theqhreator42

[theqhreator42]

Come and See Him

[theqhreator42]

By all accounts, the Americans virtually ensured their own defeat [in the Waygal Valley of Afghanistan]: They repeatedly bombed their closest supporters here, showing just how little the United States understood about the war it was fighting… The Americans killed and maimed the very people who supported them most, swelling the Taliban’s ranks by turning allies into enemies. Convinced that Nuristan would become a transport hub and hide-out for Al Qaeda and its allies, the Americans built bases and aggressively patrolled an area that, for the better part of a century, had been granted autonomy from its own government… Only the Americans dared to encroach into the region, and in doing so created the very insurgent stronghold they feared most. The United States dropped more than 1,000 bombs in a place it never needed to be. Instead of winning hearts and minds, the Americans unwittingly sowed the seeds of their own demise here in the Waygal Valley — just as it did in much of Afghanistan — then stayed for years to reap the harvest. “You have to know when you are the problem,” said retired Col. William Ostlund, the commanding officer of the men who fought the battle in Want (sometimes referred to as Wanat)... In October 2003, the C.I.A. launched an attack against a suspected terrorist in a mountaintop village, sending a trail of fire and smoke into the ink black sky. Gunships strafed the forests where residents had run for safety. A cluster of wood-frame homes and a mosque were decimated; seven people were killed, some while fleeing. The Americans declared the strike a success, a refrain that would become so common it would lose meaning. In reality, the attacks had failed. Not only was their target not there, but the homes and mosque they struck belonged to a staunch American ally, a former governor of Nuristan named Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani. Mr. Rabbani’s political party, Jamiat-e-Islami, detested the Taliban — so much so that it had partnered with the Americans to overthrow them. In fact, that very night, Mr. Rabbani was in Kabul as part of a delegation of pro-American forces. The only people sheltering in the mountainside home were his family and friends. Of the seven killed, most were women and children, and they included Mr. Rabbani’s son and daughter… Though the attack barely resonated in Kabul, much less in Washington, it changed the dynamic in the Waygal Valley. If people were not yet ready to give up on the Americans, they no longer saw them as infallible liberators. A creeping sense of resentment, and injustice, opened a crack for the Taliban’s message to grow… Perhaps the only person who stuck by the Americans was [Afghan villager] Rafiullah [Arif]. But his loyalty was growing untenable, and even the money his family was getting increasingly wasn’t worth it. Rafiullah and his family couldn’t even go to their local market without worrying that [Taliban fighter] Mullah Osman’s men would kill them. Now, with the Americans preparing to leave his village, he and his family would be completely unprotected. The Americans were coming under mortar fire for the second day in a row. Rafiullah and his family decided to leave for good. They packed up their belongings and fled in a pair of trucks with other civilians, including several doctors who worked at the local clinic. The fleeing vehicles caught the eye of the Americans, who mistakenly believed the Taliban were marshaling forces for another attack. U.S. officers called in an airstrike, sending a hail of gunfire from two Apache helicopters at the convoy, destroying them and nearly everyone inside. Rafiullah lost his father, mother, brother and nephew, along with his arm, an eye and any semblance of support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The Americans, once again, declared the strike a success… “They say they came here to help us, but they wound up killing us,” [Rafiullah] said, squinting into the sun with his good eye. “We supported their mission, and they betrayed us.”

[theqhreator42]

its the fact that jesse not only Cares about children but actively puts his ass on the line for them over and over again throughout the entire show. like thats what gets me so bad. giving a character a fondness for kids to make them "softer" is a cheap trick, but with jesse its not just a fondness. it is wrenching and, more importantly, instinctive devotion and protection. it is intrinsic, intuitive. jesse takes the blame for jake's weed and loses what little respect he still had from his parents without a second thought. he yells at gus for having kids involved in the game and charges the guys responsible for tomas's murder with no regard for his own "standing" or life. he lets the feds grill him about the ricin just so the doctors know it Might be what's killing brock. who cares if the police find him because he gave drew sharpe's parents some money. who cares if spooge and his wife fuck him over because he turned his back to protect their kid. who cares if he has to beg and bleed and break for months to keep brock safe. jesse's lack of regard for his own safety and self-sabotaging tendencies can be selfish, but these traits are what make his concern for children so visceral and genuine. there is truly Nothing in it for him. he doesn't care if he gets hurt. he doesn't care if he loses Everything in the process. if jesse can protect a kid, even in some small way, he's going to do it and he's doing to do it gladly, no matter the price.

[theqhreator42]

Dany advisor tier list?

Just for you I made you a rubric. I did not include “could reasonably be called a good advisor” because I think many of them would disqualify. Poor kid.

Here is my ranking based on said points.

12. Viserys- 3. Despite my best efforts to rig this shit, Viserys ends up last. I remembered the reason why Dany is attached to Jorah at all isnt because he is reliable or a good advisor but because he is only slightly more reliable and less of an active threat than Viserys at the time.

11. Warlocks of the House of the Undying- 3.5 if you count prophetic dreams as good advice.

10. Jorah- 4. Fun fact when I was reading dance for the first time and he showed back up again and was reintroduced hiring a sex worker who looks just like Dany I had to put the book down and go for an hourlong calm down walk up a mountain before I continued because I got too mad.

9. Hizdahr- 4. He understands how Mereen works and is pretty honest about it to Daenerys at the cost of. you know. trying to use her as a pawn the whole time and not caring if she lives or dies. Also maybe tried to poison her.

8. Green Grace- 5-6, depending on if she is the harpy or not. Even if she isn’t she has a clear vendetta against her and is actively trying to manipulate her.

7. Mirri Maaz Dur- 5. She did teach Dany some lessons worth remembering but made sure that those lessons would be traumatic enough that Daenerys would do the exact opposite of it forever and maybe engineer her own downfall as a result, which I guess does accomplish Mirri’s goal. Highest ranking of the people who have actively tried to kill her.

6. Irri and Jhiqui- 6. Why are they still interchangeable after 5 books. Can they get some character arcs. Please. Rank lower because they don’t give her much advice.

5. Rahkaro and the Bloodriders- 6. They don’t seem to give her much advice, but they don’t seem to get much screen time anyway. Again can the dothraki characters not have any depth is that not allowed.

6. The Shavepate- 6.5. may have tried to poison her, jury is still out. If he was in anyone else’s arc, you would be like wow he’s a terrible advisor, but this is a competitive category for Daenerys, so middle of the pack.

5. Daario- 6.5. Daenerys has questionable taste in men because she is fifteen and been through a lot so she thinks this is all her choice and very exciting. But someday when she is older, she is going to look back on this and realize that someone should’ve intervened.

4. Quaithe-7 pending more data on who she is and what she wants. What is your deal girl.

3. Barristan- 7. Half points for “not being a pedophile” and “understands westerosi geopolitics” those are dubious. He is knightpilled and societybrained to the point of near-delusion and the fact that he ranks so high speaks less to his qualifications and more to the fact that this poor girl has had some really terrible advisors.

2. Missandei- 8. but again she is eleven.

1. Grey Worm- 9. Thanks mister worm. Unfortunately Jacob Anderson was still wasted on your role in the show.

[theqhreator42]

sorry to keep doing this, but like, the reason a lot of targaryen analysis is frustrating is because it's invoking the nebulous 'cycles of abuse' thing wherein the post has correctly zeroed in on the theme of generational abuse in the text, but it's never talking about how that abuse is made possible and perpetuated. and the answer is obviously feudal patriarchy. everything wrong with the targaryens is also wrong with westeros at large. this isn't an attempt at whataboutism, but anything asoiaf has to say on the targaryens (or the lannisters, or the greyjoys etc) is also commentary on westeros's feudal patriarchy, because in a system where ultimate power is in the hands of a family, the politics of the state is family politics. abuse of daughters is made possible through a system in which they're viewed as property of the patriarch, to be exchanged for the continuation of bloodlines. abuse of sons is made possible because power flows down from the patriarch to whom they must defer to and serve in perpetuity.

this is why i'm not a fan of 'supremacy' / 'rot' readings because they always resort to pathologising individual characters or families, that there is something uniquely, deeply wrong with them in isolation. like the popular interpretation of incest in the books is that it's criticism of blue-blooded narcissism specific to certain families. that because joanna and tywin were first cousins and because tywin had a 'family first' ideology, the twins' incest is a symbol of 'lannister supremacy'. and that reading has some merit because there is an element of irony here, as the incest is later a source of scandal for the lannisters, certainly not something tywin would've ever wished for. but it's also ignoring the way cersei thinks of jaime as herself, not out of egotism, but because she's suffocated by the gender role of the perfect lady she has had to perform her entire life. and self recognition in jaime is a means of surviving that experience. she lives through him, in the belief that a part of her gets to perform the westerosi ideal of masculinity. and the first time they begin striving for self-definition is in affc, immediately after the death of tywin - the family patriarch, when their story arcs begin questioning whether it's possible for them to exist outside the socially decreed (and enforced by an authoritarian father) roles of the knight and the lady. there's a lot happening here, why reduce it to just character-specific delusions of superiority.

there is another big narrative use of incest in the books and it's craster's keep, which also operates within the exact same framework. craster's daughters are his property, and his sons are sacrificed to the white walkers as a ritual for his own personal security at home—almost the same role westerosi sons are expected to fulfill as knights, sacrificed to institutions of war and violence. the night's watch being willing to overlook this and instead offering him protection on this side of the wall and then protecting the people of westeros on the other side of the wall where all this is being played out on a continent-wide scale—all done in the name of dehumanising and making war with the free folk. unaware that the real threat is something else, something that is probably, allegedly being strengthened through craster's human sacrifices—an evil they've made peace with. does that say anything about the evil having been here along, the evil being normalised. the evil being perpetuated through apathy, giving way to a cataclysmic event in the future. and that it won't go away with specific people dying out because it is foundational to the institutions of westeros.

[theqhreator42]

attributing all failings of house targaryen to 'rot' they have inherited from their valyrian ancestors, to me, feels one metaphor away from interpreting generations of one family as ontologically predisposed to ruin. i understand the intent here is to speak of the general decline of their monarchical power, but dynastic declines don't happen in a vacuum because of there being something specifically, inherently wrong with one family. they're all actors within a violently misogynistic, feudal society. this obviously isn't an extraordinary observation, and discussions involving other noble houses get this, yet when it comes to the targaryens everything has to be chalked up to 'valyrian supremacy'. sorry but i don't think this achieves anything beyond simply moralising their behaviour in itself without recognising how it has been influenced and enabled by westerosi society.

[theqhreator42]

going to rewatch aew revolution 2022

[theqhreator42]

No more killing. I just need to go. Can't forget the book. All I have left of him.   It's warm against the stone.

-Jaime's Personal Journal: Entry 08

[theqhreator42]

8th day of the 12th month, 129 AC

with.— @theprincessofd0rne

Sabitha arrived back at King's Landing for the Royal Wedding. Her second visit was easier, calmer and quiet than before. Theo stayed home, under the care of his uncles and aunts. His health was too delicate and Sabitha worried the journey would be too difficult for him this time. Her second pregnancy wasn't taxing on her body, but her mind could definitely use some distraction. Talking with the Queen or her sister wasn't enough anymore, she couldn't turn to her favorite hobby; riding wasn't comfortable while, apparently, carrying twins.

So she improvised, Sabitha walked across the Red Keep's hallways, the path now intuitive for her; she found the training yard empty. Thankfully, she didn't want any witness around. To be judged for her tastes was one thing, to be judged for doing archery while pregnant was another. She had brought her own bow with her; the dark oak made a nice contrast with her light blue silks.

Sabitha prepared her arrow, the familiar motion appease her mind. Mermatize with her own actions. She was ready to shoot when someone else's arrow hit the target. « Impeccable shot, it must be Alysanne. » Her friend was the only archer that had ever bested Sabitha. She turned around searching for her but instead found a different woman next to her.

—Princess Aliandra —Sabithe bowed in instinct, a small smile formed on her lips.— A pleasure to make your acquaintance. I didn't know Dorne was lead by such impressive archer.

[theqhreator42]

Rhizophysa filiformis // No common name

Rhizophysidae is a family of siphonophores in the suborder Cystonectae. Look at them go 💚🩵💜

[theqhreator42]

“Even though Lazarus will die again, it is absolutely good that he is raised from the dead. Even though a flower will fade or a word of truth will be forgotten, it is absolutely good that it is spoken, that it blooms. The affirmation of value has an absolute, not only a relative, worth, since the distinction of good and evil is not rooted only in history but in Being itself. To speak of the torturer and his victim as indifferently caught up in the same mystery of pain is not sophisticiation but blasphemy.”

— Erazim V. Kohák, The Embers and the Stars

[theqhreator42]

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy by Frank Cho

[theqhreator42]

[theqhreator42]

i know people are not reading the posts of Palestinian's pleading for your attention I know for some they might even think they are repetitive or tiring but every single one of these people are risking their lives to come ask for your help that every single life is valuable and every person is a universe and I am begging you if you see this please donate what you can and help share these fundraisers as if you were doing it for your own loved ones please don't ignore this!

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[theqhreator42]

guy who doesnt realize hes commanding a small army and thinks a lot of people are just going along with his bit

[theqhreator42]

U can watch Star Wars so many times and it doesn’t prepare u for how dumb Star Wars is. For one thing I think we gloss over how kenobi (who has definitely been at the club. Please.) describes the mos eisley cantina as the worst most villainous place ever and then u get inside and it’s a pack of muppets vaping

[theqhreator42]

More book Dany but this time with her children🙏