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plague-of-insomnia · 11 months

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Is Sebastian “Evil”?

Recently, I saw a post by @puppyfan9000 about Sebastian, commenting on whether or not he is evil, suggesting he’s more like a lion, who preys on animals for survival and not because they’re “evil.”

I guess I had not fully appreciated how many people apparently view Sebastian through the lens of Christian demonology and dogma and thus view him as evil, some apparently going as far to say he’s the villain of the series. (Yana has said he’s the protagonist, actually, but go off, I guess.)

While I can’t ofc know what Yana had in mind with Sebastian when she created him, I do feel like the manga does a good job of pointing out that demons are not innately good or evil, and the truly “evil” ones are humans themselves.

(This is gonna be a bit long so I’ll go ahead and tuck the rest under a read more.)

Shinto Kami & Three Natures

One of the cores of Shinto belief is the kami, sometimes translated as “god,” though I think “deity” is better since the former often has an association with “good” in the western mindset.

The thing about kami is they aren’t good or evil; they exist outside those human parameters. They’re more like a force of nature than what we in the west might view as demonic or godly.

And each kami has 3 natures, or mitama:

aramitama - rough and wild

nigimitama - gentle and life supporting

sakimitama - nurturing

[SS from Handbook of Japanese Mythology by Michael Ashkenazi]

Think of these three as different colored liquids all contained within a vessel. Each kami has a diff amount of each, with one or more of these natures dominating in different situations and at different times.

Connected to this, the line between a “god” or “kami” and a “demon” (so many words you can use here, including akuma, or even yokai) is fluid in Shinto belief.

A kami can “fall” and “devolve” into a baser yokai or “demon” if they become impure (purity is a big part of Shinto belief and ritual), and/or if their aramitama nature becomes more dominant.

Even so, these beings aren’t considered “evil” in the same sense that a Christian views Satan as “evil.”

Just as the destruction caused by a hurricane can’t be called “evil,” the behavior of a kami or other spirit likewise is neither good nor evil. It simply is.

Yana has described him as “without shame or moral sense” but I think this is a bit misleading in translation (though the original Japanese is lost so I can’t say for sure what she said exactly). I think what she means isn’t “he’s evil” but that “he exists outside the framework of human morality.”

Humans Vs Demons in the Manga

I feel like to call Sebastian evil is to miss the fundamental message of the manga: that humans (and formerly human creatures like shinigami) are far more demonic than demons.

Ciel says that almost verbatim, depending on the translation (and if you’re talking about the manga vs the anime) at the end of the circus arc, and Seb replies that is something that sets humans and demons apart.

Sebastian doesn’t kill for the sake of killing. He only kills on command/when necessary to execute (ha) Ciel’s orders/goals. More than once he’s expressed either his distaste at Ciel’s desires, and while Ciel calls him a beast, he takes offense to that.

From Sebastian’s perspective, humans are interesting because they are more complex than demons, who seem to be driven largely by their hunger and not much else.

Recall that Sebastian hesitated to burn down Kelvin’s manor with all the children inside, and it confuses him enough he even questions Ciel about it later. Likewise, while he does kill everyone involved in the Green Witch arc, that was far less about his being “evil,” and more about his doing the job that Ciel ordered him to do while giving him a chance to get his own “revenge” for nearly losing his meal due to the effects of the gas.

I think the closest thing to “evil” Sebastian gets in the manga is when he first makes the contract with Ciel and tries to trick him by making him believe his brother is alive, since he can’t actually resurrect the dead. But I feel it’s telling that is “day one” Sebastian and he has certainly grown and changed since then.

The Ripper Arc: The First Evil

The first true arc is the ripper arc, and I think it’s important because it shows us early that while Sebastian is a literal hellspawn, it wasn’t a demon involved in the serial murders but rather a human—Madam Red—and someone who was once human—Grelle.

Grelle then kills Red in cold blood because she’s become “boring,” which, as far as we know, Grelle never regretted or felt remorse over.

I’m not quite sure if I would even call Grelle evil, but the point is clear: humans, and former humans, are more demonic than demons.

We see it again and again, with the cult, with Kelvin, with the German military in the GWA, with Undertaker and the Aurora society— perhaps it is telling that Sebastian is the only known demon in canon (no, season 2 of the anime is not canon), because it really forces us to see that even the worst of Sebastian’s actions pales in comparison to the depravity of human beings.

If we do wanna look at non-canon, the first season of the anime featured an Angel, a being that is normally associated with being “good,” who becomes so twisted and obsessed with “purity” that they let their aramitama nature take hold and commit great evil in their quest for purification. Even so much as to try and ally with a demon and offer Sebastian any souls he wishes in exchange for Ciel.

So once more we see a non-demon character being the evil one— and Pluto, who is technically a demon, isn’t “evil.” He only “becomes evil” when Ash/Angela break his mind and force him to attack the city.

Ignoring Ciel’s Commands

Finally, I think it’s important to point out that despite promising to always fulfill Ciel’s orders, there have been several times in the manga that he has disobeyed in order to protect Ciel.

One example happens in the circus arc. Ciel’s asthma flares from the harsh conditions at the circus, but he’s determined to go out regardless. But they’re stopped by Agni and Soma.

Agni then gives Sebastian a harsh lecture that makes him realize that simply always following Ciel’s orders isn’t enough if doing so puts his life at risk. So he goes against Ciel’s wishes and not only makes him rest, but let’s him sleep as long as he needs to.

Later, during the Weston arc, when confronted by Undertaker again, Sebastian ignores Ciel’s orders to try and catch him because he learned from his experiences on the Campania and doesn’t want to risk putting Ciel in danger again.

If Sebastian were truly such an evil being, an embodiment of sin, then why would he care about Ciel’s health? Yes, he’s cultivating his soul for optimum yumminess, but harvesting him a bit early wouldn’t really affect him that badly.

Though Sebastian says that he’s doing it because of the terms of their contract or because he’s “taken great pains” to cultivate Ciel’s soul and doesn’t want him stolen, I don’t think that is entirely the truth. While he ofc doesn’t want to lose his meal, I think it’s more than that.

No, he protects Ciel because he wants to. He keeps him safe and out of harm because he chooses to. And demon or not, I don’t think someone like Agni could call an evil being his friend.

#black butler #黒執事 #sebastian michaelis #character analysis: sebastian michaelis #poi og #good vs evil #demons #let’s see if this shows in the tags #poi theory #100 notes #200 notes #meta

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jellyfishfem · 1 year

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What I want non-jewish people to know

So I made a post about people being shit allies to jewish people. I decided that I’m gonna write about how they can improve bc well, this is my blog and I’d like to share my thoughts. Disclaimer: I am an ashkenazi jew, from eastern europe, living in central europe, so just keep that in mind while reading through this text. My experiences may be different from jews living in a different place.

First off, I think it’d be really helpful if we stopped equating goblins with jews. My views are that while they were probably a mockery of jews in the beginning of time, when people started telling tales and stories, today they are just common folklore characters. Same goes for witches, who make a mockery of old women. Also, I noticed that people come up with more and more “antisemitic” stuff about this new HP game. I think that being like “well thats actually jewish!! That too!! So many jewish things in this game!! Jews are everywhere!!” Is weird.

Don’t compare things to the Holocaust (or any other genocide). It is so so distasteful to equate the horrors of the Holocaust to things like women joking about “it’s either a girl or an abortion” or having to get certain vaccines.

Educate yourself on judaism. I am BEGGING you to read stuff about different topics and different opinions within jewish communities. Please please expand your circle if you are interested in being an ally. Some examples:

Messianic judaism and why a lot of jews find it harmful

Festivities, traditions

Israel - Palestine

The different branches of judaism, like orthodox, conservative, etc.

The Talmud, Kabbala, Torah, what exactly are they?

Stand up for us irl!!!! Being bold in the comments section is easy. A place where I faced a LOT of antisemitism was in school. For example, we went to concentration camp and half the class, even some of my friends, started making jokes with punchlines about gas. I really wished someone had atleast told me that they were there for me but the other half of the class was just silent. Internet activism like posting an infographic about the rates of antisemitic hatecrimes is not very helpful. It’s kind of silent. Calling out self-identifying nazis (surprisingly common in the country I live in) isn’t. Telling your jewish friends they can rant/vent to you about jewish issues too isn’t. Hosting a Hanukka party isn’t.

Cover/paint over/remove nazi symbols. In my country, they can be scribbled on walls, painted on walls and trains, stickers sticked on lamp posts. Also, if you find one in places like a dorm, you can reach out to the dorm’s office and ask them if they can do something about it. They can get it painted over and also send out an email regarding this. I think it’s important to signal that the office does not stand for this and will not be silent about it.

If you can think of more ways to help, feel free to add some other points! Or if you just want to share your experiences

(sorry for any english mistakes)

#judaism #jewish #harry potter #jk rowling #hogwarts legacy #radfem #radfem safe

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ladyimaginarium · 11 months

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Okay so I'm& revitalizing this again.

Hi, my& name's Arcana& / Angel&, and I& am the core / host / singletsona of The Imaginarians Galaxy. If you want to help support a local queer, trans, nonbinary, genderfluid, intersex, mspec, aspec, autistic, disabled, neurodivergent, hoh, chronically ill, psychotic spoonie witch two spirited mixed native and ashkenazi jewish bodied multigenic DID system who's an aspiring activist, fashion model, voice & film actrex, ASMRtist, youtuber/vtuber, polyglot & writer, it'd be greatly appreciated.

This month is Pride Month & Indigenous History Month so please support our indigenous turtle island communities, know who's land you're on and support queer indigenous turtle islander creators, & on top of that, July 13th is also my& birthday & July is also Disability Pride Month & Queer Wrath Month !! I& just find it's funny how white queers get all this support & clout, but the minute a queer Native Jew asks for any kind of mutual assistance, it's like cricket noises, but anyway, here I& go again, I'm& putting out these links just in case someone actually does wanna help out because it's only right to do so being an indigenous queer two spirited bodied system, after all.

If you're white, you can think of this as paying reparations for us& for dealing with antinative racism, antisemitism, ableism, sanism, pluralphobia, psyism, audism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, multitransphobia, aphobia, exorsexism, intersexism and the ongoing colonization of my& people and fighting on the behalf of the indigenous, queer and plural communities on here while for any POC reading this, you can think of this as extending your solidarity with us&, so after I& spent a lot of blood sweats and tears into what i& do, I'm& finally asking something that would benefit me& for a change, even like 10$ could help, but even if you still can't for whatever reason, please spread the word out to help us& live easier as a disabled, neurodivergent mixed native system in this ableist & racist world.

Donate To Our& P*yP*l

Multipurpose Psychiatric Service Dog Donations

Throne Wishlist

So far these are the best ways to support us&. Information on commissions, booking tarot readings with me& as well as sensitivity reader information will be available in a reblog eventually.

We& didn't have a great childhood growing up as we& were abused for a decade & we& weren't taught many lifeskills so we're& still learning from the gate. Even though we aren't in a life threatening emergency, I'm& generally not in the right financial space to spend a lot & buying my& own shit because I'm& Saving Up™ for a lot of things, including the possibility of me& moving to my& first ever apartment next year & my& future service dog & I& cannot work due to my& multiple disabilities, & I& can't stand up for long periods of time without feeling exhausted & just being an overall madcripple, so whatever you do, it'd be greatly appreciated, especially if you like our& content.

Remember, reblogs > likes!

#arcana.txt #mutual aid.#** post; signal boost.#hennywayz please consider helping us& out !#our& p.osts for our& t.arot readings & c.ommishes'll be open soon hopefully bc we& got Good Reviews !! TM #also our& s.ervice d.og GFM is still a wip in the sense the description needs to be updated our& bad but you generally get the gist lmao #but keep in mind that this is only for those who're mentally & physically able to give who have energy & spoons to care & those who have $#if you don't have any of that that's fine too !! n e wayz yt settlers yall owe us& apology gift reparations lmao #tagging for visibility purposes:#indigenous history month #pride month #pride #** post; okay to reblog.#!!!!!

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princesssarisa · 20 days

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The last three Love Like Salt tales in Cinderella Tales from Around the World consist of one from Pakistan and two from India.

*These tales stand out in two chief ways from their European counterparts. First, by not following the standard Cinderella or Donkeyskin storyline after the princess is banished, but going in completely different directions until the standard father/daughter reunion ending. Secondly, by handling the meaning of "love like salt" in a different way. Where the European versions emphasize that food without salt is tasteless, these South Asian versions instead skewer the poetic cliché of equating love with sweetness and point out that savory food is just as necessary as sweet food, if not more so.

**The king asks his many children (more than just three, and in one case including sons as well as daughters), how much they love him, and all but the youngest daughter reply "Like sugar," "Like honey," "Like sweetmeats," etc. But the youngest daughter says "Like salt," so her father has her abandoned in the jungle.

**In the end, she invites her father (or her entire family) either to her wedding feast or just to visit her home. She serves no food but sweets, which her father soon tires of, and when she finally serves him salted food instead, he realizes the value of salt.

*As for what happens in the middle of the story...

**The Pakistani tale of The King and His Daughters is the simplest: a prince just finds the princess hiding in a hollow tree, falls in love with her, and marries her.

**In one of the two Indian tales, both titled The Princess Who Loved Her Father Like Salt, the princess comes to a palace where a prince lies dead, with many needles sticking out of his body. One by one she pulls out all the needles, somehow knowing that this will bring him back to life, but one day she pauses to take a bath, and her slave girl pulls out the last two needles instead, reviving the prince. She tells him that she's the princess and marries him, reducing the real princess to a slave. But eventually he learns the truth and replaces the false bride with the true one. And refreshingly for this type of story, the slave girl isn't killed or severely punished, but forgiven by the princess, though she is forced to serve her again.

**In the other Princess Who Loved Her Father Like Salt, the princess is newly wed and pregnant when her father banishes her, and she ends up giving birth and raising her son in a golden palace in the jungle. The boy becomes the protagonist, who goes on a journey that involves rescuing three fairies from a Deo (giant) and winning half the kingdom by granting a wish of the king's. He then takes the king (his grandfather) to see his mother, reuniting the family.

Now for some footnotes from me:

*I'm surprised that this book doesn't include any Love Like Salt variants from the Americas, because I know they exist. There's a picture book from the '80s called Moss Gown, which I remember reading in elementary school, which is based on an oral version from North Carolina. That version is problematic, because it takes place in the South before the Civil War, on plantations full of slaves, and because the white heroine's helper is a a black "witch woman," a literal case of a "magical Negro." But I do like what she gives to the heroine: a dress that by day is a raggedy thing made of moss, but which turns into a beautiful ballgown at night. I wish a European variant or two had shared that detail.

*I'm also surprised and disappointed that this book doesn't include the Ashkenazi Jewish variant How Much Do You Love Me? (a.k.a. The Way Meat Loves Salt), where the father is a rabbi, the heroine's love interest is a rabbi's son, and her magical helper is the prophet Elijah in disguise, who gives her a magic stick that grants her wishes. That version has also been adapted into a picture book, which I've sometimes seen in the gift shop at my local synagogue's annual Jewish Food Festival. @ariel-seagull-wings has also shared it here.

The next set of Cinderella tales in this book are the subtype of One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

#cinderella #love like salt #fairy tale #variations #cinderella tales from around the world #heidi ann heiner #pakistan #india #tw: needles

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jessicalprice · 1 year

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something will always fill a vacuum

(reposted, with edits, from Twitter)

Okay, let's talk about why attempts to critique (or hell, straight up stick it to) Christianity in SFF often end up being more anti-Jewish than they are anti-Christian.

This was inspired by Jay Kristoff's work, which manages to evoke a whole bunch of antisemitic medieval tropes AND, as a bonus, even shits on the name "Ashkenazi", which is the Jewish term for most European Jews. But the thing is, Kristoff's SO antisemitic that I don't think it's accidental. I'm more interested in how it happens out of ignorance rather than malice.

So, negative evocations of Christianity in SFF usually fall into one or more of three categories:

allegories for/evocations of the Inquisition

allegories for/evocations of witch hunts

Christianity without Jesus

I suspect there are also plenty of evocations of the Crusades out there, especially in SFF by non-Western authors, but I haven't seen it nearly as much. I want to be clear that these aren't usually discrete uses of these tropes. They usually blend together. Evocations of the Inquisition usually have evocations of later witch-hunts as well, and it's almost always Christianity Without Jesus.

I'm generally fine with using the Inquisition and the witch hunts as models for fictionalized versions of the church as a force for evil. They were Christianity as a force for evil in real life.

But they're often clearly written by people who haven't actually studied the periods in question before using them as a model--the Salem "witches," for example, were Christians, and not just women, and targeted more for financial reasons than religious ones. (Also, they weren’t burned at the stake, for crying out loud. You’re not the granddaughters of the witches they couldn’t burn. Like every word of that slogan is wrong.) But honestly, whatever. I’m not interested in holding fantasy to historical accuracy.

It's the way Evil Christianity Analogues are generally missing a Jesus figure that starts to make them problematic.

Much of the world's perception of Jews and Judaism is basically "it's like Christianity but without Jesus."

Attempts to portray Christianity Analogues as bloodthirsty and primitive generally assume that what's "primitive" is what's older.

They tend to distrust ritual, and portray ritual either as primitive superstition, or as a facade that the Evil Priests use to manipulate the Naive Villagers.

And you may think you're sticking it to Christianity by doing your fic with evil Inquisitors who burn witches, but when a hallmark of its evil is that there's no Jesus analogue, you're actually not sticking it to Christianity. You're reinforcing its supremacy.

Or put another way, the idea that if you remove Jesus, Christianity becomes evil is just the flipside of "REAL Christianity is inherently good."

If you're going to have masses and priests and Inquisitors and witch burnings and all the other specific trappings of actual Christianity, put a fucking Jesus analogue in there. Because it's not "religion", it's SPECIFICALLY THE RELIGION THAT WORSHIPS JESUS, that did all these things.

Cultural practices are not an equation

A lot of this comes from a very old anti-Jewish trope: the OT God=vengeful, NT God=loving rubric.

Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time debunking that trope in this thread, other than to say that every single loving- or compassionate-sounding thing Jesus ever said is literally a quote or paraphrase from the Tanakh.

Yet there's a long-standing idea in pop culture Christianity that the problem with Christianity is the “Old Testament.” You hear it ALL THE FUCKING TIME on TV. Some bigoted Christian character quotes something from the OT and the hero says something like, "we've had a whole other testament since then."

So, the idea that if you do Christianity without Jesus, you get Bloodthirsty Old Testament Religion is a huge trope in...

...Christian depictions of Satanism.

You know what I'm talking about, yes? Satanism as portrayed by Christians is missing Jesus, and usually involves a lot of animal sacrifice, and then human sacrifice, and often a smattering of Hebrew, that Ancient And Alien Language. Or sometimes Aramaic. (I could do a whole post about how weird Christians are about Hebrew and Aramaic.) So Satanism as imagined by Christians is intended to be a dark mirror of Christianity, and there are elements of that, in that there's usually elements from Catholic mass, usually some Latin.

But in essence, what they're creating is Ancient Evil Religion Without Jesus, which ends up looking a lot like what they tend to think Judaism looks like, or looked like back in the day. (Without the "Evil", of course, or at least without saying it out loud.)

animal sacrifice, which Jesus negated the need for

Hebrew as an ancient powerful magical alien language, rather than as, I dunno, the language of real people?

a vengeful and bloodthirsty deity figure, without a mediating savior

(BTW, I and plenty of other Jews I know have been asked, by apparently well-meaning Christians, how we handle sacrificing animals in contemporary America. I’m sure that if this post gets any traction, a bunch of Christians are going to respond that they know we don’t actually practice animal sacrifice and let me just go ahead and give you your gold star and your cookie and please note the giant eye roll accompanying said cookie and star.)

A little detour into the Satanic Panic

The attitude toward imagined Satanism, with its ritual and its sacrifice and its churchiness, looks a little different whether you're getting it from Catholics or Protestants.

With Catholics, it's "this is a mockery of the mass, which is why it's ritualized"

With Protestants, With Protestants, you get something a lot uglier. It’s “our Christianity is fresh and organic and flexible and real and just about a genuine relationship with God,” opposed to ancient, heartless, primitive, ignorant ritual like that in Satanism and Judaism and Catholicism

And of course, when actual Satanism as a practice became a thing, and not just a bogeyman in the fevered imaginings of paranoid Christians, it was primarily as a way to troll Christians. But it also pulled in a lot of really ugly white supremacist Victorian ideas about the occult.

It didn't start from what could we do to create a practice that actually highlights everything that's wrong with Christianity. You know, an actual satire of it. It mostly started with performing what Christians thought Satanism would look like. Trolling, as opposed to critique. It’s evolved since then and developed more into its own thing, and the point of this post has nothing to do with practicing Satanists, so I’m going to leave it there--this is just to point out that Satanism, full stop, both imagined and real, has always been something that exists inside Christianity, and is nonsensical outside/without Christianity.

So again, and I can't emphasize this enough: What Christians think actual Satanism would look like isn't a critique of Christianity. It's a reification of it. It's self-congratulatory. The Christian idea of Satanism exists only to enforce the “correctness” of Christianity.

You can see this because--edgelordery among heavy metal artists and edgy teenagers notwithstanding--there's nothing actually attractive about Christian depictions of Satanism. No one seems to be having any fun. There's no there there. I mean, Michelle Remembers, The Satan Seller, Rosemary’s Baby, Go Ask Alice, Satan’s Underground, The Omen, Eye of the Devil--in all the famous texts of the Satanic Panic, it’s remarkable how unpleasant and dreary Satanic practices seem to be. It’s hard to imagine anyone finding these practices enjoyable or rewarding. There’s a typical authoritarian Christian lack of curiosity about humans’ inner lives in these portrayals: no one’s asking why anyone would want to engage in these practices. It’s just some people are evil, end of story.

The entire point of Satanism in the Satanic Panic is to make Christianity look good.

It exists, in their imaginings, solely to mock Christian ritual, but like, no one actually wants to eat a host made of feces? No one wants to have unpleasant and ungratifying sex? It's just misery for misery's sake, which is what Christians panicking about Satanism apparently imagine non-Christianity to be.

Back to fictional Evil Churches

So when SFF authors/game devs/whoever want to worldbuild a fictional evil church, somehow it usually ends up being Christianity with a very conspicuously missing Jesus.

Obviously, a comprehensive survey is beyond the scope of this Tumblr post, but here are a few examples:

Shin Megami Tensei literally has a church that worships “YHVH,” an explicitly evil god. There’s no Jesus analogue.

The Church of Tal in Magic: The Gathering is full of hypocritical inquisitors who persecute magic users while using magic themselves. This is pretty obviously a dig at evangelicals who claimed M:TG was satanic in the 80s and 90s, but again, weirdly, no Jesus.

Final Fantasy X has the Church of Yu-Yevon, which of course turns out to be Bad. No Jesus.

Dishonored is an interesting example, since the Abbey of the Everyman doesn’t have a god--or rather, it’s designed to protect people from its god, the Outsider. But it’s got all the tropes of churchiness and the Inquisition, and of course, no Jesus.

The Deep Church in Dark Souls.

The Chantry in Dragon Age isn’t straight-up evil--they’re a positive force in some ways, but they're also Inquisition-y toward mages and straight-up evil toward the Dalish elves. No Jesus.

Mercedes Lackey’s various fantasy worlds usually have some analogue to Christianity (in the first of the Heralds novels, Talia, the main character, comes from a background that clearly draws from both evangelical Christianity and Amish/Mennonite/etc. tropes). There’s no Jesus analogue.

Hell, in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the church is literally a Christian church. Like, it’s not a completely different world; it’s our world but a little different. And yet somehow Jesus is very absent.

David Eddings’ Church in the Elenium and Tamuli series isn’t terrible, exactly, but it bounces back and forth between corrupt and hapless. It’s pretty clearly Fantasy Christianity, right down to the scriptures and the clerical titles and the Vatican infighting and yet, no Jesus.

Terry Pratchett’s Church of Om isn’t wholly evil, but it’s a satire of overly “ritualistic” Christianity--ritual is sterile, ritual is a substitute for true belief--and causes a lot of war. No Jesus, of course.

Brandon Sanderson’s Vorinism arguably rushes right past the accidental antisemitism of “no Jesus makes you evil” into straight-up antisemitism, but that’s a whole other post.

I mean, look, I could make this list really long, especially if I wanted to get into “Evil Religions that do very Christian Inquisition things, but have a pantheon that’s loosely based on the Greeks or whatever,” and how they’re still very much cast in a Christian mold, but never have a Jesus analogue, but we’d be here all day.

If you’re not Christian, why do you think Jesus saved the world?

The point is, a lot of people doing worldbuilding want authoritarian priests and witch-hunting inquisitors and Women Wrecked The World patriarchy and abusive exorcisms of people who aren’t possessed and conversion therapy and all that. Some of them are Big Mad at Christianity, some aren’t, but either way, they believe they have something to say about the harm Christianity has done.

But the real-world people who did all the horrible things Christianity has done weren't practicing Christianity-but-without-Jesus. They were practicing Christianity full stop.

And yes, actual Judaism as practiced by actual alive Jews isn't actually anything that resembles Christianity, with or without Jesus. But the problem is, for most of the world, their understanding of what Judaism is is "basically Christianity, but without Jesus."

When you decide to do an analogue of Christianity to be the evil religion in your SFF/game, but you neglect to include *the central element of Christianity*, which is, you know, Jesus, what you're actually suggesting is that Jesus is the thing that redeems "Abrahamic religion." (BTW, stop using that term since y’all seem to use it to try to blame Jews and Muslims (and by extension, all the other Abrahamic religions that you don’t even seem aware exist) for stuff that is specifically and uniquely Christian.)

So if you think that Jesus is the thing that makes Christianity good, so much that you can’t imagine a Fantasy Evil Christianity Analogue that has a Jesus figure, what does that say about what you think about Jews?

If you're pissed at Christianity, and if you want to create an SFF setting that contains Evil Religion, why can’t you seem to bear to actually include a Jesus figure in your portrayal?

You’re actually reifying the idea that Christianity (”true” Christianity that actually worships Jesus) is uniquely and inherently good, and all the things you see as trappings of it (belief in a single God, ritual, tradition, sacred texts) are bad without Jesus.

So again, unfriendly reminder that the main Abrahamic religion in which Jesus has no place isn’t the one that did all the colonialism and inquisitioning and witch-hunts and swordpoint conversions and Crusades, and isn’t the one currently taking away your reproductive rights and putting torture of LGBTQ kids into law and trying to make it impossible to exist comfortably if you don’t believe as they do.

That’s all been the Jesus-people, not us.

Maybe think about that next time you’re worldbuilding.

#fantasy #sff #antisemitism #worldbuilding #games #evil churches #christian hegemony #jumblr

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lovingwanda · 5 months

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Wanda "Mishka" Maximov - Russian (White) / Korean / Ashkenazi Jewish

Maggie Nelson - Han Chinese / Irish / Swedish / Vietnamese

Satoru Jiro - Korean / Japanese / German / Danish

Character Study: The Trio.

- The Witch's Labyrinth (Fanfiction)

#web weaving #ship: maggie x wanda x satoru #fanfic: the witch's labyrinth #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff #mcu x reader #maggie nelson x wanda maximoff #ship: maggie x wanda #character study

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gerrysherry · 7 months

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Are you Jewish, and if so, do you feel like the movie Tangled is anti-Semitic?

I am indeed Jewish (patrilineal and reform but Jewish) but I am terrible with 'this is antisemitism in media' as opposed to 'this is antisemitism in real life'. My thoughts on media anti-semitism are complicated.

I actually enjoy characters that are antisemitic* caricatures if they're charismatic enough. I actually like Shylock and Svengali** because damn they really manipulate people and get what they want. I also will analyze that Shakespeare and Du Mariner were appealing to antisemitic tropes of their times and that those characters are now archetypes wielded against us. People are accused of being a "Svengali" or a "Shylock".

Tangled doesn't have that kind of reach so it's not as worrisome to me but it's disturbing to see tropes from the Middle Ages and the 19th and 20th century surfacing in the 21st.

Mother Gothel also has an appeal to her that will likely make her a nostalgic Disney villian to Gen Z and younger millennial. Those who are gentiles and don't catch the coding. I didn't as a teen until it was pointed out to me.

Mother Gothel has both a hooked nose and the bouncy black ringlets typical of young Jewish women. She steals a blond-haired child to live forever and while she doesn't steal Rapunzel's blood or life force she's clearly using a very typical white gentile child in order to live forever so it's still blood libel just watered down (pun intended).

Also this is a film that associates broken and hooked noses with villians and (reformed) thugs, while our two leads are traditinally attractive. This is of course classic Disney but here it just so telling.

The fairy tale story of Rapunzel itself positions a witch stealing a child from a good christian couple but it was the movie that made her look as Ashkenazi as possible.

It's antisemitic as the early harry Potter books are antisemitic**. Accidentally tapping in to old fantasy narratives that are very bigoted and not updating the bigotry.

Did I answer your question?

footnotes:

*apparently it's better to not hypenate 'antisemitism' to distance from the roots of the it's coiner who was a racist antisemitic eugenicist who wanted something more pseudo-academic sounding than 'Judenhass' - 'Jew-hatred'. I write it as one word but I don't see how one is better than the other.

** The antagonist of Du Mariner's book 'Trilby' who hypnotises people to his bidding so he doesn't have to get his hands dirty. He is explicitly an ashkenazi Jew who is so many antisemitic stereotypes that a 'Svengali' is now a derogatory term for a manipulative person especially a one who is Jewish.

***as opposed to Hogwarts Legacy which was written by an alt-right crank and is deliberately antisemitic. But what appealed to him was Rowling's already antisemitic portrayals of the Goblins

#asks #answering asks #antisemitism #coding #antisemitic coding #tangled #mother gothel #tw harry potter #tw hogwarts legacy #my essays #literary analysis #literary analysis with cecil

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thejewitches · 1 year

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Listen to the Jewitches podcast for more!

#jewish #jewitches #judaism #jumblr #jewitch #jewish magic #witchcraft #witchblr #witchy #magic #ashkenazi #jewish art #judaica #witches #mermaids #mermaid #merfolk #mythology

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npdclaraoswald · 2 years

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Another Instagram crosspost! This time for Disability Pride Month!

Note: The Tree is a sequel, but the MC sustains the injuries that make her disabled in book one

[Image: several graphics edited with a picture of The Capitol Crawl as the background. The first image has text reading "Favorite Disability Books."

The next image shows four books- All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living with Racialized Autism ed by Lydia XZ Brown, E Ashkenazy, and Morénike Giwa, The Seep by Chana Porter, Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West, and The Unbroken by CL Clark. There is also text with colorful arrows pointing to the books. The label "autistic" points to All the Weight of Our Dreams, The Seep, and Eight Kinky Nights. The label "cane users" points to Eight Kinky Nights and The Unbroken, and the label "arthritis" points to Eight Kinky Nights.

The next image has four books- The Tree by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun, Borderline by Mishell Baker, Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, and Our Bloody Pearl by DN Bryn. This image also contains labels and arrows. "Limb difference" points to The Tree and Borderline. "Mute" points to The Tree, Pet, and Our Bloody Pearl. "BPD" points to Borderline.

The next image has two books. Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century ed by Alice Wong is labeled "collected works." Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is labeled "no focus on a specific disability; about mutual aid."

The next image has four books- Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare, Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson, The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, and White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson- and more colorful arrows. "Cerebral palsy" points to both Exile and Pride and Accidents of Nature. "OCD" points to The Anthropocene Reviewed, and "anxiety" points to White Smoke.

The last image features four books, each with one label pointing to it. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is labeled "albino." The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang is labeled "schizophrenia." Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker is labeled "Deaf." Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett is labeled "HIV+" End.]

#bookblr #all the weight of our dreams: on living with racialized autism #the seep #eight kinky nights #wrath & athenaeum trilogy #arcadia project trilogy #the unbroken cl clark #pet akwaeke emezi #our bloody pearl #disability visibility #care work #exile and pride #accidents of nature #the anthropocene reviewed #white smoke #akata witch #the collected schizophrenias #mooncakes #full disclosure

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lasttarrasque · 24 days

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As another ethnically Jewish pagan can I ask about your reliogion because all those people dopiling on you and saying you're not really jewish was super fucked up

Sure, religiously I am a solitary Wiccan practitioner of the eclectic variety. I've been a witch for now 1 and a half years, a non specific pagan since last spring and settled on Wicca around the latest Samhain.

I practice judaism non religiously, I primarily interact with that identity thought cultural Ashkenazi practices and holidays (the main attraction is my family for the big ones like passover). However I do seek to use traditional jewish magik in my witchcraft and have been recently seeking to educate myself on reform judaism further.

#wicca #witchcraft #witchblr #jewdaism #ashkenazi #jewblr

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themousefromfantasyland · 1 year

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TW: anti-Semitism

I'm practically addicted to Twitter at this point, and the amount of anti-Semitic takes I see, both from the right and the left, leaves me pretty annoyed. Anti-Semitism is so dumb and insane. I know that no prejudice ever came from reason, but the prejudices surrounding Jewish people are particularly illogical, self-contradictory, and insane.

First, as an Latino of color, I honestly can't tell white people and Jewish people apart, specially if they aren't religious. Half of the Jews in the world today identity as Ashkenazi, descending from Jews who lived in Central or Eastern Europe.

I hear that Europeans have an intense list of physical stereotypes to shame Jewish People, like hair type, sound of the last name and nose shape, and it's so insane, because even with those references I still can't tell them apart. And what type of reasonable person ever went like: "I can see your heritage by the sound of your last name and the shape of your nose."

Second, it's weird that the money-grabbing stereotype still persists even in a mostly Capitalist society. You would think that in a society all about money and hoarding money, the stereotype would force White people to see Jews in a better light, but nope. "When I am greedy, I'm just an entrepreneur, when I falsely accuse all your people of being greedy, you are all evil."

The most disappointing part is seeing Leftists parroting Right-wing talk at times. I kid you not, I already saw so many posts about how Jewish people are the responsible for colonialism and slavery. Some try even to say that Capitalism is all their fault.

But the worst, and the most tragically funny, is the stereotype about Jewish people controlling the world.

The last big genocide attempt wasn't even a century ago. Even before that, all over Europe, for centuries, Christians did everything in their power to restrict their rights, and yes, try to exterminate them and their culture.

In Media, when we talk about the Inquisition, we always focus on the "witches" and the scientists, but in many parts, the Inquisition went straight after the Jews.

Mel Brooks depicts this perfectly, but of course, satirically.

youtube

Back to my point, heck, even in Jewish sacred texts, there are many stories about Kings and empires trying to wipe them all out. The Pharaoh's justification in the Exodus for killing the Hebrew babies is eerily similar to the thought process of the Nazis in the 20th Century.

Every year, when there's a big Jewish holiday, I always found them posting something like this.

Does this honestly sound like something that comes from the people that secretly control all money and power in the world?

#cw anti semitism #antisemetism tw #jewish people #jewish culture #anti semitism #Youtube

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