friends to the loss of valued comrades to combat and infection; each of these is understood as a significant stressor that puts great strain on the mental health of soldiers up to today. De Charny recommended focusing on the knightly oaths of service, the needs of the mission of their liege, and the duty of the knight to serve as methods to help bolster the resolve of struggling knights. The book also mentions seeking counseling and guidance from priests or other confidants to help improve their mental health to see their mission through. This wasn’t universal, however. Some severely traumatized individuals were seen as simple cowards, and punished harshly for their perceived cowardice as antithetical to good virtue and to serve as an example.

World War I saw a sharp rise in the reported incidents of military-related PTSD and new understandings and misunderstandings. The rise in the number of soldiers caused a rise in cases of military PTSD, even though the term itself was not known at the time. Especially in the early phases of the war, many soldiers suffering from PTSD were thought to be malingering, pretending to have symptoms to avoid being sent to the front lines. The term “shell shock” was derived because it was believed that the concussive force of artillery bombardment caused brain damage as it rattled the skull or carbon monoxide fumes would damage the brain as they were inhaled, as a means to explain why soldiers could have physical responses such as slurred speech, lack of response to external stimuli, even nigh-on waking catatonia, despite not being hit by rifle rounds or shrapnel. This would later be replaced by the term “battle fatigue” when it became apparent that artillery bombardment was not a predicative indicator. Particularly as manpower shortages became more prevalent, PTSD-sufferers could be sent to firing squads as a means to cow other troops to not abandon their post. Other less fatal methods of shaming could occur, such as the designation “Lack of Moral Fibre,” an official brand of cowardice, as an attempt to shame the members into remembering their duty. As the war developed, and understanding grew, better methods of treatment were made, with rest and comfort provided to slight cases, strict troop rotations observed to rotate men to and from the front lines, and patients not being told that they were being evacuated for nervous breakdown to avoid cementing that idea in their mind. These lessons would continue into World War II, where the term “combat stress reaction” was adopted. While not always strenuously followed, regular rotations were adopted as standard policy. This was still not universal, plenty of units still relied upon bullying members into maintaining their post despite mental trauma.

The American military promotes a culture of competence and ability, particularly for the enlisted ranks, and that lends itself to the soldier viewing themselves in a starkly different fashion than a civilian. Often, a soldier sees the inability to cope with a traumatic experience as a personal failure stemming from the lack of mental fortitude. Owning up to such a lack of capability is tantamount to accepting that they are an inferior soldier, less capable than their fellows. This idea is commonly discussed, and should not be ignored, but it is far from the only reason. The military also possesses a strong culture of fraternity that obligates “Don’t be a fuckup,” is a powerful motivating force, and it leads plenty of members of the military to ignore traumatic experiences out of the perceived need not to put the burden on their squadmates. While most professional militaries stress that seeking mental health for trauma is not considered a sign of weakness, enlisted know that if they receive mental health counseling, it is entirely likely that someone will have to take their place in the meantime. That could potentially mean that another person, particularly in front-line units, are exposed to danger that they would otherwise not be exposed to, potentially exacerbating guilt if said person gets hurt or killed. This is even true in stateside units, plenty of soldiers don’t report for treatment because it would mean dumping work on their fellows, a negative aspect of unit fraternity. Plenty of veterans also simply never are screened for mental health treatment, and usually this lends to a mentality of “well, no one is asking, so I should be fine.” These taken together combine to a heartbreaking reality, oftentimes a modern veteran that seeks help for mental trauma has often coped silently for years, perhaps self-medicating with alcohol or off-label drug usage, and is typically very far along their own path comparatively. Others simply fall through the cracks, not being screened for mental disorders and so do not believe that anything is wrong; after all, if something was wrong, surely the doctors would notice it, right? The current schedule of deployments, which are duration-based and not mission-based, also make it hard for servicemembers to rationalize their experiences and equate them to the mission; there’s no sense of pairing suffering to objectives the way that de Charnay mentioned could help contextualize the deprivation and loss. These sorts of experiences make the soldier feel adrift, and their suffering pointless, which is discouraging on another level. It is one thing to suffer for a cause, it’s another not to know why, amplifying the feelings of powerlessness and furthering the isolation that they feel.

Pen to Page - The Characters and Their Responses

The presentation of PTSD within a character will depend largely on the point-of-view that the author creates. A character that suffers from PTSD depending on the presence of an internal or external point-of-view, will be vastly different experiences on page. Knowing this is essential, as this will determine how the story itself is presenting the disorder. Neither is necessarily more preferable than the other, and is largely a matter of the type of story being told and the personal preference of the author.

Internal perspectives will follow the character’s response from triggering event to immediate response. This allows the author to present a glimpse into what the character is experiencing. In these circumstances, remember that traumatic flashbacks are merely one of many experiences that an average sufferer of PTSD can endure. In a visual medium, flashbacks are time-effective methods to portray a character reliving portions of a traumatic experience, but other forms of media can have other tools. Traumatic flashbacks are not necessarily a direct reliving of an event from start to finish, individuals may instead feel sudden sharp pains of old injuries, be overwhelmed by still images of traumatic scenes or loud traumatic sounds. These can be linked to triggers that bring up the traumatic incident, such as a similar sight, sound, or smell. These moments of linkage are not necessarily experienced linearly or provide a clear sequence of events from start to finish (memory rarely is unless specifically prompted), and it may be to the author’s advantage to not portray them as such in order to communicate the difficulty in mental parsing that the character may be experiencing. Others might be more intrusive, such as violently deranged nightmares that prevent sleep. The author must try to strike a balance between portraying the experience realistically and portraying it logically that audience members can understand. The important thing about these memories is that they are intrusive, unwelcome, and quite stressful, so using techniques that jar the reader, such as the sudden intrusive image of a torn body, a burning vehicle, or another piece of the traumatic incident helps communicate the disorientation. Don't rely simply on shock therapy, it's not enough just to put viscera on the page. Once it is there, the next steps, how the character reacts, is crucial to a believable response.

When the character experiences something that triggers their PTSD, start to describe the stress response, begin rapidly shortening the sentences to simulate the synaptic activity, express the fight-flight-freeze response as the character reacts, using the tools of dramatic action to heighten tension and portraying the experience as something frightful and distinctly undesirable. The triggering incident brings back the fear, such as a pile of rubble on the side of the road being a potential IED location, or a loud firework recalling the initial moments of an enemy ambush. The trauma intrudes, and the character falls deep into the stress response, and now they react. How does this character react? By taking cover? By attacking the aggressor who so reminds them of the face of their enemy? Once the initial event starts, then the character continues to respond. Do they try to get to safety? Secure the area and eliminate the enemy? Eventually, the character likely recognizes their response is inappropriate. It wasn’t a gunshot, it was a car backfiring, the smell of copper isn’t the sight of a blown-apart comrade and the rank odor of blood, it’s just a jug of musty pennies. This fear will lead to control mechanisms where the victim realizes that their response is irrational. Frequently, the fear is still there, and it still struggles with control. This could heighten a feeling a powerlessness in the character as they try and fail to put the fear under control: "Yes, I know this isn’t real and there’s nothing to be afraid of, but I’m still shaking and I am still afraid!" It’s a horrifying logical track, a fear that the victim isn’t even in control of their thoughts - the one place that they should have control - and that they might always be this way. There’s no safety since even their thoughts aren’t safe. Despair might also follow, as the victim frantically asserts to regain control. Usually with time, the fear starts to lessen as the logical centers of the brain regain control, and the fear diminishes. Some times, the victim can't even really recall the exact crippling sense of fear when attempting to recall it, only that they were afraid and that it was deeply scary and awful, but the notion that it happened remains in their mind.

Control mechanisms are also important to developing a believable PTSD victim. Most sufferers dread the PTSD response and so actively avoid objects or situations that could potentially trigger. Someone who may have had to escape from a helicopter falling into the ocean may not like to be immersed in water. Someone who was hit by a hidden IED may swerve to avoid suspicious piles in the road. Someone buried under a collapsing ceiling may become claustrophobic. Thus, many characters with PTSD will be hypervigilant almost to the point of exhaustion, avoiding setting off the undesired response. This hypervigilance is mentally taxing; the character begins to become sluggish mentally as all their energy is squeezed out, leaving them struggling for even the simplest of rational thoughts. This mental fog can be translated onto the page in dramatic effect by adding paragraph length to even simple actions, bringing the reader along into the fog, laboriously seeing the character move to perform simple actions. Then, mix in a loss of a sense of purpose. They’re adrift, not exactly sure what they’re doing and barely aware of what’s happening, although they are thinking and functioning. In the character’s daily life, they are living their life using maximum effort to avoid triggering responses; this is another aspect of control that the character can use as an attempt to claw back some semblance of power in their own lives. Even control methods that aren’t necessarily healthy such as drinking themselves to pass out every night or abusing sleeping pills in an attempt to sleep due to their nightmares, are ways to attempt to regain a sense of normalcy and function. Don’t condescend to these characters and make them pathetic, that’s just another layer of cruelty, but showing the unhealthy coping mechanisms can demonstrate the difficulty that PTSD victims are feeling. Combined with an external perspective, the author can show the damage that these unhealthy actions are doing without casting the character as weak for not taking a different path.

External perspectives focus on the other characters and how they observe and react to the individual in question. Since the internal thought process of the character is not known, sudden reactions to an unknown trigger can be quite jarring for characters unaware, which can mirror real-life experiences that individuals can have with PTSD-sufferers. In these types of stories, the character’s reaction to the victim is paramount. PTSD in real life often evokes feelings of helplessness in loved ones when they simply cannot act to help, can evoke confusion, or anger and resentment. These reactions are powerful emotions with the ability to drive character work, and so external perspectives can be useful for telling a story about what it is like for loved ones who suffer in their own fashion. External perspectives can be used not just in describing triggering episodes, but in exploring how the character established coping mechanisms and how their loved ones react to them. Some mechanisms are distinctly unhealthy, such as alcohol or prescription drug abuse, complete withdrawal, or a refusal to drive vehicles, and these create stress and a feeling of helplessness in characters or can impel them to try and take action. Others can be healthy, and a moment of inspiration and joy for an external perspective could be sharing in that mechanism, demonstrating empathy and understanding which evokes strong pathos, and hopefully to friends of those who suffer from PTSD, a feeling that they too, are not alone.

As the character progresses, successes and failures can often be one of the most realistic and most important things to include within the work, since those consumers who have PTSD will see parts of themselves in the characters, which can build empathy and cut down on the feelings of isolation that many victims of PTSD feel. A character could, over the course of the story, begin weaning themselves off of their control mechanisms, have the feelings of panic subside as their logical sides more quickly assert control, replace unhealthy coping mechanisms with healthier ones, or other elements of character progression and growth. Contrarily, a character making progress could, after experiencing significant but unrelated stressors, backslide either into unhealthy coping mechanisms or be blindsided by another attack. This is a powerful fear for the victim, since it can cause them to think ‘all my progress, all my effort, and I am not free!’ This is often a great fear for PTSD users (people with depression often have the same feeling) that find methods of coping are no longer as effective, and the struggle is perceived as one that they’re ultimately doomed to failure. This feeling of inevitable failure can lead to self-harm and suicide as their avenue of success seems to burn to ash right as it was in their hands. More than one soldier suffering from PTSD has ended up concluding: “Fuck it, I can’t live like this,” as horrible as that is. Don’t be afraid to include setbacks and backsliding, those happen in reality, and can be one of the most isolating fears in their lives; if the goal of portraying PTSD accurately is to help remove that feeling of isolation, then content creators must not avoid these experiences. Success as well as failure are essential to PTSD in characters in stories, these elements moreso than any other, I believe, will transcend the medium and form a connection, fulfilling the objective we set out to include in the beginning paragraphs.

Coming Back to the Beginning

It might be counterintuitive at first glance to say “including military PTSD will probably mean it will be a long journey full of discouraging story beats that might make readers depressed,” because that’s definitely going to discourage some readers to do that. I don’t see it that way, though. The people that want to do it should go in knowing it’s going to be hard, and let that strengthen their resolve, and put the best creation they can forward. The opposite is also true. Not every prospective author has to want to include any number of difficult subjects in their works, and that’s perfectly fine. Content creators must be free to shape the craft that they so desire without the need to be obligated to tackle every difficult issue, and so no content creator should be thought of as lesser or inferior because they opt not to include it in their works. I think that’s honestly stronger than handling an important topic poorly, or even worse, frivolously. Neither should anyone think that a content creator not including PTSD in their works means that they don’t care about those who suffer from it or for those who care about them or who simply don’t care about the subject in general. That’s just a terrible way to treat someone, and in the end, this entire excursion was about the opposite

Ultimately, this essay is a chance not only to help improve creative works involving PTSD, but to reflect on the creative process. Those who still want to proceed, by all means, do so. Hopefully this essay will help you create something that can reach someone. If every piece of work that helps portray PTSD can reach someone somewhere and make things easier, even if ever so little, well then, that’s what it’s really all about.

Hoping everyone has a peaceful Memorial Day. Be good to each to other.

SLAL

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Closing thoughts on Sonic Unleashed’s character presentation and development

The year is coming to a close, and so it means my year-long adventure with Sonic World Adventure has come to an end aswell. Since April of this year I started taking notes on some of the underlying themes going on in the game, and it seems I struck a vein of interest in the fandom by doing so, so I kept digging and documenting each optional dialog from Amy till we reached this point, and now I would like to offer some closing words.

Edit: Buckle up, folks, turns out it’s a long post below.

Sonic Unleashed did a lot of things well with its characters, but I can’t shake off the feeling that it also was the first symptom of something that is a real issue nowadays: Tails gets the short end of the stick constantly in this game, not only because of Chip -the “sidekick of the week” if you like-, but also because of Professor Pickle. The way he flew away from Dark Gaia’s monsters at the start of the game gave me war flashbacks of Forces!Tails (not to the same extreme, of course), and after reaching Spagonia he just vanishes from the plot in favor of Pickle taking the helm as Sonic’s guide to each Gaia Temple. By the end of the game, Tails served only as a mean to Sonic and Chip’s end (fly them to each country), and he gets wiped from the climax of the game in an unceremoniously way, as he is shot down while flying over Eggmanland by what I believe was the Egg Dragoon. Only at the very end the game remembers “Oh, hey! Tails was always supposed to be Sonic’s best friend!” and gives him that closing moment when he finds Sonic in Apotos and they both blast away as credits roll.

Then there’s Chip. As a disclaimer, I want to say that I don’t think Chip is a bad character, but he didn’t grow on me like it happened for other fans. 

My biggest gripe with Chip is that, since he doesn’t remember anything about his real self until the Adabat temple is restored, he’s just a clean slate for 4/5 of the game, and the game itself does a weird thing with this: on one hand, it relegates all Sonic and Chip’s bonding moments to optional stuff (you have to feed Chip things he likes to raise the hidden friendship meter and get some of his more heartfelt lines and questions, or even those sweet CG clips), something that I did experience (since that’s how I like to play RPGs in general, get the sidequests first then the main one) but many others won’t bother; and on the other hand, the game puts all focus during the main campaign on what little we know of Chip and how he reacts to each location he visits with Sonic as they look for the Gaia Temples. 

This mess ended up leaving me with two feelings: a good one, since I can sit back and enjoy the world adventure at my own pace and without having to constantly follow a potentially convoluted plot (I can lose myself for 20 minutes in a night stage and have fun); and a bad one, since I was going through the game with this lingering feeling on the back of my head that Chip was just an egotistical prick that only cared about his journey through the world, and not at all about Sonic and that monster form he’s getting used to at least until the second half, or what the rest of his friends are doing (which is, by the way, the main reason why I play a Sonic game in the first place, my order of priorities goes as follows: Sonic -> Eggman -> Amy -> Tails & Knux -> Team Dark -> everyone else). 

By the end those thoughts kinda dissapeared so I can safely say I don’t hate Chip at all, it’s just that the game gave me a wrong message about him. Though the best thing I can extract from his relation with Sonic is the following quote, perfectly summarizing what Sonic is all about.

Finally, there’s Amy. I’ve talked a lot about her in my other two posts, but I still have some things to say. First of all, just like @skull001​ pointed out a while ago, she’s the only one that does not lose hope on Sonic when Perfect Dark Gaia is fully unleashed, as everyone else thought the world was doomed, even Professor Pickle himself. This is because of two reasons: 1) she’s Amy, so she’s always the optimistic one (duh); 2) Amy knows Sonic better than everyone else, and also she was there for him all along, checking on his progress and encouraging him to keep going (even lamenting she couldn’t go adventuring with him). Amy does understand how dire the situation actually is, but she knows Sonic always has a plan, y’all just need to have some goddamn faith (+1 for that RDR2 reference, amirite?). She even looks at the sky as the cutscene jumps back to Sonic’s perspective, like when two characters are telepathically communicating (something this series isn’t a stranger to, I remember reading a post here on Tumblr about Sonic X doing that stuff some time ago)

Sidenote: Also, another funny thing I just realized is that, if you as Sonic refuse to go on a date in the final optional dialog just before Eggmanland, Amy will exclaim: “Give a gal a little hope here, Sonic!” She’s willing to put all her hopes that Sonic will end up saving the world (insert the obvious “If I have to choose between the world and Sonic, I’d choose Sonic!” ‘06 line), how hard could it be for Sonic to give her just a little hope? It’s kinda interesting when making the comparison, Amy just asks for the smallest hint and she’ll keep going strong, pretty much like every shipper out there lol.

(Back on topic.) The beautiful part is that Amy actually gets her “I told you so!” moment with Professor Pickle in the very end of the game, and just as he’s being exposed, the old prick goes on a tangent about how darkness and light are part of the world’s balance, and that the cycle of Dark Gaia vs Light Gaia will keep repeating itself. What does Amy think about this?

Yeah, fuck off, Pickle. This is low-key one of my favorite Amy moments ever. She doesn’t care about the balance of the world or any of that philosophical bullshit Pickle was saying, she knew Sonic was there saving the world’s ass, she knew he was the one that made all the difference down there in the Earth’s core, and that is all it matters in the end. Now let’s go and wait till Sonic’s return so we can have a welcoming party and chill since this plot is over. Perfect ending.

So, that’s Sonic Unleashed for ya. Certainly one of the most interesting cases for me to talk about all year, and top 3 favorite 3D Sonic games for sure. There are lots of flaws and scary things that later would become actual issues with the Sonic franchise present in this game, but it also did so many things right I can’t help but applaud Sonic Team for the effort they put. For all intents and purposes, I’ll be thinking on this game a lot when it comes to character presentation and development in future Sonic games, now fully knowing what’s on display, and what lies beyond, deep in optional stuff. I hope you enjoyed reading or even taking part in the discussions I’ve had along this path, and I hope that, just like me, you might have learned something interesting.

[critroleing]

If Campaign 2 went Live in the Middle (like Campaign 1)

Since you guys liked it so much the first time, let’s run through the real world AU where campaign 2 was the one we started in the middle of, but more in depth this time.

There would be a backstory/introduction vid that played in the beginning of episodes and in the break. This is more or less what it would say:

Caleb: All of his backstory will be explained in one chunk, including stuff like the residuum crystals in his arms, his past name, and the concept of scourgers, stuff that was plot twists that came along the way for us. No attention will be paid to how this backstory came out to the characters. Nor who among the characters actually know any of this. We will assume by default that everyone knows.

Nott: this is the story of Veth, mostly. The story of how she got bullied as a child, had a marriage and a baby, got kidnapped and transformed into a goblin but regained her family and now they’re waiting for her in Nicodranas. The story of how she regained them is kind of like the story of how Pike died. Technically it was in game, but it’s so far away it’s essentially backstory.

Beau: The lore we’ve gotten from her is much more sporadic, but they’ll take the pieces of what we have gotten and treat it like the Lore Drops we’ve gotten from people like Caleb and Nott. Her childhood in Kamordah will be explained, along with how she got kidnapped by monks, has a baby brother and mentor named Dairon will all be given as if everyone knows these facts and not like they were carefully dished out to one person here and one person there. (Because of this the fandom’s view of her will be slightly off from who she actually is, and that will lead to a good chunk of fans disliking her, at least until they get the hang of her character.)

Jester will probably be the least affected by this change. We knew her backstory early and met her mother later, which is how this turns out. Her backstory does reach all the way up to include the gnoll follower she met in Asarius and preparations for Travelercon. The Traveler will inevitably turn up somewhere and talk to Jester. He will seem super shady. In other words, nothing much will have changed.

Fjord: Huge changes here. During the time we wouldn’t have seen Fjord has learned who Uk’otoa is, followed him, almost set him free, stopped working for him, lost his powers and started working for another power. That is a lot of developments to be relegated to backstory, and this is on top of the backstory he already had. There will be a brief mention of Fjord having had a different accent in the past, the fandom will not pick up on how big of a deal that is.

Caduceus: His backstory might include the story of the Clays, the Dusts and the Stones, in which case he will feel a lot like Keyleth did. He will sound like he has a Plan, in a way that he did not seem to, watching it episode by episode. We don’t actually know all that much about Caduceus’ personal life, so his backstory presentation might have to go for the big picture stuff.

Yasha: She’ll get her own presentation. We know this because Ashley wasn’t there for the first few episodes of c1 but Pike’s presentation was there anyway. Explanations of her backstory will include Zuala, blacking out and coming to again, the Stormlord, mentions of Obann but not her current situation. That will be explained in the very beginning by Matt, with interruptions form the rest of the gang. The fandom will not understand how serious it is until Yasha comes back.

Molly will not get a presentation. He, in fact, will not be acknowledged until someone makes a reference to him and suddenly the cast will remember that, oh, the audience doesn’t know who he is. The audience understands that this was Taliesin’s previous character, but the extent of his influence on the party will be lost as we have no real feel for Molly’s character or what he could have inspired in others.

Male pronouns will be used when explaining Molly, people will immediately forget that and it becomes pretty common to see and hear Molly depicted as a woman and then people correcting them. The Ruby of the Sea will take some explaining, but she’s definitely one of the people we have to meet as soon as possible. “She’s the best lay ever, you guys,” Laura informs us. We do not get the joke.

Someone remembers Pumat Sol exists. They try to explain him. It’s really hard. Matt does an accent and the fandom enjoys it.

The fact that the Mighty Nein are already established in Xhorhas feels alienating to a lot of viewers. Apparently they’re heroes of the Dynasty? And have a house? With a tree on it? And Beau’s mentor Dairon is there?

So the reason they are heroes is because they gave the Bright Queen some sort of artefact. The fandom is unsure of what it was or where it came from, but it may be that the Empire has another one. The larger lore of how the Dens and Beacons work is largely lost, and with it a lot of understanding about the larger world and the war.

At some point far in the future it comes out that they’ve already met Trent Ikithon, Caleb’s main bad guy. Nothing much seemed to happen. Lots of meta about how that meeting was going to happen has to be thrown out.

Jester has pets. Sprinkle doesn’t get mentioned a lot, but at least he’s on adventures with them. There is also Nugget, who lives Marion and we eventually get to meet. We don’t know where they came from, presumably Jester had them the whole time, like childhood pets.

They also adopted a baby bird for a while. They say it could mimic speech? The people who know what kenku are have their suspicions, everyone else thinks it’s another pet.

Beau has some trauma related to some academic by the name of Professor Thaddeus. Much meta has been written about who he is and what happened between him and Beau.

They know a gentleman who’s blue and sweaty. He is also maybe Jester’s dad. Jury’s out on that one.

The Empire feels so far away, and so Other. People praise Matt for making the humans the bad guys and the Drow the good guys.

The fact that they were pirates once comes up in conversation. A joke is made about it. Nothing is explained.

Eventually it comes out that it had things do do with Fjord’s patron, there was a sexy cult leader pirate with a French accent who Fjord slept with, and they got banished from the pirate island within a day.

They still technically have French accent pirate’s ship. It’s called the Ball Eater. They go there once and we meet the Tortle bagpiper tattoo artist who runs it. His name is Orly. The fandom loses its’ shit.

The ship is named that because of Fjord apparently. He ate some orbs once, so they say.

Fjord also ate a sword once? Was he in a circus? Yasha and that Molly person were in a circus, was Fjord there too?

Jester carries around a an erotica book. Where it comes from no one knows, but it doesn’t seem out of character for her so we roll with it.

They have had an encounter with a dragon, an ancient white one, but they haven’t killed any.

Except maybe they have?

Beau has slept with two (2) whole guest characters.

Jester casts Sending to talk to a guy. Matt answers in a very sexy voice. We think the guy is an NPC. He’s not.

A sweet lady once sent actual letters with actual, physical gifts to them.

After that there are more than a few bets on what other NPC’s are actually guest characters being jaegered for the moment.

Why are they even called the Mighty Nein? The cast explains that it had to do with a session in the early levels when they were rolling a lot of nines, and it sounds funny when Caleb says it. It was probably funny if you were there, but for the fandom it just sounds kinda dumb.

Nott might get some more shipping attention, given that she’s actually a halfling. She also might not, because she’s both married and ugly.

Fjord and Jester still share a deep bond, but the more overt parts of Jester’s crush that were prominent in the earlier episodes seem to have mellowed out by the time we meet them. Fjord and Jester also haven’t, percentage wise, spent more time together as a pair than a group, so that dynamic isn’t really seen. Fjorester exists, but has a very different vibe to it.

Widomauk does not exist.

Beauyasha might exist, if only because they are the only two confirmed wlw in the group. It’s more of an idea until they meet and chemistry can be measured of course.

Beaujester exists, but very much in the ‘look at their emotional chemistry, wouldn’t it be nice’. In a way, not much has changed, you just have less of a basis to ship on.

Fjorclay might be big for a while, given how important Caduceus has been for Fjord’s journey lately.

Videos resurface of the cast playing at home before this campaign became public. Fjord has a Texan accent. Nott calls herself a little goblin girl. That is a really weird Caduceus voice. Life feels strange.

Sam asks Liam on their podcast what would be the worst character to play in D&D, just the worst. Liam suggests goblin. Seems like he was thinking worst as in most morally dubious.

Nott rolls a natural 1 and shoots herself in the foot with her own crossbow. That’s not good, the fandom thinks, what if she got killed doing damage to herself? Besides, that would look really dumb.

We will never know about Spurt.

Jester, Fjord and Yasha got kidnapped by slavers once, we find out alarmingly late. They seem fine though, so that turns into another trivia fact.

Actually no, that’s probably mentioned in passing when they’re explaining how Molly died. It doesn’t really hit home with most if the fandom though.

Unclear where Caleb can teleport to. Generally assumed that he knows at least one teleport circle in the Empire.

In this world Vox Machina probably doesn’t exist at all. At least not online. Maybe they played all of that campaign at home, so we get occasional references to ‘their first game’ or ‘their home game’ but have no context for that either.

In which case you could make a whole category for references to the first campaign we wouldn’t understand.

Like why Taliesin is explaining how the guns work.

Or the ruins of Draconia down south.

Or why the team were so hyped to go to Whitestone.

Or maybe this was their first campaign after all, and none of these things have any additional context.

Nott will be looked at mostly as a halfling mother. Instead of discussions about if she’s even old enough to be an adult she’s considered older than the rest, and a large contingent of the fandom is mad at her for adventuring when she has a child waiting for her at home.

Caleb has at least two homebrew spells. They are eventually referred to as Dunamancy. The fandom realises the level of worldbuilding Matt’s on in that he’s made an entire new school of magic.

Feel free to add more. I’m sure there’s stuff I haven’t considered out there.

[cincinnatusvirtue]

War of the Fourth Coalition: 1806-1807.  Napoleon nears his zenith, Prussia is rocked, Russia reels and Poland is partially restored...

Napoleonic France by the start of 1806 was nearly unquestionably the most powerful force in terms of military prowess and influence on the European continent.  In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte had after a referendum crowned himself Emperor of the French.  Fifteen years after the start of the French Revolution and subsequent overthrow the Bourbon royal dynasty, France’s unstable republican era had given way to a military dictatorship and new imperial dynasty with republican influences resulting in the First French Empire.  1805 saw the War of the Third Coalition, the third such anti-republican multi-national formation since the French Revolution which sought to check France’s influence and restore the balance of power on the European continent.  The Third Coalition consisted mainly of the British, Austrian and Russian Empires in opposition to France’s own empire.  Britain maintained control of the seas with the Royal Navy and funded Austrian and Russian forces with subsidies of gold to press a joint attack against France and her satellite states in the Low Countries, Italy and Germany.  However, the war was effectively over with Napoleon’s major tactical victory over a joint Austro-Russian force at Austerlitz and the subsequent peace with Austria.

With Austria out of the war, Britain relegated to the seas in a stalemate with France and Russia licking her wounds in retreat in the east, there was a series of political overtures gesturing for peace but nevertheless war remained ongoing.  An obstacle remained the French occupation of the Electorate of Hanover, a German state of the Holy Roman Empire that was in personal union with United Kingdom of Great Britain since the early 18th century with the Hanover dynasty ruling Britain.  Britain’s ally Sweden had attempted to take Hanover from the French in the spring of 1806 but itself was defeated.  Britain and France mostly avoided direct military conflict aside from naval clashes and a single battle during this time.

1806 also saw Napoleon continue to unravel the existing political order with a series of decrees and political moves, ones that would provoke a European major power that had sat idle during the last decade, the Kingdom of Prussia.  Other than Austria, Prussia was the German speaking world’s great power.  During the 18th century it had risen from small fiefdoms to a much expanded kingdom straddling East and Central Europe.  Military reforms and martial discipline had made it into one of the foremost powers in Europe and its reputation for brilliance on the battlefield was best exemplified by Frederick the Great’s performances during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War.  However, by the time of the French Revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic era it had aside from earlier participation against France remained untested.

Prussia was angered by French trespasses on to its territory to partake in the Battle of Austerlitz by ultimately stood out of the war.  Napoleon also had in 1806 practiced duplicity in his dealings with Prussia.  He had offered them Hanover in exchange for some territory to be given to France’ s German ally, the Kingdom of Bavaria.  Meanwhile, Napoleon had also offered Hanover’s restoration to Britain during abortive peace negotiations earlier in the year and the discovery of this duplicity greatly upset the Prussian government.  Prussia’s other grievance was Napoleon’s decree of the Confederation of the Rhine, a new reorganized loose confederation of German states that replaced the 1000 year old Holy Roman Empire which had existed since the Middle Ages.  The Confederation of the Rhine required these German states to secede from the Austrian run Holy Roman Empire.  Austria’s own emperor, Francis II ceased to be known as Holy Roman Emperor and was ever after, Francis I, Austrian Emperor.  Neither Prussia nor Austria were members of the Confederation of the Rhine whose primary function was to serve as a buffer state between France and its German enemies to the east.  All the small princely states of this divided Germany were now under the primary political and military influence of Napoleonic France.  They would serve as satellite states who provided German troops for his campaigns elsewhere and would in turn benefit with increased recognized political rewards, namely in elevating a number of these fiefdoms to the rank of grand duchy and kingdom, increasing their “stature”.  Prussia greatly resented what they saw as French meddling in German affairs and the loss of their own influence among Germans.

Russia and Prussia forged an alliance as well during this time but Russia was still trying to reorganize its forces after it’s defeats in 1805, though it had not actually made peace with France unlike Austria.  The French and Russians nearly made peace mid year, but Tsar Alexander I ultimately declined as last minute.

Prussia’s government was divided over the decision of whether or not to go to war with France in the autumn of 1806.  King Frederick William III was initially hesitant and undecided, it was actually his wife, Queen Louise of Mecklenberg-Strelitz who siding with the war party in the government convinced the King to declare war.  In August that year war was officially declared, Prussia independent of any other major power save for distant and reorganizing Russia would face the French Empire and its new Confederation of the Rhine.  Prussia however did have the support of the Electorate of Saxony at war’s start as well.  Prussia hadn’t fought a war since 1795 and in relied mostly on its former well earned reputation as a preeminent military power to face France, Prussia’s leadership remained confident that victory was a certainty given this reputation.  However, the reality was far more grim, Prussia’s military had become outdated and in need of reform.  Like Austria, it suffered from outdated organization on almost all levels, its leadership were veterans 40 years past their prime, its tactics were equally outdated as was some of its weaponry.  Prussia had been famed for its discipline but this alone was not enough to win the day as they would soon find out.  Meanwhile, France since the Revolutionary days had undergone 15 years of military reform.  Its conscription was now more expansive, its leadership was based more on individual merit as opposed to the European tradition of nobility leading troops regardless of military prowess.  Furthermore, under Napoleon logistics, discipline, weaponry and overall organization with the innovative corps system had revitalized the French military into the Grande Armee.  Napoleon also improved the French economy to better finance his troops and gave them a strong sense of patriotic fervor and his own tactical prowess combined with an almost unbroken string of personal victories gave him an aura of invincibility.

In September, Napoleon launched French forces east of the Rhine into a so called battalion square formation with his Corps (mini-army) spread out but in close enough distance to support each other.  The French were uncertain of the Prussian troops exact location.  The goal was to pass through the Franconian Forest into Saxony and deliver an uppercut like blow to the south of Prussia, catching them off guard.  Initial engagements at Schleiz and Saalfield were not the promising start the Prussians hoped to have, they were brushed aside and the latter battle saw the death of Prince Louis Ferdinand, member of the Prussian royal family.  On October 14, 1806 the major showdown between France and Prussia took place in a now famous double battle, known to history as Jena-Auerstadt.  It was in fact two simultaneous battle fought separately but interrelated and relatively close by to one another.  At Jena, Napoleon personally commanded the bulk of the French army in the vicinity numbering some 40,000 troops against 53,000 Prussian and Saxon troops.  Meanwhile at Auerstadt, one of Napoleon’s Marshals of the French Empire, Louis Nicholas Davout, the so called Iron Marshal due to his stern discipline and courage lead his III Corps numbering 28,000 troops against a 60,000 plus strong Prussian force.

At Jena, the battle was fought on a grassy plain and Napoleon’s intention was to attack the Prussian flanks and he ordered Marshal Michel Ney to maneuver into a position to do so and await further orders.  Ney’s corps attacked before it was ordered to do so leaving the French center vulnerable to counterattack.  Recognizing this danger, Napoleon, ever the adaptable to changing situations on the battlefield ordered his Imperial Guard to reinforce the French center and delay the presumed Prussian counterattack and allow for Ney to be rescued.  Ney’s corps were rescued in time and meanwhile the Prussians felt to even cease the initiative against the French center leading to great death due to French artillery bombardment.  The French flanks pressed hard against the Prussians and eventually began to encircle the enemy forcing them to withdraw.  Napoleon had won his portion.

At Auerstadt, Davout would bump into the main Prussian force almost by accident in the fog, starting opening skirmishes that branched into full deployment of his Corps against a Prussian force three times his size almost.  Repeat Prussian charges against the French III Corps resulted in a stunning defensive victory for Davout and his men which had held off the main Prussian force joining against Napoleon at Jena.  Davout had unquestionably and unexpectedly to all saved the day, though at great loss of life.  Napoleon when told of Davout’s single corps holding off an entire Prussian army without assistance initially cast doubt on its veracity.  When he found it was true, he awarded Davout, the noble title 1st Duke of Auerstadt in honor of his victory.  He also gave Davout’s III Corps the ceremonial honor of being the first French troops to parade into Berlin victorious.  The victory of Jena-Auerstadt effectively undid the bulk of the Prussian army in one day and allowed the French to occupy the Prussian capital shortly thereafter, capturing many surrendering troops along the way.  Napoleon captured the capital but the Prussian royal family and leadership retreated east to East Prussia and its old capital of Konigsberg, carrying on the war.  While in Berlin, Napoleon had a triumphal march in front of the Brandenburg Gate.  He also visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, Prussia’s 18th century king and military genius whom Napoleon respected and had studied in military school.  He ordered his Marshals to take off their hats in solemn remembrance of Frederick, famously remarking over his grave “If he were alive today, we wouldn’t be here.”  Napoleon had in under a month, completely routed the bulk of the Prussian army, ended its military reputation as unstoppable force and captured its capital.  While he achieved a fast paced initial victory it wasn’t a full on political victory.  War was to drag on in the east and a renewed Russia was to be his opponent.

In the coming days after Berlin’s capture, Napoleon issued his Berlin Decree that November, putting into effect his Continental System.  A system of trade and economic warfare against his most intractable foe, Britain.  It forbade trade with the British Empire by any nation in continental Europe, his hope being that this would help starve the British economy into peace.  The effectiveness of the Continental System was undone by ongoing noncompliance and smuggling in the coming years and would backfire on France in notable ways, namely in Iberia and Russia.  Meanwhile in the immediate future, Saxony switched sides, joined the Confederation of the Rhine and was elevated to kingdom status by France.  Now Napoleon needed to head east and finish off Prussia so that he could force a treaty with them.  He sought to completely weaken Prussia and he also needed to undo them before they reorganized and joined with Russia which was forwarding its own troops westward.  

Meanwhile, in Prussian controlled Poland, the Poles who had been without their own nation since the late 18th century partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Prussia, Austria and Russia rose up against the Prussians. The renewed Polish nationalism coupled with the arrival of French forces would use this most opportune time to restore the country’s independence.  The Poles were induced in part due to call for conscription by the Prussian military, they revolted and due to Prussia’s weakness from the French inflicted defeats they were in little position to subdue the rebellion.  The Poles established what would become the Duchy of Warsaw, which in the coming years was to become an important French client state that supported almost all of Napoleon’s campaigns up through and after his Russian campaign of 1812.  The Poles would earn a reputation among the foreign soldiers who fought with the French in the Napoleonic Wars as among the most fierce and capable in Napoleon’s armies.

Napoleon and his troops now entered in the early months of 1807 what was known as East Prussia.  The Russian strategy was one of withdrawal so as not to overextend their lines and have Napoleon exploit them by cutting off their rear which was precisely what he hoped to do in another uppercut like fashion as he had done to the Prussians in the autumn.  After some touch and go battles with the Russians throughout December and January on February 7th, France and Russia would collide in major fashion for the first time since Austerlitz 14 months before at a place called Eylau.  Napoleon had left his forces more spread out than he had in Germany, this was due to the poor roads and winter conditions making it harder to travel, additionally he was overconfident in repeating his victorious results at Jena-Auerstadt.  At Eylau this was not to be the case though.  The Russians were better concentrated and the French would be.  Eylau was a small town on a plateau with heights commanding the approach.  Elements of the French calvary under Marshal Murat and the French IV Corps under Marshal Soult encountered the Russian rearguard who were eventually reinforced by Russian artillery and forced a French retreat.  Eventually other French forces arrived by forced march.  Both sides battled for control of the town itself but by nightfall the fighting continued with heavy casualties before the Russians withdrew just outside the town.  Heavy snowstorms decreased visibility and both sides spent the night out in the freezing snowy open fields.  Daybreak on the 8th brought a little warmth to the troops who now occupied two opposing ridges on the plateau.  The Russians had shortened their right wing to shore up their center but this left them vulnerable to flanking maneuvers.  They covered this weakness with a vicious artillery bombardment front the center which the French returned with equal gusto.  Both sides attempted to attack and defend the Russian right flank.  The French then planned a counter strike against the Russian left only to get lost in the blizzard that descended once more on the field.  It kept a portion of the attack on track only to have little effect and another Corps was sidetracked elsewhere and facing deadly crossfire between both sides’ artillery.  Napoleon realized his own center was now exposed and weakened, had two options to either commit his own elite Imperial Guard as he had at Jena or deploy Murat’s cavalry reserve.  He went with the latter and sent an 11,000 strong cavalry force into one of the largest cavalry charges of all time against the Russians.  The weather helped obscure Murat’s force and they attacked with fury against the Russian lines with sides fighting fiercely, only the timely arrival of a smaller Prussian force prevented the Russians from total collapse.  Napoleon should have at that moment sent in the Imperial Guard to overwhelm the Russian and Prussian forces but for reasons unknown he did not, losing the initiative for once.  As a result the battle raged on slowly.  The French continued to maneuver around the Russian lines and gradually pushed them back by nightfall yet again.  After much deliberation that night during a lull in the fighting, the Russian leadership ordered a withdrawal.  Neither side had slept well, had been fighting day and night for nearly 14 hours straight and on no food and with mounting causalities and bad weather, the Russians saw no alternative but to retreat.  The French were initially unaware of the retreat and by the time they did realize the Russians were in retreat they were too exhausted to pursue.  Napoleon had retained the battlefield, one littered with frozen and bloodied corpses.  He gained no real advantage, the Russian army though battered would live on to fight another day.  Eylau was the first time Napoleon was personally forced into a draw, the spark of his earlier genius had for once abandoned him on the battlefield, it was now a question of whether his genius was fading altogether?

Napoleon sought a separate peace with Prussia after Eylau but it was rejected outright.  Napoleon now knew he had to wait for better weather and reinforcements to force a decisive victory.  He also sought to dispense with the moderate political overtures, Prussia and Russia were going to suffer.  Both sides battered needed time to recuperate from Eylau and waited the winter and spring out so the cold weather wouldn’t be a bother and so the roads would dry out after the winter thaw and spring rains.  By June 1807 after a mostly quiet lull both sides would meet once more at Friedland on the 14th.  Marshal Lannes lead his Corps out to pursue the Russians, who hoped to pin him down in isolation and destroy his Corps near Friedland.  Lannes men held a delaying action and sent urgent messages to Napoleon for help, he could now engage a full sized Russian army once more and this time in better early summer weather. Lannes stubborn defense of Friedland forced more Russian troops across the Alle River as had hoped, since this would allow Napoleon to concentrate his reinforcements timely and then destroy the Russians with their backs to the river, preventing an escape like at Eylau.  French and Polish troops fought side by side against the Russians and more bloody fighting in various pockets of the battlefield took place.  Finally, Napoleon fixed the Russians into place and had Marshal Ney’s Corps press the attack against them.  The Russians with their backs against various bends in the river were easy targets for the French artillery and Ney’s subsequent follow up attack which proceeded with haste.  Nightfall was causing the French to fear a repeat of Eylau but the solid dry ground and lack of bad weather allowed the French to focus and hone their attacks, the French applied canister shot at close range against masses of Russians huddled on the riverbanks with no place to go but either collapse in surrender or take their chances in the river where they may drown.  Ultimately, this did happen and the Russians began a confused withdrawal across the river, many drowning in the process.  10,000 French and Poles were wounded or killed while the Russians had 20,000 wounded or killed.  This time however, the Russians were soundly beaten and were in no fit shape to continue the war after the savagery of Eylau and now Friedland, which was a total French victory.  Tsar Alexander I sent peace envoys on the 19th.  He would agree to meet Napoleon at a place called Tilsit.

Tilsit was located in East Prussia near the Neman River which runs through the modern Russian exclave of the Kaliningrad Oblast, Lithuania and Belarus.  The Treaties of Tilsit signed that July would officially end the War of the Fourth Coalition in France’s favor.  Symbolically the two emperors, Napoleon and Alexander would meet in a makeshift raft built and anchored at a halfway point between French and Russian controlled territory.  The Franco-Russian treaty was signed on July 7th during this first meeting.  Alexander said to Napoleon right away “I hate the English as much as you do.”  To which Napoleon replied “Then we have already made peace.”  The terms of the treaty were as follows.  The two empires of France and Russia would become de-facto allies dividing up the continent between their spheres of influence with the Vistula River in Poland as the natural boundary between these spheres. France offered to assist Russia against its old enemy, the Ottoman Empire and in return Russia would join the Continental System against Britain.  Additionally, Russia was induced into a declared war with Britain that would last for the next five years.  It was also given a free hand to face Sweden in the Finnish War of 1808-09.  The Russians had earlier in the decade captured and occupied Moldavia and Wallachia in modern Moldova and Romania, then part of the Ottoman Empire, they were to evacuate them as well as Greek Ionian Islands off the west coast of Ottoman Greece, these islands were handed over to the French.  Napoleon in turn guaranteed the sovereignty of the Duchy of Oldenburg and other German states where the Tsar had relatives.

Prussia’s treaty with France was signed on July 9th.  Its terms were much harsher, Napoleon sought punish them for starting the war in the first place.  King Frederick William III was forced to lose half his territory, some going to its old ally Saxony, some to the Napoleonic creation, the Kingdom of Westphalia in Western Germany and some to Russia.  Most humiliatingly, it was forced to cede its portion of once partitioned Poland to the newly semi-independent Duchy of Warsaw, a Polish rump-client state of the French Empire which sought eventual liberation of all of former Poland, including from Russia and Austria, for now the Duchy was a first step to total Polish independence.  Prussia’s total army was reduced to no more than 43,000 troops where as before the war it had been roughly 250,000 total.  It also had to submit to permanent French occupation and garrisoning, pay a large reparation of 154 million French francs and provide troops to serve in the French Empire’s campaigns as needed, becoming in effect a de-facto ally and vassal state of the French Empire. 

The Treaties of Tilsit were followed by weeks of wining and dining between the French and Russian Emperors, the two seemed to have developed a somewhat genuine affectionate friendship during this time.  Alexander previously despising Napoleon was supposedly mesmerized by Napoleon’s personality and his hypnotic stare and Napoleon in turn somewhat learned to find trust in Alexander, though in reality it was likely a combination of mutual awe and smokescreen flattery.  They attended military parades, exchanged gifts and pleasantries and then parted ways.  Tilsit was a resounding success and was nearly the zenith of Napoleon’s military and political influence, the French Empire was to grow ultimately in the coming years with 1809-1812 being its absolute apogee. Only later would the disasters of the drawn out Peninsular War in Iberia and the later Russian Campaign of 1812 have disastrously grave consequences, sending Napoleon’s good fortunes crashing to the ground in 1813-1814.

[mobius-prime]

122. Knuckles the Echidna #23

Dark Alliance (Part Two of Three): Election Night

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Jim Valentino Colors: Frank Gagliardo

After opening our intro page with a quote from Menniker speaking on his promise to be a strong leader for the Dark Legion, noted to take place "after emerging from their imprisonment in another zone" (presumably after Steppenwolf blasted them there in the distant past), we jump right into this evening's news broadcast from ENN!

General Stryker and Constable Remington are both perturbed by this for their own individual reasons, watching on their TVs at home, but Knuckles and the Chaotix, witnessing from their booth in a local diner, are dismissive, believing that politics are of no concern to them. However, the next day, they're all there at the rally, as Remington has called Knuckles to be there to discuss these concerning goings-on. Apparently, Remington had previously had a conversation with High Councilor Pravda, where Pravda had stated he wanted to keep his reelection campaign lowkey. Obviously, a big rally in the park is kind of the opposite of that. At that moment, Pravda pulls up in a swanky high-tech golden limo, very much the kind of technology he was always so opposed to in public before, and Knuckles and Remington watch suspiciously as someone from the car's interior escorts him to the podium, someone whom Remington claims never to have seen before…

Ah, gee, I wonder what platforms this guy is running on? We get into another kind of uncomfortable reference to WWII, as Benedict basically conducts his own shouty little Hitler rally about how technology will save them and the current government is oppressing the echidna people, and then actually, literally ends with a "Hail Dimitri" and a salute that's clearly based on the "Heil Hitler" salute, of which many in the crowd copy him. Honestly, I don't even know why Penders is trying to make them all Nazi-like. The conflict he has going here, the general idea of it, could be a fascinatingly complex one if he didn't shoehorn it into being a WWII allegory. On one side, you've got the repressive government restricting the personal freedoms of its citizens by banning many forms of technology, and on the other hand, you have the technologically-based "freedom fighters" of sorts who take their devotion way too far and become a terrorist cult while still genuinely believing they're here to free the masses. You have hypocrites like Pravda, the man in charge who denounces technology while simultaneously hoarding advanced tech for his own personal entertainment, and you have the Brotherhood, ostensibly serving the anti-tech faction against the Dark Legion, while monitoring everything from their incredibly high-tech base. You have the protagonist of the story, Knuckles, caught up in the middle of it all, with a heritage and duty to the anti-tech side, but a friend and potential love interest hailing from the pro-tech side. There's so many interesting directions this could go, such a perfect opportunity to really delve into the whole gray-and-gray-morality thing, where no one is truly a "good guy" and everyone has secrets and shadowy dealings going on - and yet Kenders throws it all away to turn it into a tired and frankly insensitive allegory for Nazis. In a Sonic the Hedgehog comic, again I can't stress enough. This is ultimately what I find so disappointing about this particular arc, is that it's built on all the conflict and tension and worldbuilding from previous arcs, and it could be so cool, and yet… in the end it's just another "they're like Hitler and Nazis, see? See?" type plot. You had a good thing going, Ken, so why this?

Well, anyway, speaking of the hypocrisy of the Brotherhood - Thunderhawk, Sabre, and Sojourner have been watching the proceedings from their little hideout, and actually start discussing their own use of tech when they're supposed to be protectors against the Dark Legion, when alarms start blaring. They don't even have time to check why.

The Kommissar waltzes in, with the Guardians unconscious on the ground at her feet, and radios Dimitri to inform him - they've taken Haven. Back in the park, Remington decides to confront Benedict about his little rally…

Pravda butts his brainwashed head in to inform Remington that he's ordering him not to arrest anyone here, and insists he come along in his limo so they can discuss the matter "in private." Somehow, this doesn't ring any alarm bells for Remington, who just follows them and gets right in without an issue. Knuckles and the Chaotix watch this suspiciously, shocked that now Dark Legionnaires are just allowed to walk around the city without issue, and together they head off to find answers elsewhere.

That evening, General Stryker is hanging out on the streets of the slums that the dingoes are still relegated to, wondering how he can exploit this situation to his advantage, and for all his violent actions in the past I don't blame him. The place looks filthy and the dingoes have clearly been treated as second-class citizens ever since they lost their city, and he's supposed to be the leader of his people, looking after their welfare. He orders a nearby soldier to gather everyone around so he can address them, but suddenly a spotlight from above shines down onto his location and a voice from the darkness orders them to stay put. Stryker challenges the voice, which comes closer, revealing itself to belong to a Dark Legionnaire named Xenin. Stryker insults Xenin a bit, and Xenin goes ballistic, beating up on him like he just informed him he murdered his entire family with that one insult and shouting the kinds of things only villains shout, because I guess we still weren't sure if these guys were the bad guys yet after that Nazi rally.

Xenin has the other dingoes rounded up to be locked in the sewers, because racism I guess, and the truck carrying the dingo prisoners happens to drive by Knuckles and his buddies, who are discussing the "good old days" before the Dark Legion and Echidnaopolis and everything else made their appearance. Just as they notice the truck, Xenin and his fellows descend upon them too.

They fight back, but Xenin proves to be too strong with his cybernetic enhancements. It's a bit odd, actually, because the Chaotix aren't actually shown to participate in the battle, and in fact don't show up for the rest of the arc, nor the issue after it. I can only assume that the Dark Legion just focused on kidnapping Knuckles and Julie-Su and made off with them before Vector, Mighty and Espio could intervene, leaving them behind on the street, but it's oddly unclear. Ah well. With that, we jump to Haven, where Thunderhawk, Sojourner, and Sabre are secured in some kind of mechanical restraint tubes or something, furious that their sanctum has finally fallen to the enemy. And how did this happen? Why, of course, with the help of Moritori Rex!

Moritori reports in to Dimitri, stating that while the base is secure, they have yet to find and capture Locke or Spectre. Dimitri orders Moritori to carry on with business as usual for now, and as he ends the call, Knuckles and Julie-Su start trash-talking him, revealing that they as well as Stryker have been imprisoned in similar mechanical cylinder… things, only they've been hung from the ceiling upside down for extra humiliation. Dimitri is shocked, shocked I tell you, that they're continuing to be defiant, as if that hasn't characterized Knuckles from their very first interaction, and expresses his anticipation of "some serious screaming…" Dun dun duuunnn!

[berniesrevolution]

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning upset in a congressional primary election against one of the most powerful Democrats in the U.S. House has inspired discussion and debate about how this campaign fits into the project of advancing the socialist left. SocialistWorker.org is hosting a dialogue in our Readers’ Views column. This installment has a contribution from Hadas Thier.

Thank you to Socialist Worker, the Socialism 2018 conference, Jacobin and other outlets which have helped to facilitate a very important debate about the relationship between socialists, elections and the Democratic Party. It’s critical that we learn from each other in order to deepen our theoretical and practical understanding.

Frankly, the stakes are high on both ends of the debate. On the one hand, we face the dangers of taking any action that could potentially undermine the political independence of a developing working class movement; on the other hand, the cost of missing opportunities that we have not had in decades could leave us a small organization, isolated from a growing left.

I believe we are in a new political moment that challenges us to think freshly about how we operate on many fronts, including the electoral one. When a socialist candidate garners millions of votes; when powerful party leaders are unseated; when the likes of CNN has to report on “a mass, multiracial, working-class movement” whose aim is “totally transforming the system”; we have a new political terrain on which to contend.

I will attempt to raise three questions here: 1) What is the historical context out of which we’ve come? 2) Do our old arguments regarding the Democratic Party still apply in the present? and 3) What is a matter of principle and what is a matter of strategy and tactics?

The last two years have witnessed a level of political volatility and whiplash unseen in decades. This has led to a growth, internationally, of both the far right and the socialist left.

In the U.S., we’ve seen the teachers’ strike wave alongside the reactionary Janus ruling against public-sector labor, and successful electoral campaigns of open socialists alongside Trump’s unhinged right-wing ascendancy to the White House.

Politics is more polarized than ever, and both political parties have in some significant ways lost their grips over their bases. We live in scary times, but we also have more opportunities than we have during the lifetime of this organization to build the revolutionary left, engage in activity and relate to class struggle. Millions of people are looking for an alternative to the rotten status quo.

But the political terrain that we have inherited is one of a historically weak left and decades of low levels of class struggle. In the ISO(International Socialist Organizational), we have long bemoaned the gap between left-moving consciousness and concrete organization and action on the ground. Powerful struggles have flared over the years, but have still remained episodic. Movement ups and downs have largely not translated into enough organization and connectivity between struggles to make a qualitative breakthrough.

One key element in all of this is the confidence of our side. The wider the gap between what people believe and how they see their ideas reflected in society (whether that be in struggles or in formal politics), the more confidence is undermined.

At the same time, third-party challenges to the status quo have remained relegated to symbolic runs and, certainly since Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign, outside of a few exceptional pockets, have not gained traction.

This isn’t the fault of the hard-working, principled candidates who have run for office, but a result of the objective barriers to third-party runs, set up by the two parties themselves and their corporate backers. The calculation of our comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) that the ground is not yet ready for a third party is, I believe, correct.

For both of these reasons — the need to build up the confidence of our side and the inability of third party runs to do so — I think we need to reassess our past arguments. One after another, they will leave us ill-equipped to address the current situation:

First, we have rightly argued against the politics of lesser evilism: the idea that we must vote for Democrats, no matter how rightward their politics have turned, so that we don’t get the “greater evil” of the Republicans. We’ve been absolutely correct to say that this approach lets the Democrats get away with (literally) murder and has a narrowing effect on political consciousness.

As the great socialist Eugene Debs put it: “I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.”

But we have to be clear that the new generations of radicals, activists and young people who are voting for Bernie Sanders, and much more so Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are very much voting for what they want! Sanders, Orcasio-Cortez, Julia Salazar and others, even where their politics are unsatisfactory, are not a lesser evil.

Relatedly, we’ve always argued that elections have a narrowing, depoliticizing effect, lowering people’s expectations of what’s possible. I think we have to recognize now that in some cases, this is true — and in some cases, the opposite is true!

There is no other way to understand Bernie’s primary successes other than having raised people’s confidence and expectations. Striking teachers told us exactly this at the Socialism conference. And where I organize, at Brooklyn College, literally every student that has come around the ISO this past year was politicized and activated by Bernie’s campaign.

Lastly, we’ve said that the Democrats are the “graveyard of social movements,” both because electoral campaigns take people away from activism, and because the party actively co-opts movements. We are absolutely right that this is what the Democratic Party intends to do. But that does not mean that they can always succeed, or that every person who runs on their line has that intention.

The DSA, by running candidates and simultaneously building its own organization on the ground shows that the opposite can be true. It is providing an organizational vehicle for newly politicized people. In the words of DSA National Director Maria Svart, it is “organizing people and building concrete power with a politically aware grassroots base that understands who the enemy is and is willing to hold politicians accountable.”

What then can we say of the principles at stake, and what room do we have in terms of plotting out a strategic position?

I think Owen Hill and Paul LeBlanc’s excellent contributions have already framed this discussion well. Rather than a blanket refusal to ever support a candidate who runs on the Democratic Party line, the key principle at stake is maintaining the independent organization of the working class

(Continue Reading)

[worldticketsandhospitality]

Qatar World Cup 2022- Norwich move gives striker new opportunity to develop into USMNT star

The striker is leaving a difficult situation at Werder Bremen to move to the Premier League Football, but success is not guaranteed, and sometimes it's easy to forget that Josh Sargent is only 21 years old. For years, Sargent was earmarked as the next number nine for the U.S. men's national team, and he burst into the spotlight at the U-17 and U-20 Football World Cups in the summer of 2017.

Fans from all over the world are called to book Football world Cup tickets from our online platforms WorldWideTicketsandHospitality.com. Football World Cup fans can book USA Football World Cup Tickets on our website at exclusively discounted prices.

                        But now, in the summer of 2021, Sargent has yet to fully grasp the role. At the start of Football World Cup qualifying, he was one of several contenders for the USMNT's starting eleven, and although he was the favorite, the competition has intensified. Now, however, Sargent has made a move that will allow him to take control of the USMNT. By leaving Werder Bremen to join Norwich City, Sargent can show that he can be more and bigger than the strikers who have made steady but unimpressive progress in the Bundesliga.

Sargent will take a big step forward in his career as he is tested week in and week out in what is probably the most difficult environment for a young striker to shine in. I think Premier League Football is the best league in the world and it will thrust and challenge me to become an improved player, Sargent said upon his arrival at the club. At Werder Bremen, Sargent seemed to be treading water. Many aspects of his game took a step forward: his ball control, his work rate, his creativity.

However, playing for a team that was often eliminated in the preliminary round and eventually relegated, Sargent was never able to play the way he would have liked. During Sargent's time at the club, Werder Bremen was a bad team, to say the least. In the 2019-20 season, Sargent's first complete season with the club, Werder Bremen ended 16th and just succeeded to stay in the Bundesliga. They weren't so lucky last season, finishing 17th and on the verge of relegation, with Sargent being the club's top scorer with just five league goals.

For a player of Sargent's caliber, the Bundesliga was a waste of a year. Next season will be crucial to his development, and playing in a promotion campaign where success is not guaranteed is not the way he wants to prepare for the Qatar Football World Cup 2022. Instead, he will continue to develop at another club that could struggle this season, Norwich. For more details about Football World Cup Tickets.

The Finnish star has been Norwich's best striker since 2018. In that time, he has scored 67 goals in 126 games, including 11 in Norwich's Premier League Football campaign two years ago. Pukki's presence means Sargent could be deployed on the wing, which he could do, but it's not an ideal position for a player looking to establish himself as a number nine under Gregg Berhalter. He could also play overdue or alongside Pukki, as it relics to be seen how the club will use the young American.

He needs to score some goals next year and, more importantly, get playing time to stay at the top of the U.S. national team. Despite Sargent's struggles at Werder Bremen, he has developed a lot of skills that fit well with this U.S. team. He's very committed to his role off the ball, he saved the game against Mexico, and he's gotten better at opening up play for his teammates.

He is expected to be used in the first half when the U.S. begins its qualifying campaign next month. He was Berhalter's first choice during the Nations League Football and seemed a perfect fit in a team with flank options like Christian Pulisic, Gio Reina, and Tim Vea. There will be competition for the No. 9 spots, however. Darryl Dyke is one of the contenders, even after a tough Gold Cup run that saw him plagued by injuries and possible fatigue. Gyasi Zardes is still in the conversation, as he is as reliable as ever.

Sargent's move to Norwich is a calculated risk for him that could help him solidify his position for good as the 21-year-old striker heads toward his first of several Football World Cups with the United States.

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[blaugr4na]

#BartomeuDimiteHoy: MASTER LIST

The best Barcelona in history - the Barcelona that became a reference for world football and became the only club to have ever won a sextuple - was under Joan Laporta and his model which emphasized Cruyff, La Masia, Catalunya, and UNICEF. Since Laporta was replaced on July 1st, 2010, this model has continuously decayed and as the campaign for the vital VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE approaches, I thought I would make an updated "master list” of some of evident damage happening within our club since Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu have taken over. 

Disrespectful/Mishandled Departures

Johan Cruyff

Stripped of his honorary presidency and pushed away from the club

Cruyff confirmed in an interview with RAC1 that him/Rosell only spoke to him once (which was when they took his title as honorary president away) and that him/Bartomeu never spoke.

Bartomeu himself, in 2008: “We need to say no to Cruyff. Voting yes to the motion of censure [against Laporta] is to vote no for Cruyffism at Barça.”

Pep Guardiola

Left him alone to defend himself and our club against Mourinho and the lies published by Madrid based media due to the board’s eagerness to avoid the media

Ex: the allegations that our players were doping/working with doctors of “questionable reputations” (which we ended up letting go for only €200,000), the allegations that we accepted refereeing favors, etc.

Was blamed by the board for Zlatan’s signing in front of the socis while Rosell called it the “worst deal in the history of the club” even though Pep wasn’t the only person responsible for it

After all of this and more, they claimed to the fans that they did “everything in their power” to make Pep stay after he decided to step away

Even after he left, Rosell said “Everything [Pep] says is false. There is no argument or evidence for his claims about us. I put it down to someone poisoning Pep’s mind, but he allowed himself to be poisoned.” after Pep went public with the fact that they crossed the line with him and weren’t keeping their word of promising to leave him in peace after leaving

Eric Abidal

Forced out of the club in tears while lies were being told both to him and about him

Bartomeu, 2012: “Abidal’s contract is ready, and when he plays his first match, we’ll sign it”. He returned to play. They never renewed him.

Lied to the public claiming medical departments concluded that he wouldn’t be able to continue as a player. Abidal went on to continue playing for the French NT and played over 30 matches for Monaco.

Dani Alves

Let go for free

Publicly confirmed that during his final years, he would always hear 'Alves was leaving,' but the directors never said anything to his face (to confirm the rumours or support/reassure him of his place in the club)

These were, apparently, among many leaks to the media which came directly from the board, who were trying to demonize him in the media, which is believed to go back to Dani’s personal problems with the board related to, among other things, their treatment of Eric Abidal

Has since been one of the most outspoken about how much he was disrespected, and in general how much this board doesn’t respect their players

Thiago Alcantara

Destined/developed to be Xavi’s eventual replacement. 

Forced to play the minimum amount of matches in his last season to keep his buyout clause at 18m instead of it going up to €90m (to ensure a sale as Neymar’s transfer approached). 

Sold for €20m

Xavi

Was almost certainly leaving for NYCFC back in 2014.

Lucho and Zubi convinced him into staying another year because he knew the team needed him to

Still failed to sign a proper replacement after he left

David Villa

Bought for €40m, sold to direct league rivals for €5m

Txema Corbella

Was our beloved kit man for 32 years. Has shared our dressing room with players from Maradona to Messi. 

Described by Victor Valdes as “someone who is like a father to me and has always protected us”

Was also the last person who tried to convince Valdes to stay, telling him “You'll never be better off than you are here” in tears

After returning from his vacation in 2014, was fired by the board without warning, given no reason other than “he wasn’t necessary”.

Willful neglect of La Masia

Eusebio

Was kept and continued to renew his contract despite his disregard for actual player development because he was close with the board and his results with FCBB were “enough” for them until they were relegated to Segunda B.

Oscar Garcia

Lead Juvenil A to 3/3 titles with only 3 defeats in 50 matches in his first season as coach and was chosen to replace Lucho at Barça B, but the board ended up signing Eusebio instead. Oscar stayed with the club despite this. 

During his second season as Juvenil A coach, Eusebio would frequently call up Oscar’s top players to Barça B and not even use them. One of the most significant cases was when Oscar’s team lost the Liga on the last match of the season. Eusebio had called up Dongou for Barça B’s match and never even used him. The team suffered all year and Oscar unfairly took the blame from the press, but stayed with the club as Zubi promised him the Barça B coaching position claiming that Eusebio would be leaving Barça B. 

A month later, they renewed Eusebio, pushing Oscar out.

A good article for more about this can be found [here].

Thiago. Bartra. Grimaldo. Samper. Munir. Sandro. Eric Garcia. Adama. Mboula. The list can go on.

Graduates are increasingly being denied their chance and are shown the door while excessive amounts of money are being spent on players outside the club. They have shown that La Masia kids more of a way to make money for them and could not care less about developing them to have them on the first team.

Refuses to take any responsibility and actually blamed our players for the fall of La Masia

Bartomeu, July 2017: “The problem is people like Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and those players. It is likely that there are other Messis, but they have to leave the club because it is impossible for them to play here.”

Sergi Roberto

Has worked for years to gain the trust of the coach and become a starter, staying on the bench and refusing offers from other clubs for years to prove himself

Played out of position for 2 consecutive years and not only shined, but played a crucial role in many important moments

The year he was promised an opportunity in his favoured role, Paulinho is signed for €40m with a release clause of €140m (Sergi’s release clause is €40m)

 Lionel Messi

Had his contract renewal stalled by the board for months in 2014. It was Tito Vilanova, in his last days, who spoke with Messi and convinced him to remain calm and stay.

Launched the controversial #WeAreAllLeoMessi campaign during the tax fraud trial, with Bartomeu tweeting out “Leo, those who attack you are attacking Barça and its history. We’ll defend you to the end. Together forever!” ...then, as Laporta pointed out, refused to send any board members to support him when he went to testify in court.

Bartomeu has sent out private polls to socis asking how they felt about selling him

Reemergence of Ultras in Barcelona

Before Laporta, they were given free tickets to home matches, free transportation to away games, and storage facilities at Camp Nou for their flags and banners. 

When Laporta was elected in 2003, he formally banned their presence at matches and fought so hard to keep them away from Camp Nou/distance the club from their conduct that he was almost killed (they painted death threats outside his house and tried to attack him on more than one occasion). Still, he insisted on “talking less and acting more” to stop them. 

When they went to Rosell/Bartomeu after he was elected, he was willing to compromise. They didn’t just “sneak back in”, he invited them back and gave them extremely cheap and sometimes even free tickets. 

This is still happening. We’ve paid for tickets so they can attend UCL away matches. A couple years ago when two PSG fans were recently stabbed outside of Camp Nou in an area frequented by ultras, Bartomeu and his board wouldn’t comply with Catalan police.

2015 Transfer Ban

All of it happened due to the incompetency of the board. 

FIFA warned the board about the problems related to the Masia players over A YEAR before taking action. The board said they would settle it, but they still did nothing. 

They put the “La Masia No Es Toca” banner up and initially lied about the situation, only to have Bartomeu later admit that it was actually due to ‘administrative errors’. 

Zubi himself even said: “Mr. Bartomeu is the one who knew the situation better than anyone, as he was the sporting vice president during that time.” 

We were left with both a harsh punishment due their mistakes and we had to to step up to defend the credibility the academy that is part of why we are més que un club.

Qatar

The club that wore and sponsored (not sponsored by) UNICEF with pride accepts a sponsorship deal with Qatar Sports Investments. ‘Qatar Airways’ gets painted across Camp Nou while UNICEF got relegated to a spot on the back of our shirt.

Justified it by saying Qatar Foundation also were a philanthropy institution who were responsible for helping thousands of people around the world like UNICEF and that most socis welcomed the addition, brushed off the serious allegations against the Qatar Foundation’s founder as mistakes “made in good faith”

While Bartomeu fought to keep them as our sponsor until QSI gave up on the sponsorship, it was Piqué and Shakira who did the work in initiating and closing the new deal with Rakuten.

Bartomeu admitted this himself: “The deal began at a dinner hosted by Gerard Pique at Hiroshi Mikitani's house in San Francisco in 2015. Shakira and Pique are good friends of Mikitani and they organised a dinner. We met there and we spoke about the future and Rakuten's interest - Pique helped us a lot here.”

Camp Nou

Scraped Laporta’s “Forster Project” to renovate Camp Nou claiming it was too expensive. Cost: €250m.

Replaced it with their project, Espai Barça. Cost: €600m. 

Has been unworkable so far due to the board’s inability to get proper plan that the municipality agrees with

Neymar’s Arrival Fiasco

Rosell/Bartomeu lied and did everything they possibly could to make it the move that started the “Rosell era” - A move he could call his own, one that he thought would pull him out from the shadows of his predecessor’s success and ensure his re-election.

This has since only damaged the reputation of this club and got us sued for tax fraud.

Rosell appeared on live TV and said “Neymar costed €57.1 million. Period.”

Actual costs to date = €10 million in 2011 to ensure the move (confirmed by Neymar Sr), €86.2 million in 2013 for the actual transfer + bonus (confirmed by Bartomeu) and €22 million for the tax fraud case = €118 million, approximately. 

A sum of that money was also dedicated to paying Neymar Sr and his company, N&N, every year so he could “scout” Brazilian players (ex: Douglas) for us. Multiple other unconfirmed rumours are connected to this deal as well.

Bartomeu has since said he would "do it all over again" regarding the Neymar contract, despite our club being first in Spain guilty of tax fraud

Neymar’s Departure Fiasco

Bartomeu was aware Neymar was leaving since July, but didn't prepare to sign players to replace him

Panicked after losing the Spanish Super Cup and publicly spoke about bringing Coutinho and Dembele WHILE STILL NEGOTIATING THE DEALS (which could still fall through) with BVB and Liverpool - who can now raise the prices and we won’t be able to do anything about it. 

Even as they were jeopardizing the deals and revealing details about private negotiations, they still tried to claim “they couldn’t say anything about them” (as they literally were speaking about them)

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Make your voice heard - it’s more important and impactful than you might think. 

Use the hashtag: #BartomeuDimiteHoy 

Our voices are already being heard: We’ve made it trend in not only Spain, but worldwide.

The pressure is already being felt: They’ve had #BartomeuDimiteYa censored. They have publicly made claims that this hashtag is “only being used by foreigners” (which is not only untrue, but also a disgusting excuse considering our club's best ever player is a foreigner, the most influential person in club's history is also a foreigner, the club's founder is a foreigner, foreigners alter their sleep schedules to watch games, foreigners pay to buy jerseys/travel from all over the world to support their team, etc...)

Support Agustí Benedito 

He activated the process of the motion of no-confidence and will be leading the campaign for the upcoming vote. 

Twitter: @agustibenedito 

No-Confidence Campaign Website: votdecensura2017.cat

THE CAMPAIGN WILL START OFFICIALLY ON SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2017.

His pressure is being felt too: They have tried to destabilize the No-Confidence campaign by claiming Benedito has owes them €10,000 from his presidential campaign - this has since been confirmed as false.

Are you a soci, 18+, in Barcelona, and have been a soci for 1+ year? VOTE!!!

Socis that meet these requirements are the ONLY ones who can officially give their signatures in the first stage of the vote. 

Benedito should have the forms by Friday, September 8th. He needs 16,500 signatures in 14 days to get past the VITAL first stage of the vote. 

Watch [THIS] video for more in-depth information about Benedito’s motion and SPREAD IT!

I’m probably forgetting some things, and there’s probably even more that we don’t know, but hopefully the message here is clear. 

I will say it again like I did before the last election - I always have and I always will love and stand behind FC Barcelona, no matter what. I’m personally not one of those who wishes worse on the club just so the board looks worse, nor do I point at the board and over-exaggerate every single little shortcoming. I probably even try and balance the reasons behind their actions more than I should sometimes. But all of the things listed above are facts, and while we should never lose faith in our team, we cannot be blind to the mismanagement that is having such a damaging affect either. The calls for Bartomeu’s resignation are not because we don’t have faith in our club; they are because we rightfully do not have faith in the current board. They have gotten away with too much and dodged responsibility for too long. 

Please do what you can to spread the word. Give Benedito’s motion a real chance of succeeding. TOTS UNITS FEM FORÇA. 

[junker-town]

Where Messi could play next if he leaves Barcelona

Here are some of the more intriguing possibilities for Messi, along with their betting odds.

In the world of soccer, no player is more closely associated with a team than Leo Messi and Barcelona. That could soon change. Messi has reportedly told Barcelona that he intends to void his contract, ending a 20-year relationship that started when he was just 13.

While Barcelona denies these reports — and there’s speculation that the situation could end up being decided by the courts — there’s at least the possibility that Messi could walk on a free, essentially allowing him to join whatever team he pleases and demanding just about whatever he wants.

There probably isn’t a team in the world who would turn down a chance to sign Messi — almost no matter the cost — but here are some of the more intriguing possibilities, along with their betting odds.

Manchester City (5-4)

Ever since the possibility of Messi switching teams first became a seeming possibility, City has been the most prominently mentioned destination. It’s not just that they are effectively owned by the United Arab Emirates and have more money than anyone. They’re also managed by Pep Guardiola, the coach who led him to two of his four UEFA Champions League titles. City has consistently been among England’s best teams since Guardiola joined them, but have failed to complete his mission of European glory.

Somewhere in England (7-5)

In addition to City, Manchester United (12-1), Liverpool (14-1), Arsenal (40-1), Chelsea (40-1) and Leeds United (50-1) are all deemed solid enough bets to be named. Collectively, the oddsmakers seem to think there’s a pretty good chance he’s going to end up in the EPL. For my money, the most intriguing of these possibilities is Leeds. Once, one of England’s top teams, they’ve been out of the top flight since being relegated after the 2003-04 season. Messi supposedly campaigned for Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa to join Barcelona prior to Ronald Koeman’s hiring. Unfortunately, we’d have to wait at least another year before we get an answer to the age-old question of whether he can “do the business on a rainy day at Stoke”?

Inter Milan (3-1)

It might be a little surprising to see Inter Milan so high on this list. But they’ve got a few things going for them. The first is chairman Steven Zhang, who effectively manages the team’s finances on behalf of his father’s company Suning Holdings Group. Inter Milan has been among the teams most openly trying to recruit Messi. The Italian giants are about a decade removed from being among the sport’s elite and likely see Messi as a ticket back into that conversation. A move to Serie A would also re-ignite Messi’s rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined fellow Italian side Juventus ahead of last season.

Paris Saint-Germain (3-1)

Like Manchester City, PSG are effectively owned by a nation-state and their wealth is primarily what makes this possible. In this case, it’s Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. As you may have heard, PSG already has one of the most expensive rosters in the world (right behind City) that features the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. Given the presence of those two, Messi probably doesn’t make a ton of sense from a roster-building perspective. But I’m sure they’d figure out a way to make it work. PSG is fresh off a loss in the Champions League final, so maybe they see Messi as the missing piece to this very expensive puzzle.

Juventus (5-1)

To be completely honest, I don’t know why Juventus is this high on the betting charts. They are owned by the Agnelli family, whose worth is estimated at about $13.5 billion. They also own Fiat. No one doubts they have money and Messi is probably looking for a lot of it, so that probably explains the connection. This would pair up the two most successful players of the modern era, but it would also force Juventus to commit the equivalent a small nation’s GDP to two players on the wrong side of 30. On the other hand, it would likely force a few soccer journalist’s heads to explode after they’d spent so much time making it seem like these two represented such diametrically opposed visions of the perfect soccer player.

Major League Soccer (12-1)

Remember when David Beckham signed for the LA Galaxy and everyone thought “wow, that’s crazy”? Well, this would be like 10 times crazier. Even with the rapidly increasing values of MLS teams, Messi’s contract would likely be worth more than almost any one team in the league. Even if the league could collectively find a way to justify underwriting that kind of deal (similar to how they did with Beckham) convincing Messi would be extremely difficult. Then again, maybe the siren-call of Miami or Los Angeles is just what he needs right now. (Note: None of this should preclude the possibility of it happening a few more years down the line...)

Bayern Munich (16-1)

No one should doubt that Bayern Munich has the money to sign Messi, but it would definitely be a bit out of character for them. While they are happy to buy up the best German players, they usually don’t splash this kind of money on foreigners. Messi could be the exception, though. Bayern Munich were the team that eliminated Barca from Champions League this year (and went on to win the treble), so they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

Newell’s Old Boys (20-1)

Before he was a world-superstar, Messi was just a promising kid coming up through the Newell’s Old Boys academy. Well, not just any kid. He supposedly scored 234 goals in 176 games between 1994-99, which is how he attracted the attention of international scouts. This would not be a move that makes any sort of economic sense, but maybe Messi is just longing to connect to his native land after failing to bring them any sort of international glory.

Retire before Jan. 1, 2021 (4-1)

This is sort of the x-factor answer, and apparently the betting public thinks it’s at least within the realm of possibility. This probably only happens if Barcelona manages to convince a judge that the opportunity to void his contract passed while the team was on its Covid-19 hiatus and either tries to force him to remain or demands a nine-figure transfer fee. At 33, the only thing left for him to accomplish is winning an international trophy for Argentina, a team he quit in 2016. Although he came back to make a run at the 2018 World Cup, he’s unlikely to stick around just to take another shot in 2022 with all the chaos that’s surrounded the team.

[dirgeofcerberus111]

Era 0 - A Pre-Canon Diamond  Origin Story AU

So a long time ago I made a sort of origin story AU about the Diamonds. There’s been a question about the Diamonds, that did they create Gemkind or were they created by Gemkind? So I started thinking and went down one of these routes.

The idea was before the Great Diamond Authority there used to be lots of Diamonds, but not anymore. So from that I made this.

Chances are more than likely that with the next couple of episodes this will be very non-canon but that’s why I’m posting it now. Hope you enjoy!

There was a time, before the Authority, that there were more than Four Diamonds. Era 0 was a time before recorded history, a time where Gemkind was ruled by numerous Diamonds who ruled the lesser Gems in a massive feudal system.

Brown Diamonds were common administrators, relegated to overseeing lesser Gems, Yellow Diamonds were higher tiered task-managers of other Diamonds, Green Diamonds were in charge of scientific endeavors, Red Diamonds were military leaders and officials who headed the Imperium’s expansion, and White Diamonds were high-ranking officials and advisers to the Master of Gemkind. Each one of these Diamonds held their own courts and governed their own fiefdoms.

These individual fiefdoms were in turn all ruled by the Supreme Diamond, the great Black Diamond; Carbonado, Master of Gemkind, Old One-Eye. An absolute giant, even to the lesser Diamonds, Black Diamond was the oldest and most powerful Diamond of them all. She was to other Diamonds, what Diamonds are to other Gems. Beneath her powers of gravity, all Gems, be they lesser or Diamond, bowed before her.

It was a time where Gemkind’s dominion had reached the height of its power, however it was also a time of stagnation and decline. Infighting and decadence among the numerous Diamonds was rampant, and resources and lives were squandered to ridiculous degrees.

Black Diamond herself was a mad tyrant. Though once a great hero and beloved protector to Gemkind, her mind had slowly become poisoned by paranoia and suspicion. Black Diamond eventually began to fear losing her power and came to suspect that others would betray her to take it. In her delusions, she saw plots and disloyalty everywhere her great single eye looked, common Gems and Diamonds alike were shattered for the slightest suspicion or whim by Black Diamond.

The Diamond’s vanity and greed knew no bounds, vast amounts of Gem lives and resources were wasted on vanity projects; monuments to their power and temples to their egos. Meanwhile their crusades of conquest continued to march unsustainably in needless and ill-advised campaigns along every border. Black Diamond moved ludicrous amounts of resources and raw materials to construct an artificial planet to be her throne and seat of her power, the Throneworld. Countless Gem colonies and entire star systems were stripped completely barren to make this possible. The situation for the Gem race had deteriorated so badly that factions finally formed and moved against her.

There was a Rebellion, led by a young White Diamond who fought to overthrow the Old Tyrant in what became known as the Diamond Wars.

The Wars were catastrophic. Gems shattered Gems and countless Gem colonies were laid to waste, entire stars were extinguished by the battles that ensued. Some Diamonds chose to pick a side, be it Loyalist or Rebel. Others instead went rogue and clung on to their own holdings, declaring their independence, neutrality, or became warlords.

The war raged until the entire Gem race was brought to the brink of extinction. One by one, Diamonds fell, shattered by fellow Diamonds, lost to other means, or simply went missing, until their numbers dwindled. In the final battle for Throneworld, Black Diamond was defeated when White Diamond tricked her into use her gravity powers to bring one of the Throneworld’s satellite-moons crash downing upon herself, bringing the assumed end of the Old Tyrant.

Though the war was over, in the process, Gemkind’s interstellar civilization had been shattered. With such massive loss of life their remaining colonies were cut off and isolated from one another. The Gems stranded upon some of these planets slowly regressed into primitiveness.

In the end, only a handful of Diamonds were left, only four had survived the final battle and the destruction of Throneworld; 

Yellow, Blue, Pink, and White Diamond herself.

Over the eons, the universe slowly began to recover from the damage inflicted by the Diamond Wars and replenish from the millennium of exploitation by the Gem race. The last four Diamonds embarked on a great quest to reunify the scattered Gem colonies and bring them under the control of the central authority. The New Empire was fashioned in reflection to the mistakes and failures of the Old Empire. 

The Diamonds would work together, hand-in-hand as equals for the good of the Gem race. There would be no more wanton decadence, only austere functionality and efficiency. The infighting that ravaged the Gem race would be replaced by order and enlightened unity. From the ashes, the Great Diamond Authority arose to be an efficient and guiding hand, where everything and every-Gem would have a place and purpose to serve for the greater good of Gemkind.

I dunno, AUs are fun, and so are far-out headcanons. :P

[pavspatch]

Hillmen follow in Curzon’s steps of 20 years ago

THE tectonic plates under the Northern Premier League have shifted again. What were the first divisions north and south, and then east and west, are now the first divisions south east and north west.

For Glossop North End, who find themselves just on the wrong side of the dividing line, that means no more league encounters with Tameside neighbours. Instead of meeting Droylsden or Mossley on Boxing Day they could now face Sheffield or Belper.

Yet their situation isn’t without precedent. In 1997, after relegation from the NPL, Curzon Ashton found themselves cast into the Northern Counties (East) League rather than the North West Counties League.

It was a decision that compounded a host of difficulties the club was experiencing at the time. The story started in 1995 when Blackpool businessman Stuart Kay joined the Nash as chairman and made an immediate impact.

Practically his first move was to sack manager Taffy Jones. Fans were shocked but at first he looked like he might be exactly the kind of new broom Curzon needed if they were to complete the transition from a group of subs-paying amateurs to a properly functioning semi-professional outfit.

Impressive plans to make National Park a community facility were actually ahead of their time, and new boss Derek Brownbill, a former Liverpool player who had been in charge at Warrington, seemed to have a winning formula. There were long periods when the Nash looked like promotion contenders.

However, behind the scenes, there was growing discord. Brownbill, sensing what was in the air, quit as soon as the season ended, but it was only at the start of the following campaign that the cracks began to show.

Yet although the boardroom split had become apparent, Curzon still got off to a good start. Now managed by another Liverpudlian, Terry McLean, who had previously been at Vauxhall, they got off to a good start. But it didn’t last. In September McLean resigned and Kay was ousted.

Sadly, the divisions remained and despite the new boss being Dave Denby, who had led Ashton United to four trophies in 1991-92, including an NWCL clean sweep, the Nash plunged into disaster. Denby resigned in March, to be replaced by Ged Coyne, but nothing could halt the collapse. Curzon finished third-bottom and went down with Warrington and Atherton LR.

The general assumption — at least among average fans — was that all three clubs would drop into the NWCL. It wasn’t to be. Curzon were made to play in the Northern Counties (East) League.

It was a decision that seemed to defy logic but some people claimed they could make sense of it. They said it was Eric Hinchliffe’s revenge for Curzon’s decision to leave the NWCL in 1987 to join the new NPL first division.

Eric — a Cheshire League secretary and NWCL president — died in 1999 and cannot speak for himself, but he was clearly a divisive figure. His detractors would say that he neither forgave nor forgot.

When the NPL mooted its plan to extend to two divisions, clubs who wanted to join had to resign from their own league. Ashton United did so, were rejected by the Prem, and then found they couldn’t return to the NWCL rejected because the inspection committee said the main stand at Hurst Cross was sub-standard — even though it had been acceptable when Ashton were playing in the same competition only a few weeks before.

Rightly or wrongly, people blamed Eric Hinchliffe. Chief among them was veteran Robins correspondent DCN Jones who then hit back at every opportunity. Years later his match reports would suddenly go off on a tangent, ignoring events on the pitch to have a go at Eric.

Dai loved Ashton United. He had covered them since their pre-war days as Hurst and it hurt him badly to think they might be forced to fold. He also had his own individual sense of injustice. Fortunately, Tameside Council came to the rescue with a new stand.

Furious Curzon officials, who blamed Eric Hinchliffe just as much as DCN Jones, saw all their appeals ignored. Despite the distances involved, and the fact they were very evidently a North West club, they were banished east of the Pennines.

The season proved just as bad as everyone feared. The Nash, managed by Coyne and then Micky Halliday and Kojoe Taylor, never got to grips with the style of play. Each club had two very sturdy full-backs who incessantly hammered the ball forward to an extremely speedy striker. Glossop may find things have changed in the ensuing 20 years.

At the end, there was only a point in it, but the Nash suffered a second, successive relegation. This time at least it was back to the NWCL, albeit the second division.

There were some good points though — at least for me as Curzon’s match reporter. I got to see some interesting grounds such as Thackley, Hallam and Pickering, and watch the Nash face Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium, a place with a capacity of 25,000 and only around 25 people in it.

I even got to sample the curious Yorkshire tradition of eating cheese with Christmas cake. That was at Eccleshill.

And while Yorkshire will never be better than Lancashire, I have to admit their football clubs do provide first-class tea and sausage rolls.

Hopefully Glossop’s return to civilisation will be as fast as Curzon’s — but going in the right direction.

[fan-of-mulligan]

FOM BLOG: GILLINGHAM SUPPORTERS REPORT (PART TWO)

At the start of the season, and after Fifteen League Games Of The Season, I asked Gillingham Supporters for there thoughts and opinions on Gillingham’s Player Recruitment, Where Do Gillingham Need To Strengthen The Squad In The January Transfer Window, And Questions About Gillingham’s Home Form, If you want to check out those blogs in full, then here are a few links to those respective blogs - http://fan-of-mulligan.tumblr.com/post/176599990077/fom-blog-gillingham-supporters-season-preview-for AND http://fan-of-mulligan.tumblr.com/post/179698794922/fom-blog-gillingham-supporters-report-part-one

This blog is a follow up blog to the two previous blogs that Several Gillingham Supporters have participated in, the first blog was a question and answer session before the start of the season, and the second blog saw Gillingham Supporters answer questions after Fifteen League Games, After this third blog for The 2018 / 2019 Season, there will be one more Gillingham Supporters Blog for the end of The 2018 / 2019 Season,  Answering these questions are the following Gillingham Supporters,,,, Richard, Luke, Emlyn, ForzaGills, We_Need_Eaves, Dave, BQGillsFan, Mac, Colin, Rob, Smithy, Marc, Stocky, Loonpotter, Louis, Matthew, Gills Debate, and Lewis.

I want to thank every Gillingham Supporter for contributing to the blog, not only the supporters who participated in the first blog, but also the newcomers who have given there thoughts and opinion’s on the first fifteen league games of The 2018 / 2019 Season For The Gills, Now on to the questions and answers.

1, AFTER THIRTY LEAGUE GAMES, GILLINGHAM ARE NINETEENTH IN THE LEAGUE ONE TABLE WITH THIRTY THREE POINTS, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP GILLINGHAM’S PERFORMANCE IN LEAGUE ONE SO FAR THIS SEASON, AND WHAT DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL NEED TO DO IF GILLINGHAM ARE TO START CLIMBING THE TABLE AND HEAD IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ???

Richard - Inconsistent. Yes the home form is a concern but I'm more concerned by the number of pathetic goals we concede. Don't mind being beaten by a stunner but 9 of 10 we concede is due to poor defending.

Luke - My feelings haven't changed an awful lot since the last round of these questions after Bradford. Still average to poor in the league. Having an FA Cup run however has been bit of a nice change and the scenes when Elliott List scored against Cardiff I will remember for a long time. A lot of inconsistencies need to be ironed out but the new signings will hopefully add some fresh impetus into the team.

Emlyn - It’s disappointing to be in the position we are in at the moment, to climb out of it Im not too sure, maybe a different formation like the one used in the last few games, stick with this one for a while and see how the results go, we were unlucky against Accrington(wasn’t at Coventry), we were creating chances and looked more dangerous going forward, so I’d prob give that a go for the foreseeable.

ForzaGills - I think our current league position is lower than most would've hoped, but about right in terms of what we'd have realistically expected at the start of the season. With little opportunity to invest in the squad Steve Lovell’s done an ok job of getting a young squad together capable of competing at this level, but we’re a long way off a playoff push or even mid-table at this stage. If we’re going to start climbing the table, we need to stop conceding so many soft goals, particularly at home.

We_Need_Eaves - one dimensional. Have a plan b for when plan a doesn’t work IE: use wingers.

Dave -  There have been some positive results so far for the gills. However, inconsistency has been our biggest issue again. We haven’t had a run of results where we have won 4 or 5 games with a couple of draws in a row. If we can do that we should be fine since we are essentially 6 wins away from the magic 50.

BQGillsFan - Gillingham's season is getting more and more infuriating as it goes on. We have a team capable of putting in big performances but we don't do it in the games we need to. Dropping too many points in winnable games and not showing any consistency on a week to week basis. At this point I'm not sure what Gills can do, it's going to be a nervy end to the season.

Mac - It’s been pretty poor so far but I think we could climb the league if we carry on playing wingers.

Colin - The squad lacks creativity in midfield. We have too many agricultural players. The defensive unit of Fuller, Ehmer, Zakuani and Ogilvie can't deal with pace. Maybe the new loan players can give us a better blend. The upside is that Eaves and Hanlan look likely to get more goals.

Rob - I think Gillingham have been poor this season. We're just above the relegation zone for another season and results continue to be unimpressive. However, that is not particularly unexpected as this level of performance was predicted by many before the season began. To improve results and move up the table, Gillingham had to do two things in the winter: keep Eaves and sign more players. We have done both.

Smithy - Looking at the stats and how we've been on the pitch, it's plain to see it's been a mixed bag so far. Performance-wise I don't think we've seen the best from this squad this season. It seems to be very stop-start. At the start of this campaign I was really hopeful that we could do well. However not to be. I feel slightly let down to be honest, we have the ability to be doing so much better than we are, and it's such a shame.

Going forward we need to remain positive, I think the boys need to be more confident and just fight more. Some players need to realise what they're capable of, and show us.

Marc - Underwhelming and inconsistent. I fully expected us to be comfortably in the middle of the table and pushing for the top half. The home form needs to improve drastically as we’ve already seen this season that our away form isn’t as good as last season. Get the home form right and we’ll be pushing up the table.

Stocky - I think we are consistently inconsistent. We Go on a run and look as if we have no relegation worries then we go through a bad patch and are sucked right in it again. I think the home form is a massive area of concern; it used to be a fortress and now we make it easy for teams to pick up points.

Loonpotter - The problem for me is the inconsistency so if we just performed we probably wouldn't be in this position.

Louis - It’s been massively inconsistent really, one step forward, 2 steps back. We need to start winning games and being better defensively.

Matthew - I think after thirty league games we are not doing very well but now with the new signings we can now improve. I think we need to sort out the defending side of our game tho.

Gills Debate -  Frustratingly inconsistent for me. This group of players have shown that they can put in good performances and pick up good results at this level, but in order to properly climb up the table we need to put together a good run of results over a decent number of games, which unfortunately we haven’t really been able to do. At the end of October/beginning of November we beat Bradford 4-0 and Fleetwood 3-0, but then lost the next 3 in the league. At the beginning of January, we got back to back wins against Cardiff and Burton (albeit the Burton one was a bit fortuitous), but then in the next game we put in a really disappointing performance against Walsall. The inconsistency in results is frustrating, but Southend in 12th are only 5 points ahead of us, so if we can get a good run together then we should pull away from those places just above the bottom 4.

Lewis - I think the best word to describe it is inconsistency. We started well, then we fell flat, like, really flat, then we picked up again, and ever since it’s been up and down. We have a good squad, one that shouldn’t be in this situation, and it’s obvious home form needs to change to help us progress. We need to defend better, but it’s all about results now.

2. WHO DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN GILLINGHAM’S MOST IMPROVED PLAYER THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Elliott List. Wasn't convinced when we signed him to a 2 year deal, thought 1 would be appropriate, but he goes to show the difference some game time and confidence can make.

Luke - My answer also still remains Elliott List. 7 goals this season is more than double his best tally so far in a Gills shirt and he's now starting to show the confidence to run at people, keep going and creating things. He's not looked quite as effective in the last couple of games playing wide left for me, but Lovell has confidence in him and hopefully that will help spur Listy on. Also shout-out to DJ Oldaker who looks a lot more of a complete midfielder this season but I think he's still got a lot further to go before he's at his best.

Emlyn - Ogilvie has improved a lot  on last season, Rees looks to now be showing what he is capable off, the last 4 games he has deserved his place!, Oldaker obviously and Eaves has almost beaten his goal tally of last year already, There are improvements to more than just  one player!

ForzaGills - Elliott List for me. You could argue that his progression started at the back end of last season but it’s the last few months in which he’s really kicked on. When the team looks flat and void of ideas and creativity, as has often been the case this season, he seems to be the one player than constantly looks to get on the ball, run and people, and try and make things happen.

We_Need_Eaves -  Until recently I’d of said Ogilvie however now it’s List.

Dave -  For me it has been Connor Ogilvie. He was obviously a much better player defensively last season than he was going forward. This season he seems to have grown in confidence going forward and it has shown at times. His defensive performances have also been improved at times with a standout being Cardiff. Hopefully we can continue to see this and we can get him on a permanent at the end of the season.

BQGillsFan - Easily Elliott List. He's gone from a few bench appearances to being arguably our most important player other than Eaves.

Mac - Elliot List.

Colin - Barry Fuller has surprised me given where he was when he left us for Wimbledon.

Rob - The most improved player this season is either List or Oldaker. List has had a regular run in the side for a number of months, both scoring and creating chances. However, he still drifts out of the game too often for my liking and now has some serious competition on the wings. Oldaker has also massively improved. He barely featured last season but I'm glad he was offered a deal. This season has been a break through for him – he's both playing in rotation and has contributed on the field, especially his fantastic FA Cup goal. However, he still needs to perform consistently to play regularly and there are still questions about his attitude in training.

Smithy - Personally for me I think I have to say List. He's been around a while now and ever since that goal down at Bristol at the end of last season I think something clicked and he's moved on this season. He's one of the names we almost expect to see start now and I've no doubt there's much more to come from him.

Marc - Elliot List for me. Showed glimpses last season of what he could do and he’s taken his chance this season and scored some good goals. He’s forced his way into the starting 11 this time round and is impressing.

Stocky - Based on my expectation, I am going to go with List and Fuller. I wasn't sure of List being offered a new deal but he's proved me wrong and has grabbed the bull by the horns. Fuller I expected to be a squad player only but is now out first choice right back and his effort is outstanding.

Loonpotter - I’m not sure anyone has really improved on last season.

Louis - Elliott List for me.

Matthew -  Elliot List has definitely been our most improved and some time important with his work rate.

Gills Debate - During the course of the season, I think I’d possibly go with Josh Rees. I think it’s taken him a while to adapt to playing at a higher level, but over the last month or so I think he’s improved a lot. The big thing for me is that I think he looks a lot more confident as a player, and that’s probably been helped by the goals that he’s scored against Burton Albion and Swansea City. If he can score goals on a consistent basis, then he’ll be a big asset to the side. In comparison to last season, I think I’d go with Elliott List. For me he’s often looked like a player with potential, but he’s been able to turn that potential into performances this season.

Lewis -  For me there’s no doubt it’s Elliott List. There was huge relief when he got his goal against Bristol Rovers, and this season he’s really kicked on from that. He can play out wide or through the middle, and he’s scoring goals. Let’s not forget he’s only 21 as well. We’ve got a very solid League One player on our hands, one that I think could go further.

3. AND WHO DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN GILLINGHAM’S MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Tomas Holy. Particularly since the "announcement" he wouldn't be signing.

Luke - Could choose anyone of the three players that left us in January. Wilkinson had a real opportunity to nail a first team place down this season but didn't. Parker has looked less interested and lazier to me this season although I do appreciate he has been played out of position for a number of games, his goal stats however don't look anywhere near as good as last season. Finally poor old Navid Nasseri. Probably didn't get enough of a chance this season especially when we've been chasing games but Loves saw him day in and day out so if he wasn't the right option, perhaps his future is best elsewhere.

Emlyn - Don’t Know.

ForzaGills - Luke O’Neil. Started well with a great free kick against Burton but was dislodged by Barry Fuller pretty early on and has struggled to get back into the squad on a regular basis. When he has played recently, I think he’s been poor more often than not. Maybe I’ve come to expect too much from him after last season, but I personally thought he’d be more important to us than he has been.

We_Need_Eaves - Bradley Garmston.

Dave - N/A

BQGillsFan - It's hard to look beyond Mark Bryne as being a complete let down this season. I've sung this guys praises for so long and he was my player of the year last season, but this campaign has been one bad performance after another and I'm shocked he's still starting every week.

Mac -  Bradley Garmston.

Colin - Luke O'Neill has really suffered a big drop in confidence and form. As a result we are playing Ogilvie as a Left Back. Byrne is also a shadow of what he was.

Rob - The most disappointing player is, for me, a choice between either Parker, O'Neill, or Reilly. Josh Parker scored 12 goals last season and I was expecting a similar return this year. This has not happened. He was sent home by Lovell during the winter and, although he returned to play, hasn't been the same player this year. A continuing legal battle with his former employers in Serbia cannot be helping. I was surprised to see him leave for Charlton in the transfer window but perhaps this a good move for all parties.

Luke O'Neill has not hit the height of last season – that is not to say he has been playing bad this term. However, he has often lost his place to the ancient Barry Fuller and has not been quite as effective in his deliveries from the wing back position. One of our most creative players in the 2017-18 season, a bit of consistency and improved performance would definitely increase our attacking output.

Callum Reilly is perhaps a harsh choice here. He looked fantastic on loan last season and I fully expected him to continue with that level this year. Unfortunately, this seems not to have happened. He's often been paired with Byrne and this creates a midfield full of effort and endeavour but little creativity.

Smithy - The most disappointing player for me was a hard one. There are a couple of players who in my opinion haven't shown the same ability, If I have to pick one, it's Callum Reilly. I liked him when we had him on loan, very much. I thought he had something about him. I spoke to him at the end of last season and asked his thoughts on a permanent move and he seemed like that would be a good move. It was the name I wanted to hear we'd signed in the summer and I was delighted when we did. I think he's got talent, I like him a lot and I would love to see him excel however I just don't feel he's been at it more often than he's not sadly.

Marc - Sadly I’d say Luke O’Neil. Last season he was my favourite player in the squad but he’s struggled this time round and has only shown glimpses of what he can do. It’s not all his fault though. Barry Fuller has come in and has been better than expected which has meant Luke’s been in and out of the side  and when he has played its often been out of position. I think he can certainly turn it around and I’d offer him a new deal it it was down to me.

Stocky -  For me it has to be Parrett. He undoubtedly has quality but it hasn't been seen often enough partly.due to injury. For me it's similar to when we had Wagstaff; a good name on paper but not on the pitch often enough.

Loonpotter - Most disappointing possibly Josh Parker.

Louis - Mark Byrne for me, just don’t feel he’s hit the heights and has played the best he can like we saw last season.

Matthew - I think Parker has been very disappointing but now he has left it gives others a chance.

Gills Debate - I had been a bit disappointed with Parker’s performances this season. I often thought that he was a quite a clever player with a decent ‘football brain’, and 12 goals in all competitions last season was a decent return for a side that finished in the bottom half of the table, but I don’t think he had been as good this season – Perhaps the ongoing case with Red Star Belgrade has had a part to play with that. That being said, I was still slightly disappointed to see that he had left for Charlton, because when he’s played well, he’s been an important part of the side in my opinion.

Lewis - I’ll chose 2 - Luke O’Neill & Tomas Holy. Both were absolutely brilliant last year, and I think both have struggled quite a lot this season. It’s got to the point where Holy is making a mistake most games now (whether it leads to a goal or not), and I think he’d be lucky to get that Championship offer at this point. As for Luke O’Neill, he’s been dropped a few times this season for Mr 100% Barry Fuller, who I think was only supposed to be a back up when he was bought back. We could really do with both O’Neill and Holy picking up their form from last season.    

4. TRANSFER WINDOW QUESTION NUMBER ONE: GILLINGHAM HAVE EXTENDED CONNOR OGILVIE’S LOAN SPELL UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, AND GILLINGHAM HAVE SIGNED BILLY KING, RICKY HOLMES, GRAHAM BURKE, TAHVON CAMPBELL AND LEONARDO DA SILVA LOPEZ ON LOAN UNTIL THE END OF THE SEASON, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP GILLINGHAM’S TRANSFER BUSINESS IN THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW ???

Richard - Promising. Some greater strength in depth. The Holmes one is entirely dependent on his fitness. Could be a season changed, could be a waste. Time will tell.

Luke - Well it looked pretty dire until the last two days of the window but what a thrilling deadline day we had. Very pleased with the players we have brought in and actually gives us more options to vary the shape with Holmes, King & Campbell all able to play out wide. Very happy with the caliber we have brought in also as they have either played at a higher level or on the International stage. Ogilvie can be hit and miss but we have had much worse. I for am very excited to see Ricky Holmes in a Gills shirt (when he is fit of course).

Emlyn - Pleased with Ogilvie he’s played very well at times this season, and personally preferred it if he stayed!, The new signings should definitely add something different to the team in a positive way, really looking forward to watching Holmes though, He’s always been brilliant when I’ve seen him play against us, If him alone was the only  signing in January I would have been happy with just that!

With the other additions it looks to have been a really good window - Time will tell of course.

ForzaGills - The January window was brilliant, deadline day especially. Of course, we can’t judge these new lads until we see them play, they could all turn out to be a disaster, but they all look promising and like they have something to offer the squad. New faces will no doubt shake up the squad and add a bit of life to the dressing room. I’m particularly excited by Leonardo Da Silva Lopez and Ricky Holmes.

We_Need_Eaves - Very active to remedy the issue of not having a plan B.

Dave -  I am overall very happy with the club’s transfer business. They brought in a couple of players with some evident league one pedigree in Da Silva Lopez and Holmes and they will be great additions. I am also happy with the others and I believe they will make a positive impact. On first glance at Graham Burke, I think he offers something different to what we had. On Saturday he looked comfortable on the ball and tried to make things happen. Maybe should have scored, but some very positive signs.

BQGillsFan - In the context of the remainder of the season, it's a cracking set of signings to get in to the team. Ogilvie has massively stepped up from 17/18 season and glad to see him back. Holmes is a top drawer signing for League One as well. My fear is that they are all loan deals and if they play well enough to keep us up, they will be gone come summer time and we're straight back to square one.

Mac - Very good.

Colin - So many loanees looks like panic and an admission that the squad was way off the mark despite all the "we have cover in every position" hogwash. Hopefully a couple of them can get in the starting eleven and make a difference.

Rob -  Our transfer window business has been very surprising. Extending Ogilvie's loan was a no-brainer and hardly surprising - I would also be surprised if we do not sign him permanently in the summer. However, our deadline day spending spree was unprecedented and a delight for fans. We needed players in and we have signed some! A deluge of wingers should hopefully end Lovell's "we don't play with wingers" though process and allow us to have good wing play to fully utilise Eaves's aerial ability. Burke looked promising on his debut, finding pockets of space and willing to have the ball. If I'm being super critical he may have spent a little too much time dwelling in possession but that will surely be rectified with training sessions with his new teammates. The additions of King and Holmes (when fit) will also add width and quality on the ball and this can only be a good thing. Campbell is a surprising signing given he's on loan from a team in a league below us, but I am intrigued to see how he does. Leo Da Silva Lopes is a name that I have heard many good things about and Wigan were willing to spend big money on him. Peterborough fans seems less enthused about his performances at the club, but he is still young and could add some real quality to our midfield.

Smithy - Generally I think we done quite well from the January transfer window. Although all the deals are loans I still think it's good business as on paper strengthened in areas where we may have been a bit weak. I'm very hopeful of at least 2-3 of them being very useful indeed between now and May.

Marc - I’d say it’s been positive. Ogilvie for me has improved this season. He’s a decent defender but lacks a bit going forward. I think he gets a lot of unfair stick from our fans who think that because he’s come from Spurs he should be a superstar. We had to wait a while for most of our business but in Ricky Holmes and Graham Burke I think we’ve got a couple of quality players. I’m interested to see how Lopes gets on too. Was highly rated at Peterborough and hasn’t played much at Wigan. Campbell and king are low risk moves but could both prove to be good business.

Stocky -  I think it's been good, we haven't seen a deadline day like that! I haven't seen any negativity about any of the signings despite some coming from the lower leagues so hopefully that indicates some potential. The signing of 2 wingers is interesting and hints at either a plan to change the formation or a plan b.

Loonpotter - Done some good business.. if fit, Ricky Holmes is probably one of the best players in this division.

Louis -  Very good. We have signed wingers and positions we needed and have brought in some real talent.

Matthew - I think it has been very positive. All the new signings will be useful. I am not a big fan of Ogilvie and I feel he is the week link at the moment.

Gills Debate - I thought that extending Ogilvie’s loan was a sensible piece of business, and it was good to see that Lovell was backed to add players to the squad, and I’m excited to see what the new additions can offer the team. Burke obviously got to play the full 90 minutes on his debut for the club last Saturday, and I thought that there were some good signs – He looked like he had a good touch and I thought that he was confident when he was on the ball. There were perhaps a couple of occasions where he shot when maybe passing the ball on would have been a better option, but on the flip side that does show that he is confident. The only real disappointment for me was that we weren’t able to add an ‘enforcer’ style midfielder to the squad, as I do feel that we lack that kind of player in the middle of the park.

Lewis -  It was brilliant, wasn’t it? We needed wingers, we got wingers, and that’s the main thing. Ricky Holmes will be a brilliant signing if he can get fit - we know all about him from his time tormenting us at Charlton. Graham Burke looks very good on the ball, and early signs of Lopes & King are positive too. It would’ve been nice if we’d have got some permanent ones in, but this is risk free, which is another positive.

5. TRANSFER WINDOW QUESTION NUMBER TWO: JOSH PARKER, NAVID NASSERI, LEROY HLABI AND CONOR WILKINSON HAVE ALL LEFT GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB DURING THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON THESE FOUR PLAYERS MOVING ON ??? AND WHICH PLAYER FROM THESE FOUR LISTED ARE YOU MOST SURPRISED ABOUT LEAVING GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB ???

Richard - Surprised by Parker but not disappointed. Yes he contributed some goals but never rated his passing or creativity, personal opinion. Otherwise no major players left. Think we have, again potentially, strengthened what's left.

Luke - Mainly covered this in question 3 tbf. I was surprised to see Parker get a move to Charlton as they're meant to be a side chasing promotion and he's perhaps not the 15-20 goal a season striker they've lost in Karlan Grant. Hope they all do well in their careers, unless they're coming up against us of course.

Emlyn - I have no problems with any of them leaving, obviously more surprised with Parker going!

ForzaGills - I was shocked that Josh Parker left, that seemed to come out of nowhere. Although not always consistent he was certainly versatile and scored some important goals. Conor Wilkinson was destined to leave, bar the goal at Fratton Park last season he’s been pretty dreadful. Navid Nasseri left for personal reasons so wish him well, I would’ve liked to see him get more game time. Never seen Leroy Hlabi play so couldn’t comment on him.

We_Need_Eaves - Great business by the club as 3 of them didn’t play for us and Parker was a real shock, didn’t see it coming. What about Nash? No surprise though as he had no future with us.

Dave -  I am disappointed that it didn’t work out for the four that did leave. You always want players to succeed and it is a shame. Wilkinson showed glimpses of brilliance at times and will be remembered for his beauty at Pompey. However, he seems settled at Dagenham and I am happy he is scoring goals. I am most surprised about Josh Parker, was something I didn’t see coming at all.

BQGillsFan - I'm surprised that Parker left but I'm not going to say I'm disappointed. This season he's barely played and when he has, he's quite simply been awful. Centrally he's been outshone by List and even O'Neill has done better as a winger than Parker. The other three I'm not so surprised by and getting them off the wage bill can only help the feint dream of some investment in other players down the line.

Mac - It’s good because it frees up wages and they weren’t starting 11 players. I’m most surprised by Parker.

Colin - No surprise. It will be interesting to see whether Bowyer can make something of Parker.

Rob - As stated earlier, I was surprised to see Josh Parker leave. While he has been less effective this year than last, he was still getting regular games in the side. However, a move to Charlton may rejuvenate the Antiguan and boost his career further. Not a great loss considering our replacements, and a good move for all concerned. I fully expected Connor Wilkinson to depart having been loaned to Dagenham days after being sent home by the manager. Navid Nasseri is a player that barely featured last season or this. While he looked good on his goal-scoring debut, he also was very lightweight in the hustle-and-bustle of a League 1 relegation battle. A player that is better suited to a more technical game, I wonder if his career would be better suited to somewhere like Scandinavia. I don't think I've ever seen Hlabi play and his contract was simply because he missed a good chunk of this third year as a scholar. I expect to see him ply his trade across the Ryman League for years to come.

Smithy - Without doubt I was most surprised to see Josh Parker leave us in this window. I didn't see that coming to be honest. He's not been his best this season, that's not to say I didn't like him. He was great last year, chipping in with the goals, however if he feels this is the right move for him then I wish him all the best.

Navid I liked, I think he's got potential. He's only young so hopefully he'll find his feet and progress somewhere that he's happy. Having not been in/around the squad for some time I wasn't particularly surprised to hear he'd left, Mr Wilkinson, what can I say. He's got talent, when he wants to apply it. I wish him the best of luck but I'm sorry I'm not overly sad to see him go, As for Leroy Hlabi, whatever suits the lad for his future. I hope he does well but I can't comment on him personally as I've never seen him play.

Marc - Josh Parker I was most surprised about. Surprised but not gutted. He’s done a job for us over the last 2 years, alright not been as consistent this season as last but he’s been involved in most match day squads and he probably suffered from Elliot List’s development. Connor Wilkinson moving on was probably best for all concerned. Rarely got a run of games and when he did some fans slated him because maybe they expected him to be another Tom Eaves. He’s gone down to the national league now and maybe if he hits a bit of good form he’ll get back in the league. Good luck to him. Nasseri seemed to be treated as just another number in this squad. An unused sub for the first months of the season but was soon cast off when the likes of Oldaker got his chance. I don’t know why this didn’t happen sooner. It wasn’t doing him any good not playing and he now has a bit of time to get himself fixed up for next season. Hlabi was a no risk move. Sadly it didn’t work out for him but good luck to him.

Stocky - Most surprised is Josh Parker, I don't think anyone saw that one coming. I felt frustrated for Nasseri as he looked a good player in the brief times he played but didn't get enough game time.

Loonpotter - Quite surprised that Josh left despite performances dropping and was delighted to see Conor Wilkinson leave.

Louis -  I’m not too bothered by any of them leaving really, I think Parker going to Charlton surprised me. Didn’t see it coming.

Matthew - Navid Nasseri because I feel he did not get the chance to play that often.

Gills Debate - The only real disappointment for me was perhaps Josh Parker leaving as I mentioned in question 3, and his departure was the only real one that surprised me. We’d spent the final few days of the window wondering if Eaves was going to leave, but I didn’t expect Parker to go anywhere! I think that Wilkinson going was the best decision for all concerned and it sounds like he’s done well at Dagenham & Redbridge, whilst Nasseri showed a bit of promise last season but he hasn’t been able to secure a spot in the 1st team this time around.

Lewis -  Before the window I wouldn’t have said any of them got in our ‘best XI’ and I didn’t think any of them had a long term future at Gillingham, so I don’t mind too much. Wilkinson clearly has a few problems so I’ve no sadness about him leaving. Hlabi and Nasseri I liked but I don’t think Leroy was ever going to break through & it seems Nav has some personal problems, which I hope he sorts ASAP. Josh Parker was the one I didn’t see coming, especially to Charlton. He was a frustrating player but on his day he knew where the goal was, and certain aspects of his game, such as his hold up play and passing ability were solid. It seemed like he was in favour so it was a weird one, but I’m not gutted by it.  

6. DARREN OLDAKER HAS SIGNED A TWO AND A HALF YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON DARREN OLDAKER SIGNING A NEW CONTRACT EXTENSION, AND ALSO, WHICH PLAYER CURRENTLY IN THE SQUAD WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE GILLINGHAM OFFER A NEW CONTRACT TO ???

Richard - Pleased to see he's committed, he's got a lot of pressure to be Dack 2.0 so mentally he needs to be ready. Eaves will be the one but can't blame him for wanting to try at a bigger club.

Luke - Very excited to see Oldaker progress further with the Gills. I hope he can earn himself a foothold in the side permanently at some point and that he just continues to progress. Eaves would be the obvious choice for a new deal but it's unlikely he will stay so I will go with Barry Fuller. Has been very consistent this season and was only awarded a one year deal last summer and I thoroughly hope he stays onto next year. Keeping hold of O'Neill & Lacey would be good business if they can both stay fit. Bingham for me is a lost cause sadly due to his injuries.

Emlyn - Very happy that Oldaker has signed a new contract, I think he will be an important player for us and sooner rather than later, I rate him highly already!

And obviously we would all love Eaves to sign a new contract!!

ForzaGills - Really pleased that DJ signed a new deal, he’s an exciting player who will only get better. I think he’s one of those players that will either fade away into mediocrity or get snapped up by a bigger club. He’s got all the ability, it’s whether he knows how to use it. Elliott List and Bradley Garmston deserve new deals.

We_Need_Eaves - Oldaker is good business as he has potential. Obvious but it has to be Eaves. If not Eaves then List.

Dave - I am delighted that DJ has signed a new deal. He has shown great promise in the games he has played in and is a fantastic dead ball specialist. He is definitely one for the future and has shown great maturity since getting back into the team. The one player I want to sign a new deal is obviously Tom Eaves.

BQGillsFan - I'm very happy to see Oldaker sign a new deal as I think he should be starting for us. Most of Gills best midfield performances have been with DJ in the starting line up.

Obviously I'd love to see us offer Eaves a new contract but it seems like that won't be happening, so next would be List. I know he signed one recently but I've been hearing a few clubs have got their eye on him so we need to lock him down to a bigger contract in order to either keep him or get more money for him should clubs come in for him.

Mac - I love Oldaker and think it’s a good move and Eaves.

Colin - I hope Oldaker can make the playmaker role his own. There isn't much competition. I would like Eaves to sign another deal but that looks unlikely.

Rob - Darren Oldaker has had a break-through season at the club. From going to an untested but promising youngster, the midfielder has matured enough to deserve a place in the senior squad. Several good performances (including a spectacular FA Cup goal) have seen him maintain his place in the 18 for most games. He adds much needed creativity to the base of midfield and is rapidly learning the discipline required for such a role. If he keeps his head down and works hard – suggestions of attitude issues in training seem to remain - he can become a great and profitable player for the club.

The one player I would like to see sign a new contract: Tom Eaves. Who else?

Smithy - I was very pleased to see Darren Oldaker had signed an extension. I think he genuinely could be a very valuable asset if he keeps working hard and pushing for a spot in the team. Very pleased with this news, There are two players that I would love to see sign new deals, however it's been made public that they probably won’t.(Tom Eaves and Tomas Holy), Regarding a new contract being offered the one for me is Barry Fuller. I'd love to see him stay on past the summer.

Marc - DJ has taken the chance he’s been given this season. He’s finally starting to show his potential and offers us something different in midfield. Could be a cracking piece of business. The obvious one who I’d like us to offer a new contract to us Tom Eaves. Whether he signs or not is another matter but he’s looking good for 20 goals this season and the club should make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Stocky - I think it's a brilliant signing; he's got a bright future in the game and hasn't looked out of place when he's played. It would be good to see him get an extended run in the team. I would offer the biggest contract ever to Mr Eaves but whether he would accept it or not is another matter.

Loonpotter - Darren has a bright future.. so good on his day.

Louis - I think he’s an extremely talent player with bags of potential. One of the best midfielders ability wise at the club. I’d love to see us renew Tom Eaves contract although can see it will be difficult to keep him at Gillingham.

Matthew - I would love Tom Eaves needs to sign because he is our top scorer and a big influence in the striking department.

Gills Debate -  I was very pleased to see Oldaker sign a new deal. He’s clearly made an impression on Lovell this season, because he was quite critical of him at the fan’s forum back in the summer, and it’s been good to see him getting some minutes in League 1 games this season. Eaves to me is the obvious one that I’d like to see sign a new deal, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to keep him beyond the end of this season, and it does sound like we have already been in talks with him for a while. List isn’t out of contract at the end of the season, but I’d perhaps look at offering him an extra year on his current deal, as I think there is a lot of promise there.

Lewis -  Oldaker has matured a lot, and he’s still working on that I’m sure, and he’s a player that does a role no one else does as well as him in the team. He gets on the ball and makes us tick, and you can really tell how important he actually is when he’s playing. Its great to get him tied down because he’s vital to the team and, if he gets anywhere near his clear potential in the time period of the contract, we’ll be in the money. In terms of a new deal, obviously I’d say Eaves but it doesn’t look like he’ll stay, so I’ll go with Barry Fuller, who I think deserves another year.  

7. GILLINGHAM ONLY WON FIVE LEAGUE GAMES AT HOME LAST SEASON, AND GILLINGHAM HAVE ONLY WON FOUR HOME LEAGUE GAMES THIS SEASON, WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO CHANGE FOR GILLINGHAM TO MAKE PRIESTFIELD STADIUM A FORTRESS AGAIN ???

Richard - The players mentality. If attendances are dropping the fans can't be on their back that much! We need to play like we did against Burton at the start of the season. Knock it around and take control. Play like the supposed home team rather than try & counter.

Luke - I normally get shot down for answering this one so to avoid getting myself in trouble with the boo boys (who should stay away) I won't delve too much.

Emlyn - I think the new players coming in will bring a change, let’s see what happens with that.

ForzaGills - We seem to have this problem every year now. There’s no wonder the attendances are down when we’ve only won 22 of 72 home games in the last 3 seasons. Scally needs to reduce the ticket prices for a start. £22 for an adult is unreasonable for any League One club, let alone the club with one of the worst home records in the EFL, I don’t blame people for staying away. Drop the ticket prices, get a few thousand more in the door and hopefully it’ll create a better atmosphere for the players to play in.

We_Need_Eaves - If we start on the front foot this will get us singing and chanting from the 1st minute and this creates the atmosphere, The players need to give us something to start with.

Dave - I think the fans just need to stay behind the team and they will feed off that confidence. We saw it against Cardiff everyone was behind them and they got a great result.

BQGillsFan - I think it's the same as I've always said, the responsibility is 50/50. Gills obviously need to deliver on the pitch to get the Priestfield crowd on their feet, but the fans also need to stick with the team when the going gets tough. Too much negativity before the game even gets going sometimes. I understand performances have left with little to cheer for, but it's amazing how much a good atmosphere can change a teams fortunes around.

Mac - More people to come to games.

Colin - Poor home form comes down to our lack of midfield quality. We can't break teams down. Away from home we get more space to play the long ball into.

Rob -  I really don't know what can be done to make Priestfield a fortress again. It is almost 10 years since we seemed unbeatable at home and hopeless away under Mark Stimson. Declining attendances - unfortunately a self-fulfilling prophecy – will not help to create an atmosphere. The fans are, understandably, very weary of both a perennial relegation battle and a lack of investment (either internal or external). The club always seems to remain one disaster from sinking and the back-room organisation is, at times, laughable. Be exciting, be successful and people will return.

Smithy -  I remember the days of Fortress Priestfield and I would love to see it like that again. I'd love for teams to hate coming here because they know they'd be in for a tough match.

How do we get there, I'm not sure at this moment.. Ticket prices I think are beginning to become a problem for some. I know a lot of people that have stopped going because it's too expensive. Maybe a few clever ticket reductions/deals for certain games would entice people through the door, Higher attendance could have an effect on the players, which in turn makes for a better atmosphere and therefore better for us and harder for the opposition.

Marc - The whole mood around the place is very negative at the moment. The fans know it, the players know it and the staff know it. That changes when you win your home games. Maybe the emphasis is on the fans to encourage rather than criticise the players? At the same time the players need to give the fans a reason to be positive and to cheer them on. Too many times this season at home we’ve sat back and let the opposition go 2 or 3 goals up. We need to start games better and get on the front foot. That would be a start.

Stocky - This is a tough question and a real chicken or the egg situation. The crowd is generally quiet unless we are playing a local team or a 'bigger' club such as Sunderland or Pompey.  The action on the pitch isn't enough for the crowd to be 'up for it' the majority of the time but the players could argue that fans could play their part by being vocal. I think if safe standing was an option, that would be productive to get the singer's in one place. As the crowds are dwindling, I think more offers would help raise the attendance. The Coventry fans we spoke to Saturday said they get 11-12k average ly but 28k for the community day shows what a good incentive it could be for our club if planned right. Even tickets for a tenner for one game would be a step in the right direction.

Loonpotter - I can't think of a single reason why being at home should be affecting them... the pitch was the excuse last year ...  but this year has been as bad or worse.

Louis - Supporters attitude.

Matthew - I feel we need to start games at home a bit brighter and keep teams out for at least 45 minutes.

Gills Debate -  One thing that I think I’d like us to work on is being able to pick up more points when we concede the first goal in games. We’ve gone behind first in 10 games at home in League 1 this season, and have only managed to pick up 5 points from these matches, with 4 of those coming in the 1st month of the season (against Burton Albion and Coventry City). Obviously ideally, we’d want to be the side getting on the scoresheet first, but if we could get more points after falling behind then that would help us. I think we also need to generally concede less goals, as we have the 6th worst record at home in the league in that respect, and if we could keep things tighter at the back, then Priestfield would be more of a fortress.

Lewis - First of all, the pitch is rubbish. We’ve spent around half a million on a new one and it’s not been looked after properly. I know it doesn’t cut up and stuff, but, in regards to the surface, we’re back to square one. The atmosphere is also poor - Lovell said the players felt the pressure against Walsall, and, although I don’t think you can blame the fans, I doubt that helps. We just need to find a way to have some confidence and make teams fear coming to Priestfield.  

8. GILLINGHAM MANAGED TO KEEP HOLD OF TOM EAVES ON TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY, GILLINGHAM MADE FIVE VERY GOOD SIGNINGS BEFORE THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW CLOSED ON THURSDAY NIGHT, BUT HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT FOR GILLINGHAM’S SEASON THAT TOM EAVES REMAINED WITH GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB UNTIL THE END OF THE 2018 / 2019 SEASON ???

Richard - Very. Had he wanted to have gone it could have been an awkward few months but he's potentially playing for the right to get a chance to play at a higher team. Top goalscorer will only help his chances of that.

Luke - Very much a Dack moment circa January 2016. I'm sure there will be people moaning that he will go for free in the summer but he is so influential to our side that its very pleasing we didn't take the money from Sunderland and kept the big guy. Real chance for him to get 20+ this season so lets hope he keeps up his pre Christmas form and keeps us moving up the table.

Emlyn -  It’s extremely important to keep him this season and beyond that if possible, he has been nothing short of brilliant since he joined, his attitude, work rate etc has been unquestionable!, He will be vital to us trying to stay in this division.

ForzaGills - A couple of months ago, I’d have been torn between taking the money in January and keeping him until the end of the season, but given how we’ve slid down the table and back into the thick of the relegation battle, I’m pretty relieved he’s stayed. He could be the difference between League One and League Two next season.

We_Need_Eaves - Vital. It also motivated the rest of the team as we’ve kept our best player.

Dave - I think keeping hold of Eaves was vital. He’s our top scorer and has won us many games this season. He has the potential to score anytime. His penalty on Saturday was vital in our quest for safety.

BQGillsFan - Whatever money we could have got for Eaves is nothing compared to what his contributions in our bid to stay up are worth. If we had lost Eaves we would be down, no doubt.

Mac - Very important because otherwise I feel like we would struggle to score goals.

Colin - Without Eaves or an adequate replacement we would be heading for League Two.

Rob - Vitally important. I'm certain the club had offers but clearly decided that Eaves was more important than a few hundred thousand pounds. Once it got to deadline day, it was unlikely he was going anyway – we would have had no time to sign a replacement, and I think both Lovell and Scally know how important he is. He's scored the majority of our goals and is a player who occupies defences and can score from anything in the air. With our new wingers hopefully putting balls into the box, he's only going to score more.

Smithy -  I tweeted after hearing Paul Scally on Radio Kent saying he'd had two bids come in for Tom Eaves but had turned them down because he wanted to keep the player over cashing in. Some people may well say that's very unlike Scally, and to a point I agree. He's done the right thing, no question. By all accounts Tom wants to stay until the end of season and that's great to hear. He's going to be very important right up until the final whistle up at Blackpool in May. I don't believe in one man teams, but he's certainly a huge part of ours.

Marc - Eaves staying is massive. It’s the difference between us staying up or potentially going down. I hate to think where we would be without his goals this season. Whether he stays or goes in the summer is another story but for the next few months he’s our player and will hopefully score the goals to keep us up.

Stocky - Massively important. As I've previously alluded too, I didn't know too much about some of the signings and that's an instant pressure on them if they were signed and suddenly had to replace Eaves - each game they didn't score, it would just get worse. His goals that will hopefully keep us up are more important than the fee; it was too late to get an adequate replacement and if we went down, I think we would struggle.

Loonpotter - Very important that Eaves stayed... The main player and goalscorer for this team.. probably would have been dead certs for relegation without him.

Louis - Very important, has contributed a lot to our season with scoring many goals.

Matthew - It is massive and we need that big striker to score goals.

Gills Debate -  I think that it was very important that we kept hold of Eaves. We have shown in games against the likes of Accrington Stanley (on the opening day of the season), and Portsmouth (in December) that we can win games without Eaves in the side, but there’s no doubt for me that losing him would have been a blow – He’s the club’s top scorer, and also the joint 3rd top scorer in the league, with a better minutes per goal ratio than a lot of the other contenders. I’m delighted that he’s still with us, and the fact that he did stay, made a good deadline day even better!

Lewis -  Very, very important. His goals are huge - 16 already this season is top stuff. I know we’ve not seen Campbell yet, but, with Parker gone too, we don’t really have another striker that can hold up the ball, so Eaves is important on that front as well. It shouldn’t have got to the point where we’re going to lose him for free, but I’d rather do that and stay up than cash in and effectively guarantee relegation.    

9. WHICH YOUNG PLAYERS (CAN BE MORE THAN ONE) WHO ARE ON THE FRINGES OF GILLINGHAM’S FIRST TEAM OR ARE CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THE YOUTH TEAM, DO YOU THINK CAN BE PUSHING FOR A SPOT IN GILLINGHAM’S FIRST TEAM WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR OR TWO ???

Richard - Potentially Hadler with Holy going and Stevenson. Not really sure who else will be given a chance. There doesn't appear to be any stand outs at the moment.

Luke - All of them if they push themselves. Oldaker is already a lot further ahead with the amount of game time he has had this season with both Simpson, Stevenson & Mbo warming the bench regularly. In terms of some of the younger boys, i think Henry Woods sounds like an exciting attack minded midfield player, Ryan Huckle is a very good height for a Centre Back which gives him every chance of having a future in the game and Charles Noyelle sounds lethal in front of goal. Exciting times ahead if they can push on.

Emlyn - I think Noel Mbo would be my best prediction for someone breaking into the first 11 in the not too distant future!

ForzaGills - Noel Mbo has looked promising the few times he’s made a first team appearance, he really needs to go out on loan to get game time though, given the number of forward players we now have. I’d also love to see Bradley Stevenson and Jack Tucker get some game time in the next year or so. I would’ve also said Liam Nash, but Lovell seems to have made his mind up on him.

We_Need_Eaves - Darren Oldaker.

Dave - I think Roman Campbell is one player for the future alongside Henry Woods. Both have impressed at youth level. Another which is highly rated within the club is Miquel Scarlett.

BQGillsFan - I still hold out hope for Bradley Stevenson but it seems less and less likely he's going to get a chance. Noel Mbo seems to be quite popular amongst Gills fans but I personally don't see much in him. Unfortunately I don't see any of our current youth set up getting into the squad any time soon, but I hope to be proven wrong on that one.

Mac - Oldaker, Stevenson, Campbell and Simpson.

Colin -  Oldaker obviously. Other than that maybe Stevenson.

Rob - It's difficult to say as I don't know too much about our youngsters. Obviously Oldaker is the big graduate this season, but Stevenson did play a few games back in the autumn. An attacking midfielder, he looked promising in the few cameo appearances he made and I would be intrigued to see him develop at the club. Aaron Simpson is another youngster who has been on the bench a few times, but this may be due to a lack of other viable left back options. A similar situation has applied to Noel Mbo.

Smithy - I have to admit I don't really follow the youths in terms of individual players, perhaps I should.

Marc - Obviously Oldaker. He’s been in and around for a while now and he’s starting to show how good he can be. Bradley Stevenson has shown glimpses of what he can do and I think he’ll feature more next season. Roman Campbell maybe not next season but the season after could be knocking on the door too. Iv only seen him a couple of times but he’s a handful for defenders and had scored all sorts of goals for the youth team this season.

Stocky - Well Darren Oldaker still comes into that category so it'll be nice to see him push on next season. Other than Darren, I would like to see what Noel can do at professional level and I also thought Stevenson equipped himself well in the first team in the autumn.

Loonpotter - I'd like to have already seen more of Mbo.

Louis - Darren Oldaker can really solidify a place in the first team in the coming years.

Matthew - I think Oldaker is a good player on his day and should be in that midfield but other are just that little bit better.

Gills Debate - Out of the 2nd year pros, I think it’s tricky to say who I think may be able to push on for a spot in the 1st team. Stevenson seemed to do OK when he had a couple of opportunities earlier on this season, but hasn’t been involved in the matchday squads for 3 or 4 months now. I’ve always had hopes that Mbo may be one that will really come into the 1st team picture, due to his impressive scoring record in the youth side, but he is now on trial in Sweden with Helsingborgs. In terms of those who are slightly younger, I’ve often been impressed when I’ve seen Jack Tucker play, and it sounds like Roman Campbell has done well in the youth team and is doing well now while he’s at Sittingbourne, so hopefully those two can perhaps stake their claim in the next year or two.

Lewis - I don’t want to sound biased because he is a friend of mine, but I think Aaron Simpson deserves a chance as left back. He’s been on the bench so often but is yet to play in the league, and, with neither Ogilvie or Garmston excelling, Aaron should get a chance for me. Honourable shoutouts to TJ Bramble and Miquel Scarlett, too.    

10. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STEVE LOVELL AS GILLINGHAM MANAGER ???

Richard - I still think he's a coach rather than a manager. Needs help/assistance on coming up with a plan b or c etc. Becoming too dependent on poor first half > half time rocket > better second half.

Luke - Still has my backing. Still makes frustrating decisions, including making substitutions too late (Accrington at home) but I have faith in the Welsh Wizard. If he can get us to beat a Premier League team, he can't be all bad.

Emlyn - At this moment in time I am happy for Steve Lovell to be the clubs manager.

ForzaGills - I think Steve Lovell’s done ok. There’s not a great deal of quality in the squad and he hasn’t had the chance to spend any money so we can’t be expecting miracles. That said I don’t agree with his public battering of some players earlier in the season, I don’t think that helped the players or himself. I’d be surprised if he’s still here at the end of next season given how volatile the manager market is nowadays.

We_Need_Eaves - Too one dimensional and more often than not he isn’t decisive enough with his substitutions.

Dave - I am a big fan of Steve Lovell. He has great respect from the players and they are willing to play for him, which to me is vey important. He received a lot of criticism at the beginning of the season, but managed to turn things around. I just want him to succeed and be here for a few seasons. This club needs stability at the manager position.

BQGillsFan - I still stand by Lovell. I think he gets a lot of unwarranted abuse from fans, especially online, but he saved us from certain relegation last season and is working witha budget closer to actual peanuts that decent money. I agree there are times I question his starting XI and/or the subs he makes in game, but when he's got a team that hasn't paid for a player since Brennan Dickenson in 2014, it's like trying to sew with one hand behind your back. Not impossible but so much harder than it needs to be.

Mac - I think he’s an average manager and he cares about the club. Won’t get us anywhere in League 1 but will most likely keep us up.

Colin - Lovell has done well with a threadbare squad but has relied on long ball counter attacking. For us to be a team that can win at home he needs to show he can do more with the players technically.

Rob - I like Lovell. Until now, he hasn't has much to work with and I don't think he could have done all that much better with our squad. He still has some problems such as not signing wingers in the summer and making substitutions too late, but that's the reason he's a League 1 manager and not in the Premier League. He's still learning as well. It's very difficult to judge a manager with such a poor squad, but now that he has been backed, there's no real excuse. His comments to the media should always be taken with a pinch of salt; the comments that some fans are after would alienate most of the players.

Smithy - I really like Steve Lovell. As a manager he does frustrate me, however not to the point where I've wanted him gone. I think he's doing well with what he's got.

Marc - I want him to succeed. He comes across as a nice guy who genuinely wants the best for the club. Sometimes we see some naivety with him in regards to the timings of substitutions and some of the things he says in the press. We have to remember that he’s very inexperienced in terms of management. He’s trying and I think he’ll be here next season regardless of what division we’re in. Is he the right man for the job? I’m still not 100% convinced.

Stocky - I like Steve Lovell and think he's doing an ok job in the circumstances.  This may seem controversial but I think he's an average manager of an average squad therefore it's a good fit however I personally think we as a club should be aiming higher. Whether it would be different if there was more money to be spent, I don't know, but I personally think a change is needed in the summer as I can't visualise a promotion push. Again, a lot of this also comes down to the chairman. To summarise, I'm not Lovell out but think we could be doing better.

Loonpotter - I must admit I was a massive fan but I'm starting to lose the faith.

Louis - I think there’s better managers out there, makes some interesting decisions. Still question his tactics when chasing a game.

Matthew - I love him as a manager and seems like most fans do. But my only criticism is he needs to not leave it 10 minutes before the end of the game to bring on players.

Gills Debate -  I like Lovell, and I think that he did a great job when he took over control of the side last season. We haven’t pushed on like I was hoping that we may do this season, but I still think that he’s doing a fair job, and I think that it would be great to have a long term managerial appointment at the club that would offer some stability. Of course that shouldn’t come at the expense of the team, if Lovell’s not doing a good enough job then Scally should act, but I think that he’s doing OK at the moment.

Lewis -  It’s so hard, because he had such an impact when he came in, but our form has dipped massively since the turn of 2018. He does some stuff where I just think ‘what the hell are you doing?’, and I find his press conferences very tedious and confusing at times. His tactics are sometimes stale, but sometimes we are great. It could be worse, but it could be better.

11. GILLINGHAM HAVE SCORED SOME REMARKABLE GOALS THIS SEASON, IF YOU WERE TO SELECT YOUR TOP THREE GILLINGHAM GOALS OF THE 2018 / 2019 SEASON, WHICH GOALS WILL YOU SELECT AND WHY ???

Richard - Eaves v pompey, O'Neill v hartlepool, oldaker v slough

Luke - Best has to be Eaves vs Portsmouth Away, Unbelievable goal and if it was in the Premier League, people would still be going on about it now. 2nd goes to Elliott List at home vs Coventry at home. The tenacity he showed to run the whole half down the wing, beat two players run off the pitch and then back on to score from a ridiculous angle. Very good. 3rd for me is Luke O'Neill at home vs Burton. Lovely free-kick. Enough said.

Emlyn - Both of Eaves’ goals v Bradford/Fleetwood where Oldaker assisted with the two long passes! Two great passes with two brilliant(and difficult) finishes!

Elliott List V Cardiff...because of the occasion, beating premier league opposition and making the 4th round of the cup.

ForzaGills - 3rd Luke O’Neil vs Burton – one the best free kicks I’ve seen at Priestfield for a while.

2nd Elliott List vs Coventry – this goal just sums him up, pace, trickery, battling for everything, and dragging us out of a tough spot when we weren’t playing well.

1st Tom Eaves vs Pompey – you don’t need me to tell you why it’s number 1.

We_Need_Eaves - 1st Eaves vs Pompey away 2nd List Vs Burton away 3rd Fuller vs Doncaster.

Dave - Goals of the season so far for me: Eaves away to Pompey at number one, Barry Fuller away to Doncaster number 2, Elliott Lists solo run away at Burton number 3. Oldaker’s goal away to Slough is also up there.

BQGillsFan - Number One has to be Tom Eaves at Fratton Park. A stunning flick and volley to score a goal Messi or Ronaldo would be proud of. Simply stunning.

Number Two has to go to Elliott List for his winner against Cardiff. I've never seen Priestfield as loud all season and I nearly jumped out my skin as my phone pinged for the goal notification (I was in London and missed the game sadly).

One and two was easy to pick, I'm struggling a bit more for three. In the end I've gone with Barry Fuller's strike at Doncaster. Long way out for a striker to shoot, let alone a 34 year old right back.

Mac - Oldaker vs slough because the technique was unreal and it was an important goal to get us through to the next round, eaves vs Pompey because we hadn’t won in a while and it was a class goal and we went on to win, Fuller vs Doncaster because he never scores and it was a great strike and we went on to get a point away at a class team. Honourable mentions: list vs Burton away, parrett vs Scunthorpe away and list vs Coventry at home.

Colin -  Eaves at Pompey is our best by a country mile. Oldaker at Slough and Rees at Swansea also stick in the mind.

Rob -  Three best goals have to be: Oldaker in the Cup, Barry Fuller (just for scoring!) and I'm sure Eaves has scored a blinder at some point.

Smithy - This was the one I took the most time over, Without doubt THAT Tom Eaves goal at Portsmouth is my number one. Incredible skill against a team that were flying. Enough said. There have been lots of good goals scored so far for many different reasons. I think my 2nd and 3rd place goals would go to Listy at home to Coventry. The way he handled the ball, took it all that way, nearly lost it, got it back under control and from such a tight angle netted was incredible. Superb one man goal, And perhaps a slightly controversial one, I quite like a poacher and Max Ehmer at Donny is up there for me. Appears at the back, chests it down and hits it. Infact he did the same at Hartlepool in the FA Cup replay so perhaps his trademark!

Marc - Tom Eaves away at Portsmouth - Elliot List away to Coventry - Barry Fuller away to Shrewsbury I think?

Stocky - Luke o Neill free kick, Eaves wonder goal against Pompey and the rarity that is a Barry Fuller goal vs Donny.

Loonpotter -  Eaves chip over the head and volley wins it.

Louis - Tom Eaves vs Portsmouth, Darren Oldaker v Slough, Barry Fuller v Doncaster.

Matthew - Elliot List goal against Cardiff because he placed it perfectly. Tom Eaves goal against Portsmouth. To read it from the air was amazing. Oldakers goal in the fa cup against Slough. To score from that far out is amazing.

Gills Debate -  The number one pick for me would be Eaves’ strike against Portsmouth back in October. I thought that the technique to control the ball, flick it up and swivel, and then finish powerfully past the goalkeeper was superb. There have been a few other contenders so far this season, but I’ll go with Oldaker’s goal against Slough Town and Fuller’s goal against Doncaster Rovers as my other two to make up the top 3.

Lewis -  Tom Eaves’ first at Portsmouth gets number one for sure. What’s the saying? Great feet for a big man? Elliott List takes number two with his incredible solo effort at home to Coventry, and number 3 is Barry Fuller’s screamer at Doncaster, for who it was as well as the strike.

12. IF YOU WERE TO GIVE GILLINGHAM A MARK OUT OF TEN, TEN BEING THE HIGHEST AND ZERO BEING THE LOWEST, WHAT MARK OUT OF TEN WOULD YOU GIVE GILLINGHAM AT THIS STAGE OF THE SEASON ???

Richard - FOUR

Luke - 6 out of 10

Emlyn - I would have to give a 5.5...purely because of our current league position!

ForzaGills - 5/10 – as I’ve said we can’t be expecting playoffs given our budget and squad but there have been some shocking performances this season. On the flipside we’ve played well on occasions and deserved more from some games. We’ve been rather inconsistent though, hence the 5.

We_Need_Eaves - FOUR

Dave - I will give it 6.5. Nothing is perfect so that is one thing. Our league one form needs to be better, we need to climb up the league and stay away from relegation trouble. The FA Cup run helps boost this. The win over Cardiff will live long in the memory, regardless of how the season pans out.

BQGillsFan - Only a 3. We are flirting with relegation again and whilst the Cardiff result was a nice distraction, we look woeful in the league and I genuinely fear we may be dancing with death one too many times and League Two is calling.

Mac - 3.5/10.

Colin - Four out of Ten. Must do better.

Rob - Probably a 6. We're doing as well as expected. Most fans anticipated another season of struggling to stay up and that is what has happened. Perhaps the second half will be more fruitful.

Smithy -  Marks out of 10, I think a 6-7 personally. We've done ok, it's not been great in parts but we've had some good results and I think we can start pushing on now.

Marc -  5 - we’re consistently inconsistent. We’ve had chances to pull away from the bottom 4 but seem to fall short a lot of the time, for every good result two or three bad ones seem to follow.

Stocky -  I would give it a 6 which is about standard for an inconsistent side. There's times we've looked like a good side yet other times where we've  been frustratingly bad.

Loonpotter -  4 out of 10.

Louis - 3/10.

Matthew - I would give is a 3 because we need to start wining more games to get us out of the relegation battle.

Gills Debate -  I’ll stick with what I believe I went for last time and go for a 5.5 At the beginning of the season I had hopes that we could have a campaign where we spent the majority of the time in mid table, and not in or around the relegation places, but unfortunately that hasn’t really turned out to be the case. There have certainly been some good performances this season and some enjoyable games, but there have also been too many poor showings.

Lewis -  Probably a 3, that sort of area. I had high hopes after the first 3 games (including Millwall), but now we’re in another relegation fight and I can’t help but feel we shouldn’t be, because we have potential to be good - we just haven’t been too often this season. I find myself at another point where I can’t wait for the season to end yet again. 

 13. AT THE START OF THE SEASON, I ASKED GILLINGHAM SUPPORTERS FOR THERE PREDICTIONS ON WHERE DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL FINISH IN LEAGUE ONE THIS SEASON, SO AFTER THIRTY LEAGUE GAMES, WHERE DO YOU THINK GILLINGHAM WILL FINISH IN LEAGUE ONE THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Heart says 20th or higher...maybe 19th if we push.

Luke - I shall stick with my prediction earlier in the year and say somewhere in the top 24.

Emlyn - I think we will finish 14th.

ForzaGills - I’d like to think we’ll finish lower mid-table, maybe 15th. At this stage though I’d probably take anything above the dotted line, there are some big teams in and around the relegation zone who have started picking up points and its getting tighter and tighter down there.

We_Need_Eaves -  19th

Dave - I think Gills will avoid relegation and come in the bottom half of mid table. So anything from 14th-18th.

BQGillsFan - I can never bet on the boys going down so I'll say we will finish 20th, just narrowly avoiding the drop.

Mac - 19th.

Colin - I think we will just about survive avoiding the drop by a couple of points. Let's say 18th.

Rob - I think we'll finish in a similar position to where we are now. I would hope that we are safe with a few weeks of the season remaining, but this is Gillingham and we never do it the easy way. I'd love for us to have a good run of 6-7 games and just pull away to mid table, but I can't see it happening unless the new signings all make a big impact.

Smithy -  At the start of the campaign I didn't predict a finish, however I did think we could end the season relatively comfortable. I genuinely believe we'll avoid relegation, I think we could pull up a few places. I think an optimistic 15th would be an okay finish to an up and down season.

Marc -  I think we’ll finish where we are now. Hopefully I’m wrong and now we have some new players in we can go on a run and pull away from that dotted line.

Stocky - I think we have enough about us to stay up and believe there are 4 teams worse than us. I think it'll be hit and miss throughout the season but we will end up staying up by about 5+ points. I predict an 18th-19th placed finish.

Loonpotter -  20th.

Louis - 17th.

Matthew - Still think mid table hopefully with games in hand.

Gills Debate - My hope is that the new signings will give us something extra that will ensure we don’t spend the final couple of games of the season battling to stay in the division. I’ll go with 15th.

Lewis - These last few weeks is the first time I’ve been seriously worried about relegation this season. We slipped in there against Coventry, but the Eaves penalty bailed us out. I’m not sure if I’m kidding myself because I think we have a lot of talent, but I think we’re too good to go down (touch wood). I think we’ll end up where we are now - 19th.

14. HOW WOULD YOU RATE GILLINGHAM’S PERFORMANCES IN THE DOMESTIC CUP COMPETITIONS THIS SEASON ???

Richard - Let's face it, only really 1 good game out of 4 in FA Cup. Struggled past Hartlepool in 1st round, just past Slough then a great result v Cardiff. A good cup run should hopefully give them confidence though.

Luke - Checkatrade Trophy: Pants but who cares?

Carabao Cup: Unlucky with the penalty shootout with Millwall but it is what it is.

FA Cup: Good effort, nice to get to the 4th Round for the first time in 15 years.

Kent Senior Cup: Still in it at the Semi-Final stage, could we actually win something ???

Emlyn - Pleased with the cups - We drew with a championship side and unfortunately went out on penalties in Carbao cup, that could have gone the other way!, And The FA Cup was great, it was nice to make the 4th round, the best one for quite some time.

ForzaGills - The FA Cup run was great fun and well overdue. The League Cup campaign was over in August and the Checkatrade trophy was non-existent. But we surpassed all expectations in beating Cardiff and getting to the fourth round in the FA Cup, I just hope it can become more of a regular occurrence.

We_Need_Eaves - Poor. Rode our luck vs Cardiff.

Dave - I think in the League Cup and EFL Trophy we were underwhelming because we got knocked out at the first hurdle. However, I think they were competitions that we were not totally fussed about progressing in. As nice as a wembley trip would have been, even if it is the EFL Trophy. The FA Cup as I stated above was a great campaign, we managed to get over two tough hurdles in the opening two rounds, then overcome premier league opposition. We even got to visit a new ground because of it with the Liberty. Hopefully we have something similar next year.

BQGillsFan - The FA Cup run was nice,  especially the Cardiff win. The other cups I've genuinely forgotten how they went and can't be bothered to Google it.

Mac - Quality.

Colin - Anything would have been an improvement but to beat Cardiff's reserves was a fantastic achievement. The way we got to round three wasn't much to shout about. We didn't do anything in the other competitions. Maybe we can win the Kent Senior Cup.

Rob - Unexpected. When we were draw to a non-league side (twice!), I fully expected us to have another humiliating cup exit, especially when going to a reply. Luckily, a last minute goal saved us against Hartlepool and an inspirational performance against Cardiff sent us through to the 4th round for the first time in ages. I wasn't overly surprised to see Swansea away was just a step too far.

Smithy - Cup competitions have seemed fairly unimportant in my opinion. Other than the FA Cup.

Caraboa Cup, poor. Simple as. Going out in the first round is never great in any competition.

Checkatrade, the fan favourite! Again it was awful,  I don't really have anything to say about it. I'm not for it personally.

As for the FA Cup, yeah I'm happy. I think we did ourselves proud. Going out in the manner we did was unjust in my opinion but we took a lot of support to South Wales, we got behind the boys and we did manage to knock a Premier League side out on the way. I'd have loved nothing more than to see us progress of course, but for a team in our position we focus on the league now.

Marc - Obviously the FA cup run was an enjoyable one but the other two competitions aren’t too memorable. The checkatrade competition needs a major revamp to get fans interested in the competition again.

Stocky - I think it's been good overall. On paper, we wasn't expected to beat millwall and took them to penalties in the league cup. The check a trade is much maligned and although I don't like the club losing any game, it's the least important of the competitions. The fa cup has been the obvious highlight although we made a pigs ear of it drawing to Hartlepool at home, salvaging extra time in the replay and perhaps riding our luck at times against Slough. That home Game against Cardiff however was something else; one of the best atmospheres in a long time. Unfortunately Swansea was a step too far.

Loonpotter -  I thought they performed well against Cardiff but no other performances to note,  excited me.

Louis - The FA Cup run has been fantastic, I waited all my life for Gillingham to beat a premier league side and it was fantastic to beat Cardiff. Didn’t get the result we wanted against Swansea but was still a class day out.

Matthew - The fa cup run was amazing and to get to the fourth round is great for the club. The game against Cardiff was the best to win the way we did.

Gills Debate -  I’m pretty happy with what we’ve done in the domestic cups this season. It was disappointing to go out in the group stage of the Checkatrade Trophy, as while I don’t agree with the changes that have happened to the format of the competition, I’d have preferred for us to get through a few rounds but it’s clearly not that important in the grand scheme of things! It was also disappointing to go out of the Carabao Cup in the 1st round, but the performance at the time was quite encouraging. The big success though has been our run in the FA Cup, to get through to the 4th round via a victory over a Premier League side in the 3rd round was great, even if we didn’t do things the easy way against Hartlepool United and Slough Town!

Lewis -  We’ll forget the Checkatrade Trophy - that was awful. The Millwall game in the Carabao Cup was impressive, it was just a shame we couldn’t take the penalties to save our lives. The FA Cup was a bit overrated because, apart from the Cardiff game, I think we were poor. We had to go to a replay against non league Hartlepool, and we scraped past an even lower ranked Slough, after they dominated a lot of the game. The Cardiff game was great, and I had a lot of fun, but at Swansea we were poor again. I enjoyed the run, but it was very up and down emotionally!  

15. AND FINALLY, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WISH TO ADD (EXAMPLE: IS THERE SOMETHING I HAVE NOT COVERED IN THE FOURTEEN QUESTIONS ASKED ABOVE YOU WANT TO EXPAND UPON) ???

Richard - Lot of criticism about Scally and he's given the team backing this window. If we do go down, the players, manager and coaches will have to take the blame.

Luke - Paella. If i sit in the Rainham End, I always get the Paella before a game and I have to say, its been a hit and miss this season so up the effort please caterers. It used to be very good so lets get back to those levels. Anyways Up the Gills!

Emlyn -  Nothing to add!

ForzaGills - Nothing To Add!

We_Need_Eaves - Really concerned that as our home attendances dwindle due to poor home form how will we finance better signings next season? Have we done enough ‘kid a quid’ offers to boost future potential fans?

Dave -  Nothing To Add.

BQGillsFan - The main thing now is going into these final games of the season, I'd urge all Gillingham fans to get behind the team 110%. We need to show all our love for the boys between now and the final game of the season and hopefully will them on to survival.

Mac - Nothing To Add.

Colin - I do think that Mr.Scally after a long and eventful tenure with many highs as well as the more recent lows should pass on the baton to someone who can rebuild trust with the fans.

Rob - Not particularly. I said before the season that I was hoping for stability and no nonsense comments from the Chairman – that was broken within days. His dream of a stadium is continuing and a leaked investment brochure created much excitement and amusement on the forums. I still think that a new stadium that generates revenue 365 days a year is the way to go. Ultimately, I know that our Chairman has neither the resources nor the aptitude to create such a scheme. Accepted planning permission on a site where the land is secure would be a massive boost for any future new owner. We can all dream.

Smithy - Nothing To Add.

Marc - Nothing To Add.

Stocky -  I think everything's been covered but all I would say whatever your view on scally/Lovell and whether you want them in or out, let's get behind the team and try to make a difference to their performance to pull us away from trouble.

Loonpotter -  Nothing To Add.

Louis - Nothing To Add.

Matthew - Nothing To Add.

Gills Debate - Nothing more to add.

Lewis - The only thing to say is I wish we’d stop letting players’ contracts run down. We’re going to lose our most valuable asset, Tom Eaves, for nothing in the summer, and that shouldn’t happen. Apart from that, thanks to Lee for asking me to participate, and up the Gills!

Once again, thank you to everyone for participating in this blog, and if anyone who is reading this who wishes to participate in the end of season blog, then feel free to send me a message, and your more than welcome to participate in The Gillingham Supporters Blog for the end of The 2018 / 2019 Season, Let’s Hope Gillingham can pick up enough points between now and the end of the season to retain Gillingham’s League One Status and avoid relegation (or potentially achieve something higher then avoid the drop) - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[liberaleffects]

You could hear the deep sadness in the preacher’s voice as he named “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government." With those words, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., launched a scathing indictment of America’s war in Vietnam. It was April 4, 1967.

That first antiwar sermon of his seemed to signal a new high tide of opposition to a brutal set of American policies in Southeast Asia. Just 11 days later, unexpectedly large crowds would come out in New York and San Francisco for the first truly massive antiwar rallies. Back then, a protest of at least a quarter of a million seemed yuge.

King signaled another turning point when he concluded his speech by bringing up “something even more disturbing” -- something that would deeply disturb the developing antiwar movement as well. “The war in Vietnam,” he said, “is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.”

Read Article Here

Many of those who gathered at antiwar rallies days later were already beginning to suspect the same thing. Even if they could actually force their government to end its war in Vietnam, they would be healing only a symptom of a far more profound illness. With that realization came a shift in consciousness, the clearest sign of which could be found in the sizeable contingent of countercultural hippies who began joining those protests. While antiwar radicals were challenging the unjust political and military policies of their government, the counterculturists were focused on something bigger: trying to revolutionize the whole fabric of American society.

Why recall this history exactly 50 years later, in the age of Donald Trump? Curiously enough, King offered at least a partial answer to that question in his 1967 warning about the deeper malady. “If we ignore this sobering reality,” he said, “we will find ourselves... marching... and attending rallies without end.” The alternative? “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.”

Like many of my generation, I feel as if, in lieu of that radical revolution, I have indeed been marching and attending rallies for the last half-century, even if there were also long fallow periods of inactivity. (In those quiet times, of course, there was always organizing and activism going on behind the scenes, preparing for the next wave of marches and demonstrations in response to the next set of obvious outrages.)

If the arc of history bends toward justice, as King claimed, it’s been a strange journey, a bizarre twisting and turning as if we were all on some crazed roller-coaster ride.

The Trump era already seems like the most bizarre twist of all, leaving us little choice but to march and rally at a quickening pace for years to come. A radical revolution in values? Unless you’re thinking of Trump’s plutocrats and environment wreckers, not so much. If anything, the nation once again finds itself facing an exaggerated symptom of a far deeper malady. Perhaps one day, like the antiwar protestors of 1967, anti-Trump protestors will say: If the American system we live under can create this atrocity, there must be something wrong with the whole thing.

But that’s the future. At present, the resistance movement, though as unexpectedly large as the movement of 1967, is still focused mainly on symptoms, the expanding list of inhumane 1% policies the Republicans (themselves in chaos) are preparing to foist on the nation. Yet to come up are the crucial questions: What’s wrong with our system? How could it produce a President Trump, a Republican hegemony, and the society-wrecking policies that go with them both? What would a radically new direction mean and how would we head there?

In 1967, antiwar activists were groping their way toward answers to similar questions. At least we have one advantage. We can look back at their answers and use them to help make sense of our own situation. As it happens, theirs are still depressingly relevant because the systemic malady that produced the Vietnam War is a close cousin to the one that has now given us President Trump.

Diagnosing Our Deep Sickness

The Sixties spawned many analyses of the ills of the American system. The ones that marked that era as revolutionary concluded that the heart of the problem was a distinctive mode of consciousness -- a way of seeing, experiencing, interpreting, and being in the world. Political and cultural radicals converged, as historian Todd Gitlin concluded, in their demand for a transformation of “national if not global (or cosmic) consciousness.”

Nor was such a system uniquely American, they discovered. It was nothing less than the hallmark of Western modernity.

In exploring the nature of that “far deeper malady,” Martin Luther King, for instance, turned to the European philosopher Martin Buber, who found the root of that consciousness in modernity’s “I-It” attitude. From early childhood, he suggested, we learn to see other people as mere objects (“its”) with no inherent relation to us. In the process, we easily lose sight of their full humanity. That, in turn, allows us free rein to manipulate others (or as in Vietnam simply destroy them) for our own imagined benefit.

King particularly decried such dehumanization as it played itself out in American racism: “Segregation substitutes an ‘I-it’ relationship for the ‘I-thou’ relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things.” But he condemned it no less strongly in the economic sphere, where it affected people of all races. “The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system,” he said, “encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered... Capitalism fails to realize that life is social.”

Another influential thinker of that era was a German-American philosopher, Herbert Marcuse. (Some radicals even marched in rallies carrying signs reading “Marx, Mao, Marcuse.”) For him, the dehumanization of modernity was rooted in the way science and technology led us to view nature as a mere collection of “things” having no inherent relation to us -- things to be analyzed, controlled, and if necessary destroyed for our own benefit.

Capitalists use technology, he explained, to build machines that take charge both of the workers who run them and of aspects of the natural world. The capitalists then treat those workers as so many things, not people. And the same hierarchy -- boss up here, bossed down there -- shows up at every level of society from the nuclear family to the international family of nations (with its nuclear arsenals). In a society riddled with structures of domination, it was no accident that the U.S. was pouring so much lethal effort into devastating Vietnam.

As Marcuse saw it, however, the worst trick those bosses play on us is to manipulate our consciousness, to seduce us into thinking that the whole system makes sense and is for our own good. When those machines are cranking out products that make workers’ lives more comfortable, most of them are willing to embrace and perpetuate a system that treats them as dominated objects.

Marcuse would not have been surprised to see so many workers voting for Donald Trump, a candidate who built his campaign on promises of ever more intensified domination -- of marginalized people at home, of “bad hombres” needing to be destroyed abroad, and of course, of nature itself, especially in the form of fossil fuels on a planet where the very processes he championed ensured a future of utter devastation.

One explanation for the electoral success of Trump was the way he appealed to heartland white working-class voters who saw their standard of living and sense of social status steadily eroding. Living in a world in which hierarchy and domination are taken for granted, it’s hardly surprising that many of them took it for granted as well that the only choice available was either to be a dominator or to be dominated. Vote for me, the billionaire businessman (famed for the phrase “You’re fired!”) implicitly promised and you, too, will be one of the dominators. Vote against me and you’re doomed to remain among the dominated. Like so many other tricks of the system, this one defied reality but worked anyway.

Many Trump voters who bought into the system will find themselves facing even harsher domination by the 1%. And as the Trumpian fantasy of man dominating nature triggers inevitable twenty-first-century blowback on a planetary scale, count on growing environmental and social disasters to bring disproportionate pain to those already suffering most under the present system. In every arena, as Marcuse explained back in the 1960s, the system of hierarchy and domination remains self-perpetuating and self-escalating.

“The Long and Bitter But Beautiful Struggle for a New World”

What’s the remedy for this malady, now as lethally obvious at home as it once was in Vietnam?

“The end of domination [is] the only truly revolutionary exigency,” Marcuse wrote. True freedom, he thought, means freeing humanity from the hierarchical system that locks us into the daily struggle to earn a living by selling our labor. Freedom means liberating our consciousness to search for our own goals and being able to pursue them freely. In Martin Luther King’s words, freedom is “the opportunity to fulfill my total capacity untrammeled by any artificial barrier.”

How to put an end not only to America’s war in Vietnam, but to a whole culture built on domination? King’s answer on that April 4th was deceptively simple: “Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door... The first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.”

The simplicity in that statement was deceptive because love is itself such a complicated word. King often explained that the Greeks had three words for love: eros (aesthetic or romantic love), philia (friendship), and agape (self-sacrificing devotion to others). He left no doubt that he considered agape far superior to the other two.

The emerging counterculture of those years certainly agreed with him on the centrality of love to human liberation. After all, it was “the love generation.” But its mantra -- “If it feels good, do it” -- made King’s rejection of eros in the name of self-negating agape a non-starter for them.

King, however, offered another view of love, which was far more congenial to the counterculture. Love unites whatever is separated, he preached. This is the kind of love that God uses in his work. We, in turn, are always called upon to imitate God and so to transform our society into what King called a “beloved community.”

Though few people at the time made the connection, King’s Christian understanding of love was strikingly similar to Marcuse’s secular view of erotic love. Marcuse saw eros as the fulfillment of desire. He also saw it as anything but selfish, since it flows from what Freud called the id, which always wants to abolish ego boundaries and recover that sense of oneness with everything we all had as infants.

When we experience anyone or anything erotically, we feel that we are inherently interconnected, “tied together in a single garment of destiny,” as King so eloquently put it. When boundaries and separation dissolve, there can be no question of hierarchy or domination.

Every moment that hints at such unification brings us pleasure. In a revolutionary society that eschews structures of domination for the ideal of unification, all policies are geared toward creating more moments of unity and pleasure.

Think of this as the deep-thought revolution of the Sixties: radically transformed minds would create a radically transformed society. Revolutionaries of that time were, in fact, trying to wage the very utopian struggle that King summoned all Americans to in his April 4th speech, “the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world.”

50 Years Later: The Thread That Binds

At this very moment 50 years ago, a movement resisting a brutal war of domination in a distant land was giving birth to a movement calling for the creation of a new consciousness to heal our ailing society. Will the resistance movement of 2017 head in a similar direction?

At first glance, it seems unlikely. After all, ever since the Vietnam War ended, progressives have had a tendency to focus on single issues of injustice or laundry lists of problems. They have rarely imagined the American system as anything more than a collection of wrong-headed policies and wrong-hearted politicians. In addition, after years of resisting the right wing as it won victory after victory, and of watching the Democrats morph into a neoliberal crew and then into a failing party with its own dreary laundry lists of issues and personalities, the capacity to hope for fundamental change may have gone the way of Herbert Marcuse and Martin Luther King.

Still, for those looking hard, a thread of hope exists. Today’s marches, rallies, and town halls are packed with veterans of the Sixties who can remember, if we try, what it felt like to believe we were fighting not only to stop a war but to start a revolution in consciousness. No question about it, we made plenty of mistakes back then. Now, with so much more experience (however grim) in our memory banks, perhaps we might develop more flexible strategies and a certain faith in taking a more patient, long-term approach to organizing for change.

Don’t forget as well that, whatever our failings and the failings of other past movements, we also have a deep foundation of victories (along with defeats) to build on. No, there was no full-scale revolution in our society -- no surprise there. But in so many facets of our world, advances happened nonetheless. Think of how, in those 50 years just past, views on diversity, social equality, the environment, healthcare, and so many other issues, which once existed only on the fringes of our world, have become thoroughly mainstream. Taken as a whole, they represent a partial but still profound and significant set of changes in American consciousness.

Of course, the Sixties not only can’t be resurrected, but shouldn’t be. (After all, it should never be forgotten that what they led to wasn’t a dreamed of new society but the “Reagan revolution,” as the arc of justice took the first of its many grim twists and turns.) At best, the Sixties critique of the system would have to be updated to include many new developments.

Even the methods of those Sixties radicals would need major revisions, given that our world, especially of communication, now relies so heavily on blindingly fast changes in technology. But every time we log onto the Internet and browse the web, it should remind us that -- shades of the past -- across this embattled Earth of ours, we’re all tied together in a single worldwide web of relations and of destiny. It’s either going to be one for all and all for one, or it’s going to be none for 7.4 billion on a planet heading for hell.

Today is different, too, because our movement was not born out of protest against an odious policy, but against an odious mindset embodied in a deplorable person who nonetheless managed to take the Oval Office. He’s so obviously a symptom of something larger and deeper that perhaps the protesters of this generation will grasp more quickly than the radicals of the Vietnam era that America’s underlying disease is a destructive mode of consciousness (and not just a bad combover).

The move from resisting individual policies to transforming American consciousness may already have begun in small ways. After all, “love trumps hate” has become the most common slogan of the progressive movement. And the word love is being heard in hard-edged political discourse, not only on the left, but among mainstream political voices like Van Jones and Cory Booker. Once again, there is even talk of “revolutionary love.”

Of course, the specific policies of the Republicans and this president (including his developing war policies) must be resisted and the bleeding of the immediate moment staunched. Yet the urgent question of the late 1960s remains: What can be done when there are so many fronts on which to struggle and the entire system demands constant vigilant attention? In the age of a president who regularly sucks all the air out of the room, how do we even talk about all of this without being overwhelmed?

In many ways, the current wave of regressive change and increasing chaos in Washington should be treated as a caricature of the system that we all have been living under for so long. Turn to that broader dimension and the quest for a new consciousness may prove the thread that, though hardly noticed, already ties together the many facets of the developing resistance movement.

The largest mobilization for progressive politics since the Vietnam era offers a unique opportunity to go beyond simply treating symptoms and start offering cures for the underlying illness. If this opportunity is missed, versions of the same symptoms are likely to recur, while unpredictable new ones will undoubtedly emerge for the next 50 years, and as Martin Luther King predicted, we will go on marching without end. Surely we deserve a better future and a better fate.

Ira Chernus, a TomDispatch regular, is professor emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of the online MythicAmerica: Essays.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, as well as John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turse’s Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt's Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2017 Ira Chernus _______

ABOUT AUTHOR

Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and author of American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea and the forthcoming book "Monsters to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin." He can be contacted at chernus@colorado.edu

[junker-town]

Change CFB history by changing one old TD. Which will you choose?

Here are some old games we’d revise, whether for entertainment or justice or pure spite. Add yours in the comments!

2004 USC vs. Cal, by Brian Floyd

Let’s get Marshawn Lynch a national championship.

In early October, No. 7 Cal traveled to No. 1 USC and lost by six despite significantly outplaying the Trojans. USC went on the win the BCS in a year when the rankings were so messed up, it helped pave the way for a playoff. Cal was left out of the Rose Bowl, perhaps partly because of Lobbyist Mack Brown.

Add one more touchdown to Cal’s score against USC, and a lot changes. Cal goes to the title game. The argument over a bowl berth becomes USC-Texas, potentially erasing Vince Young’s first Rose Bowl moment (Michigan loses in either world). USC and Texas will settle the argument the next season anyway.

Putting a blemish on USC possibly ruins Matt Leinart’s Heisman campaign. This either puts the trophy in the hands of Adrian Peterson or opens a mystery door where Aaron Rodgers wins it.

Rodgers leads Cal to a title game victory, and a freshman Lynch leads a postgame medical cart parade throughout Miami.

2005 Penn State vs. Michigan, by Alex Kirshner

You’ll recall Mario Manningham’s game-winning catch as time expired, which provided Penn State’s only loss:

The Nittany Lions were going to finish 10-1 and third in the BCS standings behind the wire-to-wire 1 and 2, USC and Texas. I’m not here to argue that without Manningham’s catch, Vince Young’s second night at the Rose Bowl never would’ve happened.

But I am here to argue that, with too many undefeated power-conference teams for a second year in a row, the hollering for a playoff would’ve grown so incessant, there’s a chance college football would’ve had a system before it actually did.

2003 had been a mess for the BCS, with LSU winning the title game and USC the AP title. That caused the BCS to de-emphasize its computer calculations and lean more on the human polls.

2004 was a different mess, with unbeaten Auburn getting relegated to the Sugar Bowl against two-loss Virginia Tech (plus undefeated Utah and Boise State teams having no shot). The AP embarrassed the BCS by telling it to stop using the poll. Even worse, OU was uncompetitive against USC in the championship.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese acknowledged the ‘04 situation was “like crack” for playoff proponents. I don’t think university presidents would’ve withstood the public-relations whoopass if Penn State had then stayed unbeaten in ‘05.

The BCS had a TV deal with Fox that ran through 2010 for the non-Rose bowls. I believe we’d have had a playoff in 2011, not 2014, if Penn State hadn’t lost to Michigan.

We could’ve forced Bama to earn a rematch against LSU in ‘11, but in 2013, we’d have been required to watch Michigan State in yet another playoff. So it’s probably for the best that Manningham caught it.

1966 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State, by Richard Johnson

I’m gonna break a personal rule and acknowledge championships before the sport fully integrated in 1972. But I am still ignoring an undefeated Alabama that was four years away from being rocked by a USC filled with black players, highlighting Bama’s need to integrate.

Giving the ‘66 Spartans this outright national title seems fitting. That Michigan State roster featured a whopping 20 black players, including quarterback Jimmy Raye. Notre Dame had one.

On Nov. 19th, the teams met in East Lansing in a so-called “Game Of The Century,” ranked 1 and 2.

After missing what would have been a go-ahead field goal, Notre Dame had the ball with another chance to win. The Irish opted not to.

Even as the Michigan State defenders taunted them and called the time-outs that the Irish should have been calling. Notre Dame ran into the line, the place where the big game was hopelessly played all afternoon. No one really expected a verdict in that last desperate moment. But they wanted someone to try. When the Irish ran into the line, the Spartans considered it a minor surrender. [...]

“I was saying, “You’re going for the tie, aren’t you? You’re going for the tie,’ “ said Webster. “And you know what? They wouldn’t even look us in the eyes. They just turned their backs and went back to their huddle.” Bubba had hollered, “Come on, you sissies,” while other Spartans were yelling at Parseghian.

Let us right this wrong. Let us make this score 17-10 in favor of the green and white.

1998 Kansas State vs. Texas A&M, by Steven Godfrey

What’s the least accomplished program to make a national championship game? Use any metric: recruiting rankings, coaching salaries, athletic department spending, marketing campaigns, alternate uniforms, whatever.

Wouldn’t K-State’s mere presence in a BCS title game invalidate the curmudgeon logic that only the biggest, richest, and most geographically gifted schools can really compete — even if that might be the truth?

Let’s swap some points in the 1998 Big 12 Championship at the historic TWA Dome in St. Louis. Undefeated K-State blew a 27-12 fourth quarter lead and lost in double overtime, 36-33, choking away the chance to end decades of ignominy. I don’t need 7 points — just let Texas A&M miss its two-point conversion.

Tennessee could’ve still won the BCS, and FSU’s legacy wouldn’t be changed much by absence. But Kansas State wouldn’t have suffered the indignity of falling out of the BCS bowls despite being No. 3, a clear early sign of how the stupid BCS hid college football’s old school biases with new junk math.

If the Cats merely made the game, we’d have an example that this sport can still produce a bootstraps champion.

2009 Tennessee vs. Alabama, by Jason Kirk

I wanted to take a title from a dynasty and give it to a non-power.

For example, change a 1975 Miami midfield fumble into a touchdown against reigning champ Oklahoma, and the WAC’s Arizona State is your final AP No. 1.

Give 1899 Harvard a loss to Yale — not that true national champion Sewanee needs the help, but still.

Or, if Tennessee’s last-second field goal makes it past Terrence Cody’s hands and goes through, 2009’s title game might (with some additional fantasy — the rankings weren’t super close, but let’s live a little) be Texas vs. Cincinnati.

Maybe Mack Brown wins and stays at Texas forever. Maybe Brian Kelly wins and jumps to the Bills. Maybe Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse, or West Virginia becomes a realignment loser as the ACC and Big 12 fight over Cincinnati.

Maybe, without a 2009 title, Nick Saban gets less benefit of the doubt from the BCS’ human voters in 2011, when the computers preferred Oklahoma State over a team that’d already lost to LSU. Maybe Saban having two fewer titles gives the 2017 Playoff committee a little doubt as well.

The good news for Bama is that, in most timelines, Cincy wouldn’t win it all in 2009, meaning Saban still gets to enjoy facing Kelly’s Notre Dame in 2012.

Also, that 2009 win by Tennessee vaults Vols coach Lane Kiffin to a really big job, like maybe USC or something.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

2015 Tennessee vs. Alabama, by Ryan Nanni

The Vols now win 21-19 in Tuscaloosa. That means Butch Jones is 9-3 in his third year, with Tennessee’s first win over the Tide in nine years, and probably a bid to the Citrus Bowl instead of the Outback. I’m betting he gets another contract extension.

At two 2015 losses, the narrative for Nick Saban since winning the 2012 title by destroying Notre Dame is now this:

2013: Missed the SEC title game, got torn up by Trevor Knight in the Sugar Bowl

2014: Won the SEC, got torn up by Cardale Jones in the Playoff semifinal

2015: Missed the SEC title game and the Playoff

Would this mean Saban had lost his touch? No. Would it mean sportswriters would fill up column after column suggesting that? Yes.

Also, the SEC Championship is now Florida against Ole Miss.

Florida beating the Rebels for the second time that season would give the Gators a Sugar Bowl bid against a beatable Oklahoma State, meaning Jim McElwain and Butch Jones land long-term contracts in the SEC East.

Or Ole Miss wins its first SEC title since 1963. You’re probably thinking the NCAA’s just gonna overturn this, but you’re wrong! Of the 33 victories the school was forced to vacate, zero occurred in 2015.

Now the Playoff committee has to pick between Stanford, Iowa, and Ohio State for the last spot. Pick three-loss Ole Miss and get people talking.

2002 Georgia vs. Florida, by Holly Anderson

I want to hand Georgia seven points, meaning a 20-20 tie, in a game that endures so many overtimes, everyone agrees to call it a tie, accomplishing several mean agenda items at once.

First! It saddles the undefeated Bulldogs with an asterisk. This gifts them a claim on the BCS title game, but Georgia holds in its grubby paws a hope as indigestible as store-brand kibble to a purebred bulldog. With two unblemished teams elsewhere, the Dawgs’ postseason angst is maximized, and even the balm of a win over their hated rival is denied them. Welcome to hell; it’s cocktail hour.

Second! Georgia’s thin claim complicates a clean BCS matchup between Miami and Ohio State. The outcome is now tainted for Ohio State, no matter what happens. With a Buckeyes loss, Georgia claims it should have had the shot at Miami. Or the Georgia argument applies yet another layer to an already clouded Ohio State win, following one of the most contested pass interference calls of all time. We leave the Buckeyes here, at their normal baseline level of misery/triumph.

Third and finally! Those seven points remove Florida’s only accomplishment in 2002: ruining Georgia’s season.

2012 Stanford vs. Oregon, by Spencer Hall

Oregon had so much going for it: uninjured future Heisman winner Marcus Mariota, Kenjon Barner totaling 2,023 yards, a rampaging offense averaging 49 points a game, and the No. 25 scoring defense.

The Ducks had Chip Kelly, riding his final death machine into a gig with the Philadelphia Eagles. Six years later, the Eagles would win the Super Bowl. These facts definitely have something to do with each other, as long as no one looks up what happened.

This millennium, the Ducks had several real, live shots at a national title. 2012 was maybe their best, given that they had Mariota and would’ve played the beatable Fighting Irish in the title game.

You’re just saying that because of how badly Notre Dame lost to Alabama. Oh, absolutely, but: the Irish came into Miami at unsustainable heights, thanks to close wins during a favorable schedule. Their limited offense only survived thanks to a stout defense, and the centerpiece of that defense wilted against Alabama. In a lot of ways, the 2012 Irish had been clearly living on borrowed time.

If anything, Oregon would have made it worse. After 30 minutes of industrial rinsing, Alabama only scored twice in the second half against Notre Dame. Kelly teams commonly put up three scores in the third quarter alone.

Only Stanford, capable of putting Oregon’s boom-time offense into a depression, kept Oregon from doing this to Notre Dame. The Cardinal held the Ducks to 14 points and squatted on the ball for almost 38 minutes in a repossession of hopes.

Stanford did this despite turning the ball over three times, Oregon putting up 400 yards, and almost no one wearing a color besides red wanting it to happen. This seems like an okay motto for Stanford history. Stanford football: Few want it to happen, but look, it’s going down anyway.

Nothing about Stanford-Oregon made sense in 2012, and nothing about it makes sense in 2019. So let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.

On November 17, 2012, the Ducks emerged in a 21-14 win over the Cardinal. They later beat Notre Dame by a score of 114-24, which everyone thought was insanely cool.

[rojavanpuolesta-blog]

Experiences in Rojava: An Interview with Plan C

We interviewed Peter Loo and Sarah Patton of Plan C, a nation-wide anti-capitalist organisation in the UK. They were both in Rojava from October 2016 to June 2017 and were based mainly in the city of Qamislo. 

1. Can you tell us first what Plan C is?

Plan C is a national anti-capitalist organisation here in the UK. We started the discussions which would lead to our group forming in 2010-2011 during the student protests of that time. Whilst the Conservative party's HQ was being ransacked and universities went into occupation, the radical left seemed to be absent. We saw the need for an organisation which was neither an anarchist network or a Trotskyist party. Whilst we have a high degree of pluralism in our organisation, we think loosely labelling our politics as libertarian socialist with an emphasis on base organising might help explain us to international comrades. Beyond Rojava work we help organise precarious workers in the gig economy, have helped found branches of a national tenants union, participate in lots of debate, run a festival, and support practical anti-fascist work.

 2. Why and how was the Plan C Rojava solidarity cluster founded? What are you doing? What is working well and what have been the biggest challenges?

We founded the Plan C Rojava solidarity cluster in 2015. Like many, we had been inspired by the heroic defence of the city of Kobane against Isis. Like many, we were surprised and amazed to encounter a revolution such as the one in Rojava which we had known nothing about. We formed the cluster to organise solidarity activity at the national level, and support our local work. As well as sending members to volunteer in civil society, two of whom have returned and a third who is still out there, we have organised fundraisers, talks, and helped organise local and national demonstrations. During a trip to Kobane we saw the school bus we had helped fundraise, which was a really nice thing to see. We have helped to form city-based solidarity groups with a mixture of British and Kurdish comrades. Sending volunteers was the natural development and outcome of the work we had done so far. Unlike other countries such as Germany, the connections between the British left and the Kurdish community and political structures were pretty much non-existent in 2014. We are making good progress in building these links and developing our capacities together. More and more people in society and the left are familiar with the Kurdish struggle. Still there is much more that needs to be done! Whilst we have sent some members and relatively large amounts of money for our size there is always more that could be done. We are also grappling with what we can take from the struggles in Kurdistan and bring back into our own organising here, we learned a lot from our comrades in Rojava and hope we show the same level of dedication and commitment in our work in the UK. We are also always looking for opportunities to bring our Kurdish comrades into the struggles of the UK. Recently we organised a bloc on an anti-Conservative Party demonstration gathering members of Plan C, the local community and the Kurdish community together, this is something new in the UK and we were happy to have helped co-ordinate this.

Photo: Solidarity with British YPG volunteer Josh Walker, who faced terrorism charges in the UK.

3. What were your first impression(s) of Rojava? What kind of activities have you participated in? Did you work with one or many specific local groups? And what do you think the international solidarity movement should do now and in the future?

We spent 9 and 6 months respectively working in civil society in Rojava. We were based in Qamishlo, a city which still has some presence of Assad forces and the Regime in it.

We worked in a TEV-DEM institution, primarily starting and running an English school but also participating in local campaigns to encourage the support and development of the commune system and within the woman's struggle. We participated in our local commune which was an inspiring and empowering experience, and taught lessons to various institutions within the city such as the worker's committee, the diplomacy department, women’s organisations and our local hospital.

Photo: Peter Loo and Sarah Patton’s local commune. They wrote about a meeting held before the Kurdish new year, Newroz: “there were still about 30 people in attendance (from a total of about 150 families in the commune). After a short presentation about the current political situation, we heard reports from the health, security, and education committees (other members of the commune couldn't make it to deliver reports from other committees). The body of the meeting centred on plans for Newroz, and frustrations about the necessary security measures for the day, as well as the beginning of weekly education sessions (first topic still tbd)…Those in attendance were surprised when we told them politics didn't really look like this in the UK!”

 One of the largest changes that has been made, and which we had totally underestimated, was outlawing polygamy. Many of the women we spoke to said this was the largest improvement in their lives. Wives were no longer living in fear of their husband taking another wife, relegating them permanently to the role of cook and childminder. Combined with legalising divorce these legal changes have given women a lot more autonomy. Some of the men Peter spoke to would confess this was a source of real annoyance for them so it was obviously working!

Of course, things aren't perfect and there is still a long way to go. Our favourite example of this is from a discussion that occured in our neighbourhood just after international working women's day. One of our students explained she had stayed at home looking after the children whilst her husband, a member of TEV-DEM attended the celebrations himself! Through discussing this she realised how wrong this was and challenged him that evening, we hope next year she is at the (huge) celebrations herself!

Reassuringly we were not massively surprised by many of the things we saw when we arrived in Rojava. If anything, we were surprised by just how far some elements of the Revolution had developed. In particular the development of the women's Revolution was surprising. Both the breadth and depth of this revolution against patriarchy impressed us. We expected to encounter more examples of tokenism and resistance from men but instead were met with a revolution that gave the utmost importance to feminism and the position of women in society.

One of the most headline grabbing parts of the revolution and the fight against Daesh has been the presence of women guerrillas and soldiers, in the western media images of beautiful young Kurdish women with guns are prevalent. There is no doubt that the military aspect of the women’s revolution is integral- part of women’s liberation must be giving equal access to weaponry and the means of self-defence, particularly in a war! This feminism on the front line is backed up by tireless work in civil society. Every position of authority has male and female co-chairs, every council must be at least 40% women or it ceases to go forward, and there are hundreds of education and training initiatives aimed at giving women the tools they need to lead, and the knowledge they may not have been able to access pre-revolution.

There are ‘women’s houses’ in every neighbourhood that tackle problems ranging from domestic violence to child care and new laws that forbid the practise of polygamy, a change that all the women we spoke to welcomed. There are of course still issues, for example we once went to our local commune and found there were very few women- they were at home because they had to look after their children. Some of our comrades chided their husbands and decided to work on providing childcare. It is important to recognise that this revolution and these changes to society are happening in a war-time situation and, even if this were not the case, real change happens slowly. 4. What did you learn? Well perhaps it is more accurate to say what did we re-learn! Firstly we (re)learnt that revolution is possible. We must continually remind ourselves of this truth. Rojava is a reminder that where people organise and struggle, revolution is always possible. Secondly, that it is not just ideas which help support for a revolution. The support that has been built for this Revolution amongst the people has been built on several levels. 1) An ideological vision of a progressive and fair world with democracy, ecology, and women's rights at its centre connected to a strong critique of capitalism and imperialism. 2) The reliable provision of security and the basic necessities such as subsidized bread and oil. 3) A series of effective "transmission belts" for the Revolution which bring people into contact with the ideas and functions of it. Primarily we are thinking of the communes at the street level and both the People's and women's houses at the neighborhood level. There is also a vibrant political popular culture with various festivals celebration and Remembrance days and music and theatre. 4) The role of the organised Kurdish liberation movement can also not be understated. We felt humbled by the incredible comrades and organisers we met in our time in Rojava. The bravery, discipline, dedication, and passion for the development of everyone in this society was inspiring. Without the organised Kurdish liberation movements this Revolution would not have happened and would certainly have buckled in the face of such fierce opposition from both Isis and regional powers.

Photo: Plan C interviewing their local Mala Jin (women’s house): “Common problems they are organising against include domestic violence, polygamy, and forced marriages. Our local Mala Jin works on at least 15 cases a week and is an important resource for women fighting for their freedom. The interview was incredibly inspiring. Heval Jiyan Ciwan, who is holding our flag with us, is the head of this Mala Jin and has been an organiser in Qamishlo for 25 years and was arrested and jailed by the Assad regime before the revolution. The heval on the far left has lost one son in the fight against ISIS and her other two sons are currently serving in the Raqqa campaign. She told us that her work here is as important as the fight on the front lines.”

5. In Finland people have had a hard time in deciding what would be the best thing to do for solidarity with Rojava. In your opinion what are the best ways people from Europe can support the Rojava revolution abroad and in Rojava? Depending on which country you are in the first challenge is always raising awareness in both the left and in society whilst building connections and projects with existing Kurdish structures. These structures will usually have a strong idea of what could be most useful. Some of the major problems the Revolution is facing are international ones, particularly the role of Turkey in the region. Applying diplomatic pressure on Turkey from your home state is one thing we can do here in Europe. The Revolution in Rojava does need volunteers. If you have a skill which is useful in civil society and are interested to go we suggest you make contact with your local pro-Rojava Kurdish groups or organizations. Be aware this can be difficult, projects can take time to set up and resources are scarce. Any resources you can bring with you and any preparation you can do, for example learning some Kurdish, will pay off during your time in Rojava. This article is worth checking out. Whilst we don't agree with all of it, we think the actual organised structures in Rojava should be supported and TEV-DEM should be seen as part of these structures, it has points about the practicalities of volunteering etc.: https://www.weareplanc.org/blog/what-do-you-mean-you-support-rojava/.

The revolution, despite being under embargo, always needs money and equipment. We would recommend caution however, before donating money pay attention to who is asking, what they are asking for, and why. A common dynamic is that of fundraising projects started or supported by English speaking supporters raising sometimes disproportionate amounts of money. We have seen several campaigns to equip Western military volunteers (who will be equipped by the YPG/YPJ anyway), and even to fly home some western volunteers rejected by the YPG on political grounds! We would recommend those of you planning fundraisers to speak to the Kurdish structures for guidance on where to send money. Of course sending money or resources at the moment is difficult due to the Embargo. If in doubt donating to the Kurdish Red Cross is always a good idea.

People with medical or engineering skills are in high demand, though being in demand and being put to useful work are different things. Through the right structures English teachers, particularly trained and/or experienced ones are useful. Learning English allows people to communicate the reality of the revolution to the outside world and broaden their own horizons. We found that a 6-month stay is almost certainly not long enough for the structures to place you somewhere useful, for you to learn the culture and some language, and to achieve some meaningful work. If you can't commit to much more than 6 months, having planned handovers, or looking for people to carry on your work when you leave, is also very useful. We were able to do this with a comrade of ours from Plan C.

 Photo: Newroz celebrations in Qamilso: “As spring slowly edges in the yearly fires of resistance have been relit, from Sengal to the mountains of Bakur the struggle continues.”

Photo Credits: Plan C