Lame-cameoliob - Cameoliob (lame Acc)

I'd like to bring more attention to this fundraiser by @ayeshjourney

This fundraiser is being organized by our vetter, who is on the ground in Gaza, prioritizing others over himself for months, and giving our little operation the legitimacy to allow people to donate without any worry about scammers. There is no overstating how important his work and diligence during these times has been.

Even as he's organizing this fundraiser, his only hope is that he can help his little brother and his family, who have been continuously suffering throughout this year long ordeal. In our discussions with Mohammed, it is so clear how important his brother, Yasser, is to him. he goal of this fundraiser is to make sure not only his family is taken care of, but Yasser's medical care is taken care of as well.

(ID in Alt)

Yasser lost his hearing at a very young age due to the persistent presence of Israeli military artillery. He relies now on a medical device to communicate with his family, and the worsening living conditions have damaged this device and reversed Yasser's progress in learning to communicate with his family. A repair is completely beyond what Mohammed and his family can afford on top of their expenses just trying to survive this genocide.

This fundraiser is still under 2,000!! The goal is 60,000! Share and donate urgently!

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Mohammed family, organized by Shelley Gordon

Hi my name is Shelley and I am fundraising on behalf of Mohammed and his family here is their … Shelley Gordon needs your support for He

Dan liking this comment on tiktok is insane

Listen, as much as Zeb was wise and honorable in Honorable ones, I think that viewing him as the sane and collected one out of Kallus and him is a huge misrepresentation of his character. Don't get me wrong, I love me some level headed, calm, honorable Zeb. BUT

The guy was in his late thirties, beefing with a 14 year old and LOSING!! And it kept going as they got older! Not only that, he managed to have deeply mutual beef with Chopper despite understanding ZERO binary. He simply assessed that Chopper's tone was bitchy enough to warrant beef! If someone annoys him enough, he will be ready to fight them on it! Does not matter who it is.

Like he is level headed, calm and honorable when he's dealing with levelheaded, calm and honorable people - most of the time. But he's also constantly ready to switch that out for angry, bitchy and petty at the turn of a dime, if provoked! Which wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that he... Has a bit of a short fuse. Like the guy does have anger issues.

Idk I definitely don't feel like Kallus would purposely provoke him much, but unintentionally? I could totally see Kallus stumbling and managing to push all of Zeb's metaphorical buttons. They just sorta clash in some ways, especially at first. And Kallus is on his best behavior, or at least trying to be - but isn't that fucking annoying?! You're trying to beef with a guy and he can't even give you the time of day for that?! Zeb was peeved and now he's pissed!

Idk I just really want more stuff with Zeb and his anger issues, idk I think it adds a nice flavor to their dynamic. Like yes he took pity on Kallus on Bahryn, but also Kallus laughed at him for falling on his ass and Zeb hit him with the raw ass line "how would you like some more broken bones?"

constantly switching between “this is MY tumblr and i post whatever i want” and “oghg  god . oh my god. okh god. okay. im going to talk abt. an interest now. im so sorry.”

You have some really fire points actually!!

I wrote my post at like 3 AM last night so the gears werent turning at 100% but you're absolutely right

Kallus is absolutely intensely biased and predjudiced throughout seasons 1 and 2 there is absolutely no question about it. Like, he has obviously done fucking insane and horrific shit in the name of the empire and he needs to be held accountable for his actions because his (probable) mental health issues do not excuse it, and that's absolutely the whole point of his character.

Honestly, I think that's what makes Kallus' redemption arc so palpable; he holds himself accountable with little to no prompting to do so. Zeb tells him to ask questions in an off handed comment, but Kallus listens, and once the bubble that he built around himself-- which is essentially just an imperial echo chamber that excuses xenophobia and colonialism-- once that bubble pops he takes it upon himself to attempt and right his wrongs by becoming fulcrum.

When I was writing my main post I think I managed to leave out a whole lot of stuff (again, written at 3AM) but i totally forgot to make a point about how the Empire IS the perfect indoctrination machine-- in fact, the empire employs indoctronation and propaganda tactics that are not dissimilar to those seen in 1930s Germany, with how it pits non-human species against the empire and paints them as "other"-- and i think the fucked up part about that indoctronation pertaining to Kallus is that we can see that Kallus really does want to do good (again, hence why he became Fulcrum in the first place) but he exists in a Xenophobic echo chamber of the Empires design. I mean, if he did have PTSD post-Oderon the empire absolutely took advantage of whatever vunerable mindset by not providing tools that would allow him to identify Onderon as an isolated incident. He truly genuinely beleives that he IS doing good in the empire. I mean everyone around him is telling him so, he is rewarded for batshit insane behavior, while others are punished for asking questions, ect ect.

Its really interesting that it took like... the smallest suggestion to challenge his beliefs ("look for answers, maybe youll find the truth") for him to not only do so, but to also--in lieu of realizing the heinous system that he's become complicit in-- hold himself accountable for his actions.

Anyways, yes OP, you brought up some stuff that 3AM me didnt think of and you are like 110% correct

Kallus' motivations are so interesting

I just need to get these thoughts out so I’m throwing this ramble here:

Now, this may totally just be me thinking too much (fork found in kitchen) but I feel like when it comes to how we tend to think about Kallus’ characterization, the implications of Kallus’ experience on Onderon are very overlooked. 

So he goes to Onderon with “the boys”-- which, the term “the boys” has its own set of implications about how Kallus must have really cared for those troopers under his command but I digress– and on a patrol they’re attacked, yada yada, we all know the story. 

But Kallus becomes fully paralyzed. He doesn’t describe the extent of his paralyzation but given that he had to watch as his squad was “finished off one by one” it’s pretty fair to assume that he could not move whatsoever. The fear that any person would experience in that situation is completely indescribable, that is genuinely some shit straight out of a night terror. 

He is– as we know– spared (albeit we don’t get exact details (did the merc try to kill him but reinforcements arrived before he could? Did the merc think that Kallus was already dead? Secret 3rd option?)) and he makes a full physical recovery, but there is no way in hell that he is not coming out of that encounter with some crazy PTSD. 

There’s not a whole lot of info on Imperial mental health services but I don’t think it’s a longshot to assume that they are probably close to nonexistent.

So the empire now has… an ISB agent with field experience… with untreated PTSD… where said PTSDs inciting incident pertained to a Lasat… and they’re looking to make an example out of Lasan……….. Are you picking up what I'm putting down here…...?

If you aren’t; it is BY NO MEANS a wild assumption to say that the Empire– essentially– weaponized Kallus’ PTSD, given that he would be less likely to question the moral atrocities happening on Lasan since he was already biased against Lasat as a whole. 

Now, we don’t really have a solid grasp on what Kallus’ exact role in Lasan was since he’s  kiiiiinnnd of an unreliable narrator– I mean we’re given the line in Droids in Distress where he takes credit for giving orders during the siege, but Kallus routinely just runs his mf mouth whenever he’s throwing hands so it’s like…  that could either be the truth or a crazy exaggeration, we as viewers have literally no idea what’s going on there– but it goes without saying that Kallus is obviously not excused from his participation just because of (likely) untreated mental illness, but that is literally like the whole point of his character so like we all knew that

Now, after Lasan, Kallus does something really bizarre for an imperial to do; he accepts the borifle given to him through the Boosan Keerah, and even though he doesn’t know about the cultural significance of that, he still takes it upon himself to learn how to use this weapon. I think that literally any other imperial would have tossed that shit out on sight, so I think it does kind of imply that Kallus did have a good deal of respect for Lasat culture.

Now we can all recall how Kallus is so annoying and also batshit insane whenever he fights Zeb for the first season and a half of rebels, and ME THINKS that this is because he wants to prove to himself that if he were not paralyzed on Onderon, he could have saved the members of his squad. He had to sit by and watch them die, and I think that he just wants the vindication; now you may be thinking, But Emma, he beat the Lasat who gave him his borifle, why would he still be obsessing over this– say it with me now– he is mentally ill. No victory will ever be enough to prove this to himself. Point blank period. 

To double down on that point, Kallus never actually says anything xenophobic about Zeb or the Lasat as a whole. (At least not that I can remember). He says “Lasat– never know when to give up,” but that’s not like… a crazy thing to say– in fact, in a fucked up sorta way, it almost sounds like a compliment???? Like, Kallus completely sees Zeb (and the Lasat in general) as equals, he’s not operating under the usual xenophobic imperial mindset that other species are lesser than. This weird obsession that he has in seasons 1 and 2 is just there because he wants to outwit and outfight Zeb (and the rest of the Ghost crew… but especially Zeb)

And after the Honorable Ones???? It’s literally never brought up again. He chills tf out so hard after that it is high key uncanny. And like, yes duh that is because– for writing purposes– that’s the beginning of his redemption and they want viewers to root for him as fulcrum, but it also implies that after finding common ground with Zeb, and understanding where he’s coming from and who Zeb is as a person, he realizes that he’s been CRASHING TF OUT for basically no reason. 

And he is SO QUICK to switch sides?? Like, he is fulcrum at least a decent time before the beginning of season three. The whole point is that the second he asks questions and delves deeper into what the Empires motivations are he is disgusted enough that he doesn’t just drop everything and disappear, no, he became a spy for the rebels because he wants to help. I feel like that just goes to show that, at his core, Kallus is a good person. A deeply confused, and hurt, and misguided person, but a good one. 

I dunno, this is just a really long winded way of saying that Kallus is the perfect example of an imperial pawn. Like the Empire is an incredibly effecient indoctrination machine that exploits people at every turn, especially their own soldiers, and I think that Kallus’ relationship with that indoctrination along with his own motivations is just super super interesting and I think about it literally all the time

[x] *Bonus:

YES

Big fan of Kallus-- especially post-defection Kallus whos working on dropping the whole imp apathy thing-- secretly caring so deeply and strongly about everything, he just doesnt quite know how to show it 😫😫

Actually, I think Kallus' rebellion might've been sparked not just by the want to be cared for, but also the want to care for someone. Zeb showed him that caring can be a conscious choice when he showed him care despite their history. In the pilot we see Kallus breaking character for a moment with Ezra, acting as if he almost wants to comfort the child, but instead he dusts off Ezra's shoulder. It's a small moment, but I think it implies that Kallus deep down always cared, he has just mastered the apathetic imperial act so well that he's even fooling himself