#people are posting bible verses in the replies LOL

[prettysymbiosis]

I just noticed this is the pinned comment on the trailer on yt and I just think that's interesting

#when we sit here posting for hours analyzing why a seed in the teeth is a metaphor for change it's because of the subtlety.... ya feel? #🔍👀 🤔 #like.. in the trailer they use “subtle” and “classy” to describe themselves and yet it's full of the usual loud obnoxious and crude shit #but they also say they don't want to be on a show where they're made to look dumb and bad #but then the trailer literally ends with an animation of a toilet flushing?? #to me it reads like they want to be liked and respected but they understand the vibes they’ve curated these many years at the same time #I have crow brain but for meta-analysis in art #sunny #always sunny #sunny 16 #iasip #iasip s16 #people are posting bible verses in the replies LOL

[pumpumdemsugah]

I know frequently the “anti terf” people lie about this straight up but sometimes they don’t. Here’s an example where clearly there are links between “disagree with trans ideology due to feminism” < - > “like anything “transphobic” because edgy” < - > “disagree with trans ideology due to trad/mra racist alt right views”

https://www.tumblr.com/ladiablesse/729815657616736257/the-fact-that-this-post-of-all-things-ended-up-on

As fucking typical the right wing n word saying bullshit starts right after https://www.tumblr.com/americanette reblogs it

She doesn’t say it but she does say some mra bullshit about how the real sadness here is men aren’t protecting women as they rightly should 🙄

Then within the next hour here come

https://costcohotdogandsoda.tumblr.com/

(Also with Bible verse in bio)

Saying “average n*gger behavior.”

And https://www.tumblr.com/anew-jackson

Saying ““black men are inherently violent”

radfem 🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 radright”

Where op is still off base is the majority of the notes on her post are actually radfems or adjacent and none of them at all lead to right wing blogs picking it up

Plus of course some people just don’t look at who follows them and of course there are right wing assholes who deliberately try to pick off anyone with the slightest disagreement with the main leftist view.

I can’t blog about issues to do with Palestine for example without a bunch of antisemites following me and trying to convince me to be antisemitic about it. That doesn’t prove my views about Palestine are inherently antisemitic — they very much aren’t. Same for how radfems/gc end up being with attracting a lot of right wing actually-transphobic (and sexist and racist and homophobic) attention.

But please people if you are at all connected to blogs like americanette that shit seriously — taking time to disengage our arguments and discussion in all spaces online and off from the right wing will do more for us than the next 10 gc memes you bother to make and post. Don’t lie, you’ve got the time.

This also isn’t like working with your normie right leaning cousin on abortion because she agrees with you about that. You aren’t making connections here you are being made a patsy to keep you alienated from the left and to keep more women on the left from joining us in an actually revolutionary feminist movement. Right wing people online absolutely know the more they get you to openly connect with them the more they can use that to keep young women in particular away from listening to you about feminism

Hypothetical you btw I am sending this to a few different blogs because I bothered writing it and don’t have a rf blog to put it on yet. I’m pretty new. I know this works because it worked to keep me away from learning more about rf for a long time. Not the rumor of racism and FAR right wing connections being ignored or celebrated but seeing the evidence. Hypothetical you btw I am sending this to a few different blogs because I bothered writing it and don’t have a rf blog to put it on yet. I’m pretty new.

Hi there, I've never seen most of these people and you sending this is validating because after I was recommended a post by one of these people ( a generic fuck men type post from Tumblr recommendations tab ) , I thought their blog felt racist lol

It's funny how I went to block all these people and some were already blocked. Anyone male, white and Christian on here is usually a white supremacist.

I can keep my ask anonymous and have a peaceful time on here because I block racist and porn obsessed misogynists whenever the random nonsense comes on my dash, that's the only time I go out of my way to go onto people's blogs and block everyone that replies and likes their posts and blogs they reblog from because I'm not checking otherwise

Someone sent me a message a while ago about white nationalist being on my Black Femicide post and I used that to block a bunch of people so maybe that's how some of them were already blocked by me. I don't really check the notes of my posts so I really appreciated that because they don't care about Black women they want to spread white supremacy

Anyway thanks 👍🏾

#anonymous #asks

[papirouge]

gay trans pt. 2 (lol) i just think i see you being more ready to call out hypocrisy in today christianity than almost anyone. the original post i read that made me send ask was you talking about western gun culture being incongruent w Jesus teaching non-violence and like as an american particularly it was just really refreshing to see a christian acknowledge that.

anyway i can’t actually find/remember your Exact position re: trans but. my understanding is that any admonishment of self-mutilation in the scripture is referring to ritualistic pagan purposes you know baal-worshipping etc? which doesn’t seem meaningful to connect to transgenderism in any way. maybe tenuous i’ll readily admit i’m probably less knowledgeable than you but i think a more legitimate line to examine for that point is probably matthew 19:12? i don’t think He’s referring to trans ppl there necessarily but i do think it sort of makes the bodily-mutilation argument at least a little shaky. i don’t think you can call srs mutilation while saying castration Isn’t yknow

Well, I think Christians have no room to call non-believers out when our own house is in fire lol The state of the Church is very awful and we should look at ourselves and our own shortcomings before weeping at how evil & satanic the world is, when so-called Christians are entertaining this same evilness. When you read the Bible, you realize that Jesus called out his fellow Jews (Pharisees), not heathens. He knew that heathen didn't know better ; but Jews, they were supposed to know better, because the Jews were God chosen people who were supposed to be the light of the world, and show the good example. Instead, they abused their power and totally manipulated the Law to fulfill their evil deeds. I'm just trying to follow Jesus example by mostly calling out Christians and call out their abuse & twist of the word of God to fulfill their wickedness. Also it's important to note that I'm often including myself in my apologetics. My Christian side blog @pickmeforjesus is kind of diary at times lol

What in Matthew 19:12 do you find "shaky" regarding body mutilation? First of all, there is the famous 1 Corinthians 19-20 verses

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

If you acknowledge that your body isn't "yours" but to God, it implies that we cannot do anything with our body that does not glorify Him. Therefore, changing our body over vanity (tattoo, piercing, hair dye, etc), has to go. But also, if God made you a woman and that you change to become a man, it's literally denying God's decision to make you a female - and vice versa💀

Also Matthew 19:12 when properly examined....goes against trans ideology

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Trans people are the "eunuch of men" (literally. SRS literally sterilizes people...) and this opposition is put up in oppositions to "eunuch for the kingdom of heaven's sake" aka people who chosen celibacy/abstinence. If you read Matthew 19 from the beginning of the chapter, Jesus is talking about divorce, marriage, men and women relationships. When he talks about those who were "able to receive it", he's talking about the "kingdom of God". Christians receive it by accepting Christ as their lord and savior. In verse 8-9 Jesus explains that remarrying after a divorce is adultery (except for sexual immorality). Then in verse 10, the apostles say that it's then better for people to not marry at all. So in Matthew 11-12 Jesus is replying as of why chosen celibacy ("eunuch for the kingdom of God") is relevant to God, unlike "eunuch of men". He's making a distinction between people being abstinent because of the flesh (eunuch mutilation), and those abstaining from marriage/sex by & for the Spirit (while they physically still can). By making this opposition/distinction, Jesus implies that both will have a different fate in regard to God's judgment. Only those committed to the kingdom of God while on earth will have a place up there once they die. People mutilating themselves in the flesh won't.

#answered #Christian

[pissedtachioo]

My Mom has 3 sisters, lets just name them bubbles, buttercup and blossom lol. Wtf hahahahah.

Si bubbles is yung kapatid nyang walang wala, like pinabayaan ng mga anak.

Si blossom naman yung kapatid nyang nag hehelp samin.

And si buttercup, yan yung kapatid nyang ang laki ng galit kay mama. Like di ko alam saan nya nakukuha yang hatred na yan parang tanga sya. 🤣

So let’s talk about blossom first.

May asawa siyang foreigner, and to be exact sa asawa nya nang gagaling yung funds na pinang hehelp nya samin but minsan galing din saknya.

Thankful naman kami don but not until nanunumbat na sya and all. She’s kinda manipulative, gusto nya sya ang nasusunod and all. She never listen, sya ang laging tama.

Binilan nya kami ng lot, 300sq.m to be exact. Lagi nyang ginagamit to pang blockmail samin, she always say na kapag hindi kami sumunod mawawala yung mga bagay na meron kami. Lol. Hahahahha

One time napag awayan namin yung 500 pesos, nawala ko kasi yung receipt. Kaya hindi ko matampal sa pagmumuka nya na hello gurl di kita lolokohin sa halagang 500 pesos 🤣

Don’t get me wrong, thankful naman ako sa lahat ng tulong saamin. But not to the extend na mag papamanipulate ako and sila na ang masusunod sa buhay ko. I have a life to live with. Plus, may mga pangarap din naman ako. Haha.

So fast forward, nag padala sya ng package. Consist of chocolates, palaman and etc… my mom was the one who takes care of that, like nag aasikaso lagi ng package nya. My mom is 60 years old, makakalimutin na sya and she forgot na ilagay yung kisses na chocolate sa plastic ni bubbles.

My mom asked bubbles if may kulang ba na chocolate sa knya kasi sobra yung samin. And she didn’t notice it earlier kaya nag message sya sa kay bubbles.

My mom even informed her na ihahatid nalang namin saknya. By the way she is staying sa house ni buttercup hahahahahah so I know na iniisip nyo na pinag kakampihan nilang dalawa si mama. And you’re fckin right! Hahahahahah but that’s a whole different story, lets talk about blossom muna.

My mom message blossom and informed her na hindi nailagay ni mama yung isang chocolate and ihahatid nalang namin.

I was not shocked sa mga nabasa ko but I was deeply hurt. Blossom asked my mom pano nangyari yon hahahahah, she even send a bible verse about pagiging honest, like what the hell???? 60 na yung mom ko, sympre makakalimutin na sya and for God’s sake, para sa kakarampot na chocolate?????? Hahahaha, blossom talked shits and all.. kaya siguro na fed up yung mom ko and my mom just thank her sa lahat ng help nya but after that my mom did not message her. Deserve!!!!! Kahit ako naman di ko na memessage yun kung ganyan!!! Dahil lang sa chocolates mag hihinala ka na niloloko ka and all ahhahahahahahaha

To make the story short, nag message sakin si bubbles telling me na ibebenta na daw ni blossom yung regalo nya samin lupa. And ayusin ko na daw lahat ng papers. Like hell no! Bat ako mag aayos nyan? Hahahaha kayo makikinabang bat di anak nyo yung mag ayos ahhahaah. Lol I just replied na yung title ng lupa is ok naman na, and if need nila they can get it naman and sunday lang ako available kasi may work ako monday-saturday. Hahahhaha

Akala siguro nila hindi kami papayag na ibenta yun. Hahaha lol.

Gusto ko lang i share to’ because naiinis ako. Hahaha, but this is what makes me more driven. One day, bibilan ko ng hektaryang lupain si mama at papa, malayo sa mga toxic nilang kapatid. Walang sumbat silang maririnig.

Babalikan ko tong post ko, 2-3yrs after ang iuupdate ko to with the pictures of the land that I’ve purchased. To all people na nakakaranas din ng gantong treatment sa kamag anak nila, sabay sabay tayong lumaban, para sa pangarap natin, para sa magulang natin most specially para hindi na natin muling danasin to’.

✨🫶

#personal #family

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x19: More Stuff Pointing to Beth’s Imminent Return

Morning Everyone! As you can see, these are just a few more odds and ends about 10x19 that I didn’t cover yesterday. It’s not so much details or not details as just things I didn’t get around to in my first post, which was already very long. So, in no particular order, here goes.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x19. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

First off, there were several Beth references that didn’t occur to me until I was watching the episode live.

Gabriel’s whole speech about how the bible is “still” important.

He gives Mays this rundown about how the word of God is still important and applicable. How it’s a beacon of light in an otherwise very dark world.

Now, I’m sure lots of people picked up on this as a Beth reference. Talk of the bible. Talk of light in the darkness. These are symbols that have definitely been used around her before. But what struck me upon rewatching it was the way he said it was “still” important. It can be directly linked to her “I still sing.” And if you analyze both conversations, both are about transcendence, rather than just surviving.

Mays fires his gun at the little office, and then only afterward, tells Gabriel Aaron is inside and asks, “do you think he made it?”

Guys, this is subtle, but this is a huge parallel of Beth. Think about it. Aaron being in the office could almost represent a tomb of some kind. He’s tied up (imprisonment). Mays shoots the gun (bullets). Then asks, “Do you think he made it?” When he goes to check, he says, “looks like he’s still breathing.” And then, when he brings Aaron out, he’s bleeding from a wound in the left side of his forehead. Exactly same place as where Beth was shot.

 I can’t believe it took me like 3x watching the episode to pick that up, lol.

Gabriel’s story about his mentor

I felt like this had to be important, but it was hard for me to say how. And even now, I don’t think I have it all pinned down, but it may not matter. This speech may actually be more about Gabriel and his character than anything else.

I did wonder if the mentor in his story could represent Rick. It doesn’t all fit in detail (Rick’s not the biggest people person out there, lol) but there was a time when Rick really didn’t like Gabriel and wouldn’t give him the time of day (understandably) but eventually Gabriel earned his trust and they did become friends. Even if I’m right that this represents Rick, I’m not sure what the point of having this speech here is. It’s probably the kind of thing I’ll have to return to.

As always, I wanted to relate it to Beth, but I wasn’t sure how. I did feel somewhat justified in looking for TD clues here, not only because the episode is so heavy in them, but because right before Gabriel starts relating the story about his mentor, he says, “I’m serious.” And there were a few small clues, such as talk of driving 80 mph (Beth’s been missing 8 years in the show). But that’s pretty small.

But the one big reference that got me kind of excited was the funeral reference. He talked about going to a funeral with his mentor. While there have obviously been other funerals, the one really big one we saw Gabriel preside over was Tyreese’s in 5x09. A huge Beth episode, where we actually saw the number 8 next to her. And we have to assume, if TF tried to bury Beth, that he would have presided there, too. We just haven’t seen that, yet.

But here’s what got me. Even though Gabriel says this was the funeral of the young man, he said he was a college kid. And while Beth never went to college that we know, in Still Daryl did accuse her of looking for hooch like some dumb college bitch.

So, between that and all the other callbacks and references in this episode, I do think this was a subtle reference to her and perhaps to her “funeral” that we never saw. I’m unsure why they’ve put it here or how it’s supposed to function for us, but I think that will become more clear as the story progresses.

TTD:

I’m not going to do a separate Talking Dead post this week, because there just wasn’t tons to point to in this episode. Basically, there were three things that jumped out at me.

1. Ross Marquand mentioned the three people exiled from Alexandria in S5. And it seemed like a really random reference to bring up. I’m not sure why he did. For one thing, it’s a callback to S5. But that thing about those three being exiled was never hugely resolved. I know a couple of them were meant to be the walkers Aaron and Maggie found in the sewer, but still. It feels unresolved to me, and him bringing them up randomly here felt significant.

2. The Golf Sequence. So, I mentioned the golf parallels in the episode yesterday, but apparently there was a much larger, extended golf sequence where Aaron and Gabriel put together a whole mini golf course, but it got cut from the episode for time. So, not a big deal. It’s just that there would have been MUCH larger golf parallels in this episode if they could have included them.

3. The writer talked about how, at the end of the episode, where we see Gabriel and Aaron heading toward he water tower, there’s a dark, ominous forest between them and the water tower, and anything might happen in there. So, it     sounds like this story with the two of them isn’t exactly over, and we’ll probably see another episode about the two of them in S11.

Alright, I said yesterday I’d talk about where this is going. It still sounds like one of these two might die, and you know I lean toward it being Gabriel. I did have a few people message me and point out that Aaron putting a gun to his head might foreshadow his death, and that’s a possibility. I can’t deny it. Honestly, I don’t follow the symbolism around either of these characters (except where it indicates Beth) closely enough to make an educated prediction here. But I do still lean toward it being Gabriel. Mostly because, as I’ve said before, he’s the Sirius character. And there’s one more thing that may indicate this.

The Bible Passage Gabriel Looks At:

I talked yesterday about how Gabriel opened one of the bibles and we could see the passage. It’s 1 Samuel: 1-21. Read the passage HERE.

Now, this passage basically talks about two things. This is where a new king needs to be crowned, and that king will eventually be David. First, the prophet (Samuel) goes to Bethlehem to offer up a sacrifice so the Lord will show him who is to be the new king.

Just the fact that we’re talking about a sacrifice, and it’s Gabriel reading the passage, screams death omen to me.

Also remember that both because of the cross she wore in the hallway at Grady, and because of Gabriel’s (yes, Gabriel’s) strange words to Sasha in 5x16 about “sacrificing one of your own,” Beth is often seen as a symbolic sacrifice of some kind. (I even think his white shirt in 5x16 could point toward him being a sacrifice, but that’s a whole other theory.)

Back to the bible reference. So the second thing that’s done here is that each of Jessie’s sons is brought before the prophet so he can tell which one the Lord has anointed to be king, but he doesn’t choose any of them, saying the Lord is telling him that the king is not among them. He asks if these are all of Jessie’s sons, to which they reply that the youngest (David) is not present.

Now, if you know anything of the bible, David does become king, but they didn’t think to bring him before the prophet here, because they just didn’t think he was “king” material. David was a shepherd. He was humble. He was a poet and a bard.

Yes, you read that right. David sang. He actually sang very beautifully. Tended to totally mesmerize the court with his singing.

Sound like that could be a Beth parallel to you?

In this passage, David is not crowned king, but he is anointed to be king one day. I also notice that the page Gabriel looks at says 1 Sam 16:21, which just means verse 21 is the last verse on that page. Verse 21 ends with David basically living by and learning from the current king, Saul.

Just reminds me of Rick declaring Beth the “new sheriff in town” and how we’ve always said she’ll be his protégé.

So, all I’m saying is that I think this passage suggests both a sacrifice of some kind, and the coming of a new “king” (read: sheriff) that has a lot of things in common with Beth. And since it’s Gabriel who opens the bible, it makes sense that he’ll be the one to die as or just before she arrives. Just saying.

Okay, that’s all I have for today. I’ll get to some Asks tomorrow.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[fandom-puff]

Ada Thorne Social Media HCs

This is part of a collaboration with @cheekypeakyblinders @peak-a-blinder and @champagneholland 💕💕 all of the characters we’ve done will be listed below 💓

Right let’s just say this now: Ada uses lots of kisses on literally EVERYTHING

comment on YouTube? ‘Lovely video xxx’

Replying to the fam? ‘yeah I’ll be there xxx’

Arguing with her brothers? ‘I’ll rip your fucking balls off xxx’

Loves a bit of gossip- she’s on the chat that doesn’t have tommy, grace and Michael, as well as a gal’s only (plus Alfie) chat

Her and aunt Pol are a force to be reckoned with online

Within two minutes of this conversation, they know Lucy’s middle name, star sign, mum’s best friend’s dog’s birthday and her gcse results

QUEENS of finding info on the socials

Her and Freddie (he’s alive shut up) are GOALS

They text all the time during the day, if one’s working late the other will get a goodnight text and maybe a video of them doing a kiss up to the camera awww

They’re so in LOVE

Their Instagram pics are EVERYTHING

Like, grace’s attempts at being a popular influencer w a perfect marriage are not a PATCH on Ada

And she isn’t even TRYING

She posts lots of pictures and videos of Karl

Cute captions like ‘my favourite boys🥰’ ‘no body I love more than these two x’

Like grace tries to copy that but tommy doesn’t pose and Polly calls her out lol

They have a mum group chat called ‘yummy mummies’ where they exchange tips, pics and stories about family life

It’s a godsend when Karl starts teething

Definitely is an avid pinterest user

She uses the voice recording feature on messages so Karl can ‘send’ little babbled messages to her uncles and aunties

Has a side blog where she posts all sorts to do with current global affairs and politics

Arthur sends her petitions and if she shares them to her story, she’ll credit him for sharing it with her bc she knows her big brother needs to know he’s doing some good in the world

She absolutely DRAGS haters and bigots- if they use the bible as their argument, she’ll throw bible verses right back at them to call out their hypocrisy

Cough Linda cough

Several charities have actually partnered up with her to raise awareness

She’s aiming to be an ambassador

She and Freddie often send eachother news articles to see what the other thinks

Ada Thorne is not ashamed to show her body

I don’t mean like nudes on main (they get sent to Freddie ;))

I mean like she’ll post pictures showing off her stretch marks, her scars, her rolls, her quirks, her moles, her freckles... she wants to empower people

She’s no stranger to a slightly sexier post too- often before nights out she’ll post pictures showing off her red lipstick or her outfit and she doesn’t care if others don’t like it because she is not ashamed of her body

If people tell her to cover up or wear baggier clothes or less makeup or do her hair differently or not mix metals etc, her response is always ‘no x’

Freddie always comments on these pictures too:

Basically, Ada Thorne is an influencer without really meaning to be one, spreading her message of body positivity, loving what you have in life, and ultimately eating the rich and ousting the bigots, all while being relationship goals with her loving husband, posting super cute records of her child’s development, helping boost people’s self esteem, educating people and dealing with peoples bullshit like an absolute queen

This is part of a collab! Be sure to check out the other wonderful pieces in this lil series!!

Alfie Solomons by me

John Shelby by @cheekypeakyblinders

Michael Gray by @champagneholland

Finn Shelby by @cheekypeakyblinders

Tommy Shelby by @peak-a-blinder

Grace Burgess by @champagneholland

Arthur Shelby by @peak-a-blinder

Isaiah Jesus by me

Tag List: @the-makingsofgreatness @peakyswritings @haphazardhufflepuff @diksy1112 @zodiyack @soleil-dor @hiddensapphic @fckingpeakyblinders @snugleo @alittlebirds @satanxklaus @glamsaturn @thegirlwithoutaname87 @queenofmankind @awkwardretro @captivatedbycillianmurphy @xshinytrashcanx @hanster1998 @cheekypeakyblinders @champagneholland

Be on my tag list

#ada thorne #ada shelby #ada shelby headcanons #peaky blinders headcanons #peaky social media #collab #social media au

[x0401x]

Hi there! Just want to thank you so much for translating for the VE fandom! I've been looking through your VE posts and noticed you mentioned how anime!Gil is completely different from LN!Gil. I agree with you and was wholeheartedly disappointed in the anime. I was hoping you could elaborate more on your thoughts, where you thought anime!Gil and anime!Violet went wrong and how they were different from the anime. Sorry if you've already made a post on this previously. Thanks again!

Hi! You’re welcome!

This reply took me long enough, lol. I haven’t gone too much into detail, or else I’d just end up writing a bible. It still turned out long as hell, though, so I’ve put it under a cut.

I really didn’t know how to begin with this. “Where they went wrong” kinda implies that those two were going right until some point, and that’s just… not the case. They were a trainwreck from start to finish. And it’s kind of impossible to really discuss this without touching upon the massive fails in the writing of the entire show. It does try to convey important messages to the viewers, but mostly with visuals and repetitive lines, never with the actual plot or the characters. You get an inkling of what the story was attempting to do with them, and that initial idea is what seems to stay with most people, because there’s nearly nothing beyond it.

As director Ishidate has stated more than once before, he made changes to the story because he thought the novel was, in his words, “too orthodox”. But watering it down meant watering the characters down too, Gil and Violet more than anyone else. And this results in a show that ironically fails to grasp its own themes and cast — the personalities and conflicts get lost in the details and have to be patched up with excuses that end up displaying how little the show trusts its own audience. It keeps spelling out plot devices and character traits in an almost robotic manner, with very scarce effort put into actually showcasing them in the situations and dialogues. Everyone is too one-dimensional and the main plot line is repeated over and over instead of being alluded in parallels or even just slightly more intelligent exchanges. Animators like Ishidate have grown dangerously used to committing a grave narrative suicide: to give vague and unconvincing reasons for things to be the way they are and expect the audience to take it all as is simply because it was stated there. Everything is oversimplified because they clearly want the viewers to get invested in the emotional baggage of the show, and only the emotional baggage, because they think that’s all we get invested on. They forget that details are necessary for the whole experience.

These problems are recurrent in Violet and Gil, and they never stop. I’ll start with Gil, since he was mentioned first.

Gilbert Bougainvillea is a very complex, humane and multi-faceted character in the novel. What’s interesting is that he doesn’t look like it at first, so he surprised many readers in volume 1 with how caring and endearing he can be. And I mean caring for real. Anime!Gil seemed like a poor excuse for what he was supposed to represent, which in turn made him into a walking contradiction. In the novel, Gil is by far the person that emphasizes the most with Violet, because the two of them are two sides of the same coin. This is where the anime falls short most frequently. They at first look like polar-opposites, but are absolutely not, yet the show portrays them as such. Novel!Gil is gratuitously kind and righteous, and he’s brave and pure-hearted enough to stand by his values no matter what. He’s used to giving up everything for the sake of other people, but he has morals that he holds to the roots of his very being, so he always chooses to donate himself to what he deems as good causes. And once he has his mind set on an objective, he doesn’t mind playing dirty to achieve it, as long as he’s not hurting anyone. That’s exactly the same as Violet, and Gil isn’t the only one who sees himself in her — Hodgins and Dietfried also notice how alike the two are. Novel!Gil relates to Violet on a spiritual level, and he knows first-hand how she must feel. He’s been there and done that. And that’s why she’s his number one priority. His purpose in life is to protect her and keep her in a healthy lifestyle within a blessed working environment and a loving family. Quite literally, all he wants is to make sure that she’s happy, and he’s active and vocal about it. He’s also an unapologetic and unabashed feminist, so he completely approves of her doing anything for a living — she doesn’t need to live her life like an ordinary woman and whatever she wants for herself is fine, as long as it’s not too dangerous.

Apparently, his personality is one of the book aspects that Ishidate believed to be “too orthodox”. He depicts Gil the way you’d expect any male creator to depict a man — a brooding martyr figure who only has a heart of gold in fleeting moments that get replayed again and again in flashbacks to serve as justification for Violet’s undying love. He makes very little strides and there’s a lot of flawed reasoning behind his affection that makes it oddly disconnected, which is the fact that said affection is barely ever there. Gil hardly treats Violet like a person, let alone an equal. Violet is ready to give her life for him anytime, and as we see in the last battle at Intense, he’s ready to cling onto that to save his own life. Ishidate doesn’t shy away from making very evident that he thinks it’s okay for Gil to do only the minimum to earn Violet’s respect and trust, like it’s a given and all he’s required in order to earn her love is to exist. This is very visible in scenes like the one where they first met. Gil seems to shield Violet from the abuse of his brother, but shows next to no distress or even interest over it as he doesn’t even question where she came from or why Dietfried was treating her that way. There’s also the scene where he takes her to one of his family’s residences, and she has his jacket on, just like in the novel… yet he’s letting her walk barefoot in the snow without giving a single flying fuck. He then leaves her side as soon as he instructs the maid what to do with her, not looking back. I also hate that scene where he gets back home and she bumps into him and falls on her butt. He just stares at her and makes no effort to help her back up. But the one I hate the most is that festival scene where he nearly thanks Violet for fighting so well in battle. I mean, she’s killing people for him. She, a literal child, is in the frontlines of a long-lasting war, risking her life and committing mass murder for his sake. That’s literally nothing to be grateful for. Especially not when he’s supposed to love her. And I despise that he only stopped himself from finishing the phrase because he noticed the bruises on her.

Another major defect of the anime was changing Gil’s backstory. Anime!Gil was, by the looks of it, just a rich kid who enlisted simply because that’s the family tradition. And if you take away Gil’s backstory, you take away the viewers’ reason to empathize with him. Why? Because that means he’s morphed into someone who can make choices. Erase any factor that binds Gil to doing what his family and his superiors make him do, and what you have is a grown man with his free will intact. And he uses none of it to help Violet. Anime!Gil was always given the opportunity to say no. He could’ve said no to Dietfried and sent Violet straight to the Evergardens, he could’ve said no to his superior officer and not taken her into the military, or he could’ve at least said no to assigning her to the men’s troops. He didn’t because there would be no story otherwise. Novel!Gil is always attempting to save Violet from the war and from herself, while anime!Gil’s actions beg to differ. And so, anime!Violet’s obsession with Gil stems from the fact that he was the first to treat her remotely like a human being and that, for a long time, he was all she had. None of that fate thing, because it’s also “too orthodox”. But without the fate element and without Gil having no control whatsoever over how he feels about Violet, he’s straight-up a pedophile. If he feels regular romantic love for Violet, who is in her mid-teens, that’s pedophilia right there. This one is my biggest beef with anime!Gil, and I don’t take criticism for it.

Now Violet. Not to be rude, but I see so many people talk about how interesting her anime counterpart is, yet I rarely ever see anyone going in-depth on it. It’s like the way the fans talks about the show. Literally every single person who comments that they liked it always says the exact same thing: “I cried during every episode”. I sort of feel like most of them are just reproducing what they see other people say out there, which is probably what got them interested in watching it in the first place. I don’t mean this with ill-intent; it’s just seriously the impression I get from looking at the tag. I’ve accompanied it since the novel came out all the way back in 2015, and when the show was running, believe it or not, I didn’t really see much of those comments. It started becoming a habit to say it after episode 10, which seems to be the highest-rating episode (the irony being that it was the closest the anime ever got to the novels). Hence why it feels to me like some people just say it on automatic, and I get the same vibe from the fans of anime!Violet.

I’ll just be blunt here: the main difference between anime!Violet and canon!Violet is that canon!Violet was made to be liked by girls and women, and anime!Violet was made to be liked by men. I have already said this before, but Violet is the very definition of independent professional woman in the novel. She’s educated, confident, strong, reliable, altruistic and overall well-versed in at least a little bit of everything. Half of it is due to luck and half of it is her own merits, but all in all, she was created not just to be relatable but also a character that people could look up to. Meanwhile, anime!Violet was clearly made to be waifubait.

I can’t really stress how little thought was actually put into her portrayal and development. We never truly see her internalizing the lessons that she supposedly learns in each of the self-contained episodes. We only ever witness her displaying sudden significant hints of emotion at convenient times, paired to her either repeating what she was told earlier by one of the characters or taking an extremely obvious conclusion to a question that was already half-answered by someone else. Because of this, Violet’s growth process has an unsteady pacing in the anime and mostly feels disjointed. In comparison, novel!Violet is usually not the point of view — she’s often in the role of observer, and we notice through the solutions she comes up with for her clients’ issues that she does have a very humane connection with them. We also notice through the clients’ opinions on Violet that she shows subtle changes at certain specific points, such as smiling just a little when she manages to not only accomplish her duties but also help solve their problems. This makes her more real and believable because, unlike the anime, it presents no abrupt alteration to the essence of her person. She’s growing in her own way, but it’s still easy to tell. It’s also very clever to have Violet be disliked or misunderstood by her clients at first because she’s so aloof and apathetic-looking, but then she grows on them after they actually understand her, and the readers can absorb that from them. I’ve seen many people complain that they can’t really empathize with anime!Violet, but in the novel, the author takes care not to let this happen, and it really doesn’t.

What upsets me the most is that anime!Violet is overly infantilized. We all know that director Ishidate loves her like a father loves a daughter; it’s been said by himself and his colleagues quite a lot. That’s cute and all, but it made her depiction extremely shallow. The biggest problem was making her 14 in the anime. I still struggle to understand what would’ve been so bad with keeping her as a 17-year-old. Sum that up with removing many of her merits and adding forceful childish traits, such as being okay with changing clothes anywhere in front of anyone or pouting when she’s frustrated, and you have the perfect recipe of what waifu junkies like to be spoon-fed with. In my opinion, anime!Violet was a downgraded tragic heroine played in a cheap and boring way to attract tearjerker lovers.

I hope this has covered enough of my take on the matter. ✌️

#violet evergarden #gilbert bougainvillea

[justkpopjokes]

Side Effects Analysis/Theories

Miroh/Yellow Wood || Side Effects [Teaser] [MV] || Double Knot

I’m back with tiny details to help all your theories uwu, more of notes than theories

NOTE: anything with asterisks* means it is mentioned again later in the post (it’s a long post ok)

YELLOW GUI

(basically the overlays/coding)

someone is logging in*, shown with PASS_LOGIN (followed by a long list of letters I’m too lazy to list) on the right side, along with

#00001 (yes, there’s a space)

#00002

#0003

most of the code on the left is refers to these codes+lost of letters, just a program being executed

the left side also has a “TOTAL” that starts at 297 and decreases to 149

the right side has 3 percentages listed that start at 0% and go up to 99% until the first drops back down to 98%

(the first percentage is the first to appear/increase btw)

the screen clears once the 3 listed ones hit 99%*

there’s also a 4th one that goes from 0% to 40% at the bottom right

also this is probably obvious, but the screen flashes yellow whenever smth bad is about to happen**

IT IS REFLECTION. Finally I can stop being so ominous, but the left side gui says “*it is reflection*”!! Right here!! Wth?!?!**

Idk if this is smth significant but I’ve never seen it before in code so

THE BUS STOP (take 2)

the bus station route has 5 stops, ending at the NEW WORLD (03)

the 5 stops seem to be the first 5 letters of the Greek alphabet in lowercase: α β γ δ ε****

y’all can see clearly the signs next to the elevator saying BE PREPARED TO STOP and DETOUR

there’s are two moons: the one on the left is the colour of the sky and is fading, whereas the one on the right is tinted pink/red/purple and has a clear silhouette***

LICENCE PLATES

the plate of the City Jungle bus (w/their signature lion logo) has AD2540*** skip to the end to see my revelation :)

skz’s truck thing has B2Y1017 and a tiger symbol on the driver’s side door

I didn’t come up w/this but 1017 is probably a reference to October 2017, when Hellevator was posted

****if so, then the B2Y could be referencing the Greek letters here, or maybe “Back to You”? maybe that’s how they’re confirming that they’ll go back to the hell elevator or bujakyong i guess lol

connecting to smth I mentioned in my first analysis: the tiger in a Korean legend wasn’t able to persevere and become human, whereas the bear was. Maybe it’s symbolism they couldn’t go on w/o ditching the truck at the end?

RANDOM ROAD TRIP STUFF

(anything that happens while they’re on the truck)

Chan spots smth red in the ground?? (flowers?) but thas real sketchy bc the slowly emptying gas tank is shown right after the screen turns red

this is the only instance of the screen going just red during this mv

Hyunjin gets a solo shot after

Hyunjin’s vs Felix

Felix stands up on the truck and Hyunjin tries to get him to sit down, only to be brushed off by Felix

when Chan did this, Hyunjin didn’t do anything, only get that solo shot

Hyunjin vs Seungmin

I won’t go deep into this bc other people have better theories, but if Hyunjin was worried abt them being watched, then it makes sense that he’d try to stop Felix from making them obvious or getting hurt (which then they’d need to find someone to help him)

the papers on the ground they step on say: new road/elevator, road closed/_min_ _ation_

also Peach pointed out that the older members go to Hyunjin, and the younger ones go to Seungmin owo

when the gui percents reach 99%, they break the gate blocking their way

***as I said before, the screen turns yellow before smth (really) bad happens, but not before the truck tire gets pierced?? (again, maybe they were supposed to ditch the truck???)

the city in the sky

obviously, the city in the sky is the City Jungle, and being in the sky (cloud 9-esque maybe??) keeps them away from the mostly-abandoned Yellow Wood floor

the lightning probably shows the true face of the City Jungle (go figure)

they all run away from search lights? So they were found again, but also how did they end up back here????

THEORIES: the bible, the login, and Reflection

NOTE: the only theory that’s possibly accurate is reflection lol so you can skip down

If you read my previous 2 analyses/note posts, you know I’ve been curious about reflections and Bible references. Admittedly, I don’t think the bible stuff will be as prominent (bc it’s religious), but the reflection stuff will probably be focused on.

THE BIBLE

As I said, this stuff likely isn’t accurate, but it would fit really well if they decide to go this route!! It started with the cross earrings/necklaces in previous comebacks (mainly worn by Hyunjin), the fact Hellevator  is HELLevator, and when skz runs together at 3:18 (in Side Effects), they form a cross, with Hyunjin up front.

I’ve also mentioned some bible verses that I found using numbers in the mvs (note that I use the New International Version to quote anything). Most of the ones were mostly irrelevant though. Other people have brought up in another theory that “AD” on the licence plate AD2540 could reference Anno Domini which could mean this was happening in the future, but I double-checked bible verses again.

Book of Matthew, 25:40 = “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

This section is about the King who has separated his “sheep” (those who have done good) to the right and “goats” (those who haven’t done good) to the left. The king says the sheep have done good things for him, but the sheep say they didn’t do those things to him specifically. This verse is referencing that the king knows they have done good to another person, and therefore him.

Obviously, if this were actually what skz were going for, they probably would’ve referenced the actual verse where the king separates his sheep and goats, but regardless, it does bring up the question: where else have we seen left and right, where one is bad?

We’ve seen it a few times: the two roads taken shown side by side when they take the bus or don’t, the two moons, and possibly skz vs the City Jungle.

THE LOGIN

Hyunjin, the “error” (other people’s posts go more in depth), is a focal point in this mv. We’ve also heard about “glitches” Jisung and Felix. So who can disprove that they’re just in a computer? (Jk but listen)

The yellow gui (and other code screens in Miroh) suggest we’re monitoring them. Or maybe the gui is in Hyunjin’s brain?? But I do know the percentages mirror what skz are doing (when they break the gate at 99%) and the screen goes yellow before smth bad happens (which is usually stuff Hyunjin notices).

There also seems to be an error in the code… idk how to explain this well, but the “error” might actually be planned. (I’ll make another post to clarify.)

REFLECTION

I mentioned in my 1st post that the lineup of skz on the rooftops in Miroh and the Yellow Wood teaser were mirrored, except 2 members switched with the 2 right next to them (Jeongin/Minho switched and Jisung/Hyunjin switched—did Hyunjin become the glitch at that point?). This might be a coincidence since it isn’t exact mirroring.

Anyway, there’s definitely some reference to reflection, because of the yellow gui! It might just be a nod to smth but hm. This is where I just dump some ideas

As I said in the Bible paragraphs, there’s references to left/good and right/bad. So reflection could reference:

people you thought were good are actually bad and vice versa (reference to Hyunjin, Jisung, and Felix maybe?)

the choice that’s on the left is good and the right is bad (getting on the bus was a good choice, which technically it was bc they’re sleeping peacefully) or the other way around

The moon on the right is “bad” (discoloured), but maybe actually the better one once reflected

You can also consider our left is their right, but that’s just confusing lol

Honestly, none of these seem right, but the gui is telling someone (likely just us tho) that smth is being reflected, and maybe not in a good way, since we aren’t seeing things the right way, or we’re seeing the bad parallel.

#stray kids theory #stray kids theories #stray kids #skz theory #side effects #lin says stuff

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam season 3, episode 9 reaction

Hey everyone! It has been a while since I posted one of these, but I wanted to talk about O Helga Natt around its anniversary. And I also wanted to post this before the bloopers were released, heh.

Talking about this episode and especially O Helga Natt almost makes me want to throw my hands up in the air, because how can I possibly do justice? This is where the story has been heading this whole time; this is what Isak’s story has been building to. It is truly extraordinary film-making and storytelling. Watching it in real time and getting to cry in unison with fans across the globe was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had watching a television show.

Episode 9

Clip 1 - To Isak my son

deLillos’ Hjernen er alene is playing at the start of the clip - an obvious reference to episode 5 cuddle scene. Also Tarjei is a big deLillos fan so that’s cool they used that band.

I have no adequate words to describe Tarjei’s acting in this scene. It’s so good and full that you just want to appreciate it frame by frame, so I apologize if I sound redundant singing his praises.

The irony of the title of this clip - “Life is good” from the “Cherry Wine” lyrics Even sends - should be pretty apparent since life is clearly anything but good for Isak at this time, and anyone still reeling from the hotel scene would not need to be reminded

Poor Isak. He’s gone through hell in the past few hours. Tarjei’s value as an actor is never more apparent than in scenes like this. He can convey so much with his eyes and just the littlest facial reaction. Isak looks so wiped and despondent without being over the top sad. Even his body language tells you so much! The completely deflated shoulders, the stillness. You know how all the energy and happiness has been sucked out of this kid.

Good job Isak for going and looking up mania, by the way. I mean, Wikipedia is maybe not the best source, but he went and educated himself. Though obviously he’s probably burning with more questions, it’s a start.

The section of the Wikipedia article on screen mentions depression, as slight foreshadowing for later in the episode.

Isak’s phone is getting texts, though we don’t see them yet. They must really be like pinpricks to his heart. He must know or guess they’re from Even (or someone connected to Even like Sonja) and he just doesn’t want to deal with it or potentially see more bad news.

It’s only been like 9 hours since the end of the hotel clip. How much sleep do you think Isak got? (None.) Did he cry for hours? Did Eskild give him a hug and make him something to drink?

When Eskild appears in the door and asks if Isak needs anything, Isak doesn’t answer for a moment. Because really, what can he possibly say? What does Isak need in this situation that Eskild can provide? Because no amount of comfort or a cup of tea or anything else is going to change the fact that Even is apparently bipolar and not legitimately in love with him, that this incredible relationship of his dreams was fake. What Isak needs is to be told that last night was a dream and Even walking out of that hotel room didn’t really happen, but Eskild can’t provide that honestly.

Eskild, bless him, is still in the doorway, and he’s weighing what he needs to say. You can tell he wants to say the right thing or at least something that will genuinely help Isak, but the guru is stumped. This is not an experience he’s handled.

Carl also plays this really well. Eskild is dialed down a few notches and what he brings to this scene isn’t Eskild’s playfulness or humor, which would be out of place, but his kindness and desire to help the people he cares about.

What did Isak tell Eskild about how everything went to hell, anyway? The whole story, or the abridged version? Because I wouldn’t be surprised if Isak just didn’t talk much or explain the situation, other than it was over with him and Even, or Even didn’t really love him.

I’m also not sure how much experience Eskild has with something like bipolar disorder, so if Isak in fact told him something like “Even is manic and our relationship was fake the whole time,” he might not have been equipped to explain that’s not how mania works.

When Eskild says, “It will pass, Isak,” Isak is barely reacting (Tarjei’s acting!!!! So subtle but so good!). You can tell the words don’t land like Eskild wants them to - maybe Isak doubts this pain will pass, or he know it will but doesn’t feel like this heartbreak can last anything but forever. But I also think Isak doesn’t want it to “pass” - what he wants is to cling to the happy moments when his time with Even felt more real than anything in his life.

Eskild tells Isak that it might not seem like the heartbreak will pass, but it does. Not gonna lie, I want to know all about Eskild’s heartbreaks, because this part, at least, is him speaking from experience.

Isak doesn’t even reply to that. Not out of rudeness or anything, just because I don’t think he has the words or the energy at this point. 

When Eskild says to let him know if he wants to talk, Isak just nods after a few moments. Man, Isak barely speaks in this scene. I mean, most of it is him on his computer, but even when Eskild’s around, he can’t summon more than a few words.

When Eskild leaves, he shuts the door but doesn’t completely close it. It’s open just a little bit, which was very smart and perceptive of him. Isak spent so much of his time shutting himself up in his room (something that Eskild would have noticed) as well as shutting himself off from the people around him, that Eskild is wise not to close the door all the way. By keeping the door slightly open, he gives Isak that one bit of connection to the outside world even if he understands Isak isn’t in the mood for talking or socializing at the moment. It’s just a reminder that Isak isn’t alone.

Isak gets another sound of notification from his phone for a text message, and again, TARJEI’S ACTING. You can see him dreading to pick up his phone and read the message, but he knows that he better do it and rip off the Band-Aid. Or he better read the messages because it’s eating him up not to know.

The texts are of course the lyrics to “Cherry Wine” by Nas and Amy Winehouse.  (There’s a typo in the lyrics that I think indicated that Mari or whoever copy + pasted the lyrics from a specific lyrics site that also had the typo, lol.) 

Even does a lot of communicating in lyrics and drawings and other artistic or abstract methods, and it’s not different when he’s manic, except that the level is more … fervent, shall we say.

But man. These fucking lyrics. I think it’s clear that Isak doesn’t really get what Even’s trying to say. He associates the lyrics wtih Even’s mania, like Even going too far again and doing too much as with his Pretty Woman fantasy in the hotel room, or with Even’s pre-hotel texts from Thursday night (which are now making more sense to Isak in context). And Isak probably associates them with his mom’s Bible verses that she spams to him at length.

But Even is trying to convey something real to Isak. We don’t know his exact mental state at this time but there’s an obvious sincerity behind the text. He wants Isak to understand. The lyrics refer to the “noise of my head” and to intense feelings - mania, the idea that Even’s emotions are too much to bear. But that the solace in this point is “an immaculate version of me and my baby / With all respect cause you the only one that gets me” - Even is trying to single out their connection and their relationship, especially that Isak gets him. I think he’s trying to remind Isak of what he said about Sonja - don’t listen to her, because she doesn’t get us, you’re the only one - last week, Isak understood what Even was saying about “only you can feel what you feel” and now Isak needs to remember.

“Where is he? The man who was just like me / I heard he was hiding somewhere I can’t see” - Even wonders where Isak is, how he’s doing - he wishes Isak were still there with him. He also singles out the connection he feels, “just like me” - they have a bond and a natural connection.

The lyrics about it being good and pouring some cherry wine - Even wants everything to be okay with them, wants to return to normal, to the place of domesticity and comfort they had prior to what happened at the hotel

“Life is good no matter what” - I think he definitely implies that life is good no matter what with Isak. With Isak, nothing else matters. 

Additionally we know Even is a Nas fan, but it’s possible he also selected that song because he knows Nas is something he shared with Isak, Nas is special to the two of them as a duo.

Isak does not know what to make of these lyrics, though. I think he gets maybe a little that Even is trying to reach him and reference their relationship, but he doesn’t understand the depth, and he assumes it’s just manic rambling (again, not helped by the resemblance of Isak’s mom’s texts with her Bible quotes to Even’s texts with song lyrics). Even only thinks he feels this way about Isak. It’s so painful.

Isak’s reply to Even is something that, on the one hand, I completely understand from an emotional perspective, but on the other, I yelled “NO!” when I read the subs. I get it, it has been a very long night and Isak is still confused as fuck, he’s only beginning to process what happened and make sense of it via Wikipedia, and he thinks that their relationship was all fake. He needs space, he needs to not get more messages from Even that will confuse him. And yet, this is of course painful as hell and you want to yell at Isak not to send that message.

I think a lot about what Even was going through after the hotel scene, and this is really one of the most heartbreaking parts for me to imagine from his POV. He’s trying to reestablish this connection with Isak and assure him that their love is real and emphasize the singularity and importance of their bond, and instead Isak sends him this short, blunt message that doesn’t give away any warmth toward Even and asks him to stop contacting him (for now, anyway). Imagine how Even felt reading that message. All of his worst fears are coming true. Isak has seemingly rejected him on the basis of his mental illness, Sonja has intervened … “life is good” with Isak, but Even can’t have life with Isak, it seems.

“Slutt å meld meg” - stop texting me - that’s kind of an echo of the end of episode 7, where Isak asks Even to break up with Sonja or let him be, except this time Even can’t run to him.

I fucking love how Isak writes the message and then hesitates before sending it, and then when he does send it, he does it quickly and forcefully to get it over with before he changes his mind. Almost like it pains him to send the message, too.

Guys, I cried the first time I saw this scene, and I’m tearing up now. When we hear the sound of the new text message coming in, we expect it to be Even again. It wouldn’t be unlikely for Even to reply something soon after Isak sent him something, even a brief acknowledgment like “OK, I’m sorry.” Although from Isak’s reaction, I wouldn’t be surprised if more likely he thought Even was so manic that he couldn’t stop himself from texting lyrics and other things that would confuse Isak. And if you were watching this scene in real time, or even binge-watching it after the fact - all that is on your mind, probably, is the hotel scene, Even’s mental illness, and Isak’s heartbreak. In real time, we were all a mess speculating what would happen to Even and to Evak and crying over the hotel clip. I mean, Julie had to apologize to her own crew for inflicting such torment on them! She had to post an “Alt er Love” to her own Instagram to keep us from losing hope! So I think most of us, in that chaos, forgot about what happened at the start of that hotel clip, when Isak carefully types out that text to his mom where he comes out and tells her that it will be OK. Hell, I think Isak forgot that he did. He got distracted by Even surprising him with the suite and them having sex and eating burgers and getting the creeping feeling that something was wrong with Even, and then obviously everything that happened once Even left the suite naked. Coming out to his mom must feel like ages ago even though it wasn’t even 24 hours.

You see Isak dreading that next text message, and then picking up his phone and staring at it, and for a long moment we the audience don’t get to see the text itself, we only get to see Isak’s stunned reaction to it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something he expected. 

Julie is honestly really gifted at timing and editing the actors’ reactions for emotional impact, and this is one of the best examples in the show. That extended pause is so we can just soak in Isak’s astonishment and Tarjei’s wonderful acting, the slow, small smile that gradually starts across Isak’s face. That delay before we get the beautiful message, and it wasn’t what we expected, but it was exactly what we needed in this moment of hopelessness. We had forgotten about the text to Isak’s mom, and likely so did Isak, but her reply came at the best possible time, with the best possible message.

This is one of the moments that solidifies the 21:21/birth/rebirth metaphor, like this is actually the scene that demonstrates it was a deliberate choice by Julie rather than some random happy accident where Julie unintentionally created that symbolism and zealous Skam fans overanalyzed it. We find out from the text message that Isak was literally born at 21:21 on June 21, and maybe it’s a lot of 21s but it works, we know that his literal birth is connected to his spiritual rebirth.

Mama Valtersen telling him that she will love him always is so reassuring. Especially when Isak is doubting someone else’s love (Even’s) is real, it’s extra good to be told he will always be loved by someone.

Also I just loved the way she said it? It feels like Biblical and epic to me, and her Bible texts haven’t always been the warmest and fuzziest but here’s one where the tone adds to the message. She has loved him from the moment she saw him.

Additionally, not to make this touching mother-son reunion all about Evak, but … guess who else has had significant feelings for Isak from first glance?

To expand on that topic, though, I do think while Isak’s relationship with his mom obviously serves its own purpose and has its own weight in Isak’s life and his arc, it also serves as a mirror of sorts to his relationship with Even. Obviously one is familial and one is romantic, but these are two mentally ill people he loves and chooses to accept in his life. Isak’s father doubted that his mother would be able to accept Isak with a boyfriend, but when given the chance to speak for herself, she subverts those expectations and reveals that she will always love Isak, conveying her acceptance of his sexuality. Sonja thinks Even’s feelings for Isak aren’t real, but when Even gets to speak for himself (particularly in the O Helga Natt text,but really any time he’s with Isak) he subverts her expectations and makes abundantly clear that he loves Isak and that his feelings are real. Two mentally ill people subverting the expectations of others who try to speak for them. Two mentally ill people Isak will decide that his life is better off including rather than rejecting.

That tear rolling down Isak’s cheek. He has likely cried so much in the past few hours, but now he’s crying over something positive rather than something painful.

I don’t think Isak realized exactly how much he wanted her to accept him until he read that message. Just the sheer relief of it! I kinda feel he always kept that fear at bay, out of sight, just like his relationship with her. Trying to minimize her importance, such as in the locker room scene. Like well, if she doesn’t approve of his sexuality, he doesn’t fucking care. She’s not in his life anyone. Who gives a shit what she thinks? (But of course he really does care and it’s been giving him anxiety all season.)

The way Isak holds the phone to his chest, over his heart, like he’s going to hold on to this feeling. The intense relief, that his mom accepts him. The hope that maybe their relationship isn’t dead and buried. It’s just what he needs at this moment.

Clip 2 - Magnus saves 2016

Jonas and Mahdi are having a conversation about Dennis Rodman and “Kim.” At first I was like … Kim Kardashian? And I was prepared to write this huge screed about how great it was that Isak mentioned Eskild’s interest in Kim Kardashian as a thing that marked him as too gay or gay-gay in the Pride clip, but now we had two apparently straight boys also talking about Kim Kardashian to subvert those expectations. And then I remembered that oh yeah, Dennis Rodman is pals with fucking Kim Jong-un. Wah-wah. In 2018 that seems so much less weird than everything else wrong with the American political hellscape.

Isak shows up with waffles and Mahdi takes that as his cue to exit. SEE YA!

Now the first time I saw this clip, I thought, while it was great, parts of it were a little contrived. (A not-entirely-positive opinion about S3? GASP.) It’s not a big thing and I’m a lot more fond of its role in the season now since I recognize its overall purpose, but one of the parts was that Jonas didn’t know why Isak was gone from school and that Isak hadn’t told him. I do think that I understand why Isak didn’t tell him - he was so depressed that he just didn’t want to talk about it, he wanted to retreat from the world. So I buy that. But I do kind of doubt that Jonas wouldn’t check in with Isak if he had been noticeably absent from class, considering all the bullshit that had just gone down with Isak so recently. Isak missed a week of class not long ago, if Isak is missing again it’s cause for concern.Jonas isn’t a pushy friend and gives Isak his space, so I can expect it from that perspective, though.

This is one of the downsides of Skam’s real time format - sometimes I do feel that they draw out events that would have been covered more quickly, or handled off screen, just so we can see the big reactions and moments in a clip instead of handled briskly in a text. Like I think the real reason Jonas didn’t know was so Isak could tell him in this clip, in front of Magnus, and Magnus could tell him about bipolar disorder.

But also, this season is so good that I can easily overlook nitpicks like this. The show has built up more than enough goodwill at this point, and I do enjoy this scene as a whole.

Anyway, Isak says he’s a bit down, Jonas asks what’s up, ever the helpful bro. Isak says that Even went out naked in the middle of the night and that he’s apparently bipolar, just as Magnus plops down with his mouth full of sandwich.

Oh, Magnus. We thought you were just a fool, but it turns out you’ve got unexpected reserves of wisdom. Kind of a theme in this season, all the people who turn out to have good advice if you just talk to them and listen to what they’re saying!

Magnus casually says his mom is bipolar when he sits down, like it isn’t a big deal at all. He might have said, “My mom’s an accountant,” or, “My mom’s a Libra.” He looks completely chill when he says it.

This is another thing I thought was contrived the first time I saw this clip - that Isak just happened to have a friend with a mentally ill parent with the exact same MI as his boyfriend, who could give him advice on how to handle it - but now I love it.

Think about it: all this time, Isak has been struggling with his relationship with his mom - keeping it kind of vague, really, just alluding to stress and family problems - and all this time, he’s had a friend who also has a mentally ill mother. Someone who has kind of a clue what he’s going through. Magnus’ relationship with his mom is a parallel to Isak’s with his mom, but unlike Isak, he apparently has a very close, seemingly untroubled relationship with her.

Isak learns a lot this season about sexuality, religion, and mental illness, but one of the other lessons he learns - one of the strongest, in my opinion, in how it’s developed in the narrative - is pretty simple: Reaching out to your friends is one of the best resources for help you can get. Imagine if Isak had happened to talk to Magnus much earlier about his mom. Imagine if Magnus had mentioned his mom had bipolar disorder, so that when Even turned out to be bipolar, Isak wasn’t so in the dark about the disorder. I mean, maybe Isak wasn’t at the stage of development where he could accept this kind of message, but still! Magnus wasn’t someone he was super close to like Jonas, but Isak has appeared to know him and hang out with him from like … S1 or S2, actually, and they’re been hanging out regularly for a few months now.I’m not saying everything would have been okay if Isak had been aware of Magnus’ mom earlier, I don’t think it’s that easy, but Isak has been holding back and repressing himself so much, and this knowledge may have helped out his knowledge of both his mother’s and Even’s conditions. It’s when Isak shares his problems with his friends that he can get advice like this.

Isak is so taken aback by this information. Magnus also has a crazy mother?? (Again … all this time, Magnus has had a crazy mother? Magnus has known someone with bipolar disorder? And it wasn’t this huge dramatic thing that Isak would have known about because of the pain and sorrow and stress it caused Magnus? It was just flying under the radar this whole time?)

“She’s not crazy, she’s bipolar.” AHHHHH, MAGNUS. That line is so simple but so important. Magnus treats his mother’s mental illness as a factual condition rather than an area for judgment.

Isak’s interest is piqued. Magnus: not only good for weird hookup anecdotes and BDSM dreams.

He wants to know what Magnus’ mom is like. Magnus is like, my mom is AWESOME. (There’s a text message from one of the previous episodes, I think it’s episode 5, where he does mention his mom with like, heart emojis). 

A really great detail is that Isak has met Magnus’ mom. That’s something that really confounds Isak, because evidently this women seemed normal. She didn’t give off vibes that she was craaaaaazy. She was just Magnus’ mom. Isak is flabbergasted that she was normal - she’s normal but also has bipolar? Does’t compute.

And I mean, I think it is important to note that Isak’s mom seems to have more drastic symptoms of mental illness, and maybe doesn’t come across as “normal” with how she talks or at least with what she’s saying. And Isak just experienced Even’s mania by seeing him ramble nonsensically and walk out in public naked in the middle of the night. Isak’s experience with mentally ill people, that we know of, has involved them acting in more extreme ways - and I think that hotel incident is contorting a lot of Even’s actions in his mind, and Isak is forgetting that Even was “normal” most of the time, too.

When Isak says Even is bipolar, Magnus just nods, like it’s no big deal. Because to him, it isn’t! It’s something that’s an everyday fact of life, having a loved one with bipolar disorder. 

Isak mentions that Even went out naked in the middle of the night, and Magnus’ response was to laugh.

I remember when this season was airing, around this episode there were a lot of like ... Skam antis cropping up in response to the show’s sudden popularity and hype - and obviously no one has to like the show, but frankly a lot of the backlash was coming from people pissed that this thing they didn’t care about was suddenly everywhere, or that their own fave TV show wasn’t getting as much attention (or GOD FORBID, had to share the attention with a new, shiny show). And I remember some cries of ableism around this time because of some of the mental illness discussion, a lot of which I thought was purposefully misinterpreting the story for Woke points. Stuff like Sonja’s speech in the hotel scene was ableist (yeah … it was. That was the whole point,and it was specifically refuted within the narrative) or that Even’s text message was ableist because it was him groveling to Isak for forgiveness and that he apologized for being mentally ill (no, he didn’t, and in any case it was the text of a suicidal person, not something we’re supposed to take as right and justified).  One part that also had people upset was that Magnus is dismissive of Even walking out naked because he thinks it’s funny and like … okay, I can get why people would find that dismissive, although Isak himself is like “It’s not funny” so I’m not sure why that context is ignored. Like, the thing is that we as audience members saw the hotel scene from Isak’s POV, and it was this horrible, shocking thing. We were worried about Even’s well-being, we were worried about Isak’s reaction.

But for Magnus, who sees bipolar as a normal, everyday fact of life, it’s a funny anecdote! And I mean, I’m on Isak’s side because that is a holy-shit kind of incident. I absolutely do not blame him for not being amused when Magnus starts laughing, because it was a traumatic and potentially dangerous thing. But I don’t think Magnus is an awful guy for hearing a brief summary of what happened and laughing. He’s coming from the perspective where he’s dealt with these kind of incidents and he survived, his mom survived, and they probably laugh about them later. Magnus shares an equally outlandish story about his mom sending in a resignation letter for the regional director of the railway, and he can laugh about it. Maybe at the time it was stressful and caused problems, but in retrospect it’s funny.

(Also, Magnus reacts differently from Jonas - Jonas was like What??? Because in his mind, it is a wild thing. Magnus laughs because he’s used to stuff like this, apparently.)

Magnus asks where Even is, Isak says at home, and Magnus clarifies that he means mentally, not physically. I LOVE that little moment, that Magnus’ instinct is to ask how Even is doing mentally. I think it says a lot about his experience level, that he knows how these manic/depressive episodes go.

Isak says he hasn’t talked to Even because it’s all been bullshit from his side, and you can see Magnus be like, “...what? I saw him giving you those heart eyes in the hallway, man, I don’t buy this for a second.”

I love Magnus just saying what we were all thinking at this point. Watching in real time, we were so desperate for someone to just sit down Isak and explain to him that Sonja was wrong and Even loved him and his feelings were real, and here’s Magnus being our unexpected savior.

Magnus is so confused, because these things are so obvious to him that are not obvious to Isak. Isak has been with Even a while and he hasn’t been manic the whole time, so why would his feelings not be real? When Magnus’ mom is manic, it’s like he can’t reach her. Sort of like Isak not being able to reach Even in the hotel room, when they were eating burgers and Even’s speech had clearly gone farther than Isak could get to him. But Isak has been able to reach and connect with Even plenty of times before that.

Isak says that Sonja said he had been manic the whole time. Magnus asks who’s Sonja? Isak: “His ex.” MAGNUS’ FUCKING FACE. Like, oh, Isak. You are dumb. You are really dumb.

And they call Magnus a doofus, when here’s Isak believing everything his boyfriend’s ex told him.

Lmao, I love that a lot of this scene is Magnus speaking from experience as someone with a bipolar loved one, and then this part is like … just plain relationship common sense that even someone with as little game as Magnus can understand. You don’t just buy everything your boyfriend’s ex is selling. Are you really going to trust his ex telling you he doesn’t have feelings for you?

“Wow! Wowwww.” That’s one of the best deliveries on the show, and we don’t even see David’s face.

Also, props to David for this scene. He gets to show off Magnus’ hidden depths, obviously, and he plays it so naturally and is such a funny voice of reason that again, I can totally roll with this late development. I like this inclusion of Magnus’ mom because it does give depth to a character who had previously been the goofball friend.

What would a Magnus season have been like? Would we have met his mom? It doesn’t sound like there would be a lot of ~drama to mine from that relationship, but it would have been nice to see.

Magnus tells Isak just to talk to Even, he isn’t brain dead just because he had a manic episode (excellent job, Magnus) and says to talk to him when he’s calmed down. Jonas says what we’re all thinking, that Magnus is pretty cool. Magnus: You’re just realizing that now? But he also says that Jonas is pretty cool, too, which is just fucking adorable.

Meanwhile, Isak has this tiny, tiny smile break his tired expression, like he has gotten just a sliver of hope from this conversation. This whole clip has been him getting his world turned upside down, all his preconceived notions about mental illness being turned on their heads, getting some sense knocked into him. It’s beautiful.

Clip 3 - Twisting the knife, thanks Julie

Oh Jesus. I believe this scene was submitted to Gullruten for Tarjei’s acting nomination, and you can easily see why. He’s acting off basically nothing, just him and a phone, a voice on the other line, and yet he manages to do so much.

I’m going to link @toneelspeler’s post about Tarjei’s acting in this scene, because she’s the acting expert and says it way better than I ever could. Give it a read (and check out her other acting posts!)

Isak studies his phone, preparing to call Even. (Even Kosegruppa, may it forever be that way. May Isak and Even both take that as their name upon their marriage. Or Even Kosegruppa and Isak Mannenimittliv.)

Isak stresses about calling. He just stands there for a moment, clutching his phone to his chest as he mentally prepares himself to call. He wears a shirt with “The Scream” by Edvard Munch on it. Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter who is widely believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder, and “The Scream” was inspired by a hallucination he had. It’s a small detail, but a clever one. 

He finally calls Even and you can see the debate still raging inside him as the phone rings, wondering what he’s going to say, how he’s going to deal with this. But then when it goes to voicemail, you can see he’s somewhat conflicted. On the one hand, he doesn’t know what he’ll say to Even, he doesn’t know what he’ll hear or how the conversation will go, but he always wants to hear Even’s voice again, he wants to speak with him. It’s disappointing because he misses Even. Also, if Even isn’t answering, then that might not mean anything good. It might mean Even has slid into a depressive episode.

Someone does call back, but it’s not Even, it’s Pappa. And you can tell Isak doesn’t really want to have a conversation with him at that moment, and that he’s weighing whether to answer, but he does anyway. Which I think is because he’s decided it’s better to face his problems head on, maybe, and because he knows he can’t put off a talk with his dad forever. Or maybe he’s just like, well… how much worse could it get?

Isak’s dad over the phone seems kind of falsely jovial. Or maybe not false, but like he’s consciously trying to inject some levity and pleasantness into this conversation that he knows probably isn’t going to be very warm. If you want to think more positively about Isak’s dad, maybe he’s trying for warmth because his son did just come out to him the last time they spoke, and he wants him to know that he is okay with it. The fact that he brings up Isak’s boyfriend on his own suggests to me that he wants to talk about it.

Isak just sounds tired, of course. Not really in the mood to talk, just giving short answers and getting the necessary info.

The camera cuts from the wider shot of Isak in his room, visible from the waist up, to just Isak’s face after Pappa mentions the boyfriend. Because of course that’s the jolt for Isak, a shift in the mood of the conversation, and visually the cut signifies that. It also gives up a closeup of Isak’s face not just so we can appreciate Tarjei’s acting, but see this very bare, raw moment from him, with nothing else in the way.

That blank reaction and pause from Isak at first, and then going into saying it was just a joke. Maybe because he just doesn’t want to get into the topic right now and it’s the fastest way to shut it down. Maybe a reflex left from when Isak wanted not to seem gay. Maybe because he still isn’t sure that Even’s feelings are real and that it wasn’t a joke. Maybe because it’s easier to say it was never real than to acknowledge that all that Isak has lost if it were real.

Isak’s dad doesn’t really know how to react to that. Like, Pappa Valtersen is not the best dude, but I think he probably knows enough about his son, or at least about parenting, or human emotion, to suspect that Isak is perhaps lying about it being a joke but knowing not to push it at this point. Either that, or he’s taken aback that Isak apparently opened up to him about something in his life, however flippantly, but it turned out to not be real.

Pappa turns the subject back to the concert, saying he’s looking forward to seeing Isak and his mom. I think from the second Isak said his relationship with Even was a joke, he has been regretting it, or turning over whether to tell the truth, until finally he needs to take back his comment. Tarjei’s acting with his eyes is so good here! Isak needs to say it wasn’t a joke, because he can’t dismiss the weight of what he and Even had. It wasn’t a joke to him. And now he’s heard from Magnus that it probably wasn’t a joke to Even, either. Isak can’t throw away this relationship and say it was nothing.

“It wasn’t a joke. It’s just over.” Ouch. You know, I’ve always wondered why Isak says it was over here, when he was just calling Even, and when afterwards he sends him a text? It feels as if Isak is trying to salvage the relationship from those actions. Maybe this is his worst fear, worsened by Even not answering his phone, that it really is over.

Additionally, though it’s a painful moment, I’m proud of Isak for admitting that it was real and not walking it back - it’s another step in him being comfortably out of the closet, he didn’t take back his coming out to his dad.

Isak’s dad asks whether he’s sad about it - again, Isak’s dad kind of sucks overall, but I kinda feel for him here, like it’s not necessarily the most elegant or sympathetic way of asking, but you can get that he’s fumbling to reach his son. 

And of course Isak sheds that single tear just as he denies that he’s sad about it. Oh, baby.

Oh man, the way once that first tear falls, the sadness and emotion just starts to escalate, and you can see Isak racing to end the phone call, because in a second it’s going to be too much. And once the call is finished, he has to wipe his face and compose himself, his breath coming shakily, because he’s overwhelmed with all the emotions.

Lmao, I remember that watching in real time, this was the equivalent of Julie kicking us while we were down. Just what we needed: another clip of Isak crying to himself, yayyyyy.

Anyway. Bravo, Tarjei. Some of that was clearly one take, and he managed a wonderful emotional transformation. He doesn’t overact, he doesn’t underact. He gives you exactly as much as you need to understand Isak’s state of being, and to leave us on a bleak but open-ended note before the Friday clip we knew was going to make or break Evak. Even if you thought a happy ending was coming based on Skam’s idealistic nature, it was easy to put yourself in Isak’s shoes and feel the uncertainty if things would turn out okay.

Clip 4 - O Helga Night

So here we are. I’m not even sure where to begin. There’s so much to say about this clip that I really think I might forget something, and two days after posting this I’ll have a 3 AM epiphany about something that wasn’t mentioned. I apologize if I leave out a big part of the clip’s significance or symbolism. But that’s a testament to how incredible the scene is, that there are so many layers.

I’ll start with this: This scene works brilliantly on all levels. It works as an individual scene; I’ve seen several Tumblr posts with the video of this clip that have garnered thousands of notes and lots of comments like “I’ve never seen this show, but this is beautiful” or “I don’t even know what this is and I’m crying???” It works even better as a climax to the entire season, tying together multiple threads and themes, incorporating several types of symbolism that have developed throughout the story, and involving several areas of growth from Isak’s arc that demonstrate what he has learned over the last few months. It works on an acting level. On a writing level. On a directing level. The music works. The editing works. It works as a romantic scene and as a spiritual scene and as an inspirational scene. We start to cry because we are worried when Isak gets that text message, and we remain crying long after the scene ends not because we are sad, but because we have seen a moment of unparalleled tenderness. There aren’t a lot of series or films that I can point to where the tears feel so earned; not mechanically drawn up by routine tearjerker dialogue and events,but created naturally because this is the point the story has been building to all along. There aren’t a lot of canons I can point to that can pull off a scene like this and have it come from such a genuine, profound place.

Also, if you were in the fandom and diligently waiting for that Friday’s clip, you probably remember that NRK originally reported this episode as being like 40+ minutes long, which would have meant a giant Fredag clip. Then shortly before the clip dropped, the episode length was changed to 18 minutes, which had everyone going WTF and wondering how they could possibly fix Isak and Even in that amount of time. After the clip aired, I don’t think anyone was complaining.

Let’s see if I can write about this scene without sobbing. 

Prior to this clip, Isak’s mom sends him a text message saying that this is the church where Isak was baptized, adding another element of rebirth to the story.

In the full episode, this scene doesn’t have the usual timestamp indicating when the clip is happening, probably because the scene is just too pretty to have that plastered over it, and like … fair.

From the second I pressed play on this clip for the first time, right after it was uploaded to the Skam website, I knew it was going to be special. Look at how gorgeous the opening shot is. We see the wide shot of inside the church, the neon blue cross, the two people gathering in front. I love that there is a moment of silence, just before the organ starts where there are just some hushed sounds, whispering, maybe. It gives you chills before the music even begins.

I love that we start at the back and the camera slowly moves up the aisle, because we are with Isak, literally in step with him as he advances toward his parents. This is a tremendous moment by itself for Isak, who has no idea that he’s about to get a text from Even; he only thinks that he’s going to be facing his parents after a long time. I don’t think he’s seen them in months. You can see the trepidation on his face. I don’t think it’s dread, I don’t think it’s like he doesn’t want to be there, it’s just that he knows there’s so much going on in his family dynamic and there’s a lot to deal with. And Isak isn’t the same person as when he last saw them! He’s grown a lot, he’s changed, he’s come out to them, he knows that he doesn’t have the ideal relationship with either of them.

He’s a little unsure when he greets them. Not unhappy, just unsure, a little awkward. He hugs his mom and his dad and of course we don’t see their faces, which is probably for the best - it would have been a distraction and interrupted the flow of the scene.

I think he relaxes a bit when he sees that okay, he met with his parents and the world didn’t explode, they’re going to get on with this concert. It’s fine. It’s a lot, but he’s fine. (Tarjei’s face!)

Isak gets the text notification and pulls out his phone. We then get this incredibly powerful text message that tears our hearts to shreds. So much to say about this message.

Now, when I watched this clip for the first time, I was sitting there refreshing the Skam website, and so I watched it without subtitles. Obviously I didn’t know exactly what it said, although it was clearly from Even, and there were several phrases that jumped out at me: 21:21, bipolar. I knew what “Elsker deg” was because the Skam fandom was making plenty of posts about how to say “I love you” in Norwegian in the hopes that Isak and Even would say it. So this was definitely a bit of relief at first glance. And I mean, hey, it was Even, finally breaking the silence after almost a week! We were so worried about Even, but he wrote something to Isak, yay!

I realized it was a suicide note not based on the words of the note itself, but from Isak’s flashbacks during Nils Bech’s singing. The R+J reference with the neon cross, scenes I recognized as Even talking about death or tragedy, a Wiki article about depression. The whole season was hinting at something to do with suicide, so I was primed for it, and I figured Even was suicidal from those images, plus Isak’s reaction afterwards. I mean, he was running out of the church, I don’t think he would have done that without good reason. 

That being said, when the subtitles were released, the text immediately pinged me as a suicide note. It might not read to everyone as a suicide note, for reasons I understand (because it doesn’t read that way to Isak at first, either) but it did for me, for a pretty obvious and personal reason: I have written a suicide note. More than once. At a couple of dark times in my life, I sat down and tried to write my final thoughts in this world to my loved ones. I found it really hard, because there was an infinite amount of things I wanted to say, but my suicide notes were full of comments similar to Even’s. Lots and lots of apologies to the people I thought I had wronged. Mentions of things that I thought were significant to them, places and experiences that we had shared. Pessimistic statements like how I was alone, it was never going to change. Asking them to remember the good times or the positive aspects of our lives together. Saying I loved them. The whole thing rang so uncomfortably familiar that it was impossible for me personally not to see the signs of Even saying goodbye.

Let’s take Even’s text message line by line, for the most part:

Dear Isak - This is a very formal way to begin, like an actual letter Even has prepared, not just a casual text message. It sounds like he has written out this message beforehand and given it a lot of thought. 

I’m sitting where we met for the first time and I’m thinking about you. - First of all, my fucking heart. Just picture Even sitting in the bathroom for God knows how long and thinking about Isak. Like this damn school bathroom holds such sentimental value to him because it was where he first met Isak, the man of his dreams. The first place he spoke to this guy he’d been pining for from afar for months. A guy who turned out to be even better than Even expected. Even is thinking about Isak. He’s about to end his life and he’s thinking about Isak, wistfully. Returning to sentimental or nostalgic places is unfortunately pretty common for suicidal people. It’s a way of saying goodbye. So that’s another tip-off of Even’s mindset.

It’s soon 21:21 - I’ll get into the 21:21 significance to this clip in a little bit, but let’s just acknowledge again that Even treasures everything he shares with Isak. Isak and Even ran off at 21:21, now 21:21 is theirs. (I know Julie included more 21:21 stuff in her scripts for S3 that we could discuss, but I want to focus on stuff that is in the show itself now.)

I want to say a thousand things to you. - This line might go a little under-looked, in my opinion, and I get why because it’s not as Evak-specific like some of the others with their 21:21 and parallel universe mentions, but honestly, it gets me right in the gut? It just conveys the enormity of Even’s feelings for Isak and all that he wants to share with him. All that he never thinks he will get the chance to do.

I’m sorry for scaring you. - This refers to the hotel scene, obviously, and a large part of me wants to be like, “Noooo, Even, don’t apologize for that.” The way Even apologizes for so much feels like it’s another factor of his suicidal mindset - he wants to make amends with Isak before it’s over, and he also just feels terrible about himself and what he’s done to someone he loves.

I’m sorry for hurting you. - This is probably not just in reference to the hotel scene and the aftermath but every part of their relationship where Even thinks he may have hurt Isak. Breaking things off with him in episode 5 without explaining why, running hot and cold on him or going back and forth between Isak and Sonja. Though I do think that Even thinks he really hurt Isak with the hotel incident, too, especially if he has an idea of what Sonja said to him. Even thinks his mental illness hurts people around him by default.

I’m sorry for not telling you that I’m bipolar. - To clarify, not that he is sorry for being bipolar (although I think Even has plenty of negative thoughts about that) but sorry that he didn’t tell Isak. I don’t think this is something we’re supposed to judge Even for, by the way, or think is justified - he is suicidal and he blames himself for all that went wrong. It’s his call when to disclose his mental illness, but because he didn’t tell Isak, the hotel getaway went awry, and so he feels guilty for that.

I was afraid of losing you. - AHHHHH. This line hurts so much. To have it put so plainly and vulnerably what we suspected previously - that Even was hiding his mental illness from Isak out of fear of rejection - breaks my heart. It was the worst thing to Even, the thought of losing Isak.

Had forgotten that it’s not possible to lose someone, that all people are alone anyway. - This is when the note takes a dark turn, really. The lines before that give off some warning vibes but could be assumed as an apology text. This is when it really becomes clear that Even is in a bad place mentally. It sounds so fatalistic - Even was worried about Isak when he shouldn’t have wasted the effort, because he could never have Isak, anyway. That he was always alone. That his relationship was Isak was destined to end in disaster. Like the brief period of happiness they had together was never meant to last. Even doesn’t have anyone, he can’t have Isak, he’s alone with his thoughts. And as he told us in episode 5, he only way to escape is death.

In another place in the universe we are together forever, remember that. - Another line that set off warning bells for me. Asking Isak to “remember that” - why does Isak need to remember if things will turn out okay with him and Even? Shouldn’t he just know that? Saying that it’s another place in the universe that they’re together forever - why another place? Why not this one where they can be together? It’s lovely and romantic that he imagines them together forever, but alarming that it has to be a different world then theirs.

Love you. Even - The first time we hear Even (or either of them) say I love you, and it’s beautiful, we all know they love each other, but consider that Even is saying this now, in this text, because he thinks it’s the last opportunity for him to say it.

Skam didn’t do a lot of big dramatic speeches with Evak. We got some with Jonas and Eva (for example, after she kisses P-Chris or in the skate park or in the S1 finale) and some with Noora and William (Noora talking to William before he leaves for London) but a lot of the dialogue between Isak and Even is more on the sparse, understated side, in my opinion. That doesn’t make it any less meaningful, it’s just that Julie tended to pack a lot of meaning in one or two lines rather than a whole paragraph. There are worlds of feeling in the short, simple lines between Isak and Even ( “Can I stay in here with you forever?”/”You can” for instance). It’s really effective for me especially because Isak is not a very verbose person and Even often communicates in gestures, drawings, or song lyrics to illustrate his feelings. 

This text is one of the closet things we get to a big dramatic speech, and it’s a text message, not a verbal monologue. Even, who has been the mysterious new boy for much of this season, leaving us constantly guessing as to his motivations and secrets, has finally laid himself bare, exposed his feelings in detail. Except for one little thing, which is that he plans to end his life.

Isak doesn’t realize the nature of the the note at first. I don’t blame him. The text is worded ambiguously enough that it’s easy to miss, and we know Isak doesn’t have suicidal or depressive thoughts like Even (remember, he flat out doesn’t get what Even is saying in the cuddle scene and calls Even’s POV dark) so he’s not drawing from his own experiences. A ton of viewers didn’t recognize that it’s a suicide note at first, and no shame in that.

I think Isak is just overwhelmed by the fact that Even has finally contacted him again and Even is telling him all this heavy romantic stuff. I’m thinking about you, we’re together forever, etc. I mean, Even tells Isak he loves him for the first time! You can imagine that the “Elsker deg” overshadows anything else at first. Even does love him, Even’s feelings were not fake. What Isak and Even had was real. Isak must feel relieved and overjoyed; a small smile spreads on his face as he reads the text and Nils Bech starts singing O Helga Natt.

So now we’ve got Nils singing, and it’s really cool how involved he was in this season! His song “Waiting” was in the S3 trailer, “That Girl” was in episode 2 as the closing song, and now he’s got the climactic music for Isak’s story. In fact, I believe this scene was written with Nils’ singing in mind. He is also, just to reiterate, the “Bech” in Even Bech Næsheim. It’s awesome that they used the music of a real-life gay man so heavily in a season about a gay kid.

Not gonna lie, my eyes can never stray from his pants. Also, his orchestra appears to be all women, which is neat! And of course we have that giant neon cross just hanging out being him, resembling the one from Romeo + Juliet.

To discuss the choice of song a little bit, not to be mega obvious, but … O Helga Natt is a Christmas song, and this clip starts at a Christmas concert. Christmas - again, not to be massively fucking obvious - is a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. So it’s another clear birth/rebirth reference. O Helga Natt refers to the holy night Jesus was born; “O Helga Natt” as a clip refers to this night of rebirth for Isak.

I want to tread carefully because I don’t speak the language, but some of the lyrics of O Helga Natt line up with certain actions in the clip. Norwegians/Swedes (because the song is in Swedish), feel free to correct me if I make a mistake. I’m going off a translation of the lyrics.

For one example, Isak realizes Even’s text is a suicide note after the lyrics are something like “for us he suffered the pain of death.” It’s not right on that lyric, so maybe a reach, but I think it’s worth mentioning. After all, the references to death were included throughout the season as clues to Even’s state of mind.

Isak is watching this performance and everything is normal until Nils looks into the camera, effectively making eye contact with Isak. Which, from an in-universe perspective, is perhaps coincidence, but it’s that shift that signifies Isak’s transition from just watching this concert to making the connection to the text message from Even. I mean Nils might as well be Isak’s guardian angel telling him to haul ass out of there.

It’s pretty subtly acted and effectively directed. Isak is just watching Nils and then he blinks and his gaze shifts from Nils to the neon cross. We get a very, very quick montage of flashbacks, from Isak and Even lying in bed during the cuddle scene, Juliet lying on her deathbed, Even in the Mikael video.  Cut to Isak making the connection, it’s written on his face. Cut to another quick montage: the Mikael video again, Even’s note with “I don’t sleep cuz sleep is the cousin to death,” Even lying in bed at the hotel, the Wiki article about bipolar disorder (specifically the lines about depression). These are rapid fire images, and honestly the impact of some of them really depend on your memory of this season, if you have been filing away the clues episode by episode. They’re all moments linked to depression or death. The Romeo + Juliet suicide, Even lying in bed telling Isak the only way to escape your thoughts is to die. Even saying an epic love story has to end with death. Even mentioning song lyrics about death. Even saying that the only way to have something forever is to lose it. I think this was really rewarding if you were watching in real time and making note of these recurring hints, because this was quite literally the payoff for noticing. All those moments were presented in this montage that flashes by in like a second or two.

Isak puts the pieces together. Man, imagine if he hadn’t seen Romeo + Juliet and that neon cross didn’t trigger any associations in his head? Would he have realized and made it in time? In-universe, it’s a good thing Isak decided to stalk Even on Google and watch that video so many times it aroused his curiosity about Even’s favorite director. And that he went for R+J instead of like, The Great Gatsby (Nils would needed a random green light instead of a neon cross).

Isak’s look of realization is really well acted. It’s not too obvious or overplayed, it’s just this dawning sense of placing Even’s text in a different light. He pulls out his phone and we see the text message again, so we can contextualize it with that talk of dying and depression. We can see what might be romantic imagery and sentiment, a love confession, start to seem like a goodbye.

Isak doesn’t waste any time, he gets up from the pew and walks out of the church. I wonder what his parents thought? Like he probably texted them afterwards that it was an emergency, but damn, their son just up and left. They thought he was going to the bathroom or something and he just peaced out for the evening.

Notably, in Romeo + Juliet we have Romeo going toward the altar, toward his doom. In Skam, Isak turns away from the altar, rejecting this fate.

We get one last shot of Nils singing before we take a break from his angelic voice, and then we get another montage. This fucking montage. This is what made me start to cry the first time I saw this scene. Christ, okay. I’m going to try to type through misty eyes. There’s a lot going on here so hopefully I don’t miss anything.

The first time I watched this montage, I was such a wreck. I was sobbing, and while up to this point I was very convinced Julie was not going to kill off either Isak or Even, and that they would get a happy ending, this montage managed to make me doubt. While it was playing and Isak was running, I really genuinely feared that Isak would get to Even but like, there would be an ambulance and paramedics would be wheeling out a body bag on a gurney. And in that brief moment I felt with such conviction that my heart was going to be absolutely broken if Even was dead. I was going to feel such a sense of anger and betrayal that I had gotten sucked into this story and it hurt me that much. I legit did not know how I would deal if Even died. I mean, I thought I would function as a human being, but I was like … I will never be able to trust any canon again if they fuck this up. So thanks for that minute or so of sheer terror, Julie Andem.

The montage runs chronologically backwards. It starts from the most recent time Isak and Even were together, this moment of perfect unity and happiness where they kissed in the elevator, and travels back through the big moments of their relationship: Isak and Even reuniting and having sex for the first time in episode 7; Isak and Even kissing and affirming their feelings and seemingly about to enter a relationship in episode 5; earlier that episode when Isak and Even lay in bed kissing, tucked away from the world; bursting out of the pool kissing in episode 4, then Isak kissing Even for the first time underwater; Isak and Even locking eyes across the room while kissing girls in episode 3; Even looking at Isak in the windowsill in episode 2. Then Isak approaching Even on the bench in episode 1 for their first real conversation,and finally, Even in the bathroom, “meeting” Isak.

It runs backwards for two main reasons. First, Even has told Isak that he is in the place where they first met, and the montage is a visual countdown where we go back, step by step, to that place. It indicates why Isak is running and where, just in case you missed it. We travel back through their relationship as Isak travels back quite literally to the beginning. 

Second, symbolically, this is part of the rebirth metaphor. If the pool scene is the spiritual rebirth of Isak as he accepts his sexuality and begins to live as a more authentic version of himself - including as a gay man - then the church scene stands out to me as the rebirth of Isak and Even as a relationship. We go back to the beginning of Isak and Even so they can be “born” again, this time with their big secrets and insecurities exposed between them so they can be together honestly. Additionally, it is another form of rebirth for Isak as a person. This scene combines the various threads of the season and the lessons he has learned. I wouldn’t say this scene is a test, but it’s a demonstration of how Isak has grown as a character - can you imagine the fuckboy Isak of the season premiere in this situation? It’s a rebirth of Isak into the person he’s meant to be.

The montage also serves the purpose of absolutely fucking you up by making you remember these glorious, beautiful moments with this amazing fictional couple that you have been getting to know over the past few months/weeks/hours. You really feel the scope of Evak, the depth of the feelings there in the development. And no doubt this is what Isak is also remembering: all that he and Even have gone through up to this point. All the wonderful times. Everything he has to lose. He is incredibly in love with Even and at this moment he is so fearful he might not reach him in time.

We see him Isak running through the streets of Oslo and I doubt he stopped to take a bus or whatever, he just had to keep moving, it didn’t matter. Isak finally arrives at the school and comes into the courtyard, out of breath and petrified. We see the flashback of Even and Isak meeting on the bench, because that’s probably what Isak thought of where they met - it’s where they had their first actual conversation, where Isak learned Even’s name, etc. In the present, Isak sees that damn bench and it’s empty. No one is there. Isak and the audience feel our stomachs sink into the ground. You know he’s thinking he’s too late.

But then - one last flashback clip as Isak realizes maybe Even didn’t mean the bench. We again see Even being a charming weirdo at Isak in the bathroom, inside the school. It’s like a life preserver. A moment of hope. Is that what Even meant by the place they met? Because, of course, it’s where they technically met even if they didn’t really talk inside of it. (And because Even is a sentimental weirdo who would hang out in the bathroom just because he met Isak there.)

We see Isak turn toward the school, and hallelujah, just as Nils starts singing again, Even comes out of the school. THANK GOD. Everyone in the whole world collapses in relief. Isak is not too late, Even is alive, Even is here. Even doesn’t look particularly well - he’s all bundled up in a hoodie, like he wants to hide from the world, and you can tell from his body language that he feels done with it all - he’s slumped over and not full of energy. But he’s still here.

Even sees Isak and stops in his tracks. He just freezes. The look on his face is pure shock. He did not think he would be seeing Isak. He didn’t think Isak would come for him - Isak has been thinking for days that their relationship might be over, but at the same time, Even was also thinking it was over. And maybe it’s just such a big moment crashing through his wall of sadness, that Isak is there with him now, that he can’t even move. How do you cope when the person you most want to see but thought you’d never see again is suddenly right in front of you? That Isak read his message and ran to their special place, where Even said he was?

Isak looks back at Even and of course goes to him. They walk toward each other and the shot is absolutely beautiful, it’s dark but the light is warm. How lovely is it that they walk toward each other? And slowly, too, not running into each other’s arms. The emotions, the relief, the love, they’re just too big, and these boys are so vulnerable right now (especially Even) that they need to take it slow. Isak doesn’t overwhelm Even, he approaches him carefully.

Their faces as they approach each other, damn. Especially Even’s, because again, he is completely thrown by this moment. He can’t believe it. And I bet you anything he is scared, and nervous, because this is Isak, beautiful Isak, seeing him for the first time after learning Even is mentally ill. Isak now knows this truth about Even that Even is ashamed of and tried desperately to keep hidden; Isak, who said he was better off without mentally ill people in his life. Even thought he would lose Isak if Isak learned that Even was bipolar. And yet here is Isak. Even doesn’t know what to expect.

Isak and Even are once again dressed somewhat similarly. They have on a kind of maroon sweater or hoodie, jeans, brown shoes. But the way Even is dressed is very guarded, with his hood up, hair covered by a hat, very closed off from the world, while Isak - who we’ve seen dress like Even before by retreating into his hoodie when he’s at a low point - seems more open in his appearance. His head is entirely uncovered, no hat or hood, and his jacket seems open and unzipped. Because it’s now Isak’s turn to be warm and open, he’s not the one struggling here. In fact his purpose is to bring Even out of that shell and make him feel like he’s not alone.

This scene is one of the big 21:21 moments - because Even brought it up in his text, mentioning it was almost 21:21 (the clip was released at 20:24). Besides Isak’s mom’s text earlier this week, the other big scene I associate with this imagery is of course the clip titled 21:21 (pool scene) and O Helga Natt mirrors the pool scene in its imagery. Like with that scene, you have Even standing still on the left as Isak approaches him from the right, with a bright light between them in the distance. There’s even some rain as a counterpart to the water of the pool, and I don’t know if that is just a happy accident of filming, but it adds to the baptism imagery, the water coming down over them.

In both the pool scene and O Helga Natt, you have Isak approaching Even - you have Isak making the decision to act on his own. He’s being proactive to reach Even. Again, this is a rebirth of the self, his character maturing and growing.

By the way, the image of Isak approaching Even? That shot’s one of my favorites in Skam, ever. It’s so simple but so full of feeling.

This is where I’m not positive about the translation again, and feel free to correct me, but the lyrics of “O Helga Natt” at this point when they’re approaching each other contain “du ser en älskad broder” which I believe to something like “you see a beloved brother.” Seems fitting that this plays when they see a loved one.

While there’s a level of caution, especially from Even’s side, Isak doesn’t pause or hesitate as he approaches Even. When he gets close to him, he just immediately leans in for the life-saving nuzzling to happen.

Many shows would have them fall into each other’s arms or start passionately kissing, or Isak would make a dramatic speech, or there would be a lot of dialogue. Skam goes for such a raw, tender approach that it makes a lump rise in my throat. Isak slowly and carefully rubs Even’s face with his. He makes sure that Even can feel him there, feel his warmth when it’s cold enough to see their breath. It is simply about making Even realize that Isak is present and close to him.

Isak also gets in a nose rub, because that is Isak and Even’s thing, that is their gesture of comfort and affection and love. That is a grounding technique that’s developed between them, without even talking about it.

Also, so often we have seen Even initiate these touches. He’s the more experienced one, the more confident of the two, the more extroverted and less repressed. Isak isn’t totally shy about touching Even, but he has often followed Even’s lead on how to touch him. Now it is Isak’s turn to initiate this physical contact.

Even kind of accepts this face nuzzling but he’s also clearly in disbelief, and he closes his eyes. Like he can’t believe it. But when he closes his eyes, he’s blocking out everything but Isak’s warmth and scent and the feel of him nuzzling his cheek.

That fucking muscle in Henrik’s cheek as Isak nuzzles the side of Even’s face = A+ acting, bury me. (This is so obvious I feel ridiculous saying it, but Tarjei and Henrik act the hell out of this scene.)

There are so many spectacularly gorgeous moments in Skam, that you could single out a number as the most beautiful, but for my money: I don’t think any single image gets me quite as strongly as Isak paused with his cheek to Even’s, and Even deciding to nuzzle Isak’s cheek back, and rubbing his face along Isak’s.

Jesus Christ, that moment. Even has been in disbelief and now he’s accepting the love Isak is offering, he’s settling back into himself. He’s showing that Isak has gotten through to him. What a character moment.

Isak takes Even’s head in his hands after that, because it was the turning point, he knows Even is responsive. They look into each other’s eyes, because Isak needs Even to see him.

“You’re not alone.” The one line of dialogue in the clip.

That is the only line of dialogue you need. Not “I love you” or “I’ll always be there for you” or a long monologue. What Even has been indicating all season, both directly and indirectly, is that he is afraid of being alone, or he is convinced he is alone. He just stated it definitively in his suicidal text message, like that is his final conclusion. Even needs to be reassured otherwise. And Isak has made sure that Even is not alone, he’s run to him, and he’s gotten close to him physically, and he’s going to make sure Even isn’t alone after this, either.

The way Isak says it with such simple assurance, and the way Even has to close his eyes because the feeling is too overwhelming. Ugh, crying now.

If you were in the fandom at the time the season was airing, you may remember that after this clip aired, someone posted a picture they snapped of Tarjei and Henrik filming this scene and standing in each other’s faces. There’s a cut between shots before they kiss, and I’ve always wondered if that was because the person stopped to take the picture at that point, lmao. You can see a car drive by in the background. (Or maybe not, because I remember the picture didn’t have Tarjei cupping Henrik’s face? I’m not sure. Anyway, the person who snapped that pic is blessed for not spoiling the fandom.)

That kiss between them. Isak is firmly cupping Even’s face, not letting him go, but he’s not pushing the kiss. There’s this pause before it happens. Because it’s overwhelming, and because I think Isak wants to make sure Even is comfortable with this kiss, so he’s not going to initiate it. He’s letting Even know that he wants to, but he’s waiting for a signal from Even before they proceed. And it’s when Even indicates that he is on board that they kiss.

This kiss is one of my favorite Evak kisses for the sheer amount of emotion behind it. The feeling that this kiss carries all the weight of the world behind it for these two characters. I adore it.

Also, I love the timing of the music with the editing of the clip? For instance, Nils’ voice during this part with the kiss feels particularly angelic, and then it cuts out and we hear just those strings … it’s so powerful.

You know what else is powerful? How Even breaks off the kiss, because the kiss is so much. It’s completely overwhelming, and a lot to handle for someone who’s in a very fragile state. But I think he also can’t quite believe it, still. He thought everything was over. It isn’t. Isak is here, kissing him, showing that he still wants to be with him. Isak has saved him, like in his dreams. 

The lyrics to “O Helga Natt” are about salvation. “O helga natt, du frälsning åt oss gav / Oh holy night, our salvation you gave.” This whole night is about salvation. Isak who had been saved by Even from loneliness and living a fake life now saves Even from being alone and death. That’s where “I’ll save you right back comes in.” 

That shot of them looking at each other, before Isak goes in for the hug - breathtaking. Another one of my favorite images in the whole series. They are too far gone for words at that point, and a hug will say everything that is needed, anyway.

And that hug! Of course, the hug. Wow. That the clip ends with Isak clutching Even for dear life, and then we pull back to see that Even is clutching Isak back. Our final image is two boys holding each other in the warm light of the schoolyard. By themselves, but not alone. It is exactly the message we needed: one of unwavering kindness and support. And just like that, Isak and Even’s relationship is reborn, starting over again from the beginning, this time with no secrets between them.

Do you think, when Even saw Isak on the first day of school, that he imagined Isak was capable of running to him and saving him and loving him so thoroughly?

There’s no music during the end credits, because I mean … what are you going to play, even? Just let the viewers cry in peace.

This scene won a Gullruten, for good reason. I know it was because we fervent Skam fans went wild with voting, but come on, it still deserved everything.

Thematically, this clip combines many of the lessons Isak has learned throughout the season:

Isak has learned to accept his sexuality, so he does not hesitate to run to Even because he accepts that Even’s love for him is real and he loves Even. His internalized homophobia doesn’t play a role in this scene. He has grown enough to embrace his love for another boy rather than trying to repress his sexuality.

Isak has learned that he wants to accept mentally ill people in his life. Not only does the scene start with him reuniting with his mom at the concert, but he has educated himself enough to recognize symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts, and presents himself as fully on board with Even and ready to support him.

Isak has learned to reach out to the people around him for help and to take their advice. Eskild, Sana, Jonas, Magnus … he has a strong support network for himself and he’s learned not to isolate himself. And it’s because Isak has learned not to isolate himself and cut himself off that he is able to extend this lesson to Even. He is able to take the support he’s received and turn it into support given. “You’re not alone” is the lesson Isak has been learning all season.

When I was writing this reaction, I managed to come across in my drafts a post I wrote back in 2016, not long after Skam season 3 aired. I didn’t post it at the time, I guess because I wasn’t as involved in the fandom and the draft felt pretty personal and overly earnest, and I never posted it probably because I just forgot about it. It was by accident that I found it now. However, I want to include what I wrote then, back when S3 was still new, because not only does it explains how this clip pays off the 21:21/rebirth symbolism and the R+J references, but I’m not sure I could say it any better now than I did then about the outstanding relief of this clip:

it’s kind of incredible how during s3 there was always this low-level prickle of dread, especially watching in real time, because the possibility of suicide was always there, starting from 3.02, when Even says that the main characters in a love story have to die for it to be epic. there were the blatant references to Romeo + Juliet, a well as Even’s recurring comments about death (“the brain is alone” in the bed scene, “Did you think I’d died?” in the pool, “I don’t sleep ‘cuz sleep is the cousin of death”) which were this dark cloud over even the happier moments. after the locker room scene, when people really began to hypothesize Even was mentally ill/depressed, it seemed inevitable from all the clues that the story was pointing at a future suicide or an attempt, and that informed the ongoing audience reaction. whenever Even was absent from the clips for a while or didn’t reply to a text, I would see speculation and worry that he had killed himself. and it wasn’t just with Even, either - remember when Linn’s sleeping pills were mentioned during that miserable week of episode 6, people were freaking out that Isak was going to steal her pills and OD. because there were all these thematic hints that you couldn’t get away from, that left a sick feeling in your gut even when Even and Isak were kissing in a pool or cuddling in bed. 

and yeah, some of it probably was because we are so used to seeing stories like this where the lovers do die, that Even’s remark about love stories needing to be tragic to be epic seems like a common enough sentiment. especially stories where gay couples or mentally ill people need to die for it be Meaningful and Deep. we’ve seen plenty of those. it says something that even after Skam had built up enough goodwill in me that I trusted the show to know better than to pull some Bury Your Gays BS, or to kill off a mentally ill kid after taking the time to stress how people with mental illnesses can lead normal lives, I was still crying and yelling at my laptop the first time I saw Isak running from the church, because I was terrified of what he would find.that I could not turn off the part of my brain that said suicide was a very real option and the inevitable conclusion of this storyline.

and then, instead of a story about suicide, we got a story about rebirth

the biblical references have already been pointed out many times (Genesis 21/the birth of Isaac/21:21, baptism/the pool/the rain, the God costume, the Christmas concert/O Helga Natt/birth of Jesus) as well as the ultimate subversion of the R+J suicide (Isak turning away from the church altar rather than going toward it).

I think part of the reason why the O Helga Natt clip struck viewers so profoundly is that the show finally acted on this underlying thread that had caused us so much fear and dread day by day with every ominous comment about death or unanswered text message or shout-out to a sad movie. it finally and explicitly put the pieces together with that quick montage of Isak in the church where he realizes all the hints that had been haunting us for months, it finally got us to the place where we could acknowledge that yes, Even is depressed and suicide is a real possibility

and then it washed away our fears by rejecting this ending as inevitable or showing us the “epic” love story ending in tragedy. instead it showed two people who don’t die, but go back to the beginning (quite literally). we already have the “rebirth” of Isak in the pool, as he begins to accept this huge part of himself that he had denied and start moving toward a better, happier, more authentic version of himself. and now there is another. because of their unconditional love and acceptance, they get a chance to start again. a spiritual and personal rebirth.

Skam played me like a piano and I genuinely feel like a better, more hopeful person for it. thanks, Julie Andem

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I was fucking distraught this week thinking about Even. I get so damn sad thinking about him and what he would have gone through this week. In real time we were all beside ourselves with Even’s absence. We were practically begging for any news of him. But of course Julie held out on us for maximum tension and despair. 

Really, though ... my heart breaks thinking about how miserable he must have felt when he realized what had happened in the hotel, and how Isak told him to stop texting. I know Isak had it rough this week, but Even was going through a depressive episode and I don’t think he had the support network Isak did. He has his parents and Sonja, but Sonja was probably not someone he wanted on his side at that point, regardless of her intentions.

I already talked about the Isak and Eskild text post-hotel scene in the last reaction, but I’m going to say again: one of my favorite moments on the show. And while I’m not sure I’d call it a direct parallel to the end of this episode, it is notable that when Isak texts Eskild, Eskild too drops everything to rush to Isak’s aid, just like Isak ends up running to Even. Again, not that Isak isn’t a nice kid on his own, but I think Isak learns from the kindness and support he gets from others during this season so he can ultimately be there for Even.

There’s a Kollektivet text early in the week. They’re out of toilet paper. Why is it always toilet paper they’re out of? Didn’t Eskild win a year’s supply of toilet paper in S2? Is Isak hoarding it all for his bedside?

Linn gets unusually talkative in the text message, describing her previous heartbreak, so she’s clued in enough to know that Isak is going through some shit. She talks about at first she was depressed, but then comes the hate. 

Isak says he will never hate Even. I love that line so much. At this point Isak thinks his relationship with Even was fake, that it was all a lie, a result of Even’s mania. And Isak isn’t angry with Even, I think. He doesn’t hate Even for it. He doesn’t blame him. It’s a mark of how much he loves Even and a sign that he understands that Even’s mental condition is not Even’s fault.

There’s a very short biology buddies text, as Isak skips another day of school and Sana prints his homework for him. She asks him if everything is ok - a nice little sign of concern - but he doesn’t reply. Awww. Isak, don’t cut yourself off again.

Isak has several significant texts with Magnus in the middle of the week that add to Magnus’ role as Evak cheerleader and bipolar expert.

Apparently Isak and Magnus both watch Westworld. Narcos, Stranger Things, Westworld … regardless of your opinions on those shows, those aren’t trash TV, those are pretty well-regarded series. I’ve mentioned it previously but I’m firmly against Isak’s taste in films and TV being super lowbrow.

Isak texted Magnus first, so Isak is learning that Magnus can help him and he should reach out to his friends for advice. Magnus asks about whether Isak has contacted Even, bless him. I bet that was helpful to Isak if it wasn’t sure how to broach the topic to Magnus.

Magnus doesn’t know a lot of specifics about Even’s condition (like how long he will be depressed) because of course everyone is different, people’s conditions vary based on stuff like whether they’re taking meds. Isak has a lot of questions like whether Even would be hospitalized. Magnus says he’s probably not and encourages Isak to just talk to him. He gives Isak some fake advice about not using words that start with ‘p’, but he’s just messing with Isak, probably because he can tell Isak has a million questions and is worried about the whole thing. And Magnus, of course, has a super chill attitude toward bipolar disorder, this wouldn’t faze him.

After that text, we get the clip where Isak talks to his dad, which is the day after the clip with Magnus explaining bipolar disorder, so Isak waited a day to call Even. I guess he was gathering his courage. (Or they just wanted to show Isak calling him and didn’t want two out of the week’s four clips to air on the same day). After that clip, Isak texts Magnus back, telling him Even hung up on him (did Even actually hang up or did he just not answer?)

Magnus advises Isak to text Even, which Isak does. The text is short, sweet, and polite. Isak says he hopes Even is well. The most important thing, I think, is that Isak tells Even to call him when he feels like it (so on Even’s own terms) and sends a heart emoji, which they’d exchanged before in their episode 8 text messages, when they were together and all lovey-dovey. So he’s letting Even know that he cares, he wants to hear from Even. A turnaround from the previous text to Even, which was “stop texting me.” But I think Even is so depressed though that this sweet text message can’t get through to him. He probably still focuses on that “stop texting me.” Maybe he’s afraid of what Isak will say. Or he just thinks Isak is better off without him, or he lacks the energy to talk to him.

There’s a fair amount of time between the first Magnus-Isak text and the clip, then to the second text with Magnus, then to the Even text. Especially that last one. I think Isak was really debating what to say and dealing with a lot of nerves (or you know, they wanted to stagger the updates a bit).

I love the Isak and Vilde texts from this week. Not that they’re great or happy to hear, but they’re important to the narrative.

Vilde drops in and is like, “Not to gossip but here’s some gossip.” She heard Even has psychological problems. Not content with just asking Isak whether he is gay, she’s got to get in on that craAAAaazy Even gossip train.

Why did she feel the need to tell Isak this? She said it’s because Isak has a relationship with Even, but … why? Is she that concerned about Even being a psycho? Is she that much of a busybody? Does it make her feel important to have this information and bestow it on Isak? Like … what is she expecting, Isak to go, “Gee, thanks Vilde, I didn’t know that and I’m so glad you told me!” (But I mean, him saying that sincerely, not in a sarcastic way.)

What does knowing her S4 home life say about her sharing this with Isak? Consider that Vilde has, similar to Isak (though she doesn’t know), a parent with mental health issues who seems to have problems with depression or alcoholism. Vilde would no doubt hate for people to go around talking about her secret problems (and it is shown to hurt her in S4) so why doesn’t she bestow the same courtesy to others? I think it is largely about wanting to be important in people’s minds and be in the know about the gossip.

Isak just wants to know where this rumor came from. Vilde says it was someone from Bakka who said Even snapped and wrote crazy stuff on the revue Facebook wall. So just like that, the pertinent parts of Even’s backstory slide into place. The odd details like Even transferring in his last year, repeating a grade, not having social media … this one bit of gossip puts those clues into perspective. I mean, if this was all we had gotten about his past, this would have been enough for me? Of course I would be hungry for more, but this says enough.

I like that this season never actually has a big moment where it’s like “and that’s why Even transferred!” It’s up to the viewers to put the pieces together. And it’s through a text that we get this final piece.

Vilde’s reason for sharing this information is confirmed for me when Isak is just like “OK” and she felt the need to reply, “I just thought you’d want to know,” as if she’s disappointed he didn’t have more of a reaction to her graciously telling him this bit of information. She wants to feel important for having the gossip. Isak is like, why would I need to know that? Vilde says she’d want to know. I’m sure she would, she’s concerned with appearances.

Isak shows a huge moment of maturity, by saying what if Vilde fucked up, would she want people to spread rumors about it a year later?(Another thing that makes me feel terrible for Even - he’s switched schools for a fresh start, but as we see, he can’t totally escape his past.) He tells her to grow up. It’s not very nice, but of course he’s not wrong.

Vilde gets defensive and says there’s no need for him to get mad, she was telling him as a friend. I wonder if Vilde was also sharing the gossip to get some points with her new Gay Best Friend. But I’m very proud of Isak here. Even’s past doesn’t bother him, and in fact he gets mad on behalf of Even. The Isak of early s3? He might have cared about what Vilde has to say. This gossip may have bothered him about Even. This current Isak, though, shows compassion and empathy for Even’s struggle and realizes Even is more than his mental illness.

Like some of this is the crux of Isak’s development - the way he defends Even here and says he won’t hate him in an earlier text, not judging him for his past. Isak doesn’t ask Vilde for more details, there’s no indication he’s disturbed by this information. In fact, it’s possible he’s just slotting into place moments from the past, like why he couldn’t find Even on social media and why Even is the same age as Sonja but she’s graduated and he hasn’t. If anything, I think this information just made him understand Even more rather than turning him off.

Then the next morning, Vilde sends him another text message apologizing and saying it was a jerk move, and Isak says it’s OK. I wonder if Vilde took in Isak’s words - that if she fucked up, would she want people spreading rumors a year later? Not just about her mom and home life, but about what happened with William in S1, if people were still talking about that a year later. 

Additionally, probably for the best that she’s on Isak’s good side if she wanted to hook up with Magnus (not like this was a hard feat, though). I don’t think that was the main motivating factor for her apology, I think she sincerely regretted it, but I’m sure the Magnus factor helps.

There’s a late-night text with Jonas, so maybe Isak’s insomnia is back, although Jonas is up at that hour, too, so who knows. Jonas wants to know if Isak’s heard from Even, too, and tells Isak to go to him. Jonas, giving the good advice and supporting his BFF’s happiness as usual.

Isak says Even would have answered his call if he wanted to talk and that he’ll check in over the weekend. Which is both Isak respecting Even’s boundaries, perhaps, and Isak maybe being afraid of pushing things and Even rejecting him.

This time Isak’s “family” event is real! Can’t blame Jonas for his skepticism, though, or his joke about Isak raging against Mahdi.

As mentioned above, Isak’s mom texts him again about looking forward to seeing him in the church where he was baptized. It’s the last text from her of the season, in either social media or a clip, and it would have been nice perhaps to get another in the final week, but I’m fine with this as a sendoff. Isak and his mom aren’t 100% perfect now, but they can work on having a relationship. And of course, it’s a good lead up to the church text and the symbolism there.

As always, please let me know if I misunderstood something from a language or cultural perspective.

If you’re still reading these, thank you! Especially after the long break I took. I’m almost done with this season’s reactions and I’ve loved talking about it with people and hearing from you all ❤️

#skam reactions #skam season 3 #skam #isak valtersen #evak

[hunterinabrowncoat]

alienolives replied to your post “the more i read about biblical scholarship, the more i’m convinced...”

i mean as someone decidedly atheistic but raised in catholicism, finding out biblical literalism like, exists, was 100% a wild fuckin time

like... it’s just so fucking bizarre because like that’s how i grew up and i heard it all the time, like “it’s in the bible!” or “but the bible says [quotes verse]” as if they were answers to anything.

so nobody ever had satisfactory answers for me when i pointed out that either

a) by and large Christians, or the Christians I knew at least, didn’t do everything the Bible says (like I know a fair few divorced and/or remarried Christians), and we didn’t use oil to anoint people, and I knew precisely 1 (one) Christian woman who covered her head in church (and this is all New Testament stuff) etc etc. and

b) the Bible appears to contradict itself, like... a lot. like i’d read one NT passage that talks about grace and how we can’t be separated from God ever and our salvation is secure, then another about how if we don’t pray for forgiveness we will be separated from God and like..... those things are not the same. they’re not. they are actually opposites. but all I was ever told was “the Bible might appear to contradict itself on the surface, but actually if you really study and look into, it doesn’t contradict itself at all!”

like ???? okay....... so how are both things right, because to me they seem mutually exclusive lol

#alienolives #it just makes so little sense..... #this book isn't even a singular book! #it's a collection of a myriad of texts that have been accumulated over a span of like 1000 years #by dozens of different authors some of whom we don't even know #across varying cultures and historical periods or political situations #and not only that but it wasn't even accumulated until hundreds of years later! #and then when martin luther split and started the protestant church they re-decided which books were REALLY the true bible #whenever i asked how we knew that the books in the bible were really ones that God wanted there #and why others weren't in there etc. #i was always told 'well if we believe God guided the words written down God would also guide the decisions made about what to include' #!!! #that's such a cop-out answer!!! #that's a non-answer #so you're saying God just allowed the church to have the INCORRECT and UNTRUE/unbiblical set of books #for CENTURIES #for like... what? a thousand years?? #until martin luther came along #and now we KNOW that THIS BIBLe with LESS BOOKS #is the REAL and TRUE version of the bible #because God...... had to have guided them to decide correctly?? even though God let them have an incorrect version for hudnreds of years???? #IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE #and here i am at 24 finding out that like 6 of the 13 books attributed to paul #were probably not even written by him #(including the one that details what the structure of the church should look like #and that women should shut up in church and never lead and shit) #I AM SHOOKETH #reply #it's a text post #faith tag

[fireeaglespirit]

@beyond-far-horizons

I do. I’ve always shied away from the LOTR/Sil community on tumblr or anywhere cos I want to keep my attachment to them all to myself given how formative they were for me and still are. Never the less I do like this interpretation of Melkor’s actions over Tolkien’s “he is Satan and darn right bad!” cos I have always been a fangirl of Melkor esp because most of the Valar are such stuck up good too shoes (apart from Ulmo - love you Ulmo!) Basically I adore Melkor (even though I don’t justify what he did) and Ulmo, like Nienna, Aule, Yavanna and Varda but Manwe….Manwe…just too good…and ‘the Windlord’ just isn’t a good title in some senses of the word hehe. It’s just the selfish way they acted towards the elves and especially humanity - no special treatment for them, no guidance (apart from Ulmo - what a dude) and then they wake up and get dragged into the war between Melkor and the elves - even though they didn’t start it and will not get reborn if killed. Okay okay Melkor was terrible and did terrible things but I’ve never liked that dualistic way of thinking as much as i admire the Professor. 

I’m replying here as to avoid any problems with the og of the post or whatever, but yeah... this is as far as I go concerning fandom right now but it was very worthy reading the book, I did enjoy it when I got a hold on how to read it properly. 

I must be honest and say, some parts were a chore to get through but others were so delightful it paid off in the end, much like other books I’ve enjoyed including ASOIAF which had painfully lackluster parts, I do dig for the gems and its always worthy.

I did write a huge post concerning the first parts of it and my thoughts, but I don’t know if I’ll post it as its a bit too harsh (extremely delicate subject for some, I know but for me nothing is sacred on this regard) on some elements which after some research made more sense to me. Also, taking in consideration the time period it was written and some info about the author made it much better for me to get into it, etc... I’m also highly tolerant of different world views (for real) so even thought I don’t agree with some of his concepts and I oppose some of them, I can sort of ‘ignore them’ in order to enjoy my cherry picked favorite aspects of the creation and even taking them into consideration is interesting for the ‘different point of view’ I mentioned.

As you wisely notice I don’t have much love for the whole bible-like aspects which by any means pertain just to the structure of the early parts of the book, but to the ongoing theme of the battle of good x evil, including most of the morale of the book itself which feels very ‘christian’ and monotheistic despite the presence of the Valar as god-like figures, which superficially might look polytheistic, Eru’s influence is undeniable even when he’s not actively present in the narrative: All good stems from Eru, or being close to him and following his way and almost every bad thing that happens is due to the meddling of a single guy whose own very existence was allowed by Eru and who opposes him... In the end, all evil comes from not following god’s will or not believing him. Don’t need to say I’m not a huge fan of the concept *coughs*

Anyway, I also recently read through the parts concerning Numenor and it made me angry also, especially concerning the way humans were left with no guidance at all, it no wonder they feel prey to manipulation, they were starved for something they could never achieved and they could never be enlightened on the reason for that. 

I don’t know and never understood why ‘faith’ or believing without at sort of clue or proof is held in such a high stem by most people, so its hard for me to swallow the way the humans were just told to never fucking go to west and to not desire immortality which was just natural for elves and spirits and they were not given a proper explanation or reason why... they just had to believe it. I know the Valar aren't omniscient too so they don’t know Eru’s reason either, but they could've been more helpful concerning the subject of the undying lands, I know at some point they are more open about it but perhaps it was way too late. LOL. What would it cost for a higher being to just go there and tell them the story and  functioning of the world, etc... I don’t know if this sounds stupid or even makes sense but I felt sorry for the guys in Numenor who died in the collective murder by Eru (this stank of bible but wasn't nearly as bad since well just a little part of the world was swallowed up :l and god basically killed everyone save a guy and his little family so props to Eru). I feel weird.

The problem to me is not the monotheistic setting itself, but the fact its endorsed and not ever criticized, etc.. I could enjoy any book with any world view as long as it challenges itself and Tolkien just goes straight away and never look back in this. I guess I just have a more ‘cynical’ or ‘doubtful’ point of view regarding deities in general, esp. monotheistic ones so I’d rather have some more shades of gray concerning those who oppose the all powerful god, just like you did regarding the demons on the DMC fic verse where you can see there are multiple forces at play and its not so simple, but I digress its just the way things are and that’s what the book is and its a relatively old book with different mindset and cultural references than we commonly have today.

To me, taking it away and just overlooking certain implications I can sort of get behind it, lol.

I’m also not a huge fan of the Valar, personally, they look cool as heck but most of them are indifferent AF and don’t act much. Worse than that, they don’t seem to hold much concern towards humanity... During the war of the wrath I just kept thinking “why haven’t you done this before??” and lol

I guess its a bit like my own Polaris whom after meddling with humanity for long just took a back seat, sort of understandable when things went awry before and you just don’t know if your meddling is causing good or bad anymore so you just let it be for a while, and for those beings a ‘while’ might mean centuries easy. The Valar, just like my dragons hold a lot of power, compared to ‘gods’ but neither hold omniscience so its understandable that they make mistakes, I just don’t necessarily agree with the position of utter indifference they took after some events... I mean to work with this theme concerning my dragons and how they deal with this so it was interesting nonetheless seeing the story evolve and what it leads to.

Anyway, the Silm. has a very interesting arc concerning its mythology since the higher power consecutively ‘take a back seat’ in order to let the world develop on its own, first of all is Eru himself and them slowly the ranks of spirits whom where once the focus of attention leave the picture one after the other until the story is taken over mostly by elves and afterwards even the elves leave the scene for humans to take over. This is very interesting and works to explain why the ‘powers that be’ are not as vivid as they were, etc... I really enjoyed reading the over arching theme and how it played out, it will definitely help me on my writing endeavors.

I totally agree on Ulmo like FFS he was the only guys still around when shit went down and he was always there trying to help the ‘good guys’, also Aule has some interesting facets early on and well... the Valar look incredible, especially Varda & birdy (fart) lord Manwe, but they don’t hold much more to me than cool looks, which is sad as they had potential. Also, I live for goth queen Nienna but she does nothing through the story...

Well, once more we’re left in the world of ‘what could've been’. I’m quite used to it and not complaining, just stating in my personal opinion the text could be easily turned into something much more interesting to me with minor tweaks. 

#beyond-far-horizons #silmarillion #random

[agaychristian]

Everything Happens for a Reason

September 26, 2018

So as I have been driving around the past few weeks I have been listening to a Christian music radio station.... like it's all I've been listening too. I haven't even tuned to the local news talk station I used to listen to all the time.

And as I've been listening, there are some songs that seems to come on more often than the others... I could be wrong, and it could just be because of what the songs are... but I once again feel someone is trying to tell me something.

I posted a while back about eating lunch in my car and hearing the song "Fear is a Liar".... well it comes on a lot...

so does "The Breakup Song" it has a line"so Fear you don't own me" and "Fear you will never be welcome here"

Another one is "Confidence", and it goes something like this "Guve me faith like Daniel in the lion's den, give me faith like Moses in the wilderness, give me a heart like David, Lord be my defense, so I can face my giants with confidence. You took a Sheppard boy and made him a king, so I'm gonna trust you and give you everything"

And this past year I have been struggling and debating with myself about coming out or not. I'm afraid how people will react, I'm afraid I will lose my friends, in afraid I will lose my church family....

But idk... maybe by coming out I can grow even closer to God... maybe by conning out, I can be vocal and show my church friends what the "clobber passages" are actually about... tho arguing that subject with a Southern Baptist is like arguing with a brick wall.

But idk... maybe I'm meant to spark change within my church... tho I doubt my church would ever leave the SBC... and the SBC couldn't get any more homophobic.

Maybe it's irrelevant, maybe it doesn't matter abt the church as a whole, maybe I just need to change one person's mind/ heart on the subject.

Tho that presents the other problem... in person I am not a confrontational person, like if you see my really arguing and getting vocal and mad/ upset/ enterfetic in person... it normally means I am royally ticked (there is actually more approperite words, but trying to avoid anything that even remotely leans toward profanity) off.

Tho I also get vocal and entergetic when discussing a passion, but will not be mad or upset... tho these subject tend to be sci-fi related, or could be theoretical like FTL, multiverse, etc... or othe subjects that go over most people's heads.. which is one reason I'm so quiet. It's no fun having such conversations if the other person can't understanding what in the world I'm talking about.

But the "anti homosexual" topics in the Bible, is a vast and tricky topic to maneuver... like if someone else and I get into it online, at any time I can end the conversation and just leave.... but in person I can't juatbdo that... also I will see that person again.

I'm an introvert so don't like confertation in person, I avoid it like the plague.... but coming out irl, just puts me right in the center of attention and confertation.

Also the other day on the radio the radio host guy said something like "we can't handle things in our own, God gives us more than we can handle to help us know we need him" or something like that.... and that really spoke to me, as right now I am going through so so so much. I know I need God to get through it all...

And you always hear "everything happens for a reason"

Back in early 2016 I had a lot of huge personal stuff happen, and I lost my job, had to move back home. In December 2016, I was in the app Whisper and made a post about how I wish i wasn't gay cause I'm a Christian or I wish it was ok to be gay and Christian or something like that, don't know how I worded it. And next thing I know, someone responds telling me I can be gay and Christian and they tell me about Justin Lee's book "Torn".

Since then I have learned more abt these verses, gotten involved with some gay Christian groups on Kik, and have considered coming out multiple times... have actually told one friend during this time.

While I still have some major personal stuff ruining my life atm... if all this hadn't happened in 2016, I would still have a nice high paying job, have gotten several raises... be getting ready to take a humongous test that would allow me to get a promotion, I would own my own house, and be able to take vacations frequently.... but I would most likely have never learned it is ok to be gay and Christian... I would be a closeted gay Christian that hates and hides part of himself and would be telling others that it's not ok to be gay, I would be pointing to those clobber passages and saying see it says so right here.

I might even be saying a woman, unknown as I'm still an introvert and would still rely on internet dating via apps or websites... but I would eventually settle for someone and probably never truly be happy.

So knowing everything happens for a reason, I am where I am now for a reason... just don't know what that reason is yet... or maybe I do... idk.

Maybe all this I've been thinking, itbis because that's hat God actually wants me to do.... maybe I'm hearing these songs about trusting God with everything, and casting my fear into the fire, and telling fear he ain't welcome here, and praying to God for the faith hope and heart to be able to face my giants... maybe it's because I need to pray for these things and just go for it.

Or maybe I'm overthinking all of this like I overthink everything....

And like always maybe I rambled a bit in this... but for someone who doesn't share personal things, doesn't share his emotions, doesn't really open up, or like taking in general ... I have found it easy to just talk/ vent/ whatever on here. I mean even if no one eve says anything or even likes a post... it is very therupedic to post like this on here.... tho I actually get joy when someone likes my post or comments/ replies/ messages or whatever...

tho sometimes I wonder when someone likes a post as soon as I post... it's like, dude did you even have time to read it... like you just sitting there waiting for my next post? You sit there like that, you may turn to dust before I post again lol.

But anyway that's enough rambling for now.

#Me #lgbt #gaychristian #lgbtchristian #closeted #inthecloset #gay christian #lgbt christian #gay

[citrus-roses]

I respect ur religion but friend u also need to respect Actual Real Life Science and stop making a fool of yourself in front of ppl with different opinions than you because you're not doing any good you're just making a bunch of teenagers laugh at you

First of all:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.- 1 Corinthians 1:18

I could just end my reply there but there is more I want to say. I’m not sure the context and reasoning for this message considering I haven’t reblogged or posted anything scientific related in months.

Regardless though I accept true science and I believe science and the Bible actually agree so I’m not sure where you came to the conclusion I didn’t accept science.

Also I’m perfectly comfortable looking like a fool and people mocking me. The Bible is clear if you believe it you will be mocked and you will look like a fool. But I don’t live for your acceptance but God’s. I don’t care if you think I’m a fool. Do so all you want. Lol. And actually the Bible is clear that those who mock and scoff are the real fools.

Some other verses to consider about true foolishness, wisdom, etc..

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.- Proverbs 18:2

Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.- 2 Peter 3:3

A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.- Proverbs 14:6

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.- Proverbs 1:7

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?- Proverbs 1:22

If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.- Proverbs 29:9

Claiming to be wise, they became fools,- Romans 1:22

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.- Proverbs 29:25

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.- Psalm 118:8

[mysteryofhistorysblog]

by: Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

8th of October 2020 "The OSAS haters, immature dark-clouds with no rain, etc."

But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

Psalms 38.19

-------

HalleluYAH! HalleluYAHAVAH ADONAI YAHSHUA HA MASHAICH MELEKH ha olam le olam Tzevaot. Amen. Selah. 🌈💖💪💖💪💖🌈

HalleluYAH! 💖

I encountered this brother name Robert Weller - Jew or not, it has no difference....

He posted this image, saying "Beware of those Christians..." (see the image/picture if interested,) so "for golden charity's sake" ("charity" which so many Christians have erased and replaced with the word "love" - doing things they ought not in the written Word and in the Holy Ghost!) I read some for a while, and found "one of bitterness:"

Yeah you guessed it right - it's Robert Weller, an author: so here was his comment IGNORANTLY condemning OSAS, of a comment he replied on, then my comment, and his mockery of OSAS and me (despite me blessing him in our LORD):

Tony Nungesser

Do you believe, without one shred of doubt, exactly what God has said here:

1Ti 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

:4 Who will have all humans to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Robert Weller

Author

Yes, I believe that. Do you believe this, or are you only able to believe the verses that please you? >> Those who continue in sin (lawlessness, NO LAW) are of the devil. 1Jn.3:8 Those who continue in sin DO NOT LOVE HIM. Jn.14:23-24 Those who do not love Him are accursed. 1Cor.16:22 Those who continue in sin are DECEIVED. 1Cor.6:9-11 Those who continue in sin are insulting (blaspheming) the Holy Spirit. Heb.10:26-31 Those who continue in sin do not know Him. 1Jn.2:3-5, Titus 1:15-16 Those who continue in sin do not belong to Him. Gal.5:24 Those who continue in sin DENY the POWER of GODLINESS. 2Tim.3:5 Only Satan could invent a doctrine are evil as OSAS.

When people repeatedly harden their hearts to the light (reviled truth) God gives them over to their insanity. Rom.1:24, 26, & 28. They do not love the truth so as to be saved.

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

Do not judge "OSAS;" Calling OSAS "evil" is lack of maturity (aware or unaware,) and also the lack of that all-important "charity" ("charity" which many bibles replaced with "love"); Again, please, for your soul's sake: Do not judge brother - not until you have really known the deep meaning of intimacy with God Almighty (the holy fervent lifetime walk with the Spirit of Christ on earth), Amen. True "OSAS" of course do not sin presumptuously; instead every "true OSAS" Christian (every faithful obedient believer in the grace,) got everlasting gladness and joy found in that pearl of great price, the Word and his grace faithfully and wonderfully combined, even the salvation of the soul, Amen. I am not of the beloved brethren the Baptists: But I am a Christian. Amen. HalleluYAH! Peace be to you. Amen. MATTHEW 7.2; 1 CORINTHIANS 13; 2TIMOTHY 2.14-16; 1 PETER 1.7-9 etc. 🌈💖😇

* Robert Weller just "laughed at me" (laughing emoji...) expressing his ignorance and rudeness (the absence of the grace of God, which his unfortunate soul does not seemingly honour,) I place this as a witness before man, but rather before the Master in heaven ADONAI YAHSHUA HA MASHIACH! Amen; HalleluYAH! 💖

* Then in just "less than two minutes" (though FB showed 6 minutes...I don't mind...) he was able to reply "so much" - 3 in a row, like a "machine gun" LOL! (he suddenly replied "maybe half of his bible, LOL! 🧐😳 - without understanding/absorbing my brotherly message, and courteous plea, in the Spirit to him - NOT TO JUDGE...):

1. Robert Weller Author

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

OSAS is a demonic cult. Those who continue in sin (lawlessness, NO LAW) are of the devil. 1Jn.3:8 Those who continue in sin DO NOT LOVE HIM. Jn.14:23-24 Those who do not love Him are accursed. 1Cor.16:22 Those who continue in sin are DECEIVED. 1Cor.6:9-11 Those who continue in sin are insulting (blaspheming) the Holy Spirit. Heb.10:26-31 Those who continue in sin do not know Him. 1Jn.2:3-5, Titus 1:15-16 Those who continue in sin do not belong to Him. Gal.5:24 Those who continue in sin DENY the POWER of GODLINESS. 2Tim.3:5 Only Satan could invent a doctrine are evil as OSAS. When people repeatedly harden their hearts to the light (reviled truth) God gives them over to their insanity. Rom.1:24, 26, & 28. They do not love the truth so as to be saved.

2. Robert Weller

Author

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr. There are many scriptures commanding us to judge our brothers in the faith. “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collect Mat.18:15-17

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Jn.7:24

Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. Eph.5:11

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. 1Cor.5:9-13

Anyone who goes too far and does NOT ABIDE IN THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST, does NOT HAVE GOD; the one who has the teaching, has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. 2John 9-11

If you love your brother, you will not let him burn in hell. The most loving thing you can do know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Ja.5:19-20,

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. Prov.17:15

When I say to the wicked, You will surely die, and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but HIS BLOOD I WILL REQUIRE AT YOUR HAND. Eze.3:18

There are some things that we are not to judge our brothers for. This would include what people eat or esteeming or not esteeming certain days. Rom.14:1-6, Col.2:16-17

3. Robert Weller

Author

MANY ARE IN LOVE WITH THEIR FALSE ASSURANCE OF SALVATIONCesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

Jesus gave MANY examples of people who had a false assurance of salvation. It was always because they continued in known sin or the stumbling blocks that cause people to continue in known sin. Mat.13:41-42

1) Some stray from the truth and die. James 5:19-20 It is not possible to stray from the truth without first having truth.

2) Some go shipwreck in the faith. 1Tim.1:19 It is not possible to go shipwreck in the only faith without first having the faith and being in the ship.

3) Some wander away from the faith. 1Tim.6:10 It is not possible to wander from the only faith without first having it.

4) Some desert for a different gospel. Gal.1:6 The Galatians were born again Spirit-filled believers. Gal.3:1-3

5) Some do not hold fast to the end of their faith. Heb.3:6 It is a no brainer.

6) Some have an unbelieving heart that falls away. Heb.3:12 It is not possible to fall away from the only faith without first having it.

7) Some are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Heb.3:13 Many love their sins.

8) Some fall away from the faith. 1Tim.4:1 No brainier.

9) Some do not love the truth so as to be saved. 2Thes.2:10 They love the father of all lies.

10) Some know God but do not obey the gospel. 2Thes.1:8-9 They will spend

eternity with the atheist.

11) Some receive the grace of God in vain. 2Cor.6:1 It is not possible to receive it

in vain without first having grace.

12) Some fall from grace. Gal.5:4 It is not possible without first having grace.

13) Some commit sins leading to death. 1Jn.5:16 They perish in their sins. 2Pt.3:9

14) Some say they know Him, but do not obey Him. 1Jn.2:4

15) Some distort the word of God to their own destruction. 2Pt.3:16

16) Some are blind having forgotten their purification from their former sins. 2Pt.1:9

17) Some go on sinning willfully after being delivered. Heb.10:26 They mock his

blood.

18) Some drift away from what they heard. Heb.2:1 They would have had to of

heard.

19) Some are not able to find a place of repentance. Heb.12:17 They will perish.

20) Some cannot be renewed to repentance again. Heb.6:4-6 AGAIN

21) Some are enslaved after escaping the bondage of sin. 2Pt.2:21-22 They first

were delivered from bondage.

22) Some do not abide in the teachings of Christ. 2Jn.9 no brainier.

23) Some will shrink away in shame at His coming. 1Jn.2:28 no brainer.

24) Some have gone astray from the truth. 1Tim.6:21

25) Some have been severed from Christ. Gal.5:4 Cut off, separated.

26) Some are unwilling to come to Him to have life. Jn.5:40, Mat.23:37 Free will.

27) Some have had their name blotted out of the book. Ex.32:32-33, Rev.3:4-5

28) Some are godless sinners who do not obey the gospel. 1Pt.4:17-18

29) Some do not continue in His kindness and are cut off. Rom.11:20-22 like Israel

30) Some will not endure to the end and be saved. Mat.10:22 Many Mat.7:13-14

31) Some have believed in vain. 1Cor.15:1-2 Their faith was worthless.

32) Some are being led by the flesh and not the Spirit. Rom.8:12-14 The Spirit will

never lead a person to sin.

33) Some do not abide in Jesus and are burned. Jn.15:6 No brainier.

34) Some will not get dressed for the wedding. Mat.22:12-14, Rev.19:7-8 They

love their sins.

35) Some profess to know Him, but they deny Him by their deeds. Titus 1:15-16

36) Some move away from the hope of the gospel. Col.1:23

37) Some become disqualified. 1Cor.9:27

38) Some deny the Master who bought them. 2Pt.2:1

39) Some forsake the right way and go astray. 2Pt.2:15

40) Some fall from their steadfastness. 2Pt.3:17

Come Lord Jesus!!!

* Wow! have you seen "the passion of Robert Weller?" his bible, which is 'LIKE AN ORANGE UNABLE TO BE JUICED OUT FOREVER, SETTLING FOT THE BITTER SKINS!" (I am not happy at all doing this thing - this admonition, which SHOULD NOT BE MY JOB ANYMORE! Yet PERVERSION IS, AND WAS, NOT A JOKE!" Amen.

HalleluYAH! 💖

So I replied... the whole Holy Bible? LOL! Of course not beloved, but HalleluYAH! - only a few by God's grace:

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

Robert Weller

I see you "are prepared" (Please say hi to "Moti" for me too..) I do not have much words in our Lord for you to continue, since the Holy Ghost gave already (and you did not listen seemingly, but again "is ready" to reply...) Therefore I'll make it simple straight, with a question: So you say that John Calvin is "evil" for teaching OSAS?

Robert Weller

Author

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr. ALL 5 POINTS ARE FROM SATAN. These are the words of your demonic daddy. >> “ Individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify him by their destruction.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 6)

“We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 21, Paragraph 5)

John Calvin writes: “Hence Augustine, having treated of the elect, and taught

that their salvation reponses in the faithful custody of God so that none perishes, continues: The rest of mortal men who are not of this number, but rather taken out of the common mass and made vessels of wrath, are born for the use of the elect.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.107)

“Creatures are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what He decreed”. John Calvin (Institutes of Christian Religion, book 1, chapter 16, paragraph 3)

In other words, their god creates a little non-elect girl so that she can be raped and murdered, then he sends her to an eternal hell because she was not his elect. And their god is somehow glorified by this. Satan would be blameless in comparison. What a loving god they serve.

Cesar Dela Cruz Karaniwan Jr.

Robert Weller Thy evil words thou shall be accountable on that day before our LORD JESUS CHRIST: This is all I have to say, and so the peace I bless you with shall rest with me and everyone humble, Amen; HalleluYAH! Praise the LORD, our Lord YAHAVAH YAHSHUA HA MASHIACH TZEVAOT. Amen. ISAIAH 48.22 etc. Image by pixabay.com

* I placed a "balance scale" image after this my comment...

* I praised the glorious LORD God of Israel for his faithfulness, and peace among holy brethren in prayer and after prayer, Amen;

HalleluYAH! 💖

* Oh Robert Weller, you are not even a member neither of John Calvin's church, nor the Baptists, yet your immaturity carelessly, and falsely, condemn thy Christian brothers/sisters (the Baptists, especially "the Fundamentals" etc.) "of the seven candlesticks in the hand of the Almighty Lamb of God in heaven Most High!" You have done this upon yourself (your soul): I hope you REPENT of your false pride and ignorance, if ELOHIM [YAHAVAH] and ADONAI wills mercy for spiritual blasphemers as "laughing/mocking you." Amen.

HalleluYAH! 💖

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Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

Romans 14.4

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13.2

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The faithful grace of God our dearest Saviour Almighty of spiritual Israel (Jews and Gentile Christians,) be with you, beloved. Amen.

HalleluYAH! 💖

HalleluYAH! HalleluYAHAVAH ADONAI YAHSHUA HA MASHAICH MELEKH ha olam le olam Tzevaot. Amen. Selah. 🌈💖💪💖💪💖🌈

To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Jude 25

-------

HalleluYAH! 💖

PSALMS 38; MATTHEW 5 etc.

Peace/Shalom 🌈💖💪😇💪💖🌈

Images made one:

https://www.truthinsideofyou.org/5-ways-to-identify-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/603735202991980/user/100012660134052/

https://pixabay.com/images/search/balance%20scale/

#mysteryofhistorysblog

[diaryofababychristian-blog]

When God gives you gifts

     I started seeking the Lord more last week and tried to absorb the concept of fasting. But along the process, my patience to wait upon the Lord was tested when He felt that I'm too confident to follow my instincts and not His will. He sent me a bunch of reminders that it is Him that should decide and introduced "that answer that I don't like to acknowledge" a.k.a. God’s NO.       My mind was suddenly filled with questions like:  What if He says no? Why will He say no if I'm praying for something that will bring Him more glory? He said that when I ask, I will receive? And when I knock, He will answer, right?

    I've been throwing questions at Him but I never really seek Him for the answers. Not doing my devotionals, not reading my Bible, wasting my time scrolling this Facebook feed tab, name it. He saw that I’m not being really serious about it. (I’m such a stubborn head) No wonder these questions popped out of nowhere. Actually not nowhere... As I write this, I know that the enemy is trying to influence my thoughts and taking EVERY opportunity to ruin my focus on His faithfulness and goodness to me.

     Honestly, last week is not pretty good for me. I felt very discouraged, slightly lost my grip and patience.      But lo and behold, God continued to pursue me! After our Bible study and fellowship, blessings came pouring on me as if God is making “ligaw,” for me not to tampo with Him anymore. It is just the sweetest thing! <3

     He used three people whom i truly love, to hand me these gifts from the kindness in their hearts!  - Steno Notebook      Last Thursday, during our dgroup huddle, my sister, Rach, shared this strategy from our “Lowla” Nikki (Lowla since Nikki is the discipler of our discipler’s discipler. I know it’s hard to understand but imma explain this family tree in a separate blog maybe. This is just too complicated to tackle in one post lol.) The strategy is on the first column, you will write all the verses, devos, quotes, etc that you will encounter for a week. On the second column, you will write all your thoughts, worries, anxieties, etc. After that, you will connect the items from both columns to decode God’s messages for you.      This steno notebook was given to me so I could start writing and connect the verses to my thoughts. :) How cool is that? Thanks for this, A! - Nama Champagne           D told me that he’s taking a vacation in Japan. Royce Nama Champagne is one of my favorite-iest chocolate there is! I advised him to bring me home one, since Royce here in PH is waaaaay too expensive. Then I realized that I don’t have enough funds to pay him back so I didn’t remind him nalang to get me Royce. But he insisted and told me that I don’t need to pay him back! Oh the blessings, Lord! Thanks so much, D!

- Family & Finance Conference Tickets           I don’t really understand why I super want to go to this conference. Been wanting to attend this since last year and when they announced that they’re doing the conference again this year, I didn’t get the ticket in advance, hoping that someone at church would want to come with me and avail the “couple’s rate,” since it’s a bit cheaper than getting a single ticket. Two weeks ago, I passed by the booth at CCF Center and I intentionally looked away since I’m still waiting for other friends that are willing to come with me (even FB repost didn’t work lol).           But last week, my friend M messaged me when I was fellowshipping with my dgroup. He goes, “i have a gift for you.” I thought, wait, it ain’t my birthday. So I replied to him when I got home and thanked him in advance. The rest is history:

      THIS IS BEYOND CRAZY!!! I literally cried because of overflowing joy because of God’s faithfulness in my life! Last Friday, M approached me and gave me the ticket... and the flyer! LOL <3 Super thank you, M!       I cannot thank the Lord enough. It felt that He’s really trying to cheer me up, and He did. :) I thought, “Oh God, You don’t really have to get me all this stuff,” but He wants to. Such a wonderful feeling to be loved by the greatest lover of my soul.

[calledtokarip-blog]

Wow!

Hello, friends!

I barely know where to begin this post but it seems logical to start with Saturday...move in day!!

August 19, 2017

The morning was mostly a blur of driving and making sure all of belongings were packed. We arrived at OBU to a line of cars that, at the end of the road, would be shook, ripped open, and unloaded in a matter of seconds. And no, none of that is an exaggeration. I have BDR and Mama Lis as witnesses. Putting together Kylie and I’s dorm room was not exactly fun but not exactly miserable. Kylie’s dad decided that he wanted to get our loft built so we could be fully set up. But not until 2pm...when we had to be at parent orientation and new student orientation at 3pm...oops. New student orientation was fun but I can’t give details in case any future baby bison happen to read this. ;) We got our small group leaders and had a mini-session...meeting our group members and trying to remember the 18,000 name we had heard that day. Slight exaggeration, but not much! At 4:30 the class of 2021 was blessed by the campus ministry coordinator and was told to say goodbye to mommy and daddy. So at that moment, my mom was crying (which I expected) and so was my dad (Sorry if that embarrasses you dad!). So then, I did shed a few tears because BDR doesn’t just cry. I said goodbye and flew from the eagles nest...or should I say...walked away from...the Herd. ;) See what I did there? We then went to Stake your State dinner where we ate with people from our region. Mine was Oklahoma City area. There was a sign with a Hurts donut on it and the Pops sculpture and if people had to question if they knew what those two objects were, it was a sign to go look for a different region! The night followed with Residence hall meetings and our first night in the dorm!

August 20, 2017

BDR taught me well. I set our air conditioning unit at sixty-seven degrees. And with the fan, my first night in the dorm was NO PROBLEM. I got up, got ready, and headed off to Life.Church Shawnee to meet some more new friends! I met a Tanner and a Trevor. Both very sweet guys...On fire for Jesus and very good at their jobs. The message was AWESOME. It talked about how we all have a calling. We are all on call and called to a different daily standard as Christians. A verse I really took away and Kylie and I wrote on our “weekly Bible verse” message board is this: 

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps.” 

1 Peter 2:21

When I returned to campus, we attended a new student simulation. Not my favorite activity but it was good to know where some of the resources on campus are. From there we went to book study. We are discussing the book “Why College Matters to God” in three sessions this week. Basically, modern day colleges are not centered on God and at one point in time they were, so Christian colleges are setting out to change that and the Christian worldview of students. It’s been fun to sit in with our professor so far! Afterwards, my small group went to Qdoba and then we drove around Shawnee a little bit to just see the city! To cap off the night, our president, David Whitlock, spoke a few words...like an hour and a half worth... He went over the mission and core values of OBU. He's a great speaker! After a small break full of fruit snacks and watermelon, we watched the welcome week skits. That has been my favorite part of the week, thus far! (Yes, even beating Ka-rip wars...sorry Andi!) Kylie and I and our new friend Miranda sat and ROLLED laughing!

August 21, 2017

I finally got a glimpse of real college life on Monday morning. I got up, went for a run, showered, made a protein shake and some coffee and watched Netflix while I did my hair. I realize there was no academic part of that equation, but I hope you see what I’m saying! :P We had academic meetings with the dean of our colleges and advisors after lunch. It was uneventful and hot. Oh, and did you know that health and human performance falls under the College of Humanities and Social Sciences? Definitely thought I was just a science major, lol. Session two of our book study followed our meetings and then we headed to Professor Rohr’s home to be filled with homemade garlic bread, salad, lasagna, and brownies...YUM! Next we headed to Ka-Rp wars. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a super cool gathering and it’s fun to be saying gibberish while everybody else just stands off and watches you get super hyped but it was hot and sweaty and after an hour and a half practicing and actually "performing”, I just wanted to chill in my dorm. We practiced for the walk immediately after. The walk is a tradition where we freshman wear our beanies we were given at orientation and we walk from the fountain to Raley Chapel silently and stand on the steps to sing the alma mater. You do it again on graduation day in your cap and gown. The actual thing is tonight and should be pretty cool! After that, I was pooped so I headed to my dorm and called it a day!

August 22, 2017 - TODAY!

We had the morning free again so I copied my morning from yesterday...run, shower, breakfast, chill...Kylie and I even got a chance to sit and have coffee and just talk about our lives. It was a good time! Her and I had a few things to take care of so we went to do that and then we went to lunch. I just got back from our third and last session of book study and I’m about to head to a walk around type thing where we learn about all the student organizations on campus!

Here’s some cool things about OBU that are probably insignificant to other people but seem okay to mention to me:

1. They have beef at the caf...all the time. (Those that know me, know I’m not the fondest of chicken.)

2. They have Some lifewater in the pomegranate flavor. 0 calories and it’s kinda like vitamin water so yes, I’ve had it at every meal so far and plan to keep it that way! hahaha :)

3. Meals you don’t have to pay for or swipe for, are the best meals.

Funny how all of those have to do with food but oh well. What can I say, I’m a big foodie.

This morning, I told Kylie some of the story of why I was at OBU and she looked at me and said “well I’m glad you’re here!”...I paused for a moment, taken aback, and then replied, “Me too.”

In that moment, I KNEW 100% that this is exactly where God wanted me to be.