#DNA and God

[presswoodterryryan]

Understanding DNA: God’s Blueprint for Life

By Ariel “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” —Psalm 139:14 Hello, friends! It’s Ariel again, and today we did something in homeschool that started with a big surprise. When Mommy unboxed the DNA model kit and held up the twisty double helix, I gasped. It looked like a curly straw made of jellybeans and math! The colors…

[urban-shade]

made a little ref for myself of my personal hc of what seb was like in the middle of the experimentation phase

[razables]

the father, the daughter, and the baby

[dreamaruu]

Hello RvBGTBQ+ community

[cozmic-ash]

Gordon/Barney/Alyx is really really funny to me conceptually bc it's like, two hot geniuses in their 20s who look at the 40-something smartass who hangs around and go 'yeah that guy. we both want him carnally'

[starleska]

Smile For Me is such a riot. i'm receiving anti-therapy from a seven-foot tooth thief who i desire carnally. in what other media can anyone receive such an unparalleled experience?

[asciuto]

on the way home, I wrote a poem, you say "what a mind", this happens all the time

[imperatrice21]

The demigods entire concept of incest is a social construct. The entire 'Gods don't have DNA' thing is nonsensical, because if that's the reason why dating between different cabins isn't incest then the same should apply to dating your half-siblings. It would be better to just admit that yeah, no matter which God's kid you date its gonna be incestual on some level since pretty much everyone in Greek Mythology is related. It was the Camp's that decided that as long as a romantic relationship isn't with immediate family (father, mother, brothers, sisters) then they won't consider it incest and it's socially acceptable.

[reality-detective]

Let this 👆 sink in 🤔

[alipeeps]

Fangs of Fortune and Hope

So much of Fangs of Fortune revolves around hope, not just for the characters, but for the audience... and the way hope is used as a narrative device.

(Read more cos holy shit this got away from me...)

Hopes and dreams are a primary motivation, and humanising aspect, of the characters.

Zhao Yuanzhou's story is all about hope. Has been without hope for so very long... trapped by his own nature in a life without end, without hope of relief, mired in misery.. and fearing what he will become/do. Zhuo Yichen represents the first spark of hope he has had in so long - that the cycle can be broken, that his torment can end... and that the world can be protected from the danger he represents.

But as the show progresses, he finds himself daring to hope for more than just death... as he builds connections with the team - with Zhuo Yichen and Wen Xiao in particular - he begins to hope for something else... for the possibility of a future, one that is no longer bleak and lonely. As the Baize goddess - who never gave up hope for him - promised, he found the person(s) who would make him want to live.

When his senses are sealed and he is fighting not to be overwhelmed his demonic energy, he holds onto the hope - the dream - of a future for him and Wen Xiao to keep the demonic energy at bay.

And he never - never - gave up hope for Li Lun, that he could be redeemed, be saved. Even as he used up all his thousands of years of cultivation to re-forge the Cloud Light Sword in order to forcibly remove Li Lun from Bai Jiu's body, he still hoped for Li Lun to live on, made Zhuo Yichen promise to save his life, offered a way for his spirit to endure with the hope of cultivating back to a human form.

Bai Jiu's entire story arc is motivated by hope. He leaves home whilst still a child with the desperate, burning hope of learning medicine to become a healer and be able to save his mum. And it is that desperate hope that leaves him vulnerable to Wen Zongyu's manipulation, that pushes him to go against his nature and betray his friends - people he genuinely cares for.

And Ying Lei is all about hopes and dreams. He goes against centuries of tradition and expectations to pursue his hopes and dreams in the mortal realm.. and the dream he is pursuing is informed wholly by the hopes and dreams of humans. He sees how humans find connection and comfort in food, how food can be an act of love and caring, and longing... and he wants to be a part of that, to be able to provide that connection and affection to people. He uses his magic in "frivolous" ways to make a perishable food last much longer, in the hope that his friend will still be able to eat a comforting food even if he is not there to cook it freshly. He does this even before they have rescued Bai Yu.. spending his time and his magical energy in the hope that they will rescue him.

Even in the midst of tragedy, these characters cling onto hope - even as both Bingyi and Zhuo Yichen are forced to kill the ones they love most to save the world, each of them finds a way to save a shred of their soul, so that they are not gone forever, so that there is hope of return.

And hope is a major theme for the audience too. Despite the clear and repeated foreshadowing, as we come to know and love these characters, we cannot help but build hope that there is another way, that the fate they are seemingly doomed to can be avoided. The show plays with this idea, by turns affirming that their ending is inevitable and suggesting that maybe it is not. Ying Long's spirit reminds Zhuo Yichen and Zhao Yuanzhou that they are fated to repeat the same choice that he and Bingyi had to make, before expressing the hope that they and their friends will be able to travel the world and have adventures together.

If there were no hope at all, if the fated ending were presented as relentlessly inescapable, there would be no tension, no investment in the outcome. So the show keeps offering us that hope, teasing us with the idea that... maybe. Even though in our hearts we know how it must end... we can't help but hope. And isn't that the very core of the story? So much death and tragedy, loss and pain... and yet there is always still hope.

But what struck me in particular - and what inspired me to write this post - is the way hope is used as a narrative device.

One way in which this is done is in subverting expectations. I've remarked several times on how the show often used flashbacks to add more information/context to a previous scene that then alters the present narrative. And this was often done when a situation seemed hopeless. Where it seemed there was no way they could escape/survive this - and then a flashback to a previous scene would reveal that the team had foreseen this outcome and planned for it and all hope was not lost after all. For a moment the audience is plunged into despair - the team is doomed! - and then we rejoice because hope is given back to us.

But more powerful than that is how the audience's hope is used to underscore the most harrowing scenes.

Out of the many deaths in this show, the two deaths that were (for me) the most traumatic were those of Ying Lei and Bai Jiu - both by virtue of their being unexpected, and also because the characters were the youngest (I know Ying Lei was a demi-god and physically older than everyone but Zhao Yuanzhou, but in god/demon terms he was still a youngster and his personality was very young, and he and Bai Jiu were very much the goofy kids of the team) and most innocent of the group.

But also because in both of these deaths the show deliberately - it seemed to me - offered us a moment of hope that they would survive... only to then snatch it away.

During the fight with Li Lun, Ying Lei was so badly injured and I was so worried that he was going to die... but then he broke through to Li Lun and the team saved Bai Jiu and Ying Lei was hugging him and reluctant to let go of him and I thought it was over, they'd saved Bai Jiu, everything was going to be okay.

A moment of hope and relief. And then Ying Lei died.

And then when Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen realised Bai Jiu must have been the one to destroy the ashes and save Zhuo Yichen, Zhao Yuanzhou urges Zhuo Yichen to use the feather and go to Bai Jiu and I had a moment of wild hope that yes, Zhuo Yichen can get to him and get him to a doctor, it's not too late, he can be saved...

The episode ends on a moment of (for me) fierce and desperate hope that Bai Jiu will live.

Only for that hope to be immediately ripped away at the start of the next episode. Zhuo Yichen - who had rushed there hoping against hope - finds Bai Jiu already dead and his grief, and ours, is all the more raw and debilitating for that brief moment of hope.

Our hope is weaponised against us to maximise the impact of the narrative. And god is it effective. I don't think I've ever had such an emotional response to a show.

And then the extra episode, after all the pain and loss and grief of episode 34, once again gives us back hope. Zhuo Yichen saved that scrap of Zhao Yuanzhou's soul and sets out on a desperate, hopeful quest to find it. And at the very end, he does. And the show ends on that final, joyous moment of hope restored - their story can continue.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

It's DNA

I was watching Smough's video, and he featured this sacred seal from the Erdtree peoples who were inspired by the Hornsent peoples.

The Land of the Tower (Hornsent) considered helixes as some kind of divine geometry/symbol. The double helix is notably calls to mind either the Caduceus symbol of medicine (twin snakes in a double helix - wink nudge nudge) OR...

It looks like a strand of DNA.

The Crucible wasnt just the primordial form of the Erd Tree. It was the primordial form of Everything - all living beings. To be Crucible blessed like the Hornsent is to acquire a mixture of active genes that would be have been recessive otherwise- thats why you get wings, horns, tails. (We share 90% or so of our DNA with like flies or bananas!)

Everyone is technically born from the Crucible and (as Marika proves by birthing OMEN sons) the Hornsent/Shaman are the same species!! Again recessive genes that get activated maybe?

And guess what? Splicing, grafting - that could be done to trees... or DNA... Godrick's prized practice is essentially a revised version of what the Crucible does naturally to living creatures.

The Crucible = The Gene Pool

[divine-nonchalance]

Our hands are attached to the rest of the universe. by Slonaut . Belgium . 2024

slonaut.com

[universe-of-peoples]

I’m patient with PJO show fans that haven’t read the books. I really am. Getting to experience the story for the first time is great and I want to encourage them to get into my favorite fandom I’ve ever been a part of.

But I’m going to lose it if I see another “Percy and Annabeth are related! 😱😱😱” post.

No they’re not go read the books 🙄

[sulky-cabbage]

Imagine if jjk ended up like Jojo's bizarre adventure...

Sukuna wins and we have a new cast every century (with some old characters from the previous season as teachers) and they try to defeat him.

We get to know Sukuna more during the seasons (and we get the heian flashback)

The best part is that Sukuna will definitely start glazing Gojo like Madara glazed Hashirama...

Something like this:

Sukuna: Gojo Satoru was the only one who could stop me. But he's no longer here.

Sukuna when Gojo's is reborn: I'VE BEEN WAITING GOJO SATORU!!

[dayurno]

i know the in-verse tiktok edits of kevin and riko to dna by kendrick lamar superimposing them over kayleigh and tetsuji go soooo fucking hard

[loopyarts]

Shouma Ginzaki, I have so many thoughts on this little guy. That I wish to ramble about him for a bit. Mostly about things that I find interesting such as his character design but also my thoughts on him so far.

For context I am going off from just the demo alone, so I don’t have the full picture of what he will be like in the full game.

First off, the red marking on the characters foreheads seem to have some inspiration in both a red dot called a bindi and traditional Japanese kabuki theatre make up. A bindi has ties to Buddhism and is linked to the Ajna Chakra which is also known as the "third eye" or "inner wisdom". And if you’re an anime fan you might have seen at very least one character with a red dot in their character design. So there might be some pop culture aspects to the inspiration as well. Which is why some of the characters have such dot markings in their battle ready designs.

Another thing worth noting is that the colour red in Japanese culture is a pretty prominent and versatile colour with multiple layers of symbolism. Such as being associated with protection, joy, and strength, but also with passion, power, and even danger etc.

Finally, with Shouma and Mako they both have two dots markings above their forehead. It kinda look similar to geisha dot eyebrows or Hikimayu (引眉). It’s probably just a coincidence but I thought it was worth noting.

Shouma number is nine but interestingly enough it is written in upper capital Chinese Hanzi instead of Japanese Kanji. which is probably on purpose because in Japan the number nine is considered an unlucky number because the pronunciation (苦) (ku) is similar to (苦) (suffering). The association with hardship, pain and ties to bad luck/misfortune overall contributes to the negative reputation behind this number. Similar to how the number 4 similarly avoided in Japanese culture.

While in Chinese the number nine has the opposite reputation with it being associated with good luck/good fortune and can also mean long lasting and represents the maximum level of martial happiness and longevity. I just think that is a nice subtle detail in his uniform and weapon design overall with his number being nine and all. 

This probably means nothing but nine or more correctly eight phases of the moon can spiritually is often associated with cycles of growth, release, and renewal. Also the number Nine is symbolically represented by change and having a very empathic and compassionate soul. In numerology the number nine is usually linked to things such as completion, idealism, and a strong desire to help others. Which mostly fits Shouma personality in terms of his ideals and morals.

Also his star/zodiac sign Pisces is often associated with compassion, empathy, creativity, imagination and strong intuition but also a deep connection to the sub conscious. But also the weaknesses of the sign is being indecisive, sensitive, prone to escapism and their own inner turmoil. And melancholy behaviours feelings of sorrow and poignance; where they would rather go through and meditate on deep emotions such as despair/sadness rather than have no feelings at all.

Overall, the zodiac sign Pisces is very emotional driven sign and I don’t think it is a coincidence that Shouma as a character is written to be very driven by his strong emotional feelings and thoughts.

Anyway, this line of dialogue stuck out to me while playing the game demo. There seems to be a bit of a moon theme going on here? Or at the very least I think that the moon might be an important plot beat for this game story.

Which also lead to me noticing Shouma’s mecha also has some moon imagery on its design via the shoulders pads. Another interesting thing is that the chest of the mecha is designed with a Shiba Inu face notable a black one.

Shouma’s dog is probably not a literal black shiba ha ha. Although, his weapon having the chest be of the head of a black dog reminded me a bit of the Chinese mythology of the black dog called Tiangou/the heavenly dog. Which in the myth Tiangou either eats the moon or sun causing an eclipse but the moon is more notable one. Which could have inspired some design aspects to Shouma weapon perhaps.

Real quick, I will say that I haven’t looked too deeply or check to see if other characters have a subtle moon theme to their designs. Also, if you look closely on images of the other characters weapons they also have an although I will say a more subtle animal theme going on in their weapon designs as well.

Now onto his character design. First off, his backpack resembles a Kame/turtle shell get it because he’s hiding in his shell and need to slowly come out of it. Man, you gotta love the creativity Rui Komatsuzaki puts into his character designs overall.

Shouma’s boots also have a bit of a turtle-like pattern and with them being green, it looks like he has little turtle feet. His boots also partly resemble wellies, which are commonly associated with children at least in fiction giving him a childlike feel to his design. Plus they’re also outdoor boots and are usually quite popular with dog walkers as well.

Finally, his cap in terms of shape resembles either a frog, bear or hamster which adds even more to the animal theme to his overall character design.

I’m honestly curious with how Shouma’s dog, which is most likely a Shiba Inu and Sirei are connected somehow and it’s also interesting how he’s the only one that didn’t technically fight. Like there has to be a reason for it right? I also think Shouma is more important than he gives himself credit for, although I may wrong who knows. 

I don’t know if others have noticed this but Shouma to me seems to be a very peacemaker type of character. He doesn’t like conflict and always puts others comfort and needs first before himself a far good amount of the time. Plus, the way he talks about his dog in optional dialogue. Makes him appear to have a selfless and kind hearted soul underneath all the self esteem/self deprecation issues of course. 

I also think Shouma appears to be pretty good at reading the room and how others might be feeling. On the rare occasion he chimes in, he has some pretty possible ideas and theories on what might be happening in the current situation. But given how many times he’s gets shot down or told he’s stupid for thinking or saying anything at all.

Which probably breaks his confidence to where he feels he shouldn’t have said anything at all. Which is why he’s just accepts it and doesn’t push against it. Because he truly believes he can never be right on something but also insists on being a peacemaker making him unable to truly take on conflict.

Overall, from what I’ve seen so far, Shouma seems to be a very gentle soul. Who is way too harsh on himself but I do have faith that he will develop as a person as the story progresses. It probably won’t be perfect and I don’t expect his self esteem problems to just magically go away, that takes time. Honestly, Shouma so far is very relatable to me as someone who has gone through similar hardships as a teen.

Shouma has so much potential to be such a lovely and compelling written character overall and I look forward to see what the writers have in store for him in the full game. (He’s so autistic coded to me but that could just be me projecting a little onto him ha ha…)

Lastly, gameplay wise Shouma has the potential to be pretty op as a unit depending on how his abilities and moveset functions in the gameplay mechanics. 

He is a counter defender and his ability shut-in gives 1+ attack with every emery that hits him. Which could have potential to be stacked if his ability can get even stronger. Reflecting back attacks is his key, so Shouma ideally will probably excel being throw at enemies head first and focus on crowd control. 

Shouma will probably work best with the more frail units. Leading the enemies onto him while doing chip damage and letting heavy hitting units dish out the big hits. He’s also will probably have good synergy with the healer/support units as well but overall. I think he will probably be one of the better units in the game due to his ability to do crowd control in a game, where crowd control is key. Also depending upon on how his ability works he could also be quite a decent boss slayer as well. 

Anyway, that concludes my little slightly mentally ill ramble on him. OvO’)