#jesus christ this is long.

[wiltedprayers]

i think it's really interesting to think about how eugene wasn't raised as a soldier. he wasn't built for war. he has many ancestors who were soldiers, his family's legacy is war – and he was always supposed to be the odd man out. diseased as a child and seen as fragile by his parents. in this response to an ask about eugene wearing a lot more white during his scenes before the war i talked about how it's supposed to represent his innocence. you can attribute a lot of “dove” imagery to eugene's character and whatnot. i think it's crucial the way eugene is presented in the scene where he's telling his father he's gonna go to war whether he likes it or not. this id argue is his most important look in the entirety of the show.

so eugene does end up joining his ancestors. another sledge man marching towards war. he's eager, naive about it. he's barely 21.

i (and many others) have talked at length about what it means to eugene's innocence & "essence" of childhood the impromptu reunion with sid so i won't go into much detail with it except to highlight this scene:

eugene's father has given him a pistol to use during the war. it's symbolic, in a way – sledge sr having been so adamant in keeping eugene from conflict before and all that – and it also marks an interesting point for his character. eugene despite everything i said at the beginning has a history with guns that came from hunting with his father. so it's not like he's a stranger to this or a pacifist by any means. but i think eugene's character development is tied very closely to how he feels about guns, specifically. both rifles and sidearms.

fast forward a bit and by okinawa you have plenty of scenes representing eugene's losing grip on his humanity and the incipient growth of his rage. but it all comes to a head in this particular scene, i think. they drop the shell on the hut and open fire and then it ends – except eugene doesn’t stop. he purposefully foregoes his rifle (less personal, made for longer distances) and takes out his pistol to shoot the last japanese soldier standing. the use of that particular gun is a conscious choice because he doesn't need it. he isn't even supposed to be firing anymore. but his anger towards everything has reached a boiling point and he's deliberately making this personal (as evidenced by the dialogue – “i'd use my goddamn hands if i had to”).

then after a while eugene comes home a changed man, and while edward is boisterous about his time in europe and the army eugene can't stomach it and he says as much – he won't put on a uniform ever again, he doesn't enjoy the fanfare and celebration. there's a real dissonance between how eugene and edward (and sid for that matter) are choosing to deal with the memories of war in episode 10 but that's a thought for another post. anyway, i bring back this particular bit from the original scripts about eugene's feelings regarding his ancestors: i wish they had included this bc i think it's very necessary for his character arc. the military men in his family stare back at him. he understands now. and the fact that he reaches this revelation in the same study where he was told time and time again that he couldn't enlist and where he then made the decision by himself is so very important.

and finally you have the conclusion to all this that comes in the scene where eugene goes hunting with his father one last time – except in this occasion he can't do it. and i think it all comes back to his innocence and the pistol, his own rifle in the marines vs his shotgun at home. it's the act of holding a gun to take life again that breaks eugene down completely. and the fact that they're supposed to be hunting for doves! it's just a perfect way to end his character arc because he's not that person anymore.

(anyway, i hope this made sense to someone. if you read all of it i love u and thank u 🙏🏻)

[pacificwaternymph]

Did you guys know that Duke's tag on Ao3 only has 7,000 fics? Because I didn't.

[ace8space]

so. people have entertained the idea of gay jesus (religious trauma amiright?) .

but.

what about aroace jesus?

i feel like aroace jesus would cook

[iwasbored777]

Agent Stone with Doctor Robotnik be like

[diginuisance]

Family resemblance

[thatgoddamngingerundercut]

BTS 'ON' Kinetic Manifesto Film Shoot Sketch

[vexx-the-egg]

Laios is absolutely that kid at the sleepover who's the only one awake and won't stop asking you if you've ever wondered what human flesh taste like.

[butchdiaz]

for @winterofbuddie week 4: time tales

[hinamie]

completely innocuous vash sheet :) fr practice

[nyaaasougi]

new ace attorney investigations 2 art for Nintendo Dream October issue!!!!

[peacockrulz]

Comic I made earlier this month. Based on a convo w/ a friend :]

bonus:

Can you tell,,,shes my favorite,,,,

[andi-o-geyser]

Something is wrong in this city, and it's been such a slow burn that nobody even realizes they're dying.

[katabay]

PERCEVAL THE UNHAPPY, THE MISERABLE, THE UNFORTUNATE, THE FISHER KING!

Perceval, de Troyes (trans. Burton Raffel)

ALRIGHT alright. so previously I did an illustration that explained the premise of all this, that it's inspired by the narrative choices that Bresson made in his film Lancelot du Lac etc

to dive in more into it (because this is something like derivative fiction. I'm putting concepts into a blender and seeing what comes out of it): the setting is haunted by the previously existing narratives that started cannibalizing each other until it regurgitates itself into the more well known narrative beats, and something else about the invasive rot of christianity and empire mythmaking into settings. it's an intertextual haunting, if you will! and this scene takes place during the grail quest narrative, but the temptation of Perceval plays out differently.

in both Chretien (and Wolfram's) Perceval narratives, what 'wakes' Perceval up (in more ways than one. desire and self actualization in one go!) is seeing knights, something his mother tried hard to keep him from. so instead of the temptation of lust & etc in the Morte narrative taking the form of a lady, it takes the form of a knight. the temptation to renounce one's faith to serve something else remains.

so Perceval still stabs himself, but instead of continuing on the grail quest in the shadow of Galahad, he becomes the narrative's Fisher King because his earlier state of being as a the grail quest hero is creeping back into his marrow. it was waiting for an opening, and stabbing yourself in the thigh is one hell of a parallel!!!

that wound isn't going to heal buddy, and the state of the setting will now be reflected on your body. sure hope that Arthur hasn't like. corrupted the justice of the land or anything. that sure would suck for your overall health.

all the red in this sequence is because in de Troyes' Perceval, Perceval takes the armor of the Red Knight and becomes known as the Knight in Red.

and now for the citations, which I will try to order in a way that makes sense!

Seeing Knights For The First Time

Perceval, de Troyes (trans. Burton Raffel)

The Temptation of Perceval

Le Morte Darthur, Mallory (modernized by Baines)

The Fisher King, and Perceval The Unfortunate

Perceval, de Troyes (trans. Burton Raffel)

On Perceval and Gender, etc.

Clothes Make The Man: Parzival Dressed and Undressed, Michael D. Amey

On Wounds

Wounded Masculinity: Injury and Gender in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Kenneth Hodges

The Red Knight

Perceval, de Troyes (trans. Burton Raffel)

On Arthur and the Corruption of Justice

The Failure of Justice, the Failure of Arthur, L.K. Bedwell

[feketeribizli]

she cut her hair 😔

[blueskittlesart]

blood magic

[pyralart]

Second part of my little comic! There's no way he didn't realize the world he knew was gone when he got to the Human Realm... The denial is strong in this one