#not that self preservation should be the reason you have compassion for others but like…

[paverics]

people who used to watch lesbian youtubers as a teen…how did you feel when you found out arielle scarcella is now a racist, transphobic republican

[extremely-judgemental]

Elain is not a sweet little lady as the books say. She is selfish and self-preserving.

Feyre sees Elain as someone naive who can’t seem to grasp their reality and constantly needs to be taken care of. Nesta on the other hand sees her as an innocent soul who needs to be protected. Throughout the series, every character treats her the same way. Someone too pure. Though she appears in only handful of scenes, there’s some obvious contradiction in who she’s perceived to be and who she is.

Of the three sisters, Elain is the only one with the most choices in life, time, compassion and space to heal. Yet she wears the same mask she picked as a child. Being stuck between two head strong sisters, it’s understandable she chooses to play the pacifier in the family. But she never grows out of it.

Despite what’s stated often, she is not naive or ignorant. The way she speaks about her heightened senses and the questions she poses to Lucien imply that well. Now, this becomes a glaring issue when someone who’s so conscious and has such depth in her thinking lacks a general regard for people around her when it matters. After turning into fae, she spends most of her time in her own bubble. Though it’s unfair to set a time frame for healing or expect a specific reaction given her trauma, there are moments that stand out which makes her character questionable.

It is a known fact that a war is looming. Elain, like Nesta, has no obligation to offer her help but her sisters are right in the middle of it and she barely cares about either of them. After the battle in Adriatta, Feyre and Rhysand return covered in dirt. Even if no one told Elain of the events, when they find her in the kitchen, she doesn’t seem to show any concern at their state.

After returning from Graysen’s estate, she again goes back to being a shell. But what is outrageous is that she’s right outside of a battlefield. Elain hates violence and choosing not to witness it on top of being heartbroken is reasonable. But she doesn’t check on her sisters once. She knows Feyre went looking for Suriel and she doesn't wonder about her return. Nesta helps the wounded the entire day, and Elain doesn't bother with her either. After seeing these, it is hard to tell if she suggested to ask Graysen’s help because she truly cared for others or if it was only an excuse to meet with him. The latter seems more in line with her actions.

For winter solstice, she gets presents for Feyre/Nesta/the twins, and even Azriel. She lives in Rhys’s—not even her sister’s—house ever since she’s turned. She contributes nothing to the court or the family. Though she has no obligation, a kind and thoughtful lady would have gotten Rhys something out of courtesy, not to mention unlike Nesta she was on good terms with him.

Elain takes months(someone who knows the timeline well, help me out here) to come to terms with her death, turning into fae, her engagement's end, her father's death while Nesta ensured everyone backed away from her. But after the war, she doesn’t reciprocate the same kindness and space for Nesta to deal with her misery. Nesta’s outburst is taken to an unidealistic proportion when it was completely natural. Having grown up together and been the closest to her all their lives, Elain should have understood her sister’s anger and trauma better than anyone else. She should have been the one who knows how to comfort Nesta. Yet, she pushes Nesta more when she is at her lowest.

Even when the IC and Feyre corner and oppress Nesta, she agrees with them instead of defending the one person who was always there for her. She doesn’t even face Nesta before she’s sent to HoW but later forces a visit. Given Nesta is forced to live alone with a guy she wants nothing to do with, Elain is almost inhumane with her ‘You shouldn’t be so miserable’ remark. Elain hides behind Nesta almost all her life though she says she wants to be seen. When she has the chance to do that, and be there for her sister, she turns her back on Nesta the moment she stops being her pillar.

It was after their first fight that everyone declared Nesta was a lost cause. It was after Elain’s leave from HoW that again made everyone see Nesta as a villain. Not once does Elain stand up for her sister. When Nesta tries to protect her from more trauma, understandably so considering how she reacted ever since they turned, Elain gets angry that Nesta was making a decision for her, but not at IC who went to Nesta after she agreed to help them. Elain’s argument instantly seals in the idea that Nesta has been controlling her when it isn’t true.

Elain is neither expected nor does she try to make up for Feyre’s childhood like Nesta does (they were all children and it’s wrong to judge what they did to survive but her decision isn’t lorded over her every time she breathes, she faces no repercussion, and she seems to be completely satisfied with it). None of her actions are ever taken in the wrong light or even questioned.

Elain is polite, not kind. She is docile, not sweet. She doesn’t lack a sense of maturity or intelligence as Feyre perceives her, but lacks general concern and empathy for people.

Despite all this, there are little glimpses of who she could be. The time she helped their servants get to safety, when she helped the human girl escape with them from Hybern’s camp, when she bought paints for Feyre and chisel for their father.

I don’t want Elain to go to wars. I don’t want her to go on hunt for hidden treasures. I don’t want her to become a mastermind fixing courts. What I want Elain is to be truly kind to people around her, not only the ones who serve her best or when it’s suits her. I want her to support and fight for her loved ones. I want her to lose the mask she had to wear as a child and become more of who she really is. I want her to heal properly.

Most of it is failure to portray Elain as a character of her own rather than a tool to put Feyre on the spotlight, but they still hold value. A mere overlook once in awhile is one thing but these are recurring themes in her portrayal. And I’m afraid all of this will be ignored and SJM will continue to slap the ‘kind’ label on Elain, piggyback on the idea she already drilled onto the readers instead of showing her true kindness other than her repulsion towards violence.

[wheneclipsefalls]

i now got a ton more questions for the little gift reader, was she a scientist? a soldier? what about reader made netayem fall for her? what happened to jake and neytiri? are they alive still? what about his sisters? does netayem see reader as his mate or just a pet? is anyone against netayem holding reader hostage?!!!! does he want kids with reader in the future? does he even let reader take a bath? i know she stinks after being held hostage by him for a few days. so many questions!!!

So sorry this took me a while to come back to and respond. Love that you are so curious about the little details<3 Can't promise I will answer all the questions but here are some tid bits of info to help.

-She is not a scientist but more so involved with helping in the tech realm. Nothing super high up, just some traditional IT

-Neteyam was captivated by reader the moment he saw her on accident during her little nature walks. He loved the way she seemed so delighted by every simple wonder she could find in the forest. He never planned to fall for her but constantly found himself coming back to watch every day at the same time. Of course someone had to keep her from getting eaten, or at least that is what he told himself at first. When fascination grew into obsession he couldn't ignore the truth any longer. She was meant to be his. Surely her love for Pandora's forest and her kind nature could only mean she was created by Eywa herself. And what other reason would the Great Mother have to create such a beautiful creature to cross his path if not to serve the Omatikaya Olo'eyktan? After all, he deserves a reward after sacrificing so much.

-The clan members know better than to go against their Olo'eyktan, especially with the way he fawns over reader. Some view his possession of reader as mercy for a Sky Demon while others that disagree have enough self preservation to not interfere. Besides, Neteyam is extraodinary at telling the story from his perspective, of how he saved a poor fragile human from the grips of the RDA's metal cage. He should be praised for having such compassion on a creature like you.

-Reader has had more baths in the past week than she cares for. It wouldn't be such an issue if it weren't for the way Neteyam insists on you bating together in the hot springs. No matter the argument you have tried to put up, Neteyam has always claimed that it would be negligent of him to not watch over his fragile pet as she bathes. And even more unpleasent to beseech your requests to skip it all togethr when he begins trying to strip you down. He prefers his little gift to be clean and soft for him. Maybe even sneak in the same cleansing soaps he uses so his scent embeds itself even deeper in your soft skin. He can't have any confusion on his claim after all.

[fumifooms]

The core of Fullmetal Alchemist: All is one and Dwarf in the flask

Dwarf in a bottle is in my top 5 favorite FMA characters. No, not Father, that emotionless bland white bread empty husk, Dwarf, the whole. The sort of ball of void, the existential anomaly, so inhumanely human full with sins and individuality.

Fullmetal Alchemist is about willpower. About determination, about pursuing your goals without relenting. It is also about humility and about knowledge.

That is reflected in both the protagonist and the villain, though it is a theme common in most characters.  Both Edward and Dwarf in a bottle pursue their goals with great determination and will. Then, what is good with the manner of one and wrong with the other’s?

I believe a lot of it is about the very concept Dwarf symbolizes. Dwarf in the flask is artificiality.

An alchemy-made life. An artificial family. An artificial pursuit of knowledge and power, without caring about the journey of self-betterment that comes along with it, without caring to understand alchemy and its place in the world. Not only an artifical physical being, but also artificial emotionally; ripping apart his feelings and personality traits deemed negative to make himself into a “superior” being.

I think it’s also worth noting that yes, purging sins out of himself makes him lose those traits, even feelings. Then, if not greed, if not it all, what is pushing Father to pursue power? Greed said it himself: greed isn’t inherently bad, it’s the act of wanting. Father isn’t spiraling into a mad passion for alchemy, a pursuit of knowledge for innovation, or anything, he pursued his plan because he went through the motions, simply. As his feelings left him, all that stayed was the conviction without reasoning that since it was his plan before, he should see it to the end. Or perhaps it’s the course of action he logically came to. Perhaps alchemical enlightenment was deemed the obvious ultimate goal to have, without being interested in why it is or why it should be. Regardless, he lacks the passion and emotional intelligence to actually see the value in what he is doing, in alchemy, and ultimately that is what is punished.

I want to do a full dissection of the whole homunculus family, but I’m going to touch on some aspects of it here because it’s such an interesting topic to me. Disregarding Lust’s claim that homunculi are all individuals with a full range of emotions for a moment, I want to analyze what their traits mean in the angle that they fundamentally formed a whole all together as Father, or Dwarf in the flask.  The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to his family members is Gluttony. The homunculus that is shown to be the most attached to relationships, in general, is Greed. Greed and Gluttony are then the homunculi, the traits, that care about people the most. And that makes sense, no? You don’t want to lose things you care about, you want to bathe in their love and their presence, and you want to keep having them for as long as you want, greed and gluttony aren’t unsimilar. Greed is interested in friendship and having companions, in possessing people’s hearts and loyalties, in making new connections and bonding with new faces. Gluttony is more interested in getting more of what he already has, more love in that way he already likes by the person he already loves, like wanting more of the familiar taste of its favorite meal. Other similar traits are pride and envy, the traits that affect your self-image. The feeling that you are remarkable and great and the feeling of wanting what others have or are, valuing yourself vs comparing yourself to others. By detaching parts of a whole, things get lost; Pride feels wholly superior but is ready to do anything to preserve himself including lowering himself to inferior beings going against his own code, while Envy only covers up his self-hatred and jealousy but would rather end himself before accepting to sully himself with the compassion of someone he looks down upon. Pride makes one value self-preservation, while envy is self-destructive by nature, perhaps. It is interesting that both feel prideful, yet Pride doesn’t reflect the fact that as part of a whole it also felt shame and low self-esteem, otherized, and Envy doesn’t reflect that Dwarf actually feels pride over traits they possess, as well. The truth is that these things coexisted in the one being that was Dwarf. Fragmented as they are, they only tell an uncomplete and incoherent story, like a puzzle. It’s ironic that maybe together, all these sins balance each other out to become healthier, less dysfunctional. Like a family, they can offer counterbalance to a trait when it becomes too central to the individual, offer support through their grounding presence. Someone slothful may feel unmotivated without greed to give them goals, pride without envy will make you stop striving to better yourself and envy without pride will give you self-loathing.

An analysis of Dwarf isn’t complicated to do: it was a being brought about by scholars and complex alchemy, enslaved, and it wished to get the power to free itself and become an individual equal/superior to everyone else. Unable to become physically and fundamentally human, he attempted to become a proxy, close enough to it; making a family, gaining a human form, etc. It ultimately wished to pursue superiority through alchemical power and knowledge when he found the result lacking, when it still didn’t feel human, couldn’t connect with others, still felt fundamentally different, like his place in the universe was somewhere else, like striving for that higher calling would solve it. Blinded by lust to find belonging, wether it be in a place or in a role, it pushed itself to extremes of alchemy in the hope it will all make sense once he gets there. Ultimately futile, as he will end up feeling betrayed and abandoned by Truth itself, not able to rise up to its own expectations once more: because there’s no magic able to make one feel whole. He seeked to sculpt himself into a perfect being, one that could be anything and do anything, one that couldn’t be reproached, if not by humans, then the world itself would confirm and showcase his objective superiority for all to see.

Much like with Shou Tucker, this pursuit for knowledge and power is all for external factors, there is no inner fuel for it besides pride, shame, desperate want that was displaced onto alchemy instead of the self-introspection that alchemy promotes and necessitates. Dwarf ended up missing what was right under his nose, and subsequently failed the test of Truth and lost everything. What he was working towards ultimately meant nothing, not to anyone and not even to himself.

Edward was able to face Truth right because he took the time to understand, learned to not abuse it, reflected on what it all meant, on the place of things in the universe. That is terrifying for Dwarf, who is terrified he may simply have no place in it, but it is nonetheless essential. The other homunculi are proof enough: Greed had friends, was accepted in the friend group of our heroes as a trustworthy and dependable person, Ling would have preferred him to stay with him forever instead of leaving. Selim gets a second chance at life with someone who has loved him with all her heart… Which is the most confusing part of FMA I have no idea how he didn’t die ngl but I’m glad for the precious lil guy~ Even Lust and Gluttony found companionship and care in being together.

Dwarf has always had a place. He simply refused to philosophizes, and alchemists are ultimately philosophers. Not thinking power through, not analyzing it, is what leads to corrupt military states. Dwarf wanted to be recognized and accepted by god and the world itself, by showing himself worthy of it and demanding it, but he was the one who rejected the nature of the world first:

One is all, all is one.

He is the very embodiment of refusing that. Dwarf always had a place in the world, artificial anomaly as he was. Perhaps Dwarf wasn’t meant to be part of this all or this one initially, not created by the world, but. Dwarf seeked to become both all and none at once. He was born artificial, but never cared to learn the rules of nature and accept the limits of the world, seeking to destroy and warp them; he was the one that desired to make himself even more distinct from the world and label himself as a perfect, artificial being. Rejecting individuality to become some empty looking glass was the mistake Edward Elric didn’t make, growing to find the value in every type of life and finding the strength to keep going through every horror of the world. Dwarf’s folly was thinking that he was separate from the rest of existence.

The philosophical dimension to the value of gold or philosopher’s stones are the important part of alchemy, power isn’t what you achieve enlightenment through. May your pursuit of knowledge be wise and your resolve aim true.

–+–+–+–+–+–+–

I recommend this analysis by another tumblr user as complementary reading!! It goes over way more than I did and encompasses more of fma than this post, I just wanted to focus on a fraction of the themes and narrative that I found summed up the story’s key points well… Idk idk I’m a humble Dwarf enjoyer I don’t want to come across as pretentious 🙇 I can only hope this was a nice read. If you don’t remember the ending of the manga/brotherhood well I imagine this being very confusing, I should do something about that

[lupuslikethewolf]

it really does piss me off when people call the war against the others 'the north's war' or 'the stark's war' or 'jon's/sansa's war' and claim that daenerys was helping because she just wanted to or something along those lines

as if the north/night's watch/the stark's/common sense wasn't saying the entire time "if these guys manage to defeat us they will come and kill all of you too, and have an army of millions of soldiers that cannot die to do so."

dany deciding to fight in the war in seasons 7/8 was not simply an act of compassion or allyship or whatnot, it was an act of self-preservation and (kinda) proactivity, considering that the war against the others is everyone's war. not just the north's, not just the stark's, and not just the night's watch.

the show and the books have been telling us the entire time that, when people get too caught up in politics and playing the "game of thrones", they end up ignoring, if not helping, the actual threat.

in fact, her fighting in the war is beneficial to her if she wishes to establish a reputation as the hero, and the liberator, coming first to conquer or reclaim, but then deciding that stopping the apocalypse is actually more important than ambition for the throne. whether or not i agree with that statement is a bit iffy, considering she needed the north to help in the fight as much as they needed her, but it is good PR.

no-one is indebted to dany because she decided to fight against the long night alongside everyone else, who had been doing it/preparing for it for far longer than she had. if the north/house stark had not sent word to dany, she would have been caught completely unawares and likely suffered a far worse fate at the hands of the others.

they helped each other, as just because dany had dragons and an army, she had no way of knowing what would kill the others or the wights, or what the legends surrounding them were, or even that it was a threat to be addressed until it would have been too late.

now this isn't me saying that i at all agree with the directions of seasons 6/7/8, or with how D+D handled the aftermath of the war with others, or jon, or dany, or any of the show in the later seasons really. dany (among others) absolutely deserved much better treatment, and so many characters were absolutely assassinated for no reason (*coughjoncough*). but, working with the material we have, dany made the only intelligent choice in those circumstances. the north are not supposed to worship for acknowledging what they have been saying and preparing for since the beginning: 'winter is coming'.

they helped each other: just because dany arrived at the war with the westerosi equivalent of nukes does not mean that everything else that was done by the north was useless compared to that. it was their land, and funds, and food stores, and shelter that was providing for dany's army and dany's dragons. "what do dragon's eat, anyway?" is a legitimate concern when you are trying to feed an entire nation of people during winter. "whatever they want" is not helpful here, babes, even if it is a badass line. my girl was just trying to figure out how to feed your kids without starving everyone else.

what happened after the long night is a different story entirely, but when it comes down to the actual war, there was never any question of what dany should do/should have done. had she ignored the others, and instead focused on "conquering" westeros, in the end, there would have been no westeros for her to conquer and rule.

tl:dr: the north is not to blame for what happened to dany during the long night, as if she had chosen to simply ignore the problem, it would have been so much worse for her in the end. nor are they indebted to her, as the problem would have become hers anyway, except on a much larger scale with much worse consequences. they helped each other, because it was never the north vs the others, it was humanity vs the others. life vs death.

[letteredlettered]

Hey :) One day, I would be very interested to know more about your attitude to shame as a theme in your writing, is this something that you're particularly interested in, how do you relate to characters who feel ashamed, how do you show them dealing with it. I feel like it's very present in most if not all of your drarry fics, without mentioning your latest spirk fic. Thanks!

Thanks for asking this insightful question.

Shame is present in most if not all of my fics in general, not just the H/D or Star Trek ones, and it's a subject I'm extremely interested in.

Let me start by saying that I have a pretty healthy relationship with shame, in my opinion. I have pretty difficult anxiety, especially social anxiety, which results in frequent bouts of utter mortification. Such bouts are related to shame, but those feelings disappear for me almost instantly after that mortifying interaction is over. For instance, I just went to the grocery store in a country where the primary language is not English; I could not get the check-out machine to work; the lady had to come help me; I could not apologize in the language she was obviously most familiar with; I forgot to weigh the bananas; I was in winter gear and sweating so hard that it prevented me from catching fire and dying on the spot, a healthy self-preservation tactic. But as soon as I got outside everything was okay; the end; nothing to see here.

Having experienced shame, I know that this mortification is basically what shame feels like, at least for me, albeit on a less acute but far more grand scale. As this mortification is something I struggle with, I am pretty interested in the feelings associated with it, but I have learned to manage my anxiety really well. While it has a huge impact on my life, it's part of who I am; it's my old friend, just like Mrs. Bennet's nerves are for Mr. Bennet, and I embrace that fact.

I also have a lot of guilt. According to Google, shame is different than guilt; guilt is the feeling that you did a thing that is wrong, whereas shame is a feeling that your whole self is wrong. I have trouble telling them apart, because my guilt, like my mortification, is extremely intense and overwhelming. Luckily, like Mr. Bennet's feelings of regret, my guilt passes soon enough, maybe even more quickly than it should. When I get guilty, I want to crawl out of my skin and die. I am a terrible, horrible person, and I can't stand it; this goes on and on until I can apologize and tell the truth and feel forgiven or work to make things right.

Also luckily, I'm pretty good at working through my guilt. I try really hard to acknowledge when I do something wrong, to accept the responsibility of not only fixing it but preventing it from happening in the future. I can't always fix everything about myself--just as I am always anxious, I'll also always be quick-tempered, forgetful, and sometimes thoughtless, but also like my anxiety, there are work-arounds for these things.

Guilt, in this way, is a good thing. It can be a useful signifier that you have hurt someone or acted irresponsibly; it can be a useful motivator for self-improvement. I don't think anyone should go around feeling guilty, but I do think that that this natural thing we humans feel is here to help us an guide us, and if we treat it like another friend, it can help us treat each other well, rather than hurt us.

As for shame, other than the guilt and mortification I have described above, I don't actually feel much of it. I am a very self-loving person. I am very good at thinking of myself as a human being who makes mistakes and fumbles but is also trying really hard. I'm really good at forgiving myself and trying to give myself the same understanding and compassion that I would to other human beings, and honestly, one reason I write about shame so much is the fact that not everyone is able to love themselves and forgive themselves and treat themselves with that sort of understanding just breaks my heart.

That is, because of my mortification and my guilt, I feel like I have a profound understanding of how shame can feel, but I move through it really quickly; it is not a profound emotion that haunts me, but one that touches me and helps me be who I am. But I see it hurting other people; I see so many people who don't understand that they are okay, that everything they are is okay. And one thing I have always wanted to do with my writing is to touch people, to say, "here I am; please understand me," and in so doing, show other people that they are understood.

So for me, writing about shame is in some sense writing about me--the guilt and moritication I struggle with so often. But I am often writing about people facing their shame, dealing with their shame, being loved in spite of their shame and realizing, hopefully, by the end, that they perhaps are worthy of love, and that for me is my own catharsis but also, hopefully, yours.

[questionsonislam]

The summer is coming, women and girls started to dress immodestly and wander around. How can we protect our eyes? Because wherever we look, we see them. Will you give information about the prohibited glance (looking at what one should not)?

Allah Almighty says, "Nor come nigh to adultery!" in verse 32 of the chapter al-Isra. Acting upon the phrase ‘nor come nigh (near)’, Islamic scholars stated that all of the acts that could lead a person to adultery were forbidden. Looking at obscene pictures or videos can be regarded in this category. Therefore, it is not permissible to look at those kinds of pictures.

As one of our scholars says, all of the sins and moral deteriorations start with the look at obscene things; it develops with the insistence on the looks and then it turns into actual sin. Besides, the eyes take the pictures of the things they look at and store them in the archives of images. No matter where man goes and where he is, those pictures are in front of his eyes in the realm of the imagination.

It is not permissible to look since lustful feelings arouse from such looking.

“Moreover, the Qur'an compassionately commands women to wear a veil of modesty, so that they will be treated with respect and those mines of compassion will not be abased beneath the feet of low desires, and will not become like worthless goods for the excitement of lust. However, civilization has drawn women out of their homes, rent their veils, and corrupted mankind.” (The Words, p. 381)

One of the reasons that cause the corruption of the society is, as it is expressed above, the women’s going out of their homes and being incorporated in the community immoderately and becoming unimportant things although they are beings deserving respect. Thus, the women lost their self-respect and caused the members of the community to corrupt.

The duty of the Muslim becomes heavier and he needs to act more meticulously in order to preserve his belief in a time when obscenity prevails and when modesty and chastity are not given any importance. In our community, there is almost no place that women have not entered today. They are abundant in the shops, markets, ships, state offices, etc. Under these circumstances, a Muslim cannot leave the community and live in seclusion. However, he has to obey some principles due to his belief.

The relationship of a man with a non-mahram woman and the relationship of a woman with a non-mahram man are limited and subject to certain criteria. Our Lord commands believing men and women as follows:

“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty...”(Surah an Nur, 24/30-31)

In those verses, believing men are definitely ordered not to look at non-mahram women and believing women are ordered not to look at non-mahram men.

What is the limit and content of that forbidden look?

The phrase “lower their gaze” in the verse does not mean to shut their eyes, bend their heads and walk like that. Besides, it is not possible to walk like that. A person naturally sees a man and a woman and looks at him or her. However, what is meant here is to look at the opposite sex with lust and having sexual feelings. The criterion for the look of lust is to look continuously, several times. We find out about that criterion from the Messenger of Allah (pbuh). He said the following to Hazrat Ali regarding the issue:

“O Ali! Do not turn round to look! The first look is all right but you have no right for the second look.”(Abu Dawud, Nikah: 43; Tirmidhi, Adab: 28)

When one sees someone from the opposite sex, one must not look at continuously but turn his/her head. Thus, one does not approach the limit of the look of lust. Generally, the door to fornication is opened through looks. Then, the other doors open one another. Thus, by preventing the looks, the door to fornication can be closed.

Fakhruddin Razi, reports the following sentence from the Torah:

“The look at haram sows the seed of lust in the heart. And lust causes deep sorrow in man.”

Each seed of sin that falls into the heart endangers the spiritual life of man if it finds an appropriate ground and germinates. As Dhunnun Misri, a great spiritualist (sufist) says, “To close the eyes to sins is the best way of protection.”

Our Prophet explains the state of a Muslim who tries to protect himself from haram as follows:

“If the beauty of a woman catches the eyes of a Muslim and he turns his eyes away from her, Allah Almighty grants that Muslim a kind of worshipping whose pleasure he will feel in his heart.”(Musnad, V/264)

As it is known, the parts of the body of a man that is haram (forbidden) to show to other men and non-mahram women are the parts between his navel and knees according to the opinion of the most of the scholars. The parts of the body of a woman that is haram to show non-mahram men are all of her body except her hands and face.

Accordingly, it is permissible for a woman to look at the parts of the body of a man except the parts between his navel and knees without lust and repetition. It is also permissible for a man to look at the hands and face of a woman without lust. However, if a man or woman looks at the above-mentioned parts with sexual pleasure, then it becomes forbidden.

A man can look at non-mahram woman in business life and in some obligatory situations. Fakhruddin Razi, the writer of at-Tafsir al-Kabir, lists those obligatory situations as follows in the interpretation of above-mentioned verse:

*A man can look at the face and hands of a woman he wants to marry. As a matter of fact, once, a man went to the Prophet and said he wanted to marry an Ansar woman, while Abu Hurayra was with the Prophet. Our Prophet asked him, “Did you look at that woman?” The man said, “No!..” Then, our Prophet said, “Go and look at her because there is something in the eyes of Ansar.” (Muslim, Nikah: 74)

In this regard, it is also mentioned that even a look of lust is permissible.

* In the court, it is permissible for the judge and the witnesses to look at a woman in order to identify and recognize her. Here, to do away with injustice and to realize justice is in question. (at-Tafsir al-Kabir, XXIII: 203)

The following sentences are present in al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya:

“It is permissible to look at the hands and face of a woman if a man feels free from sedition and lust.” (al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 5: 329)

In the book al-Muhadhdhab, the following is stated: “If it is obligatory, a tradesman can look at the open face of a woman. If he does not have a bad intention, he will not be responsible before Allah.” (al-Muhadhdhab, II: 34)

[filaantrocrowdfunding]

Self-Love Month: Commit to Preserving Yourself

Between 1661 and 1675, Baruch Spinoza, a Portuguese-Jewish philosopher, in his book Ethics said “[t]he striving to preserve oneself is the first and only foundation of virtue’”. With this Spinoza doesn’t argue for indulgence in hedonistic pursuits, but is rationalizing the want for self-improvement.

He adds “the more each one seeks his own advantage, and strives to preserve himself, the more he is endowed with virtue, or what is the same, the greater is his power of acting according to the laws of his own nature, that is, of living from the guidance of reason.” Meaning that humans can only be virtuous if they are fully self-preserved.

This was further emphasized by Black political movements in the 20th century, where Black movements called for self-reliance and self-determination more than integration. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael demanded the cultural, political, and economic power to strengthen black communities so they could determine their own futures rather than settle for legal rights and integration into white society.

All these laid the foundation for the modern trend of self-love and self-reliance. January is celebrated as Self-Love month. It is a month to invest in your growth whether it be personal, professional, psychological or spiritual.

In this article, we will be looking at some ways you can practice self-love.

Know Yourself

Aristotle said ‘Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom’. You can only be the best version of yourself if you know what drives you from deep within. Trying a new hobby is one of the best ways to know who you are. You will find out something that you never knew about yourself. Travelling solo, without the burden of pleasing others, is also another way of learning about how you fulfil yourself deep within.

There are three types of hobbies that you should have:

Hobbies that keep you creative

Hobbies that keep you in shape

Hobbies that build your knowledge

Preparing a plan to indulge in these kinds of hobbies is one of the best ways to practice self-love. It is building habits that support your well-being. These practices cultivate your physical, emotional, and mental health. These habits can range from daily lifestyle changes to lifelong commitments. Remember to pick and choose what suits you the best.

We all believe in practising kindness and treating others well. But when it comes to our own self, we are quick to bully and demean. Keep reminding yourself to treat yourself with the same amount of compassion and empathy that you would exercise towards others. Start by accepting that everyone makes mistakes and hurdles are a natural part of human experience. Also remember that you deserve dignity and respect, just like every other human being.

The revolution starts with your own self. Dismantling norms and societal expectations is only possible when people start embracing their uniqueness. Express yourselves through your style, writing and artistic endeavours. Get involved in causes you are passionate about and create art which fulfils you creatively.

We have been taught that looking for attention is a bad thing. But is it a bad thing or just a norm that we have all accepted? There are times when you want to hear good things about yourself, and there is nothing morally bad or wrong about that. Hearing compliments is good for your self-esteem or self-affirmation. When you learn to intake compliments, you will naturally be endowed with a positive outlook on life.

Filaantro, along with its crowdfunding partner Child Help Foundation, regularly conducts mental health sessions to educate people about taking care of their mental health.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Make sure to share this blog with all your friends and family members.

[hadesoftheladies]

thank you @drachenstochter @butch-reidentified @swagyna and @pumpkincurryelote for your compelling additions. and my post was not meant to deter or “correct” the loathing men deserve.

but I am going to say something quite uncomfortable.

“humanity” has many different connotations in people’s minds, but I think we ascribe sensitivity (sensual and moral) to aliveness (mental and physical), so one of the symptoms of being a true living human and not a corpse, or a thinking person and not a vegetable, is empathy (or existing moral reasoning), or at least, the capacity to hurt or feel something when witnessing another’s (or one’s own) suffering.

when someone does not exhibit these markers of sensitivity we call them “dead inside” or “inhuman” which is a human not quite dead but changed from a state of aliveness

the uncomfortable truth is that most of us already live that way. that most of us are “part dead” to individuals outside our tribe whether they are homosexual people, black people or animals. these are all individuals with mental lives capable of suffering. they all have consciousness and they all have internal and external histories. they can be traumatized and can grieve.

in short, men are not doing anything special or unique to humanity or animals. we would like to view this as a spectacular and special betrayal because we as women think of ourselves as spectacular (and we are!) but the reason for men’s inhumanity is much more mundane and much more stupid.

let me ask you all this simple question: when did someone’s suffering, who didn’t look like you, lived far or differently from you—when, if ever, did that suffering become your own? what did it take?

it took being exposed to their point of view. it took fixing the issue of proximity. it took coming closer and paying attention. it took distance from propaganda. sometimes it took you completely abandoning your tribe and way of life.

the truth of the matter is that it’s human nature to choose convenience over compassion. in the modern age, convenience has become so commonplace that to threaten that convenience is often (psychologically) equivalent to threatening that individual’s life. perhaps the most powerful of these conveniences are the approval of tribe (which leads to benefits for the individual).

men get too much convenience from women. they get to take out their violence or displeasure on us, use us for sex, buy us, rape us, enslave us, propagate themselves using us, etc. men have patriarchal propaganda everywhere—in every social institution. men will put their pleasure over women’s humanity even if they recognize it. the same way many people will eat meat despite not wanting to watch the cow being bludgeoned. it is the same way fast-fashion and consumerism flourishes in the face of ecological disaster and evidence of the exploitation of majority world countries (3rd world is an outdated term).

that’s why feminism is so offensive and intersectional. that’s why feminism, veganism, environmentalism, LGB rights, anti-racism and anti-classism are so heavily ridiculed and lumped together. women’s suffering is part of the continuum of male philosophy which says “there is such a thing as a superior animal and being superior means using everything inferior no matter how brutally to the self-betterment (not merely preservation) advancement, and pleasure of the superior.”

and women aren’t the only ones on that continuum, we’re just the class of humans that have taken the brunt of it and can recognize it, perhaps, the best. but it is especially sad when we perpetuate this philosophy in other places while claiming to address it. for when we exhibit flagrant racism, homophobia, endorse the meat and dairy markets, endorse colonialism and imperialism, endorse suffering wherever it is, endorse classism—we do no such thing. (I use “endorse” because it is okay to be genuinely ignorant about something and we all learn).

this is not to say that feminism should now focus on everything other than women’s liberation, but that it is, for better or worse, tied into the collective struggle for liberation from male violence. because feminist (dare I say womanist) philosophy is the one that not only addresses male philosophy but insists on the alternative: all individuals deserve to live autonomously, their needs provided for and rights upheld. we are all interconnected and none is above the other in terms of deserving moral consideration and rights. those with more (innate/biological/mental) power should preserve, not exploit. difference is not weakness.

if we are truly going to tackle male dominance, if we are truly going to stand together as women and get this done, we have to address our own hypocrisies and let go of our conveniences so that we can better take each other’s hands.

i know we joke a lot during misandry hours, but the fact of the matter is men aren't inhuman. they do have convictions and conscience. they do have love and compassion. they are capable of immense kindness, thoughtfulness and empathy. they are very often curious and intelligent.

the difference is they don't think of women as having any of those things hence don't extend the moral consideration they would extend toward "fellow human beings". they genuinely view women as animals. and how do they view animals? as primitive. infantile. not as evolved or cultivated. mostly mindless hence mostly incapable of suffering. they don't have as much mind and their "self" is weak, so there is no memory or centralized experience, no history to the individual woman.

the same way a man can have a dog and slaughter a screaming chicken is the same way he can be a loving husband to his wife and still rape an underage girl. it's how they've all lived for so long that it's not contradictory to their behavior.

so him being nice to "his women" isn't proof you're safe with him. him demonstrating any virtue to others still isn't proof you're safe with him. him being devout to a "kind loving god" is not proof you're safe with him. him humouring you on anything isn't proof you're safe with him. him being gnc is not proof you're safe with him.

his humanity does not mean he sees you as human as well. it is nowhere near a guarantee. please understand this.

[burning-basilisk]

Another personal rant because Mondays provide ample time to process emotions.

She loved what I could do for her.

...which was amazing for me, for a long time. I didn't love myself one bit, and was so deeply grateful that anyone else could.

But she also could not relate to my self-hatred. Whenever I expressed it, she became annoyed, at best. So I hid it... along with every other part of myself that she expressed distaste for.

After all, if I hated myself, then what does that say about the person that I married? Why didn't I think more about how she felt?

And what she felt, was... well, by the end, I had absolutely no reason to believe that I was bringing anything positive to her life. And that was all that I could think about.

But despite that (maybe because of it?) I somehow started to love myself. Just a little, at first... but enough to, apparently, violate the premise of our relationship.

Loving myself, you see, includes accepting that my own happiness matters innately to me, not exclusively through what she decreed should or shouldn't make me happy. This was not acceptable to her.

Sure, she was open to critique, and would let me explain and explain and explain until I either wore myself out or she got upset, and my explanation became another mistake that I should never do again. She was open to critique the same way The Pope might be open to arguments for atheism. Sure, I could say my piece, but the only possible results were her anger, or her confusion.

And while I searched increasingly frantically for a way to make her understand, she made an online friend who wanted to pay her a visit.

I expressed gratitude for her keeping me informed, because the idea of preserving my marriage mattered more to me than anything resembling pride.

I looked her in the eye and asked her if she would be willing to have sex with him if he did.

She said yes.

When I later asked for more details about her communication with him, she said I was accusing her of cheating, which is immoral because we were "on a break" after she said "I am leaving you" seventeen days prior. How dare I accuse her of such a terrible thing? After all, he didn't even set a date for his visit. So it's not like she actually cheated on me. What did I have to be upset about? Why wasn't I thinking about how she felt?

The part of me that was her husband died screaming, that night. Not because she intended to lie with another man, but because I realized that my pain did not matter to her one iota. And why should it, anyway? Me feeling like a worthless shack of shit who deserved nothing and should be grateful for literally everything I get from her, and feel guilty for asking for literally anything in return... that was an unspoken premise of our relationship.

One that I ended up violating... by learning to love myself. I began needing her less as a source of affection and moral compass, and trusting myself a bit more. How dare I?

I think some deep part of her realized that I wasn't yearning for her affection like I used to, and panicked. I don't actually think she was foolish enough to invite a stranger from the internet into bed with her. I think she wanted me to be jealous, to react in some "I must win her back!" kind of way, as though I'm not supposed to treat her choices as her own. Maybe I'm still trying to look on the bright side?

But regardless... my self-love is blooming, now. Like never before. I still have well over a decade of consistent self-hatred and accompanying habits/instincts that need to be rewired, and goddamn does it feel bad to harbor so much anger for someone else, rather than redirecting it towards myself, but...

She hurt me. She hurt me worse than I thought it was possible to be hurt by another person. But hey, that's the risk I took by giving her my heart.

I don't want to resent her. I really don't. But I have given her multiple opportunities to express the tiniest shred of remorse. I don't feel like I deserve much, but I do deserve at least an acknowledgment of my pain from the self-described "empath" that claimed she loved me.

The wound is healing... slowly but surely. It's definitely leaving a scar.

January 25th will be a full year since she said those words to me: "I am leaving you."

I don't know if I'll ever offer my heart to anyone ever again. I might be willing to enter marriage again as a strategic contract... but romance?

Well, the last time love hit me, was when I indeed least expected it. And I do have a history of being quite impulsive. But who knows?

Usually, when I get burned, it doesn't take me very long to start dancing with fire again.

My sister tells me that I am a very kind person with a good heart. Sometimes, excessively so. She tells me that I am easily manipulated. Maybe she is right. Maybe the fact that I emotionally resonate with so few people is a very important shield.

Maybe my heart will heal enough to want to feel another heartbeat synchronize with it, once again.

But for now, I will keep tending to my inner fire. It is growing stronger every day.

[gayvampyr]

“chihuahuas are so vicious” imagine if you were so small that people could pick you up and do whatever they want with you, to you, and they did frequently. imagine if you were picked on all the time because people thought it was funny, treating you like a toy or an object because of your size with no regard for your own autonomy or wellbeing, and you didn’t really have any sort of defense mechanism other than growling and biting. imagine a much larger potential threat (who looks just like many other real threats) approached you and you couldn’t tell if they meant you harm, so you told them to back off and they didn’t listen. you’re instinctually gonna go into defensive survival mode. and because you’re so small, you have to use everything you’ve got. and even though your boundaries have been invaded and you were only acting out of self-preservation, you’re now evil, vicious, and inherently aggressive. that’s not fair, is it?

chihuahuas are not mean to you on purpose. they’re not intentionally malicious. they are small animals who have to be on defense at all times because they’re an easy target and generally get treated horribly by people who do not think they are living creatures deserving of autonomy and respect.

i have a chihuahua whom everyone thinks is mean for no reason, that he just wants to bite you because he’s a bad dog. but this chihuahua has been abused by the vast majority of people who have come in contact with him since birth. people who pick him up and move him in ways he doesn’t like, pushing him, chasing him and watching him try to run on his little legs, making him growl and getting him riled up because “it’s soo funny when a little animal tries to be ferocious.” but now that he’s a bit bigger, it’s not so funny anymore. now it’s a sign of amorality and malice. now he’s just a mean, grumpy dog who hates everyone. and then there’s the added stressor of having epilepsy, and having random assholes mess with him causing him to have seizures, so he has to be extra vigilant. and i have a big dog, a lab, who no one has ever done these things to, because it’s just so commonplace to treat little dogs like shit just because they’re little. it makes me so mad to see the way people try to turn it around and make it seem like my chihuahua is the one in the wrong here when he is a victim of circumstance, as most of them are.

you have to earn chihuahuas’ trust as much as any other animal. bigger dogs typically have the luxury of being trusting (given the right environment) because they not only are generally treated better, but have the size and strength to fight if need be, which is why we as humans don’t approach them out of nowhere let alone try to make them angry for laughs. i mean when you look at how humans react to bears, moose, or really any larger animal you should understand the wariness chihuahuas have of us. i don’t get why people who call themselves animal-lovers are so quick to dismiss and write off small dogs as a whole when 99% of the time, their demeanor is a direct result of past treatment. they just need patience and respect. it’s frankly ludicrous to expect to be automatically given full trust by an animal whom you could very easily wound or even mortally injure. just. use your brain and try to act with compassion, please

[cooliogirl101]

May I ask why Orochimaru and Reina are one of your favourite relationships? I’d be really interested in hearing the breakdown, and what aspects of their relationship/dynamic you appreciate specific. I’m also extremely curious what makes Orochimaru a good fit for Reina too (since Reina is basically a good fit for everyone in the PPG AU, haha. I adore how Hisana manages to be loved in every universe just by being kind and understanding).

Mostly because I enjoy pairing Hisana (Reina) together with the most immoral characters I can find, but before they reach the point where they become completely irredeemable. It’s an opportunity to explore the effect a single person can make on another person’s life and besides, I love the trope of “character has no moral compass of his own and so hires someone else to be it for him.”

And like, Orochimaru is the person every self-preservation instinct tells you to avoid. Even if they’re not consciously aware of it, he makes people uneasy, on edge, because every instinct is screaming at them that There is something wrong with this guy. He’s not human, he feels nothing. He wouldn’t care if you died right in front of him— he wouldn’t care if he was ordered to kill you.

So people avoid him. Avoid looking in his eyes, avoid doing anything that could potentially attract his attention (his interest is a dangerous thing to have, after all. You need only possess a sharingan to know that). There’s nothing more dangerous than a man on the ledge, a man on the verge of having nothing to lose, because this is someone who can and will drag you over the cliff with him.

Reina is not necessarily the type of person who will force someone back from the ledge. When she first started visiting Orochimaru in his lab, she didn’t try to force him to leave his lab/experiments or nag him to go outside. Instead, she just...reminded him that a world outside of his lab existed.

She brings him food from a new restaurant that opened down the street. She always comments casually about the weather that day (“Love the breeze today, it goes so well with the sun!” “Think there might be a thunderstorm coming later, you can really smell it in the air.”). She talks about her plans later (“I’m getting Minato’s input on a new seal I’m working on. He mentioned Jiraiya might be in town so I was hoping to get his opinion as well.”). She talks about a new book she just discovered, and “forgets” to take it with her when she leaves. She’s a living, breathing, constant reminder that there’s more to life than his experiments, one that refuses to leave, refuses to judge, and in the end, that makes all the difference.

If Reina is patient and understanding and gentle with Orochimaru, Orochimaru’s tendency to do the exact opposite with her is another reason why I love their relationship. He’s perceptive enough to see the cracks in her facade when she’s taking on too much, when she’s pushing herself too hard, and unlike the other people in her life, he’s not polite enough, kind enough, or merciful enough to allow her to hide behind oh-so-convincing smiles and reassurances; instead, he’ll ruthlessly chip away at her defenses until he gets the answer he wants. He’s the one least likely to fall for her mask because everyone else wants to believe her and he doesn’t give her that luxury. He doesn’t care about offending her or pushing her away, because he already knows she’s going to stay (as probably the only person who has experienced firsthand how impossible it is to get her to leave). He calls her out on her refusal to allow people to help her, her hypocrisy (“You preach that friends should always support each other, and yet you refuse to allow anyone to support you. Why are you the exception, Reina? Do you think so highly of yourself that you truly believe no one else can handle the things you do?” “No, of course not! I--” ”Or is it that you believe everyone around you too pathetic to provide meaningful aid? Do your comrades know you think so lowly of them?”), forces her to confront the way she views herself, in a way that’s borderline cruel and yet effective (he’s long since honed his words to be as effective as any weapon, sharp enough to cut through any defenses his opponent puts up). 

And you know what? I think that’s exactly what she needs.

[haeresys-realm]

I find this and have a plenty to say, and my bad English won't stop me. Because there are interesting pre-thoughts, pre-theories but in conclusion they came they have nothing to do with the reality in my opinion. You can say or think anything and find my opinion wrong because of thinking that stupid fairytale of Nahida (I'm really shocked so many people ...maybe all people just swallowed it as the truth when it was totally fact-screwed just to put everything very brief and making us see the situation from the Scaramouche perspective, as he want it it to be, and Nahida that felt a great sympathy and compassion to him; it is really stupid even to mention so evident things that almost all legends and fairytales in genshin are represented to us as smth taht other people overthink about some things they don't know or want to show us from their own view,very biased, nothing of logical and objective view), Dottore NEVER hated himself and he NEVER thought he is worse than others. NEVER. The stupid fact that they used to give him a reason to delete his other segments.... We can esteem it from 2 sides. The 1st is the perspective of that who see it as a fiction: we know that it is a stupid pattern of the devellopers to make an antagonist weaker or to prevent themselves to do a big amount.of job to show all his segments and make them participate in game. So, it is NOT what SUCH character would ACTUALLY DO, it was just to make the plot EASIER for devellopers that make content for children. They must make Nahida look NOT SO MUCH weaker than him to sell her banner to the children, and conducted matures. She looked illogical and hysterical hypocrite thet being a Rukkhadevata segment that was born a goddess criticised the Doctor for being a great scholar with that self-believe, ambitions and so devoted conceptions that he MADE HIMSELF A FOD and even tried a way to confront erosion and preserve the wideness of his perception of the world. It's magnificent. But it was represented to us from her perspective as....having no sense of devotion?! As some perversion to the nature and all the life laws?! As something that is worse than some regular little scholar could do?!!!! Go fuck yourself maybe???? I can't say if there's more hypocritically stupid I ever faced in genshin than the so-called Goddess of "Wisdom" that said that every person is unique and interesting and that she criticised Dottore for being more clever and self-honest than she, because he, who was born human, became more powerful and wise god than she. So pathetic.

Well ok. I really admire him, because I don't see in his personality that idiot sadistic monster, that stupid cartoonish villain as you all want and as part of genshin developpers try to show. The fact is that his image in this is too contradictive.

So, you can say that he's the same old Il Dottore from manga, and these images should be linked to each other inseparable. I disagree. Because I will invite.yiu to see from the reader of the story perspective again: the web manga image was an EARLIEST and CHILDISH concept of the fucking villainy maid scientist, really mad and really cartoonish Dottoschmerz, lol. He acts so fucking....i don't know like it's all some grotesque farce. And now look at his new mysterious image of the genius that wasn't understood, that was neglected and outcast by the whole world surrounded him. So he had to become sly, he had to become smarter that anyone and learn to think the most quickly than anyone to make his plans cone true, to get what he wanted, to make it possible to reach all the knowledge he want in spite that these stupid and limited persons around him found them FORBIDDEN. He trusted no one but himself. He was the one who made himself. The greatest example of the person than no one undertood but he was never broken but became an archon-like creature just because he could prove that he was right in his concepts. (Just go read the Dar al-Shifa notes and achievement again. The original sounded as "Before "I" was born". I don't want to comment this again, it's too evident he speaks about his true godlike self that can reach any knowledge he want and during his experiments try to become not even an equal to Archons but aiming to become even stronger, – hello Nahida, etc).

But now lets try to take a look from the perspective as if there are no developpers, etc, and he's a real person. Ok than... If so he would NEVER erase his segments, that he did for decades with so much rare resources and energy wasted. The only explanation – it was a trap And if Nahida can read minds, and even Scaramuccia cant, so there's NO FUCKIN WAY THE DOCTOR COULDN'T. Say whatever you want, but the fact that the person who creates archons, modified Scaramouche to become the 6th Harbinger (read his story, really, 4th or smth), made the self-segment puppets that are stronger than some GODS (the one who talked to Nahida was JUST A SEGMENT, and webmanga's Il.Dottore killed Ursa the dragon by ONLY A MOVE OF HIS PALM!! Yes, here we can say yet again that he's an obvious and absolute catalyst user as Nahida, he experimented with Eleazar and elemental energises, found correlations and made a conclusion that further 'with enough income he could reach a level of the so-called gods' – so, making him a clamore user is just continuing the tradition to making this game just a stupid fanfiction, I'd never trust illogical shit in it and neglect it instead of trying to justify as the most of immature fandom representatives, sorry not sorry), can't do such thing is a TOTAL ABSURDITY. So, when we saw him new the Irminsul we must be absolutely sure, he took everything he wanted from it.

So, we can say the following. – Even if he said that it's hard enough not to disputing with oneself especially with yourselves in previous or even elder times, that doesn't.mean he hate himself lol. Everyone of us could disagree with his concepts in previous times because we had another information, another surrounding and another self-motivation, another picture of yourself and the world. But even such conditions could be helpful, because it's unique, you can think in it the way you can't do it now. So, this is what we call the wideness of the perspective/world perception. And Dottore appreciate it, even if it's a bit hard to bear.

This Omega (maybe the last and the most close to the Basis Dottore) segment couldn't make such a decision without some backup opportunity. The Basis Dottore could just... Get rid of him too if finding him so disappointing. He could take the god hearts as Signora, he had the powers to just take them from Kusanali in one monet. It was so absurd to hear him, so much more rapid predator that standing a two steps from a weak lol, hear him saying okaaay you can threaten me by broking the gnosis, yeees, yes, it seems so legit I won't be in time to extend my hand and just it from you, yeeees, it sound so scary that you will broke your own heart and put in such a danger all your beloved people of the country you return back to you because of me and my little experiments and the fact I didn't prevent you to do what you want and didn't help Scaramuccia because I'm a scientists, not an enemy to you....ah yes you're welcome byvthe way. Huh, you said I'm really crazy instead of it and ask what would Tsaritsa say?.... How disappointing the God of Wisdom is so limited in her convictions...

Ah, well sorry not sorry again. Now we can finally sneak in on the idea I wanted to ecpress.

The author of the article try to say that the Doctor has no vision and he's envy to those who have. Totally disagree.

3 facts.

1. Eheh, the webmanga Il Dottore said that they (visions) are nothing but a bunch of the self-inflated TOOLS, not FOOLS (the wielders you talked about). So he JUST said the visions are TOO MUCH OVERESTIMATED. We will return to this idea forther.

2. The whole lore (and one of the ingame note from the loading screen huh) is about "if someone's so devoted to his ideas and never give up, he will have vision". The Doctor was the person who struggles whole.world just because he believed himself and his extraordinary ideas, and was right in then as it was proved in future! So, judging.by the lore principles of this word there's NO WAY such person won't have a vision, when some fucking Lisa just thoughts – mmm it would be fun to have it...and it appeared, lol. If you don't find it stupid, please, let's never speak to each other.

3. Il Dottore said it IN CONTEXT of the delusions.

Ah, ok sorry, I hate this translating. The vision is Eye of God and delusion Evil Eye. The eye of god means that it is a tool for god to look through the wielder on the world. Maybe it's some kind of the tool that could be used to take control on him (we remember what became with ones who lost there visions till vision.hunt decree). And the Evil eye... I disliked this name until I understand that it isn't something villainous, it is what we can use as the contermeasure. So, if someone's try to look through you and use you, just look at him by the evil eye, it's something like a shield using in attack, the averter of the hex. The most interesting paradox. And it would be the most stupid twist in whole story to say the Doctor wasn't the one who invented Evil Eyes (he is 500 y.o. archon of science that worked with the elemental energies and dead gods' remains... who made himself a hod and made an ordinary Fatui soldiers use the elemental magic...did you see the back of the cicin mages, lol? fuck there's EVIDENTLY no way the Evil eyes weren't his job, just lol. But I won't be surprised, in this stupid fanfiction that coming from the patch with the pari zone just before the Fontaine where they just started to kill the lore by stealing the previous concepts from previous.plots and characters, making the Doctor just a stupid copy of some stupid npc Alain and Rene we would even never see in spite of the fact the Doctor was made earlier and his concepts and manners was unique, making Pierrot an unexisting coward that pretend to be the one of the Fatui with Fatui name when he even have no rank, and some yet another stupid abyss knight the mist strongest Harbinger when he just a big warrior maybe modified by the Doctor too, when such entities as the one who made himself a god and who can CREATE GODS, who can make mages from the ordinary people, modify them and give the opportunity to use the elemental powers, and the godlike girl even Tartaglia and Scaramuccia with all their whole hardihood are scared of...the girl is called Father when they had Matushka Cocolia already, and this status is changeable because of the wielders gender...the fact that some Arlecchino's servants via the hidden Inazuma quest tried to promote her higher because of Signora's, the fucking 8th Harbinger!! death and it was obvious that Pedrolino was the 1st, Cap 4th and Arlecchino the 10th but they just ruined EVERYTHING, fuck the logic, alalalal. ah ok nevermind I talked about it before, but I really hate the fact this STUPID and ILLOGICAL fanfiction that CONTRADICTS EVERYTHING that was said in lore before is considered canon. Just fuck it, I shut. But the fact they represented Childe and Skirk, the way they represented Fontaine plot and it's final, the stupidest illogical twists with forgiveness and the most idiotic shit they used the Nahida story to make Furina look so tearjerker, makes me feel hate to all of that is happening in the game and community now. Really disgusting everyone just forget everything that was before and swallowed it being manipulated to sell the new poor unfortunate girl banner.)

So my idea is: the Doctor despites the God Eyes because he just the person that NEVER relied upon someone or something. He was the one who could say when having the aeon power all over the worlds – and now I want to thank my friend who supported me all these years... Thank you, my spinal cord!

He always trust no one and relied on himself only. This is why he just CAN'T himself. And this is why he is so proud of himself looking on others ironically, as if they are, like Tighnary said, speaking stones or smth, lol. They just can't wield all the wideness of his knowledge and always unorthodox perspective (the fact his name was Zandìk, a free thinker, is too speakable), so his attitude is a bit indulgent and tolerate, we could see it even via the negotiations with Nahida. And Tighnary for sure. This is why they were so angry, they believed they are the most respected and clever persons in Sumeru, and now they faced the polite scholar that looked on them as if they are unsophisticated dense children that are only in the beginning on their way to true wisdom... No wonder their reaction was so fun and self-contradictory.

So, the Doctor despise those who rely on gods and overestimate the visions. He as the one who made himself by his own hands and the one who gave people an opportunity to use the elemental powers, making every person who could prove his wish and devotion the kind of Choosen hero. That's the answer. Now we all can agree that God's eyes are really just some self-inflated tools and the wielders are such to celestial gods from that perspective. The conclusion? Dottore has NO problem with visions or their wielders. It is them who.may have problems with Dottore, if they would stay on his way to knowledge.

Thanks for reading if you really did it, I respect you for this. But please don't argue with me. I know that there are almost no people in this world that share my position, so let me just write blog with comfort.

And sorry for mistakes and teared thoughts. I don't know when I will have time to reread and correct this a bit, so, let it be my shame. I will be pleased more than shamed if you point on my mistakes, but I warned you! I was writing it for 3 hours, so please be ease on me, keke.

dottore has…problems with visions. i’ll let the evidence speak for itself first. 

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[chaos-burst]

questions and answers

He had meant to be rude. And it had not worked even a little bit. Eodwulf is sure that anyone else would have been offended. Hell, he’s even sure that the other members of this weird group were absolutely offended on behalf of their friend. But Eodwulf can’t say he has ever met a person like this.

There was no malice, no ill intent, no anger.

When you work with Trent you have to be aware of every little shift in the mood. The slightest twitch of an eyebrow can mean the weather is about to turn foul. Eodwulf knows what to look out for. It had been his intent to rev this weirdo up and it had backfired spectacularly.

Damn.

No meat. No booze. And balls of steel, apparently. Eodwulf had never seen anyone talk to Trent like that. And while Bren‘s—Caleb‘s—words of wanting to kill Trent outright had been more than Eodwulf would ever admit to his mentor, it somehow felt less crazily reckless than to call Trent Ikithon, Archmage of Civil Influence for the Cerberus Assembly and one of the most powerful mages in the Empire, a fucking fool.

To his face. With a smile. In a complete sincere manner.

Eodwulf doesn’t want to replay the words in his head over and over again but his dumb brain has latched onto them and he can’t stop. Only this time it’s not one of Trent’s lessons that forces him to obsessively repeat something until you have internalized it to the point where you can cite it in your sleep.

No.

“Pain doesn’t make people. It’s love that makes people.“

Eodwulf has it on repeat in his head the whole way back to the tower and it is still going when he lies down hours later to sleep.

“What are you“ had not been meant as a serious question when Eodwulf had asked it. But by the time he finally falls asleep he feels like it has become a very vital question indeed, because who or what would dare to speak to Master Trent Ikithon in a way like this with an honest smile on their face.

*

Because for some reason his thoughts have decided to betray him, Eodwulf’s brain makes his tongue and lips form the words again when they see the Mighty Nein the next time. This time, Astrid and Eodwulf have been invited to dinner—Trent has very specifically not been invited, you could say he was uninvited with quite a few flowery words in a strange accent.

And as soon as Eodwulf sees Caduceus he remembers the weirdly polite scratching of a chair, the wide smile that indicates that this is a person Eodwulf possibly can not force to lose their composure through careful placed rudeness. And his mouth betrays him.

“So. What are you, really?“

Caduceus blinks mildly surprised before his unfamiliar features shift into a warm smile that has Eodwulf feel quite a lot of inappropriate things he didn’t expect to find in a place like this.

“Gardener. Maker of fine tea. A decent cook. Keeper of graves“, Caduceus lists of and he uses his long fingers to count the things that are important to him about himself.

“Very powerful cleric“, Jester chimes in from the right. She has Astrid next to her in a chair and Eodwulf is pretty sure that Jester has started to put flowers in Astrid’s hair. But surely he must be mistaken. Who in the Nine Hells are these crazy people?

“Oh, yeah. Well, that too, I suppose“, Caduceus says, his smile still warm like honeyed wine.

“Huh“, Eodwulf says because he can’t for the life of him think of something else to say. But Caduceus is yet again pulling out a chair for him so Eodwulf straightens his shoulders and sits down next to Caduceus. Across the table from him the angry one throws herself into a chair and stares at him.

There’s no fear there either, but she can be easily angered, something Eodwulf is good at. He gives her a canine smile and she holds up her middle finger.

This group is full of people with an enormous lack of self preservation.

And they are so loud.

Eodwulf almost doesn’t hear it when Caduceus turns to him to ask him a question.

“Huh?“, he says again, like a fool.

“And what are you, was what I wanted to know“, Caduceus says, his lazy grin open and honest. There is no malice in his words. He actually wants to know.

Eodwulf thinks “Murderer, wizard, protégé, spy“ but he doesn’t say any of these things. “Maker of graves“ comes to mind, but it seems like too dark of a joke to make.

“Enthusiastic about both meat and booze“, he says in the end and Caduceus laughs.

“Yeah, as are most of my friends.“

The implication these words bring is probably only in Eodwulf’s mind but it makes him swallow and look away to find Astrid’s eyes. But Astrid now has pink flowers in her hair and a look of absolute confusion on her face as Jester rattles of compliment after compliment about various of Astrid’s features.

Eodwulf can’t help but look at Bre—Caleb. And he sees that there is a soft, barely noticeable smile on his old friend’s face as he watches the scene unfold.

What am I, indeed, he thinks.

*

Trent’s orders have been clear. Get close to the group called the Mighty Nein to find out what they are working on with Lady Vess DeRogna.

Eodwulf allows himself to think that Caduceus might have been right. Maybe Master Ikithon is indeed a fool.

Because being in the presence of these people is like nothing Eodwulf has ever experienced and it makes him think, wonder, question—

“Here we are again“, Caduceus says after, yet again, Astrid and Eodwulf have been invited for dinner. Eodwulf wonders if this group just wants to make it very easy to spy on them, or if they have an agenda of their own—but it’s hard to believe that there might be any coherent agenda behind anything these people do.

He has watched the buff one called Yasha try and play what looked like a harp made of bone and when the angry one, Beau, told her that she looked hot playing the harp Yasha had torn two of the strings which had led to a whole scene of apologies and various tries to fix the harp.

Jester has drawn dicks on pretty much every surface this magical mansion has and she delights in the fact that Caleb brings the dicks to life in various colors. At some point he made glowing sparkles shoot out of one of the dicks Jester had drawn and Jester had laughed as if this was the best joke she had ever witnessed.

Eodwulf notices Astrid’s eyes on Jester.

Eodwulf also notices that while there seems to be no agenda or efficiency behind anything, they are still being watched.

Beau and Fjord look at them. And Eodwulf is pretty sure Caduceus watches everything as well, but he does it without crossing his arms and glaring so much.

“Looks like it”, he answers. Caduceus offers him tea and Eodwulf’s first instinct is to decline, but then he remembers that “maker of fine tea” had been very high on the list of descriptors so he takes the cup he is offered while somewhere in the background people start screaming something that sounds like “FLUFFERNUTTER”.

Eodwulf tries the tea. He’s not a fan of tea, but this tea is absolutely delicious and he finds himself impressed.

“I believe this one comes from the Hollburns’ graves. Those remains made the tea grow quite fast, it was impressive.”

Eodwulf blinks at his tea and then at Caduceus. For a second his brain wonders if this statement should register as a threat, but it had been delivered with such honest delight and a sense of pride that Eodwulf discards that feeling.

“What?”, he asks. Caduceus points at the tea.

“Oh, well, my family grows tea on those graves we’re keeping. In case you wanted to ask me again what I am. Or—hm, I think I already mentioned that I am a keeper of graves?”

Caduceus trails off and looks thoughtful and Eodwulf stares at him.

“Keeper of Graves. That make you a follower of the Matron?”, he asks.

Caduceus looks at him and smiles.

“Not quite. My family serves Melora. But we are descended from a champion of the Raven Queen.”

Eodwulf can’t help but wonder if this was some kind of weird joke. But his goddess usually isn’t one for joking.

Eodwulf considers for a second, then he pulls out the raven feather pendant from under his cloak.

Caduceus nods. “So”, he says and smiles widely. “What are you?”

Eodwulf snorts.

“For real?”, he says.

Caduceus’ smile widens.

“For real.”

*

It feels like this has become a sort of game.

“What are you?”

“Moral compass. Middle sibling. Eccentric. Amateur flute player.”

Eodwulf finds that through this question he himself posed the first time, he’s been forced to think more about himself than he feels comfortable with.

“What are you?”

“Decent chess player. Dog person. Sportsman. Only child.”, are the things he says out loud.

“Self-made orphan. Patriot. Volstrucker. Torturer.”, are the things he thinks to himself.

Eodwulf has the impression that Caduceus is somehow aware of the things he doesn’t say.

*

“So. This is the crew you’re running with now?”, Eodwulf asks Bre—Caleb one night before the Mighty Nein will leave with Vess DeRogna to who-knows-where. Neither Astrid nor Eodwulf did get very far with their planned infiltration work. Eodwulf is not even sure how hard they even tried.

It’s very easy to get swept away by the chaos and the weirdness and the complete lack of fear that the group displays when it comes to him and Astrid. They are dangerous people in a lot of ways.

The Mighty Nein are also dangerous people in a very different way. A way that Eodwulf doesn’t know anything about.

“This is my family, ja.”

He says it, just like that, without looking at Eodwulf.

Family.

The word tastes bitter in Eodwulf’s mouth as he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.

“Weird people”, he says. Caleb huffs.

“You can say that, yes. But they grow on you very quickly”, he answers quietly and with a small, fond smile that makes something inside Eodwulf ache. For a long time Eodwulf pitied Bren for breaking, for not making it, for failing, for being locked away and discarded. Now he realizes that maybe, in a very macabre sort of way, Bren becoming Caleb through failure was the better end of the bargain.

It feels blasphemous to think that.

“The pink one is especially weird”, Eodwulf finds himself saying and he takes a big swig of whiskey from his flask before handing it to Caleb.

“Ja, I noticed that you seem to have a... uh... particular kind of interest in him. And, if I may add, he in you.”

Eodwulf takes the flask back after Caleb drinks. He contemplates the different sorts of feelings inside his gut as the words sink in. Then he tucks it all away very carefully, just as he learned through many years of being in Trent’s presence.

“Still don’t know what he is”, Eodwulf says. Caleb snorts and shakes his head.

“His people are called Firbolg”, he provides.

“Not sure that’s what I mean. Not anymore, at least.”

It seems dangerous to admit that. Caleb turns his head and looks at Eodwulf with a shimmer in his eyes that Eodwulf can’t read. Many years ago he was able to read Bren like an open book, but Caleb is another book entirely.

“You deserve to have some nice things, you know. You deserve friends. A chance of—hm. A chance of peace. A chance for redemption, if you want it.”

Eodwulf gets up and tugs away his flask.

“Pain doesn’t make people. It’s love that makes people. Pain is inconsequential, it’s love that saves them.”

Eodwulf understands the truth in these words now. Bren was broken, Caleb is being healed. Eodwulf doesn’t think that there’s anything left in him that can be saved. Or should be saved.

“Good luck on your journey tomorrow. Don’t die”, Eodwulf says and he leaves Caleb behind.

What are you, he thinks. A sentimental fool.

*

Astrid sits next to him on one of the balconies of her house and looks up at the stars above them. The Mighty Nein have been gone for six days and it has been very quiet.

They sit in silence and share a bottle of whiskey, passing it back and forth instead of words. It’s been like this for many many years that they’ve allowed themselves to just be. Today though, Astrid breaks the silence.

“I’m going to be the one who kills him.”

She says it quietly, without remorse, without indicating that this is a scandalous statement. She says it just how other people would say “I’ll go to bed soon.”.

Eodwulf stops breathing for just a moment. Then he inhales the cool night air and turns his head to look at her.

“Could kill you for treason”, he says. She looks at him and cocks her head slightly, the analyzing gaze of a murderous spy meets its equal in silence.

“I’d love to see you try”, she says. Eodwulf grins. It feels reckless.

“Don’t die”, he says, the same thing he’s said to Caleb before. Astrid regards him for a long moment and Eodwulf takes another sip. “Will you help me or try to stop me?”

Eodwulf considers this for a moment. Would he try to stop Astrid should she try to kill Trent? No. Would he help her? He doesn’t know that either.

“Can’t you just wait for Bren to do it for you?”

“I won’t lose to him again.”

Eodwulf snorts.

Always so competitive.

“That’s some fucked up shit, Astrid.”

“Shut up, Arschloch.”

Eodwulf grins before getting up to stretch. He puts his hands on the railing of Astrid’s balcony and wonders what Caleb’s new family is up to.

Making a new family never came to mind before. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale. While he contemplates the question whether he would help Astrid kill Trent Ikithon, a slow, familiar voice pops up in his head.

“Hey. Uh—Jester told me to send you an update. We’re still alive. Hope you’re good. Got  a new question for you. What will you become?”

The rustling of Astrid’s clothes as she stands up as well somehow tells him that she received a message in her head as well. She steps beside him and puts her hands on the railing next to his.

“They’re persistent”, she says quietly.

Eodwulf nods and inhales.

He doesn’t know what he will become. He didn’t even know that was a question to be asked. The path is clear. It always was.

Pain doesn’t make people.

“Not going to answer?”, she wants to know.

“Don’t have an answer yet.”

It’s unclear to him whether she means her own question or the message Caduceus just sent him.

He answers the sending spell with a simple “I don’t know.”. It takes a few minutes before another message comes in.

“That’s good. Uncertainty is good. It’s the first step in a better direction. I’m going to kill a dragon now. Wish me luck. Good night.”

“I’ll keep you posted on the answer to that question of yours. I’ll see you tomorrow”, he says and leaves Astrid behind on the balcony. Eodwulf thinks about something he hasn’t thought about in a very long time. A priestess in his Matron’s temple once told him: “Death is the only certainty in life.”.

He thinks that Caduceus would agree.

And Eodwulf hopes that the next time he sees that weird, reckless man, he’ll have an answer for him.

[shifuaang]

I’ve censored names because I don’t want anyone to be sent hate, but this post and the amount of likes it got enraged me so much that I had to say something about it. This truly might be the worst take I’ve ever seen about both Katara and Aang.

Let’s address how this is harmful to Katara first. The original poster seems to want Katara to keep her scars for the aesthetic™, which is already a really gross concept, but I cannot stress enough how disgusting it is to want a female character to bear permanent, painful markings in order to give a male character ‘more development.’

We are shown routinely throughout ATLA that scars are not just physical indications of trauma but emotional ones as well. 

The only person we see who has scars for “cool” character design reasons is Jeong Jeong, but even then we can assume he received them while he was fighting in the war or because he became a deserter. 

All of these characters have these scars to serve as a constant reminder of the Fire Nation’s brutality and ruthlessness. Katara doesn’t need a physical reminder of this. She already deals with the tremendous, traumatizing loss of her mother on a daily basis. How could you possibly think that it would be good to scar Katara just to ‘punish’ Aang while completely disregarding how it will affect her emotionally?

Katara should not have to bear the emotional and physical weight of Aang’s mistakes in order to teach him a lesson. 

It also completely undermines her moment when she learns she’s a healer. She gets this incredible gift that is so special to her because it means she is able to be both a fighter and a healer. These two sides of her are crucial in her fight for justice and compassion, and the healing aspect is a beautiful addition to a character who is so ‘down in the trenches’ in her approach to achieve these things.

This revelation is not only important to Katara as a character but also integral to so many pieces of the plot. If she hadn’t realized she could heal scars, she wouldn’t have offered to try healing Zuko’s in The Crossroads of Destiny. The chess pieces are constantly being set up in Book 1 in strategic and deliberate ways. I’m all for headcanons and fan concepts, but not when they dismantle the plot and characters for, frankly, sexist reasons.

Onto Aang. 

There is absolutely zero indication that Aang did not suffer the consequences from burning Katara. He is immediately remorseful. He is so incredibly guilty that he swears off firebending for good. He is attacked by Sokka, and is probably reeling over the idea that his best friends and the only people he has in this world might never forgive him for his mistake.

But Katara does forgive him, way faster than he forgives himself, as we see him struggle with memory of hurting her well into Book 3. 

Zuko burns Toph accidentally, but absolutely no one chastises him for this or holds him to the standards they hold Aang. And sure, you could argue Zuko makes his mistake as an act of self-defense while Aang is just goofing around, but Aang is literally twelve when this happened. Don’t tell me that you never unintentionally hurt yourself or others when you were messing around as a preteen. Sokka lists an array of injuries he’s sustained at the end of The Deserter, and while I’m sure most of them were self-inflicted, I can’t imagine that Katara wasn’t involved in any of those instances. They’re kids - all of them, and Aang is the youngest of the bunch, so of course he still has lessons to learn. That doesn’t mean he should have to suffer the ramifications of his adolescent mistakes forever.

His impatience to learn firebending also stems from the fact that he only has until summer’s end to do so. It’s not an excuse for him not taking Jeong Jeong’s warnings seriously, but it is an explanation. And he learns from it. The way we see him handle fire and the responsibility of bending fire in The Firebending Masters proves that he’s matured. 

Aang, Book 1: Jeong Jeong tried to tell me that I wasn't ready. I wouldn't listen.

Aang, Book 3:  All this time, I thought firebending was destruction. Since I hurt Katara, I've been too afraid and hesitant. But now I know what it really is ... it's energy, and life.

The audacity, the gall, the absolute nerve that it takes to say that Aang, a survivor of genocide who lost all of his family and friends and entire culture, “gets let off easy too much” is appalling to me. I’m not sure how many times I have to say that Aang honoring his culture and people and going against the tide - fighting back against the notion that he can’t preserve the traditions and beliefs of his people while being the Avatar at the same time - is not, by any stretch of the imagination, easy.

I don’t know how many times have to say that a child does not deserve to live with the trauma of killing someone, but I’m going to say it again. A CHILD DOES NOT DESERVE TO LIVE WITH THE TRAUMA OF KILLING SOMEONE.

If you truly still believe that the lion turtle/energybending is an easy fix, just read this meta because they explain perfectly why it is not.

And to the last point about Aang ‘getting to be with Katara’ as some kind of “reward” for winning the war, Aang never views Katara as a prize. Need I remind you that he completely drops any type of romantic expression towards her after she rejects his advances in The Ember Island Players? He lets her make the decision as to whether or not she wants to be with him. They get together because the timing is finally right for them - there is no more confusion or violence to prevent them from being together, and Katara no longer has to worry about losing someone she loves. 

[lewis-winters]

Hi but I actually really want your detailed character analysis for each guy in the Craver interrogation scene 👀

Oh anon, the monster you have unleashed.

Ok so like. This is only one of many of my (often contradicting, bc if I am anything I am a flip-flopping bitch #taurus-gemini cusp) readings of this scene. But it certainly is the most interesting:

Ok, so let's start with the three boys outside of the beating room. Namely, Floyd Talbert, Ron Speirs, and George Luz.

There is only one agitated fella in this frame, and it's not George Luz. George is very secure in himself here-- there's tension lining him and making him stiff and his attempts at humor fall flat, but the fact that he is making attempts at all is a sign that he knows who he is in this moment and he knows what he is being called to do. And that's to distract Tab.

Tab, on the other hand, is struggling with two sides of him. One is the vindictive side that wants to be in the room with the other guys. But that side is largely trumped by his very rational, very Company 1st Sergeant side. He isn't agitated because he wants to join in. He's agitated because he knows he should stop them, and he's right. He should. Though the beating is "justified", the Military Police will most likely not think so. He's 1st Sergeant, he's in charge of most, if not all of the men in there. If the MPs investigate this incident, he will have to be the one to answer for them. And also I just think he doesn't want to see anybody get into trouble. Except he can't go in there and stop them because they have a point, or at least, they think they do. Craver hurt one of their own, and now there is no reasoning with them. Look at who's inside: Bull and Martin and Malarkey. NCOs, just like Tab. None of them outrank him, but they are still leaders in their own right. And if Tab were to go in there and stop them, they'd chew him out for it.

Tab is waiting for someone like Ron to come in and stop it. Because Tab knows he himself can't.

Except. Except. Except.

Ron doesn't stop it. Ron, in fact, enables it.

And this is where we also see Tab start to lose respect for Speirs.

IRL, Winters said that Tab resigned as 1st Sergeant because he kept comparing Speirs' leadership to Winters' leadership, and though the show itself doesn't actually make that the official reason for Tab's resignation in the next scene ("I miss being back amongst the men"), there are traces of it in this scene.

When Ron enters the room, the first thing Tab asks him is "How's Grant? Is he dead?" Speirs bypasses that question entirely for the sake of joining in on the beating, gun drawn.

From Tab's point of view, that means Ron has every intention to kill Craver.

And, of course, if we apply what we know from what IRL Winters told us, that means Tab is also thinking, in that moment; "No, Dick would never do this. Dick would never let it get this far."

And you can actually see that moment of clarity + subsequent disappointment (as well as relief at finding out Grant will live and disbelief that this just fucking happened) on his face here:

Furthermore, this is also the moment Tab (and, by extension, every body else in the room) finds out that Grant is going to make it after Ron tells them.

So not only is Tab thinking; "Dick would never do this. Dick would never let it get this far," he is also thinking "Why the fuck didn't he tell us that in the first place?! If Dick had been handling the situation, we would have gotten the news immediately! He wouldn't have allowed something as risky as this happen!"

And he's right.

But in fairness to Ron, this is probably the first time any of Easy has seen him lose his cool.

Because Ron is actually losing his cool here. This is his "it's my dog!" moment. He let the anger get to him, and therefore he made a terrible miscalculation.

I've already talked about this in this Grant/Speirs ask, but let me reiterate it here:

We (and Easy Company) are very used to thinking that Ron acts without compassion, mercy, or remorse, therefore when we first view this scene, we think that what is out of character for him is not shooting the replacement. We (and Easy, but especially Tab) are wrong. That is probably the most in character thing about Ron in this scene. What is truly out of character for him here is him drawing out the gun with the intention of shooting this motherfucker in the face.

See, one of the reasons why we think he doesn’t act with compassion, mercy, or remorse is because in the first half of the series, we don’t see him outside of the glimpses Easy company gets or the stories they exchange. But after episode 7, he’s suddenly with us all the time, and we see that his advice to Blithe was more of a… miscommunication, in a way.

Act with no compassion, no mercy, and no remorse toward the people you want to protect your men from. But this is where this scene gets complicated. At first glance, we think "ah, yes, he's protecting his men from this replacement."

Except-- there is literally 1 replacement vs. at least 1 squad of men (roughly 9 to 11 men). Why the fuck does a squad of soldiers (veterans too!) need protection against 1 replacement who has not had the same training and combat experience as them? They don't need protection here, they can handle themselves.

Oh, and another thing that adds to this predicament: Ron knows that Chuck is going to live.

Out of everyone in that room, Ron is the only one who knows that Chuck is actually going to live. So his internal struggle isn’t so much “oh I should act with no compassion, mercy, or remorse– but easy company has ~changed~ me.” In my opinion, his internal struggle in this moment, the reason why his hand trembles as he's preparing to shoot Craver, is this: “If I shoot him, I'm not protecting my men. I'm taking revenge.”

Which isn’t in his moral code.

Ron acts with no compassion, no mercy, and no remorse, yes, but there’s a certain level-headedness to him that keeps him in line at all times: only against those he's protecting his men from. Sure, he’s prone to bouts of petty anger sometimes (see in the next scene: More and his photo album), but he never lets that get in the way of his judgement (see: More didn’t back down, but neither did he do so in a disrespectful way and Ron recognized that, therefore he conceded his own defeat and didn’t punish More). He does what is necessary in the moment and never takes it beyond that.

But Chuck’s shooting drives him to the point of wanting to take revenge. He enters that room, gun drawn, with all the intention of shooting this motherfucker in the face. He knows it's a bad move. But he does it anyway. And him entering the room with his gun drawn enables everybody else. We, as an audience, have to remember that what they are doing is illegal and is very, very punishable by military law. Also: beating someone up like this, no matter how fucking vile, isn't the right thing to do, either. But sure, the MPs might be gracious enough (or if a certain Nixon is generous enough to tip them to look the other way), to let them probably get away with it on account of saying that the replacement tried to fight them and they simply fought back (yes, that does sound like rhetoric used to excuse police brutality; isn't that what this is in a way?). But if Ron pulled the trigger? If Ron had actually killed him? That would have been fucking bad.

It's not a Captain's job to enable his soldiers to do something illegal that'll most likely get them court martialled and/or killed. It's a Captain's job to protect his men. From their opponents, as well as from themselves.

In this moment, Ron is not doing that.

I know we like to get all vindictive and be all like "yeah that's what he deserves, this is justice!" but this isn't justice. This is revenge. And, again, revenge is not part of Ron's moral code. If only because revenge, more often than not, gets people killed instead of keeping them protected. If he shoots Craver, that will not only implicate him. It will implicate everyone else in the room.

He realizes it here:

Ron only comes to his senses when he already has the gun trained on Craver's face. Portrayed beautifully by Settle, might I add.

... This is a reach on my part, but I think his next movement is very powerful-- idk if it was written into the script or if this is just something Settle decided to do, but after he wipes the blood off and he turns away, Ron then takes his hat off. Which to me invokes in me the image of a king taking off his crown, or an executioner taking off his hood. It's almost as if he's relinquishing his authority in this moment-- not over Easy (since he does give them an order literally seconds after he takes it off), but over the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.

He recognizes that he did a whoopsie.

You know who I think also recognizes it?

George fucking Luz.

Look at his face. Look at his fucking expression here:

This is the face of a man who knows the what ifs and the could haves. He's put two and two together and he's pissed.

That's why I think another layer of him staying outside isn't just to comfort Tab. It was self-preservation. He still had his wits around him at this time-- arguably he and Tab are the only ones thinking straight in this moment; it's no coincidence that it looks like he's looking at Tab here-- and a part of him believed that Ron would, too. Except, he didn't. That's why he's angry. Ron came up short.

Or idk, I could be projecting, I mean I would be pretty pissed off in his position. Pissed at Craver, but also pissed at Speirs-- if my Captain, my leader, the guy I trusted decided to do something reckless like that and put all the lives of my fellow soldiers on the line simply because he wanted revenge or simply because he wanted to scare people and therefore get a grip over the situation, I would be angry, too. Remember, Speirs has a layer of protection, somewhat. Probably wealthy family, some wealth squirreled away. Not to mention he's a commissioned officer less likely to be used as a scapegoat. These men, everyone in that room, are enlisted working class men. Most likely, they don't get the luxury of a scapegoat or a tip off or bail. Had Speirs gone through with it, they'd have a body on their hands. And if the family of this replacement pushed, the MPs will no doubt pick someone in this room and pin it on them. Or hell, they'll take everyone, punish all of them, and then execute several. They were just lucky this replacement didn't actually have anybody on his side.

This was dangerous. But Ron let it happen. He didn't protect them like he promised he would. And to some degree, George and Tab know that.

Although, I can argue, everybody in this room realizes that. Except, they realize it too late.

They realize it the second Ron pulls the gun.

I've said it before, in this ask right here, that Liebgott flinches in this scene. Which is funny, considering when Ron enters the room, he's the one who's most in Craver's face. Him and Babe. Which is understandable, considering the three of them were close, as can be gleaned from the Last Patrol. Of course Lieb and Babe would get dibs on Carver's face. Of course they're the ones who get to bloody them up good. Carver shot their best friend-- of course they're angry. Liebgott especially-- I feel like this is the episode where he lets all his anger out. For ep 1 - 9, he's fine. He's funny and jovial-- a little irritable, especially in the Last Patrol, but only at Web, really. And not even by that much. What he mostly is, is tired. And that's it.

But this is after Landsberg and after the mountain top, too. He's angry and he has no outlet. So of course he's the one getting the most hits on Craver. And when Speirs enters the picture, he's delighted in some way. But it doesn't last.

At first he's watching Speirs (as beautifully depicted in this gif set), he is the only one watching Speirs. Then, Craver is pistol whipped and held at gun point and what does Joe do?

He flinches. Babe also flinches. And then they, and the rest of the room, look away. They all look away. From Bull to Babe to Johnny to even Pat and Popeye. Frank physically steps back. Malarkey literally closes his eyes. The only one looking is More. It's almost like the weight of what they have done has finally sunk in for all of them.

But, it's not enough to spur them to stop Speirs. In fact, except for Malarkey, they turn back to look.

Because, like Speirs, the need for revenge is pulling them toward this need to see this replacement die. But unlike Speirs, they don't know if Chuck is alive or not.

And that's where it gets Yikes. And in a way, maybe Tab is right. If Dick had been in Ron's position, 1) this replacement would have been given to the MPs immediately, and; 2) Grant's safety and the news of Grant's safety would have been the top priority. And though that would have not quelled their anger, they would have at least been comforted by the knowledge that Grant was going to live.

Listen, Ron abides by the same code of honor Dick and all the other officers abide by, and he has held up that same code of honor many times. In different ways and through different methods, yes, but always with the same goal in mind: protect. Always protect.

But not here.

Ron did not give them the comfort of knowing Grant's status and he put them in a dangerous situation. He did not think of them first. No doubt spurred on by his own trauma and his own simmering anger and lack of a proper outlet, a proper enemy to take it out on, he was blinded by his rage and simply thought of himself and his revenge. Not his men.

Ron slipped up. They're just lucky he caught himself before it got any worse.