#and that includes entitlement to retribution

[mxtxfanatic]

Who Killed Wei Wuxian? the Politics of Culpability in MDZS

The title is kind of a misnomer because we know how Wei Wuxian died and we know who is responsible, so let's get those quotes out the way:

“To be honest though, if it weren’t for young Chief Jiang’s knowledge of the Yiling Laozu’s weaknesses, the siege of the Burial Mounds might not have succeeded. Don’t forget what kinds of things Wei Wuxian has at his disposal. Don’t you remember when he annihilated more than 3,000 high level cultivators?”

—Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

[Wei Wuxian] “I have to clarify this. [Jiang Cheng] didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.”

—Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian died from the backlash of attempting to destroy the second yin tiger tally while the first siege of the Burial Mounds took place. Jiang Cheng and the rest of the cultivation world is directly responsible for his death, thus are to blame. However, this meta isn't about who we are "meant to" blame for Wei Wuxian's death but about the conversation that the novel has about culpability. Contrary to the bad faith engagement that happens around this topic within the fandom, mxtx actually brings up this culpability problem many times in the novel:

After a moment of silence, Wei Wuxian said, “What else have you heard?” “Jiang Cheng, Clan Chief Jiang, brought people to encircle and besiege the Burial Mounds. He killed you, sir.” “I have to clarify this. He didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.” Wen Ning finally lifted his eyes and looked at him directly. “But, Clan Chief Jiang, he clearly—" “It’s impossible for someone to walk on a lonely, single-log bridge safely and soundly for an entire lifetime. It couldn’t be helped.” Wen Ning seemed to want to sigh, though he had no breath to sigh with.

—Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

Wen Qing waited quietly for him to finish cursing, “And so, you see? There’s no use. With the way things are, the identity of the one who placed the curse of Hundred Holes is no longer important. What’s important is the fact that the hundreds of people at Qiongqi path and... Jin ZiXuan were indeed killed by A-Ning.” Wei WuXian, “... But, but...” But what? He himself didn’t even know what to put after ‘but’. He couldn’t think of a reason to give, an excuse to use. He spoke, “... But even then, I should be the one going. I was the one who made the corpses kill the people. Why would the knife go instead of the murderer?”

—Chapt. 77: Nightfall, exr

Wen Ning says that Jiang Cheng is to blame for Wei Wuxian's death while Wei Wuxian says that it was an inevitability that could only be blamed on the circumstances rather than any individual. The Wen siblings say that Wen Ning is the one who killed Jin Zixuan, but Wei Wuxian argues that he is the one who turned Wen Ning into a weapon, thus absolving Wen Ning of the crime and placing it solely on Wei Wuxian's shoulders as the weapon's wielder. Who's side does the novel take? Well to answer that, let's take a look at another character who has caused many deaths throughout the novel: Jin Guangyao:

Jin GuangYao saw through the worries in his eyes instantly, and became so enraged that he actually started to laugh, “Lan XiChen! All my life, I’ve lied to countless people and have destroyed countless more. Just as you’ve said, murdering my father, my brother, my wife, my son, my master, my friends—There’s not a single sin left in this world that I haven’t committed!”

—Chapt. 108: Concealment Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

Of all the characters Jin Guangyao lists, he personally, with his own hands, verifiably killed two. Jin Guangshan was raped to death. Qin Su committed suicide. Jin Zixuan was killed in the Qionqi Path ambush. The details of Jin Rusong's death are unknown. Jin Guangyao didn't even personally kill any of the clans the Jin used as experiments nor did he murder the sex workers with his own hands. Only Wen Ruohan and Nie Mingjue were directly killed by Jin Guangyao—the former by being literally stabbed in the back and the latter through poisoning—so why does Jin Guangyao claim responsibility? It's because he planned these death. Without his direct manipulations and explicit intention to kill, none of those characters would have died as they did. Thus, despite not taking a knife to each of them individually, the blood of all of these characters is on Jin Guangyao's hands.

Here's another example:

It had taken the Four Great Sects three full months of recuperation, reorganization and planning before they’d finally become ready to take seize upon Burial Mound in retaliation; at last “exterminating” the last remnants of the Wen Sect along with the deranged Yiling Patriarch himself.

—Chapt. 108: Concealment Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

Around 3,000 cultivators gathered to kill 50 individuals. Logically, there is no way that 3,000 people literally had a direct hand in killing a few dozen people. However, they all came with the explicit intent to massacre, and they all take pride and credit in having participated in the first siege. Even though, logically, they all didn't take turns personally smashing Granny Wen's head in, they are each still culpable for her and the other Wen remnants' deaths.

But what about the people who were "only following orders" (the Nuremberg defense, for people who haven't yet released how many of villain stan defenses sound like Nazi arguments) or "didn't mean" their actions? Should they be blamed just for being followers of bad people, whether be it because they genuinely believed in the mastermind's lies or wanted to personally benefit from the chaos? Should they be considered blameless for murderous intent that makes a victim of the "wrong" person? Mdzs addresses that, too:

One of them shouted from afar, “Wei... Wei Ying! If you’re really that strong, why don’t you go find those sect leaders participating in the pledge conference? What could you prove by picking on us low-level cultivators with no power to fight back?” Wei WuXian let out another short whistle. The cultivator who shouted felt as a hand suddenly tugged him down. He fell off the city gate, breaking both of his legs, and began to scream. Amid the wails, Wei WuXian’s expression didn’t change at all, “Low-level cultivators? Do I have to tolerate you, just because you’re low-level cultivators? If you dared say those things, you had to dare shoulder the consequences. If you knew that you were insignificant pieces of scum as filthy as ants, how come you didn’t know to think before you speak?!”

—Chapt. 77: Nightfall, exr

Wei WuXian could tell the arrow tip was originally aiming for his heart, his vital region. Yet, because the archer wasn’t skilled, the force of the arrow tip dwindled by midair to have missed the heart and shot into the ribcage. Everyone around the person who shot the arrow had eyes wide open, staring with shock and even fear at the disciple who had done such a thing. Wei WuXian looked up. Darkness veiled his face. He pulled out the arrow and tossed it back hard. With a wail, the young cultivator who snuck an attack at him was hit right in the chest with the arrow he tossed back! A boy next to him threw himself on top of him, “Brother! Brother!” The sect’s array was immediately thrown into chaos. The sect leader pointed at Wei WuXian with one shaking finger, “You... You... You are so cruel!” With his right hand, Wei WuXian unhurriedly pressed the wound at his chest, temporarily ceasing the blood flow. His voice was indifferent, “What does cruel mean? If he dared shoot the arrow at me when I was off guard, he should’ve known what would be facing him if he failed. They call me the cultivator of the crooked path, anyways, so you can’t possibly count on me to be generous and not bother with him, can you?”

...

Wei WuXian was pushed onto the ground again by the force. The next time he looked up, he saw the gleaming blade of a sword pierce through her throat. The boy holding the sword was the young cultivator who cried over the disciple who had shot the arrow. He was still crying, eyes covered in tears, “You thief! This is for my brother!” Sitting on the dirty ground, Wei WuXian stared with disbelief at Jiang YanLi, whose head had already dipped, blood trickling ceaselessly from her neck. ... The boy finally realized that he killed the wrong person. He pulled out the sword, along with a series of bloody spurts. With fright, he staggered back, mumbling, “... I-It wasn’t me, it wasn’t... I was going to kill Wei WuXian, I was going to avenge my brother... She was the one who threw herself over on her own!”

—Chapt. 78: Nightfall, exr

The cultivators both at Nightless City and those who didn't go choose to provoke Wei Wuxian based on the slander spread by the cultivation clan leaders. Those at Nightless City are gathered specifically to pledge to kill him. However, the moment Wei Wuxian turns his sights on them, then it's "But we're just baby 🥺 why not pick on someone your own size?" Wei Wuxian's response is masterful in that he calls them out for what they are: opportunistic cowards who prey on the weak but fear the strong. They wanted to attack him without consequences, but the moment consequences happened, they wanted to shift responsibility. The clan of the boy who attempted to kill Wei Wuxian is the same, as well as that boy's brother who killed Jiang Yanli. You chose to be here, you chose to participate, so just as you wanted to share in the spoils, you must also share in the responsibility, whether you were able to achieve your goal or not.

Now with all of this context in mind, let's circle back to Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian's convos: who are the killers? In the case of the first siege, the answer is Jiang Cheng... as well as the rest of the cultivation world. While the responsibility may vary in degrees (Jiang Cheng owed a debt to the Wen siblings and Wei Wuxian that the other participants did not), it is still a shared one. In the case of the Qionqi Path ambush, Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, too, share and accept responsibility despite only one person getting their hands dirty while the other person (subconsciously) gave the orders. Wei Wuxian may have turned Wen Ning into a fierce corpse, but Wen Ning had the consciousness to refuse and chose not to in service of defending the man who saved his family.

Finally, I want to leave on this note: while Jiang Cheng is to blame for Wei Wuxian's death, Wei Wuxian, himself, does not wish to place that blame on his former shidi. One reason is that he acknowledges that his murder was a forgone conclusion—something anyone would have plotted towards, anyways, with or without Jiang Cheng's willing intervention—the moment the cultivation world turned on him as an enemy, and two, because of this:

Suddenly, [Jiang Cheng] said, “I’m sorry.” Wei WuXian froze, then said, “......You don’t have to say sorry.” After everything that had happened between them, it was impossible to tell who was the one most at fault.

—Chapt. 103: A Hatred for Life Part 6, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

There is so much bad blood between these two that to weigh their transgressions against each other—particularly in the wake of the golden core transfer reveal—would be petty and diminish them both as people. Wei Wuxian gave up his golden core for the man who later willingly and gleefully plotted his murder, but Jiang Cheng lost his only friend, his sister, and his reputation over all of those jealousy-clouded decisions. In a way, this entanglement made them both lose, so the best answer is to cut the loss and move on (Wei Wuxian's approach) rather than trying to forcefully maintain the connection of tangled debts at the threat of facing even bigger losses (Jiang Cheng's approach until the climax). There's nothing to be gained from trying to hold Jiang Cheng accountable for his crimes against Wei Wuxian, so it's best to simply let sleeping dogs lie and for Wei Wuxian to continue to live his life happily no longer tied in any way to the man who led to his death.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amanda Marcotte at Salon:

It's starting to look like Donald Trump is deliberately wrecking the economy. As Robert Kuttner at the American Prospect wrote this week, "no other president has gone out of his way to create a collapse," but there's no other way to interpret Trump's actions. Pointless tariffs will only jack up inflation. Illegally shutting down much of the federal government and laying off thousands at random will suck money out of the economy, forcing a recession. Both consumer confidence and the stock market are diving and a likely surge in unemployment — driven in no small part by Elon Musk recklessly firing federal workers without regard for law or necessity — will make it worse. And if all these federal cuts lead, as expected, to people not getting Social Security checks or health coverage, the disaster will likely spiral.  Kuttner can't decide if Trump wants the economy to crash or if his actions are "based on sheer ignorance and impulsivity." Trump, however, indicated malicious intent during his seemingly endless speech in front of Congress on Tuesday night. Trump mocked the fears over imminent inflation by sneering that it's merely "a little disturbance." It's a familiar rhetorical move of his to paint his victims as whiners. In this case, however, his victims include most Americans, who aren't independently wealthy and can't simply afford rising costs and massive job losses.  Trump mocked the fears over imminent inflation by sneering that it's merely "a little disturbance." It's a familiar rhetorical move of his to paint his victims as whiners. It's an understatement to call it "unprecedented" to have a president who hates most Americans, including his own voters, and wants them to suffer. But, as Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times persuasively argued Wednesday, Trump's psychology makes it explicable. Trump's "every executive function exists to satisfy his ego," Bouie wrote. He continues to whine on a near-daily basis about losing the 2020 election. "[I]t stands to reason that Trump would want revenge against the public," Bouie concluded, adding that Trump is now undergoing "a retribution campaign against the American people." Thomas Edsall of the New York Times spoke with psychologists who confirmed Bouie's layman understanding of Trump's disordered mental state. They affirmed that Trump suffers from "a congenital sense of entitlement," whose personality is like that of "street toughs, bullies, abusive husbands and hate-crime perpetrators." Even in the 2024 election, he didn't get over 50% of the vote. It makes sense that, after nearly a decade of most Americans rejecting him, a malignant narcissist like Trump would detest Americans categorically, and wish nothing more than to punish them all.  As for his supporters, there's good reason Trump enjoys hurting them, as well. One of his favorite moves is to humiliate people who are dumb enough to fawn over him. Even during Tuesday's speech, he reminded us he loves to kick someone in the face after they bent to kiss his feet. After congratulating Marco Rubio for getting the secretary of state job — for which Rubio had to repeatedly prostrate himself — Trump threatened him. "Good luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong," Trump said, relishing one more bit of public shaming of a man who has done so much to flatter him. 

Like most abusers, Trump's go-to move when challenged is to blame his victims. Unlike most abusers, however, Trump has a small army of spinmeisters and apologists who will echo his victim-blaming rhetoric. As the economic damage starts to balloon out, the number of people who will be told that they brought this on themselves will grow — likely until most Americans are being blamed for what Trump inflicted on them. 

Malignant traitor Trump victim-blames Americans for his struggles to get a functioning economy.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

miscellaneous fellow honest headcanons

These aren't following any prompt in particular, these are just thoughts I had when I saw the guy hammin' it up and then turning on us.

Some of these headcanons are informed by fan art I've seen and discussions I've had with friends, while others are purely me.

Curiouser and Curiouser...

He calls people “little lads” and “little ladies”.

Fellow has a very noticeable laugh. Like, he grunts and snorts and has tears rolling down his cheeks. (He tends to laugh at others’ misery, thinking of it as “retribution” or “payback” for the injustices he has suffered himself.)

Bro shaves using a knife (yes, he shaves because he is a grown ass man) because razors are hella expensive.

He uses that cheap cologne and cakes it on THICK. This, in his mind, gives off the impression that he’s a well-off and put-together individual you should tooootally trust.

Also the type of person that lays it on thick with his words. If he’s trying to impress a date or something, he’ll shower them with so many compliments it almost seems fake. But no, he’s just the type to simp hard when he happens to be genuine 💀 most of the time he’s faking it though—

He’s very street smart, but in a way where he confuses hostile people by talking over them and acting overly friendly. They usually stuns them long enough for him and Gidel to skedaddle.

If he gets dumped, he'd be the pathetic whimpering boyfriend that begs for his ex to take him back. When they inevitably don't, he mopes all day about it.

He chain smokes and aggressively drinks as a coping mechanism on his bad days 😔 and sometimes he gambles (like, on those scratch-off cards) hoping that he'll strike it rich and buy him and Gidel a better life...

Basically, he generally does not have his shit together but tries his best to pass like someone who does (and usually succeeds at it).

Fellow appears in public wearing his full suit, but at home (ie whatever ratty temporary housing their boss found for them before they move on to the next place) he just wears a T-shirt and lounges around in boxers (and sometimes socks with holes in them).

He uses those disposable eyeshadow wands that snap in half at the slightest bit of too much pressure. Fellow acts like the Claire’s kid makeup he uses is the luxury stuff, but Vil can tell the pigmentation isn’t all there and there’s MAD fallout.

He may be broke AF and have his moments of emotional spiraling, but he has pretty decent budgeting skills. Fellow lives for sales and does extreme couponing to stretch their money as far as it will go.

He invests in other cost-saving methods like wearing shoes until the sole is literally flopping off and just adding water to residual soap in a pump bottle to make the soap "last longer".

Fellow is really good at cutting food (bread, beans) thin to conserve it. Yes, this is a reference to an old Mickey Mouse cartoon—

When he was younger, he had dreams of being an actor (and, more specifically, starring in musicals). That's why he's often humming, swinging around his cane, and/or whistling as he's on the prowl for idiots to sucker—they're remainders of his thespian days before his dreams were crushed into itty bitty pieces.

Man looks like he'd be great at tap dancing.

Before his current gig, he tried a bunch of other scams including a MLM at one point to get by. His signature spell came in pretty clutch in those days too.

Fellow’s not that good at reading or spelling—in fact, he was never a particularly strong student. (“I didn’t fail school!! The schools failed ME!!”) He’s easily frustrated by academics and thinks there should be more hands-on and practical skills taught in learning institutions.

I think it's a given that he and Ruggie would be besties since they both want to eat the rich but I also think Fellow would kiss ass to Azul and then rage about how shitty + entitled Azul is (Azul reminds Fellow of his boss)💀 Scammers hate other scammers because they're both competing to scam the same people--

Even though Fellow is an asshole to most others (well, when he’s not flattering them to lure them into a trap), he’s always nice to Gidel and puts him first. If there’s ever a situation where they’re short on something (clothes, food, etc), Gidel gets priority. This is why Gidel has a full outfit (even if parts are patches or mismatched) whereas Fellow himself has a glove that is so worn out there’s a hole in one of the pinkie fingers.

Fellow may not be blessed with a bounty of magic, but he’s quick on his feet and good with words. Because of these skills, he’s talented at spinning bedtime stories, which he often tells to Gidel to help him fall asleep on nights that are particularly cold and nasty.

Gidel still believes in Santy Claws and wishing upon stars, and Fellow doesn’t have the heart to tell him the truth. He’ll figure it out on his own one day, Fellow thinks. He just doesn’t want to be the one to ruin those childhood joys for him.

Playing pretend is another shared past time of theirs. It helps Fellow get into character before he goes off to swindle people, and it gives Gidel a way to express himself in spite of being mute. They have a routine they do together where Fellow pretends to be a doctor diagnosing a patient and Gidel takes down notes for him as his medical scribe. Yes, this is a Pinocchio reference—

They actually have many more games they play (mainly because they cannot afford other forms of entertainment). Some of the games are clever ruses conjured by Fellow to teach Gidel survival tips and tricks: the who-can-make-their-piece-of-bread-last-longer game, hide-and-seek (from the authorities), etc.

For special occasions, Fellow saves up some money on the side to grant Gidel little luxuries, like a box of crayons to doodle with.

Gidel hugs Fellow’s leg or waist to cheer him up when he’s upset. He also hides behind Fellow when he’s scared or feeling shy.

He’s just really attached to Gidel cuz they have no one else in this cruel world, just them against the world 😔 He sees a lot of his younger self in the little boy… the opportunities lost because of their circumstances… “It’s alright, Gidel. Leave it to Fellow-sama.”

[not-existent]

A Condensed Version of "Elliot Rodger: An Analysis" by Peter Langman, Ph.D.

This is a condensed version, focusing on key points rather than extensive details. I strongly recommend visiting the provided link to read the original work.

Elliot Rodger exhibited both psychotic and psychopathic features, as detailed in his document My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger (Rodger, 2014). He displayed significant social impairment, often demonstrating acute self-awareness and articulating his feelings with clarity. His profound shyness and social anxiety aligned with characteristics of avoidant personality disorder, which progressed into traits associated with schizotypal personality disorder. Rodger perceived himself as rejected by humanity and regarded himself as superior, expressing grandiose delusions and a desire for retribution against women and society.

Rodger's statements revealed a tenuous grasp on reality; he believed he was destined to win the lottery and interpreted women's rejections as personal affronts. His paranoid ideation led him to view women as inherently cruel, while he projected his social failures onto them, refusing to accept responsibility for his shortcomings. In contrast, other shooters such as Dylan Klebold acknowledged their own deficiencies, thereby highlighting Rodger's psychopathic traits, which included a pronounced sense of entitlement and a lack of empathy.

Rodger's narcissism and resentment culminated in violent fantasies, driven by a desire to punish those he perceived as successful. He experienced both envy and rage towards others, particularly regarding romantic and social achievements. His feelings of inadequacy were exacerbated by sibling rivalry and a damaged sense of masculinity stemming from his physical appearance and social failures. Ultimately, his complex psychological profile contributed to his violent actions.

[zelphafrost]

I feel so helpless to protect my international students right now. My university set up a simulation that we all went through to demonstrate how time-consuming, invasive, and expensive the process to get a visa can be for some students. That doesn't include buying a plane ticket and going through customs. And then finding a place to live, sight unseen. Plus, the extra fees landlords charge international students just because they can.

Imagine going through all of that, just to have your visa yanked, and if you're lucky, you get deported instead of being shackled and held at one of the detainment facilities. And you aren't even given a reason.

Many of these students come from countries where free speech is a dream. Where if you spoke out against your government, you get imprisoned or worse. They come here seeking opportunity and freedom. To a country where everyone is supposed to be free to speak out without fear of retribution from the government. Everyone is supposed to be entitled to due process and protected against being wrongfully imprisoned. Especially if you went through the stringent and expensive process to come here "legally. " Now that's all gone. And if Harvard can't protect their students from having their visas arbitrarily yanked, what is my small university supposed to do?

[salvia-plathitudes]

By Janet Lorin and Brooke Sutherland
April 15, 2025, 12:00 AM EDT, updated at April 15, 2025, 7:26 AM EDT

After weeks of saying he’s willing to work with the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, Harvard University President Alan Garber emerged Monday as the highest-profile challenger to the government’s effort to force change at elite US colleges.

The retribution was swift. 

A government task force on antisemitism said late Monday that it plans to freeze $2.2 billion of multiyear grants after Harvard’s decision to reject new demands from the administration. In a statement earlier in the day, Garber had argued that the expanded requests crossed red lines regarding academic freedom and interference in higher education.

“It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner,” Garber wrote on Harvard’s website. “Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.”

Harvard’s rebuke — backed by two law firms in a letter to US agencies — won plaudits from Democratic lawmakers, including former president Barack Obama, alumni and academics who have been eager to see resistance to President Donald Trump’s use of threats and executive orders to reshape institutions. 

But Trump escalated the dispute with Harvard on Tuesday, threatening the university’s tax-exempt status.

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Along with targeting law firms and cities, the Trump administration has sought sweeping changes to universities, claiming that top schools aren’t doing enough to fight antisemitism on campus. The White House has criticized schools’ response to disruptions around pro-Palestinian student protests after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory response in Gaza.

Already, the government has canceled $400 million in funding to Columbia University, paused funds to Northwestern and Cornell and suspended money for Princeton. US agencies have previously said they are reviewing about $9 billion of Harvard’s grants and contracts. That’s sparked concerns among faculty, students, lawmakers and alumni that the administration’s actions are suppressing free speech and harming scientific endeavor.

‘A Gamble’

As the richest US university, with a $53 billion endowment, Harvard has more financial power than others to weather a potential legal and political fight. Yet the administration’s response Monday — saying Harvard’s pushback “reinforces a troubling entitlement mindset” — indicates that it’s willing to strip key funds for research, medicine and public health at the Massachusetts school.

“Harvard’s decision to fight the government, one of the few entities that’s bigger than Harvard, is a gamble,” said Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Education. The government likely “will begin taking action to issue findings and final determinations that will inevitably bring Harvard back to the table.”

A Harvard spokesman referred to Garber’s earlier statements when asked about the funding freeze: “For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals, but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.”

Alan Garber Photographer: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Harvard posted the administration’s letter from late Friday that detailed the new demands tied to federal funding. They included reforming the university’s governance; ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs; changes to its admissions and hiring; and curbing the “power” of certain students, faculty and administrators because of their ideological views. In his response, Garber declared that Harvard wouldn’t “surrender its independence or constitutional rights.”

The statement drew support from former Harvard President Larry Summers, who said he hoped other universities would adopt a similar stance to defend academic freedom. Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat and Harvard alumnus, praised the school’s leaders “for finding the courage to stand against modern-day tyrants,” while Democratic Governor Maura Healey, also a graduate, said she was grateful to Garber and Harvard for standing up for educational freedom.

“We all agree that antisemitism has no place in America and that it should be fought in the workplace, classrooms and everywhere,” she said in a statement. “Complying with the Trump administration’s dangerous demands would have made us all less safe and less free.”

Obama, a Harvard Law alumnus, said the university’s move “set an example” in rejecting what he called “an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom.”

“Let’s hope other institutions follow suit,” he added.

Columbia, which has sparked criticism over its response to some of Trump’s demands, released its own statement late Monday.

“We would reject any agreement in which the government dictates what we teach, research, or who we hire,” Acting President Claire Shipman said in a message posted on the school’s website. “Though we seek to continue constructive dialog with the government, we would reject any agreement that would require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy as an educational institution.”

Princeton President Chris Eisgruber said his university “stands with Harvard.”

But the Trump administration continues to hold significant leverage over the institutions. Elise Stefanik, a Republican lawmaker from upstate New York, said it’s time to “totally cut off U.S. taxpayer funding to this institution that has failed to live up to its founding motto Veritas.” Stefanik, a Harvard alum, has been a leading critic of the university, its leadership and Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corp., which oversees the university.

Funding freezes also risk hitting both the school and the local economy, including Harvard’s renowned hospital system. The school’s most recent financial report shows that 11% of its $6.5 billion in annual operating revenue comes from federally sponsored research funding.

The school of public health is the most reliant on “sponsored support,” at 59% of its operating revenue, followed by the school of engineering at 37% and the medical school at 35%. The report doesn’t break down federal support versus other money for the schools. Federal funding made up approximately 68% of total sponsored revenue in fiscal 2024.

While Harvard’s $53 billion endowment is more than three times the size of Columbia’s, the university can’t spend it like a bank account. About 70% of the annual distribution is restricted by donor terms to specific programs, departments, or purposes, according to the school. It distributed $2.4 billion in fiscal 2024.

Most universities don’t have enough cash and cash liquidity to go indefinitely without such a large portion of their expected budget, said Matthew Wynter, an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University in New York. While there’s potential that donations will increase in the wake of Harvard’s resistant stance, the university still has to repair relations with some of its biggest financial supporters after its initial approach to combating antisemitism on campus created significant rifts.

What’s more, turmoil in the US stock market and concern about a potential recession may also lead some alumni to hold back.

“Even for a school like Harvard that has an enormous endowment, in this financial market, it’s very difficult to raise money because of a lot of their alumni gifts are going to be financial assets, which are also performing poorly right now,” Wynter said.

Harvard last week sold $750 million of bonds amid the threats to its federal funding. “As part of ongoing contingency planning for a range of financial circumstances, Harvard is evaluating resources needed to advance its academic and research priorities,” the school said.

The university is working with law firms Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and King & Spalding in response to the administration. From a legal perspective, the government’s demands on issues such as requiring diversity on ideological view points were “clearly overly aggressive,” said Vikram Amar, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law and the former dean of the University of Illinois College of Law.

“I am not surprised Harvard couldn’t and didn’t accept all that was being asked of it,” he said.

[adhdo5]

I do think Jin Guangyao genuinely liked Nie Huaisang. Like he did in fact help NHS for all those years, in Guanyin temple he specifically comments with concern for his wellbeing/comfort in a way he doesn't do explicitly for anyone else other than LXC! He liked that guy!

And like . JGY considers NHS deeply annoying yes but in many ways he's so much less of a liability than his brother had been and certainly less of a danger. He does still resent NHS for all he's been given, that all including himself, but he's always been a little endeared to NHS's antics as much as how spoiled NHS is grates at him sometimes, and the fact that NHS treats LXC the same makes it– it's nice, even, to be held in high regards like that? When he had been Meng Yao he hadn't been able to shake the implication that it was the affection NHS would show to a bird or a toy but seeing it now, and seeing it when NHS genuinely needs their help, and seeing it directed at LXC in equal measure, it's clear it's just the love NHS is used to receiving, and it even dulls the bitterness of the entitlement of that past relationship in retrospect

And NHS is scatterbrained and unmotivated and airheaded and lazy - sometimes JGY thinks he's intentionally slacking off or feeding nonsense rumors because he doesn't understand the gravity of his position, and sometimes the unbecoming jealousy of all NHS has always had for granted including him rears its head – but over the years he makes some progress. Like how he eventually did form his core (barely), like he eventually did pass summer camp (barely), he's slowly coming into his meager own as a sect leader. JGY knows NHS has enough charisma and smarts to pull it off if he applies himself, and he'll eventually be a good trade for how much influence in Qinghe this gives JGY and LXC, and they've enough goodwill between them to tide it over for now

They've known each other for years, after all, and they have a rapport, and LXC loves him, and the companionship is nice. JGY is glad he gets to stay friendly with him, is glad he gets to keep this from Qinghe, is a little viciously smug about having taken Nie Mingjue's idiot baby brother for his own too. He's glad NHS is too careless to have ever even started to notice or suspect – NHS has never been wrathful, but he did love his da-ge, and it would certainly lose JGY that regard, and that would be a shame even though he doubts NHS would really manage any retribution that who Jin Guangyao is now can't mitigate

And especially the fact that their relationship is mostly the same despite their social positions changing so and the fact that NHS has always been one of the people who had also touched him willingly with some regularity and the fact that NHS has little love for such things as propriety – in some ways it feels like this too is and always has been one of his rare relationships that didn't let itself be defined by JGY's status. And as much as stuff like Su Minshan's glowing regard for Lianfang-zun is nice, having relationships like this – with LXC, with QS, with NHS – it's nice in a different way. Even if he has to keep secrets to keep this, he has this love, he's deserved it, he's always deserved it. The class disparity was overcome... he won... his mother was right...

[hard cut to NHS smacking a mosquito with his fan]

[mariacallous]

The new Trump administration is busy. In a fury of executive orders, the restored president has frozen hiring at the federal government, cut off large amounts of science and research funding, ended or severely curtailed international programs in women’s health and HIV treatment, attempted to unilaterally amend the constitution to deny citizenship to hundreds of thousands, cut off aid to Ukraine, provoked a diplomatic spat with Colombia and renamed the Gulf of Mexico in official documents as “the Gulf of America”.

Many of these moves are stunts and distractions, meant to appease Donald Trump’s base of aggrieved culture warriors. Others are meant to further Trump’s personal power, and to make sure that no obstacles will be presented to his second term agenda of malice, retribution and corrupt self-dealing.

On Monday, Trump made a move that belongs in the latter camp. Disregarding the formal process that is required by law before nonpolitical federal civil servants can be terminated, Trump’s acting attorney general, James McHenry, summarily fired more than a dozen justice department career prosecutors. All of those fired had been assigned to the two federal criminal investigations of Trump pursued by the former special counsel Jack Smith in the classified documents and January 6 cases. In a letter informing the attorneys of their termination, McHenry wrote that their involvement in the cases was the impetus for their firing. “Given your significant role in prosecuting the president,” McHenry wrote, “I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president’s agenda faithfully.”

It is the kind of sentence that has been produced by the profound shift in the constitutional order under Trump. In another lifetime – before Trump’s entry into national politics – the notion that the Department of Justice existed to “implement the president’s agenda” was the kind of thing that people could end their careers by merely suggesting.

The Department of Justice’s independence was once so fiercely protected that when Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, exchanged pleasantries with former president Bill Clinton on a tarmac in Phoenix in 2016, the incident ballooned into a national scandal that contributed to Hillary Clinton’s electoral defeat later that year. When Richard Nixon tried to exert pressure on the justice department to drop its investigations of him in 1973, demanding that the Watergate special counsel Archibald Cox be fired for his political disloyalty in much the same way that Trump has now moved to fire the lawyers who worked for Smith, the justice department officials were so aggrieved by Nixon’s overreach that both the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned immediately, in an episode so dramatic that it became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”.

But what was then considered an unacceptable and arrogant presumption of executive power by Nixon barely registers as an offense from Trump, who has issued a blistering series of actions rewarding his friends and followers and punishing his enemies in the week since he returned to power. He pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attack, including those who had been found guilty of violent offenses, and some have already allegedly reoffended following their release.

But no matter: to Trump, violence committed in his interests is no sin. And he has rescinded the protection details of officials and former officials who have been subjected to threats by his supporters, including Anthony Fauci; to Trump, those who displease him are not entitled to protection from violence. They deserve what they get, and any number of the roving violent January 6 rioters who have now been released may be inclined to give it to them.

We do not like to admit it, but it may be time to state plainly what many of us already know: that Trump has already largely remade our constitutional order. Powers that no one would have imagined that the president had just two weeks ago, when the office was occupied by a Democrat, are noddingly assumed to be within his purview now.

It is hardly a debate, now, whether the president has the power to impose tariffs without the cooperation of Congress, though the legal question is far from settled; it is assumed that his bizarre directives to suspend funding that has already been appropriated by Congress must be obeyed. The firing of the prosecutors is a transparent overreach, but it is not clear that anyone will be able to stop him: if the lawyers sue to try to enforce their own rights as civil servants – or to try to force the president to recognize the limits of his own power – it seems perfectly likely that the large number of Trump-appointed judges on the federal bench will retroactively rewrite the law to say that Trump, if not other presidents, has in fact had this power all along.

Such is the vision of the constitution that Trump seeks to impose: one in which his whim becomes law, one in which the power of his office is constrained only by the limits of his imagination. When Trump suspended birthright citizenship last week, a judicial order suspending the declaration’s effect went into place quickly. But that case will wind its way up, to the highest echelons of our very conservative judiciary, and though the law is clear, the extent of the US supreme court’s willingness to abase itself for the sake of Trump’s whims is not. The Trumpist vision of the constitution, after all, is that it says whatever Trump wants it to say. And there are some in the judiciary who believe that their job is to create post-hoc rationalizations for why everything this president does it legal.

Is the justice department a mere accessory for Trump’s agenda? The Republicans seem to think so. But this is their vision of all government, now: as tools for the exercise of one man’s will. Trump’s vision of governance reminds me of nothing so much as the declaration attributed to Louis XIV: “L’état, c’est moi”: I am the state. There is a word for a government that runs this way, contorting itself merely to one man’s will. But that word is not “democracy”.

[olderthannetfic]

Part of growing older and considering oneself some kind of “elder” rather than just simply an older person is maturity and patience. I think many people, including you OTNF, are being quite immature with how hostile you’re being towards this chosenwads person.

When you find yourself typing things like “You are embarrassing” to people asking genuine, good faith questions, maybe it’s time to take a breather and simply stop responding. You know, basic emotional regulation.

When you guys get older, we will be the ones explaining stuff to younger people. I don’t think this chosenwads person is sea lioning. I think they’re asking reasonable questions about reclamation, queer history, and morality. Either explain your position without stooping to insults or stop responding.

Here’s my genuine question: when you were younger, did people twenty years older than you insulting you and calling you an idiot actually convince you of anything or increase your respect for them?

--

You seem to have mistaken my blog for a public service or a school.

This is my personal tumblr for screaming about HeiHua or whatever catches my fancy. It's just that in my case, that involves a fair amount of longform text with punctuation, so people get confused and entitled.

If somebody behaves like a bull in a china shop, they're going to suffer the social consequences. It's not an intentional punishment or moral retribution: it's how socializing works.

As for "good faith"... Well... I agree none of those questions were self-aware-ly malicious, but at the point you're like "Yes, but the authority you just said you found unreliable did a lot of research so I'm going to ignore what you just said and repeat my dumb point" and repeatedly asking to be spoon-fed information, you're not really operating in good faith.

Disagreeing is fine.

Expecting other people's time to belong to you is not good faith.

Even if they've already given you some time, it doesn't indicate that they owe you even more ad infinitum.

And that's what's going on here, especially in the ten thousand replies.

[velidewrites]

Don’t Look Back

Five hundred years ago, the humans fought hard for their freedom in the Great War and won. Now, their former masters seek retribution in a rebellion that grows stronger year by year. When Elain Archeron finds out marrying Greysen Nolan might be the only solution to keep her family safe from the ancient, cruel Fae, she doesn't hesitate to fulfil her duty. What Elain doesn't know, though, is that the man with the fiery hair and russet eyes is not her fiancé, but his killer—and when she finally finds out, well…it will be far too late to turn back.

Chapter 3/15 || Read on AO3 || Go to Chapter 1

Lucien did not realise he had fallen asleep in Greysen Nolan’s jacket. It was the stiff, navy fabric that had stirred him awake, digging mercilessly into his underarms. Greysen’s build had not been frail by any means, Lucien was reasonable enough to admit—but he was also vain enough to decide that, whatever physical training the lordling had undergone in his youth, it could hardly compare to the decades Lucien had devoted to hunting in the forest.

It felt good to be back, strangely. He even missed the wet, cold ground that was currently serving as his bed, despite the undoubtedly luxurious chambers he could have had at the Archeron Manor in New Prythian. After witnessing the grandiose of the engagement ceremony, Lucien suspected the Merchant was a man who valued appearances above all else, which surely must have included appropriate accommodations for his son-in-law never to be.

Oh, well.

He would mourn the plush mattresses and feathery pillows later. There was something about being back in Old Prythian that filled Lucien with relief. A faint trace of magic still lingered here—untainted magic, so unlike the Merchant’s precious artifacts, all bearing a familiar, human stench. Here, in the forest he’d grown up in, Lucien could smell the Old Magic in the mossy earth, however wet it was. With the spring nearing its full bloom, the remaining signs of winter had almost melted away.

When he was younger, Eris would often tell him of the power that had once kept the seasons unchanged. In this part of the island, magic had stood still—the forests of Braemar had always grown in shades of auburn and gold, the waves warming the shores of Adriata had never reflected so much as a cloud above, and the lakes of the North had been nothing but pale, blue ice. Parts of New Prythian, Eris had told him, used to be nothing but rolling green hills, ruffled by a gentle, spring breeze. Today, they had become towns, industries—homes the humans had stolen from the Fae and made into their own, just like everything else.

The High Lords keeping that magic alive were long gone, though. Autumns in Braemar had become rainy and bleak, even the occasional sunlight somewhat pale as it peered through the trees. As if the very sun itself had fallen ill to the human sickness.

There was no sun shining above Lucien, though, as he made his way through the camp. The path snaked down to where he knew his brother would be—right by the stream’s muddy shore, the gentle whoosh of the running water muffling the voices ahead.

Thankfully, the sturdy bark of an oak tree provided Lucien with enough shelter to eavesdrop. Eris may have been family and—Lucien thought with some bite—his direct superior, but that didn’t mean the prick ever felt inclined to make Lucien privy to his plans and schemes.

And if there was one enemy the Vanserras had never quite managed to conquer, it was curiosity.

“…understand,” a familiar, male voice reached him, barely audible despite Lucien’s Fae hearing, as if its owner had deliberately hidden it in the crinkles of the water. Lucien’s attention strained. “I should have been made aware of the plan, and you know it.”

Lucien rolled his eyes—though the knowledge that even Azriel was not always entitled to Eris’s designs did, admittedly, provide him with some consolation. He leaned in a few inches to study the male, finding his tattooed arms crossed in expectation—and a pair of those menacing, bat-like wings tucked in almost as tight as his lips.

“And you know how important it was that the details of the plan remained discreet,” Eris responded, head angling slightly as he searched Azriel’s gaze.

“By the Cauldron, Eris.” Azriel shifted on his feet, those wings rustling heavily behind him. “I had no idea you would actually kidnap the girl.” Those strange, smoky shadows slithered around his feet—as though in agreement.

From the shelter of his tree, Lucien could practically hear his brother roll his amber eyes. “She’s fine, is she not?” Eris shrugged, his tone hardly inviting an answer as he surveyed the darkness slowly climbing Azriel’s broad frame. Then, “Why do you care so much?” he questioned.

Azriel sighed deeply. “I just…” A pause—as though he was weighing the risk those next words could carry. “I don’t like it when you don’t tell me things,” he finally said.

That makes two of us, Lucien thought bitterly.

He glimpsed a hint of a smile on Eris’s freckled face. “Well,” his brother countered, “I’m not exactly in the business of sharing my secrets with pretty shadowsingers.”

Lucien stifled a groan.

The shadows behind Azriel’s arms curled, the corner of his mouth following suit. “Pretty, huh?” 

Eris opened his mouth—no doubt to tease his spymaster even further—but then Azriel halted, the smile dying on his lips before it ever truly began as he turned to the darkness whispering to his ear. 

Great.

“We have company,” he told Eris, his expression sour.

His cover well and truly blown, Lucien stepped out of his hiding. “Took you long enough,” he said in a manner of greeting, reaching the pair in four long strides and turning towards Eris. “You may wish to reconsider your choice of a spymaster, brother. I can’t say I’m very impressed,” he added, not gracing Azriel with another look.

Eris crossed his arms, the bronze of his jacket catching some of that pale sunlight. “How fortunate for me that I make decisions here, not you,” he said, his tone carrying enough of a bite that Lucien braced himself for the earful he was no doubt about to receive later.

Eris turned to Azriel. “I’ll speak with you back at base,” he said, the words apparently enough of a dismissal.

Azriel’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Make sure that you do,” was his only reply, and he moved to walk away.

A few of his shadows lingered in place for a moment—as if hesitating. Only when Eris cast them a look Lucien couldn’t quite discern did they skitter back, happily following the quiet steps of their master.

Lucien arched an eyebrow at the strange scene. “Trouble in paradise?”

Eris’s attention cut to him. “You do not question me in front of my subordinates.” His brother’s face may as well have been set in stone. “Understand?”

“I do,” Lucien agreed. “That doesn’t change the fact that I don’t trust him.” 

Eris straightened. “Azriel has been with us for six months now, and has proven invaluable to our efforts.”

“Six months is nothing,” Lucien countered. “What was he doing for the five centuries before?”

Eris ran a hand through his hair, the auburn glistening with the movement like liquid metal—Lucien couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen it long and draped over his back. Eris had cut it shortly after Azriel’s arrival, he supposed, realising the past six months had indeed somehow managed to have stretched into near eternity. “I thought he was dead, Lucien,” Eris said, his voice tight. “The War took so many. His entire family is gone—they have been for a while. You want to know what he’s been doing since then?” he asked, and when Lucien offered no answer, he added, “The same thing as us. Trying to survive.”

“Strange that he’s chosen to survive with us, of all people,” Lucien grumbled, more to himself now than Eris.

His brother watched him closely. “There aren’t many of us left. I doubt he’s had a selection of choices,” he added. “Besides, he is of use to me.”

“I’ll bet he is.”

“Watch it,” Eris warned, a bright-red flame flickering in his eyes. “Or I’ll think you’re suggesting something.”

Lucien couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “Oh, I am,” he assured him. “I’m suggesting you’ve never been very good at keeping a sound judgement around your, ah…what did you call him?” He made a show of considering, letting his long claws drum on his crossed arms. “Oh, yes. Subordinates,” he finished with a smile he could only hope portrayed his smugness appropriately..

Eris’s gaze narrowed. “Excuse me if I don’t take your concerns to heart, little brother,” he said slowly, dragging out those last two words as if they were no more than an insult. “Your judgement has hardly been exemplary in recent days.”

“My judgement has been nothing short of impeccable,” Lucien huffed.

“I’m sure,” Eris crooned, a shit-eating grin sprawling on his own face. “Strange how Elain Archeron passed out on her father’s floor from one simple kiss on the hand,” he mused. “Unless, of course,” he added, “it wasn’t her hand you kissed.”

Bastard. “Are you questioning me, Eris?”

“Your ability to follow orders?” Eris asked. “Always.”

“I did follow orders,” Lucien pressed. “Nuan must have been wrong about the dosage,” he added, praying to the Mother and all her small mercies Eris hadn’t caught the hesitation in his voice.

Strangely, though, the Mother had never seen too merciful wherever Lucien was concerned. Most of the time, he could handle it: the anger, the frustration, the fighting. But there was just something about the disappointment in Eris’s face that made Lucien’s insides shrink with guilt as his brother told him, “Nuan has not been wrong once in the four hundred years I’ve known her.” A truth if Lucien had ever heard one—a rarity Eris was offering him. “She’s saved your life on more than one occasion,” he continued. “You’d do better showing her work some respect.”

Blaming it on Nuan had been wrong, and Lucien was no less of a bastard than Eris for it. But Lucien had worked too hard for this assignment, had spent too many decades fighting to be seen by Eris as more than a liability and a painful reminder of the family they’d left behind that he grabbed on to whatever lies he could to not be tossed aside again.

Perhaps that was precisely why even the Mother herself had abandoned him.

He wasn’t sure what to say��wasn’t sure if there was anything to say, in truth. He simply watched the stream ahead, unable to drag his gaze back to Eris’s as if its weight was too much for him to carry.

Eris relieved him of the burden. “Is she awake?” he asked, whatever emotion creeping in his tone earlier now replaced entirely by the voice Lucien had come to know far better. A Commander’s voice—a leader’s.

“Not as far as I’m aware,” Lucien simply replied, his voice as hollow as the echo the river carried into the forest.

“And the camp?” Eris pressed. “We should get moving within the hour.”

“Not nearly packed.” The small legion they’d taken to New Prythian with them had still been mid-breakfast when Lucien exited his tent.

Eris sighed. “Excellent,” he said, and from the corner of his eye, Lucien made out two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. “Go help Nuan in her tent,” Eris instructed, Lucien’s shoulders straightening at the command. It was easier this way—to fall into the roles they’d been acting for as long as Lucien could remember. He finally turned to Eris, then, offering a short nod of acknowledgement.

 I’ll get everybody else on their feet,” Eris added, half-looking over his shoulder as if his Fae eyesight could still somehow see the camp ahead. “I will notify you when she is awake.”

“Oh, good,” Lucien grumbled. Seeing her was exactly what he needed to make his morning even more miserable.

Still, he could’ve sworn a shadow of a smile passed through Eris’s face. “Lighten up, little brother,” he told him, reaching towards Lucien’s shoulder to fix some phantom crinkle in Greysen Nolan’s jacket. “I’m sure your fiancée will be delighted to speak with you.”

***

Elain dreamt of eyes so blue they must have been crafted from raw, hardened ice—frozen somewhere deep beneath a lake, perhaps never to come alive again.

She tried to reach for them, as if to make sure they truly were beyond saving, and yet every attempt at caressing their owner’s face only seemed to push her farther and farther away. Elain opened her mouth to call out his name, to cry out in desperation, but found her throat frozen, too, something like frost slowly creeping its way up the cords of her voice.

“Greysen,” she rasped, the word more a gargle than the syllables making up his name.

He heard, though, if the shift in those eyes was any indication. The ice cracked—snapped in half, ready to shatter into a thousand pieces—and revealed the true colours pouring out of the man’s piercing gaze. A liquid flame, a symphony of reds, golds and oranges, burning so bright Elain had to squint lest it blinded her entirely. She could practically feel it on her skin, feel the promise of its warm embrace as it moved in closer, closer…

The fire crackled—and Elain sat upright, the sound violently ripping her from sleep.

“I’m afraid Greysen is not here, Lady Archeron,” a smooth, male voice reached her. “A true disappointment, I’m sure.”

Elain blinked—then blinked again as she realised she had woken up from one nightmare to another.

She was in a tent, of some sorts. The canvas was roughened with what had to have been weeks, if not months of travel, yellowed by grass at the edges and stained with old, dried-out mud. In some places, Elain’s sleep-dusted sight managed to spot specks of a rusted shade of red, the unmistakable proof that blood had been spilled within the tent’s constraints on more than one occasion. Elain’s blood was likely to be next, if the owner of her newfound lodging was any indication.

The man half-leaning on the wooden pillar was smirking down on her, his mouth curled in a way that could only mean Elain was in more trouble than she had anticipated. It wasn’t his expression she deemed as her immediate concern, though—no, it was the actual, living fire blazing from his freckled, open palm, casting dancing shadows over the canvas beside them.

It was then that she noticed his long, arched ears, the hint of long, sharpened canines peering from that smirk of his. The fire was not burning him at all—it seemed to yield to his command, in fact, like a pet would submit to its master. In that moment, Elain also realised he was standing rather dangerously close to the flammable structure, even as he himself appeared entirely unbothered about the fact.

Elain swallowed something heavy in her throat. “You—” she tried, then cleared her throat. “You’re Fae.”

The faerie’s smile widened. High Fae, Elain understood, inspecting his every movement, every flick of fingers as the flames in his hand chased each other happily. “A cunning observation,” he noted, then looked to that magical fire of his. “And they say humans are short on wit these days,” he muttered, as though he was addressing those flames directly.

She must have been going insane. There was no other explanation—she was just at the ball back home, her own engagement celebration, kissing Greysen Nolan like her whole life depended on him. On her fiancé.

Right now, it seemed that her life was entirely in someone else’s hands.

She swallowed again. Hard. “Are you planning to kill me?”

“Planning,” the High Fae mused, his gaze still transfixed on his hand. “Plans, Lady Archeron, are very much like this fire.” The flames danced again in confirmation. “Unpredictable. Ever-changing. Easy to slip out of control…” The fire blazed, and Elain’s body moved back an inch of its own volition, and the man found her eyes at that. “If wielded by the wrong hand,” he finished, that secretive smile making its way back onto his lips.

“You’re the man in charge, I take it,” Elain simply said.

His eyes, like liquid amber in light of his magic, narrowed on her slightly. “Male,” he corrected, apparently offended by her words. “I am hardly the animal you mistake me for,” he added, that former aloofness returning to his tone. “But yes. I am.”

Excellent. “What did you do to Greysen?” she asked.

The man hummed, bouncing off the pillar at last. His flames skittered with the movement, then vanished entirely as he crossed his lean, muscled arms. As if they never existed in the first place. “I didn’t do anything to your pretty little fiancé,” he said, and, even though he hadn’t so much as moved a step closed toward her, Elain found herself pulling back.

“But you gave the order.”

He waved a hand. “Semantics.”

“Is he…” She couldn’t bear the question—not when the answer seemed so obvious. “Is he dead, then?” she managed.

“Oh, yes,” the man answered as though it was the weather she’d just asked him about, not the death of another man. “I am told he was rather easy to kill.” He met her gaze. “It was a swift and merciful death, if it brings you any comfort.”

It was as if all the air was knocked out of her lungs, a fire of her own replacing it completely—simmering, threatening to boil over. “Comfort?” Elain asked, the anger now rising through her throat. “You ruined my future!”

Not once did she ever imagine she would yell at a faerie and live to tell the tale. Perhaps she wouldn’t.

But all the man—male—did was scoff, looking at her in a way that made her wish she had canines of her own, if only to rip his throat out. “And what a bright future it was,” he said. “Married off and shipped to the far side of the world to be nothing but a weak lordling’s broodmare.” Something darkened in those eyes as he added, “I’ve seen it happen before. Trust me, such stories do not end well.”

“I would rather die than trust you,” Elain spat.

He studied his nails, short and perfectly trimmed. “That can be arranged.”

“You know nothing about Greysen Nolan.”

Something like amusement crept into his face. “Don’t I?” he asked. “I know more about your fiancé than you can imagine, Lady Archeron. I’d care to explain had you not just so loudly declared your distrust of me,” he added, his eyes returning to picking some invisible grain of dirt off his immaculate hands.

Elain found herself seething. “How dare—”

“Not another step.”

It wasn’t the bastard’s voice that had warned her, though—and perhaps it was what made her stop dead in her tracks.

Elain hadn’t even realised she’d rose from her bed at some point in her anger until a figure appeared before her, so large and imposing it nearly blocked everything else from view. She had never seen a man so—

Wings. He had wings.

Elain was going to die today.

“I am handling the situation, Azriel,” the fiery male said from behind him, his voice dropping to a lazy drawl.

If she was going to die, she might as well have gotten the last word. “I am not some object for you to handle,” Elain spat.

The male chuckled. “She’s feisty,” he said, auburn hair glistening with the shake of his head. “I must admit I’m growing quite fond of your company, Lady Archeron.”

“She’s his daughter,” the winged male—Azriel—rumbled, his voice like thunder in a midnight storm. “For all we know, she could be hiding ash weapons beneath her skirts,” he added, a disgusted grimace twisting his otherwise beautiful face.

Elain sucked in a breath. “You—”

“She isn’t,” the other male said, stepping closer towards them, Azriel’s wings rustling back as if to make space.  “We had her searched,” he explained to his companion.

“You what?” Elain whirled to him, heat flaring red in her chest, her face. “You dared to—”

“I thought we’ve established I am not the monster you think me for,” the male told her, something like distaste filling his features. “I did not come near your tent until a few moments ago.”

“But someone did.” Someone had been in here while Elain had been sleeping,

He sighed deeply, Azriel’s gaze finally leaving Elain’s to dart towards the sound. “You’ll meet her soon. Have you not realised you’re not wearing the ballgown from the night before?”

“I—”

“Humans,” he sighed again, then turned to Azriel. “Did you have something to report, or are you just here to disturb me?”

Azriel’s wings shifted heavily behind him. “My job is to protect you, Eris.” That must have been the leader’s name. Elain catalogued it in the corners of her mind—in case the Queens of old somehow kept her in their favour, she would report it to the Governor once she escaped.

“Your job is to be my spy,” Eris told him, something in his stare telling Elain he didn’t exactly appreciate Azriel betraying his name, either. Still, he turned to Elain, smiling as though they were no more than two old friends catching up. “Illyrians can be so overprotective.”

Elain stilled. “Illyrians?”

I can already imagine his eyes light up as I hand him the pair of wings your sister had sent in from Hybern, her father’s letter said.

Azriel moved quicker than time itself.

In one moment, he stood right before her, the edge of his right wing nearing Eris’s shoulder, the perfect picture of his leader’s protector. The next, she felt a dark breeze whoosh past her, and a heavy, menacing presence appearing behind her—and a strange, cold pressure on her neck.

Azriel’s voice was colder than ice as the sharp edge of his knife grazed Elain’s throat. “Tell me what you know.”

It looked like she wasn’t getting out of here alive after all. “N-nothing,” she uttered, suddenly very aware of her heart thudding through every vein in her body. “Please.”

The knife did not move.

“Azriel,” Eris’s voice reached her, but even less than two feet away from her, he still seemed too far. As though Azriel had pulled her underwater, and, whatever Eris’s command was, it could not swim deep enough to reach them in time. “Azriel.”

But then the fire crackled again, the same snapping sound that had pulled her from her sleep, and everything ended as soon as it began.

Elain gasped, a long, raspy breath pouring into her chest, her lungs, her neck suddenly free of the cold steel and its owner. She blinked the blurriness away, like a fog lifting itself off her gaze, and Azriel appeared before her again, wings tucked in tight as he sheathed his blade somewhere deep into the leathers on his back.

For a male who played with fire, Eris’s stare was nothing but pure darkness as he looked at Azriel. “I think it’s time for you to go,” he said, no trace of that former theatrical laziness lingering in his tone.

A muscle jutted in Azriel’s powerful jaw. “Fine,” he grumbled at last, then dared another glance at Elain. “But I want to interrogate her later.”

“We’ll see,” Eris said, the words sounding too much like an agreement.

Panic rose through her again. “No,” Elain protested. “No, you will not—”

“See,” Eris turned to her, auburn brows knitting in a frown. “Now you’ve frightened our guest.”

“She has no reason to be afraid,” Azriel said. “Yet,” he added, meeting her gaze directly.

Elain felt her stomach tighten.

Perhaps, if she retched her guts out in front of their feet, they would let her go. What could a pair of Fae killers want with her, anyway? She was the Merchant’s daughter, but without him as a prisoner by her side, Elain was nothing. Had nothing. Anything they might have wanted from her father was left behind in the Manor—days away from wherever they’d hidden her, according to Eris, at least. So why was Elain here?

“She’s not afraid, shadowsinger,” someone said from behind Azriel’s wings—someone so familiar Elain nearly stopped breathing again. “No, I think our little fawn is angry.”

She knew that voice—deep and honeyed, the same way his hands felt on her waist when he’d pulled her closer into his arms, the same way his lips tasted as she searched them with her own. It was impossible—it had to be—but Elain peered over Azriel’s shoulder all the same.

Eris had told her he was dead. Killed, quickly and without hesitation.

And yet here he stood, in the same navy-blue jacket that offset his long, auburn waves the night before, the golden gleam in his eyes that reminded her of sunlight as they met her own. Beautiful.

Alive.

“Greysen?” Elain breathed.

Greysen smiled, then—and Elain’s breath caught in her throat.

She wasn’t sure she would ever breathe again as a pair of canines, so similar to Eris’s yet even sharper, somehow, flashed at her from the smile. As a hand, broad and strong as it led her through last night’s dance, rose to run long talons through his hair, to tuck a loose strand of it behind an unmistakably arched ear. As the male she thought was a man looked at her in a way that told her everything she knew about him was a lie.

“Not exactly, Princess,” he purred.

“There you are,” Eris drawled like the world hasn’t just collapsed around them. “Lady Archeron,” he turned to her at that, “allow me to introduce to you my younger brother. Meet Lucien Vanserra, Seventh Son of the Autumn Court, Lieutenant of the Golden Leaf and former courtier and emissary.”

Elain could’ve sworn a mockery of a smile bloomed on Eris’s lips as he added, “And, evidently, your betrothed.”

[wutheringskies]

Twin Prides: The Jiang Principles

In MDZS, there's a time frame where both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian'a actions display exemplary Jiang principles. A common theme in the book is that: you may do good, but you are not entitled to the rewards. Another theme would be: one's body may turn to dust but one's soul will pay for retribution or reward.

Having said that, what is so very important to me with events leading upto and after the golden core transfer is that:

1. Jiang Cheng tries to defend Wei Wuxian from Madam Yu. Madam Yu says utterly hateful words to Wei Ying while giving Jiang Cheng love (probably for the first time.)

2. Jiang Fengmian pats Jiang Cheng's head, wishes him well, and asks Wei Ying to protect him.

3. They go back and see everyone is dead; Jiang Cheng wishes to run inside. Wei Wuxian stops him from "taking revenge/killing himself"

4. He beats Wei Ying up and strangles him.

5. Wei Ying goes to buy him food afterwards.

6. Jiang Cheng distracts the guards and gets captured instead.

This timing, and everything that has happened before is so important: Jiang Cheng knows that it isn't Wei Wuxian's fault, has seen everyone blame him and hurt him, including himself. He wanted to go back in, find his parents - all of this culminates into him displaying the true Jiang principle by becoming the bait.

Conclusion:

He ends up getting whipped once by the discipline whip, have three broken ribs, and a melted core.

Obviously, the concluding effects are much more severe than he had expected.

So, he did it. He became what his father always wanted him to be. And where did that land him? Wasn't it all because Wei Wuxian also tried to be righteous? So, he channels his mother - the mother who hugged him, and the mother who always said he was to rule while the others would be drowning in sewers.

Now, onto Wei Wuxian's point of view:

1. He made use of the Jiang principles and the fall of the Jiang clan was pinned onto him by Madam Yu, by Jiang Cheng, by the people.

2. He was treated terribly by Madam Yu, and commanded to protect Jiang Cheng by both of his guardians.

3. Wei Wuxian does NOT know Jiang Cheng distracted the guards. All he's shown is that Jiang Cheng's anger towards him.

4. Despite that, with a sense of responsibility towards the Jiang Clan, he gives up his core so that the Jiang Clan can go on.

Conclusion?

Get caught by Wen Chao (mnnn), get tortured and ultimately thrown into the worst place on earth from where his soul would be denied relief.

The concluding effects are supremely overstated. Wei Wuxian probably expected having to live as an average man without any cultivation, to probably not be able to fight the war, to probably even die in the war.

But now his literal soul is denied existence. He would have been stuck there for ETERNITY. Just another resentful spirit.

Both Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian showed the true Jiang principle here.

Both of them got punished so severely for choosing to be righteous.

Their story diverges from here in a way:

Jiang Cheng, armed with Zidian, with the Jiang cultivators, with Jiang swordsmanship and cultivation, never displayes the true Jiang principles ever again. He is another one of the gentry to abandon the ideals upon which any sect is formed ("be righteous" - Lan Qiren)

Wei Wuxian abandons the Jiang cultivators, is removed from the Jiang line, and gives up Jiang swordsmanship, but despite the heavy consequences, chooses again and again to display the true Jiang ideals.

[beardedmrbean]

The United Nations reported Tuesday that armed men in Sudan raped children as young as one, with UNICEF citing widespread child sexual abuse amid the conflict. Over 221 child rape cases have been recorded since early 2024, with two-thirds of the survivors being girls.

Children as young as one have been raped by armed men during the conflict in Sudan, the United Nations said on Tuesday, condemning it as a horror that should "shock anyone to their core".

UNICEF said the scale of child rape in war-ravaged Sudan was far more widespread than just the documented cases while urging all sides to end sexual violence as a war tactic.

Gender-based violence (GBV) service providers in Sudan recorded some 221 cases of child rape since the beginning of 2024.

Of those cases, 66 percent of the survivors were girls and 33 percent were boys.

There were 16 survivors under the age of five – including four who were as young as one.

The UN children's agency recorded an additional 77 reported cases of sexual assault against children – primarily attempted rape.

"Painstakingly verified by the United Nations, these figures provide only a partial picture of the true magnitude of violence inflicted against children," UNICEF said.

It said survivors and their families were often unwilling or unable to come forward, fearing stigma, rejection from their family or community, retribution from armed groups, confidentiality breaches, or being accused of being a collaborator.

Life-long consequences 

"Children as young as one being raped by armed men should shock anyone to their core and compel immediate action," said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell.

"Millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war. This is an abhorrent violation of international law and could constitute a war crime. It must stop."

Sudan's regular army (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since April 2023.

The fighting has plunged Sudan into what the UN calls the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe.

In its report entitled "Sudan's child rape and sexual violence crisis", UNICEF said attacks included armed men storming homes and demanding families surrender their girls; and raping girls in front of their loved ones.

The report did not single out either the SAF or the RSF as being behind particular crimes.

Victims were left with serious physical injury, including wounds, fractures, abscesses, and other complications.

"No person, no child, should have to endure these horrors," the report said.

It said sexual violence could have life-long consequences and leave survivors facing "impossible choices" such as handling a resultant pregnancy, and whether to speak out or seek health support.

'Crying and screaming' 

UNICEF released clips from interviews with victims, maintaining their anonymity.

"They forced me into a big car... They took me to a place next to a railway, and three people raped me," said one 16-year-old girl.

"They were beating me and raping me and threw me next to the railway, and a woman came and helped me go home... and when I arrived, I was in a terrible condition."

The girl is now nine months pregnant.

An adult woman was held by armed men for 19 days in a room with other women and girls.

"After nine at night, someone opens the door, carrying a whip, selects one of the girls, and takes her to another room. I could hear the little girl crying and screaming. They were raping her," she said.

"Every time they raped her, this girl would come back covered in blood... They only release these girls at dawn, and they return almost unconscious."

UNICEF urged the Sudanese government and all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations to protect civilians, especially children, while those providing services to survivors must be protected.

"In decision-making on funding, GBV programmes must be treated by donors as lifesaving," the agency said.

[aislesalmon]

wow, the Shi/Yu arc was… not great

I mean Yu’s entire character was awful, and Nagisa’s Magia Record story (not including Nagisa’s Wish, which was great aside from Yu) wasn’t any good either, so I wasn’t expecting much.

but Shi had such potential as a character and they just… did nothing with it. nothing she does has anything to do with anything that previously happened. there’s no causal relationship. things just happen. they set up all this interesting stuff with her dreaming about victims of violent crime, and then write her as being completely indifferent to it and only motivated by tragic yuri. they also can’t even stick to their own rules of her dreaming only about potential magical girls, because she dreams of the victims of Yu’s retribution too.

and they couldn’t stick with consistent characterization for Yu either. Last Bird’s Hope tries to push this bizarre “insanity=innocence” message and portray Yu as innocent because her mind is too disorganized to form an ego or sense of right and wrong. this is directly contradictory to Nagisa’s Wish, in which Yu says she knows what she does is wrong and doesn’t care because she feels entitled to the lives of others. hell, a major plot point of Nagisa’s Wish is that Nagisa thinks she isn’t a good enough person to become a magical girl until she meets Yu, after which she thinks that if someone like Yu can become a magical girl she’ll have no problem. and then Last Bird’s Hope makes a huge point of portraying Yu as innocent and Nagisa as jealous of this innocence, like ??????????????

I get that the point of the event was to show that all is never truly well, there’s always a new villain rising and an ever-greater threat looming on the horizon, and while some overcome their traumas others simply perpetuate the cycle, but it’s just so poorly written. it also has some of the worst pacing in the franchise, and that’s saying something. what a disappointing send off for the game.

just… eugh. I’m gonna keep pretending the game ended after Puella Historia.

[alianoralacanta]

Greek society didn't see their gods as paragons of perfection. They were seen as very powerful immortals in charge of particular domains. With about as much responsibility in their roles as one might expect of any random bunch of humans who suddenly acquired eternal life, tons of power with few checks or balances, and access to unlimited rice pudding (sorry, ambrosia). All Greek societies expected people to be reverent to the gods. In addition to the crimes against Chrysippus, Laius had also been ordered not to have a child. Greek gods rarely made such a command, although in some version of Oedipus, the reason given to Laius was that this was the only way to save his city. (Laius had usurped the throne of Thebes, not considered a crime in itself but still a job with certain responsibilities, including especial obligation to obey the gods and not throw the city's people under a metaphorical bus). Similarly, society's hierarchy amongst mortals was to be respected (even disobeying a king to obey a god had an attendant cost). Oedipus had no such excuse when failing to obey Laius' order to defer to him. Laius was, according to Greek society, entitled to punish Oedipus, and had every right not to expect retribution for this act. Had Oedipus not been a tragic figure, Greek society would have regarded him as an evil one. OP's point is why Oedipus is a tragedy and not simply a wrong 'un getting his just desserts. Many (not all) Greek societies set great store by mortals whose descendents had great achievements. Punishing Oedipus was very much considered a valid way to punish, especially since the crime was so serious death may have been regarded as insufficient. A wife who suffered for reasons not connected to her own agency was generally assumed to have suffered due to the husband's failings (her feelings mostly didn't come into it, unless her agency was significant to the plot, which is not the case in Oedipus). Serious family shame was considered worse than death in many Greek societies. (Although this story clearly didn't come from Spartan society, since filial ties were weaker there). Postscript: Thebes did get a disease, which was linked to the prophecy.

i kinda feel bad for oedipus b/c everyone assumes he chose to fuck his mom when in fact he went out of his way to avoid it. he left his hometown and distanced himself from his parents because he was afraid he would somehow get tricked into fucking his mom. everything could have been avoided if his adopted parents told him he was adopted.

[fiendix-wcr]

LINPHEA

INTRODUCTION

Ruler: Linphean Royal Family (Queen Regnant Raquel, Crown Princess Krystal) Capital: Bristlecone Territories: Cumulus Seal: Tree

LANDSCAPE

Linphea's landscape appears dense and heavily forested, as the environment allows for things to grow well beyond their usual means. You'll find flowers as wide as rooftops, beanstalks higher than telephone poles--massive, ancient-era trees housing thousands within their branches, entwining together over time to form bridges and roadways. Waterfalls, another trademark aspect of the realm, tend to cascade down from mountainsides, burgeoning more plant life.

Its fauna consists of many subtropical/tropical species of animals, including atypical variants altered by the presence of Linphea's magical field--magiwolves and gigantic insects, for example. Treants and spriggans may, on occasion, stomp about the forest floor, so it's best to look up and stay aware of your close surroundings.

CITIZENS

Linpheans are considered one of the most generous realm nationalities; they are praised for their large and open hearts, their considerate natures. Homey-types, known to be tight-knit, quaint or old-fashioned. They'll accommodate you on principle, and be the first to make sure that there's enough to go around--spare food, clothing, housing space--once or twice, preferably. Nothing's wasted. This generosity, however, has its faults; it seldom accounts for the selfish and entitled, who like to take more than their fill. It doesn't take into consideration the cruel, violent people of the world--those who partake in mindless destruction, whether through vandalism, pollution, or other behaviors. It can still be useful, though, given that natural retribution on Linphea, though heavily discouraged, is never entirely off the table.

Queen Raquel, a proactive community organizer, claims to remember all of her current subjects by name; it's laughable, as several mix-matched and double-booked wedding couples over the years beg the contrary, but not that disputed, evident in the many, many people who believe her. Princess Krystal was a seedling once attached to her mother's side--literally--but has since grown confident, if not outspoken, about her newfound freedoms abroad; that said, her issues with personal space remain, further contributing to her reputation as an unyielding flirt, although one completely harmless in reality.

INSPIRATIONS

Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador Farmer's Markets Vintage Floriography Pixie Hollow (Online Game) Light Academia

[thellawtoknow]

Restitution 101: The Big Picture

Restitution in Legal ContextHistorical Foundations of Restitution Key Principles of Restitution Unjust Enrichment Restorative Justice Causation Absence of Legal Justification Restitution in Legal Context Restitution is a fundamental concept in law, rooted in the principle of fairness and the prevention of unjust enrichment. It refers to the process by which an individual is required to return or compensate for something that was wrongfully taken, received, or retained at another's expense. This doctrine plays a critical role in various branches of law, including contract law, tort law, criminal law, and equity, ensuring that individuals or entities are not unjustly enriched at the expense of others.

Historical Foundations of Restitution The concept of restitution has its roots in Roman law, where it was closely linked to the idea of "unjust enrichment" (condictio indebiti). Roman jurists established early on that a person who received something they were not entitled to had a legal obligation to restore it. Over centuries, this principle evolved into a distinct area of law, particularly in common law jurisdictions, as courts sought remedies to address situations where traditional tort or contract principles fell short. In equity, the doctrine of restitution was further refined to address moral and ethical considerations. Equity courts emphasized fairness, developing remedies such as constructive trusts and equitable liens to ensure just outcomes. Key Principles of Restitution Restitution is a sophisticated legal doctrine that ensures fairness and prevents unjust enrichment in diverse circumstances. The foundational principles guiding its application shape how courts evaluate and remedy claims. Below is an in-depth discussion of these principles, each of which serves as a critical building block in understanding the scope and purpose of restitution. Unjust Enrichment At the heart of restitution lies the principle of unjust enrichment, which asserts that no person or entity should unfairly benefit at the expense of another. For enrichment to be deemed "unjust," several factors must converge: - Existence of Enrichment: Enrichment refers to any form of benefit—whether monetary, property-related, or otherwise—that the defendant gains. This enrichment could be direct, such as receiving money, or indirect, such as saving costs through another's labor or resources. - Expense to Another: The enrichment must come at a cost to the claimant. This could be tangible, like the loss of property, or intangible, such as an opportunity forgone due to the defendant's actions. - Unjust Nature of the Enrichment: Not all enrichments at another's expense are unjust. For instance: - A payment made voluntarily under a valid contract is lawful and thus not "unjust." - Conversely, accepting funds transferred by mistake, or misappropriating goods, constitutes unjust enrichment. - Application Across Contexts: Unjust enrichment applies broadly, from mistaken payments to benefits arising from breaches of fiduciary duties. Courts use this principle to craft remedies that ensure fairness, requiring the defendant to return the benefit or compensate the plaintiff. Restorative Justice The principle of restorative justice underscores restitution's goal: to restore the status quo ante, or the position parties occupied before the unjust act occurred. Unlike punitive measures, restitution focuses on fairness and corrective action rather than retribution. - Reinstating Balance: The claimant should not be disadvantaged due to another's wrongful act. For example, if a party mistakenly transfers money, restitution ensures the mistaken transfer does not leave the payer financially worse off. - Nature of Restitutionary Remedies: - Monetary remedies aim to neutralize the defendant's benefit and the claimant's loss. - Non-monetary remedies, like specific restitution (return of goods), directly undo the wrongful act. - Aligning with Equity: Restorative justice is grounded in equitable principles. Courts consider the broader implications of restitutionary orders, ensuring outcomes align with fairness and public policy. - Challenges in Restoration: Fully restoring the claimant's position is not always straightforward. For example: - If a benefit has been consumed or transformed, courts may assess its monetary equivalent instead of ordering its direct return. - In cases of intangible harm, such as reputational damage, restorative remedies may require creative application. Causation Causation is a fundamental requirement in establishing a restitutionary claim. It ensures that the defendant’s gain is directly linked to the claimant’s loss. This causal relationship is essential for proving that restitution is warranted. - Establishing Causality: The claimant must demonstrate that the enrichment enjoyed by the defendant is not incidental or coincidental but results directly from the claimant's actions or loss. For instance: - If Party A mistakenly pays Party B, the causal link is clear. - However, if Party A suffers a loss unrelated to Party B’s gain, restitution does not apply. - Avoiding Remote Connections: Courts reject claims where the connection between the enrichment and the loss is too remote or speculative. For example: - A business profiting from market trends caused by a claimant's unrelated actions would not typically qualify as causally enriched. - Tracing and Constructive Trusts: In complex cases, such as misappropriated funds, courts may employ tracing to establish causation. This involves identifying how the defendant’s gain can be linked to the claimant's original property or money. - Role in Multi-Party Disputes: In situations involving multiple parties, causation becomes particularly critical. Courts examine whether the claimant’s loss can be attributed to a specific defendant, ensuring restitution is directed appropriately. Absence of Legal Justification Restitution hinges on the idea that the defendant’s enrichment must lack legal justification. This principle acts as a safeguard, ensuring that restitution does not interfere with lawful transactions or entitlements. - Legal Basis for Enrichment: - If a valid contract or statutory entitlement justifies the defendant's gain, restitution is not applicable. For instance, a landlord lawfully collecting rent is entitled to the payment and cannot be subjected to a restitutionary claim. - Conversely, if a contract is void due to fraud or misrepresentation, restitution may apply to undo the enrichment gained through the void transaction. - Types of Invalid Justifications: - Mistake: Payments made under a mistaken belief (e.g., paying a non-existent debt) lack legal justification. - Fraud or Coercion: Gains obtained through deceit or undue pressure are inherently unjust. - Illegality: Benefits derived from unlawful acts, such as insider trading, are also unjust. - Overlap with Equity and Public Policy: The principle ensures that restitution aligns with broader legal and moral considerations. Courts may refuse restitution in cases where returning the benefit would contravene public policy, such as restoring payments under illegal contracts. - Burden of Proof: The claimant bears the burden of proving the absence of legal justification. This includes showing that no valid agreement, statute, or other legal basis underpins the defendant's enrichment. The key principles of restitution—unjust enrichment, restorative justice, causation, and absence of legal justification—form a coherent framework for addressing and resolving disputes involving wrongful gains. These principles ensure that restitutionary remedies are not arbitrary but grounded in fairness, legal reasoning, and ethical considerations. By preventing unjust enrichment and restoring balance, restitution safeguards the integrity of the legal system and promotes trust in its equitable application. Applications of Restitution in Law Restitution applies across various legal domains, each with its unique context and considerations: - Contract Law: Restitution arises in cases where contracts are voided or rescinded due to fraud, duress, mistake, or illegality. For example, if a party to a void contract has received benefits, they are typically required to return them. - Tort Law: In tort cases, restitution may be awarded as a remedy when one party benefits from a wrongful act, such as trespass or conversion. The court may require the wrongdoer to disgorge profits earned from their misconduct. - Criminal Law: Restitution serves as a remedy for victims of crime, compelling offenders to compensate for the harm caused. This form of restitution focuses on rehabilitating the victim rather than punishing the offender. - Unjust Enrichment: This independent cause of action is often invoked in equity. For example, if a payment is made by mistake, the recipient may be required to return it, even if no contract or tort is involved. Remedies in Restitution Restitutionary remedies are diverse and tailored to specific circumstances: - Monetary Compensation: The most common remedy, requiring the defendant to pay the value of the benefit received. - Specific Restitution: In some cases, courts order the return of specific property wrongfully obtained. - Constructive Trusts: This equitable remedy imposes a fiduciary duty on the defendant, treating them as a trustee of the property in question, ensuring its proper return to the claimant. - Equitable Liens: Courts may grant a lien over the defendant's property, providing security for the claimant’s restitutionary claim. Challenges and Controversies Despite its fairness-oriented goals, restitution poses several challenges: - Defining "Unjust": Determining what constitutes unjust enrichment is often subjective, leading to inconsistencies in judicial decisions. - Overlap with Other Doctrines: Restitution frequently intersects with contract and tort law, raising questions about its independence as a legal principle. - Practical Implementation: In some cases, measuring the benefit unjustly received can be complex, especially when it involves intangible or indirect gains. The Role of Restitution in Modern Legal Systems Restitution has gained increasing prominence in contemporary legal systems, serving as a bridge between traditional legal remedies and equitable justice. Its flexible nature allows courts to adapt it to a wide range of scenarios, promoting fairness and preventing exploitation. In addition, the development of restitution law reflects broader societal values, such as accountability and respect for property rights. As legal systems evolve, restitution continues to adapt, addressing emerging issues in areas like intellectual property, environmental law, and digital assets. Conclusion Restitution is a cornerstone of legal remedies, embodying the principle that fairness and justice must prevail in situations of unjust enrichment. Its adaptability and focus on restoring balance make it a vital tool for addressing complex legal disputes. By ensuring that no one profits wrongfully at another’s expense, restitution upholds the integrity of the legal system and reinforces the broader societal commitment to equity and justice. Read the full article