Sarpedon is being slandered. Enough “God fucked that old man”. This is Empire propaganda. No, I put it to you that Sarpedon set out to fuck God. he knew exactly what he was doing. When every duplicitous slut betrayed God, Sarpedon was there. he wanted that divine ass. entered that forbidden tomb. became one flesh with his one end. etc.
I see a lot of meta talking about how the John Verses are John telling the story of the leadup to the apocalypse with the most sympathetic biased self-justifying gloss to make it sound like nothing was his fault, and I guess that’s why so many readings go for a hardline worst-faith interpretation of them, but…. I don’t really see it.
When he tells about how he murdered everyone who had a gun, he could have played up the self-defense angle. He could have claimed he was scared, and he did it to protect everyone. He could have emphasized that he was killing cops, instead of emphasizing the civilians. He could have stuck with the story he told at the time, that he freaked out and made a mistake and hadn’t meant to kill them all. He doesn’t. He admits to mass murder, and he admits to having done it because he was angry. And he admits to still not regretting it one bit.
The story John tells just doesn’t paint him in the best possible light. He does include all of the justifications he used at the time, he does explain why on earth any of this ever seemed like a good idea to anyone, and he does want to be understood, but he doesn’t really try to sell it as having been right.
I really don’t see the verse chapters as being John’s justification. They’re his confession. That’s why they feel so good to condemn.
gideon the ninth is good because it presents the inherent comedy of one character raised in a catholic death cult in space and taking it really, REALLY seriously and another character raised in the same catholic death cult in space and being like “lol this is so fucking stupid”
its so petty of me but something that never fails to make me steam is gideon the ninth book reviews where people point out the ‘plot hole’ or 'bad characterisation’ in chapter two when Gideon sabotages her stated goal of getting away from the Ninth by agreeing to duel Harrow because it 'doesn’t make sense’ and 'contradicts her character objective’
like THAT’S THE POINT! it’s literally the point!! You have known this character for all of thirty pages, you are still learning her character objectives! And what you could be learning from this scene is that the opportunity to make Harrow pay attention to her superceeds any and every other priority!
i don’t know if people who don’t speak spanish know that many spanish-speakers have decided to not call the locked tomb series “la tumba sellada” which is actually the correct translation. instead, we usually call it “la tumba loca” (literally, “the crazy tomb”) because it sounds similar and it’s also funny as fuck
gideon, about to try to escape the ninth house once again: [ricky martin voice] leavin’ la tumba loca
