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erika111111 · 3 months ago

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The Quarry and queer-baiting

It's a pretty known issue within The Quarry fanbase that this game basically set us up with two gay couples for them to just... not happen. In fact, it's almost as if the game rubs it in the players' faces that they don't, won't, and can't happen, besides the first half of the game setting them up rather clearly. It feels like the writers completely abandoned the idea halfway through, or for some reason just wanted to draw players in with the concept of queer relationships/characters just to rip it away in the end.

Disclaimer: This topic has been in my rough drafts for like, nearly two years at this point. I updated and added some stuff, but forgive me if I missed any crucial details.

So in the beginning, a lot of people wind up shipping both Ryan x Dylan (Rylan) and Emma x Abigail (Blygbank). Let's start with Blygbank since it's the shorter of the two.

So we do establish that Emma had a boyfriend, but the keyword is "had." To be fair, Jacob and Kaitlyn talk about it for the entire first section and that's the whole reason this game even happens, since Jacob wants another shot with Emma. So this straight couple is obviously very prominent. But, throughout the entire game, from multiple characters (Emma herself, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Ryan), it's repeatedly stated that Emma wants to move on from Jacob. Then we're introduced to Abigail, who's first scene is of her drawing a sketch of Emma. It's established that Emma and Abi are good friends. Maybe Emma and Abi will start a relationship? But, then we're introduced to Abi's crush on Nick. So I guess that idea just got blown out of the water...

To be fair, Emma's lack of interest in Jacob and Abi sketching Emma all happens very quickly within the first chapter. Perhaps it's the players' fault for jumping to that conclusion so quickly... but still.

What's more disappointing is that Abi and Nick are basically useless after chapter 6. There is actually yet another opportunity to develop some Blygbank relationship, but once again, it goes nowhere. Nick is bit and infected and starts acting absolutely horrible toward Abi, which very noticeably turns Abi off from him. Then Nick disappears for the rest of the game. But given Abi survives, she'll have another opportunity to have some alone time with Emma. Yet nothing of actual importance is discussed here. Not Emma kissing Nick. Not how Nick treated Abi. Not where Abi and Emma's relationship stands. Not where Emma and Jacob's relationship stands. We do get a moment where Emma reveals some of her true colors and she says that she needs Abi and she's been great to her, but once again, this goes nowhere. I guess we could see this as romantic, but Abi kind of seems just tired of and annoyed with Emma at this point and doesn't comment much about any of it. Basically there's just no conclusion. We have literally no idea where their relationship stands, romantically or otherwise. It's a huge missed opportunity.

While you can't get both of these scenes in the same playthrough, they do also push the Blygbank agenda. If you can get the "Nobody's Fool" route where Emma and Jacob reunite and Jacob tells her the truth, Emma will be completely and entirely done with Jacob. No more joking, no more mixed signals, she's just done. Which is kind of where the entire game was leading to from the beginning anyway, but this route gives it to us loud and clear. This accompanied with Abi and Nick going south again leaves us with a Blygbank option, but obviously, we get none of it. I know there's not much time left in the game by the time any of these scenes happen; maybe this is something else that could've been developed if we got any post-credits scenes, police interviews, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm reaching way too far with this one, but I think there's pretty good reason to ship Blygbank and assume maybe that's the direction they planned on going in. But I digress...

Onto part two, we have Rylan. And... Ryka? I have no idea what the ship name for Ryan x Kaitlyn is and I don't know if shippers for this couple even exist, so I'll just call them Ryka. And they're not a queer couple, but it's necessary to talk about the two at the same time.

I'll be honest, during my first several playthoughs/watchthroughs of The Quarry, I had no idea Kaitlyn was interested in Ryan. They do not do a good job of establishing that at all, and you can very easily miss every single opportunity for it to be brought up until chapter freaking nine. So honestly, Kaitlyn is pretty much a non-factor here. Dylan's crush on Ryan is very vocal and obvious, and the two are paired up very often throughout the game. Even if Kaitlyn's crush on Ryan was more well-known, Dylan is still the more obvious one between the two because, again, Dylan and Ryan are always paired up together.

Ryan is rather... uninterested in everything and everyone. But between everyone, he seems closest to Dylan. Of course, this can depend on how you play as both characters. You can make them argue A LOT, and Ryan won't always say the "I'm a bit closer to Dylan, I guess" line, but regardless, there's some scenes with them being close that will always happen. The most prominent scene between them is when they're walking to the radio hut and Dylan actually opens up to Ryan about who he is and what he likes to do. Ryan will have unwavering, non-negotiable interest in Dylan as a person here. Sure, they CAN kiss at the firepit, but Ryan can also choose to kiss Kaitlyn. They can joke around about the Bizarre Yet Bonafide podcast name, or they can't. They can agree over the gun, or they can argue instead. Ryan can cheer Dylan on or rush him. They can grab the phones and go or Dylan can annoy Ryan so much, he'll yell at him. Point being, there's a lot of options you can take with their relationship. You can make them close or you can make them bicker. Regardless, Dylan will remain interested. And regardless, they will have this intimate moment together on the way to the radio hut. Point being again, it's veryyyy obvious this a queer relationship in the making. Justice Smith is even a queer actor, and Miles Robbins is a very vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.

Then Laura comes and fucks the whole thing up. And I love Laura, mind you, but for some reason the writers decided to take this whole ship and spin it on its head when Laura arrives.

Before we get into the Laura segment, let me point a few more things out. I personally thought that Ryan was maybe oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings, didn't really know which one he liked more, or most prominently, maybe he was asexual. When Emma tells him to kiss either Dylan or Kaitlyn, he asks if he can kiss both. I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say unless he either liked both or just didn't care. Also, he can ask Laura, "You're doing all of this for a boy?" He really seems like he doesn't understand this kind of love or investment in another person romantically. Upon discovering that line, I pretty much accepted Ryan as asexual.

But then he's not asexual. And he's not oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings. And he's not interested in either of them. According to Justice Smith himself, when Laura asks Ryan who he likes more and he answers with "Maybe neither," it means that Ryan has a crush on Laura. And I truly don't get this, for several reasons. For starters, yes, Laura is doing all of this for a boy--her boyfriend, Max. She literally has a boyfriend already. And Ryan already had a thing going with Dylan. So why, seven whole chapters through this entire game, giving us LauraMax and Rylan, do they suddenly pair together Lyan? It's just a creative decision I will never understand. Maybe if Laura and Max had broken up, but still. She's not reintroduced until chapter 7 so we've already had six chapters of Rylan still. Maybe they could have made it more obvious from the beginning that Ryan wasn't interested in Dylan or Kaitlyn, but they just didn't do that. They particularly paired Ryan and Dylan up all the time and made them close. So, I call queer-baiting.

Of course, Lyan never goes anywhere. The only ending you can get that involves any kind of romance is actually Laura and Max reuniting. Laura and Ryan's romance happens in basically two seconds and there's barely any romance to even speak of. Laura does flirt with him a lot, but I believe that's due to the werewolf curse, as she stops that kind of behavior after her curse is lifted. They do seem to be close friends by then, she just doesn't flirt anymore or make weird comments. And really neither does Ryan. Sure, you don't always get the "maybe neither" line and you can choose less flirty options sometimes, but then they have a whole ass The Lovers card. So it's extremely obvious what the developers were going for. I just don't understand why suddenly go for this couple eight chapters through after already establishing a gay couple with Ryan himself and Dylan.

The only other thing we get on this matter is Dylan and Kaitlyn discussing Ryan's relationship with Laura on their way to the scrapyard. The most positive outcome for Rylan here is when Dylan says he and Ryan got close and Kaitlyn tells him "There's always next year." So it does give a bit of hope to this ship, leaving it open-ended despite the sudden occurrence of Lyan. Of course, you might not always get these lines, and Dylan and Kaitlyn can both agree "screw Ryan" and move on. So... I don't fucking know. It's like they purposefully set players up to support this clearly laid out queer ship of Rylan to then make it all insanely confusing and open-ended and piss people off. I think they really fumbled the bag with this one, and it's why I have a hard time shipping Ryan with literally anyone. It's all just a confusing mess.

I'd definitely say that the whole Supermassive Games chain of video games definitely got less queer-baity and more queer accepting over time. Just a few months later, The Devil in Me is released and they give us a Lesbian ship with Jamie and Erin. Also, with the Until Dawn remake, they cranked up the Jemily and Climbing Class. Not by much, mind you, but regardless, they acknowledged the popularity of these queer couples in the fanbase and added some crumbs for the players. It makes me wonder if they'll ever delve on Blygbank or Rylan in the future. I'm doubting The Quarry will ever get a remaster/remake with added content like Until Dawn, but who knows, I guess. As I said, both ships are pretty much left open-ended. But for now, I think The Quarry has a serious problem with queer-baiting, or maybe they just had no idea how to handle writing queer characters. I really don't know.

Lastly, none of this was supposed to be negative or attacking any single one of the ships mentioned in this post. I don't know how anything I said could be interpreted that way, but you never know. This post was just supposed to be informative. I hear a lot of people criticizing the queer-baiting within this game, as they should, and I decided to make an informative post covering all of the points and how I believe they screwed up the opportunities to put in these queer couples and somewhat alienate their queer audience.

Link to part two here.

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thefirstknife · 7 months ago

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The Thread Unfurls Against the Clocks: Saint-14 and how we saved him

Hello. It's time. I already did one summary of how we saved Saint, but I want to go even more in-depth because I later realised that so much of this is unavailable and also happened so long ago that most people don't even know where to look for it and what to look for. I also want to address all the adjacent lore like the stuff about the Sundial and also how it all relates to the current plot.

Finally, I want this to serve as an explanation that there's something very weird going on and that the Saint we have is the real Saint. I've seen people already super resigned after this week's story, simply accepting that there was a reveal that he is truly the "wrong" Saint. I want to analyse all we have on Saint in-depth and focus on how we saved him to show the level of detail involved because I think it's important to understand things in the episode.

Obviously, really compelling lore changes can happen and work out, but in this case I'm just not feeling it, for various reasons. We'll see, but I still think this is worth putting together and that we have plenty of indications that we saved him "correctly" so to speak.

Saint is a unanimously beloved character and one that is so closely linked to our player character as well. The setup for his return was established so long ago and was kept consistent the entire time. I feel like the stuff in Echoes is almost like a culmination of it all, as well as a reminder about what we've done. We'll suffer for a bit for sure but there is no doubt in my mind that Saint will come from this safe and healed. No matter what ends up being revealed, I believe he will be fine.

Contents! Long post under. Spoilers for Echoes Act 2, mostly just in the Echoes section.

Intro

Curse of Osiris quest

Season of Dawn

What's up with the Sundial?

Echoes

Intro

I'm not sure how familiar people are with the full scope of Saint-14, but he's been a character since the beginning. We didn't know much about him at all; the first mention was in vanilla D1 in this grimoire about the Darkness, listing what various characters think about it. Saint's thoughts:

Saint-14's Position argues that the Darkness was an invading armada, an alien force of incredible - but tangible - power. Some adherents believe that this armada sprang from species rejected or discarded by the Traveler for their sins.

All things considered, he wasn't that far off! Really cool detail, but this lore was referenced in TFS, in the lore book Chirality, and especially Saint's bit:

* Saint-14's Position is the most eminently practical of the bunch, no matter how the man himself protests that such an obvious facet of the truth doesn't require a formal philosophical stance to be named for him.

There's 10 years separating these lore pieces! But they're still being referenced because there are some incredible nerds writing this.

This doesn't tell us much about Saint, besides that he's thinking in very practical terms. He views the Darkness as something that can be fought back. Note that at the start we don't know anything else about him, not even if he's a Guardian. In House of Wolves, we get this lore where the author (the Speaker) is going off about Osiris. We get a little piece about Saint; Saint-14 suggested that Osiris should become Vanguard Commander and also vouched for Osiris. This was the first piece of info that these two are familiar with each other. How far we've come since!

After that, we get his helmet as an exotic in The Taken King (though it has no lore other than the flavour text) and a little bit of insight into him with the first proper lore tab that actually features him as a character. It shows his iconic headbutt and ends with him deciding to follow Osiris to Mercury. A few little details are mentioned in flavour text on the following items, mostly quotes about or from Saint: 1, 2, 3, 4. Number 3 is interesting:

"Stand with your back to the Wall, and not even the Darkness itself will move you." —Saint-14

Remember that!

There's a few more in Rise of Iron, again, just flavour text. He's really funny here, and being his usual heroic self here. That's it for his stuff in D1. Saint-14 was some sort of historic figure, he was a Titan, he fought in historic battles, he fought against the Eliksni and he had some sort of connection with the Speaker and Osiris. He was a practical man, a warrior and a protector.

He wasn't really a full character or anything and only had a few quotes and one lore tab where he actually does something. But the stage was set! He was clearly a character they wanted to explore and they did, in Curse of Osiris.

Curse of Osiris quest

Curse of Osiris returned his helmet as an exotic item and immediately gave us hints about the expansion of Saint-14's character and where they're leading him. The lore tab on the exotic is a conversation between Cayde-6 and Lord Shaxx where Cayde-6 insists that Saint is not dead, while Shaxx is just kind of resigned to it. Cayde also notes that Saint was a "weirdo:"

C6: No one ever put down a Kell faster than he could. But man, he was a real weirdo. SX: Eccentricity was his strength. C6: Talking about the Speaker like you're related to him is eccentric. Claiming he's seen the future, that he fought Six Fronts fueled on the idea that some Guardian savior is coming? That's insane.

Wait a minute. Saint-14 claimed he's seen the future and that he believed in "some Guardian savior"? What's that about? Wink wink. Nudge nudge. To make things even more obvious, the remaining conversation is... about the Young Wolf:

SX: Belief is a hell of a thing. C6: Sure, yeah. One Guardian's going to fix everything. Kick Crota off the Moon. Make it look like us Vanguard know our head from our hindquarters. Hey, where are you going? SX: One of the new recruits from Old Russia I've had my eye on—entering the Crucible for the first time. C6: Hey, maybe they're the one. We'll call 'em Crota's End.

Maybe Cayde should've started making prophecies too! But yeah. This was the first proper hint about what they cooked up for Saint's story. Saint has apparently seen the future and believed in a "Guardian savior" and he fought for the City fuelled by this belief. Very interesting! To make things weirder, there's Saint-14's Gray Pigeon which also features some strange lore at the end where Saint addresses an unknown person:

To my inspiration. Your final gift to me I now send back to you. It will be good to see you again.

This was wild to read at the time because it clearly references something that we don't know about, but that's incredibly important to Saint. The theory was that he might be talking to us, the Young Wolf, but how?

That's where the quest comes in. Curse famously didn't have a lot of content, but it did have the post-campaign quest with Lost Prophecies. They were a set of quests where we essentially had to collect items to transform "prophecy tablets" into weapons in the Infinite Forge which was a sort of interactable area in the Lighthouse on Mercury:

There were a total of 11 of these, with the final one being to acquire the Perfect Paradox. Each weapon came with a prophecy in the flavour text and a lore tab. The final one however, Perfect Paradox, triggered a whole separate quest in two parts. In part one, we discover an old Vanguard comm signal coming from the Forest which we follow and analyse to discover that the signal is from Saint-14.

Detecting traces of familiar Light up here. Wait… Saint-14? He's been missing for decades. Saint was one of the greatest Titans who ever lived. Hero of Six Fronts. All that power and he just… vanished. The City's still looking for him.

This quest also features this conversation from Osiris and Sagira:

Osiris: If Saint-14 is lost in the Infinite Forest, it's because he came here to find us. Sagira: You can't blame yourself for every missing Guardian, Osiris. Osiris: For him I can.

If you're lucky (or unlucky, depending on how many emotions this gives you), you can hear this line from Sagira in Presage. This is where it comes from!

The quest is kinda set up in a way to make you think we'll actually be saving Saint here. We finally found his comm signal and it's leading us into the Forest. He's clearly affected the Vex and the Forest with his Light and he's fighting back. Osiris gets involved and urges us to find him. The whole thing feels like we're doing what we usually do; find a problem and fix it.

Part two of the quest continues in a similar vein. The quest is called "Not even the Darkness," btw. Remember that quote from Saint from The Taken King? Yeah. Anyway, we go back to following the trace leading us to Saint, into the Infinite Forest, this time into a simulated future. There, the Vex get alerted and summon a big Minotaur; Hagios, Reverent Mind (whose name means "sacred" in Greek, so essentially... Saint). We kill the Minotaur and then the area behind it opens; it appears to have been guarding it.

When it opens, we're treated to a bittersweet sight:

The area is beautiful, but it's a tomb. Saint-14's body is laid out like this in a pillar of light, surrounded by piles and piles of dead Vex. The Vex fought him for an unknown amount of time and they ended up respecting him; enough to create a tomb and seal his body and set a whole Vex mind to guard it, and apparently, revere it. Despite how hopeful we've been about saving him, he is dead.

As we approach his body, we take the remains of his personal weapon. Back at the Lighthouse, we use these remains and the prophecy to craft the weapon as it was; Perfect Paradox shotgun. The prophecy attached to it:

A tale that's different from the rest: the thread unfurls against the clocks. The one the Speaker loved the best must have a perfect paradox.

The prophecy is from Osiris, of course, which means that at some point when he was making them, he already knew about the strange fate of Saint-14. Not that he is dead; Osiris hoped to find him in the Forest. But his prophecy talks about time travel and a paradox. In the lore tab itself, Saint attached a letter to the gun in which he once again addresses a mysterious person. This person is now definitively identified as us:

All I have left is this weapon. The Cryptarchs say you crafted it yourself, built it out of scraps and Light and sheer will, inside the Infinite Forge. I'll make sure it finds its way back to you.

Well that's correct. We crafted the weapon in the Infinite Forge. But we only did so after recovering its remains from Saint's body, so how could he have had the gun in the first place? Almost like... there's some sort of a time travel paradox involved. This was naturally bizarre at the time; we had nothing else on Saint or any of this during this quest, just these vague baffling hints that there's more to the story. Especially since it involves our character; Saint repeatedly talks as if he had already met us. He says so in the letter as well:

I mourn that I will never reach the heights you have. To me, you represent everything a Guardian can become. Yours is a thriving City. So different from mine. My whole fourteenth life I fought to make my City yours. I never finished.

He knows that our City is thriving and that we are "everything a Guardian can become." But we've never seen him before. This was really confusing and there was also not even a promise that it would be resolved. But it felt like something that they cared about deeply.

It would take 3 years until we got the resolution.

Season of Dawn

This is a big one in general because they really wanted to be as attentive to all details as possible. Even before the season started, they released several weblore pieces to remind us of Saint and bring up some important information.

The first one was The Accolade, about Saint's past and heroic deeds revolving around saving people. The weblore focuses on explaining what his "accolades" are; aka his purple ribbons on his armour and ship. They're gifts from people he saved; tokens of appreciation that turned into a type of a ritual with Saint. If you're saved by Saint, you have to give him something purple and he will wear it with him and remember your name. It ends with Osiris shortly after we found Saint's grave. Osiris went to see it for himself, to check, to make sure. He also laments that he never asked about the ribbons.

The next one is a glimpse into the past, a conversation between Osiris and Saint as Saint hands him the Vanguard Commander title. It's a good look into how that all happened, as well as the differences in approach and beliefs between Osiris and Saint.

And then they released The Sundial weblore (TW for suicide if you're reading the full weblore. One of his Echoes does not have a good time). Osiris is found on Mercury with a machine he built, putting finishing touches on it. It's called the Sundial. Osiris built it in response to Saint being dead, the implication very much being that he intends to use some form of time travel or some other time shenanigans to change the outcome and save him. Osiris never recovered from learning that he's dead and from seeing his dead body in the tomb. The design is Sagira's, and he's also helped by Drifter, who shows up to check the math. I'll go more into the Sundial later.

Osiris wraps up his work on it and turns it on. He splits into his Echoes and enters the machine to start searching through Saint's timeline on Mercury with the intent to find the right moment with the right Saint to save him; he is specifically looking for the moment when they drain his Light.

Osiris’s Echoes scour Saint-14’s timeline on Mercury. But the corridors of time refuse to give way to the moment they need: Saint and the Martyr Mind in the depths of the Infinite Forest. The Echoes work tirelessly for weeks, then months in the space between moments. In desperation, he splits the dozen copies into many thousands more as the work continues fruitlessly.

Osiris experiences what the kids these days call "epic fail."

None of the Echoes ever approaches a Saint. They never find the right one.

Despite all the work put into this machine and all of his knowledge and skill, Osiris doesn't manage to use the Sundial successfully. He never finds the right moment and he never saves him. It's worth noting that when Osiris used thousands of his Echoes, he experienced the time and life of every single one. But for Osiris outside the Sundial, it's only been a few moments. In those few moments, he essentially lived thousands of lifetimes. And died thousands of times. I need people to understand the amount of effort he put into this and what kind of an emotional toll it had.

Completely defeated, he gives up and hides the Sundial. He moves on with his life, doing what he always does, until stuff suddenly changes, which is explored in the next weblore: Actions of Mutual Friends. Us killing the Undying Mind in the season before Dawn changed everything, for the Vex and everyone else. We essentially created a point of divergence. The Vex suddenly had to change their projections of the future; Osiris noticed this and got very concerned.

While he wasn't looking, his Sundial was found, by Psion sisters. They figure out the potential of the Sundial and work to reactivate it, which they succeed in. The Red Legion descends on Mercury, looking to use the Sundial to essentially rewrite the course of the Red War and win.

Osiris finds out and goes to Ikora, to the City, to ask for help. This is the topic of the next weblore: Desperate Times. Osiris defends his choice to make the Sundial to save Saint, despite everybody else basically trying to explain to him that the universe might implode because of it.

This is a lot of setup, but it's necessary. It all leads into what happens in the season and what the season revolves around; saving Saint. It wasn't even a secret, as they very clearly showed it right away in the trailer (best trailer they've ever done). The seasonal gameplay revolved around us using the Sundial to defeat the Red Legion and stop them from trying to figure out how to essentially change the course of history. We had to fight three different Psion bosses, one of each of the sisters, until the end, when the three of them joined together into a single Psion entity for us to defeat.

As we were using the Sundial for this, Osiris also told us about what he made it for originally. He explains a little bit about it and about his failure to succeed, then warns us against using it for ourselves, but doesn't stop us.

I told you before - I tried to save Saint-14. I bent the rules of time using a prototype of the Sundial. It allowed me to walk the corridors of time here on Mercury. But I failed. I never found Saint's final moment against the Vex. I encountered younger versions from his first mission to Mercury, among others. But none were the right Saint. The prototype Sundial still exists, accessible off the main deck. And it can still travel through Saint's personal timeline on this planet. But venture there at your own peril. He cannot be saved. I have walked every permutation of those corridors with a hundred thousand of my Echoes and found nothing. Saint-14 is lost.

Despite this, we make the attempt and then the first part of the quest starts. When we use it, the Sundial reacts. It reacts specifically to the Perfect Paradox:

The Shotgun you crafted in the Infinite Forge is reacting to the Sundial! An onboard transponder is broadcasting coordinates: a path through the Sundial, crossing two time periods. The prophecy blueprint you used to create the Perfect Paradox must have included this broadcast. If you can open up the initial chamber, I can align us to the first time period the broadcast is referencing.

The two time periods are two points in time where it's relevant that we meed with Saint. The first one is in the Dark Age, when he came to Mercury with civilians in an attempt to reclaim the planet and help the struggling population of Earth with resources and possibly old Golden Age technologies. We connect to Saint via comms. He is devastated and demoralised. He failed to protect his people and he's also under siege by the Eliksni and is more or less resigned to dying. Lucky for him, we get there in time to help him out of this situation.

After the battle, we talk to him. Our Ghost hesitates a little but then decides to do it anyway; he shows Saint the projection of the Last City from the future, to prove to him that the everything will be fine if he continues to fight and stays hopeful. We also give him the Perfect Paradox, to help him fight. The loop is set! This gun was crafted in the future and was brought to the past. In time, Saint will die with it and we will pick up its remains from his body, allowing us to craft it in the first place.

Saint-14: What is this? Ghost: The Perfect Paradox. Built by my Guardian out of spare parts and Light and sheer will to aid you.

More importantly, this is the moment that Saint spoke of to other people that made him seem crazy. As we've seen in lore from years before, Saint kept saying that he saw a thriving City and that there's some sort of Guardian savior coming and that he's seen this future. He also wrote in that letter how we gave him the shotgun and how we saved him. This part of the quest is constructed around this lore. This moment is what Saint remembered and talked about. We saved him and invigorated his will to keep going. This is why he is the way he is.

We part ways and leave the Sundial. Ghost immediately goes to check if we messed anything up and to let us know that there's one more point in time to go to:

Okay, let's check the Tower databases to make sure we didn't just wreck the entire timeline. Queuing "Saint-14"… Records state he was a former Commander of the Tower. He vanished on a final mission to Mercury in search of the exiled Warlock Osiris. Well, those are the big beats. Timeline intact. Good job, Saint. But our trip's not over. That broadcast I picked off the Perfect Paradox marked one more set of coordinates within the Sundial.

The second part of the quest started a bit later, but it doesn't waste any time once it does. We're immediately linked up to the other point in time that Perfect Paradox reacted to and we're back in simulated future, in the same area where back in Curse we fought Hagios who guarded the entry to Saint's tomb. Except now, we find Saint who has just had his Light drained from him by another Vex mind; Agioktis, Martyr Mind (note that the name is more or less in the same vein as "hagios," aka "sacred," dedicated to Saint). This is the moment Osiris was looking for, but couldn't find it, because he didn't have the Perfect Paradox.

This is the Vex mind they built to destroy Saint and we find him as his Light has already been taken. But Saint is still eager to fight and greets us happily. Unfortunately Saint is then restrained, the Vex doing everything in their power to kill him. However, this time he's not alone. We're there and we fight in his stead. We manage to piss off the Martyr Mind enough for it to now move to restrain us, which frees Saint, returning his Light to him as well. Saint then delivers the final blow to the Martyr Mind which frees us!

Saint-14: It's been a long time, my friends. I've chased your memory for centuries. You should go now. Those who could kill me are dead. You've made sure of that. Ghost: And what if the Vex take your Light again? Saint-14: Impossible. It cost them everything to build the Martyr Mind. When you crushed it, they were doomed. Ghost: You want us to leave you? You'll be stuck here for years. Saint-14: You've both done plenty. Just open the Infinite Forest gate for me. I'll meet you the long way around, at the entrance. Saint-14: What's a few more years of fighting Vex?

Saint decides to stay in the Forest and wait until we open it from the outside for him, in the future. This is how he leaves in the right time, instead of too early for his timeline, so nothing else is really affected. He waits it out and then exits the Forest at the time of Season of Dawn. This gives us one of the shortest but also the best cutscenes ever. As a note, in the cutscene, when Saint leaves, the Forest gate looks new, like from Mercury's past. This is because of the Sundial's effects on the surface of Mercury at the time, splitting the surface through time, so the Forest gate looked like it's from the past, but it's not. It's present day Mercury.

When we report this to Osiris, to say that he's amazed would be an understatement. I often quoted this from him, especially when people were being weird about Osiris and claiming he doesn't like us or whatever:

In his youth, he talked often about the Guardian who inspired him. I should have guessed it would be you.

We've done the impossible. Literally. The quest is called "Impossible Task." Osiris did everything and he couldn't do it and he lost hope that it would be done. But we did it, because we created the time loop; a connection with Saint that allowed us to use the Sundial in a way Osiris could not.

Saint has been saved! After this, he settled in the Tower. He had a series of minor quests and errands, the best one being the quest for the Devil's Ruin exotic which featured a really long and funny conversation between Saint and Shaxx. Another one is obviously the Corridors of Time quest which is genuinely cannot be compared to anything else as it was a community puzzle of epic proportions. An article that showcases just a little bit of how bonkers it was.

The important part of it is that the culmination of the quest featured us finding our own grave and Saint narrating a eulogy for us. This is important to us now for two reasons: 1) on our grave was a sword, a sword we received as an actual item in TFS, directly from the Traveler to fight the Witness 2) it's possibly a different timeline. The second one is unclear because we simply can't know when we die, but the eulogy specifies that the sword was shattered in the final confrontation where we died. Our current sword is chipped, and it wasn't when we originally got it in the campaign. So either this is a different timeline where it didn't shatter or this isn't that confrontation when we die and it will shatter at some other point in the future.

In this post I also noted how the music that plays in our grave scene and the music that played in TFS when we get the sword is the same. A very clear and deliberate choice. This is a very cool link to Season of Dawn that they brought back over 4 years later.

With the Corridors of Time puzzle ending and the Corridors closing, that concluded the Saint stuff. He was finally saved and he could rest in the Tower! And we know everything that has happened since.

Okay. So...

What's up with the Sundial?

We don't know! But I want to get into it because it's one of those things that they made sure to hint about, without fully explaining it so obviously every weird nerd online (me) wants to figure it out.

Back in The Sundial weblore, there are some peculiar and never explained details about the Sundial that have been kinda concerning and just intriguing to think about. There are a few lines essentially saying that whatever is at its core, it's not good. First is Sagira's:

“That work was theoretical! If the Vanguard find out what you did to build it—“

What did he do to build it? No clue. The infamous core is described only as:

He turned to look at the fluctuating glow of the exposed chronometric core.

When the Drifter shows up, he immediately reacts to this, fairly negatively which makes things more ominous since Drifter tangles with a lot of weird and bad stuff himself. So if he's disturbed about this...:

Drifter walked to the central spire and put his ear up against it. “This core…” he said, leaning close. His eyes darted back to Osiris. “It’s whispering.” Osiris’s expression didn’t change; his arms didn’t uncross. “We’ll seal the core away. I understand the ramifications.” “Good luck keeping that contained. Not something I would bargain with, hotshot.”

The core "whispers." Osiris understands the ramifications. They're both so frustratingly vague so the only thing we're left with is this ominous vibe of something bad being at the center of the Sundial.

This whispering, alongside a few other concerning descriptions and implications of the Sundial is mentioned in yet another weblore that I only briefly mentioned earlier because it wasn't relevant to Saint stuff; Sisters. It's about the Psions finding the machine.

The Psions could somehow feel the Sundial. Or perhaps just the effects it had on time on Mercury, even while it was powered down and hidden.

“Small disturbances,” said oldest Ozletc, the wisest. “Little currents in this timeline. Can you see them, sister?” “I can taste them,” said second-born Tazaroc, the hungriest of her sisters. “I can feel the edges.” Third-born Niruul, the quietest among them, reached her hand out to test the air. “As can I,” said she. “And something else. The source is disguised. The technology is Human, but refined. Surprisingly so.”

They also note the whispering, as well as its potential:

A strange device shimmered into existence around them. They looked up the length of an enormous, golden spire. “It whispers,” said Tazaroc. “Then block your ears,” said Ozletc. “Do you see the potential in this?” “Chaos,” said Niruul. “No,” said Ozletc. “Opportunity. See how it tugs at the fabric of our time? Can you see the seams?”

They also make the strange comparison to the OXA:

“It is so clear,” said Niruul, reverent. “An unobstructed glimpse into what was and what will be.” “Not the troubled ramblings of a mad thing, like the OXA,” said Tazaroc.

The Sundial offered something more and better than the OXA ever could, implying, perhaps, that these machines have something in common; possibly something beyond simply Vex technology. My insanity about this has been going on for a long time and also helped with the TFS CE lore. A bit of a tangent, but also possibly related, depending on what the core is.

Furthermore, Osiris refused to tell Saint about details of the Sundial, including remaining vague about its core in this weblore:

[u.2:13] One is a manifestation of Light. The other… reserved for Taken Kings. Better suited for traversing the Sundial because of what lies at its core. [u.1:14] One day you’ll have to tell me exactly what you and the Guardian did to bring me back. [u.2:14] We did what we had to. Trust me.

So what is it? Well, we know:

It whispers (very obvious and easily detected, both by Drifter and the Psions)

It's something bad (Drifter's reaction to it is uncharacteristic for a man who tangles with the Taken for a living and deals with strange dangerous artifacts all the time)

Osiris' Echoes are better suited for the Sundial because of its core, and Echoes are something "reserved for Taken Kings." Bizarre way of saying it to avoid explaining it

Similar to the OXA, and possibly any other time/prediction machines based on Vex tech (because the OXA itself is confirmed to be more or less the same as the FWC Device, for example)

To recharge it, we needed to feed it Light. This is particularly concerning with what Osiris says about it: "The Sundial is my greatest creation and my greatest regret. What I had to do to forge it I can never take back. As a result, it has components that consume Light. And if you're serious about operating it again, you'll need to feed it. Nothing is free. Ever."

What this points to, to me at least, is Darkness. The core is a Darkness artifact of some sort, merged with Vex tech. This only gained more proof to me with all the new lore about the Darkness and how it governs the mind and memory, especially when the Vex are involved. To the Vex, the future is memory. Merging Darkness artifacts with the Vex might be able to create dangerous time travel machines or machines that displace consciousness through time and timelines, like the OXA and the Device, allowing the user to "predict."

To make things even more convoluted (and me more insane), there's an almost perfect explanation for what this artifact might be. So perfect that I feel like it's too good to be true, tbh. It's a Nezarec relic. I will now list everything that connects this:

It would explain the Darkness artifact. Nezarec's relics were full of Darkness and were being used by utilising that Darkness

Drifter's involvement and experience with it. Hell, the Drifter may have even provided this relic to Osiris, since he had one and did not particularly enjoy having it, which was detailed in Lightfall when they showed us how he got it. Plunder was also rich on this, showing us that the Drifter immediately recognised the relics and understood what they were.

Whispering. Darkness in general has a whispering thing; the Veiled statues, the Witness, the old stories about Dredgen Yor, there's a lot of whispering going on here. But it's really super connected to Nezarec. His relics were whispering to us in the H.E.L.M.. The glaive? Nezarec's Whisper. Another disciple also called him a "whispering Nightmare." All of Root of Nightmares armour lore has it as well, with Nezarec tormenting his victims with whispers; for example here, and here, and maybe even here. I could go on. He's the whisper guy. Literally, Nimbus called him Mr. Whispers.

Psions. The Psion sisters found and reactivated the Sundial... Somehow. They especially were able to almost instinctively locate it despite Osiris hiding it well enough. The Psions also needed quite a lot of time to activate it again and admired the complexity of the encryption, despite it being human, so we can't really say that they found it easily because Osiris' did a poor job of hiding it. Were they drawn to it? Were they drawn to it because of its core? Psions are inherently linked to Nezarec. It's been confirmed back in Lightfall, but also curiously mentioned again in TFS with the Lost Ghosts quest (timestamped here). I'm definitely hoping for some Psion content in the future but this is fairly interesting in this context. Season of Dawn was really the only proper Psion-focused storyline.

Osiris' coma. His coma appears to have been somehow paracausal. At least strange! The scans were showing that he has "no residual activity" in his brain, despite us having lore from his POV showing us that he had a very vivid and visceral activity. He was able to feel some external stimuli, but was mostly drifting through strange visions, seemingly hopping between his... Reflections. Or possibly Echoes. His final thoughts here are also of the Sundial; as if his mind was somehow stuck in there, or lost, trying to find his way out of it. This could just be a consequence of his memories constructing something for him to experience so obviously it's just cycling through what he knows, but...

Waking Osiris up from his coma happens with the use of Nezarec's relics. An important point to note here is that this wasn't so much about it being Nezarec's relics; it had more to do with the inherent Darkness they consist of and Darkness can help the mind and consciousness move or awaken. However, given all of this and given his POV from the coma and the possibility that his mind might have been stuck somewhere with his Echoes in the Sundial, if the Sundial's core is a Nezarec relic, then a Nezarec relic had more chance to bring him back. It's such a perfect connection that I feel insane thinking about it and it feels like I'm constructing a fanfic, but also. I think it's worth considering. Cutscene of him waking up + article from Bungie that details on the whole idea of waking him up with Darkness and why that's important for understanding Darkness.

I have to mention the other theory, especially in comparison with all the above to try and illustrate why it never made sense to me and that is the popular theory that the core of the Sundial is an Ahamkara bone and that the Sundial worked on wish magic.

I'm not quite sure why this was even a theory to be honest. Even back in the day of Dawn, this never really resonated with me because it seems that the only reason this was a theory was Drifter saying "not something I would bargain with" and... Possibly whispers? Obviously a lot of things can whisper, and Ahamkara have been also mentioned doing so, but I don't find this significant to Ahamkara enough for identification just through that. I also don't think that one mention of the word "bargain" is enough either. Many have bargained with Darkness too. There's simply an overlap between Darkness and Ahamkara here, but there are also other pieces that are more closely linked to Darkness like eating Light. We could go even further, if we're considering Ahamkara; we could also consider Worm Gods, for example. The point is that several things can fit here, but I feel like there's overall more things pointing at Darkness.

What gets me the most is that they alluded to this in Season of the Wish, in what seems fairly obvious as disproving this theory to me. Riven and Osiris talk:

Riven: Isn’t it unfortunate your City hunted down all of my kind, Osiris? You might have wished for Saint-14’s return from the Forest. Osiris: And have him trade the Vex’s torment for yours? Riven: Perhaps you simply didn’t want him back badly enough to pay the price. Osiris: Save the bait for someone naïve enough to take it.

I talked about this earlier, but there's several layers of why the moment I heard this, it sounded like it's here to disprove Osiris using an Ahamkara. First, Ahamkara wish magic would be felt by Riven. If Osiris put an Ahamkara into the Sundial, then he did use wish magic and she would know about it. In that case she would not have said this; perhaps she would've teased him about using her powers to save Saint, but that would be a completely different sentence.

Second, Osiris is well aware and wary of wish magic. He knows that had he done so, he would've probably put some form of torment (wish magic backfire) on Saint. This, to me, indicates that not only did he not do this, he didn't even consider it as an option.

Third, if Osiris had an Ahamkara bone and was considering to use it, he could've just done so without building the Sundial. Why bother with the machine if you can just instantly make a wish and the wish doing exactly as you want? Obviously with a caveat, but still. It would've worked right away. Perhaps the Sundial was an attempt to contain the backfire, mixing wish magic with Vex tech to try and prevent the whole thing from going backwards, but even then; Osiris knew there are possible consquences.

And fourth, even if he did all that, it just didn't work, which would be quite uncharacteristic for wish magic. It's paracausal; it should override any Vex tech in the Sundial. If he made a wish, he should ask for a refund! The Sundial worked only because of the paracausal loop we created with the Perfect Paradox and it had nothing to do with anyone's wishes; definitely not ours.

One interesting thing for this theory is the way they said how similar wishing and simulations are. It happened in Wish and now again in Echoes. Here's a freebie for the Ahamkara theory enthusiasts.

Personally though, I simply feel like there's much more connecting and sensible explanation with it being a Darkness relic, rather than Ahamkara.

HOWEVER. The truth is that we simply don't know. I am personally more into it being Darkness (and Nezzy specifically), but I could be wrong and the Ahamkara theory could be proven correct somehow. Hell, it could be something completely different. It could also be nothing; as in, we will never know because they won't tell us because it doesn't matter.

And technically, it doesn't! Nothing really changes if this doesn't get answered. I want that to be clear. This isn't some sort of lore breaking detail. But you know. The nerds would love to know. I really wanted to get into this now that we've had a resurgence in interest about Saint and how we saved him.

Echoes

Okay, so why this monster of an essay? Well, because Echoes revolves around Saint and the Conductor trying to convince him that he's the wrong Saint. That Osiris acted out of grief and pulled a random Saint from the timelines, that he's simply satisfied with what he got because he couldn't get his original Saint because that Saint died.

Saint is convinced in this; that he's some sort of an aberration in the timeline, a simulation or a copy or just the wrong Saint from the wrong timeline. Even an error that must be corrected.

And I simply think that people are too quick to jump to the conclusion that this is the story being told, especially because of the radio message this week where we're shown that Saint and Osiris suddenly have different memories. But I feel like people have already forgotten the other radio message, from week 1. You know, the one where Saint and Osiris talk about their memories and the memories match perfectly:

Saint-14: Osiris. Do you remember when we knew? Osiris: Knew what? Saint-14: That we were meant to be together. There was one moment... though, it took us time to get to it. Oh, but our Hunter Vanguard, so smart, Tallulah... she knew before we did. All our little squabbles and bickering. She saw it first. Osiris: it, uh — ah, well, I was — obtuse. Stubborn. I couldn't recognize my own emotions. Then, Tallulah told me to.. "Be serious". Saint-14: Haha! I remember. So yes, she told me later. Was good laugh. Osiris: Well, I'm glad you found it so amusing. Saint-14: Who could not look back and smile? And I remember your smile, then. So knowing, and so full of our future together. Osiris: What brought these memories on? Saint-14: Hmm. I think about others who will have those same moments now that they know they will a future free from the Black Fleet. Now they have a chance to find love and be happy, like us. We can look behind, but also forward. We cannot see what is coming, but we know it is good. Osiris: You're certain? Saint-14: About us? Yes. Since the beginning. Now, and always.

We have this memory as a lore tab as well. I think this was given to us deliberately, to show us that Saint and Osiris have identical memories and that Saint's memories were never in question and that their history is perfectly aligned... Until he got yoked. Something changed when he got yoked, not when he was saved. This is a new development, which tells me that the Conductor did something to him, rather than Osiris saving the wrong Saint. Because until now, this was never a problem. Saint never had discrepancies in his memories before, with anyone he ever interacted with.

If we take a look at the whole story of how he was returned, it's beyond clear that Osiris was very fixated on saving his Saint, not a random one, and that we went to great lengths to do just that. We only ever interacted with one Saint, the same one, and we linked each other with the Perfect Paradox. It cannot be any other Saint, even with the existence of other timelines. This Saint and this Perfect Paradox are ours, from our timeline, the originals.

However, other timelines do exist. And some entities can access them. The Vex are obviously first on the list. Characters like Elsie and Osiris have also seen them. And clearly, the Conductor should be capable of this as well. It's beyond clear now that the Conductor is Maya Sundaresh. Maya, who was simulated 227 times by the Vex and had those 227 copies of her wandering the Vex network and different timelines.

If the Conductor knows where to look and how, she could see these timelines, including these other Saints, and she could've fed Saint false information while he was yoked. Implanting memories of other Saints perhaps, or something similar.

I know a lot of people weren't there for Dawn, let alone Curse. There's a lot of information about Saint here and a lot of really interesting clues from the past about what's happening now. It's also really interesting how many little details have been transferred through the story over time, showing that this is a plotline they care about very much and want to make sure doesn't get messed up.

There's probably a lot more stuff we could get into for speculation and explanations because there's still more stuff that plays a role in this. The Infinite Forest is a big one, and I suspect the Perfect Paradox is as well, as we're likely to get it next week or the week after as part of the story. Because it should be relevant to the story! It's an inherent part of Saint's story and why he's with us now in the first place.

So what's really going on? We're not entirely sure yet, but assuming that the Conductor is correct and that her messing with Saint is revealing something about Saint's legitimacy is I believe wrong. I think she's using him as an experiment and that she's messing with him, and by extension, with us as well. There's no way that we've had a "wrong" Saint this whole time and that nobody ever had any issues with him. That nobody had any discrepancies between memories with him. Not Osiris, not Ikora, not Shaxx, not Saladin, not Zavala or anyone else Saint interacted with since he's been back. As I mentioned, literally the first radio message shows us Saint and Osiris with matching memories.

It only started after he was yoked. Which means that the yoke and the Conductor did something to him, possibly shown him some other timelines or fed him false information.

Can't wait to see where this is going. I'm not sure how much this Act will cover and if we'll get a resolution to this right now or if it will stretch to Act 3, though if it doesn't get stretched, then I wonder what will the draw of Act 3 even be. Possibly just dealing with the Conductor? I'm very excited. This episode being so focused on Saint and Osiris and the whole throwbacks to Dawn and other past content has been really good. I'm enjoying it very much, this is my entire jam. I had high hopes for Echoes and so far it's been going great.

I'm super excited to see how they solve this and what comes of it and how much of this information will be relevant. And of course, if it will end up being correct! Because as much as I have my theories and as much as I'm convinced that there's something off here and that our Saint cannot be the wrong Saint, I could still be wrong. Looking forward to finding out!

#destiny 2 #saint-14 #osiris #vex #conductor #long post #lore vibing #i hope that this is also helpful to people!#i genuinely could've gotten into more. there are several unhinged tangents to go into at any point

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ilovepinof · 7 months ago

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HI! I’m currently making a Dnp Youtube playlist so I can fully introduce them to my mother (since shes going to TIT with me). Do you have any favorites/recommendations??

I’m adding more post hiatus vids since thats the energy we’re mostly getting on tour, but i’ll take anything :]

A silly bonus: The other day I gave her a short rundown of the timeline, and she pauses me and goes “Oh they live together?”, and I said yes expecting her to inquire further but she just went “Very nice.” 😭😭😭 so either shes completely clueless on the dynamic or understood it immediately, but I found that funny.

(I literally saw a big post about this yesterday I wish I could find it but alas I will try to give my best suggestions)

This post can be useful for anyone who has friends/family going to TIT with them that may not know much about Dan and Phil!

This post could also be useful to share with any friends who want to get into Dan and Phil

Feel free to pick and choose, you obviously don't have to watch every single one of these with your TIT buddy.

Category 1: Dan and Phil Lore - There are a few current videos that can give insight into past&present Dan and Phil lore without having to go super duper in-depth with her about everything.

Dan and Phil React to Every Phil is not on fire! #1 - I feel like anyone whos seeing TIT should be aware of Pinof lore but maybe thats just me because...I mean look at my username. I think watching PINOF react #1 is good enough because its the core trilogy and explains their origins well

Are Dan and Phil Connected? - I'd describe this video as taking a ton of shots of Dan and Phil lore rapidly at once, though she wouldn't understand everything she could at least begin to know stuff!

Both Pizza Mukbangs!! Here is mukbang 1 & here is mukbang 2. I feel like these two videos really encompass a lot of what Dan and Phil have gone through in the last few years and lay a good foundation of the tour.

Halloween Baking - SLIME AND SADDNESS CINNAMON ROLLS - Dan and Phil baking is a core part of Dan and Phil content and cannot be missed. This one doubles as a fun activity! You can bake and watch Dan and Phil together! Me and my (non phannie) partner did this and it was so much fun.

Any WDAPTEO - Heres a link to the most recent one

One final option in this category would be either of the dnp react to phan twt videos because it would explain the fans more but I don't feel as if this is necessary.

Category 2: Dan vs Phil - I feel like Dan vs Phil really shows a lot about their individual characters and dynamics. I'd start her off with these videos to get her into the world of Dan and Phil a little. Here are the ones I suggest.

Dan vs Phil IS BACK! Switch Sports

Is Dan smarter than Phil?

Dan vs Phil - FALL GUYS!

PARTIAL KITCHEN REVEAL SHUFFLEBOARD SHOWDOWN!

Category 3: Misc - Videos that I could not fill a full category for but I think would still be good.

This game ended our friendship - Bread and Fred - In a similar way that I feel like Dan vs Phil shows their dynamics well, I think it's important to also show the chaos of their team work. This one was one of my favs I rewatched it so much.

Who is the liar? Dan Phil or Pj - Whats a better way to get to know someone than Dan and Phil with one of their good friends? I highly suggest any Dan Phil Pj Soph video!!

GOLF WITH SLITS - Dan and Phil Play: Golf with Friends #9 - An iconic channel series.

Category 4: (some of) ILOVEPINOF's fav comeback videos - These videos were just my personal favorites. Think of this list as kind of "extra things you could watch" because they're all reallly good videos in my opinion.

Dan and Phil's raging Trombones

Trunk Dexting with Pan and Dhil

Dan and Phil Dress Each Other

Forcing Dan to Watch MORE Tiktok Likes

THE BACHELOR PARTY - Dan and Phil play The Sims 4: Season 2 #5

#are you going to TIT with someone who doesn't know dan and phil? well this post is for you!#terrible influence #terrible influence tour #tit tour #dan and phil tour #dan and phil TIT #dnp tit #dnptit #dan and phil #daniel howell #phil lester #amazingphil #danandphilgames #phan #bil-bo yaps

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loopy777 · 7 months ago

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So I've read 'The Reckoning of Roku'

This isn't a real review, just my impressions and reactions. No spoilers.

I'll start by admitting that to me, Randy Ribay is no F.C. Yee. I vibe perfectly with Yee's stuff, to the point where he's on my "Read Anything They Write" list; I vibe with his genre choices, his dialogue, his characters, his scope, his storytelling, etc. By contrast, Ribay's writing is functional for me, but nothing more, and feels bit more narrow. There are a few instances, even, where I think he made some amateurish wording choices, but most people probably wouldn't be bothered by it and that's likely me just being snobbish. What I'm leading up to is that I think the story is Fine, and I don't have the enthusiasm for it that I do for the earlier Avatar novels, but neither do I think it's bad.

Part of that ambivalence is our familiarity with Roku. Compared to Kyoshi and Yanchen, we know a lot more about him. We have an entire episode of AtLA devoted to his life story. This book finds a slot we haven't explored before, but I think I could summarize the feel of the story by describing the prologue: the book opens after Roku has learned he's the Avatar but before he says goodbye to Sozin, then skips the scene where said goodbye is said (since we saw it the cartoon and I guess there was no desire to novelize it), then resumes the next morning for their final public formal goodbye, all while trying to achieve the same feel and impact of the actual goodbye scene from the cartoon. Similarly, my impression is that the book covers a character arc for Roku which feels very much like what was covered in 'The Avatar & The Fire Lord,' presented as a kind of microcosm of that lifelong story, via events set shortly after he begins his Airbending training.

For all that, though, it fits poorly considering what we already know about Roku. These novels have been very free with retcons, especially when it comes to Avatar Kuruk, but I've been pretty tolerant of that since so little was known about those characters previously and they obviously weren't constructed to be protagonists of their own stories, just props to Aang's. But Roku was a bit more developed and got a whole episode devoted to his life story, so I feel like some things are revealed about him in this book that should definitely have been mentioned in 'The Avatar & The Fire Lord.' Likewise, what we see of Roku's Airbending training in the cartoon doesn't really fit with this story, and I feel like a hint about Sozin's father in the cartoon is interpreted in an awkward way here. None of it "breaks canon" or anything, but it sticks out as a poor fit.

But I'm sounding pretty negative so far. Let's talk about what I like in the book.

Young Gyatso is wonderful. 10/10 no notes, as the kids say.

Sozin is a real piece of work, as he should be.

Ta Min is a lot more interesting than I expected.

As I've noted in a lot of my talk of the AtLA comics and the other Avatar novels, I'm usually very down on forced references to random stuff in AtLA/Lok, and especially needless explanations for elements of those stories which would be better just as something random. However, there's something in this novel that's both a forced reference and a needless explanation, and I thought it was hilarious and wonderful. So good on Ribay for making that work for me. I'm still grinning about it.

The plot is more straightforward than the previous novels, but still creates tension and mystery. It also has a few beats that feel rather mythical, which I always enjoy. And I think it does a great job creating a balanced set of stakes, where things feel urgent and important without leaning on the old Fate Of The World too much.

The story feels complete while also having some very clear paths for the sequel to follow.

So, overall, I think the Avatar novels continue to outshine the comics, even if I don't want to kiss this book.

#reckoning of roku

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cdroloisms · 1 year ago

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c!Dream and early aid for Pogtopia

(i promised this post so long ago rip)

There is a lot to say about c!Dream and the Pogtopia/Manberg era, especially because so many events in this period of time define the future of his character in very long-lasting ways. Much discussion has been focused particularly on the Vassal discussion and c!Dream's loyalties after--today, though, I want to focus on c!Dream's priorities before that discussion and what they might reveal about his goals.

First, I want to quickly link my post I made on c!Dream during the L'manburg Revolution, which establishes a few of the key c!Dreamisms that influence my read of him particularly pre-November 16th. Second, I want to point to a clip in the drodcast that emphasizes that the reason why c!Dream switched sides to Manberg was for the story's sake and in-universe therefore only happened because of the revive book deal, further indicating that the character had no prior intentions to turn against Pogtopia.

All that being said, there are a couple main points I want to make about (how I interpret) c!Dream in early Pogtopia.

c!Dream was already pretty obviously acting alone/isolated at the beginning of this arc

c!Dream was always genuine in his support for Pogtopia

There is more reason to believe in c!Dream's assertion that he wanted "L'manburg to be something" than the opposite

Starting wth point one, I think it's important to acknowledge how c!Dream emphasizes the idea of secrecy repeatedly during the beginnng of the Manberg/Pogtopia arc. He talks about how he has to provide support "from the shadows" in the Tyrant book, and he expresses similar sentiments when he gives supplies to c!Techno around this time as well. At the very least, when he was supplying aid at this point in time, he was pretty damn obviously acting alone--we see this as the arc progresses as well, when c!Dream helps c!Tommy in the Battle of the Lake and when he meets with Pogtopia during Vassal, for example.

Of course, acting alone doesn't necessarily mean isolation, although taking on a big + potentially dangerous task alone can lead to feelings of isolation regardless of that fact, but if we take a look at c!Dream at this time...sure he has friends, and people he's friendly with. But in terms of actual allies, he's kinda been on his own? c!George was decidedly part of Manberg due to the coalition at the start of the arc, and as far back as the Elections we see him claiming that he was "under Dream's rule" to explain that the decisions weren't his own in the Revolution.

Even though c!George obviously does not have high opinions of Wilbur and Tommy and their whole deal re: independence, we also see that no one really protests when c!Dream is called the "leader of tyranny."

And outside of this one debate, when we look at the actual events of the server...c!Dream enters into a few conflicts after the Revolution, all of which were not initiated by him. In these conflicts, he repeatedly has his items used as blackmail against him w/ the discs being the cited justification in a lot of cases (discs that were, once again, legally traded to him). And as far as these conflicts go, in terms of actual allies? There's really no one consistent at all? c!Sapnap outright teams with c!Tommy to get Dream's stuff until he turns on c!Tommy when he realizes opposing Dream isn't a good idea for him. c!Dream gets pulled into c!Sapnap's mess with the Pet Wars and therefore helps him hide their pets when the fight escalates--but at no point does c!Sapnap really outright support c!Dream in a conflict that involves him. c!Skeppy is also out here mostly in it for his own gain and was the one to steal Spirit's leather (from his. grave 😭) in the first place, like. Consistently, when c!Dream is involved in an actual conflict, he acts alone--before the Manberg/Pogtopia arc even begins. Mix in the fact that L'manburg was largely seen as an independent entity despite its technically being a part of the Dream SMP (and therefore Dream having to act accordingly) and the way that like the fandom, the L'manburg Revolution's aftermath brought in a lot of new members that further solidified the narrative in-universe (just like how a lot of new fans joined after the L'manburg Revolution, especially bc of the SAD-ist animation, which all served to solidify the l'manburg = heroes connection in the fandom as well) and the idea of c!Dream as the "bad guy" of the Revolution went relatively unchallenged (along with c!Eret, who obviously never shook the title of traitor.)

c!Dream was lacking in consistent allies and largely dealt with conflicts involving himself alone pre-Manberg/Pogtopia (gestures at how it's me and you against Dream was reiterated repeatedly), and when Manberg/Pogtopia began he had even more reason to act by himself. He was acting against the peace treaty by helping Wilbur and Tommy in Pogtopia, and a lot of the people he knew were friendly with or outright were a part of Manberg (George was a literal part of the government at the beginning, Karl was looking for wherever he could get an advantage, Sapnap is. Sapnap and shit was happening like the Battle of the Lake which literally involved kidnapping Niki, as well as other things)--c!Dream, at this point, is already used to working alone and had many reasons to continue doing so.

Onto point two: c!Dream was genuine in his support of Pogtopia throughout the arc until the point of the revive book deal. I want to point to the clip again from the drodcast, specifically how Dream says that before the conception of the revive book, c!Dream "literally switched for no reason we had no reason for me to switch [outside of the revive book]." This, plus the fact that what canonically does end up driving the decision to "switch sides" by publicly supporting c!Schlatt on November 16th is the literal revive book, all points to how c!Dream wasn't exactly going to side with c!Schlatt easily. It literally takes the whole ass revive book, the item that shatters his view of reality with its implications and was one of the central reasons why he had a paranoid spiral that involved him cooking up the prison for him to consider being on Schlatt's side.

Oftentimes, the arguments around c!Dream in this era and how he was manipulating the situation for his own gain boil down to two main moments where an assertion is made that c!Dream was playing both sides to make them destroy each other, those being Vassal and his speech to c!Eret on November 16th.

The first excerpt, Vassal, happened in early October, and the latter comes from the famous conversation c!Dream has with c!Eret on November 16th. And from these two excerpts, it can seem reasonable to believe that c!Dream's intentions were in the realm of helping both sides destroy each other, especially considering his saying that his plan is "there is no Manberg, there's no L'manburg, there's no Pogtopia, there's just Dream SMP an there's Dream SMP everywhere." But--regardless of whether or not you believe this statement, regardless of whether or not he wanted L'manburg gone from the beginning of this arc, it's undeniable that his actions do not support the claim that he was always planning to help Manberg to sabotage both sides.

The only reason why c!Dream helps c!Schlatt, and by extension Manberg, was the revive book. And this is made quite explicit both in and out of character. This man was calling Manberg L'manburg to Manberg's goddamn cabinet, for god's sake. As soon as the deal with the Election results go down, c!Dream aligns himself with Pogtopia. He supplies Manberg no aid until after the revive book deal and literally warns Pogtopia when he switches sides???? Even the claim that he wanted the two entities to destroy each other doesn't reflect the reality of him knowing that destruction would come at c!Wilbur's hands from the TNT, not from the fight between Manberg/Pogtopia in itself.

Even if you proceed with the reading that c!Dream wanted L'manburg dead and gone and wanted that from the beginning, he quite clearly was helping Pogtopia against Manberg in order to facilitate his goals and was not helping c!Schlatt until the revive book forced his hand.

The third point is the one most up for debate/based on interpretation, but I believe that, based on the information we have, it is more reasonable to believe that at the beginning of Manberg/Pogtopia c!Dream had no plans for the total destruction of L'manburg and didn't necessarily see that as one of his end goals for the server than to say that the opposite is true.

For one, going back to the revolution, c!Dream--even then--didn't have total annihilation of L'manburg as his end goal. He goes into that war knowing that he would give them "technical independence"--allowing them to exist as an entity, hell, allowing them to have 'independence' in some form (although obviously he finds the whole "we are our own server now actually" situation ridiculous). If there was ever any time to pursue the total destruction of L'manburg as an entity, it would've been then, before L'manburg was ever firmly established.

If we take c!Dream purely at his word (a dubious thing to do for sure, obviously, mans is a liar--but at the same time, c!Dream at that time was also a man that was known to generally keep his end of the deal) then c!Dream's motives at the beginning of Pogtopia are quite clear: the Tyrant book establishes the reasons why he opposes c!Schlatt, that he was able to maintain peace with L'manburg but did not feel that the same could be true as long as c!Schlatt was leader, and that "Schlatt is no Wilbur."

Later on, in Vassal, he reiterates these points, openly mocking c!Schlatt in connection with democracy and once again stating that he doesn't see Pogtopia as the bad guys + stating that c!Schlatt, unlike c!Wilbur, is unfit as a ruler because of his ambition.

Later on, when outright questioned about why he supports L'manburg now when he was the one that famously opposed them in the Revolution, he says this:

and obviously, right, he could be lying. I'm not discounting that. But it's rather notable, I think, that when it comes to c!Dream agreeing to give c!Wilibur TNT, that's in response to "I want to rig the city"--a city that, at that minute, was in enemy hands and a force that they were planning on fighting. c!Dream had pledged his allegiance to Pogtopia and specifically set a precedent of himself as an ally that would provide military aid and items (see: the gear he gives c!Techno and c!Tommy, Battle of the Lake, hell, he gives c!Tommy TNT literal minutes before Vassal while all but guarding him when c!Tommy is trying to antagonize Manberg in order to bring them back and keep them from discovering Pogtopia)--his support in this area does not, in my opinion, show clear support for the actual ideological reasons behind why c!Wilbur concludes he has to blow up L'manburg (and in Vassal, we actually see him push against those reasons several times, as shown below.)

And again, whether or not you think his disagreement is genuine or if you believe he was just fishing for information/how serious c!Wilbur actually was, I'd say that his words and action in this scene do, repeatedly, indicate a level of hesitance. He is not jumping the gun as soon as the opportunity presents itself for him to get rid of L'manburg once and for all--he's being cautious. Assessing. So much so that c!Wilbur picks up on it and outright threatens him, which is also the point in the conversation where c!Dream stops arguing back against any of the points that he makes:

And the point I'm making here isn't that c!Dream didn't want L'manburg to be destroyed when he agreed to give c!Wilbur the TNT. I think there does exist proof for this point, including whatever the hell Dream knew that Plan B had to happen...I'm so proud was supposed to mean, but that's not the point I'm specifically trying to make here. Rather, I think that until L'manburg's destruction is specifically brought up by c!Wilbur, there is little proof that shows c!Dream as specifically pursuing it/planning to get rid of it for the sake of a factionless server.

Sure, you can say that c!Dream's ideal server would've been a server without L'manburg on it. You could also say that c!Dream's ideal server at the time was a server where c!Tommy shut up abt the damn discs alread and a server where c!Sapnap stopped rampaging through the pet population on the server--there's a difference between "the ideal" and what he was specifically working towards. And the fact of the matter is, after the Revolution, c!Dream really doesn't have any conflicts with L'manburg itself. c!Tommy? Certainly--largely initiated by c!Tommy for the discs that he literally traded c!Dream during the revolutionary war. But c!Dream is hardly entering into faction conflict--he even says, in Tyrant, that they had peace between their two nations, and that it was C!SCHLATT'S election that disrupted that peace.

And c!Dream's particular dislike of factions is also something that I think has a tendency to get...overexaggerated? Especially because it's one of the foundational tenets of the L'manburg mythos--c!Dream is a control freak that opposed the idea of people getting together to make a "country" without him, etc etc. This is even something that is addressed in the Mexican L'manburg debates:

c!Dream doesn't like factions, true. He'd prefer a united server without them, true. But c!Dream being pushed into taking action against any particular faction really didn't start from him just, hating factions in the first place? There always was some kind of inciting incident. By the time of post-Nov 16th, he quite evidently recognizes that factions are going to continue to be a Thing--he never has any outright conflict with the Badlands, for example, because they don't really engage in conflict with him--and later he practically ignores El Rapids even after the whole debacle that was Mexican L'manburg. When c!Dream says "look you guys were fine because you were just existing" in the Tyrant book and in Vassal, that fits the pattern of how he deals with faction conflict on this server? (See, also, how he generally doesn't go after factions post-prison, despite making some implicit threats: the only faction that he goes after is LN, and even if you consider the fact that he probably had bigger fish to fry with the whole, world reset thing, once again factions don't really matter to him until he's registering them as an explicit threat.)

The Revolution was meant to prove a point, the point being don't fuck with me--a point that c!Wilbur clearly understood and abided by. And after the Revolution, c!Dream really never shows any inclinations of wanting conflict with L'manburg or wanting it gone the way that we see that as more consistent trait later on by the time we get to things like the revive book deal, and Nov. 16th, and especially in his dealings with NLM leading up to Doomsday the unfinished symphony, right?

And, you know, all of this makes sense. c!Dream knows that L'manburg isn't just about L'manburg itself, considering the damn story of L'manburg was established by c!Wilbur in like, what, a day? c!Dream and the Americans (tm) were established as the Enemy even though half of them literally weren't involved at all in the drug van conflict (and members of L'manburg had. Literally fought with c!Sapnap in said conflict??) and L'manburg grew out of that story in almost no time at all. c!Dream has zero reason to believe that the destruction of L'manburg in entirety is even possible--he literally didn't think it was possible in the Revolution! c!Dream's priorities for the server isn't a factionless server, it's a peaceful server--not to mention how he literally saw L'manburg as part of the Dream SMP anyway? As long as L'manburg the entity wasn't starting shit (which they weren't, not until Schlatt got elected and everything went to hell) c!Dream really doesn't have a motive to try and Start A Conflict against them (which is antithetical to the whole peaceful coexistence schtick that he was trying to get at) and really doesn't have much of a reason to think that any of that would even work either, considering how he was quite confident that the L'manburgians would never give up when L'manburg was like. A week old.

Of course, with Vassal and with c!Wilbur going "let me destroy it all" it's obviously perfectly possible that c!Dream was thinking hey, the guy that all of L'manburg respects and sees as leader wants L'manburg gone, this could possibly lead to L'manburg being fully dissolved and the server going back to being factionless and united and for that to motivate his later actions in the arc and his support of c!Wilbur. But Vassal still has to happen first. There really isn't any reason to believe that c!Dream was gunning for L'manburg's destruction at the start of the arc, and c!Dream really had every reason to believe that that wouldn't even be possible (and I mean, NLM had rebuilt itself literally like. In the span of a week? So.) Based on what we see, the most that can really be said imo about c!Dream here is that he's being opportunistic, and even then he expresses a level of hesitance throughout Vassal.

Considering how c!Dream supported Pogtopia from the beginning and only ends that alliance because of the revive book deal and considering how he acted in the time period between the Revolution and Manberg/Pogtopia, I think it's fair to state that c!Dream's statements of his end goal being to return to the "peace" that had existed pre-Manberg through the coexistence of L'manburg and DreamSMP, one side believing themselves independent and the other side believing that they're all part of the same server, was. His original end goal when Manberg/Pogtopia began. He had every reason to support Pogtopia over Manberg (and by extension, Wilbur over Schlatt) when you consider how Wilbur generally was willing to play nice with c!Dream post-revolution, a sentiment rather clearly not shared by c!Schlatt and his expansionist ideals. Even if c!Dream would've preferred a server without L'manburg, his actions as far back as the Revolution indicate to me that the likelihood of his actually creating any plans in that direction is rather small and that his sentiments of returning the server back to how it was in its pre-Manberg state are close to the truth. c!Dream isn't stupid enough to think that destroying L'manburg outright would've suddenly resulted in server peace--destabilizing shit by making everyone mad at him at that point in time really seems antithetical to his goals? It seems more likely to me that c!Dream, in alignment with his goals, at this point would prioritize a peaceful server over a factionless one, especially at a time pre-Manberg nonsense when the whole "L'manburg is an independent nation that Matters A Lot To Everyone" is just so deeply entrenched.

And obviously quite a few important changes happen to his character around this time, especially due to 1) Vassal and 2) the Revive Book Deal. I think that these two in particular have a lot to do with the character that we see in November 16th (when c!Dream is already acting quite a lot more like how he will continue to act over the next two months up until staged finale, and when he's already a little bit more, uh. Unhinged than we've seen him, looks at his laughter when c!Wilbur detonates the TNT.) And obviously a lot of the important development that happens at this time (such as his spending time with c!Wilbur in Pogtopia + the. Everything with c!Schlatt, the book deal, shakes everyone about the book deal again) happens off-screen, so we have to speculate a bit. But at the end of the day, when c!Dream is considered in the context of who he was before Manberg/Pogtopia began as well as who he ends up being at the end of the arc, it definitely feels to me that these early moments shouldn't be as wholly dismissed as an act/front/lies what have you as they commonly are.

#oh GOD this ended up so long. ummm . rip #long post #c!dreamisms #c!dream #dreblr #i promised this post literal months ago rippp #also disclaimer lmao a lot of this is abt interpretation and a lot of how people see pogtopia is commonly disputed #this is just how i see the events 👍#i try to give my reasoning for why as thoroughly as i can but yeahghhgh ...

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ms-cartoon · 2 years ago

Text

HB Western Energy, Rant Review

Okay, imma just go ahead and jump straight into it....

-- Stolas and Stella barking at each other like a couple of high schoolers. Calling each other names n stuff. Even Stella yelling “F*CKISH. IMP. SUCKER!!” Okay... is she mad about the affair or not? I mean, yeah... we kinda learn that she doesn’t care about that and had always hated Stolas (even then, it still doesn’t make sense given how this was written) But she yelled that with such anger in her voice and she keeps calling him things that go along the lines of either banging an imp or being a cheater. She even called a hitman on him while referring to him as a “cheating prick!” All I’m saying is, if she really hated Stolas from the get-go and if she actually doesn’t care about the affair, then make her act like it. I don’t even think she should even care about who he did it with. Even if she was embarrassed about it being with an imp, it’s not that serious. Especially when she already hates him. The writers are just making her unnecessarily petty.

-- Speaking of the bickering, I can’t even take these two seriously anymore with the way they’re fighting. Once again, I feel like I’m looking at immature high schoolers cussing and throwing childish insults at each other. This was not the kind of dynamic I was expecting at all. And this was supposed to be the abusive relationship we’re expected to cry for Stolas over??? The writers were making it seem like Stolas was the sensitive one in the relationship the entire time, afraid of standing up to her. He could’ve thrown her out a long time ago if it was that simple.

-- Man... the C word is being spat out more than the f-bombs in this episode!

-- We see from Stolas’s phone that he’s planning to have a meeting with Asmodeus soon. This is probably about the whole crystal thing to give to Blitzo in the future so he could FINALLY drop the deal about giving the grimoire back in exchange for sex. How much you wanna bet this meeting with Asmodeus is a pointless plot hole waiting to happen until the last minute? I can just tell by the way the scheduled meeting on Stolas’s phone was shown to us in a blink of an eye and it wasn’t even that important.

-- Stolas: Cheating implies there was a betrayal. This woman never gave two sh*ts about me or very much our arranged marriage.”

Oh jeezus... less than 40 seconds in and this episode already pissed off with the bullsh*t. These writers are seriously telling us “It’s okay that Stolas cheated on his wife, cuz she never liked him anyway.” Well, OF COURSE NOW we know she never liked him! Of course, NOW it’s revealed she abused Stolas the whole time they were married! I mean after all, how else is Viv gonna let Stolas slip by and have him be in the right EVERY. GODDAMN. TIME!!! As if all of his flaws from season 1 to the last episode just never happened and now suddenly, he did nothing wrong and his affair is completely justified when it shouldn’t be. Y’all can see it how you wanna see it, but cheating is cheating and it’s wrong!! It doesn’t matter if Stella never loved him or he never loved her. If he really couldn’t stand her, he could’ve just divorced her when he had the chance too. It’s not like anything was stopping him from before. You could say Octavia was the main reason why he stayed, but he and Stella already fight in front of her!! She was already not happy with this family to begin with since the first season. And besides, how can we even say that cheating on Stella was excusable when Octavia was obviously affected by it?? He may not have cared about how Stella felt, but what about Octavia!!?? His DAUGHTER!??

-- Stella in the first episode of the second season made it seem like the whole divorce thing was gonna be a big deal like it was a whole violation to the Goetia demons and Stolas was breaking a rule, but so far... the divorce did nothing. All we see is her bickering with him more and demanding her belongings back from the mansion. She never even liked him from the beginning anyway, what would make her so upset about the divorce? What does she have to lose from it? The power? The money, the status?? I mean, she would lose her status as a queen... but that’s it. Aside from that, she’s still a noble and she’s rich. She shouldn’t have anything to worry about. And she mentioned her brother as if he wasn’t to be messed with. Like he was gonna be angry and come after Stolas for having the audacity to divorce his sister. But all I see is a pompous peacock who just wants money and doesn’t care at all about Stella’s divorce... Why would they even be asking for money or power???? They’re already rich as hell!!! What else could they possibly want to gain from Stolas?? Just more money???? Wha- do they want the kind of status that Stolas has; a demon prince? Cuz, I don’t think that’s how it works. Even if they did have motives for trying to get what they want, those motives don’t even make any sense. They’re trying to rid Stolas of possessions that they already own. So this whole motivation for keeping Stolas alive along with the conversation that they had is pointless. From where it stands even from the second season, Viv is just making Stella and Andre evil for no reason. She only wants them to be evil without thinking it through and to make Stolas look good.

-- We’re barely a minute in this episode and we jump straight to Striker breaking in, shooting, and kidnapping Stolas! That introduction had no build-up whatsoever. It happened so swiftly, I couldn’t even keep up!! This episode is already so rushed and fast-paced, and Andrealphus didn’t even get a proper first appearance. Like the show showed us Andre spoke for two seconds without a good first appearance. Almost as if he’s already made his appearance before, and this is our first time seeing him in the show and hearing his voice.

-- I find it funny how in the festival episode, Striker was being a little slick in his assassination attempt; hiding in his room before shooting at Stolas from a far distance, which seems like a more clever and cleaner way to go about it. But in THIS episode, he wastes no time just BARGING with his horse through the window, making a scene, and shooting bullets head-on right then and there??? And now he’s just straight-up being messy with it? Plus, now that Stolas can see he’s being shot at, he’s able to dodge every bullet coming his way, making it difficult for Striker to kill him. This wouldn’t have been so hard have Striker gone about it the way he did back at the festival; he could’ve hidden somewhere, shot Stolas, and BOOM mission complete. Why is he being so extra with it??? And he’s supposed to be an assassin??

-- Striker: *Somehow, shoots a bullet through Stolas’s hat.*

Well damn, no wonder this dude couldn’t shoot him. He got no aim.....

-- Why does Stolas keep dodging and flying from Striker anyway? All he has to do is look at him and turn him into stone. Frikin’ turn into a huge demon if you have to. Use your telekinesis to stop the bullets!! Now this so-called “prince” got tied into a knot by angelic ropes that restricts his powers when he should’ve been able to save his own ass. “Oh dear, the is worrisome.” Yeah, no sh*t buddy...

-- Even though he’s tied up, Stolas managed to pick up his phone and contact Blitzo. His powers are secured, fine. But his hands, legs, and feet are still free. He could literally just jump off of Striker’s horse using his legs and feet while they’re still on the ground and try to free himself with his hands.

-- Stolas: “I seem to have been stolen by that little cowboy friend of yours.”

Moxxie: “Can you describe him, your highness?”

Stolas: *Looks at Striker* “Sexy?”

Just say his name!!! You already know who he is!! You announced him back at the harvest moon festival! And you’ve seen him there!!! How come you don’t remember who he is all of a sudden??? yeah, “Good memory” my a**! And why is “Sexy” the first thing that comes to mind when you’re describing him?? I guess he doesn’t completely mark Blitzo as a single-target sexuality. And how come Moxxie immediately knows who Stolas is talking about when he was describing him? Does Moxxie think Striker looks sexy??? Like bro, your wife is right beside you!! LOL!

-- Stolas to Blitzo: I think you should come save me.”

Dude... just try to break free from the ropes and jump off the horse!!! Your hands and legs are free!! Stop being such a damsel waiting for your knight in shining armor. This is just another excuse to have Blitzo come and save you when there are other options.

-- Loona doesn’t say a word in this, but I’m not gonna b*tch about it like I do with everything else. Her voice actress’s fiance passed away due to cancer recently I believe, and she’s been going through it. So sorry for your loss, Erica! I hope all is well and you’re doing okay!

-- This whole comedic side plot with Blitzo and Loona seemed a little boring and I barely cracked a laugh. Nowadays, the Brandon Rodgers comedy is much more funny in his youtube videos than him as a cartoon character. There are more f-bombs in his dialogue than there is any character in him. Literally, any time he’s provoked, he pulls out his guns and attempts to murder someone, and it’s usually not even that serious. Not gonna lie, it kinda annoys me at this point. It wasn’t funny to me when they were in Hollywood, especially when he was going through some serious trauma which caused his rampage in the first place and we were supposed to be sad for him, so it definitely doesn’t make me laugh now. And they try to force a Karen character into this to make it more funny, but- I’m sorry. It doesn’t work for me.

-- Blitzo keeps complaining that he and Loona have to wait every 5 years to get a shot in the hospital, which I’m assuming is supposed to be a joke saying that all hospitals are a drag and super slow. I’m sorry? 5 years??? That’s a bit of a stretch! As far as my knowledge goes, most hospitals do take the time to schedule appointments for their clients. Even when it does take long, well... fairly enough, they do have a lot of clients to get through in at least one year. You can’t fully blame them for taking their time. It’s not like they’re being lazy. So yeah, I wouldn’t really make fun of that.

-- This little b plot shouldn’t even be in this episode anyway! This whole side plot was supposed to be comedic, but it just doesn’t fit at all when we’re dealing with a serious situation of Stolas being kidnapped and about to get killed. And the fact that we keep cutting away from this plot back to back is even worse! I think it makes more since to give Millie and Moxxie more attention than to continuously show the shenanigans happening with Blitzo and Loona. Either that or save the whole “Loona’s shot” thing for another episode and instead have Blitzo join Moxxie and Millie in saving Stolas. Loona doesn’t have any lines in this anyway, so she doesn’t even have to be in this episode.

-- The lady at the counter says she couldn’t read but was able to find Blitzo’s name on her paper sheets just fine with no issue. Clearly they didn’t think this dialogue through. What, does she have short-term memory? How was she even hired??

-- This whole folk song about Striker is so stupid. It’s honestly pretty forgettable. For real though, how come this dude suddenly has a reputation for being the most badass assassin in the West??? This episode is pretty much showing us that he is very well-known amongst all the demons. But aren’t most assassins supposed to be... idk, secretive??? Plus, if everyone already knows about him, how come Millie’s parents didn’t know who he was before they hired him as a farm hand??? And why is he suddenly a famous assassin?? Wasn’t he supposed to be some random imp who was hired by Stella to kill someone? This is just a whole other retcon. Goddamn it, I am so sick of all these retcons!!

-- I’m so glad Striker shut them up. That was the only part in this whole episode to make me laugh.

-- I honestly forget that Millie and Moxxie are even in this episode. I’m sorry- are these two just meant to be the supporting cast now??? Are they only just there to show everybody how cute of a couple they are? Cuz we already know this!!! So M&M are the ones to go and save Stolas because they have to “settle a score” with Striker.... What exactly is it that you have to settle with Striker? The loss of your fight with him?? Okay, sure, but I still don’t know why they feel the need to “settle a score” with him. It’s not like he did anything that they held a grudge against. Millie’s leg almost got amputated cuz of him, but that’s it. She’s walking just fine, otherwise. And Moxxie did feel inferior to Striker, but it was nothing serious (plus he continues to feel inferior with no kind of build up. So that whole plot alone was pointless). I just feel like there’s not much bad blood between them to settle a score for. It makes more sense for Blitzo to go rescue Stolas while M&M assisted him. And besides, Moxxie and Millie trying to fight off Striker didn’t exactly end well the last time. Blitzo shouldn’t have any trust in them to take care of him themselves. The only reason why they succeeded in this episode is because.... plot.

-- Of course, we just have to have some other pointless conflict that happens and is concluded in a blink of an eye. So Millie puts a cowboy hat on Moxxie and they stop to get gas. While Millie walks around and asks questions, some random a**hole confronts Moxxie about the hat he’s wearing and assumed he stole one of his simply because it looks like the one he’s wearing. Did it ever occur to this moron that most hats just look similar to each other? Why is he getting his d*ck in a twist over some stupid headwear?

-- OH F*CK OFF WITH THIS!!! So now Moxxie is suddenly a strong badass and could brawl with more than two people twice his size!!??? Where the hell was THIS when he was fighting Striker the first time or in the last episode!!!?? Like, can he fight or not!!??? This just does not make sense to me, especially when his whole character is about him not being a very skilled fighter like his wife or Blitzo. Not only is Millie an on-and-off fighter when the plot wants her to be, but so is her husband? Gimme a break!!

-- Stolas: “Wouldn’t a holy bullet have sufficed? Or could you not afford those?”

Stolas is technically bringing up the fact the imps are the lowest ranking and hardly have any cash on them. The show keeps telling us that imps are the poorest of the poor, but they sure as hell aren’t poor enough to own a whole circus (*cough* Blitzo’s dad *cough*). Not to mention Blitzo had a pretty high-paying job and could rent a whole office. Seems like to me that the imps are living pretty average for a species being the lowest rank.

Wait... Is Striker an Imp or a snake?

-- Striker: I was paid to give you the real royal treatment.

Mm, no... You were paid to just shoot him (yet another retcon). All you’re doing is pointlessly dragging this mission by torturing him when you could literally just pull the frikin trigger and put a bullet in his head. Shut up with the edgy monologue and kill him!!

-- WTF!!!

-- Stolas decides NOW to try to turn Striker into stone... That should’ve been done already, buddy!

-- Does this kink really get turned on in bed by getting painfully tortured, having his limbs broken and impaled n sh*t?? WHY DOES BLITZO STAB STOLAS AND BREAK HIS BONES WHILE HAVING SEX IN BED????!!!! LIKE Y’ALL, I CANT-

-- Why they gotta make my girl Stella so dumb in this show? I’m not surprised in the least (though I was hoping it wasn’t the case), but it honestly just irritates me more with what they’re doing to her. So Andrealphus reminds her that if she get’s Stolas killed, she would get nothing. But why does Stella have to be told that?? She should already know this! And why is she being all “Tee hee hee” and childish about all this anyways?? Yeah, Stolas gets to die and that’s what she wanted, but she’s being all giggles about it and she turns into a little brat and whines when told she can’t kill him and I can’t even take her seriously. I was expecting her to act much more sinister and serious. What happened to her hot-temper that could easily get provoked?? Idk that just rubbed me the wrong way.

Andre: When Stolas dies, his duties, his possessions, his legions, it will all pass to... Via.”

-- Okay... so what? It’s not like Stella even cares about that, as far as we’ve seen. All she ever did was throw parties and talk sh*t about Stolas. She doesn’t care at all about fulfilling any duties Stolas had to take care of. She’s never even been interested in the book. What exactly has she done that was even remotely Goetia-like? Ma’am just hates her ex and wants him to die.

-- Okay, first off.... eww! What is this?? Like dude- back up! What is this incest sh*t I’m lookin’ at? I don’t like this. Viv, plz don’t!!

-- Andre: I say we bide our time, and wait for the chance to gain the upper-hand.”

B*tch, what are you talkin’ about! You already had the upper-hand. And you’re sister clearly doesn’t care about Stolas’s possessions or power. She doesn’t even care that her daughter gets to obtain that. She just wants him dead. If anything, it just seems like YOU want what Stolas has and is only controlling your sister.

-- Can we PLEASE stop going in and out of Loona and Blitzo and just focus on the fight scene with M&M vs Striker! The stupid side plot doesn’t even fit with this episode! This is supposed to be a serious moment with Striker kidnapping Stolas and keeping Moxxie and Millie out the way, yet at the same time were expected to laugh and giggle at Loona escaping the wrath of a frikin needle!!!??? And the stupid girly pop music doesn’t even help!

-- Why her butt?..... Out of all the places to give her a shot???

-- Striker: “Oh I remember how easy you are to choke the life out of, little one.”

Moxxie: *Getting choked by Striker* Harder!

Umm, excuse me, sir? WTF!!! Is Viv making these little jokes a trope now!!? Why does Moxxie have a kink!?? He’s not even a very sexual person!! I dunno if he was just doing that to throw Striker off or somethin, but WHAT IN THE HELL!!?? And why did Striker immediately let go, feeling disgusted!!??? Bro, you made a statue with a literal stick-shaped boner???!!! This should NOT have caught you off-guard so easily!!!

-- When something is falling and is about to come crashing onto you, you do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES walk forward! You could literally just jump to the side.

-- I don’t know if Striker is dead or not, but if he is, Then way to go, Viv! You may have just killed off a character that was even slightly interesting. If you're gonna make a character and have him get this popular only to kill him off, at least venture him a little bit first!! This was only his second debut in the show and we hardly gotten anything from his character! There wasn’t much backstory to him or anything. Just that he was a bigot who was hired to kill Stolas and HATES nobles! And Striker even mentioned that there was someone he cared about taken away from him by the upper class. It raised wonders why he felt so much hatred for the rich folk and we won’t even get to explore that cuz he may have possibly died. I may not care much about him, but there were still some things I noticed about Striker that I found interesting and they needed to be explored.

With him and Moxxie, I still feel like there wasn’t much score to settle between them. To me, they don’t have much of a dynamic at all, and they were supposed to be rivals. In fact, their second meeting felt rushed. The second Millie and Moxxie barged in, Moxxie just went ahead and pulled a trigger on him without saying a word. We don’t even get to hear any dialoge between them. It’s fighting, fighting, and more fighting. There wasn’t even much of an enemy relationship between them. Actually, Striker seems to have more of an adversary with Blitzo. And what about him and Blitzo??? The writers made it seem like Striker had a pretty big impact on him; from when he tried convincing him to join forces because they were so similar in certain ways to Blitzo hallucinating him in his trip dream. With the conversation they had at the festival, Striker was manipulating his insecurities. And that apparently affected Blitzo, because an episode later, he was dreaming about Striker tormenting him, along with Moxxie, Verosika, Fizz, and Stolas. So yeah, was kinda expecting to see some more interactions between those two. Neither of them didn’t even get to speak to each other this whole episode!! Its like I said, Blitzo should’ve joined Moxxie and Millie in Stolas’s rescue.

-- So Stolas is injured and is rushed to the hospital. Blitzo finds out about the and asks the most stupidest-a** question to have put have ever been put in this dialogue....

-- WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN!?!?!?!

Of course he can get hurt!!! You already know that, you stupid d*ck!!! Why else did you point the gun at Striker before he killed Stolas back at the festival!! You obviously knew he would get hurt if he was shot!! What did you think that Angelic Weapon was made for??!!!! Whatever happened to that weapon anyway? We don’t ever get to see that again at all? Judging from Moxxie’s reaction, the gun seemed like a very rare weapon in hell and is impossible to get. How did Striker even get his hands on it? We don’t even get to explore that?

-- So, as it turns out, the aftermath between Stolas and Blitzo in the Ozzie’s episode actually did occur....

......through text messages *face-palm*

Jesus christ on a bicycle..... The way this was addressed was a literal blink and a miss!! I HATED IT!! I didn’t even realize this was the aftermath until I saw it on twitter!!! So you mean to tell me we don’t get to explore what happened with them after Ozzie’s ON SCREEN at all???? They never even directly talked about what happened??? Are you for real, Viv?? Like- i-is this your way of shutting us up? Like you knew we were curious about what happened between them and decided to half-ass your way out of this by showing a bunch of text messages and moving forward?? Are you THIS lazy!!!!??? They’re not even fully conversing through these messages. If anything, Stolas is the main one doing all the talking while is Blitzo barely responding to him.

-- Dear lordy.... and reading messages don’t even make it better. Stolas is dumbed down deeper than his ex, bro!!! Obviously, he didn’t learn a DAMN THING!!!

Stolas: “You seem very upset and you took off so fast. I’m sorry if anything I said or did may have offended you tonight.”

F*CKING WHA--!! He says it as if he has no clue why Blitzo was mad at him or if he was upset with him at all! Um, b*tch... HE TOLD YOU WHY!!! Like to your face, he said, “Don’t act like that what we have is anything but you wanting me to f*ck you. You make that pretty clear all the time.” And you invited him in your house to cuddle with him knowing damn well he wasn’t in the mood!! You should already know why he’s upset!

Im sor- Is this another retcon or something?? Were we supposed to see it how Stolas saw it? That Blitzo was upset for some unknown reason and we just can’t figure it out? Are we just gonna act like Stolas had done absolutely NOTHING wrong and he’s just an oh-so-innocent uwu baby bird? Are we gonna act like Blitzo didn’t just call out Stolas, spelling out the exact justified reason why he was mad?? Cuz that’s exactly how this text message scene is acting like!! Like their dialogue only revolves around what during their date and not what happened after that. Why is Stolas even talking about what happened at just Ozzie’s?! There was much more to the situation that affected him after he was dropped off. He was crying on his porch when Blitzo pushed him away. But now the show is not even gonna have them explore that in their messages. And now Viv is not even gonna have Stolas be considerate of Blitzo feelings and know why he’s mad? As if all they did was go their separate ways without saying a word instead of Blitzo dropping Stolas off at his house!!

And he goes on to say this-

“I’m glad that Ozzie’s is not the case of you being upset. I wasn’t upset either. I actually thought it was funny. It didn’t embarrass me at all.”

Okay... first off, what happened at Ozzie’s DID make him upset. YOU were just another one of those reasons. And you ain’t find sh*t funny, you were embarrassed just by BEING THERE with him, hence another reason why he’s mad at you! Like- Seriously?? What is happening right now?? Are all of us watching the same episode!!!??? Why is Stolas acting like such an oblivious and clingy idiot with the long-ass at paragraphs??

-- Okay yall... I’m done.

*Sigh* Okay.

This episode was... well it was somethin'. I'm not gonna say whether I like it or not, though the latter might be obvious enough.

I say the only thing I liked a little about it was Stella. Which is why I'm SUPER disappointed with how her character was written so far. If she were to actually be a character, I would like her more without going, "Oh Jesus... how are they gonna butcher her this time?"

Stella is as one-noted as ever! And there were a couple of traits they added to her character that is just so irritating-- Like, I can't take her seriously anymore. Viv doesn't change a thing about Stella. Her whole character is, "I hate my ex and I want him dead!" And that's all there is. That's all Stella was worried about this episode. Like- ma'am? Could you just get over it!!? We get it, you hate his guts. And we don't even know WHY she hates him so much! Why does she want him dead, so badly? What could possibly warrant her hatred?? This is like her 4th appearance in this show, yet we're still not given her backstory. Nothing is hinted on why she became such an evil Darla Dimple. At first, in the first season, it seemed like Stella was only angry that her husband had an affair and cheated on her. So angry, she even called a hitman on him. Though it was rather harsh to want someone dead for that, you'd understand why she would be angry. I mean, who wouldn't!!! My husband cheated on me and it greatly affected my family!! That's how we saw it (or at least that's how I saw it). You can't even tell me that Stella never loved Stolas, because it was hinted that she initially did care about him. At least, according to Octavia who said that things used to be decent between them.

But now, since season 2 began, Viv suddenly just slaps us with the fact that Stella had always hated Stolas for no reason?? She just likes to make fun of him and talk sh*t while laughing at him?? She didn't care at all about the affair, but she still insist on tormenting him.... cuz she's evil??? And that excuse is not even justified alone, cuz why is she so evil??.... Because... she was just born that way???

Tch, yeah, alright Vivzie... whatever.

It doesn't even make sense why she's married to him if she's always hated him. Why did she even stick with him if she was just going to keep talking bad about him and complain about being married to him??? Yeah, I know there were arranged to marry, but they're adults now. No one could tell them what to do! She could've just divorced him. And clearly, nothing came of it. She could've left him WAY before now. You could say she only stuck around for the riches and the power, but she obviously doesn't care about that! All she ever did was throw parties. She didn't show off any riches or power she had when she was with him. And again... why does she want him dead?? What was her final straw here?? It was already established she didn't care about the affair and she already hated Stolas. What, was it because he embarrassed her by doing what he did? Well, like I said, she doesn't care about the affair, so why would she care about the embarrassment!? I just don't understand---

And I've already mentioned this, but I also didn't like how childish and giddy they made her about the whole thing. I didn't like to see how excited she was about her ex finally dying. I mean, it's nice to see she has no regrets and is proud, but in cases like her behavior about it-- it just doesn't seem to work for me. I was expecting Stella to be... stone-cold. Like just a soft-spoken, strict, and sinister woman who is somewhat secretive of her wicked ways and is tricky, but doesn't hide it fully. And despite knowing what she's doing, she doesn't care at all about the effects of it as long as she gets what she wants. Almost like Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, or Mother Gothel from Tangled.

But instead, I experience this-

I don't even like the way she acted when she was told she can't continue going along with what she wanted. She started to whine like a baby, crying "Aww! But I want him dead so badly!!!" Like, miss-- how old are you?? I would expect for her to be all "harumph!!" and begrudgingly agree with her brother after arguing with him a little. Not this immature little princess who will cry if she doesn't get her dolly back!

Another thing that bugged me about this episode, of course, was more Stolitz. It's pretty clear up to this point that Viv so DESPERATELY wants to make these two endgame. She doesn't care at all about how fast, how rushed, or how unplanned she makes this show as long as Stolas and Blitzo become a couple in the end. But just by rushing the show and not planning it, she doesn't really do a great job of showing us these two are good for each other. It just gets more toxic, especially with Stolas acting like he always cared about Blitzo when he obviously didn't and just becomes more selfish and oblivious to his feelings. Hell, he continues to be a flirt after Blitzo pretty much calls him out on it! And Viv tries to show us that Blitzo had always cared about Stolas and secretly wants a relationship with him, but considering the blank responses and the passive-aggressive behavior from those text messages, it's clear Blitzo does NOT like Stolas and doesn't care at all about him! Even when he reacted with disbelief over him getting hurt, he still gave him a short-worded text!! Like-- Blitzo just doesn't like Stolas, okay Viv.

Ugh!! This show has officially broken me with the stupid sh*t, y’all. I still have some things I wanna say about it that I may have left off, but I’m to tired for now. They can be saved for another day. I-I cant anymore- The only reason why I’m even going along with this is because I’m curious to see how these eps will turn out. Like, I’m still curious about Fizz, Verosika, and Barbie. And you best believe I’m waiting for the last episode where we get to hear Octavia finally go off on her dad. It’s a literal challenge at this point, but bring it on. And It’s ironic, cuz I love critiquing shows, whether I like them or not.

#helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #helluva boss critical #anti helluva boss #anti stolitz #anti blitzo #anti stolas #helluva rant #SpindleHorse critical

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ups3tti · 10 months ago

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Euphrasia & Morro as foils

@emerald-cloud23 HI OKAY YES ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE. Euprhasia is so important to me I'm so glad you asked JFHEKTJ (Morro too obviously but yk.). This is going to be a bit long, apologies in advance.

Dragons rising season 1 spoilers if that matters to anyone.

- To start off, the difference between Euphrasia's quote of "Time to make *our* own destiny!" and Morro's "Well *I* make my own destiny!" Is incredibly important to me. Euphrasia is connecting herself to those around her from the start, even when defining herself, whereas Morro defined himself *by* being set apart from everyone else.

- Something that immediately stood out to me was how Euphrasia's first major beginning moment as the master of wind is by being the main force used to drive back massive tentacled monsters out of/in order to protect cloud kingdom and back into a rift. This is such a contrast to how Morro's story ended, with him summoning a giant tentacled monster from a portal and destroying a Stiix in order to see it through.

- Speaking of Euphrasia's first fight, she is consistently using her elemental powers as a support for others. She saves Arin and Sora from falling, she helps the ninja launch spinjitsu attacks, and while she does still do damage herself, she prioritizes finding ways to support the others.

Morros style is not based in teamwork that way at all. Even with his ghost gang, he usually has them doing their own separate thing. "I control the wind, YOU control the situation" and all that jazz. He climbs the peak to blind man's eye on his own, confronts the ninja on his own, confronts nya and lloyd on his own, etc etc etc. When he has his gang do stuff, like distract Nya or the other ninja, he's normally watching from the side, or doing his own separate task. He's using the wind to get on the offensive or to get *himself* out of harms way.

- all in all, Morro uses the wind for offense and agility, Euphrasia uses it for defense and support.

- Euphrasia greatly values her culture, community and loved ones, to the point where she was intending to forgo use of her elemental power entirely in order to remain with them, AND risked exile in order to protect them. After she was able to reveal her power and wasn't shunned for it, she stayed on at the Cloud Kingdom as its protector.

We don't know where Morro came from, who his parents were, any of that. He had Wu and that was it. His entire identity was forged around what he wanted to become, instead of who he was to begin with.

- A more obvious one is their personalities, I feel the differences are pretty clear and I don't need to specify a whole lot but a big one is Morro's arrogance vs. Euphrasias uncertainty, especially as it translates to being a wind elemental.

I really love the choice to have Euphrasia wanting to write her own destiny but taking it in an entirely different direction than Morro did. Every element seems to have some concept that connects one master to the next, and I don't think Wind is any different.

Thats all I got for now! I could probably think of more if I rewatched certain episodes but I'm a bit tired. PLEASE let me know if anyone thinks of other stuff I would love to hear it

#ninjago euphrasia #ninjago morro #morro wu #ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #they are creation both haunted and holy 2 me #sketti rambles

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mulders-too-large-shirt · 8 months ago

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s1 episode 24 thoughts

aka SEASON FINALE! wow, one full season with these nerds... time flies <3

this episode was super fast-paced and full of twists and turns, straight from the beginning. we open on a very jerky chase scene that was hard to watch and which set the mood as a guy was shot and then jumps into some water and no one can find him

!! the title sequence changed !! it said "trust no one" rather than "the truth is out there"!! surely this means something, but what? i'm spooked!

mulder is sleeping on his couch again. can we please start a fund to get his ass a mattress. it's getting serious.

looks like he fell asleep working on a case when a phone call from deep throat wakes him up, telling him to change the channel where he sees the news of the opening car chase and records it on his VCR (how vintage!)

he shows the footage to scully who is basically like why do we trust this deep throat fellow- a valid question, as mulder trusts almost everybody like a little baby duckling- but scully referring to him as "deep throat" means they've discussed the subject before, which is interesting

we then visit a scientist who is working on monkeys. scully, for some reason, wants to say hello to the monkeys- perhaps we can chalk this up to her innate goodness

the scientist is like "leave those monkeys alone" and she says "i'm sorry, i thought they were friendly" scully, you should know that monkeys are NEVER friendly! they tried to bite her but thank god they missed because these are, after all, no ordinary monkeys, but Alien Monkeys

after the monkey business scully is pissed because they have no leads and she says we need to wrap this up! we've learned nothing! ohh i wrote this next part down word for word because it gagged me:

mulder is so trusting of deep throat and scully says he's stringing mulder along for some unknown purpose...

to which he says: "you think he does it because he gets off on it?"

and scully replies "no, i think he does it because YOU do"

oh i gasped and yelled at my screen! she got him! valid question though, why is this guy leaving them little clues beyond his earlier in the season confession of alien murder guilt? it IS suspicious.

mulder and deep throat confront each other and play more sick and twisted mind games which is fine; deep throat insinuates that mulder doesn't care as much as he used to which is rude but it spurs him on his quest for answers

next the monkey scientist kicks the bucket which obviously means his monkey science was deeply important

the guy who was doing the running during the car chase confessed to being underwater for 3 days after he was shot which obviously has implications but we aren't given a whole lot of time to explore them

back at the monkey lab, now a crime scene, mulder hands scully a flask of mysterious liquid and says "what do you think this is". she says "i don't know" then runs on a quest to go find out because he asks her to. god, dana scully has really had to endure SO much with this man, and now a mystery liquid from the monkey lab? again i ask where her compensation is

mulder breaks into the dead scientist's house, which revealed another basic and universal truth akin to gravity: if no one lets mulder in a house, he Will find a way to break in. he cozies up to the dead guy's desk and starts flipping through his stuff, and the runaway underwater alien guy calls and he picks up the phone like this is a typical day for him. alien guy is emitting some sort of gas that hurts everyone which is unfortunate.

scully fell asleep on the couch of the microbiology department which was soooo <3 but then the lab scientist comes in with the plot twist...

monkey liquid reveal: it has some sort of secret bacteria... with a new base pair! which means it HAS to be some sort of extraterrestrial life!

mulder tracks down a storage unit that is filled with bodies in tanks, and he looks like a kid in a demented candy store while some crazy orchestral stuff goes on in the background. then he is chased by some people but leaps over a fence with astonishing agility.

scully realizes that the monkey liquid is actually Very Important and they meet up to explore the tanks and she says she's sorry for doubting him. "i should know by now to trust your instincts" she says, to which he replies "why, nobody else does" and they both smile and it is not emotional at all, shut up!

"you know, i've always held science as sacred. i've always put my trust in the accepted facts. and what i saw last night... for the first time in my life, i don't know what to believe" <- banger scully line

(i don't believe that this is the first time she's questioned it, though. she's been on edge the whole time, this is just the most she has been. she was thrown off by the psychic who quoted her dad, and by the alien bites in the very first episode. regardless, character development!)

((also, love that she talks about holding science as sacred while wearing a cross necklace in every scene. she's got that "raised catholic" aura about her))

gasp! just as i knew it would be, the room of tanks is now entirely empty, all cleared out except for... deep throat? he reveals that this is the place where the first alien-human hybrids were developed out of terminally ill patients, who got better, but developed superhuman strength and the ability to breathe underwater. a valid tradeoff, in many ways, and exactly what has happened to our friend who was shot and hid underwater and now gives off noxious gas. so now they have to find him before the Others do.

mulder runs back to the dead guy's house, which he seems far too comfortable entering, and finds the alien hybrid man. alien man tries to choke him out, but mulder still says "i'll protect you"

(man, i love that line. we Will be psychoanalyzing that at a later date)

but alien man is shot by an intruder, and his noxious gasses burn mulder while he's tied up. poor scully has been blowing up his cellphone, to which he mumbles "i'm a popular guy"

(always with the damn one liners while he's beaten within an inch of his life; you are popular to one individual, mister mulder, but granted she's a very special one)

deep throat says scully can get into a high containment facility and trade the alien tissue for mulder which okay. sure. why not? she guesses the mystery password and gets into the building and. well. this was my reaction:

"she's opening a mystery container and i lowkey expect a frozen head but NO IT'S AN ALIEN THINGY AUGHHHH IT'S LIKE A BABY"

gross!

only 6 minutes left in the episode at this point and i was stressed! scully's got a box full of alien, is meeting deep throat on a bridge, and refuses to hand the alien box over because. again. who tf is this guy? he gets all mad and says that she NEEDS to hand the box over because these guys that they're dealing with took some of the alien tissue and injected it in children.

and this maybe was supposed to get her to hurry up but she was just like. nah why the hell would we give them the alien back? so we can get more alien children?

to save mulder, of course! because they are the only two who can shine light on what is really going on!

(don't talk to her in such a condescending manner, deep throat, i will bite you. she has perfectly valid reservations about handing ur mysterious ass a box full of alien. but she finally does)

and then as he hands the box over to the mystery people HE IS IMMEDIATELY SHOT! i gasped so hard here i actually hurt my mouth which is still recovering from surgery and so all of us had a bad time around this point. they do toss mulder from the back of a car, though, and deep throat's dying words are to "trust no one"

(so is it really mulder that we have back? if we can trust no one, does that mean someone has hacked into mulder? and scully doesn't know that? that's what i'm guessing here. sort of a winter soldier-ish situation)

13 days later, mulder calls scully in the middle of the night and says the fbi is shutting down the x files and they're being reassigned, but he won't give up, he can't give up. he says someone named "skinner" made this decision. i am unfamiliar with this individual but have a feeling we will become acquainted.

the season ends with the alien being placed in a mysterious room. to this i wrote the following:

"alien baby in formaldehyde in an archive i would kill to get my hands on it let me see it let me see it let me see it NOW"

(i bet they also have JFK's brain in that archive!)

so what a whirlwind of an episode! we certainly can't trust anyone moving forward, but does that apply to the trust between mulder and scully themselves? what will they do now that the x files have been shut down? somehow i have a feeling they will come back, a sort of hunch to do with the 10 more seasons of this show.

will they meet up for coffee during their new assignments? who is skinner? so much awaits us on the other side of this season, but i still need to process all i've seen so far!

#very rapid fire episode #i tried my best to write down my reactions to all of the things but they were going so fast i got bogged down a bit at certain points #regardless. scully do NOT pet the monkeys. mulder stop breaking into people's houses.#how they have managed to live so long is a bigger mystery than aliens or ghosts #anyway! i will update my thoughts later on the whole of s1 #maybe a lore reveal compilation and then a fave moments compilation or some mix of it #i'm not really in any sort of rush <3 #juni's x files liveblog #1x24 #the x files #txf

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bow-of-aros · 4 months ago

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Day Three: Prank

Summary: Ted's determined to bring a bit of fun into the office today.

Surely there's no way that this could backfire on him :)

Alrighty folks! Day three! I may have grown a little attached to this rat bastard and I will not apologize for it. I also think that he needs to be taken down a peg or two, and this lovely fic was born! I hope that y'all enjoy <33

It’s quiet in the office. It’s pretty typical, to be fair. This job seems to drain any ounce of joy and will to fucking live out of the space and everyone who comes within a two-mile radius.

So Ted, the thoughtful and fun-loving guy that he is, decided to shine a bit of a light into this dark and gloomy collection of prison cells that everyone else calls cubicles.

He’d been planning this for a while (about five minutes), so Operation Harmless Prank to Make the Grumpy Grumps in this Office Smile (Yes, that’s the official name) was put into motion.

And it really was a harmless prank! Just a bit of tape over the sensor on his coworker’s mouse. Trust him, Ted’s definitely learned from past pranks.

Drawing a spider on the toilet paper roll had made Mr. Davidson scream so loud he’d ruptured his vocal cords.

Hiding all the printer paper had made it so that they’d all had to stay overtime to hit the apparently very important deadline that Ted had almost made them miss.

Once, he’d even managed to change Paul’s ringtone to a musical number.

That had not gone over well.

So, tape over the mouse sensor. It was simple, it only hindered one person just for a little bit, it leaned on the confusion more than anything else, it was easy to figure out after a little while, and, considering that Ted had chosen Bill as his target, it would hopefully be received without undue amounts of rage.

You see, the target was essentially the most important part of any well-executed prank. You didn’t want to target anyone too sensitive and prone to break down into tears (Charlotte), anyone who had power over you and your job (Mr. Davidson), or anyone who wouldn’t know fun if it came up and made out with them sloppy-style and just gave you a half-hour lecture on the importance of getting our work done during allotted working hours (Fucking Paul).

Bill was basically the perfect target. He was a little clueless, so the prank wouldn’t immediately be discovered and he was scarily good-natured all of the time, so if Ted ended up revealing himself as the mastermind, he wouldn’t get verbally or physically torn to shreds.

And he was out on his lunch break, he was just asking to be messed with, if you ask Ted.

Ted took a quick look around, the coast was clear: Paul was laser-focused on his work, Charlotte was taking a smoke break, and Mr. Davidson was in his office. Perfect.

He grabs his piece of tape, slides into Bill’s cubicle, deftly sticks it over the sensor, goes back to his seat, and voila!

Now, all he has to do is wait.

It turns out that he doesn’t have to wait very long as Bill comes waltzing back in, whistling a jaunty little tune, about three minutes later.

Ted is so desperate to maintain his nonchalant cover that he actually does some work, glancing over at Bill between filling out useless forms and moving files around.

“Hey, Paul?”

And so it begins.

Paul doesn’t even glance up from his computer, offering a half-hearted, “Hm?”

The sound of Bill clicking the buttons on his mouse, jiggling it around, is like music to Ted’s fucking ears. Everything’s going exactly as planned.

“My mouse isn’t working. Like, I can wake up my computer using the actual buttons on the monitor and I can type and stuff, but my cursor won’t move.”

A moment of silence, and then, “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?”

“Yes Paul, obviously I’ve tried unplugging it and plugging it back in.”

Side note: he definitely hadn’t because Ted could hear the sound of Bill unplugging it and plugging it back in as he said it.

“It didn’t work.”

Another “Hm,” from Paul. Bill’s lost him to the allure of Excel sheets and data files. What a shame.

“Ted?”

Oh boy, here comes the fun part.

“Do you think you could come give me a hand with this?”

Absolutely. “Yeah, man! Just give me one sec.”

He does a few random clicks before putting his computer to sleep and wandering back over to Bill’s cubicle, hovering over his shoulder.

“What’s the problem again?” Ted puts on his most innocent face which, to be fair, isn’t very innocent.

But it seems to work as Bill slides out from his seat, offering it to Ted.

“My mouse isn’t working, it’s the weirdest thing. Everything else is working just fine!”

Ted grabs the mouse and gives it a shake as if to confirm yep, this thing sure ain’t working. He makes sure to give it a couple of clicks just for good measure.

“And you—”

“Yes, I unplugged it and plugged it back in!”

Ted goes to stand, having completed his Look at me I’m soooooo innocent act, when Paul speaks up.

“Hey, Ted. You should check under the mouse. See if there’s anything wrong with the sensor.”

Well, shit.

When Ted looks over, Paul is wearing a look that Ted can only describe as pure evil. He blinks, and the look is gone and Paul is typing away at his computer. The only remnant is the ghost of a smirk tugging at his lips.

Looks like he’s still holding a grudge about the whole ringtone thing.

Fucking snitch.

Ted’s ready to pretend that Paul never said anything, and continues on his current mission to get the fuck out of there as soon as possible. But, before he even gets halfway up, two hands are pushing him firmly back into the seat.

He cranes his neck to look at Bill standing over him in just enough time to see the flash of understanding fade into something like mischief.

“Go on, Ted. Let’s check the sensor.”

Maybe he can still get out of this one if he plays dumb.

Ted flips the mouse over, revealing the piece of tape that had been causing all the problems, and promptly peels it off.

“There you go!” He spins his chair around and sticks the tape on Bill’s slightly wrinkled shirt, “Found the culprit. Problem solved! I’m just gonna go back to my desk now. Lots of work to—”

“Oh no you don’t.”

Bill is bigger than him. Ted hadn’t exactly put together the fact that that meant he would probably be stronger than him until he tried to push past him and was physically picked up and put back in the seat.

He’s sure that that won’t awaken anything in him.

“You know. Someone really should teach you a lesson about messing with other people’s things.”

Ted tenses for a moment, but Bill doesn’t sound genuinely upset. It’s more of an exasperated fondness, which he also hadn’t expected, but it’s definitely something that he can work with.

“What?” He asks, waggling his eyebrows, “You gonna punish me?”

A snort from Paul, “You’re disgusting, Ted.”

Ah, so he is listening.

“Yeah? And you’re a snitch! So—”

“So you did do it!” Bill looks way too triumphant for the frankly obvious discovery. With this level of enthusiasm, Ted can picture him in khakis on a big sand dune shouting Eureka!

The silence drags on and Ted belatedly realizes that they’re waiting for him to say something.

“Uh. No?”

Good one. That was real smooth, Spankoffski.

Bill just laughs at him which, sure, fair enough. But also, rude much?

“You sure?”

Well, he can’t back down now.

“Yes, I’m sure. Obviously I—HEY!”

Hands had snuck down to Ted’s knees while he hadn’t been paying attention and fucking attacked him. He’s now slid halfway to the floor and trying very hard to not show how nervous he is while planning his escape.

Bill, on the other hand, seems perfectly pleased with himself.

“Feel like rethinking that one?”

And he could. Ted could admit to the prank and get away with only a miniscule dent in his pride. Bill would roll his eyes and shoo him back to his own cubicle, and the day would go back to being boring as fuck.

“No. Because I didn’t do it you asshole!”

With those parting words, Ted shot up from his chair and got an impressive two whole steps before a pair of arms wrapped around him, lifting him off his feet and stopping him in his tracks.

“Wait. Bill! Bill I swear I dihihihidn’t— Nonono plehehease!”

The rest of what he was going to say was flooded by panicked laughter and smatterings of Shit! Fuckfuckfuckfuck! and Quit it you asshole! Apparently it didn’t sound genuine (because it wasn’t) because he could hear Bill’s delighted coos on top of all that which was not helping his situation.

“Try his ribs.”

“Shut the fuck up Pahahaul! Shihihihit!”

Alright. As fun as this all was, Ted was reaching his limit.

“Okay! Okahahahay I did it! I put the tape there! Bill please!”

And the ground was back under his feet.

Ted wasn’t ashamed to admit that he used the wall of Bill’s cubicle in order to not immediately fall flat on his face. His face was warm and his muscles were sore from laughing, but he felt lighter than he had in a long time.

It didn’t hurt that Bill was rubbing his back as he got himself back under control.

“You,” Ted gasped out in between exaggerated heaving breaths, “Are evil.”

“Yeah yeah. Get back to work, tough guy. Maybe this will teach you to stop pulling these pranks.”

As Ted went back to his desk, he looked over and saw the lingering smiles on the faces of his coworkers and decided to ignore the gooey warm feeling in his chest at the sight.

Opening his browser tab, Ted typed in 10 best office pranks.

This was gonna be fun.

#tickle fic #fanfic #tickling #fluff #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #ticklish!ted spankoffski #ted spankoffski is a shithead #ted spankoffski #paul matthews #bill woodward #they are best friends #to me #very amused that 'ted spankoffski is a shithead' is already a tag #augtickletober2024 #tickletober 2024

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blarrghe · 3 months ago

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so far veilguard has not really hooked me, which is very new for me with a dragon age game. I'd say it's because I'm growing up and developing less obsessive habits, but I played the sims for like 6 hours straight the other day. I'm not very far in so this crit will be very minor and I'm still giving it the whole game (probably twice) before I actually put down Opinions, but I think I'm getting the vague sense of that "shallowness" that I am trying to avoid actually seeing people complain about already...

The biggest thing for me right now is something I'm going to throw to "pacing" or maybe "narrative buy-in" because, while it starts pretty much exactly like Inquisition, it somehow does even less to grip me and make me believe the threat. Inquisition already had the weakest plot so far imo, but the big bang at the beginning put a very visible mark on the sky from everywhere you went, and there was a lot of urgency in the makeshift refugee camp that was Haven. There's no urgency at the lighthouse. There's not even really urgency at the Arlathan forest camp. There's definitely no urgency in the cities, even though Treviso is under occupation and Tevinter just suffered a demon attack. Again, maybe that will change, but even though the maps are smaller I feel like the few beginning areas are still giving me that hinterlands effect where I can just get stuck wandering about doing minor sidequests and chatting with my companions and the TWO ALL POWERFUL ELVHEN GODS are just like. somewhere. chillin. I guess. Every time someone in my party casually says "the gods must have promised them something" or "the gods must be involved in this" I'm like. Oh right. That's what this game's villain is. Ok. At least in Haven we met Corypheus and he said a sick ass line?

So the big bang at the start is kind of anticlimactic. Solas is fine, just stuck in my head. Varric is fucking fine?? Like it's nice that he's not dead, I guess, I had real suspicions he'd die in that opening scene from the trailer and while I would have been sad it would have been a very good gut punch to get me motivated. By the time I was playing I did not really believe he'd be killed there, but he's just... idk. Sitting on a bed making little comments when I walk by (which I never really do because he's like, over in a room you don't need to go into unless you want to change your appearance). It's. Fine. Again, I'm sure story stuff will pick up and he'll have something important to say at some point. But right now it's. well it's boring. sorry.

I am enjoying the companions, but other than Harding whom I liked already they do not have their claws in me yet. I am the biggest defender of "quirky" female characters but Bellara's couple of personal dialogue scenes so far have fallen so flat for me. She's cute, don't get me wrong, but something in her scene being starstruck by Neve felt very unnatural, as did her emotional outburst and then reveal about her brother. It's a fine character backstory, it's not her voice actor or writer's fault (ok, I think actually maybe it is a little her voice actor, for me. sorry again.) but I just. Meh. And I mean, I might come to really love her. I came to love several other DA characters I did not like the first time around (including some polarizing fan favourites like Anders, Zevran, and Leliana, and some more universally disliked characters like Wynne and Vivienne)

I'm really... not loving the Crow content so far. Why are they good? Why is it portrayed like a cool, good underdog thing that they "rule Antiva"? I don't mind playing with Crow pride as I'm playing a Crow, but last I checked they're literally the mafia. And I enjoy the telenovella style family drama, I do, but it does seem a little... well. it's very telenovella, which is a fucking stereotype, yknow? idk. It feels, and here's that word, shallow. Also Lucanis' cousin is so obviously in cahoots I might just stab him before we figure it out.

And a lot of this actually goes back to Rook. I have seen the complaint that you are shoehorned into plucky hero, and I had this complaint about Inquisition with Responsible Hero and made it work by building a very Responsible character and I am invested in him, so that can work. Hawke also was distinctively Hawke and that's a fan favourite (although you can play a red hawke and it is notably different from purple and blue, but you can't exactly be whoever you want). Anyway, I made a pretty sassy Crow Rook, because I tend to like a sassy rogue (they're a mage, but, you know, spellblade) the first time through a game anyway, but the lack of control over tone is real and I think it's half of why Bellara is not hitting. Like why would she tell me any of this stuff I'm literally just some cool kid with tattoos and a criminal past she met the other day. I honestly miss the heavy mantle that Wardens and Inquisitors have with their companions. Rook's just some guy in the least just some guy way and it's weird.

Anyway. I don't know. There are things I really like. The combat is obviously very fun, and I like the definite missions and kind of streamlined quest approach. I like Varric's foreshadowy narrations that let me know things might actually pick up in the later acts. I like the more definite "act" structure, which was of course the most well-reviewed part of DA2. I see the potential for a cool story, especially with these trips into Solas' past, and I'm sure there will be new lore revelations for dwarves, too. But overall it's just. I don't know. I can put it down. I can put it down for days and days, and I'm 12 hours in to a game that probably has like a 30-40 hour playtime depending on how much you sidequest. I should be more hooked. I am also only 12 hours in. It will probably get better. But also. 12 hours! I've been home alone with it for almost a month!

#da4 #da4 critical #dragon age the veilguard #dragon age the veilguard spoilers #da4 spoilers #datv #datv spoilers #and a #da:tv #and #dragon age: the veilguard #for good measure

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romainlettusdinnerparty · 1 year ago

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in honor of me starting my 2947829184th glee rewatch i wanted to post a light analysis of finn hudson vs mike wheeler that i was reminded i wrote down in a time i was (sadly) much more convinced of a byler endgame than i am now,, cuz i kinda had a point

here she is:

i would love for someone to do an analysis of byler vs kurt hummel and finn hudson (would like to interject here to say someone should definitely do this and do it better with like actually siting stuff) like how a show (also explicitly about outsiders) purposefully creates an unrequited gay man to straight dynamic and how entirely different that is from how stranger things sets up mike and wills dynamic.

i mean they’re completely different shows and glee is a satire so it might be hard to compare them 1 to 1 because glee doesn’t tend to give that much weight to any relationship in its like first twoish seasons but i think its a good example for how it would be so easy to just make mike so obviously straight and not at all into will (it wouldn’t even have to be about el, with finn its not about quin or rachel, its just that hes not into men and is into women) and they’re choosing not to, they are choosing to lean into that dynamic and (this is important for this comparison) NOT in a brotherly way, not in a familial way, their relationship is never once compared to that (mike and el’s is but thats not entirely relevant here). In glee kurt liking finn is much more about his identity than it is about a romantic relationship with finn, they explore their relationship in depth in seasons 1 and 2 (and never again we dont have to talk about it yes i am bitter) but it is never not once implied that kurt’s feelings could be reciprocated, no lingering shots on finn’s face while hes watching kurt, nothing flirty, finn shuts him down multiple times, finn knows kurt likes him, its not used as a big reveal because that is NOT WHAT IS PLOT RELEVANT!!

what is relevant is kurt coming out to his dad and kurt’s overall identity and learning to stick up for himself and finn helping him do that in a BROTHERLY way (by the end of season 2 their parents are married and they are literal step brothers, there is no way to misconstrue their relationship) if wills feelings for mike were not reciprocated or at least impactful on their relationship there is no reason to make the audience anticipate mikes reaction to them, to save them for a reveal with an incredibly plot relevant lie that has to be uncovered, this has to alter their relationship in some way and literally what purpose would it serve if it was just a rejection?? why would you wait to reveal that if its only purpose is then essentially will’s identity? if the point of season 4 was to build back up mike and wills friendship, why not use that is something they have to overcome in the beginning of that season? why save it as a reveal? the actors have harped on the fact that mike doesn’t know about wills feelings so when they are rebuilding their friendship this is at least not a factor for him. (back to glee) when finn and kurt were building their relationship as brothers and friends, kurt’s romantic feelings were acknowledged as something they had to work through, they were not saved as a big aha moment because they wouldn’t have changed things. bottom line is that the reveal of wills feelings will change the nature of mike and wills relationship and there is no reason (besides like a villain origin story? thats all i can think of. cuz his arch isn’t about figuring out he doesn’t need romance or that he has the love of his family and boys arent important, he doesn’t have romance and the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 were about how much his family love him and the whole boys are stupid thing is for el) for that shift to be in the form of a rejection

#stranger things #byler #stranger things 5 #byler analysis #stranger things analysis #byler endgame #byler is canon #mike wheeler #will byers #finn hudson #kurt hummel #glee #glee analysis #byler tumblr #byler theory #mine

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fishymom-art · 1 year ago

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Hazbin Hotel Theories and Finale Predictions!

So, the 5th and the 6th episodes were very eventful and had a lot of information and stuff to think about and OH BOY DID IT MAKE ME THINK.

First of all, I’ll list some of the questions that I have and then theorise about the answers. Then, I’ll tell you about my prediction for the finale and when I say that I might be right on the money, you better believe me ;) (I’m very confident right now).

Of course, this will contain spoilers, so I will hide everything under the cut!

First, the questions. A LOT of them are about Alastor lol

What happened 7 years ago that led Alastor and Lilith of all to disappear? Who did Alastor sell his soul to? Why is he helping Charlie if he stated multiple times that he thinks that redemption is a ridiculous idea? Is there a reason as to why Alastor gained so much power so quickly and why did he go for the Overlords specifically? And why is Husk the only overlord Alastor didn’t kill? Why is Husk in the hotel to begin with??? Why does Alastor dislike Lucifer so much?

And finally

What’s going to happen in the finale?

I have some more minor questions, but I can’t answer them and they’re too specific and don’t have much stuff that could help me answer them, such as “What is Husker’s limit as to what he’s allowed or not allowed to do?”, “What happened between Vox and Alastor?”, etc.

NOW ONTO ANSWERING THOSE QUESTIONS!

We’re going to start with the first 3 because I think they are partially connected. Now, it’s difficult to answer what exactly happened 7 years ago, but I assume this is when Lucifer and Lilith split. This could answer why Lilith is absent but doesn’t answer why Alastor wasn’t present for so long. But I can still answer why Alastor came back!

My biggest theory was that Alastor made a deal with Lilith, but now that it was revealed that he actually sold his soul, I think that he sold it to her. Maybe he tried to overthrow her too but didn’t succeed and has to do her biddings now. And I think what she forced him to do is take care of Charlie and help her at whatever she wants to achieve. Maybe he actually waited for the right time to come back. For the hotel to open! Yes, he finds the idea utterly hilarious, but he’s obligated to support her, that’s why he’s still there.

It still doesn’t really answer why exactly he wasn’t there. Yes, he might’ve just waited, but when Zestiel asked him about why he was gone, he got nervous. There’s definitely more than him just waiting to come back… I’m just not sure why. Please, do reply to this post if you have any theories.

Next is reason why Alastor gained so much power. Obviously, it’s because he rose to the top due to him killing a bunch of Overlords and gaining reputation. I did talk about it in one post by @catodile , when they theorised that Alastor gained his power from Husk specifically and that’s why Husk doesn’t use his powers and USED to be an overlord. But it doesn’t make sense anymore, I think. Considering the fact that he was already able to take souls, he was already an overlord. He didn’t need Husk’s powers. + In “Loser, Baby”, Husk says “I sold my soul to SAVE my power”, which means he still has it, he just can’t use it anymore/not allowed to. Never throughout that scene (And believe me, I’ve rewatched it 10 times or more) does he mention that he doesn’t have those powers. So it can’t be the reason why Alastor suddenly got so powerful as soon as he arrived. The only thing I can think of right now is Lilith. If he didn’t make a contract with her 7 years ago, he could’ve made it right in the beginning. Maybe Lilith told him to kill the Overlords. Each and every one of them… He didn’t kill Husk though. Which leads us to the next question.

Why didn’t he kill Husk? Maybe I’m making Husk too important but the fact that he didn’t kill Husk could be the reason why Alastor was absent. Lilith was angry at him for disobeying her orders. But I think it’s unlikely that he plays such a big role in Alastor’s disappearance. Plus, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know the reason either. He could’ve already guessed if he was the reason… Unless he did, he didn’t really talk about it, did he now?

Husk is a weird choice to not kill. Alastor is merciless, we were told multiple times that he’s a heartless monster. But then we found out he has a friend. That he cares about Charlie. That he can actually be sweet and nice… Maybe he took pity on Husk. Husk is one of the overlords who isn’t exactly stable. He’s a gambler, getting souls is not a 100% guarantee. But maybe this is the reason Alastor chose to spare him and make a deal with him instead - he saw potential. He saw that Husk can be useful. For a moment, he decided that Husk doesn’t deserve death. Yes, he’s still depressed as fuck, but at least he’s alive.

But is it also the reason why he brought him to the hotel? I’m pretty sure Alastor knew that the hotel really doesn’t need a bar and it does look very out of place - it doesn’t even match the color. I think he secretly thinks that Husk needs a second chance. That, despite thinking that this idea is ridiculous, something tells him that it can still help Husk become better. Get back on his feet, maybe. He saw “Happy Hotel” and thought “yep, I’m bringing my depressed minion in here, he could use some therapy”. He’s also a has-been, he fits right in.

And as you might’ve already noticed, I think that Alastor changed. Not only during those 7 years that he was absent, but also while being at the hotel. He used to be emotionless and cruel, but now he looks like a strawberry pimp (Angel’s words, not mine). He doesn’t do much cruelty and the only time we see him attacking someone is when it comes to hotel’s safety (Sir Pentious and the Sharks attacking). During the meeting of the Overlords, he acted out of place, as if he felt like he didn’t belong there. He had to play nice, despite previously killing each and every overlord that he met. He helped at the hotel. He cares. He doesn’t say it (at least not before that one song battle he had with Lucifer), but he cares.

And this is the smoothest transition to the last question that I could make. Why does he hate Lucifer so much? He’s never met him! He literally says “It’s nice to put a face to a name”. He’s heard of him, everyone has, but they've never met. I thought that he might’ve met him when he was with Lilith, but it looks like Lucifer was always very introverted and Lilith was the one in charge. Then it makes sense that, even if he made a deal with her when he just arrived, he’s never met her husband - he didn’t show up. Ever. And maybe that’s partially the reason why Alastor dislikes him. He finds him irresponsible - as a dad, as a husband, as a RULER. He pisses him off proving that he’s a better father figure than Lucifer, that he cares more about Charlie and the hotel, and that Lucifer is a loser and an asshole in general. And he believed that for a long time, even before Lucifer started interacting with Charlie. He didn’t get jealous, he knew he’s an irresponsible airhead before. Maybe he was told by Lilith. Honestly, it makes me think that Alastor and Lilith had something going on, but I’m getting ahead of myself ahaha.

Anyway, those are my conclusions.

What happened 7 years ago that led Alastor and Lilith of all to disappear? Divorce (and something else????)

Who did Alastor sell his soul to? Lilith.

Why is he helping Charlie if he stated multiple times that he thinks that redemption is a ridiculous idea? Lilith made him.

Is there a reason as to why Alastor gained so much power so quickly and why did he go for the Overlords specifically? Contract with Lilith (Maybe).

And why is Husk the only overlord Alastor didn’t kill? He saw potential in him.

Why is Husk in the hotel to begin with??? Took pity on Husk.

Why does he dislike Lucifer so much? He thinks Lucifer is a bitch and a half.

And finally

What’s going to happen in the finale?

TIME FOR THE FINALE PREDICTION THAT I’M SO CONFIDENT ABOUT!!!!!!

Let’s begin… the story needs an ending… A HOMOSEXUAL! /lyr

So, in Episode 5 we’re told that 5 months have passed, which means Extermination is in a month. WHICH THEN MEANS that the finale of Season 1 will be the Extermination itself.

Now that we know that Heaven can’t do shit about it and Charlie is out of hope for Heaven, they will have no choice but turn to the Overlords. After all, they appeared for one episode only (not including the Vees).

We’ve seen a few clips of some of the Overlords singing and hanging out with Charlie and Alastor. What I think will happen is Charlie will attend a meeting of Overlords, tell them what happened, and convince them to finally take a stand against Heaven. They will agree either willingly, or Alastor will go “if you don’t help my daugh- I mean Charlie, I will broadcast your screams all at once.”

I think what they’ll do is either fight off the angels, or Charlie will talk to Sera with Overlords supporting her. Or both.

They’ll open their eyes to the reason as to why Carmilla killed an angel. She tried to protect her family. She was scared. Heaven will realise just how horrible their actions were. Sera will realise how cruel Adam is.

I don’t think Lilith will make an appearance, that would be too quick. At least I hope she won’t. I hope Charlie will be given a chance to deal with it herself and prove that she’s more than just a cheerful little girl. I hope she realises that she can’t force demons to get redeemed and it should be their choice. I hope they will stop exterminations all together and that Adam will go fuck himself.

And I think at the end it will be revealed why Alastor is there and what happened 7 years ago. OOOORRRRRR It will be left for season 2. When the first season came out, they already said that season 2 is coming too. I think in Season 2 they will look for Lilith and try to solve the mystery of what happened 7 years ago.

My wishes for the finale?

Husk gets to use his full powers (Alastor will just go “alright, go off or whatever”)

Angel will get a chance to punch Val again and maybe even break the contract.

Sera will offer Angel to join them in Heaven and he will refuse to go and choose to stay with his friends. Aww, wholesome and delightful.

Charlie gets to use her full powers and show her true potential.

Nifty gets to scratch an angel’s eyes out.

Alastor and Vox working together.

ANYWAY, THAT’S IT! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

I will definitely add to it once the finale comes out!!!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel theory #theory #theories #hazbin hotel spoilers

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