#especially the gods and goddesses

[valewritessss]

Rick made up for not having Percabeths pov in Blood of Olympus by giving us three new books of the celestial trio so I forgive him

[sarafangirlart]

My favorite bit in OSP

[sarnai4]

(The gods of Olympus are gathered. Zeus is staring at two piles.)

Athena: Father, the one on the right has the meat.

Zeus: Now, Athena, I appreciate you trying to help, but I think I know what meat looks like when I see it. The one on the left has way more.

Apollo: Dad, I foresaw you being really upset in a few minutes.

Zeus: Maybe you had an incorrect vision.

Athena: When are his prophecies ever wrong?

Zeus: First time for everything.

Ares: Dad, I can literally see the bones poking out from under the skin on the left. Just pick the one on the right.

Zeus: Don't try to give me orders!

Hera: Darling, please listen to them.

Zeus: Nope, they're doubting me. I'll prove that I'm right. (Grandly) I choose the one on the left!

(Prometheus pushes the pile forward. Hermes flies to it and sees the bones.)

Zeus (to everyone frowning at him): Not. One. Word.

[sukibenders]

Is it just me or does the way Hera is portrayed in the PJO/HOO series feel out of touch? By that I mean, while it plays into the idea of Hera's relationship with her husband's children and ideals of family, it seems like Rick just took that and ran with it without actually wanting to dive into those aspects and develop them more (ngl, his writing for his female characters, especially the goddesses, could use some work even if I do enjoy them). The reason Hera is the way she is with her husband's children is because she can't punish him [Zeus] directly due to him being more powerful (and the last time she turned against didn't he literally hang her from the sky)? And even while I'm not justifying her actions, there's a method to them, so why would she go after other random demigods like Percy and Annabeth? Or at least in a way that was written better than her falling into a trope (I enjoy this series with my heart, but the criticism about how the gods are written holds some value that shouldn't just be ignored either). Like, I don't know, it just feels like there was more that could've been done with her character instead of just immediately writing her off as the cruel, cold-hearted, evil stepmother (a trope that's overplayed, especially when not even bothering to give them any depth). I could write ideas, but then we'd be here all day.

[witchofthesouls]

So, I'm just thinking now, considering how Unicron is Earth (or well, the inner-most parts of the planet, and Gaea being the outer parts and making up his prison), would that technically mean that in some cases he (or perhaps Gaea) may or may not have created some of the Pantheons of ancient Earth?

I mean it would explain why so many of the Greek Gods were such jerks.

And would that furthermore make many of the creatures and beasts in those mythologies creations of the two? Like, going back to Greek Myth, Typhon is actually a direct creation of Unicron, meant to destroy the gods, and potentially Gaea herself.

Idk, just a bit of a thoughty-think I had

Primeval Anon

I did have some thoughts related to this, but more in the 'magic was once real' area.

Personally, I think Unicron was meant to represent the 'end' of everything; he was of the Void where everything was sprang forth, he is the Call to return to it. Death, I suppose.

Gaea is an... intermediary. In a way, she's the bridge of Unicron to Primus as she represents the 'driving force of chaos in creation and death' since neither of them would completely stand on their own. Hence, why Gaea and Megatronus Prime were respectively 'born' because both step into a critical role as support/adversaries/contemporaries for the respective forces that once came of nothing. Primus needs Unicron, just as equally as Unicron needs Primus, so they made their own versions of their brothers to fill that particular void of in their lives, even if Unicron did his by mistake because he was in a coma.

The accidental union between Gaea and Megatronus would have made a nearly indestructible prison that would have kept Unicron caged definitely as he's contained on a very secluded galaxy and feed through Gaea's brand of chaos via life/death cycle of the native lifeforms... if it wasn't for the incoming visits of other Primal lineages or creations (the Quintessons and the modern Cybertronians).

Because of the absolute chaos that's combined, is it really a surprise that Earth/Gaea plays a pivotal setting across the multiverse?

In a more commentary route, when it comes to the Ancient Greeks or any of the pantheons of the ancient world, violence is an integral theme within them because they're are divine personifications of their respective domains. Life is beautiful, but it can be full of grief, suffering, and cruelty as well as joy, wonderment, and compassion. The pantheons reflect that conflicting, confounding nature.

So going back in the direction of the ask, 'magic is real' is basically the joint that holds Elsewhere and all the Other AUs because it's deeply fascinating thinking about the roles that humanity played among that. Magic is a really wild concept in and of itself, so everything can be true, even if contradictory. It's like the old philosophical and theological debate of whether or not did gods predate humanity or did humanity make gods in their image to explain the universe?

So if the power of collective faith had shaped the world holds true, then it really puts a different spin on the various tales told across the world of all kinds of folklore stealing away many humans, staying near human settlements, or the creation of certain kinds of entities, doesn't it?

[tobbogan-13]

dont get me wrong, i love the 2016 revival, it was perfect

but sometimes you just need to listen to the original cast i never wanted to love you and cry

[bugwolfsstuff]

You ever get sad about the amount of mythology and folklore we likely will never know about because it was destroyed/never written down?

[madisonthetimewalker]

Please enjoy my Wakfu memes

[eewtp]

Chalice of the Gods, Wrath of the Triple Goddess…

Nico and Will I’m sorry you two go stuck with the title that you ended up with

[solavelyan]

when i tell you veilguard was made For Me what i mean is that my favorite/main inquisitor trevelyan is an ex-templar heretic who does see herself as andraste's chosen with divine purpose while grappling with the guilt of the things she did during her time in the circle to temper and influence the knight-commander in ostwick in service of the rebel mages, who's a charismatic leader whose followers tend to see her as some level of divine thing or maternal figure or savior or all three and are frequently rewarded for that with her actions, and now through the lens of veilguard she is so so so much more mythal-coded than i had originally intended

i have to look back at solas's relationship with her, especially his romantic feelings, and i have to think there was just... this intoxicating mix of empathetic recognition of their similarities, reminders of how mythal might have been when she was very young and he had yet to fully rebel against the evanuris, and just enough differences and unique circumstantial traits that she would feel new and interesting to him

solas being hopelessly in love with not-an-elf is already its own kind of good drama, this idea of committing every part of himself to one group of people while pining painfully for another - and not just a human, but in thayet's case, a human he should be repulsed by, a former templar, noble on both sides with one of those sides being tevinter, descended directly from one of the dreamers that cracked open his prison and released that shred of the blight, who embraces the idea of divinity. but she's also good and earnest, and unlike mythal, actually listens to him, who allows him to step into his comfort zone: as an advisor, someone who dispenses wisdom but not orders, who's protected but not condescended to

he recognizes mythal in her but is blindsided by their differences, and it's a little like healing, if he lets it be. proof that mythal's mistakes were not inevitable, but choices that she made, too, that she could have opted not to, or that she could have chosen to take responsibility for but didn't - unlike thayet, who bears the weight of her actions and choices and the damage of her own ancestors' legacies, who views her divinity not as an all-mother but as one of perpetual servitude

and being unable to fully accept it, because he's spent thousands of years bound in mythal's service and calling it freely-given devotion

thayet drinks from the well. i think a very fitting end to her arc is as the keeper of the fragment that survived flemeth's physical death - not a new vehicle for mythal to live or seek retribution for herself, but as a keeper of memory. mythal is dead and gone and incapable of healing the damage she inflicted on the world, but thayet is not. and she's the only person other than solas then who understands the weight of the legacy he's working to undo in an atonement ending, who not only sees the burden of the past as hers to carry but who gladly bears it if it means carrying it with him. a validation that mythal cannot give him, because she didn't in life and is incapable of doing so now that she's dead

[cometblaster2070]

all this time i would see art of malenia online and have absolutely no idea who she was so i'd just go "wow pretty valkyrie sword lady!"

but now that i've finally played elden ring and literally absorbed all of its lore now I can finally appreciate all the wonderful art and go "it's THE pretty sword lady who has an emotional backstory that makes me want to cry ".

[mxjackparker]

if you call current religious and spiritual practices "mythology" only when they're from a culture you don't understand, you're being bigoted

if you're well aware of modern Christianity and are calling Jesus "a mythological figure", carry on

[sexynetra]

I’m just having a lot of big thoughts and feelings about this Sasha look okay

[witchofthesouls]

Honestly I would prefer if Liege Maximo was the "first Decepticon" rather than the Fallen as it usually is. I think he is a better fit for the role, one of his siblings can call him "the first Decepticon" as an insult and him taking it as a point of pride.

Same here, especially since in some canon lore Liege is known the most evil Prime or Prima's true enemy, and has a lot of traits from Loki of Nordic mythos, who's a trickster god.

Either one of the brothers is a sore loser to rewrite things, or something is up 🤔

Plus, it makes a way more interesting dynamic between Leige Maximo as the Prime of Stories/Lies and Prima as the Prime of Light.

Granted, it's based on a lot of personal tf headcanons, but there's something more captivating to me to see two mythic figures go at each other because of their opposing outlooks. Prima is the Eldest and Firstborn, so he would have an extremely set view on how to guide the newborn mortals (the divine light of Prima shining down upom them) compared to Liege, who actively works among so many of them (the quicksilver storyteller with golden horns near a campfire or within the Great Halls). Think of it as an authoritarian parent versus an authoritative parent.

Prima, in the end, still rules by divine right and might. Unlike Liege, whose Domains are centered on connectivity on a personal level, Prima can stand on his own.

If anything, I think of Liege as a major architect (but not the only one) for the Thirteen Primes' downfall as an ode to Loki's role with Ragnarok. Fitting for Prime of Stories because all stories must end.

[clownjacket]

If Kipperlilly DOES end up betraying Porter/Jace as part of a secret other scheme she has (whether good or evil) and it has to do with saving Lucy, I just know she’s going to be a bitch about it and pull a ‘sorry, I only save High Five Heroes’ before leaving her other friends to die or some shit. And then she will take her final form: Magic Betty from Adventure Time, betraying her allies and saving her frost gf at the expense of the world. It would also parallel what Ankarna is going through (‘your girlfriend’s out of town, it sucks’, becoming a little imperialist rage machine under the influence of Porter/Sunstone but not being able to fully turn on Lucy despite going against her values and turning into a violent weirdo). This is my wish. My dream. I am manifesting it. Magic Betty Kipperlilly I believe in you.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Goddess of the River

reimagining of the ancient Hindu epic the Mahabharata

centres the river goddess Ganga, who cares for the godlings who live along her banks and ignores humanity, until she’s cursed into the body of a mortal, to birth the godlings as children

when she returns to her god form, she’s forced to leave her last son behind as a prince, and her love for him intertwines her in mortal affairs, as he becomes involved in what will eventually become a tragic war

parenthood, duty, politics