#also important to realize that all of this is conjecture

[aceoxide]

Wake the fuck up samurai, it's incoherent EN3 theorizing time

Yeah I'm a day late for this but whatever man EN3 is finally here and well, I'm fucking kneeling.

Now don't get me wrong, I still think it's kinda bullshit that they're kinda running the talents ragged this year with having TWO major cross branch events on the same level of Holofes, but goddamn they really kinda refined their hype game.

I always find it pretty interesting that out of all the branches, it seems like the EN branch gets the most like... hyped debut stuff. IryS and Council's predebut trailers was a step ahead pretty much everyone else's, even the native JP branch. I mean the jump in quality from Myth's debut trailer and IryS' was absurd. Not even HoloX's debut trailer was animated like an anime.

But anyway, it seems like they realized that they went a bit too hard on the lore with the IryS/Council predebut trailers and realized that people were more interested in... the characters than the chuunibabble.

Now what's interesting to note about this is that whoever is responsible for deciding who gets be the talent behind each character for EN (and arguably hololive as a whole) knows what the hell they're doing. I'm sure there are a number of factors that I'm not remotely smart enough to get, but the point is if there is at least one thing you can depend on is that hololive knows how to choose who goes to who.

Okay so basically what I'm saying here is that this time they maybe going for a more "showing" than "telling," at least with this first trailer. There are all sorts of small but significant signs that show just what we should expect from these characters.

So first girl we see being shackled by the magic chains in the beginning has a mischievous smile and comes off as the Dante/Red Oni type who's not even affected by everything fucking exploding around here.

Next we have the twin(?) sister fox girls. The pink one comes as the more reckless one while the blue one is keeping a steady pace running.

Then you have the Not-Luna barely struggling to run, as if she's not particularly used to doing this.

Then you have Not-Kronii/Vergil/Blue Oni just kinda walking calmly/strutting without being particularly bothered about what's going on around here.

We get a shot of the twin fox sister girls again and a better peek of their personalities: the pink one shows off her being the more dynamic one while the blue one is far less chaotic but still shares some sort of dynamics that the pink one has with the flying sweat drops. Basically, the pink fox girl the Irresponsible Red Oni while the blue fox girl is the Responsible Blue Oni.

Meanwhile Not-Luna is jumping off of a ledge by herself.

Now the group shot with everyone minus the first girl is interesting. From how it is set up, it appears that Not-Kronii/Vergil is set up to be the "leader" of the group like Bae was set up to be shown up as in the Council trailers.

And then the last scene is with the Dante/Red Oni girl and it's not really clear what's actually going on with her. Are the others actually trying to save her? Or are they trying to stop her? There's clearly some sort of lore reason why she isn't with the other four.

...This sounds awfully like a certain detective who doesn't share the same quality of being a mythical creature just like her other four genmates.

This suddenly think they're using the Myth template in which to show that there is one that gathers the others (Ame was the one to "lead" the investigation into the other members) and it seems like Dante/Red Oni is going to be "leading" the four looking for her.

(In actual practice most would probably see Kiwawa as the leader of Myth while Ame is the brains, not that Ame itself is no slouch when it comes to being able to wrangle the others. Though Kiwawa shares the diplomat role of being able to communicate with HoloJP, though Mori shares a bit of that diplomat role as well to other areas.)

(Council is a bit far more straightforward in that regard in practice. Bae has more or less embraced the leader role and also shares the same role as being the diplomat of being able to reach out to HoloJP and HoloStars as well, even if she herself doesn't exactly realize it at times)

...writing all of this out now, I suppose the key of every EN gen's success so far is being able to have a leader/wrangler and a diplomat.

And I realize my own mistakes with my own theorizing last time, was that I was a biiit to obsessive with the lore more than thinking about the group dynamics of Myth. I think it seems like Cover has more or less found a formula for a lack of a better word. And well there's no need to fix what isn't broken. Even with Sana's unfortunate departure, Council still continues to be strong (that isn't to say that Sana wasn't important at all... but that's another topic)

[avelera]

One of your posts mentioned something about viktor not truly acknowledging Jayce's workload when it came to him being a Councillor. Could you please elaborate on that?

Sure. I mean, maybe if I went back through and did an exhaustive rewatch, I'd find something to contradict the point, but as far as I can recall, the closest Viktor ever comes to saying that Jayce might be overworked is when he calls his time going over the shipping manifests for the Hexgates a waste of time because they should be working on innovations to help people in need (ie, Viktor obfuscating once again that he is dying and wants Jayce's urgent help but framing it in such a way that it sounds like a long-term societal problem instead of a short term personal one, so it goes right over Jayce's head).

And look, let me preface this by saying Viktor is actively dying at this point. He's sick, and in pain, and terrified, and he feels abandoned by the most important person in his life. I'm not saying it was wrong of him to not acknowledge Jayce's workload, or bad, or in any way not understandable. Jayce is an adult too and Viktor was definitely suffering more at that point than him.

But on one of many rewatches, I did note that when Jayce says, "Sorry, I have a lot on my plate lately." it is objectively true. And Viktor doesn't even acknowledge it. Being a full time councilor and promoting Hextech and working in the lab and trying to help Viktor and dealing with a civic crisis that could lead to outright civil war, etc etc everything else happening in S1, it's no wonder Jayce is snippy and on edge at the bridge, the guy should be on the edge of collapse quite frankly.

And Viktor doesn't care. He thinks Jayce's time on the Council is a waste of time, so he doesn't acknowledge the burden of it. That includes not acknowledging the fact that the Hexcore would have been destroyed and Viktor's one hope for a cure gone with it if not for Jayce's power and influence now. Jayce only became a Councilor to advance their research and help Viktor, but Viktor doesn't once acknowledge this and seems actively angry and jealous about it.

By the way, this isn't a case of one of them is right and the other is wrong, it's just a case of two very human people being human. It's very well written. But Viktor's lack of empathy for the challenges Jayce is facing means he's also not seeing how much of what Jayce is doing is for his benefit, how many burdens Jayce is taking on for Viktor's sake.

Viktor's emotional arc at the end of S1 includes a lot of feelings of abandonment by Jayce which are objectively not true. If he acknowledged Jayce's workload, he might also come to the realization that he's not abandoned, that Jayce is entirely focused on him just in different arenas. Maybe it would give Viktor the impetus to say "Hey, I don't want your help as a Councilor, I want your help in the lab because I'm scared and alone and dying and I'm about to make some very rash decisions because of all those feelings." Instead of just sucking it up and going it alone, which eventually leads to Sky's death and Viktor's collapse into utter hopelessness and resignation towards his own death.

And by the way, this isn't conjecture that Viktor is bad at seeing how much people around him care for him. Sky is another example of this. Viktor is so focused on extending his own life that, to paraphrase Heimerdinger in 2.07, he's not using the time he has to be with the ones he loves.

Later he will weep and rage at how he completely missed out on knowing Sky as a person, he completely missed out on knowing she cares for him. He'll craft an entire specter of her to keep him company as a result of this guilt in S2, because he can't live with the guilt of the fact he objectively missed out on spending time with the real woman when she was alive. And that is another version of what he's doing to Jayce in S1, by not seeing that Jayce isn't ignoring him, he's desperately trying to help in every way he can and the workload is burying him.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

re.: the weasleys + parenting

what's always bugged me most abt percy's fight with arthur (especially in the fandom, where everyone's like 'oh, he turned his back on harry and betrayed his family to side w the ministry) is that. that's hardly what the fight is about at all. the fight is about the fact that percy, an 18yo kid who just got promoted to his dream job instead of straight up losing any chance at ever being Minister (because they tried to scapegoat him into taking the blame for the crouch business even though he managed to keep the whole department running while his boss wasn't even there), comes home all excited to tell his parents that "Hey, he's not unemployed and bereft of any and all hope for his biggest dream", but rather that his skills and competence got recognized by The Most Important Man In The Government, and molly and arthur look him straight in the face and go—"no you didn't."

there is no mention whatsoever that they even try to be gentle about it, that they congratulate him first and then bring it up later like "just be careful around Fudge, he's always looking for people to get information from and you are the best of both worlds, close to the action and actually good at the job he hired you for", nothing of the sort. they straight up don't even consider how any of those factors might've weighed in Fudge's decision to hire him.

and, perhaps worst of all, they have no faith in Percy. he tells them "I'm working for the minister", and not only do they not spare a second to be happy for him over this frankly momentous achievement (or at the very least concern for the position it puts him in), they jump straight to conjectures and accusations. "you only got this because of Harry" has got to crush Percy, who was raised to believe that good things come to honest, hard-working people and who has been working for this since he was a small child. and it digs the knife deeper when you realize that most of his siblings have basically replaced him with Harry. Harry, who also plays Quidditch and also keeps throwing himself into death-defying dangers and overalls fits much better into the family dynamic than Percy ever has.

and there's just this. crystal clear implication that they do believe Percy would spy on them. he's so Different and Other and Un-Weasley/Gryffindor-like and they've alienated themselves from him so absolutely that they can't see any reasons he wouldn't willingly and consciously jeopardize his parents' livelihood and Harry & his siblings safety just to stay in the Minister's good graces, when if anyone's actually at risk of losing their job for siding with Dumbledore is his father, who's still working there quite merrily and continues to so for a long time afterwards.

Percy, who runs into a freezing lake mid-February while attending an international event as Crouch's replacement to make sure Ron is alright, who pesters Ginny to eat and have a pepper-up potion most of her first year bc she doesnt look well, who tails Harry and Ron a lot of their second and third years bc there's something petrifying kids and then Dementors on the grounds and a mass murderer on the loose and they all just think he's being willfully bothersome like no you idiots he's worried.

of course he left. of course he left. what did he have to gain by staying at the Burrow, beyond fresh home cooked meals harassment and disagreements? why wouldn't he leave?

sorry I have a lot of feelings about this.

No need to apologize, this is brilliantly written!

I don't even feel like I need to add anything as you summed up the Percy situation perfectly.

But I can't help myself because I love discussing the Weasley family dynamics, so it's a bit more rumbley than my usual...

Percy cares so much for his family. When Voldemort is revealed and the war actually starts, he puts all his disagreements with his parents aside to come and help and make sure they're okay, because he cares. And still, he is being shunned and treated like an outsider.

Arthur and Molly Weasley are just really good at alienating their kids because it isn't just Percy.

Somehow all of them succeded in feeling like outsiders in a family of 9. Bill shows frustration with his parents and only returns to Britain because of the war, Charlie's in Romania for most of the series. Fred and George run away the moment they can and are treated like trouble by their parents most of the time (Molly and Arthur assume they are selling stolen goods from Mundungus when they hear they have money, not that they, idk, somehow earned it), Ron has a whole complex of low self-esteem and a tendency to blame himself for everything. Ginny is isolated from her brothers as the only girl and youngest...

And Percy cares and tries to be the best and most responsible sibling and gets scorned in turn.

Harry and Ron do acknowledge Arthur's and Molly's accusation towards Percy was awful and that he was right to respond negatively in OOTP. Ron is just sensitive about their family's financial state which soured Percy to him after Percy blew up at their dad (rightfully so, honestly, I'd say way worse to Arthur if it was me).

The thing is, Percy also gets scorned by his siblings, not just his parents (like Fred and George do). He gets grief for trying to be responsible and for wanting his siblings to do well in school and not get in trouble, Fred and George lock him in a pyramid...

That being said, do I think Percy is perfect? No, he is pretentious and overbearing at times, but he is a child in a large family who tries to find a place to fit himself in. According to child psychology, usually when it comes to siblings, the eldest would usually (at least in childhood) try to be everything the parents want (Bill), and then each next sibling will carve a different niche for themselves, and we see this with the Weasleys. I think the twins being born right after Percy and demanding a lot of attention from their parents from a young age as they were little troublemakers from the start is a big reason why Percy chose the niche of being bookish, ambitious, and responsible for himself. To contrast himself with them and his older brothers and get some attention from their parents.

I'm not a fan of the epilog (like everyone), but I find it hard to imagine Percy being close to his family post-books. I think he never fully got over the sting of not being seen as skilled and competent and that his parents believed he'd turn on them all without a second thought. Nor do I think he should just get over it.

Like, I'm really salty that Percy was the only one to apologize:

“I was a fool!” Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. “I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a—a—” “Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron.” said Fred. Percy swallowed. “Yes, I was!” “Well, you can’t say fairer that that,” said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father. “I’m sorry, Dad.” Percy said.

(Deathly Hollows, pages 512-513)

Like, yes, it's great he was smart enough to realize the ministry is corrupt, but this demand only for him to apologize when Molly and Arthur Weasley were just as much in the wrong. Fred and George weren't beacons of sainthood here either. But none of them have apologies demanded of them. None of them are demanded to confess they are "morons". Just Percy.

Who even after his apology is still an outsider. Probably always will be one.

You said it best: "Why wouldn't he leave?"

And that's what we see him do (if temporarily).

[thefirstknife]

Some conjecture on the topic of Ergo Sum: I think people are taking the whole "this is the sword that was on our grave in the Corridors of Time" thing the wrong way. Yeah, it's the sword buried on our grave, but I don't think people realize how *big* of a moment it is that we're getting *that* sword? This sword was a direct gift from the Traveler to aid us in our upcoming battle with the Witness. This sword is going to become so iconic and important and synonymous with us that it's going to be featured prominently on our grave when we die.

Ergo Sum also shares the same Ghost pommel (little bit at the end of the handle) that the new relic we get in the "final" boss fight has as well. Both were also given to us directly by the Traveler in the same place. They're very clearly linked to one another. It's also worth noting that the last shot of the final cutscene at the end of the campaign has a Guardian wielding it prominently, with what seems to be Light radiating off of it.

I think this is going to be the sword that kills the Witness.

(Or at least directly connected to it.)

Agreed! When we saw it originally obviously we didn't know anything about it. It just looked like a cool sword. I also remember people being disappointed that this sword wasn't the actual exotic we got from the Corridors of Time puzzle.

But now, this has so much more meaning. This is the sword made by the Traveler to cut down the Witness and destroy it. Like, it's not just some weapon, it was forged by the Traveler itself for the specific purpose of unmaking the Witness. That's absolutely incredible. Us wielding it in the final fight is HUGE.

The problem with Corridors of Time grave is that we simply don't know if that's something set in stone or not. There are other timelines and our grave could be from there, although the sword being real and so important to us makes this more likely to be our timeline. It's possible that whatever happens in the raid and in the post-raid mission, we will die in our final confrontation with the Witness, wielding that sword, and our grave will be made, fulfiling the Corridors vision, but we will somehow be brought back. I would not put it past the Traveler to personally intervene and react to bring us back because of how much we've done for it and the universe as a whole.

Super speculative of course, but the existence of that sword and it being directly connected to the Traveler is way too big of a deal IMO, for the Corridors of Time grave to just be a random curiosity. Like, they did not have to make the sword look like that. A lot of players have never seen it at this point. I'd even say most players; it was only available for a total of 2 weeks well over 4 years ago.

Speaking of, here's the grave scene with the eulogy. It also shows the sword at the end. Note the music in the background: it is the same music that plays when we take the sword at the end of the Destined Heroes exotic quest (I timestamped to one of the videos of the quest I could find where you can hear it). Again, this is something few people would notice because of how long it's been and the fact that it only existed for 2 weeks: you'd know only if you played at the time and remembered the music and recognised it, which I did the moment it started playing because I am normal about the Corridors of Time.

It's important to say also that in the eulogy, Saint says that the weapon used to be his and that it was shattered in the final confrontation. The Ghost shell is also not directly connected to the pommel; I remember originally we just thought it was a normal sword and the Ghost shell was just our Ghost laid to rest with us. Ergo Sum connects these two. Some alterations are normal I think, given the amount of time it's been between these things, but I do believe this is meant to be this same sword as a throwback to our grave, especially since they literally used the same music when we retrieve it. Really wild to think about.

In all likelihood, the only person who has seen our grave is us (Quria notwithstanding), unless we told someone about it. I'd like if this was somehow discussed but since nobody else has seen it, I don't know how we would do it even if we did speak more than one line. Do we even remember? Does it even matter? I feel like it should, beyond just being a cool throwback. Eagerly waiting to see more.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Idk why this didn't occur to me before but if Rashid had access to the missing diary pages then the Talamasca also presumably did. There's even a chance Daniel has seen them by the finale (I'd loooove to have full access to the trove of information they gave him!!) though exactly how illuminating the pages are in themselves I can't guess. On a (kinda) related note, what do you think led Daniel to the realization that it was Lestat who saved Louis at the trial, and that Armand planned to let him die? Was it just intuition? Because it didn't seem like a random hunch, he was very certain about it. Was there maybe something in the annotated script and/or Vampire Sam's account that tipped him off? I guess from an outsider's perspective it was pretty clear that Lestat wasn't there for revenge, and of course Daniel knew Lestat had a powerful enough Mind Gift to manage it, but it still seems like a bit of a leap. I feel like there had to be something in the Talamasca's files that informed his opinion?

Well, I mean the script that Daniel got there had a few annotations.

Annotations that made it clear that it was Armand who planned it all, Armand who directed the trial, Armand who... wanted them dead.

I am not sure if there might be more in it pertaining to Lestat saving Louis, but I can very well imagine it. Or maybe it is in a file Daniel got somewhere else (from/in the Talamasca files), because I agree, he seemed very sure of it.

In any case the trial script made clear that is was not Armand though. So maybe conjecture, maybe more.

As per Claudia's diaries... I... don't think the Talamasca have them. I mean, I could be wrong there, but I always took Armand's comment of having Rashid get them as deflection. The next evening Louis is a whole different person again (reprogrammed), and I don't think the offer to get those pages was actually genuine.

The Talamasca might have knowledge about what they contain though.

... given that the writers said in NOVEMBER 2022(!!!) that they would revisit murder night - and that hasn't happened yet - I do expect that revisit to happen in s3.

And... the cut out pages of Claudia's diaries might play an important role there, as said before.

Because her entries in the book "Merrick" were a shift, to put it that way.

We'll see, but I don't think the show, or the characters, are all done with the missing pages.

[hexcrystals]

“Can’t be silent on one and not the other, so I can’t support you” but can you yourself support both? ARE you yourself supporting both? These people love to whine about people not doing enough but I don’t see those same people posting about both. Like did that commenter on Taika’s post make any post themselves about the hikoi? Does their advocacy end at making posts, as if that’s the full summation of activism? They really don’t realize how hypocritical they are. “I can’t support you on this” fine, whatever, but are you yourself supporting the people he’s posting about? If the answer is no, you’re just as bad as you claim he is. (And to be clear I think advocacy shouldn’t be fully encompassed in posting the way these people seem to, but in trying to work within the parameters of their goalposts, I kinda can’t help it)

(Also the “you” above is not you, Lyse, but the people who make such hypocritical comments and grand conjectures. Not sure if that was obvious in my vent so I wanted to clarify!)

no i fully get you

the first thing to start with is that posting isn’t activism lmao so all of it is invalid anyway but policing other people’s posting is like. super not activism

nobody has the energy or time or strength to champion every single cause. nor should they. spreading yourself thin trying to help everybody is actually helping nobody

and people are obviously perfectly within their rights to support palestine, but when they say shit like ‘i can’t support you on this bc you were silent on palestine’, what they’re really saying is that they believe palestine is the only important cause and everyone else can eat shit basically

and it’s fine for palestine to be the only important cause to you. but you can’t ask everyone else to stop all other forms of activism including advocating for communities they themselves belong to. and you can’t use your own support (or lack thereof) of those causes as a bargaining chip to demand the correct type of performative activism for palestinians

and they know this. you never get an answer when you turn it around and ask them okay what are you doing for sudan? what are you doing for ukraine and the congo and uyghur muslims in xinjiang?

the reality is they’re doing nothing. and in 95% of cases they’re also doing nothing to help palestinians. because posting on the internet and leaving shitty comments on taika waititi’s instagram posts does not actually make a blind bit of difference to the people suffering in gaza, no matter how loudly you shout that you’re doing it in their name

[larsisfrommars]

The Light Won't Die (Part 6)

Halsin x Tav

Rating: T for Teen (Canon Typical Gore)

Chapter: 6/??? (<- Prev Chapter)

Word Count: 1596

Genre: Adventure, Hurt/Comfort

Content: Halsin x Tav, Male!Tav, Fighter!Tav, the meat of the matter, oops turns out this is also a sickfic, budding feelings, Tav mini lore drop, Shadow Cursed wounds are the best kind of wounds don't you think?

"Tav knew Halsin was in no state to travel, let alone defend himself if more Shadows came. They had to find somewhere and fast."

———————✨🌿✨———————

“Well,” Halsin coughed “that’s curious.”

He took an uneven step forward, about to explain himself or theorize the nature of his previously uninfected wound. What came out instead is something between a cough and a groan.

The strength left the Druid’s body before Tav could get a word in. His eyes rolled back, his knees buckled, Nature’s Snare clattering to the ground. It took the majority of Tav’s strength to catch him and prevent them both from crashing onto the cobblestones.

Halsin regained his senses at the sudden jostling. But it was clear that the Druid could no longer stand on his own two feet, not without help at least.

“Easy, easy, easy! Let’s sit you down for a moment. Gods Halsin! Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt so badly?!” Tav hissed incredulously as he set himself and Halsin down against the low stone barrier beside them.

Halsin’s his head lolled back against the wall, grimacing, breathing heavy, trying to piece together a reply.

“Your wounds… from the fall… more urgent… did not know, though it was a flesh wound. Clearly… I was mistaken.” The elf spoke between labored breaths. Letting out a half chuckle that dissolved into a wheezing cough.

Tav couldn’t even pretend to be amused, they were both in danger now because Halsin had put his needs above his own, the selfless oaf.

Then again, Tav had been unconscious when they hit the bottom of the cliffside.

Tav had assumed he’d died, perhaps that wasn’t far from the truth. Halsin had looked unusually relieved when he came to, maybe he feared the worst… maybe…

Tav shook his head, he had more important things to worry about than a personal brush with death. Those were a copper a dozen for him. It was Tav’s fault they were down here anyway, a healing potion was the least he could do.

“Looks like some kind of poison, I thought you told me about all the dangers of the shadow curse already?” Tav glanced up at the wound as he rifled around his bag. Looking much stranger and angrier than it had as he watched it made by those accursed Thorn Blights.

“This is new… I have neither suffered nor seen a wound like this before.” He turned to look at Tav now. “There are a great many things that have changed since I last saw this place, not just the landscape. When the Curse first fell, most were either transformed, killed or were the precious few like myself who escaped with minor injuries. Perhaps the sun cured whatever ails this wound, or perhaps… I shudder to think-”

Halsin’s conjecture was interrupted by a coughing fit. Tav finally unearthed a potion of lesser healing from his bag. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. He uncorked it for the Druid, prepared to help him choke it down if it came to it.

“The curse may be evolving.” Halsin finished soberly, gingerly taking the petite glass bottle in both hands. Emptying it in a signal swallow.

They waited with baited breath, Halsin’s breathing did not ease, nor did the narrow, angry gash in his side show any signs of closing. Not even a fading of bruises, not a thing done by such a valuable vial of magic. They looked at one another, Tav didn’t have to ask whether or not he felt any better.

“Bone Chill.” Tav realized with a nasty feeling in his gut. So much for the least he could do.

“We need to get you somewhere safe. Can you stand?”

“I will try.” Halsin breathed.

It took the staff and Tav’s help, but he was able to get back to his feet. Their travel speed now slowed to a crawl. Though he would if asked, Tav knew Halsin was in no state to travel, let alone defend himself if more Shadows came. They had to find somewhere and fast.

Slim pickings to put it lightly, less searching for a decent shelter and more so “which one of these ancient buildings is the least derelict”. Tav eyed a large silo shaped cobblestone building with barely any roof. At least the walls were intact, and he didn’t know of anything that would attack them from above.

It would have to do.

“Come on, just a little further to go.”

The Druid only nodded in reply.

Tav helped Halsin ease himself onto the dirt floor of the strange old silo, relieving himself of his pack. Rifling through it for bedroll, torches, anything that would help, he had one more health potion but obviously that wasn’t going to do any good until the Bone Chill wore off, if that was even what it was. Up until recently Tav had been a complete stranger to necromancy.

He wished he still was.

Four torches, they’d have to be relit every few hours but that could last them two, maybe three days, not counting using the Mace for backup. He had enough rations for the both of them for much longer than that thanks to raiding the Creche.

Halsin obviously needed the bedroll more than he did, he’d sleep on the floor, lightly, sitting up, just in case a torch died. Now, if only he could put a flare together to show the others where to find them.

No, bad idea, that could draw the Absolutists right to them, not to mention all manner of light hating beasts that slathered these lands in their ravenous pitch. No matter how ominously Halsin had described the Curse it was nothing compared to actually being inside it yourself. It was oppressive, if only you really could cut air with a knife. Then maybe he could think straight. He already had enough incomprehensible forces gnawing on his grey matter as it was!

“You should rest.” A shallow voice rasped from the corner.

Tav gasped, immediately putting hand to mace hilt, he almost didn’t recognize the elf’s voice.

It bothered Tav how slow he was to take his hand away from the mace although he knew full well even if Halsin were well, he’d never lay a hand on him. Even as he thought that, his mind wandered to the thorns in his chest… The mace clearly wasn’t enough, he really must light a torch!

So he did, and all the anger and fear washed away in face of a new and more powerful force. One that he’d become all too familiar with in Halsin’s presence.

Care. Not only that but the self assured sense of protectiveness he felt for all their companions, something he hadn’t quite realized was ebbing away in face of this gloom.

“Are you… well?” Halsin asked wheezily, half-conscious.

Beads of sweat speckled the Druid’s brow despite the omnipresent chill the Curse bestowed on the land, one of its many gruesomely charming features.

“I am. But you’re not.” Tav brushed Halsin’s hair from his forehead with the back of his hand “Gods Halsin, you’re burning hotter than the Hells. You’ll be competing with Karlach soon enough. You should lie down.”

The Druid not argue, perhaps he couldn’t. Strong, warm, dry hands were made cold and trembling by the strange poison running through Halsin’s veins. A hand in hand to ease. A hand laced through russet hair so that the weakened elf would not hit his head too harshly on the ground.

Gingerly, tenderly, his hands did what was necessary, what was right, as they always did. It took no real effort, so why was his heart pounding so violently in its cage then? Why did he feel as though he needed to catch his breath? He had practically been ready to cave this man’s skull in not moments prior just for startling him! Gods it had been a long day.

Tav took out his canteen.

“Drink.”

Halsin abided, with a bit of propping up.

“Thank you, Tav.” Halsin managed, followed by yet another coughing fit.

Tav was no healer but, you don’t become a Flaming Fist without getting some rudimentary first aid training. “No bleeding out before the Clerics show up!” His drill sergeant used to bark.

No Clerics around here Tav thought bitterly. Removing a water jug and a bundle of clean linens from his pack.

“I’m going to have to remove this.” Tav spoke mechanically, gesturing to Halsin’s armor. Trying focus on the task at hand and not the sudden return of that same rush of feeling from before.

Halsin nodded his understanding, doing his best to make it easier for Tav. The wound looked even worse beneath the cuirass. He wasn’t particularly squeamish given his line of work, but this wound was magical, alien, and Tav couldn’t help but wince.

The initial shock passed Tav got to work, methodically, gently cleaning the dirt and blood and ichor away until all that remained was what continued to well-up from the wound, which was quickly tapered off by the makeshift bandages he’d rustled up.

Tav had done what he must, and Halsin had finally given into exhaustion. Hopefully what people said about Elves only sleeping to heal was true. All that could be done without magic had been.

Despite his efforts, despite the Blood of Lathander, despite the lit torch, one haunting lingering anxiety for which no curse could be blamed lingered in Tav’s mind.

That fever, the dark magic in that would could kill Halsin in his sleep, and there would be very little Tav could do about it.

He fought his own tired body to the last, just to watch his breathing.

Just in case.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

okay last thing for now I swear. But I realized that you might get joy from all the things I thought Eris Mourn was before I gave up and asked.

(Very important note is I was going in blind except for a handful of factoids that a friend gave me. As it turns out this friend was very bad at video game lore.)

'That Wizard came from the moon' is referring to Eris Mourn. She looked like a wizard from the moon to me. This one was probably the closest tbh.

After finding out what a wizard was I just assumed she was an Awoken and that's what powerful Awoken look like. Wrong direction, past me.

Mara doesn't have three eyes so obviously that's wrong. Did the Traveler just bring her back weird?

No ghost? Okay so she's an Ahamkara. I heard that word used a couple times around her so clearly that's what she's supposed to be!

Eris Mourn is Hive God Savathun. This was from my friend attempting to course-correct the Ahamkara theory but they corrected me from flying into a brick wall to flying into a different, closer, brick wall. I don't know why they told me this.

Thank you for tolerating my silliness, feel free to ignore or also point and laugh at past me XD The fun part of going into games blind is coming up with absolutely wild theories that aren't even a little bit true. Like thinking the Cabal aren't real and I was misremembering how many factions there are.

Ok so, these are all pretty close to the mark, narratively speaking, and not silly at all.

I mean, "that Wizard came from the Moon" is... a reasonable assumption. She wields Hive magic and lives on the Moon. (Although Eris would probably be deeply insulted because she can probably murder Hive Wizards in her sleep.)

For the longest time the lore was ambiguous and people did think Eris was Awoken because she calls Asher Mir (who is Awoken) "cousin" and she has a very sickly skin tone. But, as it turns out, she was born in the Last City, which makes her a garden variety boring normal human. Being underground for a century in a hostile environment while being hunted to death by Hive just does really terrible things to your skin.

Brought back weird is also a good theory. Especially now that we have Lucent Hive. Eris is definitely weird. Not a bad conjecture, all things considered.

Ahamkara is also a good guess - for anything, really. They're shape-shifters and can look like anyone so "when in doubt maybe Ahamkara?" is generally Destiny-plausible, albeit rare and unusual, (not to mention, her glowing ball is an Ahamkara bone and she was only able to learn how to escape the Hellmouth because of a wish so your intuition was bang-on, just not for the right target).

Now the last one you came up with is especially interesting, lore-wise, because Sav did infiltrate the Hidden network and impersonated Eris in several lore entries. It is infamously referenced online as "the time Savathun wrote Eris fanfiction" and is debunked by the Hidden in other lore entries later. So, again, while missing the mark, it's shockingly accurate as far as intuitive leaps in story go and that does happen, just not in that specific way.

But, if you will forgive me for doing so, there's one more misonception in your ask that you may not be aware of that I want to tell you about: the spelling of Eris' last name.

And the only reason I point it out is not to tease you about a spelling mistake but because it is an exquisitely beautiful resonant and powerful bit of imagery and wordplay that I don't think a lot of people realize.

You've been referencing her above as Eris Mourn.

Mourn: Feel or show deep sorrow or regret for (someone or their death).

But, while it sounds exactly the same, Eris' last name in game is spelled Morn.

Morn: Dawn. Morning.

The dual nature of her last name is already lovely because it encapsulates so much of her character but the fact that it is Morn and not Mourn ties in very closely with two specific pieces of dialogue in game:

In the Prophesy dungeon:

Drifter: Hey, Three Eyes. You spending all your time on Io now? Eris Morn: Or the Moon. Depending on the weather. Drifter: What do you think of all this? Eris Morn: All of what? Drifter: The black fleet. The end of the line. End of the Light. Eris Morn: It hasn't come to that. Not yet. Drifter: How do you know? Eris: It hasn't been dark enough. Drifter: Look at the sky. Nightfall's comin'. Eris Morn: We'll live in the night if we have to. I've been there before. So have you. So has the Guardian. Drifter: It ain't pleasant. Eris Morn: No. But necessary. For what follows. Drifter: And what's that? Eris Morn: Dawn.

And then brought up again, this time by Drifter to Eris in Gloaming Journeyer:

"I remember what you said. I think about it more than I should these days." "What did I say?" "That we'll live in the night if we have to. We do it for what comes after."

Eris, while her entire backstory is about the loss of her fireteam, and she becomes a full-on Hive god to avenge them, really is the embodiment of hope within Destiny.

And this is nowhere more true than in her interactions with… Dredgen Hope, named by the Darkness itself after that which he did not, and could not, have because of who he was and what he had experienced: the drifter with no family and no name, who trusted no one, and who, upon befriending us, told us not to give in to hope because that would only ever get us killed.

Eris is named after morning, dawn, daybreak.

Because, within the narrative of Destiny, the image of dawn breaking over the darkest part of the night is not a soft angelic light, sweet and gentle.

It's the grim snarl of a Forgotten Blade dragging itself, broken and bloodied, out of the deepest pit of hell.

The glow of Morn comes, not from some distant star, but from the three eyes she cut from the face of the enemy she killed while blind and lightless, which she then embedded in holes she carved into her body, cutting out her own sightless eyes and piercing her own skull to do so because, despite everything, in an inescapable situation, against all logic and reason, facing absolute certain death, she refused to fucking die.

Aiat.

[opalspring]

Some observations and color-coding in Cat

Here are some thoughts/observations about Cat, though especially about the color-coding.

The car and walking scenes

In Cat, the car scene has some interesting details about Kazui and Hinako’s relationship in my opinion. 

Hinako is shown to be the one initially interested in Kazui, who notices this:

And then we get this frame, with Kazui looking to his left while turning the wheel with a seductive face. At first glance, it looks like he noticed Hinako’s affection for him and is implied to reciprocate. The thing is though, with the composition in the scene only showing Kazui and Hinako separately, we can’t be sure he’s looking at her specifically here: it’s left ambiguous (propably on purpose).

I’ll go in detail about this later, but basically I think that at that point in time, Kazui was already planning to use Hinako’s feelings for him to get closer to a certain someone.

Then we get to the walking scene. There’s one frame in particular there that I feel gives a lot of interesting context to Kazui’s story:

To discuss it further, we need to talk about color-coding in Cat. There are three colors in particular that are important in the mv: blue, magenta and yellow.

I think the colors are each supposed to represent either a person, or a concept. One association we can easily make to start is Kazui and blue.

It’s used in the beginning sequence when only he is on screen, and is a very similar shade of blue as the one on his prisoner uniform’s straps.

(I should have picked a better pic but I mean specifically the straps and not the other blue like the one for 007)

There’s another scene that also seemingly ties Kazui with blue: 

This frame seems to cement Kazui’s association with blue. Additionally, it’s probably safe to say Hinako’s color is magenta with that logic.

And what about yellow? Well, for that color we have to do a little more digging. But one thing is for certain, it’s as important as Kazui’s blue and Hinako’s magenta. 

The reason for that is these two shots:

Using Kazui and Hinako’s colors for this sequence makes sense, but why is yellow mingled in as well? This part alludes to how Kazui is potentially using Hinako’s feelings, so what is the yellow doing there too?

That’s the part where we can begin to guess who yellow refers to. It’s possible Kazui had a third person in mind when marrying Hinako. Specifically, someone he would be able to see more if he and Hinako were married.

This goes into conjecture territory, but the only character from Kazui’s story that could fit this role in my opinion is his childhood friend/the bartender, who he talks about a lot in his interrogation questions.

Kazui and the bartender/ childhood friend

(From now on, I’ll assume yellow refers to the childhood friend for this theory and refer to him as CF) 

There are more parts in the mv that allude to the link between Kazui, Hinako and maybe-the bartender, like this shot:

What’s interesting here, aside from the color combination, is how despite Hinako’s color being present, the colors forming the 01 and taking up most of the space are Kazui’s and the CF’s.

This coupled with the lyrics on screen at that moment, we can assume Kazui’s dream refers to being close with the CF.

Another detail regarding are the French lyrics that overlap with the yellow 1. They translate to that part from the lyrics:

All those things I wanna do that I can’t say out loud

I gotta keep it inside and act

The beating of this heart… see… it’s no longer about good and bad… it isn’t

I realize the futility, but I still can’t help but dream

So maybe these words were meant to be directed at the CF.

There are other moments in the mv where blue and yellow get mingled together, and when we couple them with the corresponding lyrics on screen, we get combinations like this:

Here, his feelings he ignored regarding the CF (blue and yellow are mixed together). We also get a hint that Hinako and the CF are linked together somehow with the magenta mixing with the yellow.

We haven’t mentioned lime before but maybe it could be a representation of Kazui’s love for men, or men in general? “I just wanted to touch (a man)”

Interestingly, the combination of Kazui’s blue with lime gets us the same green color as Kazui’s blue + the CF’s yellow. We’ll talk about this in a later section.

Here, Kazui knows the CF is out of his league, both because they’re both married to different people, and since the CF is most likely straight (from the lyrics “If only your heart would change, but that’s not possible” from half).

Here Hinako realizes her relationship to Kazui was a lie, and that he was potentially only interested in her because of her link to the CF (maybe they’re siblings or something similar).

And in the following scene, after Hinako dies, only Kazui and the CF are left in the equation.

Now we can go back to that frame that was mentioned earlier. We theorized on which color refers to which character, and it puts some things in perspective.

On the right part of the frame, Kazui is standing on the blue stripe, representing him, so nothing too special. 

Similarly, Hinako is placed around the magenta one, herself. And although the framing stops us from looking further on the right, the yellow stripe hints that a third person is actually standing there: the bartender/childhood friend in this theory.

This puts the rest of this sequence in a whole new light. After all, if Kazui is proposing to Hinako, why isn’t he facing her in the frame before? That may be because it’s actually the CF he’s looking at.

This could explain the magic trick: the bouquet changes into a ring for a reason. If the intent was to “just” propose to Hinako, what’s the need for the bouquet and the trick animation? 

From my interpretation, the bouquet is actually meant for the CF, and the ring Kazui gives Hinako could be an excuse to get closer to the CF if he and Hinako really have a link (like being siblings or something).

Color inversion

There’s a frame at the beginning of the mv that comes by so quick you have to put the video on 0.25% speed to take a screenshot of it, this one:

Since it appears at the mv’s beginning, I think this frame is meant to give us some clues regarding the mv in general. 

We see color combinations (red and blue) like in the rest of the video but what’s interesting here in my opinion is the white circle on the right: it shows us a different color combination by inverting the colors.

So I think this is a guideline for the viewers to apply through the mv: invert the colors to discover hidden details.

One thing we can note is is that: red=cyan and blue (Kazui)= orange

Remember the lime color and how it could represent Kazui’s love for men? Let’s try to invert the colors and see how it compares to the combination of yellow and blue, romantic in Kazui’s mind:

These two combinations result in the same (or very similar) shades of pink, so maybe pink refers to romantic love in the mv. 

Going back to the red+blue=pink combo we saw earlier, this makes me think that red/cyan might represent Kazui’s homosexuality/love for men as a whole (since red + blue (Kazui) = pink (romantic love)).

Also, another thing regarding this frame and the “Kazui was using Hinako from the beginning” theory: at the moment Kazui notices Hinako’s crush on him, we can see that his “thoughts” on the left go from:

 lime (love for men (?)) + blue (Kazui) = green (or pink=love, see pic above) to:

 magenta (Hinako), with lime (love for men (?)) and yellow (CF), but barely mingled in

This is what made me think Kazui got the idea of marrying Hinako, but with an ulterior motive (getting closer to the CF, who may be Hinako’s sibling or acquaintance). Who knows though.

Here, was the bouquet actually meant for cyan= a man? (if we assume red= desire for men/homosexuality)

Remember how green/purple represent the bartender/CF in this theory? Here it could show Kazui’s married life with Hinako… but how he’s secretly dreaming of the same life, but with his childhood friend.

This one in particular is really interesting because it could be a confirmation that the apple is meant to represent the CF. The red/cyan apples could represent men in general, with the CF getting a special place as a green/purple apple. So it puts the entirety of half in a new context:

…

…….I see what you did there, M. Mukuhara

“Sorry Hinako, but I actually like *the bartender*” ? No, that’s probably not how Kazui said it and he probably came out by saying he’s gay, but the reason that made him come out was the CF (maybe)…

Pretty sure Kazui and the bartender/CF had an “adventure” of some sorts here

There are probably a lot more I missed, but it’s interesting how the staff (maybe) created a link between both mvs.

Thanks for reading!

[honeybeebabeblr]

Crowley’s peaceful precious existence doesn’t exist.

He wants to protect his status quo because it’s more desirable than what he’s been dealing with in the past. But it’s not ideal. It’s not what he really wants ( he probably thinks he doesn’t deserve what he really wants).

A fundamental part of aziraphale and crowley’s disagreement is Crowley thinks what they have is good enough because it’s better than it was and aziraphale sees it can be better. Aziraphale is an idealist, which can get him to be too blind to a lot of things, but it also gives him the fortitude to stubborn his way through things when he thinks he knows the right way, even if he hurts himself in the process. (Insert Pokémon joke more clever person than I comes up with)

You CANNOT tell me crowley enjoys living in his car. Hauling his plants around ( he’s not gonna dump them like SHE dumped him, even when he’s disappointed in them). Sleeping all cramped up. Having Shax and who knows what other demons just pop in when they want.

And speaking of shax- it seems like heaven has left aziraphale alone until Jim-gabe trundles up (with his box with his brains in a fly and the book of life he stole no I’m not letting go of that theory) but shax is up crowley’s ass. She’s in the Bentley, she’s calling him, they’re meeting up in places. Wow, so peaceful and relaxing, Crowley, amirite?

And he damn well isn’t going to take a rank-up in hell to give Beelzebub info about Gabriel no matter how weird they get about it.

He’s depressed, perhaps the immortal version of a midlife crisis (what’s the point, blah blah blah ) and yet you see all that life, all the bits of him he’s stuffed down because he thinks he doesn’t get to be that anymore escaping bit by bit. He’s gentle with Muriel, he’s conflicted with Gabriel to extremes almost, he’s giving space to humans, he’s indulgent to aziraphale’s whims until he realizes aziraphale has gone completely off into lala land (aziraphale’s version of dealing with his own trauma a whole other post).

And now this is my own conjecture, but he’s also having to deal with stuff from his past he’s been trying to box up, like rank and class and ability and purpose. I mean, it’s a bit embarrassing to think about stuff you’ve done years ago you might not do now. Angel!crowley is a bit single minded and vain. Angel!crowley was clearly high ranked and trusted with a lot of responsibility and power. Angel!crowley bids some lower angel over to be a freaking easel and blows-off that angels introduction in order to soak in the glory of his creation. Who knows what else he was like? All the other angels right now are very much aware of rank; Maybe he was too.

And maybe demon!crowley is wiser and more aware and is a bit embarrassed of what a pompous ass he was. But instead of forgiving himself, he’s just going to punish himself.

Traumatized people can sometimes step in and punish themselves when the outside source is absent. Crowley tells aziraphale he’s a demon, he lies, he’s a demon he’s not nice he’s a demon he’s evil - so aziraphale is repeating this to him even though it’s not what aziraphale believes. (And people get mad at aziraphale for it, but he’s doing what Crowley seems to want him to do because his own trauma dictates he try and please everyone) .

It can’t get any better for Crowley right now, in his mind. All of us vs all of them is looming but it’s not right now. (But it is) aziraphale and he can hang out in his shop and get food and just be right now(he just needs to make sure all these threads of threats against them are ignored) and yeah, crowley’s inconvenienced and uncomfortable but like he deserves that, it’s aziraphale’s comfort that’s important right now (never mind that if he actually said that sentence aloud he’d get the equivalent of a wtf-Crowley glare from aziraphale). Aziraphale has all these places and people and things and hobbies and so it’s nice he deigns to spend time with a demon (doesn’t even occur to him aziraphale thinks he’s the lucky one the amazing so-much-better-than-me Crowley picked).

Crowley has his hands covering his ears and is going lalalalalalalalalaICANTHEARYOU because even with all the bullshit going on, he’s mostly content. And he doesn’t dare think he could have or even deserve more happiness. He needs to accept all the love aziraphale wants to give him. Accept that he still is a bit of ‘that angel’ inside instead of shoving it down into a box with a weak lock, accept others out there actually do care about him. Accept it’s okay for him to care for things.

And ultimately, he has to accept he cannot keep running from the rotten core of heaven and hell and face it and root it out in order to really have his peaceful existence. And he’s going to have to make peace wnd find acceptances with his present and past selves to do so. I cannot wait for his journey.

[arcplaysgames]

hey so i noticed this guy in the intro sequence and are you telling me Chaz is getting a fucking persona because that's fucking dope, his outfit looks so silly, is that FRINGE i see???? amazing

ANYWAY we're trying to get out of this Palace and protect our new chobit when

CHOBIT GOT A FUCKING PERSONA?

Actually the game..... is unsure???????? lmao It has no idea what the fuck this is and all of the skills have a little ? after them which is VERY funny.

I DO know that a Pithos is a term for the old earthenware pots that the old Greeks used. It is also related to the myth of Pandora and is the actual vessel she carried around, which we tend to mistranslate to "box."

I know this because there is a Linux client for the Pandora radio service called Pithos that I used ages ago.

I am very interested in the possibility of Sophia being associated with Pandora, but also just her name is interesting. P5 Vanilla had a lot of Gnostic shit going on, and in Gnosticism, Sophia was.... gdi was she associated with Abraxas or Yaldaboath? I'm not looking it up, the POINT IS that Sophia is definitely a name from that whole mythos.

oh fuck she was literally found in a box, PANDORA'S box, oh for god's sake. Persona!!!!! lmao.

You're doing great, Sophia.

I MANAGED TO GRAB A CAP OF REVERIE POLE DANCING, YOU ARE WELCOME.

Reverie's life path should either be a social worker or a housespouse who moonlights as a burlesque dancer. Those are the ONLY two options. I lean towards the latter because I want Reverie to be a trophy wife and spend all of Akechi's his husband's money on outrageous outfits.

SOPHIA IS GREAT. The way her VA goes from this not-quite-but-almost monotone cadence to these verbal SFX moments is DELIGHTFUL.

Anyway, she finds a portal out of the Palace and doesn't actually want to leave the Metaverse?

Ryuji, if she dies the moment we leave the Metaverse, I will kill you, dude.

BUT NO ITS EVEN BETTER

SHE IS IN THE PHONE

so canonically Futaba has hacked Reverie's phone and can monitor him that way. then there was the Metanav malware shit. now we got the EMMA adware nightmare. and now Sophia is in there too.

Reverie, what the fuck is wrong with your phone, bro?

oh god she's not even an app she's fucking Bonzai Buddy, i'm dying. this game is great so far. zero notes.

IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE THOUGH

it's not a palace, it's a jail.

That......... is interesting. Those are practically opposite concepts, honestly, palace vs jail. I wonder if instead of the situation in P5 where the cognitive world bent around the distorted desires of the ruler based on their real life issues, a jail might be an inversion. What if you have the call of the void intrusive thought kinda shit which is fairly harmless and then something happens that traps you in a cage of those desires? Morgana mentions that he's getting faint hints of Treasure in there but not actually detecting A Legit Treasure, so what if something else is going on here?

ANYWAY that's pure conjecture and the game might just being calling palaces by a new name.

i have missed you yusuke kitagawa, welcome back.

ALSO I GOTTA SAY. Ryuji's VA is doing so much fucking work, it's so nice. Like, all my issues with the clunky writing of P5 Vanilla are gone, this feels much closer to the naturalistic style of P4G (though it hasn't quite hit that apex yet, tbh, but we're early on).

I like that Morgana already feels a kinship with Sophia based on their similar experiences not knowing what they are and where they came from.

If Sophia winds up being, like, Igor's version of Duolingo, I will laugh.

Back to the point: We gotta figure out what the fuck is up with Alice, so vacation plans are on hold.

someone please feed Yusuke, i don't know if he's eaten since Reverie left Tokyo.

morgana i don't know if you realize but you are basically going to be sophia's mentor. you must advise her how to be a good companion and friend, which includes having the best jokes, being a great teacher, how to fit in a carryone, and purring. i believe in you, morgana.

I THINK I LIKE PERSONA 5 STRIKERS, FOLKS

i want to fluff her too, she looks so COZY in that thing. I understand where Ann is coming from. Just give her a hug and rubrubrub those arms. uwu

[archivalofsins]

So, this is a snippet from another post but I think it should be in it's own here. Sooo, time for more Futa and Muu contrasts.

As we all know Futa and Muu were paired not only because of their similarities but how their differences work to highlight more understated facts about the other. Appearing at first to be the difference between the bullier and the bullied.

In the previous post, I took this logic a step further.

We've come to discover Mu was the leader of her group. If their situations are meant to contrast each other's then that's reason enough to interrogate the idea that Futa was working beneath someone.

Futa is quick to assert that Kotoko is just being used by Es in his second voice drama. It's been stated that his father is a civil servant, his sister a beautician. These are very service-oriented occupations. Sidenote it would be really fun some fun if Futa's sister was Mahiru's beautician. Then there's Futa being dressed as a knight along with being the first to charge or storm in (ha ha get it Storm Pazuzu like storm a castle or siege it) at the end of Bring It On while Mu was the very last person to get her hands dirty in the situation she was in.

It's common for those of less importance to be on the front lines as those deemed as not expendable hold back. Plus, knights tend to work beneath monarchy or for the people of the kingdom. They aren't free agents and there's usually someone above them giving down orders.

Taking it a step further Pazuzu in Mesopotamian religion is the king of Wind Demons believed to have helped humans ward off other demons.

"Written sources which appear starting around 670 BCE describe Pazuzu climbing a great mountain and undergoing mythological combat against wind demons, a battle from which he emerged victorious and proved himself a threat to other dangerous demons. He is portrayed as a potential ally to humans who call on him for protection or display his icon, believing incantations and appeasement could instrumentalize his malevolent power against other demons."

Even the demon in his moniker is used to serve and aid people. Jewelry having their likeness on it to ward off other demons.

Furthermore, the earliest archaeological evidence of Pazuzu was found in the grave of royalty. Even the lyrics of Backdraft pay homage to Pazuzu.

"Burn, burn! Open this door and check if you want to I’ll deign to hear your last words if you want, a vanishing FIRE."

"Pazuzu's iconography has puzzled archaeologists because of it's sudden and fully realized appearance in the archaeological record, displaying no apparent evolutionary stages. The lack of any earlier identifiable representation renders it impossible to pinpoint the exact geographical origins of the imagery, though it most likely developed in either Egypt or Mesopotamia."

"Bless me, please, with one more chance."

"He is portrayed as a potential ally to humans who call on him for protection or display his icon, believing incantations and appeasement could instrumentalize his malevolent power against other demons."

"Just like O2, burn yourselves into oblivion."/ "It’s so hot, so hard to breath, there’s no solace for my heart."

This one is sort of self-explanatory for someone associated with fire, the demon is specifically associated with wind. O2 is literally just two oxygen molecules. This also goes into the point of the next line.

"Flames closing in, are both sides losers? Flames closing in, can’t douse this FIRE."

"Pazuzu's head is sometimes depicted alone, it is often paired with the faces of other Mesopotamian Demons or Gods. Some Pazuzu amulets have images inscribed on their backs of deities who were considered permanent allies to humans, such as Ugallu and Lulal. Archaeologists conjecture that these pairings were meant to ensure Pazuzu's power remained directed away from human targets and protect the wearer from danger."

One could even make the argument that some of the physical traits Futa has were inspired by Pazuzu as well. Though that sort of argument may only work for his teeth. What I'm getting at is at this point there's a reason they'd have Futa present as a knight and then Muu refer to herself as a Queen during her second trial. Even going ass far to call her second voice drama Queen Bee to really run the point home.

Also given all of this information Futa may be a bit more spiritual than I previously believed. Meaning Amane indoctrination chances have risen again. Hope those two have fun.

[livlepretre]

I've just learned about the term unreliable narrator and I was wondering, why in FE is Elena considered as the unreliable narrator? Is it simply because its from her point of view or also because of her reoccurring traumas and so her views and opinions of the world become more distorted as a result of those traumas?

Well, both!

It’s from her POV— it’s a very close 3rd person narration, where absolutely everything we are told is filtered through Elena’s thoughts and perceptions. So, everything is an observation she makes— the text only sees what she actually notices, and pays attention to what she pays attention to— and similarly, when she is talking to other characters, or listening in, what they are saying is all extremely filtered/skewed by how she interprets it. And she gets it wrong a lot.

Why is that? As you said, she has many experiences, prejudices, and traumas which cause her to make assumptions and leap to conclusions. She has no idea she is doing those things, she just is. It’s part of being human. (Not to mention there’s a lot of internal confusion from all of the times she was compelled and her memory was messed with.)

I think that any POV narration is inherently unreliable— Elena, as she does herself note, is particularly good at self-deception and also she has been through A LOT so hers is especially unreliable— but we all misinterpret and get things wrong and conjecture and assume all the time. There are some narratives that don’t have such a strong POV and will drop “facts” but this is not one of them.

I would say, take absolutely everything Elena says with a grain of salt. She is flat out wrong about many conversations, so the dialogue itself is often more telling than the text around it detailing how Elena reacts/interprets internally. And there are even many fun hidden clues to things that Elena notices in passing but not in any significant way, because she herself does not see them as important/realize them as such. She tends to get fixated on certain things (*cough*Klaus*cough*) instead.

[eradicatetehnormal]

Okay So I Watched Some of the 6 Hour "Riku Is Gay" Video

Disclaimer: I only watched the KH1-2 sections, the KH3 section, and Sora's Comphet section. Also, I already agree with the preset that Riku is a queer character. Sorry guys, but he is.

Personally, I think it's a good video. It's not overly malicious or angry and the evidence it presents is actually really good, though I'm in the queer spaces of the KH fandom so I've seen most of it.

I really only have 3 major issues:

The video is way too fucking long. Something like this would have benefited from being a multipart series. Also, if all you wanted was condensed proof that Riku is "gay" that's really only a 30-40 minute video. This leads me to my next point.

The title is very misleading. This isn't just a video about Riku's queerness. Hell, there's an entire portion of the video called "Sora's comphet." Most of the KH2 section is dedicated to how passionate Sora is about finding Riku. This video should not be called "Riku is gay (and why it matters)", it should be called something like "SoRiku is canon actually (It's more than a ship)" or "The queerness of KH and why it's essential."

This video has a habit of minimizing Kairi's importance to Sora. Like, they try to give the disclaimer that they don't think Kairi means nothing to Sora, but it's hard to buy it. In the KH2 section, for example, they bring up that Sora doesn't ask about Kairi until he realizes she's been captured by the organization. That's the thing though, for most of the game Sora knows where Kairi is. He saw her drift away with the islands in one and he finds out when she's been captured in 2. Don't forget he also dropped to his knees for Kairi when Saix comes to tell him what happened. Does that disprove any potential queerness Sora might have? No, especially with the scenes of the reunion. "Kairi, you've changed, but we'll always be friends :)" "RIKU OH MY GOD *cries and gets on the floor* I LOOKED EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!" Really it's more of a personal belief that shines through that the romantic love interest has to single-handedly be the most important person to you that sets me off. Though, I don't solely blame Mr. "Whatever his name is" for that. It's more of a "we live in a society" thing.

Aside from that, most of my criticisms are nitpicks. The structure is hella off with the video. He starts off by stating his beliefs and then giving the evidence. Like, dude, you have to lead with the evidence and then tell people what it means. Anyone who's skipping through the video and doesn't already agree that Riku is queer is going to get frustrated watching it and feel compelled to not take it seriously. Especially since the video is 6 fucking hours.

Arguably the KH3 and Coded sections aren't needed. The KH3 section is just theory and conjecture that he could've saved for the end of the video and the Sora and Riku of Coded are different characters than regular Sora and Riku. Can they give us insight into their relationship and their feelings? Yes, but ultimately, their circumstances are different. Feelings can manifest one way in one context and a whole other way in a different one. Regular Sora and Riku have enough evidence all on their own to carry a video.

The novel should have honestly been its own section. People are not compelled to take that seriously. It's cool that Nomura himself was impressed with the writer's understanding of the characters and had her write the novels so far, but that doesn't mean she never takes any creative liberties. It's also worth pointing out that Nomura IS NOT the only writer for the series. He's not even the main writer for the games.

Bro, you're gonna bring up the scene where Namine comes to Riku about getting him to use the darkness but not bring up the aggressively gay scene before that where Zexion makes himself look like Sora in order to defeat him because Zexion knows that Sora is his potential weakness?

But yeah, the vid has a few glaring issues, but it is great. I'm happy something like this exists where we can get all the major SoRiku talking points in one place. No hate to this man, especially for something like this.

[theguardianace]

sits down in front of you. dump all your wxs event leaks on me im also procrastinating on hw i wat to hear all of it

ok. so

this will definitely change once we get the event summary tomorrow, but my gut reaction based on the nene's card where tsukasa gets in a fight with sakurako, thus leading to him not being able to participate in the show in some capacity, explaining why he seems to be watching a play on the phoenix stage in more formal attire with such a pained look. if this is the case, it would provide both wonderlands x showtime with the feeling of actually performing without tsukasa and a full troupe, and for tsukasa, what it feels like to leave them. (this would hurt a lot). good ending for the event then would be they realize seperation would genuinely hurt them all so much so for the time remaining, cherish it all. cherish the stage you have and let it take you as far as possible.

a lot of the phrasing for this event seems to revolve around phoenixes, so i'm guessing the play will most likely have that as the theme. phoenixes represent rebirth. in a way, isn't that what tsukasa has been doing all this time? a phoenix will rise from it's ashes. in tsukasa's case, his ashes may well be his forgetfulness. in the main story, it was his forgotten desire to make people smile, to bring joy to his sister. once he truly remembered his feelings, it did almost seem as if he 'rebirthed' himself, in a way. he was still the same ol tsukasa, but he was more aware of the feelings of those around him, arrogant but less cocky, able to sacrifice some of his ambition for the greater good. over the course of wxs seperation arc, it feels like he's forgetting these things again. he's starting to become soley focused on stardom again, albeit differently- he's looking for ways to grow as an actor, but he's overlooking the stage he currently stands on and the people he's standing with. something about working with the phoenix stage might make him realize this and potentially set another "reset" in the more metaphorical sense? the most important thing to tsukasa is family. will he finally realize wxs is family, too? this is pretty loose conjecture though.

i really love the symbolism of the rocking horse. tsukasa is the pegasus guy. loves comparing himself to one. pegasus are mythical and beautiful and ultimately free. they can soar as high as they want, go wherever their heart takes them. tsukasa wants to reach the stars! he wants to go to wherever he can get even better, even higher. but the rocking horse is grounded. it can't go very far, if at all. right now, tsukasa is stuck where he is, rocking between a decision- a dream and a home.

The strings he's tied to in the trained card sort of play into that feeling of "stuck". sure, the standard meaning of marionette strings are manipulation and control. imprisioned marrionette used that very well to show how mafuyu, and by extent nightcord, isn't in control of their own being. it's different here, though. we can't see what tsukasa's strings are attached to. they almost seem to be holding him down to the ground below- to the wonder stage.

the light in the eyes is a pretty common thing people point out, but i really love the way it's done in this set. emu's the only one with any light, pretty much. nene's acknowledged the fact wxs won't last forever. it's something she's aware of, but to her, it's still in the far future. rui? the thought of leaving this troupe physically pains him. he knows they'll leave. he almost left! but this is the only home he's ever known. he can't lose it that easily, no matter how much he tries. and tsukasa? well, this is his event, isn't it? he wants to go past the wonder stage, but can he truly let this troupe go? emu, though. she knows they'll all leave. she knows that by pushing her friends towards their dreams, she'll eventually push them away from her. she knows that. but she knows it's ok.

the placement of the tear marks seem to be significant, too. both rui and emu have theirs on the same side. the two who dream, but who can't leave because of them. nene and tsukasa have them on the other side. the two that dream, but who must leave because of them. it's also interesting that rui, nene, and emu have three tear drops leading to a star, but the star has his star creating the tear.

less of an analysis with meaning, but the costumes seem to reflect their standard stage outfits and the props standard wxs imagery. tsukasa's coat, emu's dress, nene's ribbon, rui's coat and bowtie. the triangle ribbon banner, the chick plushies, the confetti, the pins

i don't know if you've seen the music video for the song yet, but there's a scene in it where tsukasa sits on the cresent moon holding a bunch of balloons. the balloons have various symbols and references to past wonderlands x showtime events. it's hard to tell with the low quality of the game size, but ones i could see so far were rui's hat from wonder halloween, the plane from pop! in my heart, and presents from the christmas show. tsukasa is looking at those balloons fondly and has the strings wrapped around his finger. he does truly value wxs. he loves the memories he's made, the places they've gone, the growth they've found. the strings are long, though. you can't see them when tsukasa is just sitting there on the moon (which, when you think about it, isnt' that pretty close to the stars?). they're there, but they seem distant, somehow. balloons are fragile things, too. one wrong move, and they'll all float away....

anyways that's what i have right now!! i cannot wait for this event it will hurt so so so so so much but i have the sinking feeling it will end up ok. also mr showtime is such a good song. it's so cute. the animation is wonderful, somehow combining the darker vibes of this set with a standard wonderlands x showtime flare. it's catchy, and despite the event seeming like the pinnacle of wxs seperation arc, it's the most unified they've been in a com. also tsukasa sounds so good. i'm usually pretty neutral on his vocals, but he really really shines in this one.

[albireocountdown]

Trial 1.2 | Rory | Do I have to Mom? Re: flick/tali/Jules

Rory will look surprised at Flick's request and then kind of embarrassed. Rory would be more upset if she wasn't so bashful. She stands up to speak.

"Uhh do I have to? I mean would you believe me if I just said I am really strong?"

Hearing Tali makes Rory realize something and go for her pocket. A look of relief is on her face as she pulls out her handy dandy notebook. She begins flipping through the pages.

"Ah, the arcade. I am glad you mentioned that Tali," Rory said calmly, getting into a rhythm "Something about it did strike me as odd. The arcade machines specifically. They had blood on them like someone's finger's were being dragged, not claws. When I took a closer look at the machines, there was no damage once the blood was wiped away, but there was the strange powdery substance. I'm not exactly sure what this tells us about Lucky's state at the time, were they human or Moth or somewhere in between?"

She lets that sit for a second before continuing. She sits down, remembers something and stands back up. It looks really weird.

"I am leaning towards human because if in their..." Rory pauses thinking of what would work "inbetween form, they still had claws. But I assume they aren't powdery in their human form. Sorry if this confusing, I just getting the timeline of their transformation is important. I agree that the bracelet's condition is probably a big factor here."

Rory shakes her head lightly, like shes trying to stir the thoughts together to get something. Listening to Jules causes her to take a bit more of a pause.

"If they were stabbed in room and then tried escaping down the arcade and dragged back might be plausible, especially if their body was much lighter when transformed. That also might explain why the blood trails so far down their back and onto their pants, they spent a lot of time on their feet before getting laid out. That just leaves the question of the pool of blood in the arcade. The only reason I can think of it being there is because that's where the fatal strike happened, and when the glass was removed, so was good amount of blood. I am not bio expert, so I could be wrong at that."

She flips through her notes again and moves her fingers across the page and nodding, then staring at her crude drawing of the arcade.

"Last question, and I am sorry I feel like I am asking more than answering, but would anyone know if injuries in one form would manifest the same way in another. I am not too familiar with People outside of New England mythology. I figured maybe a wing would be easier to dislocate than an arm?" Unsure of her conjecture, she ends it with that open ended cadence.

Rory will take a seat.

Mythology. Interesting word choice but Rory wasn't sure if that was the nicest word but this was all so new to her for the most part. When Rory thinks folk legends she think sea serpents and Pukwudgies.