#❛ meta . / * ` ⁎ hell followed .

[cassafrasscr]

Orym: This situation is too big for me to deal with. I need an adult.

Bell's Hells/Crownkeepers: In case you haven't noticed, you ARE the adult here.

Orym: *panicking* I NEED AN ADULTIER ADULT.

[epersonae]

Of all the days to finish a fic - well, at least I know it'll never be overwritten by canon? This is my take on a conversation between Ed and Stede, about Izzy, that I have been pondering since season 2 ended - about lies and trauma and hidden truths.

I spit on your grave (3487 words, T)

“You know we didn’t just happen to be there, right?”  “Oh?” Somehow the mechanics hadn't quite occurred to him, how Ed had arrived in the nick of time, an avenging angel wreathed in smoke and flame. He had simply appeared at the perfect moment.  “Babe, we followed your ship for days. What do you think I sent Izzy after you for?”  A pause, in which the OH reverberates louder in his head. He sees himself, a lifetime and less than a year ago, standing at a bar in a white suit. And Izzy, snarling about his boss.

Shout out to @veeagainsttheday for the beta, @emi--rose for bouncing some ideas, and @celluloidbroomcloset for an extremely well-timed little post that helped me figure out how to pull the ending together.

[symbologic]

Soul-Bound in Wano: The Spooky Simpatico of Luffy and Zoro

Just finished Wano, and wow. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the crazy parallels between Luffy and Zoro throughout the arc, but especially the raid. It's like Oda was trolling us with how perfectly they mirror each other in places.

Of course, there's the whole shared "wandering samurai" theme in Acts I and II, and then there's the heartwarming scene with them both freaking out over spilled soup. (Side note: I wouldn't be shocked if Zoro's anime-only sake scene was stuff Oda had to cut from the manga – it totally fits Oda's style with Zoro.)

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've got a ton of other stuff too:

Zoro uses Conqueror's Haki to injure Kaido because they're all desperate? Boom, Luffy digs deep and starts doing it too.

Zoro gets bandaged up like a mummy? Well, guess who can't move because he fell in the ocean?

Both of them get their own team of doctors? How lucky!

Zoro gets revived with an injection? Here comes Luffy, fueled by some meat!

Zoro declares he'll become a GOD if that's what it takes? 🤔 Makes you wonder what that means for Luffy...

Death himself shows up for Zoro? Not good! Now Luffy's literally in cardiac arrest! Speaking of, Zoro's looking rough. Those sunken eyes, man...

Thank god they're both too stubborn to die. And guess what? They get put right next to each other, while people pray for them to wake up

And wouldn't you know it, they wake up at the EXACT SAME TIME

This can't just be a coincidence, right? It feels like they're on some spooky, soul-bound level where Zoro's fate weirdly determines Luffy's. Which actually slots so, so neatly into Wano and its recurring themes of fate! Hell, Oda himself even said in an SBS (the one about Zoro's family tree) that Zoro's story is that of a strange, twisted fate he's completely clueless about.

Honestly, I love that for them.

Zoro might not get a whole arc dedicated to his backstory like Nami, Robin, or Sanji. But the choices he makes carry a surprising amount of weight in the grand scheme of things.

[disposal-blueeee]

doodles

edgar vargas and squee by johnen vasquez

scriabin by zarla-s

[shellem15]

This comparison has been made before but rewatching calamity has got me thinking about the similarities between Asmodeus and Ludinus. Like, it's a lot, ya'll. And that's sooo funny because if you pointed that out to either of them they would both get so mad about it.

Like, there are the obvious similarities of being fascist tyrants obsessed with getting revenge against those who "wronged" them. And by doing so they actively harm the people they think they are "saving". Also, just the general sense of entitlement that the world owes them recompense for what they've lost (asmo's relationship with his siblings/the age of arcanum for ludi).

They both idealize and glorify a past that really wasn't all that good (pre-mortals for Asmo/Aeor for ludi) and blame those who "stole" that past from them. They deny all responsibility for their own wrongdoings and assign it to their designated scapegoats (mortals for asmo, and in ludi's case, assigning the blame of calamity and the destruction of Aeor onto the prime deities instead of the hubristic wizards who created the conditions for that to happen in the first place).

Like I stated earlier, they're both tyrants who prop up fascist regimes/institutions to consolidate their own power. Both are extremely manipulative and cherrypick the truth to fit their own narratives. They're egotistical and prideful, unable to admit they could be wrong. And neither care about casualties or collateral damage in the pursuit of their revenge.

And, one of biggest similarities between them, in my opinion, is their ability to never stop ranting about shit. These bitches can yap. Just absolutely unable to shut up and stop talking. They both love the sound of their own voice. Annoying ass mfs.

[soath]

Of Contracts Between Gods and Men

On the Aeorian Kinsey-Deicide scale I’m a solid 5 (near exclusively god-preserving) which may seem surprising to my many dear associates who want those fundamental truths of existence wrecked. Without digging in any further, let’s do some quick religious history review on the question: Do you owe anything to the gods and do they owe anything to you?

The answer is not as universal as many raised in the nigh inescapable miasma of Christian theology may think! Reciprocal (or even unilateral) responsibility in religion comes and goes across history and geography. The Norse Aesir, for example, created humans but don’t owe them nada and only rarely bothered messing with them. The Greek pantheon are significantly more touchy on the subject of their pride but a person could manage offering no prayers or sacrifices as long as they didn’t promise any prayers or sacrifices. Probably. Compare this to Mayan theology, wherein both gods and humans have significant co-responsibility in maintaining balance; with ritual and sacrifice key to the continued safety of the polity. Divine-mortal relationships can be classified as nondirectional, unidirectional, or bidirectional with various advantages and disadvantages to each model. Gods come in lots of shapes and the demands they make aren’t universal!

A phrase that will often come up in any divinity studies is “covenant”. Originally a translation of the Hebrew berith or Greek diatheke, and also present in Islam, the Bahai’i faith, and possibly historical Phoenician religious practices, covenant theology has metastasized in Christian scholarship to the point it was genuinely hard to research this piece while dodging blogs by guys named Richard. But, broadly, it’s the idea of making an explicit deal with power(s) greater than yourself where you both have sides of the bargain to uphold.

Contract law is not the solution to every problem on earth or in fiction, but when the issue is a large disparity in power and mutual fears of future adverse behavior…. to quote Kate Bush “I’d make a deal with (the) god(s).”

Vitally, compared to other bidirectional pacts in world religion, Exandria has some advantages. For one thing, they have a godeater they’re right now helping to suppress. As long as the gods remain behind the divine gate they need mortal champions to effect their will—but that only holds true as long as the Divine Gate stays up. And unfortunately the problem with a fence someone else has erected is that you don’t know if they’ve kept a key.

If I was mortality’s lawyer? I’d ask for a second layer to that divine hamsterball I’d ask for anything left of the godkilling spark to be kept by the temples of Vasselheim—if they can’t be trusted with it no one can. And I’d promise cooperation from people of a certain degree of civic responsibility, not coerced or threatened out, whole hearted. But terms and conditions may vary.

Anyway, I guess the thesis is that it’s a terrible sin to destroy something you can’t comprehend with no idea of what the outcome will be (and a lot of you don’t seem to get the inconceivable joy of having/knowing/being a god, even just in fiction) but you can bring any monstrosity to the negotiating table. Don’t kill your gods, unionize against them.

[iniziare]

Tag drop: Aventurine.

[jeanmoreaux]

in ur tags you wrote the unstoppable force post was andreil coded…. well do you know sakavic herself reglogged that post too…. bc eyes are wide open rn

OMGDJJFHDHFJDHDJJDJFJD no i did not know that i did not clock that. makes me feel weirdly validated tho. highlight of my day because yes. YES. it just screamed andreil to me and to have nora go ‘same’ does feel like a win to me. thank you so much for telling me you made my week <3

i mean. yeah eyes wide open. (neil the unstoppable force always on the run, changing, adjusting, moving things along for others as well etc, andrew the immovable object not just in his ethics/morals/approach but also as a source of stability to lean on etc… and their colliding is not just what the want but what they NEED as individuals to grow!!! andrew providing stability for neil to grow roots and have a home and have a place to belong, neil bringing with him a revitalising force, a forward momentum that presents andrew with a future that is more than just an empty existence or a waiting for death but a Life. that’s why they work. like. they wanted to collide, they needed to collide, THEY WERE MEANT TO COLLIDE))

[bonebrokebuddy]

Aw man, just reread my document I wrote on my speculation on how the metagene works & how modern DC could rewrite it to being a result of retroviruses & transposons and man, I really wish I finished that post.

Unfortunately, the reason I stopped was explaining it all down to the point where someone with little genetic knowledge could still understand it proved to be too lengthy and long winded of a task.

Maybe one day I’ll pour myself back into research & finish that speculative paper. Bc I had a whole fun idea that relied on that background information that was about the Daily Planet reporting on the discovery of an entire city of metas with similar meta abilities. The town faced such high levels of radiation and contamination, only the population with the meta gene survived:(

[obfontri]

i don’t have enough braincells to connect the dots rn but i just know there’s smth to kraglin continuing to wear ravager colors and not having a real matching guardians outfit until the end of vol 3 because his self doubt and insecurity regarding his worthiness of the yaka arrow kept him from feeling like he was truly a useful member of the team until he’d mastered it

[sushisocks]

that sean macguire meta post is doing better than i expected considering it's mainly me ranting abt my favorite boy. obviously i have more to say abt him and now im wondering if people would be interested in more of those longer rants beyond my small one-liners lol

[hawksights]

tag dump #4

[bbg100]

i guess if i absorb the homestuck epilogues as caliborn's fanfiction I can maybe accept my angst enough to try out homestuck 2/beyond canon.

[lionheartedmusings]

as someone whose country went through a massive military revolution 40 years ago, hey. it works sometimes.

i just think theres something to be said about the way latinos approach politics as people who always suffered by the hands of government vs the way europeans/americans approach politics through rose-colored glasses and the idealistic idea of revolution

[orionsangel86]

There is something about proudly proclaiming a show "tumblrista catnip" that makes me emotional.

Something about how for years tumblrinas were ridiculed by show creators.

Something about Supernatural having a meta episode set at a convention with all the weirdo fans that made the main characters uncomfortable. Something something about Becky and the message that fangirls are gross and obsessive.

Something about Sherlock and the way fans were portrayed as crazy obsessive nutjobs for trying to figure out how he faked his death.

Something about creators mocking fandoms, dismissing them as freaks. Something about queer people not being welcome to engage in their creations because "why do you have to make everything gay?"

Something about the malicious culture of queerbaiting throughout the 2000s/2010s, followed by Bury Your Gays tropes across the media landscape because hell, you should be grateful we even gave you queer characters to begin with - and everyone dies in our show! You ain't special!

Something about Destiel questions being banned from conventions...

And then...

Something instead about Good Omens, and letting the story adapt naturally, embracing the fanbase and leaning into the fanservice.

Something about Our Flag Means Death, and the genuine outpouring of love and affection between cast, crew, and fandom that culminated in an explosion of fanworks that were never once mocked or deemed gross or wrong.

Something about Sandman, and staunchly digging in their heels on the queerness of it all, refusing to give in to the homophobes and instead avidly mocking THEM on social media rather than us.

Something about the writers hearing about fandoms favourite ships and excitedly stating that YES! We DID lean into that because it happened naturally and made sense.

Something about a firefighter coming out as bisexual after 7 seasons...

So yeah, something about a new high quality show made FOR US. By creators that love US. Respect US, and WANT our love.

Something about US FINALLY being a target audience for the best shows being made on TV now.

Tumblrista catnip. Creators saying "we made this for you. You are important. Your voices have been heard."

It just... all got a bit overwhelming for a moment there.

[negativepeanuthoarder]

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