#I think about Scion!

[artbyblastweave]

One additional thing about Scion that I find interesting is that he isn’t exempt from the ironic monkeys paw logic governing the Worm power system. His stilling ability outwardly imposes order and resolves problems, but it does so by canceling out everything- all forms of energy, molecular activity, power expression, all perfectly countered and evened out to a null state. In other words, it’s applied entropy, creating heat death in miniature. Scion’s main day-to-day problem solving tool is quietly a minute acceleration of the One Big Problem he and the other Entities are so desperately trying to outrun. Solve the problem in front of you, shorten the rope elsewhere. He can’t create with it; he can only damage things in an agreeable way. And it looks angelic. It looks helpful.

[haunted-xander]

Do you ever think about how Alisaie's biggest fear is losing the people she cares about? How the very first conversation you have with her alone, a deeply personal one, is about her confiding in you about those fears? Telling you that she hated the state of the world Louisoix died for because, to her, it wasn't worth the sacrifice? She tells you about all the allies she made and lost, who she watched die and could do nothing to save them.

Do you ever think about how Alisaie was consistently one of the first to act, to recklessly throw herself at danger throughout stb? She didn't care (as much) about herself getting hurt, but she'd be damned if she let her friends suffer without doing anything. She has to be fast and proactive, because if she can't protect them even when striking first, how would she be able to when acting after the fact?

Do you ever think about how every time her loved ones are in peril/are in risk of being in peril her heart just breaks? How whenever someone's safety is unsure she panics and immediately tries to contact them/rush to their aid? When Castrum Abania's cannon shot the tower that, for all she knew, Alphinaud was still in, she immediately stops what she's doing and runs to it in panic because her brother was in there and he might be dead.

Do you ever think about how when the Scions start getting their souls yanked to the First, Alisaie reacts the strongest? How, when Urianger and Y'shtola got taken, she fell to her knees shaking Uriangers body, screaming for him to wake up? And when Gaius appears with Alphinaud in the Burn, she immediately goes to fight him (before being stopped by Hien) because this man, who has been her enemy, is holding her brother's lifeless body. She doesn't care that she can't possibily beat him, he has her brother and she's already lost so much in such a short amount of time. She's lost Thancred, Y'shtola and Urianger already, she can't lose Alphinaud too.

Do you ever think about how you are the only one she can fully rely on at that time, but who is also at risk of being taken away? Of how she's so desperate for you to stay, to not be taken away, that Alisaie, who, for all her bluntness, prefers to rely on herself first and foremost, begs you not to leave her? She begs you. Alisaie does not beg. She yells at you to not do something, and she'll scold you to hell and back if you do it anyway, but she does not beg. But this time she did.

And then she ends up being taken away right in front of you. She cries out for help and uses her very last energy to reach out for you. And then she falls limp.

Do you ever think about how, when Alphinaud turns to tell her his plans at the end of Ultima Thule, she immediately rejects it without even letting him say it? She's lost so much and experienced so much grief, not only overall but also just in Ultima Thule. And she loathes to bring that grief onto another. Especially to one who has already lost so much, like you. She hates it. She ends up doing it, yes, but she hates it still.

DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT-

[fatedroses]

Tank-on-Tank violence.

[whetstonefires]

You know, I've been thinking about it, and it is absolutely essential to the narrative that Jiang Cheng is a dick and a trash fire. (Affectionate.)

Like, first of all, if he was a sainted little angel of a shidi the way Jiang Yanli is a shijie, Wei Wuxian's choices would become obvious, sort of impersonal, and boring.

Sure, lots of people wouldn't tear themselves apart for such a person in such a scenario, but they're not the protagonists of novels, are they; in a book you have to justify not doing that. So white lotus Jiang Cheng is off the table.

Jiang Cheng who isn't fragile-and-insecure but also stubborn-as-hell and violently reactive also won't wash.

If he wasn't the kind of person who sincerely tries to die under these circumstances, Wei Wuxian would have had the option of loyally supporting him in a less self-destructive way; if he was someone who could be trusted to handle the revelation without suffering a ruinous fracture of identity, Wei Wuxian wouldn't have been forced to distance himself after the war, because he could have come clean.

If Jiang Cheng wasn't the kind of person who centers on his own pride and hurt feelings and lashes out about it, it would be very hard to set up the lategame scenario where they're 'enemies' in a real, meaningful way, despite still loving each other and Wei Wuxian never wishing Jiang Cheng any ill. Even with Jiang Yanli's death.

And I mean, you could get most of the plot without doing this interesting thematic examination of the classic 'bond between martial brothers severed by one going to the dark side' trope, but I'd argue you'd lose an enormous chunk of the story.

And without Jiang Cheng's weaknesses, Wei Wuxian's motives don't cohere. His weaknesses form the foundation of at least two of the backstory's major turning points.

There's the tantalizing possibility that Wei Wuxian wouldn't have done it, if Jiang Cheng hadn't strangled him while blaming him for everything.

Probably he would have, all else being equal! But neither we nor Jiang Cheng can be sure.

Jiang Cheng sucking a lot, and knowing his own flaws perfectly well without that granting him the ability to do much about them, is heavily load-bearing. Which gives him such a fantastic implied point of view!

[anneapocalypse]

On the Scions and Sacrifice

Master Louisoix looms so large over all the Scions, and I feel like it's really given nearly all of them a complex where they feel like they have to be willing to sacrifice themselves should the need arise--and they're all just waiting for that moment that happened to Louisoix, that realization that there is no other choice. It might be death, it might be something else, but they're all so ready to take the bullet, literal or figurative.

We see it with Moenbryda, who says that she finally understands the choice he made seconds before she gives her life to defeat an Ascian. We see it with Yda and Papalymo, Thancred and Y'shtola, and finally Minfilia as one by one they stay behind, urging the others to go on, until only the Warrior of Light is left. We see it again with Papalymo when he gives his life to contain the primal summoned by the Griffon. We see it with Minfilia's willingness not only to hand herself over to Hydaelyn to be her voice, but to travel to a far-off star, maybe never to return, to help save a world she has never seen. We see it in Urianger acting alone to spare his friends the burden he carries for what he believes to be necessary actions. Even Alphinaud basically doesn't allow himself to be just a teenage boy and over and over keeps trying to take the world on his shoulders because he believes it's what he's supposed to do as Louisoix's grandson. Lyse in Stormblood is so ready and eager for revolution but over and over again we see the true cost of war and of resistance to overwhelming imperial power, and we are confronted with the question of what level of sacrifice is fair to ask of people who have already suffered so much and are just trying to survive.

And yes, sacrifice is noble and valiant and all that, but at the end of the day I don't think the effect is a net positive. Louisoix did what he did when there was very definitively, apocalyptically, no other choice. He probably wasn't wrong. But that doesn't mean that it's good or useful for all of his followers to be waiting on a knife's edge for the same. It makes them perhaps too ready to throw themselves to the fire, too quick to assume that a heroic sacrifice is the only choice. Because what if they assume there are other options left, and they're wrong? What if they fail to act at the critical moment? The Calamity scarred Eorzea, scarred everyone in ways both obvious and subtle, and I think this particular scar on the Scions is an ultimately negative impulse that I hope we see them find their way out of. Alisaie, notably, is not about that shit, and I look forward to her seeing what kind of influence she has upon the others.

[valeriannnn]

you want a revelation, you want to get right but that's a conversation I just can't have tonight

[metallicdawn]

I made a post abt it on twt, but Everyone talks about the tunnelers, the return of the NCR, or a possible Yes-Man betrayal as the biggest threat to the courier post-game, but real ones know it’s Joshua once the legion eventually crumbles and he has unrestricted access to recruit disenfranchised ex-legionnaires HE FORMERLY TRAINED to his version of New Canaan.

He’s already been made a living martyr, and I know damn well he’ll take full advantage of that.

[dawntrailing]

Alphinaud: We will go with you, as well. There is naught to be gained by standing still. Y'shtola: Indeed, we have exhausted every other avenue. Lead and we shall follow. If there is any hope to be found, then we will surely find it at your side. Thancred: Are we all in agreement, then?

[thedeadthree]

⚖️ 𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐘 -`. fo(tv) • 🥂 𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀 “𝐃𝐎𝐓” fo(tv)

🩺 𝐘𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐀 -`. fo3 • 💄 𝐀𝐍𝐀 -`. fo4

🌞 𝐂𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐀 -`. the witcher • 🌌 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀 -`. asoiaf

🐇 𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐀 -`. bg3 • 🐦‍⬛ 𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀 -`. vtm

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 @marivenah, @rhettsabbott, @kyber-infinitygems, @crownrots, @loriane-elmuerto, @risingsh0t and @a-treides to use this 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰!! ty sm!!

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆:

@girliefailure, @bloodofvalyria, @shadowsofrose, @hartsvale, @jendoe

@queennymeria, @faerune, @rosenfey, @grapecaseschoices, @griffin-wood

@carlosoliveiraa, @aezyrraeshh, @avallachs, @florbelles, @unholymilf

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@loriane-elmuerto, @jennystahl, @roberthouse69, @lavampira, @celticwoman

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@confidentandgood, @adelaidedrubman, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @full---ofstarlight and you!!

[wildstar25]

Perhaps not the way Y'mhitra hoped to have learned her sister and her friend were something much more than fellow scions; however, she is still nonetheless happy for them.

[ward-against-blight]

So I’m having a thought.

I’m almost to Lemuria now, and one of the things that’s struck me about arc 4 so far is how quiet it is. There’s so many places where I click on something and there’s no narration, even though it feels like there should be. I know why, obviously. Grandmother Raven retired to the Husk with Spider, the Wizard is on their own.

I just wonder how that feels for them!

You spend your very traumatic formative years with a literal goddess on your shoulder, and then suddenly that’s just gone. You’re completely on your own, stuck with a very important universe preserving job at a really tender age! If you graduate Ravenwood at 18 like most assume, that makes the Wizard in their early 20’s ish by arc 4. And as someone who is currently 21,

Yikes

If I, a player on the other side of the fourth wall feels the loss of Raven this much, just imagine how the Wizard feels!

[haunted-xander]

My grief is not your punishment

[fatedroses]

Finally I draw the flipside of the scary adventuring duo that is estinien and zenos. aka one man using the other as a third eye blindfold and the other being absolutely dead to the world because cozy (until he overheats in two hours and is unable to escape).

[whatsthisascianbullshit]

New story arc, same two adventurers

Match Munroe: @a-soul-full-of-stars

[fisherrprince]

“Ch’ari. What are you doing.”

The aetheric silhouette that is the Warrior of Light freezes in the middle of hobbling across the hallway. “I am… getting… a drink?” He says. 

“Oh?” Y’shtola raises an eyebrow. 

His aether flickers. The shape inches forward slowly, as if she were a dinosaur and couldn’t see him if he moved really slow. “I am… getting a very specific drink. From… Othard.”

“Are you now.” 

“…You are getting me a very specific drink from Othard?” Ch’ari tries. 

Y’shtola reaches behind her for her staff, and Ch’ari turns and scuttles as fast as his body will take him back into his room where he’s supposed to be. 

-

Alisaie scowls. “I am bored.”

“No kidding,” Ch’ari whines. “When are we allowed to leave?!”

“I am allowed to leave tomorrow. You will be staying here until you have resolved not to be a fool and throw your life away for a victory lap,” Alisaie snaps, and then her expression turns down. “Or at least until you can walk again.”

“Seems hypocritical to me. They’re letting you out early.”

“I’m almost healed!”

“By the loosest definition.”

“It wasn’t even a wound, Ari.”

“Hm.”

“Look—“ Alisaie says, pride in being Not Bedridden stoked by his dismissals, and pushes her way out of her bed at Dawn’s Respite to march over to Ch’ari’s bed, indignant. And still, notably, a bit shaky, after concentrated lightning magic left her too hurt to stand. Ch’ari still thinks they’re all stupid, every Scion, right back at them, for not tending to their own injuries well enough to heal themselves before pouring almost the entire Ragnarok’s worth of aether into him. Stupid, dumb, idiots. They’d already saved the universe at that point. We don’t need eight incapacitated scions when we could have had just the one. 

“You look like a baby amaro,” Ch’ari says, instead of voicing any of those thoughts. “Like a newborn foal. Damnation, looks like you’ll have to stay here and keep me company.”

Alisaie flicks him — gently, even though he’s not even got a head wound. “Ari. I promise we’re not going anywhere. And you know if you asked him to, Alphinaud would stay with you for days reading fantasy novels or textbooks at you for entertainment.”

His ears droop. “I know. But he needs to sleep.”

“And so do you.”

“And so do I,” Ch’ari grumbles in concession. “I am just not used to not moving. I want to kill something.”

Alisaie coughs out a startled laugh, and Ch’ari grins. “Gods, as do I, but we have our orders! Two weeks. No travel, no fights.”

“Sneak a coblin in here when you get out of this joint and I’ll pay for your sweets for a month.”

“Not a chance.”

-

“Not that I doubt your s-sSS-killed hands, Krile, I would never. But do bandages need changing thisoften?”

“In this specific case, yes,” Krile says, clearly not willing to entertain him while he chatters distractingly. “Might I remind you you were falling apart before we got to you with healing magics, and therefore you will be suffering the consequences for as long as a normal wound takes to heal naturally.”

“Peachy,” Ch’ari groans. He should have been better at avoiding that dumb voidsent Zenos summoned, but it always hid right out of his line of sight until it pounced. Clearly, a cheater, even if its master wouldn’t do a thing like that. Nah, he’d challenge him head-on, evening the playing ground until it was just strength against strength, no tricks, no unfair advantage. Pure, untouched adrenaline, bloodlust, the hunger for feeling alive. 

… Ch’ari will not miss him. But he will think of their encounters as long as it takes him to find something like it, if he ever does. Which is exactly what the prince wanted, drat. He should have taken Zenos to the Gold Saucer. Maybe he’d get really into chocobo racing instead of death matches. 

He’s jolted out of his thoughts by a sharp tug in his ribs. “Ow!”

“Sorry! Sorry,” Krile says, already casting a light soothing glow over the sticky mess there. Ch’ari buries his head further into the pillow with a groan. 

The door creaks. “My, someone sounds grumpy they’re being tended to,” comes a voice, and Tataru trots in with a small box in her hands. Ch’ari’s ears perk up. 

“Am not grumpy, I’m injured. What’s that?”

“Medicine,” Tataru says bluntly, and then gets a sly grin. “And a handful of pastry fish, fresh from the oven.”

“Tataru you’re my favorite. Have I ever told you you’re my favorite? You are. Hands down,” Ch’ari says, already sniffing the air to catch the smell, his tail whacking the edge of the bed. “I don’t even care that it’s bribery to get me to drink that foul tincture, I love you.”

Tataru laughs, bright and open, and even Krile huffs a bit in amusement. 

-

Alphinaud is asleep when he wanders into the main rooms, and Ch’ari considers dropping something onto the table to wake him up, but decides against it. He’s not all that sure how mana works — or mana overexertion, or… well, Lyse called it a chakra, but Ari isn’t a monk, and he’s not sure what straining or breaking one of them entails. He just knows the kid needs to sleep a bunch to get his aether back, and Ari shouldn’t be startling him so bad he breaks something again. If that’s how that works. He’d rather not risk it. 

Instead, he wanders over to Estinien, who is brooding in his Dragoon Corner. Also seemingly asleep until one eye cracks open, trained on his approach. 

“Dragoon,” Ch’ari says.

“…Cat,” Estinien replies in greeting. Ari snorts, the joke he made about having nine lives clearly amusing or at least annoying the Elezen to this day. 

“Guarding your nest, are we? I didn’t think we’d see you stick around this long.”

Estinien grunts. “Aye. Under normal circumstances I’d rather be off by now. But as long as…” he frowns. It’s always difficult for him to differentiate between draconic instincts and his own, and then subsequently translate them into human words, something he and Ch’ari have only spoken of briefly when Nidhogg’s lingering presence wanted to clash with what was left of Hraesvelgr in Ch’ari’s body. Simultaneously feral and overtly made of higher thought, the presence of the dragon is as long-lived as the beasts themselves. “As long as my ward is in need of protection, I will stay,” he settles on. And then his expression squishes, pained. “And… the pink one threatened me if I were to leave without a clean bill of health.”

Ch’ari laughs, then covers his mouth quickly to muffle it. “Ah, the jailer. No escaping that.” 

“Indeed.”

-

“Raha, you need any help with anything?”

G’raha looks up from his books, surprised. The Warrior is standing over his shoulder, swath in bandages and a simple shirt and slacks, his tail swishing. “Do I need any help with anything?”

“Yes.”

“Well, no, I don’t think so… resigned to being monitored as we are, I have no new tasks which require my attention, and so…”

“Let me rephrase,” Ch’ari interrupts. “Please do you need help with anything.”

G’raha blinks. And then splits into a smile, ears giving a quick one-two wiggle. “My friend, I am quite sure we can find something to do. Something very calm and stressless, but something nonetheless. What is your opinion on magic circles?”

[moominvalleysunset]

4 minutes Episode 6

Did anyone else get the feeling that Tyme maybe knew Great as a kid?

Why do I think that?

T asks G if he is "still afraid of dogs" and seems to find it endearing... (gives an excuse about researching G that I don't buy)

If Tyme's parents really founded the gambling operation, the families must have known each other.

Young versions of the characters seen on set that we haven't met yet (don't quote me on that, please).