#they were slavers!!

[sleepynegress]

Okay... ABOUT The Woman King...

This is just my yelling into the void about internet stupidity, the gullibility of black folks, falling for and proliferating Nazi-ass propaganda... etc. etc... So, I'll keep this short.

I LOVE sword and sandal movies. When I hear that Persian woman singing on the soundtrack (you know the one) and see muscle men wearing some sandals with a short sword in hand, I snuggle into the couch with a snack and await a good-ass hero's journey and some chopped heads... I'm also AWARE of the fact that pretty much every powerful culture we observe through an entertainment lens, espec. back in those days (and those fantasy inspired narratives too), was actually involved in some cultural genocide, enslavement, subjugation, misogyny, and much much more... I'm grown enough and just plain have enough regular-ass logic to be able to seperate those facts from the media (FICTIONAL MEDIA AT THAT! hun what you think based upon mean?!) NOW, that black women are centered I see them Nazi fucks, Hotep-head-ass bm, and bw pick-mes not reading the fact that none of these "here's the real evil behind the fictional movie." takes, never happened for the all those other movies... in which black woman did not star and weren't centered. Really, think about how weird and actually sad in a Mean Girls "Why are you so obsessed w/ us?" way that these weak-ass Nazi bitches are basically keeping a burn-book about black women's stuff... Black women stuff... In other words, you got to go out of your way, which is the majority, to insert yourself into what you see as a niche to just hate on it. ...Imagine the energy? It's like having every flavor of ice cream known to man in your possession. catered to your tastes... only to walk your ass across the street and down the block, with that melting cone of ice cream (of which is always available to you) that is your favorite flavor. .. to knock that one cone that somebody else is holding to the ground, a flavor you don't even like, and wasn't planning on eating, just because. You know how weird it would be if black women were making bots, and spreading disinformation about Northman?? Like... we didn't because we. don't. give afUUUUUU.... So why do they??? Weirdos. Anyway. The Woman King kicks ass, block or report all the obsessed ass haters and gulliables.

#they were slavers!! #yeah bitch who WASN't back then?? lol #and yet you enjoyed those movies w/o being a whiny bitch #what's different now? hmmmm #petty #rambling #the woman king #ey yall remember that part in Troy when Brad Pitt Achilles had an enslaved priestess that he Stokholmed in his tent?? #pepperridge farm remembers #also achilles wasn't straight #this is just ONE of HUNDREDS of examples of bs in this genre of movies #so yeah we can enjoy our bs too thank you #literally bs in historical films about shitty people is basic practice #and this movie actually took the time to talk about it and deal w/ it #instead of just pretending it didn't happen #which is AGAIN basic practice when the people in the genre aren't black women #googled sandals and I still don't know how to spell it #HALP #I think it's sandals #I think

[buccellato]

Fucks me up to think about how Legato's legacy in-universe after his death in Trimax (and presumably Tristamp) is probably gonna be how much he sucked and nothing else....

Like, nobody will like Knives but Vash will be long-lived enough to be able to eventually talk about his good qualities from when he was a child and his quasi-redemption in his last days. But who remembers Legato? Livio and Vash are the only living people with any extended memory of him and neither of them would have anything nice to say (and rightfully so). Neither of them probably knew he was a slave, either—as far as Vash can tell this dude showed up one day and hated his guts, for all he knows he's just another survivor from July! Outside of Knives, Elendira, Legato, and maybe Conrad, I don't think any other character knows his actual life story.

And to add on to that, there's no way of looking up that past either—he had no name or personhood before he was effectively rescued, so who could investigators or reporters or archivists track down for information? The human being that was Legato only existed for as long as he knew Knives, before that he was something to be kept and abused as an object. There's presumably no surviving family they can reliably contact, nobody to really say "yes I knew him, here's what his life was like, here's how we can prevent something like this from happening again".

His entire existence will be reduced down to "a human weapon that was freakishly loyal to public enemy #1" without any reflection on the mechanisms that made him the way he was because there's just no actual knowledge of his life.

#trigun #trigun maximum #trigun spoilers #legato bluesummers #fucked up to think about how absolutely conditional his personhood was throughout his life. Good parallel to Wolfwood and Livio and Vash th #sometimes I think about that potential little sister he (maybe) had...if she existed (and was alive) would she even recognize him? #also really hope the whole “most of the humans on this planet died off and also Earth fleets showed up” fixes the slavery issue because oof #the Roderick gang was so open about it too...had they gotten more bold as of recent (in the story) or were they always so cocky? #not that it probably mattered since all they had to do was avoid the handful of city military police and the one independent who cared #I think Vash probably would've done something (and then pretend he didn't) if he knew more...but he's also not omniscient #I do think he'd stop slavers if he saw them but he'd actually have to run into them first...or learn to actually investigate for real #the Earth forces are actually desperately needed here if only just to fix this #CLEARING OUT MY DRAFTS (2 posts) LET'S GO

[fromtheseventhhell]

"The best calumnies are spiced with truth," suggested Qavo, "but the girl's true sin cannot be denied. This arrogant child has taken it upon herself to smash the slave trade, but that traffic was never confined to Slaver's Bay. It was part of the sea of trade that spanned the world, and the dragon queen has clouded the water. Behind the Black Wall, lords of ancient blood sleep poorly, listening as their kitchen slaves sharpen their long knives. Slaves grow our food, clean our streets, teach our young. They guard our walls, row our galleys, fight our battles. And now when they look east, they see this young queen shining from afar, this breaker of chains. The Old Blood cannot suffer that. Poor men hate her too. Even the vilest beggar stands higher than a slave. This dragon queen would rob him of that consolation." (Tyrion VI, ADWD) Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis." She touched the faded scar upon her wrinkled cheek, where her tears had been cut away. "Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon." (Tyrion VII, ADWD)

I appreciate how George explicitly makes the point that slavery isn't just about the economic aspect and that it is, at its root, built on subjugation. Even the people who don't directly benefit from it will fight to keep the system in place just so they have someone beneath them. That's why all the criticisms of Dany not replacing the economy before abolishing slavery fall flat, because that wouldn't have worked either. The slavers would've fought to enforce slavery regardless because they enjoyed the power and privilege it granted them. We also get insight onto the slaves thoughts on Dany's revolution, which makes it feel like this perspective is only coming from the consideration of the slavers and not the people actually being subjugated. The slaves want to be free, they want Dany to free them, and that shouldn't have to wait until the people who think of them as property decide it's acceptable.

#daenerys targaryen #pro daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #george rr martin #I just know some of y'all were in history class playing devil's advocate when the teacher was covering slave rebellions #there's no other explanation for why people in this fandom advocate so hard for the slavers and ignore the slaves #slavers: uwu I'm nervous being around my slaves who I think of property cause this new Queen is giving them ideas #and those are the people fandom is choosing to defend 🙄 #never mind that she's actually working to rebuild the economy and instead of working with her the slavers are digging their heels in and #fighting to reinstate slavery...but these are the people y'all want Dany to compromise with (knowing you would call her a slaver if she did #/dragons don't plant trees so Dany doesn't know how to rebuild/ and she's literally replanting the trees that the /slavers/ burned sdksdkds

[anakinsthot]

34 and obikin for the fic list! 👀👀👀

Thank you for this prompt!

from this prompt list

34. meeting at a masquerade ball au (760 words)

Someone had allowed the event planner to hire a quartet of jizz-wailers for the masquerade. The off-key kloo horn player was adding to the headache that Obi-Wan’s elaborate suit and matching mask had brought on at the beginning of the night. The only upside to the mask Obi-Wan had been required to don for it was that it hid his facial expressions. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to hide his distaste for the worst of the songs otherwise.

The mask otherwise was nothing but a hindrance. The Order had sent him because they’d gotten a tip that there would be an illicit deal taking place during the ball: that the Zygerrians were selling force sensitives to the Neimoidians. For what purpose was unknown, and Obi-Wan was tasked with stopping the deal and gathering information. He had his suspicions on which Trade Federation and Zygerrian representatives would be here, but it was difficult to identify anyone with the ornate masks and disguises every being in the room wore.

Obi-Wan was startled out of his perusal of the dance floor – he’d been tracking three different Zygerrians on the floor, and he was about to rule out one of them as his mark - by someone bumping into his elbow and spilling their drink on him.

“So sorry, I didn’t see you there. Here, let me help you clean up.” Before Obi-Wan could say anything the stranger had looped their arm through his and was pulling Obi-Wan toward the freshers.

“I’m quite alright,” Obi-Wan protested, “It’s just white wine, I can just grab a napkin here to clean it up.”

“Kriff,” the stranger muttered. “I knew I should have grabbed a different drink.”

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes and dug his heels in. Regardless, the other man kept dragging him. Unwilling to cause a scene, Obi-Wan gave in and followed. When they made it through the fresher door the stranger took off his blue and green mask, covered in large feathers, and revealed his face.

“Again, I’m so sorry Master Kenobi, but I’ve got important information for you.” Earnest blue eyes met his and Obi-Wan swallowed back the biting retort he’d been prepared to reply with.

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” he said instead. The stranger bit their plush lip, drawing in Obi-Wan’s eyes, while they debated whether to reveal their identity or not.

“Knight Anakin Skywalker,” the man said finally, offering his hand out for Obi-Wan to shake. Instead, he grasped his fingers gently and bent down to press a soft kiss to the back of Anakin’s hand. “I – I’m a shadow from the Tatoo system. I’ve been tracking the Zygerrians you’re here for.”

Obi-Wan pushed his own mask up so he could speak to Anakin face to face. It was a relief to have another Jedi here. Normally this mission would have been assigned to a Master with a senior Padawan, or two Knights, but with rising tensions throughout the galaxy the Jedi were spread thin.

“Pleased to meet you Anakin,” he said warmly. “People might start to notice if we hide in the fresher for too long, why don’t you fill me in on the dance floor?”

Anakin smiled and put his mask back on before looping an arm through Obi-Wan’s. “I’ll follow your lead, Master.”

On the dance floor, Obi-Wan drew Anakin close and guided him into a simple dance step. Anakin followed his lead easily. They spun around the floor and Anakin pointed out the Zyerrian he’d followed across two systems, and told Obi-Wan what he’d learned about the trafficking operation. They had some time until the handoff, and Obi-Wan decided to keep them on the dance floor and wait for the mark to leave before they followed.

Tipping his face down, Anakin whispered into Obi-Wan’s ear. “What do you say after we kick some slaver ass and free some force sensitives, you give me a ride on your ship after?” He let one of his hands slide down Obi-Wan’s chest, making his intentions clear.

Obi-Wan pulled back slightly to get a better look at Anakin. “Surely they teach shadows how to flirt better than that?”

Anakin shrugged. “It’s working, isn’t it?”

“Force help me, it is. Though you could have gotten what you wanted without opening your mouth.” Anakin smirked at him and started to say something. “Don’t say anything,” Obi-Wan said exasperatedly.

Anakin wiggled his eyebrows and pulled Obi-Wan off the floor. “Come on,” he said excitedly, “it’s go time. We can talk about what to do with my mouth after we take care of this.”  

#by take care of this anakin does mean murder the zygerrian and the buyer #i'm thinking he was found and trained by a jedi shadow #and the order has him remain a shadow so they can turn a blind eye to some of his methods that the senate wouldn't approve of #i.e. light saber first ask questions never when he's taking down hutts and slavers regardless of their ties to republic commerce #obi-wan is a little bit horrified and a lot turned on by how ruthlessly efficient anakin is #and they manage to save the force sensitives that were being sold ofc #obikin #prompt fill

[dykedvonte]

The Khans - My Introspective

I don't like the Military and I don't support a lot of the actions the NCR does to the Mojave in New Vegas but in terms of the Khans I feel like the fandom infantilizes or diminishes the fact that they are or at least one of the most violent raider groups in the Mojave.

What happened at Bitter Springs was a tragedy, innocent lives were lost and the fact that the NCR swept it under the rug and continued to hunt down Khans that are truly trying to back down and resettle is horrendous, but there is a history to the NCR's aggression towards them.

The Khans first appear in Fallout 1, the main faction of raiders in the game besides the mentioned Vipers (who don't actually appear if I remember correctly). They came from Vault 15 along with the members that would form rival groups; The Vipers, The Jackals, and Shady Sands. They are a very large and foreboding raiding party, known for burning towns and encampments they attack and taking survivors as their slaves or slaves to sell. They are a big reason why the Jackals and Vipers are actually so small in New Vegas, they wiped them out.

Their main targets where Shady Sands and Junker town, the former of the two would be what became The New California Republic. This explains a big part of their animosity towards the Khans, only furthered by the fact the Khans kidnapped Tandi as a young girl, the girl that would go to offically found the NCR out of Shady Sands. When the dweller saved her and killed much of the Khans, this allowed the NCR to develop into what it currently is as they no longer needed to focus on fighting off constant raids.

When the Khans became the New Khans in Fallout 2, they barely resembled the Khans as they were led by Darion, Garl Death-Hand's son (former leader of the Khans). They were smaller and refortified vault 15, still planning to take down the NCR (at this time nowhere near as imperialist as they are in FNV) as mostly a revenge/power ploy. They manipulate The Squat, a group of y'know squatters, that lived in the upper levels, promising and lying about repairing the vault and offering them ransacked caravan resources if they kept the NCR away. Being their only life line The Squat had no choice. Still the chosen one got rid of them and they left New California for the untapped Mojave.

The Great Khans, the most current iteration, continued in the path as the original Khans, regrouping and gaining information from the Followers who hoped they'd use their new medical knowledge to heal themselves. They gained more members and a substantial part of Vegas territory before they were run out by the three families. They were pushed to Bitter Springs where they first and foremost continued to pick off and attack NCR settlements, most of which consisted of caravans, towns, and camps as they saw them as easy like in their old days. It was the killing of four influential Republic members (non-military) that brought on Bitter Springs.

Bitter Springs was the result of years of hatred and animosity and likely the goal to send a final message to the Khans. It does not excuse the fact that innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered with few survivors. It does not excuse the fact that the NCR has yet to make amends for this and continues to try and persecute the Khans even in moments of surrender.

This post is not to defend what happened but to give a quick rundown of the Khan's history and their history with the NCR. It's to remind people that the NCR is not just their military power but an actual group/settlement of people that were also attacked indiscriminately by the Khans. It's to point out that the Khans were not a band of indigenous people (no matter the comparisons) driven from their homes but raiders who fed into the brutal cultures of the west coast wasteland and were in turn treated to the same things.

My frustration comes from the fact that FNV has so many comparisons to indigenous struggles but the groups it chooses are not comparable at all. Their oppression hinges on not being familiar with their past, which explains why they have the reputation they do in canon. The "tribes" are often not even groups of minorities or have goals/desires out of acquisitions of power and I feel like it is important to both acknowledge that this is bad indigenous rep because it is not supposed to be. It is supposed to be a comparison of the in-game groups and how they all do the same things and justify it in their own fucked up ways, some better at it than others.

FNV of all the Fallout games (in light of it being heavily Western based) distastefully uses indigenous imagery and theming for groups that are sad mimicries of American indigenous cultures at best and outright offensive at worst.

#this is also to say the NCR is barely different but they imply New California is a city and safe and that once the NCR military leaves #they will properly try to settle and revitalize the area unlike the goals of almost every other group #the issues arise from the tensions of the hoover dam battles the legion and the corrupt leaders chosen in what is a terse time #but the khans are interesting to me and I like the named khans we have in FNV but they are treated to be almost innocent at points due to #all the Ls they keep taking despite admitting to their raider roots and being PROUD #they partnered with the Legion and before i hear they didnt know they were slavers at a point too and likely didnt care if they believed it #would not affec their own. the Mojave is an unforgivnig place and sometimes you make unforgivable alliances since they alienated all their #other options through their continued and consistent behaviors #like i could go on how bad the native rep is but I would not use any of the tribes cause they barely count the only difference from the NCR #is they organize themself differtently like id use the tribes in Honest Hearts cause holy shit is it bad and racist like at least the Mojav #tribes are just white dickheads brutalizing each other and not the characatures of native people the Sorrows Dead Horse and White legs are #like yikes I hated playing white savior the dlc #this is also semi personal because i dont see a lot of POC people in the fandom talking about the Khans and so I dont know if the proper #perspectives can be added because just because something can represent a culture or group doesn't mean it does or that it was the primary #thing they were trying to get across #like feel free to ask and talk to me more about it cause grrr #fallout #fallout new vegas #the great khans #the khans #new california republic #the ncr #fallout 1 #fallout 2 #papa khan

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

Love a character introduced as an antagonist who ends up allied with the protagonists, not because they ever actually switched sides or had some big revelation about being in the wrong, but because their faction completely imploded and, through a convoluted series of grudges and team-ups, plus the introduction of new antagonists, the lines got redrawn enough that they all ended up on the same side

#you blow up my ship so i get stranded and survive on my own until slavers capture me and then i get rescued by pirates who unbenownst to me #owe you a favor from an unrelated thing and now im part of the auxiliary rebel fleet somehow ig #but all my new friends are here and all my old friends are dead so thats just how it goes #'i joined your heist team because we were trying to get revenge on the same guy for unrelated reasons' #'and now the leader has brought in a new guy and whoops its my antagonist'

[prettyhighforawhiteguyblog]

You know why we are taught to despise the French?

and poo poo their military prowess? Even though they are lovely people & have historically been glorious, brave, and victorious on the battlefield?

And were our partner in our own revolution?

It is because they killed their masters.

And they hold their police in check.

And protest for everything. And chase their police away. And get what they want. And have a pretty nice life.

They had a violent, coordinated people's revolution. Actually several. They kept trying and dying till one finally succeeded. They put the Aristocrats to death.

All the Aristocrats. Not just the bad ones. All of them. Even Marie Antoinette who was just a spoiled princess who quipped a stupid joke that got turned into revolutionary propaganda. She got disposal as well. Some people are just too dangerous to let live.

Because Aristocrats have babies! And those babies will network and rebuild Aristocracy and no Aristocracy may be allowed to exist if the people are to thrive.

That's why. Our Aristocrats don't want us getting Frenchy ideas.

Maybe we should.

#you know why we all hate Haiti? #because the Haitian people killed their white masters #they were forced under threat of war to reimburse their masters #via tribute #that impoverished them for centuries. #they didn't pay it off till 1947 #France sold the debt to a bank in the US in 1922 #that bank kept on collecting that debt with US military backing for 25 fucking years #making them pay for killing their slavers #they couldn't just forgive that? #didn't we just fight a fucking Civil War 50 years ago over slavery being bad? #slavery is bad won #mostly because we had to free the slaves to save ourselves when the South proves too good an openent with far superior generals #anyway that bank is Citibank #Citibank #is built on blood money collected from Africans who killed their slavers #Citibank kept Haiti in poverty #to punish Haiti for killing their masters #so you know who and what Citibank is now. fucking Citibank #fucking Aristocrats #Frenchy ideas are looking good right about now #phfwg original #ph4awg original #les miserables #time to make it popular #it has a very catchy kickass soundtrack #just ask any theater kid #does anyone read all these tags? #not to brag but I hide some of my best stuff in the tags and think people would have fun reading them #and maybe get their mind blown

[bl4ckbox]

as a veteran of the media opinions website I have to respect the right to varying media opinions but one thing I will not compromise on is that diegetics as a serious form of literary analysis or critique is largely fucking stupid and just straight up wrong

#maybe its just having seen the obsession with 'death of the author' as 'actually stories materialize out of the ether and we can #never consider any real world context or writer intent when looking at media' #both from slavering harry potter fans and video game misogynists frothing about how boobie armor isnt demeaning -- its EMPOWERING! #the character is choosing to wear it! feminism! #like it's all in good fun to try and come up with in universe explanations for questions posed by the story but come the fuck on #literally the curtains were blue petulant high schooler mindset this website hasn't grown out of #.txt #atlas shrugs

[theladyofbloodshed]

Tamlin and Nesta are the most misunderstood characters of the series.

It's because Rhys has said they're bad so Feyre and a big chunk of fandom have accepted it as law.

#anon asks #like jurian is CRAZY he's MAD he's INSANE #actually seems pretty normal all things considered #did what he had to do for his people #who were slaves #killed a psychotic slaver #okay so why is lucien his best buddy if he is completely unhinged and wicked

[butterflydm]

WoT reread: pre-Sanderson books

spoilers through knife of dreams

I deliberately took a break in between the Jordan books and the Sanderson ones, mostly so that I won’t be ‘grading on a curve’, basically, and will be able to judge Sanderson’s characterization on its own terms rather than just being relieved that I no longer have to read CoT/KoD Mat & Perrin. I would honestly have preferred Mat standing in a field picking his nose for two books rather than the character assassination that we got in CoT/KoD, so my bar for the male characters was VERY low going into the Sanderson books, back when they first came out.

Anyway, as I enter The Gathering Storm, I just want to note what everyone should be doing next, per their most recent PoVs in the previous main-story book, and also my general feelings on the characters as of where we ended in KoD:

Rand: desperately trying to make a truce with the Seanchan, even if he has to return women to slavery to do it. Other than that, he’s basically been refusing to do anything plot-related for the last two books, mostly just treading water instead (despite there being several plot-related things that he COULD have been doing). I’m frustrated with how Rand’s plotline has ground to a halt so that we can spend way too much time with Perrin and Mat’s pointless sidequests. Theory: Jordan couldn’t figure out how to get Rand to what happens in the ending, so he focused on Mat and Perrin in order to avoid thinking about Rand.

Egwene: she is currently captive in the White Tower and her next plot point was very clearly stated in KoD - she will be serving Elaida at her next dinner that evening. Her current plot is essentially the same as the plot she's had the last six books -- become undisputed Amyrlin Seat of a united White Tower. This is really one of those plotlines that’s good but, wow, really should have taken place over fewer books.

Elayne: she's won over the Houses and now just needs to be officially crowned and then buckle down to the work of getting Andor ready to help during the Last Battle. Proud of her, love her so much. Egwene and Elayne (and the prologues) were basically the only good parts of CoT & KoD for me. Rand & Nynaeve had one or maybe two good scenes each in that entire section.

Mat: in CoT & KoD, he lost almost every good quality that he had EXCEPT for his loyalty to Rand; instead of keeping his promises being about him (secretly) being a man of deep integrity, it has essentially become a weird fey thing where he apparently feels a compulsion to keep his word but puts it off for as long as possible first. He completely threw away all his character growth from the earlier books and considers slavers to be more worthwhile companions than Aes Sedai. Expects that the next time he will see his 'wife' is being faced off against her troops on the battlefield and is somewhat sad about this (because he's talked himself into liking her despite her being a genuinely awful person) but he's prepared to do it anyway. I am DEEPLY disappointed in Mat, for the most part. His characterization basically fell off a cliff in CoT. He does still have enough loyalty to Rand and enough intelligence that he didn't actually betray anything to Tuon during their time together -- he didn't tell her Rand was his friend (Talmanes did, sorta by accident) and he didn't tell her about his medallion (Setalle Anan did, in a very bizarre characterization reversal of her own where she went from vehemently anti-slavery in WH to kissing Tuon’s ass and giving up other people’s secrets to her. I will note that trying to ‘reason’ someone out of bigotry doesn’t require throwing your previous friends under the bus and betraying them! -- post-WH Setalle Anan is kinda Opposite Day to the Setalle Anan that we got to know in ACoS & WH, who thought of Mat as a loveable rapscallion and who hated slavery, as opposed to CoT/KoD Setalle Anan, who automatically sides with Tuon against Mat because they’re both women but is willing to have ~reasonable discussions~ with Tuon about the pros and cons of slavery and is also literally fetching and carrying for a slaver) -- but CoT!Mat is just straight-up an inferior character to pre-CoT!Mat. Jordan just... really trashed Mat in these two books and it feels like most of the reason that he did it was so that Tuon wouldn’t be required to experience any character growth because Mat just rolls over for her instead of challenging her (there is so much rolling over and not challenging Tuon in these two books. And the few people who DO challenge her are all people that she instinctively non-persons anyway, so it has no impact on her) and spends the majority of his page time attempting to appease her. And destroying a main character in order to prop up a minor character is such a poor narrative choice. Just... everything about how Mat was written in CoT & KoD has frustrated me so much. Poor writing choices that turned a favorite character into one of the worst in the series. IMO, the outriggers were the worst idea that Jordan ever had, because it led to him tanking a major plotline and major characters in his main story. Mat transforms from being a “good and great man” (to paraphrase Nestelle from WH) who risks himself to free slaves into being a selfish and weak-willed patsy for his slaver ‘wife’, who looks the other way when she reclaims ownership over all the slaves in her ‘rescue party’. Anyway, his next plan is to go north to Caemlyn to the Tower of Ghenjei to help Thom save Moiraine & then he was going to reunite with Rand, because he has a lot of Last Battle-related help that he can deliver to him (or maybe the other way around). 

Nynaeve: has not had a plot of her own in a while; the last time she had a plot that wasn't basically "help this man over here" was TPoD.

Perrin: finished his own soul (& woman) selling story in KoD; has been reunited with Faile (the only thing he cares about), so should FINALLY be heading back to Rand, one way or the other. I am disappointed in Perrin, but that's nothing new. He did sink to a new low in KoD, now officially being a slaver himself, having sold two hundred-ish women into slavery. So... there’s that.

For secondary/tertiary characters who we know about:

Aviendha: traveling with the Aiel in Arad Doman and 'catching up' on her Wise One training.

Galad: leading seven thousand Whitecloaks, having 'deserted' from the Seanchan forces and planning to work with Rand & the Aes Sedai to fight in the Last Battle.

Ituralde: working with the Dragonsworn to try to rid Tarabon of Seanchan and firm up Arad Doman as a bulwark against the Seanchan invasion.

Pevara & Co: in the Black Tower, having just made a deal with Taim to bond with Asha'man.

Tam: recently found out his son is the Dragon Reborn (not from Perrin)

Gawyn: still taking orders from Elaida, does not yet know Egwene is prisoner in the White Tower.

Lan Mandragoran: riding from the furthest west part of the Borderlands over to the furthest east part of the Borderlands, to fight against the Shadow.

Cadsuane: still hasn’t taught Rand ‘laughter and tears’, which is literally her only goal.

Loial: plans to talk to the Great Stump to try to convince the Ogier not to abandon the world right before the Last Battle.

Forsaken: Moridin has declared that no one is to hurt Rand but definitely please try to kill off Perrin and Mat; at least some of the Forsaken are all "lol nah I'm gonna try to kill Rand anyway".

Tuon the slaver overlord: being an asshole High Blood/Empress and in deep denial that, by her own beliefs, she should turn herself over to become a damane; her main goal is probably forcing Rand to kneel in front of her; general villain-type goals of invasion and enslavement of others, etc. It really is a shame that Jordan decided to yeet any potential for her character into the void. She was intriguing in Winter’s Heart. And then never again, lol.

Bashere: there was an assassination attempt on his wife back in the CoT prologue that made him agree to something that he’d been asked by “the man who spoke to me yesterday” and we haven’t really checked in with him since then.

Olver: in LoC, he was a war orphan who was a believable child who seemed like a genuinely interesting addition to Mat’s story. In ACoS, all he cared about were boobs. In WH, he barely even noticed that the Seanchan had invaded, because he still only cared about boobs. In CoT, he briefly acknowledges that the Seanchan are the bad guys hunting them but does not at all react to them similarly to how he reacted to the Aiel in LoC - he shows no signs of anger over Mat having been injured by the Seanchan invasion, despite anger towards the Aiel due to his parents dying in the Aiel invasion being a big thing for him in LoC. In KoD, he’s buddy-buddy with Head Slaver and once again obsessing over boobs (this time, leering at a slave’s boobs, which. you know. charming). The only book where I’ve been able to stand Olver was LoC tbh. He's been just a weird & exaggerated parody of Mat in every book past that.

Minor general spoilers below for some things I vaguely recall about the last three books (no spoilers about the ending):

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I’ve read the Origins book & glanced over Sanderson’s retrospective on writing the last three books, and he mentioned some specific bits that were already written by Jordan, so I will probably keep that in mind as I read. I’ve only read the Sanderson WoT books once, so I’ll be finding out now if the experience is different this time around. 

I do feel like some of the criticisms that I’ve seen of his writing are already very present in CoT & KoD, though, specifically:

Mat’s character being noticeably more sexist (honestly, all the male characters feel like they’ve gotten more sexist the last few books; Mat is just the most obvious example).

Mat feeling wildly out of character to who he’d previously been.  Wildly out of character. To who he’d been in Winter’s Heart. Which took place one week before Crossroads of Twilight picks his story up again, and suddenly Mat doesn’t give a shit about the Aes Sedai that he risked his own escape to help ONE WEEK AGO. He’s completely forgotten that his little sister (among other women he cares about, like Elayne, who he had an entire book about coming to terms with, and like Egwene and Nynaeve) is a channeler who Tuon would happily debase and destroy until she groveled at Tuon’s feet. Mat’s reactions to almost everything Tuon does are just such character assassination that I can’t even acknowledge CoT/KoD!Mat as the same character as EotW-WH!Mat. His reactions just seem... so bizarrely off from anything he would have done previously. It really does feel like Jordan parachuted in a pod!Mat from a parallel world. I LOVED EotW-WH!Mat. You couldn’t pay me to be in a room with CoT/KoD!Mat.

Nynaeve not having a storyline of her own or doing much of anything unrelated to the men in her life.

Sanderson didn’t fix any of those problems (from what I recall) and it would have been nice if he had, but he didn’t create them either.

Some other things that I personally dislike in the series as of KoD and that I am curious to see how Sanderson handles compared to Jordan:

Slavery being an Acceptable Evil, especially with Mat, in particular as of CoT/KoD, only caring about slavery when it threatens him personally and not giving a shit about other people anymore (and he cared a LOT in Winter’s Heart. The contrast between how deeply he cares about saving the Aes Sedai & Windfinders in WH vs treating the Aes Sedai like unwanted pests in CoT is incredibly jarring). But, in general, it feels like Jordan decided that the main PoV male characters aren’t going to care about slavery if the slaves are primarily women which is... such an ugly look. It feels like the Seanchan storyline went off the rails hard in CoT & KoD, and I don’t personally feel like “but the planned outriggers!!” is a valid excuse for destroying a main storyline and main characters so badly. Having ALL THREE of the main male PoV characters coming to the conclusion that other people being enslaved is the ~price they are willing to pay~ for what needs to be done is...  it’s very much that Lord Farquaad meme, yes? “Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” Mat deciding that he needs to defend and protect the slaver overlord hurts other people, not Mat. Perrin selling two hundred women into slavery is hurting them, not Perrin; Rand sending the damane back into slavery... etc. They are not ‘making sacrifices for the greater good’, they are sacrificing other people. They are saying that these specific people (who are all women) are not worthy of being allowed to have free will and lives of their own. And that author putting that storyline in three different plotlines implies things that wouldn’t be implied if only one of the main guys was doing it. “Women’s freedom is negotiable” is basically the message in Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s storylines in CoT & KoD. “When we say we want to save the world, we don’t mean women.” And I did not get the feeling that was the original intention of the damane/Seanchan storyline! Which is why CoT & KoD rank so incredibly low on my ranking order. Because it feels like Jordan broke the narrative promises that he made about this storyline all the way through Winter’s Heart. I think Jordan exploring this idea (of his characters willing to sacrifice women’s freedom for the sake of saving the rest of the world) could have worked in a critique kind of way if it had only been in ONE of the plotlines while the other two plotlines were about things other than allying with the Seanchan. Mat’s character is the one that gets the most distorted by this plotline, so I would have tossed his out entirely. Perrin’s is mostly in character -- his entire plot here was that he would be willing to do anything for Faile, even vile and evil things -- but I think Jordan actively deciding to have him LIKE Tylee even as her people are carting off her new slaves in the background was a character-breaking choice. Rand’s plotline would genuinely be fine (because he’s the most reluctant of the three PoVs on allying with the slavers)... except that Min and Nynaeve should have mentioned the sul’dam secret. It’s wildly frustrating how useless they are in the Seanchan plotline when they literally know THE key secret about the military and economic might of the empire. Jordan had them suffer convenient amnesia so that he could do his ‘allying with the slavers’ plotline.

The domestic violence that is endemic in the majority of the male-female relationships in the series. In particular, I am curious to see if Sanderson ever has the female characters hauling off and straight-up punching their ‘love interests’ in the ribs the way that Jordan so frequently had them do. This is an issue that really started around A Crown of Swords and has gotten steadily worse (in The Shadow Rising, Faile punching Perrin is called out as a bad thing by Perrin and by the end of the book, neither of them are being violent with the other, but in ACoS and beyond, violence is just treated as the norm in romantic relationships). 

Related but adjacent, I am also curious to see if beating/spanking remains as large a fixture in the series as Jordan had made it in the last few books.

Women being politically/magically diminished in order to be in a relationship with non-political/non-magical men (ex. Morgase and Tallanvor; Siuan and Gareth; technically Juilin and Amathera but that feels like the most understandable of the examples).

Women being stuffed into Fates Worse Than Death while men just get to be killed off (and the Seanchan becoming a dumping ground for “out of control” women that Jordan didn’t want to kill off).

Min being a liability to Rand but the narrative keeps telling us she’s Best Girl, Just Trust Me.

Tuon being a genuinely cruel and malicious person, but Mat keeps telling us she’s Better Than Most Nobles, Just Trust Me.

Okay, I think that’s everything I wanted to note before I started my The Gathering Storm reread.

#wot reread #wot #wheel of time #the wheel of time #wot book spoilers #knife of dreams #rand al'thor #perrin aybara #mat cauthon #egwene al'vere #elayne trakand #nynaeve al'meara #slaver empress tuon #seanchan warning #wot spoilers #ah and since i'm mostly talking about the situation we were left with in knife of dreams and crossroads of twilight #(easily my least-liked entries in the series so far in the my reread) #i will add #jordan critical #as a tag #i am deeply passionate about how much I despise some of Jordan's choices in these two books lol

[between-the-kola-and-the-sea]

Sometimes in this discourse, we fall into a game of who betrayed who. Did the Arab Jews betray the Arab world by emigrating to Palestine? Or did the non-Jewish Arabs betray Arab Jews by enabling Zionist and nationalist ideology and turning on the local Jewish community?  We can continue playing these games of who hurt who. Or we can choose mutual healing and solidarity. The fight against Western colonialism and imperialism is still pervasive in the Arab region, as the movement to free Palestine is critical. Will we allow it to divide us by internalising the narrative of Jews vs. Muslims or will we be able to build the unity we need to combat colonialism together?  I place myself in an anti-colonial struggle that refuses to fall into the colonial mindset of erasing Jewish history in the Arab region, and I hope you do too. - Hadar Cohen, Arab Jews should not be forgotten

#free palestine #anti zionism #readings #this resonates a little #congo liberians (those “returned” off of captured slaver ships and carribean freedmen) were also mistreated by the ACS #and shut out of economic opportunity #the myriad of conflicting feelings when oppressed people take part of colonial projects #at least in my opinion #needs to be studied more often #prioritizing their voices and the voices of those they hurt in the process #especially when internal biases and otherization is at play #food for thought #hadar cohen my beloved

[andsheoverthinks]

i am so tired of how easily people slip into anti-Blackness to defend their arguments

recently (always tbh but also recently) i've been seeing a lot of disdain circulating for African Americans, disappointedly but not surprisingly from a lot of non-white people as well.

[f appropriating other cultures is so repugnant to you... why do you have a kpop profile pic... but i digress]

specifically this is about the Cleopatra tv show? casting that people are discussing right now, it's really highlighted how Black people, especially African Americans, aren't allowed to do anything a little bit cringe without racist, violent blowback. Cleopatra has been played by many many actresses, most of whom aren't of Greek or Egyptian descent. So it's weird that people are acting like Black people are uniquely horrible and ignorant for the casting of a Black woman as Cleopatra, when many castings have not been historically accurate.

Liz Taylor was British-American, Vivien Leigh was British, Monica Bellucci and Sophia Italian... you get the point. and yet people aren't hurling racist slurs at white people (there are none) for casting Cleopatra as non-Greek/Egyptian all these years. if you're upset about this particular casting, you can at least be civil with your discussions. but, no, it's easiest to call us dirty, ignorant n******s because half the time people are just waiting for an excuse.

let me explain something to you, gently. a lot of people ask, well, African Americans and Caribbeans were sold from West African countries like Ghana and Nigeria, why don't they go appropriate those countries.

the answer's quite simple. we don't learn anything about West Africa in school.

laugh break, haha, dumb USAmericans.

okay, back to business. in the U.S., we learn a very short list of non-European civilizations: Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt. Maybe one line on Mali if you're lucky. the school system here is very sensitive to teaching anything that triggers 'white guilt' aka anything more than a cursory glance at anything concerning Black people and our history, which is deemed as unimportant. you can say we were obviously enslaved from West African countries so we should learn about those cultures, but... we don't speak our old languages, save for some loanwords like 'duppy' instead of 'ghost' in Caribbean vernacular and such, we don't eat our old foods, wear our traditional clothes... we don't even know what they were, what ethnic group(s) we would have belonged to. we're not immigrants in that sense that we have a home country, a definite place of origin. do you know what it's like to feel that so much of your identity is rootless? do you know how endless that emptiness is?

so when these three non-European civilizations were laid out before us, we latched onto the closest one, and ran a little too far with it.

in fact, my generation is less dependent on Egypt as a sort of crutch; this is more of an older people thing. we have healed enough to be able to look within.

this is not a sob story. this is just a story of how we got here, and how this construction of the world -- disregarding the effects of white supremacy and racial trauma while enacting racist behavior and showing incredible fluency with white supremacist imagery and rhetoric -- is fundamentally flawed.

this is just a sample of the racist tweets on the actress's twitter. i have chosen not to include the images that titilate these people but they are equally horrible, depicting violence against Black people.

in fact, i should stop calling this pathological behavior pattern 'white supremacy' at this point because a lot of people are actually getting off is to Arab slavery. the parallels between misogyny and anti-Blackness are so interesting -- misogynists are addicted to the ego boost of subjugating women, racists are addicted to the ego boost of subjugating Blacks. yes, your ancestors spearheaded an appallingly brutal slave trade of African people which lasted thirteen centuries and is continues to this day (yes, Black people are still being enslaved in your countries but you're butthurt over a tv show so it's time to go ballistic -- by the way white people were also kidnapped and sold but since the rise of European imperialism they'd been able to shed that 'shame'), even more evil than the triangular trade and there are fewer survivors because of the reproductive control methods (read, violent sterilization). source1 source2. you people spouting this nonsense because of a tv show are just as racist as the white people over here, possibly worse. do you feel edgy villain enough now? happy?!

and by the way, 'threatening' to cast white actors as Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King doesn't hurt us the way that Cleopatra not looking white enough seems to emotionally wound you, we are used to being minimized and erased for our contributions to society and are not thin-skinned like the losers complaining about this like it's the worst thing in their lives.

Is Afro-centerism inaccurate? Probably. Is it fearmongering to position it as equivalent to white supremacy? Absolutely.

[Pop quiz: Which ideology enslaved, tortured, raped, killed, and colonized across many centuries?]

Does calling us n******s and invoking 4chan 'we wuz kangz' (yes there was a we wuz kangz meme but i'm not reposting their childish shit on my blog) arguments make you sound like anything other than a whiny child? No. Just say you don't like the casting like a grown-up.

Why doesn't Hollywood produce West Africa period pieces in order to cast more Black actors instead? Now there's an actually productive question. Thank you. Actually, next they should do a long, high budget docudrama on the Arab slave trade so you can feel really uncomfortable.

#anti blackness #racism #poc racism #twitter users having a normal one #tw racism #tw antiblackness #here's the poc solidarity you ordered! #receipts #arab slave trade #'my ancestors were slavers' is not a flex #ur descended from sadists great i can tell #nothing hurts me at this point i'm numb #this is why i hate the proliferation of 'bipoc' and 'poc' especially #it's so white-centric #it groups us with slavers #actual current 21st century slavers #there is no fucking poc community

[levelonemagikarp]

Vampires in eso feel like such a tacked on lackluster part of the game despite the fact there’s a full dlc about them and Molag Bal is in the main quest line. The morals surrounding them and how you react are so strange, I think there’s only one quest (in Glenumbra?) where you can actively side with an evil vampire. The Ravenwatch group are just so plain but also bizarre considering they do the whole morally good ethical blood consuming but the god of rape is responsible for their existence, and if Serana can become human again I don’t see why they couldn’t either. Also barely anyone comments on your vampirism but the npcs that do are always like ‘vampires are monsters and deserve to die but not you, you’re not like them’ despite the fact I’m currently stage 4 and the vestige doesn’t seem to have very strong disciplined morals.

I do enjoy the feeding animations though, those can be very fun.

#have noticed an uncomfortable amount of quests where you can help slavers #I want to be evil in the eats people without consent as a vampire way #not sell or keep people in slavery kind of way #I’m honourable like that #idk if this all makes sense but the thoughts were in my head and they needed to get out #elder scrolls online

[momo-de-avis]

I think the answer to how Portugal should deal with its colonial past lies in how we deal with Pombal. Because everyone in this country knows how fucked up he was. We are taught in school about his great reforms, but also his treatment of the jesuits and what he did to the Távoras. He is celebrated for his achievements and reforms, but everyone knows he was also a dictator. So maybe if we put the effort in it, and let go of our inferiority complex, we could see Manuel I the same way

#i think this is a hot take that would ruin many Christmases #also for further context: in this catholic hell the jesuits were the good guys #the first defender of indigenous and slavers rights was a jesuit

[obessivedork]

Holy shit the section in Far Harbor where you go into DiMA's memories is SO weird and COOL I love it!

#but also I toggled god mode because I am nothing if not a lazy gamer who is here for fun and not struggling lmfao #Listen Michael found out his baby boy is not a child but a 60 year old slaver hiding behind tech and fancy science bullshit #so he needed a fucking vacation. He went 'we'll find Kasumi and visit a place I haven't been to since I was a kid! Win win' #and then Far Harbor was like that(tm) and. OK BIG my Courier 6 Bobbie energy of Mikey-boy thinking he would get a vacation lmfao #But from what I hear I might not have to retcon things in my own brain cannon like I did with HH in NV lol #fallout 4 #fallout #fo4 #kat plays fo4 #I NEED to decide what my consistent fallout 4 tag will be 🤪 #Also video games in the 2010s were really like 'we need a name for a Japanese woman/girl how about Kasumi' asdfgh

[grapecaseschoices]

are u aware of the absolute slaughter that happened with that flint-stede poll??? ive been laughing about it for days but also just found out that the og blog hosting the pirate battles deleted??? lmao

vaguely. sort of. a friend has been keeping me aware. that and tumblr recommended me a post, of tags from the thing (idk if you saw it but its so funny)? i felt it was pretty dang mild. but apparently people are taking offense of the tumblr being tumblrness of it all? maybe they're new??

tho i also heard some ofmd fans have gone and taken it seriously. which is -- maybe they're new???*

i thought it was funny too at first. i saw some of the bs fans spiciness and it got a chuckle. but now im bewilderedly, exasperatedly (barely) rolling my eyes. i havent heard the delete part - or maybe she mentioned that and i missed it bc tumblr dms stink - but i do remember mention that the host got big Offended (and again: newness? are they from twitter? like idgi)

as most fandom drama it was fun while it lasted. now im gonna half-amuse myself/half-scoff at some of the bad takes.

#grapecase answers #fandom stuff #apparently someone was like oh we both like slavers -- or whatever? and im like who but the villains in bs were slavers?? #not vane? #we could MAYBE make an argument about who benefited from the system vs who didnt -- but no one was an actual slaver #and as my friend pointed out: black sails is MOSTLY fictional characters #ofmd fans are just mad that they like a hamilton knock off and are pulling weird takes out their ass #*or maybe they're the typical tumblr fans without a legit arguments and cant even own up to what tehy like #idk idk #i wouldnt even care about this outside of the funny (and i still kinda dont) if ofmd fans - or the ones being foolish. my bad - knew how #to defend their shit properly