#neck-tie

[hakogyi]

grown up ciel is a fascinating concept to me if he even gets to grow up, that is

[marlenacantswim]

girl has got that harry du bois swag, complete with incongruous hat

[donutdrawsthings]

A quick comic I made on my phone

[theonewhowails]

Fleece of the Lamb

[babypinkhearts]

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

satoru is HORRIBLEEEE at the whole courting phase before a relationship.

he’s definitely self-aware of how his behavior comes off as — when you first meet it’s a mix of insulting banter and teasing. but that’s just how he is !!! it’s also him badly projecting his MASSIVE crush on you, up until the point where you genuinely think he kinda sucks LOL. sooooo like an enemy to lovers kinda thing ?? satoru realizes his approach might not be the best if he wants to pursue something more romantically (he’s so deathly afraid of unintentionally pushing you away) so he suddenly flips some secret switch and bam !!! why is he being so nice all of a sudden ???

you definitely think it’s weird (everyone thinks it’s weird), and then the obvious becomes even more obvious (you’re quite perceptive), and you kinda just bluntly ask him “do you like me?” — and boom, the switch is going haywire, satoru’s eyes are the widest you’ve ever seen them, and you fear you’ve broken him.

the reaction sorta gives you your answer, and no word ever leaves satoru’s mouth to deny it.

so, later when his expression turns more normal and his brain isn’t short-circuiting, you tell him that it’s only right that you take credit for making the first move. and satoru does not even attempt to argue with you, already wildly humiliated.

he initiates pretty much everything else, though. he’s gotta take back his honor somehow !!!

[silusvesuius]

testing out drawing maormer 🪸🐚🪸 and a nelvas 🧣📜🩷 i'll ramble about maormer a bit in the tags

[ravene]

Part 1 Chapter 2 be like

[vesperscas]

every scene where cas regains his grace should have been a magical girl transformation where we see him floating above air with his arms spread out and eyes closed while his wings grow out with sparkles and his true form emerges for a second with pink and blue glow encircling him

[foxgloveciara]

drops this and runs away

[the-paris-of-people]

Annabeth 100% fell first but Percy is so intoxicatingly enamored with her now that we forget that LOLLLL

[b1mbodoll]

um. can i say somethinf

[solargeist]

yknow when grian grew wings it was probably sooo annoying learning how to dress himself with those things

[justaz]

started thinking about established klance telling the rest of the team that they’re engaged and after all the congratulations and tears and “no take backsies” from shiro to lance, the main question on everyones mind is “kogane or mcclain?” and klance is like “we literally just got engaged. how should we know?” and they talk it over for a while with the rest of the team and reach an agreement. there will be a wrestling ring at the reception after the ceremony and keith and lance will duke it out. they’ll take the champions name. BUT. if its a tie…….instead of just hyphenating their names, they’ll jumble them together. lance had to beg and plead with keith to agree to this bc the name lance settled on is “kocain”. keith thinks its unreasonable. lance agrees but thinks its too hilarious to pass up. (pidge gave him the idea)

[kindahoping4forever]

📸: Emilia Staugaard for Behind The Blinds magazine

[awful-little-goose]

PROBABLY ooc but I just was thinking about how pathetic Buzzbuzz really was and how they couldn’t get hugs because when they get upset they immediately take their monster form

SO UH YEAH the au belongs to @sm-baby BUT THIS MIGHT BE SUPER OOC AND CHUMY because I was feeling really sad for Buzzbuzz KSKDKDKD SO UH- DON’T LOOK

Also they might seem- mean, or cruel, at times, but they do genuinely care about their friends. Usually, if their friends are at their lowest, they’ll try to distract them, and if they’re in a state where they could hurt themselves (you’ve mentioned Ragatha being delusional enough to swallow glass if told it was a tasty treat, and also Kinger is just…….Kinger) they’d probably opt to just- burrito the hell out of them. Not much else they can do.

They would never help Jax though ✨ KSKSKSKSJDJ

ANYWAYS IM JUST- So obsessed with the au and drawing big monster Buzzbuzz so I might post more (Tell me if you’d rather I don’t like- tag you everytime, cause I know it can be overwhelming)

[quitefair]

The Temple of Mythal and Greek Sculpture

Or: How Bioware takes from history without any nuance.

--

Picture this. You're me, playing Inquisition for the first time. You get to the Temple of Mythal, the doors shut behind you and you finally get to look around. It's a typical elven ruin for the game, nothing much seems different...

Hold on.

Hold the fuck on.

You know what that is.

You know what that's based on, and for a long time after it tickles you. Oh, maybe that meant something in the grander scheme of things! We've never seen such a blatant reference to a real-life sculpture anywhere else in game (to my knowledge at the time)! Maybe it'll come up later and it'll all make sense!

Here's the deal. I've been bothered by this for years. The more I think about it, the more angry I become. Anger over a single fucking type of statue, you say? There's a lot of other shit to be angry over in this game, and you choose this?

YES! I CHOOSE THIS! AND THIS IS WHY.

--

Picture this. You're me again, aged 14 this time. You're in the Louvre, the first museum of Western classical art you've ever been to. You've grown up in a place where this interest could only be cultivated from extra-curricular reading, and for a kid that age from my country to be ass deep in Greek and Egyptian myth is frankly lmao. Neurodivergent. Anyway.

So we're wandering around the Louvre, I've just taken my parents through the Egyptian section and given them a thorough infodump on everything I know about burial rites.

And then we enter this room. And I very nearly fall to my knees when I catch sight of her.

This is the sculpture the statues at the Temple of Mythal are based on - one Winged Victory of Samothrace.

She is a sculpture from the Hellenestic era, depicting the goddess Nike stood at the prow of a ship. Her head and both arms are missing, save one hand with two fingers (also in the Louvre but displayed separately). She was found on the Greek island of Samothrace, among the ruins of what was known as the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. It seemed like she was displayed at the top of a hill, looming down at all that regarded her.

I’ve had the absolute privilege of seeing her in person twice in my life, both before and after the 2013 restoration. And let me tell you, regardless of which staircase that leads you there, the sight of her will stop you in your tracks.

[Now with people, for scale.]

She is massive. Larger than life, and immediately is the centre of your attention. It's not the fact that she has no head, no arms. No, you will realise the closer you get to her, the more you're able to appreciate the details of this absolutely astounding piece of history.

No. It's because she feels so alive.

The way her robes drape against flesh, wet from sea-spray or rain, yet flowing with the motion of an invisible wind. The wings cast behind her dramatically as her right foot steps forward. Standing tall and proud, unflinching, unbowed against the elements. Even without her arms, you can feel how dynamic the torso and legs are.

You don't need to be an art historian, or even have any knowledge of Greek myth or art history to stand in front of her, as I once did as a young teen, and nearly be brought to tears.

So.

This brings me to the first of the two main gripes I have with the way this sculpture is used in Inquisition.

Compared to the way she's displayed in the Louvre, and also presumably how she was presented to her original audience - larger than life, looming, powerful, beautiful - she is relegated instead to smaller, repeating statues of the same nature throughout the temple.

This diminishes the purpose of the original sculpture, which was to instill a sense of awe and wonder. The singularity that forces you to focus and appreciate the scale and intricacy. The aura, the gravitas of having a single, massive sculpture of such a dynamic figure is completely gone.

And to make things worse, they Mythal-ify her. Adding a helmed head and changing her beautiful feathered wings to leathery dragon wings. They don't even add arms, which is odd because the original sculpture very clearly is missing its arms.

And, may I ask, Why?

It feels cheap, like they saw the Winged Victory and were like 'oh shit this is a cool sculpture, we should add it in game' without giving any fucking thought to what the sculpture means.

Which brings me to the second gripe. The complete disregard for the symbolism of the Winged Victory.

Detail from the Athena fountain, Parliament Building of Vienna, showing Nike the Winged Victory in the palm of Athena's hand [source]

Nike is a minor Greek deity, said to be the daughter of Pallas (a Titan) and the river Styx. Her other siblings by the same parents include Zelus (Zeal),  Bia (Might) and Kratos (Strength).

Yes. That Kratos.

She was one of the earliest gods to pledge her allegiance to Zeus in the Titonomachy, and after the victory of the Olympians, Nike and the other gods that allied with them were allowed to live on Olympus. In her aspect as Victory, she is closely associated with several of the major Greek gods, and in particular, Athena.

There's also her Roman counterpart, Victoria. This version doesn't come with the backstory Nike has, but is more of a general concept of victory. This is the aspect that is present in a lot of the modern sculptures and interpretations of Nike/Victoria:

Left: Detail from the Berlin Victory Column. Right: Detail from the Victoria Memorial, London. Note the similar iconography, of a woman seemingly standing against a strong wind, fabric and cloth adhering and yet flowing against the breeze, wings outstretched.

From this, we can probably extrapolate what our beloved Winged Victory might've looked like. Here's an artist's render of one possibility:

There's some iconography we need to go through before moving on - symbols that are commonly associated with Nike/Victoria.

One is the trumpet as see in the reconstruction above, the sound and symbol of the end of war, of impending peace. Another is the laurel wreath, another Greek symbol of victory and achievement. Famously, laurel wreaths were used to crown victors of the original Olympic games.

This is another conversation entirely, but there’s a discussion to be had about the duality of Elgar’nan and Mythal, in term of vengeance and justice, and how an emotional rage versus a calculated wisdom can be compared to the difference between the two Greek gods of war – Ares and Athena.

If we can compare Mythal to Athena, in the sense of her wisdom in making difficult decisions, then it’s not a stretch to associate Mythal with the symbolism of Nike, and therefore explain the presence of statues similar to the Winged Victory in her temple.

But since Bioware absolutely did not put this in the game for anything other than the Aesthetic, there’s some problems that need to be addressed.

Mainly in the way in which these statues are scattered throughout the temple. If you wanted static, ominous statues to line the walls as your player characters explore, perhaps have like, I dunno. Less dynamic statues that you reference?

Left: Nike of Paionos, Right: Stele 1 of Las Incantadas

Or maybe instead of statues, have friezes lining the walls. Like this one from the equally iconic Pergamon altar, depicting the Giganomanchy.

It’s the same symbolism, the wings, the smiting of foes and victory of good over evil.

And then perhaps, at the heart of the temple... where, y'know Bioware, lay a body of water sacred to Mythal herself, you could've perhaps done something remarkable. You could then have had the most dramatic and beautiful entrance you’d ever seen.

[Nike, at the iconic Daru Staircase, the Louvre]

It was at this moment that Mythal walked out of the sea of the earth's tears and onto the land. She placed her hand on Elgar'nan's brow, and at her touch he grew calm and knew that his anger had led him astray. - Codex entry: Mythal: The Great Protector

Mythal herself strides out of the Well Of Sorrows, the metaphorical tears of her followers that died and kept their knowledge alive in her name. Her (draconic) wings spread out, (restored) hands outstretched to touch her husband, to calm the rage that nearly destroyed this world.

A symbol of victory against the blind rage of a god against His father, the Sun. A symbol of wisdom and grace, against the violence of hatred. A divine sense of something bigger than anything we could imagine.

There's also the lack of iconography regarding victory, instead piling on some cheap representations of what we think of as Mythal. That's another post entirely on the symbolism of the Elven gods, but if Bioware really wanted to hone in on the Athena/Athena Nike parallels, they might have thrown in the trumpet/laurel/palm leaf symbolism with the statues, alongside the dragon wings.

If this were the case, then maybe, just maybe, Inquisition would’ve then earned the use of this sculpture in the game.

Sources not listed above/Further reading if you're interested

https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/the-palace/a-stairway-to-victory

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1412/winged-victory-the-nike-of-samothrace/https://smarthistory.org/nike-winged-victory-of-samothrace/

https://smarthistory.org/nike-winged-victory-of-samothrace/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ancient-art-civilizations/greek-art/hellenistic/a/nike-winged-victory-of-samothrace