#cult mention

[aventurinnnnie]

Penacony character fanart with religious undertones yes please oh my god the religious trauma and cult vibes given by penacony are unfathomable let them suffer

[oncillaphoenix]

I don't think N would be terribly interested in most social media but tbh I can see him getting big on TikTok. he makes an account because Bianca mentions using it for scientific outreach and he figures he can use it to teach a few people how to form deeper bonds with their pokemon, and he has enough good looks and accidental cult leader rizz that he quickly goes viral despite his lack of update schedule or video editing skills. his account is half calling out habitat destruction and videos about how to read your pokemon's body language, half him rambling about random cool math concepts at 3 in the morning while his legendary dragon looms ominously in the background. ok wait I'm weirdly invested in the idea of future N as a semi-accidental tiktok influencer now

[awkwardandeccentric]

So I know that a lot of people are anxious about the “Stolas joins I.M.P. Arc” and I get it, but since it looks like the show is going that way, I do want to point out three reassuring things:

1. He’ll more of a chance to find community. It wasn’t just Paimon keeping him under lock-and-key that kept him isolated. It’s also a cult that actively kept him discouraged from talking to anyone that wasn’t a Goetia or a Sin. There just aren’t that many Goetia or Sin, and even less who like him. If he’s able to diversify his options for community, he’ll find other out and proud queer people. Autistic people. People who don’t use him as the scapegoat or the cautionary tale. It’s not like Blitzø will keep him dependent and locked up. If anything, I imagine Blitzø will actively encourage Stolas to find community in others.

2. Stolas’ classism/racism is at its worst when he’s around the other Goetia (namely Stella). Probably because he's unconsciously trying to fit in to a community that will not accept him. But when he doesn't talk to the other Goetia for a while, he chills out a lot. Not to where he needs to be, but he at least treats them like autonomous beings with feelings. I think it’ll be a lot easier for someone to point out his race/class issues if he’s not being influenced by a community that requires that mentality to be accepted.

3. The Ars Goetia is a cult. I cannot stress that enough. He’s in a cult. He needs to GTFO for his own safety and well-being. It’s a high-control setting that does not allow you to fraternize with anyone not like you and controls everything about you, like how you dress, who you marry, your reproductive life, your job, etc. He was nearly murdered and there were no repercussions. The Ars Goetia need to be torn down as a society. They are actively damaging not only their own people, but also a lot of Hell, itself.

[windybluebelles]

Whiz Kid Billy Batson goes to Gotham to get an interview from the Waynes…

Only to shove all of them out of the way and start talking with this random blonde teenager???

And- is that Greek? Since when could Whiz Kid speak Greek? Are the teen’s eyes glowing? What is happening???

Guys I do badly want Billy and Bernard to interact it’s not even funny.

You cannot tell me that Billy, The God’s Champion, Batson and Bernard, nearly became a human vessel for Dionysus, Dowd, wouldn’t feel a kinship with one another over their weird relationships with the Greek Pantheon

Also also also also, I really want Bernard and Freddie to share theories they used to believe in about superhero’s. Tim could also join in with his past stalkerish tendencies, it would be like family bonding, but for autistic boys with troubled home lives.

Honestly I just want any fic where either Bernard or Billy interact with either eachother or other DC characters with relations to Gods or Cults

[acewithobsessions]

So I figured out how to customize my period reminders

[bendysinitiation]

Sammy’s cult if it was awesome

This isn’t technically in the au, it’s more concept, but I love it. It is based off of a snippet of a Snow White documentary where it was a band playing but all of them had these eerie Mickey Mouse masks on with soulless eyes. Apparently, it was extra footage in the Snow White dvd, but I can’t really seem to find more about it.

(Image ID: A black and white digital painting of Sammy Lawrence conducting a band. His hands are raised, the pose that signals the song is about to start, with his conducting stick in his left hand. He, along with the players, are all wearing plastic-looking masks of Bendy, much more 3D than his usual cardboard mask. He also wears a tuxedo with a tie and pants. End ID)

Reference photo under cut

(Image ID: A black and white photo of a band. All of them have haunting Mickey Mouse masks on. The trumpets are in the front facing to the side, and there seems to be clarinets and a sousaphone to the far left. There’s a crowd watching them. The black sign on top says “Mickey Mouse”. End ID.)

[manganumber4]

Hunter x Hunter: Chapter 401 Theory

Both English-speaking and Japanese fans of Hunter x Hunter have theorised that Beyond Netero was modelled after the Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara in chapter 401.

[valictini]

I was watching a video analysing how the Yiga clan were handled in botw and how the person analysing it lamented the fact that Kohga was a joke character who totally destroyed the much more threatening image the yiga clan had all throughout the game. Although I do understand the sentiment (I felt that way for a long time) I’ve come to realise that we might not be viewing it in the right perspective. I ended up writing a comment under that video explaining how I saw things, and realised that maybe it could interest people here too? So here is the fleshed out version of it:

I think part of why they made Kohga extremely goofy compared to a way less goofy clan of literal assassins is to emphasise how even though the clan originally held some understandable beliefs, it has become a cult of personality over the years, and like most cults, the leader is way less charismatic than his followers make him out to be. Indeed, from the outside, it seems absurd how anyone could take Kohga seriously, let alone kill under his command, but from the inside, Kohga is the Beloved Leader That Guides Them Towards Victory, and anyone threatening him deserves to die.

In a way, yiga clan members feel like vulnerable, impressionable people who were enrolled into a cult and given a Big Family and a purpose (and a lethal weapon) by their lovable Master Kohga who wants the best for them… Except if you want to get out, then you’re a filthy traitor who also deserves to die. It’s especially visible when you beat him and they all get personally mad at you for killing him. They didn’t care about Ganon, they didn’t seem to actually understand the bigger picture, they only cared about Kohga.

It also shows how, like the rest of Hyrule, the Yigas are very much disconnected from their own history, seemingly holding on the grudge their ancestors held more as an excuse to continue to enact violence and perpetuate the cult of personality than fighting for a “noble” cause. Only Kohga seems to actually care about Calamity Ganon, and the rest of the yigas seem to be just tools to him. Wether or not he’s actually conscious of what he’s doing is unclear. Is he a fully aware con artist, or is he purely another product of Yiga indoctrination?

So yeah, to me it feels like a parody/critic/mockery of cult dynamics. It shows that this gang of assassins are indeed a real menace, but for seemingly no reason other than “that one lunatic they admire told them to” and “if they go away they get killed”. The reason why the clan was originally created becomes almost anecdotal. Under the current leader, no one is required to actually know what they’re doing, they just need to follow orders.

In the end, I think it is the intention the developers had because cults are a rampant problem in Japan. At the very least, even if it’s not a actually conscious critic, it’s a concept that is much more present in their cultural landscape than ours and that almost certainly influenced how they handled the Yiga clan. Basically, cults are not cool and can even be dangerous both for the public and their members. Cult leaders especially are not cool and often are con artists. Therefore, Kohga couldn’t be badass, he had to be a doofus getting beaten in the most unexceptional way possible.

[the-crow-cryptids-domain]

So yeah, Silas Birchtree, amirite?

[theminecraftbee]

After he’s finished laughing at Iskall, the two of them start working together to finish drying off Iskall’s clothes. Beef knows full well that if he doesn’t, the man will almost certainly spend the next week naked, just to spite Beef. It’d go against the spirit of the message, to have Iskall turn around and strip because of it.

“I still can’t believe you filled my house with fishes! After I spent a whole ten minutes getting them for you!” Iskall complains. “You do not understand being neighborly. It’s sad.”

“I told you, the more fish you got me, the better your interior would be. You should be grateful, really. Many people would only dream of getting to sleep with this many fishes. It’s a much kinder warning of what will happen when you mess with me than some people get,” Beef advises. “Big Salmon isn’t very happy with you.”

“Sleep with—okay, first, I cannot sleep with salmons, because it gets all my clothes wet. I respawned underwater, Beef!”

“Well, better not upset me more,” Beef says.

“Second, I do not know phrases well. I thought that was a… a saying meaning that you kill them, when you make them sleep with fishes? I thought it was a crime thing. I did not think—sleeping with actual fishes was involved,” Iskall continues.

“I find that in my line of work, double meanings are handy to really drive the point home,” Beef says. “You’ll never know how you’ll sleep with the fishes next time, after all.”

“Right. Okay. Sure. Third: since when were you in Grian’s weird fish cult? Because, dude, I don’t know if I would have spent a whole ten minutes gathering salmon for you if I knew you were in a weird fish cult.”

Beef huffs, offended. “Not a cult! Thats the wrong—I assure you, religion has nothing to do with Big Salmon, just profits and salmon-related—hold on, wait, did you say Grian?”

Iskall stops, confused, from where he’d been airing out his jeans next to a campfire, nearly setting the article of clothing on fire in the process. Beef and Iskall are promptly distracted trying to put out the pants fire, and for a moment, Beef nearly forgets his conversation. After the now somewhat singed and somehow still not dry pants are rescued, though, Iskall remembers.

“Anyway, yeah, Grian. I didn’t think you were involved with him. He made a whole weird cod cave and everything. I think he was trying to worship some ocean fish thingy. It was weird.”

“I don’t know how to unpack that,” Beef says.

“You’re doing it too!” Iskall accuses.

“No, I’m making legal business decisions,” Beef says. “I think I would know if I were in a fish cult, especially one for something as gauche as cod.”

“Technically the cult is about a mending book,” Iskall says.

“Okay, sure,” Beef says.

“He tried to tell me it wasn’t a cult too, but dude, it definitely was. I am judging him. And also you. Get better things to do.”

“It’s not—you are misunderstanding. It’s a family,” Beef says.

“Still don’t get it,” Iskall says.

Beef groans and rolls his eyes. “Like the Godfather.”

“Oh! You are trying to kill me, but for dramatic crime reasons! I get it now. You know, the whole salmon thing still seems a little creepy though, especially with Grian’s cave. Are you sure…”

“Absolutely positive,” Beef says. “I can’t believe you accused me of following something Grian started. I’m offended.”

“Shouldn’t you be more offended at the cult thing?” Iskall asks.

“You’re the one with the giant monolith. You’re one to talk,” Beef says.

“I don’t see how that’s related,” Iskall says.

Beef looks across the neighborhood to the giant looming grey obelisk, covered in runes and filled with esoteric blocks Iskall had collected from all of the hermits. He looks back at Iskall.

“Yeah, fine,” Beef says. “Let’s just finish drying out your clothes.”

“You owe me even more now,” Iskall says.

“I absolutely do not, don’t even start—”

[ingo-in-places-he-shouldnt-be]

Ingo shouldn't be joining a cult.

(Version with hat under the cut because I couldn't decide.)

[thecorvidforest]

i’m so sick of people treating cults like silly little props for their stories. here’s a list of cozy games where you start a cult! try this board game where you’re competing to be the most successful cult leader! want to join my fake cult roleplay server? cult leader character design! read this forbidden erotica romance book about a cult leader and a cult member!

it’s so endlessly frustrating. the majority of my life i suffered awful abuse because of the cult i was in. every part of my body holds an immense amount of trauma that i may never be able to let go of, and i may never be able to function independently because of it. and people are out here acting as if cults are just silly fantasy and would never happen in real life. cults are real! their victims are real! the abuse and the trauma is real!

media about cults can absolutely be well-done and respectful - but at this point it feels like it’s almost always used for either shock value or treated like a fun cutesy storytelling trope. the commodification and normalization of our trauma is nauseating, especially when the majority of cult survivors will never see justice.

idk. i’m just so sick of it. cult survivors deserve better.

(anyone can interact but please be normal. i’m not sharing any identifying info about the cult i was in, don’t bother asking.)

[sandersstudies]

Oh gosh, you're a cult worshipper aren't you? Ugh... I really liked your blog too... That's a real shame. Sorry, but as an atheist there's no way I can be friendly with a cult worshipper. You are the reason why there are so much bad shit in the world. Your kind makes me sick. And your queer too! That's the kicker. Have fun explaining to your sky daddy why you should go to 'heaven' even though your queer. I'll see you in hell, fucker!

This is so funny I have to share with all of you.

[jojo-heritage-posts]

truly a top 5 jojo scene is dio trying to rope avdol into his sex cult and avdol jumping out of the closest window immediately

[qhideduo]

Because I've noticed this im the notes of my mooners art and talking to peeps, I want to know:

The Mooners were the members of the Moon Cult Mumbo created back in season 8, and that Impulse, Grian, Scar and Pearl were also part of.

(Please reblog so there's a wider range of data)

[computer-gummy-worm]

i like silas a lot