#Temple Arc

[path-of-the-missing]

“But if you must know, I’m taking her to the nearby temple to get care. I also have no idea what happened, I heard a thump and there she was.” Asker/Character: Toshi @blueespeon

[il-predestinato]

Then:

Now:

Val d'Argenton 2012 vs. Austria 2023 ↳ Max Verstappen when it comes to "unfair" and his rival Charles Leclerc

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

the fulfilled motifs in alhaitham and kaveh's relationship are on my brain!!

- most poignantly, the two coming together to unveil the temple of silence in cyno’s story quest, which parallels their thesis on ancient architecture and runes of king deshret’s era, as the two appropriate the other’s respective signature (alhaitham recognises architectural structures whereas kaveh is struck by the beauty of an emblem) - where the two once fell out due to the disharmony of their viewpoints, they have reconciled them within this quest

- there’s the two working together in the house of daena, where they argued in the house of daena upon meeting them in the archon quest, where they were described to have a ‘terrible’ relationship by the npc geoff, which is mirrored in cyno’s story quest by the two actively working together - as well as paralleling the npc archon quest scene the player has to actively seek out in which the two argue once more, whereas in cyno’s story quest, the two willingly exchange information and are supportive in helping the other

- we have the fulfilment of kaveh losing his family and therefore his idea of ‘home’ through him actively referring to the house he and alhaitham share as ‘home’, and that he wants to return to it together with alhaitham, as a set, and by implication a family, in cyno’s story quest

- by extension, kaveh not concealing his living arrangements by openly referring to him and alhaitham’s ‘home’ in front of his friends, which refers back to when kaveh asks the traveller to keep it a secret upon meeting him officially in alhaitham’s story quest

- kaveh buying wine and coffee beans in the tavern, alhaitham and kaveh sharing wine in their house, which is something they are mentioned to do in the bulletin boards of sumeru as well as in alhaitham's story quest, going hand in hand with the two drinking coffee together in the house of daena, with kaveh mentioning he wishes he had made some for them before leaving the house, which refers back to his 2023 birthday letter where he and alhaitham taste tested coffee beans (i am, once again asking, for an alhaitham mention in 2024....),

for future sumeru quests or events i am thinking of the unfulfilled instances or things that can be addressed??

- whether kaveh accepts alhaitham's research into sachin's influence over his father as closure for his involvement in his father disappearing into the desert, as his reaction differs from whether alhaitham tells him vs when the traveller tells him. since cyno's story quest 2 indicates that alhaitham telling him is what happened in canon, this subsequently betters their relationship. the idea of kaveh's cycle of self-detriment due to his past guilt hasn't been addressed since apop and it remains uncertain as to if kaveh has made steps to forgive himself or if he even wants to. this development of kaveh's character is truly interesting and i would love to see it explored at some point, and also in turn what alhaitham's involvement is in this, as in his newly accepted support of kaveh

- kaveh writing to/visiting his mother in fontaine? or at least a mention of kaveh's mother, as his hangout has a heavy focus on faranak's past relationship with kaveh and her hopes for his future, which we see in her advice to him as a struggling artist being that to found reliable companions. if kaveh undergoes a reconciliation arc within himself, as in he aims to forgive himself for his past guilt, then it would make sense for him to have a reconnection with his mother to talk about the past in order to truly look to the future

- kaveh and alhaitham having a role to play in the exploration of the temple of silence in future events - hints of this may be seen in sethos cautioning cyno that he may only invite people he and lord kusanali deem worthy, for cyno to then tell alhaitham and kaveh upon arriving back in sumeru. To this, kaveh expresses an open interest and cyno tells him that he will have an opportunity to investigate in the future. As alhaitham and kaveh have teamed up together in order to investigate into the temple of silence, and are indirectly connected to it through their thesis of king deshret, it seems they will likely be a part of the role the temple of silence will play in the future

(- i thought that an unfulfilled instance could be kaveh referring to alhaitham as his friend in game as this would be a callback to when paimon asked whether he and alhaitham were friends, to which he replied that they ‘used to be’ but weren’t anymore… but in terms of how alhaitham and kaveh's relationship is handled in-game, i think queercoding plays a big part in having labels such as ‘friends’ continue to be evaded (i have spoken about definitive labels being avoided in the writing of haikaveh here), this is backed up by sethos’ voice line as the two are paired together as “alhaitham and kaveh” and are referenced as a set with “those two”, rather than a definitive label such as ‘roommates’ or ‘friends’ being placed on them. Rather, they are conceived to be something outside of this, as sethos conveys their ‘otherness’ with “something about those two hanging out, you just can’t look away”, so i think, imo, it would fall more in line for them to continually not be assigned definitive relationship status, but if the improvement of their relationship is actually mentioned in-game since it was only shown and not told in cyno's story quest 2, it would make sense for them to say something that indicates they overcame misunderstandings or something vague like that. as there's an air of secrecy around alhaitham and kaveh's relationship, the traveller won't ever be privy to the specific details)

[fortune-maiden]

FX Week Day 6: Temple

Day 6 of @fxweek :D

This is actually the very last drabble I wrote chronologically (assuming I don't write any more lol)

In Feng Xin’s humble opinion, it wasn’t fair that the things he should have been smug about were the things he hated the most. “Thank goodness for the Ju Yang temple. There’s always one of those around when we need ‘em,” Mu Qing cackled, leading them to their lodgings for the night. Of course he had a temple in this area – why wouldn’t there be a temple to the fucking fertility god in the middle of someone else’s fucking territory and – “Wait.” Feng Xin suddenly realized something. “Why do you always know where my temples are?” Mu Qing went silent.

[padawansuggest]

CloneTok/SpaceTok/JediTok

Ahsoka: *reading off the comments* What does Jedi and Clone Halloween look like?

Fives: Oh, yeah! Halloween was super fun this year! It was awesome, since the clones all live in the temple now, we did it there.

Ahsoka: Yeah! It was actually the Jedi’s first temple wide celebration too, we got to make costumes and the padawans and initiates and shinies and cadets got to go around getting goodies!

Fives: The temple is massive though, the population of a small planet at it’s fullest right now, though we keep finding empty rooms, so it’s not too crowded, but that means none of us were able to get to everyone, that’d be impossible.

Ahsoka: We started off in Master Obi-Wan’s hallway. He had Master Vos with him, and Master Obi-Wan’s kids went with our group. It was really funny though, Master Obi-Wan put out three treat types. One was a cooler of cocktail mixes he makes himself, he said they only had about two shots in them but I don’t know how much that is really.

Fives: It’s like one really big gulp of Hardcase and Taco’s illegal still juice.

Ahsoka: oh my god that’s so much Master Obi-Wan is crazy! The masters bringing kids around got so excited when they saw those!

Fives: Heh, yeah. They’re really good, and he has a bunch of different flavor types. What else did he put out?

Ahsoka: A really big bowl of Mandalorian spice candy and sweeties, and Master Vos put out a bowl of potatoes. The bowl was completely empty the next day, but the older clones were coming by for days to steal more spice candy.

Fives: Heh, I think I got one of those potatoes, but I had one of his cocktail mixers and another cocktail mixer from another master four blocks over, things got fuzzy after that.

Ahsoka: What happened to your potato?

Fives: I’m pretty sure Echo stole it for a midnight snack.

Ahsoka: That’s such a mood.

Rex: *coming out of a room in the background* Are either of you finding potatoes hidden in your room since Halloween?

Ahsoka: jdifnerkdnr

Fives: omfg

[cosmicdraghon]

*screams at "finally face her chance at redemption"*

[americankimchi]

they should do another tv show about the jedi but actually lean into an episodic nature. instead of having a static main cast, have a constantly rotating ensemble one to show the various ways the jedi help/live in the galaxy. like star wars visions except live action. i think that would be fun + add constraints (1 plot per episode) that would force the writers to keep each episode tight/not have the crutch of "we can expand this character later/add a random one-off NPC to introduce a critical plot point and then vanish forever" to fall back on. imo star wars has always done better with movies than shows and i think this would be a lovely marriage between the two. have a c-plot throughline tying all the episodes together for the final episode to resolve w/ cameos from characters that had episodes about them throughout the season. like atp they have so many of these mid to flop shows floating around might as well just add another one just to see if it breaks the curse. statistically speaking they've got to strike gold eventually

[backpackingspace]

Anyway will never not be over shi qingxuan going from strip each other naked to tell everyone here your worst experiences like my guy pick an extreme

[nootcatt]

There was recently a discussion in the discord server about who is stronger between He Xuan and Shi Wudu, and I believe it's Shi Wudu. You could even say they're equals, but He Xuan is not stronger and he knows it.

Shi Wudu is thee water tyrant with two heavenly tribulations under his wing. He is the only god who was actually able to change fate. His last speech was not a bluff. He created everything he has for himself. He Xuan, in order to achive what he was, copied him. He Xuan's name is 'ship sinking black water' for a reason. He Xuan can be called the white shark if you want but Shi Wudu was the orca of the waters.

But Noot, He Xuan ripped his head off.

I know. That doesn't decide who's stronger tho. This arc has no winners, let me remind you of that. You can't tell who is stronger based on who lived and who died.

He Xuan knows that the only thing in life Shi Wudu actually cares for is Shi Qingxuan. Shi Wudu does everything for qingxuan and he will not consider anything a loss if it is good for Qingxuan. Shi Wudu has one rule: end justifies the means. He will trample everything for Qingxuan, as long as his sibling is safe. and He Xuan knows it. The only way to defeat shi wudu is to take qingxuan away from him, and so he does what he did. he decided to lure qingxuan away from shi wudu. That's was why he did with the two options in the end. he gave the brothers options. he told shi wudu to subject qingxuan to harm (which he would never) And he gave qingxuan the option to kill shi wudu (which he refused to do) That was why and how He Xuan failed because he could not separate the brothers.

shi wudu told him that to his face. he cannot bring his family back and he cannot take the live of luxury that qingxuan has already lived. he has failed. that drove he xuan to madness and then when Shi Wudu moved on to take shi qingxuan with him, the only way he xuan could seprate the brothers was to kill one and keep the other alive!

he could have killed shi qingxuan, but that would leave shi wudu alive and if ge is alive, he xuan will be in danger so he leave qingxuan alive and kills Shi Wudu.

there was in fact no victor in the arc. which is why you do not decide who is stronger based on who lived and who died. You decide based on their actions and their characters.

[eljeebee]

On an early morning in Selvadorada Monastery, everyone had gathered in the prayer room. The monici watched as Lavender is about to receive the Gift.

“Goddess Omisca,” Iris said, “we present to you, your Second Pupil, Lavender Lee, daughter of the Magic Realm.”

“She had trained hard,” Mata continued, “so that she can bear your Gift. In our judgment, Lavender Lee is ready.”

The birdsongs had stopped, the air whooshed past strongly. The fire in the brazier flickered. The monici and the Seekers closed their eyes.

A hand appeared before her. It was white, and it was shimmering. It was bright. Lavender felt the hum of magic flowing from the hand. Warily, she reached for the hand. The hand gently took both of her hands.

She felt a warm feeling flowing from the hand to her. Goosebumps spread through her skin; the hairs of her arms sticking up. Her heart pounded loudly – its beat was so fast she felt like she’d run a mile. Her body had accepted the power.

Use it well, my child.

The hand vanished.

She felt the thrum of magic in her hands, and without thinking, she summoned a glowing white orb. Lavender let out a laugh, a giggle, and then she felt herself floating. She twirled. Once again, she held out the orb. The Seekers and the monici watched her proudly.

That night, the Seekers took her to the Omiscan ruins one last time.

“There is another thing that we must give you,” Mata says.

“It is a warning…of some sort,” Iris said.

“Close your eyes, child.”

“On your second day in Selvadorada, we were summoned to the temple. The watcher gave us this vision,” Iris started.

“She says this vampire had only awakened now. The Watcher is not sure Herself, however, as She believes this one had already awakened, and had hidden from Her Sight until now.”

“There is another one,” Mata continued.

“On this vision, we can get a glimpse of what it seemed like their…true face beneath the mask. They look…hm. They look worried. We don’t know what these two visions meant.”

Lavender opened her eyes. She tries hard not to think. The vampire is familiar. In fact, she saw them last winter. She knows she needs to tell the Seekers, but deep in her mind, something tells her not to. Not yet. Her curious side says, Let’s find out more.

“Let this be a warning,” Iris said again, “if you see this vampire, you must tell us.”

“We will investigate,” Mata nodded, “I know there is something more on that second vision.”

And Lavender, ever so curious with the vision, said instead, “I’ll call for you when I see the vampire.”

“Visit us again soon!” Raul said.

“Take care,” Lakandiwa nodded.

“Be well, child,” Chief Song waved.

Diego barked.

Lavender waved. And then, she looked up to see the Seekers atop the monastery path walk. They look proud.

Take care, my child, Mata said in her mind.

If anything happens, we’ll be here, Iris said. Her voice may still sound sharp, but it has a soft edge to it.

“Write to us, Lavender,” Kashvi said. Her tone has a hint of sadness.

Lavender nodded, letting go. “I will.”

Her pilgrimage had ended.

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Thinking about how Ninjago S2 is probably one of my favorite pieces of television I've ever watched. It flows so well off of season 1 and allows those arcs to spread and grow.

It gave us the Mega Weapon, the Stone Army, the Overlord, lore for the Destiny's Bounty, let us actually meet Zane's dad, Misako, cured Garmadon, gave Lloyd his best arc (which the movie pretty much pulled from and the show still does), still is the Overlord's best defeat,

The characters actually have interesting dynamics with each and every one of each other that allows them to truly feel like a found family with history (and both Jay AND Kai get to react to things that happen to Nya, not just her Yin),

We got one of my favorite 3D-animated fights of all time,

And let's be honest, the show peaked right here (in a positive way).

[path-of-the-missing]

Asker: @ask-the-shiny-pokemons

[booasaur]

Ted Lasso - 3x07

Bonus:

[proselles]

thing one and dumbass two

[trans-yllz]

all of the older sect leaders trying to essentially. gaslight jiang cheng into believing that wei wuxian disrespected him because they know that if their relationship stays strong and they remain a united force then the jiang sect will be "too powerful" is so fucked up and evil. they can see jiang chengs personal insecurity and vulnerability as a sect leader and so quickly take advantage of those things for their own gain. the ruthlessness with which jin guangshan knowingly tears apart a family he is supposed to care for, for the sake of his own interests is honestly startling when you think too hard about it. and watching jiang cheng try to defend wei wuxian over and over as he gets angrier and angrier about things that we, as the audience, Know aren't true makes me sick to my stomach

[riathedreamer]

Knife!Simmons was too powerful for RvB. Today, we mourn an important loss.