#master of malicious compliance. my hero.

[commsroom]

On the station they have many absurd protocols. What do you think is his least favorite. ? Like having to be in uniform or the hours? Just in general

oh, how could he ever choose? eiffel hates protocol as a matter of... well, protocol. uniform code was for sure one of the first things minkowski gave up trying to enforce; eiffel technically wears his uniform, but getting him to wear it properly was always a losing battle. he's never been a morning person, and having to get up early in the morning when there aren't even mornings is just insulting. there's all the repetitive daily tasks that will have to be done again tomorrow. never actually leaving work (and not being able to) really gets under his skin. there are so, so many things that he finds arbitrary, authoritarian, pointless, infuriating, and just plain wrong, but if there's one thing he hates the most, it's gotta be corporate-mandated fun. like, it's one thing to make his life a living hell, but it's a whole other thing to tell him he needs to boost morale about it.

[themthistles]

via @mogcrow

First of all thank you. Nothing better than a wall of thoughtful interesting tags on your post.

Secondly, completely agree on the Society's shady past. They've proven themselves again and again as 1. hypocrites 2. capable of revising history when it's convenient. Actually one of my main theories is that the Courage Square Massacre wasn't this valiant defense of Nevermoor by noble heroes against the Evil Squall but rather a big Wundersmith inflighting caused by Wunsoc themselves. Perhaps by an order so messed up that some of the Smiths chose their conscience over 'loyalty' to the Society. Here are my reasons:

1. Sofia said herself that it's hard to know exactly what happened. It just seems really suspicious that instead of boosting the narrative of 'heroic Wundersmiths standing up to the evil one' they decided to purge all mention of them and turn the 'heroes' of CSM into these faceless good guys. However if the real events were to reveal the Society's involvement and the exact reason the fight occured then it seems like a reasonable thing to do. Infuriating but reasonable. You know it's like when people in movies set a car with evidence on fire. Much easier to control the narrative this way. What happened before it was on fire? Well we changed the story two times already but this third one is definitely the whole truth, we promise.

2. Look, no matter how talanted Squall is... you're telling me that they couldn't beat him? 8 against 1? Also sure he's very skilled now but at the time of the fight he was what? Twenty six? And the majority of the others were his seniors with much more experience. In fact 6/8 were his teachers. Griselda especially was this 'great' 'venerable' ancient master, 'more skilled than any of the others'. Morrigan and Squall's words. All this sounds very....eh? It would be a different story if the odds were a little more even. 4 against 5 or at least 3 against 6. (My bet is that at least Mathilde Lachance was on Squall's side)

3. Squall's hatered of the Society and him telling Morrigan that thing about them 'flipping the script' when it's convenient for them. If Wunsoc hypothetically gave a divisive order and Squall hypothetically stood by them and did their dirty work and they made him the scapegoat anyways then of course he's gonna be bitter and hateful. Squall keeps emphasising Wundersmiths as those who have no choice but to do what people in power tell them to do, granting their wishes. The way Wundersmiths were probably viewed and treated in the past is best summed up by his own words in Hollowpox:

‘Because I could. And because I had to. Because I am a Wundersmith, and that is what we do. We say yes. We do the ghastly things that are asked of us by people in power, and we do the good things, and we take none of the credit and all of the blame. It’s what we do.’

I don't think he's trying to make excuses for his actions. I think that was genuinely the attitude towards Wundersmiths at the time. You had to do what was asked of you. You could get funky with it like king of malicious compliance Odbuoy Jemmity but you HAD to do it. And that's very um concerning.

Also still thinking about this exchange between Morrigan and Squall:

‘What an awful thought, that I might be asked to help people. How truly terrible.’

‘You have no idea.’

Moving on.

Wow. I completely forgot about the signatures. Elders being hypocrites as usual and doing exactly what their behated Squall does? And being even less merciful than him cause grandpa at least lets them live until next Eventide? (the bar is so low) I agree. I too am obsessed with this.

And love the idea about the League of Explorers. Considering how proud they are of being the 'Free State' it would be extremely ironic if they are absolutely no better than the Republic in terms of colonisation. We don't know much about the concept of Pockets and how they're formed but like.... imagining the League coming in like 'Hi hello. We come in peace or whatever. Would you like to join our State?' and the locals willingly agreeing is a bit laughable.

questionable actions of wundrous society just keep escalating so rapidly that i wouldn't be surprised if by book five we learn that the elders also did some war crimes or something