#I wonder what's their connection to saul is

[epicfirestormer]

I don't usually post about newly released chapters for One Piece, but oh my god

[wolfythewitch]

HI so first off thank you for the New Testament art it truly slays! also congrats you’re part of the push that led me to decide to apply to grad school to specialize in classical history (long story there, but your art with some others and the resurgence of translation discourse got me back in the building again after trying to be a contemporary history student for my major)

So two questions:

Most of the religious art you’ve drawn (that I have seen) has been New Testament, centered around Jesus and the apostles and the stories connected to them (such as the virgin birth, dying on the cross, sermons on peace and acceptance, etc.). I was wondering if you had any favorite Old Testament stories, especially as you were discussing Nazarene Vs. Nazarite which made me think of Samson who also took the vow?

Second question, but more silly: what is your favorite trait to draw?

Anyways sorry for the word dump but Yee :D

Oughhh I really like David's whole story but, especially the parts related to king Saul. I think he was neat. I have designs for David and Jonathan somewhere but I never got around to polishing them

And um. My favorite trait to draw is like those lines under your eyes when you want to indicate that someone is either tired or old. Banger design, always adds more spice to a drawing

[eddiiiieeee]

My Angel ☆☆

Slash x reader 

warnings: a bit of angst at the start, just fluff, mentions of alcohol and drugs, etc.

summary: y/n and Saul get into a fight about his addiction, and saul finds a letter y/n had written about him.

authors note: listen to September - sparky deathcap, because it fit 💀 part 1!

Saul's eyes slowly began fluttering open, how he'd prayed it was all a bad dream. he could see a figure standing against the balcony door, the soft wind occasionally blowing her hair. it was her, it was y/n. He got up slowly rubbing his eyes as he walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and putting his forehead against her shoulder, what made his heart ache was the fact that she tensed up "please don't do that" he whispered, not being able to handle the thought of her leaving him. She kept her gaze at the beach straight ahead, she knew she should listen to the voice in her head, not Saul's begging her not to leave, but that tiny one that was warning her, to not put herself through, god she should listen but how could she? how could she leave her angel. her beautiful boy.

"you have to promise me. promise me that you won't relapse again, because I can't do this every time. I can't keep handling having to put you in a new rehab program every single fucking time you relapse because the one before didn't work. I can't handle coming home one day to find you dead on our bathroom floor, I really can't Saul, I get so worried when you head over to the studio because I know that if Axl even offers you a drop of fucking heroin you'd take it without a second thought. I can't lose you Saul, and you can't seem to comprehend that, I really can't." she said letting out a few sobs as her hands flew to hide her face in her palms, Saul looked at her and spun her slowly "I am so sorry sweetheart." he mumbled his own tears rolling down his cheeks as he hugged her tightly she wrapped her arms around him sobbing into his chest, how she missed his scent. "I promise you I'm never doing any of that shit ever again, I swear to you y/n." he mumbled into her hair kissing the top of her as she moved to look at him, he looked down into her eyes, wondering how could he have hurt her so much "can I kiss you?" he asked moving some of her hair away from her face as she nodded, parting her lips a bit as he leaned down to kiss her, his hands resting on her cheeks as hers stayed in their place around his waist "I love you, I love you so so much it hurts." he mumbled to her against her lips "I know" she mumbled back as they kept their lips connected, Slash always told her that his lips were made to kiss hers, just hers and no one else's. they were moulded perfectly to fit her lips. once they'd pulled away, y/n kept her forehead against his "I love you, and one day, if you'll take me, I'm gonna marry you, I'm gonna take you wherever you want, we can have those kids you said you wanted" he chuckled through his tears. "you know, the ones with big curly hair and brown eyes?" he said as she grinned a bit knowing he'd read her journal as she had never mentioned kids to Slash "you read that?" she mumbled as she wiped her cheeks "yep, I read the part where I'm your angel. just so you know, I know someone whos even more angelic then I am." he smiled as she moved back a bit to look at him, as her eyebrows furrowed "and whos that?" "you." he said, watching her cheeks turn red as she chuckled a bit "I seriously love you so much," Saul told her caressing her cheek with his thumb "I love you too, baby," she said as he connected their lips once more .... this was short I'm sorry!! but here's part 2!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Walter White has the death note does Jessie survive breaking bad? Does anyone?!

...

No.

Let's break this down though.

Let's say Walter White gets the notebook at the beginning of the series before he's fully embraced the dark side. He has a bizarre introduction to Ryuk, wonders if the cancer has already spread to his brain, and chooses to actively ignore it.

Then Crazy Eight happens.

That notebook starts to look very tempting. If Walter lets Crazy Eight live, then he'll murder him and his family. Walter knows this, but he also really really really doesn't want to kill a man. Even if, with this notebook, if it actually works, then Walter can engineer his death in such a way that it will be painless and won't trace back to Walter.

I imagine he doesn't do it then, has to kill Crazy Eight by hand as in canon, and bitterly regrets not using it as he a) had to murder a man by hand anyway b) the body cleanup is a cluster fuck.

(Ryuk also mercilessly points this out to Walter, though he's loving the fucking meth lab thing Walter has going on, "You could make this a TV show")

Then comes Tuco.

This time, Walter gives it a try.

Tuco is filled with the sudden need to snort a lot of meth, a lot, a lot more than usual, and Hector watches helpless as Tuco dies of a drug overdose. (Oh, don't worry, he still hates Walter White and thinks he's a rat, but it's not the shootout and attempted poisoning we got in canon and it's clearly Tuco having fallen prey to his addiction and something that was, perhaps, a long time coming.)

Jesse likely calls 911 in order to get the cops out to this location to find Hector and the body but the pair vamoose, with Hector unwilling to talk to the police about the odd kidnapping.

(Hank, as a result, is not promoted as he doesn't gun down Tuco. He doesn't have his brief foray into El Paso and is not quite as obsessive over Heisenberg in the initial aftermath/confrontation.

He also, later, will not be attacked by the cousins and paralyzed.

Hank doesn't realize he's literally dodged bullets.)

Walter at first wonders, again, if the cancer has gone to his brain but he's not losing time, his moods are (relatively) stable, and there's no inconsistencies. The death god, grim reaper, whatever the fuck it is is real, and Walter has a weapon he can use to murder if he has a name and a face.

Walter makes a point of breaking into Hank's office under false pretexts and memorizing the names and faces of everyone in the drug business who Walter may cross paths with next.

When Badger is arrested, he hangs himself in prison. Jesse is appalled and horrified, grieving, and unable to understand why someone as cheerful as Badger would do this.

"Ah, well, prison is rough," Walter consoles him.

However, what Walter doesn't realize is that this prevents him from getting into business with Saul, who had the means to get him connected with Gus.

He and Jesse are small fries again trying to sell their own shit with no middle management.

Walter tries to get Jessie's friends involved as he did in canon. Jesse once again notes this is an awful idea and that they are not the kind of people who can do this kind of operation. More, the people who normally do this sort of thing are fucking dead as Walter killed Crazy Eight and Tuco snorted himself to death.

Not to mention, of course, that it's not their territory and if they try they will all be murdered.

As usual, Walter doesn't care. They're still in shock over Badger, grieving over it, but are interested in both the money and the meth.

As before, this goes bad, and we'll say Combo gets killed again. Poor, poor, Combo.

Well, Walt can't stand for this and neither can Jessie. Walt asks if Jessie can find out who it was, does he have photos? Walter needs names and faces here.

Jessie figures Walter's going to try to get Hank to bust them and tries to talk him out of it: you can't do that Walter, otherwise everyone will kill you.

Eventually, as usual, Walter's able to get the names through Jessie who does some snooping. It's highly likely that there's some record (as these were low level under Gus) and Walter's seen them through Hank's files.

Well, they're about to have a very bad day.

Walter flagrantly kills them in such a way to make it look like deliberate murder/revenge. He wants their people to know that Heisenberg is responsible and that he follows up on threats. ("I am the danger" - Walter White)

Unfortunately, this probably goes awry, as Walter hasn't been spending his time learning the million rules that come with the Death Note. I can see Walter trying to get the pair to make their own ricin, ingest it, then spraypainting "Heisenberg" on a wall or something. However, the Death Note can't impart knowledge that the victim doesn't already have: they can't make ricin if they don't know how.

They die of heart attacks.

Walter throws a bitch fit of bitch fits as now his cool murder is ruined and everyone just thinks they had fucking heart conditions.

I imagine Walter, upon figuring out which cartel they belong to, tries again with other cartel members, now knowing the rules a little better to send the message.

Mike and Gus are now very aware that someone's whacking off their guys and the Salamancas.

Hank, who initially thought this was great and threw a party in the office at all the dead cartel members, is starting to get a little weirded out.

First, Crazy Eight disappears. Then Tuco dies of a drug overdose. Then all these street thugs just die one after the other in murders with no forensic evidence.

This, combined with the blue meth, that's still on the streets despite all the deaths: there's a new king pin and it's looking like, somehow, he's murdering off all competition.

This leaves Hank about where he was in canon: he really really really wants to catch this fucker Heisenberg (while Walter is smugly gloating thinking how cool he is and wanting to expand further).

Gus, meanwhile, is getting serious in a way that he didn't have to in canon: they have to find out who this Heisenberg is. Walter left enough clues that someone like Gus, who is a master of looking not like a kingpin, will be easily able to find him especially through Mike who is hired to look into exactly this sort of thing.

I imagine they wait and watch for a long time, as Walter's operation is, frankly, pathetic. He only has a few young men under his thumb, two of them have died already, his partner is a drug addict, and he appears to have no muscle. How could this man kill anyone? While it would be safer to get rid of him entirely, learning how he's doing it is of vital importance.

Mike gets to break into the house and finds (along with cash hidden in the walls) a strange black notebook, filled with the names of all their people along with Tuco, and a death clown who's just fucking loving this.

Mike has a really strange day but decides that he's taking the hallucination notebook into the lab.

And Walter, of course, gets to freak out that his murder weapon was stolen from under his nose and gets told by Ryuk that, unless he gets it back soon, he's going to lose ownership of it and lose all his memories of it.

Walter, in his panic, probably does something exceedingly violent and stupid and likely dies because of it as he has no idea who took it.

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Are Your Roots Deep Enough?

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ Habakkuk 3:19: “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights.”

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VERSE OF THE DAY

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+ Romans 8:25  Now, if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

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** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I HAVE THE TRUE FOUNDATION WHICH IS JESUS

I AM FULLY  INVESTED

I AM HYDRATED SPIRITUALLY

I AM CONNECTED TO CHRIST

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THOUGHTS:

=======================

So, it's hard to wait on anything; we discussed this the other week, but we will see that God is ready to bless and keep us and help us through all our things and problems. Still, we don’t see him doing it sometimes, but it doesn’t mean he's not working everything out for our good, and that’s what we must wait for is him.

   How patient are you with him working things out? Look at David; David waited so long to be king he had to be under King Saul; he was a musician before he was king, a shepherd, a giant slayer, and a furious warrior; he was all those things before he became king, and do you think he was wondering when his time will be ,but look David had some growing before he could just take over being king.

  He had to experience things before he became what he was called to do, and that’s where some of us are at right now; we are in our waiting season, our growing season and a lot of us don’t want to be here; we want to be out doing what we want to do, but we can't ,so we must wait eagerly with patience and for things we can't see. Other people won't see your growth and your change. They won't, but we must always keep pushing forward.

    Colossians 2:7: Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then, your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

   We must allow our roots to grow down deep. When we see plants growing in a pot, they usually do this because they are comfortable; they will even take the form of the pot because they feel secure in that pot, and that’s when you know that plant is secure. Sometimes, we must allow our roots to grow in God and let him build our lives, and when we do this, our faith will grow because we are growing in him; we are trusting in him that he has our best interest in mind and then we will start to be content because we no longer depend on ourselves.

   That’s what David had to do, even if everything looked shaky. Everything looked like a windstorm. He had to stay in it and trust that God got him through his problems. It took patience and trust in God. Are your roots deep enough? Have you become comfortable in this season, letting everything around you go and walking in his purpose for your life?

   2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test

  Every day, we must examine ourselves to see if we are where we must be; a lot of us aren’t where we should be because we are too focused on other things like more money, jobs, relationships, and fleshly desires instead of where we should be, which is where God has us; sometimes, we forget that our lives aren’t our own and where God places us is for a reason, and where he places us is supposed to mold us and shape us.

    When we allow ourselves to take root in the season we are in, we can see his plan because we aren’t focused on anything else; how long has it been since you went to God and said, "Am I where you wanted me to be? Am I heading in the direction you wanted me to go? I don’t see anything, but I know you see it all!

  Proverbs 1:5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

  We must hear to be able to learn, and we must accept guidance from him and that’s because if we don’t hear and we don’t slow down and allow him to conduct us and allow him to give us what we need, we will grow deeper into more impurities than we could ever imagine. 

God is waiting for us to seek his will; we might think we are waiting on him, and we might think we are doing everything right, but if we are moving and doing everything else, we think he wants. Really and truly, he’s been trying to say to us stop and take root; we will miss opportunities and doors for our lives because we refuse to check in and see what he wants from us.

    We could be stepping into a place of dryness because we didn’t seek him before we moved; today, ask God do you want me to wait ? What is it you trying to show me? Because we can look and not see, we can hear and not hear because we hear what we want and see what we want. Ask God to open your eyes so you can see the bigger picture and take root in him.

   Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well-built.

    We always want to be the man in this story who dig deep and laid a foundation; when we have a foundation in Christ, nothing else can come and break it; nothing can come and shake it because when we are deeply invested with God, that’s all that matters and that’s the most powerful foundation anyone can have is with him. We can try to have the foundation in other things here on earth, but nothing can help us stand strong; nothing else can make our lives better when we read our word, we pray, and we mediate daily those things help hold us up because we are seeking him, start seeking God more start taking deep session with him than the ones you have. You’ll see a deeper connection developing between you and God.

   ***Today, we learned that when a plant is comfortable, it grows deep roots into the pot it’s in, and when we are going deeper with our time with God, we will become like the pot and build a foundation like the man in the verse, anything we do when we fully invested in God it will show in our actions and what we deem as necessary.

   Many times, when we don’t think something is necessary, we will not invest a lot of time in it. Still, every day, we don’t spend time with God; we are dying spiritually, we are becoming dry, and to stay hydrated, we must come and drink of the living water; he asks us to come many times in the word but do we hear his call or do we deny it, take root in God today and don’t deny him your time or your life. ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

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PRAYER

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for allowing us to see another day and for allowing us to be deeply rooted in you. Lord, help us stay connected to you and closer to you. Show us how to spend more time with you, lord; we ask you as we go through that; you show us how to not become disconnected because of life but to stay connected because you are what we need most of all. Lord, sometimes we become so confused, but we ask you to show us everything we need and more. In Jesus' Name Amen

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REFERENCES

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+ 1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

 

+ John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.

 

+ Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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FURTHER READINGS

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Proverbs 8

Exodus 26

Judges 9

Jeremiah 42

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[mamsellechosette24601]

Had a uni assignment to use Freud to analyse any piece of media of my choosing... I did it with Dead Ringers (1988) and Crimes of the Future (2022) and particularly liked my conclusions about the latter, so I'll share it here!

wonder what @cronennerd will think

"(...) This happiness of intrauterine life, as well as the regression which the twins undergo, are connected to the idea of ​​the death drive, which determines the desire to preserve the body by always returning to a previous state of balance, which would have existed in the womb, or even before conception, and which will only be truly recovered after death. It is the fundamental desire to become inorganic, and it is also an impulse that can be realised in the sexual act, the orgasm being that moment of destruction of the Self. Here, we must consider Crimes of the Future to better understand the Cronenbergian conception of the death drive. In Cronenberg's films, the Self constantly tries to destroy itself, often seeking this in acts of sexual perversion (in the Freudian sense of any act other than heterosexual penetration for reproductive purposes). Claire, with her sadomasochistic tendencies and insistence that she must always be humiliated, represents this quest, while for the twins this is a quest that exists beyond the sexual sphere. In general, Cronenberg's films support an idea that sex is just one facet of the death drive, and explore other ways in which it can be demonstrated. This is why I don't like to read the scene in which Beverly performs surgery on Elliot as a symbol of homosexual penetration, just as in Crimes of the Future all the penetrations that occur during the film should not be read as equivalent to genital sexual activity. What Cronenberg seeks to demonstrate is something that goes beyond what we have learned should be the height of intimacy and jouissance, whether in the union of identical twins inside the womb or in the exponentiation of skin, muscles and organs as utmost erogenous zones. As Crimes of the Future reiterates, "surgery is the new sex˜. About the bioport in eXistenZ (1999), Teresa de Lauretis says, “it is not a metaphor, but a substitute, indicating a new sexual economy of the human body”. The same is true here, and there is even a moment when Saul refuses to engage in the “old sex”.

After all, the climax of pleasure in Crimes of the Future is in the least obviously erotic act of all, though with a high libidinal charge, eating. This climax is possible due to Saul's personal context of acceptance of his body as flesh, independent of any mental process of his, whether conscious or unconscious, following rules of nature that, while promising salvation for humanity, are also the realisation of becoming inorganic, now that plastic can be digested. The ecstasy is such that a parallel is created with The Passion of Joan of Arc, the Saint's expression being burned at the stake, in such a way that the ingestion of plastic becomes comparable to death, abandonment by everyone, faith, and promise of resurrection with God. And it is not the plastic itself that causes this, but the significance that this moment gains for Saul, in a way that proves Freud's idea that sexuality, libido, are not a biological function of the body, but a product of fantasy. Throughout the film, suffering immensely whenever he eats, constantly weakened, Saul is like a baby who lives between the real experience of feeding and the idealisation of when this filling will occur again, which is what in the oral phase makes the breast becomes a point of fixation whose loss, during weaning, is traumatising. In Saul's case, the idealisation of the moment when he will feel satisfied is constant, but he finds only suffering in reality. It's as if he was experiencing the trauma of weaning without knowing it and, when consuming plastic, he found his mother's breast again, returning to the comfort we all long for, once again being that baby in a state of completeness with its mother. Just as the martyr's death is seen as a return home, the final nostos, Saul too, at this moment, returns home. And of course, because this return is being associated with a new object, it is characterised as a life-creating development, and not as a destructive regression, even if (or especially because) its pleasure is based on the destruction of the Self.

Thus, David Cronenberg's journey from Dead Ringers to Crimes of the Future demonstrates a change in perspective on certain fundamental issues. In a lecture this semester on the figure of the devil in Fernando Pessoa, professor Roberta Ferraz brought up the fact that, as he exists only in the field of fantasy, Fernando Pessoa's devil cannot inflict pain, so that everything related to it passes from the field of morality onto the field of aesthetics. This leap of creative freedom is taken by Cronenberg in Crimes of the Future, allowing himself to represent sadomasochistic impulses within an aesthetic dimension, without them carrying a weight of moral corruption, humiliation and waste of life, as occurs in his other films. The real crime of the future is the manipulation of a boy's corpse by a bureaucratic body, to hide the reality of people already being born with a digestive system adapted to plastic. The horror lies not only in the aesthetic corruption of the boy's body, but especially in how his body is used by foreign vehicles without him having any say. The issues of consent and autonomy to do what you want with your own body come to the fore, contrasting with the way the Mantle brothers deal with their patients' bodies. The main change in perspective, however, occurs in relation to the death drive and its clash between the organic and the inorganic. Where before the death drive was only destructive, now it is also life-creating. Where before there was the horror of our carnal condition, doomed to eternal lament for the loss of non-existence, its physical barrier that makes the much-desired immersion in the Other destructive, now there is love for the flesh, for the pleasures it provides us, and a tempting play with the idea that to become (consume) inorganic will be the salvation of our species."

[youcouldmakealife]

wait, sorry, more questions! thinking about jared "my perspective is soooo objective and not at all biased or limited ever why are you guys laughing?" matheson has me wondering about unreliable narrators in the ycmal-verse in general (mostly because it's a particular favourite literary device of mine and i think you use it so well in basically all of your writing)

i'm curious how you would rank your protags in terms of like, least to most unreliable in their own narration; are there sub-categories of 'unreliable' you would apply to different characters? also wondering who you would say is the most subtle in their unreliability/if you've noticed readers accepting certain perspectives more readily or without question?

They're all fucking liars. Every last one of 'em. Even if they're only lying to themselves.

Except Gabe. Gabe has blind spots, but he continues to be my most reliable son. (Dan also tries to be honest, but he misses more than Gabe does, and knows himself less.)

I don't have a scale, per se, but there's definitely an interesting thing where some characters are believed more than others when they're all blinkered narratives in their way. Everyone knows say, Mike and David are not being honest -- they'll both straight up lie in their narratives -- but others get taken at face value more, even though they're no more reliable.

Jared gets believed a lot, actually, far more than someone who basically goes 'unless this matters to me personally I'm throwing it right out of my narrative'. What are your teammates' names, Jared Matheson. Would you even remember the name of your sister's boyfriend if he wasn't one of your best friends.

Roman got believed more than Harry but I think people trusted Harry more, oddly. (Maybe not oddly: Harry acknowledges his own faults up front so you don't have to! But this is a dude who not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES got smacked in the face with 'I find this person really annoying I guess I hate them? ...aw fuck wait I wanna kiss them'). Joey straight up doesn't use quotation marks at points because he hasn't acknowledged that his internal monologue's left his head. He's so untrustworthy even the punctuation is a lie. Georgie, like Jared, is very precise in what he includes, but unlike Jared, that's less 'I noticed nothing else' and more 'I am omitting this'. It's not any more or less reliable, really -- the difference is that with Georgie, there's a narrative being crafted in his own head. (Robbie does the same thing, though I'd say he's a less reliable narrator than Georgie is, particularly pre-Saul, due to him shoving everything into a drawer to compartmentalize and then slamming it shut.)

And it's fun writing James and Holden because every time Holden talks people waver, and then every time James talks they waver right back. Both of them are honest in their way! Neither of them would give you a proper narrative on their own, though -- cards on the table is intimately tied up in how imprecise and flawed communication can be, and the way their perspectives bounce off one another as much as they connect is a big part of that.

[beardedmrbean]

Weird question what is the importance of Jerusalem for Christians and Jews? Was Jerusalem the capital of ancient Israel and why Christians like the Templars wanted to retake it?

I got long, I'm gonna TL:DR; at the end ____________________

Jerusalem was the capital of the united kingdom of Israel, well after Saul at least David moved it there and Solomon built the temple there on the piece of land that is called "the temple mount" in English at least which is the single holiest site in Judaism, which if you speak to the remaining Samaritans you will hear different since they claim to be the ones following the true way and their capital was Samaria and their temple was on Mount Gerizim that was after the split of united Israel after the death of Solomon got Judea and Samaria.

Babylonians came in and destroyed and looted the first temple Solomon's Temple in in 587 BC, Assyrians had gotten Samaria and scattered it's people to the wing the best they could getting us The Ten Lost Tribes.

Eventually the Persian empire, (guys from the battle of Thermopylae aka 300 Spartan thing) KO'd the Babylonian empire and they were a lot nicer and also understood the politics of not getting in the way of local faiths because that's one of those things people will die for.

So Cyrus the Great gave his cup-bearer Nehemiah permission to go home and rebuild his city and its temple, so construction on the Second Temple started in 516 BC. (there's lots of extrabiblical stuff to back this up btw, in case you wondered it's not all just stuff from the Torah, names may be different that's fine tho) Ezekiel came in and rededicated it and began teaching "The Law ™" and over time it was expanded and eventually Herod the Great (same one from the Christmas story that killed all the babies looking for Jesus) got it all done and if we look at the timeline and that little bit of info about Herod we can see why Christians are so attached to the place too.

The Temple held the Holy of Holies, which is where the Ark of the Covenant (from Indiana Jones, lol) was kept had the original 10 commandment tablets a jar of mana and Aaron's staff in it and the actual location was considered the conduit between this world and the other, inelegant way to put it but still. It's where the high priest could go once a year and offer a sacrifice for the people, on Yom Kippur the holiest day in both Judaism and Samaratinsim (they agree mazel tov) I remember something about a rope being tied to their leg and they had to wear bells just in case they were "smited" and needed to be "removed" not sure how real that is.

With all of that it should be fairly simple to figure out why Jewish people are so attached to it, and the Jesus connection what with the whole bit about the money changers and flipping tables taking place in the courtyard of that temple, the whole last bit of each of the gospels starting well before the triumphal entrance on what Christians call Palm Sunday all the way through the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension that was all in and around Jerusalem.

Jews were ending their Passover Seder with L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim (Next year in Jerusalem) starting somewhere in the 1400's from what I can see as a wish to be able to go home and worship and fellowship in their own homeland among other reasons.

So here we have the previously mentioned Temple Mount

That bit where it says "Western Wall" is a remnant from the 2nd temple, Jesus touched that and may have taught while using it to shade himself it's all happened there.

The city is in the DNA of every Jewish person and by extension Christians though not as deeply ingrained.

Then we get to Islam, as you see in the image up there they built a mosque on top of the location for the Jewish Temple, it's how history works may have been some middle finger flipping when it happened but as history goes that's how a invading conquering force does thing, always have.

Dome of the rock there on the inside looks like this

The exposed bit there is goes by several names, "Foundation Stone" is one, it's believed by (some) Jews that this is the location where the Holy of Holies was/is and for Muslims it's where Muhammad ascended went on his "night journey" spoke directly to both Moses and Allah to get the law for Muslims some of it at least.

Spot under that rock is the "well of souls" bet you can guess what significance that has.

So bringing it all together and hitting the TL:DR at the same time. _____________________________-

TL:DR; all 3 Abrahamic faiths are very attached to the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding area because it plays a central part in the stories of them.

Jews were there first so they get the strongest claim imho but as it sits it is a holy and revered site for all 3 faiths because it's deeply connected to them all both physically and spiritually.

Slightly less holy to Muslims since their temple mount buildings are just the third most sacred place in Islam, but still dreadfully sacred. ______________

Sorry this was really long, hope it was slightly interesting at least if you read it, it's as accurate as I could make it without spending a lot more time fact checking myself too.

[americanwh0resstuff]

Snippet: God knows I tried

Snippet: been thinking about this for a while, heavily inspired by fleabag and priest by sierra Simone…

00?

Liz stood awkwardly in the entrance of the sanctuary, the smell of incense and communion wafers stagnant in the air, she wiped her eyes, her mind flashed back to earlier, the crock-pot luck, and that poor dog… the pain in joes voice, the look on everyone’s face…

It was now dark out, the small park had cleared, people were retiring for the night, leaving their dim porch lights on and drawing their curtains.

She didn’t know why, but she stopped at the church on her walk home. Her chest felt heavy, with sadness, with grief, and most of all with guilt.

Her heels clicked as she walked towards the confessional, not even sure if father Paul would be in there, maybe that would be better? What’s more holy than a confession between you and god? Maybe she’d finally feel that connection she’d so long pushed away.

When Liz entered she could see a small glint of candle light through the lattice, what could be a silhouette of a face, but could also be a trick of the light through her blurry eyes.

She sat, not wanting to kneel on the itchy carpeted bench, instead she looked at her feet, played with the hemline of her velvet dress, her Sunday best as her mom would say, pretty yet modest, long sleeved and buttoned up to her neck, yet pretty little cutouts along the thigh. She chuckled to herself, thinking about how proud her mother would be to see her in church.

It was silent in the booth, the only sound being Liz’s small breaths, her heartbeat in her ears until, “Father Paul?”

She heard him chuckle softly.

“Liz-“ He greeted her. “I’m sorry, usually confession should feel anonymous, I was just surprised by your voice… didn’t take you for the confessional type.”

She smiled softly, picking at her chipped nail polish.

“I’ll admit, it’s been a while…” She made the sign of the cross across her chest, taking her mother’s rosary in her hand.

"May God who has enlightened every heart, help you to know your sins and trust in His Mercy."

“Bless me father for I have sinned, it’s been… oh, I don’t know, years? Since my last confession.”

Her teeth worried her chapped lips, half expecting him to scold her for her disinterest in the church, but he didn’t.

“Go on…”

“Envy is a sin right? I know about Saul and David, the jealousy and selfishness, but… I guess I’ve only ever known envy.”

She took a breath.

“When I was a kid, all I wanted was to be normal, have a normal family, a pet dog, a mom who’d make me breakfast every day and a father who’d go to work in some fancy suit every day. I never had that. Then as a teenager, here on crocket island, I’d watch my friends have relationships and dates, and I didn’t… and now…”

Her confidence had been depleted, she was now rushing through her own mind, wondering what the hell was she doing?

“Now I want someone, and I know I can’t have them.”

Paul spoke up. “Is this person married? In a committed relationship?”

“I guess you could say that.”

She sighed, now bouncing her leg with nerves.

“He’s committed for sure, and passionate, professional, and maybe that’s what I like about him, everyone I’ve ever loved has left me, maybe if I find something that’s loyal, committed, the. maybe i can stop running. That’s what I do. I run.”

There was a long pause.

“Just because somebody is committed to something, that doesn’t mean there’s no space in their life for new opportunities, of course I don’t condone tearing relationships apart, but people can be committed to other things, work, routine-“ he stopped. “…religion. If that’s the case, then go for it, if it doesn’t go the way you want it to, find your inner peace, your closure, accept the things you cannot change.”

Liz looked down her feet, there were tears welling in her eyes, she tried to conceal it, but failed as a strained sob escaped her lips.

“I’m sorry, it’s just- I’m so tired.”

She’d always kept her emotions bottled up, never spoke to her parents or her friends about anything deeper than small gossip and crushes or what the passage of the day was, and it had depleted her, it had drained her energy for years, and now the flood gates had opened.

“I’ve always just watched life go by, waited on a fucking miracle to happen, told myself that my time would come, my time to love and be loved, to be proud of my life and who I am…” she could hear shifting through the booth, the muffled sound of fabric brushing against the wooden stools.

“Father?”

She stood up and leaned towards the other side of the confessional, trying to get a better view of father Paul’s place behind the wired window. He wasn’t there

She jumped slightly as the door opened behind her, turning around to see Paul towering over her.

“Forgive me father, for I am going to sin…”

His voice was barely above a whisper as he closed the door behind him, leaning down and taking Liz’s face in his hands, wiping the tears from her cheeks. He leaned in, and she closed the gap.

[missielynne]

CBS Ghosts Review: The Polterguest

This was such a good, weird episode! My gosh, watching Sam try and get dirt on Saul while stalling the guy he was attached to was so painful to watch. Like I fast-forwarded through some of it because it gave me such second-hand embarrassment for her. (And it was kind of a shame since Saul as a character is so fun and I would have loved to just watch his introduction without the distraction from the rest of it, but then we wouldn't have the episode.)

Saul and Alberta had really good chemistry and it was just wonderful to see them talk and reminisce about their shared living time. (I also found the fact that Saul died from being hit in the head by a baseball kind of funny cause that actually happened in 1920 to a guy named Ray Chapman.)

It was so fun to watch Isaac and Nigel plan their wedding! Now, normally (as we will see with my thoughts on Sam and Jay later on) being on board as a couple with stuff like this and compromising is good but I really just want Isaac to have his dinosaur wedding or at the very least get to go down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme because that is just awesome and fun and not something I would have expected of him at all, compared to whatever stereotypical plan Hetty and Nigel come up with.

I definitely winced a little when Jenkins did the lap dance, not because of the thing itself, but because we all know that Jenkins has openly tried to sabotage Nisaac before, and even on Nigel's side, he has kind of a bad habit of going back to Jenkins as a fallback guy if Isaac is out of sight, out of mind (although hopefully that's done now that Nigel lives in the mansion and he and Isaac are engaged.) I've said it to nonnies and I mean it that if Nancy isn't part of Nisaac's wedding, I will be so bummed. That would be a major missed opportunity not to include, somehow, a person outside Hetty and Isaac who Nigel has managed to form a genuine connection with. Plus the look on Hetty's face during the ceremony would be priceless.

As for Isaac's lap dance, I love that the guy included the dinosaur parts in it AND that Isaac actually seemed to be enjoying himself rather than being disgusted or like, refusing it (which I thought he would based on his reaction to the come-on of George the Horny Puritan.)

The fact that Saul turned out to be clingy and kind of weird surprised me (What is it about Alberta that just attracts complete weirdos?) But it made for an excellent pun/explanation about why he himself was a poltergeist. I really appreciated that.

What I didn't appreciate was Sam insisting that Jay let Saul attach himself to him for god knows how long until things with Saul and Alberta ran their course (if they ever did.) That's not like asking Jay to take a watch off Elias's corpse or dig around Flower's death spot for anything she had on her to bring her back. That's a long lasting thing that will actually affect him?) So for that reason I was glad that Saul was clingy and Alberta wanted to break up with him, cause that took the pressure off Jay.

I know Sam feels the need to help the ghosts live fuller afterlives because she's nice and she loves them and she can, but I really wish she would bring Jay in for times like that so they could come up with a solution as a pair that would benefit everyone (if one is possible. Sometimes they'd just need Jay to say "Sorry we can't do that, suck it up.") Because her strong-arming him and picking the ghosts over him just because he's the nicest guy ever is starting to hurt me and make me not like her. I don't like her treating Jay like the ghosts treat her, taking advantage because he's just too nice. They both love the ghosts and want them in their lives, but they also have non-ghost stuff to consider, like their marriage and business. They can compromise and make it all work and I want to see that happen for real.

Great episode. Definitely will watch on repeat.

[specialagentlokitty]

Saul silva x teen!reader - what I wouldn’t do to make you better

Part three:

Eventually Jess and David decided to call Sky and tell him about your condition so he knew, but with Saul being imprisoned they couldn’t tell him.

You were kept in the OR all night, there was barely any new updates for the nurse to give them, not until they brought you back through that morning.

“(Y/N)!” The two called.

They rushed by your side and looked at you, holding your hand in theirs.

“One of the nearby hospitals had a match for them, the surgery was successful, but it will be a long recovery process. And right now we’re still in the stage of trying to find out if (Y/N)s body will accept their new heart or not.” The doctor said.

“Accept it or not?” David asked.

The doctor sighed.

“It’s strange, usually if the body is going to reject the new organ it does it right away. (Y/N)s seems to be on the verge of accepting or rejecting, stuck between.”

The doctor carried on exposing to things to them, and explained the only thing they could do for you now is keep monitoring your progress.

And even as time slowly went by, there wasn’t much of it.

When Saul managed to escape with the help of Bloom and her friends, Sky was on the phone to her while she tried getting him to talk to Saul.

“Bloom tell him something for me.” Sky said.

“What is it?”

Sky sighed a little bit.

“Tell him.. tell him to find (Y/N).”

With that, Sky hung up and Bloom looked at her phone in confusion and she turned to Sebastian and Saul.

Saul was wrapped in the blanket Sky forced them to bring with them, and she put her phone back in his pocket.

“Bloom?” Sebastian asked.

“He told Saul to find (Y/N).”

Immediately Saul’s head shot up.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“I.. I don’t know that’s all he said.”

“I need to go, now. Drive me to the border.”

“You can’t! Not in your state, not while they’re looking for you.” Sebastian said.

“I don’t care, I have to go. Now.”

Sebastian looked at Saul and sighed heavily.

“Wait an hour. Let me get some things ready.”

So they did, they waiting an hour while Sebastian and Bloom gathered food, water, some clothes, some weapons they could find.

Literally anything they could find in order to help him the best they could.

“Oh, here.”

Bloom reached into her pocket and handed Saul his phone back.

“Do you even know where they are?”

“I know where they should be.”

Bloom nodded and Saul hid in the back of the car as she drove to the edge of the barrier which connected them to the other world.

Saul got out, throwing his bag over his shoulder and he looked at her.

“Thank you.”

“I hope they’re okay.”

Saul nodded his head, nervously looking around.

“So do I…” he whispered.

He thanked her again and walked past the barrier. He was a mess, he hadn’t showered, he probably looked like he’s just crawled out of a hole.

But he didn’t care.

He knew Sky wouldn’t tell him to go find out without a reason, so he had to go and find you, even if it meant walking across the other world to get there.

He tried calling Jess and David, but his phone wouldn’t get signal, he had no clue where he was, no map, no clue, so he just wondered aimless in a random direction.

Months had passed, and the most Jess and David knew about your condition was that your body seemed to have accepted the new heart.

You were stable, but they still couldn’t take you from the machines, not yet, so they kept you hooked up to them and still monitored your condition closely.

They did everything they could, they talked to you, sat with you, brought all your stuff to your hospital room.

Anything to try and make the situation better.

Saul hitchhiked, ran, walk, fell, swam, tripped, got lost, found his way again.

He kept going until he was in the city you were supposed to be in, and he ran to the nearest coffee shop, getting weird looks from everyone.

“I.. I need to charge my phone…” he whispered.

“Yeah Uhm.. here we can do that. Do you want a drink?” The young man asked.

Saul nodded his head and the man brought over some water which he quickly downed.

Saul had lost everything aside from his phone, charger, your necklace and your blanket which was around his shoulders.

Saul sat down at a table and ran a hand down his face.

“Here, I thought maybe you’d be hungry.”

The man set a plate down and sat in front of him with a plate of his own.

“I don’t have any money on me.”

“That’s fine. You look like you’ve been through hell bro.”

Saul smiled a little.

“You’ve no idea. Thank you.”

The man nodded and gestured to the blanket.

“What’s with the cape?”

“It’s my kids.”

The man nodded.

“You know where your kid is now?”

“Wouldn’t be here if I did.”

The man nodded once more and stood up, he disappeared for a few moments before coming back with Saul’s phone and charger.

He handed them both over and Saul looked through his messages, finally finding one which said where you were.

Saul stood up.

“Thank you for everything.”

With that he ran out of the coffee shop and started to run down the streets.

He knew where he was going, he had been to this hospital once before, but that memory was burned into his brain.

He ran towards the large building, and he stopped when he saw the familiar solaria cars outside.

“No… no!”

He ran inside, rushing straight to the reception he showed the woman his lock screen.

“I’m looking for this person. (Y/N) Silva.”

“Oh, some more family?” She smiled.

“More?”

“Oh yeah we’ve just had some people come in. Here.”

She handed him the room you were in and he ran through the hospital hallways, but it seemed like no matter how fast he ran everything was in slow motion.

Jess and David where being held back by two soldiers as Rosalind and Andreas stood next to your bed.

“He’s not going to come here.” Andreas said.

“Don’t be so sure. He left Solaria, this is the only place Saul is going to come to.” Rosalind mused.

There was a thud at the door and she turned around with a small smirk.

“I told you.”

Saul stepped in, gasping for air, he pointed at her.

“Don’t you dare touch them…” he growled.

“Okay then. You’re coming back with us.”

Saul shook his head.

“You have no authority here.”

Rosalind nodded her head.

“Maybe not, but I do have control over whether or not I pull out this wire.”

She reached down towards the socket in the wall and gripped the plug.

“Rosalind!” Andreas yelled.

“Either he comes willingly or we force him.”

Saul looked between you and Rosalind, clenching his jaw.

“Fine. Okay. Okay… just.. just let me say goodbye… please…?”

Rosalind stepped aside and Saul walked over, taking the blanket from around his shoulders he draped it over you.

Then he took your necklace off, and he gently lifted your head, putting it around your neck and slowly lowered your head again.

He looked at you, how pale you seemed.

He turned to look and Jess and David.

“What happened…?”

They looked to Rosalind, and she raised her hand, the two soldiers releasing them.

They explained everything to him, and he sighed, ducking under the wires he laid next to you, running his fingers through your hair.

“You promised me you were going to keep fighting…” he whispered.

Saul placed his head on your shoulder, fighting with his emotions.

“I know it’s tiring…” he whispered.

He took a small breath.

“If you want to stop fighting… you can…”

His voice cracked, and everyone moved to one side of the room to give him some space.

“You don’t have to fight anymore… I’m here (Y/N)…”

His tears soaked your shoulder, because he couldn’t even begin to imagine what pain you must have felt, what pain you must’ve been in.

He asked you to keep fighting, and you did, but he couldn’t let you keep going like this, he knew what you wanted.

And a life on machines wasn’t that.

So even if it hurt him, he was ready to let you go, let you move on so you wouldn’t be in pain anymore, because he knew your mum was close, and she would watch over you just like he’d done.

“You can go…” he whispered.

Saul leant up, kissing the side of your head.

“I love you.”

The room went silent, aside from the beep of the machines, it was steady at first, then followed by one long constant beeps.

Alarms went off, and nurses rushed in and Saul shook his head.

“Don’t… please…”

They stepped back, but one of them turned the alarms off, and the volume to the heart monitor.

Tears streamed down Saul’s face as he pulled you against him, resting his head over yours.

“You did so well…” he whispered.

Rosalind stepped forward.

“Let’s go.”

Saul shook his head.

“Give him a minute Rosalind please.” Andreas said.

“He’s had a minute.”

“He’s just lost his child! Give him time!” David snapped.

The nurses urged everyone out of the room but Saul, and they left him laying there, holding you.

They took the tubes out of you, all the wires but a few, announced your time of death and they left him alone.

Rosalind was growing impatient, and she stormed back into the room.

“You’re done. Let’s go.”

Saul didn’t moved and she sighed.

“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way.”

Her eyes glowed and Saul suddenly found himself unable to breathe, he stood up to try and catch his breath as one of the soldiers grabbed his arm.

They began pulling him away, but stopped and Rosalind let Saul breathe.

“Well, take him then.”

“We cant.”

“Why not?!”

Saul looked down, your fingers grasping his hand in a white knuckle grip.

Your eyes were still closed, and he slowly moved his eyes to the heart monitor that was still connected to it.

It was tracking your heart that was now beating strongly.

Yet you weren’t actually awake.

“Oh fuck…” Andreas whispered.

“Well grab him!”

Andreas walked over but when he tried to reach Saul, he found himself unable to move, like he was frozen, and he looked down at his feet, ice crawling up his legs, the same with the soldiers.

Jess and David came in, and they stood next to you, nothing happening to them.

“What are you doing?!” Rosalind hissed at them.

“This isn’t us. We’re not magic like you.” Jess said

Rosalind tried to step forward, but she was frozen in place as well, and no matter how many times she tried to break it, it came back faster than before.

She looked at you, finding your other hand pointed in her direction.

“It’s the kid…” a soldier whispered.

Saul had his eyes glued to you, still unresponsive, but his hand still gripped tightly in yours.

“Rosalind they’re going to kill us if we stay here.” Andreas said.

She growled a little, and focused her stared on you, trying to use her magic, but she found it useless, like there was something protecting you.

Kicking the ice from her feel, she looked at Saul.

���This isn’t over.” She sneered.

They all left, and Saul immediately turned to look at you while Jess and David went to find a nurse or a doctor.

He gripped your hand back just as tightly in both of his, and tears fell down his face.

“(Y/N)…?” He whispered.

He looked at the heart monitor that was still going strong, and looked back down at you, and he slowly fell to his knees as he cried.

He didn’t know what happened, one minute you had passed, you were gone. Now you were back, stronger than ever before, and he had no answers as to why.

But he needed to know if you were going to wake up, if there was ever going to be a chance of you actually waking up even if it was a slim one

[mrbensonmum]

TV Shows - 3 Body Problem V

At the start of the third episode, another dead scientist is found. I noticed that I really like Benedict Wong's new voice actor. It gives a clear distinction from his role in the MCU films. Usually, I’m not a fan of such changes, but in this case, it works really well.

The relationship between Will and Jin is explored in more detail here, which I appreciate because it makes what follows more understandable. In the book, I missed this a bit, even though the author touches on it, but I felt it was a bit brief.

When Auggie discovers the game and rushes to the others, I find what Saul says very interesting, or rather how he says it. It also becomes clear that Jin and Jack don’t fully understand the game’s objective yet. As a viewer, it seems obvious, but from their perspective, it makes much more sense. They don’t know it’s about the three-body problem; they see the game world just as the Trisolarian civilizations do.

Level two also shows that the civilizations are still focusing on the wrong priorities, a point made clearer in the book. Sophon (Tomoko) later explains this. The Trisolarians always focus on survival and realize very late that this isn’t viable and that they need to consider leaving their world. This is where the series could have emphasized the Trisolarians’ dire situation more. The number of civilizations before the fleet launch is only briefly mentioned. (I know this will happen later through Sophon, but it could have been built up a bit better for suspense.)

The games Clarence lists actually exist. Here are the Wikipedia links if you want to check them out:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Jet Set Willy

I've been wondering if there’s an equivalent to Jin’s friend in the book, but I don’t think so. There is someone who leads a later operation, like Raj Varma, but I don’t think there’s a connection to Jin in the book.

Ah, now I remember what I wanted to write in the last post. The sound design is worth mentioning. The first time you notice it is when Vera plunges into the tank, but it stands out again in the third episode when Auggie tries to restart the nanofiber project, and the countdown begins again. It’s impressive both visually and audio visually.

What I also like about Sophon’s (Tomoko’s) portrayal in level three is how she floats. Usually, characters that float look like they’re suspended from their hips, hanging like a sack. But here, they did it differently. Either she wears a different harness, has excellent posture, or stands on a post and was then edited in. It looks different and superior, which fits her character perfectly.

I wish they had spent more time on communication and the differences between the two civilizations. (Scene on the Judgement Day with the old Michael Evans)

When Jack and Jin are invited (level four), it’s clear that while the characters in the series have the same traits as their book counterparts, some things are shifted. According to the book, Auggie should be the one to solve the game’s puzzle and go to the summit in London, since she is the series counterpart to Wang Miao, who did all this in the book. (Please don’t take this as criticism; I just enjoy noting these differences!)

Towards the end, Sophon (Tomoko) explains how the Trisolarians ventured into space and how humanity is involved.

Jin and Jack undergo a test to see whose side they’re on. We also see more of Tatiana, who in the book is just a bodyguard for Ye Wenjie. But the kindness of the Trisolarians, shown again through the little girl, doesn’t last long. Thomas Wade and Jin Cheng will learn much more later, which I’m looking forward to because it’s one of my favorite parts of the series.

We know the stakes, the characters involved, and the motives of various factions. But it only gets crazier from here in many ways.

Up to this point, there's a lot that is fascinating and exciting. When it’s later explained how some things came about or how they worked, it may lose some impact, but the explanation is even more fascinating. I find this incredibly exciting and a testament to a high degree of creativity in science fiction.

I found a quote from D.B. Weiss about the series' content and how far they want to adapt the books:

“We always wanted to get to the final page of the third book, and it’s really, really thrilling to us that we will get to do just that.”

This is reassuring, so I don't have to worry about the series ending abruptly or strangely. However, he also mentions that while there’s no episode list yet, there will likely be 8 episodes per season again. This feels too few, and I fear they might leave out important parts or alter too much.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many details available beyond the usual "What we know so far…" videos, which, in my experience, often show that the creators don’t know much and just produce useless content.

[shaping-rivers-into-words]

Rings of Power article

I'm not a fan, I'll say that up front. I've tried to watch it and it's like salt in wounds for me. But, this is an interesting article about how the creators really have tied hands as far as "canon" goes. I came into fandom through the films, and ran headfirst into canon purists, so I don't want to be that kind of fan to others who do like ROP. It was not a welcoming place back then, yikes.

Anyhoo...

How Has Amazon Changed Middle-earth Canon?

Questions and Answers

Q: How Has Amazon Changed Middle-earth Canon?

ANSWER: This question has also been phrased as “Is Amazon’s Rings of Power canon middle earth?” The short answer to the question about whether Amazon’s show is canon is NO, it is NOT canon. At least, it’s not canonical with respect to J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories and essays about Middle-earth. The Vulcans have a saying: “Only J.R.R. Tolkien can canonicalize Middle-earth.” Or something like that.

The Amazon show doesn’t even qualify as a loose adaptation. They have intentionally, deliberately (and previously contractually) omitted or ignored most of what J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about the Second Age of Middle-earth (and Middle-earth in general). Despite what Websites like Screenrant tell you, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a considerable amount of information about the Second Age. It’s just that most of that material was published posthumously, which tends to affect all rights to adaptations.

Who Controls the Rights to Middle-earth?

The Tolkien Estate owns the literary rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and essays. But JRRT himself sold off the film and TV rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 1960s. Those rights were eventually acquired by Saul Zaentz, who established what became Middle-earth Enterprises. And in 2022 the Embracer Group purchased Middle-earth Enterprises from the Saul Zaentz Company.

All the movies and TV shows prior to the Amazon project were licensed from Saul Zaentz’ properties. Amazon’s Rings of Power production is licensed from the Tolkien Estate. But that license came with some terms and conditions that made it difficult for the showrunners to do a fully faithful adaptation.

That said, they decided they didn’t want to cover the Second Age the way Tolkien wrote about it (as it covers 3441-ish years of history). So if you’re looking for a connection between the Amazon show and what many people consider to be Middle-earth canon, there is none.

Every Adaptation Establishes Its Own Canon

Regardless of how successful the Amazon show becomes or is perceived to be, it has a fandom. And for that fandom there will be questions about the characters, plots, scenes, in-universe locations and institutions, production locations, etc.

This is true for nearly all shows that achieve some measure of popularity. Many 1-season wonders like Firefly and the original Battlestar Galactica have inspired devoted fandoms. And there are Websites and discussion forums and social media groups devoted to standalone movies, “failed” TV shows, and so forth.

The Peter Jackson movies have attracted a huge fandom, as have the Harry Potter movies.

For these fandoms, the canon is determined by the media franchise. In fact, there are people whose knowledge of Middle-earth is derived only from the movies. I’m sure there are (or will be) people who have only seen the Amazon show.

For these fans, the differences between the books and adaptations may not matter as much as the fans who read the books first, especially for those book fans who didn’t become emotionally invested in the movies.

Amazon Has Forked Its Own Canon into Middle-earth Lore

Although neither movie nor TV show can change the books or J.R.R. Tolkien’s own vision, they have spawned new canonical universes that are self-contained. This is an indisputable fact. There are books solely about the movies. There are calendars that only reference the movies. The merchandising around the movies (and now the show) is governed by the contractual agreements and limits of rights.

Those contracts, designed to create and enforce boundaries, are in part responsible for the forking of canons. And while J.R.R. Tolkien probably didn’t think in terms of franchises, canons, and fandoms when he sold the film and TV rights in 1968, I think he was very much aware that he was giving up control over how his world would be perceived in the future.

In fact, as far back as 1958 JRRT’s position had been Art or Cash when discussing the media adaptation rights. He had little role in the BBC’s original radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, but he learned a lesson from that experience. He understood it would be very unlikely that anyone would create a movie or other adaptation that would represent his vision of Middle-earth.

And so we’ve come to this stage. There are 3 separate Middle-earths: the Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien; the Middle-earth created by Peter Jackson; and the Middle-earth created by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

It’s difficult to define a specific canon for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. He revised The Hobbit three times after it was first published (once by accident), and he revised The Lord of the Rings in order to resecure the copyright, but then began changing things behind the scenes again. By 1972 Tolkien was telling people in his private correspondence things that contradicted what had appeared in print in The Lord of the Rings and The Road Goes Ever On.

Christopher Tolkien sort of forked a sub-canon when he published The Silmarillion. He noted in the Foreword to that book that “a complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion itself or between The Silmarillion and other published writings of my father’s) is not to be looked for, and could only be achieved, if at all at heavy and needless cost.”

And given the contractual constraints under which Amazon Studios began developing the show – in addition to the ideas that Payne and McKay had about what could be practically achieved for a weekly audience – there has been no point in seeking any kind of consistency between the books and the TV show. It doesn’t exist, you can’t contrive such a consistency via any complicated logic, and I think it would be pointless to try.

Conclusion

I think these questions about Amazon’s Rings of Power and so-called “Middle-earth canon” arise from confusion about the differences between the show and the books (or maybe the show and the movies), but maybe also from a hope or desire to be able to say that “yes, the Amazon show is [not] an official authorial representation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth”.

It’s easy to dip into Tolkien’s letters and find a justification or rationalization for all these adapations:

Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story-the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be ‘high’, purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry. I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd.

That’s from Letter No. 131, sent to Milton Waldman, when Tolkien was trying to convince Collins to publish The Lord of the Rings. But what many people who cite this paragraph ignore or seem unaware of is that J.R.R. Tolkien was talking about his mythological cycle for England, The Book of Lost Tales – “which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country.”

I don’t think it was his intention (prior publication) to leave The Lord of the Rings and Middle-earth (as portrayed in LoTR) to “other minds and hands”. He didn’t see it as something that could or should become a national treasure, like a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon (Old English) mythology as The Book of Lost Tales was intended to be.

I call Amazon’s Rings of Power “fan fiction” because it’s not faithful to the books. It can’t be. They weren’t permitted to use most of the material about the Second Age. But it’s authorized fan fiction – ultimately authorized by J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

He didn’t see Middle-earth as the backdrop for a great cycle of stories from many authors the way the Greek-Trojan war became the backdrop for 200 years (give or take) of Greek epic poetry. He saw it as his own literary world, unique to him, and it was something he cherished deeply because of the many years he had spent developing it, expanding it, and getting it published.

J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t intend to share Middle-earth. But eventually he came around to opening the door to “other minds and hands”, relinquishing control because he knew the Art couldn’t expand that way on its own.

There will probably come a day when future generations see the media adaptations as equal – or maybe even surpassing – the literary source. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth is canonically self-contained in his own thought. But the Middle-earth everyone else knows is a jewel of many facets, a story with many narrators. And there is no putting that genie back in the bottle.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#179):

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, my 10th film by Michael Haneke, and the last part of his early 'Glaciation Trilogy'. Tense, murky and uncomfortable fragments of miserable and detached people, moving on with their daily chores without passion. All the while the television newscasts in the background drone on about wars, and massacres and other disasters. Unpleasant!

By now, I've seen all of his feature films, except of the two 'Funny Games' which, even as a completist, I have no desire to do.

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1958 Côte d'Azur X 2:

🍿 My 6th melodrama by Otto Preminger, Bonjour Tristesse, and another where he collaborated with Saul Bass on the fanciful title sequence. A nearly-incestuous connection between suave cocksman and playboy David Niven (strutting most of the time in short shorts) with his spoiled and alienated daughter Jean Seberg. Based on the semi-biographical novella by Françoise Sagan, which she also had published at 17. Lifestyles of the carefree High-society on the French Riviera of the '50's, and the sensuality of the coast, the sun, the water. Tragic Manic Pixie Dream Girl Seberg, a disillusioned gamine with cropped short hair, disenchanted and confused.

🍿 "All the fashionable woman are wearing blue. (Except the English)..."

My 16th by Agnès Varda, Along the coast. If somebody has a hard-on for the notion of a coast vacation in the '50s, then this is for them Pure nostalgia straight into the veins, with impossible score by George Delarue, breezing through empty tourist spots of Saint-Tropez, Nice, Toulon, Monaco, Menton, Fréjus, Èze... Imagine if it was you, and you didn't know what you know now.... Simplement merveilleux! [*Female Director*]

Best film of the week!

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“Are women magical?…”

More from The French Riviera, and another of my favorite re-watches ♻️: Truffaut’s meta-film 'La Nuit américaine'/Day for night. A perfect perfect film about movie making. There has never been a better one about the deep love for cinema, not '8 1/1', 'Contempt' or 'Singing in the rain', nor 'Sunset Boulevard', 'Get Shorty' or 'Boogie Nights'.

With another of George Delerue's sweeping scores, and with Nathalie Baye as Truffault's real-life script-girl Suzanne Schiffman, the one who kept it all together. And the cat. 10/10.

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2 thrillers by Spanish Daniel Calparsoro:

🍿 To steal from a thief is a sophisticated heist story, with a crisp-sounding, exciting opening. Dynamic and drenched in heavy rains, it pulled me in. But as it continue, I came to realize that it's an exact copy of Spike Lee 'Inside Man', mixed with Jason Statham's 'The Bank Job' - but in Valencia. Too bad! I started to like it a lot.

🍿 Because he is considered one of the best 'Action' directors in Spain, I tried also his latest All the Names of God, but it was even worst. A taxi driver has to survive after being kidnapped by a Muslim suicide bomber in Madrid. But again, it just copied previous plots (Tom Cruise's 'Collateral', Dennis Hopper's 'Speed', as well as the surprise explosion at the beginning of 'Children of Men') without adding much else to it. 3/10.

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The Gang's All Here (1943), directed by Busby Berkeley. My first joyful experience with Carmen Miranda (here in her famous The Lady In The Tutti-Frutti Hat number). Full of sexual innuendos from Brazil and cultural appropriations, still a wonderful entry to this world.

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2 more movies about the Holocaust:

🍿 Toyland was the short German Oscar winner in 2009. A dark & moving story about 2 boys in 1942, who are best friends. When the Jewish family is being deported, the other boy decides to join his "blood brother", because his mother explains their moving, as 'they are going to Toyland'. 9/10.

🍿 "They'll have to drag me out of here. You know that."

My first re-watch of The Zone of Interest; This is not about mass murder, but about a family that lives on the other side of a wall. A father reading good-night stories to his daughter, a wife who pushes her husband to take her back to their favourite vacation place in Italy. The mundane as a chilling metaphor, with distant sounds as the only reminders. 9/10. ♻️

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Legendary Thelma Schoonmaker X 2:

🍿 The Key to Reserva (2007) was a Martin Scorsese joke, constructed as a faux Hitchcock homage. In it he claimed that he discovered a previously-unknown script for an unproduced Hitchcock movie, and he went and filmed it "as the master would have done it today". But in reality it was just a fucking slick commercial for some cheap champagne brand! Very much like his other meta-film 'Goncharov'. Featuring Thelma Schoonmaker as herself, and suave Simon Baker as Cary Grant. 9/10.

🍿 My third by Spanish director Isabel Coixet, Learning to drive, a standard movie about simple connections. Patricia Clarkson is a literary editor whose husband left her, and Ben Kingsley a Sikh driving instructor in Queens, NY. With a surprising and funny tantric sex scene at the end of Act 2, and music score by George Harrison's son, Dhani.

I often think that Schoonmaker doesn't get enough credit for her work for Scorsese. Here there's no bravado, just clear and thoroughly enjoyable editing. [*Female Director*].

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David Ehrlich X 2:

🍿 Talking about great editing, I saw David Ehrlich’s annual Video Countdown The 25 Best Films of 2023, again♻️. It was brilliantly edited by him. So far I've seen 13 14 of these 25 films, and plan to see most of the others (especially 'The boy and the Heron', which he rated as 'The best movie of the year').

🍿 From his list: La Chimera, my second by Alice Rohrwacher, and one of many starring her sister Alba Rohrwacher. A slow, interesting mood piece about some rustic Etruscan grave robbers in the 1980's. I couldn't get into it initially, until I realize that it was an Italian Magical Realism dream. Divination gets into the picture, and treasure hunting, and nostalgia for the past and for the dead. I didn't expect it to end like the Dutch 'Spoorloos', not even metaphorically, and maybe it didn't. [*Female Director*].

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First time watching: While waiting for his 'Megalopolis', the chronicles of Coppola's wife from The Philippines, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Documenting a self-indulgent genius, megalomaniac visionary, stubborn Macho Man, building an insane universe out of dreams. [*Female Director*].

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3 by Slovenian Špela Čadež:

🍿 Boles is a dreamlike stop-motion tale about a young author with a writer's block. It is based on 'Her Lover', a sad short story by Maxim Gorky. It's depressingly Russian, and stylistically brilliant.

🍿 Steakhouse (2021), an uncomfortable and original masterpiece. Like Studio Ghibli FoodPorn, but where the sizzle signifies fear. An impatient husband prepares a steak for his wife's birthday - WOW!

🍿 In Nighthawk (2016) a drunken badger steals a cop car and goes on high-speed joy-ride that starts blurry and end up completely abstract. [*Female Director*].

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All 3 of Ellie Wen's shorts:

🍿In the intimate little documentary Single Mother Only Daughter, a young woman calls her mother in Hong Kong, after she had nearly died in a car accident. It hits much too close to home for me - 10/10.

🍿 Share (2018) is about a very young 'influencer' who struggles with coming out to his family. Not too original.

🍿 The missfits are an all female high school robotics team from San Francisco. A PBS documentary. [*Female Director*].

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"This country is not built for another civil war. It's going to be the first time in history that you'll see fat refugees..."

I always loved Colin Quinn. His 2019 stand-up Colin Quinn: Red state, blue state is one of funniest political shit since George Carlin died. Sharp observations, relentless pessimism, cynical solutions. 10/10!

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2 From British director Adam Butcher:

🍿 Internet Story (2010) is a clever horror mystery, an early entry in the 'Screenlife' genre, where everything is revealed via computer and phone screens (Like 'Searching' and 'Missing', Etc.). It's a treasure hunt of old internet lore, which may or maybe not be true. Art imitates Life. 8/10.

🍿 The prevailing wind (2016), an ominous tale about a woman who's searching for her missing sister on some mysterious wind-swept moors, while a deadly chemical spill threaten their lives. Atmospheric, but a bit thin.

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I'm going to continue watching even more short films (Found via this massive Letterbox list):

🍿 "Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry Of wonderful times to come."

Dinner for Few (2015) is a harrowing Greek metaphor about the "Elite", 6 fat cats, actually fat pigs, who get to feast on all the food, while the cats milling between their feet gets only crumbs. 'Orwell's Animal Farm' on bad acid! The cycle never ends. 9/10. (Full Movie Above).

🍿 I am so proud of my 94 year old mother! I introduced her to James Joyce, and she is going right now through his 'Dubliners' collection, trying to figure it out. I haven't read it for many years, but I might pick it up again. Meanwhile, it seems that many of the Dubliners stories had been filmed [John Huston's 'The dead' was magnificent], so I started with James Joyce's the Sisters (2017), a faithful, somber and literary adaptation. This was Joyce's first published story.

🍿 Hunger, a bizarre Canadian animation short, that was the very first computer animated film nominated for an Oscar (in 1974). A guy can't stop stuffing his face.

🍿 Buster Keaton’s 2-reeler One week, his first independent production (1920). Newly-wed Keaton builds a modernist kit house. It includes a risqué scene where his half-naked lovely wife takes a bath and drops her soap. Before getting out and retrieving it, she breaks the 4th wall, motions to the photographer, whose hand appears and covers the lens. Astounding! 8/10.

🍿 My second by Norwegian André Øvredal (after ‘Troll Hunter’ which I couldn’t finish), The tunnel (2016) is a terrifying science-fiction short. A family returning from a day at the beach and getting stuck in a massive traffic line. Must be seen to be felt. 8/10.

🍿 Widdershins (2018) a weird Scottish steampunk animation about an orderly gentlemen who falls for a free-spirited sky-biker. Blade Runners via Wes Anderson.

🍿 Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers, a wordless comic musical about 6 percussionists who break into a Swedish apartment when the occupants leave, and who play rhythmic melodies using everyday objects they find there. Re-Watch from 2001. ♻️

🍿 The giving tree (1973), an animated version of the classic story, narrated by Shel Silverstein himself. Still not clear if it's about selfless love, or an abusive relationship.

🍿 Pitalev (2018), a fat teenager works at an Israeli 'Shipudiya' (fast food grill stall), and tries to score a date.

🍿 Papers, Please, an interesting Russian story about a border patrol officer sitting in a small booth, and having to decide on the fate of the people in front of him; Should they be allowed to enter this fictional country of Arstotzka, or denied? Apparently, it is based on a famous computer game!

🍿 Chuck Jones’s Duck Amuck (1953) was voted as the second ‘greatest cartoon of all time’ (after ‘What’s Opera, Doc’, also by Jones). It contains some serious 4th wall breaking.

🍿 Rhapsody in blue, the 3rd movement from 'Fastasia 2000'. 1930 New York City animated in the style of Al Hirschfeld.

🍿 More, Disney's Once Upon a Studio (2023), a 9-min. commemorative compilation for the company’s 100 year anniversary.

🍿 Also, Ghibli Studio's short Zen, Grogu and Dust Bunnies, a meditative crossover clip about Baby Yoda and the dust bunnies.

🍿 See Saw - A guy wakes up to discover that his personal information had been leaked all over the internet.

🍿 First watch: Adult Swim’s 2014 parody Too many cooks. Makes me regret that I’ve never watched sit-com television - Not!… 8/10.

🍿 Your mother and I (2016), based on a story by Dave Eggers. Another off-tone father-teenage daughter relationship, where the father talks and talks, mostly spinning bullshit stories about the mother which apparently is not there any more. 2/10. [*Female Director*].

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(My complete movie list is here).

[booasaur]

Hey! Hope you’re doing alright. I binged Welcome to Eden and I have thoughts I want to share but am very much mindful of spoilers so don’t read this until you finish/catch up! I’ll put my thoughts under the break:

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

*SPOILERS*

Okay so! I really enjoyed this season it was fun. I loved the progression of Bel and Zoa’s relationship. I liked that Bel initiated a convo with Gabi after she and Zoa fought, and Gabi picked up that Bel liked Zoa “a lot.” I’m always wary of f/f couples on television saying I love you too soon because I find it really jarring and I respect that they didn’t have Bel say that explicitly, but honestly after everything they’ve been through together I also wouldn’t mind if they did have her say I love you.

Also — the way that there were multiple moments where Zoa was with Bel but would leave to speak with Gabi and tell Gabi that she is the most important thing in the world to Zoa AND there were a couple of scenes where Gabi made digs at Bel or suggested Zoa was wrong for wanting to rebel … then in the finale Zoa has the opportunity to leave Bel to die and live with Gabi, but she chooses to stay with Bel and die together.

Lowkey I’m wondering about the racial politics of the show, like the way the majority of the main and/or sympathetic characters are white or at least white passing (Zoa, Charly, the kid, Mayka, Ibón, Eloy, África, Gabi … also Bel? Her actress is Spanish) and the characters of color, especially the Black characters, are discarded or unsympathetic (Eva, Saúl, Nico … man Nico is a mess and all over the place character-wise). This didn’t particularly bother me while I was watching, but it’s worth thinking about what’s implied even unintentionally. I appreciate the amount of queer representation in the show, truly off the charts and beyond my expectations, but idk…u know? Anyway thank you for reading this if you did, excited to hear your thoughts on the show :)

Hey! Thanks so much for the spoiler warning, I hadn't finished by the time I got this and was able to stop reading ahead in plenty of time.

Yeah, I was honestly shocked at the treatment Zoa and Bel got, especially since the trailer had almost no Bel or Bel with Zoa, and a romantic-seeming scene with Nico and Zoa. Given history, people could be forgiven for thinking s2 would return to a love triangle, or worse, kill off Bel. We couldn't have been more wrong.

The show didn't even do the kind of drama or distancing/sidelining that often happens in a second season, where Zoa would get frustrated with Bel's single-mindedness or choose Gabi over her. It was just them together, somehow both the established, grounded couple watching over everyone but also with tentative little romantic moments just for themselves.

I didn't even make that connection between Gabi accusing Zoa of being influenced by Bel and forcing her to reiterate that Gabi was Zoa's biggest priority, but then at the end Zoa choosing to die with Bel over living with Gabi, like, damn.

They just had so many scenes, like, I don't even know where to begin giffing. And along with the m/m and trans rep, the rebels were the queerest group on the island. :P Though I was super sad to lose my cartoon boy brought to life, Ibon, would much rather have lost Orson who in his final act of character development could have sacrificed himself for the others. >_>

I definitely know what you mean about race, I remember it last season when Claudia was just sacrificed like that and Nico was treated like a selfish moron, and then this season it wasn't much better, Nico straight up dying, Saul also dying, Eva being treated as an outsider the whole time. I'm just glad she survived it all and wasn't the traitor (which, dammit, Gabi, so annoying, her and Africa were by far the biggest disappointments). And when you're considering something like this, it is a combination of screentime, complexity, rootability, agency, I didn't love that Eva was one of the only women who went totally topless, along with Som, who is Asian but one of the darker skinned characters on the show. Which, lol, that's an even more nuanced discussion, like, it shouldn't be a matter of shame or poor treatment, but in reality, it can be, and if there's an imbalance, it does stand out. None of these are dealbreakers, but for sure, I definitely was racking up these observations.

I'm curious if it gets another season. I'd be okay if it doesn't, since it could very well be read as a full rescue and resolution of the story, though I'm sure the writers have something much more convoluted planned. :o

[thephoebeyates]

≈ novelty book store. with @somcthingliminal

“You know, I don’t necessarily mind movie-book covers, but a few of them are a bit…well, much.” It was the nicest way for Phoebe to describe what most literary folks would describe abominations to the art-form, scrolling through her Kindle phone app to show Nydia what she had in mind. Who knew a by-chance crossing of paths in the same block they lived in would be the cultivation needed for what Phoebe could consider a tight friendship? It was nice to have friends with similar interests; sure there was Dante and Linc when it came to music — even if it was overshadowed by the drama of their own relationship — and despite the age difference, Saul was her go-to when it came to certain trash reality TV. But truly there was no better connection to books than that of someone who literally owned a store dedicated to the craft.

“Oh, never mind. It was some rom-com one anyway.” She let out a huff of defeat, sliding the phone in the back-pocket of her jeans, before leaning against the counter in her usual position, able to yap a t the shop-owner without disrupting the other customers. “Actually, there’s worse ones out there that aren’t movie ones…have you seen the Wordsworth Classics? They look AI Generated.” Though she stopped from pulling out her phone a second time, though at that moment it did buzz in her pocket, but paid it no mind for now. 

Letting the silence consume her for a second, Phoebe looked around, letting the comfort of the store wash over her. For as long as she could remember, there was always solace in visiting bookshops. A few of her mom’s nicer boyfriends would often treat her to the big stores like Barnes & Noble, or even the funky little second-hand bookstores in the back streets of bigger towns. Sometimes Word on the Street was on rotation at the market too, and they encouraged her to go wild with it. Phoebe being Phoebe, of course, always chose the cheapest thing available when she wasn’t allowed to say no to being treated. Then of course, it would lead to her mom’s weird insecurities about attention…

She shook the thought away, scanning the far shelves, wondering what her younger self would have picked if she had all the options now. “How’s business, anyway?” She asked, turning her attention back to Nydia. “I bet a bunch of kids with their long summer reading lists will come trudging in soon. Or is the summer better for the yoga studio?” Another funny coincidence the women shared, laughing about Phoebe’s many failed attempts to become a yogee over the years. Fuck it, she had finally decided after a full January class where everyone was making a start with their resolutions, Foster found her flexible enough, she really didn’t need the aching limbs. Or humiliation.