#HA and this character's name is literally rome

[rig-a-rendal]

holy fuck roman has to lose because the money says so

[fromevertonow]

Suzanne Collins is one of the few contemporary writers who realizes the importance of names in her stories and the significance they bear. They add so many layers to the story, additional meanings that otherwise would not have existed.

The original trilogy:

Katniss: named after a plant of which you can eat the roots. Her father taught her where to find it and told her that “as long as you can find yourself, you’ll survive” (quote may be a little bit off, but it’s from one of the early chapters in THG). Additionally, the leaves are in the shape of an arrowhead, referencing her skills with the bow which her father also taught her how to use.

Peeta: literally bread lmao. But bread is one of the basic nutritions humans need, a little bit goes a long way to keep you alive. Peeta’s presence in Katniss’s life also kept her alive, literally and figuratively—the burned bread he threw her in the flashback and their complicated relationship.

Primrose: a plant with medicinal purposes, even more significant in light of her work as a medic in Mockingjay.

Gale: literally means “strong wind” and considering that in every encounter with Katniss he’s caused some reaction, he pulls her into directions she maybe initially doesn’t want to go in. Additionally, his name also represents his determination and steadfastness in his beliefs.

TBOSAS

Lucy Gray: named after William Wordsworth’s poem “Lucy Gray” which is about the titular character of the poem who got lost during a blizzard. She literally got lost in snow. Rachel Zegler sang this poem in two parts on the original soundtrack of the movie. When Snow asked who the girl in the song is, Lucy answers that she’s a mystery, just like her.

Snow: aside from the obvious snow references, I think his name is most significant in relation to Lucy and the poem. The only one who knows what caused her disappearance is Snow. He is the reason that Lucy is gone. But her traces in the snow are still visible. He will always remember her because the memory of Lucy has manifested itself in every part of his life.

Coriolanus: named after the Roman general (and also the titular character of Shakespeare’s play), Coriolanus wanted to attack Rome and become its ruler. He was scorned and celebrated by the people, only to be later exiled from the city by them. In TBOSAS, Coriolanus is the star pupil at the Capitol’s academy but sent into exile to the districts after he won the Games with Lucy through cheating.

Volumnia: Coriolanus mother who played a part in his ascent to power. In TBOSAS, she almost serves like a mentor to Coriolanus, teaching him how to think in terms of power.

(Edit) Sejanus: a roman soldier who was betrayed by the roman emperor Tiberius, just like the future president betrayed him.

(Edit) Plinth: got this info from here, but it was too good not to include here. A plinth is a base for a statue or vase to stand on. After Sejanus’s death, all of the Plinth fortune was given to Snow for being such a good to friend him. It was this money that skyrocketed the Snow family from poverty to filthy rich. The Plinth money was the foundation upon which Snow built his power.

There are so many other names that have historical (mostly Roman and Greek) connotations—Plutarch, Seneca, Cinna—but also regular names like Trinket and Beetee bear meanings that represent the character beautifully.

Names are important. For any lover of literature or (aspiring) writers, please look closely at them. They can shape your story into something unique.

Feel free to correct me if I’ve said something wrong. I know there are many names missing, but I can only add so many examples ✊🏻😔

[malinaa]

idk if it's been talked about before but suzanne collins never misses a BEAT when it came to names, specifically coriolanus snow and dr volumnia gaul. just from their first names alone you can already guess what type of role might play between them (well... if you've read shakespeare's coriolanus that is. i do recommend it btw).

a lot of bits were taken from shakespeare's play for tbosas like the motif with scars / wounds / the body as being a microcosm of the nation, the common people fighting up against the government, coriolanus' hatred of the common people wanting to be "equal" to him, the rebel arc etc etc but i'm soooo so so interested in the fact that dr gaul was named volumnia and coriolanus is coriolanus because in the play, coriolanus' mother's name is volumnia!

volumnia is arguably the only female character in the play that has any depth (i am so sorry virgilia). his mother shapes her son into the warrior he is. she reminds him at every turn that he is nothing more than a weapon to be wielded. in fact, she's the one who gets her son to come back from his "revolt" against rome which ultimately lead to his demise. this parallels tbosas in the same way because dr gaul took coriolanus and molded him into the villain you would see in thg trilogy. she brought him back from d12 and then brought about the end of his humanity (a death, so to speak—at the end of the book he said something similar to this to try to save himself from lucy gray's suspicions but he was right because he did kill a part of himself to be where he is)! coriolanus snow's mother is present but off-page. her ghost haunts him, comforts him, but the 'mother' figure is the ever-present, all-knowing dr gaul.

UGH! like with just their names you could map out where they end up at the end of the story and that's literally insane. like the caliber of writing is literally next to none fr

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.

[no-passaran]

The story of Jesus Christ Superstar is the tragedy of its characters coming to realise that they have no power over their lives, fighting as much as they can against the role that history/God is forcing them to fulfil, but failing because they were doomed from the start.

Jesus in Gethsemane desperately asking God why should he be killed, how is that going to make anything better, only to realise that it doesn't matter what he believes or wants because it's already fixed ("why then am I scared to finish what I started? What you started, I didn't start it.") and there is nothing that can be done. Against his will, he will have to continue performing this role to its bitter end ("God, thy will is hard, but you hold every card. I will drink your cup of poison, nail me to your cross and break me, bleed me, beat me, kill me. Take me now, before I change my mind.")

Judas realises later, after he has already fulfilled his role in the story. This realization and regret leads him to commit suicide, being the only way out of a life that has already been fixed to make him the eternal villain ("you'll be remembered forever for this", "I shall be dragged through the slime and the mud")... even though this apparent choice of suicide was, following the same reasoning, also taken for him ("my God, I'm sick! I've been used! And you knew all the time. God! I'll never know why you chose me for your crime. Your foul, bloody crime. You have murdered me! Murdered me! Murdered me!"). Judas understands what he did, and he understands what he will be, forever. He understands that not only has he been Judas, he now knows what it means to be Judas: Jesus insulted him by telling him ("you liar, you Judas"). In the very end, he completely understands what it means to be a Judas, because of what he had done.

And Pilate is the last one to try by all means to escape his destiny. He's seen it in his dream, but he refuses to follow it. He refuses to sentence Christ, telling the crowd that he's a crazy man but that's not a crime, trying to convince them that it's against their best interest to ally with Rome, and begs Christ to let him help him get saved ("why do you not speak when I hold your life in my hands? How can you stay quiet? I don't believe you understand!") but of course, the post-Gethsemane Jesus already has accepted that they're doomed, and he's the one to tell Pilate ("you have nothing in your hands, any power you have comes to you from far beyond. Everything is fixed, and you can't change it."). The realization is dawning on Pilate as he desperately continues trying to cling to his ability to take meaningful choices, literally begging Christ to let him take that decision ("you're a fool Jesus Christ, how can I help you?") but with the crowd's shouts for crucifixion, and the crowd circling him and pushing him against the wall, he really does realize it: he has no choice; he will have to play his part in the story. And he knows how it will end, he knows what his role will mean, he also knows what it means to be Pilate ("then I saw thousands of millions crying for this man, and then I heard them mentioning my name and giving me the blame"). The only thing he can do is remove himself from it, but even then he is aware that that won't stop the already-fixed history ("I wash my hands from your demolition. Die if you want to, you innocent puppet").

After all, we saw it from the very first scene. Isn't this what the story's framing means? The overture shows the actors arriving to the filming set by bus and getting ready to play their role. And, at the end of the film, they pack and leave. They came here to recite a script that someone else wrote, to fulfil a story where everything is fixed, and they can't change it. That was what they were made for. Innocent puppets.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Hey, I'm writing a PJO fanfic, and I'm trying to come up with a nickname that can be given to Percy (ocean/Poseidon-related) that isn't Seaweed Brain. It's iconic, but personally, it makes me a little uncomfortable as someone who was also bullied for my (lack-of) intelligence. Do you have any suggestions?

Hm, this is difficult only because I am not someone who particularly uses petnames/nicknames often. I have considered what Percy might call other people (usually fish puns - like calling people different fish species as a pun based on something about them. Like flying fish for Jason, etc etc). I do think it's interesting that with how the series censors swears in-universe there is some implication that "Seaweed Brain" and "Wise Girl" may just be stand-ins for "Dumbass" and "Smartass" so you could potentially play off of that with Percy just having another cuss nickname but most potential ones with that don't fully solve your problem/still be negative-leaning though not necessarily related to his intelligence.

"Water Boy" i can see being one that people jokingly call him as like a teasing insult, a la Jason being called "Golden Boy/Weather Boy" or Nico being called "Death Boy." I personally like the hc of him taking up a job as a lifeguard in New Rome during college so maybe something related to that? Pop culture references - Aquaman, Ariel, Jaws, Aquamarine, any character from h2o, Baywatch, etc. Maybe superhero jokes along the lines of Jason's "blond superman" nickname.

I could see him getting little cutesy sea-themed nicknames particularly from Sally - starfish, cuttlefish (or "cuddlefish"), scallop, "lil barnacle" (if he's being clingy), "lil clamshell," pearl, etc etc. Tbh fish/aquatic/marine stuff in general is an easy one. Maybe even branching out to waterfowl and similar/other water-adjacent animals. Also anything based off his name itself is easy (just referring to him as "Jackson," Perce [pronounced "Purse"] - though he kind of already has "Percy" so shortening that further feels redundant, etc etc). Maybe anything specifically about him being the son of Poseidon, depending on who is saying it ("Mini-Poseidon" / "Lil' Poseidon" etc etc).

Edit: actually, addendum - any of the silly nicknames from 50% Off used on literally any character. Especially ones directed towards Rin.

If anyone else has suggestions feel free to comment them!

[youryurigoddess]

Maggie’s pendants and good omens

Yes, you’ve read it right. This post is going to deal with some literal good omens, not just title drop! But first things first, let’s take a closer look at the topic of this analysis.

A toucan

The top necklace is a lovely design involving a crowned toucan — believed to be a messenger of gods able to travel between the spiritual and the physical world, often associated with rain and rainbow (a Christian symbol of divine love, grace, and mercy, a reminder of the covenant between God and humanity to spare the latter from future trials like the Flood) — encircled by a gold band (a symbol of infinity, eternal love and promise) spun by a small butterfly (a symbol of transformation, hope, and rebirth). All three symbols combined seem to deliver a divine message of hope for rebirth, possibly resurrection, and the eternal life. Very fitting in the context of the Second Coming.

The fact that toucans were revered by the native South Americans as rainbringers strengthens the symbolic meaning of another type of bird we can spot on Maggie’s clothes in the very first episode, as her character introduction — a swallow. Swallows flying low are also believed to be harbingers of rain and bad weather. If you see one close to Earth or a building, it means that there’s a storm — or a certain biblical tempest — on the horizon.

In Ancient Greece and Rome swallows were representing Aphrodite, goddess of love. In Christianity they were considered to be of God and symbolized hope, awakening, and revival of life as messengers of spring and protectors from winter colds. Also helped Jesus on the Cross — according to a Christian legend, a group of swallows was supposed to take out the thorns from the Crown of Thorns and alleviate His Passion on the Cross. Humans banding together in the name of good have been a big theme in the series ever since The Them made an appearance, and from what we already know about the unpublished Good Omens sequel, we can assume that Jesus is going to take the spotlight in the upcoming season.

Maggie definitely attracts sudden inexplicable weather changes, like a thunderstorm with weirdly localized lightning strikes or a sudden downpour. And we’re still waiting for some vavooming (and the following happy ending) to happen in S3.

A heart with an eye

Now, the more nuanced clue hidden in the bottom necklace. I know that some of us were trying to tackle the concept of Maggie’s eye in a heart pendant suggesting her Masonic connotations, but this symbol (or the Eye of Providence in general) isn’t strictly Masonic, it isn’t even limited only to Judeo-Christian art. And while it is used a lot in Christian iconography, we should focus on a very specific example of it already referenced in the show.

Buckle up, we’re making a parachute dive into S1.

It seems like our old friend, Agnes Nutter, still has our backs.

Prophecy 4020:

Let the wheel of fate turne, let harts enjoin, there are othere fyres than mine; when the whirl wynd whirls, reach oute one to another.

If you look closely at the bottom right corner of this frame, you will see that as an illustration for the above prophecy the production team chose a 1611 engraving titled The Minde should have a fixed Eye On Objects, that are plac’d on High first found in Gabriel Rollenhagen’s Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum.

In 1635 it was published in A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne Quickened With Metrical Illustrations, both Morall and Divine, Etc by George Wither with the accompanying hymn:

A Heart, which bore the figure of an Eye

Wide open to the Sunne; by some, was us'd,

When in an Emblem, they would signifie

A Minde, which on Celestiall Matters mus'd:

Implying, by the same, that there is nought

Which in this lower Orbe, our Eyes can see,

So fit an Object for a manly thought,

As those things, which in Heav'n above us be.

God, gave Mankinde (above all other Creatures)

A lovely Forme, and upward-looking Eye,

(Among the rest of his peculiar Features)

That he might lift his Countenance on high:

And (having view'd the Beauty, which appeares

Within the outward Sights circumference)

That he might elevate above the Sphæres,

The piercing Eye, of his Intelligence.

Then, higher, and still higher strive to raise

His Contemplations Eyes, till they ascend

To gaine a glimpse of those eternall Rayes,

To which all undepraved Spirits tend.

For, 'tis the proper nature of the Minde

(Till fleshly Thoughts corrupt it) to despise

Those Lusts whereto the Body stands inclin'd;

And labour alwayes, upward to arise.

Some, therefore, thought those Goblins which appeare

To haunt old Graves and Tombes, are Soules of such,

Who to these loathsome places doomed were,

Because, they doted on the Flesh too much.

But, sure we are, well-minded Men shall goe

To live above, when others bide below.

And hey, guess what 4020, i.e., the number of the prophecy, symbolizes in Strong’s Concordance? Periergazomai, a Greek word meaning “to waste one's labor about something” — to meddle, going beyond proper boundaries (where a person doesn't belong); to fixate on what others are doing, instead of doing what the person himself is supposed to do.

It appears only once in the Bible:

2 Thessalonians 3:11: We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

To make things slightly more interesting, in the Hebrew version of Strong’s Concordance 4020 has another meaning — migbaloth, meaning “twisted things, i.e. cords”. Which doesn’t make much sense until we read the actual passage:

Exodus 28:24 and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.

And compare it to the most recent post on the topic published directly by Word of God:

What if all these clues didn’t apply to Maggie and Nina, but Aziraphale and Crowley instead? What if Maggie served as a messenger — consciously or not — just like the toucan, delivering the prophecy to those who need it most?

“When the tempest comes and darkness and great storms, and the dead will leave their graves and walk the Earth once more and there will be great lamentations for the end is near, don’t lose hope, hold hands and look up.”

Basically what Aziraphale and Crowley already did when they performed the 25 Lazarii miracle, only with no interference from Gabriel this time around.

And, if both Strong’s Concordance and Maggie’s personal addition to her second pendant are to be believed, with a wedding band somehow involved in the process.

[nightcolorz]

maybe there’s a detail in the show that specifies this that I missed, and if so my mistake, but why do so many show fans think that Marius lived in Rome when he owned Armand? 😭 i keep seeing it in amc iwtv fanfic I read and it’s always so disorienting, lol. I understand why that mistake is being made (if I’m right and it is a mistake), bcus Marius is literally named Marius de Romanus and him being Roman is a big part of his character, so Marius = lives in Rome is an easy assumption to make. But still lmao 😭 ig this is off putting to me since I read the vampire Armand religiously, but it’s a big thing that armand was sold to a brothel in Venice and Marius (who was a renaissance painter in Venice) brought him to live with him in his Venetian palazzo. Marius is from Ancient Rome and he moved to renaissance Venice lol. Armand did live in Rome for a short time when he was kidnapped by the coven and brought there (before he was appointed the leader of the Parisian coven), but he spent most of his human life in Venice. Venice is a big part of Armand’s backstory and identity lol, (to the point where he literally has “Venetian pride” and is indignant about how Venice is better then Florence), and I’d be disappointed if they changed that. (Also there’s a scene where Armand as a drunk teenager falls into the Venice canals and his friend has to pull him out so he doesn’t drown in shit water, I’d be very disappointed if they removed that.) But yeah psa for my new Armand fans!! (Who r writing amazing fic btw), Armand and Marius lived in Venice 🙏‼️

[barbwritesstuff]

Is Gaius named after emperor Caligula by any chance?

No.

Ancient Roman names are confusing. I'm not going to dive too deeply into it (because I don't fully understand it), but the Romans usually had three names. Eg. Gaius Julius Caesar.

The first name was called a praenomen and was an intimate name usually used only by close friends or family.

Which is why we usually just say: Julius Caesar.

The second name is a nomen which is typically a family name. The third name is a cognomen, which is kinda like a nickname that most people used to get by day to day.

In Blood Moon, when Gaius was first introduced, I wanted Gaius and Lucius to use praenomans when speaking to each other (because brothers), and Gaius gave the wolves permission to use his given name too, which was a) for ease of readership and b) because he's weird and deranged and wanted the wolves to talk to him as if they were close friends.

Now, according to Wikipedia:

By the first century BC, the praenomina remaining in general use at Rome were: Appius, Aulus, Caeso, Decimus, Gaius, Gnaeus, Lucius, Mamercus, Manius, Marcus, Numerius, Publius, Quintus, Servius, Sextus, Spurius, Titus, and Tiberius.

There are only 18 choices.

I couldn't use Marcus (because Marco was already a character in the story and that might be confusing) but I also wanted names that wouldn't throw modern readers too much, which excluded a lot on this list. Remember, I wasn't planning a sequel at this stage. These were originally just going to be characters that appeared once in one playthrough.

Quick, easy to remember names were key, especially as the court was going to be chock full of various new vampire characters.

(This is also why I used the name 'Medici' in this scene. Quick, easy to remember, and some worrying implications for those that might know a bit about history).

So I picked Gaius and Lucius for the vampire brother kings.

Gaius Dominus (no noman because he has no real Roman family) and Lucius Hostus Dentatus.

Cartoon bad guy names, but they're vampires, so they get a pass.

When I started writing Thicker Than I tried REALLY hard to make Gaius go by his other name/title, Dominus. But my brain wasn't doing great when it came to renaming him, so he's still just Gaius.

Eventually I also gave him a second cognomen (Caesar) because that literally just means king and it makes sense he'd have it.

I can't believe I lay in bed for 15 minutes typing this out on my phone. 😅 I hope it's not too long or boring.

[unionizedwizard]

hi i hope this is ok can i hear your tinfoil hat aeneid theory? <3

HI HELLO yes. so. i have this theory that g'raha is extremely aeneas-coded. where to begin.........

aeneas was raised on mt ida by nymphs for his own protection (keeping his demigod identity secret). notably, g'raha was taken to sharlayan (It Is A Mountain And They Do Revere The Nymphs There) when garlemald threatened to invade corvos, on account of the allagan eye, which would have put him and the entire tribe in danger if the empire had realized what it meant

selina (the allagan princess who bestowed the "blessing" (or curse) of the allagan eye to his ancestors) does fulfill a similar role as venus. both aeneas' fate (venus literally named him "bringer of suffering and misfortune" because she slept with a mortal man, while selina was allagan royalty and the miqo'te were their slaves) come as the consequence of a transgression, both come with a specific duty to carry, and a mixed heritage which is difficult to navigate. both aeneas and g'raha are put in a very precarious and isolated situation, which sometimes works to their advantage and sometimes burdens them further

also g'raha receives the full extent of The Curse specifically so that he can deal with The Horrors. he is frustrated and upset with unei and doga and their lies and the burden they force upon him in the same way as aeneas is towards venus when she appears to him disguised as a mortal woman

there are direct parallels between the fall of troy and what we know/see of the 8th umbral calamity (well. it's what calamities are like after all). though we don't know what became of sharlayan, we can assume it fell like the rest of the world's countless civilizations

notably, vergil describes himself as a historian; he is a poet who writes about ancient heroes and the epic of his city's founding. g'raha's first appearance during ARR is as a disembodied voice, taunting the wol and introducing himself as a historian who longs to write a hero's epic, and we learn a little while later that he's an authority on allagan history (eorzea's roman empire). g'raha is like if vergil had been forced to become and play the part of his own character. actually. so you can imagine the kind of stress (and impostor's syndrome) that he's under

the aeneid is very interesting to compare to homeric epics, because while it's the direct sequel to the iliad (what happened after the fall of troy, focusing on the opposite side) and therefore works as a foil to the odyssey, it was written approximately 3 centuries after the iliad was written, and it shows. this mirrors the centuries of slumber and then timetraveling that g'raha went through; at the time the wol arrives to the crystarium, their own epic fresh in their mind, as their present and immediate past, the exarch has the same temporal distance to The WoL Epic(tm) as vergil to the iliad. there is this monumental 3 centuries timeskip in both cases here, present vs history, lived experience vs epic poem, that's just very interesting to examine imo

aeneas is not your typical epic hero. he's a great warrior, but he fights sparingly. he remains very mysterious, and visibly suffers a great deal. he is driven by pietas, the absolute necessity to fulfill his duty, to accomplish his fate, and wants to protect his people; he doesn't even truly know what he is doing, or why, but the gods force him to keep going relentlessly. his main strengths are his willpower and dedication to his duty (he WILL do what he is meant to do), which can make him callous, ruthless, even manipulative (see: his secret departure from carthage leading to dido's suicide). he is also a very gentle soul, extremely diplomacy-inclined, who loves his people dearly, only fighting when necessary; he's burdened by his years and the trauma of the fall of troy and is visibly traumatized. founding rome after crossing the mediterranean (symbolically echoeing with g'raha crossing the rift to the first: there is no going back) is the only way to keep troy alive - he travels with his ancestor's gods. rome is not troy, nor does he consider it as such, but it was an inspiration, and ultimately it's the only thing that remains of troy, the only future for his people. see g'raha's observation that he took inspiration from sharlayan when the crystarium was founded;

is that not the exarch's entire character. for real.

aeneas very often compares himself (unfavorably) to Proper HeroesTM too, regretting he was tasked with this undertaking even though he is unworthy compared to them (even tho he DID manage to make it in the end), because he has a different approach and different qualities. this is extra interesting to point out considering the wol themselves is quite strongly odysseus-coded imo, on top of being The Ultimate Epic Hero In General

cities!! the aeneid is all about cities. troy as a ghost, a painful memory, every-present to aeneas' mind; rome as a promised future, also a ghost, but a tangible reality to vergil and his readers; carthage, where most of the memorable action happens, the only actual, living, prosperous, present city in the entire epic. in a similar way, shadowbringers as a narrative is built around three cities: the crystarium, eulmore, and amaurot. i have already talked about it before but since sharlayan was, thanks to hydaelyn, directly influenced by the ancient world (and thus amaurot), and the crystarium was inspired from sharlayan, we have a similar fallen-city-inspiration ratio between troy and rome and amaurot and the crystarium. (that emet-selch failed to identify this similarity on account of his own ideology directly caused his own demise. isnt that lovely). (oh and also emet-selch threw in his lot with eulmore, in the same way that juno threw in her lot with carthage. we know how it ended for the both of them) (okay, this is not a 1:1 parallel, but work with me here. i did say it was a tinfoil hat theory)

in both cases, the story is about history, looking up to the future in the wake of tragedy, preserving your memories and identity but not at the cost of having life run its natural course, trying to understand what the gods want you to do, and, of course, The Horrors(tm)

i also talked about this before but venus, as the pateon deity of rome, does share a few traits with venat (including having a similar name). i uhhhhh need to reread Lucretius' De rerum natura to make sure i'm not spouting nonsense here, but the general idea is that Lucretius (roman philosopher and poet) described the first (?) complete atomic theory, which i strongly suspect was an inspiration for aetherology - what Lucretius describes when he talks about the atoms is very similar to what we know about aether. AND the most influential part of De rerum natura is an Hymn to Venus, in which he describes her as the very embodiment of nature's flow (cough) and the very precept of life (once again. don't take my word for it because i havent read it since 2017). #hydaelyncore

full disclosure: i got the idea for this theory when i realized that the shadowbringers red mage artefact weapon was called Aeneas. i hadnt read the Aeneid before going through shadowbringers

tl;dr: "the future is where my destiny awaits (and i have to found a diverse city-state in a foreign land about it.)": g'raha "crystal exarch" tia 🤝 aeneas from my roman epics

also i am MOST LIKELY forgetting crucial elements here because i constantly think about it but have never formally written The Theory(tm) anywhere so forgive me if i keep rambling in the reblogs at some point

[daz4i]

could dr. ratio originally be from the laurel wreath galaxy?

this is a repost of a theory i posted yesterday, now slightly more clean and properly tagged 🙏

in case you don't know, the laurel wreath galaxy (possibly a mistranlsation of "star system", if that changes anything) was supposedly destroyed during the emperor's wars. information about it is scattered throughout the game in very scarce ways. later i elaborate on how it went down in a more detailed way!

1. so let's get the most obvious detail out of the way first: he wears a laurel wreath 👍 at least a partial one (one leaf for every phd. maybe one day he'll reach a full head 😩)

these were common in ancient greece and ancient rome, cultures that his design, abilities, and eidolons are inspired by (both in aesthetic and language)

2. the laurel wreath galaxy was ruled by scholars - the philosopher union, until inorganic life took over during the emperor's wars. to give a very short tldr, civil war between organic and inorganic life, robots killed the head of the philosopher union, due to having no leaders the organic life of the galaxy was defeated

here we already have another obvious connection - philosophy, one of ratio's phds, that he even discusses with the trailblazer in one of his daily messages

3. one of the in-game sources about this place is the curio "rationality's fall". here is the first part of story attached to it for you to consider:

What is truth? No one truly knows. Supposing that "stupidity" is an incurable disease in this world, then disseminating knowledge counts as a treatment for the universe.

hm. we got a) truth (aka. ratio's name) b) a description of stupidity as a disease, which is something he claims repeatedly and thus seeks to cure it, in part by distributing knowledge (which is why he joined the guild, and why he's a teacher).

3.5. only other somewhat relevant part of this description is its mention of books ("Through such absurd means, books cleansed a world of its impurities once more") but that's not necessarily related to him obviously. however it's worth pointing out that one of his interactions on the express is literally all about how much he loves books and implying that they are relatively rare these days ("The touch of a paper book is a sensation I frequently find myself missing"). just a little something to think about

4. in gold and gears, there is an occurrence - cogito hair salon: intelligentsia guild - that implies that ratio is 2000ish years old. afaik these occurrences all happen around the same time as the emperor wars, aka when all the shit went down in laurel wreath

now. if you've read literally any of my other ratio theories. you know i don't quite like this, bc i find that ratio being 2000+ years old kinda defeats his whole Thing as a character. but we can't deny that it's there (tho possibly a mistranslation from what i gathered, but i can't say for sure) so i'm gonna use it for this theory 👍

5. here's where i'm gonna become full-on conspiracy brain. don't say i didn't warn you

after the whole defeat of the union, there were followers of aha who rose against the inorganic lifeforms and infected them with what's described as a "troll virus" called Philosopher's poison. i can't quite tell you if it's poison *to* philosophers (bc from what i gathered the inorganic life of laurel wreath were also philosophers) or caused *by* philosophers (implying these followers of aha were themselves philosophers as well. i like this interpretation more tbh)

what you're supposed to get from all that^ is that there was a large number of followers of aha in this galaxy, and they were wise enough to stand against robots that tried to wipe out their people, and even overthrow their army.

it's a pretty common theory by now that ratio has connections to the elation (beyond just the worm theory :P tho a lot of relevant info that i bring up here was gathered by @/b1adie in said theory which is very helpful, please go check it out 🙏) which, if he is indeed from laurel wreath, may add another layer to his past

some connections between ratio and aha, off the top of my head:

a. has an owl mask on his right shoulder, close to where aha has an owl mask located as well + his eyes fit aha's color scheme

b. refers to himself as a "side character" in the sticker book - sampo and sparkle, our known fools, do as well

c. can basically instantly disappear when characters aren't looking at him - as seen in his conversations with aventurine - which i can say for sure sampo does as well (like in the museum mission chain), possibly sparkle too tho i can't recall a specific instance to back this up

d. bows to the audience at the end of his quest, same as sampo does at the end of the belobog storyline

e. known to work from the shadows and pull the strings to make things happen or for his observation, which is how aha is described too at times, as well as their followers (sparkle is literally shown pulling strings of puppets in the "it's showtime" light cone, also sampo *gestures at literally everything he does during the belobog arc* Yeah)

f. in the herta space station, he creates a bit of a panic and theoretically puts people in danger, but in the end they all turn out okay. a similar instance can be seen in the "bestial ferocity" mission, where zhongshan, another masked fool, creates chaos for her own entertainment, which does end up hurting the people involved but absolutely not in major ways. in a way, at least in her view, she solved their problems too. while ratio probably doesn't cause chaos just for entertainment, but rather for information, you can argue these cases are similar, especially when at the end of the day they do end up helping these people in their own way. you can also claim that sparkle and sampo do similar things in their own respective arcs for their own reasons (sparkle with. the bombs. and sampo with dragging tb & bronya to the underworld. i'd argue neither of them do these for entertainment but that's an analysis for another time) aka this is a pretty common behavior for masked fools!

g. a smaller thing, but, the main part of his kit is follow-up attacks, which is aha's thing in the simulated universe

h. is his headpiece considered a mask? in his first conversation with tb on the astral express, he ends by saying "With this mask on, I intend to keep the world at bay". this is in reply to tb saying "i hope you are swayed by the express", and given ratio's main uses for his headpiece (dull his senses and block out stupid people), it makes most sense that he's referring to that here. we see him wearing it in-game precisely when he is about to cause chaos, too

also he has a mask on his shoulder. as already pointed out. so. not beating the masked fool allegations

^all this was actually to make you fall for the fool ratio theory. sorry. but i swear it's related to this post's main theory

-

so to connect this back to laurel wreath. the followers of aha used a virus. one of ratio's phds is in engineering, so he could've used that to create the virus. it might even be one of the achievements attributed to him that caused him to be recognized by the university as eligible for teaching in the first place, who knows

combining everything laid out here, you can probably see where i'm going with this - was ratio one of the followers of aha who took down the inorganic lifeforms of laurel wreath using this virus?

also, just for extra spice - this could add another layer to ratio's disdain towards the genius society, given that the one who incited the emperor's wars was a member of it

that's all i have for you for now 🙏 idk if this was intended, but i love speculating about ratio's origin and backstory, and i think this is a pretty cool option for it!

[sunsetsentiments]

[[repost from my reblog bc i'm definitely reblogging this specific parallel in the future lmao]]

no bc let's talk about percy going,, "i'm sally jackson's son!" in the tv show vs. jason in blood of olympus when he sees the mania of his mother and he tells her, "i'm a child of greece and rome. i'm no child of yours."

percy has always been grounded in the love of his mother who taught him to choose his own path and stay true to himself. meanwhile, beryl literally abandoned jason to the wolves. not only did he have to fend for himself at three years old,, he also soon learned that he was the son of jupiter, meaning he was meant for greatness. from the moment his name was given out of an obligation to please hera,, his character was destined to believe that his path was chosen for him. it's why he struggles with his identity, and who he is vs. who he's expected to be.

the saddest part?

just when he was breaking free and started doing things for himself,, he gets himself killed for the sake of the greater good. saving piper's life. helping apollo on his quest to free the oracles. he died a hero's death, unable to escape the prophecy that seems set up for him from the very beginning.

[shadowqueenjude]

me and sjm are about to have a world building problem because she's killing me she obviously takes inspiration from ancient civilizations and geographical names around the Mediterranean, like the greeks (Eris, Helios, etruscans (literally their goddess of dawn is named thesan). Tarquin the last king of rome (and ironically the opposite of acotar Tarquin). Adriata should then come from the Adriatic sea and their architecture seems greco-roman. But then she mixes it up and gives the court fae brown skin (by the way, what kind of brown, this tells me nothing, i don't need like pantone, but slight more description) For the night court, she's just weird with it. the clothes Feyre is initially given by Rhysand kind of read to me like what you find when you search up 'sexy belly dancer'). Same with all of the clothes she wears when visiting Hewn City. I feel like she was trying to incorporate some more "exotic" things but it doesn't match the rest of the court. It seems like there's a couple different groups with completely different aesthetics that are completely separate from one another. Both Illyria and the court of nightmares seem like vassal states to Velaris and aside from Illyrians having tan skin and being called something around the lines of savages (very POC-coded), there is little to no evidence of any aesthetics that could be considered non-European. Not architecture-wise, name-wise, or (for the most part) fashion-wise. Now, it is a free country, SJM can write however and about whatever she wants. But I feel like there is just such a loss there. No matter where in the world you go, there is evidence of different cultures. Rich cultures which someone could easily take inspiration from!! I just wish she took the time to go down some of the rabbit holes fic writers go down, learning a multitude about what ends up being a small part of your story. Right now, her POC characters feel like an afterthought where she had her story written and then just inserted the word dark/tan on a couple characters. (Also I had no idea Amren was east asian until someone said she was on here and I do have to ask, where is the east asian exotica? Normally if you have one you have the other.) Also her in-universe world building is so convoluted and i hate it and nothing makes sense. I love magical objects as much as the next person, but some of these are one-and-done objects that you definitely could have had more use over. I think she has a vague plan and is just doing whatever she thinks of first to get to each plot point. (me in essays) Also, someone should make an anti-inner circle timeline with all the fucked things they've done so we don't forget. (And hope in the next book, sjm writes about a war crime tribunal for the past... century) thanks for listening to my rant, I've just been struggling to figure out how characters and courts play out and getting more frustrated as I continue.

Anon, you summed up all my frustrations perfectly!

Sjm writes her worldbuilding and tropes like she’s still writing fanfiction. I try to write fanfiction of her stories and I realize I know nothing about the places we’re supposed to be exploring.

Sjm takes inspiration from many many things but then she doesn’t commit to anything. She cherry picks shit to utilize based on vibes and together it doesn’t make sense. It’s really annoying when you see inspiration from your culture that could’ve been used so much better.

As for the IC, they’ve committed so many crimes it would require a thorough reread of all the books to note down all of them.

[demeterdefence]

hi! i just wanted to ask in regards to your whitewashing post, i've seen some people disagree with the term whitewashing and i'm not quite sure why because like...if greece is multicultural and you erase that then it is whitewashing lol. but im also from a western country so i get im biased. just seems like a weird miscommunication? or is like 'americanized' better?

you're good! i get the confusion and i understand that for a lot of people "whitewashing" has become a kind of "sjw buzzword" that has been taken out of context in many places.

whitewashing is quite literally as the name suggests - it strips the colour from the story, narrative, or culture. there are some people who believe the term comes from the statues of ancient greece and rome being "stripped" of their colour over the years, leaving purely white statues behind. the concept of this whiteness became core to the concept and identity of ancient rome and greece, allowing centuries of art and rhetoric to depict them as solely caucasion, homogenous and unchanging.

when we look at the culture of ancient greece, we know the art, the style, the clothing, the politics, the very minutiae of everyday life was radically different than it is today. that's history! we grow, we change, we expand and we create new. greece was not one solitary culture or identity, but a collection that expanded and brought forth many fundamental creations people use today.

when rachel, or many other "modern retellers," depict these stories, they like to remove the origins of the myths - persephone being dressed in american / western "glam" fashion, for example. rachel repeatedly makes the explicit statement that the mortal realm, and by extension the ancient greeks, were boring, flat, and homogenous; only the gods have colour, and only the gods have innovation, creation, and life.

but what we, the reader, have to remember is that the fashion the gods wear, the food they're depicted as eating, the cars they drive - those are all western objects. rachel draws a lot of the gods life as if it was an episode of "keeping up with the kardashians," and goes out of her way to disdain the origins of the culture she's supposed to be depicting. not only does that serve to erase centuries of culture and mark it as "bad / boring," it again represents a very white / whitewashed presentation. besides the few mortals who pop up (who are ALL lightskinned), the only character of explicit non-white ethnicity is psyche (and she goes through her own racial changes, it is not ideal.)

rachel is very explicitly replacing the greek world, the culture, the heritage, with her modern, westernized one. she does not research or present greece as itself, so for many readers, their understanding of greece is explicitly what rachel is telling them. this serves to cover / obfuscate the actual history of the people rachel claims to be telling.

this is a great article that talks about it a little more but in short - there is a LOT of americanization in lore olympus, absolutely. but it's not solely americanized - it's more a western / white-fronting narrative, and that is concerning.

[betterbemeta]

A state is:

A construct/structure

outlined in a legal document

maintained in the present day

an entity with diplomatic responsibilities to those who live within and outside of it

organized by real people with goals and investments

run by some sort of government, which makes practical decisions about and for groups of people

a system of allocating resources and determining wealth

demarcated by artificial borders

established and maintained by the enforcement of law

A state is not:

'a homeland', 'motherland,' 'holy land,' etc.

a spiritual calling or spiritual necessity

something that has any specific destiny, or confers a destiny

something foretold in the past, or the subject of any prophecy

the proof of any specific person or group's authority

inherently a sanctuary to any person

a service to a specific race, religion, culture, ideology, social demographic of any kind

similar to a social family unit or 'a home/household'

the source of any significant culture by itself

the same as any ancient entity with the same name even if there is a continuity of history between them (the historical Rome is not modern Italy, etc.)

an objective experience, or even consistent to those within or outside of it

fundamental, unchanging, or 'natural'

bestowed by any divine or spiritual power

able to 'sympathetically' impact those who live there (its characteristics do not impact its own population in any way until power is directly applied)

a thing with mystique, character, mythology, locality, novelty by itself

culturally significant on earth in a way that another state or non-state existence couldn't satisfy

a source of symbolic (not material, literal) prosperity

empowered in its own right, separate from its political leadership

a person with feelings, rights we give to real human people

your friend?

[burlowbeanie]

Ok. My prev reblog got me thinking more about Anastasia and samael and they are just so fascinating. A few thoughts below:

Character names are important in the locked tomb series — that’s been well established from the end of gtn, when Muir literally holds our hand and points that out to us. They indicate themes, plot points, relationships. Significantly, we don’t get another naming explanation in ntn and there’s nothing but pronunciations for Anastasia and Samael for htn, leaving us to fill in the blanks. I think that the gtn appendix about names was more than just a fun add-on; it was Muir telling us how to piece the plot together. I’m going to build from some theories I r seen circulating/respond to them with a close reading of the names.

Now, on to the og ninth pair. (I know samael might not have been ninth because it wasn’t definitively founded until his death, but you know what I mean.)

Anastasia: first thing that comes to mind is the Russian princess. I’ve seen theories that Anastasia is the bones in the corner of Alecto’s tomb, which I find convincing. I’ve heard theories that she’s done something like Pal and might be coming back.

Anastasia, missing Russian princess, subject to countless theories and myths and animated movies about her possible return. Only to have her bones finally discovered in a basement. (It’s not confirmed which ones were hers out of her and her sisters’ remains, but all of them are accounted for.)

I don’t know if Anastasia is coming back. But frankly, I doubt it. She is gone. Anyone claiming to be her in Alecto is more likely to be an imposter.

Now, Samael. The first thing that stands out about is name is that it’s one of those -ael angel names. Not surprising, given the impact of Christianity/Catholicism both implicit in the text and, after Nona, now known to explicitly be something influencing the thoughts and actions and persons of many of Jod’s crew (especially Cristabel and Jod himself tbh).

Now, initially that was all I knew. I may have been raised Christian and been, unfortunately, a theology geek, but I do not have a encyclopedic knowledge of all angels ever. Knowing stuff about angels other than, like, Michael and Gabriel always seemed vaguely heretical probably due to boring American Protestantism conditioning, idk. But, I am expecting some deep theological cut with the name so I go to look it up. And boy oh boy was I not disappointed.

So Samael is an archangel who mostly shows up in Jewish texts and lore, not Christian/Catholic stuff. He’s 1) an ambiguous figure, sometimes a fallen angel and sometimes not; 2) often called the angel of death; 3) sometimes associated with Rome/Christianity as the embodiment of sin/danger/god’s wrath against Israel; and 4) in most depictions responsible for Eve taking the fruit, having ridden the serpent “like a camel” and convinced her to do so (because he doesn’t like humanity? To spite heaven? To give them knowledge? Idk how many of those are actual traditions of interpretation.) I unfortunately do not know enough about Judaism to unpack that in full, and I hope that I am not completely misinterpreting something, but it’s fascinating that the “angel of death” is linked to the same place where the “death of god” is laid to rest. Then, there’s the link with Rome/Christianity and how much the necromantic empire reflects those things. The thing that is making me so excited though is his association with the temptation of Eve, the Serpent, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now. That’s interesting. There’s a character named Angel, or something that translates to that. And she has a dog named noodle. And another fascinating element of tlt it’s use of memes. Several others have pointed out the baffling and one-off connection between snakes (some even suggested the the biblical serpent just from that) and Noodle, with the literal quote “Noodle. Danger” from the Angel, and how it seems to reference the meme-form way of referring to snakes as “danger noodles.” We also know that the Angel is passing down something, possibly the implant, that is an important message. (Angels are, of course, messengers of god).

I think that what they are passing down is Samael, in some form. The Blood of Eden himself. The angel of death. The messenger. The serpent’s companion, the maybe-fallen. And I think that he is going to return in Alecto, as we encounter the death of god.

I always wondered why Anastasia wanted Jod there when she attempted lyctorhood, if that was the truth, how she could have discovered a potentially successful mode of true lyctorhood and not have suspicions about him. I think that “doing the ritual more slowly” wasn’t all she did. I think she potentially found a way to transfer Samael’s consciousness, let him piggyback like Gideon or Pyrrah in htn. I think she got him safe, or at least partially so, when Jod killed him. She wanted to trick Jod into thinking he’s gone or something maybe? I have no idea how the Blood of Eden would have gotten involved, but based on their goddamn name invoking Eden they are definitely linked to him.

If any of the original lyctors or cavaliers are revealed to still exist in Alecto the ninth, it will not be Anastasia, the red herring, the dead bones in a basement finally discovered and proven dead after so much speculation. It will be Samael, the angel of death, the temptation within Eden, the companion to the danger noodle serpent.