#I'm trying to see the positivity more in my culture and heritage and I'm slowly beginning to learn to be more proud of who I am

[saucy-mesothelioma]

A few (primarily Southern) superstitions I found while doing an Antrho project. Most of these are from my family's history, but a lot of them are also just very common Southern superstitions that I thought were cool.

The first male to enter the house after the New Year has to give the family a dollar, which has to be taped above the front door indicating that money will flow throughout the house for the new year. According to my mother, this comes from a side of the family that she believes was Polish. She's not sure if that's true or not, but my grandmother on that side did this every New Year's until she died.

Eating black-eyed peas, collard greens, and pork on New Years brings good luck. This one's very common and my family does this every year (my parents cut out the collard greens, but my grandmother keeps them in. She also uses hog jowl instead of regular pork). The peas are for luck, the greens are for money, and the pork is for prosperity.

Putting a mirror on your porch can prevent the devil from entering your home. Basically this comes from the idea that the devil can only enter a house at night and must return to hell at sunrise and by placing a mirror on your porch, his vanity will cause him to spend the entire night looking at his reflection until the sun comes to banish him.

If you plant a cedar tree and it grows to be six feet tall, you'd lose someone close to you. This one comes courtesy of my grandfather and was honestly one I'd never heard of before.

To prevent spirits from entering your house, paint the entryway/porch of your house with haint blue to confuse them since spirits can't cross water. You see this a lot here and mainly it's the porch roof that's painted haint blue, but I've seen doors and shutters also painted this way.

If you have cracks in your house, a boo hag (a trapped spirit that kind of acts like a vampire) can use them to enter your home. Boo hags mainly use a person's breath as sustenance instead of blood, and it's believed that if the person being fed on by a boo hag struggles, the hag will just take their skin. The hag also has to return to their own skin (as when they feed at night they have none) by morning or else they will be trapped forever without skin.

Having a bottle tree can ward off evil spirits. This is the same thing as painting your porch haint blue, except you hang blue bottles on a tree instead. A lot of people have these regardless if they believe the superstition and they're honestly really beautiful.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

The kind of mythology flex it is to be able to say "Hey! I'm a Real Alive Person and I was born and raised in mountain Πήλιο (Pelion), the actual mythical home of the Centaurs (and birthplace? If I'm not mistaken?)"

Because hey. I exist :)

And xenoi still think they're the rightful inheritors of Ancient Greek culture. Maddening to consider.

No bc back when I was reading Percy Jackson as a kid, I was so hurt to read the line where it said that the Greek Gods follow the path of "Πρόοδος" to the West and have "relocated to the US" or whatever. As a lil kid, my immediate reaction was

"WHY?! We're still here aren't we? Is Greece empty now? Is Olympos vacant? Why would Our Gods abandon us? What about the demigods born in Greece?"

It's a special kind of rage pain when you take into account ALL OF THE FUCKING STOLEN ANCIENT ARTIFACTS. That our culture often depicts them as being abducted. I've cried in frustration about this.

Haha, is that why everything's burning down? Because the Nyphes were (stolen?? again????) "relocated" and are no longer roaming the Greek forests? Is that why everything's flooding, because Poseidon is no longer here to regulate the Seas and Waters? Are we really Dying Off?

It's like plucking a beautiful flower from it's birthplace and trying to get it to get used to an environment it was not made to grow in. It's this level of absurdity. What the fuck.

That's why I'm a Greek Person studying Archaeology. We need more of us. Desperately.

My hands are shaking as I'm writing this and I'm slowly losing my mind about it :DDD

But to leave on a positive note. Hehe, mythology flex. I could have been born a Centaur if I really wanted to. Happily galloping away in the fields in the comfort of my own ignorance of our culture being ripped apart, dismembered and depicted as the gnarly bloody soulless mess the xenoi have made it be in mainstream media.

Ah, there's always next life. ^-^

I feel you, anon, and I've often felt the same as you. Our cultural heritage is rich and we are still here, a long line of people passing the Greek culture down. No matter what xenoi say, they will be eventually humbled by the truth if enough of us let the world know.

The PJO series did a big damage to us, matter how innocent it seems to the Westerners. If you check my #pjo and #rick riordan tags you'll see discussions about the books and of course the bigoted line "the gods abandoned Greece for the modern pillar of Western civilization, aka the US".

Hold on και καλή δύναμη!!!

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[theslaviccraft]

-Blog Introductions!-

🍃Introduction🍃

Hello! My name is Ivana I'm a Croat currently living in Canada. I'm 16 years old, I'm a writer trying to kickstart my career on my main blog that's currently inactive @lesiocara, I've been a folklore dancer for 2 years now and I dance with my group across the USA and Canada.

🍃Purpose of Blog🍃

I started this blog because I noticed a lot of cognitive disconnect between immigrant Croats and main land culture. I felt like there wasn't enough resources for younger immigrants to truly understand or experience their cultures in a authentic way. And I noticed much deference between myself and my peers who always have lived in Canada. As they didn't have much ties to their own cultures. This is slowly becoming a growing concern to me back home too as many other southern/central Slavic countries embrace western ideals more and more many of us are starting to lose our ties to our cultural heritage as Slavs. This is why I started this blog to help immigrants and even mainlanders who wish to connect more to folklore and heritage of their countries find resources and paths to reconnect to their heritage. This blog primary shows off Balkan Slavic tradition but I strive to showcase all Slavic countries and cultures on this blog.

🍃Rules of the Blog/DNI🍃

Please, do not interact with this blog if you'll express bigited or hateful views on my platform or comments. This blog is not a safe space to be prejudice, xenophobic, nor racist towards any group. I do not tolerate seeing Croatophobia, Anti-Serb sentiments, Russophobia or any other sort of Anti-Slavic sentiments towards any other Slavs or claims of superiority over any other nationality's /groups on this blog. You will be warned to tone it down if I find your comments offensive or downright blocked.

Rules

No homophobia, xenophobia, religionism (antisemitism, islamophobia),racism, transphobia ect ect.

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This blog is a safe space for all slavs and is here to uplift all cultures, we will be discussing both past and current wars but I encourage you to use your critical thinking skills and realize that not everyone of a certain nationality can be blamed for that groups actions in wars. I do not tolerate seeing Croatophobia, Anti-Serb sentiments, Russophobia or any other sort of Anti-Slavic sentiments towards any other Slavs or claims of superiority over any other nationality's/groups on this blog.

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This blog is at least 16+. We discuss multiple facets of Slavic history on this blog. As you are probably aware Slavs have a very tremulous history. There will be graphic content on this blog appropriately censored to comply with tumblrs guidelines that people still might find disturbing. The history posts will have trigger warnings listed above the article viewer discretion is advised.

Post submsions can be in ether serbian, bosnian, croatian ,czech, english or interslavic as those are the only languages I understand. This is so I can fact check you. If you want to submit but do not know these languages just DM me so we can work on a translation together.

Post submissions must be tagged with a post group on this blog (see bellow) and if your writing about a historic event you too must include trigger warnings at the top of you're post.

🍃List of Resources🍃

T/BA

🍃Asks/Dm's/Post Submits🍃

This blog is only made possible by the hard work of various people in our community researching and compiling knowledge about Slavs in multiple languages and media. I'm no expert on all things Slavic I'm nether historian or culturalist I simply do my own research and present it on this blog. Please if you are willing link articles, textbooks and other research in other languages if you can. I will need help with translating resources while I might not be able to pay you much I am glad to work out payment for help in translating various media. You can DM at any time about anything you'd like tho, unless you're reaching out for something personal or a translating job I'd prefer you use the asks feature. Post submissions must be in one of the categories on this blog and must be related in someway to slavs. They also must be in serbian, bosnian, croatian ,czech, english or interslavic and you must link/credit you're sources.

🍃Post Groups/Posting schedule🍃

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Note: This blog isn't updated daily it would be impossible for me to upload accurate well researched posts to you on a daily basis. Instead this is a guide as to what subject I will be posting on what day of the week.

Thank you for reading I hope you'll enjoy the blog :)

[lizabethstucker]

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

By-the-book caseworker Linus Baker has worked for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY) for 17 years in the same position. His job was to inspect orphanages to ensure the safety of the magical children. If he recommends closure or removal of the master, Linus never follows up as to what happens, excusing it as above his level.

Linus' methodical and seemingly cold reports have him selected by Extremely Upper Management for a mandatory promotional assignment. He must spend a month observing and investigating a small orphanage on Marsyas Island. The master, Arthur Parnassus, only has six children in his care, all of whom are classified as Level Four secrecy due to their inherent dangerousness. The children include six year old Lucy (aka Lucifer) who is allegedly the antichrist; Talia who is a fierce bearded female gnome; Theodore, one of the last wyverns and a bit clumsy on his feet; Phee, the forest sprite who is being coached by an island sprite; Sal who shifts into a Pomeranian when frightened and has dealt with both physical and emotional abuse through 12 orphanages; and Chauncey, a green blob with tentacles and eyes on stalks whose only dream is to help people by being a bellhop.

Zoe Chapelwhite is an island sprite. She is the caretaker of Marsyas Island who helps with the children and will do whatever needs to be done to protect them and Arthur, whether from the villagers on the mainland or from Linus and the rest of DICOMY. She slowly comes to understand that there is more to Linus than meets the eye. Now if only Linus could recognize that fact.

Despite trying to stay his usual objective and emotionally distant self, Linus is being drawn into the lives of all the Island's inhabitants. From supporting and protecting the children to trying to ignore his attraction to Arthur, Linus is changing. Or perhaps letting his true self free from the bubble he's occupied for too long.

I am not going to discuss the frankly ridiculous "controversy" surrounding this book and its author. Writers can and are inspired by everything they read, see, and hear, consciously and subconsciously. Anyone who doesn't understand that fact has never written anything, whether for themselves or others. Klune didn't glorify the mass kidnapping of indigenous children. As a matter of fact, if he hadn't realized where a small piece of his inspiration came from, no one would guessed it for a second. So, you know, shut the fuck up. Yes, Own Voices should write about their cultural heritage and history in fiction and non-fiction, but that doesn't mean others can't be inspired to do the same. Moving on...

I was dubious about reading this book due to all the worshipful reviews plastered over BookTube. I didn't think it could possibly be that good. I've been burned too many times in the past. But, considering I really had nothing to lose as I get 95% of my books from the library, I finally decided to give it a try. And I'm glad that I did.

This is a delightful, if sometimes painful, read from start to finish. It is a story of found families, the struggle to accept yourself and others for what we are and what we can become, to be open to others, and to never give up on finding love. With all the pain and disappointments that might be in their pasts, there is so much hope to get them through to the future.

I would honestly recommend this book to readers Middle Grade up to Senior Citizens. The reader will experience delight and wonder, gasps and tears, yearning and disgust. There are lessons to be learned and prejudices to weaken. We are never too young or too old to learn those lessons.

Thank you, Mr. Klune, for bringing me into your hope-filled world. The epilogue isn't an ending, it is a beginning. My hope is that you revisit Marsyas once more sometime in the future. 5 out of 5

[sunset-spring]

Hey, I'm kind of scared to ask you this, but I wanted to know what you thought of the epilogue in Season 8. I'm terrified of what you'll say, but you seem to be a very logical and clear-headed thinker, so I am kind of curious. If the answer isn't good, then please respond privately. Thank you.

It’s ok, I’m not gonna lie I’m nervous about a lot of questions related to season 8 just because so many people have such hard line stances and opinions on it. I have a lot of the same fear talking about it for the same reasons I’m sure you were scared of even asking. Whether you like or dislike s8 or like it, it’s not a big deal to me - no judgement either way. Opinions are varied and everyone has their own reasons for either.

On to the actual epilogue, some context I wanna give is that I had seen spoilers for the season even though I couldn’t watch it til a few days later. I had a prior family thing and I was stressed and I went to tumblr on my phone to look at some art to keep me calm. So I saw a lot of reactions to the season as a whole, but I couldn’t tell what reactions were genuine problems or what were over dramatized hate when I didn’t have full context. 

So when I watched the season, the expectations I went in with were “there might be some things that I’m not going to enjoy, and some that are overblown.�� And when I watched it… that was pretty much what I got. There were definitely some problems, but there was also a lot that I think was made out to be way worse than I personally found them to be.

The epilogue itself gets a lot of weight and importance put on it. And personally I wonder if it’s in part because it was leaked before the season aired. When I watched it, I felt very neutral to it. No super strong feelings either way, mostly just “oh, that makes sense for this character, but this doesn’t work very well and is not a great fit.”

Which I guess is a segue to talk about the individual bits in detail. This is going to be long and I’ll do my best to organize it for ease of reading, but I want to go into all my thoughts and logic as best I can and that might result in a bit of a lengthy read, so if it gets a bit ramble-y and confusing, I apologize:

Pidge and Hunk ended up in a place that I felt was very natural for both of them. 

Pidge using her passion for technology to help defend the universe alongside her family was something that felt like it was true to her personality and something that’s a very good world-building aspect for what would happen after the story took place. The concept was something I interested in all the way back in season 3, and is part of what inspired my cadet squad AU initially. So seeing that happen didn’t feel out of place to me. 

Hunk as well had always had his passion for cooking as a big part of his character. Seeing him become a chef and using that passion in a way to bring cultures together is a really good and is very in line with his character. We’ve seen him using that skill in other meetings, such as in season 3, and the way he uses cooking to bring people together is a big thing in the final season, as well as for his character overall. Space Mall is another good example, because while it’s mostly for fun and antics it also showed Hunk connecting and changing Sal for the better. 

Keith, Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid slowly turning the Blade into a humanitarian organization is something I’m a bit neutral on. On the one hand, seeing them come together to change a rebellion group that was no longer necessarily needed into an organization to help others has logic to it, and is a very good thing for them to do. But I’m not sure how I feel about it based on their characters and arcs:

We didn’t get a lot of time to get in depth with Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid, so the grounding for them is a bit iffy. I can sort of see it  since they were in a sort of similar position as Lotor’s generals as that Blade of Marmora is in terms of role: a rebel group that is based on taking down the old empire. And due to what we know of their backgrounds, they were people who were in an “us vs them” mentality based on how they were treated. The conflict of Ezor and Zethrid as warlords vs Acxa who chose to go on a separate path was supposed to show how the damage of that mindset could escalate into something harmful, even with people who had genuine reason to have it - I think that could even be applied to Lotor at least to some degree with how he broke down in season 6. 

I personally think Ezor is probably the best example of this based on her personality, specifically in season 7. We see the fear she has over being hurt and tracked down by others, and then we see her taking joy in the concept of hurting others who she has power over. Because of that fear, whenever she has security and power, she uses it in a very sadistic and spiteful way. That trait is a very natural thing that can occur in situations like her own, and is very understandable. But it’s also very damaging to herself and others.

So having them shift from a mindset of hurting others in order to protect themselves to helping others on a personal level isn’t a bad road to take; in fact it’s one that I think works really well. But because we didn’t get a lot of time to explore their characters more in depth and get to see that transition, I don’t think it works for just a single shot epilogue sequence. It would’ve worked better as it’s own plotline, but with how much already going on and a limited number of episodes to work with I have no idea where they’d fit it. 

Meanwhile for Keith, while he has a basis for being in the Blade already, I don’t really see a strong foundation outside of that. And I think for me, the reason it didn’t have that grounding was because we didn’t get as much with Keith outside of his familial arc with discovering his heritage and mother. That was his sole character focus outside of becoming a leader and Black Paladin, and his arc with becoming a leader was sadly sidelined in season 4 for the other. Which I can understand from a character perspective too - his heritage was an important thing he needed to connect to and understand. But as a result the other sadly didn’t have as much to go on. 

And I think that’s why this was his spot, because had he gotten more development in terms of leadership, I think he would’ve been in that Galactic Coalition leader spot with Krolia and Kolivan. Because with the scene of him with the two of them prior to the feast in the final episode, I feel like that’s where the story wanted him to be, but they also knew that they couldn’t get him there and make it seem earned. So him being the leader of the Blades as a new humanitarian organization feels like a compromise of that. He’s in a leadership position, but not on as big of a scale as the coalition. Which isn’t necessarily that bad, it’s working with what they had to try to get a good medium of what they wanted and what could be done. But it leaves it feeling a bit lacking in terms of personal motivation for Keith. It doesn’t scream “this is Keith making a choice and committing to a cause,” it feels much more like a structured narrative decision rather than an in universe motive for the character.

The final two are the ones I’m most nervous about talking about, because they get the most strong reactions from others. But I’m going to do my best to explain my thoughts.

I can see some of the logic in Lance’s end, but I ultimately think it didn’t convey the message they wanted with his arc very well and as a result ended up with some bad implications.

One of the things with Lance’s arc is that he starts off being a character who talks himself up a lot. He plays himself off as someone really awesome and cool, is very flirtatious, etc. As he continued to progress, we started seeing some of his insecurities. Season 2 introduced the fact that he was worried about not contributing to the team in a way that was substantial, and in season 6 while Pidge and Hunk did their tech and Lotor and Allura were working on the Sincline ship, he was left with little to nothing to do. 

Even with those insecurities, though, the way he responded to them was to actively take steps to improve himself. He doesn’t feel like he has a thing? He trains himself in a specific skill: Sharpshooting. Upset that Allura has chosen to be with another guy? He talks himself through it using the mice as a way to communicate what he’s feeling.

And I want to draw attention to what I feel are some of his biggest defining character development moments. In season 3, when he accepts Keith as the leader, when he talks to him on Thayserix, and when he talks up Allura in season 4 as the heart of Voltron. Moments where he builds others up. And Allura multiple times has talked about those moments with Lance. And her talking about him drove what I believe is his actual character arc, based on those insecurities and the way he plays himself up.

He is enough as who he is. He isn’t contributing any less by not having a niche like Pidge or Hunk, he isn’t supposed to be a grand hero who gets all the glory. He’s Lance, and he’s enough as he is. It’s that simple. 

But the way they choose to show that simplicity in the epilogue is… not the best. They set it up a little with the farm scene in season 4, but overall the choice to make his simple life be living as a farmer has a lot of bad implications based on stereotypes. Which is why so many people have such negative feelings towards it, which is totally understandable and completely valid. 

The idea of him settling in a more simple lifestyle isn’t something I’m apposed to, but I believe that choosing that instead of another type of occupation or lifestyle is a very poor choice, and as a result doesn’t convey his arc well or in a positive light. Which is unfortunate, because I really think that arc is good otherwise.

As for Shiro’s, there’s a lot going on with it and a lot of factors that play into it, which makes it difficult to talk about. 

The marriage is, I believe, a small step in terms of representation, as it’s the first time in western cartoons that a mlm wedding has appeared. But I also admit that because of it being such a small scene with no build up and no relationship to build it up, that it is very flawed. Others have talked about their distaste for it and I understand why, and I also understand those who enjoy it for being there at all. There are also aspects like his retirement that people aren’t fond of, and that’s understandable too, but that’s where I have my own feelings to talk about personally. 

The events of season 7 with Shiro and Adam upset a lot of people, and I myself wasn’t that fond of it. I didn’t feel as strongly as others, but the trope of “Bury Your Gays” is something that has been in media for a long time with a long history. So being upset by it is absolutely valid. The reason I personally didn’t feel as strongly as others was because Shiro, a main character who has fought and survived through the show, was still there, and still a gay man on screen whether he was in a relationship or not. 

The on screen break up I personally didn’t have a problem with either due to the fact that I have personally seen a lot of framing of relationships with abuse and unhealthy dynamics as “straight culture” and gay relationships as inherently free of those types of scenarios. I personally identify as asexual or questioning, but know I’m at least not straight from my own self reflection. And seeing this kind of mentality is very harmful and something I wish would stop because it pushes people within the community to stay in relationships that might potentially be dangerous based on pressure that such dynamics are impossible to occur within a wlw/mlm relationship. There’s also a factor of validity of orientations being erased due to relationship status, such as many people who identify as bisexual having their identity erased by others while  being in a m/f relationship, which is also harmful. While having a healthy and thriving mlm relationship on screen would have been great and a very good thing, I don’t believe the break up itself is a terrible choice because it shows that relationship status take away from someone’s identity.

Not only that, but Adam was not the only character within the show to die on screen, so it was not as if the fact that he was gay was a deliberate target on his back in context. Ulaz, Thace, and many other characters have had on screen deaths from seasons 2-7 before Adam. But as I said, the history behind the trope of “Bury Your Gays” does make Adam’s death sting in a much more personal way for a lot of people, which again is a very valid feeling that I don’t want to brush off. 

So with all that in mind, when the epilogue came and showed Shiro marrying Curtis, that leads to some flaws. Namely the fact that the relationship with Curtis is non-existent, and Curtis himself doesn’t really have much of a character to speak of. The marriage itself is good in the sense that it showed a gay marriage on screen, thus opening the door for other shows to do the same.

But in the context of showing a relationship, there was no relationship to be shown. And if Shiro and Curtis had developed a relationship over the course of the season, it would have been much better for both the story and characters, as well as for showing representation for the LGBT community. Without that, it feels like a last minute addition, which it admittedly was, instead of a genuine show of love and wanting to include a mlm couple. Which in the end, while good intended, it leaves it heavily flawed. Which no hate to anyone who enjoyed it for what it was either. I can genuinely see reasons on both sides why someone would dislike or enjoy it. Personally, the flaws outweighed some of the good for me and keeps me from enjoying it.

As for his retirement, this is where I get far more subjective and into how I personally relate to Shiro, which I know others may disagree with because this is very personal to me specifically I admit. 

When I first started watching Voltron, Shiro was my favorite character. He’s still up there among my faves even with Lotor swooping in after season 3. I loved Shiro’s personality; strong willed leader, open and still fun with the other paladins while still stern when he needed to be. The reason the fan name of Space Dad stuck was very obvious. He was put through hell, continued fighting and came out of it still kicking. And he still had that fun and supportive nature for others as he continued to keep going. 

A lot of people focus on him as mlm representation now, but he’s also representation for those with PTSD. And that’s where I started with him. 

The reason I like Shiro so much is because he reminds me - to an uncanny degree - of my older brother. 

He’s helped raise me my whole life, he taught me how to draw, and he still does so much to support me to this day. And in order to get help paying his student loans, he went into the military and was stationed in Iraq for a short time. He’s back now, and he’s totally fine! And I know many people have opinions on such wars and military, and I agree, trust me. 

And that’s why I don’t have a problem with Shiro’s retirement. After everything he’s been through, while him being a hero is great, I also feel like him stepping back, even if it’s in like a Miyazaki back-in-a-few-years way, is a good thing to show as healthy. Him retiring doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to be a hero, because in the context of the story in hindsight, he has always been gay and has always been a hero. And retiring doesn’t mean he never was, or has stopped being a hero. 

At least to me, but again, this is a very personal opinion and I absolutely understand why people would disagree. But these are just my feelings on the matter. 

That was a very, very, VERY long explanation of my feelings on the epilogue as a whole. I’m pretty sure this is the longest post I’ve ever written. 

But hopefully this has done a good job of explaining my feelings on the epilogue. I’m not really sure how I’d compress it all into a tl;dr, just because there was so much to talk about, so apologies for those who can’t sit and read it all at once. But overall, I was very neutral to it all things considered. 

But thank you @thenorthernphoenix for asking this! I’ve been sitting with these thoughts for a while in my head being nervous about putting them out there, but this helped me really collect them all and hopefully articulate it in a good way.

And again, if you liked the epilogue, more power to you, and if you didn’t more power to you. Everybody’s different with their own feelings on the matter.