#roman holidays obvi

[zmaragdos]

february has so many holidays....

[forjongseong]

i think a big factor is also people’s taste when it comes to masculine visuals because heejakehoon all have softer visuals compared to jay like they’re all masculine obvi but they just have a softer aura and i think that’s why people tend to like them more because they seem more approachable/attainable. to me jay has the classic handsome look like an old movie star (heres where i propose my jay as gregory peck’s character in roman holiday) and he’s overall just a lot more traditionally masculine looking and some people might not find that as attractive since he’s not as “boyfriend” as heejakehoon but as a lot of people say he’s rather more “husband” material lmao

when you said "traditionally masculine" I literally gasped because that's exactly the phrase I would also use to describe him! he's the old type of handsome and I don't mean old in age, I mean like in... era??? like if you edit a picture of him in a suit and make it black and white you can easily mistake him for a side character in a James Bond movie or whatever, and I've been saying it all the time that Jay looks like an action movie actor (the type who would star with or against Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and the sorts) AND EVEN HEESEUNG said that Jay looks like a Hong Kong movie actor in that one en-oclock episode 😭

Jay is definitely more husband material, and I think this can also relate to the previous ask I answered about him attracting an older fanbase!

[keitheaverage]

Roman Holiday but with ENA. RomENA Holiday. 🥁

[undermattsun-archive]

wait at what age were u going to church and all that mass stuff bc idky i’m not religious

um,, all my life?

[the-badger-mole]

Top 10 movies from any genre/decade you can watch and think, "yup that's a Zutara AU right there"

This is...not as easy as I thought. I like movies, but not a lot of the movies I like lend themselves to Zutara AUs, strangely enough. I could go back to Eve's Bayou or The First Wives Club over and over, but you could see how I can't really make an AU out of those, right? Like the best fit for Zutara in that movie would be Brenda and Morty, and I can't do that to either of them. And there is sex in Eve's Bayou, but not romance. Also, most of the viable men to build an AU around end up dead. I like to use tropes and archetypes when I'm making up stories for these two more so than actual movie plots, but let me see what I can come up with.

In no particular order:

1. Brown Sugar (and honestly, it's mostly because I want that restaurant scene as a Maiko break up)

2. My Best Friend's Wedding (I haven't decided yet if Katara is the Kimmy character, and Jin is the Julie, or if Zuko is the Kimmy and Haru is the Julie. Either way, Toph is the George).

3. Pride and Prejudice (this one speaks for itself. And yes, I do mean the Keira Knightly version)

4. The Mummy (damagectrl did an amazing take on this idea in A Drop in the Desert. Mine would be closer to the Brendan Fraser movie, though. )

5. Just Like Heaven (I just think Zuko would be absolutely perfect as a put upon Mark Ruffalo type dealing with a pissed off ghost Katara)

6. Maid in Manhattan (I'm a sucker for a good Cinderella story. Speaking of which...)

7. Brandy and Whitney Houston's Cinderella (the trouble with musicals is that it's difficult to capture the magic of one in writing. Most of the things that I love about this movie I can't put into a fic, bu~ut the character dynamics I can. And I love the idea of Lt. Jee as Lionel.)

8. Father of the Bride (Hakoda would be the Steve Martin character, obvi. Bonus! Kya is alive in this scenario!)

9. Roman Holiday (not really a romance, but it could be with a few tweaks. Also, Katara would be the reporter and Zuko is obviously the prince.)

10. How to Marry a Millionaire (this idea has been floating around my head for a while, and bizarrely, I think it works for Katara and Zuko. Katara would be the Schatze and Zuko would be the Tom.)

Bonus Entry: Anastasia. This is another one where I'm not sure if Zuko or Katara should be in the Anastasia role, and it largely comes down to Iroh. I think Iroh would make an incredible Vlad character, but I could also see him in the dowager empress' role. If Zuko is the Anastasia, there wouldn't really be a Vlad because both Katara and Sokka would have all the sass of Dimitri.

[dreamertrilogys]

HEY GIVE ME SONG RECCCSSSSS BC IM BORED

UHHH WAIT U LISTEN(ED’ TO FOB BUT NOT ATL RIGHT SO OBVI LIEK FOB DISCOGRAOGY AND STUFF BUT MAYB TRY THE KIDS IN THE DARK, GETAWAY GREEN, AND DARK SIDE OF YOUR ROOM BY ALL TIME LOW AND ALSO REVOLUTION RADIO BY GREEN DAY IS A BANGER BUT ALSO IK UR MORE INTO POP THESE DAYS SO MAYBE HONESTY (WASNT ETCHINCALLY RELEASED SO YT :OENSIVE:), ROMAN HOLIDAY, AND BE KIND BY HALSEY AND ALSO IK YOUVE DEF LISETNED TO THIS BUT DANCING IN TE DARK (IDK WHT ITS CALLED THE HANDS TIED INVISBLE LOCKET INE?) BY TAYLOR SWIFT AND ALSO TRY UHH,,, MORE ATL BUT I LOVE GLITTER & CRIMSON

[strideofpride]

#'i'm done with fairytales. it's time to be real again.'#and if that ain't the PERFECT marker for blair's growth as a character!#series. done. wrapped. she made it.#someone - one of you geniuses that I follow but I can't remember. S probs saved the tags#pointed out that blair has SO many dream sequences. but they stop around the time she falls for dan#because he's REAL. he's her center. her anchor into reality. and she doesn't need to dream herself into a story with him#bc just being with him is better.#something something she can stop dreaming herself into another character's story bc he wrote her her own#of the two fantasy sequences that are ~dair~#one of them is serena's. and is a manifestation of her fear of their connection#and the other one is blair reading Inside. she's AWAKE and actively painting that picture in her head.#the last dream dream I think is one where chip hijacks roman holiday. and it's about her being afraid of him.#and then no more dreams#until s6! (which is fake obvi but go there with me)#and I haven't seen it in years but in gifsets it's charade right?#so the dream sequences stop. and then come back during the chair redux of s6#so one reading could be: blair has to compensate for her own personal story again#by filling it out with one of audrey's#to make it understandable. to break it into managable pieces#to make it Safe again.#but guess who she never had to compensate with?!?!?!?!#which brings us back to: THIS moment. this decision is where her story should have ended.#and not the regression of her character that happens after s5#but s6 is fake anyway it can't hurt us (via @terrainofheartfelt)

#this is really what it’s ABOUT huh!!!#because even outside the louis arc—which was blair’s running from reality in its most extravagant form—blair wraps herself in anything but#what’s real#and that’s sort of the role the UES plays in the narrative? ‘it’s all keeping us numb to the real world’#the POINT was that they need to forge real connections in that world of artifice#because that glitz and glamour is just another fairytale#and that’s what the ‘epic love story’ is too—just a story with nothing to back it up#it’s all a myth#‘we make our own fairytales’ and ‘you’re the star of dan’s book’ all lead here—to choosing each other and a real life together#not just clinging to a story#and this isn’t a defeat but something hopeful#what blair wanted and needed all along#for her reality to be so good that she doesn’t need to hide inside a story anymore (via @mysteriesofloves)

DAIR REWATCH ⇢ 5.22 Raiders of the Lost Art

[keshetchai]

Why does Judaism not have a central authority - like Catholics have the Papacy etc? Is there any concept of "sacramental" leadership, like how we understand the Pope as Christ's representative/vicar, within Judaism? Or is there a theology that is more collective and egalitarian, communal in action and hermeneutics and understanding what is True. (Obvi Catholics have a very top-down system concerning revelation of Truth from the Magisterium) - sorry if I'm bugging you here! It's all so intriguing

this post is gonna be so very long that it’s just going to go under a big cut and has the like…clarification that i may have made mistakes and i am greatly simplifying some things. 

i’ll preface with a nice story: 

Hillel, when asked by a prospective convert to Judaism to teach him the whole Torah while he stood on one leg, replied: “That which is hateful unto you do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole of the Torah, The rest is commentary. Now go and study.”

i feel like an answer of all of these questions could maybe take thousands of words and several pages but like the short answer is “no” and “we don’t anymore there’s no temple, but even so the High Priest was not the same or similar to the pope.” 

a slightly longer answer, point by point:

Why does Judaism not have a central authority?

There used to be a High Priest, who was the primary authority of the Jewish Temple. However, there is no longer a Temple on the Temple mount, and therefore we do not have a High Priest. Realistically speaking the dome of the rock and the al-aqsa mosque now sit on top of the temple mount and the remains of the temple, and aren’t like….going anywhere. So we won’t see a third temple being built anytime soon, and therefore have no reason to have a high priest. 

that’s the most practical answer i can give you. we like, don’t have one because the romans destroyed the temple (and therefore much of the job of the high priest) and tried to end Judaism. we have a holiday about it, where you sit on the floor, fast the whole day, and are sad (this is a very quick description, to give you the idea.)

historically speaking, this move of destroying the temple did not work for the romans. the Jewish people still exist, and the Roman Empire…well…does not. (am israel chai. the people of israel live.)

we have had other things/positions of power and leadership but like…nothing like the pope. Especially because one of the pope’s major jobs has never been like, “prevent my people from all being slaughtered by the local community.” today there are often chief rabbis of various jewish communities in the diaspora, and two representative chief rabbis of the “orthodox” world in Israel who make up the chief rabbinate, and they’re elected for ten years as head of the rabbinate council. i don’t know much about it because it’s A.) in Israel only and B.) i’m not orthodox and C.) also there aren’t really chief rabbis in north america outside of Montreal and also D.) the concept of a chief rabbi is not really mandated in Judaism, since in theory all rabbis have the same amount of authority.

Is there any concept of “sacramental” leadership, like how we understand the Pope as Christ’s representative/vicar, within Judaism?

we don’t like…we don’t…

okay let’s just throw out all the christian terminology here because i can’t make those comparisons, i will just answer the question i think you are asking:

Q 1.) what do jewish people like, do, anyways?

A 1.) we fulfill mitzvot (aka ‘commandments’). there are 613 of them. some of them depend on the existence of the temple, which doesn’t exist, so obviously we can’t do those. we also have roles which can only be fulfilled by the priests or high priest. the position of high priest does not exist currently (see: romans, temple). technically of the 12 tribes of israel, 2 still exist as distinct tribes: the kohanim, the levites, and both are the priestly tribes. everyone else is now called yisraelim (mostly from the tribe of Judah or Benjamin). those who are kohen or levite are expected to perform certain things and still technically have like, certain roles or honors but the role of priests in average jewish life is again not the same as it was when there was a temple. 

Q 2.) okay who like DOES this commandment stuff? who fulfills mitzvot?

A 2.) jewish people are obligated in fulfilling mitzvot to the extent that fulfilling them is currently possible. there’s like some things that may or may not apply to specific individuals and that is complicated but generally speaking if you are jewish, you do the things. 

Q 3.) so like, uh….if you want to lead a service, who does the Things?

A 3.) literally any jewish person can, in theory, Do The Things. some movements prefer that men and women are obligated to do certain specific things but in a progressive environment anyone can do the Thing.  my rabbi (liberal reform movement) said he is a “professional jew” but not like…inherently better or anything, it’s just his job to be really jewish and know how to be really jewish (oversimplification, but the point is, other people can do a lot of the things he does). oftentimes during the summer, the rabbis at my synagogue are off doing things or studying or who knows what else, and sometimes the services will be run by other people. technically speaking, i could, in theory, lead a whole service. in reality i do not feel prepared enough to do so, but i am capable and should i be asked to do so, it would be my duty to the community. we even let thirteen year olds do this. 

generally speaking if you have ten jews in a room you can do almost all of the Things, although some of those jews might know what they are doing better than others. if someone goes around asking “are you jewish? we need a tenth person,” and you are jewish, you have to say yes because they need a tenth jewish person to do a Thing. (some prayers are only recited in the presence of a minyan, which is ten jewish adults.) 

 i think technically(?) i could even be like “as a jewish person i want to officiate a jewish wedding ceremony” but my rabbi said the state really prefers that someone with the title of rabbi does that because like, it’s just easier to regulate and keep track of and less confusing/less paperwork. like religiously speaking all jews can do the Jewish Things, which are fulfilling mitzvot (commandments), inclusive of rituals/holidays/life cycle events (like marriage or circumcision). but some jews are professionals at doing these things (like rabbis or cantors or a moyel), or are from the priestly tribe and therefore obligated to do more things, or we can’t do the things because no temple. 

this is a big big big simplification. 

….so i think the answer is “no.”

Or is there a theology that is more collective and egalitarian

yes.

hermeneutics and understanding what is True

i dont have an answer per se but: “israel” means “wrestles with g-d” so like…fight g-d, wrestle for the truth, argue with g-d or anyone else. 

the graphic novel The Rabbi’s Cat also discusses the difference between Judaism and other forms of like…western thought

“Western thought works by thesis, antithesis, synthesis, while Judaism goes thesis, antithesis, antithesis, antithesis….”

everyone is always studying, we are always reading torah, we read it in cycles every year, all the time, over and over and we argue about it. 

all jewish people were given the torah, and therefore we are all equally able to have…it…? does this make sense?