#and then they wonder why i feel like bringing calamity on everyone who fails classes in their native language | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

truthbeetoldmedia · 6 years

Text

Charmed 1x04 “Exorcise Your Demons” Review

Episode 4 finally has us meeting an Elder! I wasn’t too crazy about the original series’ Elders because they were all uptight and had a “holier than thou” attitude. If Charity is completely different from those old Elders, one would assume the others are, too.

The episode begins with a flashback of Mel and Marisol sitting down with Angela Wu, encouraging her to move forward with her sexual assault claims against Professor Thaine. This is something we come to learn that Mel has immense guilt over. If she hadn’t encouraged her to tell someone, Angela wouldn’t have wound up in her coma and wouldn’t have been susceptible to the Harbinger’s possession.

Meanwhile, the Harbinger is still chained up in the girls’ attic and the whole team is wondering why it’s taking the Elders so long to arrive with a plan to take the Harbinger out of the house. Tensions are high. Harry is confused. One would assume it doesn’t usually take them this long. The sisters are wondering where the Elders are when Niko and her partner, Trip, pay them a visit. They’re looking into the disappearance of Angela Wu. Turns out, her mother put in a missing person’s report after she didn’t return home from the Halloween party at the Vera house. All three women are beyond obviously nervous. We already knew that Mel had a hard time lying to Niko as just her girlfriend. When Niko’s on duty, it’s practically worse.

Right when the Harbinger starts banging around in the attic, which causes Niko and Trip to want to investigate, that’s when Charity makes her appearance...as an interior designer. Making some excuse over moving furniture and whatnot, the sisters are able to dissuade Trip and Niko from investigating the scary noises. Charity’s physical appearance is a rebranding of the Elders everyone knows and, well, not loves, but expects for sure. We’re used to long white robes and here Charity is in her smart, white power suit. She has an amazing energy and she also run an investment fund for women who are starting businesses in developing countries. I don’t know of any Elders that actually have a day job, but this might just be one of the new things this series has going for them.

Anyway, Charity brings news that the sisters have to kill the Harbinger by the end of the full moon the following night. That means that they’d be killing Angela, too. Charity and the Elders are convinced that Angela’s gone, but Mel knows she’s still in there. It’s a gut feeling the Charmed ones are known for having, no matter which series it is. Also, turns out Marisol was an Elder? Harry said he told them in his opening speech to them, but Macy says he called her a high witch and Harry basically said it was the same thing and that kind of disappoints me a little bit. Elders in the original series were men and women who lived their lives as good people and, in death, became guardian angels to witches. That doesn’t seem to be the case with this series and honestly, that’s kind of a major downfall for me, next to Harry’s “orbing”. (To summarize: I’m not upset with the witch aspect of the show. I’m upset with the whitelighter/elder aspect.)

Back to the story! Trip knows the girls aren’t being truthful, but Niko isn’t convinced that Mel would lie to her about Angela’s disappearance. There is also some concern about all the other murders around Halloween being the sisters’ faults. Trip has his doubts and, for the moment, he keeps it to himself. Niko’s not listening to it, anyway.

While there is a literal demon in their attic, we’re reminded of the sisters having actual lives. Macy’s romance with Galvin is nonexistent. In fact, it looks like Galvin’s backing off after Macy rejects a date in favor of spending time with her sisters (because they’re killing a demon that night.) I just want Macy to blow off the demon murder and spend more time with Galvin outside of work. I know Macy is introverted when it comes to her romantic life, but this story is moving just so slow and not in a good “slowburn” way. It’s like Galvin’s just thrown into a scene as an afterthought. There’s no real movement between these characters and it’s making a bit ticked off.

Maggie is also having her own troubles. She’s failing one of her classes. Turns out she does have the occasional class at college. It’s not all sorority activity. Lucy is determined for Maggie to pass the class midterm, so she offers up her boyfriend, Parker, to help Maggie study. Well, Maggie and Parker met in the last episode and sparks were flying. You can see where this is going a mile away and I’m not here for it. I hate love triangles and I hate cheating storylines. I’m already annoyed.

Mel and Niko have their own problems, but they also seem to be the most stable relationship on this show at the moment. Good for them, but I can’t forget how their relationship started. In episode 2, Niko made it sound like Mel was the other woman. Remember how she mentioned that she was previously engaged, but just HAD to be with Mel? Well, I’m not a fan of relationships that come from cheating. These sisters are better than that, or they’re at least supposed to be.

Charity and Harry are trying to get all the sisters back to the manor for killing the Harbinger underneath the full moon, but that was before Mel took Harbinger!Angela and hid her in a vacant building that was housing the college’s homecoming float. Mel performed a spell and it revealed what she knew all along; that Angela Wu was still inside that body. The sisters needed to cast an extremely powerful exorcism spell to rid Angela of the demon.

Someone starts poking around outside and it’s Parker! Maggie has to go distract him from entering the place and she ends up kissing him. Thankfully, she realizes that was a mistake and that they can’t do that again. In fact, she doesn’t even want his help studying for her midterm anymore. Neither of them seem particularly regretful though and I’m sad all over again. Maggie goes back to help with the exorcism and things get crazy. It’s like there’s a storm inside the building.

Unknowingly, there is ANOTHER person poking around outside and that person is Trip. He gets inside the building and sees all the calamity going on. He tells everyone to freeze and to put their hands up. He’s holding his gun on the sisters, Harry, Charity, and a possessed Angela Wu and Charity just magics the gun away. I wish all guns could just be magicked away. He’s powerless watching the exorcism. With the power of three and the very strong will of Angela Wu, they are able to exorcise the demon and have Angela remain very much alive.

However, turns out a pipe was knocked loose with all the wind flying around and ended up killing Trip. The sisters saved one life, while another was put in harm’s way. Mel is feeling the most guilty because it was her fault that they were all at that building to begin with. Trip is also Niko’s partner and she knows her girlfriend will be absolutely devastated. At the very end of the episode, you see Mel comforting her girlfriend and that’s when she finds out that Charity, who had taken care of Trip and the scene of the “crime”, had pinned all the Halloween murders on Trip.

The sisters are watching over Angela as she recovers from her possession, something she doesn’t even know happened. You’d think that after that harrowing experience, they’d tell her what happened to her, but nope! They pin it all on blackouts. Angela’s been through so much. As much as I want to see more of her, I think it’d be best if the sisters distance themselves from her. If they don’t, I don’t see Angela making it out of the season.

What happened to the Harbinger, you ask? Charity trapped the demon in a paint can and when she went to bring it with her to the Elders, she was hypnotized by a mysterious stranger in an elevator. They traded paint cans and he was able to walk away with the demon in a can. Who is that guy? Is he going to be this season’s Big Bad? Poor Charity is going to just kick herself when she realizes she lost the demon.

All-in-all, I was more disappointed with this episode. It wasn’t even the episode as a whole, just elements that, when added up, made me sad. All three of the sisters’ love lives are not the greatest. Maggie is still placing her social life above saving the world. Macy is a hot, single lady and Galvin wants her! Give Galvin more screen time! What the hell already! I really want Mel to just tell Niko the truth. I think that’s where they’re heading this season. I say just get it over with. Mel, and the rest of her sisters, are horrible liars and it’s better to just put them out of their misery.

Some thoughts:

If Maggie is going to focus on one thing while at college, it should be her grades and not her sorority shenanigans. You all know how over the sorority storyline I am.

It’s hilarious how bad all three sisters are at lying. I guess that’s one way you can tell they’re all related.

HUGE POINTS to the show for pointing out how POC are uncomfortable around cops and how it’s basically justifiable and understandable. (At least that’s how it came across to me.

Charmed airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.

Sarah’s episode rating: 🐝🐝

#Charmed #Exorcise Your Demons #Angela Wu

5 notes · View notes

lids-flutter-open · 6 years

Text

a thing i wrote for the rabbi in preparation for finishing my conversion

1. How did you get to be sitting here today - tell me your story, how you learned to love Judaism, why you aren't x-tan anymore

I grew up in Olympia, Washington. My mother was "spiritual" but not specifically religious, and took us to a Unitarian Universalist church. I think this was a good experience for me, because it connected time in church ("church") to time talking about social justice concerns, and to caring about other people in a concentrated way. The UU church fed people at a shelter and raised money for environmental causes. I think it informed my principles as a person, even though my mother stopped taking us after a while. My father, whose mother was fairly fervently Methodist, didn't like religion. As a child, I associated religion proper--the kind of Christianity that other people did, for instance--with being asked to believe in something that was impossible, and the moral logic of religion, and especially Christianity as my grandmother knew it, didn't make a lot of sense to me. I was without any kind of religion throughout high school. I often felt depressed and anxious; I was gay and trans, and even after my parents began supporting me, many of my friends faced bullying, homelessness, mental health crises, and abuse. As I learned more about war, iniquity, and imperialism, I often felt like the world as it existed was beyond help, and that too many people suffered for the world to have any order. During that time, as I participated in LGBT groups around my town, I met some friends who were Jewish and coming into what that meant to them. I had really interesting conversations around Jewish ideas of God and morality with my friend Levi, who had grown up in a very racist town in Nevada and who embraced the idea of an all-knowing God who at the same time was mysteriously and frustratingly absent and who one had to both believe in and be angry at. In college, I took a class on European Jewish literature since the 1800s and read a lot of literature (from Gluckel von Hameln to Irene Nemirovsky and Stefan Zweig and Marx and Freud) accompanied by the analysis of a very gay older professor who tried very hard to keep his analysis secular while giving us religious concepts to provide context for the significance of writers' desperation, alienation, and struggle. A central idea that stuck with me from that class was the paradox of a God who has issued laws which everyone must follow for the salvation of the world even though nobody is sure exactly how to follow them. It combined the comforting and somewhat idealistic certainty that there was a plan with the sensible conclusion that, based on the chaos and horror extant in the world today, nobody was enforcing that plan and for practical purposes humanity was on its own to solve its problems. I also was fascinated that the ideas of Marx, and the ideas of many of the people who tried to formulate socialist states from the ruins of monarchies in the early 20th century, were influenced by the Jewish messianic tradition and were part of the idea that people themselves could bring on the dawn of the ultimate, perfect era of life on Earth if we only worked together and worked hard enough. It's romantic, but I pictured Jewish socialists motorcycling across the Russian steppe (as indeed they did, when carrying news during the 1918 crisis), imagining that their work might fix what everyone else had gotten wrong. I like Judaism because it recognizes humanity's messiness and mistakes, including prophets. It notes the arguments people have had, the different views people take, the times people have seriously messed up and faced consequences for it, the times people have seriously messed up and faced no consequences. It is concerned with bodies and matter and daily practice more than with immortal souls, but also speaks about souls and love and hope. It remembers, and it watches, and it hopes for the day where the word of G-D becomes something real--something explicitly material--, and tries to work for it, but admits that there may or may not be a clear path to get there. At the same time, it motivates me to do work in the world directed outwards, toward helping people. 2. Tell me about God / spirituality / prayer. What does that all mean to you?

I like thinking of God as the connection that exists between people, and anything good, but also as something boundless, beyond good and evil, and utterly incomprehensible to human identity, morality, etc. God is in the wonder of a wave crashing down on the sand. God is the potential for good things to happen because God is the potential for anything to happen, and when someone is a human, the best potential is that humans can come together and fix something, or figure out a way to care for each other better. Prayer is also being glad to be alive, to see candles or smell smoke or feel one's arms working in the morning. I pray because I believe there's some way to tap into that sort of divine similarity I have with all other beings and all other matter and make something happen that's good. I also think there is a lot to be said for the way Jewish prayer emphasizes sensual pleasure and simple appreciation of one's material body and material existence. I think God is a way for me to understand all bodies as good, for all experiences of bodies to be divine, even if they are painful.

3. What are some meaningful Jewish rituals / practices that you do and why are they important to you?

I observe Shabbat by avoiding grocery shopping, laundry, and travel on that day, and by trying to spend time with friends. I attend services on Friday nights and some Saturday mornings at CBE. In the last year, I have also observed the Jewish holidays of Shavuot, Tisha b'Av, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hannukah, Purim and Pesach. On Rosh Hashanah, I made food for my friends, including two new friends from my synagogue, even though my apartment is pretty small, and tried to incorporate foods traditional to the new year like apples and honey, round challah, and other foods. I observed Tisha b'Av and Yom Kippur by fasting, and throughout the month of Elul I thought a lot about the things in my life I wanted to change and about calamities I wanted to do something to prevent or to help people recover from. I read a book recommended by Rabbi Katz (This is Real and You're Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew) in order to better approach the holiday from a mindset of introspection and reconciliation with the parts of myself I wanted to leave behind. I also took a new appreciation of the themes of Elul and Yom Kippur with me as I rewatched Angels in America, which deals a lot in Jewish reconciliation, forgiveness, and death. On Hannukah I went to friends' houses in order to eat latkes and other oily foods and also engaged in conversations about the dubious victory of the Maccabees/when a revolution becomes a repressive regime. On Purim I went to party and attended services, and thought about what it means to survive something terrible and what it means to ask for revenge or to make up a story where you get revenge, and what the difference is. On Passover I was with friends in 2017 and 2018, talking about freedom, human trafficking, refugees, motherhood and reproductive freedom, and a list of other issues that seem more relevant every year. In 2018 I also learned songs, both traditional and more recent. In terms of everyday rituals: I try to give to people who ask for things. I try to care for people in my life who I value. I try to think critically and to better myself and to improve the world. I try to criticize tyrants. I try to be thankful for my body. I try to forgive people, and also to think carefully about when someone deserves forgiveness. I try to rigorously evaluate my standards for living a decent life and see if they are good enough. I try to remember history. I think about how the lessons of Torah relate to my life and what wisdom that text contains that I can apply to my life and sometimes make Spotify playlists related to books of the Torah. I try to read the weekly parsha and think about it critically. I read feminist books about Judaism and read fiction by Jewish authors. 4. What do you still want to learn / read about when you are Jewish?

I want to learn Hebrew so I can comfortably read in services in either language. I want to learn more about the history of Jewish people in the United States and around the world, because even as I learn more there is still a lot I have missed out on.

5. What Hebrew name are you thinking of having? And Why? Zev as a biblical name originates from a reference to Benjamin, who is called "a wolf that raveneth". The text refers to Benjamin-as-wolf killing prey in the morning and dividing spoils in evening. But there isn't much reference to whether Benjamin actually ever does any killing, though he gave rise to the line that included Ehud, Saul and, supposedly, Mordecai. Some consider the term "ravenous Wolf" not to refer to war at all but to refer to Temple sacrifices. Benjamin is known in rabbinic tradition as being a uniquely upstanding, sin-free person, and is also notable for being the youngest son of Rachel, and the last child of Jacob. When I was considering names for myself as a fifteen-year-old after coming out as trans, I considered Benjamin (on the advice of my therapist!) because of Rachel trying to name Benjamin Benoni after her pain and death, but failing. The name represented a triumph above origin while also presenting a puzzle because the actual etymology of the name is contested--it means son of days, son of the south, etc etc. But I didn't choose Benjamin as a name then, and I don't want to choose it now, because it's too full of a story and too precise. I like Zev because, though it's technically an allusion to this character, it also just means Wolf. I like that there are aspects of Benjamin's life I could step into, but don't want to draw parallels between myself and a biblical character every time I say my name. I like wolves, and have since I was a child, because they are both powerful and dangerous but also care for one another. Researchers studying wolves have found that in the wild they are far more communal and less aggressive toward each other than they are in captivity or under stress. I think that the protective powers of the wolf, and also the familial bonds between wolves, is something I want to emulate. I want to step into a different aspect of the name than Zev Jabotinsky, whose militancy and ferocity I think are antithetical to building an enduring, peaceful, prosperous future for humanity and other species on this planet.

#judaism #conversion #jewish conversion #text/#religion/

19 notes · View notes

sage-nebula · 7 years

Note

Top 5 Pokemon types (I assume Fire and Dragon will be up there!), top 5 Pokemon locations (from any regions, gameverse or animeverse), top 5 BotW locations, top 5 Zelda characters that aren't Zelda or Link, aaand top 5 Hogwarts classes!

Hmmmm, let’s see!

Top 5 Pokémon Types:

Fire

Ghost

Dark

Dragon

. . . Normal . . . ?

Fire has been my favorite since Gen I, wherein I gleefully set Erika’s entire gym ablaze with my charizard, laughing all the while at the idea of grass-types posing a threat to me. (I’m awful, I know.) I also have two on my One True Team™, so that’s a testament to how much I love them, haha. I loooooove most ghost-types, both in terms of lore and overall design, but I never had one on my OTT™ until Gen VII graced us with the amazing grace that is mimikyu. Dark-types are also great; I love most dark-types, even if the only one I have my OTT™ is my umbreon. When it comes to dragons, I prefer ones that are dragon by species over dragon-type, technically (e.g. I’m always going to prefer charizard and consider charizard to be more of a dragon than, say, Alolan exeggutor, which may be a dragon-type but is not an actual dragon by species), but a lot of dragons by species are also dragon by type, so it still does count. And lastly, I don’t think I have a fifth favorite, but, uh . . . normal types are cute . . . ? Hahaha.

Top 5 Pokémon Locations:

These are practically all going to be in Johto, orz. All the same, not in any particular order:

The Charicific Valley --- It’s literally a wild charizard reserve, what’s not to love? Even if it’s anime only, it’s still a place where charizard can live freely and happily. It’s a dream come true, tbh.

Ilex Forest / Celebi’s Shrine --- This whole area has a very mystical feeling, especially since Celebi’s Shrine is so unassuming, yet so important when it comes to the fact that a time-traveling legendary has an attachment to it. And it makes you wonder, like, did people used to pray here? Is it possible that the people of Azalea Town still do? Johto pays so much more adherence to legends than Kanto does, so it’s possible . . . but it’s also possible that it’s forgotten. Ilex Forest just has a sort of Lost Woods vibe to it, though. I love it.

The Burned Tower / Bell Tower --- Likewise, I love both of these towers for a similar reason. There’s so much history here, and with the Bell Tower especially you know that it still is visited by Ho-Oh in the right circumstances. These are sacred places, even if (or perhaps especially because) one of them was burned to the ground. It just has that sort of feeling to it, that you’re walking somewhere special whenever you go there.

The Ruins of Alph --- THE GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE WORLD, THE GREATEST SOURCE OF LOST POTENTIAL, LIKE---what is this place? Why is this place the way it is? Radio signals don’t work there. The unown haunt it. But why? We know that the Sinjoh Ruins might have something to do with it, given the connection there, and that Arceus and the unown have some kind of connection, but we still don’t know what, precisely, that connection is. There’s so much mystery and I feel that there’s so much more to be done with the Ruins of Alph, more dimensions that can be accessed from them, more that can be uncovered and explored. I want to uncover that, I want to see it!

All of the mystical / legendary islands in Hoenn --- Okay, there are too many to list here, but like . . . Mirage Island, which changes location and really does appear and disappear like a mirage. Faraway Island, which to this day is the only known habitat of Mew. Birth Island, where you find Deoxys in the original Gen III games. Southern Island, where you find one of the Latis. And all of the mystical islands where you find Hoopa’s Rings in ORAS. Like . . . these places, they’re always so remote, the music is usually mystical and fills you with this sense of wonder and legend and myth. God, I crave this sort of thing, these are always my favorite places, and Hoenn was so great for that because they could include so many different little islands scattered throughout the region. (Something you would think Alola would have done as well, but alas . . .)

So yeah, all my favorite places are in, like, Johto or Hoenn, hahaha. But really, I love mystical, legend-infused places. Give me your remote islands with legendaries. Give me your sacred places of ancient worship. Give me your alternate dimensions with your eldritch abominations. I want to see and explore it all.

Top 5 BotW Locations:

My House --- I’m really attached to the idea that Link has a home, haha. I like to keep Keith there a lot, I always go back there to cook, et cetera. I really love that Link has a place to call home amidst all the adventuring and traveling.

The Temple of Time --- I’m mad that the Temple of Time can’t play an actually important role in this game, even if I kind of understand it. Even so, I’m very attached to the Temple of Time and probably always will be. It’s sacred to me even if it’s just a cool place in this game where the Old Man tells you who he really is.

The Lost Woods --- This is the best rendition of the Lost Woods yet. Although I’m not too fond of Korok Village itself (too many framerate drops, the music isn’t great, Koroks are annoying), I love the Lost Woods, how creepy and ethereal they are, and the music is fantastic. A++++, best Lost Woods yet.

The Forgotten Temple --- One of my newest favorite locations. To me, the Forgotten Temple is definitely linked to SS. How much is debatable; that’s clearly the Statue of the Goddess in the very back, but I’m not sure if this temple is supposed to be the Sealed Grounds (maybe built on top of the Sealed Grounds?) or what. But it has a very mystical feel to it all the same, so I love it.

The Mounted Archery Camp --- In truth, I can’t decide on a fifth, so this one will go here because JINI IS WAITING COME WIND OR STORM, AND WANTS LINK TO BE CAREFUL. ;__; JINIIIIIII

I’m really attached to Jini, okay.

Top 5 Zelda Characters (that aren’t Zelda or Link):

Tatl --- Tatl is always going to be best companion, best girl, as far as I’m concerned. I love how she actually had a full personality of her own; she’s incredibly snarky (especially in the N64 original; they toned her down for the 3DS remake and I’m mad), unwilling to help at first, and is extremely focused on protecting her little brother, Tael, regardless of what happens to others. But she develops; she becomes more helpful, more attached to Link as well, and she even continues to develop after you beat the game once, because the first time you go to the moon she doesn’t want to go until Tael says that, fine, he’ll go. Every time after that she jumps at the chance, saying that Link is her partner and if he’s going, she’s going, too. I love how much development, personality, and history she gets. She even gets it in response to other characters, such as how she keeps snarking Kafei as he tells his story. Tatl’s not a perfect person, but I love that. I love her. (And I mean, she’s a wonderfully protective big sis. Give credit where credit is due.)

Urbosa --- QUEEN. Urbosa is everything I ever wanted from the Gerudo and more. She’s clearly a fierce warrior, but she also has a nurturing aspect to her as well with how she looks after Zelda and the others. She’s incredibly badass with the way she calls lightning with finger snaps. And on top of it all, she calls upon Gerudo history and marks her beef with Calamity Ganon as being personal due to the time he was reincarnated as a Gerudo. Fuckin’---I love her. Far and away the best Champion in the game (excluding Link, of course). I love her.

Marin --- Marin is especially notable because of how much characterization she got despite the fact that Link’s Awakening is a GB game. She could have easily been just another boring maiden, but we see that she, too, takes to calling Link “thief” if he steals from the shop; Link gets to go on a date with her, in which we see more of her personality through the various shenanigans they get up to; and we even learn that she has suspicions about a world outside of Koholint Island, that while everyone else on Koholint believes that there is no world outside of the island, she does. And she’s so desperate to see what’s out there that she daydreams about being a seagull, just so she can fly away. That’s pretty deep for a GB!Zelda character, and I love that she was fleshed out so much. I’m always going to love my girl Marin, and I’ll always headcanon that she, like Link, washed up on Koholint’s shore. I hope that she got to find a life outside of the island one day, as a person or seagull or otherwise.

Kafei --- Not only is Kafei being notable for one of the few (and perhaps the first) instances where you get to play as someone other than Link temporarily, but I love him as a character, too. I think my favorite part of Kafei is how deadpan he is about so many things; he refuses to even acknowledge Tatl’s snarking, much less rise to it, and he insists on calling Link “green-hat boy” for pretty much the entire time they know each other. But he’s also so sincere; if you fail to get the Sun’s Mask back, his despair over losing it is palpable. I do wish he realized that Anju would accept him regardless, but even so, that’s just another fault, and characters who have flaws are good. I love Kafei, he’s great. (And I also still believe that he’s a Terminian Sheikah.)

Fi --- Lastly, Fi. I wish that we saw more development from her over the course of the game, but the connection between the Hero and the Master Sword has always been important to me, and SS just made it even more so. Her goodbye can still bring tears to my eyes. Here’s hoping that the BotW DLC gives us a chance to see her interact with this Link. Please, Nintendo. Please.

Top 5 Hogwarts Classes:

Care of Magical Creatures

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Transfiguration

Charms

Ancient Runes

Those are the ones I’d be most interested in, anyway!

#top 5 meme #ryttu3k

5 notes · View notes