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The Wolves 🌒

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Warrior Nun + Major Arcana

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ava silva is a walking caution sign ⚠️ (affectionate)

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#BEATRICE + going absolutely bat shit crazy when ava is danger 

WARRIOR NUN (2020-) SEASON TWO | dir. Simon Barry

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I am not a legend, I’m a fraud So keep your heart, ‘cause I already got one

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she loves you so much more than her own life. (x)

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“We could go back to the Alps. To the bar, Hans and the regulars. You could teach me how to dance. I could teach you how to drink.” “No. I can’t.”

bonus:

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she loves you so much more than her own life. (x)

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I am not a legend, I’m a fraud So keep your heart, ‘cause I already got one

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lilith should have horns and pointy ears thanks

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"listen. michael, i don't know what reya told you, but dying, really dying, doesn't lead to anything. trust me. i've been there. it's... there's no heaven. no enlightenment. it's just... nothing."

in the rosarium philosophorum emblem 6, when the primary figure dies, they experience an inner darkness. this takes the form of a descent into the dark unconscious sphere of the soul. there is nothing. ava's right

"my whole life, i've dreamt about being dead. i leave my body, and i see myself from above."

ava in episode 1 on left, rosarium philosophorum emblem 9 on the right

the rosarium philosophorum is an alchemical text that includes images, some pretty bizarre ones, that constitute a journey from 1 to 20. when the figure is returned to life in emblem 9, the birds signify a reunion between the soul and the body. listen for birdsong surrounding resurrections in warrior nun. it's there

the halo itself makes a noise like birdsong all the time. makes me wonder if that's part of why the halo works "differently" for ava. she's in a state of near-constant resurrection. her ability to float and fly is unique to her. in episode 1 she passed through a state of the alchemical journey that no other halo bearer had before. floating above her body, looking down, and flying back to reunite soul and body, stage 9. now she knows the birds so well, she has her own wings

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my empty halls to echo with grand self-mythology

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i am having thoughts about a theme of the show and avatrice so please bear with me here, it's powered by insomnia

"you think my choices are clear? i'm doing the best i can!"

"searching for oneself is the journey for a lifetime. life is what happens in between."

"the labyrinth represents a journey or path to our own center and back again out into the world. labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. when we walk one it serves as a metaphor for life's journey." - the healing consciousness foundation

"little is known about the true purpose of the chartres labyrinth, if it had one beyond decoration. staff at the cathedral of notre dame de chartres say that three recently discovered 13th-century manuscripts show the labyrinth was at one time used during holy week for a sort of dance depicting christ harrowing hell." - the catholic telegraph

the difference between a maze and a labyrinth is that a labyrinth contains no wrong turns and has only one exit. a life with options, different exits, a maze is for everyone else, but a labyrinth is for the halo bearer

so what are labyrinths for ava. concentric circles that mark patterns followed by those who came before, the curves an illusion of choice and of a sacred passage with no deviation, identical wounds on the bodies that make the pilgrimage. the path weaving round, a heart at the center, a maw with jagged edges, the crown of a flower, a halo

so about the labyrinthine theme that occurs through avatrice with the whole "beatrice is a labyrinth and ava travels through walls" thing. tarasques look a crap ton like minotaurs. that long straight hallway with a dead-end ava found herself in with reya makes me think it was all intentional. life was a maze, with its tricks and dead-ends and *choices* without reya to provide dubious clarity through a carefully constructed labyrinth instead. a one-way path only halfway traversed and dark in the center

"reya's way is the only way."

the necropolis, city of the dead, where the saints are interred, was a labyrinth. beatrice blew a hole through the wall to get to ava then. the mouth of the arq itself cuts a hole in a wall between one twisted world and another. and ava encountered interred divinium tarasques hidden in the walls of adriel's tomb. minotaurs within the walls of a labyrinth, labyrinth within a labyrinth. ava walking through walls but also falling through walls and ceilings, making walls on water and in thin air. ava creates a maze from a labyrinth and leads beatrice to an alley in the halls of adriel's circular compound, his second tomb, so that bea won't need to face the thing lurking in the center. she loses beatrice in a maze in hopes that she will find another way out, follow an uncertain path where she can escape and survive at the end

warrior nun has ava walking a labyrinth literally and figuratively and spiritually and when she reaches the center, she finds a place of rest, the mouth of a new gateway, the end of her previous path, communion with god. what can a labyrinth become when it can be seen from any angle - a fractal, a rhizome, a cat's cradle, four cardinals, nine circles? a geometic meditation turned on its side, inside out, weaving round and round, tracing a hollow in the ground, a burn into the skin

"you make known to me the path of life."

beatrice speaks the prayer of one who roams labyrinths but beatrice herself is described as a labyrinth to be explored, with a fire in the center instead of a monster. a light casting on the walls that glows warmer the closer you are to the heart. a labyrinth hidden away so as not to be discovered or wandered into lightly. not a trap like a maze, but an order to be understood, defenses that are useless once the light has been shared, has been seen. once ava started down the path, she walked slowly so as to memorize the walls, appreciate the undulations, steadily grow closer to the inevitable heart

ava can phase through walls, but with beatrice she didn't have to. in this life or the next becomes a labyrinth itself and not a maze. a journey, a separation at the center, a promised reunion at the gateway, at the mouth. in this life *and* the next, a life as a unicursal path that leads away and to the silent heart and back out again. a lightless center with a warmth outside the walls whispering i love you, follow the light, follow my voice out of the labyrinth

"what if i could find some way to guide you?"

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when lilith returns home the butterfly on her shirt, very commonly a symbol of transformation, is made plainly visible for her entire visit. we're supposed to see that she has changed fundamentally since the last time she came to this place (notice the triangle pattern and the trees as well. behind her head is the shape of a spinning gyre carved into her chair) credit to @pozimek for screencaps

lilith meets adriel in a garden with adriel beneath a tree and she's told that she has power and free-will and the choice of what to do with it. that "she" had intended for lilith one specific purpose, but that lilith gets to decide for herself. lilith is something new. an eve who becomes lilith, an eve on the verge of apotheosis, an eve with the willpower to deviate from the path. reya's way is not the only way

adriel tells lilith that she is the cause of everything happening. that she has more power than any halo bearer. he's telling her the truth. adriel doesn't understand what the halo is, but he understands alchemy and what can come from someone who can follow their own path. someone with uncompromising power that could eclipse the radiant light of a halo. a black moon lilith, teeth already bared. "reya's blood!"

this meeting with adriel is a similar story to eve and the serpent but in this case it becomes the story of two philosophers having a discussion beneath the alchemical tree of life. neither of them have an advantage over the other. it's the same story but it's also something new

an obedient eve evolved into a powerful lilith who after given new (in)sight goes to recruit the halo bearer. not to kill her as adam and eve were told would be their fates if they ate of the tree of knowledge in the garden, but to free ava from the path that she is ever steadily steered further down via the narrow labyrinth walls of reya's way. lilith doesn't want to block ava's path, she only wants to keep reminding her that she can run through walls. it's what lilith has done for ava from the *very beginning*

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WELL HERE YOU GO BUD

JESUS CHRIST THE AMOUNT OF TIME AND TUTORIALS THIS TOOK IS ASTOUNDING BUT ALSO WORTH IT

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WELL HERE YOU GO BUD

JESUS CHRIST THE AMOUNT OF TIME AND TUTORIALS THIS TOOK IS ASTOUNDING BUT ALSO WORTH IT

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Avatrice is just like. I met you when you were more alone than ever before. You were the first person I was allowed to be open with. I know more about the way you brush your teeth than anything about anyone else. I’ve taught you so many things. You’ve taught me so many more. I’ve never trusted someone like this. I’ve never been more scared of someone in my entire life. You could break me. You do break me. You see too much in me. I see the universe in you. I’ve helped make you into the person you are today. 

I’d let the world burn if it meant you’d survive. I’ll save the world because you’ll be the one living in it. 

If we don’t meet again, I’ll see you in the next life.