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#but they also write things that contradict his religion
lord-squiggletits · 7 months
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I need to reread the comics again to have specific arguments/evidence for this, but like
I feel a bit like I could've been sympathetic to the way other Cybertronian colonies view Cybertron, if it weren't for the fact that at least several of them (as in, ones that get notable dialogue/screen time) are so low-key self-righteous?
Like, idk... there's a lot of criticism of Cybertronians because they're so "warlike" and how their obsession with violence and vengeance is just dragging the whole galaxy down with them, but uh. The Autobot-Decepticon war was basically a product of societal ills bubbling over for like 6 million years beforehand and then finally boiling over into a 4 million year war that lasted as long as it did because the people involved had immense social/psychological trauma from being "raised" in an oppressive society.
So when the colonists come in being all 'omg you people are so violent and uncivilized why don't you just like, stop fighting' it kind of pissed me off a little bit as a reader/person like. Idk the colonists really came into this society of people full of massive amounts of trauma where even before the war society was super oppressive and no one has any experience of living "normal" lives unaffected by violence and bigotry. And the colonists were like "ummm wow why don't you guys just??? stop fighting???." Like idk it wasn't EVERY SINGLE MOMENT, in fact I think that when it was played for laughs it's quite a funny "fridge horror" type element. It was just annoying because like.... IDK???? It's just really annoying to watch a bunch of people who lived relatively sheltered lives on their own planets come to a different planet full of traumatized people and be like "omg why are you people so fucked up" IDK BRO MAYBE BECAUSE THEIR SOCIETY WAS OPPRESSIVE AND THEY LIVED THROUGH A LIFELONG WAR???
It also doesn't help that the colonies were literally founded based on imperialism and conquest so like, it's fucking rich to hear colonists scolding Cybertronians for their violence ruining the whole galaxy while literally sitting on planets that their Primes colonized from others. The hypocrisy of this is briefly mentioned in Unicron (literally the FINAL STORY OF THE SERIES) but like, that's basically the only time Cybertronian characters are given a reprieve of sympathy from other characters in universe and it's so tiresome.
I've talked to other people who didn't like the colonists and thought they basically (narratively speaking) existed just to shit on the existing characters, and it's actually really easy for me to sympathize with/outright agree with that assessment of the story considering how much of exRID/OP seems to be preoccupied with "Cybertron/the Primes/Optimus sucks" with very few reprieves for anything positive happening and even fewer chances for characters to get to explain themselves and experience a little bit of justice? Like, as the audience, it's just very frustrating to see the characters you spent hundreds of issues keeping up with get shit on by a bunch of "literally-who"s and then not really get a chance to ever defend themselves, either by literally defending themselves in conversation or having some sort of narrative thing happening that vindicates them at least symbolically
#squiggposting#paused work to muse about this which i prolly shouldn't have lol#oh well i'll still get stuff done#like idk an example of this is how pyra criticized OP for using religion to manipulate people#(lets just ignore how she said she would teach OP but never actually did)#but in the story there's never any sort of confrontation where pyra learns about history or talks with OP#and OP gets to be like. yeah on my planet primes fucking sucked and i'm the only one trying to redeem their image#also ive been fighting an endless war that lasted 4 mil years in which me being a shining figurehead was basically#the sole motivating force keeping my army from just collectively succumbing to endless despair#and i also had to use this shining figurehead image i had to keep the opposing army from genociding a bunch of organics#like not once does OP get to express his side of things he's basically just shit upon endlessly by other characters as he keeps doing plot#i feel like i had another example but i can't recall who/what was involved lmao#like idk it's not just that barber's writing is depressing and dark and edgy. i LIKE stories that do that kind of thing#it's just that it feels a bit as if the story is ENDLESSLY depressing and dark and edgy with almost no reprieve#as if it's mostly presenting the flaws of the characters with no chance for them to justify or redeem themselves#idk i feel like there was another better point/example i was gonna make but i can't remember it#like idk i guess a dark depressing story would've been better if the characters at least got to defend themselves#bc as is it basically feels like they (esp OP) get shit on endlessly and never once get to express anything about it#so like. they get shit on in universe. but also as the reader since there's never a contradicting viewpoint or the character defending them#it's as if you're supposed to take this one-sided criticism of them at face value and it just doesn't seem fair AS THE READER#if i read about OP getting shit on by some people and defended by others and also him expressing his opinion on himself#then that just feels like a normal fair narrative where i get to take sides#but if it's just OP being shit on and he hardly expresses much about it#then it feels like i as the reader am expected to agree with the portrayal being shown?#but in reality the portrayal just feels negative and unfair and one sided to me#and why the fuck do i want to read a story that's just the characters i know and like on an endless shame parade#also shout out to 'literally who' aka slide calling OP 'literally fascist' lmao#one of the most cringe moments of the entire comic. wait no. i can think of a more cringe Slide Moment#when unicron is about to destroy the planet and trypticon is getting shot and dying(?) in the background#and the story decides to pause and focus on Slide so she can monologue about how evil and tyrannical OP is
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enslaughts · 10 months
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thinking about laura lee as lottie's first disciple. laura lee, unable to hear god's voice after her failed attempt to save them, her second plane crash, so she clings to lottie's. unable to hear the wilderness like even the rest of them learn to, but she always listens to lottie, like the little children at jesus' feet.
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gffa · 4 months
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I have noticed that there is a weird contradiction in fandom in which swaths of it do not like the Jedi Order(tm) but like a lot of individual Jedi who have dedicated their lives to it (Obi-Wan being the biggest example for me personally but also Luke, Plo Koon, Ahsoka, whoever) so that means that the genuine love, pride, and importance that the Jedi has for them is completely erased or even devalued in a lot of fanon. No offense to other people's personal head canons but as far as I'm concerned, Obi-Wan would neva denounce or go against the Jedi Order for anyone or anything short of the whole Council falling to the dark side in some monstrous Palpatine scheme, he simply Would Not Do That.
At a certain point, there forms a pretty consistent pattern of how so many of these Jedi that we love individually are pillars of their community, they're often well respected, placed in positions of authority in both the structure of the Jedi Order and in the narrative itself (people going to them for advice and the tone of the scene is that they're giving heartfelt advice) or even that they're on the Council itself. At a certain point, there forms a pretty consistent pattern of how these characters are shown to be upholding Jedi values and living their life dedicated to being a Jedi of the Jedi Order, that they're not dissatisfied with it, but instead are active participants in it and leaders of their people. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Plo Koon and Kit Fisto and Depa Billaba are probably the four biggest examples of Jedi who are beloved--and all four of them are on the High Council and shown to be leaders of their people, who shape Jedi reactions, who are shown to love their people. Each of them has had moments of expressing that mistakes happen, that they're not perfect, they think other things should be done, but that at the end of the day, they're Jedi and they want to be Jedi of the Jedi Order. Even Luke, until he's in his depressive funk (that is said, via word of god, to have been Luke projecting personal failure into religion's failure) has always been shown to want to be a Jedi, to uphold Jedi values and ways. These are characters who genuinely find value in dedicating their lives to the Force and to their path as a Jedi and it's fine to not like the Jedi, I can't and won't stop people who disagree with me about it (I will make my case why I think racism and bias plays into a lot of it, but even then I'm making my case in my own lane, if you block me and never sneak onto my blog to read my posts, you'll never see me), I can't and won't stop other people from writing what they want about fictional characters in fanfic or whatever, but also there does come a point where it's a very consistent pattern that these Jedi we like are ones who just Would Not Say That. Obi-Wan is shown as, in nearly every piece of media he's ever been in, that he loves and supports the Jedi Order. Even when he said he would leave the Jedi Order, it wasn't because he wanted to walk away from them, but because he might personally have another path. You cannot divorce that moment from the massive scope of his larger story where he teaches both Anakin and Luke about Jedi values and tries to guide them on their Jedi path. Characters should have their own personalities, they sometimes say/do things that we disagree with and we can still like them, even if we disagree with what they're saying! Though, I will give fandom this: As a serial "I have read/mentally played out soooooo many scenarios where He Would Not Say That except He Is Going To Say That Because It Makes My Id Happy" enjoyer, I will never judge anyone for playing to their id. That's what one of the major points of fandom is even for--we're here to scratch that itch of "oooh brain go BRRRRRR when I make them say this". We have to let these people (by which I mean, you have to let me 😂) have their space for this, but also these people (by which I again mean me) have to recognize that sometimes we're playing to our ids and that's fine. (But also sometimes maybe be willing to think outside our id to see what biases we're playing into, even while recognizing fiction is not 1:1 to reality, like it's all a balancing game and each person is unique to what they feel they should do.)
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ddarker-dreams · 2 months
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Lock, what DO you love and like so much about Dostoevsky's work? I don't think you've ever talked about that. Please, I want to know !!!
^o^
(christianity mention jump scare below proceed with caution)
i thought this would be an easy to answer but figuring out how to put my feelings into words proved difficult .
the beginning is always a good place to start, so let's go with that. by chance, i happened upon this video on youtube and gave it a watch. about halfway in i decided i had to read notes from underground for myself. i struggled to understand what the narrator was trying to get across. the unique writing style, where the reader is addressed directly, as if in challenge, helped me preserve.
i think part of what makes his work special to me is his depiction of people. and they really do feel like people more than characters, even if some of their characteristics are unique to the era dostoevsky wrote in. everything else about them transcends time. i can see myself in some of them. whether it be the titular idiot, prince myshkin in his naivety; alyosha, who goes from devout to doubting; and ivan, whose bitterness toward religion masks his disappointment at the state of the world. 
that's why the brothers karamazov touched me in particular. for some context, i grew up in a christian household and was heavily involved in the church (american northeast white baptist strand of church). around when i was 11 or so, the introduction of left-wing politics through social media had me undergo a looooong identity crisis. these new ideas felt at odds with what i'd spent my entire life believing. what i grappled with the most relates to ivan's anecdote, the grand inquisitor, where the goodness of god is called into question. the bitterness, the disappointment from crushed expectations, all those sensations resonated strongly with me. reading it as an adult who (supposedly) 'healed' from that time period in my life was like opening pandora's box. i'd never seen my thoughts and struggles so accurately described, or treated with more than a 'his ways are higher than our ways' type platitude. i stuffed these concerns of mine away because they only ever served to make me feel worse.
i won't delve deep into the Depressing Lore. the only reason i mention it is to stress how profound an impact the work had on me. throughout the remainder of TBK (and in most of dostoevsky's discography), the best and worst of humanity is shown. our hypocritical nature, capacity for evil; nothing is shied away from or made more palatable. and yet, throughout it all, our potential for good is shown too. whether it be in the little acts or monumental self-sacrifice. sometimes those acts are honored, or ‘worth it,’ sometimes they aren’t. it’s cheesy but whatever i’ll say it — choosing to love and serve others is my greatest joy. i don’t really need a definitive answer to those problems i struggled with. that’s the takeaway i’ve had from his work. it might not seem like a big deal, but not feeling guilty for having certain doubts or anxious over those doubts never fully being resolved was. very significant for me. and healing (for real this time). 
so that’s the sentimental perspective GJSDLKFJS from my writer’s perspective, i can only describe him as brilliant. his grasp on the human psyche is incredible. he can accurately describe so many emotions, worldviews, and give the context necessary for each one to feel organic and real. it’s vivid, too, in a way i can’t properly get across. everyone’s unfiltered and messy. characters contradict themselves in the same sentence. they’ll murmur, go off on tangents, tell stories, misquote the bible (or many other significant works), and just be overall disasters. aka how people actually are. 
the man’s also funny as hell. the protagonist from crime and punishment has a mental breakdown spanning multiple pages over a sock. yes, there’s context, but that’s still the gist of things. then there’s the issue of the hedgehog in the idiot. hedgehog drama. 
ultimately, his work is so very human. there’s commentary on issues that are prevalent to this day, multiple centuries later. the topics he touches on tend to align with what i care about most. whether i agree or disagree with what i’m reading, there’s always something i glean from it. something meaningful that sits with me long after i close the book. i’ll mull over it and bother people in my vicinity until they mull over it too. no one is safe. whether it be a co-worker or my dad who drives noticeably faster to reach our destination and be free of my many questions.
i could keep going but this ended up being long enough GJSKDF i hope at least something here makes sense?>?? i apologize for the incoherent ramblings. it's what the dude does to me.
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alpaca-clouds · 8 months
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Isaac and Religion
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Please Note: No, I am not a Muslim myself. But I talked quite a bit about this with a friend who is a Muslim scholar.
Something that I have spent maybe too much time thinking about, is Isaac's relation to religion (and in general religion within the castlevania series - though that might be a discussion for another day).
We know that Isaac is Sufi. To those who have never heard about Sufism: It is Islam, but with Mysticism mixed into it. And during the high medieval period it was for a time the most widely spread version of Islam, especially in Northern Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Though at the time the series takes place it was already in decline.
Sufism did originate with Sunni Islam. Though I do have to wonder how much difference it makes to Isaac, as one of the core parts of the entire struggle is about who gets to interpret the Qur'an - and it really does not seem to matter much for Isaac given that he seems to be mostly on his own with his religion, hence having to do the interpreting himself.
But it brings with it quite a few interesting observations about how his relation to his religion is. He is clearly religious, yes. But he does obviously do quite a lot of sinning.
The self-flagellation is something that Islam as a whole frowns upon, because technically self-harm is explicitly forbidden by the Qur'an. But... still there are fractions of Islam that to this day practice self-flagellation, partly as a religious practice, partly as an act of mourning.
Sufism usually does involve meditative practices, which might at times also involve forms of self-flagellation. Which makes me think it is linked to that. Especially based on the dialogue with the captain. Though than again it does contradict his dialogue with Godbrand, where he reasons it has to do with purging his body of sickness (= sin). Ironically this makes me wonder, if he actually has gotten that stuff from the templars/monks, because that reasoning for self-flagellation is a very catholic one. And given he was a kid when he was taken, there is a good chance he might have picked up some catholic dogma as well, maybe even unconsciously. Especially given he uses the same belt for the beating, he had taken from his former owner.
And, of course, there is the practice of sorcery, especially necromacy. Something that again is very much a sin and forbidden in Islam. While Sufi practice some mysticism and maybe even magic, those are usually linked to learning the names of God and are quite different from what Isaac is doing.
Of course, Isaac does have a reasoning behind it and behind his killing of so many. Because Muslim endtime prophecies do in fact involve the souls of the dead being lifted out of hell and reunited with their dead bodies, so that they may be judged by God. (He even quotes from this when talking to the shopkeepere.)
So, in Isaac's mind he is basically just what Christians would call a rider of the apocalypse. He brings upon the endtimes, so that people may be judged again and the wicked might go to hell, while the good people might go to paradise.
As I said, there is obviously the fact that he probably has learned a lot about Islam by himself. He was taken by templars as a child. So while he might have been educated in the faith as a child before that, he was not after it. And given that he was keeping to himself after it, after experiencing a lot of violence, I do not assume he ever went into a mosque to pray or have many talks with scholars. So there is a good chance that a lot of his knowledge on Islam has come from he himself reading the Qur'an and maybe the Hadith and interpreting them himself.
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Something that kinda irks me in some fics, is when I read about him drinking alcohol (something he canonically does not do) or eating pork or other haram foods. It is just one of those things with fanfics, where I do wonder how hard it is to be a bit more thoughtful when writing about characters from other religions.
A thing that I personally have thought about a lot is his relation to sexuality. I read him as gay for so many little reasons in canon (though obviously interpretations might vary). Now, medieval Islam had a different view on the topic of homosexuality than modern Islam. Homoromanticism was usually permitted. Homosexuality at least somewhat accepted. Usually Sufi were a bit more accepting in that regard, because of their unique understanding of gender.
But... The Qur'an and especially the Hadith have a strong and clear opinion on one thing, that the bible does not have any opinion about: Anal sex. While the bible refers to homosexual acts in very vague terms, the Qur'an explicitly talks about anal sex and it says: "No go. Not even with women."
Which actually gives me an interesting hook for conflict when I write his relationship with Hector. And it is something that I find kinda sad for it being barely brought up in fics. Just a thought.
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aleksanderscult · 20 days
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The Grisha always describe the “making at the heart of the world” as this powerful natural order that precedes all things. I’ve always been somewhat curious about how much truth there is to it. Obviously in the Grishaverse, Grisha are very much real. So is there a canonical magical origin story for the world? The Blight in the Zoya Duology is described as being a corruption of the natural order, a reversion to whatever existed before the making at the heart of the world. Grisha powers are inseparable from the person they belong to (ignoring Alina here) so it seems that maybe Grisha are more in tune with the making? But Saint Grigori the bear guy also said in KoS that he taught the first Heartrenders… so I’m confused about how this works. I feel like I’m missing something very important in the worldbuilding.
You feel like you miss something from the worldbuilding because the author hasn't written in detail how exactly the Grisha powers have come to be.
Heartrenders might already had their powers but Grigori taught them how to use them and manipulate them correctly possibly? (So what, does that mean that the first Heartrenders were stupid?)
Ravka seems to worship Saints, not Gods. Okay. But how did the first Grisha got his powers? Where did they come from?
The "making at the heart of the world" is the very root of every Grisha power which fundamentally means that they manipulate the matter around them but they cannot create it. They cannot create life. That's why Alina was shocked when she saw the Darkling creating nichevo'ya. But apart from that, nada.
Leigh has created a religion and a group with powers but has never dived deep to explain to the readers what the hell is going on. She has just thrown around some random words "making at the heart of the world", "merzost", "thisness" and "thatness", explained in a few sentences what each of them are but the readers are still confused because she has created more questions.
Really, even us (the fandom) don't know much and even the explanations we have are too confusing and sometimes contradict each other.
Tolkien had built an entire mythology before he even started writing "The Hobbit" but unlike Leigh he was a genius and had carefully planned his story.
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yaksha-lover · 6 months
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I love how you write Rollo in any of your Aus. He's simultaneously so delusional and crazy yet so bulliable and pathetic. It makes me want to tease the shit out of him like "Oh you just wanna kiss me so damn bad don't you~. You just want a smoochy smooch don't you, you touch starved little man~" even though I know it would probably be a threat to my health and safety, depending on the circumstance.
Haha thank you. I know some people interpret him as relatively normal, but I just can’t. It’s so much more fun if he’s a loser.
I’ll wait till I finish the full masquerade event to make my judgements, but from the spoilers I’ve seen, I actually do feel that Rollo would be quite emotionally repressed. So while he does want some semblance of love or affection, he’s never going to be able to be honest with himself. It’ll always come out oddly, with some strange justification as to why he’s acting in a certain way toward you.
More thoughts with mild spoilers for his backstory under the cut
Also, I have no evidence for this, but I feel that because religion seems to be his coping mechanism for his trauma and he’s an extremist, he’d feel that he couldn’t entertain any kind of romantic inclination, because it comes with thoughts of ‘inappropriate and unholy’ things, so he’d always be unusually weird about it. He can never admit he even wants someone because religious guilt, so he uses denial and projection to cope with these feelings of moral anxiety. E.g. ‘I’m pure, but everyone else is having these disgusting thought,’ (meanwhile, those are his own feelings).
I think this would be pretty unconscious for him, though. So he really believes that he’s the only pious one, and no one can really match his standards.
So yes, he does want the kisses and to have someone to love, but he just can’t admit it to himself because that would mean accepting that he is fallible, that he isn’t as pure and above everyone else as he believes.
The teasing would certainly result in his anger. It’s easier to repress those feelings, to come up with another justification for why he’s feelings these things. Easier to say it’s his duty to save you from sacrilege than to admit he’s attracted to you.
So he’s basically a walking contradiction. He’ll never act affectionate, never tell you he loves you or show it in any way, but deep down he will be literally obsessed with you, overly attached and cling to the point of suffocation, desperate for connection with the person he loves but unwilling to ever admit it. At least that’s my current interpretation of his character, taking some creative liberties lol.
TLDR: Rollo is lowkey a possessive man (he can’t lose you, you’re the only good thing he has left) wearing the skin of a tsundere (he doesn’t need you, you need him).
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kaibasupremacy · 4 months
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1. Canon I outright reject
2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on
For Kaiba obviously~
Jksjsj 🥺🥺 thank you so much for the ask
1. Canon I outright reject
Despite all of the contradictions between the separate canons (anime, manga, sub, dub ect) I find it hard to pick an aspect of it that I refuse to find merit in, even aspects that are painful to me (Seto removing the locket in DSOD T-T)
My personal canon when it comes to Seto tends to be a mixture of anime sub (filler arcs included), and manga canon and DSOD, and I do not consider the Toei anime series to be canon because of the discrepancies with the manga.
I think an aspect of canon I outright reject is the idea that the Mind Crush made him a better person and “purged the evil” in him.
I have a very strong attachment to early manga Seto and I cannot see him as a uniquely evil character. The mind crush itself I find to be a disappointing climax to the Death T arc, but many lovely people in the fandom have made lots of touching art on the subject matter so I wouldn’t say I entirely detest it, but the idea that if he had not received the penalty games he would have been doomed (even if it’s strongly implied by the canon) I just cannot accept (and I think it flattens him). But that’s just a personal thing.
2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on
Ohh I have several so probably I will end up leaving out some T-T I warn you beforehand they’re mostly super sad 😭
Two aspects that are ultimately up to interpretation but that I consider ultimately canon is that 1. Seto suffers from hallucinations and 2. Seto struggles with suicidal ideation. Another hill I will die on is that Seto’s childhood and adolescent experiences *before* and *after* his six years with Gozaburo were equally as scarring for him.
As for headcanons, a strong one I have is Seto being autistic. Another one is that he really admired Gozaburo, and never really disliked him despite the way he was treated until they had their ideological clash in respect to war as Seto began to grow into a teen with his own ideas and even then, I headcanon that Seto still saw it as a rivalry (kind of like the one he had with Atem later) and did not see himself as his victim.
I also headcanon that Seto was forced to be a child athlete by him, exploiting his already existent love for sports and competition.
I also headcanon that Gozaburo’s wife was European and a Christian Catholic and Gozaburo adopted her religious practices and tried to impose them on Seto as well, who grew to dislike religion for this reason.
I realize they’re all quite sad but I also have this hc that Seto struggles with poor body image and disordered eating and that his biological father turned to alcoholism after the death of their biological mother, and Seto had to stay home to care for both him and Mokuba, so the only time he went to school was when he was taken in by his relatives.
I also headcanon that he used books as an escapism throughout his life and as we can see has adopted a manner of speaking that’s very literary. He loves to write and writes a lot anytime he has the time to do so, but most of the time discards what he has written or is too embarrassed to ever show it to anyone, even Mokuba. In general I have a strong headcanon that he is very sensitive about art.
An happier hc I have is that he really loves amusement parks. Not just what they represent and the fact it’s his and Mokuba’s dream, but like, just attending and getting to do the most thrilling rides. And that his complex about winning is not limited to the things he considers “serious”, but just about anything. He could be playing the most silly game and will still treat it as a matter of life and death.
Thank you again for the ask and have a wonderful day ❤️ sorry for my bad English btw 🙏🏻
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felassan · 1 year
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Excuse me, you are so good at finding information and having a very organised blog. I remember reading or watching from an official source [like, a dev or Darrah or someone who worked for Bioware] explicitly say that the Old Gods are NOT the Evanuris. I can't find the source anymore, and would like to know if you have some idea who may have said it? Google results are all about theory-crafting by fans T_T. Have a good day!
hello! thanku ^^ what came to mind was this old post on the old BioWare forums by David Gaider, it's not explicit but could this be what you're thinking of? the post is from ~2009, before DA:I, the Flemythal reveal and all the DA:I dragon-Mythal iconography.
"The cult of the Old Gods (I don't call it "the Tevinter religion" mainly because that, to me, speaks of the Imperial Chantry -- which is based in today's Tevinter Imperium) didn't contradict the existence of the Maker. Quite the opposite. The people of ancient Tevinter were aware of the existence of the Golden City and ascribed to "the Maker" (though this Creator was not called this until the appearance of the Chantry) the creation of the world. The Old Gods were not creators, though they were supposedly also not created. The Old Gods were outside of the Creator's Plan and showed up to whisper to mankind and teach them magic. According to the Chantry, they turned mankind away from their regard for a remote Creator (who ruled remotely and never interacted with his own creations) and that this is what made the Creator abandon the Golden City... though there is argument that the cult believed the Creator had abandoned it long before and that they were adrift, rescued by the Old Gods. Modern sages say that this is attempt to explain the hardships that the early human civilizations faced, and not evidence of the Maker actually being absent.
So when Andraste showed up much, much later, she was advocating a return to the "rightful" worship of the Maker... it was not a belief that came out of nowhere.
As for the elves, their understanding of their own religion is incomplete. The whole truth was lost along with Arlathan and their immortality -- much of their lore was kept by a tradition of apprenticeship, handed down from the knowledgeable to the young, and this relied on the fact that the knowledgeable were eternal. Slaves also had less opportunity to spread their lore, so the sudden aging of the knowledgeable meant that much of this information was simply gone after several generations. This, of course, is their belief: the ancient Imperium maintained that the elves were never immortal to begin with, and that their lore was lost simply because the Imperium forbade its teaching.
Even so, the ancient elves did write things down, and so some scraps have been recovered. Thus the Dalish have slowly reassembled a religion from those pieces of lore, though how complete it is cannot be known. Even so, a few things are factual. For one, the original elven religion predates the cult of the Old Gods by a long time. Could the Old Gods have been based on the elven gods? Possibly, but there's nothing to suggest the elven gods were ever dragons, and certainly the contempt the Imperium held for elven culture makes it unlikely that they would think elven gods were worth worshipping. Consider also that it was the Old Gods that taught humanity its magic and encouraged them to destroy Arlathan -- why would elven gods do this? One could point to the Forgotten Ones (look at the codex entry on Fen'Harel for their mention) and suggest that they had reason for vengeance, though that would probably be against Fen'Harel and their good brethren and not against the elven people themselves, no? Still, all of that depends on how much of the knowledge given by Dalish tales is complete."
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aquaburst3 · 4 months
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By popular request...or an anon commenting me last night about enjoying me creating posts about the flaws in TWST and wanting me to talk about the worldbuilding aspect specifically along with me having some free time between jobs, here it is!
Disclaimer: Keep in mind this is all personal opinion. If you enjoy the worldbuilding in the game and find zero problems with it, great! I don't care. You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine.
Where do I even begin? The shorter question would be, "What isn't wrong with it?" xD But seriously, oh, boy—there's a lot. Hell, this is pretty much my go-to example how NOT to write an urban fantasy world.
The closest thing I can compare the world of TWST to is the movie Bright—and that's NOT a good thing. For those of you who never had the misfortune of watching that late 2010s trainwreck, it's about a cop played by Will Smith teaming up with an orc to retrieve a magic wand. Sounds cool, right? However, like with TWST, the worldbuilding is something to be desired. It's an alternate universe where two thousand years ago there was a big war between The Nine Races where the orcs supported the Dark Lord, but an orc defected and lead an army that defeated him. Despite everything, it's pretty much exactly like real life with a few added fantasy elements. It even brings up real world pop culture references, containing such cringey and problematic lines like, "Fairy lives don't matter" after the Will Smith cop squishes a pixie that's on par with a raccoon in that world.
The worldbuilding in TWST feels like that. It's exactly like real life but with a few Disney and fantasy elements slapped on top, like magnets on a fridge. There is hardly any deviation from real life. Things like planes, cell phones, methods of measuring, days of the week, etc all exist just as they do irl. When you stop and think about it, half of these things shouldn't exist and the other should be a little different.
Yana also never thinks of the implications all of this alternate history. Magic always existing and the Greek gods being real should have a huge ripple effect, creating a completely different history compared to real life, but yet it doesn't. Hell, the whole idea of knowing that the Greek gods are real alone would massively change world history, since they would be a proven concept, snuffing out every other religion in existence! The world should be more massively different than ours with Disney sprinkled on top. There's no imagination about how a world like this would work. To quote Lindsey Ellis, "You cannot import elements from our real world without including all of the history that comes with them. You can, but it's lazy, and it sucks." xD Sure, you can write a fantasy world with cars and stuff, but the histories and the ways those exist in those worlds cannot be the exact same. There must be some divergence for it to make sense.
None of the new worldbuilding elements sense or feels woven in. It feels like Yana tossing out whatever idea she comes up up with at the wall and seeing what sticks. A lot of it starts to fall a part or even contradicts itself.
Take the whole Stitch or Tsums events. The existence both of these imply that aliens exist. That brings up a lot of questions like...
What is this world's policy for alien life?
Are aliens well known entities for this world?
What are other's reaction to this?
How did his story play out in this world if that's the case?
Everyone in this world has a Disney counterpart, right? If that's the case, wouldn't that mean there's some TWST version of Stitch running around Night Raven?
Is any of this ever addressed? Nope. That's stupid. World shattering shit like that should be addressed. While I know these are probably more than likely corporate mandates, especially since Tmus are a Japanese Disney product while Stitch is super popular in Japan, she could've added a disclaimer saying that it's a crack au that has nothing to do with the canon. The fact that these are both canon is mind boggling.
Plus, both of these events create a giant plot hole. If aliens are known to exist in this world, then why the fuck can't Yuu go home? If aliens exist, wouldn't there be portals and other ways for them to go home? It just makes Yuu and the rest of the cast look like total dumbasses for never thinking of this!
It goes beyond stupid events, but happens in general. The game routinely brings up similar elements without thinking of their implications on the game as a whole. Take the whole existence of STYKs. It was never once brought up or foreshadowed in the game, but brings about a lot of questions that are hardly explored. Like if this has existed for hundreds of years, how the fuck hasn't anyone heard of it? If STYKS is attached has a branch which is like our world's, someone should've blew the whistle eons ago. Surely, someone as smart as Idia or another mage should've been able to hack them and expose that to the public. Right? Wouldn't there be more of a public outcry for stealing people away, including royalty? Wouldn't there be government oversight about this? None of these questions are never addressed. Yet that element is slapped in without a second thought. Same also goes for all of the new lore in regards to Lilia's past, those pointless prophet dreams or how Playful Land works.
The magic system and how overblot works also fall apart the more you think about it. According to the light novel, only one out of ten humans is a mage. The percentage goes up in other races, but it remains about the same. But that makes no sense. TWST isn't like the HP universe where mages are isolated from the outside world, they are a part of society. Wouldn't it be the DOMINANT gene after over centuries of mages fucking mortals? I think it being more like the ATLA or BNHA universe where mages are the majority would make a lot more sense. That's what I did in my fic. Hell, it would make the world more unique, because usually fantasy stories have it where mages are a minority.
How overblotting works is never fully explained. All that we know, despite being on the seventh fucking story arc, is that whenever a mage uses Okay, sure. But there are times where that isn't the case. Characters who hard use up any magic like Leona and Vil overblot. Even if you argue that they were emotional during those bits or something, wouldn't the other part play a bigger role, since they used up so little magic in those cases? How in the fuck is that unknown concept to the general public? Wouldn't that be common knowledge? Diseases like Alzheimer's aren't something that everyone experiences, but this existence of those things are still common knowledge. Hell, why is it extremely rare in the first place? Wouldn't it be more commonplace? I feel like having it be a biological consequence of a mage using up too much magic and it being a well known down side to the world like how it is in my writing makes a lot more sense and is much simpler.
The lore around the fae also make zero sense. Common elements in fae lore like never thanking them or accepting gifts from them for you owe them a favour to cream and honey making them drunk are never brought up or mentioned. These are not random tropes brought up in shit like Baldur's Gate 3, but ingrained shit to the fantasy genre. You can't strip them out, because it is what makes the fae, fae. Hardly any types of fae from folklore are ever brought up outside of dragons and Tinkerbell style pixies. Characters like Vil who act very fae like are completely human. To be honest, I genuinely get the sense that Yana has done no research into this topic at all, because that's how out of touch they seem compared to how they are in folklore and other fantasy series. But if that is actually the case, then she should've looked into it more or consulted another writer who knows a lot about it.
Plus, the whole idea behind Briar Valley also makes no sense. They are completely isolated from the rest of the world...because…well, nothing, besides possibly vague hatred of tech. That's dumb. Countries don’t isolate themselves for no reason. There is always some sort of explanation for them to do that, whether it's manufactured for political gain like Panem or out of protection like Wakanda. Seriously, am I the only one that thinks that Brier Valley is just the fantasy Amish? As for the Spinning Wheel Wars, that will be explored in more depth as the fics go on.
If you want to see a world similar to TWST done right, watch The Owl House. That series, too, has a modern fantasy world. Unlike TWST, it seems like a fantasy world with modern elements instead of the other way around. Despite having phone-like devices and manga, it feels like stepping into another world.
Either way, if you wondered why I came up with completely different worldbuilding for my fics—this is exactly why. The worldbuilding in this game is pure dogshit. I wanted to create something leaps and bounds better than the bullshit we got. The fact that me, an amuetur writer, gets complimented and praised for the worldbuilding in my fics and it being better then the game is truly sad. Yana is a seasoned professional with a published manga with dozens of volumes under her belt, she should be better at this than me, not the other way around! Same goes for @stormkitty97, because she helps me brainstorm ideas for my shit and uses it in her writing, too.
The biggest sin of all is that there are some genuinely really cool ideas in TWST. The idea of turning into a monster whenever you use up too much magic is terrifying. The story could've done so much more with that if it made more sense!
As much as I might get hate for saying this, Yana reminds me a lot of Stephanie Meyers in the sense that she can come up with cool concepts and ideas, but has no idea how to execute them properly. I would love to see a better professional writer tackle a concept similar to overblot, because it would be cool and scary in the right hands.
I think one big lesson that amuetur writers like myself can learn from the worldbuilding in TWST is that if you are a "Pantser", aka someone who writes on the fly, like Yana, great, all the more power to you. Hell, I confess that I'm more like Brandon Sanderson in the sense that I'm a mixture of both a "Pantser" and an "Architect" Writer, and I came up with some elements of my worldbuilding on my TWST fics as I was writing like the characters being able to teleport. But for fuck's sake, have a solid plan for your worldbuilding and stick with it. Because constantly throwing ideas at the wall beyond the outlining stage will eventually make these contradictions arise and make your world fall apart. Also, if you are building a modern fantasy world like TWST, always think through the implications each element bring. Adding in elements from our real world will always drag along all of the history tied with it. Having your modern fantasy world seem like TWST or Bright is the last thing you want.
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GO ask and touch on religion classes for you and me in need of takes for a fic I'm working on: Is "The Bible" in the GO universe "The Word of God?" Or is it just human dude's documenting, interpreting, and guessing?
Amazing question!
From my understanding (and take this with a grain of salt as I'm just a now-agnostic biochem student who took a couple religion classes) the Bible we know was complied and edited by multiple scholars over centuries, each with their own taste, agenda, and access to different information. Many of them were writing about events that they did not actually witness, or writing allegories instead of straight historical records. There are some Biblical figures that we can assume existed in real life because they show up in non-Biblical sources too, but there are also lots of contradictions and events such as the flood that, to the best of our scientific knowledge, never happened.
In *my opinion* the Bible in Good Omens is just as much "the word of God" as our Bible is. That is- it was written down by men, through the ages, about their own interpretation of God and history.
It's just that in their world, the angels that show up in the Bible are just as real as, say, Ahab, King of Israel, Augustus Caesar, or Jesus. Doesn't mean that everything that's said about them im the Bible is true- Agnes Nutter is still the only writer of true prophecies- but they did show up in history and get remembered to the point where things were written down about them.
Furthermore, Good Omens makes it clear that in the world of the story, Heaven and Hell and God are not responsible for or even aware of the more bigoted human interpretations of the Bible- I can't see the Archangels for example having any idea that humans used the curse of Ham as justification for slavery and Leviticus as a reason to look down on homosexuality, or that women were ever forbidden from speaking in church.
I forget if this showed up in the show, but in the book, Aziraphale collects misprinted Bibles, and in one of them, he had actually inserted a scene of himself telling God that he misplaced the flaming sword during the book's proofreading stage. When he's trying to find a body during Armageddon, he unwittingly possesses a televangelist, and he promptly corrects some of his ideas about the Rapture before leaving. If the Bible was supposed to be the perfect word of God in this world, I doubt that he would have changed it in this way.
(Tangent, but collecting misprinted Bibles is a hobby that he shares with Adah from The Poisonwood Bible, a book that I think would make him and Crowley very emotional. The first line by the way is "Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened." It REALLY belongs on Jim's shelf of I books.)
As for Crowley- well. I think he interfered with Bible-writers too. Bildad the Shuhite first insists that God is just and will restore everything to Job if he repents (Job 8), then says that Job must have done something to bring about his own destruction (Job 19), then questions whether it is even possible for a human to be pure in the eyes of God (Job 25).
Finally Bildad apologizes to Job after God tells Eliphaz the Temanite to take his friends (which includes Bildad) and make a sacrifice to Job. (Job 42)
I want to draw attention to Bildad's words about God in Job 25:5-6 - "If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot- a human being, who is only a worm!"
*In the Good Omens universe, where Bildad is Crowley,* these lines could show Crowley's true feelings and disillusionment with God. It's a sentiment that feels in character for him- if God thinks my stars are impure, then he probably thinks that I, and humans, will never be able to be pure. Very reminiscent of his thoughts when he's sitting in his room with space photos floating around him.
Obviously Crowley was never cruel to Job the way Bildad was- I wonder if he had these lines inserted after the fact to create a record and show Hell that he was obviously doing his job and up to no good during the Job incident.
But yeah! Thank you for the amazing question!!!!! I believe that the Bible in both the real world and in Good Omens comes from multiple human authors, contains varying degrees of truth, and changes its meaning as it is constantly reinterpreted- so it is the "Word of God" in that God and His relationship with humanity are the main focus, but that does not mean that every event literally happened as it says. Really interesting.
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"Aeron's possible asexuality" actually I Always wondered about that too bc It strikes me that though Theon attributes 'wenching' as other debaucheries to young Aeron, he does not mention it in his pov himself while he mentions drinking, pissing context, dancing etc and other debaucheries that you feel would go well with it. Just a little detail I Always overthought
Yes! Exactly that! I don't have a lot to add because at the end of the day this is a concept based on the absence of text, but I also found it remarkable how he didn't add promiscuity to his many sins, given how it would have only added to this hedonistic sinful image we had of him. It makes me wonder whether that was a generalised statement by Theon or whether there is something more. Maybe the reason Theon brings it up, but not Aeron, could be related to Aeron's trauma as a survivor of CSA. It's an interesting thing to ponder on because Theon's sexual abuse (by Ramsay) is less explicit and we even read him expressing some form of sexual desire during ADWD, but with Aeron there is nothing.
Also, going back to my #chrisitangirlera, it seems noticeable to me how we always assume celibacy being a thing when it comes to the priests of the Drowned God, although priests are supposed to emulate their God even more than the rest of mortals and the Drowned God is said to a) have made the Ironborn in his likeness and b) have made them to rape.
"We came from beneath those seas, from the watery halls of the Drowned God who made us in his likeness and gave to us dominion over all the waters of the earth." - The Iron Islands, The World of Ice and Fire
The Drowned God had made them to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and write their names in fire and blood and song. - Theon I, ACOK
So, while this is clearly reaching into head canon stuff, it's a fun concept for me to think of because Aeron never really has any type of sexual thought, although the sort might have even been encouraged by his religion.
Anyway I will read him as aroace until canon contradicts me.
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gefdreamsofthesea · 11 months
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The Andersons Do Not Get Enough Shit For Their Bullshit: My Thoughts on Feri.
First of all in case this post breaches containment, a little about myself. I'm Gef, I'm a thirty-something white cis disabled Canadian lesbian. I have a BA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University and an MLIS from the University of Western Ontario (I think it changed its name since I graduated). I also have minors in Medieval Studies and Women's Studies but they don't give you pieces of paper for those. My spiritual journey looks something like Catholic - New Ager - eclectic Wiccan-ish - Dianic-ish (the TERFy kind) - Heathen - Vanatru - now I kind of just read about witchy stuff, goddess-y stuff, and I collect divination decks. This isn't the first I've heard of Feri, but this is the first time I've sat down and read up on it.
I would just like to take a moment to recap what I've read so that everyone is on the same page:
Heart of the Initiate: Feri Lessons
Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition
Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle
The Wikipedia pages for Feri and Victor Anderson
A couple articles on feritradition.com
I read The Spiral Dance ages ago and am currently rereading it but am not including it here.
I think that's all the basics covered, let's get to the meat of the discussion.
I'll start with what I found appealing about the tradition. Both the founders and initiates stress that Feri is an ecstatic tradition, not a "fertility religion" like Wicca. It is a tradition of the poet, of being in your body, of dancing with the gods. It's also pretty explicitly queer (but see below): God Herself catches Her own reflection in a mirror and makes love to Herself, creating all the other deities in the pantheon. Coyle in particular talks about the Gods and Guardians (think like the Guardians of the Watchtowers in Wicca) as being genderfluid. The tradition practices ritual possession where the genders of the deity and their host don't matter.
Regarding Evolutionary Witchcraft specifically. I found the exercises (which involve a lot of breathing and awareness) to be useful and I think they would be of use to any witch. I also love the way she speaks of the Earth element in particular, as I think a lot of Pagan books are like "Oh Earth is money and other boring mundane stuff" whereas she talks about Earth as money but also as safety, security, the place where you incubate things (like in a cave), and the tomb. Despite my issues, I think I would recommend it.
Having said all that, I feel like the Andersons do not get enough shit for their bullshit.
Based on his students accounts, Victor sounds like a bit of an asshole at best. He's described as "a taskmaster" and that "One could ask for clarification, but to even hint that one disagreed with him, or worse yet, to contradict him, would result in an immediate and permanent order to leave," which is maybe just me but I wouldn't want to study under a teacher who didn't allow for disagreements or questioning, that's a cult leader thing. His wife Cora comes across as a yes (wo)man "my husband is a great shaman and an expert on x, y, and z." Now honestly I feel like people should hype up their spouses, but this is a constant throughout their writings.
Honestly though, I didn't get the chance to know them personally. Maybe they were awesome people irl. I'm just going off what I've read, but even if they were both very nice people, I still have some major issues.
One of these issues are the Andersons' claims about their own religion. Feri dates back to the Stone Age (uh huh), Feri's origins are in Africa (sure). Victor claimed to be a kahuna and an expert on Vodou. Apparently, once Victor read something he thought was true, he decided it had always been true. I should note here that near as I can tell, his source for info on Hawaiian religion is that Huna book by that white guy writing about what he thought Native Hawaiians believed. I've heard people justify this by being like "oh well Victor was being poetic and not literal" but that doesn't change the fact that it's straight up bullshit. Poetic lies are still lies. So yeah you'll often hear "Feri draws from a variety of traditions" but I'd say in some cases it's less "influenced by" and more "appropriated from" (I do feel the need to mention that some initiates have moved away from, say, using Hawaiian terms for their concepts).
I mentioned the deities in passing but Feri has its own pantheon. Most of the deity names are Welsh and many deities go by several names or are seen as similar to named deities in many cultures (the Blue God, for instance, being compared to Krishna) and they also have secret names that only initiates know. One important aspect of the Blue God is the Peacock God, at first I was going to include him under the section on appropriation, but Feri practitioners have apparently been in contact with actual Yazidis who have given their blessing re: Feri worship of Melek Taus but I'd prefer to hear it directly from the Yazidi that they are cool with it.
Okay so way back at the beginning I mentioned Feri was very queer but I really should amend that to say "unless you're asexual" because oh boy sex is inescapable in this tradition. It's implied that sexual activity between initiator and initiate is a thing that happens but there's an alternative ritual called the Intentions of the Heart where you do (non-sexual) ritual things and then "your first act of sexual intercourse" post-ritual is your initiation. The foundation of Feri practice is the Iron pentacle, where "sex" is at the top. There is also the Pearl pentacle, seen as the "higher energy" version of Iron, where sex becomes love. In Evolutionary Witchcraft, Coyle makes a few unfortunate statements about the relationship of sex to love that imply you cannot have love without sex. I don't really see a lot of room for asexual practitioners in this system, which is a shame because I know of some wonderful queer initiates of this tradition. I would be interested in an initiate's view on this because I know queer practitioners have talked about using an amethyst pentacle, for instance. I should note however, that Coyle states that not everyone needs or wants initiation as it involves marriage to the deities and responsibilities to the tradition, but as I said the tools and techniques she talks about are fine to use.
I did actually like Evolutionary Witchcraft so even if the tradition is not for me, I do what I usually do: take the bits I find useful and leave the rest.
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littlewomenpodcast · 1 year
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Do you have any suggestions for some of the best books about Louisa May Alcott’s life and family? There seem to be lots of biographies about her, and I wondered which ones you liked best :)
To be honest, I often disagree with many Alcott biographies or sometimes I find things that contradict things said in other biographies, which is expected, like you said, there are many. 
I currently only have one LMA biography, which is Harriet Reisen’s “Louisa May Alcott’s Woman Behind Little Women” It is a good read. Some of the things I like about is that it is so far the only biography that actually took a critical take on Louisa’s relationship with Ladislas Wisniewski (you’d be surprised how many biographies romanticize him like people do with Laurie) and his life and his motifs what it came to Louisa. The book also had a pretty detailed description of Louisa’s last years and struggles with fame and mental health. I don’t always agree with Reisen, she sometimes minimizes Louisa’s real-life connections with Little Women. 
What it comes to Louisa’s family one book that I can recommend is Caroline Ticknor’s biography of May Alcott. It is one of the rare books that take a more neutral tone when it comes to Louisa’s and May’s relationship and doesn’t demonize it like many other biographies. It definitely made me appreciate Amy’s character a lot more. There are also quotes from Louisa’s diaries. 
Then there is American Bloomsbury, which is about the Alcotts and the transcendentalist movement. I enjoyed reading the book, it also goes more in-depth into Louisa’s relationship with Henry David Thoreau (which is always my cup of tea). 
Here are some of my all-time favourite Alcott studies: 
Christine Doyle’s “German literature and culture in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women” is a must-read for every Jo and Friedrich fan on the planet, and one of those essays that very thoroughly explained that Friedrich was definitely not an afterthought. It goes very much in depth to LMA’s germanophilia and her obsession with German literature. Doyle manages to trace both Laurie’s and Friedrich’s character arcs from these stories. It is also a wonderful read for those who wish to understand Laurie’s character better and his origins. 
The Alcott’s through thirty years, Letter to Alf Whitman by Elizabeth Bancroft, This essay includes letters between Louisa and one of the real-life Laurie’s Alf Whitman. It also gives a nice glimpse into the lives of the Alcott sisters, and how they pretty much adopted this young boy into their lives  (Alf was quite a lot younger than Louisa, but his and May’s age difference was only two years). Great read esp. for pro-Laurie and Amy fans. 
“Louisa May Alcott’s New American religion” by Gregory Eiselein. This is a very interesting read about Louisa’s religious views and how her worldview was affected by Christianity through transcendentalism and her fascination for Buddhism and other religions in the east.
The cosmopolitan project by Louisa May Alcott by Laura Dassow Walls. This is another awesome read for Jo and Fritz fans. It goes in-depth into the transnational project of the transcendentalists and their views about “the brotherhood between all nations” and Walls describes how Alcott creates this cosmopolitan atmosphere in her novels, within the mixed-race and mix-cultural marriages, which appear very often in her books. 
Wedding Marches By Daniel Shealy. This was one of the first Alcott studies that I ever read and later found out that Shealy is one of the world’s top Alcott scholars. He also made several studies on how Louisa and her publisher Thomas Niles created the “Louisa May Alcott the spinster writer” brand, and how this brand became a burden for Louisa. He has a very realistic take on the marriages of Little Women, it includes very interesting parts from Louisa's writings that handle her (surprisingly pretty conservative) views related to marriage and love. This was also one of the things that led me to believe @joandfriedrich theory on Louisa (and Jo) being demisexual.
Jo Marries Goethe By Meghan Armknecht. If you have listened to my Goethe episodes this is the main source for that. Armknecht shows how Friedrich and Goethe are very much alike and how Louisa May Alcott, indeed married Jo to her favourite writer..and I love it. 
Those were some of my favorites, if you want any of them I am more than happy to e-mail them to you just drop me a note at [email protected] (and anyone who is reading this, I am more than happy to share these with you I have collected them for years, especially essays on Fritz and Laurie). 
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thaliajoy-blog · 1 year
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Personal best ASOIAF quotes (no particular order) :
⭐ "A man will tell you poison is dishonorable, but a woman's honor is different. The Mother shaped us to protect our children, and our only dishonor is in failure." (Lysa Tully)
👉 I love what it implies thematically about honor, which is a very important theme of the book ; implicitly, the question "what is honorable/what is dishonorable" is often asked (and many answers given). Lysa tells something very meaningful & powerful there about the constructed differences between genders, suggesting also that women's honor is both a adherence to a law set by the Gods, to a certain nature, and a defiance towards the systems set by men. Women's nature essentially defies men and the society they've built for themselves.
⭐ "Is it how it goes, round and round and round forever ? I ask you again, where does it end ? Here is [Oberyn's / my lover's] killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night ? Will it make me laughs, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick ?" (Ellaria Sand)
👉 maybe a pretty heavy-handed way to insert morals into the story but man is this heartfelt. Man does it hurt. Ellaria doesn't just talk about vengeance and it's deadly consequences (in a way that generally goes against most of the Dornish sentiment we get from ASOIAF and F&B, but it's all the more meaningful that a Dornish woman say this, cause vengeance is a core theme of the storyline in that corner of Westeros) - but makes a loving portrait of a loving relationship that she mourns.
⭐ "I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell." (Jon Connington)
👉 just love that quote for how poetic it sounds. How it is also very heartfelt and melancholic. So much of ASOIAF is people thinking about the past, about their mistakes & about how "things were better back then" and there's a bit of both there.
⭐ "Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty...what is honor compared to a woman's love ? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms...or the memory of a brother's smile ? Wind and words [...] We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love." (Maester Aemon)
👉 again there's kind of the idea that there's a contradiction between human laws & human nature. That men have burdened themselves with a system that might be somewhat necessary, but that it is also something that takes a bit of their deeper, more authentic humanity.
⭐"How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king ?" (Jaime Lannister)
👉 I'm stating the obvious but if course, reflexion on the shared humanity of men, the most common denominator being death. And again, it's freaking poetic ✨.
⭐ "- I am a man. I am kind to my wife, but I have known other women. I have tried to be a father to my sons, to help them make a place in this world. Aye, I've broken laws, but I've never felt evil until tonight. I would say my parts are mixed, m'lady. Good and bad. [...] It seems to me that most men are grey."
- "If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil."
(Davos Seaworth & Melisandre)
👉 Get to learn about the complexities of good & evil with Davos & Melisandre ! The exchange is a way of giving material for thoughts to the reader, showing Davos' view on the question is all about the "and", the nuance (he's a rather average man who's lived the highs & lows of life, and his answer actually tells us that he is very moral, has a sense of honesty and truth - admitting what he's done & how he feels - truly evil persons generally don't feel evil, have no moral sense). It's about what you do, and what you do has nuance, and a context. While Melisandre (a fanatic of a very binary religion) responds by an ultimatum, the "or". There can be no nuance. I think she does regard Davos as a good man though, and that his transgressions just can't be categorized as evil. That his good outweighs the evil, so much that the evil just isn't. Same for herself ; her "necessary evils" mentality drives her to consider them as no longer evil since they serve the good she works for.
⭐ "Mother of dragons. Mother of monsters. What have I unleashed upon the world ? A queen I am, but my throne is made of burned bones, and it rests on quicksand. Without dragons, how could [I] hope to hold Meereen, much less win back Westeros ? I am the blood of the dragon. If they are monsters, so am I." (Daenerys Stormborn)
👉 the dragons are both wondrous and terrible, by making the world more magical they also make it more dangerous and incertain, which is the stuff magic is made of really.
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avemstella · 1 year
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Pantalone's Constellation Misinfo and Likely Influence
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Hello and welcome to Avem rambles where I'm about to take you guys down an insane rabbit hole I discovered at 1 am and stayed up until almost 4 trying to figure out what was going on and losing my mind. And the topic in question is the mystery that is the Constellation that is probably our anti-capitalist king Pantalone's, as shown above.
(However just as a disclaimer, this is not confirmed as of the writing of this in 3.3. Just putting that out there because harbinger con speculation has been going on from day one and anyone who ever claims they are 100% certain a con is for a certain harb, they are from my experience often proven wrong. only confirmed ones are Scara/childe/Sigs. Also just in general this is a theory post and I could be wrong about some stuff, so please let me know if you have evidence that contradicts my points etc. I would love to hear it, this post will go into (spoilers) unquestioned mis-info so I would be hypocritical otherwise)
But yes, if you've been around any Harbinger constellation speculation you have probably heard the claim that this Constellation we are discussing is a symbol for Heresy, and there was a lot of postulating about how it could be Dottore's based on his real name likely being Zandik which means heretic and just in general his whole deal. However as seen above its probably Pantalone's considering he's wearing it, which raises some questions but its not inconceivable for him to be associated with heresy. But ultimately it doesn't matter whose it is, because that's not actually what this post's about, so get ready.
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So, if you've seen anyone talking about this symbol meaning heresy, you've probably seen one of the above pictures, or some similar variation. Or maybe when you googled "heresy symbol" you saw these symbols in the results. That's what I did, and immediately alarm bells went off in my head.
Because, all these pictures have one thing in common, all their sources have one thing in common. They all link to stock image sites. ALL OF THEM. There were more examples, but every picture on google images of this symbol or a variation all linked to a stock image site, to these generic corporate simplified icons. And none of those sites had their source, they were often bundled with other generic religious symbols, some normal and others equally weird.
So I took a different angle, I looked up "heresy religion" and other derivatives to find some actual historical/religious sources. Maybe its just because we live in a corporate hell and these ones got sent to the front of the line. But I looked, and looked, and looked. No actual scholarly source has this symbol anywhere. Because the thing is, despite what these stock images say, Heresy is not an official region (or even a cult). Because by definition, heresy is just a derivative of a religion, an action that goes against religious doctrine. And even me looking into 'heretical' religions by other names gave me no results. None of their symbols are similar beyond maybe a cross motif which means nothing.
(side note If anyone can actually find a proper source that uses this symbol, I will love to see it. prove me wrong though I'll be honest as what I'm about to get into, I don't think u can)
So at this point I was pulling out my hair because what the fuck. Where did this symbol even come from!? Why is this symbol associated with heresy? It was a terrible hour of the night but I didn't care, I had to figure it out.
Which is when I saw something that clicked something into place and lit up a path to the future. That suddenly made me remember something else that had kept popping up in my searches but I just dismissed because obviously it has nothing to do with my search for heresy.
Warhammer 40,000
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I found it!
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Holy shit. Its not a cross its a SWORD
So yes, lets backtrack slightly. So in my journey to find the heresy, Warhammer 40k kept popping up. Both in the images and in the normal search linking to the wiki etc. But beyond a cursory glance to confirm I didn't see the symbol, I dismissed it because obviously it has nothing to do with this. It was just popping up because Heresy was a term used in the game, but the symbol for its was this:
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Which was not what I was looking for (also should mention I know basically nothing about warhammer, but from my googling this is also a symbol of a civil war not a religion). But then of course I saw the other symbol above, and went wait fuck and proceeded to do a deep dive.
Won't pretend I have actually learned anything about Warhammer, but thats fine this isn't really about Warhammer either, its about the internet.
Because you see the Warhammer community like any good community, has its memes. And what is one such meme from Warhammer: The Heresy meme
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When I googled "warhammer 40k heresy" the first sujestion was to add "meme" to it, and from what I've researched its a super popular old meme. And while not immedietly connected to the above symbol, it does show up. For example, in the "Heresy symbol" google search from earlier, there's this one:
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And hey look, there's a cross symbol with the wings. Also fun fact, in a lot of the "heresy symbol" designs theres an orb shape between the wings. Well look at this:
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Oh look at that, isn't that similar.
So yes, long story short I'm fairly certain the so-called "heresy symbol" is not in fact some ancient symbol, but in fact a reference to Warhammer that went through an extreme game of internet telephone resulting in stock media sites copying the symbol from each other and it bit by bit transforming it into something unrecognizable and then into obscurity (these things have no downloads on these sites). Only for one day a genshin theorist to accidentally google something super specific and find them and take it at face value and now I see people claiming its a heresy symbol all the time. I'm torn between laughing and crying. The power of misinformation.
So, what is this constellation supposed to be then, if it isn't a heresy symbol (we are assuming hoyo did proper research and didn't use a symbol for heresy that isn't actually a thing). Well fun fact, part of the reason I did research on this thing was that I already had a theory about it and was really confused why everyone was calling it a heresy symbol. And was like, I guess I'll look into it to see why everyone was saying that and well u know the rest.
But yes, this constellation. I'm fairly certain its actually supposed to be referencing a Globus cruciger. Aka one of these things:
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Hey, isn't that shape familar. It also much like the original constellation, the cross ends at the orb.
So what is this thing and how does it relate to Pantalone (we are assuming its his constellation, he's wearing it)
According to the wiki (which is properly sourced) its:
"known as 'the orb and cross', is an orb surmounted by a cross. It has been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages, used on coins, in iconography, and with a sceptre as royal regalia.
The cross represents Christ's dominion over the orb of the world, literally held in the hand of an earthly ruler. In the iconography of Western art, when Christ himself holds the globe, he is called Salvator Mundi (Latin for 'Saviour of the World')."
Huh, a symbol of royalty, power, and riches, how apt. Also fun fact here's one of the Russian ones because these are our fake Russian's after all.
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And if you weren't convinced by that, I have something else to tell you.
Also a quote from the wiki:
"The globus cruciger was used as the alchemical symbol (♁) for antimony. It was also used as an alchemical symbol for Lupus metallorum “the grey wolf” supposedly used to purify alloyed metals into pure gold."
An Alchemical symbol associated with the purification of GOLD. Genshin loves their alchemy and even disregarding that, this constellation is probably Pantalone's aka the Harbinger's money man.
Who has this quote from the Pale Flame set, "Money is the lifeblood of the world, and the pathways along which it flows are the world's arteries. Then, the center of the world is a heart made of gold."
Pantalone a man who desires to control the world through controlling money.
"We shall, by whatever means necessary, become the heart that pumps money around the world." "And, when the moment comes, that heart shall cease beating by our will alone."
The Globus cruciger is literally symbolic of a ruler holding the world in their hands. A symbol of gold and power, it suits Pantalone perfectly.
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