#” “trying to overthrow the Republic

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

A TV series about the early Roman emperors, except:

It's a comedy.

It starts with Julius Caesar (who keeps correcting the narrator that he's a dictator, not an emperor, as if it makes any difference).

The narrator skips over military campaigns like the Gallic War and Claudius' conquest of Britain in favor of "Haha check out Augustus' shitty poetry" and "Caesar once tried to overthrow the republic with a wardrobe malfunction."

You can tell the narrator gets bored of certain emperors because he keeps going off on tangents about Julius and Augustus after they're supposed to be dead.

The characters get frustrated because they're trying to act out a serious drama but nooo the narrator would rather gossip and it's only 50% in chronological order.

Some of the characters start pointing out things the narrator says that are physically impossible, don't make logical sense, or which their enemies made up.

Tiberius storms out partway through his episode and the rest of the narrative has him played by a sock puppet voiced by Caligula doing a falsetto.

Caligula attempts to sic the Praetorian guards on the narrator for making up filthy lies about him. Like, he's still a huge dick, just not in the way the narrator claims.

Claudius just wants to teach the audience cool facts about the Etruscans but the narrator talks over him.

Nero is actually a Korean boy band singer who keeps trying to explain to people he's a musician, not the emperor, and isn't sure what he's doing in ancient Rome. No one listens.

Galba is played by Rob Halford, the "stately homo of heavy metal."

Galba, Otho and Vitellius have to share an episode, and even then the narrator half-asses it and leaves with 10 minutes of runtime to fill, at which point the characters (including the dead ones) break into the production studio and reveal the narrator is Suetonius.

#jlrrt speaks #suetonius #that prince of gossips <3 #the twelve caesars #just roman memes #the twelve caesars is a comedy #jlrrt essays

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Al Jazeera is Qatari State Media]

A powerful Haitian gang leader has rejected attempts by foreign nations for an electoral road map and a path to peace as the country plunges deeper into violent chaos and armed groups control most of the capital following the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Regional leaders of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) held an emergency summit last week to discuss a framework for a political transition, which the United States had urged to be “expedited” as gangs wrought chaos in the capital, Port-au-Prince, amid repeatedly postponed elections.

“We’re not going to recognise the decisions that CARICOM takes,” Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former police officer whose gang rules vast swaths of Port-au-Prince, told Al Jazeera. Rights groups [including those funded by the NED] have accused his gang alliance of committing atrocities, including killings and rape.

“I’m going to say to the traditional politicians that are sitting down with CARICOM, since they went with their families abroad, we who stayed in Haiti have to take the decisions,” Cherizier said, flanked by gang members wearing face masks, adding that he rejected plans for a transitional council made up of the country’s political parties.

“It’s not just people with guns who’ve damaged the country but the politicians too,” he added.[...]

Haitian civil society leaders welcomed the resignation of Henry, an unelected leader who was named for the post in 2021 shortly before the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, as a long overdue step.[...]

While some political groups are putting their names forward for the council, seeing it as a way out of Haiti’s current power vacuum, Cherizier said he wants a revolution.

“Now our fight will enter another phase – to overthrow the whole system, the system that is five percent of people who control 95 percent of the country’s wealth,” he told Al Jazeera.

According to Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, Cherizier likes to compare himself to historical figures like South Africa’s Nelson Mandela or Cuba’s longtime President Fidel Castro.

“And he likes to say that he’s essentially a revolutionary … and he’s going to redistribute wealth,” Fatton told Al Jazeera this week.

While Cherizier has distributed some food and resources to people in areas under the control of his G9 gang, “that’s hardly a vision of the future or some sort of revolutionary [act]”, he added.

Once a transitional government is in place it could pave the way for a multinational police force on the ground in Haiti, funded by the US and Canada.[...]

Kenya’s President William Ruto said his country would lead such a force, which Cherizier rejected.

The UN has estimated that gangs currently control more than 80 percent of Port-au-Prince.

Reporting from the Dominican Republic, Al Jazeera’s John Holman said the two rival gangs – the G9 and G-PEP – have formed an alliance called Viva Ensemble to try and prevent foreign troops from entering Haiti.

16 Mar 24

[this-acuteneurosis]

AHH Leia finally getting into messy time traveler killing folks for their future deeds but no known current crimes.... what fun. I can absolutely see how the ethic standards are fucked but also a valid target to be had. what fun! issues of being lone wolf not operating from an organizational stand point with formalized do this dont do that... I appreciate it, especially cause Leia is weathered enough to not get mopy about it so hey. I mean REALLY need to make a special kill Palpatine.

It's interesting watching people's reactions to Tarkin's death, because what I'm generally seeing in the comments is:

Or:

And, yes, Leia is 1000% down with this plan and absolutely did this for catharsis and to protect Anakin and because it felt like the right thing to do at the time.

She also just straight up committed treason. Like, we've visited the idea that Leia doesn't fit in with the mindset of Republic Senators because she's been at war for a long time and she knows Palpatine is evil and is subtly trying to undermine him. She bends rules and accesses things she shouldn't and knows things she shouldn't and keeps secrets.

But Leia has spent literally her entire life actively trying to overthrow a government. All of her skills and tactics? That's what she learned them for. And boy is that shining through with this decision.

You know, along with the trauma...

#Duty Bound #Don't Look Back #Leia Skywalker

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Josh Marshall

I want to return to this revelatory interview with coconspirator John Eastman, the last portion of which was published Thursday by Tom Klingenstein, the Chairman of the Trumpite Claremont Institute and then highlighted by our Josh Kovensky. There’s a lot of atmospherics in this interview, a lot of bookshelf-lined tweedy gentility mixed with complaints about OSHA regulations and Drag Queen story hours. But the central bit comes just over half way through the interview when Eastman gets into the core justification and purpose for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and overthrow the constitutional order itself. He invokes the Declaration of Independence and says quite clearly that yes, we were trying to overthrow the government and argues that they were justified because of the sheer existential threat America was under because of the election of Joe Biden.

Jan 6th conspirators have spent more than two years claiming either that nothing really happened at all in the weeks leading up to January 6th or that it was just a peaceful protest that got a bit out of hand or that they were just making a good faith effort to follow the legal process. Eastman cuts through all of this and makes clear they were trying to overthrow (“abolish”) the government; they were justified in doing so; and the warrant for their actions is none other than the Declaration of Independence itself.

“Our Founders lay this case out,” says Eastman. “There’s actually a provision in the Declaration of Independence that a people will suffer abuses while they remain sufferable, tolerable while they remain tolerable. At some point abuses become so intolerable that it becomes not only their right but their duty to alter or abolish the existing government.”

“So that’s the question,” he tells Klingenstein. “Have the abuses or the threat of abuses become so intolerable that we have to be willing to push back?”

The answer for Eastman is clearly yes and that’s his justification for his and his associates extraordinary actions.

Let’s dig in for a moment to what this means because it’s a framework of thought or discourse that was central to many controversies in the first decades of the American Republic. The Declaration of Independence has no legal force under American law. It’s not a legal document. It’s a public explanation of a political decision: to break the colonies’ allegiance to Great Britain and form a new country. But it contains a number of claims and principles that became and remain central to American political life.

The one Eastman invokes here is the right to overthrow governments. The claim is that governments have no legitimacy or authority beyond their ability to serve the governed. Governments shouldn’t be overthrown over minor or transitory concerns. But when they become truly oppressive people have a right to get rid of them and start over. This may seem commonsensical to us. But that’s because we live a couple centuries downstream of these events and ideas. Governments at least in theory are justified by how they serve their populations rather than countries being essentially owned by the kings or nobilities which rule them.

But this is a highly protean idea. Who gets to decide? Indeed this question came up again and again over the next century each time the young republic faced a major political crisis, whether it was in the late 1790s, toward the end of the War of 1812, in 1832-33 or finally during the American Civil War. If one side didn’t get its way and wanted out what better authority to cite than the Declaration of Independence? There is an obvious difference but American political leaders needed a language to describe it. What they came up with is straightforward. It’s the difference between a constitutional or legal right and a revolutionary one. Abraham Lincoln was doing no more than stating a commonplace when he said this on the eve of the Civil War in his first inaugural address (emphasis added): “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”

In other words, yes, you have a revolutionary right to overthrow the government if you really think its abuses have gotten that intractable and grave. But the government has an equal right to stop you, to defend itself or, as we see today, put you on trial if you fail. The American revolutionaries of 1776 knew full well that they were committing treason against the British monarchy. If they lost they would all hang. They accepted that. They didn’t claim that George III had no choice but to let them go.

From the beginning the Trump/Eastman coup plotters have tried to wrap their efforts in legal processes and procedures. It was their dissimulating shield to hide the reality of their coup plot and if needed give them legal immunity from the consequences. The leaders of the secession movement tried the same thing in 1861.

In a way I admire Eastman for coming clean. I don’t know whether he sees the writing on the wall and figures he might as well lay his argument out there or whether his grad school political theory pretensions and pride got the better of him and led him to state openly this indefensible truth. Either way he’s done it and not in any way that’s retrievable as a slip of the tongue. They knew it was a coup and they justified it to themselves in those terms. He just told us. They believed they were justified in trying to overthrow the government, whether because of OSHA chair size regulations or drag queens or, more broadly, because the common herd of us don’t understand the country’s “founding principles” the way Eastman and his weirdo clique do. But they did it. He just admitted it. And now they’re going to face the consequences.

#us politics #news #talking points memo #2023 #op eds #Tom Klingenstein #Claremont Institute #john eastman #Josh Kovensky #Josh Marshall #jan 6 investigation #jan 6 insurrection #domestic terrorism #treason #traitors #donald trump #capitol riot investigation #Declaration of Independence

[genericpuff]

To be fair, a country can have more than one head of state. Political systems aren't as consistent as we might think them to be and even absolute monarchies like Spain have a prime minister. Then you have things like elective monarchies and hereditary republics. From what I remember, the idea of an election isn't even really treated as that big of a deal... but that right there is the problem. The first and I think only time it actually gets brought up is when it's introduced for a single panel, and even then, it's only in relation to Persephone's trauma. No one really comments on it afterwards. Even in Apollo's own episode, he very briefly comments how he could do a lot as king—not president, but king! Ergo, overthrowing Zeus. So either the whole president thing was a dropped plot point or Rachel couldn't think of any other reason for Apollo to be on a giant poster.

Regarding Eros' comment, Apollo is the god of medicine and the literal god of doctors is his son. Even if Asclepius himself doesn't have a bad record, he'd have reason to be wary. It's why I don't blame Hebe for automatically believing Apollo that nothing can be done about the poison after he simply touches Zeus, given what one of his domains is.

And speaking of Hebe, again, to be fair, a lot of people don't notice their surroundings when they're grieving and her back was clearly turned anyway, so I don't think this should necessarily be a strike against her. I honestly didn't find anything off about Apollo gaslighting her either (I mean, besides the obvious; gaslighting is horrendous) and he'd also just threatened her, so I don't blame her for running away either. Plus, the episode just ends with her noticing the snow soon after, so it's not like we get her thoughts on this one way or another. I don't have fastpass, though, so does it show her actually believing she'd somehow poisoned Zeus in a future chapter, or...?

Hebe poisoning Zeus also wouldn't necessarily be outside the realm of possibility either if Apollo were to argue she did it for Hera's sake or something and then she just snapped. That said, it is still ridiculous she's the first deity he would frame, rather than someone alot more believable, like Ares. Didn't Zeus sleep with Aphrodite that one time? And we know how protective he is of Hera. Or hell, if he wanted to topple the current monarchy entirely, he could've just framed Hera herself! Maybe even Hades!

And if this were any other comic, I'd say Apollo returning to the scene of the crime and then calling the media is just him being a narcissist, because some narcissists can be really, really dumb. But the chances of it being framed that way are practically at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. Even a single panel of someone asking why Apollo called a journalist first is doubtful.

But yeah, not trying to slam you or anything and sorry if it comes off that way. I really like your analyses and I love Rekindled, I'm just trying to offer a few explanations here. I do agree with you overall, though! Rachel has alot of great ideas, but the executions of said ideas are just terrible.

Okay so, while I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into defending these points and I can totally get the points you're trying to make in many of them (and yes this is the part where I respond with my own points, as we do) I think the fact that you presented all of these "well to be fair" talking points is just highlighting and further proving LO's biggest problems in its writing, one that I've talked about before on here but I think bears repeating.

And that's the fact that we (the readers) have to make massive assumptions just to make the plot make sense.

Yes, to be fair, there are government systems that run with a dual-system of monarchy + diplomatic government, but there was never any implication of this being a thing in LO until all of a sudden Rachel dropped the "Apollo for President!" plotline in S3.

Yes, to be fair, Apollo is the god of medicine, but we've never seen him actually fulfill a single duty regarding that, Asclepius is far more qualified as an actual doctor than Apollo (*from what we've been shown), who we've only ever seen apply a bandaid to Persephone's hand five years ago.

Yes, to be fair, people in shock may not take in their surroundings fully, but it seems really silly to have Hebe positioned in front of a window that has a FULL VIEW of what's going on outside and still have her just freeze in time when she's offscreen so she doesn't see or hear anything that's going on just several feet away through a sheet of glass. Just get rid of the window and find another way to force Eros and Psyche into confrontation with Apollo.

Yes, to be fair, Hebe could have a motive, if she were written as someone with some vendetta against Zeus. But she wasn't. That version of Hebe does not exist and, as you said yourself, there are way more gods who would have reasonable motive to poison him. We've only ever seen her dote on him and love him unconditionally as her father, and we've even seen scenes of them in S1 where they have a functional father-daughter relationship (if anything I'd be more inclined to believe she'd have a vendetta against Hera for being an alcoholic mom during her childhood but I digress).

Through all of these "to be fair's" when do we actually stop and ask ourselves why we have to constantly have the benefit of the doubt and jump through all these logical hoops to make sense of the plot to begin with? Again, all this just lends to how poorly structured and written the comic is, and all of these 'to be fair''s you've presented cannot reasonably apply to LO because LO never wrote those things. They never showed Apollo being an actual god of medicine, they never showed Hebe having ill will towards her father, and they never showed Olympus running with a monarchy + presidential government system. So to fill in those blanks ourselves is to do the legwork for Rachel who's only managed to write half a plot. It's why it's so jarring for random plot points like this to happen because it's just like "wtf do you mean Apollo is running for president? He can just do that??" That's not something that should be established five years in, it makes it really hard to just give benefit of the doubt because if that was something that actually existed in this world, it should have been established ages ago when the foundation for the story was still being built. We're in the endgame now, this is NOT the time to be throwing in new random plot threads pulled out of thin air.

This is what I mean from my essay post earlier that Rachel constantly fails to provide context for things she's trying to say, while overexplaining things that are already being shown onscreen. It's completely imbalanced between what we have to know and what could have stayed on the cutting room floor, and it makes for a messy story where people have to make gracious assumptions and do all the thinking for a plot that was never fleshed out to begin with. Why should we as readers have to do all the thinking for Rachel's lack of storytelling ability, when she clearly couldn't be bothered to put any thought into the narrative or the worldbuilding or the characterizations to begin with? It's lazy low-effort writing.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #ask me anything #anon ama #ama #anon ask me anything

[mysteriouslytransparentwitch]

This isn't the first time I've read this. I'd be interested to know what you think. This is pure propaganda and much deeper than we think. Some powerful groups want the monarchy to be abolished. They want William gone. Maybe it's to launch the new world order. Look at the seed they are trying to sow through the media. Meghan is just a pawn in a bigger plan. Getting rid of the monarchy means getting rid of stability to implement the change they want, they could then weaken other governments. 🌹

This will be my quarter of an hour of truth:

There is no global force that wants the United Kingdom to lose, there is no chance that the United Kingdom will become a republic! why the British are not the French. France has a better chance of having a 6th republic and a 4th revolution in the next 30 years. Even Russia is not trying to overthrow the United Kingdom because it is too busy with its attacks in Eastern Europe. The USA is currently divided in two and therefore too busy on its own. The global south is in the midst of a revolution to attract the global economy so there is not enough time to try to overthrow William. There is a new global organization but it has nothing to do with Prince William, it's just economic, technological and environmental (I remind you that in the global south there are monarchies!!!)

The truth is that William is not ready for office, being ready to be King is not about making beautiful children and taking beautiful photos. William's problem is that he does not want to follow the line of King George 6, nor Queen Elizabeth 2 and even less of Charles (because he is someone who wants to kill his son since birth according to some people here)

This is not the first time that William has made mistakes, he threw his godmother under the bus while Buckingham Palace was already investigating because there were already different versions now we know the truth! William does not have a cool head, he reigns with his ego and his emotions which can take on completely crazy proportions.

He is not aware (because he does not read the foreign press like the Queen and Charles) of the changes taking place worldwide. He just gets scared of tweets on Twitter like Omid and dr shola I don't know what…. YES they make a lot of noise on Twitter but neither of them are capable of selling books in the real world!!! conclusion Twitter is an epiphenomenon.

Yes the social networks are going crazy about Catherine we went to a cosmetic operation on the nose then on the buttocks for William to a mistress who is pregnant and who came to see Catherine at Christmas (I don't know if young people realize their stupidity, at Christmas she was with Charles, yes!!!)

William must put together a real team to help him in his role and not protect his private life. If we were to listen to William, as armies, we should stop inspecting the armies in African countries because it's colonial lol lol all heads of state around the world inspect their army and hi to the other armies it's is tradition! (this sentence definitely comes from him!!!) Your guy is so afraid of everything that he doesn't even understand the meaning of these sentences and the impact they can have. Fortunately the United Kingdom is a parliamentary monarchy so there is power to put things in their place.

If this story of Catherine made the journalists/reporters in the foreign policy section frown, it is because there is a good reason.

I can continue like this except that here on this forum as soon as we highlight certain things, the only answer is you have been a fan of Charles since the beginning you hate William bla bla

For your information, these two have no impact on my life.

[qsycomplainsalot]

I'd like to say, I really appreciate you taking an unapologetic stance on the French Revolution. In the US and UK there has been a renewed push in pop history and in fiction to portray the revolution as unjust, or as racist, sexist, undemocratic etc. etc. I even remember my underfunded public school history textbook back in the day having a big sob story about antoinette and the king and the nobles, trying to make us feel sorry for them. The recent addition of vague social justice language to discredit the idea of overthrowing oligarchs and unelected rulers makes it quite clear (to me, at least) that this is simply the fears of the ruling class manifesting themselves again. While certainly the revolution is Morally Complicated when taken as a whole, I feel no compunction to hand wring about the destruction of monarchy by any means necessary. SO, thank you!

That's a bit of an odd comment because I don't think I defend it that much ? And also it's funny because in France we're definitely not told enough about, and it ends up coming off better than it was. The thing is the first revolution was kind of an overall failure, it blundered along into achieving great things until monarchy returned in one way or another. The actual process of getting to actual democracy took almost a hundred years and you could argue even by the third republic we weren't there. But it got the ideals of enlightenment philosophers out of parlors and into government policies, it DECIDEDLY set a new tone for the relation between the people and the kings, and generally was a good precedent to dangle over the head of future monarchs. It broke the back of a royal dynasty that had been ruling France uninterrupted for eight hundred years, showing people that something else was possible. But it was also a brutal mess of conflicting ideologies and political reprisals. It never had a single effective government and did not in any way match the idea of progressivism tumblr bloggers assign to it. Of course all the while having to deal with external factors such as England bankrolling the whole of Europe to attack us because they wanted to have their backyard safe while taking over a third of the world's landmass. So like yeah I tend to defend the revolution against right wing idiots who try to make it seem like the French nobility didn't have it coming for hundreds of years, but I'm also gonna remind the people shipping St-Just and Robespierre that those were actual, deeply flawed and murderous bastards operating a repressive government "in the name of liberty". It's not a simple period of history to characterize, just like Napoleon's reign which if you ask me is the one with a real smear campaign run against it in the anglo world.

#history

[mask131]

In general, when it comes to the religious approach between the US and a country like France, the huge gap can be easily explained by history.

The USA history was all about learning to embrace and accept and tolerate all and every religion. Yes there was religious fanaticism and religious extremes in this country - in fact a lot of people in there like to forget the founders of the USA were themselves considered religious fanatics by Europe. But the whole history of the USA is about learning to be open-minded and tolerant and respectful of other religions.

But a country like France? Its history is about to try and kill religion. France had its "let's welcome and open all religions" era - but a long time ago, and somehow it shows how "young" of a country the USA is. France meanwhile went way past beyond that, and went to the next phase, the systematic elimination of religion, or at least reducing it to the point of it being harmless.

Because France had to deal with all the most fucked up things religion had to offer. Not only did we kept fighting with every neighboring countries in names of religions (Christianity vs Islam, Catholicism vs Protestantism or Anglicanism), but we even had the historical traumatism of the religious wars within France itself, the country devouring its own due to the Catholic vs Protestant debate. Itself being a mere continuation of the strict hunt by the Inquisition of all the various "heretic" groups in France - France was the country where the Templar Knights and the Cathare met their death by mass executions.

The French Revolution was all about getting rid of an over-powerful and corrupted Church, and of a biased government tied to Christianity so much the Crown and the Church were just one and the same. Overthrowing the King was overthrowing the chosen of God, and the one sent by God - and thus the French Revolution was about men of religion, and the Terreur that followed made sure to get rid of all those French communities that were still too attached to their religion. Heck the French Revolution was all about removing any religious name, and all religious celebrations and destroying all religious statues - not just of Christianity, but also of long-dead religions such as the Greek or Roman ones.

And the Enlightenment. What about the Enlightenment? Everybory part of the "Lights" were about denouncing and criticizing religious fanaticism and the power of "superstition" over the minds. They liked in times of religious wars and persecutions, and they knew first hand that religion was the enemy of a good, human thinking. Just take Voltaire's writing: the guy spent his entire life taking down any form of organized, unthought religion, caricaturing, mocking or denouncing all the forms of Inquisition and hurtful superstitions he could find.

And even then, one of the most important dates French kids are taught in school, which is considered to mark the beginning of modern France, is 1905: the law separating the Church from the State. This was the moment the modern Republic, after many tries and fails, finally established the principle that religion should not be part of a government, and that the State should be above religion, and that religion was a private domain not a public one. This is one of the fundamental principles of the French Republic: secularism, laicity, the modern way to ensure a freedom of religion by making sure none dominate and that all religious matters are to be secondary in the greater scope of things.

So yeah, what I am trying to say is that France's entire history is about fighting off religion and trying to make clear it should not define people's life and should not be imposed on anybody and should not have too much power. Because France lived in the trauma of the Inquisition, and the religious wars, and the superstition-fueled persecutions, and the Church influencing if not corrupting the government. Times and times again in an endless cycle.

Which of course is going to make a HUGE difference when it comes to religious approach compared to a country like the United-States, which was founded by religious communities, partially for religious reasons, and whose entire creation relied on religious principles (like Manifest Destiny), and where the President still has to swear by the Bible before obtaining their post...

#random rant of the day #or random musing of the day #i don't know #i'm tired #religion #france #usa #history

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

Today I'm having thoughts about Lucius Julius Caesar. No, not Famous Caesar. I mean his obscure and thoroughly ordinary cousin.

Lucius saw his-brother-in-law Lentulus Sura get revealed as one of the leaders of a conspiracy trying to overthrow the government. Lucius voted to execute him for that. Fourteen years later, despite personally being a moderate, Lucius was frozen out by Cato's group for being related to Famous Caesar. Then Famous Caesar invaded Italy, and Lucius refused to fight on either side, but his son ran off to join the Pompeians.

Three years after that, despite Famous Caesar generally trying not to kill senators outside of battle, it's very likely that he executed Lucius' son.

Two years after that, Lucius personally witnessed Famous Caesar get stabbed 23 times. Lucius then became one of the leading voices calling for peace and restoring the republic, trying to mediate between Cicero and Mark Antony.

Antony, the stepson of Lentulus Sura, and Lucius' nephew, who remembered Lucius voting for Lentulus' execution.

Negotiations failed. Civil war erupted, again.

And when the Second Triumvirate unleashed their proscriptions, Antony ordered Lucius executed along with Cicero. It took Julia, Lucius' sister, standing in the doorway of her house to physically block a squad of legionaries from killing him.

#do you think lucius ever looked at his more extra relatives like 'can you guys just stop. please. for me?' #lucius julius caesar #jlrrt speaks #mark antony #julius caesar #caesar's civil war #jlrrt essays

[txttletale]

Anarchists, esp from the imperial core, get caught up on this authoritarian/anti-authoritarian debate as if we've already abolished capitalism and are now trying to decide on the best course of reorganizing society afterwards. We need to abolish systems of unjust hierarchies (the point of anarchism) any way we can, even if it means, heaven forbid, working with others who agree with us on like 80% of what needs to be done. (majority of) Korean anarchists understood this when they worked with MLs (and sometimes, even progressive liberals!) to overthrow the Fifth Republic in South Korea. If "authoritarianism" is scarier than capitalism, then I suggest they just do away with pretenses and become ancaps.

100% cosigned. a lot of the actually irreconcilable ideological differences between anarchists and MLs (and, to be honest, any sort of revolutionary communist) are things that only become pressing and immediate in a revolutionary situation--which, let's be honest, the vast majority of the world is nowhere near. unity and action are so much more important than relitigating hundred-year-old debates with no relevance to anything we can currently fucking achieve in reality

#ask #ruisa-faa

[blackkatmagic]

Eeeeee I’m still thinking abt that “keldable kiss” between Granta and Colt, I bet Rex isn’t jealous even a little bit no sir

*rex voice* force I wish that was me

:D

“I know what we can put on the wanted poster,” Cody says, in the tone that makes fools think he’s the most reasonable of the command class.

“It’s not a wanted poster. It isn't illegal to kill a Sith assassin who’s trying to overthrow the Republic,” Rex says. It’s not the first time he’s said it.

Cody, of course, doesn’t let a little thing like logic stop him. “He’s exactly your type, right? That’s what we put. Wanted: man who makes Captain Rex blush like a shiny—”

“Shut the hell up, Cody,” Rex says, annoyed, but he doesn’t raise his head from the files he’s scanning. If he looks up, Cody wins. More importantly, Rex loses. “Good with knives isn't enough of a description—”

“Short enough to pick up, long hair to pull on, and I think you mentioned something about his mouth—”

“Yeah, that he never stopped running it.” Rex's ears are red again. He’s going to murder Cody, and absolutely none of the commanders will blame him. Hell, Wolffe might even give him a medal.

#kat answers #when the dead tree flowers

[autism-purgatory]

Writer intro or something

Hey! I’m G.J, I’m an aspiring writer and (kind of) fanfic writer! I wrote Old Republic fanfic when I was 12 and was never the same again. I’m particularly fond of dark fantasy and revenge stories.

current interests: MW2, Dungeon Meshi, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Fear and Hunger, and Jujutsu Kaisen.

here are some of my WIP’s! (Jfc there’s so many)

Viscered: About a father having to take care of his 10 month old son, and his past as a bio weapon coming back to bite him in the ass. (Inspo: Prototype, Berserk, Wolf and Cub)

Tales of the Sculpted Lands (my magnum opus): A Dark Fantasy anthology, about various stories and myths of the ever-evolving sculpted lands. (Inspo: Berserk, Demon’s Souls, ICO trilogy)

Augmented_Humanity: takes place in the year 2107. About an Androids quest for revenge as she accidentally overthrows the government while trying to kill her boss. (Inspo: Blade Runner, Kill Bill, Chainsaw Man)

Grayguard: A fantasy adventure story about a group of “elite” knights with three goals in mind

1: rescue their master from an ancient demon with magic robots

2: stop the major kingdoms from imploding after said master got kidnapped

3: Therapy? (Inspo: Aurora, Jujutsu Kaisen, Tears of the Kingdom)

WanderStruck: About a popular knight that gets isekai’d into the regular world and his growing love for the nerd who got him there (inspo: Panty & Stocking, WALL-E, Little Witch Academia. Yeah I know these make no sense)

Shadow Over Novald: An Urban Fantasy noir story about two peculiar partners in crime when their home, the city-state of Novald, is cloaked in darkness, the only way to lift the curse is to kill the five magic wielding humans that lurk in the city. There’s magic, espionage, a dash of steampunk, and so, so much murder and chaos. (Inspo: Diskworld, Inglourious Basterds, Blue Eye Samurai)

And here’s my AO3 fics!

Little Doll (Bloodborne Fic) about the doll after the events of the third ending. With the reborn hunter in her arms, she goes on a little journey to the physical fishing hamlet and nothing bad happens along the way.

AO3 Original Works (that are actually out):

LunuL: about three bounty hunters in the year 2290. they trek across the Solar System being mediocre at their jobs and accidentally get wrapped up in several conspiracies and near death experiences. (Inspo: Cowboy Bebop, the Mandalorian, Neon Genesis Evangelion)

also if you want to send an ask about any of my WIPs for ask games, please specify which WIP you want to know about.

#writing #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #ao3 original work #ao3 writer #writeblr intro

[jyndor]

another detail I need to sit with for a bit, because I think it’s another piece in my Cassian-Andor-Has-Been-A-Rebel-Fighter-Before-Now conspiracy theory:

Karis is trying to accept and rationalize “not playing by the rules” and accepting a mercenary’s help in the beginning of the episode from an ideological standpoint. He’s trying to work backwards from a new conclusion: that allowing mercenaries to fight the Imperials is based actually. Cassian tells him he’s “half right” and Karis, perhaps not used to being challenged by his peers on theory, asks “and how am I wrong?” and is actually genuinely listening even though at this point he isn’t sure how to feel about Cassian being there at all.

And Cassian says: “They don’t care enough to learn. They don’t have to. You mean nothing to them.”

And you see Karis sitting there, really absorbing it for a second like real people do in real political/ideological/philosophical conversations, before he responds: “Perhaps I’ll think differently tomorrow,” to which Cassian warns him to be “careful what you wish for.”

And then when Karis talks down to him, assumes Cassian is saying that everyone should just “submit” to the Empire and “be thankful” about it, Cassian has this serious, disgusted look on his face and says, “Do I look thankful to you?”

Karis corrects himself and tells him he’s glad Cassian is here. He looks chastised before Cassian tells him he’ll be fine and that he’ll sleep when it’s done (which is RUDE and TRUE).

Guys. It’s right there. Cassian has been in Karis’s shoes before, except the difference is that Cassian has seen his homeworld colonized and exploited. He has escaped Kenari and Mimban, and who knows where else. Clearly this is Karis’s first (and last RIP </3) bit of praxis, at least on this scale (I’d be shocked if he wasn’t doing little things here and there before joining up - activist circles are often sort of hard to break into unless you know someone - someone gives a name to someone who knows someone else, like with Cassian > Bix > Luthen). The other difference is this: privilege and background. I will bet a lot that Karis is from a relatively privileged (maybe Core World, not likely from the Mid or Outer Rim - a metaphor for the Global North/South) position, not because he’s intellectual and articulate or whatever lol but because he feels like the sort of leftist who spent a lot of time reading and writing theory but not necessarily seeing and experiencing the type of colonialist Imperial oppression he’s fighting firsthand.

Karl Marx (who was upper middle class and who I think Karis Nemik is supposed to be referencing lmfao he was working on a damn manifesto after all) is considered hard to read today but back when the Communist Manifesto was first published, it was extremely accessible to everyone of all education levels, which makes sense given what it was suggestion: a working class-led revolution to overthrow all social classes. It was commissioned by the Communist League to spread the word - accessibility to all was the point.

If I’m correct, Karis could have gone about his life as normal without getting involved in the way he did. Cassian had no choice - he was someone who Republic colonizers and later Imperials didn’t even think to learn about. Just in the way, like the Dhani people. Cassian has always known what he’s against because he’s had no choice. He was radicalized by his own experiences, Karis might have been radicalized by the experiences of others.

So that gives Cassian a different perspective - not necessarily that revolution is worthless I don’t believe he thinks that lol, but that the way it’s being done is kind of... not clicking. But it’s a perspective that a ground-up revolution needs front and center, and at the core of it.

I think Cassian believes Nemik will learn more about Imperials from seeing them up close and come to a different conclusion (perhaps one that Cassian has come to before). The correct one obviously. They’re too small to even care about. But that can work to their advantage, as seen in the ISB headquarters.

The irony is that the mission doesn’t make Nemik think differently in the sense that Cassian believed it would. It gives Nemik more insight into Cassian, into a rebel-turned-merc. Because Karis Nemik is the first of the group to believe that Cassian is a true believer. I don’t know that he actually stops believing this, but he definitely dies thinking Cassian is going to continue his manifesto (our manifesto), give it more context from lived experience and eventually pass it on.

In a way he’s like Bix - he believes Cassian is meant for greater things than mercenary work. But also Cassian has to eat. And that’s how he behaves at the end: he doesn’t do the truly mercenary move (like Skeen would have done). In fact he protects the rebellion and kills a threat to the cause without hesitation. And then he asks for his payment and walks away.

I still hold out hope that Cassian was a soldier. Anyway let me know what you think and if you have anything to add.

#andor spoilers #andor #andor series #karis nemik #meta #cassian andor #star wars andor #star wars #lol me justifying my delusions

[meantforinfinitesadness]

Sith Obi-Wan Fic Rec List

Been feeling a certain kind of way lately and I can’t remember if I ever made a Sith Obi-Wan rec list, so, even if I have, there’s been more since I made it. Yeah. Oh! Some of these contain spice, and I will let you know which ones do lol (indicated by the ***) and they will be different pairings

I’ve got a few fics that I need to re-read that aren’t recced here so...yeah. Also, this isn’t the longest post, but I’ll still put everything under a “read more”

I Got My Head Checked by @frostbitebakery - Below the observation deck, the Marshal Commander of the Third Systems Army is being divested of his armor and weapons, shackles heavy on his wrists. He doesn’t struggle, only a mulish stubborn twist to his jaw showing his displeasure at the situation. Obi-Wan opens his eyes, steps back from the observation window. “I need a week.” OR: In which Cody wasn’t trained for a Sith sliding into a moral dilemma because of him. ***

veil of shadows by amidnightlove - Raised as Sith, Obi-Wan knows all about the Rule of Two: one Force bond, two Sith.Expecting to bond with his Master -and then overthrow him- he never expects to be ordered to bond with the new and mysterious Darth Vader. ***

Ghost at the back of your closet  by @other-peoples-coats - Bail first meets Ben in less than ideal circumstances, which he should have taken as a warning sign but failed to until it was far, far too late to admit he'd missed it. (Things go much worse for Initiate Kenobi, on Bandomeer. Years later, Bail Organa meets a young man in a cell who calls himself Ben, and then proceeds to discover that the Republic he values is nothing but a thin veneer over creeping rot. There's only one way to deal with rot — cut it out, down to the last inch. It's hard work, long work, but no one has ever accused Alderaan of lacking in commitment.)

You Shall Become (Me)  by jedipati - The Guardian of the Sith Temple doesn’t particularly care for the new breed of Sith, for all that they’ve been around for 1,000 years.  But they’re the only Sith the Guardian knows about.  Until one day… Alternately, "How to accidentally join the Sith without really trying."

What came after by @galateagalvanized - “Are you all the Council sent, then?” Bo-Katan asks, swinging one leg over the speeder’s seat. Her voice is raspy, and Cody wonders if it’s from smoke inhalation. “Considering they wouldn’t help with the first Sith, I guess I should be glad for any help at all with the second.” It's the first time he's heard someone use that word to describe Kenobi, and he bristles. “We’re not here on behalf of the Council, Miss Kryze. We're here for our general.” Or: Everyone has a breaking point. That includes Obi-Wan. That includes Cody. ***

Fallen (Series) by @thebisexualmandalorian - How did Obi-Wan fall? (Summary from first fic in series)

A Beast Among Bookends; or, How to Domesticate Your Feral Librarian by @the-writing-mill - A separation and a tumble on a mission leads Obi-Wan Kenobi down a different path in life. Years later, during the clone wars, the 212th is sent to take out Darth Libri after failed attempts by both the CIS and Republic to sway him to their sides. The mission does not go well. But if Cody choosing to stay with the vode's nightmare for a bit can spare his brothers, well... that's not really a choice, is it?

Polaris (Series) by @bluemaskedkarma - What if Obi-Wan Kenobi never went to Bandomeer? What if, instead, he got on a different ship? Those steps set into motion an entirely different future, one where he takes on different names until an unlikely friend gives him one that sticks--Red. All he wanted was to help those in need, but somewhere along the way he became the one who needs. Who will help him?

#kalis rec lists #sith obi wan

[lauransoverthinking]

I have so many thought about Hondo Ohnaka.

And the way I often see fandom portray him - hilarious inept friend.

And the way he portrays himself - best friend of a certain Jedi master who is always willing to help, for a price.

And the heinous acts he is able to get away with because of this Jack Sparrow like representation.

When we see him in Rebels, it is a glowing representation of him as a scoundrel.

He loves the Jedi

He and Ezra are adorable together

He misses his Jedi best friend.

When we meet him in The Clone Wars, he’s hilarious, mostly harmless, and pretty helpful

Captures Dooku, Anakin, and Obi-wan with the goal to ransom them back to the Republic. Yay, the good guys!

Takes weapons to Onderon. Yay! Overthrow the separatist oppressors

Tries to steal kyber crystals from younglings - that’s not great, but no one got hurt and he definitely thought they could just get more. No harm, no foul?

Attempts to sell a teenage girl…. *insert record scratch here*

Everyone, and I mean everyone, loves to gloss over that last part. Fans, the entirety of the rest of canon, hell even the end of that arc, love to gloss over the fact that THAT MAN TRIED TO SELL AHSOKA.

Not ransom her back to the Republic, not sell her to the separatists.

No, he captured a teenage girl and was going to sell her to someone who specifically wanted to buy a female Jedi.

He told us this!

The truth is, I have my sights set on more nefarious criminals than I, a businessman who will pay handsomely for a Jedi.

A female Jedi at that.

This is the last arc of The Clone Wars he is in.

Later, in this exact episode, he tells us he killed an entire circus troupe because he didn’t like their act!

I would hate to be forced to cut off their heads like I did to your last act.

You remember those guys.

You are a brave man to come before me again.

Where is my Jedi?

I would hate for her to miss the show

which I'm hoping will be better than last time.

We learn so much about Hondo in this episode and it all seems to be telling us the same thing - don’t forget this guy is a bad guy. Like a very bad guy.

He seems to like Anakin and Obi-wan, so they don’t get the worst of him.

Ahsoka does not have that luxury. He is going to sell her to the highest bidder. The type of scum to say they don’t just want to say they own a Jedi, they want to own a female Jedi. We all saw the Zyggeria arc. We all know what he is talking about.

And what is worse is Obi-wan doesn’t even think anything like this is a possibility! Because he and Hondo are friends or something.

Obi-wan: We shall deal with Hondo on Florrum.

Youngling: Will Ahsoka be all right?

Obi-wan: Hondo would be even more of a fool than I think he is to hurt her.

Guess what General - HE IS GOING TO SELL HER!

And he would have continued to try if Grievous hadn’t shown up to ruin his plans.

He did not see the light and change from his murdering of circus troupe and selling sentient beings ways, a bigger bad showed up and he allied himself with the person he just tried to sell because she is a Jedi and still believed his life was worth saving.

And yet this saving his own skin behavior seems to have completely wiped the stain of tried to sell a whole person off of him. Because it’s adorable how he immediately cared for Katooni and that is all people seem to remember from that arc.

No, it isn’t adorable. At all. If Katooni had been a few years older he would have looked at her and seen profits too.

If Ahsoka hadn’t been so concussed from Grievous throwing her around, she would have mentioned the whole trying to sell her thing to someone.

And that would have been the end of the Obi-wan and Hondo friendship, because of, you know, the horrible behavior.

Anyways, TLDR - Never forget that everyone’s favorite pirate with a heart of gold Hondo Ohnaka tried to sell Ahsoka and was only thwarted because Grievous came to attack him instead.

I would have loved to see Ezra tell Ahsoka about his new bestie Hondo. Kanan is over there with his hand over his face thinking ‘I don’t know how to convince him this guy shouldn’t be trusted’ and suddenly Ahsoka solves the problem for him like ‘oh I know Hondo, yeah, he tried to sell me when I was 16 because it would be *airquotes* profitable’.

#hondo ohnaka #ahsoka tano #obi wan kenobi #the clone wars #sw rebels #ezra bridger #the gathering #bound for rescue #maybe just don’t trust people Ezra vibes with? #the kid gets on handsomely with Hondo and MAUL #maybe he suspicious of anyone he independently befriends #Hondo is a pirate and that isn’t a good thing #I too am amused by him but also like… do not forget this