@steggydaily valentine’s Day Challenge: happy Endings

Friend has the sad???!!??!!!!!

I’m coming friend I’ll save you from the sad!!

I am here now you’re going to be okay!!!

You are so beautiful and i love you!!!

Happy Good Friday ✝️

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”-Genesis 3:15 KJV

Even as far back as the book of Genesis, God revealed His plan of salvation for mankind. That even though the devil (the serpent) would decieve and manipulate to bring sin into the world, and have Christ crucified (bruise His heal), it would all be in vain! Christ would arise the third day, defeating death and the devil! (bruise his head)

This is an interesting thing I'm noticing as I'm reading but it kinda seems to me like a lot of the Tolkien characters all seem to have elemental symbolism that seems to follow their characterization.

Like Gandalf and Bilbo both seem to have a lot of fire symbolism that follows them around. Gandalf uses light and fire as kind of his two go to weapons and he's the keeper of the ring of Narya which is the fire one. And of course Gandalf the White is forged out of flame. And then Bilbo's introduced in the middle of smoking, and he spends a lot of time hanging around campfires and hearths, like the campfire storyteller he is. He seems to like hanging out in the Hall of Fire at Rivendell, and his conflict with Smaug obviously also involves a lot of fire. He's also arguably the character who is closest to Gandalf.

Frodo on the other hand is like all water imagery. One of the first things we learn about Frodo is his parents were weirdos who hung out in boats and then drowned, and he's introduced filling drinks at Bilbo's party. He makes his stand against the Nazgul at the river. He himself nearly drowns like three times in the story, and spends a lot of time in boats, being haunted by dark waters, and the sound of the ocean (and of course ends the story going over the sea). Like the water symbolism with Frodo is nonstop and he shares that in common with Gollum, who specifically is characterized by pools, rivers, and lakes, as well as fish, worms, mud and roots and caves—very wet and slimy compared to Frodo's more mariner/wayfinder imagery. But they're still kind of two sides of the same coin.

Pippin and Merry get a lot of plant and tree symbolism. Besides hanging out with ents and drinking tree wine and that time they both got eaten by a tree, it's clear Merry grew up wandering forests and knows a lot about wild plants (and writes a book on it later) and Pippin gets a ton of association with Gondor, y'know, that place that is represented by a big ol' tree. Their tobacco leaves too actually kinda play a pivotal role, and are again, very plant focused.

You'd think Sam would also be more earth oriented, being he's a gardener, but not really? Unlike Merry who's out here spitting plant facts 24/7 and working on his plant book, Sam's interest in plants seems like to only be around when he's on the clock. His symbolism is all very celestial. He's the guy who ends up using the Star of Earendil. He sees Earendil while he and Frodo are walking through Mordor. He evokes Elbereth, the Star Goddess like multiple times. He names his daughter after the star-sun shaped flower Elanor which literally means "Sun and Stars." And if you think about it, Gardener is actually kind of a perfect role for a star-guy when you remember how dependent plants are on the sun. He also seems to share some kind of connection with Galadriel who is also caked in a lot of star imagery. It also tracks he'd be paired with Frodo thematically as he serves as a guiding light to a mariner, in contrast to how Gollum represents the depths.

IDK what all that means, I just think it's neat!

Hey students, here’s a pro tip: do not write an email to your prof while you’re seriously sick.

Signed, a person who somehow came up with “dear hello, I am sick and not sure if I’ll be alive to come tomorrow and I’m sorry, best slutantions, [name]”.

I do want a new adaptation of Howl's moving Castle with Sophie's world being a fairy tale world with dresses that looks vaguely medieval and parodies and/or actual characters that might be referencing other fairy tales in the background (like during May day when Sophie is out for the first time in months, you could see a little girl in red with a basket going ✨ somewhere ✨in the background)

...and then you get to Howl's and some of his clothes are a bit off and he is actually using a very modern pen and if we are modernizing it, there is a phone lying around there or you can see the video games he is making for his nephew in the background but you just put it as fun world building still until you get hit in the face with steel chair with the Wales reveal.

I think it would be fun !

I have some thoughts on Héra's "death" line at the climax of War of the Rohirrim and how it relates to Rohan's story during the War of the Ring.

Spoilers below for the movie!

When Héra tells Wulf that she was promised to death on the siege tower, I think that she was genuinely expecting to die there. Even if the plan went perfectly, she would be isolated from the Hornburg (as the siege tower's gangplank burned down) surrounded by an enemy army. Even if Fréaláf showed up, which to her is still a big if on timing if nothing else, that is not a situation one can reasonably expect to survive.

Yet, it's the only hope her people have to escape. She might die, but the rest would live if she could keep enough attention on her. Is this not what Théoden would do centuries later, first on the ramp of the Hornburg drawing the attention of the Uruk-Hai? Then again at Pelennor Fields, one probably last charge to try and win survival for their people. Failing that, at least choosing to die on their own terms instead of waiting for their turn to fall.

Is that not why Théoden's riders cheered "death!" at the enemy as they charged, throwing back the fear Mordor sought to spread back at its hosts? That they had accepted it and were ready to meet it? Is that not what the ideal of a warrior is so often touted as, fighting because they love what stands behind their aegis?

Héra may not have been fighting the same kind of existential war that Théoden was, but the same kind of courage was needed. Even if it all went well, I doubt she had any expectations of surviving that night. She nearly didn't, even with Fréaláf arriving and utterly terrorizing the Dunlending host into such a panicked rout. Yet, it was the way she could save those under her charge.

The moment she rode out onto the tower's gangplank, Héra truly promised herself to death.

forget Susan and Lucy (don’t) but please don’t tell me Lewis didn’t like female characters when Polly “don’t touch the obviously cursed bell, you absolute walnut” Plummer, Jill “my litigious bestie and I are here to fight the Antichrist” Pole and Aravis “‘I did not do any of these things for the sake of pleasing you’” Tarkheena exist

Something I wish we got a little more of was Coulson comforting/encouraging Fitz??? That dynamic was played out a little bit, yes, but I feel like there's something there.

The way how Coulson would clasp Fitz shoulder as he was on the verge of tears, and in s4 when Coulson laid his forehead on Fitz' head telling him it was gonna be alright, and how he held Fitz' forearms as he was spiralling after coming out of the Framework....

Do you think Coulson was imitating what his father did for him when he was little? Comfort through physicality? I'd like to think so...

But also, Coulson has to know about Fitz' dad and how he left. He's gotta know there's a sort of hurt there. Maybe he feels the need to step in a little bit and show him what a real father is like? That it's okay to not only break, but to also be gentle.

rb to tell ur mutuals ur fond of them

them except they never got a wedding