#morally speaking

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

could you elaborate your thoughts more on "but should we believe Wynne-Jones' Calcifer or the youkai/ayakashi of animanga are meant to be that kind of demon?" and "It's the same cultural disconnect that led so many Christian parents in the 90s to condemn Pokemon as satanic". Specially about Calcifer? Please?

I wish that when translating asian media, particularly anime, they would keep their non-translated nomenclature, it always translates to "demon" or whatever alternative we have.

Well part of the issue is that our word "demon" comes from the Greek word δαίμων or daimōn, which is the word used in the New Testament, but it is not a word invented by the New Testament writers. Here is an excerpt from the Oxford Reference about it:

Etymologically daimōn means ‘divider’ or ‘allotter’; from Homer onwards it is used mainly in the sense of performer of more or less unexpected, and intrusive, events in human life. In early authors, gods, even Olympians, could be referred to as daimŏnĕs. Rather than referring to personal anthropomorphic aspects, however, daimōn appears to correspond to supernatural power in its unpredictable, anonymous, and often frightful manifestations. So, the adjective daimonios means ‘strange’, ‘incomprehensible’, ‘uncanny’. Hence daimōn soon acquired connotations of Fate. Hesiod introduced a new meaning: the deceased of the golden age were to him ‘wealth‐giving daimones’ functioning as guardians or protectors. This resulted in the meaning ‘personal protecting spirits’, who accompany each human's life and bring either luck or harm. A lucky, fortunate person was eudaimōn (‘with a good daimon’: already in Hesiod), an unlucky one was kakodaimōn (‘with a bad daimon’: from the 5th cent. bc). Centuries later, Christian theologians, concentrating on their negative aspects, saw in daimones the true nature of the pagan gods: they were the embodiment and source of evil and sin.

With this in mind, it makes sense that for translators, the most sophisticated translation for any kind of supernatural weird little creature would be "demon" or "daemon." Especially in a modernist, materialist society that views Judeo-Christian demons as merely one mythology out of many.

Calcifer is a very interesting case, because while he is called a demon in the Japanese Studio Ghibli adaptation, he is also called a demon in the original book by Welsh author Diana Wynne Jones. What many people don't realize is that Mrs. Jones was highly educated, having studied at Oxford under the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Her husband was also a scholar of Chaucer. Unfortunately, I think because she was writing children's fantasy in the 70s and 80s, people don't think her work warrants much deeper analysis.

As with all her stories, I think she brought a special kind of cleverness to the table when writing Calcifer that is first exemplified by his name.

"Calcifer" is a common noun, referring to sea creatures like anemones which construct their own shells from Calcium Carbonate, much like how Calcifer constructs the moving castle.

"Calcifer" resembles the Latin model of "Lucifer" which means "bringing light" or "light bringer," but rather than "light" she's substituted the Latin root for "limestone" (calcis), which is also made of Calcium Carbonate.

You know what's neat about Calcium Carbonate? It doesn't burn.

Following this thread through to Calcifer's backstory:

Calcifer was a falling star that Howl intercepted, which slightly resembles Satan's origin story as a fallen angel of light. However, Diana Wynne Jones knew perfectly well that Christian demons are not really falling stars, so we can know she did not intend to write Calcifer as a Judeo-Christian demon. More likely, I think she was paying homage to classics such as Paradise Lost.

Calcifer strikes a bargain with Howl for his heart, which I consider an homage to Faust by Goethe, in which the titular character can be said to have devoured beautiful young women.

As a character, Calcifer is very morally grey and often seems in a league above the other characters as far as stakes and decision-making. This is very characteristic of the mythical creatures of Celtic legend, which are still a very present background element of Welsh culture today, much like the trolls and elves of Scandinavian culture. Many of these mythical creatures are referred to as demons, even though they do not align with the Judeo-Christian definition of a demon. Yes, they can be evil or tricky, but they can also be helpful, lucky, or funny. Mostly, they are volatile. Faeries, boggarts, goblins, elves, sea monsters, and more have all been called demons in Welsh folklore.

This could be due to the early interaction between the Welsh and the Romans (compared to, say, the Irish who kept up their Druidism for much longer), and consequently Christians. I know from Scandinavian folklore that the meshing of Pagan culture with Christian newcomers usually becomes very weird very quickly, with the resulting mythology resembling neither party.

Tl;dr Calcifer is the product of a Welsh upbringing and a classical education, and is explicitly not a demon in the Judeo-Christian sense.

As for Pokemon in the U.S., it's mainly a translation issue. Word got around that lots of Pokemon are based on youkai, which gets translated to "demon" in English, even though they are not Judeo-Christian demons and are much closer to the above cited faeries and goblins. Voila, Satanic Panic 2.0.

#- HK #thank you for this opportunity to nerd out today #Calcifer #DWJ #Studio Ghibli #x #Christianity #mythology #analysis #if you want to know what the actual demons of foreign cultures were; they were the primary deities they worshiped #and whichever spirits they invoked to practice magic or seeing #for this reason I would not watch Noragami for a long time. #but when I realized that modern Japan doesn't actually *believe* the Shintoism they observe #I knew it would be no different from reading The Odyssey or Gilgamesh #morally speaking

[usaigi]

I hate the implication that the Spider-Man in our universe is the goddamn popsicle

#marvel #across the spiderverse #spider man #spider man across the spider verse #atsv #atsv spoilers #spiderman atsv #spider man into the spider verse #into the spider verse #itsv #miles morales #peter b parker #peter parker #gwen stacy #miguel o'hara #usaigi speaks

[fromjannah]

ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE + memes/text posts (1/?)

#across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderverse #miles morales #miguel o'hara #hobie brown #gwen stacy #peter b parker #pavitr prabhakar #incorrect quotes #text posts #memes #jannah speaks #all text posts i've used for l&c. i admit it.

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

Israel has planned its latest bombing campaign around the American consumer. They waited for the Super Bowl to begin before they launched a violent attack on Rafah Refugee Camp.

So between the noise of Beyoncé’s new album, Taylor Swift cheering on her boyfriend and Usher’s performance, we are viewing the corpses of dead children.

We are truly living in dystopian times.

#please don’t ignore rafah #to my fellow swifties please please please speak out when you can #astounded by the moral apathy #taylor swift #swifties #beyonce #act II #taylorswift #usher #superbowl #super bowl #gaza #palestine #rafah

[babybirbb]

i don’t know what’s funnier: spidernoir and spider-ham being invited to the spider society and them turning it down, or just straight up not being invited to join lmao

#i was wondering where they were especially after i saw peni #it was good to see them at the end of the movie tho #they better have speaking parts in the next one #the gangs all back together #thanks gwen #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman #across the spiderverse #across the spider verse spoilers #atsv spoilers #atsv #spiderman atsv #spider noir #spider ham #peter benjamin parker #peter porker #miles morales #marvel

[alenseress]

Upside down spider reunions

#spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderverse fanart #spiderman atsv #miles morales #hobie brown #spider punk #punkflower #putting them in my pocket as we speak

[fansids]

On their way to go annoy Miguel <3

(Ft. Meows Morales, Guin Stacy, Rabbitr Prabhakar, Margo Kestrel, and Yotie Brown)

#across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderman across the verse #miles morales #gwen stacy #pavitr prabhakar #hobie brown #margo kess #meows morales #spider byte #spider punk #spiderman india #this took an ungodly amount of time to do #Margo especially #speaking of which stop excluding my girl Margo out of the spiderteens #don't know what to call this...universe? ...au? #maybe meows n friends or something like that idk #myart #edit: got rid of some negative space

[killlerfang1]

The Puerto Rican flag showing up when Rio snaps at Miles for getting a B in Spanish is such a fun little example of the incredible attention to detail in this movie

#across the spiderverse #atsv #miles morales #rio morales #my post #i am going to be absolutely FERAL when this movie comes out #spiderverse #I relate to miles a lot here. like i can read/write/speak etc in spanish but i don't do any work which is why i have a D in class rn #also some of those old castillian texts are hard as fuck my god-

[brown-spider]

Headcanon that at least half of Miles' community already knows he's Spider-Man cuz bro LITERALLY WORE HIS NAME TAG WHILE IN HIS SUIT??

THAT'S YOUR CUSTOMIZED SCHOOL BAG WITH "Miles" WRITTEN ON IT, SOMEONE'S GONNA KNOW IT'S YOU 😭

#miles morales #atsv #atsv miles #across the spiderverse #clips/screens #spider speaks

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 271

“Grandmother is visiting,” Damian suddenly said with no warning and with his usual not-quite demanding tone. 

“Who?” Tim wasn’t the only one to startle, seeing as Bruce had practically froze, a downturn to his lips in a silent show of confusion. 

Damian scowled. “Are you deaf Drake? Grandmother is coming to Gotham to, quote, make sure I am being properly cared for.” None of them had known that Ras was with anyone actually. At least Tim was pretty sure that would have been in the files. 

“Oh?” Dick didn’t quite crouch to Damian’s height but it was a near thing. “She-” “He,” Damian corrected, interrupting him. They all exchanged a glance before Dick continued. 

“Is he coming to the Manor or…” 

Damian scoffed again, a tiny bit of a flush against his face. “No, Grandmother will most likely be staying with Akhi-”

Now wait one moment-

“YOU HAVE ANOTHER BROTHER?!” 

#DCxDP #DPxDC #Prompts #Deadly Decisions #Danny & Ras are the homoerotic rivals that no one knows if they’re flirting or attempting a murder #It’s actually both they’re just also both Immortal #Danny to Jason: You can become a crime lord if you finish college- you’ve said you wanted to get a degree this is ur chance #Dusan (nodding): Mother has made all of us finish at least our basic education nephew #Why yes this does mean that RH has just made the heads in a duffel bag debut & the bats have no clue it’s Jason #Normally Danny wanders the universe but RAS (affectionately derogatory) HOW DARE U TRY TO HIDE THE GRANDCHILDREN #Morally Gray Danny #He’s well over 300 and that has an affect lol #Also has some fun fae vibes thx to his ghost half & human half finally balancing out #Let Jason & Damian be brothers #Tiny Damian: Akhi look I found a frog :> #Jason (newly not brain damaged & has no clue who this small child is): …. That’s great #Tiny Damian: *GASP* Akhi you can talk now :D #Fuck it- all the Al Ghuls deserve fangs from ecto contamination #Is Danny actually Dusan & Talia’s mother? No one knows and no one wants to ask the probably immortal fae being okay #Danny brought Damian a ghost hound puppy & Jason an original signed Pride & Prejudice book #How come Bruce wasn’t aware of Danyal? Talia forgot to inform him that the mother she was speaking of is in fact still alive #He disappears for a decade sometimes longer she was using past terms how was he supposed to know

[murcielagatito]

“hobie and pavitr are my favorites” lets give it up once again for miles morales. miles morales proud afropuertorican. miles morales who keeps being pushed to the side in his own story. miles morales who tells you himself he’ll create his own path. miles morales who will not let anyone stand in his way from saving those he loves. miles morales who will put himself in danger so pavitr, a stranger he has just met, doesnt have to suffer the same fate of all the other spideys. miles morales who in purely existing is punk as fuck and hobie clocks it from the start and has his back. lets give it up for miles morales, because even outside the movies he keeps being pushed aside in his own story

#white ppl ur not allowed to speak on this post #miles morales #hobie brown #pavitr prabhakar #atsv #spiderverse

[k-kroomie]

When Miles gets mad, he speaks Spanish. And I'm talking bout that, "Rio is mad about to beat somebody ass" type of Spanish. That's how any spider-person knows they've pissed him off.

And it scares a good amount of them too because he's acting like somebody Mama snapping his fingers when they aren't paying attention to what he is saying, pacing back and fourth, shaking his head, mumbling stuff ect.

But you know Miles, he is switching back and forth from Spanish and English. Which makes them like 10times more scary. Because to them it's like "I understand you man and I'm sorry," then it's "I lost you- what did you say!? What am I supposed to do!? Oh my gosh!!" And he ends ever angry rant with either, "Don't do that shit again" or "do you understand me" (like I said - like somebody's mama)

And Hobie? Hobie is the biggest instigator, so if he so happens to hear, walk by, be in the room whatever- he will back up Miles all the way. Because he thinks Miles looks cute when he gets mad. Yea, he's scarying the crap out of whoever he's screaming at, but to Hobie, it's cute. The way his face is scrunched up and the way he's probably cussing the person out. Hobie doesn't understand him but he backs him up all the way even if Miles is wrong.

Bonus:

Miguel agrees with everything Miles is saying when he's mad because he found out that Miles got a B in Spanish, so he is shocked when Miles comes into his office one day going on a full rant (in Spanish) about some of the spider-people who where being openingly racist. Miguel is so shocked that he doesn't say anything, making Miles walk out of the room to sit them straight himself.

And ever since then, Miguel just agrees every time he hears Miles say, "Right, Tio!?" And he records and sends it to Rio.(I believe that Miguel, MJ and Rio have become Mom Friends you can't change my mind-)

#miles molares #headcanon #miles morales headcanons #miles my beloved #spiderverse #across the spiderverse #atsv #spider man: into the spider verse #punkflower #hobie x miles #hobie brown #miguel o'hara #astv miles #atsv miguel #Miguel is flabbergasted #rio morales #mary jane parker #miles speaks good spanish #miles is pissed

[lu-cider]

#tried to think of something to say as a caption #but i think the video speaks for itself #spiderman atsv #across the spider verse fanart #across the spiderverse #atsv fanart #atsv fandom #spiderman fandom #spiderverse #spiderverse fanart #atsv #hobie brown #spider punk #pavitr prabhakar #miles morales

[fromjannah]

ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE + the onion headlines (2/?)

#across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderverse #miles morales #miguel o'hara #hobie brown #gwen stacy #peter b parker #pavitr prabhakar #jefferson davis #the spot #the onion #the onion headlines #memes #incorrect quotes #jannah speaks

[jetlaggingbehind]

AAAAAH I DIDN'T NOTICE AT FIRST BC I THOUGHT HOBIE WAS TELLING MILES TO STOP FIGHTING BUT HE WAS ACTUALLY REMINDING HIM TO USE HIS PALMS!!!!!!!

#HOBIE GOAT REAL #spiderverse #spiderverse spoilers #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman #atsv #atsv spoilers #across the spiderverse #hobie brown #miles morales #gwen stacy #miguel o'hara #peter b parker #juni speaks #video

[bet-on-me-13]

Desperate Villain Danny AU

(this is a 17 yr old danny)

It started out slowly.

First, a few of Danny's less active Rouges stopped showing up at all. He didn't really notice, and just assumed that they had finally had their Fill of their Obsession for a while and would simmer down for a bit.

Then, some more of his Rouges stopped showing up. No big deal, but he is getting a little concerned for them. They had definitely not had their fill of their Obsessions yet, why did they stop?

Then, the worst started happen. All of his actual Ghost Friends start to disappear. Ember, Kitty, Johnny, even Amorpho, they all start to not show up at all in the Living World.

He goes looking for them in Realms, but he can't find any of them whatsoever. He tries asking around, but everybody else noticed the disappearances much earlier than him and began to hide away from whatever was taking all of the strong Ghosts. He can't find anybody, and the ones he does find won't tell him anything (or don't know themselves)

It takes weeks of searching, but eventually he gets his answer.

The GIW show up in Amity again after a period of absolutely no activity. They have stepped up their operations HARD. Advanced Ghost Hunting Equipment, Much more Competent Agents, and most worrying of all, they seem to know that Phantom is friends with Sam, Tucker, and Danny Fenton.

The GIW comes to his house for a Meeting with his parents, where he overhears them offering his parents a position in their Organization as Head Scientists. While there they also manage to plant Bugs in Danny's room somehow. Although he finds them quickly enough and destroys them.

And then, one night during dinner while his parents are ranting about the GIWs Labs, they mention something that cinches it for Danny.

"And today we even got to Dissect one of the Spooks! It was that Mind Controlly one, you know the one with the blue firey hair stuff that sang a bunch! We're going back tomorrow to continue our Study, this time we'll see how long it'll pretend to experience pain before it decides to give up on tricking us!"

That night, Danny packed up all his things, destroyed the Ghost Portal alongside everything else in his parents Lab, and left his house.

He tracked down the GIW Base, saved Ember from her Cell, and decimated the surrounding Area. No survivors, none of the research is preserved, and he left the Site Director alive to question him.

Turns out, the GIW had managed to Reverse Engineer the Ghost Portal from that brief period of time where they had taken control of Fenton Works. They had been using their own Portal to kidnap any Ghost they could get their hands on. Using the research from those subjects, they perfected their Ghost Hunting Tech and started going after the bigger fish.

"But good luck finding it, Ecto Scum! The Portals location was hidden to everybody, even me!" He said.

"Where are the others!" Danny cried. He was losing control of his appearance by this point. After seeing what they had done to Ember, he was too angry to maintain his Humanoid Form successfully. Even now, with most of his control, he could hear the Static in the air around him, and see the Glitching of his hands as they clenched this Monsters clothes.

"Scattered!" He said with a crazed laugh, "We knew we couldn't contain all of them, so we send them to all of our sites across the Country! You'll never find them!"

Without another word, Danny plowed his arm through the man's chest.

He turned around, picking up Embers weakened Body, before beginning his long flight to Wisconsin. Vlad still owed him a few Favors after all, and honestly his mentorship offers seemed VERY Tempting right now.

(Why reject him if you don't care about keeping your dad alive anymore?)

...

The JLA had recently received a distress signal from somewhere in the middle of some random Forest in Illinois, but when they got to the location, all they found was a crater filled with the ruins of some kind of Military Base, and so so many Bodies.

They had managed to figure out that this was a Government Site owned by an organization called the GIW. A Paranormal Investigation Wing of the Government focused on the study and capture of Supernatural Beings called Ecto-Entities, otherwise referred to as Ghosts.

As it turns out, an Ecto-Entity that had been terrorizing the local town for a few years now had made a drastic change in normal behavior and had attacked the GIW Base that had been posted there.

They would have destroyed it years ago, but this one was unnaturally powerful. It had eluded their capture and terrorized the Town for years, but they had too much pride to contact the JLA and admit that they needed help. And honestly until now, they didn't really need it. The Entity had been entirely confined to the singular town, and had not strayed from that behavioral Pattern in the 3 years since it's inital sighting. They had made the difficult choice to leave it there, sacrificing one town in exchange for the rest of the country.

But now they did need their help. This Entity, this Phantom, was one of the most powerful beings that had ever recorded, maybe even The Most Powerful. The fact that it had left the Secluded town it usually frequented meant that it was loose to wreak havoc across the rest of the world.

The JLA Needed to Find this thing, and Fast.

#Dp x dc #Dpxdc #Dc #Dcu #Danny Phantom #Villain Danny Phantom #Morally Grey Danny Phantom #He doesn't care about killing GIW agents #He'll still avoid Civilians though #Danny accepts Vlads offer #He doesn't care anymore cause he has no reason to refuse #He doesn't care about being evil #He doesn't care if his dad dies #And Ellie once told him that she still held some love for vlad so that's not really too big a conflict of interest #Speaking of Ellie... #He hasn't seen her in a while... #🤫 #Foreshadowing??? #Hmmm