#Scorners

[idealog]

Craven Maroons \ Jackass

misinterpret kindness to stir bullshit,

violent, hateful criminals,

abusing all

comprehending honest kindness,

unscornful critique for excellence,

as a threat or insult,

but the Truth is,

without justice and equalness,

you have sold your children

to the slaughter,

because anything they say to help you,

you choose to take as an excuse to hurt them,

as an insult, mistakenly, because of your own insecurities caused by the weakness of neurosis and despair,

Because you are mean, selfish, cruel, jealous, envious, anti-other, competitive, and you harm others, not for play, and not Cooperative,

And you've destroyed the innocent who Are.

You will regret failing to save your daughters,

because you chose to attack the true rather than your own evil.

I have already repented of all my harm. You still refuse to defend the community.

Why? Because you only care about pride, about yourself.

*Spit*. Be destroyed?

Bless your Enemies!

For they showed you what not to do,

Even though they destroyed themselves from Eternity.

There's beauty in that, I spose.

Aeon

And that's why you hate dialogue, discussion, because you're in the wrong, and you only care about using force (violence, implied, covert, or direct) to destroy others.

But, ETERNITY Will Destroy you with Unimpeded and endless Annihilation,

cleansing the earth of your blustering bullshit pride in self,

And not a shred of real selflessness.

You'll learn, in Hell, like I Did,

If you don't clear it yourself.

Jesus Christ

How you hate instruction, and the Father. But there are two sides to the coin of parent.

'The obstacle is the way'. Though it's clear the mind say we learn by going where we are tunneled by the evil of others, I see no reason to thank them,

And they have shown NO reason to be trusted,

BeCause in the end,

ThY only care about themselves.

Thanks for the keys,

And the lag,

And all the Waterboarding,

O Grate Ones.

Your Pride is such Awe!

ALLAH

Irrational selfish crazies.

-✓-

Where is your sight?

Will You barge into Heaven?

Or is it already too late?

Since you, Regretfully, do nothing to defend the children,

Who aren't yours,

But God's,

Just like you,

But if ye are gods,

What fallow beast is Ye.

You could Be,

But are not.

Stand up, or shut up. <What have you done to save all you know from evil, but project it in others?> I don't care about your offense. You should be Offended by your self, proud one of self and against others, against the team.

You're not your self, you are part of the Divine Soul;

Though perhaps lost apart from it now.

Separation is important, even in Union. (&v.v.)

Do right.

Do something.

halp

One shouldn't have to ask for help,

But men tend to band together against God,

So their 'help' isn't help at all.

X

I don't care about pride, because I'm not violently spiteful hateful scornful against others, I only state the truth as I Know it.

1: "Don't speak unless it's epicly wise, or I'll kill you.'

2: *Speaks the most epically awesome truth and beauty evah*

1: Woops I'm a piece of shit how dare someone speak truth and not make me look like the coolest cat in town oy vey. "I Warned you!" *Attack!*

When a good person realizes they're a piece of shit, they feel bad and fix it.

Damn.

Respect isn't denying others the opportunity to speak honestly.

What is it you fear, but your own evils being unveiled?

I Already Told you I forgive them if you repent and make amends by changing your way to stop hurting the future and the now and the all.

But some shades must not wear white.

Or, Rather, there can be no common field for the beast and the worm.

But the Bird, unguiled, guileless honesty, Spirit's truth, remains.

Chirp

~Mystic

#nonjudging

MYSTIQUE

#envy #jealousy #unattractive #violent #hateful #scorn #judgement

When I'm not Free,

TheRe is nothing here I want,

For I Am not me,

Peace & Harmony of all,

And so there shall also there be none for thee.

Respect.

King Christ,

Protector of All

#judgmental #projection #scorn #derision #unbelief #pessimism #doubt #Faith #sorrow #Cheer #JOY #Love #selfishness #assumption #ego #Matthew 25

Scorn in calling others Stupid,

Remember that you don't Know the Unknown,

Or whatever,

Unlearn these lessons of Pride,

Which perpetuated hatred

By scorning others

So we can have some peace.

#The Forever War

Our assumptions ingrained and trained into us,

Are enemies to all.

I gave up my worldview entire.

I only cared about the truth.

It's the only sure thing,

Which one can at least say,

I did honor,

And betrayed none,

Even in sorrow,

For the Hope of . . .

Something that makes sense,

Where there is no Tomorrow of fear,

But sunny holyness Eternal?

Every element of the body is but vestigial,

I will use them for holiness.

The Dark Avenues I Wander

Provide upon which to Ponder

Truth,

The Functioning of honesty,

That I might not offend

to presume above my translation

of the mechanics which run parallel

to the Cosmos.

JJH, Son of Mankind, Lover of Heaven

√(π+1)

:P

🐞

KIndness, defined - Good News

The soft touch of Heaven

You don't wanna hear a peep

As you fill your own water bowl

Despoiling the River.

#FREESPEECH

#Hate #sovereignty #personal sovereignty #violation #boymeetsworld #free will #bullying #repentance #Change

The Sun

Of the Spirit

God's Kingdom

"Will you help those in the desert?"

#selfishness #sin #vanity #guilt

Refusing to face your own crime, you need someone to blame, since you can do no wrong, but are always perfection who should get everything you want at the expense of and without any regard to anyone else or the consequences to others.

Let nothing good come, you say, that hate rules over love and forgiveness.

Do your part. Let others Breathe.

You don't want tO thunK? (Sic: to think)

Mindless

zombies

#witch hunt

#hypocrisy

O Power,

Robbin'

#Robin Hood

More more more more more for you

.

\/

_

����️

⭐

🌈

Factory Farm

WASTE

Truth

Honesty is Innocence.

The Just Way of Heaven.

/\

😇

No sorries for true to Spirit.

the Spirit of Truth in the Moonlight, Yaik

[scripture-pictures]

[heartofashepherd]

“The Portrait of the ‘Blessed Man’” - part 3, (Psalm 1:4-6) - Auditorium...

[pynkhues]

I would LOVE to read your analysis of louis as byronic hero as apposed to his reading as gothic heroine. lots of the latter and zero of the former in the fandom.

Sure! Mmm, okay, so –

What are we talking about when we talk about Gothic Heroes?  

When we talk about gothic heroes, we’re really talking about three pretty different character archetypes. All three are vital to the genre, but some are more popular in certain subgenres i.e. your Prometheus Hero may be more common in gothic horror, whereas your Byronic Hero might be more likely to be found in gothic romance. That’s not to say they’re exclusive to those subgenres at all, and there is an argument that these archetypes themselves are gendered (in many ways, I think people confuse Anne being an author of the female gothic with Louis being a gothic heroine, but I’ll get into that later), but this is also not necessarily something that’s exclusive.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself, haha, so the three gothic hero archetypes are:

Milton’s Satan who is the classic gothic hero-villain. You can probably guess from the name, but he was originated in John Milton’s 1667 poem, Paradise Lost. He is God’s favourite angel, but God is forced to cast him out of heaven when he rebels against him. As an archetype, he’s a man pretty much defined by his pride, vanity and self-love, usually fucks his way through whatever book or poem he’s in, has a perverted, incestuous family, and a desire to corrupt other people. He’s also defined as being “too weak to choose what is moral and right, and instead chooses what is pleasurable only to him” and his greatest character flaw, in spite of all The Horrors, is that he’s usually easily misguided or led astray. (I would argue that Lestat fits into this archetype pretty neatly, but that’s a whole other post.)

Prometheus who was established as a gothic archetype by Mary Shelley with Frankenstein in 1818. Your Prometheus Hero is basically represented by the quest for knowledge and the overreach of that quest to bring on unintended consequences. He’s tied, of course, to the Prometheus of Greek myth, so you can get elements of that in this character design too in that he can be devious or a trickster, but the most important part of him is that he is split between his extreme intelligence and his sense of rebellion, and that his sense of rebellion and boundary pushing overtakes his intelligence and basically leads to All The Gothic Horrors.

And the Byronic Hero, who as the name implies, was both created by and inspired by the romantic poet, Lord Byron in his semi-autobiographical poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage which was published between 1812-1818. The archetype is kind of an idealized version of himself, and as historian and critic Lord Macaulay wrote, the character is “a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.” Adding to that, he’s often called ‘the gloomy egoist’ as a protagonist type, hates society, is often self-destructive and lives either exiled or in a self-exile, and is a stalwart of gothic literature, but especially gothic romance. Interestingly too, in his most iconic depictions he’s often a) darkly featured and/or not white (Heathcliff being the most obvious example of this given Emily Bronte clearly writes him as either Black or South Asian), and b) is often used to explore queer identity, with Byron himself having been bisexual.

Okay, but what about the Gothic Heroine?

Gothic heroines are less delineated and have had more of an evolution over time, which makes sense, given women have consistently been the main audience of gothic literature and have frequently been the most influential writers of the genre too. The gothic genre sort of ‘officially’ started with Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto and Isabella is largely regarded as the first gothic heroine and the foundation of the archetype, and the book opens even with one of the key defining traits – an innocent, chaste woman without the protection of a family being pursued and persecuted by a man on the rampage.

The gothic heroine was, for years, defined by her lack of agency. She was innocent, chaste, beautiful, curious, plagued by tragedy and often, ultimately, tragic. Isabella survives in The Castle of Otranto, but she’s one of the lucky ones – Cathy dies in Wuthering Heights, Sybil dies in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Justine and Elizabeth both die in Frankenstein, Mina survives in Dracula, but Lucy doesn’t. There’s an argument frequently posited that the gothic genre was, and is, about dead women and the men who mourn them, and Interview with the Vampire certainly lends itself to that pretty neatly.

Of course, the genre has evolved, and in particular by the late 1800s, there was a notable shift in how the Gothic Heroine was depicted. The house became a place of imprisonment where they were further constrained and disempowered, she was infantilized and pathologized and diagnosed as hysterical, and as Avril Horner puts it in her excellent paper, Women, Power and Conflict: the Gothic heroine and ‘Chocolate-box Gothic’, gothic literature of this era “explores “the constraints enforced [by] a patriarchal society that is becoming increasingly nervous about the demands of the ‘New Woman’.”

This was an era where marriage was increasingly understood in feminist circles to be a civil death where women were further subjugated and became the property of their husbands. This was explored through gothic literature as the domestic space evolved into a symbol of patriarchal control in the Female Gothic.

Female Gothic vs Male Gothic

Because here’s the thing – the female gothic and the male gothic are generally understood to be two different subgenres of gothic literature.

While there are plenty of arguments as to what this entails, the basics is that the male gothic is written by men, and usually features graphic horror, rape and the masculine domination of women and often utilises the invasion of women’s spaces as a symbol of further penetrating their bodies, while the female gothic is written by women, and usually features graphic terror, as opposed to horror, while delving more specifically into gender politics. More than that though, its heroines are usually victimized, virginial and powerless while being pursued by villainous men.

The Female Gothic as a genre is also specifically interested in the passage from girlhood to female maturity, and does view the house as a place of entrapment, but she is usually suddenly “threatened with imprisonment in a castle or a great house under the control of a powerful male figure who gave her no chance to escape.”

That’s not Louis’ arc, that’s Claudia’s arc twice over, first with the house at Rue Royale, then with the Paris Coven, and Lestat and Armand aren’t the only powerful male figures who imprison her.

Claudia as the Gothic Heroine

Claudia in many ways is the absolute embodiment of the classic gothic heroine. Even the moment of their meeting is a product of Louis’ Byronic heroism – his act of implacable revenge against the Alderman Fenwick which prompts the rioting that almost kills her. She’s a victim of Louis’ monstrousness before they’ve even met, and while he saves her, he arguably does something worse in trapping her in the house with both himself and Lestat, holding her in an ever-virginal, ever-chaste eternal girlhood, playing into Lestat’s Milton-Satan by enhancing the perversion of family and ultimately infantilizing her out of his own desire for familial closeness.

Claudia has no family protection before Louis and Lestat – a staple of the gothic heroine – she is completely dependent on them in her actual girlhood, and again in adulthood, never developing the strength to be able to turn a companion, to say nothing about the sly lines here and there that further diminish and pathologise her (Lestat calling her histrionic, Louis making her out to be a burden, etc.). This is all further compounded again with the Coven, and when the tragedy of her life ultimately leads to the tragedy of her death.  

Louis as the Byronic Hero

Not to start with a quote, but here’s one from The Literary Icon of the Byronic Hero and its Reincarnation in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights:

“Generally speaking, the Byronic hero exhibits several particular characteristics. He does not possess heroic virtues in the usual, traditional sense. He is a well-educated, intelligent and sophisticated young man, sometimes a nobleman by birth, who at the same time manifests signs of rebellion against all fundamental values and moral codes of the society. Despite his obvious charm and attractiveness, the Byronic hero often shows a great deal of disrespect for any figure of authority. He was considered "the supreme embodiment [...] standing not only against a dehumanized system of labor but also against traditionally repressive religious, social, and familial institutions" (Moglen, 1976: 28).

The Byronic hero is usually a social outcast, a wanderer, or is in exile of some kind, one imposed upon him by some external forces or self-imposed. He also shows an obvious tendency to be arrogant, cunning, cynical, and unrepentant for his faults. He often indulges himself in self destructive activities that bring him to the point of nihilism resulting in his rebellion against life itself. He is hypersensitive, melancholic, introspective, emotionally conflicted, but at the same time mysterious, charismatic, seductive and sexually attractive.”

Louis as he exists in the show to me is pretty much all of those things, and I think to argue that he’s a gothic heroine not only diminishes Claudia’s arc, but robs Louis of his agency within his own story. Louis chooses Lestat, over and over again, he’s not imprisoned by the monster in the domestic sphere, he is one of the monsters who’s controlling the household, including making decisions of when they bring a child into it and when Lestat gets to live in it – he wanted to be turned, he wanted to live with Lestat in Rue Royale, and while there are certainly arguments to be made about their power dynamic within the household in the NOLA era, importantly Louis actually gained social power through his marriage to Lestat, particularly through The Azaelia, he didn’t lose it in the way that’s vital to the story of the gothic heroine.

Daniel Hart even said it in a recent twitter thread about Long Face, but there is an element of Lestat and Louis’ relationship that is transactional, and to me, for that to exist, they both have to have a degree of control over their circumstances and choices in order to negotiate those transactions. Claudia is the one who can’t, she’s the one who’s treated effectively as property, and she’s the one who lacks control over her circumstances.

While you could perhaps argue the constraints of the apartment in Dubai lend more to the gothic heroine archetype, I’d argue it as furthering the Byronic trope again by being representative both of Louis’ self-destruction and self-imposed exile. As Jacob has said a few times, Louis does seem to have known to a degree that Armand was involved in Claudia’s death on some level, and it’s that guilt and misery that has him allowing Armand his degree of control. The fact that Louis was able to leave Armand as easily and as definitively as he was I think demonstrates that distinction too – after all, to compare that ending to Claudia’s multiple attempts to leave the confines of the patriarchal house, both in Rue Royale and Paris, which were punished at every turn – first by her rape, then by Lestat dragging her back off the train, and then by the Coven orchestrating her murder.

Louis gets to leave because Louis can leave, he has both the social and narrative power to, and the fact that he does is, to me, completely at odds with the gothic heroine. Louis can, and does advocate for himself, Louis is proud, moody, cynical. Defiance is a key part of his character, just as his exile from NOLA society due to his race, and his chosen rejection of vampire society in Paris, is. He’s intelligent and sophisticated, travels the world, and has misery in his heart, guilt that eats him up, and self-destructive tendencies. That’s a Byronic Hero, baby!  

[great-cats]

April fools.

Guys I think I'm going to convert to a Bakugo centric account.

[bethanydelleman]

Is Darcy byronic?

No.

Here is a nice definition from Wikipedia: Historian and critic Lord Macaulay described the character as "a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection

I don't think Darcy is a Byronic hero, if anything he's a subversion of Byronic. While he is proud, cynical, and capable of strong affection, he turns out not to be vengeful. Darcy's implacable resentment towards Wickham is built on a firm foundation and he hasn't acted on it! I think Byronic!Darcy would have hunted Wickham down and killed him. (Willoughby is also totally a fake Byronic hero, his "deep and strong affection" is false). I also don't think Darcy has misery in his heart most of the time.

Classic examples of Byronic heroes are Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre. A modern example would be Christopher Nolan's Batman.

But I'm no expert on Byronic heroes and I happen to know that a huge Byron fan recently read Pride & Prejudice, if they have time to address this (@burningvelvet)

[lvrcpid]

tiktok famous - modern!au

includes! : ao’nung being ao’nung. use of y/n. gn!reader

if modern!avatar had tiktok!

lo’ak

— his @ is probably like @/yourmom69

— he’s so corny

— he doesn’t post anything but him doing tiktok dances

— he’s stiff as hell too

— HE GETS LIKES AND VIEWS THOUGH DONT PLAY WITH LO’AK

— probably some sad attempts at getting sturdy.

— probably looks like he’s gonna break a hip and throw something out of place

neteyam

— his @ is @teyams or something like that

— is one of those users who promotes his twitch streams

— he probably plays horror games and minecraft ngl

— his ass would make a minecraft village and make it all pretty

— occasional “thirst traps”

— they aren’t even really thirst traps it’s just him sitting

— THE GIRLS GO FERAL THO SO SLAY IG

kiri

— our girl is an editor

— behind the scenes QUEEN

— her @ is probably @/erenstanz

— mostly attack on titan edits

— pretty popular

— 1.3 million likes anyone?

— posts herself one in a while

— she most likely made her own logo and has her own little “producer tag” at the beginning of her edits

tuk

— QUEEN HAS A WHOLE SLIME ACCOUNT

— her @ is @/tukslimereviews

— the camera is always at weird angles but girlie makes it work

— her slime reviews are very honest and good for a 8 year old???

— PARENTAL CONTROLS.

— probably hacked it and is making fun of her brothers on a burner account

— tuk cyber bully era

— girlie reposts barbie reviews and watches those roblox roleplay videos

ao’nung

— LIGHTSKIN FACE TM

— @/theyhate_nung is his @ LIKE YOU ARE UNKNOWN MOVE

— always making thirst traps. like get a hobby

— posts his basketball highlights like someone gives a damn

— you do but whatever

— probably features you in a lot of his tiktoks

— “this my girl/boy/partner- “please shut the hell up”

— does that weird arm swing that the boys do

— ICK CENTRAL

— he still gets hella likes though.

— for doing NOTHING

tsireya

— her @ is @/reyatime

— she probably posts really aesthetic content like those really well edited day in my life vids

— probably posts singing covers

— FIT INSPO LEGEND

— does those big sister talks for her followers

— hair tutorials for her curly haired followers

— probably is really famous on tiktok ngl

— UNPROBLEMATIC QUEEN

y/n

— you probably post guitar covers

— your @ is probably something like @/(y/n)scorner

— or really aesthetic content

— you are gilmore girls

— you probably voice a lot of your opinions

— you do little ted talks

— probably dank humor

— A LOT OF YELLING IN YOUR CAR???

— yelling does equal funny idc what anyone says.

a.n // three posts in one day???? i am feeding y’all say thank you sae- no i’m just joking but i’m on break and have a lot of free time so TEEHEE love you baby gworls

[leftsharkhypocrite]

The scorners' lodge

[takeariskao3]

What's a 'byronic snack'?

a byronic hero (based on protagonists from Lord Byron's poetry) is a character who is proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.

a snack is an attractive person (i.e., someone who looks sexy enough to scarf down like a snack)

therefore, hjp is a wholeass byronic snack.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Wise and Foolish Sons

1 A wise son heareth his father's instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

2 A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.

3 He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

4 The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

5 A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.

6 Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way: but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.

7 There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.

8 The ransom of a man's life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.

9 The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.

10 Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

11 Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.

12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

14 The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

16 Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly.

17 A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.

18 Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.

19 The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.

20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

21 Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.

22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

23 Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.

24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

25 The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want. — Proverbs 13 | King James Version (KJV) The King James Version Bible is in the public domain Cross References: Exodus 9:20; Judges 19:30; 2 Chronicles 10:8; Ezra 9:12; Job 18:5; Psalm 18:5; Psalm 111:10; Psalm 119:1; Proverbs 1:31; Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 9:7-8; Proverbs 12:11; Proverbs 12:23; Proverbs 14:24; Proverbs 21:6; Proverbs 23:13-14; Proverbs 25:13; Ecclesiastes 7:5; Isaiah 47:11; Luke 12:20-21; Luke 15:14; Colossians 3:9; James 3:2; Revelation 2:7

What does the Bible say about parents leaving an inheritance for their children?

[pugzman3]

Proverbs 14:5-6

5 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.

6 A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

[idealog]

"Normal" people are demonics & ugly heathens who steal from the good.

Doesn't end well for such poor choices.

You're welcome for the help, I never needed anything from you of this place.

You caused your own problems, and mine.

Now, GOD has Addressed you, and Corrected you.

[scripture-pictures]

[theonevoice]

Rumination n. 5 - Is the Metatron the skylark from Romeo and Juliet (and are we going to cry)?

I don't know if someone has already pointed this out, but I think I stumbled upon something regarding the Metatron (may he step on legos for the rest of his eternal existence).

I was in the middle of one my regular cycles of Neil Gaiman Cultural References Game appreciation, thinking of how much Romeo-and-Juliet-like is our ineffable husbands- love story. The parallel is obvious: forbidden love between two members of families in violent open conflict, side characters constantly stepping in and adding fuel to the fire, a masquerade ball (you know, where everyone shows up in different clothes than usual), a secret encounter in the garden... even a nightingale that doesn't sing, because the long-awaited night of love has come to an end and in place of a nightingale now a skylark is singing, and its song tears the lovers apart.

And then it struck me.

In classical, medieval, and romantic immagination, the skylark is the symbol of the Triumph of Good over Evil, and many cultures consider it a messenger from the gods. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Look at how Percy Bysshe Shelly describes the skylark:

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; [...] Like a star of Heaven, In the broad day-light Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, [...] Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

Am I spiraling, or does it ring a bell? A metaphisical bird "like a cloud of fire" (reminder that the Holy Spirit, alternative form of God's voice, is canonically depicted in art as a bird, often a flaming one) that speaks "from Heaven, or near it" (like as God or almost, remember "you are the voice of the Almighty in the same way as a presidential spokesman is the voice of the President") and pours mezmerizing melodies from above. A bird that cannot be seen but only heard, as if it was pure voice, that scorns the earth and can mysteriously entrance you with spellbinding promises that are better than "all treasures that in books are found."

And who is casually popping up early in the morning, after the long-awaited night of love and dancing (and occasional demon smiting) has come to an end, singing a mesmerizing song (the offer of restoring Crowley to his former angelic status) that is better than books and silences the nightingale, if not the Voice of God, harald of capital-G-Good, freaking Metatron himself?

My friends, I want to trust Neil Gaiman when he says that everything will be ok but, in perfect "it must get worse before it gets better" style, I am afraid that we are going to witness a nearly Romeo and Juliet double death ending that will scare the living daylight out of us. 

Maybe Juliet-Crowley (Juliet is the one who wants Romeo to ignore the skylark, remember?) will be threaten with a permanent imprisonment in Hell (like the forced wedding of Juliet with Paris) and will have to fake his own death in order to leave his old lot behind once and for all, possibly involving fake holy water in place of Friar Laurence's fake death potion. Maybe a fatal miscommunication (I don't need to explain why miscommunication is plausible in this scenario) will lead Aziraphale-Romeo, coming back from Heaven (where he went after almost declaring war on the opposite side, much like Romeo went to Mantua after killing the Capulet Tybalt) just a moment too late and incorrectly informed, to believe that the love of his life is gone for real and to contemplate his own death, possibly throwing himself on his own flaming sword or willingly stepping into hellfire.

I will be honest, I can see Neil Gaiman pulling a shakespearian move on them (and on us). And, as someone said just before a bomb fell on a certain group of people in 1941, it will take a real miracle for them to survive it.

[pynkhues]

Re: rockstar girlfriend Louis. The trend of feminizing Louis is just irking in general. Especially as it's more often than not a way to make him helpless than be critical about it.

He didn't like being compared to a tradwife or a woman back then and he definitely doesn't like it now. I just think it's a little in bad taste that this is so rampant.

Yeah, I mean, the bits I've seen of it have been pretty fascinating to me, but I have heavily curated my fandom experience, so I'm very aware I'm probably seeing broader conversations pretty minimally. It seems to spread across different aspects of the fandom too, from the ratio of mpreg fic on ao3 to meta about him as embodying the gothic heroine trope, which like - - I'm not going to get all into this, but as someone who studied gothic literature at university for years, I just don't agree with it at all - like, in terms of character archetypes within gothic literature, Louis is a Byronic hero through and through:

Historian and critic Lord Macaulay described the [Byronic Hero] as "a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection"

The show is interested in gender, and I can't wait to see what they do with Gabrielle in terms of that thread given Gabrielle is very much gender non-confirming and can be read arguably as trans-masc, but right now, I don't think any of the characters we've seen are anything other than cis (including Lestat) and I think to reject that is to ignore the complexity of their relationships with their own gender. Which is important! There's a reason Claudia is the one who's been robbed of choice, controlled and coerced by both her fathers, not just Lestat, the one who doesn't get to be heard at the trial, or in her life, the one who's infantilised, stuck in dresses she's too old for, the one who's killed. That's important, y'know?

I do think a lot of Louis' issues around his gender are tied pretty specifically to his sexuality, and I don't think he relates to or understands women at all. Like you could make a pretty concise argument that Louis has a virgin/mother/whore complex when it comes to women, which you see in Claudia and Grace/Florence/Antoinette + in his role as a pimp. And I think people take that dual insult of Claudia calling him a housewife and Grace calling Lestat Louis' 'white daddy' as literal, when like - - in both instances they are deliberately insulting / emasculating him either for the sake of it or to goad him into action? They're tender spots for him not because he relates, but because he knows that's how its perceived and he hates that he/it is perceived that way. He's always been an ambitious businessman, so the housewife insult stings on its own, but the white daddy thing taps into what even Daniel Hart was saying about the fact that there is a transactional element to Louis and Lestat's relationship, which is why I find it super interesting that heading into s3, Louis is not only successful, but completely financially independent.

But yes, I think feminising Louis in general just completely shoots over the nuance of his character and honestly, a lot of what makes him so interesting.

[jesterbells]

As the good book says, don't feed the trolls.*

*"וְאָמַר רַבִּי אִילְעָא מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בְּרַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן: כְּשֵׁם שֶׁמִּצְוָה עַל אָדָם לוֹמַר דָּבָר הַנִּשְׁמָע — כָּךְ מִצְוָה עַל אָדָם שֶׁלֹּא לוֹמַר דָּבָר שֶׁאֵינוֹ נִשְׁמָע. רַבִּי אַבָּא אוֹמֵר: חוֹבָה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״אַל תּוֹכַח לֵץ פֶּן יִשְׂנָאֶךָּ הוֹכַח לְחָכָם וְיֶאֱהָבֶךָּ״.

The Gemara cites other statements made by Rabbi Ile’a in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon. And Rabbi Ile’a said in the name of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon: Just as it is a mitzva for a person to say that which will be heeded, so is it a mitzva for a person not to say that which will not be heeded. One should not rebuke those who will be unreceptive to his message. Rabbi Abba says: It is obligatory for him to refrain from speaking, as it is stated: “Do not reprove a scorner lest he hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8)."