#army of revolt

[yellowbrickramble]

If you've seen Return to Oz but haven't read the books, I should probably let you know that Omby Amby is not as good at being the army of Oz as Tik-Tok is.

Please support my comics on Patreon! (link in bio)

[anthonysperkins]

Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts (1979) dir. Rosa von Praunheim

[bestworstcase]

thoughts cooking.

mountain glenn, grimm overwhelmed the city and the people took shelter in caves, building an entire underground city after the destruction above. an explosion later opens a breach into a grimm nest, grimm flood the city again, and vale seals off the tunnels, implicitly without attempting rescue or evacuation, sacrificing the people to protect the core city.

<- same choice ironwood made.

“i see lives that could have been saved,” and all. vale created the world’s largest tomb.

fast forward a few decades. a single transport ship approaches vacuo with the news that salem came to vale and “there’s nothing left.” the huntsmen aboard “led the civilian retreat, brought as many people as we could…”

that turn of phrase—‘led the civilian retreat’—doesn’t evoke a panicked, disorganized scramble to get away from vale. it calls to mind the orderly evacuation procedures we saw during the battle for beacon, where people were loaded efficiently into transports to move them from beacon into a safe zone established in vale. port and oobleck were in charge of that retreat too. (and it demonstrated generally that emergency evacuation is something vale has on a lock—the assault on beacon blindsided everyone but the kingdom’s crisis response plan sprang into action like a well-oiled machine.)

only one ship, though.

when cinder attacked beacon, they retreated to a safe zone in vale. when salem hit vale, the immediately obvious place to establish a safe zone is patch—it’s close by but separated by a body of water, and it’s relatively defensible (an island). unlike vale, patch probably doesn’t have the room or resources to support a large urban population indefinitely, but you can use it as a relatively secure staging area for a subsequent evacuation to somewhere else. what you probably can’t do is squeeze anything like the majority of vale’s population onto patch island. (i mean, you could if it’s as huge as it appears to be on the map, but the map is NOT to scale and i get the impression that patch is supposed to be quite small.)

mountain glenn. “i see lives that could have been saved.” vale’s greatest failure, standing abandoned as a dark reminder. and “if you can’t learn from [history], you’re destined to repeat it.” did vale learn from its failure in abandoning mountain glenn to die?

in this fractal spiral of a story. ironwood didn’t get his way, but what if he had? “we are saving who we can” -> “brought as many people with us as we could,” with the history teacher whose chosen purpose is to prevent another mountain glenn from happening hunched over, haunted, in the background. is this a fucking counterfactual.

also if there were people left behind in vale, the mountain glenn undercity is the obvious place for them to flee. it’s not safe, but you can get there from vale through the tunnels (less exposed than driving or flying above ground) and if you can barricade the points of ingress to the cavern, it’s at least a more defensible place to set up an encampment than anywhere out in the open.

and i mean it might be that salem massacred the city and let one ship escape to maximize the damage to morale and provoke as much outrage as possible for the sake of getting the sword out of that vault. but mountain glenn is such a crucial narrative cornerstone, and vale has a history of making the kind of sacrifices ironwood tried to make with mantle, and the specific phrasing used here is interesting (“nothing left” vs “no one left,” “civilian retreat” implying an orderly process a la the evacuation from beacon).

i think it’s also the more narratively interesting and dynamic choice for there to have been a judgment call to leave a large number of people behind—it’s a counterfactual vehicle for unpacking team rwby’s conflicted feelings about their decision-making in atlas through comparison to what vale’s leadership did in the same situation, and there being some ambiguity as to whether anyone else survived allows for a thin ray of hope (maybe there are some people still alive) to galvanize the coalition into a counteroffensive (if there’s even the smallest possibility of survivors, we need to help them. we have to try.) and you draw the tension in salem’s character between her extremism and her effort to chart what she believes is the minimally destructive course to the surface by putting a survivor’s encampment within her immediate reach.

[everythingwasalreadypicked]

Chris held Alabaster's hands firmer. He knew what the former general's, his friend's, answer would be the moment he located his whereabouts. He knew. But he had to hear him say it, to be sure he still knew the son of Hecate after all.

"They’re tyrants. I know it. You know it. Please Alabaster..."

Alabaster looked at him coldly, a sharp contrast to his warm hands pressed against Chris's own. Just because they both knew his answer didn't mean Alabaster would make it easy, at least that was a trait Chris could still confidently say his old friend had.

"Then what Chris? You gonna raise Kronos?" His face indicated he was joking, his tone not so much. There was an underlying promise of danger in his eyes.

"NO!"

Chris internally winced at how harsh he sounded the moment he let out the scream. Didn't matter, though, he had to nip that train of thought at the bud before it even started.

Perhaps going to his Kronos fanatic friend had been not the best idea. He could make all kinds of excuses to himself that it was the logical choice; he was the best child of Hecate, had tactical knowledge, had been one of Luke's confidants...

But that would be lying: Chris deceited and hid secrets, not lied.

He missed Alabaster.

"We can't..." Chris pleaded, keeping his voice soft even as Alabaster leaped to his feet, retracting his hands hastily and cradled the green book Chris brought with him to his chest like a protective shield. "We can't replace them with an older regime, Al. That was where Luk—"

"Don't!" Alabaster's lower lip wobbled as his facade of anger cracked, his grief evident. "Don't say his name, it's bad enough you've stolen his diary..."

"Would you rather Chiron to have it?"

The son of Hecate stared at a far corner of Dr. Claymore's living room. The silence enveloped the house. The bags under Alabaster's eyes made him look too tired, too old despite Chris being older than him. His heart broke for his friend. Another promise the Olympians had broken, another thing they would pay for.

Al settled on the couch again, surprising Chris as he rested his head on his shoulder.

"Tell me about that plan of yours. I might just be in on it."

****

Chris might just be more similar to his brother than he would admit :)

[bone-stealing-horse]

When I was little, I would sometimes think about the number of students at my school compared to the number of teachers. There were dozens of kids per adult in that school. The average adult there was either an old lady or really loved kids, so none of them would be able to stop them if their entire class suddenly turned on them. That's what sparked a wonderful thought in my head: we could revolt. The faculty would have to restrain themselves like how when chasing small animals, you don't tackle it because you don't want to hurt it, thus letting us have an advantage.

Anyways I would often fantasize about rallying the troops and leading a few hundred strong arms of children to banish all the adults and take over the school. We would lock all the entrances and station a few older kids as guards. I still think about that now, at my school with over a thousand teenagers, what if one day we all collectively as a hive mind decided to rampage and claim the school?

[marginal-notes]

“Navi, where’s the rest of ‘little vision’?”

I fucking played myself, I swear my thought process made sense, but I fucking played myself and now I’m scrambling to figure out the geographic distribution of mines, rivers, and farmland across the entire freaking Earth Kingdom - yes, all this is highly plot relevant.

Why do I do this to myself.

Why do I keep-

Aaauuuuugh what is ATLA technology, why can they have blimps - and thus industrialized factories with standardized machinery??? and the ability to get all that gas???? - but then they’re still using STONE CATAPULTS. THEY HAVE EXPLOSIVES. THEY HAVE GYROSCOPES AND STEAM POWERED WARSHIP FLEETS. WHY ARE THERE NO CANNONS.

Please, I just want more detailed maps of economic and military resources, I just want to know how the social economic politics of this place works.

The spirit shenanigans are the easy part aughughugh

[deputygonebye]

Alexandria is the community in which Shane finds his "forever" home. A place to call his own, a place to find the peace that he's always searched for, finally, he welcomes domestic life again. Under the leadership of Aaron and Gabriel, he tries to adjust to the idea that, for the first time since the Outbreak, he won't have to leave a sanctuary in time. Not being an official leader to the community has caused some tension - Shane's never liked being a follower - he has found an avenue to spend that energy and desire, however. As Head of Security, taking over the position from Michonne, and as member of the Council and acting as full-time guard/soldier, Shane's found his spot. He's comfortable. For the first time in years, decades.

Between his responsibilities as a member of the Alexandria community and as Judith's daddy, Shane dedicates many hours of his life looking for clues of Rick. Within the boarders of Alexandria, toward the outskirts of the woods and trees, he's always searching for his dearest friend, his beloved brother, who disappeared on that bridge. Trading information with others in the neighboring communities, friends from when it all started, though Shane is certain that he's looking for a body, if there's to be anything left at all, he does try. For Jude's sake - she's so certain that Rick's alive - least for a little while before he calls off the search entirely. He grieves for Rick twice.

But Alexandria is where he goes. It's where Shane stays. He's content within her warmth. For everything that he could ask for is there, then: his home, his daughter, his sense of peace. Shane's happy.

[witchesoz]

What we know of Oz: Book 2, the Army of Revolt

Of course, one of the huge addition to the Oz mythos this book offered was Jinjur and her army. # Let’s get it out of the way – Jinjur and her army isn’t a proof that Baum was misogynistic. Baum was known to be in favor of gender equality. He accepted quite well the ideas carried on by his mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Cage, who was quite a famous woman at the time: a women’s suffragist, but also an activist of Native Americans rights, an abolitionist, and a freethinker! This sympathy for women shows in Baum’s works: in Oz, all of the real and power leaders are females (Witches, Queens, the major allies, villains and heroes are often females) while men are either normal, useless, goofy or fake (Dorothy’s companions, The Wizard, etc…). The confusion this book sparks is simply because Jinjur and her army were conceived as, what you could call misogynistic caricatures. In this book, Baum wanted to denounce many things at once, many attitudes he noted concerning the current suffragette movement. Three things, I would say. 1- A first type of “fake suffragettes”: the ones that didn’t advocate for a gender-equality, but rather for a reversal of the gender roles, meaning forcing the men into the same deprived position as women, and only carried on the same hatred and discrimination. 2- A second type of “fake suffragettes” that joined the movement not to see society progress, but just to gain more advantages and powers, while also trying to protect all of the advantages and comfort the old society where women are “weak things supposed to be taken care of by men”. Basically, these two-faced suffragettes that played on both sides trying to hog all of the advantages of both conditions. 3- Finally, Jinjur was also the manifestation of the anti-suffragette fears, and the embodiment of all the clichés, stereotypes and stupid believes men had towards the suffragettes. Of course, Jinjur is supposed to be a bad role model, a failure and a villain, but it doesn’t mean Baum thought the suffragette were as ridiculous as her! In fact, note that every time the male characters try to defeat her they fail and have to flee, and that the only one able to actually put an end to this is an actual wise and fair queen, with a trained and professional all-women army, and that acts not out of selfishness but merely to put back the rightful ruler on the throne, a rightful ruler that will end up being a girl! Try to find some misogyny in that. (Well to be honest the male heroes have sometimes some misogynistic moments, but it can be excused since said heroes are also proven to be foolish and ignorant many times, and thus are to be taken as goofs and clowns more than serious characters.) # Jinjur is described as a tall girl with a splendor “almost barbaric”,  walking with swifts strides and an air of decision and importance ; having a pretty face but that usually bears an expression of “discontent coupled with a shade of defiance or audacity”. Tip meets her by pure luck, on his way to the Emerald City, as she is eating her lunch. She immediately turns him into her basket carrier, without even asking him for his name or anything, as if he should be naturally be obeying her. She ereveals herself as the General of the “Army of Revolt”, an army entirely made of women, taken out of the four corners of Oz. They goal is to march on the Emerald City and conquer the Scarecrow, with Jinjur overthrowing him and taking power. Why? Because, according to Jinjur, the City has been ruled by men for too long and it is time for Women to revolt against their “oppressors”, Men. Her army is made up of four hundred young women, separated in four companies, one for each country of Oz. All wear the same costume: a silken waist of emerald green, to represent the Emerald City they plan to conquer, and a skirt of four distinct colors (blue, yellow, red and purple, one strip of color on each side) – each girl wears at the front of her skirt the stripe of color that corresponds to her country. Since Jinjur’s front stripe is blue, we see that she comes from Munchkin Country. (Note that no girl in her army actually comes from the Emerald City). It all seems quite justified in a way, especially since the girls keep facing misogynistic comments by the men around them (the Guardian of the Gates telling them to go back to their mothers to “milk the cows and bake the bread”). The only one that doesn’t act in such a rude way towards them is Tip, who is rather worried about the girls dying because they are obviously unprofessional and untrained youths, something Jinjur brushes aside. And this is because Jinjur has ideas and arguments, you see, and this is where the whole feminist façade falls off. Because Jinjur is an extremely misogynistic woman, so to speak. She casually mentions that it is a miracle their plan wasn’t made public, because for her girls are naturally chatters and gossipers. She has her army use knitting needles as weapons, that they usually keep in their hair (not that knitting needles aren’t actually deadly, I know that, I played once a housewife that killed her husband with knitting needles, but still). Her whole strategy relies on how “men would never dare to hurt a woman”, and she specifically chose to only have “pretty faces” in her army to better seduce the enemy, refusing to have any ugly girl join it. Finally, when doing a prep talk to the girls, she quickly realizes what is her TRUE goal and what she really promised these girls (that actually don’t listen to her and spend their time chatting and eating as if they were on a picnic and not preparing a war): luxury. Jinjur (and her girls) want to steal all the “glittering gems” of the Emerald City to make rings, bracelets and necklaces, and to take the entire money of the City to buy a “dozen new gowns”. In general, the girls of Jinjur don’t mind the presence of Tip, but they all use him as pack-carrier without even talking to him, so the poor boy ends up with packets, wraps and packages weighing on his arms as he is dragged along the girls during their attack on the Emerald City. They defeat the Guardian of the Gates and the Soldier with Green Whiskers by attacking them with their needles and enter the City – they would have attacked the Palace straight away, if they actually didn’t stop by to dig out all the emeralds they saw out of the walls and the paving-stones with their knitting needles. This left enough time for Tip to warn the Scarecrow and prepares an escape, the greed and vanity of the girls preventing them from reaching their second goal of getting rid of the Scarecrow. Later, when talking with his friends, Tip mentions some things he over-heard the Army of Revolt say: they apparently intended to make a “rag carpet” out of the outside of the Scarecrow and use his insides to stuff their “sofa-cushion”, before attacking and conquering in a similar way the City of the Winkies and the Palace of the Tin Woodman. # Jinjur’s rule is quite terrible for the Emerald City. She immediately replace all the officials of the City, all male, with female versions of them (for example, she replaces the Guardian of the Gates with a “fussy little fat woman”, even though later the gates of the city are guarded by two young girls). She also forced all of the men of the city to do the chores their women were forced to do: sweeping, dusting, washing the dishes, taking care of the babies… All the men of the city are of course unsatisfied and worn-out, claiming that it is too tiring. (To which follows this very interesting exchange between one of the house-men and the Scarecrow: “If it is such a hard work as you say, how did the women manage it so easily?” “I really do not know. Perhaps the women are made of castiron.”) The women of the city seem to enjoy this new situation, spending times sitting in groups, gossiping and laughing, even mocking and disdaining the former ruler of the City. However, when we reach the end of the book, it is revealed that they grew weary of Jinjur’s regulations, because they couldn’t stand to eat the cooking of their husband, who were all very, very bad cooks, thus they gleefully accepted Jinjur’s defeat if only to cook themselves again. A joke that also indicates that Jinjur actually forbade the women from partaking into any kind of chore or “oppressive” activity. So, if we interpret everything we read, the women were forbidden from cleaning their house, no big deal, but also forbidden to cook and forbidden to take care of their OWN CHILDREN… Now the story gets a lot more messed up. As for Jinjur herself she spends her time on the throne with the “second-best crown” upon her head (a small crown apparently), eating caramels. At least that’s how she looks when the heroes visit her again. This scene also has some interesting dichotomy… on one side, Jinjur is shown to be right by many points. She points out that “the throne belongs to whoever is able to take it”, something the Scarecrow later thinks about and admit is right, while on the other side the Tin Woodman pretends that the laws “were never meant to be understood” and that it is “foolish to make the attempt” ; and the heroes propose all sorts of different ways to take back the throne from Jinjur. Ways that go from reasonable ones (The Scarecrow marrying Jinjur to become his King, or them offering Jinjur all the jewels she wants so she can go home) to ones that are much unreasonable, such as “giving her a good shaking” (note that this proposition comes from the Saw-Horse that is quite a violent creature, but still). So on one side, she is right. But on the other side, she is also shown to be wrong, because she is excessively cruel. She claims “I bear you no ill will, I assure you; but lest you should prove troublesome to me in the future I shall order you all to be destroyed.”, something that is obviously true given that when she invaded the City she planned to destroy the Scarecrow already. And she has a wicked plan for all of Tip’s companion, despite claiming “You are not human, and therefore it will not be wicked to demolish you”. She plans the Saw-Horse and the Pumpkinhead’s body to be chopped off to become kindling wood (and the pumpkin made into tarts), the Scarecrow to be used as a bonfire, the Tin Man to be cut into small pieces and “fed to the goats”, and the Woggle-Bug to be cooked in a green-turtle soup, or a Hungarian goulash, stewed and highly spiced.” Hopefully our friends escape by… unleashing the Field Mice upon the girls. Because, of course, girls are afraid of mice, aren’t they? And the entire Army of Revolt is reduced to shrieking girls hiding on tables when the mice start running around. In general, the girls are seen to less brave than they claim to be. The Army joked about conquering the Tin Woodman and the West of Oz, but when the Scarecrow escaped from her clutches and went to see the Tin Woodman, she was “very uneasy” because she remembers, as everyone does in Oz, the “deeds of these famous heroes”. The narration also seems to imply that Jinjur knows very well what the Scarecrow and the Tin Man did for Oz, but that she doesn’t care at all.

- - - -

This book is probably the most progressive of Baum but also the most problematic in terms of women representation Xp

[mejomonster]

So many of the controls mentioned that slave owners did in the colonies to prevent revolt and encourage division and intensify racism are what republican politicians still do today.

[genlosscharliie]

just spent like 2 hours reading through a bunch of alternate history threads focused on syria. surprisingly interesting

[yellowbrickramble]

I think Tip's just about ready to switch pronouns. What do you think?

If you like this comic, please support me on Patreon! (link in bio)

[anthonysperkins]

Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts (1979) dir. Rosa von Praunheim

[russia-libertaire]

The Greens

'A "supplies squad" (prodotriad) would arrive in a village, take over the largest house, evict the "kulak" (rich peasant) who lived in it, and instruct all the villagers to deliver a pre-set quota of produce. Those who did not or could not comply were subject to searches, which might involve the ripping up of floorboards and the destruction of furniture, followed, if they proved fruitless, by beatings and arrests. Similarly, armed roadblocks were set up, and checkpoints at railway stations, where peasants taking produce to market were searched and in effect robbed. At first peasants reacted to these measures with passive rather than active resistance and attempted to seal their economy off from that of town and army. But the Reds' conscription campaigns were merciless, and resistance to them counted as desertion or mutiny, which were punishable by death. The "deserters" would flee into the forests, there to set up armed bands, known as Greens, since they opposed both Reds and Whites. Sometimes they acted independently and sometimes as an armed wing of local peasant communities. In either case, they would operate as partisan bands have done over the centuries, keeping out of the way of large enemy forces, but descending and massacring small detachments and prodotriady. These disorders rumbled on throughout 1919 but became more persistent during 1920 and the first part of 1921, when in many provinces of the south and east Communist rule was effective only in the towns and intermittently on the main roads and railways. In Ukraine the peasants' antiurban mood was colored by nationalism: here several of the Green leaders called themselves "Atamans." Elsewhere peasant unions were set up to coordinate civil administration with military activity, often with local SR leadership. From the autumn of 1920 partisan bands amalgamated into sizeable peasant armies in much of southeast European Russia, notably Tambov, the Don and Kuban regions, and western Siberia. In the last case, Green leaders captured and for a time ran major towns, such as Tobolsk and Petropavlovsk, entirely cutting communications with the rest of Siberia. Elsewhere the Greens were confined to villages and small towns. The peasants' political aim in 1920-21 was simple: to defend their way of life against "commissarocracy" (as they called Communist rule) and when possible to take revenge on Communist party members.'

Russia and the Russians, by Geoffrey Hosking

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Ted Taylor Would Serve," Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. June 21, 1941. Page 3. ----- 13-Year-Old Eldersley Boy Wants to Join Forces As Drummer ---- Stout young hearts beat fast these days as they hear the roll of drums and see their elder brothers and their fathers marching off to war. They want to play their part in serving their country's need. That general keenness of youngsters to share responsibility is reflected in the purchase of war savings stamps throughout the winter and the pledge of many to continue such savings through the holidays.

But a letter has come to the desk of Lt.-Col. Roy MacMillan, 2nd Battalion S.L.I., which tells this story better than any figures on war savings stamps. It was from a 13-year-old boy in Eldersley, Sask., and read simply:

"Dear Sir:

"I would like a position in the army, navy or air force as a drummer boy or anything else a boy could do. My age is 13, June 12, my height is 4 feet, 2 inches, weight 97 pounds. I feel I can't do enough towards the war. I can't make enough money to buy war savings stamps. So if I could get a job to do something in the forces I would be glad. We are out of school and on our holidays.

Yours truly, TED TAYLOR."

[silverfox66]

The Kadyrovites are going to pick a fight with Wagner in Rostov. Meanwhile, the rest of Wagner already made it to Moscow region 😬😬

[suetravelblog]

Jordan Independence Day Amman

Jordanian Flag Independence Day – Edarabia May 25 is Jordan Independence Day, and the “most important event in the history of the country, marking its independence from the British government in 1946”. The 2023 celebration signifies 75 years since Jordan “officially gained full autonomy in 1948“. King Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein “Jordan’s independence took place during the reign of King Abdullah I…