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racefortheironthrone · 1 year

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Why People Are Wrong About the Puritans of the English Civil War and New England

Oh well, if you all insist, I suppose I can write something.

(oh good, my subtle scheme is working...)

Introduction:

So the Puritans of the English Civil War is something I studied in graduate school and found endlessly fascinating in its rich cultural complexity, but it's also a subject that is popularly wildly misunderstood because it's caught in the jaws of a pair of distorted propagandistic images.

On the one hand, because the Puritans settled colonial New England, since the late 19th century they've been wrapped up with this nationalist narrative of American exceptionalism (that provides a handy excuse for schoolteachers to avoid talking about colonial Virginia and the centrality of slavery to the origins of the United States). If you went to public school in the United States, you're familiar with the old story: the United States was founded by a people fleeing religious persecution and seeking their freedom, who founded a society based on social contracts and the idea that in the New World they were building a city on a hill blah blah America is an exceptional and perfect country that's meant to be an example to the world, and in more conservative areas the whole idea that America was founded as an explicitly Christian country and society. Then on the other hand, you have (and this is the kind of thing that you see a lot of on Tumblr) what I call the Matt Damon-in-Good-Will-Hunting, "I just read Zinn's People's History of the United States in U.S History 101 and I'm home for my first Thanksgiving since I left for colleg and I'm going to share My Opinions with Uncle Burt" approach. In this version, everything in the above nationalist narrative is revealed as a hideous lie: the Puritans are the source of everything wrong with American society, a bunch of evangelical fanatics who came to New England because they wanted to build a theocracy where they could oppress all other religions and they're the reason that abortion-banning, homophobic and transphobic evangelical Christians are running the country, they were all dour killjoys who were all hopelessly sexually repressed freaks who hated women, and the Salem Witch Trials were a thing, right?

And if anyone spares a thought to examine the role that Puritans played in the English Civil War, it basically short-hands to Oliver Cromwell is history's greatest monster, and didn't they ban Christmas?

Here's the thing, though: as I hope I've gotten across in my posts about Jan Hus, John Knox, and John Calvin, the era of the Reformation and the Wars of Religion that convulsed the Early Modern period were a time of very big personalities who were complicated and not very easy for modern audiences to understand, because of the somewhat oblique way that Early Modern people interpreted and really believed in the cultural politics of religious symbolism. So what I want to do with this post is to bust a few myths and tease out some of the complications behind the actual history of the Puritans.

Did the Puritans Experience Religious Persecution?

Yes, but that wasn't the reason they came to New England, or at the very least the two periods were divided by some decades. To start at the beginning, Puritans were pretty much just straightforward Calvinists who wanted the Church of England to be a Calvinist Church. This was a fairly mainstream position within the Anglican Church, but the "hotter sort of Protestant" who started to organize into active groups during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I were particularly sensitive to religious symbolism they (like the Hussites) felt smacked of Catholicism and especially the idea of a hierarchy where clergy were a better class of person than the laity.

So for example, Puritans really first start to emerge during the Vestments Controversy in the reign of Edward VI where Bishop Hooper got very mad that Anglican priests were wearing the cope and surplice, which he thought were Catholic ritual garments that sought to enhance priestly status and that went against the simplicity of the early Christian Church. Likewise, during the run-up to the English Civil War, the Puritans were extremely sensitive to the installation of altar rails which separated the congregation from the altar - they considered this to be once again a veneration of the clergy, but also a symbolic affirmation of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

At the same time, they were not the only religious faction within the Anglican Church - and this is where the religious persecution thing kicks in, although it should be noted that this was a fairly brief but very emotionally intense period. Archbishop William Laud was a leading High Church Episcopalian who led a faction in the Church that would become known as Laudians, and he was just as intense about his religious views as the Puritans were about his. A favorite of Charles I and a first advocate of absolutist monarchy, Laud was appointed Archbishop of Canturbury in 1630 and acted quickly to impose religious uniformity of Laudian beliefs and practices - ultimately culminating in the disastrous decision to try imposing Episcopalianism on Scotland that set off the Bishop's Wars. The Puritans were a special target of Laud's wrath: in addition to ordering the clergy to do various things offensive to Puritans that he used as a shibboleth to root out clergy with Puritan sympathies and fire them from their positions in the Church, he established official religious censors who went after Puritan writers like William Prynne for seditious libel and tortured them for their criticisms of his actions, cropping their ears and branding them with the letters SL on their faces. Bringing together the powers of Church and State, Laud used the Court of Star Chamber (a royal criminal court with no system of due process) to go after anyone who he viewed as having Puritan sympathies, imposing sentences of judicial torture along the way.

It was here that the Puritans began to make their first connections to the growing democratic movement in England that was forming in opposition to Charles I, when John Liliburne the founder of the Levellers was targeted by Laud for importing religious texts that criticized Laudianism - Laud had him repeatedly flogged for challenging the constitutionality of the Star Chamber court, and "freeborn John" became a martyr-hero to the Puritans.

When the Long Parliament met in 1640, Puritans were elected in huge numbers, motivated as they were by a combination of resistance to the absolutist monarchism of Charles I and the religious policies of Archbishop Laud - who Parliament was able to impeach and imprison in the Tower of the London in 1641. This relatively brief period of official persecution that powerfully shaped the Puritan mindset was nevertheless disconnected from the phenomena of migration to New England - which had started a decade before Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury and continued decades after his impeachment.

The Puritans Just Wanted to Oppress Everyone Else's Religion:

This is the very short-hand Howard Zinn-esque critique we often see of the Puritan project in the discourse, and while there is a grain of truth to it - in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Congregational Church was the official state religion, no other church could be established without permission from the Congregational Church, all residents were required to pay taxes to support the Congregational Church, and only Puritans could vote. Moreover, there were several infamous incidents where the Puritan establishment put Anne Hutchinson on trial and banished her, expelled Roger Williams, and hanged Quakers.

Here's the thing, though: during the Early Modern period, every single side of every single religious conflict wanted to establish religious uniformity and oppress the heretics: the Catholics did it to the Protestants where they could mobilize the power of the Holy Roman Emperor against the Protestant Princes, the Protestants did it right back to the Catholics when Gustavus Adolphus' armies rolled through town, the Lutherans and the Catholics did it to the Calvinists, and everybody did it to the Anabaptists.

That New England was founded as a Calvinist colony is pretty unremarkable, in the final analysis. (By the by, both Hutchinson and Williams were devout if schismatic Puritans who were firmly of the belief that the Anglican Church was a false church.) What's more interesting is how quickly the whole religious project broke down and evolved into something completely different.

Essentially, New England became a bunch of little religious communes that were all tax-funded, which is even more the case because the Congregationalist Church was a "gathered church" where the full members of the Church (who were the only people allowed to vote on matters involving the church, and were the only ones who were allowed to be given baptism and Communion, which had all kinds of knock-on effects on important social practices like marriages and burials) and were made up of people who had experienced a conversion where they can gained an assurance of salvation that they were definitely of the Elect. You became a full member by publicly sharing your story of conversion (which had a certain cultural schema of steps that were supposed to be followed) and having the other full members accept it as genuine.

This is a system that works really well to bind together a bunch of people living in a commune in the wilderness into a tight-knit community, but it broke down almost immediately in the next generation, leading to a crisis called the Half-Way Covenant.

The problem was that the second generation of Puritans - all men and women who had been baptized and raised in the Congrgeationalist Church - weren't becoming converted. Either they never had the religious awakening that their parents had had, or their narratives weren't accepted as genuine by the first generation of commune members. This meant that they couldn't hold church office or vote, and more crucially it meant that they couldn't receive the sacrament or have their own children baptized.

This seemed to suggest that, within a generation, the Congregationalist Church would essentially define itself into non-existence and between the 1640s and 1650s leading ministers recommended that each congregation (which was supposed to decide on policy questions on a local basis, remember) adopt a policy whereby the children of baptized but unconverted members could be baptized as long as they did a ceremony where they affirmed the church covenant. This proved hugely controversial and ministers and laypeople alike started publishing pamphlets, and voting in opposing directions, and un-electing ministers who decided in the wrong direction, and ultimately it kind of broke the authority of the Congregationalist Church and led to its eventual dis-establishment.

The Puritans are the Reason America is So Evangelical:

This is another area where there's a grain of truth, but ultimately the real history is way more complicated.

Almost immediately from the founding of the colony, the Puritans begin to undergo mutation from their European counterparts - to begin with, while English Puritans were Calvinists and thus believed in a Presbyterian form of church government (indeed, a faction of Puritans during the English Civil War would attempt to impose a Presbyterian Church on England.), New England Puritans almost immediately adopted a congregationalist system where each town's faithful would sign a local religious constitution, elect their own ministers, and decide on local governance issues at town meetings.

This seemed to suggest that, within a generation, the Congregationalist Church would essentially define itself into non-existence and between the 1640s and 1650s leading ministers recommended that each congregation (which was supposed to decide on policy questions on a local basis, remember) adopt a policy whereby the children of baptized but unconverted members could be baptized as long as they did a ceremony where they affirmed the church covenant. This proved hugely controversial and ministers and laypeople alike started publishing pamphlets, and voting in opposing directions, and un-electing ministers who decided in the wrong direction, and accusing one another of being witches. (More on that in a bit.)

And then the Great Awakening - which to be fair, was a major evangelical effort by the Puritan Congregationalist Church, so it's not like there's no link between evangelical - which was supposed to promote Congregational piety ended up dividing the Church and pretty soon the Congregationalist Church is dis-established and it's safe to be a Quaker or even a Catholic on the streets of Boston.

But here's the thing - if we look at which denominations in the United States can draw a direct line from themselves to the Congregationalist Church of the Puritans, it's the modern Congregationalists who are entirely mainstream Protestants whose churches are pretty solidly liberal in their politics, the United Church of Christ which is extremely cultural liberal, and it's the Unitarian Universalists who are practically issued DSA memberships. (I say this with love as a fellow comrade.)

By contrast, modern evangelical Christianity (although there's a complicated distinction between evangelical and fundamentalist that I don't have time to get into) in the United States is made up of an entirely different set of denominations - here, we're talking Baptists, Pentacostalists, Methodists, non-denominational churches, and sometimes Presbyterians.

The Puritans Were Dour Killjoys Who Hated Sex:

This one owes a lot to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.

The reality is actually the opposite - for their time, the Puritans were a bunch of weird hippies. At a time when most major religious institutions tended to emphasize the sinful nature of sex and Catholicism in particular tended to emphasize the moral superiority of virginity, the Puritans stressed that sexual pleasure was a gift from God, that married couples had an obligation to not just have children but to get each other off, and both men and women could be taken to court and fined for failing to fulfill their maritial obligations.

The Puritans also didn't have much of a problem with pre-marital sex. As long as there was an absolute agreement that you were going to get married if and when someone ended up pregnant, Puritan elders were perfectly happy to let young people be young people. Indeed, despite the objection of Jonathan Edwards and others there was an (oddly similar to modern Scandinavian customs) old New England custom of "bundling," whereby a young couple would be put into bed together by their parents with a sack or bundle tied between them as a putative modesty shield, but where everyone involved knew that the young couple would remove the bundle as soon as the lights were turned out.

One of my favorite little social circumlocutions is that there was a custom of pretending that a child clearly born out of wedlock was actually just born prematurely to a bride who was clearly nine months along, leading to a rash of surprisingly large and healthy premature births being recorded in the diary of Puritan midwife Martha Ballard. Historians have even applied statistical modeling to show that about 30-40% of births in colonial America were pre-mature.

But what about non-sexual dourness? Well, here we have to understand that, while they were concerned about public morality, the Puritans were simultaneously very strict when it came to matters of religion and otherwise normal people who liked having fun. So if you go down the long list of things that Puritans banned that has landed them with a reputation as a bunch of killjoys, they usually hide some sort of religious motivation.

So for example, let's take the Puritan iconoclastic tendency to smash stained glass windows, whitewash church walls, and smash church organs during the English Civil War - all of these things have to do with a rejection of Catholicism, and in the case of church organs a belief that the only kind of music that should be allowed in church is the congregation singing psalms as an expression of social equality. At the same time, Puritans enjoyed art in a secular context and often had portraits of themselves made and paintings hung on their walls, and they owned musical instruments in their homes.

What about the wearing nothing but black clothing? See, in our time wearing nothing but black is considered rather staid (or Goth), but in the Early Modern period the dyes that were needed to produce pure black cloth were incredibly expensive - so wearing all black was a sign of status and wealth, hence why the Hapsburgs started emphasizing wearing all-black in the same period. However, your ordinary Puritan couldn't afford an all-black attire and would have worn quite colorful (but much cheaper) browns and blues and greens.

What about booze and gambling and sports and the theater and other sinful pursuits? Well, the Puritans were mostly ok with booze - every New England village had its tavern - but they did regulate how much they could serve, again because they were worried that drunkenness would lead to blasphemy. Likewise, the Puritans were mostly ok with gambling, and they didn't mind people playing sports - except that they went absolutely beserk about drinking, gambling, and sports if they happened on the Sabbath because the Puritans really cared about the Sabbath and Charles I had a habit of poking them about that issue. They were against the theater because of its association with prostitution and cross-dressing, though, I can't deny that. On the other hand, the Puritans were also morally opposed to bloodsports like bear-baiting, cock-fighting, and bare-knuckle boxing because of the violence it did to God's creatures, which I guess makes them some of the first animal rights activsts?

They Banned Christmas:

Again, this comes down to a religious thing, not a hatred of presents and trees - keep in mind that the whole presents-and-trees paradigm of Christmas didn't really exist until the 19th century and Dickens' Christmas Carol, so what we're really talking about here is a conflict over religious holidays - so what people were complaining about was not going to church an extra day in the year. I don't get it, personally.

See, the thing is that Puritans were known for being extremely close Bible readers, and one of the things that you discover almost immediately if you even cursorily read the New Testament is that Christ was clearly not born on December 25th. Which meant that the whole December 25th thing was a false religious holiday, which is why they banned it.

The Puritans Were Democrats:

One thing that I don't think Puritans get enough credit for is that, at a time when pretty much the whole of European society was some form of monarchist, the Puritans were some of the few people out there who really committed themselves to democratic principles.

As I've already said, this process starts when John Liliburne, an activist and pamphleteer who promoted the concept of universal human rights (what he called "freeborn rights"), took up the anti-Laudian cause and it continued through the mobilization of large numbers of Puritans to campaign for election to the Long Parliament.

There, not only did the Puritans vote to revenge themselves on their old enemy William Laud, but they also took part in a gradual process of Parliamentary radicalization, starting with the impeachment of Strafford as the architect of arbitrary rule, the passage of the Triennal Acts, the re-statement that non-Parliamentary taxation was illegal, the Grand Remonstrance, and the Militia Ordinance.

Then over the course of the war, Puritans served with distinction in the Parliamentary army, especially and disproportionately in the New Model Army where they beat the living hell out of the aristocratic armies of Charles I, while defying both the expectations and active interference of the House of Lords.

At this point, I should mention that during this period the Puritans divided into two main factions - Presbyterians, who developed a close political and religious alliance with the Scottish Covenanters who had secured the Presbyterian Church in Scotland during the Bishops' Wars and who were quite interested in extending an established Presbyterian Church; and Independents, who advocated local congregationalism (sound familiar) and opposed the concept of established churches.

Finally, we have the coming together of the Independents of the New Model Army and the Leveller movement - during the war, John Liliburne had served with bravery and distinction at Edgehill and Marston Moore, and personally capturing Tickhill Castle without firing a shot. His fellow Leveller Thomas Rainsborough proved a decisive cavalry commander at Naseby, Leicester, the Western Campaign, and Langport, a gifted siege commander at Bridgwater, Bristol, Berkeley Castle, Oxford, and Worcester. Thus, when it came time to hold the Putney Debates, the Independent/Leveller bloc had both credibility within the New Model Army and the only political program out there. Their proposal:

redistricting of Parliament on the basis of equal population; i.e one man, one vote.

the election of a Parliament every two years.

freedom of conscience.

equality under the law.

In the context of the 17th century, this was dangerously radical stuff and it prompted Cromwell and Fairfax into paroxyms of fear that the propertied were in danger of being swamped by democratic enthusiasm - leading to the imprisonment of Lilburne and the other Leveller leaders and ultimately the violent suppression of the Leveller rank-and-file.

As for Cromwell, well - even the Quakers produced Richard Nixon.

#history #puritans #calvinism #english civil war #oliver cromwell #the stupid meme about christmas #new england #protestantism

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littlestpersimmon · 8 months

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My friend asked me to draw them on their wedding day (bc I drew Chintan and Jamil).

Some oc ranting for my own comfort.. Their names are Lihay and Panganoron. In my wip, there is a dominion called Sasaban.. and its in danger of occupation by its neighbor (called Janalila, which is a rajahnate and extremely powerful.). Sasaban's population is mostly coded Muslim.. and it is a sultanate- Panganoron is the heir, their crown prince under a regent, and he is mostly shunned by his people. Mainly because he follows a different religion from his state religion (like imagine if the sultan of Brunei's son was a Buddhist.) . And Panganoron is seen as "weak".. he is very gentle, soft-spoken, academia inclined rather than cunning and war-like as the rest of his predecessors. (His father followed the state religion, his mother was indigenous). Panganoron is keen on proving himself worthy of being sultan, but he had a tendency of being distracted by socioeconomics rather than warding off forces and marching off into the battlefronts- Panganoron built soup kitchens and schools rather than amassing armies, and he is staunchly anti war and anti caste systems- but because of the looming occupation, Panganoron has no real power or resources to challenge the harmful pre-existing hierarchies in Sasaban. Anyways. Panganoron was offered a way out of war with the neighboring country of Janalila, if he married a princess from a different dominion- a theocracy called Kalantiaw, the oldest and the most noble dominion in their world; The princess' name was Maitreyi. If he married her, not even Janalila would dare make enemies of Sasaban and Kalantiaw both.

Panganoron was game, but since all the borders and ports were tightly guarded, Panganoron would have to make his way to Kalantiaw in disguise, with a skeleton crew, and through old , forgotten passageways, and roads that are called "witherways", magical, and only existing within certain, precisely calculated timeframes, of which only certain groups of indigenous people could do.

Lihay is. Well. He is an "uripon"- the lowest of the low in their social classes- indentured to servitude for the rest of his life, very sick from working in the mines.. in my world building, primordial dragons were so large, their hollowed out bones were mined for thousands and thousands of years for coal that burned for decades, so hot it could cremate a cadaver in minutes- working in such mines was very dangerous- guaranteed anyone who spent more than a couple of hours in it would suffer a tamer version of radiation poisoning- but many miners become disfigured, with their skin melting and rotting. Sasaban deals with this by only making lepers and the lowliest uripon mine- Lihay had lived all his life in the dragon-mines, but he was also indigenous- and he knew his way around the witherways.. so.

Lihay is very shy. He is trans, autistic and mute, and he has an enormous crush on Panganoron; Lihay agrees to be their guide, in exchange for his freedom from the mines, freedom from being an uripon, to a maharlika (freeman, I borrowed it from tagalog for my worldbuilding. In the real world, Timawa would be more appropriate)..

Either way. Lihay and Panganoron, traveling together with Panganoron's small entourage, fall in love, which is Very Bad for Panganoron, when the fate of his kingdom rely on him marrying Maitreyi of Kalantiaw- and Very Very Bad when the person he falls in love with is someone like Lihay.

Btw, Panganoron's name means "the clouds that gather at the mountaintop" in Tagalog. (And Bicol), while Lihay's name (Dalihayang) is from a made up language, and it means "twenty four.). But later, Panganoron gives him the name "Hininwon", which means "cherished one" ! ! :')

Ps ps.

Panganoron's eyes are supposed to look like wayang kulit akdksk

#dalayangan

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destiel-news-channel · 7 months

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Source 1 - P2025 website

Source 2 - Report from MotherJones

thank you very much for the news.

[Image ID: Depicted is the Destiel meme where Castiel tells Dean that he loves him. Dean's answer was edited to read '50 conservative think tanks in the US using dark money are pushing to completely control the government, turn the whole country into an even worse Christian theocracy, and completely erase all LGBTQ+ people from existence. It's called Project 2025' /.End ID]

Also a further note: This groups plan seems to rely heavily on a Republican win in the presidential election 2024 after which the whole U. S. federal government is supposed to be placed under direct presidential (Trump in this case) control. I don't know how feasible such a plan is even if the Republicans won, but let this serve as a reminder to

FUCKING VOTE!

[PT: fucking vote! /end PT]

Republicans rely on people who would rather vote Democrat than Republican not voting 'cause they don't see any sense in it anymore/also don't want to support Democrats 'cause "even though they are the lesser evil they're not good"! By not voting you just play into their hands. This Project 2025 is nothing than a direct attack on democracy and if you still want to have a vote that counts in the future please vote. An example of what they want to do is to bring the FEC (Federal Election Commission) which enforces the campaign finance law under their control by only instating Republican commissioners (right now there are just as much Republicans as Democrats).

Please, please get as many people to vote as possible. Tell your family and friends about this. Reblog posts about how voting helps and what Republicans have planned even if you may not be able to vote in America yourself share those things for your American followers.

#FUCKING VOTE PEOPLE #us politics #us news #trump #project 2025 #presidential election #election 2024 #destiel news channel #destiel #destiel meme #spn #supernatural #presidential election 2024 #donald trump #joe biden #republicans #democrats #usa #united states of america

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sanctus-ingenium · 8 months

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answering asks vol 2.

'Smiths' can encompass enginesmiths (mercury), armoursmiths (mars), alchemists (saturn) and some others - generally a smith is someone who works with engines or metal in any capacity, whether by constructing them, managing their fuel, making armour, etc. all of them have a completely degendered role in the church. They are supposed to be wholly devoted to their craft & church, to the point of becoming almost unpeople, sexless.

I like pantera :) he's the main character beast sure (alongside leun) but he's got a lot of interesting history and has been through a lot.

To start out I do some basic sketches while looking at bestiary diagrams of the animal type. Then I draw the base proportions over a photo of the animal's skeleton. Once the joints are all in place and I could imagine it moving relatively freely, I pick a motif and design the armour shapes with that in mind (i.e leun's trefoils, taurus's waves). The motifs come from a bunch of sources - if I see them in medieval art around that animal, the beast's use purpose, the culture that built them and how it might differ in art styles to the 'basic' designs from the heart of the Mezian theocracy. Fun stuff like that.

As an exercise I have taken (human) characters from other settings and made holy beast versions of them, trying to imagine what animal it would be, what weapons, what armour designs, etc. Behold, Bowman:

It's a fun exercise! I recommend :>

Hi! Thank you for the suggestion! I actually did try to use OneNote for my thesis but I found that it ended up an extra step that got in the way. Instead I organised my reference papers manually (and wrote up all my bibliography by hand as well). I haven't heard of Notion so I might look into it :> as someone with adhd I find that the best way for me is to make it stupid easy, which is why discord works because I already use it for talking with friends and I like the mobile app.

SO true!! You can make whatever the hell you want forever and that sounds really cool, I'm glad I was able to help in some little way >:) (although, holy beasts are not robots.. i think the best description for them is just. exotic vehicles.)

lmao it's totally fine!! I love to talk

Sir Heaven had such a profoundly negative experience with Leun that he struggles with the concept of making anybody else do what he now considers to be his burden. He also feels that taking any new people inside Leun would endanger them.

The bishop of Salvius cathedral is the guy Heaven answers to, and his superior officer. The bishop has reported the matter to the pope and they're still working hard presenting new potential novices to Sir Heaven, but the thing is that Sir Heaven rejects them for seemingly valid reasons. He doesn't just say 'no I'm not taking apprentices', he says 'this one's reaction speed isn't good enough' or 'this one is too prideful'. But the longer he tries to keep this up, the more suspicion he heaps on his shoulders. If the time came, no, he would not be able to deny a direct order from the pope.

Ketjan was selected at random, one of a large group of other children who were not raised in the church. This is to ensure that there is no per-existing bias or knowledge of how holy beasts work. And he just happened to be the only one of the group who could master Leun's very demanding dialogue tattoo. The recruiting enginesmiths, who designed Leun's systems, were the ones to train him, but Ketjan was the one to write most of the procedures for operating Leun based on feedback from the dialogue.

Replies from THIS post:

@ospreyonthemoon @kicks-tiktaalik-back-into-water

Krokodilos had an amazing high-tech ventilation system that used active air pumps to keep it circulating. But exactly like the second reply says, it broke down frequently. And because of how it worked, the interior of croc had to be air-tight so that the pumps could work efficiently. And, of course, if it broke down, and it was air tight on the inside, it instantly became a more dangerous deathtrap than your average passively ventilated beast.

There were valves that could be opened in an emergency but these were only added after the first Incident. The pumps would break down from the fabric seals degrading, lose efficacy, and then the parts furthest from the pumps would suddenly not get enough air anymore because air couldn't be moved such a distance with faulty pumps. The reason his enginesmiths want him to be re-commissioned is because the only barrier was the material used for the seals, and they believe they can innovate some new materials or try something different and have it work. They were even thinking of trying natural rubber, which would have worked perfectly, but they never got approval for it.

#setting: mez

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bonefall · 1 year

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would there ever be an occupation for a therapist in the clans? would the cleric take that type of job, or would it be seen as weakness to need therapy in the clans?

It's not so much a 'sign of weakness' but I don't think a therapist role is fitting, honestly. I don't like the impulse to make an Official Role for every little thing-- a role should have well-defined responsibility and a purpose in the running of a Clan. Why have a Therapist Role when the Cleric could do that (since it's a theocracy) or a senior warrior who's just good at helping you talk through your problems?

Or elders, even, why not just have cats go to elders for that wisdom they're allegedly supposed to have? The cats NEVER visit anyone wise. Just look at Tree and all the bupkiss he's accomplished in the like, 6 years since his inception. There's roles already and they're not used at all.

So far my added roles are these;

Educator: Teaches kittens and apprentices history and glyph writing, makes sure cats get the 'official Clan narrative' (Also lets me use Ferncloud to communicate exposition to young cats which is a plus)

Patrol Head: Helps manage and organize patrols along with the deputy and occasionally the leader, offering important input on territory management.

Construction Head: Oversees building in the camp and beyond, keeping track of material gathering, structural integrity, and maintenance.

Kitchen Head: Prevents food waste and oversees prey processing, ensuring that every part of the animals they kill are used. Communicates directly with the Patrol Head for ingredient acquisition and the Construction Head for material procurement.

There's also very, very unofficial roles that aren't appointed, and carry no status. There's a 'parriarch' senior elder whose word is respected above all others, and a 'nursery head' who helps to specifically manage the physical health and safety of the Clan's kittens.

I'm thinking of calling this cat a Chaperone or a Bonne instead of the current fandom term which is "Permaqueen," since I'd like something that comes off a little more gender-neutral. Bonne is feminine in french but NOT ENGLISH SO IT COUNTS

#Clan culture #Better Bones AU

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your-krazy-uncle-bob · 2 years

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The Left used to accuse imperialist, resource-hungry Yanquis in Washington of cutting selfish deals with illiberal dictatorships in Latin America to grab their natural resources.

How odd then that Joe Biden is now begging the despicable Maduro regime in Venezuela—corrupt, murderous, and anti-American—to produce more of its oil solely to send northward to America.

Biden is quite willing to ease sanctions and condone the human rights abuses of Maduro—if his dictatorship will just open its oil spigots before the November midterm elections.

Biden in 2020 campaigned on the supposed evil nature of the Saudi Arabian monarchy. Yet after vainly entreating Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, it was inevitable that Biden would once again supplicate the Saudis to pump more oil.

Biden even pleaded with OPEC to increase its output and thus lower the world price of energy—again before the midterm elections.

Biden, remember, has a bad habit of bragging that he lowered gas prices at the pump when the natural volatility of the petroleum markets leads to a fractional decrease. But once prices spike, he is utterly silent about his own role in limiting U.S. oil and gas output.

So, was it any surprise that the Saudis became the fourth non-democratic regime to refuse Biden’s entreaties? During the 2020 campaign, when gas prices were dirt cheap, and when then candidate Biden was demagoguing about ending fossil fuel, he opportunistically libeled the Saudis a “pariah” state.

Biden also claimed that his opponent Donald Trump had cozied up to these supposedly awful Saudi royals. That accusation was especially ironic given that Trump was the first American president who had no need for Saudi oil.

His administration had managed to make the United States the largest producer of gas and oil in history— precluding any energy dependence on illiberal regimes abroad.

Trump was the first U.S. president whose interest in Gulf State monarchies was not energy-driven.

Instead, he partnered with the Arab nations to end their hostilities with Israel. The ensuing Abraham Accords saw a historic thaw between the Jewish state and moderate Arab nations—given their shared worries about the unhinged Iranian theocracy.

The Saudis are enjoying the schadenfreude of seeing their former American critic now on his knees, demanding the purportedly dirty, polluting oil produced by a supposed “pariah” state.

In response to their “No,” a desperate Team Biden is getting nasty. Almost immediately the administration raised the idea of a pre-midterm retribution of suing the OPEC cartel as a price-rigging monopoly. It even maneuvered allies in Congress to take action to punish Riyadh for not playing the American pawn.

The American public is repelled as they watch Biden’s pathetic theatrics of global oil begging to help himself in the midterms. They are ashamed that their recently energy autonomous country is now imploring non-democratic regimes for every drop of their oil—to the extent of threatening former allies and coaxing current enemies.

More bizarre still, the public was once told that Biden and the Left wanted high energy prices.

Why else did Biden upon entering office cancel the Keystone Pipeline?

Did he not fulfill his green promises to the radical environmentalist Left by shutting down oil fields in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Did Biden not dutifully hector lending agencies, pensions funds, and money managers not to loan to, or invest in, oil and gas companies?

Did Biden not issue fewer new energy leases on federal lands than any prior president?

Was it not Biden on the eve of the Ukrainian war who jawboned the Europeans to reject the EastMed pipeline? That project was a much-needed joint effort by three of our closest allies—Greece, Israel, and Cyprus—to bring clean-burning natural gas to an energy-starved Europe.

In sum, did not Biden brag to the Left that he kept his campaign promises to strangle fossil fuels—both curbing supply and spiking prices—to hasten the “transition” to wind, solar, and batteries?

Why then is Biden humiliating Americans by playing the hard-nosed ugly American? Why is he demanding foreigners pump what we ourselves have in plentitude but will not fully produce?

The answer, of course, is raw politics.

Biden knows he wrecked the economy by deliberately surging oil prices in pursuit of the Left’s utopian green nightmare.

Or put another way—if it is a question of avoiding a historic midterm wipeout, Joe Biden will now do anything.

And that anything means all the human rights sermons about ostracizing “pariah” states like oil-rich Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela go out the window.

In winter 2021 Biden lectured us that fossil fuels were dirty obstacles to our green future.

As winter 2022-23 approaches, Biden believes he can strong-arm his enemies to send us more of such taboo energy that we won’t produce ourselves.

Good luck with all these utter absurdities.

(americangreatness.com)

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most-datable-datable-bracket · 21 days

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(Sorry for the length this ask will be. You really dont have to post or even read this I'm just into fe3h.) About the edelgard propaganda and anon saying its bullshit thing:

People joke about Rhea being homophobic cause she wants to kill everyone in Edelgards group(unless youre in another group and have stolen her guys) and they're the only ones with more than one non straight character in it(3 in the base game 4 in dlc i think) but Rhea isn't literally homophobic.

As for the eugenics thing, though. Edelgard is the only one who is immediately going for the root cause of the feudalism, theocracy, + supremacy of those with crests(a thing some with noble blood have that give them funky lil powers). But yes, eugenics is the wrong word in the context it was used. Those with crests are seen as automatically superior than those without, nobles with crests often(or want their kids to) have kids with people based on crest things, children born without crests are sometimes discarded etc but it's not really "the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations" in a large scale way. Crests are like, gatekept by the nobles, they're supposed to be exclusive and there's supposed to be people without crests so it's not the classic eugenics 'all people should be like this'.

The game is very political, deals with heavy stuff and puts a lot of focus on 'Hey, don't you like this character? You'll stay by their side forever, right?' So people(esp those who picked one route and ignore the other viewpoints of the story) get very passionate about the ones they think are right or wrong and will just claim stuff that isn't supported in-game(good example would be that some extremist Dmitri and or Rhea fans keep calling Edelgard a genocidal facist?? People will really just throw those kinda words around, huh). I personally played Rhea's route(then Dmitri's) first but am now an Edelgard+Claude fan cause i agree with them and like them more while staying chill with everyone, which seems to be the exception cause people have gotten really vile regarding this game.

Also I married Edelgard in her route but as someone who's played all routes I don't actually think any of these bitches would be very dateable. I'm a they should have all lost early truther.

Again sorry for the really long ask i know you don't care about fire emblem, but three houses really has an extreme fanbase... I hope you haven't had to deal with any death threats or some shit and that you have a good day.

Oh yeah, I've seen that Fire Emblem fans can be a bit extreme or mean in my notes / asks but don't worry, I've never had any death threats! I can see that the game means a lot to you all and that you're just taking it to heart!

Have a good day too!

#not a poll

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bellabaxtr · 10 months

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something about the way art is being used/destroyed by capitalism and the christian theocracy has been hitting me so hard lately. like the barbie advertisements getting praised for being genius performance art, the constant book bans and attempts to defund public libraries, the desire to shift art into the hands of ai and algorithms. it feels so nefarious because art is to me supposed to be open and part of an ongoing conversation with ourselves and the world around us. but instead it’s either being weaponized to get us to buy things or believe in the status quo, or being actively censored and suppressed.

none of these are new dynamics but something about the last few years feels like it’s gotten a lot more intentional and widespread. and yet it also feels like people are swallowing it more easily. like public libraries are on the brink of being shut down and they want computers telling our stories instead of people, but we’re having arguments about sex and romance in movies? and it pisses me off and makes me want to just be like fuck off but people are genuinely falling for it and genuinely incorporating this worldview where art is not only dangerous, but should stay in the hands of what is in the end the religious right and corporations. and it fucking depresses me

#sanitizing it only helps them

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illarian-rambling · 1 month

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I suppose I can call this a very late STS ask but even if not I’ve been curious for a while - you’ve talked about the siren empire and their views on land-dwellers a lot but I’m curious about how they treat their own people. What’s it like being a siren? I know they have pretty harsh punishments and Sepo seems to remember the food fondly but I’d love to know anything else you want to share :)

1 A.M. is close enough to Saturday for me

Sirens, by and large, live very normal lives. It's easy to forget this, especially for humans who only see their Singer-Priests when they're out sinking ships, but a majority of sirens have never even been to the surface, much less seen a human. They have apartments and convenience stores down there, theaters and libraries and public parks too. They work mostly mundane jobs or go to school. They love elthuryah (chess basically) tournaments and wine smuggled in special containers from the surface is enjoyed as much as its vintners are despised. Generally, they treat each other no better or worse than humans do other humans.

The one thing is the theocracy. Sirens are brainwashed from the moment they're born into thinking that they are the superior people, that they were made in their god's image and everyone else is a mocking imitation that must be exterminated for its own good. A siren could watch a human die as easily as a human might watch a prayer candle burn. Everything from their entertainment to their education is carefully curated by the Silver Sovereign and her temple to reiterate this cruel way of thinking.

This is why heresy is a big no-no for sirens. When Sepo killed the Silver Sovereign's heir, he killed the future mouthpiece of the Great Anglerfish. Also, the Silver Sovereign is an absolute monarch, so her punishment for him wasn't limited by laws or anything. Given that he killed her only daughter and burnt down her palace, she gave him the worst punishment she could think of---Voiceless and left for monster food. The siren populace was on board with this because, with all the propaganda they're fed, all they knew was that this guy tried to kill the mouthpiece of their god for no reason.

So yeah, daily siren life is pretty normal aside from all the propaganda and regular temple visits. Sirens don't even know those things are odd because why would they? They usually deeply love the temple, especially given the free medical treatment priests provide. Seluthena and the rest of the Ulahdrian empire is a fine place to live when it comes to security and a career. This is why it's so rare for sirens to leave. No sane person would give all that up for a surface world they've been taught all their life is the realm of false-faced demons and a hateful sun.

It's 1984 the fish version down there, basically. Hope this answered your question and thanks for the ask!

#writing #writerscommunity #writblr #my ocs #author

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 7 months

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By: Jack Rivington

Published: Sep 29, 2023

Ahead of International Blasphemy Rights Day, Jack Rivington says freedom of religion or belief must include the freedom to criticise or dissent from religious orthodoxy.

The freedom to question and criticise religious ideas in the same manner as any other kind is foundational to a democratic society. Where it exists at all, this freedom is constantly threatened, both by its traditional enemies of theocracy and religious fundamentalism, but also increasingly from a misguided interpretation of liberal values.

A recent report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom identified 95 countries which criminalise blasphemy in some way. That number is at least one too few, as it fails to include the United Kingdom, where the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel remain on the books in Northern Ireland.

Punishments in countries which outlaw blasphemy vary, from fines to imprisonment and execution. Unjust though such legal processes are, the extra-judicial violence licenced and encouraged by such laws is of equal importance. The Center for Inquiry, which established September 30th as International Blasphemy Rights Day, has said to "charge someone with blasphemy is to value a person's life less than an idea". Though this is particularly true in countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, where those accused of blasphemy are often murdered, it is also the case worldwide. Last year, Sir Salman Rushdie was attacked in Chautauqua, New York, 34 years after the Ayatollah Khomenei called for his murder for the supposed offence of blasphemy.

Those who would impose and enforce blasphemy codes on others do not respect or recognise national borders or sovereignty. A commitment to free speech must therefore be equally international in its scope. In failing to fully abolish its blasphemy laws, the UK validates the notion that perceived offence to religion or God should be prohibited, thereby undermining its ability to promote the right to freedom of expression elsewhere.

Attempts to shield religion from criticism are also underway via systematic efforts to characterise such criticism as a form of racial or ethnic bigotry. The concept of 'Islamophobia', vigorously promoted by Islamists both in the UK and abroad, is the most pressing example. Integral to the concept is the claim that criticism of ideas is equivalent to attacking individuals. Under the term's definition formulated by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG), to question Islamic ideology is to effectively express hate for Muslims.

This is a blasphemy law in another form – a point demonstrated by the case of Erika López Prater, who was fired last year by Hamline University after discussing artistic representations of Muhammad in an art history class. A Muslim student complained that as images of Muhammad are banned in Islam, the content of the lesson – and by extension Prater – was thus blasphemous and Islamophobic.

By agreeing that images of Muhammad are Islamophobic and should therefore not be shown, Hamline generalised the personal feelings and religious interpretation of one individual as the definitive position of Islam. But this view is not shared by all Muslims. As Anna Khalid - an associate professor of history at Carleton College and herself a Muslim - pointed out, in endorsing the supposed Islamic ban on images of Muhammad, Hamline "privileged a most extreme and conservative" point of view.

A policy which empowers the most fundamentalist elements within a religious community is neither liberal nor inclusive. Yet that is precisely what the current arguments around 'hate speech' have achieved. What we have, in effect, is a code which polices a particular theological interpretation of Islam against other interpretations. It is a gross perversion of laws intended to protect the right to freedom of religion or belief to enlist them in sectarian theological disputes in this way.

If the right to freedom of religion or belief means anything, it must include the right of those within religious groups considered blasphemous by more doctrinaire views to practice their faith as they see fit. The current understanding of 'Islamophobia' threatens those who perceived not to conform to traditional theology – Muslim women who reject the hijab, openly LGBT Muslims, and minorities within the religion such as Ahmadis, for example. It is absurd to think that a gay Muslim could be labelled 'Islamophobic' for criticising elements of their own faith which are homophobic. Yet under the current conceptual framework, such criticism could be labelled as such. The ability to criticise religion must therefore be seen as an essential component of the right to freedom of religion or belief, not in conflict with it.

However well-intentioned, politicians who endorse the concept of 'Islamophobia' are effectively reintroducing blasphemy laws by the backdoor and empowering fundamentalists within religious communities in the process. Concerningly, a significant part of the UK's political establishment appears unaware of the problem – the APPG definition has been accepted by all major parties except the Conservatives, along with one in seven UK local authorities.

The UK must not sacrifice the right to free speech in a misguided attempt to promote social cohesion. Secularism, and a robust defence of the ability to criticise all ideas and ideology, is the only genuine way to achieve an properly inclusive society which respects everyone's right to freedom of religion or belief. In defending that right, we must remain vigilant.

#Jack Rivington #blasphemy #blasphemy laws #cancel culture #International Blasphemy Day #Blasphemy Day #National Secular Society #religion #religious sentiments #hurting religious sentiments #religion is a mental illness

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beliscary · 8 months

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backstory yarn spinning re: childhood friends

→ uh oh! a Cardinal's got a semi-secret bastard → Sylvestre keeps Dion in a country estate, watched, well kept, but out of the way. Visits somewhat infrequently but with enough pomp & circumstance & deliberate religious framing that he becomes near saintlike in Dion’s eyes. → (Anabella's 'your mother sold you' bit is a largely unreliably narrated fiction but. you know. the situation could be definitely be perceived that way by a bunch of nobles jockeying for power for whom spinning 'take this money and disappear entirely or i will make you disappear' as a legitimate agreement/exchange might be useful.) → Terence’s family has their lands nearby → Terence gets to be Dion’s companion as they're of similar ages. he trains with him since ~obviously Dion will seek knighthood to champion and save the people as his father does! and to improve his standing and Not Shame His So Very Good and Important and Holy Eminence Sylvestre!! → this arrangement is a high honor for Terence's family who are lesser nobility. like. such a high honor. an inescapably high honor. what a knife’s edge to have to balance upon with the imperial theocracy's #1 schemer inserting himself into your lives. If You Fail Me You Fail Greagor etc. they have to be subtle and clever abt it. terence learns how to play the game from them → for the most part Terence and Dion aren’t thinking about that though. for many years they're just running around the countryside being kids and menaces and best friends and having the best tutors and all that fun stuff → Dion is legitimized when he Bahamuts (fairly young- early tweens?) and almost immediately ends up ensconced in Oriflamme’s court proper

→ ugh it's probably so manipulative too like "oh my son now you are finally strong enough, it is safe for you to come home". syl creates a whole fiction for it too. For I So Love You, Sanbreque, Though It Grieves Me, I Will Give Unto You My Beloved Son → Sylvestre is made Emperor off Dion’s ascension → Dion, desperate to prove himself and his place and Not Shame His Very Good and Important and Holy Father, Civil Servant to the People, Holy Greagor Made Flesh, pivots to the Holy Order → Terence, old enough now to understand in no uncertain terms what Being Bahamut Means and to also have had The Court, The Broader Politics, and the Consequences Of Our Specific Knowledge Of The Lesages talk with his family: Oh My God. I Can’t Protect Him. → (all of this goes down and war begins before Terence makes knighthood?) → he could be reassigned to another knight i suppose. but my vibe is a letter from the desk of the emperor (not even a personal meeting!!!) that's very “sorry kid. what’s your name again. thomas? ted? hey since your family did mine a favor we'll skip the battlefield as a stepping stone to a place in society. i reward loyalty. you can be clergy. now be nice and rest on your laurels and kindly fade into grateful obscurity since your part in this story is done” → He Will Not Be Doing That → Dion goes to be Holy Hand Grenade and Terence has no choice but to go into the Imperial Legion (as a junior officer? or just about? he is still nobility...) → has that small leg up but after that, proves himself time and again. Makes sure it looks outwardly like it is sheer patriotism inspired by the valor and deeds of Prince Dion the Bold. It is not fuck sanbreque and its rewards and its uncaring Eminences and its smiles in your face and knives at your back and especially everything it demands of dion actually → makes the lateral move to Holy Dragoons → climbs the ranks from there for the sole purpose of returning to Dion's side → loves dion the human person so hard oh my god crying into my hands

#the gay dragon catholics are eating my brain #ALL DION AND TERENCE BACKSTORIES ARE QUEENS I WILL READ A MILLION VERSIONS this is just what ive been rotating in my mind etc #[pours disillusionment all over the deputy commander of a true believer] Spicy #havent like. looked too closely at timelines lmao. making bricks without clay

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hero-israel · 1 year

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I was seeing some antizionist types on Twitter talking about how the two state solution is dead and how the only just solution is a secular binational one state solution, and I thought I'd check what various Palestinian/Palestinian-Israeli political factions actually advocate for. After browsing through their various WIkipedia pages, here's what I've found about their stated political ideologies:

The Israeli government should be destroyed and replaced with a Palestinian Islamic theocracy. Jews supposedly would be allowed to remain as a minority with equal rights (but as said factions are the MOST nakedly antisemitic in their rhetoric, I doubt many Jews would believe them) (Hamas, Islamic Jihad)

The Israeli government should be replaced with an Arab nationalist state, but Jews should be allowed to remain as a national minority (and in fact Palestine should become a part of a Pan-Arabist state) (PFLP)

The Israeli state is fundamentally illegitimate as a Jewish state, but we will grudgingly make peace with it in exchange for a Right of Return and an independent Arab nationalist Palestine (Fatah and various offshoots, Balad)

Israel should not be an explicitly Jewish Zionist state, but we're more interested in securing rights for Arab-Israelis, working towards Arab/Jewish cooperation, and ending the occupation (Hadash, Ta'al is somewhere between this position and the one immediately above)

We support an independent Palestinian state but are entirely focused on working for the rights of Arab-Israelis (Ra'am)

The only Palestinian faction that I could find that seems to want a secular democratic binational state is the DFLP, and they aren't exactly the biggest faction

Also almost all of these factions have at various times have essentially said "our position is mostly rhetoric, if need be we are willing to get realpolitik about the whole thing, but we also don't want to be seen to be compromising with the Zionists so we'll try to be deliberately ambiguous about what our exact demands are" which just makes the whole thing more complicated

I see people declare Darwinian evolution is dead all the time too. It is never actually based on new evidence, on anything changing, they just look at the world around them, see Problems X and Y and Z, and snort "Hah, your precious evolution didn't account for this or solve it, I guess your theory's dead!" The constant thoughtless blurting about a 1SS is exactly the same. It never takes into account the irreconcilably different societies involved, nor exactly what alleged changes on the ground were supposed to have ruled out a 2SS (most likely because there have been no real changes on the ground since 2006, so if a 2SS was ever possible, it still is).

Very good recent overview of this sort of vindictive, imperialist fanfic.

#israel #palestine #jumblr

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tsuki-sennin · 1 year

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Hail to the King, baby! Ohsama Sentai! Kingohger! ...or is it King Ohger? I'll tag it both just in case. It's a brand new Sentai, for a brand new tag!

"Rejoice O Swarming Evil! You're My King!"

I am immensely excited, so no more delaying.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Five Heroes, and their God.

-Well, the CG is certainly... better!

-I love the look of this planet.

-Tikyu, I believe? Might as well just call it Yarph.

-The Bugnarak are coming back!

-Pardon you?

-It's all very stylized and detailed, I appreciate that a lot.

-Shugoddam! A... very funny name, I hope it's not foreshadowing.

-Ahhhh, a festival~!

-I feel at home already.

-Lots and lotsa bug folk!

-A ceremony?

-The kings are comin'~!

-A whole roundtable, coming forth.

-Hello, you must be Lord Racules.

-I am honored to make your presence.

-This is Queen Himeno of Ishabana.

-Oh lord, that's so much shiny.

-I mean no offense, your majesty, but this is almost certainly going to be the most CG heavy Sentai season yet.

-Toufu! ...that might be the dumbest name for any of these kingdoms.

-Kaguragi Dybowski! ...I didn't realize Poland was a country Toei even knew existed.

-Ah yep, this one! Everyone was talking about them a hell of a lot.

-King and Chief Magistrate of Gokkan. Has so much GNC swag that it practically emanates off them.

-Thank you for this, Toei, seriously.

-Chief Justice Rita, I love you already.

-And of course Yanma-shachou. Cyberpunk himself.

-I might end up calling you Yanmega by accident, sorry in advance.

-Oh fuck, he lives in Peta, run my lord, they're gonna use your autism to lie about milk!

-Here they come. Royalty in a procession of CGI.

-Legendary Swords~!

-Considering how big and important it seems to be, I'm assuming Shugoddamn's also the center of the land's religion?

-That's pretty neat, kinda like the Theocracy of Allistel from Radiant Historia.

-Oh shit, real location!

-Sorry, I don't mean to harp on the CGI so much, it's honestly not bad at all, but goddamn.

-I suppose this was the blood price to pay for the demand of real suits for every ranger.

-Gira! King of Evil!

-Conquer the world!

-Oh come now Kogane-san, you gotta get into it!

-Oh fuck, taxes.

-Hmmm... I'm sensing a corrupt bureaucracy in our midst.

-Gira comin' in to commit a crime.

-Too cringe for Kogane-san.

-Yeah! Get fucked!

-Doing it for the people!

-Quite a good guy, this King of Evil.

-No more petty squabbles. Now is the time for unity.

-King Racles, offers is life for the people of the world.

-Oop.

-Seems like we've already broken down.

-"You need me. You need my power."

-Yeah, I don't trust you, Racles.

-Damn, Rita don't fuck around, do they?

-"I'm the top", yeah that's what they all say.

-Jururira?

-Sounds tasty.

-Oh fuck, here they come.

-The bad guy bugs!

-Big Daddy Desnarak.

-"Move out, my minions- I mean, my friends! Royal Arms!"

-Have to admit, the CG's at least growing on me a lot more than I expected it to.

-Kogane!

-Homegirl's dying!

-"The King... he'll protect us."

-...seems like that was an empty lie.

-Dickhead king.

-Jesus Christ, this man is heartless.

-"Once Emperor Desnarak's head rolls, Yanma Gust's and the people of N'Kosopa shall soon follow."

-Right, you're super evil.

-Hotdamn, Himeno's kicking serious ass.

-Everybody is, holy crap.

-Damn Toei, I see you.

-Hohohohohoho!

-Yanma's haxxor powers are no match for divine tradition.

-So that's why they pushed the whole King of Evil thing so hard.

-All the world shall be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies.

-Gira! Conquer the world in the name of God and people!

-Big Bug!

-"HOW!?"

-Qua God!

-March for the King of Evil, my friends!

-Royal Arms!

-Oooooooh, I love the amber

-You Are The King!

-Kuwagon! Let's fly!

-Oh my lord

-Okay, that's cool

-Shugod!

-Right out the gate! Time to combine!

-God has descended!

-Hot damn, I'm enjoying this a lot.

-Oh God, where did the Spider Shot come from

-"Insignificant worm! Bow before your King!"

-Yeah, this is gonna be a fun ride.

-Thank you, Kuwagon.

-The kings

-"Bring the traitor's head to me, minions!"

-Headed to N'Kosopa!

-Oh shit, ad read.

-OH FUCK ACE

-Ohhhhh, this is the SHT bumper.

-Sorry, the subs I usually find omit these.

-That's pretty sick.

-Love how he brought Big Sis Tsumuri with him, that's cute.

#ohsama sentai kingohger #king ohger spoilers #super sentai #ohsama sentai king-ohger #Rejoice O Swarming Evil! You're My King!

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thecoffeelorian · 2 years

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Bad Batch Headcanons from the Upside Down

In honor of the Season 4 finale, it's time for some Bad Batch headcanons! And not just ANY headcanons, mind you, but something very specific...

What Song Would Help The Batchers Escape Vecna?

(Note--I've chosen 1980s specific songs here to fit the era depicted in Stranger Things, but if anyone wants to do a modern song edition, feel free to post it and then link me to it. Anyways, on with the post!)

Crosshair--"Every Breath You Take", The Police (1983): The combination of angst and underlying creepiness seemed to fit his general life situation after season 1, as he looks to have become a nameless but willing participant in the military industrial complex-turned dictatorship, but also misses his old squad so much even though sometimes, it's like he's only there to watch them do their thing and then fly off into the sunset. As this was also the song playing during the Mind Flayer's last scene in ST Season 2 where it's watching all those meddling kids find their dance partners, this song could also hint at Palpatine "watching" everyone else, never mind manipulating them a little at a time like he did with Anakin Skywalker. Either way, a certain clone is now firmly under someone else’s control, and nobody knows when (or even if) he might ever break free...!

Echo--"Take On Me", A-ha (1984): So...the lyrics were a little vague for this one, but I took the basic message as, 'I might have to leave you behind soon, but I want to come back and visit you again, so mmmaybe if you'll hang out with me now, you might enjoy my return later on.' Fitting words for somebody who was able to aid in his own rescue before, and could easily do so again if he had the right people by his side.

Hunter--"It's Hip To Be Square", Huey Lewis and the News (1986): If there was ever a song that a hardened fighter could dance to with their foundling daughter, this would be it. It's got an upbeat tempo and funny lyrics, and on top of that, I can imagine Hunter trying to embarrass the rest of the Marauder crew by singing along on rare occasions. In other words, Spherical Dad to the bone...so much so that he wouldn’t hesitate to run back toward whatever portal it takes to get himself back home.

Omega--...okay, it’s finally confession time. I had originally chosen “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany, if only for its ties to the heroically dysfunctional Hargreeves siblings from ‘The Umbrella Academy’ and that dance scene where one of their members moves around like a puppet on strings, kind of like another sibling she would just HAPPEN to know. After the end of the first season, though...? Her mindset would have definitely changed, and that mindset leads me to "We Don’t Need Another Hero," Tina Turner (1985): This song plays at the final credits for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, a post-apocalyptic tale where the title character has to deal with a dictatorship fronted by a woman; a near-theocracy fronted by children; and then a close conflict between the two societies in which parts of each are broken down and then rebuilt, albeit with a cautious unity between the two--but, in an unexpected twist, the main protagonist that was supposed to be the ‘savior’ actually has no direct hand in this long-term redemption of humanity, which...brings me to my main point for this character. Given that Omega last witnessed an act of mass destruction by a growing military dictatorship, and of her own home planet no less, is it possible she could begin doubting the protection of most of her brothers even to the point of losing confidence in them? Or, inversely, will she honor them when the situation demands it, but then grow a little at a time to start making her own decisions, and not use them as emotional crutches in the end?

Tech-- "Danger Zone," Kenny Loggins (1986): Folks, this is pretty self-explanatory. This song came from a movie about hotshot pilots. It’s been chosen for a hotshot pilot. The singer even has a pair of fancy sunglasses on at one point. So...would it be too much of a stretch to use this song in aiding said pilot in escaping a bloodthirsty menace from another world...? I certainly hope not!

Wrecker--”Never Gonna Give You Up,” Rick Astley (1987): ...Yes, he would use it as a means of trolling the others--surprise, surprise--but given that this is originally a song about romantic devotion to one’s partner/significant other, it definitely could be used for devotion to one’s brothers/sister as well. Especially if those siblings are literally what stands between you and getting devoured by an eldritch horror...!

#the bad batch #the bad batch headcanons #bad batch headcanons #tbb headcanons #inspired by stranger things #stranger things season 4 #st4 #tbb crosshair #tbb echo #tbb hunter #tbb omega #tbb tech #tbb wrecker

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irysan · 1 year

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Some ramblings about Europa Universalis and history

I was supposed to continue with that Poland playlog but, ironically, the process of recording and maintaining a playlog made me want to play the game in a different file I didn't have to playlog in. Which then ended up becoming my focus. I'll talk about it a bit.

I chose to play Tibet for similar reasons that I chose to play Poland; it's a country that has been large and powerful in the past, but eventually became sandwiched between greater powers and divided up between them. Trying to understand how and why this happened and RP preventing it was a way for me to try feel less uneasy the reality of what this game generally expects you to engage in, expansionist violent conquest.

My Tibet game has gone pretty well, I finished the mission tree and have become an Empire. I control pretty much all of the Himalayas, and a significant amount of surrounding territory, along with Bengal, parts of western China and Vietnam. There were a lot of interesting stories in how it all unfolded, but I'm not here to relay those right now.

After I finished my mission tree (which mostly provides free permaclaims to old territory under the control of the ancient Tibetan Empire), I began to heavily invest in development of the country. Tibet is now a very rich Buddhist Theocracy ruled by a Dalai Lama, with the Clerical Estate privilege of "Inwards Perfection" which provides negative penalties for declaring war or taking provinces in peace deals, but improves your country's internal developments.

I built a strong Navy and developed even my expensive to develop mountain provinces till they became rich too. I have level 8 mountain forts with ramparts at all entrances to my country (invaders are losing thousands of men a month trying to get inside). I am allied with Russia, who has the largest army in the world (who trust me a lot because I helped them reach the Pacific Ocean). I have been vassalising small countries in the Indian subcontinent and throwing my boundless excess money at them in subsidies to help them thrive. I have gifted money to nearby South East Asian countries to help them resist European Colonisers and I recently stood up to the combined might of Spain and France to prevent them from taking the land of small two province minor who would have certainly folded immediately (their other nearby ally abandoned them when France declared war, the AI knew it would be a stupidly hard war). I vassalised that country afterwards because me protecting them overcame their relations malus of Tibet being of a different religion.

This feels…good? I'm achieving positive things instead of just it being a series of bloody conquests?

But to get to this position, I had to go to war a lot. And I had to convert many provinces to Vajrayana Buddhism to maintain unity (being of a different sect was not permissible by the mission tree). Without conquest, I would have been stuck as a small poor country that hung onto independence by being hard to invade in the mountains till eventually the rest of the world developed more advanced military technology and capacity to sustain massive armies to override my natural defensive advantages. And I had to rely on the help of a gigantic Russia who colonised all of Siberia and is partaking in colonising South East Asia as much as it can get away with too.

It's made me have to step back and think a bit about why I'm even doing any of this. I worry I'm trying to give myself "clean" excuses to play a game about a topic I fundamentally dislike engaging with. And I'm unsure of where I stand on how I'm supposed to really interpret periods of history involving conquest and colonialism. Today I also realised I was kidding myself by thinking diplomatic annexation was a way of forming peaceful unions, you get a diplomatic reputation penalty and you upset your other subject nations by doing it. You're basically taking the land by force but the other country's government chooses not to say no. There is no real way to play this game without getting your hands dirty.

In the past, I had probably a pretty simplistic view of these topics as "things that happened in the past were bad and we try not to do that anymore". But playing this game has made me have to grapple with how concepts we established to bind our groups together (religion, cultural and ethnic identity, etc), a way for us to overcome small differences more and thrive as slightly larger communities just, stop working at a certain point because they ran into other communities that developed differently enough that they weren't compatible without some compromises. And generally those compromises were "do not interact" (not always viable when resources are scarce) or "war". The concept of a universal shared humanity as an alternative took centuries to become something people could unite around.

When your society essentially maintained and developed it's existence on the basis of opposing those outside the ingroup to achieve stability, the historical outlook on humanity seems pretty bleak, it feels like we were always doomed to have to commit atrocities en masse to get to a point we could stop committing atrocities. (not that we aren't still committing atrocities…).

I realise this has been a bit of a rambling post. I don't really have a solid answer for some of these thoughts yet but I wanted to get some of them out somehow, somewhere. I think we are making progress, generally, but I do not want to end up in a perspective where I view horrible things in history as "good actually, because it was part of progress in the grand scheme of things". But I'm also reluctant to view us as inevitably doomed to have been warmongerers. Trying to find a balanced perspective in the midst of this is really hard.

#europa universalis iv #euiv #history

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