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anthurak · 22 days ago

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After rewatching Mastermind, I feel like the episode actually draws a very interesting distinction between Blitzo’s and Stolas’s respective big ‘Heroic Sacrifice’ moments. Namely in whether they are genuinely necessary sacrifices or a wasteful moment of a character pointlessly throwing their life away.

You see, when Blitzo does his big ‘throwing himself on the sword’ moment where he takes all the blame on himself in order to get Moxxie, Millie and Loona spared, it’s a genuinely heroic, necessary act.

In this moment, Blitzo truly did have NO other options. They were ALL being threatened with death, so Blitzo leveraged the one tiny bit of power he held and took all the responsibility onto himself.

This is very much not a case of Blitzo ‘throwing his life away’. Right then, he was going to die no matter what. But through his sacrifice, Blitzo made sure that the people he loved would live.

Now let’s contrast this with what STOLAS did. He does do essentially the same thing Blitzo just did to save him just as Blitzo saved his loved ones.

But in context, Stolas’s big moment of sacrifice is a complete WASTE. Because while Blitzo truly had zero other options, Stolas DID.

I mean think about it; Stolas is a Goetia. He has POWER, he has influence. The ABILITY, at least potentially, to save Blitzo.

But did he attempt to use any of that? When he appeared in that courtroom, did Stolas try to argue Blitzo’s innocence? Try to push back against his brother-in-law’s scheming? Try literally anything OTHER than big dramatic self-sacrifice?

No. Literally the first thing Stolas did was go straight to throwing everything away, INCLUDING HIS LIFE to save Blitzo. Admitting to whatever made-up bullshit Andrealphus used to frame Blitzo and co. in the first place and just throwing himself on the sword right off the bat.

And that’s not a good thing!

Blitzo was ready to sacrifice his life after it became clear that there was no other way to save his loved ones.

Stolas was ready to sacrifice his life because it seems to have been the first thing he could think of.

Do I really need to spell out how this is a VERY BAD THING for Stolas?

Especially given that one of those things he immediately decided to throw away without a second thought to save Blitzo happens to be HIS DAUGHTER.

I mean, you want a character contrast?

One of the last things Blitzo says is to ask his two best friends to take care of his daughter.

While I think it's pretty goddamn clear Stolas wasn't even THINKING about his daughter.

And before anyone pipes in with any trite about how their precious-little-blorbo-who-can-do-no-wrong ‘didn’t have time to think of anything else’ and ‘was just trying to protect the man he loved’,

Again; LITERALLY THE FIRST AND ONLY THING HE COULD THINK OF WAS THROWING HIS LIFE (and daughter) AWAY TO SAVE BLITZO. How the FUCK is that supposed to be ‘good’ or ‘excusable’?

And despite the ‘wholesome Stolitz domesticity’ ending note, Stolas’s reaction makes it pretty clear he is currently processing just how MASSIVELY and UTTERLY he just FUCKED UP. Particularly the whole ‘Oh shit I just threw away my daughter…’ reaction to Blitzo and Loona embracing.

Overall I think this is very much a deliberate contrast meant to highlight these characters’ growth, or lack thereof, as well as showing how they deal with a moment of true crisis.

For Blitzo, this is very much a make-or-break, back-against-the-wall moment where he demonstrates how much he truly loves his new family with a truly heroic act of self-sacrifice. Blitzo knew he was going to die no matter what, but he made sure that his loved ones would be saved.

Which of course is meant to sharply contrast how STOLAS handles the situation.

Blitzo’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how much he loves and cares for his new family, to the point where he will lay down his own life to keep them safe. Whereas Stolas’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how little he cares for HIMSELF, or anything other than Blitzo. To the point where his first response was to throw away everything, including his LIFE, and his DAUGHTER, to keep Blitzo safe.

#helluva boss #helluva analysis #character analysis #helluva blitzo #blitzo #blitzo buckzo #stolas goetia #helluva stolas #stolitz #octavia goetia #loona #helluva loona #heroic sacrifice #character contrasts #stolas is a fucking dysfunctional wreak of a person/father #and that's why he's one of my favs :D #still can't stand most of his fans though

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bemusedlybespectacled · 9 months ago

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I'm not really a lawyer or lawyer adjacent so I don't always get what's going on when things happen in court with famous idiots, but I really enjoy reading your breakdowns of them. So please feel free to gush about your IRL Blorbo as much as you want! It's entertaining and (for me) educational. 🍿

Bruh he's just such a good lawyer, though, oh my God.

Also his wife is an environmental law attorney (basically a prosecutor against companies that flout environmental regulations), he has a garden intentionally designed to feel like Skyrim (including dragon skulls and a Viking shield just lying around), and owns two geckos and a "big chungus of a lizard."

But seriously, the dude is so good at what he does. And I don't think he's even 40 yet? But like, holy Jesus, the guy has such a fantastic understanding of the rules of evidence, he's got a fucking mental rolodex of citations to the rules of professional conduct that he can just pull out on the fly, apparently, and he does it all while also, like, subtly trolling?

Like, okay, the bit in the Perry Mason Moment where he asks Jones if he knows what perjury is? And he says it in this tone of voice that makes it seem like he's concerned about Jones possibly perjuring himself and is just trying to make sure Jones is aware of his options before lying on the stand?

I am 100% certain that that's actually a reference to when Dan Bidondi, Jone's "field reporter" who participated in the harassment of the families and is also incredibly racist, harassed one of the town officials by repeatedly yelling "do you know what perjury is?" and that he was "going to jail, criminal."

And the reason I think that is because he did something similar on the first day of trial:

youtube

That bit where he's like "will you talk to me?" The one part of the trial that wasn't filmed was jury selection, and apparently Reynal asked every single potential juror "will you talk to me?" before he asked any other questions. (I think it was supposed to build rapport? But apparently it came off as very odd) He's not actually asking Reynal "will you talk to me?" as a legitimate question, he's just making a reference to what had happened the day before, which is why Reynal flips him off.

Also his written motions are always hilarious to read. Even before I knew who he was, one of my coworkers at my old job (who got me in to Knowledge Fight) would show me his filings and they were always so wonderfully sarcastic. Seriously, look at this:

BECAUSE. HE DOES NOT. POSSESS. THE POWERS. OF PROPHECY. I AM CRYING.

anyway yeah i'm totally normal about him shhhhhh

#askbox #personal #sonneillonv #bb is a lawyer #mark bankston #knowledge fight

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magicalmanhattanproject · 3 months ago

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okay i have to talk about my obscure blorbo fíriel ondoheriel. literally no one cares about her except me. not even tolkien cares about her. she has Zero canon traits. no personality, no physical appearance, not even a death date. here's what we know about her

in 1940 TA, Arvedui, then-prince of Arthedain* marries Fíriel, daughter of King Ondoher of Gondor, uniting the two realms after a long estrangement

[loads up Tolkien Gateway to cross check dates] HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS

in 1938 TA, Aranarth, eldest son of Arvedui is born. Now, if we're being real with ourselves, Jirt made an oopsie here and no one caught it. But, no one caught it and the only numbers we have are Aranarth, son of Arvedui, is born in 1938 and Arvedui marries Fíriel in 1940.

So, like, what's up there? Did Arvedui and Fíriel meet before their wedding and elope? Was Aranarth born in Gondor and hidden to protect Fíriel's reputation? Or did Fíriel have to make an excuse to stay in Arthedain and hide her pregnancy and then abandon her child until a proper marriage could be arranged? Was Arvedui married to someone else first and a widower? Was Fíriel a second wife and a stepmother to the real heir? Was Aranarth a bastard and Fíriel brought in to produce the real heir? Had Fíriel ever left home before? Did she have any feelings about being sent away from her whole family to be a queen for a man who already had an heir? Did she have a child she had to travel with? That she was desperate to reunite with? That she wanted nothing to do with? Did she love travel? Hate it? How did she feel about Gondor? Arthedain? We don't know. Tolkien doesn't care.

Anyway, back to what I already knew about.

in 1944 TA, Ondoher and both his sons are killed in the invasion of the Wainriders.

How does Fíriel feel about this? What's her relationship with her father like? Her brothers? Presumably she has a mother in there somewhere too? We don't know. Tolkien doesn't care.

Now, the doozy.

later in 1944 TA, Arvedui sends messages to Gondor claiming the throne both as a descendant of Isildur and as the husband of Fíriel, who would have been ruling queen according to Númenorean law.**

How does Fíriel feel about that? How does Fíriel feel about claiming the throne of her father and her brothers and her homeland through her blood for himself? We don't know. Tolkien doesn't care.

This is the last mention of Fíriel in the text. We don't know what happens to her after this. Maybe she trips and falls down the stairs the very next day. Maybe she lives a long life and dies of old age in her sleep. We don't know. We know what happens to her family though and it's not pretty.

Arvedui ascends to the throne of Arthedain in 1964 with the realm already struggling under invasion from Angmar. In 1974, the Witch-King invades and captures the capital of Fornost. Arvedui escapes to the Ice Bay of Forochel where he is aided by the locals over the bitter winter. Aranarth, a young man at this point, gets word to Círdan that his father is stranded there and Círdan sends a ship to bring them aid. When the ship arrives, Arvedui wants to leave immediately, but the locals warn him against leaving, saying that the Witch-King's power wanes in the summer and the bay is too dangerous.

Let's backtrack a moment. The name Arvedui means "last-king" and was given to him at his birth by Malbeth the Seer. Though, the seer said, "a choice well come to the Dúnedain, and if they take the one that seems less hopeful, then your son will change his name and become ruler of a great realm."

Arvedui does not. He takes the ship Círdan sent, which is sunk in an ice storm. Arthedain falls. Aranarth becomes the first Chieftain of the Rangers.

There's one last piece to all this. Name meanings. Tolkien likes them. I was looking through canon name meanings for OC names and I decided to check Fíriel out and I got fucking flashbanged.

See, something you gotta remember about the descendants of Elros is that a lot of them resent his choice. It's said that the line of Gondor failed because the kings were too busy contemplating immortality and their ancestors to look to the future and have heirs of their own. That's maybe not fair to the kings whose lines failed, but it's certainly a trait they all share.

So, what does Fíriel mean?

Mortal Maid

Look at everything else about her and everything that happened to everyone she loved and realize that she was born to the name She Will Die

How did she feel about that? We don't know. But I want to.

*The northern kingdom of Arnor had long ago split into three kingdoms. Arthedain is the one from which the eldest and true line of descent from Elendil continued. The other two had already fallen by this point.

**For the record, Ondoher was the 31st king of Gondor and somehow the issue of a ruling queen has not been litigated before now. Not a single time in the past 30 generations has a daughter been the eldest child or only available heir. That... stretches plausibility. This is easily explained by Tolkien forgetting that women exist until they become immediately plot relevant, but it certainly gestures in the direction of things about Gondorian kings that are rather unflattering.

#sorrelposting #tolkien #lord of the rings #lotr

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thatweirdfandom · 6 months ago

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my fix it one piece headcannons

(besides hot gay sex, proper skin tones ((this is also in the fix it)))

-sanji gets trapped on a rock for his timeskip- this is how he learns to skywalk and ends up on kambaka

just imagine one of the main horrible things that has ever happened to him and he’s back. how long is he going to have to wait? he’s stuck for how long? no. not this time. he spends almost a month there until he sky walks to the island

he doesn’t even have time to complain or whine about the people and the front he would put on. he’s safe and that’s what matters. they take care of him and he comes to have a depose understanding and appreciation for them

he wears the clothes because he doesn’t have anything else- but he learns how to sew and makes the best dresses and outfits later on

- ussop is actually the most comfortable out of everyone with his sexuality. he has THE RIZZ he picks up anyone and everyone just being his cute flirty self

- post skip (and i’ve mentioned this before) sanji, chopped and ussop all working together one meals, and medicine!

ussop island and knowledge of plants- he brings back and is able to grow medicinal herbs, cooking herbs ect ect

sanji has left over parts to his food that can’t be cooked so he learns how to turn them into herbs, soaps, practical things

- franky only upgraded his body again because it was failing him post skip. he got by in his city after the accident- but continuing in his form with all the battles, the straw hats get into only weared down what he had for a body

- robin and sanji would absolutely have met at some point during the timeskip. iva being a top leader in the revolutionary army? hell yeah.

i imagine that robin is also the first one to know about germa and sanjis connection he would have told her. they confide in each other about how they have a similar upbringing

- i also imagine germa being on the revolutionary army’s radar for their experiments, and how this could tie into ceaser earlier that the kid experiment was actually another way for judge to test things out

it just would have made more sense to bring it up earlier/ that doffy had a connection to judge too being a ex world noble teaming up with a next higher power that has a lot of pull and rank and aligns with his ideals

- look i have a lot of beef w sanji because he’s my blorbo but i would have loved if they actually included some lead up more to his tragic backstory pt2

LIKE THE EYEBROW SWIRL only the vinsmokes have this!! how tf didnt law notice this being a goddamn fanboy

- chopper shedding- he grows fur like a sheep and you gotta shave him

i just was ussop to make beds and coats from the fur

- sanji making special meals that have stat boosts like how chopper does a rumble ball they could work on something similar esp since luffy dries up like a raisin

pt 1/?

#zosan #sanji #sanji vinsmoke #franky #monkey d. luffy #tony tony chopper #nico robin #one piece #ussop

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naffeclipse · 7 months ago

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so i don't know if you've watched lucifer or if spoilers would be an issue - if the latter is the case, best to stop reading this now and delete this ask. because i had a sleuth jesters thought based on season 3

too bad ask read mores aren't a thing

but yeah in season 3 there's marcus pierce/ cain as the new lieutenant as well as a sinnerman, a crime boss so obscure he's considered a myth. and it made me think... eclipse, so deeply hidden within the web of crime, actually working as the police departments chief. the only people who know and are opposing him (despite his so kind reminders how much easier and safer for them all things would be if only they fell in line) are his brothers, working right there under his thumb and struggling against it, and the vigilante, who now has renewed motivation to evade law enforcement (most of it, at least, and their favoritism drives eclipse up the wall)

thought its a fun twist to combine mob boss and police chief, so wanted to share - even deep in another hyperfixation your blorbos are on my mind 💜 hope you have a good day, have a hydration check!

Heya, Luce! It's so good to see you in my inbox, ahhh! <333

OHHH! I've watched a few episodes of Lucifer but this?! AHH! I LOVE IT! Combining the Police Chief and Mob Boss is so sinister and brings a whole new level of stakes to the detectives and the vigilante! The power and control Eclipse would wield is frightening and encompassing, and everywhere the vigilante turns, Eclipse uses the law or the underground to get to them! Of course, he can't force them to appreciate him like they appreciate their two favorite detectives. Still, he has most opportunities to get the vigilante in handcuffs and thrown into a jail cell for a friendly interrogation, or rather, another chance to extend his offer to join him. They could be a police officer and have all the privileges in the city working directly underneath him. Wouldn't that be beneficial to everyone? They're right by the detectives, Eclipse keeps them close, and the vigilante no longer has to run from the law. Take the offer, sweetheart.

But the vigilante only has two hands and refuses to wear more than one hat, and it's not part of a uniform in a corrupted police force.

#luce your thoughts always gets my brain going brrrrrrrrrrr #sleuth jesters #police chief + mob boss eclipse #lavenoon

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galaxysharks · 2 days ago

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This won't leave my head and I'm sleepy, so I shall simply write it and cast it into the world. Buckle up, fellows, we're going to need face claims for a lot of cosmic entities. I'll post a reblog later with the ones I like.

Also @this-girl-in-dead-fandoms, here you be, because I enjoy providing pain for the blorbos

Judgment

Agatha twisted and struggled, snarling threats and insults as she was dragged. HOW!? How was this possible!? She was a Ghost! A spirit! She was meant to be untouchable!

She couldn't even determine if the force holding her was a being or not, but whatever it was, she couldn't do anything.

After what might have been an hour, she had grown tired and her voice was strained, she quieted, allowing the mysterious force to take on all of her weight.

As if waiting for her, her vision cleared, and a....room of sorts melded out of the fog.

"well, are we finally deciding to behave?" The words were spoken in a cacophony of voices, some whispering cheerfully, some sobbing, and more still screaming in terror.

Agatha whipped her head as far as she could, turning to face the noise. Immediately, she flinched as her mind desperately tried to interpret what she saw. It was as if one eye was being assaulted by flashes and patterns, while the other could never catch the being.

Groaning in pain, she closed her eyes. Even still, she could sense the presence of truly unlimited power. The kind she knew she couldn't defeat. The kind like Rio. Half a dozen, at least, she felt her body being stretched and compressed, atoms being rented apart and reformed in the wake of cosmic runoff.

Suddenly, it gave away, and she collapsed to the floor, barely noting that she was no longer restrained.

"Peace, Kin, the Trial begins shortly."

"Shall we assume tangible forms, brother? It would be hilarious and inconvenient for her to keep passing out!"

"valid observation, Chaos. Yes, assume comprehensible forms. Open your eyes, Agatha Harkness"

Hesitantly, she did, and around her, a thin circle of brilliant pink flames, holding back the force of the cosmic entities. She glanced around, peering into the direction of the voices.

Stood before her was a massive being. Twenty feet tall, at least. It appeared to be conjoined men made of perfect, chiseled stone. One side pristine and polished, the other crumbling and repairing before her. The single pelvis and legs were knelt, bringing them closer to her eyeline. From there, the torsos split off separating before rejoining at the shoulder, leaving a gap in which there appeared to be a star, continuously shifting through its lifecycle.

Around her were more beings. A woman made of starlight, a being of sand that first appeared a child, but rapidly aged and collapsed, before reforming again, Rio, but she was taking the form of a swarm of locusts, clinging to a small tree sprouting from a skull. Though imperceptible, something in Agatha told her that the space between them, their absence, was another entity in of itself.

And then there was him. Pale flowers braided into his hair and draped in a fur lined robe. It was Nicky, her little boy. He was carefully cradling parts of the insect swarm, but he looked straight at her. The flames around her flicked in time with his breaths, it was all she could hear.

In. Out. In. Out. In.

Agatha desperately reached for him. But he caught her eye just before they would have crossed the circle, lifting a hand and gently waggling a finger at her. He pulled it to his mouth, and shushed her, motioning her to wait.

"Agatha Harkness. You have altered the fate of your reality, you have disobeyed the laws of existence, you consume power unearned, and you disrupt the natural cycle of time and space. You will be trialled by the Living Tribunal. Your sentence is absolute"

Agatha felt her mind reel as the voice was a memory, but an expectation, and a constant. Outside of her ability to recognize time.

"Agatha Harkness, speak if you must, but your testimony is set, there will be no negotiation" this voice came from everywhere, and inside her head. It was the star woman.

She felt her being tear and replace as the final entity formed. This one deceptively plain. She appeared a young woman, but with molten gold dripping down her face, blinding her.

Agatha has to know, fuck whatever happens to her. " How is he here? What have you done to him!"

The star woman became infuriated, launching from her placement. "INSOLENT WRETCH--". Her movement stopped, frozen, as the woman with the golden mask glanced over to Nicky.

"Settle......Infinity......Nicolas Scratch Is.....An Anomaly......Made ......From What One Who Did Not Know......And One That Could Not......He Has Been Ascended.......He Is Love"

Agatha looked to her son, and realized that Rio had shifted forms, she was now her more typical skeletal figure, standing with her hands perched proudly on Nicky's shoulders as he leaned into her.

"Agatha Harkness.......I Sentence You......."

#agatha all along #agatha harkness #rio vidal #marvel #i have two thoughts to end this in terms of Agatha's sentences #this feels big brain but im also very eepy

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kotir-propaganda · 1 year ago

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Mossflower has so much going for it, like I’m not even being biased because my blorbo is in it. I will die on the hill of it being Best Redwall Book for several reasons.

-It’s as early Redwall as you can get without actually being Book 1. As such, it avoids a lot of subjects and patterns that would later become repetitive tropes... but it also avoids the Book 1 jankiness of horses and human structures and the implied existence of Portugal. The world as we will come to know it feels more or less fully realized here. The abbey’s not here yet, but its foundation literally is- and we also get our first look at Salamandastron and the extent of Mossflower Wood as a whole.

-It has some of the most solid protagonists around. The legendary hero Martin is here, but he’s at a low point for most of the story and has to work his way up to that legacy! And this is where he does it, this is what future Redwallers remember him for, not the events of Martin the Warrior. Also, Gonff is here? Hello? Maybe the single most charismatic character in the series? Not to mention Dinny, how often does a humble mole actually get to go on a quest in these books?

-This isn’t even getting into how badass all the rest of the woodlanders are, too, but... they absolutely are. This is a small band of rebels that’s been driven from their little houses, they don’t have the luxury of those huge sandstone walls to protect them, but they’re still fighting like hell and outsmarting their enemies to boot. Some of them are seasoned fighters, but some of them are just ordinary families, all banding together to take back their homeland. And they keep it up the whole time! They’re not just waiting around for a guy with a sword to tell them what to do!

-The villains are probably the most nuanced in the whole series. Seriously. There are four whole wildcats here (don’t forget Sandingomm!) and only ONE of them is unquestionably evil. It’s absolutely implied that Verdauga was a fearsome warlord in his day, but if nothing else, he raised ONE kid who turned out to be about as Lawful Good as you can get, and he actually scolds Tsarmina for being mean to her brother!! I wish we could have spent a little more time with Verdauga, honestly, I have so many questions for this man.

-There are a decent handful of morally grey characters here, actually. Chibb spies for the woodlanders, but he’s not the most dependable and is motivated by payment more than sympathy to their cause. Snakefish allies with our questing heroes, but he minces no words in warning them that he’ll just as soon eat them if it comes down to it. Even Argulor is really just out here looking for a bite to eat and can you really blame him, because ashleg is a snack

-Tsarmina herself is irredeemably cruel, but even still there are multiple facets to her. On one hand, she’s scary- big and powerful and ready to rip into anything/anyone with her bare claws. At the same time she can be a clever strategist when she wants to be- poisoning her father and framing her brother, and later manipulating two of her obstacles, Argulor and Bane, into taking each other out. And still yet it can be kind of funny to watch her in action, as she gets humiliated by the resistance on multiple occasions. And maybe there is even a little pathos there, as we see her mind start to slip, and get some glimpse into the deep fear and paranoia that completely overtake her at the end.

-There are just great supporting characters on both sides. Mask is amazing, Fortunata is fantastic. And yeah, Blorbo Supreme Ashleg is here, and I don’t NEED to write a whole essay about him to promote Mossflower as a whole but... having him here is nice! It helps!! May we all follow his example and pursue happier lives for ourselves!!!

-Mossflower laid the foundation for so many events and characters of later books. I mean yeah, it’s a prequel. It’s there to support the first book and by extension, everything that comes after. But so many other great titles in the series have a direct line to Mossflower, from Outcast to Long Patrol to Lord Brocktree and more. Did you enjoy those books? You’re welcome. The threads were already there, just waiting to be expanded upon.

-at one point a wooden leg gets used as a projectile weapon and if you don’t think that’s the best thing ever, I don’t know what else to tell you buddy

#redwall #mossflower

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germiyahu · 11 months ago

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The way the Brainrot Left brays and hoots and hollers about 10/7 in my mind is more evidence they don't see Palestinians as complex human actors in a conflict, just as trauma tokens or vague forces of nature. If you grab these Lefties by the ear and ask them to acknowledge 10/7 as an atrocity, as a traumatizing episode in the millennia story of antisemitism, they'll do one of a few things:

Deny it even happened. Which is absurd on the face of it. These people were cheering when they thought Hamas stood even a chance of winning. But after the public backlash and the impending retaliation, suddenly these brave freedom fighters couldn't be bothered to show up for battle? So why praise "resistance" against Israeli colonization while denying that Israel is retaliating against something? 10/7 took years to plan and it took a lot of smart motivated people to pull it off. Hamas are not stupid and they're not disorganized. You're doing a disservice to the alleged antifascist anticolonial group you love so much.

Claim it was a psyop. Again, kind of does a disservice to your brave freedom blorbos if you think Israel planned it all, and worse, that they duped Palestinians into playing right into their plan. So you basically think Hamas are completely incapable of doing anything, and you think "this is what the revolution looks like!" is the occupying Apartheid regime staging the revolution for cameras? This is just "how does Hamas have color printers lol fake news!" again.

Say "this started before 10/7 zioscum!" And this is more subtle, but these "well what did you expect to happen" and "when nonviolent resistance fails, the People only have one choice!" takes are equally condescending and dismissive. Hamas are not automata, they are not brainless organisms reacting to stimuli. When Israel acts, they decide to react. When Israel does not act, they are actively planning ways in which they themselves can act because they have declared an unending war on the state of Israel. No matter how long a truce lasts they will always want to break it. Because that's the philosophy they ascribe to. That's the politique they have chosen. Acting like anything in the Israel-Palestine conflict is a natural inevitable instance of the law of cause and effect is to strip the agency of the actors involved.

Hamas, and the Palestinians they "lead," are not pawns, they're not objects. They're people. Civilians participated in 10/7, some civilians volunteered to hold hostages for Hamas. Civilians choose to abide by Israel's warnings and flee to Rafah. Hamas tries to stop them and steals their aid. Hamas planned and executed 10/7 despite the two sides being at peace and there being no noticeable worsening societal stress in Gaza. Hamas and their allies launched unprecedented rocket barrages at Israel with the intent of maximizing civilian damage and terror. You notice all those verbs? That have human active agents as their subjects?

Palestinians and Israelis are doing things to each other. The passive voice language serves to obscure this fact. And these people have motivated reasons for doing those things. Those reasons can be complex and inscrutable and go back decades, centuries. They can even feel inevitable or natural. But everything going on is a choice or a decision made by someone, and executed by people who willingly follow that someone. We've seen Palestinians and Israelis stand against those powerful people. Israelis are protesting and going to jail. Palestinians are demonstrating against the fascist regime that's had its boot on their necks for almost 20 years.

I don't like the passive voice trick being used when Israel does something either, but the battalions of the Tumblrina Red Army have a bad habit of doing something even more annoying. They don't report on things as "rockets were launched into Israel," they deny anything is done to Israel. If they can't do that, they claim it's propaganda, they invent or hyperfocus on what they consider an equivalent Israeli action against Hamas and say "they started it!" Anything Hamas does or has done or could do to Israel, in their minds, is a natural inevitable perfectly just and rational and good reaction to something Israel did. What did you expect to happen? Um this doesn't matter because Israel did something worse see!

Hamas' actions are meaningless, without motivation, without underlying philosophy, without any kind of actionable goal. Why should they care about Hamas' charter? Why should they care about the origin of "from the river to the sea"? The why of Hamas or any Palestinian resistance doing anything doesn't matter to them. They only care that these groups are fighting so they can write their own values and ideals onto them. That's why in their minds the Gaza War is the biggest thing going on in the world, and the biggest thing in decades. That's why they see this as such an existential battle against capitalism and American hegemony, and why they think they even have a stake in land disputes in the Middle East at all.

I hope you can see how this is utterly dehumanizing language wrapped up in the pretext of support. Hamas fighters are not lines of computer code who act without thought. Aggression against Israel is not some divine natural punishment from the social justice gods. We'll never get anywhere so long as people refuse to see Palestinian militant groups as people with agency. Is it a wonder the Tumblr Left seems incapable of condemning them when they do something genuinely immoral? They think Hamas are amoral, because they truly don't see them as humans.

#israel #palestine #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #jumblr

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swampstew · 1 year ago

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Kinktober 2023 ~ Raven's Bingo Board is back!

Year 2 let's go! I am so proud of how I jumped into this fandom straight with the kinks and I'm excited to finally show off what I've brewed in my cauldron for October this year. Unlike last time, the blorbos and the kinks have been pre-picked but I have not prepared a single thing! Last time I picked waaaaayyyy too many options and overwhelmed myself and even though I still managed to post over 20 posts, I definitely want get them all this time. I will NOT be posting a bingo story on SUNDAYS, just like last year. I have something far tastier in store for that :)

RULES

Every Monday-Saturday of October starting Monday 2, 2023, at 9 AM EST through the 30th, I'm going to screen record using a Bingo site to generate the numbers to pick the day's blorbo and kink. Then, I have until 11:59 PM to submit a post (ideally in by 8 PM cause I like consistency) - it will either be a one shot, head canon list, small drabble, but I gotta post!

We're playing Black Out Bingo which means we gotta hit EVERY tile in order to "win" the game. Winning the game means hitting every single tile (not posting means I'm fucking myself and everyone over) - and since the Bingo site counts how many calls are made, I've created a list of scenarios that could be the final Halloween Day story based on how quickly it takes to win the game.

The Bingo site can make total of 75 calls, so how many will it take to complete the board? Note: my bingo board's highest number is O-73.

# of calls it takes to win:

25 - 41 calls = creepy graveyard scenario

42 - 58 calls = haunted house scenario

59 - 75 calls = Halloween party/séance gone wrong scenario

The Board: Each blorbo above (or below) a column of kinks is that blorbo's tile. So in this case, BINGO becomes - Law, Killer, Luffy, Kid, Zoro as the respective letters. Law's column is Pocket Pussy, Master Servant, Dirty Talking, Forced Orgasm, Pet Play. And since its Halloween, I'm making an effort to make every story stay in theme for the season.

Bring your monster fucker permits!

Edit: added this post which has a pre-recorded video and clarified explanation of how the game will play out if this post was confusing to understand.

ALL PROMPTS ARE SPICY. MINORS DNI

OCT 2 - Killer & Partner Sharing ft Eustass Kid OCT 3 - Luffy & Anal Beads OCT 4 - Luffy & Roleplay OCT 5 - Law + Pet Play OCT 6 - Law + Forced Orgasm OCT 7 - Zoro & Mirror Sex OCT 9 - Zoro & Collaring OCT 10 - Zoro & Total Power Exchange OCT 11 - Zoro & Stuck in a Wall OCT 12 - Luffy & Stockings OCT 13 - Eustass Kid & Cock Cage OCT 16 - Law + Master/Servant OCT 17 - Eustass Kid & Glory Hole OCT 18 - Luffy & Risky Sex OCT 19 - Killer & Shibari OCT 20 - Eustass Kid & Milking Table OCT 21 - Law & Dirty Talking OCT 23 - Killer & Overstimulation OCT 24 - Killer & Cum Eating OCT 25 - Eustass Kid & Con Non-Con OCT 26 -Roronoa Zoro & Praise Kink OCT 27 - Monkey D. Luffy & Triple Penetration OCT 28 - Trafalgar Law & Pussy Pocket OCT 30 - Eustass Kid & Cockwarming OCT 31 - Halloween Bingo Story - Eustass Kid X Demon Reader, trick or treat bag of kinks.

Since we've made 60+ calls, the Halloween Scenario is going to be:

Halloween party/séance gone wrong scenario

#kinktober 2023 #kinktober #kinktober 2023 masterlist #raven's bingo board #raven's halloween party #one piece fanfiction #one piece smut #eustass kid #massacre soldier killer #monkey d. luffy #trafalgar law #roronoa zoro #tw noncon #tw dark content #swampstew stories #swampstew bedtime stories

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vaguely-concerned · 1 year ago

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I’m on a Star Wars books roll so here we go with my — unhinged thanks for asking! — thoughts on Dooku: Jedi Lost, specifically the audio play. Short version: I fucking loved this one! For maximum emotional devastation, pair with Master and Apprentice and Padawan the way my stupid ass did and then be sad about it forever I guess that's what I’m going to have to do.

Long (LONG oopsie) version:

- So. First of all, let’s get the most important thing out of the way on this here old man yaoi website. We all agree dooku and sifo dyas explored each other’s bodies right. Or at least definitely would have if not for the laws of this order etc., potentially. That’s not just me. Good. Thank you. We can now move on

- Secondly. Well. Guess I’m just going to be inconsolable about Sifo-Dyas forever now. I miss the days in which he was just a throwaway line in AotC spawned by a random misspelling to me, rather than an eternal raw aching wound in my heart

- poor poor ventress just reading through all the proof that dooku absolutely does have it in him to be a good dad I mean master and just — idk got tired of that and went the force lightning route with her. I love the move of having her dead master hang out with her all that time as well (having her slip up and refer to ‘us’ did something to me, god this is so sad. Is he actually there in spirit or is it just her grief dreaming him up because dooku is awful and cold as a cliff wall and she needs some kind of attachment figure even if she’ll have to reinvent him herself, rebuild him word for word, gesture by gesture. Pain. sorry about your terrible track record with father figures asajj)

- Lene: (About Averross): He hasn’t changed.

Dooku: (In the warmest fondest voice you ever heard) And I hope he never does

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH MYSELF? MUST I SET MYSELF ON FIRE TO ESCAPE THE PAIN???

Another strong showing for Rael in general, btw. He’s so warm and charming as a presence even though he’s also a little chaos gremlin. (He’s quite similar to how Sifo-Dyas was when he was young in some ways, I can definitely start to see what Dooku responds warmly to in terms of character traits.)

- the fact that good ol’ sheev showed an interest in rael, dooku and anakin… interesting huh! He’s just got a soft spot for the disaster lineage I suppose, maybe there’s an element there of luring yoda’s most direct lineage into the dirt with him without yoda even noticing for the longest time. Also cackling at the idea that he looked at qui-gon ‘too fucking stubborn and insufferable to fall to the dark side out of sheer spite’ jinn and went ‘...not that one tho’ fhdskjfa. And obi-wan is more like ‘that one blorbo all my little guys seem wild about but I just don’t get it guys’

IF rael’s refusal to join dooku at the end of ‘master and apprentice’ is the last word (which I am not convinced of ;___; be safe cowboy jedi we never see in mainline canon so far), then he’s the only one who has dodged palpatine’s attentions. Wonderful if true love that for him

ALSO rael is one of the few people we know to be on (or at least to consider himself on despite what palps might think lol) first name basis with palpatine. Hilarious. I concur with dooku never change rael

- Sifo-Dyas: That’s insane.

Dooku, deadpan: Yes.

Sifo-Dyas: The worst plan I’ve ever heard.

Dooku, somehow even more deadpan: Most probably.

Sifo-Dyas: I’m in.

Crying… weeping and dying………… what if someone could have helped sifo with his unfortunate prophecy propensity and they hadn’t drifted apart. Clone Wars averted methinks if dooku still ended up leaving the order he would have been too busy having tender gay sex with the love of his life (and only person who can call him out on his shit and have him actually listen) to be a war criminal (I am being extremely facetious of course this is very much a ‘time traveler killing baby hitler’ situation where the underlying forces causing this point in history are way too powerful to avert the catastrophe in one move. but at least palps would probably have had to pick someone else to wreck the galaxy through and sifo-dyas would be kissed & held instead of going slowly mad. A net plus some (I, me) would say)

- I just wanted to applaud both the writing and the voice acting for the characterization of Dooku in this, from his young self trying so hard to be haughty and self-possessed but also being like, y’know, twelve and a dweeb and easy for Sifo-Dyas to pull into trouble, to the dry wit and warmth he shows with Rael and Qui-Gon or his sister later. It took me a little while to get into the voice acting specifically (the actor makes no attempt at going the full Christopher Lee, which in hindsight was probably wise), but now I love it. It gets a bit goofy in places but you know what, I am a long time lover of audio plays, that’s part of the charm

- “Master, have I done something wrong?”

My heart is clenching… do you think… that master yoda’s deal with leaving his student to try fucking everything to have some kind of relationship with him until he just breaks down in tears of despair… is the kind of thing that maybe started a little bit of a generational trauma cartwheel through the ages. The point that bb!dooku is arrogant isn’t without merit and he strikes out incredibly ungracefully about it (in fact I would be a lot more worried than yoda seems to be that he decides to try to kill a tree about it, ‘I felt like destroying something beautiful’-style) but I just don’t think a… fourteen year old? A teen anyway, Is going to learn what you think he learns from this. I simply don’t believe that silent treatmenting kids will teach them emotional intelligence I guess especially if they already struggle with that naturally lol

(It is exactly the same mistake (in my opinion) that Qui-Gon makes with Obi-Wan, too, just leaving the kid completely alone and forcing them to come to you every which way for comfort or guidance instead of meeting them or reaching out to them. Especially once you see that really Dooku’s prime emotion/big core wound right from the beginning is loneliness. And that doesn’t only come from a feeling of superiority (which to be sure is also a big factor), because he has no idea where he comes from until he meets his sister. I don’t think the jedi as a whole were unsalvageable by any stretch of the imagination, but Yoda specifically… you are on such very thin ice with me at this point you little green fuck. You’re very funny and moving in yoda dark rendezvous and that’s all that’s keeping you in my somewhat good graces.)

- Okay, coming back a bit later I think I’ve found the right words to say this. more precisely dooku has two big issues which you can later see haunting all the way down his lineage — loneliness and control. (and not incidentally the intersecting elements of the two haha.) We see from his relationship to sifo-dyas that he’s not incapable of having close mutual relationships with an equal, but that kind of crashed and burned for reasons neither of them could really help and after that it seems quite telling that he has the easiest time with deeper connection in a teacher-student sort of form. I think his affection is unconditional and real, but you can’t get away from the fact that he also has the most control in that relationship structure by default, he gets to dictate what form it takes to a big extent. He doesn’t trust other people — the underlying idea ‘Only I can do this’ that eventually leads him down the Separatist path is there the whole way. It speaks both to a sense of superiority and an utter lack of faith that other people can or will help him. And then that echoes down through the master-padawan line:

Qui-Gon with his self-righteousness and utter refusal to compromise leaving him isolated among the jedi (only he is right. Yeah the Force told him so. Don’t worry I’ve got a permit *insert parks and rec I can do whatever I want meme here*), Obi-Wan with his anxiety and perfectionism and incredible sense of shame and responsibility that he should be able to carry the whole world on his shoulders alone and beating himself up for failing, all feeding into not knowing what to do with Anakin and his complete lack of control of himself and his desperation to gain and maintain connection and love (which earns him the title of ‘Dooku’s least favorite family member’ fhdsa his immediate disdain for him is so funny and so in character. Repress and go slowly mad like a normal person anakin the way you’re carrying on is just undignified and that is much worse than being evil)…

- Rael gently telling Dooku to take on another padawan soon… so sweet, so sad, local cowboy jedi looking out for his dad. Also highlights something about Dooku I think is true: that he does much better and seems to have an easier time holding to the light when he’s responsible for someone else. Again, I do feel like Dooku’s core problem is loneliness, but it seems like raising kids is the one point where that relaxes somewhat. Maybe if Sifo-Dyas had stayed in a better mental place and they kept in touch it could have been different.

- Lene Kostana is SUCH a character! Charismatic and deeply fucked up, when it’s revealed how her and Sifo-Dyas’ relationship remains long after his padawan stage is done I felt a little bit sick, to my surprise. Because that could just be kindness on her part, of course, it’s good that he has someone he trusts to look after him when he can’t himself, but also there’s something… queasy about the way it keeps him continually young, in a way. (Notably he still calls her ‘master’ even as an adult, when they’re working together. Not uncommon in Star Wars, of course, but together with everything else going on vibes-wise… hm.) The inherent unreliable narration of this story really worked for me in this regard especially — do we know that young Dooku was entirely wrong when he sensed the dark side in her? She certainly is willing to go to lengths that are… worrying! in her fascination with sith shit, she tempted children into a dangerous place they didn’t understand and couldn’t know the consequences of and she continually puts sifo-dyas in situations that are implied to be a risk to worsening his condition. Run of the mill incredibly irresponsible at best, sincerely sinister at worst. Did she choose Sifo over Dooku because he’s more vulnerable and shapeable? There is an undercurrent of something icky and emotionally incest-y going on with how she relates to Dooku and Sifo-Dyas in general (right down to the ‘NO, no one can know about this’ intensity after the… evil moss cave. I can’t believe I’m this emotional about a book with an evil moss cave). I don’t think she’s a proper sith in any way and I also believe there is real affection there on all sides, but idk something about the whole thing makes me deeply uneasy. Yoda where the fuck are you your son is out there with his irresponsible mom again they’re looking for dirty needles in haystacks and they’re not even wearing any gloves

- dooku telling sifo-dyas he can come back to haunt him if he likes as a joke… well well well I’m sure that doesn’t ring with some dramatic irony at some point down the line lmao

- honestly looking back at master and apprentice after reading jedi lost makes qui-gon's apparent lack of reaction to dooku leaving seem — let's call it highly suspect haha. rael asks him if he's spoken to dooku after and qui-gon is like 'no. why would I. it's literally fine. anyway this topic is done now'. (and rael seems to just go ‘*older brotherly knowing* uh-huh’) meanwhile he's thinking about dooku *all the time* trying to figure out his role as master to obi-wan, thinking about being a padawan himself, the parts of his life he shared with both dooku and rael. The jedi doth protest too much methinks

ALSO how much of qui-gon thinking the council was too lenient with rael after he had to kill his padawan is about that actual situation, and how much is a ‘our family still likes my older brother more than me even though he Fucked Up so bad and breaks just as many rules as I do’ sort of deal mixed with his own neuroses about how he’s failing obi-wan (to which rael’s situation symbolizes the worst possible outcome, i.e. the kid dies and it’s basically your fault). Many thoughts.

- moment of silence for jenza of house serenno. Girl your only sin was being surrounded by asshole male family members and I’m so sorry I think you did all you could with what you had to work with here.

Not… entirely sure how dooku’s claim to the title supersedes hers — is he a year older than her? (she’s eleven when they first meet, he might be twelve or older at that point I don’t remember haha) Does she just give up her place in the inheritance order? Are primogeniture and male heir preference factors in Serenno inheritance law? Not the most important thing honestly it works anyway thematically but could have been clarified quickly!

- interesting to see that the council’s restrictive policy against engaging with prophecies had a surprisingly big impact on how things went down. Kostana has a lot of responsibility in Sifo’s fate for insisting he keep it secret, but there is genuine fear for what might become of him if the rest of the order finds out he’s got 24/7 futurevision hovering over him threateningly… listen it’s not like the poor guy can help getting the future constantly pumped into his brain at nightmare resolutions, I think maybe if there had been more willingness to at least engage curiously with the concept of prophecy and how it works, even if you don’t put your faith in the particulars of what the prophecies say, this wouldn’t have had to be such a shitty isolated secretive life for him. hearing him slowly fall apart over the years considering how bright and lovely he started out... oof is all I can say

- when dooku was a good jedi he was such a good jedi!!! The scene where they’re saving the kids from the collapsing hospital, every time he teaches his students anything…the impulse of someone has to do something about this! that made him so good at saving lives turning dark with the tarnish of frustration and rage over the years… nooooooooo problematic grandpa why did it have to be like this :(

- …do you think infant jedi can sense what’s going on around them in the Force. Because it makes a very sad kind of sense if dooku on some level remembers bodily or in the Force that he was not only abandoned but rejected in disgust as one of the first things he discovered in the world. Oh boy. With all the ways attachment relationships can go wonky in the first few years in real life I don’t even want to consider how much more wrong it can go when the baby is fucking psychic lol

- vaguely related: the way dooku seems to find the very idea of being truly reliant on anyone, emotionally or otherwise, personally offensive, terrifying and humiliating lol. Yoda saves him from being crushed by rubble and he is outraged because that means he can’t save himself (and his newfound sister) without anyone’s help like he thought for one glorious moment he could. The fantasy of perfect emotional self-sufficiency, doing away with all the messiness and risk of interpersonal relationships and cutting off the possibility of really being abandoned again. It’ll get ya every time. This is also a thing you see reflected in his lineage — they’re all quite inward-turning that way until you get to anakin, to different extents and with varying presentations but it is there I think. Qui-Gon turns to the Force, Obi-Wan to perfectionism and shame and rumination, Rael to the bottle and depression and hedonistic apathy, but they all struggle hugely with letting anyone in to help them. Dooku’s line are all much more comfortable being the helpers rather than the helpees, as it were.

- “Thank you for everything, Lene. Tell Rael and Qui-Gon — tell them… tell them the Force will be with them, always”

Emotional terrorism against me specifically and personally. You asshole you just excused yourself from the non-attachment rules there’s literally nothing in the world except you to stop you from reaching out and telling your children you love them yOURSELF why are you like this

- the recurring theme of dooku seeing something beautiful (the tree in the temple, the tirra’taka as a child and an adult) and ending up lashing out to destroy it… but the tree was old and mighty and he was young and new and couldn’t truly harm it, so he was saved from his own impulsivity. And then when he sees the tirra’taka as an adult he loves it immediately. And in the end he still mangles and destroys it. He didn’t mean to, but he did. He woke it up and hurt it just by existing as a child and then he had to kill it as a mercy because he was too powerful at that point for anything to buffer his mistakes. The parallel with the bird he loved that he also couldn’t protect. He starts out with an aching loneliness somewhere at the core of him through no real fault of his own but by the end it is entirely his own fault that it’s worse, because he starts wrecking everything he loves in an almost absent-minded but definitely intentional way, like it’s a nightmare he’s listening to through the door as it happens in the next room over. He really IS the ‘I just felt like destroying something beautiful’ central of the jedi.

at the end qui-gon is dead and through dooku’s own influence, however indirectly. Rael has had to turn away from him. Sifo-Dyas is dead on Dooku’s own orders and so is his sister, he might as well have done it with his own hands. (though I think it’s very interesting that in each case he didn’t do it with his own hands, he consistently uses a middleman.) He lives within the coldness of his sterile empty castle and horrifically mistreats the one person he might have found something like connection with the way he did with his students before (Ventress), deliberately trapping her in a similar state of utter desolate isolation and telling her, essentially, ‘We’re like this as people and nothing can be done to change it. We can’t escape, we’re already doomed, stop trying, it’s too late. You are just like me (and if you aren't already I'll make you like me)’. And that’s the closest thing he gets to love anymore. When he accused Ky of using her ‘as a salve for his own loneliness’ and you’re like well well well mr projection man how’s that working out for you. He is completely, shatteringly alone and he is so entirely as a consequence of his own actions and he's too far gone to understand or care. I’m howling you useless fucking FOOL dooku

- dooku 🤝 john gaius

“Hm. I have observed that there are in fact many flaws in our society and the government is deeply corrupt. So if I kill a few billion people here and there in order to fix it, is that not basically okay when you really think about it”

Dooku making salient points about the political and ethical failures of the Republic and then, just when you think he’s onto something, he goes and makes The wildest fucking decisions about what to do about it. Sure. dark magic and genocide are probably the only ways out of this you’re so right bro. If we make enough minuses to add together surely we’ll end up in plus sooner or later

- *head in my hands once more* I can’t believe I am genuinely emotionally invested in someone called Count Dooku with the looks of a knockoff dracula and ultimate moral character to match right now this is terrible. hey. hey dooks. what you have to go and fuck everything up so bad for huh I’m so incredibly sad now

there is something to be said about how getting to see glimpses of what dooku looked like in the light makes it so much more heartwrenching that he never came back. he could have, a thousand times. and every time he chose not to.

#star wars #dooku jedi lost #count dooku #sifo dyas #dooku x sifo dyas #disaster lineage #lene kostana #star wars meta #rael averross #qui gon jinn #I'm being peak on my bullshit in this one. you're welcome and/or I'm sorry as appropriate

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