#sometimes i'll apologize for saying the wrong thing or being unclear

[dravidious]

Funny lines that no one was around to appreciate #1: "The game still needs some mechanical meat to sink its teeth into, if you'll pardon the vore metaphor. The metavore, if you will."

[kattestrophe]

I am sorry to bother you, but I have obscure knowledge about the 1730 Katte Portrait that is RUINING MY LIFE and I have to share. I have no idea how much of this is already common knowledge, so I apologize for anything you already knew:

It was commissioned by Frederick the Great; he said that he had Katte painted “with great care”, and he said it was to depict “The soul of the man.” Basically, he was saying that the portrait is how HE sees Katte

It depicts Hans with the “Order of St. John” Medal, which had been taken from Katte by Friedrich Wilhelm I. But Fritz made sure it was included.

Katte’s uniform DOES NOT depict Friedrich Wilhelm’s initials; Fritz had deliberately made sure of this.

Fritz gifted the painting to Katte’s father as soon as he was King; at the in-person ceremony to make him a Count and Field Marshal. (On the anniversary of Hans Hermann’s arrest)

Hi there anon! :DD I'm so happy you came to me with this!

I'm unsure where you found the info, but I'll have to crush your dreams a little bit. You got a few things wrong/mixed up, which is completely okay!

Just to have a visual, the painting we're talking about is this one:

Painted by Georg Lisiewski in 1730. Now, Lisiewski did work for the Prussian court, but this painting was decidedly not commissioned by them (Fritz certainly didn't have the means to in 1730). The back of the original says:

"Dises Originalbild hat der seelige Freyherr von Katt mit grossen Fleis vertigen lassen von mich, George Liszewsky, Mahler in Berlin, anno 1730"

Now the first thing that shows is that Katte commissioned the image himself sometime before his arrest. It was then finished post-mortem for his family (they also had it enlarged, Katte originally commissioned a smaller painting). That's the reason for the "seelig" part: It does sound soul related at first glance, but selig is actually used to express something like "at peace" i.e. late or dead in this context. The phrasing "mit grossen Fleis"/"with great care" is standard painterspeak for "I do quality work" from what I can tell, you find it in Dürer's correspondence too.

As you've correctly stated and as we can see, the St John's cross was painted and the ususal monogram for the regent on the cuirass was not. Now the reason for that is somewhat unclear, actually. However, the anecdote about FW ripping the cross from Katte's neck appears to be untrue. The source is Pöllnitz, who claims to have heard it from Grumbkow. It seems unlikely due to Pöllnitz being Pöllnitz and also because Katte appears to have had the cross in his possession until his death. It then ended up with Lepel, the commander of Küstrin, via Major von Schack.

We can only speculate why Lisiewski did not include the monogram, but Fritz in all likelihood did not have anything to do with that. Kloosterhuis writes that perhaps he no longer saw the need to show Katte as the King's man after his passing and more as a man of God, signified by the cross. It is also possible that the monogram was overpainted later on, when the painting was enlarged. As a painter myself, it is also possible that Lisiewski just messed up tbh. There's a lot going on in that specific area of the chest (this is just as if not more speculative than Kloosterhuis's ideas, obvi).

Now, you were also right about Fritz gifting the Kattes a portrait and making them counts! It was not on the anniversary of Katte's arrest but ten days prior, closer to the 10th anniversary of his own arrest. The portrait (which, according to a later source, was "sent" to Hans Heinrich rather than given, without a note "as not to reopen an old wound") was not one of their son but one of himself, this one:

Painted by Knobelsdorff, around 1737.

The portraits were then possibly displayed together (possible reason for enlarging the portrait of Hans Hermann), which is a nice thought.

Also since the last time I've spoken about the yellow portrait, there has been a development! The painting is now on display and can be seen in Schloss Wolfshagen. The Fritz portrait is also owned by the Gans zu Putlitz, so he may be there too? I'll be able to tell you more about it in May.

[catrasredemption-moved]

Buckle up kiddos, it's time for a little reading comprehension 101!

I assume this is about the post I reblogged, and specifically these tags:

First off, the post explicitly said, repeatedly, that forgiveness is not a required part of a character's redemption. In fact they even reference character death!

What if everyone he personally wronged died in an accident, he was the only survivor, it was that shock that caused his change of heart, so everybody he knows now loves him and knows him only as a hero, but the people he hurt can never forgive him?  Is he still a villain?

Angella isn't actually dead, but she IS trapped in between dimensions and unable to offer her forgiveness - which again, is not the point. The point is that Catra changes - not immediately after the portal, she had a little bit of mental spiraling to do before she hit rock bottom, and when she chose to do the right thing, she didn't expect a damn thing in return. She sent Glimmer away fully expecting Adora to do the smart thing and go back to Etheria and stay safe. She told Adora not to come. She was convinced that Adora hated her, and that she would never go back for Catra. And still Catra did the right thing. She got Glimmer the fuck out of dodge and apologized to Adora because some part of her sort of selfishly hoped that Adora would remember her not just as the terrible villain in the story, but as an old friend. She didn't think for even a second that Adora would turn around and go back for her. She didn't even expect to live.

"It doesn't matter what you do to me, you will never get your hands on Adora!"

She did the right thing without expecting anything in return and without regard for her own life. She sure as hell didn't expect forgiveness.

She never (that we see) apologized to Glimmer for her mom, because it is something that's unforgiveable, and "I'm sorry" would have been insulting and frankly trivializing. And we never see Glimmer forgive her. But we do see Glimmer choose to care about her. We see Glimmer agree to go back to that nightmare of a ship, to go off alone to find the cells, expecting to find Catra being held there. Glimmer made a choice to walk back into a nightmare for Catra, not because she'd forgiven her, but because she'd seen that Catra was capable of being a good person.

Did Glimmer forgive Catra for what happened to Angella? Maybe, maybe not. Answer unclear. Did she choose to overlook the evils of her past and love her for the good person she was becoming? Yes. Is everyone required to do that? No, of course not. If Mermista, for example, hates Catra forever, she has every right to. But Catra doesn't need Mermista's forgiveness or friendship to continue trying to be a good person.

Again, straight from the post y'all are referencing that specifically says forgiveness isn't required for being a good person:

Here’s some advice for actual real life.  You don’t need to forgive someone to let them participate in society.  You don’t need to forgive someone to love them.  And you DEFINITELY don’t need to forgive them for them to be a good person.  Whether they’re a good person is in their heart - not yours.

Catra doesn't need forgiveness to be allowed to exist. Glimmer doesn't need to forgive Catra in order to love her. Angella is always going to be something that hangs over their heads, and maybe one day they can have a healthy conversation about it, but they can still start building their friendship on the people they've become by the end of season five, and they can work from there. They're foils for a reason, y'all.

And one last thing: "Retribution is what is just in a fair world."

Here's a story. I'll keep it short, don't worry. I have an ex. They were suffering from severe mental illness that caused them to lash out and verbally/emotionally abuse me. They broke me in a lot of ways that still come through in my marriage sometimes. I haven't forgiven them for everything they did. But they're still a friend. They're a friend because they made the effort to change, and I'm capable of recognizing when someone is trying. And they don't need my forgiveness to carry on with their life. And if we were a TV show, they wouldn't need the viewers' forgiveness to continue their existence.

Go actually read the damn post. It's not about people needing to be forgiven by an outside force. It's about how sometimes forgiveness isn't possible, but that shouldn't stop someone from existing or trying to do better. Catra tried. Y'all are just mad she didn't weep or grovel at the feet of the other princesses or let them string her up by the toes as punishment. And that's your problem, frankly. Don't make it mine as well.

[greywindys]

Sorry for being unclear, but I wasn't at all implying that you are only making fun of 2D because Murdoc is your favorite. I was defending your viewpoint in case anyone is offended by your takes on 2D, which all have a canon basis and should be brought up, by saying that 2D is meant to be laughed at because Murdoc laughs at him in canon. I apologize for creating confusion; my message was meant to be only positive. (Btw, this is the one safe 2D stan; I am urging my fellow 2D stans to lighten up.)

That's okay! I'll usually answer things that as a way of making sure what I'm saying is clear too. I didn't interpret your ask as an attack, and I don't mind when someone disagrees with me. Sometimes, those conversations can be neat since there's potential to learn a different perspective.

For the most part, 2D stans have been pretty respectful to me, even when they're disagreeing. I can only think of one instance where someone was rude on anon, and that was back when I was writing TA, essentially getting mad at the fact that I wrote a scene where 2D yelled at Murdoc (I was "demonizing" him lol), which was funny since like, he spent a lot of the fic bending over backwards to him.

Tbh, I chalk it up to 2D stans having an entirely different fandom experience than the rest of the fandom (not unlike 2D himself haha). I'm sure it's not all 2D stans, but from the interactions I've observed over the years, and some of the asks I've gotten, they definitely seem more...sensitive that other groups of stans. Like, when you're a Murdoc fan, you get used to people making fun of him and dragging him and portraying him as a villain. Consequently, you’re challenged to think of reason why you like him. When you're a 2D fan, you're used to him being praised and empathized with and basically being a fan favorite. You aren’t challenged to ever question him or his “goodness.” So like, I can see why portrayals of him where he makes mistakes or is the one in the wrong, or even hearing someone say they don't like him, can be uncomfortable or result in some of them taking it personally, even if it isn’t exactly rational (imo). 

But anyhow, ty for being an easy-going 2D fan. I don’t know of many of you, but those that I do are pretty cool!