#pelias can suck it

[silverlinedeyes]

An initial list of questions spawned from HOFAS

HOFAS spoilers below the break.

I’ve been thinking about some big and some small questions since I finished HOFAS last night and wanted to preserve them here with some of my thoughts for later discussion. I am also planning some larger theory posts to try to answer some of these questions.

Also, please reblog with any additional questions you may have if you’d like!!!

Where are the other Hel princes and what are they fighting?

Are Valg related to the Asteri or the Hel princes (or both)?

Are Valg children of the Void like the Hel princes?

Is the Under-King Valg and has he been hiding in the Under-King body living off of some of the Second Light?

How do Koschei and the Carver and the Weaver fit in with this?

Is Az also a descendant of the second daughter since he’s Starborn?

Is ToG on the same timeline as Prythian and CC?

Are the tall fae that came to Midgard from Erilea coming from the same time period depicted at the oasis in ToD when Yrene and Chaol find those carvings from the first demon wars, before Elena or Gavin were born?

Who on Prythian is a powerful enough starborn to wield and use Gwydion and TT? Is Elain? Or will the three Archeron sisters together make Theia’s light anew, as @offtorivendell @wingedblooms and I have theorized that each Archeron sister has part of Theia’s light.

Will the Archeron sisters be able to wield TT and Gwydion together to kill the unkillable—Koschei?

Did Bryce revive Dusk by taking Silene’s light back like she did Avallen when she took Theia’s light out of it? Or will someone (Elain???? Cc @wingedblooms) revive Dusk?

Does Urd = Wyrd = Chaos = the Dark Mother?

Is the temple in Hel that looks like Urd’s temple a temple to Chaos, Hel’s version of Urd and Apollion’s mother?

Were the ToG gods and the Asteri sucked (back into?) the Void, and if so, can the Void send them back or can they be retrieved from the Void by something?

What IS the connection between the gods in all these worlds, like Bryce asked when she was in Prythian?

Why do all these different fae societies oppress the females? Is it because only females can be powerful starborn, and some forces are at work to suppress that power to protect darker beings? Like how Pelias seems to have created a society that doesn’t allow women to get access to anything related to starborn to prevent another starborn queen from rising?

Can only females be powerful starborn/light wielders and can only males be powerful dark wielders/shadow wielders? Like how Hypaxia says six pointed star is two triangles, one male one female one light one dark (three brothers who are dark princes, three sisters who are starborn/princesses of light?)

Are there male lightsingers or female shadowsingers, or do singers follow these same rules?

Are morven and the murder twins descended from people from Hybern? The murder twins are daemati and remind me of the Hybern twins, and Morven’s shadows are described like ravens.

Does this mean TT has slewn two Hybern kings?

Where does the Starborn power come from?

Where in Prythian are the avallen from?

Are the Starborn and Avallen the same people?

Was Fionn the original king of darkness/shadows and theia the original queen of light/starborn queen? And are the males of their line the former, and the females the latter?

Where in Prythian did Fionn and Pelias come from?

Can TT unMake a mating bond?

Can Elain wield Gwydion and TT together to unMake her bond with Lucien and Make a bond with Azriel?

Aidas tells Hunt some higher power must have made them Mates. We have all these super powerful fae finding their powerful mates right before these huge universe altering moments. Is this part of how Urd is using them as pawns in her plans/games?

Why does Amren’s timeline not match Silene’s re the creation of the Prison? Was this just a continuity error, did Silene manipulate memories, or is this fishy on Amren’s part?

Was Enalius one of the people with Fionn and Theia on Ramiel when they made Gwydion and TT?

Did Nesta give up some of her Starborn powers when she gave back what she stole from the Cauldron, and does this mean she won’t be able to wield and use Gwydion and TT, which will lead to Elain’s role with this?

[laney-rockin]

OKAY OKAY OKAY.

I know I haven't made a whole "my thoughts on -insert star trek episode here- for a while [I've been so busy and surprisingly to me doing a sport for two weeks straight will murder any energy I have]

BUT THIS WEEK WAS THE SNW SEASON 2 FINALE AND I COULDN'T NOT TALK ABOUT IT.

FIRSTLY. Chapel, babes. GET THE FUCK OVER SPOCK HOLY FUCK. Spock, babygirl, GET THE FUCK OVER CHAPEL. You two are not soulmates, you will never be soulmates. I am tired of watching you two hold hands and look in each other's eyes while you could be GOING BACK TO THE SHIP HOLY FUCK MOVE.

SECONDLY. WHAT THE FUCK?!?! The Gorn are shown to be a highly advanced society capable of fucking WARP. What the actual fuck is SNW doing trying to push a "they're monsters that eat humans and babies" narrative. YOU MURDERED A CHILD. NO FUCKING WONDER THE GORN HATE YOU.

THIRDLY. Batel and Pike are kinda cute together I can see how they're meant to be together. Kinda weak making Batel get bitten by a Gorn but go off SNW- make some decisions. Would've been way fucking cooler to have Batel get into more action without getting bitten just so Pike can have some sad man moments. But what do I know? I'm not even out of high school, I cannot possibly fathom what is going on in these people's minds.

SPEAKING OF WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THESE PEOPLE'S MINDS- WHAT THE ACTUAL FLIPPITY FLAPPING FUCKING HELL ARE Y'ALL DOING ON A COVERT MISSION WITH SEVENTEEN MILLION LIGHTS ON YOU. THE COLONY IS BURNING AROUND Y'ALL- THAT'S ENOUGH LIGHT HOLY FUCKING SHIT IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SEEN BY THE LIZARDS WHO YOU DECIDED ARE CANONICALLY SENSITIVE TO LIGHT DON'T WEAR FUCKING LIGHTS.

Also Chapel uselessly looking out the window to stare at the Enterprise was so fucking stupid. I get her flashlight didn't work but also like- she had an HOUR until she ran out of oxygen/life support. Where is the hustle? Personally I would be having an actual legit panic attack as I searched for a spacesuit and extra flashlight instead of just staring at the Enterprise and calling Spock's name.

ALSO [In my opinion that means nothing] THE "TO BE CONTINUED" SCREEN FUCKING SUCKED. The ending was not satisfying at all in an "I wanna see more!" kinda way. It was more of a "LET THIS "ADVENTURE" FUCKING END" kinda way.

In my opinion the only thing that saved this episode was Scotty, my role model and the biggest reason why I wanna do aerospace engineering. That man was amazing and stole the show for me, every single time we had to cut away to see Spock and Chapel be annoying I just wished I could see Scotty again. He was so fucking cool and so fucking nerdy and just the coolest man ever.

Speaking of introducing legacy characters: next season they have to bring in Bones McCoy. And I guarantee it's gonna be top-tier because SNW seems hellbent on just ruining Spock and Chapel atm. But if they touch the grumpy country doctor and don't give him and Spock the stupidest yet so in character reason for them to just start bickering like two old woman at the bazaar I will riot.

All in all- a "what the fuck was that" episode. Loved Uhura, Pelia, Scotty and everyone else but Spock and Chapel. Their actors I have no ill will towards [I think they're both super cool and I'd love to meet them someday] but I just cannot actually stand their characters in scenes together. That's just me tho!!

[hummiscellanea]

my initial thoughts on SNW S2E6 "Lost in Translation:"

i liked it! one of the better ones in season 2 so far. i have a lot of things to say about it

-yippee uhura-centric episode!

-the whole "that thing is actually alive!" plot is very star trek. personally i love this plot so i don't mind seeing it again! i think the hallucination aspect makes it unique enough. however, we consumers of sci-fi television will see it coming from a million kellicams away. since we're genre-savvy and the characters aren't, that has the unintentional consequence of making uhura look kinda dumb, since it took so so so long to get to the foregone conclusion of a reveal :(

-"lost in translation" made me so excited because yippee! translation! (i love linguistics) i really liked the part where uhura "translated" the aliens' message but it was very short. if it were up to me, that would take up more of the episode

-KIRK!!!! i don't know who had to sell their soul to achieve such good kirk characterization on strange new worlds of all shows, but a soul well spent!! he makes me so happy whenever he's on screen because that's him! that's James T. Kirk! (if only spock made me feel the same way...)

-really i will defend this hill. kirk is written (and acted!) SO well on this show!!!

-"but what about kirk slash spock???????" i'm hesitant to touch that with a ten foot pole. i have Opinions on this snw kirk/spock discourse but i won't discuss them here

-similarly spock and chapel. their scene was kinda weird??? and i'm also hesitant to touch this discourse so i'll leave it at that for now

-i think it's nice to revisit hemmer. like his death is still affecting the characters because of course it would!

-la'an my beloved <3 <3 <3 it was just one scene but <3 <3 <3

-chief kyle mention????????? (only the tos girlies care about that one. actually more likely only a very small subset of the tos girlies care about that one. but i do)

-pelia and una's subplot was good! stuff dealing with hierarchical/military discipline and the friction that can create when one adheres far more strictly than another? right up my alley! also pelia is awesome

-ok so this episode wants me to believe that Una is super strict and by-the-book and only cares about orders and regulations? actually laughed when pelia said that. NO ONE on this damn show cares about discipline! pike does not run a tight ship! it's a pet peeve of mine. i wish this were more than just an informed attribute because that would make me like una a lot more. imagine this: Pike, the laid-back captain, with his tight-laced Number One. what a great dynamic that would be! i mean it's kiiiiiiinda implied to be the dynamic but i'd like to see it

-the music in this episode was even better than usual. so so good. really good.

-also the refinery looked really cool

-i was really convinced that we wouldn't get a kirk and spock interaction in SNW.....i had hoped that we wouldn't......but alas, it has happened. right at the end. torn about the execution of this. on the one hand, it could have been worse. commiserating about sam is funny i guess. on the other hand this is an important moment, and it's almost unceremonious. then again if it had pomp and circumstance it would probably suck. so i'll go with "ok it could have been worse"

so yeah i had a lot of thoughts!

[beihonglin]

bruh i just read your ask about swin and i’m like livid right now didn’t think there could be shittier companies than iqiyi, yg and sm but apparently not

and it sucks that there are so many talented kids who work so hard and deserve to be known that get stuck in this kind of company with terrible management that only knows how to waste their potential 😭😭😭 

[olympusnerd]

Medea

I recently reread the story of Medea and I don’t know why but she really resonated with me. I know she doesn’t count as a Greek hero, what with all the murdering she does, but you have to admit, Medea has a way of captivating people as made evident by the fact that centuries after her death we still know her name. 

My husband bought me a new computer with Adobe Illustrator and while I haven’t used art software in over fifteen years, I gave it a go and I’m not too disappointed with my first try :D

So here is the unofficial cliffnote of Medea’s long and (in some instances savage) story: 

For back story, Medea is the daughter of King Aeëtes, the ruler of Colchis (an ancient city located around present day Georgia) who coveted the Golden Fleece (literally golden sheep wool). Jason and the Argonauts were tasked to find the fleece for King Pelias of Iolcus (Jason’s asshole uncle who made him go get it in order to inherit the throne that was rightfully his). 

So when Jason arrived to Colchis, he was given three tasks to conquer in order to win the golden fleece: tiling the land with two fire breathing bulls, plant seeds that would grow Spartanoids (inhumanly malicious soldiers spawned from Ares son who would fight to the death), and defeat the Spartanoids. He would then have to retrieve the fleece from a tree in the Grove of Ares that was guarded by a dragon. 

Distraught over these seemingly impossible tasks, Jason prayed to the goddess Hera for help. She in turn sent word to Aphrodite who used Eros to shoot Medea, the king’s beautiful daughter and devoted worshiper (and sometimes also the daughter) of Hekate (Titaness goddess of witchcraft), so that she would fall helplessly in love with Jason and help him with his tasks. 

You read that right, little cherub boy came and turned Medea into a lovesick puppy for the doofus Jason so that he could win the Golden Fleece because even the gods knew Medea was a badass. 

She helped him with every one of his tasks, but once her father realized it, they had to get out of dodge. Medea used her powers to make the dragon (yes a MOTHER FUCKING DRAGON) fall asleep so Jason could get the fleece from a tree it hung on. (Some depictions have Medea soothing the dragon while Jason gets the fleece, some have her soothing it then having to help Jason get the damn thing out of the tree cause women have to do everything themselves. Honestly how she didn’t see he was useless at this point is beyond me)

They go on their merry way when Medea sees her father Aeëtes’ ship sailing after them. Jason can tell the ship was going to catch the Argos and was preparing to battle when Medea said there was no way they could win hand to hand with her father, so she did what any good lover would do: she sacrificed her prepubescent brother, chopped him into tiny bits, and dropped him into the ocean at intervals for her father to stop and pick up ( :,) I did mention she’s not a hero, right?)

So she has Jason sail up a river away from Colchis, long story short, they get to  King Pelias of Iolcus with the Golden Fleece. He acts like he doesn’t even know they had a deal and, spoiler alert, apparently straight up murdered Jason’s parents and little brother (though some sources say he just told Jason’s father that he died and his father actually killed them all in grief but this makes for much better story telling, just assume Pelias is that big of a dick cause he is). So Medea, who has basically been brought to a whole new country just to chase dick, says don’t worry, I’ll get you some revenge and proceeded to go straight fucking Savage. 

Medea befriends Pelias’s daughters and one day mentions “Oh, it sucks your dad is so old, he’ll probably die soon. My father is older than yours but looks our age.” The girls beg to know how this could be, and Medea, sharp, lovely, conniving as she was, showed the girls a spell. She took an old ram, slit it’s throat, chopped it up, then threw it in a giant pot with herbs. She chanted, waived her arms and boom, baby goat popped out of the pot. 

The daughters excitedly go find Pelias, chop him into pieces and perform the ritual, only to find that their dad (surprise) was dead dead. 

I’m talking Dead AF. 

Pelias’s son tells his sisters they were fooled and Jason and Medea are chased out of Iolcus and landed in Corinth. They lived there for years, had three (sometimes two in different references) sons and lived happily ever after. 

Except they didn’t because remember, this is Greek Mythology and gods are involved so no one can be happy XD

Turns out Jason gets the hots for the daughter of the king of Corinth and they are set to get married. 

Yes, after all this shit Medea has done for Jason (cheated at her father’s orders, murdered her brother, abandoned her home, saved Jason and his Argonauts from certain death at least three times, reaped vengeance on his uncle, bared him children) and this mother fucker up and says, “Naw, you see, you’re just a tool by the gods for me to get what I needed to get in order to be a king. So I’m gonna merry ole faceless Corinth princess and now our sons will be kings, isn’t that rad?” 

“Super rad,” Medea would have hissed behind a fake smile. 

It was in fact not rad, as Medea then takes it upon herself to send poison laced garments to the happy bride-to-be and she died an especially excruciating death (as well as her dad cause he tried to save her, told y’all, my girl be ruthless). 

So in a final fuck you to Jason, Medea then murders their children (which I admit, puts a big pin in all the badassery she does, but in the play Medea by  Euripides she struggles with this because she says she loves her children and it will hurt her to kill them, but ultimately decides she is more angry at Jason and that she has to do it because if she doesn’t, someone down the line will. 

“I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.”

Like, shit, okay, I get it. You’re pissed. Do as you please. 

Again, Medea isn’t a hero, but I find it hard to completely condemn her actions. She gives her all to Jason, only to have him choose someone else who can give him the throne he always wanted while telling her that it was at a god’s behest that she help him. In some ways, I imagine that being used like that is what probably hurt the most. But it’s cool, she ends up ending the play by riding in a golden chariot pulled by MOTHER FUCKING DRAGONS that her grandfather Helios sent for her and her dead kids, so I mean? She also ends up becoming the queen of Athens, but shit goes wrong there, too, but that’s a whole other thing that makes her like the original shitty step mom (save for all of Zeus’s illegitimate kids Hera keeps trying to kill). 

And Jason is crushed to death when a piece of wood falls off his ship, so good riddance. 

It’s interesting that this story is originally Jason and the Argonauts, a tale that’s supposed to illustrate the bravery and resilience of our ‘hero’ Jason, but really as Euripedes makes evident, it is Medea who the most resilient and in the end, of all the characters, though she may not have an explicitly happy ending, she isn’t punished by the gods for any of her actions while Jason literally dies by the ship he sailed on these ‘heroic’ escapades. 

About the artwork: It took me three days and a lot of cussing, I mean YouTube videos, to get this where I liked it. I feel like it uploaded a little blurry but overall I’m content :)

[littlesparklight]

Deaths in Corinth

"Medea, what have you done?"

Medea looks up from Medeios greedily sucking little face as he tries to empty her out to still his hunger, and though she'd been worried by Jason's tone alone, the expression on his face leaves her breathless. The dark gazes of two of the most hostile and contrary elders that are supposed to be their ever-ready and ever-helpful advisers and instead have been like snakes in the grass since she and Jason arrived silences for yet another beat or two. A shiver, chill like the grimmest wind blown in from the mountains, steal down her spine. Clutching her youngest child closer to her breast - which he doesn't mind at all, just yet, Medea straightens up.

"What am I supposed to have done?" she asks, voice light, spine stiff, her hands wishing to curve into claws in answer to those dark, dark eyes of the old men flanking Jason.

"Th--- You, the children, Medea. How could you?" Jason is moments from crying, his voice breaking twice and threatening more, and he is utterly unknowing of the sneering little look from one elder. The other has better control, but Medea can see the aborted twitch that reveals the suppressed eyeroll. She can also see what has happened, and Medes wails a protest as she inadvertently rips him from her breast to pull him close, up against her instead of peacefully laying in her arms, little hand squeezing her full breast.

The children. The children, all thirteen of them, that she'd left at Hera's sanctuary last night as she'd done for the last several years on this very night every time it came by again, to see if this would be the night Hera would fulfil her promise. The children are dead, and those vulture-eyed, dog-mouthed men flanking her husband have killed them. Killed them because they had never been happy at foreigners ruling them, one more foreign than the other, and that a woman should be the primary of said rulers.

Or they have had a part in the killing in some way, even if they didn't do it themselves, which makes them just as guilty as she, though the people she has indeed killed were not her own children.

Medea grits her teeth, then opens her mouth, but between that and uttering her next few words in defence, she can see it doesn't matter what she says. They have poisoned Jason against her, and they have broken him.

"When I left our children at the sanctuary, they were alive, Jason. What has happened?"

The truth is sludge in her mouth, and they all know she's understood what's happened, but her quick understanding has only damned her further. She can see what little light, mad and needy, that still clung to Jason's brown eyes go out like she'd snuffed a candle with her last words. He's not going to survive this. She could drag him with her and he will still die, for it will take her too long to convince him she isn't at fault. In fact, she might have to fight for her life as he wished to kill both of them in whatever last spark of actual agency that might still exist in him.

Oh, Jason.

Too easily downtrodden, always looking for others to lead, so often laid to catastrophising. She'd never minded, not really, but now his faults have allowed others to break him, and they know it.

The only reason Medea isn't planning some way to take suitable revenge is that she knows death will be coming for them anyway, and for the whole of Corinth. They have killed in Hera's sanctuary, and more than that, they've killed children the goddess have promised a gift to. Maybe if the goddess had actually given her gift earlier, they wouldn't be here, but now it is late, all too late, and Medea's galloping heart and tight grip on her last living child can't quiet or soothe Medeois.

The room rings with his cries, and for now that is the only mourning his other siblings will receive. Jason as well, dead man walking as he is. She just hopes he kills himself in a kind way, but she has a feeling he will wish to punish himself when he has done no wrong.

"Medea... You're the one who was last seen with them, and they're dead." Jason closes his eyes, and she can breathe a little more easily for being out under that haunted, broken stare. Enough to jog her thoughts into more than a swirl.

Great Helios, beloved of Rhodes, grandfather, hear me! I am without recourse, cornered like a lioness with only one cub left, the strong father lying slain before her with his great mane covered in gore. Aid your family if you ever had any love left for your mortal children!

She can only hope he has heard her and, more than that, is willing to offer aid that might be when and where she'll need it.

"And it is me you think would kill them? I, who have fed them at my breast, each and every one of them, who have given them to Hera Akraia in the hope of immortality for them, as I was promised?"

Jason flinches at her words as if she's punched him, but, compared to what might have been the result years before, now it doesn't urge him to listen to her. Instead he merely hunches, as if his spine had just been broken, and he looks at her with wide, begging eyes and holds his hands out. They're strong, still, but trembling, revealing the sensitivities and weakness that were always there.

The poison is too deep, and she can feel the smug pleasure of the two elders lurking behind her husband.

"Please, Medea. Just confess," Jason whispers, his voice raw like the blood surely coating Hera's altar right this moment, for Medea doubts the Corinthians have washed it away just yet. No, they needed to have Jason see it, needed him to know it was still there, and it needs to stay until she's dead, until Jason is dead too. It will only condemn them further.

Oh, she has killed for this man, and he has been dear to her, but she cannot kill herself for him as well.

Medea smiles tightly, her ears ringing with Medeios' cries, and stands up. Shifts Medeios onto one arm, tipping her to lie against her chest, head cushioned against her shoulder, and at last his cries dwindle into sobbing hiccups, slowly calming just as Medea's heartbeat is. The breeze coming in from the window is warmer than it was minutes ago, and there's a golden tint to the light that wasn't there before.

"I can't confess to a crime I haven't committed, my heart. I might have killed my brother, I might have killed Pelias, bu---"

"And you killed Kreon," one of the men sneers at her, righteous when there is the blood of thirteen children on his hands. Medea laughs, mockingly. Jason only slumps further, but there's a brief frown she can just barely see on his forehead, there and then gone. He doesn't believe that, at least, well as he might when he was there right with her being summoned to Kreon and heard the man himself.

"I gave Kreon the assistance he wished for, after he'd already proclaimed my birth, as well as that of my husband’s, made us worthy to rule this fair city of yours that you have besmirched with innocent blood. I have killed, but not my children."

Jason, her poor, poisoned husband, starts crying. Medea's heart hurts, but there's nothing she can do. Not when he draws his sword - and not to turn on the men behind him, for the poison they have given him have eaten its way far too deep into his heart, via his eyes and ears. A far more powerful poison than any magical such she could devise.

She smiles as he makes ready to charge her, but he's slow, so slow she has all the time she needs to draw the fragile little glass bottle from the layered flounces of her skirts, and as she throws it he looks almost grateful for it.

Oh, Jason.

She can't kill herself for him, but she can also not kill him, for either of them.

That will be her weakness and another pain to bear into the future, for this is only a distraction, a way for her to escape.

Smoke explodes up as the glass shatters, noxious and dark like the ink of squid, and she is the squid fleeing. Medea whirls around, throwing herself at the window, then out of it, and she almost falls straight off the chariot as she hits it hard with her shoulder and hip, her weight and speed tipping it sideways. Clutching at the rim with strength only a desperate mother could know, Medea manages to pull herself up, grab the reins and urge the shining drakones to move, all without falling off or losing her baby.

Her baby, who is giggling now, despite the shock of their flight, and Medea looks down with burning eyes and tears spilling down her cheeks to the boy in her arm, chewing at one of the golden rings that binds her tresses. He looks like Jason.

"Don't worry, my eyes," she whispers, leaning down to kiss the top of his soft head, tiny wisps of dark curls caressing her chin and cheeks while tears caress Medeios' skull, "they might have gotten all the others, but they won't get you. Or me."

Exhaling sharply, Medea straightens up, tightens her grip on the reins as she turns the snakes eastwards, and lets the golden wind dry her tears.

***

So, this is inspired by, and drawing from, several old/er sources (Pausanias, Eumelos, scholia on Eumelos) for what happens in Corinth. Medea seems most often to have killed her children, either inadvertently, or, as in Euripides, intentionally. The scholia says it was the Corinthians, angry at having a foreigner ruling them, for Eumelos in his Korinthiaka had Medea (and Jason) summoned to Corinth and given rulership, explicitly on the grace of Medea’s bloodline. The children are killed in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia (by the Corinthians in this version), where Medea has been leaving them in expectation of Hera fulfilling her promise to her (here, my intention is that Hera’s promise is the reward for Medea’s help to kill Pelias). In the version where the killings happen inadvertently, Jason can’t forgive her and leaves for Iolkos. So what happens as a background to this is Medea, as an agent of Hera, kills Pelias for his insult to her, she and Jason have to leave Iolkos, they are summoned to Corinth and given rulership, Kreon dies (childless, hence why Medea and Jason have been summoned).

I would honestly not have done this at all but reading all this in Early Greek Myth by Gantz I was just slapped in the face by inspiration, and as much as I am so damn cranky over so many people crowing about Medea doing nothing wrong (her brother and her children says hello), I am pleased with this.