#i went to college for this

[foreststarflaime]

Ok so I was translating the Iliad for fun last night as one does and oh my god it’s them?? Genesis Rhapsodos is a homeric hero in this essay I will

“Sing to me, goddess, of the accursed wrath of Achilles son of Peleus, who caused countless pains for the Acheans, and sent forth many stout souls of heroes to Hades, and made them spoils to dogs and to every bird of prey, and the will of Zeus was accomplished, from when first the son of Atreus ruler of men and divine Achilles stood apart in strife.”

-Homer, Iliad, I.1-7 (translation is my own)

But like the more I think about it, the more it just…fits him perfectly? Strap in boys this turned into a long one, I’m putting my ‘useless’ degree to good use

So a huge drive for Homeric heroes is pursuit of kleos (κλέος, meaning glory), it’s what their societal values are built off of, and it’s what Genesis builds his life off of too. It’s why he can’t let himself coexist peacefully with Sephiroth—for Genesis’ glory to spread, it can’t be eclipsed by Sephiroth’s. Kleos is earned primarily through being remembered in song, and you don’t see Shinra making any propaganda with Genesis in it (at least disproportionately not as much as Sephiroth).

And that’s another thing—Genesis’ desperate will to live. A big part of the appeal of kleos is that it grants you a sort of immortality, to live forever in the minds of humanity as long as the songs about you persist. There is a way to earn kleos without being the best hero around, and it’s to be killed by the best hero around—in passages where heroes go on killing rampages, there’s little catalogues of everyone they kill, like little graveyards of poetry that let them live on after death. It’s not a dishonor to them, rather the opposite since they died bravely fighting someone they just couldn’t beat.

This isn’t the way Genesis wants to earn his kleos, though, and he’s desperately afraid of it. We see in his reaction to degredation that he will do anything to avoid his own death, lashing out against everyone in pain and fear. He wants more than anything not to die, but he doesn’t want to end up a footnote in the rampage of someone greater. He wants Achilles’ fame, but fails to see that this fame was conditional upon his death. The most famous part of Achilles’ story that survived, after all, was his heel.

And then there’s how his friends fit into the story. As you can see in the quote from earlier, Sephiroth fits well as the Agamemnon to Genesis’ Achilles. Agamemnon leads the assembled Greek forces because he has the most men, the most fame, but Achilles (putting aside the matter of whether he is or not) doesn’t want to be seen as inferior to him, and is infuriated when Agamemnon does something he sees as a slight against his kleos. From Genesis’ perspective, this fits Sephiroth exactly. From Sephiroth’s perspective, naturally this is not the case, but therein lies the problem—he’s in a different genre from Genesis, one that becomes incompatible when put in the context it’s in, and this dooms them to tragedy.

It’s a similar problem with Angeal. Honor and glory are similar enough to be the best of companions, but they are not the same thing, and it’s something that is easy to forget. The difference is most clear, again, in the context they’re in. Genesis is so busy chasing immortality in kleos that he forgets that honor is not immortality, and Angeal’s will to live fails when his honor does, and he loses him.

Angeal and Sephiroth are both their own genres, causing misunderstanding and ensuring the tragedy that occurs, but they fit in just enough with the context of Homeric heroes to not let Genesis see his mistake.

Important for him also is the definition of monster to a Greek—two different creatures mashed together in a way nature isn’t supposed to go. That’s it. And by that definition, he is a monster, though we’d still call him human by our definition. And that’s just…ouch. In the fundamental rules of his world, he is inarguably a monster.

But the tragedy of that is that he’s just so painfully human, as are all Homeric heroes—so horribly, humanly flawed in such a loud way that the world cannot ignore it, and is pulled down with him.

Okayy wrapping it up with a few fun facts because this is turning into the essay I didn’t mean it to be, his last name Rhapsodos (Ῥαψῳδός) is a Greek word that translates roughly to bard, and specifically to a bard that recites epic poetry. Like the Iliad. It’s so unbelievably perfect for him, good job square enix! And the fact that this quote from the Iliad has goddess instead of Muse like the Odyssey, it was fated! Also, not that noun genders really mean anything, but the Greek noun genesis (γένεσις) is actually feminine, so win for genderqueer Genesis propaganda

Anyway where did my afternoon suddenly go, this was supposed to be a short fun thing, I should really be working on my thesis (which coincidentally was inspired by him, I’m in too deep send help) if you read all this I love you forever lol bye

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID: A digital logo based off of the iconic Starbucks Coffee logo. Instead of the mermaid, it depicts a man (Starbuck) with curly hair and a mustache wearing a suit and tie, and the Starbucks crown on his head. Both of his hands are raised, and in each one, he holds a whaling lance. The entire logo is shaped like a Sperm Whale’s tail, with striped, wave-like designs inside. In the first image, there is text that reads: “Welcome to Starbuck’s Starbucks” in all caps. The second image is textless. Both have a watermark with the artist’s signature. End ID.]

Welcome to Starbuck’s Starbucks, would you like to try the signature white whale????

I was trying to finish this in time for April Fool’s, but unfortunately I actually have a degree in graphic design, so, I spent a full day rendering it LMAO. This is based on the fact that the actual Starbucks chain is named after the character from Moby-Dick, so I thought it would be super funny to try and recreate their logo to better fit the theme of the book

anyways I am unreasonably happy with this lmfao so hopefully other people find it even partly as funny as I do

[wanologic]

sorry danny, sam will never think you’re cool

[lotus-pear]

free will is drawing ur two favorite characters together and making them gay

[acourtoffeyandfables]

Do we think there is one extremely allergic child in every Aabria Cinematic Universe and if yes, who is it in ACOFAF?

[cubbihue]

Did Peri tell Timmy that he was planning to become a Fairy Godparent/that he was assigned a godkid? When we first see the fam reunite in the series, Cosmo and Wanda didn't seem to know.

Timmy had known Peri might pursue becoming a godparent, because Peri had consulted with him about career tracks!! And like. Being the only one invited to Peri's college graduation tends to give Timmy more insight than his parents. Special older brother privileges.

As for being assigned a Godkid, Timmy sorta... Stumbled into it. He found out long before Peri was told he had been given an assignment!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Peri's Assignment: [Next]

[zarla-s]

I saw this post about how Engie was probably born into generational wealth and I can't stop thinking about it.

[patreon]

[turnipoddity]

When i was a child i was SOO into halloween and trick or treating. I went once, but let’s remember i live in indonesia where…. nobody celebrates halloween. And it was like, in 2006. My neighborhood is full of grandmas and grampas in their retirement homes. So i just ended up going door to door in a dracula costume and sit to talk with them. Got my cheeks pinched here and there, and they gave butter biscuits and warm tea🥰

[cracklewink]

Science-themed mermay day 3: Parasite (Sea Trout + Tongue-eating Louse)

Shoutout to @moose__chan on twitter/insta for helping me double check the ASL!

Bonus:

[prettyupsetnerd]

[creachiergh]

michigan miku!! miku from michigan!!

(and, per my friend's request, assembly line miku)

[thepunkmuppet]

gerard way has looked like about 300 different people throughout his life and I can shamelessly say that I am deeply and madly in love with every single one of them

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 164

“Dude, of course you’re having rage moments, have you like, ever gone back to the Zone after you got revived? Or at least like, found a familiar to take the edge off all that excess ecto of yours?” 

“... what.” 

“I’ll take that as a no, come on. My Dad can open a portal and we can find you a friend if you’re gonna’ insist on being in the living world!” 

“Wait a fucking minute- what the fuck-”

[so-very-small]

the thing about g/t is that it has a lot to do with math and physics. which, as someone who personally cannot do either, is initially very scary. but it turns out no one else here can do math either, and we bond over this. and when some fellow g/t fan CAN do math? and talks about physics? we hail them as a wizard. truly gods amongst men.

all hail the G/t STEM Wizards.

[mjhartwork]

yeah, you can pet him!

[writeouswriter]

Why are college websites sooo stingy with their details, I just want to know what the course actually entails, like what are the concepts they're actually teaching, and they're like oh we're too cool and aloof and mysterious, we can't let you know that, teehee, now sign up for my email list that just redirects you to the home page, boy.