21 years old, he/they, bisexual, polytheistic, autistic, and very left-wing. Wants to be tagged if you reblog one of their comments. Likes myths, comic books & pop culture. Always funny, always horny, rarely wrong.
Hey listen. A bunch of people will now try to convince the public that the killing of Brian Thompson was ethically wrong. They will try to use the same old tired arguments: that murder is always wrong, that we should stand against political violence in all forms, that CEOs are people too, etc.
Now, you probably won’t fall for all that bullshit, but a lot of people might. Here is what you need to tell them in return - it’s not guaranteed to change their minds, but every time you offer someone a chance to accept the truth you’re making it ever so more likely to take it.
In philosophy, the idea that people should never do certain “bad” things (e.g. killing) is called deontology. The thing is, unlike utilitarianism (which states people should choose actions that create the most wellbeing in society), deontology is inherently flawed as a morality system.
See, only through deontology can people end up finding themselves having to choose outcomes that will lead to more suffering in the world; think, the trolley problem. Now, ask yourself, what kind of morality system expects its followers to selfishly pick the choice that ensures their own moral purity, even if it dooms the wellbeing of possibly hundreds or millions of others?
Understanding this, you might ask yourself: who benefits from having deontology be the crux of understanding morality for so many people? Who benefits uplifting rules like the Ten Commandments as the ultimate guideline to ethics, as opposed to what it was in the original context of it’s religion - a simple list of base laws meant to instruct a small group of escaped slaves several thousand years ago?
The answer is twofold. First, there are the authoritarians, who wish to instill obedience by making people believe that breaking their rules, no matter how justified, is wrong. Secondly, there are the bystanders, who watch nervously as the world crumbles around them, but excuse their inaction by latching onto a false belief that they are still somehow better than the people who are doing something about it in a way they find aesthetically displeasing.
Therefore, it is imperative to look at the world through a utilitarian perspective, and judge every incident like so. Brian Thompson is part of a very exclusive club; he had wronged so many people so severely that the suffering caused to him and his loved ones by his murder is still innumerably outmatched by the joy his unlikely retribution will give the literal millions of people he’s wronged.
Remember, by similar logic it is still very unethical to kill 98% of people, so think of all the choices Thompson had to make to put himself in the top 0.1% of the 2% of people who’s murders can be justified. In a better society, a society that prevents and punishes exploitation, it would be hard to even conceive of a murder that could ever be so righteous.
In fact, in a society that uses classism and bigotry to block people from achieving their fullest potential through non-violent means, we must celebrate those who risk their lives and legal rights to push humanity forward, bringing to justice the true criminals of decency.
I actually like it when dogs bark at me. It means that it’s deemed me a threat worth warning their owner about. A dangerous person not to be trusted near property. I’m like the Grinch
In movie news, Tumblr, a website full of insecure and socially isolated theatre kids, are hating on a movie that adapted a story warning about arrogance into a story about showing hospitality to strangers. When asked to elaborate, they said they preferred when it was a musical. More at six.
Ok, I just saw Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and I honestly really liked it!
Ive seen a lot of criticism for it, especially here on Tumblr, and I understand it, but there's something we need to take into account.
This is an adaptation of the classic, it is not going to be the same. This is not the classic odyssey, and I believe the major difference is that it is teaching a different lesson/theme.
The classic's lesson/theme is to not be hubristic, do not think yourself above the gods, and do not make stupid decisions based on pride.
The movie's lesson/theme is not to do things you would not like to be done to you, to follow Zeus's law, and that society falls when people do not treat eachother well.
So the movie is written differently, it focuses much less on Odysseus's hubris, and more on what he did in Troy.
I think one of the biggest criticisms Ive seen is actually one that supports my point on the movie being written with a different message. And that is the exclusion of the nobody scene.
In the classic, that was Odysseus's big moment of hubris, it was the moment that dammed him and his crew. It is a key point in the theme of the classic odyssey.
In the movie, it is not there, because it is not needed for the new theme. The key point in the movie is what Odysseus did to Troy, how he broke the rules and did something incredibly cruel, and how he continued some of that cruelty, how he became "the people from the sea". The nobody scene was cut out because it did not fit the new theme.
Now I hear you asking, why would they change the theme? Wanna know why? Because the world has changed a lot since the classic was written. The movie was written for a modern audience, and the classic for an ancient one. (Note that I am not saying that the classic is no longer applicable or good, I love the classic).
When you look at the two themes I have presented, which one is more applicable to a modern world? Don't belive yourself better than the gods, or treat others how you want to be treated? I think the second one applies to the world we currently live in much more.
The story the classic odyssey told is one we all know well, and the movie decided to do what a good adaptation should and it made it more applicable to a modern audience, and made interesting and creative changes.
Ok, Ill wrap this up now, but one last thing.
I don't think the type of people on Tumblr were the target audience. And thats ok. The target audience was not those of us that love Greek mythology and Epic the musical (both of which I adore), and thats ok. We don't need to be the target audience. The target audience was mainly people who love action movies, epic adventures, and have not touched Greek mythology since high-school. And thats ok. Who knows, maybe this movie will get more people into Greek mythology and history, and they'll learn more, and thats awesome!
I think it was a good movie, I have my own criticisms for it, but this is not one of them.
I think the reason why “don’t be arrogant” doesn’t ring as important as “show hospitality to strangers” is because the internet has caused a lot of people to be both very insecure and very distrusting.
Indeed, considering how terminally online the average tumblr user, I’m not surprised that so many people on this platform have had such a negative reaction towards this alternative moral being added to the story.
- The body horror of Circe transforming the men into pigs was beautifully disgusting
- I loved how the existence of the gods was never fully confirmed or denied. Were the storms Poseidon’s wrath or just bad weather? Was Athena appearing to Odysseus with the face of the woman he let die or was he hallucinating out of guilt? Magic clearly existed, because we had a cyclops and a witch and shades of the Underworld, but there’s magic and then there’s divinity. Is everything they say about the gods true or are they just an excuse?
- The removal of the Nobody scene was necessary actually. In the poem, Odysseus gives Polyphemus his real name in a moment of hubris and this causes all the problems later on because now Poseidon knows the name of the man that disrespected him. In the film, the problems are caused by the Greeks breaking Xenia by invading Troy. Keeping the Nobody scene would have detracted from the root cause of all the problems.
- I could write an entire essay about how cleverly Nolan uses events from the Odyssey to make a point about today’s society:
The Trojan War was about trade routes and Helen was just an excuse — just as wars today are waged for oil and resources, and governments give excuses to their citizens to make it seem better.
“The people from the sea” are feared as an invasion of bogeymen threatening innocents, but they’re actually just desperate men trying to find safety.
The Greeks pillage an island and ask “why didn’t you just give us what we wanted? We’re the good guys!” while the village burns behind them, not realising that to the villagers, Greeks and Trojans are all the same.
- Whoever let Anne Hathaway freeze her forehead should be fed to Polyphemus
- I hope Tom Holland escapes Marvel soon because he is a damn fine actor
“magic clearly existed because we had cyclops and witch and shades” yes, but notice that these were all shown through the lens of odysseus, the lone survivor of the supposedly magical voyage, struggling to remember his traumatic past after years of consuming a memory eroding plant.
no monsters are shown before the point of that journey, nor after. was his drugged mind filling in the gaps with mythical elements replacing the perils that were too traumatic to relive?
was the cyclops just a sick, furless, one eyed bear that blocked their way out of a cave that a shepherd used to live in? were the ruthless laestrygonians just some tall, hostile town guards with better armor and superior knowledge of the forest terrain?
was circe just a superstitious herbalist skilled in hypnotic poisons and cures? was tiresias just a dying old charlatan who used the gossip he’d heard to pass on advice “from the afterlife”?
was charybdis a whirlpool that forced them to sail down a dangerous ravine? was scylla the rocks that fell on the ship as it stirred the waters, crushing six sailors to death?
were the cows carrying some disease that caused the men to drown? was circe just a lone fisher, willing to entertain the crazed delusions of the survivor she found and fell in love with?
were all these perils enough to daze and kill dozens of trained soldiers that were lost, dehydrated, starving, traumatized, and tired from a long journey and a decade at war?
was the reason odysseus’ memories came back wrong caused by the fact that his mind couldn’t accept the legendary warriors that conquered Troy being wiped out by a handful of minor misfortunes?
or were the monsters, and perhaps even the gods, real, but purposefully trying to hide evidence of their existence from humanity: the monsters, to avoid being exterminated, and the gods, to test our faith?
I posted this originally on Letterboxd, but I want to share with all my mutuals as well
Spoiler Alert!!!!!
I just went back from watching Nolan's Odyssey movie, and I have so many thoughts. Prepare yourselves, this will be a long review.
I will start by saying how I hate the culture war that this film caused. I think I hate both sides of the conversation. I hate the pathetic anti-SWJs and how they made a huge deal of Nolan casting a few non-white actors and a trans actor to play a cis role, as if POC and queer actors never had played roles in Greek mythology films before. But as a Greek mythology fan, I hate how my own camp reacted to this film, being rabid Homer purists and not even giving this film a chance.
It's Christopher Nolan's Odyssey. It's exactly what it says on the tin. He doesn't even try to be historically accurate. Who knew that brutalism would be an architecture style so popular in the Bronze Age Mediterranean? Odysseus travels in a viking ship for goodness sake. This is a guy who has no experience directing period fantasy pieces, so he designed ancient Greece as a generic "the past" with a few fancy costumes. I can't say I'm a fan of this aesthetic, but the film is so much more than that, and I feel like reducing the whole end product to a couple of weird directorial choices is shallow, intellectually dishonest and anti-art.Â
I can say it right. @the-blue-fairie, @thealmightyemprex, I'm speaking specifically to you because I know you read my reviews and you don't like Nolan's style, this film isn't for you. Everything that you dislike about Nolan's directorial style is present in this film. This doesn't make the film bad, though.Â
Everything is gray, dark, moody; the film takes itself as seriously as a shipwreck. It doesn't allow a single moment of levity. And it still embraces the fantasy elements.
Contrary to past adaptations, like the Hallmark miniseries or even the Tiktok concept album, it embraces the fantasy elements without embracing the wonder. The magic feels offputting, strange, like a disquieting apparition.Â
Polyphemus doesn't speak properly, just proffering a few otherworldly and inhuman ramblings after Odysseus and his crew blind him, asking for Poseidon to curse them.
The Lastrygonians aren't rock-throwing giants , but an army of ruthless giants in full metal armor who don't rest until they kill as many of Odysseus' crew as they could find.Â
Circe isn't a beautiful sorceress in a huge temple filled with nymphs, she's almost an old hag living in an old hut who has to manually twist the bodies of Odysseus' crew to turn them into pigs, in moments of visceral body horror. There's no Hermes here.
The ghosts of Odysseus' fallen men don't just haunt him, they try to physically attack him when they journey to Hades.Â
There are no Lotus Eaters. Calypso is drugging Odysseus with lotus flowers herself, making him forget almost everything and making him live in a mist of confusion for years. All that to make him forget the horrors he saw.
Telemachus and Penelope share a very tempestuous relationship for a son and mother, with Penelope bitter about being powerless as a woman, constantly arguing with her son, belittling him, while Telemachus is constantly trying to prove he is fully capable of leading Ithaca.
And more, there are no gods here. Only Athena appears, in brief visions Odysseus has, before it's revealed in the end that she's wearing the face of the young priestess that the Greek army killed when they profaned Athena's temple in Troy. It's left ambiguous if she's Athena herself or only a manifestation of Odysseus' guilt for the horrors he took part in. She has tears in her eyes when Odysseus remembers the priestess being killed and Athena's statue beheaded.
Everything is meant to be unpleasant, not fully into horror territory, but extremely upsetting, strange. Maybe other directors could have made it more striking. Nolan has a too down-to-earth style. He films fantasy like he films sci-fi, but the guy is effective at what he wants to portray.
He makes you feel like you are right there inside this world. No matter how anachronistic this Greek world is, it feels like it exists. You won't see any bad CGI or bad special effects. The combination of score, camera angles, and editing choices immerse you completely in this story, as if the adventures and horrors are happening all around you.Â
And all this lack of wonder has a point, because the film has a central theme: Hospitality and decay.Â
Hospitality in this world is not just courtesy, it's a sacred law that guides this civilization. You should accept and treat well everyone that reaches your residence, be it a noble or a beggar, because they may be a god in disguise. Yet, people are constantly exploiting or breaking the laws of hospitality, the sacred laws of Zeus: From Antinous and the other suitors abusing Penelope's hospitality for years, from Polyphemus eating Odysseus’ crew, from Circe turning them into pigs when they were almost starving, and lastly, when the Greeks offered the Trojan Horse as a gift of peace to Athena before slaughtering the whole city.
This single act of breaking the laws of hospitality is what dooms this entire world.Â
This film is set during the Collapse of the Age of Bronze, the period of dark ages between Mycenaean Greece and Classical Greece, a period in which the epic poems were meant as a reminder of all the glory lost in the process.Â
This is a world in decay, where everything is dying and collapsing.Â
At all times, there are constantly mentions of the Sea People and how they may attack and destroy their kingdoms at any time. The Sea People are an unknown people who are theorized by some historians to be one of the causes for the Bronze Age collapse. It’s one of the threats that makes the suitors’ situation even more urgent. Ithaca needs someone who can protect it from the Sea People.Â
And then, almost by the end of the film, it’s revealed: The Sea People are the Greeks who sacked Troy. The memory of what they have done, of how they broke the laws of Zeus spread through the Mediterranean, and that has caused a cascade effect of every rule that governs civilization starting to collapse.
This is the main reason for why Odysseus can’t go back home, he can’t live with what he has done. The whole journey is him dealing with his constant guilt and trying to make things better, but only making them worse as a result. He knows what he has done has consequences, and he’s watching as it spreads to the whole world.
In the end, Odysseus and Penelope exile themselves to a journey into the west, while Telemachus rules Ithaca as king, but even though our main leads are happy, it’s evidently clear that as a whole, this world, all kingdoms visited are doomed. Everything will collapse and the songs about their feats and mistakes will be the only things remembered.
The Trojan War is depicted as both this world's Götterdämmerung, the Twilight of the Gods, and its Original Sin, the primordial crime from which every subsequent horror symbolically descends.Â
This film has a happy ending, but it doesn’t end on a hopeful note. The final shot of the film is the Trojan Horse ablaze, symbolizing the violation of the laws of hospitality and how that symbolizes the decay that will destroy everything.Â
We are living in times of economic recessions, environmental catastrophes, and liberal democracies in decay. Despite all the dubious choices Nolan made, the text is incredibly rich. Maybe this is the story for our times.Â
I deeply agree with every part of this review, except the end. I think the ending has more hope in it than you are willing to accept. I think Odysseus returning to his home, defending the rule of Zeus, and riding off into the sunset to honor his fallen comrades shows that the decay of humanity isn’t unstoppable, that by standing up for the right thing when we can and atoning for our mistakes no matter the cost, we can restore the fabric of humanity, and realign the trajectory of the world to a future of trust, peace, and new beginnings.
- The body horror of Circe transforming the men into pigs was beautifully disgusting
- I loved how the existence of the gods was never fully confirmed or denied. Were the storms Poseidon’s wrath or just bad weather? Was Athena appearing to Odysseus with the face of the woman he let die or was he hallucinating out of guilt? Magic clearly existed, because we had a cyclops and a witch and shades of the Underworld, but there’s magic and then there’s divinity. Is everything they say about the gods true or are they just an excuse?
- The removal of the Nobody scene was necessary actually. In the poem, Odysseus gives Polyphemus his real name in a moment of hubris and this causes all the problems later on because now Poseidon knows the name of the man that disrespected him. In the film, the problems are caused by the Greeks breaking Xenia by invading Troy. Keeping the Nobody scene would have detracted from the root cause of all the problems.
- I could write an entire essay about how cleverly Nolan uses events from the Odyssey to make a point about today’s society:
The Trojan War was about trade routes and Helen was just an excuse — just as wars today are waged for oil and resources, and governments give excuses to their citizens to make it seem better.
“The people from the sea” are feared as an invasion of bogeymen threatening innocents, but they’re actually just desperate men trying to find safety.
The Greeks pillage an island and ask “why didn’t you just give us what we wanted? We’re the good guys!” while the village burns behind them, not realising that to the villagers, Greeks and Trojans are all the same.
- Whoever let Anne Hathaway freeze her forehead should be fed to Polyphemus
- I hope Tom Holland escapes Marvel soon because he is a damn fine actor
Hey, listen, so I’d recommend you to watch The Odyssey (2026) in cinemas right now.
Yeah, I know the nobody scene was cut. Don’t worry, the film has plenty to make up for it.
Yeah, I know the setting isn’t 100% historically accurate. Don’t worry, the message is timeless.
Listen to me. It’s good. I don’t wanna give away too much, but it’s good.
Don’t let some internet killjoy take away the muscles you’ll strain clenching your fists whenever Antinous is onscreen, the gasps you’ll hear seeing Circe bend and mutilate the helpless soldiers into pigs, and the tears you’ll cry when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, walks up to his wife, and tells her something that will shock and shake you to your core.
And after you’ve felt all that, if you still wish to judge the movie for what it isn’t, feel free. All I’m saying is, I didn’t, and I doubt most of the people around me did either.
I feel like a lot of loud and unserious tumblrinas are hating on this movie because it’s not the odyssey the way that they would have told it themselves.
They would focus more on Odysseus’ guile and arrogance, or on the historical tensions and injustices, or on the divine powers that were pulling the strings.
And those are fine themes to focus on, and there are good adaptations that focus on those themes, but they are not the primary theme of this movie.
This movie is about the soul of humanity, and one man’s attempt at restoring it despite the guilt he carries over arguably contributing to its downfall. It’s about trust, and kindness, and justice, and betrayal, and war, and punishment.
And if you’re not willing to meet the ocean at its depth, then you stand with your feet by the shore and complain the water is too shallow.
Hey, listen, so I’d recommend you to watch The Odyssey (2026) in cinemas right now.
Yeah, I know the nobody scene was cut. Don’t worry, the film has plenty to make up for it.
Yeah, I know the setting isn’t 100% historically accurate. Don’t worry, the message is timeless.
Listen to me. It’s good. I don’t wanna give away too much, but it’s good.
Don’t let some internet killjoy take away the muscles you’ll strain clenching your fists whenever Antinous is onscreen, the gasps you’ll hear seeing Circe bend and mutilate the helpless soldiers into pigs, and the tears you’ll cry when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, walks up to his wife, and tells her something that will shock and shake you to your core.
And after you’ve felt all that, if you still wish to judge the movie for what it isn’t, feel free. All I’m saying is, I didn’t, and I doubt most of the people around me did either.
The HOA keeps complaining I don’t pick up my dogshit but little do they know my dog is on a strict 100% strawberry diet and soon our community will be thriving with beautiful fresh strawberry vines growing out of the lawns and the sidewalks and the mailboxes of my foes
tumblr recommending communities to you is an awesome way to discover a constant stream of new and exciting groups of 30 to 200 people you Dont want to meet ever
And the best part is you can’t make it stop and no one there has anything interesting to say and if one of them does make a good post you can’t even interact with it until you commit to seeing all their community’s other, worse posts and did I mention this isn’t something you can turn off so your only option is to keep selecting the “don’t recommend posts from this one single community” which doesn’t even work
cars are big metal pistons designed to turn pedestrians into a chunky strawberry jam with plausible deniability, possessing the additional bonus of occasionally getting people from point A to point B
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people that the targets of right wing populism exist. Like, “hey, there’s an evil elite that rapes children and manipulates elections and corrupts politicians. No, I’m not talking about the one that I’m part of. This one’s made of minorities. And people I disagree with. Yep, totally real.”
You gotta be a little impressed by YouTube’s dedication to fucking up their UI.
First, they take away the dislike counter, because why should other people opinions matter? Then, they take away the dislike button for Shorts - you know, one of the only things that made it better than TikTok/Insta - cuz why should your own opinion matter either?
No, don’t give that video a dislike. Either take your writing a comment if you’re mad enough, or just keep your mild annoyances to yourself as you swipe through endless swathes of lazy distractions awaiting that dopamine hit.
Corporations don’t want you to have a choice over what you see, because the more “filler content” you’ll scroll through to get to the stuff you actually like, the more ads they can sell you to, and they’re more than willing to waste your time and energy for some extra cold hard cash.
Just give me a reliable block button, with a list and everything, and I’ll shut up, alright?
I’ve been on this website since I was 16, but I still get tumblrina imposter syndrome because I was 16 in 2020. Which means I regularly see posts from people who’ve been here since they were 16. In 2014. Do you see the problem?
It’s like, they’ve been losers (affectionate) for twice as long as me! I’m just too damn cool (derogatory) to suitably represent this awful hellsite! Don’t look at me, I’m a poser!
