#really missed it...

[bastardpacs]

A Theory on Malakai Black V Colors, focusing on Gold

This has been cooking in my head since last years Double or Nothing lol but I started feeling a little silly over my previous theory posts lol But I finally shook it off, and I am sadly and unfortunately back to bug you all with these 💗

I'm always terrible at starting any writing lmaoo so I'm going to try and start with focusing on the heavy use of red recently since the House's return, a color that was once used sparingly as both a beacon and warning. To run back to several allusions made by Malakai of a burning house, now paired with his most recent jacket, which bears either the image of a flame-enshrouded Kali - a deity of violent change - or Manasa Devi - a snake goddess, known for her protection against poisons - and the words written with it:

thehannahhorror: ‘The House had to burn / To be built in ash / Tongue of Black / Free the dark within… / Sweet hands of Death, / Bury this agony, / Suffer his enemies / To these licking flames. / May their lies spill out / Of open wounds, / Like the serpent’s speech hereafter. / The House must endure / This, the raging storm / Create chaos, consume / Their jeering laughter.’ - The Black Tongue, 2022

Fire has traditionally been seen as both an exacting punishment and thing of purification. These new allusions and the imagery of a burning House go hand-in-hand with the presence of Kali, who is commonly depicted dancing in fires, fire which, used in her presence, is meant to represent the idea and concept of change through destruction. A resurrection from ashes.

It's almost as if we see The House itself finding its own change in these fires, presented visually through this burning, red entrance.

But focusing just on gold, this all goes back to Double of Nothing of 2022...

This was the heaviest use of gold we had seen, now seemingly inhabiting the House's entire being, seeping from the eyes, the mouths... The only other use of gold we had seen until that moment was in Malakai's gear, but in that moment, it had become something else entirely.

I am going to try and divide my thoughts into two paths: one of gold, and the other the color yellow.

Gold has always carried the status of stateliness and royalty. Of kinghood, godhood, divinity, and immortality. Of greed and avarice.

We see it's undeniable connection to the color yellow: a metal associated with the sun, and by extension, intrinsically tying gold to the sun itself. And with the gold dripping from their mouths, it brings an interesting visual connection to the imagery of the sun-consuming demon, a concept that has commonly been tied to the apocalypse, from ancient Egypt to the Norse, where the devouring of the sun and moon was the herald of the end times.

Continuing to touch on the idea of gold/yellow as a color in the idea of it's symbolism, especially in tarot, we find a neat connection to the other colors he has used in his gear and entrances. Within tarot imagery, red that of the conscious intellect, the physical, blue was seen as the intellect of the subconscious, and finally yellow, gold, that of the superconscious, and through that, it's connection to the highest planes of our existence. A connection to divinity.

What's interesting now that I'm actually thinking about it and writing it down as I go is that, Malakai used colors as a way to 'count down' to Brody's debut; those colors were, in order, yellow, blue, red. With the idea of tarot symbolism in mind for these colors, it almost feels like it was a herald, a calling, of the descent of something spiritual to something physically manifesting on earth... So yeah, I'll definitely have to think about that...

But the greatest thing I couldn't shake was it's connection to ichor, the very blood itself of the immortal Greek gods.

While the color of ichor is never explicitly described in any sources, aside from the Argonautica that claimed it 'flowed like molten lead' and the Illiad where the gods 'may bleed, nectareous', it is both traditionally and poetically seen as gold in color, unquestionably due to the Greek's association with gold being a divine and immortal color.

But the thing that's really interesting about ichor itself is that while it was lifegiving to the gods, it was poisonous to humans...

malakaiblxck: The dark sun, poisoned by gold blood.

In the Greek concept of 'ichor' we again see the connection between two contrasting elements: immortality and death, life and poison. Poison that was once black spat from Malakai's mouth, now is gold and brings both immortal life to himself and a painful ending to his enemies.

We see that idea now, again, of a poison being the catalyst for change; perhaps this time a change to the House of Black. Continued motifs and ideas of godliness and ascension, both physical and that of the conscious. A completed circle. Or, at the very least, a completed cycle.

Now what I find really neat is the explicit image of a golden blood, a golden poison, that was not harmful to the bearer, but harmful to mortals - harmful to Malakai's enemies. Not a rotting thing within Malakai himself, as the black mist seemed to be. I feel like there are very interesting, warlike connotations to this, especially now considering the red entrance and potential allusions to the Red Horse of war. A figure who, wildly swinging a great sword, could be seen as a violent bringer of change, like Kali, like Malakai...

It was his newest mask though that I fell in love with and made my mind go crazy.

It's definitely difficult for me to see the exact coloring of the inlay in this mask, but to me personally with the current use of gold and vaguely gold-like coloring, it heavily reminded me of the art of kintsugi, a very beautiful Japanese practice of repairing broken pieces with a mixed gold. The philosophy behind it being that it brought a sort of respect and reverence to our past, our hardships that we faced, our flaws, and our experiences that create our being and brought us to where we are now. To not hide them, but to embrace them.

It's interesting that, after the burning, "death", and resurrection of the house, that Malakai would return with a fractured and now healed mask, a respect to the hardships that the House has faced, a reverence to carry those hardships that had faced in his own face.

If this is a reference to kintsugi, then it's fun to explore even further into Japanese imagery in relation to Malakai and what he has been presenting, especially again the idea of horned demons and gods, of things not entirely evil yet not quite good either.

But again, the potential use of kintsugi and ichor as a philosophical image really brings forth the image of a divinity and change... Of praise and beauty in the violence, but this time quiet, from within, within the very walls of the House, as opposed to a blessing on his enemies... And like the fires of the Tower card, burned and buried, dust to dust, and returned from the ashes.

I'm going to cut myself off now before I go off any any more tangents djdj so I'm just going to end this with a film quote that is always in my head; that I now play on loop in relation to Malakai and the House of Black.

I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Gaius Caligula, I am all men as I am no man and therefore I am a God. - Caligula, (1979)

[beif0ngs]

Over the Garden Wall 10th Anniversary stop motion short by creator Patrick McHale and Aardman Animations

[ladysantos]

an old karlach i never got to finish

[frankierotwinkdeath]

Y’all want Taylor Swift to be gay so bad but you won’t even write femslash about her

[wormy-business]

I saw this question posed on tiktok, but I think Tumblr would really enjoy it too.

If a fae creature offered to give one million dollars for a bone FROM YOUR BODY chosen at random, how many bones would you allow them to take?

Light clarifications; The fae is not the one choosing the bones. The bone is taken at random. Each bone, no matter the size or importance, is worth a full million dollars. You must also declare the exact number first, you can't go bone-by-bone. You either say 2 or you say 10, you can't work your way up to a higher number. The bones are removed instantaneously, and the money is given immediately as well. You will not get in government trouble for acquiring the money.

Tell me in the tags/replies how many bones you'd let the fae take. And as always, reblog for bigger sample size.

[romiiarts]

cemetery drive

[shawmymy]

> Canary Resuscitator

Something about miners getting attached to the canary to the point they try to give them a fighting chance, except this time it's the miner that gets killed.

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[sergle]

the threshold has been crossed, it is now springtime!!

[angelofdumpsterfires]

how i feel about all the changes in s3

[hansoeii]

this one's for you, edwin paine

[yourangle-yuordevil]

That time in ancient Greece when Aziraphale needed a speedy horse and accidentally invented the pegasus

VS.

Whatever Crowley had going on in medieval times

[airoarts]

yellowfang, i wish you were here. my sister is dying.

ID in alt and under cut

ID: digital painting of Cinderpelt and Brightpaw from Warriors. They are two cats curled around each other. Brightpaw, a ginger-and-white cat, is badly injured with cobwebs as bandages around her face and other injuries. She is unconscious and lying on her side in a moss nest. Cinderpelt, a gray cat, is curled around her with her tail over Brightpaw's back, looking at her with concern. They are in a shaded den surrounded by autumnal ferns, with a pool of water in the corner, and a strip of bright sunlight illuminating their faces. end ID.

[chloesimaginationthings]

William is the most divorced man in the FNAF universe

[k-martins]

I'm not ready to say goodbye to him, so I put him in a jar 🥹🥹

[transthatfag]

destiel forehead healing kiss. what more could u want.