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im-the-punk-who · 3 years

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Hi, I dont know if you read or know anything about Macchiavelli's "Il principe", but I am studying it in school and I cant help but compare it's fundamentals to how Flint leads. I'm just curious about what you think

Eekekekekekekekekekekkek okay so first off Anon, you are absolutely, 100% right to be getting those vibes. If it’s not actually textual it is at the least meta-textual that Flint ascribes to a very Machiavellian type of leadership. His whole ‘never was there a Caesar who couldn't sing the tune’ speech is...licherally a direct reference to Machiavelli's philosophy that leaders cannot retain their leadership without sacrificing some level of ethical behavior in order to manipulate and deceive their subjects into following them.

And, Flint owns at least two books from thinkers who drew directly on Machiavellian thinking in their texts: De Jure Belli Ac Pacis by Hugo Grotus and The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes are both visible in Flint’s cabin, and both drew heavily on the type of leadership principles established in books like Il Principe.

(Also, my eternal quest for the book that sits *under* The Leviathan in that scene remains. Y’all I will literally pay someone for this knowledge. My best guess is Plato’s De Republica.)

In fact, the whole system that Flint’s world was operating under at this time was very machiavellian in influence.

Henry VIII, who converted to Protestantism and who would eventually lead England in the conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism that would then in turn eventually lead the country into the War of Spanish Succession(the war being fought during the London 1705 flashbacks), was a student of Machiavellian thinking. He took the teachings of Il Principe to heart and used them to transform his country. Over the next hundred and fifty years, England would change from an entirely Catholic country to a Protestant one. Of note, Catholic scholars generally disagreed with Machiavelli’s principles on the grounds that it did not support the Divine Right of Kings.

As well, the Enlightenment thinkers that influenced Thomas Hamilton(and Flint himself) were starting to argue more for personal liberty and choice of the governed, both concepts presented in Machiavelli’s writings. (For those following along, this approach was also being used to justify slavery, as what was ‘good for the state is good for the man’ was used as justification for everything from impressment to colonization and slavery. Men were willing to set aside their morals for what they justified as good for the state. Shrug emoji.)

As James says of England when he and Thomas view the hanging in London:

“You think Whitehall wants piracy to flourish in the Bahamas?”

“No I don’t think they want it but I think they’re aware of the cost associated with trying to fight it. And I think that that sound travels.”

Here we see that Flint knows what Thomas doesn’t or does not want to accept: that England is willing to sacrifice some morality and some amount of lives(both of pirate-prisoners and the ships they take) in order to save themselves the financial burden of rooting out the causes of piracy. The justification for piracy was that it is too costly to fight, and that the nation ultimately benefits from a bit of strife as it drives prices up and allows England to place within the sights of its citizenry an identifiable enemy. (Note that Blackbeard also argues the same of Nassau, that prosperity ‘made it soft’.)

Even as he is changed by Thomas’ line of thinking, this lesson will stick with Flint and we’ll see it over and over again as he deals with the men’s hatred of himself by redirecting them towards other avenues(Vane, Hornigold, England, etc.)

And in actuality, this is what sets Thomas very much apart from his political brethren - he was *not* willing to sacrifice his morals in order to achieve a ‘more effective’ victory. Once he realizes that moral deficit shown by England, he creates the pardon plan to argue directly for a more moral and just way of governance. His whole premise for the pardons was to show England that an approach that considered the needs and wants of the governed was ultimately more effective, both in cost and in gaining the genuine good will of the people. And again, this is another likely reason why Thomas was then targeted by Peter Ashe and his father. Railing against the entire system of government was dangerous. Particularly if one was railing against the government in a way that could be seen as support of an opposing system of religion and political rule(remember how I said before that Catholics were generally against the Machiavellian systems?) Put plainly, Thomas’ rejection of Machiavelli’s leadership tactics would have been yet another argument for his treason against the crown.

Interestingly also, Marcus Aurelius - Thomas Hamilton’s homeboy - is said to be one of Machiavelli’s five “good” emperors, of whom Machiavelli wrote,

“[they] had no need of praetorian cohorts, or of countless legions to guard them, but were defended by their own good lives, the good-will of their subjects, and the attachment of the Senate.”

How we tryna be.

And so we see that Flint has - not so much fallen back into England’s line of thinking but perhaps that he never really fell out of it. And that this is actually a rift in his potential ability to conform to Thomas’ line of thinking, assuming we see that line as more morally correct. We do see Flint, gradually, throughout the course of the show, move more away from this Machiavellian line of thinking, especially once he meets Madi and the Maroons. And to me at least it’s one of the most important character shifts we see - in contrast to the trajectory of John Silver becoming Long John Silver - throughout the series. Just as Flint is finally starting to really value the lives of those around him, Silver has learned how effective those tactics can be in achieving his goals. As Hands says - ‘I wonder if he knows how much you learned from him.’

And in fact, Silver almost directly quotes Machiavelli at one point when he talks to Flint about their different leadership styles.

“I once thought that to lead men in this world, to be liked was just as good as being feared, and that may very well be true. But to be both liked and feared all at once, is an entirely different state of being in which, I believe, at this moment, I exist alone.”

Whereas Machiavelli in his chapters addressing cruelty and mercy writes

"Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."

This is clearly the approach Flint has taken - he is the most feared captain on the seas. Certainly in the colonial world and on Nassau, too, his name brings a certain amount of fear with it. Because of this he has been safe from rebellion for quite a long time - however he is also not unaware that his power comes from the people. In the very first episode he talks of his plan with Gates to “position people in all the right places so the crew would never turn.” He has, for an unknown amount of time but I would suspect from the very beginning, been manipulating the crew’s opinion of him to keep them happy. Gates himself, and Silver later, are prime examples.

Both of them; Gates for the first ten years or so and Silver in seasons 2+3 act as a go between - being the ‘liked’ to Flint’s ‘feared’. They convince the crew - the ‘people’ in this case - that Flint’s plans are in their best interest and not truly the act of a tyrant. It is only when Flint forgets - or neglects to respect - that the will of his crew is how he keeps his power, that he really starts to fail. And, later also, that now he has a rival - Silver.

Now, I do want to point out that personally I don’t think Flint is a needlessly cruel ‘ruler’ in the sense the crew sometimes thinks he is, nor is he trying to be as a king is to english subjects. He has power, of course, and he does manipulate, lie, and kill if necessary to maintain his power in accordance with Machiavelli’s principles, but he does not do so ruthlessly or to a degree that is unnecessarily violent, nor with only his own advancement in mind. His goals genuinely are in service of the people he leads, even if the tactics he uses sometimes put them in danger for it. Moreso, I would argue that Flint is a prince who created his own princedom. He took an existing power structure(the pirate council in Blackbeard, Hornigold etc) and took most of the power for himself, either through luck, violence, or political maneuvering. And then he kept it through skill and tactical advantage.

Silver, in contrast to Flint’s new princedom, is truly a ‘prince of the people’. He comes to power through convincing the other pirates that he has their interests at heart - even when he doesn’t. But Silver soon learns that being a well-loved leader is difficult. It isn’t until Silver kills Dufresne and Billy uses that fear to build a legend that ‘Long John Silver’ the pirate king comes into being. Silver learns, just as Flint knew, that in a world or corruption, often leaders need to make sacrifices of things they would have once deemed important.

(I think it’s also important to note for Silver that his main goal is actually one Machiavelli writes of as being ‘a will of the people’. Silver’s main wish is not to rule, not really. His biggest motivator is ‘to be free’. To not have to make choices based on the will or subjugations of others. And so, he attempts to make the leadership forced upon him into something that frees him - unfortunately for him, Madi is right when she says that the ‘Crown is always a burden’ and it would be truly impossible for him to find the kind of freedom he wishes for while wearing it. Which, honestly, is part of why he ultimately fails in that regard as leader of the revolution.)

In the later seasons we see Flint go through this change in philosophy after he meets Madi and the Maroons. He begins to actually value the lives of the people he leads. When put to the choice of going through with the raid on the Underhill estate despite the risk it poses to the slaves on other plantations, Flint resists the idea. As he tells Madi - it would have cost them far more to ignore the ‘will’ of those people he hoped to lead - the slaves - than it would gain them to go through with the plan. And later, even though he can’t be blind to Max’s sway with Eleanor and the others, unlike Billy (and oh how the mighty have fallen, Mr. Bones!) he doesn’t even seem to consider keeping her rather than trading her for the lives of his other men. He no longer wants to trade a potential political victory for the suffering of those he leads. So, too, when he attempts to trade the cache for the fort, he is doing so with the goal being to not have to put those under his power in danger if there is another option. It is, at least to me, an incredibly moving character arc and one that is so very understated.

And honestly, I think it’s what *needed* to happen before he could move on from his rage-hate bender and begin to find the sort of peace that one might argue those ‘good’ rulers had. Machiavelli’s principles tend to get in the way of your ability to connect with other people: when you see them just as pawns in a game, friends and foes lose their intrinsic value of just being important on an emotional level. It is only through learning to truly value his partners that Flint can learn how to be a better and more just leader.

Also, this passage in chapter 15 absolutely KILLS me in regards to both Flint, and Thomas Hamilton:

“Men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.”

Like bitch!! We get it!! Too much sanity!!! Shut up!!!!!

Anyway, all this to say that you’re absolutely right in seeing parallels between Flint’s style of leadership and a Machiavellian prince - he is absolutely written as a prince-like leader. As are Silver, Rogers, even the Maroon Queen(and Scott and Madi as extensions of her) can be compared to certain rulers in Machiavelli’s archetypes. Even Thomas, who models himself after one of those ‘good emperors’ engenders a type of political leader Machiavelli writes about.

(Also lastly, i want to very quickly point out this guy, Cesare Borgia:

Who was a prince of ‘fortune’ who lost his princedom to trusting the wrong person. What a beard, amirite? What a face. He’s even got the rings! I’m sure this means nothing.)

So basically yeah, Flint is absolutely a Machiavelli bitch.

#anyway talk dirty morally grey philosophy to me!!!#black sails #james mcgraw #captain flint #machiavelli #black sails meta #milos black sails meta #long post #Anonymous

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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Further reactions to "The book of lost tales":

I appreciate that Idril canonically wears armor and does swordfighting.

I feel like I can actually imagine adult!Idril much better now like in armor and with open hair, distraught but ready to fight while babby Earendil does not yet realize the danger...

My first thought is that Earendil was probably cute in that baby chainmail. My second thought is OUCH, Idril and Tuor always made sure their growing baby had fitting chainmail cause they felt the apocalypse might get them at any moment. Imagine that, imagine them having the baby armor fitted every year or so :(

Its fun how much of the basic structure already exists but most of what you'd consider the main characters doesn't exist or is scattered across various minor roles The only Prince anywhere in sight is Turgon - Except for Team Doriath, theyre all accounted for. I suppose Maeglin is kinda there in name only with vaguely the same role & motivation, but looks personality and background all did a 180 since. Luthien is still pretty much "princesd classic" at this point, not quite the fearless go-getter from the final version - markedly this version tells Beren that she doesnt want to wander in the wilderness with him whereas the final one says she doesnt care and its Beren still wants to get the shiny so as not to ask this of her and also for his honor.

I mean in the finished version Id consider the 3rd and 4th gen royals to be the main characters (well, alobgside Team Doriath and the varioud human heroes) and theyre hardly here. Imagine the silm with no Finrod!

Feanor had no affiliation with the royal family whatsoever, and is also generally less super. He's just the guy who won the jewelsmithing competition, not the inventor of the whole discipline. Still seems to have been envisionad as a respected member of the community who gets called to the palace for crisis meetings and is listened to when he stsrts giving speeches. From the first he already has the backstory of going off the deep end (or at least growing disillusioned with Valinor) after a family member is killed by Melkor and theyre still the first to die, but its just some other rando unrelated to the royals

The situation regarding the humans is different - instead of Melkor leaking their existence, its Manwe who explains that the other continents were supposed to be for them eventually. So Feanor goes off on a tirade about weak puny mortals comes off as a more of a jerk unlike in the final version where Melkor barely knew about the humans and described them to the Noldor as a threat. On the other hand in this one, also very much unlike in the finished product, Melkor dupes even Manwe into being unfair to the elves as a whole. In this the final version is a definite improvement, both Feanor and the Valar come off as a lot more sympathetic and though still deceived he's partially right in some things at least, so you have more of a genuine tragedy rather than a simple feud

There is something to the idea of Commoner!Feanor tho. I guess some of this survived in his nomadic explorer lifestyle and how both his wife and mother (who arent mentioned here) eventually were the ones to get that background of being not especially pretty ladies who are not from the nobility but got renown, respect and acclaim for their unique talent and contribution to society, with each having invented things and Nerdanel also being renowed for her wisdom. Hes sort of an odysseus-like Figure in that sense. I suppose later developements necesitated that Maedhros & co. have an army not just a band of thieves, which means they needed to be nobles/lords. That said this being a society where artisans are very respected and half the lords have scholarly/artistic pursuits going, the gap was probably not as big to begin with as it might have been in say, medieval England. Esoecially since Nerdanel's father had been given special honor by one of the local deities and that the social order might have been a very recent thing in Miriel's time. One might speculate that the first generation of Lords started out as warriors during the great journey, or perhaps just Finwe's friend group.

Also found that bit intetesting where the Valar have to deal with the remaining political tensions and effects of Melkor's lies on the remaining population in Valinor... - i guess with the change of framing device it was less likely for news of something like this to reach Beleriand. That, or the existence of Finarfin and his repentance made this go smoother this over in later cannon

Turgon's go-down-with-the-ship moment reaaly got to me. Im half tempted to write a fic where his wife, siblings and dad glomp him on arrival in Mandos. I dont care that none of them exists yet in this continuity i want Turgon to get hugs

I love all the additional Detail that got compressed out in the shift from fairytale-ish to pseudohistoric style especially all the various Valinor magic insofofar as it is compatible with the final version - particularly love the idea of the connection between the lamps and the trees that is now integrated into my headcanon forever

Its actually explained what the doors of night are

If I had not already read unfinished tales or volumes X to XII where this is also apparent, this is where I would say: Ah so the Valar were supposed to be flawed characters. Manwe has an actual arc; by the time he sends Gandalf he finally "got" it. I think in the published silm the little arcs of Ulmo and Manwe are mostly just lost in compression/ less apparent when only some of the relevant scenes got in but not all

It occurred to me way too late that the "BG" chars are the most consistent because theyre at the start and most stories are written from beginning to end. Finwe doesnt get a dedicated paragraph of explicit description until HoME X but my takeaway was that he's described pretty much like I always imagined him anyways/ same vibe I always got from him... charismatic, thoughtful, enthusiastic, sanguine temperament, brave in a pinch but at times lets his judgement be clouded by personal sentiment (though that last bit is more apparent/salient as a character flaw once he became the father of a certain Problem Child) ...i guess this would be a result of jrrt having had a consistent idea of him in his head for a long time.

This means Finwe's still alive at the time of the exodus which is just fun to see/interesting to know... Interestingly he sort of gets what later would be Finarfin's part of ineffectually telling everxone to please chill and think it over first while Feanor simply shouts louder (which is consistent with his actions before the sword incident in later canon where he initially spoke out against the suspiciozs regarding the Valar) - but its not exactly the same, he's more active than Finarfin later in that when "chillax" availed nothing he said that then at least they should talk with the other Kings and Manwe to leave with their blessing and get help leaving (This seems like it would have been the clusterfuck preventing million dollar suggestion in the universe where Feanor is related to him and values him) but when even that falls on death ears he decides that he "would not be parted from his people" and went to run the preparations. I find it interesting that the motivation is sentiment/attachment (even phrased as "he would not be parted from [his people]" same words/ expression as is later used for the formenos situation), not explicitly obligation as it later is for Fingolfin (who had promised to follow Feanor and didnt want to leave his subjects at the mercy of Feanor's recklessness )

Speaking of problem children. It seems the sons of Feanor were the Kaworu Nagisa of the Silmarillion in that originally all they do is show up at some point and kill Dior as an episodic villain-of-the-week. And then, it seems their role got bigger in each continuity/rewrite... probably has something to do with the Silmarils ending up in the title later making it in the sense their story that ends and begins with them. They have zero characterization beyond "fierce and wild" at this point, though in what teetsy bits there is we already have the idea that Maedhros is the leader and Curufin is the smart one/shemer/sweet-talker, though not the bit where Maedhros (or Maglor, or anyone really) is "the nice one". Which I guess explains why "Maglor" sounds like such a stereotypical villain name.

"The Ruin of Doriath" was purportedly the patchworkiest bit of the finished product, but I never noticed and it actually left quite an impression of me upon first reading, the visual of Melian sitting there with Thingol's corpse in her arms contemplating everything thinking back to how they met... she had the knowledge to warn him not to doom himself but couldnt get him to understand it because he doesnt see the world as she does.... After reading this though I wish there was a 'dynamic' rendition that combined all the best bits like, youd have to adapt it to the later canon's rendition of the dwarves, have Nargothrond exist etc. But i mean that just makes Finrod another dead/doomed relative of Thingol's whom bling cannot truly replace, like Luthien and Turin. In the Silmarillion you could easily read it as just an "honoured guest treatment" but here and in unfinished tales I get the impression that Thingol actually did see Turin as a son.

Already you see the idea of trying to make the stories all interconnected but there is less than there will be (the human heroes aren't related yet and there is basically no Nargothrond, which is later a common thread for many of the stories - a prototype shows up in the 'Tale of Turambar' tho complete with half baked prototypes of Orodreth and Finduillas

O boi im not even through yet

#silmarillion #the book of lost tales #history of middle earth #baby reads HoMe

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ruffiorocks · 4 years

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Unpopular opinion (and defence) on Mon El from someone who doesn't like him.

I'll probably get ripped to shreds for this but it's been annoying me for a while now and I see it's popping up again now that Mon El may be making a (hopefully only a cameo) return.

(Disclaimer, I have an MA in History so I analysing anything to do with royalty in comparison with real life monarchies).

People like to say that the Royal Family of Daxam drugged their slaves. But.... this is not what Kara said. Kara said:

"Do you know why Daxam was such a party planet? It's because the Royal Family kept their subjects drugged and distracted so they didn't realise how oppressed they were".

This statement has been taken as the Royal Family drugging their slaves. But it has never come across that way to me.

The royal family had slaves but the whole planet wasn't made up of slaves.

The SUBJECTS were kept DISTRACTED and thats what made it a party planet.

Now Slaves aren't usually supplied with drugs and alcohol and allowed to party.

Slaves aren't typically included when talking about the subjects of a kingdom, that's predominately the citizens, the Daxamites themselves in this case. The ones who get their slaves from Slavers Bay. Slaves aren't considered citizens, not unless they are freed and given that status.

Considering Rhea's attitude and what we saw on Slavers Bay the slaves there aren't going to be distracted from their forced labour by being allowed to party.

No this statement has always come across to me as Kara explaining that Rhea and Lar Grand oppressed the Daxamites. Probably from how Rhea and how entitled Mon El were Daxam was an absolute monarchy, probably inflicted heavey taxes to enrich themselves, no votes for the ordinary Daxamite, probably forced military service and unjust wars.

Kara is going to hate that because as we have seen Kryptonians and Daxamites are polar opposites when it comes to attitudes and their views.

Kara comes from an organised planet full of democracy and no monarchy.

Mon El comes from what was probably an absolute monarchy.

These are two completely different things.

It's interesting that the only Daxamites we saw hating on Kryptonians were the Royal Family.

The Daxamites who invaded Earth did so on Rhea's command, that's just how War goes down. Those soldiers had probably been brought up to hate Krypton for whatever reason, kept distracted as Kara says and never really knew why they disliked Krypton. Basically how historically the English weren't fans of the French or the Scottish. All based on territory wars between the ruling classes. The Daxamites that survived will have a genuine reason to hate Kryptonians since it was Kryptons destruction that ruined Daxam.

Now for the point that will really get hate thrown at me. That girl in Mon Els bed he left alone. Now first off YES that was a douche bag move! BUT there is no indication that girl was slave. She didn't call Mon El "master" as far as I remember. (correct me if I'm wrong?)

Now traditionally for royals there are always women or men throwing themselves at them. That girl could have been a woman of the court, a courtesan, a friend of Mon Els, a prostitute, an ordinary citizen Mon El met the day before and took home, whatever etc. But there's no proof she was a slave. There is no proof or indication Mon El forced that girl into his bed.

The writing and lack of detail is at fault here, the characters talk about slaves on the planet and Mon El having them, but thats it. We didn't actually see Mon El with any confirmed slaves. I don't remember seeing Rhea with any confirmed slaves either? What I saw could have been servants, plus slaves and servants can exists in a palace simultaneously. So unless someone attached to the show comes out and says that girl was a slave I'm going to believe she was just a girl Mon El slept with the night before. She could have been his mistress, or one of them? Not unusual for a Prince.

Now, people who say that Rhea and Lar Grand kept Mon El drugged. NO!! There is no indication that this ever happend. Mon El was simply written as a spoiled, play boy Prince. Mon El didn't start showing remorse for anything that happened on Daxam until Kara kicked off about it. Remember how quick Mon El was to allow Eve to please him? Or how quick he was to try and sleep with her? Kara kicking off at him about how bad Daxam is was probably the first time Mon El had been exposed to that level of dislike to his face. On Earth he wasnt allowed to do or get away with anything he wanted, he wasnt a Prince there, so he had time to re-evaluate things and see another point of view that wasn't the absolute entitlement he had been born and raised with.

Now, typically monarchs don't keep their heirs drugged and distracted because then there is NO point in having one. If you do this then your dynasty is likely to crumble and fall after you die. No, monarchs (usually) go out of their way to educate and keep their heirs sober and instructed in politics and on how to rule. Remember how Rhea wanted Mon El back? She wanted him back as her heir, the only heir she had. You don't keep your only heir in a distracted, drugged like state, not unless you want your kingdom to fall to shit after you die. The likely hood (coming from a historic point of view) is that Mon El was just a play boy, more interested in women, partying and pleasure than statesmanship. Absolute Monarchies need a strong head otherwise it crumbles and it burns. Ie. Louis XIV was an absolute Monarch, but only a few generations of weak monarchs later the French Revolution happened. Historically (at least in England) heirs tend to be play boys or crave power. Rhea would have been a fool to keep Mon El an uneducated, drunken fool.

Lastly, yes Mon El had his own slaves, remember he was recognised on Slavers Bay. He could have visited himself, or he could have been present when the slaves were transported to Daxam. His parents had them to , but even if they brought and gave them to him they were still Mon Els slaves, the were still being used by him for his benefit. Did he disagree with this? Personally I don't think he did while he was on Daxam, he was shown to us as a Prince who believed he was owed everything. I don't think Mon El thought much about it until he no longer had those privileges.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Mon El fan by any stretch of the imagination. But if you're going to hate on him DONT speculate and twists things so that it suddenly looks like you have more reasons to hate him.

Rant over.

#supergirl season 5 #supergirl #kara zor el #karamel #kara danvers #mon el #mon el of daxam #rhea #supercorp

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kittyxjordelia · 5 years

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Details for that kitty au? Sounds interesting

aww thx im glad u think so but get ready for dissapointment and garbage storyteling bc i got way too distracted way too quickly.

THIS IS FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTED MORE DEETS ON THE RED WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE AU (this is largely based on the book but nothing hugely spoilery)

Also reminder: yo my inbox is always open so if u wanna ask me the most random shit possible i will respond bc it makes me feel happy that someone is curious about my opinions and ideas

The Blackthorn’s mom is the pres, not their dad

Julian, Livvy, Ty, Dru, and Tavvy are the first children, mark and helen arent

So as Helen and Mark have no relation to POTUS, theyre less involved w/ the public

(Bonus: people think Kiertina are dating but they got NO IDEA Mark is the third part of that)

Both of their parents are pretty busy so Julian’s kinda raising them a bit but not to a terrible extent

Julian may or may not be dating the vice president’s daughter, emma carstairs

In the UK, christopher herondale is a prince and i dont care if ty matches henry better and kit is more of an alex

i literally thought of this au bc i was reading the scene where henry kisses alex and then runs away and i outloud said “wow christopher herondale is quaking”

so im not budging kit is henry w/ alex’s personality and ty is alex w/ henry’s personality got it good great

In all seriousness i just like the way it plays out better this way

Ok anyways kitty are 18 jsyk

Ty is convinced Kit hates him bc they had a pretty shit first meeting and Kit came off as kinda an ass but he was just going thru gay panic

U kno that scene in RSOM where alec thought aline was homophobic but she was just a lesbian freaking out over a cute girl? That’s kinda how the kitty meeting went

it was literally just a miscommunication but now ty has been trying to convince himself he hates kit for like two years but hes just gay and a moron god what a life

Livvy, in the background: GAAAAY

Ok so beginning of the plot a royal (clace) wedding is happening and the first family is invited

(psst lets get real the herondales are shadowhunter royalty this is valid)

Ty can’t get out of it and he’s big sad bout it but whatevs he’ll have livvy

so ty and kit end up talking and kit is trying to leave asap bcause he’s too gay for this but when he attempts to leave, ty grabs his shoulder and kit kinda pushes him off and ty starts falling but grabs onto kits arm and so

they crash and fall into jace and clary’s expensive ass wedding cake

the tabloids are like: lol they hate eachother

so those two gotta fix everything bc yea international relations

They start hanging out and find they get along pretty well, specifically through a shared love of a certain fictional detective

ty: the books are better kit: binch the bbc show tho

tessa, in the background: I APPROVE CHRISTOPHER

so a couple months pass and kit and ty are talking outside being deep and kit kisses him and then proceeds to FLEE THE SCENE and goes back to england and doesnt respond to any of tys messages

(like guys goddamnit henry literally pulled a kit when he did that shit guys it fits)

the two of them end up making up and making out like a month later and then have to proceed to attempt to hide their relationship

but yea blah blah blah they end up happy together im done w/ plot points i dont wanna spoil the ENTIRE book for y’all

(also kits bestie ash is like weirdly into dru but ty doesnt care AT ALL hes like go for it also heres some pointers bc ash is crushing hard man)

ooh Diana is the president’s deputy chief of staff and gwyn is the crown family’s equerry and they fall in love during this because i want them to

Ok but heres my batshit ideas starting so take the rest of this w/ a grain of salt its just the sleep depravation talking and also fun ideas that dont work at all

KING WILL HERONDALE

wessa are like kinda kits parents in this au and probs still have james and lucie

jace is like their cousin who isnt strictly a prince but is still largely in the public eye bc theyre close to him

or mb wessa have four kids including jace in this au idk they all deserve to be a happy family

(but where is jem u ask)

ok so will could die but i dont want him to

(again, this part is for funsies and if i were to make this a fic i’d have to kill him off)

so will faked his own death so jem and tessa could be together bc lets get real he would

jem and tessa have a daughter mina and people think they named her after will due to grief nah will just said if i fake my death this is my one condition

im sorry im just imagining young prince christopher with his older siblings prince james princess lucie and prince johnathan with their younger half sister princess wilhelmina

time doesnt exist in this ok just my want for a eight person herongraystairs fam cause jace deserved good parents but was born at the wrong time to be raised by people who would have LOVED HIM

lol the thing i find hilarious is that in this au jesse blackthorn isnt really related to the blackthorns theyre like seventh cousins and he met lucie by coincidence

lmfao what if will is kits like bodyguard but he wears shitty disguises all the time and people are like hmm is that the king and will is like no unfortunately king william has been dead for years

this is so stupid but i dont care fuck off im having fun w/ it also will herondale is king as he deserves so all is right in the world

The real question is now: Do y’all want me to write this? Or like nah

#the shadowhunter chronicles #tsc #the mortal instruments #tmi #the infernal devices #tid #the dark artifices #tda #the last hours #tlh #the wicked powers #twp #rw&rb kitty au #kit x ty #kit herondale #ty blackthorn #kitty #this is so stupid but i am LOVING IT

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silaswindsor · 5 years

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&&. announcing his royal highness, ( silas windsor ), the ( 26 ) year old ( prince ) of ( england ). he is often confused with ( charles melton ). some say that he is ( dishonest & inconsiderate ), but he is actually ( disciplined & eloquent ).

hey! im kira (they/he) n this is my piece of shit silas. i am not going to lie i really dont have that much thought out for him considering i came up with this character exactly 12 hours ago.. on the bright side ! i can do a lot with him bc of that. um??? like this for some sick plots and i’ll im you. i also have a d*scord: greedline#3129 if you would rather talk on there. without further ado, drumroll

+quick facts

fourth child of six

prince of england, only one of his siblings to bear their dad’s surname. it’s why he believes he has the rights to the throne

pansexual

also strongly believes that all one needs is some good alcohol and a well written book

+some slightly more detailed stuff (tw: death, childbirth & pregnancy)

mother was no one of any royal background. she was beautiful enough to look like she was straight off of a runway, though. as forgettable as her existence was, her family loved her dearly. they loved her enough to hate the man that got her pregnant.

she fell devastatingly ill while carrying their son, and doctors were unsure if either the mother or the child she was carrying would survive.

in the end, they had to deliver the baby prematurely to save at least one of them. the mother died in the process, but got to hold her son before passing.

he ended up being raised by his father as a crown prince, practically his entire life spent preparing to take the throne.

studied politics and international relations at oxford

skillz he doesnt like to talk about: hes really talented with instruments but he wouldnt be caught dead playing one

he’s sort of very much an asshole. doesn’t really empathize with anyone at all. he’s always looking for people that will benefit what he is doing.

seems quiet but that’s only because he’s always thinking about his next move

liked to avoid unnecessary conversation and honestly hates talking to people because he believes everyone is a waste of his goddamn time.

idk what else to put so

+stuff i put in his app that might help u get a better idea of him

5. The stack of papers fell out of her hands as she desperately tried to push down the door handle even thought she had no free hand. The papers scattered around the floor and for a moment she just simply stared at the wall, determined to control the bubbling frustration inside her of her chest. “Let’s pretend this never happened,” she sighed as she crouched down to start collecting the papers. “I suppose this is what unnecessary laziness gets you.”

Silas had watched from a few feet behind her, trying to weave his way in front and out the door before she could. Clearly, his attempt had been nothing short of a failure. He didn’t care to help her in picking up the scattered papers, nor did he bother to avoid stepping on said papers as he went around her to take hold of the door handle. “If you wanted people to pretend that something never happened, you wouldn’t be lazy and careless.” Silas opened the door and stepped out. Without taking a second glance at her crouched form, he slid a paper back towards her general direction with his foot.

3. what are you not willing to tolerate ?

“well, for starters, this conversation,” he laughed shortly. “on a more serious note, laziness, people that work slowly, invasive questions, long meaningless wars. but honestly, this conversation is completely intolerable.”

#hshqintro #ooc

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meetmeatmidnightsblog · 5 years

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Hanging out with friends ( Jaylor Fanfic )

Joe stayed over at Taylors house and helped her preapre a bunch of food, and snacks for there friends. She invited Ed, Camila, Ryan, Blake, Selena, over for dinner tonight. None of her close circle has meet her new boyfriend yet. She was glad to have a mer distraction to preoccupie her mind from growing anxiety and stress. She can be a bit of a drama queen when things dont go her way. Ed and Selena were the first ones to show up at the house, Blake and Ryan were the second, Camlia was the last one. She loved coming over to Taylors house, spending time with her cats Oliva and Merdith, eating yummy food. She was quite curious as to why she was invited over here in the first place. She was not the kind of singer who asked other artist about there personal lives outside of work / or touring. Ed greeted Joe as if they were old bros. Since they were both from England. He found it easier to bond with the red-headed britsh guy. He could not keep his eyes away from his girlfriend. Selena Gomez picked up on some intense chemistry in the room. She felt in her bones, hips each time her best friend was around the blonde haired boy. Something was defently going on between them. The pop singer was different with him. He moved, she moved like magagents. It was the same way for her and Justin Beiber. He wasnt able to come with her tonight. He needed to get up early the next morning, head straight into the recording studio. Camila was quite, stayed in the living room so she didnt make a mess on the floor. Ed and Joe joined her so the former fifth harmony singer did not feel left out. She met Ed a few times on tour, they never actually got to hang out. Taylor brought extra trays of food, drinks and set them down on the little tables. Blake and her husband Ryan joined everyone. She also picked up on some intense eye contact between her and Joe. Something was clearly going on with those two. She did not bring it up, out of respect. Ryan whispers softly to his wife "What is up with Taylor and Joe?. I cant stand to be within five inches of them." Blake mutters lowly to Ryan "I know dear, unless Taylor or joe say something to us you should just keep it to yourself." Ryan could not ignore the signs of true love in Taylors eyes, or Joes. They were more then friends. His wife was right, it was not his place to point out the obvious chemistry. Camila enjoyed Joes knowlege on all things british, Eds thick accent. He was a total goof ball and jokester.He shared funny stories about him and Taylor when they were on tour together. She blushed bright red, ducked under her boyfriends arms. Blake picked on Joe each time he blushed like a young school boy who had a crush on a girl that didnt even know that he existed. She knew that one of them would eventually crack. Taylor cleared up the plates, wine glasses as Joe followed her into the kitchen. He helped her wash the dishes, clean the counters. He missed there one on one time, but being around friends made it more fun for him. He never got to meet anyone in her squad. He whispers softly "Do you think that anyone knows about us?." Taylor murmers "Im sure that everyone will figure it out babe. I will say something when im done cleaning everything up. I was just waiting for the right time." Joe wraps his arms around her small waste, pulls her in close. She tucks her neck into his chin. Camila and Ed walked in on a private moment, hid in the hallway. Yup they were dating. It was not right to barge in, have them act as if they dont know each other. Ed grumbles to Camila "I know there dating. I was not allowed to say a single thing. Hes a great guy. He treats her well. Lets go back into the living room and give them some privacy." Camila nods her head in agreement. Joe was Taylors prince chamring, she was his princess. They were living in a fairytale. Much like her favorite star-cross lovers Romeo and Juliet, aside from all the dying. Taylor of all people deserved true love, pure happiness. Camila peeked her head into the kitchen as Ed draggs her back into the living room before one of the two love birds saw them.

#Caught #Jaylor fanfic #One shot #taylor swift #ed sheeran #camila cabello #blake lively #ryan reynolds #hanging out

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tumblunni · 5 years

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My ideas if Wales gets referenced in this new britain region which is probably unlikely but we can hope:

* Another sheep pokemon/a mareep regional variant/just mareep being common over here

* llamhigyn y dwr regional variant of gligar! As a kid i always thought gligar was meant to be one of those! Its a mytholigical flying frog with a scorpion tail, and really the only reason i dont think gligar is based on it is because its ground instead of water type. Like its really specifically similar right down to the wings being webs under the arms!

* Welsh Lady pokemon! (The traditional costume kids wear at eisteddfods)

* Maybe instead some sort of legendary based on eisteddfods in general? Theyre a poetry/art festival where the winner gets "the chairing of the bard" aka just imagine ur average school contest except if ur in wales u literally get knighted with a fake sword, crown and The School's Personal Throne. Its very weird in retrospect but it just seemed normal when i was a kid. I won it once and i was so anxious having to go thru the big celebration thing!! Like aaa just let me take my certificate and run! XD So yeah maybe a legendary based on the eisteddfod throne itself? Its called a throne but its more of a fancy wooden chair with patterns carved into it. So some sort of wooden dragon! And the legend would be that only the most talented bards can ride it and it bucks off anyone it thinks isnt purehearted enough. And maybe it could have a lovespoon for a tail cos thats also another wooden welsh thing. (Fancy carved spoons for good luck and/or romantic gifts)

* welsh cake pokemon!! Theyre just a sweetened scone with raisins in it, but i think it could be really cute as a design. Im thinking a rock type that just coincidentally looks like a cake with raisins, and it rolls around sideways like a big goofy crab~

* or if you wanna go for other local foods maybe mix the kelpie with bara bryth? (Seaweed bread paste stuff) So its just a loaf of bread that evolves into a badass horse and it would make no sense to anyone except brits, lol.

* perhaps a legandary based on the bard taliesin? It could be similar to nebby in starting off with a weak baby form but then becoming a badass! Cos his origin story was that he wasnt naturally all super cool so talented at singing that he could make literal magic happen just by sheer creativity. Instead he accidentally drank a magic potion of creativity that a witch made, and his abilities came at the cos of Pissing Her Off Forevermore. So maybe the baby form cpuld be a witch's cauldron? And have a tail made of chains to symbolize how he was enslaved as that witch's assistant and managed to escape with her most valuable prize. And then his ethereal fancy humanoid form could maybe be similar to meloetta's living music thing but more with calligraphy instead? But perhaps still have a similar chain tail to show his origins, except now the links in the chain are all fancy calligraphy Os, lol

* accompanying legendary possibilities: ceridwen (the evil witch from that story) or morfran (her innocent son) Morfran did nothing wrong but is often painted as more of the villain of the story than she is, simply because he was black. Yeah there's racism even back in our mythology, ugh...! I always felt so depressed for morfran cos the story is that ceridwen only made this super magical potion of being the best bard ever cos everyone said her son was the ugliest man on earth and EVEN SHE AGREED so she thought she had to give him some magic powers to stop people from hating him. And instead taliesin steals it and goes off to be the most powerful and respected and also handsome man ever, the end. And seriously the ONLY THING they mention about why this child is ugly is that he was "black like a crow" and also his name means evil crow. And thats just the end of his story forever, being some other dude's origin story and then forgotten into the void :( So like hey a pokemon criticizing that part of the myth wouls be great too! Like maybe have morfran be a counterpart legendary like latias to latios and he just looks equally beautiful with a reversed colourscheme of dark skin and white calligraphy patterns. And maybe the pokedex entry could be like "taliesinmon got its powers thru a magical gift from meloetta" and "morfranmon worked really hard for its powers all on its own and also is very socially anxious and relateable and tumblr user tumblunni's favourote character in all british mythologies despite also representing the worst part of our nation but hey its not this man's fault please rescue him ok" Srsly its not like its common to see taliesin referenced in fiction but morfran is even more forgotten and i think he needs at least one positive fictional depiction to make up for being screwed over in the original myth.

* Another myth with unintended bad messages is the one of Blodeuwedd or Dwedd (friends may recognize that i named my Gourgeist after her!) Her story is that she was an artificial human created out of plants in order to be some guy's sex toy basically. Yet she's the villain of the story cos she refused to marry him and ran off with another guy. Like seriously she was BORN to marry this dude! Even if he's the big mythological prince we're supposed to root for, with modern morality perspectives its kinda impossible to see it that way. At least unlike morfran she actually does do other stuff to establish her as a villain other than just existing, she comes back with her new boyfriend to kill the dude who made her and thus set the course of history awry cos he was A Really Inportant Destiny Prince And All. But seriously dude this is 100% your own fault for being creepy enough to not want to date real women and instead have some messed up preprogrammed woman who'd do whatever you want. "The only reason she wouldnt obey like he wanted must be because the seed of evil was in her heart" yeah no maybe it was the seed of free will u bastard. Anyway they have a funny sequence where prince douche mc douchebag is prophesized to never be killed by etc etc etc so dwedd and her new boyf have to trick him into THE MOST CONTRIVED CIRCUMSTANCE EVER to find a loophole. I think it was something like one foot on a goat and one on a bucket while at the border line between two countries at the crack of dawn? And as fitting a standard boring hero story of course eeeevil dwedd gets thwarted and prince pompous is ressurected and she's punished forever by being turned into an immortal owl for some reason.

* SO YEAH! Plant owl legendary! I just thought this myth in particular would be cool cos a female plant legendary with a disney villain aesthetic instead of the cliche pretty sexy thing everyone would probably expect. Make her bombastic and badass and terrifying!!! The pumpkaboo line is the closest thing so far cos bat pumpkin is KINDA close to daffodil owl. At least in terms of spooky aesthetic, lol

* oh and also her boyfriend was named gronw pebr and honestly he barely does anything in the whole story but he has a really cool name so i felt like mentioning it

* our national flower is the daffodil and our national vegetable is the leek so maybe a farfetch'd variation with a daffodil? Or maybe a saucepan or somethin. It could kinda work with farfetch'd origin, plus one of our most famous nursery rhymes is about saucepans. AR GATH WEDI SCRAPU GROOKEY BACH

* our national animal is actually the dragon not the sheep! So definately give us some good dragon types!! Our flag is a dragon so maybe our legendary could be that? And perhaps reference the whole "red dragon beats the white dragon symbolizing how much england sucks" legend by having it have two forms like minior or darmanitan and the weaker cowardly defensive one is england. Just sayin!!

* i dont think you can really make a pokemon personification of england conquering and literally owning us and us taking so long to even get considered a separate country again and be able to have our native language in schools except it was already so many generations passed of it being forbidden to be spoken that barely anyone still knew it and even nowadays when we have billingual road signs the rate of billingualism is incredibly low and im really jealous of my sister growing up in a school that taught it from a young age cos i was thrown into intermediate level welsh without having the basic lessons and thus nevee managed to learn it at all and felt both stupid and disconnected from my ancestors irretreiveably

* MAYBE A RUGBY POKEMON I DUNNO LOL

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unproduciblesmackdown · 7 years

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yallnve realized by now that this is a fulltime 100% narnia blog...and as i havent slept since finding out someone somewhere was set on making "the silver chair" into a movie & the dynamic world of narnalysis is the best i can offer,

first of all im like.........ya rly gonna just jump into the silv chair!! im not really interested w the details on what anyone plans to do with the content b/c i donno, ive never been really interested in the book. not because its like bad or anything, actually it's probably the most cinematic in terms of things actually happening at a steady rate. i just like what i like, maybe because its sort of lower scale? whatever. its not like its hard to make into a movie i dont think, is what im saying. that would be either the horse and his boy or prince caspian, probably the latter b/c like a genuine 1/3 of it is an expository flashback. but all of the books are bit tricky to adapt coz theyre just short, you have to pad basically all of them in some way or another. but sure. silver chair. w/e

the thing is that you Have to assume despite starting afresh that theyre doing this one since the first three books have been recently filmed? and this being the fourth. but How Are You Going To Just Jump Into This One. thats an awful lot of exposition thats being built on, at this point in the game we're neck deep in the Lore. you'd really just have to have read the previous books or at least seen the movies. are they counting on the audience to have done that? but at the same time its really not fair to fully rely on that. in the book you can go "read the other books" and wave it off in a sentence of "and then they explained it all" which does tend to happen in the actual text a fair amt. its a bit awkward in movie form though? its a plot point right off that eustace knows who prince/king caspian is. so then you have to sum up dawn treader. and that has to do with what happened in prince caspian, in which the plot of lww is pretty important. like, alright, possibly you could just explain tvotdt & take it from the perspective of the girl who doesnt know crap about narnia yet? but thats not nearly as good a starting point as lww. on account of that ones meant to be a starting point! i'll see scholastic / any publishings that try to push magician's nephew as the first book In Hell, frankly. strongest narnpinion right there. the published order over the chronological order

anyways i'm sure it can be figured out, its just.......Interesting to think how the silver chair intro might be made into Intro To Narnia v.2.0? will they even try or will it be "ok but seriously just have read the books or whatever before you come in here." mystery unfolds

another thing thats interesting is that lww is clearly abt like, hey kids here's a version of the resurrection for you. whereas silver chair doesnt have anything to do w any Biblical Events at all (tho of course neither does prince caspian, tvotdt, or the horse & his boy). it is instead about how atheists will try to steal your firstborns for.................reasons. (no reason, theyre just evil.) this one is just a major amplified version of another particularly ridiculous CS Lewis Apologism Favorite that runs through the books: that when it comes to having no Faith (in aslan but you know also the abrahamic god) everyone who doubts aslan/god is like, actively lying to themselves, because they have that Gut Feeling telling themself that their faith is not only whats righteous but also whats true. the gut feeling of truth is a big theme in the books, shit hinges on it all the time and makes doubt all Clearly Sinful instead of a reasonable result of aslan effing off for centuries or whatever. and speaking of, god only knows if lewis is really suggesting that real life doubt or nonreligiousness is 100% populated by people who are clenching their fists like "i know in my heart jesus is real but i dont want to believe it so i won't, damnit!" which yknow makes no sense for like....life, and uh? i dont know what its supposed to mean for like....other religions? i dont think he's about putting the nuance that not every concept of religious Faith is the same as in christianity into this book, i dunno abt his thoughts irl. lord knows its a mystery how he thinks that "if jesus wasnt lying and jesus wasnt Insane then christianity is real" argument means anything. nothing in the world fits that argument for finding out if something is true or not........and also it hinges on that concept of "insanity" which......like.......i'm sure is all about nice 1940s ideas of how "insane" people act. its shit, throw it out, i mean. and besides? as though theres a Logic argument to prove christianity as truth? have you just Solved religion, lewis? have you? sometimes, i swear..

anyhow so in the silver chair its just a big ol festival of his "atheists are lying to themselves" and "atheism starts by someone who Knows The Truth (jesus is real) lying to others, likely aka the devil or whatever, and the stand-in for the devil is a witch again." and lewis really seems fond of the allegory of the cave. smh! like, in that allegory "knowing" that your faith is true is impossible! but youre also out here arguing its logically provable? and don't forget the gut feelings thing. but it makes NO sense for him to drop it into this book universe because in this allegory the prince captured by atheists & the protags are people who have hopped into the cave and seen the sun and shit!! they dont need to be the people who have only ever seen shadows who need to be convinced that an outside world can exist!!! bitch!!! get your allegory in order. silver chair just.....lord. the lying babysnatching atheists

a n y w a y s . . . thats a weird conflict to put in your third act, and its also a weird argument to make re christianity, that even though you acknowledge its impossible to know that your faith is in something thats real, you're willing to risk it? its sort of like that idea that you might as well be religious even if you dont "believe" any religion is true, because you lose nothing and potentially gain both comfort in life and reward in an afterlife. but its kind of a big deal in christianity that you're supposed to believe that what you believe in Is Literally Real. maybe apologists are allowed to do that sort of thing in their arguments, i suppose. its like in the last battle where he has a dude who believes in another deity accepted into the christian afterlife b/c despite a lack of belief, his virtuous nature is, from a practical standpoint, accepted to be for all intents and purposes to be equivalent to having believed in the christian god, like if he happened to follow all other rules except the Believing In Jesus one then he's good to go anyhow. interesting in that its also supposed to be pretty vital in christianity that one has to accept jesus as god in order to be Saved all up into heaven! i suppose that guy in the book was meant to have been converted right before death or whatever. at that point its very unclear who is exactly dead or not, but probably everyone. still, aslan clearly makes the argument that "basically you might as well have been believing in me, so you're good to go." fascinating stuff. another one to ask lewis abt

uhhhh another point is that i think theyre intending to make other movies also? but not all four remaining ones!! and if i had to guess which one they'd be leaving out uhh lets say....the horse & his boy....................which conveniently is the other sort of sparsely plotted one. two kids ride horses towards narnia, briefly have to have a shenanigansy undercover sneak through a crowded city, ride towards narnia some more, and then one of them stays at some guys house while the other kid goes into narnian battle where he himself doesnt actually do anything, but that fact is described pretty funnily. its still sort of a fun one, on account of the sneaking around hijinx, and the fact that it happens to give ANY of the details of what tf the pevensies did for like the twenty years they reigned over narnia's golden age which the lww just tells you absolutely n o t h i n g about! the answer is: a lot of battling probably, on account of narnia went from being ruled for a century by someone who could kill you in a second and also why would you have invaded narnia at that time, it wouldve been like trying to invade russia. but then a bunch of kids took the throne and upended the whole system and the snow went away, it seems like a destabilizey time to invade or whatever. imo. but then again they mightve bought themselves a few years on account of aslan having shown up and all. but lbr, they were just put into battle right off and coronated three seconds later, theres no reason on that front that they wouldnt shy away from having more battles. and the books said there were a lot of battles. and in thahb, its like, well we've been battling a lot lately and now we're in shenanigans and we'll just have to battle our way out of it, which they absolutely do. edmund straight up decapitates a guy. how ARE they supposed to just transition immediately into english schoolchildren after a couple decades of that mess??? they even have the fancy courtly speech. its magic i suppose

the point is its kind of a fun book, oh also, aslan is TOP shenanigans in this one. he straight up actually attacks one of the protagonists, for Reasons, but still. not that he doesn't murder the pevensies in the last book. i mean, i guess you could argue that its just like Divine Coincidence where what with the unaligned timelines betwixt england and narnia, aslan couldve just picked the moment everyone was gonna die anyway and just tossed them over to X point in time in narnia. but I Donno.....im kinda with that university student who's stressing about whether aslan cause ww2 for the purpose of sending the pevensies to the wardrobe. like, that train accident that killed everybody killed four people on the platform & five people on the train in different carriages and everything, or maybe the numbers are switched because i dont remember where lucy was. im saying, that was a hell of a crash. but sure. anyhow, even more fun, aslan appears as a cat to the Other protag while he's spending a night on the edge of the wilderness, and scratches him for saying he once threw rocks at a stray cat. like, hard #same, aslan!!! wtf dude why arent YOU being claimed by satan

whats also fun is that it doesn't really take place in narnia, which is also the reason besides pacing that you wouldnt really want to make this one into a film? because uhhhh the whole worldbuilding lewis crapt upon everyone for calormen is clearly racist as fuccck. if you arent already familiar with all the books (namely this one and i suppose the last battle) then its like.....i guess its some sort of vague notion of the ottoman empire? its really just a mashup of any number of white-english-variety racist notions. everyone is brown, is it an inaccurate stab at an amorphous amalgam of middle eastern culture? east asian? are people islamic or hindu? just try and guess what he was going for because its just. not based on anyone needing to know anything about reality. lewis was against seasoning food i guess, because it will mention i guess like, people cooking with onions like the heathens they are. (spoilers: this country just exists in the narniaverse to represent Those Heathens). its not necessarily an Evil place, they are noble savages ok!! with their formal seriousness and cutthroat customs.......b/c they are not as advanced and peaceful as the white northern christians, see. closer to the less developed violence of their inherently backwards ways and Cruel Society reigned by violence DONT CONVERT OR YOU'LL DIE, KIDS. but also.....you wont be white? the reason of calormens existence is really never explained. telmarines came from englandverse on accident thru a magic portal just lying around, possibly thats whats meant to have happened there too? its never attempted to be explained. anyways its basically the intro to the disney aladdin.

lewis is entirely inconsistent and self contradictory all throughout the series for the sake of the authors convenience. this is part of what makes the stories fun and the worldbuilding charming. it is also what allows him to pull stunts that have you pinching the bridge of your nose in exasperation and writing out essays to try to figure out how narnia is supposed to work. it is also what allows him, five books in, to be like, "here is the country to the south where the demon-worshipping gross scary brown uncivilized folk sit around hating narnia and confirming any racist notion you have about any nonwhite nonchristian country or culture." thanks, clive

its of course ludicrous and, of course, the protagonist shasta just so happens to be white despite being raised calormene. spoilers, he is narnian. or really from archenland, which isnt narnia but is still white and pro-narnia so its alright. i mean, technically narnia is allied with calormen at all points in time of the series? calormen just quietly tries an invasion in that book and also in the last book. so thats interesting. i suppose lewis is anti-crusades, which is big of him. the pevs arent out here trying to conquer calormen and convert them to narnianism. so that must not be the Destiny of the true christian? or are we meant to believe calormenes are beyond help? shasta who is of course secretly not "really" calormene is still representing someone undergoing "conversion," yet again, the guy is white. i suppose being brown is whats hopeless?

theres an inadvertently laughable line at the start of the book where a calormene expositorially points out that shasta is white by comparing him to the "accursed but beautiful" narnians. who are all white? is he just talking about the pevensies? the archenlanders (i cant remember where theyre meant to have come from either.) are like, all humanoid narnian natives white?? wtf, aslan. anyways, the dialogue is unnatural and funny enough, but its also like.....ok lewis, we got it, whiteness is the standard for all universes and everyone wishes they were white. stupid, sexy narnians.

what alllllmost suggests that being a poc isnt an automatic fastpass to hell is that im fairly sure the second protagonist aravis is a nonwhite calormene?? i dont remember it ever saying she was "fair" like the narnians the way the book immediately points out that shasta is. she is of course escaping an arranged marriage (the calormene plot to sort of vaguely try to invade narnia is also based on forcing susan to marry a dude she doesnt like yet who she apparently genuinely considered as a suitor when he wasnt acting like a jerk? so not only a dude who isnt white but a dude who isnt aslanian christian. its a whole complicating element to just toss out in this otherwise flat af worldbuilding, dude!! not to mention? despite the battles and shit, susan was out here considering marriage? how absolutely fucked up would it have been if any of them married and then effed off back to england. moving along) but she is from the start portrayed as equally sympathetically as shasta and nothing about her is pointed out as being Bad and Reprehensible, which the narration has no qualms about doing. she even gets to spend some time with her calormene friend, who is not exactly meant to be as sympathetic or noble but certainly isnt portrayed as at all evil. like...theres at least the occasional exception apparently, in which maybe not every person is inherently evil and violent and cruel. who knows

also aravis definitely later marries the white protag?? but apparently interracial marriage isnt entirely Unthinkable here. wait, also, aravis claims to be somehow a direct descendant of the calormene god tash? first of all, is that true, comma, possible? in the last book its confirmed that tash is real, albeit, like, a demon. dunno what c.s. is telling us with that one. is aravis related to a demon. we can only guess on account of the theme of Inconsistency

anyways. i suppose you could make it into a movie if you just threw out the racist shit. but the "calormen is also distinguished from narnia via its religion" element is also a touch janky. can it be thrown out too? if they intend to produce the last battle, will it be thrown out then. it kind of comes up again. if you get rid of those elements though, the stakes get a little blurrier and more political and more "wait well why would they have any beef with each other in the first place" if you cant just easily point out that the calormenes are shaking their fists at the narnians and their demon worship and their jealousy at not being white. again, are all centaurs white or something? wtf

truly calormene is the most racist ass shit in the whole series, but the concept comes up in less painfully direct ways other times, too. why are there native species in narnia that are considered inherently evil?? sure, the white witch as the stand-in for the devil wasn't originally from narnia. was she creating shit too? i dont remember what she was up to on account of i havent read the magicians nephew in a hot minute. i know they had to take a pegasus into a garden of eden type shit to smoke her out of wherever she was lurking for some reason or another. still. whys there whole types of creatures who are universally and unilaterally condemned? i know we're meant to believe that they just have evil intent according to their nature, but uh....theres no point at which any of these creatures are given a chance? maybe they served the white witch because she was nice to them for once. you're not given the chance to know. EXCEPT for the fact that you get shit like: giants are evil save for the occasional exception, like in lww when a "good" giant is described as having like, a long family line, and "traditions." not like Those Sorts. they do talk in like prince caspian and shit, when their numbers are miserable and theyre discussing tactics, whether to get help from the gross hags and harpies and etc and ppl will talk about Those People and Sorts and Rabble and its like...jfc. b/c apparently sommme of them can be decent! if theyre a giant or whatever. and meanwhile the dwarfs are always chaotic neutral or whatever. not believing in aslan but not necessarily being anti-narnia coz they live there. but sometimes being good guys!! but sometimes being bad guys, and jadis was cool to them apparently. like.................theres definitely cases of Types of narnians who fall outside the "born good / born bad" system, and thats pretty fucked. wolves too? theyre the Talking Beasts aslan definitely created, but on the side of the white witch? how was she having trees be on her side, too? whats going on around here. whats the moral meant to be. smh

uhh well anyhow, you could do a nice essay on gender re narnia. on account of sometimes its staleass typical sexist tropes like uhh, say,, the devil stand-ins keep being women? witches, ok. and the idea of "women need to be protected as pure creatures" as a basic sexist notion, and even lewis taking a relatively subdued jab at the idea of calling that sexist. susan being the miniature mom character type, and of course the infamous last battle bit where, in an attempt to describe her lack of spirituality as a self-insert of what lewis considered his own period of fake maturity via rejection of christianity, she's of course not only described as not believing in narnia (which????? what is anyone supposed to make of that. again, in the allegory of the cave shit, she's been outside the cave!!! she lived in narnia for YEARS AND YEARS and then WENT BACK. how are we supposed to believe she just convinced herself it wasnt literally real? its not quite the same as someone losing their faith in christianity.) but as like, wearing makeup, damn her. even if he wasnt trying to make the point that "look at boys and go to hell" which, i suppose he couldnt, as in narnia susan was being courted just fine as queen, yet i suppose also she didnt marry anyone—anyways, of course its still sexist to slight the way she decides to dress as some form of false maturity, even if its meant to be metaphor. just clumsy af & not great when again, devils are always witches around here. and being younger is to be more spiritually pure which like............mmm ok. this is sort of another one of those weirdly sexless fantasy universes, why do those keep happening. i mean sure this is a christian fairy tale for kids. but nobody even gets married save for in the last paragraphs of a couple books. its left a bit ambiguous whether thats even spiritually acceptable in the narnia rules, unless its to Continue the Line a la the telmarine monarchy from caspian the first to tirian the whateverth. hm

but also of course you get the young girl characters being...somewhat almost allowed to fight (archery mainly) but anyways at least being given equal status to the boys who are there also. theres even mention of once apparently narnia being ruled by a queen w no kings around. fantastic. and theres some non-witch lady characters on occasion. the human characters are where the dynamics are most at, i suppose, but anyways this at least has some nuance & at times seems to go just a bit beyond what you might expect from some old dude in the 50s. still not that surprising or innovative, but not completely flat, and seeming to contain at least a little reflection upon the topic

the essay of race re: narnia would be really short though. Its Racist Af. if you threw classism in too, you might get a bit more length out of it. but really its just so flat in this subject, and totally needless. there's the fact that even narnia is ruled by white english people but.....you can really do without juxtaposing this with the heinous nonwhite country somewhere over there. the rest of the books operate just fine w/o this

tolkien mentioned HIS scary brown backwards civilization to the south a lot more fleetingly in lotr but its....v much the same worldbuilding as narnia??? aka middle earth is pretty much an imaginary proto-england where you dont want to go too far east or south or you run into dangerous &/or inherently evil territory!! ok, jrr.....who was the other people in the inklings?? what did they write. could no one rein these guys in. coz lewis is over here with his Alternate Universe england. with uhhhh wilderness to the north and west and the dangerous evilish racismland to the south. and the ocean and dont forget narnia is a flat earth to the east. also? why are the lone islands like that. can aslan take care of some of that shit. for gods sake. anyways. the all-white good guys / evil poc should be thrown out of everything, thats not what makes the worldbuilding in either lotr or chronarnia at all interesting. yet is it is surely a subsection of the inherent Englishness of both examples........it warrants analysis but not "carrying on into films or anything based on either's precedence in the fantasy genre."

god who knows what im talking about at this point. im just saying "if they arent looking to even bother trying to wrangle the horse and his boy into something not ludicrously racist then i wouldnt be at all surprised." still, do you suppose theres like a curse where unless all narnia books are given some sort of film adaptation, the world won't know peace? more likely the world would end, maybe. the curse of clive. i dont really remember but that elder bbc series sure didnt cover the whole saga

well this is long enough but lets all set off in more endless, doomed narnalysis, such as

my thesis on trying to figure out what. the Fuck any reader is supposed to make out of edmund's role in the lww

whats the deal with merpeople?!

where are all these witches coming from, anyways

seriously if the narnians were just less murderous to the Undesirable species would they have been on the pro-aslan side all along

if there was only two humans staying in narnia at its birth, wouldnt their line like, die out immediately with their kid.

where did the archenlanders come from

where did the calormenes come from

oh yeah and like. are we seriously meant to believe that, at the end of the world, when aslan reveals that being goodnatured supercedes having the Wrong Religion, there is only one calormene in all of a) current existence and b) history who fits the bill? really. why even bring it up, then.

how did narnians react to their four monarchs completely disappearing......for real.....and what happened to the line to the throne?? was there just no ruler until the telmarines came in and took things over for the rest of the few centuries or whatevs.

when was that deep magic in lww written? at the start of narnia? coz thats the magicians nephew. again, how tf did the white witch get any leverage in that one. how was that supposed to be a good idea. wtf. see my thesis

whats the white witch supposed to represent as a stand-in for the devil? not helping that i dont remember the details of magicians nephew for shit, but she's definitely in the Multiverse lore of narnia as being from a different world as narnia and england. wtf is like...her nature

how weird is it in narnia that you have a god who drops in confused alien children to both go on personal journeys and save the world? is narnia-aslan/earth-jesus also dropping other children from other worlds into other other worlds? via other forms? hmm

lewis is all but inviting us the readers to be filling in the blanks with narnia fic. he's basically like, outright actually inviting fic with people wanting to speculate what happens with susan, who must inevitably return to narnia as lewis intends her to represent his own departure from (and obvious inevitable return to) christianity

a weird detail that is also never elaborated on: in addition to the narrator freely inserting loads of opinions into the narration, there's a time or two its made clear that like, the narrator has gotten this info from interviewing the characters. how'd you know about that last battle, "they all died and this happened in the afterlife" shit, huh. just another weird element

sussing out other lewispinions, like how he hates all schools apparently

narnia vs middle earth!! both quasi englands, both pre industrialization, both with christ figures running around some more than others, both with the need for rightful kings, totally different roles for humans tho. well, thats the whole comparison

and, inevitably, more.

#just narnblogging #or narbling #stay tuned for......murder

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srbachchan · 7 years

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DAY 3296

Jalsa, Mumbai Apr 6/7, 2017 Thu/Fri 12:59 am

I have often wondered why some of the names that we mention or speak about, have the liberty of a ‘JI’ after their name, and some dont ..

There is the benefit of respect of course, but the addition of the ‘ji’ has not been explained to me, with any convincing logic. I shall call Shoojit Sircar my director, Shoojit .. but shall address Neeraj Pandey as Neeraj ji .. and the examples are many and diverse ..

Its an odious word or an addition .. there is that obvious respect for an elder, or respect for one that is unknown to you .. there is also that liberty of the sarcasm, which is often played out among known bodies, or unknown ..

The reasons though have avoided me .. and as I sit and ponder, I wonder !!

I shall address my family doctor, one that has been with me for years and years as Doctor Saheb, and never by his first name, though he is younger than me, and has always been treated as family. But no. Staff and those that work for you are always on first name, but never the doctor. And its always Mem Saheb, when addressing the staff about the wife, never ‘gharwali’ or ‘dharampatni ji’ which really is the correct designation. Royalty, is addressed in their respective homes as ‘Maharaj ji’ or ‘Raja ji’, and at times ‘Raja Saheb’ .. the prince or the son next in command as ‘Kunwar Saheb’ .. the wife of the Maharaj as ‘Maharani Sahiba’ or ‘Rani Sahiba’

“Sahib or Saheb (/ˈsɑːhɪb/, traditionally /ˈsɑː.iːb/ or /ˈsɑːb/; Arabic: صاحب‎‎) is a name of Arabic origin meaning "holder, master or owner." It has passed on to several languages including Pashto, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Somali; as well as existing in English, as a loanword especially associated with British rule in India.”

And then of course there is ‘Sahibzaade’, the son of the sahib .. and many such titles, which are given titles for time immemorial. ‘Lord’, ‘Sir’ and ‘Your Highness’ or ‘Your Majesty’ ‘Prince’ ‘Princes’ are all derivatives of the royal influence, imparting dignity and respect .. in the England and Europe .. try addressing thus in the United States and you’ll probably get hit .. the culture of first name being most prevalent ..

So to all the ‘Sahib’s’ and ‘Mem Sahib’s’ .. to the Hignessess and Majesties .. the Raja Maharaja and Maharani’s ..

I bid you ‘shubh ratri’ ..

Amitabh Bachchan

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harryandmeghan0-blog · 6 years

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Prince William had to get England match recorded on royal tour - and told entourage: "On pain of death, please don't ...

New Post has been published on http://harryandmeghan.xyz/prince-william-had-to-get-england-match-recorded-on-royal-tour-and-told-entourage-on-pain-of-death-please-dont/

Prince William had to get England match recorded on royal tour - and told entourage: "On pain of death, please don't ...

Football-mad Prince William kicked off his historic visit to the Middle East today – and revealed he had asked the Crown Prince of Jordan to record the England game for him.

The Duke of Cambridge warned members of his entourage not to talk about the Panama result in his presence, because he didn’t want a spoiler.

Just before touching down in Amman, Jordan, on a tour which will include the first official royal visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, William said: “On pain of death, please don’t tell me the score.”

It is understood the Duke and Crown Prince Hussein watched the match together after he attended a birthday party in honour of the Queen of Jordan.

The five-day tour of the Middle East is the Duke’s most high-profile foreign trip and will include the first official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories by a member of the monarchy on official business.

William and the Crown Prince enjoy the game

Prince William and the Crown Prince of Jordan watch the match – on tape

During his visit, the Duke of Cambridge will meet Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

William – who is travelling without his wife Kate, or children – is said to be “very much looking forward to the trip” but it comes during a period of tension in the area.

The Duchess has missed the trip as she is on maternity leave following the birth of their third child Prince Louis.

(Image: REUTERS)

William arrives in the Middle East (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

William touched down on RAF Voyager in the Jordanian capital Amman yesterday shortly after 4pm local time to a warm welcome from his opposite number in the country, Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II.

The red carpet was rolled out and dozens of soldiers stood to attention in front of a Union Jack and Jordanian national flag signifying the hugely important visit which Kensington Palace has said will “build relationships which will last for decades to come”.

Hussein, 23, is a Sandhurst-trained second lieutenant in the Jordanian army and could be seen warmly laughing and joking with the Duke throughout the day.

The royal pair visited a tech centre which is part of Hussein’s personal foundation.

On a tour of the lab, avid Aston Villa fan William was asked to start up a laser cutter which swiftly produced his favourite club’s crest on a wooden shield as a surprise for him.

“That’s familiar,” he said with a smile when he spotted the Villa crest on the machine. “Very good. You have done your research.”

William, 36, added: “That’s very impressive. Thank you very much.”

Later in the evening William went to a birthday party in honour of Jordan’s Queen at the residence of Britain’s ambassador to Jordan, Edward Oakden.

There, William praised the warm welcome he had received and vowed to continue the strong relationship between the two countries that his grandmother and the late King Hussein of Jordan started.

He said: The ties between our Royal Families stretch back over generations. My grandmother, The Queen, and His Late Majesty King Hussein ascended to the throne exactly one month apart in 1952.

Duke received a warm welcome in Jordan (Image: Twitter)

Princes walk the red carpet (Image: Twitter)

“The Queen to this day talks fondly of the special bond of friendship that existed between them. Your Royal Highnesses, I look forward to continuing to strengthen this bond between our Families in the years to come.”

He passed a message on from the Queen on how she and Prince Philip shared “fond memories” of their State visit to Jordan in 1984 and also how his wife Kate and her family “remembers very fondly the almost three years she spent here as a child when her father worked for British Airways in Amman”.

After raising toasts to the King and Queen or Jordan and his grandmother he said local “shukran jazeelan”, Arabic for thank you very much.

Tomorrow William will visit the the spectacular archaeological site at Jerash, a first century Roman city that is one of the largest Roman remains anywhere in the Mediterranean region, and one of Jordan’s greatest tourist attractions.

He will then travel to the north of the country to visit a new base for the Quick Reaction Force (QRF), which has been formed with British military support.

The Duke of Cambridge arrives in Jordan (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)

In the evening the Duke will fly to Israel where over two days he will meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu , visit Jerusalem’s Old City from the Mount of Olives and visit the nearby Church of St Mary Magdalene to pay his respects at the tomb of Princess Alice of Greece, his great-grandmother and the Duke of Edinburgh’s mother.

William will be following in the footsteps of Philip, who visited his mother’s grave in 1994 when he travelled to Israel for a ceremony honouring her for saving Greek Jews during the Second World War.

The visit comes amid rising tensions in the area.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during recent protests at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip in the run-up to celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: “The historic nature of this tour is of course important and the Duke considers it a great privilege to be undertaking the first ever official royal tour of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to be able to help further strengthen the friendship between Jordan and the United Kingdom.”

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