#unless it's a story about ww2

[anauwhere]

Do you ever hear someone young talk about stuff you already know,processed, digested, vomited, digested again and feel EXHAUSTED LIKE SHUT UP SHUT TF UP. Usually i hate this I know I'm older and I see these kids just for the first time discovering that water Is wet. Some days tho the cute part is not there just the frustration because they're still or already? Full of biases and stereotypes and slogans and u wanna shake them and yell at them to grow up but that's something that they have to do on their own

[mycological-mariner]

I read the first two chapters of my book to my brother who only had this to say: “Why do you like making fake people’s lives suck?”

[lukecastellanshandholder]

I think that the one thing that I will always absolutely loathe the movies for (other than single handedly screwing up the whole plot of the story) is for making up that bullshit rule about Zeus declaring that no god can have any kind of contact with their children. That’s completely not true but now a huge chunk of people in the fandom believe that rule as canon( because most like to pick and chose what is canon and what is not, and sell head canons as being canon to the books ).

The only rules that are stated in the books relating to demigods and their parents is that 1). Gods cannot blatantly and outwardly help their demigod children during a basic quest (such as help them fight monsters or help them travel somewhere for the quest). 2). That as of the time right after WW2 the big 3 gods are not to sire any demigod children as part of their oath that they made on the River Styx (which Zeus and Poseidon definitely didn’t break ). Gods are still able to spend time with their demigod children and mortal lovers on times out side of quests. However, it’s seen as taboo mainly because the other gods use them having to much to do, and too many demigod children as an excuse to just not do anything for them. Not send them a birthday card, not a visit, and not even being claimed in most cases.

That’s giving the gods too much slack! People like to say "well, they’re gods. They’re trying their best." No they’re not! And this is what Luke’s character blatantly points out!

Hermes not even bothering to visit every once and a while? Hermes not trying to help in even any little way with Luke and May's situation? It’s a main reason why Luke becomes so angry at the gods and even thinks about saying yes to Kronos’ proposal.

And who is the example of what could’ve happened if Hermes would’ve done literally anything? Anything at all? Percy.

Percy didn’t like the gods and Poseidon very much in the beginning ( he doesn’t really like them much now but, you know) but Poseidon at least helps Percy in little ways that can fly under the radar of Zeus and the others. The Pearls to help Percy escape from the underworld? Tyson? Poseidon even crashes Percy’s birthday party ffs! Sure Poseidon isn’t there every time Percy scrapes his knee or fights a monster, but he still shows Percy that he somewhat cares about him.

All Hermes does is tell others how much he cares for Luke and "really truly loves him", but does nothing to prove to Luke that he truly cares. But it’s not just Hermes who does this, almost all of the gods do this! Why? Because they know that they can just say "oh, well I was busy and I tried my best" and others will just believe them and carry on. Or worse, they’ll take what the gods say to heart and demonize anyone who would try to oppose the gods so that it’s seen as a bad thing to hold the Gods accountable for the way they act.

And this is a clear example of the overarching theme that the gods are actually just an oppressive establishment that won’t ever really change unless it’s destroyed or overthrown.

In this essay I will…

[metalichotchoco]

Honestly what I’d like to see in more ihnmaims media if we ever get any is the relationships between survivors, here’s my take, picking and choosing from each version of canon.

Ellen is the most stable so her relationships will be saved for another part

In the triangle that is ted, Gorrister and Benny it’s a vicious cycle

Ted and Benny have a complicated mutual hate towards one another they both play to their most deep insecurities. Ted already believes that everyone hates him due to being “better” or not broken the way they’ve been so it’s not hard for him to antagonize people anyways. For Benny’s part ted provokes his complexes about sexuality, animalisticness and the difference between the weak and strong. For as much as ted is a lying narcissistic criminal, he’s shameless about it, about his nature he cares about the consequences not the actions. Benny cannot own his actions at all, there’s a disconnect between the educated, handsome former general and professor and the aggressive,almost feral war criminal he is. Ted is very self centered but doesn’t handle slights to his ego well, Benny in his non mutated form is much more successful and traditionally attractive than him. God he even deludes himself into thinking am changed Benny’s “size” in the book. Both of their moralities are twisted and it’s not hard to imagine them being snippy when they both have the mind to think properly. They are also coincidentally am’s favorite victims.

I do think it would be in character for both of them to make snide remarks about gorrister’s former hippie status, he’d be seen as an extreme liberal since this book takes its characters from the dawn of the Cold War, just after ww2. Most of Benny’s pride and identity came from being in the military so that’s obvious to see how that’d pan out, whereas ted seems like the type to not care about politics unless it directly relates to him. His problems come from the idea of people not centering their lives around money or power.

Individually there’s some fun dynamics to be had. Ted in general would think gorrister is a bore. For a person who likes stories, ted finds non fiction exhausting. Gorrister likes talking about history and politics even though his spark has faded out. It’s a bit funny that Ted believes am has changed Gorrister too despite his symptoms sounding much more like being worn out and becoming depressed. It’s not like he’d really consider that a real condition though. Gorrister just finds ted to be a bit annoying. An attention seeker but he figures ted was always just a weird kind of guy.

Gorrister is mostly ambivalent to his forever roommates, though he would consider Benny a war dog past his prime. A key example of what happens to soliders, men forced to kill and then given power. Then as soon as it’s given, it’s taken away and you’re left with an unstable pitiable person. How could they go back to living a normal life after that. With am being a literal war machine made by the government Benny put so much trust in, he finds it poetic in a sober way. Benny finds Gorrister very confusing, he never understood protesters before anyways. He would’ve found him preachy if he had met him beforehand. Gorrister does threaten his masculinity though, like ted he’s a brand that’s not the ultra traditional that he’s built himself around. Gorrister freely admits that he’s had queer experiences while still carrying a traditional masculine job, a truck driver. He can’t be put into that stereotypical box that’s nice and safe for Benny. It’s also good to mention that Benny is soothed by gorrister’s stories even if in that scene he wasn’t fully there.

Both ted and Gorrister see the clear closet case that is Benny but they don’t act on that knowledge. Both of them believe that being a solider sucks but for different reasons. Ted thinks it’s for suckers who get caught up in manipulation tactics going on about morals. Gorrister also believes they are manipulated but also sees the horrors of war as that, horrors. Basically he takes a more empathic view. Gorrister and Benny both agree that Ted is annoying but not in the way ted himself thinks everyone hates him. He’s very loud and shows off his now eternal youth. They are not even sure if the man did or did not graduate college. Gorrister doesn’t mind breaking laws but he does care about people’s wellbeing whereas Benny’s stricter about following the script but he’s done worse so he doesn’t have room to talk.

[she-wolf09231982]

Joe Liebgott

“You Nervous?”

Summary: You thought your relationship with Liebgott was complicated…until it wasn’t and it led to an unexpected evening of overwhelming emotions and sexual tension.

A/N: One shot, Mature audience, JoeLoebgottx!FemMedic, WW2, Female Pronouns, Cursing/Swearing, Derogatory Slurs, Womanizing Comments, Military and Medical Terminology, Inappropriate Nicknames, HBO Band of Brothers References, Mentions/Descriptions of Injuries, Weaponry, Smoking. Angst/Conflict, Smut, FOREVER FLUFF

This piece was at the request of @awaterfalls ❤�� hope you like it Nat!

*These stories may not fall entirely in accordance with the TV series timeline. I do not know the real soldiers the actors portray in this series, so please understand I show no disrespect. Some or most of historical events and character interactions in my fanfics are fabricated purely for the sake of the enjoyment of fiction*

~~~~~~~

You weren’t the type to take being treated like a doormat. You were raised to find your place amongst others regardless of gender. You earned your respect because you did your job and you did it well, not because you were pretty and the guys wanted to bed you.

It was heavily frowned upon that women be on the front lines alongside men, but when nurses and medics started to get caught in the crossfire, they resorted to allowing females to do just about everything men did to fill the gaps. You had been assigned to Easy Company right after Toccoa, and most of them were less than receptive to say the least.

Eugene Roe was grateful to have an extra set of hands. Don Malarkey, Skip Muck, and George Luz were very taken with your sense of humor so they warmed up to you rather quickly. Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere, and Babe took some time, but when you tackled Bill to avoid getting blown up by enemy artillery, their demeanor towards you made a complete 360.

Easy accepted you as one of their own…except for one: Joseph Liebgott. He was the most ornery son of a bitch you ever met. He always found a reason to trash talk you, or find fault in anything you did. All because you were a ‘broad,’ as he referred to you. The guys tried to defend you but his opinion never changed about you.

You learned to just avoid him unless he needed medical attention. He did alright not getting hurt up until you guys posted in Schoonderlogt, Holland in October 1944. He had been on patrol late one night and returned with an angry gash on the right side of his neck. One of the other patrolmen they brought back, Alley, had been hit by German gunfire and needed immediate attention.

They set Alley onto a table for when Doc got there

"Boyle, get Doc." Winters instructed then looked at Liebgott, "Where?"

"Crossroads." Liebgott replied. You notice he took a dressing and pressed it against his neck.

"Well, if it wasn't for your loud mouth-" he started to accuse Joe.

"-Hey, you know what? Back off!" Liebgott shot back as Roe pushed through the gaggle.

"Get the boots off, elevate...Lieb use the sulfur... Doc directed but noticed Joe’s neck.

“Lieb, go see Y/L/N and get that checked out.” Doc added.

“Yeah, no thanks, Doc, I’m good.” Liebgott said all too quickly with disdain.

“Joe, I wasn’t askin’ ya. It needs to be cleaned and dressed properly, it can get infected then you’ll have a bigger problem to deal with that will take you off the line. Go. I ain’t got enough hands to help ya.” Doc said sternly.

Liebgott released an irritable huff before pushing through the group to find where you were.

You had already grabbed gauze, dressings and sanitizing fluid when you heard Doc scold Joe about getting his neck looked at. He sat on a bale of straw waiting for you to tend to him. You spread out the supplies and examine his neck wound. You reach out to gently move his head to the left to get more light on it and he dodged your touch.

“What the fuck are you doin’?” He asked harshly.

“I was moving your head where I had more light on the wound. Why are you so squirrely?” You ask.

“Oh, I don’t know, because I just got shot at by a bunch of fuckin’ Krauts!” He replied sarcastically as he glared at you.

“Ok well then let’s get this fixed, shall we?” You returned with as much calmness in your voice as you could muster.

You press the cloth with the antiseptic onto his laceration and he pulled back upon feeling the sting.

“Ack! THAT HURT!” He barked.

“If you’d hold still, it wouldn’t hurt as much!!”You bit back.

You were over his childish behavior towards you.

“Just get it over with.” He grumbled, finally maintaining his composure.

You made your hands busy on his neck, wrapping the dressing like a scarf around his neck after you cleaned it. Thank goodness you didn’t need to stitch it, that would’ve been hell for both of you with his attitude.

“There. You’re good.”

“Fantastic.” He replied without a thank you.

He stood up and trudged off to join the rest of Easy for the return to Crossroads to reclaim the position. The patrol had been gone all night into the following morning, but they had eventually took victory. That evening, Winters allowed the men an evening of enjoyment at a local pub in the town to boost morale.

The men had worn their dress uniforms, each looking handsome and ready to mingle with the local women and vice versa. You hadn’t dressed up since graduating Toccoa and even then, you hadn’t been with Easy Company then, so this would be the first time they ever saw you in dress uniform,

“Hey! Get a load of this!” Toye called out to the guys when you breezed through the front door.

Liebgott standing at the bar looked over his shoulder upon feeling the cold air on the back of his neck. His jaw dropped when his eyes landed on you. He scanned your figure from head to toe.

Hair clean and perfumed pulled back into a neat fashionable bun and a face with fresh make-up and painted lips. And those gams (legs) emerging from the pencil skirt and heels and of course a clean white medic brassard displaying the Red Cross around the left bicep. You almost had the entire room at a complete standstill when you walked in.

“…Woah.” Joe whispered to himself, unaware that Talbert was near by.

“Not bad, eh, Lieb?” Tab teased.

He grimaced at Floyd and turned back to the bar to drink his beer.

The night was filled with laughter, darts, dancing, and liquor. Most of Easy had at least one dance around the room with you to favorites like Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and The Andrew Sisters. You had just finished a dance with Toye sometime around midnight when a soldier from Dog Company had approached you.

“May I have this dance?” He asked politely with a slight bow.

Joe, standing with Buck, Luz, Babe, and Toye, watched with intensity from the dart boards.

“Maybe the next song.” You reply kindly, having just sat down for the first time in an hour.

“Come on, doll, ain’t no time like the present, right?” He insisted yanking you be the arm to the dance floor.

Liebgott’s clenched jaw and furrowed eye brows caught the attention of Toye.

“Hey, uh, you ok there, Lieb?”

Joe looked at Toye inquisitively.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, you look a little…pissed.” Toye said plainly.

“Well, I ain’t.” Joe retorted.

He looked back at the dance floor to see where you were but was suddenly concerned he couldn’t find you right away. He saw the unknown soldier had taken you to the bar to get you a drink.

He handed you a pint and insisted you drink the whole thing.

“You said you could drink me under the table, so prove it!” He said.

“Fine, just this once.” You accepted.

You started to chug the pint, but when you started to lower the glass before it was empty, the soldier tilted the bottom up so you’d keep drinking. You finished and propped the glass open side down on the surface of the bar.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to my-“ you started before the soldier grabbed your upper arm.

“Oh we ain’t done here, honey.” He declared.

You tried to pull yourself out of his grasp but he pulled you in by the waist to hold you close.

“Get your meat hooks off of me.” You warned through clenched teeth.

“Or what?” He mocked.

“Or you’ll have half of Easy raining down on you.”

You hear a gravelly voice behind the brute soldier. He turned and there stood Joe Liebgott squaring up to him. Behind him Toye, Malarkey, Guarnere, and Luz.

“Come on, guys, there’s enough ladies here to go around, why can’t I have a little fun with this one?”

“Because she don’t wanna have fun with you.” Joe shot back, “Let her go.”

The soldier released your arm, as Liebgott gently tugged you behind him by your wrist.

“Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Liebgott said to him as they all walked with you to the dart boards.

Suddenly you feel Joe’s hand on the small of your back, guiding you to a more secluded spot in the back of the pub.

“What the fuck is the matter with you??” He sneered at you, positioning you against the wall to talk to you.

“Excuse me?”

“You fuckin’ heard me. Why would you put yourself in a position like that? That guy could’ve walked out with you easily with as much as you drank tonight.” He lectured.

“How do you know how much I’ve been drinking? And what business is it of yours who I’m interacting with anyway?” You returned crossing your arms.

Joe took in a deep breath through his nose as his anger started to elevate in his chest.

“If I wasn’t watching out for you, you would’ve gotten yourself into some real shit.”

He leaned in placing a hand against the wall you leaned on. His face hovering centimeters from your own. You feel his breath on your face, and notice his pupils blown out from what you thought was hate and detestation for you.

His eyes undressed you from your red lips down to your fitted blouse then looked into your eyes. Your breathe started to hasten, causing your chest to heave.

“You nervous?” Joe questioned.

Your breath caught in your throat.

“-no.” You breathed.

He moved closer to you, pinning you against the wall as your chests touched. Your arms relaxed to your sides as your nails dug into the brick behind you. You were, indeed, very nervous. And he knew it.

The scowl Joe had slowly curled into a mischievous grin.

“I think you are.” He whispered confidently as his hand cupped your cheek.

Your eyelashes fluttered, “Wh-what are you doing?” You managed to ask.

His thumb stroked your cheek, “Admiring the view.”

You released an exhale after holding your breath for almost 5 minutes.

“I thought you hated me?”

He brushed his nose against yours, “No. As a matter of fact, I always liked ya.”

“Then why-“

Before you could finish your sentence, he closed the gap between you, locking onto your lips like it was his dying wish.

You snake your arms carefully around his neck as he pulled you into him by your waist. You slack your jaw open to allow his tongue to run along your lips. You nip his bottom lip playfully causing his hips to thrust into you.

You yanked at his jacket, pulling him into you again to feel his hard on against you. He groaned into your mouth.

“What are you doin’ doll?” He asked with a devilish grin.

“I really don’t know but-“ you pull him in again, bringing his earlobe gently between your teeth then whisper, “we can’t stop now.”

“Let’s get outta here.” Joe suggested ushering you out the back door.

~~~~~~~

You snuck off to one of the abandoned homes down the street from where you were and barely got through the door before you were undoing his belt. You kicked of your shoes into darkness then made your way up a flight of stairs leaving pieces of your uniforms trailing the steps as you ascended.

When you were down to your slip and him down to his briefs, you scamper off to an open bedroom hoping he’d chase you…which he did. You kneeled on the bed waiting for him to come to you. He approached standing at the bedside.

You seductively crawled over to the edge of the bed and suckled a trail of kisses from his collar bone all the way down the waistband of his underwear. Joe inhaled deeply through is nostrils as he closed his eyes in ecstasy. You nip and licked at the sensitive area above his pubic line.

“Quit teasin’.” Joe purred.

“Or what?” You ask looking up at him through your lashes.

A joker like smile appeared across his face as he swiftly pushed you onto you back then crawled over you, caging you between his arms.

“You’re asked for it, sweeheart.” He proclaimed before locking onto your mouth again.

His hardened cock grinding into you, you wrap your legs around his waist to feel as much of his friction as possible. He pulls back and began pulling your slip over your head then sat back on his heels to remove his underwear.

He gaped at you laying in front of him. He ran his hand from your stomach up to one breast, groping it then repeating on the other. He hovered over you, enveloping one of your peaked nipples in his mouth. His tongue swirling over the tip while sucking had you writing beneath him. Sensing your pleasure he switched to the other, taking the tip between his teeth.

“Please, Lieb.” You beg.

“Joe.” He corrected.

You look at him.

“I want to hear you scream my name a hundred times before the end of the night.” He growled.

You beam at him, “Please, Joe.”

He palmed himself, pumping a few times before he lined himself up with your drenched opening. He glazed his tip with your wetness, groaning at the amount of saturation.

“I really did a number on you, didn’t I?” He goaded.

All you could do was smile coyly.

He pushed into you deliciously slow. You whimper, both of you feeling every bit of your tightness around him. He embraced you instinctively until he bottomed out. He pulled back gradually, then snapped his hips forward against you with a grunt.

“Jesus Christ, Y/F/N.”

“Please, Joe.” You implore quietly in his ear.

This triggers him as he begins spearing into you roughly. He sits up, propping your legs up where he can hold you around the thighs as he drives into, hitting that perfect spot so deep inside. You push against the headboard to steady yourself onto his dick, feeling that tightening feeling in your stomach as he chased your orgasm.

He watched your face expressions purposefully, feeding off how they changed as he switched up his pace.

“Joe…” you’d moan, spurring him on to go harder.

“Yeah, sweetheart, say it again.”

“My God, Joe…”

He brought his fingers to your clit, using your slick to vigorously rub the vulnerable bud as he continued to plunge in and out of you. He loved watching you get overstimulated as you try to paw at him to pull him back into kiss.

“Right there, Joe…keep goin’.” You lament.

“Yeah? Let it go, baby.” He leered as he railed into you at a heart stopping rate.

“Oh…my GOD, JOE!” You wailed as you dig your nails into his shoulders.

He kept his pace, making sure you ride out your high until the guttural noises that emitted from him as his hips started to stutter and his load coated your insides.

He remained on top of you and inside of you, holding you like a life line with sweat dripping from everywhere. Both of you breathing in sync, each of you trying to steady your heart rates.

After a moment, you decided to break the silence.

“That was…wow.”

Joe chuckled then rolled off of you as he positioned your head on his chest.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself, sweetheart.”

~~~~~~~

[jamethinks]

Chapter 111... let's talk about it.

Firstly, that is not Anya's real mother. That is her birth mother. Biological if you want to get technical. While I don't think anyone is going to turn their backs on Yor as Anya's mother, language is still important. Resist the nuclear-monogamy family propaganda. No hate no shade but this is touching on very triggering territory for me and I am weary of what I will have to suffer through. The batfam fandom has been pissing off as it alright. Wrap it up.

Now for the actual chapter

Died 852 Born in like 1950s/1940s. Welcome back Eren Yeager

Theory: Anya's mother was experimented on during the second war (during WW2 we say a lot of unethical practices and experiments going on so who's to say). At some point she would have gotten pregnant (likely not on purpose) and had Anya. Then she would have broken Anya out or something.

Questions: Can Anya's mom read minds? We know Anya can and that the scientists were interested in this ability but also there does not seem to be any interest in finding her. No easter eggs or discussions. Seems rather odd to just let something like go unless you had something more interesting/valuable in your possession ie Anya's mother.

Alternatively, given the nature of the story it is possible nobody gave a rat's ass until. And by nobody I mean Endo. This could be the intro into unraveling the story behind Anya and finally going into the actual mystery of the story. I guess now that they have decided what that mystery is we will look into it. But it would have been nice to have a few easter eggs but have it your way

There is a way this could work. They just thought Anya was dead. Her mom killed her setting her free like a butterfly and stayed with them so her daughter does not have to go through that torture anymore. Granted she didn't actually kill her but that is what she wanted them to believe hence why they never looked for her.

One of Ashe's powers was the ability to make people see illusions. Within the context of the story they are treated a truthful premonitions. If we assume her mother had these abilities then that would make for a lot of interesting possibility regarding Anya's escape. Would also link her to Bond but who cares.

Farfetched theory: she is a clone and that woman is her mother but also not really get freaky with it idk

The existence of an adult telepath does open up an alternative possibility. In one of my fics, Anya's mother is a Russian spy who would use her telepathic abilities to help the country advance in war and such and Anya was created in hope of giving Ostania access to that ability. I think that may be what happened here as well. Anya's mother was used as a tool by the Ostanian government to help sniff out spies and shit. Given the high rates of espionage and distrust, it does seem likely that they would want a telepath in their bank to advance their own war efforts. This could also explain why Donovan may seem like he can read thoughts. He could use her to read the thought of people he suspects or whatever and report back to him. It's a farfetched theory but anything to prove he can't read minds.

Lastly, it seems Melinda's delusions are affecting Twilight a bit. The way he reacted to Yor seemingly reading Anya's mind is interesting. Even though he may not necessarily believe Melinda it does seem like it made him debate his understanding of reality. He's a skeptical man by nature so I think he might just become more observant of the people around him. As if he himself is debating the existence of telepaths and mind readers. This not only puts Anya in awkward position but also Yor. Even if he doesn't devolve into a paranoid man convinced that everyone can read his minds, it will make him question her more and possible bring those early day suspicions of who Yor truly is.

Besides he's also getting close and attached to them. It won't surpise me if in defense he starts making up insane scenarios and explanations to forcibly detach himself from them. One trait he has always shared with Donovan is paranoia and distrust of others. Of course we have seen what that distrust can do to you.

(Side note: Yor immediately clocking his confusion and clarifying for him is so cute. Like she knows her paranoid little man. Granted, it will come to bite her in the ass if he starts to spiral out of control)

[missempanada]

I'm gonna say something that is probably gonna get me in hot waters but: the whole discourse around Nico di Angelo's race is painfully US-centric. Race doesn't really matter in the original Percy Jackson saga, however in Nico's case, the place and time he was born and raised in is an integral part of his character.

Do I have anything against the actor chosen for Nico being a POC? No, I wouldn't. But we need to keep in mind that's a child who spent his formative years in fascist Italy. A country where very strict racial laws were kept in place.

The Leggi Razziali were the first racial laws passed in Italy and that was in 1928 - Nico would've been 4 years old when that happened. And the Manifesto della razza published 10 years later prohibited marriages between Italians, Jews and Africans, as Italians were seen as descendants of the Aryan race. Also most Africans that lived in Italy in the 1930s came from colonized areas. RR wasn't even able to get into all the nuances of Nico growing up gay in fascist Italy and this would add on another topic that needs to be carefully discussed. Can it be done? Of course. But considering how changing Medusa's story ended up being a hot mess (in my opinion), I wouldn't have much faith in it.

I've seen some kids on Twitter saying Nico's race doesn't matter because "this is a fictional story about greek gods and about how them fighting led up to WW2". And while yes, that may be fictional and kind of ridiculous, Italian fascism is very much real. It's something that real Romani, African and Jewish Italians were affected by. It's also something that White Italians were affected by if they were gay or leftist. And it's something that keeps on affecting people nowadays especially with the rise of neo-fascism we have got going on in Southern Europe. Just because it doesn't affect YOU as a USAmerican it doesn't mean that these issues shouldn't be tackled carefully. To cast a POC boy to play Nico and not explain any of this would be a disservice.

Which leads me to the next thought: I've barely seen any people call for a Roma or Sinti Nico, which would make much more sense geographically and historically than, let's say, an "East Asian Nico" (unless he was Japanese which, again, leads back to fascism). And I can't help but wonder if the reason for this is that there's much less Roma and Sinti people in the US compared to Europe. That would be proof to me of how a lot of USAmericans aren't able or don't want to understand how the world works under a race system that isn't their own.

I feel sorry for the kid they cast as Nico because depending on what race he is he's gonna see either racists or "woke" people complaining about his casting.

[mommysmistake]

Yugotalia characters as Bosniak poets and writers + explanations (a mutual of mine did this with Russian writers and I wanted to do something similar, btw @zhanechka is her account so check it out)

Dražen - Alija Nametak; he wrote some tragic and intense stories with a touch of drama, he was even sentenced to 15 years in prison for one of his stories called "Za obraz" (I can see this happening with Dražen)

Ilija - Zija Dizdarević; he was a young writer who came from a small village near Ljubuški and studied in Belgrade. In WW2 he was an illegal in Bosnia and Herzegovina until he was sent to a concentration camp where he died. He wrote melancholic stories about society and different themes like death and love. I could imagine Ilija going through a similar fate and writing in the same kind of style.

Šćepan - Musa Ćazim Ćatić; a poet who wrote many stories about love and longing. his poems "Sjećaš li se?" makes me think of his relationship with Idriza, when they were separated and he thought she stopped loving him and asked himself if her love withered like a flower. He also has a great poem describing the Neretva river and I think Šćepan would write something similar, comparing his love's beauty to the one of the river and it's surroundings.

Idriza - Umihana Čuvidina; she was a poet who started writing after her fiancé's death, she was very heartbroken and didn't want to marry anyone else after it happened. This could either be her with Enis or Šćepan, but I think it could rather be the case of MonteHerze and after they had to be separated she didn't want to marry Enis, but had to.

Enis - Abdulah Sidran; even though he's not like the others I mentioned as he wrote more recently, his stories are amazing. With a touch of humor at times, they manage to teach great morals and lessons. I can see Enis as a person who uses humor to cope and tell others a deeper message. Sidran was also an empath who loved animals dearly, and sadly, he passed away last year.

Vuk - Mula Mustafa Bašeskija; a chronicle writer from Sarajevo who wrote down all important events which have happened there while he was living. He claims "everything that is written down remains, and everything that is remembered disappears". I imagine Vuk to be a more "evil" version of him, writing a chronicle in an usual way, misusing this quote in a way and writing down only the good things that happened and his actions that make him look good, not talking about the bad ones. I mostly thought he fits him because on the Yugotalia website he has a sort of diary where he answers all his asks and I think he'd have another one where he writes down everything happening around him along with his commentary on it. He would often look at it and think of how great everything was back then because he didn't want to speak of the misfortunes, unless they happened to him and he could use them to victimize himself.

Tatjana - Habiba Stočević-Rizvanbegović; a poet from Stolac who was the daughter of Ali-Paša Rizvanbegović. After her father's death, her family moved to Sarajevo and then to Turkey. There, she wrote poems about love, but only one of them was saved, a poem about her hard love life called "Kad od tvoga oštroga pogleda". In it, she turns to the man who has hurt her and calls him unfaithful. Tatjana has been surrounded by men who have preyed on her all her life and they have never showed her love, only lust, which hurt her. They would have no problem leaving her when their desires have been fulfilled.

Janez - Derviš Sušić; he was in the Partisans and wrote a book about uprisings against class divisions. I think Janez would've also fought as a Partisan in WW2 and he'd write about such themes as he wrote, which is ironic, since Janez is shown to be greedy and well off, always being begged by others to borrow them money.

[kick-a-long]

My take on Attack on Titan is pretty conflicting. On one hand, as you said, it's classic Holocaust/WW2 inversion. I have a deep feeling that the creator Isayama took a basic knowledge of antisemitism (i.e. the armbands) and applied it to the story. My issue lies in the fact that he never once mentioned that antisemitism inspired his story (I've searched high and low and apparently he pointed to WW2 a few times but that's it...) and I find it very despicable to use Jews as inspiration and never mention us once (unless I missed something but idk). I can't shake off the feeling that he probably used his little knowledge about us and expanded on it using his own mind only to use more antisemitic tropes without even realizing. Now the guy's smart and I'm not trying to say he's dumb or infantalize him but gentiles are very ignorant of us, even when they learn about the Holocaust/WW2, they have a hard time understanding us and knowing about us tbh. I'm pretty confused also because an important point of the story is the Eldians being referred to as "the children of the devil" which is so specific to Jews but he never mentioned us ONCE when speaking about influences/inspirations so I have no clue where his knowledge of us lies. Which isn't a good thing.

Attack on Titan is perfect when it comes to showcasing antisemitism and it frustrates the fuck out of me because here you have the Eldians which are a very great depiction of Jews imo (he may not have mentioned us but it's so blatant that we are the inspiration, it's impossible to miss) and yet 1) it's most likely done on accident by some random gentile who never gave us credit and 2) writing choices/mistakes put it in antisemitic territory. The fact that we didn't create this is mind boggling.

I'm a huge fan of aot even with all its flaws and I actually wrote something insanely long pointing of the similarities of "Eldian oppression" with antisemitism and how Eldians are clearly an alternate version of us. I searched everywhere and somehow no one wrote anything making a (decent) comparison. People hate when real life stuff gets compared to fiction and I get it but the case here is that we are the main inspirations so I personally enjoy examining the similarities.

Now one of the issues I've seen be raised about Eldians clearly being Jews is that: Eldians used to rule the world, they colonized and oppressed everyone so that's the reason everyone hates them. This is obviously not good to pair with the fact that Jews are the inspiration here. I'm conflicted because Isayama's vague/weird writing here makes people believe this is the case but as someone who read the manga a million times, I believe it's supposed to be vague because you're supposed to question if this is even true. I think you're supposed to think "maybe this is false and everyone is lying and rewriting history to hate and oppress the Eldians who just scare them with their powers". There's also the fact that Eldia wasn't the only empire and the Marleyan empire (Marley is the main power house of the world) also did heinous things just like Eldia's accused of and I think this is supposed to get you to think real hard. Either way, it gets into antisemitic territory for sure. But in my paper I wrote, this mimics another feature of antisemitism: the rewriting of history which we have to deal with so they can justify oppressing and hating us and the intellectualization of antisemitism. I gave so many examples.

I think aot perfectly highlights the pure insanity of antisemitism honestly. It showcases how cartoonishly evil it is.

Off topic but this paper I did for fun made me extra frustrated because why are we held to such an impossible standard?! I've also studied other movements by minorities wanting to be liberated and to uplift themselves and just like Zionism, these movements have their good and bad and yet only Zionism gets all the criticism. It's so unfair wtf. I know Zionism has caused more harm in comparison (but those movements are not criticised at all, unless it's by a right winger..) and it deserves criticism for that but so did Communism (which is antisemitic and I call that shit out but I personally understand the reason for Communism's existence and respect that it's going to continue to exist). Once again we are the prototype and they're testing the waters of what's "socially acceptable" to say about minorities by using us as the test dummies!

Okay I'll stop now because I will just keep going haha

I feel similarly. i think i don't like labeling it as antisemitic because antisemitism is centered around jews and has an active and obsessive element that other bigorty doesn't. AoT has a total absence of jews but has used jewish narratives about antisemitism second and third hand to push Japanese nationalism. I guess it's hard for me because I don't consider jewish erasure to be antisemitism as I know it even if it's a big part of anti jewish bigotry. if that makes sense? it's not even intentional jewish erasure in my opinion because it treats antisemitism as a universal thing, which it isn't. i think they, like many people, think antisemitism started with ww2 and ended with it. also that it came out of thin air, that antisemites are good people who are mislead instead of intentionally spreading lies to justify the underlying prejudice ingrained in their culture. it gets the cause and effect backwards.

my reasons for thinking the japanese don't understand jews as separate from all europeans or americans or the shit jews face as being a historic recurring thing is that they are one of only a handful of countries that never had a sizable population of jews, muslims, or christians. and even if someone is buddist or atheist there they usually still follow folk religion traditions.

so it's definitely full of anti jewish bigotry but with no relationship to any established antisemitic theory.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

Can we get a ranking of speedsters most to least likely to kill

This thing is gonna be an upside down pyramid. Jesus, okay.

Tier 1 (Have killed, will kill)

Jay, Max, Dawn, Don

Tier 2 (Have killed, will kill again but is more prone to torture when angry and/or threatened)

Barry, Bart, Wally

Tier 3 (Hasn't killed but will if needed)

Avery, Ace, Jesse, Jenni

Tier 4 (Actual child)

Irey, Jai, Wade

My explanation for this? Simple. Tier 1 is all people who have actively fought in wars. Jay fought Nazis, he killed people in WW2. That's just what happened. He doesn't feel bad about it. Jay avoids killing people now because he isn't at war currently, but he will kill and has killed if he absolutely has to.

Max has also fought in wars and he has had a long and storied past throughout history. The man has seen and done things. Not all of them good. But yeah, Max has killed. Will he kill again? Unlikely. Unless someone is threatening his daughter or Bart, in which case, yes, it's very likely.

Dawn and Don also fought in a war and killed entire platoons of Dominators. They're unlikely to kill again because they're dead. But if they weren't dead? I'm pretty sure they'd still be fine with killing people in wartime situations.

Tier 2 is a little bit more complicated. Barry, Wally and Bart have all killed people. It's a last resort for them but it's still always an option. If they have to kill the bad guy to save the civilian then they'll kill the bad guy no questions asked. Some people have to die for the time stream to function correctly? Sure. Okay. Especially bigger bads like Darksied. They had absolutely no problem killing Darksied. Oh, and you better watch out if you threaten their loved ones because the people they love are worth dying and killing for.

They don't like it. They really don't like it. But they'll do it.

(Honestly though? Bart is unnerving unfazed by it)

Tier 3. So... This may come as a surprise but I actually haven't read all the LoSH comics? So while I'm fairly certain Jenni hasn't killed anyone, I can't say that 100%. Either way, she'd be down for it if it was the only option.

Avery would 100% be down for murder. So would Ace. That's the Iris West influence right there. Those two kids are not afraid to get their hands dirty and, while I'm fairly certain they haven't yet, I have no doubt that they will. These two just inherited Iris' moral code and she's totally fine with homicide.

Jesse surprises me because she's gotta have killed someone. I'm wracking my brain and nothing comes to mind but I don't buy that for a second. She's just got that homicidal energy, you know? She's 100% done it and will again, I just can't remember when it was.

Tier 4 is the children. Now... to be clear. I'm not saying that they haven't killed anyone because they are children. No, I'm actually fairly positive they have killed a significant amount of people. I'm saying that they are children and therefore do not understand the concept of death. They don't really understand that they've killed people and I don't really think they are any more or less likely to kill again. Until they understand it they are just destructive forces of nature. No malice or intent. Just sheer raw power.

[ispeacetoomuchtoaskfor]

On the Subject of Susan

I'm going to be a little blunt and my words may seem antagonistic here. But no hate, please. I'm just trying to analyze and provide my analysis based on the very simple facts. Now.

I've never quite understood the anger at C. S. Lewis for how he ended Susan's tale. Mainly, I suppose, because I had the whole story.

Everyone gets angry that Susan is "banned from Narnia" because she likes lipstick and nylon stockings and being a teenage girl in the 1940s, but no one seems to understand that that's not quite how it went, much less that Susan still has a chance.

Let me work backwards a moment and explain the latter. You see, to quote Lewis himself, in a letter to a girl called Marcela in 1955,

"...Haven’t you noticed in the two you have read that she is rather fond of being too grownup? I am sorry to say that side of her got stronger and she forgot about Narnia... ...She is left alive in this world at the end, having been turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there is plenty of time for her to mend, and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end—in her own way. I think that whatever she had seen in Narnia she could (if she was the sort that wanted to) persuade herself, as she grew up, that it was ‘all nonsense’”

Now, there's a lot to unpack here, but first and foremost, my point is quite simple. "Perhaps she will get to Aslan's country in the end-in her own way." It was always meant to be open ended, for Susan. Narnia is not forever closed to her, unless you and she choose so.

"But Peace!" I can hear you saying, "There's that whole 'too fond of being grownup' phrase!" Why yes, yes there is, how clever of you to notice. The whole point of the latter portion of Susan's arc is that she chose that- lipstick and nylons and "being grownup"- over Narnia. She grew and she chose to forget Narnia.

After all, what sort of modern teenage girl (in England, during WW2) would be so interested in medieval times and what they probably explained to their friends to be a good old game of pretend? No, no, she can't remember Narnia right now - she's going to the cinema with a few girl friends, she's going to a party, she's focusing on everything but there and inevitably, after pushing it away for so long, Narnia let her be.

You see, C. S. Lewis was a very Arminian (and yes, I spelled it correctly) Christian theologian. And while I'm sure most of you here on this hellsite would like to ignore that, it is relevant to how Lewis wrote his fiction. After all, it's at the core of his basic beliefs, despite his being a staunch atheist in college and into his adulthood, and despite what you may like to think, it crept into his writing even when he did not intend it. For example, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is called an allegory for the story of the Resurrection, despite Lewis' arguments to the contrary. He insisted that it be seen as what it is, very heavy symbolism. Very heavily used Christian symbolism, that is all over the Chronicles whether you like it or not.

Let me explain why this is relevant to Susan, what Arminianism even is, and how that term applies here. Susan is, so to speak, a symbol of an atheist left behind, after all of the Christians she called family died. In a situation where you regard Christianity as true, she is left on Earth while they have gone on to heaven. And this doesn't mean that the gates of heaven are closed to her, quite to the contrary! They would be closed on the day she died insisting that Jesus Christ was not Lord, plain and simple. She has a choice to make, so long as she is alive.

Now, to Calvinist theologians and Christians, Susan never had a choice. Either Aslan, the God symbol here, chose to bring her in, or he didn't. Calvinists believe in a thing called predestination, the concept that every believer that would ever be brought to heaven is chosen specifically by God. Arminianism declares the opposite. It's a whole thing in Christian theological circles, but that's irrelevant to this discussion. In any case, the core of Arminianism is that you and I have a choice in whether or not we believe in God, and in whether or not we go to heaven.

To an Arminian theologian, God, or Aslan in this symbolic case, can influence our choice, Susan's choice, up to a point. Once we reach that point, once Susan forgets, God, or Aslan, steps back. He accepts our choice, allows Susan to forget. It's up to us, up to Susan after that.

Lewis was an Arminian theologian. He made the point, repeatedly, in his theological works, about people having a choice.

He repeats that point with Susan.

One last thing, before you go. You see, there was another letter about Susan, after The Last Battle was released. He'd been asked if he ever intended to finish Susan's story.

This was his answer.

“I could not write that story myself. Not that I have no hope of Susan’s ever getting to Aslan’s country; but because I have a feeling that the story of her journey would be longer and more like a grown-up novel than I wanted to write. But I may be mistaken. Why not try it yourself?”

Well, my people? Now that you've heard what I had to say (and say through quite the essay, my apologies), why not? Go, do what you do and tell her story for yourself. The author has encouraged fanfiction, so go on! And don't worry about Christianity and symbolism too much. It may help you understand how and why Lewis wrote what he did, but unless you're determined to have your tale in his style and overlapping seamlessly with canon, it's unnecessary. Unless you choose to make it a part of your life, you don't have to be concerned about it.

Feel free to ask questions, and I'll answer to the best of my ability, with Google by my side!

Also, I nearly forgot. There are absolutely other problems with Susan being the last of her family, left alone in the aftermath of WW2. This is not the place to talk about those, however, merely to help you understand why she "is no longer a friend of Narnia" and to remind you that there's always hope.

Oh, and besides that, don't forget that I'm talking about the books and not the movies thank you very much, while The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was absolutely perfect to canon the other two were not and I'm not going to consider them in this post. I do appreciate them, but when dealing with book canon they're both nos.

[centrally-unplanned]

Saw this going around Twitter, a list of "ring wing anime", which I thought was pretty interesting. I haven't seen all of them by any means, thoughts on a few:

Crest of the Stars: Been a long time but eh...its like okay sure it has the ~vibes of militarism and genetic engineering and noble duty and all that. But there is a lot of "war = right wing" energy sometimes that is totally unjustified (war is a universal tool of society unless you are explicitly pacifist, and while pacifists are left most left aren't pacifists), and Crest of the Stars is a good example of that, its just that its a space opera story, its not about validating this or that ideology. But it does have the vibes, i'll give it a C

Gunbuster: Okay, we all know why this is here. Slowly, in the background of the show, you pick up that they live in a timeline where Japan mastered new technology, gained economic supremacy, beat America's attempt to smack them down and annexed Hawaii, and became the first-amoung-equals of a united Earth alliance. It smacks of apologia for Japan's empire in WW2, a sense of revenge for past wrongs. And you have all this other stuff - like oh a bunch of it takes place in Okinawa because Anno was a huge fan of the 1971 film Battle of Okinawa due to its huge action setpieces, but that film also completely whitewashes the atrocities of the IJA. Its all true, like it reflect that cultural milieu.

But it doesn't do anything with any of that. Anno just likes Okinawa guys, he doesn't think Japan should have won in WW2 and rule China right now. And the thing you actually watch is a group of international space pilots serving in the equivalent of the UN Space Fleet experiencing the horrors of war fighting for peace (and also fanservice). Its a world where Japan's economic & technological innovation makes it a world leader via soft power, and international cooperation defends earth. This peak liberalism. C-

Patlabor: Yeah an odd one, like its simultaneously about the corruption of the powerful and all that, but also about the need for heavy policing and the "fragility" of society. This one is one where you can take from it what you want, but if you wanna be right wing yeah sure. B

Girls Und Panzer:

ಠ╭╮ಠ

F-

Niea_7: Wtf is this doing here? Like okay, its humor definitely spills into a bit of racial stereotyping and stuff. But this is an anime about refugees being discriminated against due to disabilities and caste and the humanity behind the outer differences. You cannot weasel your way around that. D-

Urusei Yatsura: By no means have I watched every episode or anything, but I feel like this is a bit of "well its just showing past society right? Therefore its right-wing". And like okay, that isn't entirely off-base, like it has stories about how men and women are Just Different and Being A Man and all that, so sure. But it was also mocking those social themes of the time just as much as it was reinforcing them. Like Mendou is not an aspirational character!

A bit like Patlabor, I guess I can see pulling what you want out of it. But its a bit harder here imo. B-

Space Battleship Yamato: Yeah I'll give you this one. Its just space opera in the end, but the way it sets up its symbols to redeem the legacy of the Japanese empire is far more explicit than say Gunbuster, no way around that. A-

Would be interested in other people's takes on anime I haven't seen or didn't mention!

[historicboii]

Hello again, today i bring you another MICC verse story feat. Melody.

This is the story of how she got her name. Almost.

Basically its Andyeddie being cute.

As always many thanks to the WW2 Rpf is fine server for bringing this idea to life and thanks to all of you for reading It.

Enough about me, please enjoy : )

PASTORALE

Today was a happy day, a happier day than most in this hellhole. Nobody had died yet which was rare here in the frontlines.

Once we had found somewhere to rest, Ack-Ack climbed to a higher place, some sort of rubble. He raised his voice and adressed the men.

"Everybody, we are staying here tonight, so pick a slightly smooth stone and try to sleep".

Andy as always was glowing, with a fierce determination I though could only appear in old stories of myth or in brave knights of old.

But Andy was very much real, and he was pregnant with my child. Our child.

The though made me smile involuntarily. I thought of a home, a nice evening watching our baby, me singing in a porch with my guitar in hand and baby on the other, and Andy coming home from work. A peaceful Life. A happy life.

While some of the boys were starting to doze off, or chatting in low voices, I was so stuck in my own fantasies i didn't notice Andy walking over to me.

"What were you smiling about earlier?"

"Was i smiling?"

"Yeah you were, and im asking you what all that was about"

"Everything. Nothing. The fact you are pregnant."

"Is that all?"

I smiled mischievously and replied

"Well sometimes you need to think of a sweethart back home to make It trough this war"

"Am i your sweethart?"

You always were and always will be"

"So if im here right now, what does that make me?"

I thought, you are everything to me. My captain, my lover, my family, my future. How to explain that to him? How to explain that my entire existance was tied to his life?

Then I remembered that night back in Melbourne, when he told me that he loves me. I thought of now, of how even when he was pregnant he wanted to keep fighting. To stay with the men. With our boys.

That is what i loved about him. Thats what made Andy Andy. So thats what i told him

"You are a good captain"

He laughed quietly so as to not wake the rest of the boys. He stopped and glanced at me, a wide smile on his face.

"Ive been meaning to ask, what is that song you are always humming?"

"What song?"

"That melody, you keep singing it all day, and at night before we go to sleep. I haven't heard it before, and unless its from the japs i dont know how you can know a new song around here"

"Whats up with you today, you are asking a lot of questions"

"Maybe i just want to talk to you"

"Then you should have just asked"

"Thats what im doing now"

"Dont get clever with me now, its not a good look on you"

He must have known i wasnt really mad, and my smile betrayed my annoyance.

"Oh but you love it"

"You know i do"

"So answer me"

"Its a song im working on"

"That doesnt answer the question "

Andy kept looking at me, and we he looked at me like that I knew that I had to confess the reason for my good mood lately, and why I was singing that song, even though the thought scared me more than any battle we had fought.

But this was Andy, and he would understand. I decided to tell him the truth.

"Well," I began my explanation "In my family it's tradition that a parent has to compose a song for their newborn. I guess its something of a supperstition, we always say that as long as a song is sung then that persons memory is still alive, somehow"

"I think thats beautiful"

"Its an old supperstition "

"Its ours now, eddie, and our baby will love your song"

"Well for now our boys have taken a liking to it, and they are as much our sons as the one in you belly"

"Can i ask you a question then?"

"Sure"

"Do you think its a boy or a girl?"

"I dont really care, as long as It looks like us and its happy, well that will be ours whatever happens"

He smiled at me and i knew, i knew that i would do anything for my love and my son. I had to keep fighting so that we could all make it back home.

I had to make sure our melody made It back stateside.

[spacerangersam]

Tell me more about your BBC Ghosts character roleswap please? (Characters including: Mike, Alison, Kitty, Pat, Captain, Humphrey, the Plague Ghosts, Jemima, Annie)

I will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know asdfgh

Mike’s much the same as in canon, he just happens to be the one who briefly died and can see the ghosts. I guess in this AU Fanny did it? Or maybe Julian still did - his head can be seen by people, so maybe he appeared to Mike, trying to scare him, and it ended with Mike falling out the window. Julian swears it’s an accident, but the jury is not convinced. 

Unlike Alison, I think he would love it from the get-go and be so excited about all his new ghost friends, even the weird ones that hang around in the basement and never come up. They do help him with the boiler, after all. I mean, my man tried to make a potion just to see them, he would be over the moon with it, and I think the contrast of having him so excited while Alison is still reeling from his death + the realisation that ghosts are real and haunting their house is kind of funny. 

I think he’d be close to Pat, if only because Pat is the unofficial leader of the group and can (usually) make them listen, very nervous around Fanny (he always feels like he’s about to be told off when he’s around her) and morbidly fascinated with Julian. It’s a very ‘I can fix him :)’ dynamic, with the added bonus of everyone around Mike saying ‘yeah, no you can’t’. he does though, through the power of friendship and threatening to give up Julian's TV slots unless he plays nice.

Alison is still the one with Button ties and she’s very weary of the ghosts to begin with - they did kill Mike, and no matter what he insisted she knows one of them did it, and she doesn’t like not being able to see them - but eventually comes around to them. She still thinks it’s weird and doesn’t get why Mike’s so pumped but sure, whatever keeps him happy. While she can’t communicate with all the ghosts, she can with Kitty (prior to Kitty’s death, she was fogging up the windows with her breathe and writing/drawings on it) and the two still manage to have a sister-ish dynamic, and Fanny who, armed with Julian’s powers, can bother her on google docs/send her emails (mostly to ask if she’s registered to vote)

Pat is a Home Guard captain during WW2, who moved out of Yorkshire during the war to escape the bombing. He wasn’t fit enough to fight (and probably wouldn’t have wanted to even if he was), so joined the Home Guard, stationed at Button Manor. No one in the village had ever fought in a war and his position as a scoutmaster made him the closest thing to a captain around, so he was handed the role. For my own peace of mind, he found out about Carol and Morris before he died through letters they’d been exchanging, but he never actually confronted her about it. At least because he refused to admit it, and then because he didn’t want to upset an already fairly traumatised Daley with tensions at home. But, he did decide that if Carol was going to go behind his back with other men, fuck it, so was he. I just think Pat deserves a chance to have some fun of his own, though he near got serious with anyone. [despite only flirting around in the safety of the manor though, Duke misses all of this and is still shocked when Pat mentions liking men]

Regardless, his story ends vaguely as it did in canon - he was shot by Keith, just by an adult Keith and with a bullet rather than an arrow. I kinda think it would be sweet/sad if the other guards, both to give Pat’s death a bit more dignity and to make sure Keith didn’t get blamed for the accidental death, made up a whole lie about Pat dying in a stand-off with an enemy spy where he definitely fatally injured the spy, just don’t ask where that guy is, it doesn’t matter. I think Pat would be torn between appreciating the gesture and being a bit miffed because Keith killed him and got away with it.

He tries to be optimistic and cheerful, but at the same time, he’s more jaded than canon Pat (he did live through 2 wars, after all), a bit more bitchy from the get-go, and indulges a bit more in some gallows humour. 

Captain, or the Duke of Surrey / Kently (Surrey is where the real Manor used for ghosts is, but Kently is the made-up town I tend to use) aka just ‘Duke’, is the regency poet, a man who came from a long line of army captains and generals who never made it into the army himself. He wanted to, but was a sickly kid, constantly bedridden because of this and that. To entertain himself while ill, he got into poetry and soon began writing it himself. 

He met Havers at a party, and for the two months Havers stayed in the village, the two got very close. But then Havers was sent off to the front lines and Duke stayed at home, getting sicker and sicker while writing more and more. Eventually, like in canon, Duke snuck into Button Manor to see Havers one last time (though he didn’t nick a Captain’s uniform, being way too sick and delirious to even think of something like that) and died of consumption (aka tuberculous) in the middle of the ballroom, holding Havers’ hand.

Post-death, and unbeknownst to Duke, Havers found some of the poems Duke wrote about him, and after changing the pronouns to protect Duke’s legacy, got them published. Duke was never Byron levels of well-known, but he still became a well-respected writer and is very touched by the gesture once he learns of it. [he also has one poem he wrote for havers he likes to repeat, and over time, the line about brown eyes changes to being about blue yes...]

Like canon Captain, Duke is still quite distant and militaristic at first (habits learned off his father, and not helped by Duke being isolated for most of his childhood) but does have a deep love of poetry. He doesn’t have personal beef with Byron though, and has no idea why Thomas does. Duke is also a lot more lethargic than Captain in canon, the effects of his illness lingering on, and walks with a cane (Haver’s cane) to keep himself steady.

Also, in a very dad move, after Kitty dies he asks her all about the modern technology in her home, and that doesn’t stop even as more modern ghosts show up. As the decades go on she has even less clue what’s what, but that doesn’t stop her from making up answers.

Humphrey’s from the Stuart era, an unmarried Lord, and there kind of two ways my mind goes with his story. One is the straightforward way that mirrors his canon death, like in this fic, where Sophie is accused of witchcraft so Humphrey takes the blame and hangs in her place.

Or there’s my slightly more convoluted backstory where Sophie is married off to a different lord, and even more unhappy with the arrangement, and while hiding away from her husband, Humphrey. The two strike up a friendship - they’re not married so Sophie doesn’t resent him for her situation and is willing to talk to him - bordering on something more, but Sophie’s husband catches wind. Either, it follows the previous options where he accuses Sophie of witchcraft and Humphrey takes the blame, or he just straight-up accuses Humphrey. In the latter, I like to imagine Sophie tried to stop her husband but was locked up in their manor. She managed to escape and arrive on Button grounds just in time for Humphrey to be hanged. She can’t save him, but she can take revenge, so accuses her husband not of witchcraft, but of plotting against the king, forging letters proving so. Maybe she even tries to claim that Humphrey knew this and that’s why her husband hanged him, so Humphrey still goes down in history as being a part of something he wasn’t. 

In death, he still has the noose around his neck and though he can loosen it a bit, he still gets breathless very quickly.

I just realised there are a lot of people in this au who can’t run for shit: Captain can’t because of his illness, Humphrey can’t because of the hanging, I imagine Mary wouldn’t have great lungs from asphyxiation, Pat has asthma, and Fanny has some proper heels slowing her down. This is the AU where nobody runs, they all do a slow jog at most asdfgh

He also, understandably, has quite a sore neck, and like how in canon Pat massages Julian’s finger after use (possibly the weirdest sentence I’ve written for this au, but that is a thing that happens in canon) he does the same for Humphrey with his neck. 

He’s obviously not in pieces like in canon so gets involved with the gang more, but he still drifts off on his own sometimes to sit by the lake where he first met Sophie and just mope. Thomas also likes to mope around and in the lake though, so sometimes they just sit there awkwardly, moping together

The Plague Ghosts are Puritans who weren’t all that hung up on being pure and died of some illness that Mick brought to the town - pneumonia maybe. They still hang out in the basement and are basically the same except I guess they look a little less horrifying. 

Jemima is another Puritan-era ghost who maybe died a bit before or a bit after the plagues, but still from pneumonia. She spends a bit more time upstairs with the other ghosts and bonds with them, encouraged to do so by MIke. He is very scared of the creepy child who hangs around in his pantry, but that’s still a child and she should probably not spend all of her time in the pantry. He eventually gets used to her ominously appearing around corners and singing at random hours in the night, especially after he introduces her to some more modern music - it’s a bit less bone-chilling when the ghost girl is signing Reach for the Stars by Club 7

Annie’s era is switched with the plagues so she’d from the () ages, but she doesn’t die of the plague. She somehow avoided that, despite pretty much everyone else in the village dying from it, but like in canon, kicks it choking on bread. She’s a bit miffed, but kind of glad she died from that rather than the plague. 

In order to meet Mary, she has to stay around for much longer and therefore has a bit more history with the other ghosts (ie, she bullied most of them for longer), and is quite protective over Kitty / develops a close friendship with the Captain. She still made fun of him, of course, but they were judgey and mean together, you know? Kind of like Fanny and Cap. And if Annie does stay around unlike canon, or stayed for a little longer after meeting Mary at least, I think her and Fanny could kick it together. Maybe all three of them could, just a weird little trio of women who will insult you to your face.

Before that though, when Mary first shows up, Annie is just fascinated by her. Mary’s a modern woman, she talks about strange machines and devices and people, (some sort of device), she knows how to shoot an arrow and how to read and write, she can manage her finances on her own - Annie thinks she’s a marvel. She doesn’t understand how Mary doesn’t see that and is still so anxious and quiet, and pools all her effort into helping Mary be more confident. 

i hope you wanted a lot because a lot was what you got asdfh

[i-used-to-be-a-spy]

Fanfic writing asks:

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

26. Is there something you’ve written that you would never want your family to see?

10. I think it's just interesting how sometimes a fic will be super popular and another won't be and I have no idea why. Especially my episode style burn notice fics I pour a lot of brain power into and sometimes they don't do well

14. I'd want my transgender Anakin who never falls to the dark side to get a film adaptation and I'd want a trans actor to play him

17. I actually haven't really done much research for my fics? I think I double checked once how long boot camp lasts and went oops it's a lot shorter than I thought and just went well this is a fic I don't have to be realistic lol and I left it alone. Unless you count fact checking burn notice canon b/c I do that a lot to make sure I get their guns right or pull quotes from Michael's voice overs b/c I think it's fun to use them

26. Oh god any of my smut fics. I don't want my family to read them. Only internet friends lol. I did have my brother beta read part of my Anakin fic when we were both working on our writings in a Starbucks together three years ago. My younger brother has an English degree and has one short book published through the university :) and he complimented my writing. He doesn't know my AO3 account b/c I'd shared the google doc with him of my fic

Btw the book my brother wrote is about Lady Luck, a superhero who is common domain. She fights against Nazis and the Japanese internment camps in WW2 in the US and her bestie is queer but he had to take that subplot out b/c they only wanted a novella to publish but I read the original longer book and I love my ally brother :). He's a 6 foot tall white dude with a beard and wears plaid but is gentle and kind hearted and writes superhero stories. Right now he's in volunteer service to build houses for people :)

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

>Be modern black Hollywood

>Have the ability to showcase our history more with slightly less racist executives to deal with

>More access to our history than ever before

>Blackwash and try to pop feminism girl boss Cleopatra to where Assassins Creed Origins did her better (yeah I’m going back to that later in the ip)

>Lionize the Dahomey despite THEY are the major reason our cultural roots are destroyed and why majority of African Americans can never truly feel a connection to our ancestors birthplace

>Allow Tyler Perry to writer and direct a movie of the Black WAC unit of WW2.

>Perry had a tantrum towards the boondocks creator for making fun of him and made the episode about it be banned on tv for a couple of years (here the clip of that episode, I think 99.9% of black people on here or anyone who watch a Medea movie get the joke https://youtu.be/hJtYVpLAZmI?si=oSFcNG6GFUcTC87u)

>Make the historical black characters and figures more condensing then they were

>Refuse to acknowledge the struggles the MAJORITY of the population was suffering during those times hence why it took the marginalized to get their rights

>Don’t acknowledge how other groups like feminism deny black men proper voting rights and treated black women like shit until they conveniently used them to promote their hedonistic agenda during the 60’s

>Go overboard with their importance and not in the saving private Ryan and Braveheart

>Casually forget that even though there was fuck up status quos like they are today. Not everyone of the majority support it

>Seemly make race racial worsen

I know a lot of people can say Assassin Creed doing this with Yasuke. I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate as historians can have a tantrum to how much stuff that don’t fit with the 972-77 CE time stamp of AC Valhalla base story.

Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore….I mean most of AC lore about Japan is from a long erased mobile AC game. From what I seen they are retooling something but fleshly out more stuff

Ot won’t be the first ac game to retcon shit *Vietnam flashbacks to certain controversies*

Now let me talk about the other MC Naoe, when the devs described her. They mentioned she is hot headed, where her heart on her shoulder….soooo a shounen female mc who is driven by vengeance where Yasuke and the other assassins try to make sure she won’t be consume by it?

Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Than there was a Entertainment Weekly issue (yes they do games now) that dive into the Naoe backstory and they show off this character

https://x.com/ac_landmarks/status/1869806301238439992?s=46

What nice picture-fuck I heard Baal, Azreal, and the Shinto god Raiden arguing who will devour the boy’s soul when he killed off for story reasons

But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

I mean for the black WAC unit, they could have down where like in AC black flag you saw the Maroons or in AC mirage you saw the Nestorian Christians in 9th century Baghdad was they were in their respective timeline. So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Hope others get it, never seen one of his movies.

The WAC thing is a good story to tell, not sure it's worth a full movie but maybe, theatrical release would depend on if it was something they could make enough money off of.

>I think Ubisoft pr need to learn the term they try to be more historically AUTHENTIC rather than accurate

I like that phrasing there.

>Though they probably figured out Ubi wanted to cash in on the Viking shows tv craze at the time.

I enjoyed the show, what I saw of it at least, dropped out when it started getting a bit too fantastical in places.

>Also one thing about DEI…they don’t really like family driven stories unless it the bastardized fictional young adult “found family thing”

Found family can be good if it serves a legitimate narrative purpose

And since I know you want the full quote

If nothing else this is gonna do a whole thing with getting him into the brotherhood and the two of them someone to lean on here and there. Some learning as well since Japan is still gonna be new to him.

They both have things to learn

>Also they mention they are going to retool some established lore......

They have to do that sometimes, so long as they're not trying to rewrite actual history

I still don't get the opposition to Yasuke, he's a real guy that had the title of samurai and they used him for a game so they could make a historical samurai game but make it different than every other historical samurai game.

>.......Interesting, more personality than most girlboss characters Hollywood pump out

So far it looks like that may be the case, hope things stay that way I'm tired of mary sue's.

>(Also they confirm you can do the Naruto run, LOL)

Nice

>But Naoe got a little brother figure? Perfect!

I hope so

>Shit sorry for these super long anon everyone

They're all tagged with your tag they can filter them out if they like

>........So do a anthology series about the lesson known units of WW2 with the that unit getting a episode

WAC's are so poorly known as a group from WWII that would actually be good anyway, the recruitment mantra of "Free a man up to fight" From the ladies doing the mail room (like in the upcoming thingy) to the clerical workers and everything else in between (like the ones that flew the planes from one coast to the other for delivery) they made a huge contribution, and should be recognized.

So long as we don't get "Red Ball Express" level revisionism, which would be difficult since they get the race of the people right in this film, but they can still get all kinds of other things wrong.

>Hell I’m very curious about the Japanese American units who I heard are some of our most decorative unit in our military history. Despite the absolute hell we gave them during that time

Think they've gotten a movie or two, had a moment with them in the first Karate Kid movie, where we find out Mr Miyagi earned the Medal of Honor as a member of the 442nd Infantry Regiment

while his wife and child were back home in the US, in one of Roosevelt's internment camps, where they died while he was fighting with honor for the country that had put them in there.

If you've never seen the 1984 Karate Kid, it's not all corny wax on wax off stuff, or sweep the leg, or what's it's become since 1984, even as a kid that scene hurt to watch.

There's a few for the "Codetalkers" too, which as codes go, nobody was ever going to break that one.

>Just why WHY, have Hollywood got much much worse at telling black historical stories despite us now having more flesh out sources than ever before?

Inflating the contributions instead of just stating what they were and why they were so important seems to be the method now, while yes sorting mail seems like a silly thing to make a big deal out of, it really was important to the war effort.

Letter from home can make all the difference in the world, anyone that's been deployed can probably confirm.