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narcasseLooking up some natural digestive remedies today it finally dawned on me that somehow I’ve confused figs and prunes in my mind. I’d been so convinced that figs looked like prunes that I’d somehow managed to entirely ignore the symbolism in this image, or rather I was determined that the fruit shown were pomegranates even though the skin colour was entirely wrong. Still, having corrected that oversight and turning my analysis to figs, the symbolism still seems relatively appropriate, if a little jumbled.
Figs or at least rotten figs in the Old Testament have been symbolic of destruction and then there’s that business in the New Testament with the barren fig tree where patience appears to be the lesson to be learnt. The Koran gives the descriptor of figs being fruits of paradise where their entirety can be consumed. Likewise talk of seeking the flowers of the fig tree (which occur inside the pod) tends to be used to indicate something of great rarity. Fig trees also turn up in Egyptian mythology as well as being featured in the Garden of Eden.
Thus the above gives a general theme of seeking something hidden and/or rare, something wondrous and divine perhaps and being patient about the search. Unless the figs are meant to be rotten which they don’t appear to be. But there’s just one problem with all that because the given image has Bedouin costume and with it that kind, concerned tovarăş mask that Radu’s been wearing, slipping away to reveal his Orden uniform. Of course the obvious point of finding something hidden and possibly rare and unexpected is there still but in this case it doesn’t appear to be anything divine or laudable, at least not from Ion’s perspective. But then maybe it is. Because even though Radu is a member of the Orden and the Orden is most definitely seeking world destruction and perverting a perfectly laudable motto to go about it perhaps the point is that the Imperial Extremists aren’t all entirely rotten. They may be going about it in a violent and destructive fashion but perhaps what they’re really seeking is a far better realisation of that corrupted Orden motto. Of course they might not even entirely know that that’s what they’re looking for but if they do believe on some level that through the fires of perdition the nature of the human spirit can be renewed then perhaps all the connotations might well be accurate.
Which may easily be a highly revisionist interpretation but one I’m quite fond of. Of course they’re scuppered in the undertaking by the two figures that either swallow dreams by consuming them or by creating only an absence of them: Dietrich and Seth. Dietrich surrounded by his Venus flytraps that consume those butterflies representing both dreams and change, and Seth who’s surrounded by the negative afterimage of those same butterflies that now no longer exist.
And that’s long before what appears to be the Fortuna family crest of a unicorn actively stalling the turning of the wheel of fortune: innocently stopping the natural progression of chance and fate, depending on just how unfavourably you want to interpret it. Of course it’s equally easy to suggest via those images that Seth’s vision for the future is a lotus dream and that Dietrich really likes female genitalia, both of which points may be entirely accurate as well.
All images taken from here.
Edit: Except as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
levyrasputin points out, pomegranates only break open naturally when the exterior has begun to rot which would explain the colour discrepancy. The end result of such analysis being that yes, Radu gets to be Persephone to compliment his being the Lady of Shalott later on.
Also:
Galatea (5808 words. PG. AU.)
There are inherent dangers in seeking to grant life, especially when that life possesses the ability to determine its own purpose. (An alternative ending to the Empire arc.)
Figs or at least rotten figs in the Old Testament have been symbolic of destruction and then there’s that business in the New Testament with the barren fig tree where patience appears to be the lesson to be learnt. The Koran gives the descriptor of figs being fruits of paradise where their entirety can be consumed. Likewise talk of seeking the flowers of the fig tree (which occur inside the pod) tends to be used to indicate something of great rarity. Fig trees also turn up in Egyptian mythology as well as being featured in the Garden of Eden.
Thus the above gives a general theme of seeking something hidden and/or rare, something wondrous and divine perhaps and being patient about the search. Unless the figs are meant to be rotten which they don’t appear to be. But there’s just one problem with all that because the given image has Bedouin costume and with it that kind, concerned tovarăş mask that Radu’s been wearing, slipping away to reveal his Orden uniform. Of course the obvious point of finding something hidden and possibly rare and unexpected is there still but in this case it doesn’t appear to be anything divine or laudable, at least not from Ion’s perspective. But then maybe it is. Because even though Radu is a member of the Orden and the Orden is most definitely seeking world destruction and perverting a perfectly laudable motto to go about it perhaps the point is that the Imperial Extremists aren’t all entirely rotten. They may be going about it in a violent and destructive fashion but perhaps what they’re really seeking is a far better realisation of that corrupted Orden motto. Of course they might not even entirely know that that’s what they’re looking for but if they do believe on some level that through the fires of perdition the nature of the human spirit can be renewed then perhaps all the connotations might well be accurate.
Which may easily be a highly revisionist interpretation but one I’m quite fond of. Of course they’re scuppered in the undertaking by the two figures that either swallow dreams by consuming them or by creating only an absence of them: Dietrich and Seth. Dietrich surrounded by his Venus flytraps that consume those butterflies representing both dreams and change, and Seth who’s surrounded by the negative afterimage of those same butterflies that now no longer exist.
And that’s long before what appears to be the Fortuna family crest of a unicorn actively stalling the turning of the wheel of fortune: innocently stopping the natural progression of chance and fate, depending on just how unfavourably you want to interpret it. Of course it’s equally easy to suggest via those images that Seth’s vision for the future is a lotus dream and that Dietrich really likes female genitalia, both of which points may be entirely accurate as well.
All images taken from here.
Edit: Except as
levyrasputin points out, pomegranates only break open naturally when the exterior has begun to rot which would explain the colour discrepancy. The end result of such analysis being that yes, Radu gets to be Persephone to compliment his being the Lady of Shalott later on.Also:
Galatea (5808 words. PG. AU.)
There are inherent dangers in seeking to grant life, especially when that life possesses the ability to determine its own purpose. (An alternative ending to the Empire arc.)
