#Anti-Catholic fiction

[protagonistspub]

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack was a library find. It is my first, and most DEFINITELY the last, book from the author. It is in theory a cozy mystery. I will also never read anything by this author under her other publishing name of Catherine McKenzie. I’m just going to be upfront, this book is utter trash. So much so that I VLOG’d the reading experience. The…

[whereserpentswalk]

There is a cave that contains a dragon. He is an old dragon, twice as ancient and twice as powerful as most dragons you'll ever meet, his fire hot enough to melt a faerie's exoskeleton, and his mouth large enough to swallow a kraken whole. But he is a restful dragon, he spends most of his time in his cave, sleeping, or reading, or looking after his eggs. But it is said in an ancient contact with humankind that whenever the land needs him most (it is unclear what counts as the land), he will finally exit his cave and lend his power to humanity.

There was a time when a great general came to the dragon and said, "great dragon! We are at war and we are losing, our country has many brave men and the best of guns and tanks and planes, but the enemy outnumbers us. We have set up conscription, so if you are truly as loyal to your country as you are said to be you shall join us, and set our enemies ablaze." Yet the dragon slept so soundly the general thought him nothing more then stone, and the general left, thinking himself a fool.

Some time later the country's bishop came to the dragon and told him, "great dragon, Saint of the cave, you have been a Saint in this country since conversion, now may you awaken by the power of God for the sake of this land. The younger generations of this nation have turned from the church, and have become atheists and idol worshippers. Awaken and turn them to the light." But the dragon slept so soundly that the bishop thought him a creature of stone, and cursed him as a false idol as he left. The dragon was decanonized after that.

A few months after that, the ceo of a major corporation came to the dragons cave and told him, "my dear freind the dragon! You defend our nation right? Well, our industry is going downhill, the companies overseas are manufacturing faster then we ever could. Pretty soon our mining companies, our car companies, even our banks will be making less then those across the ocean. Come out and do something and you'll show yourself to really be loyal." But the dragon slept, and the ceo thought him to be nothing but stone, and the ceo spat on him, not caring for ancient artifacts.

The one day a young woman came to the dragon, with no where else to go, and whispered to him, "Please, I'm sorry if this is strange, but I wish someone could help. My mother plans to kick me out of my only home. She caught me sleeping with a woman, and said I have two weeks to leave. I have nowhere to, and fear soon I'll be on the streets. She won't even talk to me now. I know I am an adult, and it is her right, but I don't want to be cold this winter." And though it seemed to be no more than a statue, the young woman swore she could hear the words "it will be done" echo from the cave, and a yellow eye open for just a momment.

The next night the young woman's mother died, they say while she was out driving alone a fireball shot out from the sky at her, burning her alive. Nobody knows where the fire came from. But the young woman inherited the house, and the land was well protected.

[edenslice]

actually, now that i've had time to think about it and actually discuss it w people i know irl, i guess i align myself as pro-fiction?

no, i don't condone crimes and sexual assault. i'm just saying i'm extremely anti-censorship and dead dove: do not eat media has every right to exist. ain't it just stupid to argue about niche fandom bullshit like this..........there is Life outside your phone........just block and move on regardless of how morally fucked up the content is

[mourntomidnight]

So in case you haven’t noticed, I just finished Tyler Hamilton’s The Secret Race book about his time in the Lance Armstrong Era of Cycling and its aftermath and the I started Malcom X’s Autobiography with a book regarding the jungian concept of the shadow to one’s personality and how to address it privately without taking it out on others sandwiched in at my dad’s request.

There was something of a very stark contrast between how Tyler told his story and how Malcom did and I could catch it within finishing the first chapter of of Malcom’s book. Something I noticed right away is that Malcolm took responsibility for how his actions as a kid made it difficult for his mom amongst losing his dad in a hate crime and having to deal with destitution at a vulnerable age. He also acknowledges his shadow to the point where he could not visit his mom anymore or even talk about her because he knew his shadow would spill over to violence.

With Tyler, while he acknowledges what he had to do regarding his road racing career and how he had to tell the truth ultimately, I notice he doesn’t take responsibility the same way Malcolm did by having to victimize himself and explaining that the sport was just like that so he had no other choice but to do it that way. But the thing is, he DID have a choice.

He CHOSE to dope

He CHOSE to partake in an inherently corrupt sport out of ambition even after pointing out the ways the tour could be reformed to where the riders don’t have to dope.

He CHOSE to lie and take advantage of his loved ones trust in him to protect his reputation

He CHOSE to attack others and use their struggles against them as a means of disinformation.

Idc if the dopers never saw it was wrong what they were doing and therefore not come clean in the first place, it’s still wrong to cheat and if you have to cheat to play then it’s not a sport worth partaking in.

It’s not worth risking everything and destroying ur body and reputation and prospects and ultimately have nothing to show for it.

This whole saga of the Lance era of cycling made me realize how gothic that era and even professional racing in regards to the tour is.

The obsession with winning at all costs, using dangerous drugs and medical practices and unhealthy diets to do so, the omertà and brotherhood that feels secret society—esque, the fact epo is referred to as Edgar Poe by the riders, the almost vampiric imagery of blood bags, the inner corruption by the orgs and individuals involved, and most of all: the fact that Lance Armstrong was so famous to the point of a super heroic, messianic status largely created by corpos like Nike and the like and how the public partook in it to the point of it being cult like, and when Armstrong was outed as a fraud and an evil person leading to a literal crucifixion by all parties that enabled him that outs him essentially as a satanic figure that in hindsight you think of Lance as the devil who disguised himself as an Angel, a messiah that took advantage of the desperation of a post—columbine, post—9/11 world that was looking for a hero, a savior and swindled them all out of ambition and greed is something that could’ve been a novel a particularly perceptive and skilled author would’ve wrote, but happened in real time at one point.

Even Malcolm acknowledged that if someone is winning all the time, they are cheating and how yt men have all the cards on their side, but Lance worked the system so much that even the system that was designed for him to get away with it turned on him because he couldn’t keep up the lie forever, because the world doesn’t work that like where swindling men can do it forever, because karma IS for real. And it was ultimately Lance’s anti social behavior that did him in.

The ultimate lesson that can be taken is how much of a lie celebrity culture is and how it’s just meant to be another consumerist profit motive and that we can’t rely on celebs and the like to save us, which is what leftists have been saying for literal decades going back to the panthers. Only we can save us from this colonial capitalist hell.

[bitchycasenthusiast]

Reading Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons rn, I’m pretty sure this guy did no research

[dstrider-3]

antis acting like youre going to die or youre a terrible person for things you consume fictionally or thoughts you have remind me of terrible christians/catholics who say youll die and go to hell for xyz

[perasperaadpasta]

I have no empathy for Good Omens or Sandman or whatever other Gaiman work fans who 1. just cannot help making the allegations about themselves and 2. are genuinely heartbroken to the point of being unwilling to reasses their attachment to these works (these usually overlap).

When I found out an author I was obsessed with, whose works I read nearly in their entirety and voraciously, whose stories inspired me and filled my imagination for years, turned out to be a paedophile who abused her children, facilitated the abuse of multiple others by her also paedophile husband, and raped her daughter, none of that... mattered anymore. How could it possibly?

I'm talking about Marion Zimmer Bradley, if her rap sheet isn't familiar. Having grown up a nerd who could read at highschool level at 7, and who was, at 12, already sick of how male-centered fiction (and particularly fantasy, my favorite genre) was, discovering The Mists of Avalon was a revelation. The pointedly anti-Christian, unapologetically female-centered narrative was a near-spiritual balm for a closeted lesbian kid in a Catholic small town.

I read all of her Arthuriana books and all of her Darkover series I could find. I'm interested in Arthuriana to this day because of the point of view she offered. The possibility of shifting the male gaze pervasive in art to a female view from within was so instrumental to how I approach art at all. And this is, of course, not pioneered nor exclusive to Bradley, but it was my introduction to it, to this critical and yet respectful framework of experiencing art.

And yet. When I learned what she'd done, it fundamentally and irrevocably changed what she'd said.

Is it really still a work of feminist expression if composed by a rapist? I cannot reconcile the thought that the most execrable creature in feminist thinking can be capable of anything but farcical, hypocritical emulation of sincerity, convincing as it may be. It cannot possibly be earnest and its pretense is pervasive. Even if the story was otherwise so good, so entertaining that its message could be sidelined, there's hardly a lack of that that makes this particular one indispensable.

My admiration for her is all revulsion now. I have no interest in what this sort of thing has to say about anything, safe for possibly in the context of criminal psychology.

I will never reread it. I will never recommend it as entertainment and least of all feminist entertainment.

And here's the thing, this wasn't life-ruining for me. This did not hurt me personally. My world didn't shatter, it didn't even crack. Important as it may have been, the loss of a THING, a book, ONE story in a world so saturated with them several hundred lifetimes wouldn't suffice to know them, is not a loss I would ever have the self-indulgent embarrasment of mourning. It was what it was once, and it is what it is now.

The only people who were hurt were her victims.

Absolutely no exceptions. It's vulgar to a degree I can't wrap my head around to consider otherwise.

[proshippers-against-censorship]

right now in one of my classes, we're watching a documentary about news reporters exposing the sexual abuse that happens in the catholic church. and watching the documentary, watching them make these scenes of actors portraying real-life victims that were ACTUALLY harmed by these awful priests kinda makes me think- not just about how terrible all of that is, but also how terrible it is that antis compare that shit to drawing porn of a fictional character. I'm watching these actors re-enact how it went down, the people breaking down and sobbing as they recount what happened and how it happened, and I'm like. fuck, man. how can anyone say that hurting PIXELS ON A SCREEN is worse than what those poor survivors had to suffer through? and those are the ones who were lucky enough to survive all of it. how is underage noncon harry potter fanfiction worse than the real life sexual assault, rape, grooming and molestation that these real people had to experience? as kids, no less?

(if you want the movie, it's called Spotlight from 2015. really good, makes you think, sad as fuck.)

For real.

It's honestly a huge fucking insult to real victims to pretend like anything that happens to a fictional characters holds even a candle to what they endured.

[animentality]

the funny thing about the Black Butler revival is that Sebaciel is taking a lot of heat right now, here in the year of our lord and savior 2024, in which all ships are problematic and toxic.

because it's a pedo ship.

which is the most perfect low hanging fruit in all of anti existence.

but like, Sebaciel is really a microcosm of pro vs anti ship discourse in general, right?

everyone insists oh you like Sebaciel? you must be a pedophile... while totally ignoring that a lot of fucking teenage girls read Black Butler and imagine themselves AS CIEL. they have a crush on SEBASTIAN.

that's why they ship them. they're not generally lusting for the minor, they're imagining themselves as the minor, being MINORS themselves, and have crushes on the suave sexy demon guy... because that's literally budding adolescence in a nut shell.

Sure there are people who lust for ciel... but it's a fucking shonen. it's for teens.

Teens are allowed to have fucking crushes on Ciel and Naruto and Ichigo. They're also allowed to have crushes on adults, WHO ARE NOT REAL and can't return their affections or hurt them in literally any way other than fictional related trauma.

is it really that shocking that teens are projecting themselves on/lusting for the fucking kid protagonists? you know, like they're generally going to do??? because they're hormonal but also bc it's very normal for humans to have goddamn crushes on human shaped (and less human shaped) things???

and is it really that shocking that teens girls would lust after Sebastian?

are you telling them they can't do that, and then also ship their little self insert goth child with the object of their affection?

and also.

ALSO.

the harder thing for these people to swallow...

fucking adults can ship anything they want too.

literally who gives a fuck

just shipping a problematic age difference ship doesn't make you anything at all.

being an asshole in fandom spaces does, like harassing people for shipping or not shipping Sebaciel, sending death threats, doxing, whatever, but just the act of jerking it to Sebaciel fanfics, or writing them for yourself and friends, is not a goddamn crime.

nor is it anything other than a Catholic sin.

so I'm laughing at the modern discourse, as angry adults and teens try to cancel Sebaciel.

tale as old as time. but also Sebaciel is the fucking OG.

The og of queerbait shotacon nonsense.

you weren't gonna stop people in 2008, you won't stop them now.

just hang out in your own space and leave other people alone.

also just fyi. I don't ship this.

I ship toxic old man yaoi.

but I'm rolling my eyes and slapping you if I see you in the wild insisting a Sebaciel artist is a pedophile guilty of a real crime in real life.

get some fucking perspective.

[victoriadallonfan]

I don't agree with a lot of Sanderson's politics - and they aren't, in fact, based in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints doctrine, but rather Utah culture - but it also makes me pretty uncomfortable to hear you badmouthing the church I'm part of?

I badmouth religious organizations in general, Catholic Church included (in which I was raised) because they tend to be overwhelmingly corrupt and abusive towards their own church members (and especially towards people outside of them)

Mormonism in particular is especially bad for how being part of the church requires “tithings” from paychecks plus their treatment of women, minorities, and even men in ways that are almost so explicitly manipulative and cultish that it feels like it comes out of parody.

(For example, I simply declared, “I am no longer catholic” and that was it. Done. You cannot generally do the same in LDS without incredible backlash and slander by its members)

And it’s very obvious when it shows up in fictional books by a lot of Mormon writers, because it’s so conservative that it’s a step or two behind the times.

It’s not as bad as Westeros Westboro Baptist Church or Scientology, but that’s not a high bar to clear.

If your time in the church was different, I’m happy for you, because it means you likely avoided the worst parts of their abuse.

Still, if you have the time, I’d suggest watching these videos (in no particular order):

Why I Left Mormonism - Video covering the creation of the channel “Cults to Consciousness” and her abusive home life under the church

The BITE Model - Simple PowerPoint explaining the reoccurring factors of cults

Ex-Mormon Cast Reacts to Mormon Debates -Cast of ex-Mormon members react to a Mormon debate and highlight various lies and falsehoods presented, as well talk about teachings/history Mormon Church does not want revealed publicly

How the Mormon Church ‘Help Line’ Hid Child Abuse - Exactly what it says. Survivors speak out and the church has done nothing for them or worse.

If you don’t want to watch these videos, if you can’t stomach the testimonies, ask yourself and others these questions:

- How often are you allowed to preach about Heavenly Mother?

- How often do you see women in power within the church, as in, deciding doctrine and not just playing piano or making food for the men?

- How often do you see minorities in power within the church, as in, deciding doctrine or being treated as a token?

- How often does your church talk about the incredibly high suicide rates for children and how it’s associated with its practices?

- How come when a racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic etc Prophet speaks its “the word of God” and doctrine, but then another Prophet can simply claim it was mere “policy”. Was ‘God’ lying to the prophets? Were the prophets lying about God? How can you trust what is their words and what is God?

- How come the church hid $30 Billion dollars from the public and even its own lower members?

- How come the founder lied about what was on the Egyptian papyrus, claiming it was a translation from God, but people who can actually read Egyptian pointed out he was lying?

- How come you get treated differently for asking these supposedly easy to answer questions?

I do not go after Brandon or you because you happen to be religious. I think belief in a higher power is one’s own choice and prerogative.

I instead care far more about the religious system that is using well-intended people like pawns for goals that pretty much boil down to money and power.

[whereserpentswalk]

There's a god who sits in the room during important meetings. He's an old god. You might not know his name but you've seen his cult. He looks like a man in a white suit, with white skin, and blue eyes, blue eyes that he's proud of. He never laughs, never smiles, but he's happy, he's very happy with his world.

He's a dark god. The other gods hate him, hate him because they know what he's done. The cities he's conquered. The cities he's burned. The countless souls he's stolen. He'll tell his followers the other gods are devils, he'll tell them that they'll hurt them, that they'll kill them. And in the end he'll whisper that his underworld is all so much better then their earth.

And he'll stand within this world. Watching the people, though unlike the other gods, he watches with anger. Thinks of them as degenerates as he walks through the cities of mortals, the only ones he has any affection for is those who have made themselves his slaves, fully obedient like dogs. He says he loves them all, but he only loves the versions of them that they would be if he had full control. When the birds chirp he feels rage, he'd rather them all be in menageries, and walled gardens.

He's been through so much bloodshed. He's the god that crushed Jericho, that burned Tenochtitlan, the god that has whiped entire cultures off of the map. His soldiers are many, and their hands and loins reek of blood, the blood of those they call sinners and nonbelievers. But he is not invulnerable, far more then just mistletoe has refused to yield to him, he has died before, and asks the world to weep for that death, with hope we can kill him again, if we work together.

[olderthannetfic]

TW Suicide. I talk about suicide from a religious perspective, and religion is not kind with suicide.

I might be reaching but I think religious Asian countries might be more proship-friendly than western countries??

Let's see a few cases. Japan. I'm not sure how religious Japan is, but they have very strict values and traditions. There are so many how-tos and even the language has levels that you can only use to certain people, otherwise it's rude. They can't express queerness so freely that yaoi/yuri is the best outlet they have, and they got called rotten for it.

Japan is notorious for being very proship friendly. There was even a huge "what is proship and why should you block those with 'proship DNI' in their bios" thread over on Twitter and it was so widely shared by Japanese users. At that point, even antis took off the "proship DNI" off their bios (such cowards lol).

The people in my religious (Muslim) country and its neighbor, Malaysia and Indonesia, even the minors, are so proship-oriented that I only ever saw exactly one person with "proship DNI" in their bio. And their posts tell me they're the more "liberal" people of the country. You know, the ones that the older people are using as examples of "Look at that girl. She's been poisoned by the western values, she's showing so much skin. Don't be like her". Now I obviously will just laugh at older people who says such things but hear me out.

The people who are actually practicing religion to the point where nothing sexual is allowed, who WILL screech at sex (both vanilla and kinky) in fanworks should they ever join, won't touch fandom with a ten-foot pole. This leaves us with the absolute freaks who thinks "I'm religious, I believe in God that other people call fiction, but I can't have sex until I'm married and masturbation is haram, so smut fic is actually a great way to let off tension! No one real is having sex so it's a green area. I'm not masturbating, I'm just reading. Sometimes they excite me, most of the time not! Halal mode."

Also, murder and suicide is a sin. A huge sin. If you tell someone to kill themselves and they actually did, the religious guilt would be MASSIVE. I can't imagine an actually correctly-practicing religious sending death threats and not be haunted by the promise of a sin. A sin that involves other people is much harder to forgive (it requires forgiveness from the hurt people, and that's impossible with suicide. They can't forgive you if they're dead) than a sin that involves yourself (masturbation. All you have to do is regret and never do it again. Which is why suicide is seen as unforgiveable. You can't undo it).

So, it sometimes makes me wonder that in the west, MAGA catholic conservatives shares a lot of values with fanpols. But in religious countries, the actually rigid religious ones aren't in fandom, so the fandom is filled with people who aren't evangelical purists.

This incoherent yap might be reaching, but hey, a new perspective to US-Europeans or non-religious people. It's just kinda funny to think about. Since you are very well-spoken and critical (I think so from your replies to the asks!), what do you think?

--

Well... I think there are a lot of specifics here that are hilarious in how you've framed them. (The situation with queer people in Japan has evolved a lot over the last couple of decades. That isn't at all how I'd describe politeness levels in language, and I think your assumptions based on how politeness works in Japanese are ludicrous. Catholicism isn't the big, powerful flavor of Christianity in the US, so it's not where the majority of the nutbars ruining politics come from. Etc. Etc.)

But back in the 90s in US fandom in English, slash was the domain of freaks, and the puritywankers were openly homophobic and did not hang out in the same spaces.

Yes, I do think that part of the rise of the current flavor of antis has to do with somewhat wider acceptance of queerness combined with an overall anxiety-inducing and uncertain situation. They're not secure enough to chill the fuck out, but they wrongly believe that our battles for queer rights here are done and/or that they can be won by throwing the freakier members of the community under the bus.

[veetyuh]

I'm reminded of that "antishipping isn't purity culture because it isn't conservative christianity" post... And I think I've done some unpacking on why it triggers me so much.

I was an intersex child shoved into the role of a female, in a rural & conservative Christian environment. I've had not just purity culture shoved down my throat, but also the shame of not being able to meet the expectations put on women in that environment.

It's not just cover up, slut. That implies I had something to show off, to begin with. And men still want to ogle you and imagine what your body is like beneath that modest dress. So here, literal child. Have this shapewear to make your figure conform to that of a developing middle school female's under your clothes.

It's contradictory that way. You have to try to be unappealing to not 'tempt' men, but you still need to be appealing in the sense of conventional female attractiveness. Moreover, you must not think about men or sex at all. But you cannot be asexual — your parents demand grandchildren.

Antis do the same with their queer representation. It's the same contradictory expectations... They champion the idea of breaking societal norms through queerness (i.e. the idea of 'queer as in fuck you'), then demand that every nuclear family norm be met. Queer characters must be disruptive without actually disrupting anything. And the contradictions apply to fans, too — you're homophobic if you don't like a canon queer ship, and you're fetishistic if you like queer ships too much. (There are more, but I'd be stuck here forever if I listed them all. 😅)

There's also the obvious — fictional sins being as bad as things done in real life. There's Matthew 5, which includes so many popular verses about thought control that Christians use, and equates bad thought to bad doing.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

And fuck if antis aren't cutting off their entire goddamn arm and gouging out both eyes.

It's not just purity culture they embody, though — it's the satanic panic, too. Good lord the amount of times my grandma wouldn't let me watch Ghost Hunters because she thought I was welcoming demons into the home, or her concern for me watching horror movies because I'd surely become more violent. It's the same shit, different horse.

On a more light-hearted note, they play the same game that Christian demoninations do, too. I was Baptist, and considered the Methodists okay. But the Catholics? No, keep that shit away from me. Why are you worshipping Mary? That's idolatry! How horrible, to openly spit in God's face. When I read antis' DNI lists rattling off forbidden, unredeemable fandoms, it feels the same way, haha.

But what really seals the deal for me is how they smile in your face and promise they're just looking out for you. Christians do that, too. "We want you to get better. We want to help you. You're on a dark path." While they break your bones to force you into their mold. You may not be hurting anyone on your dark path, but they'll convince you that you ARE. You're hurting yourself "spiritually," you're hurting the community, your family, by being an abomination to God. You're hurting everyone and yourself, you just need us to help you realize it. Antis feel the exact same. I block them pre-emptively because I cannot handle having that shit directed at me again.

Moreover, their insults feel the same. The childish "icky," the ad hominems. It's too reminiscent for me. Of my mom hating my icky facial hair and my classmates making fun of my masc traits when they thought I couldn't hear; you are a gross person!!1! Ew!!!

It's funny that antis are so often anti-kink, considering they're so fucking intent on giving me a golden shower and telling me it's rain. I hope they're careful not to choke on the homophobic, pedophilic pastor cock they're sucking.

[autistichalsin]

hi I just came across your proship/profiction bulletpoint list and I just wanted to say thank you for writing it. I'm actually crying over how validating it is. I just feel like I've seen so much hate and toxicity lately, that the things I write make me a bad person; and I know they don't bc it's fiction, but hearing it from other people just makes me feel so much better about it, y'know? fandom used to be such a safe space for me (esp when I was younger and dealing with a lot of shitty friends) but I've resorted to putting some of my more recent fics under anon bc I don't feel safe in the same way anymore, I can never tell where I'm welcome or where I'm not. so I'm glad to know there's still safe people out there and again, thank you for making my day better.

Hey anon! I'm so sorry you've been made to feel so guilty for your tastes in fiction. I've had similar things said/done to me by anti-profic people. Fandom used to be a safe place for exploration of all kinds of scenarios, and while antis had been getting steadily worse throughout the 2010s, I noticed it get exponentially worse during COVID/quarantine, when a bunch of new people came into fandom with an approach of not being fans first and foremost, but critics and discoursers first and foremost- their fandom wasn't Pokemon or Genshin or whatever, even if ostensibly it was, but rather it was criticizing everything, media, other fans, whatever, for deviating from their preferences in any way.

There are communities where you belong. IDK what your main fandom is, but I promise you there are other likeminded people in it, and there are still fandoms where proshippers outweigh antis, even if the antis are louder.

i just want to repeat this: nothing that happens in your imagination will ever make you a bad person. The idea of thoughtcrimes is an extension of Catholic reasoning to make everyone feel they're inherently bad, wrong, because no one has good thoughts all the time.

It's okay to imagine 'bad' things. It's okay to like stories about bad things happening. Even if the things you're imagining are of a sexual nature. Actions are what make someone a good or bad person, not thoughts, not the words on a page they read or write. And don't let any moral puritan convince you otherwise. Thoughtcrimes are not real.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 5 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Pope Pinion IV (Cars)

HELLO. IT IS I. THE GREAT AND ALMIGHTY ITALIAN TOURNEY. PLEASEPLEASE PUT HIM IN THERE WAS SO MUCH POPE DISCOURSE ON MY ACC AND HE WAS SOLOED IN THE FIRST ROUND BY LUIGI😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 PLEASE AVENGE HIMMMM

The existence of Catholicism in the Cars universe implies that there was (or at least there was believed to be) a car Jesus who died for the cars’ sins, and I for one would like to see how a car gets crucified or sins. I guess the blood/wine here would be gasoline, but what would the body/bread be? How did they sit at the last supper? What is the layout of car church? How does a car build a church? Do other human religions exist in the cars universe? How does a goddess with the body of a human and the head of a cat translate to a car? Do Buddhist cars rein-car-nate? Do cars have souls?

he lost the italian character tournament, he will win here

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

Anti-propaganda (spoilers)

I love the Locked Tomb series but Harrowhark has daddy issues with God, had a childhood crush on God's cryogenic partner, and is in love with God's daughter, not to mention that she's essentially a bone-bender. The religion on her home planet exists in a way that is technically against the will of the canon in-universe God, even. All of this to say, Harrowhark is heretical at minimum if not an outright witch. Terrible Catholic. Burn her.

[hpowellsmith]

What real life countries do you use as inspiration for the fictional ones? I love all of them and it makes me so curious especially when you describe the food from each one it makes me drool

Mmmm, it's not an exact comparison... more that I take inspiration from certain elements of certain cultures.

That said:

Westerlin takes a lot from England generally, and Gallatin takes a lot from English and European finishing schools and US charm schools. Archambault takes some bits from schools like Eton. (And both are significantly less dystopian in various ways!) They have a lot of stiff-upper-lip and politeness values, and embedded pro-aristocracy, anti-social-mobility stuff that feels very English to me. Landscape wise, I drew from Swiss finishing schools for Gallatin and Archambault; the city of Fenburg takes some inspiration from London and various other English and European cities I've visited.

The Isle of Teteriuk takes some inspiration from the Isle of Skye, and the manor from some gothic mansions I've visited and seen photos of. The church is inspired by various photos I've seen of gothic Eastern European Catholic churches. Jezhan's situation on the whole takes some inspiration from what I've learned about various historical periods/places in which an established aristocracy was struggling and various industrial changes were happening.

The relationships between Westerlin and Zaledo feel to me similar to some European countries, where there's a lot of cross-pollination, culture-wise, but there's also a lot of bristling nationalism and long (though not overtly hostile) grudges.

Zaledo's climate/geography takes inspiration from a variety of Mediterranean countries. When I was thinking about the city of Merenil (not that it's described in a ton of detail) I thought about various Turkish and Spanish cities.

With Teran I felt inspired by some parts of US culture, in particular the prizing of hustle culture and exceptionalism, and being a relatively young governing system. The small-town culture of Elene's Prospect is drawn in some ways from some of my experiences growing up in a very small English village. I based the climate and landscape of Ozera and Elene's Prospect very broadly on southern California; a lot of the buildings in New Belmir City, though, are inspired by various buildings I've seen and visited in Italy and Spain towns and cities.

So in short, it's very much a mishmash of lots of different things!