#armageddon's toll

[sioster]

Close ups & characters grouped up down below. Translations in image descriptions.

Only fandoms tagged are going to be dsmp and tfm cuz I ain't tagging 6 communities in one post.

Mad duo <3 babygirls. If the handwriting is bad, the song is "Be nice to me" by The Front Bottoms.

A bunch of osmpburs, [redacted] with little guys as stand ins for phil, bbh and foosh. Random cats & mice along with DST spider and Verdant skin Wilson.

Rivals <3 drat and d.. dcat? dritten i think. They look awful compared to this pretty Tech. The priettiest little piggy ever.

Armageddon's toll! Wilbur being a cute little bartender mouse :) Elisah the goddes of Transformice waa she's the pretty angel mouse we love her.

Every single possible thing in one place: Dream blobs, my Transformice oc, weird cats, Friend (I think), Pyro TF2 and Moon FNaF. I'm crying. This is how my brain looks like inside.

Random Tfm & Tfm Adventures mice and little Sun FNaF with blobs.

Individual crop for Mousefur since she got cut off </3 look at this absolute Queen.

I'm thrroiwng upp why does Wilson look so bad here please someone kill him, put him out of his misery. Webber DST my precious child, random kitty, obligatory Pogbur, DST Crawling Horror and some kind of Chica. No idea what version this is supposed to be.

Webber napping on Gloomer awwe. Zia-zia my favourite creature. Also little blobs :)

#one little thing aged like milk but im not going to stick any paper over it to remember how good it could've been :) q neg ahahaha #<- im petty. sorry #dreblr #madduo #mad duo #karo art #c!dream #cdream #transformice art #transformiceart #transformice #armageddon's toll #cwilbur #c!wilbur #c!wilbur soot #cwilbur fanart #cdream fanart #c!dream fanart #sheduled !!

[indigovigilance]

One more note on Time

I just published this clipset demonstrating that during the S2E6 finale, fifteen minutes of time elapses when... it shouldn't have. We hear the sound of a ticking clock throughout the "Conversation" portion of the final fifteen.

But this is not the first time that sounds made by clocks have been used to signal something important in the show.

Going all the way to S1E1: during this park bench conversation, a bell begins to toll while Crowley lists off all the things that Aziraphale will lose if Heaven triumphs in Armageddon. If you listen to that scene and ignore the dialogue, you'll count twelve gongs. There's no way there was actually a bell tolling in the background, as this scene would have been clipped together from multiple shots, so it's not an artifact, it was added in post.

What is the significance of the 12th hour?

If you live long enough, you'll experience some 12th-hour moments. These are those moments where all hope is gone; where you believe there is no possibility of change in your situation; where you've completely given up on fulfilling your expectations; where you just decide to settle for your current situation.

So that's what the ticking clock in S2E6 made me think of: time marching inexorably forward while Crowley is watching his relationship with Aziraphale slip through his fingers.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #ivoc

[subwaychuckle]

At a bar after work

"I am Emmet. I am so much better at playing deathmatch than you."

"Definitely!"

Context: #deathmatch is a game module in Transformice, that in the Armageddon's Toll AU, is a sport. Instead of leading the battle subway, they are heads of the train communication in the whole land and deathmatch masters after work.

#paintgiggles #submas #subway bosses #subway master ingo #pokemon ingo #subway boss ingo #subway master nobori #subway boss #subway boss nobori #emmet pokemon #pokemon emmet #subway master kudari #subway boss emmet #subway master emmet #subway boss kudari #pokemon black and white #transformice #transformice art

[aziraphales-library]

Hello, can you recommend some longer fics that are super in character? Not necessarily ones that feel like the book just ones where you feel like it’s really them, maybe even in the direction of a character analysis like Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma. Thanks in advance xx

Hi. Characterisation is very subjective as everyone interprets characters in different ways. I recommended some fics I personally thought were in character here. So now I've got some more character study fics for you...

The Art of Longstanding Deception by PollyPocalypse (T)

Aziraphale wouldn’t say he didn’t like being in Heaven.

Of course he wouldn’t. He was an angel. It was his domain. He wouldn’t say he disliked it at all.

He wouldn’t say that sometimes, quite often really, getting out of Heaven felt like shrugging off a too-tight, scratchy jumper. That he always felt just a little more at ease, a little more himself, when he was away from them all.

Aziraphale would never dream of saying any of these things.

The Quiet, Persistent, Gnawing Unease by LollipopCop (M)

Aziraphale looked away, and poured himself another drink. “In any case, that looked unpleasant and I’m sorry to hear that’s a regular occurrence for you.”

Crowley felt weird, like he wanted to yell and punch a wall and cry and hug Aziraphale all at once. He settled on being defensive. “Oh, save it. You probably think it’s what we demons deserve for our wickedness.”

Aziraphale’s gaze turned serious. “You don’t deserve that, Crowley,” he said, quietly but firmly. ~ An exploration of the serious toll Hell's physical and psychological grip has taken on Crowley since his Fall.

The things we lost in being Blessed by Eturni (M)

In a church in 1941 Crowley burned to be on consecrated ground. In Heaven, after Armageddon, Crowley did not burn.

What if there was only so much that could burn away when a demon came into contact with holy things? What would that make him at the point that what was consecrated no longer harmed him?

Crowley grapples with this across the ages. Considers punishments, his place in the world, his place in Hell and, worst of all, whether Aziraphale has any understanding of the things that are happening to him. (There's a happy ending, but happy isn't easy and is rarely everything you wanted)

something wretched about this by IvyOnTheHolodeck (T)

You might wonder why Aziraphale can't seem to enjoy his retirement in peace. You could ascribe his distress to the series of terrifying thoughts that haunt his days, or the only book he wishes he'd never read, or even the wound that still hurts after six thousand years.

Really, though, you should blame the fact he's never learned to talk about his feelings.

The Other Arrangement: or, How the Angel Got so Hungry by burnttongueontea (T)

‘It’s just… funny. Don’t you think it would be funny, if it turned out we’d had it the wrong way round all these years? If I ate all the time, and you hardly ever?’

Crowley discovers that Aziraphale has been strictly and obsessively limiting his food intake for millennia, due to fear of punishment from Heaven if he gets caught eating too regularly. The angel’s confident facade comes apart at the seams after they move to the South Downs, as he struggles to cope with new-found freedom while still keeping his past a secret.

With the future of their relationship soon hanging in the balance, Crowley must find a way to convince Aziraphale that he is a safe pair of hands to collapse into – and that they can rebuild things from the ground up.

For Want of a Seed by cassieoh (T)

A plant grows, a plant dies, Aziraphale takes a wrong turn, and a few truths are revealed. The first of which is this; painful truths cannot be buried for they will sprout and flourish while one is busy having lunch and raising supposed devil-spawn. From this, each of our heroes takes a single lesson; Aziraphale learns that it is better to never bury truth in the first place and Crowley learns the altogether less palatable lesson that truths should be mulched into nothingness when one has the chance, lest they regrow.

I will leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide who is correct.

(aka: post-Apocalypse Crowley finally deals with the issues he's been ignoring for the last 6000 years)

Mind the tags on some of these!

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #character study #angst #mod d

[aita-blorbos]

aita for hundreds if not thousands of people truly as well as potentionally - that is, if a certain set of actions were set into motion and successfully performed - met their ends at my hands?

human life, as it is, is a frail thing - though this does not diminish its meaning. this is obvious to anyone alive, however dull they may be, with the exception of those that simply disagree. as a means to an end, however, one could argue, however correctly or incorrectly you the viewer may believe it to be, that lives need to be lost for the greater good. this is a common enough trope in many stories, crusades, political ideologies - something that comes to mind is, even, armageddon, but this bears little importance to the overall theme of what i (m, i will not share my age) have to say here.

this appears quite negatively and most certainly does not make for a beneficial start to my story, but ive yet to exit stage left and ask for further attention to my situation. namely - i have a condition that does not allow for my body to be awake, with the danger of overloading my brain due to my unusually high intelligence. although my power stems from the sleeping world, the realm of dreams, effectively placing no limit on my abilities, my sister (12f) does not share this connection to the real world, a fact that pains me greatly. though i spent a fraction of my life awake, she was never given this opportunity in the entire duration of my raising her more or less from birth. in order for me to give her the chance to live as any normal human, the creation of an absolute world is in order, a project that will certainly ask a high toll for both myself, as well as the world currently in place. namely, it will ask that i kill, and that lives will be lost. in this world, at least.

another point to be made lies in my collaboration with the pope, and the promises she has made to me regarding our project. she shares a goal with me - namely, creating a perfect world - and has pitched a highly plausible modus operandi, which, again, requires a high number of sacrifices. however, as i have concluded, if i were to accurately remember the names and faces of every life i take, i will be able to bring them back to life in our perfect world, so effectively, no lives will actually be lost.

i also spoke with a brit about this.

so, aita?

for additional information, yes, i am aware that the concept of murder is, morally, wrong, to a certain extent. it certainly serves the purpose of causing a great deal of pain to those affected by it, but then again, it is an inherent part of life, too. without life, there is no death, and a life without death one day becomes meaningless - is, for this reason, not the concept of it a mercy? the loss of life is a topic of intrinsic value to the human experience, present in every good story - is there even one of shakespeares works that does not revolve around it? arguably, death is the driving force for every person on earth - an especially prevalent example of this must be none other than his production hamlet, a riveting tale of death and grief as told by the titular character hamlet, a man whose father the king was murdered by his brother - hamlets uncle - to seize th

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality

[ancientstone]

Crowley's Questions: Episode 1

While watching s2 I was struck but the sheer number of questions Crowley asked, and how often they were good, solid questions. So as I rewatch s2 for the millionth time I decided to keep track of the important ones.

If you don’t mind, could you hold this while I crank it all up?

Crowley is literally the reason why they meet. If he hadn’t been given too much to hold at once, he wouldn’t have met Aziraphale, and they wouldn’t have saved the world together.

How much trouble can I get into just for asking a few questions?

A second later we hear a bell toll. Often a sign for death, here it marks the beginning of Crowley's Fall from Heaven. The question itself also shows his detachment from how Heaven is run, considering Aziraphale already knew to be careful.

Do you ever just think what’s the point? What do you mean? What’s the point of it all? Heaven. Hell. Demons. Angels. It’s all, well, point...less?

While Shax is probably the worst person to ask, these show: a. where Crowley's mindset has been since the failed Armageddon, questioning why Heaven and Hell seem only to exist to go to war. b. his not-so-great mental health and how tired he is of everything. c. reiterates his point that he prefers their own side, with Aziraphale, living their lives without interference.

Anything going on I should know about?

Something’s up. Up where? Up up. Something big?

Prime examples of Crowley checking in with Hell, keeping tabs so nothing can sneak up and catch him by surprise. He's ensuring their safety, and I'm certain Aziraphale doesn't know he's still talking to at least one demon.

Should I say something now? No!

Right, what’s the problem? Problem? Who said there was a problem? Tone of voice.

Has this got anything to do with why we aren’t in your bookshop right now? Is it something I can help you with?

Crowley and Aziraphale being an Old Married Couple™ but also Overprotective Not-Boyfriend

What’s he doing here? I don’t know. What happened to him? I don’t know!

Valid questions! Not a single one wasted! Unfortunately Aziraphale can't give any answers.

What does your 'exactly' mean exactly?

Rare instance of these two morons communicating properly. Anywhere else this would've been a 'misunderstanding' argument. Instead Crowley asks for clarity.

I’m hearing that anyone they find involved with this affair will be dealt with? How?

Again, info sourcing, gaining data, what is this, how do I stop it, who is involved, how will we be punished?

I'll be back for episode 2!

#good omens #good omens meta #good omens 2 #good omens s2 #crowley #aziraphale #written in stone

[caspianthegeek]

Something's been turning over in my head over the last few days about Good Omens and queer representation. I keep seeing calls for it to be more explicit, that it's not good enough, that Neil of all people is fearful of making it absolutely queer.

None of this is true. The fact that it's been embraced by marginalized people who state "this is like me" should be all that's needed for others who it does not represent to back down and respect that. It's not their lane to declare what is representation for someone else.

And Neil, of all people, gives no fucks for what others think in regards to adding queer characters to media and has been doing so for a very long time.

What got to me though was what does explicit look like. A first time coming out story? That's not what Good Omens is. These are adults, let them simply exist in a queer way. Talking to each other about it? Why? Aziraphale and Crowley don't need to explain anything to each other. They both know the other loves them in every way fathomable to the pair, and what else matters? They literally stopped Armageddon and risked everything just to be together. Human gender perceptions that change every few hundred years? Crowley will take all the genders and do as he wants with them, knowing that it's so very temporary.

And that led me to being queer to those outside your inner circle, and it was an oh moment for me. Do you... do you think that they should be loudly out? There's nothing wrong with being loudly out of course. The people who have the privilege to be out do so much good in the world simply by existing and many of them do far more than that.

As someone who is out in every way that matters to me though: It's completely exhausting.

Even getting people to gender me correctly is an uphill battle that sometimes I choose to fight and sometimes I realize "I am going to see this person one time in my life, and I am tired." I have absolutely corrected CEOs that earn more than I will ever earn in my life because they have the ability to elicit change if pushed. It's important and I choose that battle. I don't ask the clerk at the store to gender me correctly. I just thank them and go about my day.

I did a fic on this topic for the first Our Side Zine, but coming out is a process that never ends and takes an ongoing mental toll.

And it was so delightful to see characters on screen who were allowed to simply be. Not to need to defend who they are or who they love beyond the obvious Heaven/Hell struggles. It's a shining moment of rest. And the reminder that you, too, can just exist. You don't need to constantly label yourself or explain yourself. And it's okay if you haven't found a label (or never do).

It is one reason why this representation is so important. One explanation as to why so many of us are upset when we see people dismissing it. I don't think it's any accident that many of the people I see defending Good Omens as sufficient queer rep are older LGBTQIA+ people who have dealt with the exhaustion of existing for so long. Who have learned when to fight their battles and to delight in those who know us for who we are.

It is nothing new, but it does break my heart to see us now needing to fight within our own community yet again to assert that we are enough.

I hope that the people stating Good Omens should be more explicit have their hearts in the right place. I also need them to know that they're doing real harm to actual queer people. That I've spent the last month consoling those who are hurt and needing to be consoled in return at times.

I need the people who think that Good Omens is not enough to really consider if this is the battle they want to fight, knowing that they're littering the battlefield with injured LGBTQIA+ people. You're not insulting the allocishets. They don't care, they've never cared. None of us should concern ourselves with them, because ultimately their opinion doesn't matter. There's enough in the world about them, this is ours.

Or was it never about the nonbinary, ace, and aro communities at all? Was it about seeing what you wanted in media and being upset that some of us got this piece of representation?

What I understand least of all in this is coming into someone else's house and declaring it not sufficient to fit your needs. Not everything is about you. That's okay. It doesn't need to be. Maybe look within yourself to find a piece of happiness for the absolute joy that some others within the queer community have found rather than trying to tear it from them.

#good omens #asexuality #nonbinary

[firewalkzwit]

runt // jonathan crane x reader. (30)

Chapter 30.

cross-posted on AO3

masterlist.

Y/N hadn't attended Arkham in what had felt like months, but had only been three days. Bruce had left messages, but the only reason she'd reached out to her phone was to disconnect it, for she no longer wished to hear his grating voice plea to see her to amend a mistake he couldn't even identify. Her mind could only process one thought and it surrounded something as mundane as what she'd wear. For all she knew, it could be the clothes she died on, and even if she didn't, whatever awaited her after Armageddon was uncertain and prompted very deadly either way. She had grown very soft, and the determination that had come with a fresh loss wasn't as vibrant as it used to. Even though she had assumed that the emotional tolls that her decision would cost her were something she was willing to tolerate, she was naively ignorant of how much that would affect her performance. Naturally, she'd dug her nails into her palm as she clenched her jaw in some sort of mild physical punishment for the mistakes of her past self. Curled in bed, she had not thought of Jonathan for the entirety of the day.

The knock on her door had snapped her out of her distraught, rapidly shifting her once independent attention to the thought of Crane. Immediately her mind was invaded by gloom, the mere thought of him caused her an anxiety so intense her chest weighed on her. As she approached to open the door, her eye peering through the peephole perceived a much taller male on the other side. Crane could never acquire such shoulders no matter how much he used suits to disguise his smaller frame. The man on the other side had to be over six feet, which explained why the poorly placed spyhole could hardly allow her to see a blur of a face terribly deformed by the curved glass, especially under the strange disguise of sunglasses and cap he wore like a celebrity.

"Who is it?" A nervous voice emerged from her throat instead of her usual self.

"It's Bruce." Of course it was. She hesitated whether she'd open the door or not, permeated by a sensation of alarm that inspired no confidence in her hand which approached the chain lock. A man the size of Bruce could easily tackle the door and its little symbolic lock down like a car butts a transit cone. Although she couldn't picture someone with Bruce's personality ever doing that, she knew if he ever felt the need he could manhandle her little door and body like a dollhouse with its Barbie. The thought of it terrified her, and she struggled to open the door.

"What are you doing in this neighbourhood?"

"I needed to see you." Y/N finally thought it to be reasonable to let him in, it was after all a threat for him to be on his own in Park Row. As she opened the door, her hand placed on his back to gently rush him inside as she looked to the sides, making sure no one had seen him.

"What was so urgent that you had to come here? You didn't get your butler to drive you, did you?"

"I took a cab." Her chin rested on her hand as her arms hugged her chest, biting on her nail as she shook her head in anxiety. "I needed to see if you were okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Look, I won't bring it up again, but I didn't know if you'd be okay with... him." Immediately she rolled her eyes. While not being under the influence allowed the aggressive burst of emotions that ignited her lungs, the only thing that differed from her previous outburst was merely her self-control.

"Yes I'm fine." The desire to thank him for his preoccupation crept through but didn't manage to get past her mouth, as her pride contained the urge to feel gratification for such a minuscule display of empathy; Crane was really starting to grow on her.

"That's good." By the look of his expression he seemed to want to say more, yet he kept to himself as his feint of speaking was halted in the middle of lifting his eyebrows to mutter another pair of words.

"That's all? I don't mean to kick you out like this but I have to run some errands." Lies after lies, she couldn't be straightforward about how little she wanted to see people at that very moment, although she urged him to be quick to spit whatever he was biting in.

"You're not safe here." She scoffed immediately. "I could accommodate you in a residency for a couple of days." Her head looked away following her rolled eyes, biting her lip in disbelief. Bruce's hesitant approach to her was rapidly interrupted by his own usual faltering. He knew her body language exuded an enormous tentativeness to reject his offer, but he knew the lack of an immediate no presented consideration beyond the offence taken. "Something bad might happen."

Her head turned abruptly, the petty smile in her face rapidly replaced with a perturbed grimace. Her heart sank with anxiety at the idea of Bruce even sensing what was about to come. For all she knew he could be partners with Falcone and know about what was happening; about her. She had no guarantees his philanthropy wasn't a façade, and she was rapidly taken aback by his words. Her mind had no space to dwell on the obviousness of her expression, only panic and hope her wide inquisitive eyes would give away how desperate she was for further explanations. But he refrained to speak, instead assuming the frown in her dead expression was only a reprimand for his insinuations.

promised and delivered lol. this chapter is very crying lightning by arctic monkeys

#jonathan crane #jonathan crane x reader #scarecrow #scarecrow x reader #the batman #nolanverse batman #batman x reader #batman #batman begins #cillian murphy

[maddyaddy]

The 62nd Regiment of the Armageddon Steel Legion’s 6th Army, having broken out of Ork encirclement, was forced to move through a narrow defile into the positively Ork-infested Equatorial Jungles. Trapped, and with no true hope of relief anytime soon, they hunkered down and began a desperate guerrilla campaign. They quickly acclimatized to their new, brutal reality of jungle warfare against the hordes of Orks. Fighting such a deathly struggle in a 'vast green inferno' (as the regiment's commander, Colonel Lotar Seytz, put it) also had tolls both psychic and physical: many understandably broke under the strains of shell-shock. When finally relieved, their rescuers found them almost unrecognizable, almost more Ork than man in aspect and demeanor.

These are miniatures for a collaborative modeling and writing project called Ashes of Armaggedon, ran by deathofarubricist/apologist. You can find the blog for the project here.

#40k #wargaming #miniature painting #armageddon ork hunters #armageddon steel legion #ashes of armageddon #warhammer 40000

[viralvava]

heard you weren't feeling too good so how about telling me all about your boys D and Rocambole from VHD for the character opinion bingo? (sorry if i got the names wrong i'm still new to this dsfskksd)

<3 you got the names right hehe

d!!! i LOVE love love d. as one of only three slash four commonly recurring characters in the entire series due to vhds status as incredibly episodic, he is quite literally everyones blorbo, and for good reason because hes amazing. however also due to vhd being written very carefully so as to not ever show what d is actually thinking, ever, at all, 90% of him is left up to interpretation, which breeds a completely insane amount of variety when it comes to opinions om him, and i think thats really lovely. my personal take is that hes largely apathetic to life in general -- much like rocambole (ill get to that), he doesnt particularly enjoy life but also has no intentions of losing his, unlike the sacred ancestor (his vampire god king manwhore mad scientist eugenicist openly suicidal incredibly obsessed really shitty father), and such... however i think one thing that is plainly obvious about d is that he is trying very hard to get all the money ever and win at capitalism. d kind of functions more as a vehicle for other characters to develop than develops himself, at least obviously so, which means you really have to read between the lines, but the fratricide arc (best 'arc' and only 'arc') is really good for implicit possibly unintentional d character development :) my favourite d characterisation moments are probably the "what have i imparted to you, my only success?" speech in armageddon, and "if youre going to regret something, dont do it in the first place" from on the night road. however! one thing i get very salty about regarding d is, due to the movies lacking the context for d's family issues and therefore almost the entire core of the books story, and also softening d a lot from his book horrible self, common interpretations from people who only watched the movies (which are good i swear) or dont respect the books (i understand not liking them, but respecting them is different) usually end up treating him like alucard 2, which is just... wrong. its wrong.

lord rocambole!!! my beloved glup shitto!! my favouritest little bastard that nobody else remembers or cares about!!! the most forgettable brother from the fratricide arc!!! the most half-baked brother!!! the most missed opportunity ever!!! the most obvious prototype character for what would later be valcua ever!!! this wont be as long as d's commentary because ive already rambled a lot about rocambole in other posts, but i adore him, i really do, hes my terrible wife. despite being known, apparently, as a "god of atrocity" and a born mass murderer, bastard son of the sacred ancestor (the only one of the 5 actually specified to be a bastard son which is crazy), hes... well, he's certainly nowhere near as bad as lawrence "death toll of 5 million+, chucked a planetoid at the earth, tortures people for fun" valcua, in personality and what we see actually described of him, but valcua certainly doesnt get such nasty titles. rocambole is woefully underdescribed, unlike valcua we're never told exactly what he did to earn his fate and moniker, and his personality and actions onscreen can actually read as respectable! hes polite, has no personal issues with d, and is scarily well-adjusted for a vhd character in his area, all things considered, accepting his inevitable death by the sacred ancestors degree in a way valcua simply couldnt, and etc. my favourite thing about him is how he acts as a kindred spirit of a kind to d: both not particularly wanting their life but also hating the idea of just giving it away for no reason, both knowing that they cant fight openly against the sacred ancestors will but still rebelling in every way they can just to make their own will known -- ive gone into more detail about that part specifically in another post. needless to say, i love rocambole :)

actually, ive seen a sudden boost in awareness of him recently, which is really really great -- ive seen people actually drawing him!! and since you follow me, youve seen my spam reblogs of said art, oops :p but it makes me really happy to see :)

#thank you <3 really

[sioster]

Fluff! And a guy with problems.

#karo art #dreblr #mad duo #madduo #armageddon's toll #transformice art #transformiceart #cwilbur fanart #cwilbur #cdream #dreambur #cdreambur #chapter 5 #philza

[liketolaugh-writes]

Diagram for Armageddon

I wrote the essay

It's four in the morning, I don't understand why I felt so compelled to do this

Anyway here's 1000 words on how World War I began

          For most people, all they will ever hear about the beginning of World War I is that it started with the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Ferdinand, and everything else is too complicated to explain. Someone with an interest in history might say that World War I was inevitable... and everything else is too complicated to explain. On the other end of the scale, Blueprint for Armageddon, a podcast series by Dan Carlin, contains more than twenty hours of audio and explains all of World War I in painstaking detail. This essay will attempt to strike a balance between the two, explaining the onset of World War I without either omitting anything important or including anything unnecessary.

          As per tradition, we’ll begin with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The detail about Archduke Ferdinand that most lessons leave out is that he was not simply a noble; Archduke Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and a vocal advocate for Serbia, insofar as he frequently warned that treating Serbia harshly would bring Austria-Hungary into conflict with Russia. This is relevant because Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalists, and many believed at the time that those nationalists were working for the Serbian government. Thus: a straightforward assassination becomes an act of war.

          We’ll now step back from the immediate lead-up to World War I to examine the factors that made it, as many historians and even the analysts of the era believed, inevitable. First of these factors is what is known as the ‘modern war machine.’ By the 1900s, military technology had advanced to an unprecedented level. A number of advancements and cultural changes had made war almost unrecognizable compared to the conflicts of previous centuries. Technology such as machine guns had made war deadlier than ever, while the French Revolution had introduced the potential of training and arming a nation’s population, rather than a separate army – a notion that was previously unthinkable. Globalization, with technology such as the telegram, had made mobilizing armies an action that took days instead of weeks. This resulted in a war where timing was vital, attacks brutal, and death tolls could mount until the warring nations simply had no people left to send. In previous centuries, armies comprised tens of thousands of people rather than millions; a war could be ended with a single bloody battle. That was not true in World War I.

          Shift focus to Germany, which bore the brunt of the historical blame for World War I. At the time, Germany was a relatively new nation. It was born out of the unification of several moderately powerful states, most notably Prussia, which resulted in an instant world power. It also had a Kaiser, an autocratic leader, that was insecure personally as well as internationally, which resulted in bold, impulsive decisions as it attempted to assert itself and its status.

          Rewinding even further, you unearth one of the most vital historical figures in early German history: Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was a diplomat whose political strategies now have entire classes dedicated to their analysis, and he could be considered a genius of diplomacy. Through many years of political machinations, Bismarck had created a complex system of alliances throughout Europe that placed Germany almost universally in a favorable position. At the time, there were five European superpowers: Germany, Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, and Great Britain, each of which had a number of smaller treaties with nations such as Serbia and Belgium. Accordingly, Bismarck had two core rules when it came to European diplomacy. One, to be one of three allied powers rather than one of two. Two, to always be on Russia’s side. At the time that World War I began, however, Otto von Bismarck had been fired decades previous, and Germany was only allied with one other power, Austria-Hungary.

          The final vital factor to Germany’s behavior in World War I was its physical position. It was completely encircled by its enemies, with Great Britain on the coast, France to the west, Russia to the east, and allies of those countries everywhere else. This made a war nearly impossible for them to win. However, they did have a strategy. Russia’s army was expected to take longer to mobilize than any other; if Germany defeated France before Russia could advance, then it could take on its enemies one at a time instead of fighting a two-front war. The catch of this strategy was that it had to be implemented as quickly as possible, as failing to defeat France in time would mean that Russia would overtake Germany before its army could return. This meant that once war was on the table, Germany could not waste any time with diplomacy before attacking.

          That brings us back around to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary considered the assassination an act of war, but was wary of declaring war on Serbia without checking with Germany, as Russia was certain to come to defend its smaller ally. In summary, Serbian nationalists assassinate an Austro-Hungarian archduke, and Austria-Hungary and Germany simultaneously declare war on Serbia, and therefore on both Russia and France by extension.

          There was one more catch that made World War I what it became. Great Britain, while having an informal alliance with France, was inclined to remain neutral in the coming war, as its navy was significantly more powerful than its land army. However, Germany’s border with France was one of the most well-fortified in the world, making it difficult to penetrate, particularly in a timely manner. In order to hit France as quickly as possible, Germany invaded Belgium, a neutral country officially under the protection of Great Britain. Once Germany invaded Belgium, Great Britain switched from being a neutral party to an official ally of France and Russia, and declared war on Germany.

          In conclusion, World War I was a war that was decades, even centuries in the making. The world situation was so precarious that any minor conflict could have resulted in its outbreak, and many previous triggers had been hastily averted. Poor leadership and recklessness meant that in 1914, the pin got pulled from the grenade, and for the first time, no one managed to put it back in.

#world history #i don't know why i wrote this #however now that i have i'm going to make it part of my professional writing portfolio #may as well get some use out of it??

[voskhozhdeniye]

Lost, lost doesn't quite describe it because to be lost means you had a direction in the first place.

I always talk about being taught as a child that Armageddon would occur before I grew up. That along with the narrow-mindedness of my parents and the people around me has shaped my entire life.

So now I sit here at thirty-three, and there is nothing. I look at my siblings, my nieces and others who escaped the religion, and they adjusted and moved on, but not me. This has destroyed me. My very foundation is rotten.

I've been in the process of moving out of my parent's for months now, but moving out isn't going to change the fact that they've destroyed me.

I'm not even going to bring up the political shit or climate change, but that looms heavily.

Education can't change this, a better job can't change this, so what the fuck am I suppose to do?

I get so sick of people who are like" just live your life."

The fuck do you think I've been doing?

The modulars have been the longest running distraction I've ever had, but their novelty is beginning to run out.

It's just anger all the fucking time now.

Some people try to help, but all that it'll get better shit just comes off as condescending.

If you truly pay attention to what's happening around you you'd know better.

I'm supposed to be trying to work towards some type of goal in this bullshit?

I can't remember if I put it on here or in my writing drafts, but I keep having people tell me to just hang on, but there nothing to fucking hang on to.

I'm tired of my life being a broken record. The only thing that's changed is now shit is collapsing down around me even faster.

I'm supposed to want this to continue going on because it might get better?

No one is there for me the way they require I be there for them, and that shit has taken its toll.

I was raised to expect to be dead by eighteen, so I've never had major dreams but goddamn the bar is in hell.

This waking up just to survive shit ain't it, and it's getting worse everyday.

No change of scenery, different job or anything like that is going to fix that.

I gotta go to work tonight, so I gotta deal with those dumb ass mother fuckers, and my mother is constantly fucking shit up and expecting me to fucking fix her mistakes, while claiming she's a grown woman that I can't tell what to do.

I'm hoping the stress kills me soon because I'm done with this shit.

[the-firebird69]

Godzilla (2014) - Opening credits

This is Paris Hilton's method or vehicle it's not really a Paris Hilton it's Michelle audette and she played Carol over and played Carrie mccloud's mom and it was really not her mother it was Michelle audette. She was less of a b**** believe it or not and this is the way that she planned to go to the South Pole saying you almost got married and I had to grab you inside the dinosaur s and possibly her and that's how he moved Dave that's saying but really it seems like Dave may have done it himself so that's what they're up to and it's there one of their vehicles it's not a complete one it's like they get executed and moved and people are saying they're going to move them to Israel an Armageddon will begin and it is on pretty soon and ships will want to get up and all sorts of things are going to happen they were getting ready the whole time now you're going into high gear to get ready more we have systems in place I'm going to use them and he wants people to grab every factory we can and we're going to do that and obviously we'd be in a panic isn't that right Billy Hicks this is obviously if it was happening which it is sort of... Good we're in a panic I'm throwing it in now this creature is out there at the a toll where they pointed out and it was to be revived and Michelle audette was going to move our son instead they have to move themselves and they know about it and the announce it to protect themselves and they would be moved to Israel so people want to intercept her and grab her for themselves and get the locations of the ships which are in the planet core that they've been building by stealing stuff from all of you including the max

Thor Freya

My husband had most of it but he narrated and it is helpful we needed a break

Hera Zues

That's very true this is tough

Olympus

#Youtube

[denimbex1986]

'Christopher Nolan’s latest masterwork, Oppenheimer, opens with a quote on Prometheus and the consequences of his most famous action—namely, stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humankind.

With bass-filled sound design and fiery visuals, the film satisfies viewers while touching on Greek mythology, the ethics of war and peace, the relationship—or lack thereof—between genius and wisdom, and the psychology of creating weapons of mass destruction.

The Promethean archetype in this context is a familiar one—the scientist takes the place of Prometheus and develops an unprecedented device to aid humanity without either anticipating or sufficiently caring about its destructive potential.

Seeing as I’ve promised you philosophy in this column, let’s examine a certain argument “Oppie” employs which captures the spirit of a philosophical tradition called consequentialism.

In the film, when asked if the bomb is big enough to end World War II, J. Robert Oppenheimer declares the weapon is big enough to end all wars. He predicts an unprecedented age of peacefulness achieved through mutually assured destruction.

Lurking here is the position that a nuclearized world—the world from which the moviegoer views Oppenheimer—is more peaceful than a non-nuclear world, which, though hypothetical for us, is the reality Oppenheimer lived and worked in.

This method—weighing the pros and cons of possible worlds—is a common practice in consequentialist philosophy. To determine the more appropriate alternative through this method, the decision maker should pursue whichever alternative produces the better consequences or outcome.

We can, at least in theory, try to calculate the value of a given situation by comparing it with alternative possibilities. This is most clear when one person must choose between two things.

As an example, let’s consider the question of whether one should cook dinner or get takeout.

If I cook dinner instead of getting takeout, I presumably do this because it creates a better outcome for my life in some way. I might gain 500 ‘units’ of happiness by cooking my own dinner, where I’d only gain 300 ‘units’ of happiness if I ordered takeout. I therefore get more good consequences for my action if I make my own dinner than if I order takeout, making this route more desirable through a consequentialist lens.

We see the same sort of reasoning from Oppenheimer’s position. Seeing two possible worlds—one nuclearized and one not—Oppenheimer weighs the suffering produced by warfare in each world and concludes a nuclear world produces less violence overall.

Though similar to my example above, this calculus considers what provides more happiness and less suffering for the whole world, instead of just one person.

In some ways, Oppenheimer’s reasoning seems justified. It’s reasonable to assume the onset of a third world war is more likely without nuclear weapons, given the absence of mutually assured destruction. Surely the death toll in such a conflict would be astronomical, and unnecessary suffering has indeed been thwarted by way of nuclearization.

In other ways, his reasoning is unjustified. While direct conflict between major world powers like America and Russia was, and continues to be, prevented by nuclearization, proxy wars have since produced violence and suffering despite the world’s unprecedented “peace.”

This “peace” is one maintained through the use of less powerful nations and their citizens as fodder—regions such as Iran, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine.

It goes without saying the 210,000 dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have something to say here.

More concerning still is the prospect that modern nuclear missiles won’t stay in their silos forever. Major world powers still possess nuclear weapons, and though they’re not currently in use, there’s no telling a nuclear armageddon won’t ensue in the future.

If Oppenheimer was aware—or at least suspicious—of this outcome, his argument becomes even less persuasive. Though major world powers no longer fight directly, they still fight. Since the glowing-green nuclear genie has been let out of the bottle, there’s always a risk for future nuclear destruction.

In Nolan’s film, we’re led to believe Oppenheimer was suspicious of great nuclear destruction, as he suffers from visions of the destructive force of his bomb on flesh and blood, as well as the planet overall.

Developing the bomb in the face of such suspicions can also have psychological consequences. This is notably evident when Oppenheimer leaves behind a cheering crowd to meet one fellow scientist crying in his partner’s arms, and another throwing up with bloodshot eyes.

Years after the war, in dialogue with Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer reveals the permanence of these psychological consequences. Referencing a prior conversation, he asks Einstein if he remembers early concerns about igniting the atmosphere upon nuclear detonation, thus ending the world.

Despite the possibility of atmospheric ignition being ruled out after testing, Oppenheimer tells Einstein he believes this worry has nonetheless come to pass, and the world-ending chain reaction he foresaw had begun.

The film then concludes with an apocalyptic vision—and perhaps an inevitable one—of nuclear weapons being detonated from pole to pole.

Chained to a proverbial rock and tortured for the rest of his life, Oppenheimer would live and die with this vision. Perhaps we’ll meet our own ends by its realization. Whichever way the dice fall, Oppenheimer serves as a cautionary tale against opening boxes whose contents we’re not prepared to handle.'

#Oppenheimer #Christopher Nolan #Prometheus #Einstein

[writer59january13]

Atomic brinkmanship double edged sword of Damocles

Grisly bared horror jawbones Kristallnacht totalitarian brandishes, flaunts, launches

global threat half cocked.

Vladimir Putin itching

to loose nuclear bomb

end of the world scenario ofttimes

iterated throughout history

though an atheist (actually Unitarian),

no doubt this, that or another psalm

countless times the Bible

references Armageddon and doomsday

impossible mission to remain

cool, collected and calm.

Whether affiliated with donkey or elephant

Democrat or Republican viz

blue war red respectively

political hot issues don't amount 
to a (Sam) hill of beans

when Sword of Damocles count

approaches zero hour

as global tensions mount

signaling increased chance

trigger finger will free
avast nuclear winter

(across world wide web) re:

leasing plethora, pyrocumulus

mushroom clouds tree

mend us planetary explosions

annihilating webbed wide
 world, an irrevocable

indeed earthlinked debacle
 spelling widespread species

multitudinous extinction
 ex post de facto after super

bowling powers (wannabe) vied

to wrest empowerment spanning

entire realm sans third rock
 from the father, sun and holy ghost,

who turned substantial pockets of flora and fauna

once populating oblate spheroid ad hoc 

significant swaths of life forms

pulverized and/or turned to ash
 transformed into radioactive wasteland giving T.S. Eliot a run for his money

after war mongers brash

lee usurped hegemony

(ruling inhabitants

of Gaia with an iron fist
 with a smidgen of flavoring

courtesy of Missus Dash

superfluous taste enhancer,

when sibling burnt offering views

between Venus and Mars incendiary

tolled mourning news

smithereens sole remnant

poisoned every square inch
 from weapon of mass destruction

that did cruise

engendering thick noxious fog

disabling fox but not cockroach

while smoldering seas and continents skull and crossbones didst poach amidst the gasified, liquified, pureed

where holographic ghoulish super bowl coach

rendering lifelessness home for menagerie

where virtue trounced vice as organisms

(particularly one primate) didst try
 (predominant 21st century simians)

tool heave with amity, comity, and empathy

animals and plants an experiment

that went awry

presaging a nuclear winter with nary a winner

implicating mankind as the absolute sinner

instantaneously after Doomsday Clock

signaled point of no return
 where grim reaper the sole grinner

feasting on human flesh for dinner.