#Shamballah

[talonabraxas]

Lord Sanat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the 'Lord' or 'Regent' of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballah (also known as 'The City of Enoch').

Shamballah is said by the adherents to the Ascended Master Teachings, to be a floating city manifested on the etheric plane somewhere above the Gobi Desert in the borderlands of Mongolia.

The Great White Brotherhood is a spiritual 'fraternity' of Ascended Beings, including Lord Sanat Kumara, long since dedicated to the eventual Salvation of Mankind and the establishment of Divine Law again in this Three-dimensional reality.

Sanat Kumara by Talon Abraxas

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics:

Batman #148: so I read it again and honestly? Still reasonably happy with where this ties things off. It's rushed but Zdarsky manages to use a range of characters (who are the same ones he was focusing on in Gotham War anyway). Excited for the new storyline once we get back on track after Absolute Power.

Birds of Prey #10: I love how much fun they've been having with costume design in this series.

So this is pulling from some interesting and unexpected inspiration places. I'm still trying to get a handle on everything that Kelly Thompson wants to reference, but while Velvet Tiger is a fascinating archive-pull, what more notable to me is I just realised she's framed the Cass and Barda friendship on very similar grounds as the Cass and Basil Karlo friendship. Which is quite a reference to use! It's actually a really neat little marriage up of preboot Cass with Rebirth Cass, hanging onto a nice note.

The Boy Wonder #2: it's the Jason issue! I. Hmmm. Don't necessarily agree with all of Juni Ba's characterisation of Jason here, but that's fine, because it's an interesting interpretation. I did have a little snort at giving Jason glowing green eyes, because it's so very imposed by magic, and it's hmmm an interesting fillip in what people could actually do with Post Lazarus Pit Syndrome if they actually cared about anyone else's dip in the pit and the array of side effects it has had. Sadly... (like, a magic user sending Jason back into the state he was in immediately after coming out of the pit, while actual Pit Madness takes him over for a couple of minutes? And Jason fighting as it wears back off? Fascinating idea! Absolutely not how fandom usually approaches it).

Shazam! #12: Finally we get some more Pedro, Eugene and Darla action. Also nobody loves Hoppy like Josie Campbell loves Hoppy, but I am here for the way she writes this rabbit.

So this is actually quite interesting in terms of the posited distance between Billy and the Captain, because how much they are the same person and how much they are separate people varies between runs and universes. This feels like it's leaning into the way Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! treats them as two completely separate personalities who can keep secrets from each other.

I also have an impression, from how Campbell writes about this, that she has some experience or connection with fostering and wards of the state, given the way she keeps characterising it for the kids. It's just...really centred on the children's experiences themselves.

The Warlord #55: This week in Skartaris, Travis, Shakira and Tara come across Aram Al Ashir in the middle of a siege on a neighbouring castle as they travel back to Shamballah.

Ashir has his usual effect on the women of the party.

(Ashir was negotiating an arranged marriage to Tara for political reasons about 15 issues ago, if you forgot)

Travis decides to get involved in Ashir's little war because he's the Warlord.

The decision of how to approach the siege is honestly one of the funniest versions of the Trojan horse I've ever seen. Let me break this down for you:

No way.

The castle gets suspicious:

...it's all a distraction as they attack around the back! This is incredible! I am incredulous it worked!

And then by the end of the issue Shakira wanders off to have other adventures, Travis and Tara get back to Shamballah, and we once again highlight that Joshua is still alive and bopping around the background of the books.

(Look how much he's grown!)

[juney-blues]

"conqueror of shamballah made Maes Hughes a brown shirt!" as opposed to before when he was a member of the famously unproblematic institution: the Amestrian Military

[stackslip]

you're inspiring me to rewatch 2003, it was my favorite between the two when i watched them but I forgot most of it in the decade since. also you're good at highlighting exactly how mangahood doesn't work. I actually watch 2003 before reading the manga and I remember thinking the ending of

it's really fucking frustrating to me that people basically closed ranks around Brotherhood as the 'real one' and dismiss 2003 as a regrettable mistake/error in the One True Canon. I've always really loved that 2003 and Brotherhood diverge it's such a unique collection of art

also I want to rewatch the two sequel movies (Milo's and conquerer of Shamballah) god I love bleak writing

i have never watched the second movie but i remember really enjoying conquerors of shamballah. granted, i was like, 14 then lol. there was a lot that i didn't catch in fma 2003's themes at the time, but same as you, i watched it before i read the manga (and i finished the manga before watching brotherhood) and i remember even then i was disappointed by some of its aspects. then in my early 20s i was like well manga/brotherhood is better bc it's better executed (as like. a mid shounen lmao) and bc it has greedling (i do still love greedling, if only bc i looove body sharing as a trope), but i still thought 2003 had lots of good aspects and couldn't understand how people went from "fullmetal alchemist is one of the best animes ever" to "fma 2003 was a mistake and all bad and stupid actually and its female characters suck compared to mangahood which has MUCH better female characters" (i was thoroughly unimpressed by fma's base female characters. loved mei and lan fan but come on they were hardly given so much depth). not to mention how disappointed the manga version of the homonculi were. like i remember when sloth in the manga was first introduced being SO disappointed.

in retrospect, i think mangahood's status as The Best Animanga Of All Time when even at the time i liked it most i found it..... decent to good at best, and quite overrated, has made me sour on it quite a lot. like it felt impossible to talk about anything i disliked about it bc despite having such a highly praised status, people get irrationally angry and defensive over any criticism of the manga or brotherhood's themes and story. they'll either claim its depiction of genocide and fascism is really good, or when you criticize it they'll go "well it's a shounen, why are you criticizing it for being a shounen!" (i think shounen can do and engage with these themes thoughtfully! and i think if you're gonna use these themes and depict genocide so viscerally you got a duty to do it right to the end or at least TRY to do so). it's when i started rewatching clips of 2003 and being really impressed by the clips, and how much they held up if not actually blew brotherhood out of the water. and it's also my own maturing in terms of politics and understanding of fiction that made me even more open to what 2003 was doing even though i remembered it did fail in some aspects! like, i don't think as a 14 year old i much understood the nazi thing, and as a young adult i was like "eh that was a bit weird" but it's in the past few years in my criticizing of what brotherhood and the manga fuck up that i suddenly realized "oh. 2003 was actually saying the quiet part out loud instead of using this as an aesthetic for its world!"

i was unsure how much 2003 would hold up on a rewatch tbh, and there ARE clunky if not bad parts. making human barry the butcher a serial killer who dresses as a woman to get his victims is............ a choice. it's very typical 90s/2000s transmisogyny and even though it's only one episode it left a real bitter taste in my mouth. the anime filler episodes are not nearly as strong as the main plot episodes (even when they have anime-only content!), though i appreciate the effort to make them thematically relevant to the series and make many of the anime-only characters direct parallels to ed and al. they clearly saved the animation budget for important parts, and it suffers in some episodes (i am fine with that, i watched lots of mid 2000s anime who had the same issue. not everyone can use its budget allocation and limitations like rgu). i don't like the end of the one episode where the tomboy kid suddenly becomes feminine at the end bc she's happy now lmao.

but from episode 1, it's already so much more committed to some of the themes and ideas that harakawa evoked as flavour or background but barely dug into. she was making a fun action shounen with a large, lovable cast, and that's..... fine. it's just not interesting to me, at least outside of greedling's whole thing. it's got SUCH a melancholy feeling to it, it feels like it's digging into the literal guts of arakawa's world and characters. i also actually really appreciate that while it keeps touches of humor, it wayyyyy tones down the gags that are there every four pages or so--arakawa can make it work in the manga, but in brotherhood it's near unbearable how you can't one one serious scene without someone doing something goofy.

i will say, a little thing that i REALLY in 2003 like that's pretty personal is the way the alchemical circles are drawn and used. this might sound weird, but the way i learned about fma's existence was when i was i think 9-10 years old and bought a french anime magazine, and it had a whole part on fma 2003 including a two page spreader detailing the alchemical circles and their uses. it was my first ever impression of fma and i loved the look and feeling of them. there was something occult and dark about the way they were presented in that magazine that coloured my experiences when i watched the anime on a fan page in 244p max with terrible fansubs

[rizaposting]

I mean… This is too good to overlook. Please tell us more about: "Ed observes 03Royai like they are zoo animals (the newest edition)" ahaha

AAAA yes this is in reference to this post I made a couple of nights ago explaining and idea that has been living in my head for quite a long time about Edward suddenly being returned to Amestris ~5-10 years after the events of Conqueror of Shamballah. He ends up staying at Royai Household while they figure out what happened, where Al ended up, and what to do going forward because he has no money and is considered dead by the state. And, well, kind of what it states in the title: Ed observes them like they are animals in their natural habitat and everyone involved in the whole situation is mildly perturbed.

Well I went into a bit of a fugue state the past few days typing out a few scenes. :> here's a snippet!

Thank you for the ask!!! ❤

[madamlaydebug]

{🌊🌊💦💨💥🛸/🍥💨🛸/🙌🏿🙌🏾🗺️}

Stars are worlds inside the dark matter oceans For all those that still don’t believe that our Firmament is were many beings visit coming from other Firmament worlds, through the ocean because space is a Dark matter cosmic ocean containing stargates, and portals, to visit Earth aka Atlantis. they also reside at the inner world of Shamballah so stop believing everything is cgi because these chariots aka crafts been here before any of us came to this realm.

[jensenackles-daily]

Justice League: Warworld EXCLUSIVE Clip: "Welcome To Shamballah"

[lumeha]

Like. I need everyone to understand how low-key feral I am over Thales and Nemesis as toxic old men yaoi. Not even just for the joke, even if I'm saying it jokingly.

Thales sees Nemesis as nothing more than a feral beast, a thief, something lesser than him that he can direct as he wishes.

I want a Thales who holds Nemesis' chin and treats him like a barely trained hound, a vicious dog who has received the most precious and disgusting treat ever in the form of Sothis' corpse.

I want Thales to fucking feed him her corpse himself and hover over the Agarthan working on the Sword of the Creator and sneering in disgust but at the same time being fucking glad to see this feral beast of a man holding her spine and slashing through people as if they were butter.

I want a Nemesis who knows that he is where he is because this wretched man has taken him and given him power and while he treats him as nothing more than dirt beneath his boot, he laughs at the face of his underlings who might have wanted what he has given to Nemesis, and he knows that he is nothing more than a vicious dog to this man and yet

I just want Nemesis coming back from Zanado, covered in Nabatean blood, and Thales sneering at him and wiping his face and digging his nails into his skin but still taking the time to force him to get his wounds healed and relishing into those splotches of Nabatean blood, without knowing they both created the one who is going to defeat them at the end of the road

(I want Thales, fucking Thales, to sometimes haunt the catacombs of Shamballah and looking at the kept alive corpses of Nemesis and the Elite and kind of wishing he could have that dog again, not out of love, but out of something akin to the vaguest sense of knowing that when Nemesis was alive was the closest the Agarthans got to victory, and it is bitter and it tastes like blood and an almost defeat and there is nothing to be done except try again and fail again and again and again)

[harrelltut]

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Do you think eye would lie about this?!?!?!

[rnisa]

What do you think the series would've been like if 2003 Wrath actually stayed with Izumi and Sig as their son? Like, Izumi actually took him back with her instead of giving him to the gate. Sorry I just really liked the idea of family bonding between them and the 3 becoming like this awesome super family. I was actually really disappointed when he turned on them and honestly a little more disappointed that he was only canon to the 2003 anime :'D

I LOVE this ask because I really adored Wrath's concept as a character. I don't get into FMA03 - FMAB discourse (my fault is being a centrist but literally, BOTH series bring something different to the table and I adore them both) but I will honestly say one of FMAB's downfalls was not having this character in Brotherhood. Anyways before I ramble - YES, I think that Sig and Izumi taking in Wrath would have been... tumultuous to say the least? But, successful. It would surely take time and a lot of effort and therapy, but both parents definitely have that ability to have really turned Wrath around.

First off, let's assess Wrath - it's been a few years (probably since this ask, 2019) since I watched '03 thoroughly but Wrath did not spend THAT much time as a Homunculus. Everything was fine until Envy had to be a goddamn homewrecker. True, he did so much damage and caused so much trauma in a short period of time but we are given proof in CoS (Conqueror of Shamballah - 03's movie in case anyone does not know,) by the end that Wrath felt love for Izumi. He loved his mom.

If she hadn't died, if she had been kept around longer, Wrath could have most certainly been made into a functional member of society. What he would do, I really don't know. I like to imagine that he spent a lot of time with Winry and Pinako (due to the automail) so, he might only repay by helping around the house. Very domestic, mellow, low-key kinds of things.

Izumi would teach her son (I don't believe they'd keep calling him Wrath, that's a cruel name and a painful reminder...) to improve his alchemy. He may go around doing good deeds with his alchemy though incidentally. Under her care, I could see her raising him so well he may turn out a bit like Edward in mindset, but much more reserved. She would teach him how to deal with his emotions and better process what he was feeling in a productive manner.

Helping him heal would be a long and difficult endeavor but it would happen. Izumi has the patience and love to support him, as well as the resilience and mental fortitude to guide him.

Izumi is too bland in BH. Having Wrath as her child added so much to her character, as well as the story itself.

YES THIS IS TOO MUCH DISSECTING OF A CHARACTER MOST PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN, BUT GODDAMNIT IZUMI AND WRATH HAD SUCH A BRILLIANT PLOT THAT I WISHED SO BADLY WAS IN BH.

[talonabraxas]

Lord Sanat Kumara is an "Advanced Being" at the Ninth level of initiation who is regarded as the 'Lord' or 'Regent' of Earth and of the humanity, and is thought to be the head of the Spiritual Hierarchy of Earth who dwells in Shamballah (also known as 'The City of Enoch').

Shamballah is said by the adherents to the Ascended Master Teachings, to be a floating city manifested on the etheric plane somewhere above the Gobi Desert in the borderlands of Mongolia.

The Great White Brotherhood is a spiritual 'fraternity' of Ascended Beings, including Lord Sanat Kumara, long since dedicated to the eventual Salvation of Mankind and the establishment of Divine Law again in this Three-dimensional reality.

Sanat Kumara Talon Abraxas

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics:

Batman #147: I already went on about this but I have to point back to Bruce's conversation with Barry here. This is what the entire storyline is about. (also all the Batman-Justice League robots are so extremely Dark Nights Metal coded I've got to say)

I will get to #148 later.

Birds of Prey #9: ...is the implication here that Zealot and Ollie have been sleeping together? Does Dinah know? Does this mean there is the possibility of Dinah sleeping with other people? This is clearly the most important part of this issue. Edit: Apparently it's Cole Cash/Grifter, not Ollie. I am suffering from blond dude with beard assumptions. (and Dinah sleeping with people not Ollie assumptions, given the exciting panel right at the start that I thought was Babs and Dinah landing on top of each other and having hands in unmentionable places. Sadly this did not pan out)

Okay that said, Megaera popping out to talk to people using Sin's HAIR is the most Zinn-from-Monstress coded thing yet, and I've been getting the Zinn vibes for a while. Love the snark though.

Loved the Danny the Street shoutout, and the art is once again fabulous, particularly the way they've used colour.

Shazam! #11: The Darla and Hoppy investigation alliance going on is amazing. The fact that Hoppy is scared of Tawky Tawny is hilarious. Mary is desperately trying to stop worrying by controlling every variable possible. Freddy is still so excited about being allowed to drive. And Billy is having a break down.

The Boy Wonder #1: this is just a visual feast. I love the mythical feel of it, the story and art references. It's just a beautiful book, and exactly what I love to see from Black Label.

The Warlord #51: this week in the Lost Land of Skartaris the issue is literally reprinting The Warlord #1 to remind everyone of where the story started. Which I admit, after 50 issues and the First Issue Special it's fun to be reminded of back when Travis and Tara actually appeared on panel together regularly. In any case, after the two of them fall in love and frolic around together on their way to Shamballah, they get captured by slavers, Travis AND Tara both get chained up, and Mike Grell's bondage fetish and taste for crucifixion imagery becomes apparent to anyone unfamiliar.

The backup is Dragonsword, written by Paul Levitz, and I don't think I've ever actually read much that Levitz wrote rather than edited (the answer after a quick glance is 'a couple of Christmas stories'). Interesting to see him doing sword and sorcery rather than LOSH. Literally: this is about a knight with a talking chimpanzee for a squire, who goes out to blood a new sword by killing a dragon, only to find the dragon talking to him from his sword.

[hapigairu]

@deathbirby mentioned you on a post “when I read a 3h fic involving the nabats I...”:

@hapigairu lol go right ahead

​Thank you!

So... um... I thought the idea of the fic was to have Edelgard in the Blue Lions or something? Why does it look like a retelling of CF? "rhea forces edelgard to transform into a nabatean and it's very body horror-ish. she's like a mad scientist, completely crazy, insane, delusional and everything you would expect from CF fanfic rhea." That sounds like something Cornelia would do, not Rhea. Dunno how cruel Rhea is supposed to be there, but the whole mad-scientist with horror-ish vibes is very much a Cornelia thing. I am very confused. "rhea talks about the red canyon tragedy and seteth even mentions how he's heard her screaming at night babbling for her mother to come save her and it's just.. kinda shrugged off cuz bad things in past doesnt let you do bad things now (hmmm hypocrisy)" I mean... that's true that you can't justify doing terrible things because you had a traumatic past, obviously... Except Edelgard can for some reason? What? Also if someone's traumatised to the point of "screaming at night" (though I don't think Rhea would do that, I could see her crying when she's alone though), maybe don't shrug it off and help them regardless of what they've done? Which... Rhea did some questionable things (and still it wasn't out of malice at all), but absolutely nothing so evil that she should be denied compassion or help? Am I crazy in thinking that?

"also something where the holy tomb splits or something (rhea had a hand in that im pretty sure because of course) and sothis's dragon corpse is in there and that alone makes draconic features appear on the nabateans (pretty sick idea all things considered)" Splits? But yeah, that's a neat idea (the whole draconic features thing)! "edelgard's sibling (???) is a massive rhea simp and very zealous because of course"

Sibling? Okay, why not. Maybe they didn't all die, which... good for them and Edelgard! I don't think it's a bad idea at all, especially since the drama potential can be very strong. But how did they end up simping for Rhea if they were basically prisoner of the Agarthans? How does that happen? I'm guessing it's explained, but... it better be a very good explanation for it to make sense. And yeah... of course you can't like Rhea without being a zealot. *sighs* "the agarthans are more sympathetic?? like you can have an agarthan standing next to seteth without him losing his shit. also the holy tomb is apparently an alien mothership now because why not (thales said that. why is thales even alive idk)" The Agarthans are just so comically evil that I can understand wanting to flesh them out and add some complexities to them. Personally, I'd like to think that some Agarthans living in Shamballah are really not cool with what Thales and the others are doing, but freedom isn't exactly a thing in Shamballah when it comes to "Surface Dweller Sympathisers" or something like that. Cause no group is a monolith and surely, there must a minority of them -however tiny- not okay with their leaders? Like, younger people who are just done with having to hear about Thales' hate spiel and just want to live their damn lives? Idk, maybe I'm completely off-base with this lol. But yeah, I can't see Seteth be totally calm and collected when someone who likely participated in murdering his race stands near him. Just... nope. "epic final battle against rhea! you got edelgard, hubert, jeralt(??) and byleth all up against rhea! and she holds her own quite well. and then byleth gets knocked out and sothis takes control to scold rhea. and because even her own mom is against her rhea loses her will to live (not literally but she actually does lose her immortality as punishment??)" That's...uh... huh. Sothis is a bad mom and somehow it's her daughter's fault because it's always her fault? Seems a bit fucked up if you ask me. "oh and you get fun moments where edelgard yells at rhea during the fight and throws arguments at her. she thrust nobility onto humanity (false), she made herself a false idol (??), etc." Ah, yes. Rhea is the reason why nobility exist. What's that? What about Brigid and Almyra? The fact that they have nobility shall be either ignored or still be Rhea's fault somehow. And like, we don't know exactly how the Church was created IIRC? Yeah, Rhea had a hand in it, but she wasn't the only one I'm guessing? It reminds of a fanart where -after the battle against Nemesis- some soldiers said they fought for her and she was really moved. Really nice fanart, hats off to whoever did it. "if im not mistaken, the author of the fic is a "agarthans are actually natives and sothis was a colonist" believer. so that should give you a general idea." Yeah, that checks out. It's such a shame that, for all the discussion about how everyone is supposedly morally grey (lol), not many people are actually trying to give Rhea and the Nabateans nuances. She's far from perfect (and she knows it actually) and she has so much potential as a morally-greyish but ultimately good person. But not even KT/IS (IS a bit more with FEH) are interested in being fair to her, so it's no surprise most people aren't either. And, ofc, no hate to the author. It's just disappointing to see that the Rhea hate is so prevalent.

[chersparkle25]

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