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joycrispy · 8 months

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One thing I love about Crowley --never stated, but consistently shown-- is that he is, at heart, an engineer.

I have a few different things to say about that. Let's unpack them.

As the Unnamed Angel, we see his designs for the Pillars of Creation are millions of pages long, comprised of cramped text, footnotes, diagrams, schematics, etc. It's very...Renaissance polymath, in the way it implies a particular intersection of artist and inventor.

Also: in the naked romanticism with which he views his stars.

We already knew he made stars, but in s2 we learn that he did NOT sculpt each of them by hand. He designed a nebula ("a star factory," he says) that will form several thousand young stars and proto-planets, and all --aside from getting the 'factory' running-- without him lifting a finger. We also learn that these young stars and proto-planets stand in contrast to those made by other angels, which are going to come 'pre-aged.'

...I'm reminded of Hastur and Ligur's approach to temptations. Damning one human soul at a time, devoting singular attention to it over the course of years or decades, and how that stands in contrast to Crowley's reliance on, quote, 'knock-on effects.'

Ligur: It's not exactly...craftsmanship. Crowley: Head office don't seem to mind. They love me down there.

Hm.

I'm also reminded of the M25.

The M25 may not be as grand as a nebula (sentences you only say in GOmens fandom...), but LIKE his nebula it's an intricate, self-sustaining engine that does Crowley's work for him, many times over. Again.

That's some pretty neat characterization --and so is the indication towards Crowley's disinterest in victimizing anyone tempting individual people. It takes a considerable amount of planning and effort (and creeping about in wellies), but in accordance with his design the M25 generates a constant stream of low-grade evil on a gigantic scale.

Cumulatively gigantic, that is. Individually? Negligible.

But no other demon understands human nature well enough to parse that one million ticked-off motorists are not, in any meaningful way, actually equivalent to one dictator, or one mass-murderer, or even one little influential regressive. That's the trick of it. Crowley gets Hell's approval (which he NEEDS to survive, and to maintain the degree of freedom he's eked out for himself), and at the same time ensures that any actual ~Evil Influence~ is spread nice and thin.

It's some clever machinery. And he knows it, too:

The Unnamed Angel and Crowley are both proud of their ideas.

(musings on professional pride, Leonardo da Vinci, the crank handle, and 'the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale' under the cut)

In the 1970's Crowley gives a presentation on the M25, projector and all, to a room full of increasingly impatient demons. Maybe the presentation was work-ordered; the 'can I hear a WAHOO?' definitely wasn't.

Before the Beginning, the Unnamed Angel can barely contain his excitement about his nebula. Aziraphale manages a baffled-but-polite, "....That's nice... :)"

11 years ago, Hastur and Ligur want to 'tell the deeds of the day,' and Crowley smiles to himself because (according to the script-book) he knows he has 'the best one.'

(Naturally, his 'deed' has nothing to do with tempting anybody, and everything to do with setting up a human-powered Rube-Goldberg machine of petty annoyance. Oodles of 'Evil' generated; very little harm done.)

Hastur and Ligur don't get it, of course. That's also consistent.

Nobody ever knows what the hell he's talking about.

It didn't make it on-screen, but, in both the novel AND the script-book, Crowley was friends with Leonardo da Vinci. The quintessential Renaissance polymath. That's where he got his drawing of the Mona Lisa --they're getting very drunk together, and Crowley picks up the 'most beautiful' of the preliminary sketches. He wants to buy it. Leonardo agrees almost off-the-cuff, very casual, because they're friends, and because he has bigger fish to fry than haggling over a doodle:

He goes, "Now, explain this helicopter thingie again, will you?" Because he's an engineer, too.

(It is 1519 at the latest, in this scene. Why the FUCK would Crowley know about helicopters, and be able to explain them, comprehensively, to Leonardo da Vinci?

...Well. I choose to believe he got bored one day and worked it out. Look, if you know how to build a nebula, you can probably handle aerodynamics. And anyway, I think it's telling that this is his idea of shooting the shit. 'A drunken mind speaks a sober heart,' and all. He probably babbled about Aziraphale long enough to make poor Leo sick)

Apart from Aziraphale, Leonardo da Vinci is the only person Crowley has any keepsakes or mementos of.

Think about that, though. Aziraphale's bookshop is bursting with letters, paintings, busts, and personalized signatures memorializing all the humans he's known and befriended over 6000 years (indeed: Aziraphale has living human friends up and down Whickber Street. He's part of a community).

Crowley doesn't have any of that. It's just the stone albatross from the Church (for pining), the infamous gay sex statue (for spicy pining), the houseplants (for roleplaying his deepest trauma over and over, as one does), and this one piece of artwork, inscribed, "To my friend Anthony from your friend Leo da V."

To me, at least, that suggests a level of attachment that seems to be rare for Crowley.

...Maybe he liked having someone to talk shop with? Someone who was interested? Someone engaged enough to ask questions when they didn't immediately understand?

...Anyway.

There's also the matter of the crank handle.

This thing:

This is one of the subtler changes from the book. In the book, Crowley knows Satan is coming and, desperate, arms himself with a tire iron. It's the best he can do. He's not Aziraphale; he wasn't made to wield a flaming sword.

The show, IMO, improves on this considerably. Now he, like Aziraphale, gets to face annihilation with what he was made for in his hand. And it's not a weapon, not even an improvised one like the tire iron.

He made stars with it.

[both gifs by @fuckyeahgoodomens]

If you Google 'crank handle,' you'll get variations on this:

Crank handles have been around for centuries. Consisting of a mechanical arm that's connected to a perpendicular rotating shaft, they are designed to convert circular motion into rotary or reciprocating motion.

Which is to say they're one of the 'simple machines,' like a lever or a pulley; the bread and butter of engineering. You'll also get a list of uses for a crank handle, archaic and modern. Among them: cranking up the engine of an old-fashioned car... say, a 1933 Bentley. That's what Crowley has been using his for, lately. But he's had it since he was an angel and he's still, it seems, very capable of it's angelic applications.

Stopping time. For instance.

(This is conjecture on my part, but, I like to imagine that Crowley has the ability to stop time for the same reason I can --and should-- unplug my computer before I perform maintenance on it. Time and Space are a matched set, after all, and in his designs in particular, one feeds into the other.)

I know everyone has already said this, but: I REALLY LIKE that when he needs to channel the heights of his power, he does so not with a weapon but with a tool. Practically with a little handheld metaphor for ingenuity. One from long-lost days when he made beautiful things.

(And he loved it. Still loves it --he incorporated that metaphor into the Bentley, didn't he?)

Let Aziraphale rock up to the apocalypse with a weapon: he has his own compelling thematic reasons to do exactly that. Crowley's story is different, and fighting isn't the only way to express defiance. And if you've been condemned as a demon and assumed to be destructive by your very nature, what better way than this?

He made stars. They didn't manage to take that from him.

Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are fighters, really --they have no intention of fighting in any war. They'll annoy everyone until there's no war to fight in, for a start. But between the two, if one must be, then that one is Aziraphale. Principality of the Earth, Guardian of the Eastern Gate, Wielder of the Flaming Sword... all that stuff. Even if he'd prefer not to, it's very clear that Aziraphale can rise to the occasion, if he must.

Crowley was never that kind of angel. He wasn't a Principality. He doesn't have a sword.

...And yet.

It's Crowley who protects. He's the one who paces, who stands guard, who circles Aziraphale and glares out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near.

In light of everything else I've said here, I think that's interesting.

Obviously part of it is that Aziraphale enjoys it and, you know, good for him. He's living his best life, no doubt no doubt no doubt. But what about Crowley? What's driving that behavior, really?

Have you heard the phrase, 'loved to the point of invention'? Well, what if 'the point of invention' was where you started? What if where you end up involves glaring out at the world, just daring anyone else to come near? What is that, in relation to the bright-eyed thing you used to be?

What do we name the point to which Crowley loves Aziraphale?

...Thinking about how an excitable angel with three million pages of star design he wants to tell you all about...becomes a guard dog. Is all.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #aziracrow #Crowley #Aziraphale #good omens 2 #good omens meta #unfortunately I do not have trains of thought #only long meandering strolls of thought #sorry about it #anyway tl;dr Crowley is a nerd #also I have a strange emotional attachment to the idea of 1500's Crowley...#...facedown in a pile of Mona Lisa sketches; drunkenly info-dumping about Aziraphale #and Da Vinci is just like. 'Ahhhh mio amico Antonio. You fucking simp.'

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s8qrnmhtkyx5 · 1 year

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td72qmi9cf · 1 year

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cryptotheism · 1 year

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So I'm working on a minor art project that, in part, involves alchemical symbols. I doubt anyone would notice if I used random jibberish, but I'd like to get it right, at least in spirit. About 20 browser tabs later I figured I'd ask you 😅

In the wikipedia article on alchemical symbols, it mentions that alchemical processes, specifically the stages of the magnum opus, were assigned to astrological symbols.

Were astrological symbols actually used in this way? Or else, were astrological symbols ever used?

Specifically the article mentions the french author Antoine Pernety from the 1700's.

Thanks!

Try This

Oh yeah, processes were often represented with astrological symbols. But remember that they weren't necessarily standard. Especially in the late medieval-early renaissance era, Alchemists were entrepreneurs. They were often itinerant proto-chemists and metallurgists who had to make a living on inventing new chemical processes.

Part of the reason that alchemists would write in code was specifically to encode their work against other alchemists who might be trying to steal their work. The symbology was sort of a proto-copyright process.

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loopspoop · 3 months

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The perks of being a visual arts major while in this fandom is I can make stupid headcanons based on what I’m currently learning about art for the Lupin III fandom :3c

For example, I just learned about 1200s and 1300s proto-renaissance art. The amount of paintings that had scenes that were so funny due to the lack of expression? You can’t tell me Lupin and Jigen aren’t laughing their asses off over it!

“Oh, dude, look at this saint looking at Mary through this throne-“ “holy shit he looks so PISSED!”

“Why is this baby so long-?” “He looks like a sick Victorian child” “HAH-“

“Oh nooo, please, don’t take my ear” “don’t cut my ear off, please” cue hysterical laughing

These are legitimately all conversations I’ve had in this class that I KNOW these two idiots would be having. Goemon just sits in the corner looking the art over and he has to agree that the positioning for the period really does make the figures look wild af but he’s more focused on how these guys got blue and gold for these paintings since it was SO EXPENSIVE back then

Pictures will be provided in the comments for better context :3

#goemon ishikawa xiii #lupin iii #lupin the 3rd #goemon #lupin the third #fujiko mine #jigen daisuke #zenigata #jigen #jigen lupin the third #I’m rambling about my art classes #it’s so funny though #please don’t take my ear #silly hours

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likealittleheartbeat · 2 months

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"Scholars often dismiss physique references to ancient Greece as a mere ruse or rhetorical framework--a "classical alibi" or "discourse of validation"--to avoid censorship. But an examination of the lives of the founders, contributors, and members of the [physique studio and pictorial] Grecian Guild [1955-1968] tells a different story. The Grecian Guild was instrumental in helping a community of men struggling to find a discourse to explain and valorize their sense of themselves, particularly men outside of urban gay enclaves. Benson and Bullock [the founders of the Grecian Guild] took a discourse about ancient Greece that gay men had been using for nearly a hundred years and gave it mass distribution. They used it like gay men used reference to "the Greeks" or Mary Renault novels--as a way to signal their homosexuality. It was a rallying cry that brought in customers and helped them imagine a better world. As historian and biographer Benjamin Wise argues about the way Alexander Percy used the language of Hellenism, it was "a way of speaking out and covering up at the same time."

Invoking classical traditions in order to make an argument for gay rights has been largely forgotten in the twenty-first century, as such a line of argumentation has become politically and historiographically problematic. Indeed, much of modern LGBT historical scholarship and queer theory has asserted that a homosexual identity is a creation of a modern, capitalist world--that homosexual behavior in ancient cultures was understood in very different terms from the way it is today. Invoking classical antiquity also smacks of a Western bias that privileges European ancestry over other cultural and historical influences. Such arguments also raise the specter of pederasty and pedophilia--or at least age-discordant relationships--that play into the hands of gay rights opponents who relentlessly use the argument that gays recruit children to fight gay rights measures...

Despite these changes in cultural understandings and sensibilities, the use of the classical Greek trope to name gay organizations, periodicals, and commercial ventures continued for decades, even when the need for an alibi had eroded if not disappeared. The lambda or lowercase Greek "L" became one of the primary symbols of the 1970s gay liberation movement. During this same period Seattle's largest gay organization was the Dorian Group, and a Jacksonville, Florida-based gay magazine called itself David--a reference to Michelangelo's Renaissance statue--an indirect link to the classical tradition. Like the Grecian Guild, David offered membership in a fraternal organization with features such as a book club, a travel service, conventions, and even legal aid. As an online website, it continues to serve as one of Atlanta's premier LGBT news and entertainment sources.

...

While severely limited by the forces of censorship, the desire to create opportunities for customers to correspond, meet, and get acquainted attests to the palpable wish of gay men to connect with each other during this period. If few members attended a Grecian Guild convention, the possibility of doing so resonated widely. As a teenage Grecian Guild subscriber in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Michael Denneny read the articles so carefully that he underlined the important parts. "That was proto-political organization, the agenda was very clear to me, and I think to everybody else who joined," Denneny remembered..."These magazines were really important to me," Denneny recalled. "They brought this whole possible world into being, which I'm not sure I could have visualized otherwise."

David K. Johnson, Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement

#queer history #thinking about aang and zuko's connection to the deep past #aang's strange displacement from his people and history #that means he has this distinct lived connection to a by-gone civilization and idyll #and then zuko's obsession with the air nomads #going to all their temples #and in the natla collecting all the nomad and avatar relics #then later their exploration of the sun warrior past #another ancient civilization whose philosophies they seek to adapt #and how both of these relate to aang and zuko's exploration of their gender and alternatives to contemporary masculinity #these fascinations with lost civilizations bring aang and zuko together too #and even force them to address assumptions about age-differences...#just a lot to unpack #just about how exploring other cultures and history thoroughly dislodges one's construction of reality #and opens up possibility

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justforbooks · 5 months

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The Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of 30 pilgrims who meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, and travel together to visit the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral. The tavern host, who accompanies them, suggests that they amuse one another along the way by telling stories.

During his life, Geoffrey Chaucer (born c.1340) was courtier, diplomat, revenue collector, administrator, negotiator, overseer of building projects, landowner and knight of the shire. He was servant, retainer, husband, friend and father, but is now mainly known as a poet and 'the father of English literature', a postion to which he was raised by other writers in the generation after his death.

It was Boccaccio's Decameron which inspired Chaucer, in the 1390s, to begin work on The Canterbury Tales, which was still unfinished at his death in October 1400. It tells the story of a group of 30 pilgrims who meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames opposite the city of London, and travel together to visit the then famous shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury cathedral.

The tavern host, who accompanies them, suggests that they amuse one another along the way by telling stories, with the best storyteller awarded a meal in the tavern (paid for by all the others) on their return. The stories told by the pilgrims range from bawdy comedies through saints' lives and moral tracts to courtly romances, always delivered with a generous helping of Chaucer's own sly wit and ironic humour.

Although basing his characters on the stereotypes of 'estates satire', Chaucer succeeds in his aim of producing an overview of his times and their culture, for posterity, in the manner of Italian, proto-Renaissance, writers.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #The Canterbury Tales #geoffrey chaucer #book review

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teecupangel · 1 year

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...Have you considered: instead of being assholes, Templars putting in some serious time to recruit Desmond, instead? Doesn't matter which ones - Order of Ancients, Templar Order of Crusade/Renaissance/Civil War era, or Abstergo. And, surprisingly, being quite smooth doing that. It's the nice (kidnapper) organization vs Desmond's morals and he tastes temptation

There was this passing idea I had of Vidic finding a sixteen year old Desmond who just ran away from the Farm. The idea was Desmond would be indebted to Vidic and become loyal to him because Vidic pretends to treat Desmond like a son that he volunteered to be an Animus subject. I didn’t really get that far into the idea other than the main point was that Desmond’s bleed will be more aggressive and volatile like Cross’.

Putting that aside, let’s see how it would be possible to make this work. In this setup, Desmond would be time-traveling after the Grand Temple so I think that the best temptation the Templars can give Desmond is ‘power’.

To be more specific: the power to change the world so that humanity would be ready for December 21, 2012. A kind of ‘the end justifies the means’ type of deal.

Now, let’s talk about the different (Proto-)Templar situations:

The Order of The Ancients

During the Peloponnesian War: the Order of the Ancients would have Deimos on their side. Now, it can go either way, Deimos’ violent tendencies could easily be a turn-off for Desmond but Desmond would most definitely see the pain and loneliness that Deimos tries to hide. However, the Order of the Ancients’ ‘interest’ in the Isus is a definite red flag for Desmond. The most I see him doing is accidentally taking over the Order with Deimos’ help (whether he wanted Deimos to do all that morally questionable things or not)

During the end of the Ptolemaic period: it would be much harder for Desmond to be seduced during this time. For one, he knows that Cleopatra will be killed by a proto-Assassin (thanks to Amunet’s statue in Villa Auditore). Another is there isn’t really any Order member I can see him thinking “Oh, maybe he has a point”.

During the 9th Century: now, this one, we can work with. In this setup, the Hidden Ones technically allied themselves with the Vikings, to be more exact with the Raven clan. If Desmond was to see how the Vikings looted and raided innocent villages, burning down homes and churches, it’s a solid case for him to team up with someone sorta sus but still sounding like a good person, King Ælfred. Not to mention, Ælfred wants the Order to die so he could push for his idea of a Templar Order. Desmond would probably be unfamiliar with Ælfred’s history so, as far as he knows, he would be allying himself with someone with a similar agenda of ‘Stop the Vikings, Kill the Ancient Order’. It’s only when King Ælfred gives him the title of Grand Master of the newly created Templar Order that Desmond would think “Am I… the baddie?”

The Templar Order (Desmond Saga)

The 3rd Crusades: Okay, so this one would be moving towards more of my Yew Branch idea of Desmond being reborn as Richard the Lionheart’s brother but I think that the main reason why Desmond would even consider joining the Templar in this scenario is if he sees the other side of the Templar Order. The ones not in Robert’s inner circle. Maybe even get close to Maria Thorpe. In this scenario, I think that the one who has the highest to ‘convert’ Desmond isn’t a Templar per se but someone like King Richard or one of the other high-ranking members of the Crusaders who are doing this for, well, not the right reason but a reason they believe in. Desmond would infiltrate and take over the Templar Order and suggest a truce between the Assassins (hopefully, by this time, are now under Altaïr’s) and the Saracens then grow his power to make preparations for the Solar Flare with Altaïr’s help.

Renaissance: This is absolutely the hardest to think of. Like… Desmond wouldn’t even entertain the idea because of the Borgias in general. Anyone who could ‘seduce’ Desmond to the Templar Order has a hand in the Auditore’s deaths and that’s… that’s the reason why this wouldn’t work. Unless… Desmond time-traveled maybe a decade or so before the execution? Kind of “I’m keeping an eye on all these assholes so they won’t hurt the Auditores” which would snowball to him being the more ‘reasonable’ figure in the Order in comparison to the Borgias. (Desmond vs Rodrigo power struggle? Templar Order civil war while the Assassins just watch with wine and cheese? XD)

American Revolution: Okay, this one is probably the easiest to think of. Desmond tells Haytham about Connor early on and has this weird ‘I can fix him’ mentality concerning Haytham. Haytham, on the other hand, thinks he can ‘indoctrinate’ Desmond. Desmond thinks he’s winning because Haytham is making changes in his plans to build a beneficial alliance with the natives, not realizing that Haytham is just keeping Ziio and Connor safe and trying to get ‘I’m a good dad’ points. Haytham thinks he’s making progress with Desmond because Desmond is okay with a lot of dubious things he’s doing, not realizing that Desmond counts it as progress because Haytham was more vicious in the original timeline.

The Templar Order (Nameless MCs Trilogy)

Golden Age of Piracy: Honestly, the Templar Order in Black Flag has the weakest pull to Desmond. Anyway, I can see Desmond working with the Templars because the Assassins have joined with pirates and he mistakes it as the Assassins reaching Abbas-level low. (I kinda like the idea of Edward not being an Assassin in this setup but more of Desmond’s second-in-command and driver thanks to the Jackdaw. Edward believes Desmond would lead him to gold and glory while Desmond is just soft on him because he knows he’s Connor’s grandfather)

French Revolution: Okay, I think this is the easiest. The Templars during this time period are mainly moderates and de la Serre wanted to have a truce with the Assassins. Desmond would probably have a soft spot for that as he still feels Connor’s desire to reconcile with Haytham and he knows that not all Templars were bad people… just look at Maria (although she did leave the Templars because they were assholes). The moment Germain and his cronies makes their move, Desmond would be accidentally leading the moderates of the Templar Order.

Industrial Revolution: ngl, this is like the opposite of Borgia for Desmond. Starrick has total control of London, sure, but this is the same dude who raised his workers’ salary after Jacob… well… assassinated someone who was pretty much keeping the economy stable. Starrick and his cronies were keeping London stable (or another way to see it is that they have taken over the important sectors of London that assassinating them without any follow-up plan was bound to backfire really hard on everyone). The easiest way to seduce Desmond to the Templar side is for Starrick to focus on the consequences of Jacob and Evie’s (and, by association, the Rooks’) action.

TL;DR: If Desmond does become a Templar, dude’s gonna end up accidentally becoming the Grand Master most of the time and broker peace with the Assassins or whip them back to shape.

#templar desmond miles #assassin's creed #desmond miles #king alfred #rodrigo borgia #king richard #crawford starrick #haytham kenway #warren vidic #ask and answer #fic idea: assassin's creed

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