#the plants are a metaphore

[ineffable-suffering]

Trauma-Dumping on your plants: The Anthony J. Crowley Chronicles

This has been living in my silly head rent free for so long, I finally decided to slap it on here in hopes of thinking about it a little less (than three times a day. It's been years. I need to get over it.)

Also, I'm absolutely certain I'm not even remotely the first person to realize or post about this, since it's not the hardest of parallels to figure out. Alas, I still shall, because out of mind, out of sight and all that. So:

Let's talk about how Crowley is using his houseplants to work through his own Trauma of the Fall. Or, well, maybe not work through it per se, but more so roleplay it to give it somewhat of an an outlet because he never got over it. Lol.

It's not rocket science to figure it out and God Herself actually gives us a pretty spot-on explanation of it in her own narration.

Crowley's plants are perfect. They're, as God Herself tells us, the most luxurious and beautiful in all of London. He takes great care of them, waters them, mists them. Does any and everything to give them the perfect conditions so they won't have a worry in the world.

And yet, we're immediately shown that despite the seemingly perfect conditions they're living in, Crowley's plants still get *gasps quietly* spots. And we all know how Crowley feels about that:

It seems like such an unnecessary tiny thing to get upset about, right? Like, plants get spots all the time. They're not perfect, they're part of nature and nothing is ever perfect in nature. Crowley would know that by now. Imperfection is the whole point of nature. If everything had stayed exactly the way it always was, nothing would have ever changed or evolved.

Besides, Crowley is a demon. If it were merely about aesthetics to him, he could easily miracle away any spot with a blink of his serpent eyes. But he gets so angry about it, it's almost comical. At first we think it's just to show us, the audience, that, in contrast to Aziraphale, who cares very dearly and lovingly for his books, Crowley is a mean, mean demon who, instead of being outwardly nice to the things he loves (like Aziraphale does), yells at his plants because he's a mean meanie.

But! If you look at the whole scene and what God says, it's pretty obvious what he's actually doing is something else entirely: "What Crowley does is he puts the fear of God in them. Or, the fear of Crowley. The plants are the most luxurious and beautiful in London. Also the most scared."

Folks, this man dude serpent is literally roleplaying the concept of God/Heaven threatening angels with their Fall in order to keep them obedient ... with his houseplants.

Have I mentioned yet that I am absolutely obsessed with him and also desperately wanna get him a therapy voucher?

Because what does he do once he sees a plant disobeying his rules of perfection and acting out? The same thing God did to her questioning, equally disobedient angels (including Crowley): Parade it in front of the very scared rest, making an example of it ...

... only to then, well ...

... quite literally chuck it out.

To anyone else, this seems like a completely ridiculous thing to do over a tiny, minuscule spot. There would have been a bunch of other ways to go about fixing that spot.

Figuring out what it was the plant needed that might not have been given to it yet.

Taking care of it in a different, individual way so it would have been able to thrive again.

Listening to the plant and letting it tell you why its spot appeared in the first place.

Telling the plant, that loves and relies on you entirely, you love it too, despite it not being without fault, despite of it not fully living up to your unreachable standards of perfection.

Caring for the plant not because you want it to be perfect, but because you're okay with it being imperfect.

(We're no longer talking about plants here, as you are probably aware.)

Alas, this isn't what Crowley does. Because it wasn't what God did, either. We still know very little about Crowley's actual Fall and the Fall of Lucifer and the rest. But we do know that Crowley was never like or even with them.

All he did was ask some questions. A tiny spot. A seemingly insignificant blemish in the luxurious, beautiful flora of Heaven.

And yet, before he knew it, he did a "million lightyear freestyle dive into a boiling pool of sulfur". Cast out, chucked away, just like his little spotty plant. And for what? Well ...

... to keep the others angels plants check, for the rest of time.

***

(Addendum from the comments: If we go by what the book tells us, Crowley doesn’t actually end up violently throwing out the ‚bad‘ plants. He just finds a different place for them and makes sure they‘re looked after. So much to him being a big, bad, meanie-mean demon.)

#botany over therapy #harvest the garden of your emotional trauma #its ok crowley just take my hand ill take you to a nice doctor #crowley #good omens #good omens season 1 #crowley's fall #he's not even close to ever being over it #which is understandable #ineffable trauma #the plants are a metaphore #my own meta

[knightsickness]

craziest shot in hotd for me still in driftmark immediately after the knife scene where alicent is shown from above as a red head surrounded by valyrian silver hair and silver helmets and criston’s dark head comes to join her. me when the greenie court outsiders theme is theming

#rewatching driftmark. obviously #team green IS them and larys to me i love the hightower targs but they’re sooo they’re so #that scene + larys’ foreign plant that thrives in the crownlands metaphor. you understand #hotd #house of the dragon #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #alicent hightower #criston cole

[19burstraat]

still think I was funny as fuck for naming my spider plant inej and my money plant kaz

#to further the metaphor. my spider plant is beautiful and thriving and very hardy #my money plant is a temperamental fucker that freaks out if I water it too often and thrives best if I just ignore it

[mylonelydreaming]

I just realized that both botw/totk zelink and alttp zelink grow crops of some kind, so now I'm imagining a rival farmers au where they fight it out over who has better produce

#zelink #alttp zelink seasoned farmers vs upstart botw zelink using new and untested scientific methods #goofy 1 am thoughts don't mind me #is farming one of those things that ties all the most romantic zelinks together #sksw zelink could have had a farm on the surface as well maybe? #something something plants thriving metaphor

[lovefromivy]

metaphors in hozier's 'would that i'

the song doesn't make a lot of sense until you decode the metaphors he uses in it, but then it all clicks. the use of extended metaphors for his present and previous lovers is really important and significant because it tells the listener a lot about how he experiences these different loves in very different ways, and why his current love isn't 'just another date', but something entirely new that he values very highly and cherishes to the point that he 'worships' it.

hozier compares his past loves to plants - he describes his past lover as having 'hair like the branch of a tree' and calls her a 'willow', and, when talking about forgetting other loves in the wake of his current lover, he says that he watches 'still living roots' be destroyed. plants are beautiful, but they require a lot of care. there's a specificity to each type of plant, because different plants have different needs in terms of water, types of food, mineral content, soil pH, and the list goes on. it's easy to accidentally kill plants with just one misstep. they are delicate and difficult and progress is slow because it takes years and years for trees to grow and reach their full potential, start producing fruit, etc. hozier is saying that his past loves were a lot of work and they didn't give anything back easily, even though he had to give them everything to try and make them work.

by contrast, hozier calls his new love 'the fire', 'flames', and so on. fire is wild, all-consuming, and can be terrifying. but fire is also powerful and free. when we think about fire, we mostly think about destruction - wildfires or burning buildings or similar disasters - but fire is also life. before human ancestors had fire, they were cold and vulnerable and in the dark. but, after fire, their survival was completely revolutionised: it was an entirely new way of life. for the first time, they could control when it was light; they could keep warm in the winter; they could cook food, and, subsequently, their diets were transformed; they could protect themselves much better from predators. fire represented energy, innovation, life. yes, it was dangerous. but it was also majorly useful and ultimately it was something they needed, not just to stay alive, but to live. to call your love not just a fire but the fire - as in, the first fire, the only fire, the fire to rival all other fires - is to call it the introduction of warmth, protection, light, growth, energy, and power; it is to call it the biggest advancement possible in your lifetime; it is to call it the single root cause of a metamorphosis. the speaker is commenting that this newest love has entirely changed the way that he sees and experiences love.

the metaphors also allude to the speaker's own inner turmoil and problems with love and loving. when hozier talks about his prior trysts, he uses precise, controlling language: he's very specific when he talks about exactly what the relationship was and how it worked in his first verse, detailing what was 'under' him and what was 'over' him. then, in the next verse, he repeats the verb 'must', giving that verse a desperate, urgent tone. 'must' is a harsh verb and it doesn't leave much room for debate. the level of control that hozier is exerting (or, at the very least, trying to exert) over this relationship is made clear linguistically, but is also mimicked in that extended metaphor of the willow tree. taking care of them is long, hard, and mostly fruitless work, and maybe he even feels like it's his duty to take control of the relationship because he feels that his lover needs that control, maybe because she isn't giving him anything much back, just like that volatile, hard-to-care-for willow tree. that same verse sees an allusion to the time that he 'fretted fire', and, if the tree is control and stability, then surely fire is the opposite - anarchy and disorder? - except that he comes to see fire as freedom. he manages to let go of the need to be in control. he finds a relationship where he doesn't need to be the one doing everything: he doesn't address his past lover(s) at all (perhaps he knows it's pointless, since they won't respond?), instead talking about them passively, but he does talk a lot about what he does, relying heavily on first person singular pronouns. in the fourth verse, he addresses someone else for the first time - his 'flame' - personally, and the fifth verse is entirely directed at her. he talks about her actually taking action, actually doing things. when he says that she 'licked off the grain', i think that he is alluding to her taking all of his bad memories, all of his felled willow (and other?) trees, and simply taking away the rough, uneven parts (the grain), leaving him with the smooth wood, and that she is able to do this because he no longer has any reason to lament his past failures in love - he has his 'flame', and the trees of his past can't use their roots to trip him up or push their branches in his face any more, and so he is simply left with happy memories, the best of his ex-lovers, whatever is left that he can still appreciate and be thankful for. and that's significant because he's found a love who has helped him let go of the need for control. he doesn't need to control the relationship any more, for his sake or for his lover's, because she is here and she is willing to do things with him and for him and give back to him and help him to be free, and offer him warmth and protection and energy and all these things that fire is, and he doesn't need to do anything except love her back, because fire only needs one thing to stay alive, and everything else simply becomes fuel. if his love is her flames' version of oxygen, then everything else is just flammable material. nothing he does can make her stop loving him because fires aren't difficult to keep alive, they are difficult to put out. fires don't need food with specific mineral ratios or a certain volume of rainfall or the right soil pH. they just burn. she just loves him - that is what she does. and he watches 'in awe' because that kind of unconditional love is so far removed from his carefully-measured, carefully-controlled previous relationships.

and those last two lines of the last verse are so beautiful: "long as amber of ember glows/all the 'would that i'd loved' is long ago". he's saying that even when the flame burns out, even if she stops loving him, even if she is dead and gone and buried, the freedom that she gave him will remain in the 'amber', that beautiful colour linked to energy and the sun and wealth (because isn't that what love is?), of the last, residual 'ember', the dwindling remains of the love and freedom they shared. and as long as he can hold onto that freedom, even if it does dwindle down to embers and ashes - treasured memories and the fears that you'll forget what their smile looked like or the way they scrunched their nose when the disliked something or the cute expression they assumed when focussed - then he never has to go back to feeling like he needs to grip onto a half-hearted relationship, where he must always be responsible and in control and doing.

but yeah i just love that fire metaphor. can you tell??? probably not

#hozier #would that i #wasteland baby #andrew hozier byrne #lyrics #lyricism #metaphors #food for thought #analysis #song #song analysis #lyric analysis #fire emblem #plants #willow trees #love

[rogueolight]

wish we had some content of shiori that didn’t solely revolve around juri

#as much as i adore their parallels… #and i know it’s similar where everything that leads juri to take action #is like intrinsically linked back to shiori #but like. #there is literally not an ounce of downtime for shiori specifically #her only hobby can’t be stealing mid men to cope with the homosexuality demons #or if it is get some more damn 😭😭 #shiori takatsuki #idk i like imagining what she would do u know #like perhaps she’d keep plants #sort of tugging at that parallel between her and anthy #but probably not quite near as overtly metaphorical #unless she grew the orange rose she gifted to juri on her own. THEN. #but i don’t think the plants she’d keep would have flowers #idk i think it would help her heal to do some shit for herself #also like to think she might have a perfume shop post ohtori… #this came to me in a dream #i was like she has that vibe #plusss. model juri post ohtori coincidentally modeling for her business #just think about it #kibinevershutsthefuckup #<- too much yapping

[lyssq]

Anyway thinking about how Hardwon Surefoot has cheated years onto his lifespan but it still won’t be enough. He got an extra century when he went from human to half-elf. He spent all those years on the astral plane. But Bev and Moonshine will still live an eternity compared to him.

#naddpod #hardwon surefoot #hardshine #moonshine cybin #beverly toegold v #I’m certain there’s a metaphor about plants in here somewhere #but someone who actually knows anything about plants has to do it #hardwon living longer than he would’ve compared to the undying ancient trees of timeless body/undying sentinel

[sidleyparkhermit]

3.06 “Ghost Light” had EVERYTHING. Excellent raincoats. Michael Cyril Creighton’s star turn. A strange old gay man putting on puppet shows in the theatre attic. A pet goldfish that went on an adventure and actually survived (even if I did get actual stress dreams afterward about pet fish in inappropriate living conditions). MLM/WLW hostility. MLM/WLW solidarity. Script by a lesbian Pulitzer finalist whose wife wrote the Fun Home musical. The theatre is both metaphorically and literally haunted. The gang is in their breakup era. Oliver is on the Bad Choice Road. The Slings & Arrows vibes are off the charts. Charles is envious of Mabel’s hot new boyfriend

#only murders in the building #omitb #omitb spoilers #ok now get that fish some goddamn rocks and plants Charles. I know it’s a metaphor but you gotta get him some rocks and plants

[rantingoverbadfic]

Every time I see Feemor being an actual character in a Star Wars fic, like, with dialogue and contributions to move the plot along and shit, instead of being backdrop garnish, I am overcome with an inexplicable, but unstoppable urge to sing out Audrey II's line from Little Shop of Horrors "Feed me, Feemor!" and I snicker.

#reading fanfic #star wars #hilarious #feemor #thats it thats the post #this is not actually about some particular fic #in true tumblr and fandom fashion I decided #if i have to suffer so do you #just wondering if it makes me the plant in this case #and i demand feemor to feed me not his literal blood #but feelings #so metaphorical hearts blood in a way

[blotomical]

This desolation within me burns my skin.

(POMR 6) previous chapter AO3

Mr. Plant has to go to court-ordered therapy.

Word count: 3.7k

#sorry for taking so long on this </3 #if anyone ever has any theories about these i would love to hear them btw #i always put a lot of metaphors and very vague hints at stuff in these #fanfiction #fanfic #argos twomp #mr plant twomp #mr plant x argos #the world of mr plant #world of mr plant #twomp #twomrp #writing #argos #mr plant #ashur gharavi #pomr #tw body horror #tw bugs #tw insects

[cats-of-eden-valley]

What are the naming systems like for each of the prides? Or, at least, what are the “themes” for each, since we clearly see some at play!

The themes are what I live for (and it wouldn't be a true xenofiction without fun names)

Goldspring are named after plants, mostly flowers. Sometimes I sprinkle in some Latin (like Delphinium) for spice but generally I try to stick to common names.

Coldbank are fish! Again mostly common names, specifically because fish names are just so Name. Like you get shit like Walleye, Tuna, Goby for FREE. It really lends a bit of a whimsical vibe imo.

Bogden are minerals. There's so many -ites and -ines that it really does sound like some fun fantasy naming system anyways. Shout out specially to Rosinca, Cinnabar, and Bixbite being some of my faves.

Windswept* are from birds, which have a range from elegant to badass to mischievous. Could name a guy Chickadee. Could name a guy Rook. Delightful.

Outsiders are named after stars. Like, stars out in space stars. So we got stuff like Polaris, Bellatrix, and of course Caph and Petra. It really lends such a Vibe.

The Strays (antagonistic group forming in the Town) take on names that are like. Words with really negative connotations I guess. So like, Rancid or Atrophy or Detritus. I'm personally fond of Derelict and Fester.

And then there's this faction of...bounty hunters, sorta? Totally not fleshed out, but they take on the names of body parts, like Fibula or Sclera. May or may not relate to their First Kill.

#the themes are a metaphor the cats dont know that a cypress is a plant when they use it as a name #its a meta level worldbuilding decision so the reader could theoretically tell a cats faction just by name #which the cats also do know its just. i wanted the reader to also be able to know #worldbuilding #xenomoggy #coev: setting #there are more factions in the world but i dont care about them

[scarystickers]

"It starts as it will end, with a garden."

Season One ends with them in the park, in a garden, together and happy. Meanwhile in Season Two there is no garden. The plants are there though. Plants that were taken from their peaceful fragile existence and shoved into a car, a bookshop, then the car again. For a brief moment they had a stable home in that bookshop. Before finding themselves in a black bentley with limited sunlight, unable to flourish. The foundation for the garden remains yet the plants are separated from the earth.

#in season three the plants are carefully laid to rest in a bed made perfectly for them #in a garden in a cottage with an angel and demon #the plants are a metaphor for aziracrow #good omens #good omens s2 #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #crowley #aziraphale

[pokimoko]

Haustoria - Moon Knight Fic

Written by pokimoko for @buttsnorkeler69420 (as part of @tiptapricot's #Moon Knight Mystery Swap)

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 14.6K

Fandom: Moon Knight (2022), Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationships: Layla El-Faouly & Steven Grant, Layla El-Faouly & Marc Spector, Layla El-Faouly & Jake Lockley, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Characters: Layla El-Faouly, Steven Grant (Marvel), original villain, Marc Spector, Jake Lockley

Tags: Dissociative Identity Disorder, Post-Season/Series 01, Layla El-Faouly-centric, Horror, Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Undead, Colonialism, Extended Metaphors, (which are also fairly heavy-handed metaphors let's be honest), Canon-Typical Violence, Gore, Parasites, Protective Layla El-Faouly, Angst and Humor, Egypt, POV Layla El-Faouly, Moon Knight Mystery Swap 2023

Summary: Layla and Steven journey into the depths of an ancient and forgotten tomb in search of the lost dead, but within its halls, where flowers grow across the walls and bugs cover the ground, the dead might just find them.

#moon knight #mcu fic #mcu #my writing #marvel #marvel fic #fanfic #my fanfic #moon knight mystery swap #moon knight mystery swap 2023 #layla el-faouly #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #happy new year! have some horror! and not my usual brand of metaphorical horror. this is legit cut and dry horror...that is also a metaphor #you've heard of plant vs zombies. now get ready for the completely original never been done idea of plant zombies #no no see it's not like the last of us. those are mushroom zombies. these are *plant* zombies. BIG difference #(but yeah TLAU. house of hollow. and The Silt Verses were huge vibe inspirations for this. this fic is probably my most grotesque ever) #(and if you notice me reusing a certain parsitic puppety type of villain in this that i used in an older fic of mine...no you didn't) #but yes i hope you like it buttsnorkeler! i wanted to touch on as many of your prompt suggestions as possible so i hope i succeeded

[mack-anthology-mp3]

just saw a post saying 'if these are on her bookshelf, run' and it had this is how you lose the time war and the starless sea on it??? and like gideon the ninth??? which i still havent read rahhh but like these are not femcel books whatare you talkingggg abouttttttttttt the starless sea is really lovely???? this is how you lose the time war is dark and complex but like????? and it had the secret history on it too and i havent read that either but its a very popular book. the only people who are toxic about that book are the people who romanticise it and i'm pretty sure thats missing the point of that book idk. lots of people like that book who dont think working yourself into a delirium is hashtag aesthetic or liking fiction murder makes you edgy. and if you've missed the point of the secret history surely theres no way you got anything out of the starless sea that book has LAYERS. i dont know man

#i think i need to reread the starless sea and annotate it this time #i love that book so so much i need to draw them as well #ajhskajnhsa if only i could draw well w/out a reference hehe #the starless sea #and like okay there was some messed up stuff in this is how you lose the time war but nothing that wouldn't be out of place in a tumblr pos #if you know what i mean #like there was toxic yuri (literally) dramatic metaphors secret love etc #plant woman vs. artificial intelligance woman but they're in love #like it was pretty damn intense but it wasnt like. full of Problems #idk

[metanarrates]

the effect that rgu has had on my vocabulary is insane. I frequently use "sunlit garden" and "rose bride" as verbs when talking about characters with my friends (ie. "they're sunlit gardening him.") i talk a lot about characters being in their coffins. sometimes i refer to a character as having a "black rose episode" to mean that they hit a breaking point but then returned to the status quo. me when the imagery of the show is so striking i now use it as synecdoche to describe the concepts those images represent...!

#rgu #RGUTUALS YOU UNDERSTAND ME #like i talk about asriel undertale being sunlitgardened FREQUENTLY... its such a fun metaphor because he is also literally a plant now. #this show has had such an insane effect on me

[1tsjusty0u]

could silent princesses go naturally extinct? or do plants only go extinct by human or animal interference? do they just need really specific growing conditions and thats why silent princesses are so rare? would they be common in a country outside of hyrule due to the geography of the theoretical country? i refuse to believe cultivating silent princesses is impossible

#listenlisten i know its supposed to be symbolic #its s metaphor. but . is that how plants work. #i need to rewatch the cutscene….. #maybe im looking way too much into it too and its fine actually but i cant stop thinking about it #i refuse to believe growing silent princesses or starting a garden like that is impossible #besides what constitutes asbthe wild #for zelda its being free of her power and responsibility and her royalty ‘duty’ #for the flower what constitutes as wild soil vs nonwild soil #there could be symbolism that the castle pollutes the soil around it #or that the soil around the castle is like. Hand Made for certain flowers but discards the rest #like fertilizer or gmo but for soil. but thats not even close to actual canon