#he can't associate his loving sister with this insane woman

[carrotcouple]

thinking of my OC, Meztli, and how she killed her brother by accident, watched her father bring him back as one of the undead. She then went insane and is still trying to kill her brother for good. Which is a fun time.

[lunarnillinia]

The magnus protocol theory - greek mythology themes

@torkhin @amelie-isnt-french @field-cryptobotanist & I have been picking up on some greek mythology associations (more specifically the odyssey) in protocol. We might be onto something or it might just be the craziest red herring ever.

There are definitely connections between alchemy and greek mythology, so who knows at this point, am i right??

Here's an overview of connections i made, along with connections @torkhin made previously

*disclaimer* i am well aware i am REACHING with a lot of these, but i need to get my thoughts out nonetheless, let me nerd about greek mythology...

TMAGP 1: Orpheus & Euridice

Going to the place of the dead to find your lover that you just can't let go

TMAGP 2: Pygmalion & Galatea

Artist's desire to create the perfect image of a woman (sculpting). Falls in love with the art & causes it to become a reality

TMAGP 3: : Daphne & Apollo

Toxic 'lovers' where one of them turns into a fucking tree

TMAGP 4: Sirens

Music that leads to your death

(Sirens are also often depicted with instruments, to lure their victims with)

TMAGP 5: Eros & Psyche

This one is especially far fetched but: being urged to reveal and *actually see* this thing that everyone keeps on saying is horrific

(Myth explanation: Psyche gets banished to an island alone. She gets told by her sisters that her lover that comes to her in the night, which she is never allowed to see, is a terrific monster. Eventually they urge her to light a candle to see and kill the monster.)

TMAGP 6: Charybdis

Monster that wants to completely draw you in and 'embrace' you

(Charybdis is sometimes depicted as a sea monster with a lot of sharp teeth or as a giant whirpool)

TMAGP 7: Penelope's suitors

These people that you didn't invite just keep coming into your place, enjoying themselves, making the place unliveable and you just can't get them to leave

TMAGP 8: Lotus eaters (/Laestrygonians)

Strange place with these people that just seem 'off' want you to eat there and 'stay awhile'

(Laestrygonians were cannibalistic giants that killed many of Odysseus' men)

TMAGP 9: Palamedes (& Tyche)

The whole thing with dice & luck

Dude who's supposed to be your friend/ally tricks you into doing something you don't want. You then play into it and get your revenge on him later

(Myth explanation: Palamedes was a greek ally but also an enemy of Odysseus. He tricked Odysseus, who was trying to get out of joining the trojan war by acting insane, into revealing himself when Odysseus' baby was threatened. Odysseus never forgave him and framed him for being a traitor and then had him killed by the rest of the greeks or killed Palamedes himself in some accounts.

Now get this: Palamedes is the inventor of dice gave the first dice to Tyche, the goddess of good and bad luck.)

TMAGP 10: Hermes & Poseidon

Again far fetched: Gwen playing a fucked up little messenger & an unknown enemy emerging from the waters

TMAGP 11: Poseidon

(Tattoo of) a ship in the middle of the ocean, being chased by something in the water

TMAGP 12: Polyphemus

Big monster with googly eye(s) crashes a party and starts brutally ripping people apart and eating them. His teeth are not soft.

TMAGP 13: Hermes

Far fetched: Hermes is a trickster god of trade and commerce, but also thieves

Same-ish theme of cheating the system for wealth

TMAGP 14: Circe

Snakes & people being transformed into animals?

TMAGP 15: Scylla

Noble lady is actually a monster with dogs (literally) by her hips and eats human flesh

TMAGP 16: no idea honestly

+ bonus thoughts on Lena: i think she might be an Athena type character:

stern authority figure, highly practical, scheming and placing her pawns just right, sees most people as tools/assets, but!! still cares about her people in some way too, protects them and helps them to succeed

Definitely add on your own thoughts :)

[acknowledge-reigns]

Soooo. My nieces and nephew wanted to watch Encanto for the 300th time and of course I have to make literally everything about the bloodline so here is a thread no one asked for comparing Encanto characters to the personalities of characters in the bloodline storyline. This is probably gonna be insanely long so buckle up I guess.

I repeat I am referring to CHARACTERS in the STORYLINE here. Not actual people.

Roman = Luisa

"Who am I if I can't run with the ball? If I fall to. Pressure like a grip, grip, grip, and it won't let go, whoa..."

Luisa is under pressure constantly to be the strong one, to handle things for her family and just make sure things are taken care of. Just like Roman who has pressure from the elders to be the head of the table, to keep the championship(s), to be the leader and the strong one and handle all the family problems.

"Under the surface, I hide my nerves and it worsens, I worry something is gonna hurt us. Under the surface, the ship doesn't swerve as it heard how big the iceberg is. Under the surface, I think about my purpose, can I somehow preserve this? Line up the dominoes, a light wind blows. You try to stop it tumbling, but on and on, it goes. But wait, if I could shake the crushing weight of expectations, Would that free some room up for joy or relaxation, or simple pleasure? Instead, we measure this growing pressure. Keeps growing, keep going. 'Cause all we know is Pressure like a drip, drip, drip that'll never stop, whoa. Pressure that'll tip, tip, tip 'til you just go pop, whoa, oh, oh. Give it to your sister, it doesn't hurt, and See if she can handle every family burden. Watch as she buckles and bends but never breaks, no mistakes..."

Jey = Mirabel

"Don't be upset or mad at all. Don't feel regret, or sad at all. Hey, I'm still a part of the family Madrigal. And I'm fine, I am totally fine. I will stand on the side as you shine. I'm not fine, I'm not fine..."

Mirabel wanted to shine too. Not just that but she saw all of the pressure on Luisa and wanted to take some off of her. She wanted to make the family proud too and in the end she would be the one to save everyone. Just like Jey. Not to mention, she's the main character.

"Always walking alone. Always wanting for more, Like I'm still at that door. Longing to shine like all of you shine. All I need is a change. All I need is a chance. All I know is I can't stay on the side. Open your eyes..."

Jimmy = Isabella

"So much hides behind my smile..."

Isabella constantly has a smile and portrays happiness and perfection at all times but the stress drives her wild and when she finally lets loose it's quite literally a mess but she does have her family's best interest at heart just like all the others. Like Jimmy.

"What could I do if I just grew what I was feeling in the moment? What could I do if I just knew it didn't need to be perfect? It just needed to be, and they let me be..."

Solo = Bruno

"Seven foot frame, Rats along his back. When he calls your name, it's all fades to black..."

Bruno is perceived as this big scary monster of a guy, this imposing figure when he's actually the sweetest little softy that loves his family more than anything. Like Solo.

Paul = Delores

"Live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling. I could always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling. I associate him with the sound of falling sand (sh sh sh) It's a heavy lift, with a gift so humbling..."

Do those lyrics not sound like Paul hyping Solo up? Not to mention Delores is the "Wise Woman" of the family. If they need to know what's going on, what to do about it etc they go to her.

Elders = Abuela

"But let's be clear, Abuela runs this show, whoa. She led us here so many years ago, whoa. And every year our family blessings grow. There's just a lot you've simply got to know, so. Welcome to the Family Madrigal..."

Abuela, like the Elders of the bloodline are the ones actually running the show. They pressure the kids to uphold legacy and maintain tradition but have no clue the pressure could be hurting them. In the end as misguided as they are they want what's best for the family too.

[agentrouka-blog]

Hi, I'm mostly new here but always have been intrigued with your Jonsa theories. New crackpot content I cooked up myself because I think you might actually appreciate it -

1) We all know Waymar Royce as Jon foreshadowing, but have we ever mentioned that House Royce is ALSO descended from a Stark woman - JOcelyn Stark, whose unnamed daughter I just found out also married a Waynwood. This means Sansa has been romantically linked to an additional two men besides Robin descended from a female relative of hers who in more or less broad terms could be considered cousins - Waymar, and Harry, whose grandmother is Anya Waynwood. What about Jon, huh...

2) I noticed a pattern in Arianne's canonical romances that might mirror and/or foreshadow both Jon and Sansa's. She expresses a crush on Oberyn, her uncle, (we won't be getting into the incredibly gross hypersexualisation here or how her issues with Doran affect this, but they exist of course) but this is incredibly unrequited (actually, theory 3 notes that literally every uncle/niece | aunt/nephew relationship is a complete disaster, which does not bode well for Jonerice) -> very unrequited Jonerice and Creepyfinger. Her intended first time was supposed to be a threesome with Tyene - her bastard COUSIN whom she stresses she thinks of as a SISTER - and some dude who fell asleep and prevented it from actually happening -> a third member of the love triangle (Daeny) sleeping forever (dying). Her actual first time happens with Daemon Sand, a bastard, around the same age Sansa will be when reuniting with Jon, in turn probably still disguised as Alayne. She can't marry him, not only because of his status, but also since she was betrothed to Viserys, an insane abusive pretender king -> Joffrey! Daenerys! Instead, Arianne will most likely marry her cousin Aegon - also related to her via his mother and her father, like Jon and Sansa, he probably will die, and she will then go on to claim her birthright as Dornish Princess, have Daemon legitimized and marry him -> marry a cousin and a bastard. Like, that's just a lot of coincidences, right?

3) Literally every relationship between someone and their parent's sibling('s spouse) is straight up horrendous and amongst the worst in ASOIAF:

- Rhaena and her half-uncle Maegor the Cruel, forcibly wedded after he usurped her husband and daughters and Aegon II. died.

- Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen, straight up grooming and him ditching her for a little girl in the middle of a war.

- we don't know about Serena Stark's and Sansa Stark's marriages to Edric and Jonnel "One-Eye" Stark, but it does reek of stealing the girls' birthright by wedding them themselves.

- Creepyfinger is technically Sansa's uncle by marriage to Lysa, and she in turn is technically Joffrey's aunt twice over through her marriage to Tyrion. Those two ought to be self-evident.

Frankly, only genuine sibling incest and father-daughter incest is described even more disturbingly, versus genuinely loving in-universe examples of cousin marriage exist.

Like damn, with that track record, how could anyone honestly think Jonerice is the big love story of ASOIAF´? Don't make me laugh.

Sorry this was very long, I wonder what you make of these!

Hello!

1) I did not know that. I love it!

2) Andrey Dalt of Lemonwood did NOT fall asleep!

She and Tyene had learned to read together, learned to ride together, learned to dance together. When they were ten Arianne had stolen a flagon of wine, and the two of them had gotten drunk together. They shared meals and beds and jewelry. They would have shared their first man as well, but Drey got too excited and spurted all over Tyene's fingers the moment she drew him from his breeches. Her hands are dangerous. The memory made her smile. (AFFC, The Princess in the Tower)

The whole “shared first man” thing actually makes me think of Joffrey and Littlefinger, placing Tyene firmly into a category with Margaeryn and Lysa, who both have “shared first man with a sibling” themes, along with sharing with Sansa if their husbands are to be believed. Tyene’s association with poison and the faith, the sharing of jewelry and wine, and her dangerous hands just confirm the whole connection to Littlefinger and the Tyrell’s, as well. Also, the “lemon wood”, which is my horrible read of the phallic Giant’s Lance lemon cake Littlefinger has made for Sansa. Something will go wrong there for Littlefinger (which is another phallic metaphor thanks to Myranda, baaaaaah.)

(Do we know if Tyene maybe was the one who betrayed Arianne?)

Really like the rest, though!

3) Couldn’t agree more.

Thank you for sharing!

[famous-aces]

Henry David Thoreau

Who: Henry David Thoreau

What: Author, Philosopher, Abolitionist, Activist, Naturalist, Critic, Surveyor, Yogi, Historian...ah, Jeez, what wasn't he?

Where: American (active largely in the US)

When: July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862

(Image description: a photo of Henry David Thoreau from 1861, it is obviously in black and white but has faded to sepia. He is a white man in a jacket and what appears to be a scarf or cravat. He has a long, tired face, circles around his eyes. He has a thick beard and mustache and slightly messy hair, his hair is dark but graying.  End ID)

You have probably heard this name even if you don't know why. He is best known  for his memoirs, essays, and his role in the founding of the Transcendentalist movement. His progressive philosophy remains relevant to this day. His influence has lasted well over a century and he served as inspiration for the likes of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., Hemingway, Tolstoy, Shaw, Gandhi, among dozens of other names of equal note.

Thoreau was a Transcendentalist through and through, meaning he believed in the inherent goodness of humanity and nature in conjunction with science, and the power of the individual. His writing is generally practical, thoughtful, detailed, and observant, and he wrote extensively on a number of subjects. Perhaps most notably on environmentalism (he is one of the inspirations for and a precursor to the 20th century environmentalist movement), nature, ethics, simple living, direct action, civil disobedience, abolition, tax resistance, anarchy, among countless other topics.  

Thoreau's most famous and popular works include Walden, which is the published version of of the diary Thoreau kept over his two year social experiment at Walden Pond (written beginning in 1845, published in 1854), "Civil Disobedience,"  which helped both Gandhi and Dr. King form their philosophies, and states that in an unjust society the just must rebel, (it was originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government or Civil Disobedience", 1849), "Walking" an instruction manual on how Thoreau thought, observed, and wrote (1862), "Slavery in Massachusetts", a speech given at a rally to protest the re-enslavement of escapee/fugitive slave Anthony Burns (1854) and Excursions, collection of essays, published posthumously in 1863 with biographical introduction by fellow author and Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.  He also wrote on John Brown and his execution ("A Plea for Captain John Brown" [1859], Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown [1859], and The Last Days of John Brown [1860]).

(Image description: a replica of Thoreau's cabin in Walden. It is a very small wooded. Cabin in a clearing, one room at most, brown/gray in color. It has a white multi-paned window and a brick chimney in the back. The whole cabin is not much taller than its door. Behind it is a shed or outhouse.  They are surrounded by trees. Touching one of the closest trees is a brown metal statue of a man walking, presumably Thoreau. End ID)

Probable Orientation: Gay ace or possibly aroace with a desire for a male QPP.

I am very confident in Thoreau's asexuality, if a little shakier on his romantic orientation. As far as anyone knows (and his life has been repeatedly and heavily scrutinized since the 19th century) Thoreau never had a romantic or sexual partner. He was a public figure with a wide circle of friends, someone would have known at some point during his life and if somehow a partner escaped notice the historians who dedicated their lives to studying his life specifically would have uncovered them. Thoreau wrote on male/male relationships, some more platonic, some queerplatonic, some vagulely romantic, none sexual.

Thoreau, like Elizabeth I, is one cishets hold onto, turning away from the idea he could be anything but heterosexual regardless of the evidence to the contrary.  Like Andy Warhol he is one exclusionists refuse to acknowledge was ace, although they have even less of an argument here. Many aphobic fans of Thoreau are terrified by the idea that maybe, just maybe, the thing Thoreau loved most was nature. Some outrageous arguments from either side include: one historian claimed a poem Thoreau wrote for a man was actually meant for that guy's sister, some say he was being hip in writing about Achilles, some say he was too repressed to have sex, especially since he was gay. One blogger got heated in his admantness that Thoreau wasn't ace but was "a human being with feelings and needs." Nice aphobia there, dude.

But here is the thing about any of those arguments: Thoreau broke every other rule in his culture. He was not afraid to be different, and separated himself from society.  He was all about the individual breaking away from society and its traditions and going with your human nature. Thoreau did what he believed to be right.

He had a following, many friends and aquaintences, almost certainly suitors, he spent a lot of time alone in the company of men he seemed to find attractive e.g. Tom Fowler (who was his sole companion and guide through Maine) and Alek Therien (who visited Thoreau alone at Walden). I firmly believe that his percieved "prudishness" was not artificial but came from a genuine disinterest and failure to even really understand sexual attraction (his journals imply as much, you will see). If he did sleep with any of these men Thoreau never documented it, not even in his own journals. But what he did articulate in letters is that society's refusal to discuss sex/physical relationships was proof of its problems. Sex was natural so dismissing it wasn't. 

His feelings about sex are contradictory, he thinks it must be natural but he also finds it repulsive and dirty. He makes note at one point of how beautiful pollination is (he is quoting and translating J. Biberg but agrees with the sentiment and indeed only uses the quote to prove his point on the beauty of sexless flowers), but he vilifies or dislikes human intercourse. Thoreau seems to like the idea of sex without the sex, he likes closeness more than intercourse. He wants to like sex but can't, the closest he gets is the desire for these things to be open.

Quotes:

Hang onto your hats. There are some long ones here, but Thoreau, like Chopin, is pretty overtly ace. Like he couldn't make it clear without waving an asexual pride flag, would be hard considering it was invented in what? 2010? And Thoreau had already been dead 148 chaste, chaste years.

"What is commonly honored with the name of Friendship is no very profound or powerful instinct...I do not often see the farmers made seers and wise to the verge of insanity by their Friendship for one another. They are not often transfigured and translated by love in each other’s presence. I do not observe them purified, refined, and elevated by the love of a man…I do not often see the farmers made seers and wise to the verge of insanity by their Friendship for one another. They are not often transfigured and translated by love in each other’s presence. I do not observe them purified, refined, and elevated by the love of a man…Nor do the farmers' wives lead lives consecrated to Friendship. I do not see the pair of farmer Friends of either sex prepared to stand against the world...Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for Friends to feed and clothe our bodies,--neighbors are kind enough for that,--but to do the like office to our spirits…[the ideal friendship] will make a man honest; it will make him a hero; it will make him a saint. It is the state of the just dealing with the just, the magnanimous with the magnanimous, the sincere with the sincere, man with man.”

-Henry David Thoreau, from his journal 1839. This entry on friendship the hope for something deeper than what most people call by that name, but still looking for friendship. He is looking for a partner, an emotional, spiritual, partner. This quote could be read as romantic or queerplatonic. You know which one I am leaning toward, queerplatonic, especially because he specifies these relationships as unique from marriage (which he equates in other texts with sex and maybe romance) also he was writing while on a trip with his brother, John, to whom he would later dedicate the publication after John's death in 1842. But it could easily also be a sexless romantic relationship, what he is looking for is not explicitly either.

The following are all from 1852 letters written by Thoreau to his friend and proofreader Harrison Blake. One of these letters was overtly written on the subject of "Chastity and Sensuality" and contains his complicated feelings on sexuality:

"What the essential difference between man and woman is, that they should be thus attracted to one another, no one has satisfactorily answered."

(Note: self explanatory)

"If it is the result of a pure love, there can be nothing sensual in marriage. Chastity is something positive, not negative. It is the virtue of the married especially. All lusts or base pleasures must give place to loftier delights...The deeds of love are less questionable than any action of an individual can be, for, it being founded on the rarest mutual respect, the parties incessantly stimulate each other to a loftier and purer life, and the act in which they are associated must be pure and noble indeed..."

(Note: in the above quote he seems to believe that in marriage sex must eventually stop because there is something better. As if they have gotten the sex stuff out of the way.)

"Love and lust are as far asunder as a flower-garden is from a brothel.

(Note: this was part of his description for his disdain for human sex vs human love, his confusion about sex but love of human relationships. It is part of that desire for sex without sex thing I mentioned but harsher than his tone in a later letter.)

"'The organs of generation, which, in the animal kingdom, are for the most part concealed by nature, as if they were to be ashamed of, in the vegetable kingdom are ex posed to the eyes of all ; and, when the nuptials of plants are celebrated, it is wonderful what delight they afford to the beholder, refreshing...'"

(Note: this is Thoreau quoting and translating J. Biberg. Part of the same letter as the brothel line. In this letter he discusses how perturbed he is by sex and lust, but how it should be something beautiful. He celebrates pollination, while finding human sex distasteful, again sex without sex.)

"The intercourse of the sexes, I have dreamed, is incredibly beautiful, too fair to be remembered. I have had thoughts about it, but they are among the most fleeting and irrecoverable in my experience."

(Note: Also self explanatory)

(Image description: the original title page of Walden. It has an illustration on it drawn by Thoreau's sister Sophia. Above the illustration it reads "Walden; or Life in the Woods by Henry D. Thoreau, Author of "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers". Then is the illustration showing Thoreau's cabin, it looks very much like the modern replica if with a slightly different treeline.  There is a path leading from the cabin down to the bottom of the image directed at the words below. The text continues after the drawing "I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake the neighbors up. -Page 92. Boston, Ticknor and Fields. M DCCC LIV.". End ID)