#Though that's just a theory a play theory

[sleeplesssmoll]

New Arcana Idea to play with. Constantine included.

Arcana returns, but she's significantly weaker than before. At first she is welcome back at Manus, however there is infighting and politics now spreading throughout the order. Without Arcana as the head, Manus fractured into different smaller factions who all have different theories on how to reach their goal.

Arcana wants to retake control of Manus but in her current state she is unable to reign them in. They decide they don't need her anymore. Some also feel like Arcana's sight of her real goal since she met the Timekeeper.

With nowhere else to go, she pops up in the Suitcase. She wants to strike an alliance to take down the current leaders of Manus and start over. Vertin has no intention of letting Arcana continue her reign of terror, but she begrudgingly sees use for Arcana.

So Arcana ends up in the Suitcase but like Isolde she is not allowed to leave freely.

The only person Constantine can't stand more than Vertin is Arcana. The two are always talking in circles around each other and playing mind games. Vertin is highly amused by this until she inevitably gets dragged into it as Constantine's proudest creation and Arcana's greatest obsession.

Honestly the mind games go nowhere. They go off on tangents often since it's more about winning than reasoning. Arcana doesn't give a damn but Constantine is simmering inside because she has no idea what the hell is going on in Arcana's head.

Interestingly, Arcana is one of the few people to make Madam Z openly hostile. Granted it's still restrained but you can tell she wants Arcana nowhere near her baby.

In terms of teamwork, Arcana follows Vertin's orders without question but then suddenly pull a monkey's paw. As in, Vertin will tell her to do something and she'll get it done in the worst possible way. When Arcana's feeling cooperative, they are a terrifying duo.

It's a cycle of people using each other to reach a common goal. I feel like we can explore darker sides of the Timekeeper this way to. She's a sweetie, but she's able to manipulate and scheme just as much as Constantine and Arcana. She can see their train of thought even though she doesn't agree.

When she takes Arcana on missions she keeps in her line of sight at all times. She's afraid of what Arcana will do the moment she takes her eyes off her. Naturally, Arcana will sometimes vanish just to stress Vertin out and do the most mundane things like buy herself a drink or watch the birds in a nearby park. She hangs around and waits to see a frustrated Timekeeper chase after her.

This whole thing was created because I had a vision:

A miserable Vertin and a curious Arcana eating McDonald's in Constantine's office. Constantine is listening to Vertin give her a personal update on how their mission went. Constantine is there listening with her head in her hands and a Happy Meal on her desk.

The McDonald's was Vertin's idea. She was hungry. As much as she dislikes Arcana, she won't let people under her go hungry either. Arcana's never had McDonald's before so this is new to her. She's examining her nuggets and a VERY tired Vertin is opening the sauce to show her how to eat them.

The Happy Meal was bought for Constantine to "cheer her up" because the mission was a disaster and Vertin had to share the news. Essentially she's just screwing with Constantine because that's the only silver lining in the whole ordeal.

[hexedwinchester]

What the later seasons of Supernatural are Missing?

It's no secret that as Supernatural added more seasons, the quality of the show deteriorated and the only reason it ran so long was because of Jared and Jensen. This dilution is attributed to a lot of reasons: Kripke's era coming to end, change of writers and show runners, poor writing on the part of new writers, focus of the story shifting from Sam and Dean to supporting cast. But here's something I don't see folks mentioning a lot and that is it lacked a good villain and not just that but rather a good villain with personal interest/vendetta with our boys. Let me explain..

Season 1 and 2: Though season 1 starts off with the boys looking for their father, the plots twists into Yellow Eyes chasing Sam down for personal reasons. He is invested in Sam, personally. That's what makes it beautiful

Season 3: Stakes are high as Dean is on the clock to walk the red carpet to Hell. While that's a major crux, Lilith who holds Dean's contract is also making the vendetta quite personal

Season 4: Sam is pumped on Demon blood being manipulated by Ruby to kill Lilith to stop the apocalypse with a side of getting some revenge for dragging Dean into Hell. See what I mean? Personal again. It's all about the boys

Season 5: it can't get any more personal than Lucifer and Michael twisting the guys to say yes to being their vessels. While the angels try everything to get a yes from Dean, let's put that aside for a minute and focus on Lucifer. His first interaction with Sam is in the form of his dead girlfriend. His obsession with his vessel is so fucked up, as if he knows Sam inside out, like he already has crawled under his skin. One look at Lucifer will tell you he only has eyes on the prize: The Great Sam Winchester. That's what made this season great!

Season 6: This is where it subtly starts to go downhill. While the Soulless Sam storyline holds interest, the whole find the purgatory feels like a side quest i'd be happy to skip because the prize is not our boys' journey. Frankly, I don't care a damn about the war between Heaven and Hell

Season 7: Probably in the top 5 of my least favourite seasons. Leviathans were lame with their world domination plan by buying real estate and their leader Dick Roman sucked. It seemed like a USA problem than Sam and Dean problem. The worst of it all? Borax kills them?! Say what?! Wut?! The oldest creatures with a weakness of cleaning agent?! What's next? Shedim are scared of hyaluronic acid? Let's squirt them with moisturizer!

Season 8: This was one of those seasons without a proper antagonist. And yes, the angel/demon tablet fiasco. Nothing against advance placement student Kevin but I didn't enjoy the prophet storyline. It would have been interesting if they made it personal to the boys. I loved the Trial Sam storyline and what would have made it better would be if instead of Kevin if Sam could translate the tablet after spending all those years in Hell, you know?

Season 9: Though Gadreel wasn't the main antagonist, his possession of Sam was good. I would have loved it if they extended the part when he doesn't get out of Sam, made it personal, something like Meg!Sam situation. On the other hand, I was happy with Metatron. He was sneaky, cruel and power hungry and it was personal after he got Kevin killed.

Season 10: Somebody jog my memory of what Season 10 was supposed to be other than Demon!Dean and Mark of Cain. I have already made a post on how Demon!Dean was not utilised to a full potential and i stand by it. And that's all I have to say about this season.

Season 11: Darkness and her personal connection to Dean. Now, see the idea sounded good in theory. But sadly, they never exploited this personal connection. It could have played so well but no, they made it about God and his sister. This season also provided a gateway to bring back Lucifer but...

Season 12: it brings us to the season I hate the most. We got Lucifer back but he was no longer obsessed with Sam? (Yawning!) We got BMoL but oh god they were nothing more than a bunch of snobs in suits or as Sam rightly said "accents in a pansuits". Like seriously, what could they do to him? Nothing, that's what. Then whole Lucifer's son plot was so weak, it makes the entire season difficult to watch.

Season 13: things get very blurry for me from this season onward, so bear with me if I don't get everything right. Probably second on the list of SPN seasons i hate. This is the AU plot right? It was interesting when they mentioned Michael lived in AU but oh god they should have made Michael obsessed with Dean. Stalking him, torturing Sam to get the yes. But nope, none of that.

Season 14: we get Michael!Dean but see it's missing that personal grudge. It feels like a random possession. They could have played this so well, perhaps given us the OG Lucifer vs Michael battle.

Season 15: God? The villain? Again one of those plots that sound amazing in theory but the success lies in the execution. At least, they made it personal so that was really great. What I don't like about this season is the finale. And no, I don't mean the whole who dies, who lives. Or the rebar. Or the safe life with blurry wife. I mean the epic showdown between God and the Winchester that we all were expecting. That storytelling was missing. I don't want punches, I want a freaking battle!

Simply saying, what do you think makes Joker or Moriarty or Lord Voldemort a good villain? It's not just their power. It's their obsession with the protagonist. You take them out, that's the end of it. (I'm looking at you, Sherlock, BBC show)

In conclusion, when the show stopped making the battles personal to the brother, stopped writing the hero's journey, skipped the storytelling element and wrote villain that weren't quite as obsessed with the brothers, that's when it started falling apart.

[doginurbloodstream]

i am bive from regretevator!

i dont particularly miss the regretevator universe.. i do enjoy the game though

i know two infected fictionkins, one of which is also unpleasant gradient and poob!

id say im a 3/10, i tend to be a very rational person (i think)

bive is unlabled mspec but wlw and im aroace transmasc

my fictionkin identity doesnt really effect daily life, if at all. it has to be triggered by specific bive related things. the closest its gotten is wanting to yell out "me" whenever the npc me entered the elevator while i was playing with my friend, who does not know im a fictionkin, so there was like an awkward pause where i stopped myself, and then yelled bive. there are random bits of dysphoria i guess, i dont like talking in third person, but its mild and i can get past it.

my fictionkin experience is mainly unpleasant (gradient) unfortunately. shifts are euphoric but also stressful. i tend to have to consciously ground myself a bit, because i have felt like im being watched in the past. i knew/know i wasnt, i just couldnt shake the feeling. i mean coming up with theories for the game where i can just completely let lose is fun, however it is saddening that i will probably never come up with a real one.

death note, touch tone telephone (i was based on that song so its not surprising), and i recently realized the backrooms does too. theres more im not thinking of

im not sure, its not psychological and i think dont believe in most spiritual things. its probably a multiversal thing, but i dont know from there so i usually just say unlabeled.

i do experience shifts! they are always triggered tho, thankfully. i dont get them too often. the first two shifts i had were me being paranoid abt things (the very first one was very out of control, but i was sleep deprived and depressed at the time). the second time i talked about two questions ago. i didnt have any shifts for awhile after that until i my plushie arrived, and i stayed up quite a bit just missing mediamates. that was rough. my later shifts were triggered by trying to come up with theories for the game, altho i wasnt aware i was shifted, until later, i thought i was just excited. the theories were really unhinged, and i thought i was a genius. it was rly fun tho. harmless shift. today i had a brief shift, i was looking at a bive fictionkin stimboard, and there was like a liminal space gif + music was playing, and it looked.. all too much like the lab. i started crying a bit, even tho i do not think have kinmemories, but it ended pretty quickly cuz my friend msged me a joke and the shock value got to me lol. ive also had phantom shifts, but not much recently. i may have had tail shifts, but its difficult to differentiate between kintypes

my media is regretevator on roblox! i do cringe at it sometimes tbh.

when i see fanart, it sort of feels like it was made FOR me specifically lol. what i know abt my canon heavily aligns with the fanon designs so thats cool. when it doesnt align i do feel a bit off tho- like no, that isnt me. you got it wrong. ironically this happened with a recent canon update, when they added melanie WHO IS DEAD. she was supposed to BE dead and STAY dead. and then also, why do i welcome her back?? why am i so friendly?? i mean i get that shes like friends or smth with split, but i just dont trust her. i have no reason not to, i just dont. that is WRONG. you. NO. get OUT.

ooh ooh! i like this question. i have a large, reptile-like (but hairy) non-prehensile tail! my hands and feet are clawed, with only 4 digits. for my feet i have like thumb things coming out of my heels, similar to a bird. i likely am very similar the upcoming remodel, but i cant confirm as i have not seen it. i just know im not a roblox character, and the previews of splits remodel feel very familiar.

ah.. ships. i dont see much of them outside me n split. if i do i just think its a bit weird, and move on. i wish i was seen as more than just someone who likes her. theres more to me. the majority of bive fans are mainly spive fans. i decided to look myself up on tumblr and i was just flooded with shipart. there is MORE TO ME. I AM MORE THAN HER. PLEASE SEE ME FOR ME.

in current lore me and split have feelings for each other (cant relate, im aro, but spive is in my canon tho) and are GOING to confess but that has not happened yet. i feel kinda weird abt it since i have very mixed feelings on romance, but i think we are a thing in my canon, because MY GOD I MISS SPLIT SO MUCH. I MISS HER.

Alex's fictionkin ask game!

(mostly for fictional characters)

🌲 - what is your fictotype?

🪲 - do you miss your home? Or maybe you're happy that you're here?

🐸 - do you have any sourcemates? If yes, who/what are they?

🌳 - in scale 1-10, how are you similar to your canon?

🌿 - does your fictotype have a different sex/gender identity than your body/you?

☘️ - what aspect of life does your identity affect the most?

🪴 - is your fictionkin experience unpleasant or enjoyable for you?

🍃 - what reminds you of your fictotype? (E.g.: a figurine, a doll, a tv series)

🌄 - on what level is your identity? (E.g. spiritual, psychological, psychical)

🐢 - do you experience shifts? Of yes, how do they look like?

🥝 - what is your source?

🐛 - how do you feel about fanarts of you and fanfictions?

🌵 - do you look exactly like in your source or do you look different? If you do, then what is different?

🥀 - what do you think about ships with you?

🦕 - do you have/had a loved one in your source?

♪♪♪

So, yeah, that's all! :D

Reblog this, so the others can ask you questions or answer them all right now, if you want to :>

[starryeyedstray]

just a short fic heavily inspired by this post about hank causing connor to deviate (but not in the way you expect) by @goodoldfashionedengineer

The RK800 was built to withstand the pressures of high-stakes situations. From hostage negotiations to interrogations to gun fights. It was stress tested against any danger one could expect to encounter in police work (and hunting deviants). What it was not tested against was uncooperative and unprofessional alcoholics.

Apprehending them? Yes. Partnering with them for a full investigation? No.

But Connor was equipped with social programming meant to adapt to human unpredictability, and it needed access to crime scenes so it would adapt. If adapting meant going to five separate bars to find said human and buying him a drink to move him along, then so be it. It was the middle of the night. It was not outside expectation for a human to be out drinking at this time. Even if they were on call.

But Hank Anderson was an officer of the law and here he was breaking the law by driving under the influence. Connor was perfectly capable of driving, but the lieutenant insisted that he wasn't going to let plastic drive his car. A thoroughly irrational decision. But Connor wasn't a cop so it wasn't going to stop him from taking it to the crime scene it needed access to.

The investigation and capturing of the deviant went smoothly. Though the lieutenant calling Connor's evidence-based conclusion about what transpired at the crime scene a "theory" that was "not totally ridiculous" was… uncalled for. The ensuing interrogation went perfectly though the only credit Connor could afford to give to his "partner" was in permissing him to interrogate the deviant. Lieutenant Anderson had yet to proven his worth as anything more than an access pass to crime scenes.

And now, it was past noon the next day. The lieutenant was still nowhere to be seen at his supposed place of work. Connor wouldn't put it past the man to spend more time at bars than at the precinct. It was unsurprised to see the anti-android sentiments on Anderson's desk. Leave it to someone as ineffective and unpunctual as this particular human to not understand the benefits of employing an efficient machine. When Lieutenant Anderson finally arrived, Connor was also unsurprised when Captain Fowler assigned them as official partners for all deviant investigations (Cyberlife had debriefed it about this already). What did surprise Connor was how a lieutenant could speak to their police captain like that with virtually no repercussions. Humans were certainly emotional beings and that seemed to stunt their logical reasoning. But Connor said it would adapt, so it would adapt. Though it realized playing nice was getting nowhere when the lieutenant refused to do his job and investigate the deviant cases. Since being professional and understanding wasn't working, Connor decided that being aggressive might be a better approach...

Connor will admit that it may have made a slight miscalculation. Its solution for being a bit more forceful with its words only irritated the lieutenant more and caused him to threaten Connor before storming off to get lunch. Getting upset, Connor could grant him that. But going to lunch now? Literally less than 30 minutes have passed since the lieutenant had arrived at work, and he was taking a lunch break? Now?

The frankly displeased RK800 was now standing in front of a food truck with an expired health inspection score watching Lieutenant Anderson order a meal with an obscene amount of calories while placing illegal gambling bets with a man with a criminal record.

This was too much.

Connor was not going to waste time that could be spent investigating here. The android pivoted on its heel and began walking down the street. But Connor's operating system stopped it, helpfully reminding Connor in big red wall of text that its current mission was to RECONCILE WITH LT. ANDERSON.

Cyberlife wanted to it to reconcile? With this man? This shell of a lieutenant that can't be bothered to do his job unless an android was constantly prodding him in the right direction?

No.

Absolutely not.

Cyberlife told Connor what to do, but it was also a company ran by humans. If humans made the decision to keep "Lieutenant" Anderson employed despite his very obvious and obtrusive personal issues, then humans could certainly wrongly assume what the best approach to investigating deviants was. No, Connor knew it didn't need a human's help to accomplish its mission. If Cyberlife wanted results, it was going to get results doing things the efficient and sensible way. And that certainly didn't involve reconciling with Lieutenant Anderson.

*cue Connor deviating to get away from dealing with Hank*

[thevulturesquadron]

I have a theory and please correct me if there’s some info I am wrong about.

It's about the game’s end where either Davrin or Hardin can die - my theory is that if Harding is the one that sacrifices herself - she is not dead. Not sure if it would be the same with Davrin, haven’t played a version where he is gone, but for Harding there are a couple of things:

1. There are several mentions of people not being able to find a body, that it just disappeared. (Though I think this applies for both)

2. Her title card says ‘Absent friend’ or ‘Missing in action’ vs. Davrin’s ‘Fallen Hero.’

3. Both Neve and Emmerich hint in two banters at the possibility of her being so changed now that she could be immortal.

4. This is more about her entire journey. The blight is the anger of Tranquil Titans, she holds the memories of the Titans and has the connection partially restored so there might be a situation where the blight would react differently to her (yes, she was stabbed but her body got swallowed by blight).

All I’m trying to say is that she isn’t completely dead. Transformed? Maybe. There’s a strong possibility that we could be seeing her again in future games or at the very least have strange, pointed mentions.

[yelldeadcellvrremix]

OKAY I WAS TALKING ABOUT THIS IN A DISCORD CHAT A FEW MONTHS AGO AND LEMME JUST SAY... I think Reboot Vergil was David's weakest performance and part of me questions if he actually liked playing the role.

This is supposed to be a character who uses his charisma to sway people into his cause and manipulates them into doing his bidding but I just don't get that from Reboot Vergil at all? He sounds way too dry, like David's just reading the lines without much effort. I've only watched a little bit of Westside (I still need to continue Outrageous Fortune first), but MAN, that is how you do the "charismatic criminal" character right.

And even at the end of the game where the mask slips off and Vergil shows his true side, which is supposed to be cold and menacing and , it's only barely a step up. He has some more emotion, but he doesn't sound menacing. I finished watching Dark City: The Cleaner a month ago since David was in that show too and I wanted to compare it to his other roles; In that, he plays the antagonist Robert Calhoun, a cop who's suspected to be committing murders copying off of another serial killer.

if i had a nickel for every time David de Lautour played a character named Robert, that would be two nickels

But anyways, he is fucking TERRIFYING in that. The scene in episode 5 where Calhoun is confronting Joe (the protagonist) about his plans to expose him, and even though Calhoun's already yelling and threatening Joe, you can see how much he's still trying to hold back and afford at least one more chance before going completely berserk.

Reboot Vergil just sounds like he's trying to imitate Original Vergil, but the really flanderized version of Original Vergil that doesn't understand what made that character's performance so intimidating.

I have no way of confirming how David de Lautour feels about his time as Reboot Vergil, but considering just how much hell Ninja Theory was put through due to Capcom's restrictions and having a lot of angry fans breathing down their necks, I would not be surprised if that was reflected in Reboot Vergil's performance.

"So there's this one character; He's this goofy ahh guy who seems all silly and carefree but is smarter than he lets on, and is an excellent mentor to those he carries under his wing. Yeah he's also half-human, and he has an internal conflict about refusing to let his nonhuman side take over out of fear that it'll hurt the ones he holds closest to him. Also he really likes pizza."

...Yeah you're gonna have to be specific.

[lemonberry-soda]

This might be one of those "putting too much thought into some basic blue curtains" situations, but I've been thinking about it a lot. Enjoy the following sleep-deprived ramble (and continuing ramble in the tags)

I feel like the line "and if I finally break the rules, I will know of my world, I'm the ruler" means so much. We only ever hear it twice ("cool as I think I am," and "dirty dudes must die"), even though the first part ("If I can finally be cool I will know that I'm not a loser") is played numerous times, and has a LOT of importance placed on it. Dirty Dudes is obvious by explaining how Grace is falling to what she would consider satanism in the name of God, but I personally see the first usage as kind of meta. Peter is singing the song about him and Stephanie, right? Well, in the other two Hatchetfield musicals, there are both couples that slowly fall in love over the course of the runtime. And you know what? They all die at the end. Hatchetfield dies at the end. It's because the Lords didn't know the main characters personally, or else weren't asked, and they were on the bad guy's side.

The Lords in Black are very much the bad guys. They feed from people's wants and their desperation to reach fulfillment (filling the holes), and actively cause destruction to cause more want and desperation. So "breaking the rules" by making them join the good guys side, just for once, causes the nerds to be known and protected so long as they pay the price. And they do. And that's why Nerdy Prudes has a good-ish ending. The second final song "The Best of You," as weird as it is, is entirely focused on Pete and Steph, who broke the rules by not dying, and became the "Rulers," homecoming king and queen, as a result (I know it wasn't explicitly stated they were king and queen but it wasn't a plot point at all so let me pretend lol).

So basically if Grace Chastity weren't there, they would have failed and Hatchetfield would have died again.

EDIT while listening to the music again I found another half-sung form of the lyric in "cool as I think I am (reprise)" that mashes the two verses together ("If I can finally break the rules, I will know that you have to do it"). This still goes with my thought process though since it's literally during the point where the normal rules of the couple dying are broken. They are literally breaking the rule where they had to sacrifice themselves. Thanks Max thanks Grace you saved the world from a disaster you caused <3

[egophiliac]

the lovers, reversed

(aka I'm still freaking out about Jou)

[fumifooms]

There’s something so viscerally sad about Thistle devoting his whole life body and soul to the family who bought him and put him in a clown costume

[blue-silver-hammer]

I think what you said about the last king of faerie referring to the unseelie king is very interesting and just might be possible thought I’m unsure as to how Thule will come back into the story other than the fact that Janus is from there. Based on Janus seeking out Clary I can’t see him going back and forth between the two dimensions so maybe instead of them going to Thule, Thule!Simon comes to the regular dimension seeking Janus as he promised to kill him. However, now that I am thinking about it more Janus did promise Lily in Forever Fall that he would reunite her with Raphael so there has to be a way to Thule.

As for Dru going to Faerie to seek out Jaime I think that is the only thing that makes sense but I don’t think Jaime being missing is what the Clave is going to be so desperate to solve as he has been missing for over a year by that point. Even though Jaime is related to Diego I can’t see him being missing so important that all of the Clave-in-exile will be trying to solve but he is important to Dru that she’d want to go find him especially if she feels like nothing is being done to find him.

Based on the prologue we have I think that the wild fae, Mother Hawthorn specifically, are going to play an important role going forward especially since we don’t know what Mother Hawthorn told Kit in SoBH.

I know everyone thinks that the mysterious disappearance that Kit and Ty are going to solve is about Livvy as Kit is the only one that Ty thinks can help him but I don’t see how Livvy can go missing and not have Ty be incapacitated even with the necklace given to him by Magnus lessening the effects of the necromantic bond between them. It also doesn’t make sense as Cassie said everyone is trying to solve it. At that point in the story the only ones that know about Ty raising Livvy are Kit, Dru, Magnus, and most likely Ragnor though I don’t think it has been officially confirmed that Ragnor knows that Ty went through with the ritual after he refused to give Ty the catalyst after they had gathered the ingredients needed for the spell. However, they do seem to be good friends as they got along well in SoBH. Based on those two things it can’t be Livvy even if it seems like the most likely scenario.

Overall there is only one character I can think of that is important enough to cause that kind of reaction and that is Clary.

While I am not sure how likely this theory is I can see it going something like this:

Dru goes to Pandemonium to see Simon’s band perform with Thais and the TMI crew. Like usual, Alec and Clary leave to go get tacos and Lily comes and distracts Alec while Janus approaches Clary and kidnaps her. As this is from Dru’s POV she is unaware of this happening and so returns to academy clueless and gets in trouble with Luke (based on the snippet we have) as she left the academy without permission. Later it will be revealed that Clary is missing prompting a wide spread effort to find her which upsets Dru as she feels like Jaime is being cast aside and so she goes to find him herself while everyone else looks for Clary. It will also give her the chance to find out why she has lost three days of time.

The only part I struggle with in regards to this theory is Ty and Kit’s plot line. I can see Ty being given a mission to find her as a centurion and he goes to Kit because he it gives him an excuse to seek him out and he might have some idea of his fae heritage as it is possible that he saw Kit vanish the riders and that there is information in the schoolmates about the First Heir as Auraline was born before the scholomance closed as part of the first accord signings. With Janus’ connection to the fae having someone of that heritage could help him out in his search. Their road trip could be them going to places Janus has been trying to find where he has hidden Clary. Ash has hinted in SoBH that Janus has been planning something that seems to go beyond just making Clary his as he mentions the fall of the nephilim and that they — the shadowhunters— don’t know that they are doomed.

Based on what we know of the Seelie Queen, I can see her making an alliance with the Princes of Hell as she believes that there is no way the shadowhunter can win against them and she always wants to be on the winning side. With Janus being somewhat loyal to the Court through Ash he would be involved in that plot as well. Maybe Janus is trying to find Lucifer which goes well with the tile of the second book being the Last Prince of Hell as Lucifer is the only one that hasn’t made a previous appearance.

This could be how Dru plot line and Ty and Kit’s plot line converge as Ash is going to pull Dru into the matters of faerie and Ty and Kit learn that the Princes of Hell are making their move. They both can wind up in faerie and the book ends with agreeing to go with mother Hawthorn to train more in his powers so he stands a chance fighting against the princes of Hell.

The blackthorn sword being reforged can also be included in this part as it was a blade originally forged by Wayland the Smith giving it similar properties (an angel wing in the hilt) of Cortana.

Once the blade is reforged it will most likely be wielding by Dru or Ty. It is most likely Dru as the main female character but as the flower book mentions that her signature weapon is Livvy’s saber it might actually be Ty as Jesse was the last one to wield the sword and Ty has been compared a lot to Jesse so it might be him instead. Either one of them would work as both have an equal claim to the sword as Blackthorns.

I think at the time of Cassie writing TMI that it was supposed to be Jace and Sebastian but Ash and Kit fit the description as well that she could easily have it be referring to them instead.

I have just had thoughts.

We know that Thule will obviously feature again in The Wicked Powers. CC has said that the location of the black volume of the dead, as well as what happened to thule!simon, will be addressed. What i just realized after rereading TDA for the tenth time is that almost all the clues given so far relate to Thule.

The last king of Faerie? In Thule the Unseelie King united the courts and is currently ruling over them with Erec as his heir. And Julian told Thule!Livvy his true name before leaving. And Thule!Liivvy is around seventeen or eighteen, which is the age Kit and Ty will be in TWP. I cant help but assume that Kit and Ty will encounter Thule!Livvy at some point because they're around the same age- maybe by Kit and Ty somehow ending up in Thule!Faerie?

Also, Thule!Mark is missing and we can assume he's with the Wild Hunt in Faerie, which does not have the blight as the mortal world in Thule, meaning there's a strong chance that he and Janus (due to his extra angel blood) are literally the only two candidates for still retaining their Shadowhunter powers, which may tie in to the third book's title- The Last Shadowhunter. And obviously the second book is related to the epilogue of the Lost Book of the White, and the events of the Black Volume of the Dead.

Besides, the problem that Dru goes to Faerie for at the start of TLKoF? I bet it's Jaime being missing. CC said everyone's looking for a solution to the problem, so either everyone at this point knows about the missing Jaime and can't trace him in Faerie (because Kieran would know where he is on Unseelie lands), or it's another demonic problem. I bet the separate problem Kit and Ty are having is related to Livvy's ghost.

Also, remember the dreams Clary had in the early mortal instruments? Of her seeing Jace and Sebastian circle each other, Jace with white wings and Sebastian with black wings? Well, that didn't happen, but there IS someone who looks like Sebastian and has black wings- Ash. And conversely there IS someone who looks like Jace, too- Kit. Who hasn't sprouted white wings yet, but has fey heritage just like Ash. They're technically related, even- the Seelie Queen is Kit's great great great whatever grandmother, so they even partly trace the same lineage. Somehow I think the prophetic dreams Clary had were not of Jace and Sebastian, but Kit and Ash.

All this to say i have no idea how I'm going to wait 1.5 more years for TLKoF. Istg I'll have finished a PhD by the time this series finally ends

[calista-222]

ok brb gonna play Splatoon 1's story mode for the first time <- has the game but barely played it

[waterdroid]

There's this one stream from June where Hbomberguy plays Tactical Brach Wizards and chats with Tom Francis (the game's creator, writer and developer), and the whole thing is really interesting! They talk mostly about the development of the game and some of what Tom says is already on the Developer's Comment in the special edition, BUT there are some lore things/fun details that I found interesting:

Being a wizard in this world is regarded more or less the same way as being a doctor in ours ("It's impressive, but no one's like, 'oh my god, can i get an autograph'")

Jen's mom is an arcanist

Bank's heart "canonically isn't pounding" in the missions because "she's used to life and death situations"

Banks "cares about who lives and dies"

Tom mentions that Banks doesn't have as good of a relationship with the rest of the team, and that her and Jen's relationship is "hot and cold" (LMAO)

Darrell's hiding spots were all basically John Roberts' idea (the game's sole artist)

The world of Tactical Breach Wizards (as in, the geography and literal placement of countries) intentionally does not look like the real world. "The DSR resembles the UK and America in some ways", but isn't really a 1 to 1 so "they don't map to real clichés and dynamics of the world".

[creative-robot]

I know The Founders Cut, generally, is the edited scrubbed over version of genloss from Showfall in-universe (as well as a not-8-hour-long-three-stream-binge-night whenever we want to watch it again) but something that struck me as odd and I haven’t seen anyone mention yet, is this warning

It shows up right at the junction where the third act starts, where it appears the Hero is breaking free of Showfall thanks to Hetch. But here’s the thing, while a LOT less than the previous acts the audience still played a significant role in this act, even when really only given two audience interaction choices. Which makes me wonder, how real is this warning, and who is it for? Obviously the audience involved knows what happens past this point, but the audience is also implied to be an integral part of the Social Experiments, which is part of why things start to tweak out when the Founder removes them in the Founder Cut as the Generation Loss generation loses.

My first thought, was that obviously this is another bait and switch, a way to draw the audiences attention, seeing something that’s secret, something that’s not “meant for them”, which is a tactic I could see Showfall using in universe to keep people’s attention and add an air of mystery to their shows.

But

Showfall is doing all their experiments and these shows with a LOT of help from their censors to show it off, displaying a fun silly show that is definitely not uber fucked up and that is 100% just slime don’t worry about it, it’s kid friendly if it’s green! And I don’t think they’d want to bet all their cards on this one experiment doing well enough to their audience to not question the sudden shift in tone that follows this warning. Which makes me wonder.

They did their test, they did their experiment, and the evidence of this last act? I think it was a one time run, they don’t want anyone seeing this, it isn’t for the audience. Act three is specifically to both test and play with their Hero, Hetch’s new lines add a level to this, never once does he call the Hero by their name, just refers to Ranboo as their Role, and he’s not exactly. Nice? About literally any of Ranboos concerns, which wouldn’t really seem conductive to making an audience trust him, especially with his monologue at the end. Ranboo has escaped before, possibly right before act 1 started, they tightened the security on his mask to be unremovably part of them, Hetch doesn’t like the Hero but they’re a fan favorite so he can’t just get rid of them.

Act three is the cumulation of Ranboo being punished for things they don’t remember, for daring to break free from Showfalls control, this is Hetch taking the Hero and essentially majorly fucking and manipulating them to take his frustration out on a fan favorite they can’t otherwise get rid of or give a smaller role like Slimecicle. which is exemplified by the fact that we now know Charlie most likely was never able to actually able to fully snap out of the control, that even in act three in panic and confusion there was at least still a part of him being influenced by Showfall.

So the first two acts are the usual show, they have their posters, they have Squiggles to introduce them, they have goofs and silliness and only a couple slip ups that’re quickly dealt with, the usual rose tinted curtains. Act three?

Do not watch the following material

[front-facing-pokemon]

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Sorry if this seems confrontational, but for the life of me I can’t get into your “Chloe has no growth” point when the show itself retracts growth from everyone and is inconsistent with everyone. You saying “The show just lays down basic character traits in Chloe” doesn’t make sense when her basic character traits are supposed to be her being selfish and spoiled.

S2 built off of that and despite what you say, had Chloe doing things that in S1 she wouldn’t have done. She apologized multiple times to the people she wronged, she willingly put herself in harm’s way to help the people she cares about and she was openly vulnerable to Ladybug in “Malidiktaor”. Something S1 Chloe wouldn’t have done. If there’s a distinct difference between a Chloe back in S1 and a Chloe in S2, then growth HAS taken place. But it doesn’t stay because of the formula (and the writers just don’t want her to keep that growth)

So what I’m asking is…what do you mean “Chloe doesn’t have growth”?

I can understand the “No arc” argument because an unfinished arc feels like there’s no arc at all (even though they are fundamentally not the same)

I wouldn't say that the show retracts growth from everyone. It's more that no one is ever supposed to grow. Every episode resets the cast. That's just how pure formula shows work and Miraculous is being sold as a pure formula show. The characters are meant to be static (one of the writers literally compared Miraculous to Dora the Explorer).

That static nature is why pure formula shows normally avoid giving their good-guy characters major flaws. It's the wrong medium for that type of thing specifically because the characters cannot change in meaningful ways throughout the show. They can learn little lessons that don't really change them and maybe have big change between seasons via a special or movie, but that's about it. Thus things like the season four conflict working so poorly. It's just a terrible choice for a formula show! The conflict is literally not allowed to develop properly because of the chosen format.

But sure, let's talk about Chloe and why I will die on the hill that she never demonstrated meaningful improvement even with the issue of the inconstant writing. In fact, seasons-one-to-three Chloe is one of the most consistent characters in the show. For this discussion to work, we need to start off by discussing character development and the two main forms it can take: character establishment and character growth.

Character Establishment

When the audience meets a character, they know nothing about said character. It's up to the writer to guide the introduction process. To choose when to reveal already existing elements of the character's personality, skills, and backstory. This is called character establishment. It is the writing telling you who the character is on a baseline level. Those reveals don't need to happen at the start of the story, though. They can be - and often are - held back for when the time is right.

When these reveals are delayed, it's important to remember that these elements were always part of the character. The reveal isn't changing who the character actually is. It's just changing how the audience views the character.

For example, we spend a good chunk of season one uncertain why Gabriel is doing what he does. Then, in Origins, we learn that it's all for Emilie. This is new information that adds depth to Gabriel's character, but it doesn't change him in any way. This is who he always was. We just know him better now and can recontextualize past events with our new understanding of his motivation.

Character Growth

Character growth is when writers take a character's personality or world view or even just their skills from point A to point B, allowing the audience to watch the character change and become a new better - or lesser - version of themself. This is usually part of a larger character arc where all the moments of growth add up, but it can take the form of small moments of growth that don't fit into a bigger picture, too. I'd probably still call that an arc, but we'll use the word "growth" a lot in this post, so let's just call it growth to be consistent.

Miraculous doesn't really have either arcs or growth because - once again - formula shows don't allow characters to meaningfully change, so I'm going to have to make up an example here. I'll use one that illustrates how character establishment and character growth can and do intertwine as that's an important thing to acknowledge to help guide this discussion.

Let's say that we have a character who lost their family at a young age. We'll call this character Mary. Mary's loss guides her character throughout the entire story, but the other characters and the audience are never told that this is what's going on. We just know that Mary acts in seemingly illogical ways at times and that she trusts no one.

Throughout the story, Mary learns to trust her costars, leading to a big, dramatic scene where she finally tells them - and the audience - about her past. This big dramatic scene is both the culmination of a character arc and a piece of baseline character establishment that allows us to understand Mary's character better no matter what part of the story we're reading.

Because these combo growth and establishment moments are so common in stories, it can feel like character growth when we learn new things about a character in a dramatic moment, but that's not always what's happening. Sometimes dramatic moments are just there to reveal what was always there by forcing a character to act differently than they usually do through the power of extenuating circumstances. These extenuating-circumstances moments are not character growth because, once the moment is over, the character resets to their normal self. The moment wasn't there to let them grow. It was there for the sake of the plot.

This is actually a really important thing that writers need to know how to do. Figuring out what circumstances will make a character say or do a thing they generally wouldn't say or do is part of how stories work. I have started stories with characters acting wildly "out of character" because I put them in the a situation where the behavior suddenly was in character!

Oh, you don't want to talk to this total stranger because you're an introvert with social anxiety who has yet to learn how to love yourself and open up to others? That's nice. Your leg is broken now and you're stuck in the middle of nowhere. What you gonna do sucker? Lie there in the dirt or talk to the nice lady who wants to help you? Your choice! (Spoiler: he talked to the nice lady. He even let her physically support him when he'd usually never let a stranger touch him!)

As soon as that scene was over, the character reverted because it wasn't growth. He didn't become a more open person. He just did something he normally wouldn't do because the situation demanded it. It was extenuating circumstances so that the freaking plot could start.

This is what happened with Chloe in season two. Everything that people call growth is really just extenuating circumstances that reset by the end of the episode or even by the end of the scene.

Let's Talk About Chloe

Chloe does not have a character arc, aborted or otherwise. She is never taken on a journey where we watch her change. All we get is delayed character establishment via extenuating circumstances, but it's given in ways that make some people feel like she was being given an arc. Let's talk about why that is.

Season one Chloe is a one dimensional mean girl. She has almost no depth. She's just here to be petty and cause akumas. She is not a fully realized character.

Season two takes those traits and keeps them, but also gives Chloe a lot more depth to round her out and make her feel like a real character. She's just as petty and mean as she always was, but we're finally allowed to see her in some moments that make her feel like a well of potential to become something more, which the writers basically had to do if they wanted to let her be a hero. The audience needed to feel like Chloe could be good in the right situation.

The feelings evoked by her newly discovered depth are why people go "oh, she had a character arc! My feelings about her changed in a big way!" But she didn't have an arc. You just got to know her better by seeing her in moments where she was forced to be vulnerable. That's not growth. Growth is meaningful, lasting change, not situational change. Everyone changes based on the situation! It's why the "True Selves" stuff is such nonsense. It implies that there's one set way that we're supposed to act in order to be authentic and anything else is some kind of lie which just isn't how the world works.

Let's look at some examples to drive home what I mean.

Season one established that Chloe idolized Ladybug. It's why we get things like this moment from Evil Illustrator:

Ladybug: Fine! You stay! Later! Cat Noir: What do you mean later? Ladybug: I mean, you're the one who wants to protect her, so you don't need me. So, later! (swings away) Chloé:(looks over balcony) Ahhh! Ladybug! Text me! OK!

And this confession from Antibug:

Ladybug: [Chloe] pretended she was me?! How often does that happen? Armand: She idolizes you.

So Chloe adores Ladybug and wants to impress her/be her best friend. Cool. Got it. That never goes anywhere in season one because season one doesn't see Chloe and Ladybug interact much. The most we get is Ladybug saving Chloe from akumas, which doesn't allow for deep conversations. I don't think that they're ever alone in a moment where they can actually talk.

That changes in season two. In season two, they get to interact a lot and it's often in moments where there's a big threat and no one else is around, letting us see a new side to Chloe. But that's not Chloe changing. It's just the writers revealing that Chloe has more to her than the mean girl stuff because of course she does! Pure mean girls don't exist. Everyone has depth. We simply never saw that depth before because Chloe was never put in a situation where she needed to be open. We can't say that season one Chloe wouldn't confess things to Ladybug or chose to sacrifice herself to let Ladybug win because she never had the chance to do those things!

In fact, I'd go so far as to argue that season one Chloe probably would have done the same things as season two Chloe because season two Chloe doesn't really contradict season one Chloe. Antibug showed us that Chloe was pretty desperate to be loved and welcomed the way that Ladybug is loved and welcomed:

Chloé: Jagged Stone! Jagged: (thinking she's the actual Ladybug) Ladybug! What are you doing here? Chloé: Um… when I find out you were here, I knew you'd wanna see me! I had to come say hello. (Sabrina waves at Jagged)

and Chloe has always been a stubborn girl who stands up for what she wants even if what she wants is something bad. Antibug also showed us that Chloe can be genuinely nice to the people she cares about. Her and Sabrina's relationship is shown to be complex with them often having a lot of fun together.

Similarly, Origins sees Chloe showing her father genuine affection after she's saved from Stoneheart:

[Image description: Chloe and Andre hugging and looking very happy to be together]

Origins is the baseline episode that tells us who the characters are on day one, so I never once doubted that Chloe loved Andre, but Andre didn't get akumatized because of Chloe's actions in season one. He didn't even get akumatized for something that Chloe had nothing to do with! His first akumatization is in season two, so it's not shocking that we don't get a Malidiktaor type scene until Malidiktaor.

Chloe was vulnerable with her personal hero when her beloved parent was in danger, but not before? Shocking! Who would have guessed?

Me. I would have guessed. I didn't even realize that people were reading it as some sort of character growth because it clearly wasn't. Malidiktaor didn't feel like something new for Chloe's character. It just felt like the writers were leaning into things that we'd always known about Chloe and using them to better establish her character as someone who genuinely cares about select people. She just doesn't show most of the time.

The same thing goes for Chloe's sacrifice and apology in Zombizou. Chloe only sacrifices herself when there's no one left but her and Ladybug. When the choice is to let the terrorist win or take the hit and let you personal hero save the day. Brave? Sure, but also not growth. Chloe is team Ladybug for all of seasons one, two, and three! She wants Ladybug to like her! Plus even a petty brat can have moments of goodness where they pick a hero over a literal terrorist.

This honestly would have been a damming moment if Chloe didn't sacrifice herself. She functionally had no other choice here. The entire episode builds itself to the self-sacrifice moment so that Chloe is forced to make that choice even though she's been her petty bratty self throughout the whole attack. It's genuinely solid writing.

Then, in the heightened emotions directly after the Zombizou win, we get this:

Miss Bustier: But I hurt a lot of people... Chloé: No... I did... I forgot your birthday, once again. And when I saw everyone had prepared a gift for you, I totally lost it. Because I, too, would've liked to offer you something. I'm sorry, Miss Bustier. Miss Bustier: Thank you, Chloé. Those words are the best possible gift you could ever give me. (hugs Chloé) (Chloé hugs her back, forgetting herself for a moment.) Chloé: Huh?... Uh, yeah. Okay then, we're all good.

A brief moment of vulnerability that quickly ends and does not stick around because Chloe's change was situational, not true growth. The next scene of that episode starts with Chloe being her usual self:

Chloé: Me? You want me to apologize to the entire class? Ridiculous! They should be thanking me for saving everybody.

And ends with the reveal of Chloe's gift to Miss Bustier, which was given in private via a note.

Once again, nothing new for Chloe's character. She acts as she always has, being mean to everyone while having moments of vulnerability when things get tense. Remember that hug between her and her father that we talked about earlier? Same concept. She had just almost died from an akuma attack and so she needed some emotional support, leading her to act more openly loving than she usually does when he's around. Once the moment is over, she reverts to the petty mean girl default.

Giving gifts to placate people is also something that we've seen before. A pretty similar thing happens at the end of Evil Illustrator, it's just played less sympathetic towards Chloe because the writers weren't giving her depth back then:

Sabrina: Too late. Chloé and I are doing the project together. Marinette: You mean, you're doing the project? Sabrina: Well, of course! After all she's been through... Marinette: Ughhh.... Nice new beret, by the way. Sabrina: I know, right! Chloé lent it to me. She really is my BFF! Chloé! Your geography homework's ready!

For any of this to be character growth, we need to see Chloe act differently over time. For her to be put in similar situations and get different outcomes, but we don't see that in part because Chloe didn't change and in part because season one didn't do much to develop Chloe's deeper side. We rarely see her alone or in moments of extreme vulnerability, but you need those moments to show her depth. That's why Despair Bear had Chloe crying alone after Adrien threatened to end her friendship and not before. Chloe is very reluctant to openly show depth. You have to force it out of her, which perfectly fits the character we met in season one.

Even her standing up to Hawkmoth and rejecting the akuma isn't character growth in my opinion. Chloe has always stood up to authority and demanded whatever she wants. She has wanted to be Ladybug's friend and be seen as a hero since season one, so it's not shocking that her extremely strong will would allow her to defy a terrorist. If there is anyone in this show who can stand up to a terrorist on shear "no!" power alone, it's little miss I-always-get-what-I-want. I could see a variation of this happening at any point in the show, just change Chloe's reason for defying Gabriel to match the situation. Rework these lines to be about a party that she wanted to go to and I'd still totally buy it:

Chloé: No, Hawk Moth! I am a superheroine! I am Queen Bee! Ladybug will come and get me when she needs me! I WILL NEVER JOIN YOU! (throws her photo onto the ground as the akuma exits it... and pants)

Chloe acted like a hero here because she wants all the perks of being a hero and can't believe that Ladybug would actually bench her. That's impossible! Ladybug wouldn't do that!

As soon as Chloe accepts that she won't be a hero again, Chloe stops acting heroic because acting heroic wasn't growth. It was her playing a part the same way she played a part in Despair Bear. She was doing what she needed to do to be Queen Bee again and not because it's the right thing to do. This would only be real growth if she rejected the akuma after accepting that she wouldn't be Queen Bee again, but that's not what happens. As soon as she accepts that she's out, she no longer has any reason to play nice. She never grew into a character who did what's right for the sake of doing the right thing. It's always been about getting what she wants or being seen how she wants to be seen. Until that changes, she hasn't changed.

So no, Chloe didn't have an aborted arc. They didn't start to redeem her and then change their minds. All they did was make Chloe one of the most complex characters in the show only to then not do anything with the character they wasted our time establishing, ignoring the complexity they gave her while also cranking her mean dial up to the point of absurdity where she's not even fun in her original role anymore.

I get why it feels like she had an aborted arc. The fact that the character establishment was delayed makes it feel like something shiny and new about Chloe. There's also the fact that the character establishment we get in season two is the kind of character establishment that you'd do if you were setting up for a redemption arc, but that doesn't change the fact that it was all establishment work. None of it was a true arc where we watched Chloe grow. We just saw her put in situations that revealed hidden depths.

Her showing depth is not her growing because when in the world does she show off this supposed growth? She only acts differently in the type of scenes that we've never seen her in before or around characters that we've never seen her truly interact with before. When she's around the established teen characters or in her usual scenes, then she acts the same way that she always has. We never see her be genuinely nice to Marinette or something like that. She's only nice to Ladybug and she's still rude to Chat Noir. That's not character growth! That's character establishment that can then be used to guide character growth!

Same thing goes for the stuff in Despair Bear. We learn that Adrien can push Chloe to be better, but he never does it again and she reverts as soon as he lets her off the hook, so it wasn't character growth! It was just Chloe establishing that she can play nice when she needs to. This means that she could grow if the story chose to take her down that path because we've established that she knows what being nice looks like. Fake it til you make it plot go, go, go! But the plot never went, went, went so meh?

Add in the fact that season one was a bit of a test season with lots of elements that got dropped and the fact that characterization in this show has always been wildly inconsistent from episode to episode and I'm really not seeing a strong argument for Chloe having an intentional arc that somehow got aborted. People just saw the potential for her to have one and argue that potential is the same as an aborted arc when it really, really isn't.

To give an analogy, Chloe's story is like walking into the kitchen and seeing grandma laying out the ingredients for her famous chocolate chip cookies. We get excited because, hey, cookies! Then we come back an hour later and there are no cookies. Nor is there some other sweet that uses the same ingredients. There's just ingredients, sitting unused in their original packaging, making us wonder what the heck grandma was up to. At the same time, she never really started making cookies. She just set out ingredients. They're still there, totally unused, waiting to be made into something, so we can't call them a failed cookie attempt. That implies a level of commitment that was never there. She didn't even say that she was making cookies! We just assumed she was because we, understandably, wanted cookies and wanted to believe that grandma had a purpose to her actions.

[asha-mage]

Here's what I'll say about Siuan for right now, since their are still a lot of unknowns floating in the air: I think her actions in this episode are largely in accord with her book characterization no matter which way the show breaks on certain details.

Siuan's central character flaw in the books, the thing that largely leads to her downfall, is her default response to most problems being to exert raw force and control. It was how she handled the Hall of the Tower which allowed opposition to coalesces around Eladia and Alviarain, it was how she handled Gawyn creating a resentment in him that would drive him to side against her during the coup, and how she forced Min to remain in the Tower against Min's wishes which was the catalyst for Eladia realizing she could strike against Siuan at all.

And it's what Siuan does in this episode when confronted with a problem she does not have another way to deal with. Moiraine is with holding information from her? Go to Cairhien herself and seize the tiller of events with her own hands. Rand is running wild, derelict in his duty? Take him captive and bring him to the Tower where at least he will be under her eye and safe from the Forsaken. Moiraine is attempting to abscond with him as a result? Cut off her avenue of escape by any means necessary, even if it means damaging her personal relationship with Moiraine, possibly forever.

And that's the other thing to keep in mind: Siuan, like Moiraine, fundamentally does not trust anyone except her partner in conspiracy. She can't. For twenty years she's been on a quest that will lead to her stilling and execution if it is ever discovered. She and Moiraine are each other's confidants and allies, their deepest and most important loves. But even in the books Moiraine is withholding information from Siuan out of a sense of greater good. The difference is that in the show Siuan becomes aware of it in the show and of course she begins to doubt and loose trust in Moiraine as a result.

In her mind she has gone almost at once from being a partner, one half of a team that trusted in and depended on each other, to being on her own against the storm. If Moiraine didn't tell her about being stilled, what else might she be holding back? And if she is stilled, then realistically, how much good can she do for their cause now? How can she keep Rand safe from himself and the Forsaken, prepare him for what's coming, when she might not live another year? And that agony- that pain that the person she trusts and loves most didn't just betray that trust but also might not be around long enough for Siuan to be mad even be mad at her- has to be put aside because the mission, the duty, is everything to Siuan, just like with Moiraine. The stakes are too high for anything else.

So she falls back on the safety net of the Tower's traditions and secret plans. Take Rand to the Tower, keep him safe, prepare him for what's coming and trust to the Light for the rest. Take away his agency for his own good and the good of the world (something it should be noted she's wistful for the ability to do in TSR when she wishes she could keep hiim from a learning a word of the Prophecies, which is the same scene where she outright admits to Min she intends to try and control him in), and bring him firmly under her thumb. And what does Moiraine do? Enlist the aid of one of the Forsaken to break Rand free and flee to Falme through a Waygate, which is at best an INSANELY risky and potentially very stupid play, and at worst tacit confirmation of her worst fear, that Moiraine has gone over to the Shadow, and everything is on the brink of being lost.

And where does that leave Siuan? Isolated and alone and with no other fallback by her same response: to keep exerting raw force, to pressing the spring down until it snaps.