Can someone explain what’s happening besides someone being reborn?
In the first comic, which is from the Warrior’s point of view, the Warrior has defeated the Monster, who jeers that there will always be another Monster to fight. The Monster dissolves into mist, leaving another tiny, baby Monster in its place. The Warrior picks up this helpless new baby Monster and carries it away. They will try again and do better this time.
In the second comic, which is from the Monster’s point of view, the Monster says that this has to happen; it can’t come with the Warrior, and there will always be another. It tells the Warrior to use what they have learned to fight. It wants to die knowing that the Warrior has hope for the future. It dissolves into mist, and the exhausted Warrior collapses. The new baby Monster comes and brings the Warrior some water in a leaf. Because we are reading this in the Monster’s voice, we realize that it is a new Monster, but also somehow, magically, the same. We also see that the Monster is not inherently evil. It is only very strong, and inevitable.
The third comic is a dialogue between the Monster and the Warrior. The Warrior is exhausted and horrifically wounded. The Monster is also horribly maimed. They are both dying. The Warrior doesn’t want to fight anymore. The Monster tells them to rest and heal. The Warrior hands over their amulet, and we see the Monster’s paw become a hand just before they both dissolve into mist. It clears, revealing that the Monster has turned into a beautiful humanoid, who says they will take care of the new baby monster the Warrior has turned into. The two have changed roles. The Warrior takes up the former Warrior’s gear and strides into the new year with the new baby Monster riding on their shoulders.
It is a beautiful, ruthless, hopeful metaphor about keeping up the good fight, year after year, even when we are worn down, and how we can still face the new year with hope and light, no matter how painful the last one was, and how it is okay to rest if we can’t fight.
It’s not the new year, but things are so difficult for so many of us right now, and we are so worn down from so many fights on so many fronts, I feel like we could all use this again. Love, rest, fight, love.
You know what, I thought about it, and I decided I probably do know what you’re saying.
You think that the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian Empires’ treatment of ancient Judeans and Israelites is antisemitism.
It is not.
First of all, using the Tanakh (its ACTUAL name, leave your trashy supercecionist name at the door please) as a historical source is dicey. (Also, incredibly rude of you to condescend to a bunch of Jewish people about not having read your bad translation of our own holy books. Wow, man.) We know the Babylonian and Assyrian conquests are a historical reality from the archeological record. The Egyptian slavery and exodus, less so, although we do know the Egyptians exerted imperial control over the land where Israel and Judah are and the people living there.
Further, the Greek (Macedonian and then Selucid) Empire and the Roman Empire ALSO overthrew Judah and Israel and subjugated them, outlawing Jewish practices etc.
But, that is not antisemitism. Arguably, what occurred in the Greek and Roman periods is the beginning of anti-Judaism, an oppression of Jewish people for their culture and religion. Antisemitism, however, is an oppression of Jewish people for their ethnicity/physical existence, regardless of whether they assimilate into the oppressors’ culture and religion or not.
Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians didn’t hate Jewish people BECAUSE we were Jewish. They just wanted to impose political control over our strategic land. They did the same things to many other peoples. Egyptians didn’t care if you assimilated as long as you paid them, Assyrians successfully assimilated most of Israel (except the Samaritans), and Jews in Babylon did NOT assimilate and were later allowed by the Persians to return to Israel.
Greece and Rome started to resent Jewish people because they wouldn’t culturally and religiously assimilate, and honestly, mostly this had to do with taxes. Many taxes in the ancient world were religious payments. Paying taxes to Rome, for example, sometimes meant recognizing Caesar as a God, if it was a religious tax issues in Caesars own name.
Jewish religion at the time also focuses a lot on overthrowing the yoke of oppressors, because that had been a theme in Jewish history. The idea of a Messiah is originally part of that narrative, born from the Hashmonian period when Yehuda Maccabias successfully threw off Selucid occupiers and established a renewed independant Jewish state. Jews in Jesus’s supposed time were expecting the same thing: a hero with God’s blessing who would restore their homeland and freedom to them. Instead, they got Jesus, who supported Roman rule to the bitter end, and who’s followers conveniently blamed Jews for his death, despite the fact that he supposedly died via Roman capital punishment.
Christianity itself draws from some Jewish stories and cultural ideas, but it is mostly a Roman and Hellenistic affair, ideologically. Its all about conforming to political authority and pulling the teeth from Judaism, stripping it down to a few stories and ideas and then using it as a vehicle for Roman cultural assimilation.
Part of that process included demonizing Jews, literally. Check your Bible. I’ll wait. The authors of the NT constantly twist Jewish authority to appear evil and Roman authority to appear as Godly and innocent and representing stability and divine will. Jews are the synagogue of Satan, the Christ killers, the fruitless fig tree waiting to be cut down, the olive branches that are cut off, pruned to make way for Rome. The early Church and contemporary Jews were bitter enemies. Christians sold out Jewish rebels to Rome, outlawed Jewish practices, and adopted creeds and practices (use of images, eating pork) specifically designed to keep Jews out. All through Christian history, Jews have been specifically targeted for oppression - genocide, theft, taxation, expulsion, being made illegal, rape, not allowed education or access to jobs, not allowed to own land, you name it, SPECIFICALLY because they were descended from the Jewish people who Christians CLAIM “killed Christ.” All Western antisemitism, from religious antisemitism like blood libel to even “secular” antisemitism like the Dreyfus affair of the Elders of Zion, is the fruit of the poisoned tree: its roots are in the New Testament, and Church History is its trunk.
The fact is, if youre looking for the roots of when people began oppressing Jews on an ethnic basic regardless of what religion or culture they practice, you’re going to find that all roads lead you back to Christianity.
In my opinion ? We should all be able to glow. Just a little bit. Just for a little while. Just maybe have a little bioluminescence. Just some light. As a treat.
every time wearing western “cowboy” style clothing becomes fashionable again we don’t bring back western shirts and i think that’s a terrible shame because they’re sexy as fuck
like… gays… imagine how unstoppable we’d be if we all dressed like this more often
Friendly reminder that this world was designed for neurotypicals and if you’re neurodiverse or mentally ill and you’re struggling, please be kinder to yourself because you’re doing your best in a world that wasn’t designed for you
i know the new year won’t magically erase everything bad happening in the world but i hope 2021 is kinder to you all and that it brings brighter moments and healing
Anyone else, esp. neurodivergent people, ever talk to someone and get elated because you’re like wow :) I am doing a Conversation :) I am doing the Asking Questions and Listening Attentively and Expressing Interest :) I have shared a Joke or brief Amusing Happening and this person liked it :) this person seems to enjoy speaking to me and I enjoy speaking to them :) I’m a person.
I once was talking to someone I admired and they told a joke about our managers and I added to the joke, and they laughed so hard they couldn’t talk and I was like thank you for laughing I have truly never experienced this level of euphoria and also I would die for you now.
Recognition Responsive Euphoria is a hell of a drug
