#i have organized religion but i WISH i was one of these guys | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wildfire317 · 4 months

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@liveleaker @jaquesmes

Alright listen here you little inbred, KKK wannabe chucklefucks news flash neither of you are main characters and your barely even background characters so quit acting like you dumbfucks are worth more than the dirt under your toenails. Nobody in their right mind actually thinks your dumb racist, homophobic and sexist comments are funny or cute, you two just look like absolutely moronic dipshits with micro-dongs and chihuahua complexes. And another thing you living condom usage advertisements, Nobody wants your defective sewing needle sized, piss poor excuses for cocks that not even a rat could choke on or your rotting in the middle of a dry summer sewer smelling, flatter than a piece of paper asses any where near them and if you think they do your even less intelligent than a single cell organism. You both claim to be adults so goddamn act like it because as things are right now you're both acting like a pair of rocket propelled spaz maggots spring-loaded face first up the asses of psychedelic freakout weasels on idiot drugs. Also you want to call someone swagless and bitchless you might want to take a good long look in the mirror because I don't see a singular molecule of swag on either of you or a single bitch and I'm not surprised considering you both look like the kind of guys that order boneless, dry rub chicken wings and then lose a fight to a chihuahua. And by the way just because you pieces of dick-cheese started putting out at twelve and peaked at 15 doesn't mean you get to drag everyone else down the perverted dunkass tree with you. Also your 8 decade curse is the biggest joke in the history of curses from any religion it isn't even an actual curse, it barely even qualifies as a jinx and thats ignoring the fact that it's basically useless the way you attempted to use it anyways and was over all a monumentally stupid waste of everyones time so stuff that in your prison cell and sit on it. You two blithering, feculent, shit holes are such lame wastes of genetic material i would not be surprised if both of your probably absentee fathers wish they had worn a condom at the time of your conceptions which explains your blatantly fatherless behavior and I bet your mothers change the subject when anyone asks about you and envy people who have never met or heard of you. Your "your momma" jokes are the most pathetic I have ever seen, were either of you actually even trying or was that the extent of your creativity? Because they were the weakest, most uninspired and embarrassing "your momma" jokes I have ever had the displeasure of reading to the point that they barely even qualify, And don't even get me started on your insults because I have met 3rd graders who have better insults. Your "oh look at me I'm a terrorist" shtick is so stupid and pathetic i couldn't help but cackle at your waste of energy like what do you want a cookie? Because you don't even deserve the crumbs of crap after someone else ate a cookie so who even gives a barfing fuck about it? You jackasses are about as threatening as some mild flatulence. I hope you piss ant's have fun dying alone and unwanted and that every time you think you have to fart you end up shitting your pants, i hope that every time you go to put socks on they are soaking wet and ice cold, i hope that the next time you are anywhere near a lego set or box of thumbtacks you step on one, i hope that every time you go to bed both sides of your pillow are annoyingly hot and give you lice, and lastly i hope that every single time you go to walk past a piece of furniture that you bang your toes on it hard enough to break your toe bones. Isn't it funny how quickly your bullshit unravels when someone actually intelligent calls you out? Do the world a favor and delete all of your social media, go apologize to whichever trees are working their proverbial asses off to replace the oxygen you're both wasting and then sew your mouths shut you cowardly wastes of skin. Id say you could learn from this but then I'd sound just as stupid as you two. Sayonara you worthless, crotch-stained barf-puppets.

( @warringwarrioridiot @p1n34ppl3-c4t24 for your reading entertainment)

#call out post #replies #go shit yourselves you entitled douchewagons #for those who don't know #the two users tagged at the top are total pricks

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northwest-by-a-train · 6 months

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Mutual 1: I wish someone could kill me so I could be reincarnated as a saxophone solo in Al Stewart's 1991 song Year of the cat

Mutual 2: Horror keeps piling upon horror and we will live old and wrinkled in this time of horrors. The only cure is to post black and white pictures of men who have problems

Mutual 3: killing baby Caesar does lengthen the lifespan of the roman empire by ~350 years, as it dissolves into some sort of federalist-feudalist structure not unlike the Holy Roman Empire. The main difference is that a sort of loose syncretic pan-imperial polytheism is the dominant religion, leading to Icelandic temples of Isis and Ethiopian temples of Epona. As such, this timeline was spared the drawbacks of a centralized state-enforced organized religion. The main drawback is that being a furry is considered blasphemy by the vast majority of humanity.

Mutual 4: if Pendleton Ward does not make Mr Cupcake a Trotskyist I will set the cartoon network offices on fire

Mutual 5: if Serial Experiments Lain was made today they would make her cis. Well. Not on my watch

Mutual 6: Can we take a minute here and normalize arms trading? Marginalized communities need those 3D-printed untraceable ghost guns with Family Guy muzzles, I need to make a living since I was thrown out of the commune by Hannah-Arendts-Strap (message me for details), Seth MacFarlane needs people to watch season 27. But Academia will talk about Kant's white-ass categorical imperative to argue no one should sell guns. Typical.

Mutual 7: I am in your walls. Why is there lead paint on your radium plumbing my dude. You know that's not aryuvedic.

Mutual 8: I'm sorry but Robespierre was a scapegoat of most of the French revolution's atrocities, and bourgeois reactionary elements have tried to turn him into a proto-totalitarian crazed madman, but the historical record paints a much more complex picture. Which is why I don't believe he would ever whip Danton's ass like you just wrote. He would be the one wearing the ball gag. How can I make you see the truth my brother ?

Mutual 9: Arabic and Eastern European poetry have been superior throughout the late 20th/early 21st century. We also have the best cigarettes. If we keep going we can surround Constantinople in the next decade, and restore the Palaiologos to their rightful place.

Mutual 10: The callout posts are true. Reflecting on it, it was obvious that our attempt to create a secret #LiberateBelize discord channel without British people was chavphobic. We are listening and learning.

Mutual 11: Pinkie Pie could negotiate the Oslo Accords, but Bill Clinton could never bag pony Weird Al

Mutual 12: If I think about Betty Groff for more than two seconds I'll divorce my husband. I got the papers and everything. But I won't. I'm brave like that. #ChristianLove

Mutual 13:

Mutual 14: I was visited by the virgin Mary last night. Again. She told me I can't make my girlfriend pregnant like that. Again. But I know Ron L. Hubbard is with me, and it's all that matters.

Mutual 15: Mustard gas doesn't even taste like mustard. You guys lied to me. My Mac & Cheese is ruined.

Mutual 16: Stop saying my think tank advocates killing orphans. We're pro-harvesting organs in youth correctional facilities for reduced sentences !!! But again we see the pro-carceral bias inherent to Lutherans. Have you guys even read Angela Davis ?

Mutual 17: Here's my solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict: spend a hundred billion dollars for multiversal research, reach the mirror universe. Israelis get the biblical kingdom of Israel borders on this earth, Palestinians get the 1948 borders in the mirror universe. I think this is the fairest deal America can offer at this time.

Mutual 18: I tried to live the life of a restless European adventurer in Macau playing roulette and serving as a mercenary to various conglomerates. Turns out they also charge rent there. And income is taxable too. And I bet everything on Red. And I don't speak Mandarin, Cantonese or Portuguese. Help me pay for my flight home! 6¢/50 000$ collected!

Mutual 19: Yeah the canonization of Bolaño as the latest LatAm literary genius speaks to a sort of general malaise in post-colonial literature due to the collapse of magical realism as a viable tradition for meaningful political messaging. So the literature of unease and obsession and maladjustment itself is canonized, like an oyster canonizing the grain of sand that's tearing it apart. The fact that no other major voice has really appeared on the continent within the past 20 years should tell us this isn't working. Which is why the Brazilian JoJo fandom has a unique opportunity to meaningfully impact the course of world literature. #Multipolarity

Mutual 20: wow guys someone left a tray of perfectly good Mac & Cheese on a windowsill! Yummy!

Mutual 21: Did medieval surgeons pulling teeth get erections? I wouldn't normally ask this of my followers but I'm arguing about Sex Work with the ghost of Andrea Dworkin and I need hard evidence (no pun intended lol)

Mutual 22: Electro-Swing is a Belgian psy-op. I can't prove it, but I know it

Mutual 23: I'm the first neutered catgirl to be tried in a military court. But I know I'm not the last.

Mutual 24: Did you guys know you could eat olives? The thing they make oil from? I ordered three kilos of motors, so I can eat it with my roommate's Mac & Cheese

Mutual 25: Anglicans, amirite ? [Sounds of raucous applause]

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granulesofsand · 1 year

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🗝️🏷️ RAMCOA vent, rude to other psychotic/psychotic-adjacent people, wishing misfortune onto others (abusers)

We are programmed to be unbelievable. The adults who did this to us planned out how to make us sound batshit crazy (like constant psychotic episode with delusions plus negative personality traits for sprinkles on top). I can imagine them sitting around their dingy round folding table in their musty ass church basement, leaning over paper sketches and muttering like they’re planning a heist.

Most of it’s not even creative; ooooh the satanists did it (without any research of different satanic religions, just church version), the police and government all work for the shadow organization (maybe three guys total, all barely more than paid interns) (in the police and state government buildings, not the shadow organization), everyone is in on it and trying to hurt us (the extended cult, about a small neighborhood’s worth of people), the cult knows everything and there will be *consequences* (took five people to set up a regular camera one single time, not hidden or unsupervised).

A few things are strange in really unfortunate ways; we can’t be around groups (more than 1) singing, we can’t do any math above basic division, some alters have programmed phobias that others don’t. A good amount are traceably for-a-reason, but others are bizarre for the hell of it. Went like half the 9 yards. The whole 4.5 yards. It causes so many problems for us, and I can’t tell if there was a point to most of it.

It’s all bullshit. They put in so much and so little effort simultaneously, and it looks like it 7 whole years later. I hope they die painfully and rot (not all of them were programmed themselves, some were assholes who got in for the purpose of abusing kids. those are the ones I mean).

#did osdd #dissociative identity disorder #ramcoa #tw ramcoa #traumagenic system #actuallydid #tbmc #ramcoa vent #ritual abuse #conspiracy #church

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m-jelly · 1 year

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A request kinda like one you’ve done before I think it was called like “Amazonian Goddess” or something but like Reader x Levi kicking ass in some sort of organization? It can be like some organization against corrupt people in the government or famous people that do really shitty things and Reader x Levi go on missions to exploit and eradicate them. Or sneaking into cult practices and shutting it down( that would probably mess me up for life but makes a good story plot :) ) so yeah they are just so badass taking all these criminals out and killing bad guys and holding hands and kissing while beating the shit out of people… Imagine breaking into a government space and convincing Levi to skip through the halls shooting bad guys… just Levi skipping while holding your hand makes me red

This would be a fun long fic. I'm going to take one part of your ask and do a scene in the cult as I've done a lot of action scenes where we skip around, or Levi kicks the shit out of people with us. Hope you don't mind.

@kenkopanda-art <3

Partners in justice

Pairing: Levi x Fem!Reader

Genre and tags: Romance, established couple, crime-fighting, mentions of a cult, mentions of religion, fluff, disguises.

Concept: You and Levi have infiltrated a cult and are working together to shut it down without the use of weapons. Levi has an itchy trigger finger, but you reassure him that you can solve this situation without guns and knives. You eventually stop the cult without causing an uprising or a bad response.

Slightly inspired by far cry 5

Taglist: @ladycheesington @skittlelover69 @levisbrat25 @li-anne @nbinairyn @nyxiieluna @notgoodforlife @galactict3a @strawberrybunny123 @youre-ackermine @demonsimp6

You bowed your head as you walked past worshippers in the encampment. You enjoyed the warm country breeze going through your hair. You looked up to the mountains and the grand green lands with vast forests climbing up hills towards the mountains.

You left the small camp of worshippers, it was one of many that people lived in who worshipped the father. You and Levi had slipped into the cult, worked your way up the ranks and slowly injected people with doubt. You were ranked so high with Levi that you had your own camp.

Your camp was slowly growing with people who doubted the teachings of the father. You and Levi were helping people leave but appearing loyal to the father and his two disciples. You knew it wouldn't take long to take this cult down.

You and Levi had plans for the future. You were going to shut this cult down and then go off together on a romantic getaway. You were happily married and wanted to be a married couple for a bit on holiday. You wanted a month's break, maybe two.

You crossed a river and through a woodland path until you saw a home in a large field of flowers with a river running by into a lake, views of the mountains and thick woods. You smiled softly wishing this was your forever home. You'd moved around for years with Levi but never settled down. You adored this home and you were hoping that Levi might agree to two months here.

You hurried along the path to see your two dogs run out of the house and turn to their father. You smiled brightly as Levi walked out of the house. You sprinted down the path without Levi knowing your presence. Your dogs noticed you first and then your husband.

Levi lit up in delight before racing towards you. He grabbed you and spun around with you as your dogs barked. "Welcome home!"

You squealed in delight. "Hi honey!"

He put you on your feet. "How did it go?"

You held Levi's hands and sighed. "Good, but I'm getting tired."

"We can go in with our guns. I have all my weapons at the ready."

You hummed a laugh. "No, Levi. We have to take our time."

He huffed a little and pouted. "But bunny."

You cupped his face and wiggled it. "I know, my naughty bear, I know." You kissed him and smiled. "Patience. If we go in firing our guns then innocent people might get hurt. We have to tip the balance." You pressed the end of his nose. "The fewer people who follow, the better. Statistics say that if you pressure cult leaders, they will either make people kill themselves or they will kill them."

Levi hugged you tightly. "I hate how right you are." He released you and held your hand. "A part of me wants this to last because I love our home."

"Me too. I wish this was our forever home, but people need us."

Levi gazed at you. "Well, it can be our base camp home. Our forever home. Our future."

Your eyes sparkled in delight. "Oh please!"

He leaned closer and kissed you. "It's sorted then." He walked with you back to the house. "So, plan for this cult?"

You hummed in thought. "I'm close to making his noting-taking disciple doubt the father. I just need a bit more time. How are you doing with his trainer of soldiers?"

Levi smirked. "Easy. The man is weak. I need one more conversation and this cult crumbles. The father will be by himself."

You clapped your hands together. "Perfection!"

You pressed your back against the wooden wall as you check your ammo. You loaded it into your gun and sighed. "You okay honey?"

Levi lifted up his machine gun and attached it to its holder. "I'm good." He locked it into place and check the chain of bullets. "Remind me how we got here?"

You hummed a laugh. "You punched the father in the face for making a pass at me. He said all women in his cult are his wives, therefore I was his wife."

Levi locked and loaded his gun. "Tch, piece of shit. You're my wife."

You walked over to the ladder up inside the wooden church. "Be careful, okay? I'll sniper them from the roof." You kissed his cheek. "Make me proud."

Levi yanked you close and kissed you passionately. "I'm going to fuck you hard and good after this."

You growled. "You better." You slapped his ass before climbing up the stairs with your gun slung over your shoulder. You clambered onto the roof and lay on your stomach as you softly sang. "God, I love my job." You set up your sniper and fixed your earpiece so you could speak to Levi. "Darling?"

Levi sang your name. "My love!"

You giggled. "I've got my eyes on the last stand against us." You adjusted your scope. "You sure this is the last resort?"

"They wouldn't listen to reason, my love. We have to do this. This is a kill or be killed."

You pouted hard. "But Levi!"

"I know, I know." He chuckled. "You like using your words. Sometimes people won't listen."

You kicked your legs and whined. "I know, I know."

Levi smiled as he checked his setup. "You have an adorable pout on your face, don't you?"

"No!" You sighed. "I'm going to smack your bum after this."

"Please do."

You looked down your scope and hummed. "We're in close range, my love."

Levi gripped his gun tightly. "Give me the word and I'll open fire."

You watched them get closer. "Steady." You smirked as they ran closer with guns at the ready. You watched them fall for your funnelling set-up of things along the way to push them all down one path. "They fell for it. Oh, we've got one going off course."

"Don't you have claymores set up?"

You squealed in delight as one blew up. "I do! Fire my love!" You gasped in delight as the loud bursts of Levi's gun rained out across the field. You watched as the bullets ripped through the front doors and into the heavily armed soldiers wanting to kill you both. "What a man." You moaned. "I love you, Levi."

Levi smirked. "I love you too. Now, show me what you do best. I bet you're kicking your legs right now and you'll clench your delicious thighs when you go to fire."

You giggled and squeezed your thighs before shooting an RPG-wielding soldier. "You know it, my sweet darling."

"Fuck, you're incredible. You have impeccable aim." He moaned. "I love you so much."

You fired again and watched a guy's head go pop. "I love you too. You're so handsome and perfect."

The thunderous sounds of Levi's machine gun came to an end. Silence fell on the land. The birds returned and started singing sweet songs. The pleas of mercy from the father erupted and pierced the air. He declared his lies and that he was not a prophet.

You and Levi sat together on a bench as your team came in and cleared out the cultists who wanted to escape. Levi gave his report to Erwin. Levi walked with you back home where your pups were both waiting. Levi pulled you against him and started slow dancing with you in front of the home as the dogs jumped around you both and barked.

Levi dipped you and smiled. "My love, my darling, you are a delight to love and be with."

You gripped Levi and purred. "I love you so much."

Levi crashed his lips against yours and held you firmly against his body. "Mm, I love you so much."

You giggled. "I love you too."

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majorbaby · 1 year

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Can you elaborate on your personal gripes for how mulcahy is used in the narrative? I have seen people talking about not liking him but I think it was more disliking him as a guy, so I would like to hear your thoughts

okay well, first i'd just like to say that nobody is a bad person for liking mulcahy and i have less of an issue with HIM as a guy (his thoughts, feelings, wishes, his favourite colour, his favourite food, his relationships with others) as i have with how he is positioned by the narrative. you seem to get this, but i still want to make it clear. if anything i'm all for mulcahy getting it on with whoever because it would undermine his vocation as a celibate priest.

long explanation under the cut but TL;DR: mulcahy is positioned as being a morally upright person. this is dangerous because apart from his being a character on the show, he is also representative of the catholic church. moreover, positioning the church this way severely undermines the show's central, anti-establishment, anti-war messaging.

there's lots to love about MASH, but the way it deals with religion and the church is a major weakness. the show wants me to accept that patriarchy, militarism, imperialism, social conservatism are bad, but draws the line at critiquing religion, by positioning its chief representative in positive light. it's a big oversight.

let me try this a new way compared to how i've done it in the past and start with the military:

fuck the military, right? we agree that it is bad? and we agree that MASH came out swinging against the army and that that is part of the central messaging of the show? and we agree that one of the best things about MASH is that it took such a hard line against the military? cool.

why do we hate the military? it's violent, it's paternalistic, it eats up public money that could otherwise be spent on making peoples lives better, it influences public policy in a negative way, it's hostile to equity-seeking people (racialized people, lgbtq+ people, women, people with mental and physical disabilities), it is also hostile to even the most privileged in our society. MASH specifically took aim at the draft, which still functionally exists in US law.

basically, it is overwhelmingly oppressive and does far more harm than good, if you can even make a case for what good it does.

the catholic church is bad for all the same reasons. most catholics are born into the church, assigned catholic at baptism, which occurs when you are a baby and which cannot consent to. its ranks are overwhelmingly male and priests are literally called "Fathers".

your mileage may vary when it comes to the separation of church and state but...

where i live, the catholic school system is funded by tax dollars - technically any child can attend a catholic school even if they aren't catholic, but say, idk, want some free indoctrination. but you must be catholic to teach in catholic schools, so half of all these 'public service jobs' which are unionized, pay well and difficult to secure are only available to catholics. you can go to catholic school yet grow up and be unable to teach in one, like, currently, in 2023, in Canada which has some fucking nerve to be still upholding this archaic system. people aren't born pro-life or homophobic or believing that sex should be between a man and a woman and purely for procreation, or that masturbation is a sin... these are all things we see in policy, in education, in medicine, in media, as a result of the influence of christianity. what flavour of christanity varies based on where you live but in many instances, it's catholicism. you could extend some of these critiques to organized religion in general but i'm not doing that right now because mulcahy is catholic specifically.

like... purity culture didn't just pop out of nowhere. you may not be christian but sex shaming and the elevated ideal of marriage and the gender binary and the idea that we need to be 'civilized' in a certain way are all christian values that were spread violently across the globe, often hand-in-hand with military exploits. not only are the military and the church similar, they're often indistinguishable and they very much need one another.

MASH was trying very hard to say, originally at least, that there are no good military brass. even henry gets the piss taken out of him whenever he tries to be a 'colonel' to hawkeye and trapper. so why henry, and not mulcahy? (also why not potter but like, that was a different era and potter is a character i actually do proper hate)

if there can be no good army officers, then there can be no good priests. and mulcahy was both.

#mash #mulcahy meta #re: mash #replies

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m1d-45 · 1 year

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sorry i've been mia i was busy rizzing up the kaeya and diluc ais. anyways imagine reverse isekai with ur main. i personally would have a blast being able to talk about minecraft and mystery flesh pit national park and warrior cats with people who do not even have the internet.

also my diluc and kaeya plushes arrived and now i need to make clothes for them so they won't be naked but i have to make sure they have an equal amount of clothes with an equal amount of effort put into them so that it doesn't seem like i'm favoring one brother over the other (this is the same reason why i bought the diluc and kaeya plushes together in the first place) - teddy anon

1) it’s ok 2) kaeya ai? 3) this idea oml

aside from the fact that showing them all the weird and obscure shit in our world would make them lose their minds (speaking of nobody tell them about organized religion. barbatos is surprised ppl follow him after a few hundred years of no contact well look at this right here-) they’d be fascinated with how you control them.

i imagine they wouldn’t appear in game, and you couldn’t like use them for anything. makes logical sense to me.

if you’re like me and struggle to form teams at all, let alone ones without your One Good Built Character, they’re borderline going to be apologetic at seeing how you struggle. part of them is proud they’re so needed, but the other part is sort of sad.

i literally only run teams w/o kazuha for the abyss because his playstyle and the team i run for everything else is so ingrained in my head. i genuinely struggle if i don’t have an anemo character on my team and always fumble for a while if it doesn’t have kaz because it’s like i forget i don’t have him. it’s a problem—

if you’re not dependent on a single element like i am, they love seeing you work around them. it’s simple, you explain, swapping to an alternate team, and they watch in awe at how easily you adapt to change. they marvel at reactions they haven’t seen, at how much this new team differs from the one with them in it.

if you try and show them how to, they’ll immediately insist that they’re fine watching, that they wouldn’t dare touch such a holy object or manipulate teyvat in your stead.

for some, this is true. for others, they’ll cave with enough pressure.

itto treats your controls with the most delicate care, very gentle with everything as to not break it. not really prone to gamer rage, more so just “your grace, i can’t figure this out :(“ and watching over your shoulder as he promises “ok, i’ve got it this time, swear!” he doesn’t, but the smile on your face as you watch him die for the nth time soothes any anger he feels. refuses to kill rifthounds btw.

mona doesn’t know anything. you could tell her sixteen times how to access the inventory and she’s still asking you which button it is. don’t tell her about the wishing system she’ll quite literally lose her shit. she doesn’t understand the value of items like dream solvent but refuses to spend even a single coin of your mora or your food. collects her own ingredients and keeps track to cook her own food because “i wouldn’t want anyone else touching what’s mine.” pls tell her it’s ok and losing some of your 2k sweet flowers isn’t the end of the world.

ayato wouldn’t directly play, but he does sit beside you and offer semi-functional ideas. “run a team with x y z characters,” “fight this boss without the element it’s vulnerable to/full physical damage,” “take on this enemy without a healer,” etc etc. he likes seeing you solve problems, and likes watching you explore. if you have low mora he’s incredibly confused, but doesn’t comment on it once he sees how much it is to level a talent or ascend someone. if you have like 7mil mora and go “why do i have so little :(“ he’s asking a few more questions, but overall is silent about it. you don’t have a job in teyvat, and get most of your money from chests or leylines. it makes sense you guys would view mora differently.

alhaitham doesn’t touch your device, but kaveh (yes he isn’t out at time of writing no i didn’t ask) could be convinced into exploring a bit. he refuses to engage in combat and always uses his glider, never dropping more than a second or two at a time. panicks if your characters get hurt at all and either runs to a statue of the seven (give him time, he forgets he can teleport) or triggers your healers skill. if you run a character that has hp drain he’s flipping his shit and either demanding to know how to change the team so they don’t get hurt or runs them and three separate characters. loses his shit when you tell him about the teapot. that’s all he does now lmao.

zhongli will tap at stuff a bit, get a hold of the general game, and then just. not play. you tell him he can do commissions if he wants or run domains and he shakes his head, “i will not interfere with a world i don’t own.” so silly. doesn’t understand why shops don’t give you stuff for free. speculates on how monsters dying gives you mora. refers to everything by their full names no matter what silly nicknames you have for anything. if you have a well-decorated teapot/generally take care to plant stuff or collect realm bounties or similar, he’s happy. if you mostly neglect it, he’s asking why. it’s an adeptal art, and he needs to know if it isn’t satisfactory.

yae would love to manipulate a world of her own, but the knowledge that the world you control is real and has real actions is a bit too much. yelan asks to see, but only because she wants to know what you’re on about when you talk about lag, ping, or hitting the wrong button. finds it funny even gods can mess up. yanfei fusses over whether she should even be allowed because of like divine right to rule and whether her interference counts as idolatry since she’d technically be playing god. you let her worry about it in the corner and don’t ask questions about where she pulled that giant book of law from.

if you allow him to, venti sits in your lap while you play. he’s very much just a guy that’ll sit with you and maybe play his lyre if you’re getting frustrated, and adores the ingame soundtrack. give him youtube and point him in the direction of the ost and he’ll obsess over it. within a week he has everything memorized and has composed at least three ballads about ‘the song of the heavens’. wont actually do anything directly, but if you’re running abyss and ask him for suggestions on fun team comps, he’s already got ideas. is a bit unnerved at first if he recognizes some of the people on screen, but rationalizes it quickly enough. if you’re like me and leave your characters sitting at a bench or table before logging off, he insists you sit them in the statue in mond.

neither childe or scara even entertain the idea that they’d be allowed to use your device, and just kinda watches from the side. scara laughs a bit if you get hit by an enemy. childe asks about what his build is prior to his vanishing and probably studies meta and like crit ratios and stuff (no i don’t know what meta qualifies as yes i’m just sayin shit). xiao’s worried his karma could infect through the screen, and wouldn’t dare suggest anything. if you’re doing it, it’s good, if you’re not, you have a reason. ask for his opinion and he’ll bluescreen.

#m1d : [chats]#m1d : [secrets]#teddy anon #i’m running into a problem called ‘none of my posts are good enough to be formal ones but i’m using all my juice on them anyway’#a lot of stuff under the [secrets] tag is genuinely long enough to be a post but it doesn’t like. it’s not Good Enough to be a formal post #which is dumb but it’s a problem m runnin into anyway #like is this good enough to put a taglist on?? am i gonna put this on other peoples dashes??#NO. but it’s still a lot of writing that i’m doing without getting the Full Post Benefits (even if they’re just psychological on my end)

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newtonsheffield · 2 years

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Oh my Newton Molly!! I love this idea of a Reverend Anthony! And what I love most about it is the idea that he welcomes everyone in his congregation, a regular day will be full of members of the LGTBQ+ community, survivors of violent environments, I mean every single person who felt left out by the church knows that they are welcome with Father Anthony. I love a good positive vibe from any kind of religious organazation, because I feel that there is less and less every day (I was born and raise in the Catholic church, so...)

We need more Father Anthony!!!

I think Reverend Anthony found comfort in religion after his father died and so he knows first hand how for most people, it's about the sense of community much more so than anything else. So no one's getting left out on his watch.

Imagine him sitting in confession and a young boy tells him he thinks he's having feelings for his best friend who's also a boy and he's praying for it to go away and Anthony takes a deep breath a says-

"Why would you ever wish away a part of yourself? I believe that each of us was made just as we were meant to be, each of us is perfect in our own way. If we were all created by the Big Guy, in his image how can that be wrong? Loving someone, anyone, no matter who they are could never be wrong."

But imagine how ready Kate would be to challenge him on that when she first arrives, not knowing who he is.

"I don't really... go in for organized religion." Kate shrugs one day. "And I'm not really sure where I stand on the whole G-O-D thing. No offence. Plus my sister's gay and I'm not really that into letting myself be apart of anything that would marginalize her."

And Anthony just shrugs. "I also have a gay sister so I get that."

"So you're just fine with cutting your sister out of your life?"

"Ahhhh no, definitely not, I took her to pride last year and she made me a rainbow collar to wear. The old biddies were scandalized at first but... they got over it because I'm so handsome."

"You're very full of yourself."

"Thank you."

#reverend anthony #kathony #anthony x kate #kate sharma #kate sheffield #anthony bridgerton #molly’s asks and answers

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the-owl-tree · 1 year

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I think it woulda been interesting if riverclan was smart (Mothwing wouldve kept her og characterization for this to work) and said" aight starclans being too vague, lets make a council of the most experienced and the youngest with the freshest ideas and focus on organizing ourselves and not reputation", and so, the clan is actually functioning relatively okay (apart from Redacted being fishy). This makes all the other clans bristle and question their own depedence on religion to be good people

that would be a nice little spin on it! i'm personally fine with riverclan falling apart, i'm just sort of unsure like...what the issue is. hunting, patrols, etc. theyre all things they've been doing since they were apprentices, why is it so hard to organize without one guy?

i like the chaos of riverclan, i don't mind the dependence on starclan (within reason), i just wish there was a better attempt to organize beyond looking to some apprentice lol frostpaw feeling pressure is great! but after a while, you wonder why they dont just like have a conversation. isn't it canon that the clan cats occasionally vote.

i do like the council idea...i really liked the earlier arcs "senior/trusted warrior circle" that a leader would talk with. i get why they dropped it for this but like...hear me out, mistystar's circle would've worked to take her and reedwhisker down

#asc spoilers #the circle would include curlfeather and splashtail for sure #a good circle of suspects...i love it

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aragarna · 2 months

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Zorro or Good Omens

For the ask game my dear!

Hello there, my dear old Valley! :)

Sorry it's taken me so long to answer. I *will* answer with a gifset as the "make me choose" game is supposed to be, but that might take even more time because aaaah life. Anyway. So here is why it took me so long:

I actually had to think about that one super hard. It's such a difficult choice to make LOL probably because both shows have characters that resonate quite deeply with me, but regarding different parts of me.

Zorro: I really like the character of Diego, who dedicates his life to help others, is always very considerate and caring and is passionate about trying to make the world a better place. The definition of a Good Guy. I *wish* I had a tenth of his courage and he reminds me to look after others, when it's so easy to get caught up in our own life. So he's someone I understand and look up to.

I guess there's also the struggle to live up to the society's expectations, to his family's expectations, the inability to tell people who he really is. Not that I have a secret identity, but we all, to some degree, wear a mask, hide our true nature and try to live up to people's expectations.

Also the fencing. ;-)

Good Omens: For neither of them you specified which version, but for GO I'll specifically pick the TV show, as I think it resonates a bit more with me. Mostly because it expands Aziraphale and Crowley's characters, and their relationship. As a romantic asexual, I don't often feel represented in fictions. I do get love, I do understand love stories, but I don't get the sex part. Attraction, to me, doesn't translate in wanting to sleep with someone. And given that almost 100% of romances in fiction end in sex, well, there's always a part of those stories that remain foreing. But Aziraphale and Crowley, it's not like that. And I know lots of people do like to add a sex component to the story, but that bit of canon that angels and demons don't have sexual organs (unless they make an effort) is actually important to me. The way I read and feel Aziraphale and Crowley's attraction, it's not physical. They just enjoy each other company. They enjoy that feeling of being together, discussing together, seeing the world different through the other's eyes. They like the world better with the other in it. But they don't sleep together. It's been clearly said that after S1 they carved their own bit of a existence for themselves. They have their phone calls and dates, and Crowley comes to the bookshop, etc... So they *are* in a relationship. It's just not sexual (and I really hope Neil will keep it that way, cause it's important to me)

Also, there's the whole Good vs. Evil, more theological discussion that the show handles really well. I love how it's making fun of all the contradictions of the Bible and the Christian religion. But also how being Good in a complicated world is *hard*. Being Good sometimes requests courage and questioning one's own believes. And standing up to your boss.

And it's hilarious, when it's not heartbreaking. It's silly, in a very absurd British way.

So, there, this is what went all through my head. because of the difference in popularity, I feel like Zorro is more personal. Everyone loves GO. It's all over the internet. There's like a new fic every 20 min or something (actual stats I've seen floating around). So for some reason, it makes me feel depossessed of it. While the Zorro fandom is me and 5 people, 3 of which prefer the 1990 show. But on the other hand, Zorro is an old thing (1919!), and it says a rather "classic" story (he's the spiritual father of all the superheroes, after all), while GO is much more unique and modern. It's an important piece of fiction.

#a meme!#rambles #zorro #good omens #about me

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queenlucythevaliant · 1 year

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thanks! I guess my main question is; how can I be secure in my faith?

I was raised in the faith and I wish I could believe firmly with all my heart, but university (I study biomed) and the world's view of religion make it so hard. I've seen others say that genesis is allegory, which brings into question the historicity of the Bible and Jesus, and I don't know how that can reconcile with faith

Ooh! This is my favorite question :)

So I too was raised in the faith and I too study biology (microbiology in my case, with an emphasis on microbial ecology and evolution). I am firmly convinced that one should hold both Scriptural and scientific truth in high regard; when undertaken with a spirit of curiosity and humility, science and faith pose no threat to one another. In fact, I think understanding one bolsters an understanding of the other.

I'd start with this: I don't believe that Genesis is an allegory, nor do any of the theistic evolution proponents I've read and spoken to. Rather, Genesis uses figurative language to communicate creation and the fall from the perspective of a God who transcends time. Figurative language is innate in Scripture, and I think it's erroneous to take the most literalistic possible meaning for every line of the creation account. For what other part of Scripture do we do this?

I think we need to take it seriously; everything in Scripture is true. But I think when the creation account says, "And God separated the light from the darkness. He called the light Day and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day," that's more similar to "I have been crucified with Christ" than "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." From a heavenly perspective, that's what happened, but just as I haven't literally had nails driven into my hands in order to be saved, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that God divided Day from Night in the space of one 24-hour day. It's a spiritual account, not a scientific account. That doesn't make the words of Scripture any less true.

But! I also think that when Christians discuss evolution, we tend to get far, far too hung up on Genesis and we end up missing some of the deeper implications of the conversation. Evolutionary biology pushes us to think about our embodiment and how deeply interconnected we are with the rest of creation. Likewise, a theistic framework narrows the odds when we talk about the organic origin of life, protein sequence space, etc. If a sovereign God was behind every movement of every atom, then we can see grace where an atheistic scientist sees only coincidence.

Don't ignore your scientific and historical questions, my friend. Ask them all. Chase them to the ends of the earth. All truth is God's truth, and behind each answer I believe you will find the glory of God.

Some reading to get you started:

Finding Darwin's God, Kenneth R. Miller

The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin, Charles Foster

Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love, Elizabeth Johnson

The Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes

(Note: I don't agree with every word in all these books, but I find them all generally good and useful)

Just in general, I really recommend reading up on all those great Christians who were also scientists and great scientists who were also Christians. Don't take my word for it, take theirs! Read the books I recommended. Read Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pastuer! Augustine and C.S. Lewis! Stop centering the conversation on Darwin (who was a Christian, but who was just one guy). For goodness sake, don't listen to Richard Dawkins and Ken Ham. Throughout history, greater thinkers than you or me have reconciled faith and science. Thus, there's hope for us too :)

I'll leave you with this quote from Augustine's exhortation to humility from "The Literal Meaning of Genesis":

"In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand that, if further progress in the search of truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it. That would be to battle not for the teaching of Holy Scripture but for our own, wishing its teaching to conform to ours, whereas we ought to wish ours to conform to that of Sacred Scripture."

All truth is God's truth.

#all truth is god's truth #I'm so glad you asked this my friend #feel free to pop back in with any follow ups #i went mostly in the direction of evolution bc that's my wheelhouse and it sounds like it's probably yours too #but obviously this conversation extends out into all branches of science #and into history #and all sorts of other places #ask me hard questions

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fullmetalanglican · 2 months

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Why do I get up in the morning

The last time I was deeply in a Druid phase, I listened to a lot of druid podcasts. I remember an interview with a guy who was on the governing body of his druid organization and obviously very involved, very passionate about his path. I remember wishing that I could be as certain about my path as he was, that I could be as committed to Druidry (or anything). One thing in particular that he said made an impression on me: He said that he had not been particularly motivated about his job and often found it difficult to get up to go to work (something to which I can very much relate). However, once he began doing druid practices regularly, he found himself thinking, "I'm not getting up to go to work; I'm getting up to practice Druidry."

Druidry didn't stick, again, or I didn't stick with it, but that idea, that attitude, stuck in my memory. It resurfaced today when I was walking from work to my bus stop, on my way home. "What am I getting up for, if I'm a practicing Christian again?"

"To serve the Lord," part of me answered helpfully.

"Okay, but what does that mean?"

By the time I reached the bus stop, I had formulated four things I meant by "to serve the Lord":

To take care of myself, because as a human being I am a creation of God, who loves me, and I deserve proper care, I deserve to get my needs met in healthy and appropriate ways, and asceticism is not for everyone;

To go to work and do my best there, as far as I am able day-to-day with my assorted physical and mental health problems, not because "the grind" has any inherent value, but because I work for the city public library, an institution that genuinely serves the community and not any individual's greed;

To pursue my vocation as a writer, which I have always seen to be a service of the One who gave me the gift of writing ability;

And finally, most essentially, to pray and meditate, which I consider the primary work of any Christian.

About thirty years ago, I came across a short, dense, but witty book called Christian Proficiency by a priest in the Church of England, Martin Thornton. It had a peculiar abstract diagram of some kind on the cover; it would be over twenty years before I figured out that it was meant to represent positions on the field, or pitch, of a game of cricket. Originally published in the 1950s in Great Britain, it had recently been reissued by an American publisher.

In this book Thornton argues that the Christian life has a proper structure and orientation, which he calls a Rule. By that he means a plan of life like the Rule of a monastic order, only he means it for all Christians, not just priests or people in religious orders. The basic requirements of Christian life, he says, are not so much believing certain things (though that is important) or having certain opinions or even virtues, but things that a person does. The three most important things are Sunday Eucharist with a community, the Daily Office, and private prayer.

The first and last of those three probably look familiar to most Christians: Go to church, say your prayers. But what is the Daily Office? Well, it's formal prayer, like Sunday church, with set words in a book and readings from the Bible, but it's also seven days a week, not just one, and can be read or recited alone at home, or with a group of people, or during your commute if you don't drive and carry a handy book that has all the texts in it. It doesn't require a priest or pastor, only a book or two and the will to set aside the time and do it.

Pardon the cliche, but I took to the Daily Office as a duck to water. It satisfied an itch I didn't know I had. Thornton's book said, "Here, do this," and I did it. My religion stopped being a theory or a bunch of opinions and became a practice. Thornton explained that worship and prayer were the bedrock of Christian life, the thing that shapes us into the people God wants us to be and the thing that connects our lives with Christ's so that by praying with and for others, we are helping him redeem the world.

It's with Thornton's teaching in mind that I wrap up this entry so I can go to bed and, hopefully, get up tomorrow, easily, to "serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song".

youtube

#christianity #prayer #rule of life #Youtube

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worrywrite · 1 year

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I've just finished Small Gods. And I gotta say. I'm divided on this one.

I have heard a lot of people recommend it, even as an entry into Discworld books. But I honestly would never tell someone interested in starting Discworld to start with Small Gods. It is not an easy to get into book. I almost felt like I was forcing my way through the book till the Ephebe section.

But I enjoyed it.

I think the problem I had with it is that it felt like it had a message and tried to tell a story a long with it. The book itself is hardly about the small gods, which I'm honestly fascinated to learn more about. What it is really about is metaphysics and ontology, but a very odd (and interesting) fictional ontological and metaphysical situation.

The question presented to the reader is not "does god exist" or "does this god, or any god exist". No, the book is pretty clear, as far as Discworld goes, gods are real. Lots of them. Far too many, really (though I have a soft spot for P'tang P'tang, guy didn't know what hit him). The questions the book presents are more about the relationship between gods and worshipers. It's almost an iteration of "which came first, the chicken or the egg" because the books big thesis is that gods need people more than people need gods.

But I also don't think it's quite so simple as that. Because a "god" by the books standards is a specific type of entity, but it also explains how people replace gods. The quisition is a form of god replacement; it does almost exactly what Om did early on and led followers through fear and power. People believed in the quisition the same way they believed in Om and so one was able to replace the other. The quisition was not a god, it was an organization of men; but it was able to take the place of one in the lives of devotees. The philosophers of Ephebe are another sort of religion. They aren't exactly atheists, because they know that would be foolish, but they worship ideas. They replaced religion with theories and innovations and questions.

The book almost says that gods need people and people need something to believe in. But not quite. Brutha falls short in that way (imo). He is a wonderful character and a good window for the narrative (and he's just a good dude and very endearing). But he doesn't really have a solution. He never addresses the problem. Not even Om, when he started a tavern brawl with the gods, fixes the problem. The conclusion of the book only feels like it managed to say "there is a problem" and that fixing it is an ever-present process. But nothing gets solved apart from the military conflicts. Omnianism is still... A mess. Religion and the gods and philosophy and the quisition are all still a mess. And Brutha's solution to it all is nearly "it needs to be better."

I recognize, of course, why it is this way. Attempting to answer the problem of what is there that people can believe in that still makes the world work is just... It's *the* question isn't it? Yeah, there's small and personal answers. But systematically answering that question basically creates a religion in the process.

---

Something I really appreciated, and I'm glad Pratchett wrote it this way (and frankly I wish there was more talk about it) was Vorbis' idea of truth and fundamental truth. Because that truly felt like the crux of the story.

I see it a lot in conversation in real religious circles. There is the reality of a situation (often something meaningless) and then there is the "fundamental" truth of it (usually an understanding of the situation with perceived values ascribed to it). It is like the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic value. There is a truth that is (reality) and a truth that matters (perception). The whole discussion in the book really boils down to being able to lie well, but it's like lying is a method of changing reality by altering perception.

The whole thing, and honestly a good chunk of the book, gave me a headache trying to work out. But it was a very interesting headache.

Lastly, I wanted to touch on Vorbis. Because he is almost a fantastic villain. But he falls short because he's a very chaotic neutral character. He's essentially a curious nihilist. He isn't, exactly, power hungry. The book explains that he does things, horrible things, just to see what happens next. But that, combined with his steel ball mind... Makes me wonder why he really did anything at all? I never felt like he was motivated, just that he was the force in motion that would go up against the protagonist. It was like he was a mechanism for disasters to strike, that his poking and prodding at reality had actually torn it asunder--but not in an interesting way.

All in all, it was a fairly difficult book to wrap my head around. Not in the same way as some others. Unlike other Discworld books that have left me feeling like I was missing something, this one felt like it was missing something. The humor and the wit were there, the message was there. But there was this void that I can't really describe except by using all these words.

#discworld #small gods #gnu terry pratchett #ive let myself ramble far too long about this book #but then again it is a fairly long one

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greatwyrmgold · 9 months

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I just started watching KamiKatsu. It's hard to describe! It's like someone stuck Konosuba, a Re:Zero RPG Maker fangame, a Unity asset flip, and the journal of a young left-wing thunderf00t fan trying to work through some stuff, then had one guy stitch that slurry together into a full cour in a single week.

KamiKatsu is a story about Yukito, a cult leader's son whose last thoughts are a wish to reincarnate in a world without gods or religion, because said cult made his life a living hell (and also ended it in a weird barrel ritual). As requested, he ends up reincarnated in a world with no gods or religion...or adventurer's guilds or RPG mechanics or anything like that. However, it does have two things that are kinda religious: A totalitarian government which enforces arbitrary rules with absolute moral certitude, and the god from Yukito's dad's cult, who he accidentally summons to the other world while almost re-dying at the end of episode 1.

The most important thing about KamiKatsu isn't its story, though. It's the budget, or rather the patently obvious lack thereof. There are two ways a studio can react to this kind of issue: Either do the normal cost-cutting measures all anime needs to use, just more, or do some extreme cost-cutting measures that make the anime artistically distinct. KamiKatsu goes for the second route, and while it sometimes just looks cheap, it looks absurd often enough that I'm willing to overlook that. I'm particularly fond of the pixel-art doodles that pop up to backfill fight scenes, daily chores, and so on.

(KamiKatsu is the cheapest-looking anime I've ever seen dubbed.)

But the story isn't bad. The first episode's pacing feels a bit rushed, probably so they can get to the bit where Yukito accidentally summons a god in the first episode, but I like Yukito as a character. He's consistently watching for the plot hook that might signal the fantasy journey he's been anticipating for weeks, which is funny, but he's also content doing manual labor and getting drunk alongside people who he gets along with. I also enjoy the supporting cast, and the world they inhabit. It's not a deep world, but it isn't pure nonsense and it has some interesting ideas that mesh together into a coherent whole.

Speaking of interesting ideas that mesh together into a coherent whole, themes! The left-wing thunderf00t fan thing I mentioned was a reference to this bit. The fantasy world Yukito ended up in cleanly divides religion into two separate entities; you have the institution in the empire's absolute authority, and the spirituality in . It's making a strong statement about organized religion—that it has both good and bad aspects, which aren't closely linked. You can have the good without the bad. It doesn't seem super deep, and I don't agree with everything it seems to be saying about religion. Despite that...it's clearly trying to say something, that something is mostly positive, and it's a bit nuanced. Not just "religion good" or "religion bad," but "this part of religion good, this part bad". It would have given me something to think about in my shitty teenaged atheist phase, and there are a lot of shitty teenaged atheist otaku out there.

Also the jokes are consistently funny, and not just in the charmingly-shoddy sense prior paragraphs implied. Yukito reincarnated in a world that, for all its hardships, is absurd in a lot of ways, which are leveraged for comedy. It's no One Punch Man or Kaguya-sama, but it's consistently funny. And while it occasionally has dramatic bits right next to serious ones (like when it switches rapidly between Mitama being a goofy god and being a vengeful one), it generally avoids having the humor step on the drama's toes or vise versa.

KamiKatsu should suck. The story is a mash of stuff that, on paper, sounds absurd at best and incoherent at worst. The animation ranges from mediocre to baffling. And yet, it's enjoyable.

Is this an anime recommendation post? I have no idea!

#kamikatsu #anime #random thoughts

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aceoflilies · 4 months

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Yeah.. Awakening's whole "Evil religion that is nothing composed of bad ugly old men and needs to be destroyed ASAP" plot bugged me alot, especially with the it being based in a country that dressed like an orientalist version of Egypt.

The whole "protect women from being kidnapped by evil desert religion" and "women in the evil desert religion are just brainwashed and need to be rescued by a real man" thing, also really bugged me, it again doesn't help the conflict in the story is ended only by killing everyone in the bad religion.

Awakening mixed in misogyny with racism. The game depicted every female antagonist as a brainwashed victim that needed to be rescued by a man.

Yeah, that about sums up my thoughts about how Awakening's villains were depicted, on reflection. Not to mention the DLC characters' portrayal--Aversa's entire support with F!Robin is horrid, from the entry premise of "foreign woman stealing Robin's 'man' with her sex appeal" to the fact Robin even entertains this notion for a second and gets in petty fights with Aversa as a result. Definitely emphasizes the misogyny inherent there (and don't even get me started on how different F!Robin's supports are from some of M!Robin's for no good reason). Gangrel just being the comically evil guy who's there for some reason is a pretty big waste too--he considers what he's going to do if you do supports, but it doesn't change his ending being "he does nothing positive and goes and dies" or, if you marry him as F!Robin and invoke the "I can fix him" principle, he's just a single-word footnote. (That entire support is really... not good, too.)

There is one other woman who I'd argue isn't portrayed as "needing to be saved", but... Tharja is an entire can of worms in herself. Talk about the orientalist gaze, a fetishization of stalking, and a depiction of brutal child and spousal abuse as "funny". She's in no way "good" Plegian representation, and it still baffles me she's as popular as she is (I know why, but it still confounds me). And then they have the nerve to make her 'incarnation' the only lesbian romance option in Fates, as a child character no less.

Robin is just about the only Plegian to not be stereotyped as some horrible person (Henry is the other Plegian that's playable, and he's got little care for human life, at least in the localization) and that's because it's their alter-ego from the future that's a terrible horrible person and they actually lost their memory and were cared for by The Good Guys!

I just wish the developers would take five seconds to flesh out the group of eeeeeeevil people they have in every game (even Three Houses leans back on a goddamn "super advanced secret society pulling the strings", even though they could just as easily have written a reasonable multi-sided conflict). Or at least to avoid stereotyping them so heavily. Appreciate the discussion, by the way, anon--hadn't really had the chance to organize a lot of these thoughts before.

#asks #tw racism #tw misogyny

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sullustangin · 2 years

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Worldbuilding Wednesday: “The Force” *Supposedly*

Spoilers ahoy for a character in Obi-Wan: Haja Estree. This is a brief look at the character, then discussion about building a Force skeptical character in fic.

In Episode 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi, we meet Haja Estree. He pretends to be a Jedi as a means of smuggling people off Daiyu... and taking all their money.

Haja Estree made me so happy to see because a) there are grifters like that in every culture that prey upon believers; b) it substantiates some skepticism and irreverence toward Jedi; people like Han Solo have seen this guy in some form, in their life.

Prior to Order 66, there were probably a lot more people like Haja Estree in various backwaters and underworlds in the galaxy, pulling the same stunt. We see this in SWTOR itself, somewhat, with Guss Tuno -- who really does have access to the Force, but he can only see it. He can’t use it. He is a failed padawan, but there is something more to him than someone who didn’t have the Force at all. He still fakes being a Jedi Master with a stolen lightsaber, and he runs a good game until busted by the smuggler.

Haja is probably a dying species because the Empire is keen to stamp out any traces of the Jedi Order and any ‘fandom’ that might follow it. Even grifters are dangerous to the absolute authority the Empire wishes to assert. Haja is playing a dangerous game -- but it’s one that is highly lucrative, because who wouldn’t trust a Jedi? He’s “one of the few left.” He’s “in hiding.” It’s very daring, and he’s selling a romanticized view of the Jedi, as people would like to remember them under an oppressive Empire. It’s brilliant, but potentially deadly as we saw at the end of Episode 2 of Obi Wan Kenobi.

We can view Haja Estree as either really cynical or really hopeful. On the one hand, he’s making tons of money off vulnerable people. On the other hand, he is delivering on what he promised, based on what is conveyed in the TV series. He is saving people... and the Jedi live a little bit long through him. He keeps the memory alive. When it comes down to it, he does try to delay Reva long enough to save Obi-Wan. There is a moment where he realizes his scam -- and the Jedi ‘scam’ -- isn’t actually a scam for some people with certain gifts. He might have liked Obi-Wan, but maybe he didn’t actually believe in this Force thing until that second when Reva dove into his mind.

I do hope Haja survives to flim-flam again. I think it would be the ultimate irony if he was found to have a little Force Sensitivity... but only enough to manifest in strange luck or attracting people to him like some bizarre magnet.

Below the cut are ideas about building a Force-Skeptical character -- who might take the form of someone like Haja Estree.

NB: This is not an Order 66 stan, nor an anti-Jedi one. Rather, it discusses the crafting of a character that doesn’t believe in the Jedi/Sith ways about the Force. They don’t buy into the religions/philosophies, but that doesn’t mean they’d be ok with genocide. It must be acknowledged that canonically, Palpatine played on the skepticism surrounding the Force in the way the Jedi wielded it to make people hostile toward them, indifferent to their extermination, or terrified that they would be killed alongside the Jedi. There were still those who were not believers and resisted the propaganda.

Do you believe in magic?

Skeptics have a lot of ways of being doubtful about the Force and its Adherents. Are they doubting the existence of the Force itself? Doubting the Light Side/Dark Side thing? Doubting the Jedi/Sith teachings on it? Doubting the organizations, rather than the teachings? This is one thing that needs to be determined early on when making such a skeptical character, especially if they deal with Jedi/Sith on a regular basis.

Haja Estree made me happy because he’s sort of the “Exhibit A” in a Force skeptic’s portfolio. It’s a scam -- or at least it doesn’t work like you think it does. Canonically, Sith and Jedi are relatively rare in the universe. By the end of the Republic, they’re down to about 10,000 prior to Order 66. Some of stuff Force Users do is wild -- you’d have to see it to believe it. Your odds of seeing a Force User in action are low, unless you have the misfortune of being in a warzone.

The fake “Jedi” con artist appeals to me because there are people like that in every world -- he’s a ‘real’ character we’ve seen. We read in the papers ‘couple busted for selling tickets to heaven’ or ‘holy water actually tap water’ in real life. They may have always existed (in fan works or in the EU), but they haven’t really been visualized to this point.

Eva Corolastor is my OC from SWTOR -- Old Republic Era, wherein the Jedi are more numerous and there is a Sith Empire. Still, these Force Users are relatively rare. I’ve headcanonned that, although maybe 10% of the entire Galactic population has some Force Sensitivity, that can manifest as just being really good at cards or slot machines, great reflexes as a pilot or athlete, seeing the Force but not using it (Guss Tuno), or full-blown “I can chuck rocks with my mind.” Lucky people may not have enough Force Sensitivity to join the Orders, but they have enough to do well at other things. I leave the actual number of full-fledged Jedi/Sith ambiguous.

Haja is the type of charlatan that Eva thinks most Jedi and Sith are. He has magnets and electronics that simulate Force powers. Haja has partners that make it all possible, from the departure gate to Coruscant -- it’s a little conspiracy.

Eva thinks that’s probably how it all works, up and down the chain. Eva believes ‘something’ is out there. She’s not a complete Force atheist. For her, there are some people that really have ‘something else.’ However, she thinks the organized religions and philosophies -- the Jedi and the Sith -- are BS. That’s her verdict later too with Zakuul and their flying dragon god thing. (It makes so much better sense when it’s the Gravestone; she understands legendary flying ships, as a pilot). Eva has also impersonated a Jedi once or twice; she knows that these tricks can be done with the right tech, not ‘a connection to the Force.

From a piece posted in 2020:

Eva saw Corso appear at the top of the ladder, having emerged from the cockpit. He picked up the manual as she finished her climb. “It was kind of rude that the Sith lady referred to you as ‘inadequate.’”

Eva hoisted herself up to her feet at the top of the ladder. “To me, they’re actively running a scam – a well-orchestrated scam with religious decorations and feel-good mysticism, whether you like helping people or helping yourself. They use magnets, anti-grav units, laser lights – high-end con tricks. I’d feel better about them if they just copped to it.” Eva took the book from Corso’s hands and the two of them walked back up to the cockpit.

“Ah, but you believe Guss when he senses things.” Corso waggled a finger at her as they sat down in the pilot and co-pilot seats.

“I totally believe Guss when he senses things. I believe something is out there in the universe. You know that.” Corso nodded; she had said as much in the past. “I just think the Jedi and the Sith have it wrong, and some of them know it.”

What does the character actually ‘know’ about Force Users? And how do they know it?

An outsider looking in on the Jedi or Sith Orders would have a very different perspective on them compared to someone who is either raised within the Order (but didn’t become a full-fledged member) or has a close relative that joined the Order. All of those scenarios can result in the facts of the Orders being spun and affect how people feel. But we also know that information about Jedi and Sith are taught to children in the Empire and the Republic, sensitive or not. Obviously, there is more fact than fiction in the Old Republic, compared to what people whispered about post Order 66.

I’ve written Eva as someone who never went to school; her parents were smugglers -- criminals. In my headcanon, you have to register your ship for distance learning or accredited homeschool curricula -- that’s not an option for career criminals. So Eva’s education is piecemeal . She’s highly intelligent, but what she learned was ‘I need to know this for this illicit job.’ She does have blind spots - areas of ignorance. People with formal educations can also have similar blindspots, but that’s due more to eyerolling dismissal or being more interested in the latest holonet serial instead of class; it happens to all, in some way, on a variety of topics. Character education does matter, especially when we start treading around conspiracy theories about Force Users.

Eva does believe a conspiracy is possible. She is a bit of a troll; she likes riling up Corso, who is very pro Pub, Pro Jedi. She’ll say to him that Jedi and the Sith are doing these laser light shows with organized backing and professional training. They put on the show, and they profit -- the get deference, political power, preferred status in educational curricula (there’s how many of then in the galaxy? And everyone learns about them in school?). Someone’s gotta build those Temples, and in the Republic, the workers gotta be paid wages and get theri union smoke breaks. Someone pays: the government, who buys into the Force User scheme...

Some of this is bravado, things that she loudly talks about at bars with other non-Force Sensitives. Some of it is a byproduct of a narrow education. Some of it is her knowledge that she -- who is Force-Null as a bantha -- can imitate the effects. Eva also doesn’t like being bested by Force Users, so it’s a little bit of ego too. How much of this does she believe, really? Hard to tell. Eva does start to buy in more to certain aspects of the Force and how it operates after her experiences in KotXX and Echoes of Oblivion... but she will still go to less 'magical’ explanations first.

That brings up a good point: what do you think is said about Jedi and Sith in public education in the Star Wars universe? In our world, public educational systems were created in the 1800s to indoctrinate young people: make good citizens, make a good workforce, and make successful people. That last one is kinda optional; depending on the priorities of a nation, they either want loyalty or workers most of all, with people doing ‘well’ in life sort of a secondary thing. This isn’t me being cynical -- this is history, quite literally (but the bit you’re not supposed to say out loud). What are the galactic standards? What varies on a planet-by-planet basis? The Core Worlds and the Seat of the Empire probably have an entire section of school based on their Force Users. Someone who went through the paces of a public education in the Republic or the Empire would know and have positive impressions of the Jedi or Sith -- or at least a healthy respect for what they could do with their power. but what about in the Outer Rim or in a colony? Probably better than an uneducated character, but some things may just not be relevant to them; agriculture may take the place of something else.

As a result, we have a double-edged sword of Eva’s home education: she doesn’t buy into what most other people do (lack of political indoctrination) but her education lacks scope. While the student isn’t burdened by excessively structure and unnecessary factoids, she also lacks knowledge in anything beyond what she’s good at and prepped for by her parents, who are smugglers themselves. They narrow the curriculum -- which leads to bias.

How do you feel about space wizards?

Haja is also interesting because he doesn’t bear the Jedi any ill-will, personally. If anything, he’s banking off their good reputation -- and doing some good in a chaotic way. That said, was he the sort of guy to stand up and fight against Order 66? Probably not; survival for him was probably marginal in the first place, and that wasn’t going to feed him. Does he believe in the Force himself? Eh, who knows. They had their gig. They’re gone now.

People’s interactions with Sith or Jedi shape their world view of them. As mentioned above, for many, they are fairy tales, even when they are alive and well in the Old Republic. There’s so few and they are so fantastical. However, once they are saved or harmed by a Force User, that will absolutely give them an opinion!

That opinion may run contrary to how the rest of the galaxy perceives that group: a great example is Din Djarin’s rescue by Deathwatch. They were ‘bad’ in Star Wars Clone Wars... but they saved him. We like/love/lust after Din, even as we understand that he’s technically a member of a cult that operates in religious extremes, such as never taking off the helmet.

Din doesn’t see himself as a cult member or an extremist, at least until he meets other Mandalorians. He still may not, since he wishes to do penance for removing his helmet and violating his religion’s rules (does checking the Dark Saber as luggage count as a religious violation, if weapons are your religion?). In the same way, your character can see of Sith or Jedi as good rather than bad or bad rather than good. Building a Revanite OC for SWTOR would be an example of this, if your character was rescued by the Cult of Revan.

With any character looking at a Force User, when not in a ‘saving!’ situation, do they assume benevolent intent or bad intent? If they think the Force is a scam, is that necessarily a bad thing if good comes from it? Or do they just sigh and think ‘bless their hearts’ and let them do whatever handwaving they want?

Personal interactions with the Orders will shape what your character feels about the Force Users. If you’re jealous of a sibling that got in and you did not -- that changes things. If you feel like your relative was ‘stolen’ -- that changes things.

If you feel like you are special and have the power... but you’re too far away from the Core for anyone to sense you -- that changes things.

However, what if a character views a Sith as a witch? or a Jedi as a magician? Are witches good in their society? Is magic outside the bounds of the sanctioned local religion bad? Does it automatically come from the ‘bad place’ if it doesn’t explicitly come from the ‘good god’? Are Force Users blasphemous in some way, by their very nature? The Force is something supernatural. There are religious elements to it. Your character’s own personal religious views -- whether it’s Mandalorian, Trandoshian, or something else -- may come into conflict.

Or it might not; George Lucas envisioned the whole Force religion thing as Space Buddhism, which is a non-competitive religion. It doesn’t demand sole adherence; you can be a Buddhist and worship other gods/practice other religions at the same time. It’s the other religions that DO demand one-god worship or sole adherence that have a problem with multi-tasking here.

Force-Skeptic characters can be a lot of fun to play around with, but there needs to be nuance and consideration as to how and why they think as they do. Bigots are easy, as are devotees. It’s the in-between that can be challenging for writers, but they’re often some of the most interesting characters.

#star wars #obi-wan kenobi #obi-wan kenobi spoilers #haja estree #worldbuilding #force skeptical character #swtor #smuggler oc #force skepticism

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