#Stand as a Witness

[mindfulldsliving]

Come Follow Me Book of Mormon Insights: Mosiah 11-17 - "A Light … That Can Never Be Darkened"

This week, we turn our focus to Mosiah chapters 11-17, where the powerful theme "A Light ... That Can Never Be Darkened" resonates strongly.

Abinadi before King Noah. Created by Andrew Bosley. Having embarked on the Come Follow Me Book of Mormon study, you’re probably eager for new insights and deeper understanding. This week, we turn our focus to Mosiah chapters 11-17, where the powerful theme “A Light … That Can Never Be Darkened” resonates strongly. These chapters provide a compelling narrative of faith, resilience, and divine…

[chaos0pikachu]

sorry but I so don't care that venom might not be in the mcu cause where the fuck would he and eddie even fit in the mcu? there's no chaotic sexy energy in the mcu i'm so sorry like the mcu's idea of sex is two dry pumps on a beach with ppl so pretty they might as well be ai generated the horniest thing they've done in their films is had steve rogers in a boob shirt and then they finished his story by becoming joe biden Venom would eat some cop's skull and the avengers would literally shit themselves they'd be like "OMG EDDIE YOU CAN'T GO AROUND EATING COPS" and Eddie would be like "I didn't that was my husband" and then John Watson would show up and be like "I'm an ally so I totally understand but also we don't allow the eating of law enforcement here" and Venom would try to eat John Watson while eddie calls the avengers neolibs in his head like THEY DON'T FIT IN THE MCU

[alenachelk]

Outcast

[seance]

— from George Rexstrew instagram story (x)

[zhouxiangs]

This time, I can't tell if the feelings that I have belong to this body… or the old body. But no matter what, I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

MY STAND-IN (2024) | Episode 8

[hometoursandotherstuff]

But, this could be a very cool piece.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.

Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.

Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.

Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[peach-petrichor]

steven was bawling waterfalls when they told him about it

[nando161mando]

We are witnessing the first live streamed genocide

[hoagster]

come get your slop

[ninyard]

your requests have been heard I promise

[sskk-manifesto]

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple and how “ability users” (opposite to “normal people”) learning to accept themselves through the acceptance of their own abilities is a queer metaphor of acceptance of own's sexual orientation and gender: an essay by me

[alexpdcl]

damon comp accumulated in a span of 6 days (ft. mvk)

[doctorsiren]

Another AU commission for Armando, the author of the Defense Attorney Iris fic on fanfic.net! The fic can be found here:

I tried to emulate the style of AA sprites (mainly Investigations) and I’m happy with the result :)

[nikoisme]

Okay so a little thing I noticed is how this random citizen flinches and calls Nimona "freak" when he sees her. This is actually a lot of people's reactions when they see someone using this style (punk rock ig, vibrant colors). And in my experience a lot of queer, especially trans people enjoy this style. You can see that Nimona's design is much different than those of the citizens', even when she is in her "human" form trying to blend in. Everyone is dressed pretty casually, like you could walk down the streets and see someone wearing their clothes. But Nimona stands out. And a lot of people are judgmental purely if someone stands out and doesn't follow their traditional beliefs, norms and roles.