A few facts for you as we contemplate all things [sub]marine today:
- more than 600 people, many of them Afghans and Pakistanis, may have drowned in the Mediterranean last week after Greek authorities allegedly chose not to intervene when they encountered the vessel in distress to avoid the politically toxic spectacle of allowing so many migrants ashore.
- $250,000 in the right hands could arrange asylum for up to 12 refugees or, alternatively, support an Afghan family for about 80 years.
Susan Pevensie comes back from Narnia and tries to forget, not because she doesn't believe in Narnia anymore, but because it hurts too much thinking about what she lost.
In Narnia, she was revered, respected. People wrote songs about her, asked for her hand in marriage. She was with her siblings, and she was free, and she could finally stop worrying about her brothers dying in an air raid. She had a people she protected, a land she ruled, and family to look after. She was respected in courts and battefields alike.
Narnia brought other problems, of course. Not all her suitors were kind about her rejection, and Peter and Edmund were expected to lead armies, which meant they were always in the line of fire. More than once had they come home with grave injuries that took months to recover from, even with Lucy's secret potion.
It is this Narnia Susan vividly remembers just aftee she comes back, a wild and savage land where magic roams free, but evil roams free too. It is the Narnia of eternal winter, of giants and ogres, of Aslan dying on the Stone Table. The Narnia of Telmarines, of dead friends, of failed sieges.
England forces her back into obedience, into a mold. Tells her to behave in a way expected of a young lady. Lucy can stay wild a little longer, but Susan has an education to focus on, men to impress. England tells her she is below her brothers again, should get married and have kids.
So Susan tries to forget, convincing herself that the stiff upper lip, tight collars, kneelong skirts, ridicule from adults when she speaks her mind and forced silence is better than the freedom she had in Narnia.
For that freedom had to be paid for in blood. At least in England her family and friends don't risk dying, not after the war.
She alienates from her brothers and sister further. She tells them Narnia was a game, a fantasy. But the difference in faith is also due tk the way she has to hide how it changed her. Peter, Lucy and Edmund do not have to. The boys write long essays about justice and religion, join the fencing team. Lucy dances everywhere she goes and is known to never wear shoes if she can help it.
But the archery club at school will not accept Susan. Neither will the debate team. Her teachers are annoyed with the fact she never slips up, disgruntled at the fact a woman runs rings around them intelectually. Susan is a young woman after a time of war, and all of society would rather she shut up and do what she is told.
Soon, Susan has new friends, new things that matter. All these adult thoughts she can only discuss with her brothers and sister drive her crazy, and there is no one around that takes them seriously. And so she tries to grow up as fast as possible, get to an age where people listen to her again. She forgets so that she doesn't have to deal with the feeling she was meant for much more, to ease the mourning of all that she lost when she kissed Caspian goodbye.
All the Pevensies start forgetting Narnia slowly, the memories fading. Soon none of them remember the names of their generals at Beruna. They forget the smell of battle, the weight of an iron sword in their hands. But they all still walk as if their crowns are on their heads, and ride horses in a way none of their instructors understand. It takes a while before they are back to their Narnian levels, but it is clear to them someone has instructed them before. None of them can figure out what commands they use, however. Is it western style, perhaps? Or maybe rodeo? They cannot have been taught in England, not with the amount of control they can exert with and without saddles, the sense of balance. Some of their teachers are astonished by their academic growth, but others attribute it to the lax education standards after the war. Susan is sold short most often, but all the Pevensie children suffer from arguments with teachers and attitude problems. Teachers generally don't like it if you behave like you are older or more important than them. It's worse because they are almost never wrong, even though all of them feel the effects that having a teenage brain has on their speed of thought and the coherence of their arguments.
The Pevensies deal with these remnants of Narnia in different ways. Susan becomes an actress. She picks West End over Oxford because the stage is a place she is allowed to be free. And since Narnia, dry textbooks don't thrill her like they used to, while the fantasy concepts of spirits and courts and magic and other things thespians work with entince her all the more. Inside her is a longing to become someone else. She knows where it comes from, but she doesn't want to acknowledge it.
Susan plays a queen often, or a diplomat, or a model. Something about her performances have audiences hooked, convinced she was royalty in a different life.
Remembering Narnia hurts. She scolds someone for being reckless with the stage props while teaching them the correct way for a full minute before realizing the person in question is older than her, and doesn't listen to a young woman. He has the same name as her younger brother.
So Susan forgets. But as she carves her way into the elite of old Hollywood, years later, she begins to remember as well. What it's like to have a voice. How it feels like to have people listen.
When Lucy, Edmund and Peter die in the train accident, Susan weeps for days. She knows what she has lost in them. She is now the only person fluent in their interpersonal language, the only one that still remembers the mating call of the centaurs, what jokes a forest spirit makes. She is now truly alone in the world.
Narnia comes rushing back to her during this grieving period. Eventually, she remembers that she used to have a voice, a crown, lovers of whatever gender she wanted. And also how Narnia would have you pay for freedom in blood. They gave up on that freedom to protect her siblings. only to lose them anyways. Suddenly, Susan remembers how Narnia was fair, how a bargain struck was a bargain kept. She remembers the nymphs, the trees in spring. She remembers the beauty of it all.
Later, when Susan is a grown woman and an arrived actor in Hollywood, Aslan begins returning to her dreams. He never speaks to her, but the sight of him gives her strenght. She was once Susan the Gentle, who accompanied Aslan to his death. It is time she returns to being that person.
After the Stonewall riots and during the AIDS epidemic, Susan is the only actress willing to make a public stand. It costs her 2 box office hits and a 3 month ban from the tabloids. But she remembers justice, and the price of freedom. Others start looking to her for wisdom, just like they did all those years ago. Susan feels her quiet strenght returning, her faith slowly coming back.
She stops wishing she could forget Narnia. The magic that was responsible for the memory faded with time. Maybe it was just to protect her from mourning a world where she was so much more.
When Susan looks at the boys coming back from wars in Korea and Vietnam, she recognizes the look in their eyes. Reflected in their behaviour is a maturity that shouldn't be present in teenagers. The loss of innocence, the unrepairable damage to their childhood illusions. It is a look she spent her twenties avoiding mirrors for, because she knew what it meant. No matter what she told herself then, she believed in Narnia. She still does now.
She knows her siblings are in a different place now, and that she revoked her faith in that place, but slowly, as the years grey her hair and wrinkle her face, she begins to believe she may one day join them there. She remembers Aslan as a kind lion, even if he wasn't a tame one.
She grew old in Narnia once, after all. She hopes to die there.
Once a queen of Narnia, always a queen of Narnia
The thing is, people who were talking about how ‘revolutionary’ Ted Lasso was for showing that anyone can turn their life around and start to make good choices in Season One were being a bit free with their complements.
Don’t get me wrong: I love S1, but showing the redemption arc of a beautiful rich white woman whose villainy took the form of Boss Ass Bitch in a way we all loved was not revolutionary. Showing the redemption arc of the cocky pretty-boy with daddy issues was not revolutionary. They were great storylines and I loved every second of them, but we’ve definitely seen this story play out before. They’re comfortable. They’re familiar.
But saying: you can turn your life around even if you betray the guy who showed you nothing but kindness and love and support? You can choose to make good choices even if you’re a sleazy prick who spent years abusing and manipulating the people around you? Even if you’re a violent, abusive addict?
That’s uncomfortable. That’s revolutionary. A lot of shows will play the ‘anyone can change - ennhhh, but we’re only really going to show it with the stereotypically handsome villain with awesome cheekbones and a sad backstory’. But Ted Lasso really sticks to its guns and says the door is always open for anyone can change; yes, even that particular bastard, the worst one you can think of; even if they kept on making choices not to in the past; you don’t have to wait for them to get their shit together and they might not even do it, but the door is always open.
(And I think the show’s also been very clear about also saying that forgiveness doesn’t equal reconciliation, that you don’t need to give people another chance if it’s not safe or good for you. Sure, Nate is being welcomed into the fold, but given the past few episodes, it’s pretty obvious the same won’t be true of Rupert and Tartt Sr. But as both Rebecca and Jamie’s arcs have shown, defining yourself by the anger you hold for your abuser doesn’t do you any good. Neither of them can move on until they release that anger and hurt, and that’s what’s important about their arcs.)
Sing, O muse, of the rage of Anakin Skywalker, that brought countless ills far, far across the wine dark sea.
I love it when Star Wars is Ancient Greece.
This has been bouncing around in my head for a year now and I need to share it before it drives me actually insane (which, given the subject matter, is entirely appropriate)
In the Overly Sarcastic Productions video for The Theogony, they mention that Metis was prophesied to bear thoughtful children greater than their father—first a daughter, then a son. Zeus proceeds to avert this prophecy by eating her, yet Athena is born from his body anyway.
Now the thing is, nowhere else in the surviving Greek mythos is it possible to avert a prophecy. It just doesn’t happen. The path you take to avoid it frequently leads to the prophecy being fulfilled.
Then, in their video for Dionysus, it’s mentioned that in some versions of the myth, Zagreus/Dionysus (not just the god of parties—he was also the god of madness, divine inspiration, and rebirth from death) was supposed to be Zeus’ successor. And Dionysus is the only other god to be born from Zeus’ body instead of from a mother. Just like the daughter of Zeus and Metis was.
Greek mythology/religion has no established canon, especially since it evolved organically, and the chances of these two myths connecting to each other is slim to none. And yet I can’t help noticing the similarities in the myths and how they fill each other’s holes. Can’t help conflating them.
So: I want a story where Dionysus isn’t just the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, but also—because of getting sewn into his father’s body—the son of Metis as well. And therefore, because he is the firstborn son of Zeus’ first wife—and also Zeus’ youngest son, following the Ouranos-Kronos-Zeus “youngest child succeeds” pattern—the true heir of the Olympian throne.
Make it happen, Riordan. You know you want to.
spotify: we noticed you're in your car. to minimize distractions we changed all the ui you have muscle memory for to something else. okay love you bye
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Leslie Higgins is the goal of Ted Lasso. Leslie Higgins knows who he is, what he has to offer, and understands how to help while also respecting his own boundaries.
It's not that Leslie's exact life (wife, kids, career) is the goal. It's the VIBE. Leslie Higgins made some mistakes (RUPERT) and learned and grew from them since seasons 1. He is happy in his relationships. He is loved and adored by his children (both his and from the team), and he is respected simply as a good man.
Before, after, and inbetween, Ted wants to be Higgins. Higgins is the best version of us all. We can learn from our mistakes and build a better, healthier life from them.
"the writer's strike could stop the MCU from making new movies for months!" fuck dont dirtytalk me like that. it's only 9:34 am
as a bisexual woman myself, i didn't interpret Jack's toxicity in this episode as a use of negative wlw stereotypes, i read it as BILLIONAIRES ARE ALL TERRIBLE AND ONLY OUT FOR THEMSELVES SEND TWEET
ted lasso is about belief ted lasso is about fathers and sons ted lasso is about hope but most importantly ted lasso is about middle aged adults being just so fucking divorced
Sometimes, when it is appropriate, yes, be a prick. How will I know when? We’ll give you a signal.
bonus:
im so done with seeing articles about kids and screen time that doesnt mention parent behaviors even once. “kids are always on their phones” so are the parents! which the kids look to for how they should behave! ipad babies didn’t chose to only play on their ipads, thats what their parents gave them!
an anecdotal example: when i was a kid, all my parents would do in their minimal free time was watch tv and then they would be surprised when in my sister and i’s minimal free time we would also only watch tv/play video games. they scolded us for not reading books, but they never read books. they scolded us for not going outside but they never went outside.
“kids are always on their damn phones” my mom is in her 60s and opens up candy crush anytime she’s sitting — it isnt just the kids
Aegon the Conqueror with teats
Dany on Dragonstone, in Targaryen red and black! Unfortunately I don't have more context than this and this wip ate my brain but here she is in all her fierce glory!
Don't forget to click to better quality!!
rangi painting because i felt like drawing extremely detailed armor for some reason (i have many regrets)
