#worm yaps

[madwormm]

when that one hyperfixation finally ends:

[flying-fangirls]

As a music, religion, and literature nerd, the Dies Irae has been one of my favorite go-to pieces of trivia for a long time, which means that this line:

Has been driving me batshit BONKERS since part 42! And also as a semi-professional media analysis yapper, I figured I might as well dive into the exact reasons I jumped up and audibly gasped upon first hearing this line and have subsequently lost my mind since then. So!

Here is why I think that the Dies Irae is the perfect analogy for John and Arthur:

Religion

Let's start with the most straightforward meaning: "Dies Irae" is a Latin term, and it translates to the "Day of Wrath." Or otherwise known as the Judgement Day, the foretold second coming in Catholic canon, when Christ will "come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." It's at this Last Judgement where God will wield perfect justice to send the worthy to everlasting peace and the unworthy to everlasting punishment. (everyone say "thank you" to excessive childhood Catholic lessons for burning this into my brain)

There's a kind of irony to the fact that Arthur so vehemently rejects Christianity and religion as a whole, and that John spends much of his arc trying to distance himself from the role/identity of a god, yet both are given this incredibly religious title, effectively restricting them from ever forgetting the presence/influence of religion in their lives.

This title has a couple layers though, because we have to consider why it's the Day of Wrath specifically that represents Arthur and John. Now, I don't think I have to tell you that those two are bursting with anger 80% of the time. But I am going to tell you that those two are not just angry, but moreso "divine fury" incarnate.

The Day of Wrath, the Final Judgment, is the final and eternal judgment of God on all: "For now before the Judge severe / all hidden things must plain appear; / no crime can pass unpunished here." (Dies Irae, Dies Illa). The final Judge, the all-powerful God, can see the objective morality of every single person, and is thus the sole, rightful determiner of fate.

This assumption of their right to perfectly and single-handedly decide others' worthiness shows up over and over, not just John and Arthur's actions, but also in how they describe these judgments.

When Arthur kills the widow on the island, it's not because she was dangerous, but because she was a cultist who "deserved" to be punished.

When John and Arthur need to get rid of Mr. Scratch's stone, John says they should give it to "criminals" who are "deserving of this curse." Even though, just moments before, Arthur refused to give the stone to Oscar because to do so would be to cursing him to a fate of eternal suffering.

And I can't go into every single detail about the entire Larson plotline because this post would double in size, but it obviously needs to be included here. Possibly the strongest tie between this arc and the idea of the Dies Irae is Arthur's conviction through it all. Arthur vows that he is going to kill Larson in divine retribution not because he wants to, but because he has to. He even goes so far as to admit that killing Larson will be a mistake, a cruel and overly-bloodthirsty action that goes against his compassion. But killing Larson isn't a choice to Arthur, it is the unavoidable punishment for Larson's sins and Arthur is simply the enactor of justice. Just like the Final Judgment, there is no sympathy, no hesitancy— the judgment is absolute, divinely ordained, and cannot be stopped no matter how undeniably horrific it is.

If we look at the Catholic Catechism, principle 2302 states that it is sinful to kill out of desire, but that it is "praiseworthy to impose restitution" and use violence to "maintain justic." So even if Arthur has intent to kill, his actions count as divinely sanctioned. He is acting as the hand of God's punishment.

Over the course of Season 3 and 4, Arthur's fiery rage dies down to a more gentle simmer, but his conviction only seems to grow, and John follows suit. Despite previously reprimanding Arthur for his unquestioning wrath, John eventually becomes just as convinced that Larson "deserves" to face a wrathful reckoning. The "fact" that Larson is wholly unforgivable and is fated to receive eternal punishment becomes more indisputable in their minds, and they both stop questioning the morality of their intentions, entirely convinced of their judgment.

Throughout the story, Arthur and John insist upon the importance of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, and say that these are the values that guide their every action. Yet, time and time again, they approach certain people with nothing but wrath and resentment. It's a sharp contrast to the benevolent figures they make themselves out to be, and Arthur and John are often blind to the contradiction because, in their eyes, they are still following those values in every action. And in the moments when they do recognize their horrific words or actions, they still cannot let their judgment go, convinced that it is their "duty" either way.

In Part 35, Arthur says "Just because you can't make the hard decision, doesn't mean it's wrong." This is exactly how John and Arthur view themselves. They know that some of their actions are harsh and violent and painful, but they are don't view that violence as wrong, because they are enacting that violence in justice. They move through life with carefully-selected destruction, culling the world of those they view as unforgivable sinners, and punishing them with divine righteousness. Arthur and John carry righteous fury in their every step, bringing the Day of Wrath down upon the world around them.

Now, there's already a ton of meaning just in this religious allusion alone. However, there's another application of the Dies Irae in modern culture, which brings us to the second side of this title:

Music

Back in the 13th century (sounds like a familiar setting...), friar Thomas of Celano wrote a poem for and about the Dies Irae. The poem was recited at Requiem Mass (church services to honor the dead), and it ended up being set to a Gregorian chant tune.

Over time, this melody has been used by a variety of composers, but the one we're focused on is Hector Berlioz. In 1837, Berlioz used the Dies Irae melody as part of his narrative symphony, Grand Messe de morts, in order to communicate that the main character had died. Then a lot of other composers saw that and said "Hey that's a cool idea!", and started also using this melody to represent death in their music. Nowadays, it's a fairly staple part of modern film and musical storytelling. If you've listened to literally any major soundtrack, then there's a good chance you've heard this motif (or a variation of it) used before. It's often subtle, sometimes loud and obvious, but no matter what, it reveals the inevitable presence of death. (essentially, the Dies Irae=death)

Now, obviously there's something tragically ironic about Arthur being likened to a musical motif when he tries so hard to distance himself from it, and there's something tragically ironic about John being associated with such a dark piece of music when he shows so much fascination and joy toward the art. Again, though, we've got some layers here. Yorick doesn't just compare Arthur and John to the Dies Irae, he literally defines them as the Dies Irae, a full embodiment of it.

Even before the story started, Arthur lost both of his parents, his friend and wife, his daughter, and his best friend.

John, when he was part of the King in Yellow, knew only how to harm and attack. In the Dark World, he falls back on this fearful lashing out with violence, harming even more people.

And throughout the story, John and Arthur seem to bring devastation to everyone else around them: Lilly the buopoth, Oscar, Noel, Collins, Daniel, Larson and Yellow.

The arrival of Dies Irae musical motif in a film always indicates that death is approaching or that is has already struck— a host carrying its blight to spread onto others. Just like the musical motif, the arrival of Arthur and John foretells the near-arrival of death. They play a duet together— John and Arthur, and death— always singing and dancing around and with each other.

These two never succumb to death, always finding a way to slip through its fingers and survive every situation. But they cannot escape death's presence because they are death's partner— singing the melody to death's subtle harmony. They cannot escape death because they are its host— destined to carry and spread devastation to death's victims. From the moment you meet John and Arthur, you know that death is inevitably approaching just a step behind, waiting to strike you down.

Whether it's the religious or musical side, we can see that John and Arthur are the literal embodiment of these allusions. They carry these powers and ideas in their every action and word, in their every step, in their very breath and blood.

Arthur and John. The hands of God's justice. The enactors of divine fury.

Arthur and John. The hosts of blight and destruction. The partner of death's song.

The man himself. The voice inside his head.

The Day of Wrath. The Dies Irae.

[bagelboihijinks]

It’s left unsaid but during the timeskip when Taylor was in the Wards the CIA tried to poach her because of how good she is at radicalizing youth.

Every college speech class in America has a section dedicated to studying her “Arcadia address”

The PRT stopped letting her speak during her mandatory PR appearances because every time she gave a speech it resulted in large amounts of civil unrest.

She won Speaker of the Year but was too focused on preparing for Jack to care so she never actually picked up the award. Dragon has it pinned on the fridge in the Guild’s break room.

[hellboundhimbo]

i need them to spontaneously combust into a ball of fire but also have a big fat gay wedding and live happily ever after it’s all very complicated

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

i want everyone to know that alpha shen jiu is fiercely protective of his omega disciples ok

they are his pack they are his pups he does not tolerate disrespect to his little ducklings!!!!

little omegas shen yuan and ning yingying are his precious babies and every time luo binghe even looks sy’s way, there’s a part of shen jiu that is growling snarling baring his teeth to make this strange little alpha beast get away from his ducklings

[fastboatsmojito]

Frank castle finding one of your plushies left over at his place and sending u pics like this with it everywhere he goes throughout the day </3

[megumiluvv]

Sukuna making you cockwarm his bottom cock and jerk off his top one mhmmm 😵‍💫

[n0anix]

love seeing the Curse of Strahdanya propaganda grow

there was so little shepnax art on here when i started watching it and now i see new art of the two idiots every day almost

absolutely thriving

[krisalyce]

bungou stray cats (ft skk)

and lore under the cut i’ve been thinking about them…

dazai

-shadowclan born and raised

-disappeared and showed up with thunderclan at the next gathering rip chuuya

-keeps raiding the medicine den (yosano has banned him to no success)

chuuya!

-former kittypet, still has the collar

-got recruited to shadowclan (similar to firestar’s situation)

-in line to be deputy probably

-trained together while they were apprentices, double black rumors still spread at gatherings and etc

-their names just called to me i swear yarrow and bark just appeared in my mind and wouldn’t go away

-art is during their apprentice era where they were always all over each other (squabbling and cuddling and etc) before dazai left

[grilledcheezy92]

YO WHAT IF

Lasko x Cutie 👀

[gammija]

here's hoping Gwen stumbles in the next day, desperately trying to hide how she failed her mission to recruit a new external in the form of a beautiful cursed monkey's paw tattoo

[madwormm]

pov a new Thing was announced for Interest but it was announced only a couple hours ago so almost no one's talking about it so you just sit there refreshing the tag like:

[the-leafcutter-ant-queen]

What even is a bug then

This definition is laaammee

Petition to change the definition of "bug" to anything that typically has more than 4 legs and anything that typically has less than two legs and is smaller than the average cat and is invertebrate

Shrimp is bug

Lobter is bug

Snail is bug

Crab is bug

Worm is bug

Spider is bug

All of the previous mentioned and any others that fit the definition I want it to be is now bug because I said so and I think my definition is cooler, like if you agree

[scruffedknife]

Trife....,.. but with ghost knfife..,.. do you agree with. If it would be painful for trpphy.. ,.. for anothr object show req maybe rook from brawl of the objjects ?!....

two from last night !! ^ (ft. friend trophy!)

and one i did quick fr u !

[worminurapple]

Me when me when new episode of sanders sides could come out soon and it’s the season finale and there’s music numbers and small chance of a Logan villain song GRARARARARARARRARARAEA /pos

[worms-in-my-head]

Thinking about making a worm parahumans recap animatic series bc talking at my friends and family about it isn’t enough