#connecting things to religion is now a thing i do for some random reason

[xanderscollection]

[missr3n3]

kind of a random crossing of fandom streams, but this stems from my headcanon/theory that adam's Weird Alternate Brain works like the skills in disco elysium. full theory under the cut bc its a long boi

this is building off wendi’s theory about how adam ended up the way he is; that him, human boy adam, preacher, and the nun that became preacher are all rattling around in his weird brain. however, i don’t picture this as literal voices he hears in his head from a bunch of different people. rather, i imagine them all being a part of adam’s internal monologue, but coloring parts of that monologue with their different personalities and pushing him towards making certain decisions. again, like the skills in disco elysium. i did five pictures because i think there’s around five iterations/identities the alternate that we now call adam has gone through.

there’s the alternate’s basic form, and his connection to the alternate hivemind. i think this is adam’s equivalent to a human’s lizard brain. it’s the part of him that shapes his knee-jerk reaction to things and makes him act aggressively when he feels backed into a corner. i don’t think this part of his personality was prominent growing up as adam but given the way the alternate invasion has been ramping up, i think the stress from that and running from the fbi has this part of him acting up a lot more.

then there’s the nun that preacher takes the place of. I think she comes through in adam’s desire to maintain his connection to humanity rather than the alternates, thus inadvertently helping “the shepherd” (whatever that turns out to be). bro has been fumbling his skill checks in this area so hard ever since Jonah died smh.

(also fun fact, the name i gave the skill means shepherd in french, assuming google translate didn't lie to me)

i think preacher is the part of adam that tries to pull him back into the alternates' plans, since it knows the truth about himself and how the world works (alt!gabriel taking over religion etc.). this is why it keeps showing up when adam’s at a crossroad between choosing humanity or the alternates (at the torres’ house, jonah’s memorial etc), or when he's about to remember what he is.

and lastly there’s human boy adam and the adult alternate adam we see in the series. i think his human memories and consciousness that he got from little boy adam are what cause him to want friendships and relationships in the first place. based off the fact that he was watching stanley’s show and trying to make friends that way, I’m guessing the kid was really lonely and that desire for friends lingers on in his mind. i also think this part of him is more prominent than we realize, given how many human connections he’s formed that we know of (sarah, jonah, evelin, those other two dudes in his IM contacts, possibly even more that we haven’t seen.) of course he hasn’t done a good job at keeping these connections, but the fact that he had them at all still says something.

i think current adam has become fixated on investigating and documenting other alternates to try and understand what he’s become (not consciously, but subconsciously). now that he's lost touch with his history and doesn't seem to have a strong connection (if any connection) to the alternate hivement, he's probably looking for some kind of reasoning behind why his Brain is so Weird.

anyway, idk if this was coherent at all but this is basically what i'm thinking goes on in adam's head every time he tries to do anything, and thats why he's my cringefail fave <3

[fabuloustrash05]

What is your honest opinion on the TMNT 2012 girls? In my opinion I don't understand a lot of the hate they get and they weren't even horrible or that badly writen. Yeah there were flaws in their writing but so did the other male characters have it as well.

I love all the girls! Some more than others. They all have their good qualities and I will admit even my favorites have flaws, but I blame the writer's more than the characters themselves.

This took awhile to put together and get my honest thoughts through, but here it is! Here’s my opinion of the TMNT 2012 Girls: April, Karai, Irma, Renet, Mona Lisa, Shinigami and Alopex!

April O'Neil

My opinion of April has changed throughout the years. As a kid first watching the series I felt indifferent towards her (I didn’t hate her but I also didn’t like her), then when the series was over I grew salty and began to hate her on rewatch. I became a toxic person because of my hatred for 2012 April, but lately I’ve grown to like her and appreciate her for the good things she’s done. I’m proud of her for how far she’s come in her ninja training. I think most of that change came from how ridiculously hated she is in the fandom when honestly she doesn’t deserve that hate. She's not the best or the perfect character, but some people make it their religion to hate on her and it's pathetic. I realized how toxic 2012 April haters are and I wanted to distance myself from that and I began to chat with 2012 April fans and things got better for me and my opinion of her change to something more positive.

My biggest problem with April still to this day is her relationship with Donnie and how it was handled. I disagree when people say she was manipulative towards Donnie and Casey cause honestly I can understand that she feels uncomfortable and awkward in this situation these boys put her in and is conflicted on how she should handle it, because in the end she is only a 16 year old girl and both Donnie and Casey are still her friends that she cares about. Now her kissing Donnie at the farmhouse, I was mad at her for, but that was a dumb decision on the writer's end. That choice made it come off that April is leading him on, but honestly Donnie is not perfect either and he is just as bad when is comes to this relationship, but this post isn't about Apritello, it’s about April. If you wanna know how I would've handle Donnie and April's romance, you can check it out HERE.

I fully blame the writer's on this one, but I feel April's plot with her family's connection to the Kraang, her mom missing, and her being a half Kraang herself was totally wasted and forgotten by the 3rd season. They were doing good build up to it but then I feel they completely dropped it and forgot about it by season 4 and onward. My guess is the writer's didn't know where to go on from there so they just ignored it for the rest of the series hoping we wouldn't notice. Her have psychic powers is cool but feels totally random and out of place at times. Yeah, Kraang Prime has psychic powers too but most of April's Kraang heritage plot often leaves more questions than answers. Another thing is I wish she was given more Kraang features as the series progressed. I see a lot of fans today draw her with Kraang like eyes or tentacles coming out of her head and neck and it looks really cool! Let my girl embrace her alien side!!

Karai

She used to be my all time favorite character in the series, her intro episode is what got me into fully watching the rest of the series. So I thank Karai for being the reason I really got into TMNT. I loved her, but after rewatching the show a few times, I would see her choices and just wonder “what the hell was she thinking?” She does so many dumb decisions as the series goes on and it begins frustrate me. She had two opportunities to go back to her real father and be a family with him and her turtle brothers, but instead she is blinded by her vendetta against Shredder and wants to overthrow his empire. Now that is a cool concept, Karai taking over the Foot, but when she returned in season 4 it just feels out of no where and I feel I skip a whole arc or season. I wish they gave her more time to grow and we see her come to this decision instead of it just happening. Side note, but I love how even before the reveal, Karai acts like a teasing older sister towards the Turtles. Her dynamic with Donnie, Raph and Mikey is rare to see but you can see that they care about her and she cares about them too and I love it.

Her snake form was very cool and had a creative design, though that whole arc of trying to find her and then her being brainwashed was pointless filler, such a waste of time. How she out of no where mastered her turning from human to snake at will was so random. The whole brainwashed Karai arc in general didn't need to happened!

I feel I'm obligated to talk about it, but Karai's biggest flaw, as well as it being TMNT 2012's worst quality, was her relationship with Leo. What were they thinking with that shit?! If they wanted Leo to have a crush on the enemy that's fine! That can be good drama, but why then throw in the twist that his crush is also his sister and continue to push a romance between them in the same episode when they are acknowledged as being family?!! Such wasted potential for them to just be enemies who respect one another that grows into a friendly rivalry that becomes two siblings looking out for one another, but still like to get on each other's nerves. Beside that mess, her and Leo do have a fun and good dynamic, when it isn't being ruined with forced uncomfortable romance. I also wanna add I like her dynamic with April and parallels between the two girls. Overall, I like Karai, but she could've been better.

Irma/Rook

I'm adding "Irma" to the list cause she counted as a character for a short while before the twist and she did technically come back in season 4. I liked Irma, she was funny, quirky, and her dynamic with April and Casey was fun to watch. I liked her banter with Casey, it always made me laugh. I'm honestly still disappointed that it was revealed Irma was not even Irma but was just a robot controlled by Kraang Sub Prime. All that hope to see Irma befriend the Turtles was destroy for me.

I am glad they were able to find a way to bring back Irma in the form of the Utrom Rook in season 4. She had little screen time but she always stuck out to me for some reason. Also, wasted potential of not having April meet Rook and for her to have a heart to heart with her about the friend lost because Rook looks like her old best friend.

I actually did a whole rewrite of how I would've handle the Irma is robot twist and still keep her as a character: LINK.

Renet Tilley

I love her so much! She's funny, entertaining and a total sweetheart. I love how she's a very bubbly and overall kind person but isn't afraid to punch someone right in the face. I like how she's perceived as dumb and naïve but is actually very smart and is usually the one saving the Turtle's from certain doom. I also love the little detail of her having a gap in her teeth. Really brings out the childish nature to her character. My favorite part about Renet is how much of a fangirl she is, literally representing the entire TMNT fandom. From first meeting them Renet has so much faith and trust in the Turtles because of what she's read about them in her history books. They are her heroes, she believes in them and knows in the end they'll save the day. The very concept of the Turtles befriend a time traveler from the future was another thing that was underused and could've open the door to so many cool new stories and adventures, but like many characters, she was underused and only came back when need, like for a Halloween special of all things. I'm really surprised Mikey or any of the Turtles didn’t mentioned her after the Earth was destroyed by the Black Hole Generation, remembering what she told them about how they've saved the world so many times.

I know some people find controversy with her romantic relationship with Mikey nowadays because of them both being from different time periods, but I still find their dynamic very sweet and entertaining to watch. As best friends or as romantic partners, you got to admit that they are fun to see together. She understands Mikey and never judges him for his weird antics/ideas and Mikey finds her quirkiness adoring and always makes sure she is safe.

A little nitpick I have is with her character design, mainly when we see her without her helmet. Her hair model design doesn't look good, like it looks like she's wearing a wig that they just slapped on her at the last minute. Which sucks cause in her concept sketches her hair looks very good, with having a more proper hair line, but since the braid crown is playing as her hairline in the 3D model it doesn't look good.

Also, technically Renet is the most powerful ally the Turtles have because of her weapon alone. Why does no one talk about that?? The Turtles are lucky that Renet is on their side.

Mona Lisa/Y'gythgba

SHE IS MY QUEEN AND I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! <3

Next to April, Mona Lisa also gets a lot of unnecessary hate, but I know why she gets hate. It those toxic whiney Raphael fangirls who can't accept the fact that he's fictional and is happy with an actual girlfriend so now they can't have him or ship him with their self insert Mary Sue OCs. A true Raphael fangirl, like myself, would be happy for Raph that he found someone who loves and respects him for who he is.

It's already obvious that Mona was another underused character in this series. I absolutely LOVE the space arc in season 4, but the concept of the Salamandrians, though cool, were very underused despite the Turtles fighting a Salamandiran before (Newtrailzer). If you ask me, Mona and Sal should've been more present during the space arc and they should've been there helping the Turtles when they were fighting the Triceratons on Earth at the end of the arc. This choice could've given the writer's the opening for Mona to start living on Earth sooner and join the Mighty Mutanimals during mid season 4 instead of saying she joined the Mutanimals in season 5 but never see her with them! (I'm still so mad that they got our hopes up that we'd see Mona interact/become friends with the Mutanimals only to find out that we will never see her again after When Worlds Collide) I have actually wrote a whole post on how I would've included Mona in more episodes, give her more time in the spotlight and her joining the Mutanimals sooner: LINK.

Mona being a lieutenant for the Salamandiran army already says a lot about who she is and what she has been through. You cannot tell me that this woman as killed people and has war trauma! Mona is an interesting character and her personality clashes well with Raph's, even before they became a couple, them butting heads shows what kind of person Mona is. She can be short tempered and stubborn like him and would often jump to conclusions, a fight first ask question later kind of gal. She loves to fight and is a very strong and skilled warrior. She is loyal to those she looks up to and respects like her commander and is a rule follower, but sometimes she loses control of herself and steps out of line, to which her commander has to hold her back. She cares deeply about the ones she's close to and especially shows how much she loves and cares for Raph. Most fans result her to just being a love interest, but she's still her own character and grows as a person from being with Raph. Honestly the push up scene was one of her highlights, not only for being hilarious and showing how in love she is with Raph, but also showing that she's more than a strict serious lieutenant. That scene reminds us that she's still a teenager and is acting her age, even she can't help but break her serious military persona once in a while.

I absolutely adore her and I'm so happy more fans today are growing to love her as much as I do! She's such a great character and its ashamed that we didn't get to see more of her in the show, but I'm happy with what I got.

Shinigami

My only criticism I have of her is that she is underused (I know I say that a lot) and I really dislike that she was forced shipped with Mikey. It was the most pointless decision they did for her character. You can just tell the writer's didn't know what to do with her so the made her a love interest as well thinking that would make her more interesting. That was a dumb decision. Her and Mikey are not a good match for many reasons I won't get into, but here's what they should've done:

Not ship her with anyone cause we already had enough love interests by the time she entered the show.

Ship her with Leo instead of making him crush on his freaking sister. They already wanted him to have a crush on a female ninja from the Foot Clan who's a bad girl, why couldn't they hold it off until he met Shini instead of Karai?

Ship her with Casey as a way to give Casey a happy ending after that whole love triangle drama.

Ship her with Karai cause they were obviously already dating in the show! Shinirai forever!!

Regardless of that poor decision, I love Shini, her design is very gorgeous and creative, and her concept of being a witch brings something new to the series with magic and illusions. I feel there has been wasted potential with her not being involved during the Kavaxas arc, cause come on, she's a witch who specializes in dark magic. Why didn't they have her be attached to the Kavaxas cult in some way? Or have her know about Kavaxas and help the team stop him? Honestly I was convinced at one point that Shini was going to be a surprise villain and she was secretly loyal to Shredder not Karai and betray her during the finale. I made a whole post about it actually LINK.

Overall, I love Shinigami! Next to Mona Lisa she is one of my favorite female characters. I love seeing her teasing April and the others, especially towards her enemies, treating a battle like its nothing more than a game to her. Her loyalty and romance friendship with Karai I adore. She is such a fun character and underrated too if you ask me.

Alopex

She stole the show and she was only in one episode! Once again, another underused female character. Alopex is technically (not counting April) the first female mutant on the show (not counting Karai cause she's able to turn back), and we only get one episode with her. That should be consider a crime, but the episode she was in, she made a damn good impression. We learn of her and Tiger Claw's tragic backstory and you grow to understand why she is so hatful towards her brother for the life he put her through and him supposedly killing their parents. She establishes herself as a badass and continues to prove she is a badass throughout the episode. The way she cut off her brother's tail and later is arm without a second thought and then leaves shows shows how ruthless she is, but her sparring him also shows her compassion and her hope that one day her and Tiger Claw can be a family again.

Her line "Just remember, I could have taken your life" sent chills down my spine when I first heard it.

My biggest complaint is WHY didn't they bring Alopex back during the Kavaxas arc in season 5?! How cool would it have been if the Turtles recruited and teamed up with Alopex to take down her brother!

[importantdestinydefendor]

I have a random Firelight AU question for you, if you don't mind! Maybe it will be come up in future chapters so feel free not to spoil if you want to save it for then, but: what do the Parsians think when they see Azar's horse Zaal? I assume spots are common to this Maaren type of horse, but presumably not so often seen in Pars (it may be present in the genepool but none of the horses we've seen in the manga have that leopard spotting pattern).

Parsians are an equestrian people so I have no doubt they'd be checking out other people's mounts, especially a mysterious delegate from another nation. Actually, I'm getting sidetracked now but I also wonder what the general Parsian opinion about Maar is?

(I'm definitely curious to know what Daryun thinks about Zaal but I'm sure your fic will give us his thoughts on the matter at some point, lol. Let's hope Zaal and Shabrang get along well!)

Okay, I actually have not thought about this at all, so thank you for being my brain and asking this questions!

Zaal was, if I remember what I said about him correctly, mostly bred for heavy farming. And since he is in a rather mountany terrain, he has a lot more muscle and fat to keep him warm in the colder climate. His breed was already on the island when the Maarer came over from Mayram (that is also where their name came from and their "main-god"). And because the breed found in the mountains is very strong and resiliant, they were chosen for the heavier load of farming. They are usually not used for riding.

Theyr fur pattern came to be so that the horses were not as visable to preditors when heavy snowfall acurse or they had to hide in not dangerous snow drifts (at least for the horses mostly in the mountains, the ones in the more flat terrain obviously evolved a little differently). And Zaal is suppose to be completelly white - but I couldn't find pictures actual full white Noriker horses (that is the in reality breed i based Zaal on.)

The Maarer usually use more slim horses or those bred for speed and agillity for travelling and - most importantly - the militery. Some were already on the island in the grasslands (the area between the more "beachy" terrain and the mountains) others they brough with them from Maryam.

As for the Parsians, they don't really see the other types of breeds Maar has besides the ones the merchants and military uses - so similar to theirs. The only difference is that Maaren horses are generally more on the sturdier side due to the big differences in climate and terrain in their habitat.

Also, on what they think about Maar as a whole, the normal parsian citizen thinks of this really tiny kingdom that someday just popped up and is rising amonst the internatonal traders. Since it is still rather young as a kingdom, there is not much known about it. Only that they are very welcoming to everyone, allow every religion and belief and - how outlandish - have no actual slave system (this information is not as well known amongst the normal folk, more amongst nobelity and merchants.)

And their wine is very good as are their metals. Since those are their maingoods. That they also use magic is seen as just a rumor to explain how they are so good at defending themselfs and are so quick to arrive everywhere.

Now to Daryun. Since Vahriz has told him a little bit more about Maar due to his personal connection, he knows that Zaals breed is mostly used for agriculture and other heavy things. So he probably does a little double take when offically meeting Azar (I don't count Azars first introdaction as "their first meeting" since they don't actually talk or properly interact with each other). Maybe he will even ask her about it someday!

I have yet to think about such little scenes and Azars actual reason as to why she chose Zaal as her mount lol. Feel free to give me ideas! Chuck them at me!

I hope this answered your questions!

[shiny-jr]

Praise be the seven, I guess. Finally, I got Beans Day Azul. He was one of the first SSRs I was missing, mostly because I never wished on his banner when he first came out because I had no idea how twst’s gacha system worked. I was worried I was going to have to save and do every achievement I could to collect more gems to wish for him, but he came home on the last key I had. It was a little over 20, no more than 30, I think that’s a win. 

Anyways, I’m a little bored, gonna try to write for Scarabia (damnation) again and probably post the sneak-peek after I check it. But for now, here are some random twst thoughts I have. Enjoy?

- Do y’all think Twisted Wonderland might be a little more peaceful say, compared to Yuu’s world, if they’re from Earth? Think about it. There’s a lot of issues with this world like climate change, wars, pollution, etc. But I imagine in a world filled with magic, some of those issues may not be as big of a deal. Like, I imagine that there’s magic or some magical machine that acts as a resource and energy source and is much cleaner than using gas or oil. 

- Kinda related to the last point, but do you think the reason the “wand” happens to actually be a pen is due to the fact that because magic creates the hazardous blot, the pen uses up that blot when they write? 

- Not gonna get into this one too much, but I wonder if some people will obsess over a certain species or kinds of people and commit cultural appropriation. Example: A regular human wearing fake ears and a tail then claiming they’re a real beastmen.

- Thinking about the existence of Noble Bell College and the whole City of Flowers. The interior of the school was decorated a lot like a church, so that makes me wonder if it was like a religious school because of the movie’s close association with religion. Does that mean there’s a religion akin to Christianity in Twisted Wonderland? What about other religions? How would that even work? 

- I wonder how languages work in twst, since it doesn’t appear like there’s a ton of countries (makes sense if I was right about the war thing, so there wouldn’t be a lot of countries with conflict). Also, if there normally is a language barrier, how is everyone able to communicate perfectly fine on campus? Is there like a commonly used language, or is it some magic that allows everyone to understand each other?

- Obviously the Queendom of Roses would probably be the equivalent of the U.K. and Island of Woe being Greece with it’s connection to Idia and Hercules, but what about other places? Would Briar Valley be like France then, because it’s connection to Sleeping Beauty being set in France? But it’s mostly fae, does that matter? What about the Country of Pyroxene (Shaftlands)? That’s the home of Vil, Cater, Jack, Epel, Trein, and Vargas. But Snow White is supposed to be German, and Cinderella with Beauty and the Beast were supposed to be French. So is Pyroxene French, German, or just a land based off Europe? Is the City of Flowers somewhere here? Don’t forget the Land of Scalding Sands where Kalim and Jamil are, it’s obviously supposed to be inspired by someplace in the Middle East, is it just based off the region and not a single nation? Similar to the Afterglow Savanna, is it just based off the continent of Africa and not a single nation? Many many questions. 

- Kinda back to the language thing, I wonder how accents would be like. Riddle? Definitely British, there’s not a doubt in my mind about that. Maybe Trey too, I can see him going either way. Everyone else in Heartslabyul though? I cannot imagine them with a British accent. Deuce? Upper US east coast kinda guy, definitely used to reply with “ya mutha” in his delinquent days. Ace? Southern US west coast, along with Cater too. Cater definitely has the valley accent, says “like” all the time. Others I like to imagine are Azul, Jade, and Floyd. They’re from the Coral Sea, but they mention it gets really really cold so of course I’m gonna imagine it as the Nordic Sea and they have this subtle Scandinavian accent, but since they probably practiced a lot to cover it. Another one is Vil, obviously I imagine him with a German accent because his last name is Schoenheit. A while ago I was unsure about Epel because he says the most out of pocket stuff in the weirdest ways sometimes, but because of the Harveston outfit I’ve seen on him, I’m gonna say he has like this Russian accent. Rook... starting to think Rook isn’t even French since apparently he’s from the Afterglow Savanna. 

- Something that I personally wonder a lot, are there Latinos in this world?? Like, c’mon. I saw the tacos in the cooking event, I know they’re hiding them somewhere. You can’t hide them forever. At least I know there’s Mexicans. But who knows? Maybe if they add more villains like they did with Rollo, they’ll add a character that’s probably Mexican like Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco) or Peruvian like Yzma and Kronk (Emperor’s New Groove). 

- Sometimes I wonder, they say that everyone knows about the seven. Like apparently in Twisted Wonderland they learn about them when they’re young, and they’re not seen as bad guys. So if that’s the case, do some people learn about the good guys? Do their beliefs kinda conflict and clash or does it conveniently not clash? That’s something I wondered when thinking if RSA has statues like NRC does. 

- RSA would treat Yuu right, just saying. It might not be fun all the time, but it’s probably better than some aspects of NRC.

[fratricideknight]

i'm sorry to rant about the angels in spn again (see original thread here - i'm tired of me, too, for the record) but i feel i made some concessions in that thread which i shouldn’t have, because people made some really good points and i kind of got side-tracked from my original point. once again, feel free to give me your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree. i finally learned how to add cuts, so click to read more :D

one of the reasons i love season 1 so much is because, in my opinion, it is the closest approximation to what spn was supposed to be. scrambled urban legends which our heroes have to untangle (e.g. Bloody Mary and the many myths around her) and uncertain folklore. take the episodes 'Phantom Traveler' and 'Skin', for example. in the former, demons are said to come in many different forms and this particular one to function like the initiator of a natural disaster which has adapted to the times. you're "wide open to demonic possession" if you're emotionally distressed, rather than just anyone being possessed. so cool!! the latter is a spin on the well-known idea of shapeshifters. the audience knows generally what to expect, but spn establishes its own unique, awesome lore. shapeshifters literally SHED THEIR SKIN, they don't just look like their target they become them, they need to keep their target alive for a psychic connection so they can download their thoughts and memories. so damn cool fr. even 'Bugs', a "bad" episode (spoiler alert: it's really not), had the super cool concept of curses tied to the land which the boys can't break, almost like the natural disasters of the supernatural world, which the two random guys we call our protagonists are not equipped to deal with. even by season 2, some of this has been lost. rather than establishing unique lore, the monster of the week episodes become more about using the same old lore in different and fun ways. e.g. sam and dean hunt a ghost while in prison, they investigate ghosts which are being controlled on a movie set. even when they introduce new monsters (djinn, zombies, the trickster, people infected with the croatoan virus, werewolves), they're used more for story purposes and we don't really learn all that much about them. the exception i guess would be the crossroads deals, which warranted explaining since john sold his soul for dean and dean would later do the same for sam. using lore in creative ways is very much a good thing, but these episodes rarely build much on the lore itself, just put the characters in unique situations; again, that's a good thing, but you can do both! more of season 2 goes towards plot episodes - and i'm not complaining, the plot is awesome! but i wish they kept the season 1 lore stuff up. it makes me think of that post which says "what is lore in supernatural if not just any book sam reads" and yeah. just yeah. bring back tulpas and friends!

now for how this ties into the angels: as per the original thread, they could have been super creepy! they were certainly not used to their full potential in the horror department. however, i will reiterate my opinion: they do not work with the original idea of spn. adding them turned it into a different show. even if they're made to be creepy and straight-up evil, there is baggage which will inevitably be dragged into the show with their inclusion. who in the world doesn't know at least a little about and have preconceived notions of angels? not many people, and most of those people would not be watching spn. the same could be said of ghosts and demons, but there is a religious baggage inherent to angels which cannot be avoided. even demons can be somewhat separated from their religious roots, especially if they turn out to not be demons at all (theory here). and, like i said, the show and its characters were not supposed to deal with religion beyond the spectre of it, sam having faith and dean not. their (lack of) faith informed their decisions, but neither of them were wrong or right in their beliefs, just at odds. the world should have felt claustrophobic while also being too intricate to fully understand and retaining a sense of mystery, and season 1 achieved this the best with some of the most complex and interesting lore in the show and the small stakes and small scale. get the cosmic beings out of my face, eric; no you cannot have angels if they just turn out to be dicks! i know better than you and i am gnawing on your bones.

[beauty-and-passion]

Thank you, anon, for the kind effort to not make me waste my time, but I already noticed. And I was just waiting for an excuse to talk about it.

I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt. Coincidences can exist, maybe something has been made in good faith, being naive is a possibility. Deep down my first thought is "oh that was definitely on purpose" but, you know, way better to keep an open mind rather than condemn someone without any proof.

Said that, now please tell me what I should say in this case. What should I say, when I see a Janus rip-off appear in the same show featuring Roman rip-off and Virgil rip-off?

I am pissed, but not just because Mr. Sanders did the exact same thing twice, by using the characters of his most famous show as bait for this other show. There are other reasons, so please see all of them in random order:

1) The absolute lack of creativity

Mr. Sanders is a supposed content creator. Well, what is the "creator" part of his job, exactly? Using the same characters and names in all of his shows? That's not exactly a proof of creativity.

Sure, an artist can use ideas and concepts they particularly like, but not even the worst writer of the worst teen romance recycles the exact same characters. They may be similar, but at least they have different names.

Unless Mr. Sanders thinks that adding a "Doc" before a name means changing it. Flash news: no, it doesn't change it. If I am Bea, adding "Doc" before my name doesn't make it different.

2) What a plain, dull rip-off

As you all know, Janus is and embodies a lot of things. He has heavy connections with religion. His own name is a reference to a god - and not a random one, but a powerful, important god, who is able to see past and future. Janus is the embodiment of deceit and denial. He acts with the intention of self-preservation. And yes, he has snake features.

With all of that, with all these possibilities, what is this Janus rip-off? A snake. A fucking snake with a rip-off capelet and random hands. That’s it. That’s all.

This isn’t even lazy creativity, this is just plain sad. If you look at the fandom, there are something like 200 different ways to represent Janus (or any other Side for that matter): and yet, the creator of the show, the one who plays Janus and should understand him better than any other, couldn’t come up with a solution a bit more creative than Janus = snake.

Also because in the “Into the Unknown” cover he showed he actually understands Janus’ character. So what, was he feeling lazy while doing that rip-off?

3) Why can't Roleslaying with Roman stand on its own?

I don't know if Mr. Sanders deep down hates Roleslaying, because he keeps doing everything he can to make me hate it. Why can't I enjoy the series as it is? Why can't it just be its own thing, instead of trying so much to be a bad Sanders Sides rip-off?

The series is enjoyable. It's not the most groundbreaking thing ever, but it keeps me company and there are some funny moments that make me smile. So why, WHY can't it just be like this? Why can't it stand on its own and be just a simple, funny series?

I know why and it's pretty clear why: because Mr. Sanders doesn't think his fans would be involved, if he doesn't use Sanders Sides as a bait all the time. But if I could’ve understood his fear when he started Roleslaying, why is he still doing it now? Why is he still using  Sanders Sides characters as bait? “Doc” Janus isn’t even an important character: he’s jsut a fucking seller, typical fo any other game. And yet, it gets the thumbnail because it's a reference to a much more beloved character.

And if you think I am wrong, just read the comments on Youtube: the first comments you will find are all about Janus from Sanders Sides.

Mr. Sanders knew exactly what he was doing and this was the reaction he wanted: to bait his fans once again. In the same show. The same way he did the first time.

4) What is this series supposed to be? The fact that Mr. Sanders did the exact same thing twice is very concerning. Also because, just a few days later, something else happened.

It was the sixth anniversary of Sanders Sides. As I said before, the more time this series takes, the more problems are gonna arise, but that’s not the main point: what I want to talk about is the short video Thomas made on Twitter about the anniversary.

I could be completely, absolutely, totally wrong here. However, I find worth mentioning that:

in a video about the sixth anniversary of Sanders Sides, Thomas opens up his video by saying he’s working on Roleslaying

All he says about Sanders Sides is thanking people for their love and support. No mention of the season finale, no mention of the writing process, no news at all. This was the perfect time to give some updates on Sanders Sides and yet, he gave us nothing

I know that emotions are nice and important and thanking people for their love is important too and he was very sweet and so on.

But aside from the sweetness and the feels, where is the professionalism? What did he actually say to us? Why, when he had the perfect chance to give some updates, he still decided to give none?

The only logical explanation I can find is that there are no updates. That the writing process is probably halted, because Roleslaying has been planned already and Mr. Sanders has to work on it. Also, as you noticed from the last episodes, there is now Roleslaying merch and a sponsor too, so Thomas was probably working on it as well.

That doesn’t give me high hopes for the future of Sanders Sides. Roleslaying keeps going and I can understand why Thomas prefers it: it’s not a one-man show, he has his friends and the artist around. And, due to the nature of the series, it doesn’t require a lot of acting either. It will take some time to edit, sure, but I doubt it would be more difficult than cutting six different parts and putting them together in a nice flow, to give the illusion there are six people when there’s only one.

On the other hand, Sanders Sides is time consuming and requires a lot from Thomas’ side. Let’s not forget the series is getting more complex and difficult to write - and there’s no competent writer working on it.

I won’t be surprised if, in the end, Mr. Sanders makes Roleslaying his main series. It’s easier to write, produce and release. There’s a sponsor already and there is merch. And now there is a character named Janus, so if Mr. Sanders has to rebrand the Patreon, he can do it and keep the same name.

But even if all of this actually happens, I doubt Thomas would completely drop Sanders Sides. He has feelings towards this series and he knows it’s the main reason people follow him. Announcing the series is abandoned, will make people leave. Way better to not say anything and give zero updates, all while working on another series, until it becomes his main one. After all, it already includes the characters from Sanders Sides, even if they are all rip-offs.

[pinkiewitchcraft]

✨Veiling:✨

I find veiling to be a very beautiful thing. It is mystical, magical, and can mean so many different things.

I’ve been starting to veil very recently, and it has honestly changed my life so much. I love placing scarves of various different colors on my head, and placing little flowers and headbands on top of them to make them look, and feel even more beautiful.

Now, first things first, however, you do not have to be religious to veil, nor do you have to be modest to do so either. And anyone who tries to tell you that you need to be religious, and that you need to cover up your body in order to veil “properly” should be ignored and criticized.

This is your practice, and if you’re not claiming to be part of any religion where there are strict rules when it comes to clothing, then they need to keep their mouth shut.

Again, you do not have to dress modestly at all to veil. There are no rules when it comes to veiling. You can very much wear a tank top with a plunging neckline, and short-shorts, and still veil. You can wear regular clothes, especially revealing clothes, because that is your right, and that is your craft.

And if you wish to dress modestly, go right ahead.

This is your body. It is a beautiful temple, and you have every right to treat it as such. It is allowed to look however you wish.

There is no “correct way” to veil.

You also do not have to veil all the time. You can veil whenever you wish. I personally veil sometimes.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

✨ There are also many other reasons to veil besides modesty:

• Protection

• Connecting with your spirituality

• Correspondences (for example, the color yellow can mean happiness and hope, so you pick out a yellow scarf for veiling, and carry that energy with you for as long as you desire.)

• Comfort

• Grounding, Centering

• Just because

I personally veil for the first five reasons.

I also LOVE dressing up like an old, ancient wizard clothed in thick robes when I veil because it makes me feel very mystical and protected and just…

✨✨✨ bearded wizard energy ✨✨✨

It is not mandatory for me, however. It is simply a preference. And whenever I wish to dress any other type of way, I do so gladly.

Another thing. Adding little accessories that you’ve prayed over, or enchanted with your energy and intent is SO WONDERFUL!!! It magnifies your practice even more and makes everything feel so much more special!!!

Of course, you don’t have to do that, however, it is merely an option. Though for me, personally, it is extremely important.

Now, onto the type of veils.

Anything can be a veil. YES. ANYTHING. It doesn’t matter what some random person says. That is how they see their own craft. That is how they feel personally, and it has absolutely nothing to do with you. And if they try to insist that you’re doing your own personal craft “wrong”, ignore them.

It doesn’t have to be a long scarf that goes down your back. It can also be a bandana, a beanie, a sun-hat, a bonnet, a durag, a cap, a headband, literally anything that you wish to place onto your head. That is your veil.

Veiling is a very personal practice that should fit you and your life, not anyone else’s. Live your life how you desire. Always.

[paranormeow7]

CAN I PLEASE HEAR ABOUT GAVIN AND SAM.... i saw eating corpses and angels and went oh! well i must know

yes absolutely I’m so glad u asked!!!!!! i love talking abt my horrible ocs LAWLZ- I actually have Gavin’s backstory in my writing tag but I would love to talk abt him and Sam more now bc they are very dear to me… basically Sam is one of the last remaining members of an ancient alien race that are like planet sized and have crazy magic and shit. They sort of just hung out in space until people on other planets begun to notice them and worship them as gods, with the aliens deciding to try and fill the role, watching over the planets and their inhabitants. Sam and Gavin live on a fucked up post apocalyptic future earth populated with spirits and demons and shit but more on that later. A big reason the planet is so fucked is that Earths inhabitants began to fear Sams species and decided to try and kill them, mostly succeeding, except for one child who rocketed to Earth and got stuck in a much smaller and more comprehensible form until their “awakening”. Sam always felt connected to the deities though, and became one of the last remaining believers. He would always go out and look at the corpse of Earths former protector in the sky and pray before going to bed. One day, a single tear fell from its eye and splashed Sam and all the memories just flooded back. She basically went like “OH SHIT IM GOD I GUESS” and became a biblically accurate angel kaiju thing because cringe culture is dead lol. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but hey we ball- I don’t have a lot of the story planned out OOPS, but a lot of it is based on spirituality and how religion can’t solve your problems, you have to take care of them yourself, meant in a literal sense, because Sam waited most of their life for someone to save her, but ended up becoming the very thing he prayed to every night. Idk man I’ve had this OC since 2017 maybe I get to go a little wild

about Gavin, this is where we come back to the spirits and stuff !!!! he shares his body with a demonic cat spirit in a sort of parasitic symbiotic relationship. This cat was literally just some roadkill stray, but as the fury and ambition built up in its soul, it became a horrific and tyrannical monster with no trace of its older self. It believed that since it’s life was taken away with such little care, it should be allowed to do the same to others in order for its power to grow, so that eventually it can get back the life it believed it was owed. This demon stalked Gavin his whole life because he saw the spark of that same ambition and rage in him, and decided to get him killed so it could take his body and use it for its own gain. Gavin also believed that he deserved to continue living as long as he wanted to, so when this spirit offered to bring him back for the price of complete control over his own soul, he took the deal. The demon needs living souls to be able to gain enough power to communicate with the higher level spiritual beings, so he would make Gavin eat animals and people in order to get that from him. After a while though, Gavin started to kill by himself. He was abused for most of his life leading up to his death, so he started to kill and eat random people that he saw his abusers in. He believes that not only do these people owe him their lives, that he’s doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. Over time, he loses most of the compassion he had in the past and becomes more and more like the demon he shares his body with, because after everything he’s been through, the world owes him that, doesn’t it? Basically, he’s awful, but he’s also very silly and he has a partner who’s the only person he actually likes LOL

This is incomprehensible I’m so sorry I hope this made even a shred of sense- whablalgavkq

[kyogre-blue]

I huff about the Wrath of the Rock thing mostly bc if I started talking about how badly contracts were done in Liyue I'd never stop lol. What he did with Wanyan was the most in-your-face about it and had me FUMING, yes, but I honestly really want to know what the adepti are getting out of their contracts and why exactly they still had to hold up their end of the bargain when the contractor was supposed to be dead. Like? A contract really is supposed to benefit both parties? What service has Zhongli been providing? NOT kicking them out of Liyue's mountains or something? Is he a landowner? And Xiao's contract is just downright exploiting him - I'd think the translation mistook "contracts" for "oaths" somewhere but no, Yanfei exists.

And I was curious bc I distinctly recall a Liyue NPC praying to Barbatos....checked, her name's Chishui! And she says though it's tradition in Liyue to worship the Geo Archon the winds are what truly determine whether her sailor husband is safe, though she admits it's rare (unsure if she means liyue locals praying to Barbatos or locals praying to another god in general). She says any god will do as long as they keep her husband safe though, so maybe she just has either less patriotism or more common sense idk.

Gahhh unreliable information is so annoying. I remember thinking when I started playing that maybe humans already had their own "type" and their ruling archon just neutrally crystalised it, given it IS supposed to be their own ambitions and all. As it is, now I don't trust anything about vision lore bc I know it's going to get dashed later on rip

Hahaha................. yeah.

But yeah.

In general, one of Genshin's biggest missed opportunities is arguably doing nothing with their gods' supposed ideals.

Mondstadt is freedom town, so that's nice, but there's no actual commentary on freedom, even though there's potential for something juicy with how they walked themselves into the Aristocracy entirely on human free will. Liyue is uh contracts, but "contracts" can mean any of like three different things minimum, with no distinction or examination of any of them. Inazuma tried, but they did not connect Yoimiya's musings, Ei's misguided grief nonsense and then the uuuh revelations (?) she had when communing with her dead sister's spirit inside a magic that went back in time for some reason (???) particularly well. And Sumeru is just a joke, they don't even try.

These seem to be basically just buzzwords that exist for flavor, rather than any real meaning.

I feel like part of the supernatural contracts in Liyue might relate to the weird third party racism that archons engage in for the sake of humans. Like how the oni had to do some weird dance to live with humans and how Azhdaha basically has no rights because won't you think of the humans. Adepti originally start out with a flavor of being fairly alien in their thinking and don't interact with humans well at all, so them having a contract that forces them to prioritize humans is potentially meant to make sure they kill fewer people.

In that sense, the service Zhongli provides is that he doesn't execute all their asses for imprisoning random people in amber and shit like that, I guess?

But they really did not keep any of this consistent.

Which isn't surprising. Genshin never cares about consistency, which is why its lore might be cool but its worldbuilding is pretty awful.

In regard to worshipping foreign gods, its presumably possible. I do recall there's a Sumeru NPC who also prays to Barbatos, though other NPCs near him didn't seem thrilled with that. On the whole, Genshin is hardly going to ever create a tense enough situation where there's acknowledged religious or national fervor that could lead to people getting genuinely targeted for acting in a way that's not seen as socially acceptable. But logically speaking, it's not even just plain "following a minority religion" deal, these gods are also the government and immediately present divine rulers. Barbatos isn't around and Morax is pretty chill, but like imagine if you want to make a shrine to a different god next to your house. How is that going to go over? If you apply just basic "how humans act about things" from the real world.....

[b4rredteeth]

TASK #2

PESOR SAMIR

I : THE LOVERS' MASK

A TALE CALLED THE MOON'S ANGUISH THAT HAS CIRCULATED ANCHORAGE FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES HAS PROMPTED SOME YOUNG LOVERS TO EXCHANGE MASKS AS A PROMISE OF DEVOTION. WHAT DESIGN WOULD MUSE THEORETICALLY THINK FITS THEM ( LOOK BACK TO REVENGE OF KRAMPUS FOR REFERENCE, #ANCHORTASK01 ON OUR SERVER ) ?

This

SOME MIGHT CONSIDER THEM LEADING A DOUBLE LIFE IF THEY KNEW ABOUT ... 

Why Pesor’s mother took them away and why they are on the run. 

WHAT WOULD BE THEIR OWN DEAL BREAKER IN A RELATIONSHIP ? 

Distrust. Pesor would never lie.

WOULD THEY DIE FOR LOVE OR KILL FOR MONEY ?

Die for love, never kill for money or for any other reason. But to save a loved-one, they wouldn’t think twice, though they’d rather die than take a life. 

THEY ONLY HAVE ENOUGH CHANGE FOR ONE CALL AT THE PHONEBOOTH, & SOMEONE WITH GLARING RED EYES & A SPATULA IS STANDING ACROSS THE STREET. WHO WILL THEY CALL ?

They’d try to call their mom. 

II : THE ZEIGEIST OF THE '90S

THEIR FAVORITE SLASHER FILM IS ( IF APPLICABLE ) …

None, they don’t like slashers.

IN THEIR FREE TIME, THEY ENJOY GOING OUT AND ... 

Talking to people at random. 

A FASHION FAD OF THE TIMES THEY ADORE THAT THEIR FRIENDS WOULD DESPISE IS …

Fashion? Ha. Pesor just wears what's cheapest, not necessarily what they want to wear.

HOW OFTEN DO THEY ORDER DELIVERY FROM PEPPY'S PIZZERIA ? HAVE THEY EVER SEEN THE WALLS OOZE GREEN SLIME IN THE PIZZERIA OR THE ANIMATRONICS MOVE ON THEIR OWN DURING THEIR TIME IN ANCHORAGE ?

Once, but Pesor didn’t notice the walls ooze.

WHEN THEY BELIEVED IN CHRISTMAS, WERE THEY TOLD KRAMPUS WOULD PAY THEM A VISIT FOR BEING ON THE NAUGHTY LIST ? ( WRITE N/A IF NOT APPLICABLE TO THEIR RELIGION OR LIFESTYLE )

N/A

WHAT TALL TALE OR SUPERSTITION WERE THEY TOLD AS A CHILD THAT STILL GIVES THEM THE HEEBIE JEEBIES ?

Pesor was always told by their mom that places where people didn’t want to go existed because it housed harmful spirits. If they saw an empty dark alley or an abandoned building, she’d tell them to stay away. If they ever felt a cold rush in their bones when entering a quiet place, she’d tell them those were the good spirits warning them to turn back. 

III : THE CURSE OF THE SPIDER

ARE THERE FAMILY SECRETS OR SO-CALLED CURSES THAT HAUNT THEM ? ONES THAT ARE KNOWN PUBLICLY OR FOLLOW THEM FIGURATIVELY ?

Aside from their mother, Pesor doesn’t know any other family they have, and is thus unaware of any curses. 

WHICH OF THE SEVEN SINS WOULD CORRUPT THEIR MORALS ?

Sloth.

THE WORLD REMAINS THE SAME FOR DECADES NOW. IS IGNORANCE BLISS ? OR IS THERE THE SHAKY SENSE SOMETHING IS AMISS THAT CAN'T BE IGNORED ? 

Ignorance is bliss.

DREAMS ARE OFTEN INFLUENCED BY THE SUBCONSCIOUS & SOMETIMES DISTORTED. IN THEIR DEEPEST, DARKEST NIGHTMARES, HOW DO THEY VIEW THEMSELVES ?

As a useless and scared boy who nobody can count on, who is lost and abandoned, and will only disappoint. 

IV : THE CROOKED FRAME

WHAT IS THEIR DEATH WISH ? MIROIRS ONLY ( BASTARDS GANG INCLUDED ) : THE PERFECT CRIME WAS CONSTRUCTED & SOMEONE ELSE TOOK THEIR PLACE. HOW DID THEY ORIGINALLY DIE ?

To die surrounded by loved ones. 

MUSE COULDN'T BE THE ONE BEHIND THE TUNNEL OF LOVE OUTAGE BECAUSE WHEN THE POWER WENT OUT, THEY WERE ... 

On their way home, soon to become lost.

WHAT WOULD THEY CONSIDER THEIR CALLING CARD ( I.E. WHAT SYMBOLS, PERSONAL MEMENTOS, ETC. DO THEY PERCEIVE AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THEMSELVES ) ? 

Their backpack, it looks small but it’s of great design with many pockets and possibilities to hang things from, it was expensive, but it has been with them for years, worn but still capable of being stitched together. They have several pins on it and patches where they had to stitch it back together. 

THOSE WITH INTERMEDIATE TECHNICAL SKILLS HAVE USED CRACKS & VPNS TO IMPROVE THE INTERNET CONNECTION, BUT ANYTHING POST-DATING THE 1990S IS ONLY ACCESSIBLE THROUGH THE DARK WEB. HAS MUSE EVER ACCESSED THE DARK WEB ? HAVE THEY USED IT FOR ANY NEFARIOUS MEANS OR TO PURCHASE SERVICES ?

No.

[anotherghoul666]

52, 69 [ hehe ] & 70, if you don't mind 😊 I hope you have a good rest of your day! - Anon lurker 👀

You got it buddy!

52. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Nope. I believe shit happens, and we make reasons for it. The human brain being what is it, a brain made for pattern recognition with a capacity for abstraction and reasoning (that we love to demonstrate over and over as a way to strangely elevate ourselves over the animal), I believe we will see pattern, tie dots together, make wild connections and leaps to assign some sort of logic to illogical things, because if we don't do that, we wouldn't be able to process the world. Shit just happens. We make it meaningful. Out of grief, out of love, out of coping mechanisms, out of habit, doesn't matter. We assign meaning to things to make them hurt less, or to make them more beautiful. But life is random as fuck. Life is not predictable. It's not under our control. Humans are a blip in the universe, to believe everything happens for a reason, a reason our brains would be able to comprehend and process no less? It’s so egotistical and, well, now that I think about it, a very human thing to do hahaha. I find comfort in knowing sometimes shit just happens and it's well beyond my understanding. That's why we call it "accidents" or "nature" or "fate", whatever vocabulary we've assigned to it to make randomness more palatable. I like senseless happenings. I like not having a part in anything, it eases the mind, the lack of responsibility. Things happen. This will happen no matter what. I can choose to assign it meaning and do something with it, or let it be random as it is and move on.

69. Do you believe in soulmates? It entirely depends on which versions of soulmates we're talking about, and how tied that version is to values that were fed to us by the patriarchy / the colonizer / the christian church / capitalism (and those are just my cultural influencers, feel free to swap them out for the ones that are relevant to your life situation). Yes I'm going political, I debated with myself and fuck it Imma do it XD Do I believe in "the one true person on the planet you're destined for" soulmate? Absolutely not. I find that to be such bullshit, but I recognize it's a fantasy very specifically engineered to benefit the aforementioned structures. It's reductive of the human experience to say there's only one person out there for you. Oooh, work hard, be good cause you gotta find them, you gotta catch their eye, and once you do you'll be perfectly happy together no problem for the rest of your lives. It's infantilizing, and that's on purpose. It serves the dominant cultural strain. I personally don't subscribe to monogamy. I believe it’s a cultural choice people make, and I believe it lines up with some people’s values, and I respect that 100%. People’s lives are not mine to judge. But. Monogamy’s not my life path. It's one of the things, alongside religion, that I'm currently trying to deconstruct and decolonize in my life, within my realistic means. I don't believe it's fair or realistic to expect one person to meet all the needs I have now and will ever have. I guarantee you I'm not the complete sum of what someone else needs and will need either. I don't want to be. I have multiple partners. Doesn’t that mean none of them are my soulmates? Or I just haven't met the right one yet? I reject that. I believe all these people are my soulmates. I believe there have been multiple people I’ve crossed paths with in my life that were my soulmates and either I saw it or I didn't and I missed out. I believe there will be many more people in my life who are soulmates of mine and I'll have to see if I seize it or miss out again. I believe there's potentially tons of people my soul will respond to, will naturally feel close to. My people. I believe there are red strings tying me with people all over the world that I’ve never talked to and maybe never will, for all I know. And strings of other colors. Soulmates to me are just, people that I’m supposed to have in my life and learn something from, or give them something meaningful. Souls that have been with mine before, I don’t know. People that have been circling my life and will continue to do so until I notice it or they do. People I’ll keep tripping over all the time until I welcome them in or they welcome me. Or maybe we never do and that’s ok too! I believe in soul bounds, in fragments, in multiples and multitude, and in making choices. But the “one true love” soulmates version? Nope.

70. Is there anyone you would die for? So that one I had to pause and give legit thought to, so thank you for the thought exercise. I have concluded that, in a side by side situation where it would be me and another person I know on a scale, where one of us needs to die for the other one to survive, I’d take the hit for my life partner, because I sincerely believe she has more to offer the world than I do. I would also take the hit for my dad, but I know for a fact he’d tell me he’s old, he lived, he gave and he’s good to go, he wouldn’t want me to do it. There’s multiple people I’d be down to die with, in a “well shit we’re stuck here so let’s do this together” vibe if they were down, cause otherwise we'd argue endlessly over who goes hahahaha. Ultimately tho, there’s not a lot of people I’d do it for I think?

Jesus anon you put me through the ringer with these ones!! THAT WAS SUPER FUN!! I love brain scratchers like those. Thank you and have a great rest of your day too!

[queerrevert]

This blog will be a form of journaling. It is on Tumblr instead of any other app in hopes that I can interact with other Muslims, Reverts and religious queer people in general.

My first conscious idea I had about spirituality/religion was when I was 10-11 and I decided I was atheist. It was a natural decision since my family wasn't a practicing Christian household, I was never told I had to believe and, honestly, it was hard for me to believe there is a God out there that allows so many wrongs and injustices to happen.

Then, one year and a few months ago, I got interested in Islam. In fact, I was so interested that while I read some of the surahs, I got anxious about hell (and heaven). As a reaction, I stopped researching, unable to fathom myself as a religious person (especially since my queer identity was framed as a sin).

Same year, during the spring, I discovered witchcraft which led me to the witchy take on paganism. Displeased and unsatisfied by that, I got interested in paganism without the witchcraft.

First I tried Hellenic paganism, since I am from Greece and I was familiar with the pantheon but ended up in Norse Heathenry. I was excited and fond of the idea that I could practice religion while setting my own rules.

But, as any pagan knows, the research you have to do is very extensive and getting all the information from the internet is hard. I had to find books on the internet (but I never ordered them for unrelated reasons).

At the same time, I started watching Muslim tiktok compilations for fun. I got interested in the religion again. I began to research small things about it. Since I held the belief that all pagan deities were real, that meant that ALL gods were real, including Allah (STW).

And so, on some days I picked flowers for the Norse Gods and on other days I prayed Salat at random times.

The things is that I never felt an important connection to the pagan gods. I had to stop myself from thinking that they were the way to explain the world used by the Scandinavians. I didn't feel anything.

Que to two weeks ago, on a night when I couldn't sleep, I thought about Islam and reverting. I thought about the strong connection I felt to it and I decided that for the next few days, I'll try praying once (in my bed, half asleep, if I have to) and try reading more from the Quran.

I thinking a few days after that, as I was praying, I read the Shahada and I thought to myself, "Yes, I believe this, I want to commit to this."

And now, here am I. I feel like I have reverted only halfway. I am excited. I am confused. I am slowly becoming comfortable with calling myself a Muslim/revert.

[castle-dominion]

1x6 always buy retail

Voodoo voudu vodun idk much of anything but whatever it is it's p cool & there are actually some branches which I think are forms of folk catholicism. Haitian Vodou is the one I know, well, nothing about & idk how correct I am but not /nothing/ nothing. From what I know, it is a french voodoo that formed in the americas in the caribbean (yk where p much all the natives were killed & then the europeans sent a ton of african ppl there as slaves, I think this all had smth to do with chocolate, possibly sugar tho) & it is a syncretism with catholicism, originally started out as an ATR. That's probs why the individual at the beginning sounds almost like they are speaking french. My french is rusty tho & I'm hard of hearing & the captions are empty.

My q is, what's up with the fellow's eye? OH WAIT OH GOSH OH WOW THIS IS A LOT lmao I like how he says "yeah why did we ever get divorced except for the reason we got divorced" & then kisses her again. They say your tattoo artist know what you sound like in bed: I can't tell if rick is in pain thinking about meredith or if she has her mouth somewhere.

I'd like to see an episode where they think someone is african-american & then they find out this person is australian. I think that would be nice.

RC, once beckett snaps him out of it: I had sex with my ex-wife this morning. Everyone: ... (this is a murder scene. they kind of stop & look at each other & castle & just... that was random) RC: My first ex-wife, Meredith. Alexis's mom. (girl idk if ppl want to hear) (special hell: for ppl who talk at the theater. Oh firefly.) RC: The hell of a deep-fried Twinkie. KR: A deep-fried Twinkie?? RC: Yeah. The guilty pleasure that you know is bad for you, so you only do it once, maybe twice a year for the novelty. *The boys nod & gesture their understanding.* But a deep-fried Twinkie every day is...

KB: Crime scene. Dead body. A little respect here. RC: I don't think he can hear me. I mean he's right. Once I'm dead y'all can't hear me so yk chill out. idrc. If I die, I'm dead.

Doesn't rigor mortis take two hours to set in & then ages to leave? Would it be hard to move the body then? bc that's one reason zombies can't exist, to move they would need to rip apart their muscles & then they would no longer be able to move.

JE: Vodun? What is that, some kind of Star Trek thing? *smiles at ryan like he cracked a funny joke* KR: No, dude, it's a religion. Practiced primarily in West Africa. *ppl look at him.* What? I read, too.

See? Beckett got Ryan into Castle novels.

KB Have CSU run the pouch. Have an M.E. test the blood. And let's get his fingerprints in the system, see if there's an ID. This ritual - I assume that it was done for a specific purpose? JE That's only if you're assuming that the guy doing this was rational. RC No, no. She's right. It might not make sense to you or me, but, uh, if we found out why he did this, we might find your killer. JE ("duh") Yeah, that's kinda how we do it. *him & ryan smile at him like :| like yeah bro. yeah. sarcastic I think.*

Just reading out loud to her. paris... like new york or did she take alexis to france? Castle is right about crazy ppl & sex. KB: how shallow are you? RC: Very

Obv she's going to be a practitioner. Um, it's fiction? I feel bad. He probably wrote vodun as scary evil bad for derrick storm when she told him a ton of rly cool stuff. Ooh, hardcore nigerian, now that's fun. See? Saints. I love how beckett reacts when Michelle says she is a practitioner. Girl, shut up. See michelle knows what's up. Cow's foot has plenty of gelatin, we used veal knucklebones for stock my first week of culinary school. Braised for a long time or simmered, the connective tissue in the meat would really soften up. I think cow's foot soup sounds delish. Plus, they obviously cleaned it! I like how she is a practitioner & also owns a cool restaurant. I wonder how much research the show producers & writers & ppl actually did for this episode.

Yeah. There are people who do bad things in every religion & lack of religion. Hold the reins on your racism & religious prejudice (which tbh is racially informed too).

Ryan is a first name, why is it his last name?

Sounds like ryan said "his" name is Darcy Cho. Darcy is technically a unisex name, originally a men's name, but then she's a woman. Neat, the cops from the other side of the city called these folks. Cool how we get a murder that's far away today.

Lol ryan really is a castle fan now. But he remembers what chapter that was? I can't even remember what BOOK something is from. (Ryan also looks normal now, the first few episodes they were really floundering to get all the characters down. At least they figured it out by now.)

Mom? I like how alexis is playing along in front of simmons. Fine but promise we're not leaving the city.

RC: There's a lawyer joke there somewhere, I just can't think of it.

Things are coming together <3 eeheehee

Remember japan? penthouse suite 14 floors up? walked it? yeah. Good times. West side story vibes. Just watched "america" bc of that. Good times. Woah gun out already? acab. These boys have the right idea. Keep ur mouth shut.

Ooh a mysteries "he" Yeah. Sounds about right. Weird. I feel like u should be able to be a citizen easier. I mean like. You're living here ain't u? Can anyone do that or do u need to be a priest?

Love the "yo yo" lol. Also I swear ryan has worn espt's exact outfit & esposito has worn ryan's exact outfit. Just a couple episodes ago.

Meredith: Richard! Over here! JE: Deep-fried Twinkie? Ryan just watching w that slight frickin smile RC, eyes closed as if he's getting a headache: 'Fraid so. Oh look at that, Ryan has a castle book. The way the three are standing stacked up like that Kitten? (rysposito laugh) RC: I had this dream once, only I was naked and far less embarrassed. Oh no she's going to end up helping. RC: what'd she do? (I think. my lipreading skills aren't good yet.) AC: shopping.

You got it boss. I love boss. I should call ppl boss more often.

I wish they would actually get a sketch artist to do it when they describe ppl to them. idk if they just get sketches of the actors to make it look accurate but I think it would be cool to see. I got an ai art account back when I saw it as just another tool, a medium for people to use, before I realized that AI need to learn & so it's essentially art theft, but anyway I just put in some prompts & it spat out a few options, one of them looked a little bit like a cartoon version of the person I was trying to get. They had writing on their forehead but other than that... & then I tried to evolve it a few times & at some point it spat out realistic-ish images & none of them looked close.

KB: Someone on Canal Street's got to know this guy. KR: Mmm. KR, eyes moving: Where's Castle? KB: He went home. KR: Deep-fried Twinkie, huh? KB: I didn't ask. KR: *smiles watching leave*

RC: I wonder if she could get arrested in New York. I know people now.

Castle listening graciously to his mom. Apparently Susan Sullivan (MR) was actually a broadway actress & so playing her on TV is kind of like she's playing herself. idrk. I think it's good that they got a theater actor to play the theater mom. She is kinda like martha. Red hair, fiery temper, kinda reckless (getting her kid out of school), tbh probs kinda,, worldly ; ) & also an actor.

Lol who tf cares. RC: You ladies picking out something pretty for yourselves? Alright fine just cut your way in! That's nice! /s Lol the bolt cutters just falling Ooh neat little sigils on the ground

Yeah lol smuggling. KB: Castle? Castle! RC: I'm on TV. KB: Are you having a breakdown? RC: Not a breakdown. A breakthrough. And I really am ruggedly handsome, aren't I? XD XD XD. Apparently NF gets ppl coming up to him on the street saying this line. Castle only says it once & Ryan says it once too, but it was in the intro so ppl heard it every time.

Castle & this guy. I like how this guy knows oni, or at least says hi.

Lady. this is an electronics store. I got cameras all over this place.

I like the way espt says his own name. not espozido, but esposito. Their little handshake uwu

Don't say Azi is willing to testify! Let him keep his identity hidden!

Love ryan's green shirt btw, it's been there for a while I just haven't mentioned it. Why does he walk like that tho? He walks from side to side, very... idk. movey. He just sways a lot, but it is a little bit less fluid than a sway. Like he has hip problems almost.

Why is castle taking off his jac-- OH YES THIS SCENE! SO EXCITED! dhkjshfajks bc he's not police, but might as well have a vest! tbh when I first started watching the show, actually when my mom showed me a clip where he was speaking chinese & mentioned a show he used to love (firefly reference? that's y she showed me) I thought that the cops had given him this. Apparently he got it himself lol.

Bro should be careful. If they see him sneaking around behind them he might get shot. Oh no I remember how this goes. I always have my phone on vibrate, & half the time I have it on low-power mode, so it prevents vibrations, so my phone is straight up silent. Except when I get phone calls, then it still vibrates I think, but idk bc I don't usually get calls. Regardless, I always have my phone on vibrate & so should you, at least if you're in a tactical thing like this. Oh no I don't want to hear it I don't want to watch this scene. *watches regardless*

DAD DAD DAD! DAD DAD DAD! DAD DAD DAD! (good ringtone) They just all have their guns pointing at him & somehow they were all silent as they turned to look at him. *just leaves thru the side door* GIRL HE WAS IN A SITUATION! Wow houseing rly is expensive in ny, as bad as toronto. yk the canadian housing crisis is actually worse than the usa even tho we have more space & less ppl here. Co-sign...? *sees the nigerian drug lord* Girl take a pic?

RC: Uh, black. Uh, dark blue. Uh... It's very hard being a witness. I don't know how you guys ever get a conviction. I'm usually really good with the detailed stuff. I just... I got distracted. KB: Yeah. You're rolling calls during a TAC strike. JE: Hmm. Interesting. RC: He was supposed to be inside the building! KR: What about the color of your shirt? What is that right now? Is it black or blue? I couldn't quite tell. The sun was in my eyes.

KR: Hey. Vodun guy's a yoga nut. Drug dealers can have HOBBIES ms panizzon!

Weird mouse.

RC: You ever try doing a half moon pose cranked up on caffeine? Completely throws off your chi. Trust me, she bought her coffee after class.

Don't leave the door open man's gonna come in. I was right. Just having a shootout in her house. Ew broken glass ew broken glass ew broken glass. What if they just give him the passport?

Mirror? Oh, Phone. Hey castle's actually p clever! Casually takes a swig

Casually grabs a glass XD Your first gun battle but you were held at gunpoint recently. Oh that's the s4 reference! This is the champagne bottle! We all know it's implied to be sex but then he just "never EVER call me kitten."

Aww I love rick & alexis. RC: Yeah. That's what moms do. Me & my mom: ilysm

WOAH POOR MARTHA. AC: Raising one parent's hard enough. I don't know what I'd do if I had to raise two. My mom & me: *eyes emoji*

so sweet

I love eveything sm. Surprisingly there was not a lot of a plot b plot relation here.

[wallflowerimagines]

I love your writing so much, it's very great! Anyways, can you make one with the lords with a s/o who can see ghosts, but everytime they see one they tensed up ? Thanks alot! <3 <3 <3

In a horror game???? With a horror villain s/o?????

Anon, you are so brave 😔✊ let's get spooky.

Alcina Dimitrescu

There are SO many ghosts in Castle Dimitrescu. And they're all so LOUD.

The majority seem to be victims of House Dimitrescu. All of them drift through the air, drained and skeletal, eyes sightless, and they just wail non stop. The wailing itself is actually kind of a lower volume, but because there are so many ghosts around, the sound layers and echoes through the space until you can barely hear yourself think.

They remind you of jellyfish in a way. They just aimlessly drift through the air, clothes billowing around them, sliding through the walls. Constantly screaming.

You actually prefer the ghosts of the victims of the Cadou experiments. They might be horrible, shuffling abominations of flesh and oozing blood, but at least they're quiet.

Alcina notices you flinch without any kind of visible stimulus, and immediately gets suspicious. She pulls you into a room and demands an explanation of your behavior.

If there is a problem, she's going to fix it.

When you tell her about the ghosts, her lips press into a fine line. You mean to tell her that these worthless wastes of space are crowding her halls, polluting her home even after their death?

They dare to not only crowd the noble house of Dimitrescu under her nose for years, but they're bothering you while they do it?

Yeah, Alcina is Furious.

She gets a couple exorcists on Retainer. Every month or so, priests of various religions are paraded through the house and cleanse the place from top to bottom. She has you follow them around and check their work, too. If any of them happen to be charlatans, they'll just join the horde of ghosts. No skin off her nose.

It is a little annoying that she has to hire even more people to clean up the mess in her Castle, but Alcina is a highborn lady. Any kind of clutter (living or dead) is unacceptable. Her home should be pristine.

Besides, her favorite reward is seeing you fall asleep in her arms, entirely peaceful. You had been so obviously stressed by the situation. It's such a relief to have you relaxed and calm once again.

Donna Beneviento

When Donna finds out you can see ghosts, she gets a bit ...manic.

This is a woman who lost her entire family, and is unable to deal with grief in a healthy way. She's constantly in mourning garb, and her veil rarely comes off. Hell, her grief was the catalyst for her current hobby-- which is what turned it into a hyperfixation.

I'm not going to lie to you, this revelation puts your relationship on pause. She's going to use you to get what she wants, and she wants her family back.

Donna pulls out all the family photo albums and portraits. She coaches you on her mother's laugh, her father's focused expression. She gets the projector and plays you home movies to show you how they walk and talk. Anything she can show you to help identify the ghosts of her family, she does it.

If you tense up, Donna gets so excited. Is it someone she knew? Her sister, maybe?

Unfortunately, most of the ghosts around are Donna's victims. They huddle in the corners of her home, rocking back and forth in terror, clawing at the walls in a futile attempt to escape whatever horror they've been eternally trapped in.

Sometimes, at night, you hear soft whimpers and scratches at your door...

If there is a ghost that isn't a member of her family around, Donna gets frustrated with it. She will banish any ghost that isn't a member of her family, or a member of the previous staff that could help them in the afterlife.

Eventually you need to sit her down and have a serious conversation with her. You're not something she can use to connect to her family. You might be willing to help, but all she's done lately is treat you like an object, not a partner. It has to stop.

It's the wake up call Donna needs. You both hold each other and cry for a long time, because the last thing she ever wanted to do is hurt you, but... She misses them. So much.

You still look for their ghosts for her, still tense in the hallway, but Donna stops asking you to describe them to her. She trusts you to tell her if they look familiar now. She can be patient.

Salvatore Moreau

Fish man might have been a doctor once, but he is a Small Town Doctor from a small fishing Hamlet. I don't care how much "logic" and "reason" you might think he has. This man is SUPER-fucking-STICIOUS.

Salt over your shoulder, four leaf clover carrying, fear of curse having man DOES NOT LIKE the idea of being haunted.

The ghosts of the reservoir are extra spooky too. Some of them are mid-mutation from the failed Cadou experiments...But the drowning victims are more common.

There aren't many ghosts around, but when they do appear, they're bloated, skin slipping off their bones, clothes dissolving around them as they glide through the air. They move much slower than other ghosts too, like the fact that they died in the water has permanently trapped them in that state.

If you tense up out of nowhere, Moreau does too.

What did you see?? Are they close?? Do they look bound to an object??

Salvatore will turn into his giant fish form and yeet anything that you might feel to be haunted over the mountain range. He takes no chances with that shit.

You two both are regular customers of the Duke's specifically for new exorcism methods. The Duke doesn't scam you guys either-- he provides candles, scriptures, holy water, perfumes, all of it works to keep the spirits at bay.

You and Moreau will walk around the reservoir, on guard for any hauntings, and clean up any area that might possibly have a ghost attached to it. It's a incredibly weird and very niche bonding experience.

By the end of the day, the reservoir is the least haunted place in the whole Village. Just how you and Salvatore like it.

Karl Heisenberg

Eat my ass, spirits

Heisenberg is not afraid of ghosts. He actually makes fun of you a little bit for even believing in them, until he sees you tense up out of the blue.

He trusts you enough to know you're not lying to him, so he knows that you are seeing something. He just doesn't know if they're really ghosts.

There aren't as many ghosts in the factory as there are at the Castle, but there is still quite a few.

A lot of them are missing limbs, unsurprisingly. They gasp and scramble around, eyes (if they are even there) bulging out of rotting faces as they scan the surrounding area for their missing pieces. They scuttle around like spiders up and through the walls, poking their heads into random rooms and constantly searching for something, anything to make them whole.

The worst thing about them is that they ALL scream when they see Heisenberg. It's not even a wail like from a normal ghost-- this is a full on shriek of rage and grief. They know who he is. They know what he's done. And they can't do anything about it.

Is it any wonder that you tense up all the time?

After you describe the ghosts in more detail to your partner, Heisenberg sets his jaw, gets pissed, and finds a way to exorcise the lot of them. While he can't see them, you can, and they might make you think less of him. He can't have that.

Plus, they're obviously bothering you. Karl does not tolerate some dumb spirits harassing his partner. If he has to nail a couple crucifixes to the wall and get a spray bottle of holy water, he will.

He also sees if he can kill his victims in an isolated section of the factory. Maybe having one specific room might limit the range on these things? It also makes for easier clean up.

[swordgayist]

cultural appropriation in ATLA (hinduism edition)

i’m sure there’s already a ton of posts about this, but whatever, i’m still making one idc. 

ATLA’s cultural appropriation, everyone knows about it, the white people don’t speak about it, and the asian and indigenous people get ignored. we know the cycle. but i wanted to come here and highlight some of the most prominent examples of ATLA abusing hinduism, as i am kinda sorta hindu (i was raised in a hindu household, i go to chinmaya mission, that kinda shit). i might forget some things so keep that in mind.

this is gonna be divided into 3 main sections, since there are different ways that they disrespect hinduism that i don’t wanna lump together.

and i’d say i know a lot about hinduism but that doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, so if other hindus have anything to add and/or correct then please do !! and if anyone else wants to share how their cultures were appropriated then please do that as well !!

so let’s get started shall we?

appropriating hinduism

1) the avatar

we’ll start with the most obvious example: the avatar itself

i know that there are parts of the avatar mythos that are taken from other cultures as well but the idea of the avatar itself is primarily from hinduism.

basically in hinduism, the term dashavatara refers to the 10 reincarnations of lord vishnu (the god of preservation), with avatar(a) meaning form or incarnation in sanskrit, and das(a) meaning ten. it was said that whenever the world was out of balance, lord vishnu would come down to earth in a certain form to restore balance. Each reincarnation is considered a different life with a different story. the avatars of lord vishnu are often considered the saviors of the world.

so basically, the central idea of the show and the actual name of the show is largely based on hinduism.

2) chakras

many different indian religions have a concept of chakras (chakra meaning wheel or circle in sanskrit), but hinduism is the one that primarily preaches the system of seven chakras, the version used in ATLA.

chakras connect the physical body to the ‘subtle’ body (referring more to the spirit and the psyche) by connecting parts of the body to aspects of the mind. the idea is that through different forms of steady meditation you can manipulate the different chakras and allow the pure flow of energy through the body.

the whole idea of chakras on ATLA is that aang has to unblock them all to let the cosmic energy flow through him so that he can go into the avatar state at will. so yeah, pretty much that whole idea was taken from hinduism.

3) terminologies

these are just a few terms that were taken from hinduism. i’m pretty sure there are more that i can’t think of right now but yeah.

“agni” kai 

i’ll be honest i don’t know where the ‘kai’ part is from, i don’t think it’s from hinduism but if it is well fuck me i guess.  ‘agni’ in hinduism is the god of fire, so the creators used it in ‘agni kai’, the name for a firebending duel.

“bumi”

this is in reference to the hindu word for ‘earth’, which is bhoomi. this is also in reference to our goddess of earth, bhoomi devi. also this doesn’t really bother me but i wonder if the creators knew that bhoomi is a name typically used for women (as are most hindi names ending in ‘i’/‘ee’).

in general, concepts like having multiple complex gods (the spirits) who are capable of good and evil and the reincarnation cycle are prominent in a lot of asian cultures, including (and arguably primarily) hinduism.

mocking hinduism

now we get into the mockery of hinduism in ATLA, because it is very much there.

1) whoever the fuck that baboon guy in the spirit world was

now what the fuck was this.

i mean i wouldn’t say this is the most egregious example of them making fun of brown people but lord why did this even need to be there? this random guy from the spirit world has an indian accent ? and is fervently chanting ‘om’ for some reason, and it’s clearly meant to be seen as comical. also portraying brown people as monkeys....... really.

2) combustion man/sparky sparky boom man

when rewatching ATLA in 2019 i actually had no idea that this was a thing, because the last time i had watched it was as a kid and i didn’t finish it.

so lord was i in for a surprise when i saw...

now... now what.

if you didn’t know, combustion man’s ‘third eye’ is designed to replicate the hindu god of destruction, lord shiva. right down to the vibhuti on his forehead (referring to the three line markings around the third eye).

in hinduism, lord shiva’s third eye is used to reduce people to ashes, though as far as i can recall, not very frequently. the primary significance of the third eye is that it represents the ability of higher spiritual thought and higher consciousness.

the ATLA writers take the ACTUAL significance of the third eye, throw it out the window, and then take its destructive abilities to make a super duper cool and dangerous new firebending technique.

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the actual person who uses this technique, and is meant to emulate a GOD who is PRAISED, is a scary, burly, half metal man who is a villain and an assassin. not to mention the design of his facial hair replicates that super duper scary “terrorist” depiction of brown people, particularly of muslims, that white people are so thoroughly terrified of for no reason. 

this is a parody of a god, and they portrayed him as this terrifying, maniacal fucking assassin who, along with p’li, the combustion bender from LOK, is constantly referred to as a “third-eyed freak”. i’ve made this analogy before and i’ll do it again, this is like making jesus into a hitman.

now onto my favorite example...

3) guru pathik

ah, this motherfucker.

i don’t really have any problems with him as a character, i mean hell, must’ve taken a fuck ton of patience to handle aang’s “why would choose cosmic energy over katara” bullshit.

but we all know it, we see it plain as day, don’t even try to deny it.

“guru” literally just means teacher or guide, so i don’t really know why pathik needed to be referred to as “guru” so distinctively from aang’s other teachers and guides, but that’s just extremely trivial compared to all the other issues with this character.

first of all what is this character design? what is he even wearing? if they’re trying to replicate the clothes of swamis and priests and stuff this is already wrong, realized people don’t dress like this. and why the fuck does he have an indian accent? and why was this indian accent done by a non indian (brian george)?

once again, the poor but extremely heavy indian accent is clearly meant to be mocking, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t’ve gone out of their way to get a non indian person to DO an indian accent, and instead they would’ve just gotten an actual indian person to play the role. 

and oh yeah, the onion and banana juice. because hindus just eat weird shit right.

whether it’s actually weird or not, the show certainly portrays it as weird. and as far as i know no hindu actually fucking drinks onion and banana juice.

ironic because brown people can absolutely destroy white people in cooking. but i digress.

i know what you’re all waiting for. because the guru apparently didn’t have enough fun with guru pathik, so they just had to come back to him in book 3:

where do i begin.

so this is obviously john o’bryan’s super funny and hilarious depiction of pathik as a hindu god.

usually when a god has multiple arms it’s to carry an array of things, from flowers to weapons to instruments, and one hand is typically free to bless devotees (ie. goddess durga and lord vishnu respectively):

but of course white people see this as weird and so they make fun of it, hence guru pathik having multiple arms just flailing about aimlessly (save for the two that are being used to carry the aforementioned onion and banana juice).

then there’s the whole light behind pathik’s head which is usually depicted in drawings of hindu gods to show that they are celestial.

also what the fuck is he holding? is that supposed to be a veena? because this is what a veena looks like:

and i assume the reason this was added was to mock the design of goddess saraswathi, who carries a veena:

but that right there in the picture of pathik looks more like a tambura than a veena. 

and it also just kinda looks like a banjo?

but i guess the animators just searched up “long indian instrument” and slapped it on there. actually no, that’s giving them too much credit, they probably didn’t search it up at all. 

and then the actual scene is pathik singing crazily about chakras tasting good or something while playing the non-veena and it’s all supposed to be some funky crazy hallucination that aang is having due to sleep deprivation. just some crazy dream, just as crazy as talking appa and momo sparring with swords or tree-ozai coming to life.

our gurus and swamis and sadhus and generally realized people are very respected in hinduism, they’re people we look up to and honor very much. and our GODS are beings that we literally worship. and the writers just take both and make caricatures out of them for other white people to laugh at.

4) other shit

before we move to the next portion i just wanna mention there are also smaller backhanded jabs that i can’t really remember now, but one example was when zuko was all “we’ll be sure to remember that, guru goody goody”. or when a character would meditate and say “om” only when the meditation is supposed to be portrayed as comical or pointless. or in bitter work when sokka was rambling on about karma. small things like that. but moving on.

south asian representation, or lack thereof

now i finally get to the “losing” hinduism part. by this i mean the lack of actual representation there is of south asians (the region where hinduism is primarily practiced) despite the fact that hinduism plays such a big role in the show’s world design.

i think it’s safe to say that broadly the main cast consists of aang, katara, sokka, zuko, toph, azula, iroh, mai, ty lee, and suki. 

a grand total of none of these characters are south asian. the writers don’t even attempt to add any south asian main characters. 

there are characters with dark skin, like haru and jet, but a) they’re not confirmed to be south asian and don’t have any south asian features or south asian names, b) they’re side characters, so they don’t count as representation, and c) even if they were south asian and main characters, jet wouldn’t even count because he’s portrayed as a terrorist.

the ONLY truly south asian character we get is fucking guru pathik. so yeah. not representation.

i don’t get how the creators of this show rip off of hinduism (among many other south asian cultures they rip off of), mock indians, and then don’t even have the decency to HAVE a main character who is south asian.

i’ve never gotten a chance to compile all this, and this definitely isn’t all the creators have done, but i hope this was somewhat informative.