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mekidela · 4 months

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Abiy’s foot soldiers are about to be driven out of Amhara land by Fano, and Abiy is using drones in a desperate attempt, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians.

Abiy and his vacuous general, Berhanu Jula, thought they could easily crush and disarm the Amhara Fano within a short period of time. On the contrary, Fano's forces emerged victorious, defeating Abiy's soldiers, acquiring their heavy weaponry, and asserting dominance over almost all regions. Abiy quickly realized Fano's dominance in the fight and responded by launching drone attacks and heavy artillery shelling on civilian residences, leading to the merciless murder of countless innocent individuals. As a matter of fact, a cowardly person is brutal, willing to murder without mercy when given the chance. Abiy is both brutal and narcissistic, suffering from a mental health condition known as “narcissistic personality disorder”, characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance.

Women and children are victims of heinous acts during this systematic elimination of countless lives. By committing these acts of violence, not only are basic human rights principles violated, but also the value of human life is completely ignored. The international community should have condemned Abiy for his complicity and evilness in using drones to kill innocent Amhara civilians indiscriminately, which is a genocidal act.

Sadly enough, the western countries blatantly ignored the Amhara genocide, but during the Abiy-TPLF war two years ago, the security council repeatedly held open meetings against Abiy, as requested by Ireland with the support of the US, United Kingdom, and some European nations. In fact, during TPLF's 27-year rule, they strategically invested Ethiopian wealth to gain allies in western countries, showing that the US and certain European nations supported TPLF in the war against Abiy. The US and United Kingdom's unfair stance against Amhara would not surprise the Amharas. The Amhara people have had a history of being targeted by foreign invaders, like the aggression from fascist Italy in 1935, which persists to this day. Our forefathers fought fearlessly against fascist Italy, and today Fano is showing immense bravery in its resistance against the savage Oromumma government.

It is truly pathetic how the US government turned a blind eye to the ongoing Amhara genocide under an incapable, barbarous regime. In fact, two years ago, during a press conference, President Baden made a shocking and biased remark about the war between Abiy and TPLF, demanding the withdrawal of the Amhara special forces from Tigray, a fact that was not publicly known. Amhara's special forces have never entered Tigray, but it was the TPLF forces that invaded Amhara's land. Of course, the TPLF supporters falsely led the President to believe that Welkait was part of Tigray. Let’s not forget that the US financed and provided logistical materials to the TPLF while they were fighting as guerrillas against the Marxist regime. A day will come when the US stands alongside the Amhara people. The only way to stop Amhara's suffering and deaths is by defeating its enemies. The OLF has been relentlessly working to annihilate the Amhara people for the past half-century.

In the early 1991s, Berhanu Nega and Genenew Assefa organized the international conference on the Horn of Africa in New York City sponsoring by the City University of New York chancellor, Murphy, which was heavily influenced by anti-Ethiopia groups TPLF, Shabia, and OLF. Luckily, I attended the conference where the guest speaker was a Arepresentative from OLF, who was in his early 60s with gray hair. The OLF speaker was criticizing the Amhara people, indicating that in the US city, all Ethiopian restaurants are owned by Amharas, while Oromos have no one. The audiences thought his disgruntlement with Amharas was funny, so they laughed at him. To me, his repugnant speech towards Amhara was not as funny as I initially thought. The speech was dangerous, and the Amhara should not have dismissed it as frivolous. The connivance of the OLF with the Amhara people was not recent, it was long ago. Abiy and his subordinate extremist Oromos now have the chance to use drones for bombing innocent Amharas. Not taking the Oromo's extremist propaganda seriously was a mistake made by the Amhara in the past. Nevertheless, the Oromumma’s diabolical action on the Amhara is a transient, and the Fano's strength is impregnable, and they will soon reverse this horrendous crime against the Amharas. It is an impending fact!

Let me take a moment to jot down some thoughts on Berhanu Nega. Through common friends, I have had the chance to meet Berhanu Nega on a few occasions in New York in 1991. During those short meeting with Berhanu, I observed his strong support for TPLF and OLF, as he consistently emphasized the importance of peace for Ethiopia and the removal of Derg. I was struck by his insistence that power should shift to the south this time. He continued mentioning that for the past two centuries, Ethiopia has been ruled by northerners in rotation. So, resolving the Oromo’s question is crucial for peace in Ethiopia. During the conversation, he employed diplomatic language that avoids offending others.

Without a doubt, Berhanu Nega is untrustworthy and driven by a desire for political power and an intrigue person. As widely known by all, he left his teaching job in the US in pursuit of a high-level position in Ethiopia, but was not given any opportunities by the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. Unlike Abiy, Meles was not easy. For his own advantages, he used to be involved with the Amhara society in terms of social life. The Amhara people did not really know Berhanu until his true colors were revealed. What he is doing right now to the Amhara people is proof. I am acquainting the viewers with the fact that Berhanu Nega holds a negative view of the Amhara people. Regardless of how long it takes, Berhanu should be held accountable for the crime he is committing against the Amhara people while collaborating with the Oromumma government.

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historybannedonfacebook · 6 months

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THE TALIBAN

1994 TALIBAN - (Taleban) is an Islamic political movement in Afghanistan, it ruled from 1996 to 2001 – it only gained recognition from 3 states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Mohammed Omar was the founder of the Taliban until his death in 2013. Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was his replacement. While in power, it informed Sharia Law (Islamic Law), they treated women with much brutality. Pakistan has been accused of continuing to support the Taliban; Pakistan states it dropped support for the Taliban after the 11 September attacks. Al-Qaeda also supported the Taliban. Saudi Arabia provided the Taliban with financial support. The Taliban and their allies committed massacres against Afghan civilians, denied food supplies to civilians, and destroyed thousands of homes. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee. After the 11 September attacks, the Taliban were overthrown by the American invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban has been using terrorism to further their ideological and political goals.

The Taliban movement's origins go back to the Pakistan-trained mujahideen in North Pakistan, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. When Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq became President of Pakistan he feared that the Soviets would invade, so he sent Akhtar Abdur Rahman to Saudi Arabia to gain support for the Afghan resistance against forces. The US and Saudia Arabia joined with Afghanistan to stop Soviet occupation forces and helped them with funds. Zia-ul-Haq aligned with Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and later picked General Akhtar Abdur Rahman to lead the insurgency against the Soviet Union inside Afghanistan. 90,000 Afghans were trained by ISI during the 80s. The USA and UK gave aid of about 20 billion dollars in the 80s to Pakistan to train Taliban personnel and also provided them with arms and ammunition. After the fall of the Soviet regime of Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, several Afghan political parties agreed on peace. Saudi Arabia and Iran supported the Afghan militia's hostility towards each other. Iran assisted the Shia Hazara Hezb-I Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari, as Iran attempted to maximize Wahdat’s military power and influence. Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-I Islami faction. The conflict between the 2 soon escalated. These forces saw an opportunity to press their own political agendas. The Taliban emerged in south Afghanistan in Kandahar in 1994. Due to the sudden civil war, the government, and the police did not have time to form. Crimes were committed by criminals and individuals. The Red Cross (ICRC) collapsed within days.

The Taliban, while trying to control northern and western Afghanistan, committed systematic massacres against civilians. There were 15 massacres between 1996 and 2001. Arab and Pakistani support troops were involved in these killings. Bin Laden’s 005 Brigade was responsible for the mass-killings of Afghan civilians. Arab fighters went around with long knives and slit people’s throats and skinned people. Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, in 2001 said that the cruel behaviour by the Taliban had been “necessary”. The Taliban denied emergency food to 160,000 hungry and starving people due to political and military reasons. In 1998, the Taliban attacked Mazar-I Sharif. Out of 1500 defenders, only 100 survived. The Taliban gained controland started to kill people randomly. They started shooting people in the street, and began to target Hazaras. They raped women, and they put thousands of people in containers and locked them in and left them to suffocate to death. This left 5,000 to 6,000 dead. 10 Iranian diplomats and one journalist were also killed. They burned orchards, crops and destroyed irrigation systems, and forced more than 100,000 people from their homes with hundreds of men, women and children still unaccounted for. The Taliban killed civilians. Istalif, was home to 45,000 people – the Taliban gave all of these people just 24 hours' notice to leave. In 1999, Bamian was taken, people – men, women, and children were all executed. There was another massacre in the town of Yakalang in 2001. 300 people were murdered. In 1999, the Taliban forced thousands of people from the Shomali Plains and other regions and burned their homes, farmland, and gardens.

Taliban and al-Qaeda ran human trafficking, abducting women and selling them into sex slavery in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban argued that the strict restrictions they placed on women were to protect them. The behavior of the Taliban made a mockery of that claim. There were women who committed suicide over slavery. In 1999 in Shomali Plains, more than 600 women were kidnapped, the women were forced into trucks and buses. The women were penned up inside a camp in the desert. The more attractive women were selected and taken away. They were sold into brothels or to private household to be kept as slaves. Not all involved with the Taliban were for human trafficking, many in the Taliban were opposed to it. One Taliban commander and his men freed women who were abducted.

The Taliban forced women into house arrest, and if they left their homes they were punished physically. The Taliban stopped women from being educated, and girls were not permitted to go to school or college. If a woman went shopping she had to be accompanied by a male relative and had to wear the burqa. If any woman disobeyed she was publicly beaten into submission. Any woman who was in public with someone who was not a relative was accused of adultery – which involved public flogging in the stadium – 100 lashes. The religious police carried out abuse on women. Women could not work, unless it was in the medical sector, because male medical personnel were not allowed to treat women and girls. The Taliban also closed down primary schools, not only female schools but male schools as well, due to teachers being female. In 1998, religious police forced all women off the streets of Kabul and issued all homes to blacken their windows, if women lived inside so women could not be seen from the outside.

The Taliban were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009 and 80% in 2011. In 2008, the Taliban increased its use of suicide bombers and targeted unarmed civilians and aid workers. Female suicide bombers have become increasingly common. Schools and homes were booby-trapped, snipers shelter in houses deliberately filled with women and children. The Taliban targeted health officials that work to immunize children against polio due to fears of the vaccine. Taliban banned the vaccine and the Taliban assassinated 4 female UN polio-worker in Pakistan because they accused them of being spies.

The Taliban has a strict and anti-modern ideology, they also go by Sharia Law. They are a militant Islam group and extremist jihadists of Osama bin Laden. They are inspired by the mystical Sufis, traditionalists, and radical Islamicists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan). Under the Taliban, Islam Law – Sharia Law prohibited pork, many different technologies, alcohol, and forms of art including paintings and photos, and was against women playing sport. Men were forbidden to shave their beards and required to wear a head covering.

The Bamyan Buddhas at Bamyan were 2 6th-century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan. In 2001, The Taliban destroyed them with dynamite. The Taliban believed that worshiping anything outside of Islam was unacceptable and that the statues had to be destroyed.

90s 1990s THE TIME MACHINE

#taliban #the taliban #terrorism #afghanistan #bamyan buddhas #bamyan #hazarajat

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wolint · 10 months

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FRESH MANNA

THE SPIRIT OF BRUTALITY

Ezekiel 45:9-19

Brutality, cruelty and violence have become an acceptable way of life all over the world. The leaders of the nations are urged to be thoroughly honest in their commercial dealings with both God and man but that's not happening, especially in today’s society.

The atrocious killings of the innocents by those who swore to protect them, maintain their rights and uphold the laws are the very ones oppressing and desecrating their basic right to life.

People take law and justice into their hands, hacking, beheading, and killing fellow humans even in ways they will not do to animals.

Take away your levy from my people says the Lord in verse 9, this is the voice of God to the rulers and peoples of the earth, especially in this season of violence, threats, and brutality. Take away your exactions; do not oppress the people, stop using brutal force on them and exerting undue power on the people, they are mine. I am their stronghold and will defend them adds Psalm 9:9.

“Enough is enough” is the cry all across the nations of the world, voices ring loud in solidarity over the principalities of rebellion, violence, unforgiveness, and offence, over the agents of wickedness that incites destruction, violence and brutality, causing communities to be fractured, families broken and lives destroyed.

The song of David in 2 Samuel 22 contains a strong sense of thanksgiving to God for His deliverance and rescue in a day of trouble. We are in the day of troubles now, God can save us with just a blast of His nostrils from the spirit of brutality that is gaining ground rapidly to extinguish the light of the children of men according to Ezekiel 7:11.

Pride has budded. ”And what has it birthed? Violence and iniquity, the wickedness of men and nations so great that God must punish it. They may strive to evade the threatened stroke of God, but they shall not succeed, nor will they have any relief. None of the perpetrators of spiritual brutality will be left, not any of their partners, wives, or children will escape.

The Barton of leadership is meant to be passed on to the younger generation but if they are all killed off, who will take over tomorrow? “Children are the future, teach them well…. but instead, the enemy is systematically and brutally taking the millennials out and leaving “old dogs” that cannot learn or be taught new tricks.

Let’s begin to declare in unity according to Isaiah 60:8 that brutality, violence, and unnecessary and untimely death of youths would not be heard in the land anymore. “Enough is enough.” Decree that the powers of destruction and the spirit of brutality will be unable to operate in the borders of the lands and that instead revival would begin to take place.

There’s nowhere to run or hide, everything is now in the open, even the crimes and atrocities to humanity committed in secret, they are all laid before the Lord says Hebrew 4:13.

Like the fig leaves that Adam and Eve vainly tried to cover their shame with, Isaiah 59:6 says nothing can cover the crimes of the wicked and unrighteous, doing evil works in the nations today.

Spiritual brutality is their choice of judiciary, but God is the righteous judge who will not allow the wicked according to Psalm 125:3 take the land that He has allotted to the righteous.

Enough is enough for the spirit of brutality.

PRAYER: Oh Lord, I come against every cruel and violent work of the enemy in our society and command the spirit of brutality to cease terrorising God’s people in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Shalom

Women of light international prayer ministries.

#spotify #devotional #christianpost #women's ministry #biblestudy #biblestudy christianpost women's ministry #biblestudy christianpost 'women's ministry

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whatisonthemoon · 2 years

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In Jin Moon’s April 8 Facebook Post on Ukraine

STOP THE WAR ON UKRAINE Today is the 44th day of Putin's war on Ukraine. During the last 6 weeks, we have seen the courage and the resolve of the Ukrainian people and the leadership of President Zelensky in effectively rallying his people to defend their home and country. With each passing day, we have unwittingly come to learn the names of Ukrainian cities like Mariupol, Irpin, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Odessa, Bucha, and Kyiv as we bear witness to the horrors and ravages of war. Many differing opinions continue to rage on as claims of conspiracies cloud the facts of what is really taking place in Ukraine. But pictures are worth a thousand words. Cities and towns have been reduced to rubble and turned into ghostly wastelands. Women and children have become civilian targets and casualties meant to psychologically break the spirit of the Ukrainian people. They tell a story of unspeakable crimes. Putin invaded Ukraine. Zelensky did not invade Russia. In 2005, when my Father visited Kyiv, he said that Ukraine was the Abel country amongst Cain countries. Over the years, he also cautioned that in times of war there must be clarity of thought and clarity of action. We have to understand that this war is the Cain and Abel struggle on the world level. What happens to Ukraine will directly affect China's stance on Taiwan and North Korea's stance on the Korean peninsula. The US, understanding its Providential role, must stand strong for freedom, democratic principles, and human dignity together with its NATO allies. President Gorbachev said to me two years ago that the greatest threat to our civilization is the continual escalation of nuclear arsenal. He believed that peace cannot be achieved until the nations agree on nuclear disarmament for the sake of our future. Gorbachev's voice is what we need to hear, not Putin who has threatened to use nuclear weapons, who sees the fall of the Soviet Union as the single greatest tragedy of the modern era and who wants its restoration. He has steadily worked toward that end utilizing crisis and control tactics, and manipulating public opinions through systematic propaganda for the last two decades. He will not stop with Ukraine. Therefore, Putin must be stopped. My Father said that Kyiv sounded like "key- ef." It is the "key" now. How we turn the key will determine what Europe and the world will become. It's noteworthy that Ukraine sonically carries my Mother's name "U Crane". Crane symbolizes longevity, devotion and peace in Asian cultures. These are the qualities that I believe Ukrainians will come to embody despite living through the brutalities of war. The world continues to be moved by the unshakable spirit of the Ukrainian people. We all must do what we can to bring Putin's war to an end. Putin go home.

#in jin moon #tatiana moon #2022 #gorbachev #mikhail gorbachev #politics #sun myung moon #ukraine #russia #putin

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humandiversity4 · 2 years

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RACE - BLM MOVEMENT

The Black Lives Matter Movement was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s ( 17 year old African American who was shot in Florida) murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.

They affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Their network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. They are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. They affirm our humanity, their contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.

#BLACKOUTTUESDAY#BLM#BLACKLIVESMATTER

In 2020 around the time of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The #blackouttuesday movement started. People posted a black screen onto their social media with the hashtag Black Out Tuesday. However as the trend grew bigger people started to use the wrong hashtags such as #BLM and #BlackLivesMatter. This was an issue as when people clicked on the hashtag all that showed up was black screens rather than useful education information about the subject.

On Tuesday, as Americans across the country searched for ways to express solidarity with black people, #BlackoutTuesday took social media by storm. It was an ostensible display of allyship — posting a black square with the aforementioned hashtag — with a promise not to post anything else that day and instead take the time to think about the ways in which many nonblack Americans benefit from structural racism.

This all started with an initiative introduced by two black women in the music industry, Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, as a call for their colleagues to halt business for a day and use the time to reflect on how white people in the industry exploit and make money off black talent. But the campaign swiftly took on a life of its own and snowballed into #BlackoutTuesday, whereby the whole world was apparently supposed to stop and reflect.

Two problems quickly arose. The first was that many people posting their black tiles as a sign of solidarity were using the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM. This well-meaning display of solidarity was drowning out crucial information for organizers and protesters. The second problem was that, on a more theoretical level, silence is not really the preferred mode of allyship for something like police brutality. And as many black people explained, showing up, seeking out discourse about racial injustices and listening to and elevating black voices were much more important to many activists than inaction and reflection.

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chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted · 2 years

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How can a woke, radical progressive sit down and watch the NFL without hating themselves the next day?

How can a woke, radical progressive sit down and watch the NFL without hating themselves the next day? How can the NFL STILL support BLM after all the scandals they have been involved in?

Can we stop pretending Floyd was a saint? Floyd should be alive today! And Derek Chauvin has a Superman complex and should pay for the crimes he was found guilty of but do not pretend Floyd had an unblemished history.

It’s laughable if you think Colin Kaepernick started a “new civil rights moment”. Let’s have some Democrats boycott the NFL until Kaepernick plays again.

Direct Quotes:

There’s no shortage of disturbing data to support the claim that police are more likely to use force against and kill Black citizens. Black men are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than are white men. Black women are about 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police than are white women. Among all groups, Black men and boys face the highest lifetime risk of having fatal interactions with police: About one in 1,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police. And between the ages of 25 and 29, Black men are killed by police at a rate between 2.8 and 4.1 per 100,000.

Across the United States, people left their lockdowns and took to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic oppression of Black and brown people. The movement soon spread globally, with protesters denouncing racism and police brutality worldwide and declaring solidarity with like-minded demonstrators in the U.S.

Considering the tightrope the league walked back then around the issues of systemic racism and police brutality, the statement was in keeping with the times. But what Goodell and NFL team owners didn’t realize was that times were changing rapidly.

From the moment former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the NFL player-protest movement — which evolved into a new civil rights movement in sports — during the 2016-17 season

But for many NFL players and even some employees within the league office, three words immediately came to mind after Goodell’s statement about the killing of Floyd was released: not good enough.

‘We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black people. We, the National Football League, admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting. We, the National Football League, believe Black lives matter.’ ”

To that point, the NFL had not acknowledged the Black Lives Matter movement, which was formed to protest incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against Black people. In stoking culture wars to his political advantage, former President Trump has regularly railed against BLM for, among other things, as he spun it, being “a symbol of hate.” Mahomes’ decision to go all-in on the video — especially regarding a topic that NFL power brokers had strenuously avoided — put the NFL in a difficult position.

#USA #TheChubbyCaucasianChristianClosetedConservative #NFL #PatrickMahomes #BLM

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starborstborst · 4 years

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WHY IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK DO WE NOT TALK ABOUT FUCKING *GENOCIDAL RAPE* WHEN WE LEARN ABOUT FUCKING WARS. WHY WERE WE NOT MADE TO LEARN ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE RUSSIAN ARMY RAPED THEIR WAY ACROSS THE ENTIRETY OF FUCKING EASTERN GERMANY, WITH VICTIMS AGES 8-80???? WHY DID WE NOT LEARN ABOUT THE FUCKING ATROCITIES COMMITTED ACROSS FUCKING CHINA IN WW2 WHEN IMPERIAL JAPANESE SOLDIERS KILLED OR SEXUALLY MUTILATED WOMEN AFTER RAPING THEM??????

WHY THE FUCK DID WE NOT LEARN ABOUT THE FACT THAT GENOCIDAL RAPE WAS OFTEN DONE EXPRESSLY TO HUMILIATE AND DESTROY POPULATIONS?????? WHY IN THE FUCK WERE WE LEARNING ABOUT FUCKING BATTLES AND STRATEGIES WHEN THIS SHIT EXISTS????????????

AINT NO BITCH BETTER TALK TO ME ABOUT FEMINISTS WANTING EQUALITY MEANS THAT THEY SHOULD BE DRAFTED FOR WAR WHEN THE SYSTEMATIC TARGETING OF DEFENSELESS WOMEN HAS *ALWAYS* BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART OF WAR

FUCKING MEN GODDAMMIT CAN YALL S T O P

#rape #men need to stop #fuck war #genocide #stop the systematic brutalization of women #just fucking stop war #stop that shit #no seriously #fucking stop #war crime #war crimes

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themaribatpit · 3 years

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Jasonette July Day 20: Then Perish

Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event Prompt: Then Perish (Part 1) Rating: M (violence, minor character deaths) A/N: We wanted to finish Jasonette July with a bang. The second half will be posted tomorrow for the Saturday Challenge. We’ve appreciated all your comments and kind words, we really do read every one. It genuinely means a lot to us and encourages us to continue writing together. As a fandom you have been nothing but kind and supportive, and we enjoy bringing you fics great and small with a wide variety of genres, dynamics, and iterations. Also blame DC fanboy for the memes in this fic. Marinette loved to travel, she had traveled all over the world from New York to Shanghai. Today, she traveled with her parents to Gotham City to visit her parents' friends, whom they had not seen in many years. Sabine was initially afraid to visit Gotham City, due to its crime rate and ever-growing list of criminals. Tom reassured his wife, saying that his big stature would scare any would-be criminal from harming them, that the trip would be short and they would visit Metropolis afterwards. Marinette wore the Ladybug Miraculous, just in case something were to happen. As the family got off the taxi at Park Row, everyone felt something was off. "Park Row really has...changed." Thomas muttered. Sabine held on to both her husband and her daughter, "I think we should leave." she said. Soon shadows began appearing around the corner, then came the yelling, and soon after came the gunshots. Thomas grabbed his wife and daughter and ran to find shelter from a hail of bullets. Marinette looked back to see many civilians, men, women and children caught in the middle of this gang war. She needed to be a hero, her father could take care of her mother, she needed to save those in danger. She freed herself from her father's grasp and ran behind a corner, she whispered "spots on" and transformed into Ladybug. Diving and flipping across streaking bullets everywhere, she flung her yo-yo to drag any unfortunate bystanders into an abandoned building. While in a building with innocent civilians, she peeked her head out the window to see a monstrous man. Wearing a blood red helmet and wielding two pistols, he systematically killed everyone before him. His flips and kicks were graceful yet brutal, the cries of pain and pleas for mercy made her shudder. She couldn't fight him, no, she was afraid to. It would be best to find her family, she did all she could and got bystanders to safety. She quietly transformed back into Marinette and went to look for her family. She ran back to where she last saw them, she scoured the streets shouting "Maman! Papa!" hoping that using her French would help her parents find and identify her. She soon ran into the Red Beast, as she began to turn and run back before she saw the two people at his feet. “<No, no no no, please god no.>” she whispered to herself, tears building in her eyes. There lay her parents, in a pool of their blood with bullet holes between their eyes. Marinette dropped to her knees, silently crying. The Red Hood either didn't see her, or chose to spare her and decided to walk away. Marinette ran to her parents, grabbing them both and shaking them. "<Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me>” she wept. Later, she was picked up by the GCPD. They escorted her on the flight back to Paris along with the remains of her parents. When she arrived, she was approached by the Aide Sociale à L'enfance (ASE). They told her that she'll be staying at a nearby orphanage until after her parents' funeral. Then she would then be sent off to live with her only remaining relative, her Great-Uncle Wang in Shanghai. On the night before the funeral, Marinette was unable to sleep. She curled her legs to her chest while she sat on the mattress. She has spent the past few days researching the mysterious Red Hood, crime boss and self-proclaimed Prince of Gotham. She read article after article of his meteoric rise to power, first conquering Black Mask, then The Penguin. Nightmares plagued her whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the Red Hood tower over her parent's lifeless bodies, covered in their blood. She was worried about being sent off to a foreign country tomorrow evening, while barely even speaking any Mandarin. All the while knowing that once she is on that flight to Shanghai, her parent's killer would without a doubt walk free. Morning comes, yet Marinette still thinks of what she should do. Could she really go to Shanghai to start her life anew, not knowing the language and allowing her parents’ killer to go on unpunished? At the funeral, while standing over her parents’ graves, she remained silent. The priest, ASE agents and her friends all came to pay their respects. Each of her friends approached her to give their sympathies, but she did not listen to a word they said. The Red Hood weighed heavily on her mind, and she made her fateful decision. To run, run and never look back. She had prepared a backpack containing the Miracle box with all the Miraculous, along with a few essential supplies and money. She turned into Multimouse to sneak on board a passenger aircraft to make her way to Gotham City. Jason knew, better than Batman, that fighting crime sometimes meant getting your hands dirty. What started as a petty squabble between two rival gangs grew into a bloodbath. He missed Roy at times like these, Artemis and Bizarro were still missing, but he held out hope that they would one day return to this Earth. A teenage girl with an impressively sturdy yo-yo had burst onto the scene, trying to get civilians to safety. He was a bit too preoccupied with the battle to get a good look at the girl. Knowing Bruce, the next time he’d see her, she’d be under his wing. Sadly, there were two civilians that neither of them could save, a large, burly looking man and a tiny woman. The person who shot them with frightening accuracy had got away, moments later a teenage girl had arrived on the scene. There was a brief flash of fear in her eyes when she saw him, and she would have just scurried away if only he hadn’t been at the very spot where her parents lay dead. The girl was inconsolable as she fell to her knees and wept, pleading with them in French. Red Hood walked away, thinking it would be best to leave her to grieve. There wasn’t a whole lot he could say in English that would make her feel any better, never mind in French. He watched from a distance as the GCPD arrived to pick up the pieces, Red Hood watched from the shadows as police officers and an interpreter tried to get the girl’s side of the story. From what he gathered, the girl’s name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her family owned a bakery in Paris. Her next of kin was a relative in Shanghai, and it sounded like the best option for her would be to go and live there. The plan was to ship her and her parents’ bodies back to Paris, and let child services take it from there. He would have probably told her to get as far away from Gotham as possible, away from the clutches of a certain someone who was also orphaned in Crime Alley. He saw her cradle what looked like a small pink doll to her face as she wept, before he turned and walked away. A week later, Jason had a break in the case. This was all caused by some low-level members of the Falcone and Maroni families continuing their decades-old battle. As far as everyone knew, the crime families swiftly executed the men responsible and went about their business. Two crime families were unable to keep their lackeys in check, and now the people who weren’t lucky enough to be whisked away by Yo-Yo Girl, were now either dead or wishing they were. He thought back to poor little Marinette, wondering where she was now. Bruce confronted him at the Iceberg lounge shortly after the incident, to which Jason explained that the perp had got away. He had killed people before, and that wasn’t stopping anytime soon, after all it wasn’t that long ago that he tried to kill the Penguin. “This may surprise you Bruce, but the Red Hood isn’t the only one who uses guns in Gotham '' he snapped. There were some lines that even he did not cross, lines that he had drawn for himself. Judging by the accuracy of the gunshots, this was no accident. Their daughter was probably starting a new life, probably on the other side of the world. Still, he wished he could have said something to the girl, a simple “Hey, it’s gonna be all right” probably would have sufficed. Little did he know that Marinette was making her return to Gotham City. She would have her revenge on the Red Hood, and this time she had nothing to fear and nothing to lose. After her very uncomfortable 10 hour flight from Paris to Gotham City in the cargo hold, Multimouse quietly sneaked out of the crowded airport without alerting anyone. Marinette wandered around Chinatown, thinking of her next step. She was thinking about how she would have to go through the city with a fine tooth comb to search for a lead, likely starting small with his men in the streets. Before she could put the earrings back in her backpack, Tikki begged her to reconsider what she was doing. “Please Marinette, you need time to heal, to grieve,” she pleaded, but Marinette didn’t need the powers of healing, luck and creation. If and when she encountered the Red Hood, she wanted to bring him death, misfortune and destruction. After all, that was exactly what he had brought her. With a stroke of luck, she overheard someone getting a beatdown. "You get your ass outta here, this is Red Hood's turf. If you wanna sell that shit, you gotta give the boss his cut." Marinette whispered "Plagg, claws out" and transformed into Lady Noire, before sneaking up behind one of the Red Hood’s men. He released the person he was beating, and chased him out the alleyway. She took this opportunity to swing her staff, hitting the back of his neck and sending him face first into the ground. He immediately tried to stand up, as he stood on wobbly legs he took out his knife from his jacket. "Oh shit, Catwoman?!" he yelled. Lady Noire used her staff to sweep him off his feet and slammed her staff onto his face. "Where is the Red Hood?" she growled. "Screw you bitch!" the goon retorted. Lady Noire had a feeling that he wouldn’t tell her the location of the Red Hood, so she decided to try a different approach. "Fine then, why don't you give your boss this simple message…" Before she could finish her sentence, she heard the telltale click of a gun being loaded. She turned around and started spinning her staff, creating a grey shield to deflect the storm of bullets that were being fired at her. She moved her hands at a rapid pace, and frantically pushed back against the hail of bullets. As the bullet storm subsided she looked up and saw, up on the fire escape, was the Red Hood with an assault rifle. The Red Hood casually tossed his gun aside and asked "So, what's this message you have for me, Catwoman?" He gracefully did a forward flip and landed in a crouch. "Wait a minute..." he said, the first thing he noticed was that this person was tiny, 4’11 or maybe 5’ on a good day. Her eyes were a bright acid green with dark slits like a real cat’s pupils. "You're not Catwoman, you're too short to be her, for one thing.” he remarked “also she usually has a whip instead of a staff, who are you?" Lady Noire gritted her teeth, "You killed my family" she answered with a low growl. "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down Kitten?" Red Hood's taunts made her snap. She screamed "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" The Red Hood stared at her, as he crossed his arms. "I don't even know who you are, what's your beef with me?" He asked, Lady Noire lunged at the Red Hood with her staff, she swung wildly to try and hit him. He dodged most of her strikes with ease, “Is that the best you’ve got? You’re gonna have to try harder than that.” Where she might have lacked in skill, she made up for in determination. She wasn’t pulling any punches, he had to give her that. He caught the staff under his arm, and punched Lady Noire with his free arm. As he went on the offensive, he slapped her staff aside, and came at her with a series of punches and kicks. “So, what do you want Kitten? Money? Jewels? A very big ball of string?” he joked. “All I want is revenge,” she spluttered. “Get in line Kitten, you’re in the city that runs on vengeance” he retorted. Marinette was lucky that the suit gave her enhanced speed, strength and endurance. She always loved how the Lady Noire suit felt a lot lighter compared to the Ladybug suit. Though she shuddered to imagine what her opponent would do with this power. He raised his leg to end his combination with a forceful downward kick, Lady Noire raised her staff up to a horizontal block to stop the kick. Upon contact with the kick, the staff split into two, and then Lady Noire launched into her counter attack. She was striking the Red Hood with a flurry of blows with both halves of her staff. "Escrima sticks too? Looks like we have a Nightwing fan here” he smirked under the mask; this new girl was just full of surprises. He brought his arms to the sides of his head in a defensive posture, blocking the onslaught of strikes from the escrima sticks. Red Hood then grabbed Lady Noire by the back of her head, placing her in a Thai clinch. He launched a powerful knee to her face and sent her reeling back. He drew his pistols and fired a torrent of bullets at her. Lady Noire had to dodge, weave and use her staff to deflect incoming bullets. One bullet even grazed her cheek. She then pointed her staff at the Red Hood and extended it with so much force it slammed him against the wall of a nearby building. Without giving him any breathing room, she then retracted the staff. She launched herself towards him and then dropkicked his face straight into the wall. His helmet cracked against the tremendous pressure. "It's now or never” she thought, as she cast Cataclysm and swiped at one half of the Red Hood’s helmet. She saw the helmet dissolve and reveal the target beneath. She noticed that underneath the helmet he wore a red domino mask, not unlike the one she usually wore. She would have time to think about how overly dramatic that was later, as she used her other hand to pick up the knife on the ground that the other goon left behind. She jumped on top of the Red Hood, “Now perish!” she cried out as she thrusted the blade towards the exposed part of his face. Red Hood recovered quickly and caught her hand holding the blade. As the two struggled for the knife, Lady Noire tried to swipe at him with Cataclysm again. Suddenly, she felt the power of 50,000 volts coursing through her, as the Red Hood activated the taser hidden in his chest piece. She powered through, running purely on anger, grief and adrenaline. She was only able to struggle for about a minute, before passing out from the pain. Red Hood flipped Lady Noire’s unconscious body aside, before he took off his helmet to inspect the damage. "The hell?." he pondered, "So, indestructible staff that can do double duty as a shield, and the ability to disintegrate things with one touch. Let's find out who you really are." He slowly stood up and looked down at her unconscious body. He tried to peel away her domino mask, yet it would not come off. He tugged on the mask, even to the point of lifting the unconscious girl off the ground. He released the mask, and let the body drop with a small thud. The Red Hood began talking to himself "She either superglued the mask on or it’s something else. Considering all that she can do, I'd say 80% chance it's magic and 20% a lantern. Either way a 100% pain in my ass". He heard a small beeping noise and gingerly lifted her hand up off the floor. As it emitted black and green energy, he noticed that she had a ring on. The beeping came from a small picture of a paw print, which was missing a few pads. If she was a lantern, that ring was going to run out of charge any moment now. He took out his phone and called the Iceberg Lounge. He requested that they send for a van to pick him up and his new guest. He requested that the Su Sisters get her cleaned up and ready. He needed to find out who sent her and who she worked for. He took out the special handcuffs that Batman designed when dealing with metahumans. As he walked towards Lady Noire about to cuff her, he heard some more beeping, followed by a bright light surrounding her. Her suit and mask disappeared, leaving behind a small girl in pastel pink clothes who was probably no older than 15 or 16. Her long braid changed back into a couple of shoulder-length pigtails, and she had a pink backpack on her back. Jason looked inside the bag, there were a few sets of clothes, a wallet and an antique Chinese jewelry box. He wondered if that ring was just one of many tools in her arsenal. Jason's eyes widened, he recognised her as the girl he saw a few weeks ago when the turf war in Crime Alley broke out. "What’s she doing here?" he said to himself aloud, “ Idiot” he muttered. He remembered following the girl and her GCPD escort to make sure she boarded her flight back to Paris. She was supposed to be with her remaining family. Yet she came back to, no, ran away to Gotham City. All for revenge. He checked her wallet and saw the name printed on it, he sighed, this just confirmed that she was the same girl. When she had her revenge, what would she do then? He wasn’t the undisputed master of thinking things through, but even he thought she was a fool to come back here. Gotham City didn’t have the best track record dealing with orphans. He knew this from personal experience, but there was that time where many were rounded up and sent upstate to juvie, for the crime of trying to survive on the streets. He would have been in the same position, had it not been for his own fateful encounter in Crime Alley. He shuddered to think what her other option would be in a place like Gotham City, becoming a Robin. Part of the reason he wanted her out of Gotham was so that Bruce wouldn’t get any ideas about taking her in. When the car arrived, he scooped up the girl in his arms and carried her towards it. Marinette woke up with her heart beating frantically in her chest, the first thing she saw was a bright light. She was dead, she had to be, the last thing she remembered was confronting the Red Hood and now he had killed her. She slowly sat up, she looked down to find that someone had changed her clothes, she was wearing light blue pajamas. She started to look around, to her left there was a large floor to ceiling window where she could see a city at night with bright twinkling lights. On the table next to her was the Miracle box, she quickly grabbed the box and looked through it. She gave a sigh of relief when she saw that all the Miraculous she brought with her were still there. Suddenly, Marinette heard someone clear their throat. At the foot of the bed, stood a rather large woman who had a bundle of clothes in her hand. Next to her was a blonde woman with pink highlights who had a tray of food. “Oh good, you’re finally awake” the large woman said gruffly, she set the clothes down on the edge of the bed. The blonde girl set a tea tray down in front of her, along with a couple of pastries. Marinette’s heart sank at the sight of the croissants, they reminded her of her parents and their bakery. “Eat up and get dressed, the boss wants to see you later” the blonde woman told her, before skipping to the larger woman’s side. Just as the two were about to leave, Marinette piped up, “Um, where am I?” she asked, “Who is your boss?” “You’re in the Iceberg Lounge in Gotham City”, the large woman told her gruffly. “The name’s Suzie, this is one of my sisters, Candy. Our boss is the owner.” Marinette gave an awkward wave as they left, and Candy returned it with a more cheerful one. She took a bite out of the croissant, it tasted cold and dry. However, if she was going to defeat the Red Hood, she’d need all her strength. She put Plagg’s ring back in the box and reached for Ladybug’s earrings; she needed a new tactic. When Tikki appeared in front of her, she also quickly looked around the room before looking back at Marinette with a concerned look on her face. “I couldn’t do it,” Marinette explained “he managed to stop me and I ended up back here”. Tikki’s eyes were sympathetic as Marinette held her closer to her face, “Are you sure you still want to go through with this?” Tikki asked. “For now, I have to get changed and go upstairs to meet the boss. Maybe he’s the one who found me after the fight was over” Marinette theorized as she gave Tikki the cookie from the tray. While Tikki quietly nibbled at it, Marinette stood up and walked over to the edge of the bed. Inside the small bundle of clothes were a simple white blouse and black skirt. They were a little big, she would probably hem it if she had her sewing machine. Moments later, a tall woman with dark hair led Marinette into the penthouse, a large room with a desk in the corner. A tall man in a suit stood with his back towards the door, overlooking the sparkling city skyline. She slowly stepped inside, looking around the room as she walked towards the man. “Um hi, who are you?” Marinette asked as she apprehensively walked towards him. She couldn’t help but feel small in that grand high-ceiling room. “I am the owner of the Iceberg Lounge,” he explained. “I guess the question I should be asking is…” he turned towards her and Marinette saw he had a domino mask over his eyes and a red half mask covering his nose and mouth, “who are you?” He threw something at her and she caught it. She looked down and saw the Red Hood’s helmet, half of it looked as though someone tried to tear the metal open. Then she remembered everything she had researched about the Red Hood, and the fight that took place not long after she arrived back in Gotham. “You…” she hissed. To be continued...

#jasonettejuly2021 #jasonette #maribat #ml x dc

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rapeculturerealities · 3 years

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Ma Kyal Sin loved taekwondo, spicy food and a good red lipstick. She adopted the English name Angel, and her father hugged her goodbye when she went out on the streets of Mandalay, in central Myanmar, to join the crowds peacefully protesting the recent seizure of power by the military.

The black T-shirt that Ms. Kyal Sin wore to the protest on Wednesday carried a simple message: “Everything will be OK.”

In the afternoon, Ms. Kyal Sin, 18, was shot in the head by the security forces, who killed at least 30 people nationwide in the single bloodiest day since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the United Nations.

“She is a hero for our country,” said Ma Cho Nwe Oo, one of Ms. Kyal Sin’s close friends, who has also taken part in the daily rallies that have electrified hundreds of cities across Myanmar. “By participating in the revolution, our generation of young women shows that we are no less brave than men.”

Despite the risks, women have stood at the forefront of Myanmar’s protest movement, sending a powerful rebuke to the generals who ousted a female civilian leader and reimposed a patriarchal order that has suppressed women for half a century.

By the hundreds of thousands, the women have gathered for daily marches, representing striking unions of teachers, garment workers and medical workers — all sectors dominated by women. The youngest are often on the front lines, where the security forces appear to have singled them out. Two young women were shot in the head on Wednesday and another near the heart, three bullets ending their lives.

Earlier this week, military television networks announced that the security forces were instructed not to use live ammunition, and that in self-defense they would only shoot at the lower body.

“We might lose some heroes in this revolution,” said Ma Sandar, an assistant general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar, who has been taking part in the protests. “Our women’s blood is red.”

The violence on Wednesday, which brought the death toll since the coup to at least 54, reflected the brutality of a military accustomed to killing its most innocent people. At least three children have been gunned down over the past month, and the first death of the military’s post-coup crackdown was a 20-year-old woman shot in the head on Feb. 9.

The killings have appalled and outraged rights advocates around the world.

“Myanmar’s military must stop murdering and jailing protesters,” Michelle Bachelet, the top human rights official at the United Nations, said Thursday. “It is utterly abhorrent that security forces are firing live ammunition against peaceful protesters across the country.”

In the weeks since the protests began, groups of female medical volunteers have patrolled the streets, tending to the wounded and dying. Women have added spine to a civil disobedience movement that is crippling the functioning of the state. And they have flouted gender stereotypes in a country where tradition holds that garments covering the lower half of the bodies of the two sexes should not be washed together, lest the female spirit act as a contaminant.

With defiant creativity, people have strung up clotheslines of women’s sarongs, called htamein, to protect protest zones, knowing that some men are loath to walk under them. Others have affixed images of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief who orchestrated the coup, to the hanging htamein, an affront to his virility.

“Young women are now leading the protests because we have a maternal nature and we can’t let the next generation be destroyed,” said Dr. Yin Yin Hnoung, a 28-year-old medical doctor who has dodged bullets in Mandalay. “We don’t care about our lives. We care about our future generations.”

While the military’s inhumanity extends to many of the country’s roughly 55 million people, women have the most to lose from the generals’ resumption of full authority, after five years of sharing power with a civilian government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Tatmadaw, as the military is known, is deeply conservative, opining in official communications about the importance of modest dress for proper ladies.

There are no women in the Tatmadaw’s senior ranks, and its soldiers have systematically committed gang rape against women from ethnic minorities, according to investigations by the United Nations. In the generals’ worldview, women are often considered weak and impure. Traditional religious hierarchies in this predominantly Buddhist nation also place women at the feet of men.

The prejudices of the military and the monastery are not necessarily shared by Myanmar’s broader society. Women are educated and integral to the economy, particularly in business, manufacturing and the civil service. Increasingly, women have found their political voice. In elections last November, about 20 percent of candidates for the National League for Democracy, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, were women.

The party won in a landslide, trouncing the military-linked and far more male-dominated Union Solidarity and Development Party. The Tatmadaw has dismissed the results as fraudulent.

As the military began devolving some power over the past decade, Myanmar experienced one of the most profound and rapid societal changes in the world. A country that had been cut off from the world by the generals, who first seized power in a 1962 coup, went on Facebook and discovered memes, emojis and global conversations about gender politics.

“Even though these are dark days and my heart breaks with all these images of bloodshed, I’m more optimistic because I see women on the street,” said Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd, a Burmese-American who served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and is now a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. “In this contest, I will put money on the women. They are unarmed, but they are the true warriors.”

That passion has ignited across the country, despite Tatmadaw crackdowns in past decades that have killed hundreds of people.

“Women took the frontier position in the fight against dictatorship because we believe it is our cause,” said Ma Ei Thinzar Maung, a 27-year-old politician and former political prisoner who, along with another woman the same age, led the first anti-coup demonstration in Yangon five days after the putsch.

That passion has ignited across the country, despite Tatmadaw crackdowns in past decades that have killed hundreds of people.

“That was the time I committed myself to working toward abolishing the military junta,” she said. “Minorities know what it feels like, where discrimination leads. And as a woman, we are still considered as a second sex.”

“That must be one of the reasons why women activists seem more committed to rights issues,” she added.

While the National League for Democracy is led by Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, its top ranks are dominated by men. And like the Tatmadaw, the party’s highest echelons have tended to be reserved for members of the country’s ethnic Bamar majority.

On the streets of Myanmar, even as the security forces continue to fire at unarmed protesters, the makeup of the movement has been far more diverse. There are Muslim students, Catholic nuns, Buddhist monks, drag queens and a legion of young women.

“Gen Z are a fearless generation,” said Honey Aung, whose younger sister, Kyawt Nandar Aung, was killed by a bullet to the head on Wednesday in the city of Monywa. “My sister joined the protests every day. She hated dictatorship.”

In a speech that ran in a state propaganda publication earlier this week, General Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief, sniffed at the impropriety of the protesters, with their “indecent clothes contrary to Myanmar culture.” His definition is commonly considered to include women wearing trousers.

Moments before she was shot dead, Ms. Kyal Sin, dressed in sneakers and torn jeans, rallied her fellow peaceful protesters.

As they staggered from the tear gas fired by security forces on Wednesday, Ms. Kyal Sin dispensed water to cleanse their eyes. “We are not going to run,” she yelled, in a video recorded by another protester. “Our people’s blood should not reach the ground.”

“She is the bravest girl I have ever seen in my life,” said Ko Lu Maw, who photographed some of the final images of Ms. Kyal Sin, in an alert, proud pose amid a crowd of prostrate protesters.

Under her T-shirt, Ms. Kyal Sin wore a star-shaped pendant because her name means “pure star” in Burmese.

“She would say, ‘if you see a star, remember, that’s me,’” said Ms. Cho Nwe Oo, her friend. “I will always remember her proudly.”

#tw murder #state sponsored violence #Myanmar #activism

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somepinkthing · 3 years

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I feel like part of the reason edelgard is such a love/hate character is because of how it's hard for people to reconcile the edelgard we see in CF and the one we know from AM or VW. The notion is there has to be a side of her that's true and one that's a lie. Is she the imperialist war criminal or is she a young and hopeful visionary?

In her own route, she starts out young and driven. Then later, she's older and sadder and yet no less driven. Lonely and traumatized, she works to overcome all these obstacles and create a world she believes in before her time runs out. Edelgard wants to use her experience and power to build a better future, one where her story isn't repeated, even if it costs her everything... even if it costs her her own humanity. In CF, you get to see the person edelgard hides underneath the veneer of strength and brutality—someone with with doubts and fears. She's still calculating and doesn't let anything keep her from her goals, but it's undeniable that she also cares just as much as the others do. Slow to trust and even endearingly awkward, she doesn't seem like someone who could do all the things she's accused of. And yet...

In Azure Moon, she is the villainous warmonger, viciously and systematically attacking anyone she perceives as being in her way, even targetting a teenaged dimitri for what he might become one day. Standing at dimitri's side, you watch the ruthless flame emperor progress on her crusade and begin to wonder why, when she says sacrifice, does she seem to mean for others to make them for her? Her dreams and her actions drove the kingdom into civil war, drove the mentally ill dimitri to the brink, drove the continent into chaos. Her and her allies plagued the lions from the beginning to the end. She took mercedes's brother as her death knight. Her actions took ashe's father. She allied with the ones who killed dimitri's family. You watch as she turns people, herself included, into corrupted beasts. Though you begin to feel for her as the story continues, to the bitter end she remains unwilling (or unable) to stop and reconsider her war path.

In Verdant Wind, she's the mad conqueror. Even after the imperial army attacked the alliance's heirs at garreg mach, claude somehow managed to get them to declare neutrality and worked hard to maintain it... but it wasn't enough for edelgard that they simply stay out of her way. For five years imperial forces blatantly threaten the alliance's borders and incite coups. The message is clear enough: edelgard intends to unify fodlan and if the alliance will not subject themselves to the empire, she won't hesitate to use force. This, ironically, drags the alliance into a war for their own freedom. And along the way, we find out details like the empire's hand in faerghus, rhea's captivity, what happened to the nabateans, what edelgard actually stole from the holy tomb, and the true face of the evil shadow army she allied herself with without even getting the full history. In VW we get to see the reality and aftermath of edelgard's empire from a neutral view

In Silver Snow (which I don't know too much about) I imagine she represents the humans who massacred rhea's people. Rhea's is probably the one perspective I'd argue is based more in emotion than tangible fact but, to be fair, of course rhea's view would be that edelgard intends to take out the last of the nabateans and, well, she's not exactly wrong

So which edelgard is the real one?

Thing is? All of them are real in equal measure. To some degree, all of the leaders' characters will be based on what perspective you see them from and the choice of which route to play has a huge role in how you view dimitri, claude, rhea, and edelgard. But the impact of perspective hits edelgard and rhea harder than it does the other two because of the far-reaching consequences of their choices. These two women aren't simple players—they are the directors of this shitshow no matter what route you chose so it makes sense that their actions take on the most wildly different forms depending on the lens you see them from. And while idk enough about rhea yet to say, as far as edelgard goes, if you played her first it would be hard to see her in such a different light in the other routes. It'd be difficult to accept that perhaps, from a different point of view, this is edelgard. She never denies any of it either; in her own route, she openly acknowledges that she always knew her actions would mean war and, while she'd hoped to end opposition back at garreg mach, she isn't shy about her intentions to take the alliance, the kingdom, and the church in one go now. So it's not exactly that the facts clash, it's just shocking to see how differently her character looks depending on the route. It's easy to want to pick one side of her or the other, but it's all one person in the end. Edelgard's not meant to be good or even neccesarily right—none of the characters are meant to wholly encompass such broad concepts, but especially not rhea or edelgard. Edelgard's meant to be divisive. She's meant to do extreme things that you may not entirely agree with. She's meant to make you question whether she's got a point and, even if she does, is it worth all of the things you see once you switch sides? There's no concrete answer to who she is or what role she plays. Her character is facinating because she 100% is the young woman you know from CF, but she's also simultaneously all the things the others accuse her of being. Perspective, man

#edelgard #edelgard von hresvelg #rhea #claude von riegen #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #fe3h #fe3h meta #fire emblem three houses #claude von riegan

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spiders-hth-is-an-outlier · 3 years

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Possibly a big ask to get just out of the blue but: what are your Supernatural season opinions? Which one is your favorite? Least favorite? Did you watch long enough to have showrunner opinions? If yes, which showrunner is your favorite and which is your least favorite? If no, which season that you haven't seen most tempts you to get back in the Supernatural trenches? Answer exactly as many of these questions as you want to. Carry on.

You know, I am not sure how long this Ask has been sitting here, because my Tumblr notifications are borked -- I hope not long? If long, I apologize, I wasn't ignoring it on purpose!

Okay, so I have more than the average number of Supernatural opinions, probably, but I'll try to keep this to a dull roar! Inside Me There Are Two Wolves: one of them believes that only the original five seasons of Supernatural are worth defending in any way, the other really, really loves seasons 11 and 12. The Kripke Era had a lot of problems, particularly in its treatment of women as bodies without agency and its treatment of Black men as literal predators, but also for all its flaws, it had a kind of coherence and narrative drive that comes from being the product of a dude who obviously cared about it and had something to say. Taken on its own, seasons 1-5 are a brutal and compelling story about the traumas of being men in a universe that's been absolutely destroyed by its Fathers: on almost every level, it's about these abandoned and brutalized boys discovering that their entire reality is the product of an abandoning and brutalizing God, populated by authority figures who are universally demanding and arrogant, but also completely fucking useless. It's quite literally about Sam and Dean trying to hang onto their souls and their own agency when everyone around them wants them forced into shapes formed by conflicts that fell into place at the beginning of time. It's hard to remember, but back then even the Lucifer plotline was about that! It was about the damage fathers inflict on sons! Things were about things, in the Kripke era!

Then we get to the Gamble era, and. Woof. I actually -- don't hate 6 and 7? Like everything Sera Gamble touches, those two seasons are kinetic and memorable and funny and weird and hit some really, really great emotional beats. There are Some Problems, but Gamble was saddled with a pretty dire job, trying to find a way forward after everything about the series really had effectively wrapped up in Swan Song, and I think she did an okay job. People got mad at her for killing Castiel, but you know, damn, I give her this: that was a storyline. Like, this character who was fresh out of the cult he was raised in becoming disillusioned by how messy normal life is and deciding that maybe people need better authoritarianism instead -- the way he's driven to take too many risks by the fact that he's abandoned and desperate -- Crowley as a legitimately scary villain while still being charming af -- and the tragic resolution of Castiel being torn apart by both his hubris and his heroism. It's actually really good. I understand why people didn't want what Gamble was serving up -- and I'm able to like it because it was undone later, you know? -- but she really did commit to a full season of character arc and saw it all the way through to an earned ending, and I gotta respect that.

I genuinely hate seasons 8 and 9. I think everyone is a dick, particularly but not exclusively Dean, to the point where I just find it a bummer to watch. I mean, you get Benny, and I love Benny. You get, I dunno, bits and bobs of decent episodes, but overall they are very fucked up seasons in my opinion. So Carver era is on thin fucking ice with me, but I do think you start to get a rebound in season 10 with the Mark of Cain stuff, although I wish they'd managed to keep Cain around longer. All the really good Claire stuff starts happening, which is nice because Claire, but also because for once the show is really letting itself go back and deal with the mess these protagonists leave behind them constantly. Castiel and Claire have maybe the most interesting non-Winchester relationship on the show. Oh, and Rowena shows up around here too, right? Love her. So the back half of Carver, 10 and 11, are starting to really gain traction for me. The world is building outward, secondary characters are starting to be genuine characters in their own right, the politics of Heaven and Hell get a little richer and more interesting. The show is really starting to feel like it takes place in a universe, which is great because we love the Frigging Winchesters, but they shouldn't be the only thing going, right? We have 15 seasons to get through! Season 11 is basically bracketed by what are probably my two favorite Supernatural episodes: Baby and Don't Call Me Shurley. (I think I'm the world's only living Metatron fan; I fucking love that little dude.)

Dabb takes over in 12, and I really, really, genuinely love season 12. I fucking love Mary. There are so many episodes I adore -- Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox is a special favorite of mine, and I remain pissed off that the Banes twins never made it to recurring status, bluntly that feels wildly racist to me -- probably the best three-episode streak in the show is Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets to Regarding Dean to Stuck In the Middle (With You), three just almost perfect episodes. So I was poised to really love the Dabb era. I wanted to! My body was ready!

And I do really love the first chunk of season 13, the Widow Winchester arc. Obviously I'm a romantic, love that for me, but it's just also really good? The acting, the writing, the psychological complexity of Dean wanting Jack to be Bad so he has an outlet for his anger and Sam wanting Jack to be Good so he can retroactively parent himself and raise a Lucifer-tainted child who isn't crippled by self-loathing. Billie's great, and it looks like she's going to start being one of the major powers of the universe. Unfortunately -- with the occasional exception of this or that solid episode -- that's kind of the end of Pretty Good Supernatural. Season 13 kind of unravels; season 14 always feels like it's looking for itself (which is a bummer, because I wanted very much to care about Michael); season 15 is, idk. Idk about any of it, it's all pretty pointless. I feel bad complaining on some level, because the show's been on for like fourteen years at this point! It's kinda justified in feeling a little worn out. But the reality is that the later seasons systematically undo all the expansion that had excited me earlier -- the Wayward Sisters crew pretty much vanishes when the spinoff isn't picked up, Naomi and the angels stop doing anything, Crowley's gone, Mary's gone for much of it. We're just kind of futzing around with monsters who don't seem to matter (very much including Lucifer, who hasn't mattered in ages) and a lot of Jack, who. I try not to shit all over, because I know he's a popular character, but I find him just ungodly boring. Everything in the last two and a half season just feels like it's headed nowhere in particular, and also it bored me. The Empty deal is just sadness porn; it doesn't have any resonance or meaning in terms of Castiel's character, it's just him agreeing to die for his kid, which is okay, it means he's a loving dad, which he is, but there's no conflict there, ergo no real drama. It's just mean; it happens because it'll make us sad, and no other reason. Rowena is the only strong secondary character left, and her ending also doesn't feel particularly relevant to her, it's just a generic Sacrifice to Save the World. Everything just feels like they're autogenerating plotlines, rather than letting the actual needs and drives of the characters shape the narrative. So while I have this weird split personality with Carver where I either hate what he's doing or I love it, most of the Dabb era is just. There. It doesn't make me feel anything except kind of tired and embarrassed. Which is a bummer, because I have an inexplicable fondness for Dabb, probably just because of how much I love s12. I wanted to love his seasons! I did love his first season! I feel like maybe something happened when the CW rejected Wayward Sisters? I know that was kind of his darling, and it feels like maybe losing that kind of sucked the joy out of him, and he's kind of checked-out by the end. That's genuinely just my guess, however.

That's Professor Milo's Intro to Supernatural Studies, don't forget to fill out your course survey on the way out!

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tlatollotl · 4 years

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Everything you thought you knew about the Aztecs is wrong. Or, as Camilla Townsend more tactfully puts it at the start of her wonderful new book: ‘The Aztecs would never recognize themselves in the picture of their world that exists in the books and movies we have made.’

The picture to which Townsend refers is perhaps best symbolised for British readers by the image on the cover of the original Angry Aztecs volume in Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories series (1997): a cartoon depicts an Aztec warrior holding a fresh human heart, saying ‘His heart was in the right place’ (covers of other editions show variations on this theme, save for a 2014 edition depicting a rat in Aztec warrior garb). The joke works because the association of the Aztecs with the practice of human sacrifice runs deep and wide: most people who know only one thing about the Aztecs know that they are famous for sacrificing people to their gods; and those who are more familiar with the Aztecs – including those who, for example, teach in schools or universities – tend to think of Aztec culture as one in which bloodthirsty rituals and exotic superstitions played central roles.

In recent decades, a growing number of scholars have pointed out the many ways and reasons why and how that perception is distorted, if not plain wrong. The Aztecs, it turns out, were no more bloodthirsty or savage than anybody else in the world – including the early modern Europeans who systematically demonised them. Their culture was part of a civilisation (that of the Nahuas of central Mexico) that was as sophisticated and accomplished as that of those Europeans who sought to destroy it.

But fighting negative stereotypes and replacing them with something less prejudicial, less sensationalist, more multifaceted and more accurate has proved to be an uphill battle. Franciscan friars in the 16th century, along with other Catholic priests and chroniclers, created a portrait of Aztec religion, politics and social practices that was designed to justify the often-violent imposition of Spanish colonisation and forced conversion to Christianity. That portrait took root and flourished for centuries. The era of the global triumph of European empires was fertile ground for derogatory views of ‘barbarian’ societies swept aside by civilisation’s progress. When new fields of study and new evidence on the Aztec past emerged – archaeological discoveries from beneath Mexico City, for example, or unpublished manuscripts written in Nahuatl in the early colonial period – they tended to be deployed to confirm, or at best modify, that deep-rooted stereotype, not upend it.

What has changed? As Townsend explains in an appendix to Fifth Sun, not until the 21st century was there a convergence of scholars with a profound grasp of colonial-era Nahuatl, a willingness to challenge the well-established portrait of the Aztecs on which generations of scholars had built their careers and a readily available body of sources written in the early colonial decades by the descendants of the Aztecs (mostly in Nahuatl). Townsend makes particular use of a genre of documentation called xiuhpohualli by its Nahua writers. Literally meaning ‘yearly account’, such sources were more like community histories. Townsend presented the xiuhpohualli in greater detail in an earlier book, Annals of Native America (2016), so here they stand as the largely invisible foundation to her reconstruction of Aztec history. But, significantly, they allow her to present the Aztec past through a skilful synthesis of Nahua memories and traditions. From start to finish – even after Spaniards appear on the scene – the perspective is Aztec-centric to an unprecedented degree.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the two centuries that straddled the Spanish invasion that began in 1519. Its narrative thus takes off in the 1420s, as the Mexica rulers forge the alliance of city-states that we call the Aztec Empire. The story’s basic elements are common to human history and are therefore broadly familiar: the leaders of a marginalised town turn the tables on the neighbours who have dominated them, generating a momentum of expansion that within a generation or so turns that town into the capital city of a diverse empire. Such a tale can be gripping and, in Townsend’s hands, it is certainly that.

Despite the dramatic changes that resulted from the Spanish invasion, Townsend is able to maintain an Aztec-centric (or, after the fall of the Aztec Empire, Nahua-centric) perspective into the 17th century. Considering that even her most important source documents – such as the xiuhpohualli – were written alphabetically by Christians, some with partial Spanish ancestry, that is no small accomplishment. The final 80 pages of Fifth Sun offer one of the best descriptions of the first century of Mexico’s colonial period I have ever read. In fact, this is the best book on the Aztecs yet written, full stop.

That is not just because of its focus on the Aztec perspective and not just because Nahua history is presented through Nahua sources and in terms that are sensitive and sensible to indigenous culture. Townsend has not set out to pen an Aztec apologia. She shies away from polemical defences of Aztec practices and from romanticising the individual Nahuas who play central roles in her telling of their history –although, to be fair, she comes close to an intellectual romance with Nahua women surviving the conquest wars (such as Moctezuma’s daughter, Tecuichpotzin, and Cortés’ interpreter, Malintzin) and with some of the xiuhpohualli authors.

Rather, the value of Fifth Sun lies in how it rescues Aztecs and Nahuas from centuries of colonialist caricature and renders them human again – fully human, with flaws, people capable of brutal violence but also of deep love, who also savoured ‘a good laugh, just as we do’. We are so ‘accustomed to being afraid of the Aztecs, even to being repulsed by them’, that it has never occurred to us that we might simply identify with them. With this book, that can change.

#archaeology #arqueologia #aztec #mexica #mesoamerica #mexico #history #historia

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