#this post is not about religon

[chaihena]

fuck it, entering my godcore era

[septrose]

uhhh might be a mental breakdown (or the aftermath of one) but i think I believe in God...

In like a "he can save me" way and also "he's a piece of shit" way...

I think God exists but i kinda hate him ngl...

[made-by-marlow]

song of the day: spring and a storm // tall hall

[atlasvulcandar]

can i pick two?

[crowyobroyo]

heheheheh. I'm being a sneaky queer. my chosen name is slowly spreading throughout the family as what I prefer to be called, even to those who I haven't come out to yet or might not be as supportive

[trigunsapphicweek]

[I.D.: The prompt list. The background has an aged paper look with real-life violets in the corners. The list is captioned: “Trigun Sapphic Week: February 9th-15th 2025.” End I.D.]

Here’s the prompt list! Thank you to everybody who has voted and supported us so far!

Check out our carrd for further details about the event here: Carrd. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, send an ask or a DM!

Under the cut is a plain text transcript of the prompts.

[Text Transcript of the prompt list:

Trigun Sapphic Week

February 9th - 15th 2025

1. T4T | Post-Canon

"And I realize I'll play any type of fool to make her laugh." - Mazey Eddings

"Killer Queen" by Queen

2. Flirting/Banter/Teasing | Role Swap

"That's what I admire most about you - the bloodiness of your heart." - Margaret Atwood

"Red Wine Supernova" by Chappell Roan

3. Flowers | Pre-Canon

"Would you put my whole, wounded body in your own, if I asked you?" - Bianca Stone

"Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush

4. Hurt/Comfort | Missing Scene

"Stand and face me, my love, and scatter the grace in your eyes." - Sappho

"Two Slow Dancers" By Mitski

5. Letters | Cowgirls

"Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get used to it." - Richard Siken

"Girl with One Eye" by Florence + The Machine

6. Hands | Supernatural

"In the crooks of your body, I find my religon." - Sappho

"Love is like a butterfly" by Dolly Parton



7. Worship | Canon Divergence

"Someone will probably love you for who you are, not just for who you labor to be." - Stephanie Burt

"She's A Gun" by The Greeting Committee. End Transcript.]

[virginianmetrofaerie]

would people be interested in reading a fanfiction/series of oneshots surrounding joshua's early life (think age 12 until he goes on mission). I have a lot of headcanons about his relationship w his father, his mother, his religon, etc. and I have some things written out but its too much for just a headcanon post.

I reckon I would frame it as a flashback/present kind of model because I imagined that his path to 'redemption' lead him to try and understand what lead him to be so open to sin at such a young age, and I had this silly idea of Josh tripping on datura out of spiritual desperation and seeking answers and that leading him to question his upbringing's role in the way he is how he is.

[applestorms]

a few additional notes after finishing reading the book: (tbh you could probably just read this reblog if the above essay is too many words. not that this is much better, but, y'know.)

1. i've figured out that the big thing that might make aziraphale & crowley becoming fully human by the end of the series unsatisfying to me is the fact that we don't actually know what happens to humans when they die in the good omens universe (well, we can infer, but we still haven't seen it directly for heaven & have only had a few one-off jokes for hell). since so much effort has been put forth into setting up heaven & hell as these mutually horrible places filled with flawed bureaucracies, the idea that aziraphale & crowley would spend the rest of their human lives in peace on earth and then just die and get stuck in their respective nightmares anyways is incredibly unsatisfying to me. kind of a minor point that will probably get figured out fairly easily, but still significant enough to have been bothering me for a while.

2. i keep forgetting to talk about this, but w/ regards to crowley:

so my main point for section 2 of the above essay is that there are basically two different kinds of ethics/morality/whatever the fuck you wanna call it (my philosophy training is pouting at me for being so imprecise with the terminology here but this is a fucking tumblr post so suck it) in the good omens universe: Good & Evil (capitalized), which are essentially just placeholders that describe which side an action puts you in favor of Heaven or Hell, and good & evil (lowercase), the more complex realm of ethics/morality/whatever that originates from & primarily affects humanity/the lives of humans in some way.

this distinction is quite important to me, especially for aziraphale since i feel like one of aziraphale's key issues that he runs into most significantly at the end of s2e6 is his inability to separate goodness (the human kind) from Goodness (the heaven kind). one of the key things that distinguishes aziraphale & crowley from the rest of heaven & hell in my mind is the fact that they both have a much stronger sense of intuitive goodness (lowercase), which makes sense considering how much more in touch with humanity they've been.

while crowley to me seems slightly more consciously aware of this separation, i still don't think he's totally come to terms with the extent of the separation. my big guess for season 3 is that it's going to have to involve aziraphale & crowley getting in back in touch with humanity again. we can already see hints of this kind of thing at the end of season 2 with maggie & nina very bluntly saying that they can't just play around with their lives like they're meaningless dolls (or, more precisely, meaningful only in the context of this other big game between heaven & hell), and crowley is clearly listening more closely than aziraphale, but they both have a ways to go still imo.

i've said this a billion times by now but crowley is fucked up in a very legitimately traumatized sense. basically all of his reactions in the most tense moments for the last few seasons have been literal fight or flight responses- run away to alpha centauri, fuck heaven & hell, the only people we can trust are each other, aziraphale, etc. etc. etc. while crowley might be more aware of the difference between (human) goodness and (heavenly) Goodness, i still don't think he's been able to accept that he's capable of? allowed to be? an actually good person yet, regardless of the fact that we see him and aziraphale doing good (lowercase) shit in basically equal amounts, maybe even more if we account for the good deeds aziraphale does that may or may not also/instead be categorized as Good (uppercase) deeds (uh more on that later). he has a lot of lines following his good actions in season 2 where he fairly explicitly says "nuh uh no i'm not good i'm an evil wily serpent and even if you did tell people i did this they wouldn't believe you, sucker," which... may be true? or may be a leftover instinct to protect his own ass against the people constantly watching them, i'm kind of in debate with myself about what particular mental gymnastics he's looping his lil snake body through in this case.

regardless, i see a lot of hope for crowley in the ways that he can grow in both 1. his potential closer connection with humanity by the fact that he's choosing to go against both heaven & hell still- his glances at nina & maggie right before he gets in the car are still kinda up for interpretation if they're a goodbye or a promise to come back until we see the next season i guess, but i'd like to think he keeps in closer contact, if only to distinguish him from aziraphale who is definitely going to get fucked up & stuck in heaven somehow, and 2. his freedom from heaven & hell perhaps giving him some room to breathe when it comes to deciding what he wants to do for himself- personally, i think the fact that he was so (relatively) quick to take up maggie & especially nina on their advice once they started pointing out his shit to him is also evidence of the fact that he isn't feeling the constant watchful stare of heaven & hell anymore, which was a Major Factor that cannot go unforgotten as part of the reason why aziraphale & crowley weren't communicating in the first place, imho. at the very least, crowley's role throughout a lot of the story thus far has been leading aziraphale by asking him Questions that mix up his black & white Good vs. Evil instincts, so it would make sense that it might continue. also, thematically having the demon save the angel by granting him more humanity feels very on vibe with the rest of good omens, especially since we saw What Happened when the angel tried to save the demon by making him an angel again.

again though, i don't think that aziraphale is entirely wrong in this case either though. a lot of the fallout of season 2 comes from the fact that crowley kind of basically won the argument from season 1 when it comes to his judgement of heaven & hell. he's not wrong, they are both toxic as hell, but at this point running away just Is Not a happy ending for those two, not like it could be for gabriel & beelz who never had the same connection to earth or humanity in the first place. my guess is that while crowley is going to help aziraphale once again distinguish between goodness and Goodness and get back in touch with humanity again, aziraphale is going to have to help crowley see that running away and leaving heaven & hell, two incredibly powerful, reality-altering entities, in such a horrible state isn't really a great answer either. there's a quote from adam in the original book that really sums up this idea well to me:

"I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people and then gettin' upset 'cos they act like people," said Adam severely. "Anyway, if you stopped tellin' people it's all sorted out after they're dead, they might try sorting it all out while they're alive. If I was in charge, I'd try makin' people live a lot longer, like ole Methuselah. It'd be a lot more interestin' and they might start thinkin' about the sort of things they're doing to all the enviroment and ecology, because they'll still be around in a hundred years' time."

(pg. 432)

again, this is why i (currently, at least, this could definitely change depending on how the trajectory of the show actually ends up going but it's gonna be Years and i need to get some shit out of my brain in the meantime) want a more concrete view of what shit after death actually looks like for humanity. aziraphale & crowley's main connection, the thing that binds them and separates them out from the rest of Their (respective) Kind(s), is their love of humanity- letting heaven & hell continue to stay in their current shitty state is just unacceptable if it hurts what is so clearly dear to the both of them, and that's where i think aziraphale's argument holds some weight as well.

2.1 good & evil vs. Good & Evil

minor clarification: i know i'm playing pretty fast & loose with the terminology here, but i do want to note that goodness & Goodness as i distinguish them in this context here, with the lowercase g for humanity and capital G for heaven, are not necessarily entirely separate things, and in fact are probably generally quite similar, motivating the confusion between the two that aziraphale seems to currently be struggling with at the end of s2 under my interpretation. i.e. the actions themselves might not actually be all that different, the vast majority of the time.

rather, what i'm trying to distinguish here is less between the actions themselves and more how they come to be declared as g/Good in the the first place.

essentially: an action is deemed Good in the heavenly sense if it is something that benefits heaven/is on the side of heaven, regardless of what the specific action is. spider-man helping an old, bedridden neighbor by buying her groceries for her would be considered a Good (uppercase) action not only because he's helping someone but because Helping Someone, Kindness, and Care for the Elderly are all things connected to the side of heaven- the action gets heaven points instead of hell points, so it's deemed Good. in this case however it may also be considered a good (lowercase) action, because whatever brand of human-based ethics you're using will probably deem taking care of others to be a good thing- the action itself is deemed good here, perhaps because of the effects it has if you wanna use more of a consequentialist pov here.

on the other hand, you get a lot of the moral ambiguity & ethical questions found & analyzed in good omens itself- letting adam kill all of humanity is ultimately considered a Good action if it means that it starts a war that heaven can win, even if it is absolutely not a good action in terms of how it causes all of humanity to die & suffer. this is why i say that Good & Evil in the heaven & hell sense are actually amoral, because they can entirely agree on certain actions (e.g. adam destroying the world) so long as the conclusion supports their side in some way.

actually, speaking of- aziraphale & crowley initially trying to kill adam is actually a really interesting case to me when considering everything in this context cause it shows how aziraphale & crowley are still figuring a lot of shit out when it comes to getting in touch with human lowercase good & evil. ultimately they don't end up killing adam, but that's largely because madame tracy stops them through her inability to help commit such an evil (lowercase) act, again the case of a human ethical sense winning out over the supernatural justification. aziraphale & crowley are still kind of on the same page in that they don't want to completely destroy humanity, but they haven't quite developed the same instincts perhaps, or the same hard boundaries that the humans around them have.

3. some other great quotes that i particularly liked while reading:

*Shadwell hated all Southerners and, by inference, was standing at the North pole. (pg. 218)

"It's like you said the other day," said Adam. "You grow up readin' about pirates and cowboys and spacemen and stuff, and jus' when you think the world's all full of amazin' things, they tell you it's really all dead whales and chopped-down forests and nuclear waste hangin' about for millions of years. 'Snot worth growin' up for, if you ask my opinion." (pg. 263)

"And as for that stuff about Heaven inevitably winning... Well, to be honest, if it were that cut and dried, there wouldn't be a Celestial War in the first place, would there? It's propaganda. Pure and simple. We've got no more than a fifty percent chance of coming out on top. You might just as well send money to a Satanist hotline to cover your bets, although to be frank when the fire falls and the seas of blood rise up you lot are all going to be civilian casualties either way. Between our war and your war, they're going to kill everyone and let God sort it out- right?" (Aziraphale, pg. 330)

But, to look on the bright side, all this only went to prove that evil contains the seeds of its own destruction. Right now, across the country, people who would otherwise have been made just that little bit more tense and angry by being summoned from a nice bath, or having their names mispronounced at them, were instead feeling quite untroubled and at peace with the world. As a result of Hastur's action a wave of low-grade goodness started to spread exponentially throughout the population, and millions of people who ultimately would have suffered minor bruises of the soul did not in fact do so. So that was all right. (pg. 365)

Newt did not smoke, because he did not allow nicotine or (until today) alcohol entry to the temple of his body or, more accurately, the small Welsh Methodist tin tabernacle of his body. (pg. 404)

and, of course:

Finally the guard's proving intellect found a word he thought he recognized. "What's this here," he said suspiciously, "about us got to give you faggots?" "Oh, we have to have them," said Newt. "We burn them." "Say what?" "We burn them." The guard's face broadened into a grin. And they'd told him England was soft. "Right on!" he said. (pg. 407-408)

morality in the world of good omens

so i wrote another (admittedly very messy) essay on good omens not long ago right after watching season 2 but after finishing that, rewatching all of both seasons multiple times, and reading through the book, i have a couple more distinct ideas to get out...somewhere...if only for my own sanity. this is me throwing my thoughts into the internet before i pop, if you will. just 3 sections, below the cut.

1. environment, characters, & transformative fandom creations

to start this post off a bit more broadly, i've been thinking a lot recently about transformative fandom and the reasons why we write fanfiction/create semi-original works in the first place, as well as why certain aspects of fandom (writing, art, analysis, etc.) will be more appealing to me for certain shows/series than others. correct me if you have a totally different view of this, but in my experience i've found that i tend to naturally gravitate towards different parts of fandom depending on what the original medium of the story was- podcasts tend to lead to some of the most interesting art trends, for example, since there's more room for interpretation and character design tends to be more of an ongoing community project than something set in stone like for a tv show with live human actors.

in my own observation, i've noticed that a lot of the really big & excitable fandoms, the ones that generate tons & tons of fanworks more naturally (a.k.a. just because of the story itself & not other factors like a pre-existing franchise or hype about new great gay representation, etc.) tend to surround stories that fall into a kind of "sweet spot" that makes the creation of fanworks really appealing. if you've ever wondered why there are so many ravenous artists bending over backwards to draw gorgeous fanart for stuff like homestuck or south park or even minecraft youtubers, it's likely because those stories all fall into a sweet spot for drawing, with character designs that are recognizable at a glance and yet still simple enough that there is plenty of room for personal creative touches. (think also, if you're familiar with such kinds of homestuck terms: hyperflexible mythologies, A4:1524, and/or this archive link cause the official thing is down now for some reason)

the conclusion i've come to is thus that even something as basic as the original medium of a story can dictate a lot about what kinds of fan activities are more common or popular within said story's fandom.

so, back to good omens- for me, this all relates back because of a question i've been messing with in my head recently, about why i've been less interested in fanfiction for good omens than i have been for the last few fandoms i've been, almost all of which have basically broken my ao3 bookmarks.

this question has been fucking with me for a while now, largely because i'm not entirely sure what's motivating it. a lot of times i can figure out pretty easily why i might personally not be interested in some parts of fandom, but that's not really the case here. from what i've seen this fandom seems to be pretty mixed in terms of age, & the writing that i have read is certainly no worse than i've seen elsewhere, perhaps even better in some places- and yet, i can't seem to get entirely into it, even getting frustrated as i can't find something to my tastes for an ao3 bedtime story as i've grown so accustomed. what caught me off guard is that this was an issue that i ran into while watching season 1 as well, back when the series was still quite popular but not blowing up like it is right now.

a lot of this may seem like (and likely is, at least in part) basic overthinking, but i mentioned it all here because the answer i eventually came to is reminiscent of my previous reflections above on the nature of fandom & how/why fanworks are created.

a couple paragraphs above, i used the example of art as an example of how fandoms that generate a lot of original artwork will often do the most when the original story falls into a sweet spot of character design, but notably i think that this sentiment applies to a lot more than just art. if you've ever seen the copious amounts of kpop & hockey rpf fanfiction that lives on ao3, it should be clear that this applies to writing too.

i wrote this essay a while back responding to an observation about the lack of a more extensive symbolic language in fanfiction & i've toyed around with the idea more since, particularly in considering the question of why a lot of what we see as the staples of fanfiction exist in the first place. in that post, my response largely revolved around an argument of why we create fanfiction- namely, that fanfiction is created as in tandem with deeper analysis of the original story/series, as a way of trying to practically apply character analysis to a new context.

the key part of that last sentence to me is how a lot of this revolves around character analysis (and shipping, but really it's the characters that motivate the shipping in most cases so. same difference).

i tend to instinctively separate fanfiction into two separate categories: fanfiction that is based out of the original world/canon of the story (including but not limited to fix-its, deeper analysis fics that take a scene & extrapolate from it, continuations, etc.) and fanfiction that takes the characters from the original story & plops them in an alternate universe/AU. while i separate these out as two distinct categories of fanfiction, i should also clarify that i don't think these two groups are necessarily equal in terms of number of fics- rather, the vast majority of fanfiction tends to be AUs, keeping the original characters & changing any & all aspects of the world around them. again, this may vary depending on the story & Vibe of the fandom at the time, stories like game of thrones or harry potter or homestuck might have a lot more in the canon category by nature of any major dissatisfactions the fandom has with how the original story was told, but in most cases AUs are more popular. this was a lot of the basis behind my argument that fanfiction is created as character analysis in fact, since the characters are the most important part that carries over from original story to fanwork, as well as can end up being one of the most debated/scorned parts when it comes to fandom drift (i.e. "that's out of character"/"he wouldn't do that"/and all other such arguments about fanon vs. canon characterization).

basically, my conclusion in this case was that i was a lot less interested in gomens fic largely because i have a really hard time separating the characters from the world in the case of this particular story. aziraphale & crowley being an angel & a demon and dealing with all of the bullshit of their world when it comes to heaven & hell are such integral parts of their characters in my mind that i have a much harder time getting behind AU fanfiction that plops them in a totally different context. it's just a much harder sell for keeping the characters in character for me. (i also tend to not like s2 fix-its just cause, idk they're just not my style, which is where a lot of the recent blast of energy has led us.) to clarify, this is not a judgement, just a matter of personal preference and a reflection of why, even if a lot of fandoms will look the same from the outside/involve the same things like art, fic, etc., an individual's mileage can vary wildly when it comes to how they interact with different things online.

*additional note, also for clarification: i do want to acknowledge that a lot of this depends on pure popularity as well, popular fandoms will often end up with basically everything in terms of fanworks just by nature of how many people are interacting with & thinking deeply about the story. my point here is more along the lines of the fact that even within the more well-populated fandoms, certain types of fanwork will often Stick Out more to me than others, or even be visibly much more common than in other fandoms, due largely to the original medium/structure of how the story.

so, speaking of aziraphale & crowley in more depth now- why does the world of good omens feel like such an integral part of their personalities when it comes to characterization? up next, let's talk about morality within the context of good omens' perhaps surprisingly secular take on heaven & hell.

2. the amorality of heaven & hell (ft. the crowley quote apples you know the one)

(warning in advance that this section may be a bit limited since i'm not going to get super far (or very far at all, really) into the whole religious-analysis aspect of good omens.)

i've been binge-reading the original pterry & gaiman book for good omens over the last few days and it's been very fun seeing all the slight changes between the tv show & the original. you can really see the hand of the original creators in how the tv show was translated, even just by looking at which parts made it and which parts were deemed worth cutting out. i suppose having one of the original creators right there helping build everything really helps make a book -> show translation work, since the ASOUE tv series was also pretty well received- something about knowing what's the core of the series & truly important to keep in, and having more time to tell the story itself?

anyways, i have a short list of notes that i've been taking as i read, conversations that stand out to me or footnotes that particularly amused me, but i keep coming back to one line that stood out to me quite early on. in context, this line comes from crowley during the conversation where he is first attempting to fully convince aziraphale about stopping armageddon, specifically when they're talking about exerting equal forces on warlock to make him normal:

"You're saying the child isn't evil of itself?" [Aziraphale] said slowly. "Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality, waiting to be shaped," said Crowley. He shrugged. "Anyway, why're we talking about this good and evil? They're just names for sides. We know that."

(p. 67)

"They're just names for sides." if i had to pick one line to sum up the view on religious morality of this series, this would likely be it.

on the one hand, i tend to interpret a lot gomens' take on heaven & hell within the context of its political stance, something that is particularly obvious through a line from gabriel in s2e2 where he tries to clarify to aziraphale that heaven isn't trying to hurt job directly, but instead is just not stopping hell from doing horrible things to him. while there may be some additional nuance to add to this take within the context of british politics that i don't really know well enough to add about, i'm inclined to see this from the side of my own familiar american politics, which might hold some weight considering how long mr. gaiman's lived around here. point is, my current interpretation of that line is that it helps in more clearly establishing the analogy of heaven & hell as the story moves forward into newer seasons and thus more contemporary politics, equating heaven with mainstream liberal politics & politicians and hell with conservatives.

this stance seems to be emphasized even more in the tv show than the book which makes sense considering its been coming out more recently, and especially in season 2 which is still quite caught up in a lot of quarantine-based reflection. (the tv show puts a lot more emphasis on heaven & hell in general, actually, perhaps initially a byproduct of actually being able to see those environments in their entirety and all the angels & demons that populate them- but we'll get to that.)

the book takes a slightly different stance that, fittingly, seems more reflective of the time it came out. in particular, i was struck a lot more when reading the book by adam's rise (fall?) to power, and how much of it was motivated by a burgeoning nervousness/pessimism about climate change and the anxieties of younger generations that comes with inheriting an earth that feels so fucked up. honestly if anything it's only gotten more relevant in that respect, what with the current vibe on the internet & the hopelessness of the doomer gen z gang, but it also has a distinctly different flavor to me from the tv show, which i think is largely because it's less connected to Formal politics since again we see a whole lot less of heaven & hell as such distinct, bureaucratic entities.

instead, there is a very distinctly amoral aspect to heaven & hell that we get through lines like the one above and especially from characters like crowley. this is why i argue that good omens, despite having so many religious elements, is such a deeply secular take, especially when it comes to its ethics & morality- Good and Evil, notably with the capital letters in this case, has very little to do with actual actions and much more to do with the name that you stamp on top of said actions. heaven & hell and the angels & demons that we see directing and watching and generally fucking with aziraphale & crowley throughout the story are distinctly separate from humanity, and as we see even more as the story progresses, distinctly unaware about what it even means to be a human, in both a deeper philosophical & very basic and literal sense. Good and Evil is simply another name for the sides- and thus the true ethics is something separate, and based in a deeply human experience.

in my opinion this is also why aziraphale & crowley, lovers of humanity and also to some degree spokespersons of it from how much they've "gone native," tend to be so deeply at odds with both heaven & hell and always end up agreeing with each other over their own supposed sides. what makes aziraphale & crowley so distinctly different is that they ascribe to the same ethics & morality that humanity does, or at the very least are trying to figure out ethics & morality & How to Be a Good Person in the same horribly messy way that humans do, separating them from the black & white "this side Good & this side Bad," logic that the rest of heaven & hell instinctively ascribe to.

there's a lot of nuance here, which is also why i think there is such an emphasis on moral ambiguity (and love, but we'll get to that) throughout season 2. the story of job, grave robbing, & questionable attempts at matchmaking- aziraphale is working through a lot of Shit right now when it comes to trying to figure out what the Good thing actually fucking is, and i think it's key that a lot of that is motivated by crowley himself. crowley might'e been cast out of heaven for asking too many questions, but aziraphale is there & listening to them & giving them the serious thought they deserve, and that can't be overlooked.

sidenote: i couldn't figure out a place to shove this in, but i also wanna point out that a lot of this is tied to the idea of growing over time too. on the same page as the quote transcribed above is another line from crowley leading up to aziraphale's question that puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that warlock is going to be a product of nurture, not nature. again, this is an argument against basic black & white assigned-at-birth morality for the ability of humans to grow & change over time and be influenced by the people around them.

it's notable that despite adam's supposed origin as a Son of Satan, what really gets him to stop the apocalypse in the end is the fact that he doesn't really give a shit about all this big plans but instead just wants to hang around his friends. there's a lot of emphasis in the book placed on how beautiful & nice tadfield is as a place for a young kid to grow up, how well loved & fiercely protected it as as something beloved to adam. while he might be overwhelmed when faced with the full picture of how horrible the world can be, ultimately what he cares about is loving & taking care of the people & places that he grew up learning were precious, and the only way to do that is to keep growing & changing yourself within that world and trying to help it also grow into something better, not throw it all away just for the slightest chance that you could restart. a message worth taking the time to think about, at the absolute very least.

3. finding morality w/in humanity: crowley & aziraphale and speculation for s3

i have complicated feelings about both aziraphale & crowley throughout a lot of the show and especially in season 2. i think a lot of people, myself included, are inclined to see crowley as the voice of reason in this season, and for good reason- as i mentioned before, a lot of aziraphale's deeper questioning of the status quo and goodness (Goodness) as a whole is motivated by questions from crowley.

i kiiind of mentioned this in my previous essay, but to state it more clearly, my take on crowley is that he's arriving at the right answer for the wrong reasons, and, conversely, aziraphale is arriving at the wrong answer for... kind of also the wrong reasons but also slightly for the right reasons. let me explain.

crowley is clearly much more aware of the flaws in both heaven & hell than aziraphale is, which seems to be the basis behind a lot of his motivation in asking aziraphale so many questions in the first place. he's also, as maggie & nina point out in s2e6, deeply lonely, often running away or getting ready to fight literally anyone that isn't aziraphale (or humans, but that's a little more complicated). from his reaction to beelz & gabriel getting together, i think it's pretty clear that he still hasn't entirely given up on the whole alpha centauri idea, and it makes sense- as i said in that last essay, crowley basically won the argument at the end of the previous season when it comes to aziraphale & crowley, "making [their] own side," so he doesn't have much reason to face any of his personal fears until maggie & nina basically point out that they exist directly to his face. once they do point it out, however, he's very motivated to act & does so almost immediately, even after hearing what aziraphale has to tell him and being pretty thoroughly devastated by it.

my point here is that crowley is correct in seeing the toxicity of both heaven & hell, he's just flawed and largely motivated by fear (up for debate if that's all it is, but i certainly think it's a big part of it) in his desire to run away from it all. it's not quite armageddon, again he's going more flight > fight here, but he's still ultimately giving up and that's not a great conclusion.

on the other hand, as some others on this site have pointed out, aziraphale is certainly showing a lot of strength in his willingness to keep fighting & try to change things for the better, but it's not hard to see how that belief has been twisted. one of aziraphale's biggest flaw in motivation at this point imo is that he doesn't just believe in goodness but Goodness, the kind that's tied to heaven always being right & all actions being morally Good so long as they're done under the name of heaven, and that clearly also isn't great.

thus what i think the both of these two really need ultimately is that deeper connection to humanity, and the ethics born from humans interacting with humans. we can already see how strong these two are when they collaborate, even when they're doing their absolute best to be as subtle as possible, but what i think they need is to once again be grounded by humanity, not to get so caught up in the bullshittery of heaven & hell and Good & Evil, but once again find a goodness defined by the world that they mutually love so much and stick with it.

i keep tossing a question around in my head about whether or not aziraphale & crowley are going to end up human by the end of this series. it feels natural that they would, they're already so at home and in love with earth & around humanity, but i'm also not entirely sure if that would be a happy ending for them considering how long they've watched & loved the world as it's changed. perhaps taking this post into account is another push towards humanity as a happy ending, not running away to a cottage to get away from the world (i just can't see running away to a cottage to be together as as happy ending, sorry- it might work for beelz & gabriel but not for aziraphale & crowley), but choosing to settle down within that world that is so dear.

[scaphismpriest]

Tiktok is a cesspool of ableism against narcissists and usually I shake my head and roll my eyes, but i just saw a Tiktok comment that made my blood boil.

Keep in mind that this was on a cluster B safe post, and someone manages to think its okay to blame abuse on NARCISSISM. I am a person with BPD and NPD, im not going to get personal in my life because this is the internet and not everyone needs to know what ive fucking been through, but i know for damn sure that "narc abuse" is not a fucking thing and generalizes narcissists to be abusers and dangerous people. Sure, you can get abused by a narcissist, but you can also get abused by literary ANYONE, this is why you dont see people say "im suffering from blonde abuse" or "im recovering from christian abuse" because nobody in their fucking right mind would use someones appearance, race, mental health, religon, physical ability, gender, sexuality, ETC as a excuse to label and generalize a group of people to describe abuse. I had a ex girlfriend who would abuse me and she had BPD, I have a mother who also emotionally and verbally abuses me and shes schizophrenic. You dont see me say "im recovering from borderline abuse" or "im suffering from schizophrenic abuse" because that generalizes people with BPD and schizophrenia to be abusers. Do you see the fucking problem here yet? Oh but when its narcissists, or people with "scary mental disorders" like ASPD, then its suddenly okay to label us as scary abusers or dangerous people? Some of You claim to be advocates for mental health but when it comes to us then you suddenly give up because we're "too much for you to waste your time on" or that we're "Hopeless" and "Helpless" if you so called "Empaths", egotypicals, and neurotypicals actually gave a fucking shit about us, you would understand that we've also been hurt, we've been treated like shit and neglected by the world, we bite because we are scared, we are constantly in a battle of self hate and fake ego, we are insecure, we depend on attention and success to survive, we are neglected children at our core. if you really gave a shit about mental health and our well being, i wouldn't be here thinking "wow man i should really rid myself because the world views me as nothing but a monster so therefore i should off myself!" "but you've also hurt people!" I know, I am aware, I've already taken that accountabilty and MAJOR steps into becoming into a better person and have recovered greatly these past months and you dont know or understand me more than the people ive hurt personally, you dont get a say in what happens because thats NOT your ground to stand on and say whatever YOU think and ive had people disrespect that. I am FORTUNATE to even be loved and cared for still by the person ive hurt, and even I myself dont feel like I deserve that such mercy, I am forever grateful but It also makes me truly sad, not for myself, but for the person I love the most. I genuinely cried writing this, this is more so a vent but I hope someone sees this and atleast understand me on a true empathic level, instead of a perception. I hope i dont regret posting this, because this is the most youre gonna see me vulnerable for a LONG time.

[scrollonso]

Blurb as a follow-up to my tags on this post

I'm really not sure what it is... I had an idea 🤷‍♀️ (like 600 words)

Bez had always idolized Valentino. To him, Vale wasn’t just a mentor or a champion rider, he was a god, a beacon of everything Bez aspired to be. Every time he saw Vale on track, his heart swelled with admiration and longing. He yearned for Vale’s attention, his praise, his mentorship. His devotion was almost canine in its intensity. Loyal, eager, and desperate for any crumb of affection or acknowledgment.

For years, he basked in the glow of Vale's guidance. He worked tirelessly, always hoping to catch that approving glance, the pat on the back that would signify he was on the right path. However, as Pecco began to rise through the ranks of MotoGP with remarkable success, Vale’s focus naturally shifted towards his new star.

Bez watched from the shadows, feeling a cold, creeping emptiness settle in his chest. The camaraderie he once felt with Vale seemed distant, replaced by an aching void. Pecco’s victories were celebrated with enthusiasm and pride, leaving Bez feeling like a forgotten relic, a has-been in the making.

In his desperation, he began seeking validation elsewhere. He needed someone to fill the void left by Vale's waning attention, someone who could make him feel worthy again. It was then that Marc began to take an interest in him. Bez knew the history between Vale and Marc, the legendary on-track battles, the messy breakup that was as much about personal betrayals as professional rivalries. But Marc’s sudden interest was intoxicating, a heady mix of danger and promise.

Marc was cunning, his approach subtle yet manipulative. He saw the cracks in Bez's armor, the vulnerability that Vale’s neglect had created. Marc began to weave a web of psychological and emotional entanglement, playing on his fears and insecurities. He would drop hints, little seeds of doubt about Vale’s loyalty and intentions, making Bez question everything he had once believed.

“Valentino has moved on, Marco,” Marc would say in his smooth, persuasive tone. “He’s focused on Francesco now. You deserve someone who sees your worth, who can bring out the best in you.”

Bez, starved for the validation he had once received from Vale, began to fall under Marc's spell. The rival’s words were a balm to his wounded pride, a lifeline he clung to in his darkest moments. Marc was always there, whispering reassurances, promising to be the mentor Bez needed, the guide who wouldn’t abandon him for the next rising star.

In his heart, he still revered Vale, but the seed of doubt had been planted. He found himself torn between the god he had worshipped for so long and the devil whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Marc's psychosexual tactics were working, slowly but surely pulling Bez into his orbit. The boy’s desire for validation, for someone to believe in him, was leading him down a path he never thought he would tread, away from Valentino and towards the man who had once been his god’s greatest enemy. The serpent of the academy's religon.

Marc’s grip on him tightened, the lines between mentor, rival, and something more sinister blurring with each passing day. Bez could feel himself changing, the desperation transforming into a darker kind of loyalty. He was becoming Marc’s, not by choice, but by a twisted game of manipulation and desire. And as he fell deeper under Marc’s influence, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was what he truly wanted, or if he was just a pawn in a game between two legends, destined to lose no matter which side he chose.

[katabasiss]

i don’t know if you know this but hundreds of thousands of people on tiktok are deeply moved by the thing you said about jesus. isn’t that absolutely crazy how connected the internet is. i know religon is not what you post about but i just thought you should know

yeah, I really never saw that post taking off the way it did, but it's been really interesting to watch & read people's accounts in the notes <3 I wrote that post initially because I'm atheist & when I think about jesus, I think of him as a man moreso than the son of god, & I just remember thinking of how lonely he must have felt. you know, if he was real, would he have felt the coarse wood? would he have felt the sweat in his brow or the aches in his muscles? was he scared? & I think there's such an innate longing for home when you're scared and alone, that when you catch a glimpse of it, you cling to it even if it's empty & ephemeral.

I guess for some reason it just surprised me when my notes began to fill up with people with all sorts of different approaches to religion be it judiasm, christianity, islam. as if we haven't all felt lonely or wished for home.

either way, thanks for letting me know. it was really sweet <3

[ilovenatasharomanoff2-0]

PLEASE READ

I don't usually post things like this, but this is kid of important to please read until the end.

The Kosa bill (Kids online safety act) was brought into the Senate today at 10am. If you don't know, this bill will cause websites that include features of Lgbtq content, race, political views, and history to be censored. Apps such as Tumblr, Wattpad, A03, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Will one be censored having to put a form of id in to use that app. But if you're able to access it because you're over 18, you can't say anything that the government seems as 'harmful' to younger kids. And two they will be completely wiped. So deleted. That would mostly be Tumblr, Wattpad and a03.

This bill is insane because it censors off thing's children need to learn and it would share what they do on their devices to their parents. YOu can't learn about religon be because it's censord off, yiu can't learn how to get out of an abusive household because it's censored off. And you can't even use the internet to find out history...?

It is unsure if the bill has passed or not yet. If it did, it will go into hearing in September. I think we are only on stage 2 or 3 of getting the pill passes and passing it is stage 5 so we still have stime to stop it.

2 senators did speak out against it though today which is super good. That means we are making progress to stopping the bill. I'll update when I find out if it's going onto the higher floors.

if you want to stop this CALL YOUR SENATORS AND SIGN PETITIONS!! I have done both and they are the easiest thing ever I promise. I'm going to put the @ of a tiktoker who has a linktree to this bill where you can sign petitions and call senators.

Please call senators, please. Don't say you're too scared because you're going to be talking with an intern okay? There are many scripts out there as well that can help you say what you need to say.

@omarsbigsister

PLEASE REBLOG AND SHARE WITH OTHER PEOPLE!!

[faunasfauna]

Things I Simply Love

(a new intro post inspired by @malusokay )

sun moon and star imagery

earth tones

norah jones, stevie wonder, and classics i can put on and dance too

velvet (the texture is cool to me now!)

Iorde music but especially pure heroine as the seasons change to colder days

the genre of horror and how different it works for everyone (lately for me its been folk horror, liminal woodsy and creepy/something is wrong but you just cant tell what vibes)

rain

citrus perfumes, i want to smell like a moscow mule

moscow mules

being so me people think im mean

chatting and being kind to strangers

creating/making art in public spaces, im working on letting myself feel seen!

finding my place w religon

the stray cat i feed every day after work

being loud and fun and letting my hair down or braiding it while i sing softly or repeat beauty affirmations

chais and honestly not oat milk

marvel comics, im talking nerd shit like venom, spiderman and nightwing please talk to me

for that matter steven universe and adventure time

for the love of god please talk to me about grief/change/forgiveness/what it means to be morally good and steven universe

[redacted-coiner]

The Hellborn Pages

[PT: The Hellborn Pages]

The Hellborn Pages, is a Ficto-Religon(link) based off the worlds of Hazbin Hotel & Hellva Boss shows. This can be folks who believe in the mythos found within the shows, this can be believing in the sin deadly sins, in reality it can be connected to anything in it. Those who are in The Hellborn Pages do not have a moderator or a leader rather their own experiences. Though if people wish for separate groups for each sin, angel, sinner, hellborn, etc. that is perfectly fine. (the term isn’t a queer identity, just tagged for reach due to the nature of my blog.)

Seven Deadly Sins Groups names: Pride Hellborn, Sloth Hellborn, Greed Hellborn, Lust Hellborn, Envy Hellborn, Gluttony Hellborn, and Wrath Hellborn.

Other Groups Names: Hellborn of the Goetia, Hellborn of the Overlords, Hellborn of the Heavens, Hellborn of the Hotel.

[ID: would add into alt text]

[Tag] @ficto-religious-archive

Image under cut that is about the hierarchy seen in the shows.

DNI is listed within my pinned post. Please go read it before interacting with any part of my content. Ask to tag.

Flutist/Fults DNI!!!

[arizonaconservativegal]

If you’re a conservative with reasonable beliefs, more power to you, that’s great, we need more people like you.

But you’re doing yourself a major disservice if you take a post about anti-social behaviors from our party and showing you don’t socialize much and just stick your head in the sand and go “nuh uh that doesn’t happen!” Just leaves that avenue open to attack from Democrats.

Both my parents are registered republicans, and my mom has had to distance herself from fellow conserative friends specifically bc of that adrenochrome stuff. (Some of the friends were Korean btw, so i don’t wanna hear racism bs) My friend who isnt a republican but whose parents are both R has her mom sick of her dad bc of this stuff. Even at my job, the guys who talk about politics are work go to the exact topics mentioned in that post you said doesn’t happen. Democrats are just gonna pull up screenshots and use that to undermine everything else youre saying and say its fake and made up too.

Project2025, which I have read, wants to abolish overtime pay unless it interferes with the Sabbath - not religious stuff in general, only the Sabbath and only if you believe in the Sabbath for real. That’s literally only christians and jews. nobody else.

I’m not saying those are your beliefs, I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen if trump is elected president. But Project2025 is a really big thing and not just bc liberals keep on pointing to it to fearmonger. abortion is one thing but how are we gonna tell people “we dont want christianity to be the main thing we just have morals” if we’ve got big think tanks going “actually we wanna test people for their religon at work” ? radical conservatism is gonna kill moderate conservatism and make people vote dem. my dad even voted for biden last election and hes been a republican since before the 90s. the weird stuff is immature but the things they’re calling weird do happen

Okay look I fully understand that no one wants to believe me here so I'm shouting into the void expecting something to happen and that's ridiculous but I'm going to do it anyway because I still have a few minutes until my conference call starts.

I've been working in Republican politics professionally for ten years. A decade. I'm not talking out of my ass when I say no one is taking Project 2025 seriously. I actually do know that directly. When the Heritage Foundation is mentioned in conversation, people roll their eyes. The thing about think tanks like that is that they don't have to deal with the reality of what they're suggesting. They essentially throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. If something does - then they'll write an actual policy prescription or draft legislation so that lawmakers have something to start working on. I know you probably don't know what the difference is (which I don't mean as a knock on you, it's just not something most people know), but Project 2025 contains none of that. Until the conversations I hear at work start to shift or I see one of those ideas become a policy treatment or draft bill, I'm not going to worry about it. From a practical standpoint, all Project 2025 is today is a Democrat fundraising point.

To your other point, there are roughly 70 million registered Republicans in this country, not counting third party members or conservative leaning independents. Some of them suck. A lot. I'm really not trying to pretend that's not the case. But to write a post claiming that all conservatives are like that is absurd and shows that you don't spend time around us. The very vast majority of conservatives are just normal human beings who go to the grocery store and work boring jobs and take the kids to little league practice and hold extremely boring opinions on politics. Just like the very vast majority of liberals. It would be equally unreasonable of me to go around telling everyone that all Democrats are the equivalent of the Bernie bro who shot up a bunch of Republican members of Congress a few years ago or that they're all the like the people who send me rape threats here or call my old campaign office to say their going to firebomb us. It would be really easy for me to believe that if all I did was spend time around other conservatives and my only interactions with the left were with their raging nutcases. But I spend time around liberals so I know they're not like that any more than we are like that jackass last night.

It is so easy these days to put yourself in a little bubble of people who think like you and only ever see the worst of the people who don't. That used to be difficult for conservatives to do because media was all very left-leaning so even if we didn't personally know a lefty, we still saw them portrayed positively on tv, whereas the left didn't see that of us. With streaming and algorithms and alternate media these days, we are heading in that direction too. Very little scares me more about the future than that.

The only way to fix that is if we all start talking to normal people on the other side the aisle again. That's all I'm trying to get people do to. You don't even have to talk to them about politics. Talk to them about baseball or something, I don't care. Just something so that when you think of the other party, you think of the human beings you know instead of some boogeyman. There are nearly 12,000 people following this blog. That guy last night wasn't one of them - why does he get to represent them? They didn't do anything wrong and they outnumber him, literally almost 12,000 to 1. The only reason anyone listened to him was that he 'confirmed' their bias and they didn't think about it any more than that. They saw one example of what they already believed and let that give them a reason to ignore the mountain of things contradicting them. So I'm pissed at that guy for that and for generally being a shithead.

But I'm still going to say it because it's still true: if you think that's how all conservatives are, you obviously don't spend a lot of time around conservatives.

[sevenrs]

i've talked a lot about the buddhist inspiration in the rain world religion and i'm now thinking of the twist made in rain world. it's brilliant worldbuilding

in real world buddhism (to the best of my knowledge-- again, i am not buddhist), it isn't that every desire needs to be avoided. it is only one kind, tanha, that should be avoided because it causes suffering. tanha is more accurately described as craving, it is wanting more than what can be obtained. this is the type of desire that leaves you always wanting more, feeling dissatisfied with yourself. so this craving causes suffering. the other kind of desire, chanda, is desiring what is attained and not wanting more. chanda is an appropriate desire to have according to the 4 noble truths

but in the ancients' religion, they believed that every desire had to be eradicated. simply the act of wanting or needing was sinful and had to be purged. i often think about the green drainage system pearl,

"It says that only the limp body of the jellyfish cannot be captured in the net. So we should try to be like the jellyfish, because the jellyfish doesn't try. This was an eternal dilemma to them - they were burdened by great ambition, yet deeply convinced that striving in itself was an unforgivable vice."

yet they still kept wanting a solution. their craving was pushed onto their creations. in a horrible attempt to free themselves to suffering, they shoved the burden of suffering onto their creations

"Perhaps that's what we were to them, someone to delegate that unrestrained effort to. I know I have tried very hard."

its inspirations were taken to the extreme.

but take the slugcat

more karma means that one is closer to ascending, to reaching a state of no trying to where a physical form was no longer needed, right?

the slugcat does not lose karma by feeding its simple desires. it doesn't lose karma by eating, sleeping, trading, or surviving. it gains it! the slugcat fulfills its basic desires before it sleeps.

by only desiring what it needs, the slugcat persists.

and the slugcat does not need to rush to find enlightenment. it is allowed to take all of the time it needs to wander, explore, get lost, fail, and persist. by being itself, by living in the moment, it is closer to enlightenment then the ancients had been.

and when it descends, it does not suffer anymore. not because it died, but because it achieved everything it wanted to and strived for nothing more. a playthrough of rain world is only over when the player deems it to be over.

so the ancients were wrong. but even in death, they still try. their legacy persists in hard-working, suffering machines.

and the craving for an answer still continued after they were gone. with sos, and fp trying to follow her, creating more suffering for himself and those around him

another horrible kind of cycle!

tl;dr: the ancients' religon in rain world is buddhism taken to an extreme and actually they're wrong about the world because slugcat does it better by being slugcat

THIS POST IS ABOUT VANILLA RAIN WORLD. DO NOT DERAIL