#I BAWLED MY EYES OUT

[finisnihil]

Genshin dropping Madame Ping's lore in an event was absolutely vile like how dare they just give us the most heart-wrenchingly tragic sapphic rivalry. An inventor and an artist constantly arguing and Xianyun dragging Zhongli into it to mediate. They soon grow closer and one day Guizhong dies so suddenly and horrifically it makes Madame Ping rethink her ideas of immortality and death and descend to the human realm.

All she carries with her is a bell, made by Guizhong, a bell she previously viewed as unable to depict the soul in the way human-made music could. But it's not that anymore. In the way Madame Ping depicts the soul through music, Guizhong depicted it through creation. That bell carried Guizhong's soul, a soul she entwined with Madame Pings. That's why Zhongli gave it back to her when Madame Ping left for the mortal world.

When Zhongli requests the bell for his funeral, it carries so much more weight. He isn't just requesting a ceremonial bell, he's requesting Guizhong's soul and love, he's requesting a mourner who departed far earlier than him. He's also requesting a blessing from Madame Ping, to live as a human.

Madame Ping takes the appearance of an elderly woman, somebody who is weary and full of wisdom. She has lived lifetimes and she shows it in her form. She mentors young creators around her, Xiangling, Yanfei, Yaoyao and the like. She gives the Traveler a teapot, so they have a place to call home for a little while. She cares for the glaze lillies, because they are the scattered notes of the torn sheet music that's Guizhong's love for humanity. She doesn't play music anymore, because the only one who could hope to understand her tune, the one attuned to her soul, is gone.

Her last song was to mourn Guizhong because grief is love with nowhere to go. She put it in music created with callused hands, like Guizhong's making of the bell. She played for a lantern, a love, a ghost.

She played for Guizhong.

[letthefairyinyoufly]

[gaiussleechtank]

I just thought of this theory so now I’m going to inflict it on all of you because I am no longer well after thinking this:

Magic existed in Albion long before Merlin and Arthur, et cetera, did. And based on canon - the books, the tales, even the geography and beings - magic used to be massive in Albion. A huge part of life and nature and living. Then Arthur is born and Ygraine dies and the Purge begins. Magic is killed off, reduced and nearly wiped out; thousands of species go extinct, entire cultures are burnt, and hundreds of millennia of knowledge are erased. So as a last resort to save itself, Merlin is born.

Merlin - Emrys - Magic Itself/Incarnate.

All of this desperate power is out there and channelled into one single being. Think of it, all the land's magic rushing into a single entity and given life, evolved from having existence in everything to truly living and experiencing a concentrated point. Maybe this is why Merlin has such a deep connection with everything, because he has existed before as something so much greater than the human mind.

I think this is why he is Emrys, why Emrys is immortal, you can't kill Magic, Albion's world doesn't work that way. There is the balance of life to maintain.

This is where Arthur and the Prophecy of the Once and Future King come in: Merlin and Arthur are greatly connected. It's Arthur's birth that forces Merlin into creation and it's together that they are meant to bring greatness to the land.

Except they don't, Albion's 'Golden Era' doesn't come. Arthur dies and Merlin continues living because Magic cannot die. Centuries pass, Merlin is missing his other half and Magic continues to disappear because Merlin and Arthur didn't save it.

So there is a build up, Magic keeps going to Merlin to protect itself, Albion ages and falls and is rebuilt over and over again into something new with each passing century. As time progresses Magic turns to its greatest source - the undying force of magic, the greatest concentration of it given life - and because of this the land slowly forgets that it even had magic to begin with.

This is what forces Albion's Greatest Need. The balance cannot handle this, the land cannot handle this and so Arthur returns to save it all.

He is Merlin's other half - their destinies are literally written and entwined with one another.

They would figure out that Magic had disappeared from the land and that it was why Arthur was back, but it would be Merlin to realise where Magic had gone to and what it would take for it to be brought back.

Merlin would have to die for Albion to be saved. His life would have to end and return to its previous state of unconscious sentient existence.

But how can someone that cannot die stop living?

It's easy really: have their other half of their soul - the one that they were born for, who they live for and exist for - kill their physical body with an immortal blade.

Only Arthur wielding the Excalibur would work. After all, Arthur was the reason that Merlin was born, so who's to say that Arthur's not the reason Merlin dies?

[astrid-nomically-steddie]

JUST PLAYED OXENFREE ON NETFLIX WTF. I WENT THROUGH THE SEVEN STAGES OF GRIEF AND I CANT BELIEVE HOW GOOD THIS GAME IS. OMFG NETFLIX STOP BEING A STREAMING SERVICE AND GO BE A GAMING COMPANY THAT SUPPORTS INDIE GAMES LIKE THIS CAUSE WTF WAS THAT. I LITERALLY CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS CHANGED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY.

[were-my-demons-hide]

Finishing the lord of the rings cracked something inside of me. I cried so much. They all changed so much because of their journey. I want Bilbo with Thorin, Frodo with Sam and not this intense feeling of farewell. I can't bare it.

[sadpotatoreads]

end of an era.

[mikasenpaidesu]

all i know is pain

[sharpvst]

[b-sabro-d]

chloe "don't you forget about me" price and

max "im sorry" caulfield

[ninacarstairss]

the squeak that came from my mouth when benedict kissed colin on the head was absolutely not human. i love my bridgerton boys

[drumphiga-blog]

Thinking about this page so much that it hurts

[divinequo]

WATCH WOLFWALKERS RN.

[wallflowerlovesfrogs]

“I bet we were fun.”

Hey Marvel. Hey. What right did you have to tear me apart like that.

[fairys-darkacademia]

[gerardwayslesbianlovr]

i saw this with my own eyeballs btw

[vittra111]

I just finished Arcane and I’m not okay…dont talk to me