#Walking Spoiler.

[gentlehousenicole]

Below the jump are my personal interpretations and headcanons for the Seven Void Hunters of Eridu. This reading is built from entirely canon sources, but may or may not be canon itself. It is, however, canon to this blog's depiction of the Zenless Zone Zero universe.

But, since it may still be canon, I'm hiding under a Read More break in case this would constitute spoilers. If you don't care about that, please read on...

Swordmaster is outright said to be the third head of the Hoshimi family, and is all but confirmed to be an ancestor of Miyabi's. She may even be the mother Miyabi lost in the Fall of the Old Capital, depending on how long ago these events are meant to have taken place. If so, the sets up Miyabi, Belle and Wise to have a fascinating three-way dynamic.

Lady Sunbringer invented Bangboo, and is almost certainly the founder and first CEO of the Marcel Group as well. She is extremely reminiscent of MiHoYo's mascot Kiana Kaslana, particularly her appearance in Honkai Impact 3rd. Notably, Kiana is heavily associated with the Moon.

Leader Joyous is one of the most fascinating of the seven for me, because of the mention he "made his way through the Divine Maze", a phrase which lights a fire in my imagination. He looks uncannily like Lighter to me, and also appears to share Caesar's hair and possibly her crown as well. The scar over his eye alludes to a common ZZZ and Hoyoverse motif, but in this specific invocation it even brings to mind Lucius. As of this writing I haven't gotten to spend time with Lighter in-game, but at the moment my headcanon is that Lighter is Leader Joyous. Possibly even the First Overlord under a different name, given the apparent Outer Ring connections.

And now we come to the three most striking and compelling Void Hunters for me personally, certainly within the context of this blog: The Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe.

Colonel Vike has the vibrant fuchsia hair and wields the katana. Fans of the Honkai series will instantly recognize her as a dead ringer for franchise reoccurring character Raiden Mei. She does not appear to have an equivalent in the main game, breaking from prior HoYo tradition, but Caesar, Jane, Yanagi and Anby all have one or two of Mei's signature characteristics. Indeed, Mei being an iconic, highly skilled Electric-element swordswoman, one can easily see an echo in Anby or Yanagi. If I had to pick one modern day analogue for Col. Vike, however, it would be Jane.

Lieutenant Colonel Dan of the Guard of Staves is the big fella at the right, very much resembling a massive war mech. I interpret them as literally such and also sentient, an early AI android construct of the type we know existed in Eridu's time. There is a faint call-forward to Billy in certain aspects of their design, and in the fact both are sentient AI former war mechs. However, I believe Dan actually exists in modern-day New Eridu in the form of Qingyi: A sage martial arts master and staff user who is also an AI construct in an android body. Qingyi is one of the wisest characters in the game, has a connection to the White Star Institute and speaks openly to Belle and Wise in her story about being rebuilt and reconstructed. It is also worth noting that, in a spiritual context, the word "stave" can have multiple meanings.

The Leader of the Falkenhayn Mercenary Troupe is quite tellingly the only Void Hunter who isn't named, but we know who she is: The trailer all but literally tells us this is Nicole Demara long ago in another lifetime. I do also share the fandom consensus that she is an allusion to Elysia, the breakout character from Honkai Impact 3rd. It is also heavily implied the female speaker in "Where the Miracle Began" is the Leader, and by extension also Nicole. She is thus couched in an incredible degree of fascinating symbolism, most of which shoots straight into the mystical, and I could spend several posts of this length or longer just talking about that aspect of her character. But for now, since she doesn't have a canon name, I have tentatively decided to refer to this version of Nicole as General Nikola von Falkenhayn.

And finally, and most crucially as far as the main story of Zenless Zone Zero goes, there is Professor Arche. "Arche" refers to "the first principle" in Ancient Greek philosophy and theology, and this Arche is obviously connected to "Helios Academy" and "Phaethon". The Greek myth of the son of the Sun god and his disastrous ride through the sky is at the heart of Belle and Wise's story, and the evidence as I interpret it points very clearly to Professor Arche being Belle and Wise's mentor and mother Carole Arna, or at the very least her parent. I find it much more striking and emotionally impactful for Arche and Arna to be one and the same, however.

[kavaleyre]

• The Hanged Man •

“Compared to what Falin went through? This is nothing.”

[arcanegifs]

ARCANE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS S1EP1 ↔ S2EP9 (2021-2024) ↳ "I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away."

[novelconcepts]

I Saw the TV Glow is such a uniquely, devastatingly queer story. Two queer kids trapped in suburbia. Both of them sensing something isn’t quite right with their lives. Both of them knowing that wrongness could kill them. One of them getting out, trying on new names, new places, new ways of being. Trying to claw her way to fully understanding herself, trying to grasp the true reality of her existence. Succeeding. Going back to help the other, to try so desperately to rescue an old friend, to show the path forward. Being called crazy. Because, to someone who hasn’t gotten out, even trying seems crazy. Feels crazy. Looks, on the surface, like dying.

And to have that other queer kid be so terrified of the internal revolution that is accepting himself that he inadvertently stays buried. Stays in a situation that will suffocate him. Choke the life out of him. Choke the joy out of him. Have him so terrified of possibly being crazy that he, instead, lives with a repression so extreme, it quite literally is killing him. And still, still, he apologizes for it. Apologizes over and over and over, to people who don’t see him. Who never have. Who never will. Because it’s better than being crazy. Because it’s safer than digging his way out. Killing the image everyone sees to rise again as something free and true and authentic. My god. My god, this movie. It shattered me.

[all-my-crap]

s’alright, it was a pretty small chance he would’ve gotten hit

[simplyjustagirlsblog]

i love laura palmer

[sashthesloth]

I love the little squad of shades who follow Mel around the Crossroads when she gets back from a win

[puffypoffin]

A little post-2.5 sequel to my last comic because the update destroyed me 😃

[claudiadpdl]

one of my absolute favorite things that we need to talk about more is the absolutely fed up look on louis' face s2ep8 when he tells lestat he's going to be with armand.

that man did not want to be with armand and was hoping lestat would throw one of his typical fits, and when he didn't, louis (also insane) realized that, fuck, well now he's gotta commit to the bit.

[currentlyonstandbi]

all the Deli Fives: *trying to figure out how to fix the timeline and stop the apocalypse*

Brisket Five in the kitchen:

[thelvadams]

DOCTOR WHO Joy to the World

[mistxmood]

this is the funniest outcome ever

[Image description: digital art of Bill Cipher, tangled up in electrical wires. He has a nervous expression, as he holds up a ripped wire and says: "Oops!" There's a glitchy effect behind him. End ID.]

[adrift-in-thyme]

There’s something terribly poetic in the inevitability of events in EPIC. The choices Odysseus is given lead to no win situations. They aren’t really choices at all.

Kill a foe’s child or witness the death of your own. Sacrifice six men or sacrifice them all. Allow your crew to starve or watch as they slaughter sacred cattle.

Sacrifice your friends, your brothers, or give up your last chance at reaching home.

In the end, the result is always the same. He destroys himself

[sophsun1]

Can we talk about the Lestat walk, because there's a walk that's not Sam's and it's incredible.

[prideprejudce]

alicent and rhaenyra trying not to look suspicious whenever another septa walked by during the middle of their conversation

[angelshizuka]

#that time blitz left vs that time he didn't wanna leave

HELLUVA BOSS 1.07 - Ozzie's 2.08 - The Full Moon