#aloy/tilda

[wykart]

I've uploaded the first 2 chapters of the updated version of Against the Lightning here:

Decided to leave the old version up as it is. For an idea of how I managed to cut like 60k words out of the original 18 chapters, the first 2 chapters here cover chapters 1-5 of the old fic ://

[stealingpotatoes]

to celebrate finishing hfw and finally being able to unblock the spoiler tags, here's a couple doods i did in my 2 weeks of hfw insanity <3 (there is much more art to come) (this is a threat)

(commission info // tip jar!)

[i-lavabean]

I forgot I had this and I am absolutely making it everyone’s problem

[hattersarts]

tildoy my beloved

[horizon-forbidden-memes]

Sorry, Tilda! At a thousand years old, you're definitely too old to play with Lego Aloy!

[padmerrie]

#mood

[k-chips]

HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST FINALE SPOILERS. BECAUSE THIS IS HOW I COPE.

Let’s just imagine the fight against Specter Prime went a little bit different or, how I like to imagine, let’s pretend this is how it CANONICALLY ENDED… for my broken heart 🥲

Our dear Tilda ended up with some serious scratches, even with that fancy Zenith technology of hers, but she was brought back at the base by Aloy because my girl is that good and they need all the help to stop Nemesis. And yes, Tilda and Sylens are besties!

Ok, for real, Guerrilla, why Sylens yes but Tilda no??? Well, my canon says she’s fine and get’s the “stop being delusional and insane for your ex” arc she deserves.

[all-encompassing-hero]

One thing I love about the Horizon franchise is how both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West make it explicitly clear that while the current threat might be the machines and rouge AI threatening Aloy and her people, the true evil behind everything is and always has been capitalism and, to an extent, the One Percent.

[Spoiler warning for both Zero Dawn and Forbidden West]

Obviously, there's Ted Faro, a man who, through a combination of overinflated ego and massive incompetence, doomed the world twice over. First, accidentally, by designing war machines capable of consuming organic matter as fuel and programmed with code so complex, it took several hundred years to crack. And then, on purpose, by deleting thousands of years of human knowledge and history in some misguided attempt to help the future generations. A man who not only built the Torment Nexus from the book "Don't build the Torment Nexus" but then deleted all records of both his construction and the story from which it came so that future generations would not be able to learn from the mistakes of those who came before them.

Now, while the Zeniths are not as heavyhanded about the themes of the evils of capitalism compared to Ted Faro, they do still uphold that narrative. Remember that the Zenith crew was composed almost entirely of the rich and famous. Rich and famous who would rather save their own skins rather than try to help humanity in its final hours. When they managed to do the impossible and achieve immortality, what did they do with it? Squandered it by becoming lazy, only using it to essentially prolong their own pleasure. Some even became greedy enough to go beyond physical immortality, and when that greed caused the destruction of their home and threatened the new life that had begun on Earth, what did the remaining Zeniths do? Turned tail and ran. Because the only thing that matters to them is self preservation.

Tilda might actually be the worst of them. Because while the others may not care that they're in the wrong, Tilda is the only one who believes she is in the right. Tilda, the woman who was arguably the closest to Elizabet, who watched her choose to stay to help develop the Zero Dawn project rather than abandon Earth, who has been grieving that loss for over a thousand years, believed that, given a second chance, Elizabet would choose to abandon Earth. Tilda, who believed that she was doing the right thing even as she was attempting to force Aloy to abandon her people the same way she wanted Elizabet to abandon Earth. Tilda, who died believing that the woman she loved died a pointless death even after seeing the new world created by Zero Dawn.

The Horizon franchise is and always has been a story about technology. How technology can do so much good in the hands of the right people, but also so much evil in the hands of the wrong people. And it keeps telling us that the "wrong people" are the rich and greedy, the ones who only look out for themselves, the ones who would leave humanity to die if it meant saving themselves.

My biggest hope for Horizon 3 is that it continues this message. That it continues to show that technology can be used for good, but only when in the hands of people who have the best interest of others at heart rather than their own.

[thisismylaststraw]

This is how Tilda and Sylens coming face to face for the first time went, right?

Yeah, totally.

[raine-witcher]

I’m just going to pretend everyone’s played HZD as much as I have when I say Tilda Van der Meer has no semblance of love for Elisabet left in her, I think she is far more obsessed with the concept of her at this point and that repeated in the fact that she finds herself looking for the “perfect iteration” of her rather than a “cheap replica” like that’s not something someone says when they actually care about a partner. That’s something someone says when they have been obsessing over their own mistakes and have been looking for a do over for thousands of years. And that is very clearly articulated just in the way she speaks, she only seeks an ideal way of how she thinks her life should have gone as is trying to look for it. Which is a byproduct of how a lot of the Zeniths think, cause they’ve been alive for too damn long.

[defaultjane-official]

[wykart]

After abandoning the original fic, I'm finally back with an updated version. It's all written, with 6 chapters out so far. I will be publishing the rest over the coming weeks!

Sticks and Stones Against the Lightning

[championari]

I feel like there's a lot to be discussed about how the Horizon video game series frames relationships: as a form of home.

Rost wanted Aloy to “embrace the tribe”, despite already being her support system. It wasn't just about having a support system, it was about belonging somewhere. Of having an origin point.

Aloy encouraged Varl to pursue Zo because she wanted Varl to not be alone like her, and to have a support system. Punctuated by her looking at Elizabet’s necklace, a reminder of the legacy she feels she needs to uphold alone.

Tilda described herself as spending many years alone and that “By my thirties, I thought that was simply my fate in life". She explicitly mentioned Liz losing her mom a few years prior and speculated that she "filled a void".

Walter Londra made his Quen actors repeat a line from his wife's films, "How could I go back? Being with you, it feels like home."

Aloy ran in The Proving to learn who her mother was, and why that potentially made her an outcast (excluded from Nora society).

I think Aloy's confession to Seyka manages to bring it all together. She speaks about home not being a place but people. And each of these relationships in some way transcends place: different tribes, different stages of life, different social standings, etc.

(I am 100% about people expanding on this, see this post as a starter to a wider discussion)

[lodgeofeilhart]

[setavvo]

For Kotaloy Elysium’s Horizontober (Week 2: Monsters)

[horizon-forbidden-memes]

All space billionaires get a free arrow to the face