#cw cult mention

[drafthorsemath]

Crosshair’s Redemption

I posted this here in response to an earlier post, but also thought this should just live on its own on my blog, so apologies if you’ve seen it twice. Essentially, here are some thoughts about whether Crosshair should be held accountable for his actions with the Empire. Spoilers for The Bad Batch Season 2.

I’ll start by saying that Crosshair is already holding himself accountable, even if he’s not calling it that. When people say they want redemption for Crosshair, often, from what I’ve seen, they either implicitly or explicitly want him specifically to suffer in some way and many don’t seem to realize that he is already suffering.  They seem to think he deserves that suffering and then some.  In some cases, they flat out want him dead and think that is the only way for him to “pay” and be redeemed.  I won’t even pretend I’m not projecting when I say that as a cult survivor, that hurts me to my core because I relate to him so much and I suppose I’m at the point in all this when I can talk more about what it’s like to be in a cult and why people do what they do.  (If you want to hear what it’s like growing up in a doomsday cult, I’ve been interviewed for two podcasts and can direct you there and my DMs are open.)

No, I didn’t murder anyone, so you might think Crosshair has done worse than I have.  I’m not here to argue about that, but in some ways I think helping to destroy someone’s life or sense of self without killing them can be just as bad, no? I definitely hurt people, even if I didn’t kill them. I hurt them deeply, just as I was hurt, but is that an excuse? No. But also, I was under the influence of many layers of authority in my cult.  Did they put a gun to my head and “make” me do hurtful things? No, but they also constructed the situation so that it very much felt like life or death.  I did what I had to do to survive.  Does that mean I’m not accountable? Also no.  Amazingly, it’s complicated.  I’ve certainly paid for my time in the cult even though I was born into it.  No one else showed up and passed down a punishment, but figuring out how to grieve, make right, help others, and build a life while thoroughly traumatized was pretty damn punishing.

How is my survival in a cult any different than Crosshair trying to survive? Different than Crosshair telling Hunter there is a place for all of them in the Empire? Any different than Crosshair saying he made his choice and the clones that matter will be just fine?  Crosshair may try to play it cool and seem unaffected, but this man is doing what he feels he needs to do in order to survive in circumstances that are not of his choosing.

I think by The Outpost it becomes very clear that Crosshair is changing, even though we see glimpses earlier.  He was literally pushed to the point where he thought his life would end for killing Nolan.  You can argue that he didn’t know for sure if his life would be over, but when he killed that asshole, he could have been shot where he was and he knew it.  He knew by that point that the Empire did not care about him at all and he still pulled the trigger.

Crosshair started holding himself accountable the moment he started making different decisions.  The moment he went from playing along to survive to actively going against the Empire was when he started holding himself accountable.

We should also talk about the chip that was (is?) in his head.  He was very much being controlled at least at the beginning of season 1.  We know that the clones acted the way they did during Order 66 because of the chips.  Should he still be held responsible for what he did under the influence of the chip?  Then what about Cody and Bly and Wolffe and every other clone who killed or tried to kill the Jedi?  Like where do we draw the line?  Is it even our job to draw the line?  Is it the job of the Rebellion to draw the line? I don’t think it is.  I think it’s fine for the Rebellion to say, “if you don’t see what you did as a problem, then we don’t want to work with you,” but I don’t think they should get a firing squad or pass down a punishment.  In Rebels, did the Rebellion not want to work with Rex, Gregor, or Wolffe? Kanan had feelings about it, sure, but ultimately no one made them atone for being clones under the influence of a chip.

It’s always interesting to me that people talk about Crosshair atoning, but not Vader or Sidious or Kylo Ren or any number of lower level cult leaders like Rampart.  Maybe it’s because we already know what will happen to Vader, Kylo, and Sidious.  Maybe it’s because they die and we figure that has to cover all their transgressions, but we don’t know how Crosshair’s story will end and people want to make sure there’s some “justice.”

Throughout season 2, although there’s not a ton of Crosshair shown, we see he’s really miserable. He’s not sleeping, he’s not eating, he was left on the platform for 32 rotations.  He looks like hell and he feels like hell.  He is so expressive and it’s clear he’s miserable by the look on his face.  Isn’t he already paying for his bounded choice? Being in a cult is already awful, it’s really traumatizing, but people seem to love to pile on more guilt and then blame cult members like if they just weren’t so stupid none of this would have happened.  Ultimately, the only people in cults who are irredeemable are the upper cult leaders.  Sidious does not care about anyone but himself. He can’t be redeemed.  Everyone else though?  There’s hope for them.  Don’t we want a better world where people can learn from their mistakes and help others?  Where growing and bettering oneself is an ongoing process that lasts a life time?  How many awful things need to happen to Crosshair before people will say “okay you ticked enough boxes, I forgive you now”? He is a complicated man, but he has empathy and he loves and cares for his family.  Again this doesn’t mean he gets off without paying for what he’s done, but also, he’s already paying for his choices by living in a version of hell.  Being in a cult is terrible and soul-crushing for everyone but the top cult leader.

I also would be remiss if I didn’t mention how Crosshair spent the end of season 2 strapped to a table, able to fight drugs in his system to get far enough to warn his siblings that the Empire is after Omega.  While the full message didn’t get out, he did his utmost to warn them.  He didn’t try to run for himself. He tried to save his family. If that isn’t Crosshair trying to do better and holding himself accountable then I don’t know what is.

Ultimately, I think when people want someone to hold Crosshair accountable, they are missing a part of his humanity and they assume he must want all that has happened.  It’s like they think someone must dish out justice because surely he doesn’t realize how badly he screwed up, but Crosshair knows he messed up and now he has to reckon with it.  Assigning the Rebellion or some person or group the job of holding him accountable only furthers the us versus them that cults instill into their members. It will only push him away further.  Do you want to know what happened between me and the people who felt I needed to be held accountable for my time in a cult (that I was born into, just like the clones)?  I never spoke to them again and I had one less person offering support as I tried to build some semblance of a life.  The few threads of connection that I had were ultimately severed because they felt I hadn’t gone through enough.  

Let Crosshair go on this journey.  Let him try to do what is right, because he’s well on his way.  Let him grieve for all that has happened and all he’s done.  Because I promise, he’s grieving.  He’s lonely and guilting himself to his core.  It’s written all over his face.

[shyjusticewarrior]

DC Comics Incorrect Quotes Pt 180

Damian: If I know cults, this meeting will start with an insanely over-the-top nonsense video.

Damian: I spent years telling myself their tough love made me stronger, but you know what I really wish they'd done?

Damian: Been nice to me.

Damian: I don't like being abandoned! I'm sensitive to it!

[onejellyfishplease]

Ah yes~ thievery

you love to see it!

Also!! hi Gentry! you surely wont be relvent to the plot later!

*video game duh duh duh daaaa! sound (the one from mario)*

Little bit of a short update today! hope u dont mind! also appearance of High Priestess Lamps! She'll be taking charge of most missions when mosiquitello themself is not present.

[wilbug]

why is there a pfp cult in my notifications. who is this person why r they staring at me

[pluralcultureis]

Plural culture is indulging so hard on Cult of the Lamb that I now have 20+ or more introjects from the game and I'm just like "WHAT IS HAPPENING?! HELP!"

.

[tokillamockingbird427]

Crack headcanon

Keegan grew up in a cult that practiced cannibalism

Sometimes, he still craves the tast of human flesh

If I had a nickle for every time I got an ask about cannibalism, I'd have two nickles! Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Yeah sure, I'll add that to my list of bullshit. Why not.

He has jokingly asked that if anyone (of the Ghosts) gets a limb amputated that they save it for him. And pork helps him fill the void. (Fun fact: Pork is most similar in texture/taste to human flesh! I hope that haunts you in the night hours.)

[dca-prompts]

(Tw/ mentions of Cults.)

Sun & Moon are playing cult of the lamb on different consoles 

Sun named one of the followers moon for his game

Moon named one of them Sun.

Both gave these specific followers immortality amulets .

When both got the option, they married these specific followers.

-☀️🌙

ㅤ

[zestyderg]

The thing about Ostrah is that she was afraid of failure but also never asked for help. She was very harsh with herself, but hid this from others. She did most of her research alone and would push herself hard to get things done, especially forgoing sleep for the sake of her job.

It's not that she was never offered help, she was, very often I might add. Both her coworkers and Dynal would ask her if she needed assistance, or warned her not to push herself too far. Ostrah chose to not get help even when it was obvious she needed it.

Many sleepless nights she stayed at her lab to research as much as she could about Guhnash. She did not want to fail her fellow dinaurians and she knew how catastrophic failure would be.

However, the more she studied Guhnash and the more attempts to exterminate it failed, the more hopeless everything felt to her. Guhnash seemed unstoppable, nothing she suggested worked, and she ran out of options.

If Guhnash couldn't be killed, then there's no point to resisting, is there?

She quickly gained an 'if you can't beat them, join them' mentality, forming her cult and indoctrinating several dinaurians to her cause.

She killed those who tried to leave, deeming them unworthy of living to experience Guhnash's arrival. She tried to get her husband to join her, to help her assassinate Dynal, but he refused, and tried to make a run for it with the then eight year old Aster.

He didn't succeed. She slit his throat and kidnapped Aster, taking them with her to kill Dynal. We know by now that she botched the assassination attempt and got herself killed instead, leaving Aster an orphan.

Aster hates what their mom did, and hates that her actions have affected how others perceive them. They do faintly remember how she was before her downfall, and they know she was loving, funny and kind.

They sometimes wonder what would have happened if Ostrah never did those things. Would she and Aster's dad have been evacuated when Guhnash came? Would they have come to earth together as a family? Would their parents have supported the destruction of humanity? Would something totally different happen?

Guess they'll never know.

[tiredsn0w]

Shower thoughts

(Same text, copy and pasted for legibility and screen readers)

"Me trying to explain to myself in my head about how I think Airdorf must be Catholic or at least some denomination of Nicene Christianity, because of the portrayal of song and dance; at least here, the Protestant or non-demoninational/very loosely Christian churches employ more contemporary songs (instead of traditional hymns) usually accompanied by swaying-- while the Nicene (and especially more Catholic) churches expect you to stand still and sing hymns from a traditional hymnal. Miriam taught the kids in what I'm presuming to be a Catholic church to sing and dance things outside of the hymnal. This is portrayed as one of the many things that's "off" about her, and one of the things that helps us correlate her actions with the cult. Pagan religions have historically been persecuted by early Christianity (and though I'm not aware of it, probably still are) and thought to be cults or cult-adjacent. Some of these very loosely "Christian" churches also take inspiration from Paganism from my understanding. So, with the combination of non-hymn singing and especially dancing being portrayed as something "other" and as a tie to the very blasphemous and dangerous cult, I conclude that Airdorf must have at least have some personal ties to more high-church forms of Christanity."

[too-many-blorbos]

Highschool AU Drizzt

The boy's been through a lot, but he's doing better now. Living a normal life as a normal kid with a dad who happens to be a mafia operative

And Zaknafein! He's got a lot of scars. Blade scars from fights, snakebite and spiderbite scars from punishments in the cult... drow teeth scars from Malice's attentions. His signatue leather jacket covers most of them, but he's not too worried about hiding them.

He has at least three weapons on his person at all times. (I cannot draw guns or holsters apparently, so pls forgive the quality)

[lazy-toad]

"All religions are cults" "There's no difference between religion and cults"

[burning-sol]

[iamstuckinthevoid]

Just got stopped by scientology lol

Me and my dad were out to go to the art shop in town because we needed stuff, and we walked past scientology. It was super busy and they looked like they were handing out stuff, so we walked past. After we'd been to the art shop and gotten the stuff we needed, we walked past again go home, and they stopped us to ask an extremely important question.

"Who would with out of Godzilla or KingKong?"

We obviously answered Godzilla because he's got something to be fighting for (a son) and is generally stronger.

And while this was a slightly interesting conversation, don't fucking go there seeking out conversations like this, it's a fucking cult. Don't go in for the free personality test.

[onejellyfishplease]

So I was just looking at the Mosquitello stuff, and I saw that the storyline could have a good or bad ending, but the great thing about being in the cult is that I get a good ending either way, because if my Lord and Savior Mosquitello wins that's also good for me.

its a win either way :D 👍

(the turtles crying distantly in the background) Shhh this isnt about u

[borderline-culture-is]

BPD + cult survivor culture is scrolling through your fp's anon tag on a different blog and finding an ask they sent which said "...desperately wanting to be a streamer but only the super popular type with millions of followers that gets tons of fan art and admirers....wouldn’t just being a cult leader be easier?"

And checking the date and realizing that they sent it when they knew you were a cult survivor. And immediately loosing nearly all feelings and just sitting here empty because what the fuck do I do now. I don't want to date someone who says shit like that. But I also can't live without them and we've been dating for over a year. And it was also a little over 2 months ago and I don't want to bring up old shit but it just hurts.

Hugs? :( 🫂 /nfta

[pluralcultureis]

hc-did culture is being programmed to not be allowed to fall in love with anyone but your cult leader so you end up pushing anyone you like away

:(