#Slavers Religion

[queersatanic]

There is a long tradition of American Christianity that can be called “the slaver’s religion”, focused on justifying and even celebrating one person’s right to dominate and possess another.

While it mostly used to be restricted to the American South (the origin of the Southern Baptist denomination, for example), when the Nixon campaign realigned the Republican Party priorities to absorb George Wallace’s segregationist supporters, that married a regional slaver’s religion to a national business religion that worshiped wealth and the personal increase of power through it.

You may have heard it said that, for example, everything in Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is Alabama. That’s not exactly true, but you notice a lot of Confederate flags all over the USA in rural areas whose heritage either was in the Union, like Maine, or no connection, like Washington State. The regional variations have largely disappeared, and eastern California and West Texas have more in common than rural Mississippi and Jackson, or most of Idaho and Boise.

The slaver’s religion has metastasized.

It’s a Christianity not much concerned with Christ or scripture or the community of believers but rather in justifying the domination of one’s own group over others considered outside that group and therefore not fully persons. It doesn’t want to uplift the weakest and most vulnerable but try to fix them there permanently and then justify this as a moral imperative after the fact.

To do this, you need politics, and once you start worshiping power, you will find every excuse to make the expedient choice to continue aligning with the powerful and guaranteeing someone is below and worse than you.

The slaver’s religion requires control of the state and using its power to hurt and keep shackled everyone the slavers consider deserving it, so the state is worshiped as a god even when individual politicians are rejected as having corrupted it and in need of cleansing.

[xxextrie]

Can we just agree Alastor is one of vivsie's worst characters?

Disclaimer this post was meant to share points about the demonizing a real religion I have heard been said by people of color especially people in those religions who have been overlooked and diminished due to vivsie stans who are mad at the critiques.

He is heavily inspired Dr Facillier from Princess and the frog, lived in New Orleans, does Voodou (which is a closed religious practice and Black/Creole/Haitian culture that is constantly demonized in media, like actually stop). Vivziepop tried to control the backlash from her using a practice she is not a part of by stating the alastor was mixed. (showing how little she cant draw non-white characters if she can just race swap them at the flip of a switch) Alastor most recently was said to be white/Creole.

But this also just was incredibly weird seeing as he is now a mixed man giving a black man/feline character a contract that allowed Alastor to "own" him with tons of imagery of Alastor pulling him around on chains. Which feels strange for him to be a supposedly “likeable character” (and by that I mean in fandom not necessarily in world) I feel like im crazy to have to say no matter your race you shouldn’t “own” somebody. And I don’t think a slaver should been shown in this sorta comedic fan favorite type character.

Not only is Alastor a shitty character people will defend the writers saying "it’s hell" like really? yea there are awful people in hell but he is shown constantly in a fun quirky way leading him to be a fan favorite so if they were meaning to show how bad of a person alastor is they are doing a shit job.

Along with all of this Al is Vivsiepops only Ace character wtf is that supposed to say about how ace people are portrayed in the show? as Slavers? Rasicts? Heartless? This is her idea of acespec people, the only ace repersentation in her show and this is what she hands us?

Not only that but she refuses to confirm Alastor's romantism to "let people have their fun" aka she doesn't care about aro representation because it might ruin peoples ship. Our romanticism and sexuality shouldn't be something to shove to the side anytime a fan is horny. Imagine if someone shipped Stolas with a girl? do you think she's say that its all fun? No because she doesn't care about ace people or poc people all she cares about in her non-con demon porn.

there is my rant Alastor is Shit Ace representation SHIT voodou representation

[cuprohastes]

The chant.

The Varshan Invaders had this thing: Unity.

They dropped Anjax, which was mostly just thirty farms raising the local safe-to-eat animals nicknamed Argnu.

The farmers had all read the briefing packets: If it's the Xss, the Dormavir, the Jince... run. Run n' hide. They'll eat you, literally eat you and that won't do you any good.

The Twon-hai, Gir and Tsush, they're slavers, they'll give up if you stand up to them. Expect up to 68% losses. Still better than what they'll do to you.

The Vershan, the On-dotir, the uHown or the Kelth... Jsut surrender, don't annoy them the Terran Colonial force wills how up and sort it, and there's a chance you can jsut persuade them to be chill and mark you down as Not For Conquering.

So anyway. The Varshan. They'll only take over if they think that the population are disUnified. It's their holy mission to reduce entropy via unity or something. They're pretty chill about it - Nobody gets sacrificed to the dark god, or put in the Castigation Pit - but it's a huge pain in the ass when you really need to be shipping Argnu Beef and not e.g. nonconsensually being inducted into an alien religion.

So they dragged everyone into one area and did their Unity Chant to show that they all were unified.

Then they sent thier guy out and planted a flag.

The next part is they grab some rando and tell them to "Show their Unity". This works well usually because you pick anyone form even a fairly smoothly integrated society and put them on the spot, they'll panic.

Which was why Jacinta Omura, 45, admin, completely bewildered, was dragged out in front of everyone she knew.

So she looks at the aliens who are all looking smug having done thier weird Haka, looks back at the crowd of farmers, and shippers and what-not... And it's her time to shine.

She strieks a pose, head down, one arm up, wide stance.

Everyone in the front row behind her are like OK Jace has flipped her burger here.

But then she starts to sing... Well chant. Not well, not nearly loud enough...

"Buddy, you're a boy," she says, voice breaking. She swallows and adds "make a big noise... Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday."

Now her voice is getting a little more confident.

About this time the crowd behind her has started to pick up on what she's doing, and there's a ripple of people starting to back her up: The rows behind them catching on.

"You got mud on your face, you're a big disgrace - Kicking your can all over the place, singin'..."

She lifts both arms like she's conducting, and behind her there's the entire colony: clap-clap stomp, Clap-clap stomp, shaking the ground, singing, as one:

"We will, we will rock you! We will, we will rock you"

Well the Vershan were kind of impressed, because hey that ticks the box, and also, style points there. So they loaded up on Argnu meat at a good price so show no hard feelings and went off on their holy crusade to annoy everyone.

And that's how Freddie Mercury saved Anjax.

[barrel-crow-n]

The crows povs summarised

Kaz: Revenge. Vengeance. Violence. Hate. Jordie. Inej. Violence. Pain. Suffering. Revenge. Revenge. Fuck Van Eck. Jordie. Jordie. I fucking hate Pekka Rollins. Inej. Inej. Inej.

Inej: I'm strong now. I have a purpose again! I miss my parents :(. I hate slavers. I'm going to kill Kaz, but also he's super hot. I love my friends :). I love my parents. Suli proverbs. I am a badass. I hate Tante Heleen. I am going to carve out the hearts of Jan Van Eck and Pekka Rollins.

Jesper: Look at me! I'm so funny! I hate myself. Flirting. Kaz is hot as fuck. Wylan is kinda cute. Guns. I love my revolvers. I love being a criminal. I hate what I've become. I just want to make my da proud. Guilt. Guilt. Hey why are you looking past my funny exterior. Hey why are you doing that, please stop.

Wylan: I'm not a criminal. What am I doing here??? Fuck Kuwei. I hate my dad. Jesper's hot. I'm doing this for Inej; for my mother. Kaz is terrifying... but that's not going to stop me from mouthing off to him. I am good at demo thank you very much. But also I hate chemistry. How is this my life.

Nina: I am a badass grisha. Waffles. Food. Ravka. Matthias. I want to strangle Kaz. I want parem but also I hate it so much. I hate cravings. Grisha. I want Zoya's approval. Fuck Van Eck. I'm wracked with guilt over what I did to Matthias although it was to save his life. I'm broken. My powers are all wrong.

Matthias: Nina. Nina. Druskelle. Nina or the druskelle? I am a traitor :(. Djel. I have been practicing my religion wrong. I no longer want to be a part of a hate cult. Kaz is a demon. Inej is also a demon but I don't mind her as much. The grisha aren't that bad actually. Kaz is from hell. What the fuck is wrong with Kaz? These guys all need to go to military discipline.

[jedi-enthusiast]

Genuine question as to why you feel so passionate about being pro-jedi? I definitely wouldn't say I'm anti-jedi, but I think there are some decent criticisms that can be made about them. But overall I'm just interested to understand the dedication to being pro-jedi, cause it is a fictional organisation at the end of the day. Isn't it more fulfilling to look at them from different perspectives so we can get the most out of the story as possible?

Before I answer, I'm going to ask you a question in turn, would you ever ask this question to someone who was anti-Jedi? Would you ever imply that they need to change their view on the Jedi because they're "not getting the most out of the story?"

Now, I'm going to preface this answer by saying that I'm not angry with you, I'm just very passionate about this topic---so don't take any of this personally. You seem like you're genuinely asking, and I appreciate that.

----------

Personally, for me, there aren't really any criticisms that can be made about the Jedi- (keep in mind, I primarily adhere to Lucas Canon, everything else is just an add on depending whether I like it or not). Everything that people criticize the Jedi for or accuse them of falls into one of three categories:

Not true- (the Jedi are a cult, the Jedi repress their emotions, the Jedi were mean to Anakin, etc.)

Done for a reason because the other option would be worse/it was their only real option in a bad situation- (the Jedi shouldn't have fought in the war, the Jedi should've defended Ahsoka, the Jedi are slavers because of the clones, etc.)

Or it's something that's an Eastern concept/practice but people refuse to look at it as such and instead project their Western viewpoint/religious trauma onto them- (literally the entire thing about attachment)

I've never seen any criticism of the Jedi that doesn't fall into one of these categories, so why should I be inclined to "hear people out" or "look at the Jedi from other perspectives" when there's...really nothing else to look at?

----------

Another thing to consider is that, while the Jedi are fictional characters, George Lucas based them heavily on very real religions and groups---particularly Jews and Buddhists.

So when people say things like- "the Jedi weren't allowed to care/love/have emotions because of Attachment™️" -they're spreading harmful misinformation and basically saying that Buddhists can't love/care/have emotions because of their rule against attachment, since the philosophy of non-attachment is literally taken verbatim from Buddhism.

And when people usually pair the above rhetoric with- "-and that's why the Jedi deserved what they got/caused their own downfall" -it's...a very concerning mindset for people to perpetuate---especially when George Lucas based the genocide of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire off of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

When you strip away the fictional aspects of it, a lot of what people say about the Jedi is literally Nazi/antisemitic/Holocaust denial rhetoric. To take an example of something that has actually been said on one of my posts:

"The destruction of the Jedi Order was less a genocide and more of a religious conflict that the Jedi lost. The Jedi Order is a sect of the collective religious culture of 'Force Users,' and their destruction cannot really be considered genocide as the cultural group of 'Force Users' still exists albeit heavily restricted and controlled by the Sith during the Empire Era." - @/ironwoodarl01

And, as @zarohk pointed out:

It’s depressing how so many “Jedi critical” talking points are pretty much antisemitism and Holocaust denial/justification: The destruction of the Jedi Order was less a genocide and more of a religious conflict that the Jedi lost. "The Jedi Order religion of Judaism is a sect of the collective religious culture of 'Force Users Abrahamic faiths, and their destruction cannot really be considered genocide as the cultural group of Force Users Abrahamic faiths still exists…" Similar thinly-veiled antisemitism in the Star Wars fandom also frequently includes supersessionism, the Christian idea that during the (Roman) Republic era, the Jedi Jews had become corrupt and lost their way, and and so finally a divinely created person was sent to show them new path. This is why attempts to read Star Wars where Anakin is a Christ figure or correct where the Jedi have failed (ignoring the fact that he wrecked the lives of most people he was involved with, including himself, and the Darth Vader was never happy) are not just incorrect, but generally have a thick underlayer of antisemitism.

So, while Star Wars is fictional, it's important for people to analyze why they feel the way they do about the Jedi and be critical of the ways in which they talk about/criticize the Jedi---because, like it or not, the Jedi and their genocide are based on real people/things and so your reaction to them/what happened to them can be very telling.

----------

Finally, being critical of the good guys or trying to view everything through a morally grey lens doesn't make the story inherently more interesting, nor does it inherently add anything to the story---so I'm not "missing" anything.

If believing that no one can actually just be good, and everyone has to have some agenda, and "the good guys were the REAL bad guys all along" adds something to Star Wars for you...by all means, go ahead and believe what you want.

But my view of Star Wars isn't "lesser" or "missing something" just because I don't share that view and actually like the good guys and believe in what they taught/did.

----------

I'm passionate about being pro-Jedi because of everything I outlined above and because they were truly good people who tried their best to help the galaxy---they were brought down, not because of anything they did, but because of one man's selfish stupid actions.

There might've been a time when I was willing to hear people out when they criticized the Jedi---because hey! maybe I was wrong---but that time has long passed because nothing anyone has ever criticized the Jedi for has held up to scrutiny, and anti-Jedi people won't just keep the fuck off my page and leave me alone.

So, frankly, this is my blog and I'm allowed to be as passionate as I want to be---and I'm not gonna stop, or start viewing the Jedi as "wrong" or "bad" or whatever, just because you- (and other people, I'm sure) -think I'm missing something by being strictly pro-Jedi

[kemetic-dreams]

Music of African heritage in Cuba derives from the musical traditions of the many ethnic groups from different parts of West and Central Africa that were brought to Cuba as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries. Members of some of these groups formed their own ethnic associations or cabildos, in which cultural traditions were conserved, including musical ones. Music of African heritage, along with considerable Iberian (Spanish) musical elements, forms the fulcrum of Cuban music.

Much of this music is associated with traditional African religion – Lucumi, Palo, and others – and preserves the languages formerly used in the African homelands. The music is passed on by oral tradition and is often performed in private gatherings difficult for outsiders to access. Lacking melodic instruments, the music instead features polyrhythmic percussion, voice (call-and-response), and dance. As with other musically renowned New World nations such as the United States, Brazil and Jamaica, Cuban music represents a profound African musical heritage.

Clearly, the origin of African groups in Cuba is due to the island's long history of slavery. Compared to the USA, slavery started in Cuba much earlier and continued for decades afterwards. Cuba was the last country in the Americas to abolish the importation of slaves, and the second last to free the slaves. In 1807 the British Parliament outlawed slavery, and from then on the British Navy acted to intercept Portuguese and Spanish slave ships. By 1860 the trade with Cuba was almost extinguished; the last slave ship to Cuba was in 1873. The abolition of slavery was announced by the Spanish Crown in 1880, and put into effect in 1886. Two years later, Brazil abolished slavery.

Although the exact number of slaves from each African culture will never be known, most came from one of these groups, which are listed in rough order of their cultural impact in Cuba:

The Congolese from the Congo Basin and SW Africa. Many ethnic groups were involved, all called Congos in Cuba. Their religion is called Palo. Probably the most numerous group, with a huge influence on Cuban music.

The Oyó or Yoruba from modern Nigeria, known in Cuba as Lucumí. Their religion is known as Regla de Ocha (roughly, 'the way of the spirits') and its syncretic version is known as Santería. Culturally of great significance.

The Kalabars from the Southeastern part of Nigeria and also in some part of Cameroon, whom were taken from the Bight of Biafra. These sub Igbo and Ijaw groups are known in Cuba as Carabali,and their religious organization as Abakuá. The street name for them in Cuba was Ñáñigos.

The Dahomey, from Benin. They were the Fon, known as Arará in Cuba. The Dahomeys were a powerful group who practised human sacrifice and slavery long before Europeans arrived, and allegedly even more so during the Atlantic slave trade.

Haiti immigrants to Cuba arrived at various times up to the present day. Leaving aside the French, who also came, the Africans from Haiti were a mixture of groups who usually spoke creolized French: and religion was known as vodú.

From part of modern Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire came the Gangá.

Senegambian people (Senegal, the Gambia), but including many brought from Sudan by the Arab slavers, were known by a catch-all word: Mandinga. The famous musical phrase Kikiribu Mandinga! refers to them.

Subsequent organization

The roots of most Afro-Cuban musical forms lie in the cabildos, self-organized social clubs for the African slaves, and separate cabildos for separate cultures. The cabildos were formed mainly from four groups: the Yoruba (the Lucumi in Cuba); the Congolese (Palo in Cuba); Dahomey (the Fon or Arará). Other cultures were undoubtedly present, more even than listed above, but in smaller numbers, and they did not leave such a distinctive presence.

Cabildos preserved African cultural traditions, even after the abolition of slavery in 1886. At the same time, African religions were transmitted from generation to generation throughout Cuba, Haiti, other islands and Brazil. These religions, which had a similar but not identical structure, were known as Lucumi or Regla de Ocha if they derived from the Yoruba, Palo from Central Africa, Vodú from Haiti, and so on. The term Santería was first introduced to account for the way African spirits were joined to Catholic saints, especially by people who were both baptized and initiated, and so were genuine members of both groups. Outsiders picked up the word and have tended to use it somewhat indiscriminately. It has become a kind of catch-all word, rather like salsa in music.

The ñáñigos in Cuba or Carabali in their secret Abakuá societies, were one of the most terrifying groups; even other blacks were afraid of them:

Girl, don't tell me about the ñáñigos! They were bad. The carabali was evil down to his guts. And the ñáñigos from back in the day when I was a chick, weren't like the ones today... they kept their secret, like in Africa.

African sacred music in Cuba

All these African cultures had musical traditions, which survive erratically to the present day, not always in detail, but in the general style. The best preserved are the African polytheistic religions, where, in Cuba at least, the instruments, the language, the chants, the dances and their interpretations are quite well preserved. In few or no other American countries are the religious ceremonies conducted in the old language(s) of Africa, as they are at least in Lucumí ceremonies, though of course, back in Africa the language has moved on. What unifies all genuine forms of African music is the unity of polyrhythmic percussion, voice (call-and-response) and dance in well-defined social settings, and the absence of melodic instruments of an Arabic or European kind.

Not until after the Second World War do we find detailed printed descriptions or recordings of African sacred music in Cuba. Inside the cults, music, song, dance and ceremony were (and still are) learnt by heart by means of demonstration, including such ceremonial procedures conducted in an African language. The experiences were private to the initiated, until the work of the ethnologist Fernando Ortíz, who devoted a large part of his life to investigating the influence of African culture in Cuba. The first detailed transcription of percussion, song and chants are to be found in his great works.

There are now many recordings offering a selection of pieces in praise of, or prayers to, the orishas. Much of the ceremonial procedures are still hidden from the eyes of outsiders, though some descriptions in words exist.

Yoruba and Congolese rituals

Main articles: Yoruba people, Lucumi religion, Kongo people, Palo (religion), and Batá

Religious traditions of African origin have survived in Cuba, and are the basis of ritual music, song and dance quite distinct from the secular music and dance. The religion of Yoruban origin is known as Lucumí or Regla de Ocha; the religion of Congolese origin is known as Palo, as in palos del monte.[11] There are also, in the Oriente region, forms of Haitian ritual together with its own instruments and music.

In Lucumi ceremonies, consecrated batá drums are played at ceremonies, and gourd ensembles called abwe. In the 1950s, a collection of Havana-area batá drummers called Santero helped bring Lucumí styles into mainstream Cuban music, while artists like Mezcla, with the lucumí singer Lázaro Ros, melded the style with other forms, including zouk.

The Congo cabildo uses yuka drums, as well as gallos (a form of song contest), makuta and mani dances. The latter is related to the Brazilian martial dance capoeira

[space-catholic]

Enslaver Demon: *Attacking a coastal town with a crew of mortal slavers*

My Cleric: *Uses Automatic Knowledge (Religion)* “Huh, he’s got Weakness 10 (Holy) *and* Weakness 10 (Cold Iron).”

Paladin PC: “Oh, neat, all my Strikes count as holy and I’ve got this magical cold iron starknife we’ve been keeping around for plot device purposes.” *Switches weapons and stabs demon.*

Demon: *Takes 11 piercing damage… +20 for weaknesses. Looks back and forth between the cleric and the paladin* “I’m not sure which of you I should be more pissed off at for that.”

[imyourrjoy]

The power held over me

Summary: A new duo arrives in jackson after being found in the snow, praying

Warnings : DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT!!!!!!!, abusive parents, toxic religion, toxic people all around, misogyny, hitting, threats, self dought,fear , stop here if it's too much the series will just get darker

Word count : 2.6k

Paring : dark!Joel Miller x pastors daughter!afab!reader

Part 1 / ?????

Masterlist

A/n : she's dark, very dark. This is your last waring, btw. And thanks so much to my pokie wookie bear @xoxo-honeyy for helping me revisit and figure most of it out she's amazing not only for that but also putting up with my dyslexic ass, ily pokie 💋 and give her love as well.

The cold was the worst, especially in a dress. Your dad gave you his jacket but you were still freezing despite the extra protection. The two of you had somehow ended up near a lake, Your father said he could hear a dam nearby, you didn’t know what a dam was, but apparently, it meant that people were near since it's on that means people near and we should be careful and should pray before we continue to pray that God keeps us safe for another day.

You kneeled down on the dense snow. Your legs against the snow made you feel even colder, but your father said to thank Jesus under all circumstances and not to complain in his name.

Your father started the prayer in a loud, confident voice, “Dear heavenly father, we kneel here to ask you for guidance and appreciation to ask for help as you guide us on your path and lead us to safety and not shen ways of harm, amen.”

Bringing your hands to a prayer position you continued praying hoping the cold would go away.

“Hands up”

Your eyes flew open and you saw your father being held at gunpoint, people on horses, and dogs barking. You almost screamed in fear. Were they raiders?, slavers?, or worse were they sinners?

“She said hands up.” Another voice barked at you.

You looked at your dad and put your hands up. The people looked warm physically and emotionally, you felt jealous of them, you tried to will the jealousy away but nothing was working. You repeated the prayer in your head, I am sorry, God, I am not jealous. I am grateful for your gifts. The people then started talking to one another.

“Send out the dog and make sure they're not bit”

“We can assure you we aren't. We are children of God just like you all”

The dogs barked and sniffed us. Then, a different member of the group walked up to us getting off of their horse, and they walked right up to you.

“Stand up, you poor thing, no pants in this weather.”

The brown-haired woman tied her jacket around your legs.

“Thank you,” You replied.

“Don’t touch her,” Your father stood up, but the lady just ignored him.

“Lower the guns. We should take them into town the get some real clothes,” The brown-haired woman seemed to be in charge which seemed odd, you thought men were the ones who were supposed to lead?

Town? You’d only heard stories about places like that. Your father told you that when your mother was alive before the devil took her for being a sinner, that's when you all lived in a little house near the water, a large lake more specifically.

“She is in more than enough clothes”

The lady shot your father a scathing look, “Tommy ride with him and take his backpack. I’ll take the girl.”

The man, Tommy, took your father towards his horse, and the lady took you to hers. When you started the long journey, you were in awe of the surroundings, but nothing could compare to the smell. The smell of fresh food, fire, and the snow falling you were utterly captured by it. When you see large wooden gates and lots of people with guns, you think to yourself i'll pray for them.

"Welcome to Jackson,"

She said as the gates opened, she'd never seen anything like that. it was a town where the stories were true? We rode in, and she helped me off the horse. You were a little worried you hadn't seen my Dad since he got on Tommy’s horse.

"He's fine. Tommy's just gonna show him around while I get you some clothes. What's your name?"

she gave her a smile of relief.

You gave them your name and they smiled warmly

She started walking and you followed her into a shop like building full of clothes she looked at some jeans and before she could hold them up you interrupted her,

"I can't wear pants."

She almost laughed.

"And why is that?"

"It's a sin,"

She scoffed.

"God would rather you live than freeze."

She handed me a pair of jeans``.” you were shocked someone would ever say his name like that.

"But my D-"

"Go change,"

She cut me off and looked for a top, a simple sweater. You were so scared you were gonna go to Hell if she put on these pants. You'll have to pray for hours for God to forgive you.

"You can change there, and trust me, you won't die over pants."

"it's a sin,"

"Honey, trust me, you're not gonna die,"

You took a deep breath and walked into the changing room. You wanted to cry. You were gonna die for this, burn in Hell for eternity, and be with those monsters. You took off the layers and layers of jackets and a dress. The tears started flowing as you put on the jeans. You felt like you had committed the worst crime in the world, and you started begging for forgiveness as you changed.

You started mumbling quickly under your breath, "Dear heavenly father, I am a sinner, and many have sinned by your grace. She prays for my and others' forgiveness. Have mercy on me, your faithful servant of God, according to your faith and love. "

You put on the top, “.” wiped your tears, and walked out of the changing room. When you came out, she the lady had a pink jacket.

"Here she'll keep you warm, and the color suits you."

She was right. The color did suit you.

"Thanks."

"Put it on, let's make sure it fits, and after I'll show you around town."

You put on the jacket and zipped it up. As We walked out, you kept your head low. You shouldn't look at other people if you are in the midst of sin. At least, that's what dad says. She showed me the canteen, a woodworking shop, and even a school. Then you saw my dad and the man, you ran up to them.

"Dad!"

You threw yourself at him and he caught me pulling me into a big hug

"Oh my love, it's ok. You’re safe, God has found us home at last,"

You smiled and saw Tommy go up to maria

"Dad, we need to find a place to pray."

You were so ashamed of the pants, and it seemed like my dad started getting angry.

"We will. They have a church we shall go there and pray for forgiveness and pray you won't become a monster like the rest of the sinners in the world, my love,"

Maria and Tommy walked back up to you and you're dad.

"Well, before we bring you guys to your lodging, we need to talk about the rules, and you all look parched. Let's go to the canteen and get some food?" Tommy said.

my dad nodded in agreement as we all started making our way to the canteen. The closer we got, the more the scent of freshly cooked food invaded your senses, it was so much different from the old canned beans we usually had. We walked into the canteen. It was made of beautiful wood, lights hanging from the ceiling, people giving out plates of food, and others eating it was beautiful.

"Here, I'll take the young lady to get some food. y’all can find a place to sit,"

Tommy walked me to the line of the canteen

"We have rabbit or sheep today, which would you like?"

"Sheep, rabbits are too cute to eat."

Tommy laughed and got two plates and started putting sheep on both.

"So I hear your names y/n is that correct?"

"Yes."

He started putting vegetables onto the plates.

"And your dad is a preacher or just a very devoted man of God?"

she thought that was a dumb question, he's a pastor he told me he was dressed like a pastor. it made you laugh.

"A pastor, of course,"

We moved over to get drinks for you and your father, but before Tommy could grab the pitcher of water you weren't sure what it was sense it wasn't water colored more like mud you're not sure.a girl younger than me grabbed you were more shocked she had pants you hadn't thought of it but a lot of girls here wear pants she should pray for them

"Excuse me,"

She filled up her glass as Tommy protested, “Ellie”

she smiled as she left

"Sorry about her, she's my brother's kid, she's very outgoing, let's say."

"She's fine, but I am worried about the number of women in pants I'll have in my prayers. Does this place allow sinning?or something?" Your voice was filled with concern.

He continued to fill up the cups and looked confused”." That's one way of looking at it for now. Let's just get you both fed,"

We all sat down at the table. You've never eaten so fast, and that water,which was apparently sweet tea, you think too yourself it's probably your new favorite thing. Dad kept telling me to slow down, but you couldn't. You were so hungry and happy to eat something real.

"So, Maria told me you have a multi-faith church?" Your dad asked as he finished eating and scraped the leftovers onto your plate.

Maria replied in a calming tone, "Yes and you’re a preacher, so I’m assuming you would like to have a mass of some sort, which is fine with me and with the council, but first we need to go over the rules the whole reason we came here"

At the mention of rules, you stopped eating and started listening.

"All able-bodied people over the age of 18 unless, unable to due to their health, a disability or lack of survival skills are required to patrol . We rotate every week, two people are in a group. We classify ourselves as a commune which means we all share everything, nothing belongs to just one person, we all respect one another. As well, pitch in and have jobs based on what skills we have or what we're good at. Understand?"

You noticed your dad wasn't too fond of the rules, but he both nodded in agreement.

"So how old is your daughter?" Tommy inquired.

Your dad sighed, "Around 19, we don't know specifically, but she was born about a year after the outbreak. My wife at the time had just gotten pregnant,"

You kept my head down, you missed your mom a lot, she wasn't like my dad she loved God and they taught me to love Him but she liked to tell me about my room shen the town, teach me to read and write she hated that she was a sinner as dad says she didn't believe enough you remember the verse we read for her after she died “For the wages of sin she's dead”. Dad says she wasn't devoted enough.

"Joy, how do you make a fire?"

Tommy asked me the question, and you laughed,"My dad makes those they aren't ladylike"

You doesn't know why he looked taken back. You're a woman. You're supposed to cook,look pretty for your husband and put God above all.

"Joy, you see that girl over there,"

Marshea pointed to a group of girls, including the one who took the pitcher, you nodded."How about you introduce yourself? Make some friends while Tommy and she talk to your dad."

You smiled and walked up to the girls. They all had tea and some food. They all wore pants as well. Before she could say anything a dark-hashered girl spoke

"New to Jackson?"

she nodded

"No way, hey”

The girl from earlier hit my shoulder playfully

"Well I’m Ellie welcome. To my humble abode, take a seat”, you took a seat next to her

"So how'd you find Jackson?” Ellie questions and then thinks for a second, “or did the patrolman find you?

" Well, my father and I just keep moving and, apparently, have traveled throughout. for my whole life moving looking for the place God wants us. And we saw the dam which is when my dad said we should start praying for people or a town, that’s what it’s called right?"

Ellshee immediately responded, chuckling a bit, “Gosh, aren’t you ancient.”

The girl, Ellshee, laughed louder, and it got to your head. Maybe she’s just not used to someone like you?. Maybe it's because you didn't know what town is was?. Either way, it, didn't feel good.

"Ellie, don't be mean" The gruff and slightly hoarse voice came from behind me.

You quickly turned my head to see an older man with graying hair with brown spots sprinkled throughout it, There were also prominent scars on his nose and temple, To say the least, the man looked frightening

"Oh come on"

Ellie protested but the man shushed her.

"Y’ know Ellie, she could probably teach you a thing or two, a girl like her shes a woman of God." He sent a sly wink towards you

He took a seat across from us and Ellie rolled her eyes, "Hi there hon I'm m Joel and this here is my daughter, Ellie don't mind her she's a bit rough around the edges"

"I am not"

she laughed at the little bantering and you got asked the same basic questions before Maria walked up to us,

"she see you've met Tommy's brother,” there was a slight frown on her face,

“come on it's time to see your new home"

You waved goodbye to the pasher and met up with Tommy and my dad again. We all started walking through the town , towards an a cute little house with a small porch and yellow panels.

"The heat, water, and electricity are on and Father you can't wait to see what your Sunday mass is like don't be afraid to reach out if you need anything."

Tommy gave my dad the keys and they walked away after saying goodbye for the night. The house was the same as the rest but it had some personality. It was dusty but rustic. It had two bedrooms and one bathroom, a kitchen that worked a couch, and TV that wasn't of any use but still, it was so nice everything was until my dad looked at me up and down.

"Why the pants? Is my daughter a monster, a sshenner, unfaithful to her lord"

You looked down and the floor,

"Marshea told me that she wouldn't burn and that shet was prac-"

Before you could finish your sentence my father hit me across the face

"Practical your put practicality over your lord and savor????"

Cold dread washed over your body.

"No Dad i-"

He hit me again making me fall to the floor, then he grabbed a fistful of my hasher

"Tomorrow you're getting rid of those pants, if i see them again i'll see to it that God knows of every sin that my child has committed and that my prayers for her forgiveness for her not to become those monsters were all for nothing as her love for him was fake"

You started crying once my dad let me go. He walked into one of the bedrooms while you sat there crying until finally making my way to bed.

You got on your knees and started your nightly prayers you needed to pray for myself, my Father, and God

You brought your hands together

"Dear heavenly father, thank you for your bountiful love and sacrifice. Thank you for leading me and my father to Jackson. I am sorry I have committed the sin of wearing pants. she shall never do it again. My lord, your Bible is the truth, and I am your faithful servant. I pray for my forgiveness as well as the forgiveness of the woman shen Jackson also guilty of this crime. I pray for my mother that though she's a sinner, you forgive her shen the afterlife, and may the devil have mercy on her. And lastly, I pray for my father. I pray that he stays healthy and bountiful. Praise the Lord as he watches over us in our sleep amen."

[pensandsneakers]

Incredibly long Inej Ghafa essay incoming:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Y/N-ification of Inej in fandom, where some people treat her like she’s less of a main character on her own with her own goals and arc and more like a self-insert knife girl vehicle to experience the story (which is seen as you know, Kaz’s story.) This is mostly based on how she’s written in the show, but also before the show there have always been all the “knife wife” jokes and posts which are you know, Fine, but always felt to me like an oversimplification of her character.

The thing is that the idea of being that one dimensional, “knife wife,” powerful/dangerous girl is literally explored in the text as Inej openly wrestles with her identity as the Wraith.

It’s important to remember that the Wraith persona is not something Inej chose for herself, it’s something that Kaz gave her, and though he did it to give her protection, it still stands that the idea of the Wraith is exactly that stereotype, the powerful baddass stripped of emotions and vulnerability, unbelievable with all of the different powers she has, but is somehow always ending up using those powers in service of the men in the story.

Inej is given this role to play, but because she’s strong and unwilling to compromise on her faith she finds ways to make the Wraith persona her own, by bringing her religion into it for example and naming her knives after Saints.

But there reaches a point when Inej realizes that the Wraith persona is static and limiting her, which is literally represented by her being stuck/trapped in the incinerator.

She realizes that the way she’s been living as the Wraith has made it so that she doesn’t know what she wants, only what Kaz wanted. “Kaz Brekker was just a boy, and she’d let him lead her to this fate.” But she says “she couldn’t even blame him because she hadn’t known where she wanted to go.”

Once she names the fact that she’s been allowing herself to be guided by whatever Kaz’s goals are and hasn’t been living for herself, Inej becomes ambivalent to the idea of being a “dangerous girl,” which were at first the words she clung to to become the Wraith. “She thought of her knives… maybe they’d go to some other girl who dreamed of being dangerous.”

It is only when she realizes that she wants to hunt slavers that she is able to picture her future and who she can be. “She was not a lynx or a spider or even the Wraith. She was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above.” She affirms her own identity which is separate from all of the other labels that people have given her, and chooses her own direction and goal, separate from anything Kaz or anyone else wants from her.

I love that the stakes of this realization are literally presented as life and death. Because yes, without the sentence “she was Inej Ghafa, and her future was waiting above,” Inej would not be the same. If Inej was only a cool acrobat called the Wraith who goes on a heist and has a relationship with the brooding lead, that would be the death of the great, full rounded character we know her to be now. (Not to mention it would be shit. …Anyway.)

After Inej figures out what she wants, her arc in Crooked Kingdom is to kill her previous self. Dunyasha is the physical representation of that YA girl stereotype. She’s constantly talking about her skills and the fact that she’s “chosen,” with her royal blood etc. Dunyasha is a powerful female character in the sense that she’s a female character with a lot of “powers.” She’s not someone who could exist in real life. When Inej interacts with her it’s like she’s talking to a cardboard cut out with lots of one liners. By defeating Dunyasha in the end Inej proves that the things that she might have had to lose to become a cold knife wielding baddass (like her hesitance to kill, her sentimentality, her faith) are actually her strengths. She has proven that Inej Ghafa is stronger than a trope.

However, the idea of being a dangerous girl is definitely still nuanced. I’m not saying that because Inej needed to become a person separate from the Wraith persona and her life in Ketterdam that the idea of being the Wraith is meaningless, or that Kaz is “problematic” for giving her that role or anything. Kaz understands the power of a legend, and Inej makes it clear that by gaining that identity as the Wraith, Kaz saved her. “He’d helped her build a legend to wear as armour, something bigger and more frightening than the girl she’d been.”

I’d go as far as to say it’s normal and good that Inej started out this way. She’s just a teenage girl who’s had to fight every single moment of her life, and wanting to escape into a role/character that makes you feel bigger than yourself is something that I think many others can understand.

When she’s in terrifying situations, Inej still uses the word dangerous to comfort herself. Like in Crooked Kingdom when Jan van eck has kidnapped her and she’s doubting everything she says to herself “I am a dangerous girl.”

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a dangerous girl. The trope exists because it’s an attractive fantasy. We all want to be bigger, stronger, more powerful than we’re allowed to be in real life. But for most of us, it’s just not real. Dunyasha is not a real girl that could exist outside of fiction. Inej is though. That’s why this quote hits so hard “What about the ones who aren’t chosen, the invisible girls. We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns, we learn to wring magic from the ordinary. When the world owed you nothing you demanded something anyway.”

It’s ok to look up to the girls in fiction that may be one dimensional but make you feel a little less small. It’s ok to get caught up in the worlds of the people around you instead of living for yourself. It’s ok to not know who you are or what you want. But there comes a time when you can’t just keep stalling. You can’t keep “holding onto nothing.” You take what you can and create the life, relationships and sense of self that you deserve.

You demand something more.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

I find it interesting that Targaryen antis will go on and on about protecting the cultures of the Andals, First Men, Dornish, and the Ghiscari while condemning and wanting to eradicate Valyrian traditions.

Valyrian customs, like incest, are constantly condemned and hated, meanwhile any incest the other houses engage in on a regular basis are ignored or excused. Joanna Lannister is Tywin's cousin, the Starks only married other Northern lords (meaning a very small gene pool to choose from), and uncle-niece marriages were common.

Antis also love to ignore a crucial fact about the Targaryens. They are one of the last Valyrian houses and the last house of dragonlords. Houses Velaryon and Celtigar are the only other Valyrian houses still in existence, and House Celtigar has long since lost their connection to their Valyrian roots. There's a reason why the Velaryons are the house the Targaryens marry with the most. It has nothing to do with "blood purity", it's about preserving their dying culture.

The Valyrian culture is basically dead by the time of the the Conquest, even more so in ASOIAF. The Valyrian religion is only practiced in Volantis by some aristocrats, Lys and Volantis are the only places where the Valyrian people still survive other than the Targaryens and Velaryons. As time goes on, the Targaryen and Velaryon blood becomes more and more mixed with that of the Andals and First Men, one day, they will be like the Celtigars, only having their roots be Valyrian.

Valyrian magic was once the most powerful in the world, able to even tame dragons. However, after the Doom, the secrets of their magic were lost. This is why Valyrian steel, glass candles, and their horns are so rare and valuable. The Freehold was once the center of magic in the world, now that has moved to Asshai and magic is slowly dying out.

Therefore, it makes sense that the Targaryens seek to protect their culture in what ways they can. Aegon the Conqueror sacrificed many of their traditions to appease the Westerosi lords and others were abandoned over time.

Now, it does make sense to not approve of some Valyrian traditions, like incest, blood magic, and slavery. However, using these as excuses to hate the Targaryens while supporting other cultures who have similar or identical traditions is just hypocritical. Condemning the Valyrians for slavery while saying Dany leading a fight against Ghiscari slavers is wrong is not a real argument against Valyria. Saying Targaryen incest is wrong makes sense if you hold everyone else to the same modern standards. Condemning the Targaryen and/or Valyrian conquests is fine, but then you'd have to condemn the Starks' conquest of the North or the Andals invasion.

Basically, if you have issues with Valyrian culture/traditions that makes sense, but condemning them while supporting other cultures that practice the same things you condemn Valyrians for is just hypocritical.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Gonna give some love to one of my favorite Radiant Dawn minor antagonists, Hetzel. And what he represents overall in Radiant Dawn.

Now when Hetzel shows up in PoR and Radiant Dawn he seems like an unassuming old man. Practically harmless compared to the other obviously evil senators. But the thing is, Hetzel is a great sign of somebody who is aware actions are wrong, but he never uses any of his own power to stop or take a stance.

He knows the Serenes Massacre plan is bad, but he doesn't really make any attempts to stop it. Because the truth is he's more ambivalent to the plight of the Herons. He bails out slaver and fellow Senator, Oliver, despite a whole point of Sanaki's campaign was to find the people still partaking in the slave trade and stamping them out. And while he makes no aggressive actions against Sanaki, he still is a part of the anti Apostle group of Senators. Yet despite all that he still frees Rafiel.

This is because Hetzel is probably one of the most mature criticism Fire Emblem has had of someone in power: Hetzel is ultimately a man who likes having power and maintaining the status quo. Unlike Lekain and other who their current position isn't just enough and need to keep aggressively expanding, Hetzel rather takes a position of doing what is best to main the power he has. Despite the fact he is aware that slavery and massacring is bad. He will still benefit if Lekain wins, but will never use any of his power to implement any significant changes. At best all he does is gestures of good faith.

Theocracy in Fire Emblem is honestly kinda shallow and very much a simplified version of it. That there is a religion that has some form of political power. And that one in charge is probably some person who pushes down on others because god tells them to. But Tellius seems to understand a theocracy isn't just about the dogma of a faith being implemented by the state and there for the only true religion and those with conflicting ideas must die, but rather those who benefit the most are the ones in the highest positions of the theocratic organization. Something that can be achieved less through actually believing but actually knowing how to rise in rank in a religious institution. All of the senators are Dukes, holding massive lands and they are the senior most members of their faith. While we know that warriors of the faith like Zelgius and others hold titles like Earl for their place in the military fighting for their faith. The theocracy of Begnion is one that isn't just about "because the Goddess" its a group of men who have grown rich and consolidated much of their riches and political position and now someone like Sanaki is going to upset this balance after they worked to avoid this happening with Apostle Misha. Delegitimizing Sanaki by revealing she's not the true Apostle would then pass over the power of the empire to Lekain and his cronies. And Hetzel was along for this ride for a long time.

And when finally confronted by Rafiel in the end, Hetzel only begs for forgiveness. He knows what he has done is wrong but pleas that he was kind to Rafiel so that means he's not all that bad. But Rafiel has nothing left to say. Hetzel did have a choice given where he was in the senate. And in the end he ultimately choose to go with Lekain's flow. And when Ike confronts Hetzel, all Hetzel refuses to surrender. He'll be disgraced. Even at the end knowing after everything and having one last chance to get out, he doesn't take it because his status is more important to him than doing the right thing.

Hetzel is a wonderfully pathetic villain and a genuinely good examination of those in power who passively allow bad acts even when they have a level of awareness. While there are a lot of people who like to dismiss many FE villains (and lets be fair) that aren't always that strong or that complex. But I always want to at least give praise to instances like Hetzel that make memorable antagonists.

[1americanconservative]

When most Westerners, especially the secular ones, think of religion they think of something they have seen in their own cultures and societies, i.e., Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

And quite naturally, since most of them lack the insight and knowledge to understand Islam properly, they tend to lump it in with the other religions. That is a big mistake.

Islam can be properly described as a totalitarian way of life and a highly effective system of conquest, disguised as a religion.

Islam is totalitarian, not just in the sense of theocratic and dictatorial regimes, but also in the sense that there is virtually no part of a believer’s life that is not touched or influenced in some manner by it.

Virtually everything a Muslim does is influenced or guided by his faith, by Sharia law, or both.

In this sense, free will as Westerners and other non-Muslims understand it, is anathema to those inhabiting Dar al-Islam, the “House of Islam.”

Likewise, there is no real analog to the Western notion of liberty or freedom. The Arabic word most closely corresponding to “freedom” is typically said to be “hurriya,” but this is false for the term does not correspond to “liberty” or “freedom” in the sense that an American, for example, would understand it.

It instead means “freedom” to do as “Allah wills” for that individual.

Many traditional religious faiths and systems have laws or codes of law which attach to them.

What makes Sharia (Islamic) law unique, however, is that in theory, it applies not only to Muslims but to non-Muslims as well. At least that is what the Koran, the Hadith, and the Sira command.

Non-Muslims or kafirs, also known as infidels, ~ are denied the most basic of human rights under Islamic suzerainty.

They are most often akin to slaves, serfs, or supplicants, and even those non-Muslim dhimmis who serve a useful purpose to the sultan or caliph and survive on that basis, are still treated with inhuman brutality and can be beaten or slain at the whim of any Muslim male.

Most Westerners are familiar with the history of slavery, but how many know that Muslims have been the greatest slavers in history?

Which is to say, the most prolific takers, buyers, and sellers of slaves in history.

Even today, in many parts of the Islamic world, the Arabic word for slave, “Abd,” is synonymous with the slang or informal word for a black man.

Although the Muslims took many millions of black Africans as slaves, they likewise took many millions of Europeans and other peoples as slaves from temperate climates further north, venturing as far north as Ireland and Iceland on slave-taking raids.

As some of you may know, the very first war fought by the United States as an independent nation was the Barbary War of 1801-1805 (with a brief flare-up in 1815), fought against Islamic raiders and pirates off the coast of North Africa.

These nautical jihadists had been seizing American shipping and holding the passengers and cargo for ransom.

President Thomas Jefferson grew tired of their demands and sent the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to Tripoli to teach them a lesson.

Various Islamic potentates, rulers, and warlords have infamously slain infidels by the multitudes down through the centuries.

According to the work of historians and political scientists who have studied such phenomena, the greatest or largest single genocide in human history was committed by the Islamic Mughal Empire in what is now the Indian sub-continent over years in the 15th century.

During that time, an estimated 270 million Hindus and other non-Muslims were put to the sword.

So many were slain that the streets ran with blood and giant pyramids of human skulls were erected by the soldiers of Allah.

Of course, many other empires and nations have committed acts of genocide, but such wanton bloodletting is impressive even by the standards of the worst tyrants of the 20th century, who had modern industrial warfare and weapons at their disposal but did not manage to even approach the totals of the Mughal Empire.

Historians consider the Armenian genocide (1915-1921) to be the first “modern” genocide since it was the first such atrocity that was recorded by still and motion-picture photography.

The Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire in what is now modern-day Turkey was responsible for it and even today, under the government of Recep Erdogan, the president of Turkey, it is still a crime to speak or write of the extermination of the Armenians and Greeks, most of whom were Christians.

Anyone who has seen the haunting photos of young girls, Christian virgins, crucified by their captors and slowly dying in the hot sun in the desert, will never forget them.

These basic historical facts about Islam used to be widely known and taught across the West, but they have been politely airbrushed out of our history in recent decades, and now few people know of them …. or the danger presented by the soldiers of Allah.

[fanfic-obsessed]

Chaos Gremlin and they Know it

Walk with me for my next bit of madness.

What if…what if…What if between Obi Wan and Qui gon, and later Anakin and Obi wan, Obi Wan was considered the more chaotic one. Like the reason that he hadn’t been knighted is because the council is honestly a little afraid about what they would be unleashing on the galaxy if he no longer has any supervision (Rancis Oppo secretly had a study done, any mission that Obi Wan undertakes without Qui Gonn there every minute is 25% more Ridiculous, capital intended, over all). And the council is concerned about giving him Anakin to raise, but not for the sad(barely knighted, watched his master die, trauma) reasons but because no one knows what will happen with two like Kenobi.

Just picture Mace Windu finding out about Anakin’s secret relationship, his violent tendencies, and his slight instability and he drops his head into his hands and goes ‘Thank the Force, he takes after Qui Gonn’. Also picture Mace Windu hearing about Ahsoka Tano getting herself captured and hunted for sport with other younglings and somehow rescuing them all and just bursting into tears because ‘Fuck, it skipped a generation.’ 

When they landed on Tatooine, Qui Gonn Jinn very deliberately left Obi Wan behind. From hard won experience he knew that if Obi Wan set foot on a planet with as much as a single slave ring he would immediately be abducted by a slaver. Then he would somehow start no less than four slave uprisings, rescue some endangered or unknown creature, break at least 3 bones, and then find, make worse, and fix the only blood fued on the planet.  And frankly Qui Gonn does not have time to deal with restructuring a planet's economy after his little chaos gremlin collapses the one that was based on sentient trafficking, not today. Not again.

By the way, Anakin is the 4th ‘Chosen One’ that Qui Gonn has brought home in five years in an attempt to get the Council to knight his Padawan.  Qui Gonn loves his Chaos Goblin of a son dearly but he’s tired, he wants to start going on missions that don’t end in ridiculous again. Or be hyper paranoid when they go normally. 

Half the Jedi were confused or resistant to the fact that the Sith were back. Until they heard who was on the mission. Then they all went ‘That tracks’ and moved on.  Anakin thinks that he is being watched for ‘Chosen one’ reasons. He is not, the Council quickly realizes that he somehow is also a mitigating influence on Obi Wan (the amount of ridiculous and chaos in the mission drops by a full 75% with Anakin, this however does not drop it down to even a solar system's distance to anything normal).

Mace Windu is deeply, deeply impressed by Anakin. And it is mostly due to the fact that he has spent more than three days in constant contact with Obi Wan without turning strange, or a cult leader.  Mace Windu, personally, knows about 6 cults throughout the galaxy dedicated to Obi Wan Kenobi. Three only exist on their own planets (one of which is the entire planet’s religion.), two involve multiple planets in specific sectors, and there is one down in a particular section of level 37 on Coruscant (Anyone who enters it comes back a little strange).

Look, I am not saying that this Obi Wan is an Eldritch Horror wrapped in a Disney Princess, but… this Obi Wan is an Eldritch Horror wrapped in a Disney Princess. There are scattered reports that the three of the last beings that tried to mug Obi Wan blinked awake 6 days later, having reevaluated all of their life choices, and now in contact with some heretofore unknown long lost relative that they desperately need to help.

It should be noted that Palpatine abjectly hates Obi Wan, not just because he is Anakin's master.  It is also because he can sense that if Obi Wan even hinted he wanted more power it would be given to him, no questions, plots. 

Every couple of months the Council debates sending Obi Wan to work in the Senate for a while, just to see what would happen.  It always boils down to the fact that they may actually need that building at some point. As an excuse it gets weaker all the time.

And Anakin is kind of in the dark for most of his padawanship. He thinks the council hate him, they do not. He thinks that Obi Wan is the perfect Jedi. If he had said that to anyone in the Jedi Order at any point (including Obi Wan), the Jedi in question would hurt themselves laughing. Palpatine tries to use that, to some success, until Palpatine uses his influence to get Anakin knighted young.

Through some hand waving series of events Anakin brings up to Mace Windu that the Council didn’t want him knighted because they don’t trust him. Windu just blinks at him for a really long moment before telling him that it was not him they were concerned about. He goes onto say that yes, that without a war and in normal circumstances the council would like to give Anakin a few more years of missions with other masters, so he could see what actual normal missions look like (Frankly no one was surprised when Obi Wan went looking for a bounty hunter and managed to find a clone army) and he is a little younger than the average knight but that is offset by how well Anakin has handled having Obi Wan Kenobi for a Master. 

Anakin just goes ‘What?’ very quietly.

Windu sighs. ‘Do you understand how impressive it is that you have spent the last 10 year in almost constant contact with Obi Wan Kenobi and haven’t developed some weird ability (Bant Eerin, Quinlan Vos, Reeft), accidentally rediscovered a lost darkside faction to follow you around clucking (Garen Muln), develop a habit of finding the weirdest Force artifact in any given location (Luminara), or have become a really obvious cult leader. And if you have become a cult leader I thank you for being discreet.’

‘Cult leader!!?’

Windu shrugged, ‘Current official count is 6 cults dedicated to Obi Wan specifically, though I’ll eat my left boot if the 212th doesn’t become the 7th within the next six months, I am already prepared for the fact that it will spread to the entire GAR in a year’

Then he hands Anakin a piece of flimsy, telling him that this was an official approval of his marriage by the Jedi council, on the grounds that the marriage was clearly ‘The Will of the Force’. While Anakin gapes at him, Windu clarifies that this covers Padme in case of pushback for marrying a Jedi. She would be considered as part of the Order under a religious exemption.  She may have to recuse herself from Jedi matters in the Senate (that was up to the Senate Ethics committee) but it also means that the next time she gets a death threat, they could deploy all of their resources instead of just whatever the Senate approved of. 

‘The Will of the Force’ Anakin said weakly.

Windu smiles, ‘you have no idea how much joy it gives me to be able to write those words on an official report to the senate. The pedantic bastards can’t argue against it because of the treaty with the Jedi Order. You have my thanks for that alone.’

Overwhelmed Anakin blurts out what happened on Tatooine, with the Tusken village. Windu clicks his tongue absently, “Hmm, I had wondered why your aura had become a bit darker, but I thought it was because of Geonosis. I’ll get you set up with my therapist, they handle most of the Shadows as well. Once they sign off, we’ll get in touch with the Tuskans to see if there are any reparations you can make.”

And Anakin is just standing there, Absolutely flabbergasted because the Chancellor had him completely convinced that those two secrets would be the WORST things that he could admit to.

Wnidu throws out another deep sigh, ‘Do you think that you are the only Jedi to act in anger with huge consequences? I created an entire lightsaber form because I had so much anger that I needed somewhere to put it. Half the Shadows have actively fallen, some multiple times. Your own Master was abducted by slavers at 16, two hours later their ship landed on an inhabitable world, they unlocked the cages, and the entire crew committed ritual suicide. To this day we have no idea what Obi Wan did to them. We preach self control so much, Anakin Skywalker, because Force users have the potential to do massive amounts of harm in a very short timeframe but because such small slips have such huge consequences we have a rather…different view of what is unforgivable.’

Two months later Anakin’s 501st is in battle with the 212th. He thought his men were a bit unhinged (and liked it like that, everything is better with the proper application of explosives) but then Grievous kicked Obi Wan into a large stone/small cliff so hard that it rattled Anakin’s teeth. 6 troopers immediately stopped firing to sprint through blaster fire to Obi Wan’s position. Anakin could have sworn that the blasters bolts simply passed through the 212th’s medic, Fizz, without slowing. At the same time three companies of the 212th, led by Cody and Ghost, roared and dogpiled Grievous, with his four lightsabers, and the 30 battle droids that he had with him. They also stopped using blasters at about that point. Anakin had not known that the clones were strong enough to rend metal apart like that. 

The 501st can only stand and watch in befuddled awe and horror as the enemy is decimated by a suddenly feral 212th. The carnage only stops when there are no more enemies and the medics declare that Obi Wan will be ok with some time in a Bacta tank.  

It is not long after that battle that Obi Wan finds out about decommissioning.  He is on Coruscant, in the council chamber itself, but the atmosphere on planets, moons, and planetoids (both inhabited and not) across the galaxy begins to tremble. For a brief moment residents of Coruscant would swear that the sky turned 212th gold. 

Shaak Ti reports that decommissioning is written into the contract that the Republic/Jedi have with the Kaminoans. That it is not something that the Kaminoans can just stop. 

Obi Wan decides it is time that he speaks with the Senate about this. The Council effectively gives him a thumbs up, shoves him out the door and are very very glad that they do not have to deal with any of this. 

There is no recording, nor any true recollection, as to what Obi Wan Kenobi says to the Senate that day. Only at the end, the Kaminoan delegation (along with nearly 6000 other delegations) is crying with shame at their actions, Palpatine and a good half of his closest supporters are bleeding out of their facial orifices, and a bill has been passed giving the clones rights, pay and backpay, and a planet of their very own. 

[barblaz-arts]

Seen your post about Israel/Palestine which is very good to care about, but I'm not sure everyone in the world are aware how fucked up the whole situation is. People think it's either this or that, but they should support the actual people, not Israel, not Hamas.

People from both sides got hurt, but the ones who were hurting longer in short term historical perspective, are Palestineans, if we take the long term (which only maniacs and fanatics actually care about) those are of course Jews, but it's more of a religion/ideology thing than some actual suffering.

The problem of this lack of knowledge, in my opinion, is that both sides, politically are shit bcs they use people and their feelings as pawns. Hamas has their military bases near civilian objects in Gaza, and at the same time Israel doesn't give more than two fucks about the civilian population, because they state that terrorists are hiding within the population, and Israel just makes attempts to swipe it under the rug a but by allegedly telling people to evacuate. If they wanted peace they should have started this whole bullshit conflict of interests half century ago. But I really have doubts that for them, being a very much newly established country, it was a fully uninfluenced decision. It was a way for the USA and Nato to weed their way into the Middle East and be able to control the situation. They have been getting ready for war for decades, hense females in regular military service, which isn't a thing in countries that don't really wait and want for any war happening, or have a stable way to enlist their immigrants into their military. But that's another topic. I made this example only as a means to explain why it was obvious Israel was getting ready for war. You can hide the actual point under the feminism and such, but it's not about feminism if it's not your right but your responsibility to serve the country. I don't really mind of course, but the militarization of society usually shows what is it going to be in the future. Especially if such militarization isn't sporadic, but been happening gradually over the years.

Back to history, The whole thing with Israel been festering previous decades, and first UK and after that USA allowed it to fester. It was the Osman empire region first (and I don't really like those slavers on principle, because they've been torturing my country with slave trader's raids on religious principle, for couple of centuries which prompted several huge wars to stop it from happening). After the dissolution of the Osman, as far as I remember, UK swooped in and basically did the colonising of sorts, they usually did, with no respect for local population and thinking they're the ruling caste while being unable assimilate the people into their culture because a) you can't make people want what they don't understand b) any more or less peaceful assimilation is when they actually want to be with you as allies and understand why exactly.

After that they synthetically made a country for jews, which is idiotic on its own merit and on everyone's merit. Like, their thing is that you had to be jew BY BLOOD to settle in the country, which is the beginnings of ultra nationalism, that's what I'm thinking. Not that many societies aren't nationalistic, but the sheer level of it is very odd. And the forefathers of the Israel aren't some lgbt activists who shine with rainbows and shit with butterflies, they are orthodox zionists. Which means, that their religion makes them free to kill people of other, opposing religion.

But it doesn't make the Hamas, as in the organisation, in any way clean and clear. They are terrorists, and they don't enjoy anything but sharia law, or their own charter, which states basically Jihad and jew killing. That is a very dangerous thing to support, because it's a very obvious thing - in this kind of tribalistic society that spurs from lack of education and all other good things in life, people with guns and moxie will rule the people who can actually make the whole thing better by promoting cooperation. You literally cannot negotiate with people who say that they will kill you if you're this or that, killing is bad, period. There's no way out of it, and I think we all need to step back and actually look at the reasons of conflict that go way back, not just the today's situation. It may lead us to the fact that, yes, Israel could've existed peacefully if it wasn't being militaristic, but only - only if they were no political powers in surrounding countries that made their goal the cleansing of Palestine from Jews. And why the Jews even started to get there? Not because they came on their own, no, it was a fucking plan by the actual colonisers, when they were more toothy and bold with their actions.

On a side note, that's partially why Russia/Ukraine situation is drastically different, they have deep ties to each other and speak the same language, had ability to talk to each other all these decades while being torn apart and pit against each other by lies about Russian colonisation of them, and lies of how it would be better if they join the EU. All the while, Ukraine was the best in agriculture in Europe before the whole EU and fracturing from the Russian orbit shebang, and now the industry was in shambles, even before the russian invasion. The same goes for their trading fleet - the whole Ussr built Ukraine the trading fleet and most of it was left there after the dissolution. What they did, they sold it out even if they couldve used it and by the 2018 they had about 5 big ships of their own. And that's how it was with all the economy - thieving it all out and then blaming it on Moscow.

In 2018 polls there were about 20 percent of Ukrainians who said they knew official Ukrainian, and 80 who spoke Russian and the eastern dialect mix of Ukrainian and Russian. You can make your own opinion out of this, ofc. That's not the same with Israel /Palestine situation, those nations are literally alien to each other in many things.

Yes, Ukraine was the synthetic country as well, but instead of being monogenous like both Israel and Palestine, they weren't, and had a very best economy in the Ussr, which made the whole notion of "Russia was is and will be bad" take lots of time in taking root in most of the people who weren't nationalistic, all the while Ukrainians were welcomed into Russia and not discriminated against in any way. Which is totally different to what was happening between Israel and Palestine, they had no actual ties, nothing except the USA military support for Israel so it stays on top, all the economic support to Gaza being settled in the pockets of all the middle men, and that's actually it.

But please, let's not forget, that the radical islamists are actually dangerous, and it's not a reaction to the USA involvement, or the reaction to anything at all but Quran. If there's someone who reads Quran and finds some Jihad mentions, there will be blood spilled over it. The whole, it's these guys fault or those guys fault doesn't really work when it's about politics, domestic or international. For things to work, there should be no radicals in the upper echelons of power. Which is not true in Israel / Palestine war from both sides. It's a very bad situation that may cause all kinds of tensions in all the world, because people aren't being well informed about the whole history of the conflict, without this or that side pushing their narrative.

At first, my knee jerk reaction was reading it as you thinking I support Hamas in any way. Which i dont. I must reiterate i DONT. I decided to revisit this later and calm down a bit and give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume that you're talking about other people, as I have myself seen say they support Hamas because history has often called rebellion groups of oppressed people terrorists and it's... Frankly terrifying to see.

Hamas specifically is a complicated situation that I have not yet dived deep enough into to talk about in detail, which is why I dont much talk much about them. I need to know more, I dont wanna talk outta my ass. But I do understand that radical Islamists are no good. I live in the Philippines. We have that too.

But the fact of the matter will always be that Hamas never mattered when it comes to what Israel is doing now and what they've been doing for decades. We must always remember this.

And while I'm on that topic, the "long term" suffering of Jews does not matter here either, because Palestinians didn't do that to them. A lot of zionists use it as an excuse and I am sick of it.

I'm not sure if you're saying one must be neutral about this. You're either hard to read, or I'm too sleep deprived and exhausted for reading comprehension. I think you are, but ai could be wrong. And I completely agree that it's the radicals in power that are to blame. In all my responses it is always the leaders I condemn most.

In any case, I'm just going to take this opportunity to say staying neutral isn't an option either because of the sheer power imbalance. Israel would be counting on the world looking away so they can erase all Palestinians. For this cycle of violence to be over on BOTH sides, Israel has to be the one to back off, as they are and always have been the ones with more power.

[north-peach]

Doth a Good Spouse a Sith make?

Listen, listen.

I know the Sith are....extreme. The Dark Side is addicting and feeds off of power, ambition, pain and hunger for more.

I am aware.

But.

A Sith falling for a Jedi.

Hear me out!

Like, a Mandalorian Sith, preferably, just out doing their Sithly business, I dunno maybe ruling a planet or two, in an AU where the Mandalorians are either few and scattered or an Empire spanning a good chunk of the galaxy.

The Jedi- like for this to work the relationship would either have to be entirely secret from other Jedi or it's a Last!Jedi AU where said Jedi is rebuilding the Order after a Purge.

like a good Sith!Mand'alor!Din and Luke fic....

But the Jedi would absolutely be conflicted, because first, Sith are violent, have little to no morals and once they decide they want something, they usually do everything in their considerable power to have it. Not to mention the typical disregard for people's lives if they aren't useful to them.

So very high potential for a toxic relationship, yes.

But, if we define Sith as being a person who uses the Dark Side of the Force, swears to the Sith Code and has been trained by a Sith Master, we could have a loophole.

If we define a Darksider as someone who uses the Force with strong emotions, emotions such as passion, the justified rage of the oppressed, righteous fury and the bloodlust every person, regardless of race, gender, creed, religion of age should feel towards slavers and people who harm children....

Technically you would have a socially acceptable Sith Darksider who could be a perfect match for a Jedi who maybe has a history with slavers and is spread too thin in a galaxy that is too large for them to make a drastic difference.

Besides, who didn't like the thought of a Jedi, kind, compassionate and strong, who loves children and just wants to be wrapped in soft blankets, fed good food and be given as many hugs as they want with a significant other who is fierce, intimidating, powerful and strong, also loves children and wouldn't hesitate to destroy the galaxy for their family wrap their loved ones in many soft blankets?

Like honestly, what soothes someone's very strong emotions more then someone you care for wrapped up around you and telling you they'll slaughter all your enemies take care of you so you can sleep and bring their power to bare against any who would threaten them keep you safe, and would love to keep you by their side forever marry you?

[daenerystargaryen06]

Targaryen haters are maddening

Can people stop with labeling the Targaryen's as colonizer's and Nazis? People really do have no reading comprehension whatsoever towards the world of asoiaf, specifically the Targs in general, by mislabeling them and hating on them for supposedly 'colonizing' Westeros. How can they label the Targ's as colonizers, yet ignore the fact that House Stark's ancestors literally did the same exact thing?

Aegon the Conqueror united Westeros with his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys. But when he and his sisters conquered over the Seven Kingdoms and united them together, they did not erase any part of the Seven Kingdoms' ways. They did not force the people of the Seven Kingdoms to follow in their ways, nor did they force the people to abandon the gods they followed for the gods of Valyria, where the Targ's were originally from. They allowed the people to keep their traditions, beliefs, and customs even when united under Aegon's rule. Nor did they force the people into practicing close-related incestuous relations, and they definitely did not force any of the people to replace their banners, items of value, and ways of living for their own.

The Targaryen's are NOT 'Nazis' for utilizing their dragons. Targaryen's did not commit specific acts of genocide against a race, culture, or people such as Nazi's have done. I myself am Jewish. Nowhere in asoiaf, GoT, or HOTD does it show or say that the Targaryen's eradicated or went after a specific race, people, or culture that wasn't theirs. Did they use their dragons in war, and burned people that didn't swear fealty to them? Yes. But they did NOT target those people because of their specific race, nor did they try to eradicate race/cultures just because the Targaryen's were different from them. In asoiaf and GoT, we have one character that actually does the opposite, Dany. Daenerys conforms to other cultures and keeps an open mind about their traditions, ways of living, and conforms to those ways because they are her people. She learns about her peoples livelihoods, what they value, and does not judge other people for those things, nor does she attempt to kill anyone or eradicate their culture or race just because they are different from her and what her House used to do, or believe in. There is also the fact that during their reign, the Targaryen's conformed and kept the religion of the Faith of the Seven, rather than attempting at pushing for their own gods onto others, and eradicating those that had belief said Faith. The Targaryen's do not commit genocide towards a specific race or culture. They are NOT Nazi's in any form of way, just because they have dragons and utilize said dragons. Perhaps people should spend time on studying their history, and what specific terms actually mean, instead of throwing around labels towards fictional characters, who committed around the same acts of violence every other House did in the series (or are we just ignoring the fact that Westeros warred within itself before Aegon united the lands, or the fact that the First Men first came to Westeros' shores, and decided to eradicate the Children of the Forest?)

It is entirely ridiculous to hate on the Targaryen's for conquering Westeros, and labeling them as 'colonizers', compared to the First Men, and ancestors of the Stark's. When they arrived to Westeros- they had chopped down Weirwoods, which were sacred to the gods and Children of the Forest. They warred against the Children, took their lands, and diminished them. Though a pact of peace was created between them, it does not change the fact that the First Men enacted horrible things to the Children of the Forest, and took lands that the Children once inhabited as theirs to chop down the forests and build settlements and roads for their own people, considering they were outsiders to the land.

I also see people calling the Targ's slavers. Slavery was practiced in Old Valyria, by many other Houses that weren't just Targaryen. Essos continued its slavery, but when the Targ's went to Westeros before the Doom, slavery was outlawed and they did not continue its practices. Not to mention, Daenerys, is fighting against slavery. She is attempting to dismantle the practice, and considers everyone as equal, being the first Targaryen to fight against slavery- considering she herself was once a slave. Daenerys is NOT a slaver. She does not want to own others, make them do her bidding, and treat them as lower than her. She herself was once a slave, and does not want to see it continued in others. Daenerys' arc centers around her compassion, empathy, and her drive to end the suffering for those others see as 'lowly' or 'property'. She is the voice speaking for those who have suffered, who gives them strength and courage to not be owned by others. She is the driving force that enables the people to free themselves from the masters.

A comment I saw on Tik Tok inspired this little rant... I just beg for people to gain some reading comprehension every once in a while. For my sanity.