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Some Annie in casual clothes

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2024

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marina ok

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So this is what the Orthodox Study Bible was hiding from us the whole time... Few know this

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It may sound mean to hear, but: In all genuineness, if you got into CSM only on the basis of the AkiAngel yaoi gooner bait and the revival of the sentiment due to the Reze movie, please stay out of the fandom. I'm 100% serious, just go like something else. The fandom as a whole will genuinely suffer because of the interference of casual anime-only fans like this. It's not the yaoi part, believe me I love unrequited gay romance it's my lifeblood. But you are flanderizing characters you know nothing about, then leaving the charred corpse in the dust when your interest in the series dies out when it doesn't fulfill your weird expectations. Leave the depressed gays alone. Foster it, don't drown it.

This is more just a statement than a post to be responded to. My thoughts aren't up for debate. Thank you all anyhow!

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Call back to the time I got crucified by a CSM fan over my fancast for the horsemen (It was actually because I casted Ryan Gosling as Denji for a joke so they took me out back and shot me)

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Also if any of yall follow me cause of the arcane fic I wrote, that shits dead SOZ

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Do I look like Him? Never forget the martyrs in His name. Amen

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MOVE OVER MID BROWN WOMAN I NEED MY FEMME FATALE TRANS CAT HOE

Elora & Lest - Legends of Runeterra Card Art

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Why Denji is an allegory for Jesus Christ (3/3)

This is the final part, read the other two if you haven't.

Let’s take a soulless character, someone who is not like Denji at all. Brushing past the majority of the weapons, let’s focus on Quanxi and her mentality. Quanxi is an example of a dead man walking. Which, I think, is very important as to why Makima told her that a “corpse is talking.” Quanxi is an example of someone who’s hardened their heart so intensely that they cannot show compassion anymore. She is not dual nature like Denji is, Quanxi is entirely a devil who is convinced she is human. That is not to say she is entirely devil in a literal sense, obviously she’s a hybrid, but her human nature has entirely been snuffed out of her own accord.

How does this have to relate to the allegory to Christ? Well, it’s actually very important! Christ’s mission on earth was to come to save the sinners, not lift up the pious. In Luke 20:38 it says about Christ “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” and in John 11:25 Christ says “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,”

What does this mean? Well, it’s not just about the physical resurrection of the dead during judgement day. What Christ means by saying he is here for the dead and those who believe in him will not die but live, is that: People who live by human-determined morality, die spiritually. To live by your own rules, your own definition of good and evil, it kills who you are as a human being. You slowly convince yourself out of compassion, empathy, or love, because it is what gets you hurt. So, you become a cog in the machine of hate, and you can’t escape it. Because once again, you’re trapped in your own machinations of hate and sadness.

Yet Christ came here to reverse that, and to show people how to do it as well. To get back onto the main point, that is exactly what both Pochita and Denji have been trying to do for others since the start of the whole series! Denji has not stopped being compassionate, not even once! In both cases, that compassion is what leads to Denji and Christ's deaths, and their eventual resurrection.

On the other point of Denji’s conflict, Death. Death is the penultimate counter to what Pochita is, which is why I am convinced that Pochita is the Birth Devil. Anyhow, Death is the epitome and antithesis of healing and compassion. I think it was best said in an Islamic folktale about Cain and Abel’s death, where Eve, upon hearing of Abel’s death, asked the Devil what death even meant. “He does not eat. He does not drink. He does not move. That is what murder and death are."

That is exactly what it is. Death is the finality of a life, the completion of man. When death comes, that is the end. You cannot help yourself, or save yourself, or speed-run atonement, it is just Death. It comes, and you go. Finality. It is why Pochita seeks to kill all devils through his power of consumption, it is a finality to evil that not even Death can provide. If Death is the father of all evil, then Life is its mother. Pochita and Death are intertwined in a deeper sense than symbolism.

How does this relate to Christ? Good thing you asked, nobody! Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was an exaltation of goodness over sin. When Christ died, he died not only for the sins of all of humanity but for the deaths of all of humanity. The author of all life took on all death in order to vanquish it forever, for not even death can overcome creation. Christ’s death on the cross is commonly hailed as a victory over death, a cosmic battle at times (though in a figurative sense) as if Jesus himself took up a sword and slew a man called ‘Death’, though there was never one to begin with.

Death, like Conquest, is also a man made invention. How confident we are as humans to say “nothing happens after!” as if we have proof, yet deny any other possibility for the lack of its proof. Death only happens when you accept that it is your end. One does not die in their bodies to be granted this kind of ending, one must die in their soul first while they are alive. This is why Christ had to come to give life to the dead, not death to the living. It is why he came in humility, not in conquest. He came as a general to fight the war against sin, not against sinners.

Why is Denji an allegory for Christ? He came to earth in innocence and youth, and waited without sin or complaint for his time. He is incapable of showing true sin, true hatred or spite, because he is a fountain of love and compassion. He came both to bring life to the dead (saving people) and death to the living (exterminating all devils) he has a dual nature in a hypostatic union, two whole full natures in one personhood. He is persecuted, convicted, tried, and executed. Yet after a short time, he rises again in splendor. He has brought his heavenly kingdom by shattering the existing earthly kingdom. Finally, he will defeat all evil in a climactic duel with his antithesis, whereupon defeating her, he will proclaim the destruction of mortality and the eradication of sin. On The Day of His Wrath, he will defeat Death once and for all. For it is a Revelation of the Last Judgement.

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Why Denji is an allegory for Jesus Christ (2/3)

This part 2 to my original post, please go read the first if you haven't!

Let’s swivel back to Denji for a moment. We should look at both the fight that Denji had to struggle against in Part 1, and the fight that is being foreshadowed to come in Part 2. Both of these devils, Conquest and Death, are also imperative as to why Denji is an allegory for Christ.

Denji fought against Makima, an incarnation of the abomination of Conquest. Conquest is not just a term to refer to what happens after a war. Conquest is the complete and total dismantling of social, cultural, economic, and moral structures. Conquest is not only the undoing of humanity, but entirely created by humanity. Conquest, as a concept, is the embodiment of man-made rules that keep everyone in perpetual soul-death. 

Conquest does nothing but exalt the sinner and spit on the saint, because human defined rules are inherently flawed. In fact, the reason as to why Conquest as a concept is inherently anti-Christian, is because it is the exact opposite of the Kingdom of Heaven. Conquest is a human made concept for a human made structure in order to support human made concepts and exalt human made deities. I actually adore Makima because she’s one of the very few examples of someone who is truly an antichrist, the abomination of desolation. But in a way, she will fall to her own nature when it is utilized against her. The conqueror will be conquered by new conquest. A new ruler.

Makima, as a whole, is an eldritch entity living in a Godless world. Or, at the very least, a world where she cannot perceive God. If Makima cannot perceive God, and she believes herself to be the most superior being in existence (due to her nature as Conquest) then she would only come to the conclusion that she, herself, is God. Yet Makima has taste, and class, and she’s not that on the nose when it comes to symbolism. I see Makima’s obsession as trying to make herself emulate the fear of God, and his majesty, but she is incapable of his love and mercy.

I am one of the very few actual Makima fans, but I know in my heart of hearts that Makima is actually one of the most naive and unprepared devils. You need to understand that the majority of the facade of Makima is the fact that she has infinite power, and infinite confidence. Makima has a generalized idea of how to save the world, her perfect utopia, yet she hasn’t really ever discussed what it is. 

She has no idea what her utopia will look like, she has no plans, she merely trusts in her own self-instilled confidence that she is competent enough to just ‘figure it out’ when she owns the entire world. To me, Makima is one of the deepest thinkers in the entire series. I think she could talk so deeply about social subjects that the world could pass away before she stopped. Yet, I don’t think she’s thought once about what happens when she actually can say “I win” in a meaningful way.

And much like humans, it is the exact same way. The issue is that we, as mortals, are not instilled with the unwavering confidence as somebody who has an absolute guarantee that they’ll never see death truly. Humans are fickle, and fallible, and constantly worried about things that don’t even exist. There’s a reason why the Nothing Ever Happens Chud meme is so popular, because the majority of people are fear-driven workers. It’s not even a recent phenomenon, it is just human nature.

Denji’s defeat of Makima was his human nature. The reason why humans are made in the image of God, and what that means, is that we have the capacity to detect evil when we see it and to detest it. It was our curse to know good and evil from our transgressions, but we were at least armed with the capacity to flee from one and run to the other. (Though, many flee to evil, for it’s the easiest path.)

Yet, at the same time, Denji’s mourning for Makima is also his human nature. His ability to take someone that has hurt him so badly, that has done so much wrong and evil to him, and to say “I miss them” and “I forgive them.” THAT is why we are made in God’s image. Denji’s greatest superpower isn’t being Chainsaw Man, it’s his unwavering noble heart and his ceaseless humility. Denji may be a cry baby at times, and throwing pity parties in the recent chapters, but that’s real true atonement. To truly atone for sin, it needs to hurt you as badly as it hurt the people you did it against. That’s what regret is.

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Why Denji is an allegory for Jesus Christ (1/3)

“Chainsaw Man is actually the Birth Devil” this and “Pochita is actually the Salvation Devil” that. WRONG! Clearly (and most likely unintentionally) Denji and Pochita, as a whole Chainsaw Man, is an allegory for the Christ. Here’s why:

Let’s start off with a subject that is actually really heavy on Chainsaw Man’s plot, but something that people rarely actually talk about. The natures of humans and devils! A big recurring theme in the series is that humans and devils always think they cannot get along due to their natures compelling them to kill one another, yet time after time we see nothing but human-devil friendships blossoming.

It is imperative to establish something first: The Denji that you see at the start of the manga, and the Denji you see when Makima found him, are NOT the same Denji. That is to say, not that they are two entirely separate people, no. It is to say that Denji’s nature as a living entity fundamentally changed when Pochita hybridized with him. Not only did Denji’s personality wholeheartedly change, but his dreams and aspirations.

I would like to establish another thing before I continue: I’m not making some claim that Pochita is like the ‘Jesus Devil’ or something like that. I’m a subscriber to the idea that Pochita is indeed, in fact, the Birth Devil. Which may explain a lot behind why Denji’s priorities changed from economical to sexual, and why he developed a hypersexual coping mechanism to trauma .

If Pochita truly is the Birth Devil, or perhaps something along the lines of the Reproduction Devil, then most of Pochita’s nature hinges on the fear and dread that surrounds women and mothers during childbirth and conception. Pochita may be a unique Devil because of that, because he is the one Devil that fear would seem to work against, instead of in his favor.

Then, if Pochita is truly the Birth Devil, his conviction is to destroy devils and fear in order to preserve something that should be viewed as a miracle (childbirth) and to prevent the loss of further life. If Pochita was the Birth Devil, and he erased other devils for their crimes, then would not other birth related devils (For example, something like the Crib-Death Devil) be first on his list? 

This might explain why, in CSM’s universe, there’s just so many children and a high population despite catastrophic death tolls in frequent Devil attacks. It may be, in this universe, insanely easy to conceive and deliver children.

Let’s get back onto the subject of Denji and his dual natures. Pochita’s devil nature as an avatar of birth merges into Denji’s fickle human nature. This does not produce a half-and-half of the two entities, but rather an entirely whole new entity. He is no longer Denji and Pochita, he is Denji AND Pochita. He is Chainsaw Man, and that’s a very big distinction to know when it comes to why Denji is so internally conflicted.

Everyone is asking Denji to decide between being Chainsaw Man (Or, Pochita, to be more precise, as they care nothing about Denji’s actual participation) or if he’s going to choose being a regular human being. Denji, time after time, insists that he doesn’t have to choose, and that he can be both without issue.

How does this relate to an allegory with Christ? Well, in Christianity, we have a concept called the Hypostatic Union. It is pretty complicated, and I’m an amateur theologian, so if I tried to explain it in full detail, I would most likely create a heresy (lol) so, here’s more of an abridged version of it:

Jesus Christ’s nature is entirely of dual properties. He was both fully God in nature, and fully a human being in nature. This dual nature is imperative as to exactly why his sacrifice was needed, and why he was the only person who could do it. If he was not fully God, he would not be the Messiah. If he was not fully human, his sacrifice would not be applicable to human beings, and therefore of no help. 

The Hypostatic Union is both of those natures compressed into a single sense of ‘personhood’, Jesus! A really cool term that early Christians used to describe the Hypostatic Union of Christ was by calling Jesus the ‘God-man’. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

(See next post for Part 2!!!)

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Two Elder Scrolls mages.

On the left: A Telvanni wizard going through the first stages of live mummification. At this point he is able to keep levitate himself unconsciously indefinitely.

On the right: A High Rock native Breton's wooden sleepbody. A sleepbody is a golem vessel made to be possessed by powerful mages during their sleep, allowing them to study while they rest. The technique is not popular outside of High Rock, and the benefits of foregoing true sleep are questionable.

Been playing a lot of Tamriel Rebuilt, and it's gotten me in the mood to draw conceptual Elder Scrolls stuff.

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Nerevar and Dagoth

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Also I'm not getting back into AoT dw, tumblr just keeps feeding me Zeke art

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Zeke and hange stuff 🤭