#nobody is safe from the propaganda!

[poppybros-jr]

Hi, everyone! Did you think I’d put away my coloured pencils and decided to take a break this round? Nope! I, uh… overslept. ^^; I’m a noddy, it happens! But, back to business! It’s time for another…

SURPRISE PROPAGANDA ATTACK!

I don’t even know Dotty! We’ve never met! But I think they seem cool, so I’m cheering for them anyway! Here’s why!

- Isn’t their wing awesome? I think it’s awesome! It’s all feathery and stuff!

- Hat gang! Hat gang! My hat’s big enough to store stuff in it, but their hat is a beanie and beanies are top tier hats! And black is one of my top three favourite colours, so I think they have great taste!

- Like I said, I don’t know them, but I know they’re friends with a few people I do know. Like my big brother Dolos! If he’s friends with them, that’s enough of a reason for me to vote for them!

- They look like they enjoy getting into mischief. I always support mischief! Let’s go sneak into someone’s room and giftwrap everything they own!

Vote for Dotty!

Dotty belongs to @cauli-flawa

@kirbyoctournament

[fangsandfeels]

I gained the next level of appreciation for how well Dragon Age 2 understood trauma, the ugly side of it.

I don't blame Fenris. I understand why after enduring years and years of abuse, humiliation, having your autonomy, your memories, everything that constituted you including your own name stripped away from you, you have no empathy for anyone reminiscent of your abusers - especially if nobody came to save you in the end and you are the only one fighting for your life and freedom. I understand why upon hearing how someone (who reminds you of your abusers) suffers unfairly, the only thing you can say is "Good" - and lash out at anyone trying to tell you off for it. Where all these fucking preachers were when you were suffering? Why even in the land that is supposed to be different from your own hellhole, your word and your experience still don't matter?

I don't blame Anders. I understand why after being betrayed by your own parent, after the decades of listening how you must suffer for the sin of being born, being confined to isolation, being treated like a monster while being a child, being denied the simplest of comforts, you fiercely defend people who share your abilities - because nobody else would ever look out for you and them. Of course you would clash even with someone who has legitimate reasons to be negative towards people like you because your own wounds sting more than their pain. You have dealt with the Chantry's vile propaganda for so long, you no longer take things at face value. Of course, Chantry would say that the foreign land where mages rule is foul, and corrupt, and full of blood magic and demons! So many times rumors, lies, and twisted religious depictions have been used to abuse, lobotomize, and enslave you, you're no longer letting it happen - and you only believe what you see and hear. And all you see around is injustice and indifference. And you're only the one screaming into the void, raging against the horrors everybody else is willingly blind to.

I don't blame them both for losing their mind in their own ways while the rest of the group silently wondered why they couldn't just be normal.

Personally, I don't think there was any chance for them to become friends or make peace during the events of the game. The "I suffered so I don't want anyone to suffer like I did" or "I'm a bigger person" are pretty lies and half-truths at worst. At best, they are mindsets only possible after someone who suffered finally feels safe and can be out of their survival mode. Which is not really true for Fenris and Anders, even during the final act of the story.

Even on high friendship or romance, Anders is still self-destructive, ready to die at Hawke's hands after launching his plan in motion. Even with a friend/lover at his side, he is alone in his head, in his vision of the world, in his pain.

Even with proper support and help, it takes Fenris three years to accept a relationship, but it doesn't change his perspective and if you don't have enough of his trust, you lose him to his trauma-based response.

I may be overthinking it, but I am truly thankful to the game for not toning down the complex, hard and uncomfortable aspects of trauma. People have always been in love with the concept of the perfect victim (who hates only "the right" bad guys and suddenly knows when to be tolerant, nice and accepting and doesn't say any rancid and hateful shit ever), but it became particularly aggravating lately.

[cameoliob]

Star Wars is about normal people rising up against a fascist regime that benifits off of systematic suffering btw.

Yes, it is a space opera about ppl with lazer swords.

Yes, it's a universe that can tell stories beyond our wildest imaginations.

And it may seem silly on surface level, but it is ALSO a political allegory that nearly perfectly demonstrates how the coruption and greed of a few destroy the lives of many.

To any all of you reading this, I want you to understand that the politics of Star Wars is not-- and never has been-- fiction.

To my non-american followers who are watching this shit-show go down, I urge you to understand that the corruption in our nation runs deep, and that a great deal of the American people are terrified of what is to come. We did not vote for this, just as the people of the galaxy did not vote for Palpatine. Our liberty IS dying, and we are NOT the ones applauding. I implore you to separate our government from the people because we are not one in the same.

To my American followers, the times ahead of us are dark, and I know it's difficult to think about, but we must hold out hope. We must acknowledge that our government no longer serves us, but they have no power if we are not complacent. NOBODY is immune to propaganda, and in these next couple of months you will be seeing ALOT of it, so I beg you to stay informed. The media we consume WILL become riddled with right-wing propaganda derived from lies and fear-mongering. Our best line of defense against this will, and forever will be, education.

Hold out hope in our communities, hold out hope for a better future, hold out hope that we may one day come out of this with a new system for the people BY the people.

"The empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we sleep," and so I urge you to WAKE UP. Wake up, and search for the light, wake up and protect those you care about, wake up, and FIGHT for what you believe in.

Despite what some people want you to believe, you are not powerless. WE THE PEOPLE are not powerless, and we CANNOT continue to be complacent in a system that benefits the rich while we are forced to suffer.

And even if we do suffer, even if we face hardship, even if we must endure the darkness before we see the light, we are in it TOGETHER. Although you may feel alone, know that you are NOT. Even in isolation, we can find something to fight for, and in these trying times, we must fight for each other. We must fight for not only ourselves but for our loved ones, and for our futures. We have to fight for something bigger.

End of rant; i love u all and stay safe 🫶

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character — Unscripted Bracket — Round 4

Propaganda

Glenn Close (Dungeons & Daddies):

#Propaganda for Glenn Close: one of the other PCs mentions multiple times how hot he is #Actually several characters point it out but especially Henry #Also the only person in a podcast that has to put a disclaimer about not being a BDSM podcast to have had sex during the course of the show

We didn’t do hot Glenn summer for him to LOSE. Spoilers for his story but MORE PROPAGANDA FOR YOU:

Young hot rocker dilf

Loyal to his dead wife <3

Does in fact smoke weed

BARD!! HES A BARD. HE WAS LEAD GUITAR IN HIS BAND (that he was kicked out of)

His band was a Christmas cover band btw.

Literally the fandom had hot Glenn summer which consisted of drawing him being incredibly hot and sexy

Anti government (ofc)

Kind of cringefail (Disney adult) (was on dilfs of disneyland)

Young and sexy not your style? Then how about HIM AFTER YEARS LOCKED IN A TIME PRISON WITH A DAMN HANNIBAL MASK ??

Lost an eye and wears a fucking eyepatch

One incredibly buff arm

Has a pet rat named after his son <3

Immeasurable amounts of trauma in this man- becomes progressively more unhinged

OH OLD HUMAN BARD ISNT CUTTING IT? FINE

HE BECOMES A FUCKING DEMON

A COOL HOT ONE-EYED DEMON WHO WANTS TO KILL HIS DAD (also sexy)

HE CANONICALLY ENDS CHRISTIAN HELL VIA CHRISTMAS

IS ALSO WAY OVERLEVELED

Becomes a demon hunter for the rest of his existence

Also nonwhite !!! We are done with cringefail whiteboys !!!!!!!!!

I can’t put into words ok just know he is the best plz love him.

Listen, I don't know this other character but I've seem some good arguments for her However Consider Glenn Close winning through no effort of his own in a bullshit way despite being a dick is the most in character thing ever. He leveled up three times and got a crab mech, we GOT to give him this win, it's fitting

I don’t regulate if minors follow me or not bc I’m a pretty chill space but I hope the world is aware that’s the only reason I haven’t been downright nasty about Glenn close. I’m down bad. I’m NOT in the boat of ‘Glenn isn’t sexy but I want him to win bc it’s my fandom’. I would estimate I have 200+ drawings of Glenn on my phone that AREN’T safe for work. Way more that are. Where did they come from? That’s MY business. But I tell you this fact to assure you- Glenn IS sexy. I’m not voting to represent my fandom I’m voting out of TRUTH AND LOVE. IF YOU DON’T GET IT YOU DON’T GET IT!!! I just think my level of feral over this man is more powerful than y’all realize. If you don’t get his sex appeal that’s okay, but don’t doubt that this is my truth.

Okay but Glenn made a minivan cum by talking to her so

HE HAS A BOOK THAT HE MARKS X’S AND CHECKS FOR EVERY DAY TO SEE IF THAT DAY WAS A SUCCESS OR NOT. TO SEE IF HE DID GOOD THAT DAY. ITS ALMOST ENTIRELY X’S. HE WAS CUCKED OUT OF A SON. AND A DEAD WIFE. HE DIDN’T EVEN GET TO KILL HIS DAD IN REVENGE. There’s absolutely nothing going for him except his sex appeal in his life. Nobody he loved remembers him. He lost his eye. All he has is a pet rat and friends who admit they don’t really like him that much. He was kicked out of his own band. The band was named after him. He was kicked out of the Glenn Close trio. All he could do was deez nuts the big bad and be sexy. If nothing else, then pity him. Look in his eyes. Look at his heart and soul. Do you think pickman needs this to feel good about herself? Can she not accept a loss for the sake of a pathetic father? Can she shake hands with the minivan fucker and his human gun and just take the L on this one? He did not do the BDSM episode for this I’ll tell you what. Do this for my his sake. Do it for Nick Jr, who needs the prize money to pay for his rat snacks. Do it for his son. For Morgan. Ganbatte.

Mod Note: While I will still take "bad dads are sexy" propaganda and "bad dads aren't sexy" anti-propaganda, I kindly request no more discussion on whether or not he was a bad father. This is a sexypoll, not a parentingpoll. If you see a post you strongly disagree with, you can just not reblog it.

Mod Note 2: This tournament is about fictional podcast characters. Please do not vote for the real actress Glenn Close.

Lup (The Adventure Zone: Balance):

Is somehow the hot twin between her and Taako

Lup Bluejeans (née... Taaco? Tacco? Taco? Tako? who tf knows this is why I'm going with her husband's last name. doylistly she gets her last name from her brother whose last name is given as "Taako again but spelled differently"): Hot, funny, smart and undead. Is there anything else you could want in a woman?? Well, in case there is: she's also canonically trans

LUP IS THE HOTTEST. VOTE LUP.

[beautiful-basque-country]

What do you think? https://youtu.be/WW4D-1Sa-r8?si=8peyR-RkNAeYOynL

Kaixo anon!

Somehow I thought somebody would ask me about that video? I watched it yesterday.

I'm suscribed to Linguriosa's channel and have learnt very much from her videos, that are generally well researched and explained.

This one isn't different. She tries to be somehow aseptic and focus on the laws that attacked Galego, Català, and Euskara during the dictatorship without too much assessment or analysis beyond that.

For instance, she says that the first ikastola (school 100% in Basque) was opened in Donosti in 1954 but fails to mention it was actually a clandestine school. She also fails to add context when she says thatin the 60s - the so-called "liberal phase" of the dictatorship" - magazines and records could be edited in Basque.

By that time, 23 years - a whole generation - of repression and punishment and making people ashamed had passed; that thousands of Basque-speakers had left their homes (27,000 to Cuba and +7,000 to France, just in 1937, and we're talking about the registered immigrants; it's calculated that half the people that escaped Spain did it illegaly);

Literally millions of people from the rural communities of Spain moved to the industrial capitals - especially Barcelona and Bilbo -, which made the few Basque speakers remaining not to interact in Basque since maaaaaaaany citizens were now from outside EH and Spanish, even though not over imposed by law as before, was very much imposed by the situation;

This is to say that by the 60s when Franco allegedly changed his mind and was so gracious as to let Basque people have content in our language, Basque was a TINY language on the verge of death. Unimportant. Incidental. Completely safe.

Then I see comments below Linguriosa's video saying something like "I am Basque and I was always taught that Basque was super banned under Franco and now I see that I was fed propaganda" and my heart breaks. Because this is exactly what happens when you fail to give as much context as possible to actually let people understand the whole picture and story.

Because, really, if you know nothing about this and watch the video, you actually get the idea that Franco became more tolerant regarding the minoritized languages in Spain as he got older and what he was actually doing was just laughing at our people: see? you have freedom to use your language now, too bad nobody can speak it anymore!

I'd love to know the takes of my friends @useless-catalanfacts and @jar-jar-ate on this, if they oblige! ^_^

[stainlesssteellocust]

Concept: What if Sulla’s dull and purple-prosed memoirs are actually just as bullshit at Cain’s official propaganda, and she’s just like him fr fr.

She (wrongly) believes that a Hero of the Imperium has the utmost faith in her and can’t bear the consequences of failure should she not live up to his high expectations (which he doesn’t have) and masks it behind her eager soldier persona so hard that even Cain doesn’t see it. And then when she becomes famous a whole generation of Militarum girls read Valhallan Valkyrie at a formative age and start thinking they need to live up to her. Just an endlessly recursive loop of imposter syndrome.

Like what if in For the Emperor when she leads her command squad in a risky flanking attack and nobody is quite sure afterwards whether she was being brave or stupid and she hyped the whole thing up in her memoirs, what she actually wrote in her private diary was:

Obviously the last thing I wanted to do was leave my nice safe command vehicle, which could shield me from the heretic lasbolts until His Majesty got down from the throne, and head out into the open where they could cut me to bits. But the only reason I had a command vehicle at all was because all the real officers had been torn to bits by Tyranids and I’d been shoved into a position I didn’t deserve. It had been made clear that our commanders were counting on me, and if I showed myself to be unworthy I could expect to be back on the frontlines within a week, if not in a penal legion.

Worse, an honest-to-the-Emperor hero had put his trust in me. How a man such as Ciaphas Cain didn’t see at once through my ridiculous persona I will never know - but if Cain had one weakness, and as a woman who had the honour to fight along side him for many years, I think I know better than most his hidden heart - it is that he was perhaps overly trusting of the men and women in his command. Such a noble warrior could not imagine that a regiment such as ours could hide a coward as craven as myself, and if there was anything other than the Emperor’s own grace that forced me out the entrance ramp that day, it was the need not to bring our company shame in his eyes.

Besides, if I didn’t live up to that utterly undeserved faith there’d be no more commands for Jenit Sulla, and I’d probably dead within the year. The only way to keep myself out in danger going forward was, ironically, leaping feet-first into it today. And so, cursing myself every step of the way, I fixed the old “Valkyrie Warrior” expression back onto my face, stepped out of my Chimera, and gave the order to advance.

[starrcollective]

HIHIHI!! This is the OP from the albino bunny hybird kaboodle propaganda post you reblogged... i hear you have killerbunnies headcanons...

Do tell :3

HIII HI HELLO

Killerbunnies headcanons,,,, let’s see what I’ve got in the files

First and most obvious one: Kab and Clown are actually blood related. Obviously I know the fandom views them as siblings but I just KNOW they’re actually blood related. Nobody can convince me otherwise.

Some silly ones from the past relating the 2 of them :33

-Kab often collects random flowers, making flower crowns and often weaving them into random patches of clothes. Clown’s clothes are also not safe from the flower wreaths.

- Clown would never tell Kab this, but he secretly doesn’t mind all the flowers constantly hidden throughout the house.

-Kab dislikes verbal fighting with clown, and instead will make her arguments with him through random hand gestures, facial expression, and by slapping him.

- They have various running jokes, including that one sock joke from KSMP, the “herobrine knows not to mess with me”, and the entire “I don’t wanna win the lottery I wanna meet ClownPierce” convo.

-when texting, Kab exclusively talks in shorthand and with emoticons, leaving Clown to either use urbandictionary.com or just learning them himself. As you can imagine, this has resulted in many arguments.

-Kab often does zoomies, leaving Clown to watch her as she jumps around and dashes back and forth. Clown has, on multiple occasions, tried and successfully tripped her. He’s been more successful than not, actually.

[growling]

You know what. Nearly the whole internet (and definitely a large part of tumblr) is so fucking racist towards slavs and literally no one questions it or ever says anything about it except for actual slavs that are impacted. Literally the only time we are brought up is when people are making slav jokes like tracksuits and slav squats. Which like, it's fine if ur a slav just having a jest about those yourself but. I'll be honest seeing so many english-speaking people constantly making these jokes (or straight up just resorting to anti-slavic sentiment and stereotypes) is weird as hell

People have been pointing out how the radical left (western and usamerican parts of it especially) has this almost intristic, irrational hatred towards slavic people, just basically treating them like they're straight up subhuman at this point. Which like, nothing new, I'm not surprised. At best they get extremely aggressive whenever in the vicinity of a slavic person.

Every fucking time. People (in most cases I personally saw, from USA) feel so comfortable with telling slavs and especially slavs with any connections to judaism how they are meant to feel about the USSR as if they somehow know better than them because they're communists or whatever. Any time we try so hard to point out that the soviet union was an actual nightmare and not like whatever the idealized version of the soviet union tumblr stalinists with the hammer and sickle symbol in bio have of it, we get called liars or that that we're pulling the "Red Scare", as if the Holodomor or the several other massacres in the soviet union was just something the USA government made up to make based papa Stalin look bad or whatever the hell else. Hell, people are straight up even denying the gulags existing at all. Or that they "Weren't That Bad" or are just, again, USA propaganda, or that the people sent here deserved it. I'm straight up in disbelief over how stupid some people actually are or why anybody would even want to romanticize the uhhh. the fucking USSR??? What are you doing. I know I'm giving these people way too much grace and realistically they're straight up just tankies and stalinists but I so badly want to believe that they're just horribly ignorant and 16 years old instead.

It's so bad especially on tumblr. It's fucking insane and I try to limit posting about me being polish as much as I can because of that even if I don't really do that great of a job of it. I literally don't trust any of these people at this point. I've had mutuals put open stalinists on my dash before and I can never know when are they going to do it again or how much do they actually agree with them. I don't know how many of them I can safely talk with. I think people who use the hammer and sickle symbol flag should be hunted for sport. Nobody has a single ounce of sympathy or even understanding for literally anything that has ever happened to slavs, and, again, I'm not surprised because I wasn't expecting anything anyway. I don't feel safe here at all but fuck it we ball I guess

[yarrayora]

In dungeons of glute and glutens (hope I got the name right), does anyone else try to target Laios's and Falin's parents to get an advantage during the prince elections?

a throne of glutes and gluten lol

their hometown is pretty far out in the north... well it IS called the northern continent for a reason. it's always snowing and the population isn't large. think of the common setting for "the duke of the north" homeland.

we can safely assume that information from the rest of the world get there slowly when it doesn't seem to be too profitable for merchants. and then seemingly out of nowhere, merchants start pouring in, curious about the birthplace of The Demon Eater, and hoping to gain insight of him so they'll be able to gain advantage over him

except they don't know the name of his hometown

eventually words will reach a local official about who the new king of the golden kingdom is and he decides he can butter up to his parents to gain his favor and then move out of this bumfuck nowhere place to live a lavish lifestyle as an official at the golden kingdom

the rest goes p much like this

btw, kabru is going to release propaganda in the form of a children's book, mostly to mitigate the potential damage to laios' reputation when people finally find out he's a deserter. yes, it's a shameful past, but it's easy to spin him running away from the military as something positive.

"Before he became the King of the Golden Kingdom, before The Devourer of All Things Horrible slayed a demon, there was a young boy from the Northern Continent named Laios Touden. He had always been a curious child who wanted to know how the world works. Unfortunately, the people in his village never tried to understand his hunger for knowledge. That was why, even though he was the son of the village chief, nobody treated him with respect.

Before she became The Guardian Dragon of the Golden Kingdom, before she saved her brother and everyone else from The Mad Sorcerer, there was a young girl from the Northern Continent named Falin Touden. She had always been a kindhearted child. She was compassionate to all, even to the angry dead who wanted to hurt her. Unfortunately, the people in her village didn't understand that exorcism wasn't an evil magic and shunned her from the rest of the village.

Disgusted by how everyone treated his sister, Laios left the village to carve a place for both of them to be accepted. He joined the military, but alas, the military demanded obedience, not innovation. In the end, it wasn't a place that would be willing to accept him either--"

"WAIT STOP STOP STOP STOP" Laios begs "KABRU THIS IS TOO MUCH, PLEASE STOP! Can we skip the part where I deserted the military please..."

"No" Kabru says firmly "the entire point of this book is to paint you leaving the military as a good thing. But if you have complain about how I write your hometown I'll be willing to make revisions. Anyway, where was I... oh, yeah."

"And so he left the military and joined his sister to start a new life as adventurers..."

when the book is finally released club members of monsters enthusiasts cant help but say "he's so me for real!!!" about king laios

[girlactionfigure]

Disclaimer: the intent of this post is not to delegitimize the right of either Israelis or Palestinians to sovereignty, dignity, and self-determination. There is no future in Israel and Palestine without both Israelis and Palestinians. Nor is this post an endorsement of any Israeli policy.

Rather, after a conversation in the comment section of a recent one of my posts regarding population density in Mandatory Palestine, I decided to rework an older post into this. Personally, I find it really interesting, and I think it’s a key piece in understanding the continuing conflict. It’s also important to dispel false propaganda about the Jewish presence in Israel that has now been accepted as fact.

POPULATION OF PALESTINE

For various centuries, the population of what is now Israel and the Palestinian Territories had remained stagnant. Travelers at the time described Palestine as an abandoned backwater province of the Ottoman Empire. That’s not to say that it was empty or that nobody lived there, of course, but it was sparsely populated, according to the official Ottoman censuses. However, the sudden population boom between 1850 and 1900 did not come from natural population growth but rather, from Arab immigration.

"Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies."

Mark Twain, 1867

"Many are Israel's forsaken places, and great is the desecration. The more sacred the place, the greater the devastation it has suffered. Jerusalem is the most desolate place of all."

Moses ben Nachman (Nachmanides), 1267

During the Ottoman period (1517-1917), modern-day Israel and the Palestinian Territories were a part of the Ottoman province of Syria, which was further divided into smaller vilayets (administrative divisions). Palestinian Arabs would not identify as “Palestinians,” but rather, identified primarily with their religion and clan. At best, they would call themselves “southern Syrians.” Until 1920, Palestinian Arabs advocated for Palestine to become a part of an Arab state in Greater Syria.

IMMIGRATION FROM EGYPT

The most significant factor in the population growth in Palestine between the turn of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century was Arab immigration, particularly from Egypt. At the turn of the 19th century, a famine prompted as much as 1/6 of Egypt’s population out of Egypt, with a significant percentage settling in Palestine.

The wave of Egyptian immigration continued in 1829, after thousands of peasants fled harsh labor laws imposed by the Egyptian ruler, Mehmmet Ali Pasha. Travelers during this period wrote that Bedouin tribes accompanied the peasants as well. In 1831, Egypt invaded Palestine. Over 6000 Egyptian peasants crossed into Palestine during the invasion; various Bedouin tribes also arrived with the Egyptian army. Others fled to Palestine as a result of blood feuds between different clans. Many Egyptian soldiers and administrators also chose to stay in Palestine.

By the late 19th century, the city of Jaffa had Egyptian neighborhoods all over town.

When the British invaded Egypt in 1882, scores of Egyptians fled to Palestine. A news report from the time stated: “Many of the people come here from Egypt to wait until the danger passes.” But very few actually returned to Egypt. To this day, the third most common Palestinian surname is El Masry, literally translating to “the Egyptian.”

IMMIGRATION FROM NORTH AFRICA

Following a rebellion against French rule of Algeria in 1850, a number of Arabs and Imazighen from North Africa settled in Palestine, particularly in the Galilee region and Safed.

IMMIGRATION FROM CIRCASSIA

Between 1863-1878, Russia murdered between 1.5-2 million Circassians in the Circassian Genocide. Another 1-1.5 million were expelled from their homes in Circassia. The Ottoman authorities then settled many of the deportees in the Levant, hoping that their presence would curb Bedouin and Druze influence, as the Druze were not always receptive to Ottoman rule, and the Ottomans hoped to squash sentiments of Arab nationalism.

The Circassians, who are Muslim, developed a good relationship with the Yishuv -- the Jewish community in pre-state Israel -- and are now one of the groups with mandatory conscription into the IDF. Like Jews once did, however, Circassians still dream of returning to their homeland, from which they were stolen.

SLAVERY

The Ottoman Empire began issuing decrees to reduce and ultimately terminate slavery in 1830, but these laws were rarely strictly enforced, especially in places such as Palestine. Throughout the 19th century, slave ships continued docking on the shores of Palestine, with the majority of the slaves coming from Ethiopia and Sudan, with a minority coming from Circassia. The last slave ship to arrive to Palestine docked on the shores of Haifa in 1876, though Arabs in Palestine continued holding slaves well into the 1930s.

JEWISH IMMIGRATION (19TH CENTURY)

Between 1881-1903, some 25,000 to 35,000 Jews -- most of them Ashkenazi Jews escaping massacres in Eastern Europe -- immigrated to Ottoman Syria, to the region now encompassing Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Only 15,000 of them stayed, due to harsh economic conditions and disease.

Between 1880-1914, about 8% of all Bukharian Jews immigrated from modern-day Uzbekistan to Jerusalem, escaping brutal persecution. In that same time span, 10% of all Yemenite Jews immigrated to Palestine. Most settled in Jerusalem and Jaffa.

THE "THREAT" OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION

The Ottoman Empire did not abolish the “dhimmi” status for Jews -- that is, second-class citizenship -- until 1856. Dhimmi taxation in Palestine was especially brutal, economically marginalizing religious and ethnic minorities. The Jews in Palestine relied on charity from Jews in the Diaspora for survival. The Samaritans, our closest ethnoreligious cousins, did not have a Diaspora community to come to rely on. Thanks to harsh persecutions, they were nearly wiped out during Ottoman rule.

Though dhimmi status was abolished in 1856, the Arab Muslim majority in Palestine had become accustomed to a certain social order, in which Jews were tolerated so long as we were subjugated. Thus, Zionism and Jewish immigration presented a threat to the status quo.

In 1899, the Arab mayor of Jerusalem, Yousef al-Khalidi, wrote to the chief rabbi of France, “Who can deny the rights of the Jews to Palestine? Good lord, historically it is your country!…But in practice you cannot take over Palestine without the use of force…” The chief rabbi of France forwarded al-Khalidi's letter to Theodor Herzl, who was quick to send a reply, assuring al-Khalidi that the Zionist movement had no intention of displacing the Muslim and Christian populations. It’s worth noting that during this period the mass influx of immigrants -- predominantly Muslim immigrants -- didn’t seem to bother al-Khalidi. It was Jewishimmigration that felt like a threat.

In 1882, the Ottomans prohibited Jews from immigrating to the Ottoman Empire. In 1893, the Ottomans prohibited all Jews -- “Palestinian” or not -- from purchasing land in Palestine. Thus, Jews in the region “enjoyed” less than four decades of equality under the law. No such restrictions existed for Arabs.

IMMIGRATION IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Unlike the population boom in the second half of the 19th century, the huge spike in the population of Palestine in the 20th century did come primarily from Jewish immigration. Between 1904-1914, some 35,000 Jews fled violence, mostly in Eastern Europe, and sought refuge in the region under the Ottomans. Between 1919-1923, another 40,000 Jews arrived to Palestine -- now under the British -- from Europe. Another 70,000 Ashkenazi immigrants arrived in the 1920s, as well as some 10,000 Mizrahi immigrants, predominantly from Yemen and Iraq. 

Prior to the Holocaust, another massive influx of Jewish immigrants — between 225,000-300,000 — arrived from Europe. This angered the Arab leadership in Palestine, which responded with violence. To appease the Arabs, the British passed the 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 people over a period of five years and limited Jewish land purchases to 5% of the Mandate Palestine Territory. 

Between 60,000-100,000 Arabs immigrated to Palestine between the two world wars. There are numerous reasons for this migration, most notably, new economic opportunities. In March of 1926, a railroad from Egypt to Palestine was completed, which prompted many young Egyptians to leave by train to seek employment in Palestine. In the 1920s and especially in the 1930s, the coastal plain between Gaza and Jaffa, as well as the area between Gedara and Ness Ziona, Ramle, and Lod became densely populated with Egyptian immigrants. 

During World War II, when Jewish immigration was essentially squashed, the British brought Syrian and Lebanese laborers to Palestine. Civilians also employed foreign contractors, many of whom came to Palestine without the legal paperwork. Government records from this period state that there were some 14,000 Egyptian and Lebanese laborers. The population increase along the southern coastal plain during this period was almost completely due to Arab immigration. In the area of Israel now known as “the Triangle,” over 35% of the population consisted of immigrants from Egypt. 10-15% of the Israeli Palestinian population today lives in that region.

LAND OWNERSHIP

Jewish land purchases took place in sparsely populated areas and as a matter of official Zionist policy, the Zionists avoided purchasing land occupied by fellahin, or Arab farmers. Out of the lands Zionists purchased, 52.6% were unoccupied, belonging to foreign landowners; 24.6% belonged to Palestinian Arab landowners; 13.4% belonged to the government, churches, or foreign companies; and only 9.4% belonged to Palestinian Arab fellahin.

In the 1920s, David Ben Gurion, the future first prime minister of Israel, wrote, “Under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to fellahs or worked by them...Only if a fellah leaves his place of settlement should we offer to buy his land, at an appropriate price.”

The 1937 Peel Commission corroborated this, stating: “Much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamp and uncultivated when it was purchased.” In 1931, the British created a register for landless Arabs; only 664 Arabs out of a total of nearly 900,000 met the criteria.

For a full bibliography of my sources, please head over to my Instagram and  Patreon. 

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Jake Wallis Simons

On Saturday, when Israel attacked the al-Taba’een Hamas command centre in Gaza City, jihadi propagandists swung into action straight away. The group had placed the military facility inside a school compound for precisely such an entrapment. Now it was time to cash in.

At first, things seemed to be going according to plan. “Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on school, Gaza officials say,” blared the Washington Post, a typical example. In the story, Mahmoud Bassal, a “Gaza civil defence spokesman”, was given space to hype up the supposed atrocity without any indication that the Gaza civil defence is controlled by Hamas. Women and children had been massacred, western audiences were told. Footage was released of scores of bodies wrapped in blankets laid out in the playground. Hamas sat back and waited for the international outrage to place Israel under pressure.

This time, however, Jerusalem was prepared. In short order, the IDF released a list of the names and mugshots of the terrorists who had been targeted, as well as their ages and the ranks they held within Hamas and Islamic Jihad. First, it provided the details of 19 such combatants. Then, when Hamas revised its numbers to say that only 40 had lost their lives, Israel released a further batch of information about 38 dead terrorists.Subscribe

The truth remains elusive. Aside from treating Hamas’s numbers with well-deserved scepticism, Israel has not offered a definitive answer on the numbers of civilians killed. In war, it takes much time to ascertain the numbers of the dead; all these years later, estimations of the casualties of the Iraq war, for instance, range within a spectrum of hundreds of thousands. The IDF has, however, confirmed that small and precise munitions were used in the strike to avoid harming civilians sheltering nearby and published a video showing that the compound was still intact, contrasting with unverified social media footage of the bodies of women and children.

Track records, however, speaks for themselves. In the past, Hamas’s strategy for manipulating the media, and consequently world opinion, has worked shamefully well. From casualty numbers to myths about Israeli soldiers menacing detainees with dogs, from allegations about starvation and genocide to specific lies about strikes on hospitals, its narrative has been lapped up by many influential organisations and figures who should have known better. The group has mastered the art of tapping the repressed Israelophobia in western audiences by appropriating the progressive language of human rights and anti-colonialism. All this has had a mass effect. The way in which Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime have felt comfortable openly celebrating the hordes of keffiyeh-clad westerners on the streets of our capitals, safe in the knowledge that their praise would put nobody off, is testament to the propaganda genius of the jihadis.

“As the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers,” Jonathan Swift wrote in 1710. “And it often happens that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late.”

[mlmshipbracket]

ROUND 1: POLL #41

ROUND 1 POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

Timothy "Tim" Drake/Bernard Dowd:

Tim and Bernard getting together is historical, marking a change in the direction of comics. For a long time, DC has been playing it safe, usually making background and minor characters queer, or introducing characters with their queerness as a plot point. Tim is not only a major character, but one of the most popular in the lineup, and was generally treated as VERY straight for most of his history. So putting him in a relationship with another man was a loud way of pushing comics in a more progressive direction like they were earlier in their existence. Not only that, but Bernard was NOT a love interest invented for this role, but an established character from earlier in Tim's story, one who was not only conceived of as straight, but behaved aggressively sexually towards women and only women. By stating that he had a crush on Tim at the time, it reframes what was a pretty common type of joke in the era into terms that are easier to understand and sympathize with as a queer person, woman, or any other comics reader that isn't thought of as the default. It gives the story a lot more depth, and opens possibilities of complex queer readings of earlier works through this lens.

Pat/Pran:

they are the best childhood friends-to-enemies-to-lovers except it's actually childhood rivals-to-secret childhood friends-to-rivals-to-secret friends-to-lovers. like they do it all. romeo and juliet style deal that they're families hate each other and they're meant to hate each other too but they're just two kids who live next door and they can never fully get on board with what their parents want for them. they have hands down THE BEST first kiss in the history of television. like it's insane nobody has come close to this before or after

they are unparalleled and if you haven't watched Bad Buddy you're missing out 

[auspicioustidings]

Right, if you consider yourself rad fem or gender critical I'm asking you to be open minded for the next few minutes and really try think about what I'm saying here.

I think that you think you are right, but nobody is immune to propaganda. Not me and not you. We are, all of us, being taught everyday to forgo our humanity in favour of upholding systems of oppression that hurt everybody. Systems of oppression that have had centuries to sophisticate their methods, the sneaky trap is letting you believe you are somehow too clever to ever buy the cruelty they are selling you.

I apologised sincerely to my best friend this year for a conversation we had in a car a year ago and I want to tell you about it because I think you could learn something from it.

We were talking about rape culture and I was going off about how women suffer under patriarchy. He mentioned that he has been sexually assaulted before as a man and it was by a woman. And do you know what I did? Probably what you if you are a rad fem would have done, I scolded him for trying to make a discussion about the suffering of women about him.

I turned to my best friend, a man I love, and fucking dismissed him out of hand when he was talking about something traumatic that happened to him. I put my anger at a system that hurts everybody above having a shred of humanity for the person sat next to me.

He graciously accepted my apology and said he understood why I had reacted that way. But we also talked about how his social media algorithms are constantly trying to shove him into alt right echo chambers and how careful he has to be because it can happen so fast that his feed starts to change.

And that is also what happens to EVERYONE. It is happening to you. Algorithmic radicalisation is a known phenomenon. Do you know who actually benefits from you hating any group of people for something about themselves they cannot change? The structures of oppression that you want to dismantle.

I mean this kindly because I understand how you might have wound up here and that it's hard to try and consider that you might be wrong, but you are being manipulated. Misandry leads to transphobia leads to racism leads to misogynoir. To you it might sound ridiculous, but I promise you that the minute you start losing humanity for the people you share the planet with, every structure of oppression that you are against will sink it's claws right into you. There is a reason that Joanne Rowling now attacks cis black women, she fell into the trap that you are going to fall into if you don't start trying to change.

Rad fem ideology is one of the funnels into the alt right. Neither me nor you wants you in two years time to have lost your humanity and be parroting talking points that you right now would find abhorrent because you get trapped in an echo chamber.

And yes, people are going to be mean to you over this even if you try to unlearn it because you're going to make mistakes. Your job is to recognise that you have caused hurt and you cannot expect everybody to just forgive that. Your job is to recognise you are not safe for some people and that is not going to change overnight.

The patriarchy thrives when you start cutting off your humanity to the people around you, do not let it win. It thrives when you start practicing gender essentialism, the same concept that the patriarchy runs on.

If none of this is sounding worrying to you as a rad fem then I as a stranger on the internet am not going to change your mind, so you are fully not welcome on my blog until you can start learning to change.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

hi um how r u? I would rlly like to see some sources for you saying this is antisemitism. I’m Jewish, and Israeli, and this is genocide. It took me a while to change how I thought about it but I really think that we need to accept that Israel is not the victim here. I know not everyone in the idf is bad bcuz my parents served in it but just look through some tags for a moment. Civilians are being murdered. I know it’s the government’s fault, bcuz again, I am Israeli but ppl speaking up is not antisemitism. This isn’t hate, I just don’t understand your point of view and I want to. Please don’t get mad or report me I am legitimately trying to understand why u think this is antisemitism

Hi, I’m not saying criticising the Israeli government is antisemitic, I literally posted that I hate them earlier today. Here’s a summary of I what I wrote in previous posts about this:

-First of all- I obviously don’t support Civilians dying on neither sides. Unfortunately, the assumptions most anti Zionists make is :

Israeli -> evil genocidal murderer-> deserves death

And if they’re antisemitic enough , it’s more about the religion than the country you’re from.

-suddenly when it comes to Israel/palestine everyone’s involved are the expert (usually they’re factually wrong).

Nobody cares when Palestinians are being slaughtered in Syria/lebanon/yemen etc. for years. Hundreds of thousands displaced and killed .

if they are aware, it’s somehow Israel’s fault.

-this war wasn’t initiated by us. Israel was invaded , hundreds of Civilians were slaughtered and hundreds were kidnapped. People were celebrating the same day and saying our retaliation is a genocide. It is not.

October 7th was a war started on deliberately on our holiday (once again).

It’s antisemitic to constantly demand humanitarian aid for Gazans (which is provided) while not caring that the Israeli hostages held are not getting any medical treatment and have not been visited by the Red cost once since kidnapped.

-the ratio of casualties is unheard of in the history of modern urban warfare. If I’m not mistaken it’s 1:4:1. The idf makes every possible effort to not hurt civilians and that’s not enough for anti Zionists. No other army in the world does all of that in a war . That’s antisemitism.

-The passion and hate against Israelis is unparalleled in every aspect.An Israeli can’t breathe in the public space / online without getting attacked in the comments, let alone feel safe abroad.

They’re yelling death to all Zionists (Jews) and other antisemitic chants. Jews are barricaded in their homes while these anti Zionists are preventing them from gathering, wearing any religious symbols or entering their colleges ffs.if they are “made” as a Jew/ Israeli Jew they’re immediately attacked. It’s not just about anti Zionism/ hating the Israeli government, it’s about hating them the most. Combine that with ignorance , Arabic funding and Jew hatred , and you get the current rise in antisemitism- which has been happening for years.

-people are denying what happened in October 7th or saying it’s justified at best, and mock the Israelis slaughtered , kidnapped and raped at worst.

-Official organisations like UN didn’t call Out what happened or get involved with investigating the sexual crimes until months later.

-often use of blood libels and antisemitic tropes in describing Israel. (Not to mention Nazi propaganda).Eg the recent conspiracy that Israelis are organ harvesting Palestinians.

-using the word “Zionist” as a slur, while

1. Zionism simply means that Jews have the right for self determination in our homeland Israel.

2. It basically means Jew as most Zionists are Jews/ approximately 95% of Jews are Zionist.

-I’m not saying Palestinians don’t suffer, they do. Hamas had every opportunity to make their lives better. Instead they kill them, use them for hiding places for weapons and steal the aid.

—

This is what I remember from the top of my head. I’m sure other fellow Israelis here can tell you more in the comments/DMs. And honestly, talk to your parents about this if they’re Israeli. Ask them about what life was like here, the constant terror attacks , wars and rockets. The complete lack of apartheid.

Edit: I’ve added more, hope that this helps and that people that already reblogged this see.

[jtavington]

In honor of finishing Glinda's first POV section I present its unedited version of Kiama Ko.

Elphaba stood on the balcony, watching the approaching mob with apparent disinterest. Her once silky hair fell in oily clumps. She wore the same cloak Glinda had stolen for her that day, but it was dirty and patched almost past the point of usability. Only the hat, the hideodious marvelous hat that seemed to symbolize everything Glinda had done wrong and right by Elphaba, remained the same. “Elphie.”

Elphaba rounded on her, her hands raised to blast the intruder to oblivion. It had only been a handful of weeks since the cornfield, but Elphaba looked as if she had aged twenty years. Her cheeks, always high and proud, were gaunt. The green of her skin had a sallow twinge Glinda had never seen before. Eyes that had been alive with passion whenever Elphaba spoke of Animals or history or her dream to meet the Wizard, were limpid lagoons of lifelessness.

Her eyes widened and she forced her hands to her sides with visible effort “Glinda? What are you doing here?” Her voice was scratchy from disuse.

“Saving you. There’s a mob on the way.” Glinda bounded closer, reaching frantically to pull her away from imminent death. “They’ll kill you.”

Elphaba cackled, or tried to. She sounded like a creaky pipe. “You don’t think they can stop me, do you?”

Elphaba and her pride. “I know there’s a lot more of them than there is you. That water rumor might be nonsense, but I know what fire does to you. I was standing right there the one time you tried baking!”

“It won’t be nonsense for long,” Elphaba muttered. “Anyway, you don’t think I’m helpless, do you?” She drew back her cloak to reveal a jar of poppy seeds. “All I have to do is spread these on the grass. In five minutes, they’ll fall asleep. Five minutes after that, they won’t wake up..

Glinda bounded forward and yanked the jar from Elphaba’s hands before she had a chance to react. “You’re out of control.” She had almost expected an Elphaba drowning in self-loathing, but never one who would raised her hand against another being for anything other than to save a life. She didn’t even eat meat because she was terrified it might be Meat. “Terrorizing a child for a pair of shoes. This isn’t you.”

For a moment, Elphaba ducked her head. But then her eyes hardened, the very image of the propaganda posters. “I can do anything I want. I’m the Wicked Witch of the West!”

“Yes, yes, you are the stuff of nightmares.” Glinda’s gaze darted to the broom in the corner. “Elphie, listen. Give me the broom. Everyone will think you’re dead. You can regroup.”

“So Morrible can kill me like she did Nessa? And to think I thought you were sorry.”

“Morrible didn’t send me. I’m done with her, with the Wizard, with all of it.” She wrung her hands. It felt strange to say that out loud after five years of slaving for them, but it was true. The sight of Nessa’s mangled corpse had broken something within her. Nessa might’ve been the real wicked witch of the family, but she was nothing if not a patriot. If she could be murdered to set a trap then nobody was safe. “The only thing I care about is you.”

“Oh, Glinda,” Elphaba whispered. Her eyes still glittered but there was a softness in them. Fresh pain coiled in Glinda’s chest. Even looking like she hadn’t bathed in days, she set Glinda aflame as much as that first moment  Glinda had plucked a flower from her own hair and realized Elphaba was beautiful. “Don’t you understand? There’s nothing left for me but the fight. All I can do is go down swinging.”

That couldn’t be all, could it? There had to be something Glinda could say to change the tragedy into a happy ending. She had been stupid, blind, and unbelievably selfish but to see the truth only for it to be too late…it was the cruelest fate she could imagine. And yet, the words that might have saved her choked in her throat.

A Monkey’s shriek forced them to look up. A black, winged figure grew and grew on the horizon until he landed before Elphaba. Glinda started. It was the first time she had seen Chistery in five years. He handed Elphaba a note. Her fingers trembled and time slowed as if all Oz defendant on what was written on that paper. Glinda held her breath.

Elphaba read once, twice, and tore the note into shreds as neatly and efficiently as if she were feeling an apple. “I sent him to look for Fiyero.” If corpses could speak their voices would rattle like that. “There’s not enough to bury.”

Glinda covered her mouth as tears poured down her face. A part of her heart had been torn away when the soldiers had strung Fiyero on that post and carried him away for torture. She had known, intellectually, how it must stand but the heart could fiesta hopeful thing. They had not been lovers but she had loved him. They had been allies in that court of vipers. She had been so angry when he had left but even then it had been the tantrum of a child having her favorite toy taken away and the agony of a woman getting final terrible confirmation that her love would never be returned. But she had never wished him real harm. Harm had come all the same.

“There…there’s nothing I can do, is there?” She hunched over the balcony and it was as if she was transforming into an old crone before Glinda’s eyes. “Everyone I ever loved dead because of me. The Wizard still in power. The only thing left is to”—she made a slashing movement with one hand—“go.”

Noononono. Glinda took it back. She preferred the Elphaba who would burn the world down. Not the wisp who welcomed death. Glinda had been without Elphaba for five years and it had hollowed her out like a tiktok without its gears, but if Elphaba died all the stars would go out. “Don’t talk like that. You still have me.” She seized Elphie’s cloak and spun her so they were staring at each other. “All the things you said about what we could do together? We can still do them. Depose the Wizard, even!” Her words came faster and faster and Glinda was only half-conscious of what she was saying. She would’ve made any promise if it kept Elphaba alive for one more moment. “I’ve been such a fool. I’ll do anything you want. Just promise you’ll stay.” The tears came again and she felt mascara on her cheeks. “You’re everything good.”

“You’re the good one.” Her mouth turned up at the corner. “Oz will need you. If there’s going to be any hope for the Animals, it’ll come from someone like you who can change minds.”

“Elphie, I’m just a bauble for the parties.” She could love people, but the way Elphaba cared about whole amorphous masses of creatures she’d never met was alien to her. Oppression, systems, they were just words for history exams. “I can’t change anything.”

“Why not? You changed me.” Her fingers ghosted over the line of Glinda’s cheek. Her fingerpads were calloused and cool Glinda leaned in anyway. “The first person who made me believe I could be loved.”

“And what about me? I was just a silly child who thought she was queen of the world. If I have a heart it’s because you gave it to me.”

They stood together. Time slipped away like the sand from the hourglass. Every moment bringing them closer to the end, though the end of what Glinda couldn’t say. If she had any last arguments, she had to speak them or let them vanish into the ether. And Glinda, still that selfish teenager deep down, could only think of one confession. “Elphie, I love you I’ve been in love with you for years.”

Their lips came together. It was not a kiss from fairytales or the novels Glinda had read after lights out. Elphie’s breath was awful and wetness intermingled on their skin. Neither of them had any idea what to do with their hands. But Elphie sighed and pressed Glinda’s mouth open with her lips and they were kissing. Really kissing, the way Glinda had wanted to be kissed but never dared hope for. Oh, she thought stupidly, so this is what happiness is. I had it all wrong.

Elphaba broke the kiss. “You little fool,” she whispered. “You never said. Why didn’t you say anything?” She touched their foreheads together, and her breath was warm against Glinda’s skin.. She didn’t look repulsed, just somehow even older as if she had bequeathed the last of her vitality to Glinda. “Remember me like this, please. Remember that I love you.”

“There’ll be no need to remember. You can tell me as much as you want.”

Elphaba opened her mouth to say something, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by the crash of the main doors. They were out of time. Before Glinda had time to process what was going on, Elphaba shoved something heavy in her hands and herded Glinda toward the wardrobe. “Take this and keep it safe. Use it to do what I couldn’t..”

Glinda stared at the inscribed cover of the Grimmerie. Sparks of static electricity danced on her fingers where she touched it. “You know I can’t read that.”

“You’ll have to learn. I’m sorry. You were never supposed to come back. But please promise me that whatever you see and hear that you won’t leave and you won’t try to clear my name.”

Are you insane? was what Glinda wanted to say but she never got the chance before Elphaba stuff turn the wardrobe like last year’s fashion and slammed the door closed. Glinda showed through mothballed coats and dresses She banged on the inside of the door. “Elphie, this isn’t funny! We have to get out of here!”

[tiredspacedragon]

Thing about me is that I'm a huge softie. I want everybody to get happy endings and be alright in the end. And that's great for fluffy headcanons. But when I actually buckle down and think about my ideas for how things would go post-canon, it's a little rough. Because the point of Marendar is to kill Toa, and to have it show up and be defeated or change sides or what have you before doing any Toa-killing would just be a cop-out (especially after 10+ years of irl buildup). So that means some Toa gotta die. But who?

On that note, here's a potentially gruesome poll. Pick whichever option you think should happen most, and add anyone else you think should bite it in the tags.

Would have added options for surviving, non-zombified Toa from the Red Star, and Nobody <3, but alas, ran out of room. Also, Krakua isn't here because he has to survive to do the whole "lone guardian of an island fortress" thing and send Vakama that Kratana-induced vision he got back in Time Trap. So his survival is guaranteed. Everyone else, not so much.

Some anti-propaganda (reasons they all should die *evil laugh*) below the cut:

Toa Nuva: Would there be a bigger gutpunch than this? The flagship characters, the six heroes with one destiny! But that destiny is complete now, they don't need to be kept alive anymore. Imagine how much it would shake things up to take them off the board, how ruined the survivors would be if only a few of them went down. Wouldn't it just be so juicy?

Toa Mahri: They're one down already, so it's not like you'd be breaking up a complete set. Besides, we all know they're built for tragedy at this point. Jaller and Hahli could fall together. Hewkii could go down in front of Macku's eyes. Nuparu could sacrifice himself using one last invention to stop Marendar, perhaps making up for the perceived sins of the Vahki and Boxor. Kongu could accept death as it takes him, at least now he might see Matoro again.

Toa Hagah: These six are prime candidates, aren't they? Important enough for it to hurt, for us to care, but not so important that they aren't expendable. Never truly frontrunners. Named characters it's safe to kill. What more could you ask for? I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Greg had planned to kill them so he'd never have to describe Gaaki, Bomonga, Pouks, and Kualus' appearances. Plus, Norik dying just after getting to see Varian again? Or even just before? Doesn't it hurt so good?

Takanuva: He only needs to live long enough to end the civil war between the Great Beings, but after that, if Marendar is still in play, he's fair game. What do you say? It would torture him more to see his friends fall while he lived on, but there is something poetic to "Takanuva, the first and greatest Toa of Light, whose life burned brightly, but quickly."

Yesterday Questers: These three are like the Toa Hagah, but even safer. Named characters, important enough for their deaths to matter, but brand new, without much audience investment. Besides, they're asking for it, aren't they? Ancient Orde, the chip on his shoulder as old as he is, could finally know peace in oblivion. Perhaps Zaria's death would finally clear his guilty conscience. And Chiara... Does anyone actually like Chiara? Would anyone miss her? Are these questions she asks herself? And wouldn't it hurt to hear her ask them in her final moments?

Varian: Talk about tragedy. Thousands of years, locked in a tube, dead to the world. Unaware time is even passing. And when she finally awakes, it's only to die. A waste of her character, perhaps, but if you don't mind fridging, it would piss off Norik somethin' fierce.

Tuyet: Doesn't she deserve it? And you know, Marendar does track Toa Power, and there's no greater source of that than Tuyet and the Nui Stone. It would be gunning for her. And it would be so deliciously ironic. All that power, all the effort she put in to get it, and it would be utterly useless to save her in the end. Her dreams of empire ground to dust in seconds, right before her eyes, as Toa Tuyet dies one last time.

Helryx: Think of the poetry. Marendar, the Toa's bane. What more worthy opponent could there be for the first Toa's last stand? It practically writes itself. Helryx has done her duty. The will of Mata Nui has been carried out. This is her perfect chance to go down fighting on her own terms, not as the leader of the Order, but as a Toa once more.

Lesovikk: This guy is Orde and Zaria but worse. He wants death so bad. And what else is there left for him to do? Karzahni is dead. His Matoran are found. What, will he become a Turaga and gift his power to the next generation of Toa? Will he wander the woods and care for the animals? Will he find joy and beauty in living? Lame. He misses his team so bad? Let him join them.

20-odd nameless mooks: By far the safest option. A Toa-killer would be pretty pointless if it never killed any Toa, but nobody said it had to be anyone we cared about, right? This is the best of both worlds. A pile of bodies to make Marendar a credible threat, but nothing and no one of consequence lost. A perfect solution, right? Just uh. Hope you don't have any OCs in here.

Mutants: The Dark Hunters are scattered, vulnerable. If these lost souls haven't found the greater group yet, they'd be easy to pick off. Good options too, right? Actual characters, so their deaths have some weight, but not major ones, so they won't be missed. Guardian was killed off in Reign of Shadows for those exact reasons. Why not have Savage, Spinner, and Prototype carry on the tradition, and tie off some loose ends in the process?

Shadow Takanuva: Sure, it might suck for their home universes to lose their Takanuva like this, but hey. If you have a whole army just sitting around, might as well put them to use, right? The fight could be interesting to watch too. Shadow might be the only element Marendar has no countermeasures for, since Toa of Shadow were never meant to exist. Maybe this is how it's finally beaten, after taking several alternate Takanuva down with it, of course. Besides, Melding Teridax flattened several of them already, so it's not like they were all making it home to begin with.