#i love people making wild interpretations and applying their perspective to the things that happen around them

[earthbased]

Making Your Own Correspondences for Plants

Disclaimer: This post is about magical and spiritual use, not medical, and medical use is mentioned only for historical examples. Don’t mess around with medicine unless you know what you’re doing, or consult someone who does. I’ve previously written about where the majority of magical plant correspondences tend to come from in modern pagan & witchcraft sites and books. If you decide to DIY some or all of your correspondences, how you do it will depend on what your beliefs and practices are. Some things to consider:

Do you believe the magical properties are already in the plants, are unchangeable, and need to be discovered? Or that they depend on your beliefs and associations?

Do you value individuality and personal significance, or having shared lore with your community and culture? Or both?

Do you value the process of relationship-building with a plant or spirit?

Do you value receiving lore through ancestry or lineage? Does it matter to you how old it is?

I’m going to delve deeper into 3 main sources: existing lore, physical characteristics and the plant itself.

===1. Building upon existing lore===

Learning the history and folklore of a plant, even if it doesn’t have existing magical uses, is likely to give you ideas and a deeper understanding. Some potential sources of lore: recorded folklore and common names, oral tradition, fairytales and nursery rhymes, etymology, flower meanings, appearances in mythology, appearances in well-known books or poems, pop culture and fiction.

Whether or not you want to think about it, the greater story of your practice includes the story of your lore and how it came to you. Oftentimes that story involves violence, theft, deception and ridicule. BIPOC have written at length about cultural appropriation [link, link, link, link] & cultural genocide as one of the ongoing harms of colonisation and racism. If you’re not part of a culture that traditionally stewards a certain plant or body of lore, listening to (whether literally hearing or by other means) and respecting those people’s voices is your ongoing responsibility when engaging with it. Navigating these issues as a member of an oppressing group often involves ambiguity and discomfort. This is also part of the path. Remember that we’re blessed to have the opportunity to listen to these voices today. Others did not survive.

Practical uses, both modern and historical often include medicine, but there’s much more, e.g. thorny plants’ association with protection - not only because the thorns protect the plant itself, but because thorny hedges have been grown in many times and places to deter large animals or trespassers from crossing a fence. More recently, I suspect the modern-day association of lemon with cleaning products has led to its current use in magical cleansing.  In any case plenty of common correspondences have arisen fairly recently from modern-day uses. Whether you place special value upon ancient or pre-modern lore is up to you.  The reasons behind old magical lore were often related to practical use, so I see it as a continued tradition.

===2. Looking at physical characteristics===

What you see depends on how you look (and think). Many plants have heart, star or crescent-shaped leaves. What do these things mean to you? A crescent usually reminds me of the moon but you could also see it as a claw or a smile, two things with very different connotations. Sympathetic magic (a phrase from anthropology) is the idea that things can magically affect each other based on their similarities. But beyond the obvious, there are also symbolic meanings. Many unrelated trees across the world happen to have dark red oozing sap, often earning them a name like "bloodwood". A straightforward use of sympathetic magic would mean it can affect blood, e.g. to stop bleeding. But symbolically, blood often means vitality, death, birth or rebirth, so that oozy tree could be thought to represent any of those things too. Learning observable facts about a plant can be a rich source of inspiration and understanding. Some things to consider: habitat, place of origin, endangered or invasive status, the wild form of a domesticated plant, gardening information, close relatives, lifecycle and seasonal cycle, and parts of interest (leaves, roots, flowers, seeds). For example, a plant well known for its flowers could have something interesting about its seeds which are usually overlooked. The internet is a bountiful source of information, as are books. Your local community likely includes many people who might be willing to pass on their knowledge, for example in local gardening or nature enthusiast clubs, nurseries, environmental groups, and cultural organisations.

You can apply a traditional method of Western astrology to make brand new correspondences to use for sympathetic magic, even with plants that have never been used this way before. This involves comparing the physical qualities of plants (shape, colour, smell, texture etc) with a list of qualities associated with each planetary energy. You might pick one or two features that stand out and concentrate on those. The planet it matches best is considered its ruling planet and will determine its magical application. It's possible for different parts of a plant to have different ruling planets, but not necessary. Common references for planetary qualities include Renaissance philosopher HC Agrippa and famous herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, but your associations may differ, or come from another system of astrology entirely. In any case, once the plant is connected to the planet, it’s also connected to everything else the planet represents. For example, if I determined that a herb in my garden had Venusian qualities, I’d consider it useful for any magic involving love, beauty, harmony or comfort. By a similar process you can assign herbs to a list of deities, zodiac signs, tarot cards, or whatever you want. 

===3. Asking the plant itself===

What this looks like depends on your personal beliefs and practices. It might mean asking an individual plant or a spirit representing the whole species. It may involve trance or ritual, or be as simple as listening inwardly for an internal voice in your thoughts. Will you seek out a living plant, contact it through its dried leaves, invoke its spirit into your space or meet it in a non-physical plane? Additionally, not all communication is about sound and words. Among humans some languages are signed and some people communicate with picture boards. Images, emotion, gesture, touch, music and body language are things to consider.

In some belief systems listening to plants may be interpreted more metaphorically, involving intuition or imagination. Using intuition-enabling practices such as dream work or trance may help you to connect your accumulated knowledge to a spiritual or magical meaning. Imagination and roleplay is also a way of gaining a new perspective, such as the deep ecology practice of a psychodrama called the Council of All Beings (note that the original form was heavily influenced by misappropriated Native American practices and stereotypes).

“What [something/someone] is telling me” is a phrase that can be used literally or figuratively in English. In other languages, especially Indigenous ones, such a distinction may not exist. This use of grammar can reflect a way of thinking and relating that considers humans as one part of a whole. If you were raised in a colonial mindset, asking the plant about its correspondences (whatever form that takes) and considering the plant’s priorities can be a way of challenging that mindset by reframing the interaction as one between two beings, rather than a human acting on a passive object. To me this way of thinking invites respect and reciprocity. How you can act upon that is a topic for another post, or maybe another author.

[colorfulmetaphors]

rewatched all of mauls TCW eps last night (with a friend; thank you sam ily) and am just marveling at the Maul Appreciation journey because

the first time i watched them i was like ok yes this dudes vibes are off the charts terrible love that in a man good aesthetic good voICE GOD good dialogue etc. and then i started digging into all the EU stuff and with everything i learned/read that casual hey this character is cool feeling became hey what the fuck. HEY WHAT THE FUCK (wrath of darth maul) hey what the fuck?????????? and pulled him out of my usual “this is a character in a narrative” approach to media and let him just Be because THERES SO MUCH to him. i remember soon after i finished the show for the first time, i went looking for playlists and for a bunch of them i was like?????? i dont see how this applies but okay. and then listening to them later after i knew more i was like OH SHIT YEAH. i get it now. it’s not that TCW does bad?????? but it only scratches at the surface and bless witwer for giving us those extra spidermaul lines to tie him together more… so now rewatching it with all the context is entirely different from the first time and each expression means so much more than the haha angy guy go brr… i love him so much and i kinda love that the fullness of his character exists outside his canon presentation. it’s like a weird blessing? (for me, will explain below)

it’s why i don’t want more content lmao fenris voice what does disney touch that it doesn’t spoil. (im very bitter about the sequels, from a writing perspective) and based on my own experience and on seeing other people’s (fandom; some comics; one novel i forget which) interpretations of maul, it’s VERY EASY to see the red/black color palette and welcome to my twisted mind sequences and vengeance quest and write the simplest aggressive edgelord version of him.

id hope it wouldn’t happen but if it did it would make me so sad, because FOR ME the most important part of the media i enjoy is the writing. far above (far above) ((far below)) anything else, because i want to break things down and analyze them and you didn’t connect shit them, if the writings no good i cant engage in the same way. i think thats generally very different from most fandom? based on what i can see, it seems most people are able to pick around what they dont like or use fanfiction to fill in blanks or fix stuff. and i dont think thats bad. it’s cool. but it’s not for me. i need the source material to be tightly woven so i feel like it’s fine to step out and venture across it. half the fun for me is learning about the creators and how they approached the project. it’s me being able to say oh witwer loved this character so he added depth by including the aforementioned spidermaul lines about the sith code and mauls introduction to the jedi/sith history. i need to know that if i go digging im going to find intention and care and attention to detail so i can have fun unearthing those details. it’s CRAFT more-so than narrative or character. thats how it is for me. i kinda wish it wasn’t because it feels very no fun allowed but over a decade in fandom and i haven’t been able to change it.

a simplistic (and not even necessarily the same as mine; just one with no depth) canon interpretation of maul would feel like someone dumping a bucket of water on a sandcastle ive built in my driveway after precariously hauling the sand from distant beaches with my toddling chunky child hands. (i built this man up from a cave! with a box of scraps!) and i would not be able to rebuild that image of him because then his presentation would exist in the “this must be included because it is now law” zone rather than the wild west of the EU. i WANT more maul content but i also dread more maul content. gonna laugh at hope and attachment for maul getting in the way of accepting maul. sidious meme voice ironic.

anyway. i feel that the Journey is ending with: im graduating him into baby youre my forever girl status and building a glass display case to keep him separate, just on the chance i need it. i think the buzz will start to fade soon but hes firmly planted

[sepublic]

Lilith’s Curses- The Crane Wives

           I really feel like Curses by The Crane Wives just… FITS Lilith perfectly as a song- Specifically a song from Lilith’s perspective, how she feels about Eda, her own guilt over the curse, the moral dilemma she’s facing, and the loneliness that Lilith feels. Looking at the lyrics;

There’s a fire in my brain and I’m burning up

Oh my, oh my

Keep running for the sink but the well is dry

Oh my, oh my

Every word I say is kindling

But the smoke clears when you’re around

Won’t you stay with me, my darling

When my walls start burning down?

           I’ve talked before about how Lilith has a bit of a Fire motif going on, and how Fire seems to be related to the Emperor’s Coven, as well as characters who want to join it (Amity) or subscribe to the same ideas of hierarchy and power (Boscha). Belos’ own throne room is lit up by burning braziers… And we see Lilith with spells that cast blue fire. And, I think this motif is symbolic of just how destructive these characters can be, both towards themselves and others- And how Lilith is someone who no doubt felt a lot of immense pain over cursing Eda, over her one-time mistake as a child that spiraled far beyond anything she could’ve expected.

           Lilith is hurting herself by joining the Emperor’s Coven, indoctrinating herself into its toxic beliefs and cult-like mentalities… And she hurts others; Such as wild witches, Eda, Luz… And there is that horrible implication that some wild witches are burned at the stake as execution, given that one poster in the library, as well as the giant furnace in Belos’ castle. Not only that, but ‘Fire in my BRAIN’ specifically? I think this can apply to how Amity tried to burn Willow’s memories, so they both could get forget and pretend the past never happened… And I think this could create the image of Lilith willingly burning away her own memories just to cope, and/or how she damaged Eda’s memories with the curse. Lilith, like Amity, set a fire that hurt someone’s mind- But it’s Lilith herself who is the victim, it’s Lilith who tries to blind herself and ignore the corruption of the Emperor’s Coven, and hopes that Eda can one day join her.

           You have Lilith ‘running for the sink’ but the ‘well is dry’, because she doesn’t know how to cope, she definitely can’t in a toxic environment like the Emperor’s Coven. Every word she says is kindling- The propaganda she preaches just buries Lilith further into her sins, each lie uttered by her about the curse just contributes to the unnecessary pain… And every word that Lilith says during her confrontation with Eda in Agony of a Witch, culminating to her specific confession of the curse? One might say it nearly burned the bridge between her and Eda…

           But the smoke clears when Eda is around- Because then Lilith remembers, Lilith finds comfort, she can go back to those old days when they were happy together and not in this kind of pain. One could also interpret the smoke clearing, because Eda combats the Emperor’s Coven and its fire motif- I’ve talked about Eda having a Wind motif, and we know that wind can blow away smoke… Of course, even when Belos is ‘burning down’ the Boiling Isles, Lilith asks for Eda to be with her, at any cost- Even when the walls are burning down, even if being in the Emperor’s Coven is going to hurt Edalyn in the long run; Because Lilith wants her sister back so desperately that she might just hurt her, as we see when she willingly depletes Eda’s magic to capture her.

           Obviously Lilith believed that it’d all come back as soon as Belos cured the curse- But there’s the idea of Lilith being possessive of Eda, wanting her sister by her side at all times… Downplaying Eda’s connections with other people, with Lilith finally taking the step to disregard Eda’s freedom when Belos threatens her. Lilith traps Eda with her, in a bubble, in the Emperor’s Coven- Inside a throne room with two massive, burning braziers… And Lilith’s walls are burning down because her world-view is collapsing around her, Belos is threatening to execute her, Eda is fighting her, her belief in the Coven System is being shattered.

          She just desperately needs Eda’s guidance throughout this process, even if it’s at Eda’s expense. Lilith wants Eda to help and provide for her, but… She’s not quite ready to give Eda what her little sister truly deserves, either- Lilith’s offered some support by bending the law, but she needs to give true unconditional love and support, by siding with Eda openly against the Emperor’s Coven. Lilith wants Eda’s validation- But she still has plenty to give to her own sister. In the season finale, we even get the two being executed together; Had Lilith not acted to capture Eda, it would’ve been JUST her… But thankfully Luz saves them all in the end.

          Still, there’s that recurring theme of Lilith being toxic to Eda, dragging her down, inhibiting Eda’s freedom and expression of self by bringing her sister down with her, just for Lilith’s selfish sake and comfort. Lilith asks Eda to stay with her, even as her walls come burning down… Just as Lilith’s spell-barrier is breaking apart, and her ‘walls’ come down as she opens up, and reveals the truth about the curse, about how she’s been feeling, as her mature and innocent façade falls apart. And when the truth and who Lilith really is, is laid bare to Eda- Lilith tries to negotiate, in essence desperately begging Eda to still love her sister and be with her, and to stay with Lilith even after her guilt is unveiled, all in the midst of Lilith using Luz as a hostage.

This house is my name like an elegy

Oh my, oh my

Echoing where my ghosts all used to be

Oh my, oh my

There’s still cobwebs in the corners

And the backyard’s full of bones

Won’t you stay with me, my darling

When this house don’t feel like home?

When this house don’t feel like home?

           We don’t know where Lilith lives- But we did see concept art of Lilith’s room, and the window implies it could be within Belos’ castle. Belos’ castle, Lilith’s old childhood home where she cursed Eda- Both work here as places that no doubt feel largely empty and haunted to Lilith for a number of reasons… Her old home because it’s where her happiness and childhood both thrived and died, where the young Lilith we saw disappeared and was replaced by the dark-haired one without glasses; And Belos’ Castle, because of how cold and cut-off it is, how isolated and lonely Lilith feels within the massive, empty architecture. Regardless of where she lives, Lilith doesn’t feel like she’s at home, because home is where you feel safe, where you feel like you belong…

          That’s the importance of the Owl House, as a location that provides belonging and comfort, and the freedom to be oneself- A TRUE family… The Emperor’s Coven is no family for Lilith and she knows it, so she asks Eda to come over and MAKE it that way… She wants Eda to be with her ‘real’ family, or make that family for her real. And that’s what Lilith tries to do, ascending the ranks, looking up to Belos- But Belos doesn’t care, he just sees her as another tool. Lilith also mentions an ‘elegy’, she’s mourning her past self and how it ‘died’, she’s lamenting her lost connection with Eda, and the Eda she loved- Acting like she’s dead, when in reality she still lives on in spite of the curse… And this was who Eda always was.

          Perhaps Lilith’s ideal image of Eda was shattered, who knows? Lilith misses the young Eda, the simpler one that wasn’t cursed and wasn’t defying the Coven System, and she mourns for her like she died… Eda still lives, Lilith just wishes she was different, that she’d be like she used to be, because then they could be in the Emperor’s Coven together like they dreamed- Lilith wants Belos to ‘resurrect’ the Eda she missed. And Lilith- Lilith might mourn her old, innocent childhood self as well. She certainly doesn’t look like her anymore… The backyard’s full of bones- Lilith’s skeletons in the closet, as well as the fact that Belos’ castle likely has a LOT of people dead or dying in it thanks to his executions.

Oh ashes, ashes, dust to dust

The devil’s after both of us

Last my curses out to rest

Make a mercy out of me

           Lilith has been burning the bridge between her and Eda to ash, and she wishes she hasn’t- But she’s too scared to defy the Emperor’s Coven, and she doesn’t fully understand Eda’s reasoning, even if deep-down she kind of wants to. The ‘Devil’ is of course Belos, hunting down wild witches or recruiting them into his coven- He’s horned, monstrous, and burns people. The devil could also be retribution for one’s sins, and boy does Lilith have plenty! And she sees Eda as having a few due to being a ‘criminal’. We also have Lilith, who just wants to lay her guilt to rest, lay the curse to rest by killing it with Belos’ help… She just wants mercy from others, from herself and Eda through forgiveness. She wants mercy from life, Lilith wants to finally be freed from the curse, but she never will be…

          She can never rest, there’s even more work to do now that she’s changed her heart and needs to make things right. Though because Lilith is no longer focusing on just the curse as of the finale, and has finally shared it with Eda- Perhaps that issue has finally been put to rest, at least for now, so Lily can repair her relationship with Eda. Lilith confessed and now the secret is gone… And Lilith gets mercy from Eda, who tries to strike down her sister at the Conformatorium, until King vouches for Lilith’s defense. Lilith also wanted mercy from Belos, wanted him to be forgiving of her mistakes- But she finds the only person she can get this from is someone who DOES love her, Eda.

This tired old machine is a-rumbling

Oh my, oh my

Singing songs to the secrets behind my eye

Oh my, oh my

All my aching bones are trembling

And I may yet fall apart

Won’t you stay with me, my darling

When the war starts in my heart?

When the war starts in my heart?

           Lilith is tired, she’s getting older now and wasted so much of her life in the Emperor’s Coven, and trying to cure the curse. She’s tired of the guilt, tired of the work, etc. The Emperor’s Coven reduces individuals to mindless, robotic followers… And Lilith is beginning to break at the seams and give away, she can’t handle this anymore. She’s too lonely, and Lilith knows that she and Eda are running out of time in a lot of ways- In regards to their lifespan, Belos’ patience, their time before the curse takes over, their time before it’s too late to fix things between them…

           Lilith is about to have an emotional breakdown, and then she finally does- That’s why she confesses to cursing Eda during their duel. The mask is breaking and who Lilith is, how she really feels, lonely and guilty and afraid, uncertain, it’s coming out… Lilith’s got secrets behind her eye, all right; The knowledge of the curse, and now that secret IS on her eye, as of the season finale. And that happened because of a verbal spell that rhymes, the way a song might…

           Even after it’s revealed, Lilith still wants Eda to be with her; She NEEDS Eda to be with her, to help Lilith settle the conflict in her heart, as she’s torn between loving Eda, feeling resentment… Wanting to join the Emperor’s Coven, wanting to be with her sister; Knowing deep-down that the Emperor’s Coven is corrupt, but being too afraid to defy it openly… Hating herself but paradoxically buying into the propaganda that she’s superior to others.

          Lilith is having a crisis on what to do/believe, she’s a walking contradiction pulled between two options, and she needs Eda as comfort- Either to encourage Lilith to side with Eda, or to have Eda go with her to the Emperor’s Coven. Lilith needs to be told what to do, because her life in the Emperor’s Coven taught her not to think for herself, she cursed Eda not because of her own judgment but because she thought it was what Belos would do. In the end, the decision ultimately boils down to just Lilith, as all of the effort in the world to change someone’s mind won’t do a thing, if they don’t wantto change.

           Lilith has to choose between what she really loves, wants, and values in life- She has to choose between the Coven System and Eda. And Lilith desperately wants Eda to recognize that she’s having a crisis herself, that she’s not as perfect as she claims, that Lilith too is struggling… Lilith wants Eda to acknowledge this, that Lilith IS working and trying to make things better between the two of them, and why can’t Eda just acknowledge and appreciate this?

          That’s why we have our last new line from this song, with the rest being repeated lyrics; “Tell me I am good enough”. Lilith has struggled with not being good enough for the Emperor’s Coven, not good enough for Belos… Not good enough for Eda, not as strong as her… Not as independent and brave, and Lilith feels like Eda is judging her for this, with Eda apparently thinks she’s always been better. Lilith wants, she desperately NEEDS and craves validation- To be told she’s good enough, just like her apprentice Amity.

          She’s tired of feeling undervalued, of feeling terrible and inferior, insignificant, that she always makes mistakes- She just wants someone to tell her for once that she did what she could, that Lilith tried her best, and it’s enough! Lilith wants someone to ignore her shortcomings and say she’s perfect and has nothing to improve on, that for once she DID make the right decision and has nothing to apologize for, hence why she’s stubborn about acknowledging how kidnapping Luz was unjustified because it’s for and Eda’s sakes. Lilith wants to be told that her victories against Eda were real and valid, and not the result of cowardly tactics and Eda not even giving it her all… Lilith wants to believe she’s good enough to be by Eda’s side, maybe even better- Or good enough to cure the curse, to have her efforts at least appreciated by Eda.

          But at the same time, Lilith wants someone to tell her that she never needed to ‘prove herself’, not by joining the Emperor’s Coven or anything else- And that this reassurance can help her leave and finally reconnect with Eda. If only Lilith had been told she was good enough, she never would’ve tried to take Eda’s spot in the Emperor’s Coven away from her… Lilith’s insecurity and feelings of inferiority are at the root of all of her flaws and mistakes in life, and if she can be told that she’s good enough, just this once, or that she feasibly CAN be at least- Then maybe she can finally make things right.

          And now, as of the finale- Lilith wants someone to tell her that she’s good enough, that her efforts have been recognized, that either she’s earned love, or has always been worthy of it- Lilith wants to be reassured that she deserves love and can even get it in the first place. She wants to be told that she doesn’t have to earn anything, after feeling like she’s had to work for everything in her life, Lilith is already entitled and due just for existing.

          And, at the Owl House… I really think she will get that kind of validation, and finally be able to heal as a result. Lilith can learn to agree with Eda that nobody has to prove they’re worth of dignity, respect, and love- Everybody is, that’s a right you really have to work to forfeit by being cruel to others. Lilith wants to be absolved of the guilt and blame in ways that aren’t productive, such as ignoring her own flaws… And ways that ARE, by recognizing that the Coven System has genuinely hurt and indoctrinated her, and failed to provide in ways it promised.

[ladyinbooks]

Ok, I’ve been um-ing and ah-ing over whether to post this or not (mostly because I am absolutely not here to upset anyone, only to have a good time). But stuff it. I’ve been chugging salty tea today, and this wouldn’t leave me alone.

So I’m going to have a (not-so) little grumble about writing, authors, and why authors should pipe down. (And I apologise in advance for the length of this, and the fact it’s not altogether coherent.)

I also want to preface this by saying you are, of course, free to disagree with me. :)

I wandered into a fandom last week, mostly just to have a peek over the barricades and see if there were any fics I liked. It’s a relatively small fandom, and the books it’s based on are moderately popular.

And lo, within thirty seconds, I had stumbled across shipping wars. Again.

(At this point I need to add: I don’t like shipping wars. I am absolutely a ‘ship and let ship’ kind of person, who doesn’t give two hoots what anyone else is shipping, as long as we’re all having fun and nobody’s getting hurt.)

Arguments were going back and forth, but one of the points I kept seeing made over and over by a certain group of shippers was: ‘But the author doesn’t like ship X. They specifically said it would never be endgame, and it was toxic.’ This was, I believe, meant to be the ‘winning’ argument.

And my reaction was: ‘So?’

Which brings me to Point 1 - Your ship does not have to be canon.

The whole point of fanfiction (and to a lesser extent fandom), is that it’s a transformative experience. The dynamics you’re interested in exploring outside of a canon setting are exactly that: outside the canon setting. You are taking original source material, and creating something different; exploring something new. This includes ships.

It therefore seems strangely reductive to point to a non-canon ship and go ‘Ah ha! Wrong! Because it’s not endgame and not canon!’

That’s... kind of the point?

Fandom shipping shouldn’t have to be about a ship becoming canon. It’s not about ‘winning’ that race over all the other shippers. Fandom shipping is quite literally about going ‘Hey, I found the potential dynamics of these two characters interesting, and I want to explore that.’

But Lady, the author said it was a toxic ship!

And my reaction is still: ‘So?’

Point 2 - The author is not God in a fandom space.

The author can tell you their opinion on a ship. They can tell you their intention. But they cannot tell you what you can and can’t ship. And their opinion certainly shouldn’t be weaponised against shippers, who are writing about a pairing the author disapproves of.

For thousands of years, human beings have been taking well known stories and rewriting them. This isn’t new; it isn’t revolutionary. Authors create fascinating worlds, and people want to explore them, and the characters that inhabit them.

But as an author, you also don’t then get to dictate how people explore that world and those character (and that includes shipping). People relate to different characters; they may not see the same traits in a character you do; they may be fascinated by the possibility of exploring safely, in fiction, a relationship they know full well is portrayed as toxic.

Which brings me to my third point.

Point 3 - The author is not God at all.

Taking the theme from Point 2 and applying it more widely, I want to reiterate what I said: an author can tell you their opinion on an element of their work, and they can tell you their intention when writing. But they cannot tell you that you have misinterpreted their book and its narrative.

I know this is hotly debated, and I apologise, but I come down firmly on the side of: there is no one ‘correct’ interpretation. (I know, I know, a background in Classics gives me a bias, where we all reinterpret the same single piece of source material over and over, because we have nothing else.)

Every single reader who picks up a book will have a slightly different reading experience. We all bring unconscious bias with us; we all bring personal preferences. We all have different backgrounds, formative experiences and viewpoints.

Which means we are never, ever all going to read a book in the same way.

And that also means the author is never going to be able to create only one interpretation of their book.

So.

You can disagree with the author.

There, I said it.

I’m just going to use Icarus, Burning here as a quick example. I can talk about my ideas around IB pretty much forever. I can (and do!) excitedly ramble about it, and overthink things, and generally make an idiot of myself. And I’m lucky enough to have bumped into some amazing people on here who let me do it!

But.

I also firmly and completely believe that whilst I can tell you what I was aiming for when writing IB, you can disagree with me and your opinion is equally valid. You will see what I can’t; you will bring interpretations to it that I hadn’t even thought of.

This applies to anything within the text, and anything outside of it too.

For example, I can tell you that Samiel and Jay went on to live a long and happy life together, and nothing ever tore them apart again. That’s fine. That’s what I wanted to happen, and it’s what I’ve done my best to show as the likeliest outcome. However, you can disagree. You can think that it was a love forged in a time of conflict, and it’s not going to last during peace time.

Are you wrong?

No.

I may disagree with you; I may not especially like that interpretation. It doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. All it means is you’ve taken the story I’ve created, applied your own interpretation to it, and reached a different conclusion.

And that is exactly as it should be.

I mean, there are courses on this. You can go to university and study interpreting narratives. Literature degrees are quite literally about textual interpretation.

Do we ask Byron what he was thinking? Or Wilde? Have we gone back and decided that unless Homer specifically tells us that Achilles and Patroclus were shacked up together as romantic partners, we can’t possibly view their relationship in this light? (Aeschylus and Plato would disagree with you, by the way, but they too are bringing their own experiences and biases.)

Which is a very long-winded way of me saying: fandom (and wider readership) seems to have forgotten it’s not possible to interrogate a text from the wrong perspective.

Can you have your opinion? Yes. Does that mean the author has to agree with you? No. Does that automatically mean the author’s viewpoint on the work trumps yours? No.

In short: readers shouldn’t use an author’s ‘Word of God’ to prove a point, and authors shouldn’t either.

The author wrote the book, the author let it loose in the universe.

And now it’s up to everyone else how they want to engage with it.

[putschki1969]

Wakana e-onkyo Interview English Translation

Note: The first interview with Wakana regarding her cover album. Some juicy details so be sure to check it out!! A little highlight: Hitoshi Konno provided his violin playing for the album!! As always, take everything you read with a grain of salt, my Japanese is by no means perfect. If you want to use this translation or parts of it, be sure to CREDIT me and LINK to this post.

■ SPECIAL INTERVIEW ー with Wakana

Wakana debuted in 2008 as a member of Kalafina. In February 2019 she made her debut as solo singer. Her cover album "Wakana Covers ~ Anime Classics ~" has just been released. It features anime songs in a classic arrangement. Be smitten by Wakana’s charming and expressive vocals, she adjusts her voice to fit the mood of each song. Also pay attention to the unique sound which perfectly conveys the image the different arrangers envisioned. We talked about the songs, her singing,  the arrangements and the overall sound.

── I think everyone has long been hoping for you to release an album with the concept of covering anime songs with a classical arrangment. What inspired you to pick this particular timing?

Wakana: It was partly because I appeared in my producer’s event "Satoshi Takebe Premium Duo Session Special Vol.9 Satoshi Takebe x Wakana" last November. Takebe-san suggested we should do some covers and I told him I would love to sing some Ghibli songs. That’s how we ended up performing a Ghibli medley which was a lot of fun. Having had that amazing experience, I was planning to do a series of live performances starting this spring where I would cover anime songs in collaboration with a female group called 1966Quartet.

── Unfortunately all plans for spring this year were ...

Wakana: Yes, the live was cancelled before it even got announced. However, I had planned to hold the second instalment of that concert series in December anyway so we decided to just start from there.

── So were you planning to announce the release of the album during the spring live and then accompany the release with the winter live! Was it supposed to be like that?

Wakana: Actually, at the beginning, it was only a live project, I had no plans to release an album. However, during the stayhome period while I was filming videos for my fan club, I asked the fans, "are there any songs you want me to sing?" There were many people who mentioned anime songs, especially Ghibli songs. Needless to say, I loved all the suggetions and I realised that fans would probably be very happy if I released an album in advance of the live. So, while secretly starting the album production, I uploaded some covers on YouTube to get everyone excited. Eventually I was able to announce that, “yes, I am actually working on an album!”

── When it comes to the production of an album like that, the most difficult thing is selecting songs.

Wakana: If the choice had been up to me only the album would be full of Ghibli *laughs*, in order to prevent that I gathered the opinions of everyone around me and this is how we ended up with the final tracklist. For example, I came up with the idea to include a "Doraemon" song and some newer pieces from Makoto Shinkai movies but "Yatsura No Ashioto No Ballade" and "Get Wild" are songs that I wouldn't have suggested myself. I didn't think I would ever cover a song like "Get Wild".

── With so many Ghibli songs to choose from wasn't it particularly difficult to decide which songs to include in and which songs to give a pass?

Wakana: It was!! For example, I was adamant about having “Kaze no Toorimichi” on the album but that forced be to remove “Teru no Uta” from my list because both songs have a similar atmosphere. Then there were songs like “Kimi wo Nosete”. When I performed it together with Takebe-san at this live it left such a strong impression on me. Plus, I have always liked it so I KNEW I had to have it on the album. In fact, this song came to my mind first when thinking about the selection of songs for this album, I was literally crying removing song after song from my list of candidates but I comforted myself with the thought that I would eventually use all those songs for my live performance in December!

── How did you arrange each of the songs once you managed to select them?

Wakana: I asked three arrangers to help me this time, Shin Hashimoto, Miki Sakurai and Shu Kanematsu. According to the image I wanted to convey with each song, I gave it to one of my three arrangers. We held many remote meetings where I first talked about the image I had in mind for the individual songs and in response to that, the arrangers sent me their suggestions... Everyone came up with absolutely wonderful arrangements that go far beyond anything I could have ever imagined!

── I think that deciding on the key is also a problem for a cover song. Did you decide that after consulting with your arrangers?

Wakana: It's not as simple as to just change a male singer's song into a key that is easy for women to sing, after all, you don’t want to ruin the atmosphere of the song by changing the key too much. To begin with I sent sample recordings of me singing certain patterns for each song to the arranger and then arranger would suggest a key they found fitting. I asked them to send me accompaniment that matched their preferred key and then I re-recorded my singing with their accompaniment to get a feel for the overall atmosphere. So with that sort of exchange between myself and the arrangers we selected the perfect key that would suit each song.

── When you say that you don’t want to ruin the atmosphere of a song by changing the key, what exactly do you mean by that and could you name a song where this applies?

Wakana: Take "Rain" for example, the key is a little too low for me which doesn’t exactly make it easy for me to sing but I think that singing it with this key will bring you closer to the world created by Senri Oe and Motohiro Hata. A world that’s filled with tears, tears by men.

── "Rain" is a song with particularly strong emotions from a male perspective.

Wakana: It took a while to get into the lyrics. Kanematsu-san who was in charge of the arrangement helped me interpret the song from a male perspective. Towards the end of the lyrics there is a line that says "Whistling, I follow". Why does he whistle in this moment? I didn't understand. So when I asked Kanematsu-san, he said, "I think the man in this song is trying to appear cool." And indeed, when I read other phrases such as "incapable of words" or "in front of the eyes of the world" at the beginning it suddenly made sense. Once I had challenged myself with this song I came to the conclusion that I want to sing more manly songs from now on. This song truly taught me the pleasures of reading and singing certain lyrics.

── And then on the contrary, we have a song like “Yasashisa ni Tsutsumareta Nara” which is sung from the point of view of a little girl.

Wakana: I knew I had to give this song to Sakurai-san to arrange, it needed a woman’s touch. That image of Kiki flying though the sky and that final scene where Tombo finally flies on his very own machine. This song has such a refreshing vibe and a sense of speed, it’s transporting you right into the future. It was not my intention to change those images, I wanted to stay very faithful to the original atmosphere. That’s why I asked Sakurai-san to keep the refreshing vibe and only make some other slight changes.

── Being overwhelmed with love for a song like this, did you have trouble approaching it as a singer?

Wakana: When I went to see one of Yumin-san's live performance, Yumin-san said, "I'm so happy that I am still in love with the world I envisioned as a girl." This brought tears to my eyes. There is still so much love. You have believed in God since you were little and you want to do your very best without ever giving up just like Kiki! That’s it!! That's why this song has such a girlish cuteness and innocence! But how to best express it through my own singing? I worried quite a lot about this. I consulted with Sakurai-san and Shin Hashimoto-san, who was in charge of the direction of all the songs, and somehow we decided on a singing style that all of us liked.

── Although it is faithful to the world of the song, it does not really resemble Yumin's singing style. For example, Yumin is applying a lot of vibrato starting from the first few lines but you are stretching out your notes in a calm manner followed by a bit of vibrato.

Wakana: That way of singing is unique to Yumin. I was not trying to simply copy the original songs, nor was it my intention to surpass them. I just love these songs so much which is why I tried singing them with as much joy and carefreeness as possible. I think I was able to do that because I had lots of time to face each song during the stay home period.

── So you were able to sing these songs you love so much without putting too much effort into it?

Wakana: In terms of singing, I was working a lot on my breathing technique this spring, so I guess the results of that came out while I was working on the album. My vocal coach said, "humans do not consciously inhale or exhale. If you exhale naturally, you will inhale naturally so there is no need to overthink it. This was especially true for “Toki ni wa Mukashi no Hanashi wo”, when I want to sing as if I'm talking, I don't want to put consciously add a breath. After all, I don't think about breathing when I'm talking. So I just let it happen naturally. 

── Is there anything we should pay attention to in terms of the sound of the arrangement?

Wakana: Everything really. But there is maybe one thing I would like to point out ... I was surprised that Kanematsu-san suggested we arrange "Inochi no Namae" with only strings and no other instruments. Listening to this song by itself is amazing but hearing it alongside the other tracks is quite fascinating because there is an audible change due to the lack of other instruments. In addition, the beautiful atmosphere from the recording studio is conveyed wonderfully through the music. When we were recording it felt like time had stood still.

── Are there any other things that impressed you when you were present at the recordings?

Wakana: “Ai ni dekiru koto wa mada aru kai” was arranged for piano, violin, and cello but we used the main area of Victor Entertainment’s largest studio to have Okuizumi-san play all by himself on the cello while Shin-san on the piano and Konno-san on the violin were recording in adjacent booths. We wanted the sound of the cello to be heard clearly since it takes up such a big portion of the song. Speaking of sound, “Yatsura No Ashioto No Ballade” is rather simple and only consists of my singing and a piano accompaniment.  We did a very basic racording and kept it quite raw without adding too much sound components to the song. I wanted to create a special atmosphere for the recording so we darkened the room, and I sat in a chair. All of a sudden I was becoming aware of sounds I had never noticed before, the creaking of the chair, my clothes rustling. I didn’t want these noises to be included in the recording because I feared it would end up being too raw so I made a lot of effort to record it while making as little noise as possible *laughs*.

── I was surprised by the arrangement towards the end of “Get Wild”  since you didn’t add a semitone-upward key change.

Wakana: …… Ahh! Now that you mention it.

── But it didn’t take away from the enjoyment since the tension was still incredibly high from the interlude, I didn't even realise at first that there was no modulation *laughs*. Besides, if you had transposes it up a semitone according to the original song, it would have sounded too pop-like and the classical atmosphere would have diminished.

Wakana: Regarding "Get Wild", I was particularly worried that the charm of the song would be lost by using a key more suited for a female singer. So I was adamant to make this song the most powerful out of all tracks. I asked the members of 1966 Quartet to record it because I wanted this song to have a sprinting vibe reminiscent of their Beatles and other UK rock covers. As for my singing style, unlike "Rain" which I sang in the early stages of production with gradually strenghtening, I sang this song with a lot of strength from the get-go both in the verses as well as in the choruses.In the original sample I sent my singing was still quite soft but then I realised that wouldn’t work, I needed something different so I decided to sing in a fierce manner from the first note onwards. The arrangement is also based on that.

── In your YouTube videos - including a recording of “Get Wild”- you are using Victor's new model "HA-MX100V" as monitor headphones.

Wakana: Those headphones have a really clear sound and I am not only using them for vocal recording but also for track down, mastering check, home recording and video editing. Also, in the latter half of the recording, I started using Shure headphones recommended by Kanematsu-san and my engineer. When using them, you hear the exact same thing in the recording booth and control room !

── You use Victor and Shure for your work. What about headphones outside of work?

Wakana: When I am travelling by train or car I like to listen to music. So Sony's noise cancelling headphones are my favourite. Even when I am  travelling on a heavy rainy highway, the sound of the rain and the roaring noise in the tunnel are all cancelled out! I also have wireless earphones and use them quite a lot.

── Good headphones are becoming more appealing than ever for music fans especially now with the ever-increasing number of live streams.

Wakana: That’s true! If you are using wireless headphones, you may be worried about the synch-gap between the video and audio so I think that a pair of high-quality wired headphones is perfect for a live stream. For my upcoming live "Wakana Anime Classic 2020" the audience capacity has been halved so we also decided to offer a live stream option.

── That’sgreat news!

Wakana: I think that some people find it difficult to attend the live because of the distance to Tokyo and the fact that they do not want to worry about getting sick in the current situation. So I'm very happy that everyone can enjoy it in the form of live stream. Since this is my first attempt there is still a lot to learn but with the help of many people around me we are trying to think of various things to make this experience enjoyable for everyone. There a re a lot of things to consider after all, things such as stage sets and video production.

── You mentioned that you would be singing songs that didn’t make it to the album?

Wakana: Definitely! And of course the songs from the album but I would like to sing them with a unique arrangement that can only be heard during the live performances. Please look forward to all of it!

── I'm looking forward to it!

Wakana: And there is something that’s actually still a secret ...

── What is it?

Wakana: Four Hippos will be the appointed image characters for my live! Since I am only doing covers I thought it would be fitting to use hippos as motif. [Note: “hippo” in Japanese is read the same way as “cover”]

── Thank you.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

VLD S8 – The Purpose of Lance’s Altean Markings, Allura’s Canonically Inconsistent “Death,” and Voltron’s Mysterious Interstellar Road Trip in the End: Are Things Really As They Seem?

Hello dear ones, I received asks to follow up on my previous post about Allura’s capability to live a very long life if she hadn’t died in s8. I’d mentioned in this post that Alfor had connected Allura’s life force to the indestructible Voltron, and that this had significant implications for Lance’s strange Altean marks and Allura’s “death” in s8. So this is me, attempting to follow up on those requests! 

Let’s start with those strange marks. It seems like a lot of us who have watched Voltron: Legendary Defender season 8 scratched our heads over Lance receiving Altean marks at all:

This event happens when Allura and the paladins are standing in the “connected consciousness of all existence”—which is this…Mother-Brain realm for every consciousness that ever existed ever. Allura is preparing to sacrifice herself alongside Honerva, because they both have to give of their energy to regenerate the fallen multiverse. Honerva is already accepting of this and already interacting with her dead family whose minds and forms are preserved within the Mother-Brain space. It seems, even so, Honerva is still alive because she hasn’t yet completed the foretold Wild Sacrifice Move of Ultimate Alchemy alongside Allura: 

The Big Boom of Life happens after this point, so there’s something fascinatingly screwy about this realm. The typical separations between the Living and the Death are just…totally meaningless. We’re actively seeing a living Honerva physically interact with the minds and forms of her fallen son and husband. And if this Mother-Brain location truly preserves the consciousness of all existence, then I suppose it actually makes sense to me that Allura and Honerva could still be alive themselves while also being able to interact with the Dead who are preserved within this realm…

But Allura—she turns to the paladins and tells them that they’re all about to experience a massive fragmentation from her. It seems pretty heavily suggested that she’s going to die. In doing so, she kisses Lance and then gives him Altean marks: 

And the first question I have is….whyyyy the marks? What the heck was that for? Because I think it’s really weird that she’d just give Lance the most visually identifying mark for her own species. At least, I think it’s weird on the surface. The more important question may lie within Allura’s motives...and that gets into some much larger implications for ways to view those marks and the show’s ending. Some of the theories I’ve seen about those marks:

Theory 1: Lance as Trans-Species to Preserve Allura’s Species and/or Allura Giving Lance Some Unknown Gift/Power

I want to bring this up because it appears to be a largely accepted theory that I’m now heavily questioning. I’m not sure who first vocalized this understanding of canon, but Neko Chicana offers the theory in their Youtube video “Why did Lance get Altean markings!?” The theory is that in Allura’s last-minute panic about dying, she was trying to ensure The Chosen Altean vibes got passed down. This would mean that Allura infused Lance with deep Altean powers to inherently change him from being human into being a trans-species human/Altean.

But I struggle with this interpretation, because…she already had an entire colony of Alteans, many of whom clearly were presenting with high quintessence sensitivity and would have been even potentially fit for Oriande. And it’s not like Lance was going to know how to apply alchemy without learning it anyway.

In terms of the transformation itself, it’s incredibly superficial. It’s a face-lift and that’s it, as Lance never exhibits any other features of a standard Altean. And not just from a visual perspective, but also from a physiological one. He definitely is not shown suddenly freaking out over having alchemy powers. He isn’t shown connecting with anything on the astral plane. I would even posit that he appears to be aging right alongside his fellow humans, given his more adult/less baby-face facial structure in the epilogue, just like everyone else:

This article here seems to contain a similar level of skepticism about a genuinely trans-species Lance. 

And what would even be the point of converting Lance to have a token visage of Alteans, if Allura knows that his true heart and soul lies with his human family? Just by Allura’s reaction of disgust to his rounded ears in season 1, it seems pretty obvious that other Alteans would see him as “other.” If anything, a trans-species interpretation overly complicates the show here and generally can’t provide a self-contained, meaningful reason for its existence at all. 

Theory Two: The Markings as a Token of a Lost Lover/Remembrances

Another suggestion has been that Allura gives Lance such markings just as…a reminder? Of herself? But I don’t feel this at all makes sense with seven previous seasons of her character behavior.

Allura is shown consistently trying to sacrifice herself and her things at all costs, without anything in return or demanding that people remember her. She did it in season 1 to regenerate a Balmera, knowing full well she could die. But we don’t see her asking Coran to sing a pretty song for her. She sacrifices herself again for Shiro, by tossing him out of the way of Galran soldiers, without even begging that he come back for her. She sacrifices herself in Oriande to the White Lion. She sacrifices her crown in season 7 to stabilize Shiro. She even gives up her dresses and her station as a princess in order to better fit in with the humans in season 7. It’s not inherent in Allura’s character to demand anything in return for her sacrifices, much less that she be remembered for them. As a matter of fact, she’s very particular about ensuring that other people get recognized for their actions, and she’ll often place her own good work as part of a “whole” accomplished by the many. Here’s an example from season 6, episode 1:

So here we see her raising up other people and their contributions rather than demanding some offering or worship for her actions.

Princess Allura doesn’t even hold a grudge for Keith being accepted as Black Paladin or Lance as Red Paladin in s3, despite the fact that she secretly cried over it.

So, Allura wanting anything in return for what she sacrifices, or trying to intentionally drag down someone’s spirit for her own comfort, is not inherent to her character. If anything in s8, Allura consistently seems to want the paladins to move on without her:

In response to the emotional distress of the other paladins, she doesn’t give them an everlasting token to memorialize herself, but instead gives encouragement for the future:

And even Shiro! He warns her that she’s about to become the multiverse’s most anonymous hero:

And Allura’s response to this?

So Princess Allura went into this s8 self-sacrifice, fully expecting that the paladins would keep her actions totally secret. She was completely and utterly prepared to accept the very reality that Lotor had threatened her with in season 6:

So literally the only reason in s8 that anyone remembers Princess Allura…is because the paladins choose to honor her memory despite her stated sentiments against it:

So…all of this is to say, I don’t think it makes sense to assume that suddenly, Allura would want to forever keep Lance from moving on. She’s literally handed them her blessing to move on, and suggested that they even hide what she’s done. It’s the paladins who choose to remember her. So I think there’s a lot of evidence to suggest against an interpretation where Allura was intentionally trying to mark Lance to be her forever-doomed lost love. It’s completely inconsistent with other surrounding details about who Allura is.

I think there’s instead evidence to suggest a new theory about these marks. And if anyone’s suggested this before, please feel free to jump in, lol. I’m like, 1.5 years behind the times here, although I did find this article that also would seem to support the theory: 

Theory Three: Lance’s Altean Marks as a Tactical Homing/Location Beacon, Strengthened by His and Allura’s Shared Bonds With Blue Lion

Before she casually walks off to her alleged death, Allura tells Lance, “I’ll always be with you.” And then she gives him the Altean marks:

While I think this “I’ll always be with you” statement has some classic lessen the hurt of impending death vibes, Allura herself actually states she’ll always be with him. How certain are we that she’s not being actually serious? That this isn’t an intentional decision to ensure some kind of ongoing link?

So backing up here, we know from previous seasons that Altean markings can glow, unlike the rest of their body. They appear to glow in response to external stimuli. For example, in season 5, Allura and Lotor’s markings glow because they are within the vicinity of Oriande and have a deep well of quintessence within them. And this glowy activity is discriminatory, because Coran’s marks don’t glow:

Lance’s own markings initially glow when activated by Allura:

So for Lance’s markings to glow at all, that means something is happening. It means that an all-new, external stimulus is making those markings react, and that the magic of it is active. And that Lance is now housing enough magic to react.

That article I linked to earlier suggests that perhaps Allura intended to use the marks as….a communicative link with Lance. However, in a full year since Allura’s disappearance, we see no evidence that Lance has been talking to a mysterious spirit!Allura. He seems pretty depressed, and everyone seems largely accepting of the concept that Allura is dead and also is incapable of interaction.

In which case, if you did have a link to a supposedly dead person, even if you wanted to keep it secret, wouldn’t you at least look a little more…happy? That they’re not actually gone? So something’s a little screwy there too, that makes me think Lance wasn’t in some kind of interdimensional communication with Allura.

But I do think Lance’s markings, and how they glow in response to external power sources in the final episode, suggest something about Allura’s state of being.

So let’s jump in. We know that Allura’s life force is inherently tied to Voltron:

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post of mine: Right in season 1, episode 1, Coran admits that Alfor has done some pretty wild alchemy. He physically connected Allura’s essence with the essence of Voltron—the single source of self-regenerating, infinite quintessence throughout the whole of the entire universe.

I don’t know if a person’s life force being personally connected to Voltron would confer physical immortality, but I do think there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that as long as Voltron exists, Allura’s essence would be preserved within it. And as we saw in season 6, Shiro was capable of interacting with other paladins despite his physical death, because Black Lion had preserved his essence….

All of this backstory and worldbuilding means at the very least that Allura was also capable of linking some part of her quintessence to Lance as well. And that, even if she hypothetically didn’t have a body on the material plane, that she would be very active on the astral one.

So why specifically Altean marks, then?

This isn’t the first time in the show that strangely powerful bonds have been made by the touching of faces and the transfer of energy around Altean marks. As a matter of fact, we might have even seen Alfor actively bind Allura’s life-force with Voltron, right here:

In which case, Allura was simply mimicking the work of her father as she knew it, but on a much smaller scale. Because she knew from her father that it was possible to bond life-forces, and for some reason, that alchemy trick appears to involve the face or else something to do with Altean markings.

So therefore, the activation of this marking “link” and alchemical bond might help to explain why Lance actually appears to be smiling with tears in his eyes when the Voltron lions fly away:

But why even Lance specifically?? What about all the other paladins she’s made connections? What makes Lance so totally special?

It might not be unintentional that, out of all the lions possible, the one to respond to some unknown activator one year later—with massive amounts of quintessence in the bond—is Blue Lion.

Notice that while the other lions are in flight, none of them are glowing like Blue Lion. There’s something inherently special about Blue Lion right now, especially given that it’s not even the leader of the pack.

In this scene, we see the paladins rushing out per all the ruckus. Lance’s markings start to glow:

And then the lions powerfully surge off on their merry, totally unexplained way:

So…in looking back at this, it’s interesting that Lance’s marks are shown glowing in ONLY two instances: 1) When Allura first activates them, and 2) When the marks themselves mysterious activate again in response to Blue Lion glowing outrageously blue, and the lions soaring off into space as well…

Is it a mistake that Lance just so happens to be the only other living Blue Paladin in the universe?

Allura’s life force might have been connected to the full of Voltron, but season 3 shows that her communicative/mental connection to it is through Blue Lion alone. Because Black Lion certainly had nothing to say to her, at the very least.

So Allura’s life force is connected to Voltron…Blue Lion responds to an unknown source of massive, pure quintessence, and then Voltron follows…Lance’s markings start to glow....

Could it be that in order to even re-locate Voltron and the paladins again in the larger scheme of the multiverse, Allura needed Lance’s connection to Blue Lion as well? To keep Allura in spiritual/mental communion with Voltron and with that universe?

With Allura gone and the Atlas portion of Voltron totally missing from Voltron, there’s the hint that possibly the Lion Musical Chairs event has undone itself and reconfigured once more. Blue Lion has re-accepted Lance, with Keith and Shiro piloting Red and Black. The lineup in the screenshot below would suggest that Shiro’s the one in Red this time, resulting in an interesting addition to the Keith and Shiro relationship arc. It suggests that Shiro is now back on the team as an established paladin, as the right hand of the Black Paladin, and is actively supporting Keith’s ongoing growth as a leader:

But if Blue Lion were Allura’s only true connection to “speak” with and interact with Voltron on a material plane, then it would make sense that she would intentionally connect her own life-force to the last Blue Paladin.

Lance, out of all of the paladins and with respect to this lineup shown here, is the only one who would be even remotely capable of ensuring this link in their universe (notwithstanding as well that canonically, Allura was in a romantic relationship with him, which might have something to do with this too, idk).

So what does this mean for Allura’s state of being? What’s exactly happening in this moment? Why do the lions leave their paladins? Is everything truly so pointless and nihilistic?

So Lance’s markings and the exit of the Voltron lions result in what I feel are two interpretations of the entire end of Voltron. And I think one is potentially more consistent with the overall show than the other:

Theory One: Allura Really Died/Shed Her Physical Body/Was Lost to the Material Plane After a Year of Hard Work

So, we do have evidence that the work to restore the full of the multiverse began pretty quickly, and that there was an explosive event to jumpstart it:

We otherwise have no evidence to support that this image meant the work (to restore every thread and all things within the threads) was DONE. Yet. It may have taken an entire year to regenerate the multiverse, which would explain the Voltron lions suddenly reacting strangely after that span of time. If we assume that Allura really died, then this would suggest that—with the overarching multiverses finally totally restored—her energy is spent up. She’s physically dying. And per the extinguishing of her own life force, Voltron….somehow can’t exist on the material plane without her? Because let’s not forget, the whole mecha is connected to her life force. So this interpretation would suggest that in her dying/being unable to remain on the material plane, Voltron itself has to die as well. This could explain why at the end here, they activate to go be with Allura and team in the shiny afterlife party in the Mother-Brain dimension. Lance may be crying here because he feels or recognizes the last of Allura’s energy slipping away. And it’s possible I was misinterpreting his smile earlier, because it’s, idk, maybe a sob.

And there does seem to be some canon support for a potentially permanent break between Allura and the material plane, as well as for why Voltron would leave:

But I’m really struggling to understand the deathy interpretation of these events at the end of s8, from SEVERAL angles, haha.

Strike One:

This scene would appear to blatantly and outrageously contradict previous show worldbuilding. To accept a “death” interpretation, one must also accept that s8 completely rewrites the inherent properties and behavior of quintessence, as well as show details that Alteans/Altean technologies more consistently function as conduits/capacitors of external energy sources rather than as massive batteries by themselves. The true batteries, even into season 7 with Shiro and Atlas, appear to be becoming from sources external to the power-wielder. This reality largely relieves the personal cost of any alchemical action/draining oneself, just so long as you have a powerful enough battery. In which case, given the resources and deep knowledge available to Allura and Honerva even in this apocalyptic moment, any action resulting in physical death feels...unearned.

If you’re interested in more specifically about this, I have a few other posts looking at these basic worldbuilding details:

Question on Quintessence and General Worldbuilding in     VLD S8

The Search for the “Bluest Quintessence” and S6 - The Most     Unnecessary Conspiracy In VLD?

It’s entirely possible I could be missing some information that would reconcile the s8 worldbuilding contradictions about quintessence and Altean energy back to the previous seven seasons. I suppose it’s possible that this s8 regeneration trick resulted in Allura and Honerva being physically unable to handle the amount of power they were conducting. But just after casually re-watching the show, I heavily question whether this is possible or consistent with everything else, haha.

Strike Two:

The concept of Voltron not being needed in a peaceful universe is nonsensical. So this show is telling me that a gigantic mecha capable of massive construction projects and space anomaly protection services couldn’t reorganize its paladins or get new ones, and transition to a new day job? Because Voltron has to exist in a combat theater only? This is wildly myopic, especially considering that Voltron already has a team of five who could pilot it again via a little game of musical chairs…and even the final lineup shown would suggest that Shiro had already taken over Red. I guess if the Galra aren’t attacking?? This must mean that there won’t be any civilizations in need of help or in need of being protected from imminent natural disasters?? At the very least, a new day job would be an incredibly meaningful way to convert Voltron from a war machine to a champion of the people. And it would still give the paladins a reason to come back together as a team and to exercise the bonds they’ve forged together as defenders of the universe.

Strike Three:

After this s8 scene, and even assuming Allura has physically died, Voltron existed before Allura got linked to it. And it existed as a largely infinite and indestructible source of energy. Even if Allura did die, the loss of her personal quintessence was of no account to its existence. The worldbuilding of Voltron as a mecha suggests it didn’t need her to continue existing on the material plane like it had existed before their alchemical link from Alfor. And even if she’d died, taking Voltron’s life-force with her away from the material plane, then why in the world wouldn’t Voltron just…totally power down? Become completely inert with the lights fading from its eyes? But then, oh wait, according to the last seven seasons, Voltron is supposed to be indestructible and constantly self-regenerating even when temporarily drained, so how could it power down forever? Even the concept that Voltron could physically destroy/remove itself from the material world to fully join Allura on the astral plane is an oxymoron.

And even if Allura’s life force was fading out and the Voltron lions are dying too, how in the world could Lance’s Altean markings suddenly even manage to glow in response to an active and powerful external stimulus? And why would the lions themselves suddenly be lighting up and capable of expending massive amounts of energy on a sudden, random interstellar space trip?

Even if the Lions themselves longed to reunite with its dead creator or its missing piece per their Allurian life-force link (despite them clearly not caring when Alfor died or when Allura got put in stasis 10k years ago), this show would have me believe that Voltron wanted to die or give up? And...for what? To lounge about in an afterlife Cabana for Retired Mechas, sipping quintessence drinks while the universe experiences ongoing natural physical disasters or anomalies that could endanger entire galaxies? What if more trans-reality comets fell from the sky? They appear to not be an isolated incident, and where there’s one, there’s usually more…What if that causes more rifts to open? And let’s just assume for a moment that those two comets are the only two trans-reality comets in the multiverse. I guess we can all sleep tight tonight because Voltron is unconcerned that the universe still has several weak stitches between it and the quintessence field, where dark entities and rift creatures roam? Lol, what?

Lotor even confirms these weaknesses in season 4:

“Zarkon believed Alfor’s plan to blow up Daibazaal and destroy the rift between realities actually worked. No one comprehended that the experiments of my mother, Honerva, could never be undone.”

Lotor’s statement here would suggest that after everything that’s happened, it might be even easier to break open rifts. But okay cool, time for Voltron’s retirement/death, I guess. Just leave a peaceful universe to be one day swallowed up and destroyed by shadow rift creatures, dark entities, apocalyptic comets, and natural disasters…

Everything about the Allura/Voltron death theory doesn’t make sense to me and raises more questions than answers. So let’s look at another way of viewing this ending!

Theory Two: Allura Didn’t Die At All—She Just Finished Working for the Year And Needs a Ride Home

The fact that Voltron survives and is activated into movement by an external source of massive, pure quintessence suggests that Allura is likely NOT dead and is STILL ALIVE. In this case, the astronomical undertaking of regenerating a multiverse still took a full year to complete. We do know there’s no major time slippage between the paladin’s universe and the Universal Consciousness realm, because the paladins were seen right back in the heart of establishing/confirming peace when they returned to their universe. And again, s8 also shows people being able to interact on the border between the Living and the Dead, so Allura simply existing within this realm should not be enough to kill her. Because life and death are largely meaningless concepts in this space where all consciousnesses are preserved.

So, if Allura is alive and just finished her work, then oop, now she’s stuck in the middle of Space Nowhere without a certain ride home. So who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters. Voltron is the only ship that Allura has a deep psychical and life-force link to, so it would be within canonical bounds that if she just helped resurrect the multiverse, then surely one hard-working princess could use Lance’s markings (her own life force) to relocate her own universe, and then use that bond on the material plane to call Voltron from across the universe to come pick her up, lol.

I really like this re-interpretation of canon for several reasons:

One, it feels a lot more consistent with the world-building and the overall tone of the show.

Two, it suggests a much happier ending where canon confirms—sort of like the Iron Giant (1999) ending—that Allura would eventually reunite on the material plane with the paladins.

Three, it suggests that there’s been a full one-year span of time where Allura and Honerva were both working together to restore the universe…while in the presence of and even interacting with Alfor, Zarkon, and Lotor, and probably a billion other dead people they thought were gone forever, but who were preserved in form and mind within the Consciousness of the universe. I feel like there’s just LOADs of possible content someone could get out of this. Did Honerva and Zarkon reunite? Did Alfor get to hug his baby girl again? Did Allura and Lotor have a major heart-to-heart discussion about the Altean colony and his quintessence insanity, and positively reconcile? Which, regardless of however you interpret what Lotor’s accused of, Allura had already…exonerated his motives and turned him into, like, a Joan of Arc figure well before she saw him again. And she even wanted Honerva to honor his memory by doing the right thing:

So there’s some clear signs that Allura and Lotor could have reconciled now that there’s no apparent quintessence insanity or witch shenanigans afoot... And it’s very likely that Allura might have even reconciled with the true, uncorrupted Emperor Zarkon himself:

 And in the meantime, what would the paladins of old be like? Were there other victims of this war who would have found it meaningful to interact in some way to obtain justice for themselves…or to obtain something more??

And this gets into reason four of why I like this re-interpretation of the ending. So canonically, mechas created out of the trans-reality comet are infinitely regenerating and indestructible. So not just Voltron, but also the Honervian/Sincline mecha. This suggests that Allura already had a ride home.

So why would Allura need more ships?

This interpretation has the potential to reverse all the painful deaths that happened throughout the show. The original paladins, the Alteans and Galrans who perished for various reasons...Alfor, Bandor, Lotor, Kova…even deaths we didn’t see.

And in calling Voltron back to her, is Allura maybe…planning to bring some new friends with her too? If she already has the Honervian/Sincline mecha to fly home, why does she need all five lions, anyway? Who would pilot them? Who else is waiting patiently in the celestial mind/heart of the multiverse to return to reality with her?

And reason five, on a simpler and maybe less galaxy-brain note, this interpretation provides a completely different context, however apparently sorrowful, for Allura’s canonical goodbyes:

Allura’s path did end here...at least as a paladin of Voltron. Because that position was temporary anyway. Restoring the multiverse was going to be an ultimate act. And there’s probably nothing after this that Allura could perform to outdo herself in saving things, lol. This is the height of everything she is and has worked for. She intentionally identifies this as her purpose:

“It is my purpose.”

Her action in s8 is the full and total culmination of everything she has learned and grown capable of doing since s1. Everything has been leading up to this. It’s her one chance to undo all the universal pain. And through restoring the multiverse, she’d be restoring balance in her own life too—to reconnect with her fragmented past, to give those from her past a chance to live in the new universe with her….

The other paladins, though—they were still needed in the meantime to confirm peace with the Galran empire, to convert it (however questionably) to a democracy, and to establish relations between Earth and other vast galaxies of people. Allura was not wrong that their paths as paladins had not ended. Because she needed them to ensure their universe would be truly at peace while she was up in the stars, working to restore and reconcile with all that had been lost in painful war.

And all of this would ultimately suggest that she would return to the universe, to the paladins, and probably take back the piece of her life force she’d given Lance that ensured a link with Blue Lion. Because…that homing beacon wouldn’t be needed anymore. Perhaps Allura would even consider decoupling the remainder of her life-force from Voltron, to fully reconcile herself to herself. To finally be whole and just Allura again, idk.

The only major problem with the “Allura is Alive and Bringing Some Friends/Family Home” interpretation is that...lol, the development team for the show doesn’t subscribe to it, at least not in any outward way I’ve heard. Based on their March 28, 2019 interview with Let’s Voltron, the executive producers talk about Allura like she’s dead. They say that they wanted to show sacrifice, the impact of death, and how important it is to honor the memory of the dead:

And we definitely feel it. There is a massive weight of loss and memorial in the finale here. Coran looks just this side of totally broken as he remembers Allura, and he didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. He reiterates just how much Allura means to the people still alive in this universe:

“For some of us she was a diplomat, a teacher, a leader, and a friend. But to those of us around this table, she will always be family.”

The EPs have suggested that, like other shows, there may be ways to resurrect Allura, and there may have been happier endings possible. But again, please see the Theory 1 statements above regarding the massive worldbuilding contradictions when assuming that Allura had to die in the first place.

In which case, hilariously, the EPs have also expressed their interest in creative works that keep going, with plot tensions that require even supposedly dead heroes to return, as in this article here: 

“You can kill Captain America a million times and he’ll always show back up.”

So creator statements are just all over the place regarding the finality of “death” or even of “separation” in this universe. We definitely don’t get a body to prove that Allura is dead. And we also know that canonically, there is a place where the rift between the Dead and Living breaks down. And oh, by the way, Allura just regenerated entire multiverse strands that had been destroyed. So even if it’s not as simple as…holding someone’s hand as they step out of the consciousness realm, what canonical detail or limitation would keep her from resurrecting them herself? It is well within Allura’s canonical range to bring back all of these people without dying herself. 

Conclusion

Regardless of creator intention, the various contradictions in the worldbuilding itself make the angst of Allura’s death, the memorial statue, the lingering pain of the characters (oof, poor Coran and Lance especially), and all the interviews talking about Allura’s death feel excessively unnecessary. And at the same time, I’ve been very fascinated by what one can do with the details about the Consciousness Realm; the inherent properties of comet-based mechas, quintessence, and alchemy; Lance’s strange marks; and even the odd, last-minute Voltron interstellar space trip surging toward the Allura in the stars, with Blue Lion in the lead:

It appears that Allura could be very much alive in the final screenshot of her in the stars. Through Lance and their shared connection via Blue Lion, she’s maintained a homing beacon for her own reality, activated Voltron to complete a massive interstellar trip to come get her and likely several others—and now, she’s faithfully waiting in the Consciousness Realm with everyone, preparing for a family trip back to their resurrected worlds, in their trusty mechas.

I watched s8 on the day it dropped. I was in a daze about all of its wild and painful messaging. I wrote some unhappy metas about the sheer nihilism of this show. It’s taken me, lol, 1.5 years to actually go back and re-watch several episodes at a time. And I don’t believe this interpretation of the ending would fix every problem in Voltron: Legendary Defender. Sometimes, trying to make sense of this show feels like trying to reconcile quantum theory with classical mechanics, haha. So I’m sure one could poke holes in this post. And to even arrive at these conclusions, I had to throw out or reinterpret some of the worldbuilding and scenes, in direct conflict with the stated perspective of the show’s development team.

But even so...I derived most everything for this interpretation from the show itself. And even if the development team didn’t intend this happy ending of resurrections and reconciliations as I’ve suggested…it seems that this finale—at least while I’m thinking about it right now—is canonically possible and an attempt at consistency with the material provided across multiple seasons. It offers resurrections, redemptions, reconciliations...

Its ultimate message even genuinely coincides with the last episode’s title.

The End Is the Beginning.

And I really like that.

[thedispatched]

Analyzing The Victim’s Statements + My Thoughts

disclaimer: I am not choosing a side. As I was reading the translations of the op’s statements, I started to overthink and over analyze. This is my personal view on things that are happening.

I am not choosing a side and I am not hating on anyone. I’m trying to look at things from multiple perspectives.

This is also based on the assumption that the translations are accurate and the op’s are telling the truth.

I also tried to avoid saying things that I felt were obvious/most people thought of when reading the statements.

Something to remember: these statements were written after the girls had realized what happened and had time to process. If these were written when they were still in love, it’d be written differently. When written after being able to look back on it and realizing they were played, they view everything differently than when they did at the time. They’re no longer in love, but now they’re writing this as someone who is hurt.

Some stuff i say about one person’s statement may also apply to another statement.

Thoughts I had when reading op 1’s statement.

Why did she stay friends with him after they broke up. Why did he contact her literally the day after? Maybe I shouldn’t say anything because I’ve never been in a relationship, but even if we ended on good terms, I wouldn’t stay friends immediately. I’m gonna need some time before we become friends. But everyone is different.

He contacted her the day after the break up? One his rest days she still paid for hotels and he came to her house? Lucas sounds like he’s just using her. If you broke up with her, why are you still doing this?

OP, you’re no longer dating, please stop buying him things. I understand buying him things when you’re dating, but spending that much when you’re not, please don’t do it. And why is coming over so often 😭😭😭(or were they dating during this time and the translation wasn't clear ??)

On the day’s she didn’t buy him cigarettes he says “why didn’t you buy them i thought you definitely would.” First of all, just because you thought she was gonna do it, doesn’t mean she has to. Second, the ‘why didn’t you’ can be interpreted in different ways, depending on how it was said. Either it comes off as an asshole way and he always expects her to do what he wants, or he says it in a way that comes off in a more manipulative way if that makes sense. We don’t know what tone he used so I’m guessing.

My imagination might be running wild here, but don’t lots of celebrities buy things/do things without getting caught? If he thought it through enough, Lucas could definitely buy cigarettes without getting noticed. Do managers have access to their cards/bank info? If they do then I’d imagine lots of people opening secret accounts. (Also use cash???) If not, then the fucking lie……….

“He had a picky personality so I had to match him,” does this mean she had to change her personality around him?

If Lucas was picking out the hotels they stayed at, I bet they were expensive since he had her buy him designer clothes. I wonder how much op had cause I’d hate to think she spent everything she had on someone who isn’t worth it.

When she says that she bought him designer things and after a while he’d stop wearing them and he said that because he’s earning money now, if she isn’t going to buy him a house or a car then she might as well not buy him anything. He sounds really ungrateful. It also can come off as manipulative and shitty in general.

I wonder if op ever asked for anything/got gifts, especially when he started making money. After everything she spent on him, he could buy something for her. Cash can’t be traced right? Op never mentioned if she got any gifts or not (at least to my knowledge) so either he never bought her anything or he did and she left that out.

*edit: i looked their wechat messages and from what i personally was able to translate with my limited korean (and a dictionary), op did ask for something and lucas said no. someone can correct me if i'm wrong though.

Every time they went to the hotel all he did was order room service, eat, and sleep. Sounds like he’s using her.

She mentions how he never said thank you and thought it was a definite thing she’d pay all the time. Using, ungrateful.

He sounds like he was trying to be a sugar baby without telling the other it was that type of relationship.

She tells him she’s gonna sue him and the next day left the kkt room and changed his number. Can op sue? If the law is the same, I don’t think she can. Even though she was blinded by love, she still chose to spend all that money. Plus, him being a foreigner might make things harder/different.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t answer the call yesterday.” He was contacting her just before this came out ?????????????? What’s his game?

Thoughts on OP 1’s second statement.

If Lucas really does use the same lines on everyone, classic fuckboy.

Honestly, I’d find it ironic if the one messing up choreography and delayed filming was him and not another member. (What if he actually talks about himself when he “talks bad about the members” but replaces him with someone else….)

So allegedly the manager knew he had a girlfriend. I feel the members must’ve known also. I doubt the manager would know and not the members. They probably didn’t know about the other girls, but I bet they knew about her. Unless he lied about the manager knowing.

I find it interesting how they break up when he’s busy and date when he’s not. Yes, he could not want to date when working, but if we look at everything op claimed he did (like spend all that money), to me it comes off as only using her. Like when he’s free he has all the time to get all the things he wants and make sure he doesn’t fuck up and make a slip of tongue to expose his plan. Stuff like that. (I would say it would also leave more room to meet other girls, but clearly being in a relationship isn’t a problem).

And if they met on Chuseok, I wonder why she wasn’t with family (or friends?). I know there could be personal reasons for that, but I got curious.

I wonder why Lucas stayed with her for so long. Did he stay with her longer than the others? If he did then why?

Overall, he just seems like a spoiled asshole and a player who is using these girls for their money in this statement.

Thoughts when reading op 2’s statement

The biggest thought/question I had when reading op’s statement is about his alleged private instagram account.

First, her screenshot shows she isn’t following him. Did she take the screenshot before following or after unfollowing? Was it after everything and she was blocked and looking at it through a different account?

It says the profile has 5 posts. I feel like at least one of those posts could have an some indication that it was Lucas’ account and taking a screenshot when following would’ve been better, but op could have her own reasons as to why she didn’t so I won’t question that too much.

It also says 2 followers. When people have private accounts, don’t they usually let their closest friends and family follow it? I see this as either no one wanted to follow it or don’t know about the account or he didn’t let them follow it.

Is it an account specifically to hit girls up? Is he not as close with some people like we thought? Does no one know about this account?

I would also like to know who those followers are. Are they other girls he was dating or someone else? If op was taking this picture from a different account, then possibly she is one follower. But we don’t know.

If it were me, I’d look into who was following as best as I could.

If it was an account dedicated to hitting up girls, then…………..

But let’s also leave the possibility that it’s not even his account and someone else who we’re being led to believe is Lucas.

(I do find it interesting how she included dms but a screenshot of her not following which still questions when she took that screenshot)

When he mentions his ex-girlfriend, part of me can't help but wonder if it’s true or at least how much of the story is true.

The amount op claims Lucas smokes is pretty worrying… if he does smoke that much I hope he gets help and stops. How does one dance like that when smoking so often?

Did he mean that he thought K*is *u took training for granted and never practiced or someone else? Cause if he meant K* then was he even in SM at the same time? I sound stupid lol

It’s been a while since I watched Lucas on Real Men and I don’t remember much but I feel like I would remember him saying he was injured on the show unless it wasn’t filmed. Correct me if it was included though. It’s been a while.

I will say though that it’s nothing new. I was just watching this video on Kim Jong Kook and it mentioned that when he did his military service, there were lots of celebrities trying to get out of it and paid doctors to lie saying they were injured (KJK didn’t just to be clear). Obviously this is different because it’s a tv show and he’s not actually enlisting, but people fake injuries all the time to get out of things. And yes, it’s horrible to do, especially since his fan’s would’ve been worrying and all that, but let’s not act like we’ve never seen this before. (Also if he did do this, I wonder if he got caught or not. Like if he did, how did SM react?)

I wonder if Lucas still has all these gifts.

Notice how when Lucas mentions traveling to the moon, op says she wants to follow and she’ll buy the tickets. And Lucas smirks and says he would think about it. He only says ‘we can’ when mentions she’ll earn enough for the tickets.

It does seem like a cute conversation between lovers, but you can see once again how Lucas is being smart with his words and getting her to use her money and he won’t use his own. Also, at first he basically says he’s going alone, it’s like he’s checking to see how much she’s into him. That smirk after her asking if she can come, it’s like he’s smirking because he got what he wanted. This is my opinion though and I could be overthinking and looking too much into something that isn’t there.

Also, smirk, to me, is more sly. Did she originally see it was a smile, but after everything sees it as a smirk? Did she realize after it was a smirk or wrote it that way intentionally?

When she says, “In the end, he couldn’t give his everything to me, but I was willing to give everything to him.” Again I ask, did they leave out certain things? This could mean she just gave him everything emotionally. I wonder if Lucas did do some things for them and they don’t mention it. Of course it would seem unfair if he did small things compared to their big things, but small things can be really thoughtful. So I once again wonder if Lucas did “small” things that they don’t mention.

This girl went to every concert. I have the same question of how much money she has and I hope she didn’t spend it all on him. I wonder if he only seeks out rich girls?

She mentioned he went to 1 dinner with another fan, but stopped seeing them after the one meal because she wasn’t that pretty. Really horrible thing to say, but what if she just wasn’t rich enough? I don’t see Lucas going to dinner with her if he didn’t find her attractive at first. She could also have had a personality he didn’t like, but we’ll never know. (what if she wasn’t so blinded by her love for him and he realized he couldn’t scam her?) afterall, op claims that he wasn’t interested when reading the chats between those two. what if, what if, what if.

Did his mother really raise him to respect and treat girls well because if she did, how could he do this?

Thoughts on op 3’s statement

I think the airdrop thing is really weird. I’m someone who never keeps their bluetooth on. But why would someone famous have it on when anyone could find your phone? If this is true, then he really is just scouting for girls -- hoping someone finds it and contacts him.

I kinda hope Lucas isn’t the type to talk bad and start rumors about these girls behind their back cause that’s a dick move.

This is what I wanted to say about him allegedly talking bad about his members. Op mentions they were drinking and alcohol could have played a part in what he was saying, but it depends how much they drank. Part of me feels like he wouldn’t have said this without some liquid courage, but I also don’t personally know him.

There is also the possibility that this is being exaggerated or worded to make it seem worse than it actually is. Everyone has something they don’t like about a person, even their best friends, but we also all go through bad days so maybe he was feeling like shit and was just ranting. I know when I rant I sometimes go off a bit and make things seem worse than they actually are. But again, we don’t know.

I find this complaint about Keep Running understandable. The show has been on for years and has seniors on it, of course you’ll feel pressured in some way. It just comes down to how bad the pressure was, if you know what I mean.

Disliking fans taking pictures of him at the airport, am I the only one who finds that understandable as well? Even what he said about his family’s financial situation, I get it. I find everything he said understandable. It just comes down to how he said it and what he said exactly. She didn’t quote him so this could be better or worse than it is.

If his actual wording was worse, I’ll take back what I said. But going off of vague statements, it doesn’t seem too bad. Of course, him badmouthing his members seems bad, but that all depends on context we don’t have.

If we do look at it in OP’s eyes, she says this was a tactic to gain sympathy. There’s not much to say because yes it obviously can come off that way.

Again, it all depends on context we don’t have. (Like what tone was used, etc)

I wonder if he really does dislike Burberry.

The clothes part, I will say, he seems very sly and it seems to be planned out. He claims he didn’t bring enough clothes. Op offers to buy and he asks for designer stuff. He told her before arriving he didn’t have enough clothes, an easy lie. He probably hoped she’d buy him stuff. Used her money to get expensive things.

Take notice of how the op said “I asked if I could buy some clothes for him before he came over.” She offered.

Now, either she was so in love or he is a really good manipulator.

Notice how he ignores her when she mentions she doesn’t live alone.

I have two thoughts about this: wants privacy for sex and less witnesses to catch on his play. If someone who isn’t blinded by you sees what you’re doing, they will much easily catch onto your bullshit and you don’t want that.

What teammate was exposed?

Interesting how he tells her he doesn’t drink with other girls, but openly told op 2 he went out once.

Almost forgot to mention that there is a claim(?) going around that op’s pictures of the Balenciaga jacket are fake. An anon sent this to me the other day about it. And this was my response to it:

“i won't say much on the clothes/receipts but it's always good to remember that even if you believe the victims, you shouldn't always be behind them 100% at least in the very beginning. everyone is capable of lying. we've seen in pretty much any celebrity scandal people fake things all the time and pictures are the easiest to fake.”

(i talked about everything in the article including the prediction tweets. If you wanna read my response here it is).

Lucas choosing to eat a pricey place...seems fitting with everything everyone has claimed so far.

This text conversation. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Thoughts on OP 4’s Statement

I don’t have too many thoughts on this statement.

Interesting how to this op he praises his teammate but op 3 said he talked bad about them. Is it the same teammates or different ones?

They met while he was working and she only says good things about his personality. To me, because he wasn’t in private, he was wearing his professional facade. I don’t mean this in a bad way as everyone acts differently in public and private. But because of the environment difference, it’s important to remember how much this statement will differ from the rest.

Did they have the type of relationship he had with the others?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but he only flirted with her when they met for the vlog and we’ve seen him be like that on camera. He talked to her after because he showed interest, but let’s remember what I said above.

I’m honestly really confused about the second part because one translation account makes it seem like another person is talking and another makes it seem like it’s still the surf instructor. Or maybe I’m just dumb lol.

*read the one of the other translations I linked and they said the instructor was bribed by SM’s PR team to make some weak excuse so that explains why her first statement differs.

Allegedly he bought a cat op didn’t want? And WinWin is allegedly taking care of it? WinWin is allergic to cat fur which is why they bought short haired cats. I don’t see WinWin taking care of a cat that isn’t his when he’s allergic.

We don’t know what actually happened to this cat. We don’t know why he really bought the cat. I feel like you wouldn’t buy a cat for someone unless you know they wanted it.

There’s a photo of WinWin where people suspect cat hair to be on his shirt. Maybe it depends on the type of cat, but that doesn’t look like cat hair to me? I had a friend who always had cat hair on his clothes as he had several cats at home and my sister’s car was covered in it also.

WinWin’s photo looks more like dust or lint or something. But again, it might just depend on the type of cat.

Also, where did WinWin come from? Does op know for a fact he took the cat? If she didn’t give the cat away how would she know where it went? Was she told where the cat was going? (if she was told, why would she care if she didn’t want it in the first place?)

Let’s also leave room for the possibility that the cat wasn’t even for her. Maybe Lucas picked up the cat for someone else (like he didn’t buy it, just picked it up). Or maybe he bought it for a friend. Since we don’t know much about this cat, anything could be said about it.

And why choose winwin of all people? Just because he was in China? Just because that picture exists? It seems weird to me.

Conclusion

These statements were written after the girls had realized what happened and had time to process. If these were written when they were still in love, it’d be written differently. When written after being able to look back on it and realizing they were played, they view everything differently than when they did at the time. They’re no longer in love, but now they’re writing this as someone who is hurt.

We have no way of knowing what happened. I’m not choosing sides, I’m not hating. I just wanted to take a deeper look into what was said and share my thoughts.

These statements give off the impression that Lucas used them for his own gain and didn’t care about them. However, I wonder if there is something being left out.

I also wonder how many of Lucas' words to the girls were true.

In Lucas’ short, vague, statement, it gave off the impression that something was true, we just don’t know what. That leaves room for people to think the worst. SM’s statement seemed like they don’t look after their artists closely enough. But these are all assumptions and we’ll never know.

Everything is written with a bias. Even Lucas’ side would be. Be careful of how things are worded.

This is all my opinion. If you have anything to say, please do so respectively in my ask box. If I have anything to add, this post will be edited.

Thank you for reading.

Translations used are the ones linked in my pinned.

[verystrawberrytae]

Taekook are distant, a short rant

Sorry, i lied in the title. 

Disclaimer. What I am talking about is taekook relationship in a platonic way, as a precious bond between two members. I don’t have a problem if you interpret it in a romantic one, I am a taekooker myself, just please take note that I won’t address those aspects anywhere here.

Before I start my rant I want to tell everyone who is reading it that you don’t really have to read it. If you have your opinion about yesterday’s events set in stone then there is no need for you to go through it all. If you are here just to mock what I will be saying then be my guest, I don’t really care for anyone’s opinion. This post is for me and me only. It’s my way of venting frustrations and if someone stumbles upon it and decides that it was helpful then great. 

As I’ve said it will be a rant so please do not expect it to be highly organised because it won’t be.

What I want to start with is - I have two explanations for the infamous scene of the recent episode of In the Soop. This scene has awakened something wild not only amongst taekookers but also amongst those that have never cared for taekook bonds or even those that have openly shaded and hated it. I won’t point fingers, if you are active on twitter, you probably know who I am talking about. 

And before I explain those two perspectives I want to take a moment and say that whatever it was that led to this scene coming to life, it is a very beautiful scene. If it was a scene in one of the kdramas that I watch, it would probably become one of the most iconic scenes ever. The emotions seemed so true, the story presented was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. What I try to say here is, the aesthetics of it was very pleasing. But there are many aspects that make me not able to appreciate it to its fullest. What is the biggest one of them? This is not a kdrama, this is the life of two real people, not imaginary characters.

The conversation was very intimate and that leads me to actually disapprove of what I will present as the first perspective. Still I think it’s important to mention it. Just so you know that I have thought deeply about it and I hadn’t dismissed it just like this.

I guess that it’s the simplest explanation. It requires you to believe that what you have seen on camera is one hundred percent true and there is nothing else beyond it. And it is what most people stopped at. And it’s not really a bad thing. 

The explanation is: Taekook indeed had some problem with their relationship and they patched it up while In the Soop was being recorded. They had the conversation shown in the episode. They have resolved whatever stood between them and they are now far better then they were before. 

And really, there are many arguments that support this. But want to know something? Most of the arguments have to be drawn from official content provided by their company we have got. The content that is heavily edited, cut and just captioned however they want. (I will be talking about captions later on too because it is something that actually created most of this mess.)

And before you roll your eyes and say that Big Hit does not hide Taekook so why would they manipulate content to fit any narrative, I will just say that it does not to the exact many people believe but if you take few minutes and look deeper you will notice that it’s not that Taekook does not interact but they are interrupted, cut and just generally disregarded when it comes to them being viewed as possible unit by the company. 

Of course, you don’t have to agree with me. I will be talking more about it in the second to last part of this rant because it is a part of one of the branches of the second perspective I will be presenting.

Apart from official content provided by Big Hit that they feed us there is really not much to agree with the perspective unless we want to breach taboo and analyse songs written or covered by them which I won’t do and strongly discourage you from doing because it’s something that shouldn’t be done. Their works are their own, we are only fans and unless something is explicitly stated, we should refrain from bringing it into the shipping agenda. I am saying it for both taekookers and fans of other ships.

If you stand by this perspective and you are a taekooker then i hope it simply made you realize that they are human too, that the relationships between members are not always what we see. If you are a taekook anti then now you should shut up about them not being close anymore because now according to what we have seen they have sorted things out and by the content released now you can see that they come back to being attached to a hip.

If you weren’t bought by this perspective then I have one more for you. This one branches into two completely different paths but they have a common origin.

The whole scene was scripted and acted out by the boys for us to see. 

And it’s what I actually believe because please do not let yourself be fooled, the content we get is not always one that has been born out of a spontaneous action. Remember that it is an entertainment industry, the company’s goal is to please the fans. 

I am not trying to debuk boys’ relationship, all of them are precious but it’s a show directed to fans so that they have fun and are happy. There is so much staff, there are so many cuts. We do not see the whole picture but we see what they want us to see.

If you do not think that it was scripted then it’s better you stop reading here. What is going to come is just me going into details why I think we can’t really take whatever was said in the scene for granted and we shouldn’t actually think that it’s a whole truth and there is nothing more for it. Again I respect your opinion if you do not agree with this. 

Now let me move onto presenting the two branches of this perspective. The one is harsh, negative one and I will say it at the beginning loud and clear. I don’t believe any words that will be typed here about taekook. It is just a possible reason, that actually I think is the biggest bullshit that has ever come from under my fingers. 

They hate each other and can’t stand each other so the staff makes them have this conversation so fans have something to cling onto. They want us to see that there is nothing wrong, while actually they can’t even have a civil convo out of the spotlight.

And you see? It’s complete bullshit. We can all see how much they care for each other and this is something antis try to deny only to be laughed at. Their relationship is precious and there is no doubt about it. That’s why I completely disapprove of it. If you need any evidence for it then I am sorry for you, it just means that you do not pay attention to any of their interactions and you are quick to judge them in accordance to poorly made edit on tiktok brought to life by an insecure child.

The second branch of this perspective is, it was scripted so that it again fits all the narratives they are pushing. The narrative that so many people believe - Taekook aren’t close (which... really? please, find a better excuse, i beg you, if you are an anti, that is not valid reason for hating on their bond). Have you noticed how Taekook is so loud and visible lately? You probably did, but that fits into this perspective perfectly. Taekook talked things out so surely they can be seen together again. So you know, everything that has been in the past portrayed by the official content is still valid but they can again be seen because that is what they need. It’s merely an excuse as to why suddenly we can see and hear taekook without the previous narrative being disapproved.

If they really needed to talk things out they wouldn’t have done it on camera. As I’ve said that was an intimate conversation. They were talking about their feelings. If there really was a problem, I believe that they would have resolved it away from everyone. If it was a moment for them and for their bond, we wouldn’t have seen it unless the moment wasn’t for them but for the audience. 

If it doesn’t make sense to you then I really advice you to stop reading. I do not want to torture you any further.

And you know why they need it, the visibility of Taekook? Because Taekook, despite other ships gaining popularity very fast, is still the most popular ship in the industry. You can disagree but for what? It should not be a competition. Taekook is still this one iconic ship that has so many supporters. But with so many supporters comes an insane number of haters. They try to feed both - those who love taekook and those who hate it. Please be reminded that shipping is also a business. With the increase of popularity there comes an increase of interactions and then again increase of popularity. But those ships that are already popular need their fair share of interactions, so that their supporters are also satisfied. Because as I have said they have still many supporters who are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Also, yeah, they can let just one ship grow and the other leave for it to be forgotten but I don’t believe they have no idea about the shipping wars that are happening. I am not saying that it is big and vital thing for them but it certainly makes things more spiced up and it is also some sort of marketing strategy.

It is a pure business. It still does not mean that the bonds members have are just a product to sell and nothing else. I believe that behind the cam they are even more sweet and adorable with each other and it applies to all the bonds not just Taekook.

And why don’t I believe that they aren’t actually close? Look at the content which is not coming from BigHit. The one from KBS or MBC. The one that come from behind the scenes of ads they have been doing. Those most probably weren’t edited by BigHit, there is a great possibility that no editor of the official contents touched it in any way. Look at how they act during lives. You can choose not to notice, that’s fine too.

I said that I will mention the captions. Why do you think they are there? Especially those that say that their conversation is ‘awkward’, ‘embarrassing’ or that they are ‘distant’? Those captions at first look are nothing too serious. Most of them are cute. But some of them make you, or at least try to make you think in a certain way. So that you understand it the way they want you to understand.

At the end of the day, everyone is allowed to have their own opinion. You may think what you want. It probably won’t be my last rant here but please let it be known that I won’t check any comments. I have had my fair share of hate on twitter for expressing my opinion and I just know that it’s better for my mental health to stay away from what other people may think about what I have posted.

To all my fellow taekookers, do not feel discouraged. Remember that we are here for all seven boys and we should love them all equally. Shipping is supposed to be fun so if you think your whole life is ruined because of the scene please reach out to someone. Shipping should never be this deep.

To all the antis. You too please be reminded that those are two real people and if the scene hasn’t been scripted then know that their relationship either way has become even stronger then before. Do not build your life on hating someone.

All the members are precious, love all of them, protect all of them, express your love for all of them. Do not let antis ruin your fun and happiness.

Let’s hope for another number 1 on Billboard Hot 100 next week.

And have a nice day.

[dailyaudiobible]

09/18/2020 DAB Transcript

Isaiah 28:14-30:11, Galatians 3:23-4:31, Psalms 62:1-12, Proverbs 23:19-21

Today is the 18th day of September welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian is good to be here with you today. We’re here for the same thing that we come here for every day, to take the next step forward on our adventure through the Scriptures and do it together in community. And, so, here we are, let's go, buckle up. We’re reading from the English Standard Version this week and continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament today. Isaiah 28 verse 14 through 30 verse 11.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we’ve spent a lot of our time this week talking about the letter to the Galatians and trying to put ourselves in the position of those hearing Paul, trying to explore from their viewpoint, their perspective, the culture they were in, how this message was treated, how it was heard, how it was interpreted, how and why Paul seemed to be so controversial, controversial enough that people wanted to assassinate him, which is pretty controversial. So, we’ve looked at it from some different angles, like cultural Jew / Gentile angles - how Jewish people would’ve looked at Gentile people, especially Roman people, as their oppressors and how there's like all of that baggage involved in trying to find some sort of unity. And maybe the Romans being citizens, having more privileges and rights than Jewish people, you know, kind of coming into a mixed community with a level of arrogance. Like all of these things play into the world of the first century in Palestine or the province of Syria. We’ve also looked theologically, like religiously at why Hebrew people would be so confused. Because what Paul is saying is good news but gosh, the things that have to be set aside to get there will be to fly in the face of religious and cultural tradition. And of course, we’ve also talked about how the Greek speaking Roman citizens of the time who worshiped a pantheon of gods and didn't really have any kind of separation. God's were everywhere, involved in everything, would look at what Paul’s saying…well…just as Paul put it, nonsense. We’ve looked at these things and we’ll continue to look at these things, but we get to this point in…in the letter to the Galatian, and nearly every year I’m struck by it and nearly every year I talk about it because it gives us the chance to bring the tension and disruption really, really close, like so close that some of the things I’m about to tell you are probably gonna be disruptive, things that are like, “O my gosh, I had not thought about it like that before. That is…that is mind bending stuff. Like I have to think that through.” So, I’m gonna quote Paul here. “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So, then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” Okay, we can listen to that and go, “yup…that’s what I believe. That I'm free from…Christ has come and set me free and now I'm free.” Here’s where it's about to get disruptive. When Paul says law, he is referring to Mosaic law, he was referring to Torah. There was no New Testament at this time at all…at all. There was nothing called the New Testament at this time. It's essentially Paul's ministry and writings that reveal this concept of a new covenant inaugurated by Jesus, a new thing happening in the world. So, the only thing that would have been known as Scripture or Bible, of course Bible is a more recent word, but Scripture, Torah. The only thing that would have been known as the revealed word of God at this time would have been the law. So, to understand the tension that they were dealing with and accepting what Paul is saying, it's easy enough for us to take these three verses that I just quoted…four verses that I just quoted and replace “law” with “Bible”, and then all of a sudden all of the tension that they would've been feeling. And hearing Paul becomes our own tension. So, let me read this again. “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the Bible”, right? So, what Paul’s saying is “under the law”, which is Torah, which is the Scriptures that had been revealed. “We were held captive under the Bible, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So, then the Bible was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith,” right? That is disruptive stuff, which puts us squarely in the position of kind of being a religious person hearing what Paul is saying as he unpacks the Good News. But it's hard to…hard to get that concept that God is doing something new and that new thing is fulfilling the old thing and now by faith we are out into the great wild frontier to find out and flesh out this new thing without a guardian. And do we not for the most part look at the Bible as…as that fall back, as that baseline, as the thing that we go back to and say, “okay. Contrary to this is a “no”. Encouraged by this is a “yes”. This is the Bible. These are the Scriptures. This is the word of God. So, if somebody comes along and says that has been fulfilled and God is doing something new well then you see, you gotta leap, you gotta stretch. So, to try to actually enter in now then to what Paul is saying, we then to try to apply it properly and understand the concept and wrestle with the idea, have to then look at the Bible and say, “what is exactly is this? What…what exactly is my relationship or my posture toward this…this book, this a series of documents that is contained in this holy book?” Most of us would say, “this is the revealed word of God. These are the stories and examples of people who lived before God. This…these are the roads and pathways where lives can go. This gives us wisdom. This is something that is a revelation.” And we probably would most mostly agree with that. That’s…that’s what we all think. That's what I think. But if we obey everything that's in the Bible. In fact, let's just say the old…le4t’s just say that Paul's right as we believe as Christians and say, “the old covenant, we need the old covenant, we need a read it, we need to understand it because there's no way to understand the New Testament without a Hebrew context. Like the don't…they're not separate from each other. So, let's say the old covenant is fulfilled and the new covenant that this is…this is what we’re dealing with now. And let's just say the New Testament. If we can obey everything that's in the New Testament, would following those rules make us righteous before God? Right? Because we’re living into this and trying to live up to it and trying to live into it and so often there this subtle idea than, the more…the better we can do it the closer that we’ll be to God, the more righteous we’ll become, the more God will pay attention to us and, boom, we are just doing the same thing that Paul is saying you're free from. So, let me just pick up where we left off as I was quoting from…from Galatians, quoting Paul. I continue. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.” That's pretty big stuff. The unity that Paul is claiming that God is doing in the world through Jesus, this new thing that's happening in the world, this essentially new species of human being upon the planet of which Jesus is the firstborn, in that way of looking in that kingdom there's no slave or free, there's no male or female, there's no Jew or Greek, which is essentially Jew or Gentile. We are all one in Christ Jesus. That's the revealed word of God in the New Testament. Why do we not live into that? Why do we not live that way even if we agree with it? Because the words, just the words, the sentences, versus, they don't do anything. They’re words, they’re sentences that have to be activated. Like we have to understand those words and by faith believe in that reality. So, the versus, the words in between the two covers of the Bible, they're just words until we live them, until we believe in their reality, until we reach in faith believing that it's true. And that's kind of what Paul has been saying throughout all of what we’ve read in his letters so far. It's not the rules. You might need the rules as some sort of de facto baseline to know how well you're doing because we don't do well with mystery, but the rules aren't gonna save you anymore than the Bible can save you. The Bible…and listen, the…the Bible is my life. I love the Bible. The Bible…the…the Bible, like, pick up your Bible and carry it around. Like if you have...it doesn't matter if you have a giant large print Bible that you’re carrying it around in a backpack or a little mini New Testament that you carry around in your purse. It's wonderful that we do that but it's not gonna be some sort of magic force field that’s gonna keep bad things from happening to us because we have a book that we’re carrying around. That book leads us to the revelation of God's love for us and the lengths that He's been willing to go to in order to get our attention that we might be restored to Him. But just carrying around a Bible doesn't do anything. We have to live into what it says. And the main thing that we have to understand is the Bible's revealing God. God is behind the Bible. If we don't press through to God by faith, then we haven't gone anywhere. We just read a book which is the same way a relationship with God works. Understanding everything that we can possibly know, and I mean there so…there's been so much scholarship done on the theology of the Bible that…that there are…there is no end to the literature that can be read and studied over millennia of what people thought. So, it's impossible to absorb all that, in one brain, in one lifetime. But even if we could, even if we knew everything that everybody ever thought about God than that's all we know is everything that everybody thought about God. Do we know God? Does God know us? This is the experience that Paul is preaching. He’s chosen that although he is religiously educated and has done everything to live up to what he believed would make him righteous before God, he has found that he cannot get there on his own. He cannot behave well enough to become righteous before God. But God came to him and Jesus revealed Himself to Him and he experienced God and that changed his life. And that's why he's saying the things that he’s saying. He’s saying the path that you are on has lost its plot and it will not take you where you think you are going. You are going to have to reach out in faith to get there, which means you are reaching into the dark to get there and you are not always gonna know that you’re getting there. Just like the early church, right? Just like the arguments and confusion that they were experiencing. It's reaching out and allowing our faith to be perfected as we go in fits and starts. And it's okay because we can fall back into that pillow of grace we were talking about yesterday knowing that the transformation that's happening within us is not something we can do. It's something God is doing in us by faith. So, that is a heck of a lot to take into our weekend and consider and ponder. And it's good. It's good that we can encounter things in the Scriptures that are disruptive enough to make us go, “wait a second. I need to spend a little more time pondering, meditating, praying, seeking God. And, so, may we do that.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for the opportunity to reach to You by faith knowing that You are there, that You have reviewed Yourself to us so many times, that You continually are revealing Yourself to the world. We can't look anywhere without seeing Your fingerprints. And, so, give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we have to reach for You through faith. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it is the website, it’s how you stay tuned and stay connected in any way that you…that you can.

So as…I mean…we mention these things often because they are important. The Prayer Wall is in the Community section and the Prayer Wall is a place that if you need prayer then you can go and just let go and people will pray for you. Or maybe you're just overwhelmed with life and it's become very, very self…self-focused because of all the stuff that's going on. Like, turning outward changes the atmosphere, the way we look at things to realize that we’re not the only one going through stuff. Like, everybody is going through…like we are all going through stuff. And, so, to just reach out in prayer makes a difference, makes us feel connected, makes us become more and more aware that we aren't alone and we’re not the only one. So, be sure to check out the Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com. There’s a link on the main homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. I cannot think you enough for your partnership other than to just say the truth, like we wouldn't be here, none of us, this wouldn't be happening if we hadn't done this together over the years. And, so, thank you for your partnership.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement outside of the Prayer Wall which we just talked about, you…there’s also a Hotline button in the app at the top, you can’t miss it. It’s a way to reach out or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers this is Shielded in Colorado. My heart goes out to Stephanie and the family in Oregon who lost their sons. I’m praying for all the people who have lost children. It is probably the hardest thing you will ever go through in your life. I lost my son four years ago and it’s been a journey. One thing I have learned is that you have to wade through it and experience it. You can’t run away from it. No matter where you go or what happens it’s just there. I want you all to know that I’ll be praying for you and all the other people who have lost children. It’s a special kind of grief and it’s…it can be hard. But my thoughts and prayers are with you. Love you all. Amen.

Hi everyone this is All the Treasures from Wyoming and I heard a prayer request for Vincent who has been hearing voices and I just wanted to lift up anyone in the community who is dealing with mental illness or who has family members who are dealing with mental illness and I wanted to pray some of Psalm 91 over Vincent and all the others who may be dealing with this. Vincent and all of the family who deals with mental illness, you dwell in the shelter of the most-high and you will abide in the shadow of the Almighty and you will say to the Lord, Lord you are my refuge and my fortress and it’s in you who I trust. For the Lord will deliver you from the snare of the fallow, from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions and under His wings you will find refuge because His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night or the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that stocks in the darkness nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand but it’s not gonna come near you because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the most-high who is your refuge. No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Lord God thank you so much for your word of truth. Thank you, Father for the privilege and the honor to stand in the gap for those who are suffering. God bless you DAB family.

Good morning everyone it’s Susan from Canada God’s Yellow Flower and I just want to pray for our brother in India who is suffering from brain atrophy. And I don’t know the cause of it all, but it must be very distressing. So, dear heavenly Father we just come before Your holy throne and we ask a healing upon our brother dear Lord that his brain and its function would be restored to normal even better than normal because You are such a powerful and holy God that we know that You can do miraculous things, things that seem impossible to us. So, we pray dear God a full recovery from this, this condition he has. And that Lord God You would bless him mightily to the power of Your holy and. Bless his family, bless his home dear God and fill his home the power of Your Holy Spirit that no evil could come in and You would just watch over each and every one of his family and draw them all into closer step with you. Dear God, just bless him in all ways and bring healing within his whole body. In Jesus’ precious and holy and wonderful name we pray. Thank You for Your love father. Amen.

Hey, DABbers this is Keira from Denver and I would like prayer for my son Nish. He’s homeless, he’s in another city for me, Albuquerque. It was about four years ago that I kicked him out. It was just me and him living in my place and he was still using, and I had just quit meth. And, so, I kicked them out of tough love, and I thought he would go to a friends or something I guess. Well, he ended up literally walking from Denver to my mother’s place which is deep in the mountains. And long story short, I had gone and visited him a year ago and the year before that and he offered to…I offered to help him to come back and he said he was good. He’s living so austerely. He has nothing and when he gets some items, I was told that the police take it away and then it builds back up. He lives in tunnels and eats garbage and somehow, he gets drugs. But, you know, obviously there’s real mental issues there. And I really miss him. He’s a sweet soul. I really wish him to find Jesus. When I kicked them out, I didn’t know Jesus, but I do now and I have told him. So, at least there’s a seed there. But I am asking the Holy Spirit. Guys please pray for me for strength and wisdom. I’m asking the Holy Spirit what I should do next. I really need to go and see him and find him. Please pray for me for strength guys. I really need it.

Hi this is Cecelia from Texas and I keep telling myself I’m gonna call more and more often and I don’t but I do pray in agreement and even in addition to the prayers that I hear at the end of the podcast and the community prayers, although I’m behind the community prayers. But I’m determined. I think God’s timing is perfect and that the prayers will go forth and produce. But today I heard Stephanie, God’s Chic and I…I’m a nurse as well and she told about her loss…losses and I can see the temptation to just not feel with that sorrow, that pain. And, so, am asking for God to put salt on her hurts, to bolster her up Jesus, to comfort, to be the lifter of her head Father God, that you would put a ram rod, steal, God infused, support system on her back Lord God. I love you Father and I know that You are faithful in Jesus’ name.

Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters it’s September 15th this is Sunset Cindy in Washington state where we are experiencing raging fires and heavy, heavy smoke. I’m looking out my window and can’t see even a couple yards past my yard but that’s not the reason I’m calling in. I’m not calling in for my situation, I’m just calling in to welcome Kelsey to the family. She called in to give a report about the family in Eastern Washington who experienced the fire in the worst possible way by losing their little one-year-old son Arielle and they are both critically burned in the hospital and Jamie the mama is pregnant. So, I’m just praying, Lord Jesus please lift this family up and protect them and give them comfort and bring them the support they need. And I would like to pray Psalm 147:3 over this family. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. And, so, I just pray that He lifts up that family, the Highland family, and all of the people that are affected by this fire. Keep everyone safe. Keep the first responders safe Lord Jesus. And we pray your comfort and peace for all those that are experiencing loss. Thank you, family that there’s a place we can come. Thank you, Brian and his family that they have provided this resource for us all to come together around the world and pray for those that are in distress and need comfort in Jesus’ name Amen.

[sammyhale]

J2 JIBCon 2018 Saturday Panel

Jared says he isn’t feeling so hot. Jensen: I think you look amazing.  

Jared on episode 22: We saw it in the wild! Jensen: You can just say everyday life lol. 

Jared: Believe in your fucking self - I love that shirt! 

Jared can’t stop looking at the monitor with his face on it lol. Jensen: Ignore it! You make a living with a camera pointed at your face! Jared: I can’t ignore it, I’m totally famous right now! :P Jensen put Jared’s jacket over it. 

Jensen: I think Dean always envisioned a warm and loving/caring and nurturing mother, so it was jarring to him seeing Mary in a different light when she came back. Sam was more accepting of Mary being a hunter. 

Jensen about Jared: You’ll have to excuse my friend. 

Fan: You’re beautiful. Jared: We are not. Jensen: Speak for yourself. 

Jared just took a fan and put it on his lower abs. 

If J2 were on Magic Mike, this fan wants them both to die- “I mean dance!” J2 crack up at her slip and Jared comes off stage to high five the fan. 

Jared: If there was a Magic Mike Changing Channels, I would get my dance on!

Fan asks J2 to tell each other what they find beautiful about one another. Jared: He has a wonderful tuft of hair and I can see it because I’m 6′4 and he’s a mere 6′1 lol. 

Jared: Jensen will as a friend, very uniquely, be able to tell Jared “dude, you’re better than this.” Basically, he likes that Jensen can tell him to up his game. Jensen holds Jared to a higher standard. He loves Jensen’s ability to remain who he is, that he can be real with him and call him out on his shit. Jared has very few friends that can do that.  

Jared: You know him as Jensen Ackles and Dean Winchester, I know him as Uncle Ackles, like my kids call him. 

Jensen: I wanted to say his chest but that sounds inadequate now lol. 

Jensen’s serious answer about what is beautiful about Jared: Says he has many qualities, but one is Jared’s “ability to liven and lighten and make a room better just by walking into it.” 

J2 keep bumping each other on the thigh for support. 

Jared: It’s so pretty - touches Jensen’s face. 

Fan: Which animals would you be? Jensen: I was told recently a wolf. Jensen says that Jared would be a bull. 

Jared and Gen set a trap to stop things eating their chickens and they caught a possum! Called him Mr. Possum. When Shep catches lizards they are always called Lizzie. 

Jared thinks he’d be an opossum. Jensen: Opossums play dead when in fear... That doesn’t apply and they also have a long tail, I don’t think so... Jared: Phhhh... 

Jensen keeps roaring and Jared just did it, too

Fan: I think you would be a bear, Jensen. Jensen: *growls like a bear* Jared: *growls like a tiger*

Jensen: I don’t think you’re rat-like. Jared: My tail is. Second wave of laughter over what might have a double meaning here lol. 

Jensen: How about a giraffe? Jared: I’m going with moose, man!

Fan chose lion for Jared to be. Jared: I love it. I’ll have news for you in a couple of days. 

Jensen: I had a fundamental issue with the fact that Dean left Sam when he died in 13x21. But it was too late to change the script. He thought it was doing a disservice to the character. He wasn’t quiet about it. 

Jared: I knew that Dean was gonna go back for his brother. 

Jared: I have an interesting perspective as the dead brother. I never doubted that Dean would go back, and he thought it was heartbreaking seeing Dean have no choice but to leave Sam behind even though he didn’t want to. 

Jared thinks Jensen did an awesome job showing Dean’s emotional state. Jared says it’s easier to play the bravado of wanting to go in guns blazing and Jensen was amazing in bringing Dean’s heartbreak in not being able to go back for Sam, in playing “I don’t wanna be anywhere but dead with my brother in that cave.” 

Silent conversations between J2. 

Jared: On the way in today we watched the gag reel, it was really good! Jared wants to show it but Jensen says no lol. 

Habits they’ve adopted from each other? Jensen about him and Jared: “We have adopted a short-hand language with each other.” They can read each other so well. In gag reels, you see it a lot. Derail with each other when it’s fun/prank time. 

Jensen: When he derails and starts pranking, I derail with him. And when I derail, he, instead of pulling me back on the rails, he just pushes me further and jumps off with me and we go off the tracks together! Jared: Wheee! 

They can read each other so well they don’t have to discuss things like improvising a scene. 

Jared: I Dean it up once in a while (when there’s a crowd of people and he’s trying to get through) and does a Dean face lol. Says Dean’s posture “toughens himself up” lol. 

Misha arrives for the brief J2M panel. He livestreams on the monitor: Sorry, I didn’t think you could see me! Jensen: We always see you, Misha, you livestream your entire life. 

Misha: Jared and Jensen were plucked off of playgrounds and told, you’re a star! Jensen: No, that’s not true at all. 

Jensen: Everything in life is a gamble but if you’re passionate about it, it’s worth it. Says there was a lot of rejection early in their careers as actors, but their passion for it made them push through. 

Jared: Do something that brings you joy every day. Says this industry can be very judgmental. Don’t listen to them, but make sure you do what makes you happy. “I’ve been in the business 18 years and sometimes I feel judged or less than. But just do what makes you happy and kick ass, and to hell with everybody else.” 

Misha read a book called Freakonomics that said you have the same amount of likelihood as being a successful drug dealer as you do being a successful actor. 

The hug from the last ep was changed a bit by J2. It was written as too light/happy/reunion-y, but J2 felt it needed to be more heavy because of what happened and the Lucifer problem. They felt the reunion would be unsatisfactory and fleeting because they still had work to do. “The satisfaction of it being over wasn’t there.” The hug was written for Jared and Jensen to add their interpretations, the writers usually don’t write those moments and trust them to find those moments. 

Jensen says Dean had mixed feelings about Sam’s return from the dead because his happiness was undercut by the fact that it was Lucifer who had brought Sam back. They never get the chance to just be happy in these moments because there’s always something ominous going on. 

Jensen: We aim to satisfy!

Fan: How does it feel to play another character other than Dean? Jensen: I haven’t really had the chance to play this character just yet, but I will. Says “ohhh it’s good!” 

J2 leave as Misha’s solo panel begins. 

Photo Credit: eeecat 

Info via: Maisie, Kelly, Ross, Fandomnatural, Sil’s livetweet list

[eddycurrents]

The Wild Hunt: Chapter Six

Words: Mike Mignola | Art: Duncan Fegredo | Colours: Dave Stewart | Letters: Clem Robins

Originally published by Dark Horse in Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #6 | September 2009

Collected in Hellboy - Volume 9: The Wild Hunt | Hellboy Library Edition - Volume 5 | Hellboy Omnibus Volume 3: The Wild Hunt

Plot Summary:

Hellboy gets a family history lesson from Morgan Le Fay.

Reading Notes:

(Note: Pagination is solely in reference to the chapter itself and is not indicative of anything within the issue or collections.)

pg. 1 - So, instead of relying on my own sometimes faulty memory, apparently all I need to do was turn a few more pages to get the identity of the Duke of Hell guarding the bridge. I feel like I should insert a facepalm gif here or something.

pg. 3 - Cobwebs on the decanter notwithstanding, it’s probably a good thing that Hellboy refused the wine. There’s a common thread within fairy tales and such not to eat or drink anything offered in these realms. There’s not necessarily any reason to think that it would definitely apply here as well, but better safe than sorry. Also, the cobwebs.

The doves still present, offering up a chorus-like response for Morgan Le Fay’s identity question is neat. Also creepy use of the corpses that are still dangling about.

pg. 4 - The detail of Mordred as a sculpture above the fireplace is incredible. Also, the choice for layout here of two columns, with the one on the right essentially following the narrative of that on the left is an interesting stylistic choice. I think it works well, especially with the last one as we get the pairing across of Hellboy and Mordred’s daughter. It’s not an explicit link, but it’s a nice way to seed information that we’re going to get shortly.

pg. 4-5 - I love the embellishment that Mignola is creating in regards to a continued line of kings, connecting down to Hellboy through his mother. I think it’s also interesting that they’re also all apparently witches. It’s an interesting incorporation of Morgan Le Fay’s heritage as well.

pg. 6 - Booty. I also always find it funny when fiction portrays a gathering of witches as naked women dancing around the fire. I’m not saying that never happens, but it’s just interesting that the part of witchcraft that became almost a shorthand for the behaviour is nudity and free behaviour in women. Almost like the demonization is about something else entirely.

pg. 7 - Heavy.

pg. 8 - I love this little side story about the red and white dragons. It does have a thematic significance to Hellboy and what’s coming, as well as the ties to Arthur, but it’s also a nice little embellishing touch on top of what is already a dense, heady story.

Also, the corpses hanging in the background of the archway behind Alice and Hellboy is an astonishing attention to detail from Duncan Fegredo. He’s just packing it all in with this chapter.

pg. 9 - Just look at the detail in Le Fay’s dress and in the artwork of King Arthur above the doorway. Also the shadow, the glint of the eyes, and expression make this feel more ominous than maybe it should.

pg. 10 - I love the shift from the dour castle interiors to this more peaceful, brighter land for the revelation of Excalibur. I don’t know where this is supposed to be, whether it’s Avalon or the mythical version of Somerset that sometimes gets called The Summerlands, but it’s definitely a shift.

pg. 11 - This cut from “What army?” to the hanging gallery of corpses might go past people. It did me the first couple times I read it. An army of the noble and knightly dead of England is really creepy.

pg. 12 - And there you have the revelation of the identity of the Queen of Blood. It’s interesting how it’s been shrouded since Gruagach got the box back in Darkness Calls and Morgan Le Fay just throws it out there nonchalantly. 

Also, love the incorporation of the Ogdru Jahad as a Black Dragon in Arthurian mythology. It sets up another rival within the dragon motif that Le Fay explained earlier with the red and white dragons.

pg. 13 - You kind of have to wonder about Morgan Le Fay calling someone else a bad guy. Remember that she and Mordred are traditionally the villains of the Arthurian cycle. After all, Mordred was out to usurp the throne from Arthur and commit patricide. Sure, the Queen of Blood is apparently crazy and evil, especially when she keeps company with Gruagach, but it makes you think that maybe Le Fay’s reasons aren’t too altruistic (her finally getting her wish of her lineage holding the throne of England notwithstanding).

pg. 14-16 - Going back to that fight with the giants again, showing more of it and the transformation of Hellboy into his “true form” is kind of scary, thinking about it potentially being inevitable that he’s going to become that which he fears and has renounced time and again.

pg. 16-17 - The layering of the passages from the book of Revelation is interesting as well. Incorporating even more prophecy on top of what we’ve already got within Hellboy’s own internal mythology.

pg. 17 - Also, I love just the physical switch in posture and appearance that Fegredo gives Hellboy as he goes from firebreathing Anung Un Rama to actual Hellboy again, even before he breaks off his horns. Again.

It’s also another repetition of Hellboy’s renunciation of destiny. Although, you get the impression that since it keeps happening, it’s wearing him down. 

pg. 18 - The true appearance of Morgan Le Fay is just creepy. I still wonder about her motives, though.

And you can just feel the weight on Hellboy’s shoulders. 

Final Thoughts:

This was a big one. A really big one. And the reasoning why I’ve been calling Darkness Calls, The Wild Hunt, and The Storm & The Fury the “Arthurian Trilogy” (although I’m definitely not the only one who calls it such). We knew about Hellboy’s legacy on his father’s side, as Anung Un Rama, destined to unlock the cage of the Ogdru Jahad and bring about the end of the world, but now we find out that he’s likewise got another destiny through his mother’s side. It’s no wonder he’s been drinking and hanging out with skeletons and ghosts since “The Island”.

The sheer weight of being that Mike Mignola is thrusting on Hellboy is intriguing, that would almost feel like too much for any other character, but feels right as more and more unfolds about Hellboy. It’s also a very interesting way to incorporate more folklore into Hellboy’s narrative, making an even broader scope part of the series make-up. And giving yet another perspective on Ogdru Jahad as the “Black Dragon” of an Arthurian approach. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but it’s like the differing myths of floods or comets and other shared world events that get related in different cultures’ beliefs interpreting the same thing in different ways.

And once more, the artwork from Duncan Fegredo and Dave Stewart is phenomenal. I can’t sing the praises of the art team enough. The amount of detail and expressiveness that goes into every single panel is incredible, with some amazing imagery that’s just haunting.

d. emerson eddy, to the best of his knowledge, is not up to be the rightful king of any throne any time soon. He may be in line for a Cornish hen, though.

[resurgence-rp]

Under the cut you can check out all the players that have been accepted for their roles. Congratulations! Please take a look at the instructions at the bottom of the page. For those who haven’t been accepted this time around, don’t be discouraged! Send me a message if you want more feedback on your application and I would love for you to re-apply in the future! Congratulations again to all of you and Welcome to RESURGENCE!

✦ Roman, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Heath Arlington & Cormac Newman. You chose two characters that are practically opposites, and yet you managed to bring them both to life. I was completely in love with both your applications! For Heath, I absolutely adored the way you developed the parallels between Cerberus and the underworld, and how much the club means to them. And for Cormac my favourite thing is definitely his identity crisis of sorts, and how he’s trying to solve it actually making it the topic of his thesis. I think there’s so much potential here and I can’t wait to start seeing them in action! Great job! (fcs: finn wittrock, thomas doherty)

✦ Marie, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Elena Lima & Pietro da Costa. Elena and Pietro are trouble in such different ways, but also in the best way. Elena with her almost naivety when it comes to romance, and her need for attention; and then Pietro, this reformed devastatingly charming surfer who’s out to break all of our hearts. It’s not easy to write two apps for two major gods like Aphrodite and Poseidon - but you managed to do it wonderfully! I can’t wait to start writing with you, and see what’s going to happen with them. Amazing job! (fcs: bianca santos, marlon teixeira)

✦ Shannon, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Valentine Wyght. I absolutely loved Valentine’s family history, and how much that impacted on his personality. How is rebellious ways started as a way of trying to belong, and the search for a place he could finally called home basically still follows him around. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to him now that he’s back and he’s clearly seeing things from a different perspective. Is the bad boy attitude over for good? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Amazing job! (fc: sean teale)

✦ Harleigh, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Rhiannon Hébert. A champion returns! Lawful evil Rhiannon? Sign me up! One of the most interesting things about Hera as a goddess is how grey her morals are. Sometimes she’s a hero, sometimes she’s an icon, and others she appears like a true villain. I think your app for Rhiannon reflects just that. It’s hard to portray such a morally grey character in a modern setting, but you did a wonderful job, and I can’t wait to see the queen of Mount Wells in action! Drama is assured! (fc: paulina singer)

✦ Kiki, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Dorian Winslow. One of the things I love the most about Dorian is that he’s such a wild card. The way he’s written, mixed with the Dionysus’ soul component pretty much allows you to go anywhere with him. You saw this change, and took advantage from it flawlessly. From his passion for art, to his predilection for social media, to his commitment when it comes to equality; there’s a lot of potential there and i can’t wait to see him in action! Great job! (fc: avan jogia)

✦ Nat, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Naia Guerrero. What a lovely and refreshing application this was! I’m so glad that Naia is here to complete our trio! I love how determined she is, how passionate she is, her relationship with the ocean since the beginning, how her parents’ divorce affected her, and how she balances partying and having fun with starting her own life project. I think there’s so much potential there, for both development and drama, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her. Wonderful job! (fc: bruna marquezine)

✦ Kat, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Vera Whittemore. I love love love how much thought you put into this application. You just need to read your occupation section to realise you’ve planned everything in Vera’s life to the T, and that’s absolutely amazing to see. You’ve managed to take the info in the skeleton, and give it your own twist, turning Vera into a complex character I’m so eager to see grow here. I can’t wait to write with you and see her in action. Congratulations! (fc: dominique provost-chalkley)

✦ Izzy, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Edith Pratt. There’s a Clover, and also an Edith, and I couldn’t be happier we got our terrible duo complete from the very beginning! I love the extra quotes you added to the app, but my favourite part were definitely the headcanons. The ones about her relationship with her mum in particular. I feel like you managed to keep the “villain” aspect of Edith but at the same time you made her realistic, and that was amazing to read. I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table! (fc: sky ferreira)

✦ Nella, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Nina Campbell & Thea Crawford. When I saw your apps for these characters, my first thought was that it was going to be difficult not to make them similar. Even though their stories and backgrounds are completely different, it would be easy to fall for that trap. However, you avoided it completely! You gave Nina a very defined personality, and you wrote a very misguided one for Thea, which I believe was key for both interpretations. I can’t wait to see what kind of situations they’ll both go through now that they’re making changes in their lives. Great job!  (fc: naomi scott, sofia carson)

✦ Dani, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Tristan Santiago. Finally a Tristan! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw your application. I absolutely loved how detailed it was. Tristan’s relationship with his family, everything to do with his biological father, and his reaction to this sudden fame he has gained after what happened - everything is so well thought and beautifully written that I could go on and on about all the parts I enjoyed while I was reading it. I can’t wait to write with you and see Tristan develop! Wonderful job! (fc: diego boneta)

✦ Mia, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Dera McClery. I absolutely love Dera. I think she’s one of the most interesting characters of this roleplay, and I’m so glad she has found such a passionate roleplayer to bring her to life. My favourite part of your app were definitely the headcanons. You managed to combine fundamental traits of her character with little things that also paint a perfect picture of who Dera McClery is. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for her and her abilities! Congratulations! (fc: saoirse ronan)

✦ Chloe, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Amdeus Minett. We have all of our love gods with us and I couldn’t be happier about that! Pretty much like Eros and Aphrodite themselves, Amadeus and Elena paint such a different picture of what love means, and I’m eager to see how that develops. I love how passionate he is about his art and how his creations seem to be the only true love he can keep (and let me tell you, I also appreciate that you went into so much detail about his art preference). There’s a ton of potential, and I can’t wait to see Amadeus grow as a character! Amazing job! (fc: joe keery)

✦ Caitlin, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of David Arevalos. A starving artist that works as a barista - I read that bit and I was already in love. David is simply adorable, and your application was a pleasure to read. I love his sensitivity, the way he thinks about art, and his interest in divination was such a good addition! Honestly all I could think while I read the app was that I want him as a best friend, please. I can’t wait to see him in action, and all that he’s going to bring to the rp! Congratulations!  (fc: tyler posey)

✦ Morgan, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Preston Carver. I was dying for a Preston! He’s definitely one of my favourite characters (maybe because I’m a gamer who plays D&D as well). I love that he’s the go to guy whenever someone is having computer problems (the text to his mum killed me), and on a more serious note, I really enjoyed how you balanced his gamer past with his present - how he enjoys interacting with people and how his personality comes alive when he’s on stream. Also I play a rogue, so much appreciated. Great job!   (fc: alberto rosende)

✦ Jane, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Zachary Bailey. I was so relieved when your application came because I was afraid we were going to start without our king of Mount Wells himself! Your interpretation of Zac is basically all that I would except in a modern Zeus, and more. Occupation: rockstar? Depending on his father’s money? Trying to drag his friends around towards every crazy scheme he comes up with? Just flawless. And to conclude, the text messages made me laugh out loud. Amazing job! (fc: michael b. jordan)

✦ Spooky, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Katrin Moreno (soul of Hecate). I love love the whole idea of Katrin. Their relationship with their parents, their grandmother, how they leaned on their friends, the fact that their background was so different from the usual one you’d find in Mount Wells - and yet they persevered and turned that into something magical; honestly I was hooked from the very beginning. I truly believe they will be a fantastic addition to the roleplay, and I can’t wait to see them in action! Congratulations! (fc: danny noriega/adore delano)

✦ Emma, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Clover Wald. This was such a difficult decision! Both applications had very good and different interpretations of Clover. Ultimately what swayed me was the amazing balance of her neutral evil nature. I enjoy a character who isn’t afraid to do morally grey stuff and is proud of it - and that’s exactly what Clover is about. There’s so much potential in her, and honestly I can’t wait to see how exactly she’ll shake things up. Wonderful job! (fc: courtney eaton)

✦ Aaliyah, you’ve been accepted to play the roles of Layla Dunn. Layla is completely and absolutely adorable. I love the fact that she’s very rational and practical, but she’s also got some pluck in her. I also find really interesting that she’s participating in the Science fair to possibly gain some perspective on what to do after she graduates. I feel that was a great way of giving your own interpretation and twist to the info in the skeleton! On a side note, the bit about Pottermore was fantastic; and I’m also addicted to Color Switch. Great job! (fc: jessica sula)

This is what you need to do next:

Follow EVERYONE

Track all of the tags (found HERE)

Make your character account send it in within 24 hours

Open up your askbox

If for any reason you need more time to get your account in, don’t hesitate to message me so I can keep your role open! If I don’t get a message from you then I will assume you’re no longer interested in keeping your spot. Once you send your account, you’ll be provided with the necessary links and we can get started! And of course; HAVE FUN!

[cwl190]

Week 5

Benjamin Percy’s “Making the Extraordinary Ordinary”:

“Burton was enamored with the gritty nightmare of Gotham, the whiz-bang awesomeness of the Batmobile, and was carelss with characterization. So I didn’t believe... I was only a child, but after dreaming my way darkly through Gotham, the movie felt comparitively silly. Because it had no heart” (66). 

“I remember my mother crying and running upstairs when I was suspended. I remember my father ripping up my report card and hurling the pieces across the room like the saddest sort of confetti, not saying a word, just staring at me with hooded eyes” (66).

“Silence, I came to understand, was knowing when to shut up” (67).

“Saunders reinvents grief by giving it a beating heart. And he normalizes the weirdness by giving her a pitiable desire we can all relate to. Would the story be just as effective if it were told as realism? Some might say so. But fantasy allows us truths that might otherwise be unavailable. Normally a reflection means little except as a way to check our teeth, to smear on makeup, but before a warped mirror we pause, studying ourselves with awe and care, struck by a new way of seeing” (71).

“We expect winged men to be angelic, muscled and white-robed and blonde-haired and backlit by radiant light, but Garcia Marquez plays against our expectations: this figure is far from heavenly. They call him an “angel”, yes, but they also wonder if he is Norwegian or a sailor, a “castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by the storm.” And he is not exalted, as we would expect, but persecuted. He performs no miracles. He cowers pitifully. They cage him, prod him, pick his feathers, throw stones at him, burn his side with a branding iron. And in this way Garcia Marquez not only makes the fantastic accessible but captures the human tendency to fear whatever is different and the desire to label, define, control” (73).

Benjamin Percy’s “Get a Job”:

“Whether we like it or not, work defines us. Work dominates our lives. And we have an obligation, in our prose and poetry, in the interest of realism, and in the service of point of view, voice, setting, metaphor, and story, to try to incorporate credibly and richly the working lives of our characters” (140).

“Nor, tonally, should you build baroque sentences when the mind of your character is empy, his life unadorned. Her voice shouldn’t sound like white lace and gold trim when her home reeks of cheap whiskey and wood smoke” (144).

“It is a job that frames and sets into motion every element of your story or essay or poem- and it is your job to do the required research that will bring the language and tasks and schedule and perspective of your characters’ work to life. Google can do only so much for you. The library can only do so much for you. You need to write from the trenches” (145).

“Writing is an act of empathy. You are occupying and understanding a point of view that might be alien to your own- and work is often the keyhole through which you peer” (149).

Tom Perotta's "Ordinary People"

““I can’t look at everything hard enough”: The tragedy is that, while we’re alive, we don’t view our days in the knowledge that all things must pass. We don’t- we can’t- value our lives, our loved ones, with the urgent knowledge that they’ll one day be gone forever. Emily notices with despair that she and her mother barely look at one another, and she laments our self-possession, our distractedness, the million things that keep us from each other. “Oh, Mama,” she cries, “just look at me one minute as though you really saw me.... Let’s look at one another.” But mother and daughter remain self-absorbed, each in a private sea of her own thoughts, and that moment of recognition, or connection, never comes. Eventually, Emily has to return away” (130).

“Some people think of Our Town as being sentimental. Obviously, there’s a wish-fulfillment aspect here: the character who returns to the past, in a sense conquering death for a moment. But what’s unsentimental is that it’s too much, the way the experience is heartbreaking for the character. There’s a real emotional courage in the fact that there’s not a catharsis: only an unflinching acknowledgement of the gulf between the town and the cemetery. The living don’t appreciate the dead; the living don’t even appreciate the living. For me, that’s not sentimental- it’s unbelievably tough. The play presents us with a difficult truth, and forces us to take a long, hard look at it” (130-131).

Leslie Jamison's "On Commonness" 

“You remember too much, my mother said to me recently. Why hold onto all that? And I said, where can I put it down?” (158).

“I want to tell you how much it hurts, but I’m also going to tell you that there is a vioce inside of me, dogging me at every moment about tryingtoo hard to tell you how much it hurts... Carson’s mode of self-awareness doesn’t apologize for its emotion...” (158).

““I thought I would die” It’s so willfully plain. There’s something moving to me about saying it so embarrassingly straight. The following line, “This is not uncommon,” can be read so many different ways. The tone might be clinical or dismissive, as in, this is not an uncommon symptom of the disease of heartbreak. But it’s also an acknowledgement that what she’s going through is in no way extraordinary. It’s something that’s been felt before, and it’ll be felt again. Yet she owns this commonness, without apologizing for it, relinquishing it, or dismissing it” (159).

“I think there’s an additional layer of use when it comes to personal experience: You just see the events of your own life so differently after more  years have passed. That doesn’t mean that the truest version of an event is going to be the version you write when you’re eighty. But your perspective keeps changing” (162).

MAKING THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY—TRUTH:

The truth that exposes itself in “The Miniature Wife” and “The Infamous Bengal Ming” is the failures in the narrator and his wife’s ability to communicate with one another and that wild animals cannot mingle with humankind. The narrator’s wife being shrunken down and the negligence of the narrator portrays how she herself has literally been minimized through the course of their relationship. The marital problems between the narrator and his wife have existed even prior to the events of the story, and now it’s presented as the main conflict of the story. Gonzales reveals that it’s not really the incident that was the problem between them, but rather the catalyst.

In “The Infamous Bengal Ming”, the truth that becomes available in this story is that humans and animals cannot cross the bridge between their nature. Whether or not this is due to a communication problem is up to our interpretation, but everything the tiger does that he thinks will aid humans is villainized and he suffers the consequences of it. In the end, it doesn’t even matter because the tiger’s idea of love becomes distorted due to his senses. He finds some type of twisted euphoria in killing a woman he despises, and because of his hunger he eats her. The tiger still calls it love even though it’s clearly not, and I think Parameswaran is trying to make apparent the futility of trying to bridge that gap between species.

FEAR: 

This observation applies to “The Miniature Wife” through the narrator’s fascination with his wife. Rather than try to find a solution to her problem, he observes her as if she is a wild animal as well as gives her a habitat for his own self-gratuitous reasons. We see that views her more as a test subject than as a person through ways such as peering at her through a microscope, prioritizing crafting a dollhouse for her to live with and not making any pursuits to undo the shrinking ray effects. Instead of handling her infidelity with communication, he fears the ramifications of anyone finding out he has two shrunken people in his house and kills his co-worker. 

In “The Infamous Bengal Ming”, this theme is present all throughout the story. The tiger approaches humans with good will, but almost everyone recoils away in fear and is killed from the tiger’s advances (understandably). The tiger's position as an apex predator puts him at the forefront of their defensiveness and rather than embrace him, they seek to restrain and control him based on their preconceived notion of tigers being a threat. Fear moves along the plot. The tiger runs away in fear of the consequences for killing the zookeeper, leading him to the house where the woman and her child live in, and because the woman is terrified of the tiger's presence in the room she drops the baby, causing the tiger to catch it with his jaw and eventually kill it. It leads the reader to wonder, what would have happened if the people in this story were not as terrified as the tiger as they were? Would that have changed the way the story spiraled out of control, or would the tiger have given into his animalistic instincts earlier?

CONNECT THE DOTS—GET A JOB AND GONZALES: 

The narrator’s world revolves around his job. The way he handles the situation, his relationship with his wife prior to shrinking her and how it ends is all because his job is his life. Due to the way he got caught up in his work, he was never a very attentive husband and always left his dishes in the sink and didn’t clean up even after his wife reprimanded him several times. Because of his constant pursuit of knowledge, instead of doing the reasonable thing and trying to grow his wife, he instead observes her as if she was an experiment rather than his partner. Because of the narrator’s occupation, he has been portrayed as a very cold, obsessive, and negligent man, or maybe that was the kind of person he was to be suited to the job to begin with.

ON COMMONNESS: 

I think it’s a matter of the ego? The author summarized why the describing the full scope of your genuine feelings can be seen as something to rag on at pretty well. Adding “This is not uncommon” is a self-aware statement that tells you they’re aware it’s not that big of a deal. I really liked the examination of this concept because being sincere is a scary thing to do when you write, or even in your everyday life. Your works are somehow a bit of an extension of yourself, and by shoving that into the forefront of everyone’s judgement you are exposing your expressed thoughts and feelings. You don’t want to be completely genuine because you’re usually not. There’s not much I can add onto that because I think the essay put feelings into words that I wasn’t able to do myself. 

ONE THING: 

The fake grandmas was something that I felt was done in a way that could really make us suspend our belief. When they mentioned how when visits from kids became more of a chore than something they enjoyed was the correct time to kill the grandparents off, it made so much sense to me. That was such a calculated strategy on their part because most children’s memories change with the passage of time. They won’t remember every feature on their grandparent’s face, so using their naivety to the business’s advantage works perfectly in the context of the story to me. 

Also, the way the stand-ins are required to memorize the entire family tree as well as their parent’s vacations, photoshopping photos to put them in it. It all seems like a huge elaborate gaslighting project. The moment the grandparent is killed off is the moment when the person they’re tricking decides it of their own accord without even realizing it. It made me realize the inevitability of family relationships eventually growing apart. A lot of people aren’t close to their grandparents at all so it was pretty easy for me to accept that them eventually being phased out of their grandchildren’s life is pretty believable.

WILSON: 

The narrator’s way of seeing the world definitely bends around her work. Her ability to disconnect from relationships at her job translates into her everyday life, where we see that she doesn’t bother with building her own attachments. She isn’t married, doesn’t have any kids and she refuses to enter committed relationships with other men. Whether or not this is due to the nature of her job or because of her past we don’t know, but we can glean that someone who treats familial relationships as a transaction isn’t very authentic or sentimental.

We especially see this when the narrator converses with her co-workers, who all seem to have a bitter, snarky approach to their jobs. They make death into a lighthearted subject manner or something with a double meaning. When Martha says “I was so good, fams were going to keep me until I outlived all of them. They were going to be leaving me money in their wills” (14) and the narrator reminds her that they all have due dates at one point. it’s not really just about the completion of their agreement as a stand-in. It can serve as a foreshadowing to when being a stand-in truly takes a toll and the narrator is no longer competent to their job.

ORDINARY PEOPLE: 

Perrotta’s ideas of ordinary details come in the form of people’s mannerisms: The breakfast they eat in the morning, how someone might put up their hair, etc. The “Grand Stand-in” makes all of those ordinary details into it’s own concept. It’s the grandparent’s job to embody those details and form themselves into a believable person. The narrator is transfixed on the lullaby because she feels the need to prove herself as a professional. Every part of their job is calculated, all those little details that make up their identity is the bizarreness of being a stand-in. The ordinary things about these grandparents are what makes them fascinating because it’s not them at all. 

CONNECT THE DOTS: 

The “Grand Stand-in” follows Boyle’s advice in “How Stories Say Goodbye” and has a closure where we are more or less satisfied with the ending. The narrator goes through an epiphany where she realizes that she doesn’t want to continue with her job due to wanting something real. The loss she experiences by cutting herself off from all the families is a hallmark of these change because although all the families she involved herself in was nothing but a fabricated lie, quitting unexpectedly gave her “deaths” meaning. She states herself that the sadness she feels is more rewarding and genuine.

[maditationsolutions-blog]

Meditation's Beneficial Magic

An ever increasing number of nowadays we see incalculable suggestions to rehearse the well established workmanship and study of contemplation. Most, if not all, praise its apparently enchanted force on the human mind through its implied benefits. These proposals and cases have stood the trial of time-they are generally acknowledged and very much supported. For ages past the individuals who preceded us have said a lot with respect to this extraordinary blessing we as a whole forces however today at times, we disregard to utilize. Why currently would we say we are again helped to remember this?

We all are taking an interest either mindful or uninformed. in a quantum move bringing now and again, wild changes in every aspect of our general public and world structures. Nobody is absolved from the impacts these quick changes bring. While all around encountered, these trans-developmental energies are exclusively novel and handled distinctively relying upon an individual's viewpoint. With a little order and practice we can apply this endowment of meditation to assist balance with focusing on levels, diminish mind-films which appear to play relentless to bring expanding levels of bliss, lucidity and reason into life.

While the facts confirm that thoughtful practices are known by numerous names in essentially all societies each with different types of work on, discovering one that will work for you is very simple. The best part is that this delicately drives us at last to an extraordinary spot we frequently want and need more noteworthy comprehension and acknowledgment to life's secrets.

Thus, how about we quickly investigate the subject for the sole reason for figuring out how to receive numerous advantageous benefits accessible through contemplation. Furthermore, it is valid, the best things in life are free. So let us start to free our brains from futile, wayward unique musings having no legitimization to control or direct our life's bearing. We will discover contemplation permits you in the most perfect sense, to make your own background's. (More conversation about that plausibility somewhat later). For the time being, consider that during meditation you can supplant, and get out undesirable contemplations with life attesting forms increasing a genuine, enduring significant serenity, body and soul. Contemplation is your portal offering all that and more...you can even make some enchantment in your life through this basic procedure!

As you may have heard or on the off chance that you are now a devoted expert, people report significant mental, physical and profound prosperity as they practice meditation day by day. What at that point is contemplation actually about? For fledglings, how might one beginning? What's more, how far would i be able to go with earnest devotion? Right now going to look at a couple of regions some chronicled foundation, benefits, study of the brain and propelled potential outcomes.

History to Date

As indicated by numerous archeologists, meditation pre dates set up accounts. It could be effortlessly imagined an individual entering a modified condition of cognizance by just looking in the brain stilling glint of fire while taking no idea. The most punctual archived record of meditation originates from India in their Hindu sacred writings called tantras. These records go back more than 5,000 years originating from the Indus valley and were joined with what is alluded to today as yoga. Alongside growing exchange, social trade was additionally conveyed westbound and meditation practice was before long implanted in eastern idea and profound practices.

With the approach of Buddha around 500 AD, numerous assorted societies started to build up their own understandings and particular reflective systems. A few systems still being used right up 'til the present time are said to convey unfathomable psyche over-matter forces and supernormal aptitudes that changed the professional. Today, these are faithful people and are not really priests living in some remote mountain religious community. They are regular individuals like you and I. Obviously progressing through time, the long history of meditation is never again just ascribed to the Hindus and Buddhists. Not to be forgotten about, Christianity, Islam and Judaism additionally take an interest in the propagation of contemplation each with its own interpretation of the training.

Be that as it may, verifiably these strict religions don't rule in their lessons and practices a culture of meditation when contrasted with the Asian customs. meditation discovers its place here in our Western culture in the mid 1960's into the '70's. This was when a lot of our way of life was being tried, requesting to be re-imagined. meditation discovered ripe ground in which to prosper and extend. Some could state it was the "flower child" insurgency which propelled to grasp acknowledgment of outside thoughts yet just ones that had genuine substantive worth. It was not long after that when the Western clinical and academic network started to lead research and concentrates on meditation. Furthermore, what did most examinations if not all, to fluctuating degrees find?

You got it-critical medical advantages. One of the most significant parts of contemplation is the means by which it discharges worry from our bodies. This is accomplished by overcoming any issues between our cognizant and un-cognizant selves, circumstances or non-advocated musings that mature pressure become less noteworthy and really lose their capacity. Through meditation, it doesn't take some time before you feel increasingly serene and loose about everything. What happened to cause this almost inexplicable change? Studies have demonstrated that meditation raises serotonin levels which legitimately influence our conduct and passionate disposition. Then again, low degrees of serotonin lead to despondency, migraines even a sleeping disorder. All side effects related with pressure.

Today, our western human progress with all our "propelled" information has re-attested the old information and comprehension of contemplation's remedial capacity to help ease mental and physical afflictions. What's more, this was only the early stages of disclosure or will we say re-revelation of boundless forces accessible inside every one of us. Today, intercession without question is an all around restoratively acknowledged type of all encompassing recuperating utilized around the world. Contemplation could be summarized as a characteristic instrument inside every one of us that empowers the soul inside, the higher, genuine self to connect the correspondence hole into our physical perspectives establishing us in unequivocal love.

Resurrection through Breath

Past all the clinical network declarations lies a tremendous fragment of the populace looking for extra advantages while rehearsing contemplation. By what means can what shows up at first just to be a physical demonstration, impact our actual inward being so significantly by essentially clearing our cognizant considerations and concentrating on our breath? Well the mystery truly is in our breath. At the point when you first beginning a thoughtful practice at face esteem, it shows up extremely simple. However, from the get-go many are effortlessly disappointed in light of the fact that they have actually never really endeavored to calm their contemplations while wakeful. Effectively exploring the psychological brain field of what evidently seems, by all accounts, to be constant surges of musings springing up can from the start be an overwhelming errand. Be admonished this is a typical event and very ordinary and there is an answer. It's entertaining quite acknowledgment sets in that you truly resemble two people inside a solitary physical body. What's more, that isn't a long way from reality.

I, in the same way as other who reflect discovered at an early stage one key to effectively get past this psychological hindrance is to recognize the idea. Continue to then expel it altogether or consent to return to the idea after the meditation meeting and return the psyche's concentration to your relaxing. I have utilized this strategy to incredible achievement moving beyond the inner selves guard job which it frequently plays.

You may discover this strategy accommodating also if not, find what brings your concentration back without diverting musings. Once more, breathing's job is of most extreme significance right now since it is the door spanning the physical body with the otherworldly body. The objective here is the thing that I allude to as the passing of musings through concentrating on your breath. Getting increasingly touchy of taking no idea alongside remaining present at the time by the straightforward demonstration being intentionally mindful of your breathing, an astounding internal resurrection starts. Next, we characterize some great essential strides for all contemplation rehearses.

meditation 101

Odds are a major part of your life you have unwittingly experienced minutes in an absolutely thoughtful state. The chances are that when this happened, you wound up outside in nature. In nature we all the more effectively discover reverberation with a more profound all the more genuine part of ourselves which regularly wakes up in the common habitat.

Maybe it happened while unwinding on a sea shore viewing the mesmerizing like waves drearily washing shorewards or potentially seeing the undetectable breeze stir leaves on a tree as warming daylight washed your face. On the off chance that you recall during these minutes, you found a totally loosened up feeling inundate your general existence since you were liberated from diverting considerations. This is what being in "the occasion" is about. It seems as though your brain tunes into the higher characteristic frequencies of life which generally, are for all intents and purposes non-existent inside structures and such. However, with center, appropriate goals and procedures we can get away from these constraints forced in man-made situations. Obviously contemplation can be significantly upgraded when it is functional in characteristic environment.

The entire idea of meditation takes on different characters depending what a person's aim is while playing out a picked contemplation. Some may need physical or mental alleviation, others, answers or bearings for a superior life. In any case, decisions are plainly individualized. Discover yours since this goes far in helping you along the way supported with an exceptional, customized reason. Characterize it for you! To start a meditation, a couple of straightforward guidelines are generally acknowledged. These by and large are-

1) Break away from interruptions. Mood killer the outside electrical/mechanical interruptions like telephones, PCs, TV's and so forth. A tranquil, quiet serene spot is liked. From the start, submit 10 minutes or more with no interference.

2) Posture is significant in

[thissurroundingall]

Peter Morrens

On trying to be the third person.

Dutch translation

Date of interview: February 2018

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Close to Antwerp, in a sunny Merksem studio, I meet a welcoming, lively Peter Morrens (°1965). It always takes some getting used to his unbridled energy; the most important characteristic that makes him the inspired, versatile and hard-to-define artist whom I have now been following for a couple of years. Peter is represented by Ghent based Kristof De Clercq gallery and involved as a drawing/graphics professor at LUCA Ghent. He does lectures, performances and produces a multitude of series and editions under just as many heteronyms. Until 2016, together with artist Rik De Boe, he ran the exhibition space Voorkamer in the city of Lier.

During the interview, he is in perpetual movement, gesticulative and hyperasociative. His knowledge and gift for remembering quotes are impressive. The somewhat roguish reserve of first soon makes place for a familiar openness. Few sentences get finished and when they are, they end up somewhere completely different than where they started. Because every turn is interesting though, I but gladly follow. After two hours of talking, Peter asks me if the interview has already started…

How should we look at your studio set-up?

Well, to start with, I always work in notebooks. I never fail to carry those things with me. Afterwards, those early ideas get into a transitional phase. That’s what you’re looking at right now. I’m always working on different things at once; I look upon those works as building blocks to be puzzled together in the gallery or exhibition space. I like to be very thoughtful about how something is shown; I think it’s just as important as making the work itself. I may use about every medium at my disposal and wouldn’t like to be known as the ‘grey charcoal artist’. I really love to experiment around.

Could it be that something comes together in your drawings?

Yeah, that’s certainly true. Nevertheless I always search for something else… when I apply one method for too long things start to go a bit too smooth. I’d prefer some resistance in my process. Something has to be a little bit ‘off.’ It’s about the intensity by which something happens. I rather like the idea of walking on a cutting edge, making metaphors literal. A framed piece can be taken apart again, repainted, destroyed. Besides, I am interested in art history, film, literature, and music. I’d like all of those things to find their place. I mean, knowledge doesn’t have to burst out of the work, but still… I presume that if you have made a drawing of it, you can really start to understand something.

I rather like the idea of walking on a cutting edge.

Times change. Do you consider yourself to be post-modern? What role do topical affairs play within your work?

I don’t really think about myself in those terms. But I do hope that the current state of the world is in my work. I even perceive it as the role of the artist. I think it’s important not to fall into retrograde traps, which happens very easy when you work with psychological affects. I find that post-modern attitude quite disturbing regardless of it being the era from which I stem. What especially bothers me is the ‘anything goes’ mentality. On the contrary I really like to be very conscious of how, where and why a work comes to be. Of it being truly lived and existential. In a way you could say that the basic materials may or could be banal.

You mean anecdotal?

Rather how the story of a work’s genesis also becomes part of the work itself. In that respect, the artist always talks about the genesis of a work. What’s important to me is that everything carries its own inherent energy and this has everything to do with how different works are juxtaposed. I’d like to add that I almost never show my work in this studio set-up. I find it very hard to allow people in this private try-out area.

What especially bothers me is the ‘anything goes’ mentality. On the contrary I really like to be very conscious of how, where and why a work comes to be. 

Your drawings often refer to the photographic. What is the role of craftsmanship in your work?

Of course it is a base to start from. Still, I only try to apply graphical assets to the point where they evoke contrasts within a set-up. I can work with flashy colors and sculpture as well; sometimes I splash a whole space full of paint for some wild performance. Just yesterday I scribbled down a huge, very banal penis just because I felt like it. I don’t know what I should do with it; maybe I’ll make an installation with it later. Still I understand lot’s of people may find that your best work is the work in which you show your mastery of the medium. But craftsmanship can also mean scribbling down some stupid doodle in one try. Anyway, it demands enormous concentration. Sometimes you can conceive the clearest of thoughts just to have it blown away by ambiguity one second later. You encounter those energies in life as well.

When is a piece finished?

When it has left the studio I guess? There’s that constant stress about something that is finished. Maybe it’s an impossible decision to claim you have completed a piece. Making drawings under the heteronym Herman Smit it’s clearer. They’re drawings after nature, made on sight and in one go. They’re finished when the landscape or portrait is interpreted with the accompanying emotion. This takes something between ten minutes and an hour or so. Herman Smit belongs to the nineteenth century more than this one. I’m thinking about a new show with ‘his’ work, given not much has been showed by him lately. It’s also an extension of my constant need to write everything down, the little notebooks I carry with me constantly.

Sometimes you can conceive the clearest of thoughts just to have it blown away by ambiguity one second later.

When does your work border on the performative?

Herman Smit can be viewed as a performance. Trough him I try to activate and confuse the gaze. People may wonder who this Herman is, where he comes from, what drives him to make these drawings. I let him die in 2005, when his first book got released. When I look back upon it now, of course it’s very clear how much his work relates to my oeuvre, that it’s not two different people at all. Pessoa, who toyed around with exercise of style and sampling genres as well, also influenced me in that respect. I always combined a multitude of activities, thought many aspects of being an artist to be interesting.

What will stay with you from Voorkamer, the exhibition space you ran together with Rik De Boe?

Oh, I learned, worked and experienced so much there. Especially the notion of simultaneity and combining different work methods came to realization in Voorkamer. Doing it together with Rik, who thinks quite differently about stuff than I do, gave us a dialectical framework. The juxtaposition of my rather activist, very physical tension with Rik’s more historicizing, intuitive approach was the core power of the project, like a balancing exercise. Also the fact that we considered ourselves as artists rather than curators. Because the influence of a curator over a work or oeuvre can be so overtly big and almost more important than the content of the work itself. First and foremost, we tried to have a visual discourse. We weren’t interested whatsoever in if an artist was represented by a big gallery or had just left school. We really made exhibitions about works of art.

How do you decide if something does or doesn’t work?

When I look around my studio I see a lot that doesn’t (laughs). We have such an unimaginably rich art history. If I’ve seen a bad exhibition, an interesting image may pop up right around the corner: in a book, a movie or where ever. There’s a lot to be inspired by. That quantity and richness is incredible. Even our very local art history goes back forever. Of course I can be mad sometimes about an image, although lately I’m much more able to put such things in perspective. Especially when it comes to art school I can still be aghast sometimes. You’re granted such sacred time in an educational context. What a pity it is to waste all that.

When I was in school, people like Wim Mulders (art theorist red.) were very engaged in the field of contemporary art and encouraged us to really push the boundaries of our atelier. This gave me a firm theoretical and historical ground that I have leaned on ever since. My students must know that all doors are open as long as they go out by themselves. Everybody wants to talk, be curious and approachable. Those boundaries are absolutely not as rigid as they might seem. 

Isn’t it so that nowadays, there’s a lot of emphasis on credibility and name; the contests someone has won, the magazines someone is featured in?

I don’t think, for example in Voorkamer, that we cared about credits. Also in the academy or the art world in general there wasn’t much opportunity to make a name for yourself. Maybe I was lucky in that respect? Anyhow, there was never the ambition to strengthen my market value or anything like that. Maybe this isn’t so interesting? I wonder, did we talk about the work yet? (laughs)

Of course we did, but I think it’s also relevant to talk about being an artist.

I think it’s interesting when you say something about the ‘surface’. Maybe it’s very superficial to talk exclusively about the work itself. But an artist always just lingers on the surface. He touches it while making a drawing, painting of sculpture. He covers and scratches it. Maybe this is a psychoanalytical way of saying it, but it’s like the boundary between talking and making an interpretation. Who’s talking when one talks about oneself? He who speaks or he who listens? Is that the same person? Actually it’s quite hard to get to the heart of things. Hence the surface is the place where you dwell most of the time.

My work probably is a catalogue raisonnée that will only be finished when I’m dead. Maybe the others can even complete it or make additions. Of course I can’t reach that ideal position of the outsider. At the same time I also try to create work as a ‘third person’, that distance is quite necessary.

Actually it’s quite hard to get to the heart of things. Hence the surface is the place where you dwell most of the time. 

Do you think of yourself as a protagonist in your oeuvre?

All of my sensibilities are captured in the work. Also my social engagement, my obsessions. Care and attention are connected to the way I work, implying affection, a physical act. One makes a double if one creates something. When I make a self-portrait of me as a child, the work isn’t as much about me as it is about ‘him’. Who is who can be understood in a multitude of ways. There are different layers. In this drawing I’m a kid, so we look back in time. The drawing is based on a picture that I didn’t take myself. Which connection does that image have with the now? There’s a shift in medium, size, time and perspective. Again that distance, the attempt at being the third person.

There’s a beautiful painting by Zurbarán in which a young Jesus is playing with a crown of thorns. A magnificent game with the position of the viewer towards time. Of course we all know what’s going to happen later on, yet we see a deceptively peaceful interior. A whole realm of images is evoked, which I think is absolutely marvelous. In the mean time, it is the viewer with whom a game is played: of course Zurbarán is the one in control and he knows very well what he’s doing.

You also produce text drawings under the name Point Blank Press, how do these images come about?

Up to this day, more than two thousand drawings where produced under the name Point Blank Press. Mostly they are sentences or words that I picked up somewhere. It can also be free associations that have an internal origin. Actually it’s a continual exercise in auditory observation. Usually there’s a fixed day on which I work on the Point Blank Series. For me, they are drawings based on the stuff of language.

There is a vulnerability on the border of what is and isn’t an image. Often it comes down to a decision, a choice. Tadeusz Kantor has an interesting view on that, the way he lost his faith in painting because it is ‘just’ a reproduction of reality, the way he looks for unpractical objects to be given use. Because for him the poor, worn out, banal object has an artistic value. ‘L objet entre l’eternite et la poubelle’. The object between eternity and the trash can. It makes me feel good about things that I can decide to completely change their value at whatever moment I desire.

Like Tadeusz Kantor said, a work of art is an object between eternity and the trash can.

In your house there’s also a small studio, how do the two workspaces relate to one another?

At the moment I have an open space here that functions as an archive but can be used to make big, physical and dirty work. For the smaller pieces I tend to stay at the drawing board in my home. There were times where I made the big charcoal drawings at home as well, but for a number of reasons that was very unpractical. What’s so nice here is the huge wall where I can prepare a show or gallery set-up. Depending on the project I repaint the whole room in different shades of grey, which I also use in my exhibitions.

The first part of the day usually takes place at home. The Point Blank series for example are always worked on early in the morning. Afterwards I leave for the studio, meaning a transition to a different mindset. A lot of sketches and notes come about when I’m on my way, thus the movement between home and working space is essential. It’s the idea of ‘the moving observer’. I tend to have a hyper focus on details. Whilst moving, this attention is amplified. To get more of an overview I work towards installations, I can’t seem to get that panorama in a single piece. An installation must look like a room in which you enter for the very first time. Only then one can see everything and nothing at the same time. Only after that, a close-up on different parts happens. The way your gaze moves tells you something about yourself. For me, it is very tactile, almost sensual. I often look for the odd, something that speaks of the political aspect of the public space. An interaction between that what makes me warm inside and that what makes me angry. This happens best in an unfamiliar place, that’s why there needs to be perpetual change in the studio set-up. If you want to say something in a public debate, you should also leave your comfort zone. This implies a physical act. I think all of my work is the result of rather heavy physical action. I really dance while I’m working. It’s a very rhythmical, hypersensitive thing, very much related to music of course; we didn’t even talk about that! (laughs)

What do you listen to when you’re working? I can imagine something punkish…

Well, I do stem from the punk generation and I really like that DIY mentality. But I was never a real punk; I listen to a huge variety of music, ranging from chansons to free jazz and everything in between… I like pumping rhythms and intrusive dissonants that make me think of my work in a way. The energetic, emotional aspect of music is something that excites me and a thing I strive for in my visual work and performances. Wait, let me play you something so the readers can also hear! (laughs)

Peter Morrens’ work is on view until 17/11 at TRUST, the collection presentation of S.M.A.K. in Les Brasseurs, Liège.

Kristof De Clercq

S.M.A.K.

Les Brasseurs

Voorkamer

Interview: Maxim Ryckaerts

Photography: Lola Pertsowsky

English editing: Tyche Beyens

_

[bakechochin]

Book Reviews - Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories

Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories – Kim Newman - Bloody hell, collections of short stories vex me; I like the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a story, and that feeling is undermined somewhat with the knowledge that yeah you’ve finished one story, but you’ve still got twelve more to get through before you can tick this book off your list -> However these are short stories written by Kim Newman, and I remember really liking the world in ‘Anno Dracula’ and the concepts within it, and so I was willing to give this collection a shot (although the real clincher was again the pretty cover – Newman you crafty bastard) - I’m having flashbacks to writing the review for ‘City of Saints and Madmen’ now because I haven’t a clue as to how to start this; I guess I’ll say what everyone already knows, that Newman is great at world building and he’s clearly really fucking well versed in his areas of expertise, which shine in these stories (but we’ll get back to that later; for now, let’s go over the stories in the collection) - ‘Famous Monsters’, whilst irritating me at first because it was the very first story in the collection and already they’d wasted the martian they’d so eagerly boasted about on the front cover far too soon, was otherwise quite an enjoyable and short read with its alternate history of film featuring disgusting martians - ‘A Drug on the Market’ was an easy enough read but I couldn’t help feeling was a bit of a waste of time – the idea of the Hyde formula becoming readily available to a city seems like a cool idea (I especially liked how Newman had built on the formula to make its effects more varied) but there could have been way more done with this concept than this story provides, and I thought that it ended a bit too abruptly and anticlimactically - The beginning of ‘Illimitable Power’ turned me away at first because it was namedropping all these no doubt very famous people in the film industry who I knew fuck all about, but fortunately for you Newman I’m quite fond of Poe and so was willing to give this one a shot -> I ended up really liking this story; I took it to be a pisstake on how the same films get made over and over again by making the story about film directors cursed to do just that (but then the story spirals further into hilarity), and also because I found the image of people haunted in their dreams by a disgruntled ghost Poe to be fucking hilarious - This was followed up by ‘Just Like Eddy’, another fucking great story; whilst the last Poe one was funny, this one was really fucking interesting, adapting the doppelganger concept of Poe’s own ‘William Wilson’ to apply to Poe’s own life, explaining Poe’s drunken dissolute behaviour as, in reality, being perpetuated by an alternate Poe (and seeing as I’m interested in Poe’s unorthodox life, it was really interesting to see how Newman explained it all within the framework of Poe having a doppelganger) - ‘Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue’ is indeed a Russia-set zombie apocalypse scenario, but other than that it wasn’t the most engaging story, and fucked if I can remember any of the characters – there are however a few neat ideas here and there to make zombies more interesting, there are a couple great gore segments, and I appreciated any time anyone mentioned Rasputin - To be honest there wasn’t really much to ‘The Chill Clutch of the Unseen’; there’s a bit at the end that says the story is a tribute to the works of Charles L Grant, and that’s all well and good but I read this without knowing who Grant was, and from that perspective I didn’t get too much out of the story save a fucking cool old and weary interpretation of the Invisible Man and a few cool monster descriptions - ‘One-Hit Wanda’ was boring and nothing got resolved but at least was gratifyingly short - ‘Is There Anybody There?’ was actually really fucking cool in concept, following a clash between old-timey séances and modern-day technology, and had a very satisfying ending (though at times the fact that this story was written in 2001 is made kind of obvious by the outdated tech lingo used) - ‘The Intervention’ was a legitimately unsettling story, helped in part by its ambiguity, but since the ambiguity continues throughout the story and there’s no revelation at the end, there’s no real payoff and the ending seemed unsatisfying - ‘The Pale Spirit People’ was initially cool in that it contrasted what we expect from Native American life/traditions with a narrator who quietly disregards and doesn’t truck with these traditions, but it kind of treads the same path as ‘Is There Anybody There?’ by splurging together mysticism with modern society -> Don’t get me wrong, I like this idea, and it’s executed here in just as enjoyable and funny a manner as in ‘Is There Anyone There?’, and I especially liked the descriptions of everyday life now through the eyes of a narrator who sees such things as obscene and supernatural, but I couldn’t help wish that these stories focused on actual supernatural elements as opposed to everyday parts of modern society masquerading as supernatural elements – it kind of reminded me of one scene in Abercrombie’s ‘Shattered Sea’ books, wherein a character’s ‘magical artefact’ turns out to in fact just be a fucking gun - ‘Coastal City’ was fucking great; it’s all over the place because it’s dealing with unorthodox and difficult-to-explain time abnormalities that scrambled my brain something fierce, but there’s more dumb overpowered comic book superheroes than you can shake a stick at and the world it presents is equal parts unsophisticated and fascinating - ‘Completist Heaven’ was conceptually pretty sweet and absolutely ridiculous, which pretty much sums up the whole story really; I realised at the beginning of the story that the setup of endless TV channels of horror film shlock was some serious self-insert fan-fiction, but as I was reading I didn’t really mind, and though 99% of the references were lost on me it was an easy enough read - Finally we have ‘Yokai Town: Anno Dracula 1899’, which was a story with three competing themes; the history of Japan, which I give no shits about, Japanese yokai and weird fucked up Japanese folklore, which I’m already an avid fan of, and continuing the Anno Dracula storyline, which kind of dropped me right in the shit since out of the four books currently published in that series I have read one, so whilst reading it I fully expected to be assaulted from two angles, both by my ignorance regarding Japanese history and my lack of understanding of where exactly we are and what exactly has happened up to this point in the Anno Dracula canon -> However whilst I was expecting this story to throw me in the deep end, as it turns out it held me by the hand and guided me through what was what in the Anno Dracula storyline, and now I’m quite tempted to give the series another shot (or at the very least read the soon-to-be-published story in the series that this book is a precursor to) -> What’s more, this story provided me with some of my favourite stuff in the anthology; Genevieve continues to be a great fucking character, I was very happy indeed to finally read a story that adapted some of my favourite yokai (and as mentioned above, if I was to trust any author to adapt and innovate folklore monsters, it’d be Newman), the yokai actually seem like realistic entities (even though yokai are all so fucking stupid), and I loved how Newman managed to contrive an example of the sparkly Twilight vampire in this story, which really made me laugh - There were a few stories that I skipped in this collection; ‘Red Jacks Wild’ was intended as a sequel/spiritual successor of a pre-existing story that I haven’t read and can’t be arsed to find, ‘The Snow Sculptures of Xanadu’ I think is about/inspired by/constantly referencing ‘Citizen Kane’ which I know fuck all about and do not wish to learn about, ‘Ubermensch!’ (no I’m not adding the umlaut because fuck you) was set in the aftermath of WW3 and was full of historical references I didn’t have a hope of understanding so I gave up on it three pages in, and ‘Sarah Minds the Dog’ and ‘Frankenstein on Ice’ were scripts, which I don’t find immersive and can’t be arsed to plod through -> I don’t have a reason why I didn’t read ‘Un Etrange Aventure de Richard Blane’, I just couldn’t be arsed - A general problem I have with these stories is that they often seem too real; though they include fantasy elements, they are definitively set in reality, and there are times where Newman’s knowledge of history and old timey movies and whatnot (and my lack of such knowledge) can make me feel like a right thicko whilst reading the stories and plodding through all the references - Newman’s reimaginings of classic monsters are always infinitely more interesting than the stories that the monsters are in, so in some stories there’s the Kraken problem of feeling like I have to force myself to read on simply to get to the cool shit - Also a good chunk of the stories take the form of an old jaded something-or-other regaling their life story in their old and jaded way, going on about how they wish life could have gone differently, which got a wee bit repetitive - One minor issue that I have is with the ordering of the stories; I don’t think that putting the two Poe stories right next to each other was a good idea, because although they were first published ten years apart from one another they tread the exact same steps and make the exact same references/allusions to the source material, and this is made especially obvious when you read one right after the other - 6.5/10

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