Feel free to ask me to tag things! 🪻 Woman-aligned Nonbinary Two-Spirit 🌻 It/Its, Xe/Xem, Fae/Faer🌿 23 y.o. ✨️ Black, Skarò'rę Tribe, Chinese, and Egyptian Jewish 🌸 Neurodivergent: Autistic, ADHD, BPD, BP 🌙 Graysexual Lesbian 🌹 Art, Aesthetic, and Politics Blog ★ My art can be found under the tag #IkarArt Please do not repost my art or remove my signature!
minsc has this line when you talk to him after gale speaks to mystra where he's like back in my homeland, we hide young wizard boys away so that mystra doesn't snatch them up and. like. man. that really adds some more color to how fucked up gale's whole situation with her was huh
This is another of those post heavy in lore, because it’s really complicated to understand what’s going on with Gale without a bit of context (and even in that case sometimes it is confusing) I’ll try to summarise as much as possible, providing info from 2e to 5e, including some novels and interpretations that may be handy when analysing Gale.
Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were written up to the game version v4.1.104.3536 (Early access). As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information. Written in June 2021.
Man, it's wild how badly people have misunderstood the Medusa myth. It drives me wild that people keep getting tattoos of her, and it's now synonymous with protecting SA victims despite the fact that TUMBLR MADE THAT SHIT UP.
Long winded Rant/Explanation below:
Basically, in the original myth—Medusa was always a monster. She always had snakes for hair and the power to turn people to stone.
(BTW, Medusa has wings. That's why Pegasus is a winged horse. I feel like not enough people acknowledge this—)
She was not cursed nor punished—she and the other Gordon sisters just... looked like that because they were the daughters of ocean deities.
She was pregnant at the time of her slaying, hence why Pegasus, her baby, pops out when she is killed.
Now—her pregnancy is never explained in the original myth. She just is, and this was fine because Medusa overall is actually closely meant to be symbolic of a figure of fertility. That's why her hair being a twisting mess of snakes and her accessories being snake themed is important. Tangled up snakes are a symbol of fertility (if you don't know why, it's cause that's how snakes mate).
Perseus killing her is very symbolic of and mirrors the fact that by successfully killing Medusa, he saved his mother from being SA'd by the king. This is also why her depiction shifts from being a monster to being a beautiful woman. It better emphasized that she is meant to be a symbol of fertility—and her beauty goes on to become a very intentional narrative.
Medusa being beautiful places her in a more sympathetic light and is meant to display how victimizing women hurts everyone. Medusa is killed in her sleep and Perseus is a coward who can not bring himself to hurt Medusa head on but has to in order to save his mother, and Medusa is a beautiful woman who is harmed by the King's Greed. No one really wins.
Of course—the sleeping version wasn't as popular because it makes Perseus seem not like a clever hero. Hence, most people are familiar with the versions where he kills her with the mirrored shield. I prefer the sleeping version because it's from a narrative meant to be more woman-sympathetic.
ANYWAY.
The popular modern notion of Medusa as a symbol of SA that was made up on tumblr acrually combines the misogynistic Roman version and the more woman-sympathetic Greek version.
See, there's actually NO version where Medusa was SA'd.
The closest we have was a version written by a roman man named Ovid—Ovid hated nothing more than women.
He (and much of the Romans tbh) HATED the notion of an unwed mother. So, in his version, he writes that Medusa was a beautiful woman who had consensual sex with Poseidon and is punished for defiling a temple. This version is meant to make her punishment justified. She's punished by being transformed into a monster—her hair is made into snakes, and she is no longer allowed to look at men, turning them to stone. A punishment for her promiscuousity (note: Medusa only turns men to stone, btw. This is a whole allegory about ~ dangerous whorish women ~ who bring men down). This is entirely meant to be a reasonable and justified punishment—and her death is also meant to be a justified and reasonable punishment.
The interpretation of her being SA'd comes from a mish-mash of the Greek and Roman versions—where Medusa is supposed to be a victim in the Greek version but a whore in the Roman one. So you end up with... a story where an SA victim is punished for being SA'd.
And that story, which is VERY modern and VERY recent—like it popped up during the 80s and 90s—is the one everyone keeps repeating.
Man, it's wild how badly people have misunderstood the Medusa myth. It drives me wild that people keep getting tattoos of her, and it's now synonymous with protecting SA victims despite the fact that TUMBLR MADE THAT SHIT UP.
Long winded Rant/Explanation below:
Basically, in the original myth—Medusa was always a monster. She always had snakes for hair and the power to turn people to stone.
(BTW, Medusa has wings. That's why Pegasus is a winged horse. I feel like not enough people acknowledge this—)
She was not cursed nor punished—she and the other Gordon sisters just... looked like that because they were the daughters of ocean deities.
She was pregnant at the time of her slaying, hence why Pegasus, her baby, pops out when she is killed.
Now—her pregnancy is never explained in the original myth. She just is, and this was fine because Medusa overall is actually closely meant to be symbolic of a figure of fertility. That's why her hair being a twisting mess of snakes and her accessories being snake themed is important. Tangled up snakes are a symbol of fertility (if you don't know why, it's cause that's how snakes mate).
Perseus killing her is very symbolic of and mirrors the fact that by successfully killing Medusa, he saved his mother from being SA'd by the king. This is also why her depiction shifts from being a monster to being a beautiful woman. It better emphasized that she is meant to be a symbol of fertility—and her beauty goes on to become a very intentional narrative.
Medusa being beautiful places her in a more sympathetic light and is meant to display how victimizing women hurts everyone. Medusa is killed in her sleep and Perseus is a coward who can not bring himself to hurt Medusa head on but has to in order to save his mother, and Medusa is a beautiful woman who is harmed by the King's Greed. No one really wins.
Of course—the sleeping version wasn't as popular because it makes Perseus seem not like a clever hero. Hence, most people are familiar with the versions where he kills her with the mirrored shield. I prefer the sleeping version because it's from a narrative meant to be more woman-sympathetic.
ANYWAY.
The popular modern notion of Medusa as a symbol of SA that was made up on tumblr acrually combines the misogynistic Roman version and the more woman-sympathetic Greek version.
See, there's actually NO version where Medusa was SA'd.
The closest we have was a version written by a roman man named Ovid—Ovid hated nothing more than women.
He (and much of the Romans tbh) HATED the notion of an unwed mother. So, in his version, he writes that Medusa was a beautiful woman who had consensual sex with Poseidon and is punished for defiling a temple. This version is meant to make her punishment justified. She's punished by being transformed into a monster—her hair is made into snakes, and she is no longer allowed to look at men, turning them to stone. A punishment for her promiscuousity (note: Medusa only turns men to stone, btw. This is a whole allegory about ~ dangerous whorish women ~ who bring men down). This is entirely meant to be a reasonable and justified punishment—and her death is also meant to be a justified and reasonable punishment.
The interpretation of her being SA'd comes from a mish-mash of the Greek and Roman versions—where Medusa is supposed to be a victim in the Greek version but a whore in the Roman one. So you end up with... a story where an SA victim is punished for being SA'd.
And that story, which is VERY modern and VERY recent—like it popped up during the 80s and 90s—is the one everyone keeps repeating.
minsc has this line when you talk to him after gale speaks to mystra where he's like back in my homeland, we hide young wizard boys away so that mystra doesn't snatch them up and. like. man. that really adds some more color to how fucked up gale's whole situation with her was huh
I gotta talk about this point because everyone brings it up but y'all!
Something EXTREMELY important to the plot of the Forgotten Realms novels that feature Midnight!Mystra is that she explicitly ISN'T like that. She actively looks down on gods for grooming and coercing people. A HUGE plot line in the novels is that she's accused of being too human and loving humans too much and protecting them so much that it causes problems for evil gods. She explicitly sees ALL humans (especially her worshippers) as her children who need to be protected.
Midnight!Mystra was the WORST deity to pull this plotline with because it conflicts with the established canon SO much.
I'm shooting a short film tomorrow—Trying to find a list of the names of recent MMIW, and im getting a lot of articles that will deadass go: "Say her name!!" And then not give a single name.
minsc has this line when you talk to him after gale speaks to mystra where he's like back in my homeland, we hide young wizard boys away so that mystra doesn't snatch them up and. like. man. that really adds some more color to how fucked up gale's whole situation with her was huh
I would pay 30 american dollars for a DLC where the only addition was giving me the ability to slap the shit out of Mystra
the gods of Faerun suck you guys, it's their whole thing!!
also fun fact: current incarnation of Mystra at the time of BG3 has been a goddess for 134 years. this is less time than Astarion has been alive (or, uh, undead). Midnight!Mystra's ascension was 1358 DR, and BG3 takes place in 1492 DR (which is also only a decade or so after the Second Sundering but that's a whole thing)
all of the Karsus events took place in -339 DR, when Mystral (original) was yeeted into the void and Mystra (the first) took over.
some of the lore in BG3 seems a little muddy on this; technically, the Karsite weave that Gale finds would've been part of MystraOne instead of Midnight!Mystra, but I think it's safe to assume that the Weave is actually a separate entity that becomes part of whoever is the god/dess of magic at the time.
also yes. it's all this confusing and complicated, no matter what god/dess you're worshiping.
anyway Midnight!Mystra is considered true neutral alignment, which means she really does not give a shit about anything that doesn't directly benefit her; MystraOne was lawful neutral, and Mystryl isn't given an alignment. just some fun facts for ya
minsc has this line when you talk to him after gale speaks to mystra where he's like back in my homeland, we hide young wizard boys away so that mystra doesn't snatch them up and. like. man. that really adds some more color to how fucked up gale's whole situation with her was huh
This line is bizarre because Minsc is Rashemi—we already know *why* they hide magic users. Its cause they're an ethnic minority being hunted down and enslaved by the Red Wizards of Thay.
The was literally a plot point in one of the previous Baldur's Gate games. 😭
Mystra is literally a savior of the Rashemi people! She gets in *trouble* from the Gods for helping mortals too much.
yiddish theatre, yiddish newspapers and other yiddish cultural stuff was illegal in israel for years and actively discouraged and attempted to make obsolete, yiddish lectures were disrupted and the israeli state translated the testimonies of holocaust survivors to hebrew rather than keep them in yiddish (the language spoken by most jewish holocaust survivors) but tell me more about how israel and zionism are saving jews and making jewish cultural identity stronger rather than destroying and devaluing jewish diasporic culture 🤔
reminder that Jews from North Africa and West Asia also often spoke dialects of Judeo-Arabic as their first language and this is still heavily repressed by the Israeli state in an effort to distance Arab Jews from Palestinians and other non-Jewish Arabs
I really wish people would be more mindful of the fact that they're repeating and posting SWANA Pogrom Denial under the guise of being pro-Palestine.
It's not stopping me from going to protests and doing my part to try and end the illegal apartheid state of Israel but it's exhausting to everyday be forced to interact with content outright denying the genocides that happened to my people and family. When Egypt genocided us and forced my grandparents to flee—they came to the US out of protest of the creation of Israel and as shitty as the US is, I'm deeply thankful that they did.
But many Jewish communities in SWANA had to make a choice between death, permanent imprisonment, giving up their faith and culture, or fleeing to Israel.
Israel is as expansive as it is now as a consequence of the multiple genocides SWANA committed following WW2. That's what allowed them to create the image of a "safe haven" for Jewish people. That's why nearly 40% of Israel is Arab. That's why Israel has staked a claim on so much SWANA culture.
So for these nations that bathed themselves in the blood of their native Jewish populations—it's so... off-putting? To see them attempt to chastise anyone for supporting Genocide.
Where are your Jews, Egypt? Where are your Jews, Lebanon?
you know there actually is a meaningful difference between 'men's' and 'women's' deodorant beyond the selection of scents. 'mens' plays better with pit hair and doesn't pill up in it and 'womens' tends to have a more powdery finish to help prevent chafing. so really the two genders are actually hairy and bald.
realizing this was such a paradigm shift for me and i have to wonder what other "uselessly" gendered products are like this, where they actually are different in a way that would be useful to consumers but some marketing department decided instead of just saying what the difference is, to prescribe which you need based on the most arbitrary metric, so nebulous that what it even means varies from person to person. as if they think you're too dumb to look at "anti-chafing powder formula" and "lightweight gel formula" and decide for yourself which one would work best.
Unfortunately, OP, people are, in fact, much too dumb for that LMAO
Like genuinely, people are absolutely too fucking stupid. They wouldn't understand when or why you would need anti-chafing deodorant and when/why a gel formula would be worse over a powder formula—and they're not gonna look it up, either. Having worked in both marketing AND customer service, people are far too dumb for this.
It's so very important to me that when people throw around the terms TME and TMA that they understand that TMA =/= only transfeminine people.
The terms TMA and TME were created to because AGAB doesn't fully cover the lived experiences of the variety of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people. It's explicitly NOT meant to be AMAB = TMA and AFAB = TME. Not everyone AMAB who is nonbinary is transfeminine. Nonbinary people of any AGAB can be targeted by transmisogyny depending on their transitioning experience. Intersex people don't have to be CAMAB to be targeted by transmisogyny.
And that's not even broaching how race and transphobia intersect.
