#philip of guise

[nothingunrealistic]

WENDY: How many times have you seen The Hunt for Red October? TAYLOR: I don’t watch Alec — PHILIP: Yeah, and Connery had that interview back in — WENDY: Okay, I hear you, but let’s not with that, right now. I asked rhetorically. I’m sure you both know lines by heart. The point is: even Ramius, who had almost total discretion, couldn’t act alone. Someone had to give him the keys every time he took out that sub. PHILIP: Is Ramius…? WENDY: Two captains in this story. The point is, if you’re asking for total and complete control 24/7, you are wasting your time. And his.

7x05 the gulag archipelago. the hunt for red october follows marko ramius, a soviet submarine captain who defies orders and goes rogue in what’s interpreted as an imminent renegade nuclear attack on the united states, and jack ryan, a cia analyst who figures out that ramius is actually trying to defect to the united states. if philip ends up defecting to Team Kill Prince under the guise of attacking them, we’ll know exactly who ramius is.

[saltwatersweets]

the way that the toy head is on backwards is also very interesting, because even when the toy was fixed it wasnt fixed perfectly, likely similar to how when belos “broke” and “fixed” the grimwalkers they all came back differently

these screens are all correlated .

with the fact that collector saw things/people as "playthings" that could be fixed up even as much damage its done to them, its messes me up with the implications / their behavior towards trying to be open to Belos again so quickly after everything because he thought it could kindness could work, to use their own self in the form of a doll as something that can be broken up and fixed on a whim fully makes me believe they expected to be freed by Philip and continue to be treated the same way he did before, even when Philip was physically lashing out at them in their shadow form, he put trust into Philip that even if they "got broken" , Philip would be able to "fix him" or he would fix themselves and continue playing on, just like the grimwalkers were made over and over and Collector was not raised to see them as their own individuals . By all means Collector was not raised to fear Belos like grimwalkers did , but its worse that Collector was actually always this willing to take in abuse on the guise that its "pretend" or "its just part of the game" because at the end of it all they are inmortal and it "shouldnt matter".

[kvetchlandia]

Sam Falk Novelist Philip Roth, Princeton, New Jersey 1964

"No one I know of has foreseen an America like the one we live in today. No one (except perhaps the acidic H. L. Mencken, who famously described American democracy as "the worship of jackals by jackasses") could have imagined that the 21st-century catastrophe to befall the U.S.A., the most debasing of disasters, would appear not, say, in the terrifying guise of an Orwellian Big Brother but in the ominously ridiculous commedia dell’arte figure of the boastful buffoon. How naïve I was in 1960 to think that I was an American living in preposterous times! How quaint! But then what could I know in 1960 of 1963 or 1968 or 1974 or 2001 or 2016? … However prescient "The Plot Against America" might seem to you, there is surely one enormous difference between the political circumstances I invent there for the U.S. in 1940 and the political calamity that dismays us so today. It’s the difference in stature between a President Lindbergh and a President Trump. Charles Lindbergh, in life as in my novel, may have been a genuine racist and an anti-Semite and a white supremacist sympathetic to Fascism, but he was also — because of the extraordinary feat of his solo trans-Atlantic flight at the age of 25 — an authentic American hero 13 years before I have him winning the presidency. … Trump, by comparison, is a massive fraud, the evil sum of his deficiencies, devoid of everything but the hollow ideology of a megalomaniac." Philip Roth, 2018

If only he'd lived a few years longer, the horrors we inflicted on ourselves just a week ago would certainly have made Philip Roth plotz.

[sepublic]

People -and this did include myself at one point- really don't want to engage with the fact that Belos is modeled after white supremacy by trying to bury this under the lens of "Oh he's actually a lonely weirdo like Luz!!!" when Belos' superiority complex is the most important part of him and it's where all analyses inevitably must stem from. I think the problem is that people are too attached to their speculative fanon version of Belos and instead of letting go of that to rebuild their understanding of him from the ground up (since he's a mysterious character who is only gradually revealed bit by bit), they keep clinging to this sympathetic tragic villain as the core behind their interpretation of him. 

Everything about Belos makes so much more sense when you explore him as someone akin to a lot of right-wing 4channers; A lonely young boy who was radicalized because white supremacy promised to rescue him from his isolation, and after buying into it wholesale, he very much chose to cling onto the need to be superior to the "NPCs" even when someone close to him actually unlearns and deconstructs for him why this is harmful. He sees firsthand how someone just like him is happier for leaving this mindset, and then kills them to eliminate that contradiction threatening his world belief; At which point it’s inaccurate to infantilize him as just a lonely and misguided kid, because he’s no longer a kid and he made a very cognizant and informed choice to double down and commit actual violence.

And everyone knows that by this point, such people are not actually being sincere; They’re not secretly misguided, you can’t simply attribute their harm to not knowing better because this is what their religion says or whatever. These people know they’re committing harm, but rather than help on “lesser” people’s terms, they ‘help’ the way THEY see fit, in the way that strokes their ego. That’s what separates Philip from someone like Gwen, who humbled herself to focus on what Eda was saying she really needed. So the Titan’s summarization of Belos as someone who only cares about being the hero in his own delusion, and fears what he can’t control is… hardly an oversimplification, it really gets to the core of Belos as a character, and the narrative he embodies. It captures the difference between wanting to help and having a savior complex, and is what ends up delineating the two at the crucial crossroads. 

And I find it a little concerning to joke about how this type of character is “just a silly guy” when people exactly like him are on the rise and committing very real violence right now. It’s also why I don’t buy the justification behind a lot of salt about how villains need to be humanized in order to show kids how THEY can become villains, because the show is fairly outright about how Belos rationalizes atrocities under the guise of the ‘greater good’ and refuses to self-reflect, and it’s not as if we don’t have Luz learning to understand characters like Amity or Lilith, the Collector and even Kikimora (whom she DID relate to personally, yet Kiki still doubled down with or without Belos), while still having the show emphasize that they need to get their act together and can’t just depend on people to save them. 

There’s also the very obvious theme of Luz realizing she doesn’t owe her oppressor anything, especially not when he won’t ever meet her or anyone else on their terms, but idk some people just seem to hate Luz for having boundaries I guess, even though she already put in the effort to be kind and understanding to Belos and she got hurt for it. Hell the Collector made that effort after being inspired by Luz, and Luz was murdered protecting them from that mistake!!! There are some very obvious stories and lessons being told here with the actual protagonists being the heart of those narratives, but the problem I’ve noticed is that a lot of the people complaining on Belos’ behalf are those who hyperfixated almost exclusively on the Wittebane aspect of the lore, going over it with a fine tooth comb and microscope to extrapolate an entire fanon from the littlest of details… only to just ignore the actual show and narrative and themes happening on-screen. 

And that leads to many not understanding various narrative decisions because they weren’t really paying attention to the actual point they’re in service to, and then they blame the writers for their own chosen ignorance, and how the story wasn’t about their part specifically so everything else doesn’t count and the whole show is wasted potential, really. The way so many of said fans immediately turned on Luz after the finale and tried to drag her down to Belos’ level by acting like she wasn’t any better for also wanting things and 'demonizing enemies', claiming Luz had unaddressed ‘flaws’ while Belos deserved more sympathy, and framing Belos as a ‘better’ character who ‘worked harder’ while claiming Luz was retconned into an arrogant chosen one who never grew, is actually baffling.

A lot of them are just upset that Belos didn’t play the role in Luz’s arc that they wanted him to play, so they’ve opted to dismiss Luz’s overall storyline as badly written and even a reflection of Dana's 'Catholic complex' (which is a tasteless jab to make) because they neglected the nuance behind every other aspect of Luz that wasn’t directly tied to Belos, that didn’t set her up as the one person who understands him or whatever because that’s more important to them than addressing the sheer trauma and pain that Belos willingly inflicted upon Luz. Because god forbid this brown girl be angry against her white abuser, huh? God forbid the white guy be used to set up the brown main character, rather than the other way around right????? It’s really just a jealous complaint about the show’s choice of priorities and celebration, hidden under the false guise of ever caring about Luz’s arc for Luz’s sake.

And that’s how you get insincere arguments about how Belos should’ve been able to survive, that’s how you get AUs that undermine the lessons of canon to egregiously relegate Luz to being Belos’ sidekick, or even present her as an obstacle to him getting his much-needed redemption, as if that last part hinges on all of Belos’ victims getting over their pain to help him, because obviously he needs it more than they do! Because we gotta spare Belos’ feelings by giving him friends instead of consequences!!! Unbelievable. He is not Amity, not Lilith, and definitely not Hunter, and the people who forgave them had actual reason to do so. And even Lilith had to move in with her mother so she could be given reparations by someone who actually owed it to her, rather than her younger sister and two kids.

And there’s definitely a major difference between Lilith and Gwen’s dynamic and Philip and Caleb’s, especially since Caleb was also a child when he moved into Gravesfield. Even if you think Belos' bigotry was radicalized due to 'grief' over losing his brother to witches, that's just entitlement and control because it's not as if Caleb can't have more than one positive relationship in his life; Philip is no better than people who blame minorities for some incident in their life and use that as justification to become white supremacists, and there's nothing sympathetic or 'tragic' about that.

But the point is that Caleb ultimately wasn’t THAT important to Belos because he’d always be secondary to witch-hunting, Belos clearly chose his white supremacy over his brother, and any ‘takebacks’ that come in the form of the Grimwalkers are insincere given Belos does nothing to actually repent or regret his violence committed on the people of the isles; It’d have been one thing if he DID try to undo his mistake by choosing differently, by cloning Caleb and giving up witch hunting, but he still doesn’t (Note that Belos does not hallucinate the ghosts of the witches he killed; He still feels no remorse over them, because his fear of being wrong comes from a selfish place). And unlike Luz, Belos can’t have it both ways because one option explicitly calls for the extermination of the other; It’s the Paradox of Tolerance that Luz struggled with, except contrary to what Belos claims, humanity’s existence does not require the eradication of others.

Because yes there IS a meaningful moral distinction between Luz and Belos -don’t forget they’re not just parallels but explicit opposites- that occurs even before you get into the genocide, not that you should neglect that other part either because it’s incredibly important, being the starting point for this entire rant. Society already has a bias towards devil’s advocating bigotry as some big misunderstanding, and prioritizing the angst of white dudes who commit it over the victims of color; Can we avoid applying that to fiction?!??!? I literally saw someone complain that the show didn’t portray Belos’ grief from murdering Luz, and that Luz’s “glory moment” took away from a Wittebane backstory!!! At this point, people are just being racist.

[roontwo]

long owl house rant! yayyyyy!!!(spoilers)

one of my favorite things about the owl house is the implications. for example, titans corpses make up the two landscapes we see throughout the entire series(not counting the shot from the atmosphere where we are bunch of unidentified land masses). titan trapper island, the hand of a significantly large titan with the rest submerged underwater, and the boiling isles being the whole corpse of Kings dad. life on either of these places is confirmed to have inherited magic from the strong residual magic from the titan they formed on. the defeat of Belos would likely lead to a lasting peace, that combined with social advancements like the university of wild magic and the potential inclusion of humans in magic society would undoubtedly lead to an economic boom, as well as a boom in population. the boiling isles is fairly small for the only known and inhabited continent left after the titan trapper island is abandoned, with the only way to get to it destroyed. the implication of this, combined with the inevitable rise in population, and the fact that the only inhabitable spaces we see are comprised of titan corpses, is that one day King will have to die and bear life on the continent that forms from his body(The Collector and construction magic combined with human architecture notwithstanding of course). the untold number of grimwalkers that Belos created and destroyed. a child using advanced abomination magic in the time pool episode implying that magic was stronger in the wild era. the time paradox with Luz and Philip. every “evil” character that turns good.

Boscha’s bullying being heavily informed by how much she values her friends, ie. “willow has to make friends out of plants”, “you’re not cute, i still have more friends than you!”. “captain goes first”(as long as you guys follow behind me), her reaction to Amity breaking away from the group. the only real moment of emotion from her being when she cries upon getting her friends back.

Darius’s dismissiveness of Hunter being informed by his worry that he’s too busy riding Belos’s coattails to be a real person. every character we see chase Belos’s favor is punished for it because it is an unachievable goal(Lilith, Kikimora,Odalia) and Darius wishes to save Hunter from this fate.(also the previous golden guard was his mentor and he mighttttt know what happens to grimwalkers, “why does Darius look so sad in this?”).

Principal Bump’s initial denial of Luz’s desire to study multiple tracks being informed by how seriously he takes his job and how he truly believes that no student is irredeemable. he assigned her to the potions track(under the guise of randomness) because he knows she only knows two spells and has to use paper to cast them, meaning that the only track that she would reasonably stand a chance in is the only one that only requires mixing ingredients.

Amity’s initial distaste for Luz(AND WILLOWWWWWW????) being informed by her abusive perfectionist upbringing. she desperately wants to be her own witch, but has been conditioned to believe that doing so will only bring shame to her and her family. so when she sees Luz breaking all of those rules, exploring magic in such an unabashed, unorthodox way, and loving it, she’s resentful of her freedom. of the fact that she doesn’t know anything about what it supposedly takes to be a witch but she’s just doing it anyway.

every episode of this show, even the last 3 that disney didn’t even wanna give us, are packed full of insanely deep implications and character motivations that i just can’t stop thinking about. and this is all without digging into lore that didn’t get explored super hard like the archivists and such.also willow is perfect in every way, i love her.

[poisonousquinzel]

and the fact that it's a musical just adds a whole 'nother level to the wtf factor cause wtf

what the actual heck is this joker 2 movie

[queerstake]

i just sent my own letter and wanted to share it. it is not politic in the least; i'm angry and they deserve to know that.

To the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: I am writing to express my grief and disappointment at the recent revisions to the Church Handbook's policy on transgender individuals. The new policies are extreme, degrading, and manipulative, and I cannot believe that they are the result of anything more than human bigotry. I cannot put it more plainly than this: you are in the wrong. You are letting your worldly assumptions and fears interfere with your sworn and sacred duty to bring God's love and salvation to ALL of His children. We have already seen the fruits of these policies of exclusion, and they are the bitter, bitter fruits of despair, isolation, and death. The gilding of this fruit under the guise of "concern", or worse, "love", only intensifies its poison. Sirs, the way this church has been mistreating God's queer children is a monstrous thing. I condemn you for your cowardice in allowing and encouraging it to continue. May the God of Hagar and Rahab and the eunuch that Philip baptized—the God of the slave, the foreigner, the excluded and the unclean—show mercy to you even as you have not shown mercy to those He loves.

This is so powerful, thank you. Your anger is extremely warranted, extremely appropriate, and I hope the brethren heed your call to repentance <333 thank you so much for sharing.

[garden-of-mancers]

Hihihi! I wasn't sure who to come to for this info, and I couldn't find anything related to this, so if you don't have an answer/insufficient research or something like that, then feel free to ignore this! /gen/neu

What's the difference between a tulpamancy and imagimancy? Ty if you answer this ask! <333

No problem! Full disclosure: I have done more research into the Buddhist origins of tulpamancy, but I'm not Buddhist or a tulpamancer, so if I get any academic or cultural information wrong, I apologize.

So, tulpamancy has an origin in Buddhist spirituality, and the modern western "tulpamancy" you see on tumblr is a misappropriated version of it.

In Tibetan Buddhism, tulpamancy is the act of creating a thoughtform (tulpa) with the goal for it to become an autonomous person through developing independent thought, emotions, etc. These thoughtforms are also called "emanations" or "emanation bodies" depending on the Buddhist you're talking to. Most tulpas also break away from their creators once they reach autonomy, therefore completing a cycle or the exercise. I know it's originally supposed to be an exercise to teach the Buddhist student *something* about nirvana and being a living human, but I can't remember or figure out what the specific goal is, so I apologize if any part of this explanation is 'off.' I'm not Buddhist, so I encourage you to take my answer as a starting-off point to do your own research into the topic.

Here's a reddit post by a Tibetan Buddhist on tulpamancy, and here's another reddit thread with multiple insights on the purpose of tulpas.

Appropriated tulpamancy like you see on tumblr, where the tulpamancer is making more than one thoughtform, isn't working towards the goal of autonomy, or is utilizing manifestation techniques to create headmates or "friends" is not tulpamancy. It's thoughtformism--it's a completely different practice that is just using terminology from a different (religious and culturally charged) practice. It should not be practiced under the guise of tulpamancy. It's not cultural appropriation because you're white, (anyone can convert to Buddhism); it's cultural appropriation because you're using terms and ideas in a way completely divorced from the original (cultural, religious) context.

(This cultural shift didn't start on tumblr, by the way. Occultists and westerners were recontextualizing and appropriating tulpas long before people on tumblr did it.)

After a lot of POC and Buddhists criticized the tulpa community, a few secular thoughtformist communities have come up. Daemonism is one example, where the "lore" and framework around your thoughtform is based on the novel His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. (Although, what I've seen in the community is that daemians can play pretty fast and loose with the rules and no one really minds it.) But a lot of thoughtformists I've seen on tumblr just seem to make a certain flavor of dude (like a servitor, egregore, godhead--all things I'm not yet familiar enough with to explain) without tulpamancy OR daemonism as a label (which is a good thing!).

Imagimancy is the latest thoughtformist community to come up, and in my perspective, it feels like a "configurable" experience in thoughtformism. There's no more religious or cultural context, there's no more lore from already-existing books or movies, there aren't even any occulty or mystical labels if you don't want there to be. It's just... imaginary friends, but taken seriously and refined into a practice or activity that "older kids" and adults can do in a fulfilling way. To me, imagimancy IS the closest thing to what appropriated "tulpamancers" wanted tulpamancy to be. There are no rules or restrictions. One of the co-coiners of the imagimancy term describes imagimancy as "not trying to reinvent or relabel things; just filling the gaps between [thoughtformist] communities," and I think that's the best explanation out there tbh.

This isn't a "tulpas dni" post or anything like that; I'm interested in everyone's experiences of thoughtformism, even if someone's vocabulary isn't the most culturally sensitive. But I am very much in the ballpark of "what you're doing isn't tulpamancy. Call it something else" as a person tbh.

[transbookoftheday]

The Blighted Stars by Megan E. O'Keefe

When a spy and her mortal enemy crash-land on a dying planet, she must figure out how to survive long enough to uncover the deadly, galaxy-spanning conspiracy that landed them there. The Blighted Stars is the first book in an epic new space-opera trilogy from the author of the Philip K. Dick-nominated Velocity Weapon.

She's a revolutionary. Humanity is running out of options. Habitable planets are being destroyed as quickly as they're found, and Naira Sharp thinks she knows the reason why. The all-powerful Mercator family has been controlling the exploration of the universe for decades, and exploiting any materials they find along the way under the guise of helping humanity's expansion. But Naira knows the truth, and she plans to bring the whole family down from the inside.

He's the heir to the dynasty. Tarquin Mercator never wanted to run a galaxy-spanning business empire. He just wanted to study geology and read books. But Tarquin's father has tasked him with monitoring the settlement of a new planet, and he doesn't really have a choice in the matter.

Disguised as Tarquin's new bodyguard, Naira plans to destroy the settlement ship before they land. But neither of them expects to end up stranded on a dead planet. To survive and keep her secret, Naira will have to join forces with the man she's sworn to hate. And together they will uncover a plot that's bigger than both of them.

[asherisawkward]

Are there any headcanons that make Belos worse than he is on the show that you enjoy?

I headcanon that he went back and killed the Fang brothers after he got the Collector’s disk because they tried to burn his journal.

He overworks and keeps the scouts in poor conditions so they’ll be too exhausted and stressed to plan a revolt of any time.

There is an eighty percent chance that Coven Head Scooter Crane was murdered by other Coven Heads, Raine, or Philip himself. Regardless of this, Philip doesn’t care and actively encouraged infighting and competition between the Coven Heads, so they won’t notice what he’s planning.

Philip tormented Lilith in the Emperor’s Coven by giving her nearly impossible tasks and threatening to kick her from the coven if she failed before letting her stay if she did under the guise of mercy, but it’s really just so he can torment her more. This is because she broke his nose in the Deadwardian Era.

Philip is intentionally creating a Palistrom tree shortage so that witches are unable to make Palismen, which would make it easier to fight him.

To make Grimwalkers, Philip hunts baby Selkidomus instead of adult ones, because he doesn’t know how long scales keep before they go brittle, and he doesn’t want a lot of resources wasted. Baby Selkidomus are just sized better for his needs.

When the Grimwalkers find out about the truth, Philip often “attempts” to kill them but fails intentionally to see how they react. He doesn’t even realize he’s doing it, but he’s pushing them to leave so he has a reason to kill that one and start again fresh.

Philip and the Collector had bingo cards for the way that the former kills the Grimwalkers. The latter of the pair has more bingos.

Philip re-uses Galderstones whenever he can’t find more of them for new Grimwalkers.

He was probably forced to cannibalize his brother’s corpse some time during his years living in a cave. It was a very low point for him.

[tomorrowusa]

Matt Gaetz, the MAGA Meryn Trant, is now out of the running for US Attorney General. Not that Pam Bondi is much better in terms of policy.

But Gaetz was not exactly the only problematic Trump nominee for office.

Trump has stated that he wishes to abolish the Department of Education. Perhaps to facilitate this, he's nominated a totally unqualified individual who looked the other way when 13 to 15 year old boys were being sexually exploited.

A recent lawsuit alleges Linda McMahon, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the Department of Education, knowingly enabled the sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment(WWE) employee as early as the 1980s — allegations she denies. McMahon is the former CEO of the WWE, which she co-founded with her husband, Vince. As head of the WWE, Linda McMahon oversaw its transformation from a wrestling entertainment company into a publicly traded media empire. She stepped down in 2009 to run for Senate, but shelost in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012. As McMahon — who co-chairs Trump’s transition team — vies to be confirmed as Education secretary, a recent lawsuit raises questions about her care for children’s safety at the WWE. The suit alleges McMahon, her husband, the WWE and TKO Group Holdings, the league’s parent company, knowingly allowedemployeeMelvin Phillips Jr. to use his position as ringside announcer to sexually exploit children. The filingalleges Phillips would recruit children to work as “Ring Boys,” helping him set up and take down wrestling rings at WWE events. However, the job was a guise for sexually exploiting the children, which Phillips would do even in front of wrestlers and executives in the locker area, the lawsuit alleges. He also would often film his sexual abuse, according to the filing. The suit was filed in October in Baltimore County, Maryland, on behalf of five John Does, who say they were ages 13 to 15 when Phillips met and recruited them to work as “Ring Boys.” Each of them say they suffered mental and emotional abuse as a result of the alleged abuse.

These allegations are not exactly new.

Phillips’ alleged abuse at the WWE was reported by the New York Post as early as 1992. “It was common knowledge in the WWE — among the ring crew, wrestlers, and executives — that Phillips surrounded himself with a posse of underaged Ring Boys, including when he traveled across state lines and stayed in hotel rooms with the children,” the lawsuit alleges. The McMahons fired Phillips in 1988 after allegations about him sexually exploiting children continued to surface, according to the lawsuit. They “rehired him six weeks later on the condition that he ‘steer clear from kids,’” but he continued sexually exploiting young boys with the McMahons’ knowledge, the lawsuit alleges. “After decades of suffering in silence from their childhood trauma, these survivors come forward now to hold Defendants accountable for their conduct in allowing the systemic and pervasive abuse by Philips,” the lawsuit alleges.

The McMahons are rather typical Trump friends.

Allegations of sex trafficking and abuse have followed Vince McMahon for some time. In 2023, Vince McMahon paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to a former employee who accused him of rape, and he stepped down this year as executive chairman of TK Holdings following allegations of sexual assault and trafficking. He has denied the allegations. Most recently, Vince McMahon is a subject in a federal criminal investigation and a separate lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut. That lawsuit was put on hold this summer until early December. A criminal investigation around McMahon also exists in New York, though it doesn’t carry legal risk for Linda McMahon, who left the WWE over a decade ago, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

[scotianostra]

On February 9th in 1587, news reached London of Mary, Queen of Scots execution the previous day.

The people went wild with joy, church bells were rung out in celebration, guns thundered a salute, bonfires were lit in celebration and there were impromptu feasts held in every street.

Elizabeth however, did not greet the news with the same enthusiasm! It is said she had signed the death warrant in anger when she was told that Mary had plotted against her to be the figurehead of a Catholic uprising in England. It is also claimed that she withdrew the warrant but it was retained by her spymaster Walsingham.

Historians still debate how much Mary knew about the plot to overthrow Elizabeth.

It is a fact that the English Queen became almost hysterical. Her biographer William Camden, wrote that

“her countenance changed, her words faltered, and with excessive sorrow she was in a manner astonished, insomuch as she gave herself over to grief, putting herself into mourning weeds and shedding abundance of tears”.

Her rage was vengeful against those who had acted on her behalf. They had expected her anger, but not quite this extreme! Some fled home, others were banished, and Davison who had carried the warrant to Fotheringay, was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Elizabeth wrote to James VI, telling him that his mother’s execution had happened without her knowledge, and whilst James at first displayed grief, he did not want to alienate Elizabeth, and told a group of angry nobles that he believed Elizabeth was genuine in her grief and would not do anything to effect the Anglo-Scottish alliance.

It was three weeks before news of Mary’s execution reached France, where there was widespread distress at the death of the King’s sister-in-law. The English Ambassador reported:

“I never saw a thing more hated by little, great, old, young and of all religions than the Queen of Scots’ death, and especially the manner of it. I would to God it had not been in this time”

On 12th March 1587 as a part of French national mourning a requiem mass was held at Notre Dame attended by Henri III, Catherine de Medici, and many of Mary’s Guise relations including her uncle, Elbeuf. A moving eulogy was given by Renauld de Beaune, Archbishop of Bourges, recalling the days of her youth and the spectacle of her magnificent wedding ceremony in Paris. It seemed to him ‘as if God had chosen to render her virtues more glorious than her afflictions’. She had become a cult figure.

It’s a disgrace the Scottish nation were denied a similar mark of respect for Mary, remember many Scots still thought of her as our rightful Monarch, although it has been said that in Scotland there was displays of anger towards Elizabeth for what had happened - despite the fact that they had forced Mary’s abdication twenty years earlier.

In the eyes of Catholic Europe, Mary was a Martyr, wrongfully put to death by the ‘heretic Elizabeth’. Philip of Spain believed it was his duty to avenge Mary’s death.

Nevertheless, Scotland and France did not act in revenge for Mary. Philip did however, with the Armada as we know. But this did not quite have the desired affect, thanks largely to the weather. It is ironic to think that Mary’s death gave both herself and Elizabeth their finest hour, Mary became the Martyr that she wanted to be, while Elizabeth became 'Gloriana’, with the “heart and stomach of a King”.

I will finish this post and go back briefly to Mary’s execution. Those present that day spoke of her great courage and dignity, just under 61 years later her grandson Charles I was also executed with the same bravery shown, whatever the faults or follies of the House of Stuart, its sons and daughters, with rare exceptions, have at least known how to die.

The pics show the death mask of Mary, her tomb in Westminster Abbey and a replica in The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

[gryficowa]

Interesting fact: The author of "Witcher" sued the game company because he wanted money (And he wrote books mainly when he was short of money, yes, that's a funny fact)

And because people thought he wrote the books based on the game

Sapkowski doesn't like it being said that he wrote books based on the game, although in Poland it is a meme that he wrote books based on the game

"

In 2016, during an author's meeting at Polcon, the writer commented ironically - negatively - on the impact of CD Projekt RED games on the sale and reception of books, the gaming community reacted to the words with a kind of boycott of Sapkowski[16]. The author defends his view by saying: that from his observations - his titles with covers with computer graphics - were perceived by some readers as the so-called game related, i.e. a book based on a game, which in turn translates into perceiving the work of the writer from Łódź as secondary, unoriginal"

Yes, Polish Wikipedia has no mercy

In October 2018, the writer called on CD Projekt to pay an additional PLN 60 million, over and above the remuneration specified in the contracts between him and the company, for the use of the world of The Witcher in games, citing Art. 44 of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights. CD Projekt described this demand as groundless and stated, that he validly and legally acquired the rights to Sapkowski's works[21]. On December 20, 2019, the company concluded an agreement with the writer, the provisions of which were kept secret"

Hey guys, I found it now:

"Photo - Andrzej Sapkowski Andrzej Sapkowski(1948-06-21) - (still) Andrzej Sapkowski. The most popular author of short stories and fantasy novels in Poland. Andrzej Sapkowski - biography, life and work Andrzej Sapkowski was born in 1948 in Łódź. He is an economist and trader by education.

Andrzej Sapkowski: the witcher He gained popularity thanks to a series of stories and novels about the witcher Geralt. The Witcher is a mutant, a hired killer trained from childhood to fight monsters, but this training has not deprived him of his internal ethical code. At once cynical and noble, he is compared to Chandler's Philip Marlowe. World, in which the action of the Witcher story takes place, draws a lot from Tolkien, but also contains references to Slavic mythologies.

Andrzej Sapkowski: characteristics of his work Sapkowski's fantasy works are characterized by, apart from the fast-paced action taking place in an imaginary world populated by people, typical of this genre, elves, dwarves, etc., with a specific colorful language somewhat reminiscent of Sienkiewicz's Trilogy and a kind of humorous game with the reader consisting of hundreds of references to the world canon of fantasy novels (Conan, Tolkien, Dune, etc.), as well as references to Polish classical literature (especially Sienkiewicz and Słowacki) and traditional Germanic, Celtic and Slavic legends. However, under the guise of jokes and fast-paced action, there is often a deeper reflection hidden.

Andrzej Sapkowski: awards Andrzej Sapkowski is a multiple winner of all the most important Polish awards for fantasy works, and his books are constantly on the bestseller lists. In 1997, he received the POLITYKI PASZPORT award granted by this prestigious weekly to creators who have the opportunity to promote Polish culture in the world. Andrzej Sapkowski: controversy Andrzej Sapkowski lost the sympathy of some of his fans by coming to meetings with them under the influence of alcohol.

In 2005, a scandal was caused by Sapkowski's statement that "a white man should work three hours a day. After all, God created other races - Jews, Gypsies, to work for him…". This statement took place during the National Convention of Fantasy Lovers "Polcon", in Błażejewko near Poznań, on August 27, 2005. According to comments in the press, it was a racist statement, but most of the comments of the convention participants indicate that it was only an ironic provocation.

"Sapkowski has a phenomenal gift of narrative, inventing sensational events, creating a suggestive mood, grading tension. And a dazzling, slightly cynical sense of humor…" (Jacek Sieradzki, "Polityka")"

"The creator of the fantastic world, Andrzej Sapkowski, was inspired by, among others, Slavic traditions and folklore. There are also elements of contemporary Poland in computer games and the latest TV series"

I don't know if this thing about sequels is a meme, or if he actually wrote new books because he was running out of money, actually, I don't know.

Still, I don't know if people abroad know who the author of this series is

[phobylee]

I don't know if I posted these au drawings-

It's a Demon Swap AU.. I need a proper name. I'll think of one soon-!

But basically this is an AU where Caleb and Philip are demons (with a smidgen of witch in them so they CAN use witch magic too) and Evelyn is human. The boys are still orphans, only this is because their parents left for the Human Realm to research it under a demon guise and were found to be witches, though the boys didn't know that. So Caleb goes to the Human Realm to investigate for closure with a human disguise (it's an illusion at first but later on he figures out how to do full transformations), but he briefly gets distracted from his goal of uncovering the truth when a human catches his attention. They become friends and later it becomes more romantic, and that's when Caleb decides he has to tell her the truth. Let's just say.. Evelyn runs away for a while, and Caleb is heartbroken. He decides he's going to leave and visits one more time.

In the end Evelyn returned to see him, conflicted because she did still LOVE him. And they bond again. Blah blah blah, stuff happens-- I kind of wanna make this into a fic but I'm nervous-- and they end up chased out of gravesfield by a mob-- eve was nearly captured so Caleb fought them off and becomes injured. So they go to the demon realm with Philip to continue their life there! To which Philip doesn't know she's human yet but he's SUS about it. They get along later though!! And AHHH this was my excuse for them all to be happy. Cause unlike in canon.. Philip has 0 reason to kill his brother here or even attempt it. Sure, they might fight, but that's the extent and they work it out. And it's FUN and I enjoy thinking about it. MAYBE.. if anyone's interested.. I will write about these guys. :)

[viridiave]

Wailing Souls

so I had a really mean thought. What if the 8path 1 gang fell to Galdera in the last battle

gonna do a funky and list them in the order of the gods that fell during the fight against Vide according to 8path 2

LONG list of HCs under the cut

8 - TRESSA COLZIONE (Honesty, Prosperity, and the Undying) - Contract-maker with deadly binding deals that ruin lives and punish those amassing fortune - Has the inexplicable ability to show up only when people are in need of the deals she offers - and many people happen to be in need of that - Is also a haunter of ships. At times she is the cause of tempests on the high seas - new ship graveyards have appeared because of her boredom - Deterrents: Marina and Olneo Colzione ○ Perhaps the easiest of the Travelers to reach out to given both her unstable nature and the fact that she was the youngest and first out of all of them to die, but chasing her down is a challenge comparable to Therion's ordeal

7 - THERION (Unreachable Conquest) - Steals more than just material objects now. Lost souls, lost people, lost nations are now part of the hoard - Also comes and goes in the dead of the night - the locations that he is known to have stolen from are all inflicted with nasty insomnia - Specifically avoids high places like the Highlands and the Cliftlands - particularly its highroads. Some are rescued by his hand should they fall by accident (or on purpose) - Deterrent: None, later Tressa Colzione ○ Lingering distrust in the Ravus household - his last meaningful connection before dying to Galdera, other than the Travelers - meant that Therion could not be reached, unless any one of the other Travelers were recovered first as they are the only people he truly trusts with his life. Even if the other Travelers are the ones to reach out to him, he will do his utmost to resist and uh - good luck trying to even catch him

6 - H'AANIT (Wrath of the Successors) - Haunter of the woods and progenitor of monsters - may or may not be cultivating entirely new species that thrive on blood - May or may not be wearing Linde's skin. If the skin is touched without permission, she goes on a rampage. - Is the reason boss monsters like the Devourers of Man and Beast and Direwolves prowl around more often - Deterrent: Z'aanta ○ Like Cyrus, the hardest part about reaching H'aanit is surviving her onslaught - the beasts that rampage the lands are things that even Z'aanta has trouble facing alone. The lack of Linde doesn't help matters.

5 - PRIMROSE AZELHART (Delusions of Grandeur) - Siren-like figure who operates in the shadows to seduce people to their cause; binds generational curses to her victims - Operates under a harmless guise like Ophilia - unlike Ophilia, doesn't have any reservations regarding recruitment methods - Haunts brothels and taverns out of a twisted sense of sympathy for the workers - Deterrent: Revello Forsythe ○ In spite of Primrose's bleak ending she still at least has past connections to ground her - but it will take a LOT of convincing, so sometimes Revello doesn't act alone in trying to reach out to her. Arianna and Odette are along for the ride when the situation is particularly dire

4 - OLBERIC EISENBERG (Isolation in Quiet Suffering) - Holes himself away inside a mountain and becomes an immortal legend that arises only when challengers approach his domain - Likely the most sane out of all of them, but is so isolated and consumed with grief that you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference - Never acts unless provoked to the point of fury. WOULD be the least harmful out of all of them if not for his strength - Deterrents: Erhardt and Philip ○ Erhardt is to Olberic as Odette is to Cyrus - being one of the only people who really understand Olberic to his core. The problem with this is the tragedies that Erhardt himself has caused, and with Olberic's sense of loss being elevated to dangerous extremes, balancing this out with Philip representing the future he swore to protect is pretty much his best bet at reaching him

3 - ALFYN GREENGRASS (Salvation and Guilt) - Silent plaguemaster who spreads poison and ills like a walking pandora's box among the lands - Comes and goes in the dead of the night. He has no set pattern for this, sometimes entire towns just end up rotting overnight - The poisons he sets also fuck up the local environment, and unlike Cyrus he can hide his presence - so he ends up being more of a pain to deal with - Deterrent: Zeph ○ Zeph COULD reach Alfyn fairly easily given Alfyn's core nature being masked over rather than overwritten entirely. The problem is actually managing to find Alfyn before he poisons a town to death, and even then you'd have to deal with his overriding guilt first

2 - CYRUS ALBRIGHT (Reckoning with the Last Stand) - Obscures information through uncontrollable bursts of magic, destroying histories through unbridled destruction - Best treated as a walking natural calamity. Nobody knows how he sustains himself in there. - An incomprehensible babbling mess - sometimes he quotes From The Far Reaches of Hell and other hellish tomes and sometimes it's just apologies - Deterrent: Odette ○ Outside of the other Travelers, Odette is the sole person who understands how Cyrus works. The most difficult part about reaching Cyrus is surviving the calamities he brings

1- OPHILIA CLEMENT (Alone, alone, alone) - Mindt-like figure who guides the lost and weary into their arms so they can spread Galdera's influence further - Basically Ceraphina again? Then again Ceraphina is how deadly cults work - Alongside Primrose is the one to operate under a guise, they probably work together sometimes to poison the Order of the Sacred Flame from the inside - Deterrent: Lianna Clement ○ Very much the only person who can reach her at this low point, but the most that the Deterrents can do is minimize their influence over their victims by taking advantage of their slight lapses of judgment ○ Lianna herself still being in recovery after the events of Ophilia 4 needs a lot of time bring Ophilia back. Her sympathizing somewhat with the Traveler's conditions doesn't help despite her inherent distaste for what they have become ○ Ophilia being the last of the Travelers to be killed also poses a hard challenge for anyone trying to reach her given all she has witnessed and gone through while inside the Gate of Finis

[kittenpower05]

essay time

I just got through urban plague (library of ruina) yesterday and I'm thinking so hard I am rotating it in my brain like a microwave you do not understand

I love dystopia!! I love commentary on humanity by highlighting negative aspects of society!! And I ESPECIALLY love when there is a moral implication to it!! Spoilers for wedge reception cutscene but

The conversation between Philip and Oscar hits so hard when you view it with all the perspectives and parallels goin on like,, Philip WANTS to go back and retrieve the books of his dead coworkers, he wants to be able to avenge them for their death, and though Oscar agrees to go with him, he brings up the point that inherently, that thought is selfish, and that trying to do something under the guise of it being for someone else is a dangerous mindset

And like..... looking at the City? It's not an entirely wrong stance to have! It can be argued that people arent inherently selfish, or it could even be argued that even with people's inherent selfishness that doesn't diminish the acts of good deeds/doing things for the sake of other people. But in the City, it's a dog-eat-dog world where people kill to survive, to make a living for themselves. The only way to move forward is to force someone else behind. You're trapped in oractically an endless loop of trying and failing to increase status in the city. In that sense, if you ARENT selfish, you're as good as dead. So in Oscars eyes, trying to justify actions under the guise of emotion or for the sake of someone else forgoes safety, it puts oneself at risk, it can lead people blindly into situations they can't handle anf get themselves killed over something they shouldn't have placed upon themselves.

And especially seeing Roland and Angela's commentary on it as well!!! Angela is against it obviously because she was hurt by this mentality!!! Ayin had her trapped in a basement, repeating the same day over and over and over for YEARS. She wasn't even given a happy end for all of her hard work since she wasn't deemed significant enough for one- she was forgotten in favor of all the other sephirot getting their character growth and happily ever after. It doesn't matter to her that Ayin was following Carmen's dream in hoping to cure humanity and fix depression or whatever- Angela and the sephirot and all the employees of lob corp had to suffer for it. Enjecting them with drugs to create horrid creatures, living in the same timeloop until the day turns out Just Right, is it worth it? At what point does the suffering of the few justify betterment for the many?

But even so this is not at all like the situation that Philip is going through! Angela had experienced a very severe case of this- Philip only wants to go back to the library in hopes of getting his friends books back. Yeah, there's the likelihood that he and the wedge order all die in the process, but he dies for his friends. That's honorable, right? After all, it was his fault in the first place so it's only fair that he does something to make up for that, right? Clearly Oscar disagrees- he's the head of an Extremely influential order, and if he went around helping anyone with what he sees to be a hero complex then he would quickly lose reputation, he would be overrun by lower class fixers with meaningless revenge requests.

I do have an opinion and many other thoughts on this argument- but that's not my point here! My point is that morality is extremely complex, and I love esp in dystopias when morality is discussed and characters clearly have a different view of it based on who they are or the experienced they've went through! The game has a clear stance on the topic and it's because of the setting that all of these characters are living in- and I think that's beautiful