#because i put the first rehearsal as a conflict | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rewordthis · 2 months

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Watching Bucchigiri?! and waiting for the last episode to air can be conflicting.

Do I want it to end or do I hope for a second season for some more explanations (highly unlikely btw)? Do I let it go, because from the get go it was an incoherent attempt from the producers to connect dots randomly put on the paper? Or do I stay for the music, some cool characters (ok 2— but still) and the ‘what may be’? Genuinely asking here...

Arajin, as an antihero-type (more like pathetic) mc sure isn’t the first one I’ve seen, but good god he’s the stupidest!

He’s so blissfully blind and singleminded that to be honest, I see what Senya felt attracting him and possessed him. lmao Even he mentions that this is the way of life and a innate trait of those aspiring to become honkibito; to singlemindedly pursue their goal: to become honki.

Notice how it is shown, that the crypt in the temple opens the same time that Arajin rehearses his introduction for his female classmates in his new school. Peak confidence moment for him, if you ask me! 🤭

Following that logic, of genies being attracted to specific traits of their vessels, the bullet hit Arajin because Senya had chosen him. He actually says first thing when he sees him: “またはずれか” aka: “another miss?”, which means that he’s already tried to posses people many times before.

But, I want to point out some things that are showing through in the series, and this is going to be one long-ass and winding post, so buckle up I guess, if you dare to read further down below the cut!

◆ As for those of you that have a short fuse and still opened this, I’ll be kind and tell you that you can skip to the last paragraph (green colour) for what my expectations are for the final episode. Cheers~

◆ So here we go:

1. Honkibito: 本気人 or マジン (majin) as Senya says and Usagi-san has already very coherently explained here, are spirits that are free to posses whoever they feel more attracted to or consider strong enough for their goals and can equally, easily abandon anyone that doesn’t have it in him. It: is the overpowering desire/will (nozomi) that one holds in his heart. Also, in my boop-induced stupor, I commented on a post, that honki may have been a word play for stars, seeing how the theme is 1000+1 nights and Senya’s symbol is the sun while Ichiya’s is the moon, but love, I am not sure when my moments happen correctly… I was just thinking that 本(hon) can invoke a recall on 本能(honou) instinct -> 炎(hono) flames -> 星(hoshi) stars (because they burn) -> 欲しい(hoshi-i) desire (this is completely inaccurate though, in terms of how the actual pronunciations are and the kanjis… I’m sure the kanjis don’t stem from the same sources either) and I also, actually thought that 本鬼 or 本生 could be other ways to write it. Because 本鬼 could be read as honki: real/wood demon (Akutaro refers to Senya as oni (demon)): and in the Chinese astrology there’s the demon star (7killings and represents the warrior — though it represents the wrong way of using power) and I mostly based what I said about stars on the thought that, what if it means it falls under a wood master since wood grows tall to reach the sky and they fight to reach their higher/true selves? Because aspiring to reach your higher state is like aspiring to get a seat on the sky, appointed by Zeus(!) and that meant you had to die in battle as a true warrior for that to happen (also the spirit probably needs to be free and not “sealed”, too) — hence why they turned into genies instead. (Still new to Chinese astrology here though, and honestly very fucking confused… 😵‍💫 Sorry… ) But there is actually, arcane knowledge about how someone could become a Hero in ancient times which was happening during time intervals in correspondence with the zodiac cycle, however one had to be initiated through a ceremony; one such being The Eleusinian Mysteries. And 本生, can it be read as honki, too (huge stretch here. Help!)? Because that may apply to the spartan/straight-way of life the warriors live, but apparently there’s also a famous buddhist work that is titled Jataka Tales, which I had no clue until now, when I tried to search the kanjis... Ok. I think I exhausted my stupidity quota with this one, I should be studying a lot more consistently than just brain-dumping everything in a mixer and expect a smoothy later. Haha 😅

2. Senya and Ichiya were once humans. And by the time they were killed they were very much vulnerable and well, human and killable. Ichiya, especially was very much in anger at that time without managing to solve the issue he had with Senya…

3. They were sealed (Senya’s words) when they were killed after the wars had ended. (Poor guys did their mission and didn’t get to play after… 🥺) This actually leads me to believe that their souls ie: spirit (気) was bound by a spell to not the bullet (because how else was Arajin able to reshoot himself? the bullet never gets lost or the pistol refilled…), but rather the crystals on the pistols. Each one was killed by only one pistol with their corresponding colour on its crystals. By the way, it is said that crystals can be bearers of supernatural powers or cages of spirits, because of their close relation to the earth and therefore all the energies that run through her. If you have seen anything from Jujutsu Kaisen, these pistols are what is considered a “cursed object” practically.

4. The fact that nobody can see Senya or Ichiya (they can’t even see each other, please! 😫), unless they touch the bullet makes me think that their spirit gets projected into the material world through there but it’s otherwise only seen by their vessel because they are part of its aura. Also, I don’t think ichiya ever really possessed Akutaro because he probably didn’t shoot himself. I mean, we don’t see him having a bullet on him, ever. And if he did have, he would have been alarmed by Ichiya asking him to put the pistol in Matakara’s hands and shoot himself, no? Sir, I think Ichiya only rode him until he could find Matakara, but I’m not sure how. 🧐 Maybe the black spirit was how he possessed him. Or maybe not. Also, maybe because Ichiya wanted to leave but couldn’t until someone he wanted more would use the gun (and Akutaro wasn’t dying atm) he just stayed to search for someone strong. Ichiya has been out at least half a year before Senya found Arajin. Upon finding out about Senya he can feel the clock ticking. And he sure didn’t know about Senya’s state until Arajin punched Akutaro. He realised that this was his chance! He was also pressed, to force Matakara into using the gun because he’d never do it on his own…. And Ichiya really wants to fight Senya… And maybe genies are able to stay as long as either of them wants to merge… I mean, both Senya and Ichiya tried to leave mid-fight to let their vessels die during it or to force them make up their minds maybe, but somehow they were both still connected to them and stick around because they wanted for their vessels to make a resolution in their heart and use their power. Arajin didn’t want Senya but Senya wanted him, so he stayed until Arajin literally felt betrayed by him. I think Senya was able to leave the whole time, he just chose to stay. He was amazed that Arajin was even able to initiate a merge all by himself. He’s one special idiot, if you ask me. But after finding out what merging meant, there was no point in staying with someone that didn’t trust him anymore… 😕

5. Why did I mention aura earlier, though? How is it into play here? Because Matakara could see Ichiya’s darkness lurking in the temple ever since he was a little kid. And I’m steadfast on my belief that this darkness stems from Ichiya, because not only was it on his side in the panel picture but it also seemed to form a writing of his name when it settled…. But, back to the point. Why could Matakara see it? Could his brother see it, too? Well, I’m not sure about Mitsukuni, because he didn’t seem to notice it, but Matakara could definitely see it. It’s because he has a pure soul. There’s honestly nothing better — and worse at the same time — than someone having a 100% pure soul. They are kind, bright and a treasure (ironic — I know…) to those around them, but darling, they are hell broken loose when they get a change of heart and play for the other team. Matakara’s pure, kind side is a lot like Makoto’s from Free! but at the same time I get many Keisuke/Kurosuke vibes from him! (I mean, I still have beef with NitroChi for never releasing official birthdays for that vn! 😤 I always feared that Keisuke could be a Libra, but he’s far more likely to be an Aries at this point.) I also had flashbacks at how Marito called Matakara Arajin’s dog, of how Kurosuke was mad at Akira because he thought he treated him like a dog! 😭 As n said: “stagnant water gets dirty and can’t return to its original state again…’. Dear god! This must be one of the most beautiful allegories I have seen in anime, if not in general. Water cleanses, is the source of life, but when it pools it gets dirty and dangerous… It’s how powerful a weapon true purity can turn out to be… (Stray thought, btw, but why do you think angels are portrayed as ferocious warrior beings but are still the most pure, huh?)

6. Also, Matakara’s birthday is a day that signifies constant change in the person’s life. It’s frustrating that these individuals are supposed to realise later in their life how the family they originated from hadn’t really helped them at all at evolving or how they need to make ‘amends’ of sorts with their mom especially, to feel comfortable to forge bonds. Yeah… I don’t think so, darling. They are considered saviours of some sort, which in turn puts pressure on them, but in a good way. What triggered me the most reading this, is that they are loners in their core and only consider like one or two people ‘theirs’. Anyone noticed how he only calls Mitsukuni, nii-chan or Arajin, Ara-chan and how fixated he is on ‘saving’ Ken-san for last? Anyone? I’m accepting offers! It’s because these are the two most important people in his life. They are his bonds. His only, truly, fully acknowledged bonds! Kenichiro, is only tangentially important to him, because he was the only one that was second to his brother. Nothing more. So, very sorry for those who got upset when he told Zabu that he doesn’t really know him, because he absolutely meant it. It’s the truest thing in the whole freaking series. There is this darkness that Ichiya latched onto, which honestly must be SO deep, that it makes me feel powerless knowing there are people out there who do feel like this… He knows full well, that no one of his “buddies” knows how deep this darkness runs — they can’t even begin to imagine there is darkness in him to begin with — he doesn’t really even know how deep, himself. He felt oppressed for keeping it under wraps all this time, because it first got out when his brother went to juvy, and that was just him lashing out, mind you. Now he has a magical being telling him that he needs to be this way— he needs to turn into a monster himself and embrace this darkness to become truly strong. He won’t get over it until he realises that nothing is his fault and everything changes because that’s just how life is supposed to be.

7. Here I want to speak about that shadow/darkness that follows Ichiya, that from the beginning I honestly though it to be his “human despairs” that he had tried to get rid off; but for someone to separate and reject parts of their soul can produce incredible frustrations and pain that can result in those energies manifesting in a separate entity of sorts but which is still fed by the broken counterpart, so it stuck close after his death. I genuinely believe this fraction of his soul is still on the loose because he didn’t want to acknowledge it and that he’s not whole even as a spirit. But it’s also possible as it was pointed out, that it is an entirely different entity that possesses him, I still, beg to differ though…

8. I have a huge fear that Mitsukuni was a Libra. Libras and Aries are opposing signs and energies. No matter how good a relationship they had or how much Matakara admired and loved his brother, he’s bound to feel frustration around him. Because Libras can be exhibited as extremely righteous, which to be fair is highly subjective; I’d probably categorise them into the self-righteous bunch. Imagine an Aries now having to live up to these standards. Fucking hell… Not to mention that feeling this way, can also make someone feeling like they are being ungrateful towards the Libra person who showers them with attention and tries to spoil them by doing as many favours to them— even favours they didn’t ask for… 😒 This is an incredibly tentative power balance that can tip over super fast super easily. 😬 In one word: HELL.

9. I also just remembered how there’s a huge difference in how Senya and Arajin are activating their merge to the way Ichiya and Matakara do. As I mentioned above, Arajin is the one reluctant to merge but ends up being the one asking Senya and even activating it on his own during the time he faces Akutaro; he is the one with the overpowering will in their merge. Matakara on the other hand is accepting Ichiya inside him and surrenders his body to him, completely relinquishing and entrusting his everything to him, making himself to be the one with the weaker will despite how he naturally is before Ichiya possessing him.

Just look at him here, how he takes Ichiya in him: eyes closed and stance wide open…

Again, completely giving himself over to Ichiya and in a sense, self-sacrificing in order to find the strength he’s so desperately wishing for. Oh my gosh, he’s such a beautiful character… *I hate them producers* (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

10. Now that I remembered this, his blood type is O. In Japan most politicians or company directors etc, are people with blood type O and so they are also considered “the leader”… just so you know. 😑

11. Also, also! I haven’t really understood the reason the genies ask for “what is your wish” in this anime in particular, because it’s not like their going to make it happen, but it probably is required in order to establish a connection to the soul and the desire of their chosen fighter. I mean, how can you connect and even “merge” with someone, unless you know what their heart truly yearns for?

12. One more thing. Along with Arajin being themed by chinese tradition, there are other elements throughout the series, like some of the character names and even at how they arrange time. For example, Matakara asks Ken-san to meet him at “the hour of the rooster”, which is about 17:00 - 19:00.

◆ Change of heart; change of… clothes: What is the significance of Matakara being designed to have a hoodie? It must be convenient for someone his size. Hm.

I believe that being interested in fighting as a “sport” or a “self-defining” means (as is the case here) is extremely unlikely one would make such a choice in real life. How so? Because wearing chains, piercings, hoodies and generally having loose items on your person, could prove a weapon or a leverage in your opponent’s hands and be used against you during the fight (sort of when being a goalkeeper and shooting the ball to your own nets kinda thing…). So in a way that, unconsciously, makes those characters look far more assured on their strength. Besides Matakara, other known characters that habitually wear hoodies despite their involvement in close combat are Akira (TnC) and Yuuji (JJK), who are also considered exceptionally strong and they also know it. One other example in the series that stands out, is Marito. The chains and piercings he’s wearing are all a means to say he’s got nothing to expect from those facing him. There may be that there’s just enough respect among those fighting that they wouldn’t resort to such tactics, but then again, Matakara did throw dirt in his eyes when he became desperate, so this is just to say that Marito is insanely strong and also insanely assured about himself— if not just plainly insane. In other words, the design is such that evokes characters with confidence and awareness of the gap that separates them from their peers, something to which it can be ascribed the why and how Matakara tries to be fair during fights up until Ichiya enters him.

Now, I’m sure it’s quite noticeable how Matakara’s light blue hoodie and white undershirt has given its place to a dark navy blue one with a black undershirt. This is because “darkness” is the theme metaphor here. Ichiya said when he transferred to Matakara that Matakara has a deep darkness in him to which he could fit in more better. That was what Ichiya was drawn to— like how Senya was to Arajin. Also, I’m pretty confident that Ichiya had his eyes on Matakara ever since he was a child and could see the “monster”… I also think, that the way Senya thought this to be a sign when he found out about Arajin and Matakara training as kids to become honki, is an indication of the genies being drawn to souls with this desire. Matakara, to be sure, also never left the town and kept visiting the honki temple, which means Ichiya could probably “sense” that original darkness he was drawn, evolving. He rode Akutaro when he had the chance, to manage and get out to look for that darkness. I kind of think, that maybe this has to do with the fact that spirits cannot be seen or be able to see since they don’t have eyes. Spirits are energies that you can feel, however. In that same vain, Ichiya must have recognised Matakara’s darkness during the gang war and was finally able to see for himself how really strong the kid was. The fact that he was able to strategically draw him out while using Akutaro’s grudge against Kenichiro was a very pleasant moment of success for him, I’m sure…

Matakara as Ichiya keeps urging him to do, has to “throw away his weak (kind) heart” to become truly strong. There is an underlying point to this as well… One where he is currently learning to be more proud of himself, therefore exposing the bullet on his chest. It’s not a dark secret. It’s something he’s embracing and honestly in Matakara’s case, I’m happy he does. The most important thing for me though, has to be the location of the bullet. It’s smack right in the middle of his chest. Close to his heart. And therefore very strongly and deeply rooted in the one place he is stronger (or weaker, depends on how you perceive this). Matakara’s pure heart has center and spotlight. Unfortunately, this very same heart is being broken time and again and that is his biggest frustration. This is why he was wearing an undershirt that was covering his chest before. Because his darkness is in his heart. It’s where he feels weaker, unsure of himself, where the genie can patch a hole in his host’s soul. Does he have an inferiority complex? Most probably. Does he blame that on others? No. Not even Arajin. All he wants, is to become stronger. Strong enough to beat the monster. It’s not even a monster in my opinion — it’s misplaced frustrations that got too strong and got a life of their own (note 7 above).

Also, darkness: apex predators are blending in and lurking in the shadows, hidden away until they spot their prey. Then they make their move, kill, and leave. Does that behaviour remind you someone? Yes, it does. It’s how Matakara has started facing his opponents. “Again”, as Zabu comments. He goes up and challenges them out of the blue, plants them into the ground and then just walks away… 🥺

The really hard part though, is how he had to beat Zabu, because he clearly didn’t want to as is shown in the scene before Zabu catching his leg to stop him, where he doesn’t look at him as he lies on the ground; he just knew he had to overcome his “softness” and actually beat to death someone that was a “companion” to him in order to not falter in his pursue of “himself”. This kid is fighting to find his place not just in the world around him, but in the world within him. He’s always looked into the world without being able to point where he fitted in and once Ichiya challenged this (“friends are for the weak”), he was forced to go against his instinct of fitting in and forging bonds and move into a state of standing for himself. When Ichiya said that “the thing you lack is anger”, so he could initiate a merging process and urging him to lose himself in his anger, wasn’t to say that Matakara just needed to be angry at everyone, but more likely that he had to acknowledge his frustration and be able to draw out a real desire in him to fight not just for the sake of fighting and being accepted but for him to finally stand up for himself, for what he wants— how he should not be feeling guilty for who he is, because let me tell you, he feels so fucking guilty for himself. For being weak. For being a burden. For being angry at himself for never being ENOUGH! He needs to be blinded to be efficient, so the fact that anger is what can trigger this blindness is needed for him to not think and hold back anymore. And the fact that he’s so kind means that he’s never held a grudge. He never felt entitled to get angry at someone. He always, always wanted for things to be peaceful. Super ironic if you know anything about Aries. He’s literally the odd one in the bunch. But pure Aries really don’t hold grudges; they boil and fight and forget about it on the spot. For his birthday especially, there’s a tendency to ignore rules and have issues with authority (looking at Ken-san 👀) but generally being the warrior type individuals, that are seen as the heroes of the group. Kid never had the chance to built self-esteem, though or a defence mechanism. And this acceptance of his darker parts is actually a very important foundation that he’s laying out for himself to learn that some times change is inevitable. Darkness is inevitable. Negative emotions and shitty situations are part of being alive and it’s absolutely valid to feel bad and frustrated and to want more… And that (accepting his darkness) it will make him stronger. “But he’ll be unable to live with himself afterwards”, you’ll say… Yes, he will be tortured afterwards for what he did. He will bitterly regret beating Zabu and anyone the way he did, but he will have proof that he’s not weak. He’s not a burden. He’s not less!

★ I also keep seeing people talking about how the series refer to idolisation and honestly, I don’t think that’s the case at all.

Idolising someone means that you have put them on a pedestal and consider them far out of your reach and eventually give up on trying to reach those individuals. And that it’s simply not what’s happening with Matakara.

Now, if we’re talking about Mahoro, sure; she even refers to Marito as “god” and has an extremely unhealthy obsession with him to the point where he even has to treat her like a pest to push her away— even though I’m sure he loves his little sister; I mean, who’s brave enough and eats that horror of a bento if they don’t love their sibling who prepared it for them? Especially if they have the chance to throw it out without anyone seeing them??? 😨

★But with Matakara it’s a different story. His whole negativity and frustration doesn’t come from idolising Arajin. I mean he does look up to him but he’s not thinking of him being out of his reach. He just thinks that he’s the weak one of the two.

We see him actively (aggressively, more like it) trying to become stronger. We see him aspiring to reach Ara-chan.

Trying to get close and live up to his brother’s legacy, who was even considered a living legend among these yankies (and now I want you to try and imagine having to grow up next to a literal demi-god (look point 8 above) among common mortals, I seriously want you to imagine the pain and frustration of never measuring up to them for a moment here… because you see them in their everyday; how they move and hurt and live and breathe into this world… and you still can’t be like them… imagine the inhibitions and doubt this plants into someone’s psyche…) and now that he’s dead, Matakara will never be able to reach him no matter how he tries, because bro has ascended without him, before he ever tried to fight him even as a joke. There is a recurrent theme through the series that you become stronger and acquire power by continually challenging and winning over gradually stronger opponents. You literally “build up” your strength and your way to the “top” as it is mentioned in the series from even as far back as episode one, whatever meaning that “top” may has.

He even, still, wants to be a honki person, who from what we know so far, is questionable anyone ever managed to actually achieve it. (We just don’t have the requirements to know how honki-ness is achieved! 🙄) And the only thing that is actually wrong with Matakara is that he’s miserably failing to objectively asses himself and perceive how he appears to the others, and that’s because he was never in an environment that gave him the opportunity or the tools to build a strong sense of self. His parents literally abandoned their children, with Matakara seemingly not even in the age to start attending grade school. His brother, who by the looks of it was about 9-10 (they have roughly a 5years difference— depending on whether Mitsukuni was the same age as Kenichiro (Arajin, you bitch, come and say to my face that a 21yo is an old man and I’ll rip you a new one! What are we 30-somethings supposed to be huh?! Grr! ( *｀ω´)) or if he became an early leader), was also a kid that had to look after him even as he had no means to provide for even himself since he was underage and couldn’t work. They both had to be taken in and live as a “burden” to the new owner of their family’s old bathhouse…

How the fuck does any of you saying that, can’t realise that this kid literally grew up to consider himself inadequate and unworthy and being fucking torn and tormented so deeply in his soul, that he actually believes he’s just NOT ENOUGH!!! is beyond me. And you dare fucking chalking it up to simple idolisation… (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾

How can someone have such a single-angle-view perception to get so blind? This is “Arajin blissful blindness” on your part and I’d like you to think twice before you come into my house talking shit like that. (Not that the producers gave a fuck either to think this through, apparently…) _(:3 」∠)_

※ We are a Matakara & Ichiya wildlife safehouse and we don’t serve tea to haters and surface-tension-level character supporters here, the doors are open for you to go away if you don’t like that. 🐾 * gently boops you out the door*

We also don’t want to hurt anybody, just to achieve enlightenment. 💖

˚✧₊ As for why Ichiya acted like a dick in the first place, I am inclined to suspect, that this was probably because he realised that this was the end for him…

I mean, he was angry at Senya for holding back, and generally it is showcased that when real friends compete for the same goal they need to do that seriously so that the other gets the satisfaction that they lost to someone stronger than them at least and even more so that they won because of their own powers and not because they are viewed as either too respectable or weak enough to be let to win.

In the same vain, Senya is indeed like Matakara, because he’s not just holding back from Ichiya for being friends. He’s shown so far, to have such a strong respect for Ichiya, that he at times seemed to be ambivalent about wether he’d be able to really win over him. He’s unknowingly downplaying himself in front of Ichiya which in turn is also a form of weakness to boot, too.

He’s making Ichiya double the mad he actually is this way because a) Ichiya wants to know who’s the stronger between them for real and b) Senya is risking his becoming of a honki, since he’s essentially running away from fighting seriously. If you’re not able to face all your opponents equally, you are not able to become a true warrior/fighter/whatever and stand alone. The top has room only for one, and one must always be prepared for the loneliness he’ll have to face. You need to rise as someone that has no human weaknesses.

But Senya knowing how serious Ichiya is, is also probably afraid of how much Ichiya will push himself during the battle and that’s why he said “if we fight seriously, one of us could die” to which Ichiya actually said that he’s prepared for even that outcome. And what is Senya supposed to do, then? Do his — so far, one and only (gege when I catch you gege) — friend the favour and grand him his deathwish, without even understanding “why” himself or try and talk him out of it while finding out the problem and meeting him halfway?

Here I should probably add what I wrote in a reblogged post, where I state that I think what Ichiya is also concerned for, is that they need both Ichiya himself and Matakara to push harder in order to achieve perfection, but that can only happen when you overcome your humanity. Ichiya sees being human as a hindrance and therefore pushes for all three of them to abandon that aspect of themselves. Ironically, while doing so he falls in the same trap he initially tries to pull his friend out from and now his vessel, too. Being angry and frustrated is a sign of humanity, therefore a weakness.

Ichiya’s birthday, represents people born on this day, usually having an innate “darkness”, as Ichiya said in anime, too where they can feel the pain and sorrow of this world. In order for them to achieve their higher goal, which is to stop feeling so powerless to save this world from its sorrows (because Virgo is the perfectionist and the helper of sorts of the zodiac), they end up hating their own humanity and trying to overcome it (see note 7 above) even if that means that it is to their own detriment. They pursue this with great zeal even if they die, because death will eventually come for all and they know it. They understand that the time anyone has in life is finite and they internally mourn for this. They also feel pressed by this knowledge, because they want to achieve as much and as best as possible by that time.

I also love how Matakara is an Aries and Ichiya a Virgo, because those two signs are traditionally incompatible but they can work out and polish each-other if they happen to interact. 😊 As signs in aspect, Virgo and Aries are also considered to have a “karmic” relationship, exactly because of the hard lessons they will force on each-other. Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, the cool, collected Virgo will stick around and work with the usually hot blooded Aries to teach him patience and methodology, especially if they have already chosen the Aries. If the Virgo finally forms a bond, it's usually reluctant to leave later. Aries on the other hand can remove themselves the minute someone bores them, but since the Virgo is aggressively independent, they can be kept in a state of continual mini-wars that push the Virgo to open up bit by bit and thus bring the Aries before unexpected discoveries and truths they didn’t even imagine. From outside, they seem to both stick with each other out of sheer stubbornness but the truth is that they take important lessons that hone their less evolved traits of their characters and they are keen enough to recognise that. ie. The Virgo learns to be more honest in sharing their feelings (tenfold in Ichiya’s case btw— imagine how much better he’d be at communicating with Senya after being with this kid for a bit more time…) and Aries learns how to objectively asses and look at themselves. Of course, a fall out is always possible if their energies and other planet aspects are not in favourable positions but, I’d say in this case it’s safe to assume that a soul-that-lived-centuries-ago-turned-magical-being, was somehow fated to be compatible with the soul that needed its guidance the most. (Honestly, this has so much potential and pain and hope to unpack that the fact the series were so half-assed, literally pains me as an astrology enthusiast. Ah, the greatness we could witness had the producers been a fraction more serious and enthusiastic about this project… 🥺😔)

Ok. At this point, I’m sure I have forgotten a shitload of things I wanted to mention when I started and also have messed up somewhere and made mistakes, but mercury is retrograde and the last episode is this Saturday, so I’m writing this knowing that’ll probably be smacking myself and wanting to edit it in a month from now but for now— fuck it, we ball! 🫠😎

I also want to thank anyone who had the steel nerves to be able to read this far… You truly are a force to reckon if you managed to tolerate my incoherent ramblings until this point. I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart and hear your thoughts in return~ 🥰

▼For closing, I really want to say what I expect from the last episode before it airs! So here it goes…

I believe both Senya and Ichiya will fully merge with the kids for the fight. They will battle to the brink of death. I hope it’s bloody and satisfying to Ichiya because he won’t rest otherwise. But I think, like Senya said that he “has no intention of staying longer with Arajin after he found out the reason behind Ichiya’s change”, that they might actually not be able to fully return to their original forms and so, maybe the genies will eventually be integrated into Arajin’s and Matakara’s bodies and consciousness completely. Maybe they’ll even be forced to do that because, what if Matakara ends up being near death and the only way to survive is for Ichiya to fully give up into him? Hmmm??? (I’m looking forward to hitting this one! 😎 they could even resume their training to become real honki people; both the kids and the genies) The fact that merging is dangerous enough for someone to die in itself is very important to consider, but as hinted by Senya’s words there is a possibility to retain or even return a vessel’s soul— which has me thinking Sukuna of sorts... Now, if we were looking at a tragedy genre, Matakara would end up dead no doubt, btw. The other option seems to be that Ichiya finally gets defeated and so maybe his soul is able to rest with Senya actually managing to achieve becoming a true honki; I… wouldn’t particularly mind this outcome but I’m not sure how it’d be for the boys… especially Matakara. I honestly think it’d be a little cheesy. I also think Arajin will get a bit taller as a result of that merge and I think that the shadow we see in the ending theme, it’s going to be his new self after that fight. And hey~ Maybe he’ll even get the girl… no matter how shitty a personality she displayed so far… 🫤 We may even get a glimpse of what happens some 3 or 10 years down the road. Who knows?!

Now guys, I hope you had a good read. <3 If you stumbled on something that confused you, feel free to ask about it. Or tell me I’m wrong. Works either way! :P

Asks are open for all if anonymous is your thing, too. 📥

Let’s see what the last episode has in store for the fandom this Saturday together, shall we? 🤗

🩵💙🌙💙🩵

#bucchigiri?!#asamine matakara #tomoshibi arajin #senya #ichiya #episode rant #fandom talk #asamine mitsukuni #and what the heck is going on?#‘if you think arajin is awful mc then imagine how bad matakara and his boy crush would be..’ like really? REALLY???#anyways…#long post is long #so all I’ll say is that despite his name being just a pun on magic without deeper meaning; the word being female kinda works out perfectly😏#godammit typos… 🤦‍♀️#and forgot the most important thing I wanted to talk about regarding matakara and ichiya… ughhh… 😫😭

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emma-cantmakeuphermind · 1 year

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Just A Project | VI

Nathan Prescott x Reader

Masterlist

Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Warnings: swearing, no nathan :( kind of shit writing, second half is mostly filler

Words: 1.2k

I woke up at 8:47 this morning completely ready for today. I got up, did my morning routine and put on something comfy but casual (A/N: you can wear whatever you want, I'm not a fashion slut). I organize my room a little bit, because why not. It’s still a mess, but now an organized mess. As I look around my room at the subtle progress I made, my stomach growls in hunger. The thought of a Two Whales breakfast teasingly enters my mind. Suddenly I’m leaping to grab my pocket essentials, heading out of the dorms to the bus stop.

While I’m waiting for the bus I am completely zoned out, daydreaming about that beautiful breakfast. When out of nowhere I feel a pair of hands on my shoulders pulling me out of my thoughts. I jump slightly turning around to the sight of Rachel Amber and Chloe Price. The startled expression quickly dissolves into a smile. I don’t know Chloe that well, the only times I’ve really interacted with her have been with Rachel as well. I’d consider her my friend though, she’s really cool, and she inspires me to not give a fuck.

Rachel on the other hand? We’re pretty close. All because Dana spontaneously joined the Drama club and asked me to join as well. Drama was never really my thing so I opted out and was a part of the Tech Crew instead. That was freshman year, feels like forever ago. At first our friendship just started as casual conversations during rehearsals, then she asked to hang out after one night, then boom. Our hangouts became almost a daily adventure. Even when she met Chloe, she didn’t forget about me or hangout with me less. That's just how good of a person Rachel Amber is.

“Well if it isn’t the dynamic duo, Rachel and Chloe.” I smile at both of them, their company is always welcomed. “What are you guys up to?” Knowing well enough that they’re always up to something. Rachel chuckles and says, “Well,” She draws on, “we saw you all peaceful like, and we just couldn’t have that, now could we?” I giggle at her antics as Chloe leans over Rachels shoulder. “I mean, what kind of friends would we be, if we just let you have peace?” The blue haired girl smirks. Rachel swats a hand at her and asks, “What about you, Punzel? What were you up to before our presence graced you?”

I roll my eyes at the nickname, a smile never leaving my face. Punzel, I earned that nickname when I first met Rachel. She was trying to get my attention, but didn’t know my name. Back then I had long Y/H/C hair that basically reached my thighs. So she just called out ‘Rapunzel!’. That was the beginning. Ever since she shortened it to ‘Punzel’ because she deemed Rapunzel was too much of a mouthful.

“I was just about to catch a bus to The Two Whales. I’m dying of hunger.” I state with my head thrown back dramatically. “Oooh, breakfast sounds good!” Rachel's eyes light up and she turns to Chloe, “What do you say, Price?” Chloe nods, “Yeah, I’m starving too, and hopefully, if I show up with you two, Mommy Dearest will bless us with a discount!” We all share a laugh before Chloe continues, “But we are not taking the bus.” She haphazardly turns around and pulls her keys out of her pocket and waves them in the air above her head. “Onwards to the Chlo-Mobile!!!”

—————————————————————

We arrived at the diner after a short while, the ride was filled with laughs and a little bit of weed. Mostly on Chloes part, she offered me a puff, but I declined. I did have things to do today after all.

Once we settle down in one of the booths we spend a few moments chatting and catching up. Chloe tells me about Deputy Dildo and their latest conflict. I hate dealing with him at school as is. Imagine having him live in your own home. About half way into the conversation Chloe gets a little too heated resulting in Rachel calming her down. They are the cutest couple, totally perfect for each other.

I told them about the whole Nathan situation, both of them having opposite reactions. Chloe was shit talking him in five different languages, while Rachel did her best to defend him. Sometimes I forget that they’re friends, they seem so different. Then again, she is with Chloe.

It’s not long before Joyce strolls over to our booth and asks for our drinks and orders. I settle with a classic breakfast consisting of crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, and some toast. I also ordered (your choice of coffee or tea), it’s a must for early mornings like this. When our food arrives we all dig in getting lost in conversation.

—————————————————————

The rest of our morning is spent bitching about whatever comes to mind and we all come to a conclusion that we need to hangout more often. When we're all done eating, I check the time. 10:42, I still have about an hour until I have to meet Nathan at the track field. The three of us pay and head out back to Chole’s truck.

The drive back to Blackwell was pretty silent. I just enjoyed the scenery of Arcadia Bay, and realized that I needed to do that more. That must sound pretty ironic coming from a photographer. But hey, I’m human too, sometimes life just gets in the way. My mind then drifts to Nathan. Here comes that burst of excitement again. God, I need to chill out, this meeting is just for the project.

We pull into the Blackwell parking lot and I hop out. “Thanks for the ride guys, I owe you!” I say. Rachel waves me off while Chloe speaks, “Are you kidding? Don’t worry about it Y/N/N, you can catch a ride anytime.” They both give me a smile, and Chloe winks. My face goes red at the action, and they both chuckle at me. “Bye, Punzel!” Rachel says, I wave and walk away, as they drive off.

I wander the campus a bit, looking for anything to try and kill time. I see a few friends like Hayden. I go up to him and sit down next to him at the tree he’s under. “Heyy, Y/N! To what do I owe the pleasure?” Hayden smiles at me warmly. I smile back with a chuckle. “Hi Hayden. How are you?”

I’ve known Hayden for a while now. I also know he’s one of Nathan’s best friends. Rachel and Dana both say he has a crush on me, but I don’t see it. For all we know he's just being kind, though he does act flirty, I’ve seen him act like that with others too. He’s just a really good friend, probably one of my best, like Dana and Rachel.

We talk for a while, mentioning whatever comes to mind. He also brings up Nathan and the project. Wait, does that mean Nathan has been talking about me. I hope that's a good thing, I don’t really plan on getting on his bad side.

—————————————————————

I don’t even know how much time has passed talking to Hayden until my phone dings. It’s a text from Nathan.

N: “nrd, where u @” 11:54

I shoot him a quick response.

“hey, omw :)” 11:54

I say goodbye to Hayden and head over to the track field with a smile on my face.

#life is strange #life is strange x reader #lis #life is strange imagine #nathan prescott #nathan prescott x reader #nathan prescott imagine

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bendyguitarpick · 3 months

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I've been watching the avatar series and honestly, I think this warrants a bullet points review bc I have a lot of opinions, and some are unexpected. I haven't been following a y discourse online about the show bc I wanted to form my own opinions before I finished it! This is episodes 1 through 5.

Right off the bat in episode 1, the first thing that strikes me as a huuuge issue is that Aang does not argue with monk gyatso before running away. It's a problem that keeps coming up in this show, and its that all the conflict is deflated from the characters and given to the plot. Instead of a young character making a mistake and learning from the end result, our protagonists just respond in a way that's removes any of their decision making from the driving force of the story. Aang didn't run from his responsibility out of fear, he just needed to clear his head!- our sweet baby boy remains the moral compass!

That being said, I do think the rearranging of the plot in thr first episode is absolutely the right move for the show. The pace is immediately set and it works.

The visuals (costume and set design) feel very very shiny and new, like how all netflix shows end up looking, overly saturated and costumey.

The casting for aang and zuko is one of my favorite things EVER. They are probably the most competent actors so far tbh. That little boy is giving it his all 🥲

Sokka and suki!!! Another instance where all the conflict and resolution feels unearned because there was nothing to resolve! Fine, you can choose to remove the sexism arc, at its center, this sokka and suki introduction is about sokka developing a level of humility that he will need in order to learn from the people we see him meet on this journey. Sokka comes in in the live action show a clueless small town warrior who gets shown the ropes on the big stage, but for what? We see suki chew him out but because there's no real conflict, he's just some shmuck getting chewed out for no real reason other than not knowing enough. It's completely hollow.

Ok this leads me to the fight scenes. They're bad! The only one that I liked was Bumi and aang, we had sustained wide shots, a creative use of bending, and the actors movements feeling well rehearsed. The opposite was the case for nearly every other fight smh.

Katara my beloved 😭 she is shockingly underwritten and I'm trying to figure out why. She gets so little active screentime that isn't just parroting the plot back to aang and sokka. All her passion and life is dead flat. I was praying they'd give her her painted lady momentand it never came, she never had a moment. It's such a huge fuck up to leave one of your three LEADS out to dry like that.

That being said, I had my little fangirl squee when jet and the freedom fighters were revealed. The casting just had me absolutely giddy 😭

And that's just katara compared to everyone else! Because at the end of the day this is the most poorly written dialogue I've seen in a show in so freaking long. It is written so stilted and klunky, and the actors are given so little direction, the end result is so dry and lifeless. It is honestly the single worst part of the show.

Our characters are no longer active decision makers in each town they visit! The plot is just happening to them! It's an extention of that conflict criticism, our heroes don't have anything to learn, they're just along for the ride! No opinions or conflict here!!

But... the one thing that absolutely is working for me... is the story. All the plot changes have been the right move every time. Combining episodes has worked so well in this short season format that it's kept me following along every time! Putting like four episodes into one omashu episode??? And having them connect in a way that makes sense??? Ik completely impressed

So far, it seems like awkward dialogue and overly shiny visuals has bogged down a show that really really could've worked in the live action format! The plot has still succeeded in keeping me engaged for the hour run time of each episode, along with the really great aang and zuko moments.

#avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar the series #bullet points #review time

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demetriandelibinaryboyfriends · 11 months

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Pride Month Character Sexuality Headcanon Moodboards 1. Yasmine - Lesbian 2. Demetri Alexopoulos - Gay 3. Moon - Bisexual 4. Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz - Bisexual

Welcome back, Cobra Kai pride month moodboard followers!!! This time let's hear it for Moon Nolastname, our one canon bisexual queen!!! She's so important to me fr <3 <3 <3 Granted, her dating a girl for 2 seconds was not NEARLY the epic sapphic romance she deserves, but I'm still so happy it's canon she likes women <3 <3 <3

I also still maintain that she has more chemistry with every female character she's ever interacted with onscreen (including that one random blonde girl in the pink dress who she danced with in the prom episode) than she ever had with Eli, eat your heart out bird boy akjsdnhukyghju

ANYWAYS I figure I don't need to back up why I think she's bi when it's been literally confirmed canon by Word of God (if you want to count that, anyways), so I'll use this bit to dive into why I'm a Lesbian Yasmine/Biseuxal Moon truther and why Moon being bisexual (and not a closet lesbian) actually makes perfect sense to me!

Throughout the show, she definitely shows enough general interest in boys to lead me to believe she doesn't exclusively like girls. She's lowkey flirty with a guy named Rory as early as 1x02 (the one she wants to do a flip for her insta channel!), and she seems to be the one to make the first move with Hawk in 1x09. In the soccer episode of Season 3, we see her having a friendly chat with a football player that could be seen as a little flirty. Compare this to Yasmine (who I think is a lesbian!), who doesn't really interact with any boys outside of Kyler in S1 and doesn't even really acknowledge Brucks, despite him following Kyler everywhere. In later seasons, Yasmine only really interacts with Demetri (and occasionally Eli) while Moon is shown to be amicable with Demetri, Miguel, minor male side characters like Rory, and enough boys and girls to throw an enormous house party in 5x08!

So admittedly I am one of the biggest h*wkm**n haters of all time. Catch me still in denial that they got back together in S4 because no they didn't <3 HOWEVER!!! From how, uh...spirited their first make-out session was in 1x09, I can buy that there is definitely physical attraction there, if little else. Whatever emotional connection they do have I think is shallow at best and actively based on falsehoods at worst--Moon only really likes Hawk's fake overconfident facade, and isn't shown to have much interest in him beyond surface-level things (I mean, for fuck's sake, she said she liked his biceps and his cool hair while dumping him, like!!!). Hawk, meanwhile, seems to kinda put Moon on a weird pedestal and seems more obsessed with the idea of her than Moon herself. In any case, you don't need to have a deep, profound attraction to all of your preferred gender(s) for your sexuality to be valid, so...even with pretty shallow feelings for Eli, Moon's bisexuality is still totally valid and should be respected <3

Mentioned before, but I do think her initiating with Eli in 1x09 shows some genuine attraction there! And commenting how hot he is in 1x10, too XD It's so impassioned and spur-of-the-moment that it doesn't feel rehearsed and inauthentic in the same way Yasmine's "attraction" to boys often does to me. Moon seems to definitely like muscular, athletic boys--and girls too, if Piper is anything to go by! We love a bisexual with an overlapping type XD

If y'all have spent any time on my page, I'm sure you've heard me rant about Moon's planet-sized crush on Yasmine XD I think a lot of her S1 behavior (and generally hanging out with a "mean girl" clique that seemed counterintuitive to like...how she works as a person) could be explained by her having a crush on Yasmine. She backs Yasmine up unconditionally, even when she feels conflicted about it (like with Sam in the weed-smoking scene in her car), which would make a lot of sense if she had/has feelings for Yas. No coincidence, imo, that she finally gathered up the courage to ditch Yasmine as soon as she found a new mean hottie to swoon over XD No real judgment here btw I was Just As Cringe in high school. We all were.

Also worth noting that she's the only character who acknowledges Yasmine's existence while she's out of town in S2--including Demetri, the guy who supposedly "would kill his friends to get Yasmine to spit in his face"! And it's not even in an explicitly negative context. It kind of sounds like Moon's giggling and kicking her feet about Yasmine having the same bikini as her XD

In later seasons, Moon taking Yasmine back despite Yas's lack of remorse and readily being her best friend again seems to hint that Yas means a lot to her--maybe in a way that goes beyond a simple platonic friendship? The full-body check-out and butt glance she does with Yas in S4 is probably the most damning thing I can give you. I mean.

LIKE. GIRL. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT.

I could not wear shipping goggles here if I tried. I have watched this scene dozens of times, and Moon is so obviously checking her out that I thought I was going crazy. HOW did this make it into the show??? HOW did they show us THIS and then expect us to buy Moon is into her ex who she's mildly friendly with and who she doesn't even talk to until the girl she really likes is fully preoccupied???

Absolutely batshit.

We've also got Moon a) breaking into excited screaming when Yasmine shows up at the prom and b) completely ignoring Eli the entire prom to hang around Yasmine and Demetri and continually steal glances at Yasmine XD This girl is gone as fuck. Let her date Yasmine, dammit!!! Clearly Eli is not her first choice!!!

Even in S5 she's sitting way too damn close to Yas in that brunch booth and laughing at Yas's dumb little joke about torturing Anthony. She's still gone as fuck. Justice for Moon!!! Let her go out with her dream girl, dammit!!!

And Moon's attraction to girls isn't limited to Yasmine and Piper!!! There's the aforementioned girl in the pink dress she was dancing with at prom (this lovely lady)

AND!!! I would argue Moon even seems to be kind of into Sam, at times! She definitely seems guilty about booting her out of the friend group back in S1, and she's lowkey giving bedroom eyes when the two of them are talking about Robby in S2 XD She looks a bit smitten during the sensory deprivation pod scene as well, and seems pretty down to put her arm around Sam whenever she can :P

Bottom line is, Piper was in fact NOT a phase in the least and I will forever be annoyed that the show kind of implied she was by having them break up for enigmatic reasons (which the conservatives could EASILY spin as "well she didn't ACTUALLY like girls she was just CONFUSED and Piper the Evil Cobra Kai was feeding this poor innocent straight girl's delusion!!!") and then having Moon go back to the male and supposedly straight ex who she had long since outgrown and lost feelings for. Like sure, Moon found a new relationship she seemed happy in and free to be herself in (something she notably could NOT really do with Eli), but CLEARLY that could never have the same (or greater!) emotional weight for her than a brief fling she had with some dude based on literally nothing except physical attraction -_____-

Whew, that got longer than I thought it would XD ANYWAYS, bottom line is that even though Moon canonically swings both ways and is so incredibly valid and sexy for it, I personally think she should date more women. The one exception to this is Robby Keene because Moonkeene is literally the only mlw Moon ship in the show that actually works, and I can and will die on this hill.

Also ngl it would be SUPER funny to see S3 Eli throw a bitchfit because his ex is going out with the mf he hates most in the world and there ain't nothing he can do about it. Like what are you gonna do??? Yell at Moon like she's your fookin property??? That's why she dumped your sorry ass in the first place. Get rekt, bird boy.

Used soft pastels for this because that very much feels like it fits Moon's vibe to me! She's just so wholesome and easygoing--it definitely suits her <3 Very happy I found such appropriate crystal pics to use :D Also I CANNOT tell y'all how long I have had that crystal-and-strawberry smoothie bowl pic saved, looking for the perfect moodboard to use it for...AND BY GOD, I FOUND IT. Sometimes dreams really do come true, kids XD

...I also really want to try that irl now. Like what ARE those crystal things made of??? Are they crunchy??? Are they chewy??? Would they break my teeth??? Guess I'll never know now ;_____;

Now fully convinced that Moon has little shiny colored glass jars in her room with sprigs of lavender and other incense and aromatherapy flowers in them. Her room is a little apothecary full of healing aromas and I love that for her <3

Realized while making this that she's also very ocean-coded (YasMoon and MoonPiper are BOTH water x fire ships, bless). In the ATLA universe, she'd probably be a waterbender healer. Sam would probably be a waterbender too, but she'd be much more Katara-esque and jump to use it for violence XD

As always, pic credits available upon request!

#moon cobra kai #cobra kai #aesthetic #moodboard #ck pride month moodboards #bisexual #cobra kai season 1 #cobra kai season 2 #cobra kai season 3 #cobra kai season 4 #cobra kai season 5 #happy pride 🌈#lgbt #lgbtqia #queer #queer pride

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authorinthestars · 8 months

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Seven Seas Hotel

Chapter 4

My heart dropped looking at his still body.

Pulse shooting while my heart dropped.

Then, those eyes looked at me.

He looked at me and I didn’t know how to feel.

I didn’t know how to feel because he seems to be chasing the storm.

———————

Separated by the table, shuffling and subconscious hums filled the room. As if saying a word would snap a string, release a dam. I would know. So, I stayed silent.

Waiting for Leo to finish, I looked at the cabinets of the kitchen, more of a stone color now than when they were first painted. I sat and wondered. I wonder and sat. A dangerous pastime as of lately for the dreams seemed to be like a bodily poison, draining the life and concentration out of me. It’s lethal.

I found Leo on the floor of my bedroom. I thought he was hurt and hundreds of other things that flashed through my mind until he sat up and just looked at me. He just looked at me. There was a fight in those eyes. Not a determination, a struggle. I would know.

I looked back at Leo, finding him zoning in on me which I didn’t think twice about. He tends to do that, nothing unusual.

Tell yourself that. Coax yourself, soothe yourself, coo to yourself. Remind yourself that the dreams are just dreams. That Leo isn’t knowledgeable of something you seem to be not able to grasp. Tell yourself it’s normal. That the tension building up isn’t going to crush you. Tell yourself that.

Leo still stared.

“What were you doing splayed out on the floor? Scared me for a minute.”

He still stared, almost constructing how to respond, analyzing how I’ll respond. He started to tear the corner off of his spare napkin, “Did you think about what I said? About taking a break?”

I leaned forward slightly, watching as he seemed to construct another response, racking up in a game I didn’t even know I was playing.

“I didn’t ask that though. Were you okay?”

He started on the other corners of the napkin, blowing his bangs in a building concentration. “I was taking a nap. I answered your question so listen to me at least.”

He still ripped at the napkin, corner discarded onto the table as he looked at me, almost desperate. Desperate for what, I didn’t know. All of these mysteries started to bother me for nothing seems clear anymore. What’s clear was now foggy and I’d prefer to see what’s ahead.

I leaned back, listening as Leo goes on a seemingly rehearsed explanation. “It’s a nice hotel, Seven Seas is. It’s not like in another country so we can be back before break ends.” He starts to tear off more of the napkin. “It’s pretty affordable from my knowledge as well. I just really think it’s an open opportunity for you to—”

I interrupted him, waving my hand, “Take a break? Honestly, out of everyone who has suggested the same thing, you’re the most determined and I respect that.”

He sees something you can’t and you know it. And you’re scared.

He ripped the napkin partly, sharply replying, “Maybe the fact there’s a hoard of people suggesting you should go on a break is a sign.”

“Or maybe it’ll benefit you if I go on a vacation?” I asked, thrown off by the sharp comment.

The napkin ripped completely, straight down the middle. “It’s not about me. It was never about me. It’s the fact I can see you being wore away and frankly, I won’t put up with that.”

I stood, starting to clean off the table, “I’ll be fine, you shouldn’t strain yourself worrying about me.”

He grabbed my arm, the dam was cracking. I see the flaw in the dam, conflict in his eyes. He’s fighting for something and I wish I could help him fight for it. Yet, I’m not sure if I would fight. Maybe I’d fly.

I’ve been there since he was a toddler, almost an infant. Grace reaching out to old college friends once she moved back into the area, Irene gladly befriending her once again. Which led me to meeting him. Which had led to many events. Which has led to this. And I trust him. I do. I just don’t trust myself. Though, maybe that’s what I need to do. Place my trust in the palm of this 12 year-old boy. So, I nodded.

He embraced me swiftly, tucking a slip of paper in my pocket before disappearing to the living room once again. He’s always been a mystery to me.

———————

I stared at the scribbled handwriting of Leo, a number and name written out. The number of the ferry driver and name of the hotel owner.

Agnes Evergreen.

The dreams of the past few days started to rush to me, clicking as Evergreen was seen.

Coincidence.

I dialed the number, a gruff voice answering soon after. “Aye?”

———————

In 2 weeks the ferry would leave, guaranteed by Georgie McClarke himself.

Georgie was the driver of the ferry which delivered passengers from the mainland to the island which Seven Seas Hotel sat and back.

The shores of New Hampshire is where it departs. Aunt Irene was ecstatic I was getting out of the state again, claiming this is exactly what I needed. I still l thought it is insane.

2 weeks before he said the ferry would leave.

As the time crept closer to when it departed, as we inched closer to the destination, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for the muddled conflict in Leo’s eyes. “I didn’t mean what I said.”

He gave a smile, “I know you didn’t. You’re not to blame either way.”

He punched my arm lightly as his eyes lit up as the ferry came into view in the far distance. He rolled down the window, catching a glance at the ride towards a new experience. His joy was contagious, the tension of weeks before starting to melt. The expectations and joy of a boy who’s never rode on a boat.

Leo laughed ecstatically, steps ahead as he quickly moved on the deck. The afternoon sun lit him up, his eyes almost reflecting the light. His soul was alit.

A man leaned against the side of the ferry, nonchalant and unaware, almost entranced with his own mind.

He tipped his head at Leo as he bounded onto the ferry with a smile. The man simply laughed in response, giving him a thumbs up and slid him his duffel. He squinted at me, hand blocking out the sun: “Welcome to Salem Ferry. Assuming you’re Maximus Griffin?”

I nodded, he clicked his tongue as we boarded, “No need to pay me. You’ll pay as you leave the hotel.”

He walked me inside, showing me where to sit as I saw Leo as he talked with a woman. Now that I look, the only people I saw sitting were them and two other people. It was almost empty.

“I will admit, I was surprised. This ferry hasn’t been active in years then out of nowhere, bam!” He made an explosion motion as he chuckled. “Passengers, though not many. Suppose I missed an announcement or somethin’”

He called out to the passengers, notifying them of soon departure, and left me with the strangers in the room.

“Tell Agnes I wish her well, eh?”

The woman Leo was talking to let him sit next to her and she didn’t seem like a threat so I didn’t comment, simply sitting behind them.

She was fairly tall, a curly auburn ponytail resting on her shoulders. Her voice seemed to fill the otherwise awkward silence of the room. She carried herself in a manner I admired, as if she wasn’t deterred. She was like lightning.

I listened subconsciously to the conversation, as it wasn’t too hard to do.

“You mentioned this is your first time on a boat? Well! How fun for you, huh? What was your name?”

Leo nodded as he replied, “Leo. Why are you going to Seven Seas?”

She leaned back and hummed, “I was called to check in the electrical power lines at the hotel. More of a work thing otherwise I would’ve brought my family with me.”

Leo turned to me, feet kicking me briefly. “Max, meet Sasha.”

She offered her hand over the seat, laughing in amusement. “Indeed that’s me. Leo here has told me about you, Maximus.” She gave me friendly wink and turned back, occupying Leo.

I smiled, his motions were ecstatic. I wished that his mom could see how happy he was. Glancing around the room, I observed the other two passengers.

One sat in the back, tuning his guitar. He strummed the strings, the sun enlightening the already caramel tone of his hair. Looking at him, I saw autumn. The way he seemed to be the after effect of passing summers. The colors of the falling leaves. The cool yet welcoming autumn air. He looked at me, giving me a small wave before returning to his instrument.

Near the exit sat the last passenger, he intrigued me. Hair of gray lightly laid around his face, camera slung around his neck. Silent and to himself he was. There was something deep about him. A mystery but I wasn’t sure I wanted to solve the mystery. He held a gaze, focused on the passing water outside. Like he longed for something. No. He didn’t long, he was at peace. He was the ocean.

Leo soon made his way to the man with a guitar. He peered over the seat as he stared back with an amused smile. “What’s your name?”

He smiled, “Leo, you?”

The man checked the time and started to put away his instrument, “Ren. You have nice eyes, like smoke.”

Leo seemed to beam, he was truly in his element, interacting with seemingly diverse individuals. He was slowly deconstructing the walls he built up. In the end, I hope it does benefit him. I hope I can soon interact with the world as he does. He was having fun and I let him. “You have a nice guitar.”

Ren laughed and thanked him, “Her name is Roxy.” Leo observed the guitar as Ren showed it to me before putting it away completely.

Leo thanked him and moved on to the man in deep silence. He sat in the empty seat next to him, not disturbing him. After a few minutes, he noticed Leo, raising an eyebrow in intrigue.

“I like your hair.”

The man simply hummed in response, typing on his phone before the electronic voice was heard. “Thank you. I like your name.”

Leo smiled, “Were you listening when I introduced myself?”

The man nodded, typing again. “I always listen.”

He tapped his phone case, fiddling with his notebook.

The man smiled, phone providing his voice once again, “I am mute by choice. I use text-to-speech to help me communicate.” He tapped Leo’s notebook. “I tried writing but sometimes that was tiring. So, I do that when I don’t have access to my phone.”

Leo nodded in admiration, intrigued, “What’s your name?”

“Gale. Nice to meet you, Leo.”

Leo walked to me, sitting down as he smiled. He scribbled something quick in his notebook, glancing at the three passengers before drawing in his notebook once again.

I glanced out the window, time seemed to pass swiftly as the island was soon in view, though faint. Leo exhaled in awe as he saw were it sat.

There in approaching view, it sat. Yet, I didn’t feel at ease and that feeling grew as we got closer.

Georgie’s voice rang over the small speakers, “Arriving in 15 minutes, Salem Island. Destination, Seven Seas Hotel.”

#SSH #long post #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers and poets #writerscommunity #writers community #creative writing #👍

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schraubd · 1 year

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Lift Every Jewish Voice and Sing

Apropos my earlier post about the prospect of a Jewish florist asked to make an Easter flower arrangement, I found this article about Jewish singers who regularly sing in churches during the Christmas season to be quite interesting.

It seems quite clear that religious majorities and religious minorities have very different understandings about the degree to which they can be expected to encounter and interact with other faith traditions, including messages that contradict their own beliefs. Church singing was, above all, a good job in a profession where regular paydays aren't always easy to come by. The singers accordingly generally viewed church singing as just a job -- even though the hymns they sung would have (understandably) expressly Christian messages, even though they sometimes encountered direct antisemitism there. They draw a clear distinction between singing a rehearsed song versus praying in their own voice.

For what it's worth, I tend to view singers as towards the far end of spectrum ranging from "jobs expected to serve anyone who comes in the door" to "jobs where the professional has absolute discretion to pick and choose clients." The further you proceed down that spectrum, the more justifiable it is for a professional to refuse to take a job for whatever reason they want -- so I don't feel it would be unreasonable for a Jewish tenor to turn down a church job, even as in practice they typically seem able to maintain the conceptual separation I argue the florist should have. But the nebulousness of the spectrum (where do florists fall? I think somewhere in the middle, but reasonable minds can disagree on that) is part of why the anti-discrimination/free speech issues here are so difficult.

In any event, though, I wanted to flag the piece less because it illustrates any major theoretical point, and more for it says about how many Jews think about these issues in practice. Simply put, we can't afford to be hypersensitive in the way that many Christians -- perhaps for the first time experiencing the barest hints of conflict between their religious precepts and the public arena -- demand the law provide protection for. To borrow from Kimmy Schmidt: "It's so funny what people who aren't minorities think is oppressive!"

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/QarwVAX

#Christianity #Christians #Jews #religious liberty

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br1ghtestlight · 11 months

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rewriting western spaghetti and meatballs?? if i ever turn this into an actual script or fanfic it will be more out together these are just ideas

okay first i will say that this episode suffers from two big problems being that it takes place too early into the show's run for it to have the emotional impact it otherwise would've (because we aren't yet invested in louise's relationship with gene or bob) and that it was so early into the writing process that the writers didn't have a full understanding of the characters or their personalities yet. i dont think this episode is bad (its a product of the time it was written in the show's history) but i do believe i could fix it and it could have been a really interesting episode focusing on the relationship between gene and louise

bob and louise watching their tv together and gene walks in and joins them. bob and gene get really into watching westerns together just like in the episode and they bond over it but louise gets jealous and bob is talking to gene abt the movie and explaining stuff bcuz he figures louise already knows what's going on and she doesn't really need him but louise feels like bob is favoring gene and that he'd rather be spending time with him so she gets upset, says she's going to bed and leaves

i don't know what linda and tina's subplot would be but i probably wouldn't make it be an assembly about conflict resolution?? maybe linda just isn't a big part of this episode or she's helping tina with something and they're bonding so that adds to louise feeling left out and neglected. maybe they're putting on a cowboy play at school and tina is rehearsing her lines and it brings the cowboy theme back around

gene is excited about being a cowboy and spending time with his dad BUT HE ISNT TRYING TO START A FIGHT OR STAND UP TO SOME RANDOM KID AT SCHOOL that feels slightly out of character for gene (who is importantly portrayed as a pacifist in the show and almost never gets into conflict or fights with anybody, he typically avoids confrontation and thats why him standing up to some random classmate for?? stealing his jokes??? feels slightly ooc even if he WOULD get annoyed) and i think he works better in this episode if he is genuinely completely oblivious to the fact that louise is upset or jealous. he doesn't get into a fight with louise but he's busy doing something related to the play maybe he's playing a character or doing the music (and so is tina) so louise has to eat lunch alone and she's sad and feels like she's being left behind and that her family isn't including her. she's losing her siblings and her best friends

later that day louise asks gene to hang out with her and play a game together in her bedroom but he's too busy rewatching old western movies with their dad bcuz he wants to be prepared for his role in the upcoming play. bob invites her to join them but louise gets pissy and leaves to ask tina and her mom to hang out but they're ALSO busy rehearsing for the play and even tho they invite louise to help out she gets bored and she misses spending time with her brother so she gets the idea to sabotage the play somehow so that he'll HAVE TO hang out with her again

louise convinces some friends (maybe rudy and millie) to help her sabotage the play tomorrow night and they're like hesitant (aka rudy is hesitant and millie is totally on board) but eventually agree to helping her and she basically just fucks with every aspect of production like the actors and props and costumes. she feels guilty but convinces herself this is for the greater good bcuz otherwise she'll lose her brother forever and he's her best friend

gene's big role in the play comes up and she sabotaged it so that the actor he was performing alongside got sick or locked in a closet or something and she actually feels really bad so she throws on their costume and joins the play. she doesnt know any of the lines so she just improvises (kinda like how bob did in hawk and chick) and gene realizes she fucked everything up and gets kinda upset but she tells him that he's her best friend and they do everything together. they've always had each others backs and she's scared of losing him or that he'll be too busy to hang out with her anymore she doesn't know what she'll do without him

maybe there would be like a clipshow of them growing up together but ALSO bobs burgers doesn't typically do moments like that so it might feel slightly off or won't work thematically?? idk

gene tells louise that he loves spending time with her and they do everything together and just bcuz he does things without her sometimes that doesn't mean he doesn't want to spend time with her etc and he ALWAYS wanted to watch the western movies with her but she seemed kinda pissy about it so he left her alone but they'll always be siblings and hang out together and maybe next time gene is in a school performance louise can act alongside him :)

linda and tina have a b-plot thats related to the play and maybe linda is either living out her own failed middle school performance through tina or otherwise being slightly overbearing and annoying but its not the main focus

if this were an actual piece of writing it would be MUCH MORE focused on the relationship between louise and gene and how they communicate/feel about each other bcuz usually their relationship is just "they hang out together and cause problems and gene goes along with whatever louise does" but there's a lot more stuff going on between them clearly as we see in the large brother where fart thou episode AND in spaghetti western and meatballs

#I JUST DONT KNOW HOW TO INCLUDE THE SPGAHETTI THEME SORRY #it would be more focused on how louise doesnt actually communicate her feelings #txt #bob's burgers

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mysteriesofmilo · 1 year

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#1: Battle of the Bands

It was a close call between this and The Race, but I ultimately went with Just Getting Started's amazing debut over Milo's shark mantras and the Time Traveler Bermuda Triangle.

And that's the biggest reason why I love this episode: everything about the performance was A++ material. I love Milo managing to play his accordion (which, as I learned from this show, is Weird Al's instrument of choice) while also saving the speaker and the stage itself from Murphy's Law. I love Mort noticing that the band name was about to fall on him and scooting forward, playing his drums the whole time. In fact, Murphy's Law actually made this a BETTER performance by making it MORE memorable. And the song itself, even without any of that, was an absolute banger -- easily one of the best songs in a universe chock full of amazing music.

Then there was Zack and part 2/2 of his journey from being embarrassed about being the lead singer in one band to being proud of being the lead singer in two bands. While not my favorite part of the episode, it was still great, and it still gave a necessary reason to drive the plot and created some internal and external conflict for Just Getting Started.

The rehearsal was the funny part of the episode. Everything from Zack accidentally giving the band a name, to Mort's hiccups, to Milo and the shopping carts, to Zack's Backstory (and Milo putting up the reverb all the way), everything in that scene was comedy gold.

But the best part was Milo using the Lumbermaxes' singing saw, to cut actual wood, right before the commercial that specifically says "the singing saw is for entertainment purposes only and should not be used for cutting actual wood", without the slightest idea that Zack would be embarrassed by it because it was made by his old band who changed their name to the Lumbermaxes. And then Melissa just responding to Zack's "You're never gonna believe this" with a very matter-of-fact "There's a saw that sings?"

The one thing I didn't really like about this episode was Max. (And I mean the original Max, since the others seemed to be almost a hivemind controlled by the lead Max.) But that's just a minor nitpick in what was otherwise an amazing episode.

And my other minor nitpick is just the broadcast order. Specifically, it's made clear in this episode that this is Just Getting Started's first gig, but School Dance, in which they played a different song, premiered before this one for some reason. But that's a knock on Disney.

Overall, I LOVE this episode. It's one of the funniest episodes of the series, it's got not one but three great songs, Zack begins to realize just how cool it was that he was in a band, and I'm always a fan of times when Murphy's Law actually helps Milo instead of hurting him.

#milo murphy's law #mml #battle of the bands #top ten tuesday

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dfroza · 7 days

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A string of “hellos”

and a warning to stay on guard:

“I am pleading with all of you, brothers and sisters, to keep up your guard against anyone who is causing conflicts and enticing others with teachings contrary to what you have already learned.”

And then a secret being revealed (unveiled):

“… with the revelation of the ancient mystery that has been kept secret since the earliest days, this mystery is revealed through the prophetic voices passed down in the Scriptures, as they have been commanded by the Eternal God. In this time, this mystery is being made known to the nations so that all may be led to faith-filled obedience.”

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 16th and closing chapter of the letter of Romans:

I commend to you our beloved sister Phoebe; she serves the church in Cenchrea as a faithful deacon. It is important that you welcome her in the Lord in a manner befitting your saintly status. Join in her work, and assist her in any way she needs you. She has spent her energy and resources helping others, and I am blessed to have her as my benefactor as well.

Give my best to Prisca and Aquila; they are not only my colleagues in my profession of tent making, but more importantly they are my fellow servants of Jesus the Anointed. They put their lives on the line to keep me safe. Not only do I owe them my thanks, so do all the churches of the non-Jews. Send my regards to the church that meets in their house.

Send greetings to Epaenetus. I love him dearly and celebrate his journey to faith because he was the first to believe in the Anointed One in all of Asia.

Salute Mary for me; she has worked hard for all of you.

Give my regards to Andronicus and Junias, who are part of my own family and served time in prison with me. They are well known among the emissaries and have been in the Anointed longer than I.

Give my best to Ampliatus whom I love in the Lord, and greet Urbanus (our fellow worker in service to the Anointed One) and my beloved Stachys.

Send greetings to Apelles, a tried and true believer in the Anointed, and to the entire family of Aristobulus.

Do not forget to greet Herodion, another of my relatives, and everyone in the family of Narcissus who belong to the Lord.

Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, faithful laborers in the Lord, and our beloved Persis, who also has accomplished a great deal in the Lord.

Give my best to Rufus, clearly one of the Lord’s chosen, and also his mother. She’s like a mother to me.

My regards also go to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and all the brothers and sisters who are along with them.

Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and let me not forget Olympas and all the saints who journey with them.

Greet each other with a holy kiss. All of the churches of the Anointed under my care send their greetings to all of you.

I am pleading with all of you, brothers and sisters, to keep up your guard against anyone who is causing conflicts and enticing others with teachings contrary to what you have already learned. If there are people like that in your churches, stay away from them. These kinds of people are not truly serving our Lord Jesus the Anointed; they have devoted their lives to satisfying their own appetites. With smooth talking and a well-rehearsed blessing, they lead a lot of unsuspecting people down the wrong path. The stories about the way you are living in obedience to God have traveled to all the churches. So celebrate your faithfulness to God that is being displayed in your lives—seek wisdom about the good life, and remain innocent when it comes to evil. If you do this, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet soon. May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, be ever present with you.

Timothy, my coworker in the spreading of the gospel, also sends his greeting to all of you, as do my kinsmen, Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater.

I, Tertius, the one who wrote this letter for Paul, greet you in the name of the Lord. Gaius, my host here as well as patron for the whole church, sends his best to all of you. Erastus, the city administrator, sends his greetings along with brother Quartus. [May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, touch you all. Amen.]

So to the One who is able to strengthen you to live consistently with my good news and the preaching of Jesus, the Anointed, with the revelation of the ancient mystery that has been kept secret since the earliest days, this mystery is revealed through the prophetic voices passed down in the Scriptures, as they have been commanded by the Eternal God. In this time, this mystery is being made known to the nations so that all may be led to faith-filled obedience.

To the one true and wise God, we offer glory for all times through Jesus, the Anointed One. Amen.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 16 (The Voice)

Today’s paired reading from the First Testament is the 27th chapter of the book of Exodus:

Eternal One: Make the altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It should be square and measure seven and a half feet by seven and a half feet. Make it four and a half feet high. Construct it with horns on each of the four corners so that the top forms one whole piece, and overlay it with bronze. Fashion buckets and shovels for the ashes, basins, forks, and fire pans out of bronze. Make a grate out of bronze, and attach four bronze rings at each of its four corners. Place the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, halfway up from the base. Make poles out of acacia wood for the altar, and overlay them with bronze. Slide the poles through the rings on both sides of the altar so that it can be moved. Make the altar out of wooden planks, and make it hollow—exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain.

Then enclose the courtyard in front of the congregation tent with large fabric panels made of finely woven linen on the south side that run 150 feet on silver hooks and rings supported by 20 bronze posts set securely into 20 bronze bases. The north side is to be made the same way: hang a series of panels for 150 feet on silver hooks and rings supported by 20 bronze posts set securely into 20 bronze bases. The fabric panels on the west end of the court are to run 75 feet (10 posts set into 10 bases). The east end of the court facing the sunrise is to be 75 feet wide. Fabric panels, measuring 22½ feet wide, are to be hung on each end of the east entrance, held up by three posts set into three bases. The entrance to the court is to be a 30-foot fabric screen, made out of finely woven linen richly embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet thread. It is to be held up by four posts set into four bases.

All the posts that define the courtyard are to have silver bands and silver hooks, and be set into bronze bases. The courtyard itself is to be 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. The finely woven linen panels should be seven and a half feet high including the height of the bronze bases. As for the items used in the ceremonies held in the congregation tent and the tent pegs used both inside and outside the tent, they are to be made of bronze.

Direct the Israelites to bring you oil from olives whipped until it is clear in order to keep the lamps burning continually and producing the best light possible. From dusk till dawn—inside the tent but outside the veil shrouding the most holy place—Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning in My presence. This directive stands forever and must be carried out by the priests and people of Israel throughout all generations.

The Book of Exodus, Chapter 27 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Saturday, may 18 of 2024 with a paired chapter from each Testament (the First & the New) of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about honoring God’s Name:

From our Torah this week (Emor) we read: "You shall not profane my holy Name, that I may be made sacred among the people of Israel" (Lev. 22:32), which the early sages said provides the basis for "kiddush HaShem" (קידוש השם), or the duty to always honor God, even if that might mean enduring martyrdom for your faith.

Jewish halakhah (law) furthermore says we are to think of kiddush hashem whenever we recite the Shema, that our inmost intent should be self-sacrifice (mesirat nefesh), or the willingness to give up our lives to God in complete surrender. After all, if we are not willing to give up our lives for God, how can we be willing to genuinely live for him? The purpose or goal of our very existence is to know and love God, to be sanctified in truth, but if we value our carnal lives on earth as more important, we exist in a state of contradiction. Therefore people obsessed with their own physical safety, health, pleasure, happiness, well-being, etc., do not know the true meaning of life...

Our lives on this earth were not meant to be an end in themselves, but rather a means to the greater end of knowing and loving the Eternal God. Indeed, God's love is better than any sort of life this present world can afford. As Jim Elliot once said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Sanctifying God's Name means that we regard our relationship to God to be an end in itself - our ultimate concern - and there is nothing higher that may challenge our duty before heaven. "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:33). Our mortal life in this fleeting world is a means to the end of reaching our eternal destiny (Psalm 16:11), and esteeming the means above the end is therefore idolatry (Rom. 1:25). This is called chillul HaShem (חילול השם), or profaning the Name of God...

Our faith in the LORD may lead us into collision with the world and its spurious power structures, however "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). Taking a stand for Torah truth will make you an outsider to the "crowd" and its endless idols and vanities. Indeed a person of genuine moral conviction may be labeled an “enemy of the state,” may be persecuted as a “terrorist,” and may even suffer martyrdom.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rightfully defied the king's decree to bow down before the "golden image," and they confessed that they were willing to die rather than betray the truth of the LORD of Israel (see Dan 3). This is a prime example of kiddush HaShem, honoring the truth of God even at the risk of losing our lives. For many Jews, reciting the Shema is a solemn declaration that we esteem the truth of God above all things, that God alone is our ultimate good, and that we must be willing to surrender our lives rather than to deny the greatness and glory of His Name. Many tzaddikim have died with the Shema on their lips...

Kiddush HaShem may be understand both literally and metaphorically. Literally understood, kiddush HaShem (i.e., martyrdom) is a possibility, one of the severest tests that may be given to the soul, and the temptation is to shrink back from the threat of death by denying the faith... Metaphorically understood, kiddush HaShem is a necessity, an essential act of the will that decides to “take up the cross” and follow Yeshua, and the temptation is to minimize the truth, to compromise the faith, and thereby to slowly fade away...

In this connection Yeshua asks, "What will it profit a person if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Mark 8:36). Indeed, finding your life, value, and "place" here is to exile yourself from the promise of heaven. As Yeshua said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 10:39). What is required, in other words, is categorically everything, with nothing left over. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us: "Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life."

We see an example of both chillul HaShem and kiddush HaShem in the life of the Apostle Peter. On the one hand, though he had boldly professed that he would be willing to die for Yeshua, he later denied that he even knew his Savior and friend (Luke 22:33-34). After doing teshuvah (i.e., repentance) however, Peter became wholehearted and fearless, and Christian tradition says he eventually died as a martyr under the tyranny of wicked Emperor Nero...

Likewise, in our effort to relate to people of different faith, we may be tempted to soften the demands of the gospel or to minimize the deity of Messiah. Sadly I've seen this happen a lot among Gentiles who get so enamored with the Jewish roots of the Christian faith that they begin to question, then outright deny the central Torah of our Messiah (the deeper law of mercy). Indeed we must not confuse the covenants of God, for this leads to double-mindedness and is regarded as “spiritual adultery” (see Rom. 7:1-4). It is chillul HaShem - the desecration of the Name of God - to turn away from the meaning and message of the cross of Messiah (Gal. 6:14; 1 Cor. 2:2). The price of being loyal to Messiah is "mesirut nefesh" (מְסִירוּת נֶפֶשׁ) -- surrendering your life by “taking up the cross.” The cross is a scandal to religion and all other attempts to whitewash the truth about the human condition (Gal. 5:11).

In the Kaddish we read: “yitgadal ve’yitkadash shemei rabba,” meaning “may God’s great Name be magnified and sanctified.” Amen, and may we honor and sanctify the presence of the LORD by turning to Him with all our heart, soul, and strength, knowing Him in all our ways. He is faithful and will help us sanctify His Name...

[ Hebrew for Christians ]

========

Deut. 6:4 (Shema) reading (with vital comments):

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/deut6-4-shema1.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/deut6-4-lesson.pdf

5.15.24 • Facebook

from yesterday’s email by Israel365

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

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cyarskaren52 · 2 months

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these are the ten best tv shows of this year (and three of the worst)

The 10 best TV shows of 2023 (and 3 worst)

The year's best TV featured dazzling debuts, first-rate farewell seasons, and the funniest show about an organ-harvesting ring you'll see all year.

Updated on December 8, 2023

Even though the TV industry was shut down for 192 days this year due to a pair of strikes, it was still remarkably hard to narrow this best-of-2023 list down to 10. Shout-out to a few runners-up, which would also be worthy additions to your watch list: Mrs. Davis (Peacock) is a religious experience for fans of Betty Gilpin (a.k.a. everyone); Queen Charlotte (Netflix) will have your Bridgerton-loving bosom heaving with bittersweet sobs; and Yellowjackets (Showtime) delivered a killer ending after an occasionally wobbly second season. With that bit of housekeeping over, let's get on with the show(s).

The 10 Best Shows of 2023

10. 'Judge Steve Harvey' (ABC/Hulu)

ABC/Erika Doss

Steve Harvey is not a real judge, but he plays one in this reliably funny and life-affirming (yes!) quasi-court show featuring everyday folks facing off over small-claims complaints. Judge Steve Harvey highlights interesting but low-stakes cases that hinge more on interpersonal relationships than money. Think a husband suing his wife over her obsession with pickleball (including $500 for pain and suffering due to his loneliness); a mom suing her son because he broke his promise to cut his hair; or two factions of an a capella group suing each other over costly (and sequin-covered) costumes. Harvey — a comedian, veteran TV host, relationship advice author, and self-described “full-blown Christian” — nimbly draws out the issues at the root of these conflicts in a way that emphasizes how the people we love are far more important than material things. The host ensures there are plenty of feel-good moments on the docket by frequently surprising the litigants, like a hard-working stay-at-home mom or a couple whose wedding was ruined by COVID, with lavish gifts and much-needed cash. And everyone leaves the courtroom with a valuable dose of tough love. “I think you all need to find your way back to each other,” Harvey tells a pair of siblings squabbling over a dating app profile. “Because when all these men come and go, y’all still gonna be sisters.” The verdict is in: Judge Steve Harvey is comfort TV at its finest.

9. 'The Curse' (Paramount+ with Showtime)

Richard Foreman Jr./A24/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

Spoiler sensitivity precludes me from saying too much about this tenaciously peculiar kinda-comedy from Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems); only four of 10 episodes have aired so far. But taken as a whole, The Curse — starring Fielder and Emma Stoneas married TV hosts — leaves an indelible and thoroughly disquieting impression. As hosts of HGTV’s Flipanthropy, Asher and Whitney Siegel’s stated goal is to bring upscale, eco-friendly homes to the working-class city of Española, New Mexico. The locals aren’t enthusiastic, including Nala (Hikmah Warsame, a little star in the making), who puts a curse on Asher after he renegs on his promise to give her 100 dollars. But The Curse’s real curse isn’t some childish hex; it’s Asher and Whitney and Dougie (Safdie), their wretched producer, all of whom refuse to be honest with themselves or one another about what they really want. Come for Nathan Fielder’s (prosthetic) micropenis; stay for the merciless satire of colonialist greed masquerading as modern allyship.

8. 'Harlem' (Amazon Prime Video)

Amazon

One scene in Harlem’s second seasonencapsulates everything there is to love about Tracy Oliver’s snappy, savvy comedy about friendship, femininity, and finding yourself. Having just landed a small part in a Hallmark Christmas movie, Angie (Shoniqua Shandai) arrives in hair and makeup to prep for an upcoming party scene. The white stylist (Ursula Abbott) tentatively pats Angie’s natural curls. “I’m thinking it’s perfect!” she chirps, before breezing her way out the door. A stunned Angie sits in silence, flanked by posters featuring the white casts of (fictional) Hallmark films, including Christmas Sail and You’ll Tide Me Over.

SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT

(Tagline: “Sometimes, you have to settle.”) She’s on the brink of walking out when beloved sitcom diva Countess Vaughn appears to her as a vision. “What about that brown girl that is hooked on the Hallmark Channel?” she asks Angie. “You want her to see you, right?” A buoyant tale of four BFFs — anthropology professor Camille (Meagan Good), fashion designer Quinn (Grace Byers), queer tech exec Tye (Jerrie Johnson), and aspiring actress Angie — Harlem examines the realities and nuances of life as a Black woman with frank insights and savage pop culture parody. Don’t call it the new Sex and the City — seriously, don’t. (The characters literally roll their eyes when someone mentions SATC in the finale.) Just know this: If you’re looking for a delightfully smart, funny series with an authentic point of view, you don’t have to settle.

7. 'Bargain' (Paramount+)

TVING Co/Paramount+

A fast-paced fusion of body horror, disaster drama, black comedy, and psychological character study, Bargain packs a lot of payoff into its six sleek episodes. The Korean survival thriller opens with an unsettling vignette: Park Joo Young (Jeon Jong-Seo), a teen girl wearing a short black skirt and a private school blazer, meets an older man named Noh Hyung-soo (Jin Sun-kyu) in a remote hotel room. They proceed to have a detailed discussion about the technical status of her virginity. It’s excruciating, which makes the pandemonium that follows — a black-market organ-harvesting ring! a catastrophic earthquake! murderous gangsters on the hunt for any surviving witnesses! — all the more exhilarating. Writers Jeon Woo-sung, Choi Byeong Yun, and Kwak Jae Min don’t use the natural disaster to vault Joo Young and Hyung-soo into something as predictable as a redemption arc. Instead, they send Bargain’s assortment of venal and untrustworthy characters on a survival scramble that’s so deranged and giddily suspenseful, watching it play out is priceless.

6. 'American Born Chinese' (Disney+)

Disney+

On the night before his big soccer game, stressed-out tenth grader Jin Wang (Ben Wang) has a dream. He’s on the apartment set of Beyond Repair, a corny ‘90s sitcom whose wacky neighbor character, Freddy Wong (Key Huy Quan), is as problematic as it gets. Just as Jin confesses that he was too scared to help his friend Wei-Chen (Jimmy Liu) find the mythical Fourth Scroll, Jin’s immigrant parents, Simon (Chin Han) and Christine (Yeo Yann Yann), appear and beckon him to the dinner table. “You have to be brave, Jin,” Christine tells her son.

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“You are all the pieces merging into one.” Based on Gene Luen Yang’s acclaimed graphic novel, American Born Chinese itself merges a variety of fascinating pieces — ancient folk tales, wuxia-inspired martial arts action, pervasive racist stereotypes, and a portrait of one Asian-American family’s experience — into an electrifying, heartfelt saga about high school, friendship, and saving the world. Sandwiched as it was between a raft of Marvel spinoffs and Star Wars brand extensions, American Born Chinese broke through with its stellar cast (including Michelle Yeoh as Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy), endearingly relatable characters, and a beautifully simple message. As Freddy explains to Jin in his dream, “A hero doesn’t always have to have superpowers. A hero is someone who goes on a journey, shows courage, helps others.” Fingers crossed that the execs at Disney+, which has yet to renew ABCfor season 2, are listening.

5. 'The Bear' (FX/Hulu)

Chuck Hodes/FX

“Yo, you ever think about purpose?” Standing in the basement of The Original Beef sandwich shop, 45-year-old Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) admits to Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) that he can’t see a path forward. “What’s my purpose?” That question — both existential and maddeningly practical — is the emotional catalyst pushing Richie and his restaurant family forward in The Bear’s propulsive and poignant sophomore season. Creator Christopher Storer and his writers balance the ticking-clock narrative of an impending restaurant opening with remarkable stand-alone episodes: Marcus (Lionel Boyce) finds inspiration and his confidence in the meditative “Honeydew”; Carmy, Natalie (Abby Elliott), and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) navigate a tumultuous family Christmas in the claustrophobic “Fishes”; Richie realizes that hospitality is his raison d’être in the sublime “Forks.” Serving up powerful moments of hypnotic quiet (Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney lovingly crafting the platonic ideal of an omelet for Natalie) and turbocharged chaos (Carmy, a victim of his own procrastination, gets trapped in the walk-in freezer on friends-and-family night), The Bearfound meaning in the madness of family.

4. 'Reservation Dogs' (FX/Hulu)

Shane Brown/FX

When we first met Bear (D'Pharoah Woon-a-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor), all they wanted was an escape — from life in their sleepy reservation town of Okern, Okla.; from the constant (and often cryptic) advice of their elders; from the pain of losing their best friend Daniel (Dalton Cramer) to suicide. Two years and 28 magical episodes later, the glorious coming-of-age comedy from Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi ended with the rez dogs understanding and embracing the gift of community. The past was a constant presence in the dreamy, penetrating final season: The Deer Lady (Kaniehtiio Horn), a spirit who enacts vengeance on amoral men, returned for a chilling episode focused on the U.S. government's abduction and abuse of Indigenous children through federal "boarding schools." The trippy “House Full of Bongs” gave us a glimpse of Okern’s winningly eccentric elders — Big (Zahn McClarnon), Brownie (Gary Farmer), Irene (Casey Camp-Horinek), Bucky (Wes Studi), Fixico (Richard Ray Whitman), and Maximus (Graham Greene) — as indolent teenage shitasses. And in “Elora’s Dad,” Ethan Hawke dropped by and absolutely nailed the fidgety, earnest energy of an estranged parent trying to make up for a decades-long absence over a cup of diner coffee. It's painful to say goodbye to this little marvel of a show, so I’ll just echo the words of Willie Jack in the finale’s funeral: “I know I didn’t get to spend enough time with you. But mvto for everything that you taught me.”

3. 'Barry' (HBO/Max)

Merrick Morton/HBO

Staring with pleading eyes through a wall of prison plexiglass, Barry Berkman begs Sally (Sarah Goldberg), the love of his life, to forgive him. “I didn’t lie to you,” he rasps. “I just, I didn’t tell you the part I didn’t want to be true.” In the grisly final season of Barry, Bill Hader’s titular hitman sought redemption through revisionism, rewriting his homicidal personal history in real time rather than suffering the pain of true repentance. Though accountability hangs like an albatross on Barry and everyone else in his corrosive circle, they transform their regret into outward-facing rage, seeking vengeance on a world that allowed them to make such life-destroying choices. Season 4 of Barry was TV’s funniest tragedy, one that gave the exceptional cast the chance to plumb the true depths of their characters’ misery. Anthony Carrigan’s NoHo Hank, his polished façade stretched thin over a heart demolished by guilt over his soulmate’s death; Henry Winkler’s Gene Cousineau, a Hollywood wannabe done in by hubris; Stephen Root’s merciless Fuches, who emerges from his torturous prison stay with a violent distaste for dishonesty. A few additional accolades are required for Goldberg, whose Sally descends into an emotional hell of her own making, only to claw herself back to the precipice of peace.

2. 'I'm A Virgo' (Amazon Prime Video)

Amazon Prime

“I’m either a villain or a clown,” laments Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), the 13-foot Black teenager at the center of I’m A Virgo. “I want to inspire people.” In his brilliantly offbeat debut TV series, Sorry to Bother You auteur Boots Riley sends his singular protagonist on a hero’s journey that’s equal parts provocative, uproarious, and inspirational. Emerging from a 19-year seclusion imposed by his overprotective aunt and uncle (Carmen Ejogo and Mike Epps), Cootie balances coming-of-age milestones — like falling in love with Flora (Olivia Washington), a comely fast-food cashier — with the ugly reality of the socioeconomic oppression his Oakland community endures. He’s immediately marked as a threat by a billionaire comic-book publisher (Walton Goggins, wondrously weird) who channels his intense despair into cosplaying as a vigilante crime fighter called The Hero. I’m A Virgo’s fearlessly outrageous narrative offers a dark (and darkly funny) critique of the over-policing of poor communities, the fetishization of law enforcement by pop culture, and the grim connection between crime and capitalism. There’s a lot wrong with the world today, but this year, Boots Riley delivered a dazzlingly original anti-capitalist fable on a platform owned by one of the most powerful corporate behemoths in the world. There’s no other word for it but inspired.

1. 'Succession' (HBO/Max)

Warner Bros.

Five years after Logan Roy (Brian Cox) suffered a stroke and catapulted his children into a cutthroat, internecine battle for control of the family business, his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) was struck with a profound and crushing moment of clarity: “He made me hate him, then he died.” In its miraculous final season, Succession laid bare the calamitous effects of Logan’s parenting style on Kendall, Shiv (Sarah Snook), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Connor (Alan Ruck) by giving the siblings the one thing they thought they wanted: Freedom. Prior to Logan’s astonishingly abrupt death in episode 3, creator Jesse Armstrong brought the Roy family together for fleeting moments of connection. “Holy s--t, did dad just say a feeling?” scoffed Kendall, after a somber Logan bemoaned his children’s absence at his birthday party. Was that “I love you” Logan offered his children in the purple glow of the karaoke bar real, or was the Roy family patriarch just feeding their starved hearts a few crumbs of affection to keep them from tanking the GoJo deal? Probably. Even once their formidable father was gone for good, the Roy children clung stubbornly to his toxic playbook, turning every interaction with one another into a negotiation — for power, for loyalty, for validation that they were, in fact, serious people, no matter what daddy said. Offering sufficient praise for Succession’s unparalleled ensemble is an impossible feat, but I’ll treasure Ruck’s wistful performance as Connor, an insider perpetually on the outside — and the only Roy child who almost understood that vying for Logan’s love was a zero-sum game.

The Worst Shows of 2023

3. 'Citadel' (Amazon Prime Video)

Amazon

Want to read a really depressing sentence? Here’s Jen Salke, head of Amazon and MGM Studios, lauding the first season of Citadel in May: “Our goal was always to create a new franchise rooted in original IP that would grow Prime Video’s international audience.” Corpo-to-English translation: We want flashy, conventional, easily duplicated content that we can own. Amazon’s plan worked: The overpriced, paint-by-numbers spy thriller starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden as sexy agents fighting a global crime syndicate was popular overseas, and the streamer is already replicating that formula with two international spinoffs. Television is a business, and I’m not naive enough to expect execs to value creativity and originality over profits. But man, at least they used to pretend to care about quality. As the industry melds into one giant conglomerate, expect more like Citadel — less a TV show than a mass-produced unit of “entertainment.”

2. Rehashed IP

Netflix;Paramount+;CBS

Another year, another glut of unnecessary and uninspired reboots, revivals, and (a pox on this word!) “reimaginings.” Showtime’s Fatal Attraction and the Frasier revival on Paramount+trapped likable actors in flimsy creative constructs, while Netflix’s That ‘90s Show thrust once-likable characters into a purgatory of artless, laugh-track powered nostalgia. Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies on Paramount+ all but sabotaged its intriguing, feminist-origin-story premise with a desperate excess of Easter eggs, but at least it tried harder than CBS’ True Lies, which played like a 44-minute network note. A few IP re-dos rose above mediocrity: Night Courtearned big ratings for NBC, and Netflix’s anime Scott Pilgrim sequel became an instant critical darling. You know what that modicum of success means, folks: More rehashed IP! Heading into 2024, my New Year’s resolution is to keep an open mind about the new versions of Fawlty Towers, Matlock, Who’s the Boss?, Baywatch, Ally McBeal… [sobs quietly into hands]

1. 'The Idol' (HBO/Max)

The Idol is a fascinating example of what happens when network execs give a hotshot showrunner carte blanche — or, as Abel Tesfaye’s character pronounces it with such confidence, cart-ay blanch-ay. The drama — which was co-created by Euphoria mastermind Sam Levinson, Tesfaye (formerly known as The Weeknd), and Reza Fahim — centers on Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), a famous but troubled pop star. Just as she’s on the cusp of launching a comeback after the death of her mother, Jocelyn falls under the sway of a charismatic and abusive charlatan named Tedros (Tesfaye). Behind the scenes, The Idol experienced its own power shift with the departure of original director Amy Seimetz, leading to extensive rewrites and reshoots under Levinson’s purview. What was apparently supposed to be a satire of modern fame and the exploitation of female celebrities became a laughable, affected, and morbidly fascinating exercise in soft-core porn. As an actor, Tesfaye is an excellent musician, and The Idol has nothing insightful or interesting to say other than, “Look at how many times we can get Lily-Rose Depp naked!” (It should be noted that Depp is a talented actress and clearly did her best with the schlock she was handed.) HBO wanted the next Euphoria. Instead, they learned a very unsexy lesson: When wunderkinds are left unsupervised, the results can be agony.

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