#Post-war reconciliation efforts | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wise-tortoise · 5 months

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Hi! i’m new to chengxian. so i was wondering, do you have any recs please? preferably long one shots (10k+) and set in the original location (i don’t like modern aus mostly as they are based in the us or uk). sorry for all the stipulations!

HELLO ANON AND WELCOME TO CHENGXIAN!!

I am DELIGHTED to be a source of fic recs, and I have JUST the fics for you.

First of all, I highly recommend checking out the various ao3 collections of past chengxian events, such as Chengxian Happy Ending Fest, or Chengxian Minibang 2023, Chengxian Week 2020, Chengxian Week 2021 , Our Meeting is Inevitable or The Chengxian+ Collection, which are a goldmine of wonderful fics. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding something to your taste among them!

Now, on to my personal recommendations, under the read more because this got LONG.

Based on what you said you'd prefer, the fic all my dreams have come and gone a half a million times by iri_vail sounds like something you'd enjoy. It's a lovely post-canon shuangjie reconciliation fic, 10k words, with wonderful art. There's frogs too!

consider rivers by Lirazel, 9k, canon divergence fic with no war that rewrote my brain chemistry. Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to marry Jiang Yanli: lots of yunmeng trio feels, lots and lots and lots of pining.

after the sun sets by Artemis1000, 12k words, it's an amazing fic set during sunshot campaign, lots of hurt/comfort, lots of love and understanding and softness between our two favorite miscommunicators.

electricity between both of us by zyprexd is an absolutely incredible series of two fics that make me go feral. Past w4ngxian, tentative shuangjie reconciliation with long overdue communication, lots of feelings aknowledged and accepted, Wei Wuxian introspection.

Turn Back, Dull Earth by groundwiremantaray, 8k, canon divergence, a whole lot of fluff (with a delightful twist). Though not a oneshot, if you like to read happy times with chengxian, this is absolutely the fic for you.

this love that I most fear by Runespoor, 25k words divided in three chapters, in which a coreless Jiang Cheng has to aknowledge Wei Wuxian as his bastard brother in order for him to become sect leader, with all the relative implications. An angsty delight!

Little Sesame by Rurtle, which is an absolute must read. In which the summoning ritual goes wrong and Wei Wuxian reincarnates into a dog. Shenanigans ensue.

born of waters like blood by Artemis1000 (same Artemis as before) which is one of my absolute favorite fics of all time. Chengxian baby made of resentment and lake waters! Chengxian being dads! An unspecified number of eyes!!!! This fic is a bit shorter than the others I've recced, but absolutely worth reading.

letters from inside the storm by serein, in which everyone has a very bad time (not me though, I enjoyed this IMMENSELY), double whump with a very tentative reconciliation.

if tomorrow would ever come... by Midori_99, 17k, a reincarnation fic in which Wei Wuxian after his death reincarnates into a playful little fox and, despite his best efforts, finds himself once again in Lotus Pier, beside Jiang Cheng (and, really, there's no better place for him to be). The good, GOOD, cathartic angst right here, good food for the soul.

If you'd like EVEN MORE chengxian fics, my bookmarks are open and the fics are all ready to receive lots of love (and of course, if you like, there's my fics too, but they're only open to registered users)

Alright, that's definitely not all the fics I would like to rec, but that's about all I can fit in a single post before it becomes too long.

I suggest of course that you check out other works by the authors I listed, as they are all incredibly talented (and I really really wish I could put more of them here but I tried to contain myself with word count and setting as per your request)

Thank you for the ask anon, I hope you'll enjoy your stay in the chengxian side of fandom and I wish you a wonderful day!!

#mdzs #chengxian #xiancheng #yunmeng shuangjie #cql #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #the untamed #anon ask

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wangxianficfinder · 7 months

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Fic finder

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1. Hi! I looked everywhere for this fic so I’m afraid it’s gone. It was on ao3. Omega Wei Wuxian is captured by Wen Chao during a battle where he sets fire to a stronghold and meets Alpha Lan Zhan while they are both prisoners. The fic is mostly Wei Ying’s war efforts using his extremely violent heats to his advantage. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen feature prominently as do the Wen siblings. It was a long-ish multi-chapter completed work. Thank you! @sicklyscribe

FOUND! I Will Not Go Gentle into the Quiet Night by TriviasFolly (M, 89k, WangXian, A/B/O Dynamics, Omega WWX, Alpha LWJ, no cultivation au, Vaugely Historical AU?, royal au, War AU, Slow Burn, Attempted Rape, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Murder)

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2. Hey, I'm looking for a fic where lwj summons an incubus or succubus wei wuxian. It is a bottomji fic. @imstillthinkingaboutithmm

FOUND! Lan Wangji's Fullproof Guide on How (NOT) to Summon a Demon by Howtosolveit (E, 3k, WangXian, Porn With Plot, but not a lot of plot, Incubus WWX, Demons, wwx has a tail, Wings, Interspecies Sex, Bottom LWJ/Top WWX, Anal Sex, Crack, Filthy, size queen lwj, Canon Divergence)

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3. hi! im looking for a fic where lan wangji and wei wuxian date as teenagers before lqr finds out and sends lwj to london with lxc

FOUND? Tempo Rubato by Spodumene (E, 107k, WangXian, Modern AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Romance, Persuasion au, Separations, Mutual Pining, Depression, Miscommunication, Emotional Roller Coaster, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Reconciliation, Eventual Smut, Jane Austen Fusion, Underage Kissing)

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4. Hello mods! Thank you so much for all of your hard work. I'm looking for a wangxian fic that is set in the modern Omegaverse where WY is an omega and LZ is an alpha, and they're already an established couple at the beginning of the fic. The fic starts when both of them wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of chaos, as an omega uprising against the alphas has started, and their is a coup going on against the government and they're assasinating alphas. Then Wangxian meet up with Sangcheng and XuanLi to a safe house where they plan to move to another country for safety. I remember a WY thinking or saying something along the lines of, "It's my turn to protect you" to LZ.

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5. hi, need help finding a fic title. it should be quite popular. modern setting, wwx has powers to open and close... rifts? he and lwj go through one and get stranded in canon setting during postcanon. thanks for the help

FOUND! a tide in two seas by occultings (microcomets) (E, 81k, wangxian, modern w/ magic, parallel universes, post-canon, getting together, pining, case fic)

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6. good day! for the fic finder, can u guys help me find this fics: A) idk if its a jiang bashing but during the competition, wwx broke jwy's sword then he asked his father to have another one but his father didnt gave him any. then i think there's also a scene where jyl is also included in the competition that somehow she managed to form a core to fight but its not that strong.

B) i cant remember this one clearly but wwx stays with the lans at some point and he doesnt give a fvck with jyl. jyl wants wwx to come back to them (jiangs) but wwx knows his worth this time.

6A)

FOUND! Hua Xianle by Tiffany_Guinne (Not rated, 170k, hualian, wangxian, TGCF, canon divergence, not Jiang friendly, madam lan lives, WWX adopted by hualian, WWX with different name, overprotective hualian, hurt WWX, WIP)

6B)

FOUND! Never Again by Hauntcats (T, 67k, WQ & WWX & WN, JC & WWX, wangxian, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, Canon Divergence, AngstGolden Core Transfer Fix-It, I love Wen Qing and Wei Ying working together, Time Travel Fix-It, Not JC Friendly, Dark, BAMF WWX, mentions of abuse, Canon JC traits, Not Everyone Dies au, XY doesn't have a happy ending)

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7. Hi mods!! Love this blog and thank you for all that you do! ❤️ I read a fic a long time ago where at the climax Wei Wuxian formed a core from purified resentful energy. Can't find it again to save my sanity, would you be able to help?

FOUND? Sunder by naqaashi (E, 32k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Soulmates, Golden Core Reveal, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Heavy Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Denial of Feelings, Mutual Pining, Emotional Sex, Porn with Feelings, PWP, Light BDSM, Fix-It, POV LWJ, YLLZ WWX, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Top/Bottom Versatile | Switch WangXian, Light Dom/sub, Explicit Sexual Content, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Grief/Mourning, Five Stages of Grief, Suicidal Thoughts) the last chapter has a scene similar to the description

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8. hii!!! i’m in the need for a ficfinder!! the fic was basically wwx tries to call lwj because he thinks he got drugged at a party, but he doesn’t answer since lwj is having dinner with his brother and uncle and they aren’t allowed to have their phones, so he calls lxc instead and he answers.

lwj and lxc go into the bathroom where wwx is hiding and find someone trying to take advantage of him, so they beat him up. this is all i remember unfortunately!! :((

(modern setting), tsvm!! :D

FOUND! Please Let Me Take Care of You by kayceebabe (G, 9k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, LXC & WWX, modern, Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Sexual Assaultish, kinda assault, drugged WWX, big brother LXC, Nightmares, the horrifying ordeal of being known, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Hurt WWX, crying WWX)

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9. Hi! Hope u'all having a good day! Is anyone of u know a fic where lwj got wwx pregnant and he didnt know about it. Wwx sent letters but lwj never got it because of lxz.

FOUND! Nothing but your heart by airinshaw (E, 21k, WangXian, Modern AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Implied Mpreg, First Time, Getting Together, Angst and Drama, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anal Sex, Whump, Breeding Kink)

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10. Hi! Can you help me find these 2 fics.

A) I remember this fic is a dark lwj. The lans ask Jyl’s hand in marriage for lwj however, since the jiang family know lwj as a bloodwar, they instead sent Wwx (disguised as female) instead of jyl. I remember when it was on their wedding night, lwj saw wwx’s robe covered in blood and discover wwx got a lot scars/wound on his back and learned that wwx is a boy.

B) Xicheng where Lxc and jwy are lovers but they got into fight to the point jwy thought it was better he was gone. Then, i remember jwy doing sacrifice soul summoning (like how MXY summons Wwx) to summon MY/JGY. It was successful.

10A)

FOUND? The Bloodthirsty Prince and his Bride by moss_enthusiast (M, 27k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending Violence, Anxiety, Royalty, Strangers to Lovers, Arranged Marriage, Self-Worth Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Whipping, Blood and Gore, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Abuse, Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Blood and Violence, Dark LWJ, Fluff, Angst and Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Shock, Anxiety Attacks)

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11. hello! I'm looking for a wangxian fic where wei ying dies at qiongqi path and lan zhan hears about it went to burial mounds but he was too late. after that, song lan appeared at jin lintai with wen yuan and a-yuan went to lan zhan shouting rich gege. when a-yuan learns that wei ying is dead he keeps telling that his xian-gege is now asleep like his parents and sister. and then when a-yuan saw the golden robes of madam jin, jin guangshan he screamed and kept saying bad men. @zeanclr

FOUND? @lovelyiknow said: #11 from the most recent fic finder is When I’m Gone by qiankun_pouch, it’s mostly finished but was deleted at 29/30? 31? smth like that. I have the pdf if anon wants it!

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12. looking for a fic where lwj gets tortured, and is rescued. one thing I remember is that it was second person pov, and it was relatively short. also, lwj kinda had amnesia- as in the torture made him forget or something. thanks!

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13. hello ! i hope y’all are doing well. i wanted to see if anyone could find this one fic that i read ages ago, but i can’t remember the title. but basically, i think it’s where wwx gets his old body back after being cursed by a fox(?) spirit - like he transforms back. and i think somewhere in the story, the juniors are there and they ask sizhui what wwx originally looked like and when he draws them a picture, they think he’s lying bc wwx looks too good in the drawing !! it’s been sitting at the back of my brain, so any help would be much appreciated:)) thank youuu <;3 @slytherin-trash

FOUND? Transcend by covalentbonds (Not Rated, 7k, WIP, WangXian, Post-Canon, Fluff and Humor, Smut)

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14. hi!! I’m not sure if this is the right way to ask, if it isn’t, please correct me! Im pretty sure I had seen a fic on here where the description said that lwj just kind of showed up at wwx and a’yuans door and they were just kind of like ok sure why not. I’m sorry I don’t have more details my app crashed just after I saw it😭😭would you happen to have an idea of what it was?? Thank you so much😭

FOUND! Across the street to another life by danegen (M, 99k, WangXian, Modern AU, unleashed au, Family Fluff, Set in America, Hurt/Comfort, Past Child Abuse, Addiction, Crime, Amnesia, Ableist Language, another fridged mother, POV Alternating, past wwx/ofc, past wwx/omc, Medium parent YZY, A-Yuan is wwx's biological son, Musicians, Happy Ending)

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15. I’m sorry to ask this but I can’t find this fic and I searched it all day 🐇🐇🐇

A) I think, lwj and wwx are able to achieve immortality or are trying to achieve it and idk nor remember if it’s a omega verse or just magic bs but at some point in the story wwx asks how many children lwj would like to have and he answers 10 to which wwx thinks is joking but lwj is all serious about it XD

B) And also a fic where ylz ends up as a Jin and he’s usually in a garden surrounded by guards

Jiang Yanli is still alive and I think Jin zixuan too, but when wwx talks to JY he’s always formal and she can tell something is going on, there’s also wangxian and I think JGY is the one behind everything under his father’s commands

Thank you 🙇‍♀️

15A)

FOUND? Besieged by Ariaste (M, 11k, WangXian, WWX POV, wwx's avuncular powers, Teenage Drama, Humor, Feelings, Fluff) the second work of "A Civil Combpaign", the talk about lwj wanting more children surprised wwx, who had kinda jokingly suggested.

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16. Hi there, looking for a fic that had a 4/5 times wwx something 1 time lwj something format. Maybe based on jealousy or people hitting on them? One of the times was the head disciple of yunmeng jiang drugging and almost assaulting wwx but jiang cheng saves him. Please help, thank you!

FOUND! Cotton Wool by incendir (M, 34k, wangxian, LJY/OMC, JL/LSZ, JC & WWX)

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17. Hi! I’m looking for a fic when lwj is intersex and a river nymph I believe! wwx drinks water from lwj’s home and now he has to grant a wish. wwx at first thought that the price would be sxx but lwj actually asks him to build a rabbit hutch, a fence, and a house throughout the fic. This fic takes place over a course of a year or so and by the end they are married to live together! I remember this fic so clearly I just can’t seem to find it again. Thank you!

FOUND! Water Sweeter by deliciousblizzardshark (E, 8k, WangXian, Historical, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Some kind of fairy or spirit or something LWJ, Intersex LWJ, Intersex Character, Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Thirst Trap WWX, Topping from the Bottom, WWX's Canonical Cottage-core Fantasy, First Time, Domestic Fluff, Vaginal Sex)

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18. hi so I am looking for this one fic and all I remember is that some of the wen remnants were bloodline jiangs

Thank you @princess-nettle

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19. Hi! 🤗 For the next Fic Finder, I wanted to ask about a fic I read some time ago, and now I can't find it. It's a fic where LWJ and WWX have sex in Xuanwu cave and WWX gets pregnant. After that they separated and WWX thinks he have lost the baby, but he didn't lost the baby and WWX goes into labor in a fight with the bad Wens.

I hope you can help me find it! Thank you! 😊💜 @wangxiansgirl

FOUND! Impermanence, Transience, Permanence by Best Bepsy (BepsyGray) (E, 39k, wangxian, canon divergence, unplanned pregnancy, mpreg, gore, sunshot campaign, assumed miscarriage, medical procedures, childbirth, golden core reveal)

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20. I'm looking for a short fic, modern AU, mpreg, where Wei Ying doesn't know he's pregnant and gives birth on the bedroom floor. I only remember that and that he decided to walk home from work when he was feeling ill (still not realizing he was pregnant and in labor). Thanks, you are ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ @ilolatthis

FOUND! Surprise Baby! by trulywicked (M, 10k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Modern Cultivation, Mpreg, Unplanned Pregnancy, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Didn't know he was pregnant, birthing scene, Little bit of blood, A/B/O Dynamics, Inspired by Twitter, Established Relationship, Fluff)

NOT FOUND! Blood, Google, and Love by Prairie_Grass (E, 4k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, they were roommates, A/B/O Dynamics, Getting Together, Mpreg, semi graphic giving birth, Alpha LWJ, Omega wwx, Intersex Omegas, (or you could head-canon WWX as trans if you wanted), Fluff and Angst, the run-on sentences are on-purpose because WWX and LWJ are both:, neurodiverse characters, slightly traumatic birth)

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#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

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gold-rhine · 9 months

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If it's not too much trouble, could you expand on Diluc's "already incoherent characterization" you mentioned in one of your recent posts? I'm just curious cause I also feel that there's something off about him writing-wise but I can't put my finger on it.

sigh. so, at the start of the game hoyo wrote diluc as super aggressive and negative towards kaeya specifically and knights in general, and all of their interactions are very hostile. they are having bitch fights every time they are in the same room.

like, fandom likes to pretend that diluc has guilt, bc of like some anonymous message on a public board that sounds like it's diluc feeling bad, which hoyo back-wrote. but they can't gaslight me, i just recently replayed start of the game content on my new account. like first time diluc appears is in kaeya's domain after traveler and kaeya cleared it, and diluc bitches at kaeya for no fucking reason and kaeya is v passive aggressive back at him. they have bitch fight in venti's quest. diluc's entire quest is about him trying to keep kaeya from discovering he's darknight hero and he specifically makes it known that kaeya is unwelcome every time he shows up in the tavern. and he sounds negative when bringing up kaeya for any reason.

and then hoyo started to back-pedal. idk what happened, maybe the direction of the plot shifted. maybe the writer who was writing them in this conflict vein quit. maybe at the start they only had vague idea of like brothers at war with each other, and once they started to flesh it out and add nuance, they've realized that like, burning your baby brothers' eye out might be understandable in the moment of trauma and shock, but then acting like you're on high horse and treating him like garbage for YEARS after is a bit of a psycho behavior.

quick aside bc i know there are ppl who think that, um, kaeya "deserved" it and like. he was what, not older than 10 when he was left at the winery. and he was about 17 when he confessed. he was a traumatized kid who kept a secret bc his bio father told him that the fate of his entire country depends on it. get a grip. but as i said, with the same logic, diluc was also in shock and trauma, and i do not fault him the fight itself. what doesn't track is how diluc acts years LATER, when he had time to think.

so they started to drastically soften diluc AND back-writing retcons. Hidden Strife letters are all about it. They were like oh, brothers were always in contact! Diluc is not a maniac, he was polite to the knights and he told kaeya to take care :) :) :) this creates new set of problems. not only it gives diluc personality split where he was incredibly aggressive to kaeya in person, but apparently normal in the letters. But also, we have letters from Kaeya that make it obvious he knew immediately that diluc is a darknight hero and they both were chill about it. But like! diluc's entire story quest is about him trying to keep kaeya from learning that! like, come on! why then diluc did all these stupid scooby doo shenanigans with slimes and shit???

now i think they are trying to shift responsibility for reconciliation from diluc to kaeya, which is the only issue that affects kaeya's own characterization. bc they are very hard going into "all servants at winery ADORE kaeya and treat him like family and welcome him!!" and fandom like, extends it to diluc now, like diluc is welcoming kaeya too and kaeya is a silly goose who has his hang ups and refuses to visit. as if getting your eye burned off, trying to reach out first and getting "ugh, its you" treatment when you show up at your brother's tavern is just like. a lil awkward situation that kaeya himself should get over without any effort on diluc's side and he should just ~realize~ that he's still part of the family lol. and ppl justify it like "well we don't know how diluc actually feels, he probably feels guilt (anon message) and wants to reconcile". which like. so we don't know, but kaeya is supposed to figure out and reach out AGAIN, when diluc at any time could've just told him that he's welcomed.

and now in kaeya's hangout we learn more about their childhoods which tbh hurts diluc even more. like how are we gonna be pretending that diluc cares about kaeya when he returned to mond and found his baby brother, who was apparently the sweetest gentlest child in the world, his loyal shadow for entire childhood, couldn't lie, was taking punishments for diluc, and see him now becoming a high functioning alcoholic with brazenly unhealthy persona of liar and manipulator, and like NOT get worried and try to reach out. which i don't think it was hoyo's intention, they just wanted to add the tragic sweetie uwu to kaeya's characterization, but they did not think how it reflect on diluc in global context

so now diluc's characterization flip flopped in several directions, and he doesn't really has an arc or plotline going. he's kinda just there now, more of symbol than character, and hoyo just writes whatever they want for him without any regard for any previous lore

#rhine talks #diluc

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witheredoffherwitch · 1 month

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I was genuinely taken aback by the trailer! I wasn't expecting such a lighthearted tone from the Green council. Only Alicent and Rhaenyra are unhappy, while everyone else is enjoying themselves.💀 It's a bit confusing to me. What did you think about it?

Hey nonnie 🤗

Thanks for this ask - and quite frankly, I LOVE this new trailer. If you'll allow me a moment to delve deeper, let me explain my thoughts on this further 🫣

To be fair, it's understandable why some may have misinterpreted these settings, particularly when comparing them to the vastly different tone of the teaser trailer. The editing of Green/Black scenes made it seem like everyone was miserable 🤣 However, I believe this was due to the limitations in post-production that restricted the use of other scenes. Most of the footage used in teasers were filmed in a volume or closed setting, lacking any scenes featuring dragons despite showcasing characters such as Rhaenyra, Aemond, Daemon, and Baela riding them. This could be partly due to incomplete dragons that still needed rendering. But now in March, they have polished up more scenes and completed major renderings for Sunfyre and Moondancer, who are the new entrants in this trailer.

NOW, the show is not likely to stray from its main focus in season 1, where the women strive to *avoid* this war while men (especially Targaryen men) continue to hinder their efforts. This will surely anger some die-hard book whores who cannot separate HoTD from F&B. However, as seen in marketing and interviews with Ryan Condal, it becomes increasingly clear that the creators have chosen this direction for the show. F&B is most likely a biased retelling by maesters who pinned the blame for the realm's deadliest political civil war on two women, when in reality the situation was much more complex. The marketing seems to be emphasizing the idea of having to choose a side because both the Greens and Blacks will probably rely on this strategy in season 2 (as indicated by Daemon's “bend the knee or burn” line in the Black trailer). Just like how Aemond's murder of Luke destroyed any chance of negotiation between Greens and Blacks, I have a feeling that Daemon's escalation with B&C will ruin Rhaenyra's chances of gaining any bargaining power against the Greens. In the funeral scene, we can see that the smallfolk are mourning alongside Alicent and Helaena, which shows that their propaganda has been successful despite Aemond's actions. This will play a significant role in Rhaenyra's short reign as she becomes increasingly unpopular with the masses.

Alicent, in the Green trailer, is understandably upset as she realizes their bargaining power has been lost to the Blacks. Meanwhile, in the Black trailer, Rhaenys acknowledges how war often leads to a continuous cycle of bitter revenge, while Rhaenyra conveys guilt at what she may have started. The men, however, are all focused on gearing up for war - Daemon is fully armoured and rarely seen with Rhaenyra, Corlys suggests escalating actions against the Greens, and Aegon and Aemond are just as eager to cause chaos. As Targaryen men riding dragons with fire at their command, diplomacy may not come naturally to them in this situation.

In the end, this story is a strange mix of hypocrisy, entitlement, and long-standing grudges that could have been resolved if Viserys wasn’t such a pathetic limp-dick cuck. Alicent is a giant hypocrite while Rhaenyra is both entitled and callous. It was foolish of Rhaenyra to not anticipate a war that was looming in the distance, especially considering how she always relied on her father - the King - to protect her and her sons from any consequences within their feudal system. Similarly, Alicent is a hypocrite to expect any reconciliation when all she has taught her kids through her years’ long paranoia is how they will be killed if their half-sister were to rise in power. This explains why both Rhaenyra, Alicent, and even the Strong boys were caught off guard when the men around them were more prepared for this inevitable war for quite some time.

That's all! 😇

#anon asks #hotd season 2 trailer #house of the dragon #team green #team black #aemond targaryen #aegon targaryen ii #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targeryan #alicent hightower

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merrikstryfe · 1 month

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Let’s take the question of Jewish-Muslim cooperation and integration within Israel, a country with two million Arab citizens. In October, the leader of Israel’s joint-largest Arab political party wrote that “since the peace efforts have collapsed in recent years…our role under these circumstances as Palestinian Arabs and citizens of Israel has become greater and the need for us more essential. We can act as a future bridge for reconciliation and peace between the two peoples”. He has since called on armed Palestinian terror groups to disarm in order to help bring about a Palestinian state. While it is true that there remain deep pockets of hostility toward Israel in some quarters of the Israeli Arab community, and pockets of discrimination against it, such public statements were once unthinkable. And while they may not yet be mainstream, they are slowly reflecting a more popular reality in which Israel’s Arabs are taking a greater ownership of and role in their Israeli identity. Shortly after the 7 October attacks, the Israel Democracy Institute found the highest-ever number of Israeli Arabs answering ‘yes’ to the question of whether they felt part of the State of Israel. This follows a decade of record-breaking waiting lists for joint Israeli-Jewish-Arab schools, a record high number of Arab Bedouin’s volunteering for the IDF, and an even more noteworthy number of Israeli Arab volunteers to the IDF in 2020, steadily up sixty-fold in the prior decade. It should come as no surprise then that last week, on the floor of the UN General Assembly, it was a Muslim Israeli-Arab who took the Palestinian Ambassador to task for Hamas’ failure to agree a ceasefire deal (Hamas continue to hold his family hostage and treat many Israeli Arabs as collaborators). Such public scenes, conducted by Israeli Arabs openly in the defence of Israel, are relatively unprecedented. While today’s tension has undoubtedly spurred friction, especially as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows and as Hamas calls on its supporters to escalate attacks over Ramadan, there are voices echoing through Israel’s Muslim society that indicate the recent winds of change haven’t dissipated. As the Director of Israel’s Sharia Courts told Israeli media last week, “we are all citizens of the same country, and we should know each other and get closer to each other. There is much in common between Judaism and Islam.” At the same time, and in spite of the worst Israeli-Palestinian war since Israel’s founding in 1948, those Arab countries who normalised relations with Israel under the umbrella of the Abraham Accords in 2020 haven’t lost the desire for reconciliation. As the UAE’s top Presidential Advisor told a regional conference in January, the Emirates took a durable and “strategic decision” to normalise relations with Israel “and strategic decisions are [for the] long-term”. These relations have since been leveraged by Morocco to open a new aid corridor from Israel into Gaza, by the Emirati Air Force to fly over Israel and deliver aid to Gaza’s civilians in need, and by the Saudis who have suggested normalising relations with Israel if steps toward a Palestinian state can be negotiated. Little to none of this would have been possible had Hamas’ assault occurred four years earlier. The strategic spectacle of Israel being able to negotiate with powerful, influential Arab countries in order to advance regional cooperation and reconciliation with the Palestinians is an equation that could play a hugely significantly role in post-war Gaza. If Israel is able to engage regional allies on its post-war education, reconstruction, governance and border security plans in Gaza, as has been suggested by some Gulf states themselves, then the prospects for durable quiet and perhaps one day peace in the Strip and Israel would be given a huge boost.

#israel #palestine #israel palestine conflict

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aprillikesthings · 2 months

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I'm awake, I'm drinking coffee, and I'm waiting for some laundry to get done before I do some homework for my Bible/theology discussion thingie (EfM, for the handful of Episcopal nerds I've become mutuals with) (....who didn't give up tumblr for Lent)

So I might as well watch some She-Ra, right?

s4 ep4 pulse

(Side note I posted a short fic yesterday if you're interested)

PLOT

I've read the synopsis and I'm not sure if there's much I'm gonna screenshot/talk about with this one

does this character have a NAME? I forget

the bit of animation of Double Trouble shifting out of "Flutterina" is pretty great, someone clearly had fun with it

(Do you think it takes effort to stay in another "shape"? Amethyst in SU clearly had to put forth effort the whole time, whereas I think Double Trouble doesn't, other than the acting part.)

"Espionage is a long game, kitten."

Catra is Amused

Double Trouble: "This is supposed to be fun!" Catra: ":( this is supposed to be war" Double Trouble: "No reason it can't be both :)"

Me, A Human in a Non-Fictional Universe: there are many good reasons it should not be both but I suspend them for fiction

Double Trouble literally makes a foreshadowing joke, I love them

...is it all poisonous plants

I mean that does look like foxglove

She's laying it on pretty thick imho

eugh

STOP TOUCHING PEOPLE'S FACES oh my god

are they going to drill down to the Cluster

(how many Steven Universe references am I gonna make by the time I'm done rewatching THIS cartoon)

nope don't like that

I was rereading that one "missing scene" fic that Nate posted and in it Adora talks about how doing the healing thing here is actually fucking exhausting and makes her sore all over. If you were wondering why she doesn't do it all the time.

It also doesn't entirely heal the person in question; they still have to rest a lot!

One person: suggests, even slightly, that the Horde is somehow tracking She-Ra Adora: OBVIOUSLY THIS IS ALL MY FAULT

Meanwhile, Glimmer:

(she also blames herself)

oooooh I forgot

She's talking to Double Trouble but I still cackled

oh god Glimmer goes to Shadow Weaver to ask "how to think like Catra, since you know her best," and while Glimmer isn't wrong in that Shadow Weaver is the only one around (other than Adora) who knows Catra at all, it's just.....eugggghhhh

DUH

Okay the "what do those do" "those are daisies, I find them cheerful" is actually pretty funny

every time she gets into someone's personal space like that it's creepy as shit

....she's not wrong. Part of me is like "lol even Shadow Weaver knows" but tbqfh she probably knows better than anyone considering how much she used their mutual affection to abuse them. >:(

what is it with lesbians and game nights (she says, knowing she bought the boardgames Wingspan and Ticket to Ride as Christmas gifts for a partner) (actually it's been a while since we played I should suggest it again)

"people don't come to game night because YOU insist on serving vegetable platters" okay is this a "lesbians are vegetarians" joke are they gonna mention hummus next lolol

"no one likes vegetable platters!" D: I do (...with hummus, even)

anyway they get surrounded by drill bots, meanwhile Glimmer sneaks up on Catra

"wtf?"

(she literally thinks it's Double Trouble at first lol)

I love it when Catra's just like IMMA BITE

please tell me the Glitra shippers reference this line as often as possible

Poor Adora, Glimmer is straight up like "I will continue using you as a decoy--I mean a distraction :) while I destroy shit" and Adora, well--

This actually reminds me of a conversation on reddit the other day, about how people who've always had happy families (or at least, no truly shitty family members) often cannot wrap their minds around the idea that someone who is nice to them could be an abusive piece of shit to someone else, and you end up in these situations where naive people try to force a reconciliation or pull a "but they're your faaaaaamily" or just straight-up don't believe your version of events, because nobody could be that horrible to their own kids, right???? I don't think that's what Glimmer's doing here but it still sucks for Adora.

"I'll bring back some cake!" lol I forgot about this line when I wrote my fic (linked above) but I'm glad this is canon, that she just raids the kitchen, and specifically for cake XD

ehehehehehhehheh

also we see Catra hand Double Trouble an actual little bag of (presumably) coins, what currency do you think Etheria uses??? Like who sets the standard for it. The most obvious thing would be that it's just coins of some standardized weight of a metal rare enough to be valuable. But it's funny to ask yourself if it's like, the kind of coins with someone's face on it, because whose face would it be?! Because then either the Horde and everyone else would be using different currencies (which would be useless across sides) or they're all using the same currency. Some obscure person from Etherian history, probably.

Also I'm not sure the Horde actually pays anyone. I think it's just "you can get enough to eat (barely), and a place to sleep (sort of), and uhhh you can fight each other over getting a small step up in power"

As usual I am overthinking the world-building here lolll

okay episode over :D time to flip the laundry

#april rewatches spop #pulse

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faorism · 1 year

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the walk in the woods job out here doing the mostest with their translation of the bohemian grove (a real, very evil boys club of the worlds most powerful men that does in fact feature weird rituals and pissing everywhere). by moving it from california to ambiguous south near new orleans, it makes explicit some of the underlying tomfuckery of the grove by making possible the fictional counterpart's being hosted on a plantation.

as gestured to in the episode, the grove began 130 years ago by ~men of industry~ (ill get back to this). the bohemian grove specifically was founded in 1878. places its founding within reconstruction, an era post the us civil war's end in 1865. the war had created fundamental changes to the american landscape, from the emancipation of enslaved Black people to a nationwide trauma due to mass death. reconstruction is often described as a period of reconciliation between the northern states and the south, to draw together the nation's people, rebuild its infrastructure, and reestablish the union.

thing is, there was a reconciliation. but ultimately, it was to bridge together the power and resources of whites by way of the continued disfrancisement of Black people. it was a time of both reckoning and potential, given the shock attempted succession had on the political landscape but more impkrtantly given what the nation looks like post-slavery as long as you are not incarcerated. Black people held a fuck ton of govt seats at first, there was Black industry, there was Black migration, but also simultaneously wildly exploitative sharecropping schemes that were not slavery but also yeah kinda were and a ton of other genocidal shit. the forty acres and a mule promise never came through. Black folk were freed, but they were not equal and there would be no support to undo hundreds of years of violence, human trafficking, and genocide, nor would there be enough protections in place to secure Black prosperity for the future. it is absolutely no surprise that the first iteration of the KKK ran from 1868 to the early 1870s: their intention was to reestablish white supremacy through violence, voter suppression, and terrorism. while they were squashed as a formal organization, they signaled antiblack attitudes held by many white people for years to come.

as you might see in the Reconstruction wiki page (under the timing section), some place the end of Reconstruction to align with some govt seat change schenanigans called the compromise of 1977. there's a lot of nitpicky shit about it, but what i care about is that federal troops were withdrawn out of the south. i dont like this time point because i dont feel like it tells the full story. it leans onto the reconciliation between whites, because the withdrawl can be described as Back To Normal Operations! in terms of state control. but as the compromise wiki describes, Black politicians were upset about this because they felt the federal troops were protecting Black progress and safety. and they were right! vote suppression and intimidation went rampant, and the slow churn toward the establishment of Jim Crow Laws would be allowed to sneak in.

by extending the frame of Reconstruction to, as the wiki again suggests, something like 1890s when antiblack voter suppression was passed. a longer era focuses not on reconciliation on a top-down (read: white) level, but instead highlights the rise and eventual destruction of Black rights and capital. centering that as the true legacy of Reconstruction is vital to avoid white supremacist historicizing that distracts from the true concerted efforts to disenfranchise Black folk.

anyway what does this have to do with leverage and the grove, you might be asking.

as said, the irl grove was founded 1878, a year after the compromise act but firmly within the arc of a long Reconstruction era.

this is where the "men of industry" line said (i believe) in general frick's speech comes in, and how the move to a plantation heightens the optics in a hugely significant way.

bruh, they are a group of powerful men in white robes meeting on a plantation in the south. they allowed in some Black men now (diversity win! your cabal is now racially mixed!), but you know that when this shit started up, it was white dudes on white dudes on white dudes. the actual bohemian grove has rituals involving red robes, but the shock and discomfort of the fictional version was intentional, i feel, in order to associate it with the KKK. this to me is confirmed when frick said his family owned that plantation for generations. that, like all other sites that abducted and tortured enslaved people, was a concentration camp. the men of industry frick is talking about are at least partly human traffickers (aka, "slaveowners"). the leverage grove is one that is intricately tied to a moment of transition, Black dispossession, and violence. white men pissing every which way getting drunk on the lands that held hundreds of years of trauma.

it's important for me to say that around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were a fuckton of social clubs and lodges opening up across the country, including some hosted by people of color. maybe the irl grove did not have the same overtly racial tensions feeding into it as when placed in the heart of Reconstruction (even though, please please understand that it's not just a south thing; it was a white folk thing, regardless of political affiliation or location).

but! the legacy of bohemian grove? yeah, this is a fucking club that has had an impact. there was a meeting of the manhattan project at one of the grove meetings that led to the development of the atomic bomb. if all that ever came out from the grove was that, then that alone would be enough to make the whole shit rotten. but given the power behind the men of the grove (listed here), any reestablishment of a boys club (literal or figurative) is a backdoor dealings system to withhold influence, opportunities, and privilege from marginalized people by managing access to cultural capital and social resources.

it's what was done in Reconstruction, and its done through these secret (or "secret") society rituals, and it's done again and again and again, but those dealings are ones us normies will ever get a chance to see.

i just wish there was a leverage team for us irl ready to fuck shit up and defend some wildlife. (the irl bohemian grove protesters wete trying to protect redwood trees, owls, and some other bird instead of a frog, but still.)

but yeah. fuck fricks dudes and fuck the irl grove and i hope your ugly ass owl statue topples over one day during one of your cringe plays and yall all die drowning in your own piss!

[i might come back to this, clean it up, and throw it onto ao3 as a meta post because i do feel this is important for people to know and i legit spent two and a quarter hours on this.... anyway, i will link it here in this postscript should i do that. also i am not a historian so i absolutely got some shit wrong but whatever. dont cite me in a paper, basically]

#leverage #leverage redemption spoilers #leverage redemption #the walk in the woods job #bohemian grove #faorism meta #slavery #genocide #white supremacy #racism #antiblackness #long post

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no-where-new-hero · 8 months

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@batrachised asked me what was my “this piece of media had no goals and succeeded at nothing” movie and I’m going to make a whole post about it because I always have the most of say about movies that was almost good and then just fumbled the ball miserably. Rant under the cut.

The movie was The Edge of Love, made in 2008 as a kind of Atonement-lite. We follow Vera Phillips (Kiera Knightley), who sings for the troops during WWII. We know basically nothing else throughout the entire movie about her backstory, save that she’s Welsh and was childhood friends with Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), who wants to be a poet and complains about writing propaganda films for the British (whether this is from Welsh patriotism or snobbishness that his talents are wasted is never clarified). Vera reconnects with Dylan at the start of the movie and meets his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller), whose relationship with Dylan is already on the rocks. After initial rivalry with Vera, Caitlin becomes good friends with her from what seems plainly to be emotional starvation (also masochism, but I’ll get to that later). Vera is wooed by a soldier, William (Cillian Murphy), who—after initial resistance—she marries before he gets deployed. While William is off fighting, Vera, Caitlin, and Dylan move to Wales and exist in the messiest of situationships while Vera and Caitlin raise their children, conduct affairs, and ignore the war. When William returns to the infantile mess of his home life, he gets into a fight with Dylan and Dylan’s hoity-toity intellectual friends, ending in a court case against William, which convinces Vera that she loves him. All ends happily (?) for Vera and William, and Caitlin and Dylan leave Wales for God knows where.

From how I saw it, the film tried to be three things: a war drama, a messy love story, and a portrait of female friendship. All three of those goals seem worthy and would have been incredible had they succeeded. HOWEVER, I think all three things failed utterly because of poor character development.

There were four main relationships in the movie: Vera and William, Vera and Dylan, Vera and Caitlin, and Vera with herself. Vera and William should have been the most straightforward: she’s a headstrong girl who doesn’t want to commit herself, he’s a romantic about to potentially die. Very Atonement-style. There’s some beautiful dialogue on Cillian Murphy’s part, a disastrously directed sex scene, a brisk endgame. He asks her (as things start falling apart) why she married him. She can’t answer. They have no emotional connection, scarcely communicate, and don’t even get a final scene of reconciliation or understanding to ensure that all the nonsense of the film has set them up for a happily ever after. Fine, then, this is not the most important relationship. Disappointing, since it holds the most promise (William is a great character, Cillian portrays him superbly, all in all the person I connected with most).

Vera and Dylan seem to bond over their mutually bad behavior and nothing else. Wife Caitlin talks a lot to Vera about Dylan’s unemotional affairs, and it’s unclear whether Vera thinks she’s special and the exception, or thinks Caitlin is just trying to scare her off, or simply doesn’t care. It’s also unclear how much Vera actually thinks she’s in love with Dylan or is happy to be friends-with-benefits while William is away. One of the emotional climaxes is between them, when she accuses Dylan of just being in love with their shared childhood, not the fully mature and responsible woman she is (ha ha). This seems propelled by a fear of losing William but no resolution on her feelings for Dylan. And though we get a few scenes from Dylan’s point of view, these are never connected to Vera, and though he clearly enjoys keeping her on a string, his motivations remain muddy.

Vera and Caitlin weirdly seem situated to be the primary relationship of the film, which is an admirable effort to make, though I’m not entirely sure their conversations really pass the Bechdel test. Caitlin bonds with Vera over Dylan, feels glad to have a confidant, makes a near-sapphic declaration of affection while confessing what a horrible father she had, and basically clings to Vera because she has nobody else. All in all, I found her with the most energy in the entire movie: she loves and hates Dylan and Vera but acts to hold onto them desperately, even if she watches them both implode her life (hence the masochism, which Sienna really leaned into). Vera never entirely reciprocates this affection: oh, they get along well enough, Vera is compelled to sketch her in a very throwaway moment. But since their conversations mostly center on men Vera doesn’t know her feelings for—Dylan and William—there’s very little forthcoming.

The final relationship of Vera with herself is nonexistent, but I bring it up because if it did, that would go a long way to solving my gripes with everything else. We simply do not know how Vera feels about a lot of things, and even when we do, why. Why doesn’t she want to connect with William? Why does she instantly get over her jealousy of Caitlin and become besties? Why hasn’t she talked to Dylan Thomas since they were “kids” (I’m assuming at least a decade ago)? Does she have any family left to care that she had a shotgun wedding and is currently living with another man and his wife? I jest, but you get my drift. I can’t decide whether this is a script issue or a performance issue (Kiera felt unusually wooden in this role) or a directorial issue, but the insufficiency suffuses every scene she’s in. And it makes me feel like the script just made the wrong choice in having her be the main character. I feel if the movie were “seen” through Caitlin’s eyes, or through Dylan Thomas’s as a more intentional biopic, a lot of this vague nonsense would have been resolved.

I grouse this much about the relationships because aside from them, this movie has no plot. The war is set-dressing, existing only to take William away from Vera and return him to her with PTSD and maladjustment. I wish there had been more war since it might have diluted the misery of the characters to a degree.

I was trying to think of a last good thing to say about this as an antidote to my complaints, but I literally couldn’t think of one, so I guess that tells you all that you need to know oops.

#the edge of love #film review #kinema

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inevitably-johnlocked · 2 years

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Heya! It's been a while since I've sent in an ask but have you got any reccs for angst with a happy ending? Preferably without any form of sexual trauma cause I've come across far too many of those recently.

Hey Lovely! *HUGS*

I have a few of them on these lists here:

Angst With a Happy Ending

Angst With a Happy Ending Pt. 2

Angst With a Happy Ending Pt. 3

Probably a lot of those fics don't contain sexual trauma; I suggest checking the descriptions and tags I added to the fics before you read them <3

AND I'll use your ask to submit my 4th list, so I hope you don't mind since I don't have a different Sunday list ready <3

ANGST WITH HAPPY ENDING Pt 4

When Your Belly's in the Trench by Morgan_Stuart (T, 4,743 w., 1 Ch. || PTSD, Character Study, Rescue, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Torture, Trauma, Danger, Drama, Kidnapping/Captivity) – The next time that door opens, John Watson will kill the person on the other side.

This Year by DiscordantWords (T, 6,283 w., 2 Ch. || TEH Divergence / No Mary, New Year’s Eve, John’s A Mess, Jealous John, Awkward Conversations, Trapped in a Closet, Estranged After Return, John POV, Semi-Reunion, Angry John, First Kiss, Reconciliation, Clueless Sherlock, Happy Ending) – Last year, Sherlock Holmes showed up at the Landmark with a fake moustache and a bad French accent and threw John's entire life into disarray with two words: "Not dead." This year, there are more surprises in store.

Rupert Street by WritingOutLoud (M, 27,262 w., 9 Ch. || Alternate First Meeting || Case Fic, Sexuality, Demisexual Sherlock, Drugging, Smart John, Sherlock Has Internalized Biphobia, Fluff, Angst with Happy Ending, Gay Bar, Flirting, John Manipulates Sherlock to Eat, John Deduces, Arguments, Kidnapping/Torture, Hospitalization, John Whump) – Discharged from the war with nothing but the clothes on his back and a realisation of his bisexuality, John Watson has to learn who he’s become. He can’t afford London on an army pension, but the city is the only friend he has. In an effort to understand his newfound queer identity, he heads to a bar one night, where he stumbles across a mysterious stranger who turns his life upside down. ‘I dug around inside myself, and I'm not quite sure what I found, but it was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.’

Sunday Evening 6 p.m. by Silvergirl (E, 30,712 w., 6 Ch. || Post-TRF / TEH Divergence, Grief / Mourning / Stages of Grief, Mutual Pining, Dreams, Reunion, Love Confessions, First Kiss / Time, Alternating First Person POV, Smart John, BAMF Boys, Emotional Love Making, Song Fic, Referenced Suicide, First Kiss / Time, Touching, Sleepy Sherlock, Blow Job, Villain Mary) – Six months after Sherlock jumped, he learns that John is dedicating songs to him on a requests-only radio programme. Is John just working through grief? Or is he—communicating? Fixes the hell out of S3 by pre-empting it altogether. Remember, as TAB told us, John is Pretty Damn Smart.

Lucifer's Gardens by ampersand_ch (E, 32,679 w., 12 Ch. || GERMAN VERSION|| Romance, Friendship, Friends to Lovers, Murder, Poison / Drugging, Mystery, John Undercover, Academic Club, Therapy, Rituals, Jungian Archetypes, Doctors & Physicians, Grief/Mourning, Esotericism, Hospitals, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, John Falls In Love With Another Man, Jealous Sherlock, Crying, Doctor John, Hand Holding, First Kiss/Time, Mysticism, Hugging, Touching) – John goes undercover for an investigation as a favour to Lestrade in a village in Suffolk. The events surrounding the case awaken deep-seated fears in Sherlock. While John begins to come to a realisation of what he needs in Lucifer's Gardens, Sherlock tries to find a way to reach John – in more ways than one.

You Might Just as Well Be Blind by ArwaMachine (E, 56,625 w., 12 Ch. || Fake Relationship, For a Case, Bed Sharing, Platonic Cuddling, Jealous Sherlock, Oblivious John, BAMF Hudders, Fluff and Angst, Frottage, Anal Sex, Happy Ending, Case Fic, Flirting, Pining John, POV John, Toplock, Possessive Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Infidelity) – When a serial killer starts targeting couples, Sherlock and John must do what they have to do in order to get to the bottom of things. Unfortunately, John already has a girlfriend. Surely pretending to be in a relationship with Sherlock won't pose any problems with his relationship, will it?

The Lost Special: Family Matters (As Do Relationships) by ShirleyCarlton (M, 144,688 w., 40 Ch. || S4 Fix It Fic / Meta Fic, Unreliable Narrator, John’s Mind Bungalow, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Demisexual Sherlock, Holmes Family, John Whump, Gay Mycroft, Misunderstandings, Drug Addiction, Parenting, TFP is a Nightmare, Virgin Sherlock, Slow Burn, Minor Character Death, Switchlock, John’s Past, Sherlock’s Past, Eurus, Love Confessions) –Sherrinford is not really the name of some high security prison. That was just a figment of John’s frantic coma dream. And Eurus is not actually Sherlock’s sister. That’s just something random she said to John before shooting him. Sherlock and John were never actually estranged. That was just their act to cover up what really happened to Mary – or Rosamund Moran, as her real name has turned out to be. Sherlock does have a secret sibling, though, and his name is Sherrinford. After finally eliminating Moran – though in a rather dramatically different way than they had envisioned – and exposing the truth about Eurus, John encourages Sherlock to delve into his past and to find out whether the reasons to keep Sherrinford away from Sherlock were the right ones, and to discover what really happened in 1981. Along the way, Sherlock and John gradually, finally, stop keeping each other at a distance, and eventually become a proper family of their own.

-------

Feel free to add some more, friends, that aren't on any of the above lists!

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #angst with happy endings #my fic recs #fic rec sunday #angst fics

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yakourinka · 1 year

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I'm surprised to see a Turkish person not in genocide denial.

first of all, hey! loaded ask!

secondly that post made me think how strange it was witnessing historical revisionism in real time. when I went to school in 2000s the armenian murders and forced exiles were absolutely a thing in school books. and these were books written and approved by state organs, mind you. it wasn't explicitly genocide, but the revisionism was considerably more moderate.

then the narrative became that armenians were rebelling and sabotaging world war efforts, and so ottomans must surely be justified in "sending them away". and then any mention of armenians were removed entirely. when they were put back - maybe when I was in high school? - it had changed completely to the tune the current turkish government still plays today.

I read years later that during 80s and early 90s there had been back channel talks between turgut ozal, the turkish prime minister at the time, and the armenian government about possible reconciliation and reparations. to the best of my knowledge that's the only prime minister ever quoted to mention reconciliation with armenia in a speech - guy was a massive neo-liberal by the way - but he was working against a post-80s-ASALA public and the military and, you know, rampant xenophobia. he died abruptly in 93, the following years were a mess until erdogan took power in uhh 2004? so the history I studied in school is probably the result of that one guy who died in 93 and because nobody considered to rewrite the history books for 12 year olds until years later.

it's strange to think that I studied an already highly biased, national interest focused version of history - which is common in most countries, unfortunately - but the people after me grew up studying an outright hostile version of it. from what I know the current books in turkish public schools teach that the armenian "claim" is a lie. and that's been that way for some time.

also apparently ozal spent some time at some university in the US which had an active armenian lobby, which influenced his views and policies in his later years. fascinating, huh? I guess lobbying does work!

#long post

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canmom · 1 year

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Animation Night 149: Toei

Hi there. It’s Thursday. You know what that means (yes, it means i’m freeeeee)

Today we will be rolling back to some of the earliest days of anime!

The story of Toei goes back to 1946. In the immediate aftermath of WWII, there were very few games in town when it came to Japanese animation (or, to be fair, animation in most places). During the war, animators had been recruited to make propaganda films such as Momotaro: Sacred Sailors, among them Akira Daikuhara.

In the immediate aftermath, Kenzō Masoaka (of Benkei tai Ushiwaka, for anyone who remembers AN24) began the first effort to make an animated film post-war. This film was titled Sakura: Haru no genso (Cherry Blossom: Spring’s Fantasy); it was followed by a series of three films about a cat called Tora-Chan. But Masoaka’s studio struggled, constantly closing and re-opening. At the time it was operating under the name 日本動画映画 Nihon Dōga Eiga or Japan Animated Films, or just the abbreviation 日動映画 Nichidō Eiga. In 1956, they were bought by live action studio Toei (itself approaching 20 years old, founded in 1938) and renamed to Toei Dōga, where they started making increasingly elaborate animated films.

Toei of this era was sometimes called the rather patronising name ‘Disney of the East’. There is some truth to it, in that their ambition, especially in the early years, was certainly to make animated films as elaborate as those of old Walt. Their first feature was 白蛇伝 Hakujaden (1958), based on a Song Dynasty Chinese legend about a lost pet snake who transforms into a woman in the hopes of reuniting with her former owner, a monk who thinks that’s sus, and two pandas who try to sort it all out; in English it’s variously translated as The White Snake Enchantress, Legend of the White Serpent or even Panda and the Magic Serpent.

Part of the goal of the film, to Toei Dōga president Hiroshi Ōkawa, was a gesture of reconciliation towards China after the whole ‘invading and occupying’ thing.

The film was Rintarō’s first animation job; it also left a massive impression on a young Hayao Miyazaki, who wrote the following in Gekkan ehon bessatsu: Animēshon (1979), trans. Beth Cary and Frederik L Schodt in Starting Point:

What I’m saying here is that when young people feel attracted to the heroes of a tragedy [context: such as The Diary of Anne Frank], whether in animation or other media, a type of narcissism is really involved; this attraction they feel is a surrogate emotion for something they have lost.

From personal experience, I can say that I first fell in love with animation when I saw Hakujaden, the animated feature produced by Toei Animation in 1958. I can still remember the pangs of emotion I felt at the sight of the incredibly beautiful, young female character Bai-Niang, and how I went to see the film over and over as a result. It was like being in love, and Bai-Niang became a surrogate girlfriend for me at a time when I had none.

It is in this sense that I think we can achieve a type of satisfaction, by substituting something for the unfulfilled portion of our lives.

The feelings evoked by Bai-Niang may go some way to explaining the role of similar girls in Miyazaki’s movies...

Hakujaden has some curious properties as a work of animation. It was, especially for the time, astonishingly elaborate and straining the technical capabilities of the industry (although the claim on Wikipedia that it had 13,590 staff seems rather dubious lmao). The drawing count is stratospheric thanks most scenes being animated on ones and twos - the opposite of the limited animation techniques that anime would later perfect. Despite that, it is also the work of an inexperienced team, and compared to later works its animation can feel awkwardly timed, the flood of inbetweens turning everything to mush.

Nevertheless, there are two stars of the show in terms of animation. One is Yasuji Mori, who would later be one of Toei’s star animators, creating scenes such as the dance at the beginning of this post - as well as teaching Miyazaki after he joined Toei. The other is Akira Daikuhara, who was way ahead of the game on effects animation, creating the film’s transformation sequences. Daikuhara would go on to be one of Toei’s main animators of human characters, while Mori tended to take the animal/mascots; he has been a relatively forgotten figure, although that’s starting to change with articles like these ones by Matteo Watzky, whose research just digs deeper and deeper.

Toei’s early films tend to follow the precedent set in Hakujaden, adapting folktales from (mostly) China and Japan. In 1959 they covered a Japanese story in Shōnen Sarutobi Sasuke; 1960, they took on Saiyūki (Journey to the West); then Anju to Zushiōmaru (The Orphan Brother, 1961) and Arabian Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad (1962).

In this period of Toei, there was a lot of ambition, and also a feeling of inadequacy compared to the elaborate animated films being made in other countries. Hayao Miyazaki, who joined Toei in the 1963, wrote in 1982:

I used to create feature-length works for Toei Animation, but compared to the works just mentioned, they were obviously far inferior, at least technically. Sort of like showing rabbits slipping and falling, that sort of thing. We wondered if we would ever catch up to the level of what was being done in America, France or Russia, or if it were even possible to do so. Frankly, we really didn’t know.

To begin with, we didn’t even know what we had to do to reach the same level of excellent as the best works out there. We knew we had constraints, such as short production schedules, small budgets and so forth, but above and beyond that, we began to develop an inferiority complex: we wondered if we even had the basic talent needed to proceed. In retrospect, the only thing that probably kept us going, and drove us to pursue such a long-term goal, was our determination.

Miyazaki’s words should be taken with a grain of salt, since they definitely suit his personal myth-making. Still, conditions at Toei in the 60s were rough, leading to the first major unionisation struggle of anime history, which I wrote about in AN70. The studio started bringing on part-timers paid hourly rather than a salary, and created severe pay discrepancies, which were met with strikes and departures from the studio. Saiyūki took such a tole on its director Taiji Yabushita that he was hospitalised; Yasuji Mori would later create the term ‘anime syndrome’ for this sort of overwork because it was not the last time by any means.

However, I’m going to zoom over all of these to get to the わんぱく王子の大蛇退治 Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji (The Naughty Prince’s Orōchi Slaying, more commonly translated The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon) in 1963 - not because it’s necessarily more important, although it’s remembered as one Toei’s best films, but because I happen to have a fantastic analysis of one of its key scenes on hand thanks to AniObsesive and Toadette.

youtube

Wanpaku Ōji breaks from precedent in many ways, particularly its visual design, which takes on highly simplified shapes reminiscent of the then ultra-modern UPA style by way of haniwa figures. The story at least follows the pattern, adapting a Shinto myth in which the storm god Susanoo battles (guess what) an eight-headed dragon Yamat no Orochi. Susanoo is motivated by the death of his mother Izanami, and goes on a journey to try to find her, which leads him to the village of Princess Kushinada - a village with a dragon problem, which they’ve kept at bay only by sacrificing Kushinada’s seven sisters. Susanoo, horny for a princess who looks like his mum, decides it’s time to intervene.

The dance scene above comes in the middle of the movie, in which the goddess Ame-no-Uzume performs an increasingly mystical dance. It was an ambitious experiment of Makoto Nagasawa, who had joined as an inbetweener on Saiyūki, with large spacing and broad motion to create a snappy feeling. Animation Obsessive writes:

Typical motion at Toei, Nagasawa said, would be “neatly in-betweened from the first [key] pose to the last [key] pose.” In other words, in-betweens smoothed out the movement and made it longer, more complete and more realistic. By contrast, Nagasawa’s drawings of Uzume are often at wide intervals, with minimal in-betweens. Sometimes, she basically teleports from one frame to the next.

Even when the intervals aren’t that wide, the way Uzume moves remains big, broad, clear and non-real. Nagasawa pushes her gestures, increases her speed, shows us only what he wants to show us. The action is crisp, always holding its abstract shape. No naturalistic touches distract from the core form of what Uzume does.

Alongside Nagasawa, Yasuji Mori was now coming into a role close to that of the now-standard 作画監督 sakuga kantoku aka sakkan or animation director, an experienced artist whose job is to correct the drawings from many different key animators to keep them on-model. Modern anime productions tend to have a strictly hierarchical approach where the characters are designed by one or a few character designers, usually also the lead sakkan. At Toei, things had been a bit more fluid - the individual animators would often design the characters they were going to animate, with a division of labour closer to the old Disney style. On this film, it became more of a hybrid: Mori drew the final model sheets, but the animators would submit suggested designs to him.

For the most elaborate scenes, such as the dance, they went to great lengths to record a suitable score and record live-action footage with professional ballet dancers. I encourage you to read the AniObsessive article for the details.

At the time of Wanpaku Ōji, Toei was starting to face competition. The already-renowned mangaka Osamu Tezuka had founded MushiPro, which was rapidly taking over TV, and the sphere of TMS satellite studios were starting to get going and siphon away many of their best people such as Yasuo Ōtsuka. Still, the animators at Toei were determined to try and stand alongside international animators:

The team was well aware of the trends in world animation at that time. According to Nagasawa, they were watching work from Canada (Norman McLaren), Czechoslovakia (Jiří Trnka), Russia (The Snow Queen), France (The King and the Mockingbird) and so on. It was all bold, new animation. In The Little Prince, Toei took up the challenge this work presented, without simply copying it. The team contributed to modern animation while staying rooted in the ancient, and in Japan itself.

Subsequently, Japanese animation is sometimes divided into a ‘Toei tradition’ vs. a ‘MushiPro tradition’, of full vs limited animation respectively, followed by the various successors such as Ghibli on the one hand and Madhouse on the other. As ever this is not really very accurate, and both ‘lineages’ crossed over extensively (just look at Kanada).

Toei’s own output adapted to the times. Takahata’s Horus: Prince of the Sun (AN 70) might be the last of the ambitious movies in their old style; after this, the fairytale films were gradually replaced by gekiga animation such as Tiger Mask, super robots like Mazinger Z, and then at the end of the 70s increasingly science fiction adaptations of Leiji Matsumoto’s works (AN 146). In the 80s, shōnen exploded onto the scene and Toei made a lot of Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya, later joined by other franchises like PreCure, Digimon and One Piece. So Toei remains one of the largest and most robust animation studios in Japan. They’ve got a lot of salaried staff, a union(!), and regular work in the form of wildly popular franchises. But occasionally they’ll make something cool and weird within that remit, like Hosoda’s One Piece film (AN61), Kyōsōgiga (AN98) - or Interstella 5555 which we watched last week.

So! Tonight though we’re going to go back and look at those ambitious early days, where it started, with snakes and dragons and a bishōjo who’s 美 enough to inspire the entire career of Hayao Miyazaki. Animation Night 149 will begin at 20:00 UK time (UTC), (13:00 California time), at twitch.tv/canmom - hope to see you there!

And next week I have a serious treat for you, because the Inu-Oh BD finally dropped. Can’t think of something more perfect for #150 than returning to Masaaki Yuasa.

And now to spend the rest of the day until 8pm on intensive gamdev 😵‍💫

#animation night

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hircyon · 2 years

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I’m conflicted about posting this because, despite what I say, I still have a healthy self-awareness of how cringe this whole AU/crackship thing is and it takes conscious effort to post about it publicly anyway. But I wrote this bit of a larger one-shot this morning because I’m trying to put into words the complexity I want to write into Osi’s character.

I know I’m asking a lot of the audience to just believe me when I say the cold-hearted Citadel warden who ordered (and almost certainly executed) extensive torture of prisoners can still be a multifaceted person capable of sympathy and love. I know I’m woobifying him a bit; if you want to see Osi Sobeck as a cruel, one-note character, I’m not really going to convince anyone otherwise. I’m too much in my own head on this one.

But I really want to make him believable as a person who has a deep well of emotional need. He shut it off for a long time--to fulfill his duties, to survive--but once he finds a more stable post-war life and is faced with the time and energy to make something new, to redefine his purpose, that neediness beats close to the surface.

Just so happens I like to write him trauma-bonding to a man who isn’t capable of responding to that part of Osi, or seeing it in himself.

So, for context, this takes place in 0 BBY. Moralo left entirely in 2 BBY, just abandoned Osi and Nuuka without a word or a trace. He felt stifled and needed to run. It’s the only way he knows how to live. He comes back because it turns out he really is getting old, and he likes not being dead. So for two years he gets himself into trouble and spirals a bit, then walks* back into his own house in the middle of the night as if he didn’t step out for a carton of (blue) milk two fucking years ago.

This takes place some time after the bulk of their reconciliation. Osi is still figuring out how to act around Moralo, and how he feels about all of this. But the man has needs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late morning sun painted streaks over their bodies, still entwined, because Osi refused to let go. He’d let his husband go once; now he felt justified in clinging like young lovers. Moralo…relented.

Osi settled in, skin warm and still a bit sticky. He just wanted to bask in the scent and sensation, Moralo’s undeniable weight against his body. There were times Osi was still afraid he would turn around and find the house empty again. That he would wake up from this dream to a cold bed, a colder reality. Which reminded him…

“I want another baby,” he rumbled, without preamble. Moralo’s whole body twitched against him, startled out of post-sex drowsiness.

“What, really? With who?”

“You.”

Moralo made a noise of disgust. “You really want another one of those things running around? At your age? Kriff—at my age?”

“I’d like to get a couple more out of you before you die,” Osi teased.

“No, really. What does it do for you? I’m curious to know what you get out of it.”

Osi paused thoughtfully. His heart knew, but he couldn’t quite grasp the feeling to describe it. Especially not to someone who never seemed to have felt love, despite Osi’s best efforts.

He’d tried to give Moralo everything—safety, space, freedom, companionship, stability, trust, sex, a beautiful daughter, unconditional fucking love. Moralo had his own way of showing affection; possessive, rough, unattached, burning affection. But it was always fleeting, like he was afraid of losing himself.

“I love Nuuka, and she accepts it. She needs it. I get to hold her and shelter her for such a short time, and watch her turn into her own person, and know that she’s ours. Our flesh and blood. I want to do that again.”

He couldn’t quite explain how it felt. Like there was something inside him, some spring of emotion bleeding freely, pooling and stagnating. How children needed that genuine and endless love. How he needed a vessel to pour it into.

Osi really pitied Moralo at times. He tried not to show it. But how could he not? There was no way of knowing how the man had grown up, but something had trained him to reject genuine love. Like a bent sapling, he had grown into this twisted shape, cutting himself off from his own need for affection.

Osi refused to believe it had never been there at all.

Moralo made a dismissive tch noise through his teeth. “You’re still so sentimental.”

True. Osi was overcome with a sudden need to make the older Phindian breathless and powerless. To communicate to him in the only way Moralo knew.

#*he actually picked the lock #he broke into his own house bc he'd lost the keycode #hircy writes #in case anyone else is invested in this crackship or just morbidly curious #here you go

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yourreddancer · 2 years

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From a FB post by the former Presbyterian minister in my home town.

I touched a nerve with a recent post which poked fun at one of the Capitol insurrectionists.

I am not persuaded by the protest that objected to such humor as, among other things, inappropriate because it demeaned it's object but more because it was not "helpful" in reengaging those Trump supporters in an effort to be peacemakers. While I sympathise with the longing to move beyond contention and bring the nation together, I think we are not far enough along to kiss and make up over the ruptures that have been opened up in the past several years.

First, a shocking number of Americans persist in their position regarding a constellation of beliefs that have no basis in fact. They do not perceive, let alone concede the extent to which they were seduced, for want of better terms for a sorcerer's enchantment, so they have yet to reenter an arena of shared reality. I fear there must come some significant rejection of closely held opinions before a thoughtful dialogue can be entered into weighing the merits of their grievances.

That only a handful of people died in the actual Capitol conflict seen as the cost of the missteps of the previous administration, instead of an all out civil war, is a huge understatement of it's true costs.

When seen as a low grade campaign against our institutions and the wellbeing of our civil society, and when factoring in the thousands of avoidable casualties lost to COVID, it might as well have been a civil war. The cost, and therefore injury, attached to the many high crimes and misdemeanors will take decades to calculate.

We will need to come to a place where we do the work of reconciliation, as if there had been a civil war, but it will not be accomplished by cheap grace. As South Africa learned with their efforts of Truth and Reconciliation, no healing can begin without the truth as it's foundation.

There was, to my eye, absolutely NOTHING unpredictable about the place we found ourselves. Unless we do the hard work to prevent future perversions of justice, we will not have seen the worst of it.

So it is very important for all who are concerned with the deep healing America needs to do the difficult work of seeking justice and establishing the truth of what has just transpired. MY RESPONSE:

BEAUTIFULLY SAID! And as for somebody getting their widdle panties in a knot over an insurrectionist rightly being called out, the quick response would be what the Trumpthuglikkkons have been saying to the Dems for several years, to wit : F&*% your feelings!

But you're too much of a lady to say that.

I however, have no such restrictions!!!

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thorntonkrell-blog-blog · 11 days

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Charm is a product of gratitude, humility, guilt and forgiveness.

Fortunately for the Riv, I have a lot to be humble about, I've made more than my share of mistakes and I'm increasingly grateful for the lessons I have garnered from my times of humiliation and shame.

In the spirit of Riversend, I have some suggestions.

For a moment everyday be grateful.

For a moment everyday be humble.

For a moment everyday be forgiving.

If the moments stretch to minutes or hours that's fine but it's the moment that begins the minute or more; the moment and the dedication.

The result is charm.

Take Savannah for instance.

Savannah's history is intertwined and blemished with the legacy of slavery, as the city was a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade and relied heavily on enslaved labor in its economy. Individuals and families who prospered in Savannah, particularly those of European descent, may have felt gratitude for their success and prosperity, which was often built on the exploitation of enslaved people. This gratitude could be seen in their lifestyles, investments, and contributions to the city's development.

Conversely, the history of Savannah is also marked by the profound injustice of slavery and its enduring impact on African American communities. Those who benefited from slavery, whether directly as slave owners or indirectly through economic ties, may have experienced feelings of guilt or complicity in perpetuating a system of oppression and exploitation. This guilt could manifest in various ways, such as efforts to rationalize or justify slavery, or attempts to distance oneself from its legacy.

In the post-Civil War era and beyond, Savannah, like much of the South, has grappled with the legacy of slavery and its implications for race relations and social justice. Efforts at reconciliation and reflection have included initiatives to preserve and interpret the city's African American heritage, such as the establishment of historic sites and museums dedicated to telling the stories of enslaved people and their descendants. These efforts reflect a recognition of the need to confront the injustices of the past and work towards a more equitable future while attempting to self-forgive the shadows of the past.

The result is charm fostered by humility.

Gratitude, particularly for survival, prosperity, or the kindness of others, can contribute to an individual's charm. People who express genuine gratitude tend to be more engaging, appreciative, and empathetic, qualities that are often associated with charm. In Savannah's context, individuals who acknowledge and appreciate the city's rich history, cultural diversity, and community resilience may exude a charm that is rooted in a deep sense of gratitude for their surroundings and heritage.

Guilt, especially when it stems from historical injustices like slavery, can motivate individuals to adopt charming behaviors as a form of compensation or reconciliation. Those who feel a sense of guilt for the city's past may strive to cultivate charm as a way of fostering positive relationships, promoting understanding, and bridging divides within the community. This may involve acts of kindness, generosity, and inclusivity aimed at addressing historical wrongs and promoting social cohesion.

Efforts to reconcile Savannah's complex history, including its legacy of slavery, can contribute to a collective charm that reflects a commitment to understanding, empathy, and mutual respect. Charm, in this context, becomes a tool for healing wounds, fostering dialogue, and building bridges across cultural and racial divides.

AAAyuh, charm is a good thing. Charm can be developed and enriched. Riversend strives towards charming community. It takes a few dedicated moments everyday.

Or a pilgrimage to Savannah.

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gosingcoblogs · 5 months

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Ending Wars: The Unfortunate Cycle of Wars Induced by Human Nature and How We Can strive to break the Cycle

Wars have always been following the tailcoat of humanity ever since the first written history of humans. We may ask whether war is an unshakable plague that feeds humanity's hedonistic nature or whether it is an event decided to be acted upon by humans willingly. By then we can answer the other sub questions such as: Are wars inevitable? Are they essential to human survival? How can wars be prevented, and how can we limit their impact? These are profound questions that have haunted humanity for centuries. While we may not have all the answers, the long pursuit of a more peaceful world is a noble and essential endeavor.

Why is War an Unfortunate Cycle?

The cycle of war among humans is perpetuated by a combination of circumstances and human nature. Some examples of this are, historical grievances, territorial disputes, resource competition, power ambitions, arms races, and etc. These factors, individually or in combination, can lead to the recurrence of conflicts and wars. Efforts to break this cycle require diplomacy, conflict resolution, economic cooperation, and global governance to address the underlying causes and promote peace. However, until now, humanity cant seem to still manage to break from this cycle.

Are Wars Inevitable?

It's hard to determine whether conflicts are inevitable. According to history, conflict has always been a feature of human life and has been caused by a variety of issues such resource scarcity, ideological disagreements, and territorial conflicts. But just because a conflict has happened in the past does not mean that it will happen again. The world has changed, and we now have the institutions, know-how, and resources necessary to resolve disputes more skillfully. The only question is whether we and the representatives we choose to represent us, will use these things to prevent another bloodshed and sufferings of war.

Are Wars Essential to Human Survival?

No, warfare is not necessary for human survival. Although it is true that in certain historical circumstances conflicts may have had an impact on the development of civilization, the idea that wars are essential for existence is risky and out of date given the destructive nature of modern warfare. We have the tools to resolve conflicts peacefully in a world of cutting edge technology, diplomatic routes, and global collaboration.

Why does Human Nature Incite war to occur?

Despite the aforementioned in why wars can also be prevented. In a more pessimistic lens, Human nature, while diverse and complex, can contribute to the cycle of wars in several ways. These are some certain aspects of human behavior and psychology that can encourage the recurrence of wars:

Tribalism ("us vs. them" mentality)

Aggression

Fear and Insecurity

Desire for Power and Control

Moral and Ethical Justifications

How Can Wars Be Prevented?

Through the countless Wars humanity has embarked on itself for millennia and the progress of development it has experienced. It is evident that humans are learning and making efforts to prevent wars. Some required multifaceted approach in preventing wars are:

Diplomacy and Dialogue

International Cooperation

Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

Education and Cultural Understanding

Democracy and Good Governance

Economic Development

How Can We Limit the Impact of War?

If conflicts do arise, there are steps we can take to limit their impact:

Protection of Civilians

Humanitarian Aid

Disarmament

Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Trauma and Reconciliation:

To sum up, while wars have been a recurring theme in human history, they are not inevitable, nor are they essential to our survival. However, as long as human nature remains what it is, war will never cease. Preventing wars and limiting their impact is a collective responsibility. We have the knowledge and tools to address conflicts through peaceful means, and by prioritizing diplomacy, international cooperation, and the well-being of affected populations, we can work towards a world where wars are a relic of the past. It is a challenging journey, but one that is worth pursuing for the sake of future generations and a more peaceful world.

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