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grandhotelabyss · 4 years ago

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Defeated by the hype, I watched the new Adam Curtis. I hadn't seen one of his films since 2007 and wasn’t enamored of the celebrated ones back then. I thought he was a more middlebrow Mark Fisher[*]: nostalgia for the welfare state cloaked in avant-garde aesthetics, which I was used to as a longtime reader of British-Invasion comics—the feeling is similar in Moore and Morrison and Milligan and Delano and Ellis (though not the genteel Gaiman)—but couldn’t as an American petit bourgeois quite appreciate. At the time, I was trying out dogmatic Marxism as an intellectual style, so I also took it as obvious that avant-garde aesthetics, for a variety of reasons, inherently degrade the social and conduce to the very fragmentation and alienation being lamented. Which Curtis does analyze as the theme of his work—and the sometimes patronizing voiceovers are like a parody of top-down state-socialist pedagogy—but his visual style, with its debts to Godard and Marker and MTV, enact in form what’s being attacked as content.

I also thought Curtis also had an air of New-Atheist-type Brit-twit reasonableness that undermines the acuity of his political analyses. He persistently portrays powerful political actors as naive psychological cases, delusive and fearful types who can’t face the facts. As a literary technique developed by Curtis’s English forerunner Shakespeare, this replacement of politics with psychology can be dramatically powerful, as in the new doc’s best thread, the tragedy of Jiang Qing; but it can also impede a more precise sense of the interests in play.

I'm no longer a dogmatic Marxist, or even a Marxist at all, and no longer think the relation between politics and artistic form is perfectly clear, so some of my objections have dropped away, even reversed—Curtis grieves that the corruptions of socialism and communism have led us to fear changing the world at all, but doesn’t his own persistent discrediting of anarchic ideas because they were co-opted by neoliberalism mirror the nouveaux philosophes?

The power of Can't Get You Out of My Head is in the nuance of the analysis. I am tempted to call it dialectical. Here Curtis does closely attend to economic motivations in recent history. Despite the banal citation of Richard Hofstadter, he also refuses to moralize and psychologize away conspiracy theory; he shows what secret agencies are known to have been doing throughout the second half of the 20th century, a record so egregious that people can be forgiven for suspecting them of more. Some of his own bland reassurances of their bumbling incompetence tripped my own paranoia—isn't that what they want us to think?—and I didn’t find his use of the JFK assassination at all compelling. Whatever you think of Jim Garrison, and I concede I was influenced early in life both aesthetically and politically by Oliver Stone, whose montage style Curtis’s also resembles, I take the Zapruder film as definitive, no-theories-needed, you-can-see-it-with-your-own-eyes evidence (“Back and to the left”) that there were at least two shooters.

Curtis places the most incendiary material in episode four, where he comes close to saying outright what I hesitated even to suggest in my Habermas post—that “humanitarian intervention” is, when we cut through the sentimentality, a mode of militarist imperialism that doesn’t even effect, and whose proponents perhaps don’t intend to effect, its stated humanitarian aims. He draws a line between the bombing of Serbia and the invasion of Iraq, but he nicely balances Bernard Kouchner with Eduard Limonov, two versions of post-political benightedness, to avoid straying into Peter Handke territory. To this he strangely adds the story of Julia Grant, the implications of which, given the rest of the film’s thesis, he mutes by creating sympathy for this person beleaguered by vicious street kids and fascoid NHS psychiatrists. Still, the inclusion of a pioneering trans activist—whose anti-feminist statements are highlighted—in a montage on the delusions of individualism will have some viewers wondering about the message. (Surprisingly, I saw no criticism to this effect on social media.)

There are vertiginous tidbits—the Boole thread connecting the Russian Revolution to managerial western democracy in the Cold War in episode one, for instance, or the fact relayed in episode five, news to me, that the director of Dr. No did western-backed propaganda for Saddam Hussein. Curtis also gives good book and music recommendations as well (but leave the sarcastic music cues—“Lady in Red” played over the radicalization of Abu Zubaydah, etc.—to Zack Snyder): I want to read My Bones and My Flute now, and the song that heads this post, which I'd never heard before, perfectly distills the epoch.

I can forgive much for Curtis’s conclusion, finally, with its exposure of the (I hope delegitimating) replication crisis in psychology and the social sciences; his satire on the squalid, hateful, maddening, and at this point almost genocidal derangement of the western liberal class, an enemy of humanity equal in its horror to its answering populist fervors, or worse because it incites them; and his call to reestablish the sovereignty of the imagination, which credo is the true part of both individualism and communism, not invalidated by what was false in those utopian ambitions, though the falsehoods in seemingly impenetrable combination are all that our present societies, from China to the U.S., currently offer.

_________________________

[*] I’ve effaced traces of this part of my life as much as possible, but I've been hanging around the weird side of cultural politics online for almost two decades now. From 2003 to 2006, I was part of the same circle of leftist blogs as Fisher—to be clear, I was a minnow in this pond—and was a contributor to a group blog that included a number of people in his milieu, notably Nina Power, who is now a member of Justin Murphy’s Salon des Cancelés. Like all left-wing social climates, this was a ruthlessly sectarian and ever-more-micro-fractionated ideological space, and I belonged to the tendency opposite that of Fisher’s. The conflict could perhaps be captioned “anti-humanists vs. radical humanists” or maybe “left-Nietzscheans vs. left-Hegelians.” I was in the camp of another still-controversial online-left microcelebrity, the figure now known on social media as Red Kahina—who was, by the way, whatever people have against her, never anything but the soul of kindness and generosity to me when I was just a 23-year-old nobody writing from a dial-up connection somewhere in Pennsylvania. Here, for instance, is Fisher’s part of one debate (the figure he variously calls with class-and-gender venom “Le Currency Trader” and “Le Opera Goeur” is Kahina). Even then, I was impressed by his characteristically electric prose: “The non-organic product of capital's ‘Frankensteinian surgery of the cities’ (Lyotard), the proletariat emerges from the destruction of all ethnicities, the desolation of all tradition, the destitution of any home.” Red’s long-defunct blog is still for me the model of the form, but Fisher’s is one of the first blogs to enter the annals of literature and will probably be regarded, not at all undeservedly, as a germinal text of our time.

#adam curtis #mark fisher #film #documentary #cinema #politics #marxism

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theyearofrisinglight · 4 years ago

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I think I'm in the minority of minorities on this but I actually like the Rats from The Witcher 🥴 like idc how cliche or whatever the justifications for they being fxcked up are I do feel bad for them regardless. Like Mistle was tw: gang raped, Asse saw his sister and mother raped in front of him and his saw his dad violently butchered... Their stories show how psychologically damaging and traumatic war can be to children and teens and how disastrous all that unaddressed trauma can be left without tending to and how in the name of imperialism and conquest and protection of traditions and assets and lands and all the reason these kingdoms went to war, they ruined the most valuable resource they have, their people. Their tragic lives further show how not one army or the other is the true evil, how some of the soldiers don't lose their decency or humanity despite being forced to do evil. That those in power don't give af about their citizens and never think of them most of the time. Yeah, seeing Ciri become Falka is transgressive and she becomes fully corrupted and a child of contempt but she also learns to see the world through the eyes of the common people, she makes friends with people her age, no matter how damaged they are, which she hadn't up until that point except when she was very little. People take the fact that those townspeople are afraid of them but they aren't decent themselves anyways. Remember how that one dad beats up his daughter just bc she was trying to copy Iskra's aesthetic? There's no justification for child abuse, either. The Witcher books beat you over the head with the “all people, elves, dwarves, halflings etc etc., generally suck but some do so less than others” message. It depends on you who those happen to be. And I do find it an interesting contrast of how Ciri has to confront her actions when she was with them when she spends time with Vysogota. Idk I probably suck at explaining why I don't hate the Rats and like I said from what I see from other Witcher fans I'm practically alone in this but I don't hate them and no matter how bad they were they didn't deserve the fate Bonhart have them. Like fuck that murderous boomer! Anyways I had to get this off my chest bc it really pains me to see all the Rats libel and I hope netflix knows how to tackle this part and make it justice, at least for my murderous but LESS problematic thieves Giselher, Asse, Iskra, and Reef. Idgaf about Mistle (unless they fully remove THAT) and Kayleigh can croak idc.

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kendrixtermina · 5 years ago

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It is me or are ppl really sleeping on Dedue?

To the point that ppl seem to shoehorn other characters into that same role/ space while he’s right there.

Like whatever Rhea’s backstory is she’s been in power and privilege for the last 1000 years, she’s a fantasy creature, and everything about the distant past is subject to unreliable narration as we hear like 5 different versions of it all from biased sources (though I’d say Seteth is probably the most believable one, he was there, and he’s an honest guy)

Whereas Dedue is flat out a survivor of extreme prejudice, no ambiguity, no metaphors, no fantasy magic nor unreliable narration involved, absolutely non-debatable.

If you’re looking for a character who’s totally focussed on their social role/another person because of poor self-esteem and not sufficiently knowing that they matter themselves that’s also Dedue.

Not Hubert. Like noo guys. Hubert states many times that he follows Edelgard out of conviction and no longer because of the tradition or because his father made him. He has his own reasons for hating corrupt nobles and the church. (Most apparent, I think, in the Byleth A and the Hanneman B support, but he mocks the church and the knights like all the time.). If anything, he’s less scrupulous than her (though I wouldn’t say that he’s completely amoral; He definitely has things that he repudiates (corruption) and outright tells Linny that he wouldn’t be friends with someone who’d abandon a person in need, or tells Byleth that he’s one of those people who can’t bring themselves to believe in a just god because of the evil in the world).

He also does pretty much whatever the fuck he wants, which is also established many, many times. Which Edelgard most certainly knows. She likes this. She listens to him (insofar as she listens to anyone), but she does so because she likes and agrees with his attitude. She chose to make this guy her right-hand advisor. She cares nothing for tradition and would’ve given him the boot and grabbed another advisor/attendant if she didn’t think he was supremely useful, and, as she put it “always right”. She kept him despite the tradition, because she likes intelligent, reason-driven people and he’s the third smartest person in all of Fodlan (numbers one and two are, of course, Claude and Lysithea). Plus he’s an accomplished mage without a crest. He isn’t even the loosest cannon in the imperial arsenal. She cares only about results, whether you’re from a peasant background like Manuela and Dorothea, unconventional/quirky like Linhardt or Bernie, or... whatever you’d call Hubert and Jeritza. So you could say that her leadership style certainly has both advantages and disadvantages. But Hubert himself seems overall pretty content with his position and doesn’t really expect anything else, because, after all, he chose it. Though we certainly have his father’s treahery as a cynism catalyst that lead him to be this super disillusioned cynical irreverent person who’s very slow to trust.

It also can’t be because Dedue is boring. This is evident when you compare him to say Cyril, who also has the sort of effed-up past that, in RL, would deserve sympathy by default, but in the end this isn’t a charity for real people but fictional entertainment and he’s just not likeable. (likeability being subjective of course - there’s clearly SOME ppl who DO like him, and why shouldn’t they?)

I mean boringness is subjective but Dedue has a whole load of characterization besides the fucked up backstory. there’s always that protective layer you need to get through (which is only realistic) but if you actually try to get to know him he’s got a lot of traits and hobbies and distinctive attitudes and complexities tragic plots.

Like on the one hand he and Dimitri are as glued-together as they are because no one else can remotely understand what it means to have all your friends and family massacred in front of you, they’re both people who are naturally nice and peace-loving but wound up with the capacity for ugly desperate actions because of what they’ve been through but there’s also a contrast, they’re both sort of repressed but in different ways (though you could say that both struggle to express anger on their own behalf and thus channel it onto anger on behalf of others), Dimitri’s clumsy and emotionally volatile whereas Dedue is very careful/dexterous and calm, and that’s where the tragic part comes in.

Because while he’ll go on with whatever Dimitri says cause he owes him his life and has nowhere else to go it’s quite clear that that’s not exactly what he wants (You get support points if you ask him what he wants even if he doesn’t give you a clear answer) - I bet he’d like nothing more than to just go live a peaceful life somewhere together without bothering with the revenge thing. (Though he’s got a better explanation/excuse than the rest of Team Kingdom, among whom no one will tell Dimitri to stop because of their culture’s overemphasis on loyalty. Even Felix doesn’t do much more than complain. It takes Byleth, a more pragmatic, cool-minded outsider to Faerghus, to put a stop to the kamikaze mission. )

He also has really sweet dynamics with Ashe and Flayn (who canonically like him even on other routes), also Mercedes and Sylvain if you did those supports. Because he’s kind of retreated completely into his social role as a vassal cause he has little else left and at this point he’s so used to being scorned that he preemptively tells ppl to keep their distance, but if you put in the minimum effort to actually get to know him you see this sweet, chill domestic young man who’s still there underneath. (Again contrast Hubert, whom you can’t really get much personal conversation out of, even Edelgard who’s known him all her life struggles to get him to spill what he’s really thinking, cause he’d just tell her what he thinks it would be useful for her to hear. And with Byleth he plain doesn’t trust them early on. He’s simply committed to being a consummate professional, by deliberate choice, though he definitely does have his own dephts to get to know, like being a bit self-conscious about his ‘scary’ mannerisms or ultimately being motivated by wanting to do something worthwhile and impactful with his short human life)

Ultimately, Dedue is very honorable, community-minded and reputation-conscious which means that he ironically fits in quite well with the Kingdom students, though that also probably makes it a special kind of hell to not only lose his community but to be stereotyped as a dishonorable scoundrel, because he cares quite a bit about his honor and reputation and that of his friends (see the Dimitri, Sylvain and Byleth supports) which puts him in this situation where he feels he can’t really be their friend without tarnishing their honor, there’s a complex mix of feelings where he’s of course as frustrated as any human being would be but has also partially internalized some of the crap from years of constant bombardment.

The function of anger as an emotion is to ensure just treatment in the group, so for someone to just lie down and take crap like that it shows that they’ve totally given up on getting justice so for me at least this is really a character that I really want to see good things happen to and that makes me cheer every time someone thinks of him or when something good happens to him.

Like in a setting where nearly everyone’s backstory sucked his is quite possibly the worst. Only Jeritza and Lysithea (mostly because of the early death thing) even come remotely close.

I feel like ppl would be all over this character if he were a bishie or cute girl, like just because of the “hides behind defense mechanisms but you can see his true self if you bother to be halfway decent” thing. Like usually ppl are all over that.

Like to summarize we have a sad backstory, a tragic loyalty conflict, a frequently misunderstood demeanor that’s the product of a tragic past, a basically sweet disposition that’s still not without the capacity for darkness, ample potential for wholesome Friendships (or more romantic ‘ships), what’s not to like?

Plus he’s got like one of the sweetest goddess tower events and S-supports. He gives you his jackets and looks at the starts with you etc. Bit too wholesome for my personal tastes [stuffs El, Hubert, Felix and Linhardt paraphernalia back into closet] but objectively loveable.

tl;dr: Let’s all appreciate Supreme Chef Deddie-pie.

#Dedue Molinaro #fire emblem: three houses #fire emblem three houses #fe3h

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impassive-aggressive · 5 years ago

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it is still ZOIDS HEADCANON TIME

PART 2 because i’m ridiculous

I'm operating on the assumption that by the time humans colonized Zi they'd spread out pretty well across the rest of the galaxy and p...ossibly made contact with extraterrestrials, mainly because I like to imagine there's intelligent life out there somewhere. (Intelligent life hat does not look Exactly Like Humans with extra bits stuck on.)

When the Human Federation or w/e discovered Zi and decided it would be feasible to colonize it, there were a lot of engineers/science-y types who really wanted to tinker with robot animals that ended up volunteering and being chosen for the initial expedition, along with various other types you'd want along to build a civilization on a distant planet. The mechanical organisms were initially dubbed Zi-oids, which over time became corrupted into the simpler name Zoids. After being tamed, they proved useful as pack animals, modes of transport, farm hands and companions. Contact with organoids started off pretty hostile but became more relaxed as time went on, per the other post. Eventually, the colonists developed quite advanced (though still very small) Zoids with respectable combat capabilities, designed primarily to protect them from attack by wild Zoids.

At this point only a small portion of the Western Continent had been settled, and while the rest of it still needed to be explored some of the settlers were eager to see what the planet's other continents were like; exploration of these was hindered by savage magnetic storms that made aerial or ocean travel a potentially deadly prospect. These people observed how organoids could seemingly defy the laws of physics by converting themselves into a pure energy state to teleport from place to place, etc. and started thinking "what if we did that, BUT WITH HUGE TRANSPORT ZOIDS" and began experimenting with smooshing together Organoid Physics-Defying Bullshit with what bits of Spacefaring Technology they'd managed to salvage from the ships that had brought them to Zi. The result was something that was eventually known as the Zoidcore Overload System, and while it was being tested one day, something went horrifyingly wrong and - to all outside observers, of which there were admittedly very few - the entire settlement vanished without a trace.

IN REALITY it had been transported back in time thousands upon thousands of years, which is blatant Time Travel Bullshit but o well. (Also Legacy gave us canon time fuckery so god dammit, I'm gonna use it.) The colonists were disoriented, frightened and cut off from any further contact with their homeworld, but since the entire settlement with all of its farms, greenhouses and other resources had been displaced together, nobody was quite as badly off as they could have been. Shaken but determined, most of the colony pulled themselves together to push onward with their lives.

Some of the colonists were pretty mad about being temporally displaced and wanted someone to fix it, which of course was impossible, but they attempted to use force to make it happen and got booted out of the colony for being asshats. Taking their Zoids, organoids and whatever supplies they could carry with them, they wandered off and eventually started another settlement elsewhere. Both settlements continued developing Zoids, albeit now with more of an eye toward combat practicality now that they knew they had enemies out there.

As this went on, organoids started evolving too - originally small, drab creatures who oversaw whole swarms of wild Zoids as their charges, their species eventually started selecting for individuals who bonded with the human settlers and their Zoids; these specimens grew larger, displayed higher intelligence due to the mental bond they shared with other sapients, and thrived in comparison to their wilder counterparts. They also led less stressful lives as they tended to a single, relatively sedate Zoid rather than having to protect and heal numerous creatures that were constantly being preyed upon by each other. (They also happened to evolve in a variety of bright colors, due to their human companions’ natural preference for such things.) Eventually, wild organoids were all but extinct on Zi.

Before too long the colonists discovered the thing they wound up calling Zoid Eve and built the city of Eveopolis around it. As their population grew and prospered, they made great technological advances and started improving themselves using computerized implants that allowed them to bond more closely with their Zoids, utilize remote "drone" units, and grant some of them seemingly supernatural powers. They ceased to think of themselves as humans any longer and began calling themselves Zoidians.

Then everyone started fighting over Zoid Eve, the Death Saurer happened, the Zoidian race was decimated after thousands of years of prosperity, and the last handful of survivors went into stasis.

MEANWHILE, ON EARTH

The governments of the world are wary of Zi. Something bad happened there; they’ve never gotten to the bottom of what caused that first colony to disappear decades ago. It also seemed to have undergone intense environmental changes - huge swathes of the planet’s western continent are barren desert. It’s basically everyone’s last choice of planet to try and settle.

The fifth son of a royal family has become deeply dissatisfied with his station in life. Young and ambitious, he’s hungry enough for power that his elders can see he poses a problem, and devise a means of getting rid of him: they charge him with taking a group of imperial citizens to Zi to establish a branch of the royal family there. The prince knows what they’re trying to do but can’t reasonably defy the order, so he goes.

Thus, Zi is claimed (reluctantly) for the Guylos Empire.

The settlers find the planet tolerable, if not exactly welcoming. They’re hardy folk from having survived on an increasingly inhospitable Earth, and are willing to work hard to make this new world their home. They have great success adapting the planet’s native life forms to their uses, and soon have a stable, vibrant civilization living and working alongside Zoids. Their emperor, too, is pleased with the success of this venture; it wasn’t the kingdom he’d dreamed of, but it is his, and his people are prospering under his rule.

The settlers are curious, of course, about the remnants of a past civilization that they eventually find - ruined structures here and there, the ossified remains of what are definitely Zoids but quite unlike either the wild specimens or anything human engineers have yet come up with. But much of their lives are taken up by simply living; they focus on the present in order to build themselves a stable future, and have no time to dwell on what happened in the past.

Within a handful of generations, some of the Guylos citizens grow restless and crave freedom from their Imperial masters. They break off and form the Helic Republic. The Empire does not suffer this gladly, and war breaks out, raging for several years before an uneasy truce is reached to allow the battered forces of both sides to recover.

The arms race triggered by the outbreak of war drives both the Empire and the Republic to excavate countless ruins of the civilization that called themselves Zoidians. They make amazing discoveries - advanced technology whose workings they can barely comprehend; Zoids of incredible complexity, though their operating systems and user interfaces render them all but unusable to humans; and capsules. Rows and rows of capsules, in some places - always a large one accompanied by a much smaller one. Very few of the small capsules prove useful - the rooms in which they are found are often partially destroyed, the capsules breached by falling debris or the ravages of time - but the larger ones often bear fruit in the form of small, startlingly intelligent Zoids with incredible abilities.

By incorporating elements of ancient Zoidian technology into their designs, the humans of Zi quickly develop more effective weapons - more efficient ways of killing each other. By the time the truce is reached, Zi’s inhabitants are bone-weary of conflict, many living in worse conditions than their ancestors of centuries past. While several large cities remain standing - most notably the capitals of the Republic and Empire - most of Zi’s inhabitants are reduced to small settlements, relying on subsistence farming or trade to support themselves, and constantly under threat of attack by bandits or other troublemakers. It’s a difficult life, but the Zians determinedly struggle on. Giving up is not in their nature.

THEN CC/GF HAPPENS

Afterward, a small handful of people (mostly military) are aware of the existence of Ancient Zoidians, Organoids and Zoid Eve. The Death Saurer and Death Stinger are eventually relegated to "wew lad good thing we weren't around for that shit"-style legend. Helic and Guylos remain on mostly good terms in the ensuing decades, both bonded and scared shitless by the whole Death Zoid mess. People start using Zoids in happy pretendy funtime battles, and the world at large is a pretty swell place to live.

And then the Backdraft starts digging up Ultimate X Zoids and some other fuckfaces stick Ancient Zoidian AIs into Raynoses that end up being sold to the general public.

Something something Gilvader.

#zoids #headcanon #worldbuilding

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yunharlaquin · 4 years ago

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@aniimvs asked: “plots please” // back atcha because 👀

OKAY SO... i have too many au ideas, but these are the most workable?

1 & 2. Dimension Travel

Yes, there’s two of these. I know we’ve discussed Jaina from Legends ending up in Sequels at the equivalent year but there’s also her ending up in the midst of it all at an older age. No, I don’t want it because Jaina would without a doubt be able to wipe the floor with the trash man with or without the Force as a Master can. But rather, exploring what would happen if say, through a hyperspace accident, a newly-ish Empress Jaina on say a Super Star Destroyer ending up in the Sequels world could be incredibly interesting. On one hand, she’s personally dealing with what she never expected to happen, which is being drawn into the Imperial mess via Jag, but on the other, likely many new things are happening in her life *cough* kids *cough*, so Jaina is definitely now on her game compared to say other times in her life. As for in story, her showing up so would prove entirely disruptive to whatever is occurring at that point. In armament and technology, her single Super Star Destroyer would prove quite the threat and yet, also there’s the whole thing about their being part of the reformed Galactic Empire. (there would be a lot of things going on behind the scenes that have nothing to do with threads with Kylo that I just find INTERESTING) I could see it being particularly interesting writing such things with Kylo/Ben since the crew would be attempting to figure out what to do and all, so there is, I suppose, a chance they would at least consider joining the First Order, especially if what has happened regarding the Republic is obscured? Jaina is the lone Jedi/fought for the Republic person so lbh, drama. There’s also the possibility that she would obscure who exactly she is? Or rather the command staff might make that decision for her if she happens to be pregnant lbh, since protecting heirs and all that insanity. Basically, I just want to cause maximum chaos in Kylo’s life and this would work perfectly

THE SECOND ONE IS KYLO ENDING UP IN LEGENDS. Because lbh, why not cause more pain and chaos in their universe as well? IDK when would be best, but him having to navigate all that? Interesting. Depending on when he arrives, it could cause so much chaos and or surprising allies???? This is much shorter because I’ve absolutely not a solid idea like the first one but alone or also en masse would cause delicious angst.

3. Fantasy

There are SO many places to go with this???? but the idea that sticks with me most is one in which kinda echoes my idea for a rewritten sequels, at least in where Jaina is concerned. Heavy GoT/Witcher vibes I think??? Also the Force being magic, etc. After a kingdom wide civil war which over throws a usper and mage, their parents believe things could finally be good. Of course they won’t be... Someone/Something is slowly corrupting Ben and in the midst of it all, either Jaina is kidnapped or lost, just somehow removed from them at a very long age and is unable to be found. Depending on how old she is, might also have some trauma based amnesia involved as well? But she ends up being raised out in the middle of nowhere, perhaps by decent people who find her somehow but don’t know her well or by not so wonderful people a la Rey in the Sequels because pain, I guess. But Ben becomes this medieval fantasy version of Kylo and helps forge a new civil war over the Kingdom? known world? something like that. And Jaina, now a young woman, is secretly trying to deal with her powers while living a life far removed from one that understands or can help her with them. Does she get drawn into the Resistance? Does Ben discover her during some sort of battle/raid in the village nearest to her? WHO KNOWS.

4. Rewritten Sequels

This one is probably the most inane but also the easiest to work with? IDK but it’s an idea I’ve been kicking around in my mind. It, to some extent, entirely? replaces Rey’s character with Jaina (kind of working off of some of the early speculation there was after TFA came out), but at the same time isn’t a direct copy paste sort of thing. Jaina, being a tad younger than what I make her already in sequels, is kidnapped at a very young age by some sort of Sith cult like the siblings are in legends. However, they lose her and through a bizarre chain of events, ends up in the care of people on a desert planet. Is it Jakku or Tatooine or another one entirely? IDK. Neither do I know whether she’ll be well treated a la Beru and Owen or badly like with Rey. From there, it could go a lot of places... Jaina ending up joining a flight academy like Luke always wanted to but for the Republic, her being stuck on that obscure planet until the First Order or the Resistance stumble upon her more like the sequels do go, or even (especially if she doesn’t totally replace Rey) being kidnapped again by the First Order to be one of their soldiers like Finn was (whether they discover she’s force sensitive or not somehow is another question)... THERE’S A LOT OF PLACES THIS COULD GO. A lot of potential insanity with Kylo considering her being an untrained but extremely powerful Force sensitive LET ALONE if he figures out/just knows she’s his sister.

#ooc >> has needle‚ will costume...#wishlist >> we can hope this is what the force has in store...#i am still accepting this one btw #but yes i have ideas #ones in which i'm like THIS AU COULD WORK #but iDK WHAT KYLO IS DOING OR HOW HE WOULD REACT #so vagueness abounds #i am the worst

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ask-thefiftystatesofamerica · 6 years ago

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Can we have more background on America's upbringing, his birth, etc?

ohoho anon hope you’re ready for a frickin rant cuz there’s sure is a lot to say! XD

Without further ado, here’s a pic of the legit infant of the family with summaries of each era under the cut! If you seek more info/drama, pls send in additional asks or fic requests. 💛💛

American Revolution (age 0-5)

July 4th, 1776.

The 13 original colonies gathered in Philadelphia along with their delegates and signed their breakup letter to England. And on that fateful day, they accidentally created America, a representation of the Original 13′s Alliance/Union.

Baby America played little to no role in the early stages of his life. After all, he was just a fragile newborn who didn’t know how to protect himself. So the Original 13 Colonies fought the American Revolution in his place, leading, spying, negotiating, while baby America fled from the ever approaching frontline with the rest of the Continental Congress. There’s limited to no emotional connection between the states and America during the war, as they’re all too busy not to get killed to sit down and bond.

After the revolution, the original 13, freed from their father nation, are left to govern themselves all while raising a child–a blank canvas of a country they can shape into whatever magnificent and enlightened paradise their mind could dream of. The only problem is, no one could agree on what ‘a great nation’ stood for in terms of specific policies.

The endless chaotic debates and disunity between his semi-autonomous states nearly tore America apart as the boy sat helplessly in growing despair without any power to do anything. Being the literal baby that he was, America’s fate rested entirely in the hands of those who were ‘older’ and ‘wiser.’

The Era of Good Feelings (5-8)

With the end of the War of 1812, the divisive nation-building process finally came to a conclusion.

America and its states entered a time of unity and single-party rule by the Democratic-Republicans. Europe was going up in flames with this dude called Napoleon, so all the foreign superpowers weren’t here to bully America either!

This was the happy and peaceful section of America’s childhood.

America lived with (and was raised by) Maryland and Virginia. As their endless bickering drew to a close, baby America finally began to gain love and attention from the rest of his states as well. They taught him about science, history, and enlightenment ideals. They ruffled his hair and filled his head with dreams, reassuring the boy that he’s destined for greatness; while others like Rhode Island took the time to warn the boy about the darker truth of the world and the curse of immortality.

A lot of problems were swept under the rugs during the Era of Good Feelings, and America himself was still largely powerless compared to the states, but this era is where most emotional bonding happened between the states and America, and where the most fluffy one-shots starring baby America are set.

Civil War (8-12)

The Civil War is when America first learned how to put his foot down and assume his role as the states’ sovereign nation, their rightful leader, instead of a mere child they can push around.

The Civil War Era somewhat resembled the initial nation-building process in many ways. Screaming matches, divisive fights, devastating disasters spiraling out of control. Only this time, America said enough is enough, and he did what it took to make himself heard. He fought uncompromisingly to end slavery and bring the union back together, and to do so America didn’t hesitate to blatantly seize power from the remaining states and people in an almost Machiavellian fashion.

America experienced war for the first time here. Though he didn’t directly fight on the battlefield, the boy’s exposed to the grim toll that came with war and all the hard decisions to be made. America aged rapidly throughout the war and lost a lot of his naivety with each battle, growing into the mold of a cunning superpower by the hour.

When the war ends, the soft and simple-minded baby America will be gone.

Gilded Age (13-16)

In a lot of ways, the states are Alfred’s moral compass. The more detached he is from his constituents, the more America becomes consumed by his own ambitions and desires.

The Gilded Age is a prime example of this.

Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, America had pretty much solidified his position as the head of his states. And since a majority of the states were still trying to deal with their own heartbreaks and aftermath of the Civil War, no one really kept track of this young nation.

And so, America began to explore and expand his power. Politically, geographically, and economically. He got more land, industries boomed, and waves of migrants entered the borders. America pillaged and annexed like an European Imperial superpower; he allowed monopolies and political machines to run rampant with corruption and exploitation of the working class in the name of laissez-faire; he became wealthy, influential and powerful at the expense of millions.

This era most certainly lived up to its name. Gilded. Awful and twisted beneath a thin layer of shining golden paint of prosperity.

Progressive Era (14-16)

Like we said on previous posts, America had a dark history that cannot be excused, but he is still capable of changing for the better with the right guidance and discipline. In essence, this era took place after the states and his people alike finally began to slap some sense of reason and morality back into America’s skull.

A lot of this time frame overlapped with the Gilded Age because change came very slowly. It’s not like this one sunny day America just woke up and declared hmmm I guess I’m not gonna be a bitch today. Nah, dude. It took a lot of time and effort to get America back on the right track.

During the progressive era, America began to realize how objectively shitty his actions were and tried his best to amend it. He began to break down monopolies and give the working class more political power and bettered their working condition. America fought for women’s rights, preserve the environment, and speak out against imperialism with both passion and remorse.

This is also the time when America and his family finally began to reconcile after the Civil War, and the states gained enough influence in America’s life to keep him on the progressive track.

Roaring 20s & the Great Depression (17)

America got a brief taste of the global stage during WWI and wanted to remain on it through the League of Nations, but the states were like *GASP* NO CHILD U COME HOME RIGHT THIS INSTANT for fear of their baby straying too far from his family again.

So America returned to isolation at the war’s end.

And it was pleasant, at first. A lot of problems were swept under the rugs, but America and the states enjoyed themselves and indulged in extravagant fashions, new cinematic entertainment, and lavish parties of the 1920s. The bonds between them all tightened, even as everything crashed and burnt to hell in the Great Depression.

But despite their deepened connections, the Great Depression was an incredibly harsh time for America and the states. It’s also when America first manifested his hero complex. The young nation saw his brothers and sisters suffer through poverty and horrid weather, and he wanted to be nothing less than a real-life Superman for his family. America wanted to bring optimism, joy, and laughter back to his family in this terribly grim time of depression and make all their problems disappear. America jokes and laugh loudly in attempts to lift the states’ spirits, even though he was struggling against a gritty reality of his own as well, all while assuming more and more power so he can try and lift them all out of this economic devastation.

America’s efforts were heartwarming, but he had also unwittingly set the stage for history to repeat itself.

WWII (18)

The world’s descending into chaos again. America had spent months begging his states to let him enter the Second World War, and his elder siblings finally consented their nation’s declaration of war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

There’s no stopping their baby chick from traveling far far away from the nest now.

During the war, America found close friends/mentors in foreign nations like Britain and France for the first time during the war, and Canada became nothing less than a brother to him. He fought alongside the allies as a soldier and pulled his economy back into tip-top shape back home. The problem arise when America began to drift further and further away from his states as the war stretched on. The global theatres occupied America’s attention, and the bloody horrors of modern warfare turned him cold.

America will emerge from the war as a victorious superpower, gaining leadership over not only his states but half of the globe as well. Some states will speak up in alarm as America continued to silence dissenters and crank out propaganda even as the war drew to a close, trying to reconnect with their nation. Unfortunately, America failed to listen as his eyes turned toward a former comrade dressed in red.

Cold War (19)

There are a lot of similarities to speak of between the Gilded Age and the Cold War Era. However, one significant difference is that America’s motivation is no longer purely out of selfish ambitions, but also extreme paranoia.

America had tried hard to hide it, but the rise of the USSR made him feel threatened beyond control. The power and wealth he has now were something America had fought vigorously to obtain, and the love & support of his family and friends are what kept America sane through the centuries. The young nation was dreadfully terrified by the mere concept of losing his status as a political and economic superpower or for his states/allies betraying him for the Soviet Union.

It was this irrational but overwhelming fear that blinded America and drove him into acting like an intensely insecure control freak, lending out financial support to Western Europe and installing many domestic welfare programs so no one will feel the need to seek out to Communism. But in the same time, he did not hesitate to resort to coercion should anyone show any signs of dissent.

It took the states a lot of time and efforts to get this nation blinded by paranoia to come back to his senses, but they were still able to to it. After all, America wasn’t evil. He’s sinful, blinded, insecure, and at his worst, selfish and power-hungry. But in America’s core, he’s still that idealistic young man who loves and respects each and every one of his constituents with all his heart.

America isn’t evil, but he does need guidance and restraints from others to prevent his own ambitions, paranoia, and power from corrupting him. America needs those he loves so deeply to speak out in protest when he’s in the wrong, and he needs several helping hands to keep him on the progressive track. Luckily, that’s exactly what his states are here for!

#aph states #aph america #statetalia #states ocs #aph ocs #historical hetalia...?#hetalia #alfred f jones #i drew this way back in july of 2018 thank u for giving me an excuse to use it ;w;#character arc #art by op

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hotheadhero · 5 years ago

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On House Bergliez, Empire politics, Caspar, and Julian

As I promised before going on hiatus/vacation, here are my headcanons for House Bergliez and their role in Empire politics. The title should make it pretty clear why there’s a cut, though there are some non-spoilery HCs buried in here. A few non-spoiler paragraphs at the end aren’t super well-integrated, but there are other HCs in here that are, so I’ll just keep the former in their original place.

For my own reference, most of the Empire’s nobility is sourced from Wilhelm’s (crestless) allies and those granted crests by the Four Saints. None of the Ten Elites’ crests are present in the Empire (except Lamine via Jeritza, but he’s an adoptee and doesn’t count). The Insurrection of the Seven occurred in 1171 and involved Aegir, Vestra, Arundel, and Gerth, as well as three unnamed houses. Hevring, Bergliez, Varley, Hrym, Nuvelle, Ochs, and Bartels are not explicitly named as involved in the Insurrection, but given their size/strength, the first three being the unnamed conspirators is likelier than the last three. While the four smaller houses had their own possible motives to join (in particular Nuvelle: money > Crests and Bartels: gimme Crest --> ministry title(?)), Hrym was prematurely destroyed in 1167 as punishment for their failed rebellion (which consequently got Alliance house Ordelia mixed up in TWSITD); and Nuvelle and Ochs were likely too worried about (and lost much to) the eventual Dagda and Brigid War of 1175. Gerth is explicitly “distant” from other houses more involved with the Insurrection--as the diplomacy house with ties outside the Empire, it stood to gain/lose the least no matter how the Insurrection turned out; and they may have been trying to avoid war with Dagda and Brigid in the first place. Given that the explicit identity of the last three houses involved in the Insurrection is not stated, provided it’s Bergliez, Hevring, and Varley, all three counts are likely to have hidden their involvement from their children as well. Caspar makes no explicit reference to his father being involved in said Insurrection--in fact, CF Ch12, he says something like “some of us” while (joined by Bernadetta, though that could simply be reflex “look at the speaker”?) looking straight at Ferdinand.

Bergliez, with its control over both the non-Imperial Guard army and the Empire’s breadbasket, has a closer tie to commonfolk than the other noble families in the Empire. Both activities require all members to work together and trust each other; hence, Count Bergliez (tentative name Gilead -- doesn’t exactly further the Roman agenda, but it sounds badass) has a close bond with his men (though that doesn’t spare his enemies any; he probably is quite the demon on the battlefield—think Hector) and Caspar gets along with others regardless of station. Both have to learn how to judge people as a result of said teamwork requirements.

Compared to Vestra, the other prominent crestless noble house, the fact that Bergliez has the richest land in the Empire (all the wheat ~ 75% of the Empire’s food), virtually all of the army, and none of the extremely close ties to Hresvelg, puts it in a less precarious position than Vestra if it had been Count Bergliez to betray the Empire instead of Vestra. (For my own reference, from DMs with Hubert-mun, Vestra’s betrayal hurts more because even though Marquis Vestra was “just following orders”, they betrayed the family that trusted them for decades… instantly giving all the other nobles a free pass to question whether they too would be betrayed by the same.) For Count Bergliez in particular, he never liked Marquis Vestra from the start (may have considered him a sycophant/too underhanded? Idk for sure yet) and said betrayal was fuel for the fire.

Count Bergliez’s straightforward nature makes him contentious with the other nobles because while he readily calls them out on corruption he sees and doesn’t like, he’s also at least militarily very efficient, and also capable of seeing the heart of things when others might not. (Not to say that Bergliez is incapable of duplicity himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if, as the closest named territory, he was the one who encouraged Hrym to revolt.)

Mainly because it’s “Lying Aegir” leading them + who had the biggest hand in greenlighting the Hresvelg child experimentation, and also because as the house with the bulk of the standing army, why shouldn’t he be in charge?, Bergliez is the last to join the Insurrection. His initial plan was to use whatever confusion ensued from Hrym’s rebellion/bid to join the Alliance to overthrow the Hresvelgs himself and install Julian (Caspar’s older brother, and the Bergliez heir thanks to Grandfather Bergliez stepping down) as Emperor. (More on this when I get ahold of my Gods and Legions book by Michael Curtis Ford again.) Given how quickly and/or magically and/or with unity the Empire put down the Hrym revolt, though, Bergliez decided to bite the bullet and join with Duke Aegir, tabling his plans for after they take out their common enemy. (“I can use the confusion of the Insurrection to take over,” he figured.)

(Hevring may possibly have known about Bergliez’s plans, but didn’t tell Aegir due to having their own designs on the Empire--though this is not necessarily malicious = anti-Hresvelg; Hevring could simply have joined because they wanted the even power distribution. If so, Hevring was effectively like “I told you so” when Bergliez finally joins. Bergliez doesn’t want to hear it.)

With Bergliez’s physical military might backing them now, the Insurrection had the other half of the “big stick” they would need if the initial “soft coup” goes south. (The first half is the magical might provided by Vestra, Hevring, Essar, etc.)

Owing to Bergliez’s designs for the throne, Caspar, Randolph/Fleche, and all the other Bergliez children represent (very many--recall Caspar has 7 younger siblings) mere obstructions or rivals to be eliminated. Yet no matter how corrupt the influence provided by his job, his noble coworkers, and Julian (who may well be like a lazier Michalis), Bergliez can’t bring himself to outright kill his children. The best he can do is minimize contact and keep them ill- or uninformed of Empire politics. Hence, when he’s not being told fables/hero stories/etc., Caspar gets an extremely sanitized version of his father’s war stories and is able to maintain his ideal of his father as a great hero to be emulated. He also remembers his father stroking his hair sometimes as a kid, and clings to that—during the day, he gets very little non-harsh love from his father otherwise (as already mentioned in a previous ask - cue mingled desire + uncertainty on handling compliments and affection). Caspar’s decision to strike out for Garreg Mach on his own, while injurious to Gilead as a father, is actually a huge blessing because it makes keeping him out of the loop so much easier. Even with what little information he gets (e.g. knowing little about Randolph and Fleche other than their names and familial relations to him—come to think of it, does he ever say Fleche’s name?) + his general disdain for politics, Caspar asks too many probing questions—when he has his moments, at least.

While it’s unlikely Bergliez encouraged his wife and children back in Gronder/Merceus to visit because of the above, both halves of the family did see the other half occasionally. Thus, Caspar did get to see his 7 younger siblings grow up, in a fashion.

During Caspar and Julian’s tutelage in Enbarr, Bergliez was an extremely harsh taskmaster to both of them, using threats and ultimatums ranging all the way up to death as motivation to work hard. Undecided whether this includes “I’ll kill you myself” or only goes as far as “mess up like this and you will die on the battlefield; it’s a harsh place”. This influences Caspar’s death line... though I have another good one should he die with a close friend nearby. >:3c

While Caspar generally dislikes reading, he definitely knows how to and has probably read a decent bit. He’s no scholar, though, and his reading list is mostly comprised of hero stories (at least a few of which were romantic, to help explain his romantic streak) and picture books. (I’ll... figure out where Caspar gets his romantic streak from later. For how oblivious he is when he’s the object of affection (thus, he definitely needs the other person to spell it out for him - see ShamSpar for the most concrete example), it’s clear he has one.)

I still maintain that Bergliezes as a rule find it very difficult to grow full beards. Very few have done so successfully. It’s the family curse XDD

#headcanon #about: blood #about: home #// as promised!#// may be revised later pending new info or other empire families' input #// (i think i minimized the presence of the other families in this well enough)

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ribbonsed · 6 years ago

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To Build A Home: An Ode To A Certain Enigmatic Crow

Disclaimer: Okay before proceeding, please note several of these things:

These are merely my headcanon, being my headcanon, these are how I view Lin’s actions for this season. THIS IS SO MESSY OK I'm so sorry for any of you bothered to read this mess, I'm not a writer I'm dying I love Thunderbolt Fantasy so much;

I’m an annoying Lin Xue Ya stan and apologist first and foremost, and needless to say that this headcanon will be heavily centered on him. I do love and attached to ALL characters and puppets on Thunderbolt Fantasy, and I would gladly write for every single of them if only my knowledge, my time and my creativity reservoir would allow me write any worthy piece for them. But I can’t help to get this out of my head, and for now, this will do for Lin;

I can’t help but notice Lin’s actions especially during the course of Season Two, especially his breakdown after failing to trap Xiao Kuang Juan’s prompted me to write this. So, the start point of this headcanon will be from there. Also, I’m beginning to start building this headcanon in the middle of watching Season Two, and I start writing this after Episode 11 Season 2 and added a little bit after watching Episode 12. So I might be going a little back and forth with the timeline so please do bear with me;

I can't speak nor I can read Chinese/Mandarin and Japanese. Thus, I can't understand Thunderbolt Fantasy on its original language, so, all materials I use for reference on this headcanon will be based on from translated materials in English (the show, the movie, the manga, wikipedias, news articles, etc.) and I apologize if there are mistake on from my understanding of translated material (whether is it because of my lack knowledge or because of mistranslation or just misinformation altogether, let me apologize first here);

trigger warning: mild curse words (lmao I can't be civil);

tldr: Lin Xue Ya is getting way way more softer in Season Two compared to previous materials (The Movie, Season One) and here is my take on why is a certain Wandering Tired Man Way Too Soft and Too Good For This World is responsible for that

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Lin's visible foul mood over Xiao Kuang Juan outsmarting him by refusing to go back to Xi You over the course of Episode 11 Season 2 doesn't make all that much sense to me on first glance. Why? Because no matter how hard I think about it, it just doesn't make sense that Lin would get 'that' mad just because Xiao refusing to go back to Xi You. I mean yeah, Lin got the taste of humilation and defeat on Season 1 finale at Mie Tian Hai's hand where the latter literally killed himself and broke Tengyouken, depriving Lin of tasting his complete, successful scheme of stealing Mie Tian Hai's pride. That's where we saw Lin Xue Ya, the notorious Enigmatic Gale, for the first time ever, truly losing his composure and his vulnerable, emotional side breaking through an ice-cold, unpenetrable facade he has been keeping for the whole course of Season 1.

So, this is where it got tricky to me. Does Lin Xue Ya really learn nothing at all from his whole fiasco with Mie Tian Hai? Does Lin Xue Ya, is really so above himself that he flat out refuses to use his defeat on Mie Tian Hai as a lesson learned to avoid him the same mistake on near future? Does Lin Xue Ya, the infamous, great thief and trickster across Dong Li did NOT, even consider, just freaking once, of the possibility of Xiao Kuang Juan, a high-ranking, corrupt, shady, military official that is powerful enough to cross The Wasteland of Spirit, making a choice that would thwarted his plan over? Wouldn't a great, high-functioning schemer like Lin Xue Ya know first thing first that things would not always go like the plan, that there is always a possibility after a possibility, a single stone that could overturn the flow of the river. Why is the emo breakdown, Lin?

This is also highlighted by the fact that, unlike Mie Tian Hai who straight up killed himself, making Lin stripped of another chance at fucking him over again, Xiao Kuang Juan is literally, still alive. Dude is literally still out there, alive, breathing, running amok. Wouldn't a calm, reasonable, level-headed choice here would be playing along with Xiao newfound plan of starting over in Dong Li, let him do whatever he pleases, then strikes him, humiliate him when another opportunity strikes. Doesn't Lin also has upper hand with this would-be scenario, since The Enigmatic Gale knows Dong Li inside out like the back of his own hand. So, why not wait, Lin? Why not let Xiao slip this time, giving him the illusion of how easy to escape persecution of his own crime and to start anew, to crush him later when the time is prime. Are you really that upset, that your plan got thwarted so easily, Lin? Are you? Why the rush, Lin?

Another comparation to Mie Tian Hai case, where Lin waited until the very last, opportune moment, to confirm it himself clear that Mie Tian Hai utmost pride was his sword skill, and him collecting fancy powerful holy sword is because he wants swords worthy enough for his skill. Doesn't it indirectly implies that the whole cave scene of Episode 11 Season 2 basically Xiao Kuang Juan confirming it himself that his pride does not lie with his wealth, status, nor title back in Xi You? Xiao Kuang Juan flat-out admitted in Episode 11, that he is glad he is still in Dong Li where his stolen goods is currently being exposed on Xi You now, that he is glad that his head is even still intact and attached to his body right now. Interesting part of their whole conversation in the cave excerpted here:

Xiao Kuang Juan : Whatever, it doesn't matter. If anything, it's a relief. If I've lost all my prestige and authority, I at least don't have to act like a pompous jackass anymore. I can take things easy from here on out.

Lin Xue Ya : What's gotten into you? Are you feeling alright, Sir Fugitive Hunter?

Xiao Kuang Juan : When you deal in dangerous and dirty deeds, you've gotta know when to give it up. Sure, I was hoping I could score enough loot for early retirement first. But, whenever you make the long, risky gamble, you've gotta realize that one wrong play, and you'll end up going bust. If anything, I'm just glad my head's still attached to my shoulders.

Wouldn't his very confession infers that, Xiao Kuang Juan treasures his own life, his own survival, no matter how wretched his soul is, how many life he stole, how many wealth he embezzled, more than anything else? So, if Lin's initial goal of sending Xiao Kuang Juan back to Xi You along with his corrupt deeds failed because he mistakenly certain that man's pride lies within his boastful honor and titles in Xi You Imperial Army, wouldn't The Hunting Fox confession on that cave just confirms that Lin is just mistaken about his pride all along? So, why the big fuss, Lin? Didn't you also made the effort to swap Tengyouken's part in Season 1, because you were still uncertain about Mie Tian Hai's utmost pride, while also keep patiently waiting until the very last minute to confirm Mie Tian Hai's actual pride---his sword skill--not him merely wanting to posses Tengyouken. So, Xiao Kuang Juan just revealed his utter, most, prized possesion on his life, his own life. Wouldn't it be a simple matter for you to rework your strategy and concoct another plan for Xiao, Lin? Don't you seek amusement and thrill out of outsmarting the most corrupt and wretched individual, Lin? So, isn't Xiao Kuang Juan---a shameless, corrupt official banished from his original country, trying to rebuild his life in a foreign land---, just the perfect target to occupy your time, Lin?

That is, if Lin Xue Ya end goal is solely to humiliate Xiao Kuang Juan, as per Lin usual motive with his scheme. So, what makes this job is not Lin Xue ya usual scheme? This is where Shang Bu Huan, Lang Wu Yao, and the whole Sword Index feud comes into play. What if Lin started to play Xiao on the first place, because he, genuinely wanted to help Shang? Yes, Lin triggered the whole plot of Season 2 by spreading the word of Shang Bu Huan's heroic deeds against Mie Tian Hai, and that's how hordes of Xi You people came crossing The Wasteland of Spirit in pursuit of Shang and The Sword Index. But what if, that was Lin way of trying to help and repay Shang? By inviting people who has been against Shang Bu Huan this whole time, to his dominion, Dong Li, and play them here, where he arguably has the upper hand to his familiarity with the country.

Even if Lin, still, intentionally invited Xiao Kuang Juan to Dong Li himself, Lin's whole trap for Xiao is set up specifically to be resulting in the infamous fugitive hunter getting back into Xi You, humiliated with his stolen goods and corrupt deeds exposed in front of Royal Army. Xiao Kuang Juan back in Xi You, his corrupt deeds exposed and facing Imperial Court punishment kills two birds one stone. It clears Shang the additional trouble of getting chased by Xiao in Dong Li when he is already busy enough protecting his Sword Index and trying to contain Seven Blasphemous Death, and maybe, Xiao crooked dealings getting punished would also exposes other Xi You corrupt military doing and would be a start of getting Shang's name cleared, even if it's for just bit by bit, and even if Shang himself cares not about clearing his name back in Xi You. Lin is going out of his way to make sure his (initial) endgame plan for Xiao Kuang Juan benefits Shang Bu Huan.

Lin greatly implies during his two pool scene with Shang (where he was fishing) that all he has been doing on Season 2 is for Shang's sake. He stated explicitly, from their 'first' Pool Scene, on Episode 7, with excerpt from said scene goes like this:

Lin Xue Ya : I want to propose a mutually benefical deal regarding something else, actually. I'd like you to tell me about Xiao Kuang Juan. His accomplishments, insight into his character, past conflicts between the two of you... anything will do. It will be information that will go into the calculations of my next scheme.

Shang Bu Huan : And then, you're gonna screw him over for the fun of it, huh?

Lin Xue Ya : Exactly! He is your enemy, isn't he? I can't imagine you'd have any reason to show him sympathy.

Shang Bu Huan : Yeah, I wouldn't shed any tears over him getting his. He's earned everything you've got cooked up for him. That doesn't mean I have to go help you with your fun, though.

Lin Xue Ya : I had thought that my sabotage of his efforts would be benefical to you.

Shang Bu Huan : That guy's free to dig his own grave. I just don't wanna sneak up behind him and kick him into it. Feeling guilty about it later might spoil a meal.

(Note: I would like to note that Shang Bu Huan's and Lin Xue Ya pool scenes on this season are very important to me (as a viewer, and yes, as a shipper) because in my opinion it holds a significant purpose as running symbolism to testament their relationship and character growth, and I might be go back and refers The Pool Scenes many times later).

So, when Xiao Kuang Juan refuses to fall into Lin's sweetly prepared trap, and instead choosing to reside in Dong Li and build his new way into crime, Lin goes frenzy, because Xiao retaliates in one of the worst way possible that goes against Lin's initial goal of fucking him over in the first place. Xiao Kuang Juan residing in Dong Li, Night of Mourning on his hand, building his new band of thugs would mean that: (1) his past crimes committed during his time in Xi You goes unpunished because he doesn't return there and it would be impossible to indict him; (2) Shang Bu Huan reputation in Xi You is still in murky water; (3) it adds to the trouble they already facing on top of the imminent danger Lou Zhen Jie---powerfully wielding Seven Blasphemous Death making his way across Dong Li holy sword shrines---, and who knows how dangerous Xiao could get knowing how resilient and how little he regards others life and how he would not mind making innocent civilians as his victim.

Lin's mistakenly judge Xiao Kuang Juan's pride over his honor and titles, when actually Xiao is so shameless, he is happy just to be alive after his corrupt scheme on the Imperial Army exposed. Not only Lin unintentionally humiliate himself by misjudging his foe true nature, he also completely fucks over his supposed one job. During the second Pool Scene on Episode 10, Lin boasted to Shang that his plan is ripe to take Xiao Kuang Juan down. But, how is the reality, our sweet dear thief? Nope, it ain't working out. Killing Xiao Kuang Juan right there and taking his life as his life is most precious to him right now is arguably the most efficient way of stopping him, but it also goes against Lin's principle of spilling unnecessary blood and drawing Yan Zhue unless it is most necessary. On the other hand, waiting for Xiao Kuang Juan to thrive with his plan and destroy him when the opportunity arises also takes way way too much time, because after the whole event of Season Two unfolds, and underneath Lin needing to get his share of getting high over fucking Xiao Kuang Juan over, Lin realizes a little too late that what needed most is for said Fugitive Hunter, to get away from Dong Li, as far as possible from Shang.

For the first time ever, Lin Xue Ya finally feels it how devastating it feels to fail in something you proudly prides yourself with when it's directly involves the well-being of someone you care about (re: Shang Bu Huan, and also arguably, yes, to Lang, also--because despite how hostile their interaction on Episode 4 and 5 seems, deep down Lin respects Lang as someone who used to be Shang's partner in Xi Yo) For the first time ever, Lin feels... for lack of better word, useless. Lin prides himself so much as master manipulator, more so than his carefully hidden yet unbelievable gift as swordsman--, but when the occasion calls for it, he failed. He said it so himself during his fight with Mie Tian Hai that he shied away from swordmanship because it would straight up send him down into villainy path, and that's the reason Lin resorts to trickery and manipulation instead, BUT when the the time needed for him to be, he failed manage to use his trickery to protect the people he cared about.

Of course when talking about Lin Xue Ya, one can not simply throw terms like 'endearment', 'affection', and 'care' around. We clearly see throughout the course of Thunderbolt Fantasy timeline, depicted effortlessly throughout The Movie, Season One, and also side material like the novel and the manga, how Lin seemed to completely show no remorse over fucking up Sha Wu Sheng, Xing Hai, getting Shou Yun Xiao killed with his so called expedition against Mie Tian Hai. But, as we also see from the event of Season One, and expanded in the manga itself, when Lin was shown visibly quite somber after he saw his master brutally killed, partly also because of him, because he toyed with Sha Wu Sheng and that karma comes back to bite him in the ass by taking his master away. The manga even goes in length to show how he kindly asked the group to help him bury his master body.

Season 2 had that scene where he objected Xiao Kuang Juan method of slaughtering innocent townfolks during his confrontation against Xie Yingluo. Albeit, yes, Lin arrived way too fashionably late to prevent the slaughter of the people controlled by Night of Mourning on the hand of Xiao Kuang Juan, but my stance is that he is also against taking the lives of people who do not actively take up arms. Heck, dude even did not straight up kill Mie Tian Hai and pulled his blade away before Mie Tian Hai's neck. I think it is safe to say that Lin, is against killing. My point is that, (also as I said in the disclaimer before, this is coming from huuuuuuge annoying Lin Xue Ya stan/apologist so yeah hahahahahahaha) yes, Lin is capable of feeling emotion despite it is his trade to get high off his target misery. He is capable of feeling affection and adoration toward other people, albeit said people receiving his admiration maybe is so very easily to count with fingers. The question is, how does our dear thief fare when it comes to building trust and relationship with other people?

This is where Shang Bu Huan comes into the equation. Lin explicitly stated by the end of Season One that Shang is so fascinating to him, that keeping him around will most likely to draw the most wicked, the trashiest people for him to toy around. Are we sure this is Lin's only motivation for triggering the event of Season Two by posing as that jester, spreading the word of Shang Bu Huan's heroic deeds? Are we sure, there is nothing more, to Lin Xue Ya actions throughout Season Two, especially in relation to the man that is Shang Bu Huan? Why did Lin managed to meticulously showed up at Certain Dong Li Government Office, right where Xiao Kuang Juan popped up first thing first he arrived at Dong Li, complete with a whole fake identity he already secured before? Why did Lin, even amidst 'entertaining' Xiao Kuang Juan during the first three episodes of Season Two, also bothered to track Shang down and cured him out of his ailment from Xie Yingluo deadly, first-rate poison?

My personal answer is that, Lin Xue Ya, is, attempting to build a healthy, trustful relationship with Shang Bu Huan (note at ATTEMPTING, because as much as I like this trashy garbage snow bird puppet as a character I acknowledge his messy ass personality and his questionably ability /so far/ to keep healthy functional relationship like most of normal people). Yes, he is, attempting to build a healthy, trustful relationship with Shang Bu Huan, as two people, who despite their complete utmost difference, acknowledge each other strong and weak side, trust each other, and help each other during needed times.

Why Shang Bu Huan?

Despite his motor mouth and Shang constant no-nonsense attitude toward Lin's antics, he really never ask him to... change. He asked why Lin is the way he is, during Season One, and Lin answered with smart ass, sassy, "Do you really want to know because I could go on length here but do you have the time for that", but Shang, never ask Lin to change.

Shang, the guy who is so against taking the live of another person, who intentionally tires himself using a battle technique that drains his qi, who believes every single person, even the most villainous ones, deserves a second chance and that they are capable of change and transformation. But Shang saw Lin, this shady ass dude, who intentionally plunged him into a dangerous journey against evil dark dude along with several other evil dudes, saw with his own two eyes that said shady ass dude fucked up real bad by dooming an entire country to a giant praying mantis eldrich abomination, proceeded to clean up said dude mess, left off wishing he would never have to meet said shady guy again, only for said shady guy to spread his rumor and whereabouts to and Shang reaction basically could be summed up as something along the line of "Man, you are really fucked up man... But, but... But whatever!".

Because Shang, deep down, despite always raising his eyebrows and we, as viewer, could personally hear him whispered softly "What the fuck" at every single Lin's Options in Life, he acknowledges and sees Lin's redeeming qualities under his lying, manipulating ass. That, Lin Xue Ya is Lin Xue Ya. And Shang knows, that deep down, there is part of him that is also intrigued by Lin despite another part of him (initially) repulsed by Lin's way of scamming. But Shang could not help but admit that Lin's method works most of the time, especially against big time villains since they share common principle against unnecessary killing. A whole, interesting mix of fascination, repulse, but the fascination part always outweigh the repulsed part, and by the end of Season 2, I dare say that the repulsed part for Lin Xue Ya's antics on Shang would be completely gone.

The fascination goes both way of course, but in Lin's part, there is nothing in Shang that repulses him, only endless fascination and surprise. Shang is far from the definition of a 'villain' or a 'bad guy', he does not seeks destruction, really, just a humble, wandering, a slightly bit old (the 4-koma comic had me rolling) but really powerful guy who happens to possess three dozens of stolen mythical swords. But no! It's okay, there is nothing bad, he is not going to use those swords for Evil, he just want to keep them safe out of bad people who will use them wrongly. At first glance, there should be nothing in Shang that should fascinate him, right? Dude is so chill, laidback, and berates his antics more than anything. But Shang just keep surprising him over and over again. As flat-out admitted by Lin himself on Episode 4 Season Two:

Shang Bu Huan : And who the hell is my friend in this equation?

Lin Xue Ya : Ah, a good question. Does a friend lend their aid because they're a friend? Or does someone become a friend once they've lent their aid? Sorting out the course of events can be a bit like solving a riddle.

And still on the same episode, but different scene with different character asking him the question;:

Ling Ya : Hey man, why do you care so much about Shang, anyway?

Lin Xue Ya : I'd say my interest begins and ends with how much fun he is. Come now, spare me the probing looks. This is no lie or exaggeration. Amusement is the solitary motivating force in my life. You could call it my very reason for living.

Upon knowing and seeing it firsthand Lin's usual dealing yes, Shang may be disgusted, but does Shang completely cut his ties off with Lin? No. For as much as Lin spreading mischief, intentionally spreading Shang's tale of taking down Mie Tian Hai and his horde of Black Demon Force, Shang just casually find him, pop up, give him several sigh and that's that.

Lin feels acknowledged by Shang. Lin feels acknowledged by Shang not asking him to change. And Lin feels appreciated. Yes, he feels appreciated because to him, Shang is easily categorized under his decent dude on his list of relation, and by Lin's standard to the people he kept company so far, Shang is basically a hero. A good guy. And for such upright guy to not immediately fend him off despite knowing his trickery? So, for the rare instance on his life, Lin decided to do something he just knows he is highkey sucks at doing, and that is, yes, building a trustful, healthy relationship with Shang Bu Huan.

Speaking of pursuing a healthy, mutual trust, this where Lin Xue Ya failed to do on his past relationship with Sha Wu Sheng. See, Sha Wu Sheng, for as merciless and as skillful a warrior he was, he also managed to peer underneath the facade Lin kept. Sha Wu Sheng wanted and planned to still be Lin's bodyguard even after he gained Sword Saint title, prolly out of his pity seeing how lonely Lin is, underneath all that. However, Lin's instinct and thirst for mischief outweighed his subconscious that sees Sha Wu Sheng's sincere, genuine attempt at starting a new life free from killing and Sha Wu Sheng's gesture of reaching out to him. Instead, Lin one-sidedly decide it himself that Sha Wu Sheng talent is too good to waste on building a sword school and set the ploy of what would be The Sword Saint Tournament.

By doing this to Sha, Lin Xue Ya not only ended up depriving Sha Wu Sheng of his what-could-have been life, but also his future and plunges him into his suicidal mission that makes Sha looking for an enemy stronger than him and him ending up dying on Mie Tian Hai's hand. Since Sha Wu Sheng arc is beautifully crafted onto the timeline that spans from The Movie first half into Season One, where Shang is present halfway, this could infer that maybe, Lin deep down regretted over what happened to Sha Wu Sheng so much and this too, could also goes into part of Lin's decision to keep an open, honest relationship with Shang ('honest' by Lin Xue Ya's standard, by all means) over the end of Season One and into Season Two.

This goes into the part that the whole event of Season Two was Lin trying to help Shang, albeit yes, it's still done on Lin's fucked up, round about way that ends up getting way more people hurt and killed than necessary. But his underlying motive is purely to help Shang Bu Huan. Yes, Lin might be hoping to secure a good prey along the way, but his whole priority is still Shang and his attempt to make Shang believe in him, that he, too, capable of forming a meaningful, trustful, healthy, relationship. No tricks, no ploy.

By finally encouraging himself to build a healthy relationship with someone else that involves no trickery and lies (no trick and lies on 'most' part, remember that we are talking about Lin Xue Ya here, little lies here and ther counts as a honesty with him considering his usual trade), Lin is also, inevitably and unconsciously making himself more vulnerable emotionally, in a good way. I always felt that the way Lin's puppeteer making him move on Season Two and the way the directing is shot during his scene is way, way more extra compared to Season One and The Movie. I initially guessed that this is maybe because the cat is out of the bag, that Lin Xue Ya is Enigmatic Gale, a notorious, infamous thief across Dong Li for his scheme, compared to Season One where his reveal was held off until the good last quarter of the season. That's why Lin's movement and mannerism is more subdued in Season One, especially on the first three quarters, in order to avoid spoiling way too much into his true nature and reveal.

But now that we've got to Episode 11, with his whole emotional fit over Xiao refusing to go back to Xi You (he has emotional breakdown in front of two people, one being his supposed victim, Xiao Kuang Juan and the other one being Lang Wu Yao), to me this opens the interpretation that the dramatic, over the top puppeteering, writing, and directing style for Lin Xue Ya this season is intentionally on the showrunners part as a way of telling us how soft he has become. Lin Xue Ya is far, far more, expressful this season due to him more open of letting his guard down and expresses himself more emotionally. It's as if, in Season One and The Movie (I refer to the first part of the movie only, when we saw Lin and Sha Wu Sheng story, and not including the second part of the movie where he goes around as a jester spreading Shang's telltale), there is a dark, black cloth that Lin is purposely putting up between himself and us viewer. We could never see him past beyond the dark cloth, and the only way for us to see him is when he intentionally puts himself in front of the dark cloth and show us what's he doing. But beyond that, nothing. Compared to the dark cloth, the Season Two Lin forgoes the dark cloth completely, and instead replaces them with a kind of white mesh fabric, that is sheer and see-through. Despite the fabric still conceals his true doing, but with the mesh fabric we could guess his movement through his silhouette.

Going back to Lin's whole motivation of Season Two in helping Shang, this is also why Lin hurried his ass to save Lang Wu Yao and Ling Ya from Lou Zhen Jie and Seven Blasphemous Death after he failed his plan to send Xiao back to Dong Li. He sure nonchalantly dodged Ling Ya question and stated that he merely just passed by and the sight of someone chuckling so proudly just after his humiliation on Xiao Kuang Juan's hand is so irritating to him he want to turn said person into his pet food. But, is it all that there is to it, Lin?

I already mentioned briefly how expertly Lin's handling his whole cover during the first three episodes of Season Two. While he was pretending to be a government envoy, humoring Xiao Kuang Juan spreading lies about Shang being absurdly evil individual about to threaten Dong Li, Lin also managed to keep track on Shang and Lang's whereabout. When he knew that Shang and Lang are at disadvantage due to Xie Yingluo poison, Lin quickly hurried off and tracked them to their hideout, all the while covering up Lang's previous track, and putting up off new, fake tracks meant to throw Xiao Kuang Juan. Our resident Thief then proceed to find Shang, diagnoses his poison, and together with Lang managed to find the antidote for Scorpion Princess best poison all the while still keeping his cover as a government envoy in front of Xiao Kuang Juan.

Based from these events, it would not be far too much of a stretch to guess that Lin is actively keeping track of Shang and Lang's whereabout during the course of Season Two. So, assuming Lin keeping track of Lang's whereabout, sensing that Lang was in danger, up against Lou Zhen Jie, a proficient man wielding a notorious demon sword, Lin goes and proceed to save him. Why, Lin? Isn't he the man who is not hesitant to pull his sword attacking him you back when you guys in the middle of Wasteland of Spirit, procuring dragon's horn together? I know you hate seeing unnecessary bloodshed, but you never strikes me as the type who would go in such active way into saving people, Lin. Were you not in the middle of your mental breakdown, Lin Xue Ya?

Plot-wise, it would be to heartless and maybe, a tad anticlimatic just to let Lou Zhen Jie finishes off Lang right then without Lin interfering. But also, if we track back to the second Shang and Lin's pool scene, during Episode 10, and if we put the context of Episode 10 and Episode 11 weaven together, it makes it clear that the whole pond scene was Shang entrusting Lin with... his best buddy, Lang's safety, because Shang is about to went away to meet Juan Can Yun. Shang Bu Huan knew a psychopatic nihilistic monk is running amok with a freaking demon sword that enchants and drains life-force from people. As much as Shang have faith on Lang's ability as a warrior, Shang also desperately wants Lang to be alive, safe and sound, from the mess he created and Lang had nothing to do on the first place, and Shang wanted some kind of an insurance--fail proof way to ensure Lang safe no matter what. So, he asked Lin Xue Ya for help. He asked Lin Xue Ya for help, he entrust Lin Xue Ya to help him keep his dearest friend, alive. It might not be explicitly stated, but;

Lin Xue Ya : Urgent and distant business, then?

Shang Bu Huan : You could say that. I'm gonna try and get back as soon as possible, so until I do, try not to make things even worse, all right?

This is the freaking Shang Bu Huan, who knows Lin's track record and also Lin's tendency to fuck things up just for the sake of fucking things up and experienced it first hand. So, he asked Lin Xue Ya, specifically, to keep everything under control until he gets back pawning The Sword Index off to Juan Can Yun. This is, a big deal, because when in the beginning of Season Two, Shang vehemently refused Lang's idea to call someone for help (which is, in this case, incidentally said person on Shang mind happens to be Lin) until Lin showed up himself at his doorstep and forced his way to cure Shang, and now, several episodes later, Shang, specifically asked Lin for help. This means so much, because in a way, this is Shang's way of reciprocating and acknowledging Lin's attempt to be a better version of himself. Shang sees Lin's effort, and he acknowledges it.

And... AND... LIN KEPT HIS WORDS !!!!!! THIS THIEF FUCKERY VAPING WIZARD IS KEEPING HIS PROMISE!!! Even though Lin, partly on his fault, lowkey already fucked things up by failing to send Xiao away back to Xi You, but he managed to save Lang from great peril, and this is of course, the better deal. Lin's honoring Shang's request, even though he admitted himself that he has some kind incompatibility with Lang, shows how Lin respects both Shang Bu Huan, and even, to some degree, to Lang. Lin understands and accepts that Lang, is a part of Shang's life, and needless to say that Shang would be broken if anything ever happens to him.

Instead of succumbing into a dark desire lurking somewhere within his unconsciousness to toy with Lang's life (and given he context of Season Two, if Lin plays Lang then he would indirectly toy with Shang’s too), Lin represses that urge and strive to work with Lang instead, not just once, but twice. It could be also that Lang has nothing that Lin would ever want, and that Lang is not Lin's target and he had nothing on fucking up his life, but this also does not automatically making Lang exempt and safe from Lin Xue Ya's destructive tendencies to people around him, because Lin's past actions have shown that his machinations often proven fatal and claims collateral damage on Lin's own acquaintance even whom he did not actively mark as his prey at the moment (re: Sha Wu Sheng and Shou Yun Xiao dead bodies during their 'expedition' against Mie Tian Hai). Lin's active action on saving Lang's life is a great deal, because not only by doing so he is committed to his mission learning how to have a healthy relationship, it also shows Lin's character development striving to be a... less destructive version of him.

On top of saving Lang, Lin does not even bother on concealing his pissed stance in front of him, showing Lang his, ungraceful side as he shamelessly continues his emotional breakdown in front of Lang the moment Xiao Kuang Juan name mentioned. This part is just so, so endearing to me because we can see in the screen, both Lang and Ling Ya too, are baffled seeing Lin's throwing tantrum, something that they does never expect coming off from the dude who nonchalantly, politely asked a dragon before chopping off said dragon's horn. Retreating back into Season One, Lin Xue Ya was alone when Mie Tian Hai humiliated his ass off, nobody is even there to saw him getting his trickster ass owned and yet, the moment Shang came up to him, asking how the hell did a giant praying mantis monster got unleashed, Lin is seen masking his agony over his humiliation and feigning a nonchalant attitude as per usual. This contrasts heavily with Season Two, where Lin is visibly upset over his failure at scheming Xiao Kuang Juan, and even goes on a rampage to show how upset he is to someone he just know several days ago.

Now into Episode 12, when Shang Bu Huan finally retrieved Night of Mourning off from Xiao Kuang Juan, and Shang called out to Lin Xue Ya to undo his disguise, we can see how the two of them have full come circle and reaches another level of trust and bond between the two of them. On this scene, with Shang Bu Huan, Lang Wu Ya, and Ling Ya all present, Lin really went and admitted how he is pissy af because he fucked up his plan with Xiao Kuang Juan. Lin. Freaking. Xue. Ya. Admitting. His. Failure. He nonchalantly brought up his failure of messing with The Fugitive Hunter and reasoned that he wants to tag along because he want to see Xiao getting his due with his own eyes (or don't you really, just wanna help, Lin). And Shang Bu Huan, hearing Lin's failure, did not flinch, did not even comment, did not even make fun of it or rejoice on Lin's failure despite Shang never agreeing with his method. Shang just brushed it by and instead offered Lin to tag along and help them.

(You want Lin on his usual fancy clothing instead of those boring lawmen outfit, don’t you Shang ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

Shang Bu Huan : Why are you following us?

Lin Xue Ya : Well, what else? I'm hoping that you might lead me to some new amusement. To be honest, I'm feeling incredibly frustrated. I'm willing to do just about anything to clear my head as a result. If I don't see someone get their painful just dessert's soon, I think I might go mad.

Ling Ya : Man, this guy's as twisted as they come, huh?

Shang Bu Huan : Well, we're about to go after Xiao Kuang Juan. You willing to help?

One episode left for Season Two, and where this season has it's ups and downs, and it's owns pros and cons, I personally think with the lesser amount of main cast we really get our main cast fleshed out more and I'm really happy with this development of Lin. As much as his trickster, jester side of a character is entertaining and incredibly potent and powerful on it's own right, but I as viewer could not help but happy seeing Lin's making some good decisions for once. Here is to praying that our main trio makes it out alive of Season Two.

#thunderbolt fantasy #lin xue ya #lin setsu a #thunderbolt fantasy 2 #shang bu huan

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warsofasoiaf · 7 years ago

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though I have not read the materials themselves, what little details I have read seems to paint Guilliman as being rather bitter and almost disgusted by what the emperor has become (including the man himself) in the 10,000 years since he's been on the throne. assuming all the loyalist primarchs manage to somehow return (including sanguinus and ferrus somehow) how do you think they'd all react to what a mess the imperium and the emperor are now?

I think the Lion would be disgusted and look to seize whatever power he could to fix it. Given his secretive nature and lack of social graces, the Lion would probably get politicked to the point of frustration, perhaps wishing for a Luther to handle all that mess.

Jaghatai Khan would almost certainly feel vindicated in his belief. As he mentioned in Scars, the greatest lie is building high walls and declaring yourself the master and conqueror of all you see. The Imperium turning into what it is right now is the natural conclusion of the hypocrisy of empire, both of all empires and the Emperor’s on his own. If any were to go renegade and go independent, Jaghatai is up there, though I could easily see him staying on to fix things and fight monsters, not out of a desire for empire but a love of battle and concern for humanity as a whole.

Russ would be sickened to see the Imperium, though he might be proud of his Space Wolves for their evolution. He learns late in the Heresy that being a grim executioner is not satisfying and leaves him with few allies. He is likely to be enraged at Magnus’s sack of Fenris, but proud of Logan and wish to wake up Bjorn. I don’t think Russ would grab for any power, though he would expect some sort of title not out of a desire for one, but rather recognition of his great abilities. He would lead the attack against the newly resurgent traitor primarchs out of a desire to settle the score.

Rogal Dorn would fall in line and try to repair the Imperium, much like Guilliman. Not as socially adept or politically minded, the Lord of the Imperial Fists would be attempting to arrest the death of a thousand cuts that the Imperium is facing. Likely unable to adapt to the new Imperium, Rogal Dorn would quietly work behind-the-scenes to avoid any heretical faux pas, but Rogal Dorn is too devoted to the Imperium to consider doing any less than his best.

Sanguinius would almost certainly take the entire state of affairs the hardest. I could see him wanting to do something properly heroic to restore the faith (and probably need to be talked out of a suicide mission), and of anyone, Sanguinius would become the Lord Regent of the Imperium over Guilliman, even Guilliman would recognize the power and ability of the Angel. What changes however, is Imperial dogma. Sanguinius is example number two of the martyr complex and ethics of the Imperium (the Big E himself is number one). With him coming back, what does that mean for the Imperial Cult? Does it mean that you too, can return from martyrdom if sufficiently faithful? Does it make Sanguinius the senior and de facto leader of the Living Saints? Can a Living Saint become part of the secular administration of the Imperium? These are questions that need answers. For his part, I believe Sanguinius would take the Godfrey of Jerusalem, Gondor, and Imperium Secundus route: He would not call himself an Emperor, merely a Lord Steward, and he would mandate that the Imperium be run by a council. While Sanguinius is a master warrior, it is also worth noting that he was a master politician and deeply devoted to respecting the dignity and fire of individual people. This does not mean democracy, but this does mean a greater devotion to the Imperium’s activities. Corruption almost certainly becomes a serious sin, warranting punishment.

Ferrus Manus, never one to seek title but one simply to take on challenge and purge weakness, will lead his Iron Hands on great purifying crusades, after smacking the ever-living shit out of his gene-sons for their focus on mechanical augmentation. He would find excuses tiresome, probably throttle a few Imperial governors, but likely be far more supportive of the struggling Imperial Guard. Ferrus ultimately would not secede, but he would make no bones about how disgusting and weak he finds everyone, demanding that they shape up, or he will whip them into shape with his crazy necrodermis arms. As an aside, his arms would certainly benefit from study when it comes to developing weapons to beat the Necrons.

Vulkan would be horrified by the Imperium, the Imperium during the War of the Beast was nothing compared to the festering corpse that this Imperium is. Ultimately, while he might come to blows against the Inquisition and other members, I don’t think he’ll secede or wage war against the Imperium, he loves humanity far too much to do that. He will demand reform and use everything in his arsenal to make that happen, and the threat will be too tense, especially among the hardliners in the Inquisition, Sororitas, Ecclesiarchy, etc. Vulkan likely uses his Salamanders as a rescue force for troubled worlds, and looks to organize a better civil relief force for embattled worlds.

Corax would see Deliverance before his coming all over again. He would need to struggle not to go down the Konrad Curze route, or to accept the state of affairs as the result for his own failings. He may indeed secede from tyrants, but what would be incredibly interesting is if he seized control of the Adeptus Arbites to clamp down on abuses of law, or if he used his own troops (not necessarily Raven Guard, but possibly some in addition to his own agents) to crack down as a terrifying internal affairs office. Ultimately, Corvus needs to be saved from falling into despair, but if he does, he could be a dedicated and tireless champion of justice and exciser of corruption.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#warhammer 40k

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readyaiminquire · 5 years ago

Text

Hippies, communes, Star Wars, and the future.

While I am duct-taping my life back together after Christmas and New Year - and with a to-do list longer than a Leonard Cohen song - I wanted to do a quick-fire piece to bridge things over while I am completing the next part of my Microchipping series. Enjoy!

I’ve also endeavoured to keep spoilers to a minimum - but read at your own risk all the same.

An old man hangs from a mechanical arm, controlling him like a puppeteer in his underground lair. His eyes are white, faded, clearly dead. Before him, our two heroes lie, burned by the lightning shot out of the Emperor's hands. He cackles at them, as he realises he no longer needs to convert either of them to the dark side - he no longer needs to steal one of their bodies to continue his maniacal reign. No, he announces, with a bond between them so rare and so strong, he can corrupt that power, and fully restore himself. He can circumvent what the mechanical puppet-arm only succeeded to do as pathetic imitation. With such a rarity, he can bend nature to his will.

He will corrupt it.

This is at least how I remember one of the scenes at the climax of Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker. I finally had the opportunity to watch it over Christmas, and it left me with a lot of question - many of which I shan't air here. Nonetheless, after speaking to family and friends about it, one recurring comment (again, among many that I will not mention here) is the perceived absurdity of the story itself. It came across as ridiculous, a rehash, absurd, or as simply uninteresting. A part of me was inclined to agree - where had I seen, read, heard this story in the past? Was it the original trilogy? Probably, after all, several story beats are clearly the same - but there is more to it.

This is when I realised; it was literally a story from a different era. A different time. It was, in many ways, based on the same foundation as the original trilogy, and this foundation was and remains a very particular product of its time. In essence, the story is a conflict between those using technology to as a means of controlling what is around them, to get further from 'Nature' (to ‘transcend’ nature, if you will) and through this control it; and those who seek to use technology and innovation as a means to get closer to nature. The Sith and Jedi very clearly embody this dichotomy, something made clear in the scene I outlined above: machines (implied to be an unnatural and pathetic imitation of life) versus using the very rare, special, and most important ‘natural’ bond between our two heroes as a resource to 'fix' the Emperor's predicament.

The concept of using technology to control, reshape, or otherwise 'change' what we perceive to be the natural order around us is not particularly novel today. However, the idea of using technology - something often imagined as being squarely in the realm of the man-made, and therefore 'unnatural' by definition - might be a bit tougher to grasp. It's important to appreciate that the Jedi and their allies are not Luddites. There's no rejection of technology here - after all the light sabre is still pretty damned advanced. However, structuring the Jedi order and their subsequent duties, aims, rules, and so on as a monastic order is exactly the point. They do not reject technology, as long as it furthers their understanding of what 'becoming one with the Force' means. Summed up by Obi-Wan, when referring to the light sabre, "a more elegant weapon for a more civilised time" - The mass-production and industralisation of conflict surely horrified him.

The original Star Wars trilogy was very much conceived in a time when this particular perspective was not only emergent but was beginning to take deep hold of a particular scene on the West Coast of the US. In his book From Counter Culture to Cyberculture Fred Turner outlines how today's ideas around technology as something fundamentally and inherently liberating, developed - perhaps most clearly seen in what other scholars have called "the Silicon Valley ideology". Perhaps surprising, in the 1960s, the computer (though but a distant great-great-great-something grandfather of what we use today) was understood as something far more oppressive. During the 1960s Berkeley student protests, for example, students wore punch cards around their necks to signify how they were nothing more than a cog in an ever-growing machine, one which forced them to do whatever the wider system demanded. The development of the computer was heralded as a new stage of bureaucratic centralisation, one which struck fear into the hearts of these young students, a new dawn of mechanisation (or digitalisation) that would crush their dreams.

With the emergence of the 1960s and 1970s countercultural movements - in particular, the hippies - an ideology of 'returning to nature' began taking root. The enemy, if you will, remained centralised bureaucratic power. This sparked the founding of many, many communes in what was understood to be untouched land, with the express purpose of reforming society, from scratch. It was among these communalists that the liberating potential of technological innovation first found fertile soil. The use of new structures and materials (famously, the geodesic dome), simple computers (something as basic as calculators), mixed with the ideas and ideals of writers like Buckminster Fuller, systems thinking, and likely a shedload of LSD, all that was needed was something to tie all of this together - the Whole Earth Catalogue. Though I won't go into details of WEC here (it's a really interesting story, though!), suffice it to say that the Catalogue functioned like a proto-social networking tool which mixed all of the above ideas, with ads for buying the latest tech or tool for these communards. It, in effect, tied together the fabric into what can be largely understood as a movement (or network forum; see my text here for more detail).

The point is, these hippies eventually returned to California - and in particular the Bay Area - as these communes failed one by one and brought these ideas back with them. Doing some historical compression, these ideas spread throughout this particular social strata, allowing a whole new positive and liberating view of technology to take hold. Suddenly, computers and the technology of the future would not enslave us under the yoke of technocratic oppression, it would emancipate us in ways we could never even imagine - some even imagined it would usher in a new era of post-humans: humans, but more.

In George Lucas' original Trilogy, it becomes very clear why this Sith-Jedi dichotomy remains so strong: thematically it ties into the whole debate and ideology outlined above. And in 1977 it was still very much a debate, technology was still by our standards deeply rudimentary. After all, the questions remained in the air, and it is clear what side Lucas stood on. After all, one side uses technology to oppress a whole galaxy, committing genocide, and forcefully enslaving just about anything that isn't them. The Empire also drew strongly on Nazi imagery. The Rebels, though no Luddites, use technology as a means of liberation; as a path to awaken the connection between people (of all races, species, etc.), to bring us closer to one another. In Episode VI, with the help of teddy bears in a redwood forest, they not only destroy the Imperial Forces, but they allow the Jedi as an order to reemerge - Isn't this a large signposting for nature reclaiming its central position, signalling to the Empire that it cannot win (and by extension invoking ideas of the ‘”noble savage” is even less surprising)?

The problem with this is, of course, that the world has moved on. As far as technology and innovation goes, the techno-utopian ideology of Silicon Valley has largely won out, and as a result, the concern of technology vis-à-vis nature or society has shifted. We are now more afraid of algorithms tracking our movement or usage, the gathering and sale of personal data, the influence and manipulation that automated systems might mete out. The current top-of-mind concern is not that technology will bring back goose-stepping soldiers in black leather trenchcoats, but that it will oppress us through very different means - and perhaps even oppress us without our noticing, until it is too late (assuming we might realise at all). The popularity of shows like Black Mirror very clearly show an understanding of what within the current popular discourse around technology concerns us.

Instead, Rise of the Skywalker very much returned to the old approach, that of violently oppressive technology versus a more humanising technology. This debate is in many ways dated, it doesn't connect within the current cultural imagination and instead alienates its audience. Good fantasy and sci-fi holds up some sort of mirror to society, critiques it in some way or another (and some more subtly than others) - Rise of the Skywalker and in many ways the rest of the 'new' trilogy holds up a mirror to what society was, and signals to us that it is still very much stuck in 1983.

Selected References

Delfanti, A. 2013. Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science, Pluto Press.

Haraway, D. 2014. Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble. Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (Presentation)

Turner, F. 2008. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism. University of Chicago Press.

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tw6464sloreblog · 8 years ago

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The traitor legions

*the canon traitor legions remain mostly unchanged, except a few characters being swapped out and their names are different, except the Black Legion. For example, Ahzek Ahriman is not the one who casts the Rubricae, his brother Ormuzd Ahriman is, so Ormuzd is the leader of the Brotherhood of Dust.

*The traitor Emperor’s Children are known as the The Glorious Symphony; the traitor Iron Warriors are the Steel Tyrants; the traitor Night Lords are the Raptor Legion (heh); the traitor World Eaters are the Blades of Wrath; the traitor Death Guard are the Reapers of Despair; the traitor Thousand Sons are the Brotherhood of Dust; the traitor Word Bearers are the Prophets of Chaos; and finally the traitor Alpha Legion is the Brotherhood of the Hydra

*one last thing before I describe each traitor legion: there are no legions dedicated to a specific God. You can have Slaaneshi world eater traitors, Khornates thousand sons traitors, etc yeah I’m going to somewhat drop this idea, but I’’ll say that there are a few... “converts” to the other chaos gods, but they’re so rare that they’re practically none existent.

*The Azure Legions have already been detailed in my Chaos Ultramarines post, which is located here: https://tw6464sloreblog.tumblr.com/post/160804538767/chaos-ultramarines, so I’m gonna move on…

*The Dark Angels traitors form the Fallen Angels, except there aren’t any remorseful traitors amongst them; they’re cold, heartless and cruel crusaders of the Dark Gods, led by their Knight-Lord, Luther. They are crusaders of Chaos, striking with the precision of a broadsword and the power of a Claymore. They are masters of the sword, and of corrupting local populations into rebellion. They are often the least mutated marines, allowing them to easily pass as loyalists and wreak havoc upon their “allies”. None of the Fallen regret rebelling upon Caliban, rebelling against what they saw as a corrupt system of government; their only regret is that they failed in destroying the home of the Lion.

*The White Scars traitors form two Warbands: the Ronin, a band of disgraced White Scars who wield power nodachi and wander the Galaxy, selling their services to the highest bidder, as both a form of employment and as atonement; they’re made up of warriors of the Chondax campaign who instantly realized that they had damned their souls forever.

-The second, much larger group is known as the M'Andshu Hordes, led by Khan Khuu Tetsugai, who killed the Great Khan of their brotherhood and took over, using whatever bike squads, skimmer craft, fast moving tanks and flyers to strike swiftly and then move on to the next target of interest. They raid and pillage with incredible speed; almost all of their warriors are mounted, and if they’re not mounted they’re in transports ferrying them to battle.

*the Space Wolves traitors, many of whom actually split into two separate Warbands: Skyrar’s Dark Wolves, who are made up of warriors who are pretty much the Warriors of Chaos if they had guns, chainswords and power armor. They’re less conquers and more just raiders, killing and burning worlds for the slightest provocation; this may lead some to think that this aggressive form of fighting makes the Dark Wolves predictable, but any thoughts of an easy victory against the Wolves are shot down when their leader, Skyrar, is leading from the front. Skyrar is utterly unpredictable, manic and insane; whether this is due to his ingestion of a herb that supposedly boosts his fighting prowess, his constant exposure to the warp, or because he’s always been crazy, enemies should think twice before underestimating (or overestimating) the Chaos Jarl.

-The second warband is known as the Fangbound, led by Svane Wulfbad, who have given into the Canis Helix, transforming into something resembling the Wulfen (think the Wulfen models used in the 3rd Edition Eye of Terror campaign), before eventually transforming into a heavily corrupted form, known as the Fenrir.

*the Imperial fist traitors eventually form the Teutonic Lords, who are basically the Black Templar if instead of being zealots for the emperor, they were zealots for chaos. Also, some of them ride chaos steeds, because a horse is often times a better mount than a bike in certain terrains. They are still masters of siege warfare and defensive lines; however, they’re much more aggressive than their loyalist brethren, valuing counter-charges and shield walls rather than dug-in positions.

-Their bizarre form of martial honor has led many to assume that the Teutonic Lords are... to put it lightly, a bit thick. However, anyone who has fought against one of the high-ranking commanders of the legion, known as Barons, can attest that some Teutonic Lords are anything but honorable. While some of the Dukes and Their ultimate leader, Archduke Ferdinand of Charlemagne (the world upon which the Teutonic Lords have built their homes) value acts of bravery and valor, Barons will do anything to win,

*the Blood Angels traitors form the the Angelis Mortalis aka the Angels of Death. They struck their brethren during the Signus Prime campaign, where their leader, Apollyon, grew jealous and spiteful of their Primarch and begging for a real challenge, made a pact with the Chaos gods to grant himself and like-minded individuals the same abilities as a primarch. Of course, this pact didn’t come without a price; while they did gain almost Daemon Prince-like levels of strength, speed and agility and near-immortality, the Red Thirst present in these warriors went into overdrive. They stopped resisting the call of the Red Thirst, giving rise to cannibalistic tendencies and unparalleled savagery equivalent to the Black Rage; however, while the Black Rage only affects a small group of marines, the Angelis Mortalis are an entire legions worth of marines, all gorging on blood and flesh with reckless abandon.

-Thankfully, unlike the mythical undead creatures of Old Terran myth, most warbands of the Angelis Mortalis are unable to spread their curse through the exchange of bodily fluids or a bite. However. some warbands dedicated to Nurgle have found a way to transfer their curse via a virus; this method is ineffective, as if the Angels of Death are close enough to bite someone, chances are they’ll probably be ripping them apart to get to the blood and flesh faster.

-They also still go down to bolter shells and blades the same as everything else, as they also lack the common weaknesses present in the Vampires of legend, such as sunlight, garlic, silver, etc.; however, A few members of the Ordo Malleus have noted a few observation in regards to their weaknesses:

A) The Angelis Mortalis rarely launches attacks against Shrine Worlds. Whether this is due to the fact that Shrine Worlds are heavily defended or if this is due to some other outside force is unknown, but what few records of operations upon Shrine Worlds carried out by the traitors of the Ninth Legion have noted that the moment that Drop Pods struck down upon the world, the Marines bodies had totally disintegrated, becoming dust.

B) they are noticeably weaker in sunlight. They’re still faster than most mortal warriors and their loyalist brethren, but direct exposure to solar radiation causes their metabolisms to expend more energy, meaning that they become more tired and sluggish as fights drag on. As such, the Angelis Mortalis prefer to strike upon days of either heavy cloud or rainfall, or at night, becoming bedfellows with the Raptor Legion.

-This casual consumption of the living means they now require an bi-monthly intake of blood and flesh (the amount required for consumption varies on the level of restraint a Marine may have), and if they don’t get it after several weeks, they start to look like addicts, willing to do anything for just a drop of blood and a quick bite of flesh; their skin becomes more pale, they become more sluggish, become thin and atrophied, start to become delirious and seeing hallucinations.

-Their legion is organized like an aristocracy, with Kings, Princes, etc., based upon the age of each of the lords, with their ultimate master being known as The Supreme Lord of Blood and Night. This positiion of authority has been held by Apollyon since the Signus Prime campaign. each of whom has command of an army of Marines, as well as an auxiliary force called “Thralls”, who are similar to the Renegades and Heretics in terms of capabilities and appearance, with a few key differences; Thralls, in addition to serving as an allied force and as cannon fodder, double as a food supply if freshly available blood and flesh is nowhere to be found.

-They have become more and more vampire-like in their appearance, having grown giant, bat like wings, which protrude from their armor and wrap around them like a cloak; in addition, they have filed their fangs and claws to a monomolecular point, making them brutally vicious combatants even without their weapons.

*the Iron Hands traitors form the Gauntlets of Morlock, who are made up of the criminals, murderers, sociopaths and madmen of the clans of Medusa, all united under the Iron Lords of Clan Morlock. They continually give up more and more of their flesh to the machine, embracing the philosophy of “The Flesh is Weak”. As such, they have become close allies to the Dark Mechanicus, and are rarely seen apart.

*They eventually split into the Gauntlets and the Warband of Perfected Flesh, who replace their internal organs with robotic replacements. Both of these bands of traitors serve as a reminder to the loyalist Iron Hands and their successor chapters as to why the flesh and the machine must remain always in balance.

*the Salamanders traitors split into two groups: the Dragon Warriors, led by Vai'tan Ushorak, an ex-chaplain from Nocturne, who taught a corrupted version of the Promethean Creed, preaching domination over those deemed too weak to defend themselves; Vai’tan was eventually usurped by the Sorceror Nihilan, who continues to lead this warband today.

-The Dragon Warriors’ main strategy is massed infantry assault with a heavy emphasis placed on flamer, melta and other heat-based weaponry. They are also consummate smiths, being one of the only non-Hashut aligned or Dark Mechanicum forces able to bind a Daemon to a physical weapon.

*The second group, the Children of Purgatos, led by Purgatos, a Salamander marine from Terra itself, who grew tired of Vulkan’s charity and selfless nature ruining the fighting prowess of the 18th Legion. He accepted the restructuring of his legion, but never inducted himself into the Promethean Cult. As the Great Crusade dragged on, Purgatos became more and more agitated and frustrated at the compassion of Vulkan and the Prometheans, who valued the lives of what Purgatos saw as the “weak, teeming masses” over his own sons. Eventually, it all came to a head during the Ambush at Istvaan V, where Purgatos and those loyal to him turned upon their brothers, slaughtering the Prometheans in their company before turning their attention to the Primarch.

*the Raven guard traitors form the Shadow Vultures, a band of stealthy raiders who often prey on weak targets and proceed to rip them apart, until all that is left are carcasses and ash. They are merciless and cruel, often targeting innocent civilians at random using sniper rifles with camo cloaks, to further hide themselves and to hurt morale by being ghostly assassins. They are one of the few Traitor Legions to keep the Moritats and destroyer formations, their casual use of Rad Weapons making them a boon in the eyes of the Vultures. Their honorless tactics are a far cry from their compassionate loyalist counters, a fact not lost on the Vultures, who often make use of human shields when confronted with their foes.

-Their eyes have become pitch black

Well, that’s pretty much all the ideas I have for the traitor legions at the Moment. Let me know what you all think of the ideas I’ve put forth! Thanks for reading!

Updates: changed the name of the traitor alpha legion, changed the entry for the Ronin

update 2: changed the name of the white scars traitor legion what use bikes and speeders and such.

update 3: changed the name and title of the main leader of the M'Andshu Hordes

update 4: massive changes all around, I felt like cleaning upon some stuff and adding more to others.

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newsnigeria · 6 years ago

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Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/maduro-1-abrams-0/

Maduro 1: Abrams 0: but this match is far from over…

[This analysis was written for the Unz Review]

The standoff between Venezuela and the AngloZionist Empire last week-end has clearly ended in what can only be called a total defeat for Elliott Abrams. While we will never know what was initially planned by the demented minds of the Neocons, what we do know is that nothing critical happened: no invasion, not even any major false flag operation. The most remarkable facet of the standoff is how little effect all the AngloZionist propaganda has had inside Venezuela. There were clashes, including some rather violent ones, across the border, but nothing much happened in the rest of the country. Furthermore, while a few senior officers and a few soldiers did commit treason and joined forces with the enemy, the overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan military remained faithful to the Constitution. Finally, it appears that Maduro and his ministers were successful in devising a strategy combining roadblocks, a concert on the Venezuelan side, and the minimal but effective use of riot police to keep the border closed. Most remarkably, “unidentified snipers” did not appear to shoot at both sides (a favorite tactic of the Empire to justify its interventions). I give the credit for this to whatever Venezuelan (or allied) units were in charge of counter-sniper operations along the border.

Maduro wins the first round

Outside Venezuela this first confrontation has also been a defeat for the Empire. Not only did most countries worldwide not recognize the AngloZionist puppet, but the level of protest and opposition to what appeared to be the preparations for a possible invasion (or, at least, a military operation of some kind) was remarkably high, while the legacy corporate Ziomedia did what it always does (that is whatever the Empire wants it to do), the Internet and the blogosphere were overwhelmingly opposed to a direct US intervention. This situation also created a great deal of internal political tensions in various Latin American countries whose public opinion remains strongly opposed to any form of US imperial control over Latin America.

In this respect, the situation with Brazil is particularly interesting. While the Brazilian government fully backed the US coup attempt, the Brazilian military was most uncomfortable with this. My contacts in Brazil had correctly predicted that the Brazilian military would refuse to attack Venezuela and, eventually, the Brazilians even issued a statement to that effect.

Alas, there are still plenty of US puppet regimes in Latin America to mindlessly do whatever Uncle Shmuel wants them to (Colombia would be the worst offender, of course, but there are others). But that is not the main problem here.

The main problem is that the Neocons cannot accept defeat and that they are likely to do what they always do, double down and make a bad situation even worse. The head of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, has warned that the US has deployed special forces in Colombia and Puerto Rico in preparation for a possible invasion. Uncharacteristically, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made intelligence information public, which described in some detail what kind of plans the Empire and its allies had, even before this past week-end’s confrontation. See for yourself:

youtube

In fact, the leaders of the Empire and their puppets are not making any secrets about their determination to overthrow the constitutional government and replace it with the kind of comprador regime the US already imposed in Colombia. Pompeo, Abrams and Pence have been particularly hysterical in their threats, but the entire “Lima Group” is still at it:

youtube

As for the Russian UN Ambassador, he was very clear on what Russia expects to happen next:

youtube

The Neocons are not even content to threaten Venezuela, and John Bolton could not help himself and publicly threatened Nicaragua as being next in line for a US-sponsored regime change. He even spoke of a “Troika of Tyranny” reminiscent of the famous “Axis of Evil“.

This is all hardly surprising: US politicians always resort to infantile comic-book kind of language when they want to give their threats a special gravitas. Next we will be told that Maduro is a “New Hitler” and that he is “genociding his own people”, possibly with chemical weapons (“highly likely”, no doubt!). If not that, then Maduro will be distributing Viagra to his forces to help them rape more women. To those puzzled by the fact that presumably adult politicians use the kind of language one could find in grade school, I can only say that this just reflects the state of the political discourse in the USA, which has been dumbed-down to an incredibly low level. Be careful, however, because while US politicians are rather comical in their infantile, ignorant, illiteracy, and while they have an almost perfect record of embarrassing failures, the past decades have also shown that they are quite capable of murderous rampages (in Iraq alone the US invasion resulted in over one million dead Iraqi civilians) or of wrecking even a very prosperous country (which Libya under Muammar Gaddafi definitely was).

Next, the Empire will probably strike-back

There is a small chance that Abrams & Co. will conclude that the situation in Venezuela is a total mess and that the Empire cannot capitalize on it in the short to middle term. This is possible, yes, but also highly unlikely.

He is back…

The truth is that Mr MAGA and his Neocon puppet-masters have failed, at least so far, at absolutely everything they tried. And if taking on China, Russia, Iran or even Syria is no easy task, Venezuela is by far the most fragile country in what could be called the “Resistance countries”: Venezuela is far away from it’s allies (except Cuba), it is surrounded by more or less hostile countries (especially Colombia), it’s economy is crippled by US sanctions and sabotage and its armed forces are dwarfed by the immense firepower the Empire has available in the region. Add to this the truly demonic mindset of Neocons like Abrams and the future for Venezuela looks bleak.

The good news is that the Colombians and the rest of the Lima Group “friends of Venezuela” probably don’t have the military power to take on Venezuela by themselves. The preferred option for the USA would be to use the Colombians like the KLA was used in Kosovo or how al-Qaeda (and derivatives) were used against Syria: as boots on the ground while the US provides airpower, electronic warfare capabilities, intelligence, bomb and missile strikes, etc. The US also has immense naval capabilities which could be used to assist (and, of course, direct) any military operations against Venezuela (I highly recommend this analysis by my friend Nat South who describes in some detail the US naval capabilities and operations in the region).

My gut feeling is that this approach will not work. As is often the case, the US has all sorts of impressive capabilities except for the main one: a military force capable of providing the boots on the ground (as opposed to a non-US proxy). The problem for the US military would not be so much getting in, as staying inside and getting something done before leaving – what the US called an “exit strategy”. And here, there are really no good options for the US.

It is therefore far more likely that the US will use the weapon which it truly masters better than anybody else on earth: corruption.

There is big money, really big money, all around the Venezuelan crisis: not only oil money, but also drug money. And there are a lot of truly evil and corrupt people involved in this struggle who will use that corruption-weapon with devastating effect against the constitutionally elected government. And, just to make things worse, Venezuela is already devastated by corruption. Still, there are quite a few factors which might well save Venezuela from being reconquered by the Empire.

First, while US Neocons are too arrogant to bother with anybody’s opinion except their own, and while the various US agencies primarily talk with the immensely wealthy rulers of Colombia and the rest of Latin America, it does appear that a strong majority of Venezuelans support their elected government. Furthermore, US leaders simply don’t understand how hated the “Yankees” are in Latin America (at least among the masses, not the comprador elites) and how fantastically offensive the appointment of a felon like Elliott Abrams as Envoy to Venezuela is to the vast majority of the people of this continent.

Second, Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro did empower, for the very first time, the masses of the Venezuelan people, especially those who lived in abject poverty when Venezuela was still a US colony. These people are under no illusion about what a Guaido regime would mean to them. And while most of the supporters of Chavez and Maduro are not influential or wealthy, there are a lot of them and they will probably fight to prevent a complete reversal of all the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution.

Third, Latin America might well be changing, just like the Middle-East did. Remember how, for years, the Israelis could attack their neighbors with quasi-total impunity and how poorly the Arab armies performed? That suddenly changed when Hezbollah proved to the entire region and even the world, that the “Axis of Kindness” (USA, Israel, KSA) could be successfully defeated, even by a comparatively tiny resistance with no air force, no navy and very little armor. As I never cease to repeat – wars are not won by firepower, but by willpower. Oh sure, firepower helps, especially when you can fire from far away with no risk to yourself and your victim cannot fire back, but as soon as big firepower is met by big willpower the former rapidly fails. There is a very real possibility that Venezuela might do for Latin America what the Ukraine did for Russia: act as a surprisingly effective “vaccine” against the AngloZionist propaganda. An indigenous leader like Evo Morales, who has declared his full and total support for the elected government of Maduro, is an inspiration to the people of Latin America far beyond the borders of Bolivia. The Russian ambassador to the UN got it right: there are already other leaders after Maduro which the AngloZionists want to eliminate and replace by a pliable puppet à la Guaido or Duque Márquez. At the end of the day, this is a typical dialectical problem: the more brutal and overt the US aggression against Latin America is, the more successful coups or even invasions the US organizes, the stronger the anti-Yankee feelings generated among the people of the continent. Think of it this way: the US has already terminally alienated the people of China, Russia and Iran, along with most of the Arab and Muslim world, and thanks to that alienation, the leaders of China, Russia and Iran have enjoyed the support of their people in their struggle against the AngloZionist Empire. Could something very similar not already be happening in Latin America?

Conclusion: focus on the right question

To defeat the Empire’s plans for Venezuela, it is crucial that we all keep hammering over and over again: the choice is not between Maduro or Guiado, the choice is not between poverty under the Chavistas and prosperity under the AngloZionists. This is how the agents of the Empire (whether paid or simply stupid) want to frame the discussions. The real issue at stake here is the rule of law. The rule of law inside Venezuela, of course, and the rule of law internationally.

First year law students are often taught that the purpose of the law is not “justice” per se, but to provide a mechanism to solve disputes. That mechanism is, admittedly, a highly imperfect one, but it is understood by civilized people as being preferable to the alternative. The alternative, by the way, is what happens in every time a so-called “humanitarian intervention” is launched: a humanitarian disaster.

Yet, this is the typical modus operandi of the Neocons (and of all imperialists, really). First, chose a country for destabilization, then use your control of the international financial markets and trade to trigger an economic crisis; then, send your “democracy promoting” spooks and agents of influence to foment protests or, even better, violent disorders; then send some “unidentified snipers” if the legitimate government does not use enough violence to quell the protests, then denounce the leader you want replaced as “monster” “animal” or even “new Hitler” and threaten to overthrow him. After that, declare urbi et orbi that it is “highly likely” that the “new Hitler” will massacre his own people, add a false flag op if needed, and then declare a “coalition of the willing” composed of “friends” of the country you want to occupy who will take action due to the “ineffectiveness of the US”, ditch any thoughts about international law and only speak of “rules-based order“. Check out how Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov explains the meaning of this substitution:

youtube

When you listen to the supporters of Guaido you will always hear them talking about how terrible Maduro is, how horrible the economic situation of Venezuela really is, how corrupt the members of the regime are, etc. etc. etc. This is all a smokescreen. Even the accusation that the last elections were stolen by Maduro is just another smokescreen. Why? Because even if Maduro did steal the election, Guaido did not have the right to declare himself President, Trump had no right to recognize him as such, and the Empire had no business threatening a military intervention or even a violation of the sovereign border of Venezuela under the ridiculous pretext of bringing in humanitarian aid while, at the same time, keeping the country under draconian (and fully illegal) sanctions. The solution to a crisis brought about by a violation of law cannot be a wholesale abandonment of the very core principles of law, but such a solution can only be a restoration of law and order by legal means. Kinda obvious, but so many seem to forget this, that it is worth repeating. And here, I will again post a graphic which really says it all:

Which elections are legitimate and which are not?

The most powerful tools in the arsenal of the Empire are not it’s nuclear forces or its bloated, if generally ineffective, armed forces. The most powerful tool in the Empire’s arsenal is its ability to frame the discussion, to set what is focused upon and what is obfuscated. The Empire’s legacy corporate Ziomedia even dictates what words should or should not be used in a discussion (example: never speak of “illegal aggression” but speak of “humanitarian intervention”).

This is why we must speak of “true sovereignty“, of “international law“, of “constitutional procedures” and of “aggression” and “threat of aggression” as war crimes. We need to continue to demand that basic fundamental principles of civilized societies (such as the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”) be upheld by governments and by the media. We need to deny the rulers of the Empire the right to declare that they have the right to completely ignore the most sacred principles of the post-WWII international order. We need to continue to insist that a just international order can only be a multi-polar one; that a single World Hegemon can never deliver justice and that there shall be no peace if there is no justice. Finally, we need to ceaselessly demand that each country and each nation live according to its own traditions and beliefs and reject the notion that a single political model must, or even can, be applied universally.

These are all principles which the Neocons hate and which they would love to bundle together under a single all encompassing concept, like George Orwell’s “crimethink“. Mostly, the Neocons like to use the “anti-Semite” and “anti-Semitic” to dismiss these principles, and when that fails, then “terrorist” is always available for use. Don’t let them do that: every time they try that trick, immediately denounce it for what it is and continue focusing on what really matters. If we can force the Neocons to deal with these issues we win. It is really that simple.

It is impossible for me to guess how this conflict will play itself out. Will the brazen arrogance of “the Yankees” be enough to seriously red-pill the people of Venezuela and the rest of Latin America? Maybe. My hope and my gut feeling is that it might.

The Saker

#Venezuela

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