#im just fascinated by the odd dynamics of their social group

[burningvelvet]

“Lines to ⸻.” also known as “Sonnet to Byron” written by Percy Shelley (1821, fair-copied in 1822) and published posthumously. Shelley had threatened to give up writing due to his lack of success. Byron’s fame and Shelley’s great admiration for his recent works often frustrated Shelley and worsened his depression, despite Byron generally encouraging him. In an early draft below, Shelley began with the line “I am afraid these verses will not please you, but” before seemingly drawing over it with trees.

“If I esteemed you less, Envy would kill

Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair

The ministration of the thoughts that fill

My mind, which, like a worm whose life may share

A portion of the unapproachable,

Marks your creations rise as fast and fair

As perfect worlds at the creator’s will,

And bows itself before the godhead there.

But such is my regard, that, nor your fame

Cast on the present by the coming hour

Nor your well-worn prosperity and power

Move one regret for his unhonoured name

Who dares these words. — the worm beneath the sod

May lift itself in worship to the God.”

The fair-copy was made about six months before Shelley, Edward Williams, and their boatman Charles Vivien all died in a sailing wreck during a storm while returning from visiting Lord Byron and Leigh Hunt. Thomas Medwin said that Byron never saw the poem, and it’s likely, given that it was never shared or published until long after Byron died (about two years after Shelley).

Sources: Percy’s handwritten draft from the Digital Bodleian Library, MS. Shelley adds. e. 17 p. 94 https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/0f0cba27-6264-4c4e-8b03-3a83c700c1f5/surfaces/1d16ddc7-3cf9-4c96-b435-36f2077168d1/ - Percy’s handwritten fair copy from the British Library Digitized Manuscripts Collection, Zweig MS 188 https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Zweig_MS_188&index=16 - Transcriptions from The Manuscripts of the Young Romantics: Percy Shelley, vol. 8 (Garland, 1997) https://archive.org/details/faircopymanuscri0008shel/page/249/mode/1up?q=Sonnet+

[weapon13whitefang]

if beth comes back this season, what episode do you think she'd come back in?

S8E5 or S8E8

Why? Well, time for some delusional rambling thoughts I’ve had.

Y’all can blame @bethgreenewarriorprincess and @bethgreeneishopeunseen for this because sometimes I go through and see just what has the Team Defiance people so damn excitable and I think “I can kinda get behind that” or “I get what you’re saying but I feel like you stepped to quick into a sinkhole, friend”.

With TD, I keep seeing stuff about Mirrors. And mirrors keep sticking to me because I have a fascination with the use of mirrors in films, in history, and in superstitions. Mirrors are just fascinating.

I’ve talked about these before, but here are some things I like about Mirror superstitions

If a mirror falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will soon die.

Someone seeing their reflection in a room where someone has recently died will soon die themselves.

Breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. This superstition dates back to the Romans, who believed that life renewed itself every seven years and that breaking a mirror would thus cause damage to the soul it was reflecting at the time for that duration. It was also inforced by the rich in the 1700s due to mirrors once being extremely expensive to afford and was meant to scare a worker from breaking the mirror or they’d owe the owner seven years of their life to pay it off.

Some ancient cultures believe that mirrors reflected the ‘shadow soul,’ and could show the true nature of the person being reflected.

In the Jewish religion, it is important to cover all mirrors in a house where someone has died while the family is sitting Shivah (the seven-day mourning period). It is said that if the mirrors aren’t covered, the spirit of the deceased may become trapped in one and not be able to move on to the afterlife.

Some cultures insist that mirrors should be covered at night and when people in the house are sleeping, to make sure that a dreamer’s wandering soul doesn’t get trapped in one. In Serbo-Croatian culture, a mirror was sometimes buried with the dead, both to prevent the spirit from wandering and to keep evil men from rising.

One legend says that viewing a mirror by nothing but candlelight will show you your reflection – and that of any entities inhabiting your home, be they ghosts or otherwise (Hence the whole Bloody Mary thing).

Ideally, no mirror should be hung so low that it “cuts off” the tallest household member’s head because doing so may cause headaches.

Mirrors were often used in magical and psychic rituals for scrying – remotely viewing another person or place – and communicating. They could also be used in magical rituals of divination – fortune telling and reading of the future. 

Ancient Chinese believed that mirrors frightened away evil spirits who were scared by their own appearance. If the mirror was broken, the protection was lost.

Mirrors have also been used in many cases of literature. Here’s to name a few:

Snow White by The Brothers Grimm

The Queens Magic Mirror

The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Lady is condemned to watch the world indirectly, via a mirror that exhibits to her the shifting scenes of Camelot.

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Alice steps through the mantel place mirror into a reverse world. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Jonathan Harker realizes he’s in trouble when he can’t see Dracula’s reflection in a mirror.

Richard II by William Shakespear

Richard calls for a mirror to smash just before he’s about to be removed by Henry

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

The Mirror of Erised (The Mirror of Desire) is mentioned by Dumbledore to show the “deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.” and has been known to drive men mad.

Mirrors are used in films, television, songs, art, books, and common objects found around many households. There are superstitions and legends and all kinds of shit that float around mirrors… And to me that’s fascinating. So you can imagine why the concept of mirrors speaks to me in all this craze.

Now you asked, which episode do I see as being the return episode. I gave you two answers, but my first one is the main belief because of the fact that 8x5 is episode 5x8 backward… Episode 5x8 was “CODA”, the episode where Beth was shot down. Episode 8x5 is supposed to be called “THE BIG SCARY U” (Very odd name they have coming for these next few episodes in fact - “Some Guy”, “The Big Scary U”, “The King, The Widow, and Rick”, and ”Count to 5″)

I say 5x8 because everyone wants to talk about “Alice Through The Looking Glass” - a book I mentioned above - where Alice walks through the mirror above the mantel place and ends up in a world that’s a reverse (a backward) world of the one she knows.

Which would play into this theme of “what was isn’t what is”, to put it in simple terms. We saw that with Morales’ return. Morales was a friend of Rick and Daryl’s, but now he is Negan (Well technically he ain’t shit now cause he’s dead but you get what I mean).

Basically, I’m thinking that Beth coming back could play out as a reverse of the last time we saw her. The last episode we saw Beth alive was in 5x8. What could happen is that in 8x5 we get a full on, no doubt about it, reveal of Beth being alive. I don’t know what she’s doing or where she is… But we get this shot that openly proves to everyone watching, that we are seeing Beth Greene. No words are said. And it’s not a long enough shot to give us too much. But it’s her. We see Beth shot down at the end of CODA… What if we see her standing up and alive at the end of THE BIG SCARY U? That is a reverse of what we saw in 5x8. 

8x8 is me wondering if they’re going to play Beth as a Coda again. At the end of season 5A, Beth died. But at the beginning of 5B, Beth appears again as a sickness mind trip of Tyreese in 5x9. S5E8 was the 59th episode overall of TWD. 

S8E8 will be the 107th episode of TWD overall. That’s 48 episodes between them… For those of you who find significance in the importance of numbers and their meaning, here are a few things about 48 you can read (x).

The overall thing I took from that is the following:

The number 48 is especially adept with visual and auditory artistic expression — painting, sculpting, decorating, music, and so forth.

Although business oriented, 48 is even more a social number. It supports and encourages the creative expression of others. And it tends to raise the level of optimism when participating in activities of a group.

The energy the number 48 represents includes imagination, effective communication, tolerance, joyfulness, optimism, and dynamism.

Take what you will from that… But if we wanna be fair to 8x5, that’s 45 episodes between them. And from the same link above, reading about 45, here;’s the things that stuck out to me:

If the number 45 is in the heart’s desire position of the chart, it means the person really, really wants to do something with a large positive impact on the welfare of humanity.

If the number 45 is in the personality position of the chart, it means the person tends to present themselves as a tolerant and humanitarian individual.

With a number 45 prominent somewhere in a person’s environment, interpret the situation as if it included humanitarianism, idealism, getting things done, and/or whim.

These two numbers both represent tolerance and encouragement of getting something done and helping out a group… Seems pretty accurate for what is going down and what is needed.

Anyway, what I see possibly happening is that in 8x8 we hear Beth’s voice or we see a distorted image of her. Kind of like how she’s not really there when Tyreese is dying. How she’s not the one driving the truck, but Rick. Someone may see Beth but instead of it being her, the person thinks it’s just them going crazy or hearing/seeing shit. In 8x8 could be 5x9′s reverse/backward world and then in 8x9 we have a full shot of Beth and then 5x10 could be a flashback series… Basically it could go backwards. We last saw her in Sasha’s flashback and before that it was as Tyreese’s delusion and then before that it was Coda as a limp “corpse” in Daryl’s arms. Maybe this time it’s all backwards.

Im starting to ramble.. Sorry, Nonny! This was longer than i meant it to be. Didn’t mean to dump that on you!