#Man vs ancient evil

[ozmosiis]

Ash Williams is insane because at literally ANY POINT he could’ve just said “not my problem” and dipped. But no. Dude got his hand possessed, chopped it off, strapped a chainsaw to the stump like those noodle and glue hacks from 2019, and said “groovy.” He got fucking launched back to 1300 AD, looked around at literal knights and castles, and decided he was still the most qualified person in the room. He’s not saving the world out of duty or destiny. No, he’s doing it because he’s too stubborn to let some crusty ass book and a few thousand zombies destroy the shelves he just stocked. Like my guy, you are not the divine chosen one. You are a stockboy with a grudge and a boomstick, and I respect the hell out of that.

[taraxippos]

Absolutely death gripped clenched trying not to comment on reductive posts on ancient greek homosexual relationships

[loredrinker]

The story of Lavellan and Solas tickles my Tolkien-influenced love for fantasy. It falls into the category of Beren and Lúthien - a love story that, by all real-world logic, is absolutely batshit insane. And yet, placed within the mythic frame of fantasy, it fits perfectly. It belongs there. These are the kinds of stories that only make sense in a world comfortable with myths, legends, ancient beings, monsters, supernatural war and absurdity - where love doesn’t follow rules, it transcends them.

That’s what I love: the illogical. Because love isn’t logical. For every argument I’ve seen that says it “makes no sense” for Lavellan and Solas to fall in love over the course of Inquisition, or that waiting that many years to be together is unrealistic. I sit back and laugh. Really? Love needs a timeline? In a fantasy?

Beren took one look at Lúthien dancing and fell irrevocably in love - and Lúthien was all in too. They didn’t take three years to build a foundation of trust and talk about boundaries or what they saw in each other. Their version of courtship was joining forces to battle literal evil so they could earn the right to be together. It was reckless, wild, insane, illogical and absolutely delicious. 

Lavellan and Solas hit that same mythic nerve for me. Their story - two people drawn together across time, fate, and existential stakes - feels like something out of The Silmarillion.

I don’t need these stories of love and pain and tragedy and trauma and desire to be logical in the real-world sense. It was never meant to be. Like all mythological love stories, it speaks to something eternal, irrational, and luminous.

There are themes and tropes woven through Lavellan and Solas’ story that utterly captivate me. And it’s partly to do with the fact that their love story isn't a comfortable one. It asks something of you. It asks you to reconcile contradiction: love and betrayal, hope and despair, violence and tenderness, destiny and choice, love as performance vs love as presence.

I’ve uncovered themes and archetypes that fit perfectly in this world of fantasy and discovered new ones in conversations with fellow Solas and Lavellan lovers as well. Here’s my attempt to weave some of those tropes and themes together. 

Their story carries what I like to call the Tolkien Effect: elven atmosphere where immortals and mortals fall in love and brave inconceivable odds just to be together. It’s the story of a man tormented by the choice between duty and love - Solas’ self-imposed responsibility to mend the world demands that he sacrifice his heart, while Lavellan’s bond with him is forged within that very conflict. He stands as the tragic anti-hero: prideful, guilt-ridden, withdrawing into self-destructive isolation because he’s convinced only he can set things right. She, meanwhile, plays Beauty to his Beast - seeing the fractured soul beneath the would-be destroyer and, by loving him, becoming the mirror that reflects his lost humanity. In classic fashion, they are star-crossed lovers - she's a mortal leader of the present, he's an immortal haunted by his past. Their timelines are misaligned, their love a sacrifice in the face of fate.

Their relationship goes from prejudice to passion. At first, Solas sees Lavellan as a biased curiosity - a product of a world he resents. But curiosity gives way to respect, respect deepens into desire, and desire transforms into love overwhelming it's held in restraint. He tries to resist her, but she becomes a gravitational force pulling him into her orbit.

Here, love becomes existential salvation or existential disruption. Lavellan offers Solas something terrifying: a path out of the endless cycle of destruction. It's a chance to choose life and yet instead he chooses to run from it, fleeing the love that might transform his path.

He tries to let her go, believing he must shield her from the darkness he carries. But he's the immortal who can't let go. He visits her dreams. Writes to her. Remembers her. Because this is love across time - a mythic bond that survives years, silence, betrayal, and distance. A love that endures even after everything else has fallen.

He's the lonely immortal whose memories stretch back to betrayals no one else can comprehend. Lavellan is shaped in the mold of Tolkien’s quiet heroes - Frodo’s endurance, Aragorn’s purpose, Éowyn’s resolve - meeting unearthly stakes with a resilience that refuses to break, even when love itself feels like punishment.

In the end, wisdom and mercy override vengeance. Lavellan’s forgiveness doesn’t excuse but provides a path to healing. She has taken on the role of mortal muse of the divine. A single, fleeting human heart - fragile, finite - a key that might yet save an ancient, wounded soul. And so great is this ancient being’s pain, so immense the guilt and fear he carries, that it takes a fellowship to save Thedas, to save him - the mortal and immortal working together. And at the end, the star-crossed lovers are reunited, a bittersweet ending as they experienced so much pain to get there. They ascend together into another world, stepping outside the boundaries of Thedas, likely to inspire new legends in the years to come. 

Should I go on? There are more themes and tropes I’ve pulled from this story - more patterns of myth and meaning that keep drawing me back. And now, with the story of Lavellan and Solas together in the Fade, it begs for new narratives, new archetypes, new emotional terrain.

The story isn’t over. It’s only deepening.

[decadence-divination]

still on this.

I found a histomap* of world spirituality and religion and the three common threads that have remained consistent throughout all of human history are

1)magic is real, and there is a dichotomy between good and evil

b)nature is holy

iii) our king probably isnt lying about being sent from Gd. Wym he killed all those people? Well like. It was probably for the best?

I am interpreting this data as -

"Magic is real and good and evil will always clash. Humans throughout the ages saw this as nature good mankind bad, which is why only someone sent from the heavens could possibly be able to wrangle the (evil) masses. Since we can't control each individual directly, evil will always prosper. Religion is the closest vehicle we have to control the opinions and actions as many people as possible and that makes it the religious' duty to snuff evil when uncovered."

So it seems throughout all of antiquity, humans have been putting themselves above or apart from nature. Nature good, human nature evil. And if you're being mysterious, obviously it's bc you're doing something you shouldn't be.

Humans are nature. We evolved this way just like every other slime mold, fish, lizard, rat, bison, and whale. We are peers Manufacturing and manifesting this division is what has created the divide. Its self fulfilling. If humans are able to start seeing ourselves as neutral, along with nature being neutral, I think we will get a lot further. If you're looking for a power struggle, you're going to find one. There is no reason for the power struggle between man and nature. I say men because it is primarily the patriarchy that influences and sustains this worldview.

Men are not evil. The destiny of man is not to conquer and devour just like the destiny of women is not the housewife archtype. Humans are not inherently evil, but treating ourselves as such, creates the conditions for humans to only embody evil. I'm not sure if there's anything in this world that adheres strictly to one moral schematic. What's bad for the zebra is good for the lion. Just like how nature is not inherently safe or good, sometimes doing "bad," things has positive effects. Sometimes "evil," actions are a stifled cry for help. It is also very possible to do the right thing for the wrong reason. The assumption that people are always going to be inherently evil opens the door for evil in the form of prosecution.

Our species has stalled in this dichotomy. Releasing division and coming back to our single shared history has got to be the only way out. Its been like 5,000 years. Humans can be a humongous force for good but only if you let them. Only if you want them to.

Understanding how we got here is the key to reversing it. We have to face our wounds to be able to heal from them. We have to try something completely new. Just be.

*my infographic was hard to read and focused mostly on the European, Asian, and Middle Eastern cultures and history. I'm struggling to find sources that delve into the history and origins of more nature-based cultures and spiritual modes so unfortunately this post had to be really generalized but that is going to be my next history lesson. With many of those cultures and religions still currently practiced as well as usually being closed, makes this even more tricky. Trying really hard not to step on any toes here. ... just a peak?

In the middle of a deep dive into Mesopotamian modes of magick and it literally sounds just like me and the boys on a busy weekend.

This started as a quest to find the discerning factor between folk magic and witchcraft, and goetic sorcery.

So far the only answer I can find is "how much money you have," or additionally, "if you are a man."

[scarletdreamers]

There ultimately is one question that bothers many when it comes to Will: Is Will Graham actually a bad person? (because no one knows what exactly swims around in the hot darkness of his mind, but I tried to sum it up anyway)

The thing about Will is that yes, he is certainly not a ‘good’ person. At least not after Hannibal started messing with his head, though I’m convinced Will never was in the first place. However, not only Will’s character, but pretty much the whole show is about the thin and multi-shaded line of good and bad. Moral and immoral. It’s exactly that blurry line that makes Will such an interesting protagonist. He is not the bad guy, neither is he the hero in his own story. He tried to play the roles of both (FBI agent vs killer), managed to fool even himself for a while, but Will knows very well who he is and what he was doing.

It’s an ancient question, isn’t it? What is good and what is bad? Are those two defined by societal norms and standards? Are they based on culture, religion, or is morality something personal? Something only you can decide for yourself? 

I’m going to include Hannibal here for a second, because when it comes to Hannibal, the last one of those options applies. The thing with Hannibal is that he has his own philosophies, his own ideals and morals. Hannibal constantly rivals God, claiming that he himself can’t be called evil because God does the same things and isn’t considered ‘’bad’’. Hannibal has his own borders and limits very straight. He can recognise plain cruelty, but the thing with Hannibal is that he is a very stylised manifestation of sin.

Hannibal is religious, though there might not be a specific religion or deity he believes in and he worships no higher beings, he does believe in the ‘’rules’’ of certain religions. He is well aware that he crosses most of those. They hold no value for him. He makes his own rules, plays his own game. In his world, there is no ‘’good’’ or ‘’bad’’ when it comes to actual crimes against humanity. A bad person is for him someone very rude, someone who lacks respect and manners. He doesn’t consider himself a ‘’good’’ person. He is something entirely else. A way of perceiving life and his own morality that no one except from Will can truly understand. 

Hannibal, however, is to us a bad person. He is the ‘’ultimate bad guy’’, because the way he feels about Will doesn’t excuse the rest of his behaviour. Hannibal is a sadist, a narcissist, a manipulative and awful man. He kills and feels no remorse for most if not all of his victims. For him killing is an art, a pleasure, he delights in it. For him, that is not as ‘’bad’’ or evil as it is for us (society), though he knows he is alone in that world. 

For that same reason, Hannibal doesn’t consider Will a bad person. He considers Will his equal. He knows that the both of them are deemed ‘’bad’’ people to the public, but that doesn’t matter in his world. In Hannibal’s mind, it’s just him and Will against the rest of the world. They are neither good nor evil. They simply are.

So back to Will, who understands Hannibal’s view of morality, but doesn’t necessarily think the same. If we look at it the same way as we looked at Hannibal, in a societal and common sense, yes, Will is a bad person. Can a stereotypically ‘’good’’ person like killing, even if it’s bad men? The satisfaction in killing, even if it’s a bad person, isn’t a moral thing. Someone truly ‘’good’’ would always choose punishment over murder. Then there’s also the fact that Will didn’t blink twice when he and Hannibal ate human meat and that he consumed it, knowingly, without a single complaint.

Will had no issues using innocent people (Chilton, Freddie Lounds, etc) to achieve his own goals. He is as (if not more) manipulative as Hannibal and is sometimes cruel in ways that even shocks the Chesapeake Ripper. Will made absurd sacrifices to get what he wanted, did things no stereotypically ‘’good’’ man would ever think of doing. Then I’m not even talking about maybe the simplest and most ordinary example of how little he actually cares for most things, which is his sweet wife, Molly (her son Walter, too). 

However, Will did try to be good. He tried very hard. He wanted to be a good person, to save people. Will can care for others in ways Hannibal can’t. Hannibal has no moral compass, Will does. A broken one, but he does. Will wants to help people more often than he wants to hurt them (The conversation with Bedelia about crushing or saving a wounded bird is a perfect example of this. So are his needs to save dogs and Abigail.) The thing about Will is that he desired to be good. He worked for the FBI, saved many lives, because he understands pain and suffering like no other. He doesn’t wish such horrid things upon innocent people. 

During the show, Will's morality is completely tied to Hannibal, so much that Hannibal himself and the stag even serve as metaphors for his corruption, while at the same time, his morality has nothing to do with Hannibal. Will always had dark urges. He always knew that there was something fundamentally wrong with him, with the things he wanted and was capable of doing. Perhaps that’s why he joined the police and later the FBI. He suppressed the worst of him by focusing on the best of himself. By forcing himself to save people through a job, he couldn’t afford to misbehave and do things he knew were wrong. Will’s fantasies, dreams and understanding of killers throughout the show make it very clear that he struggled with his own morality, even before Hannibal.

Then came, of course, Hannibal. Who fueled those urges and gave them attention. Who didn’t create them, but cared for them. Allowed them to sprout and grow until Will got entangled in such a web of situations and feelings that he couldn’t suppress them anymore. Hannibal forced Will to deal with who he really is, he broke Will’s shield. His costume, the same way Will did with Hannibal’s person suit. Hannibal is a ‘bad’ influence on Will because he brings out what’s always been inside him, but was repressed for years because Will was aware that society would label him a monster or a freak if he acted on those feelings. Will felt alone and alienated his entire life, of course he tried everything to not fall into a complete pit of loneliness and darkness. 

That was until Hannibal came into his life and Will realised that there was someone who understood him, who loved him for who he really was, even (especially) his ‘darker’ side. Someone who was like him. Who understood how he felt and didn’t see him as an immoral person because of it. Will spent his whole life understanding others, but Hannibal was the first person to actually understand him in return. 

Hannibal thinks Will’s ‘worst’ side is the most beautiful version of him. Will himself is torn between what Hannibal (the one person who understands and cares for him) and society (his upbringing, religion, anyone he ever met, norms and values) think of him. He doesn’t know what to believe. He knows he’s a bad person, he doesn’t try to make himself believe he isn’t. As I said, Will still has a moral compass, he’s self conscious about the things he does.

However, there is a great possibility that Hannibal changed Will’s perception of himself. That he made Will see that there’s no need to think of himself as a bad person. Just as a person. A human with urges and desires. Who can decide for themselves whether their actions are good or bad. Law is far beneath them at this point. In the end, Will and Hannibal navigate their own morality through their perceptions of their own actions. They both have a dislike for labels. Good and bad, moral and immoral, those are all labels society has forced upon humanity. Cruelty and kindness are not. Will knows very well when he’s cruel and when he’s kind.

So my conclusion is, yes, Will Graham is stereotypically a self-conscious yet immoral person. At the ending of the series after everything has happened, at least. 

But, I think that, just like Will himself, it’s up to you to decide whether he’s truly good or bad. Some people have other reasons to believe someone is one of the two than others. Some believe that if a person can love, or if they feel guilt or know what they’re doing, they aren’t a bad person. Others don’t. I think that’s entirely up to you to decide. It’s just what you like to believe, because believe me, to Will the line is just as blurry as it is to us. He is as unpredictable to Hannibal as he is for the audience. Will is a mystery of a character, certainly when it comes to his morality. And I think that that is exactly what makes him so fascinating.

[burningcheese-merchant]

I wont be upset If SS turns out to be a girl, tbh. If her man can have toxic yaoi, White Lily can have toxic yuri

What I WILL be upset over is If Eternal Sugar turns out to be a man

I mostly want Silent Salt to be male because I got used to imagining him + BS and SM being an evil toxic murder brotherhood (I know it's dumb, but it makes me laugh). Plus, I like the idea of the Beasts being opposite to the Ancients that way. 3 girls 2 boys VS 3 boys 2 girls. But it won't be that big of a deal to me if Salt is a woman, it'll just be toxic yuri with White Lily instead of toxic het haha. As long as his/her character is interesting and he/she is mute. That is nonnegotiable

Ngl though... I'll also be upset if Eternal Sugar is male. Please let us have the pretty pink girlie. Just as it's ok for women to be butch/more masculine, it's equally ok for women to be super feminine. Give us the pretty pink Aphrodite/succubus musician woman :( she can have pretty pink toxic yuri with Hollyberry. Please :( please I'm already attached to the Pretty Pink Toxic Yuri :( please I'm dying here. Piiiiiiiiink waaaaahhhhhh

[capriceandwhimsy]

Sailor Moon vs. The God Emperor of Man

As fun as it's been seeing the argument over who would win in terms of Sailor Moon vs. The God Emperor of Mankind, I think we're ignoring an important factor: setting rules.

Power Scalers always ignore that characters don't exist in a vacuum. They're a part of the universe they're in. And the universes of Sailor Moon and Warhammer 40,000 operate on very different themes and tropes.

=====

See, if Usagi and the Sailor Senshi were in the 40k universe, all their adventures would be portrayed as legends of an ancient time, before the current fallen state of the Galaxy. The major theme of Warhammer 40,000 being "The good old times are over, there is only decay and rot." It's not that all the things she did didn't happen, they just didn't mean anything when looked at through the lens of deep, DEEP time.

So Usagi would end up becoming the Queen of the Ancient Fallen Empire of the Moon Crystal Kingdom, and would be a million-year-old God Empress with her legions of Sailor Senshi super-soldiers, their bodies twisted and their minds degraded from aeons of battle against The Warp, each usage of their Sailor powers sapping some of their humanity until they are but empty husks of their former selves.

Each of the Sailor Senshi would be a hero model on a 50mm base and would cost about $40 msrp and 300 points to run. Usagi herself would be on a big oval base and be represented sitting on a giant crystal throne with an enormous number of crystal spires around her, shooting Moon Crystal Energy. She would be a god-level threat with the ability to destroy planets with a wave of her hand.

A named Ultramarine without a helmet would probably ruin all her plans and solo Sailor Mars. Because the only thing more powerful than galaxy-destroying psychic powers is plot armor.

=====

If The God-Emperor were in the Sailor Moon universe, he'd be a seasonal villain, like Queen Beryl or Sailor Galaxia. Each episode or two, he'd send a different Primarch to cause trouble, each of whom would use a different power set (Primarch Vulkan with his flame powers, Primarch Lion'el with his forestwalking powers and his skill at swords), and each one would be defeated by the Sailor Scouts.

At the end of the season, it would turn out that the Emperor's plan was to use up his Primarch Senshi and reclaim their soul energy, and thus enact his Great Crusade to conquer the galaxy. The Sailor Scouts would be slain, and Usagi would be destroyed, but at the moment of her death, she would have a vision of the Emperor as a young man, a scientist and a father who truly cared about his Primarchs and wanted to create mighty heroes to help humanity, but was twisted and turned to evil by the Lords of Chaos.

Usagi would defeat the Lords of Chaos with the help of the souls of the Sailor Senshi and the Lost Primarchs, as well as calling upon the last bit of nobility in the Emperor's Soul to help destroy the Lords of Chaos at their source.

In the end, the timeline would be reset, and all would be forgotten. But as Usagi goes to school the next day, she would find out that there's a new teacher at her school: Mister Jimmy Space, a transfer from another school. And he'd have brought nineteen new transfer students with him.

[fictional-gods-tournament]

Round 1

Characters' info under the cut

Betty Grof (wiki)

Domain: Chaos (GOLBetty form)

Propaganda:

She ascends to godhood after fusing herself with GOLB in order to save Simon and after that she makes him learn a lesson about toxic relationships during the Fionna and Cake series

T'noy Karaxis / Tinky (wiki)

Domains: Time and Space

Propaganda:

Tinky is one of a pantheon of five evil deities, and he might be the scariest one of them! It's the villain of the episode "Time Bastard," in which it forces the episode lead, Ted, back in time and tricks him into thinking he can save an old relationship of his. When Ted inevitably fails to do so, Tinky then strands him in the past and breaks his mind with an ancient box. Later, when he dies, he traps his soul in the box for eternity. I mean, how many gods are so powerful that they can rip a man from his timeline, break his mind, and maintain control of his soul forever? His actor, Jeff Blim, does a damn good job with portraying him, too--he delivers every line so menacingly and I love it!

[ecargmura]

Dandadan Episode 14 Review - He Just Wanted To Play

Dandadan may not have an overarching plot as it focuses more on segmented storytelling that flow together, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad at storytelling. Dandadan really nails backstories and how the character introduced for a specific arc is incorporated into the story like how Aira is incorporated into the Acrobatic Silky arc and how Jiji is incorporated into the Evil Eye arc. I really got emotional with Evil Eye’s backstory and how the Kito family is the root of it all.

I really liked seeing the many sides of Jiji in this episode. His first impressions might be hit or miss, but he’s a kind and sweet boy deep down. The fact that he mustered all of his strength to carry Momo, Okarun and Turbo Granny and ran shows that his heart is as big as his body. He’s also kind in that he’s willing to accept Evil Eye after witnessing his tragic past. Still, I’m a little confused about something. Was Jiji not affected by Evil Eye’s psychic waves because his psychic powers are resilient towards them?

Evil Eye’s past is tragic like Acrobatic Silky. Heck, his past predates probably centuries ago as he lived in ancient times. All the kid wanted was to play with other kids, but he was chosen as a sacrifice so he had to be isolated. The way he was burned alive by the volcano’s lava and how his burnt corpse was still tied up was seriously cruel. He was later reborn as a yokai that only kids could see, but as soon as someone notices his presence, the people around him die. He caused so many kids to lose their parents but he didn’t know until centuries later when one kid is used as a sacrifice by the Kito family. The fact that he only snapped after centuries later shows that his hate for the Kito family is serious. Another question I have is whether Evil Eye is just trying to use Jiji’s kindness to manipulate him into being his vessel or if it’s due to Evil Eye’s century-old hatred of the Kito family and his loneliness that caused the possessed Jiji to go berserk? I’m an anime-only, so if you know something, let me know!

The way Jiji uses the spirit ball to play soccer was super well-animated. Seriously, it brings 8bit’s adaptation of Blue Lock to shame. What would be hilarious if they casted Kaito Ishikawa in Blue Lock or in another soccer anime later on—hey, I did manifest Yohei Azakami being in Windbreaker after making a joke about it in Oblivion Battery. In a way, he is “playing” with Evil Eye, but the context of it is different. I honestly can’t wait for next episode to see how the fight between Jiji and Okarun will play out. It feels like Noe vs Vanitas in another universe and I’m not ready for it.

Dandadan’s casting is still top-notch as Mutsumi Tamura joins the cast as Evil Eye. This is the craziest My Happy Marriage reunion because Tamura voiced Asahi who is Kiyoka’s nephew—Kiyoka is voiced by Jiji’s VA Ishikawa. Anne Yatco voices Evil Eye in English. Yatco voices Raiden Shogun in Genshin Impact and Nobara in Jujutsu Kaisen, so she’s a well-known voice actress as well. 

The best part about this episode is the fact that the purple filter isn’t hurting my eyes. Man, the Nessie episode’s green filter had some negative impressions on me. What did you think about the episode as a whole?

[alpha--arietis]

[private] hey man, i’m gonna keep it so incredibly real with you. everyone needs their own convictions and you’ve said “hey aries i have this thing that gives me visions and jacks up my anger to the max whenever there’s some paranormal shit around”. i’m not gonna take that personally, man. i’m not gonna take it personally (MOSTLY). you’re a buddy. but i think you have that thing in you. i put myself through winter here and i thought maybe it’d kill me but that kind of didn’t matter. sorry finlay, i don’t really know what i am.

truth is i already tried. before protag helped me out. and it didn’t work. not to say that i wasn’t successful at it but it just didn’t work. i got back up. and i kept getting back up. and WOW. i have nooooo idea what all that is about honestly. i’m not trying to be dramatic or something i just straight up have no idea how to deal with that at this point. but i do have protag here. i wish you would consider other options but i’m not the best at talking people off of ledges and all. but i’d be sad to see you go honestly. maybe it’s inevitable.

i mean, i just take it as you having some kind of episode. don’t take anything personal when you talk shit like that because it’s not really like. you talking. it’s all the other shit. and i don’t try to hold it against you or anything because i feel like you just need like. slightly more grace during that time than other times. i think that’s what it is. like. holding grace for someone when they’re acting out of control. that’s what ppl say i should do for myself but you knooooow.

i think everyone likes a good ritual. like, that’s just in human nature to enjoy a ritual. doesn’t have to be weird magic shit. magic seems. complicated and weird and a little mysterious and fun. i’m not gonna suddenly get really really into it but i do watch from the sidelines. i’ve heard about being a ghoul and it sounds like it sucks bad.

i guess also like. for that entire first part that i wrote: sorry that i did kind of lie to you. i mean, i didn’t actually know when we first started talking and i’m still not super sure what i am now. i know somewhere in the middle that you were either eventually gonna find out or like. you know, it just seemed like a better option to just tell you rather than to keep maybe not being totally honest about it.

@inbetween-beast-and-man

[private]

can i ask you about somethin kind of personal

[perseidlion]

I'm new to the KAOS fandom, and I honestly love the way the show is riffing off myth.

I've seen some rumblings of some people thinking they're changing too much. But, uhhh, the show definitely never promised they'd be sticking close to myth by its whole *gestures broadly* deal. Also like...WHICH version of the myths? There are so many and they changed, sometimes drastically over time. KAOS is just really continuing the tradition of remixing these characters and the stories.

I feel like the people who are saying this takes it too far probably have a superficial understanding of Greek and Roman mythology. Cause if you really dig into it, these stories are weird, contradictory, raunchy, violent and tragic.

I was a Classics major for two years (before I decided I couldn't learn Latin or Greek which was required to study primary sources, so I switched majors.) And let me tell you, KAOS is VERY accurate to certain portrayals of the gods. Not all, of course, but many.

Zeus is absolutely a horndog dick who sleeps with all sorts of people and spreads his seed everywhere. I mean, he straight-up disguised himself as other people to have sex with their partners. Animals, too!

Hera is incredibly petty and vindictive and transforms people into all sorts of things as punishment. She was especially hard on any of Zeus' lovers she caught, or his kids from different mothers.

Everyone was doing adultery all the time.

Hades wasn't a meek corporate type, but he also wasn't a devil analogue as he often gets interpreted as in pop culture. He's definitely a big ole grump and doesn't seem to have a soft side, but he's not often portrayed as evil. Zeus is not God and Hades is not Satan. That's really applying a Judeo-Christian framework to Greek mythology.

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice was always more about grief and not being able to let go than about the power of true love.

The gods gained obedience and worship through fear. They absolutely punished people who didn't worship they way they wanted them to.

The gods were a giant, powerful, highly dysfunctional family with lots of petty grievances and grudges.

The Greeks had no concept of gay or straight. They conceptualized sex and sexuality as acts, not an identity. They were more concerned about who was the passive person in a sexual encounter (for reasons of class and manliness) rather than what gender their partner was. So it makes sense that this modern retelling would have a similiarly open an undefined concept of sex and sexuality.

Greek myth is full of people who change genders or who swap back and forth through magic or prayer, or were both male and female at the same time. Caeneus in the show, is based on a real myth of someone AFAB who wished to become a man.

(sidenote: Misia Butler is so damned charming and handsome.)

It's also important to remember that the religion of the ancient Greeks lasted a very long time and changed over that time. There was also this really interesting dichotomy between the gods of plays and myths and the gods they worshipped in a religious context. That was one thing that is really hard to wrap your head around when you're studying Greek and Roman myth, especially when you're studying it alongside plays and epic poetry.

The gods of the stories who were being vengeful and petty and the gods they sacrificed to and worshipped were not the same - and they were. Sort of imagine it like Christian peoples' perceptions of Jesus vs Jesus in pop culture. Like, if you studied Dogma or Good Omens or something alongside the Bible and didn't distinguish between religion and pop culture, you'd definitely be confused.

So there are all these competing stores, some benevolent and holy, some raucous and scandalous. KAOS very ably continues in that tradition by remixing and recontextualizing the source material for a new audience.

They do some reaaalll weird thing with timelines, though! They squish together myth and pick and choose different versions and inspiration. But honestly that doesn't bother me because it's all done deliberately and not out of ignorance. They're changing what they've changed to serve the story.

Plus it's great fun. It's one of the most creative shows I've seen in ages. Go and watch it! As a bonus, it's also hella queer.

[hubrisbracket]

Hubris Bracket Side A Poll 3: Trixie Lulamoon (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) vs Erin Ruunaser (Aurora Comic)

Propaganda below (may contain spoilers)

Trixie Lulamoon

If any mlp character deserves to be in the hubris bracket it should be Trixie. Also she literally didn't even do anything wrong except entertain people (which is literally her job) and was punished just because the mane six couldn't take a fking joke. And, I might be wrong about this- but Trixie was originally only supposed to appear for like one episode but the fans loved her so much they brought her back and she became one of the biggest characters on the show. literal legend. Stream Magic Bitch by Vylet Pony and Magic by The Living Tombstone btw "sometimes you gotta let your ego slip for your own mental health" -Vylet Pony

egotistical magician my beloved... petty stage magician. she has a long standing rivalry with the princess of friendship (twilight sparkle ofc) who is incredibly powerful with actual magic. she tried to run twilight out of town once. it didn't go well. oh also she's besties (gay) with twilight's protege which annoys her to no end. also also she's sooooo trans the entire fandom agrees

Erin Ruunaser

This man walked directly into a primordial magic storm with an almost 100% death rate because he wanted to look at what's in the middle; he's the current Elemental Magus, and it has definitely gone to his head; he's outsmarted (or tried to outsmart) an eldritch evil that killed the oldest and most powerful gods of his world twice, which possessed him because of his aforementioned storm-walk; and his creator has called him Sicktats McHubris at least once. Also, he acts incredibly smug all the time.

He’s kinda like the avatar, so he thought that it would be a good idea to walk into a magical storm that no person had ever seen the center of. He ended up getting possessed by an ancient god-killing evil and now has to get rid of him. The fandom has nicknamed him Sicktats McHubris, on account of his very cool magical tattoos.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Sometimes I feel the shows world is… empty but at the same time has too much

In season 2 they put sentient robots able to feel actual emotions like they are something common enough for a teenager go make them

In the specials they introduce other magic systems like the cousins of the kwamis and then introduce things like Batwoman and super/Wonder Woman

Then in season 3 they introduce FREAKING ALIENS!!! (Bunnix said they exist) I wouldn’t be mad if they elaborated in those subjects

But they don’t, we don’t have meta humans in the rest of the show but season 5 finale, we don’t have magicians and we haven’t seen a flesh and bones alien (I think since I don’t know what Majestia’s whole deal is)

The origins episode and the backstory of the guardians and miraculous imply the existence of other monsters

We see a kraken, a fusion of a Sphinx with Medusa fighting Heracles, a dragon fighting a ladybug holder on medieval glass stain similar to the ones in churches, and then we see some unknown hero fighting a Evangelion like monster on the sea with a Japanese style

But we only have Akumas, Akumas and Akumas, and in special occasions we have Akumas but BIGGER or Akumas but R E D ,Where are those monsters in modern age? Some of the crossovers they had planned with other ZAK shows implied the existence of witches, fairy’s, ghosts and a giant snake monster

The world introduces the supernatural and science fiction but instead of using it we are stuck with miraculous

Why is no character using magic? Why isn’t there sandman or rhino like villains rooming the streets? I Can see post season 4 Gabriel doing what tombstone did in spectacular Spider-Man and turning criminals into super villains to get the miraculous or at least to make negativity higher through all of Paris by introducing super villains who are willingly evil AND have permanent powers

Or why isn’t there a evil wizard searching for the miraculous for power or a ancient evil the kwamis sealed searching to take revenge on Plagg and Tikki? Or just Gabriel using evil magic to summon a hunting hound monster to track the miraculous and the heroes have to find a way to defeat a enemy they can’t defeat by their usual way (their usual way is breaking the evilified object so the enemy just disappears)

They keep introducing weird things and concepts and do nothing with them, is like they tried to be Spider-Man in the “exists on a larger world full with heroes” and then proceeds to ignore all other Spider-Man things like having a rogues gallery and constantly facing magic and sci-fi threats

Heck I might even say he only did this to ride the Shared universe train marvel started but just like DC and the Dark verse, they failed (except for the Monsterverse, the Monsterverse is ETERNAL)

That's the weird thing about this show. It wants to be a simple good vs evil story, but it also wants to flesh out the universe for future spin-offs.

This is why I just can't stand the Miraculous World specials, because they don't do anything with the concepts introduced. The Miraculous scattered across the world, other magical artifacts like the Miraculous, and the goddamn multiverse are only used for what is glorified filler. A lot of these ideas could easily be fleshed out for their own seasons, but the show only wants the conflict to revolve around the heroes and whoever gets the Butterfly Miraculous.

If you want to expand your universe, you need to think about how this development will affect your story as well as your world.

[unnounblr]

Something about the Alien franchise that I have somewhat mixed feelings about is the way that it feels like the "Weyland" half of the "Weyland-Yutani" company gets a lot more focus.

Like, the first Alien vs. Predator movie, the 2010 Alien vs. Predator game, and Prometheus are all about members of the Weyland family. One of them is a robot for some reason, and 2 of them are Lance Henriksen, even though there's never any reason for the 2 Bishops to be connected to the Weyland family, but whatever.

And, like. The first AVP movie, and Prometheus are all about the Weylands having a God complex, wanting to leave their mark on history and the world, and funding archeology and research, about ancient aliens that created and/or uplifted humanity, and humans (and Weyland) can inherit that greatness from the ancient past, and. It very much seems like they both believe in the "Great man of history" stuff and want to be those great men, and. I do think that's definitely appropriate for the white, British half of the company. Of course the white men would believe that and want to become all that.

And. My ancestry is from China, not Japan, but I'd still be. Wary. Of how gross and stereotypical Hollywood might have portrayed evil Japanese business people, especially back in the 70s and 80s, and the Alien series always has some 70s and 80s in it, in its retro future. People still smoke cigarettes in space. So, like, even and especially as someone who grew up in the UK, part of me is glad that the series makes fun of how evil the British and British imperialism is, and how entwined it sorta is with capitalism. Instead of any Yellow Peril shit. The first corporations as we know them today were tools of the British empire. While there's criticism to be made of Japan and Japanese work culture and Japanese businesses, I dunno that I think Hollywood is necessarily the best at doing that.

But, equally. The idea of Weyland-Yutani is that it's a merger of a British company and a Japanese company, and it's sorta weird that the British half is the only half that ever seems to. Matter? Like, it seems to marginalize half the company's origin and concept. So it still ends up playing into the "great man of history" and "white savior" stuff.

Also, the only times a member of the Yutani family shows up, in AVP:R and Alien Blackout, they're usually women, while the Weylands we meet are usually men, except the bastard daughter that doesn't get the name Weyland, and. I don't even know what that's about. There's some weird gender politics there.

[arottmntepisodeguide]

A Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode order

There wasn't any correct viewing order online, so I just made one myself.

Season 1:

Ep 1: Mystic Mayhem

Ep 2: Origami Tsunami/Donnie's Gifts

Ep 3: War and Pizza/Down with the Sickness

Ep 4: Newsworthy/Minotaur Maze

Ep 5: Repo Mantis/Hypno! Part Deux!

Ep 6: The Fast and the Furriest/Shell in a Cell

Ep 7: Mascot Melee/The Longest Fight

Ep 8: Bug Busters

Ep 9: The Gumbus/Stuck on You

Ep 10: The Purple Jacket/Portal Jacked!

Ep 11: Mrs Cuddles/Hot Soup: The Game

Ep 12: Smart Lair/Pizza Pit

Ep 13: The Evil League of Mutants

Ep 14: Late Fee/Bullhop

Ep 15: Al Be Back/Nothing But Truffle

Ep 16: The Purple Game/You Got Served

Ep 17: Shadow of Evil

Ep 18: Man Vs Sewer/Mystic Library

Ep 19: Mind Meld/One Man's Junk

Ep 20: Sparring Partner/Warren and Hypno, Sitting in a Tree

Ep 21: Turtle-Dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man/Operation Normal

Ep 22: The Mutant Menace/The Ancient Art of Hide and Seek

Ep 23: Snow Day/How to Make Enemies and People Bend to Your Will

Ep 24: Cloak and Swaggart/Jupiter Jim Ahoy!

Ep 25: Insane in the Mama Train

Ep 26: Endgame

Season 2:

Ep 27: Many Unhappy Returns

Ep 28: Todd Scouts/Goyles, Goyles, Goyles

Ep 29: Flushed But Never Forgotten/Lair Games

Ep 30: Breaking Purple/Repairin' The Baron

Ep 31: Air Turtle/Pizza Puffs

Ep 32: Mystery Meat/Hidden City Job

Ep 33: Sidekick Ahoy!/Always Be Brownies

Ep 34: Donnie Vs Witch Town/Raph's Ride Along

Ep 35: Hidden City's Most Wanted/Bad Hair Day

Ep 36: Fists Of Furry/The Clothes Don't Make the Turtles

Ep 37: Battle Nexus: New York

Ep 38: E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind/Shreddy or Not

Ep 39: Anatawa Hitorijanai/Rise

This is a condensed version of one I made on Reddit (removing the essentials list, an alternate episode order, explanation of episode placement, etc). Here's that one for anybody interested. I'm confident that season 1's first half (at least everything before Bug Busters) is in a suitable order, but the second half is definitely up in the air about where the episodes go. Leave any comments if you notice something is out of order. Also, this is a repost because I compiled an image for all the episodes now and I think that can make this more visible for people that could need it/are looking for it.

[yugiohmangaoutofcontext]

i do admire the way that the villains in ygo became incredibly nuanced vs how the generic episodic villains of s0/beginning of the manga are (rambling below the cut)

by no means is yami bakura a good guy, but there's the conflict of the fact that he's using the body of a completely innocent person who is also yugi's friend, so you can't just kill him outright or anything. also yami bakura/tkb's motivations are sorta justified, given kul elna. kul elna was labeled "the village of thieves" but who's to say that they were all bad people inherently? i like to think they were just outcasted and/or marginalized and very poor/low class (hierarchy in ancient societies was very rigid, and can still be incredibly rigid today). i mean, the guys that forged the millennium items KNEW what they were doing was fucked up. also marik/yami marik, with yami marik not being a ghost or anything but a literal split in marik's being from his trauma. and the way rishid, despite not being accepted by his adoptive father, was such a devoted brother to their clan and to isis and marik, that he went out of his way to also get carvings to help marik to contain the hatred and evil within him. pegasus is also done wonderfully, he has his own motivations and wasn't a totally evil dude at first. and kaiba is sort of a villain? mainly a constant antagonist/rival, but he changes and grows thanks to yami yugi, and it's revealed that he was fucked up because of trauma also, and he's learning to overcome it and become better as a result of yami yugi helping him, making his relationship with his brother better. i fucking love yugioh man this shit rocks