Practice Until You Never Get It Wrong

Why "May It Be?" I don't know. Cuz I like it. And I think it's a song Halt would have sang. I will die on this hill. You can pry it out of my cold, dead fingers! Over my......

Halt decided instead to go into a random bar and insult one of his best friends, thus risking beheading/hanging or life time banishment.

Think about it, if Halt had just left his position to go after Will, if he had just up and vanished without anybody knowing, if he had put his fief in danger because it was suddenly lacking a Ranger... Do you think he could ever live with himself? Would Crowley or Will ever trust him again? Would he even be the man that he had grown into over the past 20 years? Do we think the Ranger Corps would ever allow him to come back and take his post again, given that he left it without regard?

Even though he got banished and didn't think he would be allowed back, it was at least a permanent and legitimate reason for him to leave that didn't involve him throwing away the safety of the people he was meant to protect. I think that having Duncan exile him was the only way for Halt to feel like he could actually go after Will and maintain his sense of self.

From the blatant stereotyping to having Will participate in the ongoing oppression of the Roamers it was all bad. Flannagan even notes several times that the Roamers face difficulties because they are often mistrusted and driven out of places before they can make any money and then the triumphant ending is Will banishing them from the feif and threatening to use his connections to make sure they are unwelcome and reviled everywhere they go unless they leave the country. Yikes.

We're supposed to feel good about this because they hurt his dog, a crime in fiction that there's almost no way to make readers forgive. But also Will did literally nothing to the Aruleans who were 100% planning on attending that dogfight. Like he didn't even question them about it get them arrested for illegal gambling. But when it's the Roamers we have to actively make sure that every last one of them is punished and driven out of the country. And just for good measure we're going to beat up a child (Don't worry. It's okay because he was evil)

At least when we went to Japan and the Middle East we made an attempt at not depicting minorities as a monolith but the Roamers get none of that. Every single one of them is evil and mean and awful. And the only one who isn't terrible? Don't worry she's not really a Roamer. She's just a Gallacian who the Roamers treat like a slave.

First explorations for Crowley!

\ I love to think that he grew his mustache over the very many years bcs its funny and Halt said he looks ridiculous- and now keeps it bcs hes grown fond of it

Turkiye has been getting led by a dictatorship under the rule of the current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for over a decade. He is a bigoted, money-hungry, selfish and deeply corrupt man who has been the main reason for my nation's current utterly ruined state since before I was even born. He has made this country unlivable, commited countless crimes and he is determined to suck every last bloody Turkish Lira he can out of it before he eventually flees.

However, in the last couple of years the support he's getting has been wavering as more and more people are hurt by his policies. His biggest political rival - the mayor of İstanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu - was going to run against him in the next election.

(As a person who spent almost 18 years of my life in İstanbul I can personally attest to the fact that İmamoğlu was great at his job and beloved by the people of the city he governed, but that's not the subject)

In response; Erdoğan had him detained over multiple criminal charges with no proof other than "secret witnesses" on the 19th of March, and arrested him on the 23rd. He also arrested many other important figures opposed to him at the same time, and appointed his own trustees in place of many.

The nation obviously erupted over the blatant takeover attempt along with countless injustices from the past that had piled up, and there have been student-led protests nationwide since then. I've personally joined some myself and won't say more for the sake of my own safety.

The cop brutality we received in response has been brutal. People have gotten tear-gassed, harrassed, beat up, arrested and much more for the simple crime of protesting peacefully, which we reserve the right to in our constitution under article 34. There are multiple reports of torture and sexual assault commited by police during custody. Reporters are fined or even jailed very frequently. Actors who speak out and attempt to use their audience for good are fired and even taken into custody as well.

The protests haven't stopped. Many, many groups of people who I would have never thought would agree on something have united into one just to make their voices heard. We've started boycotts to put economical pressure on the government as well. We're fighting.

So, what can you do?

Share. Amplify our voices. Make what's going on here heard. I am NOT the best source on this as I am just one person going off of my limited memory/knowledge and attempting to tell you all what's going on through a second language. But there are people who are better at this than me, and I can't with a good conscience use my platform for anything else other than to share those sources.

I'm not asking for money. I'm asking for your awareness and support.

Every year, I take one of my light-hearted little fics and put it through ten layers of Google Translate. This year, I decided to translate Halt Realises the Consequences of his Actions! Check out the original, then read below or on AO3 to see how my fic survived being translated into Croatian, Kannada, Korean, Maori, Corsican, Persian, Estonian, Bulgarian, Frisian, and Hawaiian!