Heh, so, I come from a fandom where character names have major significance, which means I promptly checked for that with Warrior Nun. I already knew a lot of catholic lore due to reasons, which meant I could guess certain character arcs, but boy howdy am I glad I checked some hunches.

Ava Silva, given the show's setting, would be Eve (rather than one of the convergent latin or germanic origins, with different meanings). Eve is the english translation of 'chavah', which is more description than name proper. Which in turn (very) roughly translates from hebrew as "giver/protector of life". This role of the mother remains unchanged by expulsion from Eden.

Notice how the halo always gives out quickly if used for violence, aggression or the taking of life, but ramps up like a champ if protecting and/or healing, even if it appeared to have gone empty moments earlier? While it is controlled through mental state, especially the one triggered by meditative thought, it clearly prioritizes the preservation of life. Eg; when Suzanne fell into despair and probably felt like dying over the prior Mother Superion's death, the halo made a quick exit.

Shotgun Mary: Mary Magdalene, the apostle of apostles, was the closest to Jesus (the halo-bearer) and witnessed his death. Eventually gets conflated with Mary of Bethany, and subsequently slandered every which way. Since the show's character seems to have a criminal background, she's likely meant to be both of them.

Lilith: From jewish mythology and folklore. The first woman, created to be equal to man, and rejecting subservience. Lots of story variations for her. Might've hooked up with the archangel Samael, after which she could not return to the garden of eden because that angel was kind of a demon, and subsequently becomes the mother of all demons. So show Lilith was first in line of halo succession, was robbed of that role by Ava, went to another realm, hooked up with a fallen archangel, but ultimately refused subservience to him.

Sister Beatrice: Saint Beatriz da Silva (*coughs pointedly*), a beautiful and accomplished illegitimate child of a nobleman, raised in a royal court, but wound up imprisoned in a tiny cell. (A proverbial closet, one might say). Went on to found a new order after she was freed. I don't think I even need to add to this one.

Sister Camila: Saint Camilla Battista, a vivacious young noblewoman fond of musical arts, who experienced numerous visions, and struggled with temptation. Show Camila is indeed slightly whimsical, musical, and enduring unwanted visions of an ex-archangels (and therefore arch-demon) and his pitiful idea of temptation.

Miguel: the Archangel Michael who appears at the moment of death, offering salvation. Yup, goes to the show's version of Eden, comes back super-powered, but his function is to mete out death. Pretty straight-forward.

I'm rewatching Steven Universe and I will never forgive Fandom for what it did to her

i can't believe one piece invented gay people

“Icarus.”

it's all about freedom really

Credit goes to An Sifakah for the poem. Enjoy!

Support me on Ko-fi maybe?

i like the weird ass breaking bad and better call saul memes going around but i will admit that i took psych damage when i read a comment from someone surprised that people unironically liked these shows because they thought it was a morbius type of situation where people pretend to like it as a joke. like. maybe we've gone too far

Haven't been able to think about anything other than the victorian/edwardian/WW1 twink and his 80's punk almost-boyfriend for a week, send help

gonna take a break and make another sketch page later :3

percy looking off to the side at annabeth right before he's about to sing the consensus song 'cause he's a twelve-year-old trying to see how the girl he likes is going to react to some dumb shit he's about to do yeah I see you man

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

if you find yourself asking "how shall i spend the next one minute and 52 seconds?", i implore you to turn to the Wansa-kun opening for the most joyful way to fill the time. isn't this wonderful

00:05

more masquerade stuff! things really went from 0 to 1000 in, like, thirty seconds.

(sorry if none of these make sense outside of my head)

my neurotypical sister has never read percy jackson or any of its companion series, she’s just seen the attempted adaptations and so we are watching the new show together and i was explaining kronos and how the olympians came to be and the story of medusa and the minotaur etc. and i was like “how have you never heard of any of this” and she was like “how the hell do you know all of this” and i had completely forgotten that not everyone had a greek mythology hyperfixation for over a decade and it was extremely strange to think that so many people don’t know things like this or don’t have it plaguing their thoughts constantly

ds9 crew is done! :D very happy with it

still planning on doing more crew pics like this, next will be discovery whenever i have the time for that

there was something really jim henson-esque and campy about how some of the non-human races were portrayed in the new dnd movie that i really enjoyed. they could’ve easily gone the shitty cgi route or just not shown those races up close at all, but no, they said you want a bird man? we’re gonna get you a bird man

Not gonna lie, I'm super excited about the upcoming One Piece live action series! It's out Aug 31 on Netflix. I actually think it's gonna be good! 🤞🤞🤞