#and how i see them as an odysseus/penelope parallel

[siredisco]

If I had skill, time, and was good at digital art. I would produce so much buttermind art. I have so many ideas. And yet no way to put it out. They're important to me. I need to see them in a park, holding hands, poiting art clouds. I need them at a party, isolated in a corner with warm light around them. I need too write about their jokes and affection and feelings. I want to be creative.

Help me.

#rambles #freemind #buttermind #barmey calhoun #gordon freemind #theres so much more about this #like how memory and things relate to eachother #and how i see them as an odysseus/penelope parallel #because journeys and love and life #aughhh

[hobbitwrangler]

Your wonderful comments on "Taken" made me curious about your preferences for love/romantic stories!

Name 3 of your favorite fictional romantic couples/pairings, and what do you like best about them?

Thank you for such a fun ask!💚

Okay, here we go:

Faramir x Éowyn - I've loved them since I first read The Lord of the Rings and they were really a landmark moment for me because before them I wasn't really invested in most fictional couples. There was just something so beautiful to me about these two wonderful people who'd both been through so much meeting in such doubtful times and seeing just how wonderful the other person was - particularly for Éowyn that girl deserves the world. The way that they parallel each other, with older brothers who in the end couldn't look after them, the way they've both just lost their fathers, the way she almost died defending her father figure and he almost died at the hands of his father. Also I'm fairly sure 'And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many' rewired my brain permanently.

Odysseus x Penelope - this is a random one but my Grandpa told me his version of the Odyssey as a bedtime story when I was younger. The way he told the story, it was about two halves of the same intelligent, cunning whole trying to find their way back to each other and I find that beautiful (I realised when I was older that he added in more bits about Penelope for me, there was a whole plotline about a heron which is not mythologically accurate at all). I know there are other more 'accurate' versions of mythology which might paint these two in a more cynical light but you know what, the whole point of mythology is that it is fluid and I love my grandfather's version best. (I'm actually going to get the new Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey for Christmas so I can continue the obsession)

Aravis x Shasta/Cor from The Horse and His Boy - these two were another pair that were really important to me when I was a kid. The meeting while both on the run, how she was so horrendously stuck-up (iconic of her), the way they absolutely cheesed each other off at first, absolutely perfect, what more could one ask for. That line about getting married so that they could argue and make up more conveniently is still the epitome of romance to me, because what more can you really ask for?

#again thank you for the ask! #asks #faramir x eowyn #odysseus x penelope #cor x aravis

[ihatethecoldalot]

So in the middle of writing a piece for my friend I kept on going in circles around the mythological equivalents in the PJO and HOO books and more specifically the parallels to the most famous of plays + greek myths.

I’ve decided to go over them (and make you see them too) because otherwise this will not stop bothering me. So with out further ado…parallels.

(I’ll be going over them through a strictly couple lens with perhaps a post following on them separately and why i specifically picked the character.)

Percy & Annabeth

Okay first off the main couple of the series. Percy and Annabeth are wonderfully dynamic in how many parallels to everyone they have. Including the fact that they constantly swap parallels and i love that for them.

⇾ Perseus & Andromeda

In Book 1 it’s the most prevalent parallel with Medusa & the Tunnel of Love serving as their echo.

1. Perseus & Percy

Percy kills Medusa, his name is Perseus, he is on a quest for his father Zeus to claim his grandfather’s throne innocence in response to robbery of his throne of a Mcguffin. He gets flying shoes courtesy of Hermes Hermes’s son, he uses a mirror given to him by Athena led by a daughter of Athena. He holds the eye of the Gray Sisters hostage for information, goes to the garden of the Hesperus in the third book paralleling both Hercules and Perseus. Hades's helm of darkness to hide Annabeth NY Yankees Cap is Percy's MYP in TTC.

Okay, so Percy shares a lot of similarities to him namesake as expected. But what about Annabeth to Andromeda?

2. Annabeth & Andromeda

Both start with A, the Princess Andromeda, Luke’s ship is his main vessel much as Annabeth is one of connections to humanity. Annabeth on the Tunnel of Love becomes the Damsel, in need of rescuing by Percy against the sea monster by an attack sent by a god in which Percy set her free claiming her hand in marriage claiming her friendship.

Perseus married Andromeda in spite of Phineus, to whom she had before been promised. ⇾ Percy and Annabeth are dating in spite of their family rivalry and/or Luke who she could be considered to be promised to.

The goddess Athena places Andromeda in the northern sky at her death as the constellation Andromeda, along with Perseus. -> Andromeda’s connection to with Athena here along with Perseus.

Also extra special bonus: Andromeda is from Ethiopia and therefore dark-skinned, Leah Jeffries is black, both she and Walker Shobell perfectly completing the symmetry

So as we can see Percy and Annabeth’s parallels to their mythological counterparts of Andromeda & Perseus. Along with how Percy & Athena’s relationship might end and Annabeth & Percy’s near certain marriage according to Ancient Greek Myth Rules as they constantly save each other.

⇾ Odysseus & Penelope

Next up, this bad boy. This is where parallel sharing my beloved steps in, Odysseus and Penelope are constantly the Percabeth Formula from BotL and beyond. Annabeth’s own journey from SoM and MoA are the most obvious example, but we’re starting off with Percy.

3. Percy and Odysseus

In TLT, Percy enters the Lotus Hotel where he figures out it’s a trap. Percy goes to the Underworld where he sees his mom who died of a broken heart he has to leave behind. His trip to the Sea of Monsters has him encountering Circe, although he takes the role of the crew to Annabeth’s Odysseus. In TTC he is aided by Athena and Hermes Zeus.

In BotL he encounters Calypso who directly compares him to Odysseus one that becomes more obvious in HoH with the dwarves remarking on her being Odysseus and therefore Percy’s big What If. Also in BoTL he goes missing for a long time, long enough to burn his funeral shroud only for it not to be needed. (how much you wanna bet Annabeth wove it?) While BotL he makes the most obvious parallel to Theseus I’d argue it is truly a thin veneer to cover his similarities to Odysseus. From Percy’s cunning with his gun trick, to his meeting with Calypso + his own metaphorical Circe (Rachel) and his presumed dead but actually alive.

In SoN he takes his detour journey to his true goal of Ithaca Camp Half-Blood where he is greeted by Nausicaa Hazel who leads him to the Queen Praetor Reyna. (Reyna’s name literally means Queen 💀). Nausicaa Hazel stand up to him while she is constantly considered as golden as her island and Percy is compared to a Greek God like Odysseus when he changed from beggar to himself before Telemachus. Percy is also called Graecus at CJ much like Odysseus is called stranger at both Ithaca and Scheria.

Percy is considered the best swordsman while Odysseus bow is actually impossible to string. Literally everyone has a crush on Percy like they do on Odysseus.

That’s a lot of parallels for them. (my brain hurts) Odysseus is certainly what Rick was aiming for when writing Percy in the later books. You can see the original Perseus/Andromeda blueprint in TLT, but it fades by the middle of TTC as the more tragic and well-known heroes take the forefront in Rick's writings of his protagonists. Again, we can infer a hopeful or improved relationship with Athena and an eventual happy ending like Odysseus if you ignore the Telegony.

4. Annabeth & Odysseus

Annabeth is Athena's favoured child. She is everything an Athena child should be (IE Odysseus), she gets her own dramatic goodbye/rejection by Athena who insists Annabeth must be more like way finding Odysseus. Annabeth seeks mercy with the Romans like Odysseus approaching Polyphemus only to be thwarted when seeking that mercy by a crewmate.

Annabeth has claimed to be Nobody in SoM, her mercy with Polyphemus comes and bites her in Tartarus. Both she and Percy descend and return out of the Underworld. I'd say that her stabbing the Cyclops that held Luke & Thalia hostage could also be considered her own wild boar as well, a challenge she overcame that got Athena's attention.

Then, she undergoes a series of trials which require wit and end with her facing down a foe that she defeats but due to hubris she gets dragged down into an unending side quest Tartarus with the one she loves the most. She returns home to her kingdom camp where she has very little issues to deal with beyond just repairing shit and living her dream.

There are ton more parallels but they can pretty much be ascribed to Odysseus being the model of all children of Athena.

Annabeth = Odysseus is very compelling in how much it makes sense in the grand scheme of MoA. Annabeth in SoM and MoA is top tier Odysseus vibes along with being at her best character wise in my opinion.

5. Percy & Penelope

P names, Penelope & Percy are descended from water based gods. (Naiad in Penelope’s case), LOYALTY, they both hold the memory of their lost love dear. I’m not saying Frank could be Telemachus but i’m not not saying that.

Percy is…lusted after in a more romantic sense by several people like Penelope, Percy is left waiting as Annabeth undergoes her trials. Percy consistently is the one to hold off masses of suitors monsters, Penelope is considered to be like-minded to Odysseus (aka his equal) much like Percy & Annabeth are equals in different ways.

So some superficial parallels, but the fact that there even are any implies some intent at least with the Penelope-Odysseus theme taking forefront after TTC

6. Annabeth & Penelope

Weaving, cunning, easily emotional, Annabeth waits for Percy after his disappearance -> Penelope waiting after the Trojan War. In one source, Penelope's original name was Arnacia or Arnaea so A names as well.

Annabeth is Percy’s equal, Homer refers to Penelope as ‘like-minded’ to Odysseus, making her one of the smartest woman of the Aegean. I’d argue Arachne as the Mother of Many Spiders could technically be the suitors narratively but so can Luke.

The parallels are more superficial if appealing. Percy = Odysseus and Annabeth = Odysseus makes more sense than one of them simply being the other although through their ‘like-mindedness’ they are much the same.

So what have learned?

Rick really loves his Odyssey, I really enjoy my obscure characters and etymology knowledge, and we can have some hope for the chalice of the gods & perhaps a Diomedes figure showing up or Percy & Athena finally getting along with Annabeth and Sally moments.

I’ll be back (probably) for Fraser & Jiper parallels and most likely solangelo once i read TSATS.

#annabeth chase #percy jackson #pjo #parallels #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #perseus #andromada #odysseus #penelope #been in my drafts for a month #i’m very proud of the behemoth

[ionlydrinkhotwater]

On Simon's reading

"Sing to me of the man. Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course"-ODYSSEY

it's crazy how there are some folks out there who think Simon doesn't read but he tells us in Wayward Son that he did "'You're supposed to get out and see things, meet strange people-lotus-eaters and sirens' 'That's not a road trip, Baz says, 'that's the Odyssey. When did you read the Odyssey Snow?' 'The Mage made me read it-I think he wanted it to rub off on me-and it is so a road trip!'" Chapter 21 Wayward Son

He not only read the Odyssey but has opinions on it.

Also he recognized Shakespeare when he hears it "'is that more Shakespeare?' 'Yeah, sorry. I know you prefer Homer"-Chapter 21 Wayward Son

I can compare Carry On to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Theres the ghostly visit demanding revenge, plots to hide the truth and the epic romance between Baz and Simon. Baz is such a Hamlet, he pines and dithers. Simon's a Romeo, he recklessly acts. It's great.

What's interesting to me is the parallels between The Odyssey and Wayward Son.

The Odyssey is about a sea voyage road trip but it's also about a soldier going home after a war. About surviving and navigating a changed world and reaffirming the relationships that have been impacted by conflict. Of sheding an old identity and adopting or developing a new one. And of accepting that you can't be who you were before the war began.

In the similar vein of Carry On having elements of Hamlet remixed in it, like Simon seeing the ghost instead of Baz. Simon's Penelope is not his wife and she's the one who initiates the trip like Athena. And although Agatha needs rescuing like the Odysseys Penelope, she rescues herself.

The scene with Margaret the dragon and the cyclops who also attacked Odysseus because of a stolen sheep. The restaurant that Baz meets Lamb in is called the Lotus of Siam and the fight with the Vampires kind of felt like Odysseus slaughtering the suitors.

There are also the false homes that are presented to Penny and Baz in the form of Micha and Vegas. Baz's intoxication in Vegas is also similar to the lotus eaters and Circes island, where he is briefly buoyant and then reality crashes when he is confronted with a part of himself he can't accept.

Odysseus' hair changes by the end of the story and so has Simon's. For Odysseus it means he is grown and changed so profoundly from who he was when he left for Troy. For Simon it means he's taking agency, at least that's what I think, but I've read some amazing analysis on this.

I also want to briefly mention Simon's quoting Maya Angelou, in her work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings she mentions that she stopped speaking after she named the man who assaulted her and he was killed by the community in retaliation. She felt that her words had killed him, it reminds me of Simon's words that literally killed his father, he called out his abuser too and feels responsible for his death. But like Maya neither of them are at fault for what happened and they were courageousfor standing up for themselves.

Authors often use art within their art to draw attention to themes in their own work. So I see you Rainbow :)

If anyone finds any other parallels let me know, cause I love this sort of stuff

#simon snow #the simon snow trilogy #rainbow rowell #baz pitch #carry on rainbow rowell #simon snow series #simon and baz #awtwb #wayward son #the odyssey #maya angelou #snowbaz

[mademoiselle-red]

TC chapter 6 reread thoughts, part 2

A rush of old memories went through Laurie like a pain. “I’ve never noticed […] that the competition to take things on was as killing as all that.” I love how Laurie takes Ralph’s side and tells him he’s done nothing wrong. One of my favorite aspects of their relationship is their camaraderie, the feeling that Laurie is playing on Ralph’s team. That’s also what makes the horrible crap he says to Ralph in chapter 16 so terrible: for the entire book, Laurie has been Ralph’s cheerleader, cheering him on when he’s feeling down or when other characters put him down, but then Laurie suddenly joined the others in denigrating his character from a position of superiority 😢

“He was staring at Ralph, who was standing in the thick of the crowd, hard and crisp and gay, laughing at someone’s dirty story, his battle-scars put neatly out of sight. I wonder what the punishment is for heresy, Laurie thought.” Here, his idealized image of Ralph as some otherworldly higher being who is above crude human desires is challenged, and he finds himself so compellingly drawn to Ralph that he can’t simply ignore it and retreat into his fantasy version of Ralph. But again, his revulsion at Ralph laughing at someone’s dirty joke is really the pot calling the kettle: “Gareth. That’s what my stepfather-elect’s called. I suppose he was conceived with Tennyson in limp suede sitting on the po-cup-board.” Reg coughed repressively. […] He sometimes found Laurie’s conversation highly obscene, and would have voiced his disapproval to anyone he had liked less.” Ralph would have laughed at Laurie’s obscene joke and Laurie would have been pleased 🤷‍♀️

My favorite Laurie lines from this chapter: “If you mean Ralph Lanyon […], he’s a friend of mine, I’ve known him for years.” And, “It’s the Odyessey all right. It’s the one where the man comes back from war and finds the flash boys on his pitch and runs them out.” Again, despite many reviews pointing out Ralph’s attempts to insert himself into Laurie’s life, we see here that it was Laurie who made the first move, showing up to the party acting like he is Ralph’s boyfriend in front of all his friends. Like, consider this party from Ralph’s point of view: guy you haven’t seen in seven years and kissed one (1) time crashes your ex-boyfriend’s party to see you and “only you”, follows you around with his eyes like a love-sick puppy, starts telling everyone that he has known you for years (Ralph: um, we had like one (1) conversation, but sure), and declares to your would-be suitors that you are the Penelope to his Odysseus (Ralph: I was not aware of being married with just one (1) kiss, but ok). Just who is being presumptuous and “proprietary to the point of arrogance” here? No wonder people at the party were like, who the fuck is this guy and what the hell happened to Bunny, his actual boyfriend???? Like, Laurie, you can’t just act like a guy’s boyfriend and then be all surprised when he thinks you wanna be his boyfriend 🤣🤣🤣

“[Ralph] went off rather stiffly to the drinks table. Really, he can be awkward, Laurie thought, but he felt no serious discomfort.” Awwwwww Laurie’s thoughts are so tender. And Ralph being awkward in front of Laurie is simply too adorable 🥰

“Now we’ll see something, thought Laurie not without satisfaction.” It’s so interesting to me how Laurie expects Ralph to react to Bim with contempt, but Ralph surprises him by reacting with gentleness and compassion. And this prompts Laurie to see past Bim’s “hard glitter” and see his “feverish and taut” demeanor. Like, Ralph is actually a soft and gentle person underneath that hard layer of self protective roughness.

“Not the Odell?” I love this parallel to chapter 12: not the R R Lanyon? They’ve both been telling their loved ones about each other for years ❤️❤️❤️ (Lucy & Alec: 🤝)

Laurie throws a jealous fit and wants to leave the party because Ralph is driving Bim home. “He’d be up before the major and have his passes stopped for a month; but, he thought bitterly, there wouldn’t be much hardship in that.” We can infer from this line of thinking that Laurie was already expecting to see Ralph regularly and was planning to use his late passes for this purpose. Renault conveys this to the reader in such an indirect way, showing how Laurie is unaware of the desires that drive his thoughts. Consciously, Laurie hasn’t made any kind of “choice” to date Ralph, but unconsciously, he has already committed his future late-pass evenings to Ralph, and this is before Ralph has even asked him out! I think throughout the book, Laurie makes a lot of decisions and choices, especially w.r.t. Ralph, without acknowledging them. And this is one such example. He’s not a passive participant being dragged into a relationship by chance and Ralph’s will.

“What makes me cross about people like Ralph is the way everyone used them. [….] Their life gets like one of those ham spy films where they brief the agent and say, “But remember, one slip and you’re on your own.” This is such an apt description the way Ralph has been abandoned by everyone and every institution his entire life! one slip, and his parents beat him, one slip, and he was thrown out of school and home, one slip, and he lost his naval career, one slip (that wasn’t even his fault), and Laurie seems to have abandoned him too. Until Laurie comes back and becomes the only person to not abandon him when he doesn’t live up to their expectations. Laurie is the only person who loves him enough to allow him to fail ❤️❤️❤️

“Ralph’s tragedy is that he’s retained through everything a curious innocence about it.” It being the idea that “sacrifice uplifts the redeemer and casts down the bought.” I don’t agree with this observation about the nature of sacrifice, but I do think Ralph is unaware of the way his giving nature coupled with his unwillingness to receive help leads to a “trade deficit” in his relationships, which breeds resentment. He showers his loved ones with love, but doesn’t give them the opportunity to dote on him in return.

“You said he’s in a spot. […] Can I do something? […] No, tell me, please, if I can do something. I want to know.. […] I’m not sleepy. When Ralph comes back, if he’s in a fix you’ve got to wake me. No good keep talking about he’s in trouble, and not do anything.. […] I won’t go away. I’ll wait for him here if it takes all night.” All Laurie wants is to be able to do something for Ralph 😭😭😭 like, screw the rules, if Ralph’s needs him to, he’ll stay all night. All Ralph has to do is say he needs him 😭😭😭 (Ralph: I can’t admit I need Spuddy! I need to be strong and brave in front of him! Or he won’t admire me anymore and he’ll leave me 🥺🥺🥺. Me: 🤦‍♀️)

To be continued…

#the charioteer

[nethnad]

OH MY GOD UR A DR WHO THOSCHEI FAN /AND/ A CLASSICS MAJOR UR SO REAL CAN I BE UR FRIEND

hi!!! sorry this is a bit late (actually being beaten into the ground by essays rn 😭) but yeah i’m a classics major with a concentration on ancient history and archaeology!! :) truly the field of all time i love it to pieces... somethin abt. trying to understand past people and their experiences even when the records are fragmented or nonexistent makes my brain go brrr!! i do kinda wanna stress that i am 20 yrs old and you're 15 so its probably not necessarily responsible of either of us to be friends but if you ever wanna ramble about classics/ancient history/dw my askbox is always open feel free to drop in!!

it also kinda impacts how i approach dw and thoschei because ooo there are SO MANY parallels you can draw between epics like the odyssey and the kind of. never ending journey that the narrative of DW necessitates. except penelope in this scenario is evil and also gave up waiting to search for odysseus herself.

also obligatory dweu plug here i just love this quote from chapter 2 of theatre of war:

"The first principle of archaeology is documentation. It is the willingness – the passion – for recording minutiae of excavation data to the point of pedantry that separates the men from the boys. Or, in the case of an excavation where material as well as historical wealth may be gained, the archaeologists from the looters."

i remember i read this and i went THATS MY FIELD!!!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!! the extensive recording of every little bit of data - can be so exhausting but so so rewarding in the breadth of information you gain. and i just love seeing dw paying homage to that idea its like my two favorite things of all time colliding into the most beautiful thing ever :)

again if you ever wanna talk about classics or dw please please please drop by!! together they comprise about 90% of my brain function at a given moment and i love rambling about them <3

#the other 10% is dedicated to fencing and schoolwork LMAOO #this ask did make me so happy when i first saw it i was like WAHOO CLASSICS AND DW ENJOYER!!! i love seeing others in the wild like this lo #nethnad.asks

[whatshouldwecallhomer]

@ everyone in the last post pointing out that Odysseus slept with other women while he was trying to get back to Ithaca like it's brand new information: first off, we know, thank you, we've read the damn book.

Secondly, have you read the book? In neither case is Odysseus' tenure with Circe and Calypso portrayed as fully voluntary - he's an outright captive of Calypso and spends all his free time crying and staring at the sea. Things didn't get off to a great start with Circe either. I feel like the modern interpretation of the encounters with the goddesses in the Odyssey make it out as though Odysseus was just screwing around for the ten years between the end of the Trojan War and his homecoming, but that is reading against the text pretty significantly. I'm not saying there's 0 textual support for that reading but there's much much more in the opposite direction. The Odyssey is a nostos story - it derives its narrative tension from Odysseus' struggle to get home, so the story doesn't happen without the challenges he faces along the way.

Third - when you reduce the episodes with Calypso and Circe to "Odysseus is a bad husband because he cheated on Penelope", you're missing a really interesting parallel to the Iliad, where the events of the story are precipitated by a fight over a captive woman. We don't actually get very much of Briseis' perspective, despite the fact that the story couldn't start without her. She has very few lines of dialogue. But when we get to the Odyssey, now the story starts with the main character who is essentially powerless in the role of a slave concubine. Do the gender ramifications there not make your head spin? In the Iliad, a straightforward poem about straight shooting heroes, which romanticizes war as much as it critiques it, the experiences of the war captives is all but absent. In the Odyssey, we see the aftermath of war and its impacts up close and personal, although the narrative comes at it at an angle (incidentally, the way Odysseus himself comes at problems). If you don't want to examine that because you think Odysseus was a bad guy for cheating on Penelope... okay? That's your prerogative I guess. You're missing out some of the best stuff in the poems though!

(Incidentally I'm not saying Odysseus is a *good* guy, either - he's a man of many ways, as Emily Wilson put it, he's "a complicated man" - but that's what makes him so interesting! If he were 100% wholesome and Unproblematic, we wouldn't be reading this shit 2800 years later! Trust me! There are some extremely boring ancient works I've read where everybody does exactly what they were supposed to do! I'd rather read the Odyssey!)

Fourth, and I don't exactly know how to frame this, even if you take Odysseus' captivity with Circe and/or Calypso as infidelity... that doesn't actually mean that he and Penelope don't still have this crazy powerful bond! He deploys all his cleverness to escape from Calypso (even though she offers him immortality!) and then from Circe (in part) because they can't offer him the like-mindedness he has with Penelope! He leaves because he wants to go back to Ithaca, his kingdom, and his family! And it's not some kind of secret affair! Odysseus TELLS Penelope about both of them the same day she finally recognizes him and they reunite! If it is infidelity, it doesn't compromise the foundation of their relationship.

Sorry for the long post y'all but I could not let this go

[hardoncaulfield]

I'm a few days late making this but bc of the mashdyssey posting I thought I'd post the uhh clothing theory that's been boiling my brain for some weeks now. These posts gave me the initial worms & then I got to thinking about the symbolism of the pink henley in terms of BJ/Odysseus parallels. Because clothing in the odyssey is so incredibly important, like one scholar says: "For Homeric society what a person wore represented in a real, not just a symbolic, sense what he was. A king without his proper raiment is not a king.."¹ Clothing is implicated at every level of Odysseus' journey —

[Both inserts²]

But Odysseus doesn't disguise himself, is the thing, Athena does it for him, or else his clothes are gifts from women:

[See this post.]

So, in the odyssey Clothing becomes representative of identity to such an extent that it even qualifies a person's status as a person — when Odysseus washes up naked on Phaeacia he covers himself in leaves, an inhuman covering that makes him less-than-human. So when Nausikaa offers him clothes she is reintroducing him into society and, specifically, offering him a role in that society as her potential spouse.

& this is where the red party comes in — Hawkeye becomes a sort of anti-nausikaa, he resents the clothes that tie him to the society/institution he is part of and make him complicit in the army's violence. And, quite different from the situation in the odyssey where the clothing-gift orginates with Nausikaa and brings Odysseus into society by offering him a role in that society, here BJ gifts Hawkeye clothes he himself wears (and continues to wear for the rest of their time together) & rather than the clothing-gift representing a role inside the established order, BJ continuing to wear red is him saying that he's with Hawkeye against the lot of them. He'll stand with Hawkeye outside society. & this is sort of the crux of him going from being an excellent Nobody [I sent this ask but was too chicken to ask off anon, look at me now 😔✌] to acknowledging that he's changing and that change might not be all bad. (Thanks @flintism for pointing this one out)

& I think it's interesting to overlay this with that moment from Odysseus' homecoming — the triumphant moment when he throws off his beggar's disguise and stands there completely naked and therefore completely himself — where we see that it is only because he can claim his identity that he is able to claim his nostos. & I don't have a conclusion for this but I think it's interesting to consider how BJ changes his clothes because of his love for Hawkeye in light of Odysseus' having to prove himself to be himself before he can go home and also that scene from book 19 where Penelope recognises Odysseus by the clothes he wore when he went away to war even while she fails to recognise that the man himself is sitting in front of her — much 2 consider

1. Studies in the Odyssey. B. Fenik

2. Clothing and Identity in the Odyssey: The Case of Penelope's Web. Naoko Yamagata

#i hit post instead of edit on this once and never felt terror like it #if you've seen this before no you didn't #posts for three people #mash #mashdyssey #🚬😔✌ #footnotes were entirely unnecessary but I'm attached to the academic format now #also if anyone wants readings about the odyssey that give you mash worms then hmu

[officialjamesflint]

Thomas Hamilton

ohohoho anon you have Opened the Floodgates i Absolutely Will Talk About My Special Boy

First impression: full disclosure I went into watching Black Sails knowing that an essential part of the story was Flint being queer, so when Thomas' name first came up i was like THAT'S HIS BOYFRIEND I JUST KNOW IT!! So when he first came onscreen I got sooo excited. I was livetexting Lexi when I watched that episode and this is my exact first impression of my perfect boy:

[ID: a screenshot of a Discord message reading, "I love Thomas and his silly little wig <3 (heart emoji) silly little lad nothing bad will happen to him". End ID.] Impression now: I Love Him So Much He Is My Special Perfect Boy I Am So Normal About Him He Is So Sweet So Good So Bitchy So Good So Perfect Soooo Gooood Favorite moment: OBVIOUSLY the reunion scene in 4x10 I've watched that scene so many times it makes me CRY!! But from the flashback scenes I think the entire dinner scene with bitch boy Alfred is such a good example of his character and how much of a little stubbron bitch he is <33 and there's Nothing like when James kicks Alfred out of his Own House and Thomas just. takes his little wig off and is like. babe you just did that. you're so sexy let's make out in front of my wife stat. Idea for a story: i have sooo many SO many but the one I'm going to write after my current wip is a post-canon fic where he and James break out of ye old Savannah and go live in the country somewhere and end up informally adopting the wayward queer preteen who lives next door. i simply think they deserve to be the weird sketchy neighbors that all the kids are obsessed with <33 Unpopular opinion: i don't really know what opinions about him are unpopular?? i haven't really engaged with the fandom much beyond my friends so i don't think I can answer this question oops. Favorite relationship: definitely him and james they Invented Romance i Love Them i think about the odysseus/penelope parallels CONSTANTLY. there aren't a whole lot of people that he like. has a platonic relationship but i think that he and madi would get along frighteningly well (after she beat some sense into his little english brain first <3) Favorite headcanon: AUTISM!!!! i am a simple lad. i see a special little guy. i zap him with the autism beams <3 autistic4autistic flintyhammy is the Only Way. i also have some like real meta supports for this headcanon but all you need to know is that i'm autistic and i love him and therefore he is autistic <3

#tam answers #fin don't look #<= i really hope fin didn't send me this ask lol but i can't talk about tommy without sharing dark secrets 😭 #ANYWAYS!!! I LOVE HIM SO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wizardysseus]

bored, bored, bored to tears of how any post about odysseus and penelope draws every chucklefuck who vaguely remembers high school english class out of the woodwork to scream that odysseus cheated on his wife and penelope deserves so much better

it’s easy to criticize odysseus! almost anything he’s done is on the table, including but not limited to ritual human sacrifice, sacking a city, throwing a child off a wall, ordering the deaths of slave women, keeping secrets from his crew and getting them killed accidentally, straight-up murder, and generally lying and swindling everywhere he goes. i happen to like him, which i expect backlash for, because i’ve been in english classes ever. and the most common talking point is........ not any of these; it’s that he cheated. even by people who should know better. anyone with a classics degree could spot the parallels between odysseus in book 5 of the odyssey and the captive trojan women in the iliad, but madeline miller can just call him a cheater and even i'm like “well. she's not the only one,” because it's so normalized.

so, so. i don’t really expect anyone to read this, mainly because the people who would be interested have already heard everything i’m about to say via various private messages, but i wanted to write about the odyssey, and how odysseus has sex with two women who aren’t his wife, circe and calypso. (as well as flirting delicately with nausicaa, which, god, isn’t in the same category at all. i did once read a post accusing odysseus of “marrying a princess,” but it also said he did cannibalism, so.)

i’m not going to spend a lot of time talking about cheating in a modern context vs an ancient one, because i’m not a professional classicist. my impression from reading homer and other greek-myth-based literature like the oresteia is that there wasn’t an expectation in ancient/mythological greece for men to be faithful to their wives (see: how almost every king in the iliad has a concubine). this is just a context clue; another is that odysseus tells penelope about both circe and calypso when they reunite, which ought to indicate that however you read what was going on, they didn’t view it as a dealbreaker. 

but i do have my own read on what’s going on --- i wrote a post about calypso and book 5 here (tw for rape), and the long and short of it is that odysseus does not want to be there, and that this is obvious not only from the bent of the story (which all hangs together on the fact that odysseus is trying to get home) but also from the text. so when calypso keeps him there, “unwilling lover alongside lover all too willing,” that’s rape. like... there are other myths i imagine people get their ideas from, but i just don’t think that part of the odyssey has enough ambiguity to lend much support to the cheating interpretation.

consent with the circe encounter is more complicated, on multiple levels. he sleeps with her primarily because hermes tells him not to refuse her if he wants to see his crew again. at that point, it’s a kind of contractual arrangement: he sleeps with circe and his men are returned to him. sex is an act primarily to keep himself and his men safe. on the other hand, staying with her for a year afterward is apparently willing --- in contrast to calypso, who only swears an oath not to harm him when she's about to set him free, circe swears one from the start. his men are the ones who prompt him to get moving again. i don’t particularly like the term dubcon, but if it ever applies, i would say it’s here.

more than anything, what makes it hard (for me, at least) to assume good faith when people come at odysseus/penelope with the cheating argument is that they’re never just talking about circe. (see, again, madeline miller’s “at least twice” comment), and they refuse to consider that in neither encounter is odysseus in the position of power. 

like, you know, penelope is also not in a position of power with respect to the suitors.

people tend to read odysseus' faithfulness vs penelope's as if that is the central contrast between them. and yes, penelope’s virtue is a huge source of anxiety in the odyssey, and yes, there are double standards, and yes, productive scholarship can come from examining that. i get it. but it isn’t the only or necessarily most interesting way to read the odyssey.

the odyssey is about a lot of things. definitely some of those things are marital fidelity and patriarchy. but one of the other things, for example, is hospitality, and what it means to be a bad host or a bad guest. penelope is at the mercy of bad, powerful guests. odysseus is at the mercy of bad, powerful hosts.

which brings me to what penelope “deserves.” because before you can make that argument, you have to be able to establish her character and what their relationship is based on. and the odyssey draws more attention to the likenesses between them than the differences. they share the epithet “wise.” they’re both full of tricks and lies. when penelope tells the suitors that she’ll pick whoever gives her the most gifts, odysseus hears and laughs to himself about her cleverness (book 18). penelope is the only person besides athena to successfully lie to him (book 23). they react with the same distrust and outward coldness while they test one another. they cry about the same things. they know each other through the same signs.

why is the question what penelope deserves? rooting for penelope isn’t rooting against odysseus; they’re very similar and well-matched people. @whatshouldwecallhomer has a couple of great posts (more concise than mine) on this subject, and particularly about odysseus and penelope’s likemindedness, here and here. ultimately, “deserves” isn’t the point. what penelope wants and values is the point.

but even if you disagree about any or all of this, please consider: you are not the first person ever to realize that odysseus had sex with other women. you’re not gonna be the one to break the news to an odysseus/penelope fan that he’s a bad person. we know. also, don’t be fucking rude on other people’s posts and artwork. “this is nice! if only i didn’t hate odysseus!” is not the compliment you think it is.

#homer is where the heart is #thoughts #rape tw #long post

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Ari: 5, 18,26,33,35,42,48,49,50,53,55

49. What are some themes tied to your character’s story?

“No wonder we cannot appreciate the really central Kafka joke: that the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from the horrific struggle. That our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home.”

— David Foster Wallace, Consider the Lobster and other essays

Ari’s central theme is this precise struggle to establish a self, but under a pressure of being perceived in a world that enforces a bunch of roles and identities on her. Being a half-drow girl in a small-minded village and having a cold, judgmental father, she knew from a very young age that there are acceptable and not acceptable selves, and if you show the world the wrong thing, you will be punished. And not just show the wrong self, but if you perform the right self in an unsatisfactory manner, you will not be accepted either. Like, she was a small orphan girl being bullied, but parents never took her side, because she was a grey-skinned drow child of this weird elf loner and she didn’t dress or look or behave like little girls, because she didn’t have a female role model and Daeghun just dressed her practically and didn’t bother giving her “feminine” cloth. So she watched other girls like a zoologist studying an animal behavior and adopted the patterns like “Oh hey guys, check out what a Hyper-real Idealistic Femininity I’ve got there, I think I deserve some acceptance and validation for that, huh?” Of course this realization that it’s not enough for her be something, people will only treat her like that thing if she performs what they expect from it lead to her building up a lot of resentment. And she never got a chance to figure her true self out as the pressures and expectations were being piled on her, up to saving Neverwinter. So Ari felt like a collection of masks hiding an empty center, where she doesn’t even have a self, just resentful rage and a bunch of shadows. She only got to figuring herself out in MotB, bc MotB was not about saving a kingdom, but about saving herself, and to save herself she needed to first define it.

33. How have they changed over time?

in original NWN2 Ari doesn’t really change, just grows better and better at performing what everyone around expects from her and becoming more and more bitter and angry because of that under a ethereal sweetness that she coaxed over herself. in MotB she’s finally forced to confront herself and realize that she’s not actually a despicable monster incapable of love and good things that she believed she was her entire life. She also came in terms with her masks, and being able to find her “self” and so to distinguish what part is a role and what part is she, Ari is now much more in control of the performance instead of compulsory mirroring the expectations. If before the world was theater and she was the actress, now she is also directing the play. She… well, not calmed down, she’s still very Extra™, but she’s lost the self-loathing self-destructive violent edge.

48. What was their lowest point? What was their highest point?

Lowest point is def the end of act 1 start of act 2 of MotB when Ari thought she can’t control the hunger and also because all she could feel inside is raging darkness and she couldn’t tell apart where is she and where the soul-eater, so she was completely unraveling at the seams. The highest probably when she went back to Neverwinter and saw that people of the Crossroad Keep are still aggressively loyal to her, and Kana is keeping off Nasher from annexing the Keep with lawful bureaucratic nonsense like Penelope waiting for Odysseus to return.  

53. Expectations vs Reality: what did you expect and what did you get with this character?

I didn’t expect anything when I just started nwn2, I usually see what narratives and themes the game offers me and form a character I think would be the most interesting to explore them with. If we talk about defying the expectations, it’s probably that I expected her story to be over at the end of nwn2. I was  disappointed with the ending, but on some level I saw it as fitting - Ari didn’t have the character development as much as self-destructive spiral throughout the game, and she died after her biggest victory, she always wanted, but never could live for herself, ceasing to exist as Neverwinter didn’t need her anymore, a heartbreaker who was only loved for what’s projected onto her, a shadow disappearing when the masks covering it are smashed by rocks. And then Mask of the Betrayer happened, and gave me not just a story custom-tailored to the themes and development of Ari, but also with love interest having parallel thematic arc of performing vs true selves. Even the flaws of OC NWN2 were post factum justified, like characters being one dimensional because that’s how Ari saw them vs layered, complex characters in MotB bc she learned to let people have their own agency and not just as objects that she needed to manipulate in order to save. It was truly a poetic cinema moment. At the end of nwn2 I thought Ari would be a sad character from a mediocre game that never gave her space to grow, and she ended up as my absolute fav OC in motb.

50. What are some motifs associated with your character?

Masks, shadows, Fae glamour, flowing shimmering silks, mirages, lightning, sky, esp in transitional stages between night and day times, twilight or the blue hour before the dawn, labyrinths made out of lilac hedges with a monster in the center.

Her general vibe is this post: “She had the confidence of a well organized library and the haunted grace of a moonlit cemetery.”

5. Height and Body type 

Ari is tiny, like, not comically so, but pretty distinctly even for a half-drow. Half-elves are on average human-sized and shaped, and half-drows are normally just a bit smaller, but Ari’s mom was a half Moon elf herself, so Ari is actually just a quarter human. So if normally half-elves look more like humans with some elvish characteristics, Ari looks like a watered down elf. Still lithe and bony, with sharply defined features and elongated limbs, but the aggressive angularity is smoothed down. It’s most obvious when she’s standing next to pureblood elves like Sand or Daeghun, who are pretty much made up only out of triangles and straight lines, and Ari has some ovals and curves.

18. Have any special keepsakes?

Not really for herself, Ari is not sentimental at all. Her familiar tho collects shiny and interesting things like all magpies, and Ari has a designated pocket on her bag to carry it.

26. Guilty Pleasure

Interesting question for Ari. by the end of nwn2 original campaign she would technically classify as like high functioning alcoholic with also occasional drug abuse. But that’s just coping mechanisms, not pleasure. Having a breakdown and fucking several succubi in your Keep’s basement is also I feel like shouldn’t count as guilty pleasure, it’s just Ari’s equivalent of crying in the bathroom for 10 minutes, then fixing your make up and going out to get shit done. It’s “I can have a little drug-infused orgy, as a treat.” So for guilty pleasures… probably just junk food.

The ask meme

#idreim #ari #long post #sorry i went straight for the desert i love this horror of a daughter #have an entire fucking essay i guess lmao

[octaviadblake]

Ὀδύσσεια + τό ἑκᾰτόν part 2

OR The Odyssey + The 100 part 2, an in-depth look at parallels to Homeric canon in season 6 (specifically 6x12 & 6x13), and how the themes and motifs present on Sanctum mirror Odysseus’s return to Ithaca.

You can read the original meta here, where I explore how season 6 mirrors Odysseus’s 10 year journey back to Ithaca. In today’s meta, I’ll be talking about how the last two episodes of season 6 reflect Odysseus’s return, as well as looking into the events that occurred on Ithaca while he was gone.

DISCLAIMER: As I mentioned last time, I was a Russian Lit major, not a Classics major, so I’m not an expert on this. I studiede Ancient Greek and Ancient Greek Drama for 6 and 2 semesters in college, respectively, but my expertise is more on The Iliad than The Odyssey. Fellow Classics nerds, feel free to jump in with your thoughts/commentary!

Ready? Let’s do this.

So, last time, we talked a bit about the theme of “cunning over strength” and discussed the motif of “disguises,” particularly in Odysseus posing as “Nobody” in order to blind the Cyclops, and how this reflects Clarke posing as Josephine in order to “blindside” the Primes.

But wouldn’t you know, upon Odysseus’s return to Ithaca, he again disguises himself. With the help of the goddess Athena, Odysseus poses as a beggar in order to make it into the palace. While he was gone, the palace has been overrun by suitors, hoping to win over Penelope (Odysseus’s wife) because her husband, who has been gone for 10 years at this point, is presumed dead and she is expected to remarry. 

Of course, we see this in 6x12 when Clarke returns to Sanctum. 

(gif credit: @clakregriffin)

With Gabriel’s help, she has been disguised as Josephine. Here is where we see her using cunning rather than strength. Rather than storming the palace with the Children of Gabriel, Clarke plans to infiltrate the Primes and defeat them from the inside. 

In The Odyssey, there are only a couple of people who see through Odysseus’s disguise, one of whom is Eurycleia, a housekeeper who recognizes one of his scars. Where most of the maids have betrayed Penelope or pursued sexual relationships with the suitors, Eurycleia has remained loyal. Odysseus’s dog also recognizes him, but that’s...kinda sad bc the dog gets so excited that it dies and that hurts my heart so I don’t like to think about that. 

So anyway. 

Guess who sees through Clarke’s disguise? Murphy. 

(gif credit: @shialablunt)

Even while she is still fully in character as Josephine, he puts the pieces together without needing to be told that it’s actually Clarke (unlike Abby and Raven, who have no idea until Clarke tells them). Murphy and Clarke have always understood each other on a fundamental level, and in season 5, even Murphy calls Clarke out on being a cockroach, like him. The two of them share a proclivity for survival. They understand one another in a way many others don’t.

Earlier in the season, in 6x02, we saw Murphy protecting Clarke from herself, also. We’re supposed to be seeing these parallels, seeing that Murphy does truly care for Clarke in his own way. He’s the only person who sees through the Josephine ruse without being told. And not only does he not reveal her, but he stays behind to save their people because Clarke can’t.

So, it looks like Murphy is Eurycleia.

Many of the maids/housekeepers have betrayed Odysseus’s legacy. While Penelope is doing her best to stave off the advances of the suitors, the maids are busy laughing and making merry (and yes, sleeping with them, too). The maids are the ones who force Penelope’s hand by telling the suitors she has been stalling so as to not have to marry one of them.

Eurycleia alone remains loyal. She cares for Penelope. She keeps the house in order. She does what she can in order to care for and protect Penelope. Also, if Penelope remarries, someone else will become king of Ithaca, meaning the people of Ithaca will suffer. Eurycleia protects Penelope so that she may protect her people. Sound familiar?

(gif credit: @stevenrogered)

I’m not defending Murphy’s actions mid-season but...at the end? He got what he wanted. He could’ve gone to space with the rest of the Primes, become one of them, taken the easy way out. But he doesn’t. He stays behind to help fix what they broke, to keep their house in order, to save their people. He is Eurycleia maintaining order and trying his best to keep the peace, while Clarke is Odysseus, going off to win the war. 

(i dont mean to imply Murphy is Clarke’s servant or anything like that, bc he’s very much not that, but this seems a fair parallel to draw)

Anyway.

The past ten years, Penelope has managed to put off selecting a suitor by telling them she is weaving an honorary funeral shroud for her husband. Upon its completion, she says, she’ll choose one for her new husband. However, she’s been unravelling the knots so as to prolong the process. The other housekeepers have revealed her secret to the suitors and now they’re insisting she make her choice. Athena tells Penelope to pose a challenge to the suitors: she will give them Odysseus’s bow, and whoever is able to string it and fire a single arrow through a dozen axe heads will win her hand and become her new husband. Unbeknownst to the suitors, Odysseus is the only one who is able to do this. 

Frankly, I don’t remember if it’s bc he was the only one who was strong enough or if there was some trick to it or whatever, but Odysseus is the only person who can string this bow. So he does. And then he throws off his disguise and reveals his true identity, before slaying every single one of the suitors.

I....don’t feel like rewatching the episodes so I don’t have perfect comparisons right off the top of my head, my apologies, hoping some of yall will come to my aid in the replies but....

Remember how Clarke is Odysseus?

(gif credit: @shialablunt)

Clarke reveals to the Primes her true identity because she refuses to let them hurt the people still in cryo on the ship. Then, she pulls the lever, and she kills the Primes, “the suitors,” those who would take her kingdom, her people, her family from her. 

Odysseus and Penelope reunite and live happily ever after.

I...don’t think I need to explain that parallel ;)

(gif credit: @clarkgriffon)

A lot of scholars say that’s the end of The Odyssey, but Homer does go on briefly. Odysseus and his son go to visit Odysseus’s father and the citizens of Ithaca follow them to confront the king. They plan to avenge the deaths of their sons, both the suitors and the soldiers who accompanied Odysseus to Troy and perished before they could return. 

Odysseus has effectively wiped out two generations of young men (indirectly in the sailors case, but the people still blame him). Just like how...so many people...in this show...blame Clarke for everyone dying...without considering if she had other options. 

Odysseus feels guilty for killing the suitors, despite the fact that it was the only option in his situation. The Ithacans blame him as well. Only Athena’s divine intervention is able to assuage the vendetta and return things to some semblance of normalcy.

(gif credit: @clarkegriffinblake)

Clarke feels guilty about killing the Primes even though they gave her no other choice. It was her people or it was them. And she did what she had to do, just as Odysseus did. But she still feels guilty. 

(gif credit: @clarkgriffon)

And along comes Bellamy “We Did Do Better” Blake. Bellamy “I Have To Believe That Matters” Blake. Bellamy “Will Always Forgive Clarke Griffin” Blake. Bellamy Blake who gives Clarke some degree of solace, offers her what redemption he can, just like he always has and always will.

Of course, there are other characters who played pretty big roles in the finale that I haven’t looked at here, and I have my own theories about them. 

I could see Jordan becoming a Clytemnestra type character. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if season 7 looked a lot like The Oresteia, particularly Agamemnon, especially since this would continue with the Homeric themes we’ve had on the show thus far.

I honestly could see Octavia as Agamemnon in the way that Clarke is Odysseus. Both kings, but Agamemnon certainly had a bloodier reputation. And that would definitely go along with @bellarke-addict‘s theory that the “He” in the anomaly is Jordan. Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon. This mysterious man wants Octavia dead. Could be something to that.

Although, Jordan and Octavia are as far from romantically involved as we can possibly get so there’s definitely a wrench in the works there lol. Who knows? I’m not one for theories as much as I am one for analysis. I’m excited to see where season 7 goes, though. 

I know this was rambly and it kinda got away from me, but I hope you guys enjoyed! Come yell about Classics with me!!!

Tagging a couple people who I know wanted to see this once it was up: @absolutelynotclassicusernam-blog @oh-bloomin-heck @little-oxford-st @tainted-ones-stuff  and some folks i think will enjoy: @braveprincess @itsyagirlkath @charmaine-diyoza @daddyperun

#the 100 meta #my meta #meta #the100meta #the 100 is homer and you cant convince me otherwise #i didnt reread or proofread this sooooooo fair warning there lol

[haruhi1087]

A Letter to Nowhere

An EdWinry rewrite of Ovid’s letter from Penelope to Ulysses Set after the events in the anime while Ed’s off traveling. Al’s not mentioned bc, well, Odysseus doesn’t have a brother *shrugs*. The parallel’s not exact, alright?

Ed,

I’m sending a letter to you, dimwit, because you’re so slow to actually come and visit. And you better not write back to me! I want you to actually come here yourself. You’ve accomplished your goals, but that goal means nothing to me when you are not here. Sometimes I wish Mustang’s train had wrecked and he’d never reached Resenbool. Then I wouldn’t be here alone in my room, complaining of each passing day; nor would the automail be sitting on my bench unused even though I’ve worked on it all throughout the night.

When haven’t I been afraid of things far beyond the terrors I face every day? Love is a thing ever filled with anxious fear. I dream you’ll find enemies that would try to destroy you; at the mention of Scar, my face pales. Someone told the story of Basque Grand’s death, and I became alarmed. Another told me how Hughes died, and I wept that intelligence could not win. Had another’s fate reached me, all my worries would have been renewed once more with that person’s fate. Whenever I hear of someone’s fate in the government, my heart grows cold because I worry for you.

But there is someone out there who favors us, because you have reached your goal and are safe. The people of Xing have left, and Resenbool is still peaceful. We are thankful every day that we still live. Yet other women get to be with the men they support, and I hear stories of what happens from the lips of travelling men. The children flock to the stories; women hang on every word. One man will act out a battle, and beer flows as they tell the story of the battle: “Here flowed the troops! This is the barricade, here was the furor’s headquarters! Over there was Mustang, there the Xing prince, there the troops from Briggs that helped to conquer the Furor himself.”

Everyone told the story to us. Ling even stopped by and told me, revealing how others had died, how Mustang had almost been undone, and then had been used. And how you were so ridiculous—too foolish and willing to risk your life!—to go into the enemy’s camp, and to fight so many creatures all at once, with too few people for help! Oh yes, you’re so careful, Ed. So very careful and always thinking of me! I was terrified by every word until he assured me you’d made it through safely and were with friends.

So the capital has been saved, the enemy’s plans in ruins—but must I continue to live without you, just as I did while you were fighting? For everyone else the country is saved, but for me the war still rages, even though the farmers still till the soil as they did before. Now are virtuous men where corruption once was, and towns prosperous after they’ve been rid of ruin, past policies still being overturned so that peace may reign. You won, but you are not home, and I don’t even know why, or where you are.

Whenever someone comes through town I pester them with questions again and again, wondering if there is any sign where you’ve gone, and I give them a letter for you, should they see you. Granny and I have sent letters to Xing with Ling, but no one had heard anything. We sent word to Ishval, but nothing from there, either. Where are you, Ed? Why do you idly wander? It would almost be better for me if this war still raged! It is unfair, and I hate the promises that I myself made. But if the Furor still ruled, I would at least know where you were fighting, and have only that one fear, and everyone else would be afraid, as well. But now… I don’t even know why I should be afraid! Yet I am, I’m so scared, and the possibilities are endless. Whatever dangers are at sea or on land, my heart tells me each and every one is why you’re not here. And while I live in foolish fears, you could be with someone else… would you be with someone else? I’m just a country girl from your childhood, who knows fine wool, but has never travelled far. Please let me be wrong, and this worry be meaningless like every other one, but I worry that for some reason you stay away even though you could physically return!

Granny keeps telling me I should give up on you and get married already. I don’t dare, though. I’ve always been yours, you know? Ed’s automechanic, Ed’s friend, Ed’s betrothed… I’ll always be yours. Granny sighs when I tell her this. Some of the boys from town want to go on dates and are constantly pestering me. This is your hometown, but they’re the ones who are well known here. Why should I talk about them, though? These boys that rule the town. Their disgraceful behavior only sickens me and makes me all the more angry that you. aren’t. here.

There’s only three of us here—Granny, myself, and Old Den. Ling left for Xing not too long ago. We hold down the old place just fine, though! And business is going well. Old Den can’t chase away these annoying guys, though, and they won’t listen to me or my wrenches. Please come home, Ed. Please be safe. We should be together; think of Granny, too, who watches out the window every day!

As for me… I was only a girl when you left me. No matter how fast you come, that’s no longer true.

Love,

Winry

#fanfic #retelling myths #edwinry #fma #odysseus

[phoenix-downer]

If the next KH does include the Reaper's Game, I'm hoping that the thing with Yozora is like the living version of it! It'd be cool to have a living and dead Reaper's Game to parallel the KH3D of Riku and Sora and tie in TWEWY? What are your thoughts about it?

I really need to play TWEWY, it’s been on my list of things to play and now that it seems like it’s tying into Kingdom Hearts, it has really shot up the list! Especially with all the fun discussion and speculation going on right now.

From what I know of TWEWY, you usually play the Reaper’s Game for a second chance at life, right? So what you’re saying is that Riku would be playing the living Reaper’s Game and Sora would be playing the dead one? That would make for an intriguing contrast! 

Now, not gonna lie, I do have a concern with the Secret Ending, and it’s that Kairi isn’t (physically) there… and I really, really, REALLY hope she’s involved with Sora’s rescue somehow. After he died for her, I don’t think she’d want to just wait for Riku to bring him home, you know? But maybe Riku has to use the power of waking or something to do it, and he’s the only one who can… I don’t know, I just… really don’t want to see Riku go and save Sora alone while she sits at home waiting… again… I know at this point she’s the Penelope to Sora’s Odysseus, but Penelope at least got to show how clever she was as she outwitted all the suitors trying to convince her to marry them! Give her something to do, Nomura, please!

Granted, the Secret Ending is just a glimpse of the future, there’s still a lot we don’t know. At this point cautious optimism or measured realism is in order, I think.

Now, my dream scenario is this: for it to be a group effort on Kairi and Riku’s end. We’ve already gotten a couple games to play as Sora and Riku (COM, DDD), so I’d love another BBS-style campaign with all three members of the Destiny Trio playable. Sora as he plays the Reaper’s Game, Riku as he plays another version of the Reaper’s game and/or searches for Sora in the sleeping worlds (since sleep and death seem to be connected), and Kairi as she searches for a way to save Sora in the realm of light. Maybe trains with Aqua, seeks out other Princesses of Heart… 

The ending of KH3 really did shake things up, didn’t it? It’ll be interesting to see where the future of the series lies. Lots of room to speculate until we find out more.

Thanks for the ask!

#kh3 spoilers #kh3 #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts 3 spoilers #twewy spoilers #kingdom hearts #destiny trio #sora #kairi #riku #answer #anonymous #sokai #slightly anyway

[douxreviews]

Star Trek: Short Treks - ‘Calypso’ Review

Zora: "Craft? On your world, if we were lovers, would you tell me your name? Your true name?" Craft: "If we were lovers on my world, you would give me my true name." Zora: "Oh. Well, then, I already did."

By nature I love brevity: A thought-provoking, engrossing story that has a lot going for it. It also raises some very intriguing questions that may have serious repercussions for the entire Star Trek franchise.

'Calypso' opens mysteriously, with countless unanswered questions. Craft (Aldis Hodge) is floating in a propulsionless shuttlecraft, adrift and alone, with nothing but Betty Boop to watch for a month. He's tractored in by the U.S.S. Discovery, at which point he awakes in the ship's sick bay. As Craft wanders around the Disco, it's clear there isn't anyone around, yet the lights and other systems are clearly being controlled by someone. That someone reveals herself with a voice; she calls herself Zora (Annabelle Wallis), and she's an Artificial Intelligence.

As Craft and Zora talk, details come out about their pasts. Zora and the Disco have been adrift for a thousand years; Craft has been away from his family and his planet for ten. Craft left because he was fighting a war against his enemies the 'V'draysh,' who he says are "In love with old things." The thing is, both Craft and Zora are also in love with old things.

Craft's mind remains on his wife and child on his homeworld. Even when he becomes distracted during the episode and he forgets, his priority always remains with them. And Zora, longing to make any sort of human connection, watches wild romance movies of the past in the hopes of feeling something. It's not only Zora that needs a human connection, though. Craft, after ten years of life away from his family, has forgotten what it's like to be human.

What Craft and Zora give each other is precisely what they both need. Zora has never been anything but alone, and Craft has been alone for too long. Unlike the previous 'Runaway,' however, things aren't perfect or wrapped in a tidy bow. What Zora really longs for, Craft can't provide; Zora's real hope is to find love, no doubt fueled by the exaggerated romance of movies like Funny Face. Craft is still tied to his family, and he can't stay to give Zora the permanent connection she desires.

Zora is a parallel for Calypso of 'The Odyssey,' and Craft is Odysseus. In the myth, Calypso is doomed to perpetually seek her soul mate. Every once in a while, the man of her dreams will arrive on her island, and she will attempt to convince him to stay. But in every case, for one reason or another, the person she longs to be with has to go, and she cannot leave with him. Her curse is to make connections, to fall in love, and to have those connections severed right away. They say that it's better to have loved and lost, than never loved at all, but what if that was your life? What if you were doomed to always love and to always lose?

But there's one important difference here. It's a clever sci-fi twist. Zora is a computer, and there's no reason she can't make the connection last forever for her. In the final shot, as Craft's shuttle goes to warp, we see Zora's holographic representation of herself dancing with a holographic representation of Craft. For a computer, all that is real is its memory, and as long as Zora can remember Craft, he is with her. Craft leaves a lasting impression on Zora more than Odysseus ever did for Calypso. And Zora's impression on Craft is the same way. When Odysseus returned to Penelope, he probably forgot all about all the things he had done on his trip. At the very least, they didn't matter to him anymore. But Zora showed Craft how to be human. He will not forget that.

And there's one last element of this Short Trek, one you might not have noticed. This is a fan theory that was actually confirmed by the writer of 'Calypso.' Craft's enemies are the V'draysh, who are in love with old things. On instagram, Michael Chabon confirmed to a fan that 'V'draysh' is a syncope of 'Federation.' This raises huge questions about Star Trek canon. For one thing, 1000 years past the final mission of the U.S.S. Discovery, whatever that mission may be, is way past anything Star Trek has done before. Even if the Discovery were to be abandoned in that nebula at the end of DIS S2, that puts this story in at least the 33rd Century. Daniels from Enterprise is from the 31st Century. The final scene of VOY: "Living Witness" is 'many years' after 3074, but there is no indication of how many years.

All in all, this was a moving and poignant short film, a literary adaptation with a sci-fi twist. I love it..

Strange New Worlds:

We hear about, but do not visit, Alcor IV.

New Life and New Civilizations:

We don't know much about the V'draysh, but they seem to be a new variation on an old civilization. Also, in the culture of the humans on Alcor IV, you receive your name from someone who loves you.

Pensees:

-Was I the only one waiting for an 'I'm afraid I can't do that, Craft' moment from Zora?

-I liked the moment when Craft tries to put on a shirt in sickbay and it doesn't fit. That was funny.

-Betty Boop's Snow White probably qualifies as torture when it's played on a loop for a month straight.

-So far, both Short Treks have focused on two people meeting and having a positive effect on the courses of each others' lives. We'll see if that trend continues into 'The Brightest Star.'

5 out of 6 Taco Tuesdays

CoramDeo is in love with old things and happy with it.

#Star Trek #Star Trek Discovery #Short Treks #Calypso #Disco #DIS #ST:Disc #Star Trek Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

[sometimesrosy]

Do you think the show will end with Bellarke as a family with biological children and Madi ofc. Or, will it end dark with one of them dead etc?

That I can’t say. JR once said that he didn’t know which way he was going to end the series. With hope for the heroes, or the heroes dead but giving hope to everyone else.

However, he said that a few years ago, and I feel like I’ve seen some changes in the show that trend towards the positive, rather than the tragic.

I actually have a theory that he’s being influenced by The Divine Comedy, that this story follows the track of that, loosely. And it’s not a baseless theory, seeing as there is a character named “Dante,” they showed a painting illustrating “The Inferno,” and named episode 3.03 after what was written over the gates of hell in the inferno, “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.” 

My original theory was that season 3 followed Dante’s Inferno. And it did kinda. But somewhere in season 4, I realized that Dante’s Inferno was only the first part of the trilogy, and the trilogy was called The Divine Comedy. 

Dante called his epic poem a comedy because, unlike tragedies that begin on a high note and end tragically, comedies begin badly but end well. The poem indeed ends well, with the protagonist, also named Dante, reaching his desired destination – heaven – a place of beauty and calm, light and ultimate good. [x]

Oh. Oh, hey look at this.

HOLY CRAP. Does that look familiar? Like the end of book one a bit? That is Dante and Beatrice at the end of their journey to heaven. [x]

ANYway. I’m flipping out a little bit googling paradiso and dante and beatrice. Divine Comedy is an allegory for morality, I think. I read The Inferno in college, but never Purgatorio or Paradiso. What I’m reading about Paradiso is a bit too heavy on the catholic mindset for me. I am not nor have I ever been Christian although I’ve studied a bit, so is a struggle for me. I’m trying to read through the christianity, which is fair for The 100, because it isn’t a christian allegory, although I’d say it is a moral one. 

But if I’m reading this right, we might have finished up with purgatorio with the finale of season 5, leaving Clarke and Bellamy as the central story and Clarke as the central figure in Bellamy’s life again. It seems as if they will be together during it, as Dante and Beatrice were? HOWEVER, there will be a time when Bellamy thinks he’s lost Clarke. Another Bellarke separation? I’d say definitely on the books. We’ve had one each season. This time I think it may be along the lines of “lost love” rather than a betrayal. So that will be our Bellarke “all is lost” moment, but in the finale they will be together again.

As long as this works on a one season storyline, not a two season one. TBH, the structure is pretty complicated and hard to pin down, because different storylines run on different structures. Some lasting one season or half a season and some lasting 5 seasons or beyond. I’m definitely leaning towards this Dante’s Divine Paradise being Bellamy’s story. So what is Clarke’s? The Illiad? Is she Odysseus or Penelope? Or both? IDK. 

Sorry I fell down the rabbit hole. My original point is that If this story is modeled after The Divine Comedy, that means it will end up well. Because a classic comedy starts out in hell and ends up happy… in heaven. They LITERALLY descended below the earth where they met monsters. You can find parallels in season 3 to the rings of hell. They have THREE realms, underground (hell), earth (purgatory) space (heaven.)  They are ascending and descending all the time. They have wise guides taking the role of virgil all the time (lincoln, maya, monty.)

However I think there is some ambiguity in the end of Paradiso, since humans CAN’T see the face of god. So The 100 will reach heaven and a happy ending, but we won’t really know how it ends for Clarke and Bellamy. (but I do believe them being together will be canon. Although the real Dante and Beatrice remained unrequited, the fictional Dante and Beatrice found true love and were together. Actually Dante wrote the story after Beatrice’s death I think.)

But let’s keep an eye out for that “Celestial Rose” imagery up there. With the symmetry and the central mandala like figure. We’ve already seen it with the final scene and Clarke and Bellamy seeing the new planet. AND we got a sneak peek of another with that bts castle pick. The shape in the arch is ANOTHER Celestial Rose, so that makes me think we’ll have some spirituality on the new planet and I think it will be literal, not metaphorical. I think the alien whatever is going to be like a god. 

I never read Purgatorio or Paradiso and I’m not going to, but I’m seeing a lot of symbolism that it shares in common with The 100, and actually that has been in a lot of science fiction and fantasy and mythology that I’ve read and watched all my life. Maybe that’s why I’m picking up on it here. It’s an archetypal story based on The Divine Comedy, but filtering throughout all sorts of stories we tell.

Let me post this. I’m just thinking things through at this point. Hope you can follow.

#the 100 #the divine comedy theory #series finale #allegory