#Major Power Conflict

[bkkblogs]

Power Dynamics in State Relations – A History Lesson (Part III)

Note: This is the third and final part of a three-part essay. If you haven’t read the first two parts published in the previous two weeks, I recommend that you read them first before reading this. The Plataeans admitted that they had indeed become enemies of Sparta, but they attributed this to the Spartans themselves, who had rejected their plea for help against the Thebans (3.55.1). Instead,…

[sugaploom]

"saltburn doesnt have any messages its just a wacky movie" its literally about how one mans lust and obsession for something and someone out of his grasp cause him to commit horrible acts to an entire family. he forfeits everything that he Is and becomes something crazy and new and fucked up in order to accomplish this goal. whats not clicking

[mizushidokoro]

can we as a society stop pretending that jjk does not have a misogyny problem? there are many shitty and unfair criticisms of gege's writing and I understand the instinct to push back against that, but let's not pretend gege has invested the same effort into, and/or has the same aptitude for, writing women as for writing men

[ravenrambles6229]

babygirl help im so hyperfixated

[oceangloww]

[kerryweaverlesbian]

The thing about Supernatural is it's like Buffy if Wilow was missing from 60% of the episodes and Xander was missing from a different 60%. It's like if on Deep Space Nine someone went to Quarks and he just wasn't there for no discernable reason. It's like if Norm regularly wasn't at the bar in Cheers for 6 episode spans but everyone still acts as if he's always there.

They keep building really good dynamic ensembles but they don't have the budget(?) to have them in most episodes and (most) seasons are a few episodes longer than they need to be so they have to say Mary is off with the BMoL and Kevin is busy doing tablet work and Cas is watching The Wire. The only people the in-and-out nature of their alliance really works for are Bobby, Crowley and Rowena because they legitimately DO have their own stuff going on that doesn't really need to be explored onscreen.

It's just crazy. Supernatural clearly WANTED to be an ensemble show, but it couldn't be. The practical outside force of "we can't have Castiel on the show that often and stay in budget" (validity of this idea is up for debate) influences the interior facts of the show, "Castiel frequently just isn't there and when he is there's very high emotional stakes because we don't have him long and need to make the most of it", which influences the interior character motivations and feelings, "Castiel isn't there because he's easily manipulated, headstrong, and wants to solve things by himself. The emotions are high when he is back because Dean LOVES him and feels deeply hurt when he's gone but he can never stop him leaving as long as the show is airing." And then those interior character feelings inform the plot of the show.

[coquelicoq]

started on the french dictionary and so far i've only read the front matter and three pages of the A's and i'm already having so much fun. highlights:

the irony of the preface, which basically says, "this is an abridged edition. isn't that neat?", being at least three times longer than necessary

the list of 16 different symbols and their uses in distinguishing senses and introducing distinct usages within the same definition. because that seems like a large number of symbols, i have given myself permission not to comprehend the differences between any of them and just vibe

from the list of abbreviations:

"abusivt: abusivement (emploi très critiquable, parfois faux sens ou solécisme)" 😒 @ french lexicographers: have you heard the good news (of linguistic descriptivism)?

"recomm.: recommandation (dans recomm. off. « recommandation officielle » ; terme conforme à la loi française de 1994 sur la langue)" okay actually @ all of france: get well soon

"abdomen [-ɛn]" do you mean to tell me this vowel isn't nasalized??? sick. twisted. rebellious. can't believe la loi française de 1994 sur la langue has nothing to say about this !

"aber [abɛʀ]" this dictionary tells me when to pronounce the r in words ending in -er. my holy grail. crying and kissing its feet in gratitude

every time the definition includes a word i don't know i can just look that word up elsewhere in the same book i am currently holding!!!!

"abortif, ive adj. Qui fait avorter." told you b and v were related

"abreuver v. tr. 1. Faire boire abondamment (un animal)." this makes it sound like you're force-feeding animals water...on the previous page abondance is defined as "Grande quantité (supérieure aux besoins)" so like i'm getting the sense that you're leading a horse to water and not only making it drink but not letting it leave until it's drunk every last drop in the trough lol

"abribus [-bys] n. m. (nom déposé) Arrêt d'autobus équipé d'un abri" ok cute.

the example it gives for abruti is "Espèce d'abruti !" folks it don't get any frencher than that.

[optimisticllamathing]

on one hand, Nico using his powers once or twice and then passing out in his boyfriends arms is super funny. On the other, it’s annoying that he was made way less powerful after the first series and it happens to enough characters in heroes of olympus to be super noticeable. Percy losing the curse of Achilles, Jason being a big three kid and ex praetor who is said to have fought a Titan with his bare hands and just getting brain damage in a new way every time he’s in the same place as something plot relevant. A case could be made for Piper not learning how to fight with a sword in the months between her quest and heading over to camp jupiter, but in like the later half of the series.

in the Percy Jackson series, Nico has a couple instances of manipulating earth/precious metals. In heroes of Olympus, to make Hazel seem more powerful he acts like her sending a thing of gold back into the ground is way beyond his abilities. Like he routinely brings the dead back to life but she took down Gaea by herself in her first life so it was really not necessary for Nico to be less powerful.

it’d make more sense for him to be MORE powerful than in pjo because he’s older! And he’s older than Hazel!!

after Tartarus and dragging a forty foot statue across the world, yeah, that makes sense as a reason for him to be less powerful/exhausted. But despite him being a big three kid he never gets treated as consistently powerful after that and it’s infuriating.

i missed the established canon of him and the other big three kids being a huge deal and there’s so much that could’ve been done with him staying at camp and being able to do scary things consistently. he murders Bryce and all but I doubt anyone at camp knows it and he almost turned himself into a ghost doing it so it’s not like the reader ever gets the impression it’s something he realistically could add to his arsenal, even ignoring the moral qualms. so much is made about him being creepy and unsettling and he says multiple times that he has been isolated from other demigods due to being the son of hades! and yet he rolls up to camp and he never demonstrates why he has potential to be very very dangerous due to his powers. I think it would’ve been really cool to see people have to actually get to know him to see he’s not that different from them, in SPITE of a difference in ability and the disturbing nature of his powers

the most disturbing thing he does at camp in blood of olympus is nothing! he stops will from trying to save octavian. that’s got nothing to do with his powers.

[saltpotion]

the zelda ii backstory idea had morphed once again into a LU fanfic idea bc i cannot stop brainrotting aurora and dawn’s relationship, esp in light of everything that happens with aurora pre-sleep curse

might also give lu hyrule daddy issues. stay tuned

[clementineskesh]

Any engagement with the jedi that fails to reckon with them as a law enforcement agency (yes before the clone wars) and only touches on their internal religious beliefs does a disservice to the worldbuilding and their purpose in the story.

[bkkblogs]

Power Dynamics in State Relations - A History Lesson (Part II)

BK K Blogs brings timeless lessons from the Peloponnesian War!

Continue your journey with the second part of this three-part series on the intricacies of power, politics, and betrayal in state-to-state relations and international conflicts.

[medicinemane]

One final thought, if you're looking at Ukraine and you're saying "yeah, I feel bad for them, but I'm more worried about China", well... I do agree with you that the idea of China attacking Taiwan is horrific and real thing to be concerned about given the rhetoric China uses around Taiwan

However, all I have to say is that how we handle Ukraine will likely strongly factor in to China's thinking around anything to do with Taiwan

The parallels are blatant, and there's no way they aren't watching

I argue to you that the stronger our support for Ukraine is, the more painful this ends up being for russia so long as they refuse to withdraw; that the stronger the deterrence to China to engage in something that's really similar to what russia's doing in Ukraine

I argue to you that one of the best ways to deal with China and support Taiwan, is for us to support Ukraine

A Ukrainian victory supports a more stable world

[ziraconarose]

Thinking a lot about how she probably would have been the one person to sympathize with his motives if there had just been a conversation.

[snoppy]

leo valdez post link pls 🙏

oh no babe i meant post as in after tlh.... 😭

[mothmansboyfriend]

Someone having a bad attitude/rude articulation is not the same as someone being personally mean/harmful/offensive to you.

If you can walk away from a discussion confident that neither of you said anything worth wishing you could take back then congratulations: you’ve had the real life equivalent of a negative friendliness action in the Sims and there are NO permanent negative bodily consequences! Get back on the horse, your next social interaction with someone else could easily be far better.

My hands get tense and painful when I feel socially rejected, I can fully understand it sucks bad to receive attitude you feel undeserving of especially when you perceive yourself as working hard for unconscious social praise. But just like two autistics with different stimulation needs can’t both be happy in the exact same environment “made for autistics”, not everyone can have a pleasant reaction in a social convention “meant to be pleasant” because people can’t control their physical symptoms of frustration any more than I can control that my mind goes blank and I stutter or go silent when I’m genuinely (and irrationally) scared about answering simple questions.

As humans we are all owed common decency. Common decency is not semi-conditional kindness. It’s just respect for the unknown of a person. Offering basic comforts/requirements as you feel is natural, non-threatening environment for your personal life, acknowledging you exist when you arrive and wishing you well when you depart. That is common decency. Smiling, speaking in a specific tone, and forcing your body language to work for the comfort of a group rather than flow naturally as you react to stimuli, that is kindness. It’s nice to receive kind actions from strangers, but no one is owed these things. Even if you paid for a burger or got lost in the supermarket for two hours.

[a-good-blog-name-but-its-taken]

"Israel is being held to too high a standard"

No, most other countries are being held to too low a standard.