#Lopera

[haysaca]

Girl I know you're having a breakdown but I can't help but think of this meme in this scene.

Anyways I finally finally finished the new story. I can see why a lot of people didn't like it but eh it felt pretty standard for me. I think it just has some pacing and focus problems.

Can't say much for how Brazil was represented but it definitely wasn't given a lot of focus (granted, compared to Rayashki this IS a main story so it had to be sidelined somewhat). The main focus seems to be the discovery of post-storm expys and Igor's betrayal, but even then I think the focus was split too much (like the betrayal could've been more effective with one or two more episodes focused on Lopera and her thoughts about them, and Anjo's release didn't really feel as impactful as I expected it to be).

Overall it kinda felt more like the first bites before getting into the juicy parts of a burger, you're getting something but not the best part, similar to how I felt about the Apeiron chapter in all honesty.

Anyways that's all for my ramble, I'm gonna do Anjo's story next which I heard was actually good! Then maybe I'll finally get to Semmelweis' and do the SoD expansion.

[arcanistsanctum]

Official Stickers Volume 15

[acesw]

Disabled Characters in Reverse: 1999 - Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of this list of disabled characters in Reverse: 1999, and I do want to say that this list is quite interesting because there's few characters mentioned here. This post will cover the characters with psychological disabilities.

Yet, there's so much complexities to them, and their stories that reflect their mental states are so well-done. I incredibly appreciate these characters for how their characters are written.

Additionally, some of the characters here were not listed on twitter, but I decided to put them here because I realized that there are more insanely traumatized characters than I thought. Let's get started.

C-PTSD and related conditions: Mesmer Jr., Mondlicht, Pavia, Isolde, Kakania, Lopera

Mesmer Jr.’s character has heavily implied throughout the main story and her own to have OCD as a result of the traumatic experiences she had gone through from her field of work and her family’s history in it. She identifies that she has “incurable” anxiety, which causes her to think differently about arcanists and act a little irrationally from our own perspective. This anxiety results in double checking everything and having a slightly intensive routine.

This routine is created as a means to maintain herself and her own sanity, but an imbalance or interruption can greatly upset her. As a result, she has conflicting ideals, experiences hallucinations and panic attacks, has suicidal thoughts, and actively inflicts self harm as a means to cope with her anxiety. However, she’s calmer and at peace with herself when she’s left alone in a quieter and clean space, away from others, and where nature is heard more than constant buzzing.

Mondlicht particularly experiences secondhand trauma because of her grandmother’s stories about the bloody war between the huntresses and the wolves. She eventually dons the cape and goes out to hunt for wolves on her own. She then experiences her own traumas from it, eventually becoming an incredibly hypervigilant child. She’s often incredibly paranoid of the presence of wolves that she will immediately shoot at the sight of one, whether or not they’re real.

Pavia grew up isolated and alone to the point of his arcane skill awakening through it, and his wolves became a manifest of his own personal comfort from the trauma he experienced. He was isolated until possibly his teenage years, and breaking out placed him on a path of mainly bloodshed. Pavia has very little trust in the people around him and is insistent in working independently from others. He often also pushes everyone away from him as he struggles to form proper emotional connections to others.

Isolde is an incredibly complex character and I personally think that the story’s display of her mental well-being has been shown so well that I firmly believe that it’s better to see it for yourself. However, I’ll try to explain as much as possible anyway.

We find that Isolde’s arcane skill places a great amount of psychological strain among the women of the Dittersdorfs, and Isolde in particular had gone through a lot of traumatic events since childhood and is still being affected by her arcane skill even up to today. She experiences heavy hallucinations and neurological episodes, and has a tendency to dissociate due to her trauma.

Doctors in her era linked her and her family’s struggles with the “wandering womb” and described them as an incurable “hysteria,” but these have modern equivalents today. From @sleeplesssmoll’s analysis here, (which I highly recommend reading to further understand) the modern terms to describe parts of Isolde’s “hysteria” are: Somatic Symptom Disorder, Dissociative Disorder, and Conversion disorder.

Kakania suffered from C-PTSD after the events of Chapters 6-7 as shown in her character story. The overall experience shattered her in entirety, leaving her emotionally numb and lost. She’s been found to subconsciously self-harm and dissociate, and she has frequent flashbacks and hallucinations. Luckily, though, she underwent proper therapy provided by the Foundation, which at the very least allowed her to recover over the course of months. Yet, there’s still this mix of ache and numbness that simply describes how deeply affected she was by what happened.

Much like the Kakania, Lopera showcases very clear signs of C-PTSD and clinical depression after everything she had gone through during her childhood and the events after Chapter 8. This is greatly expressed in her vendetta against betrayal and dishonesty, and she has had frequent mental breakdowns after the events of Tristes Tropiques. Unlike Kakania, though, she feels this more deeply and has no support system to rely on.

She expresses such a profound numbness and attachment to her trauma and fears of betrayal, and it's heartbreaking considering that she is only still a child. We may see more in her character story, which I look forward to in the latter half of 2.2.

Non PTSD-Related characters

Baby Blue - Alice in Wonderland syndrome (Dysmetropsia)

It’s no secret that Baby Blue has Alice in Wonderland syndrome, or in other words dysmetropsia. This affects her perception of reality and her ability to recall, but this in turn makes her arcane abilities all the more powerful.

As a result, she doesn’t realize that she’s growing up, yet it seems she doesn’t mind that much. This doesn’t seem to affect her physically either; In fact, it has a heavy influence on how she displays her arcane skills.

Poltergeist - Social Anxiety

Poltergeist has been known to be anxious in social settings which conflicts with her people-pleasing tendencies. She’s also insecure about herself which adds up to her not wanting to be directly perceived. At the same time, she doesn’t like being left alone as a result of having been ignored and forgotten post mortem. Poltergeist is also elaborate (i.e. not wanting to be looked at for too long) yet awkward at the same time when communicating with them.

However, I’m not sure how to describe Poltergeist’s case quite well, but the idea of her having social anxiety resonates greatly in my mind, so it can be treated as a partial headcanon.

Lorelei - Unnamed psychosis-related disorder

Lorelei suffers from strong visual and auditory hallucinations that seems to have worsened over the course of her life. This “madness” had led her to often hurting herself and others, which greatly stressed her parents.

She also suffered trauma from people committing suicide on the Rhine, but it was repressed by her religiousness and her parents’ intervention. To avoid hurting herself and others again, her parents suited her in a straitjacket; she often insisted on securing the straps in them to maintain the straitjacket’s purpose.

Honorable Mentions

PTSD - Click, Lilya

*I just want to clarify that PTSD is insanely common among the characters in this game, so I only added those who very prominently appear in their character.

Being a victim of war, Click has symptoms that indicate amnesia and PTSD from WWII, as he’s still reminded of things such as landmines and air raids. He also struggles to recollect some memories such as how he died and his fear of those landmines.

As a child soldier, Lilya has been constantly exposed to war and bloodshed, especially in her firsthand experiences in the Juhalerat mission.  She has been found mostly drinking, reminiscent of how soldiers tend to drink to forget. (credited from: @/cherilaydi on twt)

Tuesday - ASPD (credited from: @sachisei here on tumblr)

Tuesday is interesting in that she lacks a sense of morals and empathy, and is incredibly desensitized to the social environment around her. (i.e. the motel) While she's not aggressive and even seems relatively gentle, she feels little to no guilt in harming and manipulating others, gaining satisfaction and pleasure from fear. She's incredibly fascinated as to how others approach it too, and would do anything to see its demonstration.

It's likely that these stem from the trauma of her childhood and adolescent years, but she has acted this way for a while now. (given one of her voicelines + her character story) She particularly stands out among other characters as someone who actively harms for her own pleasure. While ASPD is not typically considered a disability, it does hinder Tuesday's daily life and ability to empathize with others, so I think it deserves to be mentioned here.

Notes

I found it insane that there are a lot more heavily traumatized characters than I anticipated, and they all need hugs. For now though, you will find the other two lists down here.

Physically Disabled Characters

Neurodivergent Characters

Thank you!

[socoolinmypajamas]

do you guys see my vision (?

[pinkygirlymeg]

My opinions on 2.2 - As a Brazilian SPOILER WARNING

First off I'ma kick it saying yes, I am disappointed at Bluepoch for not adding diverse and PoC characters, however, this is a very much positive light on 2.2 because well, I enjoyed the update, I'm not here to defend Bluepoch but to appreciate the research and interesting things I think they added to their game about my people and culture.

I also think it's relevant to tell a bit about me, I'm a Brazilian woman natural from Rio de Janeiro, who early in life moved to a rural area in Goiás and later moved to the capital city of Brasília. I visited São Paulo, the city where 2.2 takes place quite a few times since parts of my family live there to this day, however the longer I've been there was 6 months, my visits to São Paulo also consisted mostly of living my the small towns around the big cities and living mostly in rural areas. (I've visited the big city but only to buy things that we didn't have mostly)

Starting off with some of the things I enjoyed the most: Music

So far there has been 3 songs of which I've listened

Starting with the one in the announcement of the special program; https://youtu.be/JsPw7aaB3WQ?si=aGYVp_yvvf1M5m5A

I do like the song, but this one is where they got the Brazil vibes a bit far off? They were going probably to the style of Bossa Nova, a Brazilian musical genre (noticable example are Garota de Ipanema) but I think in this one they went to much on a vibe that matches more french style music? Or at least reminds me of that (I'm sorry if I'm getting it wrong french people!!! Do let me know if I did).

The second one is the Livestream music! You can listen to it while they announce characters and garments;

I think the song is also not the best but definitely catches more of a Brazilian vibe, the style of music seems to be more centered around another genre commonly from the north east region of Brazil! (Noticable example is Figa de Guiné) Where they use a lot of triangles and little bit of the guitar, they're also going for a more beach style music to match the garments me thinks.

And now the third one and my favorite as off publication of this post. The "Trade Winds Garden" theme;

https://youtu.be/qCz036VZYXc?si=Gsbyl4JZzdPUpPqh

Once again they're going for a Bossa Nova vibe but this time, they nailed it perfectly. The strings and the chocalhos (sorry couldn't find a translation to that) work perfectly to create a representation in form of music! The style of the background of the new suitcase also fits the time period of Brazil's early 1900s or late 1800s that I think they're going for, the best example of a closely related song to this is also one of my favs "Águas de Março" is a music of the same genre who I think that this one might be based off.

Ok now with the characters and I'll start with the character I'm most familiar with the vibes!

Lopera the 6 star from the second part of the 2.2 version

Although we don't have much info on the story yet, she seems to be based of the "caipira" culture, I'll use the term Rural culture because "caipira" was a term used in a pejorative demeanor towards me and my family before.

Rural culture is a lot about family and as we know, Lopera ran away from her's, this is fairly common in these circles because living in a rural area while being young and full of dreams can be quite trapping! As for her design. I absolutely love it! From the hat to the sandal she embodies the spirit of a rural girl, the hat is ofc my favorite part, it's usually optional and men are more likely to not use hats as woman are. Being a Rural girl who easily burned in the sun I had to use long sleeves, long dresses and a really big straw hat, although the sandals are the norm when walking at home, usually we would use boots in the farm. In any case, I love her design and her clothes. In the i2 she seems to be more leaning towards a city girl, wearing the shorts and boots like she's ready for anything they throw at her. I personally like the i0 outfit more than the i2 for the many reasons I stated before and for the projection I did in her when I saw her.

Now for our singing best Anjo Nala!

I also loved her vibes! I saw a lot of people saying she's purple scary woman and I agree a bit with that but I really like this trope so I'm eating it! She's one of the characters that I also think I would enjoy way more if she has more melanin but for lore reasons I think she was never even a possibility for that.

First addressing the whole Anjo Nala is Kimberly, I disagree and don't think they are the same person. My evidence is that Kimberly has an identical twin who has been recently murdered! In the newspaper we can see that a ruthless murderer's life has been put to an end. I believe Anjo Nala is that twin who got murdered, aside from the visual differences both have, they also behave completely different at least from what we can see on the PV. Anjo Nala also speaks portuguese in one of her voice lines, knowing Kimberly she would've probably already said things in Portuguese had she known the language at this point. There's also some visual differences to the two, like anjo Nala's tail and horns being different than Kimberly's.

Now putting that to the side. Anjo Nala seems to be based of a more high class songstress. The beautiful girl who sings in the boats that pass by the river. Although that is a more romantic view of our culture it's still within Brazilian literature to have that type of character. The seducing demons from the rivers are also very much part of our culture as you can see from the "Boto Cor de Rosa" a character from Brazilian mythos and folklore.

The i0 dress looks simply so cute, matching the style and era of the outfits worn by the ladies here in the big cities of Brazil, as for her i2 it seems to be more of a stage outfit, I love it too, but personally, like Lopera I like her i0 more. Although I love the art and the background of her i2 and the references to the festivals of new year here and the carnival with the lights blowing in the sky voice line and the people laughing and dancing! She's a very cute character overhaul!

Mr. Duncan... Another character whom I think would look very good with more melanin, mr.duncan embodies a very common guy in Brazilian families, the "Tio do Pavê" or that cute and funny old uncle who cracks dad jokes whenever you meet with them, he seems like a passionate and generally nice guy and OMG I love seeing older man being added to the game! It really brings variety and the possibility of old men yaoi (looking at u Shamane), I really enjoy his character for how much I can see of him in my own family and it's very fun to think of all the cute interactions he could pull off! Design wise, he feels a little bit more like a tourist, although I've seen my dad wear similar outfits before when going to the beach or simply enjoying an outdoors barbecue. I like both of his i0 and i2 basically equally! I think he looks overhaul very nice

I won't make a comment about our skeleton hand just yet, White Rum seems like the most mysterious one so far! But I will make a post about them if I happen to have some new matured thoughts of if they get more info about them

Lastly for the garments, I LOVED the garments for this version, making the Brazil patch a beach vibes update is expected but they surprised me a lot! The outfits do look really like the things any Brazilian would wear to go to the beach, my favorites being Vila's and Yenisei's garment. Specifically talking about Yenisei, it might be me going on crack mode but I think her design is based off the Victoria Regia story of Brazilian folklore and I think it works perfectly with Yenisei's connection to rivers!

Marcus looks like the cute and sweet girl at the beach but girl that sunburn marks will be weird looking with all that fishnets /silly

Vila looks gorgeous and 37 is not beating the most beautiful character of the game allegations, I also think her garment has something to do with 37 accepting the malleability of truth and how it bends and changes like a river, truth changes in every different perspective!

Shamane looks gorgeous and I look forward to all the yaoi potential he got hwhshssh /silly and seriously I also love the representation of our fauna in Shamane's garment.

Few that was quite a lot I think I'm done for this post at least! I can and will yap more about this version once things come out and I'm yet to make a post about the PV, I did see it and I have some thoughts that I still need to mature! If you have any questions, suggestions or corrections they're all welcome! I just enjoy discussing things about my culture and country and how people from the outside world perceive us!

[please-let-this-work-oh-my-god]

NO POCS IN 2.2 WE LOST

(Anjo Nala is limited btw)

THE NEW SKINS THOUGH

PV: https://youtu.be/cWFz-l5vYfY?si=UcRmfclQrq8Zp21s (MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING FOR 1.9 ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE) (skip to 2:23 to NOT get spoiled)

[reignsserene09]

welcome to the factory! we have:

Sonetto

shooty shooty bang bang Brazilian Sonetto

and

Italian one woman band Sonetto

Vertin seeing these three together be like:

"why are there a lot of Sonettos in the suitcase?"

[hammerbonk]

The 2.2 web event is peak btw

[haydeink]

As a brazilian it was my duty to draw stuff for this patch

🇧🇷 Lopera and Pickles

[daily-re19-ship]

todays re19 ship is:

Lopera (15) x Sonetto (16)

[haliya1988]

So another child needs extensive therapy...

[haysaca]

I still haven't finished the current patch (its alright, not really expecting it to be big cuz storywise it's right after Vereinsamt which was very peak) but I'm looking forward to 2.3 so badly because I've been seeing memes of how down bad caroline is.

[arcanistsanctum]

Tristes Tropiques In-Game CGs (1/2)

[socoolinmypajamas]

Full disclosure: I am not here to debate whether he is a bad written character or not, I just want to point out a few interesting things I noticed about him, particularly all that ramble about The Horse of Troy and...

...Sophia.

Hear me out: the "trying to end bloodshed with bloodshed" IS stupid and made more sence in Sophia's story, because she used the powers given to her by Arcana to stop the attack on Apeiron. Igor, at first glance, doesn't make any sense. If you are preaching your loyalty to Zeno, to your comrades in arms and how much you want to end conflict, Why betraying Zeno and killing your own men? Why treating your adopted children as disposable pawns? Why deflecting to the people you have been trying to stop all this time?

My answer: because he sees himself as incapable to stop Arcana, and thus, a disgrace to Zeno.

"Betrayal" and "Obedience": Igor saw Arcana survive a FREAKING VACUUM BOMB EXPLOSION and then went through an insurrection IN HIS OWN BASE. If he was already a control freak trying to live for Zeno's honor, that pushed him to a new limit. After that, he simply can't stand having anything less than 100% obedience if whatever plan he's cooking has any chance to succeed. But he doesn't just need full loyalty from his men, he also need absolute trust from the Manus. He needs to have as much control of the situation as possible which is hinted by adopting the children of fallen soldiers to indoctrinate them, refusing to make his men wear the masks, killing his human soldiers so the Manus trust him, forcing the more loyal soldiers on his unit to dispose those he deems as less loyal to prove that his most loyals soldiers ARE INDEED his most loyal soldiers, etc.

But again, WHY deflecting to the Manus? We are entering speculation territory but I do have some bases to substain my theory.

The Horse of Troy: one of the most known allegories for betrayal. However, the more you think about it, it seems... Odd, for this particular situation. If it's about betraying Zeno then... It makes no sense. The Horse of Troy is about a ruse in which the greek managed to get inside the city of Troy with a fake gift in order to destroy it from the inside. Does that mean Igor's plan is deflecting to Manus to betray them later?

Not necessarily? BUT it may lead to that.

Let's go back to Sophia.

Remember how she THINKS she is an obstacle for the righteous to defeat? How a lot of what she says implies that she follows Arcana because she is fine with being destroyed if it means for the integers to bring back the order that irrational numbers cause? And that if they can't, that's also fine because she, as an irrational number, SHOULD be causing chaos anyways? Like, she is so hung up with the ways of Apeiron that as long as her actions line up with that view she is willing to keep going all the way towards the bitter end, because she's too scared to face a reality she feels absolutely powerless against.

Igor's actions may indicate he also has that same mentality: a failure of an admiral who NEEDS to clean the stain his actions and self perceived inadequacy caused to Zeno, even at the cost of his own honor, life, legacy and whatever blood he has to spill along the way. And something the story uses to make us think about that possibility is Moldir's behavior: no matter how much she avoids trying to cover her own indecision and fears of "not being enough to protect everything she cherishes" with absolute loyalty in something above her, she still love and want to protect Lopera, even if it means hurting her. Just like Sophia did to 37. Igor tries to cut ties with anything that could prevent his path towards the abyss, but Moldir can't. No matter how much Igor tries to become a traitor so everything that happened under his command stops being Zeno's fault and becomes HIS fault, he can't 100% control people's action and emotions. Igor and his group aren't IN the Horse of Troy but ARE the Horse of Troy in the shape of an "insurrected army offering the remains of Arcana" to the Manus. If there's one greek soldier in that horse, albeit yet unknowingly, that could be Moldir.

Oh, and one more thing.

Remember all those hints about Sophia being turkish? Guess where the city of Troy used to be.

[acesw]

major 2.2 spoilers

[please-let-this-work-oh-my-god]

The new characters for 2.2...