Justin: This is my character Taako and he’s a fucking idiot
Griffin: Hmmmm no, actually, he’s an incredibly competent wizard who was top in his class at magic NASA, so jot that down
Justin: K, so in his backstory Taako accidentally killed 40 people through his carelessness-
Griffin: well, ACTUALLY, it turns out Taako was innocent all along! it was really his assistant who killed all those people because he was jealous of Taako, so, like, jot that down
Justin: Okay, well before that Taako spent his childhood alone on the road, and he’s kinda paranoid cause he’s never had anyone to watch his back-
Griffin: BUT ACTUALLYHE HAD A SIBLING THAT LOVES HIM MORE THAN ANYTHING AND HAS BEEN WATCHING OVER HIM THE WHOLE ADVENTURE AND DESPERATELY TRYING TO REACH OUT TO HIM SO J O T T H A T D O W N
Fun fact: According to Greek legend there was a famous prostitute who managed to avoid a death sentence by showing the judges her boobs and arguing that it would be a crime against the Gods to destroy something so beautiful.
Before you ask, yes there are paintings of this. And yes, they’re amazing.
No, but this is one of my absolute favorite bits of history!
The courtesan named was named Phryne and she was indeed a renowned beauty, and was indeed was put on trial for a capital crime. And yes, the sum of her defense consisted of her stripping in court (helped by her lover/defendant) and asking the jury (all males) if they were prepared to destroy this.
But this is actually a very interesting case of Values Dissonance - the capital crime she was accused of was blasphemy. In Ancient Greek society, exceptional beauty was a sign of favor from the gods, and they took the idea that beauty indicated goodness with great seriousness. They even called their nobles Kaloi k'Agathoi, “the Beautiful and the Good.”
So by showing off her great physical beauty, Phryne was being very clever indeed, her argument essentially being “How could I possibly commit blasphemy if the gods have given me this body?“
Or someone who outwardly conforms to conventions of mundane respectability so that their evil becomes frightfully banal, which is a different kind of horror altogether because it is one that we don’t see because it is a kind of bigotry that has been “normalized”.
