#What did you do Edgar?

[sysig]

for requestober !! can i ask for a crossover of vargas and tsp ? something like , stanley being edgar and scriabin being the narrator:3

Day 1 - Destruction

#My art #Requestober #Vargas #Scriabin #Edgar #The Stanley Parable #Watch out - I'm doing cool stuff with transparency again #And this time it actually presents cleanly on the dash hells yeah >:3c #Quick first thing that stands out to you about style stuff! #I've been feeling gums lately teeth and gums but especially gums #They are good for big expression work and they are also weird :) #I'm not used to it yet! But I think I like it! In like a mixed way lol #Very good for expression work I just fjdksalfjd they are very strange #Anyhow! #Been a while since I dipped into the Vargas/TSP well :3c #I decided to go with one of the tag-dialogue I had set aside for myself in the original doodle post haha #It's a good bit of dialogue ♪ Definitely one of my favourites it rides around in my head rent free #Just leaving it as their void untouched with such an emphasis on how wrecked the place is tho #That wouldn't do would it ♪ #What did you do Edgar? #Went and found a beasty who tore the walls apart haha #Either that or Scriabin did it and he's blaming Edgar - standard fare #It feels so odd! So strange to be drawing them digitally again! #I mean I've been drawing them traditionally all this time so that's not strange #And really it hasn't been That long since I drew them digitally it just feels like it #I'll just have to get back into the swing of it haha #A good start to the season :) Thank you! :D

[zarla-s]

When death comes knocking at your door And nothing’s left worth fighting for Say a little prayer and pull the rug Show me what you're made of

It’s been a while for these two! I was listening to What You’re Made Of and this image came to me so I decided to go for it.

[patreon]

#edgar vargas #Scriabin #vargas #jthm #z art #not sure what scri is doing with the string #i just liked the swoop #did the thing punch edgar or did scriabin #you decide! #kingdom come is falling down~ #no one's left to save you now~

[starleska]

we just watched Electric Dreams 1984 and i've never been more distraught in my life!!!! that sweet computer just wanted to be loved!!!! 😭💖💖💖💖💖

#justice for Edgar oh my GOD #perhaps i'm too autistic and project onto objects but tell me WHAT Edgar did wrong!!! what did he do to deserve that treatment!!!! #all you people who've been putting Sexyman Edgar on my dash for years and years. i see you. i understand you now 😭💖 #edgar #electric dreams #electric dreams 1984 #edgar electric dreams #edgar electric dreams 1984 #starleskatalks

[babykittenteach]

2023 in review! I made an effort to try more things and it worked mostly (at least for TV and movies). New things, new-to-me things, and new installments of old things all had characters to love even if I didn't necessarily feel fannish about them, and I'm hoping 2024 does, too.

#but yeah no I had a lot of fun with some of these #mp100 is now fully going down as one of my favorite works of art ever. i mean it. i'd stick it on a shelf with discworld. #trying Nida Manzoor's work was SO GOOD like if edgar wright knew how to make girls lovable I meant to only try one episode of WALP #and then I marathonned it all in one night right into the sunrise and I do not regret it #(look I love edgar wright but) #i had my issues with GO2 and Fionna & Cake and HxH (which I finally tried yes I am late) but still they had babies in them #one piece and the last of us did like major progress for proving those mediums *could* be adapted and not suck so seriously kudos #I didn't go into Barbie expecting it to Solve Capitalism and The Patriarchy so I appreciate what it did do #Nimona was just gorgeous #Across the spider-verse is so good it's hard to say anything about it #Peacemaker is obnoxiously good and Chris's breakdown near the end really got me #Bottoms & Marry My Dead Body & Ying-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity are just fun okay don't think about it #the strange planet show was sweet and peaceful to watch #and even with a 40% budget cut OFMD has my heart and ed is The babygirl of all time for me #thanks for reading these tags if you did and I hope you have a good new year #art i'm proud of

[clove-pinks]

Can't stop thinking about Achille de Gas in this portrait by his older brother—no longer a baby midshipman but all grown up in c. 1868-1872.

The description from the Minneapolis Institute of Art calls Achille a "dapper flâneur", but it's also hilariously critical of him:

Achille himself was something of a pretentious do-nothing, frequently running up debts and engaging in scandalous behavior. (He shot and wounded the husband of a former lover in front of the Paris stock exchange.)

[Edgar] Degas portrays Achille leaning on an umbrella, twisting his hip and pushing his chest forward to emphasize the studied nonchalance of his half-buttoned coat. The sketch is a study for the male spectator in the foreground of the painting At the Races. With eyes downcast and striking a self-consciously debonair pose, the fellow is clearly more interested in being seen than in the action behind him.

#achille de gas #edgar degas #1870s #1860s #fashion #historical men's fashion #i learned the word 'flâneur' from albert smith #who describes it like an upscale french version of the english 'gent' #the clothing has more of that looser 1860s fit #what did achille de gas ever do to you #besides steal your girl and shoot you #while striking a self-consciously debonair pose

[carcarrot]

has no one made an edited version of tsb thats like. just the sparks parts lol

#im a fake fan (i have not watched the entire documentary) #i did watch the first like 25 minutes once and ive obviously seen the bonus features w the guys but #im sorry this is just because with the exception of like ex band members and other actual relevant music people (like todd rundgren) #i do not want to watch other people talking abt spars bc its partly like what do you know abt this band and also #if sparks have been so important to you why are you only saying it now . #OGH anyway my hot take abt the documentary. i get it and i think it was a good thing for the guys however #i wish it was a little more spars focused but i know they gotta keep up their mystique #the only reason im asking for this now is because of what im planning for my sparstember project #but like for real if it was just 2 and a half hours of the guys vagueing about sparks and going places well that would be better. to me #this is nothing against edgar either btw its just my own personal onion abt the doc

[kekkuda]

Part of the process of recovering from my first psychotic episode has involved revisiting all of the famous gothic horror literature i read and was fascinated by as a preteen and reading Poe has been a constant experience of yeah I’ve been there before buddy and it really does feel like he was ahead of his time in terms of presenting reality as inherently absurd in a way his peers didn’t often touch upon. People often stop their analysis at “Edgar Allan Poe utilizes unreliable narrators a lot” instead of going a bit further to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and asking what it feels like to live in an unreliable reality. Reading Poe stories feels so very melancholic at a moment in my life when I don’t know how to get care for these issues, whether or not I’m actually sound of mind or just convincing myself I’m losing touch with reality-- in other words “faking it.” Ever since the incident moments of joy and curious hobbies have gone from being seen by those around me as quirky hyperfixations to something more sinister and unwell. Others who I thought really cared for my health and safety seem to treat the revelation that I am “losing my mind, no literally. . . please let me tell you what happened” with the if i’m retelling the story of what flavor of soda i picked at the vending machine. It’s so alienating as if being terrified of your own mind and it’s capability to break apart the rules of reality isn’t alienating enough. I think Poe really captures that feeling I get when things are just a bit off until they crescendo into an event that seems massive and tiny and inconsequential all the same. I really can’t describe it because the fear I feel is unlike any other fear I’ve felt and you don’t know it until you’ve felt it and it clicks. Out of curiosity I wanted to see how well H.P. Lovecraft held up or if my distaste for his work was strictly from the knowledge of who the man was in life. The answer is no, it does not. Frankly I find it insulting that H.P. Lovecraft is put at the same level as Poe, far above the tens of Gothic writers that preceded him by decades to nearly a century. . . of whom Lovecraft would openly take influence from just to water down down everything that makes those works interesting. The “indescribable” horrors that Lovecraft describes are paradoxically comprehensible. I’ve had many discussions with my partner about why more grounded surrealist art feels far more surreal and uneasy than art that is comprised of endless “weird” imagery. To keep this topic brief, think something like David Lynch. His films are utterly bizarre compared to your average hollywood blockbuster, sure, but as far as surrealist media goes? His films are very grounded in reality, but that reality feels off and strange in a way that genuinely is indescribable. When I read Lovecraft on the other hand, it feels like he read a lot of gothic literature about the sublime, indescribably transcendent nature of the universe and replaced that with essentially. . . a big scary monster. When Lovecraft writes “indescribable” or other similar words as a descriptor for what his characters see, it feels akin to when 14 year olds discover the SCP wiki and think that the more you write REDACTED or [DATA EXPUNGED] the scarier the object of horror is. It feels lazy when you’re not given any other reason to feel afraid. When I read Dagon it feels like I’m reading an early 2010s creepypasta written by someone who hasn’t been writing long enough to analyze what makes something scary. It genuinely feels like someone trying to write what they think psychosis might be like. His stories are so inhuman (and not in the way he’s trying to achieve) and detached, and I never get the is it real or not feeling I get from older gothic stories dealing with notions of sanity and humanity’s role in the universe. I know the big spooky space creatures are real in the universe of the text, so I don’t really connect the Lovecraftian hero’s lapses of sanity. You don’t see the same tragic decay of mind and body and ill-fated social dynamics that permeate so many of Poe’s stories. I genuinely don’t know what purpose there is to be gained from the oft-quoted declaration that the core of Lovecraft is about uncovering knowledge you aren’t supposed to know. I frankly don’t know how you can separate the art from the artist for HPL when so much of his work seems to pretty clearly match up with antisemitic “secret global society” conspiracy theories that go back centuries upon centuries. Think about it for two seconds: the “terrible knowledge” that gets discovered is typically the existence of some all-powerful cosmic race that seems to hide itself at all costs and could possibly end humanity’s pitiful existence should they so choose to do so. So much of his work involves this utterly unsympathetic view of otherness as an “indescribable threat” in society whereas I think a lot of Poe’s writing really captures the terror of being othered at a time when the treatment of mentally ill and disabled people was at one of its all-time peaks. I might revisit this idea again when I’m not tired as shit but I think in all, Lovecraft feels almost boring. Nothing feels really impressive despite the scale of its horror. In some ways, Poe really feels almost shockingly similar to a lot of postmodern man-vs-reality narratives, whereas Lovecraft feels like he takes a lot of the same aesthetics of gothic literature and uses it to craft a narrative that is far more simplistic than it seems at first glance. It hardly even qualifies as a man-vs-god narrative prevalent in the time of the Illiad, but given HPL’s track record when it comes to respecting human beings it’s all just a bare bones black and white us-versus-them man-vs-man narrative. Now, art doesn’t have to be thematically complex to be good, but I find it a bit insulting when the man with the copy-paste self insert characters with the personality of soggy paper wants to profess understanding of profoundly existentialist, indescribable terror. . . and the vast majority of his work is just an allegory with a metaphor writing-hand heavier than CS Lewis’s own that gives me no insights about the world other than that he literally couldn’t get over the “indescribable” fear of “grug look different from ogg, grug bad!” dog you didn’t make a cosmic discovery you are literally the fuckin meme “men will smoke weed once and think they’re enlightened for discovering empathy” or whatever. i have more transcendental experiences railing twinks and cuddling with pretty girls talk about smth really indescribable!!!!! it’s fucking caveman shit. mf really would be writing shitty fanfic of shadow puppets if you locked him in the cave fr fr. prolly wouldn’t notice he’s in an allegory fr fr life is indescribable and that’s what makes it beautiful and tragic and precious just eat a cock like the rest of us instead ur scarin the hoes with your shitty octopus fursona!

#i bear the curse of being the only bb fan that hates lovecraft #sorry but its the mcu of gothic literature #its just head empty junk food and frankly bloodborne took what lovecraft did and did it better #the big monsters are just part of the whole system of institutional violence #instead of being a stand in for whatever minority you feel like shitting on today #bb is hardly lovecraftian because it doesnt SUCK which is a requirement for successfully imitating HPLs work #thoughts #gothic literature #lovecraft #edgar allan poe #but what do i know by some standards ig im literally insane but this might be the one #case where i have the leg up #i got the experience to back this up ok

[vargaslovinghours]

Y’all are being subjected to my Sims 2 tests, so there

The other set of Vargases came over for a visit and Scriabin picked up Shmee and started talking to Scriabin through him. Very normal, very usual

I downloaded some circle-glasses recolours and hghghh they look so good! Closer every day to his final details! Getting ever closer!

Edgar too! I made him a custom hair with a lighter undercut - I’m mostly happy with it, probably could’ve shifted it a shade closer to his skintone but the texturing was weird no matter what :P And his stripey shirt! I wish Body Shop didn’t have that hands-on-hips pose lol, it looks so much better in-game, but that’s all the better :)

I got some new clothes for Todd as well! As soon as I saw this ‘fit I was like “Oh that’s 100% Todd there he is.” Scriadad hug ♥ So cute

Foot-dancing together stopp it’s so cute!!

The way he looks at them stoppp <3 <3 They kept doing this right up til they left for home haha, Todd’s giggles are the cutest

Used SimPE to save him to the Body Shop, I now have infinite copies of The Boyyyy ♪

Moved him in with his “parents” as just shadow people basically, they’re not gonna matter in a bit as long as I remember how to get the Social Worker/Adoption process to work properly. Get her Todd!!

Wanna play? :D

Menacing :(

Look, Todd, your new dads are here! Initially I wasn’t sure who I wanted to adopt him, got lots of options; the first passes, the married couple with their own Todd, Johnny?? He definitely doesn’t have the facilities for a child lol But these are the ones that showed up on their own, so the married Vargases are the winners!

Scriabin cares more about him than his actual parents ;; A stranger off the street shows him more care! Not that it’s a high watermark

Look at him being a good dad!

Weh, he just wants friends ;; Poor baby

Best timeline, thank you

While we wait for CPS, let’s get some other interactions in! Nny is mean so he tended to prank the other two with a nose flick - mostly Edgar lol ♪ Now kiss

“Oh please don’t break all my bones~ :3” I love Todd looking up at them haha <3

Pffft, I think he was talking about the other Scriabin and just how attractive he is. Classic Scriabin. Alternatively, also funny to imagine him bragging himself up about how he’s just so handsome that Edgar can’t help but love him hahaha ♪

Allow me to tickle you with my KNIFE! >:D

Get a load of this guy lol

He ended up passing out at one point - I forgot which motives make CPS show up >.> - and completely 0%’d his comfort, but for some reason stargazing increased it?? It’s the same ground wh

Is two not enough to satisfy your butterfly bloodlust child?? He ended up with three, I had him release them before he was picked up by the Social Worker - success!

He rolled a new Want as soon as Todd was taken away - “Wants to see Ghost of Todd” Woah, dark! :0

And here he is on the married Vargases’ lot!! Success!! I did it right!! Heck yeah! :D Unfortunately they were uh, indisposed at the time. Good job guys pft

Goes right for Shmee, he really is Todd <3

#The Sims 2 #My queue is too backlogged on main! And I /have/ been working on a lot of Vargas-specific Sims 2 retextures so it's fine lol #These are still tests - as said up top lol - so these events are ''non canon'' to what will eventually be my actual Vargas family #The beats will be similar tho! It's mostly just a lot of tweaking at this point to get everything just where I want before the domino falls #Edgar Nny and Todd are all so close to done - Scriabin still needs a bit more work lol of course he's the problem member ♪ #It'll be worth it tho! >:3c Handsome lad <3 #Did find out some interesting things with the Social Worker/Adoption process :0 Most importantly that adoption basically wipes everything #Wipes memories and family relations and changes the last name! So I'll have to go in with SimPE to change his name back once I'm there #I love SimPE haha ♪ I mean it's just an extension of how much I love TS2 but I just ughsjkhagf it's a good program! #It's extremely powerful and easy to get lost in if you don't know where to look but it's also incredibly user-friendly if you do know #Like - it's as easy as ''Open this sub-menu. Click this button. Rename this. You're all done'' it's just jdsflf Sims 2 my beloved <3 <3 #I decided to cheat down the Casils' relationship with Todd before everything else - thus why his father is menacing him for the prank #I've seen Sims with not high enough friendship to not take a water balloon as a fun invitation but not between a parent and child! #It's subtle but the parent being mad and the kid cowering :( It's sadly appropriate for Todd #I stuck the Casils in a box to wait things out and they ended up glitching frozen in bed - they're effectively dead by Motive but can't move #So they can't die /or/ live - feels fitting #If you'd like to recreate CPS taking your child away without straight up torturing them! - Hunger. You just need hunger lol #Alternately you can also have them miss class if you'd prefer to feed them - both will result in being taken away after long enough #If I return to this save it's gonna be confusing since both Todds are identical and have the same names lol #I do have a bunch of new clothes! Second shopping trip :D #There's something oddly fitting for the Vargases to adopt twin/clones lol - fun shenaniganary until the Final Version comes to pass #Although now that I think of it I Could also give them a toddler!Todd hmmmmmm #It's an idea :)

[carbonateddelusion]

"I could fix him" buddy. you have no idea what you're in for. have fun with 2 years of having to convince him that nobody's watching him from outside and many more years of nightmares and being touch-averse

#you can't fix edgar he's like. what is the japanese practice of putting gold into broken pottery #he's like that. you have to work with what you have #i know it's a funny but you can't 'fix' someone who's been through as much as he's been. the best you can do is soothe the symptoms #because like it or not he's always gonna have that reminder of exactly what happened to him and who did it etched into his lower back- #-like a tramp stamp. and whoever comes in after jack is picking up the pieces and adding that gold in and praying you can salvage it #alas. lovebirds. #oc relationship stuff

[annadaptors]

DS Edgar Wield in 'An Autumn Shroud', Dalziel + Pascoe (BBC, 1996).

#dalziel and pascoe #edgar wield #gifset #@ tumblr user foreverrhapsody #i saw your post in the tag and then remembered i had giffed that exact moment but never posted it #so here it is now #yes i did squeal when i first saw this scene #the writer knew exactly what they were doing when they made this decision #and no spoilers for the novel the death of dalziel #but wieldy gets a happy ending (eventually) #and i can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than him <3 #okay watching this on a loop really allowed you to appreciate dalziel’s reaction #and also look how smug wieldy looks

[lem-argentum]

i feel i’ve talked about nicknames a lot on this blog but ummm i like when my f/os canonically use them it’s cute. <3

#lem text #uhhhhh i was thinking of edgar while writing this but he’s not an f/o i was just thinking about it. #i ​do like how he talks. ‘case of mistaken identity; my dear. give it up!’ #doug and i just call each other our names for the most part but we use pet names as jokes sometimes. <3 #he calls me babe and i go WHAT DID YOU JUST.??? and we laugh about it n he keeps doing it because it’s funny then <33. #meg n i are SUCH nickname-users with each other. did you know her name’s actually margaret meg is actually a nickname itself hemfndn <333 #prom shortens names a lot but i can’t imagine him using unique ones as much.. #refusing to talk about 🔌. guys who canonically say ‘princess’ :/

[sysig]

Edgar getting jealous over Scriabin, Edgar getting jealous is so gooooddd

Day 28 - Date Success! 🌟

#My art #Requestober #Vargas #Edgar #Scriabin #Okay so I might have gone a little overboard for today's lol #But in my defense I really wanted to lol #Quick guess how many frames >:3c Did you guess 170? That's correct! Lol #Lots of quick renaming files lol #It's still fun to make fake dating sim gifs tho ahhh ♪ Simple animations and expressions and the text ticker #I really love the aesthetic of it hehe ♥ #It's funny 'cause at first I was like ''Hmm jealous Edgar... What can I do for jealous Edgar'' #'Cause I completely agree Jealous Edgar is excellent ✨ And it's been since around the hiatus since I drew any jealous Edgar so it's timely #And then I looked through my backlog and was like Oh! The Edgar ⬇️ Scriabin ⬆️ Dating Sim route ♪ #I picked up my notes and one of the things I'd jotted down was the way that Edgar ''encourages'' the player to not pursue Scriabin hehe #''Oh Scriabin's a bad person he'll hurt you he's really not someone you want to date'' while staring daggers at you lol #Not that he's wrong lol but what if the player's into that Edgar! It just won't fly if you're excluding one for the other ♪ #It was really fun to draw Edgar's eyes like that haha ✨ #Scriabin on the other hand is just like Byyyeee ♥ Have fun with my boyfriend and his shovel talk ♥♥ #He's the true winner in this situation lol #Plus he gets a jealous Edgar all to himself afterwards! He just using you to rile him up player! Get out of there! #Haha ♪

[stabbystiletto]

🥳🥳🥳🤯🤯🤯🥳🥳🥳😏😏😏😃😃😃😃😃

STOOOOOOOOOOOKED 😆😆😆😆😆

THEY'RE DOING A CHUCKY HOUSE I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER BEEN ON A YEAR THAT THEY DID A CHUCKY HOUSE??!! (though i did go that one year where he took over the Terror Tram lololol that was so much fun ☺️☺️☺️)

Also can we just appreciate them doing not just the Phantom of the Opera, but also Jekyll and Hyde, the Invisible Man, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame??!! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Like yes they always do a classic Universal Monsters house, but it's usually some combination of like Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Bride of the Monster, the Wolfman, with something like Creature from the Black Lagoon or The Mummy thrown in every now and then.

THESE ARE ALL UNCOMMON ONES THEY'RE DOING THIS YEAR THOUGH, GOOD FOR THEM!! 👏👏👏🥳🥳🥳👏👏👏

Unrelated note, not super excited about the Terror Tram theme (like these mutated bugs who are people exterminators or something??) but I appreciate that they're doing something different, I'll give them credit for that 👍

#hhn #hhn 2023 #shitpost lol 😆 #can't wait can't wait lolololol 😆😆😆😆😆🤣🤣🤣 #this is like the opposite of last year lol last year was almost all original houses whereas this year it's almost all #how would you call it #licensed houses?? #pre-existing IPs?? #i actually kinda like their originals though it's kinda cool to see what they come up with #and it's kinda cool since it's not based on a movie/tv show you don't know what's gonna happen lol #but the pre-existing ones are cool too especially if you're a fan of the franchise 🖤🖤🖤 #it's really cool to see one of your favorite movies come to life like that ☺️☺️☺️🖤🖤🖤 #but last year they had one that was like this 1920s hotel that was cursed or haunted or something i forget lol but it was hella cool lol #i kinda like those ones #like the mystery/noir kinda style #knotts berry farm did a really cool one like that awhile back #the premise was this detective was tracking down this serial killer who was basing all their murders off of edgar allan poe stories/poems #while you waited in the queue line to go through the house they were playing these true crime documentary-style videos about the murders #it was really cool they did a lil extra like that it added to the ambiance lol 😆 #also i know it's doubtful but i reeeally hope they do some sort of trick/special effect/animatronic for the Invisible Man #and not just #y'know #some dude in a trench coat and hat with a bunch of bandages on his face :/ #like can you imagine if you see that and then this dude pulls off the bandages and then there's just *nothing there* 🤯🤯🤯😱😱😱 #they're not gonna do that though 😮‍💨 but it's still cool that he's being included in the big show lololol 👍👍👍😤😤😤👍👍👍

[theflikchic]

Anyways, fuk the people who read "Dr Tarr and Professor Fether" (a story written about how neurotypical people will believe anything about mentally ill people-especially that they're dangerous, that asylums are ridiculously abusive, and that mentally ill people actually just kinda want to vibe all while being written during the period of European ex-patient Lunatics Activism movement) and thought to themselves- "This would make a great horror movie" and then made all of the funny, chill mentally ill characters into the villains.

Fk you. Fk you. I've never been angrier.

#worst reading comprehension EVER #the story IS SO against ableism #and while yes it does feature a lot of stereotypes #it makes the neurotypical mc into the idiot and the patients into the self aware ones #and what did they do #in 2017 #they regressed back to the fking 1600s fk you #edgar allan poe #dr tarr and professor fether #poe #literature #ableism #tw ableism #horror #short stories

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking of that reply in my Odysseus/Agamemnon post about how I regard differently Odysseus' and Agamemnon's actions, while acknowledging that at times Agamemnon is written as a sweet man and Odysseus is always straight up shitty, and how it was taken as some sort of defense for Agamemnon and as a form of pointing out the double standard; and that wasn't at all what the post was about for me, even though I can see where they were coming from. To be honest, given I didn't imagine it would spread anywhere other than my own blog, I didn't explain myself very well (or at all).

The fact is that when I talked about Odysseus not caring about hurting someone else's child to start and end a war I was indeed comparing his actions to Agamemnon's, but my words about supporting Odysseus' wrongs and cheering him in his terrible actions, while in a joking tone, weren't entirely a joke. I do think that Odysseus does some very shitty acts, and some quite terrible ones depending on the sources. That's a fact, that he does is at the core of his characterisation and it's what makes him so much fun; but not even when he is at his most cruel does he harm his family, his own son. Agamemnon, while sweet and loving at times in some texts, at his worst is willing to sacrifice Iphigenia. When readers regard with more sympathy Odysseus over Agamemnon despite both being responsible for children dying, I don't think there's a double standard in this aspect at all considering it's never his own kid Odysseus harms. And that's the key, I think.

Odysseus and Agamemnon have very different priorities, a very different view on loyalty and duty. It could be said that Agamemnon acts out of selfishness, but it could also be read in a kinder light, saying that Agamemnon is ruled by the gods first, and by his role as head of the achaeans; Agamemnon is not entirely himself. In opposition we see Odysseus acting perhaps mainly for himself and his own family and men; yes, he is a king, but he has not the role Agamemnon has. As a consequence, Agamemnon submits his family's wellbeing to the war, to the gods, while Odysseus stops the plow before hurting Telemachus but is (depending on the source) the cause of Iphigenia's sacrifice and Astyanax's death.

Both Odysseus and Agamemnon have reasons to support their actions, and both can be sympathised with; it's fiction after all. When it comes to fiction, at the end of the day which character a reader is drawn to or sympathises with is mainly an issue of personal taste, but I suppose it also implies a certain level of one's own views or preferences on morals, what makes us find certain actions more justifiable, or tasteful (perhaps that's a more accurate word), than others. Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter, no matter how sympathetic or understandable the reason, generally sits worse on people than Odysseus doing the same with someone else's kids, because they're someone else's. This different emotional reaction they provoke has place not just metanarratively, but also inside the very story; it is narratively significant, given it determines how their arrival home plays out, how their wives react to them, and thus their futures. Ultimately it determines whether they live or die.

I think both terrible acts go in line wonderfully with each characterisation, showcasing the role they hold in their world, what they value, what they care for, what they're willing to sacrifice for themselves and the others, how much of their own they're willing to give and bend. While looking at the wider picture it could perhaps be drawn that Agamemnon is the better person out of the two, but Odysseus' selfish actions are perhaps easier to empathise with, especially from a modern viewpoint. Odysseus is treacherous and prone to betrayal, but not against his own; Agamemnon follows the rules of the gods. How fitting in that context that Odysseus doesn't die at the end of his story, that he cheats the death heroes so often are fated to, almost as if cheating the narrative itself, bending the rules of the world he is ascribed to; how fitting in the context of those texts that point towards Sisyphus being his father. But that's another topic, and I've already talked a lot.

#Don't get me wrong. Odysseus is super shitty and this is a 'pick your poison' kind of situation #But I don't really think there's a double standard when it comes to the kids situation given that Odysseus doesn't sacrifice his own kid #I really think that's what lies at the core of this. Does that make him shittier and more selfish and a worse person? Actually yeah perhaps #But we are no kings with thousands of people depending on our decision yet cringe at the idea of hurting people close to us #It feels like betrayal. And this is where the moral preference takes the role. Which do you prefer? The one that would betray their family #for the greater good or the one who'd sell the world for their family and themselves? It's interesting because #while in fiction the first option is often the most frown upon while selfish actions for the beloved are easy to sympathise with‚ #in reality these are usually worse regarded. I didn't want to go there because I already wrote so much it didn't fit in the tags #but I actually think the same thing happens with Galahad/Lancelot. Heathcliff/Edgar I'd say has a somewhat similar situation going on #There are many many examples but mainly I was thinking of Galahad and Lancelot #So this is not an 'Odysseus did nothing wrong'. This is an 'Odysseus did many things very wrong but he didn't kill his son #so while both him and Agamemnon were the cause of death of kids‚ their action are not the same so there's no double standard regarding #the particular action of sacrificing Iphigenia. In fiction that kind of betrayal makes characters often unlikeable' #I guess that action 'stains' the view under which Agamemnon's actions are seen and so his character is often seen under a darker light #He is presented a bit as an antagonistic presence opposed to Achilles who is very popular so I guess that also influences this? #Anyway I've been elated by the musical causing Odysseus art and posts but I do have noticed that he is very goodified in it and that #it has influenced how he is being regarded around here (the way it happened with The Song of Achilles as well I suppose) #And I must say I like that less. He is shitty in a fun way but not in a light way. He is very shitty #Definitely not better than Agamemnon depending on the perspective you take. I can't believe I'm 'defending' Agamemnon #He is not my thing at all I'm all for selfish actions for oneself and the loved ones through manipulation‚ #lies and scams and letting the world drown if needed. In fiction Lancelot's‚ Odysseus' and Heathcliff's actions are a lot more preferible #to me than Galahad's‚ Agamemnon's and Edgar's. But yeah #I ALSO didn't want to go there because again it would have take me forever and I would run out of tags (yet here I am) #but there's also a Priam/Hector/Paris comparison in how they act and how they're regarded to be drawn here #Agamemnon/Iphigenia‚ Priam/Hector/Paris‚ Odysseus/Telemachus. And that is not even including everything with Elektra/Clytemnestra/Orestes #or Oedipus and his own family for that matter #But yes. I'll better shut up already. I'm talking a lot more than I intended #I just found that discussion super enthralling and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I still can't #I talk too much #I should probably delete this later

[katnissgirlsmakedo]

you know what the worst part of all of this is. it’s not over for me. i have to keep consuming king arthur related media until i run out or three years pass by and the wicked powers finally comes out. merlin is just a show to you guys but to me it was only the beginning of forcing myself to care about arthurian legend so i can enjoy my final shadowhunter book series when cassie finally drops it in like a billion years. god. it’s never fucking over it’s just a circle huh.

#well. time to read. The Book. 😐 #beth.txt #why am i doing this you ask. well this is what i did with the dark artifices and edgar allen poe’s poetry #and it worked then. so. #i want to enjoy twp to the absolute fullest of my ability