#just the nuances of it all is so cool

[rainbowsmagicandshit]

I am obsessed with this idea that Arthur somehow caused Merlin to be born. Arthur is the Once And Future King. That was always true, but Merlin was born after Arthur. The “once and future” part of the title implies that he’ll be reincarnated or somehow return at some point. When Albion’s need is greatest, or something like that. BUT!! What if the prophecy is only there and in play because both the Once And Future King and Emrys are incarnated together at the same time? What if Arthur has been born at other times, but Merlin wasn’t and so the prophecy wasn’t meant for that time? What if Arthur was always the key to Emrys being born in a human form?

Obviously there was a lot going on that led to both of their births from Ygraine not being able to conceive a baby to the deal with Nimueh to Ygraine’s death to the start of the Great Purge to the slaughter of those w/ magic to Balinor needing to flee to him meeting Hunith to them falling in love. If any one of these things were different, Arthur and/or Merlin wouldn’t have been born. There are also so many other people that had to have been involved with their own agendas to make it all come together in this way. What if more nobles of Camelot or royals in other nations were against the Great Purge and put pressure on Uther to not go through with it? What if a different High Priestess had talked to Uther or whoever and been more clear about the price of this magic? What if Balinor had chosen a different direction to flee or simply not stopped at or taken a route near Ealdor?

There was so much finagling that led to Arthur’s birth, but even more delicate circumstances that led to Merlin’s. How much had to align to lead to both Arthur and Merlin’s births?

This then leads me back to my point which is if all these other things that we don’t even know how many people and agendas and things had to come together to cause their births, then whose to say that baby/toddler Arthur wasn’t also involved?

As the Once And Future King he must have some sort of connection to magic itself even without Emrys, so what if the final trigger for Emrys to be born into the Mortal world is for the Once And Future King to wish it or pray it or will it into being? Even if not consciously, the will of a baby/toddler would be pretty strong. He’d be young enough to not understand what he was doing, but old enough to know to want it. He’d have a completely firm belief that this is the way it’s meant to be and not old enough to have had the thought that a king must rule alone and cannot have friends or whatever drilled into him yet. He would be young and not understand why he wasn’t allowed to play with other or why the other little ones have parents that love him but his mother is gone and his father is to focused on his mad revenge to pay him much time.

Maybe things all still would have come together and Hunith and Balinor met, fell in love, and Hunith had his son. But, if Arthur didn’t wish that little, hopeful, desperate wish, then would it still have been Merlin? Merlin Emrys? Or would it just be another dragonlord sorcerer?

I mean I'm so intrigued by what Arthur and Merlins life was like before they met each other. Was Arthur's life always in danger and other sorcerers hiding around to help keep him safe before Merlin found him?

Was Merlin's magic always subconsciously protecting Arthur and he felt like a piece of him was missing till the moment he met Arthur? Was that why he was so drawn to him?

Or did Arthur's life get exponentially more dangerous the moment he met Merlin? With other magic users suddenly sensing that Emrys was there to protect the once-and-future king.

Do we think that something happened to Arthur that caused him to reach out to Merlin and his magic when he was younger? Do we think this is why he says Merlin seems familiar; cause even if I've never seen you before you make me feel safe and protected, and I've only ever felt that a handful of times; so are you sure I don't know you???

What about when Merlin was born huh?? Do we think Arthur felt that?? The moment his soul was torn into two?? The moment a piece of his soul was taken to form his other half??

Did he cause it?? Was little baby Arthur Pendragon sitting in his big, cold room, all alone, staring up at the stars after being yelled at or ignored by his father and desperately wishing for someone, anyone, to please get him out of this mess, to love him unconditionally, to always be there for him, to be a friend.

[thedrotter]

witch mili + yuu doodles done in the last few weeks!!! www id like to thank them both for helping me survive this semester that was beating me up🔥🔥

[son-of-avraham]

As I've gotten deeper in conversion, I have increasingly imagined jewish life throughout time. And what I mean by that is...

So when I looked at the Western Wall before this (maybe a few years ago), I just saw a wall. It held no deeper meaning than that. I imagined nothing when I saw that.

But now when I look at the wall or even when I'm praying idly, I'm imagining myself in the temple when it stood there. It's bright outside - a summer day so bright, I think the temple will blind me. A soft wind surrounds me. I'm stood in the middle of a huge crowd of people, simply observing. Women pass by me in small crowds, laughing and talking. Some of these women are wrangling their small children who keep running away, laughing like it's a game. And men walk by smelling of spices. The air is light, the city around bustling with people living fulfilling, meaningful jewish life. The wall now symbolizes that jewish life, and even though it's not just about the temple when I imagine it, it means something to me.

I think that's the result of seeing myself in judaism, turning the "you" into a "we," and I feel about this what I must imagine a married couple feels.

[panncakes]

"Drive safely."

LAWS OF ATTRACTION (2023)

[asgardian--angels]

things I wish I could relive for the first time again:

that magical window where you finish a new piece of media, having watched/read it all by yourself with no fandom contact whatsoever, and you are just so happy about it, and full of interesting theories and takeaways, and just in love with it as a gorgeous piece of art.

because I swear to god as soon as you join the fandom for anything, you're bombarded with how you're supposed to view characters and their arcs, how you're supposed to morally and ethically judge the plot and the ways it apparently failed to present the right message, and if you don't you'll either be shunned for not sharing the popular headcanons or you'll be harassed for not criticizing the source material enough.

like how is it that the fans of a piece of media are also the ones being the most negative about it? If I like a show or a movie or a book, well, I liked it. That's kind of the point. I'm actually not here to tear it apart and talk about how it didn't live up to standards other people had! I enjoyed it for what it was, and forcing myself to find negative things to say about it doesn't actually bring me more enjoyment of it or reap any benefit to me. Fandom's a double-edged sword; you want to join a community to share your love for a piece of art, and the price you pay for a modicum of joy is a mountain of negativity. that's one main reason that I never engage with fandom until I'm completely done with a show, because if I was plugged into all of that commentary and discourse during the process, I'd be completely colored by how I'm expected to interpret everything this piece of art is presenting to me without being able to even form my own opinions.

[doctorweebmd]

the tumblr hot takes re: Tesla owners and saying things like ‘I spit in the door handles of every Tesla I see uwu’ are absolutely batshit lmao

because Tesla was the first all-electric vehicle highly popularized in the US. most if not all initial buyers were planet-hugging liberals who wanted to stop using fossil fuels. it started as a status symbol of ‘I could spend my money on a luxury car, BUT I care about the environment! And don’t have to give up looks or having fun driving!’

Which eventually lead to teslas being the most affordable all-electric option. For a number of years. Tesla and SpaceX, over 15 years ago, were incredibly innovative and seen as a liberation from over reliance on fossil fuels

Like. This bitch built his empire tugging on environmentalist heartstrings. The people that own teslas are not your enemy; they’re much more likely to be disgusted with Elon like the rest of us

[benevolenterrancy]

if you're not reading the last book of SVSSS right now do you mind me asking what you are reading? I'm just curious!

Definitely! (though I warn you, I'm fundamentally incapable of reading only one thing at a time)

For physical books, I'm currently reading The Warden by Daniel M. Ford, the novelization of My Neighbour Totoro, and trying to keep up on Dracula Daily (i am failing this)

For audiobooks, I've been relistening to The Series of Unfortunate Events (because I never actually read them all when they were originally coming out) and I juuust finished This Census-Taker by China Miéville and Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky this weekend. I'm about to start A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.

[gingermintpepper]

Hi!! I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the person you explained the Castalia thing to a few days ago. I've been following you for a while now, but I just managed to go through your blog well and proper, and I'm here to express both my gratitude for the amount of info and links you've shared (I did NOT know about the hepatoscopy and haruspicy, and I'm about to go down a lengthy rabbit hole) and my horror at once again being given a new hyperfixation (I didn't imagine wanting to read about liver-divination help).

Also, also, are you the author of Exeunt Phoebus Apollo on AO3 because that was the fic that sent me on this greek mythology spree, and it's so good I got obsessed with Apollo, and he's everywhere around me now. Thank you for writing it!

AAAAAA THIS IS SO SWEET?? THANK YOU!! I do remember you and hey man, I'm always happy to help <33

I'm so glad to recruit someone else to my hepatoscopy group because it is a long and storied tradition with many many different types of study and schools of thought dating all the way back to the Sumerians! It's an extremely underrated bit of study when it comes to sketching portraits of divination and prophecy when it comes to adaptations of imaginings of greek myth works - similar to bird augury (which was such a widespread skill that most people had some level of understanding of the basics of what the omens of common birds meant the way people now can look at the clouds over head and know if it'll rain and when approximately that rain'll happen).

It's a great and common misunderstanding that things like prophecy and magic were these fantastic elements that had no tangible features to their practices and while there's nothing wrong with interpreting things as more fantastical for the sake of coolness or aesthetic, I personally think these elements are interesting enough to be worth looking into and portraying!

Also yes, I did write Exeunt 😳I'm very very honoured that you enjoyed my work so much and I'm even more grateful that it could let you see the Apollo in everything 💖 Thank you for reading it!!

[beautitudes]

that's it, i'm therefore blocking people who hate on book!marius for the things he hasn't done.

respectfully, what he has done: was a terrible snob.

what he hasn't done: fucking everything else.

[courtneydeservesbetter]

Hate that my favorite character is usually the least fav in a popular ship. This happens to me so often that I can feel it when I read a fanfic. That my baby just isn’t as fleshed out as the other half of the couple, that they’re basic personality traits are off, that the blame of everything bad that happened in their canon relationship is on them. So then I’m reading like HEY leave them alone, they’re BOTH freaks!

[vicquemares]

i appreciated the new dw ep and the general theme/messages it was trying to get across however. it would've been sooo much more interesting/substantial if the villains werent yknow. genocide survivors with one of whom is tortured by the doctor. mama what

[goldensunset]

no feeling quite like seeing someone make a harmless and valid post and then someone adds on and interprets it in the most vile and stupid manner possible accusing op of being ignorant and wrong and biased etc and that’s the version with a million notes but you’re like guys that is not what they were talking about at all and you know it

[ravencromwell]

The poem evokes human greatness and human vulnerability. People are “godlike” in their courage and skill, but even the greatest mortals fall and clutch the dust between their bloody fingers. The beautiful word minunthadios , “short-lived,” is used of both Achilles and Hector, and applies to all of us. We die too soon, and there is no adequate recompense for the terrible, inevitable loss of life. Yet through poetry, the words, actions, and feelings of some long-ago brief lives may be remembered even three thousand years later.

--Emily Wilson's introduction to the Iliad

[lord-squiggletits]

One of my least favorite fantasy writing tropes is when the writers set up a Good vs. Evil paradigm (often with say heaven vs hell or light vs darkness) and then they write in some shit where it's like "this is an eternal conflict that won't end because AKSHULLY the evil ravening forces of doom that want to destroy/enslave all of existence are just morally gray and both forces are karmic equals where the universe needs both to survive and you should actually try to be both dark AND light" like

I'm not saying that that kind of story doesn't work, I just feel like the way most fantasy stories write it (especially if it's initially written as Cosmic Good vs. Evil and then retconned to be "they can both be good/evil in their own way") feels more like a stupid attempt to be subversive and edgy than anything that actually makes sense morally or philosophically speaking.

Like. I do agree with the concept that there will always be both good and evil/light and darkness in the universe, but I don't think that's because the Forces Of Evil are actually misunderstood tragic heroes and the Forces Of Good are akshully evil and hiding it. I think it's because Being Good is something that you have to consciously try to be and there is no point at which you Achieve Goodness and can relax the rest of your life never having to improve yourself as a person or do work to combat injustice in the world. Because in that case, the fact that "both good and evil exist" is just a statement of fact about how there is never a point in life where you're simply done with your personal/spiritual/moral journey. Not some inane statement about how akshully things like spite and hatred and crimes against humanity are a necessary part of existence that you should embrace because being an Enlightened Individual is about how Being Good and Being Evil are akshully the same thing cosmically speaking and you should welcome in the forces of darkness and violence into your heart bc you're incomplete without them!

[affluent-havoc]

Something that fascinated me about the Chapter 2 trial was when Makoto says this (pardon the screenshot quality and SPOILERS AHEAD of course ^v^)

For one, no Makoto, you cannot know the exact thoughts Byakuya was having in that moment, not that I'm mad at you for that Makoto. But, anyway, I was thinking and, the only scissors we know of in the school for a fact are Jack's. And, unless there were kitchen sheers or perhaps anything in storage, there's no other scissors in the school that could be used. Plus, there is no way Byakuya's going to try and get closer to Toko and Jack any more than he has to just to nab some scissors. Which, another thing of note is that, in most of the pictures of Jack's murders, the victims are pinned to walls with the scissors which must be made of some strong stuff due to the fact that they were lodged into the walls strong enough to break said walls.

Another thing of note is, according to the localization in the little bit of the case file we're giving (shown up above of course ^v^), there's some more patterns with the cases. At least with what we're shown, two victims were both outside of their apartments in a parking lot which makes me wonder of Jack specifically also choses to do the murders outside, almost as if displaying the bodies out for the world to gawk at, to show the world their filth as a display of the betrayal they did to her. That's leaning towards speculative territory though. This also got me wondering some other stuff though. One, is Toko secretly buff in the arms or something? This is mostly a joke but also seriously. Toko is a twig unless Jack's adrenaline rushes are just that powerful! Though ghosts and martial arts teleportation (among other shenanigans) exist in the world of Danganronpa, so who am I do judge the realism here! Another thing I want to mention is, have we even been shown enough of Byakuya's own strength capabilities to judge if he is capable to break and crack a wall like that? Maybe he could. But, would he even deem it worth the physical effort? Which this all goes back to the specific phrasing Makoto uses here; "He consciously" chose to use the extinction cord". Maybe he did, using the train of thought that Byakuya might have felt it as "too much effort" to try and make it more believable or to have it be too much effort to find anything else to suspend Chihiro's body. But, this is also the same man who went out of his way to do all this in the first place. Which brings me back to the idea that maybe it wasn't him specifically using the extinction cord like that. Perhaps it was that lack of resources idea I mentioned earlier, not being able to get any other scissors in the school. He is a resourceful guy after all. He knows the Genocide Jack cases to the finite details to probably clock out that the victims where specifically suspended via the scissors being lodged into the walls and through the victims themselves. Moreover, he probably could have noticed that all the victims were guys too and, Chihiro being perceived as a girl at the time by him and everyone else, would have perhaps known all along that there would always be holes in this plan of his. He was at least carful enough with Chihiro's body not to touch it inappropriately, perhaps a hint of the gentlemanly upbringing of his (though that's speculation and cannot fully be proven) Additionally, there is also the aspect of time. Did he have the time to attempt to rummage his way into potentially finding scissors to make this crime scene look more realistic? Did he have time to potentially get close enough to Toko in the span of a night to find a way to snatch Jack's scissors somehow, and then be able to scurry his lanky ass back to the scene of the crime to pin up the body? Would he have time to think up of any other alternative to suspending the body other than to use the extinction cord? Would he even want to do all of that in the first place? This is all once again speculation but it just makes me curious. And, yes, he disrespected the dead by doing that to Chihiro. He didn't scathe the body though and it's already established he did not touch the body any more than he deemed necessary. That's a fact with the twist of the second trial and how much he really didn't know despite knowing who the true culprit was the whole time. So, who knows. Maybe deep down, there could be a part of Byakuya that didn't want to go that far with making the scene, which he knew deep down would never look real enough, knowing Jack's type of targets. There's just so much to this though. After all, Makoto himself isn't a reliable narrator in a way. The closing arguments are close to reality, yes. But not fully. After all, in chapter 2, since Makoto only knew so much before Monokuma gave the reveal and the closing argument was before that.

Who's to say he was EVER this sinister during the night Chihiro died. Who's to say that he CONSIOUSLY chose the extension cord. Perhaps he did in a way as a twisted sense of pity for Makoto who he suspected could be a far stronger threat to his chance of winning the killing game. It all depends on your perspective, your interpretation. I'm just rambling about all of this though! Stuff like this just fascinates me ^v^

[maria-aegyptiaca2]

The substance was Not Good and maybe even Bad…