#mantle council election

[jhsharman]

ASB Politics

Okay. They initially failed to color in the reflection of the lipstick Betty accidentally gave Mr. Weatherbee when he wandered in while they were playing "Post Office" at the end of a student council meeting.

The Al Hartley universe (for the pre and non Christian stories of the.late 60s through 70s) does have its own internal consistency and logic. Junior High School level titillating slumber party games that the high school kids ought have grown out of by now always beckon, and is always something Archie is eager to instigate. The principal is over connected with this group of students and apt to get roped into their juvenile level sexual shenanigans -- which is occasioned as a way to let the pressure off after the tough task of student political meeting and its responsibities in coordination of student clubs and activities. And the next scene has Beazley walking in and having a misunderstanding on just what Miss Grundy and Mr. Weatherbee are up to.

[odinsblog]

Patrick Braxton became the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, when he was elected in 2020, but since then he has fought with the previous administration to actually serve in office. (Aallyah Wright/Capital B)

NEWBERN, Ala. — There’s a power struggle in Newbern, Alabama, and the rural town’s first Black mayor is at war with the previous administration who he says locked him out of Town Hall.

After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race.

“When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor,” Braxton recalls.

The town is 85% Black, and 29% of Black people here live below the poverty line.

“What did she mean by the town wasn’t ready for a Black mayor? They, meaning white people?” Capital B asked.

“Yes. No change,” Braxton says.

Decades removed from a seemingly Jim Crow South, white people continue to thwart Black political progress by refusing to allow them to govern themselves or participate in the country’s democracy, several residents told Capital B. While litigation may take months or years to resolve, Braxton and community members are working to organize voter education, registration, and transportation ahead of the 2024 general election.

But the tension has been brewing for years.

Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

In another incident, Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn’t get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn’t make it in time to save her. Braxton wasn’t able to gain access to the building or equipment until the Hale County Emergency Management Agency director intervened, the lawsuit said.

“I have been on several house fires by myself,” Braxton says. “They hear the radio and wouldn’t come. I know they hear it because I called dispatch, and dispatch set the tone call three or four times for Newbern because we got a certain tone.”

This has become the new norm for Braxton ever since he became the first Black mayor of his hometown in 2020. For the past three years, he’s been fighting to serve and hold on to the title of mayor, first reported by Lee Hedgepeth, a freelance journalist based in Alabama.

Incorporated in 1854, Newbern, Alabama, today has a population of 275 people — 85% of whom are Black. (Aallyah Wright/Capital B)

Not only has he been locked out of the town hall and fought fires alone, but he’s been followed by a drone and unable to retrieve the town’s mail and financial accounts, he says. Rather than concede, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about.

Braxton is suing them, the People’s Bank of Greensboro, and the postmaster at the U.S. Post Office.

For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.

(continue reading)

[decolonize-the-everything]

"Speaking to Al Jazeera, Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, says Israeli officials, both in Netanyahu’s coalition and in the opposition, have been speaking more openly about making Gaza unlivable for Palestinians.

“There have been ongoing statements in recent days … which seem to indicate a particular plan the Israeli government seems to want to implement, which is not only to create unbearable conditions for the population of Gaza, but actually to speak about removing the population,” he said.

“Or as one minister [far-right finance minister] Smotrich said, to encourage them to leave Gaza either to the Sinai Peninsula or to other countries that would welcome them,” Bartov said.

“Or that Israel would rule that area and as this particular minister said, there should be discussions about settling the Gaza Strip,” he said, adding if the current trajectory continues, the world is witnessing an operation of “ethnic cleansing under the mantle of humanitarian action”.

American Muslim leaders carried on a campaign launched earlier this month against President Joe Biden over his handling of the Gaza conflict.

#AbandonBiden campaign was first launched by Muslim leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Saturday’s plan to actively campaign against Biden in all 50 US states was announced in Chicago, Illinois at the end of a national convention organised by the Muslim American Society and Islamic Circle of North America.

The leaders say they intend to guarantee Biden’s loss in the upcoming 2024 election over his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed more than 21,000 people, mostly children and women.

“The president betrayed us because he violated the value of dignity and life. What’s the point of voting for you when you deny 2.2 million [in Gaza] people water?” said Hassan Abdel Salam, a spokesperson for the campaign.

" Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked the Biden administration for its continued backing, including approval for a new emergency weapons sale, the second this month.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar decision on December 9 to approve the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106m.

Some Democratic lawmakers have spoken of making a proposed $14.3bn in American military assistance to Israel contingent on concrete steps by Netanyahu’s government to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.

Netanyahu says Israel needs more time in Gaza.

“As the chief of staff said this week, the war will continue many more months. My policy is clear. We will continue to fight until we have achieved all the objectives of the war, first and foremost the annihilation of Hamas and the release of all the hostages.”

Keep protesting and boycotting and calling your reps and blocking ships and railroads

🕊️🇵🇸🕊️

artist

[reasoningdaily]

NEWBERN, Ala. — There’s a power struggle in Newbern, Alabama, and the rural town’s first Black mayor is at war with the previous administration who he says locked him out of Town Hall.

After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race.

“When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor,” Braxton recalls.

The town is 85% Black, and 29% of Black people here live below the poverty line. 

“What did she mean by the town wasn’t ready for a Black mayor? They, meaning white people?” Capital B asked.

“Yes. No change,” Braxton says.

Decades removed from a seemingly Jim Crow South, white people continue to thwart Black political progress by refusing to allow them to govern themselves or participate in the country’s democracy, several residents told Capital B. While litigation may take months or years to resolve, Braxton and community members are working to organize voter education, registration, and transportation ahead of the 2024 general election.

But the tension has been brewing for years. 

Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person’s home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it.

In another incident, Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn’t get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn’t make it in time to save her. Braxton wasn’t able to gain access to the building or equipment until the Hale County Emergency Management Agency director intervened, the lawsuit said. 

“I have been on several house fires by myself,” Braxton says. “They hear the radio and wouldn’t come. I know they hear it because I called dispatch, and dispatch set the tone call three or four times for Newbern because we got a certain tone.”

Not only has he been locked out of the town hall and fought fires alone, but he’s been followed by a drone and unable to retrieve the town’s mail and financial accounts, he says. Rather than concede, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about. 

Braxton is suing them, the People’s Bank of Greensboro, and the postmaster at the U.S. Post Office. 

For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.

Stokes and his council — which consists of three white people (Gary Broussard, Jesse Leverett, Willie Tucker) and one Black person (Voncille Brown Thomas) — deny any wrongdoing in their response to the amended complaint filed on April 17. They also claim qualified immunity, which protects state and local officials from individual liability from civil lawsuits.

The attorneys for all parties, including the previous town council, the bank, and Lynn Thiebe, the postmaster at the post office, did not respond to requests for comment.

The town where voting never was

Over the past 50 years, Newbern has held a majority Black population. The town was incorporated in 1854 and became known as a farm town. The Great Depression and the mechanization of the cotton industry contributed to Newbern’s economic and population decline, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Today, across Newbern’s 1.2 square miles sits the town hall and volunteer fire department constructed by Auburn’s students, an aging library, U.S. Post Office, and Mercantile, the only store there, which Black people seldom frequent because of high prices and a lack of variety of products, Braxton says.

“They want to know why Black [people] don’t shop with them. You don’t have nothin’ the Black [people] want or need,” he says. “No gasoline. … They used to sell country-time bacon and cheese and souse meat. They stopped selling that because they say they didn’t like how it feel on their hands when they cuttin’ the meat.”

To help unify the town, Braxton began hosting annual Halloween parties for the children, and game day for the senior citizens. But his efforts haven’t been enough to stop some people from moving for better jobs, industry, and quality of life. 

Residents say the white town leaders have done little to help the predominantly Black area thrive over the years. They question how the town has spent its finances, as Black residents continue to struggle. Under the American Rescue Plan Act, Newbern received $30,000, according to an estimated funding sheet by Alabama Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, but residents say they can’t see where it has gone. 

At the First Baptist Church of Newbern, Braxton, three of his selected council members — Janice Quarles, 72, Barbara Patrick, 78, and James Ballard, 76 — and the Rev. James Williams, 77, could only remember two former mayors: Robert Walthall, who served as mayor for 44 years, and Paul Owens, who served on the council for 33 years and mayor for 11.

“At one point, we didn’t even know who the mayor was,” Ballard recalls.  “If you knew somebody and you was white, and your grandfather was in office when he died or got sick, he passed it on down to the grandson or son, and it’s been that way throughout the history of Newbern.”

Quarles agreed, adding: “It took me a while to know that Mr. Owens was the mayor. I just thought he was just a little man cleaning up on the side of the road, sometimes picking up paper. I didn’t know until I was told that ‘Well, he’s the mayor now.’” 

Braxton mentioned he heard of a Black man named Mr. Hicks who previously sought office years ago.

“This was before my time, but I heard Mr. Hicks had won the mayor seat and they took it from him the next day [or] the next night,” Braxton said. “It was another Black guy, had won years ago, and they took it from.”

“I hadn’t heard that one,” Ballard chimes in, sitting a few seats away from Braxton.

“How does someone take the seat from him, if he won?” Capital B asked.

“The same way they’re trying to do now with Mayor Braxton,” Quarles chuckled. “Maybe at that time �� I know if it was Mr. Hicks — he really had nobody else to stand up with him.”

Despite the rumor, what they did know for sure: There was never an election, and Stokes had been in office since 2008.

The costs to challenging the white power structure

After years of disinvestment, Braxton’s frustrations mounted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he says Stokes refused to commemorate state holidays or hang up American flags. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the majority-white council failed to provide supplies such as disinfectant, masks, and humidifiers to residents to mitigate the risks of contracting the virus.

Instead of waiting, Braxton made several trips to neighboring Greensboro, about 10 miles away, to get food and other items to distribute to Black and white residents. He also placed signs around town about vaccination. He later found his signs had been destroyed and put in “a burn pile,” he said.

After years of unmet needs of the community, Braxton decided to qualify for mayor. Only one Black person — Brown Thomas, who served with Stokes —has ever been named to the council. After Braxton told Stokes, the acting mayor, his intention to run, the conspiracy began, the lawsuit states. 

According to the lawsuit, Stokes gave Braxton the wrong information on how to qualify for mayor. Braxton then consulted with the Alabama Conference of Black Mayors, and the organization told him to file his statement of candidacy and statement of the economic interests with the circuit clerk of Hale County and online with the state, the lawsuit states. Vickie Moore, the organization’s executive director, said it also guided Braxton on how to prepare for his first meeting and other mayoral duties. 

Moore, an Alabama native and former mayor of Slocomb, said she has never heard of other cases across the state where elected officials who have never been elected are able to serve. This case with Braxton is “racism,” she said.

“The true value of a person can’t be judged by the color of their skin, and that’s what’s happening in this case here, and it’s the worst racism I’ve ever seen,” Moore said. “We have fought so hard for simple rights. It’s one of the most discouraging but encouraging things because it encourages us to continue to move forward … and continue to fight.”

Political and legal experts say what’s happening in Newbern is rare, but the tactics to suppress Black power aren’t, especially across the South. From tampering with ballot boxes to restricting reading material, “the South has been resistant to all types of changes” said Emmitt Riley III, associate professor of political science and Africana Studies at The University of the South.

“This is a clear case of white [people] attempting to seize and maintain political power in the face of someone who went through the appropriate steps to qualify and to run for office and by default wins because no one else qualified,” Riley added. “This raises a number of questions about democracy and a free and fair system of governance.”

Riley mentioned a different, but similar case in rural Greenwood, Mississippi. Sheriel Perkins, a longtime City Council member, became the first Black female mayor in 2006, serving for only two years. She ran again in 2013 and lost by 206 votes to incumbent Carolyn McAdams, who is white. Perkins contested the results, alleging voter fraud. White people allegedly paid other white people to live in the city in order to participate in the election and cast a legal vote, Riley said. In that case, the state Supreme Court dismissed the case and “found Perkins presented no evidence” that anyone voted illegally in a precinct, but rather it was the election materials that ended up in the wrong precincts.

“It was also on record that one white woman got on the witness stand and said, ‘I came back to vote because I was contacted to vote by X person.’ I think you see these tactics happening all across the South in local elections, in particular,” Riley said. “It becomes really difficult for people to really litigate these cases because in many cases it goes before the state courts, and state courts have not been really welcoming to overturning elections and ordering new elections.” 

Another example: Camilla, Georgia. 

In 2015, Rufus Davis was elected as the first Black male mayor of rural, predominantly Black Camilla. In 2017, the six-person City Council — half Black and half white — voted to deny him a set of keys to City Hall, which includes his office. Davis claimed the white city manager, Bennett Adams, had been keeping him from carrying out his mayoral duties. 

The next year, Davis, along with Black City Council member Venterra Pollard, boycotted the city’s meetings because of “discrimination within the city government,” he told a local news outlet. Some of the claims included the absence of Black officers in the police department, and the city’s segregated cemetery, where Black people cannot be buried next to white people. (The wire fence that divided the cemetery was taken down in 2018). In 2018, some citizens of the small town of about 5,000 people wanted to remove Davis from office and circulated a petition that garnered about 200 signatures. In 2019, he did not seek re-election for office.

“You’re not the mayor” 

After being the only person to qualify and submit proper paperwork for any municipal office, Braxton became mayor-elect and the first Black mayor in Newbern’s history on July 22, 2020.

Following the announcement, Braxton appointed members to join his council, consistent with the practice of previous leadership. He asked both white and Black people to serve, he said, but the white people told him they didn’t want to get involved.

The next month, Stokes and the former council members, Broussard, Leverett, Brown Thomas, and Tucker, called a secret meeting to adopt an ordinance to conduct a special election on Oct. 6 because they “allegedly forgot to qualify as candidates,” according to the lawsuit, which also alleges the meeting was not publicized. The defendants deny this claim, but admit to filing statements of candidacy to be elected at the special election, according to their response to an amended complaint filed on their behalf.

Because Stokes and his council were the only ones to qualify for the Oct. 6 election, they reappointed themselves as the town council. On Nov. 2, 2020, Braxton and his council members were sworn into office and filed an oath of office with the county probate judge’s office. Ten days later, the city attorney’s office executed an oath of office for Stokes and his council. 

After Braxton held his first town meeting in November, Stokes changed the locks to Town Hall to keep him and his council from accessing the building. For months, the two went back and forth on changing the locks until Braxton could no longer gain access. At some point, Braxton says he discovered all official town records had been removed or destroyed, except for a few boxes containing meeting minutes and other documents.

Braxton also was prevented from accessing the town’s financial records with the People’s Bank of Greensboro and the city clerk, and obtaining mail from the town’s post office. At every turn, he was met with a familiar answer: “You’re not the mayor.” Separately, he’s had drones following him to his home and mother’s home and had a white guy almost run him off the road, he says. 

Braxton asserts he’s experienced these levels of harassment and intimidation to keep him from being the mayor, he said. 

“Not having the Lord on your side, you woulda’ gave up,” he told Capital B.

‘Ready to fire away’ 

In the midst of the obstacles, Braxton kept pushing. He partnered with LaQuenna Lewis, founder of Love Is What Love Does, a Selma-based nonprofit focused on enriching the lives of disadvantaged people in Dallas, Perry, and Hale counties through such means as food distribution, youth programming, and help with utility bills. While meeting with Braxton, Lewis learned more about his case and became an investigator with her friend Leslie Sebastian, a former advocacy attorney based in California. 

The three began reviewing thousands of documents from the few boxes Braxton found in Town Hall, reaching out to several lawyers and state lawmakers such as Sen. Bobby Singleton and organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. No one wanted to help.

When the white residents learned Lewis was helping Braxton, she, too, began receiving threats early last year. She received handwritten notes in the mail with swastikas and derogatory names such as the n-word and b-word. One of theletters had a drawing of her and Braxton being lynched. 

Another letter said they had been watching her at the food distribution site and hoped she and Braxton died. They also made reference to her children, she said. Lewis provided photos of the letters, but Capital B will not publish them. In October, Lewis and her children found their house burned to the ground. The cause was undetermined, but she thinks it may have been connected.

Lewis, Sebastian, and Braxton continued to look for attorneys that would take the case. Braxton filed a complaint in Alabama’s circuit court last November, but his attorney at the time stopped answering his calls. In January, they found a new attorney, Richard Rouco, who filed an amended complaint in federal court.

“He went through a total of five attorneys prior to me meeting them last year, and they pretty much took his money. We ran into some big law firms who were supposed to help and they kind of misled him,” Lewis says. 

Right now, the lawsuit is in the early stages, Rouco says, and the two central issues of the case center on whether the previous council with Stokes were elected as they claim and if they gave proper notice.

Braxton and his team say they are committed to still doing the work in light of the lawsuit. Despite the obstacles, Braxton is running for mayor again in 2025. Through AlabamaLove.org, the group is raising money to provide voter education and registration, and address food security and youth programming. Additionally, they all hope they can finally bring their vision of a new Newbern to life.

For Braxton, it’s bringing grocery and convenience stores to the town. Quarles wants an educational and recreational center for children. Williams, the First Baptist Church minister, wants to build partnerships to secure grants in hopes of getting internet and more stores.

“I believe we done put a spark to the rocket, and it’s going [to get ready] to fire away,” Williams says at his church. “This rocket ready to fire away, and it’s been hovering too long.”

Correction: In Newbern, Alabama, 29% of the Black population lives below the poverty line. An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage

[gothgleek]

I love the idea of rival factions at the Royal court with distinct styles of dress and I think one with untapped potential is the Great Council’s decision to choose the next heir aka Rhaenys vs Viserys.

One of Rhaenys’s greatest strengths is that she comes from three different houses so she would always represent House Targaryen, House Baratheon, and House Velaryon with her clothes. I think her primary colors would be red and gold in a Velaryon style of dress. Red for her dragon (Meleys the Red Queen) and for the Targaryens, and gold for the Baratheons and to show off her wealth. I think she would wear House Velaryon’s colors if she did not she need to assert herself as the Targaryen heir. Wearing a Velaryon styled gown she uses more subtle ways to align herself with the Velaryons. (See the hairstyle drawings for a better crown.)

Additionally, while she is feminine, she knows that Westeros is hesitant to elect a female ruler so she tone down her femininity. Therefore, no low cut dresses and nothing formfitting and nothing too colorful. I see Velaryon style dresses being based on Old Valyria (aka the Byzantine Empire) so a lot of shapeless dresses with a single stripe down the front and a v collar so this works in her favor. Sometimes she would layer these dresses with robes or long sleeves as well. This choice is also encouraged because she would not want to remind Jaehaerys and Alysanne about their relationship to their daughters. She emulates Jahaerys by wearing heavy fabrics, dark colors, dragon scale embroidery, and heavy jewelry like livery collars and crowns. Additionally, Rhaenys would definitely take hunting and dragon riding as an opportunity to network so she would have a whole wardrobe for outdoor activities. This wardrobe would be largely earthy tones to make herself seem more approachable to her hunting party. Again, nothing form fitting so she would wear bloomer style pants or have balloon sleeves. She takes out her copper armor during more serious or more formal occasions.

However, she wouldn’t want to be too masculine because Westeros is not ready for that either. She would wear take fashion cues from Alysanne and wear surcoats, braids, and flowing sleeves in the shape of dragon wings. Inspired by her mother, Rhaenys would wear flared dresses, gable hoods, bejeweled hair bands, and sarafan style sleeves. She would also have elaborate embroidery, statement necklines, a mantle- a long vest or cloak-, prints, and beading on her dresses as well since it’s Velyron fashion. Additionally, Rhaenys would wear elaborate and tall hairstyles with statement hair accessories. Most of these would have metals and gems collected from Corlys’s travels. Corlys would even commission a crown similar to the iron throne and Jae’s crown for her to wear on special occasions.

Rhaenys would always have an updo with a statement piece similar to a crown. Maybe she would wear her hair in braids with pins and rings adorning it for an added flare. Pearls would certainly be her main accessories but use gems from Corlys’s travels to adorn her headwear as well. I think hair nets like snoods and cauls would be popular on Driftmark since they resemble fishnets so she would wear them often as well. Also, since she’s under more scrutiny than others, she would make sure her hair is something that wouldn’t be easily disheveled. This is where her mother’s Stormland roots would come into play with tight braids and gable hoods.

Viserys’s strength is that he is a male heir with Targaryen features however I think he’s very clueless so he and Aemma would -play it safe and take their style inspiration from Jaehaerys and Alysanne. For Aemma, this would mean a similar color palettes, similar hairstyles, silver accents, and clothes designed form the same tailor. However, Aemma would put her own personal touch on that. For example, Aemma would wear Houppelande or Burgundian style gowns because a Vale fashion. I also imagine these would have lower necklines, and more lace details than Alysanne or Rhaenys as a way to appear more feminine. She would also wear soft colors and soft fabrics to appear more approachable to other members at court. Additionally, unlike Rhaenys, her jewelry would be sourced from across Westeros to give her a home land advantage. She would befriend ladies at the court by having favorite jewelers and tailors from each of their regions. After all, there is no better way to gain allies by showing you have personal interest in their homes.

For her hair, Aemma would almost always be wearing some sort of headpiece. A hennin and stickelchen for indoor occasions, designed by the same headdress designers as Alysanne, the Arryns, and the Hightowers. To support the Westeros economy of course. Also, if she’s feeling homesick, she has a hennin shaped like a crescent moon that represents the moon door in the Vale. She also has double or triple coned hennins to resemble dragon horns. If Viserys makes some sort of fauxpaus, she would wear a ridiculous headpiece so people would have something else to talk about. On other occasions, she would wear veils, hair nets, and metal headpieces similar to Old Valyrian styles. If her hair is ever visible, I think she would wear it either wear with ribbons, pins, or in bound braids like Alysanne.

Also building on her relationship with Viserys, she would wear things that would appeal to his interests. Since he is so interested in the histories, she wears a lot of Old Valyrian inspired clothing. Her sleeves are inspired by Valyrian architectures such as battlements. Her hennins sometimes resemble spires. Her bodice can resemble ceiling beams and neckline can resemble buttresses. If she’s wearing a dress with multiple colors, it would be inspired by stained glass. The stained glass could also resemble the Sept which appeals to followers of the Faith people as well. I imagine Viserys would’ve written her a poem or song about a long extinct flower from Valyria and how he would grow fields of them for her if he could. Which might showcase their relationship- he’s all about hypothetical gestures that appeal to his interests. But, it would work on her while she’s young so some of her dresses are the same color as that extinct flower.

[bestworstcase]

klasdaskdasldas. i have a. great multitude of follow-up questions after the incarnadine post and i am struggling to decide which to ask, if that's okay? uhhhhhhh. i'm definitely curious about the Alsius Meritocratic Party/changes between Mantelian government and Atlesian government!

( the incarnadine post )

brief background: the pre-war mantle had a legislative assembly for which all adult citizens were eligible and selected by lot each year; military and civil magistracies were both elected by the assembly, and the assembly’s agenda was set for it by a theocratic executive body called the chancery. (the state religion was a highly syncretic form of madagian – worship of the four maidens – which remains the dominant religion in atlas today). notionally, the chancery was an elective body but in practice the state church was the king-maker, and decades preceding the great war were marked by a steady erosion of state power from the assembly and the (already somewhat impotent) judiciary.

post-war, reforms imposed by the vytal accords stripped executive power from the chancery (which still exists as the governing body of the state church, itself much diminished in political power) and replaced it with an executive council (6 elective seats, 3 appointed by the elected councilmen). the magistracies and judiciary were also restructured and strengthened but that’s not particularly relevant for the subject of this post; the assembly largely did not change, other than penalties for absences being reduced and the establishment of a procedure for the assemblies to impeach members of the council under certain circumstances.

so!! the executive council has no direct legislative power but because it sets the agenda for the assembly, it exercises quite a lot of indirect legislative influence (in that the council can kill any proposed law by declining to call the assembly for a vote). that plus it’s being elective plus its small size makes it the most powerful branch of the atlesian government and the one political parties typically focus most on controlling.

the AMP arose in reaction to post-war social reforms, primarily related to faunus civil rights but also a raft of new labor laws, which precipitated a migration of wealthy mantelians (in particular, former slave owners, most of whom had operated dust mines reliant on enslaved labor) to the swiftly-growing suburb surrounding atlas academy. (before the great war, atlas academy had been called alsius; hence ‘alsius meritocratic party’)

early on, the main thing the AMP stood against was a set of government programs to bring newly-emancipated fauni into a level economic playing field, which were funded largely by taxes targeted narrowly on industries where slave labor had been ubiquitous. by the present day, the party platform has moderated away from overtly anti-fauni policies (as these are politically toxic) to a broader anti-regulatory, anti-union position. the AMP is reviled in mantle but popular in atlas, which—because four of the six elective council seats are allotted to districts in atlas—has resulted in the AMP holding council majorities more often than not for the last few decades.

aside from the disdain for business regulation and worker rights, the modern AMP platform is built around a philosophy that equal opportunity is desirable, but shouldn’t be achieved by ‘penalizing success’ (i.e., imposing regulations or higher taxes on corporations and wealth). staunchly pro-military, strong support for heavy investment into public education and healthcare, socially egalitarian (nominally; there’s a noticeable covert hostility toward faunus rights still), against government subsidization of industries except for dust mining (although the fringe of the party wants to slash these too; the problem is that atlas/mantle would be uninhabitable without dust, but dust mining in the tundra is incredibly costly. the SDC runs its solitan mines at a loss it offsets in other more profitable markets, further shored up by military contracts; every other atlas-based mining competitor is dependent on government subsidies to stay afloat.)

currently the AMP holds four seats on the council. there’s a popular movement in mantle to expand the number of council seats to eleven by breaking up the mantle ‘districts’ into a seat per major borough, but that has virtually no chance of getting off the ground until/unless an atlas seat flips.

(the non-elective seats are held by 1. headmaster of atlas, 2. army general, and 3. governor of mantle, with the former two currently both held by ironwood; the votes for/against calling an assembly to vote on this proposal are currently three for, five against. if one of the AMP-held atlas seats flips it’ll be four-four and the thinking is that ironwood may be persuadable. if it goes to the assembly it’s all but guaranteed to pass, because the nature of the assembly—a set proportion of the citizen population, selected annually by random lot—means it’s statistically likely in any given year that the assembly’s majority will be working- and middle-class mantelians)

[dreadfutures]

100 Serault Prompts

Inspired by the atmospheric and enigmatic game, Dragon Age: The Last Court, here are some prompts for art or writing. Don't forget to send the prompt along with the number to help your creator out!

Utterly indebted to the #SaveSerault preservation project, and @silvanils Plot Guide here.

The black ocean of trees seethes under a fretful night-wind.

Nightmares breed like maggots in meat.

Wolves howling in council, or prayer, or song.

Gnomic messages scratched into fragments of bark with a knife-point.

Beware of crows.

Painted Masked Goddess in the bluebelled glade.

An inquisitive wind stirs in the woods.

Questing roots crawling over a secret, locking it away against the centuries.

The forest returns to its sleep and its long, green dreams.

Streams suddenly freezing despite the sun.

A laughing wolf.

A pensive bear.

A spider the size of a carthorse.

There are stranger directions than ‘North’ and ‘South’.

Power is a difficult steed to ride. Not everyone can stay in the saddle.

Today's answer could be tomorrow's treason.

A Baker’s Breeze, early in the morning. Upon it, the scent of bread rising in the ovens.

A coy breeze carries the sounds and smells of the market.

Spice. Lies. Laughter. The play of coin.

A grey wind drones in the fireplace.

A slow rain drones on the windows.

A hard wind blows from the east, carrying fat, gloating ravens.

A song of old Serault: the Stag and the Rose.

A star-wind, high and swift, pushes silver clouds to and fro beneath the moon.

The lap of the river upon the castle’s stone feet.

The scent of leaves and nodding barley.

White feathers drift like snow.

Eels in the dark rivers.

The Applewoods are dappled with shadow and filled with succulent midnights. Come closer.

The Biting Wind that Masked Andraste keeps leashed like a dog.

The sun swarms the river.

The Chateau’s four cats stretch out on the roof-tiles.

The wind eddies in corners, making dancing columns of dust. It comes from nowhere, goes nowhere. A Fade-wind, the Dowager calls it.

The Chateau’s pennants crack like whips.

“Payment in Glass” is the Serault motto.

Dappled in gemmy light.

The Green Chapel in the Deepwoods, where wolves go to pray.

A line of grey in the dark; fighting, failing, dying.

A sound like tearing silk.

Burning blue with rage.

Sun as warm as the touch of a hand.

A garland of aster and cuckoo-flowers.

The Masked Andraste isn’t as keen on chastity as her moon-faced sister.

A mage must be a poet, a philosopher, and a butcher.

To see behind the world.

To hold fire by the throat.

Familiar territory, but never quite safe.

Serault’s pride is like her forests: root-deep, thick-skinned, hard-won from the world’s edge.

A bereskarn.

Rune-strewn bones of a fell beast.

A forest victim: flowers sprouting from their eyes.

Hands burned to the blackened bone.

The Tower of Lights, as it never was: scraping the sky, mantled in light.

Weep tears of silver.

Smashing a horned mask of glass and gemstones.

Your true face: a horned mask of glass and gemstones.

The Glassworkers' Guildmaster elections.

This is the Grand Game. Play or drown.

A glass Guildmaster's sword, the hilt spinning fractures of light across the floor.

Freedoms for the Glassworkers: to leave, and leave to marry.

If it doesn't fight back, you drink it.

Secret liaisons with the Lover: Candlelit meetings. Fingers tangling briefly in the corridors. The door to your chambers creaking softly open when the guards change their watch. Stifled giggles as a servant passes.

A change of lovers, and the fallout.

An old tome. Dense, inseparable uncials cram the book. The ink fades. Mold speckles the flimsy pages.

A pig farmer advises the Marquis.

A grin as tight as a gallows noose.

A mosaic floor.

Honor is a game that others play.

Your Chevalier Commander, and her loyalty.

Serault Town: Gold stone, red roofs.

The Horned Knight's hold: a round tower, jagged as a chipped tooth, its floors all collapsed in on one another. A great tree grows within it, spreading a canopy of burgundy leaves where the roof once was.

Grass sparkling with shards of an old, shattered mirror.

Fat partridge, simmering in a pot with sweet onions and pale beans, then a plate of round cakes, peppered with poppyseed and laced with honey.

The mother has eyes of fire; the daughter, a heart of it.

Twilit riverbanks untrod by mortal feet, and rings of tall blue stones that were not raised by human hands…

A hall where the trees walk and the stones speak.

The Horned Knight: clad in armor of forest green, with an ivy cloak that hisses along the flagstones.

Hounds in the kennels, baying for the hunt.

The effects of High Twilight.

The effects of High Peril.

The effects of Rumors of Revolution.

The Dignity of the Huntress, Glass Rose of Serault: deadly, beautiful, adored, dreaded.

The Freedom of the Scholar, who might be the one to bring change to Serault for the good of the common folk.

The apples have interesting properties: astringent... intoxicating.

The Chateau stands on an island in mid-river.

The Acerbic Dowager (Counselor)

The Cheery Baron (Counselor)

The Dashing Outlaw (Accomplice or Bodyguard)

The Elegant Abbess (Counselor or Lover)

The Kindly Knight (Counselor)

The Muttering Banker

The Purveyor of Teas (Accomplice)

The Seneschal (Counselor)

The Silent Hunter (Bodyguard)

The Smiling Guildmistress (Counselor)

The Wayward Bard (Lover)

The Well-Read Pig-Farmer (Accomplice)

His Dour Lordship (Counselor)

The Scornful Sorceress

The Anchoress.

[defectedrockstar]

The more I think about the Atlas Situation, the more I realize how delicate it is because of the factors. Even if the group finds proof of SPECTRA, it’s not like they could outright share it with Mantle without causing an uproar. For one, it’ll just be seen as Ironwood being a tyrant if he were to arrest Kale (and those suspected to be involved) even when he has evidence to do so because it’ll just be seen as an excuse (believe to be false accusations) from Atlas to hurt Mantle. Secondly, there will be mixed reactions of either being in denial or betrayal, negative emotions that will attract Grimm. More importantly, Robyn is caught in the crossfire because considering how Kale has been sponsoring her campaign?

To the group, it’ll be unclear to know if Robyn is aware (and possibly involved) of SPECTRA or not because of how her semblance is known as Lie Detection. So (from their perspective), if Robyn is the good person she claims to be who cares about the wellbeing of Mantle, why would she be accepting Kale’s help unless something was afoot? It would be in best interest to not confront her about this. Meaning it’ll be best to stop the project ‘discreetly’ (which is impossible for the group to do so because when have they ever been discreet?)

But here’s the thing, Watts knows and has informed about the project, he’s the one holding the figurative bomb to cause distress in Mantle to draw in Grimm.

Allow me to paint the picture for you:

Let’s say this happened sometime after Robyn has been elected to be a council member and the group was able to stop Kale + company without revealing SPECTRA to the public of Mantle (and that they learned that Robyn wasn’t involved/aware of it). The group is trying to decide on rather or not to tell the public about the project, knowing full well of the possible consequences because here’s the thing: Robyn’s campaign has been sponsored by Kale, so rather the people believe her or not about having no involvement with SPECTRA… it’ll still cause an uproar of fear, anger, and betrayal within Mantle’s community because the woman they’ve voted for council, who they believe can be trusted and care about Mantle, will still be seen as someone associated with Kale.

And before the group even got the chance to decide… Watts does it for them by revealing the project because Kale is no longer useful for him and Salem, so might as well let the preparation for Salem’s attack be put into motion.

Sorry for the late response. Got busy with life and I got both anon's asks.

To be fair, I do feel we are giving Kale's group more credit than they deserve. It's not like they were that good at keeping things a secret. Zanzo literally left the plans of SPECTRA on the desktop of his computer. Lol

It wouldn't take Watz much effort to leak the news. It does make me think that with how close Robyn is to Kale, he might just straight up brainwash her like he did with Roxanne in the canon story. Meaning Robyn would be an enemy.

On the plus side, Ironwood has no reason to commit martial law, the good guys don't fight one another, and Clover gets to live. In terms of numbers and over all strength, Team CRWBY-RUSH has the others beat. Even Cinder would have to play it safe and that's saying a lot given her track record.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading; Tuesday, July 9, 2024

june 26_ july 9

VENERABLE DAVID, MONK OF THESSALONICA (540)

Saint David of Thessalonica pursued asceticism at the monastery of the holy Martyrs Theodore and Mercurius. Inspired by the example of the holy stylites, he lived in an almond tree in constant prayer, keeping strict fast, and enduring heat and cold. He remained there for three years until an angel told him to come down.

Saint David received from God the gift of wonderworking, and he healed many from sickness. The holy ascetic gave spiritual counsel to all who came to him. Having attained to passionlessness, he was like an angel in the flesh, and he was able to take hot coals into his hands without harm. He died the year 540.

SAINT DIONYSIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF SUZDAL (1385)

Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal, in the world David, was tonsured at the Kiev Caves monastery. He arrived at the Volga with an icon of the Mother of God that he had received as a blessing from Saints Anthony and Theodosius. Saint Dionysius dug out a cave not far from Nizhni-Novgorod and struggled in total solitude. Brethren constantly thronged to the holy ascetic and in the year 1335 he founded a monastery in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. Among the students of Saint Dionysius were Saints Euthymius of Suzdal (April 1) and Macarius of Zheltovod and Unzha (July 25). In the year 1352 the holy Elder sent twelve of his brethren to “the upper cities and countryside, whom God would bless” for the spiritual enlightenment of the people and the organizing of new monasteries. The monastery of Saint Dionysius exerted a deep charitable influence on the inhabitants of Nizhni-Novgorod. In the year 1371 the saint tonsured into monasticism the forty-year-old widow of Prince Andrew Constantinovich, an example of how he accepted into monasticism “various dignitaries: women, widowers, and virgins.”

In the year 1374 Saint Dionysius was deemed worthy of the office of bishop. His years of service as bishop occurred during a remarkable period, for Russia was rising to cast off the Mongol-Tatar Yoke. On March 31, 1375 the Tatar military-chief, having been shown to the bishop’s court by the enslaved inhabitants of Nizhni-Novgorod, shot an arrow at Saint Dionysius, but the Lord preserved his chosen one, and the arrow struck only the bishop’s mantle. In 1377, through the blessing of Saint Dionysius (who may have edited the document), the Lavrentian Chronicle was compiled by Saint Laurence, inspiring Russia in its struggle for freedom.

In 1379, preserving the integrity of the first hierarch’s cathedra, Saint Dionysius was one of the bishops gathered in Moscow by order of the prince, and he came out against the election of the prince’s protegee, the ill-reputed archimandrite Mityaya as Metropolitan.

In the same year of 1379 Saint Dionysius journeyed to Constantinople with a protest against the choice of Mityaya on grounds of his complicity with the heretical Strigolniki. The saint made a strong impression upon the Greeks by his sublime spiritual frame of mind and his profound knowledge of Holy Scripture. Patriarch Nilus, having termed the saint “a warrior of God and a spiritual man,” wrote that he himself saw him “at fasting and charity, and vigil, and prayers, and tears, and every other virtue.” From Constantinople Saint Dionysius sent two copies of the Hodēgḗtria Icon of the Mother of God to a Council at Suzdal. In 1382 the bishop received the title of archbishop from the patriarch. Returning to Russia, the saint travelled to Pskov and Novgorod to struggle against the heresy of the Strigolniki.

He visited Constantinople a second time in 1383 for discussion with the patriarch on questions about the governance of the Russian metropolitanate. In the year 1384 Saint Dionysius was made “metropolitan for Russia” by Patriarch Nilus. But upon his return to Kiev the saint was arrested on orders of the Kiev prince Vladimir Olgerdovich and subjected to imprisonment, where he died on October 15, 1385. The burial of the saint was in “the Kiev Cave of the Great Anthony.” Saint Dionysius is commemorated on June 26 because it is the Feast of his patron saint, Saint David of Thessalonica, whose name he was given in Baptism. In the Synodikon of the 1552 Nizhni-Novgorod Caves monastery, Saint Dionysius is called a “wonderworking monk”.

ROMANS 7:14-8:2

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

MATTHEW 10:9-15

9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. 11 Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. 12 And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

[dragynkeep]

Increasingly I think the writers of RWBY have catastrophic misunderstandings of plot and character that are at best at the level of young preteen fanfic authors who at least are very obviously still learning how to use these tools and at worst to the point they need to retake entire English courses.

Hbomb briefly touched upon it in his "RWBY is Disappointing" video when he dissected when RWBY "borrowed" a Cowboy Bebop intro scene for Spike and used it for Ruby, and how the writers didn't consider how the situation would characterize Ruby or didn't bend the scene to fit her.

Jaune is also another sufferer of this. His whole premise is supposed to be the ordinary guy a la Sokka, but he's written like a character that got isakai'd into RWBY and found himself enrolled in Beacon beyond his control.

It's particularly glaring because although Sokka has no bending abilities, he's still an inhabitant of the world, and has at least general knowledge of what bending is and its significance, as shown in the first ep of ATLA where he knows waterbending is part of the Water Tribe's culture.

Jaune by contrast has a baffling lack of knowledge about fundamental aspects of his own world for someone who is supposed to live in said world. He doesn't really know Aura or semblances until Pyrrha explains it to him and for someone who wants to get into Beacon to the point of cheating he seems to have done woefully little research on Hunters and their profession and the Academy's entrance requirements. This is the mark of an isakai protag or a similar fish-out-of-water character who has found themselves in a world they're unfamiliar with, usually out of their control, which is NOT what Sokka is but is what Jaune embodies.

The purpose of these characters is an easy way to explain or introduce key fundamental concepts to the audience, in this case, Aura and semblances. But for that to work the character needs a reason to not have the knowledge already. Which Jaune does not have. He is an inhabitant of his world, like Sokka is with his own world. He should have at least surface knowledge of Aura and related concepts, IF ONLY for the purpose of making him look like he belongs in the world. His lack of knowledge is completely dissonant with that and it does make him look more like an isakai protag, like he's literally from another world and got sucked into the show or something. And the writers seemingly have not caught on that they're writing in isakai protag with Jaune or that the way they're doing it doesn't mesh with a sokka-esque character.

In terms of plot its even more egregious. Jaune is not really needed to function as the character he is written as because of the initial setting being in a school where there is already an excuse for core concepts to be delivered. It's just as easy to have the core 4 delivering the same info discussing homework or studying together.

The Atlas arc is also a huge sufferer of this lack of foundation. Jacques should not have been running for a seat. He should've been either lobbying the council or funding several politicians that align with the SDC. That's what corporations like him do, because they cover more ground like that, and it's also less obvious to the general public that he's shoring up his own interests. It's also a better long-term decision for him because he'd have his fingers in several political pies and it'd be significantly harder to get rid of him than just one election.

An election plot would also call for RWBY as a team to engage in more activism themselves aside from just helping Ironwood, if the election is that crucial. Talking to the people of Mantle, going to protests against the SDC, etc etc. Heck, talking to the people of Atlas City and Atlas Academy would've probably been better, since the natural conclusion would be Jacques's supporters are mainly in Atlas City, and they're already staying in Atlas Academy.

It would also give Atlas City and Atlas Academy narrative faces, so to speak. Because Mantle doesn't lack narrative faces, or people who represent the general attitude and climate of Mantle, from the Happy Huntresses to the single moms who attended Robyn's rally. Atlas City has what could be said to be narrative faces in V1 Weiss or the snobby party, but that's the 1%. What does the middle class in Atlas City think of the election? Is there even a middle class? Does the middle class live in Mantle or something?

The "save everyone vs save what we can" plot was also bunk. Those types of plots are usually constructed so that the person who says that they can't save everyone isn't really shown as wrong, however the one who wants to save everyone and does accomplishes their goal at personal risk to themselves. So they don't look like an asshole, like Ruby does.

Stripping a lot of nuance from tropes/types of plot seems to be what RWBY thinks is "subversive" or the writers genuinely don't understand why the nuance to the trope or plot type is important. I can't remember if it was you guys or someone else who brought this up, but for the Wizard of Oz characters, eventually the writers reduced them to "hehehe cowardly lion is actually a coward and tin man actually doesn't have a heart" when it's like congrats, you've made objectively made worse characters by taking essentially half the premise of their allusions literally.

The writers seemed a lot more comfortable with smaller scale character interactions like in the Poser era and they honestly should've just stuck with that. No big plot, just 4 girls bonding and attending fight school. It would've also given them a lot more room to make mistakes because if the plots/interactions were fairly contained, the bleedover of mistakes into the wider story wouldn't be such an issue.

But no.

We have this instead.

^^^^

Speak Kiwi, speak into the microphone.

[jackoshadows]

A Black Man Was Elected Mayor in Rural Alabama, but the White Town Leaders Won’t Let Him Serve

 "When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor," Braxton recalls. The town is 85% Black, and 69% of Black people here live below the poverty line. "What did she mean by the town wasn't ready for a Black mayor? They, meaning white people?" Capital B asked. "Yes. No change," Braxton says.

Two years ago, Braxton says he was the only volunteer firefighter in his department to respond to a tree fire near a Black person's home in the town of 275 people. As Braxton, 57, actively worked to put out the fire, he says, one of his white colleagues tried to take the keys to his fire truck to keep him from using it. In another incident, Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn't get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn't make it in time to save her. Braxton wasn't able to gain access to the building or equipment until the Hale County Emergency Management Agency director intervened, the lawsuit said. "I have been on several house fires by myself," Braxton says. "They hear the radio and wouldn't come. I know they hear it because I called dispatch, and dispatch set the tone call three or four times for Newbern because we got a certain tone."

Not only has he been locked out of the town hall and fought fires alone, but he's been followed by a drone and unable to retrieve the town's mail and financial accounts, he says. Rather than concede, Haywood "Woody" Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about. Braxton is suing them, the People's Bank of Greensboro, and the postmaster at the U.S. Post Office.  For at least 60 years, there's never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a "hand me down" by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

🔥🔥🔥 - 4., 7., 10.

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

I have far too many stories to count lolZ but the most recent one was being called a bitch by said person and that was just so fucked I backed out of their hard. Someone calling someone a bitch is a major major red flag for me. As far as I know they don’t think that was even wrong or bad so definitely was a good call lolZ.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

This is actually really hard because for pretty much all of the characters I hated them because of their in show actions and the fndm and how they treated the character made it worse vs being the reason I hated them. The closest I have to the fndm making me hate a character is probably Robyn. I disliked her quiet a bit when I first saw her but it wasn’t like I twitch every time I hear her name the fndm most definitely did that with how much they insisted she was actually “the only one helping Mantle” and how she “knew Ironwood was bad” and how they made her out to be some epic hero fighting for the people when in reality she’s just a whiny selfish brat.

She massively escalated her attacks because she won what she thought was a fair election. She specifically targeted a government project that she had no clue what it was for rather then the rich billionaire who was the actual person causing a mass majority of the problems she had currently. Jacques was the one who laid off hundreds if not thousands of people because he was no longer making billions of dollars. He’s the one who has “controversial labor practices” not James. He’s the one who decided to work with a terrorist out of greed. Jacques is the one who squeezed Mantel until it broke NOT JAMES. He was trying to restore global communication he gave Mantel protection and did things like assign a hunter to watch school children that really did not need it but gave the parents comfort. He did what he could to help but Robyn threw a fit like a child when she was told no she didn’t need to know this classified information. She is not a hero and an insult to every other Robyn Hood out their.

10. worst part of fanon

The rewriting of literally everything James did ever to try and make him secretly evil the entire time. Him giving Yang a free prosthetic? He was just trying to manipulate her so she would owe him. Standing up for Weiss? More manipulation. Him telling the council in Vale the truth about how the Grimm got into the city and why? It’s him trying to hostilely take over Vale and overthrow Ozpin.

He is not allowed to do anything good or even morally gray anymore according to the fndm it’s just all evil and it’s so exhausting. James was not a monster. Every action he took wasn’t him being shady and evil. He is a man living in a world that is stuck in a terrible predicament forcing him and others to make morally gray choices in the name of survival. It’s not evil. The fndms refusal to look at anything with even a slight morally complexity is just so damn tiring. Characters are allowed to make gray or even bad decisions and not be pure evil. They’re allowed to make mistakes and disagree and not be absolutely perfect. And I do not understand the fndms refusal to see this besides their obsession with CR/WBY to an unhealthy degree.

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU: Robyn's Election Party

Sneaking out of Atlas to go to a party might not have been one of Oz's best ideas ever, on reflection. Especially since said party wasn't in a very good part of Mantle and several of them would probably make good targets themselves.

Weiss and Winter probably shouldn't have come, but when they learned that Oz was going they had tagged along. Of course, Oz was mostly going because Oscar wanted to, but neither of the Schnee siblings seemed very comfortable letting him out of their sight right now.

He sighed, frustrated at that. Yes... he had been a kidnapped child once, but that was a very long time ago. The possibility that the same group even still existed was vanishingly small, it wasn't like they could snatch him again. Besides, he was far from the helpless ten year old he had once been, he could look after himself! No, the worry was that the girls were so obviously Schnee's... but then they were both hunters, too. It wasn't like Willow Schnee was going, after all.

"Oz... what's wrong?" Oscar asked, picking up on his mood.

"It is just that... Winter and Weiss will make very tempting targets to certain members of the audience, I fear. They're Schnee's and Jaques Schnee is, well, Jaques Schnee."

"... so are you. I'm not sure any of you three should be going, but here we are."

"At least we all have hunters licences." Oz sighed again. "Hopefully that will be enough. I just fear that something is likely to happen, after all, Atlas is next on Salem's list. Chaos is what she thrives on. Chaos brings fear and fear brings the Grimm."

None of the others really had anything to say about that, but at least they were almost there.

The guard on the door scanned over the group in disinterest, though his gaze sharpened slightly on noting Winter in her Atlas military uniform and Weiss in her typical outfit, especially since both of them were armed.

"No entry for Schnee's with weapons."

"We're not here to attack anyone!" Winter was quick to assure them. "But we're huntresses, we need to be armed in case something goes wrong. NONE of us want my father to win this seat, you can be certain of that."

The guard sighed. "Wait here, I need to go and talk to a few people. No funny business, Schnees."

When he returned it was in the company of Robyn Hill herself, who scanned the group and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh, Feuer wasn't kidding, there really are Schnees attending my little party. I'm honored. Why are you here?"

"To attend. None of us want my father to win, you're by far the better option."

"Uh huh, and if I asked you to test that using my semblance?"

Winter reached out and clasped hands with Robyn without hesitation, repeating her earlier words. The connection blazed green for truth and Robyn relaxed.

"Well, I suppose you're here with good intentions after all. I never thought I'd see the day, Winter Schnee. Weiss Schnee. People I don't know yet."

"Ruby Rose." "Blake Belladonna." "Yang Xaio Long." "Jaune Arc." "Nora Valkyrie" "Li Ren." "Oscar Pine."

They were all eager enough to introduce themselves, only Oz hanging back, watching her carefully.

"Well, that's most of you? And what about the little one, or are you too shy to come and say hello?"

Oz seemed to come to a decision, glancing at Winter briefly.

"Wintertip Pine, ma'am. Pleased to meet you."

Robyn smiled slightly at that, seemingly rather charmed by his good manners.

"Welcome to the party then, have fun and don't forget to support me when I have a council seat!" She moved off back towards the front as Winter and Weiss stared at Oz, surprised.

"Why call yourself Wintertip, of all names?"

"Why not? I cannot really use the name I was given at birth here, especially as I am not overly comfortable with it and I'm very well aware of what would happen were I to use a different one. Wintertip felt like a good compromise for now. Besides, this way I get to choose for once."

Winter stared at him for a second, almost speechless, before reaching over and ruffling his hair, gently. She still didn't say anything, but her expression seemed to say more than enough by itself.

Up on stage, Robyn was continuing her speech. "Look at everybody in attendance tonight! All of you support me for the council and that means a lot, we even have a few Schnee's!" She grinned over at the group even as several not entirely friendly gazes turned to them. Weiss brushed her fingers over Myrtenaster even as Oz's knuckles tightened on Long Memory's hilt. Robyn noticed and continued, hastily. "Now, you all know my semblance! Imagine my surprise when Specialist Winter Schnee herself clasped hands with me and confirmed they were here to support me! Now, I don't know what that says to the rest of you about the quality of the competition, but I say I'm honored to have them here tonight! They come as friends, please treat them as such?"

The gazes got rather quickly less hostile at that, but Oz was more focused on the numbers being projected. Was it just him, or were the percentages getting closer by the moment? He really, really had a bad feeling about this. Up on stage, Penny and the Atlas Operatives had noticed them, too. Although most of them looked amused, Clover was visibly furious that they'd so obviously flouted an order from General Ironwood. He may not be certain why the General was so protective of the youngest, but he knew that he would never have let him out here.

Excusing himself, he stalked over to the group, glaring at Oz who glared back, neither one willing to back down.

"Go. Home. Tip."

"Why should I? We're here to support Robyn just as much as everybody else is."

"Do you have any idea just how worried you will have made the General?" Clover hissed in an undertone.

"We left him a note." Oz stated calmly. "Besides, shouldn't you be working security? I'm sure everybody feels so much safer with you here."

Thankfully, the sarcasm seemed to go over Clover's head, who puffed himself up and went back to the stage. Crisis averted, for now. Though those numbers were looking even closer now...

The numbers switched, showing Jaques Schnee was somehow now in the lead, which made no sense considering that nobody in their right mind would have voted for him. Oz tensed, waiting, knowing that there was about to be a problem even if he didn't quite know what.

Then the lights went out. Briefly. Oz made a tossing motion upwards, reilluminating the room in the greenish glow his magic always gave off. He seemed pale and wan beneath it and he could feel himself starting to shake again, but the sudden light had managed to quite clearly illuminate one Tyrian Callows. Without the cover of darkness to aid him, he was swiftly engaged in a fight by several other people and just as quickly seemed to give up, being arrested within about two minutes of being discovered.

Robyn looked to be in shock, scanning the crowd to try to find the source of the light even as the lights that should have been in the building flickered back on. Oz, relieved, extinguished his own, sinking to the floor in a tangle of tired limbs. That had taken far more out of him than he'd been expecting, though it was probably more to do with his physical age than anything else.

Robyn made her way over, the crowd parting as she did so.

"Wintertip? That... thank you. That was your semblance, wasn't it? Is this the first time you used it?"

Oz just shook his head, not even trying to speak. He could feel the shaking calm down and drew himself back up to his feet as soon as he felt able. He was tired enough that he couldn't quite suppress a yawn, though and the others crowded around him, trying to grant him at least a little bit of privacy.

Even the others were staring at him, too. The Ace Operatives all came over, looking at Oz in a mix of amusement and frustration. At least they wouldn't have to explain too much to the General, but they were certainly starting to see why little Tip Pine wasn't to be let out by himself.

"Come on you lot, we need to go."

"One second?" Robyn interrupted, her voice hesitant. "Wintertip Pine? I owe you a boon. Let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you? I might not have won the council seat, but I'm pretty sure you saved at least one life tonight."

Oz just nodded tiredly as the others led the way backstage and out to where their transport waited. Tyrian Callows was shoved, none too gently, into a smaller airship. That one would be going directly to the top security wing of the prison. Everybody was pretty sure that General Ironwood would want words with him.

"Ah." Tyrian purred on seeing a straight backed and visibly fuming James Ironwood on the other side of the forcefield. "What do I owe the pleasure, General? Tell me, did I disrupt anything important?"

"Why were you at Robyn Hill's party? What did you want there?"

"Well, wouldn't you like to know that." Tyrian giggled, sounding unhinged. "But you know I won't tell you, where's the fun in that? Besides, I'll escape soon enough. I might even go and find that child. You know, the one with the delightful light semblance that got me caught? Find him, skin him, wear him as a cloak..." He giggled again even as, snarling, James drew his gun, pointing it directly at Tyrian's head.

"Oh no, you won't be escaping. You'll never go near him again, much less touch him." Thumbing the forcefield off, he shot several rounds directly into Tyrian's skull. It might have been murder, but he reassured himself that if he hadn't done it, then the madman would just have gone out and killed more people.

He went to find Oz and the others. Dammit, he needed to have words with them, too.

Elsewhere, Salem jerked as she felt the string connecting her to Tyrian Callows snap. He had finally got himself into a situation that he couldn't get out of, then? Pity, she'd rather miss him. He'd been such a useful tool. Maybe Ironwood had been pushed to the point of killing him? That, at least would have been good for her plans.

Sighing, she contacted Watts.

"Yes, my queen?" He answered, sounding about as servile as he always did.

"It appears our dear Tyrian is no longer with us. What exactly happened to get him caught? I thought you said your plans were foolproof." There was a dangerous tone in her voice and Watts blinked, surprised.

"Some brat had a light semblance. The lights went out, they lit the room up. They weren't very old, though,so it might have been a first use."

"A light semblance?" Salem asked, sounding bored. "What color semblance?" Not that she cared, but it was so nice to see Watt's sweat.

"Green, I believe, my Queen. Why?"

Salem screamed in anger and began to break things. Watts retreated, confused and more than a little scared.

"OZMA!" She roared into the night, continuing to destroy everything around her. "WHY DO YOU KEEP COMING BACK?"

[acornsandoaktrees]

Eryn Galen Family Tree 🌲

haha.. tree..? get it?... ok

Holly branch

<first gen>

Eluréd, son of Dior son of Beren, assumed dead as a child after abandonment in the forests of Doriath.

Silivren, a Silvan elleth who met Eluréd during his travels.

Aduial, a skilled singer whose task and honour it is to wake the forest of Greenwood from its slumber every spring.

Faedhínen, a mute soldier who adapted the hand-language of Hwermë for Silvan use.

<second gen>

Oropher, who left his family to travel to Greenwood, where he was elected King.

Ethuilas, born mute like her mother, a healer on the council with whom he clashed.

<third gen>

Amathring, eldest princess of Greenwood. alas, she fell to a drake in the North.

Duinion, a faithful companion of the Forest River and devoted lover.

<fourth gen>

Alfirin, a reclusive sage, friend only to flora.. and Radagast the Brown. cousin of the current princens, though she rejected any claim to the throne.

Oak branch

<first gen>

Eluréd, son of Dior son of Beren, assumed dead as a child after abandonment in the forests of Doriath.

Silivren, a Silvan elleth who met Eluréd during his travels.

Mallos, who cultivated his beautiful gardens in Amon Lanc.

Lanthir, adrenaline-seeking mountaineer and diver. since a devastating incident, she has been using mobility aids.

<second gen>

Oropher, who left his family to travel to Greenwood, where he was elected King.

Anorloth, a dancer who took on the task of maintaining the gardens after her father sailed for Valinor with her mother.

Bronadui, long-standing Chief Marchwarden of Greenwood.

Aerlinn, a poet who has always longed for the sea. she sailed for Valinor as soon as possible.

<third gen>

Thranduil, second Sindar King of Greenwood, who saw it through a long darkness.

Thalanes, who took up the mantle of Captain of the Guard after the previous captain's death in the Battle of Dagorlad. (a different role than Marchwarden)

<fourth gen>

Laerion, firstborn of the current princens. he rejected heir status to become a wandering bard.

Alphes, middle child and eventual Elvenqueen.

Legolas, youngest child and eventual member of the Fellowship of the Ring.

[rwby-redux]

What is the Atlas Military like in Redux?

I mean, technically speaking, it’s not actually the “Atlesian military.” People often call it that since the general is the headmaster of Atlas Academy, but it’s not all that accurate. The correct name for it is the “global” or “world military,” since it’s a joint peacekeeping operation dictated by Remnant’s 17 world leaders.

Some historical context:

After the Mistrali-Mantic Alliance officially surrendered in 10 IB, the leaders of Remnant’s four great powers convened at the Island of Vytal. This meeting, later called the Vytal Summit, was to discuss reparations, concessions, government restructuring, and international laws that all countries would abide by.

One of the main talking points was, “What do we do with our armed forces?”

Understandably, people were reluctant to fully disband their militaries, since international tensions were still a bit high. No one wanted to create a scenario where one country complied, only to then be left vulnerable and at the mercy of its neighbors. And even if that weren’t the case, Grimm remained an active threat—perhaps now more than ever, since their global activity dramatically spiked over the last ten years. Many settlements fell to them during the Great War—Periit, Kuebiko, Amervaile, the Yrrose cities.

It was an all-around unpleasant situation.

King Ozark, Vale’s last reigning monarch, was the one who suggested a specialized Grimm-killing task force. After all, most of the countries in attendance already had something like it back home: Vale’s knights, Mistral’s rangers, Vacuo’s outriders. Huntsmen, as they were later called, would be the world’s answer to the Grimm: specialized fighters, jointly educated and trained to protect people, regardless of national borders. Huntsmen would be a preemptive measure, a way to routinely deal with Grimm and keep their numbers low.

But here's the thing: Huntsmen are by default meant to fight Grimm, not people. And the Great War wasn’t caused by monsters—it was caused by man.

It’s worth pointing out that the formation of the academies did help significantly decrease international tension, by rallying people against a common enemy. But Huntsmen couldn’t fully dispel generations’ worth of imperialism, nationalism, and genocide. There was the lingering fear that groups of people might try to kickstart another war.

That’s where the world military comes in.

Repurposed from the ranks of Mantle’s armed forces, the world military was created as a final, last-ditch measure to deal with disputes manufactured by people. Its purpose is to intervene in conflicts too large or aggressive to be handled domestically.

In order for the global military to be mobilized, it requires a unanimous vote from all 17 world leaders—the four councilors of each kingdom, and the leader of Menagerie. There’s an exception to this rule, which states that if a country is violating international law, then the military can be deployed with a unanimous vote sans that of the country at fault.

Hypothetically, let’s say Mistral tried to reinstate slavery within its borders, and word got out. The World Council is obligated to hold a meeting with Mistral’s council and try to find a peaceful solution. If Mistral’s government refuses and continues to violate international law, then the other world leaders can vote to mobilize the military. In a case like this, only a 13/17 vote is needed, since Mistral’s council has forfeited their right to vote. It’s never gotten to this point in the last eighty years, thankfully. International relations have been pretty stable, all things considered. There have been a few smaller conflicts where the military did get deployed, but they weren’t on the scale of wars. But that’s a topic for another day.

The head of the military, as mentioned earlier, is the headmaster of Atlas Academy. Academy headmasters are unique in that their council positions aren’t democratically elected, unlike the other three council seats. Instead, headmasters are chosen from amongst their peers. This means that James’ position was only solidified once Ozpin, the Haven headmaster, and the Shade headmaster voted him into power. It’s a quirk which has its share of detractors. That being said, there is a reason why this “design flaw” exists, and it was very much deliberate on Ozark’s part.

The “main” base of operations for the military is the Island of Vytal, where the eponymous Fort Vytal was built. There are also a handful of other outposts located across Remnant, like Fort Nubuck (which is situated on Bycast Island, within Argus). Resources for these outposts are supplied by all five countries.

Nowadays, the military’s more or less in perpetual standby mode. It hasn’t seen a lot of action in a long time—which means that it’s doing its job correctly.

[bestworstcase]

If they actively sought out a legal way of stopping Jacques BEFORE he worked for Salem that would be another thing. I don’t necessarily mean planting evidence, just enforcing laws that are already there or changing the law. Yeah they face vague support Robyn but they didn’t take action until the very end, Nora was at the rally to party and Ruby was there for penny.

The most team RWBY did was tell Robyn about the amity project, which was as much about stopping her from stealing supplies as it was about helping mantle

Really, it helped ironwood more then it helped mantle. Telling Robyn doesn’t get ironwood to stop diverting supplies.

so you are:

under the impression that a handful of 17-19 year old mercenaries, only one of whom is an atlesian citizen, not only DO but SHOULD HAVE the power to snap their fingers and instantly change the laws of their current state of residence, bypassing the heads of the democratically elected federal council to do so

blaming team rwby for legal and political circumstances in atlas surrounding an incident that occurred when these kids were, at most, twelve years old

morally opposed to democratic government in that you think vocally supporting and voting for the politician whose platform includes changing the laws that allow people like jacques schnee to exploit working class people with impunity is the same as supporting the exploitation of the working people because the exploitation has happened at all

so pissy about a narrative arc culminating in “corrupt businessman/politician gets caught red-handed engaging in massive fraud, with irrefutable proof, and is promptly arrested and removed from power” that you feel the need to whine and cry about the good guys “not doing enough” to stop him

…because you think the purpose of a story is to teach your exact flavor of purity politics a la morality play and you have zero interest in engaging with the narrative in good faith, along with actively choosing to possess negative media literacy.

lol. lmao even