Comment on Prayers to Broken Stone

  1. Thinwhitedutchess on Chapter 8 Wed 02 Jul 2025 05:04AM UTC

    So the link you put to watch the ratheeb scene is now private apparently so I couldn’t watch it that way so I looked up another link myself to watch and here were a few things I noticed:
    1. I was really surprised by how much blood there was. Guess I shouldn’t have been, but wow
    2. In the clip I watched which was someone’s filming of a real ritual, it looked so joyous. At one point one of the men smiled, it really seemed to be a communal moment
    3. Made the mistake of reading the comments on the video, people are horrible
    4. Thank you for sharing this culture with us

    I absolutely love it when fics have some commentary on maedhros and his relationship with his beauty. It’s different every time but always fraught because as you’ve written, his life has been a tripped of so much beauty, and he has really been stripped of much of his selfhood.

    When I read what the girls said sadly I once more had to reckon with the fact that I think about wanting to fuck maedhros at least once a day.

    But then when he wonders why he’s so bothered by what they said I was like ‘’it’s because they’re objectifying you and it’s awful every time. And it dehumanizes you and takes away every moment you have ever thought you were strong or powerful or something or anything because now you are that hot guy, and what you were doing longer matters because you are just that thing they want to fuck and it sucks’’

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    1. timelessutterances on Chapter 8 Wed 02 Jul 2025 04:03PM UTC

      OH yes absolutely the comments are absolutely vile on those videos… there’s a tendency to act like that practice is “proof that Muslims are all barbaric and bloodthirsty” when it’s an incredibly localised and very insular practice like… it doesn’t even exist outside of the district, and it absolutely is extreme, sure, but the practitioners don’t exactly deny that, and it’s people *choosing* to partake, not a cultural norm or whatever… but of course, people always love to find any outlet for their bigotry haha.

      But yes, absolutely, the practitioners all are doing it because they want to, regardless of what the reasoning behind the wanting is, ie it takes yeaaars of practice/training, and the essence of it is that they’re going into a “trance” hence there absolutely is an endorphin rush + your family and friends come to watch and cheer you on, there is definitely a communal environment… I’ve been to a couple and it’s pretty cool, though tbh the blood can be a bit much even for me 😭

      “what you were doing no longer matters because you are just that thing they want to fuck and it sucks’’ that’s EXACTLY it, you have it in one… it’s something that passes lightly over the Arwen storyline as well, which is closest to my own experiences, but yes it’s exactly that sentiment just playing out in two different stages…

      Thank you again!

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