#when enoch's name was first mentioned in the play through i was watching i literally cheered out loud

[sugusoko]

i am soooo normal about this case's cast

[nileqt87]

Ramblings about Lucifer referencing Bones, “Close your eyes.” and shows influencing each other

That was never just a Bones reference being made and the season finale admitted it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv_1dJk5yEM

David Boreanaz played the ironically-named Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. His character has *so many* parallels with Lucifer (far more than Booth outside of the law enforcement/crime procedural connection).

Angel's spinoff also has noir crime drama aspects mixed with the supernatural starring an immortal protagonist with a dark past and infamously villainous reputation fighting evil as a supernatural private detective in the City of Angels (a city known for its dark underbelly juxtaposed with fame and glamor, broken dreams and chasing eternal youth) and navigating human law (including the LAPD and evil lawyers) while not legally existing.

Angel also fell in love with a blonde human heroine (Buffy Summers) after lifetimes of self-destructive, not-so-heroic behaviors (getting his soul back did *not* make Angel a hero and human Liam was a lecherous drunk with unfulfilled ambitions and father issues) who inspired him to become a better man and make human connections.

AtS made heavy use of sprawling nighttime Downtown L.A. cityscape shots, which Lucifer also shared an abundance of.

During both of their first cases, they failed to save the troubled blonde girl they were trying to help (Tina and Delilah, respectively). They also have a connection inside the LAPD through a blonde cop who also takes their identity secrets pretty badly (Kate Lockley in Angel's case).

Note that Buffy not only screamed (twice, given it repeated during her memory loss in Halloween), but also came after Angel with a crossbow when she thought he'd attacked her mother (it was Darla), so Chloe taking the Devil face reveal (Monster Reveals are iconic old horror imagery) poorly to the point of considering poisoning is par for the course. However, it only took Buffy seven episodes instead of three seasons to get the identity reveal via seeing the horrific second face (arguably also an accident on Angel's part).

They are metaphorically or literally Hell's angels. They also had long stays in Hell or a hell dimension.

Lucifer and Angel are also both Prodigal Sons with long-held grudges against their long-absent fathers (patricide in Liam/Angel(us)'s case) and they're later faced with a situation where they have unexpected, thought-impossible offspring who show up as adults (neither got to raise their miracle child) wanting revenge. Yup, major Connor/Rory parallel there.

Angel is also in a constant struggle with the Powers that Be manipulating his fate and free will (like Lucifer, he's a champion of free will no matter the cost) and making him prophecy's bitch.

Bones famously got jokes about how Booth is Angel getting his Shanshu (made human), since the character is given constant Angel-isms like references to a dark past having killed people (Booth is also named after a historical murderer, in addition to having been a sniper), both being Catholics full of Catholic guilt (note that the Buffyverse is most accurately polytheistic, though Angel does face off against a take on the antichrist--Angel has constant biblical imagery/themes and not just because of vampire iconography), kicking down doors (just not off their entire frames--LOL), turning on a dime and threatening people up against walls, constant wink-wink references to the Buffyverse (familiar casting, references to the Hyperion Hotel, etc...), etc...

The Lucifer finale used the words "Close your eyes." right before Lucifer is sent to Hell. This is literally the BtVS season 2 finale where Buffy kisses Angel and sends him to hell for a century with a stab to the gut (see the season 5 finale, not to mention Lucifer giving up his life for Chloe's à la I Will Remember You).

Note that D.B. Woodside was on BtVS (playing Robin Wood, whose Slayer mother Nikki Wood was killed by Spike). Aimee Garcia was in both episodes of AtS (Birthday--she's older than she looks!) and Bones. See her also playing a cross-wearing religious girl on Supernatural who was slaughtered in a police precinct by Lilith. Kevin Alejandro was also in an episode of Bones.

Tricia Helfer was in an episode of Supernatural playing a ghost who reenacts the night of her death every year. BtVS also had an episode along those lines, but with Buffy and Angelus possessed (not to mention Phantom Dennis!). Lucifer having Dan as a ghost is yet another thing they all have in common (ditto referencing Ghost, Patrick Swayze and/or Unchained Melody--Vincent Schiavelli a.k.a. Ghost's subway ghost was Jenny's uncle Enyos, whom Angelus killed).

Lucifer name-checked Castiel and Supernatural referenced Lucifer using their Lucifer (crime-fighting angel in L.A. made it a double-reference whammy). Supernatural returned the favor again by having Castiel forced to sing in Enochian. Lucifer's reference to his singing voice was already a zing about Misha Collins having to put on that monotone gravel voice and Enochian being far from melodious.

Russell T Davies was quite heavily inspired by the Buffyverse when he revived Doctor Who and spun off Torchwood, so there are absolute tons of Buffy, Angel and Spike respectively in Rose Tyler, the 9th/10th Doctors, Captain Jack Harkness and Captain John Hart (right down to the actor). School Reunion is the episode where the Buffyverse inspiration is most on the nose, complete with Anthony Stewart Head saying "shooty dog thing" in a school setting and a Mayor/Angel-esque speech about the curse of immortality. The Time War gave the Doctor a huge genocide-level guilt complex. Note that the creator of DC comics' version of Lucifer, Neil Gaiman, has also written for Doctor Who and is also the co-creator of Good Omens (the show is brimming with Doctor Who Easter eggs thanks to David Tennant). A barely-recognizable Tom Ellis played Martha Jones' ex-fiancé Tom Milligan during the Year that Never Was, as well.

A lot of shows take inspiration from the Buffyverse and you've probably seen some of them. It isn't just the copycat vampire romance stories either.

Angel's forerunners in turn were a mix of guilt-stricken, rat-eating Louis de Pointe du Lac (his Jekyll/Hyde-esque alter-ego Angelus is closer to the pre-retcon, fully-evil Lestat de Lioncourt, who got woobified into an antihero rocker not unlike Spike--the entire Fanged Four mirror Anne Rice's character lineup), sword-wielding, immortality trope-influencers Connor/Duncan MacLeod of Highlander fighting for the Prize of humanity (akin to Pinocchio becoming a "real boy"--see also Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows, though he was before vampires became antihero superheroes, not just sympathetic antivillains) and Nick Knight of Forever Knight (vampire detective).

Additionally, Tom Welling was famously the longest-serving Clark Kent of them all (Smallville) on the old WB (there's that DC comics connection, too), so it's not just a Fox shows thing (though Fox, not just Warner Brothers, did indeed own the Buffyverse). One of the least-known things about Clark is that he also has an immortality problem where he wouldn't age parallel to Lois (they wouldn't be able to have kids either) without a workaround. The Kryptonite line directed at Cain/Pierce by Lucifer was quite on the nose! Lucifer and Smallville sort of crossed over even further in Crisis on Infinite Earths, so Tom is canonically the face of both Clark and Cain in parallel universes of the DC multiverse.

Supernatural had quite recently had their own takes on Cain (played by Timothy Omundson, who also played God Johnson) and the Mark of Cain when Lucifer did it. Dan's killer Le Mec was, of course, Rob Benedict, who was God a.k.a. Chuck Shurley, the ultimate villain of Supernatural. Richard Speight, Jr., who was archangel Gabriel/Loki the Trickster, directed a lot of Lucifer's later episodes in addition to being a prolific Supernatural director.

Supernatural and Lucifer use the exact same font for their titles (Supernatural Knight).

The X-Files (which Supernatural referenced constantly) and Supernatural also had stories about nephilim (see the apocryphal Book of Enoch). Lucifer ultimately had two nephilim (forbidden interspecies offspring of angels and humans), even if not saying so as a known concept. Connor can also be compared to the vampire equivalent of being something like a dhampir, though he's not quite that (mostly-but-not-quite-human offspring of two vampires instead of a human/vampire hybrid--see Blade for an actual dhampir). Supernatural has also covered the even rarer cambion species (human/demon hybrid).

[nellie-elizabeth]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Window of Opportunity (6x02)

Wow, I'm actually pretty excited about how this is shaping up! I do want to apologize for the late review; I've been out of town. Let's dive right in!

Cons:

I mentioned my qualms about Coulson 2.0 in last week's review, and I stick by them here. It could be really cool, but it could also end up being pointless. I really liked getting to know this gang of bad guys this week, but the fact that their leader is wearing Coulson's face isn't really adding anything to the experience for me, other than the fact that it's making May sad.

I don't feel much of a connection to Keller yet. We need to like him if he's going to be in Yo-Yo's life, but so far he's just kind of bland. We get some humanizing moments with him as he grieves for another agent who was killed, but right now he's just kind of... there. I'll try to reserve judgment on this as well.

Pros:

As I mentioned, I really liked meeting the new gang of bad guys. I'm still getting all of their names straight, but their personalities are distinct and memorable. I particularly like Pax - he's got a reasonable vibe to him, and I'm wondering if he's going to be the character that helps give some humanity to these villains. The team works well off of each other, sort of like a dark mirror of S.H.I.E.L.D., and it's undeniably compelling to see this group dynamic play out, even if it is in service of evil goals. And what are those goals? I'm surprised by how much I enjoy the mystery of the situation as well.

On S.H.I.E.L.D.'s side of things, we've got May coming face to face with Coulson's doppelganger for the first time, which was appropriately intense. We learn that May was there until the bitter end with Coulson, and so is completely sure about his death. I feel so bad for her. It's nice that they got to have that time together, but of course now May is having to suffer through a lot of psychological trauma because of it. Her advice to Yo-Yo, which last week was to go for it with Keller, is now more cautious. She knows the extreme pain that can come from getting involved with someone while working such a dangerous, unpredictable job.

I like Dr. Benson. He's another character we're only just starting to know, but his grumpiness is endearing, and he's charismatic enough to be more than just a vehicle for plot exposition. I like how he lays out the strangeness of these characters' lives, as he contemplates the many potential explanations there could be for Coulson to be walking around. LMD? Apparently not. Another resurrection? May is sure that's not it. And yet we know that the name "Coulson" is ringing a bell with this strange doppelganger... what could it all mean? And what do these people even want?

Daisy, Simmons, and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are almost entirely absent this week, appearing only at the very end as Simmons has sent them further into deep space without the team's permission. This echoes last week's episode, where we only saw Fitz at the very end, in the episode tag. Now we get a full subplot with Fitz and Enoch, to see what they've been up to. Predictably, it was the highlight of the episode for me.

I love Enoch. He's such a weird character, and I don't think he really clicked for me when I was watching last season. But here, I like this odd mix of loyalty and practicality. He wants to help Fitz for the fate of the universe, but he also clearly respects him and wants to do right by him. There's this great moment where Fitz talks about how he couldn't live with himself if he let innocent people die, and Enoch seems completely nonchalant about the prospect. Fitz is a little startled, maybe a little afraid. He knows Enoch is on his side, but there's something powerful and frightening about having an ally that seems to take a totally amoral approach to the world.

Obviously it's super adorable and great that Fitz is singularly focused on getting back to Simmons. However, that doesn't mean that he'll abandon all principles while he's at it. As he tells Enoch, he wants to be able to look Jemma in the eye when he gets back to her, and that means he can't go around hurting people. That ending scene, where we see Fitz and Enoch leave just as Simmons and Daisy arrive, was so heartbreaking. They really are star-crossed lovers, in a literal sense.

That's all I've got for the time being. I hope that the Fitzsimmons reunion isn't too far away. I'm loving this season so far, but I don't want it to be too dragged out!

9/10

[lil-loucifer]

a l l t h e o c q u e s t i o n s

S p a r k s  w h y

Send me a number and I’ll tell you about:

1: The most recent OC I’ve made

Fuck uhh probably these two characters I made up based on one of those datapoint-only stories in Horizon: Zero Dawn (one of the few times I felt spurred to write a fanfic this year lmao)

2: An early OC I remember making

Would you believe me if I said I made a Naruto OC

His name was like “Rei” or something and he had a sword and specialized in illusion-type jutsu (I never really learned any of the technical terms)

3: An OC I’ve never used for anything

All of them?????

I never really “write” any of my projects lmao

But uhhh, one that I have literally done nothing for is Jasper Morris, he’s kinda… something??? Not really sure at the moment, but he hunts monster-thingies in San Francisco

4: An OC whose story I’ve got all planned (or even written)

Those two OCs from the first question, their story was already written in the game, I’d just have to take liberties with the details

5: An OC I love

Dante Seraphim (That’s not really his surname). He’s this guy who was brought up to join a secret society of soldiers dedicated to serving Heaven and fighting demons and shit, but due to some “ancient prophecy bullshit” and his boyfriend’s machinations, he winds up getting exiled from that faction and hunted down by his former friends (it’s very action movie-like)

6: An OC I love to hate 

Arthur Morgenstern, the father of one of my favorite OCs. He’s generally a piece of shit. 

7: An OC I love… reluctantly

Daniel, the guy Dante from Question #5 dated. He tried to spur a rebellion within the faction he and Dante served, but due to some lore bullshit regarding Dante, Daniel was left blameless and Dante was exiled in his stead.

8: Two or more OCs who are connected (and how)

Faith, Wolfgang and Enoch are the three Branwen Children, a kind of Moirae that are borne of the eldest God of Death. Together, they oversee the death of gods, ensuring that all immortal deities meet their end when they should. 

Faith is in charge of overseeing the fates of all the gods in the world. She makes sure they all complete their stories; their reigns and their downfalls. 

Wolfgang is, begrudgingly, Faith’s assistant. The immortal world is a vast place, one that one soul couldn’t ever watch over alone. So, he handles surveillance, making sure that every deity plays their part, and nothing more. 

And when the gods try to rebel, when they grow too self-absorbed in their own “brilliance” they believe they should never die? They send in Enoch, the Reaper. Enoch is the most active of the Three Children, and the only one of them who has actually killed gods. Her role is to slay any deity that chooses not to die, which, admittedly, doesn’t happen often. Enoch is also the most rebellious of the Three Children, being the youngest. She actively lives in the mortal world, choosing to live amongst the puny mortals whose watchers she is sworn to slay. Enoch was actually the first sibling to give herself a name, for her convenience in the mortal world.

Given their elusive positions, the Branwens are more or less omnipresent in my fictional worlds, and are a prominent (albeit rarely-mentioned) part of a larger shared universe I’ve been writing. 

9: An OC I made to fit into another universe

Wayland Smith

10: A universe I made to fit my OCs

For the guy I’m gonna talking about in question #13, I made a post-apocalyptic setting that is set maybe 50-100 years after a world-ending nuclear war. 

11: An OC based off part of myself

I kinda-sorta have an OC that’s basically Sitcom!Me with exaggerated traits, like his catch phrase or whatever is just “I can give about three fucks about anything at any given time” and he’s hella apathetic but he actually cares a lot and he’s just too tired and has weird ways to show it

12: An OC based off part of someone I met

Aurelio Morgenstern’s appearance is lowkey based off an old friend of mine. 

13: An OC inspired by something completely unexpected

Okay so get this:

I have an OC who’s part of a lost order dedicated to maintaining peace in an apocalyptic wasteland--through fear. To cultivate that kind of fear, this order would style themselves after Death; the Grim Reaper, specifically. They wore all black and wielded scythes, as well as commanding a fierce arsenal of magic and custom firearms.

But I didn’t think of that shit at the time. You know what I thought up? The aesthetic. Black clothes and a wide-brimmed hat for keeping out the sun. 

Especially the hat.

You wanna know WHY THE HAT?

Because I was waiting in line outside the DMV on a bright, sunny-ass day, and I started daydreaming with the thought “Wow, I could really do with a cowboy hat.” 

14: The roughest backstory I’ve given an OC

There was this character I made, and he’s a bi, trans man who grew up in a really homophobic/transphobic house with an abusive.... everyone, really. He didn’t do anything about it until about a year after graduating high school, when he moved in with a family friend who was actually a decent person. 

15: The least painful backstory I’ve given an OC

My Hogwarts Mystery character was raised by a loving pair of parents who started to keep him on a tighter leash after his brother, Jacob, went missing. 

16: The most difficult OC for me to write (and why!)

All of them?????

I can’t write????????

17: The easiest OC for me to write (and why!)

Lua the Crow, purely because everything they do is more or less whatever affectionate thing I have on mind.

18: The OC I’d most like to fight

Lua because they’d go easy on me

19: The OC I’d most like to befriend

Francis Pendleton, because he’s a really chill dude who’d probably be a great father figure or something

20: The OC I’d probably have a crush on

Uhh this superhero OC I made up, her hero name is “Morningstar.” She just kinda has that kind of personality, I guess??

21: The OC most likely to end up in a wacky [freeze frame][record scratch] “you’re probably wondering how I got here” scenario

A currently-unnamed demon hunter OC who lives in San Francisco, and that moment is how he wound up dating Possibly Satan. 

22: An OC who acts as an antagonist

Samuel Eldest, a cult leader (or something) who clashes with Aurelio Morgenstern when he brings a new, demonic force into Aurelio’s territory. 

23: An OC who acts as a hero

My mcfucking superhero OCs???

24: An OC who acts as a supporting character

Adelina, Enoch Branwen’s very mortal girlfriend. 

25: An OC I’ve changed a LOT

Dante Seraphim

Lemme tell you he’s been through a lot of changes--started off as personified Death’s son, one who was hella 2000′s goth and was literally called “Lucifer Crescent,” THEN he became part of an angel/demon war and was renamed “Dante,” but he and several other kids took on the names of dead Angels to carry on an ancient tradition of passing on their power, and NOW he’s part of that second story, but heavily revised in that it’s no longer in a fantasy world and they now wage a shadow war across a low fantasy environment. 

26: An OC that I’m still working on

That Reaper guy from question #13

27: Someone else’s OC that I really admire

A friend’s self-insert OC named “Belle the Reaper” and the audacity they have to ship this character with their goddess of time. 

28: A common trait or pattern in my OCs

Sarcastic Angsty White Bois™

29: Something that I haven’t really explored with any of my OCs

Real social issues because I don’t know shit and will most likely get something fucked up

30: [make your own OC-related question and send it to me!]

??????????

[theheartspoon]

Genesis 3 - 4

Genesis Chapter 3

Chapter three is one that I really struggle within the Bible for a few reasons. I ask myself why the serpent chose to attack Eve in the first place. Was it random? Did it matter?

He makes Eve doubt the word of God with a “But did he REALLY say…” Eve reiterates what she has been told here – and accurately so.

He makes him doubt again by saying that SURELY you won’t actually die. Then she looks at the fruit and makes a bad call. She sees that the fruit would allow her to gain wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Here’s the real kicker for me: ADAM WAS WITH HER THE WHOLE TIME. Men like to say that the fall was completely on the woman, but Adam was with her and remained silent. He did not participate in the conversation or acknowledge what was going on. He remained silent in the face of evil. Which allowed Eve to face the serpent alone and fall into doubt. It is not the fault of one, but the fault of both that allowed the world to fall into sin. Not to mention that Adam ate the apple anyway. He was silently persuaded as well.

The first consequence that Adam and Eve experience regarding their disobedience is Shame. This is still in accordance with what we experience today when we disobey. We feel ashamed. Shame is the weight of Sin on the human Soul.

When Adam and Ever hear God walking through the garden, their first instinct is to hide their shame. I find God’s response here very interesting because the question He asks is revealing to what is going on in Adam and Eve’s individual souls at this point in time. The question he asks is, “Where are you?”

Sin drags us away from God and shadows us from communion and relationship with him. God knows where we are, but Sin makes our Souls less recognizable.

The second consequence that Adam and Eve bring upon themselves is blame. They try to pass the blame around. Adam hands it to Eve and Eve hands it to the serpent. They are trying to play Hot Potato with the sin they have just conceived within their lives. This is something that we see small children do. They LOVE to blame a fault or trouble on someone else. This is instinctive. You can watch a 2-year old child blame the dog for something you SAW them do two seconds ago. And the situation is laughably frustration for parents – I think that this is what God was experiencing at this time. He SAW these two idiots eat from the tree. He SAW them run to hide their nakedness. Yet, just like a parent who is trying to coax their child out of hiding, he asks “Where are you?” Even though He can plainly see them. Because of the basic principle of parenting. You want your children to come to you. You want them to own up to whatever it was they did on their own. You want them to simply tell the truth. We know that when we tell the truth the consequences are generally less severe.

This makes me wonder about our punishment:

Woman’s being that we will suffer during childbirth, “desire” her husband and that he will rule over you.

Man’s being that he will have to toil the earth for sustenance and the earth will resist being farmed, and that death will be introduced unto man.

Then, of course, we are banished from the Garden.

I wonder about the punishment of woman because what does it mean for her desire to be for her husband and that he will rule over us??? Man’s consequences seem so straight forward, but women’s punishment is unclear.

From some light reading, it seems that many people believe that the desire spoke of here is some kind of sexual desire – but others believe that it is the desire to dominate the man and see herself as more powerful or above the man. I can understand that because I am seeing some of that today where women believe that they are better than men. God sees this as a consequence of our sin of not consulting with our partner on certain decisions. God also says that man will rule over us. Now, this could be interpreted in a couple of ways. That Man was always meant to rule over Woman and thereby validating a patriarchal society. OR you could see it for what it is. The man’s desire will be to rule and dominate over the woman creating a power struggle between the two that would negate each other and create a nonfunctioning society.

The way that I see it: Men and women were made to be equal parts of a functioning society. We were to consult with each other about major decisions and reinforce within one another the goodness the positive choices. We cannot act alone or try to dominate one another. This attempt to dominate is a consequence of our sin. We should strive to act as partners as ONE FLESH. One body and become the people we were meant to be.

Genesis Chapter 4

So this is the Cain and Abel story. Abel brings fat portions of the first slaughter of his flock while Cain brings some fruits of the soil. Now, there isn’t any clarification on this part here. We are not told why exactly God chooses to reject Cain’s offering. I can infer there that it might be because Cain’s offering was half-hearted. He did not bring “first-fruits” which would be the first harvest and normally those are the best fruits. In contrast, Abel does bring the best of the best from his flock.

Instead of taking this admonishment from God and choosing to become better through this, he opts for jealousy and rage. God tells him to let go of these feelings because Sin is crouching outside his door waiting for the opportunity to strike. Cain does not listen and allows this rage to fester and eventually straight up murders his brother in a field.

God ask Cain, “Where is your brother?” And Cain, like his mother and father before him chooses to hide his sin. Even through God had given him multiple chances to change his ways and even to own up to this horrible deed. Cain literally SASSES God and says, “IDK. What am I The keeper of my brother?”

Like he actually thinks that he can fool God into just LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH LITERAL MURDER.

God basically curses Cain for this – he will no longer be able to farm the land and he is forced to restlessly wander the earth. He even says that no one will kill Cain because he will place a mark on him. (This, again, implies that there are other people out there in the world. NOT JUST ADAM AND EVE). In the “Antiquities of the Jews”, it does happen to mention that Adam and Eve had daughters, but we have no idea what their names were.

Even Cain’s descendants murder people. His great-great-great grandson Lamech was a murderer too.

Cain’s descendants were some pretty industrious people through. They fathered some interesting industries: livestock, music, and blacksmithing. Kinda interesting.

Ooh – Cain apparently didn’t stop the sinning with murder. He just went and robbed/raped people and created the idea of property and weights and measures for selling things, and that he was “intolerable in war”. (Capitalism begins!) IN the “Antiquities of the Jews”, it even says that these people were innocent of these things until Cain came and corrupted them.

Cain’s descendants live in the land of Nod East of Eden.

Genesis Chapter 5

This just seems like a historical account of the first sons and their lineage. The only interesting piece of this for me is that one of Seth’s descendants was named Enoch (weird that it is the same name as Cain’s first son) who walked with God and didn’t die but was instead taken away by God.