#are so insulated in their own power and privilege

[thefantasticaldianadiane]

you ever read a book and look at the fandom and think “wow so I am the only one who understood this correctly”

#this is about the secret history #donna tartt #for me its multiple things #its the uwu ification of the greek class #its the complete lack of understanding of the themes #like people talk about how one of the themes is don't pursue aesthetic for aesthetics sake #but I haven't seen anyone talking about the whole point of the plot #which is that these people #are so insulated in their own power and privilege #that they are just fine with having mutilated a man #like the novel has every indication that the only feelings they have about the first murder are selfish ones #how the sight of the gore makes them feel #and there is no sympathy for this man #at least not genuinely #I just think it is so funny how the book sets up this excellent comparison #between bunny's death and the vermont guy's death #and how the system on so many levels treats things differently #and how the greek class reacts differently #and no one wants to talk about it #because even when they are critiquing the book they cannot divorce themselves from the fact that the aesthetic dictates they care only about #bunny corcoran #idk #i wish there was more genuine discussion online about class and morality in this book #and less flooding of pictures of tweed

[eroguron0nsense]

Doffy and Corazon's Parents

I feel like I'm the only person I've seen who interprets the Donquixote parents –specifically Homing– the way I do? Most people can pick up on the fact that he's well-intentioned and loves his wife and children enough to lay down his life trying to protect Doffy and Cora, and I've seen a decent number of people also note that he fails as a parent to properly address Doffy's sadism/aggression/antisocial behaviour and Celestial-Dragon-Programming in ways that would actually help him live a healthy, normal life after the family left Mariejois. He's sheltered and lives in a bubble (quite literally considering that leaving Mariejois involves taking off the insulating helmet that keeps you from breathing the same air as ordinary people) and he's horrified at the prospect that the people he idealizes and wants to be like hold genuine spite towards the Celestial Dragons in ways that he can't just hope to avoid by telling the victims of his former peers that he's left all of that behind.

That being said though, I noticed while rewatching Dressrossa that as much as Homing talks about the "honesty" of living as a human and the hollowness of Celestial Dragon society, he never seems to grasp that his peers are *evil*. He thinks of their immense wealth and privilege and the city of Mariejois itself as superficial, and clearly views his peers as misguided and shallow, but he never seems to explicitly condemn the actual atrocities they regularly commit or address it in his home; even though he thinks of himself as morally superior to his peers for choosing a comparatively less opulent and less abusive lifestyle, he doesn't seem genuinely bothered by Doffy repeatedly, loudly expressing his desire to own slaves as they're unpacking. He never bothers to tell his children that his peers are wrong, and the language he uses to condemn his peers excess never actually addresses their cruelty, just his general distaste for their excess and opulence. He doesn't do anything to intervene or apologize when Doffy expresses the same views in public in front of the very people he ostensibly idealizes enough to want to be like. He announces his status right off the bat and allows his child to loudly call for the deaths of people who cross his path without ever apologizing or expressing anything beyond mild discomfort. Even when he leaves Mariejois, he's given much nicer lodgings than most of his neighbours and a decent amount of money and treasure to boot and doesn't seem to want for anything.

Essentially, the outlook Donquixote Homing holds towards humans isn't so much genuine disillusionment with the class he was born into as it is something akin to poverty tourists or orientalist expats who think they're morally superior to and more in tune with the locals than their peers. The subaltern humans exist to him mostly as an aestheticized ideal before they register as people with complex emotions and severe traumas that his peers inflict on them for shits and giggles. He doesn't even seem to register the depths of the harm that people like him have inflicted enough to even fathom that these quaint little people he used to hold power over truly hate and fear them until it's far too late to protect himself or his family.

#donquixote doflamingo #donquixote family #donquixote rosinante #one piece #dressrossa #celestial dragons #world nobles #donquixote rocinante #doffy one piece

[whereismywizardhat]

Saw Glass Onion, and I cannot help but think about what the movie is trying to say.

Spoilers Ahead, you have been warned

The most obvious (and considering how November went in the year 2022) is the dismantling of the myth of the Tech Billionaire.  Miles Bron is a obvious Musk/Zuckerburg stand-in, with the former’s charisma and energy industry connections and the later’s assorted former business partners.

Miles surrounds himself with “The Disrupters” aka the shitheads.  Lionel the engineer, Duke the alt-right troll, Claire the politician, and Birdie the fashion model.  Science, Media, Politics, and Entertainment, four pillars of society each dependent on the smooth talking grifter with the pile of money for their own continued success.  Like with Knives Out, the politics of the four doesn’t particularly matter: Claire is mentioned to be a liberal politician, while Duke’s MRA talking points barely can escape his garage without being called out by his mother and Birdie mindlessly repeats slurs on social media with such regularity her assistant micromanages her phone.  Class solidarity matters more, 5% will protect the 1%.

Miles surrounds himself with these people, but he has no loyalty to them.  He powers his home with an unstable energy source that his engineer is sure is dangerous (because it’s hydrogen, the most explosive element), he has already convinced the politician to back his dangerous energy source, he assists the far right media guy in getting a new platform but does not platform him on his own network, and he intends to allow the fashionista to take the fall for their sweatshops.  

Coming out in a year where we have watched billionaires throw good money after bad in such ventures as “Worse VR Chat” and “Let’s Burn the Bird Site to the Ground”, it has never been more obvious the mediocrity of tech billionaires.  And here comes Glass Onion, which presents it’s Ersatz Zucker-musk as the most mediocre of them all: seemingly only having the talent to steal ideas from others and force others to repackage them.  A man so utterly devoid of creativity or talent that naturally everyone thinks of him as a genius.  A Cave Johnson level Moron.

The fifth guest, Andi, Mile’s former partner, represents Business but she’s also a black woman who was the true brains behind the operation, and thus was first discredited then murdered.  The Andi we meet is actually her school teacher twin sister, Helen.  Education, another pillar, and notably the only one is not beholden to Miles.  Tech Billionaires aren’t even beholden to Capitalism, but they are beholden to people educated enough to see through their snake oil.

And finally there is Benoit Blanc, our beloved detective.  He represent justice (notably, not the police), and notably while he solves the crime he cannot touch Miles.  White Privileged Billionaires never have to worry about Justice reaching them, they are insulated from it.  The only thing he can do is encourage Helen.

And Helen burns it all down.  No justice can be extracted from Billionaires, but we can burn their houses down, their own hubris practically guarantees that they will have left fuel everywhere.  After all, they are morons.

#knives out #glass onion #benoit blanc #glass onion spoilers

[gatheringbones]

[“I think shame provides social capital to white people in a few key ways. First, it garners sympathy. In the era of self-care, shame is something we believe we shouldn’t feel. If shame says “I am bad” rather than “what I did was bad,” then, in a self-care/self-help framework, no one should feel shame because we are all inherently good. The “I am inherently good” mantra is amplified for white people because our goodness is systematically reinforced across society: “good” neighborhoods and schools being stand-ins for white, and white as a stand-in for ideal human. When that taken-for-granted yet unacknowledged sense of racial goodness is challenged, we feel attacked at our very core. Whiteness studies scholar Michelle Fine speaks to this moral insulation when she says: “Whiteness accrues privilege and status, gets itself surrounded by protective pillows of resources and/or benefits of the doubt; how Whiteness repels gossip and voyeurism and instead demands dignity.” White people seldom find ourselves without these “protective pillows,” and when we do, it is typically because we have chosen to temporarily step outside our comfort zones. Within our insulated racial environment we come to not only expect racial comfort but to also be less tolerant of racial stress. Expressing shame elicits comfort and relief as we turn to others seeking reassurance, in essence asking to be reminded of our goodness.

For white progressives, shame is seen as socially legitimate (or we wouldn’t express it), a sign that we care and that we feel empathy. This may be why we express shame so much more readily than guilt. Guilt means we are responsible for something; shame relieves us of responsibility. If I focus on what I did, I must take responsibility for repair. If I focus on what I am, it is impossible to change and I am relieved of responsibility.

In distinguishing shame from guilt, psychologist Joseph Burgo explains,

Although many people use the two words ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ interchangeably, from a psychological perspective, they actually refer to different experiences. Guilt and shame sometimes go hand in hand; the same action may give rise to feelings of both shame and guilt, where the former reflects how we feel about ourselves and the latter involves an awareness that our actions have injured someone else. In other words, shame relates to self; guilt to others.

If guilt relates to external actions and shame to an internal or private state, we can begin to see why shame is the preferred narrative: it protects our positions within the status quo by making it difficult for anyone outside ourselves to address. (The “personal experience” narrative functions the same way; as soon as I invoke that what I am claiming is “just my personal experience,” it becomes private—something internal to myself that only I can know or understand and that therefore cannot be challenged by others.)

Second, it is hard to move forward when we feel shame, as shame tends to be paralyzing; shame actually excuses us from moving forward. What can we do when we feel so bad? We can’t act until we work through this feeling, and that will take time and resources. Of course, given the requirement of time and resources, most of us won’t work through our feelings at all.

Indulging in racial shame whenever we feel exposed (but only when we feel exposed) puts our focus on ourselves and away from those we may have harmed. In this way, shame functions to deny our power and excuse our paralysis, allowing us to indulge in a sense of our own victimization. Both bell hooks and Audre Lorde have noted that feeling bad about racism or white privilege can function as a form of self-centeredness in which white progressives turn the focus back onto themselves. Hooks considered shame to be the performance of whiteness and not an indicator that whiteness was being interrupted.

Feminist writer and independent scholar Sara Ahmed explains, “The shameful white subject expresses shame about its racism, and in expressing its shame, it ‘shows’ that it is not racist: if we are shamed, we mean well. The white subject that is shamed by whiteness is also a white subject that is proud about its shame. The very claim to feel bad (about this or that) also involves a self-perception of ‘being good.’” In other words, if I feel bad enough, I both demonstrate and retain my morality. Ahmed raises the question of whether anti-racism is really about “making people feel better: safer, happier, more hopeful, less depressed, and so on.” There is certainly much concern within anti-racist education about white people not feeling “too” bad lest they withdraw from engagement, and much time and attention is given to keeping white people in the conversation. This concern is heightened when the shame narrative emerges; we now must tread very carefully so as not to cause the person to disengage.”]

robin diangelo, from nice racism: how progressive white people perpetuate racial harm

#robin diangelo #currently reading #brainspace

[theroadtofairyland]

I'm thinking of posting this on medium but I'm genuinely scared. I'd welcome thoughts.

I’m So Terrified To Tell These Stories But Something Needs To Be Said

The concept of victim blame always seemed to be presented as a phenomenon exclusively found in the arena of sexualized violence. As a survivor of several episodes of sexualized violence, I’ve found the experience repeated as the daughter of a deadbeat billionaire father and suffered exploitation by unscrupulous landlords. 

Victim blame has undeniably been experienced by many victims of sexual violence but rather than being a phenomenon of sexual violence, victim blame is a feature of any situation in which the perpetrator has a more political, economic, and/or social power than the victim. No one blames you if you buy a huge TV that’s stolen because you have demonstrated you are of the owning class. However, if you want your landlord to fix a leaky roof, you must justify why you don’t just move somewhere else without a leaky roof.

My father says on one of his own website bios his and assets are worth in excess of two billion dollars. He used addresses in South Africa and the Channel Islands. That my single mom in Denver, Colorado could not begin to navigate international family law is my father’s proof that he was not responsible for child support. So insulated by privilege provided by wealth, I am forced to defend that a father should pay child support. A father who has made hundred of millions in housing while I experienced a decade of housing insecurity and intermittent homelessness. 

Over the years I’ve received variously skeptical and accusatory questions about why my mom didn’t do this or I didn’t do that. The truth is neither of us could find an advocate. Would you want to enrage a billionaire? Would you go out on that limb? No one ever asks how he could live knowing his daughter was unhoused? My half siblings ask why my mom didn’t do something. They don’t confront our father and demand he do something, despite having 700 units in my city. 

The experience of being blamed in a situation I seemed to be powerless in was replicated again in my relationship with my landlord. In September of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, eviction ban in effect, rent paid through October 5th, my landlord have my utilities cut at the street. I was given nothing in writing but was forced to vacate on the 18th of September. The inspector from the energy company never asked if I lived there. I tried to talk to the police, I was told it was a civil matter and I needed an attorney. I was unable to obtain a call back. No one wants to represent a tenant. 

I was “allowed” to say in a windowless room with a back breaking sectional in half a duplex shared by their adult son, the yard was also shared with another person so I had to coordinate for my dog’s pee breaks. I had been renting a two bed, two bath, single family with a yard, so the accommodations were not equal. 

They moved me into another property without any maintenance between tenants. I couldn’t move in until 6pm because the guy was still in the house. There was a period of 18 hours during which I was renting two houses and not allowed to occupy either and had current leases for neither. 

What had been an agreement to allow an elderly parent to sleep on my couch over the holidays became me providing 24/7 home healthcare because he had just had a “mild stroke” and he had been checked out of the hospital so he spend the holidays at home. Not only did I care for the stroke patient with dementia, I ended up coordinating the in home care professionals and entertaining the family. 

Around that time I fell in love for the first time. Being verbally abused by a man grappling with his own mortality in the company of relative strangers, at Christmas no less, was not ideal as a backdrop to our budding romance. He is a coffee guy and so I learned to make it but I don’t drink it. I made it for everyone. My landlord would visit with her father have an espresso, sometimes and then some breakfast that I made, and then do other things like prep another property. 

Why would anyone allow this? Was she paid? Did she get free rent? No. 

After Christmas, my beloved having vastly misjudged the power dynamics involved, gently informed my landlord that I wasn’t able to get any of my own work done and was too nice to say so. He also asked if she had a steam cleaner, this was because I was not comfortable laying down the law vis a vis use and changing of urinary and fecal incontinence products. He was able to do it but would belligerently insist it wasn’t necessary. Within 24 hours she was threatening housing. She was offended that I suggest my dog couch was soiled by her father, even though it’s why he was ostensibly not in her 5 bedroom home across the street.

I have talked that all through with a number of attorney’s intake people I’m asked again and again why didn’t I? Get help. I tried. I was unhoused from March 2019 to October 2019. My housing is everything to me. I am not being dramatic when I say I would rather die than lose my housing. That’s the answer. Why did I allow that and all the other horrifying things? Because of existential extortion. 

Power assures your destruction if you try to fight it. If you’re a victim of sexual violence you face further violation and there’s a like 90% chance the perpetrator won’t even be charged. Nor have people stopped blaming the victims of office harassment for the consequences suffered by their harassers. If you have a legitimate grievance against the billionaire class, you may not be a daughter but you could be a caterer that didn’t get paid for a society wedding or a gardener or a tenant, that you simply can’t afford justice. Maybe someone wields power like housing or income to get more. 

We as a society need to broaden our recognition of when victims of power abuses are demanded to justify how they’ve coped with their situation. The demand for explanations always seems to look down. Power does not expect questions and they rarely seem to come. 

Again I see parallels between my sets of experiences. When I had a particularly brutal encounter, I played nice all the way until he was in a lyft and via text for months after. I didn’t want him to come back. I also feared his confidence. I was sure that, despite him needing to hold me in place, his assuredness I wanted what happened would convince a third party. My mom she feared him taking me in spite, she convinced herself I was her choice so solely her responsibility and his marriage needed protecting. With my father, well the fact that he hasn’t treated me like one of his children has made people assume I’m lying. I’m something he has gotten away. The housing is an undecided struggle but terrifying none the less. 

I’ll leave you with image…Coffee guy left and never came back. He knew something was up and bailed before he had to know and pretend to care. I’d had a miscarriage and didn’t know how to talk about it because I hadn’t known prior to miscarrying I was pregnant. I couldn’t do anything for months. I missed that had once again conceived in our last days and then miscarried a second time. In one brief moment outside my landlord saw me and told me she missed the coffee in a way that made it clear she had wanted me to go on making her espressos. I’ll remind you I don’t drink coffee, the coffee stuff was his and I was grieving a pregnancy, my first love and a future that seemed so real to me I could see it when I closed my eyes. 

#social justice #housing #tw assault #not art #personal #victim blaming

[goongiveusnothing]

Here to rant. I'd previously sent an ask, basically berating this blog and questioning about the hate you have for Harry Styles many months back because I used to seek solace in him and his music. Right now, I'm pissed beyond belief for spending my money on him and his vinyls and supporting that zi*nist white ahole all this while. If it's not clear I'm a poc and I have been appalled beyond my understanding at the general air of "not giving a fuck" about his arab/Muslim and poc fan base. He will stand for blm and lgbtq issues and talk about feminism like a typical white liberal but continue to hang out with raging zionists while ensuring that money flow is continuous to his pockets. I fckin hate him and his existence. Honestly his fans make me even more mad. They are so far up his ass that they don't even want to see daylight ever again. The way they have save palestine and I stand for palestine, in their bios om twitter and then dedicate their whole account for that loser infuriates me to no end. Fucking hate the entire celebrity culture. Thanks for this blog coz it makes me feel validated for being rightfully angry because of how much of a farce the entire Harry Styles corporation is.

for me, his zionism will always be a testament to who he is.

the same way as his refusal to talk about his sexuality, but instead use that refusal and ambivalence to generate funds and attention for himself. yet he refuses to speak out on LGBT issues when anyone needs it. in fact, he's been entirely absent on these issues outside of waving flags onstage.

he lives in a world of utter privilege and is fully removed from anything normal. everyone he knows is not only like him, but rancid with it all. the most privileged out of touch zionists, the richest, the most self inflated, the biggest ass kissers, the people known for being assholes and even sex pests.

harry could speak out on any issue he wants. he could use his fame and status to insulate himself from the blowback. soldiers have immolated themselves to draw attention to real issues. harry can't and won't.

at most i expect a mealymouthed "i believe in peace" answer to all this when he releases his next album. something his fans will claim is "FREE PALESTINE" and the same as self immolation and proves he loves muslims and palestinians, whereas the zionists will see he claims them, as ben and xander will be at his shows and by his side, and his zionist management jeff azoff will be there earning riches on it all.

harry and most celebrities are moral vacuums who live for capitalism and the sale of the idea of who they are, who they let the fans decide like a choose your own adventure, and any who dare step out of line have to deal with real issues and a threat to their money and power and award season, and the fake ones say and do nothing because their quest for EGOTs and fame/status is too much.

[intothecest]

Tropes of Cest #1 Royalty

I used to have loose ongoing series of posts, Other Cest Ships, where I did deep dives into particular ships I liked other than the one I started the blog for (Dipper and Mabel from Gravity Falls, for those of you who are newer), and even though they didn't get much reach, they were fun, and it was something to do other than just promote my own stories. I might pick that series up again as well, but I realized I'd also like to do some deeper dives into some favorite tropes of stories involving incest. So, welcome to the first instalment of Tropes Of Cest.

I'll declare up front that, unless otherwise stated, for all tropes I'm dealing with only consensual pairings (although including ones where they may not realize going into it that they're related, or where the outcomes might be tragic - the desire is real and that's what's most important). Pairings are also not necessarily sexual, particularly where younger characters are involved, but may just be romantic or pining. The key distinction is I'm usually not dealing with these tropes where outright abuse is the reason the incest (or incestuous feelings that may fall short of action) happens. I'm mostly interested in exploring the tropes in cases where where both parties have feelings and want the situation or pine for more. Yes, there will be abusive examples of these tropes out there (and unfortunately in RL situations which are similar to them), and they might once in a while come up, but this isn't what this trope analyses series is interested in. For that matter, even if sometimes--in a real world situation--it might be wise to treat the situation as abusive, despite everyone involved willingly engaging in it, we're still not considering it necessarily abusive for fictional cases described here. For these, we may adopt the headcanon that these are exceptions who are uniquely mature or self-possessed and nobody is actually being harmed (by the relationship itself, at least). Also see my general disclaimer on such problematic ships.

The first trope I'll be exploring is… Royalty!

For the purpose of this, I use 'royalty' to cover nobility in general as well, as well as Heads of State and their families (at least while they hold the role). It's less about specific titles and more about power. Those in power can have all the same taboo yearning as the rest of us, except their privilege can insulate from the negative consequences of following their desires. Sometimes it can even make it more likely… if you've grown up with the idea that your family is fundamentally better than everyone else, the logical extension is that they're where you should find someone to share your life with. Paradoxically, it can also make things more difficult, because an ordinary middle-class couple might be able to escape to somewhere they're not known, but if you're in the public eye, it's harder to get away with things, and you might lose everything when it's discovered. Either way, whether it's arranged marriages or secret affairs that could cost everything, there's something about royalty that lends itself to incest… and that's leaving out fantasy elements, portal fantasies that take them away from their own world, special bloodlines with magic powers, or strange curses intended to punish the royal family but instead wind up putting bringing them together.

Pairings it applies to: Honestly, it's wide open. As usual, Sibling pairings are my favorite, but cousins are surprisingly common and not necessarily even controversial. Nieces and uncles work well, aunts and nephews perhaps less common in a 'based on history' setting but no different. There's fairy tale examples of parent/child (although usually they're abusive and unwanted by one party, I have seen the occasional exception). Queer pairings can also be loads of fun (again, maybe in terms of acknowledged relationships in history, a little rarer, but fuck history, it misses so much anyway).

RL?: I mean, as just mentioned, it happens. Royal families are kinda known for it, which is perhaps one of the reasons it works so well as a trope for fiction, divorced from the negatives. In fact, for most of the hetero pairings, I can point to a historical example at least of the marriage (perhaps not parent/child or grand- stuff--although I'm sure that also happens it's far more often abusive and hidden variety).

Fun ways to play with the trope: Lots of them honestly. There's the potential attitude of "Who would dare stop us? We're in charge!" allowing people to explore impulses they might otherwise shy away from. There's 'preserving the bloodline' kinks (which is not usually my thing but with this trope I can like). There's the 'arranged marriage, only it turns out they fall in love.' And the 'arranged loveless marriage with unrelated people but a cesty affair that makes their life worth living.' There's loads of fun with bastards, either where characters don't know they're related to the one they're falling in love with because the king was screwing around, or alternatively, where everyone KNOWS they're related but it's officially unacknowledged, and the characters are in each others orbits, one getting everything and the other getting almost nothing leading to tension that erupts in an unexpected way. I already mentioned curses, and you could easily imagine a Sleeping Beauty situation but the prince is related to her (I mean don't just randomly kiss sleeping girls you find, but pretend he knew that was what was necessary to break the curse), but royalty also gets more than its fair share of prophecies… and prophecies can be twisted in fun ways. "You will marry a princess." I mean your sister's a princess! Or hey, two siblings, each individually told a prophecy that they are the heirs of the rightful king, and are in fact the Chosen One who will defeat the Dark Power and take their rightful place on the throne. It only occurs to them later that this means they will defeat the Dark Power together and subsequently will rule together… and the only way to do that is to marry.

Canon-examples (non-exhaustive): Game of Thrones is the obvious one (and House of the Dragon) to start with. We got siblings with the Lannisters, obviously, and as time went on had aunt/nephew and cousins that were either canon or strong contenders to be such. And in HotD, an uncle/niece pairing where they genuinely seemed very much in love (although not unproblematic a relationship in many ways). I believe the series Reign implied a canon half-sibling sexual experience (in the past) between one character and her half-sibling who was an unacknowledged bastard. Arthurian legend also regularly includes Mordred as King Arthur's bastard son with his half-sister. Another example that comes to mind is the Chronicles of Amber, where it's established at one point that Corwin (the main character for the first several books) was in love with one of his sisters (who is sadly dead before the story starts), and at one point has an affair with a grand-niece. In several stories, the Borgias (who are of course real people but as I understand it the evidence of an actual relationship there is slim, but as 'fictional characters who are based on real people' it's absolutely canon). Crimson Peak, also… both of these also fall into the 'villainous incest' trope which might get explored at a later date. Classically, there's the tale of Oedipus (although of course that's not the happiest ending), among others. Dune I believe occurs a couple times, at least in terms of marriage for political reasons (and vibes for a few more). In certain Marvel universes (and by stretching the definitions a bit), Quicksilver/Scarlet Witch/Polaris/Magneto form a sort of 'mutant royal family' and Wanda/Pietro at least have occasionally been canon, so I'm calling them a canon comics example, deal with it. (Fenris, arguably as well - their father was a baron!). And, you know what, Leia is a Princess, so let's call Star Wars a canon example.

Carnival Row is a world not-like-ours, but two of the antagonists might as well be considered nobility, and are absolutely canon in their cest. I'd say Flash Gordon, the 1980 movie, deliberately suggests incest stuff goes on with Ming and his daughter Aura (and although I've never seen it, shipcestuous listed the 2007 TV series as 'canon suggestive' with Aura and her brother who was invented for the show).

I don't think Laon and Catherine from the novel Under the Pendulum Sun are nobility per se, as much as upper class Victorian Brits, so they might not actually count, but hey, while they're in Arcadia they live a house described as pretty much a castle, and they are absolutely a thoroughly shippable canon incest pairing, so I'm mentioning them anyway.

Oh, and though other examples from that universe are dealt with below, I'm calling Desna and Eska from Legend of Korra as canon. I don't care if it's not explicit. You can give me creepy twins who are always together without me calling it canon. But you can't give me a scene where Eska checks into a hotel, one room for the both of them, and when questioned about the weirdness of that, tosses off "Desna sleeps in the tub" and not have me consider it absolutely canon. Fight me.

Near-canon examples (even less exhaustive): Azula and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender (since Azula's voice actor seems to be into shipping them and played one of their major scenes like a seduction). I mean Thor/Loki often feels pretty close to canon (Loki did selfcest in his own series and when questioned about whether it was princesses or another prince he said 'bit of both' - except what other prince but Thor?). Close enough to call it near-canon. Similarly, Wanda/Pietro, canon in some universes, near-canon in many others. (If you stretch Fenris to the Strucker siblings from Fox's The Gifted, I'd call them near-canon, but I'm not sure whether--in that universe--they qualify as nobility).

Canon characters it would easily suit, for shipping puposes (really pretty hard to exhaust, especially if you're determined to look for them): Obviously you gotta start with the Pevensies, from the Chronicles of Narnia. Four siblings become Kings and Queens of Narnia, living whole adult lives (before returning through the wardrobe and back into their child lives)… it just seems natural they would pair up. Arguably you could put them in 'near-canon' examples, but I genuinely don't believe anyone involved in the production of that tale intended that, which is part of my criteria for 'near-canon' (even if I can't prove it).

Elsanna in Frozen launched a thousand shippers (and I'm tempted to call it near canon because surely on a big production Disney movie SOMEBODY saw it and was there for it)

Illyana Rasputin (Magik) from X-Men comics is queen of her own dimension, so I'm counting her as royalty, since I already ship her and her brother Piotr (Colossus).

I'll be honest though… even though I like this trope, I don't watch or read a lot of stuff with royalty in the first place, so my examples here are going to be sparse.

Oh, I suppose Peter Wiggins eventually becomes Hegemon (largely with help from his sister), which means my Ender's Game ship counts here as well.

Canon characters you could mangle into the trope but probably in an AU (there's no exhausting these possible): It's easy enough to imagine any pair you already like in an AU where they're royalty or nobility, obviously, although for me it works best when there's already something special about the family… like, to take a random example, you could make the family in The Middle royalty, but at that point their life is so different you're pretty much dealing with completely different characters who share names and appearances… and though it might be fun to imagine say Letterkenny as a royal family in a fantasy world… okay that just sounds pretty fun and you could probably maintain character traits so lets just call that an example. Still, something like The Baudelaires in A Series of Unfortunate Events feels like a more natural extension - the secret society could be transformed into an actual nobility easily enough (I don't believe Olaf is actually a Count, otherwise I might count them in one of the above categories… although technically he did try to marry Violet so could put them into canon if you did). Superhero families, of any kind, also translate easily into royalty AUs - their special abilities already put them above the common people, so I could see the Fantastic Four, for example, being nobility and Johnny/Sue carrying on an affair. Superman and Supergirl are arguably nobility already just by virtue of the fact that most of the other Kryptonians are dead. Even if they're like 10 millionth in the line of succession they're at the top of the list now (and, in some universes and eras, canon, at least feelings-wise, so maybe I should have put that up top).

Another approach is to make characters who aren't siblings into siblings, and where royalty is involved, this is often more natural than other stories. One example is The Princess Bride, where I sometimes headcanon that Westley is the bastard son of Buttercup's father, kept on the farm to keep him close and employed but never told the truth. She arguably starts as a commoner but if the Prince marries her she's probably got a noble lineage (and hey, even if the marriage "didn't count" because she didn't say "I do", to everyone else it counted, and she therefore became a princess). Similarly, you could imagine one of the real reasons Romeo and Juliet's family were so opposed was that at least some of them knew that one of the two children was the result of an affair between two of the spouses and thus they're half siblings. There. I just improved Shakespeare for you. You're welcome.

One Story Prompt: I've had this one for a while. I might have already posted the idea here, or maybe anonymously to shipcestuous who has much wider reach. But, contrary to its reputation, the Bastille in France was often used as an upper class prison as well, and was relatively comfortable… at least, if you were a member of the nobility (it was also reasonably comfortable--by prison standards--for commoners as well, but we're not dealing with them). Rich prisoners could still have lavish meals, a full wardrobe, even servants, sometimes… you just couldn't leave. Sometimes, whole families were imprisoned together… the Wikipedia entry says that in 1746 the family of Lord Morton and their entire household were detained in the Bastille as British spies - the family's domestic life continued on inside the prison relatively normally.

So imagine a family locked up in the Bastille (or a similar prison, for detaining nobility that needs to be put out of circulation but not to be harmed or given undue suffering)… and love blossoming between two siblings (or the pair of your choice), realizing that, there, at least, they are given the opportunity to be together, rather than her being married off or him being expected to go off to lead a regiment or whatever, and that they like each other's company. At first they tell themselves they are experimenting with romantic play due to the lack of other options, but soon it becomes more, and they have to cope with not only getting away with things under the noses of their family, but also the guards, and oh dear, what if a pregnancy happens? I don't think I could write it, not being good with stuff that isn't modern day or the future, but I still think it would make a fantastic story.

To sum up: Consanguinamory: Some may call it royally fucked up, but it's heir to a a noble history! It's not just for Westeros, it's for the rest of us!

If I've missed any examples in any category, or you have your own story prompts, please, either comment or (even better) just reblog and add your own. Topic suggestions are also welcome. I don't promise any regularity to this series, but ideas are always helpful.

#tropes of cest #royalty #story idea #shipping

[rihon-scribe-some-writer-guy]

American Government 324: The Curious Case of Cox

Alright class, it’s lecture time. On Thursday, December 8th, 2023, news media outlets reported the following stories listed below:

To do the articles injustice and sum them up, Kate Cox achieved the unimaginable and convinced a Texas Judge that she needed an abortion. I conclude that to sum up the story in this manner would be an injustice because there’s a lot more going on.

Kate Cox is a 31-year-old mother of two who received the bad news that her twenty-week-old fetus suffered from a genetic condition called trisomy 18 — a diagnosis, the lawsuit says, that means her pregnancy may not last until birth and if it does, her baby will be stillborn or survive only for minutes, hours or days.

While the condition could affect Cox’s livelihood negatively if she has to carry the fetus to labor. Her threat of death doesn’t seem to be the deciding factor. In fact, only one of the three news sources mentioned info about Cox’s threat of death. No, the determining factor was how the condition would affect Cox’s future possibilities to successfully have more children. Judge Gamble didn’t feel like gambling those future possibilities:

"The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice. So I will be signing the order and it will be processed and sent out today."

The Philosophy of the Law

Gamble's decision is believed to be the first time a judge has allowed a woman to legally get an abortion since the decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. While this ruling only applies to the case of Cox, it speaks volumes about the philosophies that are held within this individual overturning.

The Pro Life community might still be divided over when personhood is achieved in a fetus, yet at twenty weeks, the fetus has not only developed a heart but has developed the brain and neural system. At this stage in development the argument for personhood is the strongest. In turn, the pro-life philosophy should see this abortion closer in regards to murder. The decision to approve this abortion never took the wants and desires of the fetus, merely the mother’s decision on its behalf to make it end in the least suffering manner.

The law isn’t interested in that though. The law granted the fetus to be aborted so that future fetuses that have yet to been conceived have a chance to thrive. In the pro-life tongue, the fetus lost its right to life from fetuses that haven’t been conceived yet.

While the pro-choice community will most likely offer sighs of relief to Cox’s court trial, this isn’t a philosophical victory for the movement. I would dare say that Cox was only privilege with the ability to choose because her ideals mirror those who held the legal power.

Wise individuals should easily see that the system of abortion bans truly only benefits the movement of pro-control, because those who are in control can bend the law to their liking when it suits them.

The Daunting Road Ahead

Cox’s journey remains unfinished as the difficulty of finding a doctor to perform the abortion remains a mountain of challenge on its own. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office issued a statement saying the temporary restraining order "will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas' abortion laws." Paxton's office also included a letter sent to several medical centers outlining action it will take against doctors who perform an abortion.

While Cox reportedly remains hopeful, the current pressure faced by Texan medical practitioners told her their "hands are tied" and she would have to wait until the fetus dies inside her or carry the pregnancy to term, when she will have to undergo a third C-section "only to watch her baby suffer until death.” This situation resembles Savita Halappanavar case in Ireland of 2012.

#reproductive rights #Kate Cox #texas #roe v wade #abortion debate #abortion bans

[ingek73]

Prince Harry Takes a Stand for Us All: ‘If They’re Supposedly Policing Society, Who On Earth is Policing Them?’

The crisis and corruption in the British press is one of the biggest, ongoing scandals of our time. Byline Times tips its hat to Prince Harry

Hardeep Matharu

6 June 2023

A court sketch of Prince Harry giving evidence in his civil trial against Mirror Group Newspapers. Photo: Elizabeth Cook/PA/Alamy

“Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo… The country and the British public deserve to know… We will be better off for it.”

Today, the Duke of Sussex was the first senior member of the Royal Family in more than 130 years to give evidence to a civil court. He also became one of the British establishment’s very own – a prince of the realm, no less – to expose what he alleges was illegal information gathering by one of this country’s major tabloid newspaper groups.

Will he receive the praise he deserves for speaking the unspeakable? Unlikely. With all his privilege and wealth, Prince Harry is painted as playing the ultimate victim by the press he hopes to hold accountable. In turn, these tabloids can then claim the victimhood they often hide behind when challenged. Who is a prince to tell the free press anything?

But, when someone with the experience, insights and access to the elite circles that Prince Harry has brings a claim such as the one he is in the High Court pursuing against Mirror Group Newspapers we should all take notice.

In many ways, his wealth and privilege insulate him – he has very little to lose, or gain, in any material sense from this case. Rather, it is the point of principle which he seems to be advancing in the public interest. Of all the people to speak of the importance of an accountable press for a healthy democracy, truth and decency, it is frankly remarkable that it is one of the British elite’s own. But his level of knowledge of the workings and culture of the British press is a testament to his commitment to bringing about change.

In his extraordinary statement to the court, Prince Harry said “I fully accept and agree with the fact that journalists and the media own the public square, in as much as, if you are in a position of responsibility and or are funded by the taxpayer, the media should have the power to be able to investigate anyone, anytime, for pretty much anything” but that “over the last 15 to 20 years, there are now incredibly powerful media companies who masquerade as journalists and who have, quite literally, hijacked journalistic privileges for their own personal gain and agenda. It’s an unbelievably dangerous place”.

How often do we ever hear anything about “journalistic privileges”?

The prince went on to say that “whoever you are, if you are of interest to the press at that time, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing – if you’re in private or if you’re in public – you are a target. You become a victim of their system”.

“They claim to hold public figures to account, but refuse to hold themselves accountable,” he said. “If they’re supposedly policing society, who on earth is policing them, when even the government is scared of alienating them because position is power. It is incredibly worrying for the entire UK.”

For the fifth in line to the British throne, this claim is about trying “to save journalism as a profession”. However unusual a turn of events that may seem, this newspaper applauds Prince Harry for daring to confront one of the biggest, under-reported, ongoing, scandals of our times: that we have an entire power bloc in this country, which can impact all of our lives, that receives hardly any scrutiny. Not of its owners, intentions or consequences.

“Journalists need to expose those people in the media that have stolen or hijacked the privileges and powers of the press and have used illegal or unlawful means for their own gain and agendas,” his statement said. “I am bringing this claim, not because I hate the tabloid press or even necessarily a section of it, but in order to properly hold the people who have hijacked those privileges, which come with being a member of the press, to account for their actions.”

In remarks that particularly caught the eye of the Daily Mail et al, the prince put it bluntly: “On a national level as, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom.”

That it takes a prince of the British Royal Family to draw such conclusions publicly, rather than our press, says a lot about the current state we are in. Harry is one of the establishment’s own, and this is exactly why the majority of the established press – particularly the right-wing tabloids – are so hostile to him. In conjunction with the political class, they are also part of the elite – and to have one of their own call it out will be a little too close to home.

But the real question is: will anything fundamentally change? While Prince Harry has given his testimony and opened himself up to cross-examination, none of the journalists or editors who he says were behind the alleged unlawful intrusions into his life are giving evidence. Fielding questions about specific journalistic practices in tabloid newsrooms is not for the Duke of Sussex.

So will there ultimately be any answers or accountability from the press itself? Beyond some limited high-profile media coverage of the court case, which inevitably always frames the issue as historic phone-hacking allegations – rather than the distorting culture of some of our biggest newspapers and proprietors and editors that is really at its heart?

While the Conservative Government shelved the second part of the landmark Leveson Inquiry into press ethics and practices, which followed the exposure of the phone-hacking scandal, there is no guarantee that a change of government will help. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party swims in the same toxified waters as the current crop of politicians in charge does – will media reform be high on its list after more than a decade out of power? We will have to wait and see.

But it should be. Because, as Prince Harry has said, if newspapers “can truly believe they are above the law… it’s the general public that suffer. It’s really that simple”.

It is difficult to see how Britain would be in the position it is in now – weakened politically and economically both at home and on the world stage – if a truly independent and accountable press had provided the necessary checks on power all healthy democracies need.

I have never understood how being a journalist isn’t seen as anything but an immense privilege and responsibility. Excavating what is happening around us and why, getting close to the people and events that matter, and having the tools to expose wrongdoing is one of the most fulfilling and important jobs there is. But the truth is, it’s all too often not seen like this at all.

Too much of established British journalism remains an elite, closed club. Close to power and influencing it; while claiming to have none but playing victim when it is scrutinised in the slightest. That it continues to get away with its ability to distort our politics and society is one of the biggest stories, and scandals, of our time. Prince Harry is taking a stand for us all.

WRITTEN BY

Hardeep Matharu

Hardeep Matharu is the Editor of Byline Times

#prince harry #duke of sussex #byline times #uk tabloids #uk press #british press

[rollercoasterwords]

But they are. That’s the problem—they are soldiers, and they both know it, only the word means something different to each of them. To Marlene, to her friends, to most of the Order—it means hero.

To Dorcas, it means sacrifice.

Just wanted to come here and say that this is SO powerful and it captures them perfectly. I'm loving this fic so much and so glad we finally have a good long Dorlene fic

ahhh thank you!! i'm so glad u liked that part i was worried i was being a little too heavy-handed but sometimes when u have a point u simply have to make it instead of shrouding it in 6 paragraphs of metaphor lmao

but yes one of my biggest goals with this fic is to illustrate the very stark differences in marlene + dorcas's viewpoints when it comes to the war in like...a balanced way? like, i'm not trying to say that one is right and the other is wrong; my goal is to show how both of them have valid points and there really is no black and white way to look at this situation.

like for marlene, she really deeply believes that everyone is responsible for trying to make the world a better place, and that silence in the face of injustice is complicity. so for her, joining the Order is the only thing that's "right" in terms of her personal moral code, because she genuinely feels that she will be contributing to making the world a worse place if she just tries to ignore everything happening with voldemort. (and most of her friends share this moral code, so it makes a lot of sense that they feel compelled to join the Order!) however, marlene also has a lot of blind spots when it comes to the war, and there's part of her that definitely romanticizes these notions of heroism in which one side is obviously the "good guys" and one side is evil, so if you're fighting for the "right side" then it's automatically heroic and brave. and because she hasn't really spent any time (at this point in the story) working through her feelings about her own chronic illness, she's in this situation where internalised ableism is essentially making her feel like she has a very limited amount of time to make an impact with her life, and that paired with her deep and personal desire to leave a mark on the world (which is, again, tied in with these sort of naive notions of heroism) is a big driving force behind her somewhat reckless and rose-tinted view of the war.

dorcas, on the other hand, doesn't really give a fuck about the bigger picture that marlene is focusing on, because she's pretty much just disenchanted with that bigger picture in and of itself. like, the idea that the "good guys" all just need to band together and fight this enemy and if they win they'll be making the world a better place simply doesn't resonate with dorcas the way it does with marlene, because historically, she knows that the "good guys" are often just as bad as the people they claim to be fighting. she disagrees with voldemort and his followers just as much as marlene, and she also wants to see him stopped, but for her this idea of "everyone has a personal responsibility to actively fight to make the world a better place" is so much more exhausting because...like. dorcas has to exist every day in a marginalized body; anyone looking at her can see that she's a black woman, and so she has had to spend her whole life dealing with racism and marginalization in a way that marlene never has. blood status isn't something that people can see, and so even though marlene identifies in many ways with the struggles of half-blood and muggleborn wizards, her white privilege has insulated her in ways that she isn't even aware of and is a big reason that she views oppression as something to fight against, rather than something to survive. but dorcas can't just buy into this idea of, "we're on the right side, so we're the good guys," because she knows that even if Voldemort is brought down, the Ministry will continue to be corrupt and marginalization will continue to exist, so for her it's not a straightforward matter of good vs. evil. and because she can't buy into any of these ideas about heroism and moral righteousness, all of the violence and danger that comes with the war is just that to her-- violence. none of it is particularly brave, or heroic, or justified.

anyway i could probably talk about this more but i think i am going to cut myself off here because this is already incredibly long and u did not even ask a question lmao but anyway thank u for ur message + for giving me an opportunity to ramble abt this fic!

#thtf #ask

[rafor]

Chapter 60 - Unlucky Portal - The Glitch

As we approached the gates, the prince came running towards us and exclaimed, “Wait! You’re not leaving already, are you? We would love to show you around the city or invite you to a special dinner with the Queen and King, who just saved our king’s life. What do you say?” I smiled and said, “That sounds lovely. I’m already here, after all.” But Akira shook her head and said, “No, thank you. We need to return to our kingdom. We’ve been away for too long.” Freya pleaded, “Please, Akira, it’s a matter of courtesy to accept the hospitality of noble hosts in foreign lands. It’s only for one day.” The prince added, “And as a token of our apology, we’ll also offer you a night’s stay in the palace. They’re the most luxurious quarters we have.” I was tempted by the offer, so we all turned to Akira, who said, “Are you sure about this? What if it’s a trap? We were almost branded as enemies, and now you’re taking their word for it?” The prince opened his mouth to apologize again, but I cut him off and said, “We weren’t at war yet, since the ultimatum hadn’t expired and we hadn’t responded to it.” She frowned and said, “Are you sure? Did you tell your stepson not to respond to it?” I nodded and said, “Yes, we did.” She sighed and said, “Alright, fine. I suppose it’s better than sleeping in the wilderness or in an ancient labyrinth.” Fyrenthos chuckled and said, “But I was there with you. I think you were quite comfortable thanks to me.” She said, “Nothing beats a real bed.” Then Freya said, “We gratefully accept your offer to stay. Thank you for your generosity.” The prince replied, “You’re very welcome.” We turned back from the gates and headed to the palace. Then we parted ways. Fyrenthos and Akira remained at the palace while Freya and I went on a tour of the city. Freya had seen it before, so it was nothing new for her except for some minor changes that she noticed along the way. For me, it was all new. I was fascinated by the theme. Even though the dragons were mostly dark as shadow dragons with light blue accents or yellow or orange in color, the theme was generally very gray and dark. It was like seeing metal everywhere, but the buildings were well insulated in case of the Crashing Thunder, which was the phenomenon that gave the kingdom its name.

It was called the Crashing Thunder, a singular storm that unleashed its fury in one deafening roar. The city had captured its power in crystals and coils hidden in every building and in secret tunnels beneath the streets. We were privileged to explore these marvels, guided by the prince himself. He never told us his name, only his title, so I had no way of addressing him personally. He was simply “Prince” to me.

Later that evening, we were invited to a royal banquet with the king and his court. The king had recovered from his nasty beating and greeted us warmly. The table was similar to the one in our own palace, but here every seat was occupied. I wondered what had become of our nobility, the ones who had vanished or fled for reasons I didn't know, if there had ever been any. Were there any left besides me, Freya, Leo, and our loyal servants?

The feast was splendid. We conversed with many interesting people, including the king himself, who sat next to us. Most of them were friendly and curious, but a few still harbored resentment and hatred towards the last noble wyvern. They were swiftly silenced by the king’s authority. After the meal, we signed a treaty of peace and friendship with their kingdom. For the next fifteen years, we agreed not to threaten or attack each other. Then we retired to our chambers, grateful for the comfort of a real bed after so many nights in a hammock.

It was a mild night at the palace. The air was warm and cozy, but Freya still wanted me to cuddle with her like we had in the past. So I obliged and shifted into an Earth Dragon, wrapping her in my protective wings. I didn’t mind being close to her, but I wished I could stay longer in my other form. Besides, the bed was too small for a dragon of my size, and I hung over the edge awkwardly. It was not very comfortable, to say the least. The next morning, I woke up with a nagging curiosity in my mind: I wanted to try the form of an Electric Dragon, but Freya warned me not to do it here. She said it would attract too much attention and cause trouble. So I reluctantly returned to my normal form. We met up with everyone else, enjoyed a hearty breakfast, and in the afternoon, after bidding farewell to our hosts, we were ready to depart. They offered us some guards to escort us back to our destination, but we declined because Akira had another idea. She suggested using another portal instead. So we left and headed for a place that only the SunFlares knew about. A portal that was hidden, intact, and functional that we activated by transforming some elementless crystals into wind crystals. This time, Freya did the enchantment for me.

As we stepped through the portal, we found ourselves in a verdant valley. I was about to exclaim, “Finally!” when a loud and unmistakable eagle’s cry escaped my mouth. Everyone turned to look at me, and I felt a surge of fear and vertigo. I glanced at my body and realized I had taken the wrong shape. I bore a striking resemblance to Solara, the fire eagle, who heard my call and swiftly flew towards us. She spread her talons and pounced on me, pinning my head to the ground with her powerful grip. Freya greeted her politely, but she ignored her and demanded, “Who is this intruder among you? Did he follow you here?” “No, no, he’s one of us. He’s just… I think he’s Nox,” Freya stammered. I tried to say, “It’s me, in the wrong form,” and attempted to shapeshift back to my normal self, but nothing happened. All I could produce were some unintelligible squawks. I couldn’t speak. Solara narrowed her eyes and asked suspiciously, “Are you sure? Since when can he do this?” Freya said, “He learned it recently. Nox, can you please return to your original form?” I tried again but failed. I tried to communicate but failed. I resorted to gestures, but all I had were wings. I shook my head from side to side to indicate no. Freya looked worried and asked, “Why not?” Akira spoke up and said gravely, “I’m afraid he might have fallen victim to a rare phenomenon of body shifting caused by the portal.” Freya gasped and said, “A what?” Akira explained, “Sometimes, very rarely, the portal can alter your appearance. It’s a probability lower than 0.1%, almost impossible but not quite.” Fyrenthos added sarcastically, “He’s very lucky indeed. He could have turned into anything worse than an eagle. A bug, for instance.” I stared at them in panic, struggling to balance and move properly. Everything felt different. My movements and my vision, which were too sharp for my comfort, everything was wrong. Freya asked, “But he should still be able to shapeshift, right? Why can’t he do it now?” Akira shrugged and said, “Maybe he likes it this way, or maybe he’s stuck with it.” I tried to say “I am stuck” and managed to make it sound somewhat clear. They understood me and looked at me with pity.

Freya devised some simple yes-or-no questions and inquired, “So you can’t shapeshift,” and I nodded. She continued, “And also, I see that you can’t talk, correct?” I nodded again, and then Solara interjected. “So, does this mean that I’m not the only one left now?” I shook my head. She was still the only one. This was just a tragic accident. She then offered, “Nox, you know that I could teach you how to talk, right?” I flapped my wings in the gesture of “I don’t know, I hope.”, I tried again to speak and uttered “Help.”, Freya glanced at Solara and Akira, then asked, “Can you help him?” Akira responded, “I don’t know. I can’t shapeshift, and I’ve never read if this is reversible. Maybe he should jump into a portal thousands of times and hope to get back to normal.” Solara was about to say something, but Freya retorted sooner “A thousand times? There must be another way. He can’t show up like that in the kingdom,”, Akira apologized. “I’m sorry, Freya, I don’t know how to help here.” Solara gave me a sweet and kind look. Then she assured me, “I’ll help you with this. Don’t worry, King Nox.” I said, “Thank you.” And finally, I felt like I could talk, so I added more “Freya, even like this, does anything change between us?” She said, “Don’t worry, we’re still together even like this. We’ll maybe fly together in the evening, and I’ll ask for your advice for any decision.” I quickly asked, “Wait, are you keeping me out of the kingdom?” She denied, “No, but I think that you’d rather enjoy doing that than living in it like this, am I right, Solara?” She agreed, saying, “Yeah, the city isn’t made for us giant eagles. It’s better if you stay with me.” I wondered, “Oh no, and how are we going to explain this to our sons and daughters?” At that moment, they made a vision connection “Hi dad, are you back?” I said, “Oh, not now, my dears, please.” Then they noticed, “Wow, you’re really high. How?” and Akira joined the vision connection “Hey kids, look through my eyes. This is the new form of your father,” and they did as instructed. They exclaimed, “Oh, but he’s like the holy sacred eagle. Dad, you look impressive.” I said, “Thank you, but this isn’t a good thing. Sorry, Juno and Luna.” While we were talking, a young light dragon was flying in our direction. Flynn had just reunited with his parents and greeted them warmly: “Welcome back, dad and mom. I’m so happy to see you.” and went for a hug, which fortunately Akira gave him, then said, “We’re happy to see you too, Flynn.” Then he asked, “Who is this new eagle? Did you bring it here?” I spoke for myself: “Thanks to your mother, who made us use a portal, I’m King Nox, now stuck in the form of a giant eagle.” The discussion didn’t last much longer, so we parted ways again. I broke the vision connection with my daughters, reassuring them that I was going to be fine and warning Zephyrion and Vesper about this.

I bid farewell to Freya, Fyrenthos, and Akira as they returned to the kingdom. I had to stay behind with Solara and master the art of flying in my new form. She was patient and supportive as she guided me through the basics. Soon enough, I was soaring through the air with her, but I felt uneasy and out of place. My wings were so large. I had lost two limbs in the process, and I wondered how I would ever adapt to this change.

“Solara,” I asked her as we flew side by side, “how am I supposed to grab things like this?” She looked at me with a smile and said, “You’ll use your beak and your claws, of course. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.” I shook my head and said, “But this is only temporary. I’ll find a way to get back to normal. I don’t want to be stuck like this forever.” She chuckled and said sarcastically, “If I were you, I’d embrace this opportunity. Don’t you enjoy being an eagle like me?” I sighed and said, “No offense, but I don’t. I feel limited and restricted. I’m sorry.” She didn’t seem offended and said, “It’s alright. You’ll learn to appreciate it sooner or later. Now, let’s try to land.” She pointed to a forest below us and said, “Pick a sturdy branch and land on it. I’ll follow you shortly.”

I scanned the trees and spotted a branch that looked strong enough to hold me. I angled my wings and descended toward it. I tried to grab it with my claws, but I misjudged the distance and almost slipped off. I flapped my wings frantically and managed to regain my balance. Solara landed next to me and said, “Good job. You’ve mastered landing on a branch. Now, can you move a bit closer to the tree and give me some more space?” I looked at her nervously and said, “Are you sure? I might fall off.” She said reassuringly, “Don’t worry, we’re not that high up. Even if you fall, just glide and slow down your fall.” I nodded and attempted to move along the branch. I loosened my grip with one claw and slid it sideways. Then I did the same with the other claw. It was tricky, but I managed to do it without falling.

I took my first tentative step onto the branch. She smiled and said, “Good. Now try to keep your balance while I push you off.” I protested, “Wait, I’m barely standing here,” but she ignored me and flapped her wings at me. I felt a surge of adrenaline and dodged her gusts, leaping to another branch with ease. I had just learned a new skill by accident. She followed me and resumed her assault, trying to knock me off the tree. I pushed back with my own wings, but she had the advantage of knowing how to use her size and strength. We ended up grappling with each other, chest to chest, until I lost my footing and tumbled down with her. She wrapped her wings around me and stopped our fall, then said, “Not bad. You still need more practice, but you’re a quick learner. You have a natural talent for this.” I thanked her but asked, “How is this going to help me?” She gave me a knowing look and said, “You’re not really wondering that, are you?” I thought for a moment and realized, “You’re teaching me how to survive in the wild, aren’t you?” She nodded and said, “I’m teaching you how to be like me. Nothing unusual.” I smiled and said, “Okay, that sounds good. Thank you.” She winked and nudged me with her wing, trying to make me lose balance again. I retaliated, and we resumed our playful fight. We tried to outsmart and outmaneuver each other on the branches, but she was always one step ahead of me. I managed to push her to the edge of a branch once, but then I made a wrong move and fell on top of her. My head landed next to hers on her soft wing, and she said, “Hey, be careful. Don’t hurt yourself.” Then she added, “You know what? You look really cute like this.” I blushed and said, “Don’t get any weird ideas. But thanks anyway.”

She taught me more about landing, taking off, balancing, and flying for a while, then she said, “Shall we get back to my duty?” I asked, “What duty?” She said, “Guarding the valley. Silly King.” I said, “Okay, how do we do that? We split the area?” She said, “We don’t have to split up. We can just fly high together and watch over everything from there.” She was right about that. With our enhanced vision, we could see everything from a great distance. We soared into the sky, so high that the clouds looked low beneath us. Then we glided on the wind currents. I had learned how to use them to my advantage. The updrafts saved me a lot of energy, but I didn’t feel tired anyway. These wings felt like they belonged to me. They didn’t tire me out. Flying was amazing, and we spent the whole day doing it.

#chapter #dragon #dragons #elements #fantasy #literature #mystery #story #poetry #adventure #the_glitch #the rise and fall of raphael

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Its been a super duper exciting couple weeks which culminated in an App Store feature for Stream! As an Apple developer you dream of stuff like this but don’t expect it to happen. At least I didn’t. It’s quite an honor and I’ll be on Cloud 9 for a while.❤️

CNN

“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” Hay wrote in a statement shared on behalf of the actress’ family.

R.I.P. 🪦

Marc Adreessen

Our enemy is the ivory tower, the know-it-all credentialed expert worldview, indulging in abstract theories, luxury beliefs, social engineering, disconnected from the real world, delusional, unelected, and unaccountable – playing God with everyone else’s lives, with total insulation from the consequences.

Someone stayed up way too late reading the works of Ayn Rand and in a ketamine driven manic state started writing.

Clearly Andreessen has been smoking his own supply and is so privileged and ultra wealthy he has no clue what real life is like any longer.

I chose to share the paragraph above because he’s basically describing himself and his fellow libertarian tech bros looking to build a perfect society on the backs of a servant class. Us.

One day this piece will be part of some psychological study on the harms of the early 21st century wrought by a class of technology oligarchs.

We’re all just trying to survive out here, save the planet, and help others along the way. You want the exact opposite. All you care about are wealth and power at the expense of all else.

Go enjoy the outdoors with a loved one and chill. Oh, and lay off the microdosing.

Dylan Scott • Vox

In the coming weeks, the majority of Americans will engage in a bizarre, mildly terrifying, distinctly American seasonal ritual. I refer, of course, to open enrollment — the time when you sign up for your health insurance plan.

As far as I know we’re still the only major country in the world with a second rate sense of healthcare.

Healthcare for all is just what the doctor ordered. A healthy America is a better American, just as an educated America is a better America. So, while we’re getting healthcare for all taken care of let’s make all state universities free of charge.

Paul Stamatiou

It was March 2020, I was in New England when covid quarantine had just begin and I found myself much more homebound. In these situations I’m not one to just do nothing. I always have some sort of project or hobby to keep me busy, be it taking and editing photos, writing detailed blog posts, or coding something.

Holy cow is this app beautiful! It’s a real bummer it’s never seen the light of day but I understand his reasons.

It’s a shame nobody bought this from him, hired him, and let him see it to fruition, it’s an incredible piece of work. 👍🏼

Jason Snell • Six Colors

If I had a dime for every “Apple’s going to release a low-end product to compete with other low-end devices” rumor, I’d have a hefty bank account by now. And you can find plenty of stories debunking this report as “sketchy.” At the risk of giving this report more credulity than it deserves, let me try to understand what this report might actually mean.

I’m not a longtime Apple device user, I started in 2006, but I can say this doesn’t sound like something Apple would do. 🍎

Daniel Lemire

The C++ library has long been organized around stream classes, at least when it comes to reading and parsing strings. But streams can be surprisingly slow.

Call me crazy but I still love C++ as a development language. I never really dove into streams, I used std::string, std::vector, and std::map a ton but not with streams.

The language has morphed so much since 2014 I hardly recognize it. That’s not a bad thing, they’re just trying to make it easier to use and safer for developers.

Anywho, interesting read if you’re into C++ or languages and performance in general.

Chloe Veltman • NPR

Netflix recently shuttered the longstanding mail-order DVD service that led to the closure of video stores around the world and ushered in the era of streaming. But now the company appears to be embracing brick and mortar.

Heh, let’s come full circle and open a physical location! 🤣

Now, if they include Blu-ray and DVD rentals that would be amazing! Perhaps they can take over all the shuttered Blockbusters that haven’t been turned into something else?

Meera Navlakha • Mashable

But some spots are closing their doors on influencers, raising questions. Take Dae, a design shop and cafe in Brooklyn. As reported by Curbed, the space was inundated by influencers carrying tripods, to the point where the owners decided to ban them entirely.

I can understand businesses doing this if the gaggle of influencers are forcing regulars and paying customers to avoid their favorite haunt. It doesn’t seem unreasonable at all.

Asher Fair • Beyond the Flag

Carson Hocevar has been formally announced as Spire Motorsports’ third driver for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, replacing Ty Dillon.

I’m happy for Carson Hocevar and bummed for Ty Dillon.

Hocevar has driven a few Cup races this season and has proven himself a fast, talented, racer. He has a lot to learn about rubbing elbows with the big boys but he’ll learn.

As for Dillion I wonder where he’ll land? As far as I know there aren’t any Cup Series seats open. Maybe Xfinity or Truck Series? Regardless, I wish him well.

[Fritz Bogott • AutoDesk Instructables]

After several years of baking in North House Folk School’s wood-fired brick oven, I decided to build an oven of my own. I went a little crazy with extra features (slab foundation, arches, ash dump, chimney, doors, wood storage) and decorations (limestone around the foundation), but you can make a very usable version in a weekend with salvaged materials and a couple of friends.

Folks always make this look so easy! I’d never complete a project like this! But boy does it sound amazing.

I’m thinking a Roccbox is more my speed! 🤣

Ron Amadeo • Ars Technica

After ChatGPT disruption, Stack Overflow lays off 28 percent of staff

Yikes! The industry is at the beginning of yet another transformation and this one is happening very rapidly. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this terrifies me at some level because I’m essentially “aging out” at this point in my career. I always thought I’d have to learn JavaScript to continue on as a developer. Instead I may have to become a “Prompt Engineer” to bend the LLM’s to my will.

I still refuse to call it AI. 😃

Cory Doctorow

Amazon’s bestselling “bitter lemon” energy drink was bottled delivery driver piss

This is an amazing story! How in the world can someone game the system so hard they’re able to sell urine bottled as an energy drink? It also exposes Amazon, yet again, as a sweat shop. This time with drivers.

[endless-river]

Water in, water out

“It is the responsibility of free men to trust and to celebrate what is constant – birth, struggle, and death are constant, and so is love, though we may not always think so – and to apprehend the nature of change, to be able and willing to change. I speak of change not on the surface but in the depths – change in the sense of renewal.

But renewal becomes impossible if one supposes things to be constant that are not – safety, for example, or money, or power. One clings to chimeras, by which one can only be betrayed, and the entire hope – the entire possibility – of freedom disappears.”

-         James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (p. 92, 1962) On the 9th of May 2022, a calm Monday, as the weather was beginning to swelter in the Netherlands, the Philippines just elected an infamous dictator’s son as their new president. Many rejoiced, others completely devastated and heartbroken, aching because of the certain further detriment of their already ailing motherland. The latter population counted me. Nobody would have imagined that the democracy fought for over 30 years ago (that have also inspired other nations to rise for freedom) would soon erode and history would be altered and almost forgotten once again. I could only think of how lucky I was that I could choose to stay away, tens of thousands of miles away, physically insulated from the upheavals this has caused and is yet to cause. A friend messages me, “Stay there. Putangina [the strongest Tagalog expletive one can muster to say].” Throughout the aftermath, I only felt restlessness and helplessness, and thought about just how unlucky the Filipino people are to have been chosen by the gods, if there are any, to be a country bereft of respite and calm – always with struggle, whether self-inflicted or from a mighty abuser. The most painful part about this new political climate is that as the country where I reside in now becomes carbon-neutral by 2050, my country will be drowning; not only by the seas which we are beautifully enwrapped by, but in exploitation. 

With such people in power, we become more vulnerable to the claws of developed nations or vicious foreign corporations in search of natural resources to protect themselves and satiate their own needs. From Spain’s 300-year theocratic colonial rule, the United States’ ‘benevolent assimilation’ and then onto the throes of neo-colonial rule wherein martial law, political dynasties, and now the poisonous spread of fake news have fermented, so much has been dealt with that has shaped and made a nation of 7,641 islands and 100 million people the way it is today. The Philippines will just give, because that is their way, and the world has defined it so.

How unlucky. And yet, as much as I could easily heed my friend’s message and admit defeat, to be made aware that I can live comfortably and sit idly by as the nation grows weary as some others choose to and settle elsewhere (and one cannot blame them), no bone in my body wishes to stay and accept this fate. I choose to be one of the young Filipinos privileged enough to go abroad to learn and offer another way, another path for others with what I can, what I know and yet to know in the field of spatial design, because I know full well that space is everything. And now I am here, a Filipina architect, pursuing the Urbanism track in one of the best institutions for this complex field when my country needs to understand itself most. I am proud to say we have the most resilient, warm-hearted, and talented of people; that despite it all, we are surviving with a smile. Filipinos deserve better. It will not be too long before the country becomes fully self-aware of its own capacities and greatness, but perhaps it will be too late as the seas will have risen, the populations will have dispersed around the globe for greener pastures, the cities will have been entangled by highways with the rivers intoxicated, the indigenous peoples further crippled to defend themselves and their habitats… and by then we will have nothing.  Yet with hope, that should not be the case. Coming from the mega-city of Metro Manila, a beautiful city of chaos, I have seen and grew up with the dysfunctional dichotomies of urban life right before my eyes; slum settlements beside gated subdivisions with lavish mansions, drug wars with holy preachers supporting them, the top academic and research institutions being distrusted by the government and vice versa, the most hardworking people with the lowest wages, a self-proclaimed agricultural nation that still imports rice, wealthy city people moving to remote islands capitalizing on tourism and lower standards of living, the strong sense of community yet also of diasporas, and so much more… and through all this, life still abounds and unfolds. What Baldwin describes as birth, struggle, death, and love; I’ve come to learn is the city, is in the life of people with nature. Nature is still beautiful as it changes, whatever is still left for us to both make purpose of and delight in. As these constants of change are further understood and elaborated, I too shall be changed with it, as one does with every project if one puts enough heart into it. And this is where both the Philippines’ and my own renewal lie – not on the surface, but in the depths; to be truly free. Through the frustration that spring day, the sentiments from my TU Delft application motivation essay are left unchanged, only ever strengthened. And so, I wrote down that day, “How can tenderness for the nation be expressed in a big way?” Perhaps this graduation project is the way. 9 September 2022, The Hague, NL

[soundsfaebutokay]

"Let me be your inside man." -Harry Wilson

Harry Wilson is a nice man.

Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting that. I guess when I heard "fixer" and "lawyer to the wealthy," I was expecting a brash, arrogant scumbag who would eventually un-sleaze with the power of found family and vigilante justice.

But he's not?? He's likeable right off the bat, visibly vulnerable, and he latched on to the crew without any degree of chill. He's open with his emotions, comfortable with being the butt of the joke, and humble about being out of his depth. He accepts rebuke, listens to advice, and offers support with remarkable earnestness. This man is—against all my expectations—a damn sweetheart.

But the narrative makes no bones about it: Harry Wilson is—or has been, until very recently—a bad man. He's done incredible damage, blithely rationalizing it all as "just doing his job." So caught up in the rush of the challenge and the thrill of his own competence, he failed to realize that his veneer of neutrality is flimsy cover for the fact that he's slipped completely over to the dark side. He could've been one of Leverage's targets not so long ago, and he would've deserved it.

This isn't new, but it's an uncomfortable truth we often forget: evil can be nice. Evil people can be just doing their job and doing it well, then going home to dote on their family and sleep soundly at night, oblivious to the harm they'd inflicted. Their victims know they're evil, but everyone else would call them nice. Nice is not the same as good.

The interesting thing about Harry is that he actually had a paradigm shift and saw himself for what he was. Do you know how difficult that is, for a man insulated by all the trappings of wealth, success, and privilege to actually be shaken from complacency to confront his own broken humanity? There was no personal tragedy, no near-death experience nor voice from heaven giving him an epiphany. But he looked at his victims, and for once he saw them, and he took the hit. He let his self-delusions shatter, made himself sit with his shame and remorse, and now he's actively trying to make it right. The nice man on the path to becoming a good one.

So, like Hardison said: it's a start. He's got work to do. And I have high hopes for our Mr. Wilson—after all, he's found the perfect people to travel with on the road to redemption.

#Harry Wilson #Leverage: Redemption #Leverage #Leverage meta #Leverage spoilers #my Leverage ramblings #my faves #Abby posts Leverage

[joshualunacreations]

Knowledge is power, but power can corrupt. White institutions teach a select class of Asians to adopt elitism and gatekeeping in order to harm their community and deny lived experiences. Asian Americans have the largest wealth gap of any U.S. racial group. Elitist Asians are a small percentage, yet they’re purposely given the largest AsAm platforms and resources in order to perpetuate the Model Minority myth and downplay anti-Asian racism. (for more info, see my Monomyth comic) To be clear, higher education isn't inherently bad. It's like any other tool—it can enlighten and empower, or be misused. There are many Asian academics, educators and journalists who resist white supremacy and fight for their communities. But we're talking about the ones who don’t. These elitist tokens claim to fight for the most marginalized. In reality, they want to be the only Asian at the white table—the voice for the "voiceless." White supremacist institutions are happy to seat them there, since tokens don't dismantle the system but reinforce it. Netflix's show The Chair inadvertently captures this dynamic. It was widely touted as positive Asian rep, yet Sandra Oh’s character protected and prioritized a white male colleague/lover from accountability while treating marginalized students and her Black colleague as obstacles. When I saw prominent Asians and other POC gush about feeling seen by Sandra Oh's The Chair character, I was disappointed—but not surprised. It speaks to their lack of self-awareness and how accustomed they are to trampling over their own people that they don't think it's wrong.

This is the major disconnect. We supposedly understand how structural racism works and that higher education—like every other industry in the U.S.—perpetuates white supremacy. Yet POC who get accepted to ivy leagues are not only celebrated, but viewed as automatic leaders. The truth is, these institutions would never allow POC to matriculate if there was a real threat of them dismantling their bigoted systems. The token's purpose is to insulate these institutions from accusations of bigotry, promote bootstrap narratives, and keep other POC out. Asian tokens know that to keep these prestigious positions of power, they must avoid being seen as a threat by white people. So, despite making outward claims of dismantling the Model Minority myth, they internalize it as fact—to the point of adopting white guilt as their own. Tokens mask their gaslighting, bullying, and abuse by over-intellectualizing racism—the way white people taught them to. We're seeing this with anti-Asian hate crimes, and how tokens police language and emotions while creating a hierarchy of which victims matter and which ones don't.

This includes the thorny but necessary conversation of holding other POC accountable for anti-Asian violence—especially the Black community. Even though white people commit the majority of anti-Asian hate crimes, there's also a significant pattern of Black people doing it too. But according to elitist Asians tokens, that pattern isn't relevant, and Asians shouldn't be upset or talking about it. This is because, in internalizing the Model Minority myth, elitist Asians see themselves as above other POC and think accountability is anti-Black. It's not. Let's be clear: assaulting Asians for being Asian is violent racism. The attacker's race doesn't change this. While we should be sensitive to the context of white supremacy when holding Black people and other POC accountable, that doesn't mean we shouldn't discuss it at all. Yet elitist Asian tokens sabotage efforts towards solidarity, healing, and progress because they project their class privilege onto a community that is larger and far more vulnerable than them. Meanwhile, white people are happy to let tensions between Asians and Black people remain. The situation is frustrating and sad. How much violence could we have prevented if our communities did a better job of educating and tackling difficult conversations head-on instead of avoiding them? How much solidarity is lost because we're at the whims of tokens who don't care? It's ironic that the ones who supposedly understand the power of education the best are using it the worst. But that's exactly what white supremacy wants: violence, division, and ignorance. That's why it's up to all of us to speak up and spark these conversations—so we can learn. (Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.) If you enjoy my comics, please pledge to my Patreon or donate to my Paypal. I lost my publisher for trying to publish these strips, so your support keeps me going until I can find a new publisher/lit agent

https://twitter.com/Joshua_Luna/status/1134522555744866304 https://patreon.com/joshualuna https://www.paypal.com/paypalme2/JoshuaLunaComics

#higher educasian #anti-asian hate crimes #anti-asian racism #elitism #gatekeeping #classism #higher education #ivy leagues #academics #educators #journalists #model minority myth #tokens #asian americans #filipino american artist #fil am #comic #my art #artists on tumblr #joshua luna #josh luna

[bring-it-all-down]

I’d like to talk about something that I think is central to Black Sails but often gets glossed over in discussions of Silver: his relationship with the systemic violence of empire.

One thing the show does particularly well is demonstrating the ways in which the violence of empire manifests itself both within England and in England’s colonies. We see this with just about all of the main characters, and this encounter with violence informs their subsequent relationships with imperial England. While Silver’s disability would surely result in his marginalization, his encounter with marginalization differs to that of every other character.

James encounters this violence in England in the form of Alfred imprisoning Thomas and the combination of Alfred and Admiral Hennessy banishing him from the country, in light of which he chooses to become a pirate. Jack falls victim to capitalism when his family’s tailoring business is forced to close, plunging his father into alcoholism and death, and holding Jack, a child, responsible for his father’s debts. Jack then becomes a pirate as a means of escaping indentured servitude. Billy, too, becomes a pirate as a means of escaping indentured servitude (and the violence he commits as a result––killing his enslaver––that would have seen him punished had he returned to England). Likewise, Vane turns to piracy after escaping from his enslavers (though it’s unclear how Vane became enslaved to begin with). Finally, we learn that Anne becomes a pirate after Jack murdered her abusive husband to whom she was married at the age of 13. For all of these people, piracy offered freedom from violence and oppression meted out by England.

We rather deliberately never learn about SIlver’s backstory, and for purposes of this post, I’m going to avoid theorizing about it and stick to what the show tells us about him. We first meet him when he’s aboard a merchant ship that Flint’s crew attacks. Out of self-preservation to avoid being killed by the crew, he fashions a lie, killing the cook and assuming his place, in order to join the Walrus. Thus, the first act of violence he encounters and commits is a result of pirates, not England. He becomes disabled as a result of Vane’s crew, not England. His only encounter with somebody mocking his disability is when Dufresne calls him “half a man” and an “invalid” (3.07). Finally, he tells Madi that he must look strong, not for England, but because he cannot allow his fellow pirates to see him as weak. All of Silver’s encounters with violence and marginalization occur with his fellow pirates, not with any stand-in for English colonialism/empire.

At this point, I’d like to compare Silver to Miranda, as they were the two people depicted to know James the best (as Thomas never knew Captain Flint) and were the two to try and convince him to give up his fight against England. When we first meet Miranda, she is desperate to return to civilization, telling James, “there is no life here” in Nassau, but they could have “a life in Boston...There is joy there and music and peace” (1.07). Her conception of civilization differs from James’ because she was never its direct target. Though she was a woman and was aware of the danger James and Thomas were in, her class privilege insulated her from experiencing England’s violence.

This all changes for her when she and James finally make it to Charlestown and she learns of Peter Ashe’s betrayal. This realization finally spurs her to understand the systemic nature of England’s colonial violence and the reality that she and James could never re-assimilate. Her final conversation with Peter here is crucial to understanding her newfound conception of colonialism: 

Miranda: All these years it never sat right with me how Alfred was able to turn the navy against James. He was far too admired by his superiors for his career to be dashed solely on hearsay. Alfred would have known that. He wouldn't have gone to them armed only with unfounded suspicions. He would have needed a witness, someone who knew Thomas and James well enough to give the accusation credibility. Alfred came to you, didn't he? Asked you to betray Thomas in exchange for which he'd see you made a king in the New World.

Peter: Perhaps this is an opportunity for us all to find a little forgiveness.

Miranda: Forgiveness? What forgiveness are you entitled to while you stand back in the shadows pushing James out in front of the world to be laid bear for the sake of the truth? Tell me, sir, when does the truth about your sins come to light?

Peter: You know nothing of my sins. Were you there when Alfred Hamilton threatened my family's standing, my daughter's future if I failed to cooperate? Were you there when I visited Thomas at the hospital to confess my sins and heard him offer his full and true forgiveness? He knew I had no choice in the matter.

Miranda: No choice?

Peter: A hard choice. Made under great duress, but with the intent to achieve the least awful outcome. You wish to return to civilization. That is what civilization is. I am so very sorry for what you have suffered and for any part I may have played in it. Please believe that. But at this point, the most important thing is what comes next, what we make of this.

Miranda: You destroyed our lives!

Peter: Miranda.

Miranda: You caused our exile!

Peter: I am sorry for what I did.

Miranda: Thomas died in a cold, dark place...

Peter: I am trying to help you. What more do you want from me?

Miranda: What do I want? I want to see this whole goddamn city, this city that you purchased with our misery, burn. I want to see you hanged on the very gallows you've used to hang men for crimes far slighter than this. I want to see that noose around your neck and I want to pull the fucking lever with my own two hands! (2.09)

Through this conversation, Miranda receives confirmation of Peter’s betrayal, and more importantly, that this betrayal is central to the existence of civilization. It’s how people like Alfred Hamilton retain power in England and how people like Peter Ashe obtain power over England’s colonies. In other words, the entire colonial project is one of betrayal, of exchanging lives for power, of the oppressor doing anything and everything to retain that power. When Miranda finally realizes how deeply personal and all-encompassing colonial violence is and reacts with righteous anger, she is murdered. Even voicing the desire to execute some aspect of justice is enough for the empire to silence her forever.

Silver, on the other hand, has no such encounter. All he knows of England’s systemic cruelty is what James and Madi describe to him second-hand. Thus, the war for liberation from empire is never his war, only Flint’s war and Madi’s war that Flint draws her into. In his final conversation with James, he tells him, “this isn’t about England,” calling the war “a fucking nightmare”, “your nightmare” (4.10). The “darkness” which he continuously ascribes to James is one born of a desire to do violence for the sake of violence. Because he has no personal experience with systemic violence, he doesn’t conceive of the war as a means to an end, but rather an end in itself; for Silver, the violence––specifically the violence of Flint, of pirates, of himself––is the point. 

The show’s thesis that the fight for liberation is a deeply personal fight is one that Silver dodges. Unlike James, Vane, Jack, Billy, Anne, Max, and Madi, violence enters Silver’s life as a result of piracy, specifically as a result of meeting Flint, and thus he believes that separating himself from Flint will end that violence. At the end of it all, every other character understands that the “freedom” they won is temporary and can be potentially revoked at any time, but Silver understands it to be more permanent. He tells Madi that in ending the war, he returned James “to the world as it existed before he first closed his eyes”, ensuring her that he is “not the villain you fear I am. I’m not him” and that he will wait “forever” for her to come to this realization (4.10). His experiences with violence prevent him from understanding something that every other main character understands: that Flint was a reaction to violence and not the sole cause of it.

#black sails #john silver #james flint #I will never not be mad at Silver for thinking Madi would forgive him for robbing her of her agency #Anyway #Read some theory. Understand revolution as both a personal and a systemic movement.