A place for me to link my work, mostly, plus reblog stuff I'm interested in at the moment--mostly social justice, Star Trek, and contemporary animation. Trans lesbian settling in. LMSW therapist. 41. She/her.
We all know that Luz' name means light, right? There's tons of theming around her--she's associated with the light spell in the opening, the Light glyph is the first one she learns in both glyph systems, the King!Light glyph is based on her Titan-merged form, there's countless examples.
But there's no rule that a name can't mean two things. Luz is Hispanic, so the Spanish meaning of her name is obviously the primary one, but there is another language in which the word luz means something else entirely, and while it definitely could be entirely a coincidence, it does have some interesting connections with Luz' story, and especially the final season. And it's a meaning I haven't been able to find anybody else talking about, and neither has Google, so... let's talk about it.
That language is Hebrew, in which the word luz means "almond." So right there we've got an interesting potential meaning, because Luz' last name, Noceda, is a Galician name meaning "a grove of walnut trees." That would make Luz an almond in a walnut grove--someone who doesn't fit in, an outsider, a "weirdo," which is of course everything her character is about.
But there's more to it than that, because in addition to literally meaning "almond," in ancient times the Hebrew word luz also referred to one of three human bones associated with almonds. Scholars disagree about which bone was actually meant, but it was either the atlas bone at the top of the spine, the coccyx at the bottom, or the sacrum connecting the spine to the pelvis, the former two because they're supposedly almond-shaped, and the latter because it has almond-shaped indentations (personally, I don't see the resemblance in any of them, but apparently, historically people did).
So we've got a connection to bones, which of course immediately connects to the Bones of the Isles, the Titan--who has been quietly giving Luz her magic all series, whose voice Luz hears every time she goes to the World Between, and whose soul/power she houses in the finale--and in the process gets bones prominently added to her design.
But that's still not everything, because the Zohar--a thousand-year-old compendium of Jewish mystical traditions that is the main source for identifying the sacrum as the luz bone--describes the luz as "the bone shaped like a snake's head." And wow is Luz ever associated with snakes. She has one the first time we see her.
She has one the last time we see her.
She even wears one in her final character design!
But my favorite Luz-snake connection is the one we learn about in "Thanks to Them," when we find out her mother keeps a snakeskin Luz found as a small child in a frame on her nightstand--in the shape of the Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail, an ancient symbol of infinity, eternity, and resurrection.
And speaking of resurrection, the reason we know the luz bone was a thing (even if we don't know which bone it was) is due to a belief (once fairly widespread among Jews) that the luz bone was the location where the soul was located, and that it was indestructible. At the end of time when the dead were resurrected, the luz would be the seed from which the rest of the body would be restored.
So, the luz was supposed to be indestructible--and Luz doesn't die when she's killed. It's the location where the soul is stored.
It's associated with resurrection.
And it's the seed from which restoration occurs--as in, the restoration of the Boiling Isles from Belos' rot and decay.
So, do I think Luz is named Luz because it means "light" in Spanish? Absolutely, 100%. Do I think Luz might also be named Luz because it means "almond" in Hebrew?
Well... maybe. It's definitely more obscure and a little out-there... but it does seem to fit pretty neatly.
Are cobblestones called that because they're stones for walking on???
looks it up
Dang, they're not, they're called that from a German word that means round and flat derived from the word for head. Apparently nobody knows why cobblers are called cobblers, which is kind of fascinating?
Basically to make a long story short, it was around the late 1700s when we finally got off the corpuscular theory of matter, and switched over to something more resembling modern atomic theory.
Because what that did, was effectively remove the concept of transmutation. Alchemical transmutation can't happen if there aren't essences you can distill and switch around. And you can't really have alchemy without transmutation.
Also nationalism (read: even more virulent racism, largely about what languages people spoke) was really getting going around that time and "alchemy" was very obviously Arabic in origin, so they dropped the "al" to make it sound more like it came from a European language.
Wife spent her day at work making a Hottest Disney Characters Tier List, as one does, which I filled out for fun:
Decades of artistic development and billions of dollars and Fox Robin Hood is still the hottest thing to grace this green earth, no amount of time is gonna change that. Also mad respect for "that mouse sex worker giving a striptease at a bar in Basil on Baker Street" for making it to A Tier, who wouldn't slip her a Benjamin for a half hour in the back room after all.
Going off pure gut reactions with no thought. Also, I just stuck people into tiers, I made no effort to organize them within tiers. So for example Esmeralda would be the top of "Enthusiastic yes" and Belle probably the bottom*, but I just stuck them in wherever.
Not that BRIAR ROSE is *fans self*, Princess Aurora is several tiers lower.
Wife spent her day at work making a Hottest Disney Characters Tier List, as one does, which I filled out for fun:
Decades of artistic development and billions of dollars and Fox Robin Hood is still the hottest thing to grace this green earth, no amount of time is gonna change that. Also mad respect for "that mouse sex worker giving a striptease at a bar in Basil on Baker Street" for making it to A Tier, who wouldn't slip her a Benjamin for a half hour in the back room after all.
Going off pure gut reactions with no thought. Also, I just stuck people into tiers, I made no effort to organize them within tiers. So for example Esmeralda would be the top of "Enthusiastic yes" and Belle probably the bottom*, but I just stuck them in wherever.
Not that BRIAR ROSE is *fans self*, Princess Aurora is several tiers lower.
I try really really hard to keep this blog about RPGs and writing. I really do. But when someone comes for my students, fists gets thrown.
We've seen the rise of transphobic legislation in various US states, as well as in Saskatchwan and New Brunswick. Now Alberta has joined the party. Despite the premier pointing out that there are trans youth in her extended family (I don't know how close the relation is, but somewhere in her close family) and swearing to not marginalize trans youth in the last election.
And ohhhh boy oh boy, my home province is once again aiming to hit the bottom of the barrel
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says legislation will come this fall to codify her planned policy changes affecting transgender and non-binar
Here's the tl;dr (quoted from the article):
Top and bottom surgeries will be banned for minors aged 17 and under. Doctors say bottom surgeries aren't performed on youth and top surgeries are rare.
Puberty blockers and hormone therapies for genderĀ affirmation will not be permitted for children aged 15 and under.
Youths aged 16 and 17 will be permitted to start hormone therapies for genderĀ affirmation "as long as they are deemed mature enough" and have parental, physician and psychologist approval.
Parental notification and consent will be required for a school to alter the name or pronouns of any child under age 15. Students who are 16 or 17 won't need permission but schools will need to let their parents know first.
Parents will have to "opt-in" their children every time a teacher plans to teach about gender identity, sexual orientation or sexuality. Alberta lawĀ currently requires parental notification and gives them the option to opt students out.
All third-partyĀ teaching materials on gender identity, sexual orientation or sexuality will need to be approved in advance by the education ministry.
Transgender women will be banned from competing in women's sports leagues.Ā Smith said the government will work with leagues to set up coed or gender-neutral divisions for sports.
This goes well beyond what SK and NB have passed. It violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but Smith doesn't care and will likely use the Notwithstanding Clause to bypass it. Parents, medical professionals, and educators have all reacted with justified outrage. It is clear to those of us who care about youth that these policies will kill.
There is flattly no way in hell I will be deadnaming my students. For a government that says they want to remove red tape and bureaucracy, making parents opt-in to every single lesson involving anything other than heteronormativity sure seems like trying to use red tap to make teaching anything other than their ideology impossible.
What can you do to help?
If you are in Alberta, raise holy hell. Call your MLA, show up at the protests, add your voice to the chorus screaming that we don't want this.
If you are in Canada, there are also demonstrations in support of trans youth going on across the country. Let your MP know as well.
If you aren't from Canada, solidarity and visibility help! We've all seen how this shit has gone down in Florida and elsewhere. We need to stand together to stop this tide.
If you have business ties to Alberta and are able to divist them, please let the Alberta government know you are planning to do so if these proposals become law
Donate to 2SLGBTQ+ organizations in Alberta.
This is not the content I want to go viral from me... but if I have to choose one, make it this one. Please help us proect our kids.
Reminder to my American friends that we are most likely NOT going to be able to flee to Canada when shit goes south here. Setting aside that it's always actually been REALLY HARD to immigrate into Canada, it's getting just as bad there. We need to fight in both places, as well as everywhere else--the number of places safer for trans folks than the least dangerous parts of the US is tiny and shrinking fast.
ÅŖropi, also known by its indigenous name āEuropeā, meaning āwide-gazingā or ābroad of aspectā, is a small continent first discovered in 1806 by Moehanga of NgÄpuhi, although indigenous Europeans had been living there for many thousands of years. Modern researchers believe the indigenous Europeans originally migrated from the Middle East, and over time split into separate tribes or ākingdoms,ā with many retaining their ancient rangatira (called āmonarchsā or ānobilityā) to this day.
While many see ÅŖropi as timeless and exotic, indigenous Europeans have actually adapted well to the modern economy, often exporting cultural products like baguettes and vodka, the former of which may be recognisable as the basis for bĆ”nh mƬ.
pro lifer blocked me on twitter for asking this but if embryos have souls, and then they're aborted, exactly how sapient are they in the afterlife? Are they forever doomed to float around with no thoughts in their heads? Is it like just animal intelligence like a little happy goldfish? Do they still have an embryonic form? I've always seen an assumption that child souls are still in child form so I guess so. Do the other people in the afterlife keep abortions as little pets? Will they stay in a fishbowl or are they too stupid + intangible and float right out again?
One of my mother's proudest achievements in life was convincing a congressman to drop his opposition to stem cell research by proving to him that the soul cannot possibly enter the embryo prior to two weeks after conception, because up until that point it can still split into twins.
There are defintely folks better versed in the history of it, but the watermelon has become a kind of symbol for Palestinian freedom. It has to do with the colors matching their flag. If I remember right, it came to prominence when Israel wouldn't allow the flying of the Palestinian flag.
one of the unwritten rules of comics is that you donāt want to put a speech bubble over a characterās face, but leave it to Arakawa to know the mood of that scene called for breaking the rules to make that panel layout even stronger.
(I feel like one of those moments in kid's shows where a character says something in a really sophisticated, detailed manner, and then the dumb who didn't understand a word of it replies "Yeah, plus [three-word version of what they just said]." When it comes to art, that's me, I'm the dumb character.)
I was thinking the other day that itās funny, Matt Smith was a twenty-something, who in the role of the Doctor felt fucking ancient, but Peter Capaldi is fifty-something and feels in the role of the Doctor like a twenty-something undergrad whose skipped every single class of their anthropology course in favor of eating a monthās supply of ramen and playingĀ āBlitzkrieg Bopā 17 times in a row.
One of my favorite yuri related things is actually this Japanese article I found once that was like. Directed at younger himejoshi. So I put it through google translate because I was curious and it had a bunch of tips like "if you have a friend who is also a yuri fan... maybe you can go see a movie about girls together! But REMEMBER. Be sure to let her know in advance if you want to be š³ more than friends š³" and I genuinely thought it was so funny and cute that it was like "WARNING: we know manga likes to string things along but you cannot do that in real life you need to make your intentions known" LMAO
Homura is just straight up one of the weirdest people imaginable. Like, forget about the time loop tragic doomed romance for a bit, I want to see what it looks like if she wins and then actually tries to romance Madoka. She has a massive collection of illegal firearms. She builds her own bombs. She lives in an ultra-modernist white box apartment that she's decorated with a couch made of concentric circles, a giant swinging knife pendulum to remind her of the ever-present flow of time, and a wall of several dozen screens. She communicates primarily in vague and ominous warnings and is more or less incapable of saying anything directly. She addresses everyone she meets by their full name with no honorific which comes across as bizarre and intimidating. If you count time loop years she's 26. She was raised in a catholic orphanage. I want to see her take Madoka on a horrifically bad date and cry in the bathroom partway through when she realizes she's fucking up
This is why Madoka is the ideal partner for Homura. Madoka meets a corkscrew-haired blond dual-toting rifles jumping into void portals to fight paper-mache nightmare manifestations, and instead of fleeing to the nearest authority figure in about a week she is down to enlist herself in the shadow games out of an explicitly-stated fit of "I have nothing better to do" pique. Homura would take her on a first date to a bomb-rigged shooting gallery in space where the targets are crucified porcelain dolls and it would be Madoka's new favorite game in five minutes. No one has ever been down for literally anything the way Madoka is.
What I donāt get is why the initial response is always to circle the wagons and be all closed-fisted about terminology.
So letās talk coalition building. A bunch of cishet kinksters developing a political consciousness around their status as sexual minorities is literally the best possible thing that could happen to gay rights. Whether we understand them as officially queer, or as part of a broader classification of movements that included both kink and queerness under the same umbrella, a bigger tent is virtually always better.
Kinksters were never considered to be queer qua queer, but it was not so very long ago that issues like no-fault divorce, access to birth control, access to abortion, opposition to censorship of pornography, and queer rights were understood to be broadly related movements in favor of sexual freedom and of consolidating the gains of the sexual Revolution. Radfems kicked the pornographers and kinksters out of the coalition, South Park ceased being blue coded and became red coded, but it canāt be denied that much of the success of the LGBT community occurred in a time when we were more explicitly connected to the sexual freedom of cishet people.
The reason is pretty simple. The more votes you have, the more power you have. If the majority considers your struggle to implicate values that are important to them, or that directly impacts their material reality, they are more likely to support your cause.
And people are swatting away the olive branch becauseā¦ I mean, Iām pretty sure itās because cishet kinksters are deeply uncool. Well, Iām done with high school and all the cringe by association politics that comes with it. I have a husband that I love and a big ol gay life that I love and Iām not waiting for the backlash to crest before figuring out how to protect them.
So if a cishet kinkster wants to take the first watch tonight, Iām not too proud to refuse the help.
Breaking My World's Shell @froborr - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
