u/BlueSonic85

At first glance, the story of Jacob's sons feels like an obvious just-so story for the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob AKA Israel has twelve sons and these are the twelve tribes. Except Joseph isn't a tribe, instead his two sons have a tribe each. And while Levi is Jacob's son, the Levites sit outside the twelve tribes.

It seems odd that someone wanting to invent an origin story for the twelve tribes and the Levites would make things so complicated. Why not invent that Jacob had thirteen sons, including Levi, Manasseh and Ephraim and forget about Joseph entirely?

Are there any authors who have suggested some pre-established traditions that place Joseph as Jacob's son and insist that he only had twelve sons? Or have there been any other interesting theories on this?

It had a man in an Argentina soccer top in a bus somewhere in rural Ireland. He was telling the other people on the bus how great Argentina was and chanting 'Argentina! Argentina!'. The bus driver then announced that the bus has arrived at (I think) Lansdowne Road. The Argentina fan disembarks, still gloating only to find he's been dropped in a field in the middle of nowhere as the bus drives off.

I'm thinking it must have come out when Argentina played Ireland in 2010.

Spoilers for both shows ahoy!

In *The Wrong Path*, Hercules' children are killed by Hera (or maybe it was Pyro - it's a bit confusing). He's very upset of course, wrecks a few of Hera's temples in retaliation, but he doesn't march into the Underworld to bring them back or beseech Hades or Zeus to help him or anything like that.

Now compare to two (of the four!) occasions when Iolaus died. In *Not Fade Away* he immediately demands that Hades intercede and makes an arrangement to bring Iolaus back. In *Descent*, he travels to the Sumerian Underworld and beats up the Sumerian God of the Dead for the chance to get Iolaus back.

So this would seem to indicate Hercules values Iolaus even more than his own children.

Is the same true of how Xena feels about Gabs? No! When Gabrielle inadvertently causes Solan's death, Xena treats her to the Gab-Drag, tries to throw her off a cliff and stabs her. When a Fury-controlled Gabrielle tries to stab Eve, Xena Gab-Chaks her.

So Hercules loves Iolaus even more than his own children but Xena doesn't love Gabrielle quite that much.

Or, y'know, maybe Herc just didn't like his kids all that much...