#religious parallels

[greenqueenhightower]

Alicent offering up Aegon's life was the ultimate sacrifice, and there is no surprise that yet again, it is religiously coded. God himself offered up his firstborn "only-begotten" Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the survival of humanity. Alicent's pain for having to do the same with Aegon is immeasurable. Did she think she was actually redeeming Aegon if she condemned him to death, thus giving him a new birth? Did she want to save him from a life of disgrace and disability? Is it his turn to become a sacrifice for the good of her family as she had become?

Like God, Alicent had to offer what she held dear for the survival of all her children and family. Aegon being her firstborn, the carrier of her flaws and the mirror of her psyche, was the only choice. His fate has always been so linked with hers that in sacrificing him for her and her daughter’s freedom, in severing the umbilical cord with him so abruptly, she condemns her own life to death in the process. That’s the only way Alicent can pay retribution for everyone's sins, and Aegon's messianic sacrifice can ensure peace, deliverance, and hope. She's the one who, like Viserys said, "must do this" and pay the highest price ever paid. She makes the ultimate sacrifice at the expense of herself and her son and in effect has done much more to unite the realm than Rhaenyra ever has.

[therealneilperry]

Duuude, the overtly religious overtones when Viktor healed that guy and was all, “I’m here to save u from suffering”, and everyone falling to their knees as light shined upon him from above etc.

[vintagemaniac]

[catwouthats]

Agatha Harkness 🤝 The Virgin Mary

Making a lie about your son which somehow leads to a new belief system

[justapotato89]

The (somewhat accurate) "biblical" parallels in killing eve are insane how am i realising it just now

You have Eve, who is well Eve. In this picture, Lilith is the serpent tempting Eve. Villanelle tempts eve in much the same way. Lilith is not portrayed as seductive, just questioning, planting the seed of doubt, gently suggesting a possibility and offering means. Eve looks doubtful, questioning, just a little uncomfortable. Quite the same way Eve begins to realise her obsession with Villanelle is affecting her relationship with Niko and everything else. This moment of question pops up in the book (Codename: Villanelle) as when she wears the bracelet instead of submitting it for evidence. She questions the way she's impressed by, "the sheer, dazzling effrontery of it".

In the show, we see it when she applies the lipstick, there's a moment of utter, "what am i doing, this is supposed to be evidence". Yet she does it. She doesn't even get mad when the blade cuts her lip.

She just questions herself. Stares at the spectacle Villanelle's made her

Such a bold statement to make. A perfect signature.

Going to Villanelle, the stereotypical Lilith is portrayed as sexually empowering, dominating. In both the shows and the books, Villanelle is portrayed as sexually wanton, despite her choice of career which demands utmost secrecy.

Working for the Dvenadtsat, she couldn't care less about formality and cleanliness even after being warned - the style, the independence is her signature. To her each kill is a work of art, it deserves a proper artist's signature. Quite easy to draw parallels here.

Then we have the comparison of Lilith and Eve, the dominant and submissive counterparts of each other. What if Eve (from bible) wasn't formed from Adam's rib? What if she wasn't damned to be obedient?

That's just exactly the question Eve (the show character) represents. Society, as it always does, expected Eve to be content with a loving husband, a fulfilling job, a house, good colleagues. But Eve is anything but normal. She's the John to Holmes, who tags along for the danger, the adrenaline. She loves the thrill of not knowing if her next step is going to be her last one. And Villanelle takes her as the apprentice, both in the book and in the show.

"You were never like them. You only thought you were."

[starsilversword]

Okay but doesn't this:

Look like this?

There's even 13 of them. The guy in the uniform doesn't count tho. He wasn't on the train.

[karanseraph]

Are we still doing spoilers for Transformers One?

I only saw it for the first time today. I'd seen other people's takes and reviews before.

I kinda got a vibe from D-16/Megatron like his path was analogous to people I know of in real life that left a certain faith path and then went almost militantly atheist.

Like, he was so invested in and such a believer in Sentinel's procedures and version of events that when he was faced with contradictory information he didn't do that cognitive dissonance thing some people do where he ignores and doubles down on his beliefs. Not for long, anyway, if he does. He goes pretty quickly to vehemently rejecting the WHOLE system, even the other Primes that hadn't betrayed him or Cybertron. He rejects ALL leadership, because that one leader was terrible. (But then also accepts, possibly even expects, others to follow him, becoming himself a leader.)

I've seen this sometimes with former religious believers, where there's the cognitive dissonance version where the contradictory information just doesn't even get processed. But then there's also the people who when faced with the contradictory information reject the WHOLE thing with a fiery passion and make it their mission to convince everyone else now that that system was so wrong.

I'm not presenting a take here in the sense that anyone should or shouldn't be religious or have certain real reactions based on my watching an animated movie.

But, I'm saying, the art imitates life in plausible ways. There are people who have strong reactions like we saw the character have.

I'm a little less clear on what Orion/Optimus' position is. Like, I guess he's like the kind of person that didn't have much faith in current organized official procedures, but did believe in Primus/Matrix/Primes generally. So, when faced with the relevatory information, it didn't register as very contradictory, he was able to say to himself: "But it was just that one bad leader." Leadership and Primes aren't inherently bad in any way.

And then he goes on to be literally divinely appointed as a leader, guess.

IDk how much it's autonomy when you have divinely-appointed leadership, but whatever. It's plausible in that there are also people in real life who do believe in such figures and support them.

I did think going into the movie, having seen some spoilers, that casting a number of known Autobots as The Miners was narratively an attempt to make them more sympathetic instead of allowing them to be viewed as continuing and protecting a flawed status quo as in some contnuities?

But, I don't know if that worked.

But, I don't think, in real life we should burn anything "it all" down. Because we know that when you go that route and you don't already have something in place to replace your system, it's the most vulnerable who end up hurt.

But I also don't love the maintain status quo with a new leader. In real life, the argument would be that once that happens, the people petition their leader to make the changes they need and want.

I guess one big change they'd want already magically happened with sacrifice when the energon came back so none of them need to mine.

Like, are the Autobots going to vote on policies or what specifically to do about Quintessons or Decepticons?

[compassionmattersmost]

Ramayana No. 9: The Dark Night and the Hero’s Journey

As I delve deeper into the Ramayana, the timeless story continues to reveal layers of wisdom that resonate across spiritual traditions and cultures. One striking parallel that emerges is the connection between the tale of Manthara and the serpent in the Genesis story, both of which serve as catalysts for the hero’s journey—necessary agents of disruption that propel the protagonists from the…

[turiyatitta]

The Trikaya and the Trinity

[namedforvalor]

When I close my eyes and tilt my head towards the sun, painting the back of my eyelids bright red and speckled, my face warm and soft and kissed, I wonder if that's you. I wonder if I still get to feel you nowadays. I wonder if you'd even let me. I wonder if you even listen to me when I try to talk to you. I'm so desperate for a conversation. I'm so desperate to make sense of it, make sense of any of it.

I grew up in sanctuaries, long hallways with red carpets, blank walls apart from the occasional cross. I grew up in Sunday schools and chapel classes, grew up looking at stained glass windows and busts of a white man's head. I grew up being told I was so unconditionally loved, so blanketed in warmth, so covered in blood. I grew up always feeling cold, always feeling sad, drinking my lemonade and eating my vanilla cookies in a dress that always felt too heavy when the velvet itched against my shins. I was baptized, I was christened. My grandma gave me a Bible for my tenth birthday. I can't tell you how many times I walked up the aisle when the call to God was offered. I'm sure you know how many times.

But I never knew you there. Not once. I've only ever felt you in the backseats of cars, in wide open fields with the sun on my face, in someone's basement where I didn't have to be anyone but myself, in beach accesses at three am. I've only ever known you when I was at my absolute best or my absolute worst. I've only know you when I thought I was on the same plane as you or when I was so far away from you I didn't know what to do with myself anymore. But I've never felt you where I'm supposed to. I've never felt you in any of those churches or any of my classrooms. I've never felt you in any of the adults I know, never heard you speaking through my grandma or my mom. I can't. Not when they told me you were nothing but love and those people are anything but. Not when they told me you loved me beyond my comprehension and those people can't even love me as much as I need them to.

And I just keep getting older and I just keep trying to make sense of it.

So I'm asking. How do I make sense of you? How do I make sense of you when nothing I know about you adds up to who you're supposed to be? When everyone who's ever claimed to know you makes me feel sick to my stomach? How am I supposed to make sense of you when the people who have made sense of you don't make any sense?

How do I make sense of me without you?

And if you do exist, do you hate me? Are all the rumors true? Would you spit me out of your mouth so violently, call me lukewarm when I stare up at you drenched to the bone? Would you call me Thomas for wanting to understand, look at me with such distain when I tell I can't? Would you turn your back on me, tell me I'm painted black now and you can't bare the sight of me? Do you hate me? Do you glare at this tiny thing you've created in wonder or reproach? Do you worry for me? Do you miss me at all?

[greenqueenhightower]

Alicent's Catharsis, Rebirth, and Baptism in 2x07–Religious Parallels: (Long Post Warning)

"You will be hated by all people on account of my name." (Matthew 10:22) "All my life I've endeavored to serve both my house and the realm, and somehow none of it matters. We are cast aside. Or hated."

In this scene, the sight of her own blood, as Orwyle tends to her wound, brings forth Alicent's realization: all she's ever done was in service to others at the cost of herself, the size of which doesn't seem to matter. Alicent's words contain the belief that her fate was preordained. With the vision of her childhood and married life fresh in her mind, Alicent has many reasons to believe her children and herself were destined to face the hatred of the world. Christ warned his followers of the same fate. Interestingly, Alicent doesn't simply say "my family," but "my house and the realm." Her psyche is torn apart by two opposing forces, her fealty to her Hightower heritage and her role as a wife and mother to Targaryen kings. No matter how much she tried, she hasn't been able to reconcile the two, and her devotion to both has meant disloyalty to herself.

"So I call you to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men." (Acts 20:26) "Nothing is clean here."

Otherwise venerated in the body of Christ, Alicent's sacrifice of the red, hot blood she spilled and the scar that would be "easily hidden" have lost all their purity. That filthy room, that gown, that place, suck all life out of her dry. Alicent sought a witness to her life, one who would acknowledge her sacrifices. A voice to say they were proud of her and all she'd done. The fact that she must once again live in the shadows and hide herself and her wounds, makes the spilled blood feel cheap and Alicent herself feel dirty, body and soul.

"So they came to a spot named Gethsemane." (Mark 14:32) "To the Kingswood, I think."

Alicent asks Ser Rickard to be her sole witness as she seeks to reclaim herself. Her desire to flee to the Kingswood, a place with religious and prophetic significance where some have sought the white stag for guidance and self-confirmation, mirrors Christ's flight to Gethsemane, a place he felt closer to his Father in prayer, in the final moments before his execution. Just like Christ did with his disciples, Alicent takes Ser Rickard along to keep watch while she finds solitude in the Kingswood.

"I saw heaven opened, and look! a white horse. And the one seated on it is called Faithful and True." (Revelation 19:11) "I have to believe, that in the end, honor and decency will prevail."

Alicent challenges the Arthurian stereotypes of chivalry by becoming her own knight on a white horse. Paralleling Christ again, Alicent yearns to become Faithful and True to herself. She has spent her life devotedly faithful to her father's commandments, the principles of the Seven, and the expectations of a Queen. For years she has held fast to the belief that this devotion to honor and decency would be her saving grace. Now, all she had faith in crumbles. Seated on a white horse, grabbing her life by the reins, Alicent must become her own Savior.

"I still have many more things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now." (John 16:12) "I'm not yet certain I do."

Alicent's mission forms as her first day of withdrawal into the serene landscape around her comes to an end. Her composure and calm demeanor denote that she has found some peace and tranquility in the time she spent with herself and her thoughts. Her mind is made up for something momentous, which she does not yet reveal to Ser Rickard. She knows that he wouldn't understand if she were to tell him. Christ knew he would be equally berated and misunderstood. And neither would her children now be able to bear all her words and actions, so she decides to stay away.

"In grassy pastures he makes me lie down; he leads me to well-watered resting places." (Psalm 23:2) "In all of King's Landing is there no one to take my side?"

On her second day of rediscovery, completely stripped away from delusions, Alicent appreciates the openness of the field before her. Having escaped the prisons of King's Landing and the Red Keep, Alicent embraces her loneliness. As a mysterious, almost divine force pulls her closer to the water, Alicent roams the woods alone again. But for perhaps the first time, Alicent is surrounded solely by trees and flowers. There are no walls, no corsets, no retinue, no handmaidens, no definitions, no boundaries, and no expectations because she wished it. There's just herself, stripped of anything confining, the vast expanse of water before her, and the limitless sky above. She looks so much like the sigil of her mother's house: House Florent. With her red hair and blue dress against the green forest, Alicent is a little Florent fox in the woods. Is she calling her mother's spirit to take her side?

"Purify me from my sin with hyssop, so that I will be clean; wash me so that I will be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7) "The gods punish us. They punish me."

Alicent's journey to the water indicates her reclaiming of freedom and agency. Her catharsis is to come, neither by receiving absolution from another person, nor by having faith in the Seven, but by her own hands. She alone can cleanse and baptize herself, and thus bound to a new duty to herself, offer herself a new start.

"They were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River, openly confessing their sins." (Mark 1:5) "I have sinned."

Alicent removes the last articles of definition before she immerses herself in the water. She now stands moments away from her new disillusioned self, rethinking her purpose in life and her own self worth. Like Christ, Alicent wears white. She is leaving everything and everyone behind to be reborn as her own Savior and to wash away memories and mistakes of her past. She is ready to start building a new tower of faith in herself, to replace the one she violently lost.

"The holy spirit in bodily form like a dove came down upon him, and a voice came out of heaven: 'You are my Son, the beloved; I have approved you." (Luke 3:22) "You must do this."

As Alicent surrenders to a new birth, her desire for freedom and escape becomes clearer with the bird's appearance. Finally free, Alicent enjoys simple moments such as this immersion in the lake she gets to experience alone, for the first time. Once again embodying Christ, Alicent stares at the bird flying overhead in awe, as if it were the holy spirit coming down from the heavens to declare its approval. The bird becomes the witness to her new birth and a sign of confirmation and blessing on the course she has chosen to tread. Alicent has made up her mind about the next necessary step. Even if Viserys' words have proved to be fickle, it is indeed she who "must do this" and try to save her family and the realm any way she knows. Will she sacrifice herself (or save herself) for the sake of both?

"Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, a sacred service with your power of reason." (Romans 12:1) "A true queen counts the cost to her people."

Alicent's power of reason compels her to not give up on her life but to readjust it to a much more secure course. As she yearns for freedom, Alicent mimics the bird's movements. How much she would like to fly away from everything, far from all this mess! And yet, her new resolve grounds her in a powerful way. By the end of her baptism ritual, Alicent has moved from the green backdrop to the lake's blue. Just as Christ regained memories of his pre-human existence, Alicent has claimed some lost fragments of her childhood and herself. This experience of retrospection, reclaiming of purpose, and newfound self-worth become a signpost for a new Alicent: the one who values herself more and adds the cost to herself in the tally.

[therealneilperry]

Soooo, is viktor just Moses now?

I mean, a zaunite (piltovers lowest class) living in piltover (Moses being prince), who eventually goes back to his people and decides to free them, wile following the guidance of God (following the hexcore’s path).

[fairylando]

San Sebastiano (1474) di Sandro Botticelli

[asoftepiloguemylove]

GOD LOVES YOU, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU // GOD AND SUFFERING

Andrew Joseph White Hell Followed With Us // Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers Questions About the Father // Brittany Broski Why I Left the Christian Church // Clarice Lispector (tr. Katrina Dodson) "The Departure of the Train," The Complete Stories // @/katabasiss // "Shiizakana," Hannibal (2013-2015) dir. Michael Rymer // Xooang Choi // Ocean Vuong "Prayer for the Newly Damned," Night Sky with Exit Wounds // The Vaccines Wetsuit // Mitski I'm Your Man // Fall Out Boy Just One Yesterday // Hélène Cixous Readings: The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector, and Tsvetaeva

[goryhorroor]

immaculate (2024) the first omen (2024)

[until-i-set-him-free]

Jesus is queer and lives in Los Angeles

Footnote to Howl by Allen Ginsberg / Christ Displaying His Wounds by Giacomo Galli / 9-1-1 s2e16 "Bobby Begins Again" / 'stigmata' definition from Britannica / rumors about jesus by Keaton St. James

9-1-1 s2e12 "Chimney Begins" / The Entombment by Peter Paul Rubens (fragment) / trans jesus by Keaton St. James

9-1-1 s8e03 "Capsized" / a sticker I got with socio-cultural queer magazine in Poland / Bible / The Passion of the Christ (2004)

9-1-1 s7e03 "Capsized" / Jesus at the Gay Bar by Jay Humle

Hannibal s3e03 "Secondo" script / 9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / The Light of the World (St Paul's Cathedral version) by William Holman Hunt (fragment) + its Wikipedia

9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / the cover of Berek by Marcin Szczygielski / Angels in America by Tony Kushner / Most Sacred Heart of Jesus / Oh My Heart by R.E.M. / Pygmy Love Song by Francis Bebey

Christ in Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann / Goodtime Jesus by James Tate / 9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / Gethsemane by Dry the River

9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace) in Cochabamba, Bolivia / Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode / 9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" + Christ the Comforter by Carl Heinrich Bloch / God in Jeans by Ryan Beatty

9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" / Christ the Consoler by Kateryna Kariukova / Deathbed by Relient K

Hammer by Dry the River / 9-1-1 s7e04 "Buck, Bothered and Bewildered" / Bible / 9-1-1 s7e06 "There Goes the Groom" / November by Keaton St. James

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel Mallory Ortberg / 9-1-1 s7e05 "You Don't Know Me" / 9-1-1 s7e10 "All Fall Down" / Making Pies by Patty Griffin / Touch Me from Spring Awakening (with a comment from Genius.com) / Footnote to Howl by Allen Ginsberg