#subset: salvation and destruction

[raayllum]

So I crossed my thoughtless heart Spread my wings like a parachute I'm the albatross I swept in at the rescue The devil that you know Looks now more like an angel I'm the life you chose And all this terrible danger

[thatartiststudios]

Boys, when my baby found me I was three days on a drunken sin I woke with her walls around me Nothin' in her room but an empty crib And I was burnin' up a fever I didn't care much how long I lived But I swear, I thought I dreamed her She never asked me once about the wrong I did When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold, dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her

Work Song - Hozier/Rayllum

[imminent-danger-came]

What do you think are some of LMKs most prevalent themes are? besides the power of friendship of course

I'll just throw 'em into a list!

Fate VS Freewill / Destiny (2x05, 2x10, 3x10, EYD, 4x07-4x10 ; characters love to run from destiny/the narrative in lmk)

Identity ("You are not the Monkey King" "You're right���I'm the Monkey Kid!" ; "This thing, whatever you are, embrace it. Embrace your destiny." ; etc.)

(Bonus post where I point out how Destiny and Identity get a little too closely linked for my comfort)

Self-worth/Self-Reflection [Kind of a subset of Identity] ("Just believe in yourself! Even a smidge makes all the difference")

Companionship as Salvation ("As long as we stand together, there will always be hope!" ; "You're the one always running off! [...] You're the one who wouldn't quit while we were ahead!")

Exchange ("You don't know, we'd risk it for sure! I won't abandon them when they need us." ; "I'd do anything for my friends! But at the cost of the world?" ; "This is Azure's utopia, and this barren wasteland is the price he paid to build it.")

Not knowing what to do and how to move forward with that.

Pain being inevitable ("Don't you realize you're hurting the people who care about you the most?" ; "All my lady ever desired was a world no longer plagued by pain" ; "No matter what I do, it’s going to lead to pain.")

Perfection being unachievable (1x05, "You can't judge things by their worst quality!" ; "A perfect world is what you make it. So as long as I have my friends by my side...this world, is, perfect!" ; "Look around brother! This is not the change we dreamt of.") But there also being beauty in imperfection. The imperfect being worth fighting for.

Heroism (Perception VS Reality) ("Sometimes the path of the hero may seem chaotic and directionless" ; Heroes "inevitably bring darkness to those they hold dear" rip. ; "But it took me far too long to learn what real heroes look like.")

Trust ("That Monkey is not to be trusted!" ; "We trusted you! All of us!" ; "He's a villain MK! We never should have trusted him.")

Power and the point of having it ("Now do you understand? From the start you never had what it took to defeat me. All your power could do was make me stronger." ; "I needed something so powerful even she wouldn't be able to win—a weapon." ; "Only we decide who we are and what we do with the power we have!" ; "But it wasn't in my power—it was in yours.")

Change ("Forever's a long time bud." ; "But we can't! Not after all we've seen—all we know and all we don't?" ; honestly just look at s1 vs s4)

Legacy (*gestures at pilgrims* ; "MK, from the moment you picked up the staff their stories became our stories—it's our responsibility to write the final chapter, no matter the outcome." ; "Why would our legacy be any different? Actually no no—the chaos and destruction we'll bring upon the world will make Wukong's past look like nothing.")

Leaving the world a little better than you found it (even and especially in spite of your mistakes and shortcomings)

and of course the Power of Friendship (plus the themes Tang literally lists in 3x14 "We're comforted by familiar tales of friendship, courage, redemption.").

[haleigh-sloth]

I think the reason why there's so many misconceptions of Tomura's character is because people refuse to consider AFO's role in his story outside of "he just picked him up and is slightly weird to him" Which stems from their dislike of AFO as many prefer if he just let Tomura have the reigns and retired in the background, they genuinely believed he was sincere when he said he wanted Tomura to take over his position as the symbol of evil.

They don't consider the grooming and just how much influence AFO has had over Tomura and how they take everything Tomura says at face value. I think a lot just underestimate AFOs role into shaping Tomura into who he is today, which is why we get all the "Tomura got cheated out of his rawness" or "he's an advocator for social justice!" takes.

I think if you refuse to consider AFO's role to the story and refuse to look at him beyond basic dislike of him then you're missing a huge chunk of the story and robbing yourself of an interesting character dynamic between AFO and Tomura. The body possession plotline doesn't come off as a surprise if you read more into AfO's character and Tomura's.

Yes I do think there was a wide-scale issue of people just...ignoring AFO.

He's one of those characters who was present throughout the entire story but in a way that he was haunting the narrative rather than directly participating in it.

The take you're talking about is one that I honestly don't bother debating with because anybody who thinks AFO is just some guy is...idk, not worth arguing with. But what puzzles me is the subset of raw Tomura stans who are fully aware of AFO's influence on him and yet still feel robbed by the body snatching plot...somehow.

Idk how you look at Tomura's development and be confused by the direction it went. AFO was never truly "gone" and if you look at MVA and look at the narration and the pictures separately it's almost like two entirely different stories are being told. You can EASILY see where the narration turns from a clear recollection of a memory to a distorted perspective that only JUST FORMED IN THAT MOMENT.

MVA for Tomura was the opposite of what so many people describe it as. It was not him stepping out of AFO's shadow. He literally stepped into the palms of AFO's hands and whether it was a take that formed because of weekly release of chapters at the time or not, we literally have almost all of the context surrounding MVA, so there's seriously no reason to continue thinking that MVA was a positive step forward for Tomura.

Everything that happened in MVA can easily be related to everything happening right now. Tomura broke out of AFO's possession (for now) but he didn't break out of AFO's narrative for him--that being that he's destruction incarnate with no other purpose for being alive. No, Tomura has not suddenly realized what he actually wants yet. That shit is still buried so deep, and his behavior right now rejecting the sheer concept of Izuku having any other intention besides forever opposing "his villain" shows that Tomura still views salvation as something so far beyond his reach, hence why he clings to the story AFO wrote for him because in that case, he knows the answer.

Openly crying out for help leaves room to be rejected and hurt again. Refusing to cry out for help and just forcing his counterpart to continue fighting him means he doesn't have to wonder what could be, he already knows the answer. That's why he's like this. It's because AFO convinced him that there is only one future for him, and it's a miserable one. The concept of possibly escaping it but being rejected that opportunity is too painful so Tomura clings to the story where he doesn't have to hold onto hope (even though he still is).

[f-117-nighthawk]

Playlist Update Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Part 2! Here lies Endless War, Dystopian Fiction, and Filaments. EW hasn’t changed much, DF has a bit and it's all INFECTED's fault, and Filaments has more than three songs finally. My explanations for these aren't quite as fleshed out (partially bc there's less in my head to flesh out with and partially because these aren't nearly as set in playdough as the main playlist. more like set in syrup)

Part One

In chronological order:

Endless War

Dark Matter is here because it always is, twining through everything else.

(Don’t stop, don’t think, don’t look back/You’re a bolt of lightning in the sky now/Don’t stop, don’t think, don’t look back/I’ve pulled you in, nowhere to hide now)

I Am the One links into Eater of Worlds as sort of the aftermath, sort of during Apocalypse 1992. Our Fifth General has her realization about [REDACTED] far, far before Team Voltron does because she’s there in the thick of it during Through Apocalypse Skies.

(I am the one/I hold the dreams from fallen heroes)

(We are gods, we are monsters/We create to devour/Not for love but for power/What’s a life worth in the end?)

(From the caves beneath Dundee/Ancient hermit arrives/A messenger to the war in the stars/Korviliath is nigh!)

The Truth Beneath the Rose is from the perspective of our last (and first) Blade in the aftermath of Through Apocalypse Skies, as she realizes just what she helped create. Also… kinda connects to a song in the main playlist, but not very obviously.

(Blinded to see the cruelty of the beast/It is the darker side of me/The veil of my dreams deceived that I have seen/Forgive me for what I have been, forgive me my sins!)

Raise Your Banner is The Fifth General’s newfound resolve as she starts collecting allies against Zarkon’s empire.

(Wake up/I’m defying you, seeing right through you, once I believed in you/Wake up/Feel what’s coming deep within we all know)

Obey is a bit of a weird one. It’s in the same vein as You Keep What You Kill in the main playlist, but it’s more specifically about the creation of the first Druids and how Haggar uses them against the Fifth General and her team.

(Obey, we're gonna show you how to behave/Obey, it's nicer when you can't see the chains)

Silver Moonlight is cracks forming in The Fifth General’s new set of alliances and her desperate and occasionally rash attempts to get them to believe in her goal. Not just the main one to take down the empire, but the one that will allow them to do that.

(I’m impatient, but it’s colors that I need/Too many shades of grey, I cannot breathe/The dreams I have ain’t tainted, I need you to believe/The only way to make them real, oh)

Endless War is the title track, connected to Holy Ground and I’d Rather Burn as a specific event but also sort of encompassing the Fifth General’s motivations throughout the series. She’s “hunting a miracle” that is also those colors from Silver Moonlight, and then the end of Endless War kicks in with Holy Ground, and the Fifth General’s final stand in I’d Rather Burn.

('Cause you’re fighting an endless war/Hunting a miracle/And when you reach out for the stars/They just cut you down/…/Is it worth dying for?/Or are you blinded by, blinded by it all?)

(You got inside my head, I want you out/'Cause I’ve been betrayed on holy ground)

(Won’t let you take my soul away/I’d rather go to the stake/I’d rather burn)

Empty Eyes is [long spoiler beep]. (and yes! I found it on Spotify finally!)

(I don’t know where I’m going/In search for answers/I don’t know who I’m fighting/I stand with empty eyes/You’re like a ghost within me/Who’s draining my life/It’s like my soul is see-through/Right through my empty eyes)

Dystopian Fiction

Dark Matter is on here because title track, but also it does end up with effects. Especially by the end… and of course, the Thing that is Wrong With Earth.

(Don’t stop, don’t think/Move up, don’t blink now/On your knees pray for rain/Don’t breathe when you take your aim)

The Human Condition is the Éskhayklos manifesto. A warning of the end times. The condemnation of the parasites. The reveal of the only cure. The final extinction cycle. Also their new image song, as Cross the Line got moved.

(We have the cure for the disease/Locked down inside us/When all is dead, then we will see/We are the virus)

INFECTED is the Éskhayklos’s slow, well, infection of the Sol Federation, and their descent into full-blown terrorism. (And yes, I know the actual lyrics have ‘he’. Shhhhhh. It’s a STARSET song, it’s about a Shirogane, even if it’s sort of from Cascade’s POV)

(Here's a challenge for all mankind/The preacher man is warning of the end times/The weatherman agrees but she don't know/So she's got to go now)

Who Will Save You Now here is about Sam, and the aftermath of Here to Save You, in addition to its referenced role in the main playlist.

(Alone with this vision/Alone and blind/Go tell the world I’m still alive)

Codebreaker is Adam’s song! But here it’s also in conjunction with Cross the Line as the final Éskhayklos mission before...

(Codebreaker can’t you find/Can you read between the lines of code?/Tell me all that you know/How far down the hole does it all go)

(Cross the line, redefine, break away unbent, unafraid/Together we stand in the dark/Seeking the light and what is right, together we cross the line/Our journey will come to an end and then our human cause will be/Justified)

The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Dystopian Fiction is the title track for this part. With the events of The Day the Earth Collapsed, the Garrison and our heroes on Earth are at their lowest point. It really is a piece of dystopian fiction, between [spoiler] and [spoiler]. They’re fighting for something that, at that point, must seem like ‘superstition.’ And also: “Nobody can shoot me down, not just yet” is about Adam bc Fuck Canon. Even if he does, technically, get shot down.

(I’m a dead man/In the wasteland/I’m a soldier fighting for superstition/Under searchlights/In the long nights/We’ve been written like dystopian fiction)

World on Fire and The Reckoning are the two of their subset that make it over here because they’re the two that happen before the result of This is a Call can come to fruition, and are more focused on our Earth heroes anyway.

(Sent by forces beyond salvation/There can be not one sensation)

(We’re all alone, walking in twilight/The night has been long and so many have fallen/Feel no remorse, light will be breaking/Our freedom is worth it all)

Filaments

Filaments is still in flux but does have way more solid than it did. Like, you know, most of an ending. I just don’t really know how they get from A to B yet.

Dark Matter is here because, well. A) Title track, B) yes, it still has effects. It’s the overarching theme, after all. Filaments sort of has a subtitle itself, which is ‘The Undoing,’ after the other part of the lyric that the subtitle of the main playlist comes from. It’s about undoing a past mistake (that wasn’t obviously a mistake until much later) and reconciling the events of Your World Will Fail.

(I am the keeper/I am the secret/I am the answer/I am the end)

Filaments is the title track of this part. It’s… a little hard to explain without giving away the entire plot but it’s about the connections between different parts of the universe, and some fall-out of Cosmic Vertigo and Louder Than Words.

(These glowing filaments/Conducting this enchanting/Sarcophagus that’s holding us)

Starlight is, again, Adashi song, and this time the happy part

(Don’t leave me lost here forever/I need your starlight and pull me through/Bring me back to you)

Carry Me Home is its eponymous fic.

(Carry me home to the morning light/carry me home before you wave me goodbye/Oh, carry me home…)

And then we get to the new part. Know that stuff in Carry Me Home about “The record skip that only [Keith and Krolia] can remember”? Yeah, Prognosis is a huge step to figuring that out.

(How long is the body beholden?/How long 'til we run out of road?/Deep down in the black of the ocean/Fading from the glow)

The timey-wimey ball gets tossed around more in Blackstar. Partially due to [REDACTED] and a certain terrorist’s reemergence, but also due to Prognosis-related stuff

(They'll let you try/To reverse everything/Don't waste your time/Sing Hallelujah 'cause you can't change anything)

Eon straight-up plays Calvinball with the timey-wimey ball and gets the Paladins stuck in a groundhog-day situation, and the only way out? Isn’t good.

(If time's a song, I won't wait for its reprise/I am done wishing farewells and goodbyes)

The Art of War and Centigrade are the beginning of the end. The Art of War is Cascade finally showing his true colors, and the Sol Federation not having a good time. Centigrade is the other side of it, Team Voltron having a realization of just what they’re going to need to do.

(I can remember all the days of violence/I can remember all the days they fought for rights/When men united all by fear and interest/I mustered them with hopeful promises I've broken)

(What did you hope to find adrift and lost in time?/Is this the end ready to begin?/It's time to escape the fate of destruction, excavating within until salvation/No longer pretend the future's a lie from a past you cannot hide)

The Future is Now and A Theater of Dimensions are. Well. You’ll see. It’s a little hard to pick a lyric from AToD, I'll say that much.

(They said there was no way/But they forgot the black hole in the sky/Yesterday is nothing/I have half a life to rewrite)

(I’ve seen our freedom in the mist of time/The old signs I’ll follow and the day of relief will be yours and mine)

And then there’s Afterlife. Fitting to end on a UtA song, after everything, especially since The Immortal has repeatedly throughout DM been a metaphor for Voltron. Also fitting that it’s this one, considering the parallels between the end of The Immortal’s story and Filaments

(But with such power, think how you could rule/Hold to your promise to watch over those in despair/Why would you choose to serve when you could be master of all?/Be true to your honour and fight for a world that is fair!/Out of shadow, out of darkness, welcome to the light/As the day shines boldly over night/Follow me to finally be who you are inside/Open wide, embrace the afterlife)

[hamliet]

Why are some people so allergic to characters (especially sympathetic ones) getting redemption? Even if they aren't convinced, why is their reaction "I have to make sure this character is doomed for all entirety without giving them any chance or the world will end" instead of "oh so this character is getting a second chance, maybe they will become a better person"? Redemption doesn't mean everyone needs to forgive the characters but the desire to change for the better, what's so wrong with that?

I’ve briefly touched on this before, but I think there are cultural and human  nature reasons. Humans across cultures do tend to really like black/white, good/bad dichotomies, probably because it’s a way to justify ourselves (very few will consider themselves on the bad side of the paradigm). It helps us by pointing to people who do terrible things and thinking that we are somehow intrinsically different. However, I don’t think this is true. I think that, given the right/wrong set of circumstances, genetics, and the like, there are few things that human beings in general are not capable of--and that applies to the most horrific monstrosities and to the most beautiful selflessness. Fiction isn’t reality, but our brains do certainly interpret fiction with a degree of our real-life worldview at play.

Culturally, I can only speak for the west, but from what I’ve seen in our literature--especially Anglo-American literature--is that there is huge influence from Calvinism. But, you say, many writers and consumers aren’t religious! That doesn’t matter. Religion doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and neither does writing a story. Calvinism, essentially, teaches just that about the paradigm--people are destined for salvation or for destruction. Some people are irredeemable and deserve to suffer forever in hell. In America specifically, our justice system is literally set up in a punitive manner (I know there are economic, capitalist factors at play too, but how that ties into Calvinism--because it does--is complicated and someday I’ll write that essay, but not today). We are conditioned to see a crime as needing a punishment, as needing retribution.

Except, the irony is that Calvinism is a subset of Christian doctrine. Christianity, at its core, is about redemption--the redemption of all things, from human beings to death itself being overcome and redeemed. But redemption is also seen as a black/white dichotomy: redemption means being totally forgiven by everyone, and reconciled too! Except... no. There are shades of gray that must be incorporated.

You can forgive, and not reconcile. You can reconcile and not forgive (wouldn’t recommend it but oh yes it happens). You can not forgive, and not reconcile, and still live peacefully and so can the offender. There are a lot of shades between black and white.

Studies show that restorative justice--such as that practiced in Norway--is actually far more effective at reducing recidivism. Stories that actually emphasize this restoration and redemption are sorely needed and are--in my experience--much more frequently found in works from eastern cultures than from the west, though again, it’s not so simple and it isn’t black/white.

However, even ignoring culture we... know how redemption arcs tend to work. There are tropes that span the globe, and hence it’s not impossible to pick up on patterns and tone and predict the likelihood of a redemption arc. But in my experience, every single character who has gotten a redemption arc has been declared over and over to be beyond redemption: Mutsuki Tooru from Tokyo Ghoul:re, Kylo Ren from Star Wars, Nora from Noragami, Reiner, Annie, and Gabi from SnK, Zuko from ATLA, hell Azula from ATLA as well (she actually doesn’t get one in the show... but the writers revealed she was planned to get one!), numerous characters from Tales of Arcadia and Bungo Stray Dogs, Soren from The Dragon Prince, Catra from She-Ra, etc.

I’d be very, very surprised, based on what is set up, if Dabi and Shigaraki from BNHA and Claudia from The Dragon Prince don’t get them.

[mmmmalo]

is there anything to be said about the parallels batween the jacks and vriska (sword through the chest, missing and eye and an arm, vris and slick dying on the same page, etc) or is that just paradox space being paradox space

There is definitely something to be said, though I don’t know what it is. It’s also pertinent that Vriska shares motifs with Snowman, namely the 8 Ball and BLUH BLUH HUGE BITCH. Since the Intermission takes place in Felt Manor, the events within ought to function as a depiction of the mind of Lord English – so understanding the roles of Slick and Snowman in whatever psychological story is going on there would probably be helpful in understanding both Vriska and Lord English. But I was never able to manage that, so, alas.

I do have ONE thing to say, but first I have to talk about the Terminator films. There was something Sarah Conner said to a Skynet engineer in T2:

“Fucking men like you built the hydrogen bomb. Men like you thought it up. You think you’re so creative. You don’t know what it’s like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death and destruction…”

This line later comes to haunt her son, John Conner, as he faces down Skynet in Terminator: Salvation. As a soldier, John deals primarily in death and destruction against machines, but when he is forced to recognize that a machine could nonetheless be a person, his position is complicated. During the climactic battle, John is forced to bring his ostensible enemy from the brink of death, jump-starting his heart with a handy pair of electrical wires. At this moment that John forgoes his feud, that he takes Frankenstein’s lightning in hand and creates life, Arnold Schwarzenegger comes out of nowhere and stabs him in the back with an iron girder, which erupts from his chest like a fucking Xenomorph.

So the moment John Conner chooses life over death is supplemented with a violent Hollywood shorthand for birth: chest-burster.

Since face-huggers and chest-bursters are the main components of Fiduspawn, I’m inclined to think Hussie is familiar with this particular subset of psychosexual symbols. So with the above reading in mind, Terezi’s sword sticking out of Vriska’s chest is possibly much funnier than it has any right to be – like within the paradigm for death we’ve established (that the circumstances of a character’s death bear some relation to a latent wish), Vriska getting a visual chest-burster can be linked to her getting her head and arm blown apart by the magic cue ball (since both of those motifs represent birth). Also relevant that Vriska refers to these sort of deaths as getting “sucker sta88ed”, when we’ve recently connected the Auryn within the cherub’s juju to the prenatal unity of mother and child? (x) Getting “sucker sta88ed” is thus linked to the ouroboric cancer symbol (69), cancer being yet another cipher for pregnancy.

All of which is to say, in this context at least, is that chest-burster stabs seem to add more evidence to what we’ve know for a while: that death is eroticized (x).

Revisiting John’s own sucker stabbing has given me a tentative idea for how to integrate Jack into the psychosexual proceedings: recall when Mom and Dad shared a cake as the image of John drilling filled the surrounding clouds, and as the sexual tension tightened, Bec Noir arrived and dealt out murder as the simultaneous severance and culmination of their union? I wonder if that makes Jack the baby. Or to shoehorn in an Oedipal trifecta again, I wonder if Jack’s rank being that immediately below King and Queen positions him as the Child to Father and Mother, in the abstract.

To issue a small correction to the model of King and Queen put forward in the Dirk/Roxy post (x): the King is still associated with pregnancy. But the Queen is not primarily linked to impregnation, but isolated ejaculation, which /is/ freedom, which /is/ birth, as elaborated in recent discussion of the cherubs. (x) This is the WV/PM contrast between democracy and liberty, that which ties people together (Blood) versus that which separates them from each other (Breath) – and thus pregnancy versus birth.

Insofar as Lord English comes to displace the Black King in Act 6, Spades Slick breaking into his vault is another exercise in Putting the Bunny Back in the Box? A motif perhaps subtly reiterated by Slick climbing into his own warchest, or various moments of the Midnight Crew forcing the Felt inside of their respective boxes, or Biscuits climbing into his oven… But weirdly, even though Snowman is kind of acting as the law (broken head upon turning back time, castrated arm upon entering forbidden vault), and even though those motifs of separation are linked to birth (x), she’s also the one who traps him in the vault? Which reads more as insemination I guess, with ‘freedom’ immediately resulting in ‘confinement’, and Jack is babby. 

Which makes it sounds like the fantasy permeating the mind of Lord English is not particularly fantastical? Like a rote pregnancy. Though I suppose this doesn’t account for the way becoming a symbolic fetus also made Jack a ‘god’, insofar as he now has access to the fourth wall…? Hm

Insofar as Jack and the Queen form a Child/Mother pairing then, Vriska having elements of both could align with her chestburster death? But this still leaves a lot unexplained, like when Vriska climbs into the symbolic maw of Lord English and “dumps” the symbol of her reality out of a chest after plucking it from the flaming red X in English’s bowels…? I think we’re hitting a stopping point, but this was good progress. Thank you for the question!

[keshetchai]

Hey I have a question... Why are messianics shat on so much on jumblr lol? Like I understand if messianics aren't either ethnic or converted Jews. But if they are either, why's it our place to ridicule and denounce them? Yes, from us non-jesus believers they're wrong, and we don't want to be proselytised by them, but I don't really get why they're any different from, say, atheist Jews or any Jew who doesn't always do the right thing, which is everyone...

because messianics are christian evangelicals who believe if they  can convert all the jews then they can bring about the end times. 

Basically um...when I see people not understand or take messianics serious as an issue, I figure that is because they are deeply unfamiliar with fundamentalist and evangelical christianity. So to explain a little bit, you have to know that the modern messianic movement is from the 60′s and 70′s and was created mostly by fundie evangelicals. 

I’m not sure I could tl;dr what is mostly American Fundie Evangelicals to you very well, but let me summarize a few key points, because it explains why Messianics are so horrible and also why you can’t trust an evangelical “pro-Israel” movement farther than you can throw one of their tacky precious moments statues:

Lots of Christians believe that a mass-conversion of Jews to Christianity will help signify or kick-start the end times. 

Martin Luther is actually pretty well known for being initially super enthusiastic that all the Jews would convert because of how awesome Protestantism gospel was. Except, of course, all the Jews did not convert, and then he wrote a book called On Jews and Their Lies, because he’s a raging antisemite. [Sidebar: Muhammad tried to get the Jews to convert too, and there was the whole, “Look, see? We also pray facing towards Jerusalem!” and the Jews said “That’s nice, we’re Jews. Also we don’t do prophets anymore.” And then Muhammad got a nice revelation saying he didn’t have to pray towards that Jewish city anymore anyways.] 

anyways lots of christians think if all the jews convert and live in Israel then the literal end of the world will happen and that’s good because after the hellfire and antichrist, they’ll get to “yay jesus.” any bloodshed and general horrors that happen in the meantime are a sign of the end times coming faster! 

also if you DON’T convert, you’ll be wiped out and sent to hell 

literally: 

Sean Illing

I don’t fully understand why evangelical Christians are so supportive of Israel. Can you walk me through it?

Elizabeth Oldmixon

First, we should remember that “evangelical” is a really broad term. In a most general sense, evangelicals are people who believe in the absolute authority of the Bible, in salvation through Jesus, and in the need to spread the gospel. People who identify as evangelicals internalize those three things to different levels, and so in the same way we talk about cultural Catholics, we can also talk about cultural evangelicals.

So I would really focus here on a subset of the evangelical community for whom the status of Israel is really, really important because of the way they understand the end of time.

Sean Illing

And how large is that subset?

Elizabeth Oldmixon

Roughly a third of the American evangelical population, which is something like 15 million people.

Sean Illing

Why are these evangelicals so interested in the fate of Israel?

Elizabeth Oldmixon

These are the folks who believe that there will be a millennium in the future, a golden age, where Christ reigns on Earth, [and] they believe that before Christ will return, there will be a tribulation where Christ defeats evil. There will be natural disasters and wars, and perhaps an Antichrist, as the book of Revelations notes. Then at the end of that period, the people of the Mosaic covenant, including the Jews, will convert. Then after their conversion, the great millennium starts.

Sean Illing

And what about the people who don’t convert? What becomes of them?

Elizabeth Oldmixon

Well, according to the evangelicals who believe this, they’ll end up with the rest of the unsaved, which means they’ll be wiped out and sent to hell.

tl;dr: messianic christians want to see the end of the world and the destruction of all of judaism outside of “acceptable believers in Jesus” and so purport cultural genocide, meanwhile an atheist jew davens next to me in synagogue,  is a real mensch, did nothing wrong.  

[paganchristian]

This is a Florida anise that we saw in huge groves in a swamp near a place where we once lived.  It is related to the edible spice, star anise, but Florida anise is poisonous.  The flowers are like beautiful starfish shapes, unusual and brilliant, but they smell rotten, which is said to attract flies and sometimes possibly rats.  We had one of these shrubs, and tried to grow it, many years ago, but it died, even though it was planted in a swampy location, like they like.  I was really wondering if it would attract rats or other wildlife, as long as it didn’t attract them to our house, I was curious.  I used to love watching this rat as a child, every time that we went to a certain pier, we would see it creep out from a hole in the sidewalk and run back and forth between the trash cans and the parking lot and here and there and carrying food and garbage back into its hole again.  Rats are supposed to be intelligent, disease carrying aside.  I knew someone who had a pet rat and it seemed very affectionate too.  Anyway, hm...

Facts and memories aside, the associations this is stirring for me, are a few things.  Related to rottenness and why does rottenness attract things or beings, and I think that it can attract people, but not only does it attract those who feed upon rotten things, it can attract those who relate to the pain, misery loves company.  Or those who are trapped in suffering, because it feels like home, it feels safe, relatable, it doesn’t feel too high, or too good for them, or like something they have to compete with or show off for.  They can let their guard down and just be themselves.  Maybe it even attracts those who feel insecure so they can finally feel better than someone else for a change, rather than just feeling inferior.  It can draw in those who know they need to heal their own pain, and are focused on the dark and troubled things in themselves.  It can call in the attention of those who want to help others too, those with very compassionate hearts, or just those who want to appear compassionate or who feel guilty and unsure of themselves and want to do good to try to convince themselves (and others) they are good.  Among maybe some other possibilities.  

And anyway, one association coming to my mind about all this is trying to make sense again of why religion seems to be so controlling, fearful, rigid, methodical, sometimes, false and arbitrary order, ..  and trying to face it again, as it refers to me.  So ok, it seems to me that I keep running into this problem with this particular branch of Christianity that I’m being pulled to, but I keep running into this issue where they say, ok, if you can’t believe, if you can’t have faith, if you can’t stop sinning as we define sin, if you don’t feel repentant, then focus every ounce of your thought, emotion, and time that you can on that.  You need to launch yourself into a full-blown battle, make your life a continual war against whatever it is that is separating you from God, from the right path, from virtue, from grace, from seeing the light.  Your very salvation and eternal peace or alternatively, your damnation, hinge upon this.  if you don’t feel able to do right, spend every spare bit of your emotion and passion and energy praying and trying to follow all these different kinds of practices to hopefully right your wrongs, attract God’s mercy, and the attention of the angels and saints and whatever, to reach your hardened heart and soften it, to purge your mind of worldly things and anchor it solely on the divine,...  And in this way only can you be considered putting up the good fight and if you don’t at least try to fight with all your might against all this sin and stagnation that have taken over you, then oh well, you don’t deserve God’s mercy then, you are falling rapidly away from what is good and right, and you are so wrong, it’s your fault, your whole life is fallen because you didn’t throw your whole self into this fight.  

But I find that not only can I not fight my supposed sins and my supposed wrong ways of living and I can’t fight my lack of grace, my lack of faith, my lack of belief, (I have some faith, some belief, some grace, but not enough in their eyes), ... So not only can I not keep on fighting these problems, but I can’t even keep on asking for help or forgiveness and grace for it either.  Because it takes up so much emotional energy for me and so much mental focus drains out of me when I try to do that, and what happens is that I have nothing left over to give to things that could really have a chance to help me.  Such as my health.  It really feels that maybe my health requires every spare ounce of my attention and it prevents me healing my emotional problems, character problems, spiritual problems, and misconnection with God, perhaps.  It feels that maybe it’s the cause of some of my spiritual problems and once that is resolved (if it even can be healed, which is really unsure at this point),...  But if I could heal it well  enough, then maybe those spiritual problems will really dissolve away to a large degree and become much easier to mend and recognize in a clearer, simpler way.  But it feels to me that this path keeps on saying, no, no, if you have to spend too much time thinking about your health then you are doing things in the wrong order.  Pray enough and God will help you find ways that you can heal your health and all your other spiritual and mental and emotional problems.  But I just don’t think so.  

I’m not sure why they seem to have that backwards.  Maybe it’s because many people really are totally mired in the physical and ego self and they need something firm and decisive, rigid and limiting, to say, no, no, don’t focus on the body, no, don’t focus on the ego, because that is the only way to stop the trainwreck of total identification with the body and ego and neglect of the spirit.  But I am starting to get the feeling that there would be some who would listen to what I have to say, some, .. and they would only be found few and far between or here and there, not as a kind of cohesive, reliable element in the religious group, but just as individuals who dare to go against the dominant current of their group.  

And I think that people are attracted to controlling, fearful, rigid things just like they can be attracted to problems and rottenness and suffering, ..  It stirs something in their subconscious, their hearts, .. maybe it stirs their fear, their love, their compassion, their controlling nature, their arrogance, their inferiority complex, memories of a painful childhood and the way they were brought up, the feeling of familiarity and belonging, even to something that is confusing and painful.  I recall this feeling of belonging to things that felt controlling (things that controlled me), and feeling of belonging with things that were very rigid, and fearful, backwards, painful and wrong.  I recall this feeling of being drawn to that, feeling at home in it, loving it, feeling natural and at ease in it.  I recall this feeling of that being “my people”, who I wanted to care for and help and save.  I recall all this happening almost below or maybe completely below consciousness, but only later on being able to articulate and pinpoint the feelings I was having and why this painful heavy suffocating, numb, destructive feeling felt good and attractive to me.  Or if not good, then natural, fine, appropriate, like I really belonged.  I felt this way with my husband, for many years and after the pain of it all from many things over the years with him and many horrible memories, I can look back and see if from a totally different light.  Knowing things about him and me and my family and his family, and life, and psychology, I can see it in a totally different framework and interpretation.  And it feels to me like trauma and abuse and ignorance and delusion and narrow-mindedness and fear and shame are so very vast and prolific and pervasive in our society and culture, that religion, with its oft-times fear and control and narrow, rigid ways makes perfect sense,...  It makes people feel they belong, in a similar way.  Not that religion always has to be that way, but often it does contain things like that, and that is something I’ve been running into in my own path way too much that keeps me from moving forward as I keep on running into brick walls again and again. 

I really still do want to find the good in this path, and have experienced so much good,...   Truly, good, vital essential good, that has saved my heart, my soul, my life, from self-destruction and confusion, delusion and danger, negativity, selfishness, despair and nihilism...  I’ve still found so much real good here in this path that I don’t think I can find anywhere else,... And good that I haven’t found anywhere in all my many years of deep, intensive searching of other religions, and psychology and new age, and other beliefs and practices,...  But I can’t deny what feels very wrong to me, dangerous, toxic, strangling, choking, no air to breathe, no love, no hope, no mercy, no voice, just madness. I can’t deny what feels that way to me, can’t paint it in prettier colors and whitewash it all.  I can’t sidestep and beat around the bush and walk on eggshells anymore.  I can’t make it sound better or less severe than it really seems to me.  I won’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.  But there is so much that seems it needs to be thrown out and I won’t hide from it anymore.  

I’m getting a lot of courage from some videos that I just serendipitously found lately too, so it helps me, opening my heart, my mind, my hope, my sense of courage and solidarity, having a voice, not being totally alone in my strange subset of pagan-Christian ideas.  Not that these videos are pagan-Christian, but still a kind of Christianity that would probably be largely if not totally open to my whole experience, and not simply being open to it but totally understanding and validating it deeply, expressing my reality in ways I didn’t even know how to do, showing why things are the way they are, in myself and in religion and church and various paths and denominations and in modern culture or just human nature and culture in general over time and history, in many cases, etc.  I feel this was a blessing from the taboo God.  So maybe I’ll finally have the courage and clarity to make a little more sense and not just fall in line with one or the other group because my own logic can’t think clearly enough to stand on its own.  Now I don’t have to stand on my own anymore, quite so much. 

[ramrodd]

COMMENTARY:

My problem with the NYTimes has always been its smug self-righteousness in the face of a not entirely reliable grasp of universal truth or the current existential stream of event's connection with mistakes it made since i began paying attention to it during the '60's. I am an Eisenhower Republican, so I grew up with Stars&Stripes, which, at the time, considered Paul Harvey a closet liberal. Like Rush Limbaugh, Paul Harvey never got the memo on Will Rogers that even the NYTimes continues to embrace from his presence on Broadway.

But it's a NYTimes version of Will Rogers. For people who believe that cultural appropriation is "a Black THANG: you wouldn't get it" and that they invented the phenomena, there used to be a subset of the East Side smart set who could, and did do, rope tricks at the drop of a Stetson. It's sort of fun, the first time you see it (although, when a naked Pan Am stew does it, it never loses it's first time out of the box quality).

And that's my problem with the NYTimes: they don't realized how badly they have been corrupted by the transnatonal criminal consortium Steve Bannon and Newt Gingrich represent. NBC has been thuroughly in the bag for the Koch brother's Dark Money since Newt Gingrich crushed Connie Chung's career for practicing journalism and the trend of the NYTime editorial has been constantly rightward more or less in line with David Brooks (not David Brock) constant, but oh, so, gentle push into editorial Fascism more or less aligned with Mick Mulaney, Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.

David Brooks (not David Brock) is an example of the wolf in sheep's clothing Paul discusses with Timothy (i and II Timothy are probably the most authentically Pauline of the epistles of a happy, same sex, couple. To deny the LGBGT Christian legitimacy is to deny that Paul is a raging faggot, not to put to fine a point on it. Pedophile, in fact, in the clinical sense of the word. Growing up in the 50's until i could drive, I was acutely aware of the older men omnipresent in Southern white society trolling for twinks and pre-twinks. Especially in the Boy Scouts: Scout Masters, I mean, the Order of the Eagle was like Yale's Skull and Bones circle jerk. Life at the YMCA.

And St. Paul is one of those guys. That's his "thorn in the flesh". Pro-Life Evangelicals and the Catholic Church refuse to even appoach the subject, but, if you want to understand the subtext of the National Review and how Gore Vidal goaded Bill Bennett into outing himself. It's why all the white crypto-Nazis like Newt Gingrich and David Brooks (not David Brock) have migrated to the Catholic Church and why Pope Benedict is subverting, if not actively sabotaging, the Liberation Gospel of Pope Francis in favor of Steve Bannon's Salvation Gospel and his 7 verticles of Supply Side economics.

Never forget that Steve Bannon's agenda, like John Galt's, is to dismantle the administrative state.

The problem for me is that the NYTimes has never understood how it has become a useful idiot for Steve Bannon's agenda. The proof is in the enthusiastic agreement Tom Freidman had with Steve Bannon regarding China on the Squawk show.

And, in small way, this all comes down to Israel. I happen to agree with Avigdor Lieberman that Netanyahu and Jared Kushner are engaged in a fraudulent "peace process" that is just another land grab for the Haredim. My opinion has been that Netanyahu's political career has been built on the valor he is stealing from his brother and the murder of Yikzhak Rabin by the Haredim, which is a terrorist organization and the Jewish counter-part to Hamas, although the Haredim, as a sociologically distinct cultural subset that can date itself back to the time when David cut off the dicks of 100 palestinians who happened to be neighbors for a dowry. These are the same people who stoned Stephen because they are still doing it in the same way they capped Yikzhak Rabin, not the first Prophet for Peace they had cut down.

Avigdor Lieberman is the way forward for Israel. A two state confederation is the solution conservative but realistic kibbutz embrace. They recognize that Netanyahu's delights in the charms of the Warsaw Ghetto are not sufficient justification to recreate it in Gaza and the West Bank. The Haredim refuse to participate in the larger cultural fabric of Israel and there is no reason to include them in the government. These are the people who burned the food stores in Jerusalem in 70 and then ran off to Madasa when their own children began to show up on the menu. These people have been bad neighbors since they dammed up the Jordan and came out of the wilderness wth death and destruction in their wake and it's time they consider the nature of the God they are cuddling up to so passionately.

Steve Bannon is the front man for a domestic enemy that Jared Kushner is trying to export to Israel. In terms of the Mueller Report, Jared Kushner is the Dybbuk in the Office of the First Family. And until Donald Duck Ass keeps his promise to Chairman Kim to get a GI haircut and implements Lady Trump and Tradoc's Task Force Δ, he will be Steve Bannon's bitch.

[raayllum]

Y'know I've pondered over the sequencing of Rayla's return in 4x02 as well as the framing and I always thought it was interesting that she showed up in Moonshadow form, mostly because 1) thus far we haven't seen it again, so unless it shows up in s7 they did an entirely new character rig for 1-2 shots and 2) while it's dramatic, idk, the shot with the moon halo always felt so loaded with symbolism, why not just cut there as he turns around period?

But then it's like

Of course she — and the cube! — are are dark, first. Of course they're the dark side of the moon first, the negatives. She led him to darkness and likely will again; and even just her still being secretive at first too, because even though she's come back that hasn't fixed everything for either of them; and whether it comes to plot fruition of being bad first, we know that Callum at the very least has a negative view of the cube from S4 onwards due to its associations with Aaravos. Much like how her coming back is "kind of bad" (4x05).

But then what happens?

The shot — Rayla, the cube — shift to light! To the moon shining again. Because the cube isn't just related to Aaravos, it's also related to primal magic and will probably wind up being in Callum's possession in a positive way by the end of s7 (alongside its book). Because Rayla coming back is also good, and she learns to not be secretive, and she also leads him to the light (6x06, and probably S7). Her and the Cube are tied to the same two journeys and similar symbolism and plotlines (Callum's relationship with Rayla and journey with Aaravos) that will define him most predominantly for the rest of the arc.

[raayllum]

Nowhere left for us to go but heaven Summer falling through our fingers again and You were the sunshine of my lifetime What would you trade the pain for?

[raayllum]

I think you should put the knife down. It hurts you twice, you know. Here, I'll hold onto it for you. I've got a great spot for it.

—anglerfish poem

[raayllum]

A lot has changed. Well some things, but not everything. I would do anything for you.

[thatartiststudios]

Rayllum AMV | Demons - Imagine Dragons (Boyce Avenue Cover)

Posting this to get y'all hyped for Snake Boi Callum Week 3.0!

Had a lot of fun on this one

[thatartiststudios]

Home is where they say the heart is

Mine's buried in the yard

Hell's a place they say is for sinners

I'll be the man in charge

Within the midst (of) of this? (Ooh, ooh)

(But how) can I admit (now)

That I would quit (now) on you?

Can I Exist - MISSIO / Home is the first grave + Rayllum