The Humble Templar

On and off of here a lot, sorry.

[ruuminant]

Rentry & lboxd ♥︎

꒱ 🕰 . sp/soc614 lefv²³⁴¹ , Slytherin , Infj !┈ Artist & writer (on occasion) ☕️

Fandoms : The Secret History , Harry Potter , Hannibal NBC & Like Minds.

Notice : I don't support jkr. || I post irregularly, and mostly use tumblr as a place to post a wide variety of fandoms rather than focusing on a specific one.

┄ Feel free to send asks ♟️

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Tag Collection

#🗞 . 𝓐rt posts - My art.

#📰 . 𝓡amblings - General text posts.

#jack of spades posting ‐ Like Minds posts.

[midnight-mooney]

I’ve never seen a casual like minds fan. We’re all uniquely entranced by this weird, twisted, beautiful movie.

[rosary-enthusiast]

Thinking about the parallels between Christ & Dionysus.

To think of the son of god being one with the lowest of poverty, the suffering of men, a carpenter, a grieving mother, women in a society that rejects them…to indulge suffering with fine wine, to be reborn & be freed from mortal shackles. How beautiful is that?

Like Christ, Bacchus is a friend to nobodies, to the downtrodden, to the oppressed. Not just this, but he is the face of luxury- of gold, pelts, & ecstasy, while freely giving these gifts to those who do not have such means.

What madness that must take. Mad compassion, love for those who are flawed & dirty with mortal life. Dionysus understands us as we are, both as rugged nature, & as beautiful palaces. & he accepts us willingly.

[bulljumpingfresco]

Fresco of Bacchus adorned with grapes in front of Mount Vesuvius

[synthesixia]

my girlfriend just came up with the marvelous idea of alex & nigel in a hogwarts au, to which i added that i could write a joke about how alex is reading a book on fantastic beasts, and nigel looks over his shoulder, and says something like, "you could be his brother" LMFAOO

[laurelwen]

The Battle of Forbie

As you may have noticed, I am not a proponent of any portmanteau names for Alex and Nigel. Call me weird, but none of them please me, so I will continue to abstain from using them.

HOWEVER

In a spirit of generosity, I have come here today to feed the Forbie enjoyers. I give you:

The actual Battle of Forbie

The Battle of Forbie, also known as the Battle of La Forbie or the Battle of Hiribya, was fought October 17, 1244 – October 18, 1244 between the allied armies (drawn from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the crusading orders, the breakaway Ayyubids of Damascus, Homs, and Kerak) and the Egyptian army of the Ayyubid Sultan as-Salih Ayyub, reinforced with Khwarezmian mercenaries. The resulting Ayyubid victory led to the call for the Seventh Crusade and marked the collapse of Christian power in the Holy Land.

The capture of Jerusalem by the Khwarezmians in August had caused great alarm among both the Christian and the Muslim states. Al-Mansur, the Emir of Homs and an-Nasir Dawud, ruling Kerak, joined the Templars, the Hospitallers, the Teutonic Knights, the Order of Saint Lazarus, and the remaining forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to take the field against the Egyptian Sultanate.

The two armies met near Forbie, a small village northeast of Gaza. Over 5,000 Crusaders died. 800 prisoners were taken. Of the troops of the knightly orders, only 36 of 348 Templars, 26 of 351 Hospitallers, and 3 of 400 Teutonic Knights survived.

Hiribya (Forbie) - not appearing on this map. I highlighted Ascalon, as Forbie was nearby.

I have also taken the opportunity to highlight Sidon and Maraclea for those who aren't already familiar with the locations. It's worth reiterating that despite the way the movie uses Maraclea as a personal name to refer to the person involved, the story itself is about a lady OF Maraclea and a Templar knight or lord of Sidon.

Ever since @currentlyonstandbi speculated about it, I have solidly embraced the head canon that perhaps the original story was actually about two men, past lives of Alex and Nigel, but the story was later changed to a man and a woman due to homophobic pressure. After all, the skull symbolism of this story is reportedly part of the accusations made against the Templars for "head worship"-- the veneration of skulls as idols in violation of the precepts of the Church. The other major charges laid against the Templars? Homosexuality and sodomy.

Was any of this intended by Greg? Of course not. That man blindly stumbled through this script running on fumes from half-remembered random articles and vague conceptions gleaned from the shallow pop culture portrayals of occult societies that were plentiful at the time. But it fits together well in a way that feels satisfying and with reasonable internal consistency.

Imagine two Templar knights who fall in forbidden love while fighting in the Holy Land. The tragic death of his lover drives the other mad with grief and leads him into dark acts of desperation. Their story gives rise to a potent myth that Nigel reads 700 years later. The myth calls to them with familiarity, directs their fate, and leads them to the same tragic outcome.

(Excuse me while I sob on the floor for the next 5 hours.)

A Few Key Dates for Context:

1209 - Massacre of the Cathars at Beziers (Kill them all; God will recognize his own.)

1244 - Battle of Forbie

1307 - Downfall of the Templars, under accusations of heresy and homosexuality/sodomy.

1300s - Playing cards arrive in Europe. There is speculation that the cards were adopted from the Egyptian Mamluks by the Crusaders in the Holy Land who then brought them home to Europe.

That concludes today's unhinged lesson in the power of random Google searches and paying close attention to the history of certain tags on Tumblr. I'm still not gonna use #forbie, but I can at least enjoy the strange coincidence here.

Like Minds Masterpost

[ruuminant]

I've yet to see a post talking about just how flirty Nigel was in this scene. The way he uses the sword to caress Alex without physically touching him, slowly dragging it down his back when he turns away from Nigel.. Along with this, just the way he calls Alex "Jack" was insanely flirty, his tone is so playful during this scene it drives me crazy

[moistsnow]

Like Minds, La Pietà & Neoplatonism

I think we’ve all looked at this scene and at some point thought of how it resembled Michelangelo’s “La Pietà”.

What happens if we dive more into it?

Firstly, let’s have a look at the sculpture itself.

Premise: It’s important to note that this isn’t the only work that portrays Christ, Virgin Mary and the concept of “Pity”. There are, in fact, miscellaneous other pieces, the very firsts being sculptures known as German “Vesperbilder” (which inspired many artists). A few other examples are “The Martinengo Pietà” by Bellini, “Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints” by Botticelli (which however presents an “overlap” of bodies) and so on.

Back to our main focus, “La Pietà” (1498-1500) was commissioned to Michelangelo Buonarroti by the cardinal de Lagraulas with the intent of exposing it inside the Chapel of Santa Petronilla. The subject needed to be one that was notorious at the time: Virgin Mary supporting the Dead Christ. Michelangelo was capable of creating a powerful work of art, one that is reminiscent of Greek classicism.

There’s really a lot to say about this sculpture, however I’m only going to point out the most relevant parts of it.

It symbolizes the devotion and compassion of Virgin Mary for her son, her silent sorrow and in contemporary serene resignation in front of his death. Through Christ’s sacrifice is transmitted a message of redemption and hope. Mary’s left hand faces the sky, as if offering Christ’s body, being “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. Christ’s mouth isn’t fully closed, seeming to still hold on the last words of forgiveness conceded to his executioners. His right arm hangs low lifeless, however the veins on it appear almost pulsating. There’s a meeting point between sacred and profane, which permits to ponder both on human life’s fragility and the hope of a divine eternity. Virgin Mary and Christ symbolize the union of life and death, reaching divine perfection together.

But he had to die. It was a necessary means to an end. What I can tell you is that the heavens were falling. The sound, oh– the sound, it was incredible. It was like the Gods were rejoicing for what was done.

Said Alex when interrogated. Nigel HAD to die, he had to be “sacrificed”. The sorrow he felt when holding Nigel’s body became acceptance and resignation to the necessity of Nigel’s death long after, when questioned.

Pray for me. Pray for yourself. We’re one now.

Were Nigel’s last words. In Christian imagery, through prayer, it is possible to reach salvation and redeem from sins. These seem almost words of forgiveness for his executioner, whom we will never really know if it was himself or Alex. It doesn’t really matter in the end, they’re one now, and they’ve united perfectly.

Virgin Mary is also depicted very young, but the reason isn’t for hedonistic purposes, instead beauty has a deeper meaning and redirects to Neoplatonism and Florentine classicism. The philosophical current of Neoplatonism influenced the Italian Renaissance and, consequently, art. Many artists of that time took inspiration from Neoplatonic principles to express philosophical concepts. Among them is, of course, Michelangelo.

Beauty, as mentioned before, has a deeper meaning if we observe it knowing what it represents for Platonism and Neoplatonism. It’s the reflection of the ideas that reside in the hyperuranium (a superior celestial reality in which ideas are tangible entities, and our world derives from it, hence it’s a “copy”). Michelangelo aimed at depicting a transcendental beauty, one that could reach this superior reality. Beauty is the only platonic idea that can be perceived through eyes and it has a connection with the Eros (the desire that drives man to truth, which, for Plato, is goodness).

Let’s also have a closer look at Neoplatonism. Briefly, it’s a doctrine that is the continuation of Platonism (as the name suggests) but at the same time it gathers different elements from different philosophies and philosophers of the past (such as Parmenides, Heraclitus, Pytaghoreans..) and unites them with other new principles. Plotinus is the maximum exponent of this current. He follows Plato’s idea of the hyperuranium and creates a metaphysical system starting from the physical world, stating that everything in the physical world is multiple, and multiplicity can’t exist without unity. Therefore, he elaborates the existence of “the One”.

The One:

is infinite (here infinity gains a positive connotation, since Greeks always viewed it negatively because of the impossibility of calculating it)

can’t contain any multiplicity

is beyond concepts, substance and lacks form

is unthinkable

The One is the first principle, from where everything derives. It is identifiable with goodness and God. The One doesn’t need the world, and the creation of it and its entities is the result of an “overabundance of being”, so a necessity, because the One can’t help but generate. This process of creation is called “emanation” and, surprisingly, can also be inverse. However, the return to the One is a path exclusive to man. Man can ascend to the One through the liberation from the body and material things, and also the dedication to art, love and philosophy. The very pinnacle of human possibilities is the “ecstasy”, a sudden moment, similar to a state of oblivion, that consents man to perceive the One, returning to it and being possessed by it.

Now, all of this was just to say that, coincidentally, Nigel’s last words were “We’re one now.”

Does this phrase have more than one meaning? They’ve united their minds, life and death, and that’s for sure. However, could it also be interpreted like a subtle hint at experiencing the One together and thus being “possessed” by it? Nigel knew he was going to free from his body through death, supposedly returning to where all souls belong.

In conclusion, to dramatize: Alex and Nigel have eternally united life and death together, profane and sacred, and are one, unthinkable, infinite principle.

Did Nigel and Alex actually come in contact with these philosophies? Well, who knows, there’s always a possibility, Neoplatonism also influenced Christianity. I just found a few connected things that I thought could be fun to analyze and share, and of course, it is always up to interpretation! I enjoyed making this and finally made good use of my philosophy classes.

[ruuminant]

Tom & harry drawing I most likely won't finish.. I think I just don't have the same passion for art as I used to. That, and I just wasn't a fan of how this was looking.

[synthesixia]

did anyone else think he lowkey wanted her bad

[ruuminant]

I've been good at my job, but I've never been loved. What kind of life is that?

[ruuminant]

⚔️ ❝ Because I feel it all fading and I'm paling and I'm begging... ❞

❝ To drag you down with me, to kick the last nail in. ❞

Drawing without any filters :-)

[ruuminant]

I really love this specific scene of Nigel petting the dog because he looks so happy and joyful... he's such a dog person I can tell.

[thehopefulquotes]

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”

— Robert Tew

[ruuminant]

I hope Hannibal NBC x Like Minds isn't too niche... I wanted to draw Nigel and Alex as mizumono hannigram

[ruuminant]

"As for the world, the job, the war — I ditched them all to love you more."

[left-handed-spaghetti]

🤯 Snow angels ❄️