#windmill + the cause

[moonriselabyrinth]

Davos: *showing off the weapons and tools he'd learned to craft from the smith* this right here is a very valuable tool-

Aeron: you're a valuable tool.

Davos: th...thank you?

[shallowrambles]

Core wound of the solder + Mary Cambell + the wound of feeling powerless

On doors, SPNwin 1x05

"Every door to every future I could possible have closed that night forever.

Not today. But someday. I'm gonna find a way to open all the doors that were closed for you. I promise."

Mary Campbell

Followed by a cover of Noel Harrison's Windmills of your Mind:

Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel Like a snowball down a mountain, or a carnival balloon Like a carousel that's turning running rings around the moon Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said? Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand? Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?

When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair! Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel As the images unwind, like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind!

[p01kad0t]

I haven't been all that active over here in a while and that's because baldur's gate 3 took over my brain like a dang tadpole

So I offer you an assortment of drawings of my own tav (known as Ishmael or Ishma in this case) and of course the lovely Lazuli the dragonborn (courtesy of @tatzlyip I love dragon dad wjwmywym)

[thedaily-beer]

Beachwood x A Lost Cause Party Crusher IPA (Picked up at Windmill Farms). A 3 of 4. A nice West Coast IPA that delivers the hop profile you'd expect on a lighter, clean body. Lots of orange citrus, tropical fruit, and just a touch of pine in the background, and a body that drinks super easily and carries some moderate bitterness towards the finish.

[stirringwinds]

head empty, no new years resolutions, just nedpan brainrot 😔

[thisiskiwi]

Because I’m rewatching Hilda. This always hits the right spot. Thank you Mr. Peck!

Hilda Season 2 - Episode 5 „The Windmill“ (gif credits @therock7785)

[magic-is-something-we-create]

i am back from my vacation

first thing on my to-do list: nap

second thing: explore the minecraft update now that i have a mouse again and not just my glitchy trackpad

third thing: start on the next page for the lost because i thought the vacation would be nice for not thinking about it but instead i was thumbnailing the next page on paper on day 2 bc im so obsessed with these fuckin aliens it's not even funny

[windmills123]

hello followers! give me some characters to draw please..... this format is So Fun and i wanna do it again! xP

[voidsentprinces]

Welcome to my blog...I want taco dip.

[marinehero-a]

man who is ingrained with the need to protect civilians

[medicinemane]

Sometimes you have something that you could say, that you think about saying, that you more or less know how you'd phrase it... but it's just not fucking worth it cause you know for a fact that people don't fucking listen

I don't know, I try to stay... if not optimistic then at least with a mind set of "doesn't matter, we've got no choice but to try and make things better"

Truthfully though I think I'm extremely pessimistic when it comes to the chances of anyone actually listening to what I say

I'm not sure if I'm just bad with words but... it seems impossible to convey even simple thoughts to people so... truthfully I've more or less given up and have just stopped trying. Especially if I don't at least know people well

So there it is

[kingdomkome]

its genuinely not that serious but books described as 'introductions' to certain genres always irk me so bad

[shallowseeker]

Hey, Cas is semi-canonically partial to Ecclesiastes + more about windmills and futility

(I cannot remember which script but I believe it's something he suggests to Jack in season 13 or 14.)

But anyway, his praises for Ecclesiastes are fascinating and lovely. (You should give it a whirl, even if the Bible is not typically your book of choice.) There are things in Ecclesiastes that are so Cas. (I think of Season 10’s Cas: “Oh, I have seen the glory and reaped vast rewards…”)

Ecclesiastical nihilism is relevant for all of SPN’s soldier-marked characters, but especially season 7 Cas and of course AU Michael. (See also: Dean, Mary, Raphael.)

///

Ecclesiastes begins:

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

///

-OR-

2 “Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “Futility of futilities! All is futility.”

…

Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hurrying to its place it rises there again. Blowing toward the south, Then turning toward the north, The wind continues swirling along; And on its circular courses the wind returns.

-Ecclesiastes (NASB)

///

(Cas is right, Jack. You should read Ecclesiastes. He’s wry and dare I say acerbic at times? For, you know, an ancient philosopher.)

“…unhappy to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind…”

- Ecclesiastes (NASB)

///

Cas's existential crisis, nihilism, and fear (season 7)

This mindset calls to memory so much of season 7-Cas, but here in particular:

Meg: What dogs? [to Dean]He says he's surrounded by unhappy dogs. Castiel: They're chasing a rabbit around [indistinct]… Meg: Oh. Okay. He's at a dog track in Perth. Castiel: I'm surrounded by large unhappy dogs. Meg: Yeah, they're unhappy 'cause the rabbit's fake. Castiel: [to Meg] You know, those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals.

-Reading is Fundamental (SPN, season 7)

///

Cas is beaten down after billions of years of military service. He’s effectively frozen. He laments the repetition of war and procreation and finding no meaning in it.

He tries focusing on smaller perspectives: bees, gardens, flowers. He’s trying to find a plan in it all. A divine plan would give it meaning. More importantly, a “laid-out route of flowers,” would give it a meaning he doesn’t have to discover for himself.

So, he devolves into a kind of self-horror in his own participation in the machine, in the repetitious nihilism. Ecclesiastically, he laments his place in the cosmic hierarchy. With respect to his loved ones on earth, he despairs over the pain of gaining wisdom, the shame of his prideful mistakes, and of the recognition of his own violent nature, that he “will destroy…again.” (No matter what pretty things he stood for, he was angry at Heaven. He did want to punish them.)

"Because in much wisdom there is much grief; and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain." (-Ecclesiastes, again)

The “punishment resurrection” gets more painful each time, as Cas said. Why? Wisdom.

///

How do you make meaning out of senselessness? Do you find it in each other?

Later, if you read too much into 12x19’s “The Future,” (as I do), you’ll note that Thank You (Led Zeppelin) seems like it could unofficially be Dean and Cas’s "song." After all, the scripted, "Cas...thank you," is such a loaded phrase to find in a script, coming on the heels of the Led Zeppelin mixtape. There are things about Thank You that echo Ecclesiastes as well, but with opposite meaning. A hopeful meaning. Not a despairing, “All things are wearisome,” but a thankfulness that you got to be here at all, surviving pain and the crumbling cycles together.

(This is indeed the wisdom Cas tries to give to Jack in Ouroboros as Dean lies dying of a gorgon-induced head injury.)

///

So what of the the Ecclesiastical stirring of wind? What of SPN's windmills?

The characters that struggle with meaning-making amidst the futility of war are often marked by the Ecclesiastical windmill of futility, which is why we see this motif with Cas and Dean so often. We see it particularly when they are marching off to war (like when they meet Raphael in Free to Be You and Me), or when Cas dies in war (ashes near a windmill). It also appears as an industrial building fan when linked to demons. On a related note, in season 10, Cas's grace is hidden inside Don Quixote. (Taking into account Metatron's beef with Heaven and archangels, this may be an Animal-Farmesque hit at Heaven's machinations as much as Cas's chivalry.)

Another related motif is the simple house fan. It’s a kinder symbol. There is almost always a fan on the shelf near the taller lamp on Dean’s “Cas” side of the bedroom.

But, importantly, a fan isn’t a windmill. It’s not a grand motif. Not duty. Not enemy. Not cause. Not mission. It's gentle and small, tucked into the bedroom and thus intimate. It’s not made for grand purpose. A fan is simply there to be, to comfort, to bask in a private breeze.

When we see an outright “industrial windmill,” it marks darker things, and it calls to mind other futility symbols, like the windmill of Animal Farm—that complicated grand purpose of design that runs the efforts of the hopeful, dutiful civilians into the ground with its corrupt machinations (it stands in for: hunting, Heaven, demonic deals, and just…most career and “cause”-coded things in SPN).

There is an entire scene dedicated to (alt) Mary dealing with the after effects of her child soldierhood in The Winchesters, episode 5 "Legend of a Mind," set to a rather haunting Dusty Springfield cover of Noel Harrison’s Windmills of Your Mind.

Its lyrics echo Cas’s existential crisis from season 7, and also that of late-seasons Michael and terminal-seasons Dean. And that is no accident.

A circle in a spiral, a wheel within a wheel Never ending nor beginning on an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind

[naturegirl555]

Do y’all ever just think about how in the script it’s said that dean spread castiels ashes by a windmill in a meadow with a garden near it cause he thought that cas would like it there. Also the fact that Sam says that’s where DEAN spread your ashes after we burned you. Like shut up. I think about this way too much for it to be sane.

[beauty-funny-trippy]

Reasons why we know there's something wrong with Grandpa:

• believes immigrants are eating their neighbors pets because he heard someone say it on TV (without any evidence) • thinks injecting disinfectant into our veins might be a good idea. (It's definitely not, don't try it.) • claims America's F35 fighter jet is completely invisible, even if you're right next to it (like Wonder Woman's plane)

• praises white supremacists and KKK members who were chanting antisemitic hate speech, calling them "very fine people" • focuses on imaginary issues like preventing children from changing gender while at school, but ignores real problems like school shootings • thought it was a good idea to give away our desperately needed Covid test machines to our adversary ("Grandpa, what have you done?" — he can't be left alone for a minute) • decided to believe Putin's lies, but dismiss findings from America's intelligence agencies • claims America had airplanes during the Revolutionary War

• believes in the Nazi ideology that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," and says some migrants are actually subhuman "animals" • insisted that the U.S. would have fewer coronavirus cases if it conducted less testing (yes, a U.S. president in charge of controlling the crisis, actually said something this inept, repeatedly) • due to his incompetence and lies during the Covid crisis, the U.S. had one of the highest rates of Covid deaths in the world • thinks windmills cause cancer and kill whales • speaks endlessly about his concerns re: dying by electrocution from a boat battery or being eaten by a shark

• thinks he's above the law and, as president, should be able to commit as many crimes as he wants • is a billionaire who whines about how badly he's been treated, then he's chauffeured to his private jet • likes to discuss Arnold Palmer's penis • after NINE years of repeatedly promising to unveil his Healthcare Plan "very soon," he admits he still has no real plan —only "concepts of a plan" • has a bizarre attraction to the fictional cannibal and serial killer, Hannibal Lector (why? no one knows —and everyone's afraid to ask)

• advocates dangerous plots, like using the military against Americans who disagree with him, or using the DOJ to arrest them, or just telling people to "beat the crap out of them" and he'll pay their legal fees • thinks having a national day of violence is a good idea (we should never have let Grandpa watch "The Purge") • wants to be the "law and order president," yet this 34 time convicted felon incites people to riot and to commit criminal acts of violence • unable to take the loss of an election like a man, he had a temper tantrum like a toddler, that culminated in a treasonous insurrection

⠀This guy is so delusional, he claims he's a genius because he often speaks incoherently in something he calls "the Weave." Here are two examples: • "How disgusted were all when we see all of us are when we see three days ago when we viewed their parade." Asheboro, NC, 8/21/24 • When asked, "What specific legislation will you commit to, to make child care affordable?" He responded, “Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down, you know; I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka, who was so impactful on that issue. ...But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about that because the childcare is childcare, couldn’t, you know, there’s something you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.” New York, NY, 9/5/24 ⠀If this was anybody else's Grandpa, the family would be having discussions about who's going to go with Grandpa to the doctor to find out what's wrong with him, and who's going to be in charge of finding him a nice convalescent home to live in. ⠀My suggestion is that it might be a good idea to elect a president who has no cognitive impairment and can tell the difference between reality and delusions. Personally, I think that's a rather important quality in a president.

[cassandraclare]

Those of you who get my newsletter will already have seen this but here's a snippet from the Matthew novella A Sea Change (some spoilers) — and Matthew on one of the endpapers for the novella book! Doesn't he look grownup?

 

It was a beautiful night.    The promenade deck wended its way around the entirely of the Majestic like a necklace of polished wood and brass fittings. There were few out walking like Matthew, perhaps because it was cool and windy, but Shadowhunters were used to the cold. Besides, the wind blew the clouds away, exposing a sky so full of stars it looked as if a jeweler had hastily stuffed a drawer with handfuls of loose-cut diamonds.    A year ago, Matthew would not have been able to enjoy the path the moonlight made across the water, or the sky afire with white flame. He would have been thinking about his last drink, or where he would find his next one. A frantic circle of pain and shame and longing: one he’d had to trudge invisibly, keeping his secrets from his friends, his family.    Now the weight was off him. He felt light, and sometimes strangely at rest, like a windmill on a windless night. He no longer despised himself, but he did not know his purpose, either. If, he mused, one had to have a purpose at all. Was it not enough to be a Shadowhunter — one among many, but each sworn to protect humanity against demons? To keep peace among mundanes and Downworlders — warlocks, werewolves, the Fair Folk, and vampires?    A year ago, he wasn’t sure he would have so quickly identified Miss Gwendolyn as a vampire, either. But then Matthew spent more time with Downworlders than most Shadowhunters did. Some he was friendly with, but he did not trick himself into thinking that meant they were not dangerous. And a vampire hiding out among humans was cause for concern.    He’d noted the way Gwendolyn hadn’t eaten, and had drunk sparingly of the wine. The translucence of her fingernails. Her pallor, even under a layer of makeup. The veins at her temples — if those were visible, she was hungry. And there had been the odd behavior of Orville Cole. The way he’d stared at her worshipfully. Humans often fell under the spell of vampires, finding them impossible to resist. It was not the same as a thrall relationship, where the vampire fed from the human and in return promised them eternal life, but it was a use of vampire glamour forbidden by the Accords.    Though Gwendolyn had seemed, if anything, annoyed at Cole’s attentions. Perhaps she’d enchanted him without meaning to and wished nothing more than to be rid of him. It was hard to say; Matthew did not get the sense she’d been a vampire very long.    At that moment, lost in thought, Matthew collided with something solid.     “Pardonnez-moi — oh. It’s you.” The young man from dinner, Sylvain Allard, had evolved out of the shadows. He wore a dark summer suit which blended with the night.