#the sword

[quoththemaiden]

I still can’t get over how the opening scene of Good Omens was the serpent of Eden being told to “go make some trouble” and deciding to tempt humans into gaining knowledge, and an angel being issued a flaming sword and told to make sure the humans don’t return to Eden, and instead of using the flaming sword to guard the gate he tells them “it isn’t safe for you here anymore” and gives them the sword so they will be safe out there. And then they stand around quietly panicking about it together because both of them suspect that isn’t quite what their instructions were supposed to mean.

[sirjacobthomaskiszka]

(I’ve run out of things to say about this man. I’m completely speechless)

[bloodbonesandmarrow]

Fanime day 2!

Harrowhark- me

The most perfect Gideon ever- @bawdyknocker

Harrow vestige design (immediately marred by my traitorous watering eye) - @sleepysnailart

[poupeesdecirque]

WiP - Exorcising Sword Pt 5

Back home, traveling with the sword was ... interesting it's almost too big for the car, heh.

I had to put it on hiatus for a few days as I got a tattoo and was not able to use my arm to full force for a week and I didn't want to sand like mad due that fact.

I had some crosses to sort out and choose from though so I started with that.

The next thing on my list was to full a lot of gaps here and there, I got that tube of Kwik Seal as I bought supplies for the Innocence and didn't need it but I am glad I have it.

After everything was dry I needed to sand all the edges, which went quite quickly and easy I was surprised!

Then I decided to add some details to the handle that still were missing. But I didn't expect my contact glue to become .. a blob. I am currently waiting for some thinner to fix that.

I was able to attach the bottom of the handle but had to remove the crown as it was too much of a mess and didn't truly stick anymore. But I noticed in the progress that there is some decorations I need to add BEFORE the crown goes there so... it was not the worst to postpone that part.

What followed after that was priming the whole sword to have a better surface for the spray paint to hold on. This was done on two days within 10 minutes each but it takes forever to cure.

And here you can see my attempts to bring some colors onto the sword, it ate 2 cans of paint and there is still a lot to fix sadly. One side got very grainy and I will need to sand that down.

But I also noticed I ... didn't add rivets. So that's next before I sand and then most likely add some acrylic paint by hand to have it more even and opaque than with spray paint.

[geareduptom]

[vanhelsingapologist]

there’s a man in the sunsword and he whispers morality

[la-libreria-chula]

Has anyone read these?!!?

I literally finished all three in a week! While I was a little disappointed in the novellas (The Sword and the Scepter) because I was hoping to see more of Rooke's time in the Northern Lands, still glad to have read them.

But The Crown of Oaths and Curses?? I loved it! At first, I thought it was going to be straight up romantasy (because of those two novellas and the whole fated mates thing) but now it's just a fantasy to me with the aspect of romance not being the central thing (or least I hope so). I can't wait for the second book. I know there has been something going on where it's been delayed, but I'm waiting for the paperback version anyway.

[wolfoftonight]

GUESS WHO COMPLETED THE QUEST OF A LIFETIME

WOLF REF WOLF REF WOLF REF

[quoththemaiden]

Aziraphale: The Sword that Guards the Tree of Life

Looking where the furniture isn't

This post is dedicated to @meatballlady's excellent insistence that if we want to try to predict where season 3 will go, we need to look at where the furniture isn't. That is, what must have been there but wasn't shown?

For this one, my source material is going to be Genesis. That is, in no small part, because it does in fact fuck severely that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett took the angel with the flaming sword and the serpent of Eden and made them kiss (@joycrispy, @ouidamforeman). It's also because Genesis, quite simply, exists, and it seems safe to assume that most everyone in Gaiman and Pratchett's intended audience has been exposed to at least its first few chapters dozens of times.

What does Genesis tell us about Aziraphale's purpose?

3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—  23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

@joycrispy's analysis above highlights Aziraphale's role as given in the last verse: as the angel chosen to wield the flaming sword, he was sent down after Adam and Eve were expelled to prevent them from returning. Instead, he chose to protect them by giving that sword away. His desire to protect humanity is indeed beautiful (@give-soup-please, @snek-eyes).

But wait, what came right before that? "And take fruit also from the tree of life...?"

2:9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That's right: What we see in the show is that Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden so that they'd have to deal with the rain and the animals and have to work for their food, but that was never the primary motivation. God planted two special trees, and after Eve and Adam ate from one of them, God was terrified at the prospect of them turning around and eating from the other. And thus, the Garden of Eden was made off-limits and set to be permanently guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

So, the flaming sword.

Twice now, Aziraphale's sword has helped humanity survive complete and total destruction (@nottobehornyonthemain). The first time, he handed the sword to the first two humans, which protected not just them but the entirety of the human race via Adam and very pregnant Eve.

The second time, he let it be wielded by The Them, who used it to best the Four Horsepeople of the Apocalypse and save the billions of humans already alive as well as unborn generations.

Perhaps the flaming sword was only intended as a plot point in the first season. However, if its purpose were completed, it could have easily been destroyed. As a narrative piece, it could have broken dramatically at the end of the face-off against the Four Horsepeople. Or, Watsonianly, God could have chosen to break it Herself; after all, it was already used against its intended purpose twice, so why let it keep existing?

Instead, it's carefully taken away to... where? Heaven?

The place Aziraphale is now going?

Or at least a place where he could likely find a record showing where it's being stored?

Whether you call it "rule of threes" or "Chekhov's gun," I think it likely that Aziraphale will be getting his sword back in season 3. He probably doesn't want it (@createserenity, @ineffableigh, @doctorscienceknowsfandom), but he'll need it.

The question, then, is what would Aziraphale do with the flaming sword he was given to prevent humans from reaching the tree of life?

If we're looking at where the furniture isn't, the biggest stretch of an interpretation would be to say that the missing furniture is the tree of life. If anyone knows where Eden is, it would be Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate. We know that both Heaven and Hell want to end humanity. The opening credits have humanity walking to their judgment after their deaths; what better way to prevent that than by preventing those deaths?

The most intense version of this theory says that the audience should be familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden and know damn well that there are two special trees there and that Aziraphale was put in place to guard the second one — the one humanity hasn't eaten from yet, the one that grants immortal life. That's where, if I were truly trying to swing for the hills by aiming at where the furniture isn't, I would ideally like to end this post. If that were the case, season 3 could even open with Aziraphale walking towards the Garden of Eden, sword in hand, but this time approaching it from the outside with the intention of tearing the wall down.

But, let's be honest, making individual people immortal doesn't feel like it would fit with the themes of Good Omens, nor with Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett's world views.

So, let's take the tree of life symbolically: Instead of the tree of life granting individual humans immortality, it could instead represent giving humanity immortality. In that case, the thing that's where the furniture isn't is Aziraphale's sword. You know, the sword that's already saved the human race from extinction twice now, with both times being because Aziraphale gave it away.

I suspect that the sword will wind up in Aziraphale's hands again in season 3. I also quite suspect that it won't be staying there. In the end, I expect it will once again be up to humanity to reach out their hand to take the apple from that second tree.

[captzexx]

Music Tag Game

Tagged by: @handhourgalleries

Rules: Shuffle your Spotify On Repeat playlist, and put the first 10 songs in a poll. Have your followers choose which song is their favorite.

Tagging: @damien-ward @phyghyver @xalatath @tarttsweetshriek @amorthonblackwood @roselyn-ravenblade and anyone else that loves music and share their repeats.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“And when they came to the sword that the hand held, King Arthur took it up.”

Illustration by N.C. Wyeth  from The Boy’s King Arthur:  1922

* * *

“Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too. This makes it quite easy for the ordinary people to live, just as it would be easy to join those five dots into a W if you were allowed to look at them forwards, instead of backwards and inside out. But I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of Time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind. Some people call it having second sight. ~Merlin”

― T. H. White

[dare-g]

Ken (1964)

[poupeesdecirque]

WiP - Exorcising Sword - Pt 3

Here is more progress on the sword, I already can tell we continued working for several days here. First came cutting off the excess foam as you can see above.

Then adding the base of the handle here, lots of glue to be added.

More base work and foam core for the handle. Next up is dremeling uneven parts and correcting things before moving onto the decorative parts.

It took a while with the Dremel and all that as we fried the Dremel and had to get a new rotary tool but my car decided to act up and ... wow. Yeah. Progress delayed in so many ways it was not funny anymore.

[babybluelove2]

chappell roan's vma red carpet look was GORGEOUS