#OKAY THIS IS MY OFFICIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE DA FANDOM

[vintra-lavellan]

An amateur analysis of Rook's theme: Not The Chosen One

NOT a music expert and super open to corrections but I think Rook's theme Not The Chosen One is pretty neat—it weaves together three groups of motifs to represent three central figures in DATV: Rook, Solas, and the Evanuris.

Rook: breathing, beats, and strings in staccato.

0:00, but most especially after 0:30. We hear rapid breathing, some beats, and flourishes. These seem to convey the frenetic pace, the controlled panic, with which Rook must act and often does. It feels like Rook is running out of breath.

We also hear at around here the start of quick, detached bowings. Maybe violins? Maybe the cello?

Violins are often the central instrument, and in my head it is the instrument of choice for representing the player character. Our favorite Lost Elf Theme is akin to a duet between the violin and the cello, a final debate between a pleading Inquisitor and Solas. If it is a cello, it works well too—Rook, Solas' mirror.

In Not the Chosen One, the strings in staccato are no different—it carries the tune, the time-ticking feeling, through markedly short bows.

The use of strings in staccato here is a sharp contrast to the cello's smooth, sustained strokes (legato) that we associate with Solas. I like to think it's evocative of Rook's relative youth and position as a "narrative foil" to the Dread Wolf.

Solas: Cello, of course. In legato bowing.

At around 0:50, a familiar, mournful cello creeps in to contrast the strings. Solas.

The cello here doesn't take center stage like it gloriously does in the Dread Wolf Theme or as brutally and honestly regretful as it does in the Lost Elf Theme.

Instead, it's in the background. Underpinning the piece. You would barely notice it if you were not listening carefully, but it makes the piece feel fuller.

It is Solas, still mournful, speaking, guiding from the background, as he does in DATV.

The Evanuris. The otherwordly, digital flairs and horns.

Someone on Tumblr (can't find the original post) made an astute observation about how the Evanuris themes are heavily drawn on digital sounds to convey their otherworldliness, their warpedness. Super agree.

The Evanuris linger from the very beginning in flairs. High pitched, digitally altered horns pierce the start of the piece and throughout the interplay of Rook's breathing, their strings, and Solas' cello like a threat. In fact, a horn at 0:29 initiates Rook's running at 0:30.

The digital horns are apt—I like to think it's a callback to the darkspawn horns of the Origins theme, but warped, twisted, and advanced, as the Evanuris and the Sixth Blight are to previous blights. The horns persist heavily also in Elgarnan's theme, Eldest of the Sun (the beginning in his theme feature grand, deliberate, and slow horns, reminiscent of the Origins theme.)

At 1:20, Ghilan'nain enters. A warped wind instrument, maybe a flute, more like a harmonica. We know this is her because this is the same instrument used in her theme (see 0:32 of Mother of the Halla). She features heavily here as she does in the main story as the genius controlling the Blight.

Ghilan'nain persists for a while, rising and rising alongside the cello until around 2:00...

At 2:00, Solas' cello returns center stage in a mournful but determined passage (2:00-2:30). It is remarkable here that the cello, Solas, is carrying the main melody alone, against the digital sound, the horns, the flairs, and the strings. This is arguably the most memorable section and the most honest we see of Solas here, reminscent of his honesty in the Lost Elf Theme—no wonder this passage features heavily in the endings and meshes well with the Lost Elf reprise in the Atonement ending.

After 2:30, Rook's short-bowing strings regain control, but our other motifs—our lone cello and our Evanuris punctuating the soundscape—remain until the end.

ALSO the title is perfect. This song is about Rook, thrown into a chaos. They are not the chosen one (they are not the Hero of Ferelden nor the Inquisitor, whom Thedas views as sacrosanct "chosen ones"), they are tasked with the impossible, but they managebto weave through three major powers anyway—Solas and the last two Evanuris. This is what they do in this piece—they begin harried, uncertain... then they are guided, then they are almost bested by the Evanuris and Solas, but they survive and regain their voice in the end.

[teenyneko]

Thoughts from a returning SnK fan

Like most fans during the peak of SnK’s popularity (2013-2014), I was pretty much going through a huge SnK craze. I remember following a bunch of SnK-related blogs, looking at fanart, checking and staying in the tags almost every hour, reading a lot of meta material, playing OSTs on repeat, the whole shebang. And like most fans, my interest dramatically fell by the wayside when the wait for S2 pretty much grew into eternity. Even when I got around to reading the manga (starting from where S1 left off), life became super chaotic and busy. But now I’m back! (And hopefully for good?) I’m actually pleasantly surprised that the fandom on here is still going strong. Obviously not to the same hype everyone was living up to back in 2013. To those who’ve been committed to the manga and fandom after all these years, major kudos and I’m sure your tired eyes have seen a lot. So although I had let go of this series, I’ve been playing catch up these last couple of months simply because SnK holds a special place in my heart. With everything I’ve gathered up up to this point, here are the immediate and nonsensical thoughts coming from a returning fan, fresh and untainted by years of shipping wars, fanon vs. canon wars, misconstrued meta discussions, and other fun stuff that comes with being in a fandom:

FOUR-year wait just for 12 eps ?? HHMMmm okay sounds fair ..

jokes on meE!! reiner was the protagonist this whole entire time!!1!

that serum bowl or whatchamacallit didnt need to happen for the plot to progress

when and as u get older, trust me when i say the vets really grow on u more, maybe more than the 104th *continues grieving over mike, nanaba, and moblit’s death*

jean and armin’s friendship is p fcking solid if u ask me. GOOD job isayama

we get to decide hange’s gender ?? *daydreams about female commander hange overthrowing the patriarchy esp the shitty mps and establishing a wonder woman-esque island where she, as queen, and other babes conquer the forces of evil* *me, quietly whispering to myself:* “yes, v good”

im p sure kenny was written in a way so that i and others despise and luv him at the same time CUZ ITS WORKIN on me

ymir .. u beautiful, tragic soul. how can anyone ever hate u…

eyebrow game still at its all-time high i see. u kno who im talking bout

gj on mikasa for learning to be less protective of eren and allowing him to grow up and mature

pieck, arguably the most beautiful eldian warrior, is given the ugliest titan (next to the beast). Disrespect

never thought i’d see the day i graduate college before annie breaks outta that crystal….

u kno that ocean scene? i am literally both levi and hange whenever im at the beach

uprising was arguably the best arc nothing makes me happier than exposing shitty politics, executing a coup, and i guess seeing gun battles between humans in a titan-eating world

nine, NINE members left in the SC?? oh i gotta see how this goes

leaving an inexperienced teen on the throne? i also gotta see how this goes *whispers:* “u can do it historia”

u mean to tell me, canonically, hange and levi sTILL have one of the most solid relationship dynamics to come outta snk ?? Sign me da fck up A++

*dot pixis going ballistic over jean’s omelette* u kno what, ill have what hes having

did i mention erwin didnt need to be pitted against armin but wHATEVER drives the plot and creates unending conflict between fans i guESS !!¿

the scene where zackly tortured that official? we dont talk about dat

the scene where levi wreaked havoc on zeke and the assembly line of titans? LETS TALK ABOUT THAT

new world and new characters in the last arc???¿¿ bc that four-year wait obliterated a significant fcking chunk of your fanbase lmao but sure, ur story, my cool dudes

everyone in official SC trench coats ??!¿ v good, v goodd

WOW isayama, the improvement in your art.. VERY NICEE

the original operations squad? Ah VERY wise card to draw. the new operations squad? WOW amazingg. but how bout i defeat ur cards with: Farlan and Isabel!!!11!!1 drawing this card will give 80+% of TLC to levi

so thats it huh. all that storytelling and character development just for the walled cast to get fking murked by titan-shifting warrior children from McMarleyWorld

me, talking with friends who used to watch snk: y’all kno annie still in the crystal lmao

aot: junior high kept my dying spirit alive while waiting for s2. if u havent watched it, are u even a fan ??¿¿¿

ty for ur immense contribution to humanity, ilse langnar, ty ty ty

even now, sasha is still incredibly underrated. her humor. her courage. her badass archery and all its badassery. valuable and indispensable character imo

already mentally preparing myself for levi, hange, and eren’s death bc how else will they go with the way the plot is heading amiright? *slips into complete darkness to process this*

four-year time skip, four-year wait for S2, new characters and new world late in the game, this series is a mess lmao

[asil-norahc]

Just an idea popped out from Drawpile

Warning: I might make a lot of mistakes in this post bc why not so this is it. Oh, plus harsh language too (as usual i guess).

Okay okay, so, I was drawing on drawpile with peeps and something HAPPENED (greatest introduction ever)

see, on drawpile I draw HorrorSans like that (cartoon character and Croc -bloody bird guy- by @peanutable):

and LustSans this way (plus Pap cuz why not, although I changed his clothing so it isn’t very representative of the original):

And I somehow mixed them up at some point...

May I introduce you to... GoreSans!!!

Let me explain you what he would be if I happened to make an AU around the thing. Well, I DON’T intend to do many things about it so I wouldn’t call it an AU but since I can’t let a character like him with no proper environment to set him in I can’t let you without developping the idea a bit further.

It’s basically a coherent and logical mix between Underlust and Horrortale.

Now those who know what I’m talking about will think I consider them like dumbass, but I’ll develop the idea anyway and that needs a quick reminder of what those two AUs are (don’t blame me for my unecessary rigor):

Underlust. Well, I’d davise you to go check UnderLust Shame Cave, unless you’re under 18 and/or allergic to NSFW. WOW STOP ASKING YOURSELF I won’t make anything NSFW here don’t worry. I’ll try my best to soften everything for it to be accessible to anyone who might be reading this. If you feel offended despite my efforts, say it (politely) in the ask box and I’ll change the tags^^

Now I haven’t read UnderLust very much and I don’t know what occured since a long time, but here’s a quick summary of what I know :

First, it may be NSFW, but the comic has real depht and emotions. There are reasons to WHY THE FUCK EVERYONE FUCKS and that makes this AU completely acceptable to me. Now, the reasons are Gaster and the decrease of fertility due to... well, imprisonment in the underground and chronic lack of hope I guess. Gaster intended to fix the fertility problem by extracting the Lust from the soul of the first human, Chara, who was a... sort of... sadistic bitch? Anyways. Injecting the Lust into (adult) monsters had two consequences: relatively NOT FIX the fertility problem making the children the last ganaration, and turn any adult monster into a slut.

Yeah that definitely legimimates the NSFW for me. Not that it needs any legitimation anyway XD because the comic that came (pun?) out of it is about true love VS lust, sexual identity, abuse and all the emotional mess that comes out of it (hehe da inententional pun lol). So it is surpisingly interesting and kinda moving.

Horrortale. This AU is particular because it is settled in the FUTURE of one of the neutral run. Now, any sensible undertale player WOULDN’T want to have to face the consequences of any run that didn’t ended peacefully, would they?... uh, guess I would at some point...

Anyways, that makes the Horrortale AU really interesting because it just puts some canon facts together and think of how it would evolve with time.

Let’s observe some of said facts:

Toriel attempting to legally take the power and ease everyone’s pain with peace.

Oh! Your acts have consequences!^^ Peace isn’t an option now.

Putsch.

Crusader, surely future tyran.

Sans and Papyrus tempering the current crusader future tyran.

Bros will be bros.

... Click! (Am I the only one that saw a sort of threat in his last word..?)

SO Undyne putsched Toriel out (it’s definitely a coup since Undyne is the equivalent of the General of the Army) and now rules over the Underground with an iron fist in order to develop drastically the army for her to wage a holy war against humanity, implying she will do everything for her army to be well fed above citizens. Mh.

If she’s not going to become a tyran, I dunno.

Now I’m leaving canon facts to start about horror tale context:

To summary, the underground has turned into a sort of dystopic HELL OF A BLOODY MESS since the common monsters who didn’t contributed to Undyne’s army were left starving and had to rely on the only edible things they had on hand: other monsters.

Now feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I can remember, this is what turned monsters into... well, dangerous monsters.

SO, now, what would a mix between the two look like? Let’s finally talk about GoreTale!! (okay well I said I wouldn’t make an AU, BUT if this can inspire anyone to develop it into a proper one THAT’D BE FUCKIN COOL OMFG)

So it is set in the future of one particular run of UnderLust if this AU were to be adapted into an Undertale-like video game; Asgore is dead and the other souls disappeared, leaving the monsters behind with grief and despare. At least one monster has been killed by Frisk so that Undyne, Head of the Royal Harem (this is how it is in underlust DON’T ASK ME) decides to rule over the underground with fierce will to destroy all human kind. Because she knows nothing else, she turns the underground into a bloody brothel since she considers people had to surrender their mind, soul AND bodies to her royal persona and cause, plus she being blood thirsty after human’s decay, she does it overly sadistical and strong. Sans tried to temper her at first since his brother was now part of the official Royal Harem and feared for his safety, but she slowly became unreasonable. A bloody tyran, unrelenting and craving for physical and mental/moral abuse.

So Sans gave up on her, even though she was his queen, and left the capital with his brother. His confrontation against her left its mark on his skull, revealing a new aspect of this character: he no longer has only 1HP since he got some new LV by abusing and killing other monster for self-defense and his own need for food and relief. So the head blow didn’t kill him (and I don’t think it should have since Undyne surely must have wanted to keep him locked up somewhere she could torture him in order to mindfuck his personnality..?). Anyways, he must have scared her (or at least surprise her enough for her to let him go with his bro). They returned to Snowdin, and made an agreement with the Queen so that she doesn’t hunt them down: they guard Snowdin and bring her any human that comes by (since they are two of the rare monster that can live under harsh cold weather and that Undyne hates it, it makes sense, besides she doesn’t have to fear Sans and Papyrus’s ambitions to steal human souls from her bc they only intend to survive by their own, away from any form of control over them). And for the other snowdin inhabitants and soldiers she could send to Snowdin instead of potential / official trators, we can state that they are either loyal to the crown in some extreme ways but temper their wrath and lust around the skelebros bc they would surely bone them to death, making the boney bros kinda the chiefs in snowdin, or they are refugees that flee the Queen’s command and sought for protection of the weather and the skelebros, OR they all dead bc skelebros ate them up in all ways.

SO Goretale wouldn’t be the best life place to settle. Horrortale and Underlust aren’t either, but the mix between the two must be even more sordid and glaucous and bloody and slutty at some point and completely infernal. I could see an H.R Giger style for the environment that possibly evolved with the monsters, but with more colours. If you don’t see what I’m talking about, go check by yourselves; the first images must be eloquent enough.

Okay just one example that has no hidden nsfw:

Frogman - Giger meets Escher. imagine it with some red and gold and that’d be totally fit (or not. I don’t care.) I advise you to see more by searching HR Giger.

Warning: it’s art in the “noble” way, but it’s still definitely NSFW AND sordid as heck. So unless your innocence is so extreme you are immuned to sin or you love that kind of thing or you are appealed by some artistical curiosity, keep out!^^ (H.R Giger is a german artist that designed lots of great things including the Aliens of... Aliens. So it’s real good culture and you can check it out without any sinful interest other than artistical curiosity. You’re welcome.)

NOW THE REAL THING (finally. Why the fluff are my summaries always so long?!?)

You know that drawpile allows people to draw at the same time on the same canvas (I feel like I’m repeating myself). Well, tht’s great and it allows things like that to pop out:

Little funny doodles made with @peanutable (here is her OC Verdana, cute lil’ kiddy flowery skely-like monster that is innocence itself why am I not ashamed of putting Goresans in front of him?!? I SHOULD DIE ALREADY SAINTE MERDE !! ).

Now THE GREATEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME ON DRAWPIIILE !!!

Frisk by @sky-lia !! She and @peanutable are such amazing artists !! It really inspires me when I see them drawing, and putting my characters in front of theirs really shows the difference of skill! It encourages me a lot to practice and catch the level! And it is really lots of fun to do^^ Oh My Gnarls Frisk is SOOO adorable they manage to move and disconcert GoreSans! And it shows a nice and somewhat cute part of him I surely would never have thought of if I didn’t draw with them ;) (oh well, after all, in this crazy fandom people see cuteness anywhere, even in the most unsettling places, so OF COURSE GoreSans is also a Teddy Bear lmao)

That’s it for today! That’s All Forks! (this pun MUST have been made already)