#jewish characters represent

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[scarlet--wiccan]

Oh God I was really hoping the backstory that was leaked for Billy was fake... just heard about the new episode and it turns out it wasn't. why would they choose this over adoption or reincarnation-

It's bad! I really feel like the M C U goes out of its way to interpret these characters in bad faith and come up with the worst possible versions of their stories. I've said this before, but everything about Wanda's origins and the nature of her power seems designed to make her an objectively worse person who is more directly responsible for causing harm than her comics counterpart, but is also weirdly set on punishing her for existing and having trauma. She's simultaneously more doomed by the narrative, and infinitely less deserving of redemption.

With Billy, they took a situation that, while complex and, at times, difficult to parse, is ultimately miraculous and joyful, and they made it just.... incredibly grim. There is no real distinction between Billy Maximoff and Billy Kaplan in the comics-- they're the same person, given a second chance at life and the great fortune to reconnect with his original family, in a way that doesn't invalidate or erase the second. And, again, I want to emphasize that when YA and CC were written, Wanda had Jewish heritage, so I don't think there needs to be any awkwardness in the transfer between the Maximoff and Kaplan families, and the text never does anything to imply that Billy's cultural upbringing is any less valid, or any less central to his character after his origins are revealed.

Here, they created a false dichotomy between the two characters, killed one them off, and made the other into a body-snatcher. That is so much darker, and so much more tragic for the Kaplans-- and it creates uncomfortable questions about their relationship, and Billy's identity, that I don't think can ever be neatly resolved. I will say that, thus far, I don't think the show explicitly disavows "William's" heritage, or writes off Billy's relationship with the Kaplans, the way some people are reporting. He doesn't actually remember his life before the switch, so it's not a total takeover, and at points, the episode seems to imply that he's somehow both, and neither-- a new gestalt.

But I don't trust these writers to execute that concept with integrity, or even consistency. In WV and MoM, Wanda's motives, sense of self, and relationship to her powers repeatedly change at the drop of a dime, and we're seeing the same thing, here, with the abrupt change that takes place when Billy reveals his identity. The shift in personality, escalation of power, and the vague implication that he's been masterminding this whole excursion makes no sense with the established timeline-- this is all happening within 24 hours of him even learning that Wanda had kids, let alone that he might be one of them, not to mention hearing about both Agatha the Witches Road for the first time. And up until that point, he really was just an earnest kid. The heel-turn feels silly and juvenile, and the needle drop at the end of episode #5 underscores that a little too perfectly-- his "bad guy" act is just as ill-fitting and unsubstantiated as the Eilish's edgy, wannabe-thug aesthetics.

Obviously, the most important issue here is not the quality of writing, but where this character falls into the spectrum of whitewashing and erasure. The fact that Locke is not Jewish but, before the switch, is playing a Jewish character-- and, specifically trespassing on prayer and religious ceremonies-- is a problem. I've seen a lot of different opinions expressed by a lot of different people within the community about who can or can't play Jewish characters, but I think we can all agree that this is worth criticizing, especially given the larger context of repeated erasure and historical distortion against Jewish and Roma people in this franchise.

But I also want to emphasize that, because of what was done to Wanda, and the franchise's insistence on conducting blatant anti-Romani racism, there was never going to be a truly authentic or acceptable version of this character. Now matter how they cast the role, a significant part of his background had already been erased, and he was already saddled with significant racist baggage. I am very, very tired of white people and Young Avengers fans overlooking that fact.

[existennialmemes]

God Gives His

Wackiest Battles

to his

Silliest Soldiers

but he can't stop us

soon our shenanigans will dethrone that fraud for good

[rotzaprachim]

why the andor fandom own you money? :o

the answer might have something to do with a) the whole fandom treatment of narkina 5 and b) the treatment of the removal of cassian’s sandals (a Mexican fan pointed out that they’re huaraches too, I think this is an essential part of the intersectional analysis here) as some kind of Easter egg foot fetish content that the creators had No idea what they did, throwing this out to the Thirsty fans, rather than an explicit reference to the Shoah. Fandom in general not clocking that the removed shoes are used as an international symbol of genocide rememberance by Jewish and Indigenous peoples to honor and remember members of our peoples who were murdered

[margbarcisforever]

thinking about the episode of babylon 5 where each alien species on the station is sort of explaining their own spiritual views, and the question comes up like “if every species has a unifying religion of sorts, what is the equivalent for humanity?” and it’s sort of a question that is wrestled with in the background for most of the episode without a clear answer, until at the end of the episode when sheridan introduces… a priest, a rabbi, an imam, a lama, and the camera pulls back to reveal an effectively endless line of human religious figures all standing together to represent the multiplicity of humanity, the idea that none of the individual religions is the true uniting force, that the variance itself is what makes humans humans… i’m a pretty anti-theist person at this point but it really sits with me.

[council-of-beetroot]

Missed opportunity though if they don't make FFXVIII really jewish

is sephiroth from final fantasy vii jewish?

Rating: Not Jewish

As per my spouse who has actually played the game: Anime is just really into quasi-kabbalist symbolism and visuals but there's nothing actually Jewish about the character. it's an alternate universe, and they don't even have fantasy-Jews.

Thanks for the help, @ximen.

[hasdrubal-gisco]

finally watched barbie last night. i think it was refreshing to see gerwig's exploration of population exchange in europe during the chalcolithic age. barbies are clearly coded to be early european farmers, living in a comfortable yet stagnant environment of europe at the tail end of the ice age, with a culture revolving around female fertility (notice the second character introduced is a pregnant barbie). the second sequence shows up ken(gosling)'s enterance into the story on beach, mirroring the arrival of western steppe herder cultures as glaciers in europe retreated.

once barbie and ken venture into the "real world" (prohpetic vision of the bronze age), ken adopts advanced technologies like the horse (horse), patriatrchy (worship of a male solar deity), and cars (the wheel, expoundable into the horse-driven chariot). his donning of the fringe jacket and cowboy hat stir within the audience a yearning for westward expansion, from the pontic steppe through the pannonian basin and beyond.

ken transforming barbieland into the kendom mirrors the replacement of early european farmer (vinča, varna cultures etc.) with corded ware and bell beaker cultures, settled iterations of the kens' previously pastoral culture. the only barbie not assimilated into the new cultral zeitgeist is weird barbie (basques), herself a cultural isolate even compared to other barbies pre-invasion.

the final battle scene between the two ken factions places particular focus on archery, hallmark of the mongol civilization, which was the last of the steppe invasions of europe. notice in this situation, gerwig's bravery in correctly having ken (asian) represent the kingdom of hungary (asian), whereas ken (gosling) is of course the ever-lasting scythian spirit emanating from the steppe. some scholars have suggested the light-blue void where the last battle takes place to be a metaphor tengri.

some other stuff happened as well but i didn't really get how that fit into the greater story i guess. what was the deal with the old jewish lady LOL !

[prokopetz]

Hello! You talk a lot about ttrpg mechanics, and I was wondering if you could help me out with something.

Very often, the only time I have available for playing is on Saturday, but I'm jewish so I can't write or use electronics during the session. Are there any rpgs that don't require any writing? And if not, what do you think would be a good way to modify a preexisting one?

I'm assuming you're looking for games where nobody involved needs to do any writing things down, so as not to run afoul of the whole "no asking other people to perform restricted activities for one's own benefit" thing, which leaves you with two basic options:

Very simple games with little or no persistent game-state information, such that it's feasible to keep it all in your head. This covers stuff like Lasers & Feelings (no mechanical game-state whatsoever, though you will need to do character creation ahead of time) or Honey Heist (each player has one number to keep track of, which can be handled without writing by sliding a token around on printed track prepared ahead of time, if you help remembering).

Games where the complexities of the persistent game-state are entirely represented using props and tokens. On the simpler end, you've got stuff like Dread, a survival-horror game where conflicts are resolved by making pulls from a Jenga tower, and there are no hit points or other resources beyond the tower itself – either the tower is up and your character is alive, or the tower is down and your character is dead. (The same caveats about character creation in advance that apply to Lasers & Feelings, above, apply here.) On the more complex side, you've got RPG/board game hybrids like Zoetrope or What We Possess, where each game comes in a box with a giant stack of cards and tokens and playing-boards and such, and the game-state is represented by shoving components around.

It's a pretty broad question, so if you have a specific genre or milieu in mind, I can try to chase down something suitable which fits that brief.

[xclowniex]

Not many of the boycotts get under my skin and it may just be due to stress from moving and the recent events in Europe but holy fucking boycott batman, they're trying to boycott Mary (2024) which hasn't even releases yet.

I don't know much about it, however it follows Mary (the religious figure) after she gives birth to Jesus and has to flee.

Now let's lay some facts out first.

Both Jesus and Mary were jewish, not Palestinian. They lived in Judea, centuries before Palestine existed. Jesus and Mary also practiced and followed judaism.

There are a few reasons as to why people are boycotting, all equally silly and due to Mary being played by an Israeli Jewish actress.

Some people are ignoring fact and are claiming Mary was in fact Palestinian. To them, the movie is participating in a historical inaccuracy and erasing Palestinian history.

For anyone who actually knows the history more than reading an Instagram post, knows that, like we've established, Mary was a jew from Judea and not Palestinian. I also find it racist to think that Palestinians cannot have their own history and have to piggyback off of another culture. Palestinian history should be taught and represented in the media, without having another groups history rebranded as Palestinian to give legitimacy. Palestinian history should have legitimacy on its own.

The other reason for the boycott is the Israeli jewish actor playing her, Noa Cohen.

And to this I have a few thoughts.

Firstly, I thought (and still do) that the best representation in media is when a character is portrayed by someone of the same identity. Israel is the closest thing to modern day Judea. You aren't going to get any better rep than that.

Secondly, people need to understand that you are going to be uncomfortable at times!!! If an Israeli person being in a movie makes you uncomfortable, tough fucking titties just cope. Israeli citizens are not their government and it is bigoted to think so. So just learn to cope.

I have zero clue if she served in the IDF or not, but if she has and that's a factor in the boycott, I need people to also just cope. Most Israelis have served. By banning every Israeli who has served from being in movies and shows, you are banning the majority of Israelis from a whole profession.

[cryptotheism]

How many languages do you speak?

You are always talking about alchemist that lived all around the world in very differente time periods. And you have mentioned several times that there's a ton of numerology hidden in their texts, counting syllables and letters of certain words and paragraphs. So one would assume you need to read them in the original language it was written, right?

That's a really good question! As with most really good questions, the answer is "kinda, it depends!"

So! Most alchemical texts are written in some form of coded language, but the nature of that code depends on the era and culture the text is being written in. Depending on how its written, modern scholars have a lot of different tools for cracking open alchemical esoterica.

Most ancient Greek/Byzantine texts are written in postclassical Greek. But, they're often written in dense philosophical prose. The reader needs to be familiar with the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and the early Neoplatonists, to make sense of them. Luckily for us, people have been studying postclassical Greek for nearly 2000 years. There are many excellent translations into English.

Late Egyptian alchemists wrote almost entirely in pictograph code. Not as in hieroglyphics, mind you. Egyptian alchemical recipes often made use of custom character sets and symbols that represented alchemical concepts. (One famous example, the Formula of the Crab, uses a complex diagram that looks like a centipede to represent a particular gold compound.) These are damn near impossible to read without expert help.

At the same time, Jewish and Syriac writers of the era could get by on the fact that not everyone could read Hebrew and Syriac lol. The language barrier itself acted as a sort of copyright system for protecting their ideas. Luckily for us, many of these texts were preserved and translated by medieval Arab scholars!

Speaking of Arabic, once you hit the Islamic Golden Age, the amount of alchemical literature increases by a factor of ten. Thing is, the Islamic Polymaths weren't all that interested in obscuring their work. The Islamic Golden Age was all about copying and translating older works, and compiling them into big textbook/dictionaries. They're not intentionally encoded, they're comparatively easy to read once you get a good translation. Thing is, you gotta know your Neoplatonism. Medieval Islamicate scholars love Neoplatonism.

Then we get the reintroduction of alchemy to Europe around the 10th century. What you get is about 400 years of monks painstakingly translating medieval Arabic into Latin. A lot of these texts are very well preserved, and have good translations into English.

Then, around the late 14th century, European entrepreneurial alchemy kicks into high gear, and THIS is where we get all those fancy numerology encoded alchemical texts. Renaissance alchemists loved themselves some puzzles. This would be fine if they were all just writing in Latin, but the printing press meant they could write in any damn language they please. You get a lot of French, German, Dutch, Italian, and antiquated English alchemical texts, and they can be a bitch to read without help.

BUT the introduction of the printing press also gave us something useful: cheap picture books! Late renaissance alchemists loved writing in word games and coded metaphor, but they also loved including esoteric diagrams. And the thing about esoteric diagrams is --if you know your stuff-- you don't need to speak 15th century french to read a picture. Which isn't a replacement for reading the original translation, not even close, but the explicit purpose of these images was to prove to other alchemists that the author knows what they're talking about. So if you can read them, you can get a damn good sense as to what the text is about.

This was fun to write so I'm gonna plug my patreon if you wanna see me write more about alchemy.

[alexistalkscomics]

Why Is The Jewish “Representation” In Agatha All Along So Problematic???

When it was first confirmed that Joe Locke was going to have a role in Agatha All Along, most fans quickly came to the conclusion that he would be portraying Billy Kaplan AKA Wiccan which unfortunately ended up being correct.

The problem with that casting you ask?

Joe Locke isn’t Jewish and he is playing one of Marvel’s most prominent Jewish characters. Whilst many goyim (non-Jewish people) often inaccurately perceive Jewishness to solely be a religious identity which is a massive oversimplification of what it means to be a Jew, Jewish people are actually an ethnoreligious community which means that we’re our own distinct ethnic group and culture that have a traditional religion that is intrinsically tied to our identity and culture regardless of individual Jewish people’s levels of observance.

And because we are an ethnoreligious group, that makes the casting of Joe Locke, who is not ethnically or religiously Jewish, inherently problematic to say the least, especially when placed into the wider context of Jewish representation in the MCU.

Marvel Studios has previously been criticised for the way that it’s approached adaptations of Jewish characters for the MCU with the two main examples being casting Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, who is Romani and Jewish in the comics, and Oscar Isaac as the Ashkenazi Jewish Marc Spector in the Moon Knight streaming series and in both cases, the heritage of the characters were either downplayed or just outright erased. So for anyone who understands the issue, it should be clear that the MCU has a poor track record when it comes to representing Jewish characters and that Agatha All Along’s adaptation of Billy Maximoff/Kaplan is just another addition to the list of disrespectful adaptations of Jewish characters.

What is the specific problem with how Billy has been adapted in the MCU?

Well, in order to answer that question, the answer has to effectively be split into two parts:

In the most recent episode of Agatha All Along, we finally learn the backstory of Billy (who had previously only been referred as “Teen” due to a spell that prevented his identity from being found out) and as part of that, we are shown a flashback to the day of Billy KAPLAN’s (the capitalisation will make sense in a bit), Bar Mitzvah, a sacred Jewish ritual that marks the transition into adulthood and the responsibilities that comes with being a Jewish adult. In this flashback, Billy (who if you’ve payed attention, is being played by a non-Jew) is shown wearing traditional religious garments and handling what is potentially an actual Torah scroll.

Within Judaism and Jewish culture in general, handling a Torah and then reading from it is seen as both a great honour and responsibility for any Jew who is called for an Aliyah so seeing a non-Jewish actor who has no experience as a Jewish person and in interviews, has mocked fans who criticised his role in the show, wearing my culture and religion as a costume to advance his career just felt wrong to me. I love Marvel and I take great pride in superhero comics being an art form that was created by Jewish immigrants so seeing one of the biggest franchises in history cast a non-Jewish actor to appropriate Jewish culture just felt disgusting to me. At least with Moon Knight, all we got was the smallest references to his Jewish heritage rather than being subjected to seeing the christian Oscar Isaac partake in sacred closed rituals.

And now, moving onto the second part of the answer to the above question, after we see Billy reading from the Torah and are then shown the party following the ceremony, we learn that the flashback takes place concurrently with the final episode of WandaVision. Because of that, the party has to end early so that guest can evacuate and soon, Billy and his parents are in a car accident where Billy dies…

…until his body is quickly revived after the soul of Wanda and Vision’s artificially constructed son, Billy MAXIMOFF possesses and takes control of Billy Kaplan’s body whilst erasing everything that made Billy Kaplan who he was. The reason why this is especially problematic is because of the great importance of the soul within Judiaism. According to Jewish laws, one of the most important things that distinguishes Jewish people from goyim is a Jewish soul and in Agatha All Along, one of the main protagonist who is an adaption of a Jewish character who was created by a Jewish writer is reimagined as a non-Jewish soul that hijacks the corpse of a Jewish teenager to use as a meat puppet. It becomes even worse when later on in the episode, “Billy” is shown rejecting his identity as Billy Kaplan which effectively takes the undertones of ethnic erasure and cultural appropriation of Joe Locke’s casting and makes it an essential part of the characterisation for this incarnation of Billy.

In Conclusion?

In the Marvel Comics, Billy Kaplan is a proud queer Jewish man who was partially based on the lived experiences of his creator who is also a gay Jewish man. Becuase of that, he holds a special place in the hearts of many fans who see a piece of ourselves in him and we deserved to see the really Billy Kaplan be brought to life in a way that would honour the source material that we love and introduce mainstream audiences to a really cool and fascinating Jewish superhero who can open up so many possibilities for the more supernatural side of the Marvel Universe to be explored in further MCU instalments.

But instead, we got the bare minimum of Jewish representation followed by the complete erasure of that “representation” with the ultimate end product being a show riddled with the underlying rot of antisemitism.

[fairytrashmother]

I am going to say more about how well Babylon 5 did with introducing a character's Jewishness

Usually when media introduces a Jew, and it isn't a throwaway line, it's about loss. It's about what the Jew doesn't have that everyone else has. Jews don't celebrate Christmas or Easter, we can't eat bacon, it's about what we're missing out on, and how that sets us apart

Babylon 5, on the other hand, makes about what Susan does have, while ironically framing it through loss (her father's death). Susan has a family, a community, a set of traditions and beliefs that influence how she moves through the world, and we are shown these. We see her sit shiva, and we see her commanding officer and close friend come to sit with her, to participate, because he loves her and wants to be one of the good things in her life. Her rabbi (a close family friend) comes all the way out to the ass end of space to help her and be with her. We see random extras that aren't named at the Shiva, but who represent a Jewish community on the station, letting us know that there are Jews about in their world.

She reads the prayers in English to share them with her friends, and by extension, the audience, but later Sinclaire uses a little Hebrew to speak to the rabbi, because he's shown as caring enough to learn. Her struggle isn't with being Jewish, but with her specific interpersonal relationship with her father, and she finds solace in the wisdom of her community.

They are very clear that Judaism is entirely compatible with this future, because in this hopeful future we aren't a perfectly utopian species, but we're actively trying to build communities and foster understanding within and without, and even if it wasn't a fucking amazing show across the board, I would love it just for this.

[jewish-vents]

I think the reason the Miku thing is so grating is because it represents a bigger trend in fandom. Everyone can have religious headcanons, except Jewish people. Spider-Man can be any ethnicity, nationality, etc. except Jewish or Israeli. MCU characters can be AU'd into being different races or having different powers, but don't you dare say Captain America is Jewish in your story. Digimon says there's heroes in every country but if you make an Israeli one or say one in one country is Jewish, you support genocide now. Miku has no canon ethnicity and people from over 60 countries have drawn her as their ethnicity or nationality or both, but don't you ever imply Israeli Miku is okay.

And the real, very clear subtext underneath all of that is clear: you don't get to be in fandom spaces. You don't get to relax and take a break from the world. You can't sit back and dream up any character who is both heroic and Jewish. You don't get to have fiction as a fun escape from day to day life. Your being Jewish makes you ineligible for that kind of joy, even in fandoms where the source material was written by Jews in the first place.

It doesn't help that so many Vocaloid fans are kids so with Miku in particular, we're seeing kids as young as 11 or 12 get bullied out of fandom spaces by adults. Hey, Pro-Pals? Hamasniks? Let me let you in on a secret: ZERO PALESTINIANS ARE HELPED BY THIS! You think someone living in a warzone is helped by you yelling at a child for daring to draw a fictional singer as Israeli? Do you honestly believe that someone somewhere is one step closer to liberation because you tore into a 14 year on Twitter over a doodle they posted?

No. No, you don't honestly believe that. This is not about helping Palestinians. This is about punishing Jewish people - and in this case in particular, Jewish children - for existing in public. This is about penalizing people for acknowledging that Judaism exists, for imagining themselves in fiction instead of imagining worlds in which they don't exist, for interrupting your fantasies of a Jew-free Earth.

The issue is not Miku, it's that the Miku debacle is part of a nearly year-long trend of goyim yelling at us for existing Jewishly and unabashedly. And all that hate and constant anger is a lot to take. Especially when so many people lie to us, saying it's not about antisemitism, it's about [buzzword here].

Yeah, no. If you're yelling at children for imagining Jewish characters existing, you're being antisemitic. It's not about anything else. Stop lying.

.

[elumish]

I just talked about why people should be engaging critically with entertainment media and specifically getting used to identifying specific patterns or rhetoric, so here is a very non-exhaustive list of things that I see (including in ostensibly progressive entertainment media spaces like fandom or queer books):

Framing representative democracy as bad, especially when contrasted with non-democratic/autocratic or anocratic rule (e.g., "good things can get done when there's just someone smart with all the power who can force decisions through without having to debate all the time")

Benevolent dictators / benevolent autocrats (e.g., "They're such a kind and intelligent ruler, so it's good that they have absolute decision making authority")

Blaming newcomers / immigrants for the degredation of traditions (e.g., "It's not that we don't want them here, it's just that they keep trying to change things instead of learning the ways we do things")

Imperialism as a means to "fix" or "improve" other societies (e.g., "they oppress women, so invading them, deposing their goverment, and adding them to the empire is good because it will help women")

Equating gender with body parts (e.g., "secondary gender" to indicate alpha / beta / omega in the omegaverse)

Equating body parts with personality traits (e.g., alphas being inherently more aggressive and omegas being inherently more submissive in the omegaverse)

Equating sexuality with personality traits (e.g., all asexual characters being shy or quiet)

Equating sexuality with gender (e.g., all asexual characters being female or non-binary)

Lack of accounting for women or queer people in worldbuilding (e.g., "that magical species just doesn't have gay people")

Regularly having Jewish characters celebrate Christmas

Excusing abusive behavior with a bad or sad backstory (e.g., "how could he help being fascist, he was bullied as a child")

Women (except for the FMC and possibly a friend) being uniformly catty, cruel, power-hungry, man-obsessed, and/or promiscuous adulterers

Black characters only existing to support white characters

Black female characters being presented as being too strong and independent to want or need a romantic relationship, especially while white female characters have happy and fulfilling romantic relationships

Associating low empathy with violent inclinations or behavior (e.g., "he just didn't feel empathy for anyone, and that's why he became a serial killer")

[knight-a3]

Adam, the First Man

Hazbin Masterpost

Heavenbound Masterpost

Adam is one of the characters I did not like the portrayal of in canon, so there's a fair amount I'm doing differently.

More notes under the cut

--Character--

I hate the crude misogynist characterization, because it feels disrespectful to Abrahamic faiths. I can't help but feel Christians in particular are targeted, even though Adam is a character is Jewish and Islamic traditions as well.

Adam will still be on the arrogant side, but not nearly as insufferable. I want him to portray traditional, positive aspects of masculinity. Loving and protective husband and father, hard-working, and protective. But, has a bit of a temper that can lead to a tendency toward vengeance. Act first, questions later. Eve was a calming influence for him, but she has mysteriously disappeared and he suspects hell had something to do with it. He'll exterminate every demon if it means he can find answers and bring her home.

--Background--

He and Eve were the first humans and were tasked with cultivating the garden of Eden. Abyss wanted them to Fall so it could consume them, so it created Lilith. Lilith befriended them, then offered the forbidden fruit to Eve. Eve, realizing she'd be kicked out, ran to Adam. So he could stay with her, he ate the fruit as well. The fruit gave them the ability to understand morality, and ultimately the ability to choose good and evil, aka sin. Now that they could sin, they could Fall.

Abyss instructed Lilith to seduce Adam to sin. She tried to force herself on him, to get him to commit adultery, but he rejected her. The friendship between the three of them was broken by this. Lilith hadn't eaten the fruit yet, so she didn't really know what she did wrong.

Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, while Lilith was cast to hell with Helel(Lucifer). Adam and Eve had a family and lived happily ever after. Until Cain killed Abel. I don't have that aspect of their story totally worked out, and I'm not sure how relevant it will end up being.

Children-- The Bible only names three children. Cain, Abel, and Seth. But it says they had "more sons and daughters". There's no definitive numbers. It's not even clear if Cain was actually the firstborn. The true firstborn may have gone unnamed because Cain had a more prominent role to document. No daughters are named in the Bible, but some traditions and apocryphal writings mention a few. Aclima, Awan, and Azura.

The bible story basically goes like this: Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. Abel was a shepherd and gave the best of his flock. Cain was a farmer and gave some of his crop. There is no specification to the quality of his offering. So the implication is that he was selfish and kept the best for himself and either gave an average or sub-par offering, maybe even as an afterthought. So when God favored Abel, Cain killed him out of jealousy. Seth was born to essentially replace Abel, so I'm assuming that means Seth was also a shepherd.

History or myth?-- I personally think the Adam and Eve story is largely symbolic, not literal. The method of history keeping during the early biblical days was through stories, often using symbolic imagery to portray a general idea of an event. Which is why there will be other stories across various cultures with similar themes and plot elements. I think the story of Adam and Eve is representative of the evolution of ape to human. While Cain and Abel is about how humans can sin.

Afterlife-- Adam became the chief saint, the highest rank of the archangels, and leader of heaven's army. The army was tasked with protecting heaven and earth from threats, particularly from hell. Demons would sometimes escape and wander earth, so they had to either be sent back to hell, or exterminated.

When concern over hell's growing population and risk of an uprising became prominent, the exterminations began. Recently, the exterminations have been more brutal. Turns out Eve has gone missing, and Adam thinks hell is to blame somehow. So he's furiously searching for her.

--Design Notes--

Appearance: I wanted Adam to look like he could be the first man. Which I felt meant he needed an actual beard, darker skin, and more textured hair. I used Moses from Dreamwork's Prince of Egypt as a model. I figured a more middle-eastern look would be fitting for a Hebrew character.

I had his halo positioned to resemble horns to reference the canon design, and allude to the halo as his helmet's wings.

Apple: Canon has apples be a symbol for the Morningstars, especially Lucifer. But I think it would be more fitting for Adam and Eve instead. "Adam's apple" is a real term, after all. So I wanted to incorporate that.

Crusader: I do not like the demonic looking uniforms for the exorcists. Why would they want to look like the people they are killing? It doesn't make sense to me. It's not even a disguise.

I thought a Crusader theme would be more fitting. So I gave him a Great Helm. Specifically a style of Great Helm referred to as a Sugarloaf, which has a conical shaped top. Domed and conical shapes were better at deflecting blows than flat topped versions. Great Helms did not typically have a movable visor, and experts disagree on if they ever did. Some bascinets have a visor that can make them look like a Sugarloaf Helm, I guess.

I'm just leaning into my nerd side now, but breathing holes weren't always on both sides. Sometimes it was just the right side, since the left was typically the side presented toward the enemy.

The wings on the helmet do have historical precedent. It's called a crest. They're an indication of status and identification. There's two situations were you might see them. 1, in tournaments where participants want to be identifiable and show off. 2, in battles where looking important means the enemies would rather ransom you than kill you. They weren't generally built into the actual helmet, but were removeable. The example to the bottom right of the above set is not-- as far as I'm aware-- a historical example. But it did serve as inspiration for me.

People can get pretty creative with them.

This helmet piece is specifically what "crest" refers to. It's only a piece of the "coat of arms." There were and still are some specific customs to official heraldry, and I won't claim to know all the rules, just that it isn't as simple as googling the your family name's coat of arms, because sharing a name doesn't guarantee it belongs to your family. Heraldry is recorded and officially verified by governments.

Priest: The priestly garb is to reference his high status as an angel, and the religious implications. For official church vestments, what is specifically used and how it looks can vary by denomination, position, event, etc.

The staff is based on a crozier. Which is symbolic of a shepherd's crook. My sheep nerd side is going to come out with this one. There are two basic sizes of crook: Neck sized, and leg sized. Herding sheep is one thing, actually catching them is another. They often don't want to be caught, but they need to be checked on. I've had this struggle when trying to look at my ewe's hooves when she was limping.

I think that's all I have for now.

(Edit notes will go here as needed)

[magnetothemagnificent]

Not "shake a lemon angrily at G-d" week, but rather;

Gather a citron, an ancient fruit predating the cultivation of lemon. Notice how it has a wonderful aroma, and consider how its flesh is edible. This represents the Jew who is both learned in Judaism and who exhibits kindness and good deeds.

Now gather the closed frond at the center of a palm tree. Consider how sweet the dates of the palm taste, but how the frond exhibits no strong smell like the citron. This represents the Jew who is learned in Judaism, but who does not practice the compassion in the many texts they studied.

Now gather at least three branches from a myrtle bush. Take in the refreshing scent oozing from the branches' thick leaves, but see how it does not bear fruit. This represents the Jew who is not learned in Judaism, but whose good character and actions are exceptional.

Finally, gather two branches from the somber willow. While mighty and enveloping, the willow exhibits no strong aroma, nor does it produce fruit. This represents the Jew who is neither learned in Judaism nor kind in character and deeds.

Appreciate the various textures and shapes of these four species. Feel the weight of them in your hand. Value how different in so many aspects each of them are.

Take them all in your hands, and bind them together like an embrace. Point them in all the corners of the earth- South, North, East, heavenward, downward, and West. Think of all your Jewish brethren scattered around the world, and bring your precious bundle back to your heart with every direction you send it to. Contemplate the place of every Jew in your community, the Etrog, the Lulav, the Hadas, and the Arava, for they all belong.

This is the meaning of Sukkot: coming back to our roots and our bare essence. Erect a temporary dwelling in reminiscence of your wandering ancestors. Come together under the stars, as exposed and unguarded as when we first walked the earth. Welcome guests into your makeshift home, be they family, friends, or the spirits of founding ancestors passed. Surround yourself in your community- and bring it all back to your heart.