#saying no. god isn’t a destroyer god is a teacher | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

docholligay · 1 year

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Hot Sexy Free Purim Spiel

Hey y’all on tumblr who are Jews and Jew-adjacent

A few years ago, I took over the Purim stuff for my congregation, and I actually wrote my own spiel. I wasn’t happy with the free stuff they were pulling of the internet.

To that end, I was thinking today: Why do I not offer this up, as a free spiel?

So: If you want a copy of this spiel for your congregation, just hit me up in my ask box with your email address (remember it’s gotta be in hiimjewish AT jewmail DOT com for tumblr to let it through) and like, I dunno tell me something about yourself. I’ll get you as a reader on the google doc. Note that it’s a little light on some stage direction because I wrote this for me--I’ll be working on that and have it done at least for next year, if not this one.

My only ask is of course you not sell this, record it to be sold, etc, but I’m not concerned about that. Credit is nice but honestly I don’t care that much if Jews around the country/world know I wrote a series of Timely Jokes.

I REALLY want to hear if you use it though, because that would thrill me. Tell me people laughed, even if they didn’t.

Snippets in case the idea intrigues you:

Narrator: (In the style of a ring announcer) There are some who say he was the punishment for not putting the last Amalakite to the sword. Some say he’s the physical manifestation of the fact that anti-Semitism is always with us. And some people say, he was just a jerk. Ladies aaaaaaannnnndddddd gentlemen, the villain of tonight’s tale, HAAAAAMAAAAANNNNN! Booooo!!!

Haman enters through the back, really hamming it up, Ric Flair, Zoya the Destroyer style: *ad libbed* You love to hate me! Oh, sad Jews, so cranky at me! Hahaha, I have the favor of the king, it doesn’t matter what you think!

Xerxes: Haman! My beloved advisor.

Haman: Yes, your Majesty, with shining locks and the body of a God, mellifluous voice echoing through the dreams of the people?

Xerxes: That’s what I like about you, Haman, always honest. Haman, *Throws an arm over his shoulder* Haman, we need entertainment. I’m thinking...I’m feeling something, calling in the air tonight.

Haman:Oh lord…

Xerxes: What?

Haman: Wait thousands of years, your Majesty, you’ll get it.

Xerxes: *Nods, swinging the wine bottle out toward the people* You know what these people would like to see tonight, Haman?

Haman: I hear Hamilton is very big right now.

------------

Contestant: I’m Mariska, I’m a Capricorn, I like long walks on the gulf, baking cookies, and doing whatever my husband says.

Xerxes: *looking over at Haman* You know, Capricorns are just so bossy. I wonder if her moon is in Leo?

Haman: Better not to risk it. Next!

Contestant two: I’m Megan, a preschool teacher--

Haman: Ugh, a woman of EDUCATION.

Xerxes: You’re right, I don’t want a wife smarter than me.

Haman: Next!

Narrator: It’s easy to have rules for yourself, down on paper, but here in the real world, things get a lot trickier, once something, or someone, is before you.

Esther: I’m Ha--Esther, and I enjoy cartography, reading, putting those little pearls in my hair for banquets.

Xerxes: *Standing up* That’s it. She’s the one.

Esther: I’m a Capricorn…

Haman: Not to ever doubt your judgment your Most High and Kingly but she said she loves to read, and you know those Capricorns…

Xerxes: What are you talking about? *swig* I’ve always loved Capricorns. Young lady! *He marches up the “stage” and puts the crowd on her head* You shall be my queen, and let it be known through ALL THE LAND, that we shall have ANOTHER great party, this very night!

---

Haman: God this is Vashti all over a---UGGGHHHHH!! You scrape to me, hit the dirt, right now. Or I’ll--THE KING SAID SO!

Mordechai: I answer to God, not to you, you little pischer. I have not bowed to any man, and I don’t intend to start now.

Haman: And who is this God?

Mordechai: Well, isn’t that the question? Some say God is the holy in all of us. Some say God is the traditions we have put together over the years, that bind our people. Some say God is a sacred bond--

Haman: No, no, what is the THING, your people WORSHIP?

Mordechai: This is what I was explaining. How can there be only one idea, through so many people?

Haman: RAHHHH!!!!

Mordechai, unimpressed: We’re Jews, this is how we--

Haman: Jews! Thank you, that is what I was looking for,

Mordechai: You know, Rabbi Akiva said that…

Haman: No, no, thank you, have a nice day, I’m going to murder all of your people now, goodbye.

Narrator: Haman had no patience for details or debates, and maybe, if he accepted any counsel but his own, his story might not have ended where it did. Or maybe it would have anyhow, men like him are usually determined to ruin themselves. But we aren’t he to talk about what he might do, in some other story, but what he did in this one.

#I'm playing the narrator this year finally ahah #purim #jumblr

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4everflowercore · 1 year

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„DILFs I fell for during my ♥️ teen and young adult years“

Daddy issues? Yes.

1. Alan Rickman (as Severus Snape)

I was like 11 when I got into Harry Potter and my obsession about A.R. focused mainly on Severus Snape. I swear he formed my character during puberty and my entire taste in man. I basically made an Harry Potter OC out of myself and made my entire personality like that Slytherin girl that has a secret romance with her potions teacher… and I made it everyone’s problem. Damn I was annoying

2. Benedict Cumberbatch (as Sherlock Holmes)

I think I joined the BBC Sherlock fandom around the time season 2 dropped and fell so hard for Sherlock. I even when to the first Sherlocked CON in London only to be madly disappointed when I actually met him. I can’t describe it but as I walked into the photo area and stood right next to him I instantly knew I don’t like Him. Like we didn’t even speak much it was just an instand bad feeling that I still have many years later. At the time it felt like a very bad breakup.

3. Mark Gatiss (as Mycroft Holmes)

Always liked his character in BBC Sherlock but I honestly fell in love the same day I lost Benedict. Coping mechanisms? Maybe. Idk.

3. Tom Hiddleston (as Loki)

Honestly what does it say about me that I always fall for the bad guys? It got as far as me cutting my hair short and getting a ridiculously expensive cosplay. Still I’m only here for the older version of Loki. Honestly after Ragnarök everything went to hell and I don’t really enjoy anything that came from the MCU after that. Not even from my beloved god of mischief.

4. Adam Driver (as Kylo Ren)

Look at this face and tell me you’re not in love. Isn’t he just the cutest? And don’t we Love a man that destroyes things when he’s angry?

5. Jared Harris (as Valery Legasov)

Chernobyl somehow triggered something in me that I thought was long dead. It may be because of my families history in the Soviet Union.. I don’t know. But lemme tell you I haven’t produced fanart that excessive in quite a while.

6. Jin-Yi Han (as TalTal)

(I had to make this gif myself because the fandom is f*cking dead) I swear I always join the party years to late. But Jin-Yi Han awoke a new love for Asian culture in me. I never had much interest for KDramas but honestly this one spoke to me. He became a comfort character.

7. Charlies Dance (as Sardo Numspa)

The first time I saw him as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones I thought Damn Daddy please beat my ass… and the rest is history.

We can kinda see a patern here. Don’t we? (Mostly)Mean dudes with longer (dark) hair and anger management issues. Also I’m a slut for authority.

I’ve alway been an artistic person so I flooded the internet with fan art and sometimes fanfiction for all of my beloved characters.

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unboundpower · 1 year

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Woke up early with Vegito’s old Destroyer AU on the brain...

Basically, the Zeno erase Beerus after they learn how he’s responsible for much of Universe 7′s poor state, and Whis naturally seeks out Vegito to take his place. Not really being able to say no, especially after Whis makes it clear the universe is in need of a proper Destroyer right away and he training anyone else to even get close to Vegito’s current level of strength would simply take too long, he accepts. Everything that once belonged to Beerus, including his home / planet, now belongs to him.

Has to leave behind his life on Earth. It isn’t the toughest thing to do, most of his children are already in or close to adulthood and don’t NEED him around so that helps, but adapting to the fact he’s now a full-fledged deity and would be living for countless years to come does take Vegito a bit of time. And there’s something quite saddening for him in knowing he’ll be outliving most of everyone he currently knows.

For what it’s worth, since Vegito’s very cooperative with Shin (Elder Kai too if his influence matters) and doesn’t abuse his powers, Universe 7 does start improving a lot. The mortal level increases and makes the Zeno happy, so...there’s that I guess.

Now, for me to be self-indulgent. The most heartbreaking thing for Vegito in leaving Earth is he having to leave Amita. Their forced separation does toss him into a depression spell that lasts for a while, until Whis pulls him aside and asks him what’s up. Believing that this mood persisting for Vegito could start to impede on his duties, Whis gets the idea to just...bring Amita to live with them.

But how? He pulls some strings, thinks outside the box. His job is to be an assistant and teacher to Vegito, but there’s nothing that prevents him from having his own assistant! Someone to do his more minor tasks, and function as an envoy of sorts in visiting planets. He visits Amita to put forward this idea, and gives her a week to think about it.

...She didn’t need a week. It’s not like she has much of anything rooting her to Earth; she cut off ties to the majority of her family members long ago, has no actual friends, and she can easily quit her job working in a pet clinic. Ascending into divinity to live with the love of her life again and be able to experience a plethora of new things in the cosmos is FAR more appealing. So, after tying up loose ends and saying goodbye to her father, naturally she accepts Whis’ offer when he comes back around and is whisked away. Gets granted a lot of neat abilities for her new role, a spiffy uniform similar to Whis’, and has an emotional moment alone with Vegito. He perks right up, and feels tons more determined to face whatever the future holds with Amita by his side.

For them, it’s a bittersweet but still happy ending.

(Tbh Amita’s story coming to an end with she literally standing among the gods as one of them, freed from the suffering of the mortal coil, is so ironic because that’s what her people tried to chisel into her brain throughout her youth as the “true purpose” emphasized in their religion. She never cared to try and fulfill that, but she technically did...just not in the way her people would expect or probably even believe lol.)

#vegito // ✸ v; god of destruction ✸#amita // ❦ v; envoy of destruction ❦#/ imo this is a cool AU; it's just tricky to do stuff with it rp wise \#/ def a ''request only'' kind of thing \#vegito // ✸ meta ✸#amita // ❦ meta ❦

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qzwrites · 1 year

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the kidfic question

Gray, Riley, and Paul: these are already children why on earth would they reproduce. Okay, no, I mean...I have not thought that far into their future. Paul goes to a fancy out-of-state college and they have long distance dates, that's as far ahead as I've thought about this.

Karina and Lord Clifton: I mean. They don't need children and I don't think Karina ever expected to have children. They are going to be annoyingly doting to their niblings and cousins. Clifton especially would enjoy getting obnoxious loud toys for Karina's brother's kids. Idk what that looks like in the 12th century but I assume noisemakers were still popular with children back then, and extremely annoying to their parents.

Nic and Mara (and Ayla): literally definitely have kids. I knew this like...before I finished the story. Mara invents a way for them to have kids without Nic having to be pregnant more than once because that’s how badly he wants more kids. Mara also adopts himself a sister! If you don’t have a family, store-bought is fine. Mara is also de facto on child wrangling duty whenever he isn't pressingly needed elsewhere. He is also The Main Attraction for the children of the traders who come through the village. Mara loves kids and it is only Nic (and Ayla) reining him in. Nic was like "three seems like a good number" and Mara was like :( okay :(

(Everyone else's kids in the village call him Uncle Mara even if they don't call Ayla or Nic a member of their family because Mara is so Involved. Thirty years down the line people will be calling in favors from all over the Ring Sea from their uncle, who will turn out to be Literal God Mara the Destroyer and everyone around them is going to be like HOW ARE YOU RELATED TO A GOD and they'll be like oh it's more like an honorary uncle thing, my parents moved to the village and I was friends with his kids)

(Mara might accidentally get in a feud with a whoever the patron deity of the trading fleet is because so many of their kids grow up loving him, not even aware he's a god lmao)

Max and Eddie: I mean Eddie definitely wants kids and Max definitely doesn't, but also lmao they are not in a position to think about that yet. Like. Emotionally.

Bastiaan and Lennart: will not realize they have failed to discuss the possibility of children until several years into their marriage, at which point they are somewhat more aware of how the Headmistress is clearly aiming to pass the school along to them. Anyway, they're teachers at a boarding school, which they agree is plenty of children to worry about.

(Amusingly, the characters who spun off a thought experiment about AFAB Lennart a: have to have kids for inheritance reasons b: do not work at a boarding school. Sigrid realizes after only minimal exposure to her many niblings-by-marriage that she in fact does want children, so it's a good thing they require them, and also she now has many niblings-by-marriage upon which to dote.)

Jin and Alex (and Valera): I don't know them well enough to say ultimately, but you know what I do know? This is an omegaverse story, there's no way they're not at least a little into breeding kink.

Amelia, Jim, and Tom: I literally never thought about this until right now. Probably at some point? The temptation to say Amelia has twins and they then joke that one of them is Jim's son and one of them is Tom's son is very strong.

Zodwa and Kabelo: This is an arranged marriage for the purposes of reproducing and they have a baby by the end of the story if you include the illustration (which you should! It's there for a reason!) so like. Yeah. I feel like they have at least one more child tbh, with the exact same "retiring to an isolated estate for Zodwa's health" excuse concealing who exactly is doing the pregnancy bit. Alas that they are not in the wibbly magic universe where they can outsource carrying a fetus to a squash, the way Mara does when Nic hates being pregnant, because I think Kabelo doesn't enjoy being pregnant very much but does a: want Zodwa to have more kids bc she's such a good mom and b: kind of wants more kids himself? But does not especially want to carry them.

Lorrit and Nateno: Neither of them especially wants kids, which is good because oh boy! That would be a political nightmare! Nateno loves when kids in the palace are young enough to not know who he is though. Adults will often seek out their child/ren only to find them in a random courtyard climbing on the tyrant that conquered their country and have a minor heart attack. (Lorrit does think it's very cute but the idea of being responsible for a human child on top of the whole ass country is not appealing to him.)

Osett and Ordoni: Take so long to admit they're an item that no one even braves asking about kids. Probably going to eventually accidentally adopt a series of orphans. Probably going to pretend that’s not what they’re doing for, again, a long time.

Rirdan and Devere: These men should probably not have children but Rirdan definitely wants children. Probably get back in touch with Rirdan's family specifically so Rirdan can babysit his niblings. Devere, a mere human who is no match for even a ghakir child, physically, is like, Under No Circumstances are we doing this full-time. And I feel like narratively they have to then be cornered into adopting at least one child. Bonus points if this child is not either a human or a ghakir and is instead a third type of alien.

Lee and Colby: This is literally a hook-up, but also they do date long enough to stay friends. Colby probably does have kids and Lee babysits them and has Adventures navigating interspecies babysitting. (The idea of Lee introducing Colby to a different alien and Colby settling down with them is kind of cute also tbh)

Joshua and Tony: These are children and they will always be children in my head. I have no idea how long their relationship lasts, either! Longer than a few months, at least. More than that I cannot say.

Cody and Hassan: Cody feels vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of reproducing and only gets more so as he meets other concubi and hears about how Not Great their childhoods all were. Hassan only kind of thought about having kids when he was dating Stacy, and thought it sounded Okay. To be honest they are also Children in my head lmao. Probably they would have a better idea about this after Cody hears from his dad and learns he has younger (half-)siblings; the age gap there is significant enough to give them a good idea. I WILL definitively say Cody and Hassan are basically never in danger of breaking up. They probably don't talk about marriage until it's been like. A decade. They are both still a little bit convinced the other one is going to outgrow them for...a while.

Farran and Tiede: Farran definitely does want kids but that could complicate succession things for Arden. Tiede had no strong opinions until he realized how badly Farran wanted kids and then he was like How do I make this work. (He makes it work by Farran being The Kingdom's Most Involved Uncle with his sisters' children, who are Arden's heirs for Reasons [Arden marries a trans dude and makes it a crime to say shit about it lmao]). This needlessly complicated family structure works just fine, except for when people don't realize all the Stuff going on and assume Farran is like. The kids' minder or nanny or something. At which point the entire royal family is offended and it's a political disaster. And then it probably turns out Tiede manufactured the situation to get Arden some concessions he needed.

Alex and Derek: they do not intend to be in a long-term relationship lmao. They do, but they pretend they're not for...a while. They both have ~trauma~ but they absolutely do rescue monster children and find actual nice homes for them.

Liz and Sam (and Josie?): I have no idea! Initial instincts are yes, eventually?

Jaden and Chenillin: Figuring out he wants kids is literally how Jaden finds a place in Malachitin society lmao. Someone basically dares Chenillin to adopt some kids into his house and he's like SURE. FINE. WHY NOT and Jaden is like Wow...babies...for me? and Chenillin was not in any way trying to wife Jaden anymore than he already did but also like...Jaden wants the kids to be His, the kids are now His. (Jaden already settled into a confusingly solid position as the mistress of the house, due to differing gender stereotypes. He helps Chenillin's mom in the kitchen and basically runs the young kids' school as soon as he gets there. The kids in their House constantly misgender Jaden and confuse the Malachitin adults around them terribly. Jaden accidentally a revolution in gender politics.) (Jaden more purposefully a revolution in sex ed but to be fair, that would have been hard to avoid after Chenillin so publicly took Jaden into his house and then Did Not get married.) Former criminal becomes a soccer mom and loves it.

#not actually writing #extras #i guess?#already writing heresy kidfic and the cherinitat sequel absolutely ends up kidfic #WHOOPS

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vajranam · 3 years

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Ten Wrong Views

The objective basis of wrong views is infallible doctrines such as the law of karmic causality. With assertions like those made by the Nihilists, one perceives such doctrines as false and desires to deprecate them, motivated by one of the afflictions.

The execution comes when one believes these doctrines to be utterly false, thereby confirming one’s suspicions. The act is complete when one feels conviction about this. The fully ripened result of wrong views is a rebirth in whichever of the lower realms is most fitting. The result that resembles its cause is ignorance of the genuine view. As the dominant result, good and evil will be mistaken.

Similarly, when the ten nonvirtuous acts are classified in terms of their respective level of severity, all of the following are extremely severe: motivated by an intensely afflicted mind-set, to murder extraordinary persons such as one’s guru (which is serious from a spiritual point of view) or one’s parents (which is serious from a worldly point of view); or to deceive, steal from, and create divisions between such persons; to insult them; or to harbor a covetous or malicious attitude toward them.

Likewise, to have sexual relations with someone holding the vows of discipline or any other unacceptable partner; to lie and sow discord in order to create a schism within the sangha, as Devadatta did; to assert that there is no such thing as a foe-destroyer; to kill a large animal motivated by a desire for its flesh and blood; to steal many things and those that are very valuable; and to delight in negativity without confessing and committing [to refrain from such acts in the future]. Such acts are extremely weighty, and the opposites of these acts are light.

By way of explanation, the bodhisattva Padma writes:

The ten nonvirtues and the five acts of immediate retribution,

The five close and four weighty acts,

The eight mistaken acts and severe misdeeds—

Even at the cost of your life, abandon even the most minor of these.

The vows that are in harmony with the ten virtues,

Those of the layman, novice, one-day retreatant, fully ordained monk,

And others of individual liberation, also bodhisattva vows and those of Secret Mantra—

Embrace and safeguard the vows you have taken. If you desire liberation,

Safeguard them carefully, as you would your own life.

With a thorough understanding of the classifications just discussed, which pertain to acts and their respective results, examine your mind to clearly identify which of them is the most dominant.

Meditate until your interest and enthusiasm prompts you to think, “Alas! I’ve amassed an immeasurable amount of such negativity up until now, but since my acts have not been embraced with mindful awareness, I’ve wandered in a state of indifference. Like a barbarian, I never knew that I was accumulating karma; what a huge mistake! As represented by the ten nonvirtues, from here on out, whenever a negative mind-set occurs, whether subtle or coarse, I will apply an antidote and turn the other way. Yet this alone will not suffice; I will also work courageously to practice the opposite of such negativity—virtue! I will arouse diligence so intense that it is as though my hair or clothes are on fire, and I will apply myself to the ten virtuous actions, such as renouncing killing.”

The master Vasubandhu once wrote:

Because observable phenomena and so forth

Will be experienced, there are three definite types.

There are stories of evil people like Devadatta, Shasarakisha, Shridhara, and others [who committed such extremely negative acts] that they had conscious experiences of going to hell without leaving their bodies behind. Such evil people have created karma that is sure to bring them a rebirth in the lower realms.

Unless you are such a person, you should think, “Alas, to attain liberation and omniscience one needs to completely do away with the very roots of such nonvirtue, but if I think about it, in this lifetime alone I have consciously amassed so much negativity.

And this doesn’t reflect even a fraction of what I’ve accumulated in my previous lives! It’s only logical that I’ve amassed an inconceivable amount of negativity for the sake of my friends, students, subjects, community, and so on. What’s more, the results of these acts will be experienced by me alone; these acts that I’ve consciously committed cannot be shared with anyone else.”

On this point, Master Nagarjuna explains:

Do not commit negative actions for Brahmins, monks, gods,

Guests, your parents, queens, or companions—

For there will be no one with whom to share the result

When it ripens as a rebirth in hell.

That being so, you may think to yourself, “Oh no, not me! Not me! It looks like once I pass away, I’ll have no choice but to endure the lower realms!” Inevitably, you will sink into despair, and it is at this moment that you will realize the implicit harm of karmic consequences.

Nowadays people merely pay lip service to virtue and nonvirtue without directly recognizing the most basic principles concerning what they should do and not do. In this sense, they are hardly better than barbarians. In truth, this is nothing more than a state of apathy.

Due to the kindness of our enlightened teachers, however, we now see that our actions and their results do not just disappear. How fortunate!

It isn’t enough, however, simply to see that and become fearful and withdrawn. With the four powers complete, you need to confess earnestly and restrain yourself, with a firm sense of regret for what you have done. You should then devote yourself to enlightened activities.

Our Teacher, with his great compassion and skillful methods, said that if you do not err in terms of what to do and not do, past negativity can be purified through earnest confession and self-restraint, even if one has engaged in extremely violent acts in the past, such as those with immediate retribution.

Letter to a Friend states:

One without conscience in the past

Who later on becomes conscientious

Is a thing of beauty, like the moon revealed by parting clouds,

As was Nanda, Angulimala, Darshaka, and Udayana.

The Buddha’s relative Nanda was extremely attached to his wife, Pundarika. To address the situation, the Thus-Gone skillfully led him both to a divine city and to hell. This tamed Nanda’s desire, and he eventually became a foe-destroyer.

Angulimala killed 999 people, and Ajatashatru killed his father, Bimbisara. Though they had committed acts of immediate retribution, they were purified through confession and restraint and both later attained the level of foe-destroyers.

Udayana killed his own mother, but from that moment on, he regretted what he had done and began to behave in a morally correct manner. He ended up being born in hell for as long as it takes to throw a silk ball; he later attained the level of a stream-enterer.

Accordingly, as soon as you recall such negative actions, you should cultivate a deep sense of regret and exert yourself in the methods of confession. This is a most profound point, so you should train in the recitation of the Sutra in Three Parts.

Furthermore, in the context of these instructions, failure to recognize the aforementioned ten nonvirtues and their corresponding results must be avoided. Whenever these come to mind, the antidote is to recite the Sutra in Three Parts while adhering to the vital points of the four powers.

Alternate meditating on these two practices over and over again. From now on, be mindful and aware of all nonvirtue, and crush any negative thoughts as soon as they arise.

In the context of the main practice, always follow the example set by Atisha Dipamkara: confess in the morning the negativity that you accumulate in the morning, and confess at bedtime the negativity that you accumulate in the afternoon. Don’t let negativity or downfalls stay with you for even a day!

Some people take this to mean that simply confessing in this manner is enough. With this understanding, they behave wantonly, with no sense of restraint when it comes to immoral behavior and nonvirtue. However, it is a grave mistake to think that merely reciting a few words of confession morning and night will suffice, for doing so will overwhelm the confession outlined above, in which one confesses with a remorseful attitude using the four powers.

It will also result in the instant degeneration of the mind-set of restraint, where one thinks: “I won’t do this again even if it costs me my life!” Hence, this is a misguided belief that eclipses all the infallible doctrines concerning the interdependence of actions and their results.

The terms and principles that have been presented thus far should be given serious consideration. If all worldly activities fail to repulse you, like food repulses someone with jaundice, what you have heard are just quotations and what you have read are just words. This will not allow your mind to reach the level of mastery.

The Great Master of Oddiyana said:

Seek out whatever Buddhist transmissions and teachings there are.

When you study the sacred Dharma, if you don’t use the right attitude

To grasp the terms and principles, it will be like pouring water

Onto an upside-down vessel: none will go inside.

When the anguish of samsara wells up, they won’t be of any benefit!

However wonderful worldly wealth may be, like a candle in the wind, a dew drop in summer, a flash of lightning in the sky, or last night’s dream, it is utterly impermanent and unreal. Hence, you should always stay in isolated places and cultivate a sense of disenchantment, trusting with all your heart that whatever you have will be enough.

Take refuge in the fact that you will be joyful when sick and happy when dying. Let people say what they will, as if they are talking about a corpse. Like a wandering leper, yearn to be totally on your own, without even song birds to keep you company. Occupy your mind with meditating on your enlightened guru’s instructions.

The Great Master of Oddiyana said:

This world is a land of sadness;

The wonderful joy and happiness of beings,

Like a dew drop in summer or wealth in a dream,

Is unreal and swiftly gone.

From such things come distorted desires and carelessness.

So always cultivate a disenchanted frame of mind.

Those who hold worldly splendor in great esteem

Are of a class with inferior merit.

Your heart, like a rotten tree,

Will never bear the fruit of liberation.

Alas, how sad! The mind that thinks of the wealth

And prosperity of this life as wonderful and lasting,

The mind that thinks it to be stable and excellent,

Belongs to the most base of all immature beings!

Who in this world could be more foolish than that?

No one in the past and no one in the future!

Steps to the Great Perfection

The Mind-Training Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters

Jigme Lingpa

SNOW LION BOULDER

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magicofthepen · 3 years

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Romana II for the character asks 👀

thank you for the ask!! <33 as you can see, I really like talking about Romana 😊

favorite thing about them: ….I’ve realized it’s quite hard to answer this question for one of your all-time favorite characters, oh wow there’s so much I could talk about. (gallifrey Romana II is exactly my Favorite Character Type, but I actually first fell for Romana II while watching the E-space stories.) but okay one thing that really Gets me about her is how deeply she loves? both in an ‘big picture’ sense and in a personal relationship sense. she genuinely cares about the people of her world and other worlds so much, and gives so much of herself to try to protect them and make their lives better….which becomes a mix of something very admirable and something very unhealthy that’s really complicated and interesting to unpack. and I’m so weak for stories of lonely characters slowly discovering friendship, and all of Romana’s friendships are such interesting and important dynamics in different ways, and she just. loves her friends so much, even when she’s struggling with how to be a friend, and the stories of these relationships (both on tv and in audio) are such a big part of my attachment to her character.

least favorite thing about them: I’ve talked a bit about this recently, but I’m very picky about Romana-as-villain arcs, and sometimes in the audios the writers have her do terrible things, and it feels more for the sake of being ~dark and edgy~ than something that has solid characterization backing it up? for example, on one hand, I really like how the Imperiatrix arc shows how she falls to the point of becoming a tyrant, shows how her intentions get twisted, and how circumstances and manipulations and her own character flaws lead her to make the choices that she does. on the other hand, the “destroyer of worlds” thing in series 4 doesn’t emotionally back up her choices and feels a bit like “we’re going to have this character do Terrible Things just so she can feel guilty over how Terrible she is.” and tbh I do side-eye the overall obsession of the EU of making her a darker and more power-hungry figure (in contrast, something like Time War 2 has some of my favorite Romana characterization, probably because she’s on the side of “stubbornly standing up for what’s right.”)

(I’ll probably skip favorite line for most of these because alas I’m absolutely terrible at picking one.)

brOTP: ….is it cheating to say Leela and Narvin if I also ship them? ….okay I’ll leave them for the otp section, but those two friendships are just so so important to Romana, and I love them as committed platonic relationships too! (especially since sometimes I get very into thinking about Romana as aromantic - this is not a consistent headcanon, obviously I do write a lot of shippy Romana fic in which she’s not aro, but I do think there’s solid backing for it, and I like exploring different headcanons and interpretations of relationships.)

but I want to use this section to ramble a bit about Romana and the Doctor! (I used to ship them a fair bit - in a “I love this dynamic as either a romantic thing or a platonic thing!” way - but lately I’ve been more into their relationship as a platonic thing, so I think they fall much more under brOTP for me.) they’re such a Team when they’re traveling together, and I love that understated fondness they have for each other, the way they genuinely enjoy each other’s company. and I love how they’re like. constantly holding hands and standing very close together and just being very softly affectionate. (and not to make everything about Skin of the Sleek/Thief Who Stole Time, but the way the Doctor both gives Romana space and looks out for her in those audios is so good?? they’re really soft together and I melt every time I listen to those audios.) And I love how they part on good terms, with a deep undercurrent of mutual respect and care….and I have a lot of painful feelings about the crumbling of their friendship later in life. it does make sense that they’d grow apart - they end up making very different choices when it comes to Gallifrey - but also that layer of sharpness/coldness in their interactions in Neverland (and Zagreus)….oof that hurts. (and going back a little further - the first time I heard their conversation at the end of Apocalypse Element where the Doctor leaves her, it was a gut punch - the way she so badly needs a friend, and he….doesn’t stay.) so my Doctor & Romana II feelings are a combination of “oh my gosh I love them” and “oh my gosh they break my heart.”

OTP: ot3 my beloved <33 so Romana/Leela is my og Gallifrey ship, the one that was so so inevitable because their dynamic is very much my ship type (wlw opposites attract)…and then their chemistry (“There will be a place for you with me, for always.” / “I need you” / “I have lost a great deal. I have lost you.” / “You never will be alone.” etc. etc. etc.) and the overt parallels between Leela’s feelings about Andred and her feelings about Romana, and the way the story uses the narrative structures of romance w/ them (dramatic breakup! pining!)……yep I was definitely going to ship this. I’m utterly in love with how they’re both so alone in different ways at the beginning of Gallifrey and yet they end up reaching out to each other and finding a home in each other. I’m endlessly interested in unpacking the messy complicated dynamics of their relationship - the ways their individual pain and grief clashes, the ways they cling to each other too tightly, the ways they fail to communicate - and the ways they get better at communicating, the ways they choose each other and keep fighting for each other and for their relationship.

(and whoops this is gonna be two paragraphs now) and Narvin/Romana is my other otp for Romana, and that was a surprise, because m/f enemies-to-friends is My Thing, that’s exactly the kind of platonic relationship that Gets Me. and I do love the entirely platonic take on their relationship so much, but I also definitely really ship them?? it’s the combination of “complicated devoted longing and messy power dynamics” in the middle seasons, and “oh my gosh they’ve figured out how to talk about feelings??” in the later ones. so it’s not so much “enemies to friends to lovers” as “enemies to one-sided pining/friendship with complicated power dynamics to more balanced, healthy friendship to lovers”? sort of? basically there’s so many different interesting shippy dynamics to explore with them, ranging from “oh god they do care about each other but this is a mess” to “they’d genuinely be so good together,” depending on when we’re talking, and I love that. I love how their relationship is always changing and growing, and how once they get close, they really share the same sense of duty and care for their world and the universe and the work they’re doing together. I love that they’re two people who have their own individual struggles with forming personal relationships, and so it seems like they shouldn’t ever work, but they do? and I do have a tremendous soft spot for them in the Time War audios in particular….they have such old married couple energy and I love exploring that kind of romance dynamic - warm and settled and really not that different from a committed friendship.

all in all: I’m very much an ot3 shipper, I love the idea of all three of them together (I’m really into exploring poly relationships and it’s super great how open this fandom is to poly shipping!) I probably ship Romana/Leela more consistently than Romana/Narvin, but those two relationships (romantic or platonic) occupy pretty equal amounts of my Gallifrey brainspace? so I’d say both fall into the “otp” category.

(the rest of this is going under a cut because this is so long oops.)

nOTP: nOTP isn’t exactly the right term for my feelings about Brax/Romana since I do read (and enjoy!) fic about them? (but with Gallifrey, I’m very open to reading whatever, I easily fall for good writing even if I’m not into a ship.) but Brax/Romana is definitely not my thing - I think I just have a personal discomfort about teacher/student relationships (and yes, she’s older in Gallifrey, but that mentor-figure dynamic still underpins their relationship, and the whole “your old teacher is romantically interested in you” thing is apparently something I personally nope out at). (obviously I’m not judging anyone who does ship them…heck I have a Romana ship that’s way more toxic. it’s just this particular romantic dynamic is Not For Me). but like I said, I do read fic about them! (It’s just a bit tricky because sometimes a fic will really hit those nope buttons, and sometimes it won’t? hard to say why….but broadly speaking I tend to be more interested in Brax/Romana fics that lean into “there are some unhealthy power dynamics here” rather than away from it - and I tend to compartmentalize even the Brax/Romana fics I like into a different universe in my head to avoid running into that I’m uncomfortable feeling).

random headcanon: ooh which one should I ramble about this time…how about this: Romana II has very particular feelings about touch. unexpected touch from people she doesn’t know/trust is uncomfortable and jarring. and it’s always been somewhat of a thing in this incarnation, but it really became a big deal post-Etra Prime - and even more so post-Pandora crisis - being touched without warning by most people brings up all these feelings of not having control over her own life and body (and mind, since touch also has links to telepathy). however, with the handful of people she does deeply trust, touch is a comforting and grounding thing (and something she really craves), a reminder that there are people who are there for her, people who care for her.

unpopular opinion: ….I told myself I wasn’t going to talk about this on Tumblr because the audio is so universally beloved, but welp it does say unpopular opinion. so, um, the short version is, I can’t reconcile Romana’s characterization in Erasure (aka the Bellescon thing) with Neverland or early Gallifrey or my general interpretation of her character (and I tried! like “wrote a fic to try to make it work for me” tried!). so after I kept running into a wall when trying to write a different Erasure-related fic, I decided, in Doctor Who tradition, to just throw out the bits of canon that don’t work for me. (in other words: Erasure’s not part of my personal canon anymore. which is really unfortunate because I do love so many other parts of it, and it’s a great Narvin audio and great performance. and I can enjoy it as a self-contained thing, but I’ve stopped trying to make it fit with Romana’s characterization elsewhere.) (although I do have an Erasure-related fic that I’ll post one of these days - it’s a section of that fic that hit a wall that I think works well on its own!)

song i associate with them: All the King’s Horses by Karmina / We Are Dragons by Karmina are my top songs for Gallifrey Romana (well, more specifically post-Apocalypse Element Romana). the two songs are variations on each other and they’re just so spot-on for her?? All the King’s Horses gives me major post-Etra Prime feelings (Free to go back on my own / But is it still a home when you’re all alone? / All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put me back together again), and We Are Dragons is such a Gallifrey Romana song in general (Do it all for the love of my kingdom / And here’s to dying for life worth living / And here’s to hoping we bleed for something / I’m not done fighting for what I believe in).

favorite picture of them: anything in her Horns of Nimon outfit or Shada outfit, I love those looks so much! And for fanart: some of my favorite Romana pieces are this three Romanas art by @aethira, and any of the Gallifrey covers by @joycieillustrations (who paints Romana II so incredibly!!)

#thanks for indulging my urge to ramble about romana ii <33 #swinging stars from satellites #ramblings #romana #asks

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forlorn-kumquat · 4 years

Text

for @humananalytica for the Good Omens Holiday Swap

----------

“You’re looking for Price’s ‘History of the Modern World’, correct?” The school librarian - her name tag read Ethel - glanced up briefly from her computer in time to catch Warlock’s confirming nod, and then she turned her attention back to her screen.

“Seventh edition,” Warlock told her. “I couldn’t find any copies on the shelf, but I’m hoping that maybe someone turned in a copy that just hasn’t made it back out on the floor, yet.”

He flashed Ethel his most charming smile, just in case that kind of thing worked here, and resisted the urge to drum his fingers anxiously against the counter top. His mother hated his nervous habits, said they were embarrassing to her. Then, after a second, he started drumming his fingers, anyway. His mother wasn’t here to criticize him; she’d made it more than clear she didn’t care what he did or didn’t do-

“There’s a three-week hold on the book you’re looking for,” Ethel finally replied, and Warlock felt the smile slip off his face.

“But the first assignment’s due tonight!”

“Sorry, hon,” Ethel said, sympathetically. “Have you tried the bookstore?”

Warlock had, in fact, tried the bookstore on campus, but they’d wanted over two hundred dollars for that one book alone, and he had half a dozen textbooks that he needed. His crappy coffee shop job certainly wasn’t going to be enough to pay for the books, and he had more important things, like rent and food, to use the rest of his loans on. And he couldn’t very well ask his parents for the money, not after the way he’d gotten kicked out left home.

“Well, how long can I check these other books out for?” he asked, instead, pushing the stack of textbooks that he had managed to find across the desk toward Ethel. At least he’d be able to make progress on his other classes, and maybe he could throw himself on the mercy of his World History teacher while he sweet-talked a classmate into loaning him the book for a couple of nights, or something.

Ethel took the stack of books from him and scanned each one into her computer, her frown deepening with every beep. “I’ve got some bad news for you, kid,” she said, when she was finally finished.

Warlock groaned. “They can’t all be on hold,” he protested.

“I’m afraid so,” Ethel told him. “Books for the gen ed classes are always in high demand.” She pulled the books further back on her side of the circulation desk, like she was afraid that Warlock was going to try and grab the stack and make a run for it. “Do you want me to put you on the hold list?”

Warlock - who had, in fact, been considering grabbing the books and making a run for it - shook his head. There wasn’t any point, really. By the time he finally got the books, he’d be so far behind in his classes that he’d never be able to catch up. And then he’d fail his first term, and he’d have to drop out of school, and his parents would be right, he was nothing more than a failure and a disappointment-

“Hon, you all right?” Ethel’s voice yanked him out of his thoughts, and Warlock stumbled away from the desk.

“Fine,” he stammered out, unable to meet her eyes. “I’m fine - I gotta go-”

He made it all the way outside before the rest of his growing panic attack seized him, and he collapsed against the side of the building and buried his face in his shaking hands. His father’s voice was ringing in his ears - stupid, worthless, good for nothing - and he felt hot tears slip down his cheeks. He didn’t know what he was even doing here, he wasn’t good enough for college and he didn’t know who he thought he was fooling-

“Hey, dude, are you okay?”

Gulping in a breath fast enough to make himself dizzy, Warlock jerked back and knocked his head painfully against the brick wall, startling the guy standing in front of him. Pain shot through his head and stinging tears sprang to his eyes when he carefully prodded at the brand-new knot on the back of his head.

“That looks like it hurts,” the guy went on, as Warlock checked to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. “Are you okay?”

Warlock finally looked up at the guy to see the most unfairly-handsome guy he’d ever seen in his life. Blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, and electric blue eyes that were giving him a look positively dripping with sympathy. Warlock found himself stunned into speechlessness.

“Are you okay?” the guy prompted, again, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder. Warlock shuddered at the warmth of his hand.

“They don’t have my books,” he finally said.

“That’s it?” the guy asked, sounding shocked, like he’d been expecting something more world-shattering. Well, Warlock had world-shattering, but he wasn’t about to dump his problems on a stranger. “Well, I can fix that,” the guy told him. He slid his hand further down Warlock’s back, making him shiver as he tugged him away from the wall. “C’mon, I know the perfect place.”

“You know, my mother said I should never go anywhere with strangers,” Warlock joked, weakly, as he followed the guy away from the library.

The guy spun around to face him, a huge smile on his face. “Adam Young,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand for Warlock to shake. “Now I’m not a stranger.”

“I’m Warlock Dowling,” Warlock replied.

“Let’s go, Warlock Dowling,” Adam said, picking up his pace as he led the way to a car in the parking lot. “We’re gonna get you those textbooks.” -------------------- As they pulled to a stop, Warlock vowed that this would be the first and last time he ever drove anywhere with Adam. He practically had to peel his fingers away from the door handle that he was clutching in a death grip, and he staggered out onto the sidewalk as he climbed out of the car, on legs that felt like jelly.

“Who the hell taught you how to drive?” he demanded, leaning heavily on the car while he waited for his legs to stop shaking so much.

Adam just grinned at him, clearly unrepentant. “If you think I drive fast, you should see my godfather,” he replied. “C’mon, it’s just down the street.”

“What’s just down the street?” Warlock demanded, pushing himself away from the car and stumbling unsteadily down the sidewalk after Adam.

“The bookstore of your very dreams,” Adam called back, spinning around to walk backwards while he talked to Warlock. “I’m serious; any book you could ever want is here, even all of your textbooks for school. You’ll never go back to the library, again.”

“Well, that’s not hard, considering I have no idea where we are right now,” Warlock snarked.

He’d tried to pay attention while Adam had been driving, but the other boy drove so fast that it was hard to keep track of the streets they’d gone down. He wasn’t even sure where they were, other than somewhere in London.

“We’re in Soho,” Adam told him. “And we’re right here.” So saying, he gestured extravagantly at a door with a faded, peeling sign on the glass.

“A.Z. Fell and Co,” Warlock read. “Who’s A.Z. Fell?”

“Best bookseller in all of London,” Adam said, pulling the door open and escorting him inside with a gallant wave of his hand. “Although, seller is probably the wrong word - book collector, maybe?”

“If this guy doesn’t sell books, how I am supposed to get the ones I need?” Warlock started, but then he found himself rendered absolutely speechless as he took in the inside of the bookshop. “Oh my god.”

“I know, right?” Adam said, happily, as he stopped beside Warlock to take in the massive stacks of books that surrounded them. “Isn’t this place awesome?” Without waiting for an answer, he wandered off somewhere into the stacks, almost immediately disappearing from view. “Aziraphale, are you here?”

Warlock heard a faint voice calling out in reply, although he couldn’t make out the actual words. He debated trying to follow Adam further into the bookstore but quickly thought better of the idea when he realized just how easy it would be to get lost inside the chaos of the bookshelves. And he didn’t dare go poking around by himself for the very same reason. Instead he stayed by the door, reasoning that Adam would come back to him once he’d found whoever he was looking for. And hopefully his textbooks.

Closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall, Warlock took several slow, deep breaths as he tried to calm the anxieties that were threatening to rise up again. Adam had promised him that he’d find his textbooks. He wasn’t going to fail his classes, everything was going to be just fine-

“So, this is the kid I was telling you about.” Adam’s bright voice broke through his reverie, and Warlock opened his eyes to see him coming back toward him, talking to an older man with white hair and a faded tweed suit. He looked vaguely familiar, but Warlock couldn’t place where he knew him from.

The man following them, though-

Tall and gangly, with dark red hair and cheekbones sharp enough to cut. Dark clothes and sunglasses to match, even in the darkened interior of the bookshop. Warlock blinked a couple times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and then-

“Nanny Ashtoreth?”

His ex-nanny stopped in his tracks, and even though Warlock couldn’t see his eyes, he swore Nanny was squinting at him in dawning realization. He offered up a sheepish grin.

“Warlock,” Nanny said, and even his voice was different - gone was the Scottish brogue that had sung Warlock so many lullabies - but there was no mistaking the warmth in that voice. “My little destroyer of worlds.”

“Not so little now,” Warlock pointed out, and then the rest of his words were lost in the hug Nanny wrapped him up in, his arms folding around Warlock in an almost-crushing grip. Warlock found himself clinging just as tightly, holding onto one of the few people who’d loved him unconditionally as a kid. “I’ve missed you so much,” he choked out, blinking back the tears that suddenly blurred his vision.

Nanny made a noise that might have been agreement, but Warlock wasn’t too bothered by not getting an actual reply; the way Nanny held onto him was more than answer enough.

When Warlock finally let go, he tried to surreptitiously wipe away his tears, but the handkerchief that appeared in Nanny’s hand like magic gave him away. He dried his eyes with the cloth and then folded it up and stuck in his pocket. He didn’t know if he was going to see Nanny again after he left the bookshop, but he wasn’t giving up that handkerchief for anything.

Beside Adam, the white-haired man was beaming at him. “Warlock, you’ve grown so much,” he said, and Warlock looked at him curiously while he wracked his brain.

“Brother Francis?” he finally asked, incredulously, getting an exuberant nod in response. “Oh my god, you guys really did run off to get married!”

Silence fell over the bookshop, and then Nanny burst into startled laughter while Brother Francis turned bright pink. “Is that what everyone was saying when we left?” Nanny asked. “I mean, me, sure, but that’s awfully scandalous of you, Angel.”

“Wait a minute, you two have been married all along?” Adam demanded at the same time, looking accusingly between the older men.

“Why don’t the two of you come in the back for some tea?” Brother Francis suggested, as Nanny turned around and flipped the sign on the door to ‘closed’. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”--------------------

Brother Francis - no, his real name was Aziraphale and he was an actual real-life angel with wings and a halo - Aziraphale poured Warlock yet another cup of tea before settling back into the couch cushions opposite Warlock and Adam. Beside him, Nanny - aka Crowley, aka a literal fucking demon from the deepest depths of Hell - had pulled off his sunglasses and was watching him with unblinking yellow eyes. Both of them were silent as they waited for some kind of reaction from Warlock.

“You know, this actually explains a hell of a lot of the weird stuff that happened when I was kid,” Warlock finally said. “Like Mom’s favorite rosebushes that came back to life overnight, or Brother Snail and Sister Slug, or the death lullabies-”

“Wait, wait, wait, death lullabies?” Adam broke into a positively delighted grin. “What’s this about death lullabies?”

“Nanny used to sing me to sleep with these songs about death, pain, and the end of the world,” Warlock told him, and Adam burst into hastily-muffled laughter.

“I’m sorry,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes as he looked at Crowley, “but I thought you were trying not to turn him into the Antichrist?”

“Well, yes, that was the plan,” Aziraphale said, a sheepish look on his face, “but I didn’t say that we were any good at it.”

“Yeah, I did kind of do all the heavy lifting during the Apocalypse,” Adam teased him. To Warlock, he added, “They did offer emotional support, though, so there is that.”

“Brat,” Crowley shot back, but there was genuine affection in his voice.

Warlock was almost jealous for a moment, but then Crowley turned that fond look on him and he was swamped with an emotion that had him abruptly blinking back tears. He swiped at his eyes again, hoping that no one saw, but the knowing look in Crowley’s eyes said otherwise.

“Hey, didn’t Adam say you were here for some textbooks?” Crowley asked, suddenly. Standing, he reached out and pulled Warlock to his feet before he could say anything, steering him toward the office door with a hand on his back. “We’ll be out raiding your books, Angel. You and Adam feel free to stay back here and have fun by yourselves.”

“Why’s Crowley want Warlock all to himself?” Warlock heard as the door shut behind them, but then Crowley was pulling him away from the office and he didn’t hear anything else.

“You looked like you needed to get away for a minute,” Crowley said, as they wandered among the quiet bookshelves. “I imagine it’s a bit much, everything we dumped on you just now-”

“It’s not that,” Warlock hastened to reassure him, before Crowley could get the wrong idea. “It’s just-” He trailed off, unsure how to put everything he was feeling into words.

“Just what, darling?” Crowley asked, and that gentle voice and his old childhood nickname had fresh tears springing to his eyes.

“It’s that,” he said, sniffling a little. “I haven’t seen you since I was ten, over a decade ago, and you still-” The words got caught in his throat as he got choked up, and he rubbed at his stinging eyes. “It feels like you still love me,” he said, softly, plaintively. “Like maybe you never stopped, even when you weren’t there.”

“I never did,” Crowley told him, with a blunt, simple honesty that still just about took the floor out from under Warlock’s feet. “Aziraphale, either,” Crowley went on. “No matter how old you get, Warlock, you’re still our little boy.”

Warlock swallowed hard around the lump in his throat. “My parents kicked me out,” he blurted out. “After you guys left, things were okay for a few years, but then I guess I got too old, too stubborn, and not cute enough to make up for it. Things always were easier for all of us when you and Aziraphale were there as a buffer, and everything just kind of went to Hell after that. My parents didn’t like my music, my clothes, my politics - and then Dad caught me kissing one of the boys from my math class, and that was the end of that. He told me to pack a bag and get the hell out of his house. And Mom didn’t even try to defend me. That was five years ago, when I was sixteen, and I haven’t talked to them since.”

“I didn’t know,” Crowley started, but Warlock cut him off before he could start blaming himself, somehow.

“This isn’t your fault,” he said, firmly, looking Crowley square in the eye to make sure he got the message across. “It’s not my fault either,” he added, echoing the words told to him by several of the counselors at the campus health center. “The only people I blame are my parents.”

Okay, so that last one was still only mostly true, but he was getting to the point where the good days outnumbered the bad ones, where he could look in the mirror and not hate himself for what he saw.

“Still, though,” Crowley replied, “I could always go have a conversation with your parents. Maybe eat them.”

“Nanny!” Warlock cried, a smile creeping onto his face.

“Crowley!” Aziraphale cried from behind them, and Crowley spun around, a guilty look on his face. He immediately tried to protest his innocence while Warlock watched, amused.

“Why don’t we go look for your books?” Adam said, appearing silent beside Warlock as they watched Crowley and Aziraphale bicker. “Leave those two lovebirds to their argument.” Without waiting for an answer, he wrapped his hand around Warlock’s arm and tugged him further into the stacks.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Warlock said, as he followed Adam over to Aziraphale’s collection of mint-condition textbooks. Shelves upon shelves of books - the choices seemed almost overwhelming, but Adam seemed to know exactly what he was looking for. “This certainly wasn’t how I expected this day to end, but I’m happy it did. More than happy,” he admitted, after a minute.

Up on the ladder, Adam was suddenly, suspiciously silent. “I may have had an ulterior motive for bringing you here,” he said, and Warlock could see pink tinging his cheeks. “I, um, I was hoping to impress you with the bookshop, and then maybe you’d say yes when I asked you out on a date.”

“Oh.” Warlock could honestly say that he hadn’t been expecting that. He’d just assumed that Adam was trying to be helpful. “You want to go on a date with me?”

“Only if you want to,” Adam said, hastily, sounding slightly panicked. “I don’t want to pressure you into anything you don’t want to do-”

“What if I want to go on a date with you, too?” Warlock interrupted him.

Silence again, and then Adam jumped down from the ladder, landing on the floor. Warlock had a moment to wonder if he was just that naturally graceful or if it was some kind of weird Antichrist superpower, but he lost that train of thought when he realized just how close Adam was standing. Up close, his eyes were even more beautiful than before.

“You really do want to go on a date with me?” Adam asked, softly, and Warlock nodded.

“Yeah,” he replied, and from behind them was the sound of soft cheering. Warlock could feel his cheeks heat up. “Nanny!”

“I’m not spying!” Crowley called back, immediately. “Blame this one on Aziraphale.”

“I couldn’t help it,” Aziraphale said. “I love young love. Especially when it’s you two.”

“What do you say we go on that date, now?” Adam suggested. “We can go to that new coffee shop across from campus and I can help you with your history paper. And we can get away from all the prying eyes,” he added pointedly, shooting Aziraphale a look. Aziraphale didn’t even try to look apologetic.

“I think that sounds great,” Warlock told him. “I’ll meet you out at the car?”

Adam nodded, taking Warlock’s books over his protests and heading for the door. Warlock turned back around to find Aziraphale still watching him, with Crowley this time hanging over his shoulder and very blatantly spying, no matter what he tried to claim. Warlock didn’t bother hiding his smile as he went over to them.

“Did you have something to do with Adam finding me today?” he asked, curiously. “You guys and your magic?”

“Wasn’t us,” Crowley assured him. “Some things are just completely coincidental.”

“A rather wonderful coincidence,” Aziraphale went on. “Warlock, I can’t believe we found you again.”

“Can I come back?” Warlock asked. “Could I see you again in the future?”

“If you don’t come back soon,” Crowley told him, a hint of his old brogue creeping into his voice, “we’ll be coming down to that school of yours and embarrassing you in front of all your friends.”

“That is something human parents do, isn’t it?” Aziraphale asked, a delighted smile on his face. “Oh, that sounds like fun!”

“I could always go back to school for another doctorate,” Crowley added, thoughtfully. “What are you majoring in, Warlock?”

“I love you both,” Warlock told them, “but please don’t. I’m begging you.”

“Come to dinner every weekend and we won’t have to,” Crowley countered, immediately.

“Deal. Unless Adam and I are having date night.” Warlock twisted around to look at Adam outside, who waved at him from where he was leaning against the hood of his car, looking like some kind of teen heartthrob. “You’re sure you didn’t have anything to do with this? Or with me coming back to you?”

“That was all the two of you,” Crowley told him.

“Sometimes,” Aziraphale added, “sometimes there’s nothing more powerful than the ordinary magic you humans are capable of.”

#humananalytica #goholidayswap #good omens #kumquat writes

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comicbookuniversity · 4 years

Photo

Dragon Ball Super and the Future

by Bunnypwn Gold

I am a huge fan of Dragon Ball, as I have stated here before and as I have written about in the past. My love and knowledge of this franchise is deep, and I will always be ready to enjoy what it has in store and wrestle with the ideas in it. And right now, it’s a great time to be a fan, because Dragon Ball Super is going strong. The anime has come to a conclusion and/or could come back in the future, and the manga is approaching the climax of its newest story, the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga. It’s amazing for a lot of reasons that I’ll discuss as I respond to this article by Kofi Outlaw, which praises the saga for going back to DBZ style storytelling as a “course correction.” While I agree with several points in this article, I also disagree with the basic premise and argue that the author is only saying these things about the saga because he has not been paying attention to how consistently better the manga has been than the anime of Super. I am using this response to organize my thoughts on how Super has gone so far, the divide between the anime and manga version of events, and the future of the series as a whole, not as a pro or anti stance against Kofi or his article, to be clear.

At the beginning, Kofi criticizes Super for having low stakes and focusing on making Goku and Vegeta the sole focus, increasing their power levels dramatically and leaving other characters to languish. He also said that there were a lot of gimmick fights. Overall, the story structure had changed to reflect this change in character focus and the villains were weak and unmemorable. This new arc, featuring fan-favorite villain Planet-Eater Moro and a range of great battles with his bandits for the Z Fighters to show their stuff, is a return to the DBZ structure, and it features all the brutality and high stakes of the old days. Best of all, it lays the foundations for a new future focusing on other characters.

I have to say, I agree with much of this. The focus on Goku and Vegeta as “Gods” and their super-special Saiyan-ness in the meta canon is really annoying to me. Elements of this were seen in DBZ, as the humans and Piccolo stop trying to catch up to the Saiyans, and it was all GT was about, making that series a big disappointment for me. The first three stories of the Super era are notably low stakes, as well, and I would have liked a little more tension. There could have been more focus on other characters and a larger cast in general, and that certainly would have been enjoyable. And to finish it out, I am very excited for what the Moro story means for the future. The whole thing has a “last chance to shine” feel for the old guard of characters we’ve known and loved for years, Goku is probably going to master Ultra Instinct and thus complete his journey as a martial artist, and it still opens up a lot more about the history and lore of the series to explore in the future.

Beyond that, I have a lot to disagree with. For starters, if you look at the Tournament of Destroyers and the Tournament of Power and just see a bunch of “gimmicky fights” and no stakes, you’re missing the point. I always loved the tournament stories in Dragon Ball, and both of these Super tournaments deliver on that joy. The manga had a lot of important differences with the anime in how these tournaments went, too. Before the Tournament of Destroyers, the manga went through a condensed version of the Battle of Gods events, only offering one extension in the opening to give an actual benchmark on Goku’s strength so we know where we’re starting as a series, an important gift the anime and movie fail to deliver. It then time skips past the Resurrection ‘F’ story, which I think is sad, but ultimately serves the manga’s purposes. After Goku got his God form, the next thing we see, before the Tournament, is Goku training with a new master, showing that he’s back on the path to martial arts excellence. By skipping the Golden Frieza fight, the manga passed on a story that only shows off how cool Super Saiyan Blue looks (a term, by the way, the manga invented because it’s better); outside of showing off this new form, the Golden Frieza story adds nothing. As Goku and Vegeta enter the Tournament of Destroyers, they build a team entirely focused on power, and lose one of their strongest members because of a test of intelligence. To further drive home the point, Goku’s final battle with Hit ends with him realizing that his strength allows him to outmaneuver an innovative and amazing fighting technique, Time Skip. He then forfeits the match so he can have a real fight with Hit later, where Hit can try to kill Goku and has time to train beforehand, which sounds a lot like a DBZ style story. It’s the first step in Goku relearning that technique matters more than power. In the manga, they also gave more love to Piccolo. In the anime, they had him be effectively useless, barely able to fight Frost, a Frieza parallel. The manga had Piccolo fight evenly with Frost, who later shows that he’s almost an equal with Super Saiyan Goku; Piccolo lost because of poison, not because he “could never hope to beat a strong person.” It’s not as cool as it could have been, but it’s more than Piccolo ever got in the anime.

Now, I have to vehemently disagree that Zamasu was a weak, forgettable villain who existed solely as a gimmick. The Zamasu story carefully builds and delivers on the many themes of the franchise that I identify as atheist. Throughout the series, Toriyama repeatedly introduced gods of varying kinds and levels of divinity for the sole purpose of tearing down the illusion of their importance and special qualities. Gods in this world are a verifiable fact, and not only are they just people with a particular job, but every time Goku and Vegeta meet a god, they treat them like anyone else and show them no special respect or deference. Goku and Vegeta are the best exemplars in the series of treating deities like normal people, something the series itself does regularly. It’s one of my favorite parts of the series, as an atheist myself.

So, here we have Zamasu, a deity who believes that he’s uniquely capable and qualified to rule all of existence and that mortals aren’t worthy of life. In the Bible, on more than one occasion, God decided to wash the world clean of humans because they had become too sinful; similar stories exist in other religions and cultures. In this case, Zamasu is motivated by intense and literal hatred of mortals, who he sees as not simply having “become too sinful,” but fundamentally incapable of being anything else. He extends this hatred to other gods who want mortals to exist and do as they please. His rise in Future Trunks’s time to be the almost-almighty God with a Capital G is the antithesis of what the series has said about gods and divinity on every level, and that’s exactly why he’s such an amazing villain. He also checks a lot of other boxes. He uses the power of a mortal who made himself into a god, Goku, to kill the gods and overpower the mortals. He also relies on a mortal, Trunks, to develop his power and another, Dabura, to create the opening he needed to start his plan. In working to bring the downfall of all mortals, Zamasu in effect worships at the altar of mortals and relies on their miracles to succeed, just as Goku has trained with several deities on his path to success.

Trunks is also notable, because growing up, Trunks didn’t have any gods to look to like Goku did. The first “god” in Trunks’s life was Goku, as both his mother and teacher would talk about Goku as their main inspiration for hope. Goku was made into a mythical figure that could have fixed everything, and that’s exactly what Trunks used time travel for, both times he employed the strategy. That’s why Zamasu taking Goku’s body was so impactful, because “hope” came to kill him. Goku’s ultimate failure to defeat Zamasu also tears down the idea of Goku’s “divinity” in the same way as other gods were taken down a notch. This results in Goku calling on Zeno for help. The development of Goku and Zeno’s relationship is interesting and important in setting up the conflict of this story. They become friends because Goku is the only person who treats Zeno like he’s not special, which seems to confirm that Goku’s relationship to divinity is proper. At the same time, Goku doesn’t like Zeno, because he knows Zeno is just a bored shut-in and likely doesn’t understand Zeno’s role. And really, Zeno doesn’t have a role like the Gods of Destruction and the Supreme Kais. He’s in charge because he’s the most powerful and can destroy all of existence with a thought. That’s exactly what Zeno decides to do when he sees Zamasu and the multiverse he had been ignoring, getting rid of everything because he didn’t like how it turned out. Not unlike Zamasu with mortals; in effect, Zeno is the thing that Zamasu wanted to become, and that story ends with his vision of reality being carried out. It was the ingenuity of mortal time travel that made some form of happy ending, because like in every other Dragon Ball story, you can’t rely on the gods for most anything. So yeah, Zamasu is an amazing villain and his saga was brilliant. My main criticism of the manga version was that the setup was rushed, so the death of Future Bulma happened off panel and the death of the rest of the mortals in existence was breezed by. Plenty of brutality and high stakes, if you ask me, though yes, I wanted to see it with my own eyes more.

Then we get into the Tournament of Power, a great tournament story that really drives home the point of the god-centric Super run. The Tournament of Power, if you didn’t guess, isn’t about power. It’s about teamwork, strategy, and skill. In the manga, this is made absolutely clear. The downfall of everyone in the tournament is that they rejected this basic premise or were wiped out by someone who would later meet their downfall for rejecting this basic premise, setting up their incorrect view to be knocked down in the end. Goku brought Frieza onto Team Universe 7 because he feared they would need his raw power, ignoring the possibility they bring in Yamcha or Chaozu for a friendly face that works well with their team. Hit reappears and shows that he has gotten way stronger. However, he loses to Jiren, Goku’s main opponent, in the opening of the tournament because he was relying on that raw power and abdicated the potential of his famed fighting technique. Multiple times, stronger and more arrogant solo fighters regard those fighting as a team as being weak and no threat. The main exception to those relying on teamwork being weak is Gohan, who was very strong and wanted to work as a team. In the anime, Gohan was made inferior to Frieza and ultimately lost trying to beat a lesser opponent. In the manga, Gohan, in his Potential Unleashed state and not as a Super Saiyan of any form, fought evenly with Hybrid Super Saiyan Kefla, who I suspect was the second strongest person on the field, and double-KO’d with her. In the fight, it’s implied that Gohan could go Super Saiyan while using his Potential Unleashed state, but chose not to so he didn’t have to rely on that kind of gimmicky power. It’s incredibly badass and satisfying.

As the fight with Jiren nears its climax, Goku uses a strategy that could kill him in an attempt to overpower the foe who’s stronger than any God of Destruction. This prompts Roshi to step in and admonish Goku with the single most important line in Super. When Goku says he needs more power to beat Jiren, Roshi says, “Hmph…Power, y’say? Plain old fighting strength? Who the heck taught you that? Vegeta? Frieza?” This is a great moment, because not only does it push Goku to go for Ultra Instinct and focus on bettering himself as a martial artist once again, but it pushes back on the worst lessons fans take from the franchise. Goku isn’t cool because of his strength, and he’s not so strong because he can transform. It’s all about that martial artist’s journey, baby. Goku grew up constantly learning new ways to become a better martial artist than he was the previous day, and it was pure passion driving him; he got to where he is because he took every opportunity to better himself, with his transformations just a convenient way for the story to keep upping the stakes. Jiren is the pursuit of raw power incarnate, with indifference and constant dissatisfaction his reward, and all he wants is his dead master to tell him he’s finally a good fighter. He’s everything Goku was becoming, and Goku overcame him by returning to his roots. He was able to fight Jiren evenly with a technique that anyone, theoretically, could learn if they reached the same heights of martial arts mastery, as proven when Roshi uses an imperfect form of Ultra Instinct to trade blows with Jiren. The manga anchors this lesson because it focused on technique the whole time and built towards this moment: Super Saiyan God was just another technique that showed Goku he had a lot left to learn; the Tournament of Destroyers showed how boring life is when you’re so strong you can’t actually test yourself; Zamasu showed how power is corrupting and how the pursuit of it changes you; and the Tournament of Power shows how damaging and literally suicidal pursuing raw power over personal growth is.

And to put the nail on the coffin, Goku doesn’t beat Jiren with Ultra Instinct, but instead beats him by briefly working with Frieza; you can’t master the path of a martial artist in one fight. Android 17 wins the tournament for their universe by playing dead, an age-old strategy, and uses the Super Dragon Balls to wish back all the universes destroyed by Zeno. While that can be seen as lowering the stakes, it’s no more stake-lowering than any other time the Dragon Balls have been used this way in high-stakes stories, and the stakes in this case were the destruction of eight entire universes. That’s pretty darn high. Also, it’s a good time to point out that Zeno was the real villain of the Tournament of Power. He was going to destroy eight universes out of boredom, and then remembered he could instead let one survive by having them Hunger Games for his amusement. There are no stakes, no reason to fight, without Zeno. There’s going to be conflict with Zeno in the future, I’m sure of it.

The anime followed a very different route than the manga, focusing entirely on Goku’s raw power and how cool he is. They added a lot of filler moments to both increase the number of gimmick fights and silly, campy fun, too, which made the whole thing lower stakes and less brutal. As described in regards to Piccolo and Gohan, the anime also made other characters weaker compared to Goku and Vegeta to amplify the impact of their unique transformations. In the Tournament of Destroyers, the anime introduced the idea of Goku using Kaio-ken while Super Saiyan Blue, for no other reason than to let Goku use a bunch more strength after he proved he could win. I won’t get into it, because it’s a tangent, but the entire concept of Blue Kaio-ken is BS, and the DBZ anime is where the proof lies; the Super manga actually touches on that exact thing, since Goku trying something like Blue Kaio-ken against Jiren is what nearly kills him and prompts Roshi to step in. Anyway, the anime also elongated the Zamasu story with a series of gimmick fights meant to show off how cool the three Saiyans were, even though they knew from the start that none of them would beat Zamasu. That story featured a bunch of secretly alive people, too, lowering the stakes and overall brutality of Zamasu as a villain. The time between Zamasu and the Tournament of Power, including the lead-up to the tournament, was spent showcasing filler side stories that make the other characters, ignored for most of Super, look way cooler and stronger than they actually ended up being. For as much as I wanted to see more from Krillin, Tien, and Piccolo in the manga, at least Toyotaro didn’t jerk us around acting like they were going to be way bigger players than they were. And the way the anime presented Goku achieving Ultra Instinct was focused entirely on strength and treating it like a super cool new transformation, which it isn’t. So if you were watching that story, I could see how you come out of Super thinking that it’s less intense, more gimmicky, and glorified one or two characters to the detriment of others. That’s why I think you could only be as impressed with the Moro arc as a “course correction” if you’ve been paying attention to the anime and only just now got into the manga.

This brings and end to what I’ll call Phase 1 of Super and to a time skip past the battle with Broly (which I would argue was for the same reason the Golden Frieza battle was) and into the Moro arc, which I agree is a great story that brings back a lot of things Super wasn’t doing enough of. It even brings back the meta story structure of the Buu Saga, since the first part is a very Phase 1 storyline and the second half, after Goku and Vegeta are defeated, is much more of a DBZ storyline, just as Kofi described. It’s like saying, “Yeah, we want to pivot away from this, we’re done making that point.” Looking at the first part of the Moro arc, you can read it as a way of reinforcing the grand statement of Phase 1, that the constant jockeying for power and strength and the glorifying of a couple people to the detriment of others is a bad way to write a story. The reason that’s important to say is because that’s the way a lot of the meta canon has been going for a while, at least it seems to me; all the fun, original video game stories are about Saiyans and their super special Saiyan-ness and how super cool strong they can get. It’s why GT was such a disappointment to me, and as I said, it stopped several great characters from trying to become better during DBZ. I think Kofi is right to say moving away from that model of storytelling is a good and important shift in the right direction, though I can’t say if it’s for the same reasons. That’s because, if it’s not clear, I think that what Super did along the way in Phase 1, at least in the manga, was better, more important, and more complex than the simple glorification and valorization of Goku and Vegeta, loaded as it was with themes arguing against that model and continual demonstrations of why they need to switch back to a focus on their martial arts journey. The structure of the Moro arc only serves to reinforce and finalize this thematic argument. As it continues, we are undoubtedly in store for some truly amazing fights and a satisfying, climactic battle with Moro for the entire Dragon Gang.

I also want to make a very important point for how the series is moving forward. Kofi says that Toriyama is switching back to this DBZ style story because he “has learned a thing or two from his mistakes.” For one, the massive success of Super doesn’t really seem like a mistake for anyone to learn from. For two, it’s really in poor taste to imply that Toriyama is changing how he’s writing a story because of negative fan reaction. Allegedly, that sort of thing happened with the Buu Saga, which is why Goku came back and we saw Super Saiyan 3, the perfect continuation and parody of the Super Saiyan form, all because the fans didn’t like Gohan’s high school adventures. I don’t think that’s happening again, allegedly, and in my opinion it’s not exactly a good look to say that it is. For three, that almost literally can’t be what’s happening, because Toyotaro has much greater control over the narrative by now. For those who don’t know, the way Super is being created is that Akira Toriyama writes plot summaries, and then lets the different creatives develop it from there, free to add and subtract and move around what they will. The anime team decided to focus on power and how super cool Goku is, and that version of events reflects that. Toyotaro, artist and co-author of the manga, kept his eye on the martial arts journey while executing this long vision of Toriyama’s to introduce new levels of grandeur and warn against getting lost in it, and that version of events reflects that. Over the course of the series, each creative team was given increasingly greater control over the narrative, leading to greater divergences; the two Tournaments of Power might as well be two different stories. By now, in the Moro arc, with no competing anime version of the story, Toyotaro has much more authorial control than when he started, and that will only increase until, as I hope and predict, Toriyama officially hands off the series to Toyotaro’s capable hands so he can write new stories for the foreseeable future. So no, I don’t think it’s very accurate to say that Toriyama learned any lesson because Toyotaro is the one making the important changes in how the story is told, not Toriyama. Keep your eye on the prize, you know; forgetting Toyotaro’s role means forgetting that we can and probably will have new Dragon Ball that isn’t a video game or video game-related story after the passing of Toriyama. I think the long hiatus of the anime reinforces this: Toriyama has said that if the anime team followed Toyotaro’s lead, they wouldn’t make so many art mistakes, and allowing the manga to develop lead time could be a strategy to follow the manga as a source material in the future, rather than continue this confusing dual path.

So yeah, the Dragon Ball Super manga is better than the anime in every way, and judging the series by the anime alone is setting yourself up for disappointment. The Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga showcases an amazing villain for the franchise, and it sets up more to explore in a future that values the contributions of the full cast. It also, to my eyes, foreshadows the end of the road for the Dragon Gang we’ve been following so far, and thus a potential new beginning with their successors; I mean, there’s no more time after this between Beerus and meeting Uub to use, and meeting Uub is the moment Goku passes the baton to a successor. This is a time to look forward to that bright future and reflect on the themes the manga has been developing as we head into it, as well as what the two versions of Super mean for the franchise as a whole.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #Dragon Ball Z #goku #tournament of power #universe 6 #zamasu #goku black #jiren #vegeta #moro #Akira Toriyama #toyotaro #manga #anime #comics #comic books

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wheremytwinwatches · 4 years

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 5

Well. Last episode was a thing. I’d gathered that there were some dark parts about this show, what with Mr. Freeze killing off military police by literally boiling them, and then Lust stabbing Cornello. But I wasn’t expecting something as dark as Shou’s actions. It’s interesting, Tephi mentioned that we seem to be getting themes in our shows. She gets “this is so weird!” with man-eating giants, macho drill power, fan service, ect. I get “look how fun NOPE HORROR AND HEARTBREAK”. Wonder if that’s going to continue. Actually, since the last post-credits said they boys would encounter Scar, I’m not that optimistic.

Narrator’s recapping Ed and Al’s failed study group, how Ed’s grief-stricken at his powerlessness. Episode 05: “Rain of Sorrows” House in a field? Wait. Ah, captions are saying it’s Ed (Age 5), calling to Mama Elric. Flashback? Aw, Baby!Ed transmuted a little horse statue for his mother. That’s cute- NOPE NOT CUTE NOT CUTE SWEET LETO MAMA ELRIC JUST TURNED INTO CHIMERA Aw hell no, this is a nightmare isn’t it? Ed’s seeing his failure to bring his mother back, Nina and Alexander melding- And he wakes up. Leto, but that was disturbing. Why do I keep watching this show at night again? Al asks if Ed’s alright, waking up from a dream like that. Right, since Al’s in the armor I guess he doesn’t sleep, so he doesn’t have much to do while Ed’s out for the count except read. Cut to Central (or is this East Command?), Ed hesitates to knock at a door until Riza opens it, surprised to see the Elric Brothers so early. They’ve stopped in to ask what’s going to happen to Tucker and Nina. Riza reports that Tucker was supposed to be decertified and stand trial… but both he and Nina are dead. The Elrics are shocked to hear that they’ve both been murdered. Riza says they don’t know who did it (hmmm, maybe this “Alchemist” was killed by that guy who you know’s been going around killing a bunch of alchemists, hmmm?), so she’s heading to the scene of the crime. And she tells the brothers to not go, because they don’t need to see it. At the house, Armstrong and Hughes are once again unfortunately serious as they examine the scene, Hughes complaining that he’s always one step ahead of them. Colonel Roy appears, asks why it sounds like they were expecting this. Did he not know about Scar? Wait, what? Cornello? Didn’t you get Extreme Acupuncture? What are you doing, preaching to the people of Liore who should really know better by now? Oh dear, “Cornello” is preaching to his wide-eyed followers to rise up and attack the people who can rearrange matter at will with farm tools. That’s gonna work out grrrrreat. Hey, good for you, [Man C], pointing out the crazy-talk! But unfortunately the others shout him down. Oh, Lust! So it’s a Corrupt Priest Hologram? However the trick’s being done, it’s turned Liore into a battleground, people beating the crud out of each other as a little girl cries off to the side, in case we didn’t realize that this was Bad. Lust and Gluttony are watching the chaos from on high, as Fake-Cornello walks up and says he’s got his own responsibilities to get back to. More talk about how humans are simple-minded, violent creatures, then Lust asks for ‘Envy’ to lose the costume. And hey, it’s the third Goth from the into sequence! Glad to finally have a name for the guy. Whoops, the Assistant Pastor saw the transformation, and unfortunately reacted loudly rather than run away. Envy takes offense to being called a ‘monster’, and then Gluttony has a snack. While there’s some unpleasant chewing going on, Envy mentions that Tucker is dead. And that they should care because it was “him” that was responsible for the murder. Lust does not seem to like Scar, bad history? And the Flame Colonel and Fullmetal Alchemist are there too? Seems all their enemies are gathering in one- Wait, what? “As furious as I am that he interfered with our work here, we can’t very well let him die.” Whoa whoa whoa, what’s the story here? The Goths are actually working to protect Ed? Why? Why would these people who just gleefully drove a town to riot be protecting our protagonist? Ok, that line just opened up a plethora of possibilities, I’ve got dozens of half-baked theories to try and sort out now. Do they work for someone who would not approve of Ed being harmed, Monkey D. Dragon style? Are they scouting him out as a potential recruit, ala Slaughterhouse Nine? Do they want to get their hands on Al’s collected recipes? Why do these Goths want Ed unharmed? ...oh. OH. Ok, hit pause too soon, another line just threw out my old theories and replaced them with new ones. “He’s an important sacrifice.” So it’s not that they want him unharmed, it’s that they need him to die at a future time. Why? What do they gain out of killing Ed? While my poor head is spinning, Gluttony finishes his meal as Lust and Envy work on their plans, starting with the man they’re discussing back at Command: Scar. The State Alchemists don’t really know anything else beyond the name, which they’re just using because of his picture. Literally, the only information they have is he has a large scar on his forehead. Roy’s heard stories about the man, it seems. Hughes just complains that following this order from the military police means his other work is piling up. Scar’s killed five State Alchemists in Central, with a nationwide count up to ten. And a few days ago he took down Grand, the- Brigadier General? Wow, didn’t realize the guy had such a high rank. And if Scar took down such a powerful Alchemist that easily, disregarding how cocky Grand was acting? Probably best for our characters to increase their escorts and lie low. After all, with Roy and Tucker as the only State Alchemists of note around… Roy has the same reaction that I have: “Oh no!” Out in the rain (man, this storm is going on for ages), Ed and Al are sitting at a statue, Ed repeating something: “Alchemy is the science of understanding the flow of matter and its laws… the process of comprehension, deconstruction, and reconstruction. The world flows, too. It must also follow laws. Everything circulates… even Death is a part of that circulation. You must accept the flow.” A lesson drummed into their head by Teacher. Right, we saw a scene of her teaching the brothers in Ep 2, didn’t we? Ed says he thought he understood it, but now says he didn’t. First his mom, now Nina? And heading out into the rain hoping it would “wash away some of the gloom”, but it’s not working. Al then doubles down on the depression, talking about how he can’t even feel the raindrops. Would somebody please give these poor boys a hug? Gah! Not you! Scar’s here! “You, boy, you’re the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric, correct?” NO. NO HE’S NOT! Well that was abrupt! Without another word Scar goes for the kill, it’s only Al grabbing his big brother out of the way that saves his life. Ed snaps back, Transmutes a quick stone cage around the attacker. But Scar easily blasts his way out, and the Elrics make a break for it. Or they try to, but Scar’s easily keeping up, shattering stairs and pillars as they flee. “Damn it, what the hell is this guy’s problem?! Making enemies isn’t something that I- Well… I never really avoided it. But there’s no reason someone should be trying to kill me!” First off, humor! Glad to see it back in the show! Second, yeah! What’s your problem, Scar? They race into an alleyway, but Scar calls up a wall to block them off. Ed demands to know who their attacker is. “As long as there are ‘creators’ like you in the world, there must also be destroyers.” That explains nothing, dude. Ed and Al get ready to fight, but Scar only smiles as they charge. Please get past him, please get past hi- AL! NO! Scar just dodged them both, then blew a Leto-damned hole in Al’s armor! Go away, commercial-break cards! Not now! Scar’s distracted for a moment at nobody being inside the armor, but still easily counters Ed’s attack and zaps him. But thank goodness he grabbed his arm like every other baddie. Although now he knows the weakness. *gulp* Y’know, as terrified as I am for the brothers right now, I have to respect Scar’s analysis ability. He instantly figured out that Ed’s making a Transmutation Circle by pressing his hands together, so his first target is his “abhorrent right arm”. And SWEET LETO he does, instantly! Ed’s arm is, just, gone! Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. Al’s collapsed in the alley screaming for Ed to run away, Ed’s trying to move back in shock, but falls to the right without his arm, and now that Scar’s prevented Ed from using his “heretic’s alchemy” (and just what are you doing, you hypocrite?) he’s going in for the kill. Aw, but he offers Ed a moment to pray. That’s nice of him. Ed? Ed, what are you doing? Aw. Aw, no. Ed’s clarifying that he’s Scar’s target, not his brother. And trying to make Scar promise that he won’t hurt Al. Ed, no. Ed, run! Get up and run! RUN! Gunshot? Hot damn, the cavalry has arrived! Shoot that murderer! Or arrest him, whatever works. Just get him away from my poor Elrics. Oh, what the heck. Scar’s spouting about how Alchemists alter things from their natural form, profaning the true creator God, saying that he’s here to hand down God’s judgement. *Sigh* Buddy, really? You’re gonna go the “unnatural” route? Not to bring religion into it, but I couldn’t help but notice that you’re wearing sunglasses and clothes. You don’t exactly find those things growing on trees. So no, your “natural form is best form” isn’t gonna work with me. And yeah, tell the half-dozen people holding guns on you that you’ll eliminate them if they interfere with you killing a kid. That’s gonna go over grrrreat. Roy? Roy, what are you doing? Come on, buddy. You know the saying “The man who wins a fist-fight is the one who brings friends with guns”? Why are you ignoring that, handing your gun off to Riza and telling everyone to stay out of it? Aaand I just remembered that Roy’s Flame Gloves don’t work when wet, and it’s raining. What are you planning to do, taunt him? Well, whatever he’s planning, it distracts Scar, he steps away from Ed and charges at the higher target. Scar charges, Roy prepares his plan, Riza runs forward… five seconds later ...ok, let me process what just happened. Scar lunged forward for his insta-kill Face Grab, and what did Roy do? He snapped his fingers, and there was a pathetic *pop*. Yeah, what I just said about Roy having a plan? He didn’t, he actually tried to do his Flame Alchemy. In the rain. He really forgot that his gloves are worthless when wet. But thankfully, Riza seems to have the brains of the duo, and managed to knock Roy off his feet in the split second before Scar’s hand connected. I just… wow. Roy, you are an idiot, and you had best thank Riza for saving your life. I managed to pause at just the right time to capture the incident. Here’s a screenshot, I’d say the last two words best describe Roy’s actions.

Just… wow, dude. You were an idiot. Time resumes as Riza goes guns-akimbo at Scar, who dodges into the alley. The alley with Al still in there. Uh oh. And oh my Leto Roy, don’t you dare complain at the lady who just saved your life. “Useless on rainy days” indeed. Scar’s back to ranting at the people with guns. Someone shoot this guy already. NO WAIT, EVEN BETTER! “I’d like to see you try it!” The Mighty Armstrong has arrived! Punch… to the ground. Good try! Armstrong keeps up the boasting as some other Alchemists run by and gather up Ed. “We’ll see how you fare against the Strong Arm Alchemist, Alex Louis Armstrong!” [Adventure String Music] has started up, it is on! As Scar is not backing down, The Mighty Armstrong will give him a demonstration of the art of alchemy that has been passed down the Armstrong family for generations! Punch to the stone to make an arrowhead, that narrowly misses the murderer. ...uh hey, all you guys with guns? Scars looking away from you now, rightly distracted by The Mighty Armstrong. You wanna put a bullet in his leg, or something? No? Just gonna stand there and watch the show? Ok, whatever. Ed’s informed that this is the guy who murdered Tucker and Nina, and then the Alchemist yells at Armstrong for his property damage. Armstrong what. What are you doing? When did you take your shirt off before spouting about destroying to create? The other State Alchemists question his decision to strip, even as The Mighty Armstrong continues to manly-glint. The Mighty Armstrong notes that Scar understands the truth of that statement, and the onlookers catch on to Scar being an alchemist who stopped at the ‘destruction’ stage of ‘construction, destruction, and reconstruction’. And they call him out for his hypocrisy, while wondering why he’s targeting other alchemists. Meanwhile Scar and Armstrong continue to brawl, Scar thinking about how Armstrong’s unusually coordinated for his size. Oh, Scar’s cornered! Armstrong’s got him! Wait. Oh no. No no no. Scar’s doing his analysis thing again, he’s identified a moment when Armstrong's swing is too wide. Armstrong, get back before he grabs you! Hey, he did it, Armstrong jumped away! And… ah, finally! Riza proves she has the brains of the Alchemists as she starts shooting at Scar again. Did she get him? No, even with all that he was quick enough to only graze him. But at least you got his sunglasses. Wait, what’s with the surprise? Red eyes, brown skin? That means he’s an Ishvalan! Will we finally get some information about that backstory war? Nope, not this time it seems. Scar finally recognizes he’s outnumbered, and blasts a hole into the sewers to get away. Roy thanks Armstrong for buying them time to surround Scar, Armstrong remarks that it was all he could do to keep from getting killed. The perils of CQC against someone who can kill with a touch. Hughes, where were you in all this? What the heck, you were cowering? And what the heck are you doing, calling them a freak show pack of pseudo humans?! I thought you were cool, dude! Ed comes to it (again, he’s been dropping in and out of focus this entire episode hasn’t he?) and runs over to Al. The State Alchemists are looking on- Al, what the heck?! No need to punch Ed! I get that you’re upset that he didn’t run away, but he was trying to protect you! Gah, stop punching him! “Making the decision to die is something only an idiot does!” “Survival is the only way, Ed. Live on, learn more about alchemy. You could find a way to get our bodies back and help people like Nina… you can’t do that by dying! I won’t allow you to abandon the possibility of hope and choose a meaningless death!” Wow. That’s… “Oh, great! And now my arm’s come off because my brother’s a big, fat idiot!” Have I praised the writing of this show/manga lately? Because I should be doing that more often. That was pure gold, right there. Oh my Leto, did you just make a “falling apart” pun, Ed? Hughes gripes that he’s stumbled into an extra-special kind of freak show. Give it up Hughes, we know you love them. And the State Alchemists are agreeing to not pass on Al’s state. Daw, you guys are the best! Well, Scar’s made his escape. But now they know he’s Ishvalan, and the Elrics are still alive. Things are ok. Oh, information on the Ishvalans, finally! Roy’s saying that the Ishvalans were a race of people who lived to the east, believing their god Ishvala was the one, absolute creator. So that’s who Scar prays to, not Leto? Map of the area, give me a sec. Looks like our character’s country is a rough circle, split into five areas (north, south, east, west, central), country named Drachma (isn’t that an ancient Greek coin?) to the north-west, another named Creta (like the island?) to the south-west, and along the eastern border is a Desert Area. Ishval was annexed to the country, giving me another concern about the government our protagonists work for. Then, thirteen years ago… *picture of a small bloody hand by a teddy bear* A military officer accidentally shot and killed an Ishvalan child, sparking a civil war. Shot of military police shooting as an Ishvalan man armed with a knife yells, the map shows the conflict covering the entire eastern sector. That led to military high-command… ordering the extermination of Ishval. Wow. Ok, um. I gathered that the government was a bit overbearing, but… did Fuhrer Bradley really order a genocide? We’ve got a shot of State Alchemists marching, I recognize the late Grand in the center. And is that a younger Armstrong marching in front of him, sans mustache? He’s got that tiny sprig of blond hair and is built like a tank, so I’m assuming that’s him. Marching next to him is a much skinnier black-haired guy with two bangs in front of his face, smirking. Yyyep, I’mma say that I don’t trust anyone who smiles while committing genocide. Camera pans down to three more Alchemists, I recognize Roy and Mr. Freeze but have no clue who this dwarf with a mohawk is. Manga character? Now it’s shots of Alchemists using their powers, Grand throwing out chains and Mr. Smiles apparently blowing up a crowd of screaming Ishvalans. Charming. Roy also snaps his fingers at a village. “Needless to say, the State Alchemists produced striking results.” Roy recognizes that in a sense, as an Ishvalan survivor Scar’s revenge is justified. Ed disagrees, saying that Scar’s attacking people who had nothing to do with it. Regardless, Scar’s trying to kill our characters, so next time there won’t be any talk. And no forgetting how your powers work, either! Roy. So, what’s the plan for the Elrics? They’re gonna keep moving, and before they progress with fixing their bodies they have to get their busted parts back to normal. Time to visit the mechanic. Hey, Winry! Guess we’ll see you next episode, then! “In order to repair their injured bodies, Ed and Al set off for their former home in Resembool, where they are met by their mechanics Winry and Pinako. On the way there they happen across-” Hold everything! Is that Armstrong I see in these shots? It is! We get an episode of Armstrong traveling with the Elrics! Yes! “-they happen across a doctor with a troubled past who may have clues to offer in the brother’s search for the Philosopher’s Stone. Next time, on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood-” Episode Six: “Road of Hope” “What would young Ed discover, and how many questions will still remain to be answered?” Hey, you showed a picture of the Elric family with the father’s face covered. Rude. Pretty sure it’s the blonde bearded guy in the intro, but half expecting a twist like Scar being their actual dad. Who knows given this show.

#where my twin watches #wmtw #ranubis #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fmab 5

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ganymedesclock · 5 years

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I’m aware that a lot of my headcanons for Ganon, Link, and Zelda is rooted in the fact that I love personality powers and there’s something interesting about what all three’s aptitudes say about them in contrast to the roles they’re given by the narrative and what we’re ostensibly told about them.

Buckle in, because this got... very long.

Zelda

In both OoT and BotW Zelda is tied closely to the Sheikah; in the former, she has been raised by one (Impa) and assimilates fully into their culture when it becomes too dangerous to exist as the princess of Hyrule. In BotW, she is fascinated by their culture and technology and wants to study it in detail. The Sheikah clan is established as the motif of a weeping eye- this connection is also implied in Twilight Princess with Impaz and the conspicuous Sheikah eye embroidered on Zelda’s cloak.

There’s a strong implication here of seeing. And Zelda’s powers tend to take two forms: one, perceiving herself or allowing others to perceive- and the other is penetrating the darkness by cutting it down.

A friend of mine aired the idea that the implication of the Sheikah weeping eye may suggest the Sheikah originated as exorcists- because any veteran Zelda player knows that the way to deal with virtually all of the game’s enemies is go for the eye. The implication of the crest would then be that the Sheikah are those who blind Demise’s eyes, preventing the original demon god from continuing to influence the world.

But an eye also sees. The gossip stones are traditionally hailed as a Sheikah invention. Sheik’s specific role in OoT is to guide Link by illuminating, revealing things to them.

Zelda as a character is correlated heavily with light; if we take BotW thematically tying Ganon to the moon as an enduring quality of his character (especially since in Wind Waker, he’s able to halt the movement of the heavens temporarily, over his home fortress and for a period of time over the entire sea, causing perpetual night) then the golden light conflated with Zelda would seem to be the rays of the sun. In Twilight Princess she is able to command the light spirits, and is the only non-twili truly unaffected by the cloud of twilight- a feat that the twili themselves weren’t capable of without seemingly turning their magic heavily unto their own bodies and losing the ability to walk in daylight as a result.

In Wind Waker, she takes possession of the Hero’s Bow and its Light Arrows, which, for anything less powerful than Ganon caught in its crosshairs, they’re pierced and immolated in a beam of light.

Light handily reflects the duality of Zelda’s powers as implied by the Sheikah: light can be blinding, destroying- and light can also be revealing, transmitting, clarifying.

However, taken together, this does not invoke a gracious and gentle maiden. If anything, it would almost suggest that the reason many Zeldas come across passively is because of active effort on her caretakers’ part to clip her wings and prevent her from actualizing. The nature of Zelda as implied by her powers is someone who pierces situations, who challenges and dismantles falsehood; an oracle and an executioner. Of the chosen three, she’s the destroyer- because while Link often wields the light arrows, they’re conflated much more with Zelda than they ever are with him.

Zelda is not presented as the gracious sun that presides over a warm field of wheat. She is not depicted as cruel, but there is an intensity, a veiled frustration, implied by her powers- it suggests that Zelda is someone who yearns to cut through obstructions in her path.

It implies Zelda, the detective, and most certainly, the exorcist. Her powers are for picking a target precisely, evaluating its nature and weaknesses, and, if need be, obliterating it with grace and precision.

Ganon

On the flipside, Ganon, who we’re continuously told is an element of wrath and destruction... has powers geared heavily towards restoration. The most powerful abilities he’s ever shown in terms of scale and effect are his darkening the skies in Wind Waker and, in Breath of the Wild, the rising of the blood moon.

Everything Ganon accomplishes in BotW is a testament not to supernatural resilience but his ability to reconstruct himself and spread that same power to his allies. No wonder in Twilight Princess Zant calls him a god; his command of flesh, blood, and bone is certainly impressive enough that he could be described as someone with power over life and death itself. He’s able to heal the mortal injuries of a huge number of people and creatures with disparate physiology, at range, while his body is overwhelmingly splattered across the countryside.

Hell, that power is so interesting and so strong that if you have Ganon as anything but final boss, you pretty much have to nerf it. It also could afford an interesting context to how in many of the earlier games and stories based on them, a point is made that Ganon can only be injured by certain weapons- holy silver, sacred light, or the Master Sword (which implicitly has a silvered blade; it’d explain that gleaming white blade it has).

It could be not that Ganon’s flesh has some power to repel harm as much as anything else turned against him merely has him regenerate, possibly, depending on how well he’s able to generate Malice in incarnations where his regeneration didn’t get disrupted repeatedly and smashed up in a blender, even colonizing the offending weapon, digesting it, and reconstituting it as part of himself.

Now, Ganon doesn’t have quite so clear and predictable a thesis to his powers; his ability to turn into various creatures and move undetected place to place tend to have different explanations but you can pretty easily rope them under the capabilities of a shapeshifting regenerative blob monster. And given the time he’s had to work with, it makes sense that he would have a much more versatile skill set than Link and Zelda, and enthusiastically dabble in any new form of power he gets his hands on.

The electricity he wields in ALttP and Thunderblight being the most formidable of the Blights would seem to suggest that’s a favorite of him- not only is electricity the element conflated with the Gerudo in BotW, but Ganon’s teachers and mother figures were Twinrova, who are fire and ice witches. Assuming Ganon’s a lightning user would neatly bracket the pupil in with his mentors and further indicate the land Ganon originally hailed from.

Where Zelda’s abilities are heavily focused in two areas and fit according to a concise thesis, Ganon’s standout power of healing and his implicit favored element of thunder don’t have so clear a notion behind them; only one conflates directly with his lunar motif. But this still suggests things about his character, and you can make a connection here:

While the sun is always the same, the moon continuously changes its face. While all of the Chosen Three are redesigned repeatedly, Ganon is overwhelmingly the same person deep down- so the transformations he goes through are just that. He changes, but a certain core of him remains the same. And as a healer- as someone who basically has an incredibly tenacious grasp to life so much so that when run to his limits in BotW, pieces of his body scatter, separate, and latch onto the landscape itself for survival- it makes sense that he would be the assimilating force of the three of them.

He’s the man with a thousand enemies and who has died something like a hundred times by now- he’s the pariah who lives at the edges of the world, refusing to stay down, refusing to stay in his grave no matter which new king of hyrule thinks they can stake him and put a rock over it. So he uses that changing face and seizes everything he can. Survival at all costs. No wonder his conflated animal motif is a creature once known in the ancient world for running the length of the weapon it was impaled with to kill the person holding it.

And, yet. The fact that Ganon is ultimately focused on his own survival isn’t the only application of his healing powers. He’s also someone who heals others. I mentioned that Zant’s reverence in TP makes a lot of sense in the face of BotW- but, we also have a pretty compelling argument why so many disparate groups, time and time again, unite under his banner. It’s not fear- it’s hope.

If Ganon just walked into people’s villages as a warlord and threatened them into fighting for him, that loyalty would wither easily. But we know that even when he’s doing absolutely miserable, Ganon tends to galvanize Hyrule’s “monsters” into a feeding frenzy of growth and development. The average moblin is a lot less likely to forget Ganon or turn their back on him if they have a scar from a mortal injury and know that it was Ganon, their savior, and his moon rising in the sky that personally saved their life and probably dozens of other people they knew.

It’d suggest exactly what Zant’s proselytizing does- that to the people who work for Ganon, he’s viewed in a messianic light, in contrast to his pariah status in the rest of Hyrule’s eyes. And that doesn’t appear to be insincere on Ganon’s part- while TP appears to end with Zant severing his connection with Ganon, it stands that Zant was in a position to do that after Midna killed him- which would tell us that Ganon resurrected Zant again, after a point when Zant was no longer useful to him.

Sure, Ganon’s not exactly an honorable person. There are plenty of accounts in various stories of him lying through his teeth or buttering someone up only to discard their corpse at a key moment. But the fact that Ganon callously throws certain people under the bus while taking pains to heal others is not necessarily contradictory- it just tells us that Ganon is a loyal compassionate person... to certain entities. To others, they can rot, and he won’t give a shit. But his healing power would logically, then, be a gateway to who he’s decided he really wants to live. And many of the entities with him, both sapient and non, would appear to be beneficiaries of his mercy, to the point that the implication of creatures like Helmaroc in Wind Waker is that Ganon could very well have hand-reared and personally trained that behemoth given its very exclusive loyalty and attentiveness to his commands. We see no one else- even in Forsaken Fortress- commanding Helmaroc.

Someone not capable of long-term kindness and patience towards what would have been an incredibly difficult baby to take care of would never have gotten access to a creature like that in the first place. I know Nintendo put Helmaroc there to be a boss monster and didn’t want us to think about it, but the watsonian implications are obvious and damning- Ganon isn’t backstabs mclovesmurder, and he is capable of spending a long time lavishly investing in an animal in a way that leaves it earnestly willing to fight, hunt, and kill on his behalf, and unafraid of him. Thus, Ganon being genuinely cruel to people is something that happens in situations he feels are personally warranted- where he feels he was wronged first. In short, he’s potentially petty, vengeful, and very good at holding grudges- but he doesn’t hate indiscriminately, and that’s a noteworthy distinction.

It’s another angle of that changing face, of that lunar motif- Ganon is not someone who’s easy to figure out, in part because he often actively does not want to be known. In Wind Waker, he appears to have a conversation with Link only to reveal Link was talking to a monstrous puppet while the real Ganon escaped. In ALttP he extinguishes all the lights and hides as a shadow. In TP he goes through multiple layers of hiding himself behind barriers and even inside Zelda’s body. A lesser theme that crops up here is evasion. While Ganon’s certainly not unequipped for a direct fight, he tends to try and avoid it as long as possible, divert attention onto proxies or shields.

In BotW, “the Calamity” is obviously clever, bringing about catastrophe by dramatically outfoxing the entire royal family and not just negating, but actively weaponizing in his favor things that were used against him in the past, guaranteeing that win or lose, it’ll be a long time before Hyrule is so friendly with the Guardians and Divine Beasts- and int hat time they’ll probably have forgotten about his intelligence again. Yes, Ganon hardly deliberately engineered being dehumanized, but, he’d be long used to it at this point- at this point, he’s probably able to set his watch to someone forgetting he was ever a mortal person, and he can play the role of a mindless beast easily enough. He can swing it in his favor.

In a way, it furthers that sense that Ganon’s not actually mutable at his core- if anything, he’s rather stubborn and brash- but he is very prone to accumulating and utilizing external ‘faces’ to try and stay protected, to stay untouched.

Which brings us to, finally:

Link

Link’s motifs are probably the most interesting because they tend aggressively mutable. Hero of Time, Hero of Winds, Hero of Wild, Hero of Twilight, Hero of the Sky. Unlike Zelda or Ganon, Link lacks an obvious conflation with either day or night. If anything, Link stands out because he tends to have balanced and contradictory associated motifs.

The fearful rabbit and the aggressive wolf, for example.

In Twilight Princess, the light spirit Faron councils Link that in order to defeat Zant, he must match Zant in power- and this starts gathering the Fused Shadows that Midna ultimately uses to destroy Ganon’s barrier around Hyrule Castle.

Zelda is mainly conflated with the harp (shown playing other instruments from time to time, but the harp is the most consistent between Sheik and Skyward Sword’s Zelda), Ganon the rare times he’s shown with an instrument the organ, and certainly Link’s most famous instrument is the ocarina, but he also takes up a huge number of different instruments throughout the games. Likewise, while the Master Sword is his signature weapon, he sometimes spends entire games without it, or using a different sword instead, and every game, without fail, sees him accumulating a large number of different tools and armaments and using all of them.

At a glance, this can seem like proof Link is an everyman hero without personality- an empty vessel for the player’s will. But unlike in, say, Undertale, there is no in-universe acknowledgement the player exists, ever. And Link does plenty of things without player input, or where the player can only choose one of a few options to respond with.

So in-universe, what does it say about someone who is incredibly versatile, but also consistently characterized as the furthest thing from weak-willed?

It suggests that while Zelda might be the sun and Ganon the moon, Link is the interceding force between them; perhaps embodied as the manifold and diverse light of the stars. It suggests a vague, yet powerful sense of self- Link doesn’t need to know who he is or where he comes from, it’s what he chooses to become that defines his fate for him. Which lends significance to how, while Ganon in ALttP was able to take possession of the full triforce, the only one who’s united the triforce inside their body was the first Link in Skyward Sword.

Many games feature Link actively taking qualities from his enemies- in ALBW, his ability to proceed at all is by stealing Yuga’s curse and using it against him. In TP, he very quickly exploits his abilities in his changed form to proceed even before he utilizes Zant’s “help”. In fact outside of ALttP, where he found a way to circumvent it entirely, I can’t think of a single time Link’s gotten cursed where he hasn’t fairly rapidly made peace with it and swung it in his favor.

Hell, it’s worth noting that in BotW Link would even seem to have an indifferent relationship with gender since he’s not particularly concerned wearing traditionally feminine clothes to enter the Gerudo city. (at least, that’s how I’m choosing to interpret that to save myself a lot of frustration,)

It ultimately comes down to a sense that while Zelda might conceal herself, while Ganon might adapt and change his outer layer, Link, out of the chosen, is the one prone to true metamorphosis.

This is the significance to Link always being conflated as an outsider- he doesn’t have a specific biased anchoring to Hyrule or it’s systems. And it’d reflect how, with the help of masks, BotW Link has absolutely no problem partying it up with a bunch of monsters- or, with masks again, Link in Majora’s Mask basically becomes a full-time medium helping the spirits of the dead find peace through his body.

Heck, Skyward Sword’s Skyward Strike, the mechanics of transformation in Twilight Princess, and Link’s unique ability to see Zelda’s ghost outside of her body in Spirit Tracks would seem to point to the idea that Link in general is ghost sensitive / kind of a medium. It’d also reflect on how, while Zelda and Ganon both tend to be established mages, Link lacks magical power until it’s bequeathed by some kind of outside source.

#Legend of Zelda #Link #Zelda #Ganon #long post #readmore

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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What was Lea’s personality during BBS and after? Up to Kh3? (U probably did this, but I love your analysis on Kh Isa and Lea)

Lea/Axel: The Alchemical Trickster

“The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.” – Carl Jung

Thank you! It is rather fun to write about Lea and Isa. ^_^

Well, actually I haven’t done a full write-up of Lea’s personality, though that was one of the many ideas I’ve had stirring around in my head. So, I’m glad you asked the question. More than anything I think Lea/Axel embodies the Trickster Archetype, which is an example of a Jungian Archetype. I picked up a very strong Jungian influence in the KH series. Jung’s famous quote on the shadow side of the human psyche is very similar to what The Fairy Godmother told Aqua in Birth By Sleep.

Carl Jung, The Trickster Archetype

A primitive cosmic being of divine-animal nature, on the one hand superior to man because of his superhuman qualities, and on the other hand inferior to him because of his unreason and unconsciousness. The more civilized we become, the more we will blame a “shadow” for our misfortunes. Like the trickster of old, the shadow represents a quality that isn’t accepted into the awareness. It can ‘pester’ us unmercifully but always has a gift for us, a missing quality, an attitude needed to cope, or self-realization.

Carl Jung’s explanation for the archetypes that surface in cultural and religious literature is that they are the product of what he calls the collective unconsciousness. That thread of consciousness that connects all human beings and cultures around the world. Jung would say The Trickster is a manifestation of our own collective unconscious.

In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human, or anthropomorphisation), which exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge, and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and conventional behavior.The Trickster is an alchemist, a magician, creating realities in the duality of time and illusion. The Fool survives in modern playing cards as the Joker.

The Trickster is an important archetype in the history of man. He is a god, yet he is not. He is the wise-fool. It is he who points out the flaws in carefully constructed societies of man. He rebels against authority, pokes fun at the overly serious, creates convoluted schemes, that may or may not work, plays with the Laws of the Universe and is sometimes his own worst enemy. He exists to question, and to cause us to question and not accept things blindly. He appears when a way of thinking becomes outmoded, needs to be torn down, and built anew. He is the Destroyer of Worlds, and at the same time, the savior of us all.

In later folklore, the Trickster/Clown is incarnated as a clever, mischievous man or creature, who tries to survive the dangers and challenges of the world using trickery and deceit as a defense. He also is known for entertaining people as a clown does. The Trickster seems to be a comedy of opposites. For every good aspect of his persona there is an equal and opposite aspect. In religious stories his role is very diverse. He is the breaker of taboos. He provides comic relief to a religious myth. And he will pull off elaborate schemes to teach a moral lesson or expose the folly of men.

Tricksters “…violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis.” The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules. That’s why I think Axel’s weapons are based on the Sigil of Chaos. The weapon on the right, Dive Bomb is a combination of the Chaos Sigil and an alchemical vector, representing the union of Mercury and Sulfur, Sol and Luna, The Red King and White Queen of alchemy. Or the King and Queen of the Night, as Saïx’s weapons are so aptly named. I have absolutely no doubt that Lea was gonna “Dive Bomb” right into his boyfriend’s heart and wake his sleeping ass up.

Kairi: “Aren’t you…a bad guy?”

Axel: “I’m not. But not really a good guy, either.”

The Trickster behaves as he does from impulses over which he has no control, possessing no values, moral or social; he is at the mercy of his passions and appetites. The others in Trickster stories possess similar traits: the animals, the various supernatural beings and monsters, and man.

Often, the bending/breaking of rules takes the form of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions and mocks authority. They are usually male characters, and are fond of breaking rules, boasting, and playing tricks on both humans and gods.

According to Jung, through the Trickster we can see that “individuals have the power to recognize their shadows and in doing so, choose the better part.” It is in the Trickster these combinations of qualities are recognized as being in the world, and from the Trickster we learn existential lessons as to the consequences of letting our darker side rule our lives.

There is another side to the Trickster. As the giver of all great boons—the fire-bringer, teacher of mankind—it is common for the Trickster to be a creator figure who created the earth and brings culture and civilization to humans. Among the Classical Greeks, Prometheus as creator brought into being all of the world’s animals. For this he was badly punished by Zeus. One of Axel’s weapons is named Prometheus.

Day 299: The Value of a Lie

Roxas doesn’t trust me after the whole Xion incident, but I can’t tell him the truth yet. So I keep lying. It’s no big deal when you’re a Nobody. There’s no guilt, no feeling at all. So why does it still sting, just a little, when I lie to him? All my dealings with Roxas give me this bizarre illusion of humanity.

The Trickster of Greek mythology was a god by the name of Hermes. He is the Magician Arcana in the Alchemical Tarot.He is also the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying. Once again we see a sort of bridge between the average man and the gods. Hermes is the only god in Greek mythology that is born to a nymph (a mortal). Also with Hermes we see the recurring theme of flight. Hermes is said to have wings on either side of his head. It makes the scene where Axel flies in Neverland that much more enjoyable.

Physical reality is a game in which the Trickster challenges us at every turn. That is his role in the duality of this bio-genetic experiment in linear time. The Trickster is a teacher, survivor, and hero—always traveling, outrageous and cunning, foolish and wise, mischievous and often doing good despite himself. He is a metaphor for the evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time.

In modern literature the Trickster survives as a character archetype, not necessarily supernatural or divine, therefore better described as a stock character. The Trickster seems to have supernatural powers which help him perform his tricks. He lives, dies, comes back, shape shifts, all sorts of magic as our reality is nothing more than an illusion. It is the mythology of our reality, birth, death, and rebirth from the ashes, the flame of creation.

The Trickster is almost always portrayed as male. In the duality he represents the lower emotions, lower chakras, that which gets us into mischief. This represents the aggressive side that deals with the lower frequency emotions: jealousy, anger, self destruction, rage, depression, even mental illness. The Trickster is the emotional body, our Inner Child or wounded soul, who evolves in our lifetimes as it spirals back to higher light.

Frequently the Trickster figure exhibits gender variability, changing gender roles and engaging in same-sex practices. Such figures appear in Native American and First Nations mythologies, where they are said to have a Two-Spirit nature. Even Artemis (one of Saïx’s weapons named after a goddess) was said to engage in cross-dressing. So it makes TOTAL sense to me that Lea and Isa were intended by the writers to be, yes, a romantic pairing.

Carl Jung was also a well-known proponent of alchemy. According to a manuscript in Jung’s collection published in his book Psychology and Alchemy, the Emperor and Empress of the Tarot deck represent the Red King and White Queen at the beginning of the great work, known as magnum opus.

The Empress and Emperor are put at the end of the Alchemical Tarot sequence, symbolizing the end product of their marriage: The Philosopher’s Stone. Like Jung’s Alchemical Tarot deck, Luxord’s deck ALSO ends its sequence with the Emperor and Empress cards. It’s for this reason I think that Luxord’s deck actually tells a story using the Alchemical Tarot as its foundation— Lea and Isa’s story as the alchemical Red King and White Queen, to be precise. It tells their love story SO perfectly. But that is a meta that I’m still working on.

Like Saïx/Isa, I also believe that Lea/Axel was inspired by the Zodiac signs, particualy the Fire Triad. Aries lives in the moment and moves fast and furiously. They’re natural-born leaders, and impossible to ignore. They are always ready to take charge and conquer whatever challenge they meet. Courageous and competitive, Aries is a powerful force, carving paths through new territory to find undiscovered treasures. This fearless sign lives life as a warrior, infusing everything it touches with fire, passion, and strength.

Aries’ Tarot Card: In Tarot, The Emperor card is a masterful representation of the zodiac sign Aries. The Emperor is a natural leader, just like Aries. The Emperor represents Aries’ loyalty and ability to stick by others through thick and thin. Like the royal figure on this card, Aries uses its sense of authority to help others, and to achieve its own goals.

Aries’ Symbol: The Ram represents courage, action, initiative, and authority. These traits are the backbone of Aries’ characteristics, and help Aries take every part of life head-on.

Aries’ Ruling Planet: Aries is ruled by Mars – the Red Planet, or the warrior planet. These two have been linked since ancient times, as Mars is the Roman God of War, and Ares is the Greek God of War. Mars is a planet of great action, aggression, and drive, influencing what we do, and how we do it, and enhancing the active energy of Aries. Mars is considered a pioneer of new territory, just like the Aries Ram. Among the 12 Zodiac signs, there is one specific sign in which a planet functions at its optimum. This is called its sign of “Exaltation.” The Sun is exalted in Aries.

Aries’ Ruling House: As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries rules the 1st House of Self. The 1st house is a representation of your overall self – the personality and traits that make you uniquely you. Aries’ connection to the 1st House of Self speaks to this sign’s pioneering nature, its bravery, and independence. Aries’ desire to create, identify, and deepen its sense of self is what the 1st house is all about.

Aries’ Element: The element of Fire fuels Aries’ courageous demeanor and desire for life. Fire is a self-motivated and high-spirited force that yearns to freely express itself and cannot be contained. Like a volcano, without warning, Aries is prone to bursts of enthusiasm or aggression. Aries embodies the Fire element through their identity and ego, acting as a trailblazer and a leader.

Aries’ Color: Red is the color of passion, excitement, and Fire, which supports Aries’ active energy and eagerness for life. Red is a vibrant color that demands attention – and Aries is a sign that doesn’t like to be ignored. It’s also no surprise that Aries’ ruling planet, Mars, is known as “The Red Planet”. The more red Aries surrounds itself with, the greater their natural powers can be.

Ruled by the vibrant Sun and driven by the warmth of its Fire element, the charming, magnificent, and dramatic Lion is the life of the party and loves attention. With its shining heart of gold, Leo is a loyal lover and a proud and courageous leader. This sign of the Lion embodies an air of royalty, just like the kings and queens of the jungle. Sometimes expressive to a fault, you’ll find them to be some of the most generous souls you’ll ever meet.

Leo’s Tarot Card: Leo is empowered by its Tarot card, Strength. In most Tarot decks, a Lion is featured prominently on this card, representing an obvious relationship with Leo the Lion. This card embodies nature in its most primal form, allowing the Lion to be and to express its true self. The Strength card is not only about physical strength, but also about strength of heart, mind, and soul. This card reminds Leo to balance its brute force and powerful roar with compassion, generosity, and love.

Leo’s Symbol: The Lion is known most for its strength and bravery as it rules over the jungle as one of the most powerful animals. The sign of Leo mirrors many aspects of this magnificent and royal feline, like instinct, affection, strength, and bravery.

Leo’s Ruling Planet: The expressive Sun is associated with the zodiac sign Leo. Just like the Sun is the center of the solar system, Leo likes to be the center of everyone’s attention. In Astrology, Leos are known to dazzle with charm, drama, and warmth. The Sun is a physical manifestation of all these characteristics.

Leo’s Ruling House: As the fifth sign of the zodiac, warm-hearted Leo rules over the 5th House of Pleasure. Both playful and full of energy, Leo the Lion feels right at home in this house that’s all about fun, creativity, and expression. And thanks to Leo’s frisky, flirty ways, this house also holds great clues to your romantic life, and the rewards love holds for you.

Leo’s Element: Leo is a Fire sign that shines as the center of attention wherever it goes. The element of Fire ignites Leo’s desire for life, drive for love, and eagerness for action. Like a roaring bonfire, Leo’s energy radiates warmth and lights up even the darkest nights. All it takes is one little spark to set Leo ablaze with with bold expression, brave choices, and powerful confidence.

Leo’s Color: Regal and bright, gold is the color for Leo the Lion. Glistening with royalty and class, gold has always been a symbol of power and prestige. So it’s no wonder Leo – the King of the Jungle – is represented by this expressive shade. When caught in the light, gold will glisten and shine so brightly it’s almost blinding. Just like Leo’s flamboyant nature, the color gold oozes with warmth, positivity, and attention.

Ruled by Jupiter, the planet of growth and opportunity, the sign of the Archer is an eternal student, looking for enlightenment through new ideas, people, and places. Sagittarius is on the hunt for the biggest, best experiences life has to offer. They have a positive and outgoing personality that makes them the life of any party. With a love of adventure and all things exotic, the worldly Archer just wants to soak it all in. Sagittarius is driven by a constant need to explore and expand its mind, heart, and awareness to the fullest extent. Fiery and free, Sagittarius knows that the only limits are the ones we create ourselves.

Sagittarius’ Tarot Card: Wise and understanding Sagittarius is connected to the Temperance Tarot card. The gentle process of tempering is about finding a perfect middle state, combining the best of all things to forge something that is stronger than the sum of its parts. By bringing the power of the philosophical world into their physical world, Sagittarius makes itself a source of ultimate truth and awareness.

Sagittarius’ Symbol: The zodiac sign Sagittarius is associated with the Archer, Chiron, and its glyph represents an arrow. Always eager to explore new horizons, the Archer sets its sights on a faraway target, then shoots toward it with precision. This focus on learning more, doing more, and seeing more is what Sagittarius is all about.

One of the tales about Chiron relates that he received a wound from a poisoned arrow. But because of his wisdom, he had been granted the gift of immortality from the gods. So he couldn’t die. But neither could the wound heal, for the poison was from a deadly serpent. So Chiron is the figure of the wounded healer, the sage who has an incurable injury yet who, because of his injury, understands the nature of pain far better than others.

Sagittarius’ Ruling Planet: Larger-than-life Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of luck and expansion. In Roman mythology, Jupiter was the king of the gods, the biggest and the best. In Astrology Jupiter is known as the “benefic” planet, meaning it is the luckiest, most opportunistic planet of all. This positive energy influences Sagittarius’ optimistic, enlightening, and outgoing nature that shines and spreads through anyone they come into contact with. As the largest planet in our cosmos, Jupiter’s vastness encourages Sagittarius to stretch its mind and heart as far as it can.Sagittarius’ Ruling House: As the 9th sign in the zodiac, Sagittarius rules over the 9th House of Expansion. This house reveals how open our minds are, and how much we expand ourselves through education, exploration, and life lessons. From philosophical conversations to book research to world travel, the 9th house encourages you to go further than you’ve ever gone before. Sagittarius’ drive for adventure, growth, and awareness is strongly represented here.

Sagittarius’ Element: The zodiac sign Sagittarius is a Fire sign that lights up our lives with profound questions and exciting ideas. Just like an uncontrollable wildfire, this sign will happily go where the wind takes them to seek new experiences. Sagittarius uses its Fire energy on its lifelong journey of exploration, always ready to jump at the next adventure. The element of Fire continues to fuel Sagittarius’ never ending supply of optimism and inspiration.

Sagittarius’ Color: Purple is a color of abundance, which encourages Sagittarius’ natural luck and its drive to expand its mind and world. The color purple is also associated with spirituality and enlightenment, empowering Sagittarius’ philosophical explorations and lifelong quest for knowledge.

#kh axel #kh lea #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts meta #kh meta #anti-kh3 #kh leaisa #kh isalea #kh akusai #leaisa #isalea #akusai #kh isa

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mylonelyangel · 5 years

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Good Omens: A Study in Comedy

A couple years ago in my senior year of high school, my English teacher had told us for our last essay of the year, to pick any novel by any notable author, and write about it. I picked Good Omens cause i happened to be reading it at the time, but this essay was legit the most fun I’ve ever had writing an essay. I figured with the show coming out at @neil-gaiman being on tumblr, I might as well post it here were people might enjoy it.

Its about why Good Omens is successful as a comedy. It’s kinda long so it’s gonna go beneath a cut. But yeah here it is. (Also apologies for the formatting I cant figure out how to make this thing readable. rn it looks a lot better on desktop than mobile. Any suggestions on that are welcome)

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In the world of entertainment-- be that film, TV, literature, etc. -- comedy is hard. It’s hard to act, it’s hard to write, and it takes real talent to do comedy well. Often, comedy goes underappreciated in the professional world; however, Good Omens seems to be an exception. In writing the forward to their book, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman describe the many well-read and deteriorating copies of Good Omens that they have had the pleasure of signing. From books dropped in bathtubs and puddles, to pages being held together by packing tape, clearly, the book is well loved by many. The unique quality of this novel is that rather than a “laugh-out-loud” humor, Pratchett and Gaiman aimed for a more subtle, ironic humor adding up to a satire that teaches a lesson on the importance of humanity and compassion. All in all, Good Omens is a delightfully witty and entertaining book that is sure to please any avid reader.

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Biography

It was the year 1989 when Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett decided to combine efforts in writing Good Omens. At the time, Gaiman was 29. He was born in Hampshire UK in 1960 and grew up frequently visiting his local library, developing a life-long love for reading. After briefly pursuing a career in journalism, he soon became interested in writing comic books. The Sandman is one of Gaiman’s most notable graphic novel works. It won several awards including three Harvey Awards, nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, becoming the first comic to every receive a literary award. After gaining this success, Gaiman has gone on to expand his resume by working in film and television. He’s written and directed two films: A Short Film About John Bolton (2002) and Statueque (2009). Most recently, Gaiman is writing for the television series adaption of his book, American Gods, set to premier on April 30, 2017 on Starz.

Gaiman’s writing companion, Terry Pratchett, was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire in 1948. He had a passion for writing from a young age, publishing his first story, “The Hades Business” in his school magazine at age thirteen. Four years later at age seventeen, Pratchett dropped out of school to pursue journalism. It was in this line of work that he came into contact with his first publisher, Colin Smythe, and through him published his first book in 1971, The Carpet People. Smythe remained a close friend of Pratchett and in 1983 published the first book of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful series: Discworld. At this time, Pratchett worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board as a press officer. Four books into his Discworld series, Pratchett decided to become a full time writer. After a long and successful career, unfortunately in 2007 Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s called Posterior Cortical Atrophy. He lived the last years of his life very well; in 2009, he was knighted by the Queen for his services to literature and in 2013 he presented a documentary discussing the controversial topic of assisted dying. Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die won both an Emmy and a BAFTA. Despite campaigning for assisted dying, Terry did not choose to take his own life and died peacefully surrounded by family in March 2015.

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Extended Analysis

The comedy collaboration Good Omens has been deemed by many to be a great novel. Critics praise the unique blend of writing styles for making this novel a success, but to understand what makes the comedic genius of Good Omens, one must ask what precisely makes it funny. This novel is a satire; it comments on existentialist ideas surrounding humanity and the responsibility humans have over their own actions for better or for worse. In order to emphasize their novel as an unexpectedly witty and socially relevant satire, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett use several literary devices such as repetition, mood, and irony. In a remarkable world belonging to angels and demons who wish to bring about the apocalypse, the air of abnormality must be maintained throughout the novel; comedy only follows naturally.

In order to emphasize the absurdity of the events in Good Omens, the authors often used repetition in describing people or events. Given that this book revolves around the events of Armageddon, absurdity is not hard to come by; it is precisely what enforces the satire nature of the novel. For instance, the Antichrist is first described to the reader as “a golden haired male baby we will call the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of this World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness” (Gaiman 27). Not only does the baby have this long list of titles, but he is referred to as such several more times in the next few pages. This description is a means to bring attention to the oddness of the situation and the repetition serves to emphasize it. Another interesting use of repetition is a scene in which the events of the evening are being narrated by an irritable man named R. P. Tyler; a man who not only believes himself to be the sole decider of right and wrong in the world, but that it is his responsibility to pronounce his wisdom unto others via the letter column of the Tadfield Adviser. This man is the epitome of arrogant old men and on the afternoon of Armageddon, finds himself directing several parties of odd people to the same location. In the eyes of the reader, all of the characters introduced thus far are arriving to the small English town of Tadfield for the start of the apocalypse. The events are rumored to take place at the Lower Tadfield Air Base and in succession, R. P. Tyler encounters four groups of people going to the Airfield within a span of 30 minutes (Gaiman 325-336). The result is a comedic effect that brings all separate storylines back to the same page. The repetition of events is what brought to R. P. Tyler’s attention to the odd occurrences in Tadfield. As the man met group after group, he quickly becomes more flustered and his figurative bubble of normality is cracking until Crowley’s arrival: “There was a large once-black car on fire in the lane and a man in sunglasses was leaning out the window, saying through the smoke “I’m sorry, I’ve managed to get a little lost. Can you direct me to the Lower Tadfield Air Base? I know it’s around here somewhere”” (Gaiman 334). One can safely say that after this event, R. P. Tyler no longer has a figurative bubble of normality.

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One of the highlights of Good Omens is the comical language in which it is written, setting an air for the absurd to be normalized and the mundane to receive an exaggerated retelling. An ambiance of abnormality is maintained throughout the entire novel through methods of over-explaining minute details. For instance, as the first proceedings of Armageddon are set into motion, the scene is set with the following depiction:

“It wasn’t a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but that’s the weather for you. For every mad scientist who’s had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is finished and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who’s sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime” (Gaiman 14).

This description of the setting contributes to a lighthearted mood despite the impending apocalypse. It feels as though the authors are making polite conversation as the story progresses, and this style of writing is used throughout the novel. Later on, a scene occurs in which a demon kills a room full of telemarketers and the aftermath is described as follows: “. . . a wave of low-grade goodness started to spread exponentially through the population and millions of people who ultimately would not have suffered minor bruises of the soul did not in fact do so” (Gaiman 308). The elegance in which that sentence is written gives the reader a sense of understanding in that the authors are not technically wrong in their description. The line is satirical and for many readers, felt on a personal level. The witty line does not fail in upholding the absurd and exceedingly nonchalant atmosphere. This style brings to light underlying truths of humanity that one may not acknowledge in a day to day basis, but are true nonetheless. Through this recognition of distinctly human emotions and struggles, Gaiman and Pratchett succeed in creating an engaging environment in which the reader is both reflective and entertained by their story.

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The irony in Good Omens lies within the ongoing discussion of humanity and the importance of free will. As Heaven and Hell prepare for Armageddon, the key to its commencement lies in the hands of the Antichrist. However, the Antichrist ends up being much more human than either side predicted. As usual, the demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale come to this conclusion long before their superiors:

““Because if I know anything,” said Crowley urgently, “it’s that the birth is just the start. It’s the upbringing that’s important. It’s the influences. Otherwise it will never learn to use its powers.” . . .

“You’re saying the child isn’t evil of itself?” [Aziraphale] said slowly.

“Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped.” said Crowley” (Gaiman 58).

Given that Adam the Antichrist grew up in the absence of any supernatural influence, he naturally became a very pure and innocent child who only wanted save the environment and read conspiracy theory magazines. In fact, unaware of his power and heritage, he was involuntarily at fault for the rise of Atlantis and the visitations of aliens. His deep love for the planet also allowed for his subconscious to grow rain forests in the thick of cities and to turn 500 tons of Uranium into a lemon drop. In a book that satirizes the meanings of good and evil, it is very ironic that the Antichrist has the greatest amount of love to give. As observed by local witch, Anathema: “Something or someone loves this place. Loves every inch of it so powerfully that it shields and protects it. A deep-down, huge, fierce love. How can anything bad start here?” (Gaiman 229). It is reiterated several times throughout the book that humans are their own worst enemy. They are the ones who have free will, therefore they choose whether to act good or evil. Demons and angels have no choice in this respect. Gaiman and Pratchett make clear to their audience that humans must value their free will, spread love and live life to its fullest. If the Antichrist can do it, so can you.

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When reflecting on the comedic success of Good Omens, one can conclude that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are masters at their craft. This wonderfully composed work of fiction succeeds in satirizing the inner workings of human nature in that the supernatural can do no worse to humans than humans already do to themselves. Stylistically, Gaiman and Pratchett create a casual environment that highlights the absurd events by using techniques such as irony, mood, and repetition. The result is a clever and profound lesson on the importance of love in the human experience taught not by those who are human, but those who act with the most humanity.

#good omens #neil gaiman #terry pratchett #aziraphale #crowley

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urdearestmom · 5 years

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fate (mileven week)

“‘A firebender and a master of the mind shall someday meet

Two halves of a whole, the Nether beast they must defeat

Stronger together, although this at first they may hate

Finally to find that it was always fate.’ What kind of bullshit-”

Mike Wheeler is royally pissed off. He’s always royally pissed off at something, it kind of comes with his personality, but this is the last straw.

On your sixteenth birthday, you’re supposed to get some kind of hint as to who your soulmate is in the form of something written, whether that’s something like a poem or just a simple one-liner. Nobody knows where these things come from, they just show up near you the morning of your sixteenth. It’s probably the Fates, or something. Mike doesn’t know, and it doesn’t really matter. When you meet your soulmate, they strengthen whatever power it is that you have, because another thing about this crazy world he lives in is that every human being is born with an affinity for something. However, some people possess powers more dangerous than others.

Mike Wheeler is one of them. He’s the only magna-powered person in his whole family. His older sister can lift twenty times her weight and his younger one can talk to animals, neither of which really interferes much with their daily lives or anyone else’s. His mom’s power is the ability to do anything perfectly. That’s actually a really useful one, in fact. His dad’s is perfect memory. He remembers exact dates and exact sequences of events, which can also be useful in some cases.

Mike, on the other hand, was born with the ability to create and manipulate fire. He’s also immune to it. When he was a baby, his mom had fed him and then he’d burped and set her blouse aflame, and that was how everyone knew that Karen’s boy was a firebender. It’s pretty cool and can be useful sometimes, but it’s very volatile, which is what makes it dangerous. He has a hard time controlling it, especially when he’s angry, which is a lot of the time because he has an extremely short temper. His whole life is just a vicious cycle.

So, when he wakes up on his sixteenth birthday and sees a wretched-looking piece of paper right in front of his face, he’s not surprised. What pisses him off is that it’s a fucking prophecy. He not only already has this stupid power, now the only hint he has to finding the single person in the world who might just love him the way he is is a goddamn prophecy. He can’t even meet his damn soulmate in a normal way.

He takes a picture of the paper and sends it to the group chat he has with his four friends. They’re the only people who have been brave enough to stand being close with him. Most of the school population is afraid of him; afraid that he’ll get angry and incinerate them, or something.

The Destroyer: guys i got my soulmate thingy

The Destroyer: woke up with it next to my face

The Destroyer: and it’s a fucKING PROPHECY WHAT THE FUCK

The Destroyer: IMG.347

The Destroyer: can’t even meet my goddamn soulmate in a normal way goddammit

The Vanisher: calm down mike

The Destroyer: I CAN’T CALM DOWN WILL FUCK

The Destroyer: THE ONE HINT I HAVE AND IT’S A PROPHECY!!!!! TF!!!!!!! WE HAVE TO KILL SOME MONSTER???? WHAT IS A NETHER BEAST

The Healer: idk what a nether beast is but sounds legit

The Healer: so you’re gonna hate your soulmate when you first meet apparently

The Destroyer: fuckinG GREAT THANKS DUSTIN

The Vanisher: where’s lucas when you need him

The Speedster: i’m here just

The Speedster: idk how to contribute to this

The Destroyer: i swear i’m going to set myself on fire

The Mimicker: if only that would actually work .

The Destroyer: stfu max i dont have time for your saltiness

Mike has to put his phone down because he can feel his body temperature rising and if he lets himself get too carried away he will spontaneously burst into flame. He hurriedly gets dressed in his specially-made flame-retardant clothes and pulls on his blocker gloves before making his way downstairs for breakfast.

At school, all he can hear about is the new girl. Apparently she just showed up this morning and no one knows what her power is. People have tried asking her, but nobody’s gotten anything concrete so far.

Mike couldn’t give less of a fuck. He’s not concerned with other people’s business. He hates having people in his, so why should he care about others’? In fact, he is so busy not caring about what other people are saying that he doesn’t even notice the person coming out of the restroom before he slams into her. She drops the bag she’s carrying and he drops all his books.

“Watch where you’re going next time,” growls Mike, bending down to pick up his stuff.

“Same goes for you, asshole,” comes the harsh response.

Mike stops in surprise. No one talks to him like that. Ever. They’re all too afraid of his temper to even try him. He looks up to find an unfamiliar face glaring back at him. This must be the new girl.

She’s quite pretty, but he hates her on sight. He’s not sure why; maybe the fact that she called him an asshole has something to do with it. He may or may not have deserved it, but that doesn’t mean he has to agree with it.

“Watch who you call an asshole, asshole,” he says bitingly, then picks up his last book and shoves past her.

He can feel stares on him, but he thinks people are mostly looking at the girl. She didn’t know who she was dealing with back there, otherwise, she probably would have run away just like everyone else does.

In chemistry, for which Mike isn’t allowed to participate in labs for obvious reasons, he doesn’t have a lab partner. Even if he did his classmates don’t trust him enough to sit next to him. He’s just sitting down and getting his books settled when the door opens again and in comes the same girl he just bumped into. She sees him right in the front row and her whole face wrinkles as if she’s just smelled something disgusting. A few minutes later, after she speaks to the teacher, she walks over to the empty side of Mike’s lab bench and drops her stuff before sitting down.

The girl openly looks him over again, and Mike feels himself shiver but he keeps his gaze directly forward. Something about her is off. Maybe she’s magna-powered too?

He sees her open her mouth. “I know what you are. And I hope you know I’m not afraid of you.”

Mike doesn’t say anything, merely picking at his nails as if he isn’t in the least affected by her words. What does she mean she’s not afraid of him? Who does she think she is? Even his friends are afraid of him, to some extent.

Mr. Lewis starts the lesson, and during the period Mike comes to know that the girl is named Eleanor Hopper. She’s his age. Her dad’s the new chief of police and today is her first day of school in Hawkins. She moved from Chicago. All irrelevant things that tell him nothing about who she really is, or as she would probably put it, what she is. Mike finds himself suddenly burning with curiosity (not literally of course, but he’s close). He wants to know what she does.

At the end of class, as they’re packing up their things, Mike turns to her and says, “You should be afraid of me.”

Eleanor raises a brow. “Why? So you can keep doing and saying whatever you want because no one will try to tell you you’re wrong?”

Mike feels his face twist into a frown. That’s not how it is at all and his face is getting hot, which is never a good sign. “You don’t know anything about me.”

She shoves her pencil case into her bag aggressively. “I know enough about pyros to assume your basic qualities, and I don’t like you. You all need anger management and a lesson in humility.”

“What did you call me?”

She gives a sarcastic laugh. “Pyro? Short for pyrokinetic? I recognize the blocker gloves, idiot. God, you don’t even know what your kind are called? Pretty stupid for someone in an honours chem class.”

Eleanor then exits the chemistry classroom, leaving Mike behind her with his blood boiling.

That’s it. He can’t stand her.

#MilevenWeek2018 #mileven #mileven week #fate #mileven fanfiction #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things #mike wheeler #eleven #jane hopper #el hopper

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gay-of-jakku-blog · 5 years

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Rey, The “Mary Sue”

I’m still far more than confused why people have been calling Rey a Mary Sue. People wonder where all of her skills come from... but have they completely forgotten she grew up alone on Jakku? You think after scavenging parts for years in an imperial star destroyer that you’d learn just a little bit about mechanics. Just a little bit. Or fighting, we witnessed a few people attacking her in TFA, and she fought them off. What’s to say that hasn’t happened before? And why wouldn’t she train to defend herself with all this free time? If the only thing she did was scavenge for food on Jakku, there has to be a fair amount of free time. You can’t possibly think that just because we saw her sitting around for one scene with a helmet on that that was all she had done for years.... And the languages issue, again, she had a lot of free time, I’m sure. And if you look at the citizens of Jakku, there are probably a lot of different languages she could have picked up from them. It’s fairly diverse. To those who contradict me, yes, Daisy Ridley May not know a lot about what she’s saying, but that doesn’t make Rey a Mary Sue. It’s a harsh environment to survive in, Jakku is. So yeah, it would have taken some training and adjusting to live there. There’s a reason she knows all that she does. People seem to think that if you don’t have a teacher, you can’t learn. If that’s true, then how did humans exist before schools? Before parents actually took care of their kids even? She had to be strong and independent, Rey was literally forced into it. She was living in an AT-AT for God’s sake. She would have learned. It just baffles me how people still haven’t seen any of this and call her all these things. And her force abilities... that was introduced to her by Kylo. And thinking about how she learned everything else on her own, why not now? And another argument I may make, everytime she really tapped into her ability in the force, Kylo was in the same vicinity or around her, or on the same planet. And thinking about them having this force bond, it’s completely feasible that this is the entire reason for it. Even as Snoke said, he stoked Ren’s conflicted spirit. I don’t believe he created the bond, maybe, but it could have been more like strengthening it. Which is also completely feasible. What I’m trying to get at, is if you put some thought into it, some real thought, all of a sudden Rey isn’t just good at everything. I could type for hours about this, but I’ll keep it relatively short, it’s long already but it’s nowhere near the extent of my mind. Hopefully I’ve provided some insight on this, and hopefully I’ve persuaded you to think differently about the character Rey.

Farewell, and may the force be with you nerds! ❤️

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rennyji · 3 years

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July 14th Morning Tweets...

So, they say what isn’t from God, doesn’t last.

So while religions fight each other over biases toward each other, they gotta realize it is The Will of God that they all exist to the present day. It is because they are from God that they exist to the present day. When people like me come across religions, I see puzzle pieces to one truth.

One religion can help us understand the other.

Hinduism (though seen as polytheistic), in my belief, and probably among the more educated, is a monotheistic religion. Hinduism is what is known as a pluralistic religion. If I remember correctly, the religion, which is not just a religion, but a lifestyle/culture/societal structure, incorporated the local belief practices and idols of the places/local villages it spread. The concept is that it works with peoples existing religions. They first Hindu teachers, spreading their religion, would tell the village they’re trying to include, “join our religion, for ur god is just another face of our One True God.” Technically, the household deity of a Hindu household could be Jesus from Christianity, as Jesus would he seen as “one of many forms” of The One God.

Now Islam may find problems with some of the idols incorporated because, for one thing, they resemble, in appearance, the Jin from their belief system. While Americans turn the jin into genies, they are actually demons, and not the dedicated house wife blonde in “ I Dream of Jeanie.” Sometimes, because of the business of life and lack of time to think, even the practitioners of belief of the idols of Hinduism, forget that those idols are accepted in the overall religion because they are possibly believed to be an illusion of appearance of the One God. In their confrontations with Islam, the Muslims may encounter Hindus very much attached to the physical appearance of their idols and forgetting or never realizing that there is only One God. They may encounter tribal practices that the pluralistic Hinduism tolerated, for the purpose of initiating a culture, a structure, to people spread across the vast subcontinent of India, currently home to 1 billion + people.

I think at its core, Hinduism is about the One God taking the forms of the Trimurti, kind of like the Christian Trinity. In Christianity, there is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Muslims call The Father, The Creator. As I understand, they don’t believe in the Son (FYI Muslims see Jesus or Yesu or or some variation of the name as a prophet and not God) and the Holy Spirit.

That being said, The Father is the Creator, The Son is like a Preserver of good and tries to spread it, and the Holy Spirit is the guide to our lives, from my belief. That relates to the Hindu Trinity in that in their Godhead, Brahma is the Creator, Vishnu is the Preserver, and Shiva is the Destroyer. The two religions differ in the third person of the Trinity- I mean the idea of A holy spirit vs. A destroyer (though a destroyer by nature or role, still prayed to by followers for needs/desires ). Like all religions, Hinduism believes we are in End Times. They call it Kali Yuga. Yuga is a reference to a Period of time. After the time of destruction of evil, we enter Satya Yuga, a time of good. But the world goes through a cycle from Satya Yuga to Kali Yuga multiple times because of human nature. It gives a clear understanding of man. During good times, times of peace, people get too comfortable. It can get to the point they are not alert to the changing times, not mindful of their behaviors, or acting like animals which is fueled by desire/impulse and lacking a thinking mind and heart. In the Bible, God sends prophets to warn man of a path that leads to destruction. The message is “Repent, for the time is near or the end is near.”

Here, in my situation, there are advertisements for mind reading/mind control. When Christ returns and/or the 10th Avatar of Vishnu: Kalki (depicted as a rider of a white horse…sounds like something from Revelations), have you wondered what kind of insane army of people fights Christ, following the Rapture? Perhaps the members of the army are mind controlled and lack common sense and free will.

To be honest, I don’t understand what motivates a mass group of people to follow the instructions of a few, surrounding one individual.

I’m just a passerby, going from place to place. If you team up against me, a nobody, suddenly it becomes evident that you will actually fight in defiance against the forces of the end times.

Have you heard of the demon Legion from the Bible that was cast into pigs? The demon says call us Legion, for we are many. You have the conscious instructions of the orchestrators uniting a large group of people against one individual. Was Legion of the Bible also a metaphor for this behavior of mankind I.e. mindless naively-trustful-instruction-following? Well, it sounds corny in America, but in the face of forces against the mind, remember that you consist of mind and heart. Know what’s in ur heart, follow what’s in your heart, while your mind may be susceptible to external influences. Your identity resides in ur heart and cannot be affected by the forces your mind may be susceptible to.

In brushing with Hinduism, I came across the concept that “all is one” and the differences we see are part of the “illusion of life.” Sounds deep for an American. But as a Christian, this helped me understand Holy Communion better. In receiving this Sacrament, we are becoming One with The Body of Christ or One with God Himself. Just like a mother or father tells their children “you are a part of me”, we are destined to be One with Our Father (as Christians say) or One with The Creator ( as Muslims probably say). Our prayers get answered, miracles happen, when we are like a diamond chair that God will find worthy to sit on-Or when we are one in body and mind with The Creator…how do you picture something like that: I.e. being one with God? You can picture it as being in a hug with a Being of Light, or for Christians, being in a hug with Jesus. Through the act of hugging, you occupy one point in space, kind of like being one, physically. How do you become one with God in mind and spirit? By following the Golden Rule: love God first and foremost, and love ur neighbor like urself. In loving God, you live life in a way Big Daddy-O would be proud of.

You always acknowledge the good things are not because you deserve them, but because The Really Really Big Guy (as Steve Urkel refers to God when talking to Carl Winslow in an episode of Family Matters) or Pops (a.k.a. The Really Really Big Guy), want His children with the best in life. You are “blessed” or privileged because God, your Daddy, wants whats bests for you and for you to have the best. You acknowledge and always remember you are nothing without Him. You love ur neighbor like yourself by being in service to mankind.(in my case, you can be a neighbor to me and tell me what’s going on, cuz I’m sure you wouldn’t wish this on urself or ur loved ones…but getting back to the point…). When people hear things like this, they think priest. When they hear service to mankind, they think something like a missionary. I’m saying you just gotta be ur cool self while holding a door for someone or sticking up for someone or simply being the best version of you and privileging someone with your company- I mean use common sense to be blunt, or live with ur heart.

Oneness with God is the unspoken goal of all religions. We, along with the Universe or the multiverse or whatever, came into being through an explosion or a bang or The Big Bang (sound of an explosion) that comes from God thinking, or voicing His Thought. From the resulting vibrational energy of God thinking/speaking with His powerful voice, like a wave, we echoed into existence. And through the gift that is life, which is a manifestation of God, we echo back. But as there is a heaven/hell or believed to be or if it’s not just a state of mind (as elaborated in previous tweets/blog), existence could be a purification process. We are all part of the Body of Christ. Christ is the mind, the Divine Plan for all Creation, (or for non Christians, the Godhead is the head of the body that is creation) and we are members of the Body of Christ or The Body of the Divine. Bodies can have cancers that need to be removed. Those who misuse the gift of life-assuming life is a purification process in one aspect, from one angle-I think…are removed as tumors from the Body of Christ. They go to hell.

In the Body of Christ, in this life, in the next, we all have a function. Ive said it before and I’ll say it again: you were born to be a titan, as you are Child of God or have ancestry sourced in something as cosmic and magnificent sounding as “from the beginning of time” (<-you are here today because so was ur great great great to infinity grand parents at the dawn of time).

You, whatever ur current circumstance in life, are royalty.

Act with class and dignity.

If we are part of the body of God, then we’re not typical cells and organs. We have super functions and it is our job in life to figure that out, carry it out, and at least follow the Golden Rule. If the heart turns against the kidney or liver, how does the body function? We are all equal parts to a whole, a family of a world before ANY nation, required to help each other, in the same way the heart, kidney, liver, etc. work together to bring harmony in the body. We need to bring harmony to our world, or epically put: our existence. You wanna know what one form of God looks like? Well you see it all round you in people, places, things. Why? Because creation is a manifestation of the Divine. We are God’s thoughts/words taking form. What we view as separate is just an illusion or trick of the mind. The heart and kidneys are nothing on their own. They are identified through, and as part of, the body they reside. Person A and Person B and New York City and Dallas, Texas and the Middle East and the airplanes that go to/from and the phone I’m typing on and the stars and planets in space, are all parts of the Body of Christ or the Body of the Divine or are One Manifestation of the Divine. This ideology I’m sharing is my understanding of the Body of Christ image, through the lens from Hinduism about us being the manifestation of the Divine and things in life depicted under the illusion of separate. A different religion helped me gain better understanding of my own.

So being the manifestation of the Divine, while alive on this earth, clean up, perfect, beautify yourselves and everything around you. We are One Body and we gotta be our best and look our best.

We are the suit that God wears or the cool shades on His All Seeing Eyes. It’s a whole new kind of “Representin’…”

We are God’s thoughts echoing into formation, and we will echo back into the light, or another way of putting it: like a mom or dad holding their baby and spending every second with them till it’s time for preschool, in our beginning, before we were formed in our mother’s womb, God held us, and did the hard thing for any parent, and let His kids leave Him to go to the school and series of classes that is life. Jesus says we are to be a light to the world. Life or our figurative classes or life’s wonders, trials, tribulation is so that we can graduate from “Life School” and be light in this world, and ultimately echo back to The Light or the origin of electromagnetic thought waves or the sound waves resulting from The Powerful Voice commanding our creation. When our wave echoes back to The Source, after completing the training/purifying process of life to be one with God, so that our frequencies match, we are ultimately returning to His embrace or His hug. That is our destiny: Heavenly Bliss.

In the school of Life, we don’t all have to be valedictorians or salutatorians. We don’t all have to go to a figurative college. Do what you can, for you and for others, with what you have- for your Father, your Creator, knows you did your best. So different religions floating through my head helped me put that thought into writing on the fly.

I recently mentioned the power of prayer. Prayer is a way for us to program ourselves and our reality.

From being made in the Image of God, we are children of God,

and thereby little gods.

Act with class, act with dignity, be who you were born to be.

I said prayer is a way to program reality. Im a computer science graduate. I learned to use the language of computers to create what you see on your computer screens. This too has given me perspective as to the value of all the religions in the world. In programming, we have what is known as high level languages and low level languages, if I remember correctly. I see Christianity as a high level language. It encapsulates a lot of complexities and makes things easy for people through “data encapsulation”. Christ blackboxes (I think that’s the word) or hides the hard things you have to learn to be enlightened, by saying “Love God first and foremost, and your neighbor like yourself.” That’s also a summary of the 10 Commandments given to Moses and seen as Judaism. Christ sums up many and deep spiritual lessons in His parables.

Here’s a computer metaphor: parables are like computer zip files or compressed files. A zip file is a file that can contain multiple files and folders in the convenience of one smaller file. You use a program to unzip that one file to reveal the multiple files and folders. The parables are zip files and you can gain a myriad of advice, lessons, truth from the same story.

The program you use to unzip a parable is “insight” and “life experience.” These things open our eyes to different perspectives on the same parable, or story.

I said Christianity is a high level language and that there are low level languages and even machine code. Machine code are the 1’s and 0’s you hear about with computers. To break that down further, a 1 is an electrical charge and 0 is the lack of it. Then there’s what’s known as assembly language. Assembly language puts a sequence of these 1’s and 0’s in association with English keywords. It can be complicated. Then there’s ur high level languages. This allows the programmer to speak to a computer in English while not having to know about special keywords and sequences of 1’s and 0’s or electrical charges. Christ tells us that in order go to Heaven, or from the Buddhist perspective: to reach Enlightenment, follow the Golden Rule and exercise your ability to believe, for this sums up the Commandments from the time of Judaism. Jesus tries to make salvation easy and accessible for everyone.

Hinduism, from how I see it, is like assembly language and machine code. Being the 1s and 0s of religions, it’s like working under the hood of a running vehicle. Sometimes it is necessary to open the metaphorical “black box” to fix the vehicle as a whole or to put the vehicle in the right direction. However with Hinduism, there’s a lot to learn. Among those things: Mantras, meditation, yoga, a lot to read, and sometimes in Sanskrit. I’m personally interested in it, because Hinduism is not just a religion, but perhaps the source of the culture of one billion people in the subcontinent of India. We have our own health system in Ayurveda. It’s not just about enlightenment, but it gives a specific guide for health, and roles in life.

The Hindus have a belief that the stars have control over our lives, that there is a fate, hence astrology. I personally like astrology to learn about potential personalities, not really into future predicting. So, according to Hindus, the stars govern us.

Now from a Christian perspective, when Christ was born, there was a star over His birthplace guiding the Wise Men, who happened to be Iranian Zoroastrians or at least Zoroastrians, if I remember correctly. Just an example of how God, as understood by Christianity, is the God of all religions and Whose family consists of everyone. But regarding the star guiding the wise men to Jesus’ birthplace, I believe the new “Jesus star” is a symbol that we can be more than what the programming of the “already existing” stars from Hinduism dictate for the framework or even future for individual lives. The stars may say person A can only marry person B or that person C had to be a doctor. But Christ says, if we exercises our minds, if we believe we can move mountains and walk on water. Through communication you can resolve relationship problems, console others, leave an impact on this world.

The Word of God created human beings and the universe, according to belief systems.

Assuming we are little gods from being made in the Image of God, our words have power.

If not to command the winds and storms, we can use communication to better all relationships, to practice diplomacy- that itself is a great power, greater than our fists or any weapon.

As I’m Indian, like my Pakistani, and Bangladeshi brothers, we have Indian Hindu ancestry. Things like the restrictions of the caste system, once for the purpose of giving order/structure to a primitive society and making sure every niche or role in society was fulfilled, were among a source of problems, making our ancestors seek alternative options. Seeing a different perspective on faith and life were another reason for alternative options to religion. Ive wondered why my ancestors personally converted from Hinduism to Christianity. There are stories that they were Brahmins (the upper priestly/teacher class) or Ksatriyas (the warrior class). On a sidenote, I remember learning that the first Brahmins who traveled down the vast Indian subcontinent, spreading/teaching the religion, were from around the Punjabi region of India. As Hinduism forgot about its monotheistic roots, one enlightened group of people from the Punjabi region formed Sikhism, with emphasis on whole hearted love for One God being the key attribute of the religion. I believe other religions came about as well, focusing on the mind and monotheism.

But back to my ancestors and their possible caste roles…When I was in college, I met an Indian from the Indian state of “Gujarat” . Her last name made me think. Her last name was “Brahmaksatriya.” That’s sounds like a combination of the aforementioned words of “Brahmin” and “Ksatriya”. I’d like to think my ancestors were a special breed of what that last name alludes to in my mind: “Warrior Monk” or Brahma-ksatriya. I mean it sounds like Master Roshi from the Dragon Ball series…but it could just be my fantasy…

I think my ancestors converted to Christianity, because it is the metaphorical high level language. You don’t have to know all sorts of texts and ways of life through the Christian path to Oneness with God or The Divine. Was that my ancestors being lazy? Well let’s look at it from the perspective of the orchestrators. They seem to try to control every aspect of my life. With all the random details that come their way from constant monitoring, it’s clouded their vision and made them blind to seeing me, as me. Sometimes too much information can do that. Sometimes you need the highlights. Perhaps all the details around the specifics to the universe like assembly/machine language for computers was just clogging my ancestors minds in trying to achieve new heights in life. Perhaps knowing the Golden Rule and the power of belief gave my ancestors a perspective on moving mountains and walking on water. Perhaps they realized they could be more than priests/monks/warriors/or even warrior monks. Perhaps they saw a limitless approach in the Christian path or gained the idea that they can be and achieve anything, as not even the stars can contain the “Might of Our Existence.”

“Believe and you can move mountains...” Be doubt free that your Father will take care of things, and you can walk on water.

Christians say a prayer at the beginning/end of their day or before every meal to thank God for the food they eat and to bless it and to make them worthy to consume it (as there are people without sustenance in this world). I believe doubtless prayer from strong disciplined minds can make those meals, the Hindu concept of “Saatvic” in nature. I believe the power of prayer can make those meals Halal or Kosher without the physical actions, but through the power of our minds, hearts, and Spirit. I believe the high level language of Christianity wants us to take things up a notch and strengthen our minds and follow our hearts in practice of the Golden Rule. Doubtless Belief is stronger than any mantra or meditation. But that being said, mantras and meditation can remove the doubts and strengthen belief as one possible route to such belief.

Believe, don’t get lost in the details and rules and regulation of religions. You are royalty in being children of the Divine. Know that you are taken care of, do what’s appropriate for your life using insight that transcends right/wrong, while practicing the Golden Rule.

Want something secular on the power of belief? Have you heard of the DC superhero: Static Shock? In the animated series, he runs into a future version of himself (time travel stuff) who is more developed, stronger, and a more accomplished version of his younger self. In the face of all that awesomeness, the younger Static Shock asks, “HOW?!” In a powerful/mature tone, despite the whole electricity powers, Static’s future self responds, “Believe in yourself, for “that” is your greatest power.”

So that’s my long thought on the fly.

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