#( TO PROSELYTIZE. )

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

Introducing someone to your religion when they are at the darkest and lowest point in their life is inherently coercive and I’m never going to change my mind on that. It is a cult tactic to find people who are struggling and try to convert them, and the Christian church doing it instead of Scientology or something does not make that practice any less fucked up. Christianity can be a normal and healthy part of someone’s life, but if you have to introduce it to them in a coercive and predatory way, it’s probably not going to be that.

[rainbowpopeworld]

Almost 7 months and the brainlichen are still in control 😈😇

[almond-gallery]

an enjolras because i miss him

[utilitycaster]

There's also something really interesting about the premise of Downfall following divinely-aligned characters at the time of the fall of Aeor, and their role in bringing it about. It's a fascinating choice on a meta level to make your protagonists people who helped destroy Aeor when Ludinus's premise here is that what they did was so heinous, a millennium later it is worth tearing the world and the fabric of magic apart just to kill the gods. We're distinctly not following the POV of Aeor's equivalent of, say, Laerryn, let alone the common people of the city. It's no guarantee, but that says a lot about the direction of the story.

[roomtemperaturesuperconductor]

Drives me crazy how any time someone criticizes the church or talks about how it abused them, “progressive” christians start telling you the REAL Jesus was a kind and loving woke socialist who would have loved gay people and hated billionaires like shut up shut up SHUT UP!!!!! I didn’t ask!! I don’t care!! Stop fucking evangelizing!!!

All power to you if you can decouple christian teachings from their legacy of abuse and use them to better yourself. But the fact you feel the need to proselytize to *me* - a secular ex-catholic faggot - and insist, without me asking, that “Jesus loves you,” makes me think that no, actually, nothing about how you’re navigating this is different at all from the conservatives. You aren’t mad at mainstream christians for trying to create a theocracy, you’re mad that their sales pitch alienates potential converts.

[meggydolaon]

Assorted Stray Gods sillies

[samglyph]

Man why is the Magnus Archives so good. Every one should listen to the Magnus Archives.

[pkmn-go-to-the-polls]

Just wanted to say, thanks for posting that last poll tournament! Hanamusa was basically my gateway back into the wider Pokémon fandom (I’ve still played most of the core games bar Sword/Shield, but I dropped off the anime around the middle of X/Y), so I’ve got a lot of attachment there, but I learned a lot from seeing all the different pairings and it was really fun seeing people championing them (and I’ll always be an Appealshipping cheerleader!).

I know setting up these polls is what you set up this account for, but I also know it takes a lot of work and setup, so thanks!

THANK YOUUU ;_; THIS MEANS A LOT!! im so happy that people have been enjoying the tournament!!

[handweavers]

there are few things that viscerally upset me more than when i tell someone i'm sikh and they immediately try to convert me to christianity, it is one of the most disrespectful racist awful shitty things anyone could do to me and i don't have the words to articulate exactly why it always upsets me so much because it's not even due to piety or anything, i'm sahajdhari i'm far from being a dedicated pious sikh, my mom is christian and i was partly raised by christians it's not even about the religion itself but its like. it feels like imperial violence idk how to say it, like i'm telling you i'm from an indigenous ethnoreligion and you are like 'can i colonize you' dead seriously it's so violating in such a personal visceral way like you are telling me to my face that you think my grandparents and ancestors don't matter at all and you don't respect them or me whatsoever, it's unforgivable to me

[epicfroggz]

While i agree with you that it's very likely the abyssal serpent isn't an outer god and more of an eldrich parasite, you don't see other outer gods being obsessed with consuming and destroying the demigods they cursed. Most of them feel they're just forces of nature like the rot & the frenzied flame etc.. while the Abyssal serpent show some "wickedbess" and hatred towards Messmer it will do anything to destroy him .so you think that they're similar to Radagon/Marika? I think the white blind serpent is messmer while the red one he summoned which has red eyes and multiple eyes on its body is the serpent of the abyss, so they're kinda still different entities? While i think the abyssal serpent being Messmer is confusing but i appreciate your analysis, because it's far more interesting than the serpent being a new outer god.

Hi, thanks for the ask! I will attempt to clear it up!

I do not believe the Abyssal Serpent is attempting to consume or destroy Messmer, at least not intentionally. As is the theme of the DLC, perspective must be considered—the serpent is malevolent, but to who?

(long post under cut!)

The Abyssal Serpent is not stated to be harming Messmer, as far as I can tell. The only potential harm it could be doing is eating away at his kindling, but it is his flame that is the curse: “Messmer despised his own fire. Time and time again he hoped to rid himself of it, but ever did it burn” (Messmer’s Orb). So, it can be said the serpent is eating at the kindling instinctually and/or in an attempt to help snuff it out. Messmer explicitly has tried to get rid of his flame, but has not tried to get rid of the serpent—instead, he accepts it:

“The winged snakes were Messmer's constant companions. They were there when the base serpent was sealed away behind his eye. They were there through his eternity of suffering. They will accompany him yet, in his hideous new form born when he destroyed the grace granted by his mother. They have accepted his fate as much as he.” (Messmer’s Helm)

We’ll get back to the winged serpents in a moment, but note the timeline here: it first states the base serpent was sealed, THEN Messmer went through an eternity of suffering, THEN he removed the seal and was reborn anew. It might be hideous, but it’s his, not something his mother or anyone else has done to him. Thus, the serpent’s malevolence must have been directed at outside forces. Marika does not often directly interfere with something or someone unless it could bring personal harm to her or the Erdtree—such as when she personally slew the Fell God. Yet, she plucked out her own son’s eye and put in place the seal to contain the Abyssal Serpent, despite the consequences this may have for Messmer. The serpent was that much of a threat to her, hence why I believe it is the “traitor to the Erdtree” that was foretold. It was not even the flame part that concerned her, but the serpent’s great powers of Shadow, like I explained in the last posts.

(The whole sealing ordeal has an air of “I’m doing this for your own good” which I’m certain Messmer wholeheartedly believed. Being called an accursed traitor your whole life just for existing must’ve sucked so, yeah, seal away. I’ll go blind for you, Mother; I’ll take the blame for you, Mother; I’ll do anything you ask of me, Mother—and yet, she still didn’t trust him enough to not remove it one day, and left him abandoned in the Land of Shadow. If she had just loved him as he was instead…)

On the subject of the winged serpents—I believe you are confusing them a bit there. The winged serpents are a separate entity from Messmer and the Abyssal Serpent. Messmer himself is a black serpent with red eyes all over its body, while the winged serpents are red with green eyes; Messmer is blind, the winged serpents are not. The winged serpents only appear white in phase 2 because they are shedding, though under the shed texture you can see they are still red.

They are called “wise friends” and “constant companions”, lending to the winged serpents being separate entities from Messmer, and this can also be seen in their design. They don’t grow out of him in a seamless or natural way, instead seeming as though they’re impaled through him, and Messmer and the Abyssal Serpent do not share design traits with the winged serpents like they share traits with each other. The winged serpents are the natural wardens of the Abyssal Serpent, stated to “keep the base serpent at bay and hold its power in check” (Winged Serpent Helm). This says to me they have been performing this task since before the seal, otherwise there would be no need for them. Consider also that for all its malevolence, the Abyssal Serpent did not cause any catastrophes in particular, else we would have heard about it. It was only prophesied to. Between the winged serpents and Messmer’s own compassionate self, the serpent’s lust for destruction was not acted upon (or was channeled to fulfill his mother’s wishes instead). If I may indulge Freud for a moment, Messmer was balanced—the Abyssal Serpent was the instinctual id, the winged serpents the logical superego, and Messmer the mediating ego between them. Something about the winged serpents being specifically “wise” makes me think of that, like they are Messmer’s personal advisors. His equals, and revered as the symbol of his army.

I say all this in efforts to explain that Messmer was whole, and will be whole again. That his serpentine nature was despised was a matter of public opinion, of what was writ in the Golden Order, of what he asked everyone to do—“Direct thy maledictions, thine ire, and thy grief towards me alone” (Messmer’s Set). The serpent within may be a scary and lightless and hideous monster, but he accepts that. He is what he is. When he removes the seal, the only thing that changes is that he has disappointed his mother; he is still just as lucid as he was before. He is still Messmer.

“Embrace thine oblivion, as shall I.”

- Froggo

P.S. I may have downplayed in this post how the Abyssal Serpent is inherently destructive and painful to Messmer, and like, brooding a hundred snakes inside him (more on that later), but what I’m getting at is that this is a natural thing he was born with, while the seal was an unnatural thing that was done to him. The serpent is a disorder that does not wholly define him but is still a part of him, while the seal was an improper cure that only repressed his self. Marika often hides away that which she does not want to deal with—out of sight, out of mind, as they say…

[resignedseraph]

[ID: a comic captioned, “Interactions that would probably happen if I actually socialized (which I know because I’ve been adjacent to these things happening too many times already).” It shows Esrah talking with a woman. The woman has curled hair half done up, and wears a shirt with a large cross on it and a bag across her chest. She has a cheerful expression. Esrah has an uncomfortable expression, and is wearing a grumpy cat meme shirt. Dialogue goes as such:

Woman: Can I pray for you?

Esrah: I’d really rather you not, but thanks for the offer

Woman: Well I’ll still pray for you alright?

Esrah: …I thought Jesus was supposed to knock at the doors of people’s souls, not break in through the back window. /End ID]

[isawken]

this post is for all the yellow haters out there. get yellow’d idiots

[crazycatsiren]

It's all "consent matters" and "respect boundaries" until the consent and boundaries involve being blessed, then it's "why is everyone so sensitive/reactive you're being stupid it's not a big deal people are just being nice".

[sarcasticmirage]

there's been a bit of rgu and fma comparison, so here's my dissertation on why they should kiss

[aunti-christ-ine]

[inators]

         𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑 of 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐓𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍     Lovingly posted with permission from @chio-chan2. (click 'PEREGRIN FLETCHER' for full character sheet)