#[wiki only has everything I already know which is literally just this and that she sells you eggs]

[blujayonthewing]

one of the small things I love about hollow knight that's frustrating but also deeply compelling is how many tiny, no context glimpses you get into what looks like it must be deeply intriguing personal history for various NPCS that the game absolutely does not expand on or connect to anything in any way

[the-fox-in-the-socks]

The Mai Akasaki Mystery Flower - Solved?

feat. a mini-dissection of Mai's name

Hi! I have seen a few people here guessing what the flower on Mai’s tattoo is (mostly camellias iirc)… and I think I have the answer!

I think it’s Ochna integerrima, which is also known as the yellow Mai flower. (Hoa mai vàng is it’s Vietnamese name). Yes, the answer may be that simple: the Mai flower is literally the Mai flower. It seems to match her tattoo and is a very similar shade to her eyes.

(Note: I found most of this information in February last year when I just searched ‘mai flower’ on google and saw the results and was like ‘huh?’ and went down a rabbit hole from there lol.)

The flower has great significance to the Vietnamese Lunar New year, or Tết, short for Tết Nguyên Đán. They are used to decorate homes and are in full bloom during Tết, which is around late January to early or mid-February and lasts for around 7-10 days, which also lines up with Mai’s birthday (February 1st).

(please correct me if I am wrong, I got this information from Google and I am not Vietnamese and have never celebrated this holiday myself!)

There is a legend associated with the flower as well, which I believe might help explain what happened to Mai Akasaki.

https://botanicgardens.uw.edu/about/blog/2022/01/31/lunar-new-years-and-the-legend-of-the-mai-flower/

The following is copy-pasted from the above website:

"The Mai flower is named after a heroine in Vietnamese lore. Mai, a young warrior set off with her father to slay a giant serpent which had been terrorising their village. Mai’s mother gave her a bright yellow áo dài (traditional Vietnamese dress) to wear when she returned, so her mother could see her coming. Sadly, Mai ended up sacrificing her life to save her father from the serpent. Impressed by her heroic feats, the Gods made her a saint and granted her the ability to return home to her parents during the Lunar New Year celebration. After her parents passed, Mai transformed into a tree in front of her family home which blossomed with yellow flowers every year. Over time, the villagers would collect branches from this tree and decorate their homes for Lunar New Year."

And here are two other websites I looked at when researching this story:

https://scootersaigontour.com/legend-of-yellow-apricot-blossom-and-peach-blossom-on-vietnamese-new-year/

https://heritagevietnamairlines.com/en/the-tale-of-the-yellow-mai-flowers/

This leads me to believe that Mai sacrificed herself trying to protect the cast from a large threat, perhaps the mastermind/MonoTV, or sacrificed herself during the HPA operation that @1moreff-creator mentions in their post Everything We Know About Mai Akasaki + So Many Theories – @1moreff-creator on Tumblr. (this post is basically the Mai bible, please check it out!)

Additionally, MonoTV’s Mai-related secret quote “It’s all your fault”, and the second anniversary code with the same message, and some of the other Mai secret quotes talking about her in past tense imply that she has already passed, and that the cast is the reason why, which could mean she sacrificed herself for them... so I don't think she is the mastermind!

Her surname can also potentially provide us with clues.

“aka” means red, the same colour as her hair

“sa” means bloom or blossom, a reference to her flower tattoo

“ki” means hope, and why that is important is pretty self-explanatory if you've seen anything Danganronpa related

and "saki" means blossom of hope

(These are all Japanese meanings. I just used google for these translations, I do not know Japanese).

This means that her sharing the same name as this flower is likely not just a coincidence, but a deliberate choice by DRDTdev.

Submitted Surnames with "red" in Meaning - Behind the Name

Tenma Saki | Project SEKAI Wiki | Fandom

(yes I just cited the project sekai wiki as a source in my drdt theory, I don't know how I got here either)

The only problems with this theory that her flower is a Mai flower (that I know of) is probably the Literature Girl Insane flowers and the flowers in the bonus episodes being different colours. For the LGI flowers they may just be different flowers altogether that are there to symbolise something else, or a different aspect of Mai... I'm not sure. And the bonus episode flowers could just be coloured differently for aesthetic purposes.

tl;dr The flower on Mai's tattoo may actually be called 'Mai', it suggests she sacrificed herself and probably isn't the mastermind and her surname reinforces the idea that her name choice is not a coincidence.

This is my first tumblr post so apologies in advance if anything about the formatting is weird! Also critisism is appreciated, I would love to hear your thoughts on this :D

[ninesolsyapper]

So... Goumang and her Apemen Boys? Her weirdass kids, pets, whatever bizzare exact relationship they've got.

I frequently see their situation being described as Goumang turning them into Jiangshi out of her own will to control them while keeping them around. This idea of her control freak tendencies showing in how twisted her affection towards her Apemen is. This seems widespread enough that both the real and the fake Nine Sols Wikis frame it as such on their Goumang pages.

Though as I see the information we're given in the game, this does not seem right to me. The story here is a bit different methinks.

Goumang did not just turn her Apemen into Jiangshi soldiers because of her control freak tendencies, she did because her Apemen Boys died. They died and Goumang used her research into Jiangshi soldiers as a try to ressurect them, or at least to maintain as much of what's left of them. What we see in the game are these reanimated corpses.

I don't think I can call this part even a theory, because IMO this is pretty much what the game tells us about the situation. It doesn't directly spell it out but it appears clear.

Case 1 - Goumang's direct response to Yi's question of "You've gone so far as to modify the Apemen?" is "What's wrong with putting everything to good use? The opportunity to serve me beyond death is a special privilege I bestow.". So already here, this response would be just straight up incoherent if "serve me beyond death" was not directly relevant to the Apemen present. Though here admittedly it could be argued she meanslt that by making them Jiangshi she made them "beyond death", as good as immortals by her side. This by itself is not ironclad case for my argument.

For that I need to reach for...

Case 2 - The Apemen Jiangshi were stored in literal coffins.

So once you get back to the spot where you first meet Team Rocke... I mean Goumang and her Apemen, the coffin on the opposite side of the hole left after the elevator has a database lore entry attached to it. It gives you some context on what Jiangshi are but the most important part is the inscription, said to be written personally by Goumang, on the coffin itself.

“A life cut short too soon. The Abused - dead at 19”

So what we know from this?

1. The Apemen were dead at 19

2. Their life was "cut short", which definitely doesn't mean they were just forced into the Jiangshi-fication tubes or whatever. This more conclusively proves for me that they died for some other reason before Goumang made them into Jiangshi.

3. The most crucial part, this is Goumang herself stating these deaths were a tragedy, that they shouldn't have died at 19. This is an orbituary, this is why I said these are literally coffins. Goumang made them into coffins herself. Her directly saying they were "too soon" seems to also dismiss the idea she was already anxious that due to going into her Dreamscape she could end up seeing them only a few times more before they die of old age.

In this context, the "This way, you'll always be by my side." in Goumang's dreamscape reads less as a simple statement of the reson for which she's doing this but as this sorrowful "this is the only way I can keep you" way. Frankly it also carries this more sorrow tone in her voice.

So the above is my go at analysing what we are shown in the game. I would like to follow up with a couple theories going off of that.

1. Her control freak "mindful method" ideology actually crystalized because of the events that killed the Apeman duo. The extent of Goumang's desire to control and manage everything appeared to me to be like an actually new development that Yi wasn't quite aware of. He has no idea what "mindful method" is and the conversation in Goumang's throne room doesn't seem to hint they had this sort of argument before.

As for Apemen themselves, they really could have only either died to an accident or by pissing off some Dusk Guardians or another Sol. In either of these cases Goumang could go onto thinking this was her fault for not controlling them well enough, either by letting them work in an unsafe area or by letting them be around dangerous people without her supervision. She of course already showed similar tendencies before but being affected by their deaths could have make her double down on the micromanaging aspect of it.

2. The two Apemen actually started a bit chipping away at Goumang's ruthless technocrat worldview, a bit like Shuanshuan did with Yi. Possibly she started questioning her actions just a little bit just as two Apemen got cut down very conveniently.

What I'm nudging at is that Eigong was the one who orchestrated their deaths because after Yi she got paranoid over her second student also potentially getting weird ideas. First "lying bad" and then "mass murder and slavery possibly maybe bad", a true slippery slope if you ask me! So she got rid of the source of these weird ideas and possibly actively pushed Goumang towards going in the opposite direction of doubling down on the desire to control.

Also possibly the Apemen themselves started questioning the morality of what was happening to the rest of their species and got themselves in trouble as a result. At that point mayhaps Eigong could have had them even openly executed to teach Goumang a lesson.

There is so so much opportunity and potential for some fucked up shit that could have happened here. I hope my drive for fic writing finally pops back in for this.

3. Goumang actually got a worrying tendency to try to keep around people and things she became attached to after death. Next to the Jiangshi she got her old transmutated scorpion research subject taxidermed and lying around somewhere.

[miasudare]

THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT!

This is one of my delusional cotl theories, I worked about a few days for it so don't wait too much. It's very long, just so you know

Today, our subject is the bishops. Though in cult of the lamb wiki's story segment states a few events, no evidence and connection is shown. And considering that wiki pages are written by people, it's not a %100 correct.

Death of bishops

Ever wondered why Narinder is the only bishop you can make a follower before Mystic Sellers appearance? Or why don't the bishops end up with Narinder when they die? Let me tell you.

When we kill a bishop, they don't end in the death realm but end up with Mystic. That's why we can only get them back after being introduced to the seller. They own them.

And Narinder? He already lives in the death realm and if you notice, you don't entirely defeat him until the option segment, his life bar still having a bit of hp. You only hurt with him until he can't fight. When you choose to kill him, he then gets sent to Mystic for us to claim him later on.

Mystic's thoughts

"I recall Leshy. Prior to yourself, he was the last to bargain with me. Adept as he was, he rose quickly to the challenges of Godhood, aided by his siblings. Many were drawn to his chaotic ways."

Mystic Seller seems to observe and know everything that had gone through Leshy's godhood even moments of help from his siblings. Tho, not the first godhood.

"I am not inclined to emotion, the way your kind are. Though if I were, Heket would certainly inspire amusement. She was perhaps the most vicious of them. Wicked beast."

No matter how badly the Mystic Seller spoke of Heket's actions, they seem to find sadistic inspiration in her actions. They do not have characteristics such as emotion, but observation expands their world. Which is weird, because that's probably a look you'd wait for Leshy.

"It did not matter to Kallamar that his ears were lost, for he was never inclined to listen. Foolish though he may have seemed, he wielded the power of his Crown without discrimination."

We all know Kallamar's cowardice. But Mystic does not see this as cowardice and even interprets this fear, which has become a self-protection mechanism, as a strategy. Cause Mystic has no emotions and can't understand fear.

"Shamura and I did not barter much. In truth, they need little from me. Truly, 'twas shame what became of them."

Mystic and Shamura seem to actually talk and have a conversation unlike the other siblings Mystic talks about. And Shamura is the only bishop that Mystic sees higher, thinking that Shamura didn't need them at all.

"A toy for you. Benefactor, comrade, malignant foe... redemption or punishment, 'tis yours to confer as you see fit." Gifts you Narinder as a Follower in his exclusive Follower Form. (Without the immortal trait)

This section is important because Mystic doesn't say anything about Narinder's past. While they normally talk about an event that happened in his siblings' own lives, Narinder doesn't seem to mean much to them. They neither belittle him nor exalt him. Narinder is very unimportant to them.

Now, I'd like to think that Mystic were there. Before the whole argument, it wasn't only the 5 bishops. Mystic saw it, Mystic heard it. Maybe even lived with them. Raised them, even. Mystic Seller, is the creator of them. Yeah. I said it. God of gods. How else can you explain him just replace the very gods you killed and put them back in their purged realms? Or idk, carry the ex god of death by their little tiny winy legs? Literally posses the body of the new god??? Tho, it seems like they are not the same realms anymore as if those places were... Altered.

Shamura. Wanna talk?

Shamura is both refered to as the god of war and god of might, which are quite the opposite of each other.

War, is something that grows from misunderstandings, greed and not thinking straight, which isn't very fit for god of might. And well, that made me think... I think... The bishops didn't/was supposed to have these roles before their fight with Narinder.

"I am not what I once was. Though no longer wise, I am no fool."

Shamura is aware that they are no longer the god of might, yet something another.

So this might mean, before the betrayal, the bishops had opposite godhoods. Or were supposed to have these godhoods.

Kallamar = God of health

Heket = Goddess of abundance

Leshy = God of peace

This makes sense when you consider the people that follow them. Why would someone follow a god who just means nothing but trouble? Even in our cult, we teach people about death and after life, reassure them or teach them. We make sense.

"I introduced him to ideas of change; for my domain is knowledge, and it is ever evolving. An organic state of being for myself, but for him… most unnatural. Death cannot flow backward." -Shamura

This. That green? Yeah that one. That's when Narinder's betrayal happened. Shamura, showed Narinder that there was a way to change things, which Narinder ended up doing so. And what did he do? Death cannot flow backward, he tried to give life. Narinder, the only member in the family that probably ended up with such negative thing as being the god of death, tried to make life.

"Bonds of familial duty, turned instead to chains. Most voracious of appetites, curbed and contained. Most infectious of ideas cut off and cauterised before given chance to rot and spread. Cruel, verily. Alas, what other recourse was given? How does one kill Death? ... Alas. One cannot." -Haro

Haro also seems to confirm this. The infectious ideas said there are, or rather is, Narinder's wish to change. Narinder's idea to change his own godhood. Tho, why would the bishops be so against it?

Notice how Haro has a "fallen" crown? Haro, probably back in the day, was the owner/god of Darkwood at some point. His unused animation also looks a lot like Leshy's transformation animation.

Haro, is possibly the first god that tried to change their godhood. In return, he got punished by loosing his crown and getting expelled from his godhood. This would explain why Leshy is the youngest, because he was a replacement.

"But as millennia wore on, he grew discontent with his role. He began to question. He was gluttonous in his ambition. And in my imprudence I loved him. For it, I lost my mind. For it, he lost his freedom. Can you fathom such betrayal, Lamb?"

Shamura knew what happened to Haro. After showing Narinder that there was a way to change things, they regretted it. Shamura genuinely loved their brother, no matter if it was by blood or by creator. The idea of Narinder might end up like Haro was what made Shamura loose their mind. Killing Narinder wasn't a punishment, it was a way to protect him and the remaining ones. The betrayal Shamura say is not Narinder's hostile acts but rather the way he thinks even tho Shamura had warned him.

Now, i know. I said that Mystic knew it and saw it and blah blah. But Mystic were there after Leshy lost his eye, Heket lost her throat and until Narinder's imprisonment. We can understand this from their dialog of witnessing Leshy and Heket's godhood and them saying "It's a shame what become of them" for Shamura is their disappointment of knowing someone like Shamura have ended up like this (Explained at timeline section)

Haro what do you have to say?

"Eons agone, these lands were rife with gods and their adherents. What befell this pantheon? Alas. 'Tis the nature of beasts to forget, and of Gods to be forgotten. Mayhap they left. Mayhap they slept. Mayhap they devoured and were devoured in turn. Those few who remained spread roots, spun webs, molded this world to meet them and theirs. 'Twere a land of many Gods once. Hundreds. Now..."

(the ones below are theories I can't really prove)

1-Haro, was probably the oldest, along with Shamura, god. He might be one of Mystic's first creation.

2-Haro seems to be talking about fox. Or kinda refers to him. The fox is known for taking Ratau, eating him. So this also makes the fox, or people like the fox known and been around.

3-Hundreds of gods, he says. Currently, we only have 10 (At the bottom) So, there was a class fight.

A little thing about Narinder and the twins. Heaven and hell, does in fact exist in the cotl universe. You can see it in the ascension and sacrifice rituals. Going above and going below. Fly to heaven and dragged to hell.

Which means dead souls are being sorted. Considering the fact that Narinder is restricted to move anywhere, that job ends up with the twins. Baal, obviously with his kind and respectful attitude, works in heaven. Aym, on the other hand, is very aggressive and intimidating so works in hell.

Timeline

A hundred gods, roamed on realms. For various reasons, they died of or how I like to refer, ended up in Mystic's hands.

Mystic created Shamura, Haro, Kallamar and Narinder. Understood them, talked with them.

Allocer and Astaroth were given to Shamura then to Kallamar, to encourage them into godhood and cult culture.

Heket was created, tho wasn't crowned.

Haro lost his godhood by disobeying, altering. This lead to the creation of Leshy.

After creation of Leshy, Mystic was not there to attend and see Leshy and Heket stepping into godhood.

Shamura took care of his siblings and helped them into godhood. Tho it's questionable on how good they managed that.

Agares and Bathin was given by Shamura to Heket and Leshy, to teach them about the same culture.

Shamura introduced Narinder to idea of change. Narinder refused his role as god of death and tried to be god of life.

Shamura knew what would happen to Narinder if the crown giver, Mystic Seller, learned about this. This caused an argument, most likely because Narinder believed that Haro was judged unfairly. So, there it came "see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil, think no evil"

The siblings lost their original godhoods. "If that's my destiny, you're coming down with me" kind of stuff.

Leshy and Heket stepped into godhood by the help of Shamura and Kallamar to be able to protect themselves. (Their rapid transition to godhood explains why they were defeated more easily than Kallamar and Shamura. They are inexperienced gods. If you notice, after the battle of Heket, Kallamar's battle is actually surprisingly difficult and fast.)

Witnesses hid in respective realms.

Mystic Seller came back. Narinder was not present yet what he left behind was. He saw the other bishops. Mystic Seller knew Heket and Leshy as the gods they were know. Not as what they were supposed to be. 

"Five points to a pentagram, five portents of doom, five siblings stood abreast, five gods and one tomb..." Shamura's summarizing of the whole story. Their family and how it doomed. How the remaining bishops and Mystic had to kill Narinder and trap him in after life, the gateway being his tomb.

Shamura learned about the prophecy after a few centuries or more. That lead to the geno¢ide of sheep.

The gateway/tomb of Narinder before defeating bishops. 5 chains, gray ones belonging to bishops and golden one belonging to Mystic Seller.

A basic classification of the types of deities that we have in cotl:

Mystic Seller: Creator, above gods

Mystic Seller's guards: Deities that exist out time and space and work along Mystic Seller, above gods

Narinder: God of death

Shamura: God of war (formerly god of might)

Kallamar: God of pestilence (formerly health)

Heket: Goddess of famine (formerly abundance)

Leshy: God of chaos (formerly peace)

Aym: Disciple of Narinder, demigod (guider of sinners)

Baal: Disciple of Narinder, demigod (guider of winners)

Haro: Ex god, currently a messenger

Chemach: Eldritch Goddess, One of the oldest remaining Goddess. [She (yes Chemach is a girl) has an Eldritch crown and the crown has eyes. Just like the bishops'. This makes her a god considering her ability to turn living into power, essence and remnant to be used for something else afterwards. (relics)]

Clauneck and Kudaii: Gifted with immortality possibly by their sister, or are gods.

Midas: Golden touch asshole king

The fox: Most likely a demon/god from underworld, considering his soul deals and Haro's dialog.

Ratoo: I can't class him but considering he is living without a whole ass organ and still stays alive, he isn't mortal

Nah, it's just what I think of course also, please check my witness theory and Possession too!

If you want to add to this theory, you can by doing a reblog. I'm preparing a crown theory too, so this is kind of a part one! If this gets popular, I might make a video for it, who knows ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[theroundbartable]

(sending hugs)

what are your thoughts about aithusa? personally i love her way to much, but she rarely comes up in fandom discourse

HEY :D Thoughts about AIthusa, huh? I have many of those. Thoughts, I mean. In my brain. They like to swim around and create a whole mess of things sometimes.

I think the reason why Aithusa doesn't come up in fandom discourse often is because there isn't very much to say. Aithusa was born, then color coded as a sign for the golden future of Camelot and was then abandoned by Merlin. Tortured by a crazy guy. Then raised by Morgana and used to create the sword that later killed Arthur. Whenever they come up in fandom discouse, it's mostly about Merlin doing his job as Dragon Lord right or wrong. But you wanted my thoughts, so I'm gonna allow my head to spin weird shit around the ungendered Dragon. (That is why I will use they/them pronouns for Aithusa.) When it comes to Aithusa's name, not the canon translation, I mean what it literally means, it's hard to find, since they used old English for the language of magic, and I think Greek for the language of the Dragon Lords (which doesn't necessarily have to apply to the Dragon names) and I haven't seen anyone make a post about it. All I get from Google translate is "Hey you" in Gaelic and that's a bit useless. Or well, this:

The automatic language recognition in Google would let me interpret Aithusa as a gift to the world. Or Arthur, depending on your shipping interests. Or, you know, if I could make up the Old English maybe pseudo-parts of the word (the writers were very lazy in BBC Merlin, they are literally quoting Beowulf when Merlin magics the blue ball in the poisoned chalice.). Something fitting I found in my old English dictionary is agan, meaning to possess, and to own, and thus (spelled with a thorn which my keyboard doesn't have) meaning as follows. So, in my absolutely amateurish and interpretational, and way too far reaching ways, I would say Aithusa could mean: A(gan) thus (a): To own the future.

(Again, you asked for my thoughts, this is not canon and probably pointless, I just needed to go down this route first.)

In the fandom wiki, we find THESE informations on Aithusa.

So, things we do know are very few

Aithusa is a baby

Aithusa was tortured and is therefore crippled

Aithusa cannot talk

Aithusa probably has Stockholm Syndrom because of Morgana

But you know, I think it's very interesting to know that Aithusa is the Light of the Sun, the literal sign for a Golden Future and that very sign can be hurt by a mere human. Not only does this mean that humans can kill Dragons (the Dragon lore doesn't make any sense, I swear to god) but it's also meant to be symbolism. Merlin, just like Arthur, is shown to be his own doom through Aithusa. They are hidden, tortured, kept from living their truth, abandoned by everyone who should be leading and protecting them.

With Aithusa being born it means that at that point, Merlin had already fulfilled his destiny. At this point in time, the golden age is already there and it should have been a sign for Merlin to speak up about his magic. He never did, that's why Aithusa remains mute. And just like magic itself, when harmed or in danger, Aithusa can easily be used for evil.

Apart from the symbolism and their part in Arthur's death, Aithusa doesn't contribute much to the story, I think. Yes, they console Morgana and they are like the continuation of the Dragon lineage, but that's ultimately pointless. Aithusa will be, inevitably, be the last Dragon. Which is honestly really cruel, but again, parallel to Merlin himself. That's where Aithusa's arc ends, unfortuntaley. Personally, knowing all that, I find Aithusa hard to use as the character they are in canon. With what little defines their character, you have to ultimately change everything about them to use them in fun fics and comics and stuff. That's why they end up as a little dog creature so often.

Don't get me wrong, I love Aithusa. But I love FANON Aithusa, just like I prefer fanon Sir Leon over canon Sir Leon. Because fanon Aithusa is like a domesticated chicken that Merlin keeps in his rooms or fights custody over with Morgana while Arthur is either oblivious, supportive, or being gaslit. But maybe I am overlooking a lot of things. So, if any of you like to disagree or add anything to my points, feel free to engage ^^

[xerith-42]

I decided to watch Void Paradox

I'm about five minutes into the first episode and I'm still not entirely sure if this is a good idea or not, but Laurance has already spoken like three lines of dialogue and I felt my heart wrench at just one of them, so clearly I'm in too deep now.

This post serves as my live tweeting/mental break down that I am currently having as we speak. It is very incomprehensible because it is literally just my thoughts as they happen, and given how much I have to say, I'll probably make proper posts out of a lot of these points once I finish the series.

This mess is just giving you a taste of the madness I truly posses.

I am only three minutes in before I have to pause and feel the urge to scream about how bad the dialogue in Aphmau series can be. Like this series is fairly okay, especially based on the standard set by her other shows but man... something is just not working here. The whole thing feels very clunky and while I can get the gist of what Jess is going for, the execution of said gist is leaving a lot to be desired.

[Laurance shows up]

nevermind Laurance is on screen and fully voice acted everything is better

Literally nobody talk to me I need to scream about Laurance Zvahl because he is EVERYTHING in this series. The way he very softly says Aph's name when he sees her, the immediate instinct to hug her because he's so relieved to see her, the fact that you can hear the smile in his voice the minute he registers that she's there and alive!! AUGH I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!

And I literally screamed when he revealed that he was transported to this AU right at the end of season 1. Oh my Irene, I screamed. I collapsed. I was truly defeated by a single line of dialogue. I don't know where this series is going to go but I am here for it. And the fact that he knows Garroth did it and hid it from her???

I can't overstate how genuinely healing it is to hear Laurance fully voice acted. I know Sebastian Todd is retired from voice acting, but when he retired, he took down all his posts, including what I considered to be a comfort video. That video of him reading iconic Laurance lines from before he was in mcd/lines he just didn't act? That video was my everything when I was trying to hold onto this version of the character I knew I loved who was different to what Jess made him. When that video got taken down it was a major cowabummer bc there's so little properly voice acted Laurance content that isn't mcd Season 3 or My Street stuff (and I can't stand My Street like 80% of the time)

Hearing his voice, hearing him get to be properly expressive, it's just doing things to me man. I missed this character a lot. I've mostly been enjoying him through fan content or my own work. It's nice to say I enjoy a piece of canon content involving him, at least so far.

Still not sure how I feel about literally anything else. The whole relationship between Aph and Tommy feels very... weird. She describes herself as "basically his mother" after she's left with him, and treats him like it in the opening scene. But then when he's mocking her for being attracted to Laurance (so relatable), it seems really weird for a [checks wiki] 14 year old kid to be calling out his mom for finding someone hot. Feels a lot more like sibling dialogue to me? Which I guess they could be seen as siblings, but the series explicitly stated that she views it like motherhood??? But I don't think Jess is even thinking that deeply about it, I just over analyze her work for fun at this point.

Okay what the actual fuck is going on with the inside of this house???

Why is the color scheme purple and yellow? And not in any kind of flattering way which is possible with opposite colors, it just has both of them. The wallpaper changes when you get into the living room except not entirely on the windows, and in an earlier scene it looked like it wasn't even put onto all of the walls. And the wood that she used as supports just does not compliment either of these colors as they are. Just make it all purple, you know you want to Jess.

Also is the texture on the table and the glass the same??? I don't know a damn thing about modding or making texture/data packs for minecraft but that just seems. odd.

Laurance: mentions the nether Me: [screams just a little]

Tommy: shows up and gives a random ass lore dump Aph: Kay thanks go back to your room

"I don't know what I can do to help."

"Just be there for me. I just need someone to ground me right now."

I literally want to shake Laurance around like a rag doll and give him a stupid kiss on his stupid fucking face UGH why can't I be normal about this block man and his stupid feelings?!?! The way his voice breaks as despair sets in?? The fact that he's no doubt pieced together that Garroth probably stole the amulet and plans to use it to hurt Aph and he can't do anything about it?? I'm literally losing it.

How did I not watch this series before.

Literally about to cry over him just calling Aph "M'lady" out of pure instinct. He didn't consciously do that. He just misses her that much.

oh no spooky evil alternate Laurance or whatever--

MAN I'm so happy I decided to watch this series. This was probably a mistake though :)

[rimeiii]

I hate beating up a dead horse (and in fear of incurring the wrath of the fandom once more) but the way WHB handles content warnings is just...

Where are the detailed content warnings? Not just for the angels, but for everything? Because honestly, I think the game would've garnered less backlash for having them - a "this game is made for mature audiences, viewer discretion is advised" screen before logging in would be the bare minimum honestly.

Say what you want about the angel cards including dub/non-con content and the cards themselves veering towards that sort of territory but at least give a fucking warning about it? I've always criticized the devs for not having 18+ rating all across the board when clearly mature games like Limbus Company get the 18+ rating. If WHB is NSFW because of the sex and kinky stuff, Limbus is NSFW because of the immense amount of gore and dark content.

"But they have content warnings-" ONLY FOR SEX. AND PAIRED WITH 16+.

It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that, for people who played this game without following any of the pre-release contents, with this combination THERE WON'T BE ANY DETAILED DUB/NON-CON.

This is in Indonesia's Google Play Store, and if it's different in other regions, then it also begs the question - why the FUCK is it not just rated 18+ across the board?!

Limbus Company, the closest comparison I can think of being with their devs (Project Moon) also being a Korean indie company that created a gacha with mature content that has a staff team the size of a high school class (in fact I wager Limbus has less staff working on the game because around half of their staff works almost exclusively at their merch café), only had warnings for extreme violence and strong language, but at least they had the decency to put more warnings in their earliest trailers and the game website - and it's always common courtesy in the fandom to warn potential players with one particular image I'll show down below, containing a list of the game's content warnings.

Oh, and they're rated 18+ across the board, including a Mature Content Description on Steam.

And sure, you can make the argument of "well you know what you're getting into upon looking at the card art", but therein lies the issue of not warning at the very start of the game - nobody knew for sure what triggers would be in the game upon startup.

Whatever way you slice it, dub/non-con is a genuine trigger for other people despite it also being a kink (I personally don't get it and it's a no-no for me even in fiction, but you do you). Adding clear content warnings would literally harm no one and helps people avoid things they know they don't want to consume. Yes, despite the in-game context clues providing hints, a clear indicator is still preferable.

Take, for example, the Lobelia summer skin controversy in Granblue Fantasy. People already know Lobelia as the twisted Evoker who not only murdered his own parents but recorded their dying screams of pain in his conch shells, doing the same thing to his countless victims afterwards. All of this is mentioned during the Fate Episodes to recruit him. You want to know the problem with his summer skin, Danger Beckons by the Shore, though?

There's a home screen voiceline where he offers one of his conch shells for the player to listen to, wherein you will hear the pained and tortured screams of one of his victims as she's attacked and later on eaten alive by a shark. Keep in mind, this sort of voiceline wasn't even in his base art, and while his Fate Episodes had tortured screams it wasn't even half as bad as this particular voiceline.

It's even given a content warning in the wiki.

For a rather significant amount of players who bought the skin, the inclusion of this voiceline despite the subtle warning in the skin blurb (which, fyi, is only accessible AFTER you bought the skin) hampers their enjoyment of the skin when they put it on their home screens then tap Lobelia - which many people who get character skins do. Mostly because there wasn't any clear indicator of the scream and a lot of people never appreciated the sudden jumpscare scream. The fact that Lobelia is a psychopath and doing this shit is in character for him should also be able to stand together with the fact that including a scream out of nowhere is pretty scummy and not a good time. Especially for non-JP speaking players, who essentially got jumpscared by a scream out of nowhere, as they never understood the fact that Lobelia was offering one of his conch shells.

Back to the rating issue, though. Why not rate WHB as 18+ if you're going to include content that could very much be considered controversial, like non-con? Like, say, Limbus Company (which I hate bringing up again bc fuck kjh)? Which not only has the warnings in the app store but plastered in the earliest trailers (still viewable on Steam and Project Moon's YouTube channel but not on the Google Play Store) and the official game website?

And sure. Some of these trigger warnings sound silly (reference to traffic accidents is more or less Charon driving Mephi like a maniac iirc based on the content we already have in the game). But I did genuinely appreciate the warning because let's talk about the first three Cantos after the prologue, hmm?

Canto 1 already includes cannibalism, war, torture, and body modifications, among other things! Canto 2 has references to alcohol and gambling, as well as mentions of homicide - despite being a lighter Canto overall! And in Canto 3, we experienced discriminatory violence, more body modifications, enforced ideologies and/or actions, and religious torture and violence among other things!

I can stomach gore easier compared to non-con and even I appreciate the warning, particularly with regards to Canto 3. Kromer's fascination with everything pure (i.e. no body modifications), all stemming from seeing...something...in the basement of Sinclair's old mansion, the cult behaviour that led to mass murder and torture by the faction she leads (up to and including brainwashing as detailed by Kleinhammer Heathcliff's Identity story) Kromer's obssession with Sinclair and him standing beside her as an ally...it's all genuinely so unnerving, and are story beats the game handles really well despite how disturbing it all really is when you stop and think about it.

"But you should've known considering the game's aesthetics-"

Maybe, especially considering one of Gregor's launch cards is literally this, and most if not all Uptie II arts are gory at the very least.

However, again, I have to underline the importance of content warnings - this time with an irl example.

I have a friend who was interested in Limbus Company. I've talked extensively about Gregor and how much I love him, and it started because I have a drawing I made of him in the back of my phone case and Liu Gregor's Uptie II art as my phone background at the time. They said they were interested, then I had to explain the sorts of contents she would encounter in my native language, Indonesian.

"Blood and gore, violence, a lot of mental health issues - Gregor has PTSD and his chapter depicted it pretty well, human experimentation, homicide, so Nagel und Hammer is basically the Inquisition and kills people to 'purify' them, oh yeah cannibalism is also a thing-"

"Stop, stop, I'm not playing if that's the content I'm going to see. I don't think I can handle it."

This same friend was also interested in playing If On a Winter's Night, Four Travelers - a free point-and-click adventure game that deals with themes like depression, homophobia, racism, and suicide. She was willing to try that game out because it wasn't as gory as Limbus Company. For context, the Mature Content Description for this game on Steam:

In both cases, I had to personally explain the content warnings in Indonesian since my friend isn't the most fluent in English and she has a far lower limit for dark content compared to me, but I did send that image of content warnings for Limbus Company and urged people to read the Mature Content Descriptions on Steam for anyone who wanted to try any of the two games and is fluent in English. Why?

Because it's basic human decency to try and keep people informed of any potential triggers and content they might not be comfortable seeing.

Either way, main takeaway from this issue:

Dub/non-con might be your kink, but it might not be for others - it might be uncomfortable or downright triggering as all hell for others, in fact. So, clear content warnings (in particular for any and all triggering content) harm nobody, especially as it helps people avoid story beats where their turn-offs and, more importantly, their triggers.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Great Hunt! Chapter 23: The Testing

Welcome back to my reread! The way to see spoilers for the whole series, yes that's right not just this book but everything all the way to the end, will come but once. Be steadfast. Or just click wildly, whatever you like. But if you like not being spoiled, don't click below and just keep doomscrolling through tumblr with no hope of escape.

This chapter has the Flame icon because it concerns one of the initiation rites of the White Tower.

Centered under the dome was a thing made of three rounded, silver arches, each just tall enough to walk under, sitting on a thick silver ring with their ends touching each other. Arches and ring were all of one piece.

So what the heck is this thing, one wonders. I've seen people suggest it's a holodeck with the safeties off, though that seems frivolous even by AoL standards since it seems to be connected to genuine mirror worlds. It may be some device meant for observing and experiencing such worlds that has become damaged in some way, causing memory loss. Maybe one of the forgotten Darkfriends of old built it as a bizarre punishment system.

All four Aes Sedai wore their shawls, as Sheriam did; blue-fringed for Sheriam, red for the swarthy woman by the table, green, white, and gray for the three around the arches.

We (a word which here means "the wiki") don't know who most of these ladies are, but apparently the "swarthy woman" is Silviana. Not too sure how we know this exactly (the Companion?) but hey! Hi Silviana! You're delightful.

“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and when it wills. Patience is a virtue that must be learned, but we must all be ready for the change of an instant.”

Nynaeve was patient really, by waiting at all, and she's more than ready for change. The Tower's usual deliberate refusal to communicate is silly under these circumstances. They could have given her something to do.

Nynaeve shook her head. It sounded either like too much to swear or too little, and she said so.

She's exactly right. The First Oath is too little and easily sidestepped, the others give up far too much utility and helped hinder the institution.

Light, child, I am trying to teach you what any other woman standing where you are would have learned over the course of years.

Honestly Sheriam is pretty good as an undercover Black, giving a huge infodump that's legit and not misleading. And I suppose it's pretty appropriate we transition from Moiraine acknowledging the Black to a big spiel by one.

Once you begin, you must continue to the end. Refuse to go on, and no matter your potential, you will be very kindly put out of the Tower with enough silver to support you for a year, and you will never be allowed back.

Oh look it's another policy that only guarantees the Tower doesn't get the numbers it needs.

Some women have entered, and never come out.

And don't forget that this is a price of the ter'angreal they chose to use. They aren't selecting for great women this way, just the stubborn ones who get lucky.

You may turn back now, right now, and I will put your name in the novice book, and you will have only one mark against you.

Literally the only sensible winnowing process they have! If after three chances a woman still doesn't think she's ready, then unless it's the Tower's teachings itself that failed her (and we don't see evidence that such happens often), it's a good sign that she's not ever going to be ready.

I must make Moiraine pay for what she has done to us. I must.

I'm still sad she never quite gets to act on this. It's such a great motivation.

Nynaeve’s cheeks colored at forgetting already what Sheriam had told her on the way down from her room. Hastily she removed her clothes, her shoes and stockings.

Note that she's not at all ashamed to be naked in front of strangers.

And note that this is the first of many "all ladies must be naked" sequences. Yes there's some historical accuracy here, but you'll note that the Black Tower never picks up such a tradition even under Taim's messed up supervision.

Taking a deep breath, she went on straight, through more passages that all looked exactly alike.

It is the nature of video games, even magic post-apocalyptic ones, that sooner or later someone will reinvent Colossal Cave Adventure.

Dimly, she remembered playing mazes on paper as a child; there had been a trick to finding your way out, but she could not bring it to mind.

There are many tricks to exhausting mazes, though not every trick works for every maze. The simplest and most well known is to pick a wall and follow it. In a maze where both entry and exit are upon the outer perimeter, this is guaranteed to work eventually. On the other hand, if you start in the middle like Nynaeve (or if you want to reach the center from the outside), this might not work. The walls may not all be connected, so you loop around to where you started without ever reaching your destination.

She started to take the left fork . . . and spun around at another glimpse of movement. There was nothing there, but this time she was sure. There had been someone behind her. Was someone.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how pathetic is it that dream Aginor manages to be a more compelling threat than he was in book 1 or books 6 through 9?

“You are a pretty one, girl. I will enjoy you.” Suddenly Nynaeve remembered she wore not a stitch.

While obviously the main threat here is the implication of rape, let's step past that and get into the metaphorical. Nudity isn't the normal state of affairs in the arch worlds, only this one. This is Nynaeve beyond the Two Rivers, in a place where the authority she covers herself with is entirely absent. Aginor isn't just the Forsaken, he's also to a degree everyone she's had to deal with since she's left home - even the Aes Sedai who gleefully relish recruiting such a powerhouse.

“You dare? You dare!” He quivered, and spittle leaked down his chin.

This is honestly a pretty good prep for how scary we should actually think the Forsaken are: not at all.

“You cannot! It cannot be!”

Another reason I think Aginor is as much a stand-in for the Aes Sedai as he is for his allies in this sequence is that protests that Nynaeve can't have done awesome stuff and pointless hostility define their reactions to her.

And she could feel Aginor doing . . . something, as well. Dimly she felt it, and far distant, as if it were something she could never truly know, but around her she saw the effects and knew them for what they were.

Early installment weirdness? Or perhaps one of the tells that this isn't real; the arch isn't really drawing on saidin (or perhaps draws to a lesser extent on both), so Nynaeve has a dim awareness of it now that she's connected.

She looked back at Aginor, just in time to see him crawl out of sight over the mounded stone and disappear. She hissed in frustration.

Finally, and rather disappointingly in contradiction to what I've been saying, the last reason to view Aginor as a stand-in for the Aes Sedai is that to succeed in what she has to do, Nynaeve needs to give up her feud with Moiraine and not worry about what she's up to out of sight.

“You are washed clean of what sin you may have done,” the Aes Sedai intoned, “and of those done against you. You are washed clean of what crime you may have committed, and of those committed against you. You come to us washed clean and pure, in heart and soul.”

See what I mean? No reason to include this if not to say that the Moiraine feud is being wiped clean.

“That isn’t supposed to be possible. You should not even remember being able to channel.”

"Not possible! You dare channel in our sacred space?"

It's really rather a blatant parallel now that I'm seeing it.

She kept her memories, and she channeled the One Power when she was threatened. And she came out with her abilities burned to nothing, unable to channel, unable even to sense the True Source. The second to go in was also warded, and she, too, was destroyed in the same way.

To me it sounds like it's the wards plus channeling that cause problems, not the channeling itself. That's one hell of a vicious anti-cheating mechanism though.

There was more than an air of neglect about it, whitewash faded, a shutter hanging loose, the rotted end of a rafter showing at a gap in the roof tiles.

A final final reason (for real this time?) to consider Aginor a stand-in for the Aes Sedai as much as himself is that otherwise the past/present system doesn't line up. The Forsaken are real, present threats and the Two Rivers isn't exactly, but if Aginor is as much about Nynaeve's fear of the Power (oh shit it's that too) and the Aes Sedai then it makes sense that that's a trial she's already put behind her just by being in the Tower. Abandoning her notions of herself as a Two Rivers woman though, that's a harder struggle. It's not Bran neglecting his inn, it's Nynaeve neglecting the whole of her home.

“If Malena knows you’re here, there will be trouble. I just know Cenn went scurrying off to find her. He’s the Mayor, now.”

Malena's name of course comes from the Latin "malus", meaning "bad" or "evil".

She beat Alsbet all around the Green with a stick, and none of us who saw had the nerve to try to stop it.

Nice try, silver arches! There's no possible Mirror World where the Two Rivers folk would watch the blacksmith's wife get beat up and not immediately tear the aggressor to shreds.

She said that was why they died; the Light abandoned them. She talks about sin all the time.

Sin doesn't really get brought up a whole bunch in this universe. Like obviously becoming a Darkfriend is sinning and the Whitecloaks claim all sorts of stuff is tantamount to being a Darkfriend, but it's not as if more mundane behavior gets this description usually. Yet in this chapter the Aes Sedai mention it without and Malena worries about it within. Is she yet another reflection of Nynaeve's fear of the Aes Sedai? Destroying families, marking men with the Dragon... It's not too far off from how Nynaeve sees Moiraine, is it?

If she can’t make you afraid of her, she makes you think you need her for the children.

Is this how Nynaeve internally views her discussion with Moiraine after Shadar Logoth? Moiraine couldn't make Nynaeve be afraid of her but she could make her worry about Egwene and the boys even though she was the reason Nynaeve worried about them at all.

The way back—No! These are my people!

Not anymore. :(

“We have to run. We have to hide. Nynaeve, come on. Cenn will have told her who you are. She hates anyone even to speak of you.”

Does Nynaeve think Moiraine doesn't much like Lan speaking of her, I wonder.

“You are washed clean of false pride. You are washed clean of false ambition. You come to us washed clean, in heart and soul.”

Nynaeve's not a Wisdom anymore. It wasn't her real path.

The third is the worst. “I’m afraid,” she whispered. What could be worse than what I just did?

Having to walk away from the happy ending already won for you.

The city had a thousand gardens, but she preferred this wild garden on the hilltop.

Because a garden growing by itself in what was so recently the Blight feels more wonderous than those maintained by human hands?

“Go back? Where? To Emond’s Field? If you wish it. I’ll send letters to Morgase, and command an escort.”

Morgase of course won't be queen at this point. I wonder what reason besides dramatic necessity causes the arches to get a few things wrong.

To her horror, she found herself remembering him as her husband, remembering laughter and tears, bitter arguments and sweet making up. They were dim memories, but she could feel them growing stronger, warmer.

Did some fools in the AoL think that the Dark One's reach was limited purely to their timeline? Did they build this device in the hopes of finding a place beyond his touch, that would let them forget the horrors of the Shadow and recall all the sweet memories in its place instead?

I could stay here. With Lan. Nothing has changed. Her thoughts turned. Nothing has changed. Egwene is alone in the White Tower. Rand will channel the Power and go mad. And what of Mat and Perrin? Can they take back any shred of their lives? And Moiraine, who tore all our lives apart, still walks free.

It says a great deal about Nynaeve's character that the thing that gets her out of this gilded cage is her love for the others.

And also, I do so love ironic echoes, even if they're only separated by a single sentence.

She tried to picture the arch in her mind, to shape it and form it to the last detail, curve of gleaming metal filled with a glow like snowy fire. It seemed to waver there, in front of her, first there between her and the trees, then not, then there.

Perhaps this is just an ordinary entertainment device. Perhaps you forget for the immersive experience and then the arch is meant to be a primer to remind you of what you're supposed to call back to you. It seems unlikely that only Nynaeve would have this capability, after all. Presumably others should have been able to call the archway back, if only they'd known how.

Child, almost every woman who does this says much the same thing. It is no small thing to be made to face your fears.

It's no wonder so many women go Black, with trauma being such a central part of their identities as sisters. And the arches were only found after the Trolloc Wars, when the corruption began in earnest...

A gift from Ishamael?

“There shouldn’t be any scarring. And how did you only get two, and both placed so precisely? If you tangled yourself in a blackthorn bush, you should be covered with scratches and thorns.”

If scarring yourself permanently is part of the exit conditions, I could definitely see this being something Ishamael specifically devised. Not from scratch of course, he's not an engineer, but a relic he deliberately tampered with, setting admin access at a high price. There is always a price.

The Amyrlin’s eyes seemed to hold a dark glow. Nynaeve’s shiver had nothing to do with being naked and wet.

Yeah, this really only cements the Aginor thing. Too late now to escape, Nynaeve! You've committed.

Next time: A whole bunch of characters from book 1 come back. Some of them plan on being important this book, and others are only flirting with importance for the next three or twelve.

[chaikachi]

Not gonna lie bruh, I'm lowkey scared rg romance will end with either Ruby or Oscar's life sacrifice for some sort of heartbreaking,grand rwby finale with an emotional plot twist, they're too cute to be true 😭😭

y'all are free to witch hunt me if i end up being wrong but I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE IN A HAPPY ENDING!!!!

We know that RWBY has that tolkien-esque setup where everything gets so bleak and the stakes just keep raising, and the protags are sitting there really wondering how the hell they're supposed to win this... only for the light of a new day to peek over the horizon and remind us it's a story of hope. That it's a happy story.

RG has lived an arc of constant ""separations"" (or threats thereof) for volumes now.

In v5, Oscar rushes to Ruby's side worried she won't wake up. While Weiss is LITERALLY dying on the other side of the room. lmao.

In v6, Oscar goes missing and it's Ruby and her worry that's in focus when we hear the news.

In v7, they're in their break-up/divorce arc where they're disagreeing over what to do about Ironwood and spending time apart. They reunite briefly during the fumble when they "regain trust in each other" (dvd commentary) only to be separated again immediately after.

They reunite again at the beginning of v8, ("I'm just glad you're alright." /blush) then end up on separate teams. They focus on their second reunion ONCE AGAIN and it is interrupted, only for Ruby to fall into an alternate dimension.

Yes they are incredibly cute but all those separations and all their individual tragedies apart lead me to believe in a happier end. Esp cause we kinda had the 'happy cute relationship that ends horribly' already with Penny. Twice. RIP 🙏

Ruby's allusion isn't the brother's Grimm version of Little Red. It's cited on the wiki as Perrault's. Which is a story where the girl is swallowed up by the wolf at the end. No happy ending.

And Oscar's is The Little Prince, where he is separated from his Rose for much much longer than he wanted to be, and the ending is left open as to whether he died or did get to return home to her.

RWBY loves subverting the stories it pulls from. If both of these characters that are so pivotal to the narrative are inspired by those with endings so bleak... then I choose to believe we'll get the reverse. Especially because so much of this story is about doing better than those who came before.

"I'll be who you were and I'll be even more"

Ruby isn't going to become the next Summer. Oscar isn't going to be just another one of Oz's lives.

They will make it home after falling from the sky and through the world, and no, they won't be the same as when they left all those years ago... But the wicked witch will be gone, and they will be together, and that will be enough. 😤💕

[sapphic-suchoripterus]

might be some controversial takes about Hazbin/Helluva under the cut but honestly I really don't know what the popular consensus is about any of it. I'm gonna try to keep these short but here's a list of thoughts I have so far.

-I'm interested in where Hazbin could go. The concept of rehabilitation for sinners and how the meaning of rehabilitation could change, as well as the unbalanced power of heaven vs. hell and who are the true sinners is very interesting.

-I don't find myself laughing at the humor of any of these shows. It feels like the kind of humor that's only supposed to shock you with the vulgarity. Which is only really funny to a teenager, not the intended adult audience.

-the music is hit or miss, mostly miss. The Hazbin pilot songs I particularly did not enjoy.

-the animation and design are nice, tho I'm not really sure who to credit with that, as I have been made aware that Vivziepop tends to take "inspiration" from artists in an informal manner.

-really do not like the sound design. The noises are obnoxious, the volumes are all over the place and there have been times where I cannot hear what characters are saying.

-voice acting is pretty good. I understand that fans got very upset when a lot of the actors for Hazbin had to be recast with union members and tbh I'm not bothered by that. Support unions.

-im worried about what they're gonna do with Vaggie. She's starting out as the partner to the main character but she's also been established as the "PC" character who annoys the fan favorites Angel Dust and Alastor.

-I'm not at all interested in Alastor, he looks like a satire of the Vivziepop style.

-Angel Dust is interesting, and I'm not too bothered by seeing an openly and overtly queer character, even if it's not sanitized. I am a little concerned about how quickly his character depth was revealed long before the first season is even finished. Could Viv really not wait to talk about Angel Dust that much? What will be left to explore in the show?

-also like, we are getting a LOT of content for Hazbin including a spinoff already on its second season, tons of merch and lots of droplets of information that end up on the wiki BEFORE the first season of the show is even out and it doesn't feel right, like the crew is celebrating the success of the show before its even out. Weird stuff. Not sure if it's gonna bite them in the ass yet.

-the Helluva pilot was not enjoyable at all and I didn't actually start watching the show until the second season

(here comes the big one)

-I actually don't mind too much what's being done with Stolas. It makes sense that a person with very few friends and trapped in an arranged marriage with a cruel partner would make the decisions that he has, regardless of whether or not they are the right ones.

-What I am concerned with is if the story with Stolas was planned from the beginning, or if it was decided later on to recontextualize his character when they crew decided they liked Stolas more than as just a cutaway gag in the pilot.

-Moxxie and Millie are... okay. On one hand it's nice to see throughout everything Moxxie has been through, as well as literally being in Hell, he still retains his kindness, empathy and love for his wife. Millie is... okay, but I get the feeling that she exists to keep Moxxie from becoming the series punching bag, like as compensation. Or a way to inject some "wholesomeness" into our main characters. I keep hearing that a Millie episode is on the way, but I don't know what really to expect.

-as a furry/scalie who isn't into canine anthros, I'm not into Loona.

-I'm interested in seeing more of what the other rings of Hell look like, tho I fear that the Gluttony ring is going to be filled with fatphobic jokes.

-The action scenes are usually pretty cool, tho with the Vivziepop style it can be a bit eye-strain-y for me.

-vivziepop stans are scary. seeing them jump to her defense whenever she faces a major criticism is frustrating and it only incites a bigger wave of criticism. see this post if you want my extended thoughts about it.

-this series is being produced, written and released in a way I don't think I've ever seen so I'm gonna try to keep an open mind about it, but that does not mean I'm gonna enjoy it blindly NOR am I gonna nitpick it. I'm gonna keep up with it and maybe share more of my thoughts, tagged accordingly and under 'read more' lines.

[tatiejosie]

9 12 23 and 24 for mandrake

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Oh yea i mean we're both autistic and cooped up in our rooms to work. I also like music and play a little bit! I'm a good cook but I have literally no appetite, while Mandrake doesn't seem to cook but have a solid internal schedule, so we'd be quite compatible.

I suspect that it might just replicate what he has with Bella already? Except I'm certainly not going to take any of his toddler tantrums. I'm deadass not parenting his bitch ass if he tries me, he either eats what's on his plate or he fucks right off.

i imagine that it would inevitably turn into me asking him if he can summon the fattest energy drink ever in exchange of me cooking something that he likes or something. autistic stuff that i already do w one of my partners

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

omg omg omg where to start!! i could write an entire wiki of obnoxious headcanons!! How about something silly and small, like family and upbringing?

I headcanon Mandrake to have what could be considered as relatives back in the realm of daemons. This realm is divided in main fractions depending on alignment, clan and arcana. Mandrake comes from a fairly common circle with no major entities that impact the human realm, basically the daemon version of commoners. He's referred to as "Mandrake" in the human realm, but he's not the only Mandrake - daemons know how to differenciate, and it kinda works like middle age Europe in the way that your denomination will mostly depend on context. In his case, if a relative wants to specifically refer to our Mandrake, they'd link him to the notion of humanity due to his choice of living in the human realm.

Our Mandrake was born as a Mandrake daemon because his alignment is linked to the Mandragora genus of plants. Mandragoras (and the whole nightshade family in general) have been present in the human cognition for centuries through traditional practices of magic and medicine. The tropane alkaloids contained in mandragoras have a delirient hallucinogenic effect to the human organism.

Mandrake doesn't have a biological parent, he was simply spawned out of the grounds of some circle of Hell. Due to him being a Mandragora, it was an agonising process for himself and everyone involved. Daemonic entities are known to endure a form of intense anamnesis at birth, during which they experience the entirety of the emotions that they will go through in their (supposedly infinite) lifetime. Then they proceed to take their first form as a daemonic entity, forgetting about everything, now entirely non-verbal and almost imperceptible to the eye due to their inexact physical nature. Some say that certain humans experience something similar.

There are entities back in the demonic realm that Mandrake would consider as relatives! Most of them are based on the Solanacae plant family. I've sketched a few of them, they're very out-of-touch with human customs and Mandrake wouldn't feel comfortable with inviting them over. I actually have a snippet thingie where they get to meet Bella but she's considered and treated like a sort of pet

23. Favorite picture of this character?

I cannot choose AAAAAA most of my fav pictures of Mandrake usually include other characters!!!

Here's a doodle from Gorô Miyazaki with Mandrake in a gakuran uniform, with a bit of a Banchō style to it??? I am obsessed with yankii and banchō fashion it is SO gender. Mandrake would 100% be a good obedient boy in his early teens due to his upbringing, then both Bella and Red would influence him into being a rowdy little shit. (but deep down he's still the most level-headed of the three)

Bonus point for this blurry cropped pic of the exhibition's artbook that show a sheet of Mandrake's hands. I love hands. Perhaps a little too much. His hands are pretty I love his hands

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Honestly, any Tall Bitch Twink that I've ever hyperfixated upon.

Judge Doom - tall, twink, round glasses, imposing, actually a clown

Hordak - tall, constant suffering, imposing, actually too autistic to know how to communicate

[cpcwiki]

I am suggesting for the wiki account to start from the very beginning, which imho related about the episodes. Like maybe give tutorial of the how to starts at the wiki.. Wiki is free to edit from and for all, but one need to register themself first so maybe it's confusing to the totally new account of the fandom. After that, maybe teach how to upload images (I already taught in reblog about how to properly naming image but the better things be repeated, the more info of it being on remember) like from screenshotting image/panel of the CPC (if in mobile, which at app - means to be aware from the logo webtoon watermark.. it's best to screenshotting from the PC)

Our absolute immediate danger is to putting (uploading) any necessary images that related to wiki before CPC going to becomes daily pass. Based on my calculations with @meritre24601 that taking account of anything possible like LambCat claims that she likes to end the CPC at episode 169 at IG = We're literally in red danger as it makes the FP ep 169 will on release at January 15 - well, just one month from now

The free pass of the final episode will be 2-3 weeks from that, but once the very final episode on free - then the possibility of daily pass is usually only few weeks PLUS sadly English platform not really warning about certain webtoon will becomes daily pass (unlike Indonesian that has monthly warnings about which series that will become DP) SO I won't try my luck to urging delegations of the wiki project BY not giving all my best effort - but also I know I can't do anything alone, I am just a human with limitations after all

Move on the most crucial pages in the wiki IMHO, Episodes. There's 2 types of Episode Template (I am not sure which we'll decide to have, personally I really want the more complete and longer one which we have 'gallery' section so from a particular episode we could analyse the image that related to it. I think that way easier and more understable to do, make someone focus on certain topic (in my experience, I'll pour my everything to improve overall Frederick depiction especially my initial reason is - I hate the comment section on his character page, and his page likes abandoned for years, so i am one of the most eager editor that helps to improve Frederick informations ~ later on basically 'everyone/thing'). The focus is totally depends on certain interest of editor, so as long that editor could writes objectively based on canon original source then why not? Any helps will be immensely helpful than no help at all espc from people that confused

I can try to write some guides for beginner editors! That seems like something I can get done pretty quickly that might still be helpful. I'll be free for the next two days, so I can try to get some of those done then. (Ofc some confirmation that people are actually interested in editing would be nice to have first, so I know I'm not wasting my time writing guides for people who'll never read them... I think I'll make an interest check for people who actually think they'll be able to edit soon)

Encouraging people to only focus on the area they're interested in seems like a good tactic!! As long as it falls within one of the areas the wiki is incomplete in, then I agree. Any sort of work would definitely be appreciated.

Also, what do you mean about there being 2 types of episode templates? If you're talking about the one that only has headings and no preset information (like on episode 50 for example), I wouldn't consider that a template. The only one I do consider a template is the one I made. Okay maybe I'm a little biased, but I would really like us to use the longer episode template with more information. So, if we need to choose between them, my vote is for my own template :)

Again, I am VERY VERY VERY sorry for my inactivity over the past few months!! I know keeping up an entire wiki for a still-ongoing series is difficult - I was the only editor on a couple wikis for a while, including this one at one point. It doesn't give me an excuse for having basically abandoned the wiki like that, though, especially at such an inconvenient time for us. Right now, running this blog is the most wiki-related work I can do without exhausting myself :(

This is also a good time to thank you for all your hard work again!! Btw Cookie and I maaay have been considering making you an admin... we can talk about that if you're interested!

[jupitermelichios]

i'm reading up on the history of thanos on the marvel wiki right now, and that means i am learning a lot of facts about adam warlock against my will, and i already thought he was a weird confusing dude, but every fact i learn about him makes it worse

so far:

adam warlock willingly gave thanos not one but two (2) infinity stones. after thanos had used the infinity gauntlet to kill half the universe

warlock got split into his good half and his evil half. but at various points the three of them have all existed simultaneously, which means there are 3 bodies that add up to 2 whole adam warlocks. but also warlock is his own good half, so he has 2 good halves. so possibly it only adds up to 1.5 adam warlocks? which is still too many warlocks.

also one of his good halves tried to commit genocide so i don't understand how it's a good half? he has 3 halves and 2 of them want to commit mass murder. I know a world where the inhumans are regularly considered heroes definitely has a fucked up concept of heroism, but how the fuck is warlock considered a hero?

warlock willingly gave mephisto a cosmic cube. I don't really understand why satan needs a magic space computer, but i don't think him having one is a good idea

warlock saved the universe from being destroyed by his own good side (the one who isn't him) by creating the matrix using 5 cosmic cubes he stole from own his evil side and trapping his good side inside the matrix so she (the genocidal good side is female, just go with it) destroyed that instead of actual reality

warlock has the ability to physically enter the soul stone and just hang out on there if he feels like it. not just his soul, his entire body just gets sucked in there like the magic school bus going inside a human body

warlock physically entered the soul gem, and then GAVE IT TO THANOS TO LOOK AFTER. thanos had killed him at least once at this point, and had also killed all the people warlock most cares about at least once. but you know. trustworthy guy. adam warlock stop giving thanos infinity stones challenge

for a while warlock, gamora, and pip the troll (if you're not familiar, he's a little troll dude who hangs out in space and is part of warlock's polycule, and yes gamora, sexy space assassin who gets to be in hundred million dollar movies, is in a polycule with a literal troll, which i guess explains how she's attracted to chris pratt) were ghosts wearing the corpses of recently deceased humans like overcoats, and we were supposed to just be fine with that

Literally everything I learn about this dude is insane, and for like 2 decades, everyone just accepted him as a normal part of marvel comics, that is just wild to me. even in a universe where jack kirby was canonically the physical manifestation of god on earth and silver surfer has the power to give anything he wants polkadots, somehow adam warlock is still the most insane character in the 616

[quincyhorst]

DRAGON FIVE: Lee Chung-Yoon (+ Lee Jin-Sung)

CHUNG-YOON <333333

...He matters a lot to me ok. I actually discovered him thanks to the Random Page button on the wiki (I needed to make some Sims back in 2020), so my attachtment to him is slightly longer than the overall bench. Though it is interesting that as I was actually writing a setting for him, a japanese fan made me realize something about this player that, well... Changed my whole view about him, for better or worse.

However, there's a little catch, and there's an extra character here, Fire Dragon's Coach Lee Jin-Sung. I already spoiled the reason why, but I'm going to develop on it further here.

Enjoy!

Both Chung-Yoon's parents work at the same hospital. His father is a nurse, and his mother a doctor. He mostly has to rely on his grandparents for care at the moment.

Like his profile says, he's very praised for his well care of the elders, including those of his own family. In fact, we could also say she's the actual caretaker of his grandparents instead. Some appreciate the detail and patience he has with old people, and his father often wonders if he could work as a nurse in the future. However... Let's say that's only one side of the coin.

...CY lives a double life, pretty much. While at home he's gentle and silent, at school he's a literal beast. Not only he's cold and asocial, but he's also extremely aggresive, often getting in trouble with the local bullies and delincuents of the class. All hidden from the adults and teachers of course; there are many, many street fights that Chung-Yoon participated AND won.

...It is actually unknown if CY does actually like this brute lifestyle or not. But it seems he at least tries very hard to cover it up from his parents -and specially his elders-.

...My reasoning to this whole HC comes from his actual hissatsu lineup, in which Breakthrough 2 is included. He's the only FD member to have it, you're welcome.

The only one who knows about his secret life however is Lee Jin-Sung, the FD coach. In my setting, he is the step-brother of Chung-Yoon's dad, as their parents married when they were young. So he's technically his uncle, even if they don't look that similar.

When CY was called to the selection, some controversy sparked upon making the connection; even making people accuse Jin-sung of nepotism. Since he doesn't seem to have any children able to play, why not use his brother's one instead?

This does cause Chung-Yoon to be seen down by other korean players and the media, often disregarding his actual soccer skills. And hell, even CY himself starts to have his own worries over why was he the one choosen for FD. But no matter what how many times the confronts the coach, he always gets the same answer from Jin-Sung: "There's a hidden potential in you, but you have to realize it".

Similarly to Ji-Nan, Chung-Yoon also uses football to express his anger away, unfortunately with a very aggresive playstyle involving way too many tackles to the opponent. And maybe few red cards. Maybe as the tournament progresses he'll eventually to find other ways to play without causing unnecessary harm.

At least, not everything with Chung-Yoon is always pain or harm. When practice is over he likes to spend his time window shopping, specially around those streets that sell unique things. Most of the time he'll do it alone, but in rare occassions he'll get to do it with one of his teammates.

Regarding them... Let's just say that CY isn't an unknown name at all, specially for the FD players that live in his same city; so -almost- everyone is aware of what Chung-Yoon can do if he gets angry. Because of that, nobody ever tries to take that risk.

I think the only time it went south with him was with Nagumo Haruya, I wouldn't be surprised if his atitude got onto CY's nerves. If it wasn't for both Aphrodi and Chang-Soo, chances were that Nagu wouldn't have survived until the Inazuma Japan match.

As for the bench, I think he gets so and so with them. Not bad, but its true that deep down Ji-Nan and the others are terrified of him, so they always have to watch their step whenever Chung-Yoon is nearby. Well, maybe not Hyeon-Dae. He treats him like he'd treat everyone, be it for ignorance or by innocence. At least CY takes it well, it seems...

One last player that treats him surprisingly nice too is Cho Myong-Ho. Yes, CY is intimidating, but look at those kicks! There's a formidable taekwondo rival hidden within! During the whole FFI he begged CY again and again to at least have a versus together, though it was never accepted from the bencher. Maybe it is for the best.

And with that, all the benchers who were clearly vissible on the anime have been covered :D

2 more to go!

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Community Teaching of Game Features

One of the wildest contradictions of game development comes from the question of how much to tutorialize and how to go about it.

For games with relatively simple controls like Megaman X, you can do the fancy invisible tutorial of its prologue level where it quietly teaches you individual concepts, only moving on - literally only allowing YOU to move on - when you've mastered them. Basic l/r movement? Starts you in a basic screen with nothing. Shooting? Enemy too big to jump over. Jumping? Bottomless pits. Wall-jumping? Pit that DOES have a bottom that you have to wall-jump back out of. Hollow Knight also does this beautifully. Both games have several videos, with Arin Hanson's Sequelitis vid probably being the most famous.

But back when I was playing Pokemon Emerald, I looked up how you get some of the pokemon I hadn't found yet and...there was no way to expect a person to discover the information about how they could be found in game. And when I shared this complaint with my friend with a PHD in Japanese media studies - a literal Pokemon Professor, as she bragged when she first got said degree - she said that the way I'd discovered where they were was probably the way I was supposed to. Gamefreak wants people to share wikis and talk on the playground about the Mew under the truck (it isn't) and make guides and videos about how to get all the Cursed Beasts in Scarlet/Violet and so on.

And I saw a video series from a while ago where Razbuten shared his wife's experience with learning the vocabulary of games later in life (than childhood; I'm pretty sure she's a good deal younger than I am). And something struck me during that explanation: He talked about how many of the lessons he'd probably learned from message boards, guides, or just having someone tell him "you can push b to run in Mario," but here he was trying to have her learn the same lessons in a vacuum. To his credit, one of his conclusions on the same video is, "Don't do that."

But it left me wondering: How much effort should a developer spend on teaching new players? Part of why tutorials trend toward kind of low-effort is because a game can reasonably expect that 80%+ of its audience already knows almost everything about its control scheme, if said scheme is following conventions of the genre - be that mouse-aim on a shooter, the function of HUD compasses with quest markers, or something as seemingly obvious as "press A to jump." Of the remaining 20%, 80% of them can be expected to pick up the controls of the individual game swiftly because they're relatively familiar with games in general. So in terms of True N00bs who need to be taught how to traverse a game, any game, in your tutorial? That's like 4% of your audience. Is it worth tutorializing heavily in a way that some of them won't even read and which might reduce the fun of the first level (that is, the level roughly all of your players are guaranteed to play)? It makes sense that so many tutorials end up feeling so low-effort. And on the other end, if you want one that's glorious and teaches everything while never getting in the way of great players, how much money and dev time has to go into making a masterful experience like the one that Arin Hanson gushes over in his Sequelitis video? Is that worth having one less level in your game? Two? What's the cutoff?

My suspicion is that some studios see the 4% and opt to go low-effort, and others do their best to elegantly include something that at least somewhat gives totally new players a handle on the situation.

The two bits of Secret Sauce I've taken away from this and would offer to fellow devs:

The Safe Zone. Hollow Knight has platforming areas with few or no enemies and with no penalty for falling. Super Mario 64 has the lawn in front of the palace where you can just mess around with the controls and explore.

Fun Controls. One of the things that has helped maintain Nintendo's place at or near the top of the industry for so long is that the movement style for its characters is just fun. Mario in Super Mario 64 is fun to run around the palace lawn in spite of there being no objectives there! This in turn gives incentive for players to experiment with the system and discover moves for themselves.

Blarg, this is neat but got far afield from the point.

The point was that even basic controls of your game can be community-taught, and that will usually be better than you can teach them because it can be responsive to the individual queries the player has. I've experienced the same when trying to figure out how to write a rulebook for a board game. You need one person in the community of people who plays your board game to be able to learn the game from your rulebook, if that. It's possible they'll learn from videos online anyway.

At that point, the value of having your rulebook be effective as a guidebook, a set of examples, and a place to find answers to frequently asked questions quickly gets bumped up over having it be a straightforward how-to tutorial. Doesn't necessarily change how much you write but rather changes the style of what you write, possibly even the format.

[edenslice]

New follower here, if u wanna, tell me about ur ocs i want to know everythin about siso and emery go wild i wanna know everything (if ur willing to tell)

EDIT JUL6 2023: these r largely outdated and/or changed !!!!

ANOOOOOON tysm for this mwah (⁠ノ⁠^⁠_⁠^⁠)⁠ノ

siso and emery are my one piece ocs !! they're mother and child basically, estranged up until wci where they reunite after 10 years of separation

siso is NOT a strawhat, just a major ally (enies lobby + marineford + punk hazard → wano)

this follows a timeline wherein yamato escapes onigashima pre-timeskip after siso washes up on onigashima one day, frees him from the exploding cuffs, and they basically explore the world together

gonna be very long so i'm putting it under the cut

emery: fishman, formerly part of whitebeard's crew before leaving (on good terms). she has complete mastery over the Voice Of All Things which pushed her to find people like her and form her own crew, the aegis pirates. they dominated the south blue, and after literally witnessing siso's birth and adopting the child, moved to paradise once roger died and the great pirate era began. personality wise, her motto is "if someone helps to you, go all out with gratitude. if someone hurts you, go all out with revenge".

siso: you know how much the sea plays a role in the narrative right? yeah. that's basically siso. he's the human embodiment of the sea. and i know how overpowered that sounds, but trust me, he's just some guy!!!! i am so serious

backstory......complicated.! wait for their wikis ^_^

trivia timeeeee (siso only, emery is still fairly new and i haven't had enough showers to think abt her character yet)

・。.・.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・

siso

is genderfluid, but only uses he/him pronouns

6'7 hunk of a bear.....he was already 5'7 at 15, had a growth spurt from 6'5 to his current height during the timeskip. he's built like a fat heavyweight guy (healthy fat, not obese or overweight). hairy all over except his face and thighs. his hands are as big as chopper's head

i KNOW that isn't very tall in the one piece universe, but keep in mind that the unaturally tall characters are usually infamous pirates/marines and he's spent (almost) all his life blending in with normal people

cringefail. can and will cry crocodile tears in front of children and scam good-natured people to get what he wants. will bring out his pathetic/lazy side so people would look down on him only to surprise them with all of his lovecraftian loser energy and laugh when everyone else thinks theyre going mad

quite literally incapable of lying—not out of guilt, but of laziness. why bother lying to someone when the depths of the ocean will swallow them whole someday and show them truths they cannot comprehend? either say the truth, keep quiet, or kill them. works like a charm!

has no sense of duty or moral obligation, much to his and everyone else's detriment. he will do and not do things based on how much fun he thinks he'll have, then complain and sulk and be generally unhelpful when wrong until he gets off the task.

odd-job man! used to be a pirate (aegis at 0-16 y/o, donquixote at 16-18 y/o) then decided to become nomadic and lay low at places where marines are prohibited (19-24 y/o) up until the year the strawhats debuted as pirates

siso's reasons for being Heroic and saving those he loves are not simply "i love you and i care about you" but more like "you're the most fun i've had in my life so who the fuck do those bitches think they are to take my happiness away from me"

has a casual manner of speaking and writing, but not so much as slang or informal. he just doesn't care all that much about honorifics and respect in formal spaces EXCEPT if he holds any personal reverence for the person he's talking to (i.e. robin)

deeply, earnestly, respects robin, even going so far as to bow, offer his seats, and say "po" and "opo" to her (filipino honorifics), even if she's just 4 years his senior. robin is like. the oden to his yamato except no kinnie stuff.....the burning of ohara and robin surviving it really moved him and made siso view her as his inspiration and light in a world so needlessly cruel

↑ also the reason why he even met the strawhats in the sea train to begin with, because he heard that robin was in danger and rushed to help

likewise—deeply, earnestly, hates zoro, but his hatred is not born from malice or ill will, but from feelings of helplessness too overwhelming to process. there stands the man who is his exact opposite, who bases his entire existence on his role as protector just to fulfill a promise to a friend long gone and to a crew too dear to lose. reckless, self-sacrificing people like him who are consumed by guilt and duty are fated to die in the most painful ways possible and siso doesn't want that, he wants zoro to live long and to fucking take care of himself, but he's helpless. he wants to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him—you'll never be the greatest because your standard of greatest is a desire too grand even for the sea to grant, i don't want to be the one that will bury you in the end, fucking listen to me—but it's no use, really. all siso can do is stand back and watch zoro slowly kill himself for the people he loves. and he hates him for that

WOAG sorry that was long . this was meant to be sillayyyy (head in hands)

has a complicated relationship with sanji. on one hand, sanji's dream in finding the all blue washed away a deep-rooted despair in him and reignited his hope in becoming whole again and finding that lost part of himself, so he has high hopes from the cook and admires him. on the other, he's just so fucking weird around him. amorous to the point of being condescending whenever siso identifies as a woman. throws his used cigarettes into the sea. fucking pathetic loser of a human man. smells like uncooked fish. has a crush on him that he tries so desperately hard to hide but fails because siso doesn't lie and he can sense when others do. again, smells like uncooked fish.

like seriously what is up w u sanji-kun........stop glaring at me ur sweating thru ur pants. i can see ur bulge. stop (siso, probably)

is in a qpr with yamato!!! i call it a qpr because although you can technically classify their relationship as romantic since they kiss/pda/make-out alot, but it's a little more queer and arospec than that. siso is very conflicted with human labels and yamato grew up loveless so they're experiencing All This for the first time

literally got each other's backs 24/7. they travel together 99% of the time by ocean current or by riding sea kings—siso is responsible in keeping yamato dry and away from the seawater, yamato is responsible for keeping siso's cringefail ass away from physical harm

they don't travel together all the time though, as in both times siso appear in enies lobby/sabaody yamato isn't with him, and yams only debuts in punk hazard after the aokiji vs doflamingo vs smoker encounter

one day sanji will be welcomed in the qpr and turn it into a polycule. idk how though. maybe when she's less emotionally constipated (takes a dramatic drag from my fake cigarette)

aaaaaand that's all for now ^_^ i don't want this 2 be too long . i'll make a separate post for sisos relationships with the other strawhats teehee