#god bless philosophy

[riverfigs]

found out I might not have to take math to fulfill a gen-ed requirement I feel so so relieved

[spotsupstuff]

weird request, but id just like to see moon and boreas interact at all

would've been a weird request if I hadn't gone into a private turbo brainstorm mode about them back in November. there's quite a bit to make them an appealing duo

[quotelr]

I thank God for an amazing life.

Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind

[latinashepard]

i am so glad i wasn’t born in the united states and have been brainwashed into glorifying war and guns and weapons of mass destruction like yeah we may have the highest inflation in the world and it’s awful but hey at least we don’t have. the military industrial complex you know. we all agree that bombing people isn’t okay 🙏🏻

[johnchiarello]

Kings 20

https://ccoutreach87.com/2024/09/10/kings-20-text-4/

[ruegracieuse]

I think this year I’d like to use this blog more regularly as a little diary/repository of my thoughts and feelings, long and small. so the very important first thought of the year is: caffe flavoured Baci chocolates are very very good

[smply-sktchng]

Library Mouse

[prettywitchiusaka]

So in light of Benedict Cumberbatch’s recent interview where he (more or less) admitted he was trying to continue Stephen’s story unlike some other people (Feige, Waldron, you know who you are), I feel like now is the time for me to explain my problem’s with Stephen’s arc in Multiverse, much as I like it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that Stephen’s arc in this film is centered around love, which I agree is a very important aspect of his character. I love that it tries to address Stephen’s issues with control. I love that he decides to face his fears and start embracing love in all of its forms.

A lot of that is decently carried out in my opinion...it just feels like there’s something missing. See, the biggest problem with Stephen’s arc in this film, as far as I’m concerned, isn’t that he doesn’t have one, it’s that it feels incomplete.

It’s established that he’s lonely, but it’s never explained why that is.

The movie introduces the idea of Stephen’s issues with control, and what happens when he becomes obsessive and deprives himself of love, make him dangerous, something that makes sense to explore, and there are plenty of examples to show that it can be done well (Strange Tales Volume II, Strange Supreme, etc.). The problem is that Stephen’s issues with control are never tied into the fact that he’s insecure and deeply traumatized like they should be. 

It’s implied that losing Donna is what started Stephen down the path of his desperate need to fix everything himself, but because it’s only mentioned once in passing, we don’t have a clear picture of how badly her death affects him other than Sinister’s line. Which, as I’ve been saying for months, would’ve been so EASY to fix if they’d tied it into his relationship with America.

Bottom line, the arc that Stephen has in this film is not a bad one (at least in my opinion). The problem is that, like a lot of other things in Multiverse, probably needed another draft or two to flesh it out a little better. And while I commend Benedict for trying to develop Stephen’s character, the fact of the matter is that he isn’t a seasoned writer, and if he’d been working with a more experienced screenwriter they could’ve churned out something truly great.

[umbrx]

For a man surrounded by LOVE, Doflamingo is someone INCAPABLE of loving, of feeling it himself. At least not conventionally and healthily. His love is TOXIC, it’s OBSESSIVE.

The world is HIS. He is a GOD, and love to a god is EXPECTED. Just like all deities, it is only normal for humans to bow before his feet, to kiss the ground he walks upon. Their LIVES are HIS and should always come after his. They should feel honoured to give their lives for God’s plans. He is owed SERVITUDE and LOYALTY, and those willing to defy his divine will are better off DEAD. HE is the only one that matters, the only one ABOVE the Heaven and that which is under it.

With a family that constantly supports his mindset and his own ability to SHUT DOWN emotions, he firmly believes he is IMMUNE to loving anyone. Even though he has experienced it. Doflamingo believes his caring for the family of misfits is simply out of his potential USE of them. They are his tools, his MARIONETTES, and while he values their WORTH, they are still DISPOSABLE. He is grateful for their service, but if he requires their DEATH, he expects it.

However, his actions sometimes contradict his own beliefs. When he asks Vergo and Monet to die for him, he experiences loss AGAIN. Just like he experienced the loss of his MOTHER, his father, his BROTHER. People he CARED about. Despite him seeing his family as tools, he goes to Punk Hazard to reassemble Baby 5 and Buffalo after Law cut them up. Despite her being weak and USELESS in the moment, he puts HIMSELF at disadvantage in a fight with Sanji to keep Giolla safe.

He believes himself to be UNTOUCHABLE and DEVOID of all positive emotions, but deep down is self-aware he isn’t. That understanding brings him to conclusion that LOVE is WEAKNESS, and a TRUE god has NO NEED of it.

He felt HURT when his brother BETRAYED him. Someone he cared for, someone he genuinely loved. Someone he would always feel a connection with, would value above others. His own GODLY BLOOD. Yet, even with that genuine love for Rocinante, Doflamingo left him behind. He put HIMSELF above his brother, and went to Mariejois alone. One reason being to keep Rocinante safe, the other Rocinante’s momentary uselessness. He had nothing to contribute to his return to Holy Land besides crying. He had planned to return for him, and did, only to find him GONE. To make up for this mistake on his part, he TRUSTED him when the younger returned. Even though he knew he shouldn’t. However, Rocinante was his brother, his blood, HIS. Just like everyone in the family he acquired, Rocinante BELONGED to Doflamingo.

With Rocinante’s betrayal, Doflamingo’s heart grows COLD and EMPTY, and no one sees that better than Viola. With her ability to read minds, she is EXACTLY aware of Doflamingo’s mindset and his actions, and while they have a sexual relationship and he enjoys talks with her, they both know it isn’t genuine. His own worldview is painted RED, and nothing will colour it back to what it once was. That worldview ultimately brings DEVASTATION of many, and his ultimate DOWNFALL. As the truth unravels itself in Dressrosa, those who once loved him as their king turned against him. The worms helped those that defeated him, and he’s still able to LAUGH at ABSURDITY of it all.

However, Doflamingo himself is the SUN. He is GOLDEN. He is a GOD. He is far beyond the WRATH and RAGE he made himself out to be. He is both the DARKNESS and the LIGHT. The stronger the light, the stronger the darkness.

On rare occasions, that LIGHT shines through in the form of gentleness. Usually in the privacy of his bedroom, when the world isn’t watching, when the role he put on himself doesn’t need to be upheld. Not completely. Even these rare moments depend on the person he is with. Only the person worthy of his respect is privy to CONTROL, to experiencing everything his mind can think of in the bedroom. He has found only one person worthy of it all.

In many lifetimes, there is inevitable DEATH for HER. The madness of the king and god wins, and her attempts are in vain. However, in some lifetimes she helps give the role of GOD a different meaning. While addressing the capability for destruction, she also addresses the capability of CREATION. Love isn’t a weakness ANYMORE, it is something he is ALLOWED to fully experience. Something a god MUST experience. His HATE isn’t buried, it is part of him, just as his LOVE becomes a part of him too.

He becomes a GOD able to love and a GOD able to hate. He is COMPLETE, ABSOLUTE. As someone ABOVE others, he gets to experience EVERYTHING, he is BASKING in everything the world has to offer. The role of a god EXPANDS beyond the BOUNDARIES that he had initially set. He is able to receive love and give love, and all because someone else was able to see him. Strip him naked of all the layers he put onto himself and kept challenging him with equal fierceness. Granted, even when he genuinely loves, his love is still toxic. He is still as obsessive, and the woman receiving his love is seen as HIS partner. Naturally, that means they’re ENDGAME and he keeps that binding ETERNAL.

In such cases, Doflamingo finds a specific PEACE that he wouldn’t know otherwise, a JOY he hadn’t known he craved. When complete, Doflamingo’s soul is GLOWING. Only when he opens his mind, though.

[saint-augustines-pears]

Been doing research and I have to say Mary is my new favorite forever I love her so much

[spotsupstuff]

not givin a halfa fuck about the slugs means i'll prolly never have solid designs 😩 anyway -extends hand- have some sluts

[vulpine111]

[admiralara]

I hate America and what America has done to me

[moonsaver]

Thinking back to a post you once made about Aeon Sunday… Imagine being someone who knew Sunday in the past before his ascension, only to then receive the gaze of Aeon Sunday later in life

Oh my god. I love this. This is simultaneously creepy AND oddly romantic.

Theres a lot of possibilities for this – was reader sunday's crush? A suitor? Maybe just someone he shared small talk with and actually liked it more than usual? Ooohohoho

Im not sure if its yan or not, so i just kinda.. kept it variable(?)

This ones a bit longer because i desperatley need to wordvomti . Thanks.

Achieving an aeon's gaze is strange, your discipline, morals, ideals, lifestyle, something has to deeply resonate with their followed path. Let us assume Sunday is something similar to a "dreamlike" aeon [maybe it's mentioned in his boss form description, all i remember is the embryo of Philosophy ;;]

But again, it's not exactly stated how you'd be able to achieve an aeon's gaze; i still have no idea how acheron did it [IX is literally a black hole??], because i cant for the life of me read through those huge blocks of texts in the dialogue.

So lets say Sunday's able to pull his own strings and maybe even force you on that path. He's an aeon – who's stopping him?

Its the middle of the night, you're awake in bed, tossing and turning. It feels like something in your chest is pulling, a weird sensation you've been trying to put off. Your eyes are burning from the lack of sleep, but your mind seems restless. You try to calm yourself down and think about one thing and then another, one by one, until you remember Sunday. You wonder what was going through his mind, his in-between words in that one conversation, what he could have meant..

And like that, you fall asleep. Your bones sink into the bed, your weight relaxes into the pliant surface.

And then you awake. But somewhere else. It's not your bedroom – not the familiar ceiling, nor the corner of your room with piled clothes or a messy table. It's the cosmos, littered with stars. It's strange. You almost don't notice until you try to move – you're floating in space.

You turn, and he's there. That recognizable golden halo, stretching out into the dark expanse like the inside of a star plunging into the depths, golden eyes that peer down at you; with recognition, understanding, almost sympathy, and something you can't quite place. Your ribs ache and your lungs burn when you're reminded to breathe – this is the man you were thinking about before you slept.

You wake up, panting, shooting up in bed. The familiar space of your room greets you this time. The night is young outside your window ‐ not much time seems to have passed in that brilliant moment.

You were ready to chalk it up to a dream, like the ones where you feel like you're falling and wake up with a racing heart. But then you look down, and see a strange symbol on your body, something akin to an eye.

It seems you've earned his blessing to follow his path.

And even more? It seems like you're the first person to actually follow this path.

It's strange and isolating in a way. You can awaken from the sweetdream paradise your beloved Aeon seems to have put penacony under. You gain this strange, superflous, iridescent ghost of a halo, and you realise you can use it to communicate.

You can communicate with Sunday.

But a part of you finds it pointless. you can't understand what he's saying anymore; Aeons' existence transcends language. You can only hear whispers of people speaking to you, as though it's from the corner of a room, somewhere in the distance, with one barely audible male voice standing out in the whispering; it might be sunday's real voice, but you're not sure. At least, to some degree, you've managed to make out a few words.

Some words give you information. You can monitor the true handiwork of your aeon this way. Every person's dream — sweet, deep slumbers, exquisitely woven by deft fingers, all in 7 days. You figured this when you phased out of the dream, looking down at your own sleeping body and freaking out, when Sunday communicated with you for the first time, instantly calming you down. Dream. Woven. 7 days. Those words were evident in the cacophony of whispers.

Some words carry warnings. Or rather, they're not exactly words.

When your curious hands boldly trace the surface of a particularly fragile dream, you hear breathing. In close proximity, too, as if its right behind your ear. Sometimes, if you try to wake someone, you feel the breathing; warm, and languidly flowing down the back of your collar. You've chosen to not find out what happens when you don't listen.

Sometimes, when you decide to simply phase out of the dream to take a look at your own body in reality – you talk to Sunday. You tell him what you think, who you met in the dreamscape, what he can do to make it better [since.. well, you can't exactly do much to awaken anyone or oppose an aeon]. You assume he doesn't hear you, since you don't get your whispery response, but after you catch a few glimpses of your suggestions in the dreamscape, you realise he's just a good listener.

Perhaps, even if you may be the only follower of this path for now.. it may not be as isolating as you think.

[johnchiarello]

Galatians 3

https://ccoutreach87.com/2024/06/13/galatians-3-text-11/

[fateandloveentwined]

wuxia, xianxia, and cultivation differences meta

translations: wuxia 武俠, xianxia 仙俠, and cultivation 修真/修仙 (xīuzhēn/xīuxiān)

think i've seen posts on this eons ago, and i'm pretty sure there are tons of these online, but since this has been written up already let's just have another one.

wuxia 武俠

wuxia and xianxia sound similar, but basically for wuxia it is about the pugilistic world (江湖 jiānghú). It is relatively more down-to-earth, and people practice martial arts ("kungfu") in their current life -- they do not do it to become xians (仙) and gods (神) however.

Like Thousand Autumns and Faraway Wanderers/Word of Honor, it has more historical background and ties to the current court and kingdoms, because people are living in the moment and concern themselves with worldly issues.

Martial arts may seem unrealistic, but in view of chinese fantasy it would be considered "real". It consists of fighting moves and internal energy, which they call qi or nèigōng (內功), and at times you see people flying around, climbing hills and jumping across rooftops which is qīnggōng (輕功).

xianxia 仙俠

A level up would be xianxia, where characters in the story cultivate to become xians (and gods, like in the heaven official's blessing). They don't really care about earthly issues here now, because their ambitions lie beyond the current world, and cultivation, getting stronger, and an immortal life are majorly all their goals.

You may not always see them working towards that purpose, such as in mdzs they are considered a lower-xianxia society (低魔), meaning people don't go through all the steps of cultivation and only stay at the stage before the "golden core" stage.

In xianxia, characters still learn basic fighting moves aka. martial arts, but to direct the internal energy they use línglì (灵力), zhēnqì (真气), and fǎlì (法力), all xianxia terms you commonly see. "neigong" is practically nonexistent in this genre. That's why people building up their "neigong" instead of "lingli" are likely never going to be able to cultivate.

cultivation 修真/修仙

A subgenre in the xianxia category would be cultivation. Characters actively go through the stages of cultivation, and likely for the MC, because they are the main character, they successfully become a xian and exit the world at the end of the novel.

There are many stages of cultivation, usually defined at the beginning of the novel in the synopsis, and a typical example of the different levels would be this:

练气，筑基，金丹，元婴，化神，炼虚，合体，大乘，渡劫

And with a cursory search, an English translation would be something like this, albeit not with all the cultivation ranks identified.

Qi condensation (练气), Foundation establishment (筑基), Core Formation (金丹), Nascent Soul (元婴), and the names after that vary too greatly with translation and fandom so I'll jump straight to Immortal Ascension

extra info: getting into the philosophy of it all

It'd be interesting to note that the word "xiá" (俠) permeates all these genres. This is something akin to the concept of "hero", but not at all also, and I'd love to speak more on this but this post has already gone way longer than I hoped it would be, so perhaps another day.

Regardless, it is interesting to note that wuxia has a greater emphasis on "xia" than xianxia. (some joke that cultivation doesn't have the word "xia" in it, and much of that is because characters have foregone heroism and focused on gaining powers and working towards ascension instead). As a result, wuxia is more confucianism-oriented, though not without its taoism and buddhism influences.

xianxia, on the other hand, is mainly derived from "dào" (道), from taoism, which is another lengthy concept if I ever get to it.

And some may have heard of the "farming" genre, 种田 (zhòngtián). This has to do with golden fingers (mary sues) in imperialistic china, earning a wealth of money, and all that. It has nothing to do with cultivation, alike they sound in english.

that's it for now, hmu if you wish to ask/discuss!

(and apologies for the pinyin translations, hope it's understandable still! formally writing pinyin they are supposed to be two separate words not one.)