Hymn to Womanly Dionysos
I praise the God who runs with wild women,
She who takes joy in their forms,
Who Herself bears long hair, soft skin, delicate lashes,
Dionysos of womanly epithets,
Who wore long dresses in Her youth.
I praise Dionysos who runs with the Maenads,
Who surrounds Herself with ever-present holy wild women,
Reveling in their company,
Dancing under the sacred darkness at night,
By day feasting on wine and honey and milk.
Come to me now, O gently blessed one,
Whether Your head is laid in the lap of Your beloved wife Ariadne,
Who traces Your lips with Her own gentle hands,
Or whether You are lying in flowered meadows with maenads,
Who themselves rejoice in Your feminine form.
Bless me with an ever-present sense of peace,
Bless me with the love of women,
Bless me with perfect joy in my own gender.
May Your gentle cow-like eyes always behold me with kindness,
May Your hands hold mine when I sorrow,
And when the world raises a hand against me,
May I hide behind Your flowing skirts,
And may Your thyrsos be raised in my defense.
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as much as i understand shigaraki's death, narratively speaking, i'm also so goddamn tired of society needing martyrs.
what made me fall in love with shigaraki is that he's an excellent villain. all his character development built towards him becoming a more competent, driven, effective villain. he became an incredible symbol of fear just as deku became an incredible symbol of peace. this is who he was, in entirety. there is nothing else shigaraki could be.
when shigaraki told izuku, in his final moments, to pass on the message to spinner that "shigaraki fought to destroy until the very end," it really emphasized how it would have dishonored him to be vegeta'd, as it were.
shigaraki made it his mission to tear down hero society. this was his noble mission. this is what made him a hero to the league of villains. because he saw the systemic evils, he saw the evils that hurt his friends, and sought to destroy it all.
there's something to be said about trying to change someone who doesn't want to change, but for shigaraki, it was more than just trying to rehabilitate him from mass murdering. because to him, and the league of villains, what he was doing WAS the right thing. to tell shigaraki not to destroy would be akin to telling deku not to save. "you may not understand, but that's what makes me the villain."
there was a binary choice here: either he'd be left free to complete his mission and destroy everything, or he'd be stopped, permanently.
Izuku, by reaching tenko's heart, but ultimately stopping shigaraki, was choosing the only third option he had: declaring that he would not let all of society be destroyed, but not without promising that he'd do everything he can to reform it here on out.
shigaraki destroys. deku saves.
that's it. that's the bnha narrative in its most basic foundation. horikoshi did not fail to tell that story.
I think what ultimately fucking sucks about this ending is that it's too realistic. society often DOES need a martyr - or often martyrs - to realize that they fucked up, that they let an evil persist too long. they need a shocking enough tragedy to point to and swear they'll never let it happen again. society needs to be rocked to its very core before people can be motivated to get their heads out of their asses and work together towards reforms.
and that in itself is an evil, that people can't see how much harm they're causing or condoning without some horrific tragedy.
i think we're all mad at horikoshi for failing to follow through on the story because we didn't WANT the realistic ending. we wanted the hopeful one. the against all odds one. we didn't want another story about society using the image of martyrs to get its shit together. because we already know that story. and we're so so so tired of it.
especially when we know it only leads to a temporary peace.
because people forget. they put in enough reforms to feel good, and then get comfortable and ignorant again. when does that cycle end? when can we finally notice the evil in time to PREVENT it? so that everyone, 'heroes and villains,' get a happy ending?
I think our anger with the bnha ending is good. we want different - not just in fiction, but in real life. we're willing to hope for different. we should hold onto hope and fight for different.
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Does Ludovica's girlfriend has a name so far? Its hard imagining scenarios of them with one of them being unnamed, so I thought of using either Beatrice or Artemisa as a placeholder (which I think it would be a nice contrast to Machete's catholicism vibe, a name deviated from a "pagan" goddess, also LudoMisa is a cute shipname :)
I think I better get a good grasp on what she looks like first, and then see what name would suit her.
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