#I am begging ppl not to assume everything is a Christian reference

[honselinkmanipulator]

So I saw a post floating around abt the Sagas being the 7 deadly sins and, frankly aside from some being a big stretch, it felt even more of a stretch to apply Christian ideas like that to the representation of a Japanese Buddhist character created in East Asia. I’m not saying these are perfect fits but I’ve made this image to compile all the organizations of 7 AND 6 (assuming one of the Sagas is the “real” one, for this purpose I’ve made the Saga with biteys the real one which may not be true but like I said these likely aren’t 100% perfect) in Japanese Buddhism that I think overall make WAY more sense as references than sins: The 7 Lucky Gods, The 6 Desires (which I should add are NOT inherently bad things, there is acceptance and mindfulness and being in control of one’s actions related to desire but that does not make them bad and it was rlly off putting to me how many ppl pointed at the fat Saga and went “well that is clearly the sin of gluttony” like honestly one of my biggest issues with that theory was the fatphobia like sure a character can be fat and gluttonous but when you’re assigning it to a fat character based on some weird assumption then come on; desire of the mouth is more neutral and less offensive), The 6 Paramitas, The 7 Emotions. With a character as steeped in Buddhism as Saga to the point she’s named for the emperor that oversaw the development of schools of Shingon, one of the oldest Japanese Buddhist schools, I just think it makes little sense.

[witchofeindor]

Rebecca Bunch - Miserable Jewishness* vs. Cheery Christianity?

I can’t wait for this season’s Jewish(tm) episode (if there is one this season, but based on this show’s patterns, I’d say it’s safe to assume there’ll be) because like,

During 1.08 ( “My Mom, Greg's Mom and Josh's Sweet Dance Moves!”) we see Rebecca  being miserable to Kley Zemer music (=Jewish music) playing in the background (’Where’s The Bathroom?’, as well as at the beginning of the episode when she removes all evidence of Christmas decorations and replaces them with Xanuka decorations and symbols instead), but being actually cheery and happy for a while to Christmas music playing (’California Christmastime’ but also the cheery Christmas music playing at the beginning of the episode).

Conclude from that what you will, but Rebecca seems to be miserable with anything related to Jewishness (see also 2.10) whereas she has, well, more positive feelings to anything Christian-related (’California Christmastime’, that cheery X-mas music at the beginning of 1.08, and also that line she says to Valencia about feeling happy as a child would feel @ Easter bunnies or smt** ‘If I were only allowed to believe in Jesus!’ in 2.05.)

In addition to that, we see Rebecca refer to her Jewish side of the family on the East Coast as ‘dark, sad and miserable’ in 2.10 (or smt along those lines) and she grows really frustrated when Josh cannot see how miserable everything with us Jews is.

Now, one might think her association of Jewishness with misery as purely based on rationale and logic, and as a Jew myself and a child to Jewish refugees, I definitely can see where that thought might come from and why (partially) she associates Jewishness with misery; our entire history, our personal family stories, our /culture/ is all about survival and mixing misery with happiness, without really being allowed to /chill/ for a second, we must keep on fighting, we must survive, we must stay alive out of spite or all of our dead were murdered in vain. They died so we can survive. 90% of our holidays really ARE about ‘They tried to kill us, they couldn’t, let’s eat’ [the other 10% are ‘we have wronged both god and humanity, let’s repent to god whose own existence we doubt bc we are Jews and we are miserable, bitter cynics who doubt everything and to the ppl whom we’ve wronged (who, magically, happen to be every fucking one including ourselves bc there’s no Tikkun Olam yet but let’s not delve into that rn)]. (And 5 out of 6 of our fasts are about ‘they tried to kill us, they succeeded, let’s fast to remember all of the dead Jews’.) 

From a young age, we are raised to stories about our people being persecuted and our parents pass on their own traumas from antisemitism and persecution unto us. We are raised with the notion that we have always been persecuted, which is, sadly, not inaccurate historically. Rebecca herself mentions to Rabbi Shari that Jewish trauma is passed through genes. (2.10) (Op can tragically confirm).

As a culture, we do mix happiness with misery, and the wonderful ‘Remember That We Suffered’ captures that spirit perfectly. (I’ve shown it to every Jewish person who understands English I know, and we all felt extremely called out by this song bc it is so very true.)

But, that being said, I beg to differ, I don’t think that Rebecca’s misery with her Jewishness (and cheeriness regarding Christianity) comes from, well, our tendency to darken up things alone. I believe a lot of her hatred and rejection towards her Jewishness is projected from her hatred towards her mother, she associates her mother with anything Jewish, and just like her mother makes her miserable, ANYTHING even remotely Jewish makes her miserable.

And then there’s her garbage piece of father (to quote Paula, whom I agree with 10000% in this case), who, we know from 1.08, is an Irish catholic. Even though he is a piece of trash and probably the one of only characters on the entire show with whom you just cannot sympathise, we know that Rebecca loves him and desperately hopes to reconcile with him (at least up to 2.13); and just like she associates anything Jewish with her mother, she probably associates everything Christian with her father, and everything even remotely Christian reminds her of him, and probably makes her feel as if she’s reunited with him again, which might explain her cheeriness around anything Christian.

However, then 2.13 happens and Rebecca finally takes a huge step and makes a healthy decision and finally gives up on her piece of shit for a father and cuts him from her life. 

While Naomi certainly does not deserve Mum of the Year award and has wronged and hurt Rebecca multiple times (most, if not all, wrongings were well-intended, without realising that this is not what Rebecca really needs), she does really love and care about Rebecca and we see it throughout the show (1.08, 1.15, heartbreaking 3.05 and on plenty more occasions) and while she refuses to admit or even acknowledge it, I do believe she realises it somewhere deep inside her. (Yes, even after the tragic aftermath of 3.05).

Now that Rebecca has finally given up on piece of trash for her father, she might no longer associate Christianity with the cheeriness she used to, which makes me think, will it make her reconsider her attitude towards Jewishness?

So yeah, if my predictions are right and this season has one Jewish(tm) episode, I am certainly looking forward to it, even more than before, because it’ll be interesting to see Rebecca’s attitude towards Jewishness.

Tld;r - Rebecca used to associate Jewishness with her mother and therefore with misery, while Christianity was associated with her dad and therefore with cheeriness and maybe hope, but now that she no longer wants her father in her life, will it make her reconsider her attitude towards Jewishness? We don’t know yet and therefore I am looking forward to the seasonal Jewish(tm) episode, even more than ever.

*I’m using Jewishness and not Judaism on purpose here bc I’m referring to Rebecca’s Jewishness from a cultural and ethnic point of view and not from a religious pov bc we know how Rebecca feels about god. (Always questioning, like the true spirit of the Jewish people.)

**I don’t remember the exact line and I’m too tired to rewatch it rn to write it down exactly but you know what I mean.

I apologise for any mistakes, English is my 3rd language, I’m terrible at expressing myself even in my mother tongue, AND I’m after like 16 hours of being up/working only on one hour of sleep, so oops if this makes zero sense.