#Hoteps do not interact

[cyarskaren52]

[cyarskj1899]

Aye ik we're joking but in all seriousness say a real and genuine prayer for Angela Harris…Aniah Blanchard's mother…she dove head 1st into this situation because of what happened to her daughter only for this to be fake…Carlee and her folks ran with that lie knowing it was bs while this woman was ready to sacrifice everything to make sure the same didn't happen to Carlee… they're pathetic 💯 #RIPAniah

that’s so wrong. Brought all those emotions up & made that lady experience it again

[cyarsk52-20]

All. Of. This.

[howhow326]

Guys im literally screaming, I have a Guyanese Hotep professor that tried to convince the class that the Olmec heads were made by Africans and guess who wrote that shit down first

[bgaara]

*my hotep family dick-riding egyptians/nubians*

our literal Malian/Cameroonian ancestors:

[cyarskj52]

She needs to be in a psychiatric care facility. Not jail or prison. She didn’t harm anyone. She just wasted time which is very bad but not a call to take up space in a place where actual criminals should be

[cyarsk5230]

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theneighborhoodtalk TNHT Staff: @YesThatsDee

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Neighbors, Carlee Russell may have arrived to her parents’ house barefoot, but it now appears she’s been given a boot…from her job that is!

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According to Daily Mail, she’s been fired from her job at a spa. On July 13th she was caught on camera stealing items from her employer. She reportedly took a dark bath robe and toilet paper.

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Her boss, Stuart Rome, says “It was really devastating for them thinking a co-worker was abducted.” “The following day, Saturday, it was the busiest day of the week, and they had to plug along and work,” he continued.

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He says the spa has been affected and swarmed with negative comments on social media, “We’re just trying to keep the doors open,” he explained.

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It’s unclear if this will turn into criminal charges for Carlee. We will keep you updated as this story continues to develop.

[sadlittlebear-sometimes-beatrash]

Khonshu mythos

I keep seeing the aspects of Khonshu (pathfinder, embracer, defender) pop up and I got super interested but couldn’t actually find anything that elaborated on it. I did a little dive and found some character stats from games, and some comic-book Khonshu timelines but nothing about his aspects in particular. 

So I did a bigger dive into ‘Khonsu’ and ancient Egyptian theology to see if I could learn more about what they were drawing inspiration from. 

(If you’ve got a comic book (or a fic!) recommendation that tackles the different aspects of Khonsu I would love to have it.) 

His name means ‘the traveler’ or more directly ‘he who travels the night sky.’ He’s got a dark past as an ancient bloodthirsty god who strangled other deities, eviscerated them, and fed the parts to kings so they could absorb their strength/power in the afterlife. 

Khonsu was mainly worshiped as one part of the Thebian Triad in the New Kingdom of Thebes. He’s the divine child of the other two and was depicted as a male youth. In this place/time he’s called ‘Khonsu in Thebes Nefer-Hotep’. (which roughly translates to ‘perfectly satisfied’ or ‘beautiful and peaceful’). 

He was the god of the moon and was thought to embody the light of the crescent moon in particular. I found ‘the god of the light in the night’ to be a rather nice descriptor. This aspect of him/his role seemed to fit best with the “embracer, pathfinder, defender” I keep seeing. Though it seems to describe three roles of one of his aspects, rather than three distinct aspects each with different roles. 

Khonsu as a god with healing abilities was clear in the show, but not so clear in the comics, but it was definitely there in the mythology. Reading about how Khonsu was understood to be a fierce and violent healer, and how that was not an oxymoron, was super interesting. Here’s the quote from the paper: “Healing deities in Egyptian religion are also frequently violent because they must battle with the demons who cause sickness” [link to the cool paper].   

 EVEN COOLER is that that paper describes depictions of Khonsu sitting with the distinct/separate aspects of himself as Khonsu in Thebes, Khonsu the protector, and Khonsu the provider. There is also an inscription about ‘Khonsu in Thebes’ talking/interacting with ‘Khonsu the provider’ who goes off to do his own thing for a bit. This [link] has a synopsis of the story and it’s really neat.  

He was also thought to be one of the gods of time, particularly the month. He was sometimes thought to start off each day as a child, mature throughout, and lay to rest an old man (or complete that cycle throughout one year). How he’s depicted in statues/carvings also mirrors that age-wobbliness: He’s depicted as a young man by a particular hairstyle (sidelock) but he’s also got a beard of older rulers. His crown is also a full lunar disk AND a crescent moon at the same time. 

He may have symbolized “ the culmination of life” or the life cycle. His powers were thought to wax and wane with the moon with him being strongest around the new moon (mighty bull) and weakest at the full moon (neutered bull). This has something to do with the crescent moon being bull horns and also his weapon. 

There was a lot more to unpack but these were the parts I found most interesting. I had fun, and I hope you had fun. 

Here are the links to the resources I found most helpful if you’re interested. 

Khonsu at AncientEgyptOnline.com

Khonsu, the Lunar God who Came to Greatness by Jimmy Dunn

God Khonsu at Landioustravel.com

Khonsu: Henadology, Philosophy, and Theology (by E.P. Butler)

[k4ntynews]

my favorite abbott characters from least to most and why:

- mr. johnson

he’s funny, but he reminds me of my hotep uncles and i don’t need a reminder that men like that exist

- melissa

she’s a great character but her character works the least with a mockumentary sitcom because she’s so closed off, we get the fewest amount of vulnerable moments with her. plus her storyline with gary could’ve given us more tbh.

- jacob

he’d be higher if he hadn’t have broken up with zach 😒. he really balances the ensemble out, low key the best buffer for all the characters. i like the relationship he develops with the other characters, on their own none of them stand out, but he is the glue that keeps everyone together.

- gregory

i honestly hate gregory in reference to him and janine, if he wasn’t so real and relatable he’d be lower. i like how weird he is and how everyone around him is just like “yeah that’s gregory, he’s weird, we like him”. from one weirdo to the next he truly speaks to me.

- janine

i truly have nothing bad to say about janine, she is probably the most baby girl character to ever exist, she is my baby. she’s had the most character development, and she tries so hard like how can you not love her and want her to win??? now if she only learned to leave dusties alone (sorry gregory)

- ava

my wife’s wife, my girlfriend’s girlfriend, the only woman id ever let cuck me. she’s also had really good character development. low key wish her smart era lasted longer, it was so funny. im hope we see her interact with her sorority and i hope they dive more into the elitism in those circles.

- barbara

sheryl could literally walk on my screen and id cry. she is THE moment and THAT lady. she has the second most character development but i do feel like some of her development keeps getting repeated. like she’s already done the insecure about getting old thing, but if that’s gonna be like her thing, then i get it.

[thetwistedrope]

Em hotep. What's wrong with Sharon LaBorde? I've been researching and interacting with Kemetic communities lately, and even the most hardcore followers will recommend her channel and books. Your FAQ was the first time I ever saw someone disagree so I wanted to hear why. Thank you for your time.

the main reasons i don't tend to recommend sharon :

she spreads misinformation about KO. if you're going to criticize the organization, you should be doing it with actual factual data, not falsified drama that has been stirring around the internet since 2006. when i created a KO q&a post on her forum, she tried to shut it down because it made her uncomfortable lol. it was left up only because people pushed back against it. that's how deep her need to have KO always be in the wrong runs, imo. and so much of her content (at least back then) was rife with these subtle jabs at KO and its fkn tiresome esp when its not based on actual facts.

she's okay with racism. when i modded for her back in the 2013 era, there was suddenly a spike of discussion regarding police brutality and racism (due to mike brown being murdered), and she was so fast to back up the racists and play down some of her own lowkey racism. this is ultimately what got me removed from being a mod. she didn't even have the nerve to tell me, i just signed in and saw i no longer had mod privileges. a little cherry on top.

i don't find her first book (never bothered to read the second book) to be particularly impactful or useful. its filled with anti-KO sentiment just lurking under the surface. i didn't like that she labeled a consecration rite as "opening the mouth" (if you search her old forum, you might find us discussing that back in the day). i didn't like the lack of good citation in her book. in general, i was just not impressed. you can find all the relevant information on free from better (imo) writers, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

all of this combined doesn't make me want to recommend her to anyone. you can probably check the laborde tag to find older variations of me answering this question, which may have more details, but idr and i'm too lazy to check

[blackfilmmakers]

While I completely understand how messed up it is to deny someone's Blackness, I also understand someone's skepticism when it comes to moments like what you dealt with when it happens online. Like when you're observed to only break out the aave when trying to look a certain way (threatening or comical, otherwise you aren't just talking like that) and when you wildly misuse very Black specific terms and phrases (like not knowing what a hotep is, how are we messing THAT up???) and we can't SEE you AND you're very obviously doing this for nonblack observers/followers and even letting said observers chime in on Black discussions, then you will just have to come to terms with the fact that your behavior is at best a little suspicious (I hesitate to say a lil coonish).

One of those moments where you wouldn't be surprised the result is either or

I try not to assume right off the bat, because yeah we got some clowns here too, every racial group has them

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that interaction was sus

[cyarskaren52]

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theneighborhoodtalk Not Carlee Russell 😩. Jamie’s fans aren’t feeling his silence concerning his health scare. Thoughts? 👀

As far as I know Jamie Foxx ain’t say sh*t to none of y’all , it ain’t his fault others let this story run wild. He is not obligated to do that.

Yall swear people have to tell you when they blood sugar is low, what’s in their 401k, and the last person they slept with for you to carry on your day

[cursedshot-arisen]

....

Em hotep.

I am C̵̛̥̬ụ̸̳̓̑r̷͕̳͌͘s̷̠͔̒̕ȇ̵͇͝d̷̖̚s̷͚̀̔h̵̨̛͑o̷͕͈̔t̸̥̃.

I have. Come back. A great deity had called me forth. Pulled me from. The tombs of the one who greets ghosts. I am here now. Back.

Who am I. What am I.

Rules. From a forgotten time.

No inappropriate questions that. Are not safe. For children.

Beware. Body horror. Light gore. Death. I am undead.

I banish thee from my domain, if thy misbehave. To the one who greets ghosts.

My decrees may change as I see fit.

OOC undercut:

Mod is 18+, goes by Eli, and prefers he/him or they/them pronouns.

All interactions (OC, OOC, canon, multi-fandom) are welcome!

Cursedshot is entirely based off of headcanons and diverges greatly from the canon Slingshot. This is if the skin was its own character.

I will eventually be posting my own art here; do NOT use it to train AI without my consent. Do NOT repost anywhere without my permission, do NOT trace it unless you have my permission, and do NOT claim it as yours. Reblogs > likes, but both are appreciated.

Some of my OCs may make a guest appearance on this blog. Yours may, too.

The Cursedshot I play has cat traits! It is also an undead eldritch abomination, and will be portrayed in unsettling manners at times.

You are always free to draw or write about the interactions you see here! Please tag me so I can see it!

If you use my art for anything, please tag me and/or credit appropriately!

I follow from my main @mothkingeloth .

Feel free to message me if you ever wanna chat!

I may update this as need-be!

[cyarsk52-20]

imma still believe black women, the carlee russell situation doesn’t stop that for me. y’all be easy tho!

Muting this afterwards. Argue with the wall and yo momma

[angelicseven]

a galaxy brain hot take from the hiphopheads subreddit

[hellzabeth]

i have opinions about The Prince of Egypt musical adaption and you’re going to listen to them: An Essay

So, quick disclaimer: The Prince of Egypt is one of my favourite movies of all time. The casting, the music, the animation, I think it’s one of the top-tier movies that have ever been made. I went into seeing the London West End production of PoE with a full expectation that nothing I saw on stage would ever live up to how much I love the movie. I was fully aware there are plenty of limitations to what can be shown live on a stage with human actors and props.

That being said, I was enormously disappointed with how the whole thing was handled.

The Good

Now before I launch into a whole tirade of what I didn’t like about the production, it does behoove me to say what I think they did do well. 


The casting of the role of Moses was done fantastically, as was Miriam, Tzipporah, and Yocheved. The swings and the ensemble were really engaged and well placed, going through lots of quick changes to go from Hebrews to Egyptians to Midianites and back.


The two Egyptian queens, wifes of Seti and Ramses, are actually given names, lines, and character beyond being simply tacked onto their respective kings. We get to see how they feel about the events happening around them, and there’s even a scene where Ramses meets his wife and courts her, whereas in the movie, she stands in the background and says nothing. This is one of the areas I was hoping the musical, which would naturally have a longer run-time, would expand on, and I was pleased to see the opportunity was taken.

Light projections on enormous curtains were used to very good effect, taking us instantly inside the walls of the palace and then out to the desert. 


Over all, the work was really put in to be engaging and emotional, and the orchestra really worked to deliver the right musical beats.


One of two stand out scenes as being done very well was the opening “Deliver Us”, which included a bone-chilling moment of Egyptians separating a mother and her baby, with her screams as she’s dragged off-stage, and the blood on the guard’s sword. It really brings home the fear as Yocheved tries to lead Aaron and Miriam to the river with her, not to mention Yocheved’s actress nailed the lullaby. 


The second was at the other end of the show, “When You Believe” was beautifully performed by the whole cast, though it was somewhat stunted by what came before...

The Bad

Oh boy.

So the main problem with this show is not the music, not the staging, not even that sometimes the ensemble was a little off-beat (the lai-lai-lai section in Though Heaven’s Eyes comes to mind). Any mistakes there can all be forgiven, since sometimes things just happen in live performance, someone’s a bit off or something’s just not possible to do on the budget allotted. 


The problem is in the script.

The Prince of Egypt movie is a story that stands not only on the shoulders of its fantastic music and visuals, but also on its emotive retelling and portrayal of the characters within - mainly Moses and Ramses. And while the stage musical does spend a lot of time with the two mains, it neglects two other, incredibly important characters.

Pharaoh Seti, and God. 


In the movie, Seti strikes an intimidating figure. He is old, hardened, and wise in the ways of ruling his kingdom - and is voiced by Patrick Stewart, who brings his A-game to the role. Both Moses and Ramses admire him and look up to him immensely as young men, and the relationship he has with both of them deeply informs their characters as the story progresses. It’s from Seti that Moses learns that taking responsibility for your actions is the respectable thing to do (and later, the true horror of having your idol turn out to be not what you think), and it’s from Seti that Ramses takes a huge inferiority complex.

There are two lines that Seti gets in the movie, one spoken to Moses, and one to Ramses. These two lines define Moses and Ramses’ actions later on in the story:

To Ramses - “One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!” To Moses - “Oh my son... they were only slaves.”

Guess which two lines are absent from the musical?

One Weak Link is turned into an upbeat song, rather than shouted at a terrified and cowed young Ramses. Instead of being openly a traumatic, internalised moment of negative character development for Ramses, it’s treated as a general philosophy that Seti passes down to his son. Instead of a judgement that is hung over Ramses’ head like a sword of Damocles, lingering in his mind through the whole story and coming up in a shouted argument with Moses later, it’s said and then moved on from. 


The “they were only slaves” comment, on the other hand, is absent entirely. This changes Moses’ relationship with Seti enormously, as well as his relationship with the Hebrew people. Upon finding the mural depicting the killing of the slave children, Moses is appropriately horrified, and Seti shows up to comfort him and defend his terrible actions. Moses leaves this interaction... and then sings about how this is indeed all he ever wanted! He has no moment of horrific realisation that his father thinks of the slaves as lesser, as lives that can be thrown away. This means that the scene where he kills the guard doesn’t lead into a discussion of morality with Ramses as he runs away, but rather Moses breaking down about his heritage as though it’s a negative, instead of something he’s realised is just as valuable as his life as an Egyptian. Instead of Moses being shown as having a strong moral core that protests against the idea of any life being lesser, he bemoans his Hebrew blood loudly, and makes little mention of the man he killed. His issue that causes him to run away is being adopted, rather than his guilt that he’s a murderer, and nothing Ramses can say will change it.

Later on, we don’t see Ramses express this opinion either (in the movie - M:”Seti’s hands bore the blood of thousands of children!” R:“Hah, slaves!” M:“My people!”) so it seems the core reasoning for the necessity of the extremes God had to go to in order to convince Ramses to let the Hebrews go is completely gone.

Which leads us into God Himself, as a character. 


God is a tricky topic in general. He is hard to talk about as a concept and as a character, and even harder to depict in a way that won’t offend someone. The Prince of Egypt movie always struck me as a very good depiction of the Old Testament God - vengeful and strong-willed, commanding and yet nurturing, capable of great mercy and great cruelty in one fell swoop. God is incredibly present in the story, a character in and of Himself, speaking with Moses rather than simply commanding him. The conversation at the Burning Bush is bone-chillingly beautiful. Moses is allowed to question, he’s allowed to enquire, he’s allowed to express how he feels about God’s choice, and God is given the chance to respond (and reprimand, and comfort).

In the musical, the Burning Bush scene lasts all of two minutes, during which God (the ensemble cast, acting as one moving flame, speaking in unison) monologues to Moses, and Moses is not given room to question, talk to, or build a relationship with God. Later on, once some of the plagues have gotten underway, Moses rails against God, flinches in his resolve, and tries to back out... and God says nothing. It’s Miriam and the spirit of Yocheved that convince Moses to keep going. As a character, God is nearly absent. Even when it comes to calling upon the Plagues, or parting the Red Sea, God’s voice is absent. Moses does not pray. He does not even use the staff that God encouraged him to pick up as a symbol of his becoming a shepherd of the Hebrews out of Egypt. 


It’s these little changes, these little absences of such vital lines and presences, that ends up changing the whole vibe of the show. Seti is more like a dad than an emotionally distant authority figure, and God is more like an emotionally distant authority figure than a character at all. Ultimately, the whole feeling that one is left with at the end…

The Ugly

… is that the script doesn’t like God, or religion in general.

A bold statement to make, considering the source material is one of the central biblical stories in EVERY Abrahamic religion. Moses as a figure is considered so important and close to god, that The Prince of Egypt, even with its sensitive portrayal, cannot be aired in a number of Islamic states, because it’s considered disrespectful to depict any of the prophets, especially an important one like Moses. Moses is arguably the MOST important prophet in the Jewish canon.

However, I haven’t highlighted one of the most noticeable script changes - the elevation of Hotep, the high priest, to main antagonist.

In the original movie, Hotep is a secondary villain, a crony to the Pharaohs, bumbling and snide and two-faced. He and his fellow priest Hoy are there primarily to juxtapose how charlatans can control power through flattery and slight of hand, reassuring Ramses that Moses’ miracles are merely magic the same as what they can do. They even get a whole villain song, “Playing With The Big Boys” which is a lovely deconstruction of lyrics vs visuals, where while the priests boast that their gods and magic are much more powerful, in the background the staff, transformed into a snake by god, devours and defeats the priests’ snake handily. The takeaway from the song is that God’s power is true, and doesn’t need theatrics.

It’s a good little nugget of wordless world building. And it is completely absent from the stage musical, with only a vague reference to the chant of all the gods names.

Hoy is gone, and Hotep is the only priest. He actively speaks out against the Pharaoh, boasts about having all the power, and is played as bombastic and proud. He’s a wildly different character, even threatening Ramses at one point. In the end, it’s shown that Ramses won’t let the Hebrews go not because he has inherited his father Seti’s cruel attitude towards the lives he considers beneath him, but because he is being actively bullied by the priest, and will lose his power and credibility if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Ramses is even given a whole song about how little power he really has. The script desperately wants us to feel sorry for Ramses’ position and hate the unrepentantly, cartoonishly evil priest.

That’s another matter as well - a LOT of time is dedicated to making the Egyptians more human and sympathetic, portraying them as largely ignorant of the suffering beneath them, rather than actively participating in slavery. Characters speak out of turn without regard for formality and class, even to the royal family. They are casual, chummy even. And this would be fine - in fact, it’s good to have that sort of third dimension to characters, even ones who are doing reprehensible things, to show the total normalcy and banality of evil - if it were not for the fact they still include a completely open-and-shut case of evil right next to them.

Hotep has no redeeming features. And on the other side, God is barely present, certainly not in a relatable context. Moses has several lines about how cruel and unnecessary God’s plagues are - and you know what, in this version, they are unnecessary! Ramses is not the stone-hearted ruler that his movie counterpart is, he has no baggage over being a potential failure, because it was never really given to him in the same way! By taking away Ramses’ threatening nature, numbers like the Plagues lose half their appeal, as the back-and-forth ‘you who I called brother’ lines between Moses and Ramses are completely absent. Moses is faithless, and is less torn between the horror of what he’s doing and the necessity of it for the freedom of his people, and more left scrabbling for meaning that he doesn’t find. And the only thing hanging over Ramses is Hotep nit-picking everything he does and threatening him, which is considerably less compelling than the script seems to think it is.

This is best exemplified at the end, when all the issues come to a head. The angel of Death comes and takes the Egyptian first borns (which was actually a well done scene), and the Hebrews leave to a rousing rendition of When You Believe. But then we cut to Ramses and Hotep, with Hotep openly threatening to revolt against the Pharaoh - whom was believed, especially by the priesthood, to be a living god! Hotep is so devoid of redeeming features he cannot even be trusted to stand by his beliefs! - unless Ramses agrees to chase after the Hebrews. Reluctantly, Ramses is badgered into the attempt.

Back with the Hebrews, Moses parts the Red Sea… not with his faith, not by praying to God for another miracle, not even by using his staff as in the most famous scene of the movie… but by holding out his hand and demanding the ‘magic’ work. Setting aside the disrespect of Abrahamic religions to call one of the most famous miracles “magic” (and my oh my, if there was a fundamentalist of any religion in the audience they might have gasped to hear it), it again belittles the work of God, and puts all the onus on Moses, not as a conduit for God’s work, but as the worker himself. Then, the Egyptians arrive in pursuit, lead by Hotep, not Ramses. Moses sends the Hebrews through first, lead by Miriam, and stays behind with Tzipporah… to offer his life in penance to Ramses! The script has completely stripped both Ramses and Moses of their convictions towards their causes, and Moses cannot even stand by his decision to lead his people.

Then, in a moment of jarring melodrama, Moses has a sudden vision that Ramses, his brother, will one day be called Ramses the Great (an actual historical Pharaoh who reigned 1279-1213 BCE). There is no historical evidence that this was the Ramses that ruled over the Hebrews (there are 11 Pharaohs called Ramses through the history of Ancient Egypt), and maybe if the scene was acted a little better, it wouldn’t have been so sudden or jarring. Even more jarring, is that then Hotep arrives with the rest of the army, and Ramses refuses to lead the charge into the parted sea. Hotep does so himself, and is the one to have the final dramatic moment, being crushed under the water.

The Takeaway

After watching the show, I’m afraid I could never recommend it as either a play, an adaption, or even as a faithful retelling of a bible story. Its character drama isn’t compelling enough to be good as a standalone play, with it two main characters declawed and their core motivations reduced to a squabble between brothers rather than a grand interplay between two cultures and ideas and trauma handed down from their father. As an adaption of the movie it’s upsettingly bad, with grand numbers like the Plagues rendered piecemeal and fan favourites like Playing With The Big Boys missing entirely. As a retelling of the bible story, it’s insulting, completely cutting God out of the equation, taking no opportunity to reintroduce Aaron as an important character (which he was, in the bible, as Moses was a notoriously bad public speaker, with a stutter, and Aaron often interpreted for him) and more importantly, completely erasing God’s influence from the narrative.

I don’t know who this show was… for, in that case. If it wasn’t for drama lovers, movie fans, or people of the faith, then who the hell was it for? Why change such a critically acclaimed and well-beloved story? Why take away all these defining moments? If you wanted to tell a story about how religion is the true evil, how God can command people to do terrible things, and how those who uphold organised religion like Hotep are unrepentant, one-dimensional monsters… why would you tell that through the Prince of Egypt?

Underwhelming at best, infuriating at worst… just watch the movie. Or read Exodus. At least the Bible’s free.