#getting interested in christianity at about the same time I start considering speaking to my father again... it's almost metaphorical......

[agnesandhilda]

can't tell if my newfound desire to seek reconciliation with every patriarchal authority in my life is a sign I'm healing + maturing or that I'm worse off than ever

[heavenlymorals]

This started out as a list for me for fanfiction purposes, but then I decided I should just post it cuz why the hell not?

These are my observations for what religions some RDR characters may follow. These assumptions are going to be based off cultural details and dialogue.

Again, they're only assumptions, so I'm very much aware that they can be wrong.

Dutch: Dutch is really interesting in the sense that he believes in a higher power. The three main components of Romantacism were the relationship between man and man, man and nature, and man and god. Dutch is a romantic. He also has many lines where he talks about heaven, with one being: "Be a man who knows that there is a heaven above or scurry off like some god forsaken monkeys." We know Dutch isn't Catholic considering his negative views towards Catholicism ("Here we are in this strange land of Papists and rapists."), so he is most likely from some sort of protestant background who then rejected it for the romantic tradition as many of the newspapers in RDR1 would say things about Dutch not getting saved. John says the same thing. Dutch is a diest but not a Christian.

Hosea: Hosea is some sort of protestant Christian and we get this through cultural background and dialogue. We learn that when he was younger, he wanted to be a priest but let go of that because he needed to be Catholic. America was and still is a majority protestant nation but even moreso back then. We also hear him talk about heaven and hell a couple of times, lamenting about how when he does, he won't see Bessie because she'll be in heaven. He is angry at his faith, yes, with the line of "And we're supposed to believe in judgement" when ranting about Bessie's death, but then apologizes, admitting that he can't understand it, not that he doesn't believe.

Arthur is agnostic, but he's open to the idea of faith. In one of this journal entries, he says something about whether he can achieve salvation or heaven or whether that's all fairy tales, as he's not sure what to believe when he dies, even though to the nun, he says he doesn't believe in anything. Arthur also seems to have a distaste for the church as an organization, evidenced by his dialogue with the grave digger debtor, but he seems to like religious people, or at the very least he is open to them. He never knocks down Brother Dorkins and he feels at peace when he speaks to the nun in their final meeting at the train station. Very interesting that he feels better after he talks to the nun, a character who is supposed to embody positive religion and what it can do for people.

John is a non practicing Christian, which makes sense considering his background and the work he has to put in to keep his family safe. It keeps him from actively practicing. Though he's a realist and isn't practically concerned about religion in his everyday life, shown by his father dismissive attitude towards religious people in the game, God is still an active force in his life. Throughout the story, John has lines about God as an active force in his life. When he marries Abigail, he says he wants to marry her "in front of God." A preacher authenticates the wedding. John owns a Bible in his house, makes references about Dutch not getting saved, and talks to Jack about the possibility of redemption as something the "good book" says, despite not reading it with him.

Abigail seems to also be a more practicing Christian, given that she does ask Jack a couple of times throughout the story to read verses for her, but beyond that, I feel like she is also pretty lukewarm in regards to her faith, but she is still a Christian.

Sean and Javier are all most likely cultural Catholics. Sean is an Irish man and is proud of his Irish heritage, which also includes Irish Catholicism and he mentions being a child of God a couple times throughout background dialogue. Javier is a Mexican man and Mexico is very Catholic and though he doesn't really speak of it, he has done the symbol of the cross in game, so it's likely that he still holds some religious thoughts.

Molly is most likely an Irish Protestant due to her conflicts with Sean as well as her family's connections with the English.

Charles is tricky because we know that despite being proud of his native heritage, he is still very much displaced from his culture. What this means is that while he might follow native religion, it equally as likely that he follows some sort of protestantism because of his lack of time with his tribe, forced assimilation, and his relationship with his black father, who would culturally most likely be a Christian. There are really no clues or hints about Charles' beliefs besides his cultural backgrounds so take that as you will.

Micah is a reddit atheist. He doesn't believe in divinity at all and he uses that to shape his worldview as well. No such thing as heaven and hell, only winners and losers. He bullies Swanson a lot for his faith and constantly belittles the idea of religion.

Karen, Tilly, Marybeth, Grimshaw, Pearson, Lenny, Leopald, Josiah, and Kieran don't really have any clues as to what they personally believe. The only idea that we have is the setting that they lived in and the culture that they frequented which makes it most likely that they are some sort of Christian, but what denomination? Don't know.

Sadie is a Christian, but most likely non practicing. We have multiple lines with her referencing God as an active force. "Everyone's got to choose who they're loyal to. God, the state, themselves. If a bounty hunter wants to last, his loyalty has got to be with the one issuing the bounty, plain and simple." "Guess he began to believe he was God or something."

Uncle is nonreligious, most likely agnostic due to his very lax tone in regards to faith, which is also evidenced by his rather wild lifestyle in multiple stories of his. "Do you believe in reincarnation?" "I hope and pray to whatever is out there-" "It's like rooming with the King James Bible."

Swanson is a protestant. Need I say more?

I'll post more later if I feel like it 🫶🏼

[neims-skeleton-obsession]

ONE PERSON (hi fizz!) WAS INTERESTED SO IM RANTING

For the sake of not being here for hours I’m not gonna touch the enlightenment, 300 year war, etc- furthest i’ll talk about is probably up to like. 1500. And I won’t go before 1CE

- I dug around on the wiki and flicked through some of the books and I couldn’t find anything on when the sanctuaries were actually established? We know there’s the Originally It Was Small Magical Communities Lead By A Group Of 12 (elected I think) Elders but there’s not much, if any, indication of when exactly that started to become a smaller council and eventually organised sanctuaries over a wider area. So we also don’t know when the Hiding From Mortals (statute of secrecy I think??) became formal

As far as I’m aware the small villages etc were used to get away from mortal society (at least to some degree) but that doesn’t necessarily mean mortals and sorcerers were entirely separate or unaware of one another. Presumably, especially during/after the spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire (starting with Constantine converting around 312CE iirc?), sorcerers etc likely would’ve been persecuted in much the same way pagans were- so I assume most would end up in hiding/living in secrecy even without it being law.

But there’s also the possibility that after the fall of the Roman Empire, when Anglo-Saxons invaded n settled in Britain (I want to say around 450CE but that is quite possibly wrong), that sorcerers could have started living more openly again? Seeing as early Anglo-Saxons were pagans. And same thing with pre-Roman Celts I believe.

Tl;dr I really want to know how sorcerer and mortal society interacted prior to the Sanctuaries? Especially in the contexts of different religions etc.

- In a somewhat related vein, I wonder if there were any priests/clergy that studied signum linguistics? Seeing as for a time most (not all but) people that could read (especially Latin) were wealthy and/or worked for the church, so disciplines that require those skills might have been most accessible to those demographics? Equally doing that might’ve been considered sinful or un-Christian given the treatment of non Christian practices. Ex-clergy maybe? Or sorcerers becoming clergy for the purpose of having access to those resources etc. Idk I feel like this mayyyy be an interesting idea for a character but equally I’m not a Christian so if anyone is and wants to weigh in feel free

- I want to see more sorcerers with Old and Middle English names!! Specifically just Word names!!! Especially Old English is distinctly different from the language that would’ve been spoken by the time of the 300 year war, but given that it was spoken up to around the 11th century (correct me if I’m wrong here) it’s plausible that Old English speaking sorcerers may have still been alive for at least the start of the war. Same with Middle English.

- I know that magic slows the aging process drastically, and there presumably aren’t many sorcerers etc that die of old age- but would (especially early) medieval sorcerers have actually lived as long as some that we see in the books?? Like the limitations of medicine at the time must’ve had at least some impact, because magical medicine would have Also needed time to develop- jt wouldn’t have always been as good as it is in the modern day. So were they dying on average sooner, and if yes by how much?? Were there many (if any at all) born say, prior to the Norman Conquest, that saw for example a Tudor monarch? I’m curious what kind of time spans we’re working with here.

I may reblog with additions if i have More Thoughts lmao. Also if I said anything in accurate correct my ass this is all based off memory ahdbsjxbbsb

[furiroad]

Furiosa spoilers under the cut 🚗

It's actually staggering how much that movie did not need to exist. Gonna bullet point some thoughts

My sarcastic lol @ the lightning fast sisters cameo at the end where they're all played by completely different people. the quick flash of Cheedo's eyes bc they managed to get Courtney Eaton back for three seconds didn't appease me

I guess it technically passes the bechdel test bc right at the start Furiosa says "be still" to Valkyrie but iirc that's the only pass moment. I know not passing the bechdel test doesn't mean the movie is automatically bad I just think it's interesting considering it's following Fury Road

"she talks to her mother" I don't think they ever said her mum's name out loud

You know how mad max fury road could have a silent version w no dialogue + isolated soundtrack and it worked because you could tell what's going on anyway? This movie has the opposite problem. Way too much talking. They over-explain everything

The best bit was the prolonged torture scene at the end where Hemsworth explains Furiosa's entire character arc and the message of the movie out loud to her and also us

Even his teddy had an arm missing, replaced with a barbie arm. Thanks. We get it

Her arm made robot noises

Actually threw MY arms up in disgust when she went back for that boy she supposedly had a romance with despite the film never bothering to actually show/explain that. I'm calling it a romance because the actors did. I guess it was supposed to be a Capable/Nux parallel but it didn't work for me and not just because I'm a dyke and a hater OK, if you're gonna do a ROMANCE, DO A ROMANCE. don't leave me sitting there wondering why Furiosa is risking it all for some guy she's had ONE conversation with, especially after he offers to get her away from the Citadel and back to where she came from, WHICH IS HER ENTIRE MOTIVE EVER SINCE SHE WAS TAKEN

I DON'T GET IT

Them trying to emulate Max and Furiosa's instinctive, perfect we have to trust each other moment by having Jack and Furiosa... look at each other Meaningfully fifty times while they were supposed to be driving cars? Don't make me laugh! You will never be them!!

Max being there for a second wasn't cute! I rolled my eyes

Same at "remember me?" MAKE UP YOUR OWN STUFF

So many things happened because they needed to happen (plot demanded it) and didn't make any sense in context. My favourite was when Furiosa rode her motorcycle up a dune to get away after cutting off her arm and the biker gang couldn't follow her up there for some reason

So much Christian imagery... threw me off tbh

Considering it's Furiosa's movie it sure isn't about her + she doesn't speak at all for almost the first half

This movie was way too long

I called it about the peach seed

I called it that she cut her own arm off

George Miller read some of my blog but not all of it

You know how The People Eater rubbed his nipple that one time and it was delightfully weird and gross and got a good reaction? Well in this movie he's constantly rubbing it, the whole time. Really lessens the impact of the nipple rub

As you can see this movie has made me insane

Like this is not really about the nipple rub but do you get what I'm saying here

Furiosa spends most of the movie hiding her hair (because as we all know, having long hair immediately identifies you as a woman) and then when her head covering gets knocked off and her hair is revealed (omg she's a girl) she leaves it like that and becomes an Imperator. On what planet

The history man frames the entire movie for some reason. Do they show Miss Giddy? Take a wild guess

One of the coolest parts of fury road was that a gang of bikers ended up being hardcore wasteland grannies w guns and loose morals in response to people fucking around for far too long without finding out. Did this movie have anything like that for me? Take a wild guess for a second time

The car fight scenes weren't even that great. Couldn't remember hearing any good music under them (brother in arms truly lightning in a bottle) and they went on for too long which feels wild to say about suped up car battles in the australian wasteland: 2 but oh well. This is how I feel. Fury Road was so good at carefully measuring out high octane action and then downtime and careful, quiet character introspection and this movie had no idea what it was doing either way

Honestly I don't hate it but I feel like it was a waste of time and it doesn't need to exist at all. A real nothing experience. Am I going to see this movie ten times in cinemas? No I am not even going to see it twice in cinemas

I don't know what I was expecting.

oh my god also they played clips of Fury Road over the credits as if to say "remember how fucking good this is in comparison to the dumb shit you just watched"

[anamericangirl]

Sort of in response to the anon with the stranger things fandom blog:

I run a moderately big blog in a relatively small fandom, and I don't keep it a secret I'm Christian (though I keep it on the low-down that I'm conservative), and people are usually chill about it. But there was this huge controversy a couple months ago that another Christian blogger accidentally started involving pride stuff and suddenly I had loads of hysterical people in my inbox demanding I spell out every belief I had in case I was a 'bigot' because 'people are getting killed'??? I got a bunch of threats as well.

The worst part of it was the whole flood of posts mocking conservatives and Christians and their beliefs in the fandom tags, and things like "this character says these people suck!" (more rudely then that obviously). A bunch of people (several of them friends) got driven away by it all, and I was so disgusted by the actions of people I had considered friends or at least friendly associates who had suddenly turned into this huge mob of hatred. And while things have calmed down I'm still dealing with the emotions from it and people act like it was no big deal.

And yet before all of that... we all coexisted together just fine. I don't get how the pride community that claims it's 'accepting to all' can just attack people like that, who never bothered them at all. It hurts and it's so stupid.

But yeah all that to say, I get it anon. It's so hard. I hope you never have to deal with half of what I've had to put up with.

Ugh that’s terrible 😞

The pride community is absolutely vicious, especially online. If they were really loving and accepting they wouldn’t have to spend so much time telling us that’s what they are because their behavior would show it. And what they’ve shown is they are the least loving and tolerant community out there.

They’re like the only community it’s not ok to offend in any capacity and act like it’s on par with a crime and will even take people to court if they get mad enough (like the Christian baker situation) so the idea that they are oppressed or marginalized is laughable. They are completely toxic and they can’t handle seeing anything that disagrees with them or doesn’t wholeheartedly support them in all their endeavors. It’s always interesting to see who claims oppression vs who isn’t afraid to speak out and isn’t attacked for doing so and those are often the same parties.

I’m sorry you had to deal with that. They should all be able to be more mature and able to understand that on the internet they might see things they don’t like sometimes and it’s not ok to attack people.

It can be nice to know you’re not the only one out there who feels like they have to keep silent for fear of being attacked by online mobs, though. So I’m sure the other anon will appreciate this.

[beep-beep-imma-sheep]

I decided to read Anne Frank's Diary... What an interesting experience considering Venezuela's current events.

—

Our lives were not without anxiety, since our relatives in Germany were suffering under Hitler's anti-Jewish laws. After the pogroms in 1938 my two uncles (my mother's brothers) fled Germany, finding safe refuge in North America. My elderly grandmother came to live with us. She was seventy-three years old at the time.

This anxiety feels similar to... Pretty much what anyone who fled their home country would feel.

After May 1940 the good times were few and far between:

28th of July, anyone?

first there was the war, then the capitulation and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews. Our freedom was severely restricted by a series of anti-Jewish decrees:

Out freedom was severely restricted... Yeah. That speaks for itself.

Jews were required to wear a yellow star; Jews were required to turn in their bicycles; Jews were forbidden to use street-cars; Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 P.M.; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M.;

This is not the same, of course, but this also reminds me of how, even if there's no official curfew, no one dares to go outside after certain hour. I remember one of these nights my aunt woke up around 2 am and saw the military through the window roaming around were I live, probably looking for someone to arrest.

Jews were forbidden to attend theaters, movies or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields or any other athletic fields; Jews were forbidden to go rowing; Jews were forbidden to take part in any athletic activity in public; Jews were forbidden to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 P.M.; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools,etc.

... Well, we haven't reached that point. But no one SHOULD get to that point-.

You couldn't do this and you couldn't do that, but life went on.

That sounds very 🇻🇪 to me.

Jacque always said to me, "I don't dare do anything anymore, 'cause I'm afraid it's not allowed".

Again, that feeling looks... Very familiar.

It seems like years since Sunday morning. So much has happened it's as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down.

🇻🇪28th of July🇻🇪

It's more like being on vacation in some strange pension. Kind of an odd way to look at life in hiding, but that's how things are.

Coping mechanisms be like.

Whatever we do, we're very afraid the neighbors might hear or see us.

GIRL, SAME. There's Chavistas in my neighborhood, I'm s c a r e d that they'd end up ratting us out on being from the opposition so the police can put us under arrest.

Though the people who work there are not on the premises after hours, any sound we make might travel through the walls.

I know that fear.

We've forbidden Margot to cough at night, even though she has a bad cold, and are giving her large doses of codeine.

...

Of course, we can't ever look out the window or go outside. And we have to be quiet so the people downstairs can't hear us. (...) Not being able to go outside upsets me more than I can say, and I'm terrified our hiding place will be discovered and that we'll be shot. That, of course, is a fairly dismal prospect.

From July 28th to August 1st I didn't even dare to look out the window. And the fear of being shot is something I carry with me since I was a kid.

And sometimes they talk about Moortje and I can't take that at all. Moortje is my weak spot. I miss her every minute of the day, and no one knows how often I think of her; whenever I do, my eyes fill with tears. Moortje is so sweet, and I love her so much that I keep dreaming she'll come back to us.

Unrelated to the topic, but back in the last days of May my dog passed away (yes, I had the worst pride month). I resonated with this scared 13 y/o girl who had to leave everything behind, even her beloved pet.

Yesterday I had a horrible fright. At eight o'clock the doorbell suddenly rang. All I could think of was that someone was coming to get us, you know who I mean. But I calmed down when everybody swore it must have been either pranksters or the mailman.

Sometimes I remember the fact that a guard could just... Break into my house and take me or someone I love away. And that's terrifying.

[territorialufo]

i give in can you tell me about that little iphone binch

YESS YES I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT THE LITTLE IPHONE BINCH !!!!!!!!! this is literally just rambling im so sorry. There's a lot of text blocks in the beginning but the end has more pics and silly stuff 

Also ii spoilers but its hard to talk abt mephone without getting into the recent stuff so whatever 

Under cut cause this got. Really long. whoops

Context/background of II/mephone 

“Inanimate Insanity” (ii) is a web animation originally released in 2011, considered the second “major” object show after BFDI. btw an object show is a genre of web series that features anthropomorphized inanimate objects competing for some kind of prize. I am NOT the right person to ask about object shows cause the only one ive ever been invested in to this extent is ii and theres SOO many other ones out there LMAO. Ok sorry i sounded like a bot for a second there JUST PROVIDING CONTEXT!! Inanimate Insanity’s structure is kind of interesting because it starts out as a silly comedy in s1 and most of s2 before descending into a really drama heavy storyline, with tension caused both by mephone’s past haunting him and conflict between the contestants themselves. Then suddenly s2 goes on a four year hiatus and animationepic (main youtube channel) launches s3 with new characters and artstyle, seemingly completely ditching the plot they had in s2??? IM NOT GONNA GET TOO INTO ALL THAT but it all works out timeline wise so its chill the tone switch was just rly funny at the time 😭😭😭 

ANYWAYYYY mephone. Mephone4. Mister phone. Four. The one and only four. MeFon! MePhone4 (parodying the IPhone4) is the de facto host of the in-universe reality show “Inanimate Insanity”!! As the host, he has speaking lines in nearly every episode which is super awesome and epic for mephone4 enjoyers (me). His initial vibe was inspired by Chris McClean from TDI, and was even voiced by Christian Potenza in the first episode before being switched to Mark Katz, who is the father of the creator of II, Adam Katz, which is also pretty cool i think. Since Mark Katz is a grown ass dude, mephone just has. The same voice for like the entire series SHDHF everyone else’s voices are changing and stuff as the creators got older but mephone just sounds like a middle aged man for all of it 😭I love it tho this isn’t a criticism!!! As the years go by it gets more and more expressive :) s1 is. rough. considering it was made by a bunch of kids, its very much a product of its time lol

Lore/character 

Ok lore time cause the thing w mephone is most of his backstory was kind of just hinted at (or implied with the existence of Apple irl). Like in s1 there was the introduction of mephone4s and 5, but otherwise, not much (as far as I can remember. I watched s1 when i was a kid so its been a while lmao). Then there was s2e8 where the contestants go to headquarters and we meet steve cobs (yes, like steve jobs), who’s his creator and dad?? Again some hints are dropped but nothing concrete about their relationship. And then BOOM. SEASON 2 EPISODE 13. “Mine Your Own Business” was my fave II ep for sooo long (idk what my fave is now tbh) cause THE MEPHONE LORE DROP??????? IT WAS CRAZY and also the ending of the episode with fan’s monologue and the soundtrack “shell of a fan” is my fave in the show ANYWAY ANYWAY so begins the remembering of the Horrors. 

He was “born” in Meeple Headquarters, and PLEASE KNOW THAT HE WAS BORN AN ADULT OH MY GOD there are some clowns who think hes literally 14 years old bc thats how old the iphone4 is USE YOUR BRAIN USE YOUR BRAIN AAAAA right so he basically knows nothing about the world, confined to headquarters until his eventual escape. Cobs and mephone have a pretty interesting dynamic, where cobs has most of the power. The way Cobs praises mephone but later shoots him down is so AUHGHGHGH. It’s an oppressive environment he's living in, only expected to do assigned tasks and shamed for any genuine interests, while having the pressure to impress his creator on his shoulders at the threat of being discarded. Mephone grows to hate and fear cobs, but at the same time, cobs is the only person whos known him since the beginning.

The way literally every problem mephone has can be traced back to his origin/how he was raised is so crazy. Like even before the s2e16 twist, it was extremely prevalent??? There are a bunch of analysis posts that explain it way better than I could but MANNNN for a show that the crew started when they were literally 13, they were able to tie things together pretty well, i think! 

It’s been pretty obvious since s2e13 that hosting Inanimate Insanity is just one big escapist fantasy for mephone, one where he is free to do as he pleases while ignoring all the trauma he sustained in “childhood”. Cause it’s implied he escaped Meeple, deleted his bad memories, and then started s1 right after. I mean, it makes sense, since outside of the cold, mechanical nature of Meeple, the only warmth he got was from his enjoyment of reality tv shows. If s1 is an amnesia mephone, and s2 is a spiraling mephone, then I’d describe s3 as “escapism but worse” mephone. It doesn’t ever get as gloomy as s2, but s3 has steady background reminders of “hey guys remember mephone is running away from all his problems right now!!” until it all comes to head in the finale. Some ppl dislike how mephone-centric the show’s gotten, but honestly idgaf more for me

I do want to say that he is very flawed, though. Esp near the beginning, he is really fucking rude and does not respect his contestants at all and frequently belittles them and puts them in mortal danger. he tends to view them and everything that happens to them through the lens of “its just part of the show!!!!”. He tends to brush off everyone’s problems, no matter how serious, even when he’s the one that caused them.

His reality show host personality is all a very big facade to cover up how he feels about the past (thus further submerging him in the fantasy of Inanimate Insanity). Like previous users have mentioned, this is likely due to the fact that he had no one to learn HOW to be empathetic/kind from besides reality television (which is known to be exaggerated for drama) and cobs (who is his abuser) But I famously do enjoy characters who are kind of dickheads, the confidence being a mask is like a tasty bonus to me.

The dichotomy between his arrogant host exterior and paranoid/anxious interior is really interesting and fun to watch. Compared to his relatively sweet/naive beginning personality, it’s wild to see just how much he’s changed since then because of everything that’s happened.  His relationships with the rest of the characters is also interesting, cause despite being their host, he isn’t very close with a lot of them. Other than maybe Bot, who I believe he feels kinship with since they're both robots who freed themselves from the expectations of others. Same with Mepad, since they’re both from Meeple. 

He’s a robot, but in an emotional/psychological sense, is basically a normal person/object (person is synonymous with object in this case). He feels like a person despite being an AI. which makes cobs a lot worse imo, he mistreats all his creations, but at least the other newer mephones are barely “feeling” at all, unlike 4.

Basically, 

Cobs: i have engineered a machine that is functionally a person

Everyone: you fucked up a perfectly good phone is what you did. Look at him. He’s got ptsd. 

Not to get too into ii16/17, but they basically recontextualized the entire series and made what we initially thought about mephone’s escapist tendencies and origins a million times worse. Bro was so tormented he subconsciously made his OCs come to life 😭😭😭all while projecting all his issues onto them??? Psychologically sound individual activities. Additionally, the way he was created is also. Terrible. Cobs basically invaded an alien planet, kidnapped an alien kid, and then presumably used its energy to create mephone4. Outer space colonization? In MY object show? yes!

Ok now im just gonna talk about random stuff i like about him  

His powers are so cool.,.,,. Esp as a foil to cobs/mephonex, who could represent destruction, he represents creation with his generation ability. Also something abt using his powers for non violent reasons when his creation was built upon violence uhh idk. And I think the screen turning green and the sound effect is very satisfying dlsjkfg. Oh and the fact that he canonically had to practice to get better at it? In the flashbacks he’s shown having trouble generating even a simple tree, and now he can make pretty much anything with minimal effort. 

Also MeLife, which allows him to bring contestants back from the dead, is an ability unique to him, which is super cool!!

He can create portals as well and this is never explained. He can just suddenly do it KDLJFGH this kind of renders Mepad’s teleportation ability useless but it's still fun. 

I like when he uses his face as an actual screen :)

Something something robot related stuff

He is not waterproof and will malfunction or even die when wet

His speaking function can be disabled by other people

Glitches while talking sometimes!! Delightful 

Something that gets overlooked often I think is the s1 finale, where mephone4S (mephone4's brother) basically killed himself to save mephone4 by downgrading his own OS. Technically, mephone isn’t even in his original body anymore, he’s inhabiting his brother’s. Fun!

this is unrelated but he got shot in the face with a gun once. there havent been any guns since unfortunately

Get yoinked idiot 

In conclusion, 

I heart him and im sad ii is gonna be ending soon thx for reading

[starjxsung]

everything will be alright

tw: SA, molestation

i can’t much other than i’m sorry for what you went through star. my heart always goes out to sa victims. i understand a little of what you’re going through as i’m a molestation survivor. i’m not sure what exactly you’re going through cause everyone is different, i hope you take all the time you need to come back online. take all the time you need to get back into writing sexual content. i hope you’re getting professional help, and if not then i hope your circle is a safe space for you. at the very least i hope you have someone you can talk to about this. it’s important.

on the topics of christianity what sparked this renewed interest? is it just the christian town you’re at? did you grow up christian or was it something you’ve heard of/been around?

sending love your way, ☁️

:(

I am so so so beyond sorry to hear that you went through that. I love you and I’m sending you all my love and healing vibes. I hope you always have the help and support that you need, and please know that I’m always just a message away if you need somebody to talk to. I love you :(

I’m healing slowly, but surely 💘 my family have been super supportive and I’m inquiring about therapists again since I think some professional help might do me better this time around. But I promise I will be okay :’) and even though it’s hard, I promise I will be back as 100% for you guys with less depressing stuff on my mind. Just a little bump in the road for me 🫶💓

tw: religion & mentions of ocd !!!

christianity is always heavy on my mind (to say the least 😅). I actually grew up very christian, but around high school I really began to reject a lot of the ideology, and by early college I was a raging atheist. I went through 2 separate events in my second year of college that were so traumatic for me they were the catalyst to starting antidepressants, and then I began to question how I was even able to survive them without some form of divine intervention. Which in TURN was the catalyst for terrible religious ocd I’ve struggled with all my life since. I still don’t consider myself christian, but for a good chunk of college I physically couldn’t leave my house without a bible because I felt like god was “going to kill me”. It was really bad lmao

My relationship with religion is still pretty rocky and I still struggle with religious ocd, but I’ve gotten a lot more open-minded about it and I’m more willing to listen to stories without this level of disillusionment I felt for so long. I no longer have to carry a bible with me when I go anywhere (which was HUGE for me, as dumb as it sounds) and I actually keep a little gallery in my phone of religious imagery when it finds me. “surely there is god in this moment” type beat. My sister says she thinks I’ll just always struggle with this very heavy guilt for as long as I live, but it’s learning to coexist with it that’s the healthiest thing for me at the moment. So that’s what I remind myself, and it helps :’) the little town is indeed very religious, and though I’ve not claimed to be christian, having conversations with people and not being so judged for my beliefs has been really healing. It’s times like these I’m just like. hey! the guilt isn’t so heavy these days. maybe it won’t be heavy forever, after all

thank you so much for all your lovely words. and again, I am always here if you need to speak or vent or anything of the sort. Sending all my love to you and I hope the universe is treating you well.

here are some random moments I bumped into religious themes this week. featuring the cross necklace I bought recently (the same one Jisung wears !)

all my love to you ❤️ :’)

[jeffrey-beaumont]

tagged by @glyphsmash

Last song?

https://open.spotify.com/track/3VwLD5o1r0YBLkjUfgSEYg?si=RTBtObd0S32OefW16CSCNA

Currently watching?

Monster (needs to be finished).

Currently reading?

Finished Bryan Cranston's autobiography A Life in Parts and started Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, which is another autobiography. Its about growing up during Apartheid as an interracial boy. He was born to a Xhosa (one of the many ethnic groups of South Africa) mother and a Swiss German father and therefore did not fit into the legal racial categories of Apartheid. Brings to mind how arbitrary the concept of race is, and how demographics alter perception of individuals. There were three races the Apartheid government categorized people in: Black, White and Coloured. The definitions were literally based off of subjective appearance and all of their laws were warped around these categories and incredibly intricate and bureaucratic.

"Coloured" had a different connotation compared to the category of the same name in American Segregation, because it was distinct from Black. Basically Coloured was made up of the descendants of foreign enslaved Africans, assimilated indigenous African ethnic groups and early European colonists. Because of this combination of ancestry, the people who fall under this category do not have connection to the identities of other ethnicities in the country (like language, cultural heritage, etc.) and make up their own racial category. Basically Trevor did not look either Black or White, so he was considered "Coloured" because he physically resembled them, but he was ostracized from that category socially because he had connection to his Xhosa heritage through his mother's family. Therefore he fit into no category at all. The book is about his experiences. I highly recommend the audiobook because he does impressions and speaks multiple languages from different ethnic groups, which are very important to hear when he explains certain features and situations. The way he tells some of the stories is hilarious too.

Current Obsession?

Learning about African history and politics. Mostly been interested because of work, first researching information about climate and industrial processing methods since we get shipments from multiple African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda). Primarily I've been learning about Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) and Haile Selassie (the last Emperor). They are one of the few African civilizations that were not colonized by Europeans. Also they were the third civilization to officially adopt Christianity after the Roman Empire and Georgia.

Rastafarianism, which originated in Jamaica is the belief that the prophezied second coming of Christ was in the form of Haile Selassie, who represented the salvation of oppressed black peoples globally, being a king of a sovereign black nation. This ideology was influenced by Pan-African political movements. I want to sit down and learn more about Pan-Africanism, specifically in the US so I'm planning on reading Malcolm X's biography next.

Other things I've been learning about is German history in the World Wars, and some Holocaust literature. Quite depressing stuff, but important things. I'm trying to consume more of this information from direct German language sources so I can get practice at the same time. And then some brief things about Zionism movements in Europe before/after the wars. Been trying to wrap my head around the relationship between ideology, racism, nationality and war. I'm not sure there's a conclusion.

tagging: @morutopiya @calculesterhp @4184 @ocke @mnmix

[astriiformes]

Got a request for some of the recs here, so here's a short-ish list of some of the reading recs -- I've made an effort to link open source and/or at least slightly more accessible databases like JSTOR wherever possible, but some of these are, admittedly behind various paywalls that I wish everyone luck with circumventing in whatever manner you deem fit

Monster Theory - Really great anthology to start with, especially the first reading, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's famous "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" which is a personal favorite

The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts - A general SF/F journal, but there are definitely a lot of great monster theory and gothic horror readings sprinkled throughout. Consider taking a look at Veronica Hollinger's "The Vampire and/as Alien," the special issue on Dracula, and Faye J. Ringel's "Genetic Experimentation: Mad Scientists and the Beast," among others

Werewolf Histories edited by Willem Blécourt - Phenomenal anthology on werewolf scholarship, especially if you're interested in the connections between werewolves and witchcraft and/or witch trials in Early Modern Europe

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by Jack Halberstam - Of interest to those who are interested in the connection between the gothic and gender (among other topics). Halberstam has written extensively on both

The Journal of Dracula Studies - Exactly what it sounds like.

Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural - Another journal, which focuses on the connections between witchcraft and occultism, monsters, demonology, and the like.

Susan Stryker's "My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix" - An absolutely landmark piece of writing on Frankenstein and the transgender (and in particular the transfeminine) experience; one of my favorite pieces of academic writing of all time.

Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology - Another solid monster theory anthology

Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene - A really, really good anthology about the ecological gothic that I cannot recommend enough. As a known werewolf guy I especially like the piece "Wolf, or Homo homini lupus" by Carla Freccero

The Vampire Lectures by Lawrence Rickels - So many vampires

Monster Culture in the 21st Century: A Reader - Another anthology, I in particular recommend Rosalind Sibielski's "Gendering the Monster Within: Biological Essentialism, Sexual Difference, and Changing Symbolic Functions of the Monster in Popular Werewolf Texts" in this one.

"The Trans Legacy of Frankenstein" by Jolene Zigarovich - Definitely a good read if you enjoyed the Stryker piece earlier; it's a more general survey of the idea but might give you some ideas for further reading

TransGothic in Literature and Culture - A whole anthology of works on transgender identity and the gothic!

Twenty-First Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion - Not to be confused with the other similarly named anthology earlier, this one is on various modern perspectives on the gothic.

"Christians and Jews in the Twelfth Century Werewolf Renaissance" by David A. Shyovitz - Stand-alone article but really really interesting

Wonders and the Order of Nature: 1150-1750 by Lorraine Daston & Katherine Park - Incredible volume that gets into several different subjects surrounding the fantastical in the medieval and early modern eras, monsters among them. The same authors have written some other fantastic work, such as "Unnatural Conceptions: The Study of Monsters in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France and England" and I honestly would recommend any of their work.

Monster Anthropology: Ethnographic Explorations of Transforming Social Worlds Through Monsters - A more anthropology focused volume, I particularly like Rozanna Lilley's "Drawing in the Margins: My Son's Arsenal of Monsters—(Autistic) Imagination and the Cultural Capital of Childhood"

Marvels, Monsters, and Miracles: Studies in the Medieval and Early Modern Imaginations - Another anthology, this time with a historical perspective

This isn't even everything I've dug into on the subject, but I hope it's enough to get folks started on some reading!

College friendship is sending one of your friends who's graduating soon a giant list of monster theory and gothic horror academic reading recs so they can download as many PDFs as possible before they lose their university database access

[dodger-chan]

About why so many people hate math: there are many answers and most of them can be "because you had one or several terrible teachers in an education system that didn't adapt to you". But there is also another, related to that one, that is "maybe you are not very good with abstract thinking".

Only when I was like 28 I happened to speak to a couple of boys who were studying mathematics at the time, and suddenly I understood why I struggled so often with it (other than bad teachers, which I had a fair share of them): it requires abstract thinking. And to develop it, you have to practice a lot, you have to understand first concrete things and then you make the abstraction. If that first step is not solid (and often it isn't in school, it takes a lot of time), maths are way harder.

When I had to teach basic addition to illiterate adults, one of those math students explained to me how to do it, and he started with "what they are learning is abstration, but before that, they have to be able to relate that the number three, and the symbol 3, and actual three objects are the same thing. This requires repetition". (This explains why Count Van Count is always counting things, it helps build this connection).

I am very good with money. I failed all my math exams except for trigonometry and algebra. I actually enjoyed doing equations, as I enjoy counting money and knowing if my income and my spending are balanced. But that is very concrete. I use money every day, I can see it, I can touch it. Same goes for trigonometry and algebra (up to a certain level).

In short, there is a level of abstraction I never reached, and on top of that I had terrible teachers with no patience and no interest in making math accessible.

This is a really interesting answer for why some people aren't good at math. And it certainly makes sense that if you're not good at math you won't particularly like math. But aside from mentioning bad teachers it doesn't really explain the hatred so many people seem to have for math.

Like, I struggled with English class all through school. I still don't understand the rules of grammar and I remain unconvinced that rules for spelling exist in the language. I don't think my vocabulary is terrible, but the flashcards and weekly quizzes method we used in school mystified me (rote memorization pretty much always does). As far as literary analysis, I did eventually get better at that with a lot of outside the classroom effort.

(And straight up ignoring the teacher who thought not seeing a reference to the Gospels meant a student was irredeemably ignorant. Me and the one other non-Christian in that class trying to decide if it was worth it to mention the irrelevance of Jesus outside of English class)

Point is, neither lack of natural affinity for the subject nor some pretty awful teachers led me to believe that the English language and the literature produced in that language are inherently and irredeemably vile. I absolutely do not want to be graded on it ever again, but I still think reading books is a worthwhile experience.

So where I get confused is the way people take "math is hard" and turn that into "math is evil" and this is generally considered a reasonable conclusion. Whereas "English* is hard" doesn't often get the same shift.

*English the subject. English the language does sometimes get the same treatment as math. And having tried to help grad school friends pass their English proficiency exams, I am sympathetic.

[theblacksundayarchive]

An Interview with Liz Buckingham

An interview from the Black Sunday archive from 2012

Liz Buckingham –  Electric Wizard’s guitarist kindly agreed to do an interview with me. She delves into her love for the English countryside, ale and her dream of living in a cave, read on to find out more.

You come from the USA and currently reside in England, how did this come about and what do you think to the country?

I’m half English because, my father was English, so I have a dual citizenship which made it easier for me to come here and live. When I was a little girl I always planned on coming and living here when I got old enough…..then I kind of forgot about it. When I joined Electric Wizard, it just made sense for me to move over here. I love England. I felt immediately at home and I’m always happy when I come back here when we’ve been away. I really, really love the actual land, it’s so alive. I’ve never been anywhere more beautiful. The countryside around where we live, I never tire of. When I think of the things I love about England…off the top of my head…. ALE(!), cider, oak, giant cow parsley, dark wooded lanes, the sea.

If you were still in the USA and had never picked up a guitar, what do you think you would be doing right now?

Man, who knows…..can’t even really imagine it. Before I started my first band, I had been apprenticing as a tattoo artist for a few years, I gave it up to concentrate on doing a band instead. I’m not somebody who can do two art forms like that at the same time without one suffering. I thought I needed to concentrate on one or the other in order to be really good at one. Maybe not the best decision considering what tattoo artists earn! but obviously that’s not what it’s about with me… But who knows, I have many interests…I could have ended up doing many things.

Electric Wizard use a lot of occult imagery which I love –are you religious or spiritual in any way? I am a spiritual person and very interested in the occult and always have been since I was a child. My father and my grandmother were both really into it and so being raised with that way of thinking…it’s just like people being raised to be a Christian. It’s just how I think. I’ve always been surrounded by books on the occult and other esoterica. I am not a follower of any one belief system, over all I am most interested in the power of the mind. Metaphysics. But I like to explore many things, and have. It’s all about whatever it takes to centre your energy…and different people find different ways to help them in that goal. It’s a subject that although I might use publicly in our imagery, is something I don’t think needs to or should be discussed. The creation, outcome speaks for its self. Black magic, white magic…it’s all about the outcome. My everyday life is lived with these thoughts, practices and intentions.

A downside (or not!) to having my mind opened at such a young age, is it has caused me to be a bit of an outsider. I could never understand why some people were so horrible or intolerant of the “unknown”…and over time it eventually turned into a general pity and hate for most people, hence my reclusive tendencies and misanthropic outlook. I think the world would be a better place if the powers that be, forced narrow-minded individuals to take acid…….but of course, that’s the last thing “the man” wants……

Staying on the subject of imagery. Your t-shirts are great, I love them! I also love the artwork that features on Electric Wizard albums and posters. Who designs them?

We don’t like letting other people do art for us, we like doing it all ourselves. To us it’s just as important as the music and part of the reason we even do this. Even with the bands photos, we like to be heavily involved in the concept and outcome. I don’t think a lot of people realise how much we actually do ourselves. A lot (not all) of bands get their label to handle their graphics. We used to let some stuff get done outside and early Wizard had a lot of outside artwork, but in recent years we started to realise that no one was really able to get our aesthetic right, so we decided to start doing everything ourselves. Justin was trained as a graphic artist (old school, pre-computer design) you know, hand drawn fonts etc. I went to school for photography and design, so we are both very visually oriented people. Generally, t-shirts are me, and posters, Justin. Album art and layout is a collaborative effort. We usually find that the combination of both of our ideas is the best. It’s never as good if just one of us does something alone without the others input. It can get difficult though, we’re both pretty stubborn when it comes to sticking to our own idea of what we think looks cool….but it’s always worth the battle in the end.

What is a typical or an ideal day in the life of Liz?

Ha! There isn’t really a typical day, I have a bad habit of living in the moment and taking each day as it comes, regardless of what I “should” be doing. Also, I’m a bit of a hermit. I don’t go out and socialise. I really like being alone. The only time I really see people is when I play gigs. But, a typical day is usually consumed with something Electric Wizard. It may not seem like we do much from the outside, as we don’t spend our time doing the internet thing. But we do spend a lot of time creating, setting up and organising things for the band. A lot of tiny things go into all our creative output. We also do our merch/t-shirts by hand which is a full-time job in its self. Justin and I are creating electric wizard 24/7. everything we do, collecting, movies etc…gets put back into the band in some way.

An IDEAL day is when all I have to do is listen to the sound of the wind coming down from the moors.

I saw Saint Vitus a few weeks back and was so amazed by the energy the guys still have for music, do you think you will continue to be a musician until you have to be lifted off stage by the funeral director or do you have other plans for the future?

That’s what makes them still the coolest band around.

As for me, I always planned on becoming a reclusive witch living in a cave in my old age….or an eccentric collector of the bizarre in my castle …..but unless I win the lottery, I guess I’ll have to stick with the cave witch plan. (I’m practicing both, just in case.)

Um, but really…when I chose this path, there was no question as to when it would end (death). It’s a never ending creative desire. It’s what I chose as a life’s work. It’s what I am contributing to this world/existence. I will always be trying to write the heaviest riff. Always trying to create the music I want to hear. It’s my chosen path. It has no end. There’s no retirement. As for live gigs…well there may come a time where what I do may become a bit ‘undignified’ for an old lady…but then I can only hope for a natural progression into other ways to project my creative energy. But then again, I could easily just completely retreat and become a gardener…you never know, sometimes I like to go where life takes me.

Interview by Katie Doherty

[noelssluttt]

you say zionists alot. what ur problem with thm? there are 157 christ countries, 22 arab coutnries. 1 jewish cotnru... it tiny. why they not entitled to a homeland that is not constantly under attack? they get shelled all sides and m*rdered by terrorists from islamic regimes. why can't they protect / advocate for thmselves? i don't get it.

Let’s get something clear Zionist ≠ Jewish

I respect all religions and i do not care what your beliefs are. All is important to me is human rights. And everyone deserves that jewish,Muslim,Christian,atheist

Human rights are for all human i don not support any innocent lives taken

Let’s start with a history lesson not everyone knows what happened and what’s happening

It started after the holocaust when Israelis didn’t have a land or a country to stay in

Palestine excepted them in. it was always a muslim country with Palestinian people and used the Arabic language

At that time Palestinians accepted Jewish refugees in their homes. They gave them space in their houses

Every Palestinian house took care of 1 to 2 Jewish families

What happened is Israelis kicked them out of their homes and made them live on the street

It started on may 1948 the nakbah where they violently attacked assaulted and killed Palestinians out of their own properties and out of their own land

They destroyed villagers and towns

In one year they killed over 15 thousand people

Almost a million indigenous Palestinians were displaced out of their own homes

They took 75% of their land to israel

This is how it started

With the nakbah

It wasn’t in October 7th

And no one attacked them. They gave them a hand and help and they took advantage of their kindness

Now it had been 77 years of pain and suffering indigenous Palestinians have been going through

I grew up watching them watching the pain and hearing their screams and crying on the tv

7 million refugees have been displaced all around the world

They started again the war by bombing gaza using hamas as a excuse to kill millions of innocent civilians

Gaza civilians lives in a open air prison where they can not escape anywhere

Where they used harsh weapons that are considered war crime

They started to prison and kill West Bank civilians even when hamas is not there

They used it as an excuse

They lately have been attacking and bombing Lebanon who have been in less power positions where they can not fight back

The other muslim countries? Yeah they have an agreement with them to not attack Israel

Idk what are you talking about because this fight is not about Jewish or Muslim countries this fight is about human rights

You can’t just attack a country take their land and act like a victim after

What is happening to Palestinians is the other way from being the oppressor in this situation

Even hamas don’t have half the weapons Israel is using against their innocent people

It’s inhuman monsters and disgusting

I will not stand for any of it. Or any person that stand for it

For me saying you support Israel is the same as saying you support hitler

I can’t even tell you all the history of Palestine and what they did to them i will share what i can find about it and who’s interested in learning more can watch them

And btw if you think muslims adn Arabic people are terrorists then i am one leave this blog and block me if you don’t like it

This is my blog and i will always speak up about it if it makes you uncomfortable then this is not the space for you i do not stand for that

[iamanartichoke]

@sparklegemstone I am more or less in the same neighborhood as @delyth88, but I think way more "loosely" following the MCU. Frankly, in my brain/headcanon space as well as in practice, the MCU doesn't really exist after Endgame, outside of the Loki series. I did watch and thoroughly enjoy Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and I will probably watch whatever comes out next for the Captain America franchise (and, depending on how I feel about it, will either continue to follow those characters or mentally place them with TFATW as the end of their canon). I also watched and enjoyed Spiderman (the multiverse one), but Peter's ending really made me sad and made me grieve for the loss of Tony Stark even more bc I loved his relationship/mentorship with Peter, so I haven't really invested much emotional energy in that and probably won't follow further installments of that franchise.

Love and Thunder exists, so there's that, but I never did see it. To be honest, I wanted to be optimistic about it, and tried to be, but my hopes for it were never genuinely high and it wasn't hard to just ... avoid it, basically. Especially after reviews/reactions started coming out. As much as I wanted to see Thor's story continue (and see Christian Bale existing), I knew deep down I wasn't going to like how he was portrayed, and I knew it would probably upset me, so I just decided to not. Not see it, not think about it, not consider it or factor it into how I characterize (or headcanon) Thor. It worked really well and spared me a lot of wasted negative energy.

Aside from that, though, I echo what @delyth88 said -

I had strong love/hate feelings for IW and Endgame and connections with the characters built up over the years, and once those stories ended I've found it harder to be intensely engaged ... I'm interested in the multiverse plot and seeing where they go with that, but I haven't yet found myself invested in any particular character as much as I have been for Loki or Tony Stark.

^^ For me, the love/hate is more tied to IW than Endgame - frankly, the only thing I liked about Endgame was Thor (to an extent) - but I do acknowledge and accept both films as the "end of an era," so to speak. Ultimately, I was/am Loki trash but I thoroughly enjoyed and was invested in the OG Avengers as a whole and since that ended, I've been unable to get invested in any new characters. I haven't felt like any were particularly interesting or compelling enough to draw me in and, to be honest, even if there were, I'd be waiting for the character to be killed off or destroyed in some way and so I don't feel like it's worth the mental or emotional energy to even give it a shot.

This is intertwined with the constant barrage of content that the MCU has been hitting us with since 2021; I can't keep up, and if on the off chance there were a character I really liked and wanted to invest in, there'd just be too little content and/or too long of a time between "updates" for my adhd brain to tolerate. Say I got really into Moon Knight, for example - the content is limited to that series with little if any crossover, and if the series was renewed, it'll be years before the next installment airs. There's not enough supply to meet my demand, basically.

I am rambling, and I think what I'm trying to say is that aside from Loki, I don't feel like it's worth it to try following or investing in the MCU as it exists now bc frankly I don't think much of it is very good. Which is just my opinion, and a flawed one at that since I haven't seen most of it. But to me, it's like the pound cake at the end of the dessert table. There's nothing wrong with pound cake, objectively, but I don't care for it myself. It's bland and sometimes dry and falls apart and doesn't even fill you up; I eat pound cake and feel like I've ingested slightly heavy air. If I'm going to spend my time at the buffet, then I'm going to choose the end of the table with the chocolate chip cookies and the cupcakes with frosting, bc I know I like them, enjoy eating them, and feel full afterwards.

That's what's important to me, at this point in my life - I'm just very cognizant of time now, and how there never seems to be enough of it, and how if I'm going to spend my precious time engaging in fandom, then I need it to be fulfilling and beneficial to me. This ties into how I feel about fandom in general; I want to engage only to the extent that I get something worthwhile out of it and don't feel like I'm either wasting my time or actively making my mental health worse. I'm spending my time at the buffet at the cookies-and-cupcakes end of the table, basically. The pound cake may exist on the table, but it's there for the people who enjoy pound cake. I don't need any pound cake to continue enjoying my cookies, and I'm fine with that. It makes for an overall more enjoyable fandom experience, and I can fic, headcanon, and meta to my heart's content.

Anyway, so, yeah. @sparklegemstone and anyone else who wants to chime in, I'm curious to see what your thoughts are re: the MCU these days and how much you do or don't follow the new content. And thanks for asking!

@delyth88 @iamanartichoke our anyone else that wants to answer, I’m just curious where your interest is in the MCU these days. Do you watch all the new MCU films and shows? Or just Loki related things? Or something in between?

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What happens if Carlisle (pre or post BD) time travels back to early Volturi, either pre or post Didyme-murder?

Well, those are very different Carlisles, at least when it comes to Aro and the Volturi. Before Breaking Dawn he still considered himself Aro's friend and clearly respected the man. After, well, that went to hell.

Similarly, pre or post Didyme murder are very different points in time with very different outcomes.

For the sake of my sanity (and my interest) I'll say after Breaking Dawn, when Carlisle's at his most disillusioned with the Volturi and while Didyme's alive.

Carlisle's Dropped Back in Time

Carlisle is not amused.

He suddenly has no idea where he is, quickly realizes he has no idea when he is, and the world is very different from what he knows. Everyone's speaking a language he doesn't know, no one seems to have heard of any form of English he's ever spoken, and the secret doesn't even seem to be a concept.

Humans who run into him know exactly what he is and look upon him in reverent terror as a god who very easily could be angered or offended.

This last particularly disturbs Carlisle, as everywhere he goes this is the case, and he's not in out of the way, sheltered, communities. In a port city in the modern world, no one should be looking at him the way they are. The Volturi have either slipped significantly or they don't exist.

I imagine Carlisle, recognizing the landscape, makes his way to Volterra. Only, Volterra doesn't exist yet, even the Etruscan settlement doesn't exist yet. It starts to dawn on Carlisle that he's in either a parallel universe or back in time before the Volturi came into being.

With, of course, no feasible way to get home.

What Does Carlisle Do?

I imagine Carlisle thinks long and hard of what to do.

He first has to resign himself that there's no way back. I imagine this is after much searching and seeking out various prophets and the like. They all tell him he's stuck here, which isn't all that surprising. I imagine he continues to keep an eye out but relatively quickly gives up on the idea.

He believes the Volturi are necessary, but they always existed by the time he was alive. More, I think he'd doubt he has it in him to do what Aro did. Carlisle may be able to create a Volturi with less rampant corruption but... to rule the world takes a man that Carlisle doesn't want to be.

Carlisle does not wish to be emperor.

However, he doesn't think things can last as they are and he knows the evils that will come about if there are no Volturi. So, I imagine he steels himself and starts planning how to do this, alone, with no coven, and no gift.

I imagine he first tries the most ridiculous and sure to fail tactic: talk to the great covens and try to get them on the animal diet. It's never worked before but damn it all it might work now.

This is how Aro eventually finds him.

Aro Finds Him

Well, to be expected, Carlisle's plan is a bust. Athena merrily laughs in his face and thinks he's the world's most delightful fool. Carlisle may even become a minor deity because the gods find him so damn amusing. Carlisle, of course, flails in agony and tries to insist he follows the Judean faith (given this is long before Christianity comes into being) but this just makes them laugh harder.

So, Carlisle gets to be the patron god of fools.

Rumor spreads rampantly and Aro, who at this point is still derping around with Didyme and they've maybe picked up Marcus, hears about this guy and is intrigued.

A young, non-petrified, Aro appears out of nowhere on Carlisle's doorstep with a sister saying, "Hi, I hear you live off livestock, that's wild, man." And Carlisle's eyes boggle. Aro looks so... young.

Carlisle, of course, has a miniature internal crisis as he's confronting an Aro who is not the Aro he knew and there's a lot of mixed feelings rolling around inside of him.

Aro and Didyme stare, concluding Carlisle's one weird guy.

Aro likely then gets into that he thinks he and Carlisle have this same idea. See, Aro doesn't think all this is sustainable, the human race that is, and what he thinks they should do is form a super coven and topple the very gods and make vampires a secret. It sounds crazy, he knows, but he thinks it will work. Certainly will work better than Carlisle's plan of trying to make everyone a monk.

Somewhere in the middle of this, Aro touches Carlisle's hand and gets to have his own internal crisis. He sees that a) his plan will work (hooray), b) how his coven functions in the very distant almost incomprehensible future, c) himself aging in the only way vampires can, d) an eerie lack of Didyme in his life to the point where she's never even mentioned, e) that this Carlisle fellow is the love of his life, a lover, and that they had the world's largest falling out that Carlisle still isn't sure how to handle. And Aro, only seeing things from Carlisle's point of view, has to guess where it all went wrong and why Aro would take the actions he seemed to take.

"Oh," Aro says dumbly and has to try to explain to Didyme, "See, this man's from thousands of years in the future, and hey we're successful, and um... Oh."

Nobody knows what to say after that.

Aro Feels Bad Over Actions He Hasn't Taken

Aro decides to make up for Future Aro. Carlisle insists this isn't necessary (now that he knows Aro exists he wants to go be a hermit and never talk to anyone again.) Aro insists that Carlisle join his squad and that Aro will keep an eye out for ways to return Carlisle to his timeline (even though Carlisle's timeline is a depressing place).

Against his better instincts, mostly because he actually does have nothing better to do, Carlisle finds himself joining the Volturi.

Aro and he I imagine, as the Volturi gets going, try to dissect just why Aro would do what he seemed to do (again, Carlisle lacking certain information). Aro can't understand it either and Carlisle is eventually able to look past the younger Aro being Aro. He hasn't done any of what he did and it doesn't seem like he's going to. It's weird how young he is though.

Didyme is also a strange concept to Carlisle.

Carlisle never knew Aro had a sister, and he thought he knew him pretty well. The woman was never mentioned and Marcus was... Marcus.

Eventually, Marcus and Didyme attempt to elope and I imagine Carlisle convinces Aro to let them do it. They'll come back but even if they don't then the price isn't worth it.

They probably do come back due to Aro finding Chelsea not long after, as Aro's then able to make them stay, but I imagine it's a very tense moment.

Otherwise I imagine Carlisle finds it bizarre to be on this end of history, watching as it all comes together (things like Caius joining up because he wants to beat up the Romanians.)

[nonegenderleftpain]

I'm going through a faith crisis, found one of your posts answering a similar question, and I just figured. I would send one.

I was raised vaguely Christian, I went to church and bible camp in the summer and all that, very very Christian area. We have five churches and only got a dollar store 5 years ago. It's Christianity or nothing around here.

Around the age of 11-12 I think, I learned about judaism and jewish people, and I became interested, but one of the first things I remembered seeing was something basically saying you can't convert so I stopped there, because I felt bad.

I got interested in Islam for a while, but it wasn't for me after about a year of learning off and on.

Then I learned about the Satanic temple, and I consider myself a satanist. Everyone in my life knows I am a satanist, I am passionate about it, I'm an agnostic, though leaning much more athiest.

However, recently, I'm not sure why, but my interest in Judaism sparked again And frankly it's bringing me to tears. I've been crying for a little over an hour now while looking into Judaism and becoming so interested and frankly falling in love with it.

But again, where I love, there's only Christianity. The nearest synagouge is miles and miles away, I can't drive and frankly I'm almost sure my parents will not accept me in this way and drive me to a synagouge anyway.

I'm at a lost for what to do. I feel bad asking jewish people for help, I know it puts you in a weird position I'm sure, but if anything I just want to know, what do I do?

That's a very hard situation to be in, and I'm sorry you're stuck in it. I was raised Catholic, in a town where there were no other options, just like yours. I didn't even meet a Jew until I started college. I also converted to Satanism after leaving xtianity, and I understand the fear of not being accepted. Most of my family doesn't know that I've converted, despite it being well over a year now. I feel less safe being open with them about my religion than I do being open with them about being trans. I feel your struggle and you are not alone.

As for what you should do, there are several things I would suggest. The beauty of today's internet is that many, many temples stream their services online. This would allow you a first step - a means of sitting in and observing, seeing what service is about and being in that space as a guest. See if the closest synagogue to you has their services streamed and request a link for them.

The next step (and one I suggest you take at the same time as seeking out access to online services) is to reach out to a rabbi. Rabbis are teachers, not priests - they are educated Jews who go to rabbinical school to learn halacha, theology and history. Sitting down with your local Rabbi (I speak with mine online since I am unable to drive often and we are both very busy) and explaining your situation to them and your interest in Judaism will gain you the community connection you need to move forward and take down the barriers between you and accessing a temple. I would suggest reaching out to a Reform congregation, as that's what I know most about, but that's not really necessary - agnosticism is very common in all sects of Judaism short of the ultra-orthodox, and belief is not a requirement for conversion.

The third step I'd suggest is getting your hands on a few books on Judaism. I always suggest "To Life!" by Rabbi Harold Kushner and "Choosing a Jewish Life" by Anita Diamant as a jumping off point. If you're down for heavier reading, "Jewish Literacy" by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is an incredible book. It's well over 600 pages, but it is broken down into very digestible and intriguing chunks that make it easy to read. Jews are the people of the book, and there is not a more universal Jewish experience than study. You Rabbi will absolutely suggest more books, but these three are pretty universally loved.

Trying to find your way into the Jewish people is a hard road, especially with the rise of antisemitism worldwide. There's a lot to learn, and you will never know everything. You are painting a target on your back, and you will need to be very aware of that. If a rabbi turns you away, it will be because of tradition and concern for you choosing to become a Jew in a time so dangerous for us, not because they do not want you there. Be persistent and polite, and ask them what they need from you. They will know much better than I will.

It is not an easy path to take or decision to make. I feel the consequences of my choice daily in everything I do - good and bad. I've dealt with racialized violence as a white person for wearing my kippah outside and giving what is considered a racial indicator to antisemites. But I can also say that it has been worth it in every way. I have found a community, my soul has found rest at Sinai, and I know myself better than I ever have before. I don't know if I believe in Hashem, but I believe in the Jewish people. And I believe in you.

Behatzlacha, friend.