#but its not right to use Colon as a mirror!

[gentaroukisaragi]

#killing the other friends was still a dick move #*prince meme voice* it is always morally correct to use your birthday as an excuse to fuck off from work #but its not right to use Colon as a mirror! #Happy Birthday to the Liveman's biggest sweetie #fittingly from the episode where a girl was so enamoured by how nice he was to her as a kid that she travelled back in time to meet him

[fuckyeahisawthat]

i rewatched Dune Part Two recently and one of the most striking shots for me was the one of the Fremen attacking the Sardaukar on wormback, while holding the Atreides flag.

Like, we just saw the Sardaukar forming up with their numerous flag bearers, even trying to maintain their flags raised after the nuclear detonation (in a shot that mirrored the famous "Raising the Flag in Iwo Jima" statue to me btw, nice nod to imperialism).

And then the Fremen arrive, but they're not bearing their colors, their flags, not fighting in their own names, instead it's the Atreides colors. The colors of their new, imperially appointed rulers. New pawns in the warfare between Great Houses, soldiers instead of freedom fighters. Urgh. Wish i could make gifsets.

Yeah yeah yeah it's horrifying!! You are watching a national liberation movement get successfully co-opted by a superpower and it's awful!

They did such a good job making it feel creepy and foreboding when the Atreides symbols and motifs start re-appearing in the last hour or so of the movie. The second Gurney shows up he immediately re-introduces the Atreides way of looking at the world, and it's disturbing how easily Paul falls back into thinking like that, seeing the planet and its people as tools to be used in an inter-imperial power play. (It's right after Gurney tells him about the family nukes that Paul has the signet ring out for the first time since the beginning of the second act and we're like OH NO.) This is before he drinks the Water of Life; he is already starting to think like a colonial duke again some time before he declares himself one.

After the opening montage where we see the piles of bodies being burnt, we don't see the stylized Atreides hawk symbol for most of the movie. The next time it appears is on a vault of nuclear weapons, which are never treated as anything but a curse. It's so important that Stilgar and Chani are with Paul and Gurney when they open the vault so we can see their horror at these weapons and the gleeful, casual way Gurney talks about them. Chani is also seeing an aspect of Paul that she hasn't really witnessed before--Paul, the Future of House Atreides--and she does not like it.

And then of course the whole ending battle is making the point over and over again with repeated imagery that Atreides and Harkonnens are exactly the fucking same. All the imagery from the initial Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen in Part One--which at least shows the Atreides as brave in the face of overwhelming odds--gets inverted into something that's supposed to make us shudder. That scene of Gurney hacking his way through the crowd of soldiers with someone carrying the Atreides flag behind him? Nightmarish.

All of this stuff is super important to what the movie is trying to say because it is very very easy for us to buy into the Atreides' propaganda about themselves being the good guys. If we're paying attention to what Chani tells us in the literal first 3 minutes of the first movie, we already know we should be viewing them with a bit of critical distance. And while I think there is plenty in the first movie to make us side-eye their noble image (Leto saying we will bring peace to Arrakis?? fucking yikes dude), it's easy to forget that because Leto generally seems like a good dude to the people close to him, and he dies tragically so we never get to see much of what kind of colonizer he would have become. And I think it's easy to start thinking well if only Leto the more reasonable parent had lived then things wouldn't have turned out this way.

But fucking desert power?? That was Leto's idea. This is Leto's dream being realized. The plan was always to use the Fremen as pawns in the power struggle between the Great Houses. Maybe not quite in the way that Paul does cause he definitely goes off with it, but the end result is just as much a product of Atreides imperialism as it is of Bene Gesserit religious colonialism. The Atreides aren't inherently any more noble or benevolent than the Harkonnens in their intentions, they just have better PR. But the end result is exactly the same: a pile of dead bodies being set on fire.

#dune #dune part two #paul atreides #house atreides #asks answered #thank you so much for this ask cause it gave me a chance to go OFF lol

[ghelgheli]

Recognizing this central ambivalence in regard to so-called Western values—whereby they are cast out as “postmodern authoritarianism” only to be embraced as the “true spirit” of societies to come—is essential to understanding the strategic significance of the anti-gender misappropriation of postcolonial language. This ambivalence sheds light on the fact that the superficial takeover frames the “gender ideology” colonizer not simply as the “West as such but [rather as] the West whose healthy (Christian) core had already been destroyed by neo-Marxism and feminism in the 1960s” (Korolczuk and Graff 2018: 812). Very often, the anti-gender misappropriation takes on a decidedly Islamophobic hue; for all their catering to anticolonial sentiments, anti-gender thinkers often claim that “gender ideology,” with its historical roots in anti-European “neo-Marxism and feminism,” goes hand in hand with the threat of (Muslim) immigration. A blatant example of this can be found in former Cardinal Sarah’s proclamation against the two unexpected threats of our times:

On the one hand, the idolatry of Western freedom; on the other, Islamic fundamentalism: atheistic secularism versus religious fanaticism. To use a slogan, we find ourselves between “gender ideology and ISIS.” . . . From these two radicalizations arise the two major threats to the family: its subjectivist disintegration in the secularized West [and] the pseudo-family of ideologized Islam which legitimizes polygamy [and] female subservience. (Sarah 2015)

Sarah aggressively draws up a dual picture of the true enemy—the biopolitical survival of the family is threatened on the one hand by excessive secularization and sexual freedom, and on the other by “ideologized Islam’s pseudo-family,” which marks the degraded and uncivilized counterpart to Christianity’s proper tradition. This discursive construction of “terrorist look-alikes” as possessing an excessive, uncultivated, and dangerous sexuality yet again plays into the same fundamental racialized mapping of progress that colonial gender undergirded (Puar 2007). This rhetoric is mirrored by Norwegian right-wing politician Per-Willy Amundsen (2021) when he writes that:

I will never celebrate pride. First of all, there are only two sexes: man and woman, not three—that is in contradiction with all biological science. Even worse, they are allowed access to our kids to influence them with their radical ideology. This has to be stopped. If FRI [the national LGBT organization] really cared about gay rights, they would get involved in what is happening in Muslim countries, rather than construct fake problems here in Norway. But it is probably easier to speak about “diversity” as long as it doesn’t cost anything. (Amundsen 2021; translation by author) Here Amundsen draws on the well-known trope of trans* and queer people “preying on our kids” while at the same time reinforcing the homonationalist notion that Europe, and in particular Norway, is a safe h(e)aven for queer people—perhaps a bit too much so. In his response to Amundsen, Thee-Yezen Al-Obaide, the leader of SALAM, the organization for queer Muslims in Norway, aptly diagnoses Amundsen’s rhetoric as “transphobia wrapped in Islamophobia” (as quoted in Berg 2021). Amundsen mirrors a central tenet of TERF rhetoric by claiming to be the voice of science, biology, and reason in order to distinguish his own resistance to “gender ideology” from the repressive, regressive one of Muslims. In this way, his argumentation, which basically claims that trans* people don’t exist and certainly shouldn’t be recognized legally, attempts to come off as benign, while Muslim opposition to “gender ideology” is painted as destructive and anti-modern. This double gesture, which allows Amundsen to have his cake and eat it too, is a central trope in different European iterations of anti-gender rhetoric. In France, for example, such discourse claims that, “while ‘gender ideology’ goes too far on the one hand, the patriarchal control of Islam threatens to pull us back into an excessive past. Here of course, ‘Frenchness’ is always already neither Muslim, nor queer (and certainly not both)” (Hemmings 2020: 30). Therefore the French anti-gender movement sees itself as the defender of true Western civilization, both from Western “gender ideology” and from uncivilized “primitives” who are nevertheless themselves victims of “gender ideology.” A similar dynamic plays out in Britain: “Reading Muslims as dangerous heteroactivists and Christians as benign points to how racialization and religion create specific forms of heteroactivism. . . . Even where ‘Muslim parents’ are supported by Christian heteroactivists, they remain other to the nation, and not central to its defence” (Nash and Browne 2020: 145). In the British example, it is clear that white anti-gender actors represent themselves as moderate, reasonable, and caring—often claiming that their resistance to the “politicization” of the classroom has nothing to do with transphobia and homophobia.

Is “Gender Ideology” Western Colonialism? Jenny Andrine Madsen Evang

#reading #evang

[pastelpressmachine]

Black Mirror’s Demon 79 and the Justification of Brown Feminine Rage (warning: spoilers)

What if intrusive thoughts can be valid, and it is okay, maybe even necessary to act on them sometimes? If violence isn’t the answer, why must it so often be the question? 

Set in Northern England, 1979,  “Demon 79″ is the final episode of Black Mirror’s sixth season. It follows Nida, a meek sales assistant with a mousy appearance, who is tasked with the most complicated and important mission: to save the world by taking the lives of three human sacrifices in the days leading up to May Day.

Champions of the extended metaphor, Black Mirror employ the talents of Anjana Vasan (an Indian-born, Singaporean-raised, and U.K.-based actress) who plays Nida Huq and Paapa Essiedu (an English actor of Ghanaian descent) who plays Gaap*, the demon Nida accidentally invokes upon finding a talisman that begins this stressful mission of her. Gaap, devilishly handsome and charming, trying to earn his “wings” and be initiated into demonhood reassures the panicking Nida that she is not going mad, she is not a bad person, and the people she is encouraged to kill are vetted through his soul-reading as deserving of death.

*Gaap is considered through stories of demonology and texts related to the Testament of Solomon to be the Prince of Hell, with angels as siblings and a penchant for manipulating women and rendering them infertile. 

Gaap adjusts his form to something more comfortable for Nida by changing into a look-a-like of Bobby Farrell from the famous disco-funk German-Caribbean vocal group known as Boney M. Having the representation of a demonic entity be a Black man while allowing him to manifest into a symbol of appeal for Nida turns the inherent vilification of Black men on its head without contributing to the hypersexualization of Black bodies. Gaap is never presented as a love interest for her, but viewers do get to see them develop a snarky back-and-forth. I almost never see Black and brown leads banter like this. 

Another reason I’m glad Gaap was not portrayed as a sinful symbol of sexual desire is because Indian women already have to navigate a shame-fueled purity culture, and I wouldn’t want to see her grapple with her feelings for someone who is not only outside of her race and religion, but isn’t human. Writers avoided the idea that to love Gaap was to love something forbidden in all possible ways. And we don’t need to see Black folks depicted as not-human. The history of both American cinema and politics has acted on that dangerous perception already. 

When I saw the opening scene of Nida with her wide eyes waking up to get ready for work, I recognized the doe-like innocence in her face as the one I have been raised to emulate. She looks so much like my mother 30 years ago. Minimal makeup, modest clothes, hair neat and tied back.

Moments of Nida’s inner demons being unleashed start off as fantasies she has. She is quietly scurrying through her life as an oppressed minority in 1970′s England, where xenophobia and racism showed up everywhere, from the actions of the British Nationalists to the microaggressions Nida faces at work for simply bringing her potent biryanis to the stock room and “stinking up the place”.

Indian women are some of the least visible in politics historically and presently because we are raised to not make a fuss of things, to be quiet and reserved and let white people act how they want towards us because we are guests in their countries, even when they’ve colonized and pillaged our own. I feel Nida’s pain as she thanks the white people around her for the bare minimum (allowing her an alternative place to eat, such as the basement - where she finds the talisman that changes her life) and avoids the confrontation and rage within her, even sighing in defeat at the NF* tag that has been spray-painted on her front door. 

*NF stands for the National Front, a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1967. 

I crave catharsis for Nida. And for her late mother, whom she has a photo of in her apartment. She explains after the first sacrifice that her mother was perceived as crazy, and now Nida is afraid that people will think the same of her, and this time, because of what she’s done, it will be true. I wondered if Nida’s mom was called crazy because she had stood up for herself, reported abuse or harassment that was occurring within the Indian community itself or in her own home, or tried to leave Nida’s father. None of these scenarios would make the show seem like fiction at all, at least not for many of the South Asian women trapped by the chains of patriarchal ideals. 

There are moments where I am concerned Nida is enamored by Michael Smart, a white politician giving a campaign speech outside the store she works at, as if his mere acknowledgment of her existence without visible disgust is enough to make her heart flutter. Again, I enjoy seeing a Black and brown lead in this episode, and knowing that other viewers are getting to see the many instances of white culture that exposes the racist ignorance and unfair power structures that exist in western society, workplaces, and even the homes of white folks themselves. (I was so happy for little Laura to hear of what was done to her assailant).

When it comes to stopping the world from absolute destruction in a nuclear holocaust, the heroes have never really been people who look like Nida. (It is worth noting that the head writer for this episode was Bisha K. Ali, who also is the executive writer for Disney+’s Ms. Marvel and has tackled many of the same representation issues in her work). People like her don’t have the permission to be loud, angry, or violent without consequences, no matter how justified. Meanwhile, with unchecked authority, bombs go off and innocent people die and children cower in their beds and white men get to act on their worst traits and impulses, however sinful, with little to no accountability.

Even when Nida is being violent, it is for the greater good. Because it has to be. Even female rage has to serve a purpose for others. It cannot just be hers. If she’s going to be angry, she better be trying to solve crime or save the world. 

And through this most guttural and sometimes poisonous part of being a human, Gaap sees her. Maybe it’s because he has transformed in the image of Nida’s celebrity crush or maybe it’s truly the way in which he interacts with her, Gaap sees Nida. He recognizes the type of violence she would and would not indulge in. He tells her she should feel more at ease after killing the first sacrifice, a pedophile she clobbers with a brick before he falls into a river. He continuously recognizes her hesitation, and suggests “Dutch courage”, or booze before following through with the second kill. It is inappropriate in Indian culture for women to drink, which Nida notes when she tells Gaap she doesn’t. Then he asks her if she wants to, something, from the expression on Nida’s face, it doesn’t seem like she has ever been asked. 

Upon entering a pub full of (yes, all white) men, Nida is dismissed by the (also white) female bartender who looks just as irritated by her existence as her coworker Vicky, who had reported how unfair it was that she had to smell Nida’s lunches and endure the lingering scent at work. An older (also white) bartender (who might be the owner) takes her order with the same polite and quiet discomfort of her boss, who had presented her with the basement lunch “solution” to appease Vicky. It’s subtle but the approaches in which different age groups and genders of white English folk take with engaging with Nida demonstrate the variety of ways in which people of colour experience discrimination. At its worst, it is violent hate crimes and unjust legislation that mutates into full blown genocide. At its mildest, it’s passive aggression and strained tolerance. 

It’s more apparent with the second killing (of a man named Keith who killed his wife) that Nida does have the option to be as righteous as she wants to be, which is something I really appreciated about her character. Even if she was killing to prevent the literal apocalypse, and the clock was 6 minutes from midnight -- she must follow the cadence of at least one kill a day -- the moment she has to hear Keith’s justification for what he did and his attempt at absolving himself with the statement “I’m not a bad husband, but --” she swings a hammer at his head to shut him up. She then bashes his head in repeatedly, even to the point where Gaap is wincing at the sight. If this was just about killing people to stop a bigger disaster and loss of life, she wouldn’t be losing herself in the act like she did. 

The third and final kill occurred in the next few minutes, as Keith’s roommate, witnesses her trying to exit, which presents itself as problem in allowing her to continue with the mission if she’s arrested. It’s messy because it was fast, the least premeditated, and she doesn’t know who the man is or if he’d done anything as bad as the previous two skills. Because of this, she’s much more apologetic as the man dies, later finding out from Gaap he was Keith’s brother, Chris, an “ordinary” person who would not have been one of Nida’s choices. 

But as Gaap says, “What’s done is done”. And the three lines on the talisman should have disappeared indicating that Nida has fulfilled her duty. But it still has a line remaining, so a confused Gaap dials 666 (of course) on Nida’s rotary phone to explain the issue to his superiors. He tells Nida that Keith apparently didn’t count because he’s a murderer and anyone who’s been directly responsible for the death of another human being (not counting future deaths they might be responsible for) is off limits. Chris counted because his death still occurred just before midnight. 

Nida doesn’t snap psychologically and decide she enjoys this and is going to become a serial killer, which is a direction I find common in other Black Mirror episodes, where the white and/or male character loses it and/or goes on a killing spree. She grapples once more with her initial unwillingness to participate in this because even when given the go-ahead and to have the most reason to, she enters a mental boxing ring with her instinct v. culture v. morals. From my own experience and what I have seen in my own community, outward expression of rage is never the first emotion a woman reaches for...because she can’t always afford to in the way others can. 

“My whole life, I never wished harm on anyone.” 

Gaap tells her what’s at risk for him, and he describes a fate of punishment that she says sounds like her life now. She stands, empathizing with an actual demon, and deciding to continue with the mission. Gaap also reminds her this isn’t solely for him; she possessed a darkness within her that drew her to the talisman. So, he asks her, who pissed her off?

To Possette’s Shoes they go. 

Vicky, a prime choice for the grand finale, delegates the task of attending to the young girl Laura (from earlier) and her mother to Nida. Because the little girl creeps Vicky out. Gaap informs Nida that because she killed Laura’s dad, Laura doesn’t kill herself at 28 and instead goes to therapy, becomes a mother at 29, and a grandmother at 57. It’s a comforting thought amidst the mayhem of it all. 

Michael Smart makes an appearance once more, as his father and the boss’s father, are old college friends, and Nida’s boss had promised him a suit and shoes on the house. The boss unsurprisingly selects Vicky as the sales attendant, with Gaap grumbling to himself as Nida’s eyes go from ‘excited crush’ to just crushed. Her boss then chooses to notice the boxes on the floor from when Vicky could’ve been cleaning up and hisses at Nida, “Could you pick up the bloody mess?” This prompts Gaap to suggest the boss be the next to go. 

Nida moves on to cleaning up the boxes, eavesdropping on the conversation between Michael and Vicky. When Michael says he hopes he has her vote, she says she is siding with the National Front who she believes will help rid the town of all the pesky foreigners. And then Michael Smart reveals himself to be what a lot of politicians are: covert bigots. He explains to Vicky that an explicitly xenophobic campaign would be too polarizing, so you have to elect a moderate who can win over the masses and put the evil plans in motion. (Sound familiar?) 

There is a subliminal language spoken among white supremacists, even if they smile politely at people who look like me and Nida. And this revelation that she witnesses presents an even more justifiable option for Nida’s third kill. 

She asks Gaap to give her information about Michael’s future, which he hesitantly reveals to her. Michael Smart wins the election, eventually becomes prime minister, and leads a new world order built on white supremacy. Nida decides he is the final target, but Gaap tells her he wouldn’t be the right choice because the Satanic world he comes from is a fan of his work and everyone there would want Michael to be able to facilitate the upcoming deaths that occur as a result of him first winning the election to become a member of Parliament. 

But Nida is set on him, or no one, giving Gaap the ultimatum to get on board or risk his own banishment after failing his initiation. 

Meanwhile, a police investigation occurs which leads to the bar staff identifying Nida as a “muttering Indian woman” who was at the bar the night Keith died. Len Fisher of Tipley Police arrives at Nida’s apartment, as part of routine questioning, and she invites him in, with Gaap’s suggestion to kill him. 

Fisher is the first white person to speak to her as person, too, even though he’s there on the premise of Nida being a potential suspect. Maybe this is more covert trust-building behaviour, maybe as a cop, maybe as someone generally suspicious of people of colour. He is the most mild-mannered, middle-man in the whole story. 

Fisher follows Nida who follows Smart after his speech at town hall. This is where I’m a little surprised but not displeased. The other episodes end with something sad, violent, and/or redemptive. Nida gets a bit of everything, but as with all things Black Mirror, not in the way you’d expect. In society, Nida may be reduced to a mad woman telling an insensible story, enduring the same perception people had of her mother. But society doesn’t last long, and she walks off into a kind of nuclear, fiery sunset with a new friend. 

The deadline for the sacrifices had been May Day, also known as Workers’ Day or International Workers’ Day to commemorate the struggles and gains made by workers and the labour movement. Nida, representing intersectional identities of the working class (immigrants, women, people of colour), was not listened to or believed, and the world ended because of it. Her weapon of choice had been a hammer, a tool meant for building that was used for destructive but necessary purposes. This could be a reference to the Communist party’s symbol of a hammer and sickle, which represents proletarian solidarity. The meaning of the episode, particularly its ending, captures the significance of the working class and how our world relies on them to function and last. When their efforts are stunted, their sacrifices are in vain, or they are not heard, the world ends. 

#black mirror #demon 79 #tv series review #black mirror season 6 #paapa essiedu #digital illustration #fanart #commissions open #anjana vasan

[g00ngala]

hopefully this is the last long post i will ever have to make about hit disney show the owl house but I am so sick of people posting paragraphs of lukewarm takes on philip's death so. one last rant for the road, i suppose.

belos's death wasn't unsatisfying, nor was it purely physical. first of all, philip is a representation of greater societal problems (which are notably still there, remember, there's people who want to reestablish his order for their own gain). he is a plague and parasite on the world and a demonstration of humanity's worst cruelties, and his pathetic death by boiling rain and stomping as the most true and good character, who does her best to do right by everyone and believes in second chances, in the entire show, looks at him with no emotion in a way that directly parallels the way caleb's ghost looks down upon him, and he claws at her feet in a desperate attempt to use another person's good nature once again to get what he wants, and fails and dies, is INCREDIBLY symbolic.

and TWO. the point ISN'T that philip is an Evil Liar Who Lies and his backstory is being shafted for simple evil, he is an incredibly realistic depiction of how many people are consumed by their fear of what they don't understand and their hatred, let it fester into a desire to harm, and then elaborate lies to not only manipulate others but trick themselves by their own rhetoric so they don't have to feel bad for it

throughout the show philip is paralleled to cult leaders and militaristic dictators, and he is LITERALLY a puritan colonizer. philip is white man ego in its purest form. yes, the awful society is 75% the fault of Just One Guy, but this is a cartoon. he represents every man who has tried to build a world like this, who burns what he doesn't understand and makes up lies to justify it and trick his own guilt into not eating him alive.

people keep bitching that philip didn't truly face his own lies and realize how awful he was before he died, or that he wasn't given any chance to change, but philip has run the fuck out of chances. the point is he will never learn because he chooses not to. philip had to die because he'd rather lie and rot and take everyone down with him than EVER admit he's wrong. he killed his brother because he tricked himself into believing that caleb betrayed him, romanticized the idea of Caleb in his head and delusionally convinced himself that he tried to save him, while his knife hangs over his brother's ghost eternally, symbolizing the shoved down guilt he'll never truly outrun.

he made hunter believe it was his fault that philip repeatedly harmed him, he told the people of the isles after slaughtering them over and over that it's better if he rules them because he is better than them, he eternally victimizes himself over and over because he is an abuser. his lies are not just to others but to himself. he makes himself believe that the ends justify the means, when the ends are nonsensical rhetoric and the means are horrific violence. because philip is a person who may have had the capacity for good, but he chooses to live in his own hatred and rot everything around him, taking advantage of hunger for power and good natured kindness in the same breath, and he chooses to turn away from the mirror every time, to refuse to acknowledge the monster he's become because he's a coward.

the titan said it themself. his motives aren't genuine, not because he's evil for evil's sake but because he'd do anything to continue to live in his own delusion of heroism and perpetual victimhood. philip is someone you can find in the behaviors of dictators and colonists and evangelical christians and run of the mill abusers all throughout history. this doesn't make him a cookie cutter villain, it makes him a REALISTIC villain, or as realistic as you can get in a cartoon on the disney channel. he wants power and he wants admiration and he wants death and suffering to the people he's scared of, and he'd rather kill himself and take everyone down with him than ever face who he is.

not all villains need a redemption arc to be complex. he doesn't love to rub his hands together cartoonishly and watch the world burn, but some people do actually enjoy harming others. but the realism comes from how he lies to himself and others about it.

sometimes someone can be truly evil, not because they were born that way, but because they choose to be, and because they choose to live in denial about it until they're rotting in the ground.

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #philip wittebane #emperor belos #hannah.txt #hopefully the last toh rant ill ever post. goodbye owl house its been fun!

[atticsandwich]

Exploring how Obey Me!'s portrayal of the Celestial Realm mirrors that of the how the Christian heaven is used as propaganda, and how Simeon, Luke, and Raphael tie-in with real-life people's experiences of the Christian faith.

-

to preface: I was born Christian and was raised as such, but renounced my religion when I was around 18. Experiences vary in different parts of the world of course, however, I will also be tying in things I see from online conversations about Christianity. Admittedly a lot of my insight comes from my experience (and by extension, my family and friends) of Christianity in my area of the world (southeast asia).

Additionally, this post is purely for fun and speculation, and my fascination with subversive portrayals of religion, particularly of Christianity. Please note that I will use the word "religion" as a whole, but this post will specifically go into Christianity, and by proxy, its branches.

As this post is a spur-of-the-moment thing, it is not proofread, so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors!

‼️This post will contain spoilers‼️

To start, let's lay out the things we know about the Celestial Realm from the story.

The Celestial Realm is home of the angels, and in contrast to the Devildom, it is a realm of permanent daylight.

Michael acts as its authority, however, we know that its most supreme being is the Father, who we can presume created the realm and its angels. Unlike the sleeping Demon Lord, we are at least aware that Father is still active, although presumably leaves the governing to Michael.

Similar to real-life angelology, the Celestial Realm also divides its angels by ranks. The current known ranks are Seraphim, Throne, Cherubim, Principality, Dominion, and Archangel.

Key observations:

Angels can either fall to become demons (demon brothers) or be stripped of their blessing and become human (Simeon).

Luke's current angel rank is unknown. We can assume this is from inexperience, as despite being implied to be at least a thousand years old, he acts and behaves like a typical ten year old.

Although "falling" can be a punishment by acting out of defiance against its virtues, we know that angels can still be morally grey, and in some cases, dubious, and still not be stripped of their blessing.

Now to the bulk of this analysis.

I. Christianity as a tool for propaganda and colonization

This is pretty basic history - western colonizers have used religion as a basis of conquering "new worlds" in the name of spreading their faith and belief systems. The effects of this still persist until today - racism, homophobia, etc. in general can be traced back to the colonial era. In more present-day scenarios, religion is also used as a leverage for morality and what people deem as "right or wrong". For some parts, it aligns with basic humanity, however, we know very well that it can also be used to spread bigotry and false moral high grounds as a justification for mistreatment of people.

In many countries, politics and religion go hand in hand. Many politicians will use their beliefs as a basis for bills and laws, and it trickles down to the justice system, where judges can display religous bias (whether consciously or not) in favor of their personal beliefs. As such, many politicians will use religion to forward their name and agenda, in the pretense of being a devout practicioner, in order to garner relatability and bias from people of the same faith. In Christianity, for example, many politicians will use the term "Lord's servant" as a subtext for people to latch onto.

In a societal context, we are very familiar with the phrase "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" as a rebuttal for homosexual relationships, and in general, relationships that bigoted Christians believe do not follow in their God's text. Cherry-picking bible verses and anecdotes to further their justification for acting the way they do is also a very common occurence, even though that very same Bible they read also emphasize the value of spreading love, with hate having no place in heaven.

-

II. How it ties to the Celestial Realm

Behind its perma-daylight nature, we learn that the Celestial Realm is a place of strict rule and order, and an angel can easily get demoted, as was the previous case for Simeon, who we know was originally a Seraphim, and in some cases, even falling to demonhood, like the brothers. This walking-on-eggshells type of ordinance is very tricky, as the reasoning for being casted out of the realm can get very blurry. In Lilith's case, it was her act of using Celestial Realm medicine in order to heal a human she loved; this then led to Lucifer questioning why her act was tantamount to falling, as he always believed love to be a precious thing. This doubt and questioning, however, then led to his own falling, which led to the rest of the brothers siding with him and Lilith, resulting in the Great Celestial War.

We can then paint a picture of the Celestial Realm as a false/disillusioned utopia - externally, it is very lavish, warm, and golden, but taking a closer look reveals its suffocating, anti-freedom, gray nature, where one wrong move could spell your last day. Simeon is very much aware of this, and has, on multiple occassions, openly expressed disdain on how the realm operates.

It is then a matter of Self vs. Governance; at what point does the Celestial Realm draw the line between individual autonomy and total subjugation of its angels? If Lucifer, once one of its most prominent, respected, and powerful angels, gets casted due to defiance for asking a very valid question regarding a value that is taught and propagated within the realm, as he believes Lilith's punishment directly goes against that value, then what of the lesser angels who wish to ask the same? If standing up for those you hold dear is tantamount to unholiness, then why teach the value of love and family in the first place?

I hope you can see where I'm going here - the teaching of these values in the Celestial Realm being the same ones that can get you ostracized VS. using these values to advance a real-world political agenda and cherry-picked beliefs is intrinsically linked.

People that use religion as a means to justify cruelty or feign moral superiority despite the main point of their religion being to "love everyone equally, as you do yourself" are setting a status quo that they built for themselves and their hivemind - if you don't follow these specific rules and beliefs, you are not a true devout. If you question or point out inaccuracies on the beliefs that we want you to follow, you are a deviant.

Sound familiar yet?

-

III. The three main angels

Excluding Michael and the demon brothers pre-fall, there are three other angels the story focuses on: Luke, Simeon, and Raphael. Despite all three being angels, they cannot be any more similar from each other. One is a brash, tempermental, and an overexcited youth with a sweet tooth; one freely lies and openly involves themselves in un-angelic deeds; and the other is a quiet, stoic, and blunt individual with a questionable taste in cuisine. These three angels encapsulate, almost perfectly, a religous pipeline.

IIIA. Luke

Luke represents the first entry to a religion (I'd use the word indoctrination, but I don't want to unknowingly portray it negatively as some people are born into a religion by default). He is young, inexperienced, idolizes a high-ranking angel who he follows with no question, and above all, naive. We know that he does not know the full reason of why the brothers fell, nor does he know of Lilith. Similarly, children and young people in religion often follow their parents/guardians blindly without question, their understanding of faith being minimal and surface level, something easily digestible for a young, developing mind.

IIIB. Raphael

Raphael is compliance. He knows and understand the ins-and-outs, the ifs-and-whys of the realm, yet continues to follow its order. Although he did not side with Lucifer, we eventually learn that he wishes he did (most recently in NB), yet unlike Simeon, does not actively wallow in his choice and continues to fulfill his duty as a Seraph. Whether we see a development with this in Nightbringer, time will tell. In a similar vein, many people will silently comply with their own faith, regardless of doubt. In my experience, this compliance, either out of familial pressure or feeling indebted to a religion, starts to happen during major developmental stages, either as a late teen or early adulthood, when you can freely do your own research and start to understand the deeper intricacies of a particular religion.

IIIC. Simeon

Simeon is representative of actively going against the status quo. He is an angel that has, on numerous occassions, displayed manipulative and wrathful tendencies, and has admitted to freely partake in lies and deceit. He has also stated that his biggest regret in life was not siding with Lucifer during the war, which is why he actively tries to help him and the brothers as much as he can, not caring if his action could be deemed as heresy. Although we see bits and pieces of it in the original game, Nightbringer Simeon fully procalims this, as asking him to ally with the brothers will result to him in saying that he always will be on their side. In real life, people have their own breaking point that leads them to this path, no matter how personal or educated the reasoning may be. Denouncing one's faith, especially one that was given to you by birth, can be considered an act of both defiance, and in the case of Christianity, becoming unholy, or impure.

-

IV. The Celestial Realm as a commentary of how religion, particularly Christianity, is used in real life as a tool to further a cherry-picked, propaganda-ridden agenda, despite it being a contradiction to its teachings.

It is no secret that a lot of societal problems nowadays regarding bigotry, refusal of understanding, and unacceptance of others outside your status quo can be traced back to religous conservatives. This is a walking contradiction, of course, as Christian teachings always puts love above all, yet bringing this up as a rebuttal will elicit anger, not reflection. The Celestial Realm is the same, as its blurry definition of defiance goes against its importance of love and familial relationships, so much so that in its eyes, an angel trying to elicit defiance by acting un-angel-like is ultimately a lot more angelic than one who dares question why its teachings are being used as a leverage of defiance.

Of course, a lot of this can be chalked up to mere coincidence, and some might even say that I'm stretching a lot here, but it's still very interesting that a portrayal of heaven is morally ambigous at best. In some ways, the Devildom, or what's supposed to be hell, feels like the better place to live in out of the two.

Anyways, if you made it this far, thank you for reading my random spat-out ramble that i started writing out of nowhere and I fixated on finishing 💀 Share your thoughts with me too, if you'd like. I'd love to hear what you guys think.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me nightbringer #obey me theory #obey me analysis #obey me simeon #obey me raphael #obey me luke #obey me lore

[thenookienostradamus]

The constant barrage of horrific world news combined with the international mixing bowl of online forums has combined into a toxic blend of blame, and we need some perspective.

Every time news of a new human rights violation arises, people in online spaces rush to share it, to demonstrate their outrage. This inevitably leads others to pipe up with something like: "Well, what about [other ongoing atrocity]? I bet you've forgotten!!" Or "How can you talk about [persecuted group] when [other persecuted group] is suffering?"

In their indignation and rush to judgment, folks in online spaces forget a couple of key facts.

1. The people of a given country or region are not their government. Even if the Russian government is still committing war crimes in Ukraine, we are allowed to feel for Russian LGBTQ+ people who have been declared enemies of the state. Even if Israel's government is still committing war crimes in Palestine, we are still allowed to feel for the families of Israelis killed by Hamas and anyone working for peace who is caught in the crossfire. Even if America's leaders are aiding and abetting crimes against humanity abroad, we are still allowed to feel for the people there who are literally enslaved in the prison industrial complex or who die of manageable diseases because they cannot pay for healthcare.

"X people deserve what they get, because look what their country is doing elsewhere." With no due respect, no the fuck they do not. The bald-faced audacity of sitting on high and condemning all citizens of "colonizer nations" or "communist countries" or "dictatorships" or "late-stage capitalist hellscapes" to death because of decisions made by a dictator or a king or a group of oligarchs or billionaires.

"Your country did x so you're not allowed to voice your suffering. You have to minimize it. You are undeserving of empathy because of your nationality." Do you understand how sociopathic that sounds? Unless you allow yourself to sit with the cognitive dissonance of "a government - even a more-or-less democratic one - can still do things considered objectionable by some or most of its citizens," you run the risk of falling prey to black-and-white fascist thinking.

And along those lines,

2. It is impossible for any person or group to maintain the same level of outrage at foreign OR domestic atrocities indefinitely. It's paralyzing; we would be incapable of living our lives. But that doesn't mean people have forgotten. The structure of online spaces makes it all too easy to assume because sharing of news has died down that the world has forgotten about a particular instance of suffering. Then you get the inevitable "How can people think about y while x is happening?" Just as the body begins to break down under constant inflammation, the mind begins to break down under a constant barrage of sorrow and suffering. We cannot wake up and go through a mental list of atrocities every day to ensure we give each its due solemn weight. They ALL have weight, but to expect that is to wish everyone so incapacitated that they can't do anything about any of the atrocities. We do all sometimes need to focus on personal, interpersonal, or domestic suffering, during which period the performative outrage over other suffering diminishes.

Stop judging people's character by their online behavior. Or, even more accurately, accept that online behavior mirrors real life in that it is inconsistent. Because humans are inconsistent and need to take time to address issues that aren't globally visible for their own self-preservation.

All people cannot be occupied with all issues simultaneously; it's paralyzing. Use your own suffering to find empathy for the struggles of others, or else we are all lost.

#global events #suffering #human nature

[fatehbaz]

[S]and has acquired a conspicuous profile in contemporary urbanization over the past two decades. [...] [S]and but also gravel and crushed rock, are the fastest-growing category of extracted material. Their extraction has increased six-fold in the Asia-Pacific region over the last two decades. Singapore, a city-state in Southeast Asia the size of New York City and half the size of London, is the largest per capita importer of sand in the world. The city-state’s urbanization and never-ending construction [...] is partly responsible for its considerable appetite for sand, but this use pales in comparison to the amount it requires for its land reclamation project, which has seen the city-state expand its territory from 585 square kilometers in 1959 to 724 in 2022. Singapore’s construction of territory, and the sand it has imported from all over Southeast Asia to resource its geophysical projection of sovereignty, invites us to consider the implications of urbanization’s enrollment of greater and greater volumes of sediment, and the geopolitics of the global sand crisis. [...]

As sediment flows and locks into place, it expresses characteristics of all three states of matter, depositing and eroding [...]. A geomorphological errantry, sediment is always on the move [...]. In its multiplicity, sand becomes a kind of narrator for those elements [...]. In its modulation [...], sediment sutures together landscapes that are neither solid nor fluid, but the porous interplay [...].

---

Between 2006 and 2016, Singapore, with a population of less than six million, was the top importer of sand in the world four times. Land reclamation there truly began with colonization by the British East India Company, with Boat Quay in 1822, when three hundred or so convict laborers who were paid pittances chopped down hills and cut up stones to embank a swamp, lest it remain fallow. When Singapore became an independent city-state in 1965, reclamation projects initially cut down hills for fill material, flattening the interior and exterior of the main island alike. [...] As these projects grew more expansive and the city-state’s demand for sand intensified, Malaysia and then Indonesia banned sand exports to Singapore [...]. This [resulting] price spike shook the city-state to its core, prompting the opening of a series of construction sand stockpiles [...]. The government began purchasing sand through its web of contractors and subcontractors from Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Myanmar. [...]

The securitization of sand in multiple stockpiles in Singapore eerily mirrors what happened in the extractive sandscapes of its origin: similarly sized dunes bloomed along the banks of mangroves in Koh Kong, Cambodia, like a dream herniating into reality, an invasive species of landscape bursting at the seam where the land met the water, still haunting riverbeds years after the dredging stopped. [...]

---

[T]he fantasy of reclaimed land through dubiously sourced rudiments of city-statecraft. [...] This kind of work is normally kept out of sight behind physical partitions as well as the labyrinthine contractual involutions of procurement arrangements, until it is seamlessly assumed by the whole, consumed by land as a homogenous legal entity [...] [B]ehind the mask, another mask. [...] [T]he sand barges and ships enter the maritime waters of Singapore from [...] legally undisclosable sources of its origin.

The eponymous proclamation [...] is the legal mechanism by which a piece of reclaimed land is “proclaimed” as state land proper by the president. A reclamation can only become state land by the text of a proclamation, a eucharistic procedure which purifies the land of its ambiguous sedimentary origin. Prior to that it is foreshore or seabed, but once it has been proclaimed, “thereupon that land shall immediately vest in the State freed and discharged from all public and private rights [...] over the foreshore or the sea-bed before the same were so reclaimed.” [...]

---

The limit to seeing like a state is that the state has a way of doing things that it can’t see, and of refusing to register that which does not meet its threshold of intelligibility.

It blinds itself through the loophole, the nondisclosure agreement, the handshake and its subtle para-political fission. [...]

Singapore’s continued economic prosperity depends on the speculative projection of its territory through unequal economic exchange, disguising it through fabulations of sovereign ingenuity like the Gardens by the Bay. [...]

[There is an] asymmetry between its curated artifice and the remote terraqueous landscapes this curation predates upon, unsettling the ground on which the city-state projects its most delirious fictions of sovereignty [...].

But those very spaces of nondescript hinterland are the logistical and industrial engines which make the Gardens possible. [...]

---

[T]he sheer colonial and postcolonial history of geographic expansion and environmental transformation implies that there are still further worlds to extract for reproducing the global city. Urban form rewired by geo-economic fortune and political repression subversively enroll land and labor into its globe-spanning machinery: it needs to keep on expanding to stay ahead of whatever anticipated global economic movement will buoy it in the future. [...] The transmutation of Singapore’s development trajectory is not historical, but contemporary: Singapore is the global city as a centripetal conjugator of space-time, funneling either term through supply chains that pass through it to produce territory as a plasticity [...].

The calamity it visited on the population of Koh Sralao was first pioneered all over Singapore and its outlying islands in the name of necessity, modernization, and the nation, displacing Orang Laut and Orang Pulau communities, who faced a choice to either abandon their maritime ways or resettle further afield in Malaysia or Indonesia. Many of Singapore’s southern islands were grafted together and erased by land reclamation, with Jurong Island in particular becoming an agglomeration of eighteen different islands, their Malay names now lost, sunk together into the catacombs of a dedicated petrochemical refining and storage complex.

Instead of being haunted by the sediment it has reclaimed its land with, and the rhythms and ecologies this sediment subtended, the global city and its subcontracted tendrils haunt those vestiges of maritime and riverine life bound by sediment like a vengeful ghost, compelled to repeat its actions, and to forget them in the projection of another tabula rasa.

---

Text by: William Jamieson. “Extracting Sovereignty: Land Reclamation in Southeast Asia and the Emergence of the Global Sand Crisis.” e-flux Journal Issue #137. June 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial

[elysia-nsimp]

Tagging: @queerlordsimon @thesunshineriptide @aetherphobia @end3rm1st @ladyzsgolla

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 5 // Part 6

Warnings: Cursing, caps, joking threats

Enjoy lmao

——

Leona: anyway please stop shoving paper up your ass

——

Yuu: they’re so louuddddd

Floyd, handing them scissors: go get them

——

Ruggie: The theme is jungle animals why is Hatsune Miku here

——

Deuce: maybe the real lollipops were the friends we made along the way :)

Trey: no. eat food.

——

Jack, holding up a teachers pass:

Epel: you don’t need to hold the pass up, you look like a police officer

Jack: Its like I have full immunity to everything, just like a real police badge!

——

Trey, walking into a classroom:

Ruggie, pulling tissues out of a box:

Them, making eye contact as Ruggie rapidly removes tissues:

Trey: …im not gonna question

Ruggie: good. [RUNS AWAY]

——

Riddle: are you really over there insulting a bug?

Deuce: ITS BEING A DUMBASS

——

Ruggie: Good job escaping Colonel Sanders “The Riddler”

——

Ace: I couldn’t decide if I was gonna say “crunky” or “cookie” so I said “kroonky”

——

Jack: I will protect you from glowsticks and danny devito

Yuu: thank you

——

Floyd, throwing a stuffed shrimp around then biting it:

Yuu: What are you DOING to that poor thing

Floyd: showing it love and affection

Yuu: …PLEASE don’t fall in love with me

——

Deuce: I thought this was a movie about skiing. Lord help us all.

——

Ace: mariah carey’s spirit has possessed me starting today

Deuce: I’m calling an exorcist.

——

Lilia: ITS MY WAY OR THE HIGH WAY

[highway to hell starts playing]

——

Azul: That's why we don't enforce child labor--because they'd suck at it

——

Riddle: i think I know more about semi-colons than YOU DO

——

Floyd: fill your mind with shrek! be free!!

——

Ruggie: I, too, am tiny, and scared, and have no money

——

Idia: get in bitch we're going to eeby deeby where the souls are damned and the girls are pretty

——

Epel: y’all eat your eggs with or without the crust?

Jack: what a terrible day to have ears

——

Azul: maybe american flags are the new cryptocurrency

——

Idia: i do not care about freddy fabear's love life

——

Vil: Do not throw the ham across the library!

——

Jack: you look very intense

Leona: yea my face just does that

Jack: yea mine too

——

Azul: Mansplain, manipulate, malewife

Floyd, NOT PAYING ATTENTION: that's donkey from shrek

——

Deuce: It’s not even objectively true, it’s right!

——

The dark mirror: i sense no magiwal powew fwom dis one. cowowless, shapeless, vaycant

——

Kalim: The animals not gay enough for Jumanji get sent to jonga

Jamil: I just looked it up. Jonga is a vehicle. What the fuck?

——

Trey: nope, just sleeping

Ace: free trial of death?

Trey: no, just sleeping

Ace: free trial of death, with ads?

——

Jack: Explain to me, Ruggie, where are the vocal cords in the donut?

——

Floyd: i could randomly yell somethin- FUCK THERE WENT MY MEATSTICK

——

Deuce: YOU CANT DEATTACH YOUR BRAIN

Ace: SAYS WHO

Deuce: ME! I SAY SO!

——

Idia: the further down this mountain I go the more alliums I find

Cater: is it candy mountain

Idia: NO

——

My Yuu, Comet: Does this mean I get free tea and foot rubs when I get married? 🥺

Vil: Marry someone who will make you tea and give you foot rubs! If they can’t make you tea and give you foot rubs, that isn’t someone to marry!

Jade, threateningly: Establish it early.

——

Floyd, to Rook: Comment dit’on… ‘gET OFF MY ASS YOU BITCHASS MOTHERFUCKER’

(Comment dit’on is French for “how do you say”)

——

The sheer amount of quotes of Idia and Floyd being said by me is sending me

Anyway hope you enjoy. I still have many… MANY more.

#twst shitpost #twst wonderland #twst incorrect quotes #twst floyd #twst Jade #twst Azul #twst jack #twst Epel #twst ruggie #twst leona #twst ace #twst deuce #twst yuu #cometyuusonya #twst Trey #twst riddle #twst lilia #twst Idia #twst Kalim #twst jamil #twst cater

[grendelsmilf]

Milf, I am watching atla for the first time! I’m on the first season and am… dubious of the Jet episode. Have you any thoughts on the way the show positions Jet and his group of freedom fighting radicals as terrorists?

honestly whenever jet comes onscreen i just black out bc i find his vibes so rancid. i do think that he had the potential to be an interesting character, and he is vaguely interesting insofar as he informs katara and sokka's characters, but i just hate his vibes so much that i find it impossible to engage with what his character is communicating/the work he is doing within the text. i will say that i normally hate the trope of "guy with radical politics who wants to decolonize his land (etc etc) is secretly an evil sociopath who loves killing babies for......reasons, so obviously his ideology is also bad #centrismwin" because it's so prevalent and obviously reactionary (lok, atla's sequel which you shouldn't watch, does this a lot because it is stupid liberal-brained shlock).

however, i can somewhat forgive atla for employing this trope (although there's a later episode where something similar happens and i feel much more strongly about that because i also happen to care more about the character being presented in that scenario), because it's more like toxic leftist infighting than liberals defeating the evil radicals. like, katara is just as radical as jet is. already by the time we meet him we see her get arrested so as to infiltrate a prison labor camp and start a revolution (at which point they literally leave the warden and all the fn soldiers to drown at sea, not very #centrismwin of her). she drowns a bunch of other fn soldiers later. and she is literally an ecoterrorist (spoilers i guess). katara mostly gets mad at jet because jet straight up tries to kill her brother, and then lied to her about it. she's mad that she got played by a smooth, manipulative guy, she's mad that sokka was right about him all along (sokka being right?? the horror!!), and she's mad that he lied to her to use her in a project that she morally objects to.

i see jet's character primarily as an attempt to illustrate how the desire for revenge is dehumanizing, not only towards others, but also towards oneself. it's a core theme of katara's arc, and how she sees the world through a very black and white framework of heroes and villains, victims and perpetrators. i'm not going to spoil what happens to jet, but the ultimate tragic irony of his arc reflects a path that katara could easily go down and ultimately finds the strength not to. so i'd definitely object to jet more if he was in, for example, lok, but since his political and thematic function here is really to mirror katara as a sort of cautionary tale for what happens when traumatized colonized subjects prioritize self-destructive vengeance over self-affirming revolution, i think he does his job. i wish he was written better for sure (again, he's just so annoying i feel like it undermines the potential complexity of his character) but on paper, his character serves its purpose as it informs katara and sokka, who are the specialest characters ever, so there.

#the thing about jet is that he would suck even harder if katara wasn't the main character #like he sucks but because katara is the main character i get why he's there and i'm ok with it #basically i just love katara so much that i can find it in my heart to tolerate jet #but also hama does it better :) #ask #anon #o.tv

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for trying to save my father?

I (30F) work as a secretary for H (50M), who is currently the president of a colonization company.

Now, this may sound horrible, but I'm not here for that business. I'm his secretary for one reason only: to remind him that I'm his daughter.

When I was a child, he was experimenting with an eldritch computer machine. Something went wrong, and I was sucked into a portal to another dimension. I managed to survive and returned to my original dimension as an adult. However, by the time I saw him again, he didn't recognize me at all.

As it turns out, he had tried using the computer to revive me. Since I was still alive, it was impossible. This, coupled with the computer's impact on his brain, left him a shell of his former self.

I won't deny that my actions in aiding him to mechanize multiple planets might be questionable. Yet, it was necessary for my plan to work, moreover, I believe these planets were wasting their natural resources by not utilizing them. So, I'd like to think we did them a favor.

Everything was going well until we attempted to mechanize a star-shaped planet with abundant nature and clean air. I was excited, and to add to it, I encountered a handsome knight we'll call M (37M). I couldn't resist turning him into a cyborg, so he became our company’s security guard and the upgrades I implanted in him made him so much stronger!

However, there was this kid, K (10NB), who kept breaking into our buildings and destroying our stuff (Rude!). It seemed like they were trying to stop us from mechanizing their planet. When I gently explained how their people were relatively expendable compared to the planet's natural resources, they got mad and attacked me! (Well, more like I provoked the fight, but I know they had a bone to pick with me.)

I tried stopping them by any means, commanding M to attack them, using clones of their arch-nemesis, upgrading and deploying M against them again. Yet, they defeated everything. I got so mad that I was about to attack them myself, but then H intervened and told me to stop, so I complied.

Subsequently, H started fighting K, and predictably, he lost. So, he summoned the eldritch computer. I saw my chance and swiftly took the helmet he used to control it right off his head! I was thrilled at the prospect of selling it and finally reuniting with my father.

… However, the machine had a mind of its own. It zapped me and erased all my father's memories to use him as a vessel. Apparently, it aimed to eliminate us "imperfect, fragile life forms" for the company's eternal prosperity.

I was devastated by this turn of events and could do nothing but give K one of my remaining machines and watch them defeat my father, sealing his fate.

I am now the president of the company, feeling unsure of what to do. I thought I was doing the right thing, but M was so terrified of the mechanizations I did to him that even his evil mirror version fears me.

I'm utterly lost. AITA?

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[bbygirl-aemond]

bbygirl-aemond, I have thoughts, I will reread chapter 32, but I do have thoughts if you dont mind me asking them. I think initially, my question is, how do you balance the role of Valyria historically with the nature of their colonialism? Only because it seems like the picture presented is that ultimately Valyrianness is a good thing? It seemed like despite the Firstmen not wanting Valyrian conquerors who desecrated their land with fire, Harrenhal did? And that seems off to me? I mean if your pro-valyrian then totally disregard this but I had got the impression that you were rather critical of them but maybe I was conflating your critique of Viserys with your critique of Valyria and the Valyrian Freehold? Also, side note I very much enjoyed the complex relationship everyone had with Viserys and how it wasn't reconciled and that Helaena stood her ground. Your interpretation of her is my absolute favourite because she is a fully fleshed woman with her own motivations, and her distance from Rhaenyra is that wonderful icing on the cake. Coming from someone who doesn't like my own half-sister, it's very understandable Helaenas weariness but also her stubbornness not to forget what Rhaenyra put her and her brothers through. It's just chefs' kiss.

No that's a fair question! Ultimately, I think my answer is that my opinion on morality of canon is separate from what I choose to play around with for fun. For example, I don't think we're meant to read ASoIaF and come away like "yes monarchy is good actually." I'm very anti-monarchist in my everyday life, but it's tons of fun to lean into the grand imagery related to monarchy and divine right in a fantasy world. This applies to the themes of colonialism and feudalism as well.

Stormbreak is, fundamentally, a Targaryen Restoration fic, so it's not going to be doing any heavy lifting related to concepts of monarchy, feudalism, and colonialism. I do address parts of these themes, but not in full, and it shouldn't be taken as a perfect mirror of my own views outside of the Stormbreak sandbox.

As for Harrenhal--I think there isn't necessarily a moral endorsement of the Valyrian magic there. Just because something exists doesn't mean that it's good that it exists, but it is a reality. Jace's Valyrian-ness is useful in its ability to protect the members of House Strong from a curse that would otherwise kill them off. Jace's arc here also isn't finished, and we haven't seen the final form of the agreement(s) he'll have with the land he rules. This is because the First Men are, you guessed it, also originally colonizers! They invaded Westeros, slaughtered the children of the forest in spades, and destroyed their sacred spaces. They were eventually forced to stop and coexist, but only after a massive display of force (the children of the forest literally broke Westeros and Essos into two separate continents), so it wasn't out of realization that their colonizing was wrong, and they still successfully stole most of Westeros from the children of the forest, relegating them to small patches of land here and there where Weirwood trees grew. I can't spoil too much here, but let's just say the Valyrians weren't the first ones to think of imbuing the land with spells to drive out the First Men… and that Stormbreak will ultimately treat the children of the forest as the only true natives of Westeros.

I'm glad that Helaena's characterization has resonated with you! She's been so fun to write. In general, I've had so much fun with the female characters in this fic, particularly ones like Helaena, Baela, and Alys whose personalities were kind of neglected in the book and/or the show. I also have this pet peeve around the idea that women inherently always have to like each other because of girlboss solidarity, so I deliberately called attention to Rhaenyra's mistake in thinking that Helaena would side with her because they were both women. Helaena isn't necessarily always going to agree with Rhaenyra on things, which is understandable. They had vastly different upbringings, and Helaena's experience with dreaming gives her an entirely unique perspective. In this chapter, Helaena doesn't try to stop Aemond and Aegon, because she agrees with them! Regardless of how much fear she personally felt (since I think her dreams provide a lot of reassurance to her that others aren't able to access), she still spent her entire life surrounded by her family, who were very much impacted by that fear.

#ask #asks #answered #fic: stormbreak #fic #stormbreak #stormbreak chapter 32 #first men #children of the forest #valyrians #hotd #house of the dragon #fire and blood #fab #house targaryen #asoiaf

[purplecowbell]

Black Mirror: A Boring Twilight Zone

When I tell people I love The Twilight Zone, both the original series and the reboot, the first thing out of their mouths is, “You should check out Black Mirror.” I suppress a cringe, thank them for their recommendation, and then never follow through. I don’t because I’ve already tried it, and I don’t think it compares.

I understand why people keep comparing Black Mirror to The Twilight Zone; it’s certainly a more contemporary perspective on issues (at least if you ignore the more recent reboots like many people seem to do), but the actual core of the shows, how and why they depict their speculative worlds, are very different. I apologize for using an insulting title to the Black Mirror fans, but for someone who’s looking for The Twilight Zone, it just does not scratch the right itch for me.

In The Twilight Zone, the writers cover a wide variety of topics. They explore mob mentality, our perception of aliens, and “the other.” They explore tragic stories of luck and ignorant selfishness, and praise heroic stories with martyrs and rebels. My favorite types of Twilight Zone episodes are ones in which there’s no strong message, just Rod Sterling shows up at the end with, “Well, wasn’t that crazy?” There was one episode (“A World of His Own”) where a playwright had a god-like ability to create people and destroyed his old wife to make a new one, and when Rod Sterling starts to narrate at the end, the author interrupts to destroy Rod Sterling. But The Twilight Zone also isn’t afraid of covering serious issues, whether cynical or optimistic, individual or societal. The show can jump from an episode about the mentality of witch hunts and colonization (“Will the Real Martian Stand Up?”) to one about the value of education against tyrannies and the importance of heroic public acts (“The Obsolete Man”). This wide range of diversity allows The Twilight Zone to cover an entire spectrum of imagination and the human condition, whether silly or profound. When The Twilight Zone comments on societal ills (which Black Mirror is famous for), it pressures you slightly on what was already there and asks, “Do you really want this to get worse?” Black Mirror, on the other hand, crushes you with the framework of structural problems without relent.

Black Mirror focuses on the problems of technology, and a focus is fine; it allows you to really get into the granular details. But unfortunately (for The Twilight Zone fans) the exploration of technology is through a singular cynical lens. Every single story is, without fail, a dystopia, for both those who “deserve” it and those who don’t. Some people have argued that this consistency makes Black Mirror intrinsically better, but I don’t read or watch anthologies for repetition. The characters are less “characters” and more cogs in the machine that happen to be human-shaped. No story satisfyingly breaks from the horrific status quo, and the show usually depicts a snapshot of people that could be happening an infinite number of times in other places of the world. Many times the story ends on just the note: “And then everything continues.” The only episodes that I felt were deviations from this were “The Waldo Moment,” “Nosedive,” and “USS Callister.” These are the only episodes where either the characters felt like they mattered (The Waldo Moment), where the ending showed some upside to deviation from the system (Nosedive) or a combination of the two (USS Callister). The emotional spectrum of the characters ranges from black, to gray, to brown, to artificial-happy-yellow. For a show set in the 21st century, its characters are sometimes more black and white than the Twilight Zone in the 1960s. But that’s not a sin; you’re not supposed to worry about complex characters in the anthology episode format. The lack of complexity does, however, clash with the episode length. Most episodes last around an hour, frequently longer, and watching the same emotional shades in the same episode over and over again without disruption for an hour is like watching paint dry. The problem here isn’t all of what I listed; these are mostly personal preferences that some may enjoy. The problem is that even with these qualities and differences, Black Mirror is still being recommended to Twilight Zone fans.

Just because a work of media is of the same format (speculative anthology) does not mean it satisfies the same itch. If someone watched The Twilight Zone for the dystopian episodes like “The Obsolete Man,” or “It’s a Good Life,” or warnings of technology like “The Lateness of the Hour,” (which is a hilarious episode to take as a serious critique against technology), then the connection between Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone is natural to them. But The Twilight Zone had more episodes than those three. Ask 100 different Twilight Zone fans which episode stands out the most to them, and you’ll probably get 50 different answers (I’m not going to pretend some episodes aren’t more popular than others). Ask 100 Black Mirror fans which episode stands out the most, and they’ll probably say, “The one where a politician has sex with a pig.” Black Mirror has two tools at its disposal: shock value and contemporary despair. I have no interest in being bludgeoned to death with either of these.

I ask that Black Mirror fans try to understand their relationship with the genre. Just because The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror are the most popular shows in said genre does not mean they share additional similarities. I also ask that they understand that Black Mirror is not an objective upgrade from The Twilight Zone just because Black Mirror’s differences are more enjoyable for them. I suggest that fans of both shows watch other series to better understand what would actually be relevant to recommend, instead of just suggesting one show to fans of the other. Shows like American Horror Story, The Outer Limits, Solos, and Love Death & Robots might really scratch an itch you didn’t even know you had.

#black mirror #the twilight zone #twilight zone #anthology tv shows #sci fi #science fiction #media criticism #tv show review #Again #sorry to black mirror fans #but please watch other shows #or at least check them out

[comfy-whumpee]

Birdhouse: Roman’s Rescue

CN: BBU setting. Other pieces in this arc: Mistake, The Forum, Everyone and Tyler.

@neuro-whump​, @rosesareviolentlyread​, @mylifeisonthebookshelf, @pumpkin-spice-whump, @whumpsday, @firewheeesky, @why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

There were four trainees on delivery today. Their chaperone, Handler Novak, was in the front with the driver, and the four pets sat in their individual padded seats, strapped into place for the journey. They’d started the trip with six, but the first two had been dropped off already at a big brownstone building.

They had been Help At Work Domestics, silent but excited to go out and pioneer a new flagship product for the company. 993948 was feeling the same way. There was a lot riding on their ability to be exceptional. He had worked so hard during training that he had almost never been in trouble. He could type faster than anyone else, he could memorise information quickly and perfectly, and he knew a dozen different filing and organisational strategies. He could suit anyone. He could adapt to anything. Any office he was placed in, he could excel.

The prospect was a small technology company, he knew that already. He didn’t know much about what that would be like, but the nice thing about offices was that they had similar needs. That was what they had been taught, anyway.

The bus pulled up. Handler Novak got out, and pulled open the sliding side door. It made almost no sound, sleek and silver in the weak sunlight.

Handler checked the clipboard, reached in, and popped Roman’s straps. Roman got up, twisting his hands together nervously, fingers tugging at the cuffs of his white button-down shirt to make sure they were perfect. He had to be perfect. Help At Home products were always perfect.

The building was tall. That was the first thing he noticed as he stepped out, Handler Novak placing a hand on the small of his back to walk him in. It must have been at least ten floors. No, twenty. He couldn’t tell and it was too fast for him to count. He walked through some glass doors into a reception.

The hand on his back lifted away, prompting him to stop and fold his hands behind him. Handler stepped up to the desk.

“Good morning, sir! How can I help?”

Handler Novak put on his polite, warm voice. The kind he used when talking to people, not pets. “Hi, good morning to you too. I’ve got a delivery for Charlie Mason.”

The receptionist smiled. She didn’t look at Roman, but he smiled back anyway. He might be working with her. “They’re expecting you. Head into the elevator on the left. Eighth floor.”

“Thank you, miss.”

993948 was walked to the elevator. It was walled with mirrors, and he met his own eyes as the tiny room carried them upward on its back.

He was pale, the same kind of sallow tint as everyone had in training. On him, even with the soft light of the cushy elevator, it made him look paper-white, and his hair was barely any better. The only solid point of colour was his one brown eye; the blue one seemed washed out too.

“First impression, pet,” the Handler said softly as the elevator slid to a smooth stop. A pleasant chime announced the opening of the doors. 993948 straightened sharply, inhaling slightly and squaring his shoulders.

The doors glided open to show a plain corridor. The Handler murmured, “Huh.”

Hand on his back, 993948 walked down the plastic flooring, looking around. The pale, sea-green walls were marked here and there by doors, an eventually Handler Novak found the right one. “Here we go.”

He stepped into a small lobby with a sofa and water cooler, and almost immediately, someone approached. He was tall, with a bright shirt and busy beard, and he smiled like 993948 was an old friend. “Good morning, folks.”

“Morning,” Handler greeted him cheerily, offering a hand to shake. “I’ve got your brand new Domestic-colon-Office pet here ready to start. Can I get Charlie Mason’s signature before I head off?”

“That’s me,” said a deeper voice, and 993948 looked over to see a broad man with slicked-back hair, with a serious set to his features even as he smiled too. “Good to meet you. I can take the paperwork off your hands.”

“Of course.” Handler Novak passed over a manila folder, and set the rest of his black tote down at 993948’s feet. “Here are his starting supplies. You can order replacements for him at any time, and we offer free delivery on any add-on or accessory. As long as he has access to food and a bathroom, he’ll be able to take care of all his needs, and will otherwise be ready to work. Eager to, in fact.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Mr Mason said, signing a piece of paper before handing it back. “There you go. Signed, sealed and delivered.”

“Thank you, sir. Give me a call if you have any trouble at all getting him settled today. Your purchase might be complete, but that doesn’t mean you’re on your own. You can speak to one of us for advice at any time, and any problems, we’ll be there.”

“Alright, thank you. Have a good day.”

“You too.” Handler didn’t look at 993948 before leaving him behind. The beating pulse that echoed through the pet’s skin seemed to go unnoticed.

Looking around him, he noticed more people than just the two who had greeted them. There was a slimmer man at a desk, scratching his five o’clock shadow as he worked with one hand. At the back of the room was a hulking man bent over his desk in total silence, a mug steaming at his elbow. He could even hear someone moving around in a kitchen, which he guessed was just next to the reception.

“Right, have you got a name?”

Mr Mason had asked a question. “Yes, sir. 993948 is my unique identifier code.”

Mr Mason’s eye squinted sceptically. “That’s not a name. We’ll think of something. Come through and meet the others.”

A lanky, fit-looking man came through from the kitchen doorway and stopped short at the sight of him. “Oh, hey. Just like in the picture.”

“This is Tyler,” Mr Mason said by way of explanation. Tyler smiled ambiguously, his eyes running all the way down to Roman’s toes and back again. “He’s our sales and marketing guy. And this is Dillon,” to the bearded man, “he’s customer service and PR. Over there’s Phil, tech lead.” Phil waved. “And at the back is Joel, CFO and ops.”

Joel didn’t turn, but his voice snapped out, “He can call me Mr Harden, thanks. I’m not his friend.”

Mr Mason smiled, somewhat apologetically. “You can call the rest of us by our first names. We’re a small start-up outfit, we’re not fussy about that stuff. Nobody wants to be bogged down in formality when we’re trying to do something bold and new.”

“Hell yeah, Charlie,” Tyler agreed, lightly punching his arm. “He didn’t mention it, but he’s the CEO and product lead. If the lights are on here, Charlie’s working.”

993948 smiled. He liked this. He liked it a lot. Mr Harden was right that they weren’t his friends, but he could be theirs. He would support them and their dream with whatever they needed. Mr Charlie spoke calmly, but there was conviction in his words.

He knew about all stages of a company’s lifetime, and the start-up phase was the most volatile. Only a quarter of start-ups went on to succeed. He would be part of turning this one into a success. It was so exciting.

“Thank you,” he said, not just for the introductions, but for even being here. “What can I do?”

-

“Oh, you poor thing.”

Roman had been in the cupboard. It was where he was meant to be. He always went into the store cupboard when the cleaner was here, and she never opened it, and she probably knew about him because she’d have seen his cushion and blanket on the reception sofa, but they never, ever met.

This wasn’t the usual cleaner. She was young, with big black eyes in a brown face, her hair tied up tight in a ponytail, her maroon apron crisp and new. She had opened the cupboard. She hadn’t known about him. Now her brows were drawn in sympathy, and her voice was gentle and warm.

“Oh, look at you. I’m so sorry, I must’ve startled you. Please don’t hide in there, come out, stretch your legs. What’s your name?”

She had barely been here ten minutes. She didn’t have gloves on and she wasn’t carrying anything with her. Why had she opened the cupboard? Did she think there were supplies in here?

He introduced himself, since she had asked. “I’m Roman, 993948, Help at Home Office Domestic.”

“Hi, Roman,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard the second or third parts. She had a sweet, melodic accent that he’d never heard before. “I’m Anaiah. It’s nice to meetcha. Don’t hide in there on my account, you’re not the first I’ve met.” She stepped back, and he obediently stepped out, back into the office.

She didn’t smell like cleaning materials either. Something was wrong.

“Did they mean to leave you behind? Can I take you to someone?”

He blinked at her. “This is where I belong. I’m an Office Domestic, produced by Help at Home for all business and—”

“Lemme stop you there, Roman,” she interrupted with a little smile. “It’s nearin’ dusk and you’re on your own in here during the holiday. Can I take you someplace nicer? Maybe you have someone you’d wanna see, who’d take care of you?”

His stomach flipped. Tyler had been off sick for the last week before closure. It had been lonely, and it was been worse every day since Mr Charlie had cancelled the plan to take him home for Christmas. No holiday in the warm kitchen, cooking and cleaning and being good company. Not for Roman.

You don't need a holiday, Mr Charlie had told him. That's your whole point.

But now he had a chance. “Tyler,” he said, unable to help himself. “Tyler Schatz. He’s my friend. Can you take me to him?”

Anaiah smiled like he told her exactly what she wanted to hear. “Yeah, I can. C’mon. Let’s go see Tyler.”

Relief swept over him, but was followed immediately by a surge of panic. She wasn’t supposed to agree. He wasn’t supposed to leave. Help at Home pets are happy. Help at Home pets are content.

“Who are you?” he asked, stepping backwards. Was she dangerous? He had never met a dangerous person. They had always kept him sheltered here, safe from people who would hurt him. Mr Dillon said there were always people who would hurt someone weaker than them. Roman was defenceless.

Even as he thought it, he remembered his hand, pockmarked with wounds from the stapler. Some had torn on the way out and left tiny scars. Mr Charlie was stressed, more stressed than ever.

That was what he said, anyway. But sometimes, Roman thought it was something else. Something to do with Tyler staying late last week, and then not coming back the next Monday morning.

“Like I said, I’m Anaiah,” the imposter said, and her tone was still mild, but her words were impatient. “I’m the cleaner while your usual is away for the holiday.”

He shouldn’t ask the question he needed. His chest felt painfully tight. “How did you know where to find me?”

Her smile stayed plastered on. “I was looking for your vacuum cleaner.”

“You’re meant to use the one in the maintenance cupboard.”

“That’s my mistake, then.”

She was lying. Why would she lie? Was she dangerous? Was he in danger? He shouldn’t argue with her in that case, but then she would take him away. He didn’t have any way to stop her. He probably didn’t even have the courage to fight. The mere thought of defending himself like that chilled hm to the bone until his body felt unusable.

Was she really a cleaner? How else would she have gotten in? And the usual cleaner hasn’t come. So she is one… But she hasn’t done any cleaning. She doesn’t even seem worried about leaving her job before even starting, just to help a stranger. To help a pet.

Trust crooks only to rip you off, Mr Charlie would say.

“Hey, now,” Anaiah said, raising her hands. “Breathe, okay? I’m not taking you anywhere you don’t want to go. How about this? I’ll do my cleaning. I’ll get things nice here. You think on whether you’re ready to go.”

She smiled. The smile seemed real. But then, how would he know?

He sat back down in his cupboard and closed the door. After a minute, he heard the sound of her pulling in a cleaning cart.

In the relative privacy of the cupboard, wedged between their marketing banner and a stack of printer paper, he pulled his knees to his chest and tried to think.

She shouldn’t have known where he was, and she shouldn’t have known he had someone, and she shouldn’t have agreed to take him because that meant she was either lying or she knew more than she was letting on.

She knew he was there.

That wasn’t really special. Maybe the old cleaner had told her. Maybe she had been by during the day, when he was working. Maybe she’d heard, because of how many visitors and customers he had served drinks to. Did people talk about that kind of thing? Maybe because he was a new designation.

But she had offered to take him away.

So she had heard about him, and then decided she would rescue him. But that didn’t explain her being here as a cleaner. If she really was, surely she wouldn’t risk her job for him? She had seemed impatient during the conversation, like she wanted it done. She wasn’t really meant to be here, was she?

She had come specifically for him.

That meant… What did that mean?

Tyler had sent her.

Tyler had sent her to rescue him.

Tyler, his only friend. Who had talked to him and listened. Who had smiled and hugged him and stared in horror at the injuries he’d been given. Who had told him it was wrong and too much, and wanted to protect him.

Tyler of the bunny outfit and the drunk kisses and the temper he tried so hard to hold back but didn’t always succeed.

He opened the door. Anaiah was mopping the kitchen floor when he went to find her. She looked over at him, but didn’t ask. Just waited.

“I don’t want to go to Tyler,” he told her. His voice was weak. He didn’t sound sure; he wasn’t sure. “I want to go somewhere – different. Is that okay?”

This time, there was no impatience. “Of course. Pick up anything you want to take with you, and I’ll finish up, and see if I can find your papers. Then we’ll hit the road. Okay?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Okay.”

Looking around, the empty desks and chairs felt suddenly mournful. In the electric light, a wall of white against the blackness of the windows, everything seemed to have no shadow. Joel’s desk with his wife’s photo. Charlie’s locked office door. Dillon’s big black headphones hanging on their stand. Phil’s football poster. Tyler’s coffee mug, that he hadn’t picked up and removed in the vain hope it would be wanted tomorrow.

When Roman tucked himself into Anaiah’s cleaning cart and left his home through the mirrorless, juddering service elevator, he left behind a spotless office, his blanket and pillow neatly folded on the reception sofa, and on Charlie’s desk, a broken stapler left among a scattering of silver staples.

#whump #bbu #my fic #emotional whump #the birdhouse #roman #charlie #tyler #joel #rescue #escape #dehumanisation

[opal-owl-flight]

Hiii hi. Yes, new Owl House ep dropped and me and a friend of mine made an au. Meet Mapolor, and the local cosmic jester who’s in mirror jail!

Under readmore bc its many thoughts

Mapo’s goals...

Halcandra is not kind to practitioners of magic. If they find one, theyre immediately banished. Mapo here has been interested in magic for a long time, and practiced it in secret until he was found out. He was witch hunted from young age. All hes known is how to run.

He wants to belong so bad.

But he cant find any safe space…

See, even the most “innocent” Halcandran has something against magic users. Stereotypes, all that. I think theyre afraid of forces they cant understand; choosing to rely on tech instead.

I wonder, are there other magic users…?

Maybe Mapo found himself with them. Finally found a place he can belong to… until the “coven” was found and he its sole survivor. (Again with him being the last survivor of something…)

Seeing his found family get banished…made him vengeful.

If he cannot find a safe space for himself and others like him. He is going to make it himself.

Thus enters the thought of “cleansing” Halcandra. Cleanse it of its technological blight, restore magic to its rightful place.

He finds a certain mirror around this time…heard it whispering, heard it promise him everything he desired.

With the power of the being in the mirror, he manages to make Halcandra destroy itself. Probably made the Halcandrans build machine that wiped their entire race from existence, save for Mapo. After the way it treated him…this is what he thought was the best way to deal with his anger. He has gotten the vengeance he sought, and he does not regret it.

But he wanted to do more. Hes aware of the reaches of Halcandra’s influence.

He decides to become the galaxy’s savior, cleansing it of the tech-Halcandran’s influence (a COMPLETE reversal of what regular Mags does!). He renames himself Mapolor; “Hope of Paradise”.

As he does this, he found communities on every planet he “cleanses”.

“A community, to keep magic-users safe. Give them sanctuary.

Under my watchful eye… I will make sure that the planet they inhabit is never corrupted by technology again.”

He sees tech as a blight; how dare a single mortal or society mess with the will of the universe/nature like so?

Those communities are connected to him. Hes keeping watch over them. Protecting them in his own twisted way.

He truly believes hes doing good…what hes doing instead is preventing societies from ever advancing.

Hes very powerful magic-wise. He can defend himself from any magic attack. Tech could take him down. But by keeping most of the galaxy away from it…well. Hes unbeatable.

Basically hes done a Susie and is colonizing planets “for their own good”, and “bring them closer to the forces that be, their natural state”

From what Ive described, it seems that Mapo has suppressed a lot of his desire for friends. He has no intent on freeing Marx, who’s very lonely in his mirror jail and just wants to play….

Bc he believes he already found the friends he needed.

He thinks the leaders of those communities he keeps in touch with are his friends. The truth is, many of them want him dead.

“He promised paradise. He only brought us hell. Mapolor? More like Mafolor!!”

Does he actually care for them? Only a select few. The others are just tools. Pawns for his conquest.

By the way, he never finds the Lor here. He doesnt care to. He has Landia instead :) the Halcandrans were not kind to the big scary dragon with the powerful magical artifact (WHO WAS PROTECTING THEM). They were building a tech replacement. It pissed Landia off so much that she decided to join Mapolor’s conquest out of her own volition.

Tldr EVIL EVIL WIZARD WITH A DRAGON STEED AND A COSMIC JESTER IN MIRROR JAIL. HALCANDRA DONE FUCKED UP WITH HOW IT TREATED HIM AND THE ENTIRE GALAXY IS IN JEOPARDY.

#kirby #kirby fanart #kirby au #magolor #marx #opal owl’s nest #crimson conqueror au #by the way he still hates Susie here bc she runs a robotics company #shes probably good here. helping the colonized planets get by by providing tech assistance #Mapo is just so SO strict with what can and cannot be done or developed… #surprise?? Susie is good in this au????? #also also! design note…hes hiding the fact that hes a Halcandran #bc he HATES that part of him. he hates being a part of an accursed race

[eretzyisrael]

By Adam Pagnucco

Council Member Andrew Friedson is one of the county’s most prominent elected officials.  CASA is one of the county’s most prominent interest groups and depends on the state and county governments for a large chunk of its budget.  Normally, when parties like this disagree, they do so politely and, if possible, quietly.

Not this time.

The Israel-Hamas war originated overseas and this site does not cover international affairs.  However, I have previously published on its impact on county politics three times:

October 11: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC) and the Anti-Defamation League of Washington DC protested against MCPS’s response to Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians.

October 13: Friedson wrote a guest column about Hamas’s attacks.

November 6: Delegate Gabriel Acevero claimed that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

The issue has not stopped there.  CASA, an immigrant rights group established in Montgomery County many years ago and a major recipient of state and county funds, weighed in on the conflict in Gaza on Twitter.  The tweets have been deleted but a reader forwarded them.  They were also released as a statement.  The tweets and statement are reprinted below.

*****

Statement by Gustavo Torres

CASA Executive Director

November 6, 2023

CASA stands in resolute and steadfast solidarity with the people of Palestine in their relentless fight for freedom. We stand shoulder to shoulder with countless Black and brown freedom activists from around the world. We specifically condemn the utilization of US tax dollars to promote the ongoing violence. We call for an immediate ceasefire to save all precious life and halt the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Like much of the world, we join in condemning the outrageous attack by Hamas in Israel. Our hearts go out to the innocent children and families caught in the midst of this horrendous conflict.

We also reject the notion that any act of violence can ever justify the heinous practice of terror currently unleashed by Israel in Gaza, including on refugee camps, medical and UN aid workers, and more.

As we dedicate ourselves to building a world where our community can live free from discrimination and fear, we deeply acknowledge the interconnectedness of the struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people and Black and brown communities in the United States. Our shared and unwavering commitment is to foster humanity, safety, and lasting peace throughout the entire region while confronting the historical oppression that demands urgent redress.

Finally, we strongly support the struggle for decolonization, affirming the rights of Indigenous peoples and historically colonized nations to reclaim their land. The Palestinian struggle mirrors our own; with many CASA members fleeing governments and countries wrecked by the damage of US economic and political intervention.

We firmly assert: free Palestine NOW!

CASA’s statement provoked this response from Council Member Andrew Friedson, who has previously stated his views on the Israel-Hamas war on our site.

*****

November 6, 2023

Statement from Council Vice-President Andrew Friedson

The inflammatory and inaccurate statement by CASA is deeply offensive and hurtful.  While the tweets have since been deleted, the statement demonstrated a divisive disregard for the Jewish community who have been steadfast partners in countless of the organization’s efforts to support immigrants in our community over the years.  Using antisemitic language that denies Jews as being indigenous to their own ancestral homeland and failing to recognize that over half of Israel’s population are people of color, CASA inexplicably failed to recognize the connection so many Jews have to CASA’s mission and to their own homeland as a people who have been systematically persecuted and forced to flee countless countries for over 2,000 years.

While I appreciate CASA’s dedication to “building a world where our community can live free from discrimination and fear,” their statement suggests that Jews – and especially Jews of color – have no place in that community.  We must be able to advocate for Palestinian lives without diminishing the existence of Jewish lives.  We can question government policies and decisions without denying rights to existence and self-determination.  We must mourn all innocent lives lost and recognize each loss as a tragedy.

I hope CASA will formally retract the statement and use this painful misstep as a learning opportunity to engage with Jewish community leaders and organizations to repair the damage and avoid future pain.

As I mentioned above, CASA depends on state and county tax dollars for a significant part of its budget.  Its 2021 Form 990 filing with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service reports revenues of $25.7 million for the year ended 6/30/22, of which $4.9 million came from government grants and $11.3 million came from government contracts.  At least some of that money may be at risk.  One elected official told me, “CASA’s virulently antisemitic statement will have dire consequences for them in both Rockville and Annapolis. We cannot and will not subsidize hate with taxpayer dollars.”

#casa #montgomery perspective #andrew friedson