planetaryaether

[planetaryaether]

da twee twavellers

[planetaryaether]

Tumblr broke the transparency >:( anyway. He lives in my head rent free and has done for the past 11 years. <3 Particularly proud of his face tbh

Commissions open! Sale for all of July to help me move out

[planetaryaether]

Blackrock/Dawnlight Exploration: What Was the End’s Plan?

Every time I think to myself "oh let me just jot down my thoughts on xyz really quickly" it turns into an entire essay... anyways here are my thoughts on the End's plan:

Because Blackrock ended when it did, we have surprisingly little information about the End and its plans even though they are responsible for many aspects of both Rythian and (potentially) Zoey’s backstories.

What do we know?

All of the concrete information we have on the End’s war is that Rythian was kidnapped by the end to “become the general/warlord in a future invasion of the Brightlands” And that “the barriers between worlds were fading, and Endermen managed to invade [the Twilight realm] as well, despite … a realm-wide aura to stop their magic from working”

After arriving in the twilight forest, it takes a while for Rythian to realize where they are, even with the aura against End magic which Rythian reveals he knows about by saying that enderman shouldn’t be able to be there (note: he had a similar aggravated tone to when he said the same thing in Dawnlight regarding the Nether). Although at that point he already had his suspicions as to where they were, it is interesting that knowing about the anti-endmagic field and having his magic blocked when he entered the portal did not immediately alert him to where he is. This is especially interesting with Rythian saying at the end of S3E9 that “the only thing that speaks against [this being the Twilight realm] so far is the presence of Endermen”. He also says that he knows “very little about this place” and that much of his knowledge comes from “some ancient texts that… mention it”. The texts he is referencing talk about how the “End is in pure opposition to [the Twilight Realm]”.

Although he says he knows very little about the Twilight Realm, it is likely that this is a lie of omission. In Log 24 in Dawnlight, he mentions that he was told a lot of propaganda by the End, so it is likely that he was lied to about the Twilight Realm. With that being said, those lies are likely justifications for conflict or downplaying the End’s actions towards the Twilight Realm rather than information that would actively help Rythian know if he is there or not. It is also possible that he does have more information that about the Twilight Realm that he is omitting because it could lead to questions about his past that he is not ready to answer.

Furthermore, It is also worth noting that in episode 8 of Blackrock Rising, after it cuts back to Rythian he is staring at the sky/stars of the Twilight realm before saying “holy hell, where are we?” implying that he is familiar enough with the constellations of the Brightlands to be able to notice the difference. Being able to notice the difference, but not being able to recognize what the new constellations are shows his lack of general information about the Twilight realm. 

Additionally we know that he has “...heard stories of a lot of different places, but as far as [he] know-” and then he cuts himself off. Although we don’t know the last half of that sentence, perhaps it was something like ‘this doesn’t quite fit any of them’. He then lists the different realms as the Brightlands, the Nether, the End, and the Realm of Twilight. This could imply that those are the only realms, and if this is true then even with some false information, one would expect Rythian to realize where he is faster. That is unless practically everything he knows about the realm is wildly inaccurate - likely for the purposes of vilifying the enemies of the Twilight Realm to justify, and stop criticism of, the war. This would, then, require his statement about the endermen being the only contradictory piece of evidence he has to be untrue, or at least a lie of omission.

There are several reasons why he could have been given both false information about the Twilight realm and (seemingly) less information about it than one would expect from a warlord/someone important to the End’s plans. 

Option 1: Multi-Realm War

In case 1 the End is at war with everyone/many different realms (potentially beyond what Rythian named previously) independently and Rythian was only ever intended to conquer the Brightlands. This would either require there to be additional realms that Rythian does not mention in S3E9, or an invasion of the Nether. Although there isn’t much evidence for that in Blackrock, the presence of Enderman in the Nether and the comments Rythian makes about it in Dawnlight Chapter 4 could suggest that they had been repelled from the Nether. This could suggest that their previous presence was part of an invasion.

In this situation, he would not need to know much about the other realms they are at war with beyond nationalistic propaganda/justifications for the war. This could imply that there are other individuals with the same role as Rythian for the other realm(s) which does not directly have textual evidence that I can find, although we know very little about the specifics of the Enderborn as a concept. In S2E10 when Zoey is talking to John about the death of King Barry, she mentions that he was "slain at the hands of the Enderborn”. The specific usage of “the” and not “an” when describing the Enderborn implies that it is a specific position or something that only refers to one person (Rythian). 

It is important to note that Rythian initially seemed confused when Zoey mentioned the term “Enderborn” so it could be a term the Twilight Realm uses to describe Rythian specifically and in that case the usage of “the” only necessarily reflects that the Twilight realm cares about keeping track of Rythian specifically and the existence of others like him is up in the air.

Additionally, there could be endermen with more or less important roles in the invasion of different realms, but again we don’t have clear evidence for that, so in this scenario there would need to be something specific about the Brightlands that would require a general/warlord. It could just be that the presence of the other Yogs would warrant needing a more coordinated invasion. Although thematically I think a war against every realm fits well for the End/Ender Dragon, there are some issues with (existing) direct evidence for that idea. If certain things are fleshed out a bit more it is definitely a possibility, but not the most likely option at the moment - in my personal opinion.

As a final note Rythian taking a while to recognize the twilight realm, however, could also support the idea that there are many other inhabited realms (even if he didn’t mention them to Zoey in S3E9), with the delay in realizing where he is partially being due to a large number of options (maybe not mentioned because they were ruled out or he didn’t have much information on them). 

Option 2: The Brightlands as a Stepping Stone

In this situation, End’s war is primarily against the Twilight realm, but with the global anti-endmagic field, it is unable to fight them directly anymore. Rythian’s purpose, then, would be to conquer the Brightlands and raise an army to invade the Twilight Realm and disable the anti-endmagic field so that the full scale invasion can take place. In log 24 in Dawnlight episode 6, Rythian refers to himself as a "dutiful soldier” when talking about all of the things he had to unlearn. 

Using the term ‘soldier’ rather than something more specific, or even using the term ‘warlord’ or ‘general’ as in the end of series lore post, suggests that Rythian was not treated as someone who held a high rank, or that his relationship with the Ender dragon was that of a soldier and not of a general regardless of his eventual purpose. A soldier listens to orders while a general gives them. Even if the end goal was for Rythian to manage the occupation of the Brightlands, with where the plan was at the time he defected, he was not treated that way. With that in mind, it is very common for soldiers to only know the bare minimum necessary to complete their objective. If Rythian’s relationship with his role was that of a soldier, regardless of his future purpose, it would explain his lack of knowledge about the Twilight Realm. Considering that Rythian was raised on propaganda and “lies to make [him] a dutiful soldier”, keeping information about the Twilight realm to a minimum reduces the likelihood that he comes across contradictory information - potentially causing him to question the End and its war - while invading the Brightlands.

Option 3: “Deffensive” War

In S3E9 Rythian questions “what are [the endermen] after” in the Twilight realm. This is initially confusing for a few reasons because he understands that they should be blocked from existing in the realm but he does not seem to understand what they would want from the realm even if they could exist there. This implies that he does not see the Twilight Forest as a military target for the End. This combined with the high likelihood that some of his information about the Twilight Realm was false/based in propaganda (and the lack of information he has overall), it is possible that Rythian believes that the war the End is fighting is defensive rather than offensive. 

Endermen existing in the Twilight realm is confusing to him because the End is supposed to be on their back foot. His realization that it actually “makes a lot of sense” would then mirror his realization that the End is the aggressor (which tracks with the behavior of Endermen as well as the attack of Blackrock by the Ender Dragon herself in season 2). The conversation is somewhat cut short by the discovery of the labyrinth, so the direct evidence for this from season 3 ends there. Although this option does not have a lot of direct evidence for it, it also does not have much if any directly contradictory evidence, so it remains a distinct possibility. We will have to see if Dawnlight makes this scenario more or less likely. 

In any of these situations, the question of the End’s goal is still up in the air, so what do we know about the Ender dragon? 

We know from this post that the thought process in creating the character was someone who started out with good intentions but is now “too far gone to really be seen as anything but evil” as well as being “Maybe more a destructive force of nature, driven by a forces she can't really control, rather than an insidious manipulative malicious mind.”.

With her as the Ender Dragon kidnapping and raising a child soldier, it is clear that she - perhaps out of desperation - has grown to be more calculating than just a raw destructive force. 

In her backstory, the death of her father is “...the first time in her life she didn’t get what she wanted” and that she was “furious” that death “had taken something from her” and that “...even more so than grief, the Princess felt anger”. The combination of the wording around her father’s death being not getting ‘what’ she wanted (although a common phrase) and having had “something” taken from her shows that her grief for her father, although genuine, was less about losing a parent and more about losing an object. That in some ways she saw his death as a slight against her, a hit against her ego and her prowess as a sorcerer. After all, she had “She had surpassed them all” so why shouldn’t she be able to conquer death? 

It is additionally important that her reaction was to “[delve] deeper into her studies – on her own now” because although she was the most knowledgeable with magic, she did not seek to have peers. She, seemingly, only saw other mages as ways to get more information and that they had lost their value to her after teaching her all they knew. This further speaks to her ego because it suggests that she believed that she alone could defeat death and that (at the very least) others could not help her - if not that they would slow her down. 

Her thoughts about the ritual were that ”She would be immortal, as would her mother, and as many of the people in the kingdom as she could save”. The order here is important. First and foremost she cared about securing her own immortality, her personal victory over death. Although this was started due to the death of her father, the immortality of her mother comes second to her own. Only after her mother does she look to save her own people, and not even all of them, just (seemingly) as many as the ritual could handle. This speaks to her extreme selfishness and reflects that her many years of helping the people of her nation were likely because she enjoyed the praise that came along with it rather than out of a genuine drive to better the lives of those she is responsible for. 

Her selfishness also shines through in the structure of the ritual, she used herself as a “guiding beacon for all the magic in the world”, funneling it all through herself - taking magic from the world itself and cramming it where she can use it for her own personal goals. We know very powerful magical artifacts exist in the world of Blackrock (with a chalice of immortality originally being planned to exist in the Cabertown B plot), so the choice of using herself as a conduit is a power seeking move rather than a practical one. If she has the magic, then that secures her role as the strongest for the rest of time.

What, then, is her goal?

Well we know that it is unclear “How much of the Princess remained behind those terrifying eyes” but even before her transformation, she was no longer the young girl who spent her days helping her people. 

If she is waging a war against all other realms, then it is likely a broad scramble for power, seeking it wherever she can find it without much unique reasoning for each front of the war. The only thing special about the Twilight Realm, then, is its relationship to Zoey (and potentially the anti-endmagic field). She could be seeking more power to return herself to her human form, or she could be trying to find another realm to rule over now that her own is desolate and barren. Perhaps her mind has been so corrupted that she does not see the horror in the transformation of her people and seeks to spread her warped version of immortality to others. There are a lot less restraints on her possible motivations in a broader conflict, but each possibility has something compelling about it.

If the war is mostly against the Twilight realm, however, then much more information about the Ender Dragon’s mental state/plans can be extrapolated. This applies regardless of if Rythian believes the war was defensive or not. With the existence of (and seeming exclusion of) the Nether, and assuming the Brightlands is being used as a stepping stone for an invasion to bypass the anti-endmagic field, then there must be something specific about the Twilight realm for her to focus on it. Although we don’t know much about the Twilight realm, from log 24 we know that “The throne has a lot of power”. Assuming that this isn’t a plot twist where the physical throne holds the power, then the ruler of the Twilight realm (Zoey) holds an immense amount of the realm’s power and does not suffer the same kind of physical transformation that the Ender Dragon endured.

With many of the Princess’ later actions stemming from a place of ego, it is not a stretch to say that she likely interpreted the physical changes to her (and to a lesser extent her citizens) as a slight against herself, especially upon finding out that it doesn’t happen to the ruler of the Twilight realm. She could then be seeking that power as a way to return herself to her previous physical form so that she can live immortality as she had imagined it. 

All said and done, her motivations could be varied and I am very interested to get more information about the End/Twilight realm and the chance of better understanding the war that led to Rythian and Zoey being the characters that they are (as well as seeing what themes resonate with Briony and Kirsty’s backstories)!

[planetaryaether]

When The Other Shoe Drops: KRB Dawnlight Theorizing

With Dawnlight being a continuation of the Blackrock Chronicles both in terms of plot and the themes it explores, I have been thinking about character flaws. The Blackrock Chronicles in many ways is a story about a disastrous feedback loop of poor coping mechanisms and trauma responses, and Dawnlight gives a version of Rythian that is free from the knowledge of his trauma - but who is still, nonetheless, impacted by it both internally and externally. With the characters reacting really well to the horrible threat of TEEF in log 24, it counterintuitively creates this tension that eventually they will not react so well - eventually the other shoe will drop. Although I have absolutely no idea what the specifics of the events that might cause that breakdown, we have enough information where I can start to think about what *kinds* of situations might be its catalyst.

So far in Dawnlight, Rythian has not been put in any situations where the combination of his coping mechanisms and support system have been overwhelmed, so we don’t have much information about how this version of the character would react differently to Blackrock!Rythian. From how he has reacted to the memory flashes in his dreams and with log 24, he still retains the impulse to obsess over a problem until he has a solution to the point of forgoing his own wellbeing (in the former case). Unlike his predecessor, he has always had others around him to help pull him out of the spiral and encourage him to take care of himself. Because this tendency to spiral still exists, it is reasonable to assume that he would react similarly to Blackrock!Rythian if the support system was removed.

Blackrock is full of negative feedback loops of interacting coping mechanisms. So far, the Dawnlight crew seems to be relatively well balanced. Now that Kirsty is more trusting of Rythian, she is rather level headed and strategic when faced with a problem, and Briony excels in keeping the tension in the group down so that no one is overwhelmed - and that no one retreats to unhealthy and conflict-inducing coping mechanisms. Out of the three, Rythian is the largest source of instability, likely a combination of the deep lack of control amnesia leaves him with and the feeling/knowledge that whatever is happening is (in part) directly his fault. 

All of this leaves two major types of situations that would lead to the emotional dam overtopping: 1) the gang gets split up and each person no longer has the others to rely on, with Rythian is left to spiral, Kirsty is not given the time to process and assess threats, and Briony is not able to avoid direct conflict or 2) the plot moves in a direction that hits Kirsty or Brony’s weak points *hard*. This could be Kirsty needing to face what happened in Peony either directly or through feeling that it (whatever ‘it’ is) is happening again. Rythian’s tendency to spiral combined with an overtaxed Kirsty adding fuel to the fire either by regressing in their trust of Rythian/others or even two members of the group being so stressed that they refuse Briony’s attempts to lower the emotional temperature.

The case where Briony is the other domino to fall is a little more difficult to try and predict, but we do know that she has been lying about her pilgrimage. There could be more that she is lying about/hiding from the group and that being revealed at an inopportune time could easily lead to her breaking down, especially if her attempts to cool the situation are interpreted by the others as attempts at deflection. Alternatively, as the scale of things continues to get bigger and bigger and the threat of TEEF becomes harder and harder to ignore, Briony (as someone from a seemingly idyllic small community) could easily be overwhelmed by the scale of the threat/destruction. 

It is, of course, possible (although perhaps less likely) that Rythian is the one attempting to be level-headed while the others are overwhelmed and that would likely be due to a similar situation. Kirsty and Briony get overwhelmed by everything that is happening and perhaps Rythian has gained more control of the large stores of magic within him, giving him confidence in the moment that the others lack. They could want to abandon the quest because, at the end of the day, it is way beyond what they signed up for.

As always, this is not an attempt to try and predict what direction the story is going to be written in. It is just looking at possible versions of the story through the lens of the gang's responses to stress. Also as always lmk what y'all think or if there is anything you want to hear my thoughts on! This was initially a smaller part of a larger post but it got long enough to be its own thing, so here it is lol

[planetaryaether]

WIP Rythian :3cź

Commissions open! Sale for all of July 2025!

[planetaryaether]

Dawnlght Ch 6 Line-by-Line Breakdown

I finally got the motivation to finish by first (posted) line by line breakdown for dawnlight!

I put the lines referenced for each part in bold so you can easily go through and find whatever parts you are most interested in since it is a Lot TM, but this was a lot of fun to put together so please lmk if this is something anyone is interested in me doing for past/future chapters!

[planetaryaether]

Does anyone have a link/version of the stream Zoey did a few months back where she made a witch-y mc skin and at some point talked about the Blackrock skins? I would like to go through it and add any info to the Blackrock lore master post, but I can't find it so any help is appreciated!

[planetaryaether]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65898256

Chapter 1 of my new rythian/zoey hurt/comfort sick fic is up! Its 5.5k words and i’m very proud of it, i hope u enjoy blackrock nation <3

[planetaryaether]

Just a baby one today, we were too eeby from Camp Yog zzzzz

[planetaryaether]

KRB Dawnlight Ch 6 Breakdown/Initial Thoughts

This was a big episode for lore so I am breaking it into what this episode tells us about the characters, the world, and the series itself. I really enjoyed this episode overall and I really want to know what everyone else thought about it! As always lmk if there is anything specific y'all want to hear my thoughts on/want me to look into!

Characters:

Briony:

We learn the least about Briony this episode, but her frequent usage of humor and comfort (snacks, blankets, etc) as a way to try and regain a sense of calm and control over the situation says a lot about her as a character. Combined with her usage of defensive magic in the fight against the Darkstalkers, she is a peacemaker who seeks to avoid tension and conflict. This is interesting in the group dynamic with both Kirsty and Rythian being more high strung, and it thematically fits well as a bunny person.

This more passive response to conflict and her misleading the others about the true context of her quest sparks a lot of questions about her past and what caused her to go against the solitary culture she grew up in, even if that meant friction/conflict with the elders. I am really interested in seeing where her character goes and how she continues to navigate (what are likely to be) increasingly stressful situations where cookies and tea stop being helpful, pushing her to other coping mechanisms.

Kirsty:

There are a lot of little telling character moments for her this episode. Her initial standoffishness after the recording finishes quickly melts away, calling for cooler heads to prevail - suggesting they go over the tape at home. Combined with apologizing for her initial tone, she is much more in tune with her emotions than characters that fall into similar tropes with her. This gives the vibe that she has experience with very stressful situations and/or conflict resolution in a trained capacity (more so than the average person at least). 

Furthermore, she suggests that Rythian might have been fleeing from the curse, which (in my opinion) she doesn’t have any evidence for with the content of the log. This makes me think that she is projecting, and that either she would run away in a situation like this, or that she did in the past. She also suggests that someone sent Rythian, before adding on that he could have sent himself, and (again) besides Zoey, who she could have named, there isn’t anyone else referenced in the log to give evidence to this idea. Again, this suggests that she would either need to be sent or that she sees things of this magnitude through the lens of power structures (and that someone important, like the throne must be behind the mission at hand). 

All of this feels like it fits with the guard idea, but I came up with that idea really early on, so I am not confident that it is correct, but I am not sure what else it would be. I need to take a step back and try and ignore that idea to get more perspective, but for now it seems to fit.

Rythian:

Obviously with much of this episode being the audiolog, we learned the most about Rythian (or the Rythians depending on how you want to think about it). I could write an entire post going through the log line-by-line (lmk if anyone would be interested in that), but I am going to focus on the few things that stuck out the most to me. 

This version of Rythian is much more in touch with his emotions than we saw him last. With location of “he propaganda I’d been told, lies to make me a dutiful soldier. It took so long to change all that…” in the audiolog, this is heavily implied to be after the death of the Ender Dragon, but before they learned about “Endfall”. This fits so well for his character because only after the Princess is dead, only after there is nothing else he can do to ‘easily’ deal with his emotions, does he turn inward. After there is no more violent ideation left to be had, he is forced to face the fact that violence was never going to free him from his trauma. That killing the attacker, does not heal the wounds (a sentiment echoed in the failure of curing the endfall at the source). 

Rythian starts out somewhat optimistic, talking about slowing the spread as the only option “for now”, implying that he remains hopeful for a different plan in the future, but as the log goes on, he loses confidence and begins to catastrophize, as he so often does, ending with the unstoppable nature of entropy and death. 

Zoey:

I am very curious what the “figurative and literal” power she has entails, because it is clear that the increased power will be from the throne/her position in the cosmic order as the Twilight princess, so is it political power that is figurative? Is it an increase in confidence/knowing who she is? Like the general meaning of the statement is clear, but that figurative power throws me a little bit because everything is so closely connected, that if it is just related to the power boost attached with her role, the phrase would not be needed. I am curious if there is something else that this is referencing, or if it is just looking to communicate that she has more than one type of “power” at her disposal.

The World:

Endfall, or “TEEF”, as an entropy field is a really interesting concept that partially mirrors the damage done by nukes (this is a problem caused by magic explained by scientific terms compared to a problem caused by science that mostly impacted magic). Considering that there was an attempt to stop it at the source, that says that it is emanating from somewhere (the ender dragon’s corpse, the end egg, potentially the location of the ritual that turned her into the dragon) and that it was possible to try and attempt to cure it without instantly dying. This communicates that it acts as a corruption of the realm (which would lead to there being no food and thus everyone dying) rather than creating a zone where you instantly die when you enter. If it acts like the latter, then there is at least some way to shield oneself from these effects, for a time. 

We also don’t know where the borders of this field are. Seemingly it is a threat to every realm, so it can travel between them, but if it is in the end, between realms, or started in the end but has started spreading beyond it is not clear at the moment. We also don’t know what the corrupted areas look like. With sand and the flux existing as other contagious corruptions, it will be interesting seeing how TEEF compares to them. 

Also, calling TEEF the “death curse” stuck out to me because the obvious interpretation is ‘a curse that kills’ but it could just as easily be ‘a curse from death’. This could be that it was a deadman’s switch of sorts, a deterrent against those who would try and kill her, or it could be that it was a consequence of her dying because of how her actions corrupted the magic of her realm. Curse also implies a level of intentionality, so if this was the case, then perhaps there were other ways things could have gone upon her death, but she chose TEEF over the other options for whatever reason. What we know about her as a character is very limited but her actions on this matter would say a lot about who she had become. 

The Series:

The story is setting up the gang to go to the Twilight realm next episode, and considering that the plan being executed is Zoey’s idea*, the episode calling attention to the fact that “Log 24” means there are other logs out there is interesting. You would expect Zoey to have the most important information contained within those logs, so finding them wouldn’t be a big priority after finding her, since they are mostly referenced as a guide for post-fall Rythian to follow the plan. 

This could imply that either they are stopped from finding Zoey in the Twilight Realm, or that she is not there. We don’t know what her part of the plan entails in the long run and with the heavy death/lich theming of her design, it is entirely possible that she is elsewhere. Alternately with the “don’t let them know who you are or what happens” in his tattoos, that could refer to the people of the twilight forest and not letting them know he is the Enderborn. If this is the case, there are multiple ways they could be stopped from seeing Zoey, and would therefore need to return to the journals for more information before being able to meet her.

This is interesting because the series had set itself up for a while of page hunting/trying to understand what they mean before pursuing Zoey/anyone with more information about the situation, so actively deviating from this is an interesting narrative choice and I can’t wait to see where it is going/what is in store!

*unless the “up the styx again” is referring to Zoey’s plan failing and the plan in Rythian’s tattoos is a separate one

[planetaryaether]

Dawnlight Ch 6: Log 24 Transcript

I will post my breakdown and initial thoughts about the chapter soon, but here is the transcript of Log 24!

"Day 24 post-Endfall. I think it’s official. We can’t stop it.  Everyone and everything is going to die. There’s nothing we can do to fully stop the  death curse - or The Expanding Entropic Field,   because of course Zoey would call  the doom of everything ‘TEEF’ -  so right now our only option is to try to limit it.

I’ve done what I can in terms of sheer  containment. I didn’t think I’d ever return to those specific fields of magicka and  arcanum, but needs must, and all that. The really terrifying thing is that the amount of power  required just to hold it back at all is starting   to drain all of my gathered reserves. So even  this temporary limitation is - well, temporary. 

I can’t help but think that we made a mistake.  We should have just let her live. At the time,   it seemed the only option, the  only way to really be free,   to really save everyone and everything - but now  it feels like all we did was accelerate the end. Heh. “The End.” What a fitting name. One of  these days I need to put down to paper - or well, audiolog - all the things I know  now of that place. What it was,   what it became, and ultimately  what it means for everything. 

For so long all I had was old, old legends, and  my own memories. The propaganda I’d been told, lies to make me a dutiful soldier.  It took so long to change all that,   and then the research began. So slow, so limited. But this isn’t the time and place  for reminiscing. 

This is meant to be   knowledge for the future - what happened  and what we tried. So let’s get into it. We’ve tried to stop the death curse at its  source, to no effect. I’m currently working   on the theory that containing it or limiting it  at its borders is the best option right now. The   current barrier isn’t holding, despite everything  I’ve done. So we’re looking for options. We’re going into the Realm of Twilight soon. 

I’ll  be reduced in strength, but Zoey will be stronger,   so we should be able to manage. The  plan here, and it’s mostly Zoey’s plan,   so credit where credit’s due, is to look into  the protective aura that should be preventing   Endermen and End magic from functioning in  the Twilight Realm. It was weakening before,   but the core principles should still  be sound. 

And with Zoey’s newfound   power - figurative and literal - we might  have options. The throne has a lot of power. For containment at least. For slowing  it down. Because no matter what,   there’s just no way to stop the very concept of   entropy. It’s death - it’s always part  of life. And it cannot ever be stopped. But I’m damn well going to  try with everything I have. This is Rythian, signing off"

[planetaryaether]

that's why you're the wizard of loneliness

[planetaryaether]

Krb Dawnlight Theory: Split Power of the End

This is another theory that leans heavily on Zoey's design. Since we are still early on in the story of Dawnlight, I am working with what we have so far which means there are so many interesting possibilities that have not yet been made unlikely/impossible by the story. One thing that I keep finding myself returning to is how (if you take the design changes for Zoey to be indicative of her arc/place in the plot which feels reasonable) then Rythian and Zoey have largely swapped roles. Rythian now as the one with no memories of his cosmically important role and Zoey as the one with knowledge of her place and of the dangers that they face.

As a character, Zoey has very strong feelings about the way things should be/behave and this extends to her outfits. she always styles herself to mirror what she thinks someone in her role should look like/how they should dress. She added embellishments to her shirt and added shades when she was an interior designer/fashion icon, she gave herself a tattoo because she thought ‘that’s what rebels do’, and she gave herself a cyberpunk inspired look because after getting her prosthetic she began to see herself as a cyborg. It is with that understanding that we turn to her Dawnlight design.

Although some changes could have been made to what happened after the end of Blackrock, we can reasonably assume that Zoey still learned of her role as the the princess of the Twilight forest, a place described by Briony as a "place of verdant growth". Nothing in that conversation would align with the underworld/necromancy/Lich aesthetics that Zoey's new design leans into, so (if not her role as twilight princess) then what are these elements alluding to?

There has been much discussion about how Dawnlight!Rythian is sun coded with his crash landing tearing a seam of "golden light" into the night sky, and with eyes and hair of a similar hue. The hair is more expected with heavy use of end magic causing his ever-so-iconic blonde streak in Blackrock, but his eyes now turning golden instead of the rich purple they had under previous use signals an important difference in the magic at play here. Additionally, with the difference between seasons 2 and 3 of Blackrock being less than a month (in which Rythian's eyes had already begun to noticeably return towards their original blue), the lack of change in Dawnlight hints at the consistent presence of high levels of magic. The exact timeline of Dawnlight is not explicitly clear, but based on vibes and the amount of change between episodes 3-5, enough time has likely passed for this analysis to track (as always ignoring real world reasons for not changing the skin).

This association with golden light, and by proxy the sun & growth (the realm of Dawn) and Zoey seems to be the moon to his sun, representing darkness, death and the end of things (the End). Both representing the opposites of the realms they were raised in and aligned with in Blackrock.

This could be interpreted in many ways such as Zoey having forsakes her role as the twilight princess and her look is a reflection of that rejection of her position and what it stands for.

The thematic connection between Rythian and Zoey in their designs could, instead of being parallel journeys, be two halves of a whole. We know from the princess’ backstory that channeling the magic of the end through a single person is what led to her transformation into the ender dragon, so perhaps Rythian and Zoey split the power between them - half that is closer to the death and darkness of the end and half closer to the brightness and life of the realm of dawn.

It, then, begs the question if they choose who got what half or if it was beyond their control. As much as Rythian is often framed as violent and Zoey as a pacifist, Rythian actively avoids violence while pretending to pursue it, and Zoey often seeks it out while pretending to hate it - repeatedly asking Rythian why they can’t get revenge sooner as well as often making remarks that hint at a casual relationship she has with violence (which isn’t surprising considering she was raised in a nation under siege).

If the split was intentional, perhaps it was Rythian fearing the influence of the End’s magic on him, or Zoey’s connections to the anti-End magic field of the Twilight Realm (and potentially the ability to seal it in someone/something as well as out). This would mark a rejection of some magic by Rythian and an embracing of it by Zoey which has a lot if interesting implications for their dynamic/characters moving forward as each of them gets a more complex relationship with magic. It would also make sense that Zoey would structure her identity/design around holding that power because it is something that she, uniquely, can do while also being something she actively chooses herself.

On the other hand, if the magic itself chose, in a manner of speaking, then perhaps it aligned itself with the character that better embodies it, Zoey’s lack of value towards life without a name and Rythian’s true desire being a simple and peaceful life would make them good vessels for each half of the magic.

Rythian getting more in touch with the realm of Dawn is also deeply symbolic for his journey as someone who was damaged so much by the End. As he learns to heal from his traumas (by getting to live a life not defined by them), he carries the embodiment of the healed/pure version of that realm within him. As magic is often given some sort of pseudo-will or personification, perhaps the Twilight realm felt a sort of kinship in Rythian.

Zoey, on the other hand, fits the impulsive and (often unintentionally) destructive nature of the End while not having dangerous ambitions like the Dawn Princess did. Without the great destructive force of the end focused on any specific goal, it is rendered largely harmless to the broader world and the place of death/endings is placed back into equilibrium in the natural cycle.

Either way, each of the containing part of a whole power sets the stage for their reunion (and whatever plan they had constructed to stop the Endfall) to be extremely consequential. This also explains why Rythian is alone. It isn't that Zoey is off somewhere doing random tasks to buy time for the plot to progress before she arrives (although there are many ways this could be done well/interestingly), but that she *cannot* be there. Regardless, Rythian and Zoey's designs being mirrors/opposites of each other and opposite of their roles in the Blackrock Chronicles is extremely interesting, and I cannot wait to see what Dawnlight has in store!

[planetaryaether]

[planetaryaether]

I will say, Nick/Noxxflame recently(ish) used the Jerry skin so. I don’t know if there’s relation to that and the current nuclear waste dimension but if it is, I could see your connection to yoglabs(or adjacent) working out

ooo, it'll definitely be really interesting to see what that is about! At the very least since Jerry was the one to suggest they go for oil power, it would be something like suggesting they switch to nuclear power.

That being said, I am always down for things to be yoglabs related/adjacent so I'll be interested whatever way it goes for sure!

[planetaryaether]

I know that Brry doesn’t get the advancements related to Adventure-related events/locations because of technical testing reasons

But it does add to the “mole” role suspicion I have for him

I love how pretty much the entire fandom is suspicious of his character. Technically he hasn't done too much to be suspicious but his presence being enough is a little funny (that alone was enough for me to be sus of him from the beginning too but still)

[planetaryaether]

JF2 Ep 86: Yoglabs and the Toxic Caves

The Alex's caves wiki describes the Toxic Caves as a product of the "excesses of scientific hubris in ages long past" which almost certainly implies Yoglabs. The question then, is what the purpose for sending clones to build a factory on top of a radiation dump site?

Regional Manager Jerry, said that these four were chosen because they were the most "expendable" which is interesting because they are clones of important individuals for Honeydew Inc (and beyond that all non mutant clones should be equally expendable).

This being said, a large area of green nuclear waste (especially tied to an organization with heavy involvement in cloning) is very Shadow of Israphel. If you are a fan of the time loop/circle theory, we are starting to approach the end stages of Yoglabs. Otherwise, JF2 is potentially an experiment to see the long term impact of radiation on clones (with the invitation to Jaffa HQ as a way to either find an excuse to give them medical scans or to give them a much higher dose of radiation). I don't see a world where Jaffa HQ genuinely thought those four would not explode the (de)stabilizer.

Although the impact of radiation on clones is reason enough for Yoglabs to do an experiment like this, that does not explain why Xephos' memory has been altered and (unlike usual) he does not believe he knows the true purpose for them being there nor does it explain Brry's inclusion in the group.

Perhaps it has to do with the impact of radiation on memory specifically? This would also explain why Lalna seems to have no knowledge of Flux Buddies 4 and why Brry (someone to ask questions/put the group in situations to test the state of their memory) is with the group. This itself begs the question, what is Yoglabs trying to remember? Because I do not see a version of this story where the ultimate reason for this is to see if radiation interacts with memory erasing for no reason.

I'm sure I will have more ideas on what the connection could be with Yoglabs after sitting with the episode for longer/after getting more information as the situation with Dave Jr continues, but I would love to hear what anyone else thinks!