I know now, but as a kid you want to think you're a good person, so identifying with someone who's not always a good person is harder to wrap your head around when you're that age.
But it makes sense that someone who's inherently agnostic identified with the character in a Christian allegory written to be the atheist/skeptic even if I didn't consciously realize that's what I was doing at the time.
From the perspective of Christian allegory, I never felt like Edmund was supposed to specifically atheist/skeptic, but more so "just like us". He (along with Lucy, I find) is the most "human" of the Pevensie children, because he's flawed. Who cannot relate to having "once" done something mean to a friend/family member, even knowing it was wrong? Especially if you had siblings growing up! lol. (On a funny side note, every time The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe comes into greater attention, sales of turkish delight increase. Apparently everyone wants to know what this treat is that's so good you would betray your siblings for it.)
And while we're deviating from Fanatic to discuss my favorite book series of all time, I cannot recommend the book Planet Narnia enough. The allegory and symbollism is the Narnia books goes a lot deeper than simply "Aslan represents Jesus", with Lewis having each book communicate/feel like/demonstrate the principles of each one of the 7 planetary influences from Christian medieval theology/astrology. It is an absolutely fascinating read. As a word of warning though, the book is also the author's PHD thesis, so it's not exactly light reading.
All those poor, poor people…
Well, it seems like Edmund is meant to be the "Judas" figure, which definitely falls along those lines in a more sympathetic reading of his role.
It also kind of runs along the line of thinking: Even if God does exist, is He someone that is worthy of our worship? That's an angle that doesn't crop up in the debate often.
Also, as a kid who had hyperactivity and so my parents were advised to keep me from chocolate and sugar, I'm pretty sure I could empathize with betraying your siblings for basically any candy at all. :P
Really good Turkish delight is worth it, but also not easy to find.
Edmund was the Judas figure, or more appropriately, a Paul figure, going from the one that almost crushed everything good to probably the most influential human character in the series.
Susan was the skeptic.
Edmund was C S Lewis himself abandoning Christianity only to return to it, strangely enough this makes Peter J R R Tolkien ,steadfast in his faith
Makes even more sense why I liked Edmund, then.
I'm forever feeling a tug between "I miss being Catholic" and "But I still don't believe in God".
I'm Irish, and I consider Catholicism to be part of my nature, even though I don't believe in God, I'm still a Catholic a very Irish paradox
I'm part Portuguese and part Irish, so I know that feel.
So it's this weird thing where my mom is totally OK with my being bisexual, but she complains now and then about my never making my Confirmation. #priorities
In the Apostate episode, Christopher explained that when they say Fanatic is the spirit of judgement, they don’t mean the word judgement in the sense of determining a person’s worth or good/evilness. They mean it to be a considered decision based on reason, what we have in mind when we say things like “judgement call.” This has me thinking differently about Fanatic as a character - and thinking that the environment she was raised in has a much bigger contribution to her character than maybe we’ve been thinking. It also suggests that she should be much more logical and rational than we’ve been giving her credit for.
Nothing says a judgement call can’t be rash. Look at the event that created her a judgement to chase down something despite an oncoming vehicle. I still overall have a better view of Fanatic between these two episodes than I did before.
Yeah, being super religious isn't conducive to being rational or thought out, and that sort of logical character would likely come out closer to Parse in depiction. (Just instead of seeing flaws in things, the analysis would be more about coming to the correct decision/conclusion.)
FWIW, I got the impression from the [Apostate] episode that the spirit of judgement was inhabiting that girl to prevent her from running into traffic after a ball, but that the spirit just arrived a little too late.
No the spirit was in her body before the accident which killed the little girl. This is the note WalkingTarget has from it
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Fanatic exists because the young girl died why Judgement was occupying her body, why was Judgement in that 6 year-old's body right then? The "judgement" involved at the moment was tied to an indecision that the girl had been facing about running into the street for whatever reason (Christopher's example is running to get a ball, but I can't tell if that's meant to be the canonical event), and Judgement was her making the decision.
This leaves me with the impression Judgement was there already as part of her decision to run onto the street.
I agree that the Apostate episode cleared up somethings. Like, why she doesn't believe him about the Host. With the larger context of him telling a different story every single time, and the fact that he started with "I killed God and made you in my image" it's pretty understandable that she's going to dismiss his lies and his truths.
And it seems the only reason the Readers of Sentinel Comics know the Truth is because of the interaction between the Scholar and Apostate, and the discussion and events of that encounter could only work in the context of The Host being the truth. And, since I'm sure Fanatic and the Scholar rarely sit down and chat, and even more rarely would that involve discussing Apostate, Fanatic has never gotten that outside confirmation that one of the ridiculous lies Apostate has spread is acutally truth.
You know, I realized today: Maybe we actually have seen Hellion?
Check out Voidsoul's art here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-oblivaeon/posts/1930705
I'd kinda assumed Voidsoul was warping Fanatic somehow, but what if that's Hellion?
I don't think so.
Think of how different Seraph and Apostate look in terms of clothes and equipment.
Hellion is a spirit of Chaos, I doubt she would look almost exactly like Fanatic in the same armor and with very similiar wings. Pretty sure our first impressions of Voidsoul attacking Fanatic are more accurate.
Sorry if this has already been talked about...things got hectic in here and I skipped most of the conversation ;P
If Fanatic's faith essentially causes things to happen, why is the Idolator bad? She firmly believes that he is good and she wants to follow his teachings. Wouldn't her powers shift his alignment to be good? Even when she finds out he's bad, she denies it at first...how is this different from her growing wings, for instance, haha?
He has pretty much become a vampire to a degree. Instead of siphoning blood he is siphoning faith from people to extend his life. Unlike Fanatic he was aware of what he was doing and subjugated a spirit of the Host into his staff to accomplish this. Sounds like she spent a decent amount of time with him and was convinced of having bad judgment about once he revealed more about himself. At least from Fanatic’s persepctive he wasn’t redeemable and certainly after what she did he was overt about his bad intentions. Overall, that sounds like a good follow up question as to why she found he couldn’t be saved.
There are limits to power, and I would not be surprised that Fanatic's power of belief is limited to herself and the inanimate world around her.
Altering the very nature of the person or mind of the person you are dealing with is far more power than Fanatic as any right to have, especially since, as a Spirit of Judgement, altering people to fit within the laws is outside of her realm and make no sense. You can't judge anyone if all you do is literally force them to change into something which fits with the ideals and laws you uphold.
Plus that would make her insanely evil.
As to why Idolater is irredeemable.
There is the obvious in the selfishness and willingness to use evil magic, but I think there is another side we don't see. First off, we don't know what tips Fanatic off, her and the Idolater are friends for a time after all, but also nothing good ever comes from extracting thngs from other people.
What does extracting someone's Faith do to them? Is he even extracting their Faith, or is he using their faith to extract life energy? Whatever the ansers are, it was not a benign system, those people he was feeding off of were getting harmed in the proccess, guarenteed, and using you position in the church to harm innocents with dark magic for the sole purpose of extending your life? Yeah, not going just goig to get a talking to for something like that, plus she felt betrayed by him, because he seemed like a good man who was doing God's work and succeeding, only to find out he was as bad as they come.