#DLC speculation

[lopposting]

guys.

I think I did it.

I think I cracked Lies of P.

(me rn)

i keep going back and forth on carlo's death.

i know i was adamant before, on him dying from the petrification disease. i think logically he would have to have had it because of ergo.

but here's another weird point about his death,

i just realized why we intrinsically think he was killed.

Carlo is wearing his school uniform when his stalker finds him, and on the floor at that. That's quite odd. Maybe not being on the floor, but the uniform. Why the uniform?

"He didn't even come to your graduation?"

For the son of an aristocratic family, would this be the image of a deathly ill son in care? Did Geppetto know? Wouldn't he be in palliative care, as Lady Antonia could afford?

Why wear the uniform after graduating?

"Oh, she's here! Grab her!"

"...Gemini, get rid of them! I'm off!"

Was his death literally right after his graduation, on the same day?

And also, Gemini is a little lamp guy. (She doesn't look to be carrying the lamp.) Why does she tell him to take care of the boys? What can he even do? Tell them off?

Here's another funny thing... We NEVER see Carlo outside of his school uniform. (at least, in the "past", "real" Carlo time line).

And as we know, the school uniform has a prominent Sailor collar, the type that is associated with nautical outfits [down to the three stripes, supposedly called a "naval collar"]. The Graduation pendant that he gives to Romeo is of an anchor. [I know that these are all artifacts of the charity house. but they are nonetheless associated in tangent with Carlo]

When we find Carlo's painting, it's right next to this one of a ship. [also, two bottles on the counter, perhaps representing the "two lives" of Carlo and Pino]

also... when Carlo's memories materialize... it's in the sand. Only on the seaside.

Remember, Romeo seems to be associated with a fire element, and Pino with water, the same seems to go with Carlo. The original novel of Pinocchio itself seems to have a strange fixation on the ocean.

And now, might I present to you:

The DLC images are also of a ship and some kind of water turbine.

Director Choi (in pre-release interview): "I'll put it this way: there are more stories I want to tell in Lies of P, so I hope [it] does well."

Also: "There sure are stories we could not introduce in the game" (talking about the story being adapted into another form)

[basically, that there was more to the story than what was really present in the final game.] I'll leave all this to your consideration without adding my own just yet. (I'll add it in a reblog on my own blog without tagging it) Just kidding I want to keep wasting everyone's time

Perhaps after the events of the game,

This is some sort of effort by Pino to either learn more about the deceased Carlo or try to remember his "previous life" as Carlo, by taking to the sea.

Maybe even after the game, Pino will STILL attempt to "awaken" as him so to speak [:(].

[Maybe he actually will.]

Again, Carlo is strongly associated with nautical elements. Again, he is never seen outside of a sailor suit, basically. Also, when we gain the memories of Carlo, they materialize on the sand, at the seaside. Remember, he DIED in the sailor outfit

Maybe we are to take the "sand memories" more "literally" as they are in the sand?

Did Carlo drown and his body wash ashore, which is why these memories materialize in the sand? Why is he so associated with ships?

Pino is also depicted in the water, remember, including what looks to be concept art that was used for the OST? Maybe it isn't "just" a motif? [even simple things like his "official" coat and his eyes being blue, blue blood's tailcoat, and him being associated with the colour blue in general]

Which is why Pino is pictured in the water, since he was "born" from Carlo's death... He was birthed in the water the same way Carlo died in it?

[more notes in reblog]

[velvet-apricots]

Im cooking on twitter right now.

[thingsmysplattershotjrtoldme]

I noticed something in Marina's art in Side Order

She's glitching. Pearl's picture notably isn't glitching and I don't think any other pictures that popped up were glitched.

We all know when a Sanitized Octarian is splatted, they don't have a soul float up like every other Octarian, they just glitch out of existence.

Does...

Does this mean Marina might be at least somewhat Sanitized? Obviously not completely, she's not green and her sclera are still white and not black, but...

I hope I'm wrong about this....

[ya-boi-rodgers]

lore theory ∆

not mine just wanted to reblog the lore

Sword of the Deepest Lore

Helphen’s Steeple recently caught my attention, this is the only item in the Elden Ring that suggests existance of the realm of dead, which is big, considering that all known beliefs about the afterlife in the Lands Between usually related to the rebirth: be it Erdtree’s Burial tradition, distant resurrection from Deathbirds or Ancestral Worship, in which life sprouts from death. But this sword introduces an actual world of death.

Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world. The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, only it is said that it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle.

霊界において死者の道標となる灯火の樹 ヘルフェンの黒い尖塔を模した大剣

その灯火は祝福に似て 英霊だけが、それを見ることができるという

What EN called “lampwood” 灯火の樹 can be also roughtly interpreted as “Tree of Lamplights”, but it’s very confusing and this convoluted wording translates through the sword’s design as it resembles both a pine tree and a tower. But what if Helphen is a lighthouse, considering that the sword in question drops from Tibia Mariner and death imagery in the Elden Ring is strongly water themed (Godwyn’s corpses, crabs, jellyfishes)? Another neat detail is red jewel decoration, red is a color of life and death in the Elden Ring, it’s a color of primordial gold of Crucible, but also is a color of Rune of Death and a blood star. I wonder if this one jewel is a red glinestone related to the thorn sorceries. Tibia Mariner doesn’t use thorn sorsery, but the color of his spells is red, the skeletons he summons are appearing the red light too.

(extra tinfoil alert: if the spirit world is a realm of the outer god of Deathbirds, could it be that all outer gods are inhabiting alternate dimensions, following Norse myth about original nine worlds of the universe? The Shattering broke the borders between dimensions, this is why we see Rot and envoys of Death along with ghost pine trees manifesting in the Lands Between)

Long story short, there is a spirit world of dead warriors with a giant tree-tower that guides ghosts of the fallen with lamplight similar to the grace of the Erdtree.

I think this is very interesting detail; Tarnished as a group are completely dependant on Marika’s grace, which is a pivotal part of her plan, it allows her to resurrect Tarnished, but also to guide them through the Lands Between. But let me speculate about possible DLC with new territories, which means that Tarnished once again will encounter the guidance of grace … or not. Marika’s plan is fulfilled in main story, how could you incorporate the grace mechanics without hijacking the main plot? By introduction of the alternative.

Now I want to talk about ethymology of the word Helphen, it’s similar to German “helpen”, to help; assist, while the first syllaby “Hel” might be a reference for the underground world Hel from Norse mythology, likewise “it can only be seen by those who met their death in battle” is a nod to Valhalla. Does it mean potential rematch with some bosses from the base game?

Personally, I’d like to imagine spirit world as a mirror image of the Lands Between, but with less terrain; it’s a sea of a ghostflame with Helphen on the place of the Erdtree. From a development perspective I can also see that releasing DLC in the size of legacy dungeon might be a little bit awkward, considering enormous size of the base game, but cheating the system with an archipelago of islands, while covering the map in ocean, is a neat way to keep it big, yet don’t waste years of work on downloadable content. Of course, everything I wrote is a really wild speculation.

What we can learn about spirit world, knowing how heavily Elden Ring is inspired by Norse mythology and this realm is most likely based on Hel/Niflheim?

Niflheim is one of the Nine Worlds of Norse mythology and the homeland of primordial darkness, cold, mist, and ice.

Seems fitting as the ghostflame of Deathbirds is always called cold and even bitterly cold. There is also an intriguing connection between cold and death sorceries without background sigils that I’m planning to investigate properly one day.

Another typical account is the journey of Hermod to Hel to attempt to retrieve Baldur, who had been killed by Loki. Hermod is a minor figure in Norse mythology. The meaning and etymology of his name aren’t entirely clear, but it seems likely that his name is either a variant of hermaðr, “warrior”

I’d like to say that we are going to save our own “Baldur “, but we already kind of revived Godwyn in Fia’s ending. 

The common elements in Snorri’s and Saxo’s accounts seem to be the following: Hel was located underground – down and to the north, the realm of cold and general lifelessness, down the trunk of Yggdrasil, the great tree that forms the central axis of the cosmos. It was reached by descending from a higher point with the help of a guide – an unnamed (dead) woman in Hadding’s case, and Sleipnir in the Prose Edda and the poem Baldrs Draumar (Baldur’s Dreams) in the Poetic Edda. After traveling through darkness and mist, the traveler would come to a river, perhaps a torrential river of water, but more commonly a river of clanging weapons.

Realistically speaking, it reminds me of Deeproot Depth, we already visited the base of the world tree, dream of a dead demigod and were guided by a deathbed companion. This my main concern about DLC predictions about Godwyn, his part of the plot is already more or less covered in the story. 

And before finishing my fanfic I want to go full on CSI on the Helphen’s design.

There is a skull or a golden skeleton figure near the base of the sword, similiar to the T-posing skeleton of the Golden Epitaph, Miquella’s sword:

A sword made to commemorate the death of Godwyn the Golden, first of the demigods to die. Infused with the humble prayer of a young boy; “O brother, lord brother, please die a true death.”

Cross-hatch pattern under “the entrance” reminds me of Radagon’s rune (not only his rune is the massive ??? already, considering consequences of its placements, but it’s also entangled with thorns).

The recembalance is far-fetched, for sure, but this post is from realm of pure fanfiction anyways.

P.S. I think I finally figured out something that was bothering me for a long time, I never understood how soulless demigods in mausoleums are duplicating remembrances from lore perspective. But if there is a spirit world of fallen champions with its own version of the Erdtree, which is implied by Helphen Steeple, we are probably using Helphen to create another remembrance for us with a help of soulless demigods.

P.P.S. Where is Radagon’s remembrance?

[julijbee]

sleeper/sleeping

[dr-zeddy]

I also believe that Miquella was jealous of Mohg/saw him as competition regarding his original plans

and intentionally made the Mohgwyn Dynasty look like an awful alternative to what he tried to do with the Haligtree.

This is on my personal speculative side but with the in-game context of what the Formless Mother religion symbolized in the Land's of Shadow, we may assume Mohg and his followers celebrated her in a similar fashion before Miquella took over his mind.

The bloodfiends are literally just vibing until you attack them/invade their territory. Bloodshed isn't the only thing this Outer God represents, it's also a symbolism for maternal love/birth/rebirth for those shunned and cursed (Hence why she blessed Mohg and showed up to the "subjugated tribe" in the Land's of Shadow), which we know from the "Outer God Heirloom"

I believe this deity is still twisted and not to meddled around with, but I don't think the Formless Mother exclusively stands for murdering people. We also know that the bloodfiends resulted to SH occasionally to serve their "mother" (which is in itself a little problematic but it also indicates that they do not walk around and randomly kill everything in their path) (see "Bloodfiend's Fork")

So my take is that when Miquella brainwashed Mohg this entire cult got corrupted too, making it the center of (mercy) killings and death while Miquella is the only anchor of life, we see this in the "Lord of Blood Exultation Talisman":

Spilling blood to create a new life. Which is, naturally speaking, nonsense and as I said before, a lot of things point to the fact that the FM has natural roots, while giving hope to those who were shunned.

This indicates that Mohg had similar goals to Miquella with his Haligtree, offering outcasts a haven/place to be/belong to. Miquella always relied on enchanting/manipulating people to achieve his goals, I guess he was pissed that Mohg was able to do this, only by being naturally charismatic, since we know that he had to be quite the leader if he pulls actual reasonable people like Ansbach to his side. He was the perfect leader for outcasts and the oppressed (see additonally my post about Mohg's appearence being extremley devine in the Land's of Shadow) and therefore was a direct threat to the things Miquella wanted to achieve with his Haligtree. Because why follow Miquella when there already was a similar cult/religion with a charismatic leader like Mohg?

[jadeazora]

Addressing the theory that Kieran is experiencing Toxic Chain-possession, CaylaCapsule of Twitter noticed a very brief purple glow around Kieran's fist when he punched their memorial.

My thought is it acts in a similar manner to what Nihilego's venom did. It twists the desires and emotions of its hosts/victims and corrupts them to lose their inhibitions, and become more aggressive/ruthless in how they act.

Looking at Bulbapedia, the L3 were mentioned to be weak, dull Pokemon before the contact with the chain, with no mention of them being evil or anything beforehand, and with the chain altering Munkidori's brain to give it Psychic abilities, it's possible it altered all their mental states too:

[val-of-the-north]

More observations for the trailer I am going insane!!!

I can't claim the original observation of this candle tree detail is mine, but it's from a Japanese Twitter user, here's a screenshot of the post and a link to it as well [x]

The rest of this observation IS mine though, so let's get to it:

With all the talk of cardinal sin, Messmer having a few parallels to Lucifer as pointed out by some friends of mine [x] I have to wonder if he is the cause of a speculated first burning of the Erdtree.

If this is the first time you have heard about this concept, I'll give a short summary. You know how Leyndell is covered in ash by the time we reach it in-game, and how that goes unexplained? We know for a fact that must be the Erdtree's ashes because after we claim the Rune of Death and the Erdtree burns even more, the capital is entombed in it.

We are also told that the Age of Plenty, an age in which the Erdtree gave physical blessings from its sacred sap, swiftly came to a close and the tree had to be changed to simply an object of faith...

So the theory claims that the reason why the Age of Plenty ended so swiftly was due to the Erdtree being set on fire. In theory spaces, the go-to culprit for this speculated action has often been the Gloam-Eyed Queen, with her connections to fire (Blackflame specifically) and Destined Death, but now there's the possibility that this was all Messmer's doing after all. Promotional material and dialogue seems to really denote his affinity for scorching and setting things ablaze.

This probably also means he is the inventor of that scary flame construct that according to Miyazaki as per this interview [x] was an old war machine, no doubt used during this "unsung battle".

Another important part of Messmer's design is the two snakes, which point us back to the Age of Plenty! Godfrey likely ruled during and directly after that time, and the arenas were likely built because of him. It had to be during Godfrey's rule because by the time Radagon became Elden Lord the practices of the colosseums had died down, as told to us by the Ritual Sword and Shield Talismans:

One of the more interesting aspects of the gladiatorial battles that once took place is the snake symbolism on the gladiators' armor.

So the snake was a symbol of a generic "traitor to the Erdtree", and it predated Rykard's blasphemy by an entire age at least... so what if it wasn't generic at all and it represented Messmer himself? He might have been the perpetrator of a betrayal so foul that Marika removed all traces of his existence from her empire's history, but kept the symbol of the snake as a spiteful reminder of him and all other subsequent traitors. After all, she does seem to have power over which one of her children gets remembered or not, and if not her, then the collective of the Golden Order:

Do note that we don't know when she said this. It could have been while she was still at the height of her rule or right before the Shattering. What we do know for a fact is that the soulless demigods inside the Walking Mausoleums have no known history to speak of, which is quite unlike Godwyn, one of the more accomplished members of the family. So yeah, being forgotten by history might be something the Golden Order does to those they deem unfit, so Messmer could be a likely candidate for such treatment... except instead of doing nothing noteworthy he did TOO much lol.

Now I gotta wonder if Marika hated him more or less than her Omen babies. One could argue that locking them down in a sewer close to where she lives was done more as an obligation than any true resentment. She could have sent them to the Shadow Lands if she really wanted them gone and unaccessible, as that place seems filled with Crucible-related things...

I am not saying she was a good mother to them because she didn't kick them to the Shadow Lands, but perhaps she DID have some small affection for them that she really couldn't follow through with.

Of course, maybe she just couldn't banish them anymore after banishing Messmer for whatever reason (maybe she cut-off a connection to that realm?). However, the most likely possibility is that he WAS known like the many soulless demigods and that Mohg and Morgott predate him. It's just that while those two were born undesirable through no fault of their own and were thus only hidden away, he BECAME undesirable which was worse in Marika's eyes so he gets the extra banishment and the removal of all of his history... there are so many possibilities...

[maranull]

I want Loretta to strut into the DLC, smack everyone to their senses and drag Miquella to the Haligtree by the ear

[wazzappp]

So. @quasar-crew made a post about all the fun fic ideas they've been thinking of and within that was an 'Everyone gets infected funtimes' au. It has consumed me.

Ashleys mutations mostly focus on allowing her to GET AWAY and doing it QUICKLY. Most of her time while infected with the Plaga is spent trying to get away from threats, so it responded to that when developing its 'improvements'. She's mostly based off of the Novistador enemies found in the later levels.

Her clawed feet allow for climbing and perching on small objects. Armor extends up the leg because lets be real bro. I saw Jacksepticeyes playthrough theres no way her legs didnt at least get OCCASIONALLY grazed by wayward bullets from Leon trying to shoot whoever is carrying her away. NEVER AGAIN. Her armor is not as strong as I would imagine Leons is because it needs to be light enough to allow her to fly.

The Novistador's only have three fingered 'hands' so that translates over by only mutating three of her fingers. She has mandibles but they're mostly meant as a last resort self defense, along with her new sharp teeth (TEEF. TEEEEEEEEEFFFF). They don't move much beyond slight up and down motions. She also has a nictitating membrane that rests on the edges of her eyes when not in use. It activates after she blinks (think like a windshield wiper clearing away debris) and also covers her eyes when she's flying. This does impede her vision a little bit, so its best for her to find somewhere to rest if she's up there to spy.

Ashley has considerably less armor than Leon because 1. thats not the focus of her mutation. the focus is allowing her to get away from threats and 2. because she needs to remain light enough to actually get in the air. Her wings are extensions of the Plagas legs that have shifted to rest more on its back than its sides. That way its less strain on her back muscles (shoulders are already so fuckin complicated bro). They move in more of an x motion than an up and down. The best thing to compare them too would be a hummingbird. I briefly considered looking to dragonflies and their flight, which led me to this very cool video but I think she's just too large for that to work. Her wings have no bones in them, instead relying on the Plagas strong exoskeleton (carcinization strikes again) to keep her lightweight but strong. In theory, if she practiced enough, she should be strong enough to just. Pick an enemy up, lift them into the air, and then drop them.

Her antennae are controlled by a small tendon anchored just above her ears. They act to gather extra sensory information. They can detect smell, temperature (fire chaser beetle style babyyyy), and they are sensitive to touch which allows her to sense wind direction when she's flying up high. When in a situation where too much is going on, they will flatten back to try and avoid sensory overload. It's like when you turn down your car radio to see a parking spot better.

Also, because I forgot to draw it sometimes, the armor on her back wraps around her neck to protect more of her main veins and arteries. Plus, no more choking so thats a bonus.

And heres just. Some random doodles because I ended up really enjoying drawing her (bonus Leon with an awkward cutoff because idk how I want to draw his feet yet. Some kind of fucked up digitigrade deal most likely I just haven't figured out the details.)

Next up, Ada Wong you can not run from me.

[surelyspacejunk]

Messmer & Melina Speculation

After playing the DLC, I'm starting to wonder if both Messmer and Melina were sired by Marika and two other gods who weren't Radagon. A few DLC spoilers and big speculations under the cut:

If we are to take the butterfly theories to heart, the introduction of a the black pyrefly in the DLC would support that there are four siblings born from a union of gods. Messmer's Kindling also states that he has a sister who also bore visions of fire; supporting that they are all siblings.

Unlike the twins though, Messmer and Melina seem to have been completely glossed over in the Lands Between.

I'm guessing it's because they both have traits that simply could not have let them exist within the Golden Order; these traits being their affinity towards fire and traits of The Gelmir Serpent (Messmer) and the Gloam-Eyed Queen (Melina.)

Marika/Radagon has already been seen settling disputes through unions with the Carians. Even the Golden Order created a union with the dragons when they realized they could not defeat them. Could Marika have started the pattern of creating truces and betrayal before the creation of the Golden Order? The Hornsent Grandam calls Marika a strumpet, and while she could just be slutshaming Marika, could there be some implication that Marika had relations that were looked down upon?

When you play the DLC, you learn that Messmer is still devoted to Marika, while the latter seems to have abandoned him while being the one responsible for his bloody campaign. While it's obvious to see why the Hornsent despise him, most accounts show that he commanded great loyalty from his men and had genuine friendships with Gaius and Radahn. All this makes me believe that Marika got rid of two birds with one stone, by sending her Messmer who could have never found a place in her order away to do her dirty work of enacting her revenge and solidifying her rule.

As for Melina, the circumstances of her birth seem a little shaky and I don't really have a timeline for when she could have come to existence. That said, her color scheme in the Frenzy ending, the color of her eyes and her quest to deliver destined death seem to tie her to the Gloam-Eyed Queen. The butterflies and Marika/Radagon being able to sire her either way makes it seem that this might not be too crazy but idk, im extremely sleepy now from staying up too late playing this game and theorycrafting.

Anyways those are just some thoughts from a sleepdrunk fan, what do you guys think?

[lopposting]

Adding to your theory and the fact P seamlessly steered a freaking submarine near the beach sequence, i believe it was just Carlo's memories guiding through what I asume it's extremely complicated maneuvering. Now the Pistis/submarine is a nod to tge Dogfish 🤔 where according to book analysis it represents the symbolic "descent to the underworld" in Pinocchios journey. Could it be that it was the place where Carlo died/was murdered before being thrown into the sea? 😢Just a thought

OMG

The "descent to the underworld" is reminding me of something

In an earlier datamine, supposedly there is something from the game files called "Patala Ruins guardian stone", possibly cut content or DLC content!!

I did a quick google and apparently "Patala" is a name for the "underworld"

That is crazy

Big brain ask

PS: I've noticed that the earlier reddit post of the datamine was removed. maybe neowiz asked reddit for it to be removed. If this datamined stuff was just cut content, why would it matter to them for it to be taken down? SO Maybe it is leaked DLC stuff? Does it mean anything? I don't know.

[btw im so sad I should've backed that reddit post up IDK why I didn't, but you can tell what some of it was from the comments, it was a shotgun/canon legion arm!!]

[raygirlramblings]

Your stance on Rayman and guns is well known; how are you feeling about Blood Dragon Remix Rayman and firearms? Not so sure he's mostly 'armless anymore after all...

I see what you did thar ;)

I think in regards to Blood Dragon all bets are off, and my opinions on whether Rayman should be allowed to have a firearm are pretty moot. XD. We're not dealing with Rayman's own world where the most 'accurate' firearms would be a Robo-pirate cannon or Razoff's rifle/shotgun thing. In the Blood Dragon universe guns are pretty much a given and part of the world and culture and it would be more out of place for Rayman NOT to have one, or handle one in some way.

While I don't like to imagine Rayman as the type to carry his own gun constantly I would be watching in rapt anticipation for him to use his limblessness to steal a gun from someone else in the middle of a shoot-out.

All I'm saying is that if Rayman turns out to be a cold blooded villain, the protags would be wise to not underestimate his weapon skills and keep track of all his limbs at all times.

And if he’s not a villain…there would have to be a very good reason for him to suddenly pull a gun on anyone, pro or antagonist.

[thingsmysplattershotjrtoldme]

DLC - Battle of the Bands Prediction

Since there might be a direct any day now, I decided now would be a good time to post my idea, unfortunately didn't have the time to draw anything but I think I can write it out well enough

The Battle of the Bands prediction is just that, a literal battle of the bands. What with OTF getting new members (and heavily implied to be important to the DLC), Harmony appearing in game and the wall outside of Hotlantis being covered in band member signatures, I feel that the bands of Splatoon are getting a lot more important to the actual story.

My prediction is that the DLC will be based on a big music festival, similar to the Deep Sea Rave. Everyone's there, frome old Splatoon 1 bands to the new kids on the block, C-Side. Ink Theory and Bottom Feeder's are of course at each other's throats and the tension between Front Roe and Disspair is thick enough to cut with a knife. Despite the egos and diva tendencies being on display, the event seems to be going rather smoothly.

Until a brand new band debuting at the festival arrives. It's all boy band, and everyone seems immediately enamored with them and their sound, even though to us the player it seems a bit...generic? It gets to the point that the new band is getting more attention than anyone else, even completely commandeering other bands sets for their own. Something is very wrong.

We play as ethier a groupie for an already established band or maybe a member of a small up and coming band that got their set stolen by the new band and it's our job to get to the bottom of this, as only we notice that these boys seem...off.

As you go through the DLC, you start fighting the boys of the band one by one, even having a few fights with older bands as well. You notice that which ever boy from the new band fights you, they're back on stage not a second later.

You get deeper, behind the food stalls and the the band vans and the venue organizers and find a pretty large lab hidden deep in the streets of Splatsville. You enter, and anyone who's seen the end levels of Octo Expansion definitely feels like their experiencing a bit of deja vu. You start to find rows and rows of clones of the members of the new boy band, as well as evidence that maybe Tartar had completed that ultimate lifeform after all. There's also evidence implying that maybe the Marigolds are also in on this cloning scheme.

These machines seem to be running off of power eggs, and the machines the boys used to fight you dropped golden eggs after you defeated them. All signs point to Grizzco being behind this, but Mr. Grizzco was defeated, so who...

Y'all know who...

That's as far as I've gotten with this prediction. The reasoning for cloning the boys or using Grizzco assets to make the band? All part of the little clone's to somehow overthrow the true Judd. The exact reason still escapes me, but knowing Splatoon, it's certainly gonna be very very wacky.

And I wouldn't have it any other way

[eyestrain-addict]

Some interesting visual story telling in messmers clinic I noticed

Perfumers are essentially the doctors of the lands between (and honestly I just really like the worldbuilding of the perfumers. There's something so very human about all their areas and stuff so when I saw this little bit of set dressing in the world I got vv excited) you can see all the accoutrement of the perfumers within the 'clinic', you even get a perfume ash of war. But there are no perfumers here. Not even any of the pages whom assist them. It's been abandoned.

This is such a amazing visual metaphor to me. To remind the viewer of something, and then the absence of said thing is incredibly obvious. (Honestly I'm of the opinion the perfumers have some of the best visual storytelling in the game, but I can't really put it into words because I just love it so much. The fact their areas are full of little objects and really creative worldbuilding that reminds you 'oh this is an entirely different culture' aaaaaa I just love it so much. Their building in leyndell is one of my favorites it feels like a place designed to be lived and worked in. Sorry anyway back to the point-)

If we believe that Queen Marikas war was a holy-revenge-fueled war in nature (which I have doubts about because the irl crusades were about conquest, disguised as a holy war to rally the peoples support but again not my point here) then these are the people she is fighting to avenge. But as the crusade raged on, the perfumers turned their healing sprays into mists of poison and fire. The clinic was abandoned, as the pain the perfumers could inflict was more important to the crusade. It's an amazing metaphor of how often violence fueled by revenge is never truly about justice or healing, or if it ever was can easily lose sight of their original goal. Marikas purge helped no one, no even her own people. Perhaps that's why the Black Knife Assassins (whom were notably all women and numen with close ties to Marika) sought to disrupt her Order. They knew better than anyone else it was not justice which led Marikas actions.

Maybe I'll make another post of how I think the real life history of the crusades factors into the plot of the DLC. But I thought this was a cool detail.

[prismatic-starstuff]

today, i'm thinking a lot about mohg. and i'm thinking about how much i would have loved to be able to save him.

the way i look at it is that it was an awful thing that happened to him. no question. he sought out love in the formless mother, based his dynasty on love, all because no doubt love became important to him after he was denied it growing up; so what happened to him was particularly horrible, because it was a weaponising of love against someone who so desperately craved it.

maybe his obsession was implanted into him by miquella entirely and mohg's own feelings had absolutely nothing to do with it. maybe it was how the bewitchment manifested when combined with his views on love as a result of his upbringing. we don't know; but both ways are equally sad, because either way, mohg wasn't himself. the one thing i can say is that i absolutely don't believe mohg kidnapped miquella of his own volition; i don't think it was his desire.

...and i do really wish there was some kind of a good ending for him. because his entire life, from the moment he was born looking a way marika didn't approve of, was painful. because all he wanted was love when he'd never known it. because no-one deserves to be forced into anything, never mind such awful things.