It's so cruel that I watch the shows made to sell toys and they do in fact make me want to buy the toys and the prints and the plushies and the accessories and the gay ass rings and-
I'm woefully undertrained and one of the consequences of this is that I check the reviews of my workplace every time I finish a shift to see if anyone has dragged me yet
Genuinely people haven't been mean to my face (although I'm autistic in a way that I'm immune to subtle distain, so who even knows) but they must have Thoughts
dead friend forever was fun but y'all are being annoying
it's a slasher. nobody deserves to die BUT it was supposed to be fun to watch it happen anyway. now nothing is fun because you won't stop applying complex ethics to children and arguing that actually vigilante justice that is cruel and inhumane is objectively good :)))
new is a fun character in the context of the show but some of y'all seem to be foaming at the mouth for someone to do this to people you don't agree with on twitter because 'actually media is a reflection on your real life morals and I'm actually the only one with the Correct morals'. take a breath.
people will see a traumatized guy character and claim him as their sopping wet cat babygirl and then see a traumatized girl character and call her annoying.
OBSESSED with that take… I think a big reason Kristen struggles to be a cleric of Cassandra (or a cleric of yes!) is because organizing the religion is expected of her. And she doesn’t want to go back to THAT. Even if it’s subconscious. If she could separate the church and her religion, she wouldn’t have so much trouble committing to a god
Exactly! She loves faith but she struggles with anything that even resembles her old life. Because she was told what to think so much and that's inherently a part of organized religion. If she could tell people the basics and have them go from there, like with Craig, she'd be golden. Being a prophet typically means laying things out for people in a pretty strict way, and that's just not the vibe she wants.
When she was talking to Cassandra about what the faith meant to her and how she would sell it, yeah, she wasn't a good sales person in the typical sense. And I think that's so important to the religion she wants. Great sales people are often in your face and pushy like traditional Helio worshippers. But sales people that are just chill and willing to help people and not the company? letting the customer take the reins and just answering questions? chef's kiss
Rigid structures and rules and gods just being One Thing is what Kristen struggles with. But none of that has to be what religion is. Like, she can be the Jawbone of whatever god she wants to "preach" for. She's just there to help and give info but ultimately it's up to what each individual wants and what is right for them. Just be as safe and good as you can and the rest is in your hands.
So a thought has been kicking around my head for a bit...what if Helio knew exactly what he was signing up for by making Kristen his chosen one?
It has always struck me as odd that when describing Doreen in Helioic heaven, Brennan mentioned her flirting with men and women. It also strikes me as odd that Kristen never got any pushback from Helio about turning her back on him. Even if he was similarly 'out of the picture' like sol was while Arthur was wrecking havoc, Kristen's powers should have faded when she fully committed to not worshipping him. You need to worship a god to get powers, and this is emphasized heavily in the latest episode. Kristen worshipping the vague idea of religion but Definitely Not Helio just doesn't cut it. Sure, taking away a PCs powers wasn't really in the cards in season one, but Brennan works very well and very caringly with what he has to establish as canon.
Kristen was looking for a reason to drop Helio from the get-go. His frat boy appearance and non-answer to a nearly impossible question didn't truly matter at the core of her feelings. She wanted an out from the prison she was trapped in with the Helioic faith, even if she didn't realize it fully. She had tension with her mom and her ideals from the scene one! She wanted to connect with people the church actively shunned. Helio was never the true problem.
Now, gods are shaped by their worshippers. So on some level Helio is shaped by people with shitty ideals. But there's still a foothold of good, especially if there are out and proud gays in heaven. Especially if Kristen Applebees of all people is the chosen one.
When you have worshippers misinterpreting your whole deal, going with Sol's shitty messaging and transferring it onto you and using it for bad things, what can you do as a god? Because you ARE what they say you are. So how can you fight back?
Well. You make your chosen one someone that embodies your true heart. Someone that can actually turn the tides of your worship.
There is an emphasis on tracker reinventing and revitalizing her religion. Changing it for the better. Taking the old and not tossing it out, but making it better.
Isn't that what Kristen struggles with the most? That's what she needs to learn how to do.
Tracker also established that she can worship multiple gods when she helped with Yes?. Kristen doesn't need to settle for one even if she (fingers crossed) brings Kassandra back.
Because the season opened with the slow apocalypse of endless night. Endless daytime would end similarly. There has to be a balance. They are two sides of the same coin. Day and night. The surety of the sun and the doubt of the shadows.
Kristen wants both. And she can fucking have it if she decides to.
Ally once said they appreciate that the enemy is always the church. Organized religion. Kristen is perfect for disorganized religion though. Chill frat boy vibes and anxious doubts and the ultimate message of 'just do your best'.
I think religious trauma is a compelling, close to the heart topic for a lot of people. And some turn away from religion entirely and wash their hands of it. But some people don't. Kristen is a cleric. She can't. She wants a god, she wants answers, and she just can't find them in the established community she was raised in. That doesn't mean the core of her religion was wrong. The church was. So you take the religion and you harness it in a way that means something to you.
Maybe Kristen being desperate enough to invite Helio back into her life is what this has all been leading to.
She can remake a god. She's done it before. Because Kassandra was good at the core. Maybe Helio can be too.