#all in all 10/10 we also went to a graveyard and a field i'd never been on and drank cider it was cool

[hrtley]

AUGHHHHH super Tired. i think i deserve a Little nap!

[rallamajoop]

Cultic Iconography in Resident Evil Village

As the kind of nerd who loves all the creepy artwork you can find decorating Miranda-shrines around the village (like, just check out that one of the half-skeletal Miranda hovering in the graveyard and just tell me that isn't metal AF), I was on the lookout for the original image assets while poking through the game files. I'm hardly an expert on Catholic or Orthodox iconography (plenty of which is creepy enough just to begin with), but I adore how you can see all those elements being twisted and appropriated by Miranda's cult. You'll find these six pictures plastered all over the village in various combinations.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find a whole extra batch of unused artwork in the same set!

Lest you doubt these were all meant to go together, they all hail from the one big compilation file ‒ I've just cropped them out separately for ease of viewing. For all I know, maybe some of these were used somewhere in the game and I just never caught it (and if you have spotted any, please let me know!)

But taken at face value, our unused images consist of one picture of the megamycete, a 10-winged-madonna figure (why limit yourself to just 6?), a side profile of Miranda herself (possibly excluded because it shows off a little too much of her real face?), two images of dead crows, and (strangest of all) a man holding a goat head.

That last pic especially stands out ‒ and not just because I could (and, indeed, now have) legit write you a whole essay on just the significance of the goat's head motif as a protective symbol in the village (seriously, it's everywhere from the Goats of Warding to the symbol on the shield of the Maiden of War statue), so I'm going to be all over any new example. But who the hell is that guy carrying it? No other image centers anyone but Miranda herself as an object of worship. This looks more like someone's taken a generic pic of the likes of St Francis of Assisi hanging out with some animals (it's a theme, you can look it up), then just cut the poor animal off at the neck for added creep factor.

So do we take it that this guy was, at some point, meant to be another key figure in Miranda's cult? Or was generic-saint-with-animal-plus-extra-squick all they were really going for? Was it drawn before the writers made Miranda the cult leader? Or could this even have been intended (as the goats themselves seem to be) as some in-universe, pre-Miranda relic of an earlier era?

Also interesting: he appears to be holding one of those ornate staves you can also see in the fire and skeletal images of Miranda above (and can also find in the field near Luisa's early in the game, before they're all replaced by charred, semi-crucified corpses). Did that symbol predate Miranda too? Fascinating, either way.

Those two crow pictures may be even more intriguing still. I'm sure we all remember that spooky batch of dead and/or hanging crows Ethan discovers at the start of his descent into the village, but thereafter nothing like that is ever seen again. Given that Miranda herself is so closely associated with crows, it's reasonable to wonder if this very-literal murder-of-crows was in fact some act of heresy by an unbeliever, deliberately hidden out in the woods.

But if images of dead crows ‒ including one hung in the very same position ‒ were at some point intended to appear alongside other images of Miranda-veneration, then presumably veneration was always the intent for those dead crows out in the woods. Suffering is, of course, a key part of the stories of so many saints. And perhaps crows are sacred only in the same way that the goats are: ideal candidates for ritual sacrifice.

Much as I love all the concept art you can already unlock with the game, I'd pay good money for a proper artbook going into all this kind of design work. There's clearly so much more that went into the concept art stages of this game that I'd love to hear more about.

And while we're at it, here's a nice big version of the standard winged-fetus symbol too:

[onehellofan-undertaker]

So happy to see the ask box open~! I had a few questions for you~! (I HOPE THATS OKAY!! D;) • Favorite thing(s) about Undertaker? • Least favorite character and why? • If you could meet any Kuroshitsuji character, how would you spend your day? Oh god, I have so many questions, but honestly, I'd love to hear from you and what your opinions are Cx your opinions matter too~! (If you had anymore Undy headcannons, I'd love to read them 🤤❤) Have a great night/day! ^^

Also, I’d love to talk about Undertaker ^^ do you have any canons on his daily routines (morning, day, afternoon, night), how he relaxes, if he were to get drunk (omg, the possibilities ;A;); I could go on, and on..!! Oh my god!!! Friendship between Undertaker and Othello?!? I ship their friendship- or rather alliances, either way, I ship it~! I’d love to get your feedback

Ahh this is so nice!! And yes the ask box and my messages are always open for anyone who wants to ask something or just drop by and chat about anything, so please don’t be shy! 

Favorite thing(s) about Undertaker?

     All in all I don’t think theres anything I don’t like about Undertaker? Everything about him as a character is completely enthralling to me. And even his defects seem to make him even more interesting. How smug he is and how he thinks he can just do as he pleases (e.g. Messing with life and death and playing god), and the way he’s arrogan in his own way.

     The Undertaker has proven himself to be quite the manipulative character, and that being paired with someone who is as smart and intelligent as he is, could have interesting effects. You have no idea how proud I was during the Weston arc when he’s just released his bizarre dolls on Ciel and the rest of the P4. He’s standing on the wall and Ciel orders Sebastian to get him, but both Undertaker and Sebastian know that if he were to go after him instead of Ciel, his soul would be in danger. Sebastian is used to be the one outsmarting people, so it felt nice to know that The Undertaker was the one to remind him that it’s not always like that.

     Another thing that I really like about him is how well he’s able to disguise himself and keep himself out of suspicion. He’s been by Ciel’s side for the longest time, until we find put that he actually wasn’t. We know that Ciel has come to him for information for a very long time, as did his father before him and we also know that he’s been collecting things from his “guests”, which is how he realised that Jack the Ripper’s victims were all missing the uterus in the first place. Now, how would he have realised that all of these guests were missing the uterus had he not been looking for them? Maybe he just stumbled across the fact, but I highly doubt it. Now this just means that he has been working on his bizarre dolls for some time now–at least since the Jack the Ripper arc, but I don’t think so.

    During the Campania arc, there were hundreds (and maybe even thousands) of dolls aboard that boat. Now we know that he used Ryan to help him get his work done in time, but how much time could it have taken him to make just one doll? Let alone thousands. Even if he were able to make one doll each day, it would’ve taken him years before he managed to make that many, especially considering the time it probably took him to gather all of the materials necessary, then stitching the corpse up, and then making sure it moved and work. How many failures were there before he managed to make one that worked the way he wanted it to work? And then make one after another the same way as that one? And on top of that he knew exactly why they went after humans when they were released, that must’ve taken some time to decipher, considering that they don’t really seem to go after him, so he must’ve convinced or taken and used other people to see what it was that made them violent towards them. Plus the amount of time it took for him to find a way to hide the dolls and make them hide until he said they could come out and attack? Or make like a timer for them. And then Johann and Derrick? How long did it take for him to teach them to talk and form coherent words? Especially Johann, who, as he said, was his masterpiece. Somehow he managed to keep him in line, teaching him to talk and restrain himself from attacking people even when he wasn’t there, or when the rest of his dolls have already started attacking.

     Where I’m going with this is that he has been doing this for years, he might have been doing this since before he met Vincent and Claudia, and he kept them from finding out, when they’re the Queen’s Fucking Guard Dogs? How did he manage this? I mean it’s not like it’s a little insignificant secret. Ciel doubted his own aunt and one of his last living relatives when it came to murders, but when the Undertaker showed up in the Campania and claimed that he was there because the hospital was a regular of his (though it wasn’t completely a lie) he didn’t even question it, even when the corpses started moving and Undertaker seemed to actually know what was happening, not for a second did he actually think it was going to be him, even though he knew that he took parts out of corpses he worked on for a living.

     So, as we can see, he’s smart, highly intelligent, very manipulative, dedicated, he can play his cards right, he can earn people’s complete trust, and he could totally beat your ass, those are probably my favourite things if I had to point out a few. 

Least favorite character and why?

     Viscount Druitt. I mean, he thinks its okay to flirt with a 13 y/o? No, it’s not okay. And after that it turns out that he “only did it because he was going to auction her off”? As if human trafficking made this any better. And then it turns out he’s still fantasising about Ciel? Gross? I get a shiver down my spine whenever I think about that. I don’t think I have to keep going on why he’s probably the most disgusting character in all of Kuroshitsuji.

If you could meet any Kuroshitsuji character, how would you spend your day?

     The obvious answer would be Undertaker, but for the sake of variety, I’ll say Ronald. Because Ronald seems to be the kind of person that’s just really easy to talk to and he’d probably be up to do anything, and if I could only get one day to spend with anyone, I’d want it to be something fun, like maybe an amusement park because I feel like that’s such an easy way to get to know someone and get comfortable with them.

Head canons on his daily routines (morning, day, afternoon, night)?

     He should probably get up early in the mornings but, he doesn’t do that. He doesn’t sleep in either, but he probably wakes up at nine or ten when he should be waking up at five or six in the morning. He’ll wipe his eyes and check to see how tangled his hair got during the night before going to brush his teeth. He’ll get some breakfast then and put some clothes on to start working on whatever customers that have to get done before he opens the shop.

     He just wants to get his work done as soon as possible, so he can take a break and maybe work on his dolls. And, since he considers that to also be part of his work (not that he complains, he loves being the Undertaker and messing with the balance of things), during his free-free time he’ll pace around his place and shop looking for something to do, and end up taking a walk, somewhere quiet and relax, or read a book, but I feel like he rarely have any free time.

    He doesn’t really has a set time that he goes to sleep, but it’s at around 10 or 11 pm on a good day (sometimes he’ll go to sleep at 3am or just not at all). Before he goes to sleep, he likes to shower off all of the grime of the day, taking his time and just standing under the water doing nothing at all but relax under the water. By the time he comes out and dries off and gets into bed its been about forty minutes, but he eventually stops tossing and turning, and he falls asleep.

How he relaxes?

     He likes taking a walk, somewhere where there’s no people, he can take his time and take in his surroundings and finally stopping somewhere he can sit and just close his eyes and take a nap, wether that’s a big field, in front of a lake or river or the ocean or even the graveyard at night. Where he can look up at the sky and be alone with his thoughts, no matter how loud or quiet they might be. 

If he were to get drunk.

     He doesn’t really get drunk often, and not because he doesn’t like drinking, but because when he wakes up the next morning he always has the worst hangover, and he knows better than to try to work through a headache. So he always does his best not to drink more than he should.    Of course, this doesn’t mean he never gets drunk. When he gets drunk he doesn’t really act that much different at first, maybe he’ll get a little bit more quiet than usual if he’s with a big crowd of people (or just more than one person) and squint intensely at something before he suddenly bursts out and says something really weird and/or deep that has absolutely nothing to do with whats happening with the conversation, and that’s the first sign. The second sign is when he gets super giggly, and I mean, while he might normally be a bit giggly, he’ll just be three times as giggly, and he’ll just chime in on the conversation and be really loud and say ridiculous and somewhat incoherent things, he’ll slur his words a bit but he still always does his best not to, just to get what he’s trying to say across. I’d say that if someone who didn’t know him to well wouldn’t notice (at first) how drunk he really is.

     He’d also look for some kind of physical contact if his S/O is there, nothing sexual, but maybe he’d want to hold their hand or hold them uncomfortably close and throw his arm around their shoulder, and when he tries to whisper something to them like “You’re so cute, you know that?” or “Can you teach me how to cook that thing you make thats just like a big ginormous taco-sandwich with ground meat inside of it when we get home?” he’ll burp halfway through his sentence, saying a sorry, and that should be your queue to stop him from drinking another drop of anything and take him home, give him some water and get him into bed.    He might not want to go to sleep or drink anything else that’s not liquor that you try to give him, so you’ll have to be persuasive if you don’t want him to wake up in a terrible mood the next morning.

Relationship between him and Othello?

     Well, Othello is a very new and very interesting character! I can honestly say that when he was first introduced to us I’d gotten a certain impression, but in the past few chapters he’s sort of changed from what kind of character I expected him to be, which I find very intriguing, since he’s so much more different than what I’d imagined he’d be like.

     As for his relationship with Undertaker, I don’t think I can be (or want to be) 100% sure of anything just yet, but I don’t think my ideas differ much from everyone else’s.

     He and Undertaker seem to have very similar interests, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they were working together and Otto was leaking information directly from the dispatch and to him. Othello appeared very suddenly and very mysteriously, and the way he talks about what he’s doing there is very cryptic, so if Undertaker were to pop out of nowhere towards the end of this chapter and Othello were to join him, It wouldn’t come to me as a surprise. But what makes me doubt their alliance if only a little bit is that, why would Othello and Undertaker reveal their alliance now of all times? Why now and not later? What would they gain from this? (Now this is just supposing they are working together).

     First, let’s talk about Undertaker, we don’t know what his ultimate goal is, not really, because, sure, he wants the dead to evolve, he wants to bring the dead back to life and so on and so forth, but why? To bring the Phantomhives back? Or is there more than that? We’re not sure yet, so what does Othello do to help him? (And what would Othello gain? To make an alliance then both people need to have similar goals and they both have to gain something from helping the other). Most probably he’s leaking information directly from the reaper dispatch to him to help him achieve this goal, so it would make much more sense for the two to keep their alive a secret as long as possible, even if they’re ready to put the plan into action or whatever, and the only logical answer to “Why would they reveal their alliance now?” is that they’ve already gathered all of the information they needed to succeed in achieving their goal, but even then why would Othello risk deserting the dispatch, there’s always a chance that their plan could fail, and then what would Othello do? Since Undertaker probably wouldn’t care. This doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me, but they could have a reason:

It was imperative that Othello left, wether it was because dangerous for him to stay or something else, I don’t know, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Undertaker convinced him to leave, or manipulated him into deserting along with him and Othello did, (but why? If he’s only using Othello, then he’s of much more use to him in the dispatch)

Othello himself made the decision to desert, and that also wouldn’t surprise me, since there’s been a lot of talk about deserters and their reasons lately

Or, we just ignore everything I have previously said and Othello isn’t working with im at all and/or it won’t be revealed until later in the story.

     Either way, I feel like they’re characters that compliment each other very nicely, so I do hope we get to see them interact.