#republic day 2020

[rabbitcruiser]

Republic Day (German: Tag der Republik) was an official holiday in East Germany, celebrated annually on 7 October from 1949 to 1989. Republic Day commemorates the anniversary of the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) on 7 October 1949.

[newsreleted]

TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal

See More.....

[czgif]

Ben Cristovao in Ben Cristovao feat. Sara James: Brighter Day 2023, MV, dir. Nikolas Sand IMDB - YT

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #14

April 12-19 2024

The Department of Commerce announced a deal with Samsung to help bring advanced semiconductor manufacturing and research and development to Texas. The deal will bring 45 billion dollars of investment to Texas to help build a research center in Taylor Texas and expand Samsung's Austin, Texas, semiconductor facility. The Biden Administration estimates this will create 21,000 new jobs. Since 1990 America has fallen from making nearly 40% of the world's semiconductor to just over 10% in 2020.

The Department of Energy announced it granted New York State $158 million to help support people making their homes more energy efficient. This is the first payment out of a $8.8 billion dollar program with 11 other states having already applied. The program will rebate Americans for improvements on their homes to lower energy usage. Americans could get as much as $8,000 off for installing a heat pump, as well as for improvements in insulation, wiring, and electrical panel. The program is expected to help save Americans $1 billion in electoral costs, and help create 50,000 new jobs.

The Department of Education began the formal process to make President Biden's new Student Loan Debt relief plan a reality. The Department published the first set of draft rules for the program. The rules will face 30 days of public comment before a second draft can be released. The Administration hopes the process can be finished by the Fall to bring debt relief to 30 million Americans, and totally eliminate the debt of 4 million former students. The Administration has already wiped out the debt of 4.3 million borrowers so far.

The Department of Agriculture announced a $1 billion dollar collaboration with USAID to buy American grown foods combat global hunger. Most of the money will go to traditional shelf stable goods distributed by USAID, like wheat, rice, sorghum, lentils, chickpeas, dry peas, vegetable oil, cornmeal, navy beans, pinto beans and kidney beans, while $50 million will go to a pilot program to see if USAID can expand what it normally gives to new products. The food aid will help feed people in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen.

The Department of the Interior announced it's expanding four national wildlife refuges to protect 1.13 million wildlife habitat. The refuges are in New Mexico, North Carolina, and two in Texas. The Department also signed an order protecting parts of the Placitas area. The land is considered sacred by the Pueblos peoples of the area who have long lobbied for his protection. Security Deb Haaland the first Native American to serve as Interior Secretary and a Pueblo herself signed the order in her native New Mexico.

The Department of Labor announced new work place safety regulations about the safe amount of silica dust mine workers can be exposed to. The dust is known to cause scaring in the lungs often called black lung. It's estimated that the new regulations will save over 1,000 lives a year. The United Mine Workers have long fought for these changes and applauded the Biden Administration's actions.

The Biden Administration announced its progress in closing the racial wealth gap in America. Under President Biden the level of Black Unemployment is the lowest its ever been since it started being tracked in the 1970s, and the gap between white and black unemployment is the smallest its ever been as well. Black wealth is up 60% over where it was in 2019. The share of black owned businesses doubled between 2019 and 2022. New black businesses are being created at the fastest rate in 30 years. The Administration in 2021 Interagency Task Force to combat unfair house appraisals. Black homeowners regularly have their homes undervalued compared to whites who own comparable property. Since the Taskforce started the likelihood of such a gap has dropped by 40% and even disappeared in some states. 2023 represented a record breaking $76.2 billion in federal contracts going to small business owned by members of minority communities. This was 12% of federal contracts and the President aims to make it 15% for 2025.

The EPA announced (just now as I write this) that it plans to add PFAS, known as forever chemicals, to the Superfund law. This would require manufacturers to pay to clean up two PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. This move to force manufacturers to cover the costs of PFAS clean up comes after last week's new rule on drinking water which will remove PFAS from the nation's drinking water.

Bonus:

President Biden met a Senior named Bob in Pennsylvania who is personally benefiting from The President's capping the price of insulin for Seniors at $35, and Biden let Bob know about a cap on prosecution drug payments for seniors that will cut Bob's drug bills by more than half.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephen Robinson at Public Notice:

A near-majority of American voters willingly reelected Donald Trump. This harsh reality is a collective moral failure, but it’s also not a choice made in sound mind. Consider that voters believed Trump’s first presidency was a roaring success and Joe Biden’s only term a Carter-level catastrophe. It’s an upside-down Bizarro World view that ultimately played a key role in dooming Kamala Harris.

Trump’s 2024 platform was rooted in an obvious lie — that the nation under Biden’s leadership is a flaming dumpster fire and everyone was much better off when Trump was president. Democrats challenged this false reality with facts, but they ultimately lost the messaging war. Their best efforts were no match for the most powerful weapons in Trump’s propaganda arsenal — a timid press and a right-coded social social media environment. Greg Sargent reports in the New Republic that the Harris campaign’s own internal polling revealed an alarming trend: “Undecided voters didn’t believe that some of the highest profile things that happened during Trump’s presidency — even if they saw these things negatively — were his fault.” According to exit polls, Trump decisively won the questions “who do you trust more to handle the economy?” and “who do you trust most to handle a crisis?” Of course, in reality Trump utterly botched the 2020 pandemic response, which researchers concluded resulted in 40 percent more deaths than necessary. And yet swing voters are willing to risk it all again in hopes of cheaper eggs and cruelty against outgroups.

Disinformation on demand

Legacy media shoulders significant blame for their “sanewashing” of Trump’s incoherency and deteriorating mental state. Voters believed Trump could fix a steadily improving economy despite his promotion of inflationary tariffs. The media even presented Trump’s rants as cogent discussions of economic theory.

It’s worth noting, however, that an NBC poll from April revealed that voters who received news primarily from legacy media (newspapers, cable news, etc.) still overwhelmingly supported Biden. Trump owes his victory in great part to low-propensity voters of all races, including young men, and those voters don’t necessarily form their views based on mainstream media reporting. Rather, far too many are stuck in an online social media bubble where they are delivered a steady diet of rightwing propaganda. The median age of a Fox News viewer is 68, and liberals have joked about the network “brainwashing” their conservative parents. But rightwing social media content has effectively targeted and radicalized younger people, who — unlike the typical Hannity-obsessed grandpa — can vote for the next several decades. TikTok, which Trump joined in June, has 170 million users in the United States, and according a Pew Research survey, more than half of them said they regularly get their news from the platform. That’s up from just 22 percent in 2020. This is a serious concern because the far right uses TikTok to advance unfounded conspiracy theories and outright lies.

[...]

Lower income Americans, particularly young people, do spend more of their income on groceries, rent, and gas. That’s why Republicans were so laser focused on the price of eggs. Unfortunately, there’s a dearth of liberal content countering the negative vibes. Of course, explaining the post-pandemic economic recovery is complex and requires more than a punchy one-minute video can convey. Although people might idly scroll TikTok all day, consuming 60-second quick hit videos like potato chips, they will balk at reading an extensive, well-reported news article. That’s too filling a meal.

According to a University of Oregon study, 40 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans surveyed said they’d become more conservative from their TikTok usage. Half of the Democrats surveyed said they’d grown more liberal, but a lot of far-left content on TikTok is downright alienating and can sound like MAGA’s idea of a strawman leftist. For instance, one user boasted that she “didn’t care” if liberal economic and social policies “hurt the economy,” thus conceding that those policies are in fact harmful to economic progress. TikTok’s artificial “vibecession” dominated the discourse, while abortion-related content was actively suppressed even while pregnant women were bleeding out in parking lots. Users of the platform resorted to disguising the word “abortion” as “aborshun” or “ab0rti0n” in order to reach an audience. TikTok has a longstanding policy against promoting abortion services, which it classifies as “unsuitable businesses, products or services.” However, TikTok, YouTube, and Meta have allowed users to spread and monetize anti-abortion misinformation. Studies have shown an interesting gender gap in where young people receive their news on social media: For most women, it’s TikTok, while most men learn about the world from YouTube, X, and Reddit, all of which have become havens of crude masculinity.

On YouTube, 56 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 44. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that researches extremism, conducted a four-part research project this year that determined YouTube’s algorithm consistently steers users to rightwing and Christian content. The algorithm does this even with seemingly apolitical search terms, like “male lifestyle guru,” which YouTube reflexively associates with conservative ideology. Rightwing news content was also more frequently recommended, including anti-vaxxer videos. As far back as 2019, both YouTube and Facebook’s autofill search boxes would return content that promoted anti-vaccine misinformation.

[...]

Why rightwing content has the edge

When Kamala Harris appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alexandra Cooper told her listeners, “I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show because I want Call Her Daddy to be a place that everyone feels comfortable tuning in.” Left-leaning podcasters/social media content creators often avoid politics for fear of turning off their right-leaning fans. Joe Rogan and Dave Portnoy at Barstool Sports don’t bother with such apologies when they have rightwing guests because it doesn’t compromise their brand. They are rightwing cultural influencers. Liberal podcaster Hasan Piker recently commented on the impact rightwing influencers have on young men of all races.

“There is a massive amount of rightwing radicalization that has been occurring, especially in younger male spaces. Everything is completely dominated by rightwing politics,” he said. “If you’re a dude under the age of 30 and you have any hobbies whatsoever, whether it’s playing video games, whether it’s working out, whether it’s listening to a history podcast or whatever, every single facet of that is completely dominated by center right to [the] Trumpian right. Everything they see is rightwing sentiment.”

Rogan and Portnoy might not present as overtly political as Walsh and Shapiro, but their edgy, hyper masculine personas are pure MAGA. Even billionaire CEO Elon Musk likes to present himself as a “disrupter,” an agent of change who boldly confronts the status quo. Anyone who’s seen the more popular indie films of the 1970s would realize how compelling this narrative is to young men. The subtle way that Rogan and Portnoy infuse politics into their personas presents a contrast with left-leaning social media content. The liberal TikToker or YouTuber who releases videos about home makeovers might endorse Democratic politicians during election season while wearing their “just voted” sticker, but rightwing influencers prime their audience on a daily basis. Young men marinate in a stew of rightwing sentiment and end up resenting the libs.

Stephen Robinson wrote in Public Notice a very valid case that a right-coded media environment gave Donald Trump the decisive boost to get elected, such as praising the disastrous Trump reign as a “success.”

Social media algorithms heavily favored right-coded and pro-Trump content, despite the never-ending whining about “censorship” from conservatives.

[gffa]

THE HIGH REPUBLIC CHECKLIST: If you want to consume these in order, I really like Youtini's High Republic Reading Order list for being extremely comprehensive and solidly updated for Phase III+ or the more middle-ground comprehensive High Republic guide from starwars.com or Wookieepedia generally does a good job putting things in individual release order. This post is just a checklist of what's available and not quite a reflection of read order. (Which I generally suggest following release order, not chronological order, given that you're often meant to know/not know certain things.) Possibly missing a short story here or there, but assume the novels are in read order for each given phase and that it's a useful list for remembering what you have/haven't read yet!

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi

The High Republic: A Test of Courage

The High Republic: Into the Dark

The High Republic: The Rising Storm

The High Republic: Race To Crashpoint Tower

The High Republic: Out Of The Shadows

The High Republic: Mission to Disaster

The High Republic: The Fallen Star

The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: Path of Deceit

The High Republic: Convergence

The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City

The High Republic: Cataclysm

The High Republic: Quest for Planet X

The High Republic: Path of Vengeance

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness

The High Republic: Escape From Valo [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Defy The Storm [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Temptation of the Force [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Beware the Nameless [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Tears of the Nameless [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Trials of the Jedi [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: A Valiant Vow [UPCOMING]

The High Republic: Into the Light [UPCOMING]

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE I:

The High Republic (2021) - 15 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2021) - 13 issues

The High Republic: The Monster of Temple Peak - 4 issues

The High Republic: The Edge Of Balance - 2 manga volumes

The High Republic: Trail of Shadows - 5 issues

The High Republic: Eye of the Storm - 2 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Blade - 4 issues

The High Republic (2022) - 10 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2021) - 8 issues

The High Republic: Edge of Balance: Precedent - 1 manga volume

The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror - 4 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight - 4 issues

The High Republic (2023) - 2 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic (2022) - 1 issue [ONGOING]

The High Republic Adventures – Saber for Hire 4 issues [UPCOMING]

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Tempest Runner

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE I:

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #6 - "The Gaze Electric"

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2021

The High Republic Adventures Annual 2021

The High Republic Adventures: Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #14 - "A Very Nihil Interlude"

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2023

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE II:

The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE III:

The High Republic Adventures: Crash Landing [UPCOMING]

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE I:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Starlight - Anthology of Insider short stories. [Includes "Go Together", "First Duty", "Hidden Danger", "Past Mistakes", and "Shadows Remain"]

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE II:

Star Wars Insider: The High Republic: Tales of Enlightenment - Anthology of Insider short stories. [Includes "New Prospects", "A Different Perspective", "The Unusual Suspect", "No Such Thing as a Bad Customer", "Last Orders", "Missing Pieces", and author interviews.]

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - ALL PHASES:

The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life [Includes "The Queen's Bloom", "A Closed Fist Has No Claws", "Shield of the Jedi", "The Lonely Traveler is Home", "After the Fall", "The Force Provides", "All Jedi Walk Their Own Path", "Light in the Darkness", "The Call of Coruscant", and "Rogue Element"]

[tremendouskoalachild]

anybody remember the lucasfilm panel at disney inverstor day 2020? how they announced more shows than anyone knew what to do with, and everyone was speculating which ones would even end up being made? i member

Rangers of the New Republic - didn't get made

Ahsoka - getting a second season

Andor - getting a second and final season

Obi-Wan Kenobi (technically announced earlier at D23) - didn't get renewed

The Bad Batch (animation) - 3 seasons

Visions (animation) - 2 seasons

Lando - hasn't gotten made, creator left the project, might become a movie instead

The Acolyte - didn't get renewed

A Droid Story (animation) - didn't get made

Willow - not only didn't get renewed, was entirely erased from disney+

The Book of Boba Fett was announced indirectly, only as a "next chapter" for the mandoverse, because they wanted to hold off for the announcement at the end of The Mandalorian season 2, airing at the time. that show also didn't get renewed.

(while we're here. movie releases announced at the same panel:

Indiana Jones 5

Children of Blood and Bone - didn't get made, lucasfilm got rid of its rights to the property

Taika Waititi movie - didn't get made (yet?)

Rogue Squadron - didn't get made)

that's around 6 abandoned projects and 4 shows cancelled after their first season. 2 live action shows got a renewal, outside of The Mandalorian, which was an established show, and still got just one more season after this. 2 animated shows got renewed, one of which wasn't even made by lucasfilm. great job everyone

[holdingforexo]

holding for sehun: day 346 of 639 ↳ EXO SEHUN for Nature Republic’s 12 Shades of Light | January 2020

[beardedmrbean]

New York City residents in Hispanic and black communities that supported President Trump in huge numbers in the 2024 election hailed Tuesday’s local immigration raids that nabbed scores of suspected heinous criminals.

Starting in the Bronx — where Trump’s support surged 35% between 2020 and 2024 — heavily armed federal immigration agents stormed through the city, targeting migrants with warrants for murder, kidnapping and other heinous crimes, police sources told The Post.

Among those arrested was Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, an alleged ringleader of the notorious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua whom immigration officers took into custody at an Ogden Avenue apartment in the Bronx.

“Oh, thank God they got him,” said a resident who lives near the complex, visibly relieved that the violent thug was taken off the streets.

Elsewhere in the borough, locals expressed similar sentiments.

“Get them the hell off the street! Get them the hell out of the street so people don’t have to walk in fear,” said Evelyn Brown, 80, a Bronx resident from Jamaica who voted for Trump.

“Take the damn bad ones away!”

A resident of the Knickerbocker apartment complex in Washington Heights in deep-blue Manhattan, where Trump gained 5% in 2024 over his 2020 showing, said he’s happy to see some action being taken against criminals but added that he still hopes some deserving migrant families are offered a path to safety.

The resident — who didn’t want to give his name — said he voted for Trump the first time but didn’t make it to the polls in 2024.

“Too many people came over the border at once, and now it has to be a whole operation,” he said of the raids.

“I don’t want dangerous people on the street, especially if we’re paying for it. People getting hurt on the street. Why should they get a pass?”

“But some of them are families,” he added of migrants who could end up eventually being deported, too, because of their illegal status.

“I don’t want to see them separated or hurt back home.”

“It’s all a mess.”

In Queens, where the president saw his support grow by nearly 10.5% from 2020 to 2024, according to Board of Election results, residents said they were glad to see criminals taken off the street.

Jason Rodriguez, 41, a forklift driver and security camera installer, told The Post while in Jackson Heights that he’s glad Homeland Security is going after Tren de Aragua gangbangers, but added that the ICE raids are also having a chilling effect on hardworking, law-abiding migrants who fear being deported.

“Honestly, it’s good to get Tren de Aragua off the streets because they’re dangerous. Trump should deport the criminals,” said Rodriguez, who was born at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Brooklyn to parents who came from the Dominican Republic in the 1960s.

“Their jails in their own countries are a lot worse than here. They don’t care about being locked up here, so they should be deported,” he added.

But “there are a lot of undocumented, hardworking people busting their ass doing 14- and 16-hour days to support their families,” too, he said.

“They’re doing it right. They’re contributing to society, unlike the criminals.”

Electrical engineer Damso Vargas, 52, of Elmhurst moved to the US from the Dominican Republic in 2001 and has since become a US citizen.

He once worked in the control tower at Punta Cana International Airport but came to the US for a higher-paying job.

Vargas said the vetting of newly arrived migrants had been too lax under President Joe Biden and believes the criminal element needs to be snuffed out.

Although he supports Homeland Security conducting targeted raids on criminal migrants, he said he doesn’t want ICE to conduct sweeping searches and deportations.

“If you come to this country, you need to show respect and work hard. You don’t come here to do gang bulls–t,” Vargas said.

“If you come to my country, I’d expect you to do the right thing.”

Vargas said there are large swaths of the borough that have rapidly gone downhill due to the influx of criminal migrants.

“I remember in 2010, you could walk around Roosevelt Avenue and enjoy yourself, but now I’m scared to walk around because there are a lot of newly arrived migrant criminals,” he said.

Dolphin Chung, 57, is a Peruvian green-card holder from Jackson Heights who sells jewelry under the 82nd Street-Jackson Heights subway station. He’s previously owned and run jewelry stores in Harlem and Staten Island.

He supports deporting foreign criminals but does not want mass deportations of migrants.

“The foreign criminals are dangerous, so it’s good to get rid of them,” Chung said.

“We don’t want the foreign gangs here. But there a lot of people around here who don’t have papers but work very hard. They work from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m., seven days a week.”

On Staten Island — a Republican stronghold by city standards, going for Trump in three consecutive elections — Kevin Morales, 43, a construction worker who voted for the president in 2024 but not in 2020, drew a distinction between hardworking migrants and those being rounded up in the raids.

“Listen, there’s too many people here that aren’t looking to make a better life for themselves. Instead they are robbing, shooting and raping. Those are not the kind of immigrants we want here,” he told The Post at Greenridge Plaza in Great Kills.

“I’m an immigrant and come from a family of immigrants, but we work. We came here to work and make a better life for our children.” 

[saintvainglorious]

TEMERAIRE FIC RECS

I read no fic at all in May, as I was too busy devouring all nine Temeraire novels in a single month - and then spent a very happy June reading a fairly absurd amount of Temeraire fics. In honor of a Pride month well spent, here's a fic rec list!

(Divided up into categories - Laurence/Tharkay, Laurence/Napoleon, other ships, and gen)

WILLIAM LAURENCE/TENZING THARKAY

ley lines by malfaisant/@stanleyraymondkowalski (T, 14k, 2015) Amnesia era!Laurence sees Tharkay and it doesn't cure his amnesia; a renewed friendship tinged with loss follows

Tharkay makes it to Peking intact with the news of Napoleon’s imminent invasion of Russia. Which would be all well and good, except that Laurence isn’t very intact himself.

which is like everything by sere (This_is_Sere) (G, 3k, 2024) Post-canon Laurence accidentally breaks Tharkay's heart a little, and put it back together in the sweetest way possible

A chance remark from Granby provokes an excess of feeling in Tharkay.

The Reward of Service by yunitsa/@pamphilia (T, 4k, 2016) A lovely post-canon get-together fic, where Granby puts his foot in it a little and realizations are had

‘It is no good asking me,’ Laurence said at last, pushing the pattern-book away over breakfast, ‘I am not the one–’ Not the one who would be living with the result, he had been about to say. But they had hardly accepted Tharkay’s invitation as casual houseguests.

A Soft Dawn by corvile (G, 2k, 2015) A soft and sweet Tongues of Serpents-era fic, featuring accidental spooning, self-introspection, and maybe the most romantic hand-holding known to man

Upon thinking on this feeling of jealousy, Tharkay has done some rather clever intuitive leaps involving situations both real and imagined, and he's come to a rather curious conclusion: he's a little in love with William Laurence.

all flowers in time by lastwingedthing (E, 7k, 2017) A splendid post-canon get-together where it's Laurence who pines after an oblivious Tharkay, rather than the other way around. Also, sex!

The consolations of possession.

Ship's Gossip by Spatz/@cactusspatz (M, 6k, 2019) AU where Laurence takes up Tharkay's offer to become a privateer and Tharkay joins Laurence on the ship; Laurence learns some things about Tharkay, and then about himself

Laurence is beginning to enjoy life as a privateer - though he cannot figure out why Tharkay should still be sailing out with them - when Temeraire decides to ask him about sodomy.

WILLIAM LAURENCE/NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Dearest William by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (T, 23k, 2016) Laurence and Napoleon are pen pals! Riotously funny, until it's heartbreaking

Napoleon sends a letter to the upstart sea-captain who stole his dragon, Laurence sends one back, and a correspondence begins under the uneasy eye of the admiralty. When Laurence had admitted the matter to Granby his lieutenant exclaimed, “God, does Boney want you drawn and quartered as a traitor?” which seems perfectly possible.

i sing of arms and the man by Jack_R (M, 21k, 2020) Ancient Rome AU (and really good dragon-related worldbuilding)! Laurence longs for the days of the Roman Republic, but Rome's new emperor is rather adept at persuasion

‘You think me a far worthier man than I am,’ he says, then. ‘No,’ Napoleone says, softly, ‘I don’t think I do at all.’

L'envoyé céleste triomphant de la Maladie. Antoine-Jean Gros (1813) by VerdetCadet/@verdet-cadet (G, 3k, 2023) A League of Dragons captured-by-Napoleon fic involving a rather appalling painting and Tharkay and Granby being the world's funniest wingmen (ha)

"Given what he has done with the barest civility on my part, I cannot think what he would do with the least encouragement." “Oh, no?” said Granby innocently, a sentiment that provoked a raised eyebrow from Tharkay over his glass, and in Laurence, a strangeness in the pit of his stomach. Or: Napoleon is an enthusiastic patron of the arts. Laurence's best friends lovingly suss out his willingness to bone Napoleon for political gain and strategic expediency.

Ordinance of Fate by by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (T, 13k (WIP), 2022) *slamming hand on table rythmically* soulmate AU soulmate AU soulmate AU soulmate AU

The name comes when he is 15, and Laurence hides it immediately. Then at the age of 22 Laurence reads a letter from an old shipmate who writes that “the troops in Italy were routed by some new General of theirs, Napoleon Bonaparte-"

Doctrine on Worship by Kangoo/@youngster-monster (G, 6k, 2021) AU where Laurence becomes a priest instead of joining the Navy, and meets Temeraire anyway - but Temeraire's captain takes an interest in his dragon's new friend

“You do not strike me as a man well versed in selfishness. Perhaps you ought to try it; you might find it easier to understand my presence then." In which Laurence made a different choice, a long time ago, which changes very little in the long run.

OTHER SHIPS

Tender Like a Bruise by VerdetCadet/@verdet-cadet (T, 5k, 2024) Granby/Little - Granby struggles with the shame and trauma of losing his arm; Augustine Little is there for him

It is not a good time to be short an arm, if there ever was such a thing. Granby has always prided himself on his competence and his easy good cheer. Now, at a stroke, he finds himself lacking in both.

revelry by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (E, 2k, 2018) Tharkay/Laurence/Granby/Little - Post-canon Tharkay & Laurence invite Granby & Little over to visit, delightful and unabashedly voyueristic sexytimes ensue

Little suddenly turns away and throws himself down on the couch where Laurence previously sat, drunkenness making him stumble a little. He leans heavily against Tharkay, who doesn't mind, and tosses Granby a jaunty salute. “Now you must kiss him, John. I know how long you have wanted to; you will always regret it if you do not."

What comfort I can by VerdetCadet/@verdet-cadet (M, 5k, 2023) Laurence/Granby - Amnesiac!Laurence has suspicions about the nature of his relationship with Granby. Second in a two-part series, part one is also splendid! I just have a fatal weakness for the amnesia era ok

The truth of Laurence's treason comes out while Laurence is still aboard the Potentate. Laurence's half formed memories are just there enough for dangerous conjecture. Granby is there to offer what comfort he can.

That Dare Not Speak Its Name by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (E, 11k (WIP), 2024) Laurence/Granby - Laurence covers for Little and Granby and discoveries are made. The dialogue and introspection are so very delicious I'm SO INVESTED AUGH

After an incriminating letter is discovered, Granby is caught out as an invert – and everyone knows his lover is another captain. Since the companion of a common Yellow Reaper would not be spared the noose, Laurence declares that it's him. Over time, he starts to wish it really were.

Uncharted by novembersmith/@novembersmith (E, 5k, 2009) Laurence/Granby/Tharkay - Laurence and Granby are together and Tharkay is mortified, until he's given quite good reason not to be

Tharkay had had the dubious pleasure of watching Laurence and Granby being blissfully in love for several weeks now.

Foibles by VerdetCadet/@verdet-cadet (M, 3k, 2023) Laurence/Tharkay and Laurence/Napoleon, sort of - Tharkay likes roleplaying and Laurence is not displeased by the role Tharkay takes on this time

Tharkay, faced with an inconvenience he was forced to endure or a problem his mind could not set aside, found his ease by simply Not Being Tharkay for a time.

An Alchemy of Character by PepperHoney (G, 7k, 2023) Tharkay/Granby - Tharkay and Granby compete for Laurence's affections, until they find a more fulfilling use of their time

Granby and Tharkay have been watching each other court Laurence to no avail for years now. It's something of a game between them, truly, one whose success they don't really believe in anymore. It takes a long journey aboard the Allegiance for them to realise--perhaps, if Laurence can't be reached, someone else can.

GEN

Smooth Water All Our Days by 20thcenturyvole (T, 37k, 2021) Technically Laurence/Tharkay (and they're lovely here) but much more gen-focused. Post-canon, Laurence, with his family's help, gets Temeraire's political career off the ground; meanwhile, Tharkay investigates a conspiracy. Also, parties!

Laurence desires nothing more than to retire to Tharkay's estate and help Temeraire get to Parliament, for what more could he want than a place in Britain with space enough for a dragon, and the company of a dear friend? But wars rarely end so neatly. Bellicose lords, Bourbon princes, errant heirs and shadowy forces threaten to undermine the very peace that Laurence and Temeraire fought to obtain, and ruin the happiness that Laurence was just beginning to glimpse.

remember (you deserve this) by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (T, 10k, 2018) Laurence finds a different way to punish himself for the treason. Superb angst (mind the tags), and the last line of this fic d e s t r o y e d me

Laurence is pardoned for Temeraire's sake, but he manages to punish himself anyway.

Animal Husbandry by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (G, 11k, 2017) Laurence is told that Temeraire accepted Dayes as his captain, but Laurence cannot forget the dragon he's lost.

Weeks after finding a dragon egg in the Amitie’s hold William Laurence reluctantly turns away and lets the Corps take Temeraire - but he doesn’t return to the Navy. He’s not an aviator, but somehow Laurence still ends up going down in history as the instigator behind the Great Dragon Rebellion of ‘06.

Captains by StrangerWithMyFace/@agentem (G, 2k, 2010) Perscitia (my beloved!!!) has a rough day; Wellington, in his roundabout way, is there to cheer her up. I am weak for Perscitia and Wellington bonding weak i say

Perscitia encounters two men at the London covert, and one of them is her captain.

Forays Into Human Sexuality (or whatever Laurence is doing) by WerewolvesAreReal/@werewolves-are-real (G, 1k, 2024) Laurence finds out that no, actually, not every man is secretly a repressed bisexual

Laurence says, “It is wholly natural, anyway, with no women around.”

[tomorrowusa]

Four years ago today (March 13th), then President Donald Trump got around to declaring a national state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration had been downplaying the danger to the United States for 51 days since the first US infection was confirmed on January 22nd.

From an ABC News article dated 25 February 2020...

CDC warns Americans of 'significant disruption' from coronavirus

Until now, health officials said they'd hoped to prevent community spread in the United States. But following community transmissions in Italy, Iran and South Korea, health officials believe the virus may not be able to be contained at the border and that Americans should prepare for a "significant disruption." This comes in contrast to statements from the Trump administration. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday the threat to the United States from coronavirus "remains low," despite the White House seeking $1.25 billion in emergency funding to combat the virus. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on “The Exchange” Tuesday evening, "We have contained the virus very well here in the U.S." [ ... ] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the request "long overdue and completely inadequate to the scale of this emergency." She also accused President Trump of leaving "critical positions in charge of managing pandemics at the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security vacant." "The president's most recent budget called for slashing funding for the Centers for Disease Control, which is on the front lines of this emergency. And now, he is compounding our vulnerabilities by seeking to ransack funds still needed to keep Ebola in check," Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Our state and local governments need serious funding to be ready to respond effectively to any outbreak in the United States. The president should not be raiding money that Congress has appropriated for other life-or-death public health priorities." She added that lawmakers in the House of Representatives "will swiftly advance a strong, strategic funding package that fully addresses the scale and seriousness of this public health crisis." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called the Trump administration's request "too little too late." "That President Trump is trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola -- which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren't taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be," Schumer said in a statement.

A reminder that Trump had been leaving many positions vacant – part of a Republican strategy to undermine the federal government.

Here's a picture from that ABC piece from a nearly empty restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. The screen displays a Trump tweet still downplaying COVID-19 with him seeming more concerned about the effect of the Dow Jones on his re-election bid.

People were not buying Trump's claims but they were buying PPE.

I took this picture at CVS on February 26th that year.

The stock market which Trump in his February tweet claimed looked "very good" was tanking on March 12th – the day before his state of emergency declaration.

Trump succeeded in sending the US economy into recession much faster than George W. Bush did at the end of his term – quite a feat!. (As an aside, every recession in the US since 1981 has been triggered by Republican presidents.)

Of course Trump never stopped trying to downplay the pandemic nor did he ever take responsibility for it. The US ended up with the highest per capita death rate of any technologically advanced country.

Precious time was lost while Trump dawdled. Orange on this map indicates COVID infections while red indicates COVID deaths. At the time Trump declared a state of emergency, the virus had already spread to 49 states.

The United States could have done far better and it certainly had the tools to do so.

The Obama administration had limited the number of US cases of Ebola to under one dozen during that pandemic in the 2010s. Based on their success, they compiled a guide on how the federal government could limit future pandemics.

Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm

Of course Trump ignored it.

Unlike those boxes of nuclear secrets in Trump's bathroom, the Obama pandemic limitation document is not classified. Anybody can read it – even if Trump didn't. This copy comes from the Stanford University Libraries.

TOWARDS EPIDEMIC PREDICTION: FEDERAL EFFORTS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN OUTBREAK MODELING

Feel free to share this post with anybody who still feels nostalgic about the Trump White House years!

[kradeelav]

no portfolio day post, but i thought it'd be a good idea to re-introduce myself since it's the new year!

* my oldest and fondest fandom is the fire emblem video game series; i fell in love with the tellius duology (fe9/10) and started posting online on deviantart way back in 2008 due to those games - but fates (fe14) is my current fixation due to one particular old knight & a juicy dead dove ship ~ currently working on a R18 doujinshi/comic-book to be printed hopefully this year. most upcoming art posts will be this. :>

* semi-retired fandoms include hellsing & republic commando (star wars: eu exclusively). i'm not really an OC person other than one original webcomic that was published from 2016-2020; it's archived here, you can also buy a collected version on itch.io along with a few other comics & zines.

* while i'm not exclusively a kink artist, i do like drawing any and all fetishes that's in-character or that amuses me for whatever reason. R18 posts will always have a click-in opt-in, but there can be untagged work or previews here that might not appeal.

* occasionally i'll mass delete text posts / old art that i no longer enjoy from social media; however all old art is still hosted permanently on my site archive that goes all the way back to 2008 (very easy to navigate). this was a compromise since my brain occasionally gets the "delete everything and dissapear" call of the wild. it's also available in a zip dump for you to download (it's on my to-do list to make a current dump).

* other site goodies include my zihark fanshrine since the character's very near and dear to me. my most shared page is probably my static CANCELLED RESOURCES page for kink artists that went semi-viral on twitter ages ago. should every social media platform go down, i'll always still be updating the blog. :>

* i'm a design manager at my dayjob; any other IRL stuff i don't really care to share here (because i'm an internet Old and pretty private on top of that), but i do have a dreamwidth diary that's a little more open for those who seek it out, and an inspo blog at @walonvaus that i revived in the past year. (still happy to answer questions regarding my art though!)

art's also on bsky and baraag/fediverse. thanks for reading ~

[eugenedebs1920]

Trump may be the pinnacle of avoiding accountability. Hence the name Teflon Don. He has convinced a large swath of Americans he is a victim. A victim of unwarranted indictments, smear campaigns, violations of his 1st amendment rights. He has convinced nearly half the nation that these assaults against him are politically motivated & that it is the Biden administration, of the Democrats who are perpetuating these acts towards him, conveniently leaving out his role in any of it.

If you were to listen to Trump speak with no, or little knowledge of his past, his presidency, or events that occurred towards the end of his presidency and beyond, you would think he was martyr, unjustly persecuted by a oppressive and cruel regime. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Democrats had no hand in his inability to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. They did not force him to create a fake electors scheme, they did not force him to continuously lie & fan the flames of anger in his followers, they did not make him incite an insurrection on the capitol to stop the certification of a constitutionally mandated procedure, they did not make him take state secrets, war plans, nuclear secrets, & classified information after he knew his presidency was over, they did not make him refuse to return those documents when asked to by the FBI. Dems did not make Trump pay off a porn star he had sex with by committing business fraud through his lawyer to hide the infidelity from the American voters. There was no push by Democrats to make Trump sexually assault E. Jean Carroll, then habitually defame her in the worlds loudest bully pulpit. Democrats did not force the Trump foundation, a charity in which they defrauded their donors and recipients. There was no forcing the Trump organization to over inflate their assets & under inflate their gains & commit tax fraud. Democrats had no part in these crimes. It was Trump and Trump alone who partook in this criminality.

Regardless of what the Supreme Court says, a core principle of our Constitutional Republic is the notion that NO one is above the law. That all must, & will, be held accountable for their actions in a court of law. This includes congressmen, the wealthy, senators, the poor, and the president of the United States.

Trump can play the victim. He can whine and lie constantly (and he does). He can pretend he is an innocent target to a powerful entity that is coming after him without merit and by no fault of his own.

This is a complete distortion. Trump committed these crimes, & unlike his claims of a rigged election, there is evidence to back it up, proof that he engaged in this lawlessness.

Trump thinks the American people are dumb. That we can’t see what is in front of our face. That we can be manipulated by a two but conman but, wee see through his deception. We see through the lies. We are not as ignorant as he thinks we are.

There will come a day when Trump must answer for the crimes he engaged in. Until then he will cry & blame others for his misdeeds. It will not negate his guilt. A time will come. Let’s hope it’s soon so America can begin to heal from the assault committed against her.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Robert Tait at The Guardian:

Republicans are already laying the ground for rejecting the result of next week’s US presidential election in the event Donald Trump loses, with early lawsuits baselessly alleging fraud and polls from right-leaning groups that analysts say may be exaggerating his popularity and could be used by Trump to claim only cheating prevented him from returning to the White House.

The warnings – from Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans – come as Americans prepare to vote on Tuesday in the most consequential presidential contest in generations. Most polls show Trump running neck and neck with Kamala Harris, the vice-president and Democratic nominee, with the two candidates seemingly evenly matched in seven key swing states. But suspicions have been voiced over a spate of recent polls, mostly commissioned in battleground states from groups with Republican links, that mainly show Trump leading. The projection of surging Trump support as election day nears has drawn confident predictions from him and his supporters. “We’re leading big in the polls, all of the polls,” Trump told a rally in New Mexico on Thursday. “I can’t believe it’s a close race,” he told a separate rally in North Carolina, a swing state where polls show he and Harris are in a virtual dead heat.

An internal memo sent to Trump by his chief pollster is confirming that story to him, with Tony Fabrizio declaring the ex-president’s “position nationally and in every single battleground state is SIGNIFICANTLY better today than it was four years ago”. Pro-Trump influencers, too, have strengthened the impression of inevitable victory with social media posts citing anonymous White House officials predicting Harris’s defeat. “Biden is telling advisers the election is ‘dead and buried’ and called Harris an innate sucker,” the conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec posted this week. GOP-aligned polling groups have released 37 polls in the final stretch of the campaign, according to a study by the New York Times, during a period when longstanding pollsters have been curtailing their voter surveys. All but seven showed a lead for Trump, in contrast to the findings of long-established non-partisan pollsters, which have shown a more mixed picture – often with Harris leading, albeit within error margins.

[...] Trump, who falsely claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, is also paving the way for repeating the accusation via legal means. He told a rally in Pennsylvania that Democrats were “cheating” in the state, and on Wednesday his campaign took legal action against election officials in Bucks County, where voters waiting to submit early mail-in ballots were turned away because the deadline had expired. A judge later ordered the county to extend early voting by one day. There is no evidence of widespread cheating in elections in Pennsylvania or any other state, and mail-in ballots are in high demand in part because Trump himself has encouraged early voting. Suing to allege – without evidence – that there has been voting fraud is part of a well-worn pattern of Trump disputing election results that do not go his way. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, his team filed 60 lawsuits disputing the results, all of which were forcefully thrown out in court. Anti-Trump Republicans have expressed similar concerns to Democrats about Trump’s actions. Michael Steele, a former Republican national committee chair and Trump critic, told the New Republic that the GOP-commissioned polls were gamed to favour Trump. “You find different ways to weight the participants, and that changes the results you’re going to get,” he said. “They’re gamed on the back end so Maga can make the claim that the election was stolen.”

[...] Trump-leaning surveys have influenced the polling averages published by sites such as Real Clear Politics, which has incorporated the results into its projected electoral map on election night, forecasting a win for the former president. Elon Musk, Trump’s wealthiest backer and surrogate, posted the map to his 202 million followers on his own X platform, proclaiming: “The trend will continue.” Trump and Musk have also promoted online betting platforms, which have bolstered the impression of a surge for the Republican candidate stemming from hefty bets on him winning. A small number of high-value wagers from four accounts linked to a French national appeared to be responsible for $28m gambled on a Trump victory on the Polymarket platform, the New York Times reported.

Republicans prepping to be sore losers by rejecting the results if Donald Trump loses.

[venusvity]

Yoo Mirae (Korean: 유미래, born January 6, 1997), known professionally as Bliss (Korean: 블리스; Japanese: 至福), is a Korean singer, dancer, and actress based in South Korea. She is a former member of the South Korean girl group Venus, formed by Angelico Entertainment in 2018. She is portrayed by Lee Yoomi & Wendy Son.

Mirae was born on January 6, 1997, in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Her mother is the esteemed musical theatre actress Yoo Misun. Mirae attended high school at the School of Performing Arts in Seoul. Throughout her school years, she starred in multiple school musicals. She joined a school drama club and earned more experience in the entertainment industry by attending auditions.

In 2014, Mirae joined Angelico Entertainment as a trainee after passing its auditions. 

In October 2014, she appeared in Emphasis' music video for "Du Du Du!" as a lifeguard. The same year, she starred in Priority's "Say You Love Me" music video as Reid's love interest. In 2015, she would be featured in W Korea alongside Kang Juwon of Priority. Mirae would do a lot of modeling pre-debut, working with brands such as Laneige, Nature Republic, Amuse, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and Etude House.

𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖: 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒

On March 17, 2018, Mirae would officially debut in VENUS with the release of their first extended play (EP), SHE DEVIL, and its lead single, "SHE DEVIL." She would take on the stage name "Bliss."

She was the group's co-leader, main rapper, and main vocalist.

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎 - 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏: 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐭

In January 2020, Bliss made her acting debut as the female lead in the web drama Please Try Again, which achieved record-breaking viewership.

On March 24, 2021, Bliss was announced as a cast member for the musical Midnight Sun as Seo Haena, with DAY6's Wonpil, Baekho, DeepDive's Kiwoo, GOT7's Youngjae, Shinee's Onew, Kang Hye-in, Kei, and Lee Ah-jin. To promote the musical, she collaborated with stage member Onew to release "A Melody Called You (너라는 멜로디)"

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒

On June 10, 2024, during the Venus contract transfer, Bliss, unlike the other four members of Venus, would not sign with Mydol Entertainment. A letter announcing Bliss's departure from the group would be posted to Venus' social media accounts.

It is still under heavy debate if Bliss left the group or was removed by Mydol CEOs.

On August 7th, 2024, Bliss renewed her contract with Angelico Entertainment.

Before her debut with Venus, Yoonah featured in advertisements for Samsonite, Smart Uniform, LG Electronics, and Nikon. 

In September 2018, Bliss and band-mate Baebi became endorsement models for Japanese cosmetics brand Kiss Me. 

In September 2021, Bliss was announced as the new host of the program Music Bank with L.O.L's Jesse. For their performance on the program, they were awarded with the Best Couple Award at the 2021 KBS Entertainment Awards.

In February 2021, Korean clothing brand It Michaa selected Bliss as its muse for its Spring 2021 collection. She was also appointed for the summer 2021 campaign on It Michaa's line, For a Day Michaa. 

In 2022, Coca-Cola Korea selected Bliss as an endorsement model for Dr Pepper.

In January 2023, Bliss stepped down as Music Bank host after sixteen months in the role.

In February 2023, Bliss became the new muse for the South Korean casual fashion brand SJSJ.

In December 2023, Dyson selected Bliss as its official Brand Ambassador, representing the new Dyson hair care products. Then, in January 2024, the American athletic apparel retailer Alo Yoga announced Bliss as the new face for its spring 2024 campaign. 

[gffa]

STAR WARS CONTENT CHECK IN TIME. Congratulate me, for I have officially completed all of Phases I and II's comics and books! I think Young Jedi Adventures probably falls into Phase I, but I just haven't had time to put it on in the background while doing other things, as I was on a roll with the books and comics. I'll be a little sad when I have nothing left to binge with all this stuff, but I'm also looking forward to having time and space for idk getting back to the Lockwood books, finishing the ORV novel, or hell maybe even have time to read a fic???? MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi

The High Republic: A Test of Courage

The High Republic: Into the Dark

The High Republic: The Rising Storm

The High Republic: Race To Crashpoint Tower

The High Republic: Out Of The Shadows

The High Republic: Mission to Disaster

The High Republic: The Fallen Star

The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: Path of Deceit

The High Republic: Convergence

The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City

The High Republic: Cataclysm

The High Republic: Quest for Planet X

The High Republic: Path of Vengeance

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness

The High Republic: Escape from Valo

The High Republic: Defy The Storm

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE I:

The High Republic (2021) - 15 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2021) - 13 issues

The High Republic: The Monster of Temple Peak - 4 issues

The High Republic: The Edge Of Balance - 2 manga volumes

The High Republic: Trail of Shadows - 5 issues

The High Republic: Eye of the Storm - 2 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Blade - 4 issues

The High Republic (2022) - 10 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2022) - 8 issues

The High Republic: Edge of Balance: Precedent - 1 manga volume

The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror - 4 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight - 4 issues

The High Republic (2023) - 6 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic Adventures (2023) - 5 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic - Saber for Hire (2023) - 1 issue [ONGOING]

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Tempest Runner

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE I:

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #6 - “The Gaze Electric”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2021

The High Republic Adventures Annual 2021

The High Republic Adventures: Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #14 - “A Very Nihil Interlude”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2023

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE II:

The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE III:

The High Republic Adventures: Crash Landing

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE I:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Starlight Stories

Life Day Treasury

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE II:

Star Wars Insider: The High Republic: Tales of Enlightenment

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - ALL PHASES:

The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - 25 episodes

I really enjoyed The Eye of Darkness, once again each book that starts out the era is a real banger that has a lot of impact for me, I think this is probably my favorite book for Marchion Ro so far, a character who has felt a little too inscrutable for me up to this point. He could have easily fell into the role of saying he wants to "govern" people but really wants to rule with an iron fist, but nah that guy straight up doesn't want to fit into Republic-style politics or machinations, he just wants to do what he wants to do, this whole thing is about his ego/entitlement complex, in a lot of ways. His dynamic with Ghirra Starros was one I actively looked forward to, because so much of this plot was shaped by feeling like it was a palette swap of the Republic versus the Separatists, that on the surface it was being framed as seceding from the Republic, but really it was occupation. But I felt like this book helped shake off some of that, where they went in a direction where instead this guy is just The Strong Shall Prevail And I'm Strong So I'll Do What I Want and Marchion genuinely sticks to that. It doesn't matter what Ghirra could win for him via politics, he doesn't want that. He's starting to spin out and he clearly doesn't have a real plan, he just wants to fuck things up, but I found that really refreshingly fun here. (I think the way Marc Thompson reads him contributed a lot to that, too. He nicely captures the unhinged aspect of Marchion.) I enjoyed Avar's story a lot, how conflicted she felt and how badly that was affecting her connection to the Force. I hope that this isn't where her difficulty with her internal struggle ends, because The High Republic 2021 comic really had some great moments about how she was having trouble letting go of her anger and fear, and it's not that I want her to nearly fall to the dark side, but that I want the resolution to extend a bit beyond that the Force feels clear and coherent to her again. And It was nice seeing Bell's internal thoughts again, giving him time to work through his feelings, as he stumbles a bit and eventually manages to right himself. I wish Burryaga had gotten some character development, he was just kind of there to be a prop in Bell's story, but given that I love Bell so much, I'm not really mad about that. I'm also about a fifth of the way through Escape from Valo and it's about what I expected from the authors and that it's a junior novel, but I'm enjoying it! I enjoyed the comics, "The Monster of Temple Peak" and "The Nameless Terror" (the art is SO PRETTY), they're fun adventures, but I do wonder a bit of there's bigger plans for Ty Yorrick in Phase III, given how much she's consistently been around, but hasn't yet done a ton of intersecting with the main plot. Or is she just there because she's fun to write and they're trying to make this a big clockwork puzzle tapestry by including characters who are part of the story, just not the main story? I'd love to know what other people thought of any of this! And you should all tell me what you're reading/watching/playing right now, because I want to know how your Star Wars journeys are going!