#Reddit secret dragon

[secretdragonstory]

Secret Dragon - Chapter 2: Speak

I opened the book and skimmed through a few chapters, happy to finally see some true information, with substance. Although I had many books of my own, I had never brought any of them to class; I had no intention of being asked about them or pressing the issue.

By virtue of my existence, it and I would be scrutinized. I had neither the patience nor the desire for another microscope to be placed above me.

But Sasha had no such reservations even after I told him about the curriculum, although he relented and said he would figure out a way around that nonsense. It seemed as if he was determined to go against the grain.

We spoke deeply, about different subjects, our project, and his books. The more he talked the more at ease he became. I unknowingly got closer and closer to him as the time passed. I had to literally pull myself back a few times. I wondered if he noticed. It was confusing how I kept leaning into the heat coming off his breath.

We were both startled at the sound of chairs scraping. We looked around as our peers gathered their things.

“It seems that for the first time this class is actually worth my time. Usually I am the first to leave,” Sasha said, surprised.

“I know,” I revealed.

“Hmmm,” he vocalized deeply. I had no idea if it was “oh really” or “interesting” or any other answer. It was just a deep throat vibration. I just knew he would do that a lot. I could feel it.

As I was packing my things, I realized I was a little feverish. I put a hand to my cheek. Was it hot? Or was it that he was speaking heat in my direction? I couldn’t tell. I never ran hot.

He watched me touching my face and chuckled to himself, putting away his books. I really wanted to be annoyed—at anyone else I would have been—but his lighthearted laughter surprised me; so joyous after so many weeks of being a specter in the classroom.

I looked him in his eyes, though, and shook my head challengingly at him, as if to say “what?” That only made him laugh out loud. It was both quiet and bassy all at the same time. The kind of laugh that was bottomless, scratchy. The kind of laugh you could tell would boom and shake you if given the space.

I never thought I’d hear that coming from him, let alone directed at me. I refrained from expressing an iota of emotion beyond a small smile. I had to stay cool.

Pam walked over to our table swiftly, no doubt looking to be rid of Jonah. She smiled at Sasha, grinned really.

“So. We finally meet! Pam Swiftwater,” she chirped. Her hand shot out as fast as she walked. Sasha halted his movement. He extended his hand more slowly, gently, engulfing her delicate hands in his large ones.

“Of course. I am Sasha Emberscale,” Sasha said, pulling his hand back to pat his chest.

Pam gave me a knowing glance of drama. “Oh I know who you are,” she said.

“Likewise; you are in my open physical hour,” he reminded her. “You are on the track team.”

“That’s right! It’s nice to finally, officially, meet you.”

Sasha raised his brow at her.

“My friend has spoken of you,” he said offhand.

“What friend?” Pam asked, taken aback.

“Seth Fairbreeze, dragon of the wind.”

“Oh?” Pam said, her interest piqued. I didn’t know whether she knew who that was. But it intrigued both of us nonetheless.

“I will introduce you, of course, now that we are properly acquainted.”

“I can’t wait.” I knew she couldn’t.

Pam glanced back at her table and groaned. “Let’s get out of here. If I have to talk to Jonah any longer, I swear Imma strangle him.”

Sasha laughed heartily. “Very well. Let us depart this place to avoid attempted murder,” he joked.

“Why don’t you stick with us? We’re in the same course after this,” I suggested, gathering my items. I didn’t even hesitate asking him that. I’d done enough hesitating.

Sasha’s laugh tapered off into a quiet chuckle. “Of course. I would desire nothing more.”

I couldn’t hide my elation this time. Pam snickered at me. Thankfully he didn’t notice. I assumed.

Sasha draped his jacket across his arm, opting not to put it back on. Admittedly I enjoyed the view. He gestured for us to exit the class before him.

Every once in a while he would look down at me as we walked through the halls. I noticed his eyes following me.

I would sneak a glance at him when he wasn’t looking. It was apparent just how large he was now that I was walking right next to him. He was one of the only people in school taller than me. His shoulders were broad, arms thick. I know I was staring at the way they flexed as he moved. Couldn’t help but to.

Everything in me wanted to take that arm of his for my own. The thought of it being mine just felt so natural. I had to check myself a few times walking beside him.

It would be mine in time. That I promised myself.

—

We entered our Dragontongue class where I took a seat on his right at a table. Pam sat at mine.

Class with Sasha was much more interesting than ever before. He spoke freely and pleasantly, a stark contrast to the silent dragon he had been before I sat at his table in Dragonology. It was like something that had weighed on him had vanished.

I wasn’t unaware that he was happier since we had talked. I was pleased that it was me that had pulled him out of whatever darkness was holding him.

Again a pang of irritation ran through me. Why had I not introduced myself before? Just hearing the depth of his voice and the eloquence of his speech had me feeling some type of way. I could have been hearing that in my ears for weeks, those words of his carried on desert sands.

As class droned on, I saw that Sasha was appraising the professor with a raised brow as if too polite to allow complete disdain across his face.

He began to tell us about different Dragontongue dialects quietly, I suppose to keep himself occupied or distracted. I had to lean all the way in to hear his voice. It reverberated in my ears.

“If you were to say that word in the southern regions of Lyfax, it would mean to place bricks or stones atop each other as if building something. If you said that in the northeastern region, it means much the same, but doubles as a slang word meaning to fu— I am sorry, to have relations with someone.”

Pam squealed and covered her mouth. I covered mine too. I had wanted to hear the word ‘fuck’ come out of his polite mouth.

“Are you serious?” I asked instead.

“Yes, I am,” he said, brow raised. “Take care in who you say it to and in what context.”

Sasha tapped another paragraph “This term here. If you were to say it in the Northernmost tip of the country, it is basically calling someone a piece of filth in the wrong context, while just a few regions down it simply means to clean something without any further colloquial use. Their origins most likely started off with the same meaning and deviated as the people left and settled elsewhere. Knowing different dialects of Dragontongue in Lyfax is important. Linguistics interests me, as you can probably surmise.”

“Do you speak a lot of languages?” Pam asked.

“I occasionally travel for my work and interact with different dignitaries. I must know many languages and dialects at least at a rudimentary level.”

“Oh wow…” I said, truly impressed. Now that I had listened to his voice, I couldn’t place his accent. Unless deep was one. It wasn’t as if I was familiar with Lyfaxians’ manner of speech or various accents anyway. “What do you speak?” I asked

“Hmmmm. Common Lyfaxian. Common Lizardtongue. Dragontongue, of course; several dialects: fire, moon and wind. Many people know these. Shelltongue. Salamandra…one other.”

“Goodness,” I said in awe. I stashed away that “one other.” I’d ask about it later. I couldn’t imagine why it would be a secret. Hypocritically.

“My speech is not perfect in Shelltongue or Salamandra yet. But I can hold a conversation. I would enjoy learning and speaking your dialect of Dragontongue, as you mentioned earlier,” he remarked to me. Of course, Pam regarded me in shock. She gave me a chiding look, rightfully so.

Sasha didn’t miss her reaction. “If it is trouble, do not worry about it,” he said, frowning.

“No, It’s okay,” I reassured him. “I don’t mind.”

He was still uncertain, looking at Pam’s concerned face. “If I am to converse with a new group of dragons, I would prefer to know their dialect,” he whispered. “But not if it is cause for alarm. For some reason.”

Pam sighed in relief upon hearing him refer to me as a dragon. “Oh okay.”

“It’s fine. Complicated. I’ll tell you later,” I said, waving it all away. Sasha nodded.

“So did you all decide on a topic for your assignment?” Pam asked.

“Of course. We spoke much of it. I look forward to working with Leila.” Sasha said. I liked the way he said my name, the way he swung the vowels upward to where they needed to go. As it should be. “It will be interesting,” he said.

Pam glanced over to me. “How so?”

I looked amused, I’m sure. “Let’s say our Dragonology topic is about to be spicy,” I hinted.

“Sasha you’re a horrible influence already,” she accused, raising her brows at him.

“Of course,” he confirmed, chuckling deeply. “One needs a little corruption in the right direction, every once in a while.”

“Corruption? Oh really?” I said, regarding him in what I intended to be mock surprise. But I was genuinely shocked that he said it. He hadn’t corrupted me yet. He could try, but only when I was through with him.

Sasha chuckled silently. Just a trembling of the shoulders. A soft billow of scalding heat wafting across my face. Mmm, maybe sooner then.

Pam’s eyes widened, but she was beyond amused. If she could manifest a snack to observe our rapidly forming dynamic, she would have in a heartbeat.

She sat back, twirling her pencil. I knew she was about to start something. The twitch in the corner of her mouth was working. She was about to instigate her heart out. I groaned quietly.

“You know, Leila speaks all the same languages you do. She’s fluent in Shelltongue even; one of her best friends is Turtlefolk. She works at a place where a lot of people from different places come through. She took it upon herself to learn their languages.”

I groaned more.

“Is that so?” Sasha inquired, angling his body toward me. He sounded impressed.

I just rubbed my brows. I did not advertise my language skills. He looked at me with interest. “That is admirable. Why do you not wish to speak of it?” he asked.

“I don’t like puffing myself up. Drawing attention. Not that you are doing that,” I clarified.

Sasha smiled. “I know what you meant,” he said, speaking Shelltongue. I grinned. “I have been somewhat successful at not drawing attention—past my appearance at least—for a few weeks now.”

“Except your grades of course,” I pointed out in Shelltongue as well. “Literally perfect grades except two, and that’s only because of inaccuracies.”

Sasha raised his brow. “Ah, right, you have been keeping tabs on my marks. Very well; I have been under the radar except for my marks.”

“See? Y’all can speak tongues to each other in every flavor,” Pam said casually.

My mouth dropped. To say my eyes widened would be an understand. I shielded the side of my face.

Sasha choked and laughed quietly, holding his chest.

Never had she been that brazen. And she had said some crazy ass things for as long as I’d know her.

She looked so proud of herself.

“Pam, you are trying to start something, are you not?” Sasha guessed—back in Lizardtongue—looking away in laughter.

“Of course not. I don’t know what you mean,” she said, smirking.

I rubbed my face. “What were we even talking about?”

Sasha spoke as quietly as he could. “Different languages. Dialects. Things of that nature. Tongues, apparently,” he said, leaning toward me.

Really Sasha? I thought. He was something else.

He leaned back again and looked ahead, his smile dimming. “Also, things your professor apparently will not teach,” he said, the scales of his brows beginning to furrow.

“Yeah. It’s frustrating,” I agreed, uncovering my face.

“This class is testing my endurance. To hear my language butchered and be told that the proper way is incorrect is vexing.”

Pam stared at the professor, then at Sasha. “I’m sorry. This class is far beneath how you—and we—speak.”Pam and the rest of the Swiftwater Clan spoke to my family in the True way, the way of Sun Dragons.

Sasha leaned back. “And yet I have no choice but to be here,” he remarked. “And, apparently, neither do you both.”

It was a painful requirement, but a mandatory one. I nodded.

Pam turned back to the front of class. “You must be bored here at this university,” she said.

Sasha rubbed his chin. “Hmmmm,” he rumbled deeply. The vibration of that inquisitive hum made my shoulders tingle. I had to close my eyes and put a hand to my chest to halt my heart’s pounding.

“I was, yes,” he said slowly, “but yesterday was my last day of boredom. Today, the season has changed.” He glanced at me as he said it.

My mouth twitched into a smile. I found his choice of words particularly appealing. Pam looked curiously at him, but said nothing.

Sasha angled his body back toward me. I don’t know if I imagined it, but it felt like his whole existence was radiating heat now. It sent rush through my body.

“Let us return to our ‘lesson’ and pretend to care,” he suggested.

“Sasha,” I laughed, nudging his arm. It was hot to the touch. I was not imagining it.

“What?” he said innocently.

I shook my head at him, incredulous. I had no idea he was so funny. Who would have thought that sullen dragon was full of humor. He relented.

“I will behave myself,” he lied through his fanged teeth, patting his chest.

“Doubtful,” I returned, amused. It was easy to talk to him. Like we were old friends. Sasha was right: Pam had started something.

—

Sasha continued pointing out more language dialect rules and vocabulary from Lyfax. Things we couldn’t have learned on our own.

There were so many regions to learn about. I listened intently as he described them, and asked questions about everything. It was as if he was taking me on a mental tour of those far away places…

Before that day we hadn’t said a word to each other. Hadn’t shaken hands or anything. Whenever we had met eyes, we would quickly look away. I didn’t understand why we had done that. Now here we were hunched over a text book with our heads damn near touching. The heat of his breath warmed my face. It was hotter than earlier that day. Much hotter.

And still I kept on gravitating closer. Because of how he had angled his body toward me, my left arm eventually pressed against his right.

My breathing stuttered, being in such close proximity to him. And I knew he felt it. He had to have felt it. Because I felt him tremble.

And there it was again! That strange rumble emanating from him, from his throat, I could now tell. Now that I was touching him, it was amplified, coursing through me. I tried to pinpoint its essence. It was very much like a growl, the crackling of a fire. And a hum; it reminded me of the way he responded to things without words. Hmmm.

All of it together was a magnetic song. I couldn’t help but listen. Let it lull me into a dream.

I wandered from the lesson for a moment to imagine what it would be like to just feel all of it pressed up against my chest. To embrace him and the heat he radiated.

I wanted to feel his fire whipping around me, not just the heat off him. To embrace a cascade of his flames. washing over me, engulfing me fully.

What would kissing Sasha be like? By the Goddess, the thought of drinking his fire until the persistent ice inside me melted was too tantalizing. If only I could just taste his breath inside my mouth… I wanted to look into his throat where I knew a flickering flame lie in wait. To explore it. Mmm.

It was like some deep ancestral memory was awakening. My breathing grew heavier. I swear to the goddess I heard his breath do the same. Except his breathing was punctuated by the rumbling crackle right under it. I knew he was in the same place I was.

I had to close my eyes and turn my head away from the heat coming off the words from his mouth. Because if I didn’t I would do something about it in that classroom—

“Leila?”

I emerged from my other world, his voice having shaken me from my daydream. I looked back to him.

“Class is over,” he rumbled into my ear quietly, the hotness washing over my neck and face. I rubbed those intense thoughts from my brows but they lingered everywhere else. I inhaled deeply and set about gathering my stuff. My hands shook.

Something hot brushed down my arm as he got up to gather his things. I looked down to see his claw drifting away from it. I thought it was an accident until he glanced at me. He smiled faintly though his brows were intense.

“Let us go,” he said gently, nodding toward the door.

“Okay,” I said, my eyebrow raising in interest. I slipped my bag over my shoulder. When he turned toward the door, I touched the trail of burning scales where he’d run his finger. When I say I could not breathe… I covered my mouth, then just rubbed my face with both hands. I didn’t know what to do. Mercy.

Looking around, my peers were also preparing to leave, so I composed myself the best I could and followed Sasha through the doorway.

[housederiva]

As a queer person, it's so wonderful to see the dev team for Veilguard, a lot of whom have been with DA since the beginning of Origins, feel comfortable enough to say that they're a part of my family

Trick telling us that their name is Trick. Corinne not needing to hide that she's a woman. Solas' VA Gareth using he/they and Neve's VA Jessica using she/they. The amount of out non-binary people involved with this project to begin with was frankly unthinkable for the majority of AAA games to me. And here's the absolute legend that is BioWare going 'no we don't need to hide who our crew is to pander to a larger consumer audience' and I'm so happy and proud of that

The majority of people out there who are going to play Dragon Age are cis straight men who don't think about us all that often and unfortunately, a sizable amount of them that do have negative intentions and aren't kind people. I've skimmed through Reddit and Twitter and there's a lot of Gamer Bros that are mad about the queerness involved within Veilguard and it worries me

It's no secret that I'm not the best with words, and I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. But the coming months up to and after the game is released, we gotta be kind to one another and correct folks who aren't speaking out of malicious intent and ignore the ones that are

I feel like as fans of the series, we owe it to the dev team to support them anyway we can and a great way to do that is by calling Trick Trick and referring to Erika as he just as often as she and everyone else by who they are. Which is so damn easy to do and the bare minimum but unfortunately a lot of people who are going to buy the game put their hatred above respect. Our love needs to be louder

[inthefoxholes]

veilguard, i hated it.

So i finally finished veilguard, and guys, what. a. shitshow.

So apart from the fact that it feels like a half-finished game (which it probably is), I mostly hated it on two accounts: 1) the overall lore implications (we knew this from this reddit q&a, but I'm still angry, and I won't stop talking about it) BOTH in regards to previous games and this one and 2) how this was not at all a roleplaying game. (sorry, english is not my first language and I'm tired and enraged)

Let's look a little closer, shall we.

One: The Lore Implications. This pisses me off in two ways:

First, the amateurish attempt at a "clean slate". This is just so insulting. If they wanted to make a game without any of that icky baggage, then the should have chosen a new ip for this. I get that it's complicated after three games with a lot of moving parts, I get that the decision to move away from southern thedas was an attempt to curtail a lot of this, but COME ON. Walls of nonsensical (seriously, they read ai created) text from the inquisitor, that mainly tell you that everything you fought for, all the people, all the places, is gone? And not for effect, not for the story, entirely offscreen and nonsensical, just so the writers don't have to care for this anymore? This does NOT get me invested into the story. No mention of who your Divine is; no mention of who sits on the orleasian throne - and it should matter, shouldn't it, whether or not your EXILED the grey wardens, whether or not you have an elf with a SPY NETWORK close to the orleasian throne, whether or not you DISBANDED the inquisition. All of that does influence what happens on the world state, or at least it should. (And if you want to ignore it, why not do in a way that's less obvious, less bad, why not have your protagonist be someone with no ties to the inquisition, who genuinely does not know whats going on in the south? Why have a world state when you don't want anything to do with it?)

Second, and that's even worse: you cannot take a fully established world, and then alter it to your weird specifications. THE FUCK you mean, there are no slaves in Minrathous, the goddamn slave capital of the world?? Why THE HELL is there a whole questline where we try to find disappeared people, snatched from the street for the ritual, when it should be perfectly possible to buy a few batches of slaves and have them express delivered to your ritual site. (So we can show up and fuck up your slave operation.) But no - I get shamed when I don't save Minrathous?? Well, fuck you, Fenris sends his regards, I hope you all burn.

To this ties the overall simplificaton of the world: Nobody is really bad, just the few super bad guys, but they are so evil as to have no real motiviation, they are basically Thanos or otherwise racist cartoons (totally believable that the Qunari, or a sect thereof, would be on board with mad sorcery). They rest, they are good guys! The pirates are very mindful of cultural heriatages! The crows are just your friendly neighborhood assassins (I remember the stories Zevran told slightly differently), and, as assassins, they naturally wear uniforms, so you see them coming (as do the "secret" "underground" "rebels" from Tevinter). I'm not saying that everyone should be evil, but the fact that whole organisations are presented to us as benefical is so insulting, ESPECIALLY when it was always a point of pride for the Dragon Age franchise that it was morally complicated. There is slavery and poverty and darkspawn. NOPE, you can stand knee deep in blight, not a problem anymore. (if only Carver had known) There is racism against elfs. (well, as the elfs seem to be respnsible for EVERY problem thedas faces, from the veil to the darkspawn, maybe that was precient? - also, always nice to have everything tied in such a neat bow, everything tied to one ONE causality, that makes things really believable and realistic) The Templars are fascists, sure, but abominations are a problem that does not get solved easily. NOPE, not anymore! When before, even a spirit of JUSTICE got corrupted in this world (therby making the valiant and sublte point that abstract concepts rarely hold up well when coming in contact with messy reality), now you can be possessed by a demon of SPITE and HE DOES NOT DO ONE SPITEFUL THING AT ALL. Nice, if only the mages knew that, you just have to accecpt feelings or whatever and then everything's well. SO NEAT!

This brings me to point number two: Why do we play this game? The complex and previously established word is gone; what's left are cartoons thereof. And then, there's not even a hint of role-playing left. Why can't I be mean to Harding?? I loved her in Inquisition, now her overly-girly manner grates on my nerves and I want to be mean to her. I can't, i have to be everyone's friend. In the end, I cannot decide anything, except the slight configuration of the final companion armour (why would I care, I don't know these people, I could not ask them a single question), and some slight cosmetic change regarding Solas - there is not even talk about tearing down the Veil. We've come full circle back to Mass Effect 3 and the groundbreaking decision we get to make is what colour the magic space beam is gonna have. Except, Mass Effect 3 was still a much better game, because you knew your crew - in this game, I have acutally no idea why Rook should lead anybody, why anybody would follow them, and why the literal fate of the world should be in the hands of this bunch of (after 100 hours of gameplay) near strangers. There ARE narrative work-arounds for this kind of shit; the writers just didn't care enough.

There are a hundred more small things I could say about this, about the story (Solas' prison was made of regret and he wanted to put Elgarnan there?? Who feels very good about everything he does?? Is he stupid? And then everyone is so impressed about Rook getting out to quickly, but seriously, what the fuck did Rook have to feel regretful about? They did not get to make a single decision. They did not order anyone to sacrifice themselves; they did not use people, or cities, as pawns in a war or whatever, BECAUSE THIS GAME HAS THE EMOTIONAL DEPTH OF A SMALLISH PUDDLE) and the in-game approach to the player (how often do i have to be told that i need to take care of my companions business?? This got so repetitive and made them seem like imcompetent children. Why wasn't there a better way to make me care, or better yet, trust the player to want to play this game), but I stop now. Fuck Bioware and EA.

[felassan]

Do we know which archdemons belonged to which evanuris besides the two in veilguard?

And do we know if killing the archdemons is what killed the gods in their prisons...?

hello! ◕‿◕ (rest of post under cut due to length and spoilers)

Bellara and Neve speculate in-game on the topic of the first question in this codex entry:

Codex Entry: Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods

"Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods A note in Bellara's handwriting: Nine elven gods, seven Tevinter gods. Lines up, because Mythal was murdered before Arlathan's destruction and Fen'Harel is... Fen'Harel. We're pretty sure about: - Elgar'nan (day, night, the sun, tyranny, lordship, fatherhood, vengeance—he just wants all the words, doesn't he?) = Lusacan, Dragon of Night - Ghilan'nain (halla, navigation, monsters) = Razikale, Dragon of Mystery - Sylaise (fire, the hearth, home) = Toth, Dragon of Fire - June (craft, invention) = Urthemiel, Dragon of Beauty We're still arguing about: - Dirthamen (secrets) = Dumat, Dragon of Silence (secrets, silence... makes sense?) - Falon'Din (death) = Zazikel, Dragon of Chaos (Death causes chaos? Chaos causes death?) - Andruil (the hunt) = Andoral, Dragon of Slaves ("Andruil" and "Andoral" sound alike?) Added in Neve's handwriting: If it helps, Dumat liked toads. Did Dirthamen?"

On the Archdemons and the rest of the Evanuris, the devs said this in the recent Reddit AMA:

Q: “Can we get confirmation on what happened to the other Evanuris? Will we get any more lore? Shame we didn’t hear a whole lot about them besides essentially being behind the previous Blights.” John Epler: “We haven’t been SUPER specific about this, but at best the other Evanuris are a shadow of their former selves, and at worst they’re dead. The death of their Archdemons, particularly when they were still trapped in the Fade, caused enough magical feedback that it broke their minds and bodies. A couple may have survived as shells, but they aren’t in the same state as Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan.” --- John: “[...] The story of the Evanuris is done - the gods are dead (or imprisoned)”

[compilation post]

and this in an interview with IGN:

"Can you tell us about the fate of the other elven gods like Sylaise and June? Are these gods now mortal in the Fade after the defeat of their Archdemons, or were they weakened enough to die in their prison? Epler: Yeah, I mean, so we haven’t been super explicit about what happens when the gods die. In my mind, they’re either dead or they’re the closest thing to it. When a Warden kills an Archdemon, in Origins and DA2 and DAI, before the Gods are out in the world, there is part of that elven god’s spirit that is bound to that dragon. It finds the nearest source of Blight. Now, if it’s a darkspawn, a darkspawn has a direct connection to the Blight. There’s enough energy there for it to rebuild a body, rebuild itself as an Archdemon. When it goes into a Warden, that connection is very different and what ends up happening is essentially the fragment of the God spirit and the fragment of the Warden annihilate each other. So nothing to go back to the god. So if they’re there, they’re a shadow of their former self. But obviously when Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain come out, there’s not that distance. There’s not that need to use the Blight as essentially an in-between medium and they can just regain that fragment of their soul. They’re now mortal, but they’re just as powerful as they were before. Busche: And this is part of a theme within The Veilguard. We’re tackling some pretty big subject matter, some of the largest outstanding mysteries within Dragon Age lore. So we want to tie up some of those loose ends, give really satisfying answers, but we also want to leave the door open just a little bit. So questions like that, what happens to the rest of the gods? Those are themes that we want to be able to explore, but also be able to advance the franchise."

[source]

[ginger-fitzgeralld]

In honour of this post I put together all the movies, TV shows, books, graphic novels etc from the notes and various Reddit posts and listacles I found. This is not an exhaustive list; please add things you think fit!

MEDIA THAT FITS THE 'FOUND FAMILY GIRLS WHO RUN AROUND THE WOODS/CITIES HAVING ADVENTURES WITHOUT SEXUAL/SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS' THEME.

Movies (in release order)

Pippi Longstocking (1969) I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) Journey of Natty Gann (1985) Adventures in Babysitting (1987) Troop Beverley Hills (1989) A League of their Own (1992) Now and Then (1995) The Baby-Sitter’s Club (1995) (based on the book series) A Little Princess (1995) Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995) The Craft (1996) Matilda (1996) Harriet the Spy (1996) Foxfire (1996) Candleshoe (1997) All I Wanna Do (1998) Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001) (also a book series) Bend it Like Beckham (2002) Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Sunny (2011) Troop Zero (2019) Wolfwalkers (2020) Finding ‘Ohana (2021)  Turning Red (2022) Slash/Back (2022) Summering (2022)

TV Shows/Mini Series

Anne of Green Gables (1985) Sailor Moon (1992/1995-1997/2000) Anne with an E (2017-2019) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Derry Girls (2018-2022) The Wilds (2020-2022)* We Are Lady Parts (2021-) Yellowjackets (2021-)* Paper Girls (2022) (also a comic book)

Books/GNs/Comic Books

The Baby-Sitter’s Club - Ann M Martin Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan The Forever Sea - Joshua Phillip Johnson On a Sunbeam - Tillie Walden Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Ann Brashares Lumberjanes - ND Stevenson Beauty Queens - Libba Bray Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery Dealing with Dragons - Patricia C Wrede Princess Academy - Shannon Hale

* I don't know how well these fit in but people said them a lot in the notes so.... they were added lol

[alyshiba]

Violet second signet Theories and Facts

So, I've posted this on the Fourth Wing Reddit Sub. Then I felt like resuscitating my tumblr and posting this on here as well, just to see if any of you would like to add to this conversation.

So, ofc spoilers ahead for the entirety of Iron Flame. I also apologize for my bad spelling, vocabulary and grammar, English is not my native lenguage. So feel free to correct any errors, I greatly apreciate it if you do.

As everyone else is I'm going crazy trying to find out what Violet's second signet is, so I'm trying to sum up in one place all of the information about it I could find in the books (easter eggs, foreshadowing, odd stuff etc) and online. If you all want to participate it would abe awsome, maybe we'll crack the code.

What we know as a fact so far:

I'll be quoting the books directly, in my case it's an ebook, so please be warned that the page number might vary

1. What we know about singets and how they relate to the rider:

A rider's signet is "the result of the unique chemistry between rider and dragon and usually say more about the rider than the dragon", this is what professor Kaori tells the class in page 127 of FW (ebook, so might differ) when our beloved Jack Barlowe inquires about Tairn. This is later confirmed also by Sgaeyl in page 233: "A signet is a combination of our power with your own ability to channel. It reflects who you are at the core of your being" (Sgaeyl, FW p. 233). In general we are often reminded that a signet is influenced more by the rider, and by their needs/desires, as Violet herself confirms, again, in page 415 of FW "What had Sgaeyl said about signets? It reflects who you are at the core of your being. It makes sense. Mira is protective. Dain has to know everything. And Xaden…has secrets." So: Mira is protective and her signet is warding, Dain has to know everything so his signet is to read memories, and Xaden has secrets... and gives us shadows.

So What does Violet need in Fourth Wing ? During the entirety of the book Violet need power: the power to defend herself, to survive, to keep herself saddled and so on. She needs power so that she'll survive and won't be seen as the weakest link. Not something specific, just power, strenght, or what you want to call it. She wants to be strong, and she struggles when she's not. And that need manifest in her lightning wielding, or pure power as we later understand. This is a concept I want to focus on, since Violet uses it in this passage of IF (P. 592-594) to figure out Xaden's second signet: " “Signets have to do with who we are at our core and what we need,” I think out loud. If he won’t tell me, then I’ll figure it out my damn self. “You are a master of secrets, hence the shadows.” [...] “But what do you need?” I ponder, ignoring the tense set of his jaw. “You need to question everyone to make your own impressions. You need to be a quick judge of character in order to know who to trust and who not to in order to have run those smuggling missions at Basgiath for years. More than anything, you need control. It’s woven into every aspect of your personality.” “Stop,” he demands. [...] He has to have full control. He has to make snap character judgments. He has to intrinsically know who to trust and who not to. In order for the movement to have been as successful as it was within the walls of Basgiath, he has to know…everything. Xaden’s most pressing need is information. Tairn shifts, angling his body toward Sgaeyl instead of beside her. Oh gods. There’s only one signet riders are killed for having. Fear churns in my stomach and threatens to bring up what little I’ve had to eat today." This here is the explanation of how this process works. The basic, most pressing, need of the character creates the signet.

Fourth Wing, as we said before, is focused on Violet's problem with strenght and being the weakest link = the most powerfull signet maybe ever. Iron Flame is focused on Violet's trust problems, her problem adapting in the entire new situation, her problem with the fear of being caught by the venin, her problem wanting to protect everyone, defeat the bad guys. This is what we are working with in order to pinpoint which second signet she has manifested.

2. Time stopping, or slowing, is NOT a signet.

In the same page of the Sgaeyl quote I mentioned above, Andarna tells us: "Feathertails shouldn't bond because they can accidentaly gift their power to humans. Dragon's can't channel - not really - until we're big, but we're still born with something special." and again, few lines later "I gave my gift to you. Because I'm still a feathertail". So this passage is confirmation enough that Andarna gave Violet the gift of slowing time. We don't know if this gift can be trained.. it's never mentioned in the books, yet. But from IF we know that since Andarna is not a feathertail anymore she no longer has her gift, and therefore we all assumed that Violet could no longer stop time entirely. But is it truly the case? Remember that we know nearly nothing about feathertails, the info we're given through the books are not actually that many. Anyhow, the conversation in that page moves on and keeps confirming that stopping time, is in fact not a signet: - Here Sgaeyl answers the question directly: " “Like a signet?” I ask out loud so Xaden can hear. “No,” Sgaeyl answers. “ " - Here Tairn elaborates: "Bonding too young allows them to give their gift directly, and a rider could easily drain them and burn out. " - And here we have confirmation from Xaden "If leadership knew riders could take her gifts for themselves, rather than depending on their own signets…"

Then they move on and Tairn tells Violet this "there’s no saying how long you’ll have the ability. Most feathertail gifts disappear with maturity when they begin to channel." So basically we don't know how much time will this gift stuck to Violet. Tairn doesn't know, and as readers we are not meant to either. BUT that's why in Iron Flame we have passages in which Violet counts second, heartbeats or in which generally time seems to slow. It's becouse it likely does thanks to Andarna's gift. Not to a second signet.

3. No signet can be used while riders drink the serum, therefore, the visions of Liam are NOT part of a signet

When Violet saw Liam she had been drinking the signet-blocking serum for a while, she was cut off from both the mental bond with her dragons, Xaden, and from her/their power. IF talking to Liam was a consequence of her 2nd signet.. then she would've been able to wield lightning too as well, don't you think?

Page 167 of IF is the first time we're introduced to the serum by Professor Grady, and this is what he has to say about it: "You’ve all been dosed with a particular mixture of herbs that dulls not only your connections but your signet as well As frustrating as it is, we’re actually pretty proud of the concoction, so let us know if you feel any side effects". Then a few pages laters Sawyer points out that they were cut off from bond and signet until they were given the antidote: "Does it bother anyone else that they just took away our bonds? Our signets? And then handed them back like it wasn’t…”". So we know that they cannot wield when the serum, or elixir as they call it, is in their sistem.

The inability to wield and communicate with Tairn is what made Violet realized she's been dosed in the aftermath of being caught, as written in page 359: "Terror expands the pressure in my throat. I can’t reach Tairn or Xaden. Can’t call on my signet or even my knife skills, since my hands are bound. I’m alone and fucking defenseless. Nolon walks in, his steps sluggish, his eyes heavy with sadness. “We just need you to answer a few questions, Violet.” “You drugged me.” My voice cracks. “I trusted you. I’ve always trusted you.”" And we now from Violet's POV that she got contstantly dosed while prisoner of Varrish. This is why the visions of Liam in those passages are just that, hallucinations, and not a signet.

Not to mention that we have this interview in which Rebecca herself sais that it was just an allucination. I'll quote the part here so that you don't have to scroll and search, since it's quite a lenghty interview: "Why did you choose Liam as the one that Violet would hallucinate during her long interrogation by Varrish, when she could have also imagined Mira or Xaden or anyone else she loved was there? Because Liam is the one who protected her. He spent the entire end of his life, from the time he’s placed in another squad, protecting her and being her bodyguard. And naturally, she has this immense guilt. Part of her just floundering in this book and not thinking things through and not being as logical as she is is because she’s gotten someone killed, someone that she deeply cares about. At least she feels like she got him killed. It was Liam’s choice to go into that battle. But in her mind, especially after Sloane accuses her and things like that, she thinks that it’s her fault. So in that moment, you would draw from the person that had kept you safe. And logically, if Xaden had been there, it would have confused readers — is he there, is he not, what’s going on? But you put Liam and the readers know that, OK, she’s hallucinating. Plus, I wanted to see him again, selfishly."

These are the informations we know for certain. As well as, from the same interview, confirmation from Rebecca that Violet's second signet actually manifested sometime during Iron Flame.

And those are also the reason why I think two of the most popular theories I've seen around are in fact wrong.

So, after all of this facts, what we are left with ?

A pretty bullet point. Violet's second signet:

Reflects who she is at the core of her being;

Answers her most pressing need;

It isn't neither time bending or speaking / visualizing the dead;

So, let's analyze the first two points:

Who is Violet at her core? We have the simple answer at page 352 of FW: "the Riders Quadrant stripped away the fear and even the anger about being thrown into this quadrant, and it revealed who I really am. At my core, Dain, I’m a rider. Tairn knew it. Andarna knew it. It’s why they chose me." That doesn't give us many information, doesn't it ? Andarna kinds of does at the of IF in page 688: "I waited six hundred and fifty years to hatch. Waited until your eighteenth summer, when I heard our elders talk of the weakling daughter of their general, the girl forecasted to become the head of the scribes, and I knew. You would have the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider. You would be mine." Violet is supposed to be the best of both worlds, a fierce warrior and the most intelligent scholar. In Fourth Wing we see her struggle to become the first, while in Iron Flame we see her fight for lost knowledge (Amogst other things). She is someone who values honesty, and for the best part of the second book she is either miserable becouse she's keeping secrets from her friends, or enraged becouse secrets are kept from her. She wants to protect everyone, including those who had beed her enemies literally since the day before, or innocent strangers. And doesn't esitate to put herself at risk to archieve that. Therefore as many before suggested there's a duality in her that has a lot to do with her signets: there's the warrior, the part that bonded with Tairn, that needs power, strenght. And wields lighning. And then there's the scholar. The one that needs to see the bigger picture, to have all of the informations. These parts are then unified by Violet's need to use both to protect and fix (people and, more generically, the world).

What is Violet's, unanswered, most pressing need? We already dealt with her struggle for strenght in Fourth Wing which resoulted in her lightning signet. In the second book we're met with more pressing needs: Violet needs informations (in general, about everything, I mean, she just found out that everything she knew was false), but she also needs for everyone to stop lying to her, she needs to build back her trust towards a lot of people (Dain, Xaden, her mother.. these are just the first that come to mind), to know the extent of Xaden's smugglery, how to power the wards, to protect, how to defeat the Venin.. and so on. Are you already seeing the pattern ? She needs to understand, and to do it quickly becouse there's no time.

There's another point I'd like to analyze, and this has to do with the writing of the books. I noticed how Rebecca likes to make Violet struggle by exagerating her wants or her needs: as I said about a thousand times, in Fourth Wing, Violet needs to be strong, to survive. So Rebecca gives her a signet that is a plain weapon. And the strongest of her generation at that (if not ever). And right after the signet manifested, Violet immediately strarts to struggle because she knows that from that moment on she's a weapon, her signet kills on strike. In Iron Flame her needs shifts, so I can totally see how, by the same logic, she will make Violet struggle with a signet that exagerates the needs that we pinpointed above.

So ? After all of this jibber jabber, what the hell is her signet ?

Distance Wielding: It does not answer to any of her needs, and that is a point that also Xaden makes, when his second signet is revealed: " “Are you a distance wielder?” I’ve only read about two riders in all of history who could cross hundreds of miles in a single step. “There hasn’t been a distance wielder in centuries, and don’t you think if I was one, I would have spent every night in your bed?” " that's about all of the confirmation we need. Aside from the fact that Tairn and Sgaeyl wouldn't be affected by this signet, and would in fact have to fly anyways, we would have had instances where Violet would just be in one place, and immeadiately after another, very far away. She would've use it during the heist, for example, or when she faced the Venin when they were at Tecarus's or, since signet manifest (or strenghten) in moments of high emotions, when her mother was dieing and she was held back. It makes more sense with Aaric's character. Even though, I have a feeling we already have a kind of distance wielder: " “I’m fine. I promise. You guys have a great time.” I force a smile. “I’ll let you know if I need your help burying a body later.” Ridoc sputters into a cough, and Sawyer pounds him on the back. “I think she might mean you,” Rhiannon says as she gives Xaden an arch look. “I’m certain she does.” “Let’s go,” Sawyer says, leading the three of them out of the doorway. “I’ll do it, too,” Rhiannon says over her shoulder. “I’ve never moved anything as big as you, but I bet my signet could put you in the ground without even disturbing the dirt if I’m pissed enough.” She shoots a look at him before walking down the hallway" Doesn't that sound a little to much like distance wielding ? I know that Rhiannon moves things (or people, just saying) and not herself but... that's an odd thing to throw there Rebecca.

Siphon: The main argument that people make to back up this theory is that some secondary character's signets seems to get more powerfull in passages of the book when Violet is nearby. The moments that immediately comes to mind are: Mira shielding at Tecaru's palace and Rhiannon pulling a dagger through a wall when Violet is first interrogated in her room. I personally don't buy into this theory, because one it also doesn't answer any of the pressing need Violet has, and second we have some evidence (at least I interpret it that way) against this theory. First we have the opening quote of chapter 53 of IF "The art of imbuing comes naturally to only a handful of signets" in which we're met with the only second confirmed siphon so far: Sloane. This sentence I believe serves to justify the fact that Violet can Imbue the alloy orbs she's given without being a siphon, then we have the first description of Sloane siphoning: "I claw at Sloane’s grip, but the harder I fight, the weaker I feel, and the insufferable heat of my power lessens as Sloane starts to scream, letting me fall to the ground" here we see that Sloane is touching Violet while siphoning. And the second time she did, at the end of the battle: " “You can’t imbue something this big in an instant. Not without hundreds of riders, which we don’t have. If you want to save your friends, you’ll do this!” she shouts at Sloane, her fingers wrapped around the firstyear’s wrist as she drags her to the wardstone. [...] Mom nods, picking up Sloane’s left hand and putting it on the lowest circle of the massive rune carved into the stone [...] “Mom!” My voice cracks as she laces her fingers with Sloane’s. [...] She falls to her knees but doesn’t let go of Sloane." still the siphon is touching both Lillith AND the wardstone in order to make her power work. We can safely say that in order to siphon the rider needs to touch the object, or person, that they need to siphon power to or from. There is only one case in which Violet is touching someone who is experiencing an heightening singet, and that's Mira. But Brennan was too, AND they were in a certain-death situation so we can attribute this event to Mira developing her signet on her own. So we can safely say that the odds are not in favor of this signet (Rihannon wasn't being touched, she was in another room). But most importantly every time we've been talked about siphons it was always in a matter or transfering some power or draining it (Sloane, Naolin...), we've never shown someone "charging" (for lack of a better word) another signet.

Mending: I've also read theories that say that Violet is some sort of mender, like magic mender or something, where basically she will mend Venin, or the magic of world she lives in. This simply has nothing to back the theory up.

At last there's the one I think that's it. I'll start with some quotes directly from IF:

P. 692 (when Lillith's vital force is being siphoned in the wardstone): "I drag my gaze to hers, but I’m not here. Not really. I’m dying on the battlefield, the last of my strength fading, burning, consuming my body. But it will be worth it to save the one I love. Violet." This is most definetly NOT Violet's POV, don't you think ?

" “And you won’t do it for something as trite as power or as easily satiable as greed,” he promises in a whisper, “but for the most illogical of mortal emotions— love. Or you’ll die.” He shrugs. “You both will.” " This sounds a lot like Xaden's own fears to me, and what ended up happening.

The first one is the most direct: why would we get a random POV shift in the middle of a very dramatic and important scene? It never happened in the series before, it's not an ability riders have. This is such a random, violent (lol) change of POV that there's no way it has nothing to do with signets.

Then there's the dreams, we know Violet thinks she's the protagonist, becouse it's her POV, but the Sage never adresses her with a name (but he doesn't know it, fine, i'll give you that) but neither with she/her pronouns. He calls her rider, or avoids calling her at all. So what if they are not Violet's nightmares, and what if the Sage realized that too?

That would require Violet being inside someone's head, and that is what I think her signet is. She's some sort of inntinnsic.

I think her journey in Iron Flame ends up giving her the power to momentarily see into someone's conciousness (not just see with another person's eyes). Not read their mind (like the inntinnsic we see in FW), or intentions (like Xaden), more like Dain but live, not recorded. That would also explain why her nightmares ends up becoming not hers, but Xaden's reality. There's no way that POV shift means nothing.

[greenaswildfire]

I was thinking... (spoilers, spoilers everywhere)

the writing decision of focusing so much on the fact that Aegon's parts were burnt root and stem is probably related to the future alliance with the Baratheons, right?

If they don't change it (lmao), almost at the end of the Dance Alicent comes up with a marriage pact, this time with Aegon instead of Aemond, and Boros's daughter. But with Aegon's inability to produce heirs, how will that work now? Will this alliance still hold?

Oh well, they'll probably use it as an excuse to justify Boros betraying the Greens. Because nope, if TB is betrayed, the Greens must also have at least one betrayal to make up for the huge difference of loyalties :)

In terms of important Houses I can't remember any house betraying the Greens (Great Houses, not others like House Peake or Fossoway). I consider quite curious how, in terms of Black side, House Arryn and House Stark took their sweet time to help them. These two Houses pulled a Late Lord Frey, way before Walder frey was even born lmao

And it's not even secret that Rhaenyra's mother was an Arryn, everybody knew House Arryn would side with the Blacks anyway, the realm knew House Arryn would be a rebel House and still, Jeyne Arryn is shown as very cautious, letting Rhaenyra fend for herself instead of helping her. (Can't blame her though, she was probably the only actually smart woman in this show who wasn't butchered by plot in order to prop Rhaenyra up)

And I won't even mention the Starks. With the reddit leaks I'm very, VEEEERY curious to see the reason behind this late help. Everything depends on whose version will prevail, Condal's or Hess's.

If we take these two houses into account, we have: Strong, Stark, Velaryon, Arryn (and maybe Blackwoods?) betraying the Blacks for their own purposes, not to mention Rosby who made very clear Rhaenyra's hypocrisy, but I doubt they mention anything about this House, right? :D

And when it comes to the Greens... only the Tullys and the Brackens (but as far as we know, their leader was burned by Daemon for refusing to bend the knee, so maaaaaybe they won't even remember them in S3?).

5 (maybe 6) vs 1 (maybe 2), woah, quite a difference in loyalties, even more considering how the Green side has always been the one with less support and dragons.

The thing is: iirc, the allies that betrayed the Greens weren't motivated by distrust in them, or the crown's misdeeds against them (like what happened with Arryn, Stark and Velaryons in TB). It was due to circunstances and manipulation tactics, otherwise, they would have stayed loyal to the greens.

Team Black NATURALLY doesn't inspire loyalty.

So they thought "how can we balance things and make the Blacks look like they inspire more loyalty than the greens???? Oh! How about find a way to shake the Green alliance with Boros Baratheon? Between a Green eunuch with a crown and Rhaenyra's two boys, Boros has more chances of power with her than with Aegon.

Condal, Hess, you can't fool us. We can predict all your moves.

Such a shame though, because by the looks of things it won't even be someone from TG who is going to kill her (if that ever happens in this fanfic of theirs), is most likely someone from TB itself because they simply have no enemies anymore.

Which is far worse PR move for a team who loves to boast about "how Aegon was poisoned by his own allies" :) Hackondal and Mess are stuck with this ending, unlessss they bring back Sunfyre and follow the book. But Rhaenyra, killed by a TG? Naah, it wouldn't be tragic girlboss enough for her. I place my bets on TB.

[thrown-away-opinions]

Reading up on some drama in the RPG community (not directly related to D&D this time) and getting the worst kind of deja vu. Stop me if you've heard this one before:

A clique of extremely mentally ill people with a history of being lying, backstabbing shitheads weasel their way into positions of power, fame, and authority within a community, even though none of them have actually produced anything worth a damn. Luckily they've got enough friends who will promote and glorify them as the most important people in the industry and protect them from public scrutiny on sites like reddit and twitter, that they never face any meaningful consequences for their actions, because it's more important that everyone listen and believe women and minorities, even when it's other women and minorities pushing back against them.

This was orchestrated through a few secret groups and forums that the public wasn't privy to and passed down through various useful idiots who would repeat the fabrications and spin, because they were told to. The inner circle of aimless psychos who guided these little crusades were mostly just enjoying the power trip more than having any sort of agenda, but publicly they'd claim it was about promoting diversity and intersectionality, etc etc.

Also, years after, even with most people still believing the various openly disproven lies and rumors started by well-known malicious psychopaths, people admit they knew it was wrong, but didn't want to "give the other side ammo" because they didn't want anyone to turn on them in the same way...

And a ton of people involved in this shit are or were SomethingAwful goons.

Where have I heard that shit before?

I might do a longer post about this later, but if you're curious, I'm taking about this excessively long medium post called "The Worst People You Have Never Met, or, What I Learned During A Four Year Academic Study of Online Harassment In The Dungeons & Dragons Community" which is mostly about the Zak Smith/Sabbath incident from a few years back and goes into exhaustive specifics that repeatedly amount to a bunch of people lying about one guy, who is by all accounts an exceedingly loyal ally to lefty/queer beliefs, being a sexpest and rapist and abuser. Mostly because a clique of queer personalities in the RPG community decided he deserved it and they were entitled to destroy him. Then the author of the article interviewed them about it and every single one of them admits it was bullshit and they were just making stuff up to be angry about and none of their claims had receipts.

The post itself is long to the point of being comical and the author has a lot of trouble disengaging what has likely been a decade or more of ideological conditioning. She'll sometimes go off on tangents about incels and how unthinkable it is to her that anyone would weaponize feminism and rape accusations for personal gain. But it's an interesting read if you just scroll past those sections. You'll probably need to in order to get through the damned thing in a reasonable time.

I don't really care about Zak. I was never personally invested in his story or the accusations that were leveled at him. Even when it was happening, my vague read of the situation from a distant vantage was that a guy surrounded himself with unstable SJW-types and then they turned on one of their own, as they often do. Turns out that was more or less right.

[mjrtaurus]

So I recently heard this Reddit story about this woman noticing her husband acting very odd and suspicious and how he’s obviously keeping a secret and just not knowing what to make of it until she ends up overhearing it on their baby monitor. His secret ends up being him trying to sneakily learn how to finger knit a blanket for her birthday! She (obviously) pretends she doesn’t know and they have these cute little back and forth where he really wants to just come out and say what he’s been doing and she’s trying to tell him to stay strong! He eventually caved and showed her his progress (she makes a cute little note about he used her favourite color for the yarn and how she can tell how hard he’s been working on it due the the consistency of the loops) and asks for her suggestions on the next color so they go to the craft store together to pick and they make a little date out of it and SHDNSKKSSBS 💗💗💗💗💗

You already know what I’m gonna say!! GARPI CORE!!!!

AAAAAAAA THIS IS SO FUCKING CUTE

And she encourages him so much because he’s all kinda bashful about it (tfw your learning a new skill and aren’t immediately good at it). She shows him how she can visibly see his loops getting tighter and more uniform as the initial piece goes on. And he did his work in the nursery because baby Dragon likes the clack of the knitting needles

She loves this man so much. And he loves her so much. They love each other so much.

[yesterdays-xkcd]

I'm waiting for the day when, if you tell someone 'I'm from the internet', instead of laughing they just ask 'oh, what part?'

Online Communities [Explained]

Transcript

[Hand-drawn fantasy style map with land and sea areas representing populations of online communities, plus some fictious jokes and references. Each area or item is labeled.] Map of Online Communities and related points of interest Geographic area represents estimated size of membership

[A giant continent with:] The Icy North (Yahoo, Windows Live) containing the Mountains of Web 1.0, AOL, Qwghlm, Yahoo Games, Reunion dot Com, Classmates do Com, Faceparty, E-Harmony, Friendster (off the coast of which is the The Lonely Island), My Space containing The Series of Tubes, MySpace Bands, and the much smaller Attractive MySpace Pages, Blurty, O.K. Cupid, Cyworld, Orkut, Facebook, and Livejournal & Xanga - the coasts of which form the Bay Of Angst.

[The Noob Sea is bordered by AOL, the Icy North, MySpace, and an island system off the coast of Yahoo Games consisting of:] Second Life (and the much smaller island Third Life), Lineage, World of Warcraft, Runscape, Ultima Online, EverQuest, Final Fantasy 11, and further off, 2Channel and 4Chan. [To the east is labelled "Here be anthopomorphic Dragons].

[The Gulf of Youtube is bordered by Facebook, Myspace, and the island continents of:] Piczo, Broadcaster, the river Bit Torrent, Flickr, Last.FM, and DeviantArt with the subsection Gays of Web 2.0, and off the south coast and between another island is the Straits of Web 2.0.

[Off the pennisula of MySpace, island of Second Life, and island continents of Broadcaster et al is the Sea of Culture which hoasts the Peer-to-Peer Shoals. The Sea of Culture is separated from the Ocean of Subculture by and island system consisting of:] Digg, Fark, Reddit, Slash Dot, Soviet Russia, and Something Awful, which surround the Bay of Trolls, and Spaaarta (You're The Man Now Dog), Stumble Upon, and Delicious on the south end of the Viral Straits and the north end of the Sea of Memes, the Isle of Slash, Numa, and Your Base.]

[On the south end of the Sea of Memes, mostly made up of the IRC isles with a dotted outline where Usenet is located, is:] Stallman's Airship, Google's Volcano Fortress, Sourceforge, and the Wikipedia Project bridged island system that connects to M.I.T., EnGadget, Gizmodo, and Make Blog.

[West of the Wikipedia Project lies the Blogipelago with:] BoingBoing, Technorati, [something that can be read as T.W.B. or T.M.Z.], Cory Doctorow's Balloon, Sulawesi, Xu Jinglei, Post Secret, the Shipwreck of the S.S. Howard Dean, the Huffington Post, and the Wet Sea.

[North of the Blogipelago lies the Compass Rose-Shaped Island, with the north arm labelled Practicals (Noob), the south Intellectuals (Pi), west Focus on Real Life (I.R.L.), and the east Focus on Web (dot Com).]

(Not a complete survey. Sizes based on the best figures I could find but involved some guesswork. Do not use for navigation.) Spring 2007

[secretdragonstory]

Directory

Deepness

Speak (hmm still working on this title)

Ignite

Flight

Body

Perfection

Vision

Calling

Poetry

Knowing

Wake

Arrival

Art by Pointnine (Discord)

[athena-theunicorn]

Okay, I don't usually make super long posts but I had to explain these out in detail and have people tell me I'm not crazy.

TL;DR: Why Tears of the Kingdom could be the end of the timeline (not necessarily a circle end, either), and why our theories saying Zelda was Hylia during the trailer era were right.

First order of buisness, I don't watch many theory videos. I haven't seen anyone talk about this here or on reddit, so I assume it's not a very well known thought, but I could be wrong. I could also just be spouting bullshit. The only three games I've completed have been SS, BotW, and TotK.

How is totk the end of the timeline?

Excellent question. Thus begins my tedtalk.

So, we know that Ganondorf was a Gerudo King, yes. He was esentially sealed away by Rauru because at the time they didn't have a working master sword to kill him with. Ganondorf lay in stasis in the depths of the first castle for probably many millennia. Zelda is able to tell them all of this because she's seen it all happen before, right in front of her eyes. So she is able to prepare them for war accordingly.

But since Ganondorf in this time was only sealed, it means he never died. And we don't know all exactly what Rauru's power is capable of. We don't know if, for example, bits of Ganondorf's power was able to escape and create figureheads to aid in the destruction of men named Link and Princesses named Zelda.

You heard that right. I think that Ganondorf was the first Evil Incarnate to grace the Kingdom of Hyrule. He was somehow able to reach bits of his magic and create weaker versions of himself to hopefully end or at the very least terrorize the future generations of the Kingdom he wanted so desperately. He created Demise to warn the generations of the terror he would cause. It was never a curse, but more like a promise.

It explains the (somewhat silly) health bar during the final battle. It explains why when he was disturbed for the first time in eons his was brittle, dehydrated, and weak to the Sword. Using his magic to make lesser versions of himself drained him, leaving him with a mummy. But when he finally awakened he was able to revive himself while Link was running around Hyrule looking for his Zelda.

But now that Ganondorf is vanquished once and for all with the Master Sword, I believe he is no longer able to send bits of himself out to terrorize people, thus ending the timeline for good.

Whooh. Okay.

Why is TotK Zelda actually Hylia?

This point is only slightly connected, so bare with me.

So, in Skyward Sword we know that it is explained that Hylia sent Hyrule to the sky to ward off a great evil and such. And in the Dragon Tear scenes on totk there are no sky islands, thus letting us believe this is before the islands were sent to the sky, if this is truly the first generation in a land called Hyrule.

In the final dragon tear scene ( I know, I'm sorry to bring it up, it still makes me cry too), Zelda - or the Light Dragon - is seen flying through the cloud barrier.

We aren't shown this part, but I think that hen Zelda flew above the cloud barrier, parts of the land broke off and went with her, ascending to the skys like how Skyward Sword described. Execpt Skyward Sword said that Hylia was the one to make Skyloft. But whos to say they're not one in the same?

Do you need more evidence? Well sure.

The other three known dragons (Farosh, Naydra, and Dinnral) are named after the three golden goddesses, the ones that left Hyrule in Hylia's care. Now, we don't know how these dragons came to be, if they were always there, if they're the goddesses spirits, or if they actually ate secret stones themselves. But you know who doesn't have a dragon? Hylia. And the Light Dragon has no name other than that. Because Hylia was the one to eat the secret stone, and Zelda didn't know she was Hylia herself.

Additionally, this explains why Zelda had such a hard time in Breath of the Wild reaching her powers. Because she was praying to nobody, and when she finally looked into herself for the answers she was able to finally reach that power. Hylia had nothing to do with it, and praying to her was all a lost cause anyway.

Dear god my brain hurts. But this was fun low key.

[bingqian243]

Nezha y Li Jing

So, I read a Reddit post about Nezha's story and I started to think about how this makes sense to what the father-son relationship between Nezha and Li Jing is like in the LMK series.

I analyze this now because I almost never found a specific source for the story of our lotus prince without it being heavily censored to make it "act for the general public" (the Chinese writers of before did not mince their words when narrating) and I found this reddit post thanks to someone sharing it here was great.

But back to the matter. Nezha in his story is narrated as a temperamental child who caused problems without stopping, putting his family in constant danger. The clearest example was the incident of the Dragon Kings when they killed Ao Bing. This always led to his father, Li Jing, having to show his face since Nezha did not take the seriousness of his actions seriously. He only realizes that he took things too far because the Dragon Kings returned enraged to kill his family, standing in front and paying "an eye for an eye" to appease the anger of these guys.

There is a part of the story where Nezha asks his mother in a dream to build a shrine for him and she does it secretly from her husband, because he flatly refused for fear of offending those dragons again. But the secret doesn't last and the guy destroys it, causing Nezha to become blinded with rage and chase him down to end his life.

Yes, the boy wanted to finish off his father. Thanks to Buddha it did not happen because a monk and one of his older brothers stand in the way and the monk makes Nezha swear to be in harmony with his father.

Now with all that in context, we can understand why Li Jing is so harsh towards Nezha in the series. Imagine having dealt with a son who was this problematic and who also almost killed you, deep down you must still hold a grudge but above all, fear of this son. And her response is to be like that with him because she only sees that version of Nezha.

On the other hand we have this much more mature Nezha and we can see that he learned from his mistakes. But he also has a distance from his father and probably tries to prove himself better both in his position as a Celestial warrior, guardian of the Samadhi fire map and obeying as a son.

That also led me to think about his relationship with Wukong. I don't really understand how they got along during the monkey pilgrimage, but Nezha probably resents Wukong's attitude because it reminds him a little of his past, but it could also be jealousy of the monkey because he didn't have to completely change everything about him. how he had to do it. Wukong, even with everything against him, was able to maintain his essence, something that Nezha could not. So it may be projecting (this last one is just my ramblings, don't pay too much attention).

Anyway, it's good that Li Jing was able to put aside his pride when the world was falling apart and apparently he is already seeing his son in a better light (and as such his efforts) and not that demonic version that persecuted him in the past.

I will leave the link of the publication for those who are interested, I had to summarize only the important points but Nezha made many more disasters than the one with the dragons xD

https://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/2an1c8/myth_mondays_with_capslockfury_nezha_is_actually/

That's all, goodbye. 🙏💖💖💖

[grandpasauce]

Dreadwolf Companion Predictions

These are my personal predictions based off concept art, leaks, and other official media. Using this edited lineup of the alleged companions from reddit. The added text is mine tho.

Left to right:

Dress lady is one of the ones I'm pretty unsure of. The dress and jewelry give me Rivaini vibes for some reason, specifically a lord of fortune? Also the fact that a similar looking woman is seen in another concept art being used as a sort of decoy for the rest of the party to sneak up on a target, and the Lords of Fortune are sometimes adept at disguises and impressions. She gives me 'face of the party vibes'. Honestly, I equate her with mage simply cause the robes but i could be totally wrong lmao.

Next is qunari lady. Not much to say about her, other than some different concept art has her dual wielding daggers, so rogue seems a strong presumption. Probably tal vashoth, perhaps a member of the executors or some other faction?

This is Davrin. We've seen him voiced in that one trailer, the leaks heavily suggest he is a companion. Pretty easy to assume he will be a grey warden based on his one voiced line. His armor gives rogue vibes here, but I'm pretty confident he will be a warrior. But who knows. Leaks also suggest he may be an elf.

This being Calpernia would be my first guess, as no world state from Inquisition actually confirms Calpernia is DEAD dead by end game. Although Maevaris is also a strong guess, I feel Maevaris will be an important npc, not a companion, when/if she shows up in dreadwolf, since she is running a whole ass political party alongside Dorian. Other concept art shows a similar blonde woman casting magic, so this further bolsters my belief that at the very least, this is a mage companion. The armor looks hella tevinter style to me as well, so I'd not be surprised if whoever this is is part of the shadow dragon faction introduced in the missing comics.

This is Harding. It's Harding. Like, come on. Look that the other concept art. It's Harding. Obvs she will be a rogue.

This is definitely a crow assassin. Whether it's Lucanis or not is up for debate, but this is def gonna be a crow rogue companion.

Qunari dude is a warrior, assuming the other concept art is accurate, since he's wearing a full suit of heavy armor + a helmet in that illustration. No idea what his faction alliances may be. I'm really excited to have 2 qunari companions thoooo.

Ghost rider boy is probably Audric from Tevinter Nights, or another undead spirit sort of thing similar to Audric. Class wise, I would assume warrior, as I think bioware is more likely to give us an extra warrior character as opposed to an extra mage character. (There's only 8 companions in this lineup so the split would be 2 mages/3 warriors/3 rogues, which i feel is more likely than 3 mages/2 warriors/3 rogues). This makes me think he will be a warrior of some type.

Now they could leave it at 8. That would leave us short a mage. Specifically, a male mage. We also have a noticeable elf shortage with this cast compared to the other 2 previous games. Not saying there is a secret companion, but. Y'know. This does leave room for a certain ancient old elf man. Maybe.

Okay let me know what you guys think like do any of these predictions seem wildly out of the realm of possibility to you?

[dungeonofthedragon]

TTRPGs suitable for: Play by Post!

My first ten or so years of role-playing were purely play-by-post: warrior cats and dragons adventuring on online forums and message boards (shout out to Darkflame the dragon and Coldstone the kitty.) There was one very memorable Fallen London role-play over email too!

I suppose the modern equivalent would be a game in DMs, or maybe a discord text channel. In any case, for various reasons, many people prefer to play games in written form! However, some game systems are difficult to utilise in this format.

Here are some games that make for wonderful text-based adventures. All are GMless and/or diceless, so there's no awkward halt while you wait for a GM's roll.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is a diceless game I've been waiting to get my greedy little hands on for some time. It focuses on fantastical slice-of-life stories. This reddit thread has great advice for running it as a play-by-post game!

There are plenty of available adventures for this system too! Adventures such as To Rob Death's Dominion, A Pawn's Gambit and the creator's own Halloween Special.

For the Grail is a GMless and diceless game of Arthurian knights on a grand quest. While it was designed for physical play, I've been playing it online with a group of friends and it's a lot of fun!

Law Bringers is a diceless game designed for space fantasy adventures such as Star Wars, but which works well for pseudo-medieval fantasy as well. It's also completely free!

Lordsworn is a GMless rpg of tragic, broken warriors struggling to survive after the destruction of their god in a cataclysmic war. It uses 4-sided dice. When a player rolls these dice, they keep their results secret from the other players, making it perfect for this style of play. Each player controls three Lordsworn, providing a good variety of dynamics to explore during their travels.

Magica is a one-page rpg about magical girls. It is GMless but players use six-sided dice to resolve events. Also, each magical girl is secretly in love with one of the others. Messy fun indeed!

Feel free to reblog with examples of your own!

[spurgie-cousin]

girl why are people treating the rods like it’s house of the dragon lmao. like I promise you it ain’t that deep!!

Honestly, I've been thinking about this waaaaayy too much lol and I have a working theory, which is that fundie reddit has been building up this idea of Sam as a certain kind of person for a long time, to the point that they just accept it as fact atp. And this relationship burst their weirdo fantasy bubbles of him being some secret secular rebel, which makes them mad. People have been posting stuff like this about him for years (this one's from 2021):

Also what the fuck @ talking about how attractive a child is, but I think all of that plays into it: because people found him conventionally attractive, they didn't want to accept that he was going to be another garden variety bigot, and thus made up this fan fiction about him being a main character from a young adult novel who's biding his time until he can escape his captors.

And then when that didn't happen and he started dating another fundie with no intentions of leaving their ideology, people blamed Brianne instead of just accepting that their judgement of this person might've been wrong. So now he's staying because SHE'S manipulating him, and SHE'S older so she has an evil agenda to keep him fundie just like his mom!!!1! It's all kinda misogynistic tbh.

Anyway that's my theory based on my deep dive into reddit's Samuel posts over the last few years. And honestly, the audacity to call this girl a creep when these people have been thirsting over child Sam for YEARS is insane........I think some of the more angry redditors might actually just be jealous of Brianne, for real.