#The Sword

[quoththemaiden]

I still can’t get over how the opening scene of Good Omens was the serpent of Eden being told to “go make some trouble” and deciding to tempt humans into gaining knowledge, and an angel being issued a flaming sword and told to make sure the humans don’t return to Eden, and instead of using the flaming sword to guard the gate he tells them “it isn’t safe for you here anymore” and gives them the sword so they will be safe out there. And then they stand around quietly panicking about it together because both of them suspect that isn’t quite what their instructions were supposed to mean.

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #the serpent #the sword #self post

[sirjacobthomaskiszka]

(I’ve run out of things to say about this man. I’m completely speechless)

#let’s run down the list #chain mail crop top #the bob #the curls in the bob #jarms #the sword #his hands on the sword and the swords straps #just…him #I could go on for days #jake kiszka #greta van fleet

[geareduptom]

#g.u.t. #art #mine #felix the cat #alex the cat #Yen Sid #Afe #Sheba #Toons Dale #New Toons Dale #The sword #Past stuff #What Happened in Old Toons Dale? #geareduptom

[vanhelsingapologist]

there’s a man in the sunsword and he whispers morality

#cos: the sorority #curse of strahd spoilers #this is just sketches but it’s a big big spoiler #sometimes it’s just a girl and her sapient sword #Between the evil resurrected vampire. the morally dubious druid. the other evil vampire (the Vampire) #the monster hunter. the other monster hunter. the other monster hunte #the SWORD #her insane pseudorelationships……. #cos pc: demetria #anyway she uses him to kill

[charlottan]

Psychedelic Doom map

#hiii doomgirl here again #charlotte's webs #doom metal #stoner metal #stoner doom #stoner rock #The Sword #Electric Wizard #Fu Manchu #Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats #Goat band #Kadavar #Elder band #Brant Bjork #High On Fire #Stoned Jesus #Sleep Band #genre map #psychedelic doom

[brothertedd]

#the sword #band #music #the sword band #spotify #band the sword #gig poster #gig posters

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“And when they came to the sword that the hand held, King Arthur took it up.”

Illustration by N.C. Wyeth  from The Boy’s King Arthur:  1922

* * *

“Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too. This makes it quite easy for the ordinary people to live, just as it would be easy to join those five dots into a W if you were allowed to look at them forwards, instead of backwards and inside out. But I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of Time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind. Some people call it having second sight.

~Merlin” ― T. H. White

#holy grail #excalibur #the sword #T.H.White #Merlin #N.C.Wyeth #illustration #king arthur #stories #time

[haveyoureadthiscomic-poll]

#the sword #the luna brothers #indie comics #indie comic #image comics #poll

[spartansagas]

Cover art for Halo: The Cole Protocol, released 2008 by Tobias Buckle.

#Halo #Jai-006 #spartan #spartans halo #halo books #halo: the cole protocol #spartan gray team #i love this cover art so much #the sword #i think hes wearing a shield on his back? #or maybe its a thruster pack #the grey mjolnir #its just beautiful

[uncanny-clerk]

Dudes, if you're getting stoned tonight, please listen to this song and vibe out. Pass it around. You're all at my apartment and I'm the DJ so this is what we are vibing out to.

#the sword #stoner rock #seriously please listen and let me know what you think #no one in mu actual life listens to the kind of music i listen to #thats what i get for working with a bunch of gen z people #they really like their K Pop #Spotify

[quoththemaiden]

Aziraphale: The Sword that Guards the Tree of Life

Looking where the furniture isn't

This post is dedicated to @meatballlady's excellent insistence that if we want to try to predict where season 3 will go, we need to look at where the furniture isn't. That is, what must have been there but wasn't shown?

For this one, my source material is going to be Genesis. That is, in no small part, because it does in fact fuck severely that Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett took the angel with the flaming sword and the serpent of Eden and made them kiss (@joycrispy, @ouidamforeman). It's also because Genesis, quite simply, exists, and it seems safe to assume that most everyone in Gaiman and Pratchett's intended audience has been exposed to at least its first few chapters dozens of times.

What does Genesis tell us about Aziraphale's purpose?

3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out with his hand, and take fruit also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—  23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

@joycrispy's analysis above highlights Aziraphale's role as given in the last verse: as the angel chosen to wield the flaming sword, he was sent down after Adam and Eve were expelled to prevent them from returning. Instead, he chose to protect them by giving that sword away. His desire to protect humanity is indeed beautiful (@give-soup-please, @snek-eyes).

But wait, what came right before that? "And take fruit also from the tree of life...?"

2:9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

That's right: What we see in the show is that Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden so that they'd have to deal with the rain and the animals and have to work for their food, but that was never the primary motivation. God planted two special trees, and after Eve and Adam ate from one of them, God was terrified at the prospect of them turning around and eating from the other. And thus, the Garden of Eden was made off-limits and set to be permanently guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

So, the flaming sword.

Twice now, Aziraphale's sword has helped humanity survive complete and total destruction (@nottobehornyonthemain). The first time, he handed the sword to the first two humans, which protected not just them but the entirety of the human race via Adam and very pregnant Eve.

The second time, he let it be wielded by The Them, who used it to best the Four Horsepeople of the Apocalypse and save the billions of humans already alive as well as unborn generations.

Perhaps the flaming sword was only intended as a plot point in the first season. However, if its purpose were completed, it could have easily been destroyed. As a narrative piece, it could have broken dramatically at the end of the face-off against the Four Horsepeople. Or, Watsonianly, God could have chosen to break it Herself; after all, it was already used against its intended purpose twice, so why let it keep existing?

Instead, it's carefully taken away to... where? Heaven?

The place Aziraphale is now going?

Or at least a place where he could likely find a record showing where it's being stored?

Whether you call it "rule of threes" or "Chekhov's gun," I think it likely that Aziraphale will be getting his sword back in season 3. He probably doesn't want it (@createserenity, @ineffableigh, @doctorscienceknowsfandom), but he'll need it.

The question, then, is what would Aziraphale do with the flaming sword he was given to prevent humans from reaching the tree of life?

If we're looking at where the furniture isn't, the biggest stretch of an interpretation would be to say that the missing furniture is the tree of life. If anyone knows where Eden is, it would be Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate. We know that both Heaven and Hell want to end humanity. The opening credits have humanity walking to their judgment after their deaths; what better way to prevent that than by preventing those deaths?

The most intense version of this theory says that the audience should be familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden and know damn well that there are two special trees there and that Aziraphale was put in place to guard the second one — the one humanity hasn't eaten from yet, the one that grants immortal life. That's where, if I were truly trying to swing for the hills by aiming at where the furniture isn't, I would ideally like to end this post. If that were the case, season 3 could even open with Aziraphale walking towards the Garden of Eden, sword in hand, but this time approaching it from the outside with the intention of tearing the wall down.

But, let's be honest, making individual people immortal doesn't feel like it would fit with the themes of Good Omens, nor with Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett's world views.

So, let's take the tree of life symbolically: Instead of the tree of life granting individual humans immortality, it could instead represent giving humanity immortality. In that case, the thing that's where the furniture isn't is Aziraphale's sword. You know, the sword that's already saved the human race from extinction twice now, with both times being because Aziraphale gave it away.

I suspect that the sword will wind up in Aziraphale's hands again in season 3. I also quite suspect that it won't be staying there. In the end, I expect it will once again be up to humanity to reach out their hand to take the apple from that second tree.

#good omens #good omens meta #good omens season 2 #good omens season 3 #aziraphale #the guardian of the eastern gate #the sword #the tree of life #self post #did i overdo it with the citations? #writing this activated Essay Mode and i went all in on crediting my inspirations #if i could draw this post would definitely include a picture of aziraphale stalking towards eden through the desert with sword in hand #because even though i don't think it's likely it would be one heck of an epic scene #with him tiny and small under that great wall but so so so fierce and determined #alas that i cannot even manage stick figures #anyway i've been kicking this post around in my head for two months now so hopefully someone still finds it interesting! #(feel free to make your own guesses as to what parent of unborn generations might take up the flaming sword in season 3)

[birindale]

Visual development of the Sword of Protection by Elizabeth Kresin. Obviously this is a lore-heavy item, so there’s some rambling under the cut.

you may be looking at these like wait, what? this doesn’t look anything like She-Ra’s sword, even from the 80s.

She-Ra’s toyline was developed alongside the Filmation show, and while there was cooperation between the companies, some things wouldn’t fit the timetable Mattel wanted to adhere to (animating takes a long time, after all), so the She-Ra toys often looked different than their animated counterparts. Catra had a tail, Swift Wind was pink, etc. etc. The toy designs actually persisted through a few issues of the comics, probably because they were packaged with the toys, but you can see even in the first issue that some decisions were being made.

So while Filmation used the same design as He-Man’s Sword of Power, so they could recycle the animation (just add gem!), the toys got to create their own mold, and they wanted something distinctive. Something... gold.

(image via Darah’s tribute, which I highly recommend if you want to check out some of the earlier merchandise)

Now, as a sword? It’s a bit of a mess. It has like, an inverse fuller, a bizarre taper, a weird little cinch, and in the illustrations there’s a gem embedded halfway down the blade. (Not so in the actual toy, see below, again via Darah) (remember kids, if your crop obscures a watermark you’re legally obligated to put in a new, bigger watermark)

but the practicality of their toys’ weapons doesn’t matter to (most) children, and it’s sparkly and way sleeker than He-Man’s, so it was approved! Subsequent toylines tended to use the Filmation design, as it had more cultural staying power after the decades-long gap in toy production, but I think going back to the roots of the toyline, which existed (almost) independent of He-Man, was a really smart move considering the licensing rights, and it really paid off in the final designs.

But obviously the 80s toyline isn’t the only inspiration here! You can see the influence of the Filmation design’s “winged” tiara on a lot of these hilts, especially the later ones. 

The gem--variously called the ‘stone of protection’ and the ‘gem of Tiar-Ra’ in official MOTU lore--is blue in all but one design, #7, which is pulling way more heavily from Filmation’s Crystal Castle.

Beautiful, intricate, would have been impossible to animate. Like can you imagine? Somebody would have to draw that, frame by frame. I’d have a breakdown two weeks in.

It’s interesting how many of these have pommel stones, too. it’s breaking from what would be considered “traditional” She-Ra lore, but it also says “sword” in a way that these designs really benefit from. And, well, we’re not exactly dealing with traditional lore now, are we? ;)

#visual development #elizabeth kresin #the sword #motu

[sometilememes]

why is it that scott keeps finding shit in caves

like this is at least the second time

#the horns #the sword #something else i think #the rainbow crystals #empires smp #scott smajor #dangthatsalongname

[lucalucartz]

Another oc >:3

Image IDs in alt

#my art #digital art #the sword #oc artwork #oc art #original character

[chirpsythismorning]

Byler shippers are so sensitive, all I gotta do is boom

#byler #stranger things #the sword #the blue and yellow shirt #the bowlcut?? #tears #this sponsored post has been in the tag for over a week and my brain just goes straight to byler

[chernobog13]

Lightning Comics (vol. 3) #1 (June, 1942).

Despite appearances, there was no team-up/crossover between Lightning and the Sword. Instead, this issue featured the origin and first appearance of Lightning's new sidekick, Lightning Girl.

Lightning's full superhero sobriquet is "Lash" Lightning, although he is only referred to as such on the title page; he goes by Lightning the rest of the time. And that's just his superhero name. His civilian identity is Robert Morgan, but that's never mentioned in this story.

The character's original name was "Flash" Lightning, but that didn't last long. Ace Periodicals, the publisher of Lightning Comics, was sued by All-American Publications, owner and publisher of the Flash, for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was settled, and Ace changed "Flash" to "Lash," though, as I mentioned above, it didn't really matter because no one ever called him that.

The Sword was some kid named Arthur Lake. He and his wealthy dad just happened to have the sword Excalibur, shoved into a large boulder, on display in their home. In times of trouble, Arthur could draw Excalibur from the stone and be transformed into the adult superhero, the Sword!

On top of having a magical sword that can cut anything, the Sword is blessed with super-strength and a measure of invulnerability. He doesn't feel a wooden chair broken over his head, a knife thrust at his chest breaks on contact, and he survives a horrific plane crash. Yet, he is somehow affected by and terrified of flame. I mean, even the Martian Manhunter handles fire better than this guy.

In order to change back into Arthur, the Sword has to put Excalibur back in the stone. Which means that if Arthur is not home when things go bad, he must first make his way all the way back before he can transform. Mighty inconvenient, if you ask me.

#Lightning Comics #Ace Periodicals #Lash Lightning #The Sword #Lightning Girl #Golden Age Comics