#and drastically restructured one of the other ones

[kataraslove]

there’s a reason why the entire story of avatar the last airbender begins and ends with katara. there’s a reason why we are introduced to katara first before we are introduced to any other character. there’s a reason why katara is the narrator. there’s a reason why the creators have emphasized over and over again that katara is just as titular to the story as aang - she’s the other main character.

when you water down katara - remove her compassion, her ability to connect with others, her nurturing role, her ANGER and RAGE and DRIVE - you water down the very fundamentals of the story. you drastically and severely alter the core dynamics of the gaang, because katara was so important to the development of every single one of them. she was the rock and glue that held team avatar together.

katara was unlike any other character to ever appear on television; she was a young brown girl who took no shit from anyone, yet at the same time remained kind and compassionate and nurturing. katara was a force of nature; proud of her heritage and culture, burdened by the responsibility of being the last southern water bender of the water tribe, angered over the death of her mother and everything that the fire nation took from her, determined to help every single person in need, determined to change the world, angry and resentful because old men and rules and laws kept telling her what she could or could not do, thus, she was determined to restructure thousands of years of patriarchy that stood against her from accomplishing her goals and dreams.

watering down katara into at most 2-3 tangible characteristics, stripping her away of all her motivation and agency and nuance, telling the audience that she wants to help and change the world only to have her stand in the background with an air of grief, demonstrates that the writers of the live action fundamentally misunderstand the spirit of avatar. and that’s something so unforgivable. no matter how many changes they decide to make, or how much they decide to stay true to the original story in other areas, no matter how many flashy VFX fight scenes we get - if you fail to properly understand katara, you fail to understand the heart and soul of avatar the last airbender, everything that makes avatar such a timeless classic.

[molsno]

it is horrendously wasteful that society has become so atomized under usamerican capitalism. the suburban flight spurred by racism proved so profitable for capitalists because suddenly everyone had to buy everything they would ever need instead of relying on public services and their communities to provide for them. there's a tendency in leftish spaces to talk about how suburbia demands car ownership and the consequences of that, but this is an issue that extends far beyond cars.

why does every household need a washing machine and dryer? if we lived in close, dense communities, we could have public free laundromats for every neighborhood. why does every household need a bathtub in lieu of public communal bathhouses? why does every household need specialized cookware when public food pantries could supply meals that are finished or nearly finished, leaving the final touches to the individuals eating them? why does every household need a toolkit when we could have public tool libraries where you could borrow tools as needed and return them when you're finished with them?

the list goes on, but I think it's clear that having these kinds of public facilities would be significantly less wasteful. if we're to have any hope of this planet being sustainable, we need to drastically reduce the amount of resources we consume, and the fact is that will not happen under an economic system that benefits most from forcing every individual to buy items for their own individual uses, even things that they'll rarely use. we need to completely restructure society so that everyone's needs can be met communally. not only will this be more sustainable, it will also guarantee that no one will be deprived of the things they need to live a satisfying life, and the increased time we spend in community with others will make us happier as people.

[galene-gothic]

𝖶𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖽𝗈 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗇𝖾𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗈 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐 𝖺𝖻𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋𝗌𝖾𝗅𝖿 ?

୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅* ‧₊ I hope this reading found you in good health, every reblog is appreciated and thank you for everything :) ˖♡ ˎˊ˗ ꒰ 🐇 ꒱

˗ˏˋ༻ʚ♡︎ɞ༺ˎˊ˗             PAID SERVICES

⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 1 ꒱

You're probably going through a chaotic period in life right now. You have a lot of unhealed trauma and there's a need to work through it. You seem to have lost a lot in life, be it people, things or money. Some of you have unconsciously started villainizing yourself. While, you're able to see the darker aspects of yourself. You should forgive yourself, you might have internalised the belief that you destroy everything, you destroy yourself, you attract chaos into your life through your thoughts and actions and while it is partially true. You seem to have always tried to do the best for yourself. You seem to have a lot of revelations with every decision that you make, with almost every interaction that you have with others. Some of you, might be abuse survivors, there's a need to heal those wounds so you don't turn out like the ones who abused you. I'm getting that for most of you, life just drastically changed one day and it was never the same again. I'm not sure if it was a good or bad change though. Everytime you feel like you're doing better or you can trust the other person, it's like the rug gets pulled from beneath your feet.

You're going through a period where you can restructure your life for the better. There might be times when you have a hard time pulling yourself out of this energy and you might end up really villainizing yourself. You seem to have forgotten what a peaceful life feels like. However, you're actually a very loving person who values alignment and healthy relationships. When you love, you love truly. It would be surprising if you guys have never once in your life experienced true love. You also tend to feel really passionate towards the ones you love. You want to treat them well, you want to spend your energy on them and do and give things to them. You also seem to care about physical attraction when it comes to relationships. You might have a hard time even being friends with people who you don't find attractive. You crave balanced relationships with equal and a lot of give and take. You have a duality is very strong. Dark feminine and light feminine energies combined for the greater good, you're learning how to balance them out. You want to have someone that you'll always choose and someone who'll always choose you. This is sweet. Take care, mate.

⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 2 ꒱

You're business minded, you have a lot of potential for getting wealthy. You also seem to really value security and feel your best when you're disciplined. I just heard 'motivation comes and goes, discipline stays'. You also seem to value certain traditions that are not restricting. Some of you guys probably have trouble with rotational dating because you see it as a waste of time. This generation disappoints you in certain ways, atleast when it comes to romance. You wish to be successful and build a legacy for yourself. Maturity and trust are very important for you in every relationship, be it professional, romantic or platonic. Some of you guys might not get approached in public when you're by yourself because you seem very uninterested and kind of intimidating. You strongly desire wealth, success and power. You get annoyed when people don't co-operate with you. You enjoy debates. You're pretty agreeable usually. However, you do not mind standing up for your beliefs and yourself. It takes a lot for you to actually express anger though. You're very agreeable but also defensive. You know how to keep people at an arm's distance and defend yourself with all your might if things come to it. You're very protective of yourself. You also seem to be very demanding even if you don't express it openly, people can pick up on it.

If you've ever lowered your standards and tried to be happy with the bare minimum, it probably didn't work out well for you. For some of you, people feel like you're acting as if you're better than them. You might often notice that when you're one-on-one with someone especially someone of the same sex, they might be nice to you but when they're in a group, they either exclude you or well just turn on you, in some way. People try to victimize you while villainizing you but you fight them off, directly or indirectly. You're very agreeable, you resist when others attack you, you don't like to fight and want to live peacefully but if someone is going above and beyond, you do snap at some point. If you do not confront them directly, you do something (intentionally/unintentionally) that makes them feel bad. People often have to watch you glow up and live happily. You seem to always come out on top, no one can do anything to bring you down. Well, you might feel bad, however, you still continue developing as a person. You should be more open to people while still having healthy boundaries. You're also very committed to somethings and people. You often find yourself in positions where you are forced to defend yourself. Your closest friends and family members might often turn on you. Nothing can break you and your faith in yourself though. Stay winning, mate.

⸼ ۫ ︎︎⊹ ! 🪡︎ Pile 3 ꒱

Most of you probably have had a satisfying home life right from your childhood days. If not, you want to in the future. You wish to experience pure contentment. You want to have a balanced life in every aspect. You don't want to work until you die. I heard something about wanting to escape the 9-5 but there's a part of you who wishes to live a 9-5, structured and mundane life too. You guys want to do so many different things at the same time because you're such a multidimensional and flexible person. You guys want to become a doctor, lawyer, singer, pianist, influencer, farmer, saint, reiki healer, actor, etc. All at the same time. There's a part of you that wants to receive things without working too, however, there's another part of you that enjoys living a well structured life that allows you to work hard. I'm getting that you're really good at mediating. You don't enjoy fighting or seeing others fight atleast if it gets violent. You're a really patient person and are open to looking at things from a moderate perspective. People often assume that you're their soulmate even if you aren't. You just have a way with people. Your inner peace seems to mean a lot to you and when you're at peace with yourself, you tend to help others be at peace with themselves too. You have the ability to look at things from a higher and objective perspective. Since, you're able to look at things from a higher light, you're able to trust and have hope. Everything in life is like a redirection for you. Even if you are at a period where you're not at peace with yourself, even if this period lasts for a decade, you're able to be at peace with yourself in the end. You're able to find your direction and begin to understand why things had to happen the way they happened. You have dreams that you wish would come true. You're the happiest when you follow your dreams, even though you seem to have multiple of them and all of them resonate with you deeply, there's one in particular that makes you really happy.

I just heard 'childhood dream' and 'teenage dream'. If you continue working hard, have faith in yourself and your visions, you have a very bright future ahead of you. Some of you, seem to have forgotten who you are and what you're capable of. You seem to have dimmed your shine or you had done so at some point. I'm here to remind you to be yourself and get back on the track. You have the ability to get literally anything you want. So far, I'm pretty sure you have atleast 8/10 things you wanted in the past. Also, for the conscious manifestors, you're doing everything right, your manifestations will come into fruition if only you let things flow. You are probably renewing yourself right now because you've realised that there's things that don't serve you anymore. One of the reasons, you deserve all the success and happiness in the world is because you are always working on yourself and don't mind making necessary changes even if they're not easy. You're also different from other people and might feel like you don't fit in at times but you're starting to realise that you deserve to be loved exactly as you are and no matter how much you change, you always seem to build a deeper connection with yourself and feel more like yourself. It's like you're a completely different person than who you were last year but now you've never felt more like yourself. I'm so proud of you. You're supposed to do things your way and you're loved, even though there seem to be only a few who truly understand you and manage to connect with you in your level of depth. You inspire people to become better. People who are miserable and cannot work on themselves and make things better for themselves tend to turn bitter and might treat you quite harshly but please remember 'people only try to intimidate you if you've already intimidated them'. I hope that you're always happy and continue living as the amazing person that you are. I love you so much !!

[grey-gazania]

Self-rec time! What are your favorite five fics that you've written and why? After replying to this ask, feel free to pass on to five other writers to spread the love. 💗 — @emyn-arnens

My dear @emyn-arnens, you sent this to me weeks ago, and I saw it and then unfortunately forgot to answer it, because Real Life has been kicking my ass, so I want both to thank you for the ask and to apologize for how long this took me.

My 5 Favorite Fics (Which Are Not Necessarily My 5 Best Fics)

Loyalty (yes I know this is actually a series, not a fic, hush)

In some ways this series is the bane of my existence, and in other ways it's one of my favorite things I've ever started written. I began planning it in 2011, began posting it in 2015, and, uh, still haven't finished it, whoops, because I think I need to drastically restructure the whole thing before I can proceed. But I've had a lot of fun creating my conlang, and Tókhesh/Tavoreth is one of my favorite OCs I've ever come up with for any fandom, not just Tolkien. I also really wanted to give the Easterlings the chance to be well-developed people in a well-developed society, instead of just being a glorified plot device, and I like to think that I've succeeded.

Unconscious Arithmetic

This story is by now quite old, written in 2011, but it was both my first foray into writing Caranthir and my first attempt at writing in 1st person -- a style I've since found works particularly well for Caranthir, or at least for my version of him. It was also my second story featuring Parmacundë, though she had yet to earn that epessë at the time this story is set, and was the beginning of my plan to work her into the broader story of The Silmarillion. I think I conveyed a particularly vivid picture of how I imagine adolescent Caranthir and what kind of person he might risk befriending.

The Flight of Birds

I hold great affections for the Kidnap Family, as you have probably noticed, but damn, those poor twins must have been pretty messed up by the time they were returned to their parents' people. Transitions are hard even when you haven't began kidnapped and raised by the people who tried to murder your mother, and I thought it would be interesting to explore the turmoil the twins must have felt through Elrond's eyes. I feel like Elros often ends up getting treated as the conflicted twin, while Elrond is the one who is wise and serene, but I think Elrond should get the chance to be an angry adolescent full of turmoil, too.

Root and All

This story is a favorite less because of anything I've done with the characters and more because writing it was a trip down memory lane. I spent large swaths of my summers as a child at a camp in the NJ Highlands, where we spent a lot of time hiking in the woods and swamps and learning about the nature that surrounded us. My fondness for those hikes and that part of NJ was really the driving force behind this story. I first encountered and learned about both ghost pipe and water hemlock at summer camp, which are the two plants that anchor this story.

Darkness and Light

Bet you guys were starting to think we'd get through this list without any representatives from my Woman King AU, but fat chance! The Woman King AU is my life's work, and this is my favorite installment of it. It's short, but I think I did a very good job of portraying Ereiniel's grief and pain following Fingon's death. Fingon and the shadows he cast after his death were a massive influence on the woman Ereiniel grew into, the Gil-galad she became. In some ways the Woman King AU is just as much about Fingon and his wife as it is about Ereiniel, because their choices, successes, and failures echo down to their daughter and shape the woman she grows into.

[shadowthestoryteller]

Health Hiatus Announcement

This is gonna be a long post, but a necessary one that has quite a bit of important info relating to the future of my creative works concerning the Adventures!AU series. First, look at this lovely new cover art for Off to a Great Start I had done by my bud Arven92 on DA. The title has changed to The Adventure Begins, but the main story within is the same. 

The light reveals their true Alphian form (symbolic only, not a lore aspect) while their shadow shows their ultimate fate as a member of Clone Force 99/Bad Batch. The bookshelves are a key location (library), but the merge into woods represents how they're entering into a very real adventure that isn't just a fantasy they write into books. Really happy how it turned out ^^

Onto the main post! 

TLDR: Adventures!AU is being drastically shortened for my sanity and physical health into two arcs (six books each) but most likely will cease full chapter uploads after arc one as I am tired af, I don’t want to be doing this series into my 50s, and I want to turn my focus back to my originals eventually. Next year will see postings of the series prologue, Anachronism, as well as hopefully the Remaster of Off to a Great Start/The Adventure Begins. I will still be very active on my discord, where some chapters of next year's stories have already been posted. But for my other story posting sites (aka Wattpad) all new Star Wars content is on hiatus until 2026.

Been wanting to make a big post for a while for the people who aren’t a part of the discord, especially since I’ve more or less dropped off the face of tumblr after it became unhealthy due to comparison eating me alive. If you like my work, you’re welcome to join the server which is dedicated to my works. I’m active in there a few times a week, and even post bi-weekly updates as to what I’ve been working on. And I’ve posted six chapters of remastered Off to a Great Start/The Adventure Begins complete with new scenes, new povs, and even more snark! Just message me for the link, I'm still wary of a stalker finding me again.

Now, for the meat of this update. 

Y’all. I am just… dog dead tired. And stressed beyond belief. Some of it isn’t related to the Adventures!AU itself (job hunt, burnout from completing my Masters in May, ect), but a lot of it admittedly is. Considering I’ve written almost 500k words in just under 5 years, it’s no surprise. Some people don’t write that in a lifetime, and I’m out here doing that on top of college. Proud of myself for that. 

What I’m not proud of, however, is ignoring my body’s warning signals and pushing myself past my limits not once, but twice. Once in 2022, and now again in 2024. Nothing major or genuinely life-altering, but when I say my health anxiety went off the rails. Been a rough few weeks lol. 

But that leads me to now. 

Adventures!AU. My series following the adventures of my self-insert as they become a member of Clone Force 99 back when it was just four members, with the added twist of it being in an alternate universe where the Star Wars universe has crossed over with my original stories. It’s not as big as non-self insert series, but Over the River and Through the Woods (which sits at a whopping 66 chapters and 200k+ words) once got #19 out of 60k in the ocs tag. The series has been going since April 2020, seeing four completed stories of various lengths and one WIP that sits at 21 chapters and 93k words. 

Aside from the recently completed Fallen Not Forgotten, it’s been on hiatus since Dec of 2023. At least as far as chapter uploads go. It’s certainly not been collecting dust. To say it underwent some intense restructuring in July is an understatement. A big understatement. 

I originally had seventeen books planned for the series as of three months ago, sectioned into four arcs with Anachronism kinda being a “prologue” to the main Adventures!AU series. Before this timeline is banished to the dream graveyard, I’m sharing it so y’all can at least see where it was gonna go. The four arcs would have had four books each, and were structured thus:

Bonds Forged Through Fire and Storm

Off to a Great Start (25 chapters)

Over the River and Through the Woods (66 chapters)

To the Far Reaches (66 chapters)

Welcome to War Games (25 chapters)

Into the Light Through Acts in the Dark

Commander, Meet the Cat (Remastered, 20 chapters)

Fallen Not Forgotten (Remastered, 20 chapters)

Risk vs Reward (20 chapters)

Bane of My Existence (20 chapters)

Wars of the Realms

Call of the Wild (20 chapters)

Convergence Hijinks (20 chapters)

Let’s See What You’re Really Made Of (20 chapters)

Anachronistic Adventures (20 chapters)

Decaying Dreams and Deadly Dances

Shadow in the Dark (40 chapters)

Murder Uncle Mayhem (40 chapters)

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (40 chapters)

A Legacy in Question(40 chapters)

The plans I had for this series were intricate, deep, and would push many characters to their limits. 

But turns out, it wasn’t just the characters pushed to their breaking point. 

I got sick. A rather severe case of acid reflux that landed me in the docs office for the second time in two years. That started in mid-July, and I’m still dealing with it. Will probably be dealing with the sickness afterward for another month at least. But leading up to all that, I’ve been reflecting on the series as a whole and where exactly I want it to go, how I want it to end, and all that jazz. 

Then I did a scheduling test in Excel using the above chapter load plus the 30 I had planned for Anachronism. Assuming two chapters a month with minimal breaks here and there, this series would finally end in 2050. That is by no means sustainable, and while I have had a lot of fun with this series and daydreaming about the different plotlines is a comfort activity, I can’t see myself writing these books for that long. I really want to publish my original stories some day, but I also won’t pretend that I’m not a bit tired of the series. At least, tired of pushing myself to work on stories that just don’t give the same rush of dopamine they used to. It’s almost a chore now to work on them, at least in the case of FNF. 

Full disclosure, that story has been a problem child since day one. Actually, I’m pretty sure the stress of that story is what pushed me over the edge and caused the health issues in 2022 that sent me to the doc with acid reflux the first time. Messing with canon and trying to keep the timeline continuous (with timetravel in the mix too) was nothing short of infuriating. The trajectory changed so many times as I wrote it, which I sadly feel is evident in the story. It really seems like a disjointed mess. I’m just so disappointed how it turned out, but I was determined to at least finish it and not leave everyone on a cliffhanger. And I’m proud of myself for at least finishing it, even if I cut out at least four threads from the ending. It just wasn’t healthy to keep going. 

Nor was it going to be healthy if I kept the series structured like I had it. 

So, I took the steps to fix that. 

Seventeen stories became twelve, four arcs became two. Some storylines were combined into one book (ex: Risk vs Reward and Bane of My Existence) while others (ex: Adventures!AU Batch meeting canon batch in Convergence Hijinks) were cut completely. I hated to lose some, but I’ve always been one to appreciate quality over quantity. Combining books and plotlines will help streamline things and make it more manageable. Some books also get new titles.

Arc one keeps its name, and will cover six books; Four main books then a prologue and epilogue of sorts. Anachronism, The Adventure Begins, Over the River and Through the Woods, To the Far Reaches, Welcome to War Games, and Moving Back to Look Forward. This arc covers Shadow’s initial fandom jump into the Tintin 2011 movie, their first mission with the Bad Batch, and them meeting the sailors again this time with the Batchers. Arc two will also keep its name and cover the entirety of the group’s interference of Star Wars the Clone Wars canon (rescuing Domino to taking down Palps), with a similar set up to arc one. Fallen Not Forgotten, Risk vs Reward, Level Up, Shadow in the Dark, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, and A Legacy in Question. 

But I know that even the shortening isn’t drastic enough. I feel only dread thinking about the series now, and that won’t do. So, though it kills me, Arc One will probably be the only arc that gets an official posting. Once Moving Back to Look Forward ends in 2030 (barring any major complications), that will be it for official full length postings of Adventures!AU. I’ll still post snippets and segments from arc two on Discord (like I do now occasionally), but MBtLF will end in a way that wraps everything up nicely. I’ll be sure to craft it so it can remain open ended to their adventures, but the current trajectory will see the “main” storyline with Shadow and the Batch, plus the Tintin sailors, close in arc one. 

That’s the long term goal. So what’s short term? 

Next year I plan to at least partially post Anachronism. That story has remained in the drafts for long enough. Yes, that means To the Far Reaches is backed up another year for posting (2026). That story has a lot of emotional moments, a lot of dealing with past trauma and relationship issues, and I just don’t have the spoons for that right now. For those intense moments, I have to crack myself open a bit and let my heart bleed onto the page. I’m not in a position to do that right now. Anachronism lacked that depth, being a bit more surface level than the stories with the Batchers. It’s got its own emotional moments, but it’s not nearly as taxing. Additionally, I’m going back through what was Off to a Great Start (now The Adventure Begins) and bringing it up to the standards I try to hold OtRaTtW and TtFR to. But I learned my lesson posting stories out of order so I’m going to get Anachronism finished so there’s no continuity issues. 

That brings me to my next point; Adventures!AU canon. 

I’ve already announced that the posted C,MtC and FNF are both non-canon and should not be taken as fact. You can still enjoy them (best you can with the crack-writing) but any continuity issues should be ignored as they are from an earlier draft of the Adventures!AU. Well, that decanonization treatment is extending beyond those two. The Adventure Begins, Over the River and Through the Woods, and To the Far Reaches aren’t non-canon per se, but rather some elements of the remastered versions may contradict the original postings. Going forward, the “truest” version will be those depicted in the works posted to Adventures!AU Remastered on Wattpad. The first story (The Adventure Begins) won’t drop there until at least November 2025 but you’re free to watch it in the meantime. It’ll sit dormant for quite a bit longer though. Nothing major will change in the stories, but I plan to add some extra scenes and tweak some minor details (the Batchers time in the galaxy is one big thing I’m looking at tweaking). 

Let’s see. checks notes Yep, I think that covers everything! At least for now lol. I always have stuff to say, but this will probably be the last long update post for quite some time. 

Thanks for hanging around, and for reading this long post lol.

[reimenaashelyee]

2023 vs 2013 // Liking the look TWIDI has evolved into. Again, the style fundamentally hasn't changed, but the whimsicality comes across better now.

The 2013 layout of this spread isn't good LOL. The speech bubble flow was all over the place... which would have been fine if it actually did anything interesting. It was simply average lettering trying to be quirky inside average panelling - not the most effective or efficient use of space vs information density.

I said I wasn't planning to rehaul the layouts drastically as I do the 10th anniversary remake. But this spread really, really needed it.

For the 2023 layout I restructured the bubble flow into a sinous curve confined within the two halves of the spread. There's actually WAY more information/text inside the spread now - I managed to condense one and a quarter spreads into just one, as well as added some extra dialogue. And somehow it doesn't look messy. Really shows what 10 years of practice does!!! PLUS I still get to be experimental, with Grimsley's speech bubble shape as he explains the types of undead; I plan to include inset illustrations inside the bubble.

Some other tweaks: the furniture/props are more specific. Mr Brown finally looks like the person I was caricaturing. The in-panel compositions are slightly more dynamic. Grimsley and Mr Brown are clearly physically interacting with the table + chair.

[arkham-dossiers]

Patient File: Edelgard von Hresvelg

This is a patient whose life has multiple outcomes, but only one root.

The root in question is that she is one of many children borne by Ionus von Hresvelg IX, the Emperor of Fodlan's Adrestrian Empire. During the first few years of Edelgard's life, she was instilled with a sense of imperial pride...and imperial responsibility. This on its own would be unremarkable given her circumstances, but said circumstances soon changed drastically. After an internal coup effectively removed Emperor Ionus from power beyond that of a figurehead, Edelgard and her siblings were locked in the palace dungeon and experimented upon by a shadowy collective of mages.

The cruelty of the experiments, which turned Edelgard's hair white and cut her natural lifespan in half, also caused her great psychological and emotional trauma, as did the suffering and eventual deaths of her siblings around her. As the only one to achieve the desired result of the mages' experiments, the ability to bear two Crests rather than just one, Edelgard holds massive survivor's guilt. All of this - in tandem with one of the few childhood memories prior to the experiments that she vaguely retained, where she was gifted a dagger by a relative and told to cut out her own path in life beyond what's expected of her - is what shaped Edelgard into who she is now and influenced the extreme actions she took.

In several timeline branches, Edelgard allies herself with the mages in order to serve their purpose while also scheming to betray them once she has obtained the requisite power and knowledge to efficiently do so. Living a double life as a student at the Garreg Mach Monastery's Officers Academy and as a masked terrorist known as the Flame Emperor, Edelgard manipulated her classmates and cut deals with criminals in order to bring instability to Fodlan, particularly the Church of Seiros that runs Garreg Mach and holds sway over most of Fodlan's society and governing bodies, with the end result being her as the newly crowned Emperor of Adrestria declaring war on the Church and its allies so that Fodlan may be united under the Adrestrian banner. In one timeline, she prevailed, while in others she was defeated and slain, although the results of the war still led to a changed Fodlan and a united government full of societal reforms.

In other timeline branches, however, Edelgard was able to betray the mages early on. As a result, she dropped the Flame Emperor guise and was instead able to manipulate the Church into acting as the aggressor toward Adrestria, now justifying a war in retaliation. Sometimes she prevailed, sometimes she didn't, and sometimes a compromise was reached, but in all cases she was able to survive.

What all of these timelines share in common is Edelgard's almost monomaniacal focus on her end goal: destroying both the Church of Seiros and the mages, and unifying Fodlan under the Adrestrian Empire so that it can be completely restructured for the better, abolishing the nobility and Crest system in favor of a meritocracy. In contrast to most warmongers, Edelgard has no intention of holding onto power. Once her end goal has been achieved, she plans on appointing a successor and stepping down to live out whatever years remain in her shortened life in peace. It's a peculiarly selfish brand of selflessness she has: ruthlessly forcing her will and ideals upon the population of Fodlan all so that they and future generations can reap the benefits rather than herself. She similarly rationalizes all the deaths her war causes this way: many will die, but if her reforms to Fodlan are put in place many more will live. There will be little chance of anyone else having to suffer the way she and her siblings did.

That is ultimately what Edelgard's motives boil down to: the desire to prevent future victims of what she was put through, by eliminating every factor that led to her suffering. The Church of Seiros, the system favoring bloodlines and the power of Crests that it perpetuates through its false gospel, the corrupt nobles, and of course the mages...Edelgard hates them all for what happened to her and her siblings, but she does not seek their demise out of a desire for vengeance. Having accepted what is done cannot be undone, Edelgard instead focuses on the future, with the past and even the present firmly pushed behind her. This is what grants her the ability to emotionally detach and repress even her own moral compass to an almost sociopathic degree in order to do what she believes is necessary. As she herself puts it: "My regret. My grief. My whole life. I've thrown it all away...into the darkness..." She is fully aware that others will see her as a villain for this, but she is willing to embrace that label so long as she can change Fodlan for the better.

Edelgard's greatest fear is forging personal attachments to others. Not only does she fear losing people she grows close to like she lost her siblings, but she fears being close to people will be a greater burden on her conscience, making her hesitate and second-guess the path she's taking even when she whole-heartedly feels it's a path she needs to stick to. In the worst case scenario, Edelgard isolates herself so much that she is consumed by her lack of self-love and her need to prevail by any means necessary, transforming herself into an inhuman monstrosity as a result. Conversely, in the best case scenarios, Edelgard discovers that being close to people willing to share her path with her and taking input from them even if it goes against what she believes is achievable and healthy, leading to her showing more emotion and vulnerability rather than stoically take on every burden by herself. This usually comes about through Byleth, the human avatar of the reincarnated Nabatean goddess Sothis.

Diagnosis: Taken on the whole, Edelgard appears to suffer from a frighteningly potent combination of post-traumatic stress disorder, high-functioning avoidant personality disorder, and mild dissociative tendencies. Her past is both everything and nothing to her simultaneously, having shaped her psychology even as said psychology centers around fixating upon the future at the expense of all else. Depending on what point of her life she's at, treatment and improvement is possible, although victims tragically unpreventable.

This patient is not dangerous if approached in peace.

[liesmyth]

its suggested in a handful of places in the text that Corona and Ianthe might have their own goal that they’re working towards, and that they’re close to achieving it - do you have any thoughts or theories as to what that goal might be?

I’m ready to be surpised! I have vague thoughts, though I wouldn’t stake anything on them.

One important thing that is sometimes overlooked when discussing the twins’ plan, or anything about their lives pre-canon, is that Ianthe becoming a Lyctor was completely unexpected, changed everything, and made Ianthe infinitely more powerful. Yes, she was a skilled necromancer, but a skilled “normal” necromancer doesn’t even come close to what a Lyctor can do. (Harrow was a prodigy who has been moving her parents’ bodies around since age 10, and she got bloodsweat from fighting Gideon in GtN!)

I think that sometimes we forget that 1) Ianthe post-Lyctorhood has access to a wealth of power and knowledge that drawrfs anything she had before; and 2) pre-Lyctorhood, the twins planned to keep up their ruse for their entire lives, with Coronabeth eventually becoming leader of the Third; and 3) they could NEVER have planned for what happened.

IMo, whatever plan they made couldn’t have survived the impact of all the changes that happened from the beginning of GtN. Not only the political landscape and their personal circumstances changed drastically, but their relationship deteriorated, they were separated for over a year, and in that time they both changed (and Ianthe gained a much greater understanding of her new powers).

I think they had plans on how to shape the Houses as much as they could during Corona’s future reign, and maybe the vague shape remains. I can also believe that they made contact before Corona was taken by BoE and Ianthe has a very vague idea of what she might have been up to. But I doubt they had the means to restructure whatever plans they originally made to adapt to their current situation,because they haven’t been in touch and because they are working with an incomplete picture.

Ianthe in NtN strikes me as being pretty overwhelmed and in over her head, and I think her only goal is only to wait out the current situation until she’s more enthrenched in her power and position and knows where she stands, even if it takes decades, and for now the only thing that matters to her is to make sure that Corona lives that long. Ianthe has been studying the Resurrection since before canon, but now she actually has the power and maybe the means to use that knowledge to make Corona immortal, and that’s what she’s working on.

Corona, I think, is a bit more proactive. I think she joined BoE out of necessity but is playing them like a fiddle and using them for her own ends, which definitely aren’t the destruction of the Empire, just reshaping it.

I don’t think they are currently “working together” in any way, but have each adapted their vague original plan individually, and whatever goal they’re working towards absolutely includes the other. But I’m reasonably sure Corona wouldn’t be satisfied with the place she occupies in Ianthe’s plan, and viceversa.

tldr this was a very long winded way to say, I have no fucking idea! But I like to think about it

[pep-the-artemis]

What I think Murder Drones needs to be a perfect show for me is two more episodes (so ten episodes total not including the alluded series 2) or to make the episodes like 5-10 minutes longer. I know with indie productions more episodes is difficult but MD needs it but I have a few reasons defending my position.

For one, all the characters are well written with very fun and interesting dynamics to the point an episode centred around any one of the core cast would be wonderful. But due to MD being so plot heavy (a prerequisite of an 8 episode structure), we don't get much time to sit back and enjoy the characters and to watch them grow. Extra time given for the characters to just exist would do wonders for the show.

(spoilers ahead from this point on)

Secondly, there is a notable shift from episode 2 to 3, the plot really suffocates imo. in episodes 1 and 2, I feel they really struct a great balance between plot and character development. The episodes are slower giving more time to the side characters. The action scenes are coddled by slower scenes of self-reflection and character development, which is a concept Miyazaki argues is very important. In episode 3 and beyond, I feel the plot takes a stronger lead with basically every scene directly advancing the story causing the show to feel much faster and the side characters to become neglected (rip Thad, your cool kids shin dig will be missed). Stories speeding up is not uncommon nor inherently bad and basically universal but I still feel with Murder drones its jarring.

Thirdly, some parts just needed way more time to flesh out imo. The biggest offender for me was Uzi becoming a 'murder drone' for lack of a better phrase (I know its canonically called 'Absolute Solver' but she was already one of them way before gaining the wings and lust for oil). The show had a full episode basically dedicated to her transformation but then no more, the next episode we're just supposed to presume that she had gained control over the changes to some level of competency and had come to terms with the implications (not going into the implications of becoming a 'blood thirsty' creature was so underutilised it caused me to spend over 6 hours writing a short story just about that concept alone). We need time to see her adapt and come to terms with the implications imo, I think its so important it could have its own dedicated episode.

As I said earlier, there isn't much that can be done, I'm really crying into the wind here. But I still think its sad and I want to be sad about it but you can't cry on social media so you have to express your emotions in a different manner. I wonder will anyone agree?

ps. I chose two extra episodes because i felt you could add two episodes to the show without any drastic changes to the other episodes. I feel more episodes (although lovely) would be a lot more to ask of Glitch and would also require a more substantial restructuring of the series.

[dipperdesperado]

What is Post-Growth?

Recently, I made a post about degrowth. The TLDR is that degrowth is an alternative economic model that focuses on a more holistic view of the world, where ecological and social sustainability is more important than growth for the sake of growth. It’s a mitigation tactic, that is more reactive in nature. It asks for a dramatic reduction in growth-economy activities. Post-growth, on the other hand, takes a broader look at solutions to current economic woes. I’ll explain post-growth and why it’s interesting while calling out specific differences to degrowth.

Post-growth takes a look at our current world and realizes that the importance of GDP as a metric for economic success leads to a sicker society. Economic recessions that negatively impact the working class, extreme climate realities, and lack of access to basic things needed for survival are all problems for the majority of people (and will only become more so as the situation worsens). By transitioning to a post-growth model, waste would be reduced, efficiency would be increased, and social and ecological sustainability would be promoted. Instead of constant consumerism, focusing on repurposing, upcycling, and reusing resources can reduce the damage done to the environment and improve the quality of life. A happy planet leads to happy people. Inherent to this shift in focus is a redistribution and restructuring of resource allocation. This change can not be made if access to resources is not made more equitable. This shares a lot of crossover with the approach degrowth takes.

One of the biggest areas for concern in the movement towards post-growth (or any different economic model) is the actual structural changes needed for it to happen. It’s not a question of ability; we have the technology, knowledge, and awareness to make the changes that we need to so that we can improve lives. There’s just a lot riding on upholding the status quo. Since post-growth necessarily asks for a lot of changes to the economic system, there’s going to be a lot of pushback. Not only this, but along with this new system, we’d have to design new metrics to ensure that it’s successful. If we continued to use GDP, for example, as our key metric, then a post-growth economy will appear to be "worse" than an infinite growth economy.

As I mentioned before, this process has a lot of similarities to degrowth. Both have a bent towards sustainability and social good and seek to shift paradigms from infinite growth to something that actually improves people’s lives. The biggest difference between the two models is that post-growth doesn’t see growth as necessarily bad; degrowth posits that there needs to be a massive reduction in economic growth and consumption to give us the best possibility for mitigating catastrophe. This isn’t to say that the two ideas are oppositional to one another; far from it. They just probably have different contexts in which they’ll be helpful.

Based on how much time we have left to prevent a level of catastrophe even worse than our current environmental issues, degrowth’s stronger positions on well…degrowth might be a good place to focus many of our efforts. Post-growth has a multitude of ways that it can exist, just like degrowth, but as a broader possibility space, it might not, by itself, lead to the changes that we need to make sure as many people are cared for in the coming years as possible. From my vantage point, the point of no return is upon us, and figuring out cunning ways to continue economic growth, even a little, is currently out of the question until we get a handle on things. By the time we find that equilibrium between growth and the planet, we’ll have to take more drastic measures since the planet will be all jacked up anyway.

This isn’t to say that post-growth doesn’t have a place. I think that it is easy when presented with systemic issues, to have very extreme, reactionary positions. We need to have the skill to know how to make decisive decisions that impact our planet and people in positive ways in the short term, while also not creating problems in the medium and long term. Post-growth’s flexibility allows for it to be a vehicle where we can think in a mode that isn’t binary. We could look at the good things that are currently happening more easily if we don’t discard the whole system.

So, while I lean more towards degrowth as our operational strategy to save ourselves, keeping post-growth in mind and understanding how we can employ strategies from both to reach our best outcome is ideal. I think that many of us can agree that we want to not only save a life but find ways to constantly improve them. Keeping our minds open and alert to exploring that possibility space will make its realization all the more likely.

[glitchypsi]

hey does naz have a skeleton (💀) ?

excellent question!

keep these questions coming. i'm happy to answer them. Short answer: it depends

Long answer: it depends on the form.

Unstructured Ethereal-category forms such as fire, water, magma, plasma and such do not have internal structures that can be considered "bone". Instead, Naz uses his own energy to conserve the shape he desires to have at any given moment and the strength of this energy is what gives these forms its structure rather than internal supports (also why these forms are, relatively so, more costly to maintain!)

Structured Ethereal-category forms such as rubber, metal, tree, wood (yes, they're different), may instead opt for specialized support structures so energy does not have to be used as much for support and the form can have its own sustainability, which may be compromised in different ways but restructured back like a UE-category form.

ORGANIC forms on the other hand, are more akin to actual flesh and bone, so yes! they also do have a skeleton. They're the easier to uphold energy wise because they don't need to be reformed the same way as E/UE forms, but it comes with their own organic being drawbacks. Shapeshifting in the organic form requires organic energy. That being said, the bone structure in the organic forms can change drastically, but he has a preference. One particular emphasis to make on structure are body parts that have darker stripes than usual. By default, this tends to be the tail. Those stripers are a bio-marker that signifies this particular part is designed to shapeshift often. Why the tail? Many reasons. I'll keep those for another moment.

The tail's bone structure is unlike a normal tail's, and is much more flexible especially for the uses he gives it and the regular uses you'd imagine for a tail.

Just for the record, the tail can change size. That alone should say how flexible these bone structures have to be.

The rest of the body changes slower, but it may also become faster.

[reveregret]

i kind of hate the systems i have around posting. checking every single note i get takes up so much time when a post becomes popular. i can't post anything new until i sort through all of that or the traffic dies down. i have to post asks in chronological order, so if i haven't finished the first one i can't go to another. i'm incredibly lucky i managed to get out of the habit of not doing anything except write until i finished my responses. i used to feel the need to get everything out asap to match the submission date as closely as possible, despite saving it in a separate location regardless.

my darling has criticised me for these things before and i have to agree with her. it's compulsive and unproductive. it's unnecessary stress to have these rigid rules. i want to try breaking away from this but it's been so ingrained for the past few years. it's how i've always used tumblr. other sites as well, but the extent is not nearly as drastic. so much of my day to day is simply arbitrary routines that i've imposed upon myself. it's difficult to break out of because whenever i don't fulfil these obligations it's like the world is falling apart. i've damaged a fragile ecosystem and there's no way it could ever recover from any slip-up, right?

this is such a huge reason that stalking got so out of hand before. it became a lineup of tasks, done a certain way, done a certain order, don't get caught, learn all that you can. i had to understand everything possible about someone and i'd develop habits in my attempts to learn about them.

i knew obsessive was a well-fitting term for everything i felt and did, but that definition has taken on a new meaning after my darling reframed many of the issues i'd dealt with. at that point, i never told her about anything i would put on this blog. her own experiences managed to shed a new light on my own. so even though it was directed at unrelated instances in my life, everything i'd boiled down to being an experience with bpd was something i had to reevaluate.

not to say it's not bpd, just that there was more to it than i'd realised. if anything, it goes hand in hand, being a common comorbidity and all. turns out i struggle with ocd too. i was already conscious of this but i never really accepted how it actually played into my life. i mean, acknowledging it just put a spotlight on what was wrong with me, and i didn't want to worry about that more than i already did. i panic enough about my mental state as it is.

even writing this is difficult. i started this as a means to justify my absence. if i don't post something now i'm going to cease to exist. i have to reread every single paragraph, restructure it to reduce as much error as possible and make sure it flows correctly and i didn't completely misstate my intent. i write more than i need to so that no detail is forgotten, sometimes reiterating throughout to ensure further. running a blog and remaining active with all of these expectations i have for myself is difficult to keep up with.

sometimes i don't know why i bother with these personal posts. maybe to humanise myself and be more personally relatable to my followers? maybe to make my blog more than just a masquerade? that's how it started, after all. my main blog could've been enough, but i made a side blog with a new personality to see what difference it would make. even though i gave it up a good while ago, having a space dedicated to specific thoughts makes it define me a little.

i can already tell you exactly who is likely acknowledge this post directly and who isn't, and around how long it may take. i keep track of patterns more than is good for me. not just mentally, but keeping a physical record of everything i do and how others around me interact with each other or myself. the interconnectedness of each detail. it used to be worse while i still wrote every little thing down, but it still festers in other ways. i've been trying to let go, yet everything i miss feels like i'm destroying a part of my own existence.

i don't know if anyone will connect to this post in particular, but i hope it helps someone feel less alone in the way some of my other posts do. i didn't realise how much i needed someone to understand me in this way until i had it. as scary as it is to not give in to any of these thoughts, it makes all the difference. turns out it's pretty nice not worrying about suddenly dying if i step in the wrong place lol

[cowboyjen68]

Hi Jen 💜 I was wondering if you had any advice on how to start living for yourself instead of for other people. I’m realizing this is something I’ve struggled with for most of my life, and I’m not sure how to figure out what I like and what makes me happy, because for so long my standard has been “what do other people want from me? What do other people think is impressive?” I spend my high school and college years trying to measure up to my best friend, and now, after a rough breakup, I find myself trying to compete with my ex. Even though we’re not in contact and I don’t follow her online anymore, I still have this persistent feeling of her judgment in my mind whenever I do (or don’t do) anything. I feel the need to compare myself and my progress to her life even though I’m realizing that I don’t actually want to do the things she’s doing. But I feel like just being me isn’t enough, you know? Sorry, I feel like this may be kind of vague and rambling, haha.

I think a lot of us feel this to some extent or another. I needed to, first and foremost, learn to say “no” when I don’t want to do something. It really starts with being honest with myself. Am I saying “yes” because something is appealing to me or even because I know I can offer help and that will make me feel good OR am I saying “yes” to avoid being seen as rude or mean?   

Often I found myself either saying “yes” or passively agreeing to something because I thought it was the response expected of me and to say “no” would allow another person to suffer. Most of the time we all are willing to do something to alleviate the pain or fear of others but  I had to learn to weigh the consequences to my own health and life. (financial, emotional, physical etc.) 

Once I was coming out of a 17 year relationship I realized I had based much of the trajectory of my life on what I thought she needed/wanted and what was expected of me as a parent and a partner to another woman. I had to drastically rethink my life because after about a year apart I was still doing the same things and every move I made seemed dependent on what she would think, how she would react or what societal expectations. I had never wanted to be a mom and I certainly did not want to be a mom in the way I thought others wanted me to be a mom. 

I literally sat down one day and penned out my parenting style as opposed to what I was doing. In one column it was “I would do it this way” and in another was “I do it this way” and after each was a “because” column.  SO  I would “tell my kid they can’t have the candy and explain it is too much money” BECAUSE “I want them to know the truth and money is tight” And then I would reflect on how I had been handling things “I would tell them NO to the candy” and be upset because I was stressed I could not afford it BECAUSE “My wife would tell me it was mean to tell kids we don’t have enough money since it makes them feel like we are poor”. 

It did not take too much of this exercise to realize many of my reactions were,  more often than not, a proactive reaction to how I knew OR thought another person would react to my decision. Predicting a  reaction is one thing that we need to be able to get along with others and live in a social world. Restructuring our entire way of handling every situation to appease others is not healthy if it is a constant restraint we have to be aware of just to live day to day. When we have to expend the mental energy to make sure each action and decision will not cause us conflict with those in our lives we need to rethink the people we are “answering to” Are these the people we need around us if we find ourselves going against every instinct we have to just function?  

I discovered that my constant effort to define my actions by the parameters others were setting on me was exhausting. We all have to make some concessions to be part of groups but when we give up our natural way of handling situations to control the judgment of others we can forget that we are capable of handling things our own way. AND, in the end, we can’t control the actions of others anyway. 

This is all sort of the preamble to the idea that we base our success on what others see as success. Good parents are “seen” a certain way. Good employees “act” a certain way. Success is money, things, vacations, long term relationships and on and on. Our social structure is set up to reward these things that are “the dream life” but whose dream?   You need to figure out what truly gives you happiness. Is it money? Tropical vacations? Or is it a job you have that you love but aren’t “supposed” to do because it isn’t fancy or glorified by the media?  Some people that work at gas stations make a living wage, get benefits and love the daily interactions with regulars they have formed relationships with yet they are constantly told they need to “move up” or that what they do is not important or fulfilling. Is it less work and more time with your friends? Is it evenings at home with your dog? 

You are enough. And what you enjoy is enough. If you can pay your bills, take care of yourself and live within the means you have decided to earn, that is success. Adding fulfillment and happiness to that is icing on the cake. When we are with a partner or friends we often do things we don’t necessarily enjoy but being with them makes it worth it. When we are on our own time we can decide for ourselves and that freedom can feel pretty nice.

[viceroywrites]

reunions and opportunities - chapter three

gary x fem!reader

both of you didn't get the ideal high school experience it would make sense that you both would be dreading the reunion.

little did you know how many doors would open after that.

ao3 version here - chapters on tumblr are slightly rewritten and restructured.

content warning: fic contains smut in later chapters. discussions of mental health including trauma and potential ptsd (aka gary is traumatized).

chapter 3

A few weeks had passed since your and Gary’s first meeting and the pace of life had changed drastically for the both of you since then. 

You had gotten comfortable in your position as Sheila’s right hand woman, joining her on meetings on Meteor Majeure, helping her with reconnaissance and compiling information about the Blue Morpho. Most of your days were spent with her while evenings were dedicated to meticulously going through surveillance tapes that Wide Wale handed off to you, noting every move each Venture family member made. 

Little did you know, your newly harbored crush was gallivanting around with the Blue Morpho, dressed up as Kano. Gary had been undergoing night after night of stressful encounters, accidentally taking out Harangeutan, barely avoiding being caught by Dr. Mrs the Monarch and almost losing his leader turned best friend to an explosion when they eliminated the Doom Factory. All the while, he’s been feeding you fake stories of what his days have been like, listing off mundane things like attending meetings, and working on projects with vague descriptions.

There was comfort in your late night talks and text exchanges - you quickly found out you had more in common than just a love of comics, geeking out with one another about the latest Game of Thrones episode or sending each other memes. Friendly banter had definitely morphed into playful flirting and you had even started sending each other selfies, both of you being extra careful to hide anything that would indicate your life in the Guild. 

Following the elimination of the Doom Factory, The Council of 13 was currently convening on Meteor Majeure to discuss narrowing their sights on Dr. Venture. Most of the time during these meetings, you stayed silent and took down notes for your husky voiced boss, still learning the ropes and getting used to working with other villains outside of Wide Wale. 

The task force chosen from the Council of 13 to tackle the Blue Morpho problem was officially dubbed the 5.5. Your eyebrows rose inquisitively at the name and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch simply sighed, “The point five account for Watch and Ward… they’re technically not Council members.” She gestured over to the two Guild Agents who were sitting at a kiddy table in the corner.

Quite confused since you normally sat next to Sheila during these meetings, you began heading over to the kiddy table, “I guess I’ll join them since I’m not either.” The dark haired villainess grabbed your hand, “You really don’t have to-“ You shook your head and offered a smile, “It’s alright, Councilwoman. It’s only fair to them.”

You took a seat next to Watch and Ward, quickly watching the scene turn from civility to chaos before you as the Council members argued back and forth with each other while Ward desperately tried to get their attention about having old Guild records. Nudging Watch who stayed silent throughout the debacle, you muttered, “Are they always like this?” Watch sighed, “More times than not… welcome to the Guild.”

Your expression changed from disbelief to disgust as Dr. Z began to detail his sexual acts he did with a disguised Blue Morpho. Your boss saw this and gave you a sympathetic look, pinching the bridge of her nose as she listened as well. As he wrapped up his spiel, you cleared your throat. All eyes snapped towards you.

“If I may… I’ve been doing some intelligence work with Dr. Mrs. the Monarch. Given the surveillance footage we received generously from Wide Wale, Venture’s reluctance to cooperate with the Guild, and now this new information about Blue Morpho’s linkage to Dr. Jonas Venture, Dr. Venture seems like the best candidate.” You opened up a folder you had, standing up and sliding the document over to Phantom Limb who perused it with an impressed look before passing it along to the other Council members.

“However, it still strikes me as strange how Dr. Venture can go from wimpy scientist by day to ruthless vigilante by night who can take out our rank 10 villains easily. I’ve ruled out any involvement of his bodyguard, Brock Samson, due to the fact that he has spent numerous nights with a tenant who lives in a property owned by Wide Wale during the nights the Blue Morpho has struck. Which proves the theory that Brock is disguised as Kano false.” You slid over another file, which contained surveillance tapes screenshots of Brock entering the condominium complex with time stamps.

“I’m not saying we rule out Dr. Venture… In fact, I want to keep even a closer eye on him, as the Blue Morpho seems to keep getting more and more dangerous every day. I mean for Christ’s sake, he took out an entire team of 10 super-villains in one big massive explosion. I just feel that we can’t completely ignore other suspects and only focus on Venture.” You looked around the room to see all of the Council members gaping at the evidence and back at you, aside from Dr. Mrs. the Monarch who had a proud look on her face, quite impressed.

She had only told you to focus on evidence that would point to Dr. Venture being the main culprit, but you did bring up some good points about not narrowing the search. 

“I must say, young woman… you’ve done an excellent job compiling all this information; Let’s adjourn the meeting for today. We shall meet again in the next couple of days to go over possible other suspects. [Your Name], I want you to tail Dr. Venture tomorrow. We must account for every single hour. Leave nothing untouched.” Dr. Z adjourned the meeting with his final remark and the rest of the council members dispersed. 

Phantom Limb lingered briefly before walking over to you. “I’m quite impressed, my dear. Maybe you could use that bright young mind under me once this whole mess is over with and the Guild is restored to its former glory.” You felt a protective hand on your shoulder, looking back to see your raven-haired boss. Her expression was less than pleased to see Phantom Limb trying to swoop in and take away her potential apprentice. “For now, she is under my training, Hamilton. Once she’s been shown the ropes, it is up to her to decide whom she wants to hench for... if she even wants to hench.” 

The purple clad villain smirked, “Now, now, Sheila, watch your temper.” His gaze turned to you, “Just keep in mind… you would be number two in my ranks. Under her and the Monarch, you’d be a measly… what… 22?” Dr. Mrs. the Monarch’s eyes narrowed and she grabbed your wrist, pulling you out with her.

“The nerve of that insufferable asshole…” The usually levelheaded woman cursed under her breath, removing her black gloves and twisting them in her hand. She had been a victim to Phantom Limb coaxing her and making empty promises of training her and claiming to make her his number two as Queen Etherea when he merely treated her like a prized object. It made her blood boil. He was trying to pull the same stunt on her own freaking apprentice. 

You gently touched her shoulder and grinned, “If you think you’re going lose me to that prick, you’re wrong, Councilwoman. I’ll take the rank of 22 over number two-ing with him any day.” You sighed a breath of relief as your boss chuckled softly and gave you a thankful smile. 

“I appreciate it, [Your Name]. You’ve been such a hard-worker but also a sweetheart. You’re probably the only one keeping me sane with this whole Blue Morpho mess.” She was suddenly cut off by her circular compact phone buzzing, “Hello? Oh, hi sweetie, how are you doing? The vestibule is completely finished? Oh that’s wonderful, I’ll be home soon. Love you too. Bye.” 

She closed the compact and looked towards you, “Duty calls. The life of being married to another villain, your work never stops even at home. Take the night off, we’ll discuss how we go about bugging the Venture building tomorrow.” Dr. Mrs. the Monarch gave you a quick hug, which surprised you, not used to receiving affection from her.

She chuckled at your expression, “Get used to it, sweetie. If you’re joining me and the Monarch, you’re basically a part of our family. Also call me Sheila from now, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch and Councilwoman is way too formal.” 

--

Gary sat alone in the Blue Morpho headquarters, reclining in the chair in front of the obsolete control panel. He covered his eyes, trying to take deep breaths to slow down his heartbeat.

In the realm of arching and villainy, henchmen were second-class citizens, disposable and replaceable. There was no such thing as therapy or mental health care; you were expected to wake up, execute orders from your leader, go through grueling combat, kill and not bat an eyelash, and sleep. Rinse and repeat, day after day.

However, this constant killing had been taking a toll on the henchman. Just when he had finally stopped having hallucinations of his only friend who had been dead for two years now, he was having nightmares and thoughts about killing Haranguetan and countless other villains.

Arching was essentially all one elaborate act; sharpening claws, making threats, reconnaissance work, and infiltration. Yeah, he knew he was a henchman and it was basically his job to take out enemies. But these weren’t just mindless henchmen or drones – these were top ranking villains. Gary knew how taboo it was to even kill your archenemy for heaven’s sake but to kill off those under the Guild was basically a one-way ticket to hell.

His face contorted in pain, his thoughts replaying how easily he snapped Haranguetan’s neck and watched him fall into that whale-sized pit. No matter how he tried to detach himself from those thoughts or distract himself, every single time the Monarch made him put on that Kano costume, it all came flooding back to him.

His phone rang loudly, causing Gary to flinch back and fall to the ground, scrambling backwards. He cursed to himself, breaking a sweat over a damn phone call. Ever since this whole Blue Morpho situation started, he felt like he had a walking target on his back, paranoid and hyper vigilant almost every single day. 

“Hello?” His groggy voice choked out over the phone, his heart still racing. 

“Hey, did I just wake you up from a nap, sleepy head?” You teased over the phone, back at your apartment, changing out of your Guild uniform.

Gary’s tense shoulders relaxed as he heard your soothing voice. The only thing that managed to keep him stable was talking to you and hearing your voice. You two had been so busy lately; when you had work, he was free but once you got off, he had to play dress-up with the Monarch and kill off some other villain. But you still made time for each other, calling and sending each other voice messages.

You two weren’t even together, he had to remind himself. But you two constantly checked up on each other, made each other laugh, nerded out about your shared interests. He was okay with not putting a label on it at this point; you made each other happy and he wanted to avoid the ‘hey-I’m-a-henchman’ conversation as long as he could.

“No, no… just caught me off guard. Don’t you still have a few hours left at work?” He chuckled softly, checking the time. “Boss let me go early surprisingly… Are you doing anything tonight?” You asked, slipping into an oversized t-shirt for now as you lay in bed. 

Gary contemplated for a bit. The Monarch was still plotting his next move and gave him the night off. He had to take advantage of this opportunity while he could, “No, want to explore the city together, m’lady?” He teased, using the nickname he gave you the night you met. You giggled and grinned, “I would love to. Should I pick you up?” 

He froze a bit, knowing the Monarch and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch would be home tonight. “Ummm, no, I can just take the train and meet you at Central Park. Sounds good?”

You blinked, wondering why he paused and sounded so tense, “Yeah, definitely. See you in an hour!” You hung up, grinning to yourself. 

You both needed a break from all this Blue Morpho nonsense and being in each other’s company was the best thing to distract you two.

[potteresque-ire]

The Big Politics Meta

0. Introduction; content notes and warning >> 1. The Boring Overview: 3rd Time is the Charm? 2. The Political Legacy of 2/27: A Hypothesis 3. Case Report of a Traffic Robbery, Committed October, 2020 4. Two Stories about a State-approved, Top Traffic Star 5. Afterthought: The Big Environment

(Below the Cut — 1. The Boring Overview: 3rd Time is the Charm?)

It’s October, the month that can leave a mark in Chinese history. 

Starting on the 9th is the so-called 兩會 (”Two meetings”) — the 7th Plenary Session of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (七中全會), and the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (第二十次全國代表大會). By the end of the month, the world will know whether President Xi will enter his 3rd 5-year term as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, and by officially breaking the previously established term limits, also become China’s next potential Dictator-for-Life.

The outcome is, of course, highly significant to all Chinese people, but it’s significant too for this little corner of ours. After all, our turtledom of overseas Gg and Dd fans have also felt the effects of President Xi’s ideology. The genre (Dangai) that has brought us together has been axed under President Xi’s governance, and we rarely see our favourite stars showing their idol roots anymore, with all the restrictions on hair color and earrings and traffic etc. Readers who have followed this blog (❤️), you’ve seen me talk (rant) about the various marks President Xi has left in c-ent over the last 10 years: how the industry has been steadily less about entertainment and more about being the propaganda apparatus for the Chinese government; everyone being tasked to being promoters of core socialist values (including paparazzis) and the ever elusive, hard-to-define 公序良俗 public order and good customs, and punished heavily, and / or in ways unfit to their misdeeds, when the celebrities among them fail. TV stations have been reprimanded by the government for being “too entertaining”, and forced to “restructure” their popular, entertaining shows. Beloved genres of little use to propaganda, from Dangai to time travel to imperial court drama to horror to romance, have had their creative spaces drastically slashed by censorship rules, if not destroyed altogether. 

A Hong Kong news site made this infographic about the punishment of entertainment celebrities between 2001 to 2021, and the type of controversy (legal/political/moral/not-own-fault) that led to their punishment. The y-axis represents the severity of the punishment, from not at all (top) to very severe (bottom). The x-axis represents the year. Each dot represents a celebrity, and the color of the dot, the type of controversy surrounding the celebrity. I put a box around GG’s name: his controversy was “not-own-fault” (purple). The number of celebrities being punished, and the severity of their punishments, both increased significantly in the President Xi era (2012-2021). (Source)

Even dramas that boost the image of the government have had an increasingly difficult time passing the content audit — Being a Hero, for example, has a very much delayed broadcast (the series was filmed in 2020); its marketing was also lacklustre compared to other series of the same summer period and, critically, being of a genre that traditionally fare much better in viewership when co-broadcast on TV (i.e., air simultaneously on one of the TV satellite stations, or on CCTV), BaH chose to air without such a TV co-broadcast. While it can never be confirmed, the rumoured cause has to do with BaH’s story touching on drugs, undercover, officials involved in crime — all of which had once been acceptable topics but were, in the summer of 2022, considered sensitive. The series’ marketing being arguably unprepared was because, allegedly, BaH aired just days after it had got its net broadcast license. It didn’t co-broadcast on TV because TV broadcast requires an additional license with even stricter content requirements, and to wait for such a license to get approved may mean the series will never meet its audience, should the content restrictions tighten even further as they have the last several years.

President Xi’s fingerprints are, really, already everywhere in our fandom.

And whether he will continue to be the General Secretary, the President and China’s Paramount Leader, whether his “New Era” ideology will continue to dictate the country’s political narrative, will have an effect on to-be-aired projects by Gg and Dd too.

Example: Gg’s Where Dreams Begin, which is about the “Reform and Opening Up” 改革開放 era of the 1980s and 1990s：

This era has become a political-sensitive issue. It has been for a while, but it has become even more sensitive in the months leading up to the National Congress.

“Reform and Opening Up” has become a bit synonymous with … “No More Xi”.

The background is this: with the strict Zero-COVID policy that limited the flow of goods, people and money, and the heavy-handed crackdown of multiple big, lucrative industries in China over the last few years, China’s economy hasn’t been doing well. This is the kind of not-doing-well that almost everyone can feel the effects of: it isn’t limited to, for example, the housing market, or the stock market. It is people failing to receive income, while seeing no decrease in their daily expenditures. People in lockdown are often unable to reach their jobs; they have increasingly been required to pay for the compulsory quarantine and DNA testing — because the provinces, which are supposed to pay for the central government for these services, are out of money themselves. People who are lucky enough to keep their jobs often have their pay slashed, or delayed for months. There have already been several instances of banks freezing their clients’ accounts, denying withdrawal requests. 

In July, holders of frozen deposit accounts protested in front of a bank in Zhengzhou, Henan. They were eventually beaten up by “unidentified men” (Source and Video), who had nonetheless been seen to have arrived at the scene with the police. Earlier on, many of the account holders had found their Health Code — the government-issued, mandatory COVID pass on their cell phone — turning red without reason. A red Health Code bars its holder from travelling anywhere.

Enter “Reform and Opening Up”, referring to the direction of the country envisioned, and then executed by the Paramount Leader after Chairman Mao, Chairman Deng Xiaoping 鄧 小平, to savage the economy destroyed during the Mao years. 

Dissenters of Xi have been missing, and asking for the return of “Reform and Opening Up”. The era was marked by, among other things, China’s mass privatisation — ie, the government loosening its control on the economy… 

... along with all areas of life, including speech, including entertainment. I recently introduced the Taiwanese singer 鄧麗君 Teresa Teng, the singer of Dd’s Mid-Autumn BGM, 但願人長久, who became super popular in China during the 1980s. Despite disliking her, the government didn’t ban her, nor did it punish the people for liking her.

According to its screenwriter, 蘆 葦 Lu Wei, Farewell My Concubine got its approval for release in 1993 from Chairman Deng himself. The production company had already been reprimanded by the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Propaganda for making the film, and its head, made to write a letter of repentance, when investors submitted a copy of the film to Chairman Deng via his daughter. Chairman Deng watched the film and approved it, saying that it only required minor modifications (Source).

(The relative political freedom of “Reform and Opening Up” came to an end in June 1989, when the People’s Liberation Army opened fire at the protesting students on Tiananmen Square. Even though Deng was more open-minded than Mao, mobilised, passionate youth with a unified cause also proved to be too much for him. The Chinese Communist Party got their power, consolidated their power via youth movement and knows what the latter can do, is suspicious and frankly, terrified of it.)

(This is a very important point to remember. As a preview, this attitude likely explains the Qing Lang “Clear & Bright” Campaign, the current crackdown of fan culture, and “traffic”.)

(Fans are mobilised youth with a unified cause of supporting an IP. A genre. A hobby.) 

(A star.)

President Xi is widely believed to be not a fan of “Reform and Opening Up”. After all, Chairman Deng was clear about his policies’ aim of 撥亂反正 righting the chaos from — ie. the mistakes of — Chairman Mao. President Xi, meanwhile, has imitated Mao in multiple ways, reframed Mao’s mistakes as something more benign — The Cultural Revolution, for example, has been reworded as a “difficult exploration”. President Xi also, critically, removed the most important safeguard Chairman Deng put in place to prevent another Chairman Mao from happening again — the 10-year term limit on the General Secretary, the head of the CCP post.

If President Xi doesn’t like “Reform and Opening Up”, then why does this term, this era still matter? China isn’t a democracy; the voices of dissenters among the general population hardly mean a thing — this Spring, we have seen 26 million people in China’s most affluent city wishing to leave their homes to buy food, to buy medicine, and given the deaf ear for two months (The Shanghai Lockdown). Who has been talking about “Reform and Opening Up” that have the ears of c-pol watchers perked up?

The answer: the premier 李 克强 Li Keqiang, the Number 2 Man of China after President Xi.

Premier Li has repeatedly mentioned “Reform and Opening Up” in his public appearances over the past few months; an economist by training, he has insisted that that it is necessary for the country’s development. Does it mean his boss, President Xi, is actually more okay with “Reform and Opening Up” than he appeared to be? President Xi has never really talked about “Reform and Opening Up” himself — the narrative from his recent speeches has been focused on the great victory against COVID and the West, and on the “Two Establishes and Two Safeguards (兩個確立, 兩個維護) — which is about, essentially “Obey No One but Xi, Obey No Party but the Chinese Communist Party” (Really). 

Are President Xi and Premier Li merely playing a strange version “Good Cop, Bad Cop”, with President Xi playing the nationalistic hand and Premier Li, the pragmatic hand? But then, it makes little sense that the clip of Premier Li’s August visit to Shen Zhen, in which he said China’s Opening Up must continue because 黄河長江不倒流 — “The Yellow River and Yangtze River don’t flow backwards”, i.e., we can’t go back to the past — was censored on Weixin. Premier Li had also, intentionally or not, embarrassed President Xi before. While the propaganda machine had been on full blast touting President Xi’s eradication of poverty in 2020, Premier Li, as the head of 國務院 State Council, the chief administrative authority (i.e., it does the stats and numbers), went on record to say 0.6 billion people in the country  — more than 40% of the population — had an income of < 1000 RMB (140 USD) a month. 

(The poverty line for China’s median income, by OECD’s standard, is 1148 RMB a month. In 2019, China introduced its own standard of 333 RMB a month.)

(There are two ways of eradicating something: eradicate it, or change its definition.)

This, to many political watchers, signals that President Xi’s ascension to Dictator-for-Life may not be as smooth, as sure as it appears to be. How much support, or opposition has President Xi met behind the scenes?

Is Premier Li a collaborator, or dissenter of the President? Is he a contender for some, or all of President Xi’s official titles come the National Congress? But Premier Li has never been truly politically powerful; before this year, his public appearances were few and far between. He, and the so-called 團派 “League Faction” he represents, has had their influence significantly diminished during the Xi era. 團派 “League Faction”, BTW, broadly refers to the politicians who’ve risen up the ranks of the party via the Communist Youth League 共青團, who are mostly of ordinary, “plebian” background and joined the league as most university-educated youth of the country have, and worked their way up. This is in contrast to the so-called Princeling faction, which President Xi is a member of, who are made up of descendants of powerful Chinese political figures.

Something that has long baffled c-pol analysts: The Xi family were victims of the Cultural Revolution. Here, President Xi’s father, 習 仲勳 Xi Zhongxun (wearing the placard) was being publicly denounced by his fellow comrades as being an “anti-Communist”. Xi Zhongxun would be absolved in the Deng era and become an advocate of “Reform and Opening Up”, and introduce its policies to the city of Guangzhou. (Source) 

Premier Li may not the only person possibly not standing on President Xi’s side. Inside Zhongnanhai 中南海, the headquarters, the … palace of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing (it is really in a former imperial garden), there are the Elders — the power men who once served in the government but have now retired — who participate in the workings of the government via convos behind close doors and who, traditionally, have a say of who gets to be China’s next Paramount Leader. 宋 平 Song Ping, an Elder and one of Communist China’s founding fathers (he’s 105 year old), also said, recently and allegedly, that “Reform and Opening Up” is a must for China.

Allegedly, because the video isn’t available to the public. Allegedly, because Song had made the statement during a semi-private event, and the statement was, allegedly, edited out of  the video. 

Even if Song had made that statement, how much his words  — or the words of any Elder — still weigh in 2022 is unknown. 

For those who’d like to have an entertaining look at how Elders influence the election of Chinese leaders, the movie Election by 杜 琪峰 Johnnie To is a good choice. The movie famously used the election of Hong Kong mafia leaders as an analogy of how the process worked.

This is power struggle, Chinese style. It’s the opposite of the loud, incessant, (annoying) shouts of ‘I’m Good and They’re Bad’ in the pre-election months in the United States. Every piece of info comes with more questions than message, more smoke than view. China’s social media is eerily peaceful these days, Weibo hot search being filled with light topics — often from entertainment when just after the rapid succession of celebrity cancellation in the summer of 2021, hot search had been off limits to tags related to entertainment for a while. Outside the hot search, netizens have found their posts restricted in traffic (ie. cannot be reblogged), their images turning into more broken links in a seemingly random manner. While such methods to prevent information spread has always been around, they are usually not employed so widely, so indiscriminately.  Nonetheless, with the counter-methods Chinese netizens have developed over the years to avoid triggering the censorship filters, rumours, some of them wild, continue to fly under this guise of peace — the latest, as some may have seen on Twitter, is about a military coup and President Xi being under house arrest (it has been proven false; this article went into detail about the elements that hinted on the rumour’s falseness). This isn’t something one can see in Weibo posts at all, however, not even a netizen or two just wondering: I’ve heard this ... something. Is it true?

When the power struggle in China does make noise, it often does so under the guise of something else. Support of Zero-COVID policy is now understood by the politically aware to be synonymous to support of President Xi’s brand of ideology.  Even the less politically sensitive among Chinese netizens have become largely aware that Zero-COVID is now a political movement, that the wellbeing of them as citizens of China may matter less than the political purpose it serves. 

An anti-COVID banner, which said: “Coronavirus isn’t scary, as long as everyone listens to the Party” (Source)

Last month, there was a major accident involving a bus carrying people out of the city of Guiyang for quarantine, resulting in at least 27 fatalities. The thing is … all passengers were not only COVID negative, they had been under lockdown in their homes for the previous two weeks, ie. the chance of them having been a close contact of a positive case was essentially zero. But the local authorities had decided to move them out of the city anyway — the government-issued deadline for reaching a zero case count for the city was coming in two days. The people were therefore smuggled out of the city overnight, using a highway that was usually closed those hours because it was unsafe to use in the dark. Making this trip even more dangerous was the condition on the bus, which was also specified by the government: the driver and passengers were all to wear the white, stuffy PPE suits, the driver was to  wear a N95 mask as well and the air conditioning must be turned off, the windows must be closed at all times and there could be no eating or drinking on the bus, as there would be no restroom breaks for anyone. Only the driver knew where the bus was heading and the trips were often hours long — this one was expected to take four. 

The bus often turns into a steaming sauna room under these conditions; heat exhaustion is common among the passengers by the time they reach their quarantine locale. 

And the drivers had complained about not being to see well with their mask, the steam and the heat. The night hours also mean they are often tired, and the food + drink + bathroom bans mean they can be even more uncomfortable while having to drive. 

Accidents like this one were ... a matter of time.

And all of this, all of the discomfort and suffering and lives lost, only because the local authorities needed to report a victory against a virus on a certain day to the central government. The COVID virus, these little spheres of RNA with some spikes for decor, are now treated like a human army on the battlefield, an opposing force that can be crushed in a certain, pre-scheduled battle. Those in the country who wished for a scientific approach to the virus, the most famous among them Dr 張 文宏 Zhang Wenhong, also called China’s Dr Fauci by some, were censored and attacked by pro-Xi, nationalistic netizens. Dr Zhang was called a traitor, a blind follower of Western beliefs.

(He was called similar names when he had suggested children to have egg and milk, ie protein, for breakfast, instead of the traditional, 100% carbohydrate Chinese congee). 

The Guiyang bus accident was attention catching enough to make the hot search for a day. At first, it was described as an accident involving a tour bus. It was only later, when the truth spread and public opinion could no longer be contained, that the tour bus’s purpose was made clear. The local authorities apologised, signalling the end of discussion of the matter and the hot search was removed. The smuggling of people for zero COVID counts continued.

Whispers, despaired and anxious, also continued, by people not tagging their posts to avoid triggering censorship filter. We’re all on the same bus, these netizens said. They understood what had happened to that bus of passengers could happen to any of them — Guiyang was far from the only place that smuggled people out to reach the zero case goal, and even without the smuggling, the bus ride to quarantine in broad daylight was little different. It headed to the unknown for the passengers, where conditions could be frightfully poor, where they would be left there for an unknown number of days. 

All they needed was one tiny, invisible COVID viral particle to intrude their community.

Disease-prevention personnels, colloquially called 大白 Big White because of the PPE they wear, guarding against the escape of travellers trapped in the airport of Xishuangbanna when the city went into sudden lockdown on 2022/10/04. Angry travellers confronted them, asking why they were pointing their guns at their own people (Video). Big White can be medical personnels, police or other officers under the uniform.

Does it mean these lamenters are dissenters of Xi? Not at all. The propaganda has portrayed COVID as a fearful, deathly virus (and it is one, especially in its early days), and most of them do not wish for their country to emulate the (evil) Western countries and let the virus loose, let the people die. They are willing to do what they can to prevent the virus from spreading — it’s just that what they have to do now terrifies them. 

Anyways …

Just as support of the Zero-COVID policy is now understood to be synonymous to support of President Xi, support of “Reform and Opening Up” is now understood to be, if not anti-, then, at least skeptical of President Xi and his ideology, the direction the country is heading under his leadership. To prefer “Reform and Opening Up” means to prefer a focus on the ailing economy; and to cure the the ails, the Zero-COVID policy, President Xi’s pride, has to be the first to go.

Eventually, President Xi’s Maoist tendencies have to go as well. Because of China’s development during the “Reform and Opening Up” era and its subsequent decades, “Reform and Opening Up” also carries the implicit meaning of opening up the country’s economy to the rest of the world, of forging foreign cooperations in general, which is in contrast to President Xi’s “Warrior Wolf” style hostility towards the West, and his encouragement of “internal circulation” — expansion of the role of the domestic market to Chinese economy — that has been taken to mean shutting the doors to international economy and community. 

This is how “Reform and Opening Up” has become a politically-sensitive term.

And when “Reform and Opening Up” becomes a politically-sensitive term, so do media projects about the era, such as Where Dreams Begin. Where Dreams Begin will likely be all right —this February, one of the companies producing the series announced that it had been chosen as a sponsored project of the Beijing branch of NRTA. 楊 夏 Yang Xia, the producer of Where Dreams Begin (and The Untamed), was not only spotted at the 11th Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (CFLAC) in December 2021, but carrying a title (中國電視藝術家協會新文藝組織和新文藝群體工作委員會副秘書長) that hinted she had connections at the right places. This was, after all, a conference that President Xi attended and spoke:

President Xi, speaking at the 11th Congress of the CFLAC, 2021. (Source, including the full text of his speech, which touched on the moral requirements of the arts community. No concrete guidelines were given; the prose was largely rhetoric.)

Still, the content of Where Dreams Begin will likely be scrutinised by auditors again right before airing. 獻禮劇, the special genre of TV and film that not only had a propaganda element, but is devoted to the glorification of the government and CCP must, in particular, be current with the message the government intends to spread. We may have seen another example of this very, very recently:

On 2022/09/27, the Chinese military officially “upgraded” the categorisation of its first homemade stealth fighter jet, J-20, from 4th generation to 5th generation. It also confirmed J-20′s deployment to the Taiwan Strait. In the media, the categorisation of the fighter jet had been divided between 4th and 5th generation, with the 4th generation categorisation still found in a state media social media post as late as May 2022. Such an official categorisation change, a demonstration of China’s prowess in military technology, would have to be immediately reflected in propaganda projects depicting the J-20, including the movie Born to Fly, which was originally scheduled to premiere on the same day.

The airing time of propaganda films and series are, therefore, necessarily affected by the political climate, by the choice of Paramount Leader whose ideology decides the appropriate message to spread. If the Paramount Leader continues to exhibit touchiness about “Reform and Opening Up”, for example, then, having a drama about “Reform and Opening Up” airing and hanging out on hot search may not be the best idea.

Best to wait till he looks away.

While I am at this, I should clear up this something that may be confusing. Perhaps some of you have noticed that I’ve used the term “Paramount Leader”, instead of President, or General Secretary, the latter being the post he may be getting his third term for. Is Xi being the General Secretary for the 3rd term equivalent to his continuing to be the Paramount Leader? What, exactly, is the Paramount Leader?

Hmm. I’d say, there’s a … 99.9% chance that General Secretary = President = Paramount Leader. It isn’t a rule though. Hence, the not-100%.  Meanwhile, unlike the Presidency, the Paramount Leader is not an actual position one can hold. Rather, the Paramount Leader is the person recognised, by implicit understanding, to be the person who’s really calling the shots. 

Xi’s official titles are President (中華人民共和國主席), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨中央委員會總書記), and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (中國共產黨中央軍事委員會主席). Of the three titles, “President” is actually least prestigious, with the least numbers of actual duties and many of which are ceremonial. “President”, moreover, has always been occupied by whoever is serving as the head of the Chinese Communist Party (ie, the General Secretary), and the Commander-in-Chief of the People’s Liberation Army (ie, the Chairman of the CAC), even though no laws dictate that it must be that way.

In other words, the General Secretary and Chairman titles are where the power really is. This is why President Xi’s being potentially the General Secretary for life is such a big deal.

From the recently published, succinct guide on the National Congress by BBC: a recommended read. 

This also means, hypothetically, that it is possible for Xi to remain General Secretary but lose control over the military and along with it, the Presidency and Paramount Leadership — and this has been the scenario anti-Xi people have hoped for. The General Secretary failing to be the Paramount Leader has, in a way, happened in the past. There was actually a leader between Chairman Mao and Chairman Deng, 華 國鋒 Hua Guofeng, who held the highest offices (including the head of the CCP and Commander in Chief) between 1976 and 1981. However, his leadership was mostly seen as the continuation of Mao’s in the first two years, and afterwards, Deng usurped his power and became the de facto Paramount Leader.

So, Hua was a “he-is-but-not-really” Paramount Leader, despite holding the equivalent title of the General Secretary.

Deng would demonstrate another way to be the de facto Paramount Leader after he officially retired in 1990. His influence would remain larger than his successor, 江 澤民 Jiang Zemin, until when he finally, truly retired in 1994. With that, he showed that a Paramount Leader can even be a regular citizen; between the years of 1990-1994, Hong Kongers pointed out the absurdity of this by calling (former) Chairman Deng 鄧 普通 Ordinary Deng. 

Along this line of thought, a not-100%-impossible, reverse scenario of Xi keeping his titles but losing his Paramount Leadership would be his installing a puppet, stepping down from all his positions, and remaining the de facto Paramount Leader.

Anything is possible in the country when a person, a party is above the laws.

Complicated, isn’t it? Hence, October 2022 is a time for observation. Even if President Xi held on to all his titles, political analysts and also, people who must stay current with the government’s message — including those who work in propaganda, including c-ent — will be watching for clues to how much power he actually retains. Aside for looking for evident changes in his policies such as Zero-COVID, other things to watch for include, for example, what positions will his close associates win or lose? Where will these positions be won or lost? Positions in the four direct-administrated municipalities 直轄市 — Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing — are prestigious; those in poor provinces like Guizhou, not so much. Will President Xi get to place more of his people in the nice places? If so, he will be considered the true winner of this round of political struggle. If not, how ugly will their downfall be and who will be the people taking over the lost positions? Will they belong to the League Faction? The Jiang-BigTech Faction? Princelings? How many times will Xi’s name get mentioned on the front page of People’s Daily? In Xinhua News? Where on the front page? On top and at the center? At one of the bottom corners?

It’s ridiculous, I know. It’s incredibly exhausting too. But then, this is China, and there are often no better, more reliable sources of information.

* Phew *. Okay, enough of these title things. Now, I think I can finally get to what I intended to talk about when I started this meta (* facepalms at all the words above *) … something more relevant to us turtles, a question that is more likely to be on our minds. It’s understandable why c-ent is being so watchful now, why investors and companies and cast and crew have to expect their projects being affected by the news, the decisions coming this month. But why are certain stars — all right, let’s be specific here — Gg and Dd so … quiet?

As turtles, we have double the number of favourite stars, both being so beloved and beautiful and ... we’re supposed to have double birthdays with double the amount of equally popular and easy-on-the-eyes material to celebrate. We should have double the joy and fun. And yet, both birthdays this year were so … quiet.

It’s difficult to not feel a little let down, isn’t it?

Other stars …  we’ve watched them, and they’ve laid low too — compared to 10, even 5 years ago everyone has laid low (Weibo 10 years ago was WILD compared to today). But they have still been more active. And those who also have birthdays this October, this close to the two meetings, still celebrated. This time of this year being politically sensitive doesn’t seem to adequately explain the so-quietness of our boys. 

Then, what is it?

What is it they have, or they carry, and other stars don’t?

[vigilskeep]

Hi idk if you've talked about this before but how do you feel about the end of awakening slides where if you romance Zev you and him likely take over the crows or something else to that effect. Does that fit in with what you imagine for your Surana?

it's interesting! i always saw her remaining with the grey wardens, and zevran leaving for antiva during awakening felt like a temporary split that made sense; he plans to go with her to amaranthine in the dao epilogue, but the crows are still hounding them, and he decides he has to confront his past and go on the offensive. it feels like a really good conclusion to how he started his dao arc fleeing what happened to him, and it gives him the agency in the relationship that i (and minerva) always really want to give him. his letter in awakening seems to imply he expects this to be a matter he will wrap up relatively soon and return to her.

however, i can absolutely see it getting more complicated than that, as zevran sees other recruits being trained and realises he can’t just make sure the crows back off from him while letting them continue to do this to other children. all the references to him seriously taking down and destabilising the crows seem to imply something more like this. and while minerva is committed to the grey wardens and the vigil, i can see her at some point leaving for several months to join and help him. by that point she’d have built up enough trust in her recruits to appoint one of them to command in her place for a while—nathaniel or sigrun would do—and she’d also miss zevran so much, though i do think he visited when he could. i know he’d be delighted to introduce her to antiva no matter the circumstances

i have a lot of questions about whatever zevran’s doing in antiva; what does it actually mean? i’m fascinated by the idea of him taking out or drastically restructuring the crows because i cannot emphasise enough how essential we are told the crows are to antiva. they are involved in every aspect of antivan political life; they are the entire reason antiva is supposed not to need a standing army. destabilise the crows and you destabilise an entire nation. i of course love this for zevran and he always has minerva’s support but she’s never a blind follower and would have practical questions abt his end goals here that i’m not sure how he would answer. there’s also the difficulty of a commander of the grey, no doubt already facing serious questions abt her political involvements even when done under the necessities of a blight, getting herself into such a situation. some degree of secrecy would be necessary at the very least

i also think any attempts by zevran to overthrow the crows would give minerva serious thoughts abt the circle—about what might be done to change things for children like her as zev is changing things for children like him. and it’s worth noting that i do hc them having a child of their own at some point in this timeline so that factors into their decision making. i am fairly committed to minerva returning to the vigil and the little lad being raised there, and i imagine zev still making moves back and forth between antiva and ferelden indefinitely (this checks out with his da2 appearance i think?). if zev does actually straight up take over the crows she wouldn’t be joint grandmaster or anything any more than he’s warden-commander in amaranthine. they both have their own obligations and motivations and that’s fine it just takes some wrangling to manage and a lot of letter writing and travelling and occasionally some long-suffering grey warden babysitters