#there's like a dozen people who claim to have done it

[mwagneto]

hungarian/nomadic magyar tumblr circa 998AD dashboard simulator

🏞️ vándor-ló-979 Follow

not yall still spreading emese's foundation myth??? she literally claims she fucked a bird????? like either she's lying or she cheated and she's trying to cover it up or well. i dont even want to consider the third option

🪺 magánügyek Follow

tengri forbid women do anything???

735 notes

🦅 szél-könnyű-szárnyán-szállj Follow

okay im sick of the discourse let's do this.

8,572 notes

🐎 istván-rovására Follow

that took so long lmao -> !!!!!!!∧◇ᛏ⋈∧

481 notes

🐴 csillagösvény Follow

i'm so serious rn if you support """istván""" in any way just unfollow and block me. we do NOT need him or his dumbass god and what he's been doing to our people to spread his religion is shameful.

🐴 csillagösvény Follow

btw we all know your real name is vajk stop larping as a christian it's EMBARRASSINGGGG

✝️ esztergom-örökké Follow

love seeing my mutuals reblogging this /s anyway op has multiple posts on their blog supporting quartering and human sacrifice. in case you were wondering. anyway stand with István

🐴 csillagösvény Follow

1) we dont even do human sacrifices, are you fucking stupid??? show me ONE post where i talk about that. 2) are you seriously forgetting that your bestie istván LITERALLY QUARTERED HIS UNCLE?????

#sorry to put this dumbass on the dash😭 dont even engage just block them #ur not making it up the tree of life lmao #discourse

3,264 notes

🌅 bolygó-kárpáti Follow

friendly reminder that just because you're white passing doesn't mean you're not a real magyar!! people with mixed parents are just as valid <3

🏇 attila-népe Follow

cranky coz ur ancestors decided to mix with the europeans arent you

🧺 lemezelő Follow

isnt your girlfriend literally frankish????

🏇 attila-népe Follow

you had to have done some serious stalking to find that💀 and first of all i didn't have a choice, my parents picked the tribe, and second of all she's not my "girlfriend" i got her via ritual kidnapping (WITH consent. before anyone gets weird)

🌐 a-kiber-kovács Follow

Couldn't you have kidnapped another magyar woman? Or someone from another mongoloid tribe?

🔅 hadúrsimp Follow

ohh sure so now human pet guy is gonna chime in to advocate for the kidnapping of our women while being lowkey racist. what are you even doing on nomadblr????

🌅 bolygó-kárpáti Follow

what the fuck happened to my post

19,276 notes

🪔 rakabonciás Follow

for the nth time, you're only a true shaman if you were born with teeth OR with extra fingers OR in the sac. the rest of you are faking & we can tell.

🦅szél-könnyű-szárnyán-szállj Follow

okay people keep spreading this but this is literally just wrong?? like congrats on the 6 fingers op im glad u and Little Golden Father have a special connection (genuinely) but like. táltos and sámán and mágus and garabonciás and javas etc are all different things with completely different requirements and life paths which you should definitely know if you're claiming to be one?? especially since your post says shaman but you're listing the criteria for a táltos, and your username looks like a play on garabonciás so. which is it🤔 maybe get your facts in order before trying to gatekeep

anyway don't listen to op!! your connection to the Upper World is yours alone and you're the best judge of what the Fathers and Mothers want your path in life to be!!

646 notes

🛐 mea-culpa Follow

It breaks my heart that the majority of my people still refuse to see the One True God and insist on sticking to their pagan spirits. I fear that when judgement day comes, we will all be wiped out thanks to their foul godless ways.

🐴 csillagösvény Follow

how tf am i godless when i literally have dozens of gods? little mothers and little fathers are in everything all around us & it must suck ass to live in a world where you're not surrounded by the small gods that inhabit everything. manifesting that the fene and the guta tag team beat your ass tonight

🔅 hadúrsimp Follow

hadúr will literally strike op down personally. he told me himself. whispered it to me sweetly even

🐴 csillagösvény Follow

while i agree with you, i feel like you might also have ulterior motives, nomadblr user hadúrsimp

#but live your truth! doubly so on the posts of these freak repressed bible lovers. meanwhile on the #COOL side of magyarhood we walk around butt ass naked!!! op have fun never experiencing joy ever again tho #discourse

198 notes

👑 sanctus-stephanus Follow

posting from an alt so i don't get cancelled but lowkey i'm starting to think koppány was right.... maybe this christianity thing isn't gonna work out after all

👑 sanctus-stephanus Follow

WRONG BLOG

👑 sanctus-stephanus Follow

THIS WAS A JOKE. IGNORE THIS

🪺 magánügyek Follow

ISTVÁN????????????? 💀

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

I posted an analysis of a section from Dark Imperium on Reddit that I'm quite proud of, so I'm reposting it here:

‘Some of the worlds dispute the proof. They are more than glad to welcome our warriors, but the Imperial governors in two dozen systems quibble over reaffirming their oaths of loyalty. In one case, we have had an outbreak of intra-system civil war over the issue, where one lord has declared for you and three against. Some lie outright, telling us they were never part of Ultramar. Perhaps some of them sincerely believe it. A few are braver and insist the ancient treaties cannot be revoked, even by you, my lord, and are determined to retain their independence.’ ‘They are wrong,’ said Guilliman. […] 'They are… disquieted by the fate of some of their peers.’ ‘Only those who rule poorly have anything to fear,’ said Guilliman. ‘It is, naturally, the more autocratic rulers who oppose your rescinding of their independence.’ ‘Then they only delay the inevitable,’ said Guilliman. ‘They will fall into line and ask politely for mercy, or they will be executed.’ […] ‘I should never have set the Five Hundred free,’ he said. ‘My lord?’ said Ventris. ‘I should not have done it,’ repeated Guilliman. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was following the Emperor’s wishes, letting men rule the affairs of men.’

A lot of people look at this passage and think they’re seeing Guilliman clean up corruption in the 500 Worlds. I’m sure he will, but that’s not what’s happening here. This is an autocrat ruthlessly crushing resistance.

Why are these worlds resisting? Ventris claims that “naturally” the more autocratic rulers are the most resistant. Perhaps that’s true, but we also have to take into account that he is an Ultramarine talking to his genesire; he will be heavily biased in thought and word against Guilliman’s enemies. Look closer at how he describes the resisters. They invoke ancient treaties to justify their independence. They’re afraid of what will happen if they surrender. Using that information, let’s flip the chessboard and try to imagine what these demands feel like from their perspective:

You’re a human ruler. For the past ten thousand years, your planet has existed free of transhuman rule. You might even have the original treaty that granted your planet’s independence. You almost certainly regard yourself as an obedient subject of the Imperium.

All of a sudden, one of the legendary demigods of yore shows up on your doorstep and demands you to bend the knee. He doesn’t care about your treaties (which he probably signed!) or historic independence or anything. Ugly things happen to people who go against him. Oh sure, he claims that you’ll be fine, so long as you haven’t done anything wrong, but do you really believe that? You’re a ruler in the fucking Imperium. You know just how potential claimants are handled; you know how often misdeeds get dug out of the closets of inconvenient politicians. Shit, you've probably done that yourself to your political rivals. Do you really think that you’ll be okay? And if you actually care about your planet, can you really trust him to give a damn about the lives of your people? Transhumans do tend to be aloof creatures convinced in their own superiority…

Guilliman doesn’t consider any of these possibilities, not even for the purposes of negotiation. Guilliman doesn’t care. He’s right, you’re wrong, and therefore he’s justified in doing whatever it takes to make you comply. This is 40k. “Whatever it takes” includes cyclonic torpedoes.

The most damning part IMO are Guilliman’s words at the end. He didn’t grant these worlds their liberty because he trusted humans to look after themselves. He granted them liberty in obedience to Dad. Humans’ thoughts, beliefs, and opinions never entered the equation. And now, coming back to the Imperium at its lowest point, he concludes that it was a mistake to give humans the benefit of the doubt.

The Imperium lasted ten thousand years under human rule. It survived the Great Beast, twelve Black Crusades, the Nova Terra civil war, the False Primarch, the Age of Apostasy, three Tyranid Wars, and Throne knows what else—not just survived, but even thrived in many cases. Under transhuman rule, the Imperium lasted six fucking years before it exploded into civil war that nearly destroyed the whole empire and even the galaxy itself. But it was a mistake to let humans rule themselves. Riiiiiiiiight.

[rosehxnt]

bonjour >:) requests are open, and thus i am requesting leona, vil (aster is converting me how dare) and idia (again, i am being converted) with a s/o who drags them out to buy matching outfits and accidentally revealing their secret relationship?

it’s just an outfit

ft. leona kingscholar, vil schoenheit, idia shroud summary: even with the attempt to hide their identity, your boyfriend is noticed in public shopping with you warnings: invasion of privacy via paparazzi, use of they/them pronouns for reader (idia)

leona kingscholar  He seemed so nonchalant about it, only opting to wear a hat and insisting no one would care what a second-born prince was doing buying matching outfits with another person.  He seemed to be correct on that matter until five minutes after you got back to his dorm to lay down.  After changing into your couple’s black and yellow loungewear, messages began to flood your phone from your friends. Links to dozens of articles claiming to have the scoop on Leona Kingscholar's new relationship.  "‘Sunset Savanna Royalty Seen Shopping with Mystery Person. Could This Be a Budding New Romance?’” Leona read one of the titles over your shoulder, throwing in sarcastically shocked tone.  You glared at him as you turned to face him before your face fell in worry. "What if this…changes things between us? Since everyone practically knows now."  "I don’t think this changes anything between us. Not to me, anyway. We just don't have to sneak around anymore." He paused to rest a hand on your cheek. "You’re still okay being mine, right?"  You nodded. "Of course I am."  "That’s all that matters to me, love." Leona threw his arm over your shoulders to bring you closer to his chest, not missing the chance to leave a kiss on your forehead before continuing your impromptu nap.

vil schoenheit  It was his idea to both wear masks to reduce the possibility of being recognized. He was even smart enough to style his hair differently than usual.  Needless to say, Vil had a lot of experience trying to avoid paparazzi as one of the most famous teenagers in twisted wonderland.  You had insisted on going out and getting matching outfits despite your relationship not being public yet, he agreed but not without a warning of how overwhelming it could become if someone recognized him in public.  "It's no big deal, I can handle it," you told him.  "As long as you're confident, my dear."   The trip was going fairly well, you had picked out matching peacoats that would help keep you warm in the cold temperatures. It was when you were looking at sweaters that a fan of his recognized him and noticed your close proximity to each other.  Before you knew it, pictures were being taken as Vil took your hand to lead you away, tsking at the misplaced enthusiasm the public had for him. Once you were sure you were alone he turned to hold you.  "I apologize for the scene, I hope it wasn't too much for you."  "I'm sorry for dragging you out here." You glanced the ground. "People will probably start harassing you about being in a relationship now."  "I knew the risks before entering a relationship with you." He tilted your head up to look at you properly. "I don't mind at all, because now I'm able to be open about the fondness I hold for you."

idia shroud  It’s not like you were actively keeping your relationship a secret, it just hadn’t come up in conversation yet. Most of the time you and Idia spent together was either on voice call or playing games in his room.  You had asked him a few times if he’d be willing to go with you to get matching outfits. It never mattered what it was, just as long as you matched with him. One weekend he finally found the courage to go to the mall with you, as long as he could keep his hood up and face down the entire time.  You were almost jumping with joy at the prospect of getting your introvert boyfriend to do something he would've never done before meeting you. Yes he had stipulations, but you were just glad to have this bonding opportunity with him.  Idia quickly steered you towards the back section of a store that he claimed had "everything an otaku would ever want." You passed walls of shirts for every anime, video game, and vocaloid you'd ever heard of, and then some.  That's exactly when he spotted two students he shared occasional classes with. Said students noticed him back, saw how he looked at you with panic, and quickly connected the dots.  "Well if they're standing that close to Idia Shroud..."  "Exactly what I was thinking, they've got to be special to him for that kind of privilege."  You didn't get to hear the rest of the conversation as Idia dragged you out of said "otaku heaven," mumbling something about finding merch online instead.

a/n: sorry that leona's is a bit shorter, i tried to mix up each scenario the best i could m.list & rules

© rosehxnt

[eriexplosion]

Yesterday everyone was posting their feelings on TBB. I'm glad I waited, because there's a lot swirling around. Cut for negativity again.

I was introduced to The Bad Batch in August 2022 and fell instantly in love. The characters, the story, the complex family dynamics, they all spoke to me. I wasn't even a Star Wars fan but I went through and devoured The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, all of it. I threw myself into this world and adored every second of it. I must have rewatched season one over five times before season two even came out.

When season two premiered I loved it. Every Tuesday night I stayed up until the episode drop and devoured it immediately. I looked ahead at the schedule and took days off work for the double episodes, for the big Crosshair episodes - he was my favorite early on and season two only made that grow. But season two also really brought Tech into my radar even more. I had always liked him, but here he was shining. The Crossing really solidified it, as an autistic person. I'd never heard someone describe the difference in processing so succinctly before, so clearly, and it spoke to me like very little had. Here was a character that was like me. Here was a character that I needed when I was an undiagnosed child, someone that would have made me feel like I had at least some way of describing my differences.

Then, well. He died. It was an affecting scene, but it felt out of nowhere, it felt unfinished. Tech didn't even get the climax of the episode. He just fell into the clouds, the Batch grieved for a few minutes, and then the plot steamrolled right along.

I didn't believe it, not after the mad scientist presented his goggles and claimed not to salvage anything else. It seemed like such an obvious fake out. The longer I sat with it the less satisfying it felt. It felt so brushed over, so pointless, all for a mission that they accomplished nothing on. Then came the social media circus. Again and again his fall was shoved in our faces on Twitter, demanding we stream it. TikToks were made that were so out of touch they felt like parodies, the wound ripped open again and again, and I thought surely there had to be a purpose to it.

So I waited for season 3 as interviews were done that seemed to almost intentionally avoid calling him dead. As tweets were made promising we'd be so fulfilled if we could only see who was onscreen in the mid-season! (A tweet that immediately garnered dozens of people hoping it referred to Tech, all without a single comment to try and quell the speculation.) It felt already like we were being toyed with, but I thought it had to be for a reason or a purpose. More weirdly vague discussions went up about his Sacrifice, his Fall, his Anything But Death, even as everyone insists that it was so meaningful, the way he died on a mission that accomplished nothing. Jokes were made around Valentines Day.

He Fell For You, get it?

The first official use of killed went up on the databank right after the trailer, on Hunter's page of all places. The first time the interviews used dead was the Friday before the premier. It all felt too late, theories had already grown for months by that point.

Season 3 finally came and I waited up for every episode drop just like I did for season 2, hoping for him to come back or at least for him to be properly grieved, since we had barely a couple of minutes in Plan 99 before it was swept away for the next plot point. Surely Tech's impact deserved an episode of focus, if he were really gone.

The previously on plays his last words twice. But then we skip months into the future. We don't see Crosshair find out the news - even though Tech died on a mission to retrieve him. We don't watch Omega grieve. She barely seems to notice she's missing a brother. We got a brief allusion in episode two. It took three episodes to even mention his name in passing. Five episodes in everyone got their chance to look sad about him, but only for a few seconds and only when his skills were relevant. Compared to the gorgeous callback to Mayday in the same episode, it felt shallow. He had to have been more important than this didn't he?

Episodes 6 & 7 felt like maybe there was a reason. We see a new masked assassin that gets extra focus, who got put through a series of Tech-adjacent situations, whose beef with Crosshair was just a little too personal, who survived longer than all the rest but stayed masked. Rex talks about losing brothers, but Hunter says nothing about the brother they lost. I hoped it all meant something, that this was the reason that he felt so much like he was thrown away, so that he could come back in.

More one off mentions that only really come up when it's about how useful Tech would have been. More poking at the wound that still felt open and raw because we'd never gotten any closure. The closest we get is a single scene in episode eleven, so late in the season and so brief that I thought that couldn't possibly be it.

CX-2 comes back, and he talks like Tech. He's still not unmasked. I really need him to be something because otherwise what was it all for?

The most emotion comes in Juggernaut, from Phee. Its a highlight because it actually feels like it was about him, like he mattered as a person. It's episode twelve and we finally talk about him like a person. We never saw her get the news either.

Episodes thirteen and fourteen pass without any mentions at all. We're running out of time. Episode 15 hits and we get one raw one from Crosshair that Clone Force 99 died with Tech. It's the first time they directly say he's dead in so many words. It's the season finale. CX-2 is a nobody it turns out, and he dies faceless. Everyone gets a happy ending and after over a year of wondering if we'd ever get closure, it turns out Tech's just dead. But look how happy everyone else is!

Everyone gets to grow old. Except the autistic one of course. He's just dead and it hardly feels like it mattered at all. Did you know Wrecker and Hunter don't use his name once in season three? Omega and Echo mention him once each. Crosshair twice, only once with any emotion behind it. Phee tops the charts at three mentions, two by name and one by nickname. We see his goggles four times. I kept count.

There was never a bigger plan, this was just all he was worth. We spent two seasons on Crosshair's absence. We spent a whole episode dealing with it when Echo decided to go with Rex. Tech dies though and all his life amounted to was a handful of mentions when his skills would have been useful, some shots of his broken goggles, and endless cooing out of the text over how meaningful his sacrifice was. Too meaningful to take back, of course, even as Ventress is brought back from her own sacrifice.

I had really, really thought that this time autistic life would be worth more than autistic death. That a character that felt so carefully handled couldn't have just been thrown away for shock value, barely to even be mentioned again, his memory used to string us along to keep us watching. If you added up every mention and shot through season 3 it might actually clock in at less time than was spent on Mayday's send off.

I'm an adult. I'll survive, though the sting of seeing yet another character like me used as a stepping stone for everyone else's happy ending will take a while to fade. But I think about the child I used to be who needed a character like Tech. And I think about how it would have felt to actually get that only to watch him die a handful of episodes later as a side note to his family's story, barely even mentioned again. How badly it would have hurt, how deep it would have scarred.

I'm not that child anymore. But there are a lot of autistic kids out there that are the same as I used to be, and they're learning for the first time that people like us don't get happy endings. Instead they die so that everyone around them can rise up, and they might even get mentioned a few times. But don't worry. Everyone will tell you how meaningful and special it is and how delusional you were to ever hope for anything else.

The Bad Batch still means a lot to me. I think it always will. I love the characters. I love the family, and all the potential they had. But the sting of not belonging in this happy ending is there, and it's deep. It's been a long time since I trusted a show. It'll be a long time before I risk trusting another. And I hope that the autistic kids trying to learn how to close their hearts off behind new walls are doing okay.

[mithliya]

i’m getting spammed with anon hate and i honestly don’t think this place is redeemable so im probs not going to be posting for idk how long. radblr has given me less than nothing. since joining radblr, people have overwhelmingly been unbelievably cruel to me.

my first year on radblr, women 1-2 decades older than me viciously harassed me for asking questions as someone not familiar with certain beliefs held here. these women harassed me for months non-stop, posted my full legal name, posted homes neighbouring where i lived in bahrain, and essentially released my private information. i had to threaten them back just in hopes they would leave me alone, which they didn’t really do. they simply stopped posting my name bc they wanted to make me look like im bad for finding one of their names simply by googling her url (her full name was her twitter username). one of the people in that circle was radicaldumbass, who then came back as macroclit, and again came back as radicalstoner. i moved on but i haven’t forgotten.

then, black-diaspora repeated the same thing. she posted pictures of my mother and led people to finding my mom's facebook. to this day, i still get anons with my mother’s name and my sister’s name. my sister was about 13 when anons first started sending me her name in threatening anons. somehow, black-diaspora was rewritten as a victim of mine despite her being repeatedly racist & lesbophobic to me & posting my mom’s info.

i was being abused by my ex-gf and women on here literally picked my abuse apart and enabled TRAs like lostelvenqueen to make up lies that i was the one abusing my abuser. that vicious lie was reiterated for 4 years. while being abused, women on radblr were mocking me for needing money when my ex-girlfriend was actively stealing from me at the time. to this day people use against me the fact that i needed help in that time bc some mutuals helped finance 2 dinners & my medication, all of which i either paid them back for or drew art as payment.

then, again, another woman dug through an old blog i ran as a teenager and found some posts here and there to make it seem like i, as a 15 and 16 year old, definitely loved being totally controlled by someone and physically abused whenever i didn’t follow his exact commands. i spoke openly about this trauma years prior to this person “exposing” me & arguing that i actually wanted that abuse by pointing to random innocuous posts and forming a story out of it. i think every abuse victim can imagine how difficult it is to still face trauma from something and instead of being allowed to heal, having it brought up to you several days a week to taunt you and having “feminists” tell you that you actually wanted it and are lying when you say otherwise. to this day, i get daily anons mentioning my name because this woman also put my legal name out there.

women here have put me in physical danger, they have made up the vilest lies about me, they’ve called me racial slurs, they’ve been outright racist to me, they’ve speculated about my rape & abuse, they’ve joked about lynching me, they’ve questioned things as minuscule as what i had for dinner. and despite that, i haven’t returned that same treatment. i remained relatively consistent, i simply criticised what i thought was wrong and provided evidence to my statements.

i made some nice friends on here & i’ll keep talking to them. but i’m going to be reevaluating why i’m wasting my time in a space that has overwhelmingly caused me stress, a space where countless unbelievable lies have been spun about me and a place where people have said & done the vilest things and in the end, i was always framed as a bad person based on half-truths or outright lies. now, people falsely claim that women who unfollow me or block me risk having their private information exposed, when i have met at least a dozen women from radblr and run a server with hundreds of women from radblr, have seen hundreds of faces, and have never exposed such information even if we end up disliking each other. i could tolerate many ridiculous lies, but why should i? i’m pretty fed up of tolerating this.

enjoy spinning this however you want and lying about me further. idk when i’ll be back or if i’ll want to be back. it’s pretty clear to me that this space prioritises lesbophobes & racists (& sometimes even downright misogynists) over people who calmly criticise it. i joined this space initially bc i thought it was somewhere where i could freely be a lesbian without being hassled for it, but radblr doesn’t even offer that anymore.

[herejusttosufferalong]

Since we've not done timeline for a while, here is my new one.

Luke and Nic realized their feelings during s3, but she decided that they should not go for it for many reasons at the time (it would be messing with their work, Polin feelings might bleed into their personal ones, his recent break up and not wanting to be a rebound. And her, being hurt many times before, wanted to be sure of his feelings and her own as well.). Tif timeline revealed that he was all over her at the end of the shooting and after. He was clearly in love, wanted to go for it.

So she suggested to take a break, but he took it as a rejection. He was already not in a good place after the break up with Jade. But most probably he kept it for himself. His ego took a hit and he started spiraling into HBS 1.

But his online flirting got vivid attention from the fandom, so he picked A from a dozen girls and settled for a while with her. She seemed nice, fit very well with R's new babe and the gang could go in their trips together.

Then in autumn they meet again for reshoots and he plays coy (he is resentful inside).

Then early 2024 they start meeting again with Nic and the Bton team for the WT and feelings resurface again. In the meantime he has this casual, pleasant something with A, his ego likes that this girl is very impressed by him. He knows he won't be around much during the WT, so he makes promises what will happen after, to keep her at bay and avoid tantrums. He is a people pleaser at his core.

Nic in the meantime probably also engages herself with a fling with Eamon. But she misses Luke, and seeing him with this one dimensional girl makes her upset. She did not think he will settle for somebody so soon. She also knows this is not serious for Luke, he is just silly with this girl. Probably feels the resentment from his side as well.

They start the WT, and feelings surface very soon. And tension too. Luke made promises to A to claim her properly in one way or another, but they can not do it bc of the Pr. His promises are binding him to A after the WT, but his feelings to Nic. He is totally conflicted and confused. Wants to do the right thing but can not, because either way, someone gets hurt.

But he is also angry with Nic for the break and the confusing situation with A, he blames Nic for the mess inside, plays petty and unavailable.

Here probably comes something from Nic's side. Maybe it's Eamon or somebody else (Jake is an option, maybe L does not know at that point what is JD to Nic), but he gets very tense and offended around Italy. They made up, some tension is released (maybe in bed, who knows) and they continue the WT with the peak of Brasil, where they literally can not hold on to pretend any longer. They look like they are on their honeymoon.

In the meantime and during the breaks Luke feels like shit, bc he was misleading Ant the whole time, not with malicious intention, but still.

He tells N that he can not leave A now, bc they have planned vacations and fashion week appearances together, which he promised to A a long time ago and he feels he can not undo it (peope pleaser, spineless golden retriever again).

Nic is mad, naturally. She did not waited during the break to hand over his man to a toilet twerker.

What happened during pap walk, is still a mistery, but my feeling is that he promised A he will acknowledge her at one point after the hints (NYE, Instyle) and this was his offer. He wanted to go for plausible deniability, so he didn't plan to hold her hand, which she sabotaged. He misread the room, the backlash was bigger then he anticipated.

Then they went to Milan, GQ and Sorrento, all programs planned ahead. He looks miserable all the time, because he is.

Nic probably freezes him, which ads to the misery. I think A doesn't really know what is going on, about Nic and him, and that he plans to break up with her at one point. He probably tells her that he is not ready or doesn't want a serious relationship right now, so they should keep it light and he helps her to kick off her influencer career. Which is a naive thought and it doesn't happen. The fandom is riled up because they picked up the signs of Lukola being in love and doesn't understand pap walk. They are harassing both of them and shit all over sm where they appear, which makes it difficult to make any deals with any brands.

You can see the signs Ant not being very satisfied how things turned out in Italy.

Nic is getting fed up, further freeze comes after some well pointed message, finally the "here, this is all yours" post to wake him up.

They might be on and off, he sits there while is getting ready for the Glam event.

JD goes everywhere with her, which makes Luke angry. They both need somebody at hand who is available all the time.

And from here, I don't have a clue.

Nic's silence shows she told him to get his shit together and take over fanservice for a while, also bc he needs redemption badly.

Back to shooting, back to some kind of a bubble...

This reads like a bad fanfic outline

I love it

💜🥃

[louisblue02]

I mean this as respectful and conversational as possible but some people probably don't draw murderface because he's the only one who sexually assaults women on screen and supports the confederacy. He's very funny in the context of the show but definitely not a guy some people want to draw cute fanart of. I will add that Nathan could be depicted as more unconventionally attractive, but a lot of people try to avoid that by making him skinny. Same with Charles and de-aging him by taking any and all wrinkles away.

I am so sorry and I know you didn’t mean this in a rude way but this argument pisses me off SO bad. Skwisgaar is the deadbeat dad final boss and refuses to take responsibility for any of his dozens of children. He also states in an interview that he’d like to shoot Sarah Palin with a tranquilizer and have his way with her. There’s also an interview where Nathan claims Toki was caught FUCKING A CAT. Do those seem like traits of characters people would want to draw cute fanart of? I don’t think so. Yet all I see is fanart of the two of them! I could also add that Pickles is a white man with dreads AND simultaneously scared of black people. There’s also the time when oh idk… THE ENTIRE BAND SEXUALLY HARASSED ABIGAIL ON THE DETHSUB??? People will ignore problematic traits when it comes to the hot characters but if the character is unconventionally attractive like Murderface they are NOT going to let you forget the bad things they’ve done. I do agree with your last statement about Nathan and Charles though I’ll give you that.

[girlactionfigure]

Ok, you want to know from a lawyer why the allegation that Israel is committing genocide is false? 

Fine. 

I prefer to focus on the absurdity of the allegation, especially since it is Hamas that expressly seeks Jewish & Israeli genocide; but it's clear people want this analysis.

Genocide is defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as: (1) the coordinated; (2) planned; and (3) intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

Let's set aside for a minute the fact that the the #UN Convention regarding #genocide was adopted because of what the #Nazis had done to the #Jewsthereby making its invocation here not only absurdly false, but also unforgivably offensive.

That outrageousness aside, we can analyze the elements of the crime of genocide under the present situation in #Gaza.

The requisite mens rea to find a government guilty of genocide is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group of people. 

This intent to commit genocide doesn't magically come into being just because people want to believe it exists. There must be actual proof of criminal intent to destroy a particular group of people.

#SouthAfrica cannot possibly carry its burden of showing Israel "intended or intends to commit genocide"; thus, the allegation fails.  

Just some of the obvious reasons intent to commit genocide could not possibly be shown follow:

- 10/7 & Hamas' words since 10/7 have proven the #terror group would, if it could, continue carrying out massacres until it killed every #Israeli & potentially every #Jew on Earth. Israel, like every other UN member state, has the inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. In this case, Israel's right to self-defense continues until it has done everything "necessary" to to ensure #Hamas can never attack Israeli civilians again because of: (1) the genocidal brutality of the #October7Massacre; (2) Hamas' 35+ years of genocidal warfare against Israel & Jews; & (3) Hamas' express & repeated commitment to repeat massacres like 10/7 "again and again." Therefore, Israel's right to self-defense includes both the right to eliminate the threat from Hamas to its civilians & to restore a sense of security to its civilians.

- The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims 22,000 #Palestinians have died. Even if that number was reliable (it is not), Hamas claims every one of the deaths was a civilian, not a #HamasTerrorist. That is obviously not the case. Israel claims to have killed ~9,000 Hamas terrorists. Even assuming the Hamas numbers were correct, that would mean about 1.45 civilians have been killed for every 1 "combatant" (Hamas terrorist). As horrible as the loss of any civilian life is, it is simply a fact that civilians suffer disproportionately in war & what Israel has done in protecting civilian lives is unprecedented in the history of urban warfare. In fact, according to the UN statistics of global conflict, the average civilian to combatant killed ratio is 9 civilians killed for every 1 combatant killed. This ratio in and of itself makes the allegation of "genocide" a complete absurdity.

- Even assuming the "worst case scenario" numbers above of ~9,000 terrorists killed & ~13,000 civilians killed still does not take into account the cause of those civilian deaths. We know that somewhere between 20%-35% of all Hamas & #Palestinian #Islamic #Jihad missiles misfire & land in Gaza (like the one that landed at a Gaza hospital that Israel was wrongly accused of bombing). So, how many Gaza civilians were killed by misfired rockets from Palestinian terror groups? Suddenly, that already incredible ratio of civilians:combatants in the annals of warfare is improving even further.

- There are at least dozens of videos of Hamas #terrorists firing at #IDF troops while wearing civilian clothing (which is itself a #WarCrime) to blend in with the civilian population. So, how many Gaza "civilians" who were killed were actually just Hamas terrorists wearing #civilian clothing? That civilian:combatant ratio is improving once again.

- We know from video, reconnaissance, audio, interrogations, & eye-witness accounts (including from #Gazans themselves) that Hamas uses both voluntary & involuntary human shields to protect Hamas terrorists & their weapons (each time they do it, that is also a war crime). So, how many Gaza "civilians" who were killed were voluntarily acting as human shields for Hamas? And while Israel has made significant efforts to limit civilians casualties, those involuntary human shields who die are legally dead at the hands of Hamas. Wow, that civilian:combatant ratio is looking beyond amazing now! 

- There is video, photo, interrogation, & eye-witness accounts that Hamas uses women & children under 18 in combat roles. Therefore, not every allegedly killed woman or child counts as a "civilian." 

- What kind of genocidal army would do what Israel has been doing in engaging in massive warning campaigns before it attacks via hundreds of thousands of phone calls, text messages, leaflets, & via roof knocking? Gazans are actually given so much warning & time to evacuate that the extreme majority of "civilians" who remain in a targeted area are there either because they support Hamas or because they were forced to stay & act as human shields by Hamas. Essentially, not only is Israel obviously not conducting a genocide, it has completely eliminated their own advantage of surprise that would have helped Israel eradicate Hamas much quicker by providing warnings that reach both civilians & Hamas terrorists.

- A large percentage of Palestinian deaths in Gaza have been due to their combined use by Hamas as human shields & by Hamas' refusal to permit Gaza civilians to either to use Hamas tunnels as bomb shelters or to flee via safe corridors provided by the 

@IDF

 (what kind of genocidal army provides safe corridors for civilians even knowing some Hamas terrorists will manage to escape by blending in with the crowd???). In other words, it is Hamas that is by far the most responsible party for putting #Gazan #civilians in harm's way; and the mere fact that civilians have died is in no way indicative of any deliberate intent on the part of Israel to kill Palestinian civilians - let alone intentionally "destroy" the population, as required to prove genocide.

- A country's intention to destroy a group in whole or in part is typically found in state policy (as it was with the Nazis & as it is with Hamas). However, no such policy in Israel has ever existed. Israel has made clear repeatedly (and its actions, with some examples stated above, show this is more than just words) that its goal is to "operate[] against Hamas & other terrorist groups in Gaza, not against the civilian population ... Israel wishes no harm to civilians & is committed to addressing the humanitarian needs of those suffering ..."

- Simply, the loss of lives in Gaza are reasonably explained by & attributable to Israel's necessary self-defense military goal of eradicating Hamas' ability to make war. The loss of lives in Gaza are not, however, reasonably explained by some claimed genocide on the part of Israel, as there is no actual evidence to support a finding of the type of criminal intent required to prove genocide.

- Israel is a straight-up parliamentary #democracy; thus, it has voices in the Knesset that can be extreme. Those voices, however, are not mainstream; and, more importantly, those voices are not the ones who are responsible for prosecuting the war against Hamas. Therefore, their words (indelicate as they may have been) are irrelevant to a finding of genocide on the part of the government of Israel. The Israeli war cabinet in charge of prosecuting the war to eradicate Hamas consists of only five people: PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, unity coalition member, former Deputy PM, & Minister of Defense Benny Gantz, former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, & Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. Attempting to attribute the words of anyone else, especially in the very fringes of Israel's eclectic democratic government, to try to show proof of government intent to commit genocide fails as a matter of both fact & law. Any comments by the five members of the war cabinet at which any dishonest person may wish to point to try to prove "intent to commit genocide," in reality can only be reasonably interpreted as statements referring to the destruction of the Hamas terrorist regime.

So, what is the takeaway? 

It is South Africa's burden to show Israel had/has the intent to carry out a "genocide" of the Palestinian people in Gaza. For the foregoing reasons (among many others - but this is long enough for X), South Africa cannot possibly prove intent to commit genocide. 

South Africa's allegations are defamatory & are an attempt to hold the world's only Jewish State to a different standard than every other state in the history of humankind; and, perhaps worse, to try to turn the victims of a genocide into the alleged committers of a genocide. 

Were the #ICJ to find intent to commit "genocide" here, then no country on Earth would be permitted to act in self-defense in the event it is attacked - no matter how horrible the attack - if any civilians may be killed in the process. 

If that were the case, Hamas & other terrorist organizations would be given carte blanche to attack countries with impunity & then simply hide behind civilians to suddenly become entirely immune from justice. That obviously can never be the law.

Captain Allen

[pokemonshelterstories]

Hi hello!

Houndoom was always one of my favorite Pokémon, and I'm currently doing research to see if the line is a good fit for me. To that end, might you have any pointers on keeping Houndour/Houndoom specifically?

the houndour line are interesting pokemon to keep! it can be done, but it's a lot more work than other canine pokemon. houndour, unlike the similarly-typed growlithe and maschiff, are not domesticated pokemon. they have some quirks that make keeping them tough.

the first step you need to take is checking if you can actually have a houndour where you're living. if you live in an apartment or belong to a housing association, they most likely have a ban on houndour. this is partly because undomesticated fire types are considered a moderate fire risk and thus are usually banned automatically, but it's also because the houndoor line is noisy. they have a complex system of communication consisting of dozens of unique vocalizations ranging from yips to howls, and much like a combusken cock, their favorite time to start up the chorus is at dawn. you're going to have to be okay with a lot of noise to raise them, and not everyone who lives near you is necessarily going to agree with that choice.

if you are able to keep one, then you need to do the typical fireproofing you would do for any fire type, and make sure it has a safe area where it can use its fire (they routinely flame themselves as a form of parasite control and coat maintenance). you then have to choose how many houndour you want to keep. houndour are pack pokemon and have high social needs, and it's not recommended to keep less than two at a time. some people keep a single houndour because they will bond very tightly to their trainer, and they claim it makes it easier to train them, but it results in other behavioral issues down the road. trying to be their only social structure at home is a bad idea.

getting your houndour from the right source is also really important, because they absolutely need to be raised with littermates so they can learn proper bite inhibition from each other. i've been around houndour that were allowed to bite in play, and i've still got the arm pain to show for it- that is not a bite you want to risk. if you get a weaned puppy, puppy socialization classes are a really good idea for these guys to help them get that social fulfillment.

make sure that you can meet their exercise needs, too. they're active mostly at dawn and dusk, and they're fast; they need plenty of heavy-duty fireproof chew toys and time to run around. this is part of why i don't recommending evolving them unless you have a battling team, because they really need to ability to go head to head with other pokemon once they evolve. it's part of establishing their social structure, and you don't want them to turn that need onto you.

they're definitely pokemon that take a lot of work and careful planning to keep! but they're also remarkably loyal, playful, and affectionate in the right circumstances. you just have to make sure you can provide an environment where they can show off their best qualities.

[thelustybraavosimaid]

There is an unfortunately pervasive aspect of this fandom in that people conflate and replace what is established in canon with what is "true" in fanonland. Or they let their biases run wild and come up with a wide array of baseless ideas.

I tire of this.

Was is when a 22 year old adult started showing interest in a pubescent 14 year old?

This is not out of place in a universe where the author turned Daenerys and Drogo into some love story, twisted as it was, or when he had admitted he was playing around with Sandor and Sansa in the books and that "there was something there," or when he has commissioned Sansan fanart hanging on his wall.

The man does not give two flying fucks about age gaps, even problematic ones by our modern standards.

Was it when he trapped her in Dorne with knights outside ready to kill anyone who tried to help her?

Why would they kill anyone who tried to help her? Lyanna was found in a bed of blood and was ill, so she possibly had puerperal fever after giving birth. There was no way she didn't have a wetnurse to accompany her. Was this wetnurse supposed to have been slain by the Kingsguard for daring to assist Lyanna?

Was it when he joined the war to kill her remaining family and Northerners?

He didn't join the war to specifically kill her family. I find it hard to believe that anyone could forget Rhaegar had stakes of his own, and family of his own. Like, if it wasn't for Rhaegar dying, Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon wouldn't have been killed by the Mountain and Amory Lorch.

He didn't deliberately join the war to kill Lyanna's family, he did it so he could win it, return to King's Landing, and depose Aerys. This has been his goal as far back as the tourney at Harrenhal:

His lordship lacked the funds to pay such munificent prizes, they argued; someone else must surely have stood behind him, someone who did not lack for gold but preferred to remain in the shadows whilst allowing the Lord of Harrenhal to claim the glory for hosting this magnificent event. We have no shred of evidence that such a "shadow host" ever existed, but the notion was widely believed at the time and remains so today.

But if indeed there was a shadow, who was he, and why did he choose to keep his role a secret? A dozen names have been put forward over the years, but only one seems truly compelling: Rhaegar Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone.

If this tale be believed, 'twas Prince Rhaegar who urged Lord Walter to hold the tourney, using his lordship's brother Ser Oswell as a gobetween. Rhaegar provided Whent with gold sufficient for splendid prizes in order to bring as many lords and knights to Harrenhal as possible. The prince, it is said, had no interest in the tourney as a tourney; his intent was to gather the great lords of the realm together in what amounted to an informal Great Council, in order to discuss ways and means of dealing with the madness of his father, King Aerys II, possibly by means of a regency or a forced abdication. (The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring, The World of Ice and Fire)

—

Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime's shoulder. "When this battle's done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but...well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return." (Jaime I, AFfC)

The major wrench thrown in Rhaegar's plans was Aerys attending said tourney.

Was it when he left her to die in a pool of her own blood?

Rhaegar was dead before then, and even as he was dying he whispered Lyanna's name, as was semi-confirmed in the World of Ice and Fire app.

Leading a large host to the Trident, Rhaegar met Robert in battle duelling on horseback in the fording of the river Rhaegar was killed after giving Robert a serious wound. He would die with Lyanna's name on his lips. (Rhaegar Targaryen, AWoIaF app)

She was in his thoughts even while dying.

Was it when she screamed for her brother to save her?

She didn't. And she would never call Ned "Lord Eddard."

As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.

"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.

"I promise," he whispered. "Lya, I promise..."

"Lord Eddard," a man echoed from the dark. (Eddard X, AGoT)

This is based on a fever dream, of which George already said that not all dreams are literal. Rose petals certainly were not blowing across a blood-streaked sky, after all, and by Ned's account, the petals in Lyanna's hold were not blue, but crushed and blackened.

Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. (Eddard I, AGoT)

Moreover:

I might mention, though, that Ned's account, which you refer to, was in the context of a dream...and a fever dream at that. Our dreams are not always literal.

[Source]

So we're still, deliberately, in the dark about the events surrounding the tower of joy.

You'll need to wait for future books to find out more about the Tower of Joy and what happened there, I fear.

————

Was it when she begged to be buried with her family in Winterfell?

About this.

It was already a given that Lyanna's body was going to be returned home, as all Starks are traditionally interred in the crypts.

Ned stopped at last and lifted the oil lantern. The crypt continued on into darkness ahead of them, but beyond this point the tombs were empty and unsealed; black holes waiting for their dead, waiting for him and his children. Ned did not like to think on that. (Eddard I, AGoT)

The only exception to this rule has been Brandon the Shipwright, since he was lost at sea. Rickard and Brandon died in King's Landing yet they were returned to Winterfell, so I doubt she'd truly have to beg Ned for that:

They were almost at the end now, and Bran felt a sadness creeping over him. "And there's my grandfather, Lord Rickard, who was beheaded by Mad King Aerys. His daughter Lyanna and his son Brandon are in the tombs beside him. Not me, another Brandon, my father's brother. They're not supposed to have statues, that's only for the lords and the kings, but my father loved them so much he had them done." (Bran VII, AGoT)

The problem is how frequently this allusion to a promise has been in Ned's chapters. I doubt he would be thinking of it nearly as much if it was solely about Lyanna's bones returning home, so her pleading must narratively carry a deeper meaning. We are talking about a man who has said before that he had lived with lies for fourteen years and how it often troubled him at night.

Jon was fourteen at the start of the series.

Please direct me to the "love story"

Regarding the possible nature of Rhaegar and Lyanna's relationship, I believe this quote of George's implies it was indeed a romance, in his own preferred telling of one:

It’s interesting, to get back to this issue of romance that you raised earlier. When I was in Spain a few years ago, I had dinner with a woman — a Spanish academic — and a big fan of both science fiction and romance, and she had read a lot of my stuff because people said I was a very romantic writer. And she sort of launched at me and said, “What are you talking about?! You are not a romantic writer, you know. Nobody ever lives happily ever after in your books!” I was defending it, saying, “Well, but that’s a different tradition of romance. I don’t — I’m a romantic writer in the tradition of The Great Gatsby and Romeo and Juliet, and, you know, the Beauty and the Beast. These things don’t necessarily have happy endings, but aren’t the most powerful romances the unfulfilled romances — the romances where people go their separate ways, but they’ll always have Paris, like in Casablanca, one of the films I showed here. You know, they go separate at the end, but they’ll always have Paris.” And she basically said, “No, you’re wrong. They have to be happily ever after together for it to be romance, otherwise it’s just sad.”

[Source: 03:19]

Rhaegar and Lyanna's story is analogous to the tale of Bael the Bard and the Stark maiden; there was a reason why this tale of the blue winter rose was told to Jon specifically. Like the Stark maiden in the story, Lyanna loved Rhaegar so much that she bore him a son.

Bael and the Stark maiden's tale was not a happily ever after, either; both lovers died in the end. But their union did produce a child.

[swanimagines]

AIN'T AFRAID OF NO GHOSTS | KAZ BREKKER + CROWS

Summary: A heist to the rumoured haunted mansion with your boyfriend and the rest of the Crows, what could go wrong?

As you, Kaz and the rest of the Crows approached the end of the road that nature had claimed and your target slowly came to view, you stopped for a moment, admiring the view.

“It looks just like a haunted mansion would look like,” you laughed, looking at the towers reaching towards the night sky, the old bell tower partly collapsed on top of it. Moon was shining from behind the towers, making the scene even more eerie. De Wittehuis Mansion was full of rumours of it being haunted, people having been swallowed by the mansion or alternatively becoming insane after visiting it - and that was why its treasure chamber had been untouched for five decades - rumours telling it had treasures that would be worth millions in today's money. 

And of course, when Kaz heard about it, he immediately laid down a heist. He knew the untouched treasure could also have been just a rumour, but millions of kruge, family heirlooms, gold bars and diamonds, was something he couldn’t pass, especially when the place had been abandoned for so long. No distractions, no guards. You wouldn’t even have to sneak around.

None of you didn’t believe in such rumours of ghosts, of course. It was an easy target, like Kaz said. A lot of people were superstitious in Ketterdam, those rumours about missing people and such had most likely been created to keep children out. The mansion was older than anyone’s grandparents, it wasn’t exactly safe to wander there.

As you approached the gate, hearing it creaking as it was opened - it suddenly made you want to turn around and run back to the Slat. Your gut just told you something wasn’t right. It felt like you were being watched, through the windows, from the woods behind you - something hiding behind the statues in the garden. You froze momentarily, laying a worried glance on your friends who looked equally apprehensive - but Kaz was already walking through the yard, with no doubt kruge already glinting in his eyes, and you ran after him, forcing yourself to match your pace with his. Even when it was way too fast for your taste. You told yourself to shake the stupid fears off, you knew ghosts didn’t exist.

The old door was at least a hundred years old, but heavy, it required Matthias to push it properly before you could get in. The flying dust at the front hall made you all cough, and you looked around warily. The first thing you noticed was how large mirrors were scattered all around, leaning against walls, on the walls, one had shattered on the floor, its shards glinting in the faint moonlight. Kaz coughed a few times more, then looked at you by his side and turned his eyes to the rest of his Crows.

“We’ll go our separate ways to get this done faster. Wylan, Jesper, Inej, upstairs. Matthias and Nina will go left. We'll go to the right. If we can’t find anything from the house, we’ll go to the yard,” Kaz explained, glancing around the hall. “And remember to look for secret passageways.”

Everyone stood still for a moment, before slowly starting to walk to where Kaz told them to go. Kaz sighed and nodded to you and you started to walk to what was once a dining room. Again, the walls had a lot of mirrors, you noticed. It was strange, but maybe the family that once lived here liked to look at themselves. The table was still set, some of the plates looked like they still had food on them. Whatever it was, it had shrunk and was now only a black thing, stuck on the plate. Two or three plates were shattered on the floor, some utensils laid there with them. A cupboard had fallen down from the corner, dozens of porcelain plates and bowls had shattered behind the table, covering the floor completely. You frowned.

“It looks like they left in a hurry,” you remarked. “Wonder why.”

Kaz laid a look on the table, his dark eyes scanning across the room. “Maybe an intruder. Or a gang, who murdered them, and that’s why they were never heard from again,” he gestured towards the wall, a brown stain covering it. “That may be blood, someone might have been shot here.”

“Yeah, probably,” you agreed, slowly making your way forward. Your feet met with something, and you looked down, grimacing as you saw a porcelain doll. “Hate these, so creepy.”

You picked it up, inspecting it for a moment. A piece of its cheek had chipped off, and a brown stain had ruined its once pastel yellow dress. You sighed, momentarily thinking about what the doll had seen, its owner, a little girl, having been murdered in front of it. You put it down on the drawer, glancing up on the mirror above it.

Something blue, distantly looking like a woman in a dress, flickered behind you and Kaz when he wasn’t looking, and you gasped, immediately turning to look behind you.

No one.

Kaz turned his eyes on you, and you scoffed, shaking your head. “I just thought I saw something. But it was just moonlight doing tricks.”

If you were honest with yourself, you knew the moon wasn't in the angle to make such tricks, but you had to explain it to yourself somehow.

You pulled away from the drawer, making your way through the spiderwebs to the kitchen. Shattered plates there too, utensils, knives, glasses. A large kettle that had been full of something that may have been soup all over the floor.

And again, those damn mirrors.

By now, you had a strong feeling how something wasn’t right, all your instincts screaming at you to get out of that house, but you pushed the feeling down as childish, determined not to show how uneasy you really were.

You ventured forward, coming to a room with a glass door leading to the back garden, and as you were passing it, you happened to feel a lump on the floor. You stopped Kaz by tugging at his sleeve. “Wait.”

You threw the worn-out carpet aside, revealing a hidden door. You smirked, laying a look at Kaz who narrowed his eyes, tapping the door with his cane. “Open it.”

“Open it, what?”

He rolled his eyes, a small hint of a smile gracing the corners of his lips. “Darling, would you open the door?”

You smiled, taking a hold of the ring handle. “Of course, my darling.”

The door opened with a slight bang after a few tugs, which attracted the rest of the Crows to the scene. You looked down at the pitch black cellar, then laying glances at each other. Kaz lifted his gaze to Jesper, who immediately took a step back, waving his hands in front of him.

“If you’ll suggest I’ll go down there, then no. You’ll never believe what we saw there,” Jesper panted, and Kaz raised an uninterested eyebrow and rolled his eyes. "Every room upstairs has mirrors, almost on every wall and–"

Kaz cut Jesper off with a groan. “I'm not interested about your newly found fear of the dark intertwining with our mission. We came here for the treasure, and we’re not leaving without it. Inej?”

Inej pursed her lips. “Kaz…”

Then, a screech was echoing through the house, and that’s when you flinched, taking a tight hold of Kaz’s sleeve, pushing yourself against him. Kaz stiffened slightly and hissed, but didn't push you away.

Jesper swallowed audibly, then raising his finger up. His voice shook a little. “What was that?”

Kaz groaned. “Old house creaking.”

“Kaz, maybe… maybe we should leave,” you muttered, frantically looking around, suddenly feeling like ghosts, or some creatures, were closing in all around you.

Kaz looked at you and huffed. “We are not leaving without the treasure. If you want to leave, then fine, I’ll get the treasure myself.”

“No, I’m not letting you go down there,” you exclaimed while trying to tug him back from the door, trying to pull it closed, but Kaz’s grip was too strong.

“Someone has to go, we didn't-”

Then, Kaz fell silent, staring into the mirror behind you and flinched with a gasp. He quickly averted his eyes from the mirror before he slammed the cellar door closed and stood up, tugging you with him as he started to walk away, and the way he squeezed your hand told you he really was scared, not spooked, scared.

You didn’t dare to look back into the mirror yourself, scared to see what got Kaz Brekker so scared, but at least now you were leaving the house, the seven of you walking faster than ever towards the carriage you had parked to the side of the road after riding along it became too rough and dangerous.

Then, you felt something thudding against your back, and you stopped for a moment, turning to look at what hit you.

It was that damn doll.

You let out a little yelp at that and nearly ran towards the carriage, thanking all the Saints and Ghezen how it was still where you left it, and Jesper made the horses almost gallop back to Ketterdam.

In all the other cases, for that amount of money and riches, Kaz would always lay out a new plan, a better plan, to get what he wanted to get, but in this case, it went without saying.

You’d never return to that house.

Requests are always open! FANDOM LIST | PROMPT LIST(S) | RULES (READ!!!)

[alittlebitofloveliness]

hiii idk if ur still taking requests or not but if u are literally any kind of darry angst would be amazing 🤗🤗

Hi anon! This is a bit more Curtis brothers angst but Darry centric exploring what might have happened if the Curtis parents died two years earlier. Please lmk what you think!

***********

“Please” Darry begs, “I’ll be eighteen in a month. A month! I swear I can take care of them. Please don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry,” the social worker says, and to her credit she does sound like she means it, “Since you're almost eighteen and because you’ve provided me with adequate proof you can support yourself I’m going to allow you to remain here at this time, but Sodapop is only fourteen and Ponyboy just turned twelve. They need a real guardian.”

“I can be their guardian,” Darry vows. It’s wrong they’re even having this conversation. His college acceptance letter sits on his desk, his football trophies on the shelf and yet he’d give all of it away in a heartbeat for this crackpot old woman to see sense, to understand that he’s just lost both of his parents and he cannot lose his brothers too. Why doesn’t she understand that? “You said it yourself, I can support myself. I can support them too. The lawyer said Mom and dad left me the house. I can officially claim it in a month, and I can cover bills until then. I already got three offers for another job, and I know how to cook and clean and drive-”

“Darrel,” the social worker cuts him off firmly but kindly, “this has nothing to do with whether or not you are capable. In fact, from what I’ve seen, and the frankly remarkable job you’ve done holding your family together I’d be more than happy to help you petition for guardianship of your brothers at a later time, if it’s still something you feel strongly about doing, but the fact of the matter is that almost eighteen is not the same as eighteen. You are not a legal adult, and you cannot be your brothers’ legal guardian until you are. It doesn’t matter how responsible or adult you are right now. It can’t happen.”

“Please,” Darry implores, “you can’t take them. We just lost mom and dad, I can’t lose them too.”

“I really am sorry,” she says, “and I mean it when I say I will help you try and get guardianship in a month. But I can’t let them stay with you right now, and honestly? Maybe it’s a good thing. I know you love your brothers but guardianship would mean putting your life on hold until Ponyboy turns eighteen- eight years from now. You couldn’t go to college, travel, do much of anything really. This month will give you time to think that over, decide if it’s something you’re truly prepared to do.”

Anger, bright and hot as a supernova bursts in his chest.

“I would do anything to keep them. Anything. I don’t want college or sports or nothing if it means they’d be stuck in some foster home with people who don’t care anything about them.”

“We make sure all our foster parents are vetted very carefully-”

“Yeah, sure,” Darry scoffs, “I know a dozen kids who grew up in the foster system. I’m sure all those bruises were just from kids being kids, especially the handprints. With all due respect, I think you’ve forgotten what part of town you're in. East side kids never end up in the good homes.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“Save your apologies,” Darry chokes, ashamed to feel hot tears start to prick his eyes, “it’s clear your mind is made up and ain’t nothing I can do to change it.”

“I promise you, I will help you try and get them back. As soon as you're eighteen.”

“I’ll call you the minute the clock hits midnight on my birthday,” Darry threatens, “see if I won’t.”

“That’s fair,” the social worker smiles but Darry refuses to smile back. He hates her, for all she is trying to be as kind and helpful as she can. She’s going to take his brothers away. To him, she can only ever be a villain, “you guys can stay together here one more night while I sort out placements for Ponyboy and Sodapop. I’ll be back at ten tomorrow morning. Do you want to tell your brothers or should I?”

Well Darry sure as hell isn’t going to break their hearts, and Ms. Summers has done a good enough job already of shattering what remained of his own.

“You do it,” he spits, “I ain’t gonna ruin their lives.”

Her sympathy has run deep enough that pity now reigns on her face and she ignores his attitude, the way she has ignored all his attitude so far. It’s more than he probably deserves. He still hates her for it.

“No,” Soda says before Ms. Summers has even finished explaining, his brown eyes shining with a primal sort of fear that puts another crack in Darry’s already broken heart. Soda was made to be grinning, not meant to ever look so terrified, “no you ain’t puttin’ me in no foster house. Me’n my brothers are stayin’ right here, together, thank you very much.”

“I’m afraid I wasn’t asking,” Ms. Summers says, still talking in that infuriatingly gentle tone. 

Soda- easygoing, sweet Sodapop, who called ladies ma’am without fail, who everyone adored- glares at her, backing away the way a cornered animal might.

“I ain’t going! I ain’t! And you ain't taking Pony neither! Darry ain’t gonna let you take us, right Dar?”

He looks at him, brown eyes wide and desperate in his face, and Darry knows things will never be the same after this because it’s his job to protect Soda and Pony, always has been and always will be, and yet right now he is failing to do just that and Soda may never forgive him for it.

“Soda…”

“No!” He’s crying now, tears running freely down his face as he clutches Ponyboy close to his side, arm falling protectively around their baby brother’s tiny shoulders because Pony- whose eyes are the same sort of haunted they’ve been since mom and dad died, and whose face shows nothing but terrified resignation- hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet. Because he’s twelve. Only twelve.

“I know this is hard for you” Ms Summers continues, “and I’m going to do my best to make sure you and Ponyboy get placed together, but you can’t stay with Darry right now.”

“Why not? He’s good at bein’ a guardian. Shit, I’ve eaten more vegetables in the last week than I ever did when mom and Dad were alive-

“Because Darry isn’t eighteen.” Ms. Summers cuts him off, “and you need to be at least eighteen for the government to consider granting guardianship.”

“I’m gonna get you back,” Darry promises, ignoring the social worker and instead locking eyes with his brothers, first Soda, then Pony, “I swear it, as soon as I turn eighteen I’m gonna get you back and you can come home and we’ll all be together again. But we gotta behave if I’m gonna have any chance at all, so please stop arguin’. I don’t like this any more than you do but we gotta-” he clears his throat, “we gotta play ball, ok kiddo? We gotta do what we’re told.”

Soda gives the social worker one more murderous glance, but pulls himself together, a mask of eerie calm overtaking his features. “Fine.”

“Ill see you all tomorrow then. I can show myself out.” Ms Summers offers them one last pitying smile as she shuts the door behind her. 

As soon as she’s gone Soda is on top of him, crying so hard he can hardly breathe,. Pony is clutching his other side so hard he might have bruises, and Darry wraps them both in his arms, wishing he could keep them here forever where they would be safe and he could help them relearn how to be happy. It’s somehow the worst and best moment of his life. On the one hand they’re still blissfully here with him. On the other hand, they won’t be for long.

“I’m sorry,” belatedly Darry realizes he’s crying too, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I tried everything, she wouldn't let me keep you, I tried, I tried.”

Pony just hugs him harder, burying his face in his chest and Soda wails.

Eventually they all stop crying, but the mood in the house is somber. The gang comes around, moods dampening one by one as they hear the news, and Darry makes chocolate cake for dinner since there’s no point in making healthy food if the social workers are taking the boys anyway. In the end it doesn’t matter- none of them have much of an appetite, even for cake.

He walks in on Steve and Soda plotting to run away together before the social worker comes. Talks them out of it by reminding them that he’ll never get guardianship if Soda goes truant while still technically in his care. Eventually, the gang leaves and the it’s the three of them once more, crowded together on the living room couch in an unspoken agreement. None of them want to sleep, unwilling to miss even a second that they have left together.

“Darry?” Pony whispers, his head resting on Darry’s shoulder.

“Yeah, bud?”

“I’m scared.”

“I know,” Darry says, heat clenching, “I’m scared too.”

A few minutes later Pony’s weight drops a little more against him and he starts to snore, out cold. Darry pulls him a little closer, plants a kiss on the top of his wild hair. 

“Soda?” Darry says softly a few minutes later, careful not to wake Pony.

“Hmm,” Soda blinks at him sleepily, “yeah Dar?’

“Promise me you’ll take care of him,” he glances down at Ponyboy’s peaceful face. Asleep like this he looks downright childlike, “and yourself too, savvy? I’m sorry- I’m sorry I can’t do it myself, but you gotta be strong for me, alright? Just for a month or two until I get you back.”

“I promise,” Soda vows, “he’ll be safe with me, I’ll make sure of it. No matter where they put us.”

“I know you will, little buddy.”  Darry sighs. 

Soda sniffs. “I’m really gonna miss you, Dar. it ain’t right, takin’ me from my big brother when we just lost our folks. It ain’t right.”

“I’ll get you back,” Darry promises again, because what else is there to say, really? “I’ll talk to the president himself if I have to but I swear I’ll get you back.”

“I know you will,” Soda tells him, eyes shining. 

They don’t talk for the rest of the night.

The morning dawns with a sunrise that mocks them with it’s beauty and a buttery sunshine that illuminates the sorrow on all their faces when Mrs. Summers shows up and they all have to say goodbye. The gangs around, everyone but Dallas who got jailed two days ago, and Pony and Soda take their time with their goodbyes. When Soda reaches Darry, he hugs him tight for a second, and gets chocked up trying to say something three times before he gives up. Pony hugs Darry with a strength he rarely sees from the kid, and Darry tells him over and over that he loves him because when things get tough that’s the sort of thing Ponyboy forgets.

Then they leave, Mrs. Summers' blue Toyota rounding the corner, and a big part of Darry’s heart goes with them.

He goes back inside. Steve and Two-bit both follow him, casting him concerned looks, but he can’t deal with their worry right now. He has twenty eight days before his birthday to compile an airtight case as to why he’s the perfect guardian for a teenager and a preteen boy, and three job offers on his desk that can make that case a lot more airtight than it currently is.

It’s time to get to work.

[raleighrador]

Jedi recruitment - ontological necessity or political pragmatism?

The fact that Jedi almost exclusively recruit pre verbal children is easily one of the most controversial aspects of the Order, in universe and amongst fans.

The debate broadly centres on why they do it and what the results (for individuals and at a systemic level) are. I would argue, based on what we see in material both pre and post the Disney acquisition, that this practice is not strictly necessary and is at least as much a successful political tool that benefits the Jedi as it is anything else.

So, why do the Jedi do it (according to them/their supporters)? There are basically 2 arguments that are made: i) untrained force sensitives are dangerous to themselves & those around them and ii) The Jedi order are the only appropriate institution to train them (both practically and philosophically).

On the first - this just isn't at all clear, and the Jedi's behaviour is further evidence that this is far less of a problem than they like to imply.

So far as we know the most natively powerful force connections in the Star Wars universe are Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Rey Palpatine/Skywalker. People like Ben Solo/Kylo Renn, Mae and Osha Aniseya, Yoda, Sheev Palpatine all plausibly fit in to some kind of top 10. Anakin is probably/definitely at the top and the rest all fit in behind him.

Anakin, Luke, Leia, Rey, Ben, Osha all started training ranging from later than the Jedi ideal through to when they were full grown adults. All became powerful and dangerous (in the way that all people with super powers are), 3 of them fell to the dark side with dire consequences and 3 didn't. That is probably an argument in favour of Jedi style training if not recruitment, because their method seems to have significantly higher success rates (though not a perfect one).

It is also the wrong frame of reference. Far more interesting & insightful are all the children the Jedi DON'T recruit. There are basically 2 drivers behind these un-recruited Force sensitive children: Jedi only take children with the parents' consent & the Jedi only have jurisdiction inside the Republic.

I personally am very dubious of the claim that every child who was ever recruited by the Jedi was done so with the parents consent. For this argument I am willing to assume it is true.

Why do the Jedi only take kids with parental consent? If untrained force sensitives are so dangerous surely they should be taking all children regardless? This introduces 2 points of tension: either the Jedi don't always respect consent or they do, and the reason they do is because it isn't actually as strictly necessary to take these kids as they like to imply.

The fact that they only operate within the borders of the Republic is a second proof point. The Republic is the largest but not the only geopolitical body in the GFFA. You have Hutt space, Wild Space, the Unknown Regions, Hapes Cluster etc. If untrained force sensitives really were such a great threat that only the Jedi can handle them a) it is a very dubiously defensible for the Jedi to say "ah shucks the border is here" b) it would suggest that the other political entities would have at least some sort of co-operative agreement with the Jedi and c) you would presumably see dozens of rogue force users operating in these non-Republic spaces with grave consequences.

You don't.

I get that Force sensitives are rare but they are sufficiently common that the Jedi Order has pretty clear and constantly renewed generations. You don't ever see only a single youngling, there aren't years or decades where there are no padawans because the seekers haven't found anyone for 20 years.

So presumably - like Anakin and Rey and Mae and Osha - force sensitives are being born pretty frequently outside the Republic. They by definition aren't being found and raised by the Jedi. Yet we don't see any especially dire consequences of this.

It therefore doesn't seem at all clear that it is a necessity for the Jedi to take these children - and the Jedi's own behaviour reinforces that conclusion.

The second claim is that the Jedi - and only the Jedi - can appropriately train these children. I think there are 2 elements to "appropriately train": the first is mechanical ie the Jedi a actually know how the force works and can teach you to move rocks or whatever and the second is a question of values or philosophy ie the Jedi teach you selflessness.

Notably, the Jedi actually blend these 2. They explicitly discuss "right" and "wrong" ways to achieve the same outcome. You can find your calm centre and channel the Force dispassionately to lift a rock, you can also tap into your emotions to do so. These achieve the same output with - seemingly - the same mechanic but the Jedi consider the latter pathway dangerous and inappropriate.

On the purely mechanical - they are clearly not the only people who can teach this. We know about smaller "legitimate" Force cults (like the Guardians of the Hills, Fallanassi, Sorcers of Tund, Yacombe - notably for seeking balance between light and dark in their own practice) as well as "illegitimate" cults like the Night Sisters (it is not clear to me if the Dathomiri Night Sisters and the Brendok Coven are factions of a single group or distinct) and the Sith. They were all able to manipulate and use the Force. They were all capable of teaching these abilities to others. The nature of their abilities were not perfectly consistent - different cults could do different things, including things that members of other cults would not even recognise.

Not only were there other people out there who could use the Force and teach others to do so, they were also teaching and using techniques the Jedi didn't know or understand. So the Jedi clearly were not the only people capable of this instruction.

What they did have was an effective monopoly on legitimate instruction. All the other cults mentioned were either literally illegal (Sith), totally unofficial and unrecognised and suffered some degree of official persecution (Night Sisters), or were significantly smaller and more localised than the Jedi. None enjoyed "official" status or the backing of the largest government in the GFFA like the Jedi.

On the question of values or philosophy it is clear that the Jedi don't have a monopoly on selflessness or being a good person. Nor is it evident that the very specific Jedi interpretation of "goodness" is the only tool (or even a necessary tool) to prevent Force users from becoming dangerous.

The evidence for this is the fact that with the exception of the Sith, none of the above cults seem to ever have posed some kind of meaningful or sustained threat to peace or stability in the GFFA. There have been individual members who have done bad, even monstrous things, but there is nothing inherent in their philosophy that makes them or their use of the Force dangerous.

Equally, it is worth coming back to the prior point that the Jedi have - throughout history - been the single most common source of Sith. In fact they seem to be the only one of these cults that has any record of inadvertently being a source for future Sith. That is to say - all Sith seem to either be raised from "birth"/only ever been trained by other Sith (like Maul, or Palpatine) or to be former Jedi.

So we are now in a place where i) untrained Force sensitives don't actually pose some kind of existential threat ii) the Jedi are not the only people capable of providing technical instruction in using the Force and iii) there is nothing particular about Jedi teachings that makes them especially resistant to the dark side in general and Sith in particular. If anything, they seem more likely to inadvertently produce future Sith than the other cults.

A small diversion to explore what it is the Jedi seek to teach and how: Attachment is bad.

I would argue the Jedi restrictions on emotion are significantly more extensive than that. It is functionally all forms of love or affection that they are opposed to or at least very disapproving of. Equally they don't seem to have much room for other emotions. Certainly not anger but not even grief or sadness. These latter 2 are in many ways the most illustrative - there is Yoda's advice that Anakin rejoice for those who transform into the Force; and in the Acolyte we got Jecki's "It's always an honour to witness anything or anyone transform into the Force".

That is bizarre as hell. Always? It is always an honour? This is the instinctive rote response to "I feel very bad for getting that animal killed"?

I am not saying that Yoda and Jecki and the Jedi teachings are completely wrong. I am saying that they don't sound like they make room for the full gamut of emotions. They don't teach "feel sad, own it, acknowledge it, process it, and let it go". They teach "don't be sad".

That is not a very helpful philosophy. It just doesn't engage with the reality that emotions are totally natural and largely unavoidable functions of human (and presumably in GFFA other sapient) physiology.

It presumably has more to it than I am acknowledging but either way it doesn't seem especially compelling. Why can't this be taught (consistently successfully) to adults? I would have reservations about ANY philosophy that openly explained that it basically only works on children who have no competing frame of reference or adults who have lost all their friends and family. That is deeply suspicious.

Even if it isn't the philosophy itself per se it says nothing good about the pedagogical methods of the Jedi.

The other consideration here is that the sensible bits of the philosophy are pretty shallow - and not at all unique to the Jedi. Especially in fandom when basically any "bad decision" by a Jedi or other Force user is explained by "oh ho they're thinking with their emotions and attachments" while "good decisions" are "Jedi-like" and must come from a place of detachment.

2 examples - Shmi's decision to let Anakin go with the Jedi is often described as "Jedi like" and demonstrates a lack of selfish attachment that Anakin would have done well to emulate. This is nonsensical for a number of reasons, not least of which being that Shmi had literally zero agency in this situation. She isn't make a real, informed choice either way. More than that, the alternative is "my child stays a slave'. Many parents all over the world (and presumably the GFFA) make sacrifices for the good of their children all the time. So these relationships clearly don't preclude someone being selfless or "unattached" as the Jedi define. Yet it remains the most commonly prohibited relationship by the Jedi. It is explicitly the one relationship they are guaranteed to prohibit for every one of their members. Mother Aniseya in the Acolyte is another example - I think her decision making around Osha is bonkers. However it is held up as selfless and unattached that it is her who chooses to let Osha go with the Jedi, and everyone else who ruins it by being attached. What is missed though is WHY she makes that decision. "I choose Mother". It is expressly in choosing to prioritise her familial relationship with Osha over her political one with the Coven that she "let's go" of Osha.

So not only do you not need to be a Jedi to make these sorts of decisions and learn these lessons, you definitely don't need to be isolated from familial relationships.

I would argue an even more interesting example from the Acolyte is Mae. In the season finale she is the only one who comes at all close to some kind of "Jedi like" decisions. She doesn't want revenge, she wants Sol to confess his crimes and face systemic justice. This from a girl whose life was ruined by the Jedi and then at some point she got found and trained by the "Sith" (I am not sold Qimir is a de jure Sith but I digress).

She was almost as far from a Jedi as possible but still came to the "Jedi like" decision. There are also lots of people with less extreme background who do the same.

So what gives? What is so special about Jedi training? I would suggest that from the perspective of teaching people the technical skills to use the force and the values to not abuse it... not much.

Certainly not enough to warrant a state backed effective monopoly that empowers you to test any child you wish and take the vast majority of them.

Even if you accept that the Jedi (and other Force cults) are right that only the Light Side can be safely used, the Jedi are not the only people who believe or teach that. So why do they deserve to be the only ones allowed to (en masse) recruit and train children?

So why then do the Jedi do it and why do the Republic allow them to do it? To me it seems much more about maintaining a monopoly on legitimate violence and use of the Force.

What taking children in early and separating them from their family, denying them any material possessions outside of their role in the Order, does is ensure they are loyal to you and don't have any other options.

The extent to which people are free to leave - formally and practically - seems very limited. In the thousands of years of the Order's written records, only 20 Masters have left. Even if we assume (eg per the Acolyte and TCW) that more non-masters have left, it remains a very small number. The practical limitations seem most pertinent - as per Osha, as well as our own observations - being raised a Jedi just doesn't prepare you to do anything except be a Jedi. Add that to the lack of network or resources outside the Order (as well as eg material threats of slavery because people want access to Force sensitives), and it becomes very difficult to leave willingly.

@redrikki has written compelling on this but the Jedi are demonstrably a cult. A significant element of that is the concentration of political, material, and in Star Wars metaphysical power.

Specifically recruiting and isolating and raising children serves the Jedi's aims of i) ensuring their ongoing hegemony and ii) is a mechanism for preventing or suppressing conflict. You simply diminish the number of people who can actually enter into conflict with you because you do your best to ensure they're all working for you. This is plausibly at least partially noble - you head off any conflicts that might require your intervention.

That nobility is thinned by the earlier discussion because it begs the question of what kind of conflict are the Jedi preventing (or gearing up to fight)?

Let us be clear - the Sith are a toxic, destructive ideology that should be opposed. Their philosophy is self-serving and violent. They are quite literal evil.

I just don't think their existence justified the children taking and isolating as many children as they can. This is especially true in the 1000 years leading up to the Prequels. As far as the Jedi believed, there were no Sith. So not even the Jedi were using the Sith - and any conflict with them, which I would say is a justified conflict - as the justification for the policy.

What kind of conflicts were they therefore seeking to prevent? I would suggest they were attempting to avoid any conflict over resources or support or legitimacy with other smaller Force cults. Even worse, I think they were avoiding a scenario where it became plausible to argue that the Jedi weren't necessary at all.

In a world where the Jedi are not actively recruiting children I would imagine 2 things happen: other Force cults become larger and more prominent, sufficiently large to start exerting political influence. This is not necessarily counter to the Jedi or a threat but it is also not necessary aligned with the Jedi. Even if not malicious, it would be a different set of priorities and a different set of philosophies that the Jedi (and the Republic writ large) would need to engage with.

These cults are different to each other and the Jedi. They by definition do not agree on all/some of the mechanics of the Force, the values and philosophies that govern it, its appropriate use, and the role of Force sensitives in the Galaxy. If they were perfectly aligned they wouldn't be distinct cults. These different groups operating in the galaxy, recruiting, preaching, proselytising pose a necessary risk (or at least complication) to the Jedi's role.

At minimum it likely results in someone somewhere asking "what is up with all these cults? Are they all Jedi? Do they all get the same rights and privileges?" and this opens up a series of conversations as to which groups get what and why. In a broadly pluralist context, as the Republic seems to be, it isn't clear to me that you could neatly draw that out in a way that is clear and practicable to the Senate.

If they do start actively behaving or advocating in ways that are counter to the Jedi's interests, it is unclear how the Jedi could respond. Let's assume the Jedi have the best interest of the Republic at heart. Let's assume the other groups do too (or at least are willing to say they are, even if self-serving). How would these disagreements get resolved in a way that is systemically defensible and legitimate in the eyes of the galaxy? "The Force says so" is not really an option when both parties can legitimately use it.

It is far simpler for the Jedi to just head this off by ensuring these other cults remain small, or at least the Jedi remain significantly larger and more wide spread.

The other thing that happens if the Jedi don't have a near monopoly on force sensitive kids, is many of these kids grow up... basically fine. Sure they're lucky and fast and good at telling when people are lying, and probably crazy good at Space Baseball and whatever, but they don't pose any kind of major threat to the galaxy. Based on what we have seen, and the lack of rogue force sensitives going on rampages outside the Republic, this seems like the most likely outcome.

How do the Jedi justify themselves to the Senate then? How do they maintain their independence and status if you've got non-Jedi force sensitives running for office or serving in the diplomatic corp? Non-Jedi force sensitives in the policing and security services?

A significant element of the Jedi's status and privilege is that they are legitimately very, very good at things. The Force does make you better at discerning the truth, reading people, sensing the long term outcomes of decisions, combat etc. It makes the Jedi significant assets.

They're also a mysterious and poorly understood religious order. For historical reasons this has been tolerated, and the Jedi have justified their ongoing independence through effectiveness and lack of alternatives.

Lots of non-Jedi Force sensitives, with access to non-Jedi teachers who can still teach them the mechanics of the Force, severely challenges that status.

Again this is not a wholly or even mostly nefarious concern for the Jedi to have. In the same way that more planets/entities having independent militarised security forces ala the Trade Federation might be a challenge to stability, having more (potentially militarised) Force sensitives has a risk. However, the policy of Jedi monopoly on recruitment is only one way of managing that risk, and it is a way that simultaneously cements their position in the Republic.

Importantly - this also all suits the Republic itself. While I am sure some people want their own Force sensitive armies, no one wants someone else to have them. I also imagine no one is excited about having to fund a second or third mysterious religion filled with (potentially) super powered warrior diplomats. No one wants more competing interests and jurisdictional debates etc.

So I don't think this is an example of the Jedi somehow tricking the Republic or behaving deceitfully or doing anything except their very best to do what they think is right.

That just doesn't mean this isn't a political policy.

[iamumbra195]

If the Graveyard kids were demigods, which Greek god would they be the child of? (Riodanverse AU)

For Ashlyn, I believe she would just be another of Apollo's kids, keeping to herself most of the time. Nobody really paid her any mind because out of the dozens of Apollo kids, there wasn't anything particularly remarkable about her. She wasn't the Head Counsellor or anything. She liked it that way. Ashlyn discovered she was a demigod when she was young and spent two full years at the camp to fully prepare for living as a demigod in the mortal world before becoming a summer-only kid. Her sensitivity to sound is one of the strange abilities she inherited but isn't fully able to control, which is why she wears enchanted earplugs that keep sounds at a more tolerable level. Beyond that, she was a pretty average Apollo kid. She was good at the basics like Archery and Music but not beyond that of a normal Apollo kid. The only thing that really stood out was her dancing. It was her special interest, incorporating it into her daily life as a demi-god as often as she could. Her fighting style was based on ballet in canon and she preferred fighting with her legs over her hands--even going as far as putting a weapon in her shoes so she could still use her legs to attack. So she is an average demigod overall. Until one day she discovers that she was one of the few to inherit Apollo's nosokinesis, the ability to create and control diseases (like her ability to open rifts and trap people in them in canon). There's also the fact that her name literally means 'dream' or 'vision', so considering the fact that Apollo is literally the god of prophecy, I think being a child of Apollo fits her very well.

For Logan, I feel that for a long time, he would just be another unclaimed kid. He didn't know anything about his real parents and his grandparents were always super cagey about it until he was older and got attacked by a monster and they finally took him to the camp. He still doesn't know who his biological mother was. Then one day after being pushed too far by bullies, he snapped just like in canon, and was claimed by Ares, the god of war. Much to his and Barron's (another child of Ares) dismay because what the fuck do you mean this dickhead is my half-brother?! He had initially believed that his parent was related to his love for space and astronomy or maybe even his intelligence and love for math but Ares?!

For Aiden, I think being a child of Hermes suits him best. I've done some tests and got answers like Ares or the Big Three, which I don't think those really fit him. But for some reason, I like the idea that he has the favour of/is a legacy of Hades or Hecate from his dad's side while being completely unaware of it until much later (the unexplained connection his dad has to Maverick). Children of Hermes tend to be more hyperactive than other demigods and are often referred to as a jack of all trades and I think those things really suit Aiden. When he was younger, his parents sent him to camp year round in hopes that it would help him and he came back with dyed blond hair, red eye contacts and a reckless streak a mile wide.

For Ben, I believe that this kid is and always will be a child of Apollo. His deep love and talent for singing and music, his rage and hurt at having this taken away from him. His knack for medicine despite only having experience through taking care of Aiden. He only discovered he was a demigod after his voice was destroyed so he never learned that he could heal people with his voice/singing until one of the others, maybe Taylor, were fatally injured and he had no supplies to save them so as one last attempt to comfort them, he breaks his years of silence and sings for them. To his complete astonishment, they started healing and were able to stay alive long enough to get the medical help they needed. He felt pressued to sing and use his voice after that because it could heal people but Aiden or one of the others nipped that in the bud and told him he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to. The idea of him also having premonitions when something bad is going to happen is cool, especially if it's the reason why he ends up catching little details the others fail to notice (a little nod to Canvas Ben for being so goddamn observant). His relationship with Aiden is also cute because children of Apollo and children of Hermes tend to get along, although not all of them do (Aiden and Ashlyn lol).

For Taylor and Tyler, I believe the twins would be children of Hephaestus. In some cultures, identical twins are treated as one entity/soul that was separated into two people and the same could be said about the Hernandez twins in this AU. Although they are different people with different interests and goals, that is how they are perceived as mortals. On the divine side of things, however, they are seen as a single soul split into two. That's why their connection goes far beyond that of regular mortal twins. Their abilities also reflect this. Taylor is a brilliant craftswoman and has a way with technology that separates her from the rest. She's also extremely fire-resistant, which proves to be useful considering her brother has the ability to manipulate fire. Tyler, on the other hand, has the basic skills needed to be a mechanic due to growing up with Taylor but it isn't instinctive in the same it is for Taylor. He is one of the few children of Hephaestus to have pyrokinesis, something he had to learn to master on his own because there wasn't anyone to teach him. They complete each other.

Although Aiden and Ashlyn spent a year or two in the camp, their paths never crossed and they were just another faceless person in the crowd of campers until they officially met when Ben and Aiden began to go to her high school in her sophomore year. Aiden clocked her as a demigod as soon as they met at the bus and was excited to meet another one of them outside of camp. He was also curious to know if she figured out what she was yet and if not, he could protect her from monsters and lead her to camp! Ashlyn recognized both Aiden and Ben as demigods but preferred to avoid mixing her mortal life with her mythological one so she avoided Aiden's needling to the best of her ability. When Ben finally told Aiden that she was another child of Apollo at camp, Aiden doubled down on the pestering which irritated Ashlyn beyond belief. Unfortunately for her, this wasn't the last she was going to see of him.

Mid-way through the first semester, Ashlyn received a prophecy from the Oracle stating that she and five others were to go on a quest. It was a shock to her and everyone in the camp because she was pretty unremarkable yet she was the one that had to go on the quest? It was ridiculously vague beyond the fact that she specifically had to go to Savannah with a group of five others. So she had to pick five other members for her team.

Nearly everyone tried to volunteer and because Ashlyn didn't particularly care who went along, names were drawn out of a bowl. With her luck, Aiden and Ben's names were both drawn out of the bowl, along with the Hernandez twins and Logan. She wasn't particularly happy with those chosen but she supposed it could be worse. Especially when she considered the fact she could've been going with him.

Barron was throwing a fit about how an unclaimed coward like Logan couldn't have possibly been picked but Tyler told him that no one would even want to go on a quest with him considering the only thing he cared about was glory and honour for himself.

And so, the six of them packed their things and started their journey to Savannah, Georgia where it all went to hell.

[juniorfor2]

I will always find it interesting that for all that people constantly complain about "likable" or "nuanced" villians, wanting "the good old days, where a villain was just a villain and there was nothing more to them," the moment that you open any Youtube video centered on a "nothing but a villain" character, it has at least a few comments making them far more likable and nuanced than they really are. Which wouldn't be of much interest, except for one fact - they all have at least 10-20 thousand likes.

People complain that Disney and other corporations are ruining movies, making characters far too palatable and relatable, but in truth, the same people who complain about such things will also end up liking and encouraging any thinking that characterizes the villains as such. Corporations mostly follow what their viewers want, even if slow or in a bad direction, not the other way around.

Tywin Lannister was an unmistakable bad guy in ASOIAF and Game of Thrones. He was horrible to Tyrion, cared nothing for his family beyond what they could offer to his legacy, and was willing to commit horrific deeds to climb to power. In fact, he demonstrated almost every reason for why "feudalism is bad!" as some people constantly write about. And yet, there are dozens of videos, comments, and social media posts about how Tywin Lannister was misunderstood the whole time and was really a good guy.

He should have been "the good old days where a villain was just a villain!" Isn't that what people wanted? He was an obvious antagonist to Tyrion, one of the main protagonists - perfect, right? Yet instead of grabbing onto this, people turned him into the very thing they claimed not to like.

They could have simply done this with the protagonist. Why not make the protagonist a bit more likable? It doesn't mean much to the story when done, even if it does miss the point occasionally.

But that's not what happens. In fact, the opposite does. The protagonist, the character that's supposed to be likable or nuanced according to them, is turned into the "nothing but a villain" character.

Daenerys Targaryen is one such character. She is very, very obviously one of the biggest protagonists. The first book ends with her, with "for first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons." She is a bridal slave turned Breaker of Chains. She makes mistakes, as every protagonist does, but still progresses forward.

What's not to like about her? While her circumstances and the hard choices she must make do take her into the shades of grey, she is still so compassionate for those suffering that she never comes anywhere close to the darkness that Jon Snow or Tyrion have demonstrated and progressed to. Making her more likable is easy. That's not what happens though.

Instead, she is villainized. She is determined by others to become the darkest character of all, with no nuance or likability whatsoever. They make her the villain in place of the one they've made palatable.

Some of this, I think, can be summed up to people being somewhat idiots and thinking that their idea of hot means good. I remember watching the first 4 seasons back with a sort-of-friend, and she had a huge crush on Charles Dance playing Tywin (she was 16 at the time and he was in his 60s - no, I didn't understand her, and yes, I took great pleasure in showing her Tywin's death). She was so convinced that he wasn't that bad, and the only reason she thought that was because she found him hot. So obviously that does take up a part of it. But it's definitely not the main reason.

The main reason, seeming fairly obvious, is because the idea that movies/shows/books have social or political ideas is no longer something they can ignore. They'll rave about wokeness, saying that it's in every movie now, and why can't we all go back to the good old days of Star Trek and Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings books that of course had absolutely no themes. Despite them having some incredibly heavy or obvious ideas, people somehow managed to ignore them. But now they can't.

Said people do not want to go back to the good old days of "nothing but a villain." They want to back to the "good old days" where they didn't have to examine why a villain was so terrible. They don't want to see themselves in the antagonist - so they make it so villain is no longer one.

In their desperation to get rid of political themes and ideas, and to cover up their own views that could make them look at themselves as the "villain" of our real life "story," they switch the antagonist and the protagonist, the villain and the hero, to make themselves the hero.

After all, why examine your own faults when you can just make them the correct, non-woke perspective?

[unsolicited-opinions]

Read this again today for the first time in a year and it's still one of the best pieces I've read on this topic.

It is long, but I urge you to read it.

(Pasted here unedited so nobody needs to visit Musk's platform, formerly known as Twitter.)

Isaac Saul

11:26 AM · Oct 10, 2023

People ask me all the time if I am "pro-Israel" because I am a Jew who has lived in Israel, and my answer is that being "pro-Israel" or being "pro-Palestine" or being a "Zionist" does not properly capture the nuance of thought most people do or should have about this issue. It certainly doesn't capture mine.

I have a lot to say. I’ve spent the last 72 hours writing, texting, and talking to Israelis, Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians. Much of my reaction is going to piss off people on "both sides," but I am exhausted and hurting and I do not think there is any way to discuss this situation without being radically honest about my views. So I'm going to try to say what I believe to be true the best I can.

Let me start with this: It could have been me.

That's a hard thought to shake when watching the videos out of Israel — the concert goers fleeing across an empty expanse, the hostages being paraded through the streets, the people shot in the head at bus stops or in their cars. I went to those parties in the desert, I rubbed shoulders with Israelis and Arabs and Jews and Muslims, I could have easily accepted an invitation to some concert near Sderot and gone without a care, only to be indiscriminately slaughtered. Or, perhaps worse, taken hostage and tortured.

I don’t believe Hamas is killing Israelis to liberate themselves, nor do I believe they are doing it to make peace. They're doing this because they represent the devil on the shoulder of every oppressed Palestinian who has lost someone in this conflict. They're doing it because they want vengeance. They are evening the score, and acting on the worst of our human impulses, to respond to blood with blood — an inclination that is easy to give in to after what their people have endured. It should not be hard to understand their logic — it is only hard to accept that humans are capable of being driven to this. Not defending Hamas is a very low bar to clear. Please clear it.

It’s not possible to recap the entire 5,000 year history of people fighting over this strip of land in one newsletter. There are plenty of easily accessible places you can learn about it if you want to (and, by the way, many of you should — far too many people speak on this issue with an obscene amount of ignorance, loads of arrogance, and a narrow historical lens focused on the last few decades). But I'll briefly highlight a few things that are important to me.

In my opinion, the Jewish people have a legitimate historical claim to the land of Israel. Jews had already been expelled and returned and expelled again a half dozen times before the rise of the Muslim and Arab rule of the Ottoman Empire. Of course it’s messy because we Jews and Arabs and Muslims are all cousins and descendents of the same Canaanites. But Arabs won the land centuries ago the same way Israel and Jews won it in the 20th century: Through conflict and war. The British defeated the Ottoman Empire and then came the Balfour Declaration, which amounted to the British granting the area to the Jewish people, a promise they’d later try to renege on — all before the wars that have defined the region since 1948.

That historical moment in the late 1940s was unique. After World War II, with many Arab and Muslim states already in existence, and after six million Jews were slaughtered, the global community felt it was important to grant the Jewish people a homeland. In a more logical or just world that homeland would have been in Europe as a kind of reparation for what the Nazis and others before them had done to the Jews, or perhaps in the Americas — like Alaska — or somewhere else. But the Jews wanted Israel, the British had taken to the Zionist movement, the British had conquered the Ottoman Empire which handed them control of the land, and America and Europe didn’t want the Jews. As a result, we got Israel.

The Arab states had already rejected a partitioned Israel repeatedly before World War II and rejected it again after the Holocaust and the end of the war. They did not want to give up even a little bit of their land to a bunch of Jewish interlopers who were granted it all of a sudden by British interlopers who had arrived a hundred years prior. Who could blame them? It had been centuries since Jews lived there in large numbers, and now they wanted to return in waves as secularized Europeans. Many of us would probably react the same way. So, just as humans have done forever, they fought. The many existing Arab states turned against the burgeoning new Jewish state. One side won and one side lost. This is the brutal and broken and violent world we live in, but it is what created the global world order we have now.

Are Israelis and British people "colonizers" because of this 20th century history? Sure. But that view flattens thousands of years of history and conflict, and the context of World War I and World War II. I don’t view Israelis and Brits as colonizers any more than the Assyrians or the Babylonians or the Romans or the Mongols or the Egyptians or the Ottomans who all battled over the same strip of land from as early as 800 years before Jesus’s time until now. The Jews who founded Israel just happened to have won the last big battle for it.

You can’t speak about this issue in a vacuum. You can't pretend that it wasn't just 60 years ago when Israel was surrounded on all sides by Arab states who wanted to wipe them off the face of the planet. Despite the balance of power shifting this century, that threat is still a reality. And you can't talk about that without remembering the only reason the Jews were in Israel in the first place was that they'd spent the previous centuries fleeing a bunch of Europeans who also wanted to wipe them off the face of the planet. And then Hitler showed up.

American partisans have a narrow view of this history, and an Americentric lens that is infuriating to witness. As Lee Fang perfectly put it, "Hamas would absolutely execute the ACAB lefties cheering on horrific violence against Israelis if they lived in Gaza & U.S. right-wingers blindly cheering on Israeli subjugation of Palestinians would rebel twice as violently if Americans were subjected to similar occupation."

And yet, many Americans only view modern Israel as the "powerful" one in this dynamic. Which is true — they obviously are. It isn't a fair fight and it hasn't been for decades because Israel's government is rich and resourceful, has the backing of the United States and most of Europe, and has an incredibly powerful military. At the same time, Israeli leadership has made technological and military advancements that have further tipped those scales — all while the Israeli government has helped create a resource-thin open air prison of two million Arabs in Gaza.

Conversely, Palestinians are devoid of any real unified leadership, and the Arab world is now divided on the issue of Palestine. Israel is unwilling to give the people in Gaza and the West Bank more than an inch of freedom to live. These are largely the refugees and descendents of the refugees of the 1948 and 1967 wars that Israel won. And you can't keep two million people in the condition that those in the Gaza strip live in and not expect events like this.

I'm sorry to say that while the blood on the ground is fresh. The Israelis who were killed in this attack largely have nothing to do with those conditions other than being born at a time when Israel and Jews have the upper hand in this conflict. Some of the victims weren’t even Israeli — they were just tourists. This is why we describe them as “innocent” and why Hamas has only reaffirmed that they are a brutal terror organization with this attack — an organization that I hope is quickly toppled, for the sake of both the Palestinian people and the Israelis. But as someone with a deep love for Israel, with friends in danger and people I know still missing, it breaks my heart to say it but I'm saying it again because it remains perhaps the most salient point of context in a tangled mess full of centuries of context:

You cannot keep two million people living in the conditions people in Gaza are living in and expect peace.

You can't. And you shouldn’t. Their environment is antithetical to the human condition. Violent rebellion is guaranteed. Guaranteed. As sure as the sun rising.

And the cycle of violence seems locked in to self-perpetuate, because both sides see a score to settle:

1) Israel has already responded with a vengeance, and they will continue to. Their desire for violence is not unlike Hamas’s — it’s just as much about blood for blood as any legitimate security measure. Israel will “have every right to respond with force." Toppling Hamas — a group, by the way, Israel erred in supporting — will now be the objective, and civilian death will be seen as necessary collateral damage. But Israel will also do a bunch of things they don't have a right to. They will flatten apartment buildings and kill civilians and children and many in the global community will probably cheer them on while they do it. They have already stopped the flow of water, electricity, and food to two million people, and killed dozens of civilians in their retaliatory bombings. We should never accept this, never lose sight that this horror is being inflicted on human beings. As the group B’Tselem said, “There is no justification for such crimes, whether they are committed as part of a struggle for freedom from oppression or cited as part of a war against terror.” I mourn for the innocents of Palestine just as I do for the innocents in Israel. As of late, many, many more have died on their side than Israel's. And many more Palestinians are likely to die in this spate of violence, too.

Unfortunately, most people in the West only pay attention to this story when Hamas or a Palestinian in Gaza or the West Bank commits an act of violence. Palestinian citizens die regularly at the hands of the Israeli military and their plight goes largely unnoticed until they respond with violence of their own. Israel had already killed an estimated 250 Palestinians, including 47 children, this year alone. And that is just in the West Bank.

2) Every single time Israel kills someone in the name of self-defense they create a handful of new radicalized extremists who will feel justified in wanting to take an Israeli life in retribution sometime in the future. Half of Gaza’s two million people are under the age of 19 — they know little besides Hamas rule (since 2006), Israeli occupation, blockades, and rockets falling from the sky. The suffering of these innocent children born into this reality is incomprehensible to me. They will suffer more now because of Hamas’s actions and Israel’s response, all through no fault of their own.

There is no way out of this pattern until one side exercises restraint or leaders on both sides find a new solution. Israelis will tell you that if Palestinians put their guns down then the war would end, but if Israel put their guns down they'd be wiped off the planet. I don't have a crystal ball and can’t tell you what is true. But what I am certain of is that every time Israel kills more innocents they engender more rage and hatred and recruit more Palestinians and Arabs to the cause against them. There is no disputing this.

So, why did this happen now?

I'm not sure how to answer that question except to say it was bound to happen eventually. It was a massive policy and intelligence failure and Netanyahu should pay the price politically — he is a failed leader. Iran probably helped organize the attack and the money freed up by the Biden administration's prisoner swap probably didn't help the situation, either. Israel's increasingly extremist government and settlers provoking Palestinians certainly didn't help. Nor has going to the Al-Aqsa mosque and desecrating it. Nor do blockades and bombings and indiscriminate subjugation of a whole people. Nor does refusing to talk to non-terrorist leaders in Palestine. Nor does illegally continuing to expand and steal what is left of Palestinian land, as many Jews and Israelis have been doing in the 21st century despite cries from the global community to stop. A violent response was predictable — in fact, plenty of people did predict it.

Israel is forever stuffing these people into tinier and tinier boxes with fewer and fewer resources. But if you want to blame Israeli leaders for continuing to expand and settle land that does not belong to them (as I do), then you should also spare some blame for Palestinian leaders for repeatedly not accepting a partitioned Israel during the 20th century that could have led to peace (as I do).

Please also remember this: Hamas is still an extremist group. The Palestinian people do not have a government or leaders who legitimately represent their interests, and it sure as hell isn't Hamas. Will some Palestinians cheer and clap at the dead, or spit on them as they are paraded through Gaza? Yes they will. And they have. Many will also mourn because they loathe Hamas and know this will only make things worse. This is no different than how some Americans cheer at the dead in every single war we've ever fought. It's no different than the Israelis who set up lawn chairs to watch their government bomb Palestine and cheer them on, too. This doesn't mean Palestinians or Israelis or Americans are evil — it means some of them are giving in to their violent impulses, and their zealous feelings of righteous vengeance.

Solutions, you ask? I can’t say I have any. If you came here for that, I’m sorry. The two-state solution looks dead to me. A three-state solution makes some sense but feels out of the view of all the people who matter and could make it happen. I wish a one-state solution felt realistic — a world of Israelis and Arabs and Muslims and Jews living side by side with equal rights, fully integrated and defused of their hate, is a version of Israel that I would adore. But it seems less and less realistic with every new act of violence.

Am I pro-Israel or pro-Palestine? I have no idea.

I'm pro-not-killing-civilians.

I'm pro-not-trapping-millions-of-people-in-open-air-prisons.

I'm pro-not-shooting-grandmas-in-the-back-of-the-head.

I'm pro-not-flattening-apartment-complexes.

I'm pro-not-raping-women-and-taking-hostages.

I'm pro-not-unjustly-imprisoning-people-without-due-process.

I'm pro-freedom and pro-peace and pro- all the things we never see in this conflict anymore.

Whatever this is, I want none of it.

Oct 10, 2023