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dragon-communion · 1 year

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While on the one hand, Fia’s sessions of “taking lifely vigor” from the Tarnished are definitely implied to be sex, and I find it hilarious that this is a situation where the devs probably bapped GRRM on the nose and told him to calm down, what if I roll with the implication?

It’s implied in a previous version of the Turtle Neck Meat item that people in the Lands Between just don’t have sex anymore. It’s too feral. Bestial. Might even have something to do with the birth of Omen children, actually, considering how such an animal act might bring one closer to the Crucible.

So what if extended hugging sessions are that scandalous and vulgar? Spending a minute in the arms of another person being worse than a glimpse of Victorian ankle has some fascinating implications for society in the Lands Between. If physical contact itself is base and hedonistic, can you imagine how touch starved everyone is?

One of the major problems in modern day America is how distant everyone is. While the Lands Between might not have the same issues with a lack of third places or the consequences of car-focused city planning, our level of general societal paranoia compounded with the advent of COVID means we just don’t touch eachother at all ever. This is grossly simplified because I’m too lazy to go get sources, so feel free to fact check me, but part of the focus on getting yourself a romantic partner is so folks can finally have someone it’s acceptable to get positive physical touch from. Failing that, getting into a sport at least earns you a more violent facsimile of that.

In the Lands Between, where society is focused on being a civilized as possible, it would make sense (a la Brave New World by Huxley) for society to try to eliminate sex and its trappings. Given Elden Ring’s heavy Catholic themes, celibacy also takes on a religious twist- Augustine of Hippo “taught that original sin was transmitted by concupiscence”, or physical desire and longing. To quote briefly from Wikipedia, “The view of the Church is that celibacy is a reflection of life in Heaven, a source of detachment from the material world which aids in one's relationship with God.”

Looking at Queen Marika the Eternal makes it painfully obvious to the player that she’s not even a creature of flesh anymore, twisted into something like a glorified clay pot or even a reliquary for the Elden Ring. We don’t know much about what she was like beyond a few queenly speeches, but whether she was always literally a vessel like that or not, the no doubt popular image of her as a vessel of life could have easily changed over the years from something very physical to the more chaste implications of the female water-bearer statues or iconography of her pouring out a chalice. People do still swear by Marika’s tits, so obviously physical desire might still exist, but my recent theorizing on crystal tears and amber babies really puts me in mind of the sterilized process in Brave New World where disembodied ovaries are fertilized in a lab via cloning. There’s something there in the imagery of the baptismal fonts around the Erdtree collecting tears that become new births.

The whole arrangement might also put a new spin on the gladiatoral games in the Coliseums, and to some extent Marika’s warlike drive. People crave contact, and the high of violence can be close enough to sex to mimic it, though poorly. I think everyone has probably made jokes about how American football has some undertones, and pro wrestling is the same. The most obvious example is dog collar matches, which look so close to BDSM as to be nearly indistinguishable to me.

With all of that in mind, the unmistakable intimacy of Fia’s actions might actually be as degenerate and twisted to modern Lands Between sensibilities as pup masks and handcuffs to the modern day American. What she offers is a gentle hug, perhaps even extended cuddling, and pillow talk. It’s stated that Rogier says “all sorts of things” abed, and while it’s easy to take that to a more physical interpretation, it could actually literally be Fia playing with the man’s hair for an hour until every single thought falls out of his head. When she makes the offer to you, she has to couch it carefully, framed in the ideas of a foreign interpretation of the sacred as if the only way it can be legitimate is if it is a sacred act, as if that’s the only way you’ll be able to understand it. Like when we argue for gay marriage and couch it in the language of romantic equality, because surely everyone can empathize with romantic equality, when the real physical benefits involve insurance and hospital visitation rights.

Anyway, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about.

#elden ring #elden ring theory #elden ring lore

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hostilecandle · 3 months

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🍏 and 🍈 for the writer asks pls!

God I'm so sorry for this ramble 🙏😅

🍏 Is there something you overuse, whether it’s a certain phrase, trope, or piece of punctuation-

Religious Imagery 😅 lmaoooo. I overuse that shit SOOO much. It's in every single fic I've ever written. Doesn't matter fluff or smut or what fandom, I always find a way to work it into the main themes. Literally writing a long af Price x Reader and its title is taken from Psalms 😅😅 I grew up a gay man in a Catholic military family in the Midwest of the United States. Gotta funnel that experience somewhere, so fics it is :D

🍈 Who’s your blorbo and what are some of your favorite headcanons/ideas about them that repeatedly show up in your fics-

Okay this said free pass to ramble about blorbo so I will be taking that opportunity here lol, so my apologies i have many thoughts about this man. I'll use CoD bc it's the fandom I'm in rn so I gotta say John Price (Both the og and reboot though I'm just gonna refer to the reboot Price for this). This man does things to my brain that need to be studied under a microscope I swear 😵‍💫😵‍💫 I have a whole ass character study of him written that's several pages long and I'm still not done.

Headcannons for him (some I've written, some just vibes):

-This man SCREAMS a good ol future midwestern dad type in the making to me. He loves to hunt and fish. He loves the solitude and quiet of both activities, even if he doesn't get anything. Its just peaceful. There is always a beer in the fridge for when the game is on. When he's got a family/partner/retired (whatever you'd prefer), he's a yard guy (yall know the type). I just feel like he cannot sit still when he's home. He's gotta be doing something with himself after years of keeping busy. He's got all the fun toys like a riding mower that is so unnecessary for the yard size but makes him happy. He's always outside in the spring/summer doing something to the yard and god forbid the grass get too tall. He's also not big on socializing with neighbors, a very much a keep to himself and/or his family kinda guy, but he's always SO polite and the ladies in his neighborhood love him.

-From my own homelife experience but it just feels so Price, when he's home he's AWFUL about just leaving his firearm on the counter or coffee table or bed side. Just wherever he remembered to take it off and set down and it's just another thing to forget where he set it like his phone and wallet. Speaking of, he's terrible about losing his phone/keys/wallet/etc. He has a little dish by the entry that he swears he puts it all into but they're never there when he goes to leave and he has to scramble to find them every time

-He's a coffee drinker (black with just a little sugar) and unironically loves to read the paper whenever he gets the chance. He's a small talker and enjoys it, he talks about the weather, gas prices, taxes, and match scores. He gets bored easily when just waiting around and will chat with just about anyone

-He has horrific night terrors and carries a lot of guilt for things he's done in his job. He firmly believes it was all necessary and worth it for the greater good but he wrestles with himself a lot. I personally like to think when Gaz pushes him on it after the interrogation in MW, it actually rattled him a bit. Not because he felt any guilt necessarily for what had just happened (I don't think he felt any in that instance), but because that's one of the first times someone else has pressed him on his moral convictions. "You draw the line where you need it" is not a belief that comes from nowhere or from a man who hasn't wrestled with himself and asked himself the very same questions Gaz was throwing at him. He meant every word he said though and while I feel guilt will catch up to him in the late hours of the night some nights after years of living like this, he fully believes he's justified in everything he does and it's integral to his character and who John Price is as a person

-He's a staunch atheist. Baptized but never believed in a God really anyways but after the things he's seen, he can't find it in himself to even entertain the thought. That being said, in the bottom of his desk is one of those old fashioned crosses that's hollow that holds holy water and one's last will and testament. Obviously being in the military there's already the records of his will but keeps that in his desk regardless because on the off chance he's wrong about there not being a God, it doesn't hurt to be safe.

He's SUCH a Girl Dad™ in the making. He would THRIVE with having a daughter. I'm talking the tea parties, tiaras, letting her put makeup on him, his nails, all of it. He'd support her in any endeavors growing up and would do his damndest to be in the crowd any chance he can get. He'd be her biggest fan. Pictures of her on his desk, in his wallet. Always bragging about his daughter when he gets the chance because he'd be so proud of her

He's a salt of the earth kinda guy. Just has very classic masculinity. Like he's a Man™ and takes pride in it. But its in the, "I'm gonna take care of everything because this is how I care for what's important to me" way. He enjoys being the handyman around the house and who people come to because they respect him. He has a Project Car in the garage that he swears he'll get to and the back is littered with power tools and lumber

(Okay this parts not headcannon because he not old, he's only 37!!) He's actually very tech savvy and likes things to be as up to date as he can get so everything runs smooth.

He feels personally responsible for the wellbeing of the other main 3 of 141 but not in a fatherly way like people think, but these men are his brothers and he hand picked them, he has so much faith in their abilities. (However he unwittingly becomes a mentor figure to Soap very much against his knowledge and will lol)

He had to shave once for an Op and the boys ragged him so hard he refuses to ever shave again. Genuinely fucked him up a bit lol

He has a temper. He's got a good lid on it 99% of the time but its always simmering underneath

Has a wicked sense of humor. Most people don't know or recognize it but he's actually the funniest person in the 141. He's always cracking jokes to break the tension but he says it with such a straight face before breaking into smile to let you know he's joking.

#okay ill probably leave it there #thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble about price #ask game #call of duty #john price #cain talks

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ladyduellist · 30 days

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✨Writing Interview Tag Game✨

Tagged by: @roguishcat @busy-baker @preciouslittlebhaalbae

Thanks guys! I really adored some of your answers on your own interview questions.

When did you start writing?

Sometime when I was kid. I wrote a lot up into my teenage years, creating stories and poetry—even taking creative writing courses—but then dropped it. I picked up writing sometime back in 2016 when I started to RP in FFXIV, but didn't take it seriously. However, for the last year, I have been full speed ahead in a way I never have before!

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I like to weave in nonfiction books such as history, art, or autobiography/biography into my reading rotation to keep my brain sharp. However, I wouldn't scoff at writing about some of those subjects!

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I don't get compared to other writers to my knowledge, but I've been told many times that my work takes on a very lyrical/poetic approach! This is probably due to the fact that when I was growing up, I used to habitually read Shakespeare, Homer, and other classic lit authors in my spare time. So, the influence from their writing has absolutely influenced my own.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I wish I had a fancier space to write in that has all these cute aesthetics surrounding a desk, but I typically write on my phone or I'm on the couch using my gaming laptop.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Observing life, art, pictures, the outdoor world. I'm a big daydreamer, so I'm constantly sifting through details in my head.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

I think my major reoccurring theme has to be working through life and trying to find your way through it while healing and connecting with others.

Human beings are complex creatures when it comes to our actions or thoughts, so I like to keep that in mind while I write. One of the main thoughts that passes through my head when I'm writing about a character is: no matter how many times I can say I wouldn't behave or say some of the things they do, you really don't know until you're in their shoes.

I really love peeling character's layers back to dig into everything they are.

I’m sure people will notice I also tend to gravitate towards using a lot of religious imagery or symbolism in my works. Religion and spirituality, in some fashion, has been with me from the day I was born. People do both good and bad things with their devotion and I find it therapeutic to explore these ideas in my writing to wrestle my own thoughts on the subject.

What is your reason for writing?

I have to put all these idea somewhere! But, I just like it. Writing makes me feel good and helps me to challenge myself and my imagination. It's fun and I'm so grateful I've found it again!

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Literally all comments—even if it's just a bunch of emojis. I just feel beyond fortunate anytime someone reads my work and let's me know they did!

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I tend to be a quiet person in real life, so I hope my readers will think of me as an authentic and genuine person that's just looking to share her creativity with the world.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Descriptions and feelings. I could write on for days about both of those!

Dialogue is one I want to get better at as it doesn't come naturally to me.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I think every writer is their own worst critic. There have been chapters I've released that I don't like and readers have expressed it was their favorite or I've written pieces that I'm unsure of, but has probably demonstrated my best writing.

But, I try to keep in mind that writing is full of seasons. You're always progressing, improving, and changing what you know about yourself in that regard. You adjust as you go. You educate yourself as you go. Give yourself grace and understanding. Writing will always be there when you wish to use it.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

A think its a mix of both in some regard. Yes, I'm writing for myself—these are my ideas after all—but I also have to keep my readers interested somewhat in what they're reading. Always write for yourself first and foremost, but don't take your audience for granted if you want them to stick around!

#writing game #writing #writing interview

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banannabethchase · 2 years

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Adam smears Moxley's blood across his chest during the match, and it awakens something unexpected in him. He shouldn't be surprised when Mox has the same idea.

Title inspired by Tell Me It's a Nightmare by Kim Petras. Fic exists exclusively because of Hangman smearing Mox's blood on his chest, then doing that unnecessary burpee post match. What's a writer supposed to do, ignore that blatant display of homoeroticism?! Also, talk to your partners before doing anything of this caliber. Communication is key, and these two dopes could be a lot better about it. E rated. Warnings for: blood kink, graphic depictions of violence one would expect in wrestling, biting, religious imagery. I just. I warned y'all.

Mini playlist: Dirty Thoughts - Chloe Adams Tell Me It's a Nightmare - Kim Petras Martyr - KiNG MALA Flesh - Simon Curtis

Adam’s never been a fan of seeing his own blood. It’s run in rivulets down his face, arms, chest, back, more times than he can count now, his business being one of violence, but he’s always been rather displeased at the sight of it.

As he smears Moxley’s blood on his chest, though, he realizes discontent is only his response to seeing his own blood. Something primal, animalistic, rears up inside him as he uses Mox’s blood like war paint, and he finds a new purpose in the match. He’s gotta get whatever the fuck this is out of his system, preferably in pinning Moxley to the ground. Hopefully his dick will get the message and he’ll be over and done with it.

It’s unfortunate, then, that Mox manages to pin him with a roll up.

Adam flails out of his grasp, all kinds of energy flooding through him at the way Mox’s blood has coated him through the match, and wants to commit varying inappropriate acts in the ring as he processes that he somehow lost to a roll up.

“Calm down,” Claudio says, running into the ring. “The match is over!”

Adam scoffs. Like he could be calm right now.

He thinks burpee might be a little excessive, truly, but he has so much welling up inside him that he had to get some of it out. It’s not enough. The need to defeat Moxley, to feel more than just his blood, washes over him like waves of hot desperation. Before it shows in his face or actions, Adam leaves the ring, the public eye. But he can’t resist one look behind him. And another.

He ignores the sympathetic looks of the people working backstage and dives right into the shared locker room. Ethan Page, Matt Hardy, and Isiah Kassidy eye him as he walks in, but, after he glares at them, they leave. The room is empty, and he’s finally able to yell.

He can still tastes Mox’s blood on his lips, can feel it, still wet, on his arm. He punches a locker, unsure why he doesn’t just walk into the shower and wash off the evening. He reaches down and presses the heel of his palm against his cock, and wishes he wasn’t already this hard. He looks over to see Mox’s blood on his arm, and groans, desperate to get some sort of blow off. He glances around – still empty – and pushes at his cock again, a little hint of relief at the tension stored in every muscle in his body. He eyes a shower. It couldn’t hurt.

He steps into the shower, hesitant. He wants to keep these marks, proof of his hard fought battle, all over him. He wants to get his hands on Moxley again, make him pay for that roll up, make him fight until they’re both covered in each other’s blood and sweat until one of them wins and they both roll over, exhausted, sated.

Images play across his vision as he slides his hand down his body. Moxley, covered in blood, dripping on him. Moxley under him as Adam licks streaks of blood up from his body. Adam groans at it, and gives up the façade. The water pounds across his back as he works himself up, slow strokes on his cock while he imagines it’s Mox’s mouth, his hand, anything. He uses his free hand to touch at the blood as it runs down his arm with the water, wishing it was more. Wishing he could taste the blood in Mox’s mouth as they kiss, as they fuck.

Adam turns his head, bites down on his arm to stifle the moan threatening. His hand, almost of its own volition, has tightened its grip, like he’s body is desperate to get some sort of resolution to the tension it’s been feeling for the past hour.

He comes like a tidal wave washing over him, messy across the shower and his hand. His knees nearly give out. It takes a moment to realize that the harsh, ragged sound is his own breathing through the patter of the shower against the stalls.

He cleans everything up, scrubs off the last remnants of the match and his desperation, but doesn’t get the satisfaction he’d been craving.

It’s not until the next week, when he’s here to support the Dark Order’s trios match, that he realizes it isn’t going to go away. He’s been antsy, on edge, the whole week, feeling the phantom of Moxley’s blood all over his body. He’s gotten himself off in every way he knows how, but he hasn’t been able to soothe the itch. And, unfortunately for him, he thinks he knows the only way that he can take care of it.

He’s able to take himself out of that space for the entirety of the Dark Order match, screaming and pounding the mat to encourage his boys to get the win. They do, and it helps, but Adam is itchy the second he’s off screen. He claps John, Alex, and Uno on the shoulders, celebrates with them in the back, but it’s over too soon, and he’s alone with his thoughts again.

He walks his way into the locker room, because, if it comes to it, he can get off in the shower again. Maybe that will keep his skin from crawling for a few minutes. He’s already straining against his jeans, feeling edged in a way he hasn’t in ages. It was always supposed to be just wrestling, just a job. But here he is, technically at work, with a raging boner. It doesn’t seem fair.

His plan fails; the locker room is jam packed and he doesn’t get a second of privacy for over an hour. Mox cuts a promo – lengthy, angry, rambling, on him, and it only ups the feeling of discomfort.

He needs to take the man apart with his teeth and lips.

Adam is considering just leaving and spending the night at hotel with his own imagination, but leaving feels wrong, somehow.

He fidgets constantly in the locker room as he watches the television in the corner, the room slowly losing wrestlers as the episode continues. He cheers for Takeshita, because the he secretly wants to wrestle him in the next few weeks. He eyes Jamie Hayter, because he’d like to take her on in an intergender match, either as a tag partner or one on one. Mostly, though, he’s terrible at creating distractions for himself. He can’t keep his mind away from that image of Moxley, stretched out on the ground, covered in blood. On display. For him.

The main event begins, and the locker room empties. Adam, once again, is alone with his annoying little thoughts, and the temptation to rewatch his match with Mox and get his hands in his pants.

He’s got his hand on his belt buckle, toying with the idea of throwing all caution to the wind and going for it, right here, when there’s the bang of a door. Adam turns, ready to swing. Too bad the face in front of him already bears the marks of his reactions. The cut’s healing well. Unfortunately. “Get out.” He’s too worked up to be embarrassed, and locks eyes with Mox as he drops his hand from his belt. He wants to adjust his pants, which are suddenly far too tight.

“It’s my locker room, too,” Moxley says. He rolls his shoulders. Adam can’t help but wish Mox were bleeding again, and he’s mad at himself for it. “What?”

“Nothing,” Adam grumbles. He doesn’t realize he’s got a hand rubbing at his shoulder, where Mox’s blood had stained it the week before. He doesn’t realize he can’t stop looking at the stitches on Mox’s face. He’s terribly aware, though, that he’s still got a hand the waistband of his pants, that Mox hasn’t walked away. “You fuckin’ went the coward’s way out with that finish last week, you know.”

Mox’s lips quirk in an awkward smile, something that looks a little strange with Adam’s memory of the blood dripping down his cheek. Adam wants to bite it off of him. “Still won, though.”

“Yeah,” Adam grumbles. The energy roiling inside of him is desperate to get out somehow, escalating and he’s not able to stop it. He walks up to Mox, going forehead to forehead again, the butterfly stitches a reminder pressed into his skin of the blood that coated Adam. He wants it all over him again. “That really how you want to claim victory?”

Mox pushes back at him, sending Adam stumbling a little bit backward. He bumps into a locker, and Mox grins at him. “Nah, not really. But I had to do what I had to do.” He licks his lips. “You were getting me good and I needed to pull out all the stops.” Mox reaches up, touches the stitches, and changes his grin to something a little dirtier, more competitive, less kind. “You got me distracted.”

Adam swallows. “Distracted, huh?”

Mox nods, and it’s impossible for Adam to miss the way his gaze drops to Adam’s lips. “You can’t paint yourself with my blood and not expect me to get off on it.”

Adam’s body washes with something cold and then a wave of heat. “Yeah?” He’s trying to match Mox’s tone, but he sounds a little too eager. “You liked that?”

Mox crowds into his space, breath inches from Adam’s lips. “I wasn’t the only one,” he growls. “Next time you can cut me open again.” He leans in to Adam’s neck, inhales deeply. “And maybe I’ll let you lick it off me backstage while I suck your dick.” Adam lets out the most involuntary of moans, and Mox pulls back, looking smug. “God, it’s always the good ones, isn’t it? Gotta get into the dirty sometime, huh?”

Adam leans forward with intentions directed entirely by his dick, but the door swings open and he stumbles forward into the space Mox used to be. Swerve and his cronies walk him, looking furious.

“What are you looking at?!” Minion 1, the one with the face tattoos, shouts.

“Somebody who just ruined a moment,” Adam grumbles. But he doesn’t want to get in a fight with somebody he definitely doesn’t want to fuck, so he steps back. Mox is already gone.

He finds himself, on the evening of Revolution 2023, involuntarily emulating Christ on the cross. He thinks it’s fitting, through a haze of pain and adrenaline, with the way he feels like he’s laying his life on the line every time he steps in the ring, the way he’s out here to the applause of others at his pain. Mox has his arms tied to the ropes with his belt and Adam’s. Mox has a handful of Adam’s hair and has his head tilted back as Mox’s teeth dig into the skin of his bicep.

Adam just hopes his boner is concealed in his pants.

He struggles against the pull of the belt, against the pull of Mox’s hand in his hair, and manages to get a leg up to knee Mox in the balls. Mox falls on the ground and Adam manages to kick him over. He leans over with his teeth, rips at the belt tie until it loosens, and he can get his right hand out. He gets the second hand undone and launches at Mox.

He’ll make sure Moxley regrets bringing the barbed wire bat into the ring. With a grin, his picks it up and twirls it in his hand, letting the cheers of the crowd soak into his skin. Mox is on his knees in front of him, mouth open in a silent gasp, and Adam licks his lips as he imagines the same setting with far fewer clothes.

Then he winds up and smacks Mox in the arm with the baseball bat. Mox crumples, blood blooming on his bicep and trickling down his arm in beautiful patterns. Adam grabs at it, squeezes, coats his hand in it. He grabs Mox’s face with his hand and turns it so he’s forced to meet Adam’s eyes. Slowly, deliberately, Adam licks the blood off the palm of his hand.

How fortunate they are that the ring mics can’t pick up the wanton moan Mox lets out.

Adam shoves him to the floor again and winds up, swinging for the fences down at Mox. He’s smarter than Adam wants him to be, though, and rolls out of the way. The bat slams into the floor and bounces back up, and Adam loses his grip. The bat flies somewhere outside the ring, and he’s left with his hands.

Mox launches at him with a spear and he bounces against the ropes, Mox’s arms around his waist. Mox pulls back and throws an elbow to the side of Adam’s head. It sends a shockwave through Adam’s entire body, reminiscent of the concussion in October. For a split second he worries he’s repeating history. But the world doesn’t go dark; it just goes red.

Mox falls off of him, and Adam raises his hand to touch at his face. Blood runs down his head into his eye, but it seems to be a small stream, and he’s able to wipe it away without much of an issue. He barely gets himself up to his hands and knees before Mox comes at him with a curb stomp, his head colliding with the ground, and Adam reminds himself to ask Mox someday if he only uses his exes’ finishers when he’s particularly horny.

The match continues. Adam goes through no fewer than two tables, but he drops Moxley onto a ladder, the time keeper’s desk, and a few chairs covered in barbed wire, so it’s pretty balanced. Mox looks stunning, streaked with red. His blue eyes stand out against the contrast. Adam wonders if he has the same look, the same crazed and wild expression in the eye.

It takes a deadeye from the top of a ladder onto a table, followed by a bulldog choke in the wreckage, to take Moxley down for good. Adam stands at three, but Moxley is still flat on the floor when Bryce counts ten. And Adam feels victorious. Before he can think better of it, Adam reaches down and drags his hand through the blood on Mox’s face, smearing it. He raises his bloody hand to a crowd of cheers, and drags the hand down the side of his neck, all the way across to his right hip.

“Alright, cool it, hotshot,” says Bryce. But he smiles as he raises Adam’s hand, a whisper of, “Congrats!” as Moxley walks away, aided by Claudio Yuta while Hangman celebrates for just a bit in the ring.

He thought, maybe, he’d have it out of his system with a win. He thought that craving was sated.

It only growls hungrier.

Adam gets himself backstage to the special locker room they’d set up for him and Moxley, with butterfly stitches and paramedics on standby, ready to care for any wounds. But Adam doesn’t want them. Not right now. Not when he’s hellbent on getting his hands on Moxley again.

“Give us a minute,” Adam demands when he sees Mox standing next to a paramedic as they fuss over his head wound.

Mox turns to him, smile resting lazily on his lips. “Yeah, give us a minute, wouldja?”

The paramedics hesitate but leave, and Adam’s grateful to the ones that get it. And for nondisclosure agreements.

“You won,” Mox says, stretching his arms over his head. The bleeding has stopped, but there’s still blood on his skin, not quite dry yet. He touches his cheeks. “Interesting move with the face thing.” He hops off the bench, making his way to Adam. “I liked it. But, uh,” he drags a finger from the Adam’s neck, across his chest, down to his hip, following the trail of his blood. “You got some blood on you.” He moves so quickly Adam doesn’t even have time to think. Moxley licks up his neck, where he knows Mox’s blood was drying, and Adam’s knees half give out. “Yeah,” Moxley says, pulling away. “I got some of it.”

“You barely got any of it,” Adam tries to joke. He’s breathing too hard to convince Moxley he’s not reacting. But all he wants to do is taste blood and the skin underneath. He’s breathing too hard.

Mox laughs, low. “Yeah,” Mox says, “thought you might like that.” He pulls back a little bit, licks the blood off his lips and, well. Adam can’t be held accountable for the way he dives in after it. It feels like Mox is expecting it, with the way he opens his mouth. Adam tastes coppery metal and the smoke underneath it, tastes the victory that he holds in his fingertips that night. Tastes the salt of redemption.

Adam spins Mox around, shoving him up against the locker, reaching out to touch at the streaks of blood on his face. They coat his fingers, and he has the urge again to press his fingers to his chest, so he does. Mox’s eyes lock on Adam’s hands as he moves, and Adam thinks it might be the best Mox has ever looked.

“You don’t know how hot that was,” Mox says, voice practically a whine. “Get – get in the shower.”

They stumble over each other into the shower, Adam crazy with the taste and smell of blood, the sound and feel of Moxley. It’s a furious kind of desire, something he hasn’t felt outside of getting his hands on Moxley. The idea that the thirst is finally going to be sated is almost too much, enough that he lets out a desperate little groan as Mox bites at the side of his neck.

It’s like he blinks and his gear is gone, water spraying down onto him. He stands naked in front of Moxley, who is tapping the side of his arm.

“Dude,” Mox says, “hey, Adam, you good? Come back.”

“I’m good,” Adam gasps. “Get back on me, you fucking lunatic.”

Mox chuckles, leans in, crushes his mouth to Adam’s. In between breaths, he bites at Mox’s lips, slides his fingers across his body where the blood is mixing with water and washing away.

Before he thinks about it, Adam drops to his knees. He looks up at Moxley.

“Fuck, you look good from this angle,” Moxley whines. “Yeah, yeah. Come on, Cowboy.”

On his knees in front of Moxley, his mouth sinking onto his dick with determination, hands trailing in the streaks of blood that stream down Moxley’s thighs, he understands himself more. He’s never felt more worthy of salvation than he does now as he takes Moxley’s benediction, and he thinks the heavy weight of Moxley’s cock on his tongue will get him there faster than any other deed.

Moxley doesn’t shut up the whole time, desperate, grunting sounds pouring from his mouth as he tugs at Adam’s hair.

“Get up here,” he growls, pulling Adam by the hair, “stupid curls – c’mere.” He pulls Adam in for a kiss, a collision of sorts. It’s not as aggressive as before, something a little sweeter lingering on Moxley’s tongue, and Adam doesn’t know how to tell Moxley that he wants that sweetness curled around his cock.

“Please,” he chokes out, broken, “please.”

“I know,” Moxley says, and he presses a kiss to Adam’s cheek before he sinks to his knees. Most of the blood has washed off of his face, and it’s just him. Just those blue, piercing eyes. And Adam’s still desperate for it.

Mox grips at Adam’s hips as he sinks down on Adam’s cock, and it’s even better than his wrestling. Mox takes all of him like it’s nothing, punctuates it with a look up at Adam that has a smirk behind his eyes, and Adam’s so fucking gone for more than just this man’s blood.

“Mox,” he groans, and he can’t hold eye contact. He just can’t. His head tilts back, and he lets Mox do the work, guiding Adam’s hips to gently push his cock in and out of Mox’s mouth. It comes at him like a wave, crashing over his skin as he tries to warn Moxley, but Moxley takes him down until Adam’s coming down his throat.

It’s all Adam can do not to collapse to the floor, with the way his legs shake. He makes a desperate little whimper at Mox and he pulls away, wiping at the corners of his mouth.

“Now what if –”

If it’s important, it’s lost in Adam’s mouth, where he kisses as deeply as he can and tries to get his head back on straight. The taste of himself in Mox’s mouth sends a new fire through his spine, a desperation to give as good as he’s gotten.

He’s back on his knees again, quirking an eyebrow for permission, and Mox laughs.

“Christ, you’re eager.”

“I prefer Adam, but you did practically crucify me tonight, so.”

Mox laughs, but it cuts off quickly as Adam gets his mouth around him. It doesn’t last long – Mox is as desperate for it as Adam was. He grabs a handful of Mox’s ass as he swallows him down, and the sounds that fall from Mox’s lips are an intoxicating mix of choked off vowels and Adam’s name. He doesn’t want this to be the last time he hears it.

Mox comes down his throat with a whine that sounds a little like, “Fuckin’ Cowboy,” and the way he twists his fingers in Adam’s hair is so good Adam can’t stand it. He swallows it all down, and lets the moment settle over him as he pulls away and rests his head against Mox’s thigh.

“You should start wearing trunks again,” Adam murmurs, voice wrecked.

Mox’s laugh sounds just as scratchy. “Yeah? I’ll think about it.”

They’re quiet as they wash the night off of themselves, Adam musing that they’re lucky to have been the first match, and Moxley actually washes his hair for him. It’s sweet beyond expectation, and the hunger Adam had felt before has settled into some sort of hope.

When they’re both clean, Adam rests his head in the space where Mox’s neck meets his shoulder, warm and sated and finally calm. Mox wraps an arm around his waist.

“You good, Cowboy?” he murmurs. Adam would swear he presses a kiss to the side of Adam’s head.

Adam nods something in affirmation, unable to resist nuzzling into Mox’s neck. “So good,” he finally can say.”

“Would you, uh,” Mox says, running his fingertips up and down Adam’s side. “Would you want to get coffee or something? After this?”

Adam pulls back, a strange little sunshine bubbling in his chest. “You asking me on a date?”

Mox’s grin is crooked, shy. It’s a little strange under the wound at his eyebrow that’s still slowly leaking blood. “You lick a guy’s blood, suck his dick. I figure a date may not be out of the question.”

Adam laughs – giggles, actually, fuck – and turns to Moxley. “Yeah,” he decides. “Yeah, after the media scrum and everything. Coffee.”

It turns into the two of them watching the Pay Per View together in the locker room while they get stitched up. Then, because Tony made them go, talking shit at the media scrum, and, finally, Adam following Mox back to his hotel room. It feels strangely safe, domestic. A drastic shift from earlier. But, in the morning, after waking up curled around each other and pressing kisses to each other’s stitches, they do get coffee.

#HangMox #I don't even know if I want to tag the characters #in which Sara writes #anxious millennial dreamboat #madly in love with leather daddy jon moxley #wtf i like wrestling now???

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sithwitch13 · 14 days

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AEW Dynamite 9/11/24

Cool starting with breaking my heart cool cool cool

Regal mention I'm gonna die

Mox calling himself a king I'm gonna die

I have not been able to get the Jack/Luchasaurus interaction out of my mind

Luchasaurus belongs to himself ☹️

OH FUCK CHRISTIAN THAT WAS LOW

Oh joy. Evil hot dog man.

Aww Will and Kyle are friends.

Takeshita got stankface, and deservedly so. FUCK DON CALLIS 👏🏼👏🏼 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

NO OTHER PERSON? WHAT ABOUT DAVIS?

Davis mention, I am placated

Aww, Andretti in Lio's corner

I kind of want to go back and rewatch some early Dynamite for some "Look how they've changed" emotions, especially re: Jurassic Express

I'm always so happy to see Lio Rush. He's amazing to watch.

Kenny mention, I'm gonna cry

Jack going all in on the religious imagery. I'm not mad about it.

Aaaaaaaa recap of Saturday and now Renee talking to Hangman

Hangman doubling down. Ooh, and about to rampage against Swerve's allies

Renee so angry at Hangman

DARK ORDER AND HANGMAN I'M GONNA DIE

Aww Komander and Abrahantes dancing with Private Party

Oops Bastard Combat Club just killed them

Yay Big Bill and Bryan Keith!

...is Orange gonna wreck Jericho's car

The fuck he means "ruined," I was just thinking the coloration looks cool

IS IT A DILDO

RICOCHET

I really like Sammy's jacket. I feel like it works really well with his hair like that.

Taz, Excalibur, and Schiavone having a brief discussion about soup. If I had a nickel for every time a wrestling show I watched got distracted by soup, etc. etc.

THAT BARRICADE JUMP????

Okay GIVE ME RICOCHET VS THE BEAST MORTOS

Love how AEW has a little monsterfucker selection going strong.

Okada fake crying again lol

Death Rider theme is here to stay, huh? No arguments.

Yesss just let Marina be a stone cold killer

God I need to see Marina vs Kamille

RUDE, DARBY. RUDE.

Aaaa Mox is gonna kill Darby and it will rule

Nigel? Hmmmmm.

MARIAH VS QUEEN AMINATA TIME

They're both so good aaaa

Aww, Queen Aminata has Skye's name on her wrist tape

AAAAA SHE WANTS MINA AAAA

Gremlin boys!

Matthew I see you with that saucy little wink

Anyway MxM Collection should win and face the Bucks

Iron Savages! And Big Bill and Bryan Keith! And Aubrey! And nobody else!

He's wrestling in the fucking jacket

...apparently the jacket is a The Office UK joke?

The framed photo, I'm gonna die

Aaaa Orange and Kyle and Mark (and Kyle in the hard hat is like watching a kitten in a hat)

I'm having flashbacks to the Attitude era, but also the ass pennies sketch from Upright Citizen's Brigade

NIGEL

OMG THEY'RE GONNA FIGHT AT GRAND SLAM I'M GONNA DIE

Hook vs Roddy, I can dig it

Gremlin Bucks are back! With special chairs!

I just now noticed that Kyle's jacket has the same shoulder thingy as the Aussie Open one that made him look like a power ranger

MxM COLLECTION SHOULD WIN

Scissors vs touching tips lol

The Outrunners!

Bucks like "excuse us, we were sitting here."

All right, I can't be mad at Fletcher and Ospreay vs Young Bucks.

#aew dynamite

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watching-pictures-move · 3 years

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Movie Review | The Beast and the Magic Sword (Naschy, 1983)

When I saw Iron Maiden in concert a few years ago, what struck me was not just the power of the music or the extravagant prop-and-effects-filled stage show, but the sight of frontman Bruce Dickinson in a puffy shirt and pantaloons, galloping across the stage, throwing the full force of his body into the performance. I bring up this memory because Paul Naschy brings a similar energy to his performance in The Beast and the Magic Sword. Lots of bared teeth, lots of tensed arms, lots of jumping around. If you've seen The Kentucky Fried Movie, the gorilla rampage should come to mind. I say this not to insult the movie, but to note the endearingly goofy charm of the lead performance. I should also mention that he's playing a werewolf.

The Beast and the Magic Sword is the ninth or tenth of the Hombre Lobo movies Naschy starred in (I understand that the existence of one of the films is in question, at least in regards to a finished form) and the last one to have received a theatrical release. I understand that Naschy is best known for this character and that he'd directed a number of movies at this point as well, and there is a degree of assurance in the finished product I can detect despite this being my first experience with him as an actor and director. The movie neatly sets up an origin story for his hero's lycanthropy, involving a duel with Magyar invaders and religious persecution, and then shuttling off to Japan, where the werewolf material mixes interestingly with the jidaigeki and Japanese folklore elements. (I understand the exact origin story differs between installments of the series, but as a newcomer, I appreciated being given some kind of setup.) What transpires are not just werewolf attacks (always in a shiny black shirt and pantaloons), but sword fights, witchcraft, undead samurai and most memorably, a wrestling match with a tiger. And at the end, a Japanese pop song plays over the credits.

I watched this on a Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, and to the extent that home video labels can be said to have house styles, this movie's blend of exotic, worldly delights and excitable, schlocky tone is firmly in that company's wheelhouse. The movie was shot open matte style, and due to its limited theatrical release, it was widely seen for years only in full frame on home video, despite not being the intended aspect ratio for its theatrical release. Due to probable production mistakes, the footage in the prologue seems to drift in and out of focus with some regularity and was giving me a bit of a headache, so I watched the full frame version where the issue didn't seem as severe. I actually think this works in the movie's favour, as the aspect ratio ties nicely into the stateliness of the Japanese sections and helps the horror imagery pop. Naschy was able to shoot in Toshiro Mifune's studios and I suspect getting access to local crew influenced the movie's style for the better. (If I wanted to talk completely out of my rear end, I would say that this is like if Ozu made a werewolf movie. Having finally seen my first few Ozus recently, I will say that if you sprinkle in a bit of Kobayashi the claim gets a little less dumbassed.)

There is a level of wish fulfillment here, which may or may not be off putting depending on how much you can identify with Naschy. If I were a not particularly charismatic and handsome dude (okay, that I am) and I had the ability to direct myself in a movie where I'm surrounded by beautiful women and can run around pretending to be a werewolf in some really nice looking sets, I sure as hell would jump on that opportunity. (All three elements are equally important in this hypothetical scenario.) Naschy's performance has some of that bozo quality, but at the same time, he clearly realizes that he comes up short as an actor against Shigeru Amachi and gladly shifts the dramatic crux of the movie over to the Japanese characters. (The Japanese actors are dubbed into Spanish, but it's done well enough that it was a non-issue for me.) And aside from a rampage through a brothel, the movie is less exploitative than the poster would have you believe, committing to its idiosyncratic vision of horror. If anything, that's what's most surprising about the movie. Naschy isn't just using the Japanese setting for flavouring, he actually seems to respect the country's dramatic traditions and folklore and makes a movie that's a true blend of those elements with his lycanthropic passions.

#film #movie review #the beast and the magic sword #paul naschy

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granvarones · 4 years

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my mother was very supportive. just growing up catholic and you have that self-hate. kinda like “pray the gay away” thing. i went to an all boy catholic school which was very homophobia but homo erotic at the same time - guys wrestling with each other shirtless but if got real then they shunned you. i remember this queer looking kid at school and they made his life a living hell and i did not want to be that person. i hid my myself, my true self for a really long time. then i was able to meet my gay family, meet other queer people that actually let me open up and be myself. it took me some time but i got there. even as a younger boy, i lowered my voice so that i could sound more masculine. now i don’t care how queer i sound or look. i think for a lot of latinos catholicism is more about a cultural thing than religious. i do like the imagery but i don’t, ya know, practice it. i don’t go to church. but i think it’s always going to be with me because i still could go to church and know all the prayers probably. i think it’s always going to be ingrained in me culturally because every time i go to family functions it will be around me , at least visualized somewhere - the nativity set during christmas, the virgen de guadalupe picture up. so it will always be a part of me - culturally. manny, he/him/his fullerton, ca

interviewed & photographed by: louie a. ortiz-fonseca

#granvarones #queer #gay #latinx #portrait #storytelling #family

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radwolf76 · 5 years

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FLASHBack: Week 58 - Irrational Exuberance (YATTA!)

This week on FLASHBack, I’m going to surprise every one by talking about an Animutation. Loyal readers may recall from FLASHBack’s entry on the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny that Animutations were invented by Neil Cicierega, and I wasn’t sure how I could possibly describe them. Well, it turns out that there’s an Animutation Flash from 26 November 2001, by verylowsodium (aka Veloso), called Irrational Exuberence, that actually takes the time to sum up the genre at one point: Once upon a time, some guy took a copy of an overpriced animation utility and animated a bunch of strange pop- culture images set to even stranger Japanese music. Like moths to a flame, a dozen copycats completely ripped off the idea, starting a freaky movement.

The Flash’s title comes from a phrase used by U.S. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan in a 1996 speech, describing the inflated stock price bubble of the Dot-Com boom. The soundtrack for the flash comes from a skit on the Japanese Television sketch comedy show Adventures of a Laughing Dog (aka “Happy Go Lucky” in the West). The skit centered around a fictional Japanese Boy Band, Green Leaves, singing a song called Yatta!. At the time of Yatta!’s release, Japan was under a severe economic depression with a high unemployment and suicide rate. The Japanese government had tried to admonish its citizens’ reaction to the bleak fiscal prospects of the country by telling them they just needed a better attitude. The comedians on the sketch comedy show decided to do the song as an ironic parody of this low-empathy advice, by making a song about how even if you have nothing in your life but a leaf to wear for modesty, by living your life firmly you can still achieve greatness. However, their attempt to be ironic backfired. A Scholar of Irony once said:

“The upper echelons of irony should always include measures of sincerity. And if the satirical practice is executed faithfully it will achieve something bona fide in its own right regardless. Through an intense commitment bordering on religious devotion to the absolutely inane, absurd, or plain fucking stupid, a very different kind of sincerity begins to materialize. One of reverence to the ridiculous. You begin to ‘mean it,’ but what exactly it is you mean is never quite what appears on the surface, and is utterly inaccessible to obtuse and literal minds. That you 'mean it’ then becomes inseparable from the joke, and additional rich strata of humor may be stripped aggressively from this irreconcilable truth.”

And so, the song and comedy sketch they produced became deeply motivational to the Japanese people. When the song was released as a single, it went triple platinum and charted as high as #6 on the Oricon charts. Some accounts even report that the suicide rate in Japan dropped after the song’s release. There are some who believed that Veloso was trying to translate this unintentional positivity of the Yatta! song into a form that U.S. Audiences would understand – naked consumerism, by including opening messages of “Buy”, “Spend”, “Shop”, “Acquire”, “Collect”, “Purchase” and so on, as well as numerous product images throughout the Flash. However, I think the product imagery stems from the same thing that drove the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme, the inexplicable urge of the early internet to take a Weird Japanese Thing and photoshop it onto as many things as possible. Products that were “Yatta!”-fied in this Flash include: Pepto-Bismol, Windows 2000 Professional, Elmer’s glue, Gillette Mach 3 razor, Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn, Colgate Total toothpaste, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Heinz ketchup, Game Boy Advance, Band-Aids, Head & Shoulders shampoo, Trojan condoms, Sun-Maid raisins, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, The Price Is Right, MTV Music Television, Dramamine, Taco Bell, Ford trucks, Sweet 'n Low, Maxwell House coffee, Whataburger, Super Mario Brothers, Duracell batteries, Irish Spring soap, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Frosted Alpha-Bits cereal, and Coca-Cola. As is common with Animutations, the Flash also attempts to transcribe the lyrics of the song, badly. This would later evolve into the “Misheard Lyrics” genre of YouTube videos. Some of the Flash’s imagery is also patterned after gameshows, its opening taking the format of the Price is Right’s iconic “Come On Down!” camera shot, and by giving several contestant bios throughout, including Rotten Apple Joe (a parody of Apple Computer’s “Rainbow” Logo that the company had from 1974 through 1998), Applegrape Joe (a parody of the Fruit of the Loom logo), Banana Joe (a parody of Bananna Republic), Dave Thomas (the actor from SCTV and Grace Under Fire), Dave Thomas (the founder of Wendys), Chocolate Dipped Strawberry (an excuse to make a buttplug joke), Hemorrhie Grapes (an excuse to make hemorrhoid jokes), and Richard Simmons (the punchline to all the “Fruit” contestants). Aside from the game show imagery of a string of Yatta! prizes, and contestants competing for them, the Flash also shows images of Alan Greenspan, but ultimately decides he’s not frumpy enough and suggests that Ed Asner would make a better Chairman of the Fed, or better yet, Dave Thomas. At one point a chessboard is shown, playing out a four-move game in a scenario known as Scholar’s Mate, accompanied by the memetic quote “A Winner Is You!” – a phrase taken from the 1986 NES game Pro Wrestling. The researchers at Know Your Meme note that this meme didn’t start trending on Google until 2004 so Irrational Exuberance was years ahead of the curve on this one, as well as showing that Homestar Runner wasn’t the only Flash to lift something from a NES wrestling game only for it to turn out to be pretty popular. The Flash also features some staples of the animutation genre such as Jay Jay the Jet Plane, and of course Colin Mochrie, who in this instance is a record being played backwards. Finally, in keeping with the ultraconsumerist themes of this Flash, there are some references to the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast episode Chambraigne: an image of Al Roker floats by with captions “Shampoo for your hair!”, “… and your brain!” and then at the end of the Flash the end card has “Continued use may result in limb loss” across the bottom. So, you may be asking how I can follow up an animutation? Obviously, next week, things are just going to have to stay Weird.

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toomanyfeelings5 · 6 years

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okay bc I'm still trying to get into them - Top 5 Mountain Goats songs/albums/whatever is easiest for you. also it doesn't have to be 5. basically just i would appreciate your mountain goats recommendations, thank you bby

OH BOY ok i’m gonna do top 5 albums of this moment for me right now AND top 5 songs of this moment for me as of right now, nothing’s in particular order and i love the mountain goats and i hope you like them too!

top 5 albums:

1. the sunset tree: yes, i know, it’s one of the main popular ones, but this is a deeply personal and well-crafted album that’s a gut-punch and it tells these great little micro-stories that this band is so good at amidst a larger narrative, and it’s just. really good. this was the first album by them that i really listened to and it blew my fucking mind.

2. transcendental youth: some of the best songs about/featuring mental illness i’ve ever listened to, and it’s an album all about the weird and lonely people other people forget, except this album doesn’t forget any of them, and we ache for them, but we also laugh with them and sit in the dark with them and we want to reach out a hand. also some fucking awesome brass and sax arrangements on this one. catchy as hell while the lyrics are singing about getting into accidents and going through the trash.

3. the life of the world to come: i hadn’t listened to this album in its entirety for a while, and then i did like, a few weeks ago, and i’m still thinking about it?? this is an album heavily using the bible and christian themes/imagery, but it’s not a Christian Album ™, and like, this album has tender piano and snarling guitar and intense drums and very quiet, soft lyrics about looking into your child’s eyes for the first time, or when you’re dying in a hospital but it’s ok because this body is temporary anyway, or when you’re speeding down the highway feeling a fierce sense of acceptance from a higher power. what can i say, i’m catholic and this album #resonated with me.

4. beat the champ: A CONCEPT ALBUM ALL ABOUT WRESTLING, gahhhhh it’s so good, you’ve got a song about an abused kid finding solace in watching wrestling programs late at night on tv, you’ve got a song about a wrestler turning from a face to a heel, you’ve got a little spoken word song about a wrestler’s dying moments, you’ve got songs that are about getting stuck in the eye with a foreign object and it is CATCHY AS HELL, and it’s fun and wild and sad and a great time.

5. get lonely: listen this is an album about a person who is all alone in the house for too long and it is a sad album and i love it. the writing is so solid, the storytelling is vivid, and the softness of the songs get me every time.

top 5 songs:

1. “this year,” OBVIOUSLY, it’s a jam every day of the year, but specifically it’s a song to start and end the year with.

2. “the best ever death metal band out of denton,” because by the end of it you will be screaming “HAIIILLLL SATAN!!! TONIGHT!!!” along with the static-y voice and you will laugh and feel like nothing in the world can stop you from doing the things you want to do, also it’s a fucking bop that’s funny and great

3. “golden boy” because it’s now become a song my family and i sing on long car trips, it’s a classic and it’s a great song about materialism and consumerism and it’s this critique of capitalism but also all about golden boy peanuts, what’s not to love

4. “heretic pride” is like, have you ever thought you might be joyful and triumphant as you’re about to be burned at the stake? this song is for you, also there’s a lot to relate to here if you are queer and religious, at least for me

5. “love love love” makes me tear up every time, not because it’s sad but because it’s true, and i love it. it is soft and tender and good.

#THANK YOU #IT WAS HARD PICKING ONLY 5 SONG SFSDF #HOPE YOU ENJOY WHATEVER YOU LISTEN TO #asks #music #the mountain goats

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marvel-theory · 6 years

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The symbolism and foreshadowing in Matt’s cracked glasses

In the Netflix series Marvel’s The Defenders season 1 episode 7 around 7:30 Matt puts on his glasses after they’ve been cracked because of an attack.

(Sorry for the poor quality, picture from 7:56) but you can see what you need to. The crack in his glasses is in the shape of a sideways cross. At first I thought this might’ve been a coincidence but then I realised that this is Marvel we’re talking about here. They don’t do coincidences. I think this is foreshadowing.

We already know that Matt is very religious that’s like a defining part of his character

His Catholicism drives a lot of things about him as Daredevil like his name for instance which is both irony because of how devout he is and insight into his character because he at least partly believes he’s some incarnation of the devil

The colour red is really important: it’s the most prominent colour in his church, the colour of his suit, of his dad’s wrestling outfit, and of his glasses if you look hard. In general red symbolises anger, violence, and evil. It also represents blood a lot.

In the picture if you look you’ll notice the red hue is more noticeable in the glass that’s cracked. That places those emelemts of what red symbolises into the plane of that one glass as a symbolic realm.

Now onto the crack itself: it’s in the shape of a cross, yes, but one tilted on its side.

While a cross itself is meant to be good and holy, an upside down cross is a sign of evil and the devil (kind of like red but more cursed)

An upside down cross is meant to install the same fear as a pale child with long black hair crawling towards you with unnaturally fast flailing movements while shrieking and chanting backwards in Latin at 3 am

Matt’s cross isn’t upside down but it’s on its way. It’s tilted more down that up.

That combined with the more prominent colour of red in the background foreshadows Matt’s turn to the more evil side of things either in a potential second season of The Defenders or in Daredevil S3

Just looking at the Daredevil S3 trailer seems to confirm this with the narrative following his thought process of “you can only defeat darkness with darkness” to some extent (not a direct quote) and the imagery suggesting loss of innocence in exchange for darkness

(If you want a more in depth analysis of the preliminary and Netflix trailers I can do that)

(POTENTIAL DAREDEVIL SEASON 3 SPOILER) The official Netflix trailer for S3 gives a different idea that Matt thought about turning to evil, decided against it, and someone else dressed as Daredevil enacted the evil that Matt had been considering

It’s also kind of significant that the GLASSES crack and not anything else since the glasses are a hallmark of Matt Murdock and not Daredevil. Matt may be considering doing some questionable things but as long as the glasses remain on Matt, Daredevil shouldn’t act on them.

Okay I hope that wasn’t too English Class vibe but it’s just something I noticed. I can do analyses of scenes, clips, trailers, objects etc like I did with this if you request

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coldestburrito · 4 years

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Entry 1:Genesis

Response 1:

I really enjoyed the first chapter of the book. Winterson does a great job of drawing you in and setting up her world. I felt sympathetic to the girl and her mother. Their life is so intertwined together yet, there seems to be a side of each other that can never be understood. It strikes me too how fear driven the mother is. Her zealous belief may just be a cover for things in her life that she is unsure about and this version of Christianity offers her solace(as most religions do). I feel bad for the girl. While she may have a family that loves her in their own way, they end up depriving her of so much as well. The father seems to be a ghost in a way. His personality is no match for his wife’s ferocity. As someone who grew up in a Very Christian household, I found the Pentecostal version of Christianity very strange. By focusing on the Old Testament, its no wonder that they are so fanatical about “Good and “Evil” and smiting. At the end of the chapter, it felt relieving to know that the girl was going to go to school. It would offer her a new perspective on life, instead of being cooped up with a religious mother and a milquetoast father. Reading the dynamic between the mother and the daughter made me think how they both need each other. The girl was an orphan and needed a family, while her mother needed someone to keep her tethered to the world.

Response 2:

The literary element that really stood out to me was the imagery. The chapter is full of little bits of detail that help fully construct and giver perspective of their world. In the first paragraph, "my father liked to watch wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle"(1). That small bit of the sentence gives the reader an image of a man comfortably sitting and watching people, while his wife is active and aggressive. It highlights the duality of the couple and their inherent natures. The descriptive asides continue throughout the chapter. There are descriptions of the house that remind the reader of how stark the views of her mother are. The girl also draws comparisons between her mother and historical figures. William Blake and his visions, Napoleon and his height. These larger than life historical figures offer a view into how the girl/Winterson viewed her mother. The continuous descriptions of other people as sinners also paints a vivid picture. It casts those people in a darker light even though they're probably normal people. The imagery really goes hand in hand with the biblical nature of the book. Again you see imagery of duality. Sinners and saints, the good and the damned. "How blessed, the seven days of creation, the seven branched candlestick, the seven seals"(11). But then, "The demon can return sevenfold"(11). The bible is showing the possibility of good things to be evil and with the pastor talking about it in relation to the girl, you wonder if it is foreshadowing her "evilness" or "goodness".

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madewithonerib · 4 years

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I think for a lot of us when we hear you talk about how good GOD is, it is enormously moving—because we’ll find there are these things that we think we’re supposed to believe about GOD, & then there is a way there is a way that I hope the world turns out to be.

And it’s often as if—as you talk about GOD— what I will find myself thinking is:

HE’s better than what I most hope the world could be. (absolutely)

So when you say things like, “Seeking the KOG,” I know that’s present in your mind—but for most of us, when we hear things like seeking the KOG, they have become so churchy & so superficial, & so stupidly religious.

And it’s the same with disciple & so many things.

How do you break beyond that trap that so many of us feel—which is, we would love to love GOD.****

But we don’t know...how do you do that?

Well I need to say, that is a gift, but you have to be willing to make the move. And many people are so weathered to a horrible image of GOD—where when they read:

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of GOD”

That it’s <Whip-TISH> “Straighten up! or I’m going to get cha.”

And we miss the whole point of the passage—which is the overflowing goodness of GOD.

And we keep thinking of HIM in terms of:

If GOD isn’t mean, HE can’t manage the world. It’s only if you’re mean that you can manage things.

So we have that imagery.

I think there is at least a simple answer to the question, which is:

BEGIN TO PUT IN PRACTICE THE THINGS THAT JESUS SAID.

John 14:15 | If you love ME, you will keep MY commandments.

John 21:15 | When they had finished eating, JESUS asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love ME more than these?” “Yes, LORD,” he answered, “YOU know I love YOU.” JESUS replied, “Feed MY lambs.”

1a] Something simple might be, “let your yes be a yes & your no be a no.”

Matthew 5:37 | Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ & your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

John 17:15 | I am not asking that YOU take them out of the world, but that YOU keep them from the evil one.

Proverbs 15:28 | The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil.

In all of JESUS’ teachings, & now we’re ready for Saturday.

In all of HIS teachings, you go through a process.

That’s why discipleship is so important.

It is a process of learning.

And letting your yes be a yes, & no be no. JESUS put it like this: “More than that comes from evil.”

And our evangelical translators can’t keep from saying: “from the evil one.”

No, it’s what is evil in your heart.

[Gen 6:5; Deu 9:4; Pro 21:4; Jer 4:14; Eze 14:4; Mat 24:48]

Genesis 6:5 | Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, & every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

Deuteronomy 9:4 | When the LORD your GOD has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought ME in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

Proverbs 21:4 | Haughty eyes & a proud heart —the guides of the wicked—are sin.

Jeremiah 4:14 | Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

Ezekiel 14:4 | Therefore speak to them & tell them that this is what the LORD GOD says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart & puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, & then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him according to his great idolatry,

Matthew 24:48 | But suppose that servant is wicked & says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’

See you ask yourself: Why do I not say it’s this way, or that? Why do I have the endless song & dance that I go through?

>> To turn a yes into a no, & a no into a yes?

Well it’s because of our will to manipulate people, that’s the evil that it comes from.

If we’re willing to just let people be, tell them how it is & how it isn’t, and let that be. Then we can just say: YES.

It’s this way, or that way.

Additional Questions: Discipleship

If the main thing a disciple does is to try to learn from JESUS how to live & put things into practice.

I think a lot of folks wrestle with this question, if you think of a Christian as “I’ve got the heaven issue resolved” cause I’ve affirmed the right doctrine & I have the right experience, it leaves that feeling like it’s a real clear cut decision.

You know that the alternative is: “I try to please GOD on my own works of righteousness” that I’m rejecting that & I receiving forgiveness & salvation by grace through faith.

So that feels clear cut.

But to be a disciple of JESUS, when HE was alive on earth that also seemed very clear because HE was walking around.

So you were either walking around with HIM or your weren’t.

Then in the Acts 2 Church, that community was so radically different from other communities that again it felt like it was a concrete presence that helped you know:

Yup, I’m a disciple because I’m living with these guys that I would never be otherwise.

However in a society like ours, there’s Churches everywhere it’s kind of Christian but it’s kind of not Christian.

If I say a disciple is someone who is seeking to do what JESUS says, it feels kind of fuzzy.

If I do that once an hour, then do I qualify? Is it once every 5 minutes?

No, you’re seeking to learn how to do what JESUS said.

I ask myself that a few times a week: Am I still a disciple of JESUS today? No..

No, if I’m a disciple, I’m learning from HIM. I’m HIS student.

JO: So do you sometimes say to yourself, you’re not a disciple today?

DA: Yes there are occasions, where I realize that I haven’t learned a thing—that I haven’t sought to learn a thing.

JO: And is that okay if you say no? Your eternal destiny isn’t in jeopardy now?

DA: No, it is okay; GOD isn’t breathing down your neck. You gotta ask yourself, “Why didn’t GOD just stay in the garden?” HE came on out.

In fact if you read the early chapters of Genesis, GOD is quite chatty. HE is..isn’t that right?

I mean okay, Cain’s got a problem, I’ll go out & talk to him. Right? And so HE gives him a little lesson and it doesn’t seem to help him, but GOD was there.

JO: “Mmmm hmmm”

DA: So I remember asking James Brian Smith once on the platform, “Do you think GOD let’s you get away with anything?

And the answer is: Yes, all kinds of things! That’s what a life of grace is.

And I said: Were you ever afraid to say that? Well because you’ve been looking for that..No, no, no

That’s what you’re learning, you’re not looking for that.

You’re not looking to get away from something. But on the other hand, this is a life in which

GOD is bringing us to the fullness of the likeness of HIS SON.

Ephesians 1:9-10 | And HE has made known to us the mystery of HIS will according to HIS good pleasure, which HE purposed in CHRIST as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven & on earth together in CHRIST.

Colossians 2:9 | For in CHRIST all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.

And in order to do that, HE gives us some life.

Ephesians 3:18-19 | will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length & width & height & depth of HIS love, & to know the love of CHRIST that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD.

Romans 15:28-29 | So after I have completed this service & safely delivered this bounty to them, I will set off to Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of CHRIST.

In giving us a life, we have some choices & they matter. They don’t always have to be correct.

GOD isn’t keeping score.

I bet that is shocking to many people, but HE’s not, HE doesn’t care—about that.

HE cares about who we become; & HE knows that as we become more like CHRIST, then there’s not going to be anything to keep score on.

Living in CHRIST’s Presence P1,2,3 | Dallas Willard [P2-8:20]

I first came across Dallas’ work over 20 years ago, when I heard about his book, The Spirit of Disciplines.

And I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I wasn’t changing the way that I wanted to & the Church where I was serving wasn’t changing in the way that we wanted.

And I got that book, & I can still remember at the beginning reading that thesis statement:

Authentic transformation is possible, if we’re willing to do one thing & that is to arrange our lives around the kind of practices that JESUS led: Be constantly receiving power &

#manipulate #evil heart #Proverbs 21:4 #arrogance #hard heart #Jeremiah 4:14 #hidden agenda #wicked thoughts #Ezekiel 14:4 #idolatry #stumbling block #GOD is #Philippians 2:12 #how to live well

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anonforlackofabettername · 7 years

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Music ask! 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

5. A song that needs to be played loud.

The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy. If you aren’t shouting at the sky while stalking down the street listening to this song I don’t know what you’re doing with your life but you obviously aren’t making the right life choices. Its a fucking bop and just full of this feeling like you’re full of aggression and the only way to let it out is to sing/scream at the top of your lungs. Definitely needs to be turned up every time it comes on no matter how loud your music originally was. Put on your fucking war paint. Listen to it here.

10. A song that makes you sad.

Idk if this song is really sad and it isn’t the first one that came to mind but a song that I think is solemn is No Place in Heaven by MIKA. Again its not really a cry song but its the song about a queer man wrestling with his G-d and his religion because common religious doctrine condemns him. “I’m down on my knees/I’m begging you, please/There’s no place in heaven for someone like me/Won’t you open the door/And try me once more?” Its just a really solemn and sincere song. I don’t know how I feel about the afterlife or about G-d if there even is one (proud jewish agnostic here) but I can empathize with this. I can understand the insecurity, the wish to be better, to be accepted, and the need to know definitively even though you already know there’s nothing good waiting for you when you finally get your answer. Its such a vulnerable song. The singer is pleading with someone-his Father, G-d-singing please please please tell me I’m lying, tell me I’m wrong, tell me you love me, because I already know you don’t and I want to be wrong just this once. Listen to it here.

Oh, have a better cry song since I was looking through spotify for some of the other questions. It’s Over Isn’t It? from Steven Universe. Its just this really sad song of this character who is mourning a relationship that’s been over for 10+ years (which is nothing when you’re 1000+ but whatever) but was so central to who she was that she’s had to completely redefine who she was in that person’s absence and even now still doesn’t know how to do it sometimes. (see Do It For Her for an example on how Pearl still isn’t fucking over Rose and how she’s tied her self esteem and sense of self into her relationship with Rose). Listen to it here.

15. A song that is a cover by another artist.

First thing that comes to mind is Halsey’s cover of I Walk the Line (originally by Johnny Cash). Its a really great cover. It takes this classic song and reinvents it in her style just fitting beautifully as a bonus track on Badlands. I fucking love Halsey so I guess she had to come up sometime. Listen to it here.

Oh, here’s a freebee that just occurred to me while I was looking over this for posting. Another cover that I fucking love and didn’t think of because it’s not your usual cover is the Austin Lounge Lizards’ cover of Brain Damage (originally by Pink Floyd). It’s a fucking country blue grass cover of a Pink Floyd song. How weird and awesome is that. Listen to it here.

20. A song that has many meanings to you.

The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. This is a weird one b/c I don’t really listen to a lot of instrumental pieces but this one has a couple different connotations for me. The first time I remember hearing it was on the old player piano at my best friend’s house on Lake George. My family and his used to go up every summer and there’d always be at least one afternoon where we spent an hour or two in the front living room of the boat house looking out across the lake and putting in one scroll after another for the piano to play. The Entertainer was never my favorite (mine was Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor) but I remember @astranyx liking the song and the scroll they have is cool cause its from a live performance. So there’s that association. Reminds me of being young and spending time with my best friend and brother (love you bro) and the lake is full of fond memories. And then freshman year I was sick and studying for my intro to psych final and I was fucking exhausted and my head was full of cotton b/c sick and the only drugs I had was nyquil. So its like noon and I’m sitting on the cuddle couch by myself just feeling miserable trying to focus and not succeeding and two people are behind me at the piano in the lounge just learning the song. Just plunking out dun-dun-dun dun-duh over and over again and you could tell they were still learning with how hesitant they were playing but I shit you not it was one of the most soothing things. I just put my head back on the couch, gave up on studying for ten minutes and let myself drift to the sound of them playing. It was so soothing and meditative. After that the song has been close to my heart and just listening to it reminds me of that experience. So there’s these two equally meaningful memories whenever I think of this song. Listen to it here.

25. A song by an artist that is no longer living.

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. I was actually thinking about this earlier since the covers are more popular than the original but I actually really love the original. It’s a really great poignant song filled with all sorts of imagery by a Jewish man making reference to our history. Listen to it here.

30. A song that reminds you of yourself.

Ummmmm…. Ummmm….. So the first thing that comes to mind is Smile by Mikky Ekko which was last semester’s fun new depression song. Cause damn did it fit the headspace I was in. You know when you’re depressed and you know you’re depressed and you know you’re gonna get worse-like you feel yourself on that downward spiral-but you can’t course correct out of it so you just grin and bare it as you brace yourself for the pit you’re about enter because its got to get worse before you can get better right?“Smile the worst is yet to come. We’ll be lucky if we ever see the sun.“ Yeah that feeling. Felt it a lot last semester. Not as much now that I’m back and have my support systems back in place but as I type this I can feel the mental illness version of the jaws theme getting louder as my next episode gets closer and closer to happening. I feel like I should pick something happier but honestly I’m kind of at a loss. I listen to songs that are fun to listen to or I can use as headcannons for other characters not myself.

Music Asks

#talking into the void #here you get to know way more than you probably ever cared to about my taste in music #and parts of my mental state #though I rewrote the one where I super personal about my history of shitty mental health #cause no one needs that #this is supposed to be lighthearted i guess #idk #i usually use it as an excuse to overshare since I don't know when to stop talking #i hope you enjoy #asks answered #sutoribenda

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mzhong2014 · 4 years

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My Promised Land: Key Takeaways

I read My Promised Land because I knew nothing about the Israel-Palestine conflict and thought that this book would provide an illuminating perspective from the Zionist point of view. When I read the first couple chapters, I was immediately engrossed by the beautiful prose that embodies the spiritual, earthly, and violent identity of Israel. This is not a historical nor a policy book. Shavit wrote this as a book of the people, telling personal anecdotes that convey a greater message about Israel’s contradictions, challenges, and triumphs. Here are my takeaways from the book.

Israel is a home for those who before have never had a home

“Yet as the nineteenth century draws to a close, these Jews realize that as much as they care for Europe, Europe does not care for them. For these newly emancipated European Jews, Europe is like a surrogate mother. They look up to her, they worship her, they give her all they have. Then, suddenly, these devoted sons of Europe notice that Europe won’t have them. Europe thinks they smell. Overnight there is a new, strange look in Mother Europe’s eyes. She is about to go insane. They see the insanity dancing in her eyes, and they understand that they must run for their lives.” (19)

The imagery of the abandoned child frequently reappears throughout the book, constantly reaffirming the surrounding society’s hatred for Jews. “Zionism was an orphans’ movement, a desperate crusade of Europe’s orphans” (33). One does not need to restate the horrifying stories of genocide committed against Jews to capture the palpable loneliness of these people. Under this context, Shavit presents the establishment of a permanent homeland as perhaps the only long-term solution to persecution.

But Shavit does not depict his people as childlike. Rather, he portrays founding Israelites as “almost Bolshevik” (28), utilitarian, disciplined, and masculine. Whereas the US has been blessed by ocean moats that kept foreign invasion at bay for much of its history, Israel is the exact opposite. Existential threat permeates their way of living. Shavit writes, “If Israel had been kindly and compassionate, it would have collapsed. Denial was a life-or-death imperative or the nine-year-old nation into which I was born” (162). Regardless of your political views towards Israel, one cannot but help feel some admiration for their resiliency.

Israel is a country of contradictions

The most glaring contradiction is how Israel conquers a land under the fear of persecution, only to push out tens of thousands of Arabs who had been residing peacefully in this land for years. Shavit tries to wrestle with this contradiction, at times chalking up occupation to naïve ignorance, at other times taking full responsibility for the brutality of its reign. Sometimes, Shavit’s defense feels flimsy. “Is this colonialism? If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck” (18). But he continues, the first British Zionists “don’t really represent an empire but a deprived people seeking the help of empires. […] I see no evil. I do not see a condescending attempt to take the poor man’s lamb.” Yet, even if these Zionist individuals did not set out as agents of a colonialist power, how could they remain ignorant of an inevitable conflict with Arab locals? Even if Arab nationalism had not yet been fully formed and Palestine was not yet a sovereignty, can Shavit honestly believe that these Zionists were not trespassing on their land?

However, at this point, there has been such a cycle of retributive justice that occupation is no longer a question of righting wrongs. As Shavit writes about the Conquest of Lydda, “War was inhuman, but it allowed one to do what one could not do in peace; it could solve problems that were unsolvable in peace” (118). Whereas Shavit suggests that early settlers of Israel were able to overlook their Arab neighbors, Shavit recognizes that contemporaries can no longer ignore this fundamental contradiction of Israel. This is a contradiction that must be acknowledged and reconciled at a personal level.

In his attempt to reconcile the atrocities that Israel has committed with the mission that Shavit believes in, he writes, “On the contrary. If need be, I’ll stand by the damned. Because I know that if it wasn’t for them, the State of Israel would not have been born. If it wasn’t for them, I would not have been born. They did the dirty, filthy work that enables my people, myself, my daughter, and my sons to live” (131).

Shavit is not blind to how contemporary Israel treats Palestine. He writes, “For its outstanding economic, social, and engineering achievements, the new Israel paid a dear moral price. There was no notion of human rights, civil rights, due process, or laissez-faire. There was no equality for the Palestinian minority and no compassion for the Palestinian refugees” (151). While fulfilling officer duties at the Gaza Beach Detention Camp, Shavit reflects on his complicity in repressing Palestinian rights: “They scream because my Jewish state makes them scream. In a methodical, orderly, and absolutely legal fashion, my beloved democratic Israel makes them scream” (232). Do democracies only act as democracies until it becomes inconvenient to do so?

Shavit also recognizes that the political tides have turned; the international community now views Israel as the occupier rather than the occupied. It is a Middle East super power with developed nuclear weapons, a booming economy, and a vibrant startup scene. But this country has been receding politically over the past few decades. After the humiliating Yom Kippur Wars, “Suddenly the government of Israel was willing to give up everything. […] there was cynicism, nihilism, defeatism” (207).

Yet as Israel progresses as a nation-state, Shavit recognizes that future generations have become more distant from the political context for the country’s origination story. They have become degrees removed from the Holocaust. Perhaps it is inevitable for every future generation to become lazier and more disillusioned than the prior. They are not as willing to tolerate mandatory conscription or occupation of Palestine. Jews abroad, particularly in America, feel even more distant from their heritage. The question thus arises of how far are millennials willing to go for the Zionist mission.

Israel is a country rooted in the land

Shavit digs his fingers in every nook and cranny of Israel’s terrain to pay homage to the land and fruits it has born to its people. Shavit focuses Israel’s origination story on the barren harsh land that must be conquered only through sheer labor and will power. “Face to face with the elements, face to face with brutal existence, no protection at all. And here, in this desolate valley, we must sculpt our lives. From these rocks we must carve our new foundation” (33). Shavit glorifies the cultivated gardens, the plots of orange groves, and olive oil estates. After all, it is these cherished orange trees that gave rise to Israel’s dominance in citrus export. It is these individual remote farms that sowed Israel’s astronomical rise from the isolated to expansionist power. It is in the idyllic terrain where both Jewish and Palestinian terrorists hid automatic rifles in orange crates as they faced the inevitable conflict. But the earth doesn’t just provide sustenance for Israelites. They represent the uprooting of history, the conquering of the land. In one olive tree nursery, “Jewish workers rallied one day and uprooted the olive trees planted by Arab workers, replanting them with their own hands in order to make a national Jewish statement” (100). Even manual laborers are deeply consciousness of the Zionist mission.

I remain fascinated and intrigued by Israel, and would love to read perspectives from opposing points of views regarding the Israel-Palestine issue. For now, I have begun another book, Jerusalem: The Biography, to deepen my understanding of the underlying religious issues and history of this region. Israel remains one of the most fascinating trips that I’ve taken to date, and I would love to go back whenever this pandemic is over now that I have a greater appreciation for its culture and history.

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