#gaelic and irish folklore my bad

[queerlyloud]

Favorite modern example of the concept of the fae gift has to be the ragtime gal frog from looney toons

[anarchotolkienist]

you’re attacking that neopagan kind of birthstone post about druid plants, but could you please elaborate or at least clarify the explicit trope that is being used that has been historically weaponized?

I used to spend about a good third of my time on this godforsaken website attacking that idea, but sure, I'll do it again. This will be a bit of an effortpost, so I'll stick it under the readmore

There is a notion of 'celts' or Gaels as being magicial and somehow deeply in touch with nature and connected to pre-Christian worldviews that the people who decided to make up the "Celtic tree astrology" used. This is also why Buffy used Irish Gaelic as the language of the demons, why Warhammer uses Gaelic as Elvish, why garbled Scottish Gaelic is used by Wiccans as the basis for their new religious construct, why people call themselves Druids to go an say chants in bad Welsh in Stonehenge, or Tursachan Chalanais, or wherever, etc etc. This stuff is everywhere in popular culture today, by far the dominant view of Celtic language speaking peoples. Made up neopagan nonsense is the only thing you find if you go looking for Gaelic folklore, unless you know where to look, and so on and so on. I could multiply examples Endless, and in fact have throughout the lifespan of this blog, and probably will continue to.

To make a long history extremely brief (you can ask me for sources on specifics, or ask me to expand if you're interested), this is directly rooted in a mediaeval legalistic discussion in Catholic justifications for the expansionist policies of the Normans, especially in Ireland, who against the vigourous protestation of the Church in Ireland claimed that the Gaelic Irish were practically Pagan in practice and that conquest against fellow Christians was justified to bring them in like with the Church. That this was nonsense I hope I don't need to state. Similar discourses about the Gaels in Scotland exist at the same time, as is clear from the earliest sources we have postdating the Gaelic kingdom of Alba becoming Scotland discussing the 'coastal Scots' - who speak Ynglis (early Scots) and are civilised - and the 'forest Scots' (who speak 'Scottis' (Middle Gaelic) and have all the hallmarks of barbarity. This discourse of Gaelic savagery remains in place fairly unchanged as the Scottish and then British crowns try various methods for integrating Gaeldom under the developing early state, provoking constant conflict and unrest, support certain clans and chiefs against others and generally massively upset and destabilise life among the Gaels both in Scotland and Ireland. This campaign, which is material in root but has a superstructure of Gaelic savagery and threat justifying it develops through attempts at assimilation, more or less failed colonial schemes in Leòdhas and Ìle, the splitting of the Gaelic Irish from the Gaelic Scots through legal means and the genocide of the Irish Gaels in Ulster, eventually culminates in the total ban on Gaelic culture, ethnic cleansing and permanent military occupation of large swathes of Northern Scotland, and the destruction of the clan system and therefore of Gaelic independence from the Scottish and British state, following the last rising in 1745-6.

What's relevant here is that the attitude of Gaelic barbarity, standing lower on the civilisational ladder than the Anglo Saxons of the Lowlands and of England, was continuously present as a justification for all these things. This package included associations with the natural world, with paganisms, with emotion, and etc. This set of things then become picked up on by the developing antiquarian movement and early national romantics of the 18th century, when the Gaels stop being a serious military threat to the comfortable lives of the Anglo nobility and developing bourgeoise who ran the state following the ethnic cleansing after Culloden and permanent occupation of the Highlands (again, ongoing to this day). They could then, as happened with other colonised peoples, be picked up on and romanticised instead, made into a noble savage, these perceived traits which before had made them undesirable now making them a sad but romantic relic of an inexorably disappearing past. It is no surprise that Sir Walter Scott (a curse upon him and all his kin) could make Gaels the romantic leads of his pseudohistorical epics at the exact same time that Gaels were being driven from their traditional lands in their millions and lost all traditional land rights. These moves are related. This tradition is what's picked up on by Gardner when he decides to use mangled versions of Gaelic Catholic practice (primarily) as collected by the Gaelic folklorist Alasdair MacIlleMhìcheil as the coating for Wicca, the most influential neo-pagan "religion" to claim a 'Celtic' root and the base of a lot of oncoming nonsense like that Celtic Tree Astrology horseshit that started this whole thing, and give it a pagan coat of paint while also adding some half-understood Dharmic concepts (three-fold law anyone?) and a spice of deeply racist Western Esotericism to the mix. That's why shit like that is directly harmful, not just historically but in the present total blotting out of actually existing culture of Celtic language speakers and their extremely precarious communities today.

If you want to read more, I especially recommend Dr. Silke Stroh's work Gaelic Scotland in the Colonial Imaginary, Dr. Aonghas MacCoinnich's book Plantation and Civility in the North-Atlantic World, the edited collection Mio-rún Mór nan Gall on Lowland-Highland divide, the Gaelic writer known in English as Ian Crichton Smith's essay A real people in a real place on these impacts on Gaelic speaking communities in the 20th century, Dr. Donnchadh Sneddons essay on Gaelic racial ideas present in Howard and Lovecrafts writings, and Dr. James Hunter's The Making of the Crofting Community for a focus on the clearings of Gaels after the land thefts of the late 18th and early 19th century.

@grimdr an do chaill mi dad cudromach, an canadh tu?

[simmerstories720]

The Decades Challenge ~ Late 1906 (Edwardian Era)

This is the largest update...I was struck with some inspiration during the spooky season. If you know anything about Irish/Scottish folklore, you know that will-o'-the-wisps can be both benevolent spirits or bringers of bad luck. What did her Gran tell her in the stone circle? I am leaving that to interpretation. I think next update will have more about Edward, he seems to be a forgotten child (literally always running around to places I never seem to point my camera).

Grim you stay away from this family you hear me!

The year 1906 flew by at the Kennedy household. Florence is becoming a well educated young lady, and Donnie is perfecting his violin skills. He has to be careful about playing inside...funnily enough Emmet hates the violin (how!?).

Ida is close to her third trimester, and is on bed rest a lot with this baby. She finds an old book that she brought with her from Ireland those many years ago. It is a book of Irish folklore, and she and Emmet read their childhood stories about Tír na nÓg.

One very quiet night, Ida is roused from sleep with the strangest sensation that she is being watched. It is probably one of her children afraid of an imaginary monster under their bed again...

Ida's eyes are blurry...but she thinks she sees a small blue flame...

She is half asleep as she follows the flames outside in the exceptionally cold fall day.

She is oddly calm when she realizes that these are Will-o'-the-wisps. Whether she thinks this is a dream or not, she cannot ignore following these spirits into the forest at night. She can almost imagine her Seanmháthair, her grandmother who clung to the old ways, warn her to never trust the signs from the fairy world.

Ida does not feel cold...and this leads her to wander further in the countryside than she has gone before. She cannot believe what she sees at the end of the wisp path...a stone circle she has only ever seen in Ireland as a young child.

Ida waits in the stone circle for something...anything to happen for hours.

Suddenly, she hears soft footsteps behind her in the snow. She is startled from her seat on the ground and quickly turns around...only...

....to see her Gran! The last she saw her was decades ago in Ireland. She is so overwhelmed with joy and surprise, that she ignores the fact that her Gran has been gone from this world for many decades at this point.

Her Gran looks just like she did last she saw her...Ida remembers her Gran dressed in wool, and always with her medicinal herb pouch on her belt. Some called her eccentric, some a witch, but Ida was never afraid of her Gran who practiced the old ways of her ancestors of Ireland and Scotland.

Her Gran did not say many words...just kissed Ida on the cheek, and whispered something in her ear.

It had been such a long time since Ida heard the Gaelic language that she almost did not understand them to be words at all.

I do not know what Ida heard her Gran say...but it must have been something important.

Ida was out all night, and followed her snow prints back up to the house at the break of dawn.

This is how Emmet found his wife in the early morning...sitting quietly and looking out over the vista. He did not ask why she was outside, but she seemed unharmed, so he let it go.

....Grim came for my chickens at this very moment, but the timing was seriously so ominous. Like THIS is the time Mr. Chicky had to depart?!

The next several weeks blew by, and Ida is expecting their fourth child any day now.

Ever since her strange "dream" Ida has been noticing out of the corner of her eye every so often what she would call fairies. Ida is an American, but she still believes in her Gran's stories.

It is Fair Day in the village, and Ida wakes up early with a twinge in her back.

Now she has been through childbirth 3 times now...so she knows exactly what that twinge in her back was while walking around the fair.

Around 10pm, Ida's water breaks in the kitchen, and she yells to get Emmet's attention.

Emmet, you should be an expert at this by now!

This is the first time that her children are in the house with her as she goes through labor. Florence has taken over midwife duties, and helps her mother throughout the night.

At 5am the next morning, Ida is ready to have this baby. Florence is the only other one in the room, as she banished all the men from the house temporarily.

Florence is a great midwife...maybe her calling is to be a nurse or in the medical field?

Florence does not like seeing her mother in agony though.

Florence helps Ida through her final push...

AND ITS A GIRL!

Florence cries at the sight of her new baby sister. Ida tells her that she had a name picked out for weeks now...Breena, after the great grandmother that Florence never met.

This bed is now a family heirloom lol Can we all appreciate the lightening EA does on early morning windows? Sometimes they do add detail when they want to.

[chris-the-dragonslayer]

Irish / Scottish mythology and the blackthorn plant

This is a bit of a different post on my page. As I’m doing research into different plants for my own website, I sometimes stumble into deep deep rabbit holes. This is one of them.

Any help with verifying or correcting the following paragraphs is appreciated because if I’m honest, I hope I understood the folklore and mythology and boiled it a bit down that it’s not too much but also not too little context for presenting it on a plant identification website.

So here’s what I got:

Blackthorn in Irish / Scottish (Gaelic) mythology:

Blackthorn in Irish / Scottish (Gaelic) mythology: In Irish / Scottish mythology, the "Cailleach" (Gaelic mythical figures from Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man - literally: old woman - goddess of winter) possesses a stick made of "blackthorn" (maybe it should be name “sloe” - though that’s more commonly used for the fruits according to my research).

The blackthorn is also regarded as a "witch's tree". In Ireland, cutting the plant and bringing the flowering branches home was associated with "bad luck". According to Irish folklore, the flowers are protected by the "guardian fairies Lunantishee". These are said to only leave the plant on the full moon (Esbats). At these times it is said to have been safe for the people to harvest the plant or collect the wood.

Use of blackthorn wood in "wands": the early "witches and wizards" are said to have used the plant to make "wands" and for black magic, according to Christian belief. This is because the plant was associated with the Gaelic faith. It was considered to be a devil's plant, because a pact with the devil could be made by pricking oneself with the plant's thorns. According to today's knowledge, this is to be regarded as an "erroneous belief".

Use of the other parts of the plant

Use of the wood to make shillelaghs: The wood and the root of the blackthorn are used to make so-called "shillelaghs", especially in Ireland. This is a thorn-covered, wooden stick / club made from a bony piece of the blackthorn and a piece of the root as a pommel.

Of course there’s more to the full post like a “description of the plant, it’s other uses, the origin of the name, the endangerment of it”. But I think I need help mostly with this part. All the other things are either in books I own or can be searched for in the biodiversity heritage library online.

So any and all help is appreciated so that I maybe can post a follow-up with the full, translated post.

(For any and all grammatical errors I apologize in advance because English isn’t my first language).

[lastromanticist]

Gaelic Mythology and why not exclusively Irish Mythology

I often see posts by well meaning students of Gaelic folklore and the traditional literature portraying it as "Irish mythology " a term I personally dislike especially when in regards to the Fenian Cycle. Now this may seem like I'm dredging up old beef the ossianic society settled 140 years ago but it's always irked me.

Up until the 16th century Ireland and the Scottish gaels had a shared literary establishment and did not live in isolation. In particular the oral tradition of Fionn and his companions has carried on this in oral tradition in some extent to the modern day. Examples such as the Glenmason manuscript of the Táin bó Flidaise show there was a shared tradition in literature production.

Saying Irish mythology alone in my opinion kinda disregards the extent Scottish gaels have contributed to the survival of these traditional stories and history. In the case of the fenian cycle whilst Ireland was rightly protective of Fionn opposed to Fingal in wake of the ossianic controversy saying Fionn is a hero of Irish myth rather than a hero of myth centered on Ireland (Scottish fenian cycle literature doesn't often exclusively claim the fianna for Scotland) who was also a hero of Scotland seems to have been a nationalistic pursuit one the Scottish engaged in equally but to less success. As for the ulster cycle it's extent of survival in Scotland is more minor but the contributions of Scottish gaelic scribes and poets to the cycle cannot be ignored.

On this premise then that the term Irish mythology is restrictive and does not represent the shared cultural ownership is gaelic Mythology or Gaelic folklore always a better term. In my opinion not always but generally especially when referring to specific traditional literatures. In the case of the Fenian cycle however I prefer the term "Matter of Ireland" a term I have not coined but cannot remember where I saw it (if you know please tell me) . I prefer this term because it captures the transformative nature of the fenian cycle with focus on its subject being Ireland and also reminiscent of its romance contemporaries of the matter of Britain and France.

You aren't bad People for saying Irish mythology I just prefer not to say it because of these personal reasons and I think in some cases better describes it

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I'm from south wales, and I've always felt desperately out of touch with my own heritage the more I learnt about it, and past using duolingo I don't really know where to start, do you know any good resources for starting out?

HOO BOY I RECOGNISE THIS ONE

So I have a very similar background, and it was a LOT of work fighting my way to where I am now to reclaim my own heritage - Anglo-Welsh culture just Does Not Teach this stuff, something that still, to this day, makes me fucking furious. I remember after I went to uni to learn Welsh finding out about the practice of Cerdd Dant, and I don’t think I calmed down for a week. I had never heard of it. Ever. And Welsh-speaking friends of mine scoffed, and said that Cerdd Dant is horseshit so I was hardly missing out, and I had to explain to them that, yes, if you have the privilege of being connected to your own cultural history and traditions, I imagine you can easily pick and choose which bits to sneer at; but from my perspective?

Here’s what Cerdd Dant is, with the frills stripped away: you are given a poem. A tune - sometimes an existing one, sometimes not - is played as a backing. You have to invent a brand new melody to sing that poem to that tune. If there’s more than one of you, you also need to invent harmonies.

That’s the tightest fucking shit. If I’d learned that in Music lessons in school, I’d have been delighted. That is a formula that is ripe for reinvention, and modernisation. I do not care that the version people do in Eisteddfodau is nauseating and makes me want to punch school children in their weirdly moving mouths (side note: why do Eisteddfodau make people Do That with their mouths?) I care that this is a beautiful, creative medium that is my cultural heritage and I, and every other fucker in Anglo-Wales, was not allowed it.

In any case... what did the trick for me was doing a degree in Welsh and Celtic Studies, which obviously was very successful but also is an expensive and difficult solution. So, in the interests of assuming you don’t have £27000 and three years to spare, what can you do?

It’s difficult, because there’s not exactly an institution or website you can go to that keeps a handy list. But I guess making a list of categories isn’t a bad place to start? Music, poetry, food, dance, festivals, history, customs, folklore, industry, that sort of thing. It gives you a framework for the research.

Check the competitions and categories in the Eisteddfod for things like music, poetry and dance. I’ve mentioned Cerdd Dant, but there’s other musical forms as well - poetry we have even more, and it’s baffling but fun to learn about cynghanedd and the various poetic forms like the cywydd, the englyn, etc (again, these absolutely should have been taught when I was in school. Fucking unforgiveable.) Dawnsio Clogsan is like Irish and Scottish folk dancing with the kicky legs and the tap shoes, but with Added Props - plus group folk dancing and that.

While you’re at it, look up the history of the twmpath chwarae in the villages. In fact, that’s a good segue into customs and festivals - you’ve heard of Beltain, Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh, but those are the Gaelic ones. Wales is Brythonic, and our equivalents are Calan Mai, Calan Gaeaf,  Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau, and Calan Awst (heads up: it’s VERY difficult to find decent info on those last two online.) Look up the Mari Lwyd and Calennig and lovespoons. Look up the Eisteddfod (I know you’ll already know at least some stuff about it, but it’s worth getting the full story.) Uh... the Wikipedia page here is a good little index for some Welsh folkloric stuff, but get yourself a copy of the Mabinogion (the 2008 Sioned Davies translation is v good) for the best of Welsh mythology. The main Four Branches are available online here, complete with footnotes to explain what the fuck is going on with the cultural references/symbolism. And the best best BEST resource for Welsh faerie mythology, in English, is British Goblins by Wirt Sykes, which is available here. That one is fantastic, because it was written by an English guy who was fascinated by Welsh faerie mythology, and spent some time in the 1800s wandering around Wales, asking people for stories and beliefs and just writing them down - and very respectfully too, which is a refreshing change from other writers of the era (George Borrow can deep throat a cactus in whichever afterlife he came to).

Uh, that’s probably a good segue into history - I’d recommend, in roughly chronological order, looking up the Celtic tribes of Wales (Silures and Ordovices in particular), Princess Gwenllian, Hywel Dda and his incredible laws, the Welsh royal line in Gwynedd (Llywelyn Fawr in particular, but obviously Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf needs a depressing look, along with what became of his children. Especially his son.), the Bardic Age, Owain Glyndwr and his grand plans for the country, the Rebecca Riots, the Merthyr Uprising, the Treachery of the Blue Books, Dic Penderyn, the Tonypandy Riots, the Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, Tryweryn, Aberfan. I mean there’s a shit-ton of others and I’m probably forgetting some really obvious ones, but we don’t teach Welsh history, so... that’s a very quick overview I guess. (Also, the stuff I was taught in school was HEAVILY colonialist. Like, HEAVILY.)

Anyway; this may or may not have been helpful, I don’t know! The handy thing is that you’ll probably find more elements to explore with each one you research, though, and there’s always something new. Good luck, enjoy, and don’t hesitate to get back in touch with any other questions! 

[obaewankenope]

So I want to learn about Tuatha de Danann. Are there any books, websites, or videos you’d recommend for someone who knows nothing about Irish lore but wants to learn?

Okay, sorry for taking so long nonnie! I fully intended on replying to this ask the morning after I got it but my ADHD and executive dysfunction happened so RIP me, I guess.

Anyway, I’m gonna do my best to list out the sources I know of and those I think might be useful for you. Obviously, I’ll begin with wikipedia just because it’s usually a decent starting point when you google something.

So. Links:

Wikipedia can give you a general run-down of the Tuatha de Danann (TdD) via this link here. It has a lot of information but not all of it is 100% relevant depending on what sort of history/mythology you’re looking for. If you’re interested in Insular Celtic Mythology (aka Irish Celts since they didn’t interact much or at all with other pagan religions, thus reducing the chance of osmosis of beliefs, gods, stories, etc for a good while), then the wikipedia link is a decent starting point but not perfect since it draws on a lot of Celtic sources from across the Continent as well (for example, Gaulish Celtic stories and beliefs about gods, as well as gods that originate from that region). So yeah, if you’re looking for specifically Insular Celtic knowledge regarding the TdD, you have to go looking elsewhere I’m afraid.

This link is to a blog article that gives plenty of information about the TdD but is pretty simple language-wise compared to wikipedia (isn’t everything except academic journals rip). It’s not Insular specific however, so again, may not be what you want but it’s decent enough and gives some nice stories/references/quotes about the TdD.

Transceltic is a good source for information about Celtic Mythology and History. It’s pan-Celtic however, so it draws and discusses a lot of continental Celtic material rather than just Irish/Insular Celticism. I’d recommend giving it a read regardless of whether it’s what you want just because it’s well-written and is also a good point for starting a seven-year google-fu research bender *side-eyes self awkwardly*

Moving on from links, I can now give you a list of books you can read online, possibly find at your local library, or just hunt down free PDF’s of (I certainly can’t give you direct links to them, oh no no). Some of these will be Insular Celtic specific and others will just be more comprehensive Celtic Mythology.

Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth by Mark Williams [google.books] - so this is a deent book and google.books gives a good enough chance to read a fair amount of it. The sections are broken up simply enough and it even goes into the specifics of the types of gods, their origins, and the Christian indoctrination and assimilation that occurred across Pan-Celtic culture. So pretty decent book all round. The book also gives a really good overview of pronounciations of Celtic and Gaelic terms, as well as a glossary, list of names and how to say them, and translations so like, it's a top-notch book imho.

Tales of the Tuatha de Danann: a dual language collection of Irish myth, volume 2 by Morgan Daimler [I have no source for this sorry] - so this one gives you stories about the TdD in both Gaelic/Irish and translated into English. That's pretty good for anyone studying mythology, Celtic mythology to be precise, btu also just Neat.

Celtic Mythology and Religion by Alexander Macbain [google.books] - So this one isn't bad, but it's not as good as Mark Williams book imho.

Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race by T. W. Rolleston [google.books] - The title sounds kinda... iffy but it's a decent enough book as well. Very Pan-Celtic however, so Insular Celticism is Not The Focus of the book. Unfortunately. The book, incidentally, was first published in 1911 so I guess that explains why it's title is a mess and also very heavy on the Non-Celtic Sources lol.

Journal Article: Irish Mythology by George Townshend [jstor] - another old, OLD book/article so still Not The Best, but a source is a source and I'm just providing you them to read and decide which you think is best for your interest.

Now for some videos!

There's a guy on YT called Tomas O hAodha who gives a decent introduction to the TdD in Ireland, which is great. I like him. *clicks subscribe* He also has videos on other stuff which is just 👌

We have the Irish Folklore & Mythology Podcast, also on YT, which is great too. It's interesting and definitely something I may listen to when needing to write because it's Good Noise Brent ah memes.

I think that's enough for you to start with nonnie. I hope the links help :)

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Rewatch & Review: 1x04 Phantom Traveler

In this week’s analysis, I’ll be discussing the unfortunate introduction of Abrahamic mythology, the lamentable gender politics of Dean in his nightwear, and magic languages.

Supernatural’s fourth offering, 1x04 Phantom Traveler, (not a misspelling, 'traveller' is spelt like that in America) is a solid episode. It’s not fantastic, and Supernatural certainly has better to offer, but it’s still an entertaining watch which introduces demons into the Supernatural universe and continues developing Dean and Sam’s characters, making them more distinct.

It is also the first episode Robert Singer directed for Supernatural. I didn’t see much to particularly comment on in the direction for this episode (my two years of Media Studies were not wasted on me at all), but one interesting choice, however, is the tracking shot of Dean’s sleeping form straight after the title card. EscapingPurgatory podcast had a shrewd postulation: the intended audience was heterosexual educated men between the ages of roughly 15 and 39, but a lot of them would be watching with their girlfriends and wives etc, and Dean is the brother who’s available at the moment.

Returning to the plot of the show, the script does itself a major disservice as early as the cold open. This episode was broadcast in America four years after 9/11 (almost four and a half in Britain) and was right in the middle of the decades-long and still ongoing war on drugs. The atmosphere surrounding airfare has changed fundamentally. The air hostess clearly saw the man’s black eyes and was affected by it, and should have alerted somebody on the plane to her worries, because she would have thought he was on drugs of some variety at the very least, and possibly smuggling drugs on the plane. However, for the purposes of the plot she does not act on her misgivings, but simply gasps and goes about her day.

This raises the question of why the demon revealed its presence like that. Demons are usually incredibly stupid on Supernatural, but this level of dumb is difficult for me to believe. The air hostess could have very easily had the man thrown off the aeroplane, and then its plan would be scuppered. The most likely reason was to show the audience that the man was possessed, but the audience was going to find that out in about a minute’s time anyway, so why reveal it there? It breaks the fourth wall in a bad way.

Whilst on the aeroplane and the demon’s plan, the episode never makes the demon’s motivations explicit. Sure, Sam claims that demons like death and destruction for their own sake, but this doesn’t fit well with how demons behave later in the show. They are, forsooth, as thick as poo, but they usually have higher ups telling them what to do. Was the demon’s repeated downing of aeroplanes part of a higher up’s plan?

Before I go on, it’s worthwhile mentioning that this episode is the first one to introduce the idea of an actual Abrahamic Hell in the Supernatural universe. It’s not the only genre show of its kind to have included something like this, with Charmed having the Underworld where the Source of All Evil resided, and Buffy having various Hell dimensions, but those two examples weren’t Hell as depicted in the Bible.

Joss Whedon specifically avoided the idea of a Hell and employed dimensions ruled by demons and demon gods rather than Archangel Lucifer. Charmed used the Underworld as an equivalent of Hell, but it was not a place of punishment for human souls. While Charmed is definitely my least favourite fantasy/horror/sci-fi genre show (Prue notwithstanding), I appreciated that it took a step away from Abrahamic mythology. Buffy/Angel were even better, having their own mythology that had precious little to do with Middle Eastern religions and more to do with Dunsany, Lovecraft or sometimes even Tolkien.

Kripke, however, took the lazy route with Abrahamic, specifically Christian, mythology, a choice which I believe was to the show’s detriment. It’s supposed to be a show about American folklore and urban legends, but that stuff eventually gets thrown under the bus. Forget Native Americans, screw the Americanised versions of Scandiwegian lore, screw the Old West and the Gold Rush and all the tales revolving around America’s history. And Canada? Pfft. What even is Canada? And don’t even think about Mexico. Let’s just have yet more desert myths from 2-3000 years ago.

My distaste aside, this universe has a Hell (and a Heaven), and demons are made by torturing humans until all humanity is gone from them, or by letting the humans off the torture rack if they agree to become the torturers.

Knowing this, two possibilities come to mind. One is that this demon is repeating its own human death for some reason, and another is that it kills people and drags their souls to Hell to make more demons.

Repeating its own death is entirely speculative, but this episode mixes up demons with traits later associated with ghosts and death echoes. Never again is an EMF reader used to detect demonic activity, and unless I’ve forgotten a certain example, demons aren’t shown to act as specifically as this again.

The second option, that of dragging souls to Hell, doesn’t seem likely as it’s made clear that demon deals or trades are required in order for Hell to get its claws on human souls, at least in usual circumstances. There’s nothing saying that demons can’t just decide to drag certain souls to Hell, and there is an implication at the end of this episode that this might actually be the case, but it’s a stretch. If this were the case, however, it would give the demon a real motive and make the episode less of a stand-alone bit of fun with overt X-Files vibes.

Sticking with Hell events on the aeroplane for now, let’s skip to the end and the exorcism. Whilst trying to exorcise the demon, it tells Sam that Jessica is burning in Hell. Dean tries to reassure Sam by saying that demons read minds and that it was trying to get to him, but demons can only know the minds of people they possess. This then leaves three options: the demon was lying and Jess is in Heaven, it was telling the truth and Jess is in Hell, or the demon was just trying to get to Sam, but unbeknownst to him Jess actually was in Hell.

Technically speaking, Jess shouldn’t be in Hell. She didn’t make a deal (that we know of) and it’s established later in the show that most people go to Heaven anyway. But Kevin didn’t, neither did Eileen or Bobby. Mary did, even though she made a deal with Azazel, and she died under the same circumstances as Jess. As Jess is never mentioned as being in Hell by another demon in the show, and as Dean, Sam and Cas eventually visit Hell and find nothing of her there, we can assume Jessica went to Heaven.

The exorcism in this episode is strange compared to exorcisms in the rest of the show. The Doyle (external to the text) explanation is clearly that the writers didn’t know exactly how they wanted things to work yet, but the Watson (within the text) explanation could be that they used a different exorcism ritual. Later in the show, there is no intermediate stage between being expelled from the host body and being banished to Hell: they just go directly down. This version, though, forces the demon to manifest and thereby makes it much stronger and more dangerous. I personally think the version in this episode makes the demons more of a threat because it’s harder to exorcise them, but I can see why it became streamlined later in the show.

The fact the demon possessed the aeroplane, however, raises the question of why it didn’t do so in the first place. Maybe it’s more fun to possess a human first.

Speaking of the ritual, Jared tells us on the commentary that he had to have a Latin teacher from a local university instruct him in Ecclesiastical Latin because he learnt Classical Latin at school. As a language person, I’m left wondering why. It’s the same language, just pronounced differently. Does the spell need to be pronounced in a certain way in order to work? If so, would the Ancient Romans have been completely incapable of expelling demons with their own language? Would they have had to rely on Greek, Etruscan, Gaulish or Sumerian for the rituals? It’s just completely unnecessary, especially as we later see Rowena casting spells in Scottish Gaelic, Irish witches casting spells in Irish, Celtic ‛demons’ performing rituals in Gaulish…

At least the university teacher got a little bit of extra money, I suppose.

Sticking with the aeroplane a little bit longer, Dean’s fear of flying is a welcome expansion to his character, though it was clearly included with the intent of making fun of him. It could easily have been played as such, but Jensen’s comments on the commentary indicate he saw it as an opportunity to provide more depth to Dean, as his connection with Lucas through their shared childhood trauma did in 1x03 Dead in the Water. In these two episodes, Jensen begins taking Dean away from the writers and making him his own: he was supposed to be the sidekick, but Jensen said nope.

In making Dean afraid of flying, but having him so insistent upon flying in spite of it, The Show perhaps did itself a bit of a disservice in its mission of making Sam The Hero and Dean The Sidekick. Dean was terrified, but flew anyway. That is bravery, and it’s what the audience wants to see in a hero.

Sam, however, does not miss an opportunity to make me dislike him (you knew this was coming at some point, don’t look surprised). Not only is he incredibly unappreciative and derisive of Dean’s talents, such as making his own EMF from an old Walkman, but he was also derisive of Dean’s fear of flying.

Sorry, let me reword that. Derisive of Dean for being scared of flying. It’s perfectly rational to be afraid of being in a giant metal bird suspended miles above the ground, but Dean agreed to it anyway in order to save people. And Sam treats him like a child because he’s scared of take-off and turbulence. Dean’s fear is a rational one, something that a person who hasn’t been sheltered from reality would have. Sam’s greatest fear, however, is…

Clowns.

I get it, they’re brothers, and siblings are supposed to rib on each other like this (the siblings I still talk to aren’t like this with me or each other, so I find it difficult to relate to Dean and Sam’s relationship) but it makes Sam come across as an utter cunny-hole. If somebody is clearly terrified of something and on the edge of a panic attack, you don’t sneer and mock, and then demand he calm down. Sure, Dean needed to calm down and Sam was the only one who could do it, but talking to him like a child just reveals how little Sam knows of taking care of other people. He’s the pampered younger brother, and it really shows.

He also shows a lack of judgement when roughly putting a hand on Dean’s shoulder while he was distracted. Dean’s essentially a war child (and suffers C-PTSD) and you just shouldn’t do things like this to somebody like that. That’s how you trigger panic attacks or flashbacks. Ask a veteran, I’m sure s/he’ll agree.

Aside from that, the middle-aged man on the aeroplane winked at Dean – winked – when Dean was walking down the aisle with his EMF reader. A man winking at a man has sexual overtones nowadays, and has done for a long time. How many men wink at a built guy standing over them like that unless they’re sure they won’t be punched in the face? Dean had his EMF reader out at that moment, but he was simultaneously on somebody else’s radar. Something about Dean set sexual bells ringing in cameo middle-aged man’s head. Regarding Sam, there’s two important moments for him in this episode (Jess aside): when he discovers John talked about and praised him in his absence, and when he exorcises the demon. It’s made clear in a few episodes’ time that Sam never felt like he fit in with his family, and that he believed John was disappointed in him. Exactly how he came to this conclusion is uncertain, since John doted on Sam and afforded him liberties he never would have allowed Dean, but it’s clear their relationship is difficult. Going away to university was Sam’s attempt to run away from the dysfunctional family he felt an outsider in and to escape John (and Dean): that he apparently didn’t speak to either John or Dean during his time there says a lot.

He finds out, however, that John praised him, undermining somewhat Sam’s belief that John regarded him as a disappointment. Episode 1x05 Bloody Mary provides another moment of character growth for Sam that subtly changes the way he perceives himself, but all in due course.

Praise from parents is important for children, and it really shouldn’t be hard for parents to tell their children they’re proud of them, even if they don’t say it in as many words. In spite of his difficult relationship with John, Sam gets that by proxy in this episode (whilst Dean’s happily checking out all the men in the hangar) and it changes the way he sees himself and John, even if only slightly.

The other moment – discussed above – is his exorcism of the demon. I don’t mince my words about disliking Sam, but even I can see he had potential. He’s the weird kid who wanted a normal life, but because of cursed blood had that hope denied him. Series 4 shows us the beginning of what Sam could have turned into when his blood magic arc truly kicks off, and it could have been a riveting plotline if written and handled well. Think for example of Willow in Buffy and the journey she went on with her magic powers: there was real darkness in there, and a gargantuan struggle to overcome it and become stronger.

This exorcism reminds me of Willow’s first steps at witchcraft in 2x22 when she casts the spell to restore a certain character’s soul and we see the potential for true strength as she performs the spell with ease. This exorcism of Sam’s should have been something similar, and his demonic powers should not have been completely removed and forgotten about in 8x23. He could have been Supernatural’s answer to Willow, and the Dark!Sam arc in series 3-7 could have been the first in his descent into darkness and his fight back out to take control of his own powers and become the opposite of what Azazel wanted him to be.

But – and not for the last time – three words come to mind. Such potential, Supernatural.

You might remember I mentioned the tracking shot of Dean (and neglected to mention the revealing shot of his thighs and underwear). Paula R. Stiles’ suggestion that the fact the writers and director for this episode were men doesn’t cheapen it is one I don’t understand. Jensen is in my 100% objective and unbiased opinion one of the finest men alive, but exploiting that in order to draw in an audience does cheapen the show.

To be fair, Supernatural is hardly high culture and commercial television is about revenue, but things like that break the illusion of artistic integrity, just like not making Dean explicitly bisexual does because that’d scare away too much of the audience. If having scantily-clad women in a show or film is there for the male gaze and drawing in money, then so too are Dean’s thighs and buttocks, similarly cheapening the show. If the male gaze objectifies women, stripping them of their power and subjecting them to male desires, then the female gaze objectifies and strips men of any power they might have and subjects them to female desires.

If it’s bad for the gander, it should also be bad for the goose.

Neither do I think it matters one bit that the writer and director are men, or am I supposed to believe a woman has never encouraged or coerced another woman to flash a bit of boob in order to get men to empty their pockets? Claiming that presenting a person as an object of possible sexual attraction turns him into an ‛object’ is strange, and that claim’s only ever made when women are being presented for men’s enjoyment.

But let’s stick to Supernatural because I have work in the morning. To be honest, I never notice if a woman on screen is being subjected to a ‛male’ gaze because I have no sexual or romantic interest in women whatsoever: if a woman is supposed to be portrayed as appealing to men’s eyes, it’ll usually go straight over my head because it just doesn’t register as having anything to do with sex. Interesting, however, is that this begins the trend of treating Dean in certain ways that women are usually treated, or associating him with ‛feminine’ traits.

Some people go overboard with for example Dean’s association with and likeness to Mary, his taking on the parental (maternal?) role in Sam’s upbringing, his knack with children etc, and use it as evidence to suggest that any traditionally masculine behaviour – or masculine behaviour at all – from Dean is a performance to keep up an act so that he can hide how feminine he really is.

My take on this is quite different than the condescending viewpoint that a man behaving like a man is performing and pretending. Dean’s ‛feminine’ traits are not his ‛true’ self in opposition to his feigned masculine behaviour. There is absolutely no contradiction between Dean exhibiting ‛feminine’ traits such as being good with children, cooking, or trying his hardest to fill the role Mary would have filled, and being a masculine man who identifies very strongly with being male.

I do think it’s fascinating, though, and the complexity and depth of Dean as a male character is one of the reasons he is one of my favourite characters. We rarely get to see men who are very manly and also incredibly loving, loyal and paternal and who exhibit a normal range of human behaviours and interests, including ‛masculine’ and ‛feminine’. That’s what normal men are like, something television and film seem to have forgotten.

Regarding Dean in bed, note that he is a stomach sleeper (sleeping on your stomach keeps your tummy safe), and this is consistent throughout all fifteen years of the show. However, this early in the show he takes his trousers, outer shirts and shoes off, in contrast to sleeping fully dressed as he begins doing sometime rather soon. He’s alert and cautious this early in the show, but not yet quite so worn down that he can’t be bothered to get ready for bed.

Note also that both brothers have sleeping problems here. Dean knew Sam was still up at 3am, meaning Dean likely slept for less than three hours, having been woken up by Sam at 5:45.

The end of the episode presents the brothers with something to be hopeful about. John has a new mobile phone number, the first evidence they’ve had so far that he is very probably still alive. It’s not much to go on, and John does not answer Dean and Sam’s call, but it’s something the boys can latch on to and keep them searching for John. Whether or not they should be searching for John is another question altogether, though, but at least it got the plot going in 1x01.,

Phantom Traveler is a strong but flawed episode which builds on last week’s expansion of Dean’s character and role, as well as introducing demons and Hell into the lore. The cut scene where Dean has to remove all his concealed weapons before going into the airport really should have been kept in because it says a lot about his character, as does his sleeping with a blade under his pillow, but other than that, I’m happy to leave this episode now on a positive note.

[bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise]

A Rebuttal of “Lesson 8: The Four Major Gaelic Festivals”

This is part 8 of my 20-part manifesto on why druids should do some research for once. You can find the master-post here.

This is a long post, so the actual rebuttal is under the cut!

Welcome back! With Beltaine coming up and my preparations for the holiday starting I’m super excited to be tackling this topic. I am less excited by the fact that it means that I have to actually read Robin Herne’s writing, but excited to talk about the holidays nonetheless. 

Gonna be honest, pleasantly surprised that Herne acknowledges that there are only four major holidays and that they’re Gaelic in origin. However, this is about.... the only good thing in this “lesson”.... and it’s in the fucking title. 

Rather than looking at the historical record or doing literally any research beyond “x story from the lore takes place at this time of year” Herne just talks around the topic again. The topic of this “lesson” is supposedly the holidays, but Herne looks more at what stories take place at certain times of year as opposed to what might have actually been done during the festivals that comprised the holidays all while ignoring that the evidence suggests that the ancient Gaels saw Beltaine, Imbolc, Samhain, and Lughnasadh as seasons in which to separate the year as opposed to simply the name of the festival that marked the beginning of the season. I am genuinely starting to question whether Herne has actually ever so much as held a history book, let alone read one. 

Furthermore..... the neolithic structures Herne mentions were not built by the Celts, they were extant when the Celts arrived in Ireland and Scotland, so the fact that they align with the solstices doesn’t really matter? And I’ll keep repeating this until the day I die apparently, but IRELAND AND SCOTLAND HAVE DIFFERENT FOLKLORE- THERE WAS NO ONE PAN-CELTIC RELIGION AND ANYONE WHO POSITS OTHERWISE IS SELLING YOU BULLSHIT. Herne is selling you bullshit by trying to act like folklore about the sidhe is going to be the same regardless of location, everything Herne says about the sidhe in this “lesson” is Scottish folklore, not Irish. I also seriously question Herne’s assertion that “Some historians have questioned how old these particular legends are, but they remain widespread and have earned the approval of both deities when told in ritual,” as he gives us no details about these rituals or what indicated the approval of the deities in question- it reeks of confirmation bias and a lack of discernment. Henre is also trying to apply Gaulish, Brythonic, and Roman mythography and holidays to Gaelic holidays- which I really shouldn’t have to explain to you why that’s a problem. I reiterate, Rome never conquered Ireland, and Hadrian’s Wall exists for a reason, and not everything “Celtic” is Gaelic. 

This is a bad “lesson” and like most of the lessons, doesn’t actually really talk about what the title says it was. 

I recommend reading the articles found in the google drive folder linked here for more information on the four major festivals.

[margridarnauds]

pagan-soul replied to your post “My absolute HATRED for the term “Celtic Mythology” VS my desire for...”

Why do you hate that term? ��

So, I decided to give this its own post because I really feel like it does deserve it, since it’s the kind of thing that I think most people outside of the field don’t really think about and you deserve the best answer you can get, though I’m not sure how clear I’m being. If there’s a point that I’m not clear on, please ask me to clarify, since I can never tell if I’m being entirely coherent. I’m not sure if I can give you a FULL answer, since some of this is slightly outside my pay grade (given I don’t get paid, that isn’t hard), but I’ll try to do what I can. 

For most of us in the field, I think, we generally hate it because it’s very, very imprecise and a little misleading. There really ISN’T a singular “Celtic Mythology”, just like there was never really a singular “Celtic people”. There were a vast variety of Celtic-speaking groups, spread as far out as modern-day Turkey, and each one of them had a unique cultural environment. Cernunnos, for example, does not have anything to do with, say, Bres mac Elathan or Rhiannon. And, in fact, in terms of the times that each one of them would have been popping up, there’s a SIGNIFICANT difference in ages. 

(Taken from David Stifter’s Sengoidelc)

At some point, as you can see on the linguistic map.....during the Proto-Celtic period, they WOULD have had roughly the same cast of characters, BUT that is a time that we really know little to nothing about, and even then, I do believe there would have been localizations depending on family group and region. We can TRY to reconstruct it by comparing different figures/names and then putting them in an Indo-European context. If, for example, you see similar things pop up in India, Ireland, Greece, etc., you can be fairly certain that it is [1] A pre-Christian survival and [2] Specifically, a Proto-Indo European survival, aka going back to really some of the EARLIEST belief systems we have. If you have the same things popping up in Irish and Welsh contexts AND you have the name popping up in Gaulish inscriptions, we can be fairly certain that the figure is a REALLY old ass Celtic figure. Figures like Lugh, Ogma, and Nuada.....they are probably VERY old. Not that we won’t argue over it. Because Celticists argue over everything. (If you want to know about some of what Celticists have conjectured, I highly recommend Proinsias Mac Cana’s ironically-titled , given the topic of this post, book, “Celtic Mythology”. Now, some of what he said has been debated, because.....see above. Celticists. Arguing. We love it. BUT he’s a respected figure in the field, and my supervisor likes him so I’m legally required to like him too.)  WHICH brings us to our next problem, which is that the way that each figure developed. Lugh, in an Irish context, is not Lleu in a Welsh context. They probably share the same root figure, at some point in their shared history. Their names match up TOO PERFECTLY for them not to. But the way they developed was specifically in the cultural context of Wales/Ireland. Lugh in particular is a VERY malleable figure. You can read three works where Lugh is in and get a VERY different reading of him in each one. (Good king? Machiavellian schemer? Flawed pragmatist trying to unite a people who won’t be united? A figure who’s more a symbol of kingship than an actual CHARACTER? Depending on the source and the time/context, you can get any combination. For what it’s worth, in the Early Modern period, there is quite a bit of matieral that shows a darker side to Lugh.) Saying, “Yes, these two are related” SOUNDS like it’s admitting a lot, but in reality, that still doesn’t really tell us anything about this hypothetical figure. If you put a knife to my throat and made me GUESS, I would say that he had some connection to kingship and sovereignty. Possibly, in relationship to that, sacral kingship, given that both Lugh and Lleu are betrayed by a woman to their deaths. But that is HIGHLY speculative and again, doesn’t really SAY anything. Lugh is Lugh and Lleu is Lleu. It’d be like trying to say that, because you and your cousin come from the same grandma, you’re exactly the same. Now, you might be able to INTUIT certain things about your grandma from any common traits you and your cousin have, and that’s a valid line of inquiry, and it’s definitely one that plenty of solid Celticists have done, I am NOT denigrating their research, but you’re still you. 

Finally, “Celtic Mythology” really is.....rather bombastic, as a term, for a group that almost always consists of Irish Mythology (and, sometimes, Irish folklore, which is VERY different from the mythological texts), with Medieval Welsh literature sprinkled in for a bit of flavor. (Even the term “Welsh Mythology” is controversial, simply because, really...it’s much harder to pick the MYTHOLOGY from the literature. Even harder than the Irish.) And, in the field, even saying “Celtic Studies” is something that we kind of do through gritted teeth because we don’t really have a better term for what we do. See that big-ass linguistic family tree up there? Yeah, I’m not too proud to admit that there are exactly two languages on there that I am in any way equipped to talk about: Middle Welsh and Old Irish. Now, an IDEAL Celticist, aka some of the best in the field, is a jack of all trades, someone who can talk about the linguistic evolution of at LEAST Old Irish and Welsh (including their modern descendants), with a solid background in Proto Indo European and the ability to at least comment on the various other Celtic languages. (There are some scholars who specialize in, say, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Cornish, and Manx, but they are basically a niche in a niche. The field, as a WHOLE, is VERY much dominated by Irish, both modern and medieval. Which suits me very well, but does make me feel very bad for the other languages that get left out of the mix.) But that is a VERY small number of people in the field. Hell, I got met with basically crickets when I said that I wanted to study Breton, not because people didn’t WANT me to, but because the resources simply weren’t available, much less as an English speaker. (I still want to take it up, though.) I know of some professionals in the field who NEVER would call themselves a Celticist, simply because the term doesn’t really fit them. My paleography professor was, incidentally, one of them. Personally, I DO use it, because again, I don’t have another term. 

But, and I can’t emphasize this enough, what I study isn’t a SINGULAR Celtic Mythology. What I study is Medieval Irish Literature, with a focus on the Mythological Cycle and, when needed, I can sometimes comment on the similarities to Welsh figures. I don’t LIKE it, because I feel like I can’t do the richness of the Welsh material justice, but I can do it if you put a knife to my throat. With stuff like, say, Gaulish Mythology....we can make very educated guesses based off of inscriptions and things that the Romans/Greeks said and comparing them to Irish/Welsh material, but we don’t really know. Can’t really know. And with others...there were no written materials during the medieval period, or at least none currently surviving. (This is why Old Irish and Middle Welsh to tend to dominate mythological discussion: The bulk of our medieval material does come from those sources. People can say all they want about the scribes who wrote down the Mythological Cycle, but the simple fact remains that, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be studying these texts.) 

For me, the term “Celtic Mythology” kind of lumps all the individual Celtic materials into one massive soup bowl, regardless of time, context, culture, or any other distinguishing features, and, most of the time, would be just as easily done by saying “Irish Mythology” or “Welsh Mythology”. There are very few times, unless you’re talking about the ENTIRE POSTULATED HISTORY of a figure, that “Celtic” is really needed and it tends to assume that Irish = “Celtic” (most of the time, I see posts where Irish, in particular, is treated as being the same as “Celtic”, and my ire in this instance is directed towards them) instead of admitting the full variety of what that term actually means. Irish IS a Celtic language, yes, absolutely, but it is not the be-all, end-all, and the two terms are not synonymous. “Celtic” is a very broad term that can only really be useful in a few contexts, mainly linguistic, and is insanely controversial in the field as it is. 

On a religious perspective, since I know that this is inevitable in conversations like this, does this mean that I’m saying, going back to my original example, “No, you cannot worship Rhiannon, Bres, and Cernunnos at the same time?” No. I am VERY firm on my stance that I can only speak from the perspective of my knowledge of the field, NOT on other people’s belief systems. This is similar to if someone was to ask me about the function of a given postulated deity, where I can only say “The material as it was written down indicates x, y, or z, and most of us in the field are VERY hesitant to apply a solid function to these figures, but if you feel that this figure is guiding you to a given conclusion, that’s fine. It isn’t ‘inaccurate.’ I don’t believe that there’s any way for a religion to be ‘inaccurate' so long as it’s harming no one.” (Use Celtic Studies as a smokescreen for white supremacy and I WILL roll down your throat faster than a hot dog on the 4th of July, though.) If all three of them are calling you, that’s something that I have no call on. I personally think that it’s a HELL of a combination, and I’d wish you the best of luck, but....it would certainly be an interesting one. If you want to take the reconstructionist root and try to figure out how they would have been worshipped in the Proto-Celtic times, that’s fine (though I do strongly advise against human sacrifice.) You’d have a devil of a task, but it’s certainly a fine one, and in many ways, not too unlike what scholars like Mac Cana did. And, if you want to worship them as they appear in the texts or how they’re personally guiding you, that’s not something that I can make a call on one way or another. Again, this is about my own personal feelings, from inside the field, on the term and how it can be rather misleading. 

[codenamecamilla]

Thoughts on Anna Dressed in Blood Part 1

In Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood there is a moment where a witch lady calls on “Hiisi, Father, demon-god,” and I immediately went into Should I Be Offended Research Mode. Annnnnnnd.... I have thoughts. And opinions. These are based on some quick research as well as pulling from the Finnish/Suomi religious/folklore tradition research I did a few years back.

- Hiisi were, back in the pre-Christian days, tree/hill land spirits. As far as I can tell they were similar to the Icelandic/Norwegian landvaettir. Or, may have been similar to the Roman lares (before they were associated with the Greek agathos daimon and attached to homes).

- Hiisi were later associated as trickster-like beings and show up in the Kalevala as, according to my reading of the text, powers of nature. It reminds me of how brigid became a widely used term for various minor goddesses in the Irish/Gaelic traditions.

- Hiisi were also later associated with the folklore traditions of goblins and giants.

- Hiisi were demonized by Christianity.

- Hiisi are STILL being demonized, down through the ages, to Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood.

I know horror has a long tradition of being all mixed up with religion for Reasons (I read a book about it) BUT I am tired of seeing the appropriation of traditional non-monotheistic religions used as the Scary Evil Bad Guys. It’s a continuation of Western/Christian Colonialism bound up in heteronormative patriarchal bullshit and I’m So Tired Of It. I’d really like to NOT have to face polytheist-hate (however unintentional or subdued) when I’m reading for fun.

[oho-indeed-indeed-indeed]

Happy (early lol) Worldbuilding Wednesday! What are some of your favorite elements of world building? Tell us something cool about the worldbuilding you've done so far. Use the tag #worldbuilding wed asks and see who else wants to chat this fine Wednesday :) (Feel free to hold onto this til Wednesday proper. I just WAY too many people to get to and the ask limit makes it impossible to do in one day)

Ooh worldbuilding is fun.

Once I’ve got the basics of the world that pertain to the plot sorted out, I love to make maps of my world. It’s really fun and also helpful to have a reference when my protagonist is travelling or when other characters come from those places.

Naming stuff is really hard but also fun at the same time because you want the name to fit but also you can do whatever you want with the name. For one story, because a lot of my relatives speak Irish Gaelic and it was set in a world thats sort of isolated and set in rural mountains in a place with magic and no proper government or official law system, I named everything with or with elements from Irish, and Scottish and Irish folklore. That was fun because it gave some great names and ideas for the plot, and because I got to find out things i didnt know. When Im naming new worlds and places I like to take elements from this world but change it enough that it’s entirely different. If that makes sense.

Once ive named things, I like to work out government- what are its policies, how does it interact with other places in my world. For example, in one post-apocalyptic world (where the apocalypse came in the form of frequent violent earthquakes, rising sea levels, dangerous floods and gargantuan tsunamis, but there is advanced technology and building materials) after the floods twenty years ago and criticism to the government from lax safety measures that resulted in deaths from the smaller floods that came after, everyone is now legally required to know how to swim, and instead of fire drills there are floods drills. People living within 10 miles of the ocean must know every evacuation route, and they have incredibly high insurance, if they can get it at all. Sea walls aren’t sea walls they are tsunami walls: bigger, better and built to withstand multiple tsunamis while lessening impact of waves and flooding. Immigration policies from the landlocked countries to the north are strict- they dont want so many people fleeing to them after floods so that their entire economy is disrupted and problems arise, especially to do with food that is already difficult to get because of the lack of fertile land. Conversely, the country suffering from floods is lacking in space because so much of the land isn;t very safe as it;s too close to the sea, so strict immigration policies are necessary because they don’t want overcrowding and more people to be at risk from floods and tsunamis. Building regulations are very strict too, having to withstand earthquakes and water.

Culture! I love working out the culture- religion is sometimes a bit of a touchy subject and so are a few other things, and I hate when discrimination happens in my world. And I know i control the world but also i do want it to be realistic and there are so many real world problems including discrimination that i feel horrible for making a real thing in the fictional world. But it is fun to work in subtle hints or make morals in the story, so that i’m like, passive aggressively saying ‘This BAD. DON’T do this.’ through the story. So. Subtle digs are fun.

Transport is also fun, if only because if it’s a sci-fi/space AU you can make up whatever transport you want and as long as it sounds vaguely functional and you know how it works in relation to the rest of the world, you can have it! Also because tech-talk on a fictional machine is really fun. Like if it goes to the garage and you have a character who’s really good with machines, you can actually show their knowledge and make them seem cool, whereas in a story with cars, you can say they’re good with machines, but you would probably need a rudimentary knowledge of cars if you like to do what i do. And i have 0 knowledge of cars. The point is, making transport is fun! Also public transport systems I find suuper fun to write, where i can add all the little quirks and details about it.

This might sound strange, but I also do a lot of world building after I‘ve written the story or fanfiction. Obviously I work out all the parts that relate to the story or how the world works, but then I like to create other things, like maps or the world and scientific drawings of animals. I also find it fun to make the ‘official’ government version of its policies and laws that’s open to the public (in the fic, not the actual public). I find there’s less pressure on myself if i do it afterwards and i can properly enjoy it better. Exploring all the little nooks and crannies of my world is almost more fun than actually creating it and writing the story (though i love that too.) I love the little touches in worldbuilding.

[autisticforestgremlin]

With deciding to learn some languages, I'm also working on unlearned the pressure to be perfect in my learning. This is for me. Im doing this cuz it brings me joy. That means if im having a bad day, I don't have to "study". I dont have to learn at any particular pace. There’s no real end goal, no test to take, no assessment of my skills. I am in no hurry. There is no end time, no finals, no one judging me or my progress.

Its super wierd. But also super freeing.

I want to get some books on Irish history and folklore. But I also want to remember that I dont have to take notes. I dont have to memorize facts. I can just read for readings sake. This might turn into a special interest, but there's no test for that. I can devour books, and maybe forget some facts. That's okay. Life isn't "school". Hell, learning isn't school. There is no need for capitalist ideals here. I can read, learn, forget. I can move at my own pace.

Also, I can allow my curiosity to roam wild. I dont have to worry about this "study" eclipsing others. This can be my focus. It is allowed. It is acceptable.

This is okay.

Its odd to have to do this, to unlearn nearly 2 decades of ingrained perfectionism and capatalist ideas of learning. But I think its worth it, for the sheer joy of Irish Gaelic phonetics and the ability to communicate with suomalainen (finnish) friends in thier own language.

I'm relearning how to learn.

[ellierobinsonusp]

Secondary Research

Following my primary research, I was surprised to find that a majority of the audience do believe in the paranormal, and a handful of them do fear it. This makes me want to research into more paranormal entities, mythology, folklore and cryptids. However, I will not be researching any “Hollywood Monsters” (Dracula, Frankenstien, Zombies etc) as these can be debunked and fabricated easily).

A note to add is that none of these images are mine, and ones I found from a secondary resource. I will mostly be using the cryptid wiki and SCP Illustrated on YouTube to help me with this research.

Ahool

Name: Ahool/Athol

Place of Origin: Indonesia

Description: Some portray the cryptid as a giant bat, or otherwise a flying primate. It is said to be a sub-species of a “ropen”, a flying demon. The Ahool has a long snout, large wings and a large thin chest. It has a chimp/bat’s face, large dark eyes, red skinned wings large claws on its fore-arms and covered in gray fur. It is said to have a wingspan of 12 feet. 

History: It was first reported by Dr. Ernest Bartels in 1925. Once his son of noted ornithologist M.E.G. Bartels, was exploring a waterfall on the slopes of the Salek Mountains when a giant unknown bat, the Ahool, few directly over his head. Two years later in 1927, around 11:30 pm, Dr. Ernest Bartels encountered the Ahool again, this time he was laying in bed, inside his thatched house close to the Tjidjenkol River in western Java, listening to the sounds of the jungle   

Other: Female Ahools are very social, meanwhile the males live on their own.They mostly feed on fruit and fish but will occasionally attack humans. They allegedly hunt their prey upside down and stalk it. They will engulf the victim with their larges wings before biting their neck and cracking the spine

Grey Aliens

Name: Grey Aliens/Greys

Place of Origin: Space 

Description: Grey Aliens are said to be dark grey-skinned humanoid aliens that have lack of external human organs such as noses, ears or sex organs. Their bodies are usually depicted as being long and lacking in muscle. Their legs are shorter from what one would see in a human. Their limbs are often depicted as different from a human their humerus and thighs are the same lengths as their forearms and shins.Grays are said to have oddly large heads compared to their bodies. They are also said to have completely no hair anywhere on the body, including the facial hair or any other type of hair, and no outer ears or noses, but only small openings for nostrils. They are said to have very large black eyes with no pupil. Also reports and abductions claim they are small, but there are exceptions as some claim seeing large ones the size of a human or larger.  

History: On July 8, 1947, in the town of Roswell, New Mexico, according to eyewitness and a press release by the Roswell Army Air Field a flying saucer had crashed in the desert. However they changed the story quickly to a crashed weather balloon. Eyewitness still say they found a crashed flying saucer and dead Grey Alien pilots in the craft. This would become one of the most famous UFO and Grey Alien cases. There are many more cases alike to this, but those that are to lengthy to record. 

Other: Grey Alien sightings make up over 40% of all reported alien encounters.

Angels

Name: Angel (although each angel is thought to have their own name)

Place of Origin: A spiritual plain/Sky

Description: Most angels are depicted as humans with white robes, wings and halos. However, some have more abstract. However, according to the bible, they have different forms. According to Ezekiel 1 they looked like  “Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, wings, and the wheels that the four of them had, were full of eyes all around.”. In Daniel 10 they looked like “ When I looked up, I saw a man dressed in linen, and he had a belt made of gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl. His face looked like lightning. His eyes were like flaming torches. His arms and legs looked like polished bronze. When he spoke, his voice sounded like the roar of a crowd. ”. According to Isaiah 6 they looked like “ Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ” And lastly, in Ezekiel 10 they looked like “ Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. ”

History:  An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out tasks on behalf of God.

Other:  A hierarchy of angels is a belief or tradition found in the angelology of different religions, which holds that there are different levels or ranks of angels. Higher ranks may be asserted to have greater power or authority over lower ranks, and with different ranks having differences in appearance, such as varying numbers of wings or faces.

Banshee

Name: Banshee/Banchee/Bean sí, Place of Origin: Ireland Description: Various versions of the banshee have been described, from a woman with long, red hair and very pale skin to an older woman with stringy, gray hair, rotten teeth and fiery red eyes. She is often depicted with a comb in her hair and this has led to an Irish superstition that finding a comb on the ground is considered bad luck. It is believed that a single banshee can take on any of these forms and shift between them, much like the goddesses of Celtic folklore. History: In legend, a banshee is a fairy woman who begins to wail if someone is about to die. In Scottish Gaelic mythology, she is known as the bean sìth or bean nighe and is seen washing the bloodstained clothes or armor of those who are about to die. Alleged sightings of banshees have been reported as recently as 1948. Similar beings are also found in Welsh, Norse, and folklore of the United States. Other: There have been several reported banshee sightings, but it is said that if a banshee becomes aware of a human’s presence watching her, she will disappear into a cloud of mist. When she does, it is accompanied by a fluttering sound like a bird flapping its wings. The Irish do not believe the banshee causes death, but merely warns of it.

Bigfoot

Name: Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti/Yowie

Place of Origin: North America

Description:  Based on sightings, the Sasquatch is a bipedal humanoid that ranges from 8 to ten 11ft  tall with long arms, a coat of brown or reddish fur and, as the name "Bigfoot" would suggest, very big feet, although in much earlier sightings the Sasquatch was reportedly more bear-like.Based on early sightings of the Sasquatch, the profile of the creature was thought to be more ape-like with a prominent brow ridge, an undefined nose and a prognathous face. It wasn't until a sketch by Roger Patterson, titled "Old Woman", was released that the Sasquatch would adopt its flat-faced, almost man-like image observed in most representations of the creature today. The Sasquatch in Patterson's famous clip also possesses such a flat face.

History: The first record of a large, hairy humanoid dates back to the fifteenth century, in Caucasus, a mountainous area between Asia and Europe. Each region has their own Bigfoot from the Yeti in the Himalayas to the Yowie in Australia. However, arguably the most well-known Sasquatch is the big foot of Northern America. Stories of an ape like creature roaming the forests of North America have been around as long as some of the Native Americans tribes started in certain areas, due to the finding of cave painting of Sasquatches. However, the earliest written account was made in 1811 by David Thompson, who was mapping regions of Canada and the United States of America during the time.  

Other: There has been multiple sighting of “Bigfoot” in america, in each different state. Suggesting that there is a species and not a single individual.

[wearethegladiators]

hey

so i could keep on ranting about aron for years because drAMA but i’m just gonna tell you this: aaron paul as his new fc is canon and so is the evans siblings being the evans twins. i’M NOT SORRY

lily still saying aron is his little brother because she was born like 2 minutes ahead of him :) but aron being taller and looking older than his age while lily will forever look like she’s 12 hihi

also the first 30 seconds of this video is the absolutely perfect depiction of aron’s mindset for that time period:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHpeFfBRF8U like being a kid. a sad, fucked-up, cutie-pie, damaged kid. 

one comment reads “the most accurate portrayal of personal hell i have ever seen” and that hurts

also pretty much canon that aron will be alive for at least some time after the virus

i’m digging into the evans family backstory and it’s clear that they always had a connection to magic. like i don’t know exactly how the irish folklore relates to magic (i’m especially thinking druids here), is it like an entre-deux between the magic and the muggle world ?? i read once on a hp forum that irish muggles were pretty much aware of the magic world around them and that it didn’t come as a big surprise because you know, bah they have farfadets quoi. so there were “mixed” villages and magic wasn’t much of a secret. i actually kinda like that?

lily’s parents are more rational (or modern if you will), maybe they live in a mostly muggle city or something. but her grandparents? they live in the highlands, are breeding horses and only communicating in gaelic.

also, the evans have always been fighters. they definitely participated in ww2, maybe even took part in the débarquement (there’s also a french side to the evans family hihi). also they were probably very involved in the civil religious wars, as mediators - or as IRA members ?? because they’re nice, but they’re about ice. and ice does not forgive. a smile made for war is one of the most evans things i have ever read, along with demons run when a good man goes to war. 

so anyway maybe her grandparents were even in contact/working with the order of the phoenix during the first wizarding war?? it would also explain the disconnection between lily’s parents and the magic environment. the grandparents tried to protect them by pushing them away from the magical world?? 

and then boum, liliana. and potentially also aron showing some skills?? (WHY am i thinking of aron as a banshee????)

lily definitely has a banshee vibe. ever since les âmes mortes she always had accurate feeling/foreboding whenever something bad was about to happen. also i can see her scream?? and that sort of mind control through occlumency. like she has some aspects that she may have inherited, but she’s not a full-range banshee. aron??? what if his capacities are more developed than lily on that? also what if he is an occlumens? can muggles be occlumens too???

there’s so much going on in my mind i swear to god

lily rather as morrigan. if the rebellion still uses aliases that’s definitely going to be hers. that fits so well. the queen of phantoms? i mean?

lily/aron’s relationship as echoing so much that of the blake siblings. the unbreakable love but the unbearable resentment. both being convinced that lily brought the plague to the farm where all evans were gathered, and thus killed them all. aron rejecting lily, referring to other members of the rebellion as “his family” and mocking her as “the goddess of the dead”. the morrigan nickname could actually come from him?? also lily having moments of doubt regarding her recent actions/harshness, and someone telling her “you always did what you had to do to protect your brother, that’s who you are”. my heart ???

lily becoming much more ruthless ever since aron joined the rebellion, and her family died, and her people started to go extinct. like really we can tell that there’s been a true escalation of violence for her from that moment on - she will do whatever it takes to save them all, and especially her brothers

lily doing a bunch of stupid things for them

like she’d be ready to endanger the entire rebellion movement to save their asses

and the muggle(born) race, but to a lesser extent (still clarke-and-lever-vibes tho)

lily really going on a personal crusade for months trying to save and gather the remaining muggles all over the country, building up a team to find the survivors and protect them, but also to burn the deceased and give them decent burials (the last point would also be a matter of tension with aron: “burning the bodies really? it’s no fucking zombie virus! you’re the one destroying our people and our culture, not them!”)

aron as part of the “preservation of the muggle world” team ?? i mean this sounds like a very lame name put like that but he’d quite obviously be useful in that mission. what if they even go islands where there are survivors and they just contaminate them and kill them?? the guilt!!

is he living at the rebellion headquarters or in a muggleborn camp? how much does being non-magic impede his daily life, like how many places is he unable to access because of anti-muggle spells??

aron and red???? i just had this thought because krysten ritter would be a great red? like maybe not as a couple, but as a thing at least. he’d care a hell lot about her, and if she dies?? hm hm.

i think i just like picturing aron with terribly strong/extremist women because it is so radically different from who he is? he’s been raised as an extremely kind, respectful, and tolerant child (maybe even too much) who likes flowers and smoking pot while looking at the stars (headcanon in which aron does all of lily’s homeworks for botanique).

THIS. RIGHT. HERE. 

mdr remember when i said this thread wouldn’t be about aron

so yeah, even with wynona. he couldn’t stand her being so ostracized by the others, and it’s no secret that aron likes kids so damn much, so he’d be terribly disgusted by her actions but would still take care of her brothers and sisters - and would eventually understand ?

also, if he also adopts a kid at some point, well he’s definitely going to bring him to the blackbird ranch

the blackbird ranch as une garderie

mdr that would also mean that aron and nathan could be found chilling out around the blackbird ranch -- my heart

wynona lifting magical anti-muggle barriers surrounding the ranch especially for aron!!

so yeah anyway wynona and aron. in a paradoxical way he forgives way more things to wynona than he does to lily. and wyn would try to fix their relationship. also aron could (try to) provide muggle solutions to her “leg problem” ? (wynona is legit afraid of muggle technology and savoir-faire, but also very eager to learn about it, soooo)

also this definitely implies aron/sacha?? i mean. i think that would be a super interesting relationship, because they would definitely be best-friends in a “normal setting” ?? but this is war, aron manages to get close to wyn when she refuses to complain to sacha, sacha manages to get close to lily and?? i don’t know, i see a great friendship, but also with a weird, nostalgic avant l’heure vibe to it? two kids who grew up too fast and now struggle on behaving as such. genuinely enjoying and supporting each other, but also the presence of the other is a reminder of what they’re going through and who they could have been? am i even making sense oh god

btw i always thought that sacha must have been close friends with fenugreek, and so was aron? they could have been sort of a trio, and fenu’s violent death would add yet another variable to their relationship

do the magical creatures of wynona know aron is non-magic and if yes how do they react to him

mdr btw i also thought about the blood transfer thing, i appreciate how we are both trying to save him

anyway there’s definitely some type of old/irish magic protecting him to a certain extent, i guess

the power of LOOOOVE

100% agreed i like the trope of “love is greater” so much?? like that’s cheesy but i’ll never get over it. we do terrible things for the people we love. lily and wyn are such goods examples of that. (“i was a mother and now i’m a monster”)

speaking about love nathan and the evans ???? yeah, he’d definitely be introduced as a cousin to neighborhood/family dinners. he would be the miguel of the family hahaha

mama evans adopting nathan as her third kid and sending him packages of food, or scarves she has knitted!! making sure he’s okay even when he’s away and harrassing lily for some news. pretty sure she has already invited nathan to the kinsale house while lily was still in hogwarts? like now i’m picturing aron/mama evans/nathan dinners and???

nathan spending a few weeks at the evans home every summer, with the evans twin carrying him everywhere and being over excited to show him muggle things?? the awkwardness of nathan, and the evans twins running everywhere with excitement?? mdr they must have been so happy and having so much fun and now look at them

sorry

evans twins getting nathan to smoke pot

evans twins always getting into trouble and nathan having to always make up for that

nathan coming to the grandparents’ farm!! where they only speak gaelic and look weirdly at him and always seem grumpy, but eventually they adopt him and give him a horse and now grandma evans is also sending him packages ??? (grandpa evans is still speaking gaelic tho, but he’s trying to be a bit more understandable. just a bit)

nathan being overwhelmed with packages from the evans mdrrrr

that’s def my new favorite trope here. nathan in the middle of this happy bubbly blondy family. yES

(what do you mean all your evans are dead now, shhhhh)

sans transition MUDBLOOD CAMPS??? i saw this coming but i’m still shook mdr

so i’m 100% FOR SACHA AND LILY TO MEET THERE??? these camps are pretty damn good at dehumanizing people and making them lose all hope, but if lily comes across a baby-like-aron that would give her a reason to fight back, and yes start mobilizing people, starting to spread across words and songs of hope and??? yes. sacha and lily as badass community organizers??? yes² i lOVE THIS

also lily contacting the rebellion/nathan once they escaped and being like “yeah i’m with about a hundred escapees rn, is there anything you can do or? we keep on saving ourselves?”

“it’s my people BITCH”

that’s the moment when she started using a rhetoric of “my people”. that’s the moment when she embraced her muggleborness, completely changed her looks, and started to harden her stance. “someone has to save our skins/i bear it so they don’t have to”

mdr lily and sacha, those skinny kids, leading their people to the rebellion can you imagine the badass scene

“yes we did this ourselves”

most of the people that escaped that day now have important functions within the muggleborn rebellion and they have sort of an added “street-cred” because this shit was legen…wait for it...daryyyy

i don’t know why this makes me think of “acide sulfurique” by amélie nothomb. but this does

also adrian can 100% join the muggleborn resistance, lily would be so glad, i’m pretty sure she has a hell lot of respect for that man. oh what if she’s the one influencing him to join the movement??? i swear she has some slytherin vibes now

how “‘fun”’ is it that lily now has slytherin vibes and nathan has gryffindor vibes right

also so sad about alice!! she was the purest. and i’m pretty she already took care of lily before the war cause you know, the girl always has broken ribs, or arms, or legs, or whatever. she would have looked up to her a lot, that’s saaad. like this is must have been so traumatizing for the rebellion, losing her

“nathan is a wolf, a dragon, a wildfire, a liar, a survivor” damn i’m into it.

it’s so sad seeing this délitement of the leaders but i guess it also makes sense? it’s war, people change, people die. bouhouhou

also YES carmen/lily, i always thought this would be an interesting relationship to explore. like i have this scene in mind when lily just got rescued by the rebellion, she’s quietly sitting somewhere at the headquarters, carmen is suspicious of her and thus try to enter her mind, and lily feels it, stares at her and mentally kicks her out?? like the rivalry from that on. carmen going up to nathan and being like “wtf is your sister, what’s the deal with her occlumencia??” and nathan being like “tf” cause lily never told him hahahaha. so carmen staying superstitious, especially with lily being a little naive kid and yet having survived captivity and torture for months, until some event (yet to be determined) happens and a mutual respect is instaured between them. lily could even become sort of carmen’s second?? that would be a super weird association but i’m here for it? also they could have stayed in touch after carmen left the rebellion, but if carmen’s more “team nathan” i guess they see each other less now? or maybe like i said carmen would be sort of a mediator between nathan and lily? can you imagine??? the kamoulox???

also i need to think about the carmen/wynona relationship. i guess loads of fights but also potentially loads of laugh? they could along pretty well even though this would requires a mutual ass-beating every once in a while. are they drinking buddies now or what? has wynona contacted carmen only recently after silence radio for years to discuss whether or not she should go back to the rebellion? so many questions!!

what if she shows up at carmen’s place without telling her (bc she’s not into that crap) and nathan is already here mdr. the awkwardness. sorry bye

also ofc wynona has been great friends with red for years, probably ever since hogwarts. it may even be for her that she decided to engage in the rebellion. she was there when red got arrested right after her quidditch game and knew she would probably be executed/détraqueurisée asap so she did what wynona does: coerced kyran, found her way to the rebellion, helped them to invade the ministry and make it go boom.

mdr this girl arriving outta nowhere with a plan to get the mofo ministry of magic exploded is so wynona. also insisting on having “faucon” as her first and foremost interlocutor because she quietly stalks them and knows that he’s the most likely to be interested. always had this scene in mind in which the first meeting didn’t go so well because egos™ and they almost ended up fighting and she refused to give him the plans?? and then she’d have regrets, show up to a meeting through another intermediary (let’s be real she must have so much friends gravitating around the rebellion), just quietly put the plans on the table

also the plans include the lists of the prisoners and lily’s on it??? wyn didn’t know who lily was to nathan but can you imagine?? maybe he thinks she did that on purpose hehe (but she really didn’t have a clue) (she might be bluffing about it because wynona blackbird™ confidence, you know)

tbh wynona probably was friends with….. milo, too? can you imagine. ACTUALLY can you imagine her trashing milo one day like “that idiot got killed for shit” in front of lily cause she doesn’t know?????? btw she’s definitely the type to have hooked up with him at some point. mdr. can you imaGINE

wynona and sacha!! mdr i legit hadn’t thought of “how to train your dragon” but that would be so cute and such a good example actually

omg daenerys!wynona

i

am

so

into

it

the thing is i always thought of wyn as an incredibly Cartesian/utilitarian character so she would always take care of her dragons equally, professionally with just a bit of affection (cause she’s a breeder, she knows she’ll eventually have to let them go), and having no favorite dragon whatsoever

but now?? i legit want her to have a dragon just so that he/she can blow in nathan’s face when he’s being an ass??? :)))))  

also is nathan gonna be like this with dragons

mdr sorry so i was saying that yeah, maybe she has a dragon. like an orphan that she found completely by chance while she was at her lowest/darkest, and he/she sort of helped her “bounce back”? she raised him/her secretly because even though i doubt she is still providing much dragons in these times, she’s still trying to be a professional? so maybe even sacha wouldn’t know about this, until he/she starts to become too big/show up at the blackbird ranch even though he/she isn’t supposed to and wyn is like “hmhm. yeah. so i do have sort of a dragon hihi”, and then he/she starts following her everywhereeee

can it be like the bébés oies who adopt a human and believe that human is their maman oie?? what if the dragon believes wynona is a dragon, just really bad at spitting fire

I’M DISGRESSING

i’m actually pretty sure that wyn has stopped her “commercial” activities, just closed and hid to the public her ranch and is now keeping all her dragons hihihi + the ones people are bringing her eventually

she may be educating them to fight/support the rebellion but at the same time she’d be afraid for her bbies?

like she always loved her dragons so much but she had to keep a certain distance from them in order not to be too sad when she has to let them go. but now?? since she’s keeping them?? mdr she’s legit going to raise them as her kids, with toys and decorated paddocks??? like she would be so gaga hahahaha

can you imagine a baby dragon being born at the ranch and wyn offering that baby dragon to sacha and sacha giving back the fully educated dragon to wyn so that she can fly with him/her???? bitch my hEART

also wyn going to see the dragon/taking care of him and loving him so much already because he’s sacha’s baby without knowing he’s going to be hers??

plus if sacha didn’t know about wyn’s personal dragon that means she has two dragons now, full daenerys!wynona bitch

mdr and then sacha giving his dragon to wyn would be so full of tears on both sides like? actually that may be the moment when she realizes how she pushed him away and is feeling so bad about it? and she’d be like “no bby keep your dragon come on--WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S VOICE-OPERATED???”

right in the feels, i don’t want sacha to be sad :(( she would push him away because she feels like she has a duty to protect him and can’t do it anymore and doesn’t want the roles to be reversed!! poor baby!! like she’d avoid him on the ranch and shit because she’d be “ashamed”? sâd!! (btw sacha potentially never seeing his parents again??? gosh wynona just needs to be there for him she’s gotta wake up!!)

but wynona would love this dragon so bad!!

what if both her dragons have a baby and she gives him to sacha?? or anyway she’d literally travel the world to find him a new baby lol

wyn disappearing for two weeks bc she just went to romania to get a new badass dragon for sacha, b y e

i don’t know which wynona is my favorite now between bigsis!wynona, daenerys!wynona and rebel!wynona?? rebel!wynona is terribly efficient but terribly scary tho mdr

she’d definitely earn the “most likely to slap you in the face” award of the rebellion hihi

we do terrible things for the people we love !!!!!! yes !!! and the angst when coming back to the rebellion ouloulou i’m so not ready. like the simple fact of showing up to a meeting, trying to be discrete when she used to be the annoying f*cker always interrupting the plans, and yet everyone watching. or like everyone going silent for a few seconds. woooo

or maybe she came back when they found edan, so she was kind of like a messiah to calm everyone down? or to take part in the rescue mission of edan??

mdr this thread is just me asking questions to myself i’m sorry

just let my girl be one of the good guys ok thanks

calling the auderic out on a Men are Men™ basis is a mood tbh

and i actually kind of stan ydria?? i mean. “she’s a witch and a bitch and a pirate”. i’ll take ten of them thanks

gosh this family is so aesthetically pleasing i swear to god

nathan has native american blood??? what the hell??? does wynona know that??? i’m not okay (btw i really need to dig into the native american magic and tradition blackbirds may still be using) (the blackbird ranch is quite obviously filled with native magic so yeah) (woo i’m excited!!)

i really want nathan to have a boat and lily being allowed to steal it. can you imagine them travelling to ireland by boat?? BADASSES. also lily can’t transplaner hein, so at least it would be practical

plus the evans also have a deep connection to the sea, at least originally? they always lived by the sea, loads of them still probably are fishermen or lighthouse keepers or something? and they probably used to fight on the sea, too. i actually imagine the evans as somehow descending from a vikings lineage?? is it because i love lagertha too much and she fits right into the evans family aesthetic?? yeah. pretty sure they have nordic origines too. so anyway BOATS ARE COOL ™, let nathan get one for 2k19 thanks.

magical tattoos!!! i think lily mostly have muggle tattoos, but wynona is definitely covered in magical tattoos. (i mean all blackbirds have at least a couple magical family tattoos, so that’s a thing) why they all so stylish tho, i like that. the line everytime someone gets killed is a real thing too tho. both wynona and lily may have one, i need to reflect on it (cause lily would be covered in it hahahahahah) (i’m not okay)

sacha and tattoos!! i had never thought of it but i’m here for it!! (i’m here for everyone having tattoos anyway. even aron probably has a couple of small tattoos)

i have never ever imagined nathan wearing white and i’m so here for it?? woaw. i’m shook. it was pretty logical for me that lily would go back to wearing white after the war but nathan?? po wer ful.

nathan having dogs!! yes!! i love dogs i’ll take A HUNDRED of them

does lily have any cool animals?? i don’t think so, why doesn’t she get to be a cool kid?? maybe an augurey cause hm, accurate, but i’m not even sure. she’d love a dog but actually i think she’d be too afraid to lose him/her at war, like no way

i mean, she used to have a horse. what happened to the horses when she burnt the evans farm??? did she let them go, sold them, killed them in case they were infected too (cause it was pretty early on and we probably didn’t know shit yet about the virus), brought them to the blackbird ranch??

oh maybe the evans had a dog!! aron sure has a dog anyway, a very good boy that’s pretty much the only that can still make him smile the way he used to. or maybe a cat, but i’m rather thinking dog here. is aron a cat or dog person??

the blackbird ranch is a true noah’s ark i swear!! they have thestrals and hippogriffs and dragons and niffleurs, maybe they have also wolves hanging around? i mean, they’re a native american family you know. i don’t know. if yes, nathan go and help yourself (have i already said that nathan x wolves is a freaking aesthetic)

willy!! i love her!!

gosh why am i seeing parallels between willy and aron. stop it

i forgot willy had killed herself btw, gosh seeing the evans twins having suicidal tendencies must be so traumatizing for nathan

100% here for him to have a baby girl tho, pls get a wife already

weirdly enough i really don’t want lily to be a mother anymore, when she wanted so much kids when she was younger? and also, she always said she was fighting for the greater good, for the future of her people, for her future kids. but now she’s just thinking about the others’ kids? she sort of gave up on that. also it’s terrible for her to see children in times of war, so as much as she’d try to protect them, she wouldn’t be a Mother of All™ like aron or wynona or even nathan would be. interesting much!!

i mean anyway she’s been through so much physically she may even be sterile at that point :))

angelica is such a cool name

that really wasn’t related at all to my previous point, i’m a free bird yo

sacha as an artist!!!!!! yes!!!! lily is a true artist too, and the other day i was thinking about how this relates to her clumsiness. because i can see her playing music (irish harp!!), dancing (danse de salon ofc that’s what she does and also classic irish dances), and painting (so much!!). also doing sports, but she’d be pretty bad at it. actually she’s hyperactive so most of the time (before becoming an occlumens) she just didn’t pay attention to things, and thus did break things or fell badly while running. but hyperactives are also a bit monomaniac and can get super involved/obsessed with a single task and that’s what art would do to lily!!

also of course lily singing all the time, not necessarily great but with great spirit!!

that would be sort of her singing voice btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrPHeRvmjqM&index=23&list=RDQMJzRQHxdVDcA can you imagine her singing that at the headquarters of the rebellion though lmao i’m not okay

so sacha and lily producing art in the middle of the chaos???? count me the fuck in

some additional thoughts regarding secondary characters:

fury!! i had this character in mind for so long!! he’s based off that norman reedus pv i had created on silver and opals. a ruthless rebel, with the face of cillian murphy or tom hardy (or, as originally planned, rami malek or norman reedus). irish also!! or maybe welsh. speaking/understanding gaelic anyway. and he’s like… what gus was to lexa in the 100? to lily. he’s the one who found her at the ministry (and so the one who got his ass kicked by her hihi), and ever since that he saw something in her? like when she mercy-killed fenugreek when no one else wanted to do it because he was a kid, he went like “always knew the kid had more balls than the rest of you”. and so he gradually became her back-up, her trusted man following her everywhere. he saw her power in the rebellion back when everyone thought she was just a weak child that had survived because everyone had pity for her. and ever since that he follows her, including in the muggleborn resistance, trying to keep her alive even though she’s so good at getting into trouble hihi. sort of a good little knight by his queen side.

btw is the muggle-born resistance movement a non-mixed movement? like are non-muggle/muggleborns wizards allowed in it?

anyway, and so yeah lily sort of gave hope to the very very hopeless person that was fury. he saw the light in her and is holding on it. actually there is so much mystery and imaginaire surrounding lily and her past that some people like him could actually fetishize her? make her into a sort of a messianic figure, and she would freak out so much, like wth stop it i preferred when people thought i was a small weak child!! but at the same time it’s a good way to control people and make sure they do what she thinks is best for them?? i don’t know?? but that would make her leadership very different from that of the rebellion for instance

can we talk about how everyone used to genuinely love lily and now everyone either hates her/wants her dead OR is obsessed with her in an unhealthy, fetishizing way?? can she have normal, non-complicated relationships in which people just appreciate her for who she is and not who she appears to be??? this is legit saaaaad, even her relationship with her brothers is going through ups and downs now. maybe the previous leaders really did appreciate her, but they also probably pitied her, and they’re out of the radar anyway for now. i’m actually rooting for sacha i guess? pls be a normal cool soft friend

i guess the relationship between fury and nathan would be interesting as well? they have common points and they both care a lot about lily; also fury has sort of “taken” nathan’s role as lily’s protector. is there tension, is there cooperation? i dunno. but fury has an undying loyalty towards lily and god does my girl need that

also the blackbird family!! they have a secondary branch that’s more leaning towards the deatheaters, maybe even working actively with them by now. that’s pure pragmatism, they’re done being killed and they think it’s the best way. the branch is headed by one of wynona’s cousin (who i originally thought would have the face of bob morley hihi) since the parents are also dead during the blackbird massacre at the very beginning of the war. they hate each other. some secondary-branch members have left it to join the blackbird ranch. maybe some of wynona siblings have done the other way around?? i always thought one of her sisters (marie avgeropoulos!!) would go rogue and join the deatheaters, and that they would eventually have to fight to death bah because otherwise it’s not funny hein

what’s originally the place of the blackbird family within society?? they’ve always lived a marginal life by choice, because they just don’t like british people, but they’re also purebloods! is there a pureblood council now and should they get a seat at it? were they ever invited to pureblood events/parties? wynona could have been the legal representative of the family at such events for some time, can you imagine? i really really need to exploit that

what is the american branch up to? do they have contact? are they coming? they’re the really scary ones. wynona may have gone rogue but she sure kept (most of) her family in check.

and yes, them being friends/allies with the macfusty clan!!! yasss

ok how freaking long is this??? i really got zero self-control lmao. brace yourself anytime for a thread that could constitute an entire book. wth. my brain’s a total mess.

xoxo, gossip girl

[segadores-y-soldados]

Reaper and Soldier: American Cultural References

Alright, I know the title is a fuckin turn off for some people but I’m tired and so bad at essay titles, guys, you don’t even know, fuck I’d show ya’ll my college essays if they didn’t immediately reveal who I am but the titles were BAD.

So after a few people mentioned that the Reaper References post was helpful (and I saw your comments, I’m coming back to them, I promise), and after thinking about it a bit more this morning, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try and explain some of the more...oddball American cultural references going on in these skins.  Please note that I’m not trying to be rude by not discussing the Mariachi or Blanco skins, but rather that I consider those to be out of my field of depth and would rather focus on the skins I do know more about.

This will have mild shipping discussions for Reaper76 but it’s mainly from an analytical perspective.  In my opinion, with Blizzard being what it is, these are primarily coincidences or a way of demonstrating the two characters’ shared interest in American pop and literary culture.

Since this is kinda turning into a mini series, have these as well:

Reaper Art Assets

Reaper References

A LOT MORE under the cut, fair warning, this one is LONG.

Name and Design Comparisons

In the Reaper References post, I talked about how the name “Gabriel Reyes” could potentially have been derived from California’s Spanish history, such as by being references to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel or the El Camino Real.  John “Jack” Morrison has some interesting possible name references as well.

John of course, is another Biblical name, derived from the Greek Iohannes, which in turn is derived from the Hebrew Yohanan, meaning “graced by God.”  “John” as a unique English name is due primarily to the Biblical figures John the Baptist and the Apostle John.  So both characters feature religious or spiritually derived given names.

Jack is actually a nickname for John.  Which like, makes no sense to me either, but this is from the language that made “Dick” a nickname out of “Richard” so we can all be lost on this one together.  The term “jack” features a MASSIVE variety of uses and meanings in English, including but not limited to things like “jack of all trades,” “jumping jacks,” “a jack” (the card), etc.  “The Encyclopædia Britannica article on the history of the word "jack" linked it directly to the common name: "Jack, a word with a great variety of meanings and applications, all traceable to the common use of the word as a by-name of a man."”

Morrison is an interesting one because it too is religiously or spiritual derived.  One etymological hypothesis links it to Scottish or Gaelic roots as “son of Maurice,” with Maurice being the English version of the name Mauritius.  Saint Mauritius is the patron saint of the Holy Roman Emperors, but more importantly, Saint Mauritius is the patron saint of soldiers.

“Maurice became a soldier in the Roman army. He was gradually promoted until he became the leader of the Theban legion, formed of 6600 soldiers.”

Mauritius ascended to martyrdom when he and his troops refused to engage in sacrificial offerings to the Roman gods, and Mauritius and his troops were killed for their refusal.

This, of course, has a number of parallels to the lore that Blizzard has provided around Jack Morrison.  How much of it is intentional is debatable, but considering the Soldier: 76 concept and character has existed for like fifteen years, I’m willing to bet it’s pretty deliberate.

Other odd points of comparison:

Gabriel Reyes = 12 letters

Jack Morrison = 12 letters (still works with John)

Again - how deliberate is this?  I have no fucking idea, but considering that both men are 6’ 1” (1.85 m) and they effectively swap outfits after the Fall of Overwatch (Reyes goes from simple jacket/sweatshirt and plain pants to long, dramatic overcoat; while Morrison goes from long dramatic overcoat to simple jacket and plain pants; both men wear masks after the Fall), like...I would not be surprised at this point?

Once upon a midnight dreary

“But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered— Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before— On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.”

Then the bird said “Nevermore.””

So I’ll just be honest and say that I’ve never really liked Edgar Allen Poe, and other people will offer you better analyses of “The Raven,” but for our purposes, we just briefly need to cover the subject of the poem and some of its themes.  Basically, The Raven is about a man heartbroken over the implied death of his lover.  He is visited in the night by a mysterious Raven who only speaks one word - “nevermore.”  While the man is aware that the Raven probably only knows this word through conditioning from a human owner, he continues to ask the bird increasingly deep questions about love and the afterlife, despite being aware that the Raven will only ever give him one answer.  It’s a play on the futility of deeper thinking to solve grief, a discussion on the nature of grief itself, and also a partial satire by Poe on making “a commercially successful poem” - one with deliberate rhyming intended “to appeal to both critical and popular tastes.”

It is perhaps one of the most famous and well-known pieces of American literature in history.

The Raven character is frequently compared to both heavenly messengers, such as angels, and more “evil” figures such as the devil, offering both the duality of possible salvation or damnation, depending on how the reader chooses to interpret it.  In the last stanza, the man effectively gives up on deciding which aspect the bird represents to him, and lets the bird’s “shadow” both consume him and “lift him.”

So basically, Reaper’s Nevermore skin is fucking American literary NERDISM.

“This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;”

And

“And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;”

In the skin, Reaper’s eyes glow purple, as do the “eyes” on his shotguns.  Moveover, Reaper will occasionally say “Nevermore” upon killing someone with this skin selected, a reference to the single word the bird says and also represents.  The word “Nevermore” represents a true finality - something that shall never happen “anymore”.  This is the first Reaper skin to be steeped in American literary history and references.  

The second, which might surprise some people, is:

Pumpkin?  But Pumpkin is a Halloween-theme skin!

But Pumpkin is also a reference to the Headless Horseman from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” one of the oldest “American” folkstories and pieces of literature.  It’s true that the Headless Horseman character is himself derived from a number of European original sources, but the variation found in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has worked itself into American folklore and cultural concepts so deeply that it continues to affect American ideas of death, ghosts, and - yes - Halloween today.

In the Irving version of the story, the main character Ichabod Crane rides through the woods of Sleepy Hollow after a night of heavy partying and drinking and sharing ghost stories.  The man is very superstitious, and is frightened when “a ghost” appears riding on a horse, carrying “his head” in his lap.  The Headless Horseman pursues Ichabod through the woods, and eventually throws his head at Ichabod’s face.  In the morning, Ichabod has mysteriously vanished from town, and the only traces found of him in the woods are his startled horse, a saddle, a hat, and a smashed Jack-o-lantern.

In almost all versions of the tale, the Headless Horseman either wears or carries a flaming Jack-o-lantern for his head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SsCHYW_I3s

This is the Disney version of the story that I remember seeing as a child.  From the Headless Horsemen, a number of other American “skeleton” or “death” figures have been derived, including characters like Jack Skellington, Skeletor, and well...Reaper.

This is also probably why “The Reaper” in Junkenstein’s Revenge had strange horse noises associated with his appearance:

http://juunkrat.tumblr.com/post/151882686536/the-reaper-comes-for-your-s-horse-noise

Since the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Halloween in general are associated with celebrating the fall harvest, Reaper has a number of voice lines exclusive to the skin talking about “harvesting”: “Harvest time” or “Time for the reapening.”

In fact, the entire concept of the Grim Reaper in American culture distantly stems from the Romans - not exactly Thanatos or Charon (both of whom were Greek), but Saturn, god of time and, well, harvesting.  Saturn was frequently depicted with the sickle or scythe, a tool that has carried over to other mythological figures like Father Time or the Grim Reaper, and Saturnalia was the Roman celebration of the harvest.  Much like Halloween, Saturnalia permitted role reversals, a shift in expectation, lots of partying, and both a respect and playful mockery of death.  Saturnalia is one of the possible sources for the origins of Halloween, combined with Gaelic, Scottish, and Irish roots and festivities - such as the dullahan and pumpkin/turnip-carving - and the Christian “All Saints Day”.  All of these aspects build into both the Grim Reaper and the Headless Horseman.

Again, this is not to say that the Headless Horseman is unique to American folklore mythology, nor that even skeletal figures are, but rather to acknowledge the prominence that these figures have taken on, especially as they relate to American Halloween.  Jack-o-lanterns (also not uniquely American) have become a popular symbol of the holiday.

And since we’re on the subject, here’s one of the myths of the origins of the Jack-o-lantern, from Irish roots:

“Many years later, the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, Jack's life had been too sinful for him to go to heaven; however, Satan had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and Satan mockingly tossed him an ember from the flames of Hades, that would never burn out. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which were his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or jack-o'-lantern.” - Wikipedia on the origins of Jack-o-lanterns

(Almost all uses of the word “jack” derive from the name “Jack”)

Which brings us to a certain immortal soldier.

The reference to immortality denoted by the skin’s very blatant name “Immortal” probably indicates something like vampirism or simply being undead (as death seems to be something that both Jack and Gabriel are like...physically incapable of doing).  The extra-pale skin and the “skeletal” white paint on his gloves also point to him being some sort of...undead spirit.  While I’m willing to say he’s probably some sort of vampire in this (like Symmetra...whose Halloween skin is a whole ‘nother can of worms), it’s not impossible, giving the Scottish/Gaelic/Irish origins of the name Morrison, that “Immortal 76” is also a reference to Jack-o-lanterns.  Just food for thought.

More significantly, and more blatantly, the design of the Immortal skin is almost dead-on (heh) another cultural reference, although this one is less literary and more...poppy:

Given the fact that the black stripes on Immortal 76’s jacket is about as dead-on (somebody stop me) as Soldier’s design can get, the comparisons seem obvious.  Even if the design was not deliberately influenced by Thriller, Michael Jackson’s outfit in the music video is so iconic that it’s pretty difficult to escape its influences, especially if you’re making a Halloween skin.

Soldier’s “sunken”/overly-make-upped eyes are also probably a reference to Jackson’s ghoulish appearance in the Thriller video, when he’s taken on a more haunting appearance:

Moveover, both Thriller and Junkenstein’s Revenge (both the in-game event and the comic) pay homage to “cheesy Halloween thriller movies,” featuring things such as a third-person narrator, a number of movie references, and the overall theme of “playing at” Halloween.  I would hypothesize that Thriller probably had some sort of direct influence on the Halloween event itself, such as featuring a few “human protagonists” against a “zombie horde,” the narration by Reinhardt, cheesy lines between characters, and the whole concept of:

“You’re fighting for your life inside a killer thriller!”

Thriller remains one of the “theme songs” of American Halloween; arguably, it is the theme song of Halloween, so it would be very strange if Immortal 76 was NOT an homage to the song and the music video.

Plus, it yields itself to one of the best puns in Overwatch: Michael Jack-morri-son.

(Please note that I’m not necessarily arguing that Soldier: 76 was the best character for this homage - honestly, the fact that Lucio HASN’T had a Michael Jackson reference yet is mind-boggling considering he is actually a “professional music and star.”  Maybe for a different event?)

Going Commando

So I brought this up briefly in the Reaper References post, but as far as I can tell, Reaper and Soldier are the only two characters who make references to a major American movie star: Arnold Schwarzenegger.  This is rather odd considering characters like Reinhardt and Mercy are geographically and culturally closer to Arnold’s home country of Austria; Reinhardt in particular shares a similar sense of bravado and battle-lust that Arnold has portrayed in many of his films (Kindergarten Cop Reinhardt when?).

But in any case:

The Commando 76 skin pays homage almost directly to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film by the same name, “Commando,” which itself is pretty much a reference to other movies of similar caliber and nature.

Like, we’re talking down to the facepaint and everything:

And the vest:

And Arnold’s entire fucking outfit, really:

Reaper, on the other hand, has the voice line “If it lives, I can kill it,” which is a reference to Arnold’s famous quote “If it bleeds, we can kill it” from Predator, a movie that also features Schwarzenegger in a military role.  I’m waiting for someone to get an “Hasta la vista, baby” line - bonus points to Blizzard if they give it to Mercy.

And since Soldier’s stupidly Americanized skins aren’t fucking deep enough in American pop culture, he had to be given this fucking abomination of a skin:

This is a reference to American stuntsman Evel Knievel, known for trying to do crazy jumps on his motorcycle while wearing a very...patriotic outfit.

Why the fuck they gave him the mustache is...I dunno.

Evel Knievel is one of these weird American icons that is difficult to explain.  America has a long and bizarre history of “doing daring feats,” such as dropping off of Niagara Falls in a barrel (seriously, I’ve read a book on Sam Patch and just like...the whole concept of bravado in American culture is something that’s difficult to try and explain.  I blame our revolution or something) all the way down to dumb shit like pranks and stuff like “Jackass” (ahaha, another Jack word).  Again, it’s not that other cultures don’t have this - many do - but it’s so bizarrely celebrated in the U.S., to the point where Knievel has been dead for ten years but his legacy is still very much active and impressive to many Americans.

Knievel is also the source of the line: “Bones heal, pain is temporary, but chicks dig scars.”  Which, of course, “Daredevil: 76” has a slightly different variation on the line: “Bones heal, pain is temporary, but scars look good.”

Now, trust me - the change in wordage is super tempting to read into, but it’s much more likely that Blizzard dropped the line about “chicks” because the term is slowly falling out of favor in North America.  It’s not really a fun way to describe women anymore (although arguably it never was?), and I’m more inclined to say that they probably modified the quote to reduce the aging, not-funny slang.

That said, if you wanna read into it, go ahead?

...why did they give him the mustache?

And since we’ve got the ball rolling on military/stunt stuff:

When Does the Rooster Crow?

So in the Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year event, Soldier got a new voiceline that says “The rooster crows at midnight.”  Despite being FUCKING HILARIOUS for the implied “the cock crows at midnight,” it’s actually another reference.

This time to M*A*S*H.

http://mash.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rooster_Crowed_at_Midnight

“In an otherwise empty mail bag, they find a package for B.J. Hunnicutt which turns out to be the novel The Rooster Crowed at Midnight which, according to the jacket blurb, was "another brain-teasing, spine-chilling whodunit from the prize-winning pen of Abigail Porterfield". The jacket blurb also described Abigail Porterfield as a 97-year old lady who had been residing in Sydney, Australia for the last 60 years.

The bored MASH staff soon pass the book around sometimes a chapter or a page at a time. For Hawkeye, getting to read the first chapter "just might be better than sex". For the impatient Winchester, "it certainly takes longer around here." The efforts of the MASH staff to identify the murderer take up much of the time in the episode.”

It’s actually a rather clever homage to both a military show and the Year of the Rooster, and is pretty much the only time a crossover between the two is applicable.

And hopefully people don’t take this the wrong way, but I wanna get a little bit into Chinese-American and Korean-American culture.

Many people may not realize this, but in big cities, or hell even medium-sized cities and towns across the U.S. West Coast, Asian American individuals are ubiquitous.  I believe more people are familiar with the concept of Ellis Island in New York, which was a historic immigrations center almost everyone coming from Europe had to travel through, but the West Coast had “Angel Island,” a similar immigrations center that, quite frankly, was used to regulate how Asian immigrants entered the country during the 1900’s, many of them predominantly Chinese.  That said, even with “regulations,” Asian immigrants continued to enter the country and settled at various points along the West Coast, including in neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Chinatown and Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

“Since Koreatown has a Latino majority, it's not unusual to find Latino employees in restaurants and grocery stores speaking Korean with customers or Korean store owners engaging Latino customers in Spanish. An example of a cultural interchange between Koreans and Latinos in Koreatown is the popularity of Korean-inspired taco trucks in Los Angeles that feature classic Mexican food infused with Korean ingredients.” - Wikipedia on Koreatown

Inter-cultural exchanges here in California are fairly commonplace in major cities, and “multiculturalism” (or whatever you want to call it) is taught at schools across almost all grades.  In second grade, my class celebrated both Hanukkah and Chinese New Year - we learned the lion dance and ran around with paper dragons.  In third grade, we learned about St. Patrick’s Day.  In fourth grade, we studied the California Missions.

During Chinese and Lunar New Years, large “historically Asian” neighborhoods openly celebrate the festival, sometimes spanning two weeks or a few weekends.  San Francisco and Los Angeles in particular hold huge parades and have open markets of gifts and food for anyone to stop by and visit.

“The parade theme emphasizes ethnic diversity, Chinese culture and exposure to Chinese-American businesses. The parade continues to be a rich and diverse experience for Angelenos of all ages and ethnicities.

The day of the Lunar New Year is the most celebrated holiday of the year for nearly 1.5 million persons of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese descent in Southern California. It is celebrated with colorful festivals, parades, and most importantly, large family gatherings. It is also a time when ancestors are fondly remembered and families give thanks for their blessings. Red packets of money (Lai see or Hung bao) and firecrackers add fun and excitement to the Chinese New Year celebration.”

http://www.lagoldendragonparade.com/

I understand that the Year of the Rooster event was not limited to set characters, and that all characters received sprays, voice lines, etc.  My point is that characters like Reaper and Soldier celebrating the event alongside characters like Mei and D.Va would not be unusual to them.  Gabriel in particular would probably be more familiar with the event, which it seems like he is based on his line “now those are some fireworks” and his firecracker spray, but Jack having the “folded hands” spray would not be particularly unusual either.

Regardless of how I feel about Blizzard’s writing abilities, I believe that their familiarity with Los Angeles and California culture at large (and the fact that many of their employers are Asian Americans or of Asian heritage) led them to the conclusion that, 60 years into the future, Chinese and Lunar New Year will be events largely celebrated across the globe, or at least globally recognized.  The events are already massive celebrations in Asia, parts of North America, and parts of Australia.

Please know, however, that I obviously don’t speak for all Asian Americans on this matter, just myself and a few friends who I’ve talked to about this.  I believe that, given context, the way the Year of the Rooster was approached was handled well.  Personally, I found the Year of the Rooster events to be fun, entertaining, and delightful.  They reminded me of the the spirit of fun that permeates San Francisco on the CNY weekends.

Sorry this got so long, but hopeful this was informative and helpful!  The short version is that Reaper and Soldier are fucking NERDS about American history, literature, and cultural references.  There are times when American culture gets bleak, or poppy, or downright weird, but Reaper and Soldier show an interesting variety of references to a number of American cultural aspects, from the bleakness of Poe, to the pop of Michael Jackson, to the weirdness of Knievel, to the love of celebration and diversity of cultures.

And I guess that also makes me a nerd because I find that to be FUCKING AWESOME.