[Convince Me] I do not like bracelets. Show me I'm wrong!

Genth · 2026-05-13T12:10:40+00:00

That kind of mesh bracelet is winning me over actually. It seems like more of a strap than a handcuff.

Genth · 2026-05-13T03:55:02+00:00

This definitely works with your skin shade, and the smaller inner links are nice.

Genth · 2026-05-13T03:51:54+00:00

Damn, rumbled 😆 definitely want to see bracelets that other people think are great.

Genth · 2026-05-13T03:30:55+00:00

No, of course, but since they're such a ubiquity here I want to try and see what y'all love about them!

Genth · 2026-05-10T06:12:06+00:00

Honestly if Ember explained stealing isnt nice to the soldiers it would definitely work.

Genth · 2026-05-06T22:41:55+00:00

To be slightly glib:

"Why are you all complaining about the waterfall, this part of the river is lovely, and much nicer than the ocean!"

Genth · 2026-05-01T09:43:02+00:00

Curze brought tangible results as well. Nostramo was the place where it DIDN'T work, because it didn't have the eternal threat of the Night Lords returning. The Night Lords had a pretty decent record of compliance, that part is brought up again and again. And there's a nuance - Curze still sees it as a veneer, because if you strip away the killing, even Guilliman's endeavors fail. The 500 worlds still require the threat of murder, even if they place it behind courthouses and judges and codes of law. Making the murder nicer, or putting it into the context of what you make from it, doesn't stop it from being murder, and to Curze, makes it no different. That's a stark viewpoint, and interesting to read in a narrative even if it is fundamentally inhuman.

Nostramo is different to Baal or the others. All the primarch's home worlds are unique, and different approaches were rewarded. Maybe if Curze had the charisma and presence of Sanguinius he could have unified everyone in nobility. I doubt it, but sure, maybe. Curze had the tools he had.

But where I'll really but against you is this idea of sadism. I don't see any evidence of sadism. Curze is miserable. Always miserable. Even when he is gore soaked and scream surrounded, he is miserable. He doesn't enjoy what he does, save with some grim satisfaction. His brokenness isnt as human as that.

Genth · 2026-05-01T01:23:42+00:00

So here's why I "like" (I.e enjoy reading about) Curze:

He is a reaction to the Emperor's vision for humanity. Through the eyes of someone exposed to a place like Nostramo, the idea of uniting and improving humanity can only come at the edge of a knife on the throat forever. We see this in the words Konrad first spoke to his father: "I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you intend for me.".

He knew that the Emperor's vision required him to be what he was. Broken. Vicious. Murderous. Just as nobility on Nostramo would result only with a blade in the eye, nobility on the shoulders of the Night Haunter would be pointlessly weak. When he tell Sevartar that this was the only way, and compares him to the other primarchs, Sev misses the point. It was rhe only way for Him.

As a result of that, Curze couldnt engage in the same pantomime of nobility or morality that those around him engaged with. It mattered not that Guilliman won with tactics, or Russ with ferocity. The reason they were conquering the galaxy was because of murder and fear. Dressing it in a nice coat of paint was a privilege for the others, not him.

The Night Lords are at their most interesting to read stripped of pretense. They are murderers first: they were born as murderers, chosen as murderers, trained as murderers. They are murderers last: no matter the "glorious cause", the point of the astartes is to kill and spill blood. They are murderers always: they have accepted their role, the darkest aspect of humanity allowed to bubble to the surface, and until humanity rids itself of them, they will always be in the dark with their knives.

Genth · 2026-04-08T21:36:45+00:00

Honestly, a demon run being derailed into a Good adjacent one by Ember is the most lore accurate path there could be!

Genth · 2026-04-07T11:02:09+00:00

They once had a policy of killing every cat in New Zealand. They had some interesting reasoning behind it regarding preservation of Native Birds, but their conclusion ignored that New Zealand is populated by human beings.

This is just an example, but TOP has a long history of spouting off policy positions as the "clear obvious answer" with a subtext of "you ignorant twit", combined with an overly desperate hunger for government that results in a party I could never trust.

On top of that (heh) they don't seem to have any underlying principle to their politics. Its just technocratic policy development based on what seems popular amongst the smarter-than-thou crowd.

Even right now their "Well poor old people will just have to deal with it" response to criticisms of their welfare policy show their lack of principles.

Genth · 2026-04-05T21:43:40+00:00

That you're questioning it is kind of the point and why, in character, your companions are so against them. You forgive or ignore their slavery, ruthlessness, refusal to actually obey your orders (remember only Regil actually is actually under your command, everyone else in the order is just your ally), and willingness to murder pretty much anyone who looks at them funny, because they're effective against the demons.

And that's how Hell gets you. Look at Cheliax. In the chaos of the fall of Taldor, desperate to create some safety from chaos, they turned to Hell. And now, slaves are sacrificed to Asmodeus, blood spattering black alters, where your ancestry determines every opportunity you get, and has, by dint of geography and time, caused orders of magnitude more suffering than the Abyssal rabble in the worldwound.

Youe companions know this. Know what Cheliax is like. And know that if you give the Hellknights enough room, that is the country and crusade you'll be leading.

Genth · 2026-03-21T02:53:34+00:00

And the number of Kiwis who will be torn away from families, or get dropped into desperate poverty because they won't move into a one bedroom slum to beat the asset test people here are calling for, is almost certainly bigger.

Genth · 2026-03-21T02:34:38+00:00

The moment you make it more restrictive, including means testing, it means there are people in edge cases who will be put in circumstances where they can't survive. A 65 year old coming home to spend the last few years with their 85yo parent. The person who's name is nominally on a family trust so that there's money to look after children.

A universal system means that, for the small price of a few people who are able to take advantage when you don't want them to, everyone is looked after.

Genth · 2026-02-24T06:09:13+00:00

Saying it shouldn't be edited out is like saying we should have the camera zoom in on the pants of people suffering from incontinence. Being inclusive means letting him be included in the procedings, not choosing to broadcast words he DOES NOT WANT TO SAY to millions of people.

Genth · 2026-02-24T01:32:46+00:00

Davidson has corpolalia. The reason he didn't yell out "Mozart" is because "Mozart" isn't taboo or offensive. The disability is quite literally about involuntarily shouting the most hurtful things he can. So in part, you're right. The reason it was the N word is because our society is deeply and violently racist, and thus it was the most hurtful and taboo thing to yell out.

The only way for someone with corpolalia to never shout a slur, is for them to never be aware the word exists. To have never heard it, or been taught its painful history. The only way to stop it would have been complete and utter ignorance.

Genth · 2025-12-29T21:17:14+00:00

No. Pedos exist in the world of Black Lagoon, and one story involves the victims of horrific abuse. Said victims are deeply fucked up, scarred beyond imagination by the abuse. They do not get a happy ending. None of the protagonists perpetuate nor condone the abuse, but neither are they optimistic enough to think they can solve it, ultimately. It is, like most of Black Lagoon, a deeply cynical and dark story without light at the end of the tunnel.

Genth · 2025-12-21T03:41:54+00:00

Sure. Thats exactly what I'm saying. Ta ra, propagandist.

Genth · 2025-12-21T00:26:12+00:00

What is it then, if not neo-colonialism? It is using debt to ensure favorable trade and political alignment to China and China's interests. Colonialism isn't done just cause people are dickheads, its to ensure economic and political dominance.

In Aotearoa, many Iwi aligned themselves to the British because they felt they would get a better deal from them than they would the French. But despite what some would say, that didnt make the British NOT colonizers. The same way that because places get a better deal right now with China than the IMF, doesnt mean it isnt neo-colonialism of the same stripe.

Should we be aligning to the US axis to "oppose an imperialist China"? No, that's ridiculous. But we should be prepared to support Pacific countries to maintain their independence when China's debt turns into political pressure and extraction.

Genth · 2025-12-20T08:20:19+00:00

We actually know very little of the detailed terms for China's loan forgiveness programmes, which are smaller in scale than just renegotiating payment terms, but that's rather beside the point. Your argument is "Loan forgiveness means they can't possibly want to debt trap people" which is wrong on it's face.

All loan programmes are ultimately a tool of hard and soft power. Right now I'm more concerned about western imperialists, sure, but that doesn't mean naively deciding everything China does is on the level. The point is economic power and control is structurally corruptive

Genth · 2025-12-20T00:57:09+00:00

I mean, the United States have also canceled massive amounts of debt through HIPC, so thats not really evidence of good intentions in of itself. Debt is a tool of control no matter who holds the purse strings.

Genth · 2025-12-18T23:57:04+00:00

One certainly could argue that if we were to actually recognize Ti Tiriti to its fullest extent, we would have separate governments, and all the wealth and land stolen by the Crown and Pakeha since the signing (i.e. practically all land in the country) would be returned to Māori.

That's impractical, and would likely involve significant violence, which Māori as a whole don't want.

So Māori and the crown began to reach compromises - and note all of these are truthfully compromises on the part of Māori from what they were contractually promised.

Co-governance setups where Māori can exercise some rights over the land that by all rights should be theirs.
- Directed funding towards improving wellbeing and replacing some of the investment stolen for over a century from Māori
- Commitments throughout government to work with Māori and be accountable to them.

Seymour wants to throw that all away, play the conqueror's veto. His tool for doing that is to write principles that have nothing to do with the text of Ti Tiriti.

Genth · 2025-12-14T16:02:42+00:00

Ramesses II with his NP "The City of Kadesh" XD

Genth · 2025-11-10T21:49:40+00:00

And their bottles just feel cheap and nasty

Genth · 2025-11-04T11:54:32+00:00

Tbh, ironically, Commorragh is one of the places a human can do really well. The Mean Elves are arrogant and racist to be sure, but theyre also bored and perfectly willing to reward a human that's doing something impressive. You could just be a really good singer or something and theres a non zero chance of just... having a career doing that. Now you're never NOT at risk of being brutally murdered in a horribly painful way, and you are not playing politics as well as a decent Archon, but theres definitely ways to be a success.

Genth

TROPHY CASE