siraquila

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is this anything

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is this anything

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Oh mighty, Settra… Great King, the Imperishable, Khemrikhara, The Great King of Nehekhara, King of Kings, Opener of the Way, Wielder of the Divine Flame, Punisher of Nomads, The Great Unifier, Commander of the Golden Legion, Sacred of Appearance, Bringer of Light, Father of Hawks, Builder of Cities, Protector of the Two Worlds, Keeper of the Hours, Chosen of Ptra, High Steward of the Horizon, Sailor of the Great Vitae, Sentinel of the Two Realms, The Undisputed, Begetter of the Begat, Scourge of the Faithless, Carrion-feeder, First of the Charnel Valley, Rider of the Sacred Chariot, Vanquisher of Vermin, Champion of the Death Arena, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Emperor of the Shifting Sands, He Who Holds The Sceptre, Great Hawk Of The Heavens, Arch-Sultan of Atalan, Waker of the Hierotitan, Monarch of the Sky, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, Champion of the Desert Gods, Breaker of the Ogre Clans, Builder of the Great Pyramid, Terror of the Living, Master of the Never-Ending Horizon, Master of the Necropolises, Taker of Souls, Tyrant to the Foolish, Bearer of Ptra's Holy Blade, Scion of Usirian, Scion of Nehek, The Great, Chaser of Nightmares, Keeper of the Royal Herat, Founder of the Mortuary Cult, Banisher of the Grand Hierophant, High Lord Admiral of the Deathfleets, Guardian of the Charnal Pass, Tamer of the Liche King, Unliving Jackal Lord, Dismisser of the Warrior Queen, Charioteer of the Gods, He Who Does Not Serve, Slayer off Reddittras, Scarab Purger, Favoured of Usirian, Player of the Great Game, Liberator of Life, Lord Sand, Wrangler of Scorpions, Emperor of the Dunes, Eternal Sovereign of Khemri's Legions, Seneschal of the Great Sandy Desert, Curserer of the Living, Regent of the Eastern Mountains, Warden of the Eternal Necropolis, Herald of all Heralds, Caller of the Bitter Wind, God-Tamer, Master of the Mortis River, Guardian of the Dead, Great Keeper of the Obelisks, Deacon of the Ash River, Belated of Wakers, General of the Mighty Frame, Summoner of Sandstorms, Master of all Necrotects, Prince of Dust, Tyrant of Araby, Purger of the Greenskin Breathers, Killer of the False God's Champions, Tyrant of the Gold Dunes, Golden Bone Lord, Avenger of the Dead, Carrion Master, Eternal Warden of Nehek's Lands, Breaker of Djaf's Bonds… and many, many more…

This humble supplicant approaches you with one question. Who, in the realms of the living, is the second greatest charioteer after your highness?

"Nyletoth The Charioteer, second only to the great Khemrihara himself" The desiccated Tyrant's face pulled taut in a strange facsimile of a smile "the sight of his chariots baring down upon pretenders and invaders of Khemri brings joy back unto my being"

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Dishonored 1. Don't get me wrong, Dishonored 2 is a great game that improves on one in some cases, and Death of the Outsider is really fun. But they are missing some of the magic of one. And nowhere is that as obvious as in the void. A very sad downgrade, from an almost playful reflection of the real world, to the eldritch obsidian place it was in two.

The world must know

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Violence isn't the answer. It is also very necessary sometimes.

But the thing is that self-defense will not, and cannot solve the problems you are defending against. Not amount of killing fascists will change the socio-economic realities that lead to people becoming fascists.

And if you approach the problem with the thought that violence will solve it, will you really reexamine your views when violens fails to stop it? Or will you find a new target for your violence, because clearly you did not get all the bad people, because there are still problems.

Violence, at best, is step one on a long road to creating something better, and people need to remember that.

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You certainly may, and I do want to note I quite like Vimes as a character, because he tries to be better, and fails in very realistic ways. He gives us a glimpse inside of the thin blue line, on how someone can do a lot of good, and still hurt people through unreflected behaviour, and unquestioned assumptions. Hell, Vimes is a better policeman then most IRL officers(unlike some other cops who are definitly part of ACAB despite some fans insistance otherwhise, looking at you Disco Elysium)).

Regarding Troll Culture, how many human cultures have... frankly questionable cultural religious practices, especially since Disc World troll, even at their... most overheated have been repeatetly shown to be able to learn and communicate without violence.

Yes, and that shows unreflectedness on his part, because a servant taking from their employee is VERY different to a copper taking from the community they are supposed to protect. Just like Vimes wouldn't approve of an employer taking leftovers from their employees he should not approve of coppers taking from the community.

You mean like the days before, where Vimes was purposfully avoiding A.E Pessimal so he wouldn't have to answer questions like "Why are you employing a known, notorious and unrepentent petty thief as a watchman? The afformentioned troll violence? A frankly stupid question attempting to grade police officers by number of arrests(which I fully admit does not reflect well on AE Pessimal, but does not invalidate the rest of his complaints(which include proof of someone(look we all know its Nobby, Vimes knows its Nobby) stealing money from the watch. And Vimes reaction to that isn't that he does not have the time, but that he does not want to bother explaining it to AE Pessimal, while also wondering if he has a functioning brain(in the german translation at least). And then, when AE Pessimal insists on answers(admittetly at a bad time), Vimes reaction is to throw him into the deep end without training, while making sure everyone gets the message that they should try to intimidate him as much as possible. I like Vimes, and he is a bastard, and we are doing noone any favors by smoothing over or ignoring his bastardy traits, even the ones that aren't bastardy in a cool way.

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No, I would submit that it is different still. ACAB includes Sam Vimes, because he is not aware enough of it.

We talk about the Sam who abhors torture, yet is fully okay with Troll Watchman beating troll prisoners.

Who considers even a dollar a bribe, yet material bribes are simply perks of the job.

Who thinks that Watchmen need to be civilians, yet gets angry at the thought of getting civilian oversight, because how could he explain the "realities " of the job to a civilian.

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Which is very funny, because Vimes himself utterly hates it every time watchmen get treated like civilians.

Hell, in Thudd when Vetinari sends in A.E Pessimal Vimes initial reaction is. "This sucks, how am I going to explain to a civilian that Ork Watchman need to brutalize Ork Prisoners."

And the solution in story is not to actually have Vimes confront that thought, but to make A.E Pessimal part of the thin blue line.

I'm reading The Truth, and the way Terry portrays Vimes in this book almost feels like a test for those who have read previous City Watch books. A reader who has read the previous books knows and trusts Vimes. We love him, we know he's a good man, we want him to succeed.

But in this book, he's almost an antagonist to William, at least initially. He's resistant and hostile to William's journalistic efforts, it seems like William is making his job harder, and my instinct was to be irritated with William about this. But as I've progressed through the book, I've realized that I fell into the Protagonist Trap with Vimes.

I, the reader, love Vimes. I trust Vimes. I want Vimes to succeed. But Vimes doesn't get to do whatever he wants just because I love him. William isn't doing anything illegal and he isn't doing anything wrong. And Vimes, irritated as he is, recognizes this.

It almost feels like Terry is leaning over the reader's shoulder to see if you were paying attention to the message of the other City Watch books, not just enjoying the adventure stories.

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He tried to burn him alive in a last, desperate attempt to regain control over his fate, after he was fully convinced that Sauron had won in all but name, and that his armies would march victories any moment now. He tried to burn him alive to spare him whatever fate Sauron would bestow on the survivors of a linage who had caused him so much trouble, and who had opposed him for so long.

If the Ring awas brought to Minas Tirith, Denethor would be all "Yes, put in the vaults, hidden deep and dark, only to be used in the hour of uttermost need," and then the next morning a messenger would come reporting Sauron's movements during breakfast and Denethor would say, "These ill tidings have caused me to drop my toast! Bring forth the Ring! We have reached the hour of uttermost need!"

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I feel like they would get along well until the second the discussion turns to politics, considering the whole. ultra-mega-genocidal super authoritarianism 40k!Kitten has going on.

I have a feeling that the Kittens would get along pretty well. Marckus and Magnus are barely tolerating each other.

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Did she just say bend the ring to her will, or ignore its corrupting influence? Because those are two very different things. Half the reason why Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel fear the One Ring is that they very much could bend it to their will. And if they did they would have a very good chance to destroy Sauron with it.

It would also warp them into something they really did not want to be. Because the One Ring is not a value-neutral tool, it is evil in itself.

So yeah, Granny could definitly bend the One Ring to her will, she would also start cackling very soon after, and Middle Earth would get to behold the true glory of an evil witch. She is, by her own admission, close to it every single day. Especially since from all the Witches she is the posterwoman of how ambition is not evil. But the One Ring feeds on ambition more than anything. Part of the reason why Hobbits make such great ring bearers is because they are so content with their lives, so the ring really has no idea what to promise them. Meanwhile Esme? Oh, she would have visions of how easy it would be to fix the mess of all these stupid old men(and women), if only she had a bit more power, from the start. Sure, the ring is dangerous, but she? She could definitely do it. She demanded magic after all, and she became the best by pure willpower. There is no way a piece of jewelry could best her.

Ironically Granny would likely do the same as Gandalf, get someone who is more resistant to the ring to carry it for her, while she does everything she can to support them, and complain the whole way.

I'm scrolling through Rhianna Pratchett's bluesky and saw her say Granny Weatherwax could probably bend the One Ring to her will.

Now I can't get out of my head this image of her rolling her eyes at all the self-important men at the Council of Elrond and doing it herself because they would just bungle it, giving Gandalf a stern talking-down-to, being jealously unimpressed with Galadriel's treehouse, sending Shelob running, and generally stomping her way across Middle Earth and into Mordor to chuck a piece of jewelry into a volcano.

She would be complaining the ENTIRE time.

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Jules treating harry the kindest of all his colleagues is something that isn't talked about enough

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Terrible awful curse of having two interests cross over plot wise in your head and not being able to TALK TO ANYONE about it

this is about hunter the parenting (chapter 6 ish theories) and welcome to nightvale (strex corp arc)

AAAAAAA

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One thing I keep remembering, is that the King tried to stop the work in the Soul Sanctum.

I wonder why that was. After all, No Cost to Great.

Was this cost, the thousands of discarded bugs, a cost too great? That despite his proclamations, the King chose to limit the suffering to himself, the White Lady, and their offspring? If yes, why?

Was it that noone else was allowed to save his kingdom? Be it of jealousy, a misguided sense of nobless oblige?

Did he fear the power the soul Sanctum might unlock?

Did he know it would fail?

The White King is such a fascinating character because you can see so many things in him.

I kinda love the fact that you cannot interact with the Pale King in your playthrough.

You cannot get more dialogue from dream nailing him, his spirit is not there when you arrive to the end of the White Palace, and you are able to see a brief moment of his past only in two scarce occasions. Instead, you can only dethrone his withered corpse and complete Kingsoul with the half-fragment he was hiding to finally unite with your siblings and find peace in the Void.

Whatever you make up of him is entirely up to you and the storyline you choose to believe. And yet, somehow listening to the bugs that offered their stories about the kingdom, the pieces of lore tablets placed and hidden by the bugs in their territories, the lingering souls that still wander through the emptiness of Hallownest, and the corpses you can dream nail that would ask for the King, wondering why he left them to rot under the infection, almost cannot compare to the realness of seeing your sibling, the King's hand-crafted and favoured child, tragically chained and sealed away within their imperfect self, failing to fulfill the only duty they were created for: saving the kingdom. You can see them trying to fight, the great Hollow Knight, stabbing themselves to try to stop the infection from making them hostile and attacking you. The imperfect Vessel, ruined by the attachment to a King, a father, that only had one thing in mind: no cost too great.

But after all, the infection won over. And the Pale King has no more say in the story.

He cannot try to redeem himself, he cannot try to explain his course of action, what beliefs did he have that would justify the cost of it all. Instead, we just see his corpse cowardly hidden in an unreachable place and the rotting fruits of his mistakes: a kingdom that demonstrates that every single thing that could have gone wrong actually went wrong. And I am so, so obsessed with it.

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castle census time

it's time to find out how fucked the kingdom is

pick the one that's closest to you, or the one that's primary if you take multiple positions

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I mean, they are not completely up to their old tricks.

Can you imagine Trazyn at the start of the book regretting something he did to Orikan? Can you imagine Orikan feeling betrayed by Trazyn being back on his BS?

Also, remember, while they spent 10k years bonding, for them, that was barely a weekend. They had to do a short group project with a person they utterly hated before, and now they like each other almost as much as they hate each other. More on a good day.

Trazyn and Orikan still finding a way to feud with each other after all that is honestly impressive