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rein-ette · 3 years

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Engport Thoughts:

Warnings: this ain’t fancy sh/t ok it’s just the stuff I yell in my own head at 4 AM and its hella long too

I don’t really vibe with the view that engport’s power dynamic is skewed in Arthur’s favour, and that Port somehow loves Arthur more than Arthur loves him. Yes, Port has his moments of doubt, and yes, politically speaking for the past two centuries England’s been more powerful and relevant on the world stage. But nowadays they’re not that different, and while Port did harbour some serious resentment in the 1800-1900s because he felt that Arthur wasn’t treating him like an equal, in the century they spent apart I think he realized how much of that feeling came from his own self-hatred and fears rather than Arthur’s actions.

Like yes, there was the period after Napoleon where England controlled Port’s affairs for a while, and ofc there was the ultimatum — but is the ultimatums importance not sometimes overstated? Even for its time it was a pretty minor disagreement with little political fallout. To me, the ultimatum is only important as the last straw that broke the camel's back—since the decline of the Portuguese empire began, slowly at first and more noticeably after 1800, Ports own worries and anger and fear grew, often exacerbated by comparisons with England. Arthur noticed, but could do nothing about it; he couldn’t well have sacrificed British interests to assuage Ports nebulous feeling of inadequacy, and even if he had Port would only have seen it as pity. In fact Arthur didn’t know how to deal with it at all, so he said nothing. It’s that feeling when a friend or loved one says to you “I don’t deserve you” (as a way of saying “I’m not good enough”, not “you’re really great”) -- how is one supposed to respond? As a nation and a man Portugal needed to redefine the source of his own value, and that wasn’t something Arthur could do for him.

Of course Arthur may not have made this process any easier; in the best of times Arthur is about as good at communicating complex and tangled emotions as a sea cucumber, and when you add in the growing ambition of the British people and the daily European squabbles and power shifts, it all becomes a mess. I honestly think Arthur probably made the best choice available to him by not addressing it in the 19th century — if he had tried, his abrasiveness and Ports extreme sensitivity on this issue would surely have blown up their relationship sooner than 1890. To illustrate the point that this wasn’t a “Arthur treats Gabi as an inferior” issue, consider if England had briefly directed French policy like they did Portuguese after the Napoleonic Wars. Francis would of course start squawking up a storm, but I don’t think Francis would feel like him and Arthur were no longer equals. France in fact went through a similar experience as Portugal but hyperspeed from 1940-1950 where they had to confront going from Great Power to “stfu ur only on this council cuz the US is in a good mood.” But Arthur and Francis had a stable relationship during this time, because Francis’s identity and self worth (as a man, not a nation) is less rigid and based upon “providing for others” and “being Europe’s sole supply of shiny and yummy things” than Port's was.

So yeah, my point is that Arthur treated Gabi in the 1800s like he had always treated him — and even being extra careful not to aggravate his insecurities. It was Gabriel that felt more and more inadequate, irrelevant, powerless, so that when an issue comes along like the Pink Map; boom, you got urself a self-esteem issue bath bomb. Note that I’m talking about Artie and Gabi's personal interactions, NOT England’s diplomatic treatment of Portugal. Of course as states England recognized Portugal's diminishing relevance -- if they didn't, that would mean the English foreign office was bad at their job. And Gabriel was certainly intelligent and experienced enough to appreciate this distinction between interpersonal and international relationships, which is also why Gabi didn’t seek an argument with Arthur before 1890, either. He knew it wasn’t Arthur’s fault that he felt the way he did, but the humiliation of the ultimatum hit too close to home and he exploded anyways.

One last thought about their power dynamic: on an emotional level, I feel like Gabi has more cards to play than Arthur. Gabi holds so much sway over Arthur’s emotional well-being that I often think about how bad it could get if Gabriel chose to abuse that power. Arthur himself has so many insecurities and traumas that it would be so easy for Gabi, who knows him so well, to exploit them, especially when Arthur’s pretty much been hardwired after 9 centuries to trust Gabi. I think Arthur’s logic goes something like, if I can’t trust Gabriel than theres truly no one in this world I can rely on, which makes it, uh, really easy for Gabi to gaslight him. Like, if he just said “no one will ever love you but me,” Artie would believe that shit. He’d be on guard if it came from anyone else, but if Gabi says it mf would f/in internalize it. “If you leave me you’ll be alone,” “no one can forgive you for what you’ve done, but I will,” “if you died no one will give a shit but me.” These are all things Arthur half believes already, so it’d be a piece of cake for someone as astute as Gabriel to push him over the edge (@needcake has a great fic here about dark!engport which explores this abuse of trust). I think Port is actually very aware of this and goes out of his way to avoid saying things like that, precisely because he knows how fragile Arthur’s mental health is and how much he needs to trust Gabi. Sometimes this can be a burden on Port, too, which results in him softening his stance or giving in when he should draw a clearer line because he’s scared he’ll aggravate Arthur's insecurities.

TLDR; PORT'S PROBLEMS ARE NOT ALL MADE IN ENGLAND, PORTUGAL HAS ITS OWN DOMESTIC INDUSTRY FOR MANUFACTURING ISSUES™, and they’re actually very soft on each other and careful with each other’s feelings. They’re trying so hard, but history doesn’t give out medals for effort.

#engport #hws england #hws portugal #my hcs #when i was doing research for the dark world is not far from us #i read some speeches given in the House about the importance of anglo-portuguese relations #i can't recall if it was turn of the 20th century or during ww2 #but they basically talked about port's strategic importance to England as a check for Spain #as well as Port's historical loyalty to and sincere treatment of England #so yeah this whole long ass post is basically ab that and how port aint some starry eyed victim of his own terrible affection #he's a grown ass man for goodness sake #lets not make their relationship that one dimensional

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junker-town · 6 years

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Trash Or Nawl: The War On Christmas Is Real, and it’s actually about the Eagles

Welcome to Trash Or Nawl, a weekly column to help you weed through the Internet Muck. To do that, I’ll be breaking it down to a helpful binary: Is something trash? Or nawl? Topics here will involve sports and whatever else the hell I say is sports or sports adjacent. I’ll do my best to make sense of what's going on each week, but the thing to remember is no matter what I say, most of these things are still trash.

You might say this is simplistic, and hell yeah it is. This is how I make sense of the chaos. Professional grade hating restores power to my powerless stupid fan hands. I give a middle finger because I've given up clapping.

Trash or Nawl criteria: We will pick a topic. We will breakdown why or why it isn't trash. You can agree, you can comment or tweet your disagreements. Or we can fight. Really, it's up to you.

Today is another special edition of Trash Or Nawl. Honestly, y’all should just get used to every edition being a “special edition” because I’ve been special all my life. Shouts to my guy Mike Beasely. Today let’s discuss y’alls fave stupid ass, pagan-face ass holiday, Chrimuh.

The Real War On Christmas

Lemme tell you jerks about the War On Christmas. No, it’s not whatever the Sweet Potato In Chief, Donny Screwball is whippin up in the Conservative Palace today for all you GOP All-Stars. The War On Christmas is one we’ve always known. We go back and forth about it every year, but this is the real one, the actual War on Christmas, one that has nothing to do with what the Starbucks barista says to you when you get that shitty latte.

The War On Christmas is actually the War Against The Philadelphia Eagles, because allegedly in 1968, Eagles fans booed Santa and threw snowballs at his holly-jolly ass.

EVERY STUPID YEAR YOU MCASSHOLES GOTTA POP SOME SHIT ABOUT A WEAK ASS SANTA GETTING PELTED WITH SNOWBALLS. IT AIN’T MY FAULT IF YO WEAK ASS CITY DON’T ADD VIOLENCE TO YOUR FUN.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

This shit didn’t even happen. If you believe this you either from Dallas or you the Feds. (Note: to any Feds reading that I have committed no crimes). Philadelphia gave this country democracy and battle rap. We’ve never waged wars against dudes who aren’t even real. Matter fact, this whole argument is some inception shit. Leo DiCaprio ain’t coming to my house for the holidays and neither is this argument. All hail St. Nick Foles, the patron saint of Mt. Dynamite on Napoleon, may his reign last until the true red-haired messiah come back to us. Ah-Men.

Verdict on Santa: Trash

Verdict on Philly: Never Trash

Chrimuh Songs

In the following order, these are the only acceptable Chrimuh songs:

“All I Want For Chrimuh Ih You” by Mariah Carey

“I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by Jackson 5 (who apparently was some whole snitches)

“Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto” by James Brown

“Santa Claus Ih A Black Man” by Akim n Dem

“This Chrimuh” by Donny Hathaway

“Someday At Chrimuh” by Stevie “Can Really See” Wonder

“Ima Boss” by Meek Mill ft. Rick “Black Santa” Ross

“Mans Not Hot” by Big Santa Claus Shaq

“Take A Knee My Ass” by Neal “Chrimuh ain’t for Liberals” McCoy

“8 Days of Chrimuh” by Beyonce and her lil friends

Everything else you and yo family listen to is garbage. So warm up that dry ass turkey, get them canned cranberries and fruit cake poppin for Yung Barbz and the suburban homies and have a jolly 25th day of a random month we decided was litty.

Verdict on Songs: Immaculate

Verdict on Fruit Cake: Hot Trash

Year-End Lists

For once, ima side with all you lame ass “JOURNALISM IS DEVOID OF OBJECTIVITY” twitter losers. There’s nothing wrong with reminding the world about some bangers. Migos does it all the time. If anything, it’s a measure of the humility you have because you coulda just reminded everyone for 300+ days about bangers, but you’re like “nah, y’all got bills and shit to worry about.”

If you wanna pad the stats, collect a rack, or rep the set by getting these 35 tweet threads off at 1 am, I’m not stopping you pimp. I am, however, not reading that shit. Do you know how much Westworld I’m not caught up on? Do you know how much air is not being used fully if I read your work? Cmon, man. Why would I waste this unlimited data plan on that?

But. Y’know. Power to ya.

Verdict on Doin Ya Thang: Hell Yeah, man. Do that thang.

If you disagree with these verdicts, comment below. As stated earlier, you can agree, comment, tweet through your frustration or fight. Really, it’s up to you.

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