#king-of-babylon

[helenaheissner]

Hot take: Babylon 5 is the best King Arthur adaptation.

I’m tempted to explain that but it would require a full on essay

[grayrazor]

It'd be in the truest spirit of Lovecraft's style that if you're writing homage fiction, include eldritch beings from other unrelated works of fiction in the lists of blasphemous names.

"She began to speak, calling upon the epithets of the outer gods, harsh sounds not meant for the human tongue. Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, Shuma-Gorath, Hastur, Ungoliant, Tzeench, Slannesh, Pah-Wraith, Redjac, Ideon, Qull of the Five Inversions, Mxyzptlk, Dormammu, Lavos, Jenova, Zeromus, Kyuubey, Xeelee, Ghidorah, Ogdru Jahad, Vorlon, Dagoth Ur, Hermaeus Mora, Sheogorath, Abeloth, Waru, Mnngal-Mnngal, Zonama Sekot, Phaaze, Unicron, W'rkncacnter."

[pinkrosealice]

CLAMP's legacy as originally starting from doujinshi circles is really fascinating and makes a lot of sense when you understand that a lot of their manga are just straight up loose adaptations or spiritual reinterpretations of some of the most iconic pieces of 20th century japanese fiction, especially literature.

In many ways a lot of their storytelling is best described as "derivative" but I don't really like using that word because it has such a negative connotation. I think CLAMP's genius is actually their ability to iterate on the themes and ideas and character types and other inspirations that they derive from, especially in their ability to translate those elements to a visual/aesthetic format and to add themes of queerness into those stories or highlight the already present elements of queerness.

Like Tokyo Babylon is inspired by Teito Monogatari (and also Peacock King but that in of itself is a subject for a whole other post). And it's not just limited to the quick one-off comedic reference to Yasunori Katō that we see in the beginning of the manga. The title itself is a reference to the first manga adaptation of the Teito Monogatari. And that title choice for the adaptation was itself probably a combination of a deliberate reference to the Book of Revelation which was culturally relevant in Japan at the time for reasons I'll explain in a little bit, as well as the fact that the author of Teito Monogatari based Katō in part on Aleister Crowley. But Teito Monogatari and Tokyo Babylon are fundamentally stories about the exact same subject matter, that is the City of Tokyo itself.

X aka X/1999 is pretty self evidently a loose adaptation of the Digital Devil Story novels, the ones that would go on to be adapted loosely into the Megami Tensei video games. An apocalyptic battle for the fate of the entire world fought in Tokyo between two ideologically opposed groups of super powered beings, one of which is literally called The 7 Angels. There is a magic sword associated with the death of a female loved one, there are references to a whole bunch of religious and occult concepts from both the east and west, and one of the key locations for the plot is an elite private high school. X and DDS/ Megaten are both quintessential examples of media born from the Japanese Occult Boom. Bad Japanese translations of the prophecies of Nostradamus in the '70s that inspired the Book would become mixed with the social and economic chaos that was the Japanese asset price bubble and other late stage capitalist nonsense and then the financial collapse in the '90s is why you have in both Tokyo Babylon (and by extension the manga adaptation of Teito Monogatari) and X this weird obsession for the Book of Revelation in a ostensibly non-Christian cultural zeitgeist. Tokyo was both "Babylon" as in Rome or any sort of other hypothetical city / civilization that represented decadence and degeneration, and it was Tel Megiddo in the sense that it was the place where the end of days and the battle heralding the Apocalypse would commence.

And then Gate 7 is literally just one of dozens upon dozens of fanfic/ rip-off / adaptations of / works inspired by Makai Tensho which came out in the '60s and sort of is kind of the cultural grandfather of novels like Digital Devil Story, Teito Monogatari and the Onmyoji series. It's the modern source of basically every piece of Japanese pop culture that treats the notable historic figures of the Warring States Era as more than just badass warriors but literal demigods, sorcerers and super powered beings. Mirage of Blaze(which also has some pretty clear inspirations from Tokyo Babylon and it sort of exists in a trifecta with TB and Yami no Matsuei in their relation to the Onmyoji novels by Baku Yumemakura but again, that is the subject for another post), Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara, pretty much all of the Fate series but especially the original Stay Night and especially especially Redline/ GudaGuda and Samurai Remnant, and a whole bunch of fighting games and Ninja OVA'S are all examples of Makai Tensho's influence.

[oldshowbiz]

August 2006.

Patton Oswalt gives a hot scoop on Tom Green Live.

[mylittleredgirl]

i often wonder if modern day royalty still really believe in the divine right of kings. like of course they’re probably not going around saying it out loud—it’s tradition, it’s tourism, it’s part of our national identity or whatever—but in the closed door secret society of it, do they tell their heirs that they’ve been ordained by god? maybe even that they have to preserve the throne as an institution and continue their bloodline because the kingdom will fall without it, or even that one day their descendants will take back their rightful place if they just wait it out?

i don’t actually know a thing about royalty btw and am very north american so this question has probably been clearly answered by people that do know things, i just think about the secret rituals (and dark family secrets) that probably persist in that culture that makes Royalty™️ different from just inheriting wealth or being a third generation hollywood star or whatever.

[bitter69uk]

“We are as caught up by James Dean as was the first generation, experiencing that tender, romantic, marvellously masochistic identification with the boy who does everything wrong because he cares so much. And because Dean died young and hard, he is not just another actor who outlived his myth and became ordinary in stale roles. He is the symbol of misunderstood youth.” Pauline Kael

“The acting of James Dean is more animal than human. For this reason, it is unpredictable: what will happen next?” Francois Truffaut, Cahier du Cinema

“Jimmy may have had crabs, but he also had durable charisma.” Kenneth Anger

Born on this day: happy 94th birthday to cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, James Byron Dean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pictured: Dean during production of Giant (1955), his last film.

[doctorslippery]

[maysshortmoviereviews]

We Were the Lucky Ones (2024)

A Jewish family separated at the start of World War II is determined to survive and reunite.

A brilliant, thought-provoking, and extremely moving true story of a Jewish family during WWII. A quality production that is very impactful.

[inbabylontheywept]

Why Humans Can't Cast

Kal-Shirak had seen Avatars before. They were Godhood nestled inside mortal flesh, a star compressed inside an eggshell. Beautiful, but stillborn. After all, what fragile cage of flesh and bone could house Divinity?

What cage indeed.

Even without the Second Sight, the man in front of him would’ve been an imposing figure. More than eight and a half heads tall, weathered and powerful with the strength of ages. The Crown of Men was borne upon his skull as if it were a mere bauble, and not a wrought iron horror half and again as heavy as any soldier's breastplate. Even a layman would recognize that there was something mythic to humanity’s chosen ruler.

But Kal-Shirak was not just a layman. He was the Archmagos of Ostradun, the last living master of the Second Sight, and his eyes showed him so much more than just strength and power. They wove the Dreaming and the Waking into something more true than reality itself.

And if the man was mythic within the Waking, in the Dreaming he was impossible.

He shone with uncaged Divinity. It wasn’t a star lodged within his chest, waiting to burn its way out. It lay over him like armor, coiled around him in layers. One could barely recognize there was a man inside it at all. He seemed lost inside his own grandeur, like the grain of sand inside a pearl.

Kal-Shirak almost didn’t notice himself pushing his way through the crowd. The knowledge that this event was for politicals meant nothing to him, less than nothing. To think that he’d been brought here by the Dwarven council to probe this man for weakness. To find a way to end the Age of Men.

His mind’s eye would blind before he found a chink in that armor. Even the sun itself would seem dull now.

He was through the crowd now, just feet away from the God King. He’d always felt a little superior to his brethren for his disinterest in gold and silver, but here, in the Dreaming, he was as lost in greed as any ancient dwarven king. He reached across the gap, hoping to run even a fingertip across the splendor before him. It wasn’t until his hand was just a hair's breadth away that he realized what he was doing might be foolish.

He froze. He barely noticed the weapons of the honor guard swinging towards him. Those were formalities, every bit as decorative as the gem’s and silks and fineries that he’d seen of lesser kings. If this being did not wish to be touched, no amount of steel would make it safer. The permission that he sought was not from them.

It was from Him. And He granted it.

The blades froze in place, along with the crowds themselves. The King had carved a space in time, a sliver of space to give audience to his newest subject. An honor not lost on one of the few mages who knew the specific impossibility of chronomancy.

Kal-Shirak had not felt awe like this in centuries. He regained some semblance of composure, felt the memory of the past trickle back to him, and remembered why his finger was just a hair’s breadth away from the hem of the King’s robes.

“May I?”, he asked, embarrassed at his previous presumptuousness.

“No”, the King answered, not unkindly. “You would not survive the contact.”

There was a brief pause as Kal-Shirak struggled to find something to say, something to ask. It wasn’t a dearth of curiosity that brought the pause, but an overabundance. He had too many questions and they’d all tried to leave at the same time, getting stuck in his throat.

One managed to break free from the jam.

“How do you survive it?”

A slight twitch of shining lips let him know that he’d asked a good question.

“I’m human.”

The dwarf raised a finger to disagree, catching itself before giving voice to the dissent. What kind of fool would he be, to claim that he knew more about Godhood than the man wrapped in it? Instead, he tried to puzzle out the meaning of the answer.

He had no success.

“Why does that matter?”

The King gestured to the frozen crowd and asked a question of his own.

“Do you know why humans can’t cast?”

Kal-Shirak shook his head. He didn’t bother to point out that frozen moment in time was a contradiction to that particular claim. If there was ever such a thing as an exception that proves the rule, it was standing before him, wrought in gold.

“No?”

The King didn’t answer his question immediately. Instead, he reached out and laid a gentle hand atop the head of one of his subjects, a humble servant. There was no gentle transition, no gradual process. The man, still frozen in place, instantly transformed from flesh to a shining statue of molten gold. He let go and the man instantly reverted back to being normal flesh and bone. Religions had sprouted from lesser miracles.

“The elves say we’re sealed off from magic. You just saw that’s a lie. We are perfectly open to it. It flows through us and out us, and when it is done, only we remain. They are the ones sealed off. The power can flow in, but it cannot leave so easily. They cage it inside themselves, claim that it is their own. The tame fragments of glory they pull from the world’s quiet places will tolerate such disrespect, but Divinity is not so easily stolen. If it cannot find an exit, it will make one.”

The golden aura covering the King flared outwards, and Kal-Shirak saw that its solid appearance was a convenient illusion. It was always maelstrom of incandescent energy, only sometimes compressed to foil thickness. He took an alarmed step back as the cloud expanded more, aware that even a fragment of the shining storm would burn through him like a gut full of acid.

“Shall I tell you if it hurts? Should I tell you the fate of the other three would be spies of the dwarven council? You are unique in your gifts, but your death-”

The tornado of energy spread out further, the flecks of gold finally spaced far enough apart that the man in the middle could be seen. Uncut hair, weathered skin, and brown eyes gave no indications of a special destiny. Even the height and strength seemed too common for such a figure. Man had built many warrior kings over the centuries. It had only built one god. Kal-Shirak’s mad scramble back halted as he tripped over a cobblestone curb. Those simple brown eyes met his, every bit as steady as they’d been behind the golden carapace. He couldn’t look away. Even as he saw the whirling cloud of death inched closer to his feet, he couldn’t tear his vision away from the man in the eye of the storm.

“-will be rather boring.”

There was a flash of flame as the swirling shards finally caught up with its target. A bystander just inches away from Kal incinerated instantly, the ashes unable to even fall within the space of frozen time. The glittering cloud instantaneously compressed itself back to its foil thin state, wrapped around the King as close as a second skin.

Kal blinked.

The King shrugged good naturedly.

“The other three spies are waiting for you in the palace library. You should have more than enough information to lay both the curiosity and the ambitions of the dwarven lords to rest. If you play your cards right, you will die from nothing more exciting than the ravages of time.”

He took a moment to look pointedly at the frozen pillar of ash before continuing.

“The elves are going to lose as many assassins as it takes for their curiosity to overcome their fear. It will be an important milestone for them. I would request that you do not give them hints on how to pass this test. Even if it would make these meetings much simpler.”

Kal nodded. It was all he could do. He was clever, but between the fear, awe, horror and gratitude that he was struggling to process, he might as well have been a child.

“Thank you.”

Time rushed back into play. Steel clanged into the space that Kal once stood, an elf shaped pile of ash became a room shaped cloud of smoke, and a lone, frantic dwarf managed to bolt his way out of the gates before anyone realized he was gone. Without higher reasoning skills on the ready, Kal reverted to a simple task centered list: Get to the library. Get his friends. Get back to the dwarven halls, and tell the lords, beg the lords, convince the lords that the Age of Men was not something that could be fought. He spat absentmindedly on the ground, and had a morbid realization of the stakes when he saw that the loogie was more gray than green.

[therighthandofvengeance]

Marcus: If you were not so stubborn, you would make a great queen.

Ivanova: I would make a great queen because I am so stubborn.

[kharmii]

[dadaonice]

The Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

[misfits-in-motion]

hi!! i'm tooth aka misfits in motion and this is my tumblr!

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a SMALL portion of my interests

babylon 5

my chemical romance

fall out boy

panic! at the disco

the 80s in general

cthulhu/h.p. lovecraft

stephen king

80s horror

i love love love LOVE music as a whole so :3

art, music, film, etc. basically hit all the artsy gay criteria there is to hit

fan of niche 80s/90s fantasy, horror, sci-fi movies/shows

lord of the rings!!! the hobbit!!!!!!

comic book!!!!!!! so many !!!!!

vampires

battle star galactica

marvel / dc / superheroes

sin city

tarantino films

fight club

the boondock saints

battlestar galactica 2004

preacher comics by garth ennis

transmetropolitan by warren ellis

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this might get updated in the future, but for basics i'm a queer she/they/it and you can refer to me as tooth! i shitpost and might maybe perhaps might end up writing fanfics who knows !!!!

said fanfics below the cut:

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

The Punishment of the Great Prostitute

Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” — Revelation 17:1-2 | Berean Reader's Bible (BRB) The Reader’s Bible © 2020 by Bible Hub and Berean Bible. All rights Reserved. Cross References: Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 51:13; Ezekiel 31:4; Nahum 3:4; John 2:10; Revelation 1:1; Revelation 2:22; Revelation 3:10; Revelation 9:21

[junefiress]

ok I need the guy who played Marco inaros to be Feanor in the real adaptation of my imaginary silm adaptation NOW

[starkandthewaynes]

except from another fic that'll never see the light of day

So this is a hodgepodge of ads that my OCs from my book series are thrown into. For context sake its PJO, HP, DC and DP, essentially it's a fun thing for me that'll never be finished or published but this part is so funny to me I wanted to share it.

"Hey, Pandora." Danny says, as Anotonio and Morgana try to make themselves small. "My king, you have guests." Pandora says, as she enters. "Yes, I do." Danny says, as Antonio and Morgana are avoiding eye contact at all costs. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lady Pandora, keeper of hope." She says, as Onyx smiles. "Onyx Saint, son of Thanatos, watcher of the doors of death, prince of death." Onyx says, as her head spins to see him. "Your Thanatos' son?" She asks, as he nods. "Yep." Onyx says, as she looks around the table. "My king, I know you dispise weapons at meal times, however I implore you to make an admenment to that just this once." Pandora says, her hands shaking. "Dora?" Danny asks, as Antonio and Morgana finally face her. "Hello, Pandora." Antonio says quietly. "Hey prude." Morgana says loudly.

"I am not a prude, you husband stealer!" Pandora shouts flying over to be in Morgana's face. "Oi, you know you weren't in love with him, you just used him!" Morgana shouts back, as Antonio is getting very flustered. "Whats going on?" Danny asks, as Pandora turns to her king. "This, this priest made my husband Antonio Mari, king of Babylon, fall in love with him." Pandora says as Morgana rolls his eyes. "Honey if you would've been willing to fuck his little brains out like how he needed them to be then ya would've kept him." Morgagna says, picking his nails. "Why you cocky little bitch." Pandora says, as the whole room is tense, but Antonio looks bored. "Guys, can we not have a dick measuring contest in front of the da new king? I was tryin' ta make a good first impression." Antonio says, as the two having said pissing match start laughing. "You make a good first impression? Your idea of good impression is not cutting off someone's head." Pandora jokes, as Antonio huffs. "Ya cut off heads one time and ya never hear the end of it." He mutters. "Mood." Jason chimes in as Onyx snorts. 

"Can I get context?" Danny asks, as Opal nods. "Pandora and Antonio used to be married, back in acient mesopatamia times, before the whole box icident. However, Antonio and Morgana were using the secret passage ways of his castle to meet behind her back. One day, they became exerbitionists, and she caught them." Opal says, eating mashed potatoes. "What's an exerbitionist?" Casper asks her dads, and Onyx eyebrow twitches, as Opal doesn't even look ashamed. "Tell ya when your older." Puck says, as Spencer smirks. "They're people who like it when others watch them fuck." Spencer says, as Casper nods, and Onyx is about to loose his mind. "How did you learn that?" Onyx shouts at his son. "We're ten, now, dad, and we have cable tv." Spencer says, as Onyx slumps into his chair.