Simon and the legend of Achilles's Heel

I was thinking about Achilles's Heel randomly today and also thinking about the Football Field scene on repeat and the two thoughts kind of merged lmao, but it made me realize: Wilhelm is Simon's Achilles Heel.

Everyone is familiar with the legend of Achilles's Heel, right? Achilles's mother, Thetis dipped her son in the river of the Underworld, Styx to give him an invincible, immortal body- a flesh even the mightiest of blades cannot penetrate. But, a major flaw creeped up in her plan- Achilles was invincible, except by the heel of his leg from where his mother held him while dipping him into the waters of Styx. A vulnerable spot in his armor.

Well, how does this relate to Simon? Well, Simon is always described as being "guarded-up"- especially in terms of expressing his unadulterated emotions. Styx is a river of tortured souls, a river of suffering. Simon's life has been nothing short of a "dip through the river of suffering" every now and then- with his family issues, to being constantly ostracised by his Hillerska peers, to the video tape scandal- it's like Simon has developed a thick skin, an armor made of suffering which makes him "strong" for facing challenges.

But, Achilles's armor, though giving him incomparable protection, also robbed him of his humanity, by making him less vulnerable to death- when mythologies are littered with stories of immortals eho envy humans for their mortality and being doomed by the curse of living. His heel was the only part of his mortality, his humanity left with him.

But Simon, although he learned how to stop himself from becoming a mess in excruciating situations, also lost a crucial element of what makes us human- vulnerability. But Wilhelm was the one with whom he could just be vulnerable- Wilhelm made him feel like a boy, a person capable of putting himself out there for someone, to love and be loved.

Often times, Achilles's Heel is a metaphor for weakness, since the hero himself fell into the arms of death because of that very heel. But for me, death is the greatest act of courage. Being on the verge of death is perhaps the scariest feeling ever- and facing its inevitability is what makes immortals envious of mortals.

Wilhelm was also seen as a weakness for Simon by the people around him- someone who is wearing down Simon, someone who will only bring suffering to him. But Wilhelm was the only one who kept Simon's emotional self intact, and treated him with the grace and delicacy that Simon's guarded self desperately needed. Wilhelm also caused him great distress, yes, there's no denying that, but it was a journey Simon needed to navigate to realize that sometimes hardening up in response to hurt and humiliation is not the best coping mechanism, after all.

With that being said, here's to MORE vulnerable moments between them in S3 because there's still a lot they need to talk about.💜

pro-AI in the sense of "they taught a bread scanning computer to recognize cancer cells" etc etc

against AI in the sense of "we stole artwork from hundreds to thousands of artists, didn't credit them and didn't financially compensate them"

I can't stop thinking about this post

"This fic was ai generated—" Cool, so lemme block you real quick

guys I just found the greatest video on the internet

the older i get and the closer i am to reaching 30, the more the people around me try to deny me my age. it’s a constant ‘oh you’re just turning 29 again teehee 🤭’ or ‘dont tell your SO that, he’ll leave you for a younger model 😉’ and i just???? hate it?????????

i spent my entire teenaged years fighting for my life. i crawled through the deepest pits of my depression to cling to the promise of a life beyond that pain. i was so convinced that i was going to die young, that i would never see the grace of my age starting with a 2, let alone 3.

so im going to turn 30, and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do to stop me from loving it.

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right

Spotify wrapped is normally released on a November 30 or December 1 but this year it was released on November 29, the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People- a day which it was asked for people to increase their social media posts about Palestine to help call for a permanent ceasefire. Instead it is now being overshadowed by people posting about Spotify wrapped…

excitedly waiting for this

me when i have like 20 notifications in the span of five minutes and when i go check its just the same guy rapidfire liking and reblogging posts

if you’re gonna introduce me to something new you have to defeat my 7 evil ex hyperfixations

im so done with seeing articles about kids and screen time that doesnt mention parent behaviors even once. “kids are always on their phones” so are the parents! which the kids look to for how they should behave! ipad babies didn’t chose to only play on their ipads, thats what their parents gave them!

an anecdotal example: when i was a kid, all my parents would do in their minimal free time was watch tv and then they would be surprised when in my sister and i’s minimal free time we would also only watch tv/play video games. they scolded us for not reading books, but they never read books. they scolded us for not going outside but they never went outside.

“kids are always on their damn phones” my mom is in her 60s and opens up candy crush anytime she’s sitting — it isnt just the kids

people are saying do it scared, but you also gotta do it alone. you'll miss out on so much you want to do if you wait til someone will do it with you. do it scared and do it alone.

The math just adds up!

[ Devour ]