Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Lulu/Bee | 26 | she/they | follow backs @sol—eil | header by @iridescents-homemadebiblequotes

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Starlight, Parabellum

Pairing: Damian Desmond / Anya Forger (Spy x Family) Rating: T (dark comedy • absurdist-political)

Status: Ongoing

Chapters: 49/?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/75711631/chapters/198019721

Anya Forger has lived five lives. In every single one, Damian Desmond becomes Prime Minister, delivers a stirring yet ill-advised speech, and declares a war nobody asked for. This life, Anya officially opts out. She ignores politics, eats pastries, and lets history ruin itself without her involvement. That ends the moment she saves Damian’s life, and he responds like any sensible future warlord would: by proposing immediately. Now she’s engaged to the man who’ll destroy the world, and worse, her plan to do nothing with her life has gone off the rails. It’s all going surprisingly well, aside from the constant sense she’s being outmanoeuvred in a game nobody wants to admit they’re playing. Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Some playlists, for people who enjoy music:

Starlight, Parabellum (Anya's side)

Starlight, Parabellum (Damian's side)

Associated artworks that I adore:

Pre-Starlight, Parabellum Desmond by @spiceymoro

Playlist-inspired Anya by @liliumnsn

Chapter Two's proposal scene by @dopey-moon

Anya's various lives by @dopey-moon

Prime Minister Damian and Anya by @liliumnsn

Damian Desmond Is Normal About Phone Calls by @asriteko

Ewen's First Life Death by @spiceymoro

Nurse Anya by @pupvvisec

Frontline-Angel-Nurse Anya by @anonimousbeing07

Anya Forger Reinvents Lysistrata by @witchy-capri

Damian Desmond Filled with Earth-Shattering Yearning by @spiceymoro

Chapter 31: Anya's Daring Escape by @asriteko

Chapter 32: Two Lives, One Slightly Cringe Date by @justshipsandstuff

Forbidden Chapter 32.5 by @mercutao

Life 3 Damianya (book cover version) / (memories version) by @mercutao

Nice Try, Forger by @skyofasunset

And of course:

This absolutely stunning artwork by @iridescents-homemadebiblequotes.

Thank you so much to absolutely every single artist, you have no idea how much joy and happiness you bring to my day every time I see I'm tagged in something. All of you are massively talented so everyone who likes SP should go and follow them IMMEDIATELY.

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Anya Forger + Reductress Headlines (5)

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Eden Academy + Reductress Headlines (12)

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

@ my commenters: I will reply to comments eventually. I Am just dying from period pains and I cannot sit upright I’m not ignoring you I promise

[weaselmcdiesel]

go my sxflings

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Yor Forger + Reductress Headlines (5)

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Spy x Family + Reductress Headlines (21)

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

DamiAnya + Reductress Headlines (6)

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

I do not think Westalis or WISE are ideologically pure as a lot of people seem to believe they are.

I was rewatching S3 today since I got sick, and Spy x Family is my comfort show, and I found it interesting about the anti-Ostanian propaganda and beliefs regarding Ostanians, namely that they are all 'demons who have horns' (paraphrasing, obviously). This is really interesting, because it actively dehumanises their enemy. Literally, they're not humans - they're monsters. This is interesting to me, since this was a tactic used by the Nazis regarding Jews, but I think this is largely coincidental and not intended by Endo. Or, perhaps it was. Either way, it's a point to pick up on.

Conversely, we never hear that sort of sentiment from the Ostanian soldier Franky, who states that the propaganda they were fed were that the West broke the treaty and did a false flag operations. None of these dehumanise Westalians. It's not TRUE, but he's not staying "you guys are cockroaches".

Now, we know that not everyone in the West shares this 'all Ostanians are demons'. Namely, Twlight's dad chastises his son for saying these xenophobic things, so we know Loid didn't hear them at home. So, the belief must be prevalent enough - on the radio, on TV, in society, at school, that baby [redacted] feels comfortable enough regurgitating these talking points without fearing consequences. If anything, it seems he's more rewarded for this behaviour and thinking by his fellow Westalians at large (with the exception of his father and the croquette lady).

This sort of propaganda doesn't just happen and become normalised in a short timeframe. These are incredibly ingrained beliefs in Westalian society; children often reflect the society they grow up in. It is entirely possible WISE - as an intelligence agency - played some part in this, but there's no way to confirm. You know, because that's not how spies work.

However, I noticed a lot in fanworks that WISE and the West is always presented as the good guy and morally superior to Ostania. It makes sense; we follow an employee of WISE as a protagonist, and he's a nice enough man, plus he's attractive, so we obviously support him, since we're invested in his personal struggles. However, we don't actually see too much of WISE (they're a branch of central intelligence services). Either way, lot of people overlook the blatant propaganda I mentioned before.

Everyone who works there seems to be super cool, obviously, but there's a misconception in fanon that because we like Loid and Handler and Nightfall, that WISE is good, and therefore, all their actions are good. However, WISE is a government institution, and seems operationally similar to the NSA/CIA (and uh, yeah, those guys are NOT good). In the Fionky episode (S3E1), some things of note stuck out to me.

They accused - pretty bluntly - an Ostanian politician 'illegally blocking' strawberry exports. How the hell did they arrive at that conclusion? I'm willing to put this down as weak writing, since Endo does not focus on the politics, but that guy has to be beholden to someone. He can't just be like "no strawberries for those guys" without at least 50+ politicians appearing and shouting "you fucking donkey". For the purpose of this, I'll say this was WISE being given an official pretext for the operation to commence. That is not the same as this actually beng the case.

That operation was effectively demanded by a Westalian politician, who it's basically intimated would kick the fuck off for war if he didn't have Ostanian strawberries on his birthday cake in two weeks. What sort of politician has that much sway over an intelligence agency? Who is this guy? Why can WISE just get ordered around by a single person in power? That is NOT how checks and balances work.

From this, I basically concluded that WISE effectively just runs personal favours for their homeland politicians. Sure, they must keep the balance of peace between east and west, but they seem to basically immediately kowtow to any unreasonable demand. It really seems that political corruption runs deep in the West (probably to an equal degree as it occurs in Ostania).

I don't really know where I'm going with this. I'll likely try and write WISE more neutrally, since I don't really buy they're a 'save the world' agency. That's just what Anya thinks about WISE, because she looks up to Loid. Her view is incredibly skewed, and can't be taken as the full truth. Even Handler snaps at the WISE rookie about that sort of thinking (with the understanding he's not four years old, obviously). So, I think going forward, I'll try and write WISE with this nuanced approach more often.

[anyadesmond]

It's very interesting. Because to me spy x family is just symbolism upon symbolism (ESPECIALLY in the third season opening). I take the strawberries to be so too, along with the obvious purpose of servicing humor. I think it would make more sense if it's thought about how easily people in power, like politicians, sway around institutions no matter how 'good' their country is in terms of democracy and such. About how curroption exists indefinitely as long as their is power. And how this is accepted as a necessary compromise for not turning your country into one ruled by a crone who thinks he has it all. When I first SxF I was like 13, and it was very easy to believe ostania was a dictatorship. The show potrays ostania to be the evil to wise's good. But that's not necessarily it. The narration is very skewed and the audience almost never had the full picture since we follow characters instead of the plot. Twilight dreams of a world where children can be happy, but then rolls it all down on one agency that works for world peace, but is massively influencial. Influence attracts power and people start using it for personal gain. I think Twilight realises this at some level, but has to compromise much of his actions towards those personal gains, because it is 'necessary'. And franky to me seems like the best guy out there. Trusting no agency but building a network of your own to achieve what you want for the world. He seems to be the smartest person to me. The biggest advantage one can have in this game is information, and to have agency over that is another power itself. #ilovewokepeople. Another point I would take note of is that all yuri, yor, and twilight grew up in the countryside of their respective nations. Those areas are more likely to be influenced by propaganda because of their demography and tight know environments. To blame it it on the west/east would be a lot easy than in the urban areas. And then they experienced the war themselves. Berlint and other important cities were not hit as much as the rural areas. In war, people always find somebody to blame. It became very easy for people to do so when they already had a villain in mind. There's somany grander ideas conveyed through silly elements in spy x family which makes it a,azing to watch. (All those mass media essays paid off now I can look at things and know things). Also, how hard would it be to just ship the strawberries on the cake from ostania? Smh you've got like a shitton of agents there.

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

I loved reading this take. You’re entirely correct regarding narrative skew – the audience is trapped in Twilight’s ideological assumptions and rarely step outside of them. Intentionally, this does a lot in conveying WISE sympathetically. However, I have to pushback on some points (but this is just a friendly, interesting discussion, and I have no intention of beating people into agreeing with me!)

Correct me if I’ve misread, but I think you were framing WISE as the “lesser evil”. I disagree with this framing, because it implicitly accepts WISE’s own self-presentation as a moderate, rational actor working towards peace, which also frames Ostania as this irrational aggressor that needs to be managed by them. However, when we look at what WISE actually does, they’re not working to resolve the ‘cold war’, but the maintenance of equilibrium. Even the goal of Operation Strix isn’t “stop the war”, but “stop this specific man starting a specific war at this specific moment in time”. Sure, the goal is stability, but in this context, that preserves a divided continent within which both blocks remain in perpetual low-grade conflict.

I studied Soviet history in university, so I know a little bit about this than most! My take is that the parallels here are easy. The CIA and KGB were symbiotic; they justified each other’s existence, budget and power. WISE works in this analogy, I think. Twilight’s never given a mission that will fundamentally alter the balance. Obviously, the show’s a comedy, so it never really looks into it, however, once you notice it, the structure becomes VERY obvious. Twilight’s dream of children playing freely is real/sympathetic, but it’s churlish to deny he’s not serving the geopolitical machinery that gave rise to that dream. I think that’s what makes the implications of the show’s politics more interesting than ‘good spies vs. big bad dictatorship’.

You raised an interesting point regarding the countryside, and I broadly agree, rural communities are more likely to be propagandised due to how close-knit they are. However, historical precedent contravenes this. In WW2 (which I’m taking as the basis of SxF’s ‘war’), the primary targets of aerial bombardment/destruction were cities (they had rail hubs, ports, factories, admin centres etc.) The logic is to destroy your enemy’s productive/organisational capacity, which is concentrated in urban centres (you know, the joke of ‘that’s where the jobs are’?) It’s for this reason that the UK’s evacuation programme transported hundreds of thousands of kids OUT of cities INTO the countryside. In fact, the wartime experience of rural communities was one of relative isolation/removal from the direct destruction (obviously, rationing and economic impacts hit everyone).

However, I’d also argue that cities were more exposed to a greater density of information compared to the countryside, which sort of disproves the ‘countryside is more nationalist’ thread. Cities are where state propaganda is more intensively distributed, so I think the picture is more complicated than ‘rural = nationalist’. I will say that urban working-class communities tended to be more politically radicalised/sceptical of the government because their exposure to satire and counterpropaganda, which the countryside didn’t necessarily have.

Regarding Loid being raised in the countryside. My reading of Luwen isn’t countryside. [Redacted] and his friends play in a munitions depot. Sure, it’s disused, but that tells me Luwen has an industrial history. Munitions manufacturing doesn’t just APPEAR, you need infrastructure, labour, transport, proximity to raw materials etc. etc. Therefore, logically, Luwen would have been a legitimate military/economic target, since the workforce would have had experience with manufacturing. My wife also pointed out that it's a border town, and likely not a major targe,but it's close enough to the border and in the rage of artillery to be viable. It’s definitely not a sleepy little village (which I think Loid has nostalgia glasses on for, obviously). Therefore, Twilight’s ‘radicalisation’ (if you can even call it that) stems from witnessing industrial warfare and the consequences close up, since his ideology is formed from trauma. It’s an irony that the character who grew closest to the war machinery is the one who rejected nationalism entirely! (Something, something, proximity to the reality of war cuts through propaganda).

[mercutao]

lets go on vacation with mama!

desmond mamaposting pt3 pt2 pt1

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

I do not think Westalis or WISE are ideologically pure as a lot of people seem to believe they are.

I was rewatching S3 today since I got sick, and Spy x Family is my comfort show, and I found it interesting about the anti-Ostanian propaganda and beliefs regarding Ostanians, namely that they are all 'demons who have horns' (paraphrasing, obviously). This is really interesting, because it actively dehumanises their enemy. Literally, they're not humans - they're monsters. This is interesting to me, since this was a tactic used by the Nazis regarding Jews, but I think this is largely coincidental and not intended by Endo. Or, perhaps it was. Either way, it's a point to pick up on.

Conversely, we never hear that sort of sentiment from the Ostanian soldier Franky, who states that the propaganda they were fed were that the West broke the treaty and did a false flag operations. None of these dehumanise Westalians. It's not TRUE, but he's not staying "you guys are cockroaches".

Now, we know that not everyone in the West shares this 'all Ostanians are demons'. Namely, Twlight's dad chastises his son for saying these xenophobic things, so we know Loid didn't hear them at home. So, the belief must be prevalent enough - on the radio, on TV, in society, at school, that baby [redacted] feels comfortable enough regurgitating these talking points without fearing consequences. If anything, it seems he's more rewarded for this behaviour and thinking by his fellow Westalians at large (with the exception of his father and the croquette lady).

This sort of propaganda doesn't just happen and become normalised in a short timeframe. These are incredibly ingrained beliefs in Westalian society; children often reflect the society they grow up in. It is entirely possible WISE - as an intelligence agency - played some part in this, but there's no way to confirm. You know, because that's not how spies work.

However, I noticed a lot in fanworks that WISE and the West is always presented as the good guy and morally superior to Ostania. It makes sense; we follow an employee of WISE as a protagonist, and he's a nice enough man, plus he's attractive, so we obviously support him, since we're invested in his personal struggles. However, we don't actually see too much of WISE (they're a branch of central intelligence services). Either way, lot of people overlook the blatant propaganda I mentioned before.

Everyone who works there seems to be super cool, obviously, but there's a misconception in fanon that because we like Loid and Handler and Nightfall, that WISE is good, and therefore, all their actions are good. However, WISE is a government institution, and seems operationally similar to the NSA/CIA (and uh, yeah, those guys are NOT good). In the Fionky episode (S3E1), some things of note stuck out to me.

They accused - pretty bluntly - an Ostanian politician 'illegally blocking' strawberry exports. How the hell did they arrive at that conclusion? I'm willing to put this down as weak writing, since Endo does not focus on the politics, but that guy has to be beholden to someone. He can't just be like "no strawberries for those guys" without at least 50+ politicians appearing and shouting "you fucking donkey". For the purpose of this, I'll say this was WISE being given an official pretext for the operation to commence. That is not the same as this actually beng the case.

That operation was effectively demanded by a Westalian politician, who it's basically intimated would kick the fuck off for war if he didn't have Ostanian strawberries on his birthday cake in two weeks. What sort of politician has that much sway over an intelligence agency? Who is this guy? Why can WISE just get ordered around by a single person in power? That is NOT how checks and balances work.

From this, I basically concluded that WISE effectively just runs personal favours for their homeland politicians. Sure, they must keep the balance of peace between east and west, but they seem to basically immediately kowtow to any unreasonable demand. It really seems that political corruption runs deep in the West (probably to an equal degree as it occurs in Ostania).

I don't really know where I'm going with this. I'll likely try and write WISE more neutrally, since I don't really buy they're a 'save the world' agency. That's just what Anya thinks about WISE, because she looks up to Loid. Her view is incredibly skewed, and can't be taken as the full truth. Even Handler snaps at the WISE rookie about that sort of thinking (with the understanding he's not four years old, obviously). So, I think going forward, I'll try and write WISE with this nuanced approach more often.

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Fun question. Who would you assemble as cast for SP?

You guys have gotta stop sending me asks that send me on a rabbit hole research dive. (Please don't, I love it). Considering this is 1980s Europe, I think we should give the cast some continental flair, and set it in the time period - as usual, I'll insert a read more so people can skip the post if they're not interested!

Damian Desmond - Alain Delon (France). I'm basing this choice of Delon's role in Le Samourai, where he was a cool, stoic assassin. The man knows how to smoulder, okay? Plus, he was really hot in the 1950s and 60s.

Anya Forger - Isabelle Adjani (France). I think she has Anya's perfect baby-face/youthful expression, but she's very capable of very serious roles and thrillers. I really love Isabelle Adjani.

Jeeves - Cliff Robertson (USA). This is simply because he plays a slick, suave, smart butler in The Honey Pot (1963), who helps his master play games on people. He did rather well in that role - both as a 'suspect' in the murder, and then as the 'mastermind' of solving the murder and getting his own back. I don't think he looks how Jeeves does in my mind, but that performance sold it for me!

Loid Forger - Timothy Dalton (UK). He was one of the actors who played Bond in the 1980s, and I think (sorry Sean Connery fans and Roger Moore fans), he's the more attractive of the bunch! I also think he's fairly solidly built, which I think works for Loid.

Yor Forger - Carole Bouquet (France). Not only does she look remarkably like Yor, she also played a Bond Girl, so she's literally perfect for the role. Plus, it's a fun mirror if we consider Loid to effectively be James Bond!

Becky Blackbell - Iris Berben (Germany). I always imagined adult Becky to have much sharper features than Anya, who I think would be cursed by babyface. Becky takes pains to present herself as a mature, adult lady, and considering she's inheriting a munitions firm, she needs to have a good head on her shoulders! I think Iris has the perfect face for this.

Franky Franklin - Peter Capaldi (Scotland). I think Capaldi has an excellent hair, and it's how I picture Franky's hair to look like IRL, and in The Lair of the White Worm, he carries this amazing nervous energy that I think Franky would have. The only criticism I have here is that Capaldi looks too young!

[mercutao]

peer-approved addition, Jean Moreau in La Notte (1961) specifically as Melinda

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Eden Academy + Reductress Headlines (13)

[whyenn-reader]

firm believer you can't be a ''good person''. too much niuance to life.

[whyenn-reader]

you can be good (adjective) but you cannot be good (identity)

[whyenn-reader]

if you think you are good (identity) you are more likely to cause harm as you don't consider yourself to be capable of it

[thefaustandthefurious]

Everyone who is a good person who does harm is no plonger a good person. It is simple.

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

Fun question. Who would you assemble as cast for SP?

You guys have gotta stop sending me asks that send me on a rabbit hole research dive. (Please don't, I love it). Considering this is 1980s Europe, I think we should give the cast some continental flair, and set it in the time period - as usual, I'll insert a read more so people can skip the post if they're not interested!

Damian Desmond - Alain Delon (France). I'm basing this choice of Delon's role in Le Samourai, where he was a cool, stoic assassin. The man knows how to smoulder, okay? Plus, he was really hot in the 1950s and 60s.

Anya Forger - Isabelle Adjani (France). I think she has Anya's perfect baby-face/youthful expression, but she's very capable of very serious roles and thrillers. I really love Isabelle Adjani.

Jeeves - Cliff Robertson (USA). This is simply because he plays a slick, suave, smart butler in The Honey Pot (1963), who helps his master play games on people. He did rather well in that role - both as a 'suspect' in the murder, and then as the 'mastermind' of solving the murder and getting his own back. I don't think he looks how Jeeves does in my mind, but that performance sold it for me!

Loid Forger - Timothy Dalton (UK). He was one of the actors who played Bond in the 1980s, and I think (sorry Sean Connery fans and Roger Moore fans), he's the more attractive of the bunch! I also think he's fairly solidly built, which I think works for Loid.

Yor Forger - Carole Bouquet (France). Not only does she look remarkably like Yor, she also played a Bond Girl, so she's literally perfect for the role. Plus, it's a fun mirror if we consider Loid to effectively be James Bond!

Becky Blackbell - Iris Berben (Germany). I always imagined adult Becky to have much sharper features than Anya, who I think would be cursed by babyface. Becky takes pains to present herself as a mature, adult lady, and considering she's inheriting a munitions firm, she needs to have a good head on her shoulders! I think Iris has the perfect face for this.

Franky Franklin - Peter Capaldi (Scotland). I think Capaldi has an excellent hair, and it's how I picture Franky's hair to look like IRL, and in The Lair of the White Worm, he carries this amazing nervous energy that I think Franky would have. The only criticism I have here is that Capaldi looks too young!

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

You CANT just end a chapter like that and just go on with your life as if I wasn't going to spend the whole night thinking about it. The worst part, I think, is when I finish reading the plot twist and get a notification that you've reblogged a post. I didn't know whether to cry in despair at such cruelty or just throw in the towel. You must be in such a giggling mood, hahaha. How long ago did you finish this chapter? (52) If I were you, I’d just be snickering while waiting for this chapter. WE ARE SO COOKED 😭

(Of course I'm kidding, you're amazing, I love your suspense, I'm not even sure I understood everything)

I wrote that chapter... I wanna say 2 months ago now? Definitely back in March sometime, so I've been knowing it's coming for a really long time. I knew people were gonna go absolutely nuts about the cliffhanger. I honestly think the cliffhangers work better now I've switched to once-per-week posting. Before, people only had to wait a few days before hearing from me again, but now I'm just haunting everyone's week.

I basically dropped a stick of dynamite and walked away despite the screaming behind me. I won't lie, it felt great.

[theunbearablelightnessofbeeing]

oh you're anya's fan? name all the plushies she had ever

Mr. Chimera

Agent Penguin

Bond Forger (technically alive, but his fluff content basically means he's a plushy to her)

Mama y Papa (they give good hugs)

Lucien the Lava Lamp (spiritually)

Comptroller (the main man himself)

Sir Percival Waddlesworth

Sir Gregory the Sustainable (yes he's a gun. what does that matter)

In one timeline, she owned a PM Damian Desmond body pillow. She ostensibly purchased it to punch/throw knives at, but she just ended up 'choking it to death' (cuddling) all night.