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edenfenixblogs · 4 months

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hey, gentile here. just came across this post of yours and, first of all- it's SUPERB. it showed me a perspective on being a jewish ally that i really wouldn't ever have considered by myself, made me more confident in my choice to put combating jew-hatred above the friendships I've recently lost, and gave me a really useful direction on where to go as an ally to jewish people onwards. that being said, there's a few details about it I'd like to press you about, if it's not too much trouble.

this point is probably worthy of an eyeroll as i'm a culturally christian atheist (making a concious effort to not be *that* kind of atheist), but: when you refer to G-d as the creator of all things, you stress that that includes evil- but that, in so doing, G-d is not evil themself. now, I'm asking this with the express purpose of you correcting me, so: why does this G-d- as a G-d fundamentally distinct from the Christian conception of God as a Super-Mega-Ultra-Perfect God Who Can Do No Wrong Ever- create evil? i, personally, have been led to believe by @/spacelazarwolf that it is simply because G-d, too, makes mistakes just like any human being, but the way you worded it in this paragraph (which I've included as a screenshot below) had me interpret G-d creating evil as a concious, intentional action. did i just not read it correctly? and, if i didn't, then is the reason G-d creates evil part of this central struggle you went in detail into in the same paragraph, and as such, a very individual part of Jewish belief that no two jews agree on? and if that is so, would you be comfortable with sharing your version of it?

a few paragraphs after that one, you dedicated many words to make it absolutely crystal clear that, in the process of unlearning and combating jew-hatred in the society around me, i should, in spite of the vitriol that they propagate, love the former friends i lost to antisemitism. how- and *why* should i love the people who, on an early october 8th morning, actively celebrated the news of a massacre of Israeli civilians? who mocked- and still mock- the survivors and the families of hostages? who wield the memory of the holocaust as a baton against Jewish people's right to self defense? who deify terror groups who are up to their necks in atrocities? who make an active effort to spit on the face of *reality?* How could i possibly look at the face of a friend who chose allegiance to a terrorist group she did not even know existed four months ago over me- who she had actively interacted with for much longer?

would you rather we called ourselves "gentiles" or "goyim?" I've been calling myself a gentile for the longest time because i see jamming a word from a language i don't speak at all in an otherwise english sentence to be disrespectful and constitute appropriation, but you and other jumblr blogs have given me the impression that that is not the case. furthermore- i believe it was @/bambahalva who pointed out the usage of the word "gentile" in antisemitic segregation policies.

that is all- i hope this message finds you well. oh, yeah one more thing- what do you think of The Forward news network? i came across them by chance and next thing i knew I'd gotten into their newsletter.

WARNING: I HAVE FINISHED WRITING THIS AND IT'S LONGER THAN I EXPECTED AND ALSO MORE JEWISH THAN I EXPECTED LOL! I have done the most Jewish possible thing I could do and answered all of your questions with questions. I'm sorrryyyyyy! This is what happens when you grow up surrounded by rabbis and future rabbis! LMAOO

Oooh! What a good ask! I love this ask. OK, so! Let's go in order.

First of all, thank you so much for your kind words. And thanking you for backing your words with the action of prioritizing kindness over hatred. It matters. More than I can ever explain. Thank you.

You know, it's funny. People ask me a lot of questions about i/p that they think will have simple and straightforward answers that just don't. And I end up writing a lot of essays because of this. The questions you wrote me seem like they should be complex, but feel relatively straightforward to me.

Now, to your first bullet point: I don't know. I truly do not know. I think that G-d is fundamentally just...G-d, and in so being, G-d is truly unknowable to me. I think many Jews have many different interpretations on why G-d creates evil. I'm no rabbi, but one of my BFFs is and so is her mother and great grandfather. That doesn't give me any kind of authority. It just means I've spent a lot of time thinking about theological questions like this. As for my perspective, I'm a progressive/reform Jew, not a humanistic Jew. I do actually believe in G-d, but I vibe with the community philosophies of Humanistic Judaism a lot. So that's the perspective I'm coming from here:

I'm not a particular fan of the Book of Job, because I think it gets twisted and interpreted in Christian ways more than most Hebrew books and it can too easily be twisted into a "Don't question G-d, because G-d is perfect" narrative that I find to be fundamentally at odds with how I practice Judaism. Also, it's just a very sad story about how a good and kind man lost everything, and it makes me sad to think about. HOWEVER, that traditional "Don't question G-d" narrative is not how I learned to think about that book. The way I learned it, I believe the Book of Job describes this issue most explicitly. After Job loses everything he holds dear and talks to all his friends and begs again and again "Why? Why did G-d do this to me? Why would G-d do this to me when I'm a good person?" And basically G-d hears everyone answering for G-d with various reasons, "Maybe you were bad." "Maybe you should make an offering" Maybe this. Maybe that. And eventually G-d responds from within a storm (paraphrased of course) 'Why the fuck do you think it's your business to know? I made the whole universe! I made everything you see. I made the world that gave you your family in your first place. Why do you think you get to question my motives?'

The way I always interpreted that is: I don't fricking know! It's not really my business. What am I gonna do? Stop G-d? How does my knowing why G-d creates evil help anything? It doesn't mean we don't question G-d. It means we should instead focus on what we CAN control. I can't make 10/7/2023 not happen any more than I could stop The Holocaust or form an ocean. That's divine business, not human business. What I CAN do is make the world better now. What use is it challenging things that we cannot change? Things that are in the past? What's the point of asking why bad things happen when we can instead focus on stopping more bad things from happening. G-d named us his people when Abraham fought with G-d to stop the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham repeatedly asked, "But are you sure? But what if there are 100 good people? 50 good people? 10 good people?" And G-d kept responding, basically, 'I mean, there aren't. I know this cuz of how I'm G-d and know all the things. But knock yourself out looking.' My interpretation of this was that G-d doesn't get mad when we do our utmost to help our fellow human beings. G-d gets mad when we waste our energy that we could be using to help our fellow man to instead be angry and rage futilely against the past. I say this as someone with PTSD as someone who attempted to stop a tragedy from occuring and failed and can never understand why. What informs my trauma and what makes it so hard to get past isn't that G-d allowed it to happen. It's that people did. It's that I begged for help before it happened--over and over and over to dozens of adults in various positions of authority in order to prevent this terrible thing from happening (no, I will not now or ever disclose what that thing is). And all the people who could have helped failed me, and now two people are dead. Because someone did an evil, evil thing. And a bunch of other people let it happen. I'm not mad at G-d. I'm mad at people. And yet, I also know that hating people and finding reasons to dismiss them and despise them is what leads to more tragedies like that happening. So, despite my rage, truly the only thing to do is to love people. It's the only that helps. It's the only thing that repairs the world. It's the only thing that we can control. So, in short, my answer to "Why does G-d create evil?" is "Why should I spend my valuable time on earth trying to answer that question when, instead, I can spend that same exact amount of time asking millions of people, 'How can I help? What's wrong, and how can I help make any part of it better?'?" We don't need to understand G-d to make the world a better place. I'm fine leaving G-d stuff to G-d and spending my time on the human stuff.

Now, your second bullet point. Love their souls. You don't have to love what they've done. But they are human beings, as are we all. I think this can also easily be twisted into the Christian framework of "Hate the sin, love the sinner," but that's not what I mean at all. People's evil deeds are a part of them. They need to take responsibility. There is no divine absolution for crimes that people do unto each other in Judaism. If you harm a person, G-d cannot forgive you for that. Only the person or people you harmed can forgive you. And to a certain degree, we are all defined by our actions toward others. And so, no. I do not forgive the terrorists who woke up and decided to kill a bunch of Israelis and Israeli-adjacent humans. I do not forgive those who celebrate the deaths of Israelis because of some misguided sense of justice. I do not forgive the people who continue to send me hatred and death threats day after day after day after day. And I do not love the parts of them that did and do those horrible, unforgivable things. But my goodness. They were babies once. They either had parents who love(d) them, which is so sad, because they have this life of love and they chose instead to fill it with so much hate. Or they didn't have any parents or loved ones or anyone to guide them and, my goodness. That is so sad. How terrifying and alone that must feel. Maybe they have friends and family who love them and are instead wasting their precious time on this planet directing their energy at raging against me and 15 million other Jews they've never met. Or maybe they don't have anyone who loves them and they think that hating me and harming me will bring them some sense of purpose and joy. What a horrid way to live.

My Grandpa died last year. I have a wonderful family for whom I'm very grateful, and I even have good memories with my Grandpa. But he was not a good person. He came from an abusive home, and weaponized that abuse on his loved ones until he drove them all away. He was a narcissist. Not in the pop psychology sense. But in the actual clinical sense. He ruined every relationship that ever mattered to him--personal and professional. And in the end, because of his own actions, he died alone. He had pushed everyone so far (often with legal threats and action) that when he died, he laid on a slab for weeks because nobody could figure out who to call, because he had no one left. (For reference, Jewish burials are supposed to happen rather quickly and two weeks is...not good.) He was the only person in his generation who was not born in Israel--my family on his side has lived in Israel since looooong before even the British Mandate and he was the only person in his family born and raised in the US. As far as we can tell, the family on that side has been in Israel for as long as Jews have existed. He was religious. And while I've never been to Israel or met any of my family there, he did go. And he kept in touch with his relatives there before driving them away too. He was a wealthy man, but convinced himself that everyone only wanted him for his money and then decided to horde it instead. He left nothing to his children or to me. He left all his money in an endowment to his university--a place that uses that money to fund anti-Israel organizations now. He died alone, without his family that lived nearby, and with a legacy that will now cause active harm to the family that lived far away. He could have died surrounded by the loved ones from around the world who wanted nothing more than to be near him and loved by him. His story is a tragedy. The story of every person who chooses hatred over love is a tragedy. The story of someone who woke up and chose to murder others or to delight in the death of others is a tragedy. I love the soul in the center of these people. I loved my grandfather. I could not be around him. I cannot forgive some of the things he said and did. But I love the person he could have been. I love the part of him that gave me some good memories. I love the family he gave to me.

No, we do not all need to love or forgive those who have wronged us or terrorized us or murdered our loved ones. But that is different from mourning a human soul. From loving the potential of a human soul to do good in the world, and mourning the loss of that soul and its potential. Every human being--every single one no matter what they have done in their lives--has the potential to create goodness and make the world a better place. Every moment of every single day is a new chance to meet that challenge and do our best. Sure, not all of us have it in us to try our best every single moment. Sometimes life is hard and we're sad and tired and hungry and angry. And that's ok, because we have tomorrow, and an hour from now, and a minute from now. But the moment someone chooses to take action and decides that action should be to cause another harm or celebrate the harm that was caused? That's a tragedy. And when a life is extinguished, that is a life that loses its potential to try again and do better. We shouldn't love people because we deem them worthy of love. We should love people because they are people. And so are we. And how wonderful is that? I could choose to hate them. It would be so easy! But why should I do that? What do I gain? What do they gain? And isn't it so wonderful that I chose to love instead? And isn't it so wonderful that you can, too?

As for your final bullet point: I have no preference. I say goyim cuz it's easier for me. Goy/gentile/non-Jew are all fine to me. I have some icky feelings about the word gentile for a variety of linguistic reasons I won't bore you with. But some other people don't like when non-Jews appropriate Yiddish words. Others (including me) find it wonderful when non-Jews call themselves goyim. All my closest non-Jewish people call themselves goyim, including my sister! Non-jew is the most neutral in English and least likely to offend anyone. But it still separates Jews as an other whereas "goy" is a way to distinguishing yourself from Jews while also being an acknowledgment of our culture. As far as I'm concerned as long as a goy is being a goy (ally, positive) rather than a goy (derogatory) I don't mind that they call themselves goyim. LOL! Idk, friend. Do what makes you happy! What do you prefer?!

Regarding The Forward news network: They are a reliable Left-Center source with a high credibility and reporting rating and only one failed fact check in the past five years for which they issued a correction. I would consider them a reliable source. They cover legitimate issues of people who support Palestinan self-determination ostensibly being punished for their stances. They publish Op-eds critical of Netanyahu, who is terrible. And they address how antisemitism is harming diaspora Jews. They seem to consistently emphasize the humanity of everyone, which you can tell based on the rest of my post is very important to me, but they also avoid over-editorializing on news that is not in the Op-Ed section. I'll never endorse any source as perfect or guaranteed to be free of problems or harm or bad takes, but they do seem to make a genuine effort to be factual, clear, and wholly truthful. Note: I highly recommend that everyone installs the Media Bias/Fact Check extension on their web browsers. Get in the habit of checking and evaluating sources critically. It's a skill that will serve you your whole life.

@clawdia-houyhnhnm I hope this helps. And thank you for your thoughtful ask and commitment to intercultural understanding. <3

#ask me stuff #clawdia-houyhnhnm #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism #jewish muslim solidarity #jewish goyim solidarity #Judaism #jewish culture #jumblr #how to help #allyship #media literacy

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midnightfox450 · 3 months

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I think I'm finally ready to elaborate on my conclusions from my last post about Figayda & Fig's warlock power source.

I think it's pretty obvious that Fig's conversation with Ms. Sool in episode 4 is meant to remind us of Ayda and implicate her as a source of Fig's powers. The specific use of the word "paramour", the talk of contracts, the similarities to Figayda's last conversation in fhsy, etc. Plus I don't think they would modify one of Fig's warlock spells to be Ayda-themed just for flavor.

BUT!!! I don't think it's quite as simple as "Fig's patron is Ayda". Fig's relationship with Ayda could be a source of some of her powers, yes, but I don't think it is the only source, nor do I think Fig has fully deified Ayda herself (if that makes sense).

Ayda being Fig's "patron" would imply a power imbalance that seems a little intense for high school girlfriends and isn't what I think Brennan & Emily are going for. I think the bond between Fig and Ayda acts almost as a generator, creating magical energy that is mutually uplifting and beneficial to both.

The beauty of Figayda is that both girls have become more self-confident now, but not because they define their self-worth by their appeal to the other. They put in the work to be good people to each other, and in turn, realize that they are already good people just the way they are. Ayda "gets" as much out of their relationship as Fig does (whether that manifests mechanically as warlock magic on her end, we don't know).

And there's a lot of stuff around Fig's warlock magic that isn't Ayda-related at all. The bad luck & dairy stuff is clearly Gilear. The stomach stuff could be indigestion (Gilear) but could ALSO be insatiability (Gorthalax, the one source we already know she gets warlock powers from). And I'm betting (hoping) we see some possibly Sandra Lynn-related hints in the future. I also find it interesting that Brennan specifically mentions the fact that Fig, being an archdevil, could source some powers from herself.

I don't think Fig has "a warlock patron", in the sense that there is one deity she intentionally made a pact with. I think she derives her powers from the bonds she has with all of her loved ones. Fig likes to think of herself as a closed-off loner, but in reality, she loves other people so intensely. She also has a habit of adopting other people's traits (her disguises).

Like Ms. Sool said, relationships are a series of contracts, conscious or not. Fig has made many promises to Ayda, Gilear, Gorthalax, etc., and they have made many promises to her back. I think Fig shows her love and commitment to others by integrating them into herself and using that love as a source of her magic.

#figayda #figueroth faeth #ayda aguefort #zara sool #fantasy high meta #fantasy high theory #fhjy theory #fhjy spoilers #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #d20 #fh #fhjy #fig faeth #figayda meta #fig faeth meta #ayda aguefort meta

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prying-pandora666 · 4 months

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Let’s be Honest About Iroh

Okay but for real.

I adore Iroh. When I was a troubled, angry teen who had been abused and had left home as soon as I finished high school, even when it led to homelessness, Iroh meant everything to me.

He was the only adult who never failed me. Who gave me kind advice and words of wisdom to soothe the raging storm of pain and betrayal in my heart.

Only Iroh and the works of Tolkien have ever given me that level of comfort and will to keep moving forward even when I messed up. To always strive to be better, even if you were misguided or lashed out the day before. Even if you’ve been wronged or hurt and lost it all.

But for real, fandom, let’s be for real.

The problem comes when fans claim Iroh never killed anyone. Or never hurt anyone. Or tried to be a “humane” general fighting a genocidal war of aggression . Or that the Siege of Ba Sing Se wasn’t a horrific 600 day campaign which caused “chaos and violence” within the walls of the biggest civilian city in their world. It makes it seem like fandom would rather deify Iroh due to their positive feelings towards him rather than confront the reality that sometimes your mentor is someone else’s monster.

That maybe the jolly, kooky, tea-loving Uncle who always forgave and gently guided Zuko, and never ever gave up on him, may have arrived at that kindness and wisdom precisely because he has seen the end of the path Zuko was walking on. Iroh in his prime was worse than Azula could ever dream of being. When he said “she’s crazy and she needs to go down”, he was speaking from experience because he knows all too well what propaganda does to a person, and that you can’t talk them out of it. They must experience the downfall and realization for themselves.

He never said “don’t help her after she falls”. On the contrary, in the comics he wishes for Azula to heal.

Iroh is not perfect. No one is perfect. And if you keep judging people by their proximity to perfection, you will always be disappointed even in people who do good. And you will also condemn people who need help and have the potential to change into good people.

There are monsters out there but none of them are born that way. They are created through a combination of experiences and their own choices along the way.

But an important message of ATLA is that while we MUST fight those that seek to do others harm, even with our very lives, we must also reach our a hand to help those that have already fallen. If they reject it, that is their choice and they can bear the consequences.

But it is still our responsibility to reach out.

Too much of the fandom seems steeped in essentialism. That everyone is only as good as the worst thing they’ve ever done.

Which is why they feel the need to pretend Iroh was always a good person who never really wanted to participate in this genocidal war.

But this isn’t the case. And the sooner we can admit that to ourselves, the sooner we can begin to understand what drives people to such actions.

And how to help those that have been groomed and exploited for such purposes. Just like Zuko.

Even if we find them unpalatable or mentally unwell. Just like Azula.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #Iroh

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ryoalouette · 8 months

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You guys know Doraemon? Futuristic cat(?) robot(??) that have this magical pocket that holds everything you can imagine? From doors that can bring you to anywhere in the world, flying hat, a gun that would alter something in the reality, etc, etc.

And then you add this post as inspiration, well.

Everyone in JL is Convinced that Batman has everything in his Bat-belt that it literally holds everything. Ofc canonically it has everything that Batman's quite prepared for, like say- Kryptonite, jerky, shark repellent, and so on.

But then imagine when Batman pulls out something that shouldn't be possible from his belt, like maybe- idk, a vacuum (portable), welding machine, hair dryer, a glass vial(!! Batman, that's dangerous-) etc, in one sitting. And none of those devices are the type that's able to be folded or taken apart/assembled so quickly. And then it goes from small things to big things like a wholeass suitcase. In his belt.

AKA

It's not Batman that's Deified, it's his utility belt.

Sadly, upon being stolen it's a normal utility belt. When Batman wears some other utility belt, the belt become Deified. Literally when any utility belt that Batman used will be Deified. Batman, the one who shall Deify any utility belt if said belt is in contact with him.

This can be crossover or nah, but I imagine if it's crossover with DP, Batman's belt would be referred to Batman's 4D Belt that's quite famous across the GZ. Maybe Danny's the one creating the objects that would look like A but the function isn't A, but it's G instead. Like Doraemon. Or my other post the other day.

#batman #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #dpxdc #crack #prompt #lowkey imagining Batman doesn't explain anything about whatever things he pulled out from his belt #Even the things that shouldn't make sense #but somehow it works in this situation?#Everyone is very confused #but I kinda imagine Batman doing this to Hal specifically #and to the JL in general #he's most definitely a troll #Still tho #Deified Belt AU #What a weird “meta” ability

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fucktoyfelix · 1 year

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It’s wild how often asexual people are pitted against hypersexual people and extrasexual people cuz the reality is that both extremes of sexual expression are marginalized for the same reasons. Sex in our culture is both deified and demonized, and if you don’t participate in a very narrow band of “approved” sexual behavior then you’ll be coerced, shunned, and punished. Asexual people and highly sexual people are allies whenever everyone involved puts emphasis on individual agency and respect for consent and safety.

#asexuality #sex positive #kink positive #extrasexual #megasexual #hypersexual #supersexual

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lesbianshepard · 1 year

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Cornelia:

Mother of the Gracchi brothers! Highly intelligent and influential woman who educated her sons and helped shape their political careers. OG Roman MILF

Clodia

Catullus' "Lesbia" Wealthy and highly educated woman who had a talent for poetry (none survives :( ) Cicero hated her and called her "the Medea of the Palatine" (huge W for Clodia) Known for taking many lovers and accused of incest with her own brother (Catullus did not take the breakup well)

Fulvia

The first (real) woman to appear on Roman coinage. Married to Marc Antony (her third husband) and very involved in politics. Cassius Dio wrote "the following year Publius Servilius and Lucius Antonius nominally became consuls, but in reality it was Antonius and Fulvia. She, the mother-in‑law of Octavian and wife of Antony, had no respect for Lepidus because of his slothfulness, and managed affairs herself, so that neither the senate nor the people transacted any business contrary to her pleasure." Plutarch wrote "Fulvia wished to rule a ruler and command a commander and she schooled Antony to obey women." (marc antony is into femdom he's just like me fr fr) Acted as both a political and military leader.

Agrippina the Younger:

One of the most powerful of the Julio-Claudian women and a big influence on behind the scenes politics. Mother of Nero by her first husband. Was exiled for a conspiracy to assassinate her brother Caligula, but later returned. May have poisoned her second husband in order to marry the Emperor Claudius. She was the one to convince Claudius to name Nero heir, instead of Claudius' own son. May have poisoned Claudius in order to make Nero emperor. Ruthless, ambitious, and domineering #girlboss. Fave moment was when Nero engineered a boat designed to sink specifically to assassinate her. She swam to shore, realized her shitty son had tried to kill her (again), and wrote a letter to him letting him know that she had survived a terrible accident by divine fortune.

Messelina

Third wife of Claudius and hugely influential, directly responsible for the execution of several people and tried to get young Nero assassinated so that her own son would have the throne. Hated Agrippina for obvious reasons. Executed for a conspiracy to assassinate Claudius. Pliny wrote a famous (and certainly fake) story of her challenging a famous prostitute to see who could sleep with the most men in one night. (Messalina won at 25)

Julia the Elder:

Augustus once famously remarked that he had two difficult daughters: Rome and Julia. Married off by her father several times, all for political reasons. Clashed with her controlling father on many occasions about her spending, behavior, etc. Augustus passed laws making adultery a crime and then had to exile her for adultery (after killing and exiling her lovers) She was popular with the Roman people, who petitioned for her recall from exile, and was known for her kindness, intelligence, and wit. She never returned to Rome, and died in exile.

Livia:

Wife of Augustus and first Roman empress. One of, if not the, the most powerful and influential women in the early Roman Empire. iirc she was the first woman to be deified. Cassius Dio wrote "Livia was destined to hold in her lap even Caesar's power and to dominate him in everything."

Hortensia

A skilled orator, best known for her public speech given in the forum in protest of a tax put on women to fund the civil war after the assassination of Caesar. She was successful, reducing the number of women taxed down to 400, with new taxes on men being levied to make up the difference. (Using this image of a fresco from Pompeii because there's, surprisingly, no art I can find of her from a google search)

Empress Theodora

Byzantine empress. She was the daughter of a bear trainer and an actress, and worked as an actress and prostitute in her youth. Married the Emperor Justinian and became his advisor, preforming jobs that were usually only done by the emperor (receiving envoys and corresponding with foreign rulers) and helped pass laws for women's rights.

#i wanted to include terentia and servilia but you can only have a max of ten #so suggestions for 'other' i guess #also wanted to keep it like. completely factual women that we know existed #but shout out to rhea silvia lucretia cloelia tarpeia etc #also wanted an honorable mention to eumachia but again #max ten options

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rongzhi · 1 year

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kind of a hot take and maybe a bit offensive and blasphemous: confucianism was? is? kinda... off putting,, i find it weird that this guy existed in a point in time irl, and now we've come to think of him as a god figure?? he was real, and was probably a normal dude who got some different ideologies that people supported, and then now there's a religion. it's sus, not like muhammad from islam or moses from the bible, we have no tangible records that those people existed at all, or if they were of real people they dont have dates and times or documentation besides the scripture. perhaps this is something unique to china in the sense that their religions kind of have dates and that existence is not just confined to religious scripture if you know what i mean?? laozi, the founder of taoism, possibly exists in some accounts, and in others he is immortal, but its possible to think the guy existed.. idk sorry if this makes no sense to you.. i'm not even going to open the can of worms that is cultural minorities and their religions that i do not have the authority to even speak of knowledgeablely?? china is a melting pot of socio-cultural stuff i couldnt possibly understand without actually being there and i acknowledge that as an agonostic diaspora with one lone braincell that blasts rasputin all the time

actually wouldnt it be funny if elon musk started his own religion like confucius or whatever i think that would be funny i wouldnt call it a religion itd be a cult and an mlm simultaneously

This took a hot second to reply to because I went down oh so many an unnecessary side quest. But is it really a reply from me if I don't talk about something else instead?

I am going to put this in the nicest most neutral way possible because a) I got nothing going on at this particular time, and

b) to your credit, I feel like you could hear yourself in your head sounding dumb as hell but just decided to hit snooze on those alarm bells and sent me this ask instead of turning to google first:

confucianism was? is? kinda… off putting,, i find it weird that this guy existed in a point in time irl, and now we've come to think of him as a god figure??

Confucius (Kongzi) did not start a religion. Confucianism is a school of philosophy first and foremost. He may be somewhat mythologised as a major historical figure, sure, but his primary influence is that of a philosopher and as the "father of Chinese ethics". He is revered as a great thinker, not a god. Comparable example: Socrates.

Confucianism is not a religion the way you might be thinking about it. There may be folk religion/religious practices that go into it, as Confucianism in Chinese society is heavily blended with aspects of folk religion, Buddhism, and Daoism, but Confucianism is not like Christianity where the namesake was/is deified by its followers.

In fact, fun fact, this was so much so the reality that was a point of criticism against Jesuit missionaries in the Ming Dynasty and perhaps a contributing factor (in addition to fundamental culturally-based world view differences) for why the Jesuits failed so hard at converting the Chinese masses to Catholicism/Christianity; they would try to explain Jesus in terms of Confucius teaching, and in turn, Confucius, which those who rejected the Jesuit teachings found incredulous.

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Side note time! when it comes to Confucius and what he said about religion/spirituality，he's often quoted as saying "敬鬼神而远之", "respect gods and demons/spirits from a distance", which, fun fact, Matteo Ricci (Jesuit missionary) uses in an argument to piggyback off the Chinese understanding of spirits to explain the Holy Spirit (i.e, the more important spirit to be worshipped who, unlike ancestor (spirit) worship, is the key to salvation) in his book "The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven", written in Chinese. He points to the quote by Confucius as paradoxical because Confucius confirms the existence of spirits and encourages ancestor worship but also says to distance spirits, which, from Ricci's POV makes no sense if the point of ancestor worship is to curry favor with the spirits.

故仲尼曰：「敬鬼神而远之。」彼福禄、免罪非鬼神所能，由天主耳。而时人谄渎，欲自此得之，则非其得之之道也。夫「远之」意与「获罪乎天，无所祷」同，岂可以「远之」解「无之」而陷仲尼于无鬼神之惑哉？(source, 581) So Confucius said: "Respect gods and demons/spirits from a distance". Happiness, position, and longevity and absolution [of sin] can only be handled by God. Yet contemporaries flatter [the spirits of ancestors] to obtain their [favor], but this is not the way to do it. This "from a distance" and "when you sin against Heaven, [there is] no one to pray [to]" are the same. How could "from a distance" and "there is no [gods and demons/spirits" trap Confucius in [the puzzle] that there are no gods or demons/spirits? (^rough translation)

What I feel he takes out of context is that in the source of the idiom, Confucius is responding to a student who is asking him what the meaning of knowledge/wisdom/intelligence is. His full response is "务民之义敬鬼神而远之可谓知矣", "The meaning is to serve the people. Respect gods and demons/spirits from a distance—this could also be called wisdom". Confucianism generally holds that ancestor worship and similar rituals are necessary to society but that religious fanaticism and superstition should be discouraged. To Confucius, worship to spirits based on etiquette (which is respectful) are important to creating a stable and peaceful society. Devout belief/zealotry/fanaticism and indulgence in gods/demons/spirits/superstition is profane, so one should keep their distance and stick to rational respect for spirits (ritual). This is how Confucianism can actually be compatible with Christianity, although from Ricci's standpoint, he sees contradictions in Confucius because to him, ancestor worship to curry favor rather than worship to god IS the superstitious behavior and is blasphemous in the face of his god.

Fun food for thought aside, if you're wondering: Jesuits mostly got for milked for hundreds of years for their knowledge of things relating to science and math, which the Chinese considered as being part of knowledge that was once known but then lost in earlier dynasties due to political instability. Then ironically their favor began to decline when the Manchus instated the the Qing dynasty and in an effort to obtain more support from their Han subjects, adopted Confucianism philosophies more strictly.

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Basically, most of your vague questions here could probably be cleared up if you read up more on what Confucianism actually is and what its relationship to Chinese society is.

I can understand how this might be confusing if you are diaspora but grew up agnostic and only have the vague framework of, let's face it, Christianity in western society to base your understanding of religion off of, but I don't think it's thaaaaat unique to China for historical figures to be mythologised, either as the center of religions, folk religions, folk lore/legend, philosophies, or religious philosophies. Siddhartha Gautama and Jesus of Nazareth, for example. The Catholic saints. (Edit: also, Muhammad did exist historically and there's decent evidence to suggest that Laozi did as well, though these were not their birth names most likely).

#text #answered ask #also elon musk is already basically a cult of personality #and unless he finds a magically unscathed new scripture in a burning tesla i don't see him becoming a religious founder any time soon #long post #孔子 #religion #additional fact i forgot to add but won't edit in bc it's not that important: not only did manchu adherence to confucianism cause #the decline of jesuit influence，the pope of the time banned ancestral worship by chinese catholics which eventually led to the expulsion of #jesuit missions in china #and the decree wasn't reversed until like 200 years later #so they basically played themselves

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setokaibapetty · 29 days

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5 + 1 Fic Friday Roundup: On Campus

One of the things that April is an awareness month for is community college. So, have some fanfic with student//teacher characters or a school setting.

Mahogany (AO3) - "Shepard and squaddies are students at the elite Galactic Training Academy. (Think Starfleet meets Hogwarts. In space.) Reapers have been dead for hundreds of years, but there are still plenty of baddies out in the galaxy. Shepard-in-training rises to the occasion, with the aid of her squad and a certain snarky flight student. Currently Rated M for language and mature situations."

The Night Will Come but Not to Stay (AO3) - "Jazz is excited about going to Gotham University for college. It's halfway across the country from Amity Park and anyone who knows about her weird family or ghost nonsense. Finally, she can pretend to be a normal woman who just wants to go into psychiatry. She meets a cute guy named Jason, and they seem to be getting along great."

Form 23-C: Application for a New Roommate (AO3) - "After battling ninjas, aliens, madmen, mafiosos, other heroes and death itself, Jason was about to face his most unknown foe yet: a normal life. It's fine. He'd always dreamed of going to college and for once reality sort of lived up to expectations. He loves the classes, he can handle the workload and his cases too. His roommate is a total douche, but whatever. Jason's fine, he's got this. Then he meets his roommate's brother. Jason totally doesn't have this."

Holy Romantic Overtures, Batman! (AO3) - "After the heist of a lifetime, henchman!Jason decides to go legit and enrolls in college. The last person he expected to see there was Robin, and he certainly didn’t expect to fall for him either. But somehow it all works out. Maybe it’s all the labels?"

campus cryptid vs. future valedictorian (AO3) - "Mara Glass did not care about "weird hot guy," the supposed "campus cryptid." She had heard of him her first couple years and had him pointed out to her by a classmate once, but what was there to notice? Okay, he was probably thirty, a nontraditional student, so what? There were a number of those around. Apparently he was hot--well congrats to people who were into people, they could keep him. And if you asked Mara, from her extremely objective perspective, those Disney-green eyes were doing a lot of heavy lifting. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about a thirty-something guy who didn't talk about himself to twenty-year-old classmates. He probably had, like, a real life. There were rumors he was married, although Brittany noted that the only reason people thought that was because one time someone heard him finish a phone call with, "You light the candles, I'll bring dinner. I love you." None of that was remotely interesting to Mara. He sounded like a normal person, and she wished people would shut up about him. Then in third year, she had a history class with weird hot guy."

Bonus: Scholastic Nightmare (AO3) - "Nara Sayuri, a religious studies major from a traditional household, would be hard pressed to come up with a worse nightmare. It was her first time presenting a paper at a conference and apparently her paper was so wrong that one of her ancestors - a deified ancestor, the Shikabane-hime herself - came down from the heavens specifically to point out how off base Sayuri was."

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catofadifferentcolor · 26 days

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Terrible Fic Idea #86: Percy Jackson, but make it Time Travel

I was minding my own business at work this morning when a terrible, awful, wonderful idea for a PJO time travel fix-it hit me out of the blue.

Or: What if a deified Percy was sent back to the start of canon?

Just imagine it:

Percy wakes screaming, which is immediately disconcerting as he's not slept in nearly 100 years. He summons a storm practically out of reflex, still caught up in the horrors of everything he just left behind, and promptly passes out, his 12 year old body not used to the strain.

-because he is twelve again - mortal again, - in his bed at Yancy Academy again, a week out from the field trip that will change his life.

Not that Percy realizes this straight off, what with the panic and the passing out, though he does pick it up fairly quickly once he wakes up again in the school infirmary. This nearly sends him into another tailspin of panic - (he is small, he is weak, he is alone in his head, one hundred years in the past, and can barely feel any of his domains) - before Percy manages to get himself under control enough to come up with the basics of a plan: get somewhere safe so he can start figuring out what the Hades is going on.

Percy manages to sneak out of the infirmary while everyone else is at dinner, hails the Chariot of Damnation even though he's way out of their normal service area ("We'll put it on your tab, dearie," the seeresses say, "we know you're good for it."), and arrives at Camp Half-Blood just after midnight.

His entrance is much less spectacular than it was originally, but no less startling for all Mr D is the only one awake to see it, for the moment Percy crosses the ward lines the magic begins to recognize him as the future Camp Director - which in turn startles Dionysus just enough that he doesn't immediately smite Percy when he practically throws himself at the god and starts going on about how pleased he is to see him.

The truth comes out in fits and starts, with Percy's exhaustion (and Dionysus' gifts) being the only thing keeping him from another panic attack. His story boils down to this:

Percy has always been a powerful demigod, perhaps the most powerful child of his father ever to be born to a mortal. His actions from his first quest onward only pushed him closer to the brink of immortality. Divinity did not come until several months after the events of ToA, when a camper had jokingly raised a glass to Perseus Jackson, Trainer of Heroes, which was all that was needed to push him over that final precipice.

As Lord Perseus, he was from the onset more powerful than most minor gods, his domains being the eclectic mix of Heroes, Natural Disasters, and Misery - the first earning him the permanent position of Director of Camp Half-Blood and Patron of Camp Jupiter, the second keeping him quite busy in an era of climate change, and the last having been unwittingly stolen years before from Akhlys in Tartarus. It is this power that causes Zeus to become even more paranoid.

-which is saying something, as his paranoia had already skyrocketed to new and greater heights after Apollo returned improved from the events of ToA.

It grows worse over the better part of the next century, with the Titan War, Giant War, Triumvirate, and all that follows eventually disabusing the majority of the gods that Zeus will never be an effective ruler. Apollo leads a rebellion against his father - and would have succeeded, had not Zeus not managed to somehow push Apollo directly into Chaos as Apollo was preparing for his final blow, which has the unfortunate effect of the universe trying to unwrite one of the most important gods from the history of Western Civilization and undoes the fabric of reality in the process. Percy was watching it unravel before his eyes (desperately, desperately trying to weave it back together but it won't hold) when he suddenly found himself screaming 100 years in the past.

It is a fantastical story, but Dionysus has no choice to believe it.

("But why did you come to me? Why not your father?" Percy looks down, running a finger along the grain of of the wooden table, "We became friends in the future. Misery and alcohol, you know? One of the oldest pairings in the book." There's more, Dionysus can tell, but the boy is already flagging, unused to the weaknesses of his childish mortal body. It can wait.)

The events of canon proceed apace - or at least as much as they can when Percy shows up at camp almost two months early knowing more about the Greek and Roman pantheon than anyone who hasn't lived through it, with the attitude of a hero who's been through Tartarus and the power levels of a minor god burning him up from the inside. All while sneaking off in his spare time to 1) plot to stop the end of the world with Dionysus and 2) hang out with Dionysus, because he is one hundred twelve, thank you very much, and needs adult company every now and then, for all he’s missed his long dead friends.

I actually have no idea how the events of the books themselves would play out - Percy has neither the patience or the ability to let everything play out exactly as before, but the major beats of PJO still take place, with Percy doing his best to undermine the arguments that drew so many to Kronos as he can while still mortal. (Advocating for cabins for minor gods and/or undetermined, or combined housing with temples. Gods being forced to claim their children when they arrive at camp, etc.)

Perhaps Kronos tries harder to sway Percy to his side once he sees how strong a demigod he is, showing his hand too soon and causing the Titan War to be an all out war from the start of TTC until the Battle of Manhattan? Percy is more than just a child solider - he is a seasoned teenage general, directing battles, saving many with is experience but still loosing too many; a one-man army who eventually ascends on his sixteenth birthday, Luke's misery as he kills himself being the last push Percy needs to reclaim his divinity and his domains.

Gaining his godhood early allows Percy to temper the events of HOO and TOA (the Giant War still happens, but a generation later with a different set of demigods, and allows Zeus to redeem himself somewhat by being an effective war leader; Apollo never becomes mortal but the Triumvirate is destroyed a generation after that), if not prevent them. Though a part of him will always long for his mortality, it was never in the cards. It was either godhood or an early death, and Percy would rather spend an eternity protecting demigods and giving them the training they need to protect themselves than the alternative.

And so that's what Percy Jackson does, because that's what he's always done: accept as much misery for himself to make the lives of those he loves as misery-free as possible.

Bonuses include:

No hint of Percy/Annabeth in the new timeline, with the pair in the original having broken up shortly before Percy's ascension, having realize their codependency was not healthy, nor was it actually romantic love. From 100 years on, Percy is critical of his first relationship, but still counts Annabeth as one of his best friends, even if they're not as close in this timeline.

Although never widely disseminated, several individuals come to learn of Percy's trip through time and the circumstances that lead to it. (Poseidon, Sally, Thalia). A few others suspect Percy has some level of prophetic gift to go along with his other powers. But for the most part no one has any idea Percy is anything other than a powerful demigod with some really bad luck; and

It eventually coming out that Percy and Dionysus had a thing in the future, with Percy over the course of 100 years coming to like, respect, and eventually love the God of Wine. Percy is absolutely convinced it was entirely one-sided, their thing only adding up to a few drunken fucks between friends (because that's what Dionysus does with his friends), but Dionysus after he learns of it not being so sure (because it's really not what he does with friends and hasn't been for millennia). Whatever the case, it is exceptionally awkward when it comes out, especially as Percy's only physically 14 at the time, and attempting to resolve this awkwardness is how Thalia ends up learning about the time travel.

Extra bonus points if Percy and Ariadne were decent friends in the original timeline, become decent friends again in the new one, and settle into a polyamorous relationship with Dionysus (after Percy is deified and comes of age) that has Hera spitting teeth for decades.

And that is far, far more than I'd ever thought I'd have, but I think this plot bun somehow merged with a thread of an idea for a Dionysus-positive fic that's been tickling at me for years now. As always, feel free to adopt, just link back if you do anything with it.

More PJO Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

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stepfordboys · 1 year

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In His Father's Shoes

With bated breath, Timothy tiptoed into the family's home office. Hoping to find his stashed birthday present, but instead found his father, Tim. Tim's smug expression made it clear Timothy's entrance was expected.

"Don't even bother pretending to be surprised this time, Jr. I catch you every year trying to sneak a peek at your birthday present." Tim snickered.

Timothy laughed. "Fine. Fine. So, what's the punishment, old man?"

"No punishment," Tim said plainly. "In fact, I'm going to reward your childishly devious behavior. You can have your present early this year."

Timothy beamed with surprise. "What!? Really!?"

Tim's expression got even smugger. With one foot, he gently pushed his kicked-off and well-polished dress shoes in front of his son. "Happy birthday, Jr."

Timothy's expression quickly went from joyous anticipation to disappointed confusion. "Your... shoes? That's my present?! You're joking, right!?"

"Try them on." Tim teased, pushing the shoes closer to Timothy.

Timothy's confusion only grew as he looked down at his father's, well, his new shoes.

"Where's the enthusiasm? Where's the gratitude?" Tim teased even further.

Timothy sighed, slightly smirking and jokingly rolling his eyes. "Fine, I'll humor you, old man. But I better get my real present after!"

With a raised eyebrow of suspicion, Timothy slipped his bare size 9 feet into his father's size 12 dress shoes. The shoes clearly hadn't been off his father's feet long - warm like a heated blanket. Oddly, the warmth was comforting to Timothy.

"How are they, Jr?" Tim teased.

Timothy exaggerated the look of confusion on his face. "Strange... they're a little too big for me."

"You can't fool me, Jr." Tim teased, slightly less playful this time. "You love them."

"Okay, Dad. No more fooling around. Where's my real-" Timothy lost all thought, silenced by a faint voice suddenly popping into his head. "He's right. You do love them. You could easily spend all day standing here in your father's shoes... your shoes."

"You look a little tense all of a sudden, Jr." Tim teased. "You're hanging out with your old man. Nothing stressful about that. Just relax."

"He's right. Your father is always right. Relax. Relax. Relax." the voice droned, this time louder than before. The word "Relax" echoed through Timothy's mind, making it hard to concentrate on anything else. Suddenly, Timothy felt as if he had just gotten done having a full body massage - every inch of him utterly relaxed.

"There, much better." Tim relished in his son's newly calm expression. "You feel nothing but relaxed. Too relaxed to think. Too relaxed to do anything but stand there. Let all thought dissipate. Let it all evaporate. Clear your mind completely. Let my words be the only thing that resides within your mind."

"No thoughts of your own. Only fathers. Only fathers. Only fathers." the voice rang throughout Timothy's head, erasing all apprehension. He felt blank. Empty and still, like a statue.

Tim maliciously smirked. "My words are truth. My words are your reality. Do you know why, Jr? Because I'm your father. I made you. I'm your creator, your god."

"He made you. He created you. You're his son, his creation. He owns you. Owns your body. Owns your mind." the voice droned, no longer resembling a stranger but his very own inner voice. Suddenly, Timothy was washed over by a wave of faith, deifying his father in his mind.

Tim looked his unmoving son up and down, grinning like a supervillain, enjoying every second of his son's blank expression. Trying to contain his laughter as Timothy began to drool. "You know, those shoes are a little big on you." he teased, his eyes now on the perfectly-polished dress shoes. "Big shoes require big feet. Size 12 feet."

"Size 12 feet. Size 12 feet. Size 12 feet." Timothy's new inner voice droned. His feet vibrated, slowly expanding and widening, stopping only when his feet fit perfectly into the shoes.

"Much, much better." Tim smiled, but his satisfied smile only lasted for a moment. "Hmm, now your feet are almost too big for your body, Jr! Big feet belong on a tall, meaty body."

"Tall. Meaty. Tall. Meaty. Tall. Meaty." Timothy's inner voice droned. His ankles pulsed, spreading up through his entire body. His clothes tore as his legs stretched and thickened; torso broadened; butt swelled; chest expanded; neck and arms bulked. Timothy was now as tall and wide as his father.

"Perfect. Simply perfect." Tim was beyond thrilled with his son's new and improved physique. "Hmm, that baby face of yours doesn't quite match your new masculine physique, does it, Jr? A strong, masculine face is what a masculine body requires. A face like mine. My face."

"Father's face. Father's face. Father's face." Timothy's inner voice droned. His face pulsed, losing all sense of boyishness as it morphed into chiseled statuesque perfection. His wavy hair receded, leaving it short and more mature. His face now resembled his father's exactly - a mirror image.

"Perfect. However, Do you know what should come from such a manly face? A deep, manly voice. A voice like mine. My voice." Tim scoffed.

"Father's voice. Father's voice. Father's voice." Timothy's inner voice droned. His newly thickened neck vibrated, significantly jutting his Adam's apple.

"Let's hear that new manly voice in action, shall we, Jr?" Tim teased. "Speak, boy."

"Sir, yes, Sir." Timothy expressionlessly stated. His voice now identically resembled his father's - deep, rugged, and undoubtedly manly.

Tim's satisfactory smirk returned. "Perfection." He got up from his chair and walked up to his son. He softly caressed his son's newly chiseled jawline with his index finger, examining him like a freshly chiseled statue. He then looked directly into his son's eyes. "You may look empty, but I know you're still in there, Jr."

Timothy looked like he checked out long ago, but, in reality, he'd been watching from afar. Locked away in the empty darkness. Trapped in his own mind - a helpless observer. Forced to watch himself be converted into his father's likeness.

Tim maniacally grinned, once aging, gazing back down at the perfectly polished dress shoes his new and improved son was wearing. "You know what they say about big feet, Jr.: Big feet. Big meat."

"Big feet. Big meat. Big feet. Big meat. Big feet. Big meat." Timothy's inner voice droned. His crotch vibrated, swelling and growing. His already torn pants tore more as his cock released itself. He now had a thick, juicy member between his legs: just like his father - exactly like his father.

"Perfect!" Tim sat back down in his chair. He looked his son up and down once more, prideful in his work. "Now, you resemble me completely. However, the body must match the mind, Jr. My body. My mind."

"Father's body. Father's mind. Father's body. Father's mind. Father's body. Father's mind." Timothy's inner voice droned. Suddenly, he has flooded with his father's interests and personality. Far back in the darkness, Timothy felt himself disappearing - not evaporating but sinking. Falling further into darker nothingness as his father's mind replaced his own.

"Sink, boy," Tim commanded. "Lose yourself to me. Feel yourself drain into your balls. Fill them. Swell them with your essence."

Timothy sunk further, now melting into his balls. Losing all sense of humanity as he morphed into thick, hot cum. Timothy's cock stiffened as his balls swelled with his old self. A small part of himself still hung on by a thread.

"Let go, boy," Tim commanded, his malicious grin beaming ear to ear.

Timothy's newly low-hanging swelled balls pulsed. The small part of Timothy that remained filled with dread, as he knew his time was soon up. His newly-thick member stiffened to an uncomfortable degree, ready to fire off at any moment.

"Cum!" Tim demanded.

With that came a massive load. What was left of Timothy's mind jettisoned out onto the floor. Timothy was now nothing but a sticky mess on the home office carpet. With a moan of gleeful satisfaction, Tim pressed his beautifully shaped, perfectly adorned foot into the puddle of his son's expelled essence. He wiggled his toes around, absorbing his son into his warm, sweaty dress socks - enriching the masculine scent of his godly size 12 feet. Timothy was gone. All that remained was Tim.

#age progression #transformation #assimilation #cloning

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yeyinde · 6 months

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Haha, I also spoil myself intentionally, but for the plot of movies, tv shows, and games I’m not super invested in. If I accidentally spoil myself (especially if I learn a character dies) I’ll cope by telling myself “I don’t know how/when it happened though”

Anyways Major Character Death!!

I’m SO disappointed in them killing off Soap and especially in how they did it! No buildup or anything! To me it was disrespectful to the character and to Neil Ellice. And then the 141 don’t even say anything and it cuts to them spreading his ashes with a simple goodbye! They could have at least made them a little more upset 🥲 also I hate how abruptly the game ended. Makarov gets away, but no mention to that at the end.

I had also initially requested what would become infinity in the palm of your hand (eternity in an hour) as a way to “cope” with 2009 Soap’s death because it’s always been on the back of my mind for years (weird, I know). But now after playing the new MW3 campaign I look like boo boo the fool because of who went and got killed off 😭 now every time I go back to reread it, it will be painful knowing what’s in store for reader for their current reincarnation of Soap.

Tldr I’m kinda not okay with MW3.

From what I've seen, it feels like they pulled it out of a hat. All names went in, but his (amongst others) came out. And I guess it's safe because he died in the OG, so the backlash can easily be deflected from within their own community when other fans come to their defence over this choice. But idk.

I agree with everything you said. It doesn't make any sense. It's jarring and misplaced, and canonically pointless. I'm not against character death. Grief is a powerful thing. But I just hate when it's so contrived and needless. It was definitely done for shock value over plot/character growth and I think they were trying to re-create the massive storm that happened when OG Soap died because they know they don't have much else going for them. It just massively missed the mark because: a) Price and Gaz had no tangible in-game relationship with Soap the same way Ghost did; and b) what does his death really amount to in the end? Nothing. It feels cobbled together and poorly thought out. It's sad when Portal 2 has better writing than your whole remake combined. Honestly, it's kind of impressive how little thought they put into this. I'm getting flash backs to DGG's Halloween.

If it's any consolation, the mythology I based the reincarnation off of in infinity would essentially just be neverending. An ouroboros. The events would happen much the same way. A knock on the door. Spiral of grief. A bog. A deal. Restart. So, you'd just wake up again and live life until whatever the old you made a deal with decides it's time to collect. You're forever stuck in a loop with your soulmate until you get it right.

The rest is just how I kinda wish it went, but this was getting very long because I have more thoughts on this than I anticipated lmao 😅

Personally, I think it would have been much more interesting if they brought in a new passel of characters and slowly chipped off the main cast in a series of horrible decisions that slowly begin to feel hollow and empty. That leave you, the player, feeling emotionally gutted with each new chapter because the choices previously are absolutely impacting the way they move forward, but they're too deep into their own revenge fantasy to see it until the very end when it's too late. Give me actions have consequences and every choice you make is directly responsible for someone's death. The realities of war. And what happens when you give a group of people the power to play god in countries they know nothing about. It would have matched the gritty tone they tried to go for with the trailers and actually served as an interesting conversation about war and how we tend to deify the military when they're just men with too much power in their hands. Instead, we have a death that means nothing. That arguably happened much too early in the series so the payoff is solely meant for clicks and reaction channels. Pointless.

And Makarov. A Russian Ultra Nationalist. I feel like that title alone says everything for me, and yet. They still somehow managed to give a Russian War Criminal so many wins. I'm just so irritated by it all.

#cod spoilers #mw3 spoilers #mwiii spoilers #call of duty spoilers #cod 2023 spoilers #SO MAD!!!#but also #it was a cheap way to get more engagement with their fanbase and theyre technically protected against backlash so #poor writing for the win (again)

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chaos0pikachu · 3 months

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Did you see the ending of Last Twilight? What did you think of it?

Personally I tuned into LT for 1 episode and it just didn't catch me at all but I'm nosy, so I've been reading the posts that cross my dash. I won't say I know everything but from the reactions of the people who have watched it - it's clear it's not good.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

You've said you don't like GMMTV shows, iirc. That they are more a product being sold than a story being told. And that's what I remembered reading the above post.

I also realized the last GMMTV BL to hold my interest was The Eclipse and even that went messy towards the end. Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). Though I am glad that people are recognizing how well made the BLs from other companies are. I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

That makes me think GMMTV has gotten cocky. They want to pump out as much as they can and suck as much money as they can from the fans. I get running a business but it's detrimental to the company in the long run when none of it's BLs in a whole year managed to stick the landing. Perhaps they just don't care. It reminds me of corruption. Think of it in a metaphorical way. It's a short term solution that creates some money but will create long term problems. (Well I don't think GMMTV will be affected that much. It's just an interesting thought.)

So what are your thoughts?

~ Fork Around

omg is hating gmmtv shows becoming ✨my brand✨ cause that would be so fucking funny

for home players I don't actually "hate" gmmtv or the studios shows I just think fandom, at large, overhypes them to fuck when in reality all the ones I've watched I've found them to be thoroughly mediocre in regards to both narrative and film making.

To answer your first question, no I didn't watch Last Twilight, not out of any moral~~~ reason or whatever the hell, just cause I didn't want to. It didn't look interesting or appealing to me so I didn't bother. I'm picky about what things I watch b/c I'm hella fucking lazy lol am I gonna spend 12+ hours watching a mid show from gmmtv or am I gonna spend that same amount of time watching like, Marry My Husband? The latter, I'm choosing the latter. Hell, I'd rather watch Wing Chun which has less budget than Last Twilight does b/c Michelle Yeoh even at her earliest can act circles - also bonus Donnie Yen as her love interest!! - around any actor at gmmtv.

God people are gonna now think I think all the gmmtv actors can't act, I don't think that, the ones I've seen range from bad, to fine, to good. Calm down I'm not after your faves, and I can only name like four dudes that are signed at gmmtv anyway.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

man the folks in fandom who keep deifying directors should like, stop. Y'all are just setting yourselves up for disappointment. It's giving Joss Whedon's fanbase for real. Like Spielberg directed Schindler's List and Ready Player One okay? No one director bats a thousand every round.

Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). [...] I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

Okay so like, I've had a lot of thoughts about this in general since gmmtv shows do make up a mass majority of The BL Fandom in general.

The way I would break this down is into factors:

Parasocial relationships (between the audience and actors)

Palatable Brand (queerness packaged in a non-threatening and non-challenging way with simple, low stakes stories typically about acceptance, and romance aka squeecore romances)

Accessibility (being available on youtube for free)

Easily consumable (b/c the shows are low stakes and non-challenging they're really easy binge watches, and since gmmtv puts out like 50 of these things a year fans just move on to the next one really quickly. Have y'all noticed that there's like, a general lack of fan works in BL fandom? It's usually just weekly episode meta posts and weekly gifsets but not a ton of fan art and fanfic is made for these shows)

Consuming vs Engaging (a trend I see in general in regards to BL fandom is this seemingly need to watch like as many BL shows as possible even moving on as quickly as possible to the next show instead of sitting with the show and building a community around said show, the only exceptions I've really seen to this is kinnporsche and slightly love in the air & bad buddy)

I'm gonna break these things down further underneath the cut:

Parasocial Relationships

"Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars." (source)

Gmmtv is really, really good at creating para-social relationships between the audience and their actors. How many people were willing to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and write sad woobie meta after one singular episode of Only Friends simply b/c Khao was playing the char? How many people were rooting for SandRay and TopMew simply b/c they liked FirstKhao and ForceBook?

Not everyone, obviously, but from my observations on tumblr, twitter, reddit, and youtube, a fuckton did this. Even unintentionally, I saw fans do this. Like ignoring Ray calling Sand a whore, or just...everything about the clusterfuck that was Top and Mew's relationship. Double standards were abound in Only Friends fandom when it came to how fandom treated chars like Mew, Ray and even Sand (especially Ray) in comparison to Boston. Not gonna get into that here - wait for the podcast episode to drop y'all - but it's an example.

Branded couples are gmmtv's bread and butter when it comes to their BL. They sell sticker sheets and postcard packets like these actors are kpop idols. The gmmtv house party thing or whatever trends on twitter. The studio directly encourages fans to grow attached to their actors specifically so they foster a para-social attachment so they can sell you the next six ForceBook, or OffGun or whoever show with the same or slightly different concept - this time they're in an office au! this time they're in a coffee shop au! - its just RPF at this point with extra steps. Not everyone~ obviously but a good chunk of people watched Dangerous Romance b/c they liked Perth and whoever his partner is. A lot of people checked out Cooking Crush b/c of OffGun.

I'm not saying this is a "bad" thing, one of the reasons I'm interested in watching Abigail is b/c of Melissa Barrera. So like I do get it, but as much as I enjoy Melissa her character in Abigail might be like, badly written. Who knows. I really enjoy Angie Jolie but lord knows she's had some awful roles and films.

Because of this emphasis on branded couples and para-social relationships, this effects the quality of the story b/c not every actor they pick for whichever show is the right actor. Earth was the wrong actor to play Jim in Moonlight Chicken, he just was. When Wen says he "likes old people" or someone makes a boomer joke about Jim I'm like that's a 29 yr old man. It takes me directly out of the story. It's no different than Jennifer Lawance playing a 40+ yr old woman in American Hustle at like 26. It's ridiculous.

Why NOT pair Mix up with an older actor who could also better play a world weary older man? Because it's not about The Story, it's about how much merch gmmtv can sell you or how many tickets they can sell to an EarthMix fan meet.

Palatable Brand/Easily Consumable

Gonna get myself in trouble, look gmmtv is a mix of Disney for gays and CW for gays. All the shows from gmmtv I've watched have 1) followed a very basic romance arc throughline, 2) been overall non-challenging in terms of narrative ideas or risks and 3) are straightforward in both film making style and narrative direction.

I have not watched every single gmmtv show nor will I cause again I am fucking lazy, but out of the ones I have watched this is how I feel about them.

Their shows tend to be about self-acceptance and romance. Which is FINE. I'm not saying this is a bad thing!! It's just boring after the 65th show about the subject. Especially when gmmtv doesn't care enough to cast actors that are right for the roles and give their crew a second light or five more nickels to the budget.

Sorry but 2gether is a poorly filmed show. 1000 Stars, imo, is thoroughly overhyped for how poorly paced it is, and how thin the actual story is (wait for the podcast ep on THAT lmao)

But these shows are comfortable and comforting. This is a neutral statement. You can like squeecore shows all you want I'm just saying that's part of the mass appeal of them. They're like the MCU films, they suggest the ideas of leftish politics just enough but don't really say anything further then that. And at times even enforce some harmful rhetoric - like the slut shaming in only friends and this ending to last twilight. They're just comfortable, easy shows that people can watch First and Khao in, enjoy their scenes, and then immediately move on to the next First and Khao show - hope they play street racers next! - without much of a thought.

Because these shows are pretty "safe" in terms of the depiction of queerness and sex it also makes them more palatable to mass recommend. When people make lists for what to show non-BL watches I usually see a lot of these "palatable" shows, stuff with straightforward romances, a couple kisses, fade-to-black sex. It's less based on genre preferences and more based on "what's the least scary thing we can recommend to folks". You see ppl do this with anime too. Everything gets lumped together under the sub-genre which is a shame (and also feels a bit xenophobic but I ain't getting into that).

But like, if I knew my friend was into fantasy gay shit I'd recommend them like, The Sign for live action, Drug and Drop for manga, Revolutionary Girl Utena for anime, Word of Honor and/or Legend of Yunze for (censored but still super gay) live action. I haven't read any fantasy bl/gl manwha yet so drop recs if y'all have some.

Accessibility

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We've seen how accessibility can increase a shows reach from Avatar getting a resurgence when it appeared on Netflix, where as, a show like Playboyy is gonna have a smaller reach since it's mainly available on streaming platforms like Gaga.

Consuming vs Engaging

gmmtv puts out the most Thai BLs period. This is just a fact of the industry. When you put out that much the quality of your media is going to go down - again we saw this with Disney regarding Star Wars and the MCU - because the goal is to sell merch not the stories. (Disney gets most of their sales via their parks and merch not their box office returns).

I see a lot of Big BL Blogs recommending gmmtv shows all the time, and I see a lot of these blogs and the fandom at large consuming these shows rather than engaging with said show. It becomes more of a challenge to watch 49 BLs, writing a quick meta post/review on them, and then moving on to the next one. There's a lack of higher end engagement, people aren't sitting with these shows and exploring the nooks of them. The empty spaces, the potential.

Probably b/c there's not a lot TO explore in regards to gmmtv shows, they all end pretty definitively. The couple goes through their couple journey, end up together, usually with marriage or an engagement, either way the promise of being together forever. Which is, again, fine, there's just not a lot of meat there to explore further.

This isn't specific to gmmtv shows - Domundi's shows come to mind regarding this too like Naughty Babe ends very definitively - but people just move on to the next one. They write episode-to-episode meta, end of show meta/recaps, make some gifs, move on to the next thing. It doesn't help that a lot of characters in gmmtv shows are thin and their worlds are empty.

But I think what attracts people is the constant churn of content. gmmtv shows are like tiktok videos, you scroll, watch, scroll to the next. Keep things quick and moving.

Where is the BL fanfic???

Moonlight Chicken only has 389 once you remove 1000 Stars, My School President, and Thai RPF works. Only Friends has 809 but only after also removing Only Friends RPF, Thai Actor RPF, 1000 Stars, The Eclipse, The Eclipse RPF, and Moonlight Chicken. 1000 Stars only has 292 once you remove similar crossovers (and a lot of RPF). My School President is down to 609 fics once you get rid of all the RPF and crossovers.

For comparison, kinnporsche has 11,444 fics even with all the RPF and crossovers removed.

I'm losing steam here at the end. These are a lot of thoughts, and I know they're not 100% articulate. These are just some general feelings and observations regarding gmmtv shows and fandom.

I'm NOT saying all~~~~ gmmtv show "bad" - though most I do think on a technical level are filmed very averagely with only MLC and Not Me breaking any molds - nor is anyone "wrong" or "bad" for liking idk Cooking Crush or Cherry Magic. I don't care like what you like bro.

I do think fandom overall overhypes gmmtv shows for a lot of factors - whether it's b/c they like the actors and feel that para-social pull towards them, or b/c they just like the squeecore comfort of these shows, or some mix of both - I think fandom would have an easier time if they just treated gmmtv shows are they are - average.

It's fine to be average and made for mass consumption. I like cheetos too dude. These shows don't have to be the peak of queer cinema to be valid, or for you to be "valid" for liking them. Why do any of us need to be "valid" in terms of the media we engage with? Who fucking cares? Like what you like, it doesn't have to be The Best Thing To Ever Gay for you to be valid for liking it. It doesn't have to "be important" either it can be gushers or twizzlers eat your snacks and enjoy life.

Just stop telling me it's a 4 star steak dinner or getting mad when you're charged 60 dollars for gushers.

#chaos pikachu speaks #gmmtv series #bl drama #last twilight #fuck this was a long ass post #fucking a #will this get me kicked out of fandom?#idk i'm living laughing loving over here

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rikastrology · 1 year

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vishaka + black swan (2010)

spoiler warning!

nakshatras as movies i love

The "Star of Purpose", Vishakha forms a sister-pair with Anuradha (which is why the Libra and Scorpio nakshatra is also referred to as Radha). These natives often possess all-or-nothing mentalities. Like bloodhounds, once they have found their scent, they will track it until the end. However, this can lead to a never-ending cycle of highs of passion and obsession while chasing an accomplishment, followed by lows of grief, emptiness, and a loss of identity.

If Anuradhas are symbolized by spiders, Radhas are the butterflies of the nakshatras, eternally transforming. The veil of fame can be unbearably seductive. The limelight is inherently deifying while also disguising; nothing covers imperfections better than the glow of the stage. Like bruised feet cloaked in silken pointe slippers, perfection often conceals pain.

Vishaka (like Jyestha) is ruled by Indra, king of the gods. This sharing of deities is why both nakshatras can struggle with substance abuse and other forms of debauchery. However, Jyestha tends to indulge out of a sense of ego and status-driven hedonism (wanting to feel big to make up for all the other times they felt small), while Vishakha is the type to surrender in order to detach from their realities.

Therefore, Vishaka natives must stay wary about overly relying on substances, other people, or even immaterial habits such as excessive fantasizing for the purposes of dissociation. Being obsessive, purposeful, and goal-driven by nature can be a blessing, but the feeling of aimlessness can lead to disaster for these individuals.

The issue with seeing your worth in your results is that memory is temporal, and fame is fleeting. It's effortless to bask in the glory days, but reality is not eternal ascension, but a series of peaks and valleys, a karmic heartbeat of successes and failures. Vishakhas must learn to love the forest for its trees. I highly recommend inner child work and slow living for these natives.

#astrology #astro #astro observations #vedic #vishakha #vishaka #nakshatras #scorpio #libra #black swan #natalie portman #darren aronofsky #nakshatraboxd

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neptunes-sol-angel · 2 years

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✧ A Love of a Lifetime: Part I ✧

This is a collaboration! This is a pick a card reading that @sungoddesstarot and I have been working so hard on to make. This will be split into two parts. Part 1 states the love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime while Part 2 goes into depth about the blockages that's preventing you from getting it.

Pile One

Channeled songs:

Steve Lacy - Bad Habit

Willow Smith - Maybe it's my fault

TV Girl - Lovers Rock

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

You're a multifarious person. The depth of your personality is limitless. The line of your talents is wide ranged. You're the go to person when it comes to giving because you have so much to offer. The way that your mind works is like a portal to a better future. You have bountiful ideas with a significant power in your hands to cultivate them into reality. You're the writer that writes, the engineer that builds, the tree that bears the fruit, the pencil that fills in the blanks. You do it all, you never hesitate to help, and when you do help, you make sure to do your best. But doesn't it feel draining, spreading yourself out so thin? Doesn't it get old, feeling like you're manually set just to provide for others? The pressure to be everything for everyone, doesn't it hurt?

A love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime, is about a coequal partnership. Although, your heart is in a good place when it comes to offering generosity to those that need it, what's supposed to be beneficial, can sometimes be a trigger for those that are intimidated by the abundance that you give off. You may have dealt with partners in the past (platonic/romantic) that seemed pretty cold, self-loathing to self-absorbed, and envious to the point where they tried to make you feel as if you weren't doing enough in the relationship, as a way to cover up their own insecurities that they feel when they're around you. Another scenario that could've happened, is that they rarely put your feelings into consideration by either trying to obscure you in a competitive manner or by deifying you which gave you no space to allow yourself to be human and make mistakes.

You deserve a loving partnership where two souls simply coexist, instead of two egos battling to consume each other. Not someone that suffocates you or maliciously toys with you to make you "work for" decent companionship or tries to knock you down a peg by nitpicking your flaws. A partnership where you both are creating together as well as growing together, because this will show you that regardless of all the phenomenons that you're able to do, you are not supposed to handle everything by yourself, nor are you obligated to. Where you shower each other with compassion and motivation. You both compliment and take care of each other because believe it or not, you deserve the acts of service that you give to others as well. Someone that doesn't see you for just what you can give or what your reputation is. Someone that is willing to know and love every detail, even if it's random or what you may consider bad or not perfect, that makes this marvelous human being known as you. That's the kind of love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime.

For part two on what's blocking you from this love, click here 💗

Pile Two

Channeled songs:

Yuna - Make a Move

Rose Royce - Love don't live here anymore

Deborah Cox - Nobody's supposed to be here

Los Yesterdays - Nobody's Clown

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

Mourning relationships is probably something that you know all too well. The spouse, the home, the children, the whole package enclosed in a white picket fence is what you've always imagined having for yourself when you were younger. Daydreaming about it was just so easy for you, it's what you wanted, it felt right. You just needed the person to start and share this with. However, idealizing the wrong people for the role ended up making that candle inside you, fizzle. You're an incredibly intuitive person with a huge heart that brings in so many riches, you're successful in bringing the passions of your mind's eye in the stuff that you do and how you love and care for others. You're emotionally intelligent and the wittiness and the way that you express yourself when you're happy is to be admired and an alluring trait that others try to understand.

The enigma in your essence is what's considered beautiful in another person's point of view, but in yours, it's the painful frustration of having to figure out why the beauty doesn't make anything "stick", why nothing blooms with the seeds you've planted in relationships with others. Unrequited love has made you feel like you don't have any beauty at all, that you're average, or that there just has to be something wrong with you for why no one's giving you the love that you deserve. You could've been put in deceitful circumstances like situationships, third party connections, or being encountered by people with ill intentions and have maybe even blamed yourself for not using your discernment when the the signs were right in front of you. Not only has this made you guard your heart from letting anyone in, fearing that you'll be disappointed and hurt again, but it shattered your hope in ever attaining one of the major things that would really make you happy.

The love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime is the kind that you're now denying yourself from. You will find that person where when you guys meet, everything just makes sense and it's not just you wanting to keep the connection going, it won't feel like you're fighting for it, it will feel effortless, like you're on cloud 9, free to be lively again, to CREATE life with a person that will never make you feel like as if you're too much or asking for too much. It hasn't been engraved in your mind as just a coincidence, you always knew deep down that this is something that you're meant to have, trust that it will happen for you.

For part two on what's blocking you from this love, click here 💗

Pile Three

Channeled songs:

The Rare Occasions - Notion

M.I.A - Paper Planes

TYLER THE CREATOR - RUNITUP

Earth, Wind & Fire - Shining Star

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

The love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime, involves true acceptance of who you are as a person and taking a direction towards the things that you actually want to do. A lot of you in this pile may be into the fine arts. You could be aspiring musicians, singers, dancers, but actors are what's prominent in this group. You could be actually be into theatrical activities, but there's this mask that's being emphasized, where you guys hide your true selves in order to fit in. You could be in a field that you don't really like, but it may make you financially secure. You could feel pressured to seek out insubstantial pleasures to fit in socially or to cover up what you feel you're lacking inside. You could even feel dependent on other people's judgement on how to do your life. There's just this confusion over where to go and homesickness for a place that you're not even sure, exists.

But the love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime is discovering your wholeness. An evolutionary timeline of getting to know yourself through making meaningful connections and taking a chance to explore what the world has to offer because the possibilities are endless. To develop confidence and learn that you can trust yourself to make your own decisions because this love is going to affirm to you that your path is yours to create. Like a Phoenix that dies before it is born again, you're going to change so much as you grow through these new discoveries in revealing who you are, but most importantly, it's going to bring enlightening freedom. The love that you're meant to experience is love for your life and the honor of knowing that you have free will; embracing your ability to choose, and shining in your own individuality.

For part two for what's blocking you from this love, click here 💗

Pile Four

Channeled songs:

Yellow Days - Belong Together

Ray Alex & Sydney Jane - Erased

Mac Miller - Soulmates

Fitz and the Tantrums - Out of My league

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

You're a person that puts so much love in everything that you do and into every foundation in the relationships of the people that you meet. You're a walking good luck charm for others that brings prosperity in their lives beyond what's worldly because you're an individual that's highly in tune with spiritual sentience. You may be considered an earth angel because of your integrity, keen wisdom, and divine moral compass. With a spirit like yours, you may have attracted those with selfish intentions and crafty personalities. They make swift appearances when they need something and are prone to manipulating you mentally, while leaving empty promises. Because if your attributes, you've developed awareness over those who just talk but rarely take any action behind their words. You're mindful over how much you give to others and can detect who to avoid.

However, there may be someone in your life right now who you're in no contact/separation with. It could've started off great but trailed off not so great to the point where you both decided to take your separate ways. You could have sensed flighty behavior in this person and mourned over this separation but thought that it might have been for the best but even with all of the time that has gone by, they're probably still on your mind and you can't really figure out why? You may compare them to others that have been fickle in the past and wondered, if it was easy to let go of them, why isn't it easy to let go of this person?

The love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime is a connection that transcends beyond time itself and mutually stimulates self growth and awareness within you both. You're categorizing this person with people that don't compare in the first place. This is a divinely guided and reincarnated connection, you were both lovers in numerous of lifetimes in the past with karmic lessons in each of those lives that you both had to learn together, on a spiritual plane. Learning from this separation so that you can unite again to finish the story that you two have together, is a cosmic love that you're meant to experience in this lifetime.

For part two on what's blocking you from this love, click here 💗

#divination #intuitive #psychic #spirituality #oracle #pac #pick a card #pick a pile #pick a picture #tarot community #tarot #intuitive readings #free readings #love readings #love #tarotblr #love reading #intuition

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