there is blessing in the battle

becca // adult // christian // writer "tell them to follow. if they will not, then you at least must follow me alone." sam's gf

[iminlovewithpercyjackson]

THE GOLDEN AGE OF SOMETHING GOOD AND RIGHT AND REAL

a jily fanfiction

James pushed off from the wall and glanced around the classroom. It appeared to be nothing special, just a room filled with desks and chairs pushed against the walls, but across from James was something else, something that looked like it didn't belong. A tall mirror coated in gold faced him, and James approached it, intending to fix his hair. Staring back at him, though, was someone else entirely. James’s eyes widened. No, not someone else. It was his own tan skin, his own tousled hair, his own brown eyes glinting behind his specs. But his face was lined, and his hair was greyed.

read on ao3

[guardedghosts]

[fictionadventurer]

Anakin Skywalker fought a Sith Lord on a great big spaceship, stood holding a lightsaber over his disarmed (literally had his hands chopped off) opponent while Palpatine told him to kill him, and he obeyed, which started his fall to the Dark Side.

Twenty-three years later, his own son fights him on a great big spaceship, cuts off his hand, and stands over him holding a lightsaber while Palapatine tells him to deliver the killing blow. Vader is now where Count Dooku was, sitting helpless while he waits for a Jedi to kill him at the word of a Sith. To Vader, it had to seem almost like justice. This is how the story goes--Sidious takes an apprentice, then orders a Jedi to kill them, and the Jedi becomes the new Sith apprentice. Sidious will win, because Sidious always wins, and the cycle will go on, because darkness always creates new darkness to destroy it. Luke will make the killing blow, because Vader's given him good reason to, and then Luke will become enslaved to Sidious and the dark, until the day he is inevitably betrayed and killed himself...

But then Luke tosses aside the lightsaber.

It must have been like light breaking through the darkness, to receive mercy in the situation where you yourself had no mercy. To see your son be stronger than you were, because back then you had not known that it was strength to refuse to use power. This boy who's so much like you found a way to break the cycle and refuse the chains that waited for him. The story doesn't have to end the way it always does. He found a way to defeat the darkness by refusing to give the darkness what it wants...

Anyway, it's such a perfect parallel.

[fictionadventurer]

Thinking about fate in Beowulf and Lord of the Rings. How it involves taking a pagan concept of fate and applying Christianity to it. You're not a slave to a cruel and merciless universe, but your fate is still outside of your control. Your fate is now in the hands of an all-knowing, all powerful God. And knowing that, you still have to make good choices.

So now, sometimes you meet your fate, not because you can't see it coming, or because you can't escape it, but because you have to choose it. You know this course of action will lead to your death, but you can make no other choice--morality, virtue, honor, decency, dignity, and God all say that you have a duty to do the right thing, no matter what it costs you. You have to meet your fate with your eyes wide open, understanding that no man can live forever, but you can live as God wants you to live, and trust that you'll die when it's your proper time.

And this leaves open the door for hope. Instead of the tragedy of trying to escape fate and failing, the story can be about submitting to fate and being saved. Not always. Sometimes the story is that you meet your fate, but you died doing the right thing. But sometimes, refusing to take the selfish action, refusing to run means that something beyond the expectations of human reality can intervene and save you. Either way, you end the story as a hero, instead of as a victim or a villain.

[fictionadventurer]

I'm thinking about this again after rereading Revenge of the Sith, because when Palpatine tells Anakin about Sith defying fate vs. Jedi submitting to fate, you'd better believe that this post came to mind. It shows why the Jedi way is the right way. "Let go of attachments" is not saying, "Become an emotionless husk who doesn't care about anything bad that happens." It's, "Recognize that there are some things worse than losing someone."

You can't be willing to do anything to save people, because that means you might do things like murder dozens of children to save one woman. There has to be a line that you will not cross, no matter what, even if it's to save yourself or someone you love. You can't rely on your own power to save everyone. Even if doing the right thing seems to lead to destruction, you have to do the right thing. Submitting to fate isn't about giving up, it's about having hope. It's about refusing to do wrong and leaving open the possibility that something beyond everyday reality could save you in ways you couldn't possibly imagine. And even if you aren't saved, you haven't added to the darkness.

[creature-wizard]

If Jesus intended for self-hatred to be part of the religion he taught, he wouldn't have said to love thy neighbor as thyself.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

heard someone say "who even owns a rolling pin anymore" and my brain froze trying to process it. what does that mean. are u implying rolling pins are outdated technology? did we come up with a shiny new 21st century method of flattening dough of which i remain uninformed? is there now an app on the app store people are using instead??? im losing my mind "who even owns a rolling pin" people who BAKE

[bellamysgriffin]

get to know me meme >> Favorite Friendships [30/?] Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf)

Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no one. Okay? You're someone. You're... Scott, you're my best friend. Okay? And I need you. Scott, you're my brother. So if you're gonna do this, then... I think you're just gonna have to take me with you, then.

[clemence-dupont]

[kingdomreigns]

If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.

— C.S. Lewis

God has set eternity in the human heart.

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

[akindplace]

do you guys remember when we googled something and we would get results that were actually related to the things we searched

[delphinidin4]

[supreme-leader-stoat]

DNI if you've ever:

Been to Greenland

Been to Denver

Buried treasure in St. Louis (or St. Paul for that matter)

Been to Moscow

Been to Tampa

Been to Boston (only if you went during the fall, though)

Hoisted a mainstay

Swabbed a poop deck

Veered to starboard

You know what just DNI if you've ever sailed at all

Walked a gangplank

Owned a parrot (I shouldn't have to explain this one)

Been to Boston in the fall (cannot overstate this)

[edgar-allan-possum]

Okay, but what if I've never plucked a rooster and I'm not too good at ping-pong, and I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall, and I've never kissed a chipmunk and I've never gotten head lice, and I've never been to Boston in the fall?

[supreme-leader-stoat]

You're safe

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[hidiane]

imagine you’re leia organa and you spent the last three years denying your very obvious feelings for han solo and sticking to it even when said han solo straight up calls you out on it and then it looks like he’s almost certainly going to die and you realise this is the last chance you’re ever going to have to tell him how you feel and you waited so long and for what FOR WHAT you should’ve told him every single day. and then. And Then. han solo tells you you don’t need to regret it because he already knew. nobody on letterboxd understands that i know is about RELIEF!!!!!!!

[byjove]

The funniest part of A New Hope is that Luke Skywalker is a 19 year old who has not locked in yet and plays with toys and sleeps in his childhood bedroom at his aunt and uncle’s house and Leia Organa is a 19 year old with a mission to save the galaxy from fascism. Luke has never left his hometown, Leia just watched her planet be blown up. He’s peeved his uncle is asking him to do his chores, she’s imprisoned for resisting the government. You relate to them both but they’re on complete opposite sides of the 19 year old life stage spectrum.

[wintergardenscribe]

never forget that Leia Organa strangled the most powerful gangster in the galaxy using the chain he bound her with. DOUBLE never forget that in doing so she unknowingly killed the mastermind behind the system that had held her father and grandmother in slavery for decades

[berkeleygirl3]

[girlbloke]

I could really do with a reward or incentive

[lasaraleen]

rip to c. s. lewis, you would’ve hated ai

[lasaraleen]