#Kylia Rambles | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunnydaleherald · 3 years

Text

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, May 6

Gunn: "Fred, a few years ago I would have done in the guy myself. But this? It isn't what we do."

~~Supersymmetry~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

144 Days: What's My Line Part 1 (Oz/Willow, T) by violettathepiratequeen

Headcanon and fic snippet: [Imagine Giles craving proper greasy chippy chips] (Giles x chips, not rated) by melonsmessymusings

[Chaptered Fiction]

Athena Luthor, Chapter 13 (crossover with Smallville, Clark Kent/Buffy, Buffy&Lex Luthor, not rated) by Hermione2be

The Blue Eye of the Storm, Chapter 17 (Spike/Buffy, E) by MaggieLaFey

The Burbank Wedding, Chapter 16 (crossover with Chuck, Caridad/John Casey, T) by Starfox5

Fully Functional, Chapter 13 (crossover with Terminator and ST:TNG, BtVS s1 ensemble, T) by steeleye

i feel my temperature rising, Chapter 8 (Spike/Angel, E) by lovelyorbent

The In-Between, Chapter 12 (Tara/Willow, Scoobies, G) by onebuttoneye

In Dreams, Chapter 6 (Giles/Buffy, E) by TheScholarlyStrumpet

Little Harmonic Labyrinth, Chapter 31 (crossover with Star Trek: Voyager, Buffy, Illyria, not rated) by Energybeing

Mortal Allies Episode 4: My Turn, Chapter 27 (Spike/Buffy, Oz/Willow, ensemble) by Passion4Spike

Save the Kid, Save the World - Season 2, Chapter 16 (Connor/OC, Angel Investigations, M) by Editor1

Season 7 Redux, Chapter 24 (Faith/Tara, T) by BuffyBot3000

Slayer Fight Club, Chapter 2 (Faith/Buffy, M) by TheForgottenMyth

Things You Can't Come Back From, Chapter 5 (crossover with Stargate Atlantis, Buffy/Ronon Dex, Dawn, Faith, T) by Lady_of_the_Seraphim

This Year's Boy, Chapter 11 (Xander, Faith, ensemble, M) by Kylia

What You Do Afterwards: Season Four, Chapter 40 (Cordelia/Doyle, Angel Investigations, M) by myheadsgonenumb

This Year's Boy, Chapter 11 (Faith, Xander, T) by KyliaQuilor

The Eleventh Hour, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, T) by Wonder and Ashes

The Heart of Me, Chapter 10 (Buffy/Angel, T) by butimbroken

The Past Is Only The Future With The Lights On, Chapter 11 (Buffy/Angel, T) by butimbroken

Grace, Chapter 5 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Soulburnt

Embers, Chapter 1 (Spike/Buffy/Angel, NC-17) by Dusty

Mortal Allies Series, Episode 4: My Turn, Chapter 27 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Passion4Spike

This Year's Boy, Chapter 11 (Faith, Xander, FR18) by KyliaQuilor

Lorne in Vegas, Chapter 1 (crossover with CSI Las Vegas, Lorne, FR15) by NilesMilsson

[Images, Audio & Video]

Faith/Buffy comic (NSFW text) by toyhdgehog

Artwork: heaven help me i didnt see, the devil in your eyes (Angelus x Buffy, worksafe) by crabuncle

Vid: The Funeral (Buffy, Scoobies) by WeCanTry

Manip: Joyce in Band Candy (worksafe) by PocketGachnar

Drawing: Spike (worksafe) by onereallytiredgoose

Artwork: A caricature of Spike and Drusilla (worksafe) by Andy Radbourne

Artwork: Yang and Buffy fight a Grimm horde (worksafe) by LeRaphe

[Reviews & Recaps]

Yeah Buffy, what are we gonna do now? (on the final two seasons) by chuckcoded

Discussion of AtS 1.21 "Blind Date" (continued) by Stake fodder

Discussion of AtS 1.20 "War Zone" (continued) by Stake fodder, thrasherpix

Season 7 rewatch : Potential (continued) by Stoney

My favorite episode of Buffy is The Zeppo by multiple people

20 Year Rewatch - s04e05 "Supersymmetry" by Ohigetjokes

You’re Welcome (S5 E12) and other ramblings by Kermdog15

I've finished the show for the first time. Here's my thoughts on Chosen by AJ_Babe

Worst crossover? [Sanctuary] hosted by DarkstarX84

Best crossover? hosted by DarkstarX84

PODCAST: Still Pretty 154. Him (S7.06)

[Recs / In Search Of]

Buffy and Ford ficlet "Old Friends" by badly_knitted recced by petzipellepingo

Fic search: RogueSlayer111 is looking for a Kid!Wesley fanfic set in BtVS s3

Spike/Ripper oneshot "caned and drained, harshly profaned” by lovelyorbent recced by flow

Fic search: OtherwiseFortune4 is looking for a Kid!Wesley fanfic set in BtVS s3

[Community Announcements]

Who is interested in a Cangel group chat on Discord? by chasecordelias

A Tara-themed Banner Battle on Buffy-Boards, deadline: May 15th

[Fandom Discussions]

Joss Whedon and the Coerced Hero by madimpossibledreamer

What Giles went through emotionally during Graduation Day by melonsmessymusings

The perception of the earlier seasons as “less dark” by my-personal-multiverse

Snyder probably knew Buffy was the slayer by zunavalkyrie

Buffy Summers and Dean Winchester... have such similar story points by deanwasalwaysbi, zorelle

Okay I actually love certain Spander or spander leaning fics by gothic-buffy

I find Riley’s arc in S4 pretty interesting by gothic-buffy

[How did Angel not see Spike passed out on his lawn in Lover’s Walk?] by yourfriendlyneighborhoodbimbo

Dawn definitely asked to paint Spike’s nails by yourfriendlyneighborhoodbimbo

Like half of Xander and Spike’s interactions read like closeted bisexual Xander by yourfriendlyneighborhoodbimbo

Since it’s established that the Fanged Four were a huge deal, and knowing historians... by yourfriendlyneighborhoodbimbo

What does Fred bring to the team? (continued) by Kendar, AstridDante

Riley's Age and Buffy (continued) by Kendar, whatdBuffyDo

Re: Say something nice about Eve [AtS] (continued) by Kendar

Whedon wanted a black actress to play Cordelia by American Aurora and others

Spike’s poem in Not Fade Away by American Aurora and others

The Tree Scene in AYW? (continued) by debbicles, HardlyThere

Spike’s soul: character necessity or writer necessity? (continued) by flow and others

Best Fang Gang Member : Fred or Gunn? (continued) by PuckRobin

Becoming - Part 1 and Fallen (1998) by knottedude

What was the most shocking plot twist of both Angel & Buffy? by Dism4l

Do you think Spike’s mother resented him when she was a human? by NotTheEnsemble

Time taken to turn after being sired by Reignbeaus and others

Who understands Angel the best? hosted by jdpm1991

Was Wesley always planned to be part of the show or did he just replace Doyle? hosted by brunson862

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Quiz: Which AtS character are you? by saltinthewounds

PUBLICATION: It’s Not Easy Being Green: Angel’s Fabulous Yet Undervalued Lorne by Robin Moon (25YL)

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #angel the series

1 note · View note

kyliaquilor-archive · 7 years

Text

Answer 30 question and tag 20 people

I was tagged by @sapphic-spook

Nicknames: Kylia Quilor, Bitch

Gender: She/Her

Sign: Gemini

Height: 5′3″

Time: 6:14am

Birthday: May 27th

Favourite bands: Apart from Weird Al and like, Meatloaf, there’s almost no artist I like more than 2-3 songs of. Though there is Sabbaton.

Favourite solo artists: See above

Song stuck in my head: None, at the moment

Last movie I watched: I think it was Attack of the Clones?

Last show I watched: Once Upon A Time

When did I create this blog: This blog? Just a few months ago

What do I post: Here? Personal ramblings, personal vagueblogs, random musings on politics, philosophy and history, and reblogs on non-fandom topics.

What did I last Google: The name of a fic so I could open it on my phone’s Chrome

Other blogs: @kyliafanfiction my main/Fandom blog

Do I get asks: Less often than I’d like. I miss getting anon hate asks too.

Why did I pick this URL: Because my online name is KyliaQuilor, and this is my personal blog.

Following: 213

Followers: 683 on the fandom blog, 30 on this one

Average hour of sleep: 4-7 Hours a night

Lucky number: Whatever answer will shock and upset a given person the most, so usually 666.

Instrument: yeah, no

What am I wearing: Pjs and a Tshirt

Dream job: Published sci-fi/fantasy author

Favourite food: Right now? Scrambled Egg, Bacon, Cheese sandwich on a bagel

Last book I read: Harshini by Jennifer Fallon

3 favourite fandoms: I’m not really deep in many fandom... my little corner of the Skyeward fandom, the BtVS/AtS fandom and... OUAT?

I tag less than 20 people, but...

@evieoh @stargazerdaisy @scienceofficer-winifredburkle @mayorwilkins @redxluna @vesperass-anuna @jessicajcnes

#Kylia Konfesses

4 notes · View notes

kyliafanfiction · 4 years

Text

So, all this thinking that I’ve been doing about the issues I have with the way Battlestar Galactica handles the issue of religion has made me think about the way I handle religion in my own fiction. Because religion, oddly, often plays a major role in many of my stories, or at least in the inner lives of many of my major characters.

And despite my disdain for religion, and for organized religion in particular IRL (albeit this is not a disdain for the religious IRL - at least not simply for being religious), I don’t think that religion, at least categorically, comes out entirely bad in my fiction. But it’ s true that even when religion plays a major role in my stories, it’s religion as an entity and social construct and organizational idea/organization, rather than spirituality or faith. I don’t engage with religious themes all that often, at least not deliberately. (even when I’m writing in fantasy universes where the god or gods in question very explicitly do exist, some fashion.

And further, I noticed that of the five stories I’ve worked on that went beyond a first ‘concept’ chapter and included significant worldbuilding and story mapping efforts beyond them, three of them center around a dynamic of an atheist and a devout religious person working together with some degree of romantic entanglement (if not more than that).

Like, while I have god knows how many idea snippets, story concepts, half-complete worldbuildings and so on, only five story ideas have truly made it into being written enough to recognize any burgeoning dynamics.

Of them, one of them, my sci-fi Orion Team series (well, three chapters, but the notional idea was a series) centers around a five man team with

a devout Roman Catholic, who was lapsed until after a major battle he fought in (which is doubly odd because I very much dislike the notion of atheists not being in foxholes)

an alien who worships the polytheistic faith predominant among his people (and has a difficulty understanding how monotheism works, let alone is the most common form of belief among humans),

a follower of a deliberately weird and highly spiritualistic syncretic religion that has elements of the way fantasy fiction treats religions of gods that manifest in the world regularly

An atheist with active disdain for religion, and who dislikes it most because they have spent most of their professional life wearing any number of false identities, and Truth has become something of a relative concept for them - and religion tends to be more in the ‘One Truth’ category

An atheist who is much more casual about their atheism, and is basically atheist because both his parents were atheists and all their parents were atheists - he wasn’t specifically inculcated with atheism, but most people do tend to more or less follow the same beliefs as their parents.

The other one that doesn’t apply is a bit of an odd bird, in my Heartpoint Chronicles ‘series’ (well 4 and change chapters, but again, a notional series), which centers around Mark (an otherwise more or less normal human who happens to be descended from someone who locked something value behind a lock only his bloodline could open a hundred years ago) is an atheist, and Rebecca Fernandez (the vampire who wants the thing behind the bloodline vault) is a lapsed Catholic - very lapsed, and often makes regular light of that, and Talia Elsner (another vampire who wants to kill Rebecca and stop her from getting the thing she wants, and thus works with Mark) who...well, Honestly, I have no idea about her religious convictions, which is odd, because I usually do.

The other three stories, all have that same dynamic I addressed above - Atheist (or atheistic) and Devout Religious Character, working together, with some degree (or more) of romantic Entanglement involved. And the atheist is always the viewpoint character.

In my Fracture Point story (21 chapters, long dead and likely to remain so, but my first serious effort into original work), the main character is Cerian Quilor - first character to use the Quilor name in anything, though it’s since been reused many times, as I quite like the sound of it - and he’s an atheist in a fantasy setting where the gods very much do exist, but all of them are ascended mortals. His culture tends towards atheism, and indeed, an active disdain for the gods, since they really are just super powerful mortals. It’s like a ‘why are you better than me just because you’ve got power?’ kind of thing. He not only has active disdain for religion, but takes great fun in mocking it and religion - it’s a common point of comedy for his culture. This tendency costs him his relationship with Alexiana Caeron, who in the story is his partner in investigating crimes now two years after their breakup. Alexiana is a rare devout person in this culture, following a specific goddess - her faith is very important to her, and her sense of identity, but she isn’t pushy or fanatical and she broke up with Cerian not because of his mocking religion per se, but because of his complete lack of awareness as to why she was bothered by it. I never decided to get them back together or not - but the romantic tension and their (at the time of the ‘first book’ - Fracture Point. I had plans for 3 more, in terms of the plots) feelings for eachother played a role in their dynamic.

In my ‘Katriverse’ story, (3 chapters) you have the viewpoint character Kyseen, an Alatrist (i.e. she believes the gods exist - which they do, in this fantasy setting - but not that they are necessarily worth worshipping, for various reasons), who is an operative for the Ministry of Security, works alongside (and has a very stubborn attraction to that eventually becomes an on-again, off-again casual relationship that would, in future installments, become more) Valeria, a devout - very devout - woman who works for the Inquisition of the State-sponsored chuch (it’s not the only legal religion, but it has a great deal more latitude than other religions, and informs a lot of state policy, despite the fact that church and crown have lots of disputes over who holds the real reigns of power). They work together - and despite being a member of the Inquisition, Valeria is again, not some fanatical caricature - she has a bit of blue and orange morality compared to most people IRL, because of the mores of her religion, but still.

And finally, in my current sci-fi project (9 chapters and counting) you have Talia, the viewpoint character, a flaming nigh-militant (in her head anyway) atheist who holds to many, many precepts that run counter to the central tenants of the Imperial Church (not the only religion, but all religions have to agree that the sitting Emperor/Empress is divinely ordained to be allowed to exist legally. atheism is also legal, but, blasphemy against the Imperial Church is basically illegal) and Elena, an agent of one of the Empire’s many law enforcement agencies who arrests Talia and then forces Talia to work with them against threats to the Empire (ala White Collar or similar such shows). The long arc of the notion for these characters has them go from drunken hatesex to regular hatesex to admitting ‘you don’t totally suck’ casual sex relationship to ‘I think I like her’ to ‘I think I like you’ to ‘I love you’, with all the steps in between. But again, Elena is not some mindless fanatic, and neither the Empire nor the Church it sponsors/is sponsored by is purely evil or monstrous, despite its many flaws, and the opponents of both are not purely good glorious freedom fighters. And Elena ends up moderating some of her beliefs as a result of falling for Talia (initially considering Talia an abomination, while Talia considers Elena a freakish mutation, at the start, basically) and Talia moderates some of her own, as they start to see some of the other side of a complex issue - and while Elena never loses her faith and Talia never loses her atheism, they do come to a lot of terms.

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

I’m not really trying to make a grant point - I don’t know what grand point the above rambling to lead to - but I find it interesting that despite my issues with religion and religiosity and spirituality, the atheistic viewpoint characters in all three of my major story projects all have significant romantic arcs or connections with religious characters. It’s rather remarkable how often religion shows up in my fiction, actually, and how it never seems to be the sort of ‘purely bad’ oppositional force that I more of less hold religion as IRL.

Partly because I don’t care for such shallow narratives in general, but still. Why? Why does this happen? Do I have a secret yearning to fall in love with someone religious? I don’t think so. Honestly, the notion of being married to a devout person is quite disquieting - my atheism is a pretty significant part of who I am and how I conceive of myself, and I don’t know If I could sustain a relationship with a theist forever. Indeed, I’m quite certain I couldn’t.

So why?

Well, I don’t know, but I’m wondering if in part, this is part of an interrogative process I’m having with myself - I seem to do a lot of that through my writing and my reading and my thoughts on both - as I try to understand the religious mindset. I am an atheist, and I do have trouble understanding how a devout believer views the world - it’s easy to say they’re all dumb and deluded, or opportunists taking advantage of the same, but I know it’s far more complicated than that. I know some dumb and deluded atheists, and some very smart believers, and all 31 flavors in between.

But I do live in a world where religion and the religious is and are everywhere. I mean, religious people to one extent or another are by far the majority in my country and in the world, and even as an atheist, my moral and probably even epistemological and cosmological worldview is informed by Christianity, whether I like it or not, raised in a predominantly Christian nation surrounded by people influenced by Christianity on all levels of their lives and minds, etc. From little things, like saying ‘go to hell’, when I don’t believe hell exists, or shouting ‘jesus christ’ when shocked or in pain despite not holding him as sacred, so in of itself such an exclamation should hold no real meaning to you, etc, to bigger stuff about how my morality is, as I said, no doubt informed, at least in some ways, by Christian principles.

And so I’m forced to spend a lot of time around religious people and around religion, and so I wonder if my constant inclusion of religion in many of my stories, and the dynamic of the atheist falling in love with a religious person (and vice-versa) is part of that process of me, as a person, trying to understand the mindset of a religious person - what makes someone, a smart someone who should be able to see all the same evidence I do and at least be a misotheist if not an atheist - be a devout believer. What is it like to live such a life? What is it like to think like that?

again, I don’t really have a point, but it’s my blog and I can think out loud on it if I want to, so...

It’s just interesting for me.

#Kylia Interrogates Herself #That is like - my thinking about my own thoughts tag essentially #Kylia Konfesses #Religion in Fiction #Atheism in Fiction #Religion #Atheism #Musings #Kylia Rambles

1 note · View note

kyliafanfiction · 5 years

Text

I think, if you wanted to get deeply psychological about it (and I rarely do), one of the main reasons I read books and watch TV and consume fiction in general is to try to understand what it is that brings people to choose to do terrible things. What is it that goes through their head?

What is it that brings them to do these things, and oftentimes, continue functioning as if they are normal, good, rational people? What is the logical insanity that brings them to it?

I like dark stories, but I don’t like dark stories that spend a lot of time on the suffering of the victims - in fact, I tend to get exasperated and frustrated with stories that spend a lot of time on someone’s trauma, even if it would be entirely rational and reasonable for this person to have a lot of it.

And I always feel like a callous bitch when I say that, but it’s true. I get bored by examining a character’s trauma. It’s one of the reasons season 6 of Buffy is so hated by me personally - yeah, there’s parts of it I like (Smashed and Wrecked, for example) and I like a good angstfest episode or single arc, but... when a story *dwells* on that trauma and angst, I hate, hate, hate, hate it. I always want to scream ‘get over it!’ because I am by that point.

But I still like dark fiction. A lot of people consume dark fiction for the catharsis offered by the suffering of the victim or the recovery of the victim - or in general, something related to the person who suffers (whether or not they are or remain the victim for the whole story).

But for me, that’s never been the draw. The draw has always been trying to understand what the fuck is going through the head of the person doing these bad things, and how they rationalize them. Which would be why the only true darkfic idea I’ve ever had and put serious thought into how I write was going to be, from the start, from the perspective of the person doing the bad things. The person was gonna be stalking and mind manipulation and planting cameras in the object of their affections shower and all kinds of other worse stuff, and they were never going to be cast as right (and eventually she was going to realize what she was doing was wrong, I had this whole arc in mind, though I only remember some of it now).

The person receiving all this action was never the focus of the narrative for me, and I was worried what that said about me until, relatively recently, I started to grasp just what it is that attracts me to these sorts of stories.

Because, for a long time, I’d say “I like dark stories”, and then I’d find a dark story and most of the time come away going, “no, this is not what I want’, and I didn’t understand why.

I’m reminded of two things that Richard Castle says in the show Castle. In the first episode, when his daughter says murder is usually senseless, he goes something like: “no, murder usually makes a great deal of sense” and then, later on (I wanna say in season 2?) he says something to the affect of “I write all these murder mysteries because I want to understand why these people who do horrible things do them”

And that’s really what I’m talking about - because oftentimes, these horrible crimes often *do* make a great deal of sense - to the person doing them. People rarely just gibber around mindlessly and randomly. Insanity is usually not about doing things randomly, but about having such a warped perception or sense of reality or priorities that things make sense differently. It still follows a rational process.

When people do horrible things, there is usually a logical insanity to it, and that is what I try to understand, and that is often what I try to relay, or at least work through, in my own writing.

There is almost always a logical insanity at work, and it’s often fascinating to wonder about.

#Logical Insanity #Dark Fic #Darkfic #Musings #Kylia Konfesses #Kylia Rambles #Kylia Interrogates Herself

1 note · View note

kyliafanfiction · 2 years

Text

I read a fic a while back, Romance of A Thousand Stars (which I highly recommend, it’s very good) that posited the question: What if Dooku really had been captured in Episode 1x11 of the Clone Wars, and gave up Palpatine? The Jedi arrest (or kill) him with enough proof no one can deny, the Separatists are without a leader and realize they’re dupes as well, but... well

The Republic’s not just going to be magically unicorns and rainbows. Palpatine planted a lot of landmines for the Republic that we see later on in TCW, and the Republic was pretty damn unhealthy by the time the CIS formed. There’s a strong case to be made that no matter what people do, the Republic is Doomed by that point.

This fic (Romance of a Thousand Stars) decided to use the fall of the Han Dynasty and the rise of the Warring States period as the model for the fall of the Galatic Republic, using stories like Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a model. That’s a fine choice, and again, it’s a great and I highly recommend it.

That said, I did personally find the use of the fall of the Han to not be the most apropos. Which of course got me wondering - what would I find as the most apropos? My immediate thought was Rome, because ‘Republic > Empire’ and ‘Imperial Senate’ and such obviously invite such comparisons here in the Western World.

But, without Palpatine, I don’t see anyone being able to pull a Caesar for at least like, fifty or sixty, if not more. It’s easy to look at Caesar trying to be Dictator for life and getting killed in 44 BCE then look at Augustus less than 15 years later being the unquestioned lord and master of Rome in 31 BCE (though he didn’t formally become Princeps until a few years after that).

But Caesar was the culmination of a decades long process. And a key ingredient was private armies responsible to political generals. Rome, in the days of Marius, found itself in the same situation as the Republic when the CIS formed - they needed an army, quick, but didn’t have one. Lacking a bunch of clones, the Roman government basically authorized Marius to raise, pay and maintain his own legions (Yes, it’s more complicated than that), ignoring all property qualifications. So he could turn the vast, unemployed masses of Rome into soldiers - and then, once they served their term, he was the one who would have to force the Senate to give them their pensions, their land grants, etc.

This new model of soldiery gave Rome a ton of Legions to work with, but it also meant that there were generations of soldiers who were more loyal to their politically-motivated generals than the State.

The Galactic Republic doesn’t have that... yet. The clones are actually a formal Army for the Republic, and short of the Jedi turning on the Republic en masse, or an Order-66 style order, we’re not going to see a General launching a coup on the Republic and pulling a Caesar (again, I’m oversimplifying the Roman story here). Give it time, and give the Republic a need for lots of troops as it tries to force the outer rim into compliance and keep the formerly Separatist planets loyal, and deal with things like the Hutts, etc, and sure, you could see individual planets and sectors raising large, locally raised forces, politicians of wealth and influence doing the same, and eventually you could see them using their armies to win fights in the Senate, eventually leading to someone pulling a Caesar.

But it would take time, and a lot of things would have to happen.

So when I realized that the Rome Model doesn’t really work - at least not in terms of someone pulling a Caesar - it made me realize that for all the many problems the Republic had... I’m not actually sure it would have fallen.

Bear with me -

The Republic was broken. Gridlock and corruption had led to stagnation and an inability to make real decisions about anything. Megacorp monopolies ran rampant and had private armies, the courts couldn’t even get rid of Nute Gunray, the Hutts operated relatively freely and slavery was a menace. The Outer Rim was exploited, the Core planets were fat and happy with the current system (largely, people like Bail Organa clearly wanted to reform the system, as did Padme and the eventual Delegation of 2000, but it never did seem to take) and cronyism permeates the bureaucracy. Senators are expected to represent their entire Sector but are mostly responsible to whatever planet appoints them but equally there’s little direct oversight over them in that sense.

BUT, the stress fractures on the Republic make it very hard to imagine, at least for me, any sort of dramatic fall. The regional fractures are largely between the Core and Rim worlds, and the Rim Worlds clearly have as much trouble working together as they do being happy with the Republic. And while many Core worlds might have disputes with one another, or individual problems with the Republic, they’re too plugged into the system and too ‘civilized’ to wage war with each other over it, or try to Rebel against the Republic as long as it keeps puttering along.

The gridlock and corruption means that problems don’t really get addressed, yes, but equally, it means that the kinds of massively unpopular decisons that might lead to widespread backlash won’t happen. The Republic has a military now, but it’s hard to believe that, with the threat of the CIS gone, that the Senate would authorize the massive expansion of funds and resources (and authority) needed to allow the Army the chance to really meet all the obligations it would need to meet.

The Jedi can keep trying to duct tape the Republic together - and they absolutely are why it lasted as long as it did - and that will expand the shelf life of the Republic too, until and unless the Jedi suffer a massive public backlash (which took time - Episode 1x11, the best place to end the Clone Wars early, was too early for the Jedi to lose all esteem in the public eye). They can play peacemaker and try and deal with problems as they arise, whack-a-moling the symptoms but never correcting the problem.

You’d of course see various Outer Rim Worlds (and maybe even Mid-Rim) Worlds revolt or resist against the Republic, to varying levels of success, but it’s hard to imagine the Republic de jure recognizing the independence of any world... because that would require them agreeing on a peace treaty that recognize it. Which again, Gridlock.

As menaces like the Hutts and the crime syndicates and piracy and other independent factors become bigger problems, and the Republic fails to address all of them adequately, you’d probably see alliances of individual worlds forming to deal with them - eventually you have whole groups of worlds negotiating treaties with other groups of worlds without the Republic involved at all. You might see wars between these groups, or at least skirmishes. They’d certainly be dealing with whatever local problems there are, now that they know they can’t rely on the Republic.

And if the Republic fails to nip all this in the bud, then they’re going to have to deal with this phenomenon expanding. With the authority of the central government to actually enforce it’s laws, collect taxes and otherwise keep the peace increasingly eroded.

In short, I think the best historical model for the Galactic Republic that manages to avoid Death by Palpatine is... well, the IRL Holy Roman Empire.

The HRE died in 1806, but it was basically a dead letter after the Treaties of Westphalia in 1648, and even before then, the authority of the Emperor was often so weak that they had to outsource punishment of traitors to various member states (the Upper Palatinate was basically pawned to Bavaria to pay for Bavaria helping the Emperor out against the rebellion the leader of the Upper Palatinate started, but Bavaria had to be the one to actually go and *take* the territory he nominally owned now).

Inertia and the nominal prestige of the position helped keep the HRE alive for over a century after it became meaningless in 1648 - the Diet still met, the Emperor was still elected, but the whole thing mattered about as much as people wanted to let it, and not one bit more. And like I said, even before the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the Emperor often found himself powerless to bully his vassals around, except insofar as he could beg, bribe and bully individual nobles to see things his way.

The HRE, depending on how you counted, had over 2,000 distinct members - most of them were poor, petty Imperial Knights with a couple of square miles, a castle and a village or two, often at the mercy of the bigger players (of which there were about 300, of course some of those were bigger than the others), but able to rally together enough - sometimes - to be able to stand on their own.

Kinda.

The relationship between these big players, small players, duchies, prince-abbeys, counties, marches, princes, free cities and more, and their relationship to and general disobedience of (when they wanted to disobey) and obedience (when it was expedient to obey) of the central authority is what determined the course of the history of the HRE and it’s member states. The Protestant-Catholic wars were as much about which noble had power over whom and how much authority the Emperor had as they were over whether or not Protestantism should be allowed to exist in the Empire.

So what I think the most likely outcome for the Galactic Republic, assuming (and admittedly, this is a big assuming) that it doesn’t suffer Death by Palpatine and we don’t see someone else pull a Caesar (but like I said, that seems unlikely in the short, medium and long term), I just don’t see the Galaxy falling apart into regional groupings. The sector borders are largely artificial, and the inertia of the Republic is enough to keep it going no matter how gridlocked the Senate gets. But you’d see the increased flouting of central authority, and increased irrelevance of the Senate and the Chancellor in the affairs of various planets. I rather doubt anyone will take the time to just kill it dead until long after it’s slipped into a coma and become meaningless.

Of course, all this fails to make for a particularly engaging story involving the characters we know and love.

#Star Wars #The Prequel Trilogy #Star Wars Meta #The Galactic Republic #Holy Roman Empire #Musings #Fandom Ramblings #Kylia Makes Kool Metas #wth trying out a new Meta tag

11 notes · View notes

kyliafanfiction · 3 years

Text

It’s a common fan interpretation - all but confirmed by canon in Season 10 - that even during Project Freelancer, the Director’s goal was to bring back Allison. That that was really the *only* reason he was doing all this.

But... I have so much trouble reconciling that with his actual actions. In season 9, even ignoring his Season 6 portrayal - he has her. The explanation that makes any sense would be if he was trying to ‘get her perfect’ but even then, he constantly appears to have entirely different goals than preserving or perfecting Allison.

I admit that before I ever saw Seasons 9 or 10 (I started in on the show when Season 8 was still airing and I have to get caught up) I was really attached to The Director’s whole “ it is an undeniable, and may I say a fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable,” defense of his actions, and then I was... I was profoundly unhappy with the way the writers decided to more or less toss that aside.

I mean, yes, the Director is capable of having lied to Hargrove (and boy howdy is it good that he never managed to get his hands on all of Project Freelancer’s files) but still. I didn’t personally care for the choice, so I think some of my inability to reconcile probably comes from the fact that I...

I just don’t want to reconcile them? Like, I know that I’m partial to the Director - or perhaps more accurately, the idea of him - and I have found myself bending over backwards at times to try to explain the Director’s actions or mitigate them or... something, and succeeding because it’s really hard to defend what he does.

Like, it’s still my contention based on a... ineffable sense of his whole demeanor, and my interpretation of the totality of his words and actions, that ultimately his intentions were better than commonly read, but... I can’t point to anything in the text of the show, and I can’t escape the likely reality that this is just me being stubborn - sometimes I glom onto a character and refuse to let the fuck go.

I mean, I can point out that Season 1-6 paint a very different picture of Project Freelancer than seasons 8-10 show us. And while we can safely most of Seasons 1-5 aside because it was a very different show at that point, even focusing in on just Recovery One and Season 6/Reconstruction... again we’re just given a very different idea of the Project and it’s goals and methods and the reality of the situation.

And while I love the Flashbacks of Season 9 and 10, and of the 14 seasons I’ve seen, I maintain they are some of the best bits of the show (and I still wish we had more of the Freelancer flashbacks) ... they really don’t fit with the portrayal we get in 6. And it’s the portrayal in 6 that I really liked... I wish we’d gotten that. Or something closer, anyway.

#Fandom Ramblings #Red Versus Blue #Project Freelancer #The Director #Director Church #In which Kylia Keeps Having The Same Argument With Herself She's Had For Like 7 years or something #Musings #As usual there's no real point to this post any more just getting thoughts out of my head #hey remember when I wrote actual metas that had a point?#instead of contextless vagueblogs interspersed by the occasional prolonged rambling?#yeah me neither

3 notes · View notes

kyliafanfiction · 6 years

Text

Yet More Thoughts on Angel Season 4

(If there are three things in my fandom life I’ll never shut up about, they’ll probably be 1) how Angel Season 5 had a terrible out of place non-fitting ending that goes against the themes of the show 2) Faimy and 3) Angel season 4 is a hell of a lot better than Tumblr and the fandom at large gives it credit for)

There are many different things people say about Angel Season 4 that I just... don’t follow. Like, opinions about what the characters do or what the nature of the arcs are, etc, that just completely bamboozle me in terms of ‘where are you getting that from?’ or just ‘huh?’.

And like, obviously that’s why I still love S4 and lots of people don’t, for... some reason.

One of the things that comes up a lot is some variation on this ‘Cordelia/Connor is so disgusting and disturbing, what were the writers thinking!’

And it’s like... Cordelia sleeping with Connor is supposed to be disgusting. It’s supposed to disturb you. You’re supposed to watch it and go ‘eugh’ and wonder what the fuck is going on and what Cordelia is doing. It’s not a relationship in the strictest sense, it’s a narrative plot tool. (I mean, all ships are, but Cordelia sleeping with Connor is especially so).

Relatedly, the way lots of people talk about what the character played by Charisma Carpenter in Season 4 does past Spin the Bottle, bamboozles me, because they usually talk about it as if Cordelia is doing the things. Even people who do know that isn’t Cordelia in there, they still talk about “Cordelia’s” actions assassinating her character (I will never understand the ‘Asssassination of Cordelia Chase’ narrative for as long as I live, it seems) or otherwise like ‘how dare the writers make Cordelia do these things’ or otherwise treating Jasmine-in-Cordelia’s body as if she is Cordelia making those choices.

And she’s just not.

#Angel the Series #Cordelia Chase #Connor #Fandom Ramblings #Meta #Things I Don't Get #Things Kylia Doesn't Shut Up About

3 notes · View notes

kyliaquilor-archive · 7 years

Text

So if you have been following my previously only and now primarily fandom/fanfiction blog @radison, and reading any of the posts tagged ‘personal’ that have the readmores, you may have noticed I’ve been dealing with some... questions concerning my gender identity over the last month and change. I was assigned male at birth, and... my assumption for most of that time was that that was my identity - but ever since I began to question that identity and try and explore what my gender identity actually be, I’ve found that this whole topic really is... complicated, to say the least.

There’s no specific label I currently feel quite ready to use yet, and I’m trying to avoid picking or gravitating towards any label at all right now, and instead... just experiment with my gender expression and try to my own conception of my gender identity. Don’t box myself in too early in this process. I’ll rule out labels that don’t fit, but I won’t just grab what seems like it might fit and call it good. I want to be as certain as I can and completely comfortable with my label when I finally settle on one.

Because... at this point I’m certain that cisgender is not the accurate label. I don’t experience any dysphoria or... problem with being called ‘male’ or he/him or anything along those lines, but I do know that she/her pronouns and a more feminine presentation has felt... right and comfortable and very fitting in my experimentation with it elsewhere. And the more I think about it, the more I feel like being feminine, having a female/feminine body is what I want... so yeah, I’m something. Possibly trans, possibly something near trans, maybe some flavor of non-binary, maybe something I haven’t thought of yet. I don’t know.

The point of this somewhat rambling post, here on my new personal blog is that I am, for now, and possibly more permenantly, going to be preferring she/her pronouns, and rather being referred to as ‘Alkeni’, in reference to my old ‘Alkenifanfiction’ username, I would like to be referred to as Kylia. I’m not going to jump down anyone’s throat if they make a mistake, or flub or whatever and call me ‘he’ or ‘Alkeni’ or things of that nature. It’d be ridiculous of me to assume that people who are well-used to calling me ‘Alkeni’ or using ‘he/him’ in regards to me would just immediately be able to break that habit perfectly. That would be ideal, but I like to be realistic in my expectations.

I can’t really think of a good conclusion to this post, so... welcome to my personal blog.

#Do Not Reblog #Kylia's Gender Identity Exploration #Personal #Kylia Konfesses

3 notes · View notes