#also brings in the resurrection aspect!

[heroesriseandfall]

Jason Todd & Chronic Pain

I scrounged for the panels I know from Rebirth about Jason still having lingering pain and injuries from when the Joker killed him. We know Jason had substantial injuries and brain damage when he was resurrected, and Talia healed that with the Lazarus pit. But here’s some I know of being mentioned even after Talia healed him with the Lazarus pit.

The first I know of is when evil future Batman Tim targeted Jason’s hip because of a Joker-related injury that he claimed would eventually become debilitating for Jason. This move does take Jason out of the fight so it definitely seems like evil Tim successfully aggravated the injury.

Detective Comics #968 (Jan 2018) — earlier in #966 Batman Tim also mentioned future Jason would eventually lose an eye and a leg while fighting assassins.

More recently, regular, not-evil Tim referenced it while evaluating how to fight a Clayface Jason mimic:

Tim Drake: Robin #3 (Jan 2023) — Tim says the pit brought Jason back, which has sometimes been a thing. Originally Jason was only healed by the pit after he’d already been resurrected by something else.

This next one was black label, so it may or may not be canon (the creative team claims “it’s up to reader interpretation” and disagree on whether they personally think it is canon). I’m not a fan of the comic but it did pretty clearly indicate Jason had chronic pain from the Joker:

Batman: Three Jokers #2 (Nov 2020)

(There might be more than these—my reading of post flashpoint comics is kinda random and incomplete compared to my reading of post-Crisis. In post-Crisis though I think they mainly put emphasis on Jason’s destabilized mental health and didn’t really bring up physical aspects IIRC. His brain damage seemed healed and yet he seemed more affected after the pit than other one-time-in-the-pit characters like Dinah Lance or Cass Cain were.)

They haven’t bothered explaining how the pit didn’t heal them so far as I know (the pits kinda work to authorial convenience anyway). My route is usually to blame any weird Jason stuff on the strange, multiversal circumstances of his resurrection, but versions of his origin where he’s only brought back by the pit might not jive with that (which includes some Rebirth IIRC).

In any case, I do hope more writers pick up on this more and I love to see when it’s expanded upon a bit in fandom. I would already consider Jason’s mental health to be a disabling issue for him but it’s neat sometimes to have writers recognize chronic pain-related issues among DC characters. (I’d love to also see more expansion of Bruce mentioning he experienced chronic pain…it pops up every so often but rarely if ever in depth.)

Alt text is copied and expanded upon under read more below.

ID 1: Two panels from Detective Comics #968 showing Jason Todd as Red Hood leaping to fight evil future Batman Tim Drake. Jason says, “Sorry, Timmy, I don’t believe in Santa Claus.” Batman Tim slams his staff directly into Jason’s right hip joint, sending him flying back, and says, “Jason. In a few years you were going to learn that one of your bones never set right after the Joker killed you. There’s a growing debilitating bone spur in your hip joint. There, I found it for you you’re welcome.” They’re both in the batcave.

ID 2: A cropped panel from Tim Drake: Robin #3 showing a red narration box for Tim Drake which says: “The Lazarus Pit may have brought Jason back from the dead, but he’s still sensitive where The Joker killed him.”

ID 3: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2. A Joker leans in Jason Todd’s face, looking intense and serious. The Joker says, “Who is the Joker, really? We’re going to find out.” The word “out” is written in an extended sing-songy way. The Jokers put Jason’s Red Hood helmet over his head but they’ve decorated it with a wide Joker-style grin. The two Jokers laugh, then one says, “We’ve spent considerable time trying to best answer that question: who is the Joker? We found that judge. A serial killer. A surgeon. All rather predictable and uninspiring. And then there’s you. Tell me something. Why would you put on that helmet and call yourself Red Hood after what we did?” Jason, who is sitting naked tied to the wooden chair, says, “Come on. Is every one of you copycats gonna ask me the same thing? It’s a joke.” One of the Jokers holds up a crowbar as the other says, “A joke? We left you with brain damage and permanent nerve pain. Physical and emotional trauma so severe that the only relief you ever find is when you inflict pain on others.” The Joker holds the crowbar by Jason’s head. “You and me, boy…..We’re more alike than you’d care to admit.”

ID 4: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Jason Todd with no shirt on and small bandages on various parts of his arms and face. He looks at a calendar on a wall and reads the crossed out days that have physical therapy sessions written on them. He sees a stack of various healing and exercise books. The top book is titled Chronic Pain Management by Dr. D. Kresan. He picks it up. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl enters a different, dark room through a window.

ID 5: A comic page from Batman: Three Jokers #2 showing Barbara Gordon as Batgirl entering her own bedroom. She says, “Jason?” She sees a book on her bed titled “Chronic Pain Management” by Dr. D. Kresan. Jason says, “Barbara?” and walks out of the attached bathroom with only a towel around his waist. Babs says, “I figured you’d left.” Jason says, “I hope it’s okay I used the shower and I…I didn’t mean to go through your things. The closet door was open and that book looked…useful.” Babs says, “It was. Are you okay?” Jason has small bandages and bruises on his face as he says, “I don’t think I’ve ever been okay.” Babs looks concerned. Jason continues saying, “What the Joker said…about how I’ve been on the path to being like them for years…they’re not wrong. I don’t want to be like them though. I really don’t. You believe that, right?” Babs says, “I’m willing to.” Then Jason says, “Can I ask you something?”

#jason todd #batfam #dc comics #red hood #batman #heroesriseandfall #disabled characters #disability representation #disabled jason todd #dc meta #lazarus pits #long post

[nepentheisms]

This is it; this is the Big 'Un that's been knocking around in my head since the bookclub's inception.

When it comes to mentions of the biblical parallels in Trigun, I've seen that Wolfwood is most frequently discussed as a Judas figure. I think it's important, though, to note that carrying out the Judas role to Vash's Jesus was a job he was ordered to take, and it's one he went through the motions of following while having the ulterior motive of killing the one who gave him the order in the first place. In fact, when Wolfwood does turn traitor, it's actually Knives and the GHG he chooses to betray. He ends up Judas-ing the guys who assigned him to the Judas mission - that's some sweet irony!

And as Wolfwood's time in the story draws to an end, he takes the path completely contrary to Judas' ignominious end by suicide. He instead takes a leap of faith and dares to place his trust in Vash's vision for humanity's future. His faith remains imperfect, but in the midst of all his doubt and uncertainty, he persists anyway.

This last stand of his becomes Wolfwood's ultimate affirmation of his devotion to Vash's ideals, and he effectively becomes a martyr, which places him far outside the image of Judas. In fact, I think that when we look back on his character arc as a whole, we can see how it more neatly lines up in trajectory with the story of another apostle: Peter.

Like Peter in the gospel narratives, Wolfwood finds it difficult to have the kind of faith that is asked of him. Vash goes into his battle with Rai Dei insisting to Wolfwood that he can finish the conflict without taking a life, but Wolfwood intervenes against Vash's wishes because he was worried about Rai Dei's next move. Peter sees Jesus walking on water and goes out to join him, but with the rough winds blowing around him, Peter becomes overwhelmed by fear and begins to sink. After these failures of faith in their respective stories, Peter and Wolfwood are then chastised by the men they follow.

Matthew 14:31 (NRSV) - Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

And it's these struggles with doubt, these moments of fear and cynicism overtaking faith that are so instrumental to the Christian perspective on salvation with its message of "You are flawed by nature, but you are loved beyond all comprehension nonetheless. Accept this love that it may save you and change you."

In Peter's case, although he is singled out multiple times for his failures (e.g. denying Jesus three times), he still holds a special place of prominence among Jesus' disciples. The 21st chapter of John features a conversation between Peter and the resurrected Jesus in which Peter affirms his love for Jesus three times (a reversal of the three times he denied Jesus), and Jesus responds by instructing Peter to care for his flock. After Jesus ascends to Heaven, Peter continues the work set out for him in building the early church until his eventual martyrdom, which, according to church tradition, occurs via upside-down crucifixion (see Caravaggio's rendition here). Interestingly, Wolfwood's martyrdom also involves lots of grievous bodily harm being dealt by crosses.

So the saint gets brought to death's doorstep, and that brings us to the infamous whiskey bottle

Others have already pointed out that "The Bride" likely refers to the Bride of Christ. This excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the concept:

The unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the distinction of the two within a personal relationship. This aspect is often expressed by the image of bridegroom and bride. The theme of Christ as Bridegroom of the Church was prepared for by the prophets and announced by John the Baptist. The Lord referred to himself as the "bridegroom." The Apostle speaks of the whole Church and of each of the faithful, members of his Body, as a bride "betrothed" to Christ the Lord so as to become but one spirit with him. The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb.

Now Peter is of particular importance when talking about the Church as an institution, because in the Catholic tradition, Peter is believed to have been granted a distinguished position of authority as the very foundation of Jesus' church, and every Pope is considered a successor to Peter in their occupation of the Church's highest office.

So Peter = Pope = the head of the Bride of Christ. And if we take the reading of Wolfwood as a Peter analogue.... you see where we're going. The Bride of Christ has been sanctified through a powerful demonstration of sacrificial love and prepared for the wedding to the bridegroom, but right here Yasuhiro Nightow subverts the biblical metaphor to devastating effect. The wedding doesn't come to fruition, because Vash can't bring himself to step into the role of the heavenly bridegroom. In this moment, he just feels all too painfully human in his grief. Wolfwood ascends - celebrated across the sky by those he saved with his selfless love, but Vash descends - acting as an ordinary person mourning the loss of a loved one.

John 13:36 (NRSV) - Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now...."

#trigun #trigun maximum #trigun spoilers #trigun maximum spoilers #suicide mention #cw suicide mention #religion mention #christianity mention #trigunbookclub #the bookclub is a funeral procession this week #hugs going out to all of you #Guns&God meta

[baldursyourgate]

I think the new breakup didn't work for people is because it's too skewed towards one aspect of her character: the power-hungry part and seemingly forgotten the god hating part. Which is why I think some additions to the choices to bring the other side forth can make it work.

But on the other hand, I think people (including me) are also defining her too much by the god-hating part and kind of forgot about power hungry part.

Minthara is both of these parts.

Exhibit A: Sure, she hates Shar, but once Shadowheart became a Dark Justiciar, she admires the power that Shar has granted her.

In the case where Nightsong is spared, Minthara pretty much think Shadowheart was robbed of her destiny.

Sounds familiar?

She's also ok with handing Shart's ass back to Viconia (who she is also not fond of), because the trade-off was manpower that aid our cause.

Honestly, I think dealing with people she doesn't like to get the most out of it is just the average Menzoberranzan everyday activity.

All of that exists alongside the god-hating part:

She sees the wisdom in both. The power-hungry breakup dialogue needs something to balance it out with her god hating side.

Take in the context of the breakup dialogue too: you all are in Bhaal's temple, met Orin, killed Orin - Minthara's tormentor, then Durge died & got resurrected, communicated with THE god of Murder (tm). Sure as hell shit's intense. It's likely she contributes everything that's been done was due to Durge's strength aka the slayer birthright.

Girl's freaking out that much power is gone.

Yoinking from Reddit: "I think it's realistic for people to be blinded by power (power that could destroy the Netherbrain that once enslaved her, power that could help her exact vengeance) and became upset when it's gone. After all, she was really enamoured by "the Slayer" and did warn that she'll leave if Durge reject power, so this isn't totally out of whack like some comments I've read."

I'm too, on board with the idea of another dialogue that happens afterward at camp where she is calmer, and some time has passed so that she could think it through. I'm sure she can see the downsides of embracing Bhaal and the abundant advantages of doing otherwise. There, you can either reconcile with her or decide that her moment of "hypocrisy" and power-hungriness is a dealbreaker and end it once and for all.

That extra dialogue will make this complete I promise <3

#“they should stop changing characters/updating the game” guess what I want more content of my barely any content favourite character #they just need to add more for it to make sense and ties off the loose ends. hope this help #not putting a readmore. suffer with me #minthara

[aroaceleovaldez]

hey! hope this isn't weird but i wanted to know why you think artemis wasn't up to standards even in the original pjo series. you reblogged from me and so i had front row to your tags on the post about zeus jaja i've not seen people talk a lot about her and it got me interested as i'm a classics student!

- @zoebelladona 🌙

HELLO OH BOY okay so I have half a rant already about Artemis in terms of Rick and general aphobic tropes in the series. see: that open letter on twitter. i still need to transfer that to tumblr. fun fact: Rick replied to that post but deleted his reply at some point. probably because two replies after he replied to my post and word-of-god confirmed Reyna to be ace-coded he left social media for a bit.

Fun times! Anyways.

The thing I dislike about Artemis as she's depicted in the series, besides her constantly appearing as a teenager and the aphobic tropes with that [see: open letter linked above] - which on some level is slightly more excusable than other examples given she's a goddess of young women, but given how he writes Athena, Hestia, and the Hunt instead leaves a bad taste in my mouth - and other similar aphobic tropes with her, is her whole weird anti-men thing (which is also, in itself, also an aphobic trope in this particular circumstance). I understand TTC was written in 2007 so that flavor of radical feminism that Artemis and the Hunt is clearly supposed to be was only just coming into major public awareness and the flaws in the ideology (and the inherent bigotry, particularly transphobia and racism that often comes with it) weren't as well recognized at the time. But in hindsight it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth for obvious reasons and is one of the things from the first series that severely aged poorly in my opinion, and I greatly dislike that in every subsequent retcon of the Hunt for other reasons Rick more or less retains that aspect.

Secondly... it doesn't make sense from a mythological standpoint? Because there are multiple examples of men being Hunters in Artemis' retinue. Even ignoring Orion, no matter how you go about shaking that stick (which for the record I really dislike how Rick retconned him in the series/wrote him in HoO), Hippolytus is a very notable example. Literally his big whole original shtick was he joined the Hunt because he didn't like romance and Aphrodite got so pissed about him not needing her (romance) that she killed him. And even when Aphrodite was trying to ruin his life he held on to his virtues and vow to Artemis (refusing advances even when his life was on the line). He is otherwise totally chill and devoted to Artemis. Some versions of his myth has Artemis have him resurrected after he dies (by Asclepius, which is why Asclepius is punished for reviving the dead). This also obviously doesn't address the major glaring logical flaw in Artemis hating all men which is... Apollo. Especially within the series he seems to be an exception for no reason, despite Artemis also very overtly having a "brothers are not an exception to the no-men rule." And from a modern queer standpoint, it obviously begs the question of stuff like gender identity within the Hunt and if you bring back the radfem stuff it gets real bad vibes real fast. Which also sucks when you particularly look at historical/mythological descriptions of Apollo and Artemis and how they very poignantly encompass defying gender roles and expectations particularly within their cultural contexts.

And every time Rick tries to retcon the Hunt, he somehow manages to make it kind of worse, particularly with the oath. I have a whole personal thing for how I think to best rectify all that nonsense in a way that isn't horrible and is related to some of Artemis' aspects in a more sensible way (buried somewhere in this monster of a post. Honestly i'd just recommend ctrl + f search "Hunters" on that post and it should be somewhere near the first ping there). In there I also go into some of my other thoughts for the general meh way the Hunt is written in the series, mostly being aphobic tropes and random death fodder.

So yeah. Basically, tl;dr: I am personally not a huge fan of how Artemis in the series is halfway to being a terf and chock-full of aphobic tropes. And I need Rick to stop retconning things into the ground.

#pjo #riordanverse #hunters of artemis #artemis pjo #analysis #< yeah sure it warrants that tag #ask to tag #zoebelladona #ask #i really need to transfer that open letter rant to tumblr #still amused that rick replied to it within like an hour of me posting it but clearly didnt read it #long post // #also heads up this is only like half-proofread cause i'm ill right now #so i apologize if it's nonsensical at all

[utilitycaster]

I'll admit Pâté's introduction as a familiar was a lot, but I think that's the point. Laudna was able to bring him to life...but by the time she could do so, she had real friends - friends who traveled across the world to resurrect her. So now she's grappling with the fact that he's extremely useful, but when he's not scouting or helping her in combat, she can't just stop him from talking about how horny he is to random strangers anymore. His original purpose as a companion no longer makes sense, but the vestiges of it, some of which are, well, a lot, can get really grating. I think that's why she's come off recently as a little irritated with him.

It's funny, because earlier Laudna was portrayed very much (and said as much by Marisha) as having somewhat arrested development and ever since her resurrection she's sort of speedrun that and is acting much more like an adult. I don't think she's played with her dolls in the same way since, and I wonder if Pâté being real is part of it: she got the living puppet she'd dreamed of, but that means she doesn't totally control what he's saying anymore. I mean, he's a familiar, she can dismiss him or give him commands, and she still clearly cares about him, but bringing him to life was probably something that, years ago, she dreamed about. And now she has it, and it's got its drawbacks. And when you consider it in the context of her having the rest of Bells Hells to lean on, it's just something she's started to outgrow a bit.

It's also interesting because Laudna tends to swallow her irritation and perform for the audience - even many of the members of Bells Hells. This is a woman who, upon being brought back to life after several days trapped in the afterlife, tried to deflect the focus from herself as much as possible, and who as we're seeing now isn't letting herself cry no matter how scared and worried she feels. Letting herself be openly annoyed with aspects of Pâté is a small step, but it's an important one.

I also wonder - and this is more of a long-shot - if Pâté reflects some of Laudna's own worries. The thing is, he is more annoying now, but he's also more useful. I wonder if she asks herself if that's the case for her. It's not, but she has felt a bit like a burden as of late. Which in turn would complicate things with Pâté, if he serves as a reminder of some of her own (unfounded! but possibly very real to her!) insecurities.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #laudna #thinking about familiars like #the frumpkin parallels here are obvious - an emotional crutch that one day you might not need in the same way #but i'm also thinking about wbn and witch's familiars especially since laudna's colloquially called a witch/has witch aspects #and how the familiars for witches in wbn embody the witch's own more difficult traits (taro as stubborn and obnoxious/fox as argumentative) #and so the idea of Pâté as embodying not laudna's flaws but her fears about herself is an interesting twist on that

[whereserpentswalk]

Idk if this means anything but I've never seen anyone point out the similarities between Persephone and Baldur. They're both gods who are sent to the underworld in their main myth and retrieved every spring. They also both seem to fit a similar archetype of the untouched youth in their living forms, and both have their main myth surround their mothers' grief and their attempted retrieval. Gender has really distorted the way we see these stories; we end up much more focused on Baldur's personal tragedy and loss then we are Persephone's.

As a pagan it brings up some interesting questions. Though I'm not sure if they're ones I'm experienced enough to answer. A few months before Hel first reached out to me, I tried and failed to do a ritual to Hades, so it would be tempting to see them as masculine and feminine perceptions of one being, and while I wouldn't go that far (especially since I tend to perceive gods are mostly genderless due to being agender) it's certainly pretty obvious they have overlapping aspects. As for practice and experiences with Persephone and Baldur I have no idea how that overlaps, especially with how a lot of the Norse pagan community seems to be kind of unwilling to work with Baldur due to his overlapping aspects with Jesus.

(Wait is Jesus also part of the same mythic cycle as Persephone and Baldur? The myth of his death and resurrection and the way his rituals are associated with the spring seem to fit?)

I have no idea where I'm going with this.

#196 #my thougts #pagan #paganism #paganblr #norse pantheon #norse gods #norse mythology #norse paganism #norse heathen #heathen #hellenic polytheism #hellenism #hellenic deities #hellenic gods #hellenic pagan #greek gods #greek mythology #ancient greece #roman mythology #baldur #persephone #persephades #greek pantheon

[lesbianrumi]

leander, pagan symbolism, and other notes.

ok so people have already brought up that leander is covered in or surrounded by a lot of symbolism. but there’s way more where that came from. idk if someone has compiled all of them in one place but i’m doing it here bc i’m feeling crazy at the moment

first, let’s get the obvious ones out of the way

there’s the ouroboros on his earring and in his charm

it’s a pagan symbol and also symbolizes alchemy. the ouroboros features a serpent eating its own tail and “symbolizes the eternal nature of the universe and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The symbol is closely associated with that of infinity, and the two are typically combined” (source)

we can see that it’s combined with the infinity symbol on the charm, which of course has to do with eternity

then there’s the triple moon/triple goddess on his belt buckle, yet another pagan symbol (credit to this post for this insight!)

here’s some info on the triple moon: “The first crescent, the waxing moon, symbolizes new life, rejuvenation, and new beginnings. The middle circle represents the full moon when magic is at its most powerful. Finally, the second crescent moon represents the moon during its waning period. This time of the moon phase is a time that is regarded as the best to send things away, remove them from your life, or finish things.” (source)

there are also white lilies featured in leander’s CG, on his charm and pin, and in the game trailer

surprise! it’s also a pagan symbol!

supposedly, “pagans used white lilies as decorations on May Day. Part of the festivities include young women dancing around the May Pole with ribbons with lilies in their hair. In this setting lilies represent renewed life, health and fertility.” (source)

but wait, there’s more!

like the earth symbol on the chain attached to his lapel pin

another pagan symbol that “is also sometimes used to symbolize Mother Earth. The element of earth is associated with the colors of brown and green, abundance, prosperity, and fertility.” (source) apparently it’s the ultimate symbol of the divine feminine

finally, green is practically leander’s official colour. it’s the colour of his eyes, his magic, and is featured heavily all over his sprite and official art. interestingly, it’s also the colour of the cloaks that his bloodhounds wear

you guessed it - the colour green is tied to paganism

it symbolizes “youth and fertility, evil and envy” and is connected to the season of spring as well as to nature (source). in the bible, green “means immortality, resurrection, growth, prosperity, and restoration” as well as fertility (source)

now onto some things that i might just be reading into lmao

like the gold points on leander’s trench coat, as well as the tiny inverted triangle between his clavicles, which is also featured in one of initial sketches for his earring. this could be the water symbol

again, it’s pagan. and is “believed to have a strong feminine connection, and so it is associated with all aspects of the goddess. The inverted triangle used to symbolize water is felt by some to symbolize the womb and is befitting with this element's feminine association.” (source)

the same source mentions that water is a “healing and purifying element that is connected to the West. Water can be used in rituals involving love and other emotions, and flowing water in nature, such as a river, or the sea, can be incorporated into magical workings that focus on carrying away negativity or other unwanted aspects of your life.”

i included it because it mentions the goddess, the womb (so possibly fertility), and femininity, which you’ve probably noticed by now is a recurring meaning for the other symbols on him

flowing water also brings lowtown to mind, since it’s described as being eroded by some sort of flood

next i’ll bring up leander’s dagger earring again, focusing not on the ouroboros but the dagger itself

in the demo, the mc notes that the earring is “dagger shaped.” but what if it’s not a dagger at all? what if it’s the ankh?

this could be a stretch, but note the hoop at the top of the dagger

the ankh is an “ancient Egyptian hieroglyph means life or living. Over time the ankh has come to symbolize eternal life and immortality to people from many walks of life. In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the gods were always seen carrying an ankh, making it a symbol of divinity.” (source)

another reach, but i was looking at pagan symbols that might be a match for the diamond that shows up on leander’s lapel pin and his belt buckle, and came across the unicursal hexagram

this is the weakest link imo, especially because this isn’t a pagan symbol, but i thought i’d add it anyway since it seemed neat

the unicursal hexagram is a “six-pointed star is drawn unicursally, meaning that it is drawn in one continuous line. The hexagram represents the divine and heavenly forces of the universe. In Aleister Crowley's occult order Thelema, a five-petaled flower is placed in the middle to represent the pentacle and the five classical elements.” (source)

some other insights that i wanted to bring up here, though they have less to do with symbolism and are more concrete/tied to the game specifically

first up, as mentioned earlier, green might as well be leander’s official colour... so what about the red items on him? what significance do they have?

there’s this glowing red object attached to his belt, which i can’t help but think looks like an inverted version of the largest spire in eridia. you know, the spire that’s confirmed to be the senobium

also note how the windows in eridia all seem to glow with a similar red light in this CG...

there’s also a (faintly glowing?) red gem on his dagger earring, which looks to be diamond-shaped

what does it mean? what does it all mean?

your guess is as good as mine! but given all the allusions to the divine feminine, the (triple) goddess, fertility, etc. i can’t help think that leander might be in league with some kind of goddess or female deity. we already know that gods exist in some form or another, since ais is connected to a god and kuras is an angel, so the idea isn’t completely off base

did this goddess save leander’s life in the past, hence the constant motifs of renewed life, rebirth/resurrection, immortality, and so forth? maybe the scar that covers a good portion of his body had been enough to kill leander, or just nearly, until she intervened somehow

is he working with her to potentially overthrow the senobium, which we know he dislikes? are leander’s bloodhounds in on this? is the fact that leander’s magic is so powerful due to some kind of pact he has with the goddess?

obviously, i have no clue. i’m just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks msfjskfjhfd

#touchstarved game #leander touchstarved #touchstarved leander #touchstarved #leander #m.txt

[cartoonrankings]

10 Most Underrated Cartoons

Cartoons are great…we have many awesome hit shows from SpongeBob SquarePants to Amphibia to South Park and so on. But we also have quite a few gems that not many seem to talk about, and I feel that I should put the spotlight onto these underrated cartoons. Today, I will be going over my ten most underrated cartoons.

10. Over the Garden Wall

When putting this cartoon on the list, I was heavily debating on whether I should put it here as one of the 10 most underrated cartoons or not. While it does seem to be quite positively received, and while it has had a decent amount of exposure from the cartoon community, I find that it is not really talked about as much as many others that came out at the same time as Gravity Falls. This perplexed me as I thought it was a strong series.

This was a miniseries that had 10 episodes in 2014. It was about two brothers named Greg and Wirt who end up in a mysterious land called the Unknown, and work to get home. It was a great series packed with mystery, darkness and awesome characters (especially Greg). While being underrated is a debate, there is no doubt that it is amazing! You can watch Over the Garden Wall on Hulu, Amazon or iTunes.

9. Hilda

As this series is one that also is decently known, I was debating on whether this one should be put on here again. It is like Over the Garden Wall in the sense that it is pretty decently well known, but it is definitely a series that I feel is much less known than shows it came out with, and I feel that due to this, it should be on here. 

Hilda is a series that has 2 seasons and 26 episodes. It is about an 11 year old girl named Hilda who goes on magical adventures and encounters mysterious creatures with her friends David and Frida and Twig, her pet deer frog. I loved Hilda as it has fun characters and a unique art style. Furthermore, Hilda takes on the common magic theme you see in TV shows, but executes it in a way that is unique! You can watch Hilda on Netflix!

8. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

While this series was screwed over by the network I feel that the main reason it is underrated goes deeper than that. When the series first started getting advertisements, many people (myself included) did not really like the idea of this series - especially since we just got a super dark and serious installment of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles prior to this show. This left a bad taste in our mouths and many of us did not want to check out this more lighthearted take on the turtles. However, coming back to it years later, it was a hidden gem! 

Running for 2 seasons of 39 episodes from 2018 to 2020, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a totally new and unique adaptation of the turtles we all know and love. The series revolved around them before they actually became crime fighters. The main goal they have is to stop The Shredder from being resurrected for the first season while actually fighting him in the second season. They also learn about the secrets of Master Splinter in this adaptation. My favorite aspects of this series are the fact that they take the turtles and add their own unique spin to it so that it doesn’t feel like a copy of the other shows. I also like the designs quite a bit and I like the humor. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is definitely an underrated adaptation to this amazing franchise, and while I do prefer the 2012 installation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I had a great time with this one.

7. Final Space

This was a series that I only found out about recently, and I am glad that I found it. This was a series which I have never seen on TV, or have heard anyone talk about until last year where I heard a few people online bring it up. I added it to my list there, and finally binged it a few months ago. I found it strange that not many talk about it though, so I did some research as to why. From what I was able to gather, it seems that when it started out, critics did not really love it, and they ignored the later episodes from there, which led to other things like minimal promotion. It’s honestly a shame as it is a great series.

Final Space ran for 3 seasons and 36 episodes. The series is about an astronaut named Gary Goodspeed, who after accidentally destroying spaceships, was sentenced to five years of prison on the Galaxy One spaceship. During his final year, he found an alien named Mooncake, who he finds out is being pursued by an evil dictator known as Jake the Lord Commander. Gary and Mooncake, along with some crewmates, go on a quest to save the universe, while trying to discover the mystery behind Final Space, which is supposedly where the universe ends. Final Space has everything I love about a story-driven cartoon - it has very emotional moments that keep me invested, it has a well rounded group of characters that develop as the series goes on, and the world-building throughout the series was amazing. Final Space is a truly amazing series, and I definitely think it deserved much better.

6. Glitch Techs

Now we get onto Netflix shows…it’s not common for a Netflix show to take off regardless of how great it is, and Glitch Techs is a prime example of that. Glitch Techs definitely had a complex story behind its reason to being underrated which is more than just the fact that it is a Netflix original. It was originally supposed to be a Nickelodeon original, but unfortunately, Nickelodeon did not give the series much love. The first season was finished in 2019, but did not ever air on Nickelodeon until it finally premiered on Netflix in 2020 with not much promotion. It is truly a shame because with proper promotion from Nickelodeon, this could have been a massive hit with how great it is conceptually and from a storytelling standpoint. 

Glitch Techs has a pretty unique concept - it revolves around two teenagers named Hector and Miko who essentially try to stop video game characters from wreaking havoc across the real world. Glitch Techs was another amazing series with lots to offer. We got an amazing series with cool characters being further enhanced by their awesome designs and we got a very unique concept being brought to the table. I really love Glitch Techs and I hope it can get a continuation some day.

5. 6Teen

6Teen is severely underrated, and the main reason for this is Cartoon Network’s treatment of it. When 6Teen aired, it did not get as much promotion as a Cartoon Network original, which already kept it pretty underrated, but it also had many episodes removed with not many reruns. Overall, it did remain pretty underrated due to this, but the amount of content it got was satisfying. 

6Teen was a series that ran from 2004 to 2010 and contained 4 seasons of 93 episodes. The series revolves around six teenagers, Wyatt, Jen, Caitlin, Jonesy, Nikki and Jude, and it just showcases them going through teenage life. 6Teen definitely had a lot to offer me - we got to see some very relatable situations, we had a loveable set of characters and I think this show was one of the few that executed raunchy humor in the right manner. You can watch 6Teen on the YouTube channel, Retro Rerun, Amazon Prime, Pluto or Tubi.

4. The Hollow

Another Netflix original on here…what a surprise. It seems that it is not easy for shows to get popular on Netflix or any streaming service for that matter as people go to streaming services knowing what they want to watch. Furthermore, Netflix’s lack of marketing did not help the cause. We were unfortunately left with another great TV series ending up heavily underrated.

The Hollow is a series which ran from 2018 to 2020 for a total of 20 episodes. The series was centered around Adam, Kai and Mira, who wake up in a strange room with no memories. They work together to explore this strange new world that they have discovered, on a quest to return home (despite not knowing where home even is). When going through this new and strange world, they discover new friends and new enemies, and many different challenges are thrown their way. The Hollow is definitely a loveable series, with many amazing aspects including awesome worldbuilding, great diversity and a loveable set of characters. The Hollow is an extremely fun 20 episode series, and if you haven’t seen it, I recommend getting on Netflix now and checking it out!

3. Sym-Bionic Titan

Another series that was underrated mainly due to Cartoon Network…Sym-Bionic Titan was and still is remembered as a cult classic. The reason for it being underrated is due to scheduling mainly. At first, it was on an action block on Cartoon Network, but it was eventually moved to Wednesday nights which is a terrible time slot, and it was eventually moved to Saturday morning with no warning. The reasoning behind this is not entirely known. Some say it was due to being unable to make toys, and some were saying that it was due to disputes with the team. One thing to say though is that it is severely underrated, though it does still have fans.

Sym-bionic Titan still became one of my favorites during its 20 episode run from 2010 to 2011. Sym-bionic Titan is about Lance, Octus and Ilana who fled from their planet Galuna to come to Earth due to their planet being consumed by these creatures known as the Mutraddi. As the leader of the Mutraddi wants to kill the next heir to Galuna, Ilana, the three must blend into Earth. The name of the series comes from what happens when the three combine - when they do, they form the Sym-Bionic Titan. I love the writing, characters and the artstyle. The series was definitely underrated, and it deserved much better than what it got from Cartoon Network. You can watch Sym-Bionic Titan on iTunes!

2. Motorcity

Let’s continue on with shows that were screwed over by the network, and this time, Disney is to blame! Motorcity was a series that suffered poor scheduling and promotion, which was what led to its downfall. Firstly, the series received minimal advertising from the start (it seemed that Disney did not like the idea from the get go as it was being pitched for ten years before it even got the approval). Furthermore, there were lots of unnecessary hiatuses during the first season when the fandom was just starting to form. And the worst part of it all is that it kept getting moved around different time slots, and at one point, even had a timeslot at midnight. Due to the hiatuses and the time slots moving around, Motorcity was quite difficult to watch, making it quite unknown and underrated.

Motorcity ran from 2012 to 2013 for 20 episodes. The series was centered around a group of rebels known as the Burners, consisting of Mike (the leader), Julie (an insider gathering information from Abraham), Chuck (the tech guy), Dutch (the smart one), Texas (the muscle) and Jacob (the old aged mentor). Their goal is to stop a capitalistic billionaire named Abraham from taking over Motorcity which is a small part of the city they live in, Detroit. In terms of what I love about the series, I love the characters, the great story and plot line and the fact that the series has introspective and thought provoking moments.

1. Detentionaire

Being from Canada, I get to see a lot of the underrated gems that we all have, and while I have seen a lot, this is probably the most underrated. Detentionaire’s reason for being underrated is quite sad. It was doing quite well in Canada, and it did get distributed to a few other countries where it also performed strongly. However, like 6Teen, Detentionaire got swept under the radar because of how it was treated by Cartoon Network in the US. What they did to Detentionaire hurt it much more though. It had lots of censorship like 6Teen, though, lots of the censorship was not even necessary. They would just remove random bits of dialogue. Furthermore, they only aired 20 of the 53 episodes on their website with the episodes out of order, and that hurt the show as not many people used the website, and if they did see it, they wouldn’t have understood anything as it was story-driven. Moreover, the player on their website was broken for a good portion of the time Detentionaire was there, which hindered its accessibility even more. All of these factors led to Detentionaire being virtually unknown in the US, and once it didn’t perform in the US, a bunch of other countries did not want to take it as they were skeptical on how the show would perform in their countries. It is a shame though because this show is one of the greatest I have seen. It is also in my top five favorite cartoons of all time. 

Detentionaire is about a highschooler named Lee who gets framed for a huge prank and gets detention for a year. He goes on a quest to clear his name, and while he expected to just bust some ordinary prankster, he instead finds out that the prank was a small step to a major conspiracy. This conspiracy connects back to him and his entire bloodline. It is a shame that this series is not as popular as it should be. This is one of the few story-driven animated shows that I would say is on par with the legendary Disney trio (Amphibia, The Owl House and Gravity Falls). I have so much positive to say about this show - I would say that off the bat, my favorite aspects are the mystery and the plot progression as the plot really gets more intense with each episode. I would say that another highlight was the characters as they all feel like actual high school students which gives the show a sense of relatability. I really hope Detentionaire gets the resurgence it deserves some day as it is truly a masterpiece. There’s a reason that Detentionaire is at the top of a list of the 10 most underrated cartoons, and there’s a reason that it is in my 5 best cartoons of all time. I hope I have convinced at least a few of you to watch it. You can watch Detentionaire on the YouTube channel Retro Rerun or on Tubi!

Well, these were my 10 most underrated cartoons! I hope I introduced you to some new cartoons! Which one of these do you agree with? Which ones do you disagree with? Are there any more you would add? And be sure to follow me for regular blogs!

#cartoon #cartoons #cartoon network #nickelodeon #disney #teletoon #netflix #over the garden wall #hilda #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #final space #glitch techs #6teen #the hollow #sym-bionic titan #motorcity #detentionaire #radarplz

[y-rhywbeth2]

I think Raphael might be closer to a half-deity than a regular cambion.

Half-fiends are... used to be? Native outsiders. Who knows what the various lore on cambions is because we also used to have alu fiends and other details, I'm just referring to the half-fiend template right now-

Anyway, native outsiders are those with mortal parents, and as such have mortal souls and bodies while also having the supernatural thing of their non-mortal parent. Like their tiefling descendants, half-fiends leave corpses and can be resurrected as usual, and they're not innately tied to an outer plane and won't reform.

And this clicked while I started poking at the Bhaalspawn again, and it all links into Mephistopheles being his dad. The Bhaalspawn are confusing, because they should theoretically be native outsiders due to having mortal parents and being born on the Prime Material plane. But they die like non-native outsiders, and then I remembered that another difference between native and non-native outsiders is that the native outsiders need to sleep and eat. Bhaalspawn were given the outsider typing in 3.5e, which also has this to say on half-deities;

"Creatures that have a mortal and a deity as parents also fall into this category [of quasi-deity/divine rank 0]. [...] All deities (even those of rank 0) are naturally immortal and cannot die from natural causes. Deities do not age, and they do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe."

Meanwhile:

"Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Native outsiders breathe, eat, and sleep."

So if your outsider parentage comes from a deity it overrides the mortal heritage and you don't count as native to the Prime, I guess.

Bringing this back to Raphael; Demon Lords and Archdevils tend to start blurring the line between what's not a god and what is. Gargauth, for example, is counted amongst the Faerûnian pantheon despite the fact that he's technically a very powerful devil who got powerful enough to count. Orcus, a god of undeath, is technically a Demon Lord. Lolth was considered a Demon Lord at one point, before returning to deity status. The Archdevils can provide spells to clerics and manifest aspects much like deities manifest avatars. Asmodeus recently elbowed his way into divine status by ripping out a bit of Azuth.

So I guess Raphael is a demigod or close enough, which I'm sure does wonders for his psyche.

I don't think I actually have a point on this post, it's just something that I thought of while poking the Bhaalspawn with a sharp stick for the millionth time. At least it explains why he dies like a full Baatezu in the House of Hope.

#Adding this as fuel for the rivalry between Raphael and Durge than only exists in my head #/raphael #headcanoning. #lore speculation #idk #lore stuff

[muzzleroars]

Where in the timeline do you think god died? My best guess would be soon after the crucifixion/resurrection/ascension considering the whole plan behind that was the atonement of all humanity's sins (which would also deny Hell new souls) using his own aspect (the son) as the perfect sacrifice.

Yet it failed, humanity is still wrong and Hell is still being fed, and he can't claim humanity is beyond saving because he's god! there could be no more pefect of a lamb to wipe away his humanities mistakes than himself!, but the son lived among them for so long and got to understand them on a level that he could never do as god and upon rejoining the trinity brings this knowledge and allows for the realisation that was he was the problem, he can't fix sin because he himself is nowhere close to the perfection he demands from all of his creation. And I think that would cause all the cracks to finally break.

This would mean that Mary would live her life, ascend to Heaven to find it in chaos with her son nowhere to be found.

This would also give quite a long time for Lust and Greed to build themselves up before Heaven sorts itself out, 2000 years is a long time for a human but not much for a husk and even less for an angel.

I hope this all makes sense!

ouuuugghhh this is interesting, because i think this can work from a scriptural sense - though there is no appointed time for the second coming, some of the gospels could be interpreted as suggesting it would happen within the contemporary generation. however, it's wholly possible here that the son changed this timeline and ran everything off the rails entirely because of what he saw and learned in his human life. human life is fill to the brim with complexity, with ambiguity, with strife and joy sometimes all at once, and being so infinitely limited in their scope and with such a short existence, i think his ideas just. shifted. sinners are often stuck in situations they didn't choose, they are often powerless and rendered unable to change through stigma, and he knows this because so many transformed instantly when all he did was offer them a bit of help and compassion. yes, there are cruel and wicked people, those that worsen the existence of others for their own gains, but so many that he once condemned as god, sinners of necessity, of ignorance, of mistake, he could no longer see evil in. and so when the trinity is reunited, when the son returns to the father and the holy spirit, he is not in sync with them. this is ultimately what i see as the reason for god's destruction, that the holy spirit, analytical as always, interprets god himself as the problem and so self-destructs essentially.

and it makes sense in the timeline capacity too, for lust to have been so built up, would take....a VERY long time if you consider all the components that had to come together to do this. they would first need to get used to the lower rate of angels, which may be a pretty long period before it reaches the point where they realize their presence has been permanently drastically reduced. then minos would have to be able to organize the people, which seems a difficult task since so many are traumatized or reduced to their husk instincts (i tend to think lesser husks have the capacity to be much more human, but the environment doesn't allow it). finally, he (and i assume other greater/supreme husks) would need to plan, to mine resources, to acquire the materials necessary and work their technology from the ground up all in the hostile world of hell (unless it was too interested in their trajectory and granted a reprieve. just to see what happens lol) to have this functioning society with a massive city that's all now left in the past would take incredible amounts of time. and like you say, 2000 years is long on a human scale, but likely very little to the immortal angels of heaven.

i sort of have the idea that many of the angels, particularly human-born ones, were kept in the dark about god's disappearance. it would be easy enough, i think, as he is likely rather distant from them and the new arrivals wouldn't know the difference but....it's an impossible sell to someone like mary or the apostles. it's likely that gabriel would have been the one to inform them of the situation, especially when it comes to mary - he was the annunciator, and additionally he is depicted perpetually adoring her in dante's paradiso. yet even he cannot tell this mother where her son has gone, and it quietly tears him apart. he wants to believe in the eternal existence of god, that he is all things, yet informing mary of his absence makes him see the all too familiar grief reflected in her eyes. all of it was too good to be true, she thinks, and gabriel begins to consciously think the same. all of it was always too good to be true.

#fr tho how is mary. is she doing ok #all the reading/interpretation for scripture is just my own too! #but this is an interesting idea bc i do absolutely wonder when god left #it's obviously been brewing since. forever given the testaments #but it's definitely possible the world has been coasting without him for a long time now #cake answers

[nepentheisms]

Volume 13 - Elendira's number, let's gooooo!

So I was pondering the significance of Livio's big throwdown fight being against Elendira, and it hit me once I looked at it in terms of their abilities: Elendira's weapon is nails; Livio's power is regeneration. This is the Crucifixion battling against the Resurrection - a very Christian metaphor being used to illustrate the conflict of ideas between Knives and Vash. Elendira acts to help carry out Knives' condemnation of humanity; she brings death and visions of death in the wake of Knives' crusade to punish those he sees as sinners. Livio, in contrast, is aligned with Vash's mission to save humanity; he's an agent for Vash's message of redemption and life persevering.

To delve into Christian soteriology for a bit, the significance of the crucifixion in the New Testament is that it is the act of Jesus taking on the punishment for all of humanity's sins. "The wages of sin is death," as Romans 6:23 says, so Jesus dies, but then Jesus rises again to complete the path to humanity's reconciliation with God. The idea is that in becoming followers of Christ, Christians spiritually share in the experience of crucifixion, death, and resurrection with Jesus. To love Jesus is to be changed as though one were raised from the dead. The passage below from Paul's letter to the Romans is an example of that perspective.

Romans 6:4-6 (NRSV):

(4) Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (6) We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

It's very appropriate that Paul's words get brought up here, because I think Livio can be seen as something of a Paul figure. He's a powerful member of a religious order that opposes the followers of the Christ figure, he plays a big role in the death of a "disciple," and he undergoes an intense experience that changes him into one of the most devoted followers of the Christ figure. And the stuff Paul wrote about being crucified with Christ? Livio sure went through a crucifixion alright.

With all that said, when we bring Razlo into the equation, things get really interesting and a bit subversive when viewed through the lens of Paul's teachings in the Christian Bible. In stories that are more straightforwardly Christian in their messaging, a character like Razlo - a personality who acts as someone's darker half- would typically be treated as a force of evil to be overcome. This represents how the pre-salvation self is supposed to die so that a more Christ-like nature can take its place.

In Livio's case, however, Razlo is not extinguished after Livio chooses to live by Wolfwood's and Vash's example. Instead of being framed as the more sinful aspect of Livio that needed to be purified out of him, Razlo is portrayed as a powerful asset in preserving Livio's life, and that's something that really resonated with me - the way that Livio didn't need to erase his darker half but instead learned to work in harmony with it. In doing so, he found wholeness.

#trigunbookclub #trigun #trigun maximum #elendira the crimsonnail #livio the double fang #religion mention #christianity mention #trigun book club sure has been an exercise in dusting off my old bible knowledge #this is the most I've thought about christianity and the bible in a long time lol #Guns&God meta

[al-hekima-madara-blog]

Madara & hindu cosmology

It's a thought I had following this post here

It's interesting that Madara never wished to resurrect his loved ones contrary to Obito. It seems that Izuna's death but more precisely the valley of the end’s defeat marked for him a definitive rupture with "this world". He was not interested anymore about his own desires. If you think about it, he was not supposed to be part of this collective dream that could have longed an eternity from the perception of those inside the dream. If everything had gone according to his plan, he would be just there alone watching people slowly dying in their cocoons.

Actually, I’ve realized recently that from my western perspective, I didn't pay attention to the Buddhist cultural aspect and in some instances the hindu cosmology. There is between both religions cultural bridges that we can't really see in the West shaped in judeo-christian background but from an asian/japanese audience it's implicit. In hinduism there is this idea that the material world is but a creative dream from the imagination of a god. He manifests himself in a sort of trinity:

Brahma the creator

Vishnu the protector

Shiva the destroyer (in order to recreate a new world) and note that Shiva is also associated as the Lord of dance. Shiva Nataraja destroys the cosmos, each steps is creating movement in the dissolution of the universe. It's a doomsdays to end a cycle and allow a new one to be born.

Shiva Nataraja, Lord of dance and destruction

Madara's plan is a way to attain this godhood state, to annihilate the world and recreate it again. We first met him during the apex of the 4th shinobi war, impersonating in a way Shiva, he destroyed the current shinobi world. From his perspective it's a failed world, or should I say a dream who turned into a nightmare, created by another god Hagoromo and perpetuated by his spiritual heirs Hashirama/Naruto. Obito in creating the Akatsuki and collecting the Bijuus, was incarnating one of Shiva's steps. He was preparing the dissolution of the world by perverting the shinobi system and hastening the apparition of the true "Shiva".

Madara’s Brahma phase can be paralleled with him being the second Sage Rikudou and having access to all the chakra on Earth and opening his third eye which represents in hinduism and buddhism the invisible one who brings mystical illumination and visions in the realm of high consciousness. If his plan would have succeeded he would have been a type of Vishnu protecting the new world. Alone, but keeping safe humanity inside his dream.

And as odditiesinnaruto said, time in a dream can be infinite. If Izumi was able to have a whole life with Itachi and "dying old", Madara must have been capable of putting someone in a dream where they exist and continue their life through their imaginary descendants for generations and generations, for centuries and millions of years which represents few seconds in real life. He would have literally created a Madaraverse inside the zombified Narutoverse (it sounds really like the movie Inception). And in his dream, somewhere the Uchiha clan and the whole world will "exist" in peace forever. It gives me vertigo!

#Madara #madara uchiha #uchiha madara #naruto #naruto shippuden #madara meta #naruto meta #hindu mythology #hindu cosmology

[hello-eeveev]

Okay okay I’ve seen some takes regarding Orym on twitter (specifically about his relationship to Laudna) that I feel the need to refute but I have a lot of thoughts and also I don’t want to get into fights so hi tumblr! rant below the cut 😊

(tl;dr I think the bell’s hells are doing the best they can in a series of complicated situations, but people are expecting a kind of inter-party conflict to come from it that doesn’t line up with the text and I don’t get it, so I guess I must become Orym’s #1 defender, feat. a defense of the c3e63 decision, Ludinus Da’leth hate, and big big feelings about Keyleth and Vax)

Take: Orym is uncomfortable with Laudna’s weirdness/creepiness, as evidenced by him always bringing it up and trying to hide and obscure her undead presence.

My opinion: Laudna loves the fact that she’s creepy. She revels in it. Orym/Liam pointing it out in narration is part flavor text, part acknowledging an important aspect of Laudna. It’s like how he always makes sure everyone knows that Orym is Small. Not to mention, Marisha brings it up in her narration as much as Liam does.

During Laudna’s resurrection ritual, Orym says, “I don’t know what Bell’s Hells will be without your darkness, Laudna. Or your light.” He values both sides of her!

Regarding Orym’s disguises for Laudna (i.e. dressing her in white in bassuras, adding flowers to her hair to give her more color in hearthdell), again I don’t think this is a sign of Orym’s discomfort with her. Remember, Orym is a bodyguard. His job is to protect others, protect the group. Yes, several members of Bell’s Hells will draw eyes, but notably, Laudna—being undead-ish, with the Unsettling Presence feature and a canonically scary physical appearance—might strike fear into others. And fear makes people more willing to resort to violence than, say, being surprised by the presence of a robot or a faun. It’s not about making her palatable, it’s about keeping all of them safe. It’s bodyguard behavior.

Also, Orym only does this when they are actively avoiding drawing attention to themselves, and as far as I know, Laudna has only had a problem with it once.

Take: Laudna looked to Ashton and Orym for what to do during the scuffle with Bor’Dor, and Orym encouraged her to let Delilah back in, all because he’s hell-bent on revenge and thinks he can use Delilah’s power to get it. He actively disregarded Laudna’s well-being to further his own goals.

My opinion: No, she wasn’t looking to them for what to do. Marisha said it herself: Laudna was barely present. She couldn’t even hear Deni$e suggest keeping Bor’Dor alive; what makes you think she’s going to see a singular nod from Orym 15 feet away? She had already done Hunger of the Shadow, was already cloaked in the “purple-ish glowing hue that hasn’t been seen in a while,” and Matt had mentioned the heartbeat long before Liam ever said anything. Laudna had already let Delilah back in before Orym nodded and before she killed Bor’Dor. It was a horrible situation all around, but Orym did not convince Laudna to let Delilah back in for his own purposes. It is not his fault that Laudna embraced Delilah’s power or that Bor’Dor died. Laudna made her choice, as heartbreaking and conflicting as it may be, so let her live with it.

And for the record, I think they were justified in killing Bor’Dor. He attacked them with a pretty powerful spell (he did Vitriolic Sphere at its baseline 4th level, which is the second highest level spell he had) and nearly killed Prism in the process. Yes, Bor’Dor did a bit of waffling back and forth between “I’m gonna kill you!” and “just let me die,” but him being a pathetic mess is nothing new. He still tried to kill them all. If they let him live, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t try it again.

I don’t know how to impress this upon people who haven’t already gotten it from just watching the show, but the Ruby Vanguard is a bad group. Ludinus Da’leth is a bad person. He may have convinced some members that his goals are noble, but they aren’t. He is misleading people for his own gain, because guess what? The concept of free will exists even with the existence of the gods! People are allowed to worship them or not, and the gods aren’t smiting people down for refusing to worship them (otherwise Keyleth would be long dead, y’all. she said out loud to the champion of the raven queen that they should use her power while it benefitted them and then find a loophole to get Vax out of her service. and she is so valid for that. 15/10 would do the same).

We had a PC, a dozen or so NPCs, and an entire arc last campaign—and then a whole 4-part series!—that dealt with wizard hubris and its unfortunate consequences. Ludinus was one of those NPCs! What makes you think that Mr. “let’s steal a holy artifact and instigate a war” “should try friends sometime” “Essek looks forward to never seeing his face again” “Trent Ikithon can keep abusing children it’s not my problem” Da’leth suddenly has people’s best interests in mind?

He and the Ruby Vanguard need to be stopped, and Orym, being a person whose driving motivation is “to protect,” is willing to do what needs to be done, even when it sucks.

Take: ooohoohoo Orym’s alignment might be shifting! We need Dorian to get him back on track!

My opinion: No? To both these statements? Firstly, Orym’s alignment isn’t shifting, at least I don’t think so. I’m not an expert on D&D alignments (I think they should be more descriptive than prescriptive/ultimately they matter less than character choices, arcs, and narratives), but I would guess that fighting to maintain the balance of nature and to stop those that would harm others for their own gain is still pretty in line with neutral good? I could maybe see an argument for that being more lawful good, but it didn’t seem like those people were talking about a shift along the horizontal axis.

Secondly, I think Dorian would do the exact same thing Orym is doing. Was that not the whole draw of the Spider Queen’s crown during ExU Prime? Power to protect and save his friends? So I don’t think Dorian would see anything wrong with how Orym is acting, much less take him to task over it.

Take: Look! Orym told Keyleth about Imogen’s mom and said “I don’t care” when Imogen complained! Bad! Mean! Selfish!

My opinion: idk that felt more like Liam being a brat to Laura than anything else.

Like, yes Liam/Orym had his own goals in that convo which were unexpected and uncomfortable, but I don’t think he was wrong to point that out. The moment Keyleth swore to take down Liliana, you could feel everyone in Bell’s Hells get really tense, and I am certain that Keyleth, who has 20 wisdom and ~30 years of experience leading her people and politicking, clocked that instantly. And Orym would have clocked that immediately, and in an effort to make sure that their group had the confidence of a very powerful druid and world leader, decided that full transparency was the way to go.

And I don’t know, this is largely speculation, but Keyleth having that information might mean that she will make sure Imogen doesn’t have to be the one to take down Liliana? Or it might make her more sympathetic and willing to show some mercy to her?

Leaning more fully into speculation bc this relies mostly on inference and assumption: while I do think that Keyleth deserves to know what’s going on with Vax, withholding that information at this juncture might have been another tactical decision from Orym. We don’t know how Keyleth has mourned over the last 30 years, but we know that she’s been angry and we know that losing Vax was and is devastating. I feel like finding out that the love of your life (“forever and ever and ever and always” “I’ll never get over you”) is suffering extreme torment such that the followers of his god are in a period of mourning, basically implying that you’ve lost him all over again, that potentially the one reassurance that you would see him again has been ripped from you, etc., etc. would cause anyone to break down on a good day. Add on the fact that Keyleth is gravely, gravely injured, and you’re basically asking for her to be completely out of commission, because 1) holy moly talk about new trauma, old trauma, grief, longing, guilt, etc. bro I’m an emotional wreck just thinking about Vax and I’m not the one living through it, and 2) that would be a lot of stress on her already extremely stressed body, the consequences of which could be very bad.

It’s a tough decision to make, and while I’m not sure I 100% agree with Orym’s, I think it’s a defensible position.

Anyway thanks for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed my analysis. Again, I don’t want to fight or get into arguments, but I’m down for some brief discussions! Emphasis on brief because I can fall into a rabbit hole very easily, which means this will be the only thing I can think of and I have other things I want to do, shadowgast to write, fearnechetney to draw, and this post already took several hours over two days to write after weeks of mental build up.

#eve talks #I am a consistent liam and marisha character lover #so I am not enjoying the way the fandom is pitting two of my favs against each other #the struggles of loving imogen and laudna and imodna #but being scared of searching up stuff for them #bc I don’t want to see ppl ragging on my boy :( #why do people want them to scream at each other #they love each other #not every conflict has a villain #and orym is not laudna’s #cr spoilers #c3e66 spoilers #critical role #orym #cr meta #long post #ftr I referenced the transcripts for the laudna resurrection and e63 while writing this #so I feel pretty confident about my framing of those

[kimrinzleycreations]

In a generic fantasy setting, a veteran human paladin (let's name him Nico) sets out on one last adventure before his retirement, promising his relatives he'd make it home to them. This promise is very quickly challenged when he's killed immediately by a stray kobold arrow.

In a desperate bid to save him, Nico's party members manage to scrape together for some powerful resurrection magic - albeit one known to have certain side effects. These aren't obvious at first, but as they have to repeat the spell after various falling rocks, boot-dwelling scorpions, and wagon accidents lead to subsequent deaths, the results grow more and more obvious. The once stoic paladin was growing bigger, brasher, and bawdier, gaining not only a newfound youth but a particularly feminine and orcish aspect.

These strange effects come from the fact that the shoddy spell's reincarnating not only the paladin but it also brings out his soul's past life - in this case an orcish female barbarian named Leena. This synergizing of old and new continues as Nico's doom-prone luck gives way to Leena's reckless abandon (there's a reason she died significantly younger than Nico).

Over time, Nico's preferences and behavior changes in subtle ways. As a paladin, Nico had once sworn an oath to respect the sanctity and life of all living things, but now their taste for meat is too much to ignore. As is their hunger for carnal fun, which grows rapidly. Despite the changes, which even Nico feels are surprising, they insist that they're still regular old Nico. It's just as if they've learned new things about themselves that they thoroughly enjoy.

By the time the adventure is completed, Nico still has her old memories and several of her beliefs. But as a whole, Nico sees herself differently now. She understands that much of her new tastes comes from her past life, but she does not see herself less as "Leena, the Orc." Instead, she sees herself like Nico, but a Nico that changed organically no different than how you change as you grow older.

With this knowledge safely assured, Nicolina returns to her family as an Orc Warrioress, proud of the person she's grown into and eager to help her older relatives more on the family farm so that they won't miss her as much when she's out adventuring.

[Human male Paladin to female Orc warrioress]

------

I genuinely could not think up a better title than this x)

I suck at titles. But I hope I'm pretty good at drawing Orcs tho? <3

As always, if you enjoy what I make and want to see it early, you can do so on my Patreon, where membership also grants some extra perks. Perks such as voting on the next minicomic, or suggesting ideas for one. And it all happens right here:

www.patreon.com/KimRinzley

#trans #tf #transformation #genderbender #tg #transgender #mtf #my art #fantasy #Orc #muscles #muscular woman #muscle mommy

[medicinanocturna]

Understanding Pluto in the synastry chart

Pluto's key lesson is to prepare us for death as a major transformation in life.

We experience small dyings all the time during our lifetime, mostly through our relationships with others.

Pluto in the synastry chart should be viewed precisely from this perspective.

Manipulation and obsession that are often associated with the Pluto aspects are only the low levels of its manifestation. Also, they can be just as necessary as any other experience in life.

On a sensual level, Pluto indeed gives passion and jealousy, and both emotional states can greatly enrich one’s personality (rather than destroy). In addition, Pluto is not a planet of action, it signifies a mental impulse. That is why the passion and jealousy here are deeply psychological. How they are going to be expressed physically will show the quality of Mars, Venus and the Moon in the chart. 

Pluto acts as a surgical blade in a certain sphere of the psyche. It cuts to the depths, to the place of rawness, where it can clean, destroy, and resuscitate. 

In the synastry, Pluto will generate an act of dying and resurrection over a certain planet of a partner (i.e. the sphere of their psyche and life). This sphere of their psychic will first be laid bare, and then either significantly reshaped or destroyed and made reborn. By that, Pluto will reveal that the way this planet was manifesting itself before was not genuine enough.

Just like in the transits, when Pluto will send your the signs of a looming transformation in advance (here I wrote more about it), the appearance of a new person in your life whose Pluto aspects your personal planet will be a real sign that a revision is needed in this area, and possibly a radical one. The tense aspects, like square or opposition, will bring the most profound results.

If the action of Pluto does not get to manifest itself in higher vibrations, then a struggle and throwing tantrums will begin in the sphere of a personal planet. This is often called passion, but in fact it is NOT a passion, it is a death agony, which will most likely end with the departure of a person whose personal planet is afflicted. 

As a consequence, such relationships leave huge baggage of accumulated emotions of frustration for both people that stem from a zero understanding of their karmic predisposition.

At a higher level, the Pluto person will literally make the other person experience the dying in a certain area of their life. Something is transfixed from being deeply exposed, then it is recognised as obsolete, and then slowly and often painfully it is being eradicated and starts being reborn.

If it is the Sun, then the sphere of transformation will be the Ego. If the Moon then the transformation will happen in the sphere of security, emotional attachments, and fears. Venus - values ​​​​and sensuality, but perhaps the aesthetics of the owner of Venus will change a lot too. Mercury gets Pluto’s surgery on mental attitudes. The aspect with Mars will bring about the restructuring of one’s understanding of power of action, including from a karmic perspective. Aspects with Mars are considered being intense and even dangerous, but at a higher level, these aspects give tremendous work in spiritual development.

We also need to look at what the personal planet rules in the chart and take this into account. It may well change the complete picture. Let’s say, if the Mercury is the ruler of one’s 8th house, then receiving an aspect from Pluto will be a different story here, and the mental attitude may be the least to get transformed.

Unlike aspects of Saturn, where one can feel lots of pressure and austerity, Pluto feels like a laser penetrating all layers of a particular experience. 

At the very beginning, such relationships can overflow with inner thrill and attraction. The owner of a personal planet is chained by the depth of waves coming from a Pluto person, while the second one will revel in his ability to go deep and transform someone's personality. If these vibrations continue to go up, then this will bring incredible spiritual renewal and maturation. Higher vibrations here would suggest the sensitivity of the two people to the process of this transformation.

If however, the vibrations tend to go down because of the inner level of the two people involved, such intense interaction may start feeling too intrusive for a personal planet and cause repulsion. Especially with planets such as Venus and the Moon, this repulsion can be very intense, almost visceral. The Pluto person, heavily feeling the vibration of rejection, will be inclined to retain his former power by all means, which may start with manipulation and then reach more violent methods of psychological oppression. (Again, the physical abuse in the relationships is not really the Pluto’s influence, it has to be confirmed by the Mars aspects).

All the above are more referred to the aspects of conjunction, square, and opposition. The trine and sextile aspects will hardly bring that inner force, but it doesn’t mean they are not offering a transformation. 

The influence of Pluto in the relationships can hardly go unnoticed. By nature, Pluto is like a living surgical scalpel. It transforms everything it touches.

Drop me a line if you want me to look at your chart...

Yours,

AlSheren

#astrology #astrologymedicine #pluto #synastry #karmic relationships #pluto aspects #pluto in synastry #transformation #plutomedicine #synastry chart #power of pluto #astrology observations #astrology on tumblr #pluto mystery

[longclawshilt]

I’ve been think about how Jon’s resurrection might be one of the most magically charged moments in the entire series. GRRM has taken some time to gather some powerful magical agents near or around Jon. Not to mention that Jon himself is an inherently magical being. Lady Stoneheart and Beric coming back to life are always used as reference points, but honestly I think Jon will be something unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Like the wall is this giant ice structure that supposedly has magic coursing through it. Per legends, this magic supposedly from the Children of the Forest who helped Bran the Builder build the Wall. It’s an ice structure so I’m not sure if it’s ice magic within the Wall or the more earthy magic of the Children. And it looks like the Wall’s magic pours outward. Melisandre says that her own magic is growing due to the Wall’s influence and this on turn makes her more powerful. So powerful that any spells she casts can do some real damage. Maester Aemon also seems to think that the Wall prolonged his life; the whole cold preserves thing. Aemon is a Targaryen, who are a magical family. I wonder if the magic laying dormant in his blood mixing with the Wall’s? I don’t think we have any other examples of NW brothers whose lives are strangely prolonged. It’s super crackpot-y but fun to think about. There are also theories that Jon’s body may be kept in an ice cell before he’s resurrected. So if we go by Aemon, is it possible that the magic inside Jon and the magic within the Wall mix? Then he won’t be as badly damaged as some people think he will be. I remember Mel saying something like Jon’s shadow has been etched across the Wall so I wonder if this will come up later on. Might be a silly little line or might have some greater magical implications…

Then I’m thinking of the magic within Jon himself. Jon is such a magical being but he (and the fandom) downplays it a lot. For starters, he’s the only person in Westeros history (as far as we know) who has Stark and Targaryen blood. These are two of the most magical houses in the series. So he has the ability to harness a bunch of different powers: warging/skinchanging, dragon riding, prophetic dreams. And he’s already showed affinity to some of these in the text. He one of the more powerful Stark wargs, he gets prophetic dreams, and he has that weird, inexplicable superhuman strength going on. By ADWD, his warging powers are getting so strong that he can now (unwillingly) warg into Ghost without sleeping or falling into a trance. I think it’s safe to assume that resurrection will make him more powerful. Bran unlocks his greenseer powers after his fall and Jojen awakens green dreams after a deadly illness. Arya unlocks skinchanging powers after going blind too. Jon not only has First Men magic but Valyrian magic as well so I think the change in him will be even greater. And I think that actually dying makes a much bigger difference than nearly dying.

I wonder what sort of magical changes we’ll see in him. For sure heightened warging powers and he’ll definitely become a fully fledged skinchanger. I wonder if he’ll be getting more prophetic dreams? So far he’s only had the Winterfell Crypt dreams and the Azor Ahai one but maybe it’s possible he gets more. I’m veering into the crackpot again but I’m remembering his Winterfell crypt dreams and how the Kings of Winter react to him. Ned and Theon have similar dreams (at different places and times) but the Kings of Winter don’t behave as they do with Jon. Ned only says that they look at him judgingly (iirc) and Theon only says they’re angry (not entirely sure about the wording). But with Jon, they actually rise from the dead to confront him! It’s quite scary but it brings to mind Aragorn vs the ghosts in LoTR. And also brings to mind that weird thing Benerro (?) says about people drying in service of Azor Ahai who are reborn again….It might just be GRRM upping the horror aspect of Jon’s dreams but I prefer the crackpot explanation of Jon raising people from the dead. And it’s not super out of left field either! Beric is able to raise Stoneheart; Thoros raises Beric though he’s not a devout follower. If Jon gets some of that R’hllor heat in him then…

Speaking of Beric and Thoros, there’s the whole Lightbringer thing. Thoros does some tricks (I think he uses wildfire?) to set his sword aflame but Beric uses his own blood. If the Red God has a hand in Jon’s resurrection, I wonder if Jon is able to replicate Beric’s actions. But unlike Beric, Jon’s sword will never go out because his sword is Valyrian Steel and his blood is magic. And it will be different from Stannis’ too because his will actually give off heat and will thus be the real deal (sorry Stannis). Maybe this will be the Targ magic in him acting up? Or might we expect other things? But what? There’s also his berserker mode. I’ve been wondering if this is due to his magical nature based on the frequency and the strength. Might be his warging powers manifesting physically or might be because of his Stark and Targaryen heritage. And if we veer into more crackpot, there’s a number of theories about how the Targs are part dragon because of the blood magic Valyria’s practiced or how the Starks may share some genetic markup with the CoTF/the Others. They’re kind of insane but that would make Jon part ice and part fire. I have no idea what impact that would have though but it will probably be huge (if these theories are even true). Idk. The fandom has agreed that R+L=J is less to do with Jon ruling Westeros and more to do with him the magical war against the Others. So I hope his parentage plays a big role in the magical realm.

We can’t also forget all the prophets surrounding Jon. Prophets from different magic bases: R’hllor, the Drowned God, the Old Gods. All of these have seen Jon’s death and resurrection at various points in the story. First is Bran who seems to get a vision of Jon’s death in AGoT (Jon laying in a cold bed with all memory of warmth fleeing from him). Then we have Patchface, a prophet of the drowned god if theories are correct, who seems to have foreseen Jon’s death and resurrection (crows being white as snow, snow falling up). And then Melisandre who is constantly being bombarded with visions surrounding Jon’s death and reurrection. Almost like R’hllor is warning her about something major that’s about to go down. It seems like Jon dying and resurrecting is causing some cosmic shifts in the metaphysical world that it doesn’t matter what god you worship or what type of magic you’re using, you’ll be affected anyway.

All things considered, I think Jon’s resurrection will be a clash of different magic systems; all of them converging into the magical Jon. I remember someone once speculating that Jon will be “post-human” and I kind like that theory. Not really a god, but not an ordinary human either. Maybe he’ll be something in-between. I think the manner of resurrection might help as well. Ghost is there to preserve his soul. And Ghost seems like a weird firewood (quite different from the other Stark direworlves beyond just his coloring). There’s the ice cells which might preserve his body and maybe cause some other changes. Some people speculate that Mel might give him the kiss of life but it kinda seems lame imo. Mel is a shadowbinder from Asshai, who has practiced blood magic like Mirri. I’d like to imagine that we might see a combination of different things from her. Perhaps a funeral pyre, perhaps a blood ritual, or maybe a little bit of everything. But I do believe the circumstances surrounding Jon’s resurrection will also affect things. This is yet another dose of crack but his birth feels like a floppy Azor Ahai thing. It’s all very metaphorical but we have a couple of things that could meet the requirements but don’t really. But the main point is that his birth is surrounded by thousands of people dying all over Westeros, and more dying at the tower where he was born. I like to think that there was some magical effect there with the waking of a (metaphorical) dragon…

So his rebirth will be another waking of the dragon moment. It will still probably be metaphorical but it will be more complete the second time around. Bonus points if we get a funeral pyre made of stone (smoke) and some tears or something idk (salt); he could even be a ham like Stannis! That way we have two Azor Ahai figures complimenting each other. Dany fulfills the prophecy requirements literally but gets a metaphorical Lightbringer (her dragons), and Jon fulfilling the prophecy metaphorically but then wielding a literal Lightbringer (an actual flaming sword). It all sounds super crazy but anyway. Can’t wait to see what Monsieur Martin has in store for the bastard boi

#jon snow #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #warging #ghost #r plus l equals j #azor ahai #lightbringer #beric #thoros #stoneheart #melisandre #bran stark #patchface #grrm #jon’s resurrection #my ramblings #crackpot theories #my stuff