#mary to servants: do whatever he tells you to

[aurumacadicus]

Old people seem to get really upset for no reason when I say "I think Jesus would have been a fun guy to hang out with." Like I shouldn't be ready to go to the club with my lord and savior???? This man singlehandedly kept a wedding party going by turning water into wine. He knows how to have a good time.

[pruneunfair]

Tropes in manhwa are awful yet people still defend them

I'm in a bad mood right now so what better way to release all that pent up anger by ranting on what can ruin a good story.

1: Slavery being inserted only for cheap plot and slaves being demonized as obsessive/greedy monsters for "not knowing their place"

Theres nothing wrong with wanting to insert slavery in your story AS LONG as it's not just cheap plot to make your MC look "better" by buying from a single to all of the slaves because let me tell you this: there is no such thing as a good slave owner, you cannot morally own another human being. A lot of manhwa like to have slavery be a part of their plot completely ignoring that just because the MC goes "wow this is terrible" doesn't make them a good person after they buy a slave.

Remarried empress does this with its villian Rashta by pushing the notion that she's being greedy for not wanting to stay in poverty so Navier won't suffer because apparently a slave wanting what the silver spoon mouthed nobles were born into is so terrible not to mention they justify slave owners and slavery in general as a punishment for criminals (neglecting the fact that children can be sold by their parents)

The villainess has fun again justifies a child slave being bought by the lead and he becomes an obsessive shouta love interest, fans continously justify by using the ancient lolicon excuse "he may look young but he's actually 99182823 years old!"

In divorcing my tyrant husband, Robelia buys 30 slaves and the only 2 that consistently show up have no other personality other then "we love you FL we will worship you till the end of time!"

There's a damn manhwa out there literally called the order of slave breeding and even when a story tries to do this correctly such as VADTD with Penelope being portrayed as a bad person for what she did to Eckles, fans have been so deluded by the idea that FL's buying slaves is "girlboss" that they think Eckles should be grateful to be Penelopes "pet"

2: ML's murdering innocent people after one guy hurts the FL

I already made a specific post about it before and I'll say it again: all this does is make your male lead/father figure look like a horrific monster. While you could say it's because its a medieval kingdom (objectively that is true that they would do this) manhwa and OI is the same place where despite in those times taking a mistress was considered normal they still view it as cheating and "how could you pick that slut when you have such a perfect wife!? 🤬" in most stories. So yes, modern morality is still inserted within these tropes. While I can get it's a way to show that the man in questions loves the FL so much he's willing to go to such lengths to protect her I think just mutilating the guy that actually did the sin would be enough because try imagining yourself as a faithful servant who was amazing at your job getting brutally slaughtered by the Emperor because your boss attacked his daughter or lover.

Into the light once again does this with Aishas dad murdering all the relatives and close friends of a count that tried to kill Ysis and Aisha, Aisha doesn't seem to care despite being in a situation where she was wrongfully executed in her past life.

Remarried empress does this too. After Navier is nearly killed by Krista's brother, Heinrey tortures and kills the dad and slaughters the servants of the zemensias. I can't remember if he also murdered the remaining family members but I wouldn't put it past him.

3: protagonist centered morality

Protagonist centered morality is the biggest indicator that a piece of media is dealing with a mary sue FL. Whatever the protagonist says is right is immediately morally correct. This is actually used to justify the last 2 examples with "it was for the FL!" Things like slavery, murder, workplace abuse, union busting, pedophilia, and being a POS to your loved ones are all justified if the protagonist finds a cheap way to justify it and you HAVE to agree with her because her backstory is very tragic 🥺. Protagonist centered morality also ruins the chance for good characters since the FL herself never has to grow as a person so she stays the same exact thing as she was just with more enablers and random characters will be treated as villains even if they aren't actually wrong about being suspicious of the Protagonist or calling out her behavior. It twists the narrative in such incomprehensible ways that you don't even know what your reading anymore. I can't even list all of the manhwas that do this given how many there actually are so I'll just list some that are at least self aware there Protagonist is awful/morally grey or isn't even a bad person but they still have flaws that can be pointed out

Villains are destined to die

My in laws are obsessed with me

Not sew wicked step mom

Depths of malice

The villainess turns the hourglass

Beware of the villainess.

4: villains being dumbed down to make the lead look smarter

This is unfortunately another common staple often used as a quick way to make the FL look smart and witty but is that really hard to look smarter when everyone else around you is an idiot? Not only does the FL not have to put in actual effort to best her enemies but you just start to pity the villain for basically being a punching bag. Dimwitted villains aren't always bad in fact they can be some of those most entertaining characters no matter much they lose but that only works when they are meant to be seen as a goofy character that your not supposed to take seriously. Villains that are written as extremely childish and stupid but your still supposed to treat them as serious antagonists on the other hand are just annoying since you wonder how the protagonist even got killed by them in the first life if they're so stupid.

Isabella de Mare while admitly having a good reason for being dumbed down (she's a teenager in the 2nd life so it's reasonable she wouldnt be as smart as her adult counterpart) is still a joke of a villainess who keeps flipping back and fourth from a snot nosed whiny brat to a mastermind only at convenient opportunities when the plot needs conflict.

Mielle from the villainess turns the hourglass was first portrayed as extremely conniving as she arranged for Arias downfall in the shadows but in the second life she fails at every scheme she has even though she has Emma and Isis to help her out.

Ragibach is a literal demon possessing the body of another woman with the goal of setting demons loose on the word to start another human vs demon war and she succeeded in that the first time, the devastation was all there so clearly she has to be a formidable antagonist right? Well no, she's another case of being dumbed down further and further so Keira can succeed and while they do understand some plot holes such as Ludwig not trusting her as much in the second life it doesn't change the drastic character change from evil genius to bumbling idiot.

In short: dumbing down your villains so your lead can look smarter is essentially going to give the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb vs a coughing baby.

5: feminine women being demonized as basic "other girls" sluts

Okay this one isn't nearly as terrible as the others on this list because we all love the good old "a demon makes itself look beautiful to deceive humans" kind of villain, in fact as you probably know by me by now, white lotuses are my favorite kinds of character and even in media outside of manhwa I always find myself drawn to angelic villains but it seems like this is less of that and more of "Oh those are all the other girls who just want a man to save them, look at how much better my badass rich boss babe is for working for herself while taking all of their men at the time 😎" in manhwa. As soon as a traditionally feminine girl shows up, comments are already calling her a two faced bitch and half the time protagonist is already skeptical of her. This is the opposite of what being a feminist really is, a real feminist wouldn't be putting down other women just because they dress with more pink with bows and skirts and while I do think for most manhwa this is unintentional I do wish that we could have more characters like Psyche, Helena, Athy, and Jennette that prove that being overly feminine doesn't make you a backpedal on feminism. This doesn't make the badass or sexy fl's bad either, it just means they can co-exist.

An angelic villain should be treated as evil for being a well calculated schemer, not because they have a light colored color scheme

6: toxic relationships being romanticized as good

You know for a large community that claims to be about girl code a good chunk sure likes to look the other way when it comes to toxic relationships as long as the abuser is "hot" and theres always the terrible excuse such as "he has trauma!" Or "he doesn't know how to show his love normally!" No just no we aren't doing that here. Cry or better yet beg has this problem with not only the narrative claiming that Matthias graping Layla is okay because she actually loves him and doesn't know it but a large part of the fanbase also defends it, the same goes with try begging, a manhwa written by Solche who also wrote cry or better yet beg and once again despite Leon being an abuser everyone's ready to justify his actions because he's just a soft little boy who ends up falling in love with Grace awww 😍 (what the hell?) Everyones all about not justifying abusers because they had a sad past until it's the "sexy" male leads with daddy issues.

7: maid slapping

This shit isn't asserting your dominance as a boss bitch it's just work place abuse. This trope has gotten so out of hand of being justified by narratives and readers that there is an entire webtoon called this isekai maid is forming a union that's all about criticizing twisted manhwa tropes that get brushed off with maid absuer being at the biggest one. It's funny because a lot of people complain that Isekai maid union villainizes the nobles too much but they never ask the same questions when a OI is demonizing maids as greedy and lazy in order to deserve a beating. This doesn't just stop at hands either it can escalate to threats of mutilation just to assert dominice which is absolutely sick. Most of the time these leads used to be office workers or terminally ill patients, they know how terrible it is to be treated like garbage by their superiors yet they continue to absue every maid who isn't getting on their knees for them. Most maids in real history would not mistreat a noble even if they were the most hated in the house and even if they did they'd be fired without a letter of recommendation so why can't the FL's just fire the rude maid if they care about dignity so much because I'm pretty sure getting violent with a maid isn't very dignified either.

8: disgusting age gaps

Very similar to #6 but in this case while the ML/FL isn't a cruel monster to their partner it doesn't change the fact that grooming and pedophilia is still a crime worthy of life in prison. You'd think "oh no way, this can't be justified can it?" You'd be wrong. Now I belong to house of Castillo thankfully has a larger fanbase of people who think that a relationship between a girl who got groomed by her knight is bad but in cases like into the light once again a lot of people like to say "Well Aisha is technically 28 so it's fine!" When it really isn't since Aisha is still mentally 14. Taming my ex husbands mad dog is another one that does this with Reinhardt grooming a 16 year old boy and its apparently meant to be "cute".

9: claiming a character as unattractive yet giving them a perfect body and appreance

I just think this is a major cop-out since there's time where they want to make a realistic story yet also wanting a fantasy fufilment. I don't think its a coincidence that the only woman in tears of a withered flower that yout supposed to support is a Victoria's secret model body type. Even though she's meant to be an overworked exhausted 33 year old woman being mocked for losing her beauty she sure as hell isn't drawn that way, the only other women around hae soo are all women with smaller boob's and in general more common body types that are either classed as stupid or jealous that Hae soo is so beautiful that all the attractive men want her

how about we don't pit all the women against each other for once? And let's especially not villainize other women because their jealous they could never be have large boob's and tiny arms+waist at the same time?

10: the commoner protagonist actually being a noble rich person all along

Look I know most of us had loved those "the hated child is the lost princess" GLMM but we need to drop it because it's kinda disappointing that the nobody who had to work their way to the top is actually a secret magical princess who had royal blood in them all along. While I did think the villainess turns the hourglass was a pretty decent read I was super disappointed finding out that Aria was of noble descent all along. I liked seeing a commoner protagonist for once and it really felt like it was critiquing the idea that all commoners and poor people who want nice things like the nobility are greedy animals. Something similar can also happen with certain saintess manhwas that decide to twist itself into "the villainess was the true saintess all along!" And I'm just sitting here thinking "well there goes the hope that you didn't need the super duper rare power to be a strong character"

I feel way better now after writing all this.

[larluce]

Arthur and Merlin travel back in time without knowing the other is from the future too AU

Tagging @aceauthorcatqueen , @fallenxjas , @smileytrinity ,@lucifertookmyshoe , @an-entity-i-think , @thecornerofbelu , @griffonskies , @odinjm , @cinnabon-sweetroll-tiramisu , @thelady-mary , @bennedict , @nightninjaboy , @st8-of-grace , @star-rie , @error-username-not-available , @dogberryrowan , @jamieweasley13 , @tansyuduri , @tercais , @robynnemrys , @evadne01 , @serasvictoria02 , @hairdryerducks , @hopeaha , @curiously-lazy , @ harriettesthings , @andrealux16 , @wacko-weirdo , @greatdonutenemy , @yougottobekittenme , @anxiousosaurus Thank you for all your beautiful comments, it keeps me going ♥️♥️

LINKS TO THE OTHER PARTS OF THIS AU HERE: PART 1 , PART 2 , PART 3 , PART 4 , PART 5 , PART 6 , PART 7 , PART 8 , PART 9 , PART 10 , PART 11 , PART 12 , PART 13 , PART 14 , PART 15 , PART 16 , PART 17 , PART 18 , PART 19 , PART 20 (You're here) , PART 21

At the castle's doors.

Sophia: (walks outside, enraged)

Echanted Arthur: (close behind, running) My love! Wait!

Sophia: (turns to him) What? Haven't you humiliated me enough?

Echanted Arthur: Please! Whatever quarrel you have with Merlin, we can solve it!

Sophia: He hit me and humilliated me! 😡

Echanted Arthur: I know it looks bad. But I'm sure he must have his reasons.

Sophia: ...What?

Echanted Arthur: I know him, he wouldn't just... This is not like him! Maybe there was a misunderstanding. So please forgive him, my love. I beg you. Forgive him and come back to the castle, please.

Sophia: (in disbelief) It's incredible. I used the strongest love spell there was and put all my power in it. I knew I had to be quick as soon as we saw your heart was compromised. But even now you're fighting it. You still prioritize him.

Echanted Arthur: ...Is that a methaphor?

Sophia: (gets back to her offended fiancee rol) I'll never forgive you, Arthur Pendragon. (Thinking) Oh, how much I'm going to enjoy killing you. (Turns her back at him and leaves as dignified as she can)

Echanted Arthur: (makes a gesture to go after her, but sees some guards walking nearby so he aproaches them) You! Make sure my father doesn't kill Merlin while I'm gone. (goes after Sophia)

Guard 1: But, sire! What if the king orders his execution? Sire! (turns to guard 2) What do we do?

Guard 2: If we go against the King's orders, he'll kill us.

Guard 1: But if we go against the prince's orders, he'll kill us.

Guards: (stay thinking and thinking what to do like winnie pooh)

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the dungeons.

Lancelot: (arrives carring a plate of food, rehearsing his lines in a whisper to himself) I came to bring food to the prisoner, I came to bring food to the prisoner... (stands up before the guard, determinated) I came to bring food to the...! (sees the guard is knocked out) prisoner?

Merlin: (gets out of a shadow) You're late 😒.

Lancelot: (jumps out of his skin, screaming) Aaaah! What the- How did you-

Merlin: Magic. (Takes the knocked out guard's sword and starts going up the stairs to the exit)

Lancelot: Right. (Follows him and they walk side by side) Morgana saw Arthur and Sophia leave the castle, so Gaius sent me for you.

Merlin: (sighs) Figured as much. Where there any horses in your escape plan?

Lancelot: Yes, actually.

Merlin: Good. We're going to need them.

Back with the guards at the entrance of the castle.

Guard 1: (with a coin in hand) Face we die by the king.

Guard 2: Seal we die by the prince.

Guard 1: (Flips the coin)

Guard 2: (looks the result) We die by the king.

Guard 1: (sighs) To sneak the servant out of the dungeons it is. (About to leave)

Guard 2: Wait! Look! (Points something in the distance)

Guard 1: (looks) Isn't that the prince's manservant?

Guard 2: And he's escaping! 😨 And with the horses! 😱

Guard 1: Who's that with him?

Guard 2: We have to tell the King inmediatly! (About to go inside)

Guard 1: Wait! Don't you see? This is perfect!

Guard 2: (confused) What?

Guard 1: We don't have to go against the King's orders now! 😃

Guard 2: You're right! 😃 We're save! 😄

Guards: (celebrate)

Guard 1: We still have to tell the King the prisoner escaped though. It would be suspicious if we don't.

Guard 2: We will, we will. Just... give him a head start.

Guards: (wait)

Meanwhile, in the woods. Lancelot and Merlin riding side by side.

Merlin: (stops) It's here. (Gets off his horse)

Lancelot: (gets off too) Do you know how to break the love echantment?

Merlin: Killing Sophia. (Starts echanting the sword)

Lancelot: Not that I don't support that, but maybe in a way that doesn't involve killing? Just to have options.

Merlin: (ends echanting the sword) This is sidhe magic, it's almost imposible to undo. (Gives sword to Lancelot) Here, you can defend yourself with this. (Starts running in direction of the lake)

Lancelot: Wait! (Stops Merlin by the arm) Merlin, we need a plan.

Merlin: (impacient and desperate) There's no time! Arthur could be dying as we speak!

Lamcelot: You said "almost imposible to undo", so there is a way.

Merlin: It doesn't matter!

Lancelot: As the only no magic user here who is going to confront two powerful magical creatures, it matters a lot to me! What if she puts a spell on me too and turns me against you? I need to know!

Merlin: (sighs, exasperated) Fine! As far as I know, I great act of true love can break any love echantment. The more efective ones would be a true love kiss or the loss of someone you love. But Arthur isn't in love with anyone and Sophia will be too busy trying to drown him in the lake to echant you, so you don't have to worry about that. Can we go now?

Lancelot: Sure. (Thinking while they go to the lake) To think everything could have been avoided with a kiss 🤦‍♂️. But now I get why she didn't try to kill Merlin when she had the chance. The loss of Merlin would break Arthur for sure.

At the lake. Sophia in the lake with Arthur while Aulfric is at the lakeside.

Aulfric: (echanting) Ia bend dǽdon níwe. Cúðon gare íewe deahl sǽ áre. Sé áre. Ig bæþ deahl sǽ néah. Déaþ ór cwylþ óga him. An wén.

Echanted Arthur: (holding hands with Sophia, between confused and mesmerised by her) I... what is happening?

Sophia: (sweetly) It's our wedding, silly.

Echanted Arthur: (smiles brightly) Really? Am I doing it correctly?

Sophia: (Nods and caresses his face) You are doing just fine. Just look at me. (Her eyes glow red) Look at me.

Merlin: (hiding behind a bush, whispers a spell to make Aulfric staff go to him) Onbregdan.

Aulfric: (feeling his staff move, holds it tigher, stops echanting and turns to Merlin) You think we didn't know you were coming? (Points the staff to Merlin) Na þing biþ! (A lighting gets out of the staff to hit Merlin)

Merlin: (stands up) Scildan! (Blocks the attack with a magic shield)

Sophia: (from the lake, shouts worried) father!

Aulfric: I got this! Don't break the eye contact!

Sophia: (brings her attention back to Arthur)

Merlin: Swilte, gold beorþ! (Throws a lighting at him too)

Aulfric: (blocks it easily with his staff without conjuring a spell, laughs) Is that all you got?

Merlin: Actually, I can conjure earthquakes, lightings and fires that could burn an entire forest.

Aulfric: (laughs again) And why haven't you done that?

Merlin: (smiles) Because now I'm just a distraction.

Aulfric: (confused) What...?

Lancelot: (stabs him from behind with the sword)

Aulfric: (drops dead on the ground)

Sophia: (screams horrified) NO! FATHER!

Merlin: (picks up Aulfric's staff and is about to use it to kill Sophia)

Sophia: (Puts Arthur infront of her, a hand on his neck, eyes glowing red with fury) Try anything and he dies!

Echanted Arthur: (eyes blank and no emotion on his face, basically being handled like a puppet)

Merlin: (scared, but tries not to show it) You won't kill him. You need him to go to Avalon.

Sophia: I don't care about that enymore! (Tears of anguish and anger run down her eyes) My father is dead! This was our dream and he worked so hard for me to have it... and he suffered a pathetic mortal death because of you! (To Arthur) Gewseorc, hine beclyppe!

Echanted Arthur: (starts to choke, like he's being strangled)

Merlin: (shouts in panic) Arthur! (About to go into the lake)

Sophia: Stop right there or I'll soffocate him to death!

Merlin: (stops, fearing for Arthur's life)

Sophia: This is what is going to happen. (Gets closer to the lakeside holding Arthur hostage) We will go back to the castle. You (points at Lancelot) will be arrested and executed for killing a Lord (turns to Merlin) and I will continue the wedding to make sure to make your life a living hell!

Lancelot: (suddenly holds Merlin from behind and puts the sword at Merlin's throat)

Merlin: (more than confused) What are you doing?

Lancelot: (whispers) Trust me. (Raises his voice again) I'm sorry, Merlin. But I won't die for you! (Shouts to Sophia) I'll kill him myself, my lady! Please let me live! I'm too young to die!

Sophia: You think I'm going to forgive you that easily!

Echanted Arthur: (blinks like waking up from a dream and mumbles quietly) Merlin?

Lancelot: I'll do it right now! (Pretends he's about to cut Merlin's throat)

Echanted Arthur: (opens his eye wide and shouts, frantic) MERLIN! (runs forward to stop Lancelot, freeing himself from Sophia)

Lancelot: (lets go of Merlin to hold Arthur and shouts) Merlin, now!

Merlin: (uses the staff to break the chain around Sophia's neck with magic)

Sophia: NO! (Looks frantic for the necklace that fell in the water)

Merlin: (takes Lancelot's sword, goes to Sophia and stabs her several times, while screaming furiously)

Echanted Arthur: (crying, while trying to free himself from Lancelot) NOOOO! SOPHIA!

Lancelot: (still holding Arthur, looking at Merlin disturbed) That... was unecessary. 😰

Merlin: (leaves Sophia's corpse floating, gets out of the lake all cover in blood and drops the sword)

Arthur: (coming back to his senses) So...phia? (Stops struggling) Wha... Where am I? (wipes his tears, confused) Why am I crying?

Lancelot: (lets go of Arthur, happy) Your Highness! You are back!

Arthur: (looks Merlin is all covered in blood and panics) Merlin! 😨 (Runs to him and checks him, anxiously) What happened to you?! Where are your injuries?! (Tries to take off his clothes)

Merlin: (Stops him) The blood is not mine, I'm fine. (Holds his face, to check closer his neck and eyes with concern) Can you breath correctly?

Arthur: (blushing at the sudden closeness) Yes, I think I do.

Merlin: Are you lucid? You don't... you don't love Sophia anymore?

Arthur: (frowns, confused) Who is Sophia?

Merlin: (sighs in relief) You are fine.... (Pushes him away from him abruptly in poorly hidden anger) There's nothing wrong with you, my lord. I'm so glad.

Arthur: Hey! You can't just push your prince like that! 😡

Merlin: (composes himself) You are right. Forgive me, sire. It won't happen again.

Arthur: ...

Arthur: Merlin, are you alright?

Merlin: (too politely) Of course, sire. Forgive my impertinence, sire. I just didn't want to stain your royal clothes with mine (stresses the word) sire.

Arthur: ... Okay? (Looks around) Uhm... Can someone explain to me why there are two dead bodies here? What on earth happened?

Lancelot: You don't remember anything, sire?

Arthur: Not really, the last thing I remember is being with Merlin in the woods fighting some bandits and... No, wait... (starts remembering) There was a girl, I think... she- (open his eyes wide and pales, shouting) I GOT ENGAGED! 😱 How could my father consent that? 😡

Lancelot: Well you asked him to let you marry Sophia quite nicely, sire.

Arthur: I did what?! 😨

Merlin: (crosses his arms, looking to the side) Yes, you were pretty entusiastic about it, my lord.

Arthur: But I would never! I was... echanted! Yes, I remember now! (Turns to Merlin) You told me Sophia was echanting me! And Morgana, she tried to warn me about her too. But I- (opens his eyes wide as another memory assults him, suddenly furious) YOU ATTACKED A NOBEL LADY PUBLICLY?! 😡 WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING?!

Merlin: Oh, I'm sorry for not worrying about property when I was trying to save your ungrateful royal ass! 😡 (composes himself and adds) My lord.

Arthur: I am grateful. But my father could have killed you for that!

Lancelot: Well, he did send Merlin to the dungeons.

Arthur: WHAT?! 😨

Lancelot: But I sneaked him out from there before the king decided a sentence for him and we went after you.

Arthur: You sneaked a prisoner out of the dungeons...

Lancelot: Yes.

Arthur: So Merlin now is a fugitive and you are an accomplice.

Merlin: We didn't exactly have a choice, my lord.

Arthur: I know, I know, I just... (brings a hand to his forehead, thinking distressed) How the hell I'm going to get Merlin out of this!

Lancelot: Do you remember anything else, sire?

Arthur: Yes, uhm... Sophia and her father brought me here. They were doing some kind of ritual.

Merlin: They were sidhes, creatures of magic, my lord. They were trying to sacrifice your life so they could go to Avalon, apparently. Why they chose you especificilly completely baffles me.

Lancelot: (worried) Anything else, sire?

Merlin: (pales, thinking) Fuck, I forgot he saw me using magic!

Arthur: I... (remembers Lancelot and Merlin arriving, Merlin using magic and killing Sophia) Uh... No, that's all I remember.

Merlin and Lancelot: (sigh in relief)

Arthur: So... (points the corpses again) I'm assuming these are the sidhes. How did you defeat them?

Merlin: Well-

Lancelot: It was me, sire! I slayed them both with my sword. (Thinking) Merlin is in enough trouble as it is to have muder on his list of crimes too.

Arthur: You slayed two powerful creatures of magic all on your own. 🤨

Lancelot: Yes sire, Merlin helped of course. Acting as...uhm...

Merlin: A distraction.

Lancelot: Exactly! It was team effort.

Arthur: Not that I don't believe your word, Lancelot, but then why is my manservant the only one covered in blood?

Lancelot: ...

Merlín: ...

Lancelot: I also have blood. (Points the only little stain he has) Here.

Merlin: Yeah, it's just that... I kind of got in the way... when he was... slaying them.

Arthur: (thinking) Do they believe me this stupid? Really? (Says) Alright, we'll talk about the details later. Now we need to hide the bodies.

Merlin: Why?

Arthur: Well, I don't know. Maybe because you were seen attacking Sophia and you textually said you would kill her in front of the king? So when they find out you escaped from the dungeons and search for you and find the corpses of Sophia and her father laying here, who do you think they're going to believe killed them?

Merlin: Oh, you seem to remember quite a lot of details of what happened, sire. (Accusing) Tell me, how conscious were you really, my lord?

Arthur: What? What does that have to do with-

Lancelot: Sorry for interrumping your spat, but though I agree with your highness, I don't think we have enough time. Search parties must be looking either for the prince or for the prince's manservant as we speak. There's no way we can dig a hole to bury the bodies so fast.

Merlin: Oh, that's easy. There are ropes on the horses we brought with us, right?

Lancelot: Yes, I believe so.

Merlin: We can tie them with the ropes to heavy rocks and then throw them in the lake so they sink to the bottom. No one will look there, problem solved.

Arthur: ...

Lancelot: ...

Merlin: What?

Arthur: You seem to know a lot about hiding bodies.

Merlin: It's simple logic and fisics, my lord. Someone would think that with all your royal education you would know. (Sighs) Let's get this over with. (Walks away to go to the horses)

Arthur: (walks behind with Lancelot, whispering to him) He's been calling me "sire" and "my lord" for far too long. Is he mad at me?

Lancelot: He's definitely mad at you.

Arthur: But why?!

Lancelot: Well, you weren't very nice to him when you were echanted.

Arthur: It's not my fault! I was echanted!

Lancelot: That's right and he knows but...

Arthur: But?

Lancelot: If a drunk man killed a woman and his defense at court was that he was drunk when he did it, would that make him less guilty infront of the Jugde.

Arthur: ...

Lancelot: Just give him time, sire.

Time skip. After they hidded the bodies.

Arthur: Great. Now we need to get rid of your clothes. (About to help Merlin off his clothes)

Merlin: (stops him and says dryly) I'm perfectly capable of undressing myself, my lord. Thank you (turns his back to him and starts taking off his jacket, shirt and neckerchief with hard movements).

Lancelot: (To Arthur) Your eyes, sire.

Arthur: (takes his eyes off Merlin, blushing) I was not looking anything.

Merlin: (finishes taking off all his top clothes) My pants are clean.

Arthur: Are you sure?

Lancelot: Sire! 😠

Arthur: I was just making sure!

Merlin: (folds his clothes) I'll get rid of these.

Lancelot: (takes Merlin clothes from him) No, I better do it. The sooner you're far from this place or any evidence, the better. (To Arthur) You can take my horse, sire. Well, technically it's your horse but... you know...

Arthur: Of course. (Turns to Merlin) Merlin-

Merlin: (Just passes him and goes ahead)

Arthur: (sighs) Was I really that mean?

Lancelot: (mumbles) Rather you were too nice to Sophia.

Arthur: What?

Lancelot: I said you better hurry, sire. (Leaves to get rid of the clothes)

Time skip. Merlin and Arthur with the horses.

Merlin: (prepares get on his horse)

Arthur: Do you need help with-

Merlin: No, my lord.

Arthur: (Notices Merlin is shivering a bit) Wait, put on this. (Takes off his jacket) My cape is still wet, but I think this is dry enough-

Merlin: I don't need anything from you, my lord, thank you.

Arthur: Look, Merlin. I'm sorry, alright? If a treated you badly while I was... that was not fair to you and you deserve an apology.

Merlin: You don't have to apologise, sire. You were echanted. I understand.

Arthur: Then why do you keep calling sire?

Merlin: Because that's what you are, sire.

Arthur: See? You are still mad!

Merlin: I'm not mad! 😠

Arthur: Yes you are! 😠

Merlin: I'm not! 😠

Arthur: Fine, be mad. But I won't let you catch a cold so put on this! (gives Merlin his jacket rughly)

Merlin: Is that an order?

Arthur: Will you put it on if it wasn't?

Merlin: No.

Arthur: Then it is an order. Put it on. Now.

Merlin: (puts on the jacket angryly and gets on the horse)

Time skip. Merlin and Arthur ride side by side in an uncomfortable silence until they encounter a search party.

Knight 1: Sire! You're back.

Knight 2: And the... prisoner is with you.

Arthur: He's no prisoner. We're in our way back to the castle. You can scolt us if you like.

Knight 1: But, sire, the King order us to arrest the boy.

Arthur: I'll talk to him to solve this, but Merlin is coming with me.

Knight 2: But-

Arthur: (raises his voice, more sternly) I said I will solve this! Understood?

Knights: (frightened) Yes, sire. (start scolting them to the castle)

Knight 1: (whispers to knight 2) Isn't the servant wearing the prince's jacket?

Knight 2: (whispers back) Yep.

Knight 1: You think they...?

Knight 2: Totally.

Knight 1: And Lady Sophia is no where to be seen.

Knight 2: Want to keep being a knight?

Knight 1: Yes.

Knight 2: Then hear and see, but stay silent.

Time skip. Merlin and Arthur in the throne room with the king and Morgana.

Uther: Horseplay?

Arthur: Yes, Merlin and Sophia were just horseplaying, but it kind of... got out of hand.

Uther: ...

Merlin: (thinking) This is the best excuse you could have come up with? Really? 🤦‍♂️

Morgana: My lord, if you allow me, I noticed Lady Sophia didn't like Merlin from the start. She even told me once she wanted to get rid of him. Merlin as a servant can't say no to the wishes of a Lady. It wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted to get Merlin into trouble on porpuse through this... horseplay.

Arthur: (crosses eyes with Morgana and gives her a grateful smile)

Uther: Even if that were true, it doesn't change the fact that he escaped from the dungeons!

Arthur: He didn't escape, I ordered some guards to free him before I left.

Uther: The guards were knocked out!

Arthur: I ordered them to be discret.

Uther: (sighs) I'm going to corroborate this story later. Where is Lady Sophia?

Arthur: Yeah, about that... we decided to break our engagement by mutual agreedment and she left with her father.

Uther: What?! But you were so in love with one another.

Arthur: We were but... sometimes love can be... fleeting too.

Merlin: (snorts)

Uther: And it had nothing with the fact that this boy went after you.

Arthur: I had already broken our engagement and given her my farewells when Merlin found me. He apologised for his behavior and explained to me what really happened. (Puts an arm around Merlin) He even brought me a horse to ride back more comfortably, because he's such a considerate servant.

Merlin: (gets the arm off him)

Uther: (thinking) Either he made my son cover for him or managed to make him believe this stupid lie, this seductive demon is more dangerous than I thought! (Says) It's a shame Sophia and you didn't work out, (looks at Merlin, severely) Though I don't blame her, honestly. This boy still needs to learn his place. You should at the very least, fire him. In fact, I'm firing him.

Arthur: But, father-

Uther: I'm not leaving the boy without salary. He would still be Gaius apprentice, so don't tell I'm being too hard on him. You should be grateful I'm not sending him to the dungeons again after this.

Arthur: But that's not fair! It was all a big misunderstanding!

Uther: Do you really expect me to believe-

Merlin: I quit.

Uther: ...

Arthur: ...

Uther and Arthur: What? 😧

Merlin: I quit being the Prince's manservant. Can I leave now?

Arthur: You can't quit! 😡

Uther: Yes, you're not quiting! I'm firing you! 😡

Merlin: Okay, I'm fired. Can I leave now?

Arthur: Merlin!

Uther: You insolent brat! Get out of my sight! 😡

Merlin: With pleasure, sire (bows and makes a gesture to leave)

Arthur: (stops him by the arm) No! You are not fired! I'm rehiring you! 😡

Uther: Arthur!

Merlin: (exasperated and tired) Alright! I'm rehired! Can I please, PLEASE just leave?

Morgana: You are dimissed Merlin.

Merlin: (frees from Arthur rughly and leaves)

Arthur: Merlin! (makes a gesture to go after him)

Uther: Don't you dare go after him! 😡

Morgana: For once I agree with the King, Arthur. Let him be, he must have gone for quite an ordeal.

Arthur: (sighs and looks where Merlin left, sad)

Time skip. Arthur encounters Morgana in a hallway.

Arthur: Hey! Can I speak with you for a sec?

Morgana: (surprised cause Arthur hasn't talked to her on his own will for a while) Sure, what is it?

Arthur: I wanted to thank you for helping Merlin and for trying to warn me about Sophia and all. You were right about her, I should have listened to you, I'm sorry.

Morgana: (smiles) Arthur, it's okay, I don't blame you. You were echanted. Besides, saying I saw Sophia killing you in my dream, even in your right mind I would have understand if you didn't believe me.

Arthur: It's not just that. I know I haven't been very nice to you lately. I was... going through stuff and I took it out on you. I'm sorry.

Morgana: (teasing) The great Arthur Pendragon apologising two times in one day? That's a record!

Arthur: (still very ashamed) Will you forgive me?

Morgana: (gives him a comforting smile) Of course, you silly. (Hugs him)

Arthur: (thinking while hugging her) I missed you so much. Gods, please let me keep her. Let me keep my sister too. I don't want to lose her again.

Merlin: (passes by)

Arthur: (separates the hug inmediatly) Oh, hi, Merlin.

Merlin: My lord. (Bows and leaves)

Morgana: Uh... did something happen?

Arthur: (vents, frustrated) He's been mad at me since Sophia! Acting all respectful and proper like-

Morgana: Like an actual servant?

Arthur: Yes! It's anoying! 😠 I get that maybe I treated him badly while I was echanted, but this is not fair! I'm not the drunk man! The drunk man chose to get drunk before killing that woman, but I didn't choose to get echanted! So he doesn't get to be mad at me for something I didn't have any control over! 😡

Morgana: (confused) Who's the drunk man?

Arthur: Lancelot.

Morgana: Lancelot killed a woman! 😨

Arthur: No! He gave me this metaphor about a drunk man killing a woman-The point is Merlin has no right to be mad at me!

Morgana: (in disbelief) You think Merlin is mad at you... because you treated him badly while you were echanted?

Arthur: And it wasn't even that bad! From what I remember, I still was pretty considerate of him if you ask me. My attention was mostly on Sophia.

Morgana: Oh, gods 🤦‍♀️. You really don't know, do you?

Arthur: What?!

Morgana: Merlin is not mad at you because you treated him badly especifically.

Arthur: Then why is he mad at me?! 😡

Morgana: (unsure) I don't think I can tell you.

Arthur: What? Why? 😨

Morgana: It's not really my place to say.

Arthur: (begs) Morgana, please! I need to know! I can't handle his respectfulness anymore! He even woke me up at the right time this morning, I can't stand it!

Morgana: Well, if Merlin has been the one echanted to love someone else and has brushed that love at your face every 5 seconds and even almost married that person, wouldn't you be mad at him?

Arthur: Yes, but that's because I- (realises) Oh...

Morgana: Yes, oh.

Arthur: He... he's jealous?

Morgana: Again, it’s not my place to say.

Arthur: (smiles) He is jealous.

Morgana: Don't smile! 😠

Arthur: I'm not smiling (smiles)

Morgana: You did it again! 😠

Arthur: Alright, I'll stop. (hopeful) So... he loves me?

Morgana: Love is a very strong word. I would say he likes you, though I don't believe he's aware of it. He's been pretty oblivious to your advances and he may not even be aware he likes men that way.

Arthur: (keeps smiling)

Morgana: Stop it! May I remind you Merlin is still mad at you and you are not precisely in his good side right now?

Arthur: (turns serious) You're right. Sorry. What do I do then?

Morgana: (crosses her arms) Why should I help you? 🤨

Arthur: Because you would cut your own arms and legs for me? 🥺

Morgana: You! (Shoves him) I should have know you would use that against me!

Arthur: (whines) Morgana!

Morgana: (sighs) Fine, here's what you should do.

Time skip. Merlin and Arthur arrive at the stables of a horse seller.

Horse seller: These are our finest horses and mares, your highness.

Arthur: (looks at the horses carefully)

Horse seller: Has one caught your attention, sire?

Arthur: Not really. (turns to Merlin) Pick one.

Merlin: (confused) What?

Arthur: I need to pick one before I get back.

Merlin: Then you pick one, my lord.

Arthur: I'm doing it by ordering you to do it.

Merlin: That doesn't make any sense...

Arthur: It's an order from your prince, Merlin. Pick one.

Merlin: (rolls his eyes, but looks at the horses until his eyes stops in one) This one is pretty. (Aproaches a young black mare and smiles) What's your name, precious?

Horse seller: Oh, it doesn't have a name and it's barely more than 3 years, quite young and savage still, but a pure blood nonetheless.

Mare: (lets herself being caressed by Merlin and neighs, happily)

Merlin: (giggles) She seems pretty docile to me.

Arthur: (To the horse seller) I want that one.

Horse seller: Of course, sire. At what name shall I put the papers? Yours or the king?

Arthur: My manservant.

Merlin: WHAT?! 😨

Arthur: I'm buying this mare for you.

Merlin: Are you insane?! 😠

Horse seller: I'll go get the papers. (Leaves)

Merlin: (whisper yells) Rumors in the castle are bad enough as it is! They are saying I'm some jealous misstress of yours! Some even think the reason Sophia never came back was because I killed her out of jealousy!

Arthur: (whispers back, smirking) Didn't you?

Merlin: What?!

Arthur: I mean, you did help Lancelot kill her.

Merlin: To safe your life! Not out of jealousy, you arrogant prat! 😡 So what do you think they're gonna say when I come back to the citadel with my own horse?!

Arthur: I don't care what others say or think. No, actually, I do care about what one person says or thinks: you. Your opinion matters to me, Merlin, more than anybody else's.

Merlin: Yeah, you care about it so much you brought me here without telling me you were planning to buy me a horse!

Arthur: Because I wanted it to be a surprise, you idiot! And I couldn't exactly wrap a horse.

Merlin: ...

Merlin: Wait, this mare is a gift for me?

Arthur: No, I buy horses for my servants every day. Yes! This is a gift for you, Merlin!

Merlin: Oh... (blushes)

Arthur: What did you think I was doing?

Merlin: Getting me in more trouble with your father? He's not going to be happy about this, Arthur.

Arthur: (smiles) You called me Arthur. Does this mean I'm forgiven?

Merlin: (smiles apologetically) There was really nothing to forgive. I'm sorry. I was being inmature.

Arthur: It's alright. I understand why you were upset. If a man killed a woman an then got drunk-wait that's not how it was.

Merlin: Was what?

Arthur: Never mind. (Holds Merlin's hands) You know, even when I was echanted I never gave Sophia any gifts. (Gets closer) Nor a horse... or a flower in a pot. (And closer)

Merlin: (blushes) A...Arthur? 😳

Arthur: (looks down at Merlin's lips)

Horse seller: (arriving) Here are the papers, sire! 😊

Merlin: (pulls away from Arthur quickly all red)

Arthur: (kills the horse seller with his eyes)

Horse seller: Uh... should I... come back later or...?

Merlin: No! Not at all! Where do I sign?

Arthur: (confused) I thought you didn't want the horse?

Merlin: Well, I figure if I'm going to be the talk of the castle, better live up to them. (Signs the papers)

Arthur: (thinking, smiling) I need to thank Morgana for this.

BONUS SCENE:

Morgana: I told you a small gesture! SMALL! Like flowers, chocolates, a love letter! NOT A FUCKING HORSE!

...

I think this and the previous post are the longest I've written so far! I had so much fun exploring this episode with tree Merlin and future Arthur.

Credits to my best friend, Rosangela, who gave me crucial ideas for this, like the cat fight and the say of the drunk man XD

Any ideas for names for Merlin's mare?

[ericityyy]

Good afternoon, I just recently came across your blog and I really liked the way you write.

Can I request a story about how Sheldon found a new friend fem reader.

The two of them have a lot of common interests:she also loves comics, video games, science fiction, and so on, just like him.

Thank you in advance for the answer and also apologize in advance for mistakes English is not my native language.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮: 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯.

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚: 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 (𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤)

𝙏𝙮𝙥𝙚: 𝘍𝘭𝘶𝘧𝘧

𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩: 692

𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩

“I’m telling you, Shelly, there will come a time when all versions of Spiderman will meet.” Y/N argued with the boy, “And if that happens, you’ll owe me 10—scratch that, 50 bucks.” The girl crossed her arms smugly.

Sheldon, who always loves being right, stretched out his hand with a nod of his head and said, “Alright, I’ll bet on that. But only if it was made into a movie. If not, then you’ll owe me 50 bucks and be my servant for the whole week.” Y/N shook his hand with one movement as they both looked arrogant and smug. People would believe that they’re the actual twins because of how similar their personalities and expressions were.

“Dinner’s ready!" Mary called out from the dining room of Cooper's residence. Both Sheldon and Y/N stood up and walked toward the living room, each carrying a pair of mittens for the both of them. “Oh, Y/N, will you be staying for dinner?”

Y/N nodded her head politely, her hands on her back. “Only if I am not intruding, Mrs. Cooper. Your cooking always tastes divine.”

“Of course, hun. You could always eat here.” Mary laughed as she watched the two kids sit down on their respective seats, Y/N being in between Georgie and Sheldon’s seats.

After a while, all the Coopers are now present at the table. “Let’s say grace.” Mary put her hands on the table as did everyone else, except Sheldon and Y/N, who were in the process of putting on mittens and being watched by the family.

“I hope you do not mind me wearing my mittens; I just have a hard time making skin-to-skin contact, not knowing whether you washed your hands or not," Y/N said as she placed her hands on top of Sheldon and Georgie’s. George Sr. smiled stiffly at the girl as he gripped in his hands his wife’s hand and Sheldon’s.

“We don’t mind, dear, not at all.” George Sr. then made eye contact with Mary as the woman just mouthed to him, ‘Let them be.’

“Thank you, God, for the food we are about to receive and for the nourishment of our bodies, and bless the hands that prepared it. Amen.” All of them then released hands and then dived into eating the food prepared by the matron of the house.

“Y/N.”

“Yes, Sheldon?”

“To continue our conversation earlier, who do you think would win between Captain America and Iron Man?” Sheldon took a spoonful of his food as the rest watched their conversation.

Y/N seemed to be thinking of an answer: "Well, Cap has strategy and can be cool-headed at times, making him able to think of what to do next; his leadership skills are also there. Iron Man, on the other hand, is a genius, no doubt; he made all his suits himself, and he could totally make any weapon with any material given to him, so I vote for Iron Man.

“What?!” Sheldon dropped his utensils hard on his plate, which made the whole table quiet. “You’re letting your biased thoughts infiltrate what is the truth.”

“It may be so, but you asked who I think will win, and I gave you my answer," Y/N calmly stated while eating a spoonful.

“No! You’re wrong; if you take out Iron Man’s suit, what is he?”

"He is a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and he is Tony Stark. Like I said, he can make any weapon, whatever material you give him. I’m not saying that Cap is weak or something, but everything special about him came out of a bottle; without that, he would be this twig honorable soldier with good morals.”

“But…”

“You told me if I took out Iron Man’s suit, now that I have listed out the possibility of Cap not having his serum, what then?”

And for once in his life, Sheldon kept quiet. He was flabbergasted that it left his family speechless, until Missy spoke, “Oh man, now there’s two of them.” She leaned her hand on her face before smiling at Y/N, “But you’re tolerable.”

“Hey!”

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑’𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄

thank you so much for requesting this! i am so sorry for posting this late but i hope you like this!!

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

@bellaisswagger // @somesimpformen

[crepes-suzette-373]

Germa and French references

(Plus bonus Star Wars mention at the end)

Sanji's iron mask in the flashbacks immediately made me think of Dumas's works, but when I saw it I didn't think much about it. It's just like, "Oh I guess it's just part of the Sanji = French thing". Plus in one of the cover arts Sanji was drawn in a classic Musketeer outfit, so I thought it was just for fun.

But Twitter user Marudoro-san made this thread that pointed out a bunch of the same references I'd caught and said "Hey, maybe this is actually important to the plot later", and I think they have a point. So I figured I'd share what I'd already noticed, and I will highlight the input that I got from Marudoro-san in red here in this post.

Iron Mask

The man in the iron mask is a French prisoner whose identity is never truly known in history. In his novel, Alexandre Dumas invented a plot where the iron masked prisoner is the twin brother of King Louis XIV, and the plot involves the famous Musketeers from the previous novels in a conspiracy of switching the king for the twin brother.

At a glance, it might be just a literary Easter egg, but when I look at it again, I do start to have questions. Within the One Piece scenario context, this is unnecessary. In the Dumas novel, the mask seems to be needed to hide the prisoner's identity. But there's no need to hide Sanji's identity, and it's not to prevent him from shouting for help because he can still talk even with the mask. What is it for? Is it a clue that the Man in the Iron Mask novel is relevant to this story?

For one, the fact that the iron masked prisoner being the king's twin is noteworthy. Sanji is one of 4 quadruplets, but still. Marudoro said that maybe this is a sign that Sanji and Ichiji will have a confrontation later. This makes sense, because of the other Vinsmokes, the one most likely to represent a "king" would be Ichiji.

This is something I myself had considered before, that Ichiji specifically might later have a role as "Sanji's opposite". I don't know how yet, but the imagery and themes that I've seen so far seems to point that way.

Marudoro also points out that if you look into the Musketeer novels, Sanji has vibes similar to Aramis, who is described as something of a womaniser. Aramis happens to be the mastermind behind the twin conspiracy in the Iron Mask novel.

The correlation is vague, and it's hard to tell how is this going to be relevant, besides maybe "there might be other French history/literature references in Germa's storyline".

Les Misérables, Revolution, the French Royalty

The only two Germa servants who actually has proper names, head chef Cosette and Sora's personal servant Eponi, seem to be references to the Les Misérables characters Cosette and Eponine. Part of the narrative of Les Mis is the June Rebellion, an uprising of the anti-monarchists.

In the Soul Pocus song that serves as the outro of the WCI arc, the "lyrics" specifically has the exact word "guillotine". For many people, guillotine is very closely linked to the image of the French Revolution and the execution of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Speaking of guillotine... Yonji's attack, translated as "Winch Guillotine" in the official translation, is actually called "Winch Danton" in the raw. This is possibly a reference to Georges Danton, and important figure of French Revolution, who is curiously executed by guillotine.

Sensei clearly knows the word guillotine, so why not just flat out call it "Winch Guillotine" like the translation?

For whatever it's worth, Danton was someone who was executed for opposing the new government after the first revolution. The revolutionaries got so bad that it was called the "Reign of Terror", so Danton turned against them and was trying to oppose this cruelty.

Yonji is rather visibly the least "bad" of the brothers and his reactions are almost like a "normal person" in a lot of ways, so maybe this is significant?

Marudoro-san said that the Nyasha/cat carriage the Vinsmokes were riding when they were about to meet Big Mum was incredibly similar to the funerary carriage of King Louis XVIII. While there are some differences, they do have a point.

Again, it's still unclear about what significance all of this stuff will have. Maybe the imagery of "revolution" and "King's funeral" indicate that Germa will be undergoing a lot of changes. Something that's beyond just the formation of Neo MADS.

The Knights Hospitaller... and Napoleon?

Marudoro-san says there's an interesting parallel between Germa and the Knights Hospitaller. This is a chivalric order that has privileges that puts them equal to a sovereign power. They have minimal land holdings, but has the standing almost on par with that of a nation. It's like the landless Germa, who is still recognised as a kingdom by WG up until their privileges were taken away after the mess in WCI.

The Knights has lost a lot of its power and territories in Europe through history, and finally, its headquarters in Malta was sacked by Napoleon. Marudoro-san highlighted that Big Mum's hat and sword was called Napoleon.

Marudoro-san took this analysis elsewhere, but for my part, I'm wondering if Germa almost being destroyed at WCI is a parallel of this attack of the Knights in Malta, with Big Mum being the parallel to Napoleon.

The possible proof of the Napoleon parallel is Law. Law was heavily instrumental in Big Mum's defeat in Wano, and his name are connected to events related to Napoleon's downfall.

Napoleon suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar, and the man who was his jailer to the point of his death was a surgeon's son named Hudson Lowe. Law and Lowe looks different in English, but in Japanese both are spelled the same: ロー.

[Edit: Napoleon was also famously defeated in the Battle of Waterloo. In Japanese, Waterloo is spelled like this: ワーテルロー. It contains the same "ロー" as in Law's name.]

Marudoro-san said that Napoleon's invasion of Malta involved tricking the Knights to letting him dock under false pretences. I don't know how true this is, but at the very least this is a narrative that is accessible to the Japanese. One could argue that this is parallel to the conspiracy in Whole Cake.

If this parallel is really correct, then, this could be a hint of "Good Germa".

The Knights Hospitaller surrendered and survived that Napoleon encounter, with its status being even more diminished. Eventually it restructured as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which still has its sovereign authorities (Wikipedia says they can even issue passports and currency), but is now an organisation whose activities are focused on charity.

Bonus: The Jedi and Clone Wars?? (Star Wars)

Marudoro-san also mentioned that the 66 of Germa reminds them of Order 66 from Star Wars, which ended the Jedi order and enabled the Sith to rise to power.

I only understand Star Wars very minimally myself, but a fan I talked to on Twitter confirmed to me that they think so as well. Especially because there's the specific focus on Germa soldiers being clones, and it's reminiscent of the whole clone plotline in Star Wars.

Order 66 ended the Jedi. The 66 of Germa is in reference to the destruction of the old Germa Empire.

If this parallel is true, then this might confirm the theory that "Germa is not actually evil before". If we read that the "Sith" is World Government, and the old Germa is "Jedi", then maybe it's hinting that all the story about them being evil in the past is a lie? They may be awful now because Judge is so driven by revenge, but maybe they were actually not evil before.

[marvelfanfn2187a113]

and I think Sam was a little less distressing to his sister with that.

I love Dean but throughout the seasons Sam seems a little more open to letting out his anger in other ways or at least coping with it in different ways.

Sam and Dean even yelled at each other but I feel like Sam saw it as a way to let it out while expressing what he feels.

For example when they are in the car and Sam tells Dean to stop the car and then they fight but at the same time they are yelling at each other on the road Sam is telling Dean how the situation they are going through makes him feel.

While Dean is a little more explosive, correct me if I'm wrong but I THINK, I'm not sure, I don't remember, the physical fights between brothers most of them started with Dean (he threw the first punch), I'm not saying that Sam always I was right in these fights, I'm just saying that there you can see the way of expressing emotions is different.

Also as far as I remember Sam never hit anything or had angry outbursts like Dean did, as far as I remember, you can correct me.

But well what I'm trying to get at is that maybe Sam is a little better at expressing emotions and telling his little sister that it's okay to feel sad, angry, frustrated, etc. I say Dean too but in a different way.

Do you think this behavior would be different with a sister involved or as a civil servant?

In fact, I was reading a supernatural comic, I don't know if you take it canon or not, but the important thing is that we have a flashback to when Sam and Dean were children

John hadn't told Sam about the hunt and as usual he leaves them at a hotel, Sam wants to go swimming but in the end they don't and Dean reminds Sam that he doesn't know how to swim, then Sam starts asking questions about Mary and Dean tell him not to talk about it, but in the end he ends up answering some things (lies)

John's fight with the monster for some reason ends at the motel where he was staying, so John tells Dean to go in the car where Dean knows they have to go in these cases, he does and when they arrive At the point Sam is crying because he doesn't understand anything and starts asking questions.

First Dean gets frustrated and yells at him to stop crying but then he hugs Sam and tells him that if he stops asking questions he's going to teach him how to swim :(

I only remember 3 physical fights between the guys (there could’ve been more). 1, when Dean punches Sam because they were arguing about that jerk hunter (forgot his name). 2, Sam punches Dean in season 4 when Dean calls him a monster, and then they duke it out (but I could be wrong about who started that fight). And 3, in season 14 when Sam punches Dean because he wants to die to take down Michael. Not the the count really matters, I know what you mean…

The boys definitely both have some times when their anger just gets explosive, but Sam would definitely be the one to sit the little sister down once and a while and tell her whatever she’s feeling is valid.

I imagine Sam talking more to her as a friend and big brother, talking about how it’s ok when she feels things. I think Dean would be more like a father figure, teaching her that some ways of expressing emotion are ok and some aren’t (either she lashes out and he tells her it’s not ok, or she bottles it up and he encourages her to let it out)

I feel like the difference is in seasons. Like in the early seasons when they’re younger, Sam gets angry quickly, and he’s quick to yell (kind of like John). Dean has a more broody/quiet anger, unless something really bad happens, then he’ll get loud and maybe throw something/punch something.

In the later seasons when they’re older, Sam matured past that quick anger, and we almost never see him get mad (from what I remember). Meanwhile, Dean bottles up his anger way more than ever (he did it before, but he has to do it more in the later seasons—bigger apocalypses and more young people that he feels he has to hide his anger from). So still, when it comes out it’s usually by yelling and throwing things.

I feel like Sam would get kind of protective (not that he’s mad at Dean, Sam understands why he gets like that) of the little sister whenever Dean throws things. He doesn’t say anything to Dean, but whenever Dean yells or throws anything, Sam’s first instinct is to seek out his little sister. He’ll either tell her to leave, or he’ll make sure he has at least a hand on her shoulder (but usually he’ll hug her and tuck her head under his chin, because he doesn’t want her to have to see Dean like that)

[nottskyler]

3 Nephi 18:13

“But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them.”

Interesting location to put this after the institution of the Sacrament among them. The same statement in chapter 11 comes after explaining contention is not His doctrine, and faith repentance and baptism are but in three different orders I when it includes becoming as a little child.(3 Nephi 11:23-41)

It’s also to think how interesting it is that we definitely have an excessive amount of things taught as doctrine that doesn’t fit. And though I block contentious people here, if we were to have a Sunday School lesson on it, verse 14 says “therefore blessed at eye if ye shall keep my commandments, which the Father hath commands me that I should give unto you.” And while church culture wants me to accept everything out of the mouth of a servant of the Lord as Gd’s word, but I feel like Christ is acknowledging that even His words are subject to the test of “try it out to see if it is good” and “by their fruits you shall know them”; for those are the tests by which we know if something is of Gd.

I came on with intention of talking about things like the worship of the nuclear family and agreeing with the other Christian religions on why slavery wasn’t evil and call Church leaders cowards from being afraid of standing out from their Christian peers, but instead I’m reminded of a different lesson I’ve learned.

Sometimes you have to go down the wrong path to know it was wrong, and sometimes you have to believe wrong things to learn they are wrong. And this is not apologetic for the Church, this is about individual paths. The spirit or light of Christ is meant to be our guide in discerning good from evil. We cannot learn it or know it without making mistakes and learning from them. Only getting positive answers from the spirit means we are doing something wrong as we aren’t working to develop our spiritual language skills.

Christ understands this which is why He always gives us our agency and tells us to try out His word. If someone ever says follow me for I’m never wrong or you can’t know for yourself and must listen to someone else first, they are exalting themselves above Christ.

This isn’t a puritan Gospel where mistakes are blemishes on our souls that forever mark us. This is a gospel of learning and growth where you have to mispronounce words and use the wrong preposition and verb tense in order to learn. Every book of scripture starts with someone breaking a commandment for something good: Eve and the forbidden fruit, Joseph the husband of Mary who didn’t stone her according to the law, Nephi killing Laban. To say the law is absolute and every violation needs punishment goes contrary to the law of mercy.

“Become as a little child” (3 Nephi 11:37,38) means try things out to learn for yourself. You will fall, you will break things, you will get covered in food or mud or whatever else, but you will learn by doing.

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

So uh...that thing I said about my tma hyperfixation slipping recently? Well, I wasn't lying, but...holy shit, if it didn't come back quicker than I expected! As I'm sure many of you are aware, they recently announced a live performance happening in London surrounding Hill Top Road, and...I am so ridiculously excited for it. Now that I've booked my tickets, I am wholeheartedly back on the listening train and set on finishing it before October 30th next year.

As I have said in current my pinned post, I don't think I'll be continuing to write down all of my thoughts for every episode, both because I don't have the time or energy, and because I want to start using this blog for pleasure more and just post about whatever thing's on my mind. That being said, I finally got back into the podcast with MAG 87 (a bit of a weird new start, I know, but...whatever), and...I definitely have some things to say about it! So uh...yeah, read beneath the cut if you want to hear a bit of that! :)

But first, I'd just like to give some brief thoughts on MAG 85 and 86. Unfortunately it's been quite a while since I last listened to them, and I don't really have much motivation to go back and re-listen, since I'd like to keep things moving forward, so...a lot of my hyper-specific thoughts have evaded me. That being said...I thoroughly enjoyed both of them!

MAG 85...despite being extremely frustrating to form any coherent thoughts about, was an absolutely stellar episode! And I mean...being confusing is kind of the point so I can't complain that much. Like, it is entirely impossible for me to decipher this one, I can't tell if it means fuck all or is the most important thing ever, but...whatever, it was good! It's no secret at this point that I really like all of the stuff surrounding The Spiral (particularly a certain distorted door man...), so this was obviously a great time for me and was stellarly written. I did find quite a bit of intrigue in the post-statement though, namely Georgie....I mean, bless her heart, but holy shit she needs to re-think her dating life, and also what is seemingly the reveal of the name of one of Gertrude's late assistants. ...Eric Delano. At first I didn't think much of this name reveal, I mean, I assumed we'd learn more about him later, but the intial reveal doesn't tell us much. However...for reasons I'll explain later, I recently reffered back to the transcript for MAG 62, and...wouldn't you know it, Mary mentioned an Eric back there, one that both she and Gertrude are familiar with. I have no idea what his connection to the former could be if there really was one at all, but uh...based on the context he's brought up in, I'm guessing that his death had something to do with whichever one of ✨the horrors✨ he was devoted to (likely The Eye if he was indeed an archival assistant, but...then again Gertrude's alliegance to it as The Archivist can still be questioned so I'm not saying anything conclusive for the time being), and the "what's left of him" remark means his death was...probably a bit of a slow build. Anyways...all very interesting.

Now, as for MAG 86...holy fucking shit. As far as I can tell this one if quite infamous among the fandom, and...yeah, I can certainly sympathize! I really don't think I have much more to say about the statement that hasn't already been said, but just...wow. It's another example of a statement that doesn't really seem connected to the overarching plot, (I mean...there are some similarities between the monster in this episode and Maxwell Rayner, but I feel like I'm supposed to read into that more than the two almost certainly being extensions/servants of the same darkness power, plus if we assume that the Rayner body swapping theory is true, and that he only does so when the current one is starting to get really old, and specifically targets children for hosts, then like...why is he possessing an adult? Why was he outside of a body for so long? This is a really long section inside parentheses holy shit.) but it is just...so incredibly memorable and terrifying. The way that throughout the entire episode, it builds up its concept of a monster that is one with the darkness of night itself and only encroaches towards when you aren't conciously hiding from it underneath a blanket, but then at the very last minute completely subverts this idea by revealing that its patterns were just a farce meant to lure Benjamin into a false sense of security...it's genuinely haunting. And of course "The blanket never did anything" is a quote for the ages, like...just wow. (Also the way it left a noticeable stain on him reminded me of Void from Hollow Knight but that's off-topic).

Otherwise though, this episode had a lot of great non-statement content! While I am...still absolutely terrified by the prospect of Melanie working at the institute now, along with her blatant naivete and denial (although granted I'm thankful that she's much more open to investigating what the hell is happening than Season 1 Jon was), I really liked her reading the statement here. Lydia Nicholas does a great job making her read sound different from the statements Melanie gave herself, I mean...she genuinely sounds horrified by the end which like...same girl. I also love how she says "marker" at the beginning and end, it's such a small but charming detail that highlights how she's still used to her old way of looking into and documenting the paranormal really well. Also, somewhat off-topic but...WHY THE HELL DOES ROBIN PATTON SOUND SO MUCH LIKE GEORGIE'S SHITTY DATE?! Like...I was so prepared to learn that Georgie got mauled by a shadow monster upon listening to MAG 87 but...nope! Genuinely...what was up with that? Uh...regardless, we also have Tim who...I found to be VERY interesting in this episode. Firstly...the line "Who am I even sad for?" was just...an absolute gut punch. It's no secret that anything regarding the inherent tragedy of Sasha's character is enough to make me cry, but like...despite my occasional frustrations with him, it's stuff like this that makes me feel like...just, Tim Stoker, they could never make me hate you. But outside of that...something is absolutely up with him.

I just...find it so weird that he seems to almost instantly recognize what happened when Melanie starts talking about the two Sashas, like...how is it that HE seems so understanding of what's going on when she, the only person other than Elias who was able to see through the facade, really isn't? I mean, sure, there have been a few statements about The NotThem before, but only one of them actually had the archival assistants involved in any follow-up, and I mean...Tim is like the office diva who's just here for shits and giggles! ...That's an overexxageration, I'm sure he had his reasons for joining the institute that'll be revealed in the future, I'm just saying he's absolutely the most lax person here, albeit the way in which he's lax has changed over time. But like, why does he, of all people, remember this singular statement that he looked into over a year ago at this point in the timeline? I mean, I guess he did take a bit of an interest in the table when it was delivered to the institute, and was also the one to tell Jon about the delivery, but...Jon himself didn't even clock that the table and The NotThem were inherently connected to one another until after reading Lawrence Moore's statement and hearing about how Adelard Dekker bound the thing, so why should I expect Tim to be any better? Just...what is the deal here? On top of that, I found it really interesting how he just...stopped reading the statement and went on a rant at the beginning. As far as we can tell, statements seem to...draw people into them in a less than normal way, likely explaining why they portray the person who gave it while reading out loud, and why they seem so shocked and breathless when they stop (except for Jon but granted he's been doing this for a while whereas Martin and Melanie are new to this). The only other exceptions to this are Elias, who's method of reading "Alice Tonner's Statement" were...unique to say the least (and is also a practically confirmed to be claimed by The Eye like Jon while the archival assistants might just be touched so...there's also that), and Gertrude, who is...admittedly a bit of a mystery, but if we go with the assumption that as The Archivist she was also claimed by The Eye like Jon and probably all before her, and take some of her, um...fiery machinations into account, then...yeah, I feel confident in saying there was probably a bit of resistance to all of this spooky archive shit on her part.

So then, what's the deal with Tim? I mean, I once proposed the idea that "statement begins" is a sort of paranormal trigger phrase that draws people into the statements as an explanation for why Gertrude, a character who doesn't say that, seems so unfazed while and after reading a statement, but...this episode actually deconfirms that notion, because Melanie doesn't say it and still comes out uneasy. So...Tim not saying "statement begins" probably means very little. I mean...I guess it also felt like Melanie was getting drawn in over time so...maybe the fact that Tim didn't even start the actual story has something to do with it? Well like...my point is, this and the instant understanding of what happened to Sasha is enough to make me feel mighty suspicious of Tim. Like, I don't think he's some evil villain or anything but...I mean to say that he's shifted from "just some guy who got stuck in this whole mess" to "someone who might very well have a much bigger stake in the lore and narrative than I initially thought". And like...I know Season 2 Jon was an insane bastard who was not to be trusted but honestly...I also kind of think it's weird Tim came to the institute despite there being no history in paranormal studies on his record. So...what do I think's going on with him? Well...I think he very well might have some sort of connection to The Stranger. I don't get the sense that he's actually working for it or is in on The Unknowing or something, because even thought deceit and false appearances is kind of The Stranger's thing from what I can garner...Tim seems pretty genuine in his confusion. If not, then "Who am I even sad for?" would have significantly less weight to it. But...I just wonder if maybe he's been touched by it beyond just being decieved by The NotThem, and...maybe that has something to do with his past. It would explain why he recognized what was going on with Sasha after hearing Melanie's account (I am...very tempted to say that he lost someone to The NotThem before, but...I don't know how you'd expand on that given that the thing is currently rotting in an underground ditch. Sure, it's not actually dead and could theoretically bust out at any moment, but...eh...we'll see), and mabe also why he was able to seemingly tear himself away from the statement, since The Eye and The Stranger seem to be VERY naturally opposed, maybe more than they are to any other one of ✨the horrors✨, except for MAYBE the darkness because The Divine Host's insignia is literally a closed eye. Ultimately...these are just two relatively small details and I'm making a lot of assumptions based on them, but...I really feel like something interesting is about to happen with Tim. I mean, I really hope so, I've said before that I badly want to see more about his character get revealed so that I can form a more clear opinion on him, but...I'll just have to wait and see.

And then finally, something that really surprised me...Melanie and Jon meeting up! This was a delighful surprise, not only because I love their interactions with one another, but also because...it's really interesting plot-wise. Firstly, we got some more information on Melanie getting "sort of shot" (it's been months and I still have not stopped thinking about that). Apparently she was shot in the leg...by a ghost. Oh...homegirl is so haunted by one of ✨the horrors✨ and it is not even funny anymore. I don't really have much to say about this reveal, other than that...I'm very intrigued by it and hope she makes another statement of her own soon. Because uh...that sounds important. Anyways, I think the most interesting thing here is the deal made between the two of them. Melanie helping Jon out with gathering additional resources is very intriguing...kind of, I mean, I'm writing this post-MAG 87 so I already have a decent idea of what her doing this for him might do...and given the context I kind of hope she doesn't help him with what he's trying to do because I prefer my archivist raw and not cooked but...we'll get to that. But uh...otherwise, I am EXTREMELY interested by the fact that Jon has...supposedly told Melanie everything. Like...I desperately need to listen to MAG 88 right after I post this just so that I can hopefully see the fallout of that conversation at the institute. Like...will they learn about Sasha, Leitner, Elias, Gertrude, ✨THE FUCKING HORRORS✨?! Just...how do you reveal all of that to the new girl at the institue when meeting up at a café, and better yet, how do you expect her to share all of that information with her new coworkers she barely knows at a place where they are constantly being watched by a guy who probably doesn't want them knowing that?! And like...how the hell do you "start with Sasha?" Like, I have genuinely tried imagining that conversation between Jon and Melanie in my head multiple times (i swear I am a normal person), and...I just cannot make that work. Like Melanie, I'm sorry, but Magnus Institute Lore 101 requires that you start with the worm lady, okay? Just...wow...how is that going to go down? Anyways...those are my main thoughts on MAG 86! ....Yeah, the disparity in stuff to say between this and MAG 85 is kind of laughable. I swear I like it, I just...cannot write anything coherent about it. Regardless...onto the main event!

But before that....just one little thing I recently realized regarding the episode "Hide and Seek" namely its title. Not only does it refer to The NotThem chasing Jon, but...I just realized that The Stranger "hides" and The Eye "seeks", but in this episode, the seeker is a manifestation of The Stranger and the hider is a man claimed by The Eye. ...God damn that is really clever.

So...MAG 87. ...I would say I was surprised that definitely not Elias Bouchard managed to find out where Jon was hiding Gertrude's tapes but...I'm not. Because. Come on. Man...I just realized how unfortunate it is that right after Basira gave him that gold mine of information, he was forced to leave all of that knowledge behind. ...Yikes. Anyways, uh...I guess I should start with the statement here! Let's get the obvious out of the way. Sebastian Skinner you will always be famous. Put this man right next to Joshua Gillespie and Karolina Górka and let them form the most powerful polycule in human history because OH MY GOD I LOVE HIM. King and patron saint to all neurodivergents across the globe, he deserves all the riches he could ever desire. Yeah...despite all of the genuinely unnerving imagery and lore revelations in this episode, I have to say that Sebastian alone makes this one of the funniest episodes in the show by far. The man is LITERALLY asked to unclog human flesh from a sewage pipe in a creepy building in the woods by a very creepy woman who offers to FLENSE him...and he is just completely unfazed by and oblivious to the whole situation. I just...I can't get over that. In fact, he is so unbothered by it that Megan is GENUINELY APPALLED by it, but also so ammused that she calls over a servant of a completely different member of ✨the horrors✨ to LAUGH ABOUT IT, and then calls him back, not even to neccessarily kill him, but just to rub it in his face how actually scary things are. Just...absolute comedy gold, I love it. I will remember this man always, and it is actually kind of heartbreaking that he did not survive in the end if Gertrude's comments are anything to go off of (also yes hi Gertrude I missed you :D).

Outside of that though...yikes was this a freaky one. I mean, really only the second half if I'm being honest, the first part was still hilarious. Just like...so much disturbing imagery. The way he describes "Megan" burying her plastic hands into his skin, how Jude Perry just cruelly laughs as he cries out for help, and then a workshop filled with a bunch more of the sentient mannequins from MAG 83 skinning a bunch of severed heads, it's just...ugh! Same goes for Megan's face slipping away and Jude burning his shoulder right as it seemed like she was going to let him get away, just...yeah, very disturbing statement. Overall I really liked it, good mix of comedy and horror that builds the plot surrounding The Stranger, The Unknowing, and...surprisingly The Lightless Flame up really well. And speaking of which...

The best part of this episode for me is definitely all of the new information it gives us and the way it pushes the plot forward, both in the statement and the comments made by Gertrude and Jon. In general, I feel like Season 3 has done a great job at pushing the plot forward so far, even if it's felt a bit slow for me due to my hiatus. Firstly, I'd like to discuss what we learned about The Unknowing, because...wow. Now, Jon says that he believes The Unknowing is a "ritual" and...yeah, there probably is some truth to that. Now, I do still think that the destruction of The Magnus Institute probably plays into The Unknowing, both for reasons that I've discussed before, none of which have been debunked here as far as I'm concerned, but also because this episode confirms that while The Stranger is definitely the one leading the operation, other members of ✨the horrors✨ have the potential to get involved as well, namely what we now know is called "The Devastation". Amazing name by the way, I especially appreciate its existence because it was getting annoying having to differentiate between "Lightless Flame" as in the power and "Lightless Flame" as in the cult. Now, I know that Gertrude kind of suggests it is possible that Jude Perry (who uh...yeah! Really cool to get a new named freaky person here!) was just here for shits and giggles, and I mean...to an extent she probably was given Sebastian being a guy that exists, but let's assume that she actually is working with agents of The Stranger on The Unknowing. Now, as far as I can discern, there...really doesn't seem to be much that would make The Stranger and The Devastation natural allies when you look at things through a thematic lense. Like, compare this to The Vast, the isolation power and the darkness power, all of whom are allied via Daedalus, and you have clear thematic correlation. The Lukases, Fairchilds and Divine Host are working together because of the loneliness, size and darkness of space. Meanwhile, The Stranger and The Devastation don't have much in common...except for a common enemy. ...Or rather, seperate enemies that are allied with one another. Yeah so...The Stranger hates The Eye and The Devastation hates The Spider, and it does seem like The Eye and The Spider are allied in a number of places. Now, according to Gertrude, The Lightless Flame had...plans of their own that recently "went up in flames" (she actually said that by the way, I never thought I would hear her tell a joke), likely due to the loss of Agnes as we can tell she was definitely important to her given all of her "destiny" talk. Er, on that note, I guess I should mention that it's entirey possible that Jude Perry is the only member of The Lightless Flame allied with The Stranger, since all of the other named ones (Agnes, Diego and Arthur) are....very very dead, while she is implied to still be out there. Regardless, this makes me think that her and/or The Lightless Flame's involvement with The Unknowing could be a sort of...next best option. Like, maybe their plans involved getting rid of The Spider, but since Agnes' death has left them in disarray, their siding with the member of ✨the horrors✨ who seeks to take down The Spider's bestie. And...the best way to do that is probably through wrecking the institute. So uh...yeah, I definitely think that The Unknowing will involve destroying the institute, but...I have reason to suspect there's more too it than just that.

My reason is...well, Gertrude was actively trying to stop it. We know that she and Leitner tried to burn down the institute, or at least the archives, right before her death, so if The Unknowing only sought to do the same thing as her...why would she try to stop it? There has to be something else it seeks to achieve, and we have...at least an inkling of an idea of what that might be now. But um...on the note of Gertrude wanting to stop it, there's that! We now know for certain that Gertrude was not just fighting against The Eye from within the institute, but also The Stranger as well...which makes me think she was probably fighting against all of ✨the horrors✨, if the fact she was against two immortal enemies is anything to go off of. I also think this episode debunks the idea that she was secretly a servant of The Devastation due to her tendency to burn and explode, both because of what I just said but also because she talks about Jude Perry and The Lightless Flame in a way that makes her seem...on a different side from them. But like....that doesn't make her whole character any less bewildering to me! Hell, I think this makes her MORE bewildering! Not only do I not understand how she was able to even attempt doing so much damage to The Eye when she, as The Archivist, was presumably claimed by it, but like...how the hell was she going agaisnt EVEN MORE?! How is she just..able to fight against every side in this war between eldritch abominations, especially when her only known allies were three assistants who all died horribly, and an old librarian who while definitely powerful, is implied to have met her relatively late into her life? Even Michael, a character whose only discernable goals are to cause chaos, look hot while doing it and sit back and watch the world burn is at least aligned with The Spiral (albeit seemingly more by nature than by choice or experience). And like...better yet, WHY?! What motivated her to join The Magnus Institute and start fighting all of these things? My best guess is that she, like Jon, was motivated to join due to prior interest in the paranormal, and only learned that the institute was just as paranormal as everything it's been studying later on. The only discernable difference is that while Jon came in search of knowledge, I think she might have come in search of blood, but like...that's not a lot! Just...god. "Interesting" does not do this character justice. I love this arsonist grandma so dearly but like...I need her secrets now. And the funny thing is, I'm not even done talking about her yet! But...for now, back to The Unknowing.

So there's a few more details regarding it I want to point out. Firstly, it seems almost confirmed that while The Anglerfish and its minions, Breekon and Hope, Jude Perry and at least for a time, The NotThem, are all actively involved in The Unknowing, The Other Circus is the main organizer of the event, which makes sense as it does seem to be The Stranger's equivalent to the groups like The Lightless Flame and The Divine Host. (Mentioning that, I...kind of wonder if The Divine Host is involved here as well? I mean, not only are they seemingly aligned against The Eye, not only do they share some thematic similarities with agents of The Stranger, but...they've also been planning something for a while. There's Natalie Ennis' mention of a plan "three-hundred years in the making", which just so happened to have a part of it enacted...presumably not long before Gertrude's death. ...We'll get to the timeline shenanigans in a second. But uh...they also recently had their plans sold out to Section 31 by...who is most likely Elias, a guy who has expressed his desire to stop The Unkowing, albeit somewhat nonchalantly. Regardless, uh...we know that The Other Circus is in charge of this whole thing, but namely...somewhat by the name of "Orsinov". But...seemingly not Gregor Orsinov, the ringmaster from MAG 44, as Gertrude refers to this Orsinov with a "her" pronoun. Assuming that this is not a continuity error, then this likely means whoever is running The Other Circus is not the same person as Gregor, but rather a relative, spouse or even child. ...Preferabbly not that last one as I do not like the image of someone who is unlikely to be a normal earthling procreating. Alternatively, uh...congrats on the transition I guess? I know that sounds like a joke, but...it is worth noting that considering The Stranger is like...the shapeshifting one, a change in gender is not impossible here. Ultimately I'm fine if they go down that route, I just...don't hope they would frame that change in gender as an inherently scary thing? But...eh, I have faith in Jonny not to do that. Either way, there's some interesting directions they could take this in. Gertrude also mentions that Orsinov has...a world they wish to bring about. ...THAT doesn't sound good at all. I think this is pretty definitive proof that there's more to The Unknowing than I initially thought, and that it has much larger implications than just the destruction of the institute. I also assume this would be where the "ritual" aspect Jon alludes to would come into play, although I don't really know how to interpret that dialogue at the moment. Other than that...well, we know that all of that skin will somehow play into The Unknowing, and that there will also be "dancers" there who are wearing that skin. I assume these dancers are probably the various sentient(?) mannequins that agents of The Stranger have been producing, as "Megan" does seem to be wearing skin herself. This...also might explain what the deal with Sarah Baldwin and Daniel Rawlings is. I've thought since MAG 54 that the original humans who stumbled into Old Fishmarket Close were skinned by The Anglerfish, and that skin was given to monsters who serve it. Now it seems very likely that The Anglerfish's victims are actually "dancers" in their own right, so that's cool! I mean, it's terrifying, but it's cool! Uh...The Unknowing is seemingly fast approaching, which...yeah, definitely makes sense, I would be surprised if it didn't at least attempt to succeed this season honestly. And finally...this isn't from Gertrude's comments, but I didn't know where else to put it, but uh...we know that The Stranger also goes by the name "I Do Not Know You". ...I just thought that was neat.

Now, there's one last aspect of Gertrude's presence in this episode that I would like to discuss, that being...the timeline of her death. Unfortunately, my only real flaw with this episode is that it has quite a few, not plot-collapsing at all, but still pretty frustrating continuity errors that muddle the timeline a bit. ...Or does it? Because upon further thinking, I actually realized, what might seem like an impossible timeline...could actually be a clue. ...Yes, I am fully aware I probably sound a little crazy just by saying that. But first of all...well yeah I am crazy, we've established this before. But secondly, if it does turn out that these are just continuity errors...honestly like...whatever. I would prefer it if they weren't but I won't be super upset if Jonny made some minor mistakes, especially since he otherwise does a remarkably good job at keeping track of a timeline that is often not delivered to us in a chronological order. Now, there is one detail that I really can't rationalize being anything other than a mistake, and that is Jon saying that this tape was recorded a year or so before Gertrude's death. That is just...blatantly not true, as this statement was recorded in April of 2015, and Jon had been The Archivist for a quite a while by that point. Ultimately though, this doesn't really matter, especially since MAG 33 kind of established than any continuity error said by Jon regarding a statement can be explained by him being a little bit dumb on occasion. And by a little bit dumb I mean he smashed the table I'M STILL NOT OVER IT I KNOW YOU HAVE CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ABOUT SPIDERS BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK?! But otherwise...well, it's a bit complicated. This isn't the first time that we've gotten conflicting statements regarding Gertrude's death. In MAG 25, we're told that she died in May 2015 on the same day screams were heard from Hither Green Chapel, but in MAG 40, Elias tells her she died, or...at least went missing, in March. This means that this statement could either take place a month before...or a month after she died, and...I actually think either one could work. Stay with me. Let's start with the easiest assumption, that being that she died in May.

If this is the case...well, there's really not much to say. This statement was recorded a month before she died, end of story. As for Elias, well...he was the man who killed her, and we can say without a shadow of a doubt that he lied in the statement he gave after the Prentiss incident. The only problem is...I don't know why he would lie about the date of her death specifically as that seems kind of disadvantageous, but...I can just chock that up to him being a silly guy who does what he wants. Alternatively, you could assume that Gertrude went MISSING in March, but actually died in May, but...that wouldn't really explain the blood in the archives (although it's entirely possible that detail was another lie), and on top of that, wouldn't explain why Jon had her date of death recorded as being in May when she was only confirmed dead when Martin found her body in the tunnels in July of 2016. So...yeah, it's not perfect, but there are workarounds to this line of thinking. But...what if we take an alternative line of thinking, one that is less likely but a bit more fun? What if we assume that this statement was recorded a month...BEFORE she died?

You see, I've just been thinking...there has to be...SOMETHING more to Gertrude's death, right? Like, sure, it made sense for the whodunnit mystery to be concluded in Season 2, but like...her death is such an important catalyst in the story, and I find it way too hard to believe that it's as simple as "Elias shot her because she was trying to burn down the archives". (Oh uh...and this doesn't really connect to what I about to put forward, but I have to wonder...why did it take Elias so long to kill her? Like, she was working against The Eye at least since the late nineties, and he should've known about this because...well, you know. Unless gaining all-knowing powers from his patron took over 20 years, but like...I find that unlikely. ...Why did he wait?) I just...feel like there's more too it. And uh...you know how I mentioned I went back to the transcript for MAG 62? Yeah...you might see where I'm going with this. I went back there because in this episode, Jon mentions the page of the skin book that Gertrude got from Mary. Now, he very quickly disregards this as being at all connected to The Stranger (while also commenting on how confusing this all is, which....you and me both buddy), and I have to agree with this. While I am implored to raise an eyebrow at how all of the human heads that were being harvested for skin in the workshop here were hung on the same stuff used for Mary's book, we know that the book connects to a seperate member of ✨the horrors✨ called "The End", and while ✨the horrors✨ do collaborate with one another, we've never seen a Leitner that's connected to more than one of them, the same principle applying to artifacts and claimed people. But...I don't think the book being mentioned here has to be a throwaway line. If you recall MAG 62, Mary gave Gertrude a page of her book. Now, the page already had writing on it, seemingly implying that someone's spirit had already been bound to it. But...then I remembered that Mary seemingly bound herself to the book...and that's when I had an idea. For a long time, I've wondered how Mary could've possibly done what she did, but then I realized...is it possible that she removed chunks of her skin before dying, did all the spooky writing and incantations, and THEN overdosed on painkillers, which ultimately resulted in her being bound to the book? Because if that's the case...what if the same happened with Gertrude? Because like...Gertrude is shown to be familiar with the smell of burning skin in MAG 62, so like...what if she had pieces of her skin removed at some point, and then Mary used those pieces to create the page that she would then give her later on? Then, if we assume Elias killed her in March, this resulted in Gertrude being bound to the page as a ghost, therefore explaining how this statement was recorded after her death? This would also explain her mysterious remarks about needing to recover and being unable to stand, because she would be adjusting to a new state of being! (Side note, can I just say that I thought Gertrude sounded like...noticeably more aged here? I don't know if that's just a result of me not having tuned in for a while but if it isn't...great job Sue Sims, you really sold it well :). ) Now...all of that said, how likely is this?

Honestly not very, this is kind of crack. Plus, there are a number of very easy alternate explanations to these mysteries. The remark about burning skin could come from an earlier encounter with The Stranger or The Devestation, and honestly...it is entirely possible that Mary got help from Gerard when being bound to the book, because not only was he suspected of killing her, indicating he might have been at the scene, but all of the statements where he seems to be on bad terms with her take place after her death in 2008, so...yeah. It's very likely that the death in May thing is the case, or that...all of this is just one big jumble of continuity errors, which is honestly fine! But...eh, I like this idea quite a lot. Alternatively, I could argue that she's a ghost similar to the Archivist seen in MAG 53 but...that's pure speculation. Well, whatever the case, I just hope that there's a bit more to Gertrude's death and the circumstances surrounding it then what we've been given so far, because...I think there's a lot of untapped potential there.

Well...to wrap all of this up, I'd like to discuss some of the stuff Jon said. Firstly, he mentioned how weird it is that Gertrude was recording tapes all the way up until she died, along with how strange it is that only a small handful of statements were actually transferred, at least...as far as we're aware. I...honestly have to agree with this, but I think I have a decent enough idea as to what the deal is here, but it's not perfect. For a good while now, I've assumed that Gertrude intentionally kept the statements "disorganized", so that her successor would get all of the information they need as quickly as possible, and I think a similar thing might be going on with the tapes. All of them cover pretty important stuff, MAG 53 giving insight into The Eye and the institute, MAG 62 showing us some pretty important events, MAG 44 and 87 both tie back to The Stranger and The Unknowing, and MAG 77...uh...well look, there's probably no way she could've known that The NotThem would infiltrate the institute, especially all those years ago, but the tape does give us a clue to the existence of a statement from the ever-mysterious Adelard Dekker, and given how that statement has gone missing for unknown reasons...I think it's probably pretty important? Granted this theory isn't perfect, I mean, why would she be recording a statement that gives information regarding The Other Circus when she says in this very episode that she's surprised The Unknowing is something...like...actually worth worrying about in the present? And why would all of these tapes be buried alongside her in the tunnels...unless Elias put them there...which...ok that actually checks out. Anyways, this line of thinking isn't perfect but...I think something along these lines makes sense. The second point of intrigue to me is uh...Jon's plans. Which...oh boy.

*DRUMROLL PLEASE*....

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, HORRORS AND MICHAELS, GIVE IT UP FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF "NEW PLOT POINTS IN THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES THAT ARE REALLY EXCITING FROM A STORY PERSEPCTIVE BUT TERRIFYING WHEN YOU CONSIDER HOW MUCH IT'S GOING TO SUCK FOR ONE OR MORE OF THE CHARACTERS!!!" 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

So...Jon...ever-knowledgable and sane...has decided that it's a great idea to try and track down Jude Perry. You know, that lady who sets people on fire? I just...look, Melanie, if you know what's good for you, which I know yo-...actually nevermind you went to India fully aware that you might get murdered by ghosts, which you almost did, so...no. But if you have gained the ability to know what's good for you, which I hope you do, then you will NOT help the smelly man track down the professional arsonist. Like...dude?! Hello?! Like, I know the situation is dire, I know The Unknowing is a rapidly approaching threat, and I know that after BPM and the flashbacks to your childhood trauma you've accepted that there's really no way out of this mess, but like...damn, this is not a good idea! Not even Season 2 Jon would do this! Don't get me wrong...I think this is super exciting, not only because I have a particular bias towards the stuff involving The Lightless Flame (...mostly Agnes but shhhhhh), but because...this is EXACTLY what I wanted Season 3 to do. Finally getting out there in the world and actively trying to find all of the shit from the statements. It is...extremely dangerous and terrifying, but...also very exciting. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, after all it is entirely possible that Jude Perry has moved far out of Havering, or has even died at this point, but...man, if we could actually HEAR a member of The Lightless Flame speak...I might actually lose my god damn mind. Well...I'll just have to wait and see.

And finally, the ending of this episode. ...Yeah, that's genuinely terrifying! Hearing the calliope music slowly creep in, and then getting Jon's genuinely horrified reaction...it's so unlike what I'm used to so far, it comes at such an unexpected moment...and my jaw was genuinely left wide-open at it. That's uh...that's not good. Jon...I think you have a bit more to worry about than just police now. Oh, and just because I haven't really mentioned it, um...yeah I absolutely adore Georgie! She kind of has a very similar appeal to that of Basira for me, being a really down to earth and real-feeling character in a world filled with people who, while I absolutely adore them, are objectively freaks of nature. And while I do still think I like Basira a tad bit more, if only because I just feel like I know her better, I actually think Georgie is a better example of this trait! She's just a really friendly and supportive friend to Jon who has...unfortunately gotten a bit wrapped up in this mess, and...yeah, what can I say, I find her very endearing and hope to learn more about her and her past with Jon. I will say, I do find it a tad bit frustrating that Jon is pushing her away and refusing to get help from her, especially when he kind of resolved to stop doing that at the beginning of the season, and ESPECIALLY because she is the exact kind of person he needs at the moment, but granted, I get the sense he's doing this more out of care for her than suspiscion or malice, and I mean...yeah, I'd also be hesitant to tell her...all of that. And also...holy shit the statements really ARE an addiction allegory! Jesus Christ...Jon, what the hell is going on with you right now?

Well uh...yeah, that's all I really have to say! I was definitely surprised by how much I managed to write here, and I'm very happy that my tma fixation has seemingly circled back around earlier than I expected! I hope you enjoyed reading this and that this new kind of format worked well, this was certainly much less of an investment of time and energy for me at least, and I had a good time with it! Like I said, I'm not going to be dead set on writing about every detail of every statement anymore, and lengths of posts I do write will probably vary either do to time or how much I even have to say, but...this should be a decent example of the kind of format I'm going for! Anyways, I'm...probably not going to listen to MAG 88 just yet because it's late, so I'll save that for tomorrow morning! Anyways, it's nice to be back on tma, and thank you very much for reading all this! :)

[abdullahblogsposts]

Praise be to Allāh, The One and Only God who has no partners, The Eternal Refuge, who neither begets nor was He begotten, and there is none like unto Him! I bear witness that none is worthy of worship except Allāh, alone with no partners or co-equals and none is comparable to Him. I also bear witness that Muhammad (ﷺ) is His servant and messenger. May Allāh exalt and send peace to the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ), his family, and his companions.

To proceed:

O servants of Allāh, fear Him as He should be feared, and be mindful of Him and bear in mind that whoever is mindful of Him as due, He grants him a relief from every worry and a way out from every distress.

Dear Muslîm Brothers and Sisters;

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Allāh, The Almighty, said: ‘The son of Adam tells a lie about Me and he has no right to do so and he insults Me and has no right to do so. His lie about Me is his claim that I will not resurrect him as I created him for nothing; the initial creation is easier for Me than resurrecting him again (and both are easy for Me). He insults Me by his saying that Allāh has begotten a son, while I am The One, The Eternal Refuge, Who begets not nor was He begotten, and there is none like unto Me.” [Al-Bukhārī]

One of the most heinous lies that people has fabricated about Allāh, the Lord of the Worlds, is claiming that He has a son! It is an insult against Allāh, The Almighty, and a false accusation that implies attributing imperfection and “need” to Him, whereas He stands in no need of His creation, Glory be to Him. Allāh said:

قَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا سُبْحَانَهُ هُوَ الْغَنِيُّ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ إِنْ عِنْدَكُمْ مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ بِهَذَا أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

“They have said, " Allāh has taken a son." Exalted is He; He is the [one] Free of need. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. You have no authority for this [claim]. Do you say about Allah that which you do not know?” (Qur'ān 10:68)

This heinous lie almost caused the heavens to crack, the earth to split open, and the mountains to collapse given its ugliness and atrocity. Allāh said:

وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ الرَّحْمَنُ وَلَدًا * لَقَدْ جِئْتُمْ شَيْئًا إِدًّا * تَكَادُ السَّمَاوَاتُ يَتَفَطَّرْنَ مِنْهُ وَتَنْشَقُّ الْأَرْضُ وَتَخِرُّ الْجِبَالُ هَدًّا * أَنْ دَعَوْا لِلرَّحْمَنِ وَلَدًا * وَمَا يَنْبَغِي لِلرَّحْمَنِ أَنْ يَتَّخِذَ وَلَدًا * إِنْ كُلُّ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ إِلَّا آتِي الرَّحْمَنِ عَبْدًا

“And they say, "The Most Merciful has taken [for Himself] a son." You have done an atrocious thing. The heavens almost rupture therefrom and the earth splits open and the mountains collapse in devastation. That they attribute to the Most Merciful a son. And it is not appropriate for the Most Merciful that He should take a son. There is no one in the heavens and earth but that he comes to the Most Merciful as a servant.” (Qur'ān 19:88-93)

Despite the gravity of this act, millions of disbelievers celebrate the birth of Christ, known as the Christmas, on the twenty-fifth of December every year.

Although this religious festival is held by the misguided disbelievers (Christians), our hearts bleed to see large numbers of Muslims partaking in the celebration of that heinous lie about Allāh!

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “I am the closest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary, in the worldly life and the Hereafter.” People asked: “How so, O Messenger of Allāh? He (ﷺ) explained: “The Prophets of Allah are brothers in faith; their mothers are different, but their religion is one. (I am the closest brother to him;) There is no Prophet between us.” [Al-Bukhārī and Muslim]

In fact, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was closer to Prophet Jesus, the son of Mary (peace be upon him), than those disbelievers who fabricate lies about Allāh and Prophet Jesus, claiming that he was “God” or the “son of God”.

Indeed, Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) was the servant of Allāh and His messenger, and his first words when Allāh made him miraculously speak in the cradle were related in the verses that read:

فَأَشَارَتْ إِلَيْهِ قَالُوا كَيْفَ نُكَلِّمُ مَنْ كَانَ فِي الْمَهْدِ صَبِيًّا * قَالَ إِنِّي عَبْدُ اللَّهِ آتَانِيَ الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلَنِي نَبِيًّا * وَجَعَلَنِي مُبَارَكًا أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُ وَأَوْصَانِي بِالصَّلَاةِ وَالزَّكَاةِ مَا دُمْتُ حَيًّا * وَبَرًّا بِوَالِدَتِي وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْنِي جَبَّارًا شَقِيًّا * وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيَّ يَوْمَ وُلِدْتُ وَيَوْمَ أَمُوتُ وَيَوْمَ أُبْعَثُ حَيًّا * ذَلِكَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ قَوْلَ الْحَقِّ الَّذِي فِيهِ يَمْتَرُونَ * مَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ أَنْ يَتَّخِذَ مِنْ وَلَدٍ سُبْحَانَهُ إِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ * وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُوهُ هَذَا صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ

“So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?" [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allāh. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant. And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive."  That is Jesus, the son of Mary - the word of truth about which they are in dispute. It is not [befitting] for Allāh to take a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it, "Be," and it is. [Jesus said], "And indeed, Allāh is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path."” (Qur'ān 19:29-36)

A believer may not give false statements or promote falsehood. What falsehood is graver and viler than claiming that Allāh has a son? Verily, Allāh is far above what the lying wrongdoers say about Him!

He says about the qualities of His devout servants:

وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَشْهَدُونَ الزُّورَ وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِاللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا كِرَامًا

“And [they are] those who do not testify to falsehood, and when they pass near ill speech, they pass by with dignity.” (Qur'ān 25:72)

Ibn Sirīn and a group of the Tābi‘ūn (followers) interpreted the word falsehood in this verse as to mean witnessing the religious festivals of the non-Muslims!

There are many collectively contiguous texts narrated by the Companions that warn against partaking in the celebration of all the disbelievers’ religious festivals. The Muslim scholars unanimously agreed on the prohibition of congratulating non-Muslims on their religious festivals or participating in their celebrations.

‘Umar Ibn al-Khattāb said: “Stay well away from the enemies of Allāh during their religious festivals. Do not visit the disbelievers in their places of worship on the day of their religious festivals; the wrath of Allāh descends on them.”

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās said: “Whoever resides in the land of the non-Muslims, celebrates their Nowruz Day (New Year) and their other religious festivals, and imitates them until he dies in that state, will be gathered with them (i.e., as one of them) on the Day of Resurrection!”

Ibn al-Qayyîm said: “Congratulating the non-Muslims on the rituals that are peculiar to them is forbidden according to the scholarly consensus, and the same ruling applies to congratulating them on their religious festivals and fasts by saying: ‘Happy festival to you' or 'May you enjoy your festival,' and so on. If the one who says is safe from (falling into) disbelief, it is still forbidden! It is similar to congratulating someone on prostrating to the cross, or even worse than that. It is as grave a sin as congratulating someone for drinking Khamr (intoxicants), or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and the like of grave sins. Many of those who have no respect for their religion fall into this mistake; they do not realize the gravity and offensiveness of their actions. Whoever congratulates a person on his disobedience to Allāh, committing Bid‘âh (religious innovation), or falling into disbelief, imperils himself to the Wrath and Anger of Allāh.”

Sadly, the defeated mindset and infatuation with the so-called “civilized” West led many Muslims to compromise the fundamentals of the Islamic creed, and even give up their Islamic identity (in its totality) and pride in their blind imitation of the West in all matters, without distinguishing between the beneficial worldly matters and the religious ones pertaining to their peculiar beliefs and rituals, which is absolutely impermissible for Muslims to imitate, or even approve of by congratulating them and the like.

The Prophet (ﷺ) emphatically warned against imitating the Jews and Christians, and described Muslims who do so as being one of them. Would any Muslim like to be labelled as a Jew or Christian?

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Surely, you will follow the (wrong) ways of those nations who were before you, in everything as one arrow resembles another (i.e., completely and literally), so much so that even if they entered a hole of a sand-lizard, you would enter it!” People inquired: “O Messenger of Allah, do you mean the Jews and the Christians?” He (ﷺ) replied: “Who else?”  [Al-Bukhārī]

The Prophet (ﷺ) also said: “Whoever imitates a people is one of them.” [Abū Dāwūd]

Allāh has perfected His true religion, completed His grace on us, and approved of Islām as the one true religion, enjoining us to adhere to its creed and Sharī'āh. He compensated us with the two ‘Eids, ‘Eid Al-Fitr and ‘Eid Al-Adhā. Muslims are commanded to celebrate only these two ‘Eids and refrain from celebrating the religious festivals of the non-Muslims.

Dear Muslims, beware of celebrating or approving of the religious festivals of the enemies of Allāh; you should relish true pride in adhering to your true faith and divinely revealed Sharī'āh. Muslims may not celebrate the Christmas or New Year; they are enjoined to find pride in their adherence to Tawhīd[monotheism]!

Some misguided preachers have tried to confuse Muslims and deceive them into believing that celebrating or congratulating non-Muslims on such religious festivals that defiantly contravene the very essence of the Islāmic creed is a permissible manifestation of the enjoined dutifulness and kindness towards non-Muslims! Rather, it is a reprehensible compromise of our religion and utter misguidance, and constitutes an alteration of the established Islāmic principles.

Muslims are enjoined to disassociate themselves from the disbelief and the disbelievers, treat them with justice, and show kindness to non-belligerent disbelievers provided that they do not neglect the religious duty of upholding the truth nor approve of their falsehood, not to mention celebrating a religious occasion that fundamentally contradicts the doctrine of monotheism, i.e., attributing a son or a partner to Allāh in worship, which is unequivocally sinful! Verily, Allāh, Glory be to Him, is far above their claims.

The verses are crystal clear in commanding the believers to forsake the gatherings of falsehood in which the divine revelations or Sharī'āh are being denied or ridiculed. Allāh says:

وَقَدْ نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ أَنْ إِذَا سَمِعْتُمْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ يُكْفَرُ بِهَا وَيُسْتَهْزَأُ بِهَا فَلَا تَقْعُدُوا مَعَهُمْ حَتَّى يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا مِثْلُهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَامِعُ الْمُنَافِقِينَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ فِي جَهَنَّمَ جَمِيعًا

“And it has already come down to you in the Book that when you hear the verses of Allāh [recited], they are denied [by them] and ridiculed; so, do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them. Indeed, Allāh will gather the hypocrites and disbelievers in Hell all together.” (Qur'ān 4:140)

May Allāh bless me and you with the devotion to the Qur'ān, and help me and you benefit from Verses and wise reminders therein. I seek forgiveness from Allāh for me and you; seek His forgiveness. Indeed, He is All-Forgiving and All-Merciful.

Wallāhû Tâ'ālâ Ā'lâm!!

[the-ghost-king]

Okay so, a few years ago now me and @thebigqueer got into a back and forth and were somehow talking about a solangelo beauty and the beast au and I drafted it up but I never actually truly wrote it (not shocking if you know me, the wip folder is very full and very incomplete). Anyhow, I seen @solangeloweek was running a fairytale retelling day for the 28th so I figured I could upload this as a sort of bullet point/list/draft format the way so many people used to in fandom 10 or so years ago and we'll call it an intentional throwback.

Anyway, if this is your sort of thing then enjoy :)

Il bello e la bestia

Chapter 1:

Opens to Will being put to bed during the ball at the palace… Probably 5 or so

“We’ll see you in the morning my love”

When Will wakes up in the morning his nurse comes to get him, upon touching her she dies; Will begins screaming and crying, he doesn’t know what’s wrong

The doctor looks her over and concludes it's a new plague

Will holds onto his mother

Scene break

Hades meets Hestia in the early light of morning

“It is done?”

“Yes of course, I’ve never let you down have I?”

“No of course not, don’t tell Maria she would be most distraught.”

Scene break

‘News of the Queens death arrives within two days’ and fear begins to spread

The servants are all sent home but a few to try to keep them safe

All of the royal children but one are dead, there’s no news of the king but there’s rumors he’s on his deathbed

Plague gets into city, Hades does his best to secure his family's safety

Chapter 2:

Beginning of chapter is similar to The Secret Garden’s opening when Mary is the last survivor

Similar situation yet nobody rescues him

Apollo had realized Will was the source since he had immunity to whatever was going on

His last words to Will were “It’s not your fault do not blame yourself I should have done better, I love you my son and nobody would hold anything which has occurred against you”

Which confuses Will at first until he realizes

His father takes a rasping breath and Will is crying

He’s not all alone in the palace, but I need to figure out a curse of some sort for the surviving children (Austin and Kayla are babies so they live possibly without effects; Cecil, Lou Ellen, and Clarisse are children of the staff at the palace they need some sort of curse on them.. Perhaps Silena and Beckendorf reside at the palace still too? I think we can do better than making the houses other occupants cleaning supplies and pianos... also maybe Hazel is at the palace for some nice found family moments with her and Nico later on?)

Scene break

We’re in a moderate sized home and Hades is packing things into suitcases

Maria is gasping for air on her deathbed, the sun is rising (symbolism for her being a star)

Bianca too is coughing and choking and gasping on the bed they’ve added to the room

Nico is asleep on Hades shoulder

Hades wants to stop and take a moment and kiss Maria goodbye

She tells him no and to leave because he can’t get sick too

“For Nico,” she says, “Go, I love you both.”

And Hades leaves to her whispering soft words to Bianca

Hestia leaves somewhere else, she's going to find a way to erase the kingdom’s memory of the royals in an attempt to provide Will a more normal future since she thinks the punishment was too harsh.. Everyone was supposed to get sick but they weren’t all supposed to die

Chapter 3:

Possibly focus on Will and Nico growing up in a quick monologue type way?

Opening scene from Movie, Belle song kind of sequence

Octivian as Gaston ( so Nico has a chance at the end to still say ‘some deaths shouldn't be prevented)

Nico is known for being odd but so many people try to earn his hand in marriage for his looks

Hades was changed by Maria, he thinks marriage should be for love

He likes Percy but is shrugged off in favor of Annabeth

Reyna lives with him? They were friends as kids and Hades took her in after some time for currently undecided plot reasons

As they got older she basically became Nico’s personal Bodyguard after a childhood incident Nico liked making sure she had stable income and a good safe place to work (I kind of want it dark so maybe Minos got caught up in crime or something?)

Octivian trying to flirt or sabotage Nico somehow?

Nico doing some cool smart thing for plot

Chapter ends with Nico either realizing his fathers been gone to long or a hurried message saying he needs help

Chapter 4:

Nico takes Reyna and they go get Jason and take him with them

The woods scene ™ (Can't have wolves without Jason am I right? Lol)

Reyna, Jason and Nico accidentally get seperated

Reyna and Jason end up basically together somewhere

But Nico gets separated

They don’t know how far Nico got, so when they don’t find his body Reyna goes ahead to the city where Hades is supposed to be to try to see if Nico will be there and such

Jason stays behind to search the woods for remains or evidence

Chapter ends with Nico showing up in the castle, “Hello?”

Chapter 5:

Nico gets trapped in the castle

He trespassed and Clarisse and Cecil locked him up and someone in the palace of some importance tells them to let Nico go

He has to be kept in that situation because they don’t want people to know about Will/the palace and they don’t know what Nico’s seen

Hades had gotten trapped in the castle for some reason, maybe they figured out that he placed the curse or something, maybe just trespassing- Nico agrees to trade his life in jail for his father’s and events resume as typical

Scene ends with Nico being given a bedroom and taken out of a cell to be placed on “house arrest” and he tries to settle in to his new life

Chapter 6:

Scene opens with Jason walking back into town to try and convince people to form a search party for Nico

Technically this would be the “Gaston scene” but instead this is Jason trying to convince everyone why they should care about Nico… Kind of like the whole jar situation

Eventually a small party agrees to go help look (Jason, Reyna, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Frank, and Octavian - so the 7 minus Hazel, plus Reyna and Octavian)

Scene break

Nico is trying to settle into his new palace life, and he’s befriending the people who live there

Will is some sort of secret, sort of like Elsa (another Disney movie throw in, why not) but slightly sus things have been noticed by Nico during conversations

Nico doesn’t care he’s going to try and run away and go back home (He’s got a plan in his head and materials hidden somewhere)

Nico does manage to get out of the palace, and he makes his way even out of the gates to start heading home on his horse

The Wolves ™

Nico is seriously injured during the event

Chapter 7:

Scene opens to the events at the village, as they lay out a map trying to determine where Nico might have ended up (They don’t even know the royal family or palace exist)

Either Reyna stumbles in claiming she couldn’t find Hades, or they might stumble in together with one of them very ill/weak

Scene break

Friends from the palace try to convince Will to help save Nico’s life

Will is scared about possibly making it worse and killing Nico because of his plague powers and how he hasn’t used his healing powers in years

“But you always cure Kayla’s colds!” “Yes but those are small!”

There’s a little bit of a spat, but Will agrees reluctantly

He goes into the room alone and tells them to seal the doors in case he messes up they only lose one life

The palace friends sit and wait

Chapter 8:

The scene opens to the search party beginning to look for Nico (they’re all headed in the wrong direction)

It will take them a month or more to even get close to Nico’s location

Queue making the pacing work in such a way you feel like it's a mundane day in the life sort of deal but just fast enough you're reminded Nico's life was hanging in the balance at the end of last chapter

Also some silly nonsense infighting because Octavian is there and boo Octavian

Scene Break with a slight timeskip

Will had healed Nico successfully, and instead of leaving to trust his care to his siblings and friends he takes Nico’s care onto himself

Three days in the infirmary style fic lets go! (except it’s like a week)

Flirting, pining, jokes, r u gay without actually asking that type questions

Will realizes Nico’s intelligence (or whatever the correct word for the term is) at some point and shows him the library with all the books

Nico gasps in wonder and awe

Scene break

Palace friends are all discussing the relationship and how close the two have grown

Throughout this Will has some weird behaviors but Nico ignores them as oddities and nothing else (psssst, Nico, it's trauma!)

It takes about a month for Nico to fully heal, but it's not specified or anything anywhere

Chapter 9:

Octavian is in a search group with Jason, Reyna, and Hades

Eventually they realize this is a ploy either for him to impress or hurt Nico (idk his and Nico’s relationship dynamic yet)

So Octavian attacks them and leaves them for the wolves

Scene ends with Hestia appearing (although it's not obviously her)

Scene break

Will and Nico falling in love in the palace

Nico has finally earned lots of Will’s trust and Will shows him the smaller magical library they have

He shows him the book that Will show the reader whatever they want to see… It's from Hestia when she worked at the palace (and now it's like Lou Ellen's room or something)

Nico does the little like apartment scene from the movie, but instead it's a small house in the middle of a large nature field along a river and he goes inside his childhood home with drawings and stuff all over the walls but like no people

They find the mask and Nico realizes they left because of a plague, Will feels guilty and hesitates as to whether or not he should tell Nico it was his fault.

He decided not to at the time, the scene ends with Will’s guilt as they return to the palace

Chapter 10:

Reyna, and Jason awake in Hestia's traveling home thingy idk

They realize Hades is in kahoots with a witch

They hesitate but decide not to disclose the information to the people of the city because they're good of heart

The scene ends with Reyna and Jason trying to return to the town to tell of Octavian crimes

But they have no evidence (not having any injuries was suspicious and they agreed not to talk about the witch)

Eventually they disclose the truth about the witch and Hades, and they are found and all 4 locked up to be executed for trying to falsely accuse him of a crime and socializing with a witch

Scene break with the death penalty way if heavy on the readers mind

In the magic room when looking over the books, Will shows Nico the magic looking mirror

They think it doesn't work, Will argues it just needs to be wanted up it hasn't been so many years since it's been used

He convinces Nico to come to dinner with him

Will plans to tell Nico about the plague issue, and encourages him to bring the mirror

Chapter 11:

Percy and Annabeth’s search group returns to town to hear of Reyna and Jason's issue

They begin to formulate a plan to try and rescue them to avoid the death penalty but they have to be fast and work before the soldiers know they're back

Scene break

During the dinner Nico checks the mirror again, and he’s made aware of his father and friends situation just before Will was going to tell him about plague incident

Will decides he can't keep Nico here his whole life and that he deserves more and happiness, he tells Nico to go after his family and that his sentence is served

He wraps Nico in his cloak and hands him the mirror and his own personal horse to go to his town

Scene break

Soldier walks in to Jason, Hades and Reyna’s cell “Time to go”

Chapter 12:

Scene opens to blood, Octavian kills Selena and Beckendorf for information and traps Clarisse somehow

He was interrogating them on their return from a different nearby village for food

He knows of the relationship between Nico and Will and he wants to use it against

Octavian has returned to the village, and knowing that Nico is in love with the “beast” he rallys a crowd painting Will to be vicious with witchcraft

Clarisse manages to escape somehow and goes to warn the palace about the incoming threat; they prep for battle

Scene break

Nico is sneaking around the town as he sees the preparations for the witch hunt being prepared

He knows they're going to try and kill his family first so he decides to go get Percy to ask him to help save them

Percy let's him in on the plan and there's like a who Notre Dame musical kind of thing where they save their lives

Once the villagers realize that witch and the rest of them aren't going to die tonight the leave anyhow to go and kill Will

Nico had left already before them by just a few seconds to rush to the palace and warn Will

Chapter 13:

scene opens to Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Leo helping to calm and heal Reyna Jason and Hades and try to wake Hestia

Percy looks into the distant forest where everyone has left to “now we pray” or something similar.

Scene break

Villagers arrive to storm the palace, with no mention of if Nico had got there in time or not

Octavian abandons X and X turns on Octavian to help the palace instead (I can't think of who would make a good le fou out of the characters so…. Character X for now... Unamed Roman IVXII or something lol)

Things are burning

Kayla and Clarisse are in charge of strategy

Austin is trying to be as loud and annoying as possible (music; villagers hold ears in pain etc)

Palace friends are using various tactics, Lou Ellen discovers her magic, Hazel too

Octavian is looking for Will and his siblings

Some home alone type shots of situations and planning that results in cool fight scenes courtesy of Cecil (Connor and Travis also? Hmm)

Scene break

Nico rushing up a staircase on the far side of the house which is without traps

He rushes to find Will

Chapter 14:

Opens to Hestia, Reyna, Jason, and Hades riding down the dirt forest road

Hestia is in the lead rushing

Percy and Annabeth and friends are behind on horseback too

Scene break

Nico opens Will’s room in a rush, trying to warn Will Octavian was missing from the fight

Octavian is standing in the open room in a position to kill Will in one blow

Nico freezes and meets Will's eyes

Scene break

A whole tower of the palace has gone up in flame, palace friends are struggling to hold ground in the fight

Chapter 15:

Octavian talking to Nico and Will disclosing his evil plan

Nico is watching Will’s eyes and had seen a shift in his face when he walled in

Now Will’s eyes are directing him towards an area with a weapon

Nico in one movement picks it up and fights Octavian giving Will freedom

Scene break

Percy and friends rush into battle below

Hestia doesn't stay to fight and rushes up the stairs

No killing or maiming villagers (capture the flag reference yadda yadda)

Scene break

Nico decides to spare Octavian life

Ocitivian uses this to shoot Will in the back

Ocitivian dies of Will’s plague

Hestia bursts through the door and saves Will’s life as Nico is crying over him

Chapter 16:

Will wakes up and he’s worried Nico will hate him because of the plague

Nico is sitting curled up in a chair next to Will’s bedside asleep, he wakes up when Will moves “shhh”

“No, no I need to explain, I’m so sorry” “Will, Will, I- Will, listen. I already thought about it and was briefed on the situation I don’t care.”

Will cries, they’re laughing and happy, snow is falling outside the window

Scene break

There’s a feast and all of the people in Nico’s friends are there and all Will’s friends and they eat

And there’s no talk of funeral preparations because it’s agreed they can be put on hold another day so the living can be celebrated a day longer

Scene break

After the funerals, Nico and Will walking down a hallway late (like 4am idk) after everyone else has retired the day of the services, they’re talking about how lovely they were

Nico begins to talk about how he’s sad he’ll have to leave soon

Will proposes, “Nico just stay, stay and marry me.” “Wait what?” “Please?” “Okay” “Wait really?” “Yes of course” “Oh I surely thought you’d tell me no and I’d have to impress you to earn your hand!” “Will~” “hmm?” “You already did” Nico kisses his cheek, queue fireworks or whatever

Chapter 17 (Epilogue):

Nico and Will ballroom dancing after their wedding, they’re surrounded by friends and basked in white light of the mid afternoon

They’re happy and joking with one another

Scene pans over to Hades and Hestia

Hestia: “Will you ever tell him?”

Hades, looking at her in a sad and fond manner: “I don’t know, but let them have at least this”

Hestia, knowingly: “You mean let yourself have this, because you know how upset Nico will be when he finds out the real reason for everything?”

Hades: “Shut up”

(Persephone asks him to dance? Palace staff???)

Talk about the festivities and try to make it an all is well type ending while still leaving the Hades situation open ended and on the darker side

Happy couple solangelo kisses for real and then actual fireworks yay

Fin!

[angeltreasure]

Mary, the Blessed Mother of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the perfect example and role model we need of how to be a holy disciple. She is the only influencer we need. Do you remember what she told the servants at the wedding feast at Cana? “Do whatever He tells you.” 🩵

[specialagentlokitty]

Thomas Barrow x sister!reader - you’re human too

Hey, hope you are feeling better Xx I love your Thomas Barrow x sister reader fics, and I would love to read some more if you get the chance to come up with any ideas! Take your time and look after yourself 😁 Xx -Anon💜

Walking into the servants hall, you smiled and sat next to Anna, setting your book on the table.

“I thought you were going to York for the day?” She asked.

“I was, but I decided I didn’t want to go alone, I don’t like travelling by myself much, so I decided I was going to stay here and read.” You beamed.

Anna laughed softly and nodded her head.

“Well, I have to go to Ripon later for Lady Mary, would you like to come with me?”

You gasped in excitement.

“Really?”

“Of course, I’d love the company, and maybe we can visit that little cafe you like so much.”

You quickly nodded your head and watched her stand up as one of the many bells rang.

“Thank you Anna!”

She smiled softly at you and said goodbye as she left, and you picked up your book, heading over to the fireplace you sat down on the chair and got comfortable as you began to read.

A few people stopped to talk to you before they had to return to their duties and one of those people were Alfred.

“I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go for a walk with me this evening?” He asked.

Looking up at him, you shook your head.

“No thank you.”

Jimmy laughed and walked over.

“She wouldn’t want to go anywhere with the likes of you.”

Jimmy turned to look at you and gave you a charming grin.

“Would you like to accompany me for a drink later tonight?”

You flicked your gaze to him.

“No.”

“Just one drink, then I’ll bring you straight back before anybody notices that you’re missing.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

You felt someone behind you and you grinned a little at Jimmy and Alfred.

“Cause she said no.”

They both backed away a few steps.

“It’s not like you’re together.” Jimmy huffed.

“No, but it she is my sister, so I suggest you go back to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.” Thomas said lowly.

The two men quickly scurried away and you smiled, titling your head back to look up at your older brother.

You reached your hand up and held it out to him, and Thomas held up a finger, lighting a cigarette he gave you his hand and stood behind you as you held his hand.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t get why they’re so obsessed with you.”

“I think they’ve got some sort of bet going on, Daisy and Ivy mentioned something to be but I forgot.”

Thomas nodded his head and he glanced down at you, and you titled your head a little as he looked at you.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

“Nothing.”

Thomas took his hand back and you frowned as you watched him go.

Everybody had been acting strange around him, and you weren’t sure why, you knew there was some sort of incident between Thomas and Jimmy, and that’s all they said.

They wouldn’t tell you anything else.

He wouldn’t tell you anything and you were getting worried.

A few minutes later you got up as well, and you made your way to Mrs Hughes living room and you knocked on the door before pushing it open.

“(Y/N) you’re still here?” She asked.

“I.. was wondering if maybe you could help me with something.”

She nodded her head and you walked in, closing the door quietly behind you, you turned around and walked over and sat down with her.

“I was wondering if you knew what’s wrong with Thomas?”

“Does something seem wrong with him?”

“I.. I don’t know Mrs Hughes, I know something has happened but nobody will tell me what.”

She sighed softly and looked at you.

“It’s not our place to comment on the situation that took place, but perhaps tonight you should try talking to him, maybe you’ll be able to ease his worries.”

You nodded your head.

“I see, thank you Mrs Hughes.”

So that’s what you did.

You went with Anna to Ripon, and you had the best time looking around and buying a few small things that you needed.

Then, after supper when Thomas went outside you followed behind him and closed the door.

“Thomas?”

“What’re you doing out here?” He asked.

You walked over and watched as he stood up from where he was crouched down, and you looked up at him.

“What’s going on? Please don’t lie to me because I know there’s something.”

Thomas shook his head.

“I cannot tell you…” he whispered.

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t… I fear you would be repulsed by my and I don’t want my own sister to be repulsed by me…”

You nodded your head softly and smiled warmly at him.

“Okay. You don’t have to tell me, I won’t demand to know what it is.”

Thomas nodded.

“Go back inside, I’ll be inside in a few minutes.”

You furrowed your brows but you agreed to give him some space and you went back inside, sitting on a chair in front of the fireplace.

Mr Bates was sat in front of you and he set the paper down he was reading and watched for a moment as you stared deeply into the fire.

“Is anything the matter?”

“I’m thinking.”

“I see, you must be thinking rather deeply.”

You nodded your head and carried on thinking, waiting for your brother to come back through.

When he did you looked to Mr Bates.

“Could Thomas sit here for a moment, we’ll move after.”

“I should go see his lordship so take your time.” He smiled.

He got up and left and when Thomas went to walk past you, you grabbed his hand and you pointed to the chair in front of you and he sat down.

Thomas looked at you a little confused.

“I’m not sure what you’re going through, but when you’re ready to talk about it, or if you need help you’ll come to me, right?”

“I will.” Thomas nodded.

You smiled softly and sat forward a little bit.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Of course.”

You held your hand out and he gave you his hand.

“We go through life trying to understand everything that happens, but try as we might there’s still so much we will never truly understand. The things that happen to us or people we love. The only thing we know, is that things change, and sometimes they don’t always go the way we want them too.”

Thomas furrowed his brows a little bit.

“We are all dealt different hands in life, and to different people we must be different things.”

“If there’s so much I have to be how do I know what I’m supposed to be?” He asked.

“You, Thomas, are supposed to be you. Not what other people want you to be, not the idea of what other people have built of you.”

“How? How can I be me? I try, and I try, but no matter what I’ll never truest be able to be who I am without fear.”

You smiled softly at Thomas.

“How do I be the way I am?” He asked.

“You must trust yourself, and I know that’s harder then we think, but you must. Only you know what will make you happy. But do you want to know a secret?”

“Go on.”

You smiled and covered his hand with both of yours.

“Nothing will ever destroy your spirit, not truly. It may break, and it may crack, but nothing will ever truly destroy it, and that’s worth fighting for.”

You looked at him.

“You’ll find one day Thomas that we, as people, are all the same. Despite our status, our jobs, personality, money, who we love. We are all the same, we all end up with the same fate.”

Thomas nodded his head a little.

“And no matter what happens, I will still be proud to call you my brother, and I will still love you all the same. Because you are my brother, you are my family, and I know that deep down, you are not what people think you are.”

Thomas clenched his jaw a little bit.

“Mr Carson called me foul…”

“You are not foul Thomas. You are not foul.”

Getting up, you walked over and sat on the arm on the chair, and you let your brother rest his head on your side.

Placing your hand on his head you sighed softly, letting him hold your other hand tightly.

“I love you Thomas okay? You’re my brother and I love you, and I don’t care what anybody else says. You are not foul, or twisted or corrupted. You are normal, you’re human.”

“Thank you…”

You smiled softly down at him.

“You have always been there for me Thomas, catching me when I fall, and wiping my tears when I was sad. Now let me return that and do the same for you.”

Thomas softly nodded his head and you nodded to yourself.

“I love you Thomas. Never forget that.”

“I won’t…”

The room fell silence and you sat there just running your hand over his head, just like he did for you when you were upset.

It was your turn to look after him now, and make sure he was okay and safe, because he always looked after you, now you had to do the same.

You had a feeling you knew what this was about, but you didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, so you would wait until if and when he decided to tell you what you thought was true

[likehandlingroses]

I'm quite optimistic about Thomas in DA3 too. You could tell from the movie 2 book that Julian Fellowes was pretty into the whole Hollywood aspect of Thomas's ending. He likes to write about rich people and Guy has an upper class lifestyle that JF would want to expand a bit more on. It won't be a big part of the movie (by virtue of how many chances there are) but whatever we get will likely be positive.

Yes, Fellowes has been interested in the emerging film industry since s2 and Ethel's fascination with people like Mabel Normand. I think for him, the emergence of film is one of modernity’s answers to the strict social hierarchy of the 19th century. While riddled with prejudices and a hierarchy of its own, it was also a place where a lot of wealth and influence could be generated by people who came from very little.

It's also a variation on Old Money vs. New Money, which is a theme that clearly interests him. The servants in a remote Yorkshire village know Guy and Myrna's life stories and keep their pictures around. Mary needs the cash from their industry to keep Downton Abbey, the centerpiece of this great English estate, from having a leaky roof. And yet, that does not confer any real respect when they show up to the house, because their wealth is seen as ill-gotten - creating cheap, probably immoral, entertainment for the lower classes - and ill-used. They are a part of this new class of people with tremendous wealth and social influence, distributed to the masses in a way that a lot of people considered subversive and dangerous (and still do!)

I am interested to see whether any of that comes up again. If the current suspicions are true, and it is the Crawleys (or some of them) going to America, that whole dynamic will be flipped on its head, which could be interesting, I think!

[apenitentialprayer]

I was listening to a brief debate between a Protestant and a Catholic about Mary & whether or not she was sinless. I'm not Catholic myself, but I felt that the Catholic didn't represent his position well. The Protestant said that scripture had evidence of Mary sinning. He cited the passage of the Wedding at Cana in John 2, saying that Mary was wrong to ask Jesus to do a miracle when He did not intend to start his ministry yet. Then he cited Luke 1, talking about how Zachariah was punished for doubting the angel Gabriel when he told him he would have a sin. He argued that Mary sinned in the same way by doubting the angel when he told her she would conceive because she was a virgin. Again, I'm not a Catholic so my church doesn't try to argue scripture teaches Mary was sinless. But I didn't see the Protestant's citations as proof that Mary's sins were recorded in scripture. I think those verses show that Mary is human and not omniscient. What's your take.

Another thing mentioned in the debate was whether or not Mary needed to be conceived without sin in order to have Jesus. The Catholic said Mary could not carry Jesus in sin. The Protestant said that if Mary had to be sinless to conceive the sinless Jesus, then Mary's parents would have to be sinless in order to conceive her. When the Catholic said this didn't apply to Mary, the Protestant replied by saying that in that case, Mary was a greater "god" than Jesus because she could be born sinless from sinful parents. Have you come across this sort of argument in the past?

Hello! Going to answer this kind of quickly, because I would like to go to sleep soon.

I think using John 2 as an example of Mary sinning is an objectively stupid argument, especially in light of Jesus using the Parables of the Persistent Widow and Friend at Midnight in Luke 18 and Luke 11, respectively, in order to say something about the nature of justification and prayer, respectively. Mary continues to plead with her Son, and then tells the servants to "do whatever [God] tells you." If Mary is sinning in this verse, so is every Christian who ever persists in praying for an intention that isn't answered right away.

I think that using Luke 1 is a better potential argument, at least at first glance, because (at first glance) it does in fact seem that Mary is doing just what Zachariah did and was punished for. But, if they are qualitatively similar responses.... why is Zachariah punished, but Mary not? The Church Fathers make their opinion clear; in the words of Maximus of Turin, Zachariah is "unbelieving," and Mary "believing." Zachariah does not believe that it is possible for his wife to get pregnant, while Mary wonders how she will get pregnant when she has not touched a man. It's a difference of scoffing at the miracle vs. wondering how the miracle will be accomplished. This is a view also held by Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Bede, and Justin Martyr.

I think the Catholic commentator made a blunder by trying to defend the (indefensible) claim that Mary needed to be sinless to carry Christ in her womb; I really don't think that you can make an argument for necessity for the Immaculate Conception, but rather an argument for its fittingness. I have seen people argue for its necessity (something not even the Blessed Duns Scotus, champion of the Immaculate Conception belief, did), but I think that it is mostly an attempt to double-down on the doctrine and emphasize its importance rather than a well thought out argument for its truthfulness.

[nerdygaymormon]

My Mother’s Day Sermon

I'm David and my mom is right back there, she's the organist. Happy Mother's Day to her. I wasn't assigned a topic to speak on, so I've chosen to focus my remarks on repentance.

Pshhh. Can you imagine? It's Mother's Day, of course the topic will be motherhood. I recognize that like a lot of holidays, Mother's Day can be difficult for some. Some of you have mothers who've passed away. Some moms have a child who has passed. Many people deal with infertility issues or have miscarried. Some had a parent who was abusive. Some moms here today have children who've distanced themselves. Some don't want to become moms and others have longed for it but it hasn't happened for them. There's many reasons this could be a hard day. We acknowledge that, and we grieve and mourn with you and respect your feelings. I hope my remarks don't add to the burdens you carry. I've heard a lot of men speak on Mother's Day about angel mothers and how perfect their mom is. Only sometimes have I heard about real women who had real struggles and how she gained insight as she read the scriptures, she held family prayer and did her best in those circumstances. I like the latter example because none of us are perfect and could use some practical examples and encouragement. Nine years ago I spoke on Mother's Day and gave examples of my mom being an imperfect mom, but whose overall efforts showed she measured up. I want to put her at ease, this is not going to be a repeat. I'm going to talk about women from the scriptures. Mothering is not for the faint of heart. For those of you in the trenches with little children, it can be hard. They're busy, they require a lot of care and attention. Moms of young ones often need a break and some adult time.

Moms of teenagers encounter a different set of challenges as their child tests boundaries and tries a lot of new things, including things their parents wouldn't approve of. 

Then they're out of the home. You organized your life around them and now what? It can feel empty. You know this, but it's worth saying, you don't have to be perfect to be a good mom. Life doesn't wait until we're perfectly prepared and feeling up for whatever is coming. We learn by doing. We work to improve and strive to be better. Just because we aren't perfect or have everything figured out doesn't mean we don't have a lot to contribute, that we don't make an important difference in the lives around us. Mary left 12-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem and it wasn't until after a day's journey that she noticed. It took another three days before Mary found Him in the temple. No one calls Mary a "bad" mom. She did her best, made mistakes, corrected them, and remained committed. That's a good model. Hagar was a servant who was taken away from her homeland and impregnated by her master. She tried running away, but without food & water in that harsh climate, her baby was dying. She went back and stayed a servant for many years. She made difficult choices in order provide food, shelter, and education for her son. Many moms make great sacrifices. People have to compromise, make the best from the options that are available to them. Sariah packed up her house, lived in the wilderness, and moved across the world. Her children fought the whole way. It was tough. Emma Smith had 6 children die in infancy. Did they complain? Yes. Did they weep? Of course. Did they yell? Guaranteed. Was their best sometimes just barely hanging on? Indubitably. Were they imperfect? Absolutely. Did God work with their imperfections? Very much so. Elder Stanfill came to our stake conference last September. He grew up a rancher and farmer. He tells the story of harvesting grain in Montana. The machinery they used would harvest the grain, throwing it into the holding tank and the chaff would be left behind on the ground. They adjusted the combine several times to maximize the amount of grain being gathered, and yet some of the kernels of grain still wound up on the ground with the chaff. The imperfect harvest was as good as the machine could do. 

God works in that imperfection. "Migrating swans, geese, and ducks descend onto the fields to nourish themselves on their long journey south. They ate the leftover grain from [the] imperfect harvest. God had perfected it." Some of life's most important lessons come in the imperfections and are to be found in the mess. You are involved in an amazing work, to train and prepare people for the world, to be their best selves, to be a person of good character and curiosity, to become people who make positive contributions. That's truly noble. I know it's easy to see our shortfalls, to have regrets, to wish we could have do-overs. I hope you also take time to appreciate all the good you do. Look at your successes. You're good enough. Whether you are a married or single mom, a young or more seasoned mom, a working or stay-at-home mom, the Atonement makes us all enough. Alma 7:11-12, describes the Atonement as Jesus suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind so that He feels mercy for us in what we are dealing with, and so that He knows how to aid and comfort and sustain us. I think it's comforting to think Jesus knows what I'm feeling because He's felt it, He understands. I can ask Him for strength, I can ask Him for help. Today I'm also thinking about Esther from the Bible. Reading her story reminds me there are times when God will ask us to do things that are difficult. Esther found herself in a position to rescue her people from death, but it was a big risk and might not be successful and could cost Esther her life. She was reluctant. It was difficult for her. She put her trust in God. She wasn't perfect, but when it counted, she measured up. 

That sounds like a lot of moms I know. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's changing poopy diapers when you're not feeling well. Sometimes it's getting a phone call from school about some trouble. Sometimes it's a visit to the police station. You never know what will come your way, but when it counts, most people find a way to measure up. Mother's Day is a reminder that all of us should respect mothers, and mothering figures, and thank them for their impact on the lives around them.

[dailychurchreport]

"Mary believed that Jesus knows what is good and right and has the power to act. In saying to the servants at the wedding feast, “Do whatever He tells you,” she is showing that she trusts that He will do what is good and right in the end." — Paul Levy