#on killing

[short-wooloo]

Another reason why acolyte's "killing your master and turning to the dark side is a triumphant moment" is wrong (aside from the obvious misunderstanding of the fact that the dark side is bad)

When in Star Wars has killing someone-specifically the act of someone directly and personally killing someone else-ever been a moment of triumph?

Because that's the thing, killing someone, particularly a Force user-be they dark or light-killing someone, is almost never depicted triumphantly

When a Jedi or someone of the light kills, it's given this somber air, that it was unfortunate that it came to this (see Mace killing Jango, he wasn't a good person and he foolishly chose to join this fight, yet the scene treats his death as a sad thing)

And when a dark sider (or someone falling to the dark) kills a person, it's played for horror, this is terrifying and bad, it shows how far the dark sider has sunk and how they sink deeper

Just about the only time killing someone was a triumphant moment in SW is the death of Palpatine (both times), but it is so because Palpatine is such a larger than life figure, less a man and more a personification of evil, or its triumphant because his deaths are the culmination of Anakin and Rey's journeys, so the triumph isn't so much his death as it is Anakin returning to the light or Rey overcoming her darkness

So killing by a Force user in SW is exceptionally rarely a triumphant thing, at best it is a tragedy, at worst ot is horrifying, but almost always it is terrible

Acolyte doesn't get that, it doesn't get Star Wars

[tom4jc]

On Killing (book review)

Title: On KillingAuthor: Lt Col Dave GrossmanPublisher: Back Bay BooksDate: 2009Pages: 377 On Killing (book review) Lt Col Dave Grossman was an army Ranger soldier, paratrooper, and then later became a professor of psychology at West Point academy. He takes on looking at a subject that is often talked about, but often with little evidence to back what is being said or believed. The majority of…

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[thoughtfulfangirling]

Ultimately there may be no way to deny one's responsibility or culpability for mistakes written "forever and as if in fire, in others' flesh," but combat is a great furnace fed by the small flickering flames of attempts at denial.

—On Kililng: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Let. Col. Dave Grossman

[words-and-coffee]

How is there glory in taking a life? We die so easily.

Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

[sonnywortzik]

The British in World War I believed that their soldiers were good for several hundred days before inevitably becoming a psychiatric casualty. But this was made possible only by the British policy of rotating men out of combat for four days of rest after approximately twelve days of combat, as opposed to America’s World War II policy of leaving soldiers in combat for up to eighty days at a stretch.

It is interesting to note that spending months of continuous exposure to the stresses of combat is a phenomenon found only on the battlefields of the twentieth century. Even the years’ long sieges of previous centuries provided ample respites from combat, largely due to limitations of artillery and tactics. The actual times of personal risk were seldom more than a few hours in duration. Some psychiatric casualties have always been associated with war, but it was only in the twentieth century that our physical and logistical capability to sustain combat outstripped our psychological capacity to endure it.

— Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

[globalrecon]

GRP 82-Killing in Combat: A Navy SEALs perspective on killing on the battlefield

Click the buttons below to access the full episode on ITunes(Apple users), or Soundcloud(Android users). Be sure to like, share, subscribe, and download the episodes. Thank you.

GRP 82-Today marks the 12th anniversary of Operation Red Wings with what was at the time the worst loss of life for American forces in Afghanistan, and the worse loss of life for Naval Special Warfare in their storied history.

 Back on the podcast is retired U.S. Navy SEAL and New York Times bestselling author Kevin Lacz. Kevin is trained as Corpsman (Medic) and a Sniper. This places Kevin and those like him on opposite ends of the spectrum of combat arms in taking life on the battlefield and saving it. Chantel Taylor the co-host of the show served as a Combat Medic in the British Army. During a tour in southern Afghanistan, a convoy she was traveling in was ambushed. In the ensuing battle, Chantel became the first British woman in history to kill an enemy in close quarters. We talked about the psychology of killing in combat which Kevin touched on in his book. Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

 Kevin Lacz: I read "On Killing" prior to my first deployment. It made a mark in the back of mind. At the end of that first deployment, I was like ok I fall in that 2 percent crowd that can conduct business and keep going without the psychological and physiological changes that are experienced by most. In most memoirs, you won't read about how killing effects you. Most people just write about being a tough guy, but there hasn't been much of a psychological approach of having gone through combat and how it affects you. How you sleep at night. It's important to read about how you put your feet in front of you as you walk down the street, but also what you're thinking when you're about to squeeze the trigger and you have someone in the crosshairs.

 Also then 10, 20, 30 seconds, 10 mins, or even 3 years later how you react to that situation. That's what drives people to dig deeper and read more.   

 Global Recon:

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 Kevin Lacz:

The Last Punisher: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M3PUG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

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Instagram: RealKevinLacz

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 Music provided by Caspian. www.caspianmusic.net

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Out of all the vampire characters in The VC series which vampire would you say is the most dangerous most capable of taking a human's life? If I were walking home from work or from a college class at night, which vampire do I not want following me and which vampire do I not want to encounter?

Most dangerous vampire? Following/encountering you at night? 

Most of the VC vampires choose victims who are “Evildoers,” people who have committed crimes against their fellow man and seem like they will continue to do so. Examples: drug dealers, an elderly abuser, “gangsters,” serial killers.

If you’re basically an innocent person*, most VC vampires won’t be interested in killing you. They’d rather just flirt with you, take you out dancing or something, and sneak in for a Little Drink, which can let them indulge in their preference for innocent blood and let you continue living, too ;) Win-win!

*I mean, yeah, “Let he who is w/o sin cast the first stone” and all that, we all have our own share of “sins,” but if they don’t add up to Evildoer status, you’re an Innocent in VC terms.

As far as being KILLED, you can worry about: 

Louis, because as far as I know (at least up until PL), he doesn’t choose his victims based on guilt/innocence, he just takes whoever crosses his path when he’s out looking for dinner. The way to survive a Louis attack is to tell him about yourself; he doesn’t like to know ANYTHING about his victims. 

Claudia (back when she was around anyway), is a terror bc she enjoys taking innocent life. 

Nicolas and Antoine, I don’t know their preferences. They could go either way. 

Gabrielle probably doesn’t care about your guilt/innocence either, but might attack you if you were out in the wilds somewhere, maybe if you were going for the same deer that she was going for, too. She has no qualms about killing innocent people anywhere, tho. Her very first victim was innocent and she made no comment about it.  

Not sure about Pandora, IIRC, she ripped a heart out of a victim’s chest, I don’t think that victim was an evildoer.

I don’t know the PL or PLROA characters well enough to mention them but anyone is welcome to reblog/comment about those or any VC vampires in response to Anon’s question.