shegeekery

[shegeekery]

As both a Norse Pagan and an MCU fan, I agree with all of the above.

The only thing I'd add is that, sometimes, fiction about Pagan gods can actually help lead someone to a path that works for them. I've seen this happen many times, and experienced it to some extent myself. A person is intrigued (or hit upside the head with a cosmic 2x4) enough that they start researching and learning more about the actual gods the fiction was based on, and so on. I wouldn't make the mistake of assuming that someone doesn't know what they're doing simply because they came to their path via a work of fiction.

That said, this is much less likely to happen if a god is simply (and wrongly) portrayed as evil. This is why Christians in the middle ages started portraying Satan as physically resembling the horned Pagan nature gods who were still commonly worshipped in some areas. It was propaganda, equating ancient pagan beliefs and practices with "devil worship".

What Non-Pagans Need to Know About Fiction Featuring Pagan Gods

In light of Marvel's Loki show dropping a second season and a new Percy Jackson series on the horizon, I want to say some things about how fandom spaces can be respectful of real-life pagan religion.

Let's get one thing out of the way: literally no one is saying you can't enjoy fiction that uses pagan gods and heroes as characters. No one is saying, "Stop writing stories about our gods." In fact, many ancient cultures wrote fiction about their gods -- look at Greek theater or the Norse Eddas. The act of writing fiction about the gods is not offensive in itself.

But please remember that this is someone's religion.

The gods are not "just archetypes." Their myths are not "just stories." Their personalities are not a matter of artistic interpretation. For many pagans, the gods are very much real in a literal sense. I don't think Thor is a metaphor or a symbol -- for me, Thor is a real, autonomous spiritual being who exists outside of human perceptions of him, and who I have chosen to build a relationship with. Even if you are a hardcore atheist, I would hope you could at least be respectful of the fact that, to many modern pagans, the gods are both very real and very important.

When authors are not respectful of this fact, they reduce the gods, these very real objects of worship, to fictional characters. And here's the thing about fictional characters: they are fundamentally tools for authors to use to draw a desired emotional response from an audience.

Dracula's personality and behavior is wildly different depending on who is writing him, because different authors use Dracula to create different reactions in their audiences. In the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi, he's equal parts alluring and disturbing, a symbol of America's mixed desire and disdain for foreigners. In Nosferatu, he's more strictly frightening and disgusting. In Francis Ford Coppola's movie, he's a tragic, romantic figure clinging to the last scraps of his humanity. In Netflix's Castlevania, he's an incredibly powerful being who has grown bitter and apathetic in his immortality. All of this is Dracula, and all of it is fine, because Dracula is not and never has been a central figure in anyone's religion.

Let's take a look at what happens when authors give this same treatment to real gods:

In Hellenic polytheism, Apollo is one of the most beloved gods, both historically and today. Apollo loves humanity, and humanity loves him back. He is the god of sunlight and of medicine, but also of poetry and song. He is one of humanity's most consistent defenders when one of the other gods gets wrathful. And while he does have dangerous or wrathful aspects of his own (he's also the god of disease, after all), he's also kind and soft with humanity in a way other gods often aren't, at least in some historic sources.

In the Lore Olympus comic series, Apollo is a villain. He's characterized as an abuser, a manipulator, and a violent man child. LO!Apollo is downright hateful, because the author wants us to hate him. Lore Olympus is a retelling of a myth about an abduction and forced marriage. Lore Olympus is also a romance. In order to get the audience to sympathize with Hades and root for his relationship with Persephone, Rachel Smythe needed to make someone else the villain. Apollo is the most obvious and extreme character assassination in Smythe's work, but several other gods (notably Demeter) also get the asshole makeover to tell the story Smythe wants to tell.

Here's where this becomes a problem: Hellenic polytheism is a fairly small religious community, while Lore Olympus is a massively popular webtoon with 1.3 billion views as of August 2023, print books available from major retailers, a TV adaptation in the works, and a very active online fandom. Rachel Smythe currently has a MUCH bigger platform than any Hellenic polytheism practitioner. Smythe and other authors are shaping how modern culture views the Hellenic gods, and that has a very real impact on their worshipers.

This means "Apollo is an abusive asshole" is becoming a popular take online, and is even creeping into pagan communities. I've personally seen people be harassed for worshiping Apollo because of it. I've seen new pagans and pagan-curious folks who totally misunderstand the roles Apollo, Hades, and Persephone play in the Hellenic pantheon because of Lore Olympus and other modern works of fiction.

There are tons of other examples of this in modern pop culture, but I'll just rattle off a few of the ones that annoy me most: Rick Riordan depicting Ares/Mars as a brutish asshole hyped up on toxic masculinity; Rick Riordan depicting Athena as a mother goddess; Marvel depicting Thor as a dumb jock; Marvel depicting Odin as a cold, uncaring father; DC depicting Ares as purely evil; whatever the fuck the Vikings TV show was trying to do with seidr; the list goes on.

All of these are examples of religious appropriation. Religious appropriation is when sacred symbols are taken out of their original religious context by outsiders, so that the original meaning is lost or changed. It requires a power imbalance -- the person taking the symbols is usually part of a dominant religious culture. In many cases, the person doing the appropriation has a much bigger platform than anyone who has the knowledge to correct them.

When Rick Rioridan or Rachel Smythe totally mischaracterizes a Greek god to tell a story, and then actual Hellenic pagans get harassed for worshiping that god, that's religious appropriation.

Religious appropriation is a real issue. This isn't just pagans being sensitive. To use an extreme example: Richard Wagner and other German Romantic authors in the 19th century used the Norse gods and other Germanic deities as symbols in their work, which was a major influence on Nazi philosophy. Without Wagner, the Nazis would not have latched onto the Norse gods as symbols of their white supremacist agenda. To this day, there are white supremacist groups who claim to worship our gods or who use our religious imagery in their hate movement. We are still reckoning with the misinterpretation of our gods popularized by Wagner and other German Romantics almost 200 years ago.

Again, no one is saying you can't enjoy fiction based on pagan mythology. But there are a few things you can do to help prevent religious appropriation in fandom spaces:

Above all else, be mindful that while this may just be a story to you, it is someone's religion.

Recognize that enjoying fiction based on our gods does not mean you know our gods. You know fictional characters with the same names as our gods, who may or may not be accurate to real-life worship.

Do not argue with or try to correct pagans when we talk about our experience of our gods.

Don't invalidate or belittle pagan worship. Again, this mostly comes down to recognizing that our religion is totally separate from your fandom. We aren't LARPing or playing pretend. Our sacred traditions are real and valid.

If you see other people in your fandom engaging in religious appropriation, point out what they are doing and why it isn't okay.

Please tag your fandom content appropriately on social media. Always tag the show, movie, book, etc. that a post is about in addition to other relevant tags. This allows pagans to block these fandom tags if we don't want to see them and prevents fandom content showing up in religious tags.

For example, if I'm posting about Athena from the Percy Jackson books, I would tag the post #athena #athenapjo #percyjackson #pjo. You get the idea.

And if fiction sparks your interest and you want to learn more about the actual worship of the gods, you can always ask! Most pagans love talking about our gods and trading book recs.

If you are writing fiction based on real mythology, talk to people who worship those gods. Ask them what a respectful portrayal would look like. If possible, include a note in your finished work reminding audiences that it is a work of fiction and not meant to accurately portray these gods.

[shegeekery]

The very first fanfic I ever wrote (this was many years ago now) got exactly one comment. It said something like “this story didn’t do anything for me”, without elaboration. It was years before I got up the courage to write again. Looking back, I think the reader was probably just disappointed that it wasn’t about romance or sex. I don’t really write those things, so people like that are never going to like what I write.

[shegeekery]

Potential Doomsday casting spoilers under the cut. This is coming from an “industry insider” with a good track record…

The long list of additional characters includes Mobius, Sylvie, B-15, and O.B.!

Please, please let this one be true!

More here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=30bdtQFaSsM

ETA: I still watch this YouTube channel because it’s a good source for MCU news, but this guy sometimes seems to be in a bubble when it comes to parts of the fandom outside of his own interests. Of course he’s surprised that these characters might be included. They’re not popular in his own corner of fandom, and it never seems to occur to him that not all fans have the same focus and that our money is just as important to Marvel as his is.

[shegeekery]

The sheer quantity of propaganda being generated to sell us on AI is actually making me far more concerned about AI than I would otherwise have been. It’s everywhere I look now, and not just online.

[shegeekery]

NGL, I’m a bit disappointed with the TVA comic storyline. There were some good moments with our beloved TVA crew, but those were few and far between. I didn’t expect Loki to actually make an appearance, of course, but I thought we’d be spending more time with the other characters from the show. I don’t understand why they decided to sideline the TVA folks (and Sylvie) in favor of Gwen, Gambit, etc., and the whole thing hinged on a character I literally never heard of. Just…why? It’s like if they put out an Avengers comic storyline, but the Avengers mostly just sit around the tower interjecting comments occasionally while the Fantastic Four actually do everything. Feels like a bait-and-switch.

Meh.

[shegeekery]

This shouldn’t have to be said, but trying to shame other fans for enjoying and interacting with media in a different way than you do says far more about you than it does about them. Personally, I block accounts that I see engaging in that kind of nonsense.

Fandom is supposed to be fun. Acting like your personal take is a Universal Truth and anyone who disagrees must have something wrong with them detracts from others’ enjoyment and should have no place in fandom.

ETA: Accusing other fans of “projecting” onto characters shows hypocrisy and a serious lack of self-awareness on your part. You’re projecting onto these characters too. That’s what fictional characters are for, FFS! How do people not understand this?

[shegeekery]

shegeekery: Do you even, cuddle, bro? Do you even lift, bro… each other up with kindness? Do you tell your loved ones that you care about them regardless of who is listening? DO YOU EVER RESOLVE CONFLICTS, EMOTIONAL ISSUES THROUGH COMPROMISE AND COMPASSION RATHER THAN ANGER AND DENIAL?!

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make this picrew and put your name in the incorrect quote generator!

tags: @wintry-whimsy @renalyxx @renalyxx @rainandsugarcane2000 @devotedlyuniquewizard @cabbagewhites @eggedagain @fall1ngawayfromm3 @jasperr6969 @the-sonni-guy and open tags !

[shegeekery]

I'm definitely much more of a Loki fan. I was perfectly happy watching Loki off by himself, but even if Love & Thunder had been a good movie, I would probably have been a little underwhelmed. Thor works best for me when the two are together.

I can't see hating Thor, though. What is there to hate?

I can't imagine liking Loki while also hating Thor, and vice versa They just feel like two peas in a pod, yk?? Sure, you can be critical of the two, but not like one of them just seems odd. Ofc people are entitled to their likes and dislikes, but when I went down the rabbit hole the other day, it made me realise how different the opinions are of people who hate either of those two (" ó ò) Anyways, I am just rambling about my findings from last night XP

[shegeekery]

*wonders what Loki would think of the Pantheon of Chaos*

alright. who's gonna draw the fanart of lux x miss minutes?

[shegeekery]

Finally decided to filter the Marvel Rivals tag. It's taken over my feed and I can never figure out what people are talking about or even what I'm seeing when people post a video. (I stopped watching the videos because all those characters just running and jumping around, plus noise, flashes on the screen, etc., is actually painful for me to watch and/or listen to.) I even downloaded the game and tried to play it a bit in an effort to understand what it's all about, but just going through the training stuff was annoying and tedious for me.

[shegeekery]

Took this photo the other day and forgot to share it here. It seems Doctor Strange lives behind a tattoo shop. Who knew?

[shegeekery]

Help! I’m having dinner at Sardi’s in Times Square and this guy won’t stop staring at me. What do I do?

[shegeekery]

Wow, what a day. Already crossed three things off of my lifetime bucket list: Bethesda Terrace (in Central Park — I was obsessed with the movie “Hair” as a kid), Hamilton Grange, and the Grant Memorial (a.k.a., Grant’s Tomb). Yeah, I’m also a history buff.

Now to crash in the hotel room for a while before dinner. Tomorrow we’re headed down to the southern tip to take in all the historical stuff there and have lunch at Fraunces Tavern.

Looking around at the city, a part of me keeps wondering where Stark Tower is, but sadly, right city/wrong universe.

One thing’s for sure — I’ll be getting my steps in this week!

[shegeekery]

Interesting ideas, although I suspect that Doom will destroy the TVA when he dethrones Loki, so there wouldn’t be a TVA for him to go back to. (Here’s hoping they manage to evacuate the place!) TVA Loki doesn’t need a TemPad, though, since we already know that he can travel anywhere/anywhen on the timelines at will.

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I think the most likely place for TVA Loki to insert himself into the previously-seen Sacred Timeline would be immediately after Sacred Timeline Loki gives Thanos the Tesseract, but before Thanos kills him. TVA Loki could pause time, briefly explain things to his other self, tell him to lay low for a few years, then switch places with him. Sacrificing himself to give himself a chance would be very fitting. (I know Lokius shippers would HATE that, but it would be a beautiful arc. Who knows, maybe Sacred Timeline Loki will meet Mobius at some point?)

Gentle reminder that TVA Loki and Sacred Timeline Loki only diverged after most of the events in The Avengers had already happened. The Loki we see in Thor 1 and Avengers is actually BOTH Lokis.

Also, consider that Loki and Thor are 1500 years old (according to Thor). To keep the math simple, let's say that the events in Doomsday happen in 2027. That means the split would have happened 15 years earlier, in 2012. 15 years is only 1% of their lifetimes. TVA Loki and Thor were on the same timeline for 99% of their lives (at least from Thor's perspective — we don't know how or if Loki is experiencing time in the tree). It's only the events of the last 15 years that TVA Loki missed out on, and even then he knows exactly what happened during that time. Add in the fact that TVA Loki's timeline was destroyed right after it was created, which to my mind means that Sacred Timeline Thor is TVA Loki's next-of-kin. Thor and TVA Loki are most definitely NOT strangers. They're just brothers with some catching up to do.

[shegeekery]

Edit: Because people with very poor reading comprehension are still finding this post and accusing me of jumping to conclusions rather than just *worrying* about people jumping to conclusions (I was right, BTW) I guess I need to put this in simple terms… I was not accusing TH of anything at all. I posted this on the day the video started making the rounds with no context whatsoever and the lack of context was what concerned me. I thought I had made that clear enough, but when people are looking for a fight just so they can feel self-righteous, they tend to see only what they want to see.

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Been seeing THAT video of Tom Hiddleston with the cardboard cutout of Peggy Carter's Captain Britain floating around and I'm getting concerned. Given what we know of Tom's personality and integrity, I'm inclined to believe that he probably talked it over with Haley Atwell in advance of doing that. Unfortunately, I can totally see other parts of Tumblr and the rest of the internet taking that and trying to cancel him over it without even bothering to wait for more information.

[shegeekery]

No, Tumblr ad algorithm, I am not, in fact, a gay man looking to hook up with other gay men.

I must say, though, that this is at least far more entertaining than the disgusting ads YouTube was showing me before I stopped logging into that hellsite and started using an ad-blocker so they don’t make any more money off of me and my data. Although, oddly enough, Google/YouTube seems convinced that I’m an older cishet guy (also wrong).

Ah well. There are worse things than being shown photos of pretty, pretty gay boys in between actual Tumblr posts. If they’re just trying to annoy me into getting a paid account, they’re going about it the wrong way! 😁

[shegeekery]

Gentle reminder that TVA Loki and Sacred Timeline Loki only diverged after most of the events in The Avengers had already happened. The Loki we see in Thor 1 and Avengers is actually BOTH Lokis.

Also, consider that Loki and Thor are 1500 years old (according to Thor). To keep the math simple, let's say that the events in Doomsday happen in 2027. That means the split would have happened 15 years earlier, in 2012. 15 years is only 1% of their lifetimes up to this point. To put that into perspective, that’s equivalent to a separation of 3 or 4 months for a pair of 30 year olds. TVA Loki and Thor were on the same timeline for 99% of their lives (at least from Thor's perspective — we don't know how or if Loki is experiencing time in the tree). It's only the events of the last 15 years that TVA Loki missed out on, and even then he knows exactly what happened during that time. Add in the fact that TVA Loki's timeline was destroyed right after it was created, which to my mind means that Sacred Timeline Thor is TVA Loki's next-of-kin. Thor and TVA Loki are most definitely NOT strangers. They're just brothers with some catching up to do.