#Lessons from my father

[somepinkthing]

"Hector was a good man" "diomedes was an honorable man" BZZZT WRONG. Diomedes was there to steal, burn, and wage war same as the next person. In fact, he was pretty adamant about it. Hector had no issue with the greek's actions, merely that they were directed at him—I mean look at what he wanted to do with patroclus's body, only to then cite respect for funeral rites when it was his own turn to die. Hector also owned slaves within his own city walls—people that he likely took from their homes during troy's own conquests. All that seperated him and the greek warriors was which side they were on.

The Iliad isn't a story about morally upstanding men. Sure, it has men who have honor and perform honorable acts, but these are not good samaritans. It's is a story about war and grief and the real victims of fights between so-called-honorable men and gods. The urge to find a "good guy" in this story is wasted. Hector doesn't have to be morally good just because achilles isn't. Troy didn't lose because they were more or less evil than the greeks. It all just. Is. Because of fate? Because the gods said so? Because people will always make disastrous mistakes and it will always end up biting not only them, but everyone else around them? Who knows? In the end though, doesn't it all feel so pointless in the face of the endless amounts of grief and destruction that war leaves behind? Maybe that's the whole point

[mylittlecrow]

i will never shut up about jon promising to protect sansa in 6x09 and then the parallel of lyanna begging ned to promise to protect jon IN THE NEXT EPISODE. something something “if the day should ever come when your lord father was forced to chose between honor on the one hand and those he loves on the other what would he do?” and we KNOW ned picked love. ned loved his sister so much he lied to his king and bff to protect jon. ned loved his daughter so much he sacrificed his honor and duty to the realm and lied to protect sansa.

the writers intentionally put sansa at the center of jon and dany’s conflict. sansa’s not in king’s landing during the battle in 8x05 or 8x06 but she still haunts the narrative, her name is brought up by FOUR different characters. jon was ready to die if dany saw him as a threat to the throne. “i'm tired of fighting it’s all i've done since i left home.” and the only way to get through to him and to get him to fight again and to kill dany is to mention sansa and how she’ll never be safe with dany around. “if we don’t take back the north we’ll never be safe i want you to help me but i'll do it myself if i have to.”

and sansa is so used to being alone. she spent months waiting for robb to rescue her from king's landing, and it never happened. robb chose the north, his duty, over her. and she's beaten for the north's independence and then sold to two different families who stole the north from her. and then she finally finds help in theon and brienne and podrick but she doesn't feel completely safe again until she's in jon's arms. but even then she's still ready for more disappointment, to be separated from her family again because “life is not a song” and “there are no heroes.” but jon isn’t robb. “jon isn’t tormund. jon isn’t davos, or the red woman, or stannis for that matter. jon is jon.”

“where will you go? where will we go. i won’t ever let him touch you again. we need to trust each other. until i return the north is yours. touch my sister and i’ll kill you myself. what you did for her is the only reason i’m not killing you. i’m her family too. what about everyone else? what about the other people who think they know what’s good? i’ll protect you, i promise. no one can protect me, no one can protect anyone.” but jon proves her wrong, he can protect her. he will keep her safe. because when his day comes and he has to chose between love and duty, he chooses her. there still are heroes in her story and their story isn't over yet.

[bumblingbabooshka]

I love how this is the only entry on the wiki page for the Rite of Tal'oth. Both T'Pol and Spock talk about their Kahs-Wan and it seems to be an extremely common thing for Vulcan children to go through but ONLY Tuvok so far has mentioned this Tal'oth rite so it doesn't seem to be as expected of Vulcans. This jives with my impression of Tuvok's character being the most spiritual of the three main Vulcans (from what I understand the spirituality of Vulcan that we see in 'later' series is seen as highly taboo and illogical in ENT's time? EX: Tuvok was raised beliving in the katra while most Vulcans in T'Pol's time think katras are a myth). Tuvok speaks about questioning his faith in katras, he has a holoprogram that seems to take place in a monastery, he puts great stock in prayer (his wife and children say prayers for his safe return and he is sure to tell Neelix that the temple they go to is among the holiest on Vulcan), some of his favorite music is monks chanting, and he was pursuing the kolinahr in his youth - the only reason he didn't complete it being that he went through the pon farr and chose to be with T'Pel instead. To me, it would make sense if the Rite of Tal'oth was only undertaken by certain Vulcans who did so for spiritual reasons or as a personal test of some kind rather than something all Vulcans do at a certain age. Tuvok later goes into Security so it's possible he's always had an interest in the kind of life-or-death strategy that such rituals (Kahs-Wan and Tal'oth) require, even if his first time in Starfleet he's shown as a Science officer, likely at his parents' "request." Speaking of, we learn in 'Flashback' that Tuvok's parents pressured him to join Starfleet AND that Tuvok's father is heavily implied to be part of Starfleet. This, and the fact that Tuvok's father specifically was namedropped as the one who disowned him as a teenager makes me wonder whether or not Tuvok was pressured to participate in the Tal'oth ritual - perhaps as a way to prove himself Vulcan once again (after his adolescent failure). Or even as a preparatory method for Starfleet itself since his father was/is part of it. "If you can't do this, how are you going to be a Starfleet officer?" sort of deal.

[astroreoreoreoreoreoreoreo]

not fair how much i relate to fugo's brothers. what if you were just not good enough no matter how hard you tried. what if all you want is to be human but they will only see you as a saint or a satan. And if you're the saint you know the second you mess up you'll be scorned forever, just like the rest of them. And if you're the satan you know you're driving yourself to your doom but you can't help it, you need them to look at you one more time, even if it's in disgust. Please don't forget about me. Please don't push me away.

I was just a kid too. I just wanted to be loved too. I am not a monster.

Thinking about how much they probably envied each other makes me crazy. Oh look how free affogato is. Misbehaving and still getting rewarded for it because no one expects any better from him. If only i was able to be as reckless and impulsive as he is. If only all these eyes weren't on me, if only I didn't have to be perfect to make up for the mistakes of my brothers. If only he was the one trapped under this burden instead of me.

Oh look how perfect Alfredo is. Getting all the adoration and attention when I'm killing myself for an ounce of it. Must be easy from up there, where people don't go quiet when you enter the room, where they don't whisper about you when you turn your back, saying what wasted potential you are. I bet he hates me just like they do. I bet he's just another face looking down on me now.

they make me so crazy

[astral-scout]

once i figure out how to stop writing like there's someone reading over my shoulder judging me it is OVER for you bitches

[swatato]

I refuse to believe a damn thing I’m seeing thanks <3

[wonder-worker]

In the end, politics was an accretion of personal decisions, and that means that the personality of the protagonists cannot be left out of the discussion. It determined not only how they reacted to the situations in which they found themselves, but how others reacted to them. The growing support for Edward IV in 1461 must have owed something to the realisation that he would make an effective king - whereas his father never seems to have been regarded in that light.

— Rosemary Horrox, "Personalities and Politics", The Wars of the Roses (Problems in Focus), Edited by A.J Pollard

When the worst had happened, and civil war was a reality, the overwhelming imperative was to find some way of restoring order. At the level of high politics, what this entailed in practice was a rallying around the de facto king. The Wars of the Roses, far from weakening the monarchy, actually strengthened it, since the king was the only man able to surmount faction. In spite of [Henry VI’s] manifest failings, Richard, duke of York's criticism of the regime commanded little high-level support - and would have commanded even less but for the crown's alienation of the junior branch of the Nevilles, headed by York's brother-in-law the earl of Salisbury. York in fact never did attain the political viability to break the vicious circle of temporary ascendancy and political exclusion. It was his son, Edward, earl of March, who finally mustered enough support to take the throne. He was able to do so in part because the situation had been transformed by the country's descent into open war, which reduced the compulsion to uphold the king as the embodiment of stability. Once it was no longer a matter of averting war, but of stopping it, political opinion began to divide more evenly between Henry VI and his rival. However, the crucial change may well have been York's own death at the Battle of Wakefield late in 1460. In the ensuing months Edward of York was able to present himself as the man who could mend the shattered political community. That self-identification with unity proved immensely potent, and it was not a role which could plausibly have been filled by his father. In the eyes of contemporaries, York had been the begetter of faction: a man tainted by his willingness to go to extremes.

[tofifee789]

[bumblingbabooshka]

Young Teacher Tuvok Patreon | Ko-fi

[knight-engale]

Gen alpha is cooked my 8 year old sister gets frustrated when we say school is for learning and doesn't want to figure out how to spell because she uses voice to text. She doesn't want to learn how to type on an actual keyboard and is very resistant to learning handwriting for similar reasons. All because she's had a tablet since she was like four or five

[garygoldenbignaturals]

fuck if you click the jaden link on my pinned (it's just search results if you look up her name) she really is being flanderized at the moment. by me. she's not defined by violence i promise she has depths trust me......

[t-u-i-t-c]

incredible

[divorcedyaoi]

ykw since Kenny is a mirror of Lee that distorts as time goes on i think it’s extremely easy to say that Lilly is a mirror of Clementine that distorts as time goes on.

[kath-artic]

other thing that is extremely funny to me. the amount of men that have had crushes on me specifically because i have a cool dad

[ibuprofinator]

I am compiling so many things I've read/watched about Wyll into my own personal rewrite of him that I'm losing track of where certain ideas came from lmao

[seafoamhero]

Please report villains following you to SOMEONE James-San

I did. I reported it to my other followers. I didn't even tell the ones on Instagram like Snipe-sensei said! Also, who are you?