#in this house we love and support one (1) human philosopher's stone

[rithmeres]

Will u talk about that fma pic you just reblogged because it sounds like it's got symbolism but I'm not sure what it is and I am very intrigued

*breaks fingers* HOENHEIM OUT HERE LOOKIN LIKE GOLDEN JESUS.let’s talk about one of my favorite visually symbolic tropes: the crucified christ pose, or as tvtropes calls it, the crucified hero shot.

im not sure how much religious background the people reading this will have, so let’s start with the basics. in christianity, jesus was crucified by the romans on a cross, in what is regarded as one of the most painful kinds of death anyone can suffer. this involves nails through the hands and feet, arms outstretched so that he hung there for hours until he suffocated or died from major organ failure. the bible says that although he could have avoided the unjust death penalty, he chose to die in the ultimate gesture of sacrifice, redemption, and unconditional love to save the world from their sin, although the world hated him and had him killed. the theology of the crucifixion is that the wrath of God that was meant for mankind’s sins was poured out on jesus when he made his sacrifice on the cross.

in media the outstretched-arms pose is typically used when someone (the hero) makes a sacrifice to save someone else. they might die or take a blow/blast from the villain and be left with their arms spread wide and possibly their head hung in death. rarely is the pierced hands trope used. it isn’t always meant to draw God/jesus parallels, but it does here. hohenheim is the greatest sacrificial tragedy of fma, and in my good christian opinion, the most deserving of this christ-trope. he was given immense power but he sacrificed everything to save the word and save his children. in that screencap, he’s a broken physical barrier between his son and the monstrosity that could destroy the world - arms outstretched in protection and sacrifice, head hung in pain. christ on the cross. 

van hohenheim used up his philosopher’s stone to protect his son edward from a blast that would have killed him. until this point edward harbored extreme resentment towards his father and never once made an effort to forgive him or treat him as something other than the man who walked out on his family when they needed him. despite later knowing hohenheim’s reasons for leaving and understanding why he had to leave, edward does not change his outward attitude towards his father. it saddens hohenheim to see his son’s hostility to him, but he’s never angry at ed for it. i believe it’s this instant - when hohenheim intercepts the wrath of father in a physical act of salvation to save the son who never loved him -  that something switches inside ed and this is the catalyst for his forgiveness to his father. this act of sacrifice is unconditional and that’s what it means to love, and that’s the example that christ on the cross represents. i believe this action is why ed finally cries when hohenheim offers his life for al’s, because ed has seen how much his father would give for his family and he understands the guilt that plagues his father because its the same guilt that plagues him for his wrongs.

thanks for coming to my TED talk

i can think of five other instances when this pose/trope is used (also if anyone thinks of any others, please lmk so i can analyze the crap out of them)

1. when greed gets boiled down to philosopher’s stone juice, in the manga he’s tied to a crucifix. the scene was animated differently probably to appeal better to western audiences – because japan is not entrenched in christian symbolism the way america is, it wouldn’t be seen as making a religious reference or even sacrilegious to some (a deadly sin incarnate on a cross?? how EVIL). if we want to go ahead and analyze that bit even though its not meant to be a religious motif, we might say that greed on a crucifix represents the twisted nature of father and his seven sins. he wants so desperately to be god and have the knowledge and power of god, so he ‘crucifies’ his son. twisted. (the dwarf in the flask, i might add, is a sweet sweet take on biblical descriptions of lucifer… more on that in another post) (maybe) but we can also look at this as being something of an unjust punishment for greed’s rebellion against father. he didn’t really do anything wrong, right? he just wanted some friends.

2. kimblee. kimblee kimblee kimblee. this is a weird villainous example and I’m not quite sure if it counts, but i’m including it anyway because it feels significant. idk. after heinkel rips out kimblee’s jugular, he’s bleeding out in the grass with his arms outstretched but instead of looking crucified or sacrificial, he just looks powerless. limp. he can’t move. i think it’s not an intentional christ pose. i think his hands are spread as far from each other as they can be to show that he cannot transmute anymore and he is the epitome of powerless. do with this information what you will. 

3. ok when wrath literally stabs roy THROUGH THE PALMS WITH HIS ARMS OUTSTRETCHED ON THE TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE can you get any more obvious??? roy wanted to be a savior to amestris, and help it start anew after he overthrew the old regime and what happened? he was stabbed through the hands and forced through the portal - which is one of the most traumatizing things that can happen in the fma world. usually the main character in the show is the savior-archetype, but on promised day, ed’s just in it to get his brother back and punch out god if need be. saving the world’ is roy’s goal, not ed’s. roy (and olivier) is the one who makes the big political moves and has the long-term goal of freeing amestris from the homunculi that control it (saving the world from their sins!! what!) and creating a better world from a fresh start. and he gets sacrificed for it with swords driven through his outstretched hands. 

4&5. after alphonse sacrifices his soul for ed’s arm, his arms fall back to the ground in the crucifix position. al has sacrificed his own soul, the only thing he has left, and when the transmutation is complete, ed is the one pinned (’nailed’ through the arm!!) with his arms outstretched. with the culmination of the only thing al had left to give, the transfer of sacrificial hero was literally placed on edward and it’s up to him to save the world & his baby brother. from the moment ed kneels by his brother’s broken spread-crucifix armor until the moment ed transmutes his door (,,,, prayer symbolism in ed’s transmutations… maybe i need to make a post for that) and leaves with alphonse, there’s this expectancy, this weight of ‘what is he going to do? what can he possibly sacrifice?’, and all that starts with that crucifix-trope-transfer from al to ed. fma is about love and sacrifice and most people equate sacrifice with death but fma says sacrifice is simply being willing to die for the sake of unconditional love.

[yomimio]

Oh my God! pt 1 Mythology AU

A/N: This is an avenger x reader. English is not my native language so I apologize for any mistake. Italics mean that the character is thinking. The Marvel characters belong to Marvel, the gifs and images belong to their owners, I only own the plot.

Warnings: None

-Humans…- (Y/N) thought as she walked up the avenue of the city. -Always so noisy. I almost forget how rambunctious they can get…

She preferred the apparent tranquil of her domains, so full of life but so enormous that all the hubbub of it becomes an almost mute background harmony, yet it’s still there.

-Noisy and imaginative- looking up, the female stopped on her tracks as she came across one of the temples that these puny humans had erect on her honor. A big polished stone structure held up by many columns, and with a trident sculpted on the pediment.

She could only just hold her laugh as she caught a glimpse at her representation situated, on a little pool, inside of the temple. Cold, marble eyes stared right back at her, set above a frowning mouth covered by an abundant beard. Going down, the flat, pale, naked body rested upon a stone, coming out of the water, holding up in its hand a trident made of solid gold that shined under the orange light of the late afternoon. Don’t get her wrong, the statue was beautifully made, the artist was great, really, but, for her, it was a little too…well, male.

Shaking her head, (Y/N) continued her journey navigating through the sea of people that were out for walks, socializing, hearing the philosophers debate, or buy some goods on the stands of the market. Swimming through the busy agora at that hour was no easy feat, people were not always at their politest and the vast amount of white clothes could make someone lost their path.

-“Make way, γυναίκα!” (woman)- yelled a big and sweaty aristocrat while shoving her, and sending a dirty look in her general direction, not really acknowledging her. –“Damn these wandering fools, standing on the path of the higher ups! We better not arrive late for the elections at the Forum”

-“They should learn about social propriety, right μέλι?” (honey)- The jeweled woman on his arm spat, looking down on (Y/N).

The water on the cups and basins of nearby merchants started to ripple as (Y/N) stumbled and to an upright position after being thrown out of balance by the rude humans. The thought of following him and drowning him when he went to drink crossed briefly her mind, but was put off by the remembrance of the meeting she had to attend. He was probably already waiting for her…Leave it to him to be there at the agreed upon hour, not a minute early, not a second late. Calming down, she continued her upwards path towards the shinning temple on the top of the hill.

Overlooking the city, the temple was beautiful, but smaller than her own to her secret delight. Sleek columns and clean lines, supporting a red roof with an owl on the pediment, that gave protection to the sculpture of a woman in battle armor and with a round shield by her feet. In the shadow of the great marble woman was waiting, serious faced, her meeting for the evening.

-“Oh, Wise One! Do not look at me with that guise, Great Athena, for I might cower upon your immense grace!”- (Y/N) doubled at the waist on a mock bow.

-“You should’ve been here in time, I wouldn’t be upset at you. You are 6 minutes late, Poseidon”- said the figure, crossing their pale arms, the frown on their face deepening in an attempt to suppress the light smile threatening to show at her quirkiness.

-“C’mon!! Six minutes! That’s nothing compared to the span of our lives! Don’t be like that, Steve! I’ve been mauled over by unrespectful pedestrians, ignored and looked down by them too…not to mention that I’m out of the water! And all of this for you!! Why won’t you give me a good-heartened greeting and gift me with one of your beautiful smiles, Virgin Warrior? It’s the least you could give me…”- She dramatically complained, clinging to one of his big muscled arms, distracting her momentarily from her pained feet, not used to wearing any kind of foot-wear.

-These arms thou…- She thought, lightly squeezing.

-“So what was so important that you called upon this goddess to rise from the sea? Has some pitiful quarrel taken place between you and Hephaestus? Fighting for the love of Ares again? Should Hermes run with the notice for the gods to assemble again, ready for battle? Maybe Aeolus should still the winds for war? Or Angelos warn her brother of the incoming mass of dead mortals that are to swarm their realm when this is over? Should I rise the waters again to drown the souls of- mphmm!”- he put one of his big hands over her mouth stopping the rambling.

-“Would you just let me speak? By the Titans (Y/N)! Stop!”- He laughed at the frown on her face. Huffing she released his biceps and took a step back from his body.

-“Well when you only have sea-life to talk to, you become a little bored. They only have just about enough themes to engage in small talk, never anything too deep. And then, the nymphs are just the worst. Real gossipers. The only good thing is that I get to know what happens out of my oceans…”- (Y/N) pouted, admiring how the fading light of the day created lovely shadows on the very female representation of her friend in the center of his temple.

-“You know that you’re always welcome at Olympus, you’re always very welcomed at my house, (Y/N)”- his sapphire eyes softened, looking at the young goddess, his family love for her shinning through. Love reflected with the same intensity by her own eyes when they locked with his.

With an audible sigh, she said- “I know, Steve. But you know how I feel out of the waters…”.

-“Like a fish out of the water?”- he joked lightly, making her smile, and both laugh a little.

-“Very funny, Pallas Athena. But, now, really, what happened? Another fight with Tony?”

-“No, he’s good. Pestering Hera, as always…”

-Poor Pepper- She thought.

-“Is Hecate why I called you. We’ve been planning a party for his nameday. I thought that Circe and you could arrange a distraction for him while we prepare the feast and Persephone does the decorations.”- He hummed with a low voice, knowing that you weren’t exactly Stephen’s biggest fan.

-“Really? You called me out of my home to play a fair monkey for that man-witch?”- (Y/N) held a little grudge towards Strange since he turned her pet dolphin on a grabby octopus that wanted no other thing than constantly cling to her face, shooting her clean white robes with his black ink. It was her favorite chiton, and the stain lasted for weeks!! How dare he!!- “You know what he did to me!”

-“(Y/N), please, Circe can’t do it alone. And you know that if you are there, his attention will be on you only. We’ll be free to do our part”- he pleaded- “it’s only for a few hours, and it’ll be worth it. Almost all of our schedules meet for the first time in a long time. We’ll be able to be together for other thing that is not war. We all need it.”

-“All of us will be there? Even Zeus?”

-“Yes, Thor too”

-“Bia? Asclepio? Dolos? Dike? Apoll-”

-“Apollo, Nike, Artemis, Hera, Hades, probably Macaria and Menoetes, Tique, Dionysus, Nyx, Aeolus,… and yes, Ares too”- he said with a knowing smile.

She shifted in the temple shadow to try –and fail- to hide her light blush from the blonde.

-“Okay… but just because I don’t want to leave Wanda alone to distract Stephen. The Titans know what could await us if those two decide to have a go to see whose powers are the best…”- she conceded avoiding the god’s amused eyes.

-“Of course. That’s very kind of you Poseidon. The party will be due in a fortnight, come to Tony’s at the Olympus. We will be there to start the plan.”- he explained, giving her an hug and turning to leave.

-“M’kay. ‘til then”

-“Until then, yes… Oh! And dress up nice, he’s coming back from war!”

And with that he turned into an owl and disappeared on the already dark sky, leaving (Y/N) behind, trailing to the ocean in hopes for it to help cool down the warmth that surged in her cheeks and ears at his insinuation, and to slow down a little her racing heart at the prospect of getting to see the God of War’s breathtaking azure orbs.

[roxannepolice]

You know, talking in general and not just SW, I think that sometimes the audience surrogate can be a double bladed sword done the wrong way. But there is also this percent of the fandom that thinks that if you don't love the audience surrogate or the other Relatable Character™ you are X thing. (1/2)

It has happened to me with the DW fandom and some people asking me why I like the Eleventh Doctor more than the Acceptable™ Twelfth Doctor. Because you you, the former is a more darker, possessive and selfish character and the later is kinder and all. And I am like... Not my fault if I found one more fascinating than the other because he is a bastard (2/2)

You know, this really carries me back in time to when Philosopher’s Stone was first released on dvd and among extras there was a sorting hat test/minigame and I went positively hysterical when upon first time spontaneous answers I got sorted into Slytherin. It took quite a long time for me to embrace my Slytherclaw self and if the hat had a problem between these two houses I would totally ask for classy underwater mess of a common room now. And I mention that as an introduction to how today grown up, intelligent people are worriedly sideyeing me when I say I'd fancy a Slytherin scarf.

It appears to me that the not-exactly-ostracism-at-least-outside-tumblr towards identifying with villains or even simply not completely cinnamon rolly characters has a couple of deeper rationales. One is that overtly morally unclear characters that are also intentionally identifiable with are a relatively new phenomenon in popculture. Villains could have been sympathetic but not really anything else until quite recently. They could have a point but wallow in how evilly they act on this point. They could even be likeable or awe-inspiring. But there always had to be a clear wall between them and audience, as well as the hero. RotJ Vader is in fact a great example of a villain who is sympathetic but not identifiable with, he exists in a simple paradigm of well he's Luke's dad and he believes there's good in him and he sounds miserable sometimes but otherwise yeah he offers to rule the galaxy because that's what villains do. He's also coded as the parent generation rather than the one the target audience would identify with. And of course, full body armour and mask complete the picture of unapproachability. OT Vader doesn't have motivation, past, psyche or really anything else other than he's Luke's dad, it took 20 years to change that. And now? Now we get good organisations being controlled by baddies, heroes having different opinions on their own ethical status, villains mirroring their motivations... On the one hand it's an interesting breath of fresh air in texts which were slowly becoming their own parodies, on the other there needs to be a balance between these problematic(TM) notions and unproblematic(TM) resolutions and frankly not all creators find this balance as I sometimes worry will be the case with the sequels. And mass audience straight doesn't know how to handle this in discourse, not because they're too dumb only because a tacit understanding even only theoretically present in discussions of more high-brow culture simply hasn't formed there yet. It's a widely accepted fact that some of the most discussed, desirable and given to best actors Shakespeare roles are the likes of Richard III, Lady Macbeth or Iago and there's no need explaining that fascination with them doesn't stem from condoning murder only confronting us with the darker but oh so human aspects of our nature. MCU, SW and BBC discussions have yet to get this memo.

And then there’s the matter of lifestyle commodification, which I think finds its echo even in something as trivial as popularity of online which character are you tests. There is something of a phenomenon of subjecting many elements of our lives to some one hobby or life choice, which sounds obvious until we look at shops trying to sell special coffee only for physically active people - because it’s speculated that it really all boils down to profit being bigger from selling a full lifestyle set (clothes, food, furniture) of some archetypal physically active person (or bookworm, fan or even activist) than y’know, just good shoes and some gear. So the point is that we are tought to think in full lifestyle sort of way rather than dissecting things and taking out only what we want. Ergo, you can’t like, let alone identify with, some aspects of a character and not everything about them - so if the character is morally gray/villainous you need to make it clear you don’t condone murder.

Then there is an old matter which gained new power lately - the moral panic over the influence of media. There’s no denying there exists a relationship between the culture we take in and our psyche, but pratically no serious researcher still believes in the “sponge” model where audience just sucks in whatever the text pours at them (fanfiction is in fact frequently pointed at as an example of actively recreative audience). Can exposition to lots of trivialized violence in tv make us numb to real world violence? Yes, research shows it can. But there’s a difference between sitting all day in front of tv mindlessly watching hours of sex, drugs and violence and engaging in problematic(TM) characters. As it’s frequently repeated, if you go on a killing spree inspired by a video game, there’s probably something wrong with you and not the game played by thousands of other people. Then again, we musn’t forget that part of history when committing a suicide while cosplaying Werther was all the rage among young european men.

And I think this also ties with how everything in contemporary popculture needs to mean something, or even in fact be some aspect of social reality. This is hardly the freshest phenomenon (Roland Barthes claimed already back in the 60s that popularity of aliens, martians more specifically, was due to mental association of red planet with Soviet Union during the cold war), but now it’s become a popular knowledge and, as abstract ideas tend to in mass interpretation, it got simplified to the level where FO aren’t simply visually inspired by pretty much every totalitatian system ever only are neo-nazis. As such it becomes one’s moral duty to waste emotional energy on righteously hating fictional characters in a kids’ movie or else you support nazism. Hence also all the school shooter, creepy stalker, spoiled brat etc. readings of Kylo Ben and all the mess going on around 11 (which really makes me think that new Who audience badly needs to learn what sh*t classic Doctors would pull).

In general I’d say there’s a slightly disturbing blurring of lines between reality and fiction going on before our eyes. It’s almost as if we couldn’t just chill out and let ourselves be transported to Oz without questioning the influence of ruby slippers on munchkin economy anymore. Or return to Kansas without demanding a yellow brick road.

[johnjankovic]

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHRISTIANITY

Un vrai chrétien subit la persécution et la mort afin qu’il puisse inspirer son bourreau.

Anonyme

One insurgent idea can forever supply the world with a wealth of sight even for the blind bespectacled with habits of lesser morals (1 John 3:16). And yet, by modernity’s standards the idea of sacrifice in contradiction to a life of unmitigated liberty implies weakness instead of a catechism borne from a brotherhood whose kismet would meet a tragic end. Humanity that is now astray then signals a poverty of altruism, the inverse has resulted, therefore, from the aforementioned in that man would seem prone to sacrifice his offspring to ensure proper comfort whilst his children inherit posthumous debt to posterity’s ruin. In theological terms, since Original sin, society at certain intervals rewrites ethics consonant with its excesses, thinks destiny subdued to its control, and celebrates materialism, arousing more pride, more hatred, more greed, more untruths to reveal the great falsehood of a secular world. How to solve the enigma of a society morally insolvent? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2). Man was with God. If civilization reconciles itself to this prelapsarian state, it would be possible for inexorable progress to coexist with providence once more.

Part of man’s purpose is to ensure survival of his species as dictated by the stuff of his genetics to procreate. Like a foolish man (Matthew 7:24-7), however, he builds his parable house on a surface of sand when social media threatens self-determination of youth, or progressivism unbridled by secularism polarizes man and faith to justify vice, or globalism erases the Westphalian system of nations at the loss of their Christian heritage. Widespread misinformation ensures conformity to this status quo lest contrarian ideas be heresy. Indeed, ‘The world cannot hate you,’ Jesus warned of such persecution, ‘but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil (John 7:7)’. Here the author thinks it important the reader not confound what she will read with some polemic against capitalism, nor to think it as propaganda in support of asceticism, rather we explain a world purely governed by reason and not at all by faith. Our musings are thus philosophical not theoretical, we argue secularism not to be innocuous, that theism informs modernity, and how Christianity emancipates not enslaves man (contra Marx and Engels [1848]).

In an exercise of reason we equally approach the theodicean question of Christianity’s existentialism for if Father preaches of love and peace, He equally does of pain and war. How many good men and women should perish for there to be a land remotely resembling Eden? A number counted ad infinitum of no limit, as many as it takes. Two thousand years ago twelve apostles suffered macabre deaths to prove this point. Error of the superstitious or sometimes even faithful practitioner is to believe the Passion and Crucifixion consummated the immortality of Christian doctrine. If it were true, Jesus’ apostles would have proselytized with impunity following His death. Each beginning with Judas and ending with John died unnatural deaths in this chronological sequence: Judas suicided, James the Greater beheaded, Phillip crucified, Andrew first scourged then crucified, Matthew stabbed, James the Lesser stoned and clubbed, Peter crucified upside-down, Jude hewn in extremis, Thomas speared, Simon crucified, Bartholomew flayed then beheaded, and John poisoned then boiled alive escaping unscathed only to later suicide. All twelve apostles drank from Jesus’ cup as promised (Matthew 20:23). Worship on the day of Sabbath airbrushes this fact through idolatry of Jesus’ accession as salvation epitomized: This thought be not wrong neither be it right. In the hearts and minds of Christians, the narrative ends with His death on Calvary and resurrection three days later.