#canon vs biblically accurate

[foremyth]

anyway—

[karmesean]

newest short got me thinkin...

thinkin real hard....

edit: changed the bg colour so it's not puke anymore!

[sophieinwonderland]

r/FakeDisorderCringe doesn't know what biblical canon is, atheists are offended by saying God is plural, and other people casually throwing out some blasphemies and ableism!

👎

For uncreative title.

Atheists Pretending To Be Deeply Offended...

So, let me guess, you're not actually Christian are you?

Those guys sure aren't.

So weird how people pretend to be offended over a religion they aren't even a part of.

(Let's be real though, that's most of the tulpa discourse.)

Oh... you considered converting.

That clearly gives you a say in this conversation. /s

Meanwhile, my host actually lived the religion. He was Christian through his teenage years, and as a child helped his mom teach Sunday School and went to sleep every night on a Noah's Ark pillow.

Sorry, I distracted from your point. We're thieves stealing from a religion. 🙄

Okay, let's talk "canon!"

I just... I LOVE this whole conversation! 🤣

THIS is actual cringe.

Does anyone see the issue here?

I'll let u/AdSuccessful3533 spell it out. Possibly the only person with sense in the thread.

It's not just Catholic Canon either, but Biblical Canon! Like, there's a whole Wikipedia article on it!

The sheer self-righteous ignorance of r/Fakerdisordercringe (and r/systemscringe) never ceases to amaze me.

All of these people so bent out of shape over the use of "canon" to describe biblical text as if that's not been in use for hundreds of years!

"Something a middle schooler would say."

The Heresies!

That's correct. This is NOT the modalism heresy.

Modalism suggests God is a single unified being who reveals himself in different forms. God being plural would mean that God is three beings in one. This is completely in-line with the views of Trinitarianism.

An example of the modalism heresy would be more like this...

Comparing God to Optimus Prime, arguing that they're just different forms like Optimus Prime in a truck form vs him in a robot form, is modalism.

But if modalism isn't enough, we've got some tritheism too!

Besides the tritheism... it's really hard to take people who are calling tulpas appropriative seriously when they don't even know basic facts about the most popular religion in the world.

Also, the part about System not being a term for a person with DID is technically correct. System is, rather, the term used for the total collection of all the alters. But it is very much a term used by psychologists and it's accurate to refer to the Trinity as a system in this way.

Also, if the Tritheism bothers you, don't worry! We're going to go right back to modalism.

The H2O metaphor is controversial for the same reason as comparing God to Optimus Prime. It suggests God is simply changing form to become these different things.

Miscellaneous

Can you show me that rabbit hole?

I'm the one who Tweeted that, and have NEVER been on the OSDD sub.

Who do you think I am?

No... it definitely doesn't sound right. Religion shouldn't just be a thing for neurotypicals.

If one believes in God, then surely God made all people, including those of us who have mental illnesses. Why should Christianity and biblical references be kept away from people with mental illness other than ableism?

I mean, if by in peace, you mean without endogenic systems, then no. You can't.

We're here and we aren't going away. Ever.

And we exist in all spaces, including in your churches and your religious communities. And Christian systems shouldn't be expected to hide who they are because our existence bothers bigots like you.

We're going to share this world, and we're going to share spaces. And that includes churches and religious spaces too. Deal with it. 🤷‍♀️

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank everyone at r/fakedisordercringe for giving me the free material. For a subreddit that's designed to laugh at people for supposed "cringe," you all sure are a goldmine for it! 😜

[sapphopringles]

//XC1 Spoiler talk//

I havent played XC2 or 3 (yet) so this could end up being not entirely canon accurate based on future games but just keep in mind this is thoughts based exclusively off XC1 DE

Ever since i finished xenoblade de on my switch (currently playing epilogue) ive been going Insane over the implications of the strength of Alvis

Based on my understanding of the ending, Monolith Soft fucking found a way to establish a character within canon whose powers trancend the limitations of fiction and into the very fabric of reality as real life humans percieve it

Like, the world of the bionis and mechonis being the result of the recreation of the big bang in the scifi future real life actual universe caused by computer alvis under the command of zanza and meyneth resulting in the laws of reality being reborn and rewritten as such so that alvis' mechanical capability to recreate the big bang with exact precision on the outcome is manifested as a physical being thus creating a god only surpassed by the biblical christian god (who himself is only like "most powerful" cus the propagandaization of dieties requires yours to be better than everyone elses in every concievable way to assert dominance)

Basically, it is impossible for Alvis Xenoblade 1 to lose a fight against any fictional character without severely altering the very basis of his being due to the core of his existence being the physical manifestation of a being capable of rewriting the fabric of reality that also can just see into the future seemingly without limit

The alvis vs goku death battle is the epitome of hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby with goku as the baby and im going insane

I want this fucking twink obliterated

[brw]

Hi! I was wondering if you have any recommendations for comics where Hank & Simon make an appearance together? Also where to read them, if you have that information.

Also, I love your blog, being for the 5 people who like these characters. <3

Omg hiiiiiii! Yes, I will be more than happy to write out a reading list for you! I'll do my best to compile every notable moment or issue where they get a lot of focus, unfortunately there are large gaps in things so there's a really big tone disparity between some of these issues just because of the time that's passed between them, so I'll try to give vague synopsis' when necessary about what's been going on since their last notable interactions.

Avengers V1 #151-#153, Avengers Annual #8 is Simon's resurrection after his death in his debut appearance, and is the foundation for their relationship.

Avengers V1 #160 is just generally a really important Simon issue, and there's only really one or two moments with Hank it, but I think it provides important context to why Simon is the way he is, and how much Hank learns about Simon so early on in their relationship. Hank makes Simon a costume in #161, and it's very ugly.

Avengers V1 #164, #181, #194, #197-#198 (it is imperitive you ignore the Carol arc here. don't worry about it), #201, #203, and ending with #211 are their main stint on the Avengers together, but you can read all of the issues in between these if you so choose! These are just the ones with the more notable scenes. This is the main era of Wonderbeast, and after this Simon soon gets sucked into WCA and Hank into X-Factor and eventually the X-Men proper. There's a few random issues here and there, but we don't get a proper reunion until...

Wonder Man V2 #5-#6, post WCA, in Simon's asshole era. Hank also appears in both Annuals, and in #23-#25 where Simon goes to biblical hell, don't worry about it.

Avengers V3 #14 is their next meeting, after Simon has died in Force Works #1 and Hank grieved for him at his funeral in Tales of the Marvels: Wonder Years. Good issue!

Avengers Two: Wonder Man and the Beast

Their next major appearance together won't be until Avengers V4 Annual, which is the tail end of an arc where Simon went crazy and assembled a team of superheroes to like take down the Avengers or whatever. Don't worry about it.

A+X #12 deals with the fallout of the above. That's +, not vs.

Uncanny Avengers V3 #28

X-Force V6 #49-#50, this is in Hank's evil war crimes era, or more accurately, signals the end of it, and these issues permanently change my brain chemistry. Genuinely insane stuff. I won't spoil anything if this is your first forey but my G-d.

Bonus! Exiles V2 #1-#6 has a Hank who canonically was in a relationship with his Wonder Man, and this series was cancelled early and you can TELL they had more planned for this iteration of the characters but alas...... we will never know :(

And I think that covers all of their major appearances! I hope you have a fun time reading, and if you want me to track down some of those minor, a little more obscure appearances, let me know! :33

[quietwingsinthesky]

You’d like the show Lucifer simply because the guy who plays Lucifer is hot as balls

oh you fool you have no idea the minefield you have just walked into that is my opinions on the tv show Lucifer.

for one, he’s fine, not really my type, but what was more interesting to me is what a handle he had on the character as written in the first few seasons (and hell, he had the charisma to keep me watching long after the show fell the fuck apart, if not to the very end.) Not only the charming-smug playboy aspect, but the incredible amount of anger boiling just below the surface. admittedly, lucifer’s my type of character, and not just cause he gets bonus points for being the devil, but. well. fictional characters who came out the other end of abuse not soft or easy but. fucking difficult to live with. he’s just kind of an asshole, for all his better qualities, and i love that about him.

and oh but if nothing else, i think i’d revisit s1 for just how well it Gets it. the cop show bit of lucifer was always the weakest bit, sort of rote but fun procedural drama (imo also at its best in s1 because of the tension chloe was dealing with in the workplace/with dan as a result of The Case That Went Wrong but it was never great.) but everything else? the way ‘lucifer goes to therapy’ could play both humorously and also for serious drama? that was fantastic. and s1 didn’t feel the need to pull its punches about what was happening here: this is the devil, and what god did to him was wrong and fucked him up.

which is. you know. more than the later show can say about itself or the takes it had on the dynamic between lucifer & god. (if i think about the way the show slowly began to dismiss lucifer’s trauma as it went on, how by the time we got to. what, s5? and we have a scene where god himself describes lucifer’s fall as a temper tantrum, it’s not a moment of horrifying dissonance between what we know about how lucifer was hurt vs how his father is portraying it, but a moment where we’re meant to laugh and agree, yeah, it probably was, lucifer is so dramatic and god is right. and if i think about that coinciding with the show removing lucifer’s agency in the bad shit he did do, literally just having a different character act the role of the devil and removing the whole point of a show about what the devil has to do for redemption- i get quite frustrated. is what im saying.)

s1 left scenes seared onto my fucking brain, though. the show just. Got it. in a lot of ways that i think were lost, especially after the netflix buy-out. early lucifer is so fucking good at fantastical events as allegory for abuse. i cannot get the scene of linda deadnaming him out of my head. (which is just. what’s happening. like lucifer may not canonically be trans (and their commitment to even making him pan as advertised was :/) but oh my god. we just Have a scene of him being deadnamed and its painfully fucking real.) because on the surface, we’re literally just saying fun biblical facts, hey did you know the devil was also called this, once? but the way lucifer reacts to his name, to linda trying to tell him that no maybe god did love the devil, and the way that builds up until it explodes. violently. and he just. flees. tries to literally cover it up. its a good fucking scene. someone in that writer’s room has been trapped with a therapist getting all their information from your family and not listening to you, i swear, because i don’t know how you could get it that accurately stressful without the experience.

or or or. wing scar scene can we TALK about the wing scar scene ive been dying to talk about the wing scar scene. because now it’s not only us the audience reading between the lines of the metaphor to understand lucifer but chloe herself. the wing scars are, in canon, a result of lucifer choosing to cut them off

(and we gotta at least mention what a radical crossover of self-harm and self-determination that act is, esp combined with him keeping them locked up and later burning them completely, and how later seasons dIDNT GET THE POINT AND JUST GAVE HIM THE WINGS BACK YOU DONT GET IT- (they almost did. too. one of the best moments later is amenadiel finding the many, many wings lucifer has to keep cutting off of himself because they grow back. it’s body horror, it’s one of the few moments where we get to see lucifer’s wings being back as the violation of his self and autonomy that it is, and then they fuck it up by going eh he just needs to accept himself and this thing that will forever serve as a connection to his father.) man i wrote a fic about this thats how bad it wormed into my brain.)

but the wing scars. ohhhh that scene. because the literal explanation isn’t what we’re meant to take away from it. it’s fantastic use of emotional whiplash, straight from sex jokes to chloe’s horror at seeing them. lucifer is quite literally honest about what’s happened, but to chloe, he’s dancing around something incredibly fucked up, hiding behind metaphors. and. well. isn’t he? however casually he tries to dismiss it, the scene still ends with him needing her to back off, don’t touch and don’t ask further questions. and. i mean, we’re talking about the guy who has fucked his way through more than half the city, hesitation over being touched is. not really something we associate with him. and yet. it’s a good fucking scene, the scars themselves are still rattling in my brain, and im never gonna stop thinking about what a loss it was that the show eventually started being all silly all the time rather than using the silliness of the character and his antics and him being Thee Literal Devil to disarm you for moments where we have to look in the eyes that Something Horribly Fucking Wrong Happened To Him.

(even the way lucifer himself is a character he’s constructed to live in means that chloe’s insistence that he’s not and can’t be the devil is true, if not literally, because the devil is both a persona developed in response to and labelled as such by trauma.)

i was never really in the lucifer fandom, per say, didn’t participate much. so i dont know how much my opinions on the show reflect other people’s. but yeah, my core enjoyment of it came from it being willing to lean into how fucked it would be for lucifer to have to exist as he is: to be both rejected and still beholden to his father’s whims. to have to serve as warden for his own mother’s prison. to be the devil and lean into it hard when the other option is to buckle under the weight of that role.

man. they had all the pieces. and then they lit the puzzle on fire.

[mulderscully]

i don't understand why people are still so fixated on rwrb movie vs book height difference, to the point where people are using "biblically accurate height difference" tags for alex/henry fic on ao3. it just seems like another way to be nitpicky about/entirely dismiss all the good things that the movie did and look down on those who enjoyed it vs the "pure" fans who stick to the "superior" canon

the biblically accurate thing is something casey said on insta stories when sharing some fanart and it prob just stuck. we know casey loves the movie so i doubt it's malicious lol it is a different visual and when i wrote my fic that involves both versions of the ship it was hard to explain what you should be visualizing so i kinda get it.

at the end of the day "the book is always better" is part of the society. i mean i work at a bookstore and the page to screen table is usually called that lol

there definitely are book fans who don't like the movie but there are also movie fans who don't like the book. people can feel whatever they wanna feel in their own space like fic writing as long as they aren't being jerks to others imo. there is a ton of love for the movie, most fanart these days use nick and taylor's face. i think people just love height differences for some reason and exaggerate them lol i've seen this across fandoms

[biblically-accurate-dca]

Your headcanon about Moon being in charge of the animatronics' "nap time" is biblically accurate!! (to the unused content that is but still!👍)

i pride myself on my canon compliance B)

it's also such an interesting tidbit tho?? there seems to be a lot of conflict for what moon's backstory and purpose actually is in the games vs the books..

cause the books say moon being it's own entity was a "glitch" that they couldn't remove and that they were actively preventing it from coming out even before the virus infected everything... but then the games have all these small things like the daycare's nighttime mode, moon's overwhelming presence in parts & service, and whatever vanny is using it for that imply that moon is intentional and possibly even more important that sun is???

it's all so confusinggg... especially now with eclipse officially added to the mix @ _ @

[post-modern-prometheus]

top ten x files moments that i believe are percabeth coded msr moments:

-this happens a lot but mulder having scully separation anxiety and doing really stupid things whenever she’s not there like jumping in the hole she just fell into instead of like. helping her get out.

-mulder chasing after cars on foot despite never being able to catch up to them?? but specifically the time after that guy kidnapped scully.

-“don’t get on that train mulder.” “sorry, what did u say? i couldn’t hear u while i was jumping from a bridge to the roof of the train.”

-are most of these gonna be how insane mulder is over scully? bc during the dwayne barry arc when he starts parkouring thru ski cars to get up the mountain

-after mulder comes back to life after his abduction arc and scully’s at the side of his hospital bed and he goes “who are you?” and FREAKS HER OUT then laughs. LIKE WHAT AN ASSHOLE. this is smth percy would do, esp after the whole memory + hera thing.

-the growing mutual respect they have for each other that turns into like “you’re my one in 5 billion” and smth smth you’re all i have left my cornerstone etc

-the bad blood episode and the conflicting way they view themselves and each other. like this is canon to the pjo series bc percy sees himself as just this little guy and mulder’s like im just a little guy and scully is yelling at me. and scully is like WHY IS HE SO ENERGETIC IM TIRED. BIBLICALLY ACCURATE PERCABETH.

-mulder’s seven evil exes and the way scully tries SO HARD not to be jealous every time they come around. VS how he doesnt even pretend to be fighting for his life whenever a guy LOOKS her way.

-the new years kiss. “wow the world didn’t end! let’s never talk about this again!” (maybe not this bc of the mt st helens kiss but like. adult percabeth would pretend it didnt happen. percy’s the one who keeps bringing it up in the books bc he is 14/15)

-holding hands every time (why is this such a frequent occurrence) the other is in the hospital bed

-scully threatening to kill multiple people over mulder’s safety like every time she goes nuts feral yelling… soooo annabeth

-realizing that the system they work for is corrupted and actually hating the govt meanwhile being fbi agents in order to like take it down

-mulder: *has a broken leg*

scully: good luck

mulder: i’ll break a leg :D

-the kiss in the movie interrupted by the bee

-speaking of the movie: in the third act when scully is unconscious, gains consciousness, and mulder has to drag her around then mudler passes out and she has to drag him around

-the “mulder/scully it’s me” like they don’t even have to say who it is bc who else would it be it’s them !!!

-i forget the details but the weird cave nature dream creature that tried to eat them by decomposing and when theyre ambulance and they reach out to grab hands even tho they are NOT CONSCIOUS

-scully, noticing mulder’s broken finger: what did they do to you? you’re in pain

mulder, yanking his hand away: yeah, if you keep pulling it around like that.

WOAH this got too long but there are more (i really wanna know what msr’s tartarus equivalent is)

[hi-im-greenjunipertree]

Biblically accurate interpretation of what I think Jocinda would look like in the 2007 games (my style vs the canon art style)

[prince-liest]

I finally had a minute to sit down and give this the reply it properly deserves, so: EFFUSIVE FEELINGS UNDER THE CUT! <3 I'M USING THE HEAD WINGS AND HALO AND EYE PATTERN FOREVER!!

I've said this before and I've said it again, but the head wings are just the most fun thing to me, and I particularly just really love all the concept sketched you have of them. The way that the middle wings' folded silhouette looks like the original bob cut (plus the adorable ponytail vibe of the smallest wing set) while the top wings replace the little feather antennae is, like, really impressive to me because it's a concept that completely preserves the original aesthetic while also adding like three extra layers of awesomeness. They're expressive! They have more eyeballs on them! The sketch in particular where Tzafael is chatting with Rosie and has to lift a wing to let her close enough to whisper in their ear sent me in the best way possible, as did the headshot where all their head wings are flared open in shock and confusion. I genuinely fucking adore the head wings so much. On top of that, the comment you made about the original Biblical purpose of the head wings (to cover the face as a sign of humility) vs the way that Tzafael wears them without doing that is extremely on point, because a lot of Tzafael's whole thing in hell is leaning into Pride.

I also REALLY love the halo actually being shaped like a drawing of an eye, as well as the way you drew the actual eyes on their face. The large lower lashes and sleepy angle while maintaining a sort of look of superiority was your goal and you nailed itttttt (and also I think it's very very fitting)!!!

I'm honestly 100% adopting every single change you made about their head/face/halo to be canon if that is okay with you, hahaha.

Other shorter misc thoughts:

You're correct, they would definitely wear a skirt sometimes, and it would absolutely be as part of a little sweater vest outfit. For all that they've left heaven, they are, fundamentally, still kind of the trust fund kid.

Genuinely love how you did the pearlescence for the magpie feather colors, I think it captures the aesthetic SO well!!

Can't believe you accidentally clocked my years-long life-consuming Loki phase from high school. Ow.

RIB EYEBALLS VERY COOL. GIVING THEM TAILFEATHERS IN SOME OF THE CONCEPTS ALSO VERY COOL.

Absolutely delighted that you did some exorcist-era concept sketches, those are going to live on in my heart forever.

The drawing where they are chuckling and all of their floating eyes are also curved up in amusement: IMPECCABLE.

The fish purse DID deserve some doodles!! It's fucking cute!! It makes expressions!!!!

It's funny that you drew them lording their bit of height over Alastor because another friend of mine has a Hazbin OC as well and we had an extensive conversation about how Tzafael is absolutely that tall asshole friend that will lean their elbow on their shorter friends' heads. Extremely character accurate.

And they WILL infodump at length on Angel Dust for as long as he sits still (and possibly a while after that) about proper aquarium keeping and fish husbandry, and be so so so proud about it, hahaha. Let them set you up a persona fish tank in your room, Angel Dust. IT'LL BE SIMPLE, ANGEL DUST. THEY'LL PAY FOR IT, ANGEL DUST.

Honestly everything on the Situations page made me very happy <3

Anyway I know I keep sucking us into a cycle of mutual thanking but I just wanted to say thank YOU again RIGHT BACK AT YOU for sharing your thoughts on this process and genuinely brightening my day so so much! I want you to know that I actually first saw this post at 2:15am when my roommate woke me up by slamming the bathroom door and having a long phone conversation in there and this post made me feel like 95% less murderous about it. Truly magical.

I finally finished the piece for @prince-liest's OC, Tzafael! this really reminded me of how fun character design is (and also that I've completely forgotten how to make digital art, but that's besides the point...) <3

credit to @hogbogglerspirits for the umbrella design! I kind of butchered it so please look at the original and throw lots of love at them

LOTS of notes, draft sketches, brainstorming, etc. below the cut. enjoy!

(note: a lot of what I'm talking about is based on posts prince made under their #tzafael tag, so take a look at those if you haven't yet!)

thanks for joining me below the cut! here's the sketch without the colors as a treat (in case you want to color it yourself or something, idk).

notes about making the digital drawing:

holy shit this took me forever -- I was not kidding about forgetting how to make digital art lmao. I forgot how much less forgiving digital lines are and genuinely lost the spoons to even attempt lineart, hence just a sketch below the colors.

some of you might've seen the original sketch I sent to prince, which the digital version diverges from just a little. it's mostly the halo which I'll explain later, and I finally caved and drew the sixth eye (you can tell I drew and erased it multiple times in the sketch lmao -- still don't know if I prefer it with or without)

here's the original color ref by the lovely @gendermeh! my color scheme ended up looking really different, so some notes about that:

I was looking at references for magpies like this

and I wanted to basically follow that color scheme while also being somewhat similar to the original -- dark head/shoulders --> dark top of the jacket, bright blue wings --> bright blue bottom of the jacket, greenish tailfeathers --> green pants, hints of purple --> purplish sleeve and pant ends

I also tried (and mostly failed, let's be real) to capture the iridescence of the feathers -- they look like oil spilled on the pavement or iridescent hematite to me! I think the key ended up being adding bright greens/purples and roughly blending them into the blues or vice versa but I didn't really figure that out until I got to the pants lol.

I'm gonna be honest; I don't remember why I went with this shape for the tailcoat. I just remember being unhappy with the sketch and then trying a bunch of different shapes that mostly looked worse lol -- I think I landed on this because a split tail kind of looks like wings?

KEPT the shoes -- absolutely magnifique. I wish I knew how to color gold better.

added lots of jewelry! they like shiny things :)

ALSO PLEASE LOOK AND APPLAUD ME. I FINALLY REMEMBERED TO LABEL MY LAYERS!! NO I DON'T REMEMBER WHY THE HALO HAS ITS OWN LAYER.

alright, time for some more design notes/explanations + draft sketches!

but first, a couple disclaimers:

I want to make it very clear that I LOVE everything about the original design. I made a lot of changes based on personal preference/the way I interpreted the character. I was actually planning on making a digital piece that was more faithful to the original design too, but I was just out of spoons for it cause of life stuff.

you probably shouldn't try to read the notes I made in the sketches I'm about to show you unless I say otherwise. most of it is incoherent brain vomit in illegible artist handwriting and I'll transcribe/explain the stuff I think is important :) (the stuff in quotes are direct transcriptions of my notes)

I know my sketches are very messy lol. I only draw for fun, so I usually don't force myself to make stuff any neater than necessary unless it's supposed to be a formal piece. try to bear with me.

1:

my first few sketches of them! (I think?) this was before I sent prince a laundry list of questions so I was still trying to get a vibe

"magpie -- beak lips?" -- you'll see this in a few sketches; I considered giving them the lipstick design that velvette has since it looks like a beak. I still kind of think it's cute, but 1) I'm pretty sure velvette is the only character that has them, so I didn't want to make it seem like they were related somehow and 2) I thought it might be distracting with how much other crazy stuff I ended up including in their head/face

also, sidenote since it's relevant to what I said about vel: something I realized was important is how one character's design relates to the designs of the rest of the cast. I wasn't sure how much I should've gone for what looked good in a vacuum, how much should be based on what other characters looked like canonically, or what other characters would look like if I also designed them. it ended up being mostly the second option, but it was honestly still a struggle. should I take away some of the tumblr-sexyman-ness (no shade to tumblr sexymen; I love them) because there are other characters that already have it? should I relate their design to sera's and emily's in the show or should I think about how I would've designed sera and emily? should I follow some of the design philosophy of the original show and just throw stuff on there because it looks cool (the answer is yes btw)? decisions, decisions ...

I don't think this showed up really well in most of the drawings, but they actually have a black line down their nose! let's take a look at sera:

since they're siblings, I wanted to include some similar facial markings. the nose line ended up being the only thing I kept though -- I was going to include freckles, but I have a compulsive need to give every character giant bottom lashes so there ended up being no room T.T I like that the magpie's hints of purple kind of match hers tho!

the wingification of the hair begins! I was still unsure of it at this point, but it was an idea I had since I was kind of struggling with how straight the feathers were in the original.

"maybe the ones on their head count as wings (so only one main pair)" -- I originally just had the 2 pairs of wings on their head, so I was thinking of just giving them 1 pair on their back so there would be still be 6 total. also this middle drawing of them is meant to be their exorcist outfit (I wanted it to be a cross between what the other exorcists wear and sera's outfit)

at this stage, I was thinking of giving them more magpie-like characteristics, so I looked at some references and tried to emulate them in a more human design. this ended up being really awkward so I scrapped it, but I still like the idea that their exorcist mask looks like a bird (kind of like a plague doctor's)

2:

peekaboo! I love the idea of them using the wing hair to cover their eyes lol. (ended up using that idea for my own seraph OC since that's their biblically accurate purpose: to cover their eyes/faces in reverence/humility -- doesn't really fit with tzafael tho lol, so they show their face most of the time)

an eyeball in the bowtie -- pretty self-explanatory. the eyeball motif is important.

the one in the middle is just me practicing drawing the original design, and the one on the right is another exorcist outfit I think. I wanted to include the diamond motif/points that sera has on her dress (the diamonds on the bottom turn into eyeballs, which is why the final design also has eyeballs on tzafael's sleeves/pants)

3:

lots of notes on the side based on what prince said in response to my ask

"localized omniscience (power of sight) -- cool + ironic that their sight was supposed to serve God but made them see Heaven for what it really is instead"

another exorcist outfit, this time including the feathers

I was also experimenting with the halo; I was trying to make it look sort of like sera's crown, but that didn't feel right ...

some practice with eyes -- my style is pretty flexible with eye shapes, so I try to make them suit the character. I drew lute's eye and also an actual magpie's as references -- lute's because of the exorcist background and also because they looked appropriately sharp, magpie's for obvious reasons. once again, my compulsive need for giant bottom lashes strikes

there was honestly a lot to balance with the eyes -- I wanted them to look condescending/bored (lowered top lid) but also amused (raised bottom lid) and like a magpie (round) but also harsh/mischievous (sharp, maybe slit pupils like a snake) and similar to sera's (but not too decorated -- also does it make sense for them to look like sera's if emily's don't even look like sera's?)

considered having wings on the shoulders -- the magpie pattern is super cool, so it would've been nice to have that somewhere more explicitly in the design. I still think that might fit in an outfit they would wear in heaven (maybe for formal occasions)

the introduction of the sweatervest! honestly I kind of love this for the way it captures more of the preppy, spoiled old-money upper-class vibe some heaven residents have, but it was scrapped since I couldn't imagine them wearing that while trying to scare the denizens of hell. maybe something they wear casually though.

"yes nictating membrane (on every eye!)" -- AHH I'm so sad I didn't end up putting this to use. I just feel like the whole effect is based on actually seeing them blink, and I don't animate lol.

4:

ugh, the nefarious laughter one ... don't worry I tried harder on a sketch later on lol.

"like the diamonds on Sera + Em" + "diamonds turn into eyes?" -- I draw the diamonds on the sweatervest turning into eyes later.

tried an actual bow instead of a bowtie -- very cute but didn't fit the vibe.

a skirt! I think they would wear a skirt sometimes.

5:

"FUCK ASS BOB" -- asghdk the wingification of the hair continues. unfortunately, I'm realizing at this point that the silhouette of the hair is starting to look a lot like alastor's. I gave a very half-hearted attempt at mitigating this, but it goes back to the thing of how much I am obligated to the original show's designs and what looks cool to me -- I think the wing hair fits them and I didn't want to change it because of alastor, plus my alastor design actually has completely different hair anyway. I did add a third pair to the back to look like a ponytail though.

introduction of the scarf! I was actually going to include this in the final design but uh,,, I forgor. are you starting to see a pattern.

the reason for the scarf is that the "tzafael going to places they know they'll draw attention/can incite chaos" reminded me of that scene in avengers where loki walks into a fancy building looking pretentious af and just casually stabs a guy's eye out. not really the same thing but I felt like the vibe matched. hence, loki's funny little scarf fit.

6:

uaoughdfjh it was SO FUN to draw the wing hair, and it was at this point that I realized they had to stay even though I wasn't sure if it was too different from the original.

gossiping with rosie cause that's the first person I thought of -- tzafael also summoned a pearl necklace to clutch because of the sheer drama of it all (your ex-husband did what??)

also started drawing the rings on their hands. magpie like shiny.

7:

lots of notes cause I was trying to compile the things I still needed to think about/incorporate into the final (I thought this was gonna be the last draft ... haha)

trying to include more bird/eye motifs

"fish ... purse?" -- ha! I forgot I was gonna give them a fish purse. I think I drew that in a later sketch, but not them wearing it.

"picked up Hellish traits bc of extended stay -- existential crisis?" -- I asked prince about the sharp teeth, and their answer implied that they became sharp as they stayed in hell longer, which got me thinking ... I feel like that's actually a great body horror concept. lucifer falling and looking like a normal angel at first, eventually waking up to more and more devilish features and feeling more and more like he's lost his home and his past self ... spooky.

another exorcist outfit -- I actually really like the eyes on the ribs! I never made a final draft for the exorcist uniform, but it would probably look close to what I drew here.

the one on the bottom was meant to be similar to the feathered shoulder pad idea, but this time with the whole magpie (with giant eyes). tried putting the "freckles" (really just dots in this case) over their brows, but that ended up looking kinda weird.

the eye is pretty close to the final design

the one on the right was supposed to be the full final design, but I was totally off lol -- the long trench coat really doesn't give off the right vibe at all

8:

playing around more with the loki vibes of the scarf, also added an eyeball to the chest

I never got happy with the design of the back of the coat -- I think it should probably just be blank at this point. but the sketch here is meant to look like wings/tailfeathers.

yet another exorcist outfit, this time with more magpie motifs. I actually like this one a lot, but I probably should've added the eyes on the ribs from the last sketch. I think I also considered giving them actual tailfeathers at this point.

9:

thanks for sticking with me! I promise we're almost done. have a trans dinosaur I saw while I was travelling as a treat <3

10:

this is after I finished the sketch for the final piece and realized I didn't like the halo design. I drew lute's, sera's, em's, and adam's as refs. (honestly I love the show's idea that each person/people of each rank have a different kind of halo -- I wonder if they can switch them out?)

my main inspiration ended up being the exorcist halo, but I made it look more like an eyeball -- since it always points toward heaven, we can say it's always "looking" at heaven.

(also sera's feather lashes! they're so cute)

11:

EVEN MORE EXORCIST DOODLES

12:

tzafael shooing away my fox demon OC

13:

these are actually sketches for my own seraph OC (raguel), but I wanted to include it since it has even more wing/feather hair variations. I also think the idea of the eyelashes being feather-like could've been cool for tzafael.

14:

some more OG design doodles

tzafael and raguel together because self-indulgence is the name of the game babey (also wanted to draw tzafael freaked out with their wings flared)

(raguel's blind btw, hence asking for eyes -- tzafael has so many!)

you can probably read the dialogue here so give it a shot. I believe in you.

15:

you know what? the fish purse deserves some doodles

16:

putting them in Situations! I was reading over prince's posts again and I realized there were some funny things I could draw them doing/saying

again you can probably read the words here

angel dust also loves fish (but is apparently bad at taking care of them, hence the suffocating blobfish), so tzafael shows him their aquarium (complete with live fish and flora ofc)

I thought alastor was 8 ft but apparently he's 7.3 ft? so tzafael is enjoying the .2 ft they have on him

trying and failing again to come up with a design for the back of the jacket lol

THE crowley quote

apparently the halo still sends signals from the exorcists -- thought their reaction to the battle at the hotel would be funny

the nefarious laughter (take 2) that I promised -- based on a doodle of alastor viv did that I found

them being sad and curling up in a pile of shiny things like a dragon

OKAY I'M DONE. huge, huge thank you to prince for sharing their OC! this was a lot of fun and clearly inspired me a lot haha. please check out their writing; it's literally so good that I can't read anything else these days. I am chewing on their thoughts constantly.

this was an absolute monster of a post, so if you're still reading, I am both impressed and bewildered at your patience. I hope you enjoyed! (I certainly did!)

[icaruspendragon]

how does one reconcile god and being gay because i don’t know what to do

you reconcile by looking at canon vs fanon (for once haha). none of the hatred towards queer folks is biblically accurate. that all came from years of mistranslation and warping what the bible actually says. if god makes no mistakes, and we are fearfully and wonderfully made in his imagine, if he knew us in the womb, if all of this is said in scripture how could being gay be wrong? a mistake? something unholy and punishable? how can man say he is the mouthpiece for the divine? how can man use the divine to spray vitriol and spread hate? how can this happen when we are told by the divine “blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy” and “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see god?” what are we told in the bible in regards to other people? to love thy neighbor, to not pass judgement, to help the weakest of our community, to be the hands and feet and eyes of a creator who tenderly and lovingly crafted us. anyone who hates or condemns anyone else is writing a severely ooc narrative.

[marukrawler]

I may not know why Nethians primarily use Haos Bakugan, but I might have a headcanon as to why there aren't any shifty and/or outright evil Nethians.

I have seen a headcanon a loooooooooooooong while back that states Nethia has their own version of Dark Bakugan that are a lot like eldritch abominations. The op and I have some similar thoughts, but I think the Nethain Dark Bakugan are a lot closer to biblically accurate angels(though if you sit down and think for a bit, you might come to the conclusion that the angels are just eldritch abominations with a more gold and white based color pallet), and they live underground, and no one knows what they're doing. The only thing they know is "Don't be evil, that might be what'll bring them out." It's working so far.

Also, I don't think anyone's really willing to go underground and bring up a Bakugan that literally has to start every interaction with a being it doesn't know by shouting "Be not afraid."

Again, this is just a head canon, but I thought you might enjoy it.

ohh i haven't seen that headcanon but it sounds plausible! it makes sense to think that there are also beings with unfathomable powers kept away on neathia since gundalia and neathia used to be one planet. i like the idea of them looking like scary angels lol

i'd say these neathian dark bakugan are probably locked away right under code eve.

seems the safest place to have them in, and there's also the added security measure of not being able to pass the cave leading to code eve unless you have a pure heart. which adds up with the idea that if you have darkness inside your heart, you may contribute in these dark beings being able to escape or something.

also, rather than forcing a specific family (or more accurately, an individual from that family) to take care of and oversee the dark bakugan they're guarding like in gundalia, i think it's interesting how that burden is a collective responsibility on neathia. that line of thinking reminds me of this excellent post by @bakubabes-and-ramble that talks about how gundalian culture works on individualism vs neathian culture that works on collectivism.

everyone on neathia plays their part to make sure none of those dark bakugan can grow stronger and escape. furthermore, i can see the neathian rulers (past and present) ensuring prosperous conditions for their people in part so hatred and evil won't have a chance to fester. (perhaps the element plays a role here?)

tbh if the 'kazarina is secretly a neathian' theory can be applied here, she might've been banished because she ignored this unspoken rule numerous time lol probably failed the cave test, too.

[fitchersvogel]

my only comment on fanfiction vs literature

The most useful distinction between “fanfic” and “literature” is MEANS OF CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION.

As many people have been pointing out, the basic fundamental act of “using pre-existing characters/narratives to tell a new story” is really fucking old. In Western lit, the idea that originality was a virtue (never mind the highest one) is fairly recent: it really takes off during the Romantic period (late 1700s-early 1800s). This is also, NOT COINCIDENTALLY, the time when modern ideas about copyright/intellectual property ALSO start getting codified.

Prior to that, a general attitude was that any assclown can write something ~original~: what takes REAL SKILL is tackling the Great Stories and bringing something new to them. (Note: GREAT stories--writers like Chaucer got sneered at for reworking “low” genres like smutty comedies.) Dante, Milton, etc. were responding to Biblical and theological narratives, and putting their own twists on them--and in Dante’s case, self-inserting.

(Note: I have zero problems describing what Dante did as “self insert” or using fanfic terms in general to describe similar literary concepts: AU, hurt/comfort, whump, etc. Because a) it’s funny, and b) fannish terms are often both accurate and accessible.)

And it’s not just fanfic-ish stuff either: there’s a basic lit-crit concept called “intertextuality,” which states that ALL literature refers back to other books--as Barthes said, “all writing is rewriting.”

However, there are certain types of literature that are much more specific and directed in their intertextuality. This whole category of storytelling can be called “recursive literature”: any story that is extensively and explicitly intertextual to an identifiable pre-existing source, and expects the reader to understand it as such. You don’t pick up Paradise Lost or Ulysses without being immediately aware that they’re retellings of the Book of Genesis and the Odyssey. Likewise, you don’t click on an AO3 link without knowing that you’re getting a reworking of The Terror or whatever. It all falls under the category “recursive literature,” because that category is about specific relationships between texts and the audience’s understanding of that relationship.

Fanfiction is a SUBCATEGORY of recursive literature: it is recursive lit that circulates unofficially, outside of the formal mechanisms of commercial publication. Sometimes this is due to copyright reasons--there’s a fuckton to be said about the relationship between modern commercial concepts of intellectual property and the development of modern fandom--but there are other reasons.

Fanfiction is like a giant slush pile for recursive lit: there’s no barriers or quality controls. While this means that the My Immortals of the world can traumatize us all, it also means that you don’t have to bound by commercial publication’s notions of genre, length, saleability, etc. @seperis once said that great fanfiction is often unpublishable: not because it’s bad, but because it’s so niche, and so deeply embedded within specific microfandoms and friend-group headcanons and fanon that it’s incomprehensible to more than, like, 5 people.

It’s also worth noting that recursive lit in general has often been created by people who were and are marginalized by mainstream literary cultures: women, ethnic and religious minorities, LGBTQ+ people, young people. Not surprising: while wanting to respond to stories is pretty much universal, the people for whom the need is most urgent are those who are ignored, condemned or stereotyped within those narratives. And fanfiction--because, again, fanfiction is recursive lit that circulates UNOFFICIALLY--is far more accessible as an artistic medium for marginalized groups.

As for “but but but Riverdale a/b/o mpreg is NOT the same as Paradise Lost!!!!!” Like, no shit? But both of them are recursive lit, because recursive lit is a category defined by relationships between texts, not quality or importance.

On that note, those of us in actual professional literature academia don’t really sit around contemplating whether a given text is ~great literature~ or not: if you’ve ever read academic articles on, say, Shakespeare you’ll notice almost no time spent blowing smoke up his ass for how great his writing is. “Great literature” is subjective, because taste is subjective. What we do care about: is it INTERESTING? Like, does it reward further study? Does it use language or symbols in a distinctive way? Does it tell us something about its purported subject matter, or the context in which it was written? Is it by and/or aimed at a particular audience? What does it tell us about its author, the audience, their priorities and concerns and tastes? And on and on. Stuff can be INTERESTING without being necessarily good! Likewise, it can be interesting without being “important.”

And it’s ALWAYS worth asking questions as to WHY certain texts get considered “good/important,” and why others do not: often, the gender/race/sexuality of the author, the purported “importance” of their subject matter/narrative, and the makeup of the audience affects these things: we ALL know how “stories about straight white men are IMPORTANT and for EVERYONE, while stories about not-straight-not-white not-male people are ONLY for members of that group, and are automatically of lesser quality and importance.” It’s also worth asking why so many assume that “fits into models designed by commercial publishers” is the same thing as “guarantee of quality,” and “circulates informally” means “not good enough.” (As a folklorist, official vs. unofficial, and how those differing circulation models function and impact us, is 100% my wheelhouse.)

A note on the ~Western literary canon~: when those of us who aren’t Harold Bloom (or Harold Bloom-adjacent, like whoever decided the St John’s Great books Program should be a thing) talk about a ���canon,” we’re generally talking about literature that was IMPORTANT and INFLUENTIAL. Stuff that broke new aesthetic ground in some way, or became a major cultural touchstone, or had a huge impact on later works. These are texts that people keep returning to, over and over through the years, because they say something meaningful--even centuries after their own time. The “canon” is always in flux, and always being adjusted to reflect social and cultural changes, and changing tastes. It’s a canon because enough people have found meaning in these specific texts to keep returning to them for insight. That doesn’t mean everything in it is going to fit your or my idea of “good” or even “readable,” because it’s more about impact. Taste is subjective, influence can be documented.

TL;DR: recursive literature is a category that includes literature (including Major Classics) and fanfiction; fanfiction is recursive lit that circulates unofficially; Great Literature is stuff that we have defined as meaningful and important for the development of literary storytelling; it’s always worth asking questions about why we consider certain things more or less important, based on their perceived authoriship/audience/method of production.

[apollos-boyfriend]

the urge to write a biblically accurate cpurpled pov vs the knowledge that 90% of the fandom can’t even recognize his unreliability in-canon, much less in supplementary fanworks

i should so write more cpurpled stuff that doesn't include someone snapping him out of his bullshit because writing his shitfucked pov is SO much fun. yes king go off about how everything is sooooo quackity's fault and absolutely Nothing can be blamed on your own absolutely terrible mindset and worldview! tell me more about how everyone else is to blame for your isolation and how gaining power, even/especially by force, would sooooo fix all your issues. you're so smart <333

[apuff]

Earlier on tumblr i saw another one of those memes comparing bullets, revenge, tbp, and danger days, essentially stating that the previous 3 are serious and about death in different ways, while danger days is fun japanese dance party. Now i understand where this is coming from but i really don't think it's an accurate interpretation.

My main point with this is that the first 3 are legitimately concerned with death as an existential threat and a primary way through which the conflict of the story happens, and danger days is NOT those things, however danger days is no less serious and philosophically motivated, and has a comparable amount of death. 

In bullets & revenge, it's easy to see. The demo lovers are constantly up against danger, violence, and fighting. Furthermore i feel like the major conflict of bullets is with the vampires & vampirism, which relates to the concept of death in an obvious way. They fight as hard as they can against the vampires, but eventually fail, joining their ranks. They achieve "immortality" but not at the cost of "never dying"- i interpret this to mean they don't age or experience senescence (cause they're undead obv) but they can indeed die through external means (which they proceed to do). 

Revenge is centered around death as well. Demo lover (M) has died and has come back to life at some point, as well as that his girlfriend has died and is dead throughout most of the story. To solve this "dead gf" issue, demo lover (M) engages with death and violence even more, by killing 1,000 evil men. 

(Off topic, but this brings me to a point i've thought about before, that the "revenge" in tcfs"r" is not actually revenge. It's redemption. The biblical kind. Paying for something, especially a person's life held hostage, with a price, usually the price of another life. As far as i'm aware those 1k evil men did not personally slight the demo lovers-that would constitute literal revenge.)

Anyways, what i think is the canon interpretation of the ending is that demo lover (M) realizes after killing 999 evil men, that he's so far debased himself for his ends that he has become the last evil man he must kill, so he commits suicide and his girlfriend comes back. This is a bit depressing, but my ending has him staying alive and his girlfriend dying, so any way you slice it someone stays dead. 

My point is to say, obviously the theme of death, undeath, and killing is philosophically important to tcfsr. The demo lovers are literally dead on the album cover. 

Now I'm sure i don't need to explain why TBP is about death. TBP starts with death ends with death and is about it on nearly every point in the middle barring, like, teenagers and the sharpest lives??

The one interesting thing i DO have to add is this. In bullets & revenge, the conflict centers around death in the way that in nearly every song, they're fighting AGAINST death in some way. They are trying desperately to fight their way back to life and safety. TBP is different. Because it centers SOO heavily on mortality as a theme, death is simply the backdrop, the given, the immutable fact of life. Our main characters aren't dead and supernaturally trying to fight their way back to life, they are a.) going to die as a forgone conclusion, and b.) already a ghost with zero ways to return to life. The conflict centers not around trying to beat death back with knives, but DEALING with its reality, not with it itself, but different perspectives on it and what it means battling it out. 

Regardless, very much about death.

What about danger days?

You'd be correct to say that, unlike those 3, death & mortality aren't a central philosophical pillar of the themes & conflict. It's not even top 5 ngl. I'd say the conflict is more of freedom vs. control. The forces of control (BLI) and of freedom (killjoys) are literally and metaphorically battling each other. But i wouldn't say that every song exactly has this conflict. Some only show the side of killjoy freedom and make no mention of bli control. And i think that's where this misconception that danger days is just fun and not serious comes from. 

In the black parade, when you'd have a song that doesn't directly touch on the conflict and is just a fun bombastic rock song (teenagers), there's still a bit of themes in it (violence- it's related to the patient's and parader's arcs). When you'd have an off-topic song in revenge, it'd be about teen angst (a far cry from murder, killing, and satan). In bullets, the off-topic is about gerard way and 9/11 which is so far from vampires i don't even need to explain. 

When a bombastic party song like those appears in danger days, it actually relates to the themes much more closely. Think of party poison, the origin of the misconception in that meme. It's about having a crazy wild self destructive party. Relates back to the themes quite closely, considering that "kill[ing] the party" and "leav[ing] the party" are also actually metaphors for BLI and society in planetary (GO!). 

Not to mention the japanese lyrics (iirc) are about wanting to be famous, another theme that fits into vampire money and even BLI to some extent. And the fact that it's such a wild party that ends in destruction kinda fits into a thought i've had about danger days earlier: since the killjoys represent individuality and freedom, everything they do exists on this spectrum from being just very principled activists to kind of just unhinged rebels without a cause killing whoever they want because of the adrenaline rush. 

My other gripe with this idea is like…….ALL THE FAB FOUR DIE AT THE END. all of them get shot rescuing the girl. Danger days isn't ABOUT death, but it HAPPENS. In the only hope for me is you, the speaker says, "there, covered in glass, covered in ash, covered in all my friends- i still think of the bombs they built." That's not just some vapid party. This character is mourning their friends while recalling the memory of being covered in the viscera of their bodies. It's kind of silly to act like this album isn't serious just because it sounds more poppy. 

I'd say something that's much more threatening than bodily death for the killjoys is draculoid-ification. Becoming a vampire in bullets means losing your human ability to age and weird undead behavior changes, but becoming a draculoid is more similar to a zombie, or a robot. Anyways, THIS is an existential threat for a killjoy. They lose their souls and simply become mindless puppets for BLI to enact control and violence upon people. Note that this is simply an exaggerated version of how BLI treats PEOPLE, as identical parts of a machine that need to have their individuality and souls erased so they can be better citizens. 

Anyways, rant over. I love danger days & it truly has deep philosophical currents throughout it. The fact that they have crazy dance parties is simply a reflection of the theme of freedom and isn't devoid of meaning.

I NEED TO DO MY MATH BUT I CANT STOP WRITIGN ABOUT MCR