#and in empires she has all the associations and imagery of the sun | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

littleeyesofpallas · 3 years

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Oh boy i sure don't have any idea how to structure this in the best way to tackle all the relevant points without just going in circles constantly, or making in incoherent web of nonsense... But I'm gonna try...

So... starting with the new Spirit Society character designs in Bleach: Brave Souls, I was vibing on the use of Amaterasu imagery. Amaterasu is Japan's chief god, mother goddess, and the sun incarnate; her mythic bloodline is the claim of Japanese imperial royalty. In particular the use of a sun motif mirror harkens back to the Yata-no-Kagami, one of Japan's 3 imperial regelia, used to lure the sullen Amaterasu from the cave she'd withdrawn to, sinking the world into darkness. Although the design is made to largely mirror White's oni themed look, it positions Ichigo as a sun god; ironically Ichigo's outfit is mostly the same as White's save that his armor, beads and hakama are white and red and White's are all black.

But what is it exactly about Ichigo and The Sun, or more specifically a Black Sun association? because ironically there's actually very little direct imagery linking the two in the manga itself...

Several different characters in Bleach have associations with sun imagery, some more relevantly than others...

I'll start by saying that Yamamoto has some Rising Sun imagery evoked in his bankai, but that's largely an offshoot of "Fire" and "Japan" as themes than of the sun itself. So we can basically ignore him entirely moving forward...

Obviously there's Ichigo and his Black Sun epithet that was originally used on the cover art of the SOULs databook, opposite Rukia's White Moon on the cover of VIBEs. Together they gave us the phrase, "The rain drags black sun down, but the rain dried by white moon." It actually doesn't get utilized very much in the manga itself. There is also a bit of a (possible)tangential reference to it in Ichigo's hollow form, that actually harkens back to Zombie Powder.

Kaien's presence is described by Rukia as the sensation of the warmth of sunlight.(That's not a lot by itself, but other topics in this discussion will circle back around to it.) This is also contrasted by the fact that Aaroniero cannot maintain Kaien's form while in the light of Aizen's false daylight, and by some loose association Aizen factors in here as well, though indirectly...

Zommari's ability while in his Resurreccion, Brujeria, marks his opponents with a sun crest and dictates "sovereignty" as Viz translates it. Incidentally, he defines this as akin to the relationship of both a King and his Subjects, and the Sun and the Moon. His ability is named, Amor: "Love."

The teleport pads used to get around the Quincy castle, Silbern, are called Sun Gates. The fact that they're specific to the palace and not present in the general Quincy iconography(and the relative use of stars to symbolize the sternritter, and quincy in general) suggests that the sun specifically refers to Yhwach, as their god/king.(The immediate association of an ornate sun tied to a king would seem to suggest a relation to King Louis XIV of France, known as le Roi Soleil: "The Sun King".)

And ironically, last on this list, but first to be brought up in the manga: Masaki Kurosaki. Ichigo's mother is described as being the center of her family's universe. She's drawn at the center of a diagram positioning her like the sun with her family orbiting around her.

Now, interestingly... Perhaps the strongest set of associated themes with any of these sun characters is Yhwach. Which seems odd at a glance, as his direct link to the sun is maybe the least explicit of those listed about. However, Jugram's flashback casually drops in that Yhwach's pre-Sternritter and pre-SoulSociety invasion army of Quincy had been called LichtReich[光の帝国]: "Light Empire."(This is in direct thematic opposition to Yhwach and the Sternritters' use of shadows, and the SchattenBereich[影の領域]: "Shadow Realm" that they're forced to dwell in.)

And although the Quincy's spirit energy weapons are mostly named "Holy..." as part of what accounts for their glowing aesthetic, Uryuu is specifically attired with the epithet Prinz Von Licht:"Prince of Light," and because Uryuu is given this title when he is revealed as Yhwach's heir, Yhwach is positioned as the King of Light by association.(This also implies Jugram was the Prince prior to Uryuu's recruitment) This is then brings Yhwach again adjacent to the role of Sun King: A king of light with an army of smaller stars*(relative to the view of the night sky and not space itself of course).

*curiously, there is also the issue of Ichigo having had a star motif in the original Bleach pilot chapter, but Kubo never reprises that in the serial manga proper, so there's nothing to build on that here.

In addition, Masaki's association with the Sun as the center of a gravitational field of relationships can be related to 3 different people(and kind of a 4th...) Ichigo, Yhwach, and Jugram; Although Ichigo's role is retconned away after the fact, all three have the power to bestow their own spiritual power onto others by proximity and contact. (Implicitly this power might also be a feature of the Soul King himself as that 4th person, but any "evidence" for that has to be pulled almost exclusively from LN's even tho those are largely just trying to elaborate on unresokved hooks still present in the manga. But it all feels a little too loose to me to really build upon, and despite Kubo's general umbrella of blessing over Narita's work, I really don't regard most of it as particularly functionally compatible with canon.)

Also just let me say: I hate that in my brain this whole process and everything that is to come feels like I takes so few thoughts/so little brain space to conceive of, and yet somehow it all just inflates into so many more words over so much more page/screen space, and it feels so wasteful and inefficient...

...which brings us back to that very brief association with Kaien. Rukia doesn't just describe Kaien's infectious positivity and caring personality with warmth and light, she does so while recalling how he defines "Heart" a theme central-ish to the series as a whole.(although Kubo seems to have had a bit of an issue with keeping it particularly focused...) "Heart" is the bond between people, and it is the memory and will that survives after death, carried on by others.

And "Heart" is what Ichigo inherited from his mother; Rukia from Kaien; and it's what binds Ichigo and Rukia together when they rescue one another --first when Rukia saves Ichigo by lending him her powers, and returned when Ichigo rescues Rukia from her execution. "Heart" is what ties Ichigo to his friends, and awakens spiritual awareness and powers in them(Not just Chad and Orihime, but Tatsuki and Keigo as well)

"Heart" ties people together, "Heart" is Love, Love is sovereign, Love is both the gravity that holds people in orbit and the nurturing Light and Warmth of the Sun.

As an interesting parallel to this, Ichigo kind of hastily and not too convincingly gives us the idea that Aizen wound up the way he was because his power alienated him from others, and that what he lacked was love and understanding and companionship: human connections. But there is a little more to that, because when he defected from Soul Society and vowed to become a god, where did he go but a place of darkness and night: a place opposite Soul Society and furthest from the Light and from God/The Soul King? And more than that, he built Los Noches under the light of a false, illusory sun and united under its roof an army of beings defined by the removal of their hearts. But his army was fraught with in-fighting, and he himself didn't really value them, even as he forced that organizational structure on them. Aizen was not a Sun-like character(and although not in direct contrast to the sun in text, he is of course very explicitly compared to the moon repeatedly), but he tried to put himself in the position of one, and he failed to replicate that role's effects. He's an anti-sun, the absence of sun, of light, of warmth, of love, of heart, and of connection.

So then circling back to Yhwach, and much of his role in the TYBW arc are just kind of awkward, clunky rehashing of the Arrancar arc, right down to the white uniforms opposite the shinigami's black robes, the clean white/silver architecture, and the not very clever shift from a world of night to a world of shadow as the villain's base of operations. But with the Quincy there is the added emphasis on ice and thus the cold... an absence of warmth.

Yhwach however isn't himself a symbolic anti-sun the way Aizen was, he's an alternate sun; Although ironically it was Aizen who wanted to be god, and Yhwach who wants to undo the world... you'd think that should be the other way around. Yhwach can fulfil the function of a Sun, just like the Soul King does, like Ichigo and Jugram(And Uryuu?) implicitly can, and just like Aizen tried and failed to do. But Yhwach's "love" is not a healthy bond. It and its powers are conditional, fickle, hierarchical, and ultimately exploitative. He draws people to him with false charity, guidance, and nurturing only to throw them away for his own benefit when needed. He is a shadow sun --"shadow" in the archetypical sense-- he is all the downsides of what the bond of love/heart, is and can be. We see this touched on when he uses the auschwalen and we see ever so briefly how Bazz-B and Liltotto, and to lesser extent Giselle and Robert, respond to it; they're betrayed on an obvious personal level being left powerless, but they also question what their worth or purpose was, what they are or mean to Yhwach that he would abandon them without warning.

(i thought I'd find a better place for this but as a random factoid about that above image: The Soul King having no limbs feels to me like a reference to Bodhidharma, the Buddhist monk said to have achieved such a state of complete enlightenment that his total enrapture with his mental state rendered his body inert. Eventually his body atrophied and his limbs fell off, and ultimately he became as stone in his transcendence. From this the Japanese have a common charm that are the red urn-like shaped dolls of the limbless Daruma; they're generally sold with blank eyes and when you get one you make a wish or set a goal while painting in the first eye, and you don't paint in the second eye until the goal has been reached, so the incomplete figure serves as a reminder of your aspirations. And incidentally the Daruma figure's iconic moustache isn't dissimilar to Yhwach's. And over all it feels like there was always an implicit but underdeveloped dual role in Bleach in which the Soul King, and by some lesser association Yhwach, function as both Buddhist and Christian deities.)

Rather conspicuously, I mentioned the other day Yhwach's brief comparison to the "Buckbeard"/"Backbeard" in its own right and didnt really think there was any relevance to draw from it then, but visually the Backbeard is actually pretty literally drawn as a Black Sun. And although I dont give this a whole lot of credence, the idea that Yhwach being a part of Ichigo's inner soul and identity accounts for his inheriting that shadow sun quality.

And this gets us to the actual root motif here... Sun is one thing but why Black Sun specifically for Ichigo? The theme actually goes all the way back to Zombie Powder, as I mentioned back at the start of this... Akutabi Gamma's sword style uses a "ring of flames" crest that is a sun icon, and the sword style's technique utilize black flames, ergo the flames of a black sun. And although this doesn't show up too much in Bleach, it's the initial visual inspiration for Ichigo's black getsuga tenshou while in bankai, as well as the tattoo pattern on his final hollow form. But beyond that line of rather obscure references, it's not entirely clear if there was ever any real coherent meaning to it.

Kubo originally made Ichigo and Orihime an overt Tanabata reference in the pilot one-shot, and as such Ichigo had a star theme to mark his role as Hikoboshi. Although the relationship was never actually brought up again and in fact pretty actively buried when Orihime's (grand)father figure was replaced with her brother, Ichigo did retain some themes of having his happiness interrupted by rain. (the Tanabata festival and myth indicate that stars Vega and Altair can only meet once a year, and if it should rain on that day, then they have to wait until the next year to try again.) I don't know how to end this...

Kubo plays with some broad imagery of rain and sadness, rain and bridging heaven and earth(ala tankobon poems) but only in the aforementioned databook covers SOULs and VIBEs does that cross paths with the Sun imagery. But on the flip side of that, Rukia is far from the only figure associated with the moon, and those come in a wide variety of tones and contexts...

Rukia as a beautiful white moon, similar to Hyoruinmaru's implicit moon wordplay. but then Byakuya and Aizen as overtly antagonistic moon symbols. Ichigo and Zangetsu itself are also confusingly associated with a Black Moon as well as Black Sun...

In fact, I would normally have assumed Zangetu's name should be translated as "Cut The Moon" and not "Cutting Moon" that way Viz translates it. That is to say the name seems more overtly to describe "That which Cuts the Moon," and not "A Moon that Cuts," and the Sun could thus be said to be that which cuts the Moon. The former aligns with much of the unreachable moon metaphor Kubo plays with in the Soul Society arc, where as the latter is just kind of nonsense? I mean, it describes the Getsuga Tenshou having a moon shape and it cuts, but that feels flimsy. (As a comparison. the word zantetsuken[斬鉄剣] which I assume Zangetsu[斬月] is deliberately made to sound like, is written "cut + iron + sword" as in "A sword that cuts iron" and not "an iron sword that cuts.")

In any case the thing that throws a wrench in what I feel is my more sensible interpretation is how the chapter where Ichgio uses Bankai is called Black Moon Rising, clearly indicating Ichigo and Zangetsu are said rising moon. And Mugetsu[無月]:"No Moon" really only reads as an "Absent Moon" and not "Eliminate the Moon." I mean.. i technically could, but mu-[無] is a common prefix so there's really no reason to jump to it as the root of a verb when the prefix reading is the most obvious, plus [無月] is a direct play on the poetic term for a moonless sky, which again puts the subject on the sky and not on the act of "(making)nothing'.

I'm at that point where I'm off on some tangent of a tangent and i don't really remember how i started, where im going, or how to get back on track...... and i'm tired... (i did a whole giant thing on the awkward adjacency to historic n-zi iconography Kubo keeps getting and how much it's both super cringy and yet totally harmless, largely because it all turns out to be meaningless... and that was like 4 paragraphs all to itself and had nothing to add to anything. I reiterate: Tired.) I don't know what i was getting at. That there's a Sun motif. And it's more extensive than it seems. And a little random in where it shows up. And variable in what it actually stands for. And had a lot more potential to it than Kubo ever got around to really making of it.(surprise, surprise, that's Bleach in a nutshell) I don't know how to end this...

I have room for one more image though, so here, have this extra image that I never found a spot for...

#Bleach #bleach meta #long post #man i dunno how to tag this nonsense

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lightdancer1 · 2 years

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Agni as I write her will be there in one of two categories

Where she's literally Agni, Sun Goddess of the Fire Nation she takes her name from the Hindu God of Fire, but her basic personality is a blend of the Right Handed Hummingbird of Nahuatl lore and Amaterasu Omikami from Shinto lore. The reason she's an unpleasant and dour murderous warmongering type is that simply basing her on Huitzilopotchli alone would do a good portion of that all by itself.

For a variety of reasons the Mesoamerican influence on the Fire Nation is downplayed, and because I know Aztec lore better than Mayan I am specifically using the Aztecs as the basis for the Sun Warriors prior to Sozin's Culling of them. Agni will always have a murderous aspect to a modern Western eye simply from incorporating much of the personality and symbolism of the Hummingbird, and her role and association with the Agni Kai shows this mentality is one of the most lingering aspects of the Nahuatl heritage in the Fire Nation.

Another aspect that they get from it, as well as the Japanese aspects is the letter z as the Aztecs did love that letter.

Where she's the Azar of Azarath/Zezhelanzunui/the Undying Flame/the God on the Gilded Throne she doesn't look like a being of sunfire come to Earth in lamellar armor, she's an unnaturally vast and wide entity (read: three dimensional in a two dimensional space and completely unconcerned at breaking the rules of animation as a medium in a reverse Roger Rabbit effect) who glows with an energy that looks like light but fundamentally isn't. Her presence is marked by ivory and gold and the imagery of an everlasting light promising eternal life and the fulfillment of one's greatest dream (which technically she will....as the core of one's own personal ironic hell).

She also, unlike Agni, has a very different kind of unpleasantness to her being. A straight up Lovecraftian factor of feeling fundamentally wrong and eldritch, which does not mean ugly (if anything due to her facial structure taking cues from Paranthropus boisei she has a solid uncanny valley rather than a more traditional 'evil' Lovecraftian symbolism). It means that she induces a kind of unreasoning terror that enables her to spread her virus the easy way, not that she really cares either way.

In the Omniverse Tales the Azar is an entity of tyranny, empire, and domination as their anthropomorphic personification, so the Dai Li in the Fire and Water verse are actually doing a better job of worshiping the Fire Nation's nominal deity than the Fire Nation is.

#atla aus #agni #god on the gilded throne #the two agnis in my atla stories

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fermented-writers-block · 3 years

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Submitted by @sepublic:

So a while back, my pal @fermented-writers-block aired a theory. To sum up the abridged version, they suggested that if the Boiling Isles was allegorical to an Underworld, and the Human World to… Well, itself, then what of a third realm above? What if there was a parallel to an angelic realm, one populated by the show’s equivalent to a race of angels/Valkyries? They speculated that Emperor Belos himself may have been one of them, cast out… And he desires the portal and access to the Human World, in order to access this hypothetical Angel Realm!

In our discussions, we came across the idea that the Human World functions like neutral territory. It is the realm between realms, the buffer/barrier between the Angel Realm and the Demon Realm. It is where the two come together, and where influences from both have leaked in, to inspire real-world myths; A callback to Eda’s line in the first episode! The Portal, as speculated by my pal, potentially is rooted in the Human World, giving it equal access to the Angel and Demon Realms respectively- As a result of the Human World being between both of them respectively!

If the three realms were bus seats, the Angel Realm might be the Window Seat, while the Demon Realm is the set right next to the aisle where people walk up and down across the bus… And the Human World is sandwiched right between! This of course means that in order for either the Demon or Angel Realm to access one another, it would be through the Human World… With only the Human World maintaining access to BOTH realms, instead of just the one!

Ergo… Given the theory that Belos intends to reconnect to this Angel Realm, it makes sense that he wants to access the Human World! To him, it’s merely a stepping stone, not his destination… The ladder he needs to reach the top, it’s his stopping point before he can progress on to the end! He has no interest in the Human World, as he claims, beyond utilizing it as a passageway to something far grander and more interesting.

But now… onto a certain idea behind Belos.

To put it simply; Fermented Writer’s Block and I think that Belos could potentially be a Satanic/Lucifer allegory. A Fallen Angel, in a sense. From a Doylist perspective, this would settle Disney’s concerns over depicting Heavenly characters as negative, as the only truly negative Angel in this sense would be a literal Satanic allegory. It’d be like Doom, in a sense!

I’ve discussed… a LOT in the past, the idea of Luz and Belos being counterparts. Even if we don’t have much within canon, there IS the association with Light, as well as the ability to communicate with the Titan to some degree. Luz’s name literally means Light… And Lucifer means Light Bringer! It’s in the name, Luz-ifer! If Belos is a twisted counterpart to Luz’s guiding light, then perhaps he’s a more literal take on the Satanic allegory…

Specifically, the idea of an Angel who was cast out of their world and fell, plummeting into a realm beneath that of the Human World! We’re already making allusions with Lilith’s name, after all. And I’d LOVE to see The Owl House tackle some more classic, eldritch takes on the Angels of old and their original interpretations, such as the Seraphs!

After all, people have noted the similarities between Belos and the idea of Christian Imperialism. If Belos were a literal ‘angel’, or the show’s equivalent, this would be a fitting twist! Fermented Writer’s Block also observed that on one page of the Unauthorized History of the Boiling Isles, Belos is depicted with almost mechanical wings, in addition to the book being somewhat burnt. What if this could imply burnt wings on Belos’ part? Especially given Belos’ mechanical, industrial motifs and deteriorated nature...

If Belos WERE a Fallen Angel, then perhaps his Wings motif amidst the Emperor’s Coven imagery is intentional. Not only does it hearken back to his true origins and identity… But it could also allude to him having burnt wings, which in itself is symbolic of a Fallen Angel, as someone who was outcast and can no longer fly! The dude IS associated with Fire, to a degree… His throne room is lit by blazing braziers. Amity and Boscha are associated with his Coven System, in a sense… Amity is indoctrinated into its values and wants to join the Emperor’s Coven, while Boscha’s ideas of hierarchy and elitism reflect Belos’ values rather well. Both characters are associated with Fire… Which, helps to serve as a unifying motif among them- Especially with Lilith, who has blue fire and was leader of the Emperor’s Coven!

It’s a contrast to Luz and her Ice, and what she stands for… Her Light is reflective, while the Light of characters like Belos is harsh, dangerous, and off-putting. If Luz were more comparable to a night star, shining amidst the darkness and providing guidance- Then Belos is like the Sun, harsh, bright, demanding attention from all… But also too powerful to be personal with, something to be regarded from a distance, and never closely looked at. This would fit into Belos’ enigmatic nature, and the idea of him heralding Day, while Luz is Night… After all, Owls are nocturnal! And if Belos is a coming dawn, then that could tie into Angelic motifs… Amidst Luz’s Night bringing an end to his Light! It’s a take on that age-old term, about the Sun never setting on the British Empire… And THAT empire is emblematic of colonialism and imperialism as a whole!

It could also allude to the myth of Icarus- A mortal who flew too close to the sun! Of course in this scenario, Belos was in fact an Angel… But there’s still the recurring theme of wanting more, of one’s circumstances not being enough, of being guided by arrogance- It’s shared between Lucifer and Icarus both, to varying degrees. Perhaps Belos tried to lead a revolt in the Angel Realm, or got too arrogant… Either way, he was cast out- He flew too close to the Sun he wished to embody, and so his wings were burnt. Clipped of the thing most emblematic of his identity, no longer able to fly and ascend… Belos fell to the Earth, and then even deeper.

It’d tie into Belos having earthen motifs, as someone who can no longer fly. Him having angelic aesthetics, underscored by demonic motifs and growls, fits into the idea of Lucifer having been a beautiful angel, only to become the literal Devil and leader of Hell and all of its horrific demons! Belos already has a decayed, deteriorated condition to him that implies he’s not in the best health. Perhaps his burnt wings are the cause of this- Or at least another symptom of whatever injuries he suffered in the past? Not only that, but returning to the Icarus motifs… If we want to get meta, we can ascertain that Dana Terrace has read Fullmetal Alchemist. She knows of Hiromu Arakawa’s artstyle, citing it as something Luz would emulate back home- And there’s that other post comparing Father and Belos!

If Belos is like Father, then there’s once again that idea of using a portal to access a heavenly ‘realm’, through the Sun, in order to access a ‘God’ figure, or beings around that level. Not only that, but Fullmetal Alchemist, from its very beginning, made a very pointed reference to the myth of Icarus, likening its main protagonist Edward Elric to him! If Father is in some ways a foil to Ed, just as Belos could be to Luz… Then it makes sense for Dana to have been inspired by Icarus by virtue of his tale being important to the themes of Fullmetal Alchemist! And if Belos IS a Satanic allegory… Well, Lucifer’s name literally means Morning Star. As Belos’ antithesis, Luz brings the sunset to his Day of Unity. They’re both outcasts to the Demon Realm, but from different worlds respectively.

Now, there’s a question- Who are the Angels? What do they look like? And where does the Owl Deity factor into all of this? Well, this gets me onto my NEXT part;

I think the Owl Deity could be the closest thing to ‘God’ in this universe, AKA an all-powerful deity who reigns above all! A while back, a background artist for the show released some art he did, depicting Luz and King resting beneath a spire. If one looks closely at the top, they can see a depiction of Belos himself! And right above it is candles, surrounding an Owl… An Owl above all. Perhaps we’re looking too deeply into this. But it brings to mind a pun, about the God of All Things… Also being the God of ‘Owl’ Things!

If the candles are lit, then this suggests fire’s association with the heavens, which fits into biblical depictions of Angels! Not only that, but Belos is right beneath the Owl… And right beneath him is a fleshy stump, indicative of his own motifs… And it’s connected to what appears to be a giant eye right beneath him! Eyes are a big motif in the Boiling Isles –and amongst biblical angels- so perhaps the fleshy stump, akin to Belos’ constructs, is symbolic? That he’s bridging the gap between the demonic world below, and the heavenly world above?

Regardless, the next portion of this theory suggests that the Owl Deity is a supreme being. Perhaps a neutral mediator between both the Angel and Demon Realms, with the Human World as neutral ground. Perhaps a weapon, utilized by the Angels? Or a powerful deity they managed to sway… More on that later. Regardless, it DOES make one consider the Clawthornes’ connection to the Owl Deity, specifically Eda’s. Her house DOES have the only known depictions of this enigmatic being, after all.

And THAT house was likely fashioned, at least partly, from a tower! Towers are known for their reach towards the skies… Could a Clawthorne Ancestor have been connected to the Owl Deity as a worshipper? A follower? Maybe they were ALSO an Angel, like Belos, albeit not fallen… Or at least, much more well-intentioned! It could bring a dark twist to Lilith’s line about Eda being with her ‘real’ family… Unbeknownst to her, Belos, being a fallen Angel, is arguably ‘family’ in the sense that the hypothetical Clawthorne Ancestor was ALSO an Angel! After all, it might better explain how Eda has access to the Portal. Not to mention that golden, blazing Owl Wraith she summons during her final battle with Lilith… Birds ARE a Clawthorne Motif, after all! And Angels have bird wings.

If Belos IS similar to Father from Fullmetal Alchemist, then it makes sense that there’s a ‘God’ he plans to usurp as a Lucifer allegory. The Owl Deity could be this god, or at least associated with the Heavens that Belos seeks to conquer and return to. That of course gets us into the symbolism behind the angelic motifs of the Emperor’s Coven. Now, when Belos first arrived in the Demon Realm, he would have been acting VERY contrary to the Boiling Isles’ values about magic at the time, and he clearly had to utilize plenty of force and genocide to make people comply. In other words, this is a dude who cares not about conforming to others, but making others conform to him…

So it doesn’t make as much sense for Belos to change his aesthetics to an Angelic one, to appease the Boiling Isles residents if he’s clearly averse to everything else they do! Especially if Angels, or what lingering memory of them there is, is seen as negative by the Boiling Isles… The point being, this alludes to Belos being genuine about his Angelic motifs, and not adopting them to appear more palatable to others; Because all of his behavior suggests otherwise, that he forces others to adapt to him, rather than the other way around!

Not only that, but if the Emperor’s Coven is Belos’ attempt at reinstating his ideal form of heavenly rule/environment on the Boiling Isles… And if the Owl Deity is a god to be conquered, then how fitting is it that his subordinate wears an Owl Mask? Perhaps it’s meant to arrogantly symbolic… That the Owl figure that Belos once looked up to, now serves him! Of course it’s only in symbols; But the idea is there, that the image and motif of Owls has been appropriated, not as a holy being above Belos, but instead as an image belonging to a subservient minion.

Now, this all leads into another question- What about the Titan? What does the Titan have to do with this? And for that matter, what of the giant Titan remains, scattered across the Boiling Seas- We know others exist, but OUR Titan is the only known intact corpse! Well…

In Understanding Willow, Hooty briefly mentions his backstory. It’s hard to discern, but he mentions how it all began with a hunt, and how there were blood-red skies before Eda and King’s dialogue cuts him off and drowns out the noise. There IS the idea of Hooty being a lobotomized and weakened reincarnation of the Owl Deity, or at least a spawn of it… Or having SOME association with it, moreso than most characters! We don’t know what killed the Titans, or why OUR Titan’s corpse is intact. There could be Doylist answers to this, maybe it’s meant to be a mystery that’s never explored, but left to a sublime imagination…

But if not, then this is where I get into a crazy idea here;

Angels are depicted as adversarial with Demons. The Titans would’ve been the first Demons, of the Demon Realm. We know one of them had Magic... And if Belos is any indication as a fallen angel, there may be a heavenly aversion to magic. Hooty recalls it all beginning with a hunt…

What if the Angels hunted down the Titans? It’d explain their sudden extinction… As for why our Boiling Isles (BI) Titan is still intact, well. Perhaps it was a lone survivor! Perhaps its Magical ability permitted it to last longer than others, before it too succumbed to death after the genocide. For all we know, its Magical ability was what drove the Angels to commit genocide upon the Titans, for fear of an uprising! Either they failed to target the Titan actually responsible for finding magic, or they kept them from spreading their craft to others by killing off anyone else who would be willing to learn.

If Hooty has a connection to the Owl Deity… Well, remember when he mentioned being haunted by his actions forever, in Adventures in the Elements? What if the Owl Deity led this ‘hunt’ against the Titans… Either as a creation of the Angels, or as a neutral mediator who was swayed to their ideas of magic being dangerous! Either way, there seems to be a recurring theme of regret and remorse… Perhaps when all was said and done, the Owl Deity rejected its actions, and banished itself to the Boiling Isles? Maybe the Clawthorne Ancestor was connected to/IS the Owl Deity… As for how the Owl Deity died, maybe it simply willed itself out of existence in shame. Maybe it succumbed to injuries from the water. Either way, the Titan didn’t erase all traces of it, which could imply some forgiveness on its part… That, or the Titan was too dead to act in outright vengeance, who knows?

Regardless, the story goes- A Titan discovers Magic, is deemed a threat by the Angels. The Angels lead a mass extermination of its kind, with the Titan the sole survivor. The Owl Deity helps lead the hunt, but comes to regret its war crimes, and dies amidst the BI Titan’s corpse, laying the foundations for the Owl House. As I said, the BI Titan also eventually dies, alone and traumatized, as the Angels head back home.

Owl Deity culls rest of titans, is about to finish the Titan when it realizes the horror of what it did

Either the Titan took it out in a pyrrhic victory, or - more likely - the Owl Deity, being an entity focused on balance and neutrality, allowed itself to be killed/seriously wounded as way to “rebalance” things as much as it can for its nigh complete genocide

We know that Belos claims to enforce the will of the Titan. Well, if he’s a fallen angel… What if he’s persuading the Titan to help it get revenge? What if as a fallen angel, he arrived on the Boiling Isles and approached the Titan’s spirit, proclaiming himself as trustworthy, in an Enemy of my Enemy situation? Belos would point to him and the Titan as being wounded and rejected by the angels to some extent. Belos would have insider knowledge on his kind. If the Angels swayed the Owl Deity, what if Belos swayed the Titan to his side by offering it the chance to strike back at the Heavens for its crimes, and avenge its fallen brethren?

When Belos claims to enforce the Titan’s will, he’s not completely wrong- It DOES feel justifiable anger, though clearly Belos is capitalizing and manipulating this anger, and then passing off the Titan’s actions as solely its own, and not at all a product of Belos’ own manipulations in any shape or form. You know how I likened Belos to Father… And my past theories about Belos resurrecting the Titan, on the Day of Unity?

Hooty mentions it all began with a hunt, with blood-red skies. What if the skies are blood-red once more, on the Day of Unity? As the realms converge or whatnot… What if Belos’ weapon to defeat his Angelic brethren is none other than the resurrected Titan, wielding full access to the powers of Magic, and with vengeance in its heart? What if Belos resurrects the Titan on the Day of Unity, possibly with its body underneath HIS control as a parasite… We could have a scene mirroring that iconic moment from Fullmetal Alchemist, where a continent-sized Father rises from the ground and reaches out to the Heavens, accessing them with the Portal! Just replace Father’s gigantic form with the Titan’s resurrected, magic-fueled body!

Now, this does lead into the idea of settling the Angels as antagonists, once Belos is done and over with. Perhaps a resurrected Owl Deity will be instrumental, with the help of Luz and the others? If she’s the Night to Belos’ Day, then perhaps she needs to set the sun on Belos’ reign, on his Day of Unity! It all begins and ends with blood-red skies, after all. Perhaps with the help of a resurrected Owl Deity, Luz can appease the Titan, or at least sway it to not turn to vengeance and jeopardize the Boiling Isles inhabitants in the process. She has experience with calming down vengeful entities in the past, as seen with Inner Willow… And Luz CAN communicate with the Titan!

Especially if the Angels have grown to also regret their actions, as a parallel to characters like Lilith! Or at least, the Angels can be held in line and prevented from further massacres, with the resurrected Owl Deity. If the Owl Deity is regretful of its actions, then perhaps we could get a scene calling back to Understanding Willow… Where Belos, at the last second, sways the Owl Deity to his logic, and suggests vengeance and annihilation of the Angels! The Owl Deity, frighteningly, agrees for a moment, reminding the Angels that its genocide of them is merely finishing what THEY started, after all…!

But then Luz steps in. Alongside the others, such as Amity and Willow, Lilith and King, Eda, and so forth… She persuades the Owl Deity to have forgiveness in its heart, especially if the Angels show remorse and a desire to fix mistakes! It’d hearken back to the theme of having justified anger, but otherwise channeling it productively into fixing mistakes, rather than simply harming the one responsible for them! It’s about a productive way of tackling issues, rather than focused on punishment; Again, a theme as far back as the first scene, when Luz is punished with the Summer Camp, VS actually having her emotional issues properly addressed, and being given the chance to fix the damage.

Our protagonists could all call back to similar incidents, with Lilith citing how Eda sparing her gave her the chance to fix the damage, or at least remedy it… Instead of JUST dying as retribution! How Willow chose to still retain her feelings, but also spared Amity so the girl could change and improve as a person, instead of just killing her off and calling it a day. It’s about not only recognizing damage, but working to properly fix and recover from it- Recovery is the key word! Fixing the damage together, as Luz said- Productively fixing what was caused, instead of beating oneself over it, the way Amity and Lilith initially did!

This could lead to the Owl Deity, especially if it has Hooty’s memories, being swayed back to a good stance. It’d contrast Belos and his inability to grow, heal, and recover from his emotional and physical wounds! Either way, perhaps the Owl Deity could make peace with the Angels, or at least ensure they genuinely change their attitudes and behaviors. Belos is stopped, and the Titan can finally be laid to rest, its spirit perhaps still communicating with whoever is willing and eager to learn Magic, the same way it did!

Now, this does leave the question- Who was Belos during the Titan Genocide, if he was an Angel? Was he even alive back then? This gets me into the speculation that Fermented Writers Block made, of Private New Guy being an allegory to Belos… If Hooty was haunted by his actions that night, well. Perhaps Belos was just another young recruit, another generic Angel in the hunt- But he was inspired by the Owl Deity, maybe even saw it as someone to emulate? And that’s part of why he’s so power-hungry and bloodthirsty, because of his ‘idol’…

Yet ironically, Belos is merely projecting his idea and desire for what he wants the Owl Deity to be, VS what it actually is- A repentant, remorseful entity with a lot of guilt! Tying into the idea of characters projecting ideas/expectations onto others that just don’t exist, confusing fantasy with reality… Maybe like Private New Guy, Belos tried to seize power in the Angel Realm, and it’s why he was banished? And hey, going into even MORE mindless speculation- What if Owl Mask was MORE than symbolic of the Owl Deity, but outright the same kind of being? Perhaps they’re Belos’ attempt at recreating the Owl Deity albeit young and/or imperfect, an additional asset to conquer the Angel Realm, in addition to a resurrected Titan. Who knows?

Mind you… ALL OF THIS is one hell of a stretch. It’s an incredibly unlikely theory, that hinges on a LOT of factors… But it’s fun food for thought, is it not? And hey, if you never pick up a shovel, one will never find gold even if it IS there! It’s an extension of the Angel Realm theory, while tying together a bunch of other details here or there, and hearkening to past themes, morals, and lessons. I’m sure that even if this isn’t what Dana and the others have planned, what we WILL get will certainly be just as enjoyable- But until then, it can’t hurt too much to guess a bit, and maybe have some outlandish fun or there, right?

#the owl house #TOH #the owl house theory #toh theory #the owl house speculation #the owl house meta #emperor belos

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annecoulmanross · 4 years

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Bridgens/Peglar Egyptology AU

(for the @theterrorbingo square “modern AU” | word count: 1k fic + 1.5k AU details | rating: T | warnings: mild spooky; talk of mummies; description of a panic attack)

The Terrors are all members of the Classics (Greek & Roman Studies) department. The Erebites are all members of the Egyptology department. These two departments share the beautiful Barrow Hall building on the campus of their university, but they do NOT get along….

….until Henry Peglar, a first-year graduate student in Classics, decides that he wants to learn how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs.

(Drabbles and AU info below the cut!)

It turns out that most students who want to study hieroglyphs have already finished the introductory course, however, because Henry ends up in a tiny winter-term class with only two other students. The three “hieroglyph 101s” all show up a bit early to their first day of class, fumbling into a dimly-lit classroom in the basement of Barrow Hall, across from the archaeological store-rooms.

They exchange quick introductions while waiting for the instructor to arrive. Both of Henry’s classmates are undergraduate Egyptology majors: Tom Hartnell is a bright young freshman with a passion for Egyptian mummies (and, admittedly, a slightly spotty undergraduate record), and Henry Collins is a terribly anxious junior who recently switched majors from Engineering (“Please call me Collins,” he says, after Henry begins to comment that they share a name. “Everyone else already calls me Collins.”)

The moment of revelation for Henry Peglar, though, is when he first sets eyes on their instructor: a senior graduate student named John Bridgens, who walks in just a minute after the hour, with a thermos of what smells like mint tea.

John Bridgens looks almost mournful for a moment, his dark eyes soulful, a thick pea-coat sitting heavy on his shoulders (which he quickly shrugs off; it may be a chilly January outside, but Barrow Hall is toasty and warm). When John looks over to his students, though, he smiles, and his face is transformed: Henry feels like the sun has suddenly come out from behind the blustery clouds.

Henry quickly realizes that learning Egyptian won’t be like learning Greek or Latin, but fortunately John is a very good teacher. Even though John holds office hours at an ungodly hour of the morning, Henry shows up to every office hour with a bright smile and a long list of questions.

What Henry doesn’t yet know is that he’s in for the most exciting semester of his life…

(Featuring such hijinks as: John and his students Henry, Tom, and Collins get locked into the archaeological store-room with the mummies, in the dark! Henry and Tom Hartnell uncover a secret that could overturn the Egyptology department! Henry develops an unfortunate crush on his instructor! What could go wrong!)

“We’re Trapped in Here, Aren’t We?” (Bonus Drabble)

The four of them have now been locked in the basement, in the dark, for over an hour.

Collins is quietly freaking out, sitting on a storage crate in the corner of the main room of the museum storage space. Henry watches Tom Hartnell deftly trying to help Collins regulate his breathing to a pace approaching normal, with some success; Henry decides not to intervene.

“We’re trapped in here, aren’t we?” Collins asks. He doesn’t sound panicked anymore, just stressed; it’s an improvement.

Tom rubs Collins’s shoulder reassuringly, and says, “I don’t know for certain, but I’m not going to let it worry me – we’re going to be okay, alright?” Tom then turns to Henry Peglar and tilts his head, adding: “Eddie Hoar told me that there used to be a secret passage that ran between Barrow Hall and the library, and that the door opened up somewhere here in the storage-rooms. Maybe we can find it?”

Henry nods, flashes a grin that feels fake but must seem genuine in the low light of the storage-rooms’ emergency lighting, because Tom smiles back at him. “I’ll go check on John,” Henry says. “See if he doesn’t know anything about a tunnel.”

Slipping in between the shelves of Greek ceramics, Henry winds his way toward the back workroom where he left John Bridgens, who had been convinced that there must be an extra key somewhere in the workroom desk drawers.

Henry is so caught up in thoughts of tunnels that fails to notice the packing box sitting next to the shelves and he manages to trip right over it. He takes the fall hard, feeling the chilly linoleum under his now-aching arm, his eyes squeezed shut against the pain. When he opens his eyes, though, Henry feels a bolt of fear run though him – for a moment he thinks he’s gone blind, because he sees nothing but darkness. A moment later, the ancient emergency lights flicker back on, and that’s worse because Henry is face-to-face with the mummy.

Henry had forgotten that she was stored here, under the shelves of Egyptian faience. He distantly remembers Dr. Blanky pointing out “the Egyptian girl, our princess,” in her lovely painted coffin, on a tour through the storage rooms last year when he had been a prospective student – but the fact that she was down here (trapped with us, his mind whispers) had escaped his mind.

Shuddering, Henry pushes himself up from the cold floor and backs up against the wall as the lights keep flickering. He knows, he knows, that there’s nothing to fear here, but the sight of the girl’s skin, drawn tight against her skin, her eerie grimace, had shaken him.

“Henry?”

Henry jumps about a foot in the air, but it’s just John, peering out from the workroom door.

“Henry, are you okay?” John continues, his brow furrowed with worry.

Henry swallows. “Yup, yeah, just took a tumble.” He straightens up, tries to collect himself. “Did you find an extra key?” he asks John.

But John isn’t so easily dissuaded. “Are you sure you’re alright?” He steps up next to Henry, a hand hovering over the arm that Henry’s cradling to his chest (Henry’s certain it isn’t broken, but he knows it’ll be bruised a bit).

Henry looks up into John’s eyes and exhales softly to see the loving concern written there. John’s so close now, lifting a hand toward Henry’s cheek, and Henry wants this, wants to reach out and embrace; he finally feels his limbs stop shaking now that John’s here, even as his heart races and his face tilts up…

…. and that’s the moment when the emergency lights finally flicker their last, and the corridor goes dark as a tomb.

Some Background on the Humanities Departments of Barrow Hall

The Department of Classics

The Classics program at Barrow Hall is small but powerful. Most of the faculty get along well with each other, professionally, although they don’t socialize much. There aren’t many graduate students in the program, but most of the grad students they do have are quite active on the university campus.

Classics Faculty

Dr. Crozier is the department chair of the Classics program. He teaches early Roman history, with a focus on land surveying, and he takes a very scientific approach to his material.

Dr. Little is an associate professor who teaches Greek military history and gets very excited about ancient weapons. (“Like the shot that killed Leonidas at Thermopylae!”)

Dr. Hodgson is an associate professor who teaches Greek drama; he’s particularly obsessed with the tragedies of Euripides – the more ritualistic violence the better.

Dr. Irving is an assistant professor who teaches later Roman history, and can turn any conversation into a debate about the early history of Christianity. His most recent book was titled “Coming Out Christian in the Roman World: How the Followers of Jesus Made a Place in Caesar's Empire.” * Despite Irving’s own Christian faith and his social justice outreach work with the campus Queer Interfaith club, Irving’s a bit of a chronological traditionalist when it comes to academic research, and tends to dismiss any literature written after Augustine.

Drs. Peddie and MacDonald are actually part of the History Department, but because they teach Medieval Latin, they’re considered honorary members of the classics faculty. (MacDonald teaches a wildly popular undergraduate seminar – cross-listed with Classics and History – called “Witches, Ghosts, and Potions: Medical Mysteries in Medieval Europe.”)

Dr. Blanky is the exception to the “we hate the Egyptologists” rule – Thomas gets along quite well with a certain Dr. Reid, both of whom have a passion for film studies, and together they’ve organized a weekly historical film series for the undergrads. Dr. Reid’s top picks are old-school classics like Cleopatra (1963) and Julius Caesar (1953); Blanky, on the other hand, is partial to Gladiator (2000). He’s also the exception to the “this department doesn’t socialize rule,” being, himself, a long-time best friend of department chair Dr. Crozier.

Classics Grad Students

Thomas Jopson is an older graduate student – he’s just a breath away from receiving his PhD: Dr. Crozier, who has been supervising his thesis on the systems of enslavement in the Roman Republic and the lived experiences of Roman slaves, is extremely proud of Thomas’s sensitive eye for historical evidence. Thomas also works for the campus mental health office, leading a therapy group for adult children of those suffering from addiction.

Billie Gibson, another grad student, is part-way through writing his dissertation on the reception of Greek ideas about homosexuality in the Victorian period, under the supervision of a confused but supportive Dr. Irving. (“Isn’t this more of a History department topic?”)

“Hickey” started the PhD program at the same time as Billie, and he’s begun writing his thesis on cannibalistic imagery in Greek poetry with Dr. Hodgson. Everyone just calls him Hickey, and Henry Peglar hasn’t been able to figure out his full name (or whether “Hickey” is a first name or a last name, or even whether “Hickey” is part of his real name at all) because no one ever updates the Classics department website. Hickey is part of a student organization called the Dionysians, but they’re not listed on the university’s roster of sanctioned clubs, and no one seems to know what it is that they do, exactly.

Henry Peglar is the newest member of the department, a first-year grad student. He’s planning on studying depictions of ancient history in modern fiction, hopefully with Dr. Blanky, who also happens to be his first-year advisor.

The Department of Egyptology

The Egyptology program at Barrow Hall has been having some hiring problems in recent years. Not only did several older professors retire, but the young Dr. Gore decided to move into museum-work full-time and Dr. Fairholme was ‘poached’ by the rival Egyptology program at another university. As a result, the Department of Egyptology has been under-staffed, with too many grad students and too few professors, resulting in two controversial recent faculty hires.

Egyptology Faculty

Dr. John is the department chair of the Egyptology program. He teaches ancient Egyptian literature and has a rather old-fashioned perspective on middle Egyptian grammar.

Dr. Reid teaches courses on the history of archaeological discoveries in Egypt, and the culture of artifact (mis-)handling by European excavators. He’s friendly with Dr. Blanky in the Classics program, and he lovingly crafts discussion questions for the film-showings that he and Blanky run. (He’ll never admit it, but he secretly loves the 1999 Mummy movie.)

Dr. Stanley teaches classes on ancient Egyptian medicine. He’s known for his severe grading policies and for his impressive ability to ruin the fun of topic that involves things like magic spells and fever-demons and having sex with crocodiles.

Dr. Fitzjames is one of the two new faculty members, a dashing archaeologist with an impressive résumé of excavation in Egypt – although, as Dr. Crozier has wryly observed, some of his funding sources for those digs haven’t always been completely above-board.

Dr. Le Vesconte is the other new faculty member, an associate professor with an equally flashy history of excavation and publication. Rumor is that he and Dr. Fitzjames once found a live cheetah in an Egyptian tomb and tried to keep it as the excavation’s mascot.

Egyptology Grad Students

Edmund “Eddie” Hoar is a senior doctoral candidate, working dedicatedly on a massive dissertation about Egyptian stamps and seals. He’s been working with Dr. John because his old advisor recently retired, and with Eddie’s advisor gone, Eddie’s pretty much the only person on campus who knows his way around the dusty archaeological collection in the basement of Barrow Hall.

John Bridgens has been with the program about as long as Eddie, but he’s closer to finishing his thesis, a sprawling dissertation on Egyptian poetry under Dr. John’s supervision.

Charles “Freddie” Des Voeux is part-way through writing a thesis on Napoleon’s excavations in Egypt; his advisor is Dr. Reid. (He’s also roommates with Eddie Hoar, and the two of them are known as “(Fr)eddie” in the grad student group chat.)

Harry Goodsir is a first-year PhD student, who entered the program at the same time Henry Peglar started in Classics; the two of them met at the university-wide graduate student orientation, and Harry encouraged Henry to take hieroglyphs, which Harry had learned himself while he was an undergraduate, while volunteering with his siblings at an Egyptian museum in their hometown. Harry’s interested in Egyptian archaeology, hoping to study with Dr. Fitzjames and Dr. Le Vesconte, but there was a paperwork mix-up that placed Dr. Stanley as Harry’s first-year advisor (Harry is unhappy about it; Dr. Stanley is even more unhappy about it).

Members of Associated Departments in Nearby Ross Hall (& Their Drama)

Dr. James C. Ross is the co-chair of the anthropology program and a dear friend of Dr. Crozier in classics. Though he does have a complicated legacy with the university – being a descendent of the famous (if problematic) explorer, Sir John Ross, for whom Ross Hall is named – Dr. James is well-liked by his students and forward-thinking about his discipline.

Ross’s co-chair, Dr. Silna Kamookak, thinks Ross could stand to apply his anthropology to real-world problems a bit more intensively. Dr. Kamookak is a rising star in applied archaeology and she publishes on issues of museum collection ethics and heritage management; the graduate seminar she teaches on Inuit oral history documentation is known to be one of the best courses in the department.

Dr. Jane Franklin is the chair of English Literature; her research interests revolve around the writings of Charles Dickens. All the students in Barrow Hall call her “Dr. Jane,” and call her husband “Dr. John,” because neither would agree to let the other be called “Dr. Franklin.” A memo was circulated. It was messy.

Dr. Sophia Cracroft is an assistant professor in the History of Science department, and a frequent collaborator with Dr. Crozier in an ongoing interdisciplinary project about ancient cartography; although Dr. Cracroft has often tried to get Dr. John Franklin to permit a collaboration with the Egyptology department, Dr. John has always refused. Cracroft’s grad students say that it’s because Dr. John heard something “unsavory” about the relationship between Dr. Cracroft and Dr. Crozier. None of the grad students know what this “unsavory” thing is, but gossip ranges from the vanilla (an affair) to the bizarre (a papyrus smuggling ring).

Other Details

Goldner’s is a purveyor of textbooks of dubious quality. For some reason, all of the introductory language classes in both the Classics and Egyptology departments are always assigned Goldner’s textbooks, much to the students’ and instructors’ displeasure.

* “Coming Out Christian in the Roman World: How the Followers of Jesus Made a Place in Caesar's Empire,” is a real book! (It was not, however, written by John Irving.) I had a fantastic time reading it a few years ago – go check it out.

#theterrorbingo #first square!#based on real life accounts #(only partly I swear)#henry peglar #john bridgens #thomas hartnell #henry collins #the terror #the terror amc #terrorposting #mummies cw

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Raised by Wolves: Mithraism and Sol Explained

https://ift.tt/3hY0iEv

The following contains spoilers for Raised By Wolves.

HBO Max’s new sci-fi series Raised By Wolves, created by Aaron Guzikowski and executive produced by Ridley Scott, sees humanity (and their androids) reduced to two warring religious factions; Atheists, and the “Mithraic”, who follow a religion dedicated to the sun god Sol.

The Mithraic get their name from an ancient religious cult of the god Mithras. The god Mitra originally came from ancient Persia (modern Iran). At the height of the Roman Empire, he began to be worshipped as Mithras in a Roman mystery cult. The cult became very popular, especially with soldiers. The sun god Sol was originally a separate god, but Mithras was often worshipped together with “Sol Invictus”, the conquering sun. This is why in the show, the two gods have been blended into one and the Mithraists, or “Mithraic”, worship a single god called Sol, who is associated with “the Light”. It’s also why the Mithraic characters wear sun emblems and sun pendants in the same way Christians might wear crosses.

Why did the creators of Raised By Wolves choose Mithriasm as the basis for their futuristic religion? Well, the show makes no secret of the fact that the “Mithraic” are standing in for strands of Christianity. Much of their imagery is drawn straight from Roman Catholicism – the priests’ robes and the long, belted robes worn by the young boys assisting them are clearly based on Roman Catholic robes for priests and altar boys and girls. In Episode 2, we see characters Caleb and Mary being offered what looks like Roman Catholic communion, in the form of round wafers of unleavened bread and a drink (presumably wine) from a silver chalice.

The cult of Mithras is a particularly useful choice for a comparison with Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, because several elements of Mithraic religion were adopted by early Christians (the clue is in the name – it’s a Roman religion!). Ancient Mithraists shared a ritual meal of bread and wine, just like early Christians (though the Christian detail of the unleavened bread comes from the Jewish Passover). Both Mithras and Jesus were associated with light and the sun. The early Christians deliberately took over Mithras’ birthday on the 25th December to celebrate the birthday of Jesus instead, a date conveniently close to the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia (17-23 December), though nowhere near where the Christian gospels would place the birth of Jesus (if there were shepherds out all night watching sheep and lambs, it must have been spring). And, like most mystery cults, Mithraism offered personal salvation in this life and the next, just as Christianity did. In 1882, a historian called Ernest Renan actually suggested that if Christianity had not taken over the Roman world, Mithraism would have done – most modern historians would disagree with that, but the association has stuck.

However, some elements of the “Mithraic” religion in the show would be completely unrecognizable to an ancient follower of Mithras. Ancient Mithraism was not a monotheistic religion. The mystery cults included cults to the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Anatolian goddess Cybele, the Greek god Dionysus and the Greek hero Orpheus, and they weren’t rivals to ancient pagan religion in general; they were add-ons. Everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) was expected to worship the main state gods – Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and so on – as well as the cult of the emperors who had become gods (i.e. the ones who hadn’t been assassinated).

We call them “mystery cults” because the rituals they practiced, the “mysteries” or “secret rites”, were kept secret from anyone who wasn’t initiated into the cult. They were members-only clubs, which you had to pay to join, and go through an initiation ritual. We don’t know exactly what these were like because, of course, they were a secret! Only members could learn the secrets of the god or goddess and take part in the secret ceremonies. Like modern Freemasonry, ancient Mithraism also allowed members to rise through the ranks of the cult, gaining different levels as they went. Also like Freemasonry, and unlike the other mystery cults, membership was usually restricted to men.

All this means that a lot of the attitudes of the “Mithraic” on the show would sound completely weird to ancient Mithraists. They would be especially confused by the Mithraic reliance on a book of “Scriptures”, since it was forbidden on pain of death to write down anything about the sacred mysteries or the secrets of the cult. Most of what we know about ancient Mithraism, we’ve put together from images and inscriptions from inside the secret chamber of the Mithraeum. This was a place of worship designed to look like a cave, which only people who had been initiated into the cult were allowed to enter, so no one outside the cult would see the images or know the cult’s secrets. The idea that any group would only be allowed to hear stories from “Scriptures” represents an extreme minority even for Christianity, but would have been completely confusing to ancient Mithraist.

Raised by Wolves Review (Spoiler-Free)

By Natalie Zutter

Ancient Mithraists were also extremely unlikely to get involved in any kind of holy war. Because the cult was an add-on to the worship of many gods, the members of the cult would be involved in worshipping lots of other gods anyway, with Mithras as an added personal extra. Ancient people often weren’t too keen on atheists, as any refusal to sacrifice to the gods might endanger everyone if the gods got angry about it, so a holy war against atheists might be more likely than one against another religion, but it wouldn’t be because they thought the atheists should all worship their one specific god.

Although they didn’t start any holy wars, a lot of members of the cult of Mithras were in the army. It was against the law to meet in small groups unless it was for religious purposes in the Roman Empire, because the emperors were afraid that people might conspire against them. So if a group of soldiers all joined the same cult, they could meet together and socialize and bond in a way that was more difficult without the excuse of religion. In Raised By Wolves, all human survivors are expected to be “Mithraic”, but there is still a heavy military sense to it, thanks to the fact they’ve been fighting a war.

Whether the “Mithraic mysteries” that their prophet is expected to lead them to will have anything in common with the ancient mysteries remains to be seen. Mithras’ myth centred around the killing of a bull – in fact, this was the symbol shown in all the Mithraeums in a similar way to images of Jesus on the cross in Catholic churches, so really a bull might have been a better choice of emblem than a sun! Watch out for references to bulls in later episodes, and listen out for everybody’s names, too. When Mother gives her name in Episode 1, she says it’s Lamia, a child-eating monster from Greco-Roman mythology, so that’s something to bear in mind!

If you’re interested in learning more about ancient Mithraism, we’d recommend The Roman Cult of Mithras, by Manfred Clauss, translated by Richard Gordon, which is available for Kindle or in paperback from Amazon.

The post Raised by Wolves: Mithraism and Sol Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/32Z9emy

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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citylightsbooks · 4 years

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5 Questions with Megan Fernandes, Author of Good Boys

Megan Fernandes is a writer and academic living in New York City. She is the author of The Kingdom and After (Tightrope Books 2015) and the new book of poems, Good Boys (published by Tin House). Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the New Yorker, Tin House, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Chicago Review, Boston Review, Rattle, Pank, the Common, Guernica, the Academy of American Poets, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency, among others. She is a poetry reader for The Rumpus and an Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MFA in poetry from Boston University. She reads from her new book Good Boys with special guests at City Lights Bookstore on Tuesday, February 25th.

***

City Lights: If you’ve been to City Lights before, what’s your memory of the visit? If you haven’t been here before, what are you expecting?

Megan Fernandes: Of all the places I’m reading this Spring (and it’s probably not politic to say this), I am most excited to read at City Lights. I’ve never been, but I understood at a very young age that the bookstore symbolized possibility, spontaneity, digression, lostness, community, etc. As a teenager, I read a lot of Beat literature, my favorites being Dharma Bums, In the Night Café, and everything Ginsberg. I was compelled by their portraits of America’s expansiveness. And I also just think as an immigrant kid not born in the USA, the Beats gave me some sense of American geography. I went to Colorado for the first time last year and I had this memory of my first impression of Colorado as a place described in On the Road. When traveling across the country, I often have Ferlinghetti’s feverish, twitchy, carnivalesque poetics in my head. I also think in this indirect way, Beat literature shaped some of my thoughts around feminist thinking as I was conscious of my orientation as outside certain privileges of the “male, womanizing adventurer” often romanticized in Beat lit. I had to interrogate what it meant to feel intimacies with Ginsberg and Duncan who were destabilizing masculinities and cultural logics of hate.

And so what I learned from City Lights and Beat lit is really something about the relationship between myth-making and counter-culture communities. I’m understanding the truly expansive network of the movement in so much more detail right now while reading an advanced copy of a fabulous new book called The Beats: A Literary History by Steven Belletto.

What are you reading right now?

I’m reading a book called Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem, co-written by Dapper Dan himself and my good friend, Mikael Awake. It’s a history of Dapper Dan’s iconic work in fashion, of course, while being really intimate. And it’s just as much a history of his family’s internal dynamics and, through his family, New York City at large. In particular, 1970’s NYC is so vividly, brilliantly wrought in this book.

There’s this one section where Dap is at Iona College at a lecture on protohistory and the professor, a Czech immigrant, tells the class that “In order for man to have survived during those ancient times… he must have had powers that he doesn’t have now. The only people that could possibly still have these powers today are the black and brown people on the planet” and when Dap hears this, he is transfixed. He says: “This is one of the most esteemed scholars at Iona College telling a packed lecture hall that black and brown people were the only ones on the planet who still had spiritual powers. How come this was my first time hearing about that? I looked around. I was the only black student in the class. I wasn’t tired anymore. He had my full attention… I said to myself, This is what I need to know. This is how I need to formulate myself.” I’m loving how the book captures these intense moments of transformation. I love that word choice: formulate. What poetic agency is modeled in that word? I needed that word the moment I read it.

Recently, I’ve also read Samiya Bashir’s Field Theories and Edgar Kunz’s Tap Out. Samiya wrote this legitimately weird and imaginative book that feels like it’s made out of the time-space continuum. Some cosmic materiality is really showing up in that book. I remember this line: “A body. A zoo. A lovely savannah. Walls of clear, clean glass” and I’m just on a ride with the musicality of her shifting assonance. Plus, I know that writers like June Jordan and Toni Cade Bambara are operating influences/specters of the book and you can feel that energy. Edgar’s book is more narrative and quieter, but so devastating. I sort of get what makes his speakers tenderize if that makes sense. I think it’s the same phenomena that tenderizes me, too.

Some of my favorite novels of recent years includes A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims, The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch, Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi, and very recently, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.

What book or writer do you always find yourself recommending?

I think Jean Toomer’s Cane is the most beautiful book of the 20th century. I remember just being blown away by its call and response, the repeating imagery of sun and smoke and pines. That book is so stunning. Other astounding work that I always recommend includes Mebvh McGuckian’s Captain Lavender, Anne Carson’s The Autobiography of Red, Evie Shockley’s The New Black, Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, Eleni Sikelianos’ Body Clock, Jorie Graham’s The Errancy, Bhanu Kapil’s The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, and Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann’s translations of Rilke. Those are my hard-hitters. Those books are why I became a poet.

What writers/artists/people do you find the most influential to the writing of this book and/or your writing in general?

You know, I collected poems while I was writing and editing this book. And I think those specific poems created a kind of constellation around me, almost protective, that kept me writing. Some of those poems include “The Long Recovery” by Ellen Bass, “A Matter of Balance,” by Evie Shockley, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “I am Not Seaworthy” by Toni Morrison, “Becoming Regardless” by Jack Spicer, “A New Bride Almost Visible in Latin” by Jack Gilbert, “To the Young Who Want to Die” by Gwendolyn Brooks and many, many others. Definitely O’Hara as well. He never leaves me. The most important poem of that little self-curated archive is Frank Bidart’s “Visions at 74” where he writes: “To love existence / is to love what is indifferent to you.” I remember reading that line and just losing it. I have been guided by so much of Bidart. And maybe my book is a little bit about how to sustain rage in the face of that which is indifferent to you, what cannot love you (both personally and abstractly). How do you sustain rage so as to not fall into despair?

I also listened to a variety of music while writing and editing. A mix between contemporary sad kid hip-hop, old school jazz and blues, gospel, 80’s bands, pop culture queens, 1970’s hypnotic modal vamp, classical Spanish guitar, electronic pop, really pretty varied. A few names that come to mind: KOTA the Friend, NoName, Vince Staples, Travis Scott, Miles Davis Quintet, Bessie Smith, Sam Cooke, The Knocks, Solange, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Big Mama Thornton, Miriam Makeba, Kamasi Washington, Thompson Twins, Misfits, Bowie, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, Cher, Whitney Houston, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Memphis Slim, Dinah Washington, Alberto Iglesias, Gustavo Santaolalla, Holychild, Blood Orange, etc.

If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?

My grandpa played violin on a ship that sailed between Tanga, Tanzania and Goa, India. I never had the chance to meet him. He died when my dad was sixteen, but I always thought about what that journey might have looked and felt like, its many hardships, but also the wonder of gazing out at the sea playing strings. For that reason, I’d love to open a bookstore that focused specifically on Indian Ocean diaspora and sold books exclusively by authors working, uncovering, or investigating the literature of that oceanic rim. I think there is something rich in thinking about books not necessarily focused on nation-statehood but thinking more about a kind of social-imaginary with a literature that is messy in its conceptualization and crosses, migrates, misses, and mythologizes across many cultures over generations. You could have sections on food, underwater exploration, piracy, long-distance intimacy, trade routes, empire, transnational feminism. I like the idea of a bookstore that is anti-genre and instead, organized by associative thinking and imagination. It would be a logistical nightmare. You would never find what you were looking for, but you might find something you didn’t know existed.

So yes, I’d vote for a little homegrown network of bookstores in India, East Africa, and actually, maybe one of them in Lisbon which is a city that has a long (and problematic) history with the Indian Ocean. I’ve spent a lot of time in Lisbon the past eight years of my life, spending time visiting family and researching the history of the Portuguese empire especially as it relates to my family history (my folks are third generation East African Portuguese colonized Indians). I have a lot of conflicting homelands which is a way of saying that there are times when I feel like I have nothing but a rootless present. That’s something I investigate in my work, that weird (a)temporality. And I’m drawn to the particular light of Lisbon which is quite unusual. I’d call the bookstore “Malaika” which means “Angel” in Swahili and is the favorite folk song of my parents who grew up in Tanzania. I like the idea of a bookstore in Lisbon with the name in Swahili run by a Goan-Canadian-American woman. That’s the world I grew up in… one of multiplicities.

#Megan Fernandas #City Lights Bookstore #Tin House Books #Good Boys

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essenceofhispenance · 4 years

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okay but, I love the moon imagery that describes Chani in the second book. Noted, it’s not revealed the moon was her until the end but, consider that Arrakis has two moons.

Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine suns, which are simply described as one single unit, one never existing without the other, no matter their position in the sky, The moons of Arrakis consist of the First and the Second. the only time they are described in unison is differentiating friendship and kinship against that of enemies, which are compared to the sun:

"When you live upon Arrakis," she had said, "khala, the land is empty. The moons will be your friends, the sun your enemy." ( Herbert, Dune)

the first book sets the tone for the moons themselves. The first moon is a gentle light, bringing safety and peace. The sign of a raised fist is made to mirror the similar shape carved in the surface of the first moon. The first moon also has some mystical properties to it, placing it in an otherworldly place. It is the balance between life and death, a carrier of souls - even a part of funeral rites:

"The spirit leaves the body's water when the first moon rises," Stilgar intoned. "Thus it is spoken. When we see the first moon rise this night, whom will it summon?" "Jamis," the troop responded. ( Herbert, Dune)

The second moon is, however, more grounded in reality. The craters make the surface look like Muad’Dib, a kangaroo mouse, is craved into it’s surface and is more associated with their earth-based mythology- the basis of survival in the open desert.

This moon is not looked upon so highly as the first moon, the night is ending and the sun will rise. the second moon shines most prominently over desert storms, raging worms and other events throughout the books that highlight the desolation that Arrakis is.

Low on the southern horizon, the night's second moon peered through a thin dust haze--an unbelieving moon that looked at him with a cynical light.( Herbert, Dune)

there is no sugar coating, no easy route, there is only survival. The desert is a harsh mother.

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife--chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here." ( Herbert, Dune)

What is interesting is that by the end of the first book, Paul is successful in his revenge and coup, marrying Irulan and becoming Emperor of the Known Universe. Meanwhile, that second moon comes into play just moments before these events play out.

Chani has just entered the scene, visibly having been crying over the death of their only son who was at most 2 years old. More than likely he was 1 and a 1/2. She then, per Paul’s instructions, has to negotiate the dowry of his political marriage. Like the second moon, it is a harsh reality. What must be done will be done to survive and assure that Paul’s empire i set up to flourish.

This setting of the moon and Chani’s appearance and role at the end of the book is highly important since the second book established the rise of Paul’s mythos as the messiah.

"Then the Atreides came with his witch mother," Scytale said. "The Atreides came," Farok agreed. "The one we named Usul in our sietch, his private name among us. Our Muad'dib, our Mahdi! And when he called for the Jihad, I was one of those who asked: 'Why should I go to fight there? I have no relatives there.' But other men went -- young men, friends, companions of my childhood. When they returned, they spoke of wizardry, of the power in this Atreides savior. He fought our enemy, the Harkonnen. Liet-Kynes, who had promised us a paradise upon our planet, blessed him. It was said this Atreides came to change our world and our universe, that he was the man to make the golden flower blossom in the night." Farok held up his hands, examined the palms. "

Men pointed to First Moon and said: 'His soul is there.' Thus, he was called Muad'dib. I did not understand all this."(Herbert, Dune Messiah)

Establishing Paul’s symbolism involving the moon is important because throughout the book Paul’s vision revolves around a falling moon. And he is confused and unsure of it’s meaning.

As he lay immersed in the screaming odor of the spice, staring inward through the oracular trance, Paul saw the moon become an elongated sphere. It rolled and twisted, hissing -- the terrible hissing of a star being quenched in an infinite sea -- down . . . down . . . down . . . like a ball thrown by a child.

It was gone. This moon had not set. Realization engulfed him. It was gone: no moon. The earth quaked like an animal shaking its skin. Terror swept over him. (Herbert, Dune Messiah)

Why only one moon? Only one to fall? because it is the second moon. and he is looking at it from the point of view of the first.

"My moon has a name," Paul whispered. He let the vision flow over him then. Though his whole being shrieked, no sound escaped him. He was afraid to speak, fearful that his voice might betray him. The air of this terrifying future was thick with Chani's absence. Flesh that had cried in ecstasy, eyes that had burned him with their desire, the voice that had charmed him because it played no tricks of subtle control -- all gone, back into the water and the sand. (Herbert, Dune)

Only when he realizes this, that he will lose her, he understand his vision.

"Love? Duncan, he had but to step off the track! What matter that the rest of the universe would have come shattering down behind him? He'd have been safe . . . and Chani with him!" "Then . . . why didn't he?" " For the love of heaven," she whispered. Then, more loudly, she said: "Paul's entire life was a struggle to escape his Jihad and its deification. At least, he's free of it. He chose this!"

"Ah, yes -- the oracle." Idaho shook his head in wonder.

"Even Chani's death. His moon fell." ( Herbert, Dune Messiah)

She will always be the second moon, encapsulated by Muad’Dib the mouse who walks openly in the desert and ignores the reality of the world, looking ahead toward the future. The now does not matter.

He will always lose her.

And he forced himself to inner stillness, opened the eyes of his vision to this moment. Yes -- it was still here. Chani's body lay on a pallet within a ring of light. Someone had straightened her white robe, smoothed it trying to hide the blood from the birth. No matter; he could not turn his awareness from the vision of her face: such a mirror of eternity in the still features! He turned away, but the vision moved with him. She was gone . . . never to return. The air, the universe, all vacant -- everywhere vacant.

Was this the essence of his penance? (Herbert, Dune)

#ᶠᵘᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵇᵉᶜᵒᵐᶤᶰᵍ ᵐᵉᵐᵒʳᶤᵉˢ ║(Headcanon)#kinda?#spoilers #long post #i could write a whole thing about Chani and Padme and their narrative being the same #but lets be real Chani's was told better #Even if her character isn't a fleshed out as Padme's #it's still well established.#I should fix this up better #make my thoughts make more sense #but it works for now i'm glad i got it down

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the-son-of-suns-blog · 5 years

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The Force is Female and more Mythic Clues

Recently, Andy Serkis said that Snoke’s motivation is very much based on “fear.” And that he fears this great “feminine force.” Couple that with the motto, “The Force is female,” and we can begin to see just how big this all really is. Let’s go back for a moment to Padme’s visual design in Episode I. The Art of the Phantom Menace book makes it clear it’s inspired by Tibetan spiritualism. Her “state name” of Amidala is just a word scramble of Dalai Lama, a leader they believe to be reincarnated. Her wardrobe is symbolic at times of all that grand power that mythologies have invested in the female principle of the universe - a power that was believed to be related to the female power to produce and bear children. If females are the ones to give birth, then, in the minds of the ancients, the universe was a female entity, because it gave birth to all of us. But of course, there was always the idea that there were two components and both were important, but ultimately the awe of the female power to bear a child was more regarded for thousands of years. Furthermore, to dive back into mythological motifs, Padme is seen wearing another dress that is symbolic of a Phoenix fire. Most of us are familiar with the myth of the Phoenix. The bird is consumed (dies) by flame but is reborn from the ashes.

Padme “died” amidst the flames of Mustafar when it became clear Anakin was lost, and in the larger scheme, she died amidst the death of the Republic. Rey is “born” to the audience amidst the literal ashes/wreckage of the Empire on Jakku. The clues have been there all along!

Then later, we see Rey don the Rebellion helmet where the logo of the Starbird is clearly displayed. The Starbird is the Star Wars version of the Phoenix myth. When the Starbird is believed to be gone, it’s actually being reborn with the heart of a nova. Which leads us… finally… back to The Force Awakens. Starkiller Base? A literal weapon that uses the power of the sun. Just like Snoke is using the power of Han’s son. The entire sequence is a metaphor for this larger story unfolding in the hearts and minds of our principal characters! When Rey pulls that lightsaber to her, the look Kylo gives her is one of awe and recognition. He finally knows who she is. And through that, the light in his heart is reborn just as the star that was consumed comes back to life when Starkiller is cracked and destroyed. I’m sure we are all aware of this Red Thread of Fate imagery. It’s been associated with Reylo for some time. But let me invite you to think more mythologically about that story. The string can twist and bend, but the two lovers will always come back together. When Rey and Kylo are thought about in terms of being the reborn Padme and Anakin, it becomes more clear that this “red thread” of fate has connected them for far longer than The Force Awakens. There is more to their love than their draw to each other in the new movie. It goes much deeper, reaching far across the saga. And the revelation of this truth will come bearing great happiness, and extreme pain. The real question is, is their love of each other stronger than the past? “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.” Anakin had to die so that Padme could be reborn. It is their destiny to bring peace, justice, and freedom to the galaxy. Now, to top this off. I think, hilariously, that the answer to Rey’s parents is that they never existed at all. The Force is female. PadRey is the Force. She didn’t need any parents. We’ve been arguing about people that don’t exist. I can’t possibly pretend to know who is in that ship flying away… but my gut tells me it’s not who we think. Perhaps a young Ben Solo was seeking that “other half” of his from an earlier age, and perhaps a lack of understanding and fear on part of his parents and Luke is what drove him further to the dark side. And, perhaps again, Snoke pretended to care and understand him, if only to use the issue as a wedge to drive between him and his family. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out. Thank you for sticking with me this long. Let’s chat on Friday after we’ve seen the film!

#tlj #reylo #rey #kyloren #padme #anakin #red thread of fate

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francesbeau · 3 years

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Othello - Quote Analysis - William Shakespeare

Started: 30th of April 2021 Finished: 30th of April 2021

Act One Scene One:

- Iago talking about Cassio: “great arithmetician/mere prattle without prance” Targets Cassio’s lack of experience

- Iago talking about Cassio: “A Florentine never damned in a fair wife” Mentions outsider status to disconnect him from the dynamism of Venetian life. Depicts Cassio as a bachelor to create more realism, goes against Cinthios original play.

- Iago: “We cannot all be masters, nor all masters truly be followed” A corruption of the master/servant relationship. Draws upon the tricky servant trope (servus callidus) King James had just been appointed to so this was very topical.

- Iago: “I am not what I am”, teasingly obscure and creates the question of who really is Iago? Also makes an allusion to 12th night where Viola says “I am not what I am” This showcases how vows about dissemblance can have benign intention.

- Iago to Brabantio: “look at your house, your daughter and your bags!” asyndetic listing highlights women as secondary importance.

- “An old black ram is tuping your white ewe” explicate reference to miscegenation. women as an extension of property. Subdued pun to make Brabantio the victim of violation. This sexually suggestive language is because black rams are associated with lust and sexual potency and its horns imply its the reincarnation of the devil.

- “You’ll have your nephews neigh to you, coursers for cousins, and jennets for germans” Paronomasia is where words nearly sound alike, similar to eye rhyme. Cluster of racial attacks.

- Brabantio: “thou art a villain” - Iago: “you are a senator”. Dissonance of identity, highlights corrupt higher structures.

- Roderigo: “tying her beauty, duty and wit in an extravagant and wheeling stranger”

- Iago: “However, this may gall him with some check” - Subdued equestrian metaphor of a horse being pulled back by reins.

Act One Scene Two:

- Iago: “By Janus” Appropriate God to evoke as it is the twofaced God.

- Othello: “Keep up your bright swords” Where Christ, betrayed by Judas, is arrested he order Peter to “put up thy sword into thy sheath”

Act One Scene Three:

- Duke: “Valliant Othello” first person to use his name and its the most important man in all of Venice.

- Othello: “Rude I am in speech, and little blessed in the soft phrase of peace” Actually highly articulated. Spezzatura - ‘certain nonchalance, so as to conceal and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort’

- Othello: “I won his daughter” - Links to patriarchal norms, Romeo and Juliet there is challenge for Paris to win and “woo” Juliet.

- Othello: “The anthropophagi and men...” The allusion to the race of the cannibals in the Odyssey called Laestryganes who tried to eat Odysseus.

- Othello: “she wished heaven had made her such a man” Kind of fickle and would love any man with same fantastical tales.

- Desdemona: “divided duty” / “I saw Othello’s visage in my mind” Blackness of face is merely a deceptive outward show and his true countenance lies in the mind.

Othello: “Nor to comply with the heat of young affects” - He is confining his sexual passion due to his stereotypes and has a lack of matched enthusiasm. Separates himself from sexual desire. Could be guilty repression. Freud: Sexual instincts are allied to emotional condition of fear”

- Duke: “your son-in-law is far more fair than black”

- Iago: “our bodies are gardens to the which our wills are gardeners” - whole soliloquy goes on to examine to argument that if we didn’t have rational minds to counterbalance our emotions our desires would take over.

- Iago: “these Moors are changeable in their ways” / “Moor is of free and open nature”

- Iago: “when she is sated with his body she will find the errors of her choices” Sexual reference

- Iago: “womb of time.”

- Iago: “twixt my sheet/ done my office” anxiety within marriage links to 2.3 when he calls Othello the “lusty moor” who leapt into his “seat”

- Iago: “Cassio’s a proper man” Acknowledges adversaries advantages.

Act Two Scene One

- “What from the cape can you discern at sea?” Begins in storm which is symbolic of passions of Cyprus. Starts with the limitations of light and foreshadows metaphorical blindness.

- “Our great captains, captain”

- Othello: “oh my souls joy if after every tempest come such calms” / “If i were to die twere now the to e the most happy, for I fear my soul hath her content to absolute” Last time Othello is truly happy

- Desdemona: “Our loves and comforts should increase even as our days grow”

Act Two Scene Three

- Othello: “Are we turned Turks?/For Christian shame” Evokes intermittent conflict between European powers and the Ottoman Empire

- Othello to Cassio: “what's the matter, that you unlace your reputation thus.”

- Iago: “I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear” Link to Hamlet where the King was poisoned by it being poured into his ear

Act Three Scene Three

- Iago: “Ha, I like not that.” / “Nothing My Lord, or if, I know not what”. Plants seeds of suspicion with mysterious interjection

- Othello: “Excellent wretch, perdition catch my soul. But i do love thee, and when i love thee not chaos comes again” Oxymoran - doesn't have a grip on emotions. breakdown of cosmos and order as chaos is the undoing of the gods.

- Iago: “Honest My Lord?” Othello: “Honest? Ay, Honest.” Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last line of previous conversation

- Iago: “My lord you know I Love thee” - John 21;15 “Lord thou knowest I love thee”

- “Beware my Lord of Jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds upon”

- Othello: “Haply for I am black and have not these soft parts of conversation” - Endemic to Venetian culture are attitudes that Othello cant inculcate. In the shape of Iago the venomous rage of society that are rocked by the elopement play out.

- “She s gone, I am abused and my relief must be to loathe her”

- “I had rather be a toad and live upon the vapor of a dungeon than to keep a corner in the thing i love” - This metaphor places emphasis on the embarrassment of cuckoldry. The animalistic imagery is interesting as toads are insignificant and gross which highlight how he feels. Women is the aggressor.

- “I think my wife be honest, and think she is not”

- Iago about a fake dream from Cassio, “I heard him say, ‘Sweet Desdemona let us be wary and hide our love”

- Iago to Othello: “I am your own forever” language of service, however Iago hints at mephisteplion bargain by which Iago has ensnared his soul.

Act Three Scene Four

- “There is magic in the web of it”, assumes bizarre shape of perverted trail

Act Four Scene One

- Iago: “to kiss in private” aggressively plants seeds of images of animated sexual congress

- Othello about himself: “A horned man’s a monster and a beast” Sign of cuckoldry

- Othello: “My heart has turned to stone” / ‘He Beats his chest’ / “sweeter creature” (like Cassio’s dream)

- “I’ll chop her into messes” Truculent

“Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile” - complex conceit, crocodiles generated spontaneously and a proverbial hypocrisy. Plutarch suggests that crocodiles wept when devouring their victims. Crocodile pretends to be in distress to lure victims in.

Act Four Scene Two

- Othello about Emilia - “a lock and key of villainous secrets”

- Desdemona: “I understand a fury in your words, bot not the words.”

- Emilia: “she forsook so many noble matches” - links ti act one scene two: she shunned the wealthy curled darlings of our nation

Act Four Scene Three

- The whole song of willow, link to Hamlet as Ophelia fell from a willow tree and drowned after finding out her husband did not love her.

- Emilia: “if wives do fall” - Post-lapsyrian, eve’s fall from grace.

- “The ills we do, their ills instruct us so” inverts traditional male leadership role.

Act Five Scene One

- ‘Iago wounds Cassio in the leg from behind and exit’ - constant scene controlment. Displays talent for improvisation.

Act Five Scene Two

- Othello: ‘Think on thy sins’ Desdemona: ‘They are the loves I bear to you’ could be a reference to race but more so an allusion to the sin of living a human more than god.

- Othello: “A murder which I thought a sacrifice” Zenith of insanity.

- “The sun and the moon and that affrighted globe” Christs crucifixion similar events. Globe theater in terror.

- “It is the very error of the moon” - Power of the moon can induce madness

- “Base Indian who threw away a pearl” - Matthew 8 Merchant who looses everything trying to obtain a pearl.

- “Malignant and a turband turk” - symbolically annihilating both Iago and himself. Whole speech is about the salvation of a soul peppered with semantics of Orientalism.

- Lodovico: “this heavy heart with heavy heart relate” Rhyming is emblematic of balance that civilized Venetians are saturated with

#othello #shakespeare #literature #jacobean

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knightmysteriolibray · 7 years

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Secret Empire - A review

Drinking game: Take a sip for every time I say fuck or fucking.

This series officially tops Civil War and Civil War 2 as the dumbest thing Marvel has ever done. And that fucking boggles the mind.

The entire premise of the series comes from one thing - Red Skull manipulating a cosmic-powered little girl into making Captain America into a Hydra agent, making him believe he’s always been one.

*takes a deep breath*

Let’s not talk about how monumentally fucking stupid that was, how horrible it was to corrupt one of the most moral, honest, flat-out GOOD characters in Marvel into the bad guy. Everyone’s done that.

No, let’s start with how bad the writing was.

Firstly, somehow, Steve suddenly has a backstory involving a new Madame Hydra who appeared out of fucking nowhere. Seriously, didn’t Viper (the girl) retake the name Madame Hydra? Fucking hell. And somehow, somehow, she’s the Princess Celestia to Hydra!Cap’s Twilight Sparkle. And Baron Zemo was Hydra!Cap’s best buddy.

I... just... WHAT!? Where did all this come from? Red Skull put in the request, and so Kobik makes a Hydra!Cap that turns against him and kills him (admittedly satisfying), somehow gaining the loyalty of Skull’s daughter Sin and Crossbones, the Skull’s most faithful minion. And then they do nothing throughout the story. And Madame Hydra, who I will now call Madame Plotdevice, is the real enemy.

And then it’s later revealed that Hydra!Cap’s responsible for Banner’s death, by exploiting the flaws in Ulysses’ powers to trigger a false vision of the Hulk. Da fuck.

And then, because the government is a bunch of chickenshits apparently, they give full control over to SHIELD. Sharon turns down the job of director and gives it to Hydra!Cap. Plus, Captain ArrestThemBeforeTheyDoAnything puts up another MacGuffin, a ‘planetary defense shield.’

Cue the start of the Empire, including the recruitment of B-list hypnotizer villain Dr. Faustus. Apparently, no one at SHIELD has protection against mind control (because LOL, no villain’s EVER used that), and everyone in SHIELD being brainwashed.

And then Hydra!Cap starts breaking out the plot devices. Vision is brainwashed by a supervirus (because they had that just lying around), Manhattan gets stuck behind a Darkforce dome created by Blackout, the space heroes are stuck behind the planetary defense shield while Chitari invade to get back the Chitari queen eggs Captain Hydra stored on Earth, Scarlet Witch gets possessed by Cthon (WHEN DID CTHON EVEN JOIN AND WHY THE FUCK IS HE EVEN GIVING HYDRA THE TIME OF DAY), and Jane FosThor is sent away via a magical plot device, leaving her hammer behind. And Deadpool, who’s killed ultra-popular Phil Coulson and his daughter’s guardian, another popular character, joins because he’s a brainless Captain America fanboy and FUCKING STUPID. And Odinson joins Hydra because... because... Why did he join again?

And then, while Hydra’s busy owning heroes who’ve stomped them into the dirt REGULARLY before, Hydra!Cap picks up fucking Mjolnir.

*takes a deep breath*

I will concede that the final issue of the story, which showed Madame Plotdevice using a Kobik shard to change the enchantment on the hammer to allow him to pick it up, mitigates this. But we went for goddamn MONTHS thinking that Hydra!Cap was somehow ‘worthy.’

Moving on.

WELL. Now that Hydra!Cap and company have curbstomped everyone, Hydra rules America. No problem. No way America would take this lying down, right? Being run by Nazis?

Marvel: Hydra’s not Nazis.

Shut the FUCK UP, Marvel! They’ve been Nazis for ages, just saying they aren’t doesn’t mean they stop being Nazis!

Anyway. No way America would accept facists as their rulers, right?

Donald Trump: Fuck immigrant kids. And poor people.

...Goddamn political allegory.

And on top of that, Captain Hydra goes on the news, talks about ‘fake news,’ and the writers end up making SALLY GODDAMN FLOYD look sympathetic.

*takes a deep breath*

Plus, apparently Hydra’s putting shit in the water and people are being brainwashed, except not everyone is. And all of Americas mutants are in their own little California reservation after Captain Hydra made a deal with Magneto. And all Inhumans in America except for the costumes are in concentration camps.

Not Nazis.

Right.

And then Las Vegas is nuked because the Hydra council is saying Captain Hydra’s being a pussy about things.

Meanwhile, Kobik, regretting her choices in life, is hiding in a world of memories, while a ‘memory’ of the real Steve Rogers is trying to convince her to help.

Meanwhile in reality, Marvel’s promoting the shit out of this, and wants vendors to wear Hydra t-shirts. Some workers at these vendors are Jewish. And Marvel wanted them to wear shirts promoting the imagery of a Nazi offshoot group. Classy.

Actually, while we’re on the subject, why is this stupid arc even called Secret Empire?! Hydra is OPENLY RULING THE US. GAAAAH.

And while we’re on the topic of plot holes, where are the Thunderbolts? After Kobik had her little bitchfit when Winter Soldier told her how much of an idiot she was being, Atlas, Fixer, Moonstone, Songbird, Mach-X just vanish. They have no relevancy to the plot at all. They never appear anywhere in the arc again.

For that matter, where’s Doctor Doom during all this? Last time I checked, he was trying to be a hero. Why isn’t he there getting his Iron Man on, instead of AI Tony who’s there because Tony has to be in every event looking like an asshole and contributing nothing of value and the real one is in a coma because of Captain MinorityReport and FUCK YOU MARVEL.

*takes a deep breath*

And what about that story where Cho-Hulk infiltrated the Hitler Youth, er, Hydra Boys Choir to spy on them? Did that go anywhere? No? Of course not.

Fuck this story.

Anyway, after months of Hydra owning the shit out of every superhero under the sun, looking cool in the process while the heroes look fucking pathetic (Hashtag Darkness Induced Audience Apathy), somehow they start getting their fucking together.

But not before Ultron Pym disses everyone.

Ultron: Yeah, I’m done trying to kill humanity. I can’t top what you brainless fucks. Also, fuck you Tony for bringing up something I did ONCE that I regretted forever.

Seriously, Marvel, Tony’s done a lot worse shit than Hank and gotten no flak for it. Meanwhile, Hank makes a mistake that he hates himself for for years, has since reconciled with Jan. Yes, spousal abuse is horrific and deserves punishment. But Hank has been seeking penance for that ONE act for years, and people keep bringing it the fuck up. Plus, I’m pretty sure that making Ultron tops it...

Moving on.

Anyway. Rick Jones is executed early into the arc. And meanwhile Black Widow plans on using Spider-Miles as a distraction to assassinate Captain Hydra. And then Widow is killed trying to stop Spider-Miles from killing Captain Hydra, stuffed into the goddamn fridge alongside Rick, Eric Selvig, Jack Flag, and all of Las Vegas.

Oh, yeah. Punisher’s joined Hydra too. Because Captain Hydra convinced him he could bring back his family. Even though he’s moved on from that for years and everything with him in it recently shows that he prefers his endless war on crime. And even though it goes against Punisher’s code to even associate with Hydra without shooting them.

And Ant-Man was a mole for Hydra in the resistance because they had his daughter, except he openly helps the heroes afterwards with no fear.

And Bruce Banner was brought back to life, briefly, and repowered. Bruce told Hydra to fuck off, but Hulk was apparently still kinda grumpy about Iron Man and the whole Illuminati thing (even though he was a MEMBER of the illuminati at one point), so he helps Hydra smash the resistance base. And then, after the base is nuked, he disappears from the story forever. Granted, Madame Plotdevice was killed too, but still. And they even rehashed the damn Cap/Iron Man rivalry because we needed to be reminded of THAT again...

GAAAAAAAH

Don’t worry, though, because the heroes have a Kobik shard. How did they get it?

By going to an Inhuman who has the power to barf up plot devices.

I really wish I was fucking kidding.

Anyway, Hydra’s plot devices start going down, Winter Soldier getting pulled to safety through a plothole by Namor (somehow), Maria Hill defeating Deadpool and killing Blackout, destroying the Darkforce dome around Manhattan, and the new Mary Sue Quasar that absolutely goddamn nobody asked for waking up from her plot device/coma and shattering the defense shield around the planet, Captain Ireallydon’tgiveafuckanymore destroying the Chitari queen eggs that were making them attack to begin with.

Because that won’t bite them in the ass later.

Captain Hydra finally starts dressing like Captain Hydra, putting on Kobik shard powered armor. He then beats the crap out of everyone, and rewrites history to be how he thinks it should be. Then Sam Wilson shows up, hands over another Kobik shard, kneeling before the white supervillain and saying Hail Hydra. Only not, because Ant-Man was on the shard and used it to revive Kobik fully. She promptly undoes all his changes, Captain Hydra VERY confused by this point (aren’t we all).

And then Memory!Cap appears, wearing his old costume and kicking Captain Hydra’s ass all over creation. Captain Hydra tries to pick up Mjolnir (which was left where he had put it down in the middle of DC because... reasons...), only to find out that SURPRISE! he’s not actually worthy. The spell Madame Plotdevice put on it ended with her death.

Memory!Cap, who I guess is the real Cap by this point, picks up Mjolnir and, in the ONLY satisfying moment in the story, promptly smacks the shit out of Captain Hydra with it. Sam returns the shield to real Steve, and goddamn did it feel good to Steve Rogers looking like he’s supposed to for fucking once.

Kobik restores most of the damage, except she doesn’t repair Las Vegas, or bring back everyone who died in Las Vegas, nor does she bring back Widow and Rick Jones because... because...

I can’t think of any legitimate reason not to bring them back. I can’t.

And there we go. Evil defeated. Happy ending. Ish.

Granted, Captain Hydra’s apparently still alive. And Deadpool is now filled with more angst than Spider-Man on his worst day. And Widow and Rick Jones and Las Vegas are all still dead.

Fuck this story.

My god.

This whole stupid event should have been a What If, not canon. It’s entire plot hinges on RAMPANT abuse of cosmic reality warping MacGuffins. It’s needlessly dark, pointlessly angsty, DEGRADES Steve Rogers as a character BADLY, and it just made everyone look bad.

FUCK THIS STORY.

#FuckSecretEmpire #FireNickSpencer

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ofnailbatsandaxefives · 7 years

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The Phoenix and The 100 S4

“From the ashes we will rise” The tagline for season 4 of The 100 brings to mind imagery of the great mythological bird the Phoenix. A creature that sets itself on fire at the end of it’s life, so that a new Phoenix can be reborn and rise from the ashes of the old. This is already a pretty good analogy for what is going to happen to the world and the characters we love within the show, but it goes even further than that.

The Phoenix is a creature that appears in many different cultures, with some similarities between them, as well as some differences. I’m not going to cover all of them, but I’ll do my best to cover a majority.

First I’ll start with some of the basics of the mythology surrounding the Phoenix. These are things that are pretty much constant in all versions of the mythology.

Things The Phoenix Symbolizes

Renewal

definition A “an instance of resuming an activity or state after an interruption”

- The City of Light can be viewed as the interruption that the people faced in season 3. It halted life in Arkadia, Polis, among the clans living outside of Polis. It halted the attempts at reconciliation between the Sky People and the Grounders. (Not saying that Ontari would have not still tried to wipe them out for bringing in Pike, but Kane was still heading to Polis to try and speak with the new Commander.) In season 4 how are our heroes and those around them going to try and resume the lives that they had before the City of Light?

definition B “the replacing or repair of something that is worn out, run-down, or broken.“

- If we go by this definition, it could be about the grounders (and possibly sky people together) coming up with a new government for the grounders. Replacing the idea of the Commander with something else, or maybe even where it isn’t centered around the flame. Maybe it isn’t about completely replacing this system, but rather repairing it and finding a way for more of it to make sense. Like, y’know maybe not having a battle royale to find the next commander, cause just because someone can kill people does not make them a good leader. This can also be applied to Arkadia, and I think could be sign that Bellamy and Clarke are going to be working more with Kane (and possibly Abby) to be leaders among their people.

some synonyms for the word renewal are: revival. restoration. reformation. reparation (atonement), redemption, resurrection.

- Are we going to have people trying to atone for the things they did while in the City of Light (Ilian? Kane? Jaha? Jackson? Jasper?)

- Are we going to have a redemption arc for Octavia?

Empire

“ an extensive group of states of countries under a single ruler”

We know from the trailer that Roan is going to try and rule the 12 (well I guess 13) clans. The flame is still going to be in play somehow too, but is the person who takes it still going to be the next Commander? It’s possible, but I think this is more about Roan’s arc and goals than it is about the flame.

The Sun

The Phoenix can symbolize the sun, but there are also things that the sun can symbolize. Some things about this symbolism are “the sun can be about being able to command and lead,”the sun is bright and gives the people the energy and strength that they need,” “the sun gives the people the determination to succeed.”

Who does this sound like? Well, it kind of sounds a bit like the way in which Bellamy leads. He’s the one that’s known for the inspirational speeches, but wait, who do we see in the trailer giving one? Clarke. From interviews and such we know that these two are going to be working together again, so this could apply now to the Bellarke leadership as a whole, rather than to just one of them. However, I do think this part of the symbolism applies more to Bellamy.

Metempsychosis

“ the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species”

This part of the Phoenix’s symbolism in relation to the show is most definitely about the flame/chip itself. We don’t know how yet, only that it’s still going to play a role in next season. Is the new grounder woman in the trailer going to take the flame? Is there going to be a new Commander? Are there going to be more grounders who stop seeing it as a religious thing to be revered? Is there going to be conflict between those who view it as sacred and those that do not?

Now comes the part where I start on the Phoenix when it comes to the stories in individual cultures. Now, first let me note that this is all from research so if I get anything wrong let me know.

Egyptian

In Egypt the Phoenix is known by another name, Bennu.

Bennu is associated with Osiris (Ausir) who is the god of the afterlife, the dead, transition, and resurrection.

Death is something that is pretty common on the show, but ‘god of the dead and resurrection?’ Who does that sound like, oh, I don’t know maybe ‘the Commander of Death.’ Clarke not only has been shown to take life, but she has been shown to restore it as well.

Osiris has a sacred willow tree that he sat under. The willow tree can represent both grief and healing. There’s going to still be grieving in season 4, not just from Clarke, but there’s also going to be healing in this season. Who or what is going to be healed we don’t know yet. The willow tree also represents renewal and immortality, much like the Phoenix. While no character on the show is immortal, are we going to see even more the immortalization surrounding the idea of Wanheda?

Bennu is also associated with Ra, the Egyptian Sun God, and as I noted above sun is one of the things the Phoenix symbolizes, and that this can apply to Bellamy. According to Egyptian mythology when Ra was in the underworld he merged with Osiris to become the god of the dead as well.

Osiris = Clarke

Ra = Bellamy

Merging in the underworld = “Together” and pulling the lever in Mt. Weather

Both Clarke and Bellamy should be considered Wanheda, but only Clarke does, same as Osiris is usually considered the god of the dead and not Ra.

The Bennu is the sacred bird of Heliopolis, which from what I could find is near modern day Cairo. Some of the most famous pyramids are found on the outskirts of the city, and if I remember correctly we see pyramids in the trailer. There’s also the fact that it has the name Polis right in the name,

Chinese

in China the Phoenix is called Fèng Huáng

it is a symbol of high virtue, grace, power, prosperity, and the union of yin and yang.

the Empress is often symbolized by the phoenix Fèng Huáng, especially when paired with the Emperor, who is symbolized by the dragon. (I’ll touch more on this a little later)

The colors of the Fèng Huáng’s feathers are black, white, red, green, and yellow.

These colors are said to represent the five virtues of Confucius

Ren: benevolence, humanity, charity

Yi: honesty (broken down into zhong: doing one’s best, loyalty, and shu: altruism “benefiting another at one’s own expense”, reciprocity “exchanging with another for mutual benefits”)

Zhi: knowledge

Xin: faithfulness, integrity

Li: propriety, politeness, ceremony, worship

The Phoenix was power sent from above to the Empress, and would only stay when the ruler was without darkness or corruption. She started a bit on this path in season 3, but I think in season 4 we are really going to see Clarke coming out of the darkness of everything she has had to do and has been through. I also think she’s going to come out from some of the corrupted ways of being a leader that she learned from L.

The phoenix also represents the celestial bodies, let’s remember that Clarke, and the other sky people came from the space (where the heavenly bodies are) as well as the direction south, possible migration south to Brazil? ( @loft-meeting )

Okay, so like with talking about the gods in Egypt, I’m taking a short detour from Phoenix talk here to come back to the Emperor being symbolized by a dragon.

Please note I am only talking about dragons in terms of how they are viewed in China for this.

Things that the dragon represents in China: Perseverance, Heroism, Boldness, Intelligence, Vigor

Who is someone that has persevered despite the odds? Who has shown his heroism time and time again? Who have we seen making bold choices for his people? Who do we know shows his intelligence in how he plans things or leads? Bellamy fucking Blake, that’s who.

The Empress = The Phoenix = Clarke

The Emperor = The Dragon = Bellamy

The Empress + The Emperor (The Phoenix + the Dragon) = the union of yin and yang

Japanese

in Japan the Phoenix is known as Hō-ō.

Just as in China it is a symbol for the Empress.

Here it represents fire, the sun, justice, and fidelity.

In some traditions it is said that the Hō-ō only appears to mark the beginning of a new era. Is this what is going to come in season 4? Are we going to see the start of a new era for the sky people and the grounders? Are we going to see them setting their differences aside and uniting to survive?

In other traditions the Hō-ō only arrives during times of peace and prosperity. The whole ‘first we survive and then we thrive’ mentality Clarke is putting forth to inspire the people from the trailer? In this tradition the bird nests in the Paulownia tree, which is nicknamed the Empress/Princess tree...so while I know we don’t care much for the Princess nickname and don’t want to see it come back, we can’t deny that it’s always going to be something associated with Clarke.

Greek/Arabian

when someone makes a reference to the phoenix, it’s most likely this version of the bird you think of. An eagle like bird streaking across the sky, or sitting by a well and singing its melodious song.

Its feathers are often crimson, purple, scarlet, gold, or a combination of the three.

Crimson: fire, importance, power, determination to succeed

- having/gaining power (Roan)

- the determination of Clarke and those on team survive to find a way to survive the coming apocalypse.

Purple: inspiration, the future

- Clarke trying to inspire the people in Arkadia, and Bellamy in turn being that inspiration for Clarke.

- Not to mention the inspiration the other characters will find in each other. Kane and Abby, Murphy and Emori, etc...

- while they will obviously be dealing with things in the present, much of this season I feel is going to be focused on the future. The future of mankind.

Scarlet: enthusiasm, love of life

- Enthusiasm and love of life here makes me think of Jasper. So far in the show, at least at the beginning it seems, that Jasper is on what I refer to as ‘Team Fuck It.’ He doesn’t want to survive, he wants to live, and there is a difference between the two. If the world is ending, Jasper is going to go out on top. He’s going to go out not with a whimper or a bang, but with music blasting from the rover and a cup of Monty’s moonshine in hand.

Now whether or not this attitude is a good thing is open for debate.

Gold: success, abundance, wisdom

- a successful alliance possibly between Azgeda and the Sky People?

- characters continuing to grow and learn, Clarke and Bellamy gaining more wisdom from people like Abby, Kane, and even Jaha on their little trip to upendi. Is Octavia going to gain some wisdom from Niylah this year? What about when Luna comes back? Is she gonna drop some wisdom on people? Maybe Monty with his questioning the excuse of ‘my people.’

The phoenix has tears that can heal wounds and resurrect the dead *cough* Clarke Griffin *cough*

In this version the phoenix builds a pyre and gathers things such as cinnamon and myrrh in the preparation of its death.

Cinnamon and Myrrh both represent pretty similar things two of which are Protection and Healing.

Season 4 is going to see characters trying to protect one another and heal, not just healing physically, but also healing mentally and emotionally. Think of the way a phoenix uses the items that represent these in it’s pyre before it dies and a new phoenix rises from the ashes. Now think of the way these need to be something that the characters need to realize and go through, so that when they rise from the ashes they arise stronger than before. That in order for mankind to continue and for a new world to come about, one where the Arkers and Grounders truly work/live together, the old ways must first die, so that the new ways can live.

Slavic

in Slavic folkore it is referred by a few different names, most of which seem to translate to something along the lines of Firebird.

Once again the Firebird can represent a number of different things.

For some it is a creature of blessing, and others it brings doom to anyone who captures it. In some tales it’s a symbol of wealth and power, and in others it’s the object that’s been ordered to be capture. (I know this post is mainly about the phoenix in relation to season 4, but holy fuck if this doesn’t scream season 3 C/L if you think of Clarke as the Phoenix)

The Phoenix is also believed to bring hope and relief to suffering.

- hope has always been a pretty major theme of this show. almost everything has relied on hope. The hope that the ground is survivable. The hope that grounders and sky people can work together. The hope that they can survive the coming apocalypse.

- relief to suffering - call back to Atom, anyone? Is there going to be more of things like this in season 4? Perhaps a relief that doesn’t end in death or something false like the City of Light?

Conclusion

My conclusion is this, if you look at the overall/wider aspects of the Phoenix then it can encompass the overall theme of season 4. It can symbolize many different characters, story lines, arcs, etc. When you examine each version individually you find that, while here and there something might apply to a different character or arc, it seems that it is mostly represented by Bellarke, and more so by Clarke than Bellamy. But isn’t that what this show is? At its core the show is Clarke’s journey, followed by Bellarke (platonic, romantic, or otherwise), and then everyone else.

@ginalou16 @bellamypotter @ravensluna @abazethe100 @the-ships-to-rule-them-all @insufficient-earth-skills @rosymamacita @falafel14 @adamantinesky @forgivenessishardforus @thunderlovesbird @jane-doe07

#the 100 #clarke griffin #bellamy blake #bellarke #abby griffin #marcus kane #octavia blake #jasper jordan #monty green #niylah #luna #john murphy #emori #memori #kabby #if anyone wants or doesn't want to be tagged let me know

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hspencer-researchreport · 7 years

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Researching into use of Nazi iconography in cinema and the influence that it carried into fictional works

This article attributes the inspiration coming from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, a 1935 German propaganda film which featured a lot of iconography which would then be replicated by filmmakers like George Lucas and Peter Jackson to show the power of their fictitious evil by using the imagery of a group who are seen as one of history’s greatest evils.

I had seen this come up before while researching the same iconography being used in The Lion King, which also draws links to Leni Riefenstahl’s film with Scar and the Hyenas. This article provides more context and explanation at the history behind it.

Percival, J. (2015) Nazi iconography in star wars and modern day art. Medium: Overture Magazine [online] Available from: <https://medium.com/overture-magazine/nazi-iconography-in-star-wars-and-modern-day-media-8d179925d23a> [Accessed 03 September 2017]

“Nazis are in a sense the villains of one of the most anticipated films of the year. What may be most shocking about this revelation however, is that this is not the first time Nazis have been used as an inspiration for a Star Wars movie.”

“The entirety of the fictitious Galactic Empire is based on the very real empire that was the Third Reich.”

“Much of the overall design of the Empire is taken from Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Nazi propaganda feature Triumph of the Will.”

“[George Lucas] wants you to know his villains are bad, so he made them up to look like some of the most famous villains in all of history.”

“As the public has grown more and more acceptable of Nazi iconography, the more the aesthetics of it appeals to us.”

“Why do we like villains? While in terms of Star Wars it may seem sadistically ironic that fans dress up as Nazi caricatures, what attracts them to the villains in the first place is the story itself... The simple answer is that those characters and their looks are considered classic in the film world.”

“We love to watch and hate bad guys; our culture is built around them. Breaking Bad was a show centered around a drug dealing antagonist and audiences craved it.”

“There is a long history of the romantic or glamorous villain throughout literature and film. Universal horror films were built on the attractive and sometimes sympathetic monster,” says Dr. Stacey Abbott of London’s Roehampton University.

“A hero’s story is straightforward and limited. They can be swayed by evil, but he or she must remain good. A villain can have all the fun, and they can represent a dark or “forbidden” side of life we never get to witness.”

“Evil may look fun, but it never pays as the saying goes. We are also removed directly from any consequences of rooting for a villain during a movie since a film is often a work of fiction.”

“Does this excuse our appropriation of Nazi iconography though? It was never truly the Nazi’s iconography to begin with.”

“Art is constantly remixing and decontextualizing itself. In some countries a piece of art may be acceptable while in others it could be considered outright offensive...No, because it has a different historical context in different places. That historical context changes as well, as each new generation remembers and depicts older events differently. The further removed we are from the original event; the less significance it has.”

“In the end, while it is understandable many would be put off by the ever present Nazi iconography, that iconography itself is slowly disappearing.”

Petersen, K. (2013) Triumph of the will : film art of nazi propaganda? [online] Available from: <https://sites.stedwards.edu/comm4399fa2013-kpeters3/2013/09/24/triumph-of-the-will-film-art-or-nazi-propaganda/> [Accessed 05 October 2017]

“Riefenstahl was one who changed the face of documentary film forever. Her use of physical gaps and hierarchical distinction between leader and followers are just two of the aspects of the film that set it apart from other documentaries of the time.”

“ There is also the brilliant contrast between the masses in the crowds…and one person, Hitler.”

youtube

Folding Ideas (2017)

Triumph of the will and the cinematic language of propaganda

[Online] YouTube. Available at: <

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ1Qm1Z_D7w

> [Accessed 04 September 2017]

2:20 - “Memetically, propaganda represents not just rhetoric but some degree of dishonesty. Not an attempt to persuade, but to deceive, not a tempt to inform, but to inflame.”

6:45 - “From a film making perspective, propaganda uses all the same grammar as any other example of the media. Contrast, association, implication... these are all the bread and butter of assembling any visual narrative.”

8:47 - “Story, at least in the European tradition, requires conflict...Things, in some way shape or form, must get bad.”

9:15 - “However these basic mechanisms of narrative tension are at the odds of propaganda...the subject of propaganda has no arc but upwards. They begin strong and end stronger, they crush all that oppose them.”

12:10 - “Every visual implications of wealth, strength, and power is made and then repeated.”

13:28 - The whole point of the rally was to make the film, and the whole point of the film was to project and image of an unstoppable, overwhelming, wealthy, happy, fed and unified Nazi Germany to demoralized opponents and embolden supporters.”

-- Ebert, R., (2008) Triumph of the will review. Roger Ebert [online] Available from: <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-triumph-of-the-will-1935> [Accessed 05 October 2017]

“We see overhead shots of tens of thousands of Nazis in rigid formation, not a single figure missing, not a single person walking to the sidelines. How long did they have to stand before their moment in the sun? Where did they go and what did they do after marching past Hitler? In a sense, Riefenstahl has told the least interesting part of the story.”

“There are two speeches by Hitler, both surprisingly short, both lacking all niceties, both stark in their language: The party must be "uncompromisingly the one and only power in Germany."”

“Being a Nazi, to this film, means being a mindless pawn in thrall to the godlike Hitler.”

#researchreportproject

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Hyperallergic: Reframing the American West Through Latinx Eyes

Mi Terra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place, installation view (all images courtesy of the Denver Art Museum, unless noted)

Most of the time, exhibitions either provide an opportunity to enrich through juxtaposition our understanding of a selection of artworks, or they propose a set of criteria for thinking through an art historical, social, political, psychological, or aesthetic quandary. Rarely does a show achieve both. But to my mind, the current exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place, has. It triggers reactions, thoughts, and ways of disrupting the usual questions that order and stratify the art-historical canon, memory, and social bonds. Through careful decision, Rebecca Hart, DAM Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, has arranged 13 artists’ works to provide a roadmap for addressing a broad, perhaps naïve question that has obsessed me for quite some time: What qualities describe the symbolic bonds that tether person and community to one another and to a place?

Throughout the show, animation, painting, installation, and sculpture grapple with forces of nature, biography, ideology, and narrative to tease out different strategies for the representation of individual and group relationships to the location Mi Tierra addresses: the American West. It is a place defined by centuries of layering and mixing of indigenous, Mexican, Spanish, Anglo, and African people and cultures. The exhibition offers insights with a depth usually reserved for biennials, such as the early years of Prospect, or Kochi today.

John Jota Leaños, “Destinies Manifest” (2017), digital animation with sound, 7 minutes

Gabriel Dawe, “Plexus No. 36” (2016)

From the gallery’s entrance, Gabriel Dawe’s installation, “Plexus No. 36” (2016), occupies a perceptual foreground, despite being set far away at the back of the floor. The piece is made of thousands of threads in a spectrum of pastel colors pinned to the wall, twisted at their center to create a prismatic effect. Dawe’s choice of material is a reaction to the taboo of boys and men working with fiber: Crochet, knitting, and sewing were off-limits to him as a child. The piece, dynamically backlit by the rising and setting sun, establishes a cadence and tempo for the exhibition as a whole. Dawe amplifies the region’s particular light quality, a natural phenomenon that has lured many an adventurer and artist westward, searching for a place to establish roots and grow.

There are other moments within Mi Tierra that rely on light to raise fundamental questions about the ways in which communities order themselves and are ordered by others. As in the case of Dawe, who shines light through the barrier of a staunch delineation of gender roles, Jaime Carrejo materializes a symbolic representation that communicates the feelings of attachment to the landscape that surrounds and abuts the US-Mexico border. Carrejo’s work, “One Way Mirror” (2017), has three components: A steel-framed glass security wall is angled to control the flow of imagery that is visible within the gallery space, and there is also ambient sound and two videos projected on either side of the wall structure. The videos are comprised of footage from both sides of the border spliced with abstracted images of the national flags. This symbolic border wall is characterized by the interplay of artifice and the forces of the natural world, each butting up against the other, jockeying for influence over how we choose to conceptualize nation, territory, and the possibility of human migration across a landscape fraught by national interests.

Jaime Carrejo, “One-Way Mirror” (2017), two-channel HD video, tinted acrylic, and paint, 5 minutes, 38 seconds

Jaime Carrejo, “One-Way Mirror,” and the reflection of Justin Favela, “Fridalandia” (2017)

A neighboring artwork by Justin Favela is mirrored onto a portion of “One-Way Mirror,” to visually spectacular effect. Favela’s exuberant installation made of piñata papers, “Fridalandia” (2017), is underpinned by his interpretation of canonical landscape painting by Mexican artist José María Velasco (1840–1912) and an allusion to Hollywood’s depiction of Frida Kahlo’s infamous courtyard. Notions of home, celebration, landscape, and the exotification of Mexican culture vie for primacy in this immersive installation that animates the process of identity formulation.

Ruben Ochoa, “Ever since I was little it looked like fun” (2017), galvanized metal and concrete

While a number of the works on view, particularly those by Ruben Ochoa and Daisey Quezada, approach the subject at hand through elegant abstractions with discernable connections to minimalism and politically charged conceptual work, I found myself fixated on works that unpack dominant historical narratives and push viewers to append their knowledge of the formulation of Latinx history. Since the colonization of the Americas, the region has been defined by the use of European power to structure and control disparate populations using different tactics. Reaching all the way up through California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, the Spanish Colonial Empire dominated the region until Mexico achieved its independence from Madrid in 1821, and it was not until the Mexican-American War (1846–48) that Mexico retreated to the Rio Grande.

For his installation “Songs of the Event Horizon” (2017), painter Claudio Dicochea has drawn from the DAM’s collection of casta paintings, a legacy of the Spanish Colonial period. These paintings were commissioned in an effort to communicate the constraints and taboos of racial mixing both to those in the colonies and also to those on the Iberian Peninsula. The legacy of this system is that there was a recognition of and possibility for racial mixing, so long as marriage and its resulting children fit into one of the 16 approved categories. The historical castas provide a useful counterpoint to Dicochea’s contemporary casta paintings, which derive their imagery from the news, architecture, art, and popular culture. The installation includes a dozen of Dicochea’s casta paintings augmented by four historical castas. The contemporary images that populate Dicochea’s work speak very clearly to the social and political climate of the 21st century. His couplings and their offspring annotate a social structure that is a mash-up of pop culture icons and political figures. These paintings are glossy, dripping with memories, from the X-Files to the days of Camelot to Ben Kingsley’s smiling face.

Claudio Dicochea, “Songs of the Event Horizon” (2017), mixed-media installation

Eavesdropping on conversations in the gallery and tracking who recognizes whom in the castas reveals the symbolic logic at play in Dicochea’s work. Associative, freewheeling, and completely contingent on the viewer’s decision to either follow a thread or not, the artist brings to light the decentralization of authority in relation to the way we tell stories and write history. And, most importantly, he highlights the process of remembering and how that process of seeing, naming, and ordering images informs our sense of self in place and time, creating individual symbolic visual systems that help orient us in relation to culture and history. There is a camaraderie fostered among viewers as they share the experience of recognizing and remembering particular movie stars and political figures. The very act of looking at Dicochea’s installation forges a communal experience.

Daniela Edburg’s multifaceted work, “Uprooted” (2016), is moored by her portraits of children and elements from the Colorado landscape. Through expression and costume, she maps an attachment to place. Edburg uses wool to make representations of natural forms, like lichen, cheatgrass, river rock, alpaca, grassland, and tornadoes, and these representations of invasive and indigenous flora are then used as props in her portraits. Each portrait is in a traditional wooden frame, and then they are cast together within a massive cascade of tree roots, knitted from golden wool. An exquisitely crafted upright furniture piece with drawers that visitors can open and explore behaves as a curio cabinet containing a selection of her subjects made out of alpaca wool, invasive cheatgrass, and indigenous river rock. Edburg’s composition of furniture, felt wallpaper, portraits, and landscape photography form a universe organized according to a quantifiable emotional relationship between humans and nature that brings into focus my question about the symbolic ties that bind us to place.

Daniela Edburg, “Uprooted” (2017), alpaca, archival inkjet prints, maple, and mixed media

Exhibition didactics in the form of edited video footage of the artists fielding questions from community members provide viewers helpful biographical information, illuminating the complexity of crafting the story of the American West through the work of Latinx artists. The artists discuss issues like their sense of obligation to represent women or artists of color and the Latinx experience, and their responses reveal the ways in which the categories of “artist,” “Latino,” and “the American West” resonate differently. Some artists see their role as one of inspirational mentor, such as Ramiro Gomez and Ana Teresa Fernández. Carmen Argote drills down on art historical classifications. When a community member asks: “Looking towards the future, where do Latinos fit into the American art world?” Argote expresses that Latino populations have always been present in America, that American art is an aspect of the art of the Americas, and that, by extension, so-called “Latino art” is inherently American.

John Jota Leaños answers Argote’s clarion call, having created an animation that reexamines many of the precepts of Manifest Destiny and the American West. In it, buffalo herds pound through the warm terrain, contrasting with the cornflower-blue skies, building a powerful image of a landscape being expanded through its place in our consciousness. This is followed by the sounds of drumming and chanting set against the star-filled night sky, captured by a panning lens skirting over an increasingly populated landscape. Leaños has built a flowing pastiche of images to reset our understanding of the region, its inhabitants, and the events that have led to our current situation. He quotes from John Gast’s canonical painting, “American Progress” (1872), to disrupt the pervasive historical narrative, as a strategy for developing a symbolic order that privileges indigenous nations through addressing the continuum of colonialism. Leaños is committed to working fast and furious in a seductive visual language to ensure that audiences of all ages come to question the narratives that have been used to structure history and its symbolism that fosters for some a sense of belonging and for others, displacement and alienation.

The American West is conceptualized throughout the exhibition according to terms rooted in the events and images of art history, but the show has its head cocked to get a better view of our current cultural climate. At the heart of this gesture is a series of disruptions that harness aspects of the dominant culture while representing and privileging erased historical and aesthetic events. Through the work of the artists in this show, the West and its many historical layers convey diverse and divergent elements comprising a symbolic order that, hopefully, re-stories the region.

Ramiro Gomez, “Lupita” (2017), acrylic paint, duct tape, and trash bags on cardboard, 126 x 126 in. (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

John Jota Leaños, from “Destinies Manifest” (2017), digital animation with sound, 7 minutes

Carmen Argote, “Live/Work” (2016), mixed media, paper, and metal screen (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place continues at the Denver Art Museum (100 W 14th Ave, Denver) through October 22.

The post Reframing the American West Through Latinx Eyes appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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