#time to make Gilead suffer

[xfirstbcrn]

Gilead and Erinea had told Seamus that he could come by whenever was convenient for him to pick up some of his old books. He'd been quite busy lately, but he had finally found a few hours of space in the middle of the day to drop by. He let himself in, said a brief hello to Gilead, and then went up to the library to sort through his books. He wasn't taking too many just yet, just some old beloved ones that had quite a few notes written in the margins. He packed them all into a small box and then set them aside.

Down the hall, Hermoine was crying. Gilead had looked pretty dead on his feet, so Seamus suspected that she'd been fussy for a while. She was in the teething stage.

He went down to the nursery. Elijah, who had been coloring by the window, was covering his ears. He stopped, though, when Seamus walked in, his face brightening up into a smile. He jumped up to wrap his arms around Seamus' legs.

"Uncle Seamus!"

"Hey, darling," Seamus laughed. "What's your sister so upset about, hm?"

Elijah shrugged unhappily. "Dunno. She's been sooooo noisy."

"I bet."

He gently disentangled himself (with promises that they would play later), and went over to collect Hermione and give her a good bounce, and pulled a few silly faces, and a few funny noises, and soon she was distracted enough that the crying stopped altogether.

"There we go," Seamus said with a smile. "How about we sing a song, hm?"

"Yes! Sing!" Elijah exclaimed.

So Seamus started to make up a very silly song about babies who wouldn't go to sleep, and how they really ought to, and how tired everyone was, which made Elijah laugh and Hermoine thankfully, slowly soothed to sleep.

Seamus was honestly terrified to put her down and stop rocking, which meant he had landed himself in quite the predicament.

"Elijah, why don't you show me what you've been coloring? Quietly, though. We don't want to wake your sister."

@the-self-proclaimed-prince

[c-optimistic]

For months now, I’ve watched in horror as posts about genocide and stopping a war have stopped and turned into talking points for the election. ‘Vote blue no matter who’ I see plastered everywhere, as though this messaging is anything but a fresh coat of paint over a rotten and dirty and collapsing structure, unable to hide the stench or the oozing of the blood of those who suffer every single day under the policies enacted by the current administration.

I don’t particularly care who any of you vote for. And I’m happy to reassure you I live in a red state where my vote is meaningless. I just don’t really comprehend this refusal to admit that we’ve been down this road before. ‘We gotta save our democracy,’ and ‘don’t you know that we’ll be living in Gilead,’ and ‘how can we save anyone else unless we secure our rights first?’

A lot of people much smarter than me, more eloquent than me, with bigger followings than me, have spoken on this. And I don’t particularly care to rehash political arguments beyond pointing out one thing: when a party stops talking policy and starts only fear-mongering, we’ve already lost. Blame citizens united, blame the Supreme Court, blame lobbying groups, blame dark money, but at the end of the day, the two parties have far more in common than they have differences. They got the time to send billions worth of weapons to kill innocents, got the time to ban TikTok, got the time to make the rich richer, and while they’re doing all that, they have us squabble over scraps. The red guys drape themselves in a flag and shout that the gays and immigrants are out to get them, and the blue guys drape themselves in a rainbow and say actually no, men with guns are gonna force us into nuclear families.

It’s funny, isn’t it. How both these parties get along just fine when it comes to money and murdering babies. But somehow, when it comes to helping vets or giving kids a good education or respecting a small government or caring about the environment or getting affordable healthcare, then the other guys are intransigent and out to get us.

I don’t care for the lesser of two evils argument. I don’t believe that our only choice every four years is to be scared enough to vote for a politician who seems to keep doing the same thing no matter whether there’s a R or a D next to their name. It’s heartbreaking to see people I respect choose to turn away from those who suffer in the name of minimizing damage, as though we’re all powerless somehow.

Most of all, I wonder if any of us truly comprehend what those who suffer at the hands of our policies hear when we say these things. That our safety matters more? That it’s okay for us to halt pressure on our elected leaders for the sake of a democracy that we’ve convinced ourselves we have? Do we think the homeless vet with cancer in California dealing with sweeps by a democratic governor has time to wait? Or that kid with polio in Gaza? While innocents are sentenced to death as a result of a broken criminal legal system and the democrats have—for the first time in over a decade—removed death penalty abolishment from their platform? We scream ‘vote blue no matter who’ and our tax dollars go to bombing kids in shelters, go to separating families at the border, go to funding wars and havoc and pain worldwide, and we ignore that both the nominees are more willing to appeal to the basest of human behavior rather than choose to make the world a better place for everyone and not just a few.

I didn’t watch the convention. I couldn’t. Why this celebrity worship of politicians who have done nothing to deserve the praise? Why turn our political leaders into paragons without reproach rather than what they all actually are: people. People who are corruptible, greedy, easily manipulated, and willing to sacrifice large swaths of innocents for the sake of their careers. Why should we celebrate either of these nominees? Why shouldn’t we instead demand better? Demand real policy outside of just ‘the other guy is worse.’ I know he is. That’s not the issue.

I don’t want slogans and pretty words. I don’t want to be scared into voting for someone I know will carry on a genocide, all in the name of saving myself. I want real actionable plans. I want to keep pushing those in politics to fight for something other than lining their own pockets. Civic duty is about more than harm reduction. It’s about more than merely securing the best outcome for ourselves. It’s about fighting, with each other, not against, for a fair and equitable society for everyone. I don’t believe we are without power, that true change is out of reach. They wouldn’t try so hard to silence us and keep us distracted by fighting each other if we didn’t have power.

And yet, I have no hope whatsoever that we will obtain any meaningful political change. Not today, not in November. Not for those children in Gaza, not for those unhoused folks in California, and certainly not for the average American, who has more in common with her flag waving and rainbow wearing neighbors than any politician.

But don’t you worry, I’m sure in four years’ time, we’ll all have a new bogeyman to be scared of, and we can start this whole process yet again.

[zackzona2005]

Countryhumans: Republic of Gilead

Drew this a while back on November 22, 2022. This is the Republic of Gilead or simply just Gilead. He’s the fictional country from Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I wanted to draw him as a Countryhuman since I saw how popular the fandom is. I joined in to draw Gilead in CH style and gave him a bio. The person I based him on is Commander Fred Waterford, played by Joseph Fiennes.

For those who don’t know much about The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood. It’s set in a dystopia where the world suffers from low birth rates due to pollution that causes a fertility crisis. In the US, a Christian fundamentalist group called the Sons of Jacob or SOJ, a Puritan Christian group, violently did a coup in Washington DC on President's Day, by killing the President, Congress, and the rest of the Cabinet, to overthrow the US government. They seized power and transformed the former US into the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian patriarchal Christian theocracy that rules most of the former continental US. They strip away women’s rights and make them handmaids to be impregnated by their Commanders, who are the leaders of Gilead, for their barren wives. Their laws are based on the Bible, mainly the Old Testament for the authoritative laws against women.

In the Hulu series, it does the same element as the book but it is set in an alternate 2014 where the SOJ did the coup in Washington DC on September 11, 2014, by staging a terrorist attack to kill President Obama, Congress, and the Cabinet. The SOJ blamed the attack on Islamic extremist groups for the attack, quite possibly ISIS at the time of 2014. They then removed women's rights by first firing them, leaving them unemployed, freezing their bank accounts, not allowed to own property, and finally a nationwide abortion ban. All of these led to a 2nd Civil War from 2014 to 2017, as the setting for Season 1 of the series.

I already finished watching the series back in February 2023. I'm still waiting for the release of Season 6, which won't come out until next year due to the writer's strike last year. My mom got me hooked to watch this show. I mainly watched it for its alternate history since it talked about a fictional 2nd American Civil War.

It's a good show to watch. I highly recommend watching it as it parallels how US politics are right now.

[sharoscylla]

I am sending the original ka-tet to New York City instead of making them deal with the fall of gilead! They have suffered enough! I think they should get to be friends with the NINJA TURTLES

Some notes:

I haven’t decided if Susan lived/came with. On the one hand Susan dying is a key aspect of Roland’s (and Bert’s and Alain’s) fucked up backstory. On the other hand I feel like Susan would be fucking hilarious around April and Casey. Actually Fuckin…. Aileen Ritter and Alain’s sister Claire should also get to come, 1 because Tommy needs his lesbian girlfriends 2 the Susan/Aileen/Claire/April/Sunita/Casey Girls Night would leave no survivors

I feel like Bert and Alain would adapt the easiest to this situation, then Jamie and Tommy, and then trailing a distant last place is Roland… however Tommy would like immediately adapt to technology and hidden city mystic stuff it’s just that he can’t order anything at McDonald’s bc it’s too much pressure

I’ve covered this before in a tdt/tma fic but the only reason anybody can understand spoken or written English is because of Roland’s presence extending Protagonist Plot Comprehension to his party so I’m considering whether a post-Mejis Roland who did NOT receive his quest for the tower (if Susan is alive) also has Main Character Powers and if not gosh I do love “a bunch of people having to live together in close quarters and don’t understand one another until someone makes a breakthrough”

I think objectively the funniest time for them to get drawn out of castle gilead and into New York is literally the first episode but anytime Leo fucks up a portal would be good too tbh

Congratulations splinter you have fucking tripled the number of horrible goblin children you’re responsible for

Every gunslinger autistic as hell… and so is every turtle….

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Global genocide, what a beautiful choice...

In case you missed it - and a golf update seems to have knocked it off the front page - Republicans are threatening to kill millions of people in order to protect "the unborn child." No, not just pregnant women like usual, but men and children - everyone.

The US has been giving HIV/AIDS meds to people who can't afford them, internationally, for about two decades. Most of the institutions distributing these meds are Catholic. Catholics are infamously anti-abortion - to the point of allowing mothers to suffer and die, just like Republicans! This program has a requirement to spend money teaching abstinence - it was penned into law by G. W. Bush! It seems like there shouldn't be a conflict of interest between these two groups, but there is now, and there's a clock ticking down to when these people won't get the meds they need to stay alive.

I suspect our old friend "intellectual property" also has a hand in this situation. It doesn't look like we've spent any money over the last two decades on building infrastructure so these places can make their own damn meds, we just buy them premade and ship them. Actually helping these places manufacture these very expensive drugs would eat into the profits of the pharmaceutical companies that "own" them. It's much better for Gilead there if people just buy drugs and send them. We can just keep doing that forever, right? It's good PR!

Well, now we're in a position where a grandstanding, megalomaniacal political party can hold millions of orphaned children hostage while crowing that they're "saving babies". The Republican solution is that these foreigners should be "responsible" and pay for their own meds... while US companies sit on the patents and jack up the damn prices as high as the market will bear. Yeah, that'll work great.

I've already fled the States. If Democrats can't stop this from happening... You... You can't expect me to keep filling out a ballot and giving you a fig leaf of legitimacy. I found out this year that you didn't even stop stealing children at the border. You can't ask me to keep behaving like it's going to be fine and the system can heal itself if I just keep participating in it. I don't want anything to do with this. I am being dragged kicking and screaming to check a box for people who throw up their hands and refuse to help because, I dunno, maybe this time they might? And then they try to tell me this is my fault, for not being centrist enough.

I dunno what I'm gonna do. I mean, distract myself. Keep redistributing wealth by fair means and foul. And keep yelling about these things. But apart from that...?

[waterfrd]

@moralpuppet said: ❛  i needed to understand what real suffering was, so i could become more compassionate to others.  ❜

"I don't know, Serena. Can you see any of these in your home?"

No. I can't.

"I mean, I'm glad they rescued these children from those unfit mothers. They needed to be saved."

They need good homes. Good families to raise them in God's light.

"Of course. Of course they do, poor dears. You just... You never really know where they came from. Or who they came from. Do you?"

It's days like this Serena thinks that perhaps she should've heeded Naomi's warning.

Oh, but she couldn't help but fall in love with Orel the moment she laid eyes on him. He was a perfectly, sweet child and already so pious. How could she not come to love him as her own? So, the boy was brought into her home and became a Waterford. Far too old to change his name, to really make him into her own, but Serena would give her best attempt to shape the boy. Fred wasn't the most attentive father, with his work as a Commander taking precedent but he cared for the child as well. They would raise him in God's light, train him to be a future Commander. He took well to the schooling, as far as Serena could tell. He was learning scripture and Gilead law without fail. All things considered it was going well, until Offred came into the home.

Serena tried to avoid it for quite some time, having a handmaid. Having one child in the home was enough to ward it off for a few years, but not forever. Gilead was all about children, rebuilding society and bringing up healthy birthrates. So, enter the first handmaid. Curiosity from a child is to be expected when something new comes into the home. It was like a puppy, this new addition, only a very dumb one. She never knew her place, how to act. One would think the Rachel & Leah Center would've trained the girls better before sending them out into the world. Serena couldn't stop the boy from being curious. And the former handmaid's suicide, discreetly covered up, likely didn't help. When the new one came in and took her place, the Wife should have known it would bring trouble.

What was this most recent fight about? Ah, yes, Offred wasn't pregnant. Her menstrual cycle had just been late. It was enough to anger Serena, banishing the handmaid to her room. She wan't allowed to leave the home, or even come down for meals. She was to remain locked up until Serena said otherwise. Every member of the household was to ignore her, leaving her to sit alone in that room upstairs. Why couldn't Orel respect that? Curiosity had seemingly gotten the better of him, causing the boy to pay a visit to the handmaid. Perhaps he would have gotten away with it, had Serena not seen him coming down the stairs leading up to her room. ❛ What were you doing up there? ❜

"I needed to understand what real suffering was, so i could become more compassionate to others."

❛ And I love that about you, Orel. But, the handmaid… She’s none of your concern. ❜ Serena plasters a smile, sitting awkwardly upon her face. ❛ I assure you, Offred is just fine. She just needs some time in her room, to remind her of her scripture. Blessed are the meek, right? She must remember that. ❜

[msfbgraves]

"Why can't we be as furious as we feel?"

Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale is a very male show in philosophy. Strength lies in action. Healing is passive and weak.

It's not strength, to me, getting addicted to the kick of revenge. For being hurt, June constantly risks hurt again, rather trying to build anything. Because revenge will make it right.

Even though there is millennia of philosophy saying no, no indeed, revenge will only cause other people to have cause to seek revenge against you.

But Handmaid seems, at least for four seasons, to have been under the impression that retribution is the only valid response to trauma. The present has been poisoned, so why not seek revenge?

Because the present will be just as poisoned after the revenge. And more revenge will not cure it.

That is not to say one shouldn't resist evil, or never use violence. But the majority of people who have deliberately hurt me in my life did that out of the same weakness that brought them down through absolutely no action of mine. And I mean none. It was their own incompetence that got them; their meanspiritedness that pissed off the wrong people.

Fred Waterford would have died, June or no June. He was a weak man. The Aunt that killed Emily's love couldn't live with herself. Privilege will get you very far, but at a certain point, a high office will demand character. June edging Esther to kill is not character at all. Sure it may have given the girl some relief but it didn't help anyone. It was ugly, likely caused more suffering for the bystanders and Esther isn't even remotely OK afterwards.

"Hurt people hurt people" is not an inevitability. You can stop that, and if you survive the healing you can stop so much hurt before it even starts. You can help nurture actual strength, you can protect, and in June's case, you can fight Gilead on a much grander scale than petty revenge.

June's inability to heal is a weakness that the series celebrates and that feels weird to me. Yes, it could also be read as a cautionary tale of corruption but I don't think that's how it's framed at all.

"But what of all the kids she saved?" Please, for that she needed plot armour stronger than Fort Knox. In the Gilead that was established in season 1, June would have been executed five times over. It's internal logic sacrificed to the ideology of action, and much as we worship it, it is no way to live.

But what about Hannah? She would have had far more chance of getting Hannah smuggled out through the Martha network if she didn't constantly keep calling attention to herself.

It all feels so hollow.

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

23rd July >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Feast of Saint Bridget of Sweden, Patroness of Europe

and

Tuesday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.

Feast of Saint Bridget of Sweden, Patroness of Europe

(Liturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II))

First Reading Galatians 2:19-20 I live now with the life of Christ who lives in me.

Through the Law I am dead to the Law, so that now I can live with God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 33(34):2-11

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always on my lips; in the Lord my soul shall make its boast. The humble shall hear and be glad.

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Glorify the Lord with me. Together let us praise his name. I sought the Lord and he answered me; from all my terrors he set me free.

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Look towards him and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed. This poor man called, the Lord heard him and rescued him from all his distress.

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

The angel of the Lord is encamped around those who revere him, to rescue them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. He is happy who seeks refuge in him.

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Revere the Lord, you his saints. They lack nothing, those who revere him. Strong lions suffer want and go hungry but those who seek the Lord lack no blessing.

R/ I will bless the Lord at all times. or R/ Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Gospel Acclamation John 15:9,5

Alleluia, alleluia! Remain in my love, says the Lord; whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty. Alleluia!

Gospel John 15:1-8 I am the vine, you are the branches.

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more. You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Make your home in me, as I make mine in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire, and they are burnt. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

-----------------------------

Tuesday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time 

(Liturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II))

First Reading Micah 7:14-15,18-20 Have pity on us one more time.

With shepherd’s crook, O Lord, lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all around. Let them pasture in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. As in the days when you came out of Egypt grant us to see wonders.

What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy? Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins. Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your mercy, as you swore to our fathers from the days of long ago.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 84(85):2-8

R/ Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.

O Lord, you once favoured your land and revived the fortunes of Jacob, you forgave the guilt of your people and covered all their sins. You averted all your rage, you calmed the heat of your anger.

R/ Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.

Revive us now, God, our helper! Put an end to your grievance against us. Will you be angry with us for ever, will your anger never cease?

R/ Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.

Will you not restore again our life that your people may rejoice in you? Let us see, O Lord, your mercy and give us your saving help.

R/ Let us see, O Lord, your mercy.

Gospel Acclamation 1 John 2:5

Alleluia, alleluia! Whenever anyone obeys what Christ has said, God’s love comes to perfection in him. Alleluia!

Or: John 14:23

Alleluia, alleluia! If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him. Alleluia!

Gospel Matthew 12:46-50 My mother and my brothers are anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when his mother and his brothers appeared; they were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him. But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[lordgodjehovahsway]

2 Samuel 21: David and Israel Suffer Through A Famine For Three Successive Years

1 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) 

3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”

4 The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.”

“What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.

5 They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, 

6 let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen one.”

So the king said, “I will give them to you.”

7 The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. 

8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul��s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 

9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.

10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. 

11 When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 

12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) 

13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.

14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

Wars Against the Philistines

15 Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted. 

16 And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a new sword, said he would kill David. 

17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.”

18 In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.

19 In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

20 In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 

21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.

22 These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.

[lindajenni]

sep 7

living horizontal with a vertical view

"while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." 2 cor 4:18

even now my body is aging and breaking down. it was not built for eternity. that will necessitate this corruptible putting on incorruption; this mortal putting on immortality. sound familiar to anyone?

i have had my share of pain and suffering, more than some and much less than others. the why of it all remains in the safe hands of He who knows best. but this one thing i do know. "as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation." 2 cor 1:7 if you are not "feeling" that consolation, perhaps one needs to move closer to the Lord. consolation is not deliverance. instead, the balm of gilead applied.

"that i may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." phil 3:10 no one enjoys suffering, but like it or not, there are times it has a purpose to fulfill. trust and obedience will lead you through it. bitterness and rejection will only prolong it. "if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it — lest you even be found to fight against God." acts 5:38-39

along with printing, i have had a hand in the graphic arts for most of my life. do you have any idea how many individual pixel it takes to make up a high resolution picture. depending on the size, it could take millions.

now let that single pixel - no, a tiny fraction of that pixel - represent our lifespan here on earth laid on the timeline of eternity. yet how immeasurably significant that time is in God's eyes. the investment we spend is so minuscule compared to the reward we shall reap. the trials, temptations and pains we endure here are indeed not worthy to be compared. "for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." rom 8:18

"we are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." 2 cor 4:8-10 our Lord said we would have tribulation in this world, but not to worry. "I have overcome the world." john 16:33

we live horizontally but we need to be viewing things vertically. "the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 cor 4:18 life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backwards. the things we cannot understand the "why" of, we must commit into His loving hands.

"trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." prov 3:5-6

He shall direct your paths in your horizontal living if your vertical view is upwards and not forwards. a worldly view can only see that mountain before you or that army of obstacles coming against you. "who are you, o great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! and he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of 'grace, grace to it!'" zech 4:7

a vertical view will reveal the truth, just as elisha's did. "and elisha prayed, and said, 'Lord, i pray, open his eyes that he may see.' then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around elisha." 2 kings 6:17

if i might, i would make another reference to my experience in the graphic arts. colors are composed of either cmyk or rgb, depending on printed material or whatever. all other colors and shades are created from them. red and blue combined make up the color purple; the color of royalty. when one combines the purity and beauty of the blue heavens with the red blood of Jesus, that is exactly what they get. they get to be kings and priests; children of the almighty God. "behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 john 3:1

we are given a multitude of helps to accomplish the purpose for which we are sent. "for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." psa 91:11 just keep your eyes on the prize. keep your eyes on Jesus! we cannot, but He can!

[sometimesoliloquy]

“The high criminal court of Gilead, in a special overnight session, found you, Commander Putnam, guilty of apostasy, sins of the flesh.”

The use of  “apostasy" here (aside from Nick just making it somehow sound really sexy,) I found very interesting. At first read it’s merely official Gilead-speak for "you fucked up the faux religious Gilead rules, bro".  But on a deeper level, I think "apostasy" -- a falling away, a withdrawal, a defection; the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person, or embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs.--is really about Nick’s arc.

We know Nick' has been disillusioned with Gilead for a long time, if he was ever was a  true believer (in Pryce’s masked utopian image of it). But through the seasons we see the evolution of what he does with that disillusionment. In 1x03, he tells June "You can’t change anything about this. This is going to end the same, no matter what you do, so there's no use trying to be tough, or brave. Brave isn’t part of any of this. Everybody breaks. Everybody." The statement and the way he says it speaks of personal experience. We don't know exactly at what point or how, but somewhere along the way, the Sons of Jacob, Gilead, broke him. He believed that regardless of what he did nothing would change, and the only thing he had left was plain survival: the instinct to put his head down and keep going. Then he saw the consequences of Fred's abuse, and it drove him to become an eye, seeing the chance to maybe make a small difference. When he meets June, I think one of the reasons he's drawn to her is that she doesn't let Gilead break her. They knock her down but she keeps getting back up. He admires her strength, and it challenges and pushes him further.

She gives him something more to live for ("what else is there to live for?") and fight for: love, family. And he suffers for these connections he makes, like he was afraid of ("it's better not to form attachments") but they also make him braver, drive him to take more risks, to do increasingly more and more. At this point he's certainly facilitated the deaths of abusers and rapists, but actually killing Putnam is the most active roll he's taken, the first time that we've seen him really get his hands (or his face and shirt) dirty. He's growing more and more fed up, and we can see it on his face, in his actions. But the more active he becomes, and the more his mask slips, the more dangerous it also is. The irony is that the official charges Nick recites are the two crimes that Gilead would execute him for, that he is “guilty” of. And they're also the very reason he's here, doing this.

Nick’s apostasy is his renunciation of Gilead—this has already happened in his heart and mind, and yet he’s still stuck physically in Gilead: playing a role, trying to make those commander shoes fit and change what he can from the inside. However it seems he could be teetering on the precipice of completing his apostasy arc—the formal disaffiliation and abandonment of his Gilead life. Rose and the pregnant surely complicate this, but there is still a lot we don't know about her and about their marriage. In whatever form it comes in, personally, I think he just needs a little push.

[nickjunesource]

People are implying Nick is going to go ballistic if they threaten June’s life especially it Lawrence agrees to it. But, I’m thinking back to last season when they say he needs to bomb Chicago after the cease fire (Nick knows June is there). Lawrence played him a bit there too. He is upset and pushes back but goes through with it. I get the bomb wasn’t a direct hit on her but it definitely put her in danger. What makes us think he’d blow his cover this time? I obviously want him to but I’m in my head about it. Maybe it’s about Nichole? What are your thoughts?

We understand where you're coming from with this- even under the greatest stresses and challenges and suffering, Nick generally remains pretty outwardly stoic. His fractures are pretty subtle. He's not good at hiding anything when it comes to June and is frequently emotional about her which has resulted in some difficult situations, but he's able to do just enough to keep himself alive. Seeing him lose control like we have in the trailer is an unusual and surprising thing to see. We're very curious about it.

The Nick we see in s5 is a Nick that is a different man than he was even as recently as 4x05. In that time span he's been married to someone he doesn't love, briefly reunited with June and their daughter (a daughter who has no idea who he is because they've been separated for so long), his wife is pregnant with a baby that he doesn't want which forces him to stay in a place that he hates, and he's aligned with a man who has lost his humanity and who uses him. He is more broken now that we've seen and so any sort of actual, credible threat to June, especially when he's turned down chances to be in Canada with her, could be one painful thing too many and cause the dam to break.

Speaking of the Chicago scene specifically, unfortunately the show neglected to show the aftermath for Nick (or indeed any sort of trauma he has over this) as he was not shown after being given orders and was absent for the next 3 episodes. Had we seen him in the aftermath, we suspect that we may have seen him lose it (or at least as much as he could have). However there's another possibility that we like to entertain as to why he didn't lose it completely- the streets of Chicago were unusually quiet and empty right before the bombing and we like to think that Nick tipped off his rebel allies and did all he could to help June from such a distance. Perhaps he believed that his contacts had managed to get to her and made sure she stayed safe which calmed some of his emotions enough for him to stay in control. In a situation where this isn't possible for Nick, his emotions could spill over and he could snap.

One time we have seen Nick lose it completely is in ep 2x05 when June went out to the garden to die and he found her haemorrhaging. We haven't seen him so upset and out of control as we have in that moment. June was near death and that terrified him. He didn't go ballistic, but he was extremely emotional. In a situation where the threat to June was very immediate and significant, Nick lost control. So it's definitely possible where the threat to her life is much more prominent than even the bombs in Chicago, much like being followed by trained snipers would be, Nick could lose it.

With all that said, we can imagine such a scenario where it is Holly in danger that finally makes him snap and go ballistic. Nick has mentioned her safety multiple times this season, which could be foreshadowing to her being in danger. Holly is an innocent little girl who can't protect herself and needs her parents to do that, something that is difficult for Nick to do from Gilead. So any situation where she could be hurt is bound to make Nick break, especially as he's in Gilead surrounded by the people who could hurt her- and if Joseph is involved, it could be the final straw for Nick as Joseph has manipulated and used him before but Nick choose to keep trusting and working with him. Having someone he trusts be ok with his daughter getting hurt would understandably make Nick snap completely. Nick's line of "she's not the target" does make us wonder if Nick brought up Holly being harm's way and had those concerns ignored. That line could be foreshadowing for what happens.

We could really go either way when it comes to who Nick goes ballistic for- it could be June or it could be Holly.

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Handmaid's Tale: Motherland (5x08)

Man, this is a good episode. This is a good show.

Cons:

The only thing I can think of as a con for this episode is the things it didn't include. Moira hasn't had a lot of connection to this season's main plot, and I've been missing her perspective on things. She and Luke and June are all co-parenting Nichole together, and she has been pushed to the side of things for a while now.

Pros:

June's plot in this episode centers around the big question of whether or not she should go back to Gilead for Hannah. On the one side, there's Lawrence, setting up this New Bethlehem project that will hypothetically begin to mend some of the human rights violations of Gilead. He wants June to come there, to be able to live with Luke and Nichole, to be near to Hannah when she becomes the head of her own household. And then on the other hand, Tuello is telling her to please, please not go back, that she is symbolic of American resistance to Gilead, and her giving in will be a huge blow. He promises to work as hard as he can to get Hannah out, as long as June will stay put in Canada.

I love this dichotomy. It's such a culmination of June's struggles over the entire history of the show. All she's wanted to do is save Hannah, she has felt like such a failure leaving Gilead without her. And yet this is a real issue, a choice that has huge ramifications. Rita says she'd do anything if her son was still alive and she could be with him. But Luke points out that Gilead cannot be trusted. The chance to be closer to Hannah likely isn't worth the risk of putting themselves, and Nichole, under Gilead's control once again.

This plot thread teased out the tensions between Luke and June brilliantly, and thus this was probably my favorite episode of the season in terms of exploring their dynamic as a married couple. When Luke tries to talk June out of going, June accuses Luke of not being able to understand what she's feeling, and she uses what Luke did to Serena as evidence of that. How could he separate a mother and child like that? But then Luke points out the obvious truth that June is putting her trust in Lawrence, the Architect of Gilead, and that she seems to be sympathizing with her tormentor, Serena. It's hard to trust that she's thinking rationally right now.

The thing is, they don't understand each other. And whatever happens from here, whether Tuello is able to return Hannah to them or not, I don't know if they're ever going to be entirely on the same page. I'm excited for Hannah to come to Canada, if indeed we're going to get that. We saw how hard reintegration was for June, and Hannah is going to have a much harder time, considering she was so young when her brainwashing began.

Commander Lawrence is a fascinating character, and this episode gave us new and important insight into his motivations and mind. Why did someone as irreverent and and seemingly reasonable as Lawrence, create something like Gilead? Well, because he was trying to save the world. Late stage capitalism was killing the planet and its inhabitants. He thought he could use religious fanatics as the delivery method, and then it all went way too far. He knows it's not enough, he knows the suffering he's caused, but he's hoping Gilead can improve, and that New Bethlehem can be a step in the right direction. He basically says that if he can't help make things better, he might as well kill himself like his wife. My favorite part of the scene with Lawrence was when June pointed out that Hannah is going to be a child bride, but he said Nichole wouldn't be. That in the next five, ten years, things will get better. His hope is palpable, but he also can't make any real promises. He doesn't know how to fix what he's broken, but this is the only way he knows how to try.

And then you've got Serena's plot thread. The magnetism between June and Serena remains one of the most compelling things about the show. I liked that they got this one-on-one meeting here, as it sort of wrapped up some of the things left hanging after last week. I appreciate that Serena didn't assume June had betrayed her, and indeed continues to try and reach out to her until she comes. June has to shut her down, telling her they're not friends, and June can never forgive her, but Serena clings to the connection she feels they've formed, after all they've shared together. In the end, June gives Serena some advice: go back to the Wheelers to be near her son. Play the meek Handmaid, and all the time, plot on how to get her revenge and keep her son by her side.

The Wheelers are so... spooky. Especially Mrs. Wheeler, who has this cultish devotion to Gilead but who's also clearly a super unkind and unpleasant person at her core. Serena is in this house, allowed to breastfeed her son but otherwise told she must keep away from parenting decisions. The irony is clear, and stated several times in the episode, that Serena is now a victim in the system she helped to create. That now she has to live with a woman who wants to steal her child, the same way she did to June. I can't wait to see where this goes.

The pieces on the chessboard are all set up. The American government is making its move, just as Lawrence and Nick make progress on their plan to make Gilead a better place. June is remaining with the Americans for now, even as mounting tensions with Canadian citizens makes it a hard place to live. Luke and Moira and June are dancing up and down and celebrating Hannah's imminent return, but how will it all shake out? Just a couple more weeks of this season to find out!

9/10

[splitscreen]

i Wanna hear your thoughts on our clarified spoilers! 😊

i feel SO much better. like... infinitely relieved. just like last year, it provided a lot of the missing emotional nuance, and i actually felt myself become... dare i say it? excited again. a few things that really stuck out to me:

nick fantasizing about kissing june during the phone call? my god. my long-suffering son is suffering more than ever. he is 100% not ok in his current situation. i know we've heard him mention dreaming before, but to see it, to have physical proof of that longing? let me die.

and to piggyback on that, i think given the revelations about rose in the clarified spoilers, not all is going to be what it seems with her, especially with knowing her father is a high-ranking commander. i think it's HIGHLY likely they were/are both using each other - nick to try and position himself to get more information about hannah, and rose by her father/gilead to get more information on june. we know rose knows about june. gilead has to suspect nick to some degree. and with that knowledge, i think it's highly likely something fishy is going on with the pregnancy, to the point i do really think she could be making it up to try and make nick give up on june by taking advantage of his loyalty to family.

the revelation about luke only really getting on board with the resistance after serena goaded him by mentioning nick is just. incredible. this will be the only time i'm looking forward to a scene with serena. but it's going to showcase the difference between nick and luke amazingly - luke is not interested in helping until his masculinity is threatened by another (superior) man; nick is in gilead shooting a commander at a dinner party because he's raped another woman.

overall, i was VERY pleased with the clarified spoilers and think we're on track for a pretty exciting season! i'm cautiously optimistic.

[inyujidraws]

finally finished the next batch on Creon Gilead in the Cuphead world. Next time I should just release them individually, and not this giant dump. This time I drew the devil as a human, trying to get close enough to curse Creon with a cursed artifact

Continuing last time. The the devil got fed up with Creon's presence. Not only does she yeet things at him, she also trained the brothers to be sneakier and faster. So what does he do? Disguise himself as a human, and attempt to woo Creon, then get a cursed artifact on her. This was a piss poor plan that was doomed to fail, because he didn't read up on the intel the imps barely scrapped together. That intel team is severely traumatized, since they barely escaped with their lives. All he's managed is to get friend-zoned hard, and he only got one "pity" date. He's really offended and continues to play along as "Lucius Mayweather" out of spite.

Creon will only refer to Lucius as "Lucy" just to annoy him, and sadly Lucy puts up with it, because the alternatives nicknames are more insulting. Constantly reminds him that she only his friend and nothing more, and even "friend" is used loosely, since Lucy is a jerk most of the time.

When he does manage to get the cursed "Festoon of Eternal Nightmares" on Creon, Creon suffers from sleep deprivation, nightmares that feed on her fears and past trauma, and not being able to nap or rest to recover. Then it gets worse that she never wakes up and is locked in nightmares that make her relive every horrible experience; from childhood to present day. And there's a lot of trauma. Eventually the festoon will slowly siphon Creon's soul after she dies from exhaustion.

How the boys were able to free her from the curse, I'm not sure. Maybe something so stupid or corny, since this show is one big Saturday morning cartoon. Power of love? Familial love? I dunno. When she does get freed from the festoon, the boys don't hesitate blaming Lucy. Creon violently confronts Lucy, but ends up listening to whatever sob story he has. His excuse? He works for the Devil, and he had no choice.

Sadly Creon is no stranger to bad decisions and not having much choices, so she empathizes. Lucy is still on thin ice, and now Lucy will have to earn her trust all over again. Devil is more than willing to take advantage of the human disguise since there's loads of opportunities to get close to the cups and snatch Cuphead's soul. He doesn't want to admit that he actually enjoys his time as Lucy around Creon, since he's gotten to know here a bit better. Just a shame that Creon's warning the boys to stay far, far away form Lucy. She's also never accepting any gifts or tokens from him.

[penelope1597]

My thoughts on Luke

I don’t think Luke is a bad man. The things he does are done out of ignorance, because he doesn’t understand how these things affect women because they don’t affect him. The only thing that affected him was the loss of his wife and family which is traumatic enough for anyone. I also don’t think he hasn’t suffered trauma or that his trauma shouldn’t be taken into account because he hasn’t been in Gilead. Trauma isn’t a competition. It is a fact though, that he can’t even imagine what June went through because he hasn’t lived it, and for me he lacks the ability to understand.

I simply think he represents how men who are raised in a patriarchal society react and are oblivious to things that affect women. He doesn’t know better because even when he doesn’t believe in being a patriarchal man, these ideas are ingrained as normal and correct in this society. There is nothing wrong with taking care of your wife, but thinking that’s the solution to the reality of a woman losing their economic independence is just ignorant.

The Luke centered episode The Other Side (season 1 episode 7) shows us this. He was very dismissive of the situation since the beginning, because the things that were affecting June weren’t affecting him. June was ready to leave and he waited. The moment June lost her access to her money she was very much aware of what was going on. He obviously didn’t wait thinking that June and Hannah would’ve gotten caught, he simply did what most people would’ve done “this will pass or it won’t be as bad.” Don’t get me wrong it’s a normal reaction, one that a lot of people would do in that situation. It’s normal for most people to think those things because it’s unthinkable to consider the opposite. And I do believe he carries a tremendous amount of guilt for not being able to protect his family. Throughout the episode you see his unwillingness to realize the severity of the situation until it was too late. You can also pinpoint the moment the reality of what June’s future would be like hits him.

Still during season 4 he still didn’t seem to comprehend any of it. He was uncomfortable with June and simply wanted June to go back to her normal self. Again it’s a normal (wrong) reaction. People expect more from victims than from those that oppress people. They don’t like them to be sad for long periods of time or angry, it makes them uncomfortable and it becomes a reminder of how they failed. They can’t deal and again it’s understandable, but not the correct way to handle it.

“Now I know so we can move on.” “And you have to let it go.” Were 2 of the worst lines I’ve heard him say in the show. It’s a total dismissal of June. Yes he waited for her but he waited out of guilt. He even questions if June chose to stay in Gilead, like she rather live in hell than come back to him. Yes he’s taking care of another man’s child but it’s the least he can do. That child is also June’s child and the circumstances where she had this child weren’t a weekend off in Cancun. I don’t doubt he loves Holly or the fact that his an involved loving father; he has always was been presented like the ideal of what a woman should look for in a man.

He’s always made her feel that his love is conditioned to who he thinks she should be. And June was looking for what she didn’t have growing up, a father figure/husband/family. June feels obliged to bring Hannah back to him. She feels she failed him for not doing that and she feels guilt for the things she had to do to survive in Gilead because she knows they don’t align with what he thinks she should do.

You can be oblivious to a lot of things because you don’t experience them or they don’t affect you, but lacking the interest in learning and growing is a problem. June doesn’t have to sit down and explain things to him. It’s not her responsibility to make him understand or to make him feel better about himself.

At least that’s how I read his character and I think he’s portrayed like that so that we the audience can see that perspective.

One doesn’t need to mention Nick to see Luke’s obvious flaws.