Armadillo Tank posted:

OH NOOOOO!!!! ATTRACTIVE, MUSCLED WOMEN, IN ARMOR!! WHO WOULD LIKE SUCH A THING! AHAHAHAH AND THEIR SWEATY TOOO! AHJAHAHAHAHAH

srsly for real why would anyone have folders of images relating to that lmao

makes me shocked no anime has had a "sniffs her arming doublet" scene or someting equivalent

mlmp08 posted:

Her eyes aren’t blue, and I guess bottle highlight blonde still counts as blonde for the costume, sure.

Sword-wielding Valkyrie looking costume, check.

Ytlaya posted:

You could have just said "her eyes aren't blue," because I'm not sure how deliberately dying your hair blonde for the obvious Valkyrie costume helps here

The intent of it is pretty obvious - Ukraine (or at least its currently dominant nationalist culture) is hugely into nordic viking poo poo. The extent to which this is nazi-adjacent likely varies depending on the individual, though the concept as a whole is obviously deeply intertwined with white supremacy in the modern era.

Ytlaya posted:

You could have just said "her eyes aren't blue," because I'm not sure how deliberately dying your hair blonde for the obvious Valkyrie costume helps here

The intent of it is pretty obvious - Ukraine (or at least its currently dominant nationalist culture) is hugely into nordic viking poo poo. The extent to which this is nazi-adjacent likely varies depending on the individual, though the concept as a whole is obviously deeply intertwined with white supremacy in the modern era.

crepeface posted:

i unironically like it. beauty contests should have a cosplay category.

wait, none of those symbols on the wings is a Nazi one right?

Tankbuster posted:

She should have dressed as a biblically accurate angel.

Vomik posted:

aren’t biblical angels supposed to be horrifying to behold and can blind you looking at them if you don’t just die?

stephenthinkpad posted:

How come you guys are not talking about god of war Shoigu expanding the troop to 1.5 million? Is it not worthy of discussion?

Frosted Flake posted:

It’s funnier because the core of Ukrainian nationalist aren’t from anywhere near where Vikings settled, but it’s part of the mythological “Greater Galicia”



Other than that, like the neopaganism, it’s just white nationalist stuff.

Frosted Flake posted:

Yes, it’s a large part of the story of the Nativity.
Those shepherds had an extremely bad time.

e: To explain better, the Magi were like philosophers who discovered the Incarnation through opening their minds to it, inquiry, following a distant star.

The shepherds were poor yokels who slept amongst their sheep and were confronted by sights so terrifying they aren’t even really given shape in the Gospels and a deafening and blinding chorus of the heavenly host singing that the barrier between heaven and earth had been parted. This was not a sweet Charlie Brown moment but something sort of like the last pages of a Lovecraft story.

The narrative purpose is that the Magi understood what was happening it but those poor guys experienced it. The edges of Christmas have been throughly sanded down by American sentimentality and commercialism, but if you can try to understand the term “God Fearing”, that’s what the angels in the Nativity story invoked.

quote:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Vomik posted:

aren’t biblical angels supposed to be horrifying to behold and can blind you looking at them if you don’t just die?

Frosted Flake posted:

Hatebag posted:

It's funny they went with a viking theme because this map of viking conquest shows that the vikings were basically in control of the ukrainian territory that russia controls right now

Starsfan posted:

Personally I just hope that any candidate from Russia was banned from participating in the event. I just couldn't bear to see a member of the most singularly evil country of all time as a contestant in this highly prestigious beauty pagent.

Frosted Flake posted:

Yes, it’s a large part of the story of the Nativity.
Those shepherds had an extremely bad time.

e: To explain better, the Magi were like philosophers who discovered the Incarnation through opening their minds to it, inquiry, following a distant star.

The shepherds were poor yokels who slept amongst their sheep and were confronted by sights so terrifying they aren’t even really given shape in the Gospels and a deafening and blinding chorus of the heavenly host singing that the barrier between heaven and earth had been parted. This was not a sweet Charlie Brown moment but something sort of like the last pages of a Lovecraft story.

The narrative purpose is that the Magi understood what was happening it but those poor guys experienced it. The edges of Christmas have been throughly sanded down by American sentimentality and commercialism, but if you can try to understand the term “God Fearing”, that’s what the angels in the Nativity story invoked.

Organ Fiend posted:

I think we all know why they went with the Viking theme.

Leandros posted:

How is any of this distinctly Nordic over, say, Christian? The wreath is much more Mediterranean but made of grains to seem Ukrainian, and the aureole is clearly not Nordic either. Seems like the description of an Archangel is pretty apt to me.

Futanari Damacy posted:

Her answer will just be the 14 words

ted hitler hunter posted:

The judge could find out if she's appropriating nordic culture by asking her if guests should be offered food or not.

Tankbuster posted:

yeah, the ukranian lady is toast in a fair competition.

Tankbuster posted:

drat, if only there was a religion where the magi were priests.

Vomik posted:

aren’t biblical angels supposed to be horrifying to behold and can blind you looking at them if you don’t just die?

Futanari Damacy posted:

Her answer will just be the 14 words

Z the IVth posted:

She's the only one with a real weapon though. Make them fight it out Highlander style.

There can only be one!

Also I'm pretty sure I've seen that costume on a mobile game ad before.

Ukraine, now sponsored by RAID: Shadow Legends.

ted hitler hunter posted:

Actually It's Rude To Feed Your Guests Unless You Have Made Plans In Advance

ted hitler hunter posted:

Actually It's Rude To Feed Your Guests Unless You Have Made Plans In Advance

Ardennes posted:

I do like the take that dyed hair doesn't count, wtf lol.

Tankbuster posted:

drat, if only there was a religion where the magi were priests.

Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur posted:

The Egyptian and the Hindoo looked at each other; the former waved his hand; the latter bowed, and began:
“Our brother has spoken well. May my words be as wise.”
He broke off, reflected a moment, then resumed:

“You may know me, brethren, by the name of Melchior. I speak to you in a language which, if not the oldest in the world, was at least the soonest to be reduced to letters—I mean the Sanscrit of India. I am a Hindoo by birth. My people were the first to walk in the fields of knowledge, first to divide them, first to make them beautiful. Whatever may hereafter befall, the four Vedas must live, for they are the primal fountains of religion and useful intelligence. From them were derived the Upa-Vedas, which, delivered by Brahma, treat of medicine, archery, architecture, music, and the four-and-sixty mechanical arts; the Ved-Angas, revealed by inspired saints, and devoted to astronomy, grammar, prosody, pronunciation, charms and incantations, religious rites and ceremonies; the Up-Angas, written by the sage Vyasa, and given to cosmogony, chronology, and geography; therein also are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, heroic poems, designed for the perpetuation of our gods and demi-gods. Such, O brethren, are the Great Shastras, or books of sacred ordinances. They are dead to me now; yet through all time they will serve to illustrate the budding genius of my race. They were promises of quick perfection. Ask you why the promises failed? Alas! the books themselves closed all the gates of progress. Under pretext of care for the creature, their authors imposed the fatal principle that a man must not address himself to discovery or invention, as Heaven had provided him all things needful. When that condition became a sacred law, the lamp of Hindoo genius was let down a well, where ever since it has lighted narrow walls and bitter waters.

“These allusions, brethren, are not from pride, as you will understand when I tell you that the Shastras teach a Supreme God called Brahm; also, that the Puranas, or sacred poems of the Up-Angas, tell us of Virtue and Good Works, and of the Soul. So, if my brother will permit the saying”—the speaker bowed deferentially to the Greek—“ages before his people were known, the two great ideas, God and the Soul, had absorbed all the forces of the Hindoo mind. In further explanation let me say that Brahm is taught, by the same sacred books, as a Triad—Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Of these, Brahma is said to have been the author of our race; which, in course of creation, he divided into four castes. First, he peopled the worlds below and the heavens above; next, he made the earth ready for terrestrial spirits; then from his mouth proceeded the Brahman caste, nearest in likeness to himself, highest and noblest, sole teachers of the Vedas, which at the same time flowed from his lips in finished state, perfect in all useful knowledge. From his arms next issued the Kshatriya, or warriors; from his breast, the seat of life, came the Vaisya, or producers—shepherds, farmers, merchants; from his foot, in sign of degradation, sprang the Sudra, or serviles, doomed to menial duties for the other classes—serfs, domestics, laborers, artisans. Take notice, further, that the law, so born with them, forbade a man of one caste becoming a member of another; the Brahman could not enter a lower order; if he violated the laws of his own grade, he became an outcast, lost to all but outcasts like himself.”

At this point, the imagination of the Greek, flashing forward upon all the consequences of such a degradation, overcame his eager attention, and he exclaimed, “In such a state, O brethren, what mighty need of a loving God!”
“Yes,” added the Egyptian, “of a loving God like ours.”
The brows of the Hindoo knit painfully; when the emotion was spent, he proceeded, in a softened voice.

“I was born a Brahman. My life, consequently, was ordered down to its least act, its last hour. My first draught of nourishment; the giving me my compound name; taking me out the first time to see the sun; investing me with the triple thread by which I became one of the twice-born; my induction into the first order—were all celebrated with sacred texts and rigid ceremonies. I might not walk, eat, drink, or sleep without danger of violating a rule. And the penalty, O brethren, the penalty was to my soul! According to the degrees of omission, my soul went to one of the heavens—Indra’s the lowest, Brahma’s the highest; or it was driven back to become the life of a worm, a fly, a fish, or a brute. The reward for perfect observance was Beatitude, or absorption into the being of Brahm, which was not existence as much as absolute rest.”

The Hindoo gave himself a moment’s thought; proceeding, he said: “The part of a Brahman’s life called the first order is his student life. When I was ready to enter the second order—that is to say, when I was ready to marry and become a householder—I questioned everything, even Brahm; I was a heretic. From the depths of the well I had discovered a light above, and yearned to go up and see what all it shone upon. At last—ah, with what years of toil!—I stood in the perfect day, and beheld the principle of life, the element of religion, the link between the soul and God—Love!”

The shrunken face of the good man kindled visibly, and he clasped his hands with force. A silence ensued, during which the others looked at him, the Greek through tears. At length he resumed:

“The happiness of love is in action; its test is what one is willing to do for others. I could not rest. Brahm had filled the world with so much wretchedness. The Sudra appealed to me, so did the countless devotees and victims. The island of Ganga Lagor lies where the sacred waters of the Ganges disappear in the Indian Ocean. Thither I betook myself. In the shade of the temple built there to the sage Kapila, in a union of prayers with the disciples whom the sanctified memory of the holy man keeps around his house, I thought to find rest. But twice every year came pilgrimages of Hindoos seeking the purification of the waters. Their misery strengthened my love. Against its impulse to speak I clenched my jaws; for one word against Brahm or the Triad or the Shastras would doom me; one act of kindness to the outcast Brahmans who now and then dragged themselves to die on the burning sands—a blessing said, a cup of water given—and I became one of them, lost to family, country, privileges, caste. The love conquered! I spoke to the disciples in the temple; they drove me out. I spoke to the pilgrims; they stoned me from the island. On the highways I attempted to preach; my hearers fled from me, or sought my life. In all India, finally, there was not a place in which I could find peace or safety—not even among the outcasts, for, though fallen, they were still believers in Brahm. In my extremity, I looked for a solitude in which to hide from all but God. I followed the Ganges to its source, far up in the Himalayas. When I entered the pass at Hurdwar, where the river, in unstained purity, leaps to its course through the muddy lowlands, I prayed for my race, and thought myself lost to them forever. Through gorges, over cliffs, across glaciers, by peaks that seemed star-high, I made my way to the Lang Tso, a lake of marvellous beauty, asleep at the feet of the Tise Gangri, the Gurla, and the Kailas Parbot, giants which flaunt their crowns of snow everlastingly in the face of the sun. There, in the centre of the earth, where the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmapootra rise to run their different courses; where mankind took up their first abode, and separated to replete the world, leaving Balk, the mother of cities, to attest the great fact; where Nature, gone back to its primeval condition, and secure in its immensities, invites the sage and the exile, with promise of safety to the one and solitude to the other—there I went to abide alone with God, praying, fasting, waiting for death.”

Again the voice fell, and the bony hands met in a fervent clasp.
“One night I walked by the shores of the lake, and spoke to the listening silence, ‘When will God come and claim his own? Is there to be no redemption?’ Suddenly a light began to glow tremulously out on the water; soon a star arose, and moved towards me, and stood overhead. The brightness stunned me. While I lay upon the ground, I heard a voice of infinite sweetness say, ‘Thy love hath conquered. Blessed art thou, O son of India! The redemption is at hand. With two others, from far quarters of the earth, thou shalt see the Redeemer, and be a witness that he hath come. In the morning arise, and go meet them; and put all thy trust in the Spirit which shall guide thee.’

“And from that time the light has stayed with me; so I knew it was the visible presence of the Spirit. In the morning I started to the world by the way I had come. In a cleft of the mountain I found a stone of vast worth, which I sold in Hurdwar. By Lahore, and Cabool, and Yezd, I came to Ispahan. There I bought the camel, and thence was led to Bagdad, not waiting for caravans. Alone I traveled, fearless, for the Spirit was with me, and is with me yet. What glory is ours, O brethren! We are to see the Redeemer—to speak to him—to worship him! I am done.”