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drconstellation · 4 months

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Liberty versus the Tree of Life

TW: Discussion of death and grief

I received a question from @lickthecowhappy the other day on one of my metas that I'm going to try and address in this post. This is going to wander into some pretty heavy areas, and discuss some implications for S3.

They asked:

"What do you think about comparing "give me liberty (coffee) or give me death" with gaining free will via the tree of knowledge but losing access to the tree of life in the process?"

On one hand this might look like a simple choice between two things, but its not - there are shades of grey, of course. Can the two (liberty/death vs. knowledge/life) be compared? Yes - in a way. But we need to unpack the question in its entirety first.

"Give me liberty, or give me death!"

This famous quote that forms the basis of the name of Nina's coffee shop is from a reconstructed speech given by the American politician Patrick Henry in 1775, as the colonists prepared to fight against the British Empire. It is worth us having a look at the extended excerpt of the speech quoted from Wikipedia in context of what we know is coming in S3:

If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

If the mention of Boston wasn't there, you could almost read that as a crazy synopsis of S2 and S3. The Great War, that wasn't considered concluded satisfactorily and must be restarted and finished once and for all, has begun again, and is on its inexorable way. There will be storms. Some see the outcome in black and white - you either win or die; there is no other option, because they do not dare entertain it.

The fandom seems quite settled with the analogy of liberty and freedom = coffee, and six shots of espresso is Crowley's coffee preference, because he loves and protects his freedom with a passion. Crowley is that coffee, in a way - long, dark and richly intense. He is a champion of free will. Even as a demon he still gives those he tempts the choice to make their own mistakes. So how do we apply this to the coffee the Metatron offers Aziraphale, and the other option, death?

The coffee the Metatron orders and forces on Aziraphale is a message, and a warning, to the angel - "I know all about you and your demon partner." The shot of coffee in it is Crowley, the oat milk is to say Aziraphale has maybe gone a bit too far with things with Crowley while on Earth, and the almond syrup is to say they have been watched and observed do so. This is confirmed when the Metatron mentions that he knows that Aziraphale and Crowley have formed a de facto partnership.

And where would Aziraphale get his Crowley from if he went back to Heaven?

What about death? Is it a real option? What does the option of death mean anyway?

If you are not familiar with the Tarot deck, the Death card can seem quite alarming. A skeleton in black armour strides over a fallen king - death does not care for rank or position. Death cares not for riches, they will not hold it at bay. Nor will prayers. Death does not care what age you are, either. But the small, kneeling child holds a posy of flowers up as if in greeting, the only one prepared to face the rider on the pale horse; this is because children are not as always as set in their ways as adults are, and can adapt to change more easily.

Experienced Tarot users know that is what the Death card signifies when it appears: Change. Something is coming to and end, but something else is about to start as well. It's not a physical death, its a spiritual or metaphorical death. It should be a welcomed card, as it indicates there is a promise renewal and new beginnings on the horizon (see the dawning sun between the two pillars in the top right of the card?) and all one has to do is surrender to the inevitable change. But like death, making changes can sometime be a hard, fearful thing to face. Facing death, either your own or someone else's, is ultimately about accepting change.

Surrender to the British is not what Patrick Henry wanted to do. He wanted to keep the liberty he had in the new world.

But death was the only viable option Aziraphale had.

"So predictable," remarked the Metatron to Nina, when she told him people don't ever ask for death in response to his question. Death is present in Nina's coffee shop - it's the green colour on the inside walls.

I haven't done much colour meta lately but I have been doing a lot of research on them, as I realized the original meta I wrote needed a major revision, which I plan to do soon. Green was one of those colours that needed more work.

The green on the inside walls actually has two meanings, which are both specifically tied to the coffee shop, but the first one is Death, with the capital D. This is one of the Four Horsepeople lurking in the background of S2, as Armageddon prepares to ramp up again. War is on the label of the wine bottle Crowley has in S2E5, Famine is the Marley Horse statue that Crowley puts his sunglasses on inside the bookshop, and where the stone-shaped Eccles cakes are placed in offering. Death is waiting inside the coffee shop, right next to the constraining sky-blue moral lawfulness of Heaven.

Death rides a pale horse, but the word used to describe it, "chloros," actually translates to a "pale greenish-yellow." That would have looked a bit sickly inside the coffee shop, I think, so they used a more complimentary shade of green, and one that would double up with a second meaning. Green is also the colour associated with new beginnings and the resurrection. That's why the outside of The Resurrectionist pub is dark green - it's got nothing to do with Hell (at least, I don't think it does, in this case!)

The Second Coming is in progress. Armageddon is underway again. Someone in Heaven is determined to see the supposed Great Plan come to fruition.

The Riddle of the Sphinx

In Sophocles play Oedipus Rex the titular character meets the Sphinx on a hill outside of Thebes. The monster has been devouring travelers who do not answer her riddle correctly.

"What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"

Clever Oedipus replies with "Man," and defeated, the Sphinx departs, removing her curse from the city.

A baby crawls on four limbs into childhood, then two legs into adulthood, then on three legs with a cane for an aid into old age. This is the natural progression of life. You would not want to remain an infant forever, and similarly if you have children wouldn't you wish to see them progress from childhood to adulthood and have children of their own?

Remember Momento mori? It's a major theme in the series. Remember that you die. It's a reminder that cycles must end and restart, and that death is an important part of life. We saw the Starmaker set up a star factory, but even stars die eventually, and need to die, to make new stars. The universe recycles itself, that is how it keeps going. Sometimes we need a reminder that life is short, although sometimes it seems too long as well.

I think we too easily forget that our ineffable duo, as angel and demon, are entities that can effortlessly travel between these two worlds of life and death, as we humans see it. It's their business to do so, after all. As supernatural beings, they are eternally alive, and death has a different meaning to them - it's destruction that they fear.

The Tree of Knowledge & The Tree of Life

Aziraphale's role as Guardian of the Eastern Gate was to prevent humans returning to the Garden of Eden to access the Tree of Life after they had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge.

The Tree of Knowledge gave us questioning, curiosity and imagination. We learned, we created and in doing so made choices - we used free will. But in taking this liberty it gave us the responsibility for ourselves. It supposedly gave us the concept of sin and doing wrong, and also shorter lives to help us deal with the "agony" of this.

And the other option, the Tree of Life, that is apparently so dangerous we must be kept away from it? Is it death? No, quite the opposite - it offers eternal life, and redemption from sin. In short - a state of no change - and no choice.

To access the Tree of Life now the choice is made for you before you can arrive in front of it, in the Book of Life. If your name is in the Book on Judgement Day, you get to enter Paradise. If it is not, you will be cast down into a lake of burning sulfur (hmm, sounds familiar...) And that's it, forever and ever.

Is that really the ideal of Paradise? Yet we're made to fear the cyclic change and new growth that death brings, and want to yearn so much for the stagnation of Eternity that we rigidly structure our lives around a possible promise of it as a goal.

Eternal Life, Eternal Youth

Eternal life is not the same as eternal youth. In a cautionary tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses we have the Cumaean Sybil who lived a thousand years. She was the priestess of the oracle of Apollo at Cumae, near Naples, and apparently Apollo offered to grant her a wish in exchange for her virginity. She scooped up a handful of sand, and asked to be given as many years of life as there were grains of sand that she held. Later, she refused to sleep with the god, so he let her physical body wither away, because she had failed to ask for eternal youth as well. Her body shrunk as the years went by, and grew smaller and smaller, and eventually only her voice was left, kept contained in a jar. (And here is a link to one of the books on Jim's bookshelf - Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is named after the ampulla that the Sybil's voice was said to have been kept in.)

Searching for a Fountain of Youth, or creating a Philosopher's Stone for immortality has a common theme in stories through history, even from earliest times. It can be seen as a blessing, or a curse, or a fool's errand. It's a quest that is still prevalent in our modern thinking - going to the gym to build muscle, cosmetic surgery for looks only etc Queer culture has long had an emphasis on youth and beauty and growing old is anathema; freezing the body in time like in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is an aim, but our fragile mortal frames just aren't made for that. Isn't it what is inside us that counts, not the label we have applied to it?

Choices, Choices...

The time has come to make a choice: will it be the stimulating coffee of free will, or the painful change and rebirth of death, that might lead to something even better?

Perhaps you want to try the other combination: Having control and responsibility over your own short life in exchange for having to live your life to a strict set of rules so that you can then exist forever in somebody else's idea of a static ideal afterwards.

I find I'm a bit biased. But you chose what you will.

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” T. S. Eliot

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artthatgivesmefeelings · 1 year

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Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (French, 1755 - 1842) Life Study of Lady Hamilton as the Cumaean Sybil, 1792 The Met Museum

Emma Hamilton (1765–1815) rose from the lowest rank of society to the peak of distinction by marrying, in 1791, Sir William Hamilton, English ambassador to Naples. There she was famous for her “attitudes”—tableaux vivants performed before swooning audiences who felt themselves transported back to antiquity.

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dejahisashmom · 2 years

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Lake Avernus Mythology, Oracles, and the Underworld - Historic Mysteries

Lake Avernus Mythology, Oracles, and the Underworld – Historic Mysteries

https://www.historicmysteries.com/lake-avernus/

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just-late-roman-republic-things · 10 months

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Super sexy of the Cumaean Sybil to offer the king of Rome nine irreplaceable books of prophecy, and when he refused to pay her price, she burned three of them. But kept the price the same. Then did it again, until the king paid her the full price for only 3/9 books, because that bad bitch wouldn’t hesitate.

#i hope the first line in the books roasted the fuck out of him #know your worth and take no shit #cumaean sybil #tarquinius superbus #ancient rome #jlrrt speaks

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talentforlying · 2 months

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clarice sackville: [...] that's really him, isn't it? the ΔΡΥΆΔΕΣ. swamp thing: ... the wheels ... the wheels of leisure ... i cannot feel them on my manicured fairways ...

can't help but think about how in the story, the cumaean sybil deiphobe withers away with age until all that's left of her is her voice, which gets stored in a jar . . . if you ask me, that's looking like a pretty voice-sized jar that now has a pretty big vacancy sign on it . . .

( she also acts as a bridge between the worlds of life and death in the aeneid, showing the entrance to the underworld, and where oh where have we seen that hollywood sign from dead in america #1 elsewhere in hellblazer before ... the story featuring a demon opening gateways to hell on earth, perhaps?

the story featuring the aztec god of death with a history of being booted out by new powers moving in? who said "with no breath or heartbeat dinning in my ears, with the noisy tides of blood all dried, all stilled, I HEAR EVERYTHING. / the roots of death's tree extend in two directions. into the human heart - and into the abyss of past time"? who now knows constantine and "has always known him", and thus maybe even knows him across universes, perhaps? )

#( ooc. ) OUT OF CIGS.#me aggressively shaking my copy of 'all his engines' at si spurrier: I'VE CONNECTED THE DOTS! I'VE CONNECTED THEM!!!!!#RATTLING THE BARS OF MY CAGE MOTHERFUCKER!!!!#watch me be so incredibly wrong bc that comic is only truly deemed relevant by me who has read it 9274904 times #but goddammit i EXIST to make wild conspiracy theories about hellblazer and that is PRECISELY what the fuck i will do #anyway i think they're going to put clarice in a jar. that was the point of this post #before i got sidetracked about the aeneid and got back on my hellblazer unsolved bullshit MSDBDSK tell me it doesn't CONNECT tho!!!#bro if they bottle clarice........don't bottle my girl #( clarice sackville. ) NOT NOW THE STRENGTH WHICH IN OLD DAYS MOVED EARTH AND HEAVEN.#dead in america spoilers /

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debtsunpaid · 7 months

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DEBTSUNPAID: low activity, iconless, selective multi-muse sideblog, featuring canon characters + oc's based in nbc's c.onstantine show & vertigo's h.ellblazer comics. ( + some additional fandoms. ) all muses & mun are 18+, triggering content & adult themes will be present. everything will be blanket tagged as trigger /. multi-verse, multi-ship, crossover & oc-friendly.

studying themes such as: the sidekick's story, the villain's intentions, the ones left behind; escaping your fate, what was i made for, personal hells, how to hold a grudge, the misguided righteous, the evil by necessity, so you survived: now what?

written by oxly, 25, they/them. follows back from talentforlying but is not directly associated with / does not share canon with interactions on that blog unless plotted beforehand.

GUIDELINES ♙ INTEREST TRACKER ♙ BIOS (tba) ♙ PINTEREST

mobile roster + temp bios under the cut! TESTING: clarice sackville (hellblazer), tali (hellblazer), nat (hellblazer 2019), tommy willowtree (hellblazer 2019)

PRIMARIES

THE DEMON CONSTANTINE (hellblazer comics) — pre-#250 canon only. it/he/they, british, former golem/current demon. created from the worst parts of constantine's personality, even more spiteful and annoying than the regular one, and bloodthirsty as hell to boot. fc: comics + matt ryan.

tags. vibe: us, possessor potential triggers: alcoholism, mentions/descriptions of body horror

MANNY THE ANGEL (nbc constantine + heavy hc influence) — he/him, angelic, supposed guardian angel with secret ties to dark magic and the brujeria. manipulative shithead with a love of mind games and genuine, if sinister, interest in humanity. high tolerance/invulnerability to most weapons, painful to punch, reality manipulation & other angelic powers. fc: harold perrineau.

tags. vibe: constantine (2005), dogma potential triggers: critical discussion of religion, familial trauma, manipulation

CLARICE SACKVILLE / THE CUMAEAN SYBIL (hellblazer + dead in america) — she/her, far older than she ought to be, a horribly wronged ancient greek oracle turned socialite, sorceress, and expert in the mystic arts. a snobby opportunist and shrewd strategist who has her pet revenant, gwendolyn, hunt tourists in order to steal their spiritual essence, de-age herself, and further extend her already-much-extended life. fc: joan collins. / youthful fc: young judi dench.

tags. vibe: breakfast at tiffany's, the silmarillion (galadriel), antigone rewritten potential triggers: sexual assault-centric backstory (not described graphically), classism

KLAVIER LUZ FURCHTBAR / JALLAKUNTILLIOKAN (hellblazer-based oc + hellblazer comics) — over 40 (isn't sure), they/he, spanish-german, ex-astrophysicist, current engine of the fear machine, accidental vessel for the revival of jallakuntilliokan, the animus & fear-domain half of a twin god. a drifting maths tutor who lives their life half-in and half-out of the Dreaming after becoming psychically entangled with the fear god during its banishing, fighting a losing battle to separate their consciousness from its looming eldritch presence before it takes full possession, rips open reality, and assumes its god-form on earth. fc: daniel bruhl.

tags. / appendicular blog. vibe: solaris, the thing (1982), venom, disco elysium (the inner voices), southern reach trilogy: annihilation (the biologist + the crawler) potential triggers: unreality, hallucinations, possession/body manipulation + related body horror, psychological manipulation, backstory references to freezing to death & unwanted experimentation

ANIMA / ONDINE NASIRIAN (both hellblazer-based oc's) — simultaneously 34 and as old as creation, she/they, spanish-iranian, former artist, currently the collaborative consciousness of mortal ondine and atalakuntilliokan, the anima & hope-domain half of a twin god. a wandering wonderer at all that humanity has to offer, searching the earth for her missing half (jallakuntilliokan) in an attempt to return them to the fold and restore the fragmented balance of humanity's collective subconscious before either of them can unravel themselves or the world beyond the point of saving. fc: sarah shahi.

tags. / appendicular blog. vibe: southern reach trilogy: acceptance (ghost bird + the leviathan biologist), venom, bridge to terabithia (jesse + leslie), the skeleton twins, legion (michael) potential triggers: references to suicidal ideation (primarily backstory), possession/body manipulation + related body horror

CHAS CHANDLER (hellblazer comics) — canon-critical. early-50s, he/him, british, taxi driver, closeted bisexual, married but separated, dad. pissy dickhead who likes to pick fights and is secretly in love with his best friend. just a guy. fc: comics + owain yeoman.

tags. vibe: the world's end (andy knightly), peaky blinders potential triggers: past maternal abuse, toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia

CHAS CHANDLER (nbc constantine) — 42, he/him, american, taxi driver, repressed bisexual, divorced dad. 6'6". soft sweater guy and good cook, functionally immortal with 47 extra souls shoved in him like a walking cannoli. limited powers of self-resurrection & speed-healing. fc: charles halford.

tags. vibe: insidious (josh), the world's end (andy knightly) potential triggers: divorce, absent fathers, internalized homophobia

ELLIE (hellblazer comics) — she/her, british, disgraced succubus, ex-denizen of hell, widow of the angel tali. as treacherous as she is pretty, and still kinder than most. bummed about not being allowed home to hell, but has plenty of fun conning people here on earth. fc: comics + maggie q.

tags. vibe: it follows, hotel artemis (nice) potential triggers: backstory references to pregnancy, traumatic birth, loss of a child, stalking/being stalked, mistreatment of a sex worker

FRANK NORTH (hellblazer comics w/ nbc verse) — 43, he/him, american, former/current biker gang guy depending on whether you meet him alive or as a ghost. laid-back veteran who's just here to have a good time. fc: comics + michael trucco with a ponytail.

tags. vibe: the lost boys, ferris bueller's day off potential triggers: references to the vietnam war (?)

CHERYL MASTERS (hellblazer comics w/ nbc verse) — 56, she/her, british, human or ghost (timeline dependent), housewife and stay-at-home mum who is always about five minutes from divorce. john constantine's big sister, fiercely independent, doting mother figure, and always substituting everyone else's problems for her own. fc: comics + andrea riseborough.

tags. vibe: the haunting of hill house (olivia crain), little shop of horrors (audrey) potential triggers: mention of religious cults, unhappy marriage, backstory references to intimate partner violence ending in uxoricide

TALI (hellblazer comics + canon divergent) — he/him, fallen angel, a former guardian at the gate destroyed for falling in love with the demon chantinelle, and later resurrected by the first of the fallen to punish her. running a halfway house for supernatural strays out of the back of a laundromat while he tries to locate his wife & child and recover the powers he still retains. fc: rahul kohli.

tags tba. vibe: legion 2010 (michael), potential triggers: familial trauma, critical discussions of religion, loss of a child

NAT (2019 hellblazer comics) — testing. 27, she/her, glaswegian scottish, bouncer/former bouncer (verse dependent) at the long lugs artisanal microbrewery while doing her literature degree. hot temper and a mean golf swing, and just fucking fine until constantine showed up. fc: comics + evan rachel wood.

tags. vibe: the green room, the magnus archives (melanie king) potential triggers: N/A

TOMMY WILLOWTREE (2019 hellblazer comics) — testing. 32, he/him, southern english, hipster wizard, pun magician, and guardian of the merlintrove for the last 5 years (so he thinks, anyway). an idealist with more enthusiasm than sense, who lives above and works at the grokk & roll occult bookstore + cafe with his partners. fc: comics + matt biedel.

tags. vibe: legends of tomorrow (ray palmer) potential triggers: N/A

SECONDARIES

BENEDICK OF PADUA ( much ado about nothing ) — 36, any pronouns (introduces themself as he/him), scottish-italian, a lord, loyal soldier, class clown, perennial bachelor, and truly loyal friend who wants nothing more than to party his way through high society for the rest of her life. scoffs at the idea of love, but loves to be loved; enjoys flexing their wit, but hates to be outdone. moonlights as a drag queen named nonny nonny. formerly mustnotbeproud. fc: david tennant.

tags. vibe: romeo + juliet (mercutio) potential triggers: incessant drinking, references to recreational drug use, immaturity

RITCHIE SIMPSON (hellblazer comics) — he/it, british, quantum magic pioneer, techno-demon-slash-very-unhappy-siri-substitute. pissy little gremlin who burns sim cards like cigarettes, will correct you on everything and ruin your search algorithms for fun. electronic manipulation & digital astral travel. fc: comics + santiago cabrera.

tags. vibe: videodrome, the x-files (the lone gunmen) potential triggers: unreality, body-snatching

RITCHIE SIMPSON (nbc constantine) — 43, he/him, american, computer genius, quantum magic pioneer, and occultism professor. the georgia equivalent of a shaking chihuahua but lord if he won't bitch you out given the opportunity. fc: jeremy davies.

tags tba vibe: the x-files (the lone gunmen), mission impossible (benji dunn) potential triggers: n/a

JACK VINCENNES (adapted from la confidential + vertigo-based oc) — 48, he/him, american, closeted vice detective and professional tabloid informant. a disillusioned glory hound seeking redemption, a purpose in life, and dirt on one john constantine. fc: simon baker.

tags tba vibe: la confidential, se7en potential triggers: cop/ex-cop (verse dependent)

REVEREND RICK "THE VIC" NILSEN (hellblazer comics) — 46, he/him, british, un-priestly priest with the church of england, collector & dealer of occult paraphernalia. sardonic, sacrilegious, with a shitty little mustache and a happy poly relationship with his girlfriend and his best friend. fc: comics + con o'neill.

tags tba vibe: monty python & the holy grail, the devil all the time potential triggers: religious themes, disrespect for religion

FIONA NANTES (vertigo-based oc) — 200+, she/her, irish, ancestrally cursed to live out the lives of everyone her family has ever killed. serial killer trying to buy her and her son more time while she searches for how to break the curse by any means necessary. fc: carla gugino.

tags. vibe: doctor sleep (rose the hat) potential triggers: murder, generational trauma, references to filicide

DAMIEN WHITE A.K.A "THE PROFESSOR" (hellblazer comics + oc) — 58, he/him, british, former archaeologist and professor of anthropology bouncing between johannesburg and the british museum. paranoid occult specialist who took one look at constantine and noped out of the country. fc: jeffrey wright.

tags tba vibe: it (adult mike), the mummy (1999, dr. chamberlain) potential triggers: the british museum

EMMA KNIGHT (vertigo-based oc) — 34, she/her, scouse, divorced, formerly-possessed seamstress with lingering psychic abilities and, recently, fashion designer to hell. vain, proud, deep-in-denial wannabe-girlboss blaming everyone else in the world for her problems. fc: jodie comer.

tags. vibe: black swan, censor potential triggers: possession, past-body horror, parental abandonment

#ooc tbt.#bios.

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gurleend287 · 1 year

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PSYCHO-PASS (ep. 1-5)

Before I even began the show, learning that the genres it fell under included cyberpunk and thriller already got me quite excited. The graphics, the plotline, and the suspense at the end of the first episode left me wanting to learn more about this dystopian authoritarian society.

Psycho-Pass offers a look into structural violence. The most integral aspect of the plot - the Sibyl System - is almost entirely the source of this violence, as seen through these first few episodes. The Sibyl system acts as a technological dictator for this "peaceful" society in exchange of a human agency overseeing the country.

For the following analyses, I did research a few concepts that allowed me to make deeper connections to the themes displayed in the show.

Panopticism. A term that refers to a kind of internal surveillance, where the watcher ceases to be external to the watched. the Sibyl System is fully integrated into Japan's social sphere, and uses a panoptical collection of cameras and sensors placed all over the cities in order to monitor citizens' psycho-passes. This system encourages the citizens of Japan to behave themselves at all times to the point where constant watch may not even be needed, which is the ultimate goal of the panopticon. As a result, many citizens are forced to relinquish their autonomy and are unable to pursue their own desires. The Sybil System's panopticon-like control effectively strips humanity of its free will.

Sybil also demonstrates instances of necropolitics and necroviolence against humanity. In case you are unfamiliar with the concepts: necropolitics is the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die. Necroviolence is a facet of necropolitics, which relates to the power of sovereign bodies over life and death, necroviolence specifically having more to do with sovereign treatment of the body post-mortem. An example of Sibyl's necroviolence is the creation and use of a weapon called The Dominator. A lot can be said about this device, but overall it works by reading and sending a target's psycho-pass directly the the Sibyl System for a crime coefficient calculation. Though you all already know this, I would like to point out that Sibyl is capable of deeming citizens unfit to remain in society at all, even in solitary confinement.

The relationship between Japan and its mistakenly incomplete wish for peace is illustrated further by the name choice of The Sibyl System itself. The name Sibyl is taken from the Cumaean Sibyl of Greek mythology, an oracle who wished for eternal life but forgot to also ask for eternal youth. In the same way, the Japanese public in "Psycho-Pass" makes a similar mistake by blindly wishing for peace without considering the consequences. This parallel between the Cumaean Sibyl and the Japanese public highlights the theme of the dangerous consequences of careless wishes for serenity.

I do think that we will see other prevalent themes as the series progresses, but this is what I though was worth noting for the first few episodes that introduced the characters and plotline to us viewers.

#jpt1311 #psycho pass #post

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