#which is named after rudolf

[sarcasticdolphin]

Todolf Modern Mafia au “Found”

Roger takes a vacation to Vienna. It ends .... poorly. Cut .... well most of the really bad stuff is off-screen, so to speak. But not all of it.

This is the finale of the modern mafia au.

The drawing is beautiful - a bird, blue and black. Roger can’t say he’s familiar with the blue bird-of-paradise, but the artist’s work is exquisite. Every moment he notices a new detail in the feathers.

“Sir?” 

Roger turns to see the guide. He was alone for this tour - a virtue of the hour, for one.

“I need to take this call. Our resident artist is just up the stairs, so feel free to head up without me. He doesn’t bite.”

Roger nodded, thanking the guide before starting up the stairs. All of the birds were the work of ‘R.T.’ and he for one was quite eager to meet the skilled artist.

The door was partially open, revealing a studio with a single resident. He was trying to keep his footsteps light so as not to disturb the artist at his work.

Roger wasn’t sure what it was that gave it away. Rudolf’s hair was longer, and it had a soft wave to it, but there was something about him - the way he carried his shoulders, perhaps, that made him unmistakable. 

--------------------

The surprised and tense shifting of the man’s feet reached Rudolf a moment before the word did.

“Rudolf.”

He would be lying if he said he had ever imagined this moment, imagined anything from his old life following him here. Carefully, he put his pen down, securing it away from the sketch before turning.

“Roger.” The man before him was older, but unmistakable.

“Rudolf, you’re-” Roger didn’t finish his sentence, instead taking a step forward and reaching his hand out before thinking better and pulling it back. “I thought you were-” A little smile comes to Roger’s face and there are the beginnings of tears pricking at his eyes.

A thousand thoughts flew through Rudolf’s head. A movement at the edge of his vision is surely Michael, but however competent the man is, he is only a man. 

“You’re alive.” Roger does finally manage to finish his statement, his tone one of amazement, of joy.

“So it would seem.” Rudolf keeps his own voice even. 

“Rudolf, why-” Roger still seems to barely believe his own eyes. “Why didn’t you come back? Come home?”

Rudolf doesn't answer that one. His home is with Tod, wherever that might be, and has been for well over a decade.

“Rudolf-” Roger took a step forward. “Oh God, he took you, didn’t he? Kidnapped you. Faked your death so we wouldn’t look.”

Rudolf gives a long blink and tilts his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. Obviously.

“Rudolf, I’ll take you home, get you out of here. You don’t have to be his prisoner.”

Rudolf held up his hands, making a show of the lack of manacles. “This is my home. And who said I was his prisoner?”

“Rudolf-” Roger’s tone shifted. He was starting to understand, then. “What did he do to you?” The man before him wiped what had to have been a tear away.

But Rudolf doesn’t have time to answer before Roger is speaking again, rapidly. Apologies are falling from his lips, and Rudolf lets them. 

It continues for a few minutes, but Rudolf doesn’t begin to relax until he catches the movement in the corner of his eye once more. Michael had acquired backup. They drug and subdue Roger with relative ease, taking the man by complete surprise. Rudolf can see betrayal in his eyes for a moment before he passes out.

-------------------

Roger’s head hurts terribly when he comes around, his vision swimming for a few moments before it comes back fully into focus. He’s in an office, though calling it that is almost an insult to the term - the room is huge, with a vast window on one side. It was evening now - the sun was dinner, and he could see a great forest beyond the window. There’s a gag in his mouth and his hands are bound.

Rudolf was looking out of the window, or at least in that direction. He was looking slightly down, not at Tod, who was standing there, facing Rudolf side-on. Tod looked no different than Roger remembered, still almost ethereal. One of his hands was on Rudolf’s shoulder blade, and while he was facing Rudolf, Roger didn’t miss the flicker of Tod’s eyes in his direction or the way the man began to shift, moving around Rudolf until he stood before the young man. Tod’s arms went more completely around Rudolf, looking so gentle but holding him close.

It was so tender that Roger wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. The last he’d seen of them had been that horrific security clip, the one where Tod’s fingers had been digging into Rudolf’s neck, his murderous intentions all too clear. But now - this was anything but that. 

Rudolf raised himself up on his toes, pressing a kiss to the corner of Tod’s lips, and Tod’s hand shifted to the middle of Rudolf’s back even as he began to lead Rudolf away, out of the office.

Tod returned alone, some minutes later. He leaned against the edge of the desk and made a gesture with his fingers. The two men who had been holding Roger the entire time hauled him much closer.

“Roger, Roger Roger. Why did it have to be you?” Tod’s voice was musical. “Rudolf is well, in case you were curious. He’s blossomed without all the stress.”

Tod pauses, regarding Roger coldly before nodding to the two men holding him. One of them pulled on something, and the gag fell from Roger’s mouth.

“He’s not yours.” The words were hoarse.

Tod laughed at that. “Oh? Do you think he’s yours, then?”

Another gesture and Roger is gagged again, the two guards at each of his sides, holding him firmly. Tod picked his way around until he was standing behind Roger, and murmured into his ear.

“He’s been mine since the day I laid eyes on him fifteen years ago.”

Roger could do the math. He’d only known Rudolf after he had started at the prosecutor’s office. And that hadn’t been fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, Rudolf wouldn’t have even been in law school. He’d still have been in university, and barely twenty. 

Tod had circled around once more, and he seemed to take great delight as it because clear that Roger understood. So then Rudolf- Rudolf had been the mole. Rudolf had been Tod’s all these years. Always. Tod’s smile is entirely unnerving as he pronounces Roger’s sentence - to be disposed of. The two guards are hauling him away soon enough.

----------------

Rudolf is already half-sleeping when the shift in the air tells him that the door to their bedroom has opened. It’s followed by the faint sound of the door shutting and then by the rustling of clothes.

The bed it dipping soon enough, Tod’s hand going to Rudolf’s hip as he slides into bed, pressing kisses to the little raven on Rudolf’s shoulder blade and then to the back of his neck before he spoons Rudolf completely, nuzzling closer.

Sleep comes for Rudolf, then. He’s safe, and home. For Tod’s arms are his home, and there is nowhere safer than in their protective grasp.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Sharmila Tagore (Apur Sansar, Kashmir ki Kali, An Evening in Paris)—She was adorable, an actual princess (through marriage), the first woman to wear a bikini in a Hindi film, and had, I would argue, the most iconic beehive hair in film history.

Pola Negri (The Wildcat, Men, A Woman Commands)—Legally obliged to submit her as she's from Poland, but also it is one of the greatest stars of silent film, both in Hollywood and Europe, so she has to be here. The og femme fatale and a fenomenal dramatic actress. And just so hot in this 1920s vamp style. Obviously her career slowed down in America with the introduction of sound movies, because of her accent and low voice. I'd say her voice is so much hotter thanks to that, but I'm just a simple simp. But then she made movies in Germany, and after the war she was even offered Gloria Swanson's role in "Sunset Boulevard'' but she declined. She was probably bisexual as after romances with Charlie Chaplin and Rudolf Valentino in the 20s, since the 1940s she lived with her 'female friend'.

This is round 3 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Sharmila Tagore propaganda:

"One of the most well-known Bollywood actresses of all time!"

Pola Negri:

A tempestuous green-eyed vamp of the silent screen, she tantalized with both her onscreen and offscreen romances. Rocked a Polish accent - well, once there was sound! A true proficient at promoting herself and using all possible tools to do so - from a dead Rudolf Valentino to a cheetah named Teddy, the latter of which she brought to a press conference.

First European actress to be contracted by Hollywood! She survived poverty and illness to become The Queen of Tragedy, she divorced a count to date stars like Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, then spent the rest of her life living with Margaret West in what could have been a romantic relationship.

I don't have much to say about her actual career, personal life, etc. but I just need everyone to see how hauntingly beautiful her face is. I haven't been able to stop thinking about her since the first time I saw her LOL like its pretty clear why she was such a star

[seat-safety-switch]

You might ask yourself: what sport, exactly, are sports cars playing? It's a valid question, and one that academics have brought up from time to time, before being punished for their heresy by being torn apart by gangs of feral Chevrolets as they slept. Coincidence? Well, you asked the question, so let me know how it all turns out for you as you go to bed tonight.

When cars were first invented, around the year 1886, they weren't very good at any sports. In fact, the twin Olympic events of "running over pedestrians" and "scaring horses" were still over a hundred years from being invented. Polo was right out. So these were just cars. Normal, boring ones. Things picked up a little (ha ha) when the first trucks were invented, but again the etymology has escaped these early pioneers.

Around the year 1920, a guy named Rudolf Sports invented what we now know as the modern-day sports car. He got really excited after watching a Steve McQueen movie one night in his garage and decided to cut all the parts off of his gently-dinged Model T that didn't contribute to going fast. Then, he went fast. It wasn't enough: it wasn't as fast as a race car, but it was still quick enough to be thrillingly dangerous. Soon, he crashed into a field and the tires came flying out from the wreckage. Some nearby children threw the tires around, creating the sport now known as disc golf. Posthumously, both sports and the sports car were named after Herr Sports, once he was identified from dental remains.

Every time I pass a sports car in my rickety, smoking mess, I tip my hat a little to this hero of modern street racing. Sometimes the owners take this as an invitation to race, at which point they shoot past me at high speed and obliterate themselves against the nearest hard or semi-hard structure, such as a tree. I have to also give a lot of big "ups" to his cousin, Alessandro Mid-Engine, who came up with the idea of putting the motor in the back of the car, where it would be less likely to be destroyed during an enormous crash, and much easier to be pulled out and thrown into the backseat by yours truly in the scant few minutes he has available before emergency services turn up.

[nunalastor]

My own headcanon is that Alastor was born in either 1886 or 1895, putting is age at either 46/47 or 37/38.

The theory of electromagnetism, which proposed the existence of radio waves before they were discovered, came in 1865, written by James Clerk Maxwell. But this is way too early for consideration; that would make Al 66 years old.

However, in 1886 this theory was confirmed and radio waves (also dubbed "Hertzian waves") were first discovered by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (the guy where the Hertz unit was named after because of this discovery), he published his research throughout 1886-1888 so these precise timestamps might be slightly off.

And in 1895 the very first radio capable of long-distance wireless communication (2.4 km/1.5 mi only, but still) was constructed by Guglielmo Marconi. Of course, he doesn't deserve all the credit, as he used many models that came before that, for example the Branly detector by Édouard Branly invented in 1890.

Note: Basically all of these years and the exact dates these discoveries were made on are very ambiguous or take place over the course of multiple years. I tried to pinpoint a single date for every event but it is quite possible I messed up somewhere so please take these dates with a grain of salt.

I thought it would be fun if Alastor was born in one of those years as a nod to history, but none of these are based on anything concrete canon except for the age range of 30s-40s that we were given.

I always thought it was kinda weird for a 30-something dude to act like a parental figure to someone who was (biologically, not chronologically, I know Charlie is like 200) in her 20s, even if it wasn't genuine, so I've always thought he wasn't in his early 30s.

Sources:

"A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field" by James Clerk Maxwell

"Electric waves; being research on the propagation of electric action with finite velocity through space" by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (author) and Daniel Evan Jones (translator)

"Marconi's Three Transatlantic Radio Stations in Cape Breton" by Henry M. Bradford

I really need to analyse more incest because my name makes no sense now. Anyone have any ideas?

-incest anon

the sources kill me every time 😭 mla formatted ask

[vilnmelling]

Rudolph / Swedish Barbecue shit

I'm Swedish. I love Trevor Lipschitz. By extension, I have to love his Swedish exchange student boyfriend, Rudolph (Will Branner's character at homecoming, for those unaware). By another extension, I was then required to make a bunch of Swedish headcanons about Rudolph. At 1 AM today, I wrote down a bunch of random headcanons about them, and now here they are!

Rudolph's full name is Rudolph Svensson.

Rudolph's already a quite uncommon name in Sweden, but it's made even rarer by the fact that it's spelled Rudolph instead of Rudolf. So, simple explanation, Rudolph is trans and he chose to spell his name like that to make it look better in English.

He's fluent in English, but has a noticeable accent. It's not so strong it's distracting and hard to decipher, but it's strong enough to provoke "where are you from?" questions.

Schools in Sweden don't have sports teams and afterschool clubs, so when Rudolph first came to Hatchetfield High, he joined like seven different clubs just because he could.

It took Rudolph a solid two weeks after meeting Trevor to realize/find out Trev has an identical twin brother. He waved and smiled at Richie in the hallways several times, thinking it was Trevor. Richie was very confused.

No one knows when Trevor and Rudolph started dating. Not even them. They were just suddenly kissing and calling each other boyfriends.

Rudolph's mother taught him how to make fucking AMAZING Swedish cinnamon rolls, so Rudolph once made them for all his Hatchetfield friends. Now Trevor thinks Swedish cinnamon rolls are far superior to American ones. Picture below so you can see the pure glory.

In Sweden, barbecues aren't as big a thing as a good ol' traditional kräftskiva is (literal translation = crawfish slice). A kräftskiva is basically just when families/friends come together and eat a bunch of crawfish. Rudolph hasn't explained what a kräftskiva is, but he keeps making "The Kräftskive Monologues" jokes that no one understands, and he keeps laughing his ass off about them.

Trevor will always introduce Rudolph as, "This is my Swedish boyfriend. I found him at IKEA."

Rudolph taught Trevor the Swedish word 'lagom', which doesn't have an English translation, but basically means that something is good enough. It's not perfect or anything, but it's not too little or too much. Now Trevor uses that word on a regular basis.

Thank you, this has been Swedish Barbecue headcanons with a Swede

[littlequeenies]

Carmen Jane Plant

Carmen Jane Plant is the daughter of Maureen and Robert Plant. She works as a professional dancer and teaches belly-dancing and ethnic dancing. She produced the 2018 show ���The Serpent Slayer’.

Early Years and Family

[Robert, Maureen, and little Carmen at the family's farmhouse near Kidderminster, Worcestershire, 1970]

Carmen Jane Plant is the eldest children and the only daughter of Led Zeppelin's frontman Robert Plant and his wife Maureen née Wilson. She was born on 21st October 1968 in Birmingham, England and has two younger brothers, Karac Pendra Plant and Logan Romero Plant. She has a younger half brother from her father's side, Jesse Lee Plant aka Jordan Plant.

Carmen is of Indian descent from her mother's side and of Romani descent from her father's. The 1972 Led Zeppelin song, “The Ocean,” actually references Carmen in one of the lyrics: "‘I’m singin’ all my songs to the girl who won my heart/She’s only three years old but it’s a real fine way to start".

[Robert with his children Karac and Carmen at their farm, filmed in 1973 and seen in Led Zeppelin film's "The Song Remains the Same", released on 1976.]

During the 1970s, she attended the Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge, West Midlands.

On October 2007 Robert admitted he regrets staying on tour throughout the 1970’s because he feels his daughter grew up without knowing who he was. Robert claimed she once mistook him for a burglar after he came home from a particularly long tour: "What I recall for the first two years is my daughter not really knowing who I was and getting rather agitated when I came back off tour, as she thought I’d come to rob the house."

In an interview for the People magazine (December 20 1976) Robert explains: "Carmen used to think she had two fathers—the one whose singing she heard through the speakers and the one on whose knee she was sitting. They [Carmen and Karac] love it when I come back to tell them tales."

Car accident and Karac's death

[The Plants with Scarlet Page (C) in 1976]

Carmen was also a passenger in Robert and Maureen Plant's car involved in a road accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on 4 August 1975. Maureen was driving a hired Austin Mini with her husband and their children plus Scarlet Page. The Plant family were seriously injured when the car skidded off the road and collided with a tree but Scarlet Page was unhurt. In the back-seat, Carmen suffered a broken wrist, cuts and bruises. Scarlet's mum Charlotte Martin and Maureen's sister Shirley Wilson, who were following in the car behind managed to get medical help.

In 1977, Carmen also became ill with the same stomach enteritis which took the life of her younger brother Karac Plant, aged only 6.

Personal Life

[Carmen and Robert in 1988]

On 21 November 1989, Led Zeppelin reformed with Jason Bonham on drums, for Carmen's 21st birthday party at Hen & Chickens public house in Oldbury, West Midlands. They performed 'Trampled Under Foot', 'Misty Mountain Hop', and 'Rock and Roll', with Chris Blackwell and Phil Johnstone in support. The Nashville Teens and Jimmy Page's daughter Scarlet Page, were also in attendance.

[Carmen with Charlie Jones]

Carmen Plant got married to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's bass player Stephen Charles "Charlie" Jones (born 13 Oct 1965), at St. Peter's Church, on 18 May 1991. Their wedding reception was held in a series of marquees at Robert's farm at Kidderminster. Roy Harper's song 'Evening Star' was written for Carmen for the occasion.

Carmen and Charlie Jones have three children, their eldest a daughter named Sunny Plant-Jones (born 1993). The family lives in Bath, Somerset.

Professional Career and Recent Years

Carmen Plant Jones works as a professional dancer and teaches belly-dancing and ethnic dancing. She was tutored in belly-dancing by Serena Ramzy, wife of Hossam Ramzy who performed in Page and Plant's "No Quarter Middle Eastern orchestra". Carmen Plant has appeared at the Rivermead Womad Music Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and with the Babylon Arabic Ensemble.Carmen continues to carry on the family’s musical legacy through Middle Eastern-inspired performing arts. In a 2018 article about her dance production ‘The Serpent Slayer’, Carmen Jane Plant acknowledges her fortunate upbringing: “I come from a musical family, obviously through my dad, my husband, and my children as well. Thanks to my dad, I grew up listening to an alternative and eclectic range from a young age and that really provided the inspiration for me to get involved with all kinds of music. It’s all that I’ve known really, so it’s great that I can put this all in to practice.”

*CHECK OUR CARMEN PLANT PHOTO ALBUM HOSTED AT GOOGLE PHOTOS*

[best-habsburg-monarch]

Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, etc. Reigned 1848-1916

Challenge: Talk about his reign without talking about wife a lot (impossible)

from anon:

Dual Monarchy. HELLO.

Constitution! (Italy immediately declared war after but ya know)

Survived assassination attempts

Doesn't lose territory to Prussian unification which is something I guess

Shares 2 names with Hayden

from @minetteskvareninova:

Franz Joseph propaganda (proper):

as much of a poor little meow meow as Joseph II.

also known as Starej Procházka (ask @archduchessofnowhere I promise it's hillarious)

wholesome friendship with Katharina Schratt

was there not for a good time, but a long time certainly, and unlike queen Victoria doesn't even get the dignity of an era named after him!!!

girldad (better not ask about his son)

loved the great god Mars, even though Mars did not love him back, wore uniform all the fucking time, but his actually military record was. well. gotta love a boyfailure.

conservative in principle, but smart enough to know when to fold 'dem (which is why the former monarchy didn't end up like Russia)

from anon:

Anti-Franz Joseph Propaganda: Yes, the sideburns are iconic, but when you are a reigning emperor for 68 years and your signature facial hair is colloquially named after a minor U.S. Civil War general instead, you fumbled the bag.

anti Franz Joseph propaganda: he was an older sibling (derogatory)

from @master-of-the-opera-house:

MARRIED HIS FIRST COUSIN WHEN THEY WERE BEGINNING TO FIGURE OUT THIS HABSBURG INCEST SHIT DON'T WORK

EVEN THO THE POPE SAID NO

Sissi was a babe tho i get him BUT THEN

THEN HE GAVE HER AN STD AND TOOK A MISTRESS

Didn't drink his respect cousin-wife juice apparently

CAUSED CROWN PRINCE RUDOLF TO COMMIT

CLASSIST PIECE OF SHIT didn't allow franz ferdinand to marry sophie chotek

And then literally said "thank God" when he died

Somehow still had the people's support as a poor old man who lost everyone close to him when he either indirectly caused that or just didn't give a shit

a Leo ♌🤢

They wasted such a pretty face and such a snatched waist on such a cunt

Had he stayed alive any longer and he would've been at the negotiating table at the hall of mirrors in 1918 *shivers*

THOROUGHLY UNFUNNY """""desk bound monarch"""""" stringent for protocol """last of the old school monarchs"""" and didn't even cause any nonsense catastrophes that usually accompanies this stick up the arse

68 long monotonous years on the throne then couldn't even make 69 for the joke

Fredrick III, Holy Roman Emperor, reigned 1452-1493

Kicked off the whole tradition of being Holy Roman Emperors

[lego-man-speer]

Nuremberg Defendants: Part 2, Joachim von Ribbentrop - Nazi Foreign Minister

Continuing my Nuremberg Defendants series. Check links to see posts I've made on previous defendants (Hess wasn't part of the series, but I've already made a post about him):

Rudolf Hess

Alfred Rosenberg

-Joachim von Ribbentrop was born as Ulrich Friedrich Willy Joachim Ribbentrop on the 30th of April, 1893. He was not born into aristocracy (his father did not have the “von” in his name), Joachim grew up in an average middle class family with an older brother and a younger sister.

-Ribbentrop's mother died from tuberculosis when he was still very young. This event undoubtedly had an effect on him for the rest of his life (and I will explain in detail as we go further).

-He had no formal education after the age of fifteen. In school Ribbentrop was an underachiever and showed no signs of being an academic. His father had paid for French and English language tutors to teach him both languages.

-At seventeen, Joachim and his brother were sent to London for a year to polish up their English. After that year they both moved to Canada.

-Ribbentrop's life in Canada seemed to have been a happy one. He was popular, invited to many parties and was argued to have been sort of a ladies man. He worked as a banker and also as a construction worker, going on to help the reconstruction of the Quebec Bridge. Ribbentrop also had a passion for dancing and ice skating. he was even a member of a Canadian ice skating team.

-It was during this time that both Ribbentrop and his brother came down with tuberculosis. Ribbentrop's brother died, however Ribbentrop fortunately survived but had to have one of his kidneys removed. The effects of having his kidney removed were very clear. His left eye would sometimes droop, giving the effect of him looking tired. As a result he had a crippling inferiority complex.

-When the Great War broke out, Ribbentrop carefully returned to Germany to fight for his nation. It was during the war when Ribbentrop first met Franz von Papen (who will be the topic of a future post), a man that went on to become Chancellor under the Weimar Republic.

-After the war, Ribbentrop made a living out of his champagne business, which involved smuggling champagne from other countries. At this time, Ribbentrop was friends with Jewish people, even doing business with them. Ribbentrop was the only member of the inner circle that had previously moved around Jewish circles prior to joining the Nazi Party. He had no strong opinions at the time, people knew him as a moderately conservative monarchist. At elections he would vote for the DVP.

-Gradually Ribbentrop's personality began to change. Gone was the polite and somewhat shy young man, now he was becoming more insufferable as he went on long rants on the dangers of communism. What's more is that Ribbentrop had asked his aunt to adopt him aged in his early thirties so he could add the 'von' (a sign of German nobility - his aunt was a 'von Ribbentrop') to his name. His aunt agreed but was required to pay her a regular sum of money. When he stopped paying, his aunt took him to court and forced him to continue paying.

-In 1920, Ribbentrop married Anna Elisabeth Henkell (Annaliese to her friends). Anna's parents were not fond of Ribbentrop and considered him to be an idiot. The marriage produced five children, and Ribbentrop's eldest (Rudolf von Ribbentrop - born 1921) went on to serve in the Second World War as well as writing a book about his father post-war. Anna was a very ambitious woman and often pushed Ribbentrop around in all matters, including political. Hitler noted that it was clearly her who wore the trousers in the relationship.

-Fascinatingly, Ribbentrop didn't join the Nazi Party until 1932, which was around the time that Hitler was starting to get desperate for power. In late 1932, Hitler was using Ribbentrop's house to hold talks with Franz von Papen (as Papen was an old war friend of Ribbentrop's - and at this time Papen had lost his job as Chancellor of Germany, he was looking for a way to return to power. This moment in history is often referred to as the “Backstairs Intrigue”.)

-For the first few years of the Nazi regime, Ribbentrop had no government role. He mostly spent time in Britain and France, trying to establish connections for Hitler. In 1936, he was made Ambassador to Britain after the incumbent had died suddenly of a heart attack. Ribbentrop's appointment was unexpected, nor did he want the role. Prior to becoming ambassador, Ribbentrop was fond of holidaying in Britain and had hoped to one day retire in St Ives in Cornwall.

-He had a very bad reputation as ambassador and was dubbed 'von Brickendrop' due to his multiple gaffes while in this role. His most famous was when he almost knocked over King George VI by doing the Nazi greeting when the King had reached to shake Ribbentrop's hand. He was not well liked by the British Press nor the British public. Throughout his position (which lasted just over a year) he spent no longer than just a few weeks in London, mostly to stay close to his beloved Führer back home. Overall, his experience as Ambassador turned Ribbentrop from being an Anglophile to an Anglophobe.

-In 1938 Ribbentrop was made Foreign Minister, succeeding Konstantin von Neurath (who will be the topic of a future post). This was the position that Ribbentrop had dreamed of (and a position that his long-term enemy, Alfred Rosenberg, had also hoped for). In this role, Ribbentrop had significant influence over Hitler in the early years of World War 2, even encouraging Hitler to invade Poland despite threats from the British as he claimed “they would not fight seriously.” In this post, Ribbentrop's proudest achievement was his Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also referred to as the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact). After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Ribbentrop gradually lost influence in his role as Foreign Minister.

-Ribbentrop's role in the Final Solution was fairly ambiguous, but he was most certainly aware that atrocities were taking place. Ribbentrop preferred to look the other way and have someone else do the work. From August 1941, Ribbentrop ordered all future communications sent to the Foreign office to be directed to the office of his subordinates. There is no evidence that Ribbentrop intervened in the exterminations, except on one occasion which was purely on the issue of jurisdiction, rather than humanity. Ribbentrop had involved himself in other war crimes, such as legalising and encouraging the lynching of captured Allied bomber crews in Germany. Although the likes of Göring opposed such measures, and the army favoured it in only a few circumstances, Ribbentrop wished to Lynch the perpetrators of 'every type of terror attack on the German population”, despite this being a violation of international law. This was the main charge against him on count 3 of the Nuremberg indictment (war crimes).

-From 1945, Ribbentrop was essentially powerless. After the suicide of Hitler on the 30th of April (ironic because that's also Ribbentrop's birthday), Ribbentrop fled to Flensburg in an attempt to secure a role in the Dönitz government. Ribbentrop was quickly turned down and so fled to Hamburg, where he went by the alias Johann Riese. He was captured by the British after his whereabouts had been exposed. Ribbentrop was discovered asleep, wearing pink and white pyjamas and a small tin of poison attached to his genitals. Upon being woken up, he began to mumble nervously in German, but as soon as he became conscious of the situation, he spoke in perfect English a prepared speech: “The game is up. I congratulate you. You know who I am. If you had come two days later, I would have already given myself up voluntarily.” The British had also discovered a letter written by Ribbentrop to “Vincent Churchill” (not a spelling mistake on my part, that's Ribbentrop's mistake).

-At Nuremberg, Ribbentrop was a depressed and broken man. So much so that his lawyer (Dr Martin Horn) feared he was close to a psychological breakdown. In fact, Ribbentrop was considered one of the worst suicide risks at Nuremberg, and prison Psychiatrist Dr Kelley was instructed to keep a close eye on him. Ribbentrop's first lawyer was Dr Fritz Sauter (who was also acting for Baldur von Schirach - a subject of a future post), however at the start of 1946 he ceased to be his lawyer either because Ribbentrop dismissed him or he resigned out of exasperation (sources differ on this). Ribbentrop was therefore represented by Dr Martin Horn. On the witness stand, Ribbentrop was a mess and had a tendency to ramble and contradict himself.

-Ribbentrop was found guilty on all four counts of the Nuremberg indictment and was sentenced to death by hanging. He spent his last few days closely studying his Bible. After the unexpected suicide of Göring on the night of the executions, Ribbentrop was the first to be hung. On the scaffold his last words were: “God protect Germany, God have mercy on my soul. My final wish is that Germany should recover her unity, and that, for the sake of peace, there should be understanding between East and West.” He then turned to the Protestant Pastor Gerecke and said “I'll see you again.” Ribbentrop's hanging was badly botched, his neck didn't snap when falling through the trapdoor, therefore strangling him to death. Ribbentrop took around 10-20 minutes to die.

[crimesandcuriosities]

The "Ice Cream Killer"

Pictured above is a woman named Goidsargi Estibaliz "Esti" Carranza Zabala, who was arrested in June 2011 for the brutal murders of her ex-husband and boyfriend.

The bodies of Holger Holz (ex-husband) and Manfred Hinterberger (boyfriend) were discovered by workers carrying out maintenance in the ice cream parlour where Carranza worked in Austria, Vienna. Both men had been shot in the back of the head, dismembered with a chainsaw, frozen for a short time and then concealed in blocks of concrete and hidden in the cellar of the store.

Although the victims had been killed and disposed of in very similar circumstances, the murders were carried out two years apart. Carranza, who was 33 years old at the time of her arrest, confessed to killing her husband in 2008 because he refused to move out following their divorce, and said he was violent, lazy and a bully. She shot him in the back of the head three times while he sat at his computer.

In 2010, Carranza's new boyfriend met the same fate after the pair got into a drunken argument. She suspected he was cheating on her, for which she had no evidence, and to end the argument he turned to face away from her in bed and went to sleep. Enraged, Carranza took out the same gun she had used to kill her ex-husband and shot him in the back of the head.

After finding out the remains had been discovered, Carranza fled to Italy but was quickly captured and extradited back to Austria. During the trial, a PowerPoint presentation showed photographs of the victims' sawn-off heads and other severed limbs, prompting the chief prosecutor to describe Carranza as a "highly dangerous woman" whose actions were "depraved and horrific".

In November 2012, Carranza was sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution. Her lawyer Rudolf Mayer - who also defended Josef Fritzl - said at the time he would appeal to have the verdict overturned.

At the time of her arrest, Carranza was two months pregnant to another man, whom she later went on to marry while incarcerated. After the birth, her baby boy was taken away to be raised by Carranza's parents in Barcelona, and Carranza sought to apply for a transfer to Spain so she could remain in contact with her son.

You can also read this post here.

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Saizo / サイゾウ, Xaizor / サイゾー, and Asugi / グレイ

Saizo (JP: サイゾウ; rōmaji: saizou) is the fiery ninja that serves as a retainer to Hoshido's crown prince Ryoma in Fire Emblem Fates. This name is in reference to the fictitious ninja Kirigakure Saizō (JP: 霧隠才蔵). He belonged to a group of ninja known as the Sanada Ten Braves, who served the samurai warlord Sanada Yukimura during the Sengoku period. According to the tales, the Ten Braves participated in the Seige of Osaka, a year-long conflict in which Sanada, loyal to the Toyotomi clan, lost the defensive war of attrition. Of the ten, only Kirigakure Saizō and Sarutobi Sasuke really stuck in pop culture.

This choice of name for the Fire Emblem character is based not only on him being a skilled shinobi, but his fierce loyalty to Ryoma—also named after a renown Sengoku period samurai. Given the importance of the fall of Osaka, with the Tokugawa Shogunate becoming Japan's militant government system for the next two hundred years, the fall of Ryoma and Shirasagi Castle in the Conquest story route could be influenced by the Seige of Osaka. The death of Saizo's father may also pull from stories that claim that Kirigakure was the son of Azai Nagamasa, brother-in-law to the infamous warlord Oda Nobunaga—the very man who had killed Azai.

Xaizor is a dread fighter of Rigel that is fought in a skirmish at the foot of Fear Mountain in Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Though not immediately apparent, this random mook is also based upon Kirigakure Saizō. This could be surmised in the original release, with his Japanese name being サイゾー (rōmaji: saizо̄)—a less common rendering of the name in katakana—and the ninja-inspired design of the Dread Fighter class. The remake deepened this connection with additional lines in the script indicating a devotion to the noble Emperor Rudolf, rather than the cruel witch Nuibaba. One could even consider a parallel between the Seige of Osaka and the Deliverance storming Rigel, and thus, a parallel between Rudolf and Sanada Yukimura.

Asugi is the young, candy-loving shinobi and heir to the Saizo name in Fire Emblem Fates. Surprisingly enough, he shares quite a bit of intel on both his and his father's names in the game itself! Straight from the horse's mouth:

"Asugi" is a word in one of the languages they speak out there. It means "gray."

As it turns out, asugi is only a word in some languages of the Philippines, primarily Hiligaynon. In those tongues, asugi means mercury—not gray, but the silver color of the metal is gray-adjacent.

More than anything, the name Asugi was intended to be an anagram of Gaius, the character from Fire Emblem Awakening that he is practically a carbon copy of. And though the name is certainly not Japanese, when rendered in the language as アスギ, it would closely resemble アズキ (rōmaji: azuki), just with the dakuten (the two hash marks on the top right corner of ギ and ズ) changed. Azuki, more commonly referred in English as adzuki beans, are typically boiled with sugar to make red bean paste. This paste is a common ingredient in sweets in East Asia, used as a filling in Japanese dango, mochi, and other confectionaries.

In Japanese, Asugi is instead called グレイ (rōmaji: gurei). In internal files, this is romanized as Gurei, while the official artbook calls him Gray. In the original script, this is what he said about his name:

「グレイ」は、暗夜の言葉で「灰色」って意味だそう���。

Translation: I heard that in the language of Nohr, "Gray" means "ash-colored*."

*In Japanese, the word for many colors refer to a common natural occurrence of that color. As such, the color gray literally means "ash-colored" in the language.

Much like the English localization, the name also makes reference to a familiar face. The rōmaji rendering Gurei is an anagram of Guire, the official romanization of Gaius' Japanese name. However, there is a possibility that there is a reference to another character in this name:グレイ is also the name of Gaiden's Gray. Though not indicated in the original game, the stats of the Ram villagers suggest that Gray is intended to take the Mercenary classline. This class distribution would be further pushed with the release of Shadows of Valentia two years after Fates. It's not an unreasonable possibility that Asugi and Saizo were intended to be named after the suggested choice of playable Dread Fighter in Alm's army and the only named Dread Fighter encountered by the Deliverance before the final battle.

As hinted earlier, Asugi also reveals some information about the Saizo name, at least in the world of Fates. Here's what he has to say in English:

If I understand right, [Saizo is] a Hoshidan word that means "color bringer."

In Japanese, Asugi instead says that Saizo means 彩りを造る (rōmaji: irodori wo tsukuru)—"making color." The kanji used in the phrase are alternatively read as sai and zou, making Saizo the only Hoshidan character in Fire Emblem Fates with a canonical kanji rendering of his name: 彩造.

[sarcasticdolphin]

“Named” Todolf fae au. If you are new since I did the other fae au stuff, then I recommend you read the earlier drabbles in this verse on ao3.

This one is for the lovely @adridoesstuff :) after you mentioned fae au yesterday this idea has refused to leave my mind.

Cut because fae au, though strictly speaking this drabble isn’t actually all that bad.

Even after he’s fae, fully and properly, he and Tod only watch at the mingling, lying contently in each other’s arms. They enjoy each other in the privacy of their bed, sometimes before, so Rudolf can feel the deep ache as they listen to the sounds of pleasure around them as they exchange lazy kisses, and sometimes after, their lust stoked by the lust of the others as it permeates the air.

It’s one of the times when Tod has thoroughly and utterly sated them both beforehand, so much so that Rudolf is amazed that he even managed to walk in himself, that the thought first comes into Rudolf’s mind, between the moans all around them, filtering through the gossamer curtains. 

Rudolf hadn’t been looking at all at the others, content to gaze up at Tod as his fingers lazily drew spirals on the king’s bare chest. Tod’s arm was around him, his thumb making gentle little soothing motions just at Rudolf’s waist.

Rudolf. His name. It was the only thing left, that had come before Tod. He didn’t remember the surface world. Tod had told him of it on occasion, and had shown him a few sketches. But Rudolf didn’t care to remember anything before the sunless sky, before Tod’s arms, before Tod. Tod is his world, his life, his everything.

The gentle fingers that stroke his cheek, that tilt his chin up to gaze at Tod’s luminous eyes are so welcome, though Rudolf can tell Tod has recognized the turmoil in his thoughts. He leans up, pressing a little kiss to Tod’s jawline.

I’m fine. We’ll talk later.

Tod presses a kiss to his brow in turn and cradles him closer, slotting their legs more properly together.

They continue to lay there, Rudolf rarely moving, just listening to the sounds around them, feeling the steady rise and fall of Tod’s chest, the beating of his heart, the warmth of his skin. He is loathed to do so but he does break the spell after a time, slipping more fully into Tod’s lap, humming at the ache in his body as he and Tod trade deeply possessive kisses. Tod’s fingers find Rudolf’s and they mesh together as Tod pulls Rudolf closer still. 

They kiss again, and Tod lazily flips them so Rudolf is gazing up at him, hands arched above his head for a moment before they go to Tod’s shoulders, giving little tugs. Tod doesn’t indulge him immediately, slowly lowering himself until they are chest to chest, legs fully intertwined once more. A few more slow kisses follow before Tod shifts them once more, returning Rudolf to his earlier place, tucked into Tod’s side.

--------------

The mingling is long over by the time they stand once more in their chambers, Rudolf’s clever fingers keeping busy as he helps Tod into his sleeping garb. His own is easy enough to attend to alone, but Tod never minds the help. It’s different, in a way. Where once they were opposites - Rudolf in garb white as snow, even for sleep, and Tod in inky black - now they are mirror images, the black stark against their pale skin.

But even as Tod reclines in bed, Rudolf nuzzling close, kissing the king’s jaw once more, he speaks.

“Something troubles you.”

“Yes, Majesty.” Tod has never asked him to use his title. Never when he was small, never even at court, with the others. But Rudolf likes the way it sounds, and he thinks Tod quite likes the way it flows off his tongue.

Perhaps once Tod would have had to tip Rudolf’s chin up so their eyes would meet, but not anymore. Rudolf meets the king’s eyes with ease, feeling the king’s thumb begins to make little soothing circles by his waist, where the sleep pants and shirt meet.

“I was just thinking about what I remember, from when I was young. And the thought occurred to me - this name, Rudolf. It’s from the surface, from the human world.”

Tod’s grip adjusts a little as they settle further, but he doesn’t speak, waiting patiently as Rudolf finds the right words.

“I don’t remember anything of the surface. And I find I mislike having my name be such a constant reminder, of there. I-” Rudolf’s eyes had been shifting, not downward but away from Tod’s. He looks back at the king, who is listening intently. “I was hoping you would give me a new one.”

“Oh, my precious prince.” Tod presses a kiss to Rudolf’s brow. “It would be my honor.”

They lay together for a long moment before Tod rises, much to Rudolf’s dissatisfaction, but he goes along with the king to their little balcony, the one that overlooks the gardens. The trees and fruits are so different in the dim light. Some wilted and withered, asleep, while a select few are fully blossomed, their own sleep being something for the day. 

Tod’s arm remains around him, as they take in the gardens for a long moment before the king turns to him, touching their foreheads.

“Golnar.” One of the king’s hands has moved to stroke Rudolf’s cheek as he pronounces the new name.

Rud- Golnar. It will take some getting used to, but he quite likes the name the king has chosen. Golnar is his name now. He raises himself onto his toes to kiss the king’s cheek in thanks. 

“Thank you.”

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Leatrice Joy (You Can't Fool Your Wife)—she's got this boyish air about her. a slight manner of the twink shall we say. a genderbent je ne sais quoi. enjoy these photos of her in king mode and the ones with silly hats [photos below the cut]

Pola Negri (The Wildcat, Men, A Woman Commands)—Legally obliged to submit her as she's from Poland, but also it is one of the greatest stars of silent film, both in Hollywood and Europe, so she has to be here. The og femme fatale and a fenomenal dramatic actress. And just so hot in this 1920s vamp style. Obviously her career slowed down in America with the introduction of sound movies, because of her accent and low voice. I'd say her voice is so much hotter thanks to that, but I'm just a simple simp. But then she made movies in Germany, and after the war she was even offered Gloria Swanson's role in "Sunset Boulevard'' but she declined. She was probably bisexual as after romances with Charlie Chaplin and Rudolf Valentino in the 20s, since the 1940s she lived with her 'female friend'.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman. (remember that our poll era starts in 1910, so please don't use propaganda from before that date.)

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Leatrice Joy:

Pola Negri:

A tempestuous green-eyed vamp of the silent screen, she tantalized with both her onscreen and offscreen romances. Rocked a Polish accent - well, once there was sound! A true proficient at promoting herself and using all possible tools to do so - from a dead Rudolf Valentino to a cheetah named Teddy, the latter of which she brought to a press conference.

First European actress to be contracted by Hollywood! She survived poverty and illness to become The Queen of Tragedy, she divorced a count to date stars like Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, then spent the rest of her life living with Margaret West in what could have been a romantic relationship.

I don't have much to say about her actual career, personal life, etc. but I just need everyone to see how hauntingly beautiful her face is. I haven't been able to stop thinking about her since the first time I saw her LOL like its pretty clear why she was such a star

[eretzyisrael]

by Ben Shapiro

This week at the Oscars, a director named Jonathan Glazer made international headlines. Glazer won an Academy Award for his film, "Zone of Interest," which centers on the family life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss and his wife, Hedwig, who happily cultivate their home and garden as just behind the wall, Jews are tortured, shot and gassed. Glazer had an incredible opportunity to point out the obvious continuity between the victims of the Holocaust and the Jewish victims of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Envelope on Oct. 7; he had the opportunity to point out the continuing plight -- largely ignored by the media and the left -- of some 134 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas, including American citizens; he had the opportunity to observe the international community's willingness to, for its own political reasons, pile on Israel by attempting to stop the Israeli Defense Forces from destroying Hamas wholesale.

Instead, Glazer did something truly shameful: he used his Jewish background and his Holocaust film to attack Israel.

"Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza," Glazer intoned nervously.

There are a bushel of lies in this single sentence. First, there was no "occupation" of Gaza prior to Oct. 7; the Israelis abandoned Gaza in 2005 and turned it over to the Palestinians, who promptly tore down Israeli infrastructure and elected Hamas, who themselves turned Gaza into a full-scale terror ministate. Second, no "occupation" could justify the wholesale slaughter of some 1,200 innocents in Israel and the taking of 250 hostages on Oct. 7. Third, it is certainly not "Jewish and the Holocaust being hijacked" to point out that Hamas literally targets Jews for extermination, just as the Nazis once did. And finally, Israel is taking extraordinary measures to protect civilian life in Gaza; Israel has taken measures no military in history has taken, including sacrificing the lives of its own soldiers to go door-to-door in a terrorist-ridden urban hellscape.

In fact, Glazer has it all backward. It is he who is using his Jewishness and the Holocaust as a weapon -- in favor of Hamas. Glazer has little actual involvement in Judaism on a day-to-day level -- he grew up reform and there is little evidence of his Jewish practice today. But he's happy to pull out his Jewishness card -- to say that he, As A Jew, stands against Israel defending itself. This allows him to garner plaudits from his fellow political left-wingers, all the while maintaining his status in the intersectional hierarchy. Jews, as it turns out, are only allowed in the intersectional hierarchy so long as they use their Jewishness to attack Israel, or whatever the left-wing cause of the day is.

In reality, Glazer is the villain of his own film. In "Zone of Interest," there are no Jews: all we can hear of them is their screams from beyond the wall. Otherwise, they are nameless, faceless victims. And those are precisely the kinds of Jews Glazer likes. He's happy to use their corpses to win Oscars, even as he attacks the live Jews defending themselves from the ideological descendants of the Nazis, Hamas.

All of which makes sense. After all, as author Dara Horn has pointed out, people love dead Jews. It's the live ones who are so problematic for people like Jonathan Glazer. The live ones have the unfortunate habit of fighting back and making life uncomfortable for doctrinaire left-wingers who want to be accepted in their morally benighted social circles.

[dailyanarchistposts]

I.4 How could an anarchist economy function?

This is an important question facing all opponents of a given system — what will you replace it with? We can say, of course, that it is pointless to make blueprints of how a future anarchist society will work as the future will be created by everyone, not just the few anarchists and libertarian socialists who write books and FAQs. This is very true, we cannot predict what a free society will actually be like or develop and we have no intention to do so here. However, this reply (whatever its other merits) ignores a key point, people need to have some idea of what anarchism aims for before they decide to spend their lives trying to create it.

So, how would an anarchist system function? That depends on the economic ideas people have. A mutualist economy will function differently than a communist one, for example, but they will have similar features. As Rudolf Rocker put it:

“Common to all Anarchists is the desire to free society of all political and social coercive institutions which stand in the way of development of a free humanity. In this sense Mutualism, Collectivism and Communism are not to be regarded as closed systems permitting no further development, but merely as economic assumptions as to the means of safeguarding a free community. There will even probably be in society of the future different forms of economic co-operation operating side by side, since any social progress must be associated with that free experiment and practical testing out for which in a society of free communities there will be afforded every opportunity.” [Anarcho-Syndicalism, p. 9]

So given the common ideals and aims of anarchists, it is unsurprising that the economic systems we suggest has common features such as workers’ self-management, federation, free agreement and so on (as discussed in last section). For all anarchists, ”[t]he task for a modern industrial society is to achieve what is now technically realisable, namely, a society which is really based on free voluntary participation of people who produce and create, live their lives freely within institutions they control, and with limited hierarchical structures, possibly none at all.” [Noam Chomsky, quoted by Albert and Hahnel, Looking Forward, p. 62]

This achieved by means of “voluntary association that will organise labour, and be the manufacturer and distributor of necessary commodities” and this ”is to make what is useful. The individual is to make what is beautiful.” [Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism, p. 1183] For example, the machine “will supersede hand-work in the manufacture of plain goods. But at the same time, hand-work very probably will extend its domain in the artistic finishing of many things which are made entirely in the factory.” [Peter Kropotkin, Fields, Factories and Workplaces Tomorrow, p. 152] Murray Bookchin, decades later, argued for the same idea: “the machine will remove the toil from the productive process, leaving its artistic completion to man.” [Post-Scarcity Anarchism, p. 134]

The aim would be to maximise the time available for individuals to express and development their individuality, including in production. As Stirner put it, the “organisation of labour touches only such labours as others can do for us… the rest remain egoistic, because no one can in your stead elaborate your musical compositions, carry out your projects of painting, etc.; nobody can replace Raphael’s labours. The latter are labours of a unique person, which only he is competent to achieve.” Criticising the authoritarian socialists of his time, Stirner went on to ask “for whom is time to be gained [by association]? For what does man require more time than is necessary to refresh his wearied powers of labour? Here Communism is silent.” He then answers his own question by arguing it is gained for the individual ”[t]o take comfort in himself as unique, after he has done his part as man!” [Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own, p. 268 and p. 269] Which is exactly what libertarian communists argue:

”[We] recognise that man [sic!] has other needs besides food, and as the strength of Anarchy lies precisely in that it understands all human faculties and all passions, and ignores none, we shall … contrive to satisfy all his intellectual and artistic needs … the man [or woman] who will have done the four or five hours of … work that are necessary for his existence, will have before him five or six hours which his will seek to employ according to tastes … “He will discharge his task in the field, the factory, and so on, which he owes to society as his contribution to the general production. And he will employ the second half of his day, his week, or his year, to satisfy his artistic or scientific needs, or his hobbies.” [Kropotkin, Conquest of Bread, pp. 110–1]

Thus, while authoritarian Communism ignores the unique individual (and that was the only kind of Communism existing when Stirner wrote his classic book) libertarian communists agree with Stirner and are not silent. Like him, they consider the whole point of organising labour is to provide the means of providing the individual with the time and resources required to express their individuality. In other words, to pursue “labours of a unique person.” Thus all anarchists base their arguments for a free society on how it will benefit actual individuals, rather than abstracts or amorphous collectives (such as “society”). Hence chapter 9 of The Conquest of Bread, “The Need for Luxury” and, for that matter, chapter 10, “Agreeable Work.”

In other words, anarchists desire to organise voluntary workers associations which will try to ensure a minimisation of mindless labour in order to maximise the time available for creative activity both inside and outside “work.” This is to be achieved by free co-operation between equals, which is seen as being based on self-interest. After all, while capitalist ideology may proclaim that competition is an expression of self-interest it, in fact, results in the majority of people sacrificing themselves for the benefits of the few who own and control society. The time you sell to a boss in return for them ordering you about and keeping the product of your labour is time you never get back. Anarchists aim to end a system which crushes individuality and create one in which solidarity and co-operation allow us time to enjoy life and to gain the benefits of our labour ourselves. Mutual Aid, in other words, results in a better life than mutual struggle and so “the association for struggle will be a much more effective support for civilisation, progress, and evolution than is the struggle for existence with its savage daily competitions.” [Luigi Geallani, The End of Anarchism, p. 26]

In the place of the rat race of capitalism, economic activity in an anarchist society would be one of the means to humanise and individualise ourselves and society, to move from surviving to living. Productive activity should become a means of self-expression, of joy, of art, rather than something we have to do to survive. Ultimately, “work” should become more akin to play or a hobby than the current alienated activity. The priorities of life should be towards individual self-fulfilment and humanising society rather than “running society as an adjunct to the market,” to use Polanyi’s expression, and turning ourselves into commodities on the labour market. Thus anarchists agree with John Stuart Mill:

“I confess I am not charmed with an ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other’s heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human kind, or anything but the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress.” [Collected Works, vol. III, p. 754]

The aim of anarchism is far more than the end of inequality. Hence Proudhon’s comment that socialism’s “underlying dogma” is that the “objective of socialism is the emancipation of the proletariat and the eradication of poverty.” This emancipation would be achieved by ending “wage slavery” via “democratically organised workers’ associations.” [No Gods, No Masters, vol. 1, p. 57 and p. 62] Or, to use Kropotkin’s expression, “well-being for all” — physical, mental, emotional and ethical! Indeed, by concentrating on just poverty and ignoring the emancipation of the proletariat, the real aims of socialism are obscured:

“The ‘right to well-being’ means the possibility of living like human beings, and of bringing up children to be members of a society better than ours, whilst the ‘right to work’ only means the right to be a wage-slave, a drudge, ruled over and exploited by the middle class of the future. The right to well-being is the Social Revolution, the right to work means nothing but the Treadmill of Commercialism. It is high time for the worker to assert his right to the common inheritance, and to enter into possession of it.” [Kropotkin, Op. Cit., p. 44]

So, while refusing to define exactly how an anarchist system will work, we will explore the implications of how the anarchist principles and ideals outlined above could be put into practice. Bear in mind that this is just a possible framework for a system which has few historical examples to draw upon. This means that we can only indicate the general outlines of what an anarchist society could be like. Those seeking blue-prints and exactness should look elsewhere. In all likelihood, the framework we present will be modified and changed (even ignored) in light of the real experiences and problems people will face when creating a new society.

We should point out that there may be a tendency for some to compare this framework with the theory of capitalism (i.e. perfectly functioning “free” markets or quasi-perfect ones) as opposed to its reality. A perfectly working capitalist system only exists in text books and in the heads of ideologues who take the theory as reality. No system is perfect, particularly capitalism, and to compare “perfect” text-book capitalism with any real system is a pointless task. As we discussed in depth in section C, capitalist economics does not even describe the reality of capitalism so why think it would enlighten discussion of post-capitalist systems? What hope does it have of understanding post-capitalist systems which reject its proprietary despotism and inequalities? As anarchists aim for a qualitative change in our economic relationships, we can safely say that its economic dynamics will reflect the specific forms it will develop rather than those produced by a class-ridden hierarchical system like capitalism and the a-historic individualistic abstractions invented to defend it!

So any attempt to apply the notions developed from theorising about (or, more correctly, justifying and rationalising) capitalism to anarchism will fail to capture the dynamics of a non-capitalist system. John Crump stressed this point in his discussion of Japanese anarchism between the World Wars:

“When considering the feasibility of the social system advocated by the pure anarchists, we need to be clear about the criteria against which it should be measured. It would, for example, be unreasonable to demand that it be assessed against such yardsticks of a capitalist economy as annual rate of growth, balance of trade and so forth … evaluating anarchist communism by means of the criteria which have been devised to measure capitalism’s performance does not make sense … capitalism would be … baffled if it were demanded that it assess its operations against the performance indicators to which pure anarchists attached most importance, such as personal liberty, communal solidarity and the individual’s unconditional right to free consumption. Faced with such demands, capitalism would either admit that these were not yardsticks against which it could sensibly measure itself or it would have to resort to the type of grotesque ideological subterfuges which it often employs, such as identifying human liberty with the market and therefore with wage slavery … The pure anarchists’ confidence in the alternative society they advocated derived not from an expectation that it would quantitatively outperform capitalism in terms of GNP, productivity or similar capitalist criteria. On the contrary, their enthusiasm for anarchist communism flowed from their understanding that it would be qualitatively different from capitalism. Of course, this is not to say that the pure anarchists were indifferent to questions of production and distribution … they certainly believed that anarchist communism would provide economic well-being for all. But neither were they prepared to give priority to narrowly conceived economic expansion, to neglect individual liberty and communal solidarity, as capitalism regularly does.” [Hatta Shuzo and Pure Anarchism in Interwar Japan, pp. 191–3]

Finally, anarchists are well aware that transforming how an economy works does not happen overnight. As discussed in section I.2.2, we have long rejected the idea of instantaneous social transformation and argued that revolution will take time to develop and change the legacy of centuries of class and hierarchical society. This transformation and the resulting changes in people and surroundings can only be achieved by the full participation of all in overcoming the (many) problems a free society will face and the new ways of relating to each other liberation implies. A free people will find their own practical solutions to their problems, for “there will be all sorts of practical difficulties to overcome, but the [libertarian socialist] system is simplicity itself compared with the monster of centralised State control, which sets such an inhuman distance between the worker and the administrator that there is room for a thousand difficulties to intervene.” [Herbert Read, Anarchy and Order, p. 49] Thus, for anarchists, the “enthusiasm generated by the revolution, the energies liberated, and the inventiveness stimulated by it must be given full freedom and scope to find creative channels.” [Alexander Berkman, What is Anarchism?, p. 223] As such, the ideas within this section of our FAQ are merely suggestions, possibilities.

[stillunusual]

Happy birthday Jan Sawicki (born on 21st June 1925, died on 8th March 1945)…. Janusz Bohdan Sawicki was my maternal grandmother's cousin. Up until 2014, all I knew about him was what appeared on an old photograph I found among my grandmother's belongings after she died.

The photo was taken in Warsaw's Northern Cemetery and shows a small commemorative plaque which states that:

he was a Polish resistance fighter (code name "Zabawa")

he was awarded the Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych)

he was previously a cadet in Cadet Corps No 1 (named after Marshal Józef Piłsudski) in Lwów

he fought in the Warsaw Uprising as a member of AK platoon I/1147 (also known as the "Rygiel" platoon, after the code name of the platoon's commander, Kazimierz Ludwik Pogorzelski)

he was born in Hrubieszów (a small town in south-eastern Poland) on 21st June 1925

he died in the camp hospital of Stalag XI-A in Germany on 8th March 1945

I had no idea what Sawicki looked like until the summer of 2014 when I visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum, and while looking at a series of posters on display in the museum's Freedom Park, I realised that one of them was a picture of him.

I also found his name on the museum's Wall of Remembrance.

I then discovered that he appears in a film called "Powstanie Warszawskie", which had recently been released, and was based on restored and colourised film footage taken by Armia Krajowa filmographers during the uprising.

I went to see the film at Warsaw's historic Kino Femina not long before it closed down, and recognised him based on his picture on the poster.

I was finally able to identify him definitively in a book called "Rozpoznani" which includes photos and biographies of some of the resistance fighters who appear in the film, and I've found some other photos of him since then in various books about the uprising.

Jan Sawicki had already participated in many military actions against the German occupiers of Poland prior to the Warsaw Uprising. He is known to have taken part in the assassination of Wilhelm Leitgeber and Rudolf Peschel, two non-commissioned officers of the Sicherheitspolizei in Warsaw on 13th June 1944.

During the uprising, he was one of three former cadets from Cadet Corps No 1 in Lwów who fought in the "Rygiel" platoon, which was based in the northern city centre.

Sawicki distinguished himself by his bravery in one of the most significant battles of the uprising - the capture of Warsaw's Central Telephone Exchange building on 20th August 1944. He also took part in the successful attack on the German Police Headquarters on 23rd August 1944 (the above photo was taken after the building had been captured by the Armia Krajowa).

He almost lost his life on 6th September 1944, when the building in which he was sheltering was bombed by the Luftwaffe and he was trapped under the rubble for several hours.

After the uprising the Germans transported him to Stalag XI-B Fallingbostel, from which he was later transferred to Stalag XI-A Altengrabow.

He died in the camp hospital just weeks before the camp was liberated by the Western allies. The official cause of death was "tuberculous meningitis", but according to an account by one of his fellow POWs, it is probable that he was killed by the hospital staff after being declared mentally ill.

He was buried in the camp cemetery, in grave number 352.

He was 19 years old….

Shortly after the camp's liberation, it was handed over to the Red Army, and after the war the area was taken over by the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG). The Soviets destroyed the camp cemetery, but there is still a memorial at the site of the former camp which commemorates the victims.

[four-loose-screws]

FE2 Novelization Translation - Book 2 Cover and Intro Pages

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Cover

Fire Emblem Gaiden

Land of Sorrow

Book 2

STORY

A large-scale war is currently ravaging the continent of Valentia. After the loss of countless Units, the story of a new encounter is told. General Alm, leading the imperial army of Zofia to restore the country’s sovereignty, under the name “the Deliverance.” Young Priestess Celica, attempting to make her deepest wish of restoring goddess Mila to her rightful place a reality. However, fate is still leading these two in opposite directions.

The dark plot of the cold-hearted and ruthless Emperor Rudolf of Rigel is once again in motion. …The plot to thoroughly destroy the Kingdom of Zofia. For what reason has he fallen to such insanity? Alm, who has not even an idea of the fate of his bloodline, raises his sword against Rudolf.

Will he and Celica finally be able to act upon their love for each other? Will peace return to Valentia? Find out here, in the conclusion to this story!

Written by Katsuyuki Ozaki

Cover Illustration by Ichiro ?*

Cover Design by Kazuo Hiroi (WIDE)**

*T/N: I cannot find the Kanji character in this person’s last name anywhere to confirm its reading.

**T/N: First name could also be ‘Ichio’ or ‘Itsuo.’ I cannot find any record of this person online, so I cannot confirm the correct reading of their name. Their nickname is ‘WIDE’ because their last name, ‘hiroi,’ is the Japanese word for wide.

Published by Futabasha

Author’s Profile

Katsuyuki Ozaki

An up-and-coming author also working as a copywriter. His major works include “Valkyrie no Densetsu,” “F-Zero,” “Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,” and many more, all published by Futabasha. He has also written for other strategy guide series. His hobbies include golf, cars, and computer games. He is of course also passionate about Fire Emblem, and has completed all of the games so far. He poured all of his love for the series into writing these two books without rest!

Front:

The stage continues to unfold upon the continent of Valentia at war!

This fantastical tale of our young fighters finally comes to its end!

What will become of Alm and Celica’s love for each other? Where will their fate to fight lead them?

And in what direction will these Unit’s adventures take them…?

Back:

Ad for Book 1.

Ad for a Shin Megami Tensei novelization.

Color Art

Text:

This fantastic story is about the great battle on Land Valencia.

According to the destinies, many young heroes and heroines will fight to save their lovers.

Which will God promise to them, victory or defeat?

For whom will He smile?

Whom will He crush by a hummer at last?

Nothing but the bravy spirit of youth can bring peace to such a confused world.

The new act of this drama has just started now!!

Title Page

Table of Contents

(T/N: Exact translation of the chapter and chapter part titles are subject to change, once I read and translate them in full detail, based on exact context.)

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Second War

Mila, Lost Forever

The Empty Throne

Divine Blade Falchion

The Army of Witches at the Border

Chapter 2: The Battle at the Border

The Tragic Mage Luthier

Fratricide

The Golden General, Zeke

Surprise Attack

Sonya’s Secret

Crux of Fate

Chapter 3: God Duma

Triangle Attack

Great Sage Halcyon

Volcano

My Father, Jedah

Chapter 4: Reunion

To Rigel Castle

Mad Emperor Rudolf

The Heir

Chapter 5: The Altar and the Final Act of the War

The Mystery of Gradivus

Inside the Continent

My Father, Rudolf

The Gods’ Slumber

The Reborn Kingdom of Valentia

Epilogue

-

Illustrations: Ichiro ?* & Kazuo Hiroi (WIDE)**

*T/N: I cannot find the Kanji character in this person’s last name anywhere to confirm its reading.

**T/N: First name could also be ‘Ichio’ or ‘Itsuo.’ I cannot find any record of this person online, so I cannot confirm the correct reading of their name. Their nickname is ‘WIDE’ because their last name, ‘hiroi,’ is the Japanese word for wide.

Book design: Yusuke Matsuoka (NEXT)

Editing & printing: Rekkasha

Character Introductions

Celica’s Army

Genny: A Cleric from Novis Island’s Priory who supports Celica’s ideals.

Atlas: A Villager who joins Celica and her army to defeat the pirate Grieth. A hot-blooded young man with exceptional sword fighting talent.

Leon: A young Archer who is saved by Celica’s army at the pirate’s fortress, and stays with them afterwards.

Saber: A Mercenary searching for an employer to work for at Novis Greatport. Later transcends to Myrmidon.

Valbar: An Armor who was one of three people fighting to kill the pirate Barth at his fortress.

Est: A Pegasus Knight and one of the three sisters from Archanea. She is captured alone and brought to Grieth’s fortress.

Palla: One of the three sisters from Archanea. A Pegasus Knight with superior strength and mobility.

Nomah: A Sage whose spiritual powers have only strengthened in his old age, and possesses the skill to cast Sagittae.

Catria: A Pegasus Knight and one of the three sisters from Archanea. When they combine their powers, they can pull off the strongest attack of all…

Boey: A young Mage who serves at Novis Island’s Priory with Celica. 

Jesse: A Mercenary who joins forces with Celica to defeat Grieth. Though he acts like a ruffian, his swordsmanship skills are above average.

Sonya: A female Mage who can cast Excalibur. Her red lipstick and makeup proves that she is not associated with either the Mila nor Duma faithful.

Mae: Like Boey, she is a Mage from Novis Island’s Priory.

Celica: A deeply devout Priestess who leaves Novis Island’s Priory to travel to Mila’s Shrine. She is the second protagonist of this story, in addition to Alm.

Kamui: A Mercenary who goes to the pirate fortress with Leon and Valbar.