#Mark 5:9

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[bunabi]

"children don't learn unless you shout at them" is my favorite piece of Solas dialogue because it implies 1) he's had to babysit at least once and 2) kids do not respect him at all 😭

[octibee]

their shared home has a light that never goes out

[gunsatthaphan]

GMMTV Outing 2024 out of context (not that it would make more sense with context) - part 1

[everworlds]

I don't think I've made a post officially abt how much I love these stupid idiots.

Oh well, guess this is that post

[bigbonbonya]

I just started giggling because

Shank is essentially the only one who differs from all the jigsaws in that he is not a follower of John himself, unlike the main four, but simply a follower of his ideology, which he wants to spread to the cops

That's why I made such a giggle hehe😼

[jazzstarrlight]

Nuzi - N's Haiku (comic strip)

A small little poetic angst because why not? Protective_Boyfriend.exe=true/ . Keep her safe in the next upcoming episodes whenever we get them. Hopefully soon. (I hate being left on cliff hangers honestly. Lol.)

Let me know what you think!

I also have commissions open. Prices and rules are pinned at the top of my blog!

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

mark pellegrino really went onto 9-1-1 as a guest star and didn’t leave until he uttered the phrase “the family business” like the true spn girlie he is

[caityelizabethjoy]

Notes from Zidane.

[moviestvpolls]

198o Movies

[thesmilingfish]

Why hasn't this man had movie or TV work in five years?!?

Is there some scandal I haven't heard about?

I don't get it.

Oh.

X

[crusheswhimsandfancies]

Blue Jeans Baby by Atlantic 5

[redr0sewrites]

these past 2 days have been so bad that im literally getting two more chapters of character lore.

[moviesiveseenandwanttoremember]

Mark Robson’s “The Seventh Victim” August 21, 1943.

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

This Verse Secretly Undermines All of Christianity...

I just saw this and thought I would process it on my own.

This YouTuber doesn't sound like he's explored much beyond mainstream Western Christianity. He makes the bold statement that EVERY Christian sect finds indispensable the idea that Christ died on the Cross "for our sins". Period.

For the longest time I found that challenging too. He goes on to talk about many of the same things I've asked, "Why couldn't God just forgive us outright? Why must he go through a generational pageant to do something the God of the Universe could have done of his own accord in the first place?"

You can say this is a dumb question. I've been told this many times.

Yet I have never been the only one asking this.

Many, if not all Atheists ask this question. Frankly, many "Christian" answers sound a little unhinged.

Now, I don't think that his examples necessarily contradict the prevailing point of view though. All anyone has to do is look at the banking industry to see that credit on future earnings is a valid payment method. Now it's true that modern banking, and especially credit, wasn't developed until the European Jews, unable to make a living any other way, started lending during the medieval period. Jesuits came up with the idea of insurance, which didn't technically fall under the prohibition against usury. And with ongoing innovation, modern financial markets developed.

None of these, of course, would have been understood by the local people of Jesus' time and place.

What was understood was life and death.

And this is where I found my peace.

Sins can easily be forgiven, but sickness and eventual death? That's a whole other nut to crack. Now, to be clear, unfortunately even the most traditional Christian communities have started to obsess about how SIN must be atoned!

But there is a strain in the oldest Christian traditions that it wasn't primarily sin that was destroyed on the cross, but rather death, disease, corruption (of which sin is a derivation to be sure, but not the point).

Now it's easy to look around and say - "Look! it didn't work." I myself have had to say good bye to both my parents over the last several months.

However, there is a resurrection that is promised. And if Christ has done what he said he did, then there WILL be a general resurrection.

The key is to be prepared for that resurrection. Now we could go on about which denomination is best prepared, but I have little faith in denominationalism. I think it's a means to conquer and divide the faithful, pitting follower against follower. Soon the God who's being worshiped isn't the most High God, but the Deceiver who encourages us all to call each other heretics. I do not think most "Christians" are Christian, but rather following their own wisdom (1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, Matthew 7:13-14, Matthew 24:11).

Now I may be a false teacher myself for thinking such a thing and putting it out there, but I have faith that God will know his own. And while he loves the rest, and has given them life, that life will be so much less for the fact that they reject what he's given them.

I find the idea of a river of fire helpful - Moses and the Glory of God (Exodus 33:20-23), speaks to the idea that to human senses, God is Fire. The Story of the Three Holy Youths (Daniel 3) has also been seen as an illustration of man abiding in the presence of fire, as a proxy for God, unharmed. Pentecost is God's fire experienced by the faithful after his resurrection. How will Gods fire be experienced by the unfaithful?

I have no idea, but I doubt that it will be pleasant (Luke 16:19-31).

In short, I feel this video failed to land it's point. There's enough diversity in Christianity to survive this argument, though I do not think that most modern Christians are open to my resolution.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy upon me, a sinner.