#sorry about the blasphemy

[blasphemousclaw]

Every shred of Rykard lore from Shadow of the Erdtree

So, naturally, I went through the DLC completely focused on looking for Rykard lore. I never expected much, but despite him not ever being directly mentioned, I still discovered a lot of interesting implications about him… here is everything I found!

Dancer of Ranah

While I was in the middle of playing the DLC, I made this post about the Dancer of Ranah, and how Tanith was from that culture. But I no longer believe that the dancers of Ranah are shadow land natives, because there’s only the one found in the mausoleum there. We know Rykard met Tanith in a foreign land, and the Tower of Suppression on the Gravesite Plain says that it is in fact “the very center of the Lands Between,” so the shadow lands are probably not meant to be the foreign land where Rykard met Tanith.

I bet that somewhere out there there’s a land called Ranah where Tanith is from that Rykard traveled to for some reason. I still have no idea what sort of business he might’ve had abroad though. maybe he was on vacation. Anyway, this lone Dancer of Ranah must’ve came to the shadow lands for some specific reason, and then died for some reason? Literally who knows what happened

Abductor Virgins and the Fort of Reprimand

While the presence of the Dancer of Ranah doesn’t give any strong evidence of Rykard’s connection to the shadow lands, there is something that explicitly does: In this post, I showed off the two abductor virgins found at the Fort of Reprimand on Scadu Altus, and I picked apart the whole storyline of the fort to try to figure out why they’re there. Basically, one of the abductors has the Ghiza’s Wheel attachment, and since Ghiza was a torturer under Rykard, the abductor had to have come from his inquisition. Which fits perfectly with the purpose of the Fort of Reprimand — to punish nonbelievers and unfaithful Messmer soldiers. Rykard must have made this contribution because the crusade had need of his expertise in methods of punishment.

This raises some questions about the timeline. The crusade seems to have begun after Radagon and Rennala had married, because Rellana seems to have left her sister behind to go follow Messmer on good terms, which would not be the case if Caria were threatened by or at war with the Erdtree. But it also can’t have begun after Radagon left Rennala, because the Rennala who parted ways with her sister seems to have been her strong and clearheaded self, not the way we see her today. Ritual combat, which “died out by the age of King Consort Radagon,” also exists in the shadow lands, so the crusade had to have begun some time before Radagon’s reign in order for ritual combat to have spread there. Lastly, Messmer knowing about the Tarnished implies that he had not yet left to begin the crusade when Godfrey was banished. To recap, it seems like the crusade might’ve begun in the period between Godfrey’s banishment and Radagon’s ascension as Elden Lord (I guess Marika spent some time without a consort?), and then it continued up until the present day.

Since Rykard contributed his abductor virgins to the crusade, this implies that he was already involved with the inquisition by the time of the crusade. Whether this happened immediately when it began, or later on in the crusade is unclear. But if he did make his contribution right at the beginning of the crusade, then this seems to disprove my previous theory that Rykard nepo-babied his way to Praetorship just because Radagon was Elden Lord. Sad! I do think it’s possible that the Fort of Reprimand only became a place of punishment once soldiers started to rebel later in the crusade? But this depends on the nature of the shadow lands’ sealing and how accessible it was at that time. Which I’ll be honest I have no idea how that’s supposed to work

Though Rykard seems to have had a hand in the crusade, I kind of doubt that he was physically present at the Fort of Reprimand… because it was kind of a big deal that Rellana and all of her retinue left their homes behind, never to return, to serve the crusade, AND because the crusade was so violent (“a war unseen. One that could never be put to song. A purge without Grace or honour”) that anyone who participated would’ve probably had their reputation tainted.

Dueling Shield

The symbol on the Dueling Shield made me do a double take — it’s the exact same symbol that’s on the right side of the Taker’s Cameo:

This shield is “An armament once used in ritual combat performed to honor the Erdtree—a custom that had somehow remained within the realm of shadow.” And the Taker’s Cameo reads, “When Rykard turned to heresy, taking by force became the rule. The gods themselves were no different, after all.”

I can’t find the symbol depicted anywhere else? Though ritual combat was done to honor the Erdtree, I don’t think this is an Erdtree symbol, because the Taker’s Cameo implies that it was made after Rykard’s heresy and he hates the Erdtree. I think there’s two options for what the symbol might mean:

1. It’s related to ritual combat itself. I think ritual combat’s displays of power and strength fit with Rykard’s “taking by force” rule. Also, ritual combat has a connection to the crucible: the Ritual Sword Talisman is “patterned after swords used in ritual combat,” and the sword is the exact one that Crucible Knight Ordovis uses:

And the Volcano Manor actually has its own crucible knight! so maybe Rykard has a connection to the crucible too?

2. It’s related to serpents in some way… we get the shield in Messmer’s Specimen Storehouse, a place covered in his snake iconography, and on the Taker’s Cameo the symbol is surrounded by two snakes.

I literally have no idea how else to interpret this symbol because we don’t see it anywhere else. but I think the use of it in these two places has to be deliberate!!

Snake shed near Bonny Village

This thing confounds me. It’s found not far from this figure where you pick up the “O, Mother” gesture (headless, like the Marika statues throughout the shadow lands):

My first instinct is to connect it to Messmer, because Bonny Village is where his mother’s people suffered, and the tree woman is connected to Marika’s village, and he says the exact words “O, Mother” in his boss fight, and he is himself possessed by a huge serpent? The problem is, the snake model doesn’t look like Messmer’s serpent(s), it looks exactly like the God-Devouring Serpent’s shed in the Temple of Eiglay:

(God-Devouring Serpent shed)

(Messmer's Base Serpents)

But it CAN’T be the God-Devouring Serpent, because it was worshipped as a god and directly fed sacrifices exclusively on Mt. Gelmir since ancient times? And it was killed at some point, and then returned just in time to be discovered again on Mt. Gelmir by Rykard? So why is this shed here? Is it meant to be Messmer’s, but they just reused the previous model? Is there some close connection between the Base Serpent and the God-Devouring Serpent? Is this a completely different serpent? What if there are numerous other malevolent serpent deities somewhere out there in addition to the two we know of? It's impossible to draw any real conclusions. This makes my head hurt

Similarities with Messmer

Rykard obviously has a million things in common with Messmer. What makes this even more interesting is the revelation that Messmer was “an elder brother to Radahn,” which implies a similar relationship with Rykard. This makes Rykard’s similarities with him feel even more deliberate, since he knew him personally. My personal take on this is that Rykard thought Messmer and his curse were really interesting when he was young — I think he would’ve been drawn to the power such a curse would give him rather than seeing it as a horrible fate. But as his view of the Golden Order soured, and Messmer went to the shadow lands to carry out Marika’s wishes, I think Rykard would start to view Messmer as pretty spineless and pathetic. He lets his mother chase him away from the Erdtree, serving her every whim without complaint, and keeps his special power sealed away behind her seal? CRINGE!!! If Rykard had his own serpent god, he’d never let anyone use and debase him in that way… in fact, he’d use it to destroy the Erdtree once and for all.

And that’s all I found! let me know if I missed anything!

[shima-draws]

Me, on Bluesky: Haha this is fun! I wonder since it’s so similar to Twitter why I never liked Twitter?

Me, trying to edit a post bc I noticed a mistake and realizing I can’t edit the post: Ah. That’s why.

[dilfslayer1080p]

YOU CAN USE VR FOR REALTIME BLENDER MOCAP

MY PARTICLES ARE DROPPING IT TO 6 FPS BUT OTHERWISE SHITS GOOD

[bunbunism]

Am I crazy yes or no...

[akimojo]

Every time I stumble across someone trying to argue on whether lightning or serah is the better protagonist I wanna bang my head against the wall

[clementimetodie]

Abuser is abusing me. I am going to respond by dragging myself down to their level and abusing them in the same way they abused me, but it's okay when I do it, because I am Morally Righteous, God Himself even told me so!

[llitchilitchi]

oooookay, I'm not super versed in dsmp lore and I don't even really know the whole events in chronological order. but!!!! I love your monarchy restoration au. your art is so gorgeous. and the emotions there ... man

can you please give me some guideline of what should I know from the og lore to understand your au? or maybe some summary of your au?

just talk about it I really want to interact!!! :D

hi, editing Li here, the summary ended up being over 2k words. then I realised you asked for a summary to the AU, which is part of the masterpost. I went over the lore in brief, I promise it's just brief despite the length and doesn't tackle All there is to the SMP

okay, lemme try and speedrun the lore of the dream smp - given that the story of monarchy restoration centers around the Dream Team, or at least the parts that I shared, I'll be focusing on them. this will get long and I'm really sorry jghdfjd

the core ideas you should know is that: Dream, George and Sapnap were close friends, but they drifted apart as time went on due to conflicts on the server. Dream crowned George as King, but then due to George doing badly as a king and this position putting him in danger made him dethrone George, which made the rift between them grow. they were once inseparable, and now George and Sapnap thought of Dream as obsessed maniac who no longer cared for them as people. after Dream got put in prison and tortured, he broke out, and this is where the lore of Monarchy Restoration diverges from the original story of the SMP and becomes an AU, as instead of reuniting with Punz as intended, Dream is too weak and injured to do much and runs into George, who takes him in.

now for the Actual Lore Recap:

at the very beginning of it all, there were two friends - Dream and George. they found a little piece of the world for themselves, and everything was fine. then a third came, Sapnap, and then more people joined, and they lived in the same house in the middle of the lake and things were okay.

months passed, and fights turned into splits in the community and a community turned to factions, and the conflicts of factions were intertwined with interpersonal fights. (the interpersonal conflicts? the disc saga, aptly named over 2 music discs that were used as a bartering chip and have a pretty good significance in the overall story. put a pin into that.)

the two factions at play were the (retroactively named) Greater SMP and L'Manburg which declared independence from the Greater SMP on basis of xenophobia. they lost the war against the Greater SMP, the final fight being a duel between Dream and the original owner of the discs (Tommy). a deal was struck after, where Tommy offered his discs in exchange for independence (or independance, if you want to stick to the original text)

an important aspect of this war is to note that Dream offered one of the people on L'Manburg's side a deal - they betray the faction and get to become the King of the Greater SMP. this establishes monarchy in the story. they accepted, betrayed their allies, got the role of a King with the promise of 'staying neutral and uninvolved in further conflicts'.

I'll breeze through the Manberg era for the most part (despite being the most interesting one, imo). L'Manburg ran a presidental election, the original leader (who wanted to take power by scamming the whole thing) lost, and the new leader of L'Manburg (renamed to Manberg, because they're not taking any L's anymore) exiled the OG president and his right hand man Tommy, things went bad. the two exiled men started a new faction (Pogtopia) that they hoped to use to take back their "rightful place" and were given support from Dream because the new Manberg was a little too expansive. (he ended up siding with Manberg last minute for Yet Unknown Reasons, we will get to them, again, put a pin in it)

the King of the SMP very vocally sided wih Pogtopia, which was a betrayal to the core principles of their position as King. the King was dethroned, and Dream put his best friend George on the throne, with him and Sapnap serving as his knights.

upon the defeat of Manberg by Pogtopia (since Manberg's authoritarian regime ended up driving people out and most joined Pogtopia, Dream and his people fought for Manberg only as mercenaries), one of the core allies of Pogtopia - an anarchist, the blood god himself, Technoblade - turned on his former allies because they told him it was about defeating a tyrant, but all they wanted was to kill one tyrant and put their own people in his place. Techno then fled into exile.

next chapter begins after the rebuild of L'Manberg, yet the L' is back, under a new rule given that the OG president uhhh Blew Up The Country with several megatons of TNT and then persuaded his father into killing him.

King George is vibing. he is unaware of all faction wars, builds himself a holiday house far away from everything, enjoys time with new friends, all while Dream grows more and more distant due to trying to keep what is left of his old life together.

the reason the home is important to mention is that, once peace has settled over the world, Tommy decided that the discs that he traded for independence are His, in fact, and he needs to steal them - or barter for them in any shitty way possible. he still had tons of grudges against Dream, and in one of these half-grudge fueled fuckeries, he and one other character set fire to George's holiday home.

Dream found it in ruin and still burning when he came see his friend with a bouquet of flowers. there are several interpretations to this, and since Dream himself never really specified, there's a speculation that he thought that this event maybe killed his best friend, and given that George is the King of the Greater SMP, an attack by the right hand man of the current L'Manberg president on the physical property of the King of a rival faction is de-facto a war declaration.

so we are presented with an ultimatum, where Tommy is either exiled or a war starts. (exile won. it was voted on by the fans we wanted that bitch Out. this is not quite as important but the dynamics shaping up between Tommy and Dream had a massive impact on the plot.)

while Tommy is in exile, George becomes rather friendly with a new budding faction on the server. his involvement with them means that his neutrality vow was broken, and given how frequently he got harassed by L'Manberg, Dream decided to dethrone George, and put the previous King back in power. this dethronement caused a huge rift to form between George and Dream (and Sapnap, who sided with George) and the three of them fell apart with the parting words from George to Dream being "Just say you hate me."

I'm sure this won't have any lasting effects on the man who was tearing himself apart to make the world the same as it was when it was just the two of them

now in brief: the L'Manberg cabinet decided to take revenge on Techno after he turned on them after they tricked him into helping them against Manberg. the punishment? execution. how did they achieve that? they hunted him down, threatened to kill his animals, told him he will get a court process but just set him up in a guillotine. Dream intervened and saved him, thus earning a favour from Techno because both of them are traumatized warriors with trust issues that rather treat kindness as currency. Tommy runs away from the place he was restricted to in his exile, moves in with the anarchist-in-retirement-gone-pacifist Techno, the two of them end up teaming up for the time being as Techno protects him from Dream. L'Manberg in the meantime decides to host a festival to show that they are peaceful now, and nothing bad will happen again :) it takes place a week after they unlawfully tried to execute Techno, and the festival is meant to serve as public execution of Dream. However, the festival is cut short when Dream storms in because the original house where he and his friends lived - known as the Community House - got blown up. he blames L'Manberg and Tommy, and after a short conflict that happens then he declares that L'Manberg has a day to evacuate and him and Techno agree to blow up the country. a second time. and completely now.

so L'Manberg is gone now and the members of the faction scatter. within days, Tommy receives an invitation from Dream to come get his discs (I didn't know how to include it, but after the whole 'setting George's house on fire' Tommy tried to barter for the discs and for Dream to ignore him setting the house on fire, all while trying to leverage things that Dream held dear. attachment to objects and people is a running theme in here. Dream then proceeded to give his "I don't give a fuck about Spirit, I don't give a fuck about anything actually" speech, basically telling everyone they have nothing to leverage against him and he will destroy them if he needs to and them holding something hostage won't bother him.) This sets the stage for the Disc Finale. Tommy and his best friend Tubbo make their way to a specific location, far away, all alone, where they are to fight against Dream to win the discs back. they lose spectacularly and Dream reveals his "grand plan" where he has a vault to gather "all the precious items people own to control them" (and I wrote "grand plan" because it was a farce. it was a show, it was staged, all just to get Tommy to leave him the fuck alone and stop meddling with his greater plan. what is the greater plan? fuck if I knew.)

the whole thing is then intercepted when a large group of people, one of which is Dream's right-hand-man Punz who was running errands for him before, and more importantly, Sapnap. he's beaten and just as he is about to be killed, he reveals his secret: the reason he sided with manberg, all those months ago, is because in exchange for his services he got a book of necromancy. he can now bring people back to life. because of this, he is locked up in an inescapable prison in case anyone needs to use the book.

Sapnap and George are very much under the impression that Dream doesn't care for them. Sapnap comes visit Dream once, promises to return, never does. George doesn't even bother coming in, instead sleeping his days away and it catches the eye of a deity who wears the same face as his beloved Dream, and he loses himself to the illusion of being reunited with his best friend in a world where everything is perfect.

another important thing to note is that Sapnap stumbles upon a Book Of Death (yes, its death note, sapnap is a weeb, it even functions the exact same.) the thing about the book of death and the book of necromancy is that they are both books that were placed into the world by the deity wearing Dream's face (known as DreamXD, or XD for short, yes it's a little silly) and XD reveals to another character (a somewhat-deity, Foolish) that the books and their owners are intertwined in a way, and if one were to die the other dies with him.

so we have three friends, one locked up in prison and seen as nothing more but an object to use (Dream), the other a man who watched his friends, his parents and his lovers fall apart (Sapnap) and a man who cannot face the world falling apart and the loss of his friends so he gives into an illusion created by god in his dreams. and all of them have a strange tie to a stranger god.

this very fractured relationship the three have, along with their ties to the god, were the main driving force behind making this AU.

the last thing you should probably know is that Dream was locked in prison for 10 months, starved, tortured, with little to no social contact until Techno was locked in with him, but with the use of some fun magic Techno managed to escape and then "return the favour" from when Dream saved him from execution, and broke him out of prison.

there's a lot of little nuanced things I probably forgot about but this is the core of it all I hope it helps

[ickypuppi3]

# bit dramatic billy

[follineo]

My phone died and I got a new one, check out the quality of the beautiful camera :D

The best camera in my life｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

(normal quality ↓)

Ok and now seriously :[

Yes my phone died actually and I used my old one for a while, but now the new one has finally come to me and I can show some of the successful sketches done on paper!!!

Sheriff with sheep's, I planning to draw this also on digital!! Idk I just think about that idea when I read his quote and this still don't leave my head

Also Owen Rivera and Maybell, because they looked like a loving couple and I wanted to draw them, but I remembered what happened in the story and…. ahem. That didn't stop me from wanting to draw them. In the only art where they are together, he actually looked like he loved her!! HE STILL LOVES HER, I JUST HAD TO DRAW THEM!!!! :[

And that all, I don't have more normal sketches hahah... Sorry

Every character belong to @ghost-qwq !!!

Thanks for your attention :]

[bananasfosterparent]

[karlkapri]

I’m Not Done Yet And I’m Not Sorry

There is a dutch production of The Passion put on in the city of Enschede in 2015 

(They do this every year and it is televised, but this one is my particular favourite. The cast, the songs selected, the stage design, all of it FUCKS severely. They carried this cross through town and then used it as the stage. It’s SO good.)

Judas, in this production, is played by Jeroen van Koningsbrugge and in it he sings a song by Marco Borsato called Wit Licht. He betrays Jesus after he finishes his song.

Now part of what’s so cool about this production is that they make The Passion a musical by using contemporary Dutch songs that have nothing to do with the Bible story, but that kinda sorta fit if you squint. 

(Which is my entire Hockey Poetry Post brand so it WOULD appeal to me)

Now the song is about “the white light” = interpreted as Jesus in this context, but the song begins by (Judas) reminding us that Judas was a human person.

Ik ben een mens van vlees en bloed

een druppel in de oceaan

onherkenbaar in de golven

Een korrel zand in de woestijn 

zo slokt de menigte mij op

raak ik telkens weer bedolven

(Badly translated by Me:

I am a human of flesh and blood, a drop in the ocean, unrecognisable between the waves. A grain of sand in the desert that is how the masses swallow me. I constantly get buried/overwhelmed)

Maar gedragen door het witte licht     

And then goes into:

kom ik los van wie mij maakte    

knijpt de tijd zijn ogen dicht     

Meer dan een schaduw in het witte licht    

open ogen in de zon       

ontdek ik mijn gezicht      

(But carried / raised by the white light, I am released / freed from my creator, time clenches its eyes shut. More than a shadow in the white light, with open eyes in the sun, I discover my face)

Several things are interesting here if you look at it through a Brad/Judas Bergy/Jesus narrative lens:

The insistence on Judas' humanity, esp. when compared to Jesus Christ Superstar where Judas insists Jesus is “just a man”. Bergy is not just a Saint. He is Brad's friend. They're not just Hockey Players, they're human people.

Being raised/lifted/elevated/carried out of obscurity by “The Light” - In this context: Jesus/Bergy who has been such an important part of Brad’s hockey career. Would he have been in Boston still if it hadn’t been for Bergy? Would he have taken a paycut to stay if it wasn’t for Bergy? Would he be allowed to be his Little Rat Self under a different captain? Would the Bruins be as good? Is Patrice Bergeron a necessary ingredient to Brad’s success?

"More than a shadow in the white light." - Pretty self explanatory.

"With open eyes in the sun" - Looking at the sun with eyes wide open WILL hurt you. Interpreting Jesus/Bergy as the sun in this instance is so !!!!!!!!

(I wanted to make a poetry post about Bergeron coming to the end of his career using a part of a poem that goes: 

Night will come / To swallow the sun whole / But there’s something beautiful / Even as my throat tightens / My hands tremble / And my eyes wet / There’s something beautiful / About watching the sun / Even as it sets.

This is the part of the story where Judas recognises who he is, puts on the mask, does what is required to become Judas, and thereby condemns himself to his fate (and Jesus to his death). 

Which is why this association w Bergeron & the sun is especially strong for me. I ultimately decided against making it because I didn’t feel like hurting my own feelings.)

4. The lyric: “Ontdek ik mijn gezicht" I discover my own face when read in tandem w The Gods Show Up: “A tragedy is the story of a human growing into his death mask”

(I discover my fate)

(Note: Judas survives Jesus, but not for long. Patrice’s career is likely to end before Brad’s. This too is an inevitable tragedy that we all knew would happen before we started watching)

Now. 

Getting away from seeing Judas as Evil and instead as Doomed or - if nothing else - Complicated brings us back to Stephen Adly Guirgis´ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot:

Brad as a necessary part of the team? A central and essential piece of the puzzle? Making Bergeron "kick ass"? Required to play his part in allowing for Bergeron to realise his destiny and fulfil his mission (leading the team to a cup)? I vote yes.

And then there is the way in which Patrice Bergeron loves his little rat friend unconditionally:

Jesus is so kind and gentle and it's all so painful. Look away.

(I’m not saying Brad is a dick to Bergeron. Just so that’s explicitly clear. But I love this idea of Marchand wrestling with Bergeron’s divinity)

(and losing)

Also conflict in fiction is sexy.

Now consider Bergeron/Jesus: “You were all heart. You were my heart!”

“All I know is that you broke me unfixable - and that I’m here…” Insanity inducing. 

Patrice/Jesus doesn’t condemn Brad/Judas. In the Stephen Adly Guirgis play especially, it is obvious that Jesus LOVES Judas and that watching him struggle is a difficult thing for him to witness.

(Similar story for comparison: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where the “god” hates the creature he’s created)

which circles us back around to the first quote:

I love reading the Brad/Bergeron dynamic through the lens of Judas/Jesus. Nothing makes me feel more !!!!!! than Judas' story except maybe Brad the Rat Marchand.

Also, bringing this to a conclusion:

Adam Phillips, Judas' Gift.

They're beautiful

They're tragic

They're doomed by the narrative 

They're also in love. It's cool. I care about them a normal amount.

So yea. That is the context for these edits: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Brad and Bergy as Judas and Jesus 👀👀

Oh, so we're doing this?

Okay. Buckle up. I have Thoughts. I have Feelings. I Don’t Have a Brain to Mouth Filter.

So first of all, Brad Marchand did all the heavy lifting for me on this one. Him talking about Patrice Bergeron being ABOVE??? JESUS??? HELLO??? Their relationship. Their personalities. The “Saint Patrice” nickname. The dedication. The potential for ANGST

The way Marchand looks at him.

ALL THE TIME.

I didn’t make this up he did this to himself.

(note: I’ve seen other people talk about this as well. Linking this post by @hard4softthings because I like the way they phrased their response, but there’s other people who’ve been talking about this recently I just don’t remember any specific posts.)

Now. Here comes the Narrative:

We’re all on Tumblr so we’ve probably all come across this line from Stephen Adly Guirgis´ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005) that reads like a punch to the fucking gut:

Which is an INCREDIBLE line, but the play itself is actually .. um.. a very different vibe:

Tell me Judas doesn’t read a whole lot like Brad Marchand. I dare you.

The line that precedes this is also pretty Brad/Bergy.

Is it ever anybody else? No. It’s Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand and it’s BEEN the two of them together at the centre of all this for years. It’s Jesus and Judas, Bergeron and Marchand, their names go together.

One of my personal favourite Judases is played by Carl Anderson in Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). He really embodies the Tragic Villain I believe Judas to be. In several of his lines/lyrics he talks about the myth/person dichotomy. He loves Jesus of Nazareth, but does not know how to feel about Jesus Christ the Son of God. 

Link

Link (SERIOUS TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE)

Which becomes especially relevant if you think about Bergeron being Saint Patrice, and Marchand being The Rat.

Borrowing from Frank Bidart’s “Guilty of Dust”:

Except we’re taking the Mythology approach to this: your name is your fate. 

Now the real tragedy of Judas Iscariot is that his name is Judas Iscariot. We are all familiar with the bible story and as a result, the actor playing the part of Judas simply HAS TO betray Jesus. It’s what his entire identity is centred around. If he didn’t, the audience wouldn’t be able to recognise the character as Judas.

(Obligatory Richard Siken:

Snow and Dirty Rain)

That’s just tragic inevitability for you bay-bey.

In Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas’ name is repeated twice right after he betrays Jesus:

“Well done, Judas. Good old Judas” = Good job person who claims to be Judas, you have betrayed Jesus and proved yourself to be Judas. You are now “Good old Judas”, which is to say, the Judas we recognise from the Bible.

A lot of theatre productions play with this idea of inevitability & living up to ones name in interesting ways.

(See: Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra & their repeated failure to live up to their own myths / Troilus & Cressida “This is and is not Cressid” (5.2.175) when Cressida lives up to her name by being unfaithful, which Troilus thinks is unlike the Cressida he knows personally / Iago’s “I am not what I am,” (Othello, 1.1.65) - I am Othello’s loyal friend except that I’m not, I am Iago & will betray Othello, except that I am not yet because I haven’t betrayed him yet & earned the name Iago)

In Terrence McNally´s play Corpus Christ there is a moment where Judas becomes Judas:

The actor stops shuddering, has now been Named Judas and will go on to fulfil the ROLE of Judas. 

In the case of Marchand and Bergeron I am most interested in the ways in which their nicknames become their fate:

Brad the rat - This one’s relatively straight forward. Marchand accepts this role and really works hard to seep living up to it. He has received the Rat label and My God he will act like the rat you think he is.

Saint Patrice - a nickname Bergeron has said he does not particularly like or agree with, but which DOES affect his behaviour and our perception of him. If Bergeron was to take on the role of the rat, that would be weird and uncomfortable to us. We expect Patrice Bergeron to act “like himself”.

Which ties it back to Jesus Christ Superstar: “If you strip away the myth from the man / You will see where we all soon will be”. Carl Anderson’s (brilliant) Judas struggles with the fact that he loves Jesus the man, but not Jesus the myth. In the case of NHL stardom you can look at this in terms of the difference between their on-ice personalities vs. their off ice friendship. Brad loves Patrice The Man, Patrice His Friend, he is less concerned with Patrice The Myth.

I also cast Brad as Dionysus in my little hockey mythologies. There are a few obvious (and slightly silly) reasons for this: Dionysus being the god of the grape harvest (read: wine, drunken revelry), festivity, insanity, (religious ecstasy .. interpret that however you will.. ), but it is partly because Dionysus is the god of theatre. 

(I will circle back around to Brad/Judas I promise)

Dionysus = Theatre = The Rat Persona As Performance

(Note: person/persona/personality, from πρόσωπον or perhaps persōna = mask)

Now this idea of the Persona (rat personality) as that which helps the audience recognise your role in the play (the name of the character you play and the expectations that come with said name) and mask as something used to obscure your actual face is really interesting!! 

It comes back to this question of free will vs. predestination. How much of what Judas does is the Human Person, how much of it is his Name-Fate. How much of The Rat is Brad. How much is just him living up to his reputation/nickname.

Oscar Wilde has a fun little quote about this that’ll complicate it further:

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” 

(The internet informs me this is from The Happy Prince & Other Tales but I will admit I only know it from the end of a Criminal Minds episode)

Michael Kinnucan in my favourite essay ever written about anything ever The Gods Show Up writes:

Brad is the rat, the rat is brad. It’s a person. It’s an act. It’s a mask. We know it’s a mask, but how much of it is a mask. No idea. COMPELLING THOUGH.

This same essay then brings us back to the tragedy of Judas:

Now this is where it gets niche.

(I´ll continue in a second post.)

[apoptoses]

(for the coming untouched prompt from @birdblacksocialclub and the altar sex/'shh be quiet' prompts from @rainbowcarousels ♥)

The reader steps down from the lectern. The footsteps of the priest echo through the stone nave as he begins his homily. Pretty words about death, transformation. Daniel doesn’t hear a word of it. He’s found something else to capture his fascination. His eyes fixate on the cross.

Funny, how a building filled with pretty saints and angels contains such a gruesome thing. As a child he’d been frightened by the emaciated man on the crucifix. Now he just can’t stop looking at the blood.

It trickles from the crown of thorns down Christ’s face. Great, red tracks that makes him look like he’s weeping blood. Hell, maybe he is. Whoever made this cross had a horrific imagination. Wounds from the thorns, a laceration in the side, those are typical but this one- Daniel has seen a number of crucifixes, Armand has dragged him through enough medieval wings at art museums. But he’s never seen one with the wounds from the scourging illustrated in detail. This Christ looks like a deer peppered in shotgun wounds.

He looks bitten.

Daniel thumbs absently at the pages of his song book. His attention lingers on a pair of wounds above Christ’s ribs. If Armand bit him there- fuck, he can’t imagine the pain. His fangs aren’t very long but there’s nothing in the gaps between his bones but a thin sheet of muscle. So little would separate his teeth from the tender meat of his lungs.

And maybe they’d scrape his bones as he pulled out. A sickening feeling, like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. But it would happen inside his very body and Daniel shudders at the thought. His toes curl within his shoes as a tendril of heat sprouts low in his belly.

He pushes the sensation down. He tries to tune back into the homily. A distraction for his distraction, it’s a wonder Armand can untangle the thoughts in his mind at all.

The priest paces the aisle. He’s saying something about transfiguration. The transforming nature of Christ’s love, how in his death and resurrection he gave life to us all. There’s something poignant there, Daniel is certain. A point he could harangue Armand with next time they argue about his turning but no matter how he fishes for it he can’t catch it.

The candles flicker on the altar. The blood painted over Christ’s bicep seems to glimmer with it and for a moment it looks liquid. Real.

Daniel’s mouth goes dry. He pictures drinking from Armand there, the static that would rush over his tongue. The way the blood makes him face go numb and then all of the sudden sensation explodes beneath his skin. He wonders if the apostles felt the same when they drank of the cup at the last supper or if it had only been wine after all.

Really, Daniel? At mass?

[AO3]

[triglycercule]

yada yada happy halloween to these FREAKS (and you guys :3 and myself i gusss :3) doodle from art class that i GUESS could be considered halloween...... idk ok idk ok something was up with me when i drew this

[stinkrascal]

Who was the first ever turned vampire and when did they appear? (In your lore😭)

hello friend ⭐ so in my lore vampires are the descendants of a clan of elves who gained magical abilities after participating in cannibal rituals which "corrupted" their appearance, thus turning them into vampires. there's no specific first, not one that's important anyways, since it effected the whole group at once. but i will say some, not all, of those first vampires still exist to this day. and those first vampires who still live have direct descendants of their own 🦇

[unclewaynemunson]

Cass @henderdads why did you have to plant the steve/eddie as pharaoh/joseph au in my head 😭 The worms are worming and I'm thinking many many thoughts about this scenario insead of working on my normal WIPs now that i FINALLY have 1 (one) evening to write properly

[front-facing-pokemon]

I've gotta ask: what's your opinion on the Mystical Forest theme from Super? I think it's severely underrated

ARGH thank you for reminding me this track EXISTS it's gotta be one of my favorite in the entire game. i don't know musical terms that well but the notes in threes like at the beginning are just wonderful. i remember really liking it when i played thru psmd (but i liked basically every track quite a lot) but i couldn't remember where it was from. so. thank you for this reminder because it's really really good