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fictionadventurer · 9 months

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I have to talk about Chester Arthur. His story makes me go crazy. A mediocre president from the 1880s who's completely forgotten today has one of the best redemption stories I've ever heard and I need to make people understand just how cool his story is.

So, like, he starts out as this idealist, okay? He's the son of an abolitionist minister and becomes famous as a New York lawyer who defends the North's version of Rosa Parks whose story desegregates New York City's trolley system.

Then he starts getting pulled into politics and becomes one of the grimiest pieces of the political machine. He wants money, power, prestige, and he gets it. He becomes the right-hand man of Roscoe Conkling, the most feared political boss in the nation, a guy who will throw his weight around and do the most ruthless things imaginable to keep his friends in power and destroy his enemies.

Because Arthur's this guy's top lackey, he gets to be Controller of the Port of New York--the best-paying political appointment in the country, because that port brings in, like, 70% of the federal government's funds in tariffs. He gets a huge salary plus a percentage of all the fines they levy on lawbreakers, and because he's not afraid to make up infractions to fine people over, he is absolutely raking in the dough. Making the rough equivalent of $1.3 million a year--absolutely insane amounts of money for a government position. He's spending ridiculous sums on clothes, buying huge amounts of alcohol and cigars to share with people as part of his job recruiting supporters to the party, going out nearly every night to wine and dine people as part of his work in the political machine. He's living the high life. Even when President Hayes pulls him from his position on suspicions of fraud, he's still living a great life of wealth, power, and prestige.

Then in 1880, his beloved wife dies. While he's out of town working for a political campaign. And he can't get back in time to say goodbye before she dies. Because he's a guy who has big emotions, it absolutely tears him up inside, especially because Nell resented how much his political work kept him away from home. He has huge regrets, but he just moves in with Roscoe Conkling and keeps working for the political machine.

And then he gets a chance to be vice president. The Republican Party has nominated James Garfield, a dark horse candidate who wants to reform the spoils system that has given Conking his power and gave Arthur his position as Port Controller. Conkling is pissed, and he controls New York, and since the party's not going to win the election without New York, they think that appointing Conkling's top lackey as vice-president will pacify him.

They're wrong--Conkling orders Arthur to refuse--but Arthur thinks this sounds like a great opportunity. The only political position he's ever held is Port Controller--a job he wasn't elected to and that he was pulled from in disgrace. Vice President is way more than he could ever have hoped for. It's a position with a lot of political pull and zero actual responsibilities. He'll get to spend four years living in up in Washington high society. It's the perfect job! Of course he accepts, and Conkling comes around when he figures out that he can use this to his advantage.

When Garfield becomes president, Arthur does everything he can to undermine him. He uses every dirty political trick he can think of to block everything that Garfield wants to do. He refuses to let the Senate elect a president pro tempore so he can stay there and influence every bill that comes through. He all but openly boasts of buying votes in the election. He's so much Conkling's lackey that he may as well be the henchman of a cartoon supervillain. On Conkling's orders, he drags one of Garfield's Cabinet members out of bed in the middle of the night--while the guy is ill--to drag him to Conkling's house so he can be forced to resign. He's just absolutely a thorn in the president's side, a henchman doing everything he can to maintain the corrupt spoils system.

Then in July 1881, when Arthur's in New York helping Conkling's campaign, the president gets shot. By a guy who shouts, "Now Arthur will be president!" just after he fires the gun. Arthur has just spent the past four months fighting the president tooth and nail. Everyone thinks he's behind the assassination. There are lynch mobs looking to take out him and Conkling. The papers are tearing him apart.

Arthur is absolutely distraught. He rushes to Washington to speak with the president and assure him of his innocence, but the doctors won't let him in the room. He gets choked up when talking to the First Lady. Reporters find him weeping in his house in Washington. Once again, death has torn his world apart and he's not getting a chance to make amends.

Arthur goes to New York while the president is getting medical treatment, and he refuses to come to Washington and take charge because he doesn't dare to give the impression that he's looking to take over. No one wants Arthur to be president and he doesn't want to be president, and the possibility that this corrupt political lackey is about to ascend to the highest office in the land is absolutely terrifying to everyone.

Then in August, when it's becoming clear that the president is unlikely to recover, he gets a letter. From a 31-year-old invalid from New York named Julia Sand. A woman from a very politically-minded family who has been following Arthur's career for years. And she writes him this astounding letter that takes him to task for his corrupt, conniving ways, and the obsession with worldly power and prestige that has brought him wealth and fame at the cost of his own soul--and she tells him that he can do better. In the midst of a nationwide press that's tearing him apart, this one woman writes to tell him that she believes he has the capacity to be a good president and a good man if he changes his ways.

And then he does. After Garfield dies, people come to Arthur's house and find servants who tell them that Arthur is in his room weeping like a child (I told you he had big emotions), but he takes the oath of office and ascends to the presidency. And he becomes a completely different man. His first speech as president mentions that one of his top priorities is reforming the spoils system so that people will be appointed based on merit rather than getting appointed as political favors with each change in the administration. Even though this system made him president. When Conkling comes to Arthur's office telling him to appoint his people to important government positions, Arthur calls his demands outrageous, throws him out, and keeps Garfield's appointees in the positions. "He's not Chet Arthur anymore," one of his former political friends laments. "He's the president."

He loses all his former political friends. He's never trusted by the other side. Yet he sticks to his guns and continues to support spoils system reform. He prosecutes a postal service corruption case that everyone thought he would drop. He's the one who signs into law the first civil service reform bill, even though presidents have been trying to do this for more than ten years, and he's the person who's gained all his power through the spoils system. He immediately takes action to enforce this bill when he could have just dropped it. He becomes a champion of this issue even though it's the last thing anyone would have expected of him.

He oversees naval reform. He oversees a renovation of the White House. He still prefers the social duties of the presidency, but he's respectable in a way that no one expected. Possibly because Julia Sand keeps sending him letters of encouragement and advice over the next two years. But also because he's dying.

Not long after ascending to the presidency, he learns he's suffering from a terminal kidney disease. And he tells no one. He keeps going about his daily life, fulfilling his duties as president, and keeps his health problems hidden. Once again, death is upending his life, and this time it's his own death. He's lived a life he's ashamed of, and he doesn't have much time left to change. He enters the presidency as an example of the absolute worst of the political system, and leaves it as a respectable man.

He makes a token effort to seek re-election, but because of his health problems, he doesn't mind at all when someone else gets the nomination. He dies a couple of years after leaving office. The day before his death, he orders most of his papers burned, because he's ashamed of his old life--but among the things that are saved are the letters from Julia Sand, the woman who encouraged him to change his ways.

This is an astounding story full of so many twists and turns and dramatic moments. A man who falls from idealism into the worst kind of corruption and then claws his way back up to decency because of a series of devastating personal losses and unexpected opportunities to do more than he could have ever hoped to do. I just go crazy thinking about it and I need you all to understand just how amazing this story is.

#history is awesome #presidential talk #i thought about his story again this morning #and was once again struck by the desire to chase people down and make them understand just how amazing this story is #and instead of harassing random strangers i decided to inflict it on tumblr again #my original essay was rather too long and dry and tangled up in too many other details #and didn't quite capture the 'i want to chase you down and look you in the eye and make you freak out about this with me' vibe of this stor #this still doesn't quite capture it but at least it's shorter #and prevents me from rambling to unsuspecting family members #sorry for inflicting this on you again but what else am i supposed to do?

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myrkulitescourge · 7 months

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i'm surprised i haven't seen any text posts yet about the Unsubtle Differences between astarion’s tiefling party/high approval forest scene and the one you get after the goblin party.

there’s something so terribly interesting about how the conversation afterward plays out depending on which variation you pursue.

like, most people have seen the tiefling party version by now. astarion basking in the sunlight the morning after, playing off most of what tav says with relative ease, even when they ask about his scars and he tells them about cazador. his cadence is smooth and composed, his smile almost friendly, even though you know, as the viewer, he’s playing a game of manipulation at this point. the only real crack in his demeanor is if tav notices that cazador’s “poem” was written in infernal, which, understandably, startles him.

but recently i watched the goblin party version of this same scene, and everything reads so differently. unlike at the tiefling party, it’s still the middle of the night when astarion tries to leave, thinking tav is asleep—almost immediately after the act, in fact. when tav does speak to him, he’s visibly nervous, halting and stammering in the middle of lines delivered unflinchingly in the other version of the scene. he gestures broadly and fidgets more while talking, his smile comes and goes. there’s even some of his distinctive high pitched, fake laughter sprinkled throughout the exchange, almost identical to later scenes where he's very, very obviously uncomfortable (like if raphael mocks him and magics off astarion's shirt to show the party his scars in act 2, or when confronting the gur children in their cell in act 3, etc etc).

siding with the goblins represents something deeply familiar to astarion, a level of cruelty he's more than familiar with and embraces likely because cruelty and duplicity, to him, go hand-in-hand with the power and freedom he craves so badly—but he won't stay the night with this tav, even if he approves of their actions. no, in this case, he'll keep to what's familiar and attempt to leave them in the forest under the cover of the very same darkness he resents having been cast into by cazador. when he gets caught, it sets him on edge, and everything he says becomes such a blatant lie to save face that tav would have to be completely oblivious not to see through him, or maybe just not care enough to.

but if tav saves the refugees? challenges his worldview and comes out victorious? oh, he'll complain of the poor rewards for his trouble at the party and whine about it being boring, but he decides to stay with tav through the night while they're asleep and on past dawn. he takes a moment to enjoy the morning sunlight, returned to his life after two centuries without. the same is true if you have high enough approval that he asks before the party, in which case, you've almost certainly hit his biggest approval gains: trusting him and supporting his safety. maybe he doesn't trip over his words when he speaks because, well, maybe this is someone he doesn't have to worry about. someone who's already more than proven themselves a foolish, heroic sort with a bleeding heart or otherwise demonstrated that they're already in his corner. in other words, not a threat—at least not to him.

does any of this make sense. i wanna study this guy under a microscope.

#the text may be the same but the line delivery is so enormously different it HAS to mean something idk! idk!#what he knows best but doesn't quite trust vs what's new but seems almost safe seems like the differentiating factor honestly #at least in whether he decides to leave tav immediately or stay with them till morning #which in turn affects how he feels by the time tav speaks to him #not to rag on the goblin route but man #he seems. well. frantic when he gets caught trying to leave asap.#to the point where listening to him feels... pretty bad imo #i'd love to know if it changes his romance later on because that seems like. well. a rough start #astarion #astarion bg3 #astarion ancunin #bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 meta #sort of idk #long post

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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 8 months

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i'm suddenly thinking about rockstar!eddie shooting a music video on some naval ship and meeting actual sailor!steve who's all dressed up in his whites 'cause eddie's a big name star and the captain said everyone had to look their best and eddie immediately folding for the pretty guy in uniform

just: eddie wanting a couple of the guys to act in the video 'cause hopefully then they'd actually know what they're doing, and asking the capt to point out his most competent sailor. the capt immediately points out one of his low-ranking ensigns (like, brand new baby officer 'cause that's the kinda shit an officer would pull) and eddie, having been raised by wayne (who i'm hc-ing as a navy vet) knows better and is immediately like "No sir, I said your most competent, not your least. someone point me to THE second class. Where's he? I need an enlisted guy." and a higher-ranking chief that's been following the band around the ship all day bellows out a laugh and says "You're gonna want Harrington, Mr. Munson."

idk idk, it's niche but for some reason my mind went into the cold clammy depths of my time in the navy this morning and i was like 'NOPE! don't wanna dwell here, make it fun! make it about the blorbos so you dont get sad!!' lmao

#the worms wormed a little bit this morning #i have a whole hc about the song for the video being one that jeff wrote about missing his gf while out on tour #but it's also just about long distance/missing someone in general and eddie's like 'ya okay i don't quite get it' but he's the lead singer #so he's gonna be the one headling the vid and they decide on a ship cause what else is that longing but missing your SO while on deployment #crossover of fic readers and those who have inside knowledge of the /actual/ inner workings of being on a ship is slim to none #but that sliver includes me lmao #does this count as lore?#i'm gonna say it does #noelle lore #steddie #steddie hc #steve harrington #eddie munson #rockstar!eddie #sailor!steve #sailor!steve x rockstar!eddie

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kalofi · 6 months

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boys who snork mimimi vs girls who honk shoo

#art #one piece #op #monkey d luffy #uta #portgas d ace #sabo #bare chest #i have a specific vision for morning luffy where hes groggy when he initially gets up #but give him a few minutes or the promise of breakfast and hes his usual high energy self #uta can be grumpy and quiet until shes had like coffee or tea or smth #ace is just his narcoleptic self #sabo sleeps on his back arms to his side like a soldier #and when his alarm goes off he instantly shoots up eyes wide open ready to start the day #its quite unsettling to witness #but i drew sabo so cutieful here shes so everything girl

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soulfireblue · 4 months

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remembering how tubbo and cellbit being siblings was a pretty popular headcanon before bagi joined, and then people headcanoned the three of them as siblings. but i think that what we've ended up with is tubbo and bagi as siblings, removed from cellbit. i don't usually like to assign found family traditional family roles, but in this case, i think it being specifically a sibling role is important.

because bagi's spent so long chasing after a brother who doesn't want her. so she's gone "fine, then. i'll find myself one who does." and tubbo certainly wants her around! he doesn't mind her stealing from him. he chose her for his team the first time around, despite the one-sided tension they'd originally had.

she went to purgatory for her coach. she said she'd stick her hand in the fire for him. and they didn't win, but they get to walk out together, so i think bagi won, honestly. there's also the mutual bickering and the stealing, but that's part of it too. and there's so much mutual respect there as well.

anyway. i love seeing them hang out and i hope they hang out even more going forward, not just for themselves but also for sunny and empanada <3 because they're siblings too and i love them and i wish they got to see more of each other!

#qsmp #qsmp bagi #bagi #qsmp tubbo #tubbo #soulfire is such a found family in the way that does not involve traditional family roles #but tubbo and bagi can be found siblings. as a treat #i think they both need it #i love tubbo finally feeling like he's respected #and i love that after bagi spent so long choosing her brother and he didn't choose her in return #she's found someone who will choose her and embrace her with open arms #maybe she doesn't come first because of course morning crew and sunny come first #but she still clearly means quite a lot to qtubbo #side note but i think bagi would relate a lot to hearing sunny talk about tallulah #from what i understand of bagi and cellbit's relationship i think tallulah's letter would bring up some unfortunate memories #sunny and tallulah aren't literally siblings like cellbit and bagi but the essence of the issue is very similar #actually this might get its own post

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astrhae · 9 months

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it's the way the season started out with crowley leaving the bookshop after a fight and the season ended with crowley leaving the bookshop after a kiss. it's the way it started out with crowley being offered to be a duke of hell and it ended with aziraphale being offered to be the supreme archangel.

it's the way the second episode started with crowley saying: "well i am a demon. maybe i'm lying", and it ended with crowley telling aziraphale: "well i am a demon. i lied."

it's the way the third episode started with crowley perching beside aziraphale on the armchair and across from an angel who was new to earth, and it ended with crowley telling gabriel: "it's always too late." it's the way the fourth episode started with the demon sent to take crowley's place getting aziraphale's help and it ended with aziraphale helping crowley move the plants back into the bentley

it's the way the fifth episode started with crowley being reluctant about the shopkeeper's association meeting and it ended with crowley rescuing everyone there. it's the way the sixth episode started out with crowley wandering around heaven and it ended with crowley refusing to go to heaven with aziraphale

it's the way they've moved in circles for the past thousands of years around each other, and the episodes move in circles too but not quite a perfect circle because they're still trying to figure out where they are between the lines but it's also the way aziraphale told crowley to look him in the eye and tell him that crowley wanted to kill job's children, and crowley lied to aziraphale about it because he wanted to see how far aziraphale would go along with a demon as forsaken as him, and it's the way crowley said no to god then

it's the way the season ends with crowley telling aziraphale to tell me you said no. and aziraphale couldn't. it's the way they both want to be with each other. it's the way aziraphale was the one who came to crowley first. it's the way the season starts with aziraphale dropping down to greet crowley who was standing there in the dark, and the season ends with aziraphale standing there going up and crowley driving away

#it's about history repeating itself #but in a different way each time #and maybe that's how change and growth and healing happen #in circles sometimes and not quite linear #but still there #especially in aziraphale's context #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #this will probably make no sense to me in the morning but #i am STILL not okay and i needed to write thoughts down #neil was insane for this season #and i absolutely adore it

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