GondalsQueen

Almost every ex-Catholic I know, myself included, still has at least one saint they like enough to keep around in some form. The number of ex-Catholics still burying St. Anthony in the back yard is not insignificant.

Listen I may not want anything to do with the Church or Jesus or all that, but the saint-powered folk magic taught to me by older women in my family? I’ll keep that part, that part is rad. Especially since priests usually don’t want you doing it.

jewishvitya-movingblogs

I’m curious but I’m Jewish so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Saint-powered folk magic?

God, okay, so Catholicism has a TON of little practices that totally qualify as folk magic, often practiced by women, but almost no Catholic granny will actually call it that. Growing up I learned all sorts of “”“prayers”“” that are basically just magical spells. They can vary from country to country, depending on what other cultural influences are being blended with the Catholicism.

For example, burying a statue of St. Joseph (not Anthony; I got my saints mixed up) to help sell a house. It’s also common to make offerings to statues of St. Anthony to help you find things that you’ve lost. Old Catholic ladies praying the rosary to enact specific wishes, things like that. God and Jesus never really enter into it–you’re basically doing fancy rituals to ask the saints to make things happen and intercede on your behalf with God.

And, of course, how could I forget relics? “Let me pray and make offerings to this piece of bone taken from a dead saint, so their spirit in Heaven will entreat God to help me with my problems.”

[ID: screenshotted tags from stargazing-enby that read, “#I never heard of these#But I did hear that if you want good weather you bring eggs to St Claire#catholicism.” End ID.]

[ID: screenshotted comment from fabledshadow that reads, “I carry a St. Christopher medal with me, and I’ve never been seriously injured while traveling. Going to go ahead and hang on to that one lol it makes me feel better anyway.” End ID.]

Also, no one loves candle magic quite like the Catholics. “Light this specific candle in this specific manner while saying these specific prayers” was, like, an entire THING when I was growing up. Candles for the dead, shelves full of offering candles that are never allowed to be blown out (only to burn out naturally), keeping candles lit to represent the presence of Jesus and Mary, baptism candles, advent candles, candles on a buche de noel, on it goes.

claudiagray

I had a friend who, in some seriousness, would pray to St. Anthony to locate lost objects like this:

“Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony

Look around, look around

Whatever is lost

Let it be found.”

As a pro-science person I would like to be able to tell you that I never tried this, and that if I did, it did not work. But I cannot tell you that.

#more ex catholic stuff #pagan symbolism in catholicism #saints #magic

All of this! But don’t forget about Mary, Queen of Heaven, who holds the chief place among saints because the early Catholic church realized that you couldn’t win people over to the idea of a loving divinity that doesn’t include a mother. Did the church co-opt a lot of native imagery for mother goddesses and earth goddesses? Did it play a large part in creating the virgin/whore dichotomy and just conveniently combine maiden and mother, while getting rid of the crone entirely? Did it remove the terrible side of these mother goddesses, the part that would wreak swift and horrible vengeance against anyone who hurt their children? Yes x 3. There’s also the funkiness of Jesus being depicted through feminine tropes in order to take on the role of the peaceful and nurturing parent who feeds his children from his own body, thereby taking the place of the mother. But growing up in the Catholic church, it was deeply comforting to have a Saint Mom to turn to--and I know a lot of Catholics feel that way.

I always giggle at people going "UGH STAR WARS IS GETTING TOO POLITICAL!!"

like,

Sweet summer child.

It's literally called Star Wars.

War...is a political issue lmao

"yea but episode 1-"

Corruption and interruption of trade systems

"But episode 2-"

Increasing military

"T-three"

The manipulation of democracy for imperial gain

"F-four...?"

Literal decimation of regions deemed 'inferior'

5-6

Can't find much undertone, mainly just literal war and fighting, probably why it's "liked so much"

7-9

Quite simply the phrase "those who don't learn from political history are doomed to repeat it", and it did.

Well let's do notable spin offs

Rogue One

The realization how much is sacrificed for a war tactic

Obi Wan

A former official dealing with the aftermath of their parties and his actions

Solo

A desolate and corrupt society encourages rebellion of order.

Mandalorian

Surprisingly more about perspective about what good nurturing and caring can do in a world like SW, especially since most of the main cast in the past had zero or horrible childhoods

Oh, and the aftermath of big wars, can forget that.

#star wars and politics #obi-wan kenobi #rogue one #the empire strikes back #return of the jedi #the mandalorian #feel like i didn't say anything too profound about the book of boba fett

Wait, wait! Obi-Wan Kenobi: In a society ruled by law, we think there are rules. We think laws protect us. They don’t. Brute force can be physical (what the Inquisitors literally do) or it can be political (Vader’s carte blanche to do absolutely anything he wants to anyone without political repercussion). Poor people in out-of-the-way places (like Tatooine and Mapuzo) will sometimes be punished by the legal system, but seldom if ever protected by it. Also: “ You want him to like you, so you repeat what he says even though you don’t really know what it means.” And this is how nasty but charismatic demagogues get their power. They’re rich and powerful. If I repeat what they say, some of that might rub off on me. Since we’re talking about whether or not it’s necessary to be polite to droids, let’s throw in how easy it is to dismiss the humanity of others when: 1) you’re in power and it therefore benefits you to do so, and 2) you’re told that it’s fine. Also: “All I do is wave.” “Then do more than wave.”

Rogue One: The danger of overlooking tyranny that “couldn’t affect me.” Saw is an insurgent who uses terrorist tactics. No wonder Jedha’s a target, it’s easy to say. Civilian casualties are sometimes inevitable to take down a terrorist. It’s really Saw’s fault for staying there. Sure that can happen in Jedha; it’s a dangerous place. So sad. It couldn’t happen HERE though. (How easy it is to assume that absolute power will only go after “bad guys” and that deaths are justified deaths.) (Within a week, Alderaan is gone at the push of a button, and there’s no time left for outrage.) The danger of failing to act in order to bide your time and see what happens because it’s easy to see the cost of acting now and hard to see the cost of failing to act (Rebel Alliance, I’m looking at you). (Climate change, anybody?) No science is pure science, detached from the world. Scientists don’t have the luxury of doing their work and staying out of politics. Others (if not they) are always ready to politicize that work. Episode 5/ESB: I really do want to go back to “war is always political” because the bulk of this movie is about the fighting. Two things that always struck me, aside from that: Vader’s insistence that all he’s trying to do is bring order to the galaxy, his insistence that a pax romana is a good and necessary thing--this is the first time we see that motivation and it informs allll of the politics of the original trilogy. LANDO. Man, when I was a kid, I thought Lando had betrayed Han and Leia to save his mining operation. Turns out he literally did not have a choice. Vader was going to come in there and do whatever he wanted anyway. Lando was not bargaining from a position of power. He was not bargaining at all. He was just trying to protect his people (including Han and Leia and Chewie and the whole city) as best he could. Understanding the position Lando was in as a leader helped me move beyond black and white “good guys always do good things and never do bad things” thinking when looking at real-life leaders. And on that note: “I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further.” You guys really don’t read the news and then use this line to summarize what’s going on in the world? Episode 6/RoTJ: The Empire using someone else’s land as a staging area for building its superweapon... I’m pretty sure colonization is a political issue. The Mandalorian: This entire show is about questioning blind adherence. First, Din takes a bounty on a target that ends up being just a child. He has to defy a pretty powerful remnant goverment (and its private sector contractors) in order to do the right thing. Gradually, he discovers that his group of Mandalorians is extremist and that “the way” of protecting people (the spirit of the law) is more important than “the way” of keeping your helmet on at all times (the letter of the law). Next up: Who will lead Mandalore? All of this is politically relevant. The Book of Boba Fett: We could talk about exploitation of the Tuskens and their land, but I’m tired now, so let’s keep it simple: Can you rule as a crime lord without instilling fear? Can you rule by law with an eye to justice and not worry so much about punishment? (I would argue no, but the show disagrees with me.)

ginkovskij

i will raise my children traditionally

the oldest will have a ruinous military career and develop a tendency to recklessness, alcoholism and anger management issues the middle one will be a brilliant student with strong atheist inclinations and casual demonic hallucinations the youngest will be an angel prone to hysteria turned tsaricide by circumstances

pointnclick

is this about malcolm in the middle

#castlevania #trevor's still dmitri #alucard's still ivan #sypha's still alyosha

Already told y’all this is The Brothers Karamazov:

aquilaofarkham

THEY GAVE RICHTER SYPHA'S EYES 🥺🥺🥺

#castlevania #richter belmont #sypha belnades

They give Richter Sypha’s EVERYTHING. The curl of the hair, the profile, even the ears:

clubsprout

tomorrow’s gonna be just fine. that conflict you’re having with your friend will blow over. no one secretly hates you. the world is not out to get you. it’s ok to feel stressed out. it’s ok to crack under pressure sometimes. you are perfectly capable of enduring whatever life throws your way. everything will be alright. you’re gonna be ok.

Follow-up: If you want to die, GO TO SLEEP. If you can’t, take one (1) (ONE!) sleeping pill. Sleeping accomplishes all the things that sound attractive about dying (total loss of consciousness and not having to deal with the problem), but it’s not permanent.

#mental health

"For it had not been very long prior to the Pequod's sailing from Nantucket, that he had been found one night lying prone upon the ground, and insensible; by some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable, unimaginable casualty, his ivory limb having been so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise smitten, and all but pierced his groin; nor was it without extreme difficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured."

Wait, Ahab kicked himself in the dick with his peg leg??? What a plot twist to land 82% of the way through the book

I found this so hilarious I read the passage out to Sam, who immediately suggested that what actually happened is Ahab was attempting to achieve anal gratification with the peg leg, but missed.

#moby dick #i actually really like melville #but man does he ever make you work for it #my favorite is bartleby the scrivener

Moby Dick is a super exciting 150 page book! Unfortunately, it is 430 pages long. All the good pages are at the end, unless you count that “and there was only one bed” part at the very beginning.

Hey, where are my Star Wars Celebration people at? Are there any Rebels fans who are going to Celebration? If so, message me. I’m going to try to set up a (tiny) dinner for us.

#swr #star wars rebels #star wars celebration

Okay so I’m reading through Next Season again and I found a snippet from it that really made me chuckle in a darkly comedic way given current canon “Mandalore liberated itself, which had been a long time coming anyway”

It just, I know I shouldn’t find that funny but I do.

Eep, thank you for writing! I think you should find it funny, in a dry, eye-rolling, of-course-they-did sort of way. Give Mandalorians a halfway decent opening and they're going to start fighting, right?

Okay, Kanan x Hera A New Dawn-era playlist. Go! I’ll start: Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen) You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon) Rollerskate Skinny (the Old 97′s) Moon River (Henry Mancini) What songs should I add?

#kanera #a new dawn #swr #playlist #music recs #i do have a few other kanera playlists #this one's just specific

ot3

to be honest there has never been a fictional character i’ve actually wanted to date. like. i want them to date each other. i don’t want myself as a person to be involved in this scenario whatsoever. what would i add to this narratively? what’s my thematic purpose in the narrative? immersion breaking.

pengychan

#im the director bitch not the actor

don’t hide this in the tags that’s exactly it

#THIS

voltager

so much borrowed time

#damn kanan #pour me a drink of that #fan art rec

iknowwhattosaynow

How have I watched Rebels the number of times that I have and just now noticed that Kanan Jarrus literally wears his heart on his sleeve? That ain't an 01 on his pauldron, that's an 02.

As in Spectre 02.

#til #how did i not know this?!#kanan jarrus #spectre 1 #spectre 2

Star Wars Rebels season 3 recaps

“The Wynkahthu Job”

So, okay, wow. There's a lot I didn't like about that episode. It's supposed to be a funny one, but all the humor is corrosively mean-spirited, and the characterization is... hard to reconcile, with what's gone before.

So Chapter Nine of Fade to Red is very much a fix-it fic, centering the very important emotional things the episode marginalizes and skates past (like Hera, and her feelings about all this). And doing a lot of heavy lifting to redeem the characterization of Kanan, which I think is flat out broken in this ep.

Anyway, let's dig into it.

I’m okay with Ezra being a bratty little shit in this episode because teenagers are sometimes self-centered brats, and people more generally are often self-centered shits, and he just doesn’t see it here, and I LIKE stories about heroes being assholes sometimes but still not overall bad people. I am NOT okay with the episode itself endorsing Ezra’s point of view. (It did give me a good opening to write Hera being furious, though, which is 75% of what I really want out of life.) This was my favorite line of your review: “Hera tells him bluntly that he's not trustworthy when Hondo's around, and Ezra stalks off, pouting.” God, I love the good parenting in this show. Hondo is a huge dumpster fire, but he’s still my trash boyfriend. Mostly, what I’m taking away from your recaps is that Chopper’s the real MVP.

#swr #the winkahthu job

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 recaps

"Hera's Heroes"

This is a meaty ep: more character work suggested than there's time to fully explicate on the show. Which is such fertile grounds for fic! Already left comments on the fifth chapter of Fade to Red; my recap of the episode is here under the readmore.

Watching it again, my big takeaway was wondering exactly what Thrawn's threat model looks like right now. He's doing some clear cat-and-mouse stuff, and I think he's conceptualizing Hera as his main enemy. But I don't love the part where he simply lets her get away to see what she'll do next: seems like Bad Villaining 101.

Oh, Thrawn. I like the idea of Thrawn as a tactical genius who thinks he’s in the right because he’s got good manners. The execution is...not bad, but sometimes unrealistic, as it often is with characters like this. As you say, it’s not ACTUALLY tactically sound to let them escape in most of these cases. I think his end game is to find the Rebel base and destroy them (sometimes if you take the short way through a level you don’t get the items you need to win the game as a whole), which, to be fair, is EXACTLY WHAT HE DOES by the end of the season. I don’t think he wants to beat some Rebels. I think he wants to beat ALL of the Rebels. Still, the evil genius stereotype that victories must be complicated to be elegant or meaningful...meh. (Honestly, though, I’m mostly okay with him except for the overwhelming presence of his theme music, which always makes me think of him as Count Dracula.) I do wonder what his GOAL is, though, from an existential standpoint. Most of us would say that he’s amoral, I think. He has no desire for evil, he just wants to win. But that, combined with his love of art and the way he studies is targets, makes me think that winning IS art for him--it’s constructing the perfect pattern. Like a beautiful game of chess? That’s a cliché metaphor, though. So I don’t think he cares anything about the Emperor, and if he likes the Empire, it’s only for that idea of absolute order it represents. Most likely, though, the Empire is just a giant arena for him to impose order as he pleases. Still, I’m not sure what he sees as his goal .Is it really order, or did I make that up? Is it just victory? That seems hollow, and what does he do after he wins? Confusing, and probably more confusing because he’s half-Chiss in a government that systematically discriminates against non-humans, and more confusing still because I haven’t read the more recent Thrawn books. Oh, well. I agree that he’s more focused on Hera than Kanan or any of the others. The Inquisitors, Force-users, are Kanan’s enemy. Thrawn was designed to be Hera’s. I’m not even sure he’s all that impressed with the Jedi. He’ll account for their involvement so he makes the right decisions, but meh. What he likes is the mind at work, the opponent. ...Which makes this whole thing still read a little weird to me. During the attack at the end of the season, Thrawn refers to “Captain Syndulla” and “Admiral Sato” as the leaders of this Rebel cell, and he seems to be after Hera more than anyone else. Is she really that high up in the ranks? Is she second-in-command of the whole cell, after Sato? I didn’t think so. ALSO, you know I love Hera more than anything. I admire her pragmatism and her ability to strategize. And certainly, she’s smart. But...is she a tactical genius of the sort to rival Thrawn? I hadn’t thought so. And OKAY, I just remembered the reason I really dislike this episode. Hera would never, ever, ever endanger her team on a mission to save a keepsake, no matter how important it is to her family. The show tries to address this, but it’s weak. Here they are, causing distractions and getting into firefights with the Empire, and somebody’s going to get killed, and it’s all so she can get that kalikori. No way.

...Yeah. She has to be talked into it, and she regrets it, but STILL.

I buy that Thrawn let Hera go because he's hoping to use her to find the Rebel base. That makes a lot of sense. But is that enough to explain his snarling anger at the suggestion of killing her? And why he responds by talking about "no appreciation for art"? Like how is Hera art to Thrawn? I'm really hung up on this. I think you're right that the suggestion here is that he appreciates her as an enemy and wants the, I guess aesthetic thrill, of securing a total victory against a worthy opponent.

But as you say, Hera's never been billed to us as a strategic genius before. Like yes, she's the leader of the Spectres, but I also would be surprised to learn that she's Sato's second in command. And that kind of position would seem really incompatible with all the field deployment she does.

Hera's character development so far has been: A strong but not flawless leader, the moral and inspirational heart of the team, one of the very best pilots in the galaxy, and a decent threat with a blaster. A Thrawn-level strategist? No. She relies a lot on others for tactical recommendations. We've definitely been shown her attaining more responsibility in the larger Rebellion, but is she one of the top deciders now? And if so why does she keep flying such risky missions? (They ARE really hard up for pilots, we've established that, and Hera is the best, we've established that too, so...mayyyyybe?)

Really, Thrawn should be focused on Sato, but he's a peripheral character so that doesn't work for the show. So the way Thrawn treats Hera is this ep is just...confusing. I don't feel like I understand this character, and certainly as you point out his larger motivations are an utter mystery. I haven't read the novels either, but it's not really to the show's credit that it needs all this ancillary material to explain what's going on onscreen.