#emperor nero part 3

[my-name-is-apollo]

OKAY so I read "The Caesars" by emperor Julian and y'all, if you love Lucian's satires this is absolutely for you.

Here are some of my favorite parts from it:

A quick summary: Romulus (who has now attained the status of a god, like Heracles) once hosted a Saturnalia and invited the Greek gods and the Roman emperors to the banquet. A contest between the Roman emperors ensued, with Alexander the Great called in as an extra contestant upon Heracles' request.

Silenus is the star of the show, doing most of the jesting. But I really like the way his bond with Dionysus is highlighted

And it's no joke, he really does roast these emperors till they're sizzling lol starting with Julius Caesar himself:

Next comes Augustus Octavius, whose entry is so pretentious and pompous that it becomes repulsive

Apollo gets a bit defensive over his "nursling" (a nod to the belief that Octavius was actually Apollo's son) and goes *insert Barbie meme "it's really not that bad! it just needs a little... shaping. To the salon!!"* ft Zenon the Philosopher who casts some spells of philosophy to make Octavius less obnoxious

And it works because Octavius is mostly humble and well mannered for the rest of the day lol

Heracles grabs this opportunity to fanboy over Alexander the great.

Like, "my beloved Alexander"?? It's cute when the gods gush over their mortal descendants.

Now, a shoutout to the emperors who didn't even get a chance to sit in the assembly because they were the worst of the lot apparently. We have:

Caligula, so terrible that the gods didn't wanna even look at him and he straight away was sent to Tartarus

Nero, who tried to be an Apollo wannabe and promptly got taken to the underworld

Commodus, whom Silenus didn't even bother to roast (and he tripped and fell anyway, what a loser)

There are more but these were the funniest

Anyway, the gods decide on how to choose the best amongst the Emperors. Apollo and Hermes have differing opinions on this, but Zeus decides to entertain the suggestions of both of his sons :3 (finally, one instance where he treats Apollo and Hermes equally)

All the emperors talk about their achievements first, then Hermes cross examines them to see if their motives were worthy enough and oh boy, it does not go well for Alexander who is brought to the verge of tears by Dionysus lmaooo

Anyway, in the end the gods vote and Emperor Marcus Aurelius wins the contest. But after that, Zeus asks each emperor to choose a god to spend the rest of their evening with

Ares and Aphrodite kind of just adopt Caesar LOL and yes, Cronus is present, sitting beside Zeus, with Rhea and Hera also sitting with them. He is the one who nominates Marcus Aurelius.

but here's the most crack part of this whole thing:

Like who invited Jesus bro skdjsndn 😭

Anyway, the story ends with Hermes giving some generic advice to the author, Emperor Julian and ending the story. Also, Julian lets us know that this whole story was told to him by none other than Hermes himself, and gives a disclaimer that he doesn't know if it's is true or just a lie fabricated by Hermes, or a mixture of both LMAO

Here's the link PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE THING

[knight-a3]

Hazbin Sketchbook Tour part 3

Masterpost

I started some preliminary sketches of Charlie to get a feel for her. I wasn't exactly happy with them. I did like how Alastor turned out in the dancing one, just...not the rest of it.

Before going back to Charlie, I had a couple ideas for a Vaggie redesign I wanted to sketch out. She'll go through a few minor tweaks over time, but overall not bad for a first pass. (There's also a stray Emily)

This is when I started seriously redesigning everyone. I would search up other people's redesigns for inspiration, then move on from there.

More design notes under the cut, and a couple fun Bible facts!

Vaggie: First, I doubled down on the moth theming. I wanted it to be more obvious than it is in canon. It also serves to show that Hell is corrupted, and it makes everyone more inhuman. All the angels will look more human, because "Biblically accurate angels" is not actually all that accurate. After she Falls, she becomes more moth-like, and is not truly an angel anymore.

[I've got this whole idea concerning the blood colors of the various groups. Maybe I should make a dedicated post to explain, but here's the rundown: There are three main groups: Hellborn, Earthborn, and Heavenborn. Hellborn have black blood, and Heavenborn have a glowing white. Earthborn have 3 subgroups: Living, Sinner, and Saint(aka winner). While alive, Earthborn have red. After death, the color depends on if they Fall or Ascend. Fallen Earthborn become Sinners and the blood darkens to purple. Ascended Earthborn become Saints and it lightens into golden yellow. When a Saint Falls, it darkens to purple. When a Heavenborn falls, it darkens to orange. Ascended Sinners will gradually lighten to yellow(albeit it won't ever be quite as bright as the other Saints). Hellborn cannot Ascend.]

All that to say that Vaggie does not have pure angel blood anymore. And I'm trying to decide if the Exorcists are Heavenborn or Earthborn. I'm honestly favoring Earthborn right now, since that's what Adam qualifies as.

Even when she gets her wings back, Vaggie's form is still corrupted and they come back as moth wings, to fit her theming. I wanted to get her long hair out of the way of her wings, and figured that since her hair is sorta moth themed anyway, why not make them the same thing. It works cuz...magic. I also really do not like the floating X over her eye, so I made it a broken eye spot instead.

Charlie: I knew I wanted more goat themes. So the ears were an obvious place to start. I also made her ponytail to look like a goat tail. But I saw a few designs that gave her snake hair and I thought it was great. But I didn't want to draw so many and decided to just give her one. Then named him Hugh. Short for Hubris aka Pride. I designed the Morningstar family around the goat and snake themes, where Charlie gets the goat traits from Lucifer, and the Snake traits from Lilith.

Lucifer: Canon Lucifer has way too many different design motifs. The Biblical Devil is associated with snakes and goats, so I wanted to narrow down on those rather than the forbidden fruit(which is never confirmed to be an actual apple, by the way) or ducks. He can still likes duck, but it doesn't go further than that. Since canon Lucifer is not exactly evil like the Biblical version, I decided it would be thematically appropriate to have his Fall turn him into a scapegoat, of sorts. Which would also mean that Lucifer is not the True Devil. The real Evil is the darkness trapped in the abyss(should I call it Abyss?). Lucifer, as a Fallen Angel, actually created Hell to prevent souls from getting lost in the abyss. So as bad as Hell is, it's actually a relatively good thing. Oh, and he lost his wings during his Fall. (Fun facts: the Devil isn't actually called Lucifer in the Bible, that was a translation quirk basically referring to the fall of the Babylonian king. Similarly, the number 666 probably refers to Roman Emperor Nero)

Lilith: Because I committed to Lucifer as a goat, but still wanted to implement the snake theme, I gave it to Lilith. I wanted to give her snake hair, but also maintain the flow of her long hair. So I decided to give her 7 snakes, each to represent one of the deadly sins. The top one represents pride. They're all named, like Charlie's.

Pride=Vani(Vanity), Greed=Ava(Avarice), Lust=Libby(Libido), Envy=Desi(Desire), Gluttony=Tony(Gluttony), Wrath=Irene(Ire), and Sloth=Sloth(...)

Overall, I haven't fully decided what I want to do with Lilith. It would probably help if we had more canon info on her. Is she secretly an antagonist? Or is there something else going on? Regardless, I enjoyed designing her.

I had this whole tangent about the mythological origins of Lilith, and how she's not actually a biblical character at all. It got too long winded so I cut it. But basically, liliths were a type of demon in Middle East/Mesopotamian cultures. Then a satirical Jewish story written in the medieval era made Lilith Adam's first wife, then she ran off with the Great Demon and started having 100 demon babies a day. She had to promise three angels that she wouldn't hurt any human newborns if they had a special amulet. She was associated with seduction and child-killing. She wasn't a feminist figure until the 1970s. She was just evil before that. Read HERE if you want more info about it.

[blueiscoool]

Roman Coin - Gold Aureus of Galba C. AD 68-69

Obverse: portrait of Galba. Reverse: DIVA AUGUSTA. The defied Livia stnding left and holding a sacrifical dish and sceptre. Earlier in his career Galba had been the beneficiary of Livia's influence and generosity.

Galba (born Servius Sulpicius Galba; 24 December 3 BC – 15 January AD 69) was the sixth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 68 to 69. After his adoption by his stepmother, and before becoming emperor, he was known as Livius Ocella Sulpicius Galba. He was the first emperor in the Year of the Four Emperors and assumed the throne following Emperor Nero's suicide.

Born into a wealthy family, Galba held at various times the positions of praetor, consul, and governor to the provinces of Aquitania, Upper Germany, and Africa during the first half of the first century AD. He retired from his positions during the latter part of Claudius' reign (with the advent of Agrippina the Younger), but Nero later granted him the governorship of Hispania. Taking advantage of the defeat of Vindex's rebellion and Nero's suicide, he became emperor with the support of the Praetorian Guard.

Galba's physical weakness and general apathy led to him being selected-over by favorites. Unable to gain popularity with the people or maintain the support of the Praetorian Guard, Galba was murdered on the orders of Otho, who became emperor in his place.

[theantonian]

Marble statue of a youthful Hercules

Early Imperial, Flavian 69–96 CE

Roman copy of a Greek original. Restorations made during the early 17th century: head and neck, right arm below the shoulder, left arm and shoulder, right leg below the knee, left leg, tree trunk, club, plinth. H. 97 3/16 in. (246.9 cm)

This statue was part of the collection of antiquities acquired in Rome by the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani during the first third of the seventeenth century. It must have been made as one of a pair with the over-life-sized statue of a bearded Hercules displayed across the courtyard. Both may have been excavated in the remains of public baths originally constructed under the emperor Nero in A.D. 62, which were located in the vicinity of the Pantheon.

from metmuseum, New York.

[humbledragon669]

Script to Screen comparison: Episode 3 – Hard Times P1 – large changes and deletions

Standard Intro

Having followed the episodes through with the Script Book, I've tried to break the differences between the original script and the end result on screen into a couple of different categories:

Large changes (whole scenes/multiple lines of script).

Things that are in the original script but not in the finished episode (I'm calling these deletions). This blog post will cover these and large changes only (for brevity) – additions and amendments will be covered separately.

Things that aren't in the original script but are in the finished episode (I'm calling these additions).

Things that have been changed (I'm calling these ones amendments).

Not all of the changes fit neatly into one category or the other (there are shades of grey...). The first three of the differences will be presented within bullet lists, with a description. The last of the categories will be presented in a table. I'll make comments about anything I find particularly notable after each category.

Large Changes

The first shot we see of this episode was originally intended to be a shot of gates swinging closed with Aziraphale clapping his hands together “in a ‘job well done’ gesture”.

There are some lines between Aziraphale and Crowley about making small talk and an interaction with a wine cup (in Rome) that have been cut.

There’s a chunk of conversation about the reasons that Crowley and Aziraphale are in Rome (clarification that he’s there to tempt Emperor Caligula and influencing Nero, respectively) that are missing from the finished episode.

Crowley was originally meant to interrupt Aziraphale (“Hold on”) but this line was reallocated to Shakespeare to deliver to Burbage.

There were some extra lines and scene setting around the Nazi payment for Aziraphale’s services that have been cut.

Scene 316 (showing the Bentley driving away in 1967) is missing.

The super-fast episode montage and repeat shot of Aziraphale’s shocked face that we saw at the end of the previous episode are additional elements for the episode, and not mentioned in the script.

There are quite a few changes to the components and flow of scenes 319-321:

Adam was originally supposed to be walking down a road (rather than through a field).

The ENORMOUS, GRUMPY ORANGE CAT was scripted to taunt Dog in a home-movie style clip (rather than be, largely, minding its own business).

God’s voiceover mention of Dog trying to frighten the cat with a growl is missing.

There are some extra lines of dialogue from Anathema in the finished episode (the ones we hear her screaming out-of-shot) that were not in the original script.

Adam originally knew the name of the cottage he was headed to.

Anathema was supposed to be sitting in the garden when Adam arrived.

Adam was scripted to announce his presence to Anathema with a “Psst!”, instead of the more compassionate line we see in the show.

Adam was supposed to be hanging from a tree (upside down) during his conversation with Anathema.

Adam asking Anathema if she had been caught by the witch is missing from the finished episode.

Anathema was scripted to smile at Adam during the initial part of their conversation.

There’s an additional line from Anathema in the show where she tells Adam she’s fine (despite that obviously not being the case).

Anathema was supposed to recognise Adam as being the boy she met in Hogback Woods the day before.

Anathema originally said she lost “a” book (not “my” as we hear in the finished episode).

The section of this scene before Adam tells his story about a book he wrote was meant to conclude with him climbing out of the tree.

Scene 322 (showing Newt in Shadwell’s flat) has largely been replaced with the contents of scene 336 (showing Newt examining Adultery Pulsifer’s hat, and the computer-generated sequence showing the staffing hierarchy of the Witchfinder Army). The repositioned scene 336 appears with some difference to the graphic and a trimming of God’s voiceover speech, detailing further levels of the organisational structure.

Scene 323 (showing Newt answering a telephone call that was clearly intended for Madame Tracy, and a conversation between the two of them about computers) has been cut.

There are a couple of lines from Michael and Sandalphon about smiting enemies that are missing from the finished episode.

Scene 329 (showing Aziraphale leaving Heaven after his meeting with the archangels) has been cut.

Scene 333 (showing Anathema observing auras in Tadfield) has been repositioned to follow the conversation between Aziraphale and the archangels (it was originally supposed to follow the discussion between Gabriel and the others about Aziraphale).

There are a couple of lines between Anathema and R.P. Tyler about what he thinks about her (“we don’t need your kind here”) that have been cut.

Scene 330 (the discussion between Gabriel and the others about Aziraphale) has been repositioned to follow the confrontation between Anathema and R.P. Tyler.

Scene 334 (showing the background and variety to Madame Tracy’s work) has been cut.

The content of scene 322 (showing Newt looking at headlines) has been repositioned to follow the newly reposition 330.

There are a few lines from Aziraphale (during his telephone conversation with Shadwell) about Colonel Green’s leg injury that are missing from the finished episode.

Scene 171 (introducing Famine from episode 1) has been repositioned to follow scene 336 (the conversation between Newt and Shadwell about weather phenomena).

The waiter was originally supposed to give Frannie the balloon, which she questioned. The waiter popping the balloon and wafting it in her face is something that was changed for the finished episode.

A large chunk of Famine’s introduction scene (showing a starving supermodel fangirling over “Doctor Raven Sable”) has been cut.

Frannie was scripted to start fussing over a tablet on Famine’s orders. This and Famine’s instruction to fire Elvis, which both appeared at the end of the burger restaurant scene, are missing.

Scenes 340-342, showing Crowley prowling around his flat (trying to sleep) have all been cut.

The location for scene 346 (the bandstand scene) was supposed to be by the duck pond in St. James’s Park.

There are chunks of the telephone conversation between Hortense and the Station Manager that are missing.

A handful of lines between Smythe and the Station Manager about background radiation are missing.

This episode was really interesting to do a script-to-screen comparison on because it’s very much a “game of two halves”, in more ways that one. As far as storyline goes, we obviously have the first half of the episode consisting entirely of backstory for Crowley and Aziraphale. Those scenes were also specifically written for the series for flow and consistency purposes – they never appeared in the book, in any guise. What’s also interesting about them is the scarcity of changes that are evident between their script and screen versions. The same can be said about the bandstand scene – it was written specifically for the screen and is almost verbatim as it was originally written in the script (with the exception of its location, which I understand was due to filming restrictions in St. James’s Park). Once we enter the current timeline, changes of all kinds start to occur frequently, and there are some pretty large changes, particularly to the scenes filmed in Shadwell’s flat, none of which look anything like they did in the original script. The scene between Anathema and Adam outside her cottage took a fair beating too, and the scenes around the power station have been significantly trimmed.

The end result of all these trimmings appears to be an episode that flows much more successfully, telling the story in a more smooth and succinct manner, and the addition of the montage after the credit and repeat shot of Aziraphale’s face is a brilliant addition to bring us back to the “present” of the storyline after over twenty minutes of historical flashbacks. I think the only thing I’m sorry about is losing the scene of Crowley trying to sleep (“by lying on the bed, on the wall, then on the ceiling”), but in truth I’m not sure what purpose it would serve to the good – it actually feels like it might have made the audience more aware of his demonic nature, which I don’t think we were supposed to be doing.

Deletions

Aziraphale saying “Hello” to God.

A few sentences from Aziraphale to Crowley about why he shouldn’t tell him Heaven’s plan for the great flood (because he’s a demon).

Aziraphale making an excuse for the plan to wipe out the human race because he’s been assured it won’t happen again.

Aziraphale wincing at the hammer blows at the beginning of the crucifixion of Christ.

Crowley wincing at the hammer blows at Christ’s crucifixion.

Crowley asking what it was that Jesus did again when speaking to Aziraphale at the crucifixion.

Aziraphale struggling up a hill to meet the Black Knight.

Oyster woman at the Globe offering two other food choices (kippers and grapes).

Aziraphale offering Crowley a grape when he arrives at the Globe.

Burbage giving Aziraphale a thumbs up gesture after the angel heckles him during a speech.

Crowley talking about the kind of horse he’s usually expected to ride (“big black jobs. With flashing eyes”).

A romantic description of Aziraphale’s visit to Madame Guillotine from Executioner Jean-Claude.

A line from Aziraphale about his needing to complete paperwork if he’s discorporated.

Crowley’s explanation that he is in Paris to find out what exactly he has been commended for.

Aziraphale’s assumption that the Reign of Terror has in fact been Crowley’s work.

Crowley’s explanation of the consequences for displeasing Hell (having Hastur lo Ligur sent after you).

Crowley shaking his head in disbelief on the exit of Executioner Jean-Claude.

Crowley feeding the ducks in St. James’s Park.

The identification of the shoes that Crowley wears in the church to be made of snakeskin.

Crowley instructing Shadwell to close the door after he enters the backroom in The Dirty Donkey.

Crowley’s specification of the currency of payment (pounds).

Spike’s comment about the money for the church job being good

A line from Shadwell about his being inducted into the Witchfinder Army.

Shadwell telling Crowley that the Witchfinder Army could be his “eyes and ears”.

Crowley’s line to Aziraphale about him having voiced his thoughts about the holy water originally contained the word “already”.

A chunk of scene setting (showing a bunch of notes, maps, and charts, all arranged on a wall in the bookshop) prior to Aziraphale’s self-encouragement talk

A couple of lines that Aziraphale says to himself (before practising his speech to Gabriel) trying to inject some enthusiasm into his spirit

A few lines from Anathema claiming that Crowley and Aziraphale were looking for Tadfield Manor when she ran into them (almost literally).

A line from Anathema about something being wrong with Adam’s eyes, said to him right before they enter Jasmine Cottage.

Adam saying that Dog usually does what he’s told straight away.

Shadwell a) having a cup of tea in the café meeting with Crowley and b) tipping an entire bowl of sugar into it.

Anathema telling Adam he’s in “great shape” when they find out she can’t see his aura.

Aziraphale naming the nationality of the ambassador responsible for the Antichrist’s care in his meeting with Heaven.

Aziraphale apologising to Gabriel when he’s dismissed.

Shadwell’s emphasis that Aziraphale sent money for Witchfinder Major Milkbottle’s family (“the money you sent”).

A line from Shadwell about collecting Aziraphale’s annual dues.

Newt coughing and trying to open a window in Shadwell’s flat.

Newt addressing Shadwell by his title when trying to convince him that perfect weather is indeed a phenomenon.

Famine smiling at the end of the scene in the New York restaurant.

A piece of paper blowing past the front of the burger restaurant.

Shots of Chow being cooked.

Frannie presenting a waitress with the Chow “meal” on a tray.

Famine noticing Elvis and commenting on his presence (“That man…”).

A shot of Famine signing his name on the delivery paperwork.

Famine giving Lesley a tip.

A shot of Crowley looking back at Aziraphale and then up at the “beautiful starry sky” when the angel calls him back to the bandstand.

A mouthed line from the sex worker to the minister about being on the clock.

A line from Smythe where he spots the object at the bottom of the reactor.

Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” leading us into the credits.

I can see why most of these things were cut from the finished episode, and mostly it’s because they don’t give anything  to the story that we don’t get in other places (such as Newt trying to open a window in Shadwell’s flat – we already know the place is an abominable shit tip), or they simply don’t serve any purpose at all (like the shots of Chow being cooked). There are two of these things that actually didn’t make any sense in the first place: firstly, Anathema’s comment about Crowley and Aziraphale looking for Tadfield Manor. They were leaving Tadfield Manor when they had their accident with her, so why would they be looking for it? We don’t hear them talking to Anathema about the Manor either, so as far as we’re aware, she’d have no reason to connect them to that place. The other is her line about Adam having something wrong with his eyes.

ADAM: Oh. That’s all right then. They head in to get lemonade. ANATHEMA: You’re thinking, nothing wrong with my eyes, aren’t you? HOLD on Dog. He’s not following them in. ADAM: Come on, you silly dog.

I included the surrounding lines from the script for context. Is it me, or does that line make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER? I just can’t get my head round it. Nothing prompts it, nothing reacts from it. It feels like there was supposed to be another line of something here but somebody forgot to put it in the script. It’s lack of purpose (or sense) is probably the reason we don’t hear it in the finished episode.

I think the only thing I miss off that whole list is the shot of Crowley looking back at Aziraphale and up at the sky when the angel tries to call him back to the bandstand. I feel like there’s an opportunity in those two tiny elements for a lot of sub-text, but I do understand the difficulties that they would have caused for shooting purposes (the whole scene would have to have been performed in full darkness for a start).

That’s it for this part. Additions and changes coming up in Part 2! As always, questions, comments, discussion: always welcome. See you in the next one!

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 3 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Romans

Synopsis

Landing in Rome, A.D. 64, the travellers take a rare holiday. While Ian and Barbara are happy to relax, the Doctor and Vicki set off to pursue adventure.

However, adventure soon finds Ian and Barbara too as they are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history...

Propaganda

there’s some poorly aged jokes in there but its still the funniest doctor who story (anonymous)

The Sea Devils

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England. The governor, Colonel Trenchard, says ships have been disappearing mysteriously at sea. The Doctor discovers that Trenchard and the Master are in league to contact the Sea Devils, a race of reptiles in hibernation in a base beneath the sea, who have been awoken by recent work on a nearby sea fort. The Master intends to use his new allies to help him conquer the world.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda under the cut

Shiv Roy

She's honestly kind of a canonical victim of yaoi almost. She and her husband Tom have a loveless marriage but never end up getting divorced. Tom has a weird psychosexual obsession with Shiv's cousin Greg and at one point literally compares them all to the time Emperor Nero pushed his wife down the stairs and then castrated and married a slave boy named Sporus (Tom is unwell). Anyway the show just ended and long story short Tom is now CEO of Shiv's family's evil company and she is reduced to being his pregnant wife (which is the result of her voting not to authorize either of her brothers as CEO in order to save them from themselves) and Tom made another weird comment about literally owning Greg. And now people who ship Tom and Greg are like "omg it's canon we won" but I don't. Think that they did. Sorry I'm rambling it was just a really good finale idek if this counts but

I will be honest I'm not really tuned into the tomgreg fandom, but tons of people wanted tom to leave shiv and get with greg and tons of people thought shiv was the devil incarnate and refused to see any nuance in her character and I don't think those two things are a coincidence. 

She gets a lot of hate from fans, largely just for being a woman who reacts in a non pretty way to abuse and for doing the exact same shitty stuff her brothers do. But also a large part of the hate she gets comes from the people who ship her husband with her cousin. To the point where people claim she's abusing her husband who views her as an accessory, a baby factory, and a ticket to money. Don't get me wrong, their relationship is incredibly toxic and unhealthy, but it is so on both of their parts. But Shiv's the only one who gets criticized for it

Peggy Carter

She’s a victim of Stucky mainly bc of the way marvel used her to give Steve an ooc ‘happy ending, but I know I’ve seen some posts calling her toxic or something it was 2019 so In CAT:FA, she’s introduced as a confident British agent. She has some chemistry w Steve Rogers (although more fans (on tumblr at least) preferred Steve and Bucky). She wasn’t just *woman who is strong*, but also had some emotional depth, with an actual range of emotion outside of angry and sad. She had a spin-off show, and she just continued to fight Russians and misogynists, even having chemistry in an almost wlw relationship and an eventual marriage to a famous shield agent. She went through character development and just was an awesome character. Then you know what endgame does? It has Steve Rogers travel back in time and take all of that development away. Most fans were mad at Marvel, and a lot were mad at Steve, but some fans threw Peggy completely under the bus, saying that they traded the (fanon?) queer ship/(canon) friendship for a bland love interest, which, um, she was so much more then that? I remember people really disliking Peggy, which isn’t fair to her character when she is/was so much more then that.

Peggy is vilified by people who ship Steve with his war comrade Bucky Barnes. I’ve even seen people claiming baselessly that she was secretly HYDRA the whole time. 

She gets in the way of stucky which OBVIOUSLY gives people, most of them women themselves, the right to be ridiculously misogynistic. Dismissing her character arc, traits, presence in the movies and her part in Steve Roger's life, saying she is insignificant on the ground of very subjective readings is one thing, but outright calling her 'just some old coochie', among other colourful, wonderful things, is another. They also keep reaching to villainize her (saying she's a literal nazi which she's not) and cancel her so their ship is somehow made more valid for it, erasing the competition as it were.

[sephirthoughts]

for the random character ask game: 3, 17, 19, 20, 31 with Nero?

3. This isn't obscure to anyone who sees all my ridiculous posts about the Vincent family, but I do HC Vincent Valentine as half Chinese, which makes his biological son Nero (and also Sephiroth) a quarter Chinese. I don't think he knows or cares, given his life up to this point, but it's a part of his heritage and part of what makes him so beautiful (in my multi-layer delusionverse at least).

17. So, Nero has two sides. One is a highly competent, cold-blooded sadist who has enough power and charisma to control those wily Tsviets in his brother's stead. But the side of him we all love is the real Nero. That seething, crawling, clinging, clawing, demanding, begging, bloodthirsty, no one can have you but me and I will tear apart anyone who would dare to hurt you or even anyone who looks at you for too long Nero, that loves and worships his brother to the point of actual madness. Weiss loves him back, and would never leave him, of course, but if he ever tried, I think we'd see the true depth of Nero's absolute obsession, even to the point of making his brother stay by his side if he has to.

I have a lot of songs for this, but the most spot-on I can think of at the moment are Rid of Me and Legs, from PJ Harvey's gorgeously psychotic 1993 album Rid of Me. Pretty much the whole album is Nero's shattered psyche talking to itself. Give it a listen, for real.

19. Nero can canonically make all kinds of things with his darkness, which includes people. So, when he's lost and alone, after the events of DoC and winds up stuck at his bio father's house being wardened by Sephiroth and isolating himself in his room, feeding into his own madness, the need to soothe himself would overpower his reason, and cause him to manifest fake versions of Weiss, interact with them, which will only make his grief and longing for the real Weiss worse, and also lead him to tear himself apart with shame and guilt about it, later [this will come up in his story and i already have a scene half written 💀].

guys making fake Weiss is nero's VICE I'M HILARIOUS SHUT UP

20. The worst ones are the horrible mutilations done to his back and shoulders, to implant the wings. The actual articulated wing pieces were heavily damaged and then lost during DoC, but the implanted mounts, to which they connect, can't be removed now without paralyzing him and leaving huge gaping holes in the muscle tissue, so they are still there. The wing mounts had to be spliced to his nerves so they would function, and that had to be done without anesthetic, to ensure the connections were made correctly. That means Nero's body was restrained and rendered immobile with mako-enhanced paralytics, while his mind was kept awake with stimulants, to endure a twenty-six hour surgery, in which the pain was so excruciating, it caused him to have a psychotic break, and to suffer permanent mental scars, as well as the physical ones on his body. Also he has a bunch from medical abuse, punitive torture, and combat.

31. Nero would like to officially state, for the record, that the Weiss the Immaculate fan blog on tumblr, all-hail-emperor-weiss, does not belong to him and that he has no association with it whatsoever, and if he gets one more anon ask, accusing him of being Weiss' crazy brother, he's going to fucking show you fucking internet nerds what crazy really means so everyone fuck off and go back to shitposting your Weiss headcanons so he can tell you why they're idiotic and wrong—er…so the blog owner, whoever they are, can tell you why they're idiotic and wrong. Except that one who said they HC Weiss and Nero as soul mates and a pair of mandarin ducks, who would be together in every universe. That person is excepted from the general fucking off.

[kaibutsushidousha]

How would you rewrite your three least favorite story sections of London, Spetem, and Shimosa? Not a complete rewrite from the ground up, but reimagining/using the components that were already there or just some small pointers you beleive that would've improve the story by a decent margin that is within reason.

Septem

The original plot of Septem is that Goetia failed to find anyone who would want to destroy the world during Nero's reign, so he personally stay there and summoned a bunch of past emperors to overthrow her. Hard premise to believe, but Sakurai's constant habit of introducing logistic difficulties for her villains is one of my favorite things about her writing. Evil doesn't need to be easy. Keep this part. The prompt is asking to work with what's there anyways.

What's lacking there is simply direction. If Caesar, Caligula, or Romulus replaces Nero as the Emperor, what happens? Would it be any different at all? Septem doesn't establish what its antagonists want, so any goal would already make a huge difference.

I don't have concrete ideas for what the goal should be nor do I think that's a question I need to answer in this thought experiment. But one thing there are a few things I want this to do:

1) The goal must be an ideal that Nero wholeheartedly agrees with. The main conflict of the original Septem is that Caesar and Romulus are objectively better emperors than Nero, but Nero opposes them because she believes she deserves her chance even if she 100% agrees the others are better options. This is a core theme I want expanded rather than discarded.

FGO at this point wasn't too preoccupied to characterize Fujimaru yet at this point, but Septem is actually a golden opportunity to start working on that because at this point Fujimaru is nothing more than a replacement for 47 people objectively better than them. We can't let the Nero parallel pass unaddressed here again.

2) The goal must be an ideal that Boudicca and Spartacus violently disagree with. A problem with Septem is that their allegiance to Nero was too flimsy and easy, so it's important for them to consider the threat so big that they'd rather take Nero's side than risk losing as an independent faction. Draw some from Boudicca's characterization in Quirinus's interlude.

Jing Ke obviously also needs to disagree, although not as intensely. Pull some random Romulus/Shi Huang comparisons for this one. Both are into the same "unified world" shit, even if Shi Huang's vision of it is extra awful.

3) It's absolutely essential for the story that Romulus and Flauros have more presence as the chapter villains and debating the goal is the perfect way to provide that. Doubles as a solution to the major problem of Septem being a Nero solo show.

Quirinus and Goetia are two characters I love, so if a revised Septem manages to deliver an intriguing outline of the future characterization these two will get in these more complete forms, I don't think I can ask for much more. It'd be genuinely great to get shades of Goetia's more sympathetic side this early, and even greater for it to come through Lev's face.

Also, remove Altera. That was a really shameless piece of Extella cross-promotion that didn't do anyone any favors.

London

The plot on this one is that, again, Goetia failed to find anyone who would want to destroy the world during the Industrial Revolution, so he coerced the first big powerful mage he found to do it in his stead. Again, Sakurai villain logistic troubles are cool and we keep that.

Our chapter antagonist in London is Makiri Zolgen, the unfortunate mage saddled with the mission to destroy the world. Makiri obviously would rather not die, but when pressed with the choice of die now or die later when you destroyed the world, he chose die later. As such Makiri planned out his operation: he made a Grail-powered machine that covers London in a toxicly dense mana fog, and the excess mana in the air would randomly spawn Servants. Makiri would then wait on his random Servant generator until an electricity-based Servant came out, and that Servant would discharge at the center of London, causing all the fog to explode and vaporize the British Isles, or something.

Anyways, yeah, our chapter villain is in the plot due to a death threat and chose the route of actively stalling Goetia with the slowest and most unreliable doomsday project he could come up with, hoping that the random Servant generator would produce a hero that would non-lethally take him out of the game because his only wish in all this is to survive. The only thing preventing him from being a super likable and sympathetic character is that Makiri Zolgen is Matou Zouken, so he has hefty negative baggage that this showing absolutely can't compensate for.

So, the first order of priority in improving London is making the enemy Master not Zouken. Make a new character for that. The story needs to be a powerful mage from one of 72 Solomonic families, so just call them Lord Solonea or something like that if you don't want to bother giving the new character a full name.

Does that mean I want Zouken removed from the story? No, he's essential. The chapter is named City of Magical Mist precisely for the "magical mist in Japanese is read makiri" pun that defines the whole setting. But I think the pun would have been a lot more clever as a red herring to direct suspicion at him before Chaldea can figure out the real culprit.

Besides, I don't want to mess with greater lore, so Barbatos still has to be the Pillar of the Zolgen family and the one Fujimaru kills in battle. Babylonia established that Singularity victims soon die in different ways in the fixed history. FGO's timeline only had its 1st Holy Grail War in 2004 and Zouken dying in 1888 can't be totally unrelated to that (even though the 4th Singularity is already supposed to be after at least 2 Fuyuki Grail Wars).

Now with the elephant out of the room... what else did London do again? Chaldea just went there, chased some empty red herring because the fog randomly generated Servants, then we found and beat Zouken. The characters may or may not have done cool things but none did memorable things. It's Septem's problem of Nero being the only character, except there's not even a Nero here.

Since we are already majorly shaking up the cast, I'll just say who I think should stay. Jack is a very aesthetically relevant red herring in a foggy London. I still want Zouken to stay as the main red herring, but Jack can keep her role as the first red herring. Fran and Mephi are relevant in a mage conflict because they're products of magecraft. They only need something done with it. Paracelsus and Babbage are perfectly appropriate picks for their roles as the two Servants working directly as Makiri's (here Solonea's) partners. Just expand their scenes a lot because Solonea needs their characterization built from scratch.

Mordred is the main character of the chapter and thus can't be kicked out despite having nothing to do with the plot. We need something more personal and engaging than "I have connections to this city's past". Anything. All the original London has to offer with Mordred is

Teaching Mash to take initiative and aggressively pursue her ambitions, resulting in a new Taunt Skill where Mash rushes to take a bullet for the ones she wants to protect.

A battle against last-minute-spawned Lalter because that is personal closure, Sakurai guesses????

Lastly, we have Tesla. With Zouken/Barbatos killed, he forces the summon of the electric Servant needed to blow London up, and this Servant's bombastic personality and unique circumstances made him the only memorable Servant in London. I love the plot point that he can fly to the center of London and nuke the mist but instead he power walks and gets side-tracked by the Servants he meets because he was summoned by Makiri's will to stall out the Singularity as much as possible. Keep that as is.

I won't waste too much time coming up with things to replace London's nothingburger adventure with, but I have to say one of London's biggest sins is being set in London during the Industrial Revolution, one of the most important moments in the Clock Tower's history and doing nothing about it. We could have more direct and involved glimpse at that than anything Case Files could have offered. The Solonea version of London certainly would have at least one Solonea/Makiri conversation about it using their views on the forming factions as a characterization piece to define the core differences between two enemy Master suspects.

Shimousa

This one is a lot more complicated. It's not because Shimousa has a bigger number of decisions I hate (it does) but because I'm interpreting the prompt as "change this chapter without changing the rest of FGO" and Shimousa is just far too linked to Heian. Every good idea Douman has in Heian can be linked to a lesson he learned from a bad idea backfiring in Shimousa. Douman sucking complete ass in Shimousa is not negotiable.

[UPDATE: Samurai Remnant is coming to complicate this section even further, so I'm making the executive decision to call it quits on this ask instead of continuing to wait for inspiration after 5 months of not having it]

[wisdomfish]

Non-Christian sources confirm the validity of New Testament

The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100), is the first non-Christian author to mention Jesus. In the Antiquities, Josephus writes:

There was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day (Antiquities 18:3:3).

Tacitus (A.D. 56-120), the Roman historian confirms that the crucifixion of Jesus actually took place. Writing in his Annals, he records:

 Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.

Pliny the Younger (A.D. 62-113), Roman governor in Asia Minor, established that early Christians worshiped Jesus as a god:

They (Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food, but of an ordinary and innocent kind (Epistles 10.96).

Suetonius (120 AD) was a Roman historian and court official.  When recounting the history of the emperor Claudius some years before him, he said,

“Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Christ], he [Claudius] expelled them from the city [Rome]” (Life of Claudius, 25:4).

Lucian, born (c. AD 125 – 180), the pagan author Samosata, while ridiculing Christians, accepted that Jesus actually existed:

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. … You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains their contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property. (Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus)

Celsus (2nd century), the Greek philosopher, while arguing against Christianity, also accepted that Jesus existed:

O light and truth! He distinctly declares, with his own voice, as ye yourselves have recorded, that there will come to you even others, employing miracles of a similar kind, who are wicked men, and sorcerers; and Satan. So that Jesus himself does not deny that these works at least are not at all divine, but are the acts of wicked men; and being compelled by the force of truth, he at the same time not only laid open the doings of others, but convicted himself of the same acts. Is it not, then, a miserable inference, to conclude from the same works that the one is God and the other sorcerers? Why ought the others, because of these acts, to be accounted wicked rather than this man, seeing they have him as their witness against himself? For he has himself acknowledged that these are not the works of a divine nature, but the inventions of certain deceivers, and of thoroughly wicked men.

~ Samples, Kenneth Richard. ‘Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions

[greedypolyglot]

confession:

i have been intaking new information. so very much recently research, research, research of all manner (religious, cultural, historical, linguistic, literary/film) i pretty much try to squeeze learning and study of new things into everything. eating food? video essay. going to sleep? literary analysis. doing admin work? watch an important/artistic film to accompany it.

which is great ! i am not complaining nor bragging i still have breaks & am nowhere near perfect this is just my precursor to the next point. which is

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO HOLD A CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE I DONT KNOW VERY WELL FOR LONGER THAN 5 MINUTES WITHOUT SAYING 'oh this reminds me of x article i read recently' OR 'i've researched that a bit recently! i find ethnic tension very interesting as its part of my research paper im working on currently'

YOU ARE 18 YEARS OF AGE. HIT THE CLUBS. FIND A PARTNER

sat down at the dinner table yesterday and after about 3 minutes go 'i read this really interesting article about emperor nero-' mum's bf cuts me off saying 'don't 18 year olds normally go out friday night?'

DRAGGED ME TO THE GROUND

DRAGGEDDDD

pls if anyone has experienced the same lmk. i need to be normal again someone pls help me undo this

[megashadowdragon]

Oda Revealed The MEANING of IMU'S Name But It Was Lost In Translation!! | One Piece 1086 how the etymology of the name

venus being the gold planet makes ghandi gorosei ( nasujiro) being named after it quite fitting since he is likely from wano which was known as the land of gold ev

twitter theory related to the vid

However, what does "nero" mean? Well, speaking of all the Grecoroman gods among the Gorosei, in Greek "nero" is the word for water. Which could tie with the theory that Imu may be the Mother(flame?) of nature Umi, the Sea (6/9)

But on the other side of the Grecoroman, in Italian, and other languages too, "nero" is the word for the color "black". Which makes sense as Imu is not just always depicted as a black silhouette, but even appears as a dark mass when transformed. But there's more to it; (7/9)

I've previously speculated that Imu may be an opposite to Joyboy. While Nika symbolizes pure white, the light of the Dawn, Imu symbolizes pitch black, the darkness of the night. Both are cartoonish, but while Nika is just goofy, Imu is like a walking nightmare (8/9)

imu is likely a woman ( given that imu is likely representing umi the mother of life ) and its fitting since mother oda once said in an sbs that mother is the opposite of adventure

@bottlepiecemuses

youtube comments

Imu Nerona Nerina is a girl’s name meaning “sea god” and is of Italian origin. A Latinized form of Greek Nērinē, from the name of the sea god Nēreus. Imu backwards Umi is sea. Nerona sounds like more foreshadowing for Imu as the the sea devil and the origin of devil fruits.Show less

A nice parallel that might be true as the Figarland family representing the moon might be that it starks as a contrast to the Kozuki. Both are symbolic to the moon while the Figarland are the dark side (standing with Nerona Imu) and Kozuki the lighted part (standing with Joyboy). Maybe they're destined to clash?

Ok so here is a thing I noticed: Oda very weirdly chose the seats for the 5 elders this chapter. If we look at the panel of the introduction, the 2 on the right panel have their names as the actual planets, while the 3 on the left are puns on the planets, which makes me think that Saturn and Mars are older than the other 3. It would also allign with them having gone through the perenial youth operation and explain the incosistency from chapter 1037, since in that chapter, the ones that thought the Nika fruit is a legend are very conveniently the same 3 Gorosei on the left with the planet names mispelled, so the younger ones

I would love for this to go even further and see Imu being the boy that emperor Nero had castrated and made to act like his old wife because of their striking resemblance…it would make sort of sense out of the fact that Imu seems to hate Vivi more than most people, if she was the reincarnation of the person that Imu was first enslaved because of….

( though there are some claims that the story was just slander)

[holmosexualitea]

Silly little drawing of Michael Sheen playing the Roman emperor Nero in the docuseries named "Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire"!!! I believe you can find a re-upload of it over on dailymotion if anyone is interested!

(PLEASE READ BELOW THE CUT BTW!!! Just felt like it was getting a bit long <3)

(THOUGH just a heads up, at the begining of the episode there is a montage of Michael's character and he does have his face covered in black paint, which absolutely shocked me to my core on my first watch, but turns out context is provided later on and it's actually for a play he takes part in! There's a big mask and to avoid people seeing his face underneath he paints it black. Just felt like I'd mention this here in case someone who's sensitive or gets easily triggered by these things can know <33 love y'all!)

[racefortheironthrone]

In his work G.R.R.M has hinted that the maester can overwrite histories nad presenting a false narrative like with Maester Yandel and the death of Elia and her children.

This led some speculation of history in general or with F&B

We have some examples Richard III, Rasputin, Macbeth, Xerxes I, Nero&Domtian(some extent),Oda Nobunaga etc

The Question is

1.Where there more famous example, who vilified during history, espacially during medival times?

2.What were general Methode of such vilinization

3. How effective were These false histories how long did they held, how widespread were such narratives

4. What does tell us about our two in-universe examples histories from Gyldayn and Yandel

You raise an interesting question of how chroniclers, less bound by professional standards of historical objectivity that modern academics have established, can distort the historical record by slanting their accounts either in a positive or negative direction.

In part, this has to do with the fact that during the medieval era, there wasn't very strong boundaries between different kinds of narratives, so that history was not separate from hagiography that sought to convert people to Christianity by telling exaggerated stories of the lives of saints, atttributing all kinds of impossible virtues and dramatic incidents to them, up to and including giving them outright magical powers.

Vilification was kind of the flipside of hagiography - it borrowed from the classical tradition of invective in Roman historical works from Procopius' Secret History and all the way back to Suetonius and Tacitus etc. who had a tendency to attribute every concievable form of vice and insanity and criminality to Roman emperors who fucked with the senatorial class that historians tended to come from.

The way vilification basically works is you write a narrative of the life of an individual, but then attribute every negative characteristic you can think of - the classical Romans tended to really like sexual immorality (think Caligula sleeping with his sister) or criminality (Nero being a matricide) or insanity (fighting the sea, fiddling white Rome burns). The medieval scribes added specific Christian themes, describing historical figures as horrific sinners who persecuted the Church and its true believers. This behavior, the chroniclers insisted, led to them being smote by an angry God, afflicting them with disease, misfortune, etc.

[theantonian]

Marble statue of a youthful Hercules

Early Imperial, Flavian 69–96 CE

Roman copy of a Greek original. Restorations made during the early 17th century: head and neck, right arm below the shoulder, left arm and shoulder, right leg below the knee, left leg, tree trunk, club, plinth. H. 97 3/16 in. (246.9 cm)

This statue was part of the collection of antiquities acquired in Rome by the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani during the first third of the seventeenth century. It must have been made as one of a pair with the over-life-sized statue of a bearded Hercules displayed across the courtyard. Both may have been excavated in the remains of public baths originally constructed under the emperor Nero in A.D. 62, which were located in the vicinity of the Pantheon.

from metmuseum, New York.

[v0mitgh0st]

Hello, this is my F/O list ! ✨

The ones that have locks on them simply mean that I don’t wish to share them. Of course, anyone is absolutely free to ship themselves with any character but I might interact very little with those who ship themselves with these locked characters ! Thank you for understanding ! 🙏💖

Will be updated in the near future !

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure F/O’s:

🔒Rudol Von Stroheim ⚙️

🔒Robert E.O Speedwagon 🎩

🔒Giorno Giovanna 🐞

🔒Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli 🫧

🔒Josuke Higashikata (part 4) 💎

Vinegar Doppio 💖

Dio (part 3) 🌙

William Anthonio Zeppeli 🌼

Jonathan Joestar ☀️

Risotto Nero ✂️

Enrico Pucci 💿

Joseph Joestar (part 2) 🌟

Funny Valentine 🇺🇸

Jean Pierre Polnareff 💔

Secco 💙

Rohan Kisibe 🖋️

Okuyasu Nijimura 💲

Bruno Buccirati 🤐

Yoshikage Kira 🐱

Guido Mista 🔫

F/O’s from other media (in order from locked to not locked):

🔒Sora (Kingdom Hearts) 🌥️

🔒Alucard Tepes (Castlevania) 🩸

🔒Emperor Mateus (Final Fantasy II) 👑

🔒9s (Nier Automata) 🤖

🔒Loki (Marvel) 🐍

Xemnas (Kingdom Hearts) 🍆

Leon S. Kennedy (Resident Evil) 🥚

Raven (Teen Titans) 💜

Alois Trancy (Black Butler) 🕷️

Akira Kusuru/Joker (Persona 5) 🃏

Young Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts) ⏳

Ryuji Yamazaki (The King of Fighters) 🔪

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) 💚

Madara Uchiha (Naruto) 🔥

Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler) ☕️

Mavis (Hotel Transylvania) 🦇

Riddle (Twisted Wonderland) ♠️

Terry Bogard (The King of Fighters) 💥

Ryuji Sakamoto (Persona 5) ☠️

Harley Quinn (DC) ♦️

Vergil (Devil May Cry) 🗡️

⚠️WARNING⚠️

I do mention dead dove content and Nsfw scenarios with a lot of my F/O’s, even the ones that are considered underage. They are fictional and are not real people. Please do not interact or follow if you are uncomfortable with proship/dead dove content. Thank you !