#also items that i dont even recognize

[sorypsoid]

I bring a certain "talk a lot of shit only to lose so badly it's kind of hard to understand how I managed it" element to game night

[sodrippy]

they need to stop making cool anime streetwear and start making cool xmen streetwear

[naiadic]

I have so many emotions about the finale but I also have thoughts

~~~~~~~SPOILERS~~~~~~~

First off, AAAA HES SO BABYGIRL, but more importantly he implies he was with Eve, too

Now admittedly, what he "had to offer" could have just been free will and the fruit of knowledge, but given the sexual vibe here I really want to believe this man got busy with Eve as well

But that also raises the question..

...we know Lilith is Charlie's mother, but was Lilith really the one that raised her? In almost every mention of Lilith we see her horns, but not in those family photos (or her finale scene, come to think of it...)

Plus I mean we have this whole hair thing going on, Lilith is usually shown to have swooped back hair, like a lil pompadour deal, while Eve has straight unstyled hair. Idk about you but it sure looks like Lilith loved and cared about charlie, but somewhere in there Eve came in and started being Bad Mom

i think there's a lot to be uncovered there. Somehow, somewhere the girls must be pulling a twin-switcharoo on us, I Just KNOW IT

Then we have Adam

I feel like its almost guaranteed that fucker is gonna pop up in hell, hiding for awhile or otherwise, just like Sir Pentious popped up in heaven after dying. They're both human souls! He's committed pretty much every sin during his time in heaven (pride, lust, and wrath being the most prevalent) and if sinners can rise by doing well, angels can fall by doing bad

Then..well...Alastor.

Honestly homeboy is still quite a mystery. It's clear to me he's made a soul contract that binds his powers, somehow making him weaker than he could be. Whether this was with Lilith or someone else is up for debate, but most fans think it was Lil herself.

One piece of possible evidence for this is in E1 when Zestial mentions rumors of Alastor "falling to holy arms". He says this BEFORE any mention of Charlie, too.

Personally, I think Alastor might not even be a human soul, or that he's somehow made a deal with himself for better control of his soul, and maybe he fucked it up somehow or had another deal impact it, just because of what he said during the finale about sinner's recognizing their full potential. I look forward to seeing his story play out!

(Also I wonder if he has some sort of power bank deal cuz that cut healed suspiciously quick once he got to all that green light...maybe he's got an item that lets him access bits of his greater power? And repair that staff of his?)

So yeah that concludes my rant, Im so fucking excited for S2

EDIT: Someone pointed out that Sir Pentious wasnt killed by an angelic weapon, but by a power blast if sorts (plus we dont SEE him physically die). That makes me wonder if he might've simply ascended at the last moment rather than specifically dying and then respawning...if that's the case maybe Adam won't return..

[ganondoodle]

totk rewritten (for me, specifically)

since i dont have time to get to drawing it right away AND im worried people might take this the wrong way, i thought i could write out some bullet points about my rewrite of totk (meant as a fix FOR ME not saying its inherently better) to give you a better idea on what im going for:

the core structure largely remains the same, the biggest change is no time travel, thus making zelda your travel companion, and zonau tech being lagerly gone/broken with shiekah tech instead

it is not shown but said in dialog that shiekah tech, such as the ancient furnaces, shrines and towers are either turning off or have flickering power supply and purah having calculated that all their connections point towards beneath hyrule castle

game starts pretty much the same as real totk, most zonau ruins are so withered away that they are barely recognizable and the further you get down theres more and more shiekah tech pipes and occasional a miasma vein, some pipes are broken and spill miasma, others flicker

instead of the room with the wall carvings theres one with old ancient shiekah research remains, old broken tech and prototypes you dont what their purpose was, all documents are too withered to read but zelda finds one that was sealed in a container and takes it with her (she got a backpack now)

theres a structure similar to the bed thingy of the shrine of life from botw but its working in reverse; within it is sealed ganondorf (i gotta work out the details around it still)

(details still missing) it breaks and zelda takes the enigma stone but doesnt touch it directly and puts it within a sealed container (you know kinda like you should do with soemthing you have no idea of what it is and was alsO LOCATED ON A CORPSE)

ganondorf isnt the elegantly talking villain type in this version but more of a mess, talking in different languages both modern and ancient but you cant make out any clear sentences, struggeling with suddendly being awake and half alive after spending thousands of years in an agonizing limbo, having witnessed every second of the passage of time yet also it feeling like everything just happened all at the same time

the ground breaks as he recognizes zelda (bc of her fighting calamity ganon in botw) but also not really, still sees her as a threat (also bc of the enigma stone in the container she still has in her hand) attacks her, link deflects with the master sword, it breaks and damages his arm, zelda drops her torch and pulls link away towards where they came in from and both run as the caves fill up with miasma like a flood with arms starting to reach after them while they both run back through the tunnels (creepy chase sequence anyone?)

cataclysm happens (ground breaks, miasma bursts out of the ground, especially where shrines and towers where since they were still connected to the pipelines) ground shifts massively in some places giving alot of the map a whole new structure; all shiekah tech that was not independent stops working due to power loss

links arm is amputated since otherwise the miasma would spread to his whole body; purah, robbie and zelda work out a prosthetic arm prototype to give to link (protoype at first will be upgraded at halfway point of the game) that can switch between multiple modes, like a hand to hold normal items or a weapon that isnt crafted, and a fusing ability (though maybe limited in the prototype) that lets you make weapons similar to the weapon fusing in canon totk (potential upgrades including an extendable guardian arm that doesnt break, grapple hook anyone??, also the ability to build stuff out of shiekah tech parts, not glue needed you actually screw it together, maybe zelda even helps)

now you are given free roam of hyrule, the goal is to explore and find what has changed and check on people, see what the underground has, new monsters have spawned etc.

zelda is your companion the whole time, she can use the shiekah stone/purah pad to analyze enemies for you, she also carries at least a dagger for her own self defense but doesnt contribute much to the fight (subject to change maybe), you can talk to her anytime and she usually has something to comment on depending on where you are or what you just did, can give you tips and advice IF ASKED FOR IT, when you discover ancient ruins, whether zonau or shiekah, she can either decipher it for you or take photos for later to find out more about everything that has happend and what it means, she also takes part in conversations when you talk to someone, her outfit changes with yours (meaning when you wear the tingle set she wears it too, opens up alot of funny interactions njfkdk)

purah has built new towers but they function different (still working on the details) mainly that they function independent from the energy source in hyrule castle

there are floating islands but they are bigger and in more connected clusters, when reaching them its ancient withered ruins that the ancient shiekah built support around (like the platform used by monk miz kyoshia) to keep them afloat; there are building like observatories and research labs, but all very overgrown due to being up there for so long, theres a titan prototype on one of the islands, its shaped like a whale and zelda deciphers it was called vah narisha (reference to the whale deity in skyward sword) (i havent decided yet if its fully broken and just a big piece of enviroment to explore or half functioning floating around, or maybe first broken but later half repaired so it can fly around at least giving you an easier way to reach other island, you cant steer it tho) some of them are falling bc of energy loss but the bigger ones have independent energy sources (work in progress)

the underground has more diverse zones depending on which part of the map it is located on, there are old mines (for luminous stone) from the zonau but all is extremely withered, in each one its been mostly built over by the shiekah but there are construct remains that were clearly dissected and studied, half built shrines and towers, you can find collectibles and lore there (working on more details, but an idea was to include remains of ancient shiekah tha fled there when they were persecuted by that old king of hyrule, adding to the eery vibe)

some titans (maybe two, and the other are still on the sruface, like vah medoh) feel down during the cataclysm, broken apart or malfunctioning/ possibly being a boss as in they were used by a big cluster of miasma hands like a hermit crab uses its shell, the inside filled with eyes and different sized hands dragging itself towards you like a drowing man grabs after anything to save him)

dongos are your go to transportation here and a little different, when you call one they dig a path to you (not permanent, just so they can always spawn near you) they glow in the dark and can climb on walls (bc why not), and can point you towards the next objective/point of interest, likely where theres a high concentration of luminous stone since that is what they eat and its usually where old mining/construction sites are (still working on a replacement for light roots that are less invasive)

the rat from the trailer is a miniboss/boss you need to defeat in order to get the broken mastersword back into your possession

(im still working on how the sages work, but the idea is to incorporate their abilites for more efficient and reliable use into links shiekah prosthetic, so you can still use their abilities but only when you actually want)

(again still working on details) halfway point of the game is you trying to find out where ganondorf went, not intending to fight necessarily but just to find out more but it devolves into you fighting some sort of miasma monster (either him or some sort of manifestation he made) and you get a bunch of short memory flashes from him, all vague and a wild mess from both the time he was sealed and from the time afterwards, maybe even a perspective shift from when link was fighting dark beast ganon, but from ganons view, from zelda when she was keeping that manifestation in check, random views from the malice eyes from botw, from the blights, maybe even from the fight with the old and new champions, from the point when shiekah built their tech around him while he had to watch not able to do anything etc.)

links arm gets upgraded from prototype to a full prosthetic, opening up more fusing abilites and other things (like the grapple hook, again working on it, im open for ideas lol)

i will reblog this and add more over time if you want, but do let me know if you like it thus far, bc im still unsure if its worth the effort of working more on this QnQ

(also if you dont like just keep scrolling, i dont need to know that you hate it, it literally changes nothing but make me annoyed xD)

[tetsunabouquet]

Loved the interpretation and writing of my last request! If you dont mind, here's a new one. Tw! Anorexia

Gom with a reader suffering from severe restricting eating to the point where they passed out in public or private, your choice. Again, sorry if this is triggering.

A/N: Thank you for the compliment! Trigger warnings for the readers up in the request

Akashi

-Don't expect this guy to be surprised. He has been suspecting it for a while. -When you faint in front of him, his heart sinks in that ultimate, 'Oh no,' moment. -Actually has a minor panic attack. -Flashbacks to his mom. -He'll do everything he can to wake you up. -Once you're awake, he'll have food arranged for you and he's guilt tripping you to eat it. -"Don't make me lose another person that I love."

Aomine

-Has actually told you before about how you should gain a little more weight as he notices the thinness but doesn't has the intellectual brain capacity to suspect something like an ED. -When you faint, it still doesn't registers in his mind but he does immediately recognize that you needed something to eat. -Momoi is the one to tell him she suspects your disordered eating, and Aomine's heart honestly breaks at the news. -He is demanding you to tell him which stupid idiot convinced you that you were fat, so that he can beat them up right now. -You are honestly touched to see him be so angry and upset on your behalf, he is so pure with his praise and love for you. -Demands that you eat with him at the Maji burger at least once a week and that you try to finish the meal he buys for you.

Murasakibara

-Like Aomine, he doesn't has any suspicions regarding the behavior itself but he does notices you don't eat enough. -Murasakibara just cradles you confused in his arms as Himuro tells him what to do next as well as mention his suspicions about your restrictve eating. -Murasakibara honestly stares at you like you're an alien creature as he has to process the idea that people can hate food that much, thank god you're unconscious and you can't see his face. -He makes up his mind to be the person to cure you of that hate. -Dumps pretty much all candy and snacks he has on him on you the moment you wake up all the whilst giving you a look as sweet and pure as the candy itself. -He increases little habbits like feeding you, because clearly you need it.

Midorima

-Has been taking calculated notes of how much you eat, but is afraid of coming off too strong so he refrains from daring to ask the question. -When you faint he has the most perfect response ever, and manages to stay calm even though he is breaking down on the inside with worry. -Confronts you sternly but lovingly once you wake up, he only wants the best for you. -Reads multiple books on how to be a supportive partner. -Honestly he's adorable with how hard he tries to be there for you. -After the event, he prepares you a bento in the theme of your lucky item of the day, always. Even on the days you can't bring yourself to eat it, he doesn't minds and just hoped carrying the lucky item themed lunch brought you courage in different ways.

Kise

-Knows. Immediately. -As a model, he has far too much model contacts not to know about that dark side of the industry so he knows all the signs. -Is the only one to have confronted you about it before it got to the fainting stage. -Honestly he bawls like a baby when you faint in front of him, because this was exactly like he feared. -He manages to get the number of a great treatment program from another model that is combatting her own ED after you woke up again and got him to calm down. -Tries to feed you all the time whilst acting as cutesy as possible, full idol mode. Because he hopes it will do the trick. -He tries to uplift you by talking about his own insecurities, as being under the limelight does also open him up to scrutiny way more then the average person.

[sockatoothewafflebird]

okay so i found this s1 and s2 intro comparison video and i'm going feral about it. i have a lot to say. i think the intro poses some very important theories and ideas and i'd like to post my take about it. this is about arcane btw

i made a comment about this on the video itself but there's a lot more i wanted to say. in short, the comment said:

season one's intro focuses on the surface-level ideas of the characters. each one is either decked out in their gear or holding their weapons, or whatever things make them who they are. i think it's super cool for that, but season two's focuses solely on lighting and the characters themselves.

as another post mentioned, all of the characters are in very generic clothing, with nothing but them to observe. no gear, no weapons, no items, other than viktor holding his mask (the same way he held the book last season mind you) and the medardas with the rose. they're going to be stripped bare in this season.

the lighting is made so it highlights their faces, their posture, their body language. we're not looking at characters in a show anymore. we're looking at people.

that's the big main idea of all of this, but there's a lot more to talk about, so i'll put the rest under the cut so nonone has to scroll for hours to get past this post if they don't want to read everything. and there are a heap of season two spoilers under the cut as well, just beware.

anyway, we start out the intro with vi. let's take a really close look at this because holy shit.

we start with her sitting there, in nothing but a tank top (and i think not even a bra lmao) and she brings her hand to her face and smudges her tattoo. the tattoo with her name on it. the tattoo that helped maddie nolan recognize her.

and then the pink strip of light HIGHLIGHTS IT. that's her name, that's who she is, and she smudged it. it's probably a tattoo so the smudge in the intro is lore symbolic than anything, unless you can just easily remove tattoos in the league of legends universe. but anyway, yeah, she's having an identity crisis. she doesn't know who she is anymore.

next, we have jinx. parallel to last season's intro vi and jinx are back to back. but in this season they're sitting down. while vi is sitting, contemplative, her sister stands up and shoots.

i think comparing this with s1 is very important. in s1 vi and powder are a carving, cut from the same stone. and there they are in season two, now their own people, now walking away from one another. it's a very clever way to present their dynamic in my opinion.

it's important to point out that vi sits down and the light illuminates her smudged tattoo, while when jinx stands and shoots the light highlights her eye. i'm not sure what to make of it but it's interesting.

let's move on to ekko!

so, when it switches to him, we can see him standing alone in an empty room, the light making it so he has two shadows. they move bit by bit, like the hands of a clock.

i think that's a really cool detail because, for those who don't know much about league of legends, ekko's ability in the game is time-related. what it means for his arc in s2 i'm not quite certain on, but i have a really big theory i'll talk about in another post soon.

on to the next bit, viktor! unfortunately there's a 10-image limit on mobile and i dont have a computer right now so i'll continue this in another post. also i don't want this to be pages and pages long... so stay tuned cause ive got a lot of shit to say lmao.

made a new blog tag, just search arcane intro analysis in my blog and you'll find all posts relating to arcane's intro. more to come!!!

[c-vs-paganism]

Samhain just passed and it has once again amazed me how different cultures can be and how people within one culture dont necessarily interact with norms and traditions in the same way.

Samhain is traditionally celtic, although its been spread around the larger pagan communities for a good while, so obviously we have to take into consideration how non-pantheon specific pagans and non-celtic pagans have added to the common modern practices and beliefs. We also have to take into consideration of how the internet and the mysticization (ik ik i cant think of a better term) of paganism have played on how people view popular holidays like samhain, yule, and ostara. A lot of what we consider the typical "witchy" traditions have very little to no actual historical record or tradition, and were instead made introduced into the social culture of paganism, which we can see on platforms like tiktok. That's not to say that those new practices are less significant than historical ones, bc imo we are our own religion: we define whats important to us and base our practices off if those feelings and beliefs.

That being said, however, I think it's also important to recognize when we're making traditional practices out to be stuff their not, taking from closed cultures (*cough cough* white americans using indigenous practices *cough cough*) and when theres influence of colonization and cultural appropriation. Im indigenous and its a HUGE point that rubs me the wrong way when i see people using items or pieces of tradition that they (knowingly or unknowingly) have taken from a closed practice. Stop and do your research. ABOUT. EVERYTHING. Sorry if it's too much work or it slows you down but its so important.

Even for open practices: do your research. If you are using traditions and practices from somewhere and you dont know where it comes from there is still the potential for appropriation.

I personally urge all pagans to research every little thing. Why do certain herbs have these properties? Where does this practice come from? Just because something is available to you or you can kind of make stuff up along the way doesn't mean you should.

All this in mind, ive noticed Samhain has been merged with the modern idea of Halloween (dont give me a history lesson guys, ik the origins of halloween: im talking about commercialization) and i personally find it enjoyable. I grew up trick-or-treating, the decor is fun, etc. I know yall are bored atp but all of this was leading up to this question:

How did yall, as pagans, celebrate the past few days (if you celebrated at all)?

Im mainly just curious to see how social cultural norms in paganism span through the different sections and beliefs of the people i can reach on the internet.

[terraliensvent]

Can we mention and call attention to how their website looks now? They don't seem to check the final work at all. Some items like Gummy Eye, Shell Pot, and Inchsect are larger than the rest of the items, which makes them stick out of the line, which is just ugly.

Also now the images for forest and grassland locations have just a huge weight, which makes the foraging page take an unreasonable amount of time to load. Guys, I just want to make a couple clicks and go about my business again, why should I have to wait for the site to load because your images weigh so much?

And continuing with the artist thing. Items are drawn in different styles and it seems like the current owners don't think about how things end up looking at all. And I just don't understand why? I thought the new owners were more interested in the quality of the species, but it looks like I was wrong.

This all goes to show that the moderation doesn't seem to check at all how certain pages are displayed and working.

the item sizes thing i remember being way more egregious than this (or maybe it has to do with the fact im on mobile), but the funny thing about lorekeeper is that the size of items and awards and stuff is determined by the size of the image. im pretty sure you have to edit the css if you want the site to automatically resize the images.

the heavy images issue is also something ive noticed, they NEED to compress the images for the foraging locations because if it loads like shit now, imagine what itll be like when they all have insanely large image files to boot up when people just wanna do 3 clicks. its incredibly easy to compress images, you can do it right from your browser and usually theres no way to even tell the difference between a compressed image and a non-compressed (at least when its been resized like the foraging locations are). the same issue comes up with the items, inventories take forever to load now and i think the problem is because EVERY NEW ITEM IS ON A 1000x1000 CANVAS. for reference, lorekeeper recommends 100x100 for items. you do NOT need a canvas that big, and it shows they dont really know how to make items.

listen, i dont mean to hate on terra artists or whatever, just gonna point out examples

the problem with using such a big canvas for items is that you create a lot of tiny details that arent needed for an item icon. think of items in video games, you want to make something visually appealing and recognizable with as little detail as possible. the pincher potion, gummy eye, and silk wyrm are good examples of this, limited palettes, strong linework, and enough contrast/strong silhouette to be recognized from far away. i think the fur pop, shell pot, and moonfin are examples of how not to do items. the fur pop is too overly rendered, and the linework is very thin and small within the actual lollipop. the moonfin and shell pot both have small details (ie. the tassel on the moonfin’s arrow + the bits of fur on the shell pot) and the rendering issue from before. reminder that these are eventually going to be used as emojis on the discord, theyll be incredibly hard to read at such a small size plus incredibly unrecognizable to users familiar with the old items. in addition, the shell pot lacks direction in design, it reads more as an item that would grant a tail trait or a mist trait, not shell/exoskeleton. fallen tail, monstera bat, and horseshoe beetle also have these issues, but theyre similar enough to the old items that people will probably still recognize them.

like, look at these iconic items. they are so popular because theyre simple and recognizable from a distance, you can make them as big or as small as you want, you can see it from 10 feet away and still know what it is. THATS good item design.

i think this goes back to “mods hiring their friends,” you just pick people on a personal bias and dont consider the level of skill in making specific items because item design is not the same as making fully finished rendered art. it takes a different eye and you need to think of different principles than you would when making a full piece.

and heres the thing, that doesnt even necessarily mean the art is bad. the fur pop for example, has a very distinct and eye catching style; however, the issue is that theres no uniformity WHATSOEVER. these dont look like theyre all part of the same world, if all the items were done in the same gritty rendered style of the fur pop i would say its a great set, its the fact that you have some items that are incredibly simple, some that are “gritty,” and some that are just silly.

if nothing else, at the very least PLEASE make your canvas smaller and compress your images, youre making the site painful to use (and thats especially an issue when your site has so little functionality anyways)

[tineymang]

this isnt the kind of post i usually tend to make (though ive been trying to be less self conscious about that kind of thing lately) but i wanted to post about a new eos playthrough ive been doing! ive always thought it was very fun attention to detail that you get unique dialogue whenever you lose in dungeons and bosses, but ive never really seen all of it before because i either just dont lose or i reset after i lose because i dont want to lose my items dfgjjd

But this is where my latest eos playthru comes in! may i present my two girlfailures nymph the lumineon and sumi the absol of team omens :] i am going to be intentionally losing in every dungeon and to every boss simply to see what happens! i have no idea if anyone else besides me is interested in this, but i figure i may as well share if anybody was! (going to put this under a read more because i get the feeling it is going to be long)

(also one thing to note i only used skytemple randomizer to change the starter pokemon to lumineon and absol, the rest of the game is entirely vanilla! the added portraits also come from the pmd sprite repository :])

i also figured id add additional dialogue options onto this too! most the time you get railroaded into picking the right option, but theres some extra dialogue regardless! this one is if you say no when the partner asks you to help (which made me feel pretty bad)

and then theres asking >Wh-what should i do?

>But you can't just...

>But I have no memory...

>But I'm sure I was a human...

(and then picking either option leads into the normal dialogue continuing)

and then theres losing in beach cave! i tried losing separately to the zubat and koffing boss battle, but the same dialogue repeated then.

i like the attention to continuity that partner recognizes beach cave as a mystery dungeon, considering theyre also the one that brings it up later to the hero :] also sumi why are You saying ow i was the one that was slowly beaten to death by a shellos (it took like 5 minutes)

next, returning boss fight dialogue!

apparently zubat and koffing get lost in beach cave, which is very funny to me considering it is literally the shortest dungeon in the game dfgjdjg makes you wonder why they even went in there to begin with....

and with that i have hit the post image limit... i get the feeling i will need to break this into a lot of posts

[gold-rhine]

This discussion of character gameplay paths not matching character lore just reminds me of the fact that it's so nice in genshin to be able to look at a characters element and nation (with their archons ideal) and extrapolate some aspects of characterization. But in hsr, you have none of that. Should I understand all belebog characters with the ideal of preservation. Does the element matter at all? And then the hsr story also doesn't have a particular plan for where it's going to go like genshin does with it's seven nations of teyvat. And I'm like, okay you have so much less restriction, hsr, what are you going to do with it. Are these characters from different regions ever going to interact? It's so much harder to justify because they don't all exist in the same continent / world. But like in genshin, having that story plan is so nice. There's a reason why Venti, an archon who is pretty handoffs with Monstadt, is placed next to Zhongli, who is the opposite. And the nuances that adds to the story. Why Raiden, who locked herself away from her people, is placed next to Nahida, who was locked away by her people. And I'm not even saying genshin's story structure is better than hsr but that coherence of narrative, even across main story arcs, is really nice and from what I'm seeing hsr doesn't have that and doesn't have something else that replaces that.

hmmm. while i agree with overall sentiment here, i think some nuances matter a lot

like first of all, no, you can't extrapolate on genshin characters based on their archons. like, what are u extrapolating on itto based on raiden? and its a good thing, bc like, ppl in same nation share culture, but not any prebaked traits. i actually think genshin did very clever thing with elements, but you absolutely can extrapolate based on them, and i wrote a lot on that, but its not explicitly recognized in-universe.

in hsr its "classes" are explicitly religious philosophy. they are referenced in universe a lot. which is why its so jarring when the catholic pope who shows up and starts doing idk, inuit shaman rituals.

also i dont think its fair to say hsr has no longterm overarching plan. it probably does, they are dropping hints on that. my personal main problem with it is that i have no fucking clue whats going on in the separate story arcs bc they bury lore in like random item descriptions, so i dont really care about overarching story structure.

[crguang]

yippe i love how you fw both acheswan and feikong! fav ships ever in hsr!! also yukong's story is so sad, kinda have a bit of fixation on her so each time i rewatch her character story, i get heartbroken.

voicr acting was soo good esp at the fight scene between her and her daughter. hearing how cheerful she was and then suddenlyrealizing how shes so tired now ☹️☹️ and the line where she says she touched the sky, the diary entries 😭😭

she's my fav character, close to kafka! would love to hear your thoughts!

also after playing the quest, seeing her idle animation where she touches her kite thing and saying its been so long made me cry sm

agree agree agree, yukong is one of my favorite characters in the game and always will be. she means the world to me, her contentment means the world to me, i need her to be more than happy i need her to be a peace for the rest of her days and feel good in her skin and stop seeing the future as some countdown for when she dies. i dont know what it is but i feel so drawn to her character because of her issues with age, maybe it’s due to my very fervent belief that aging is a wonderful thing and it hurts to see her reduce herself to growing old like it’s a bad thing. i do think she’s made progress since then but the fact that she clearly wants to fly again and wont because she’s “past her prime” is so upsetting to me 😭 idk, i get so protective of her. the notion that one’s worth (especially a woman’s) lowers as they age is so wrong and misogynistic i need to free her. she makes me so incredibly sad, whenever i have to explain her backstory i genuinely cry. like all the time. there’s something about her that touches me deeply. reading her character stories for the first time had me crying for so long because i strangely relate to that dream she had where she kept repeating “i think my wings are broken. i think im going to die. im growing old. my wings are broken. i want to go back to the sky. i want to go back. i want to go back.” even now just recalling it makes me heavy like idk what it is but i relate so bad. when you feel like your best years are behind you and you don’t recognize the person you’ve become but are forced to keep going through the motions anyway, you start living in the past. she’s lived in the past for 30 years. she raised the child of the person she loved most on her own after losing her to the cruelties of war. she must have been so isolated for a long time, treated as a hero by people who will never understand the burden she bears. im actually crying again like😭😭😭 she means so much to me man, i need her to be happy. her whole design is inspired by xianzhou traditional kites and it holds so much significance to her; in her lightcone description it says the kite reminds her of caiyi’s death and this mission item is used to remember yukong by like what if i cried. it likely represents all the youthfulness of her past ughhhh im just not strong enough yo handle yukong’s story, every time i remember how full of life she sounded in the flashback with caiyi vs how exhausted she sounds now i get upset

the voice acting during her companion mission was so amazing that my throat was closing up when she lost caiyi. i really wasn’t expecting it, her VA is super talented and i love women with deeper voices in general so yukong’s voice is also top 4 in the game for me

[astronautical-v]

Dumping almost every thought i have about the dwemer in an incoherent ramble because i have too many ideas and nothing to do with them. I have only played skyrim and know some about morrowind and read up on a ton of lore so im probably way off in a lot of places

Was thinking about the "fifteen-and-one sacred tones" that the dwemer mention and im trying to think. What the hell does that even mean? Obviously its reminiscent of the "eight-and-one" divines which implies its something to do with the aedra and daedra. So its either the eight divines (since talos wasnt a thing yet) and eight of the daedric princes OR all sixteen daedric princes. Since there just so happen to sixteen of them (as of then. Ithelia wouldnt have been known by them or anyone else around that time anyway). But then that begs the question, whos the "and one"? Whos the outlier? Im guessing either sheogorath or malacath. Sheogorath bc hes the daedric prince of madness and therefore the least predictable of them all, but also because sheogorath is also jyggalag, making him different from the rest of the daedric princes, as well as the fact that a mortal can become sheogorath just as tiber septim could become a god. Malacath because he used to be trinimac, and trinimac is present in im pretty sure every elven pantheon, and the dwemer, despite not believing in the divinity of the aedra or daedra, are very much elves, and would probably have known about trinimac just because of other mer. If malacath used to be a god, then it would make sense that the dwemer would consider him to be an outlier. Supposedly even other cultures dont always see malacath as a real daedric prince either, and malacath himself has to do with those who are scorned, othered, etc.

The dwemer probably viewed the daedra and aedra as nothing more than energies, the tones that make up the world (or something like that), but focused less of the divines and more on the daedra because the daedric princes are MUCH more present and involved on mundus than the aedra tend to be. The dwemer simply did not believe they were anything worth worshipping, or even considering to be above them. They recognized the power that they had, though, which is why they were called the "sacred" tones. I guess. I dunno. Alternatively, it was the eight divines and 8 daedric princes, but i dont know which of them they would be.

And regarding the term "fifteen-and-one", i was wondering what the 16 tones could possibly have an equivalent to in real life. I also wondered how they programmed any of their machines to do what they wanted, then somewhat jokingly came to the conclusion that they used some kind of dial-up and transmitted data via sound. But then doing a bit of research i found this:

16 tones. Crazy. Wow. Felt like i hit a revelation. Unfortunately i dont understand how that stuff works so i was reading a whole lotta words and not absorbing that much of them (i am not technologically adept). But the mention of radio was also really important because theres plenty of proof that the dwemer DID in fact have radio technology. Theres an item called "dwemer coherer", and a coherer is a really really old form of radio communication that basically only really worked for morse code messages and kinda sucked at it, but it was radio. And thats huge.

Regarding the radio stuff, i do think the dwemer had actual telepathy but that they also used radio. I think maybe their telepathy just wasnt as long range and probably like using a walkie-talkie but with their minds. Idk. I think the only way that kagrenac couldve used "the calling" to affect EVERY dwemer ever is if it was some sort of direct mental connection, and if every dwemer had that ability it would explain how it worked. Maybe kagrenac just amplified it somehow bc of the heart. And it would explain why yagrum bagarn wasnt affected, because if it wasnt some sort of telepathy then whatever kagrenac did with the heart would have simply had to affect every dwemer regardless of where they were. But since yagrum wasnt in mundus at the time, the calling never reached him, so he wasnt affected, and i just think that means it had to be telepathy. Idk im not explaining this point well but i hope it makes some amount of sense.

With that all said i think if they did have telepathy i also think their ears would be pointer and more mobile. Like radio antenna. Just because its fun to think about. They can "tune in" and out of other peoples... callings? I guess? Idk. They probably used radio primarily for longer distance communication.

With all the stuff about sound, it brings me to the falmer. I dont know why the dwemer did that to the falmer and im not sure if they were already all fucked up by the time the dwemer disappeared but im pretty sure they werent. But thinking about that thing in eso that they just had a huge machine that could make people go crazy and even mind control them, as well as in skyrim on solstheim that guy who was losing his mind over some weird dwemer thing under his house that emits a really deep sound if you listenclosely and ignore the steam pump sound (though i have no idea what "fire from the deep" could possibly mean, other than dwemer lived underground and had forges. Idk), their usage of tones was really for everything. They could probably hear a wider range of frequencies than other races and observed the effects of those frequencies on other people. Consider how old structures and machines irl produce very low frequency sounds that can and do affect the mind.

The dwemer very much could have used infrasound in their own technology for various reasons, but its probably what made the falmer what they are today. And, also likely, that the lack of maintenance of machines and whatever (since all the dwemer disappeared and automatons can only do so much) caused them to go "out of tune" and probably produce more infrasound that is impossible for anyone other than a dwemer to hear, which would have greatly affected the falmer mentally. Thinking about how gelebor notes that the falmer seem to have a "rise in intelligence" recently is probably because the falmer in the forgotten vale are so far from any dwemer ruin that they arent being affected by the infrasound they produce. Im sure infrasound alone wouldnt have caused such a huge chance in a whole race but this is also fantasy magic world so im saying this all as the dwemer had some elder scrolls world equivalent of it. The falmer developing sensitive hearing was maybe a way that their bodies tried to adjust to the infrasound so as to not be driven completely insane by it, along with aiding their navigation while blind.

And since this is fantasy magic land, this all also reminds me of string theory. The theory that everything that ever exists is made up of little one-dimensional strings, closed or open, that vibrate. And well sound is a vibration and theres a connection there that i havent fully understood to think through but it would help explain why theyre so atheistic in a world where gods are very much real. They just think everything is a form of energy that they are trying to figure out how to harness. And they succeeded in a lot of ways. If everything is made of vibrating energy, or tones, then you can simply make other tones and do stuff with that. Does that make sense? I dont know how to explain exactly what i mean. They probably had tone tech that helped them with excavation and whatnot. Breaking stones with sound. Idk. You can even shatter kidney stones with sound. Its pretty cool.

Also i think the dwemer ate a lot of mushrooms as their primary cuisine. It only makes sense. Living in places that have mushrooms everywhere. Probably how they knew about the toxic mushrooms that blind you if you eat them. Also they had a mushroom farm in blackreach.

I like to imagine the dwemer singing. Thats probably not how they did tonal architecture stuff but its fun to imagine they could do that vocally anyway. Idk

Uhh i dont think i have anything else i remember thinking about tbh. Im so interested in how their tech works and what they used it all for. Worldbuilding type of stuff. I dont know what to think about the soul gems or whatever the hell is going on with kagrenzel or the lexicon in avanchnzel. But yeah

[littleeyesofpallas]

The funny part about the failure of AI art is that one of the biggest reasons it will never achieve a certain level of accuracy in translating vision and intent into a finished product --you know the thing it would need to be able to do to live up to the b.s. claim that it's a valid art tool-- is that the idiots using and building it dont understand enough basic art in the first place and are explicitly using AI programs as an excuse to not have to.

As in they can't even name the specific techniques you'd want to be able to prompt the AI to imitate if you, say, an actual artist trying to use it as a tool. They don't just not know anything they also don't know enough to recognize they don't know anything because their entire vocabulary is limited to SEO buzzwords and porn tags instead of identifying actual artistically relevant information. Because guess what, fine art museums don't itemize every different size and shape brush and knife and paint ingredient and age thereof, etc... like it's the label on the back of a can of food.

It's why AI art, particularly in the form it's in right now, can never rise beyond shallow aesthetic blogger visuals. The kinds of information it would need to be trained on and in turn the kinds of information it would need from prompts are all specific to having an arts education, which AI bros have categorically positioned themselves in opposition to.

Or I guess in simpler terms, if you have no idea what you want it's easy to be impressed or satisfied with nothing, but that's the only level on which this tech can actually "deliver"

[zeldakat]

totk theory?:

(with other timeline stuff mixed in, for flavor)

everyone prepare your tits i went on a whole ramble in two diff discord servers and i need to share my thoughts

[VAGUE TOTK SPOILERS AHEAD]

SO. This all was started by me watching a theory video. In it someone said something about TotK being a closed loop (in reference to the time travel)—which I didn't agree with.

My reasoning, copied straight from my original ramble (with edits for grammar to make it easier to read):

The glyphs were supposedly made by ancient ppl after watching the dragons tears. But, they only appeared after Zelda time traveled

And, iirc, before the sword is sent back the light dragon is there. BUT she doesnt have the glowy light trails on her head yet.

Then I realized all that kinda falls apart bc tanondorf recognizes Zelda prior to her time traveling. BUT I can fix this.

Tangent time. I know this sounds really off-topic but I promise it eventually loops back to the original topic.

So, earlier today I was playing Hyrule Warriors (Definitive Edition) with my sibling, and we were talking about Ravio's weapons being called "rental hammers" and how it would be funny if, afterwards when he went back to his own time, he put those hammers up for rent for stupid amounts of money because, quote, "they have blood from the enemies from the era of the fallen hero in their grains" because he couldn't get it out when he cleaned them and decided, fuck it. I can make bank from this. THAT turned into a conversation about Hyrule Warriors' non canon status, and I said something along the lines of, "if Hyrule Warriors was canon it could solve the timeline convergence problem."

My reasoning for that:

It literally has all three timelines. its the whole fucking plot

^ though they dont stay together, it easily explains references in BotW. and the rock salt thing*

(*The "rock salt thing" is the fact that BotW's item description for rock salt references Wind Waker and basically says salt deposits like this exist bc of the Great Sea, despite this Hyrule. not being underwater. which raises some questions!)

And speaking of the rock salt thing–

I also posed the idea that, if you still dont want to consider HW canon for fun, you could just explain it by the Passage of Time. And just time in general.

THIS theory's explanation:

After Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass (both the same Link) is Spirit Tracks. Spirit Tracks takes place 100 years after WW and PH, and both of those games are like. pretty important to it

Spirit Tracks does not take place in the ocean. (For the most part at least. I don't know much about spirit tracks.) Instead, it's in "New Hyrule", which was founded by the previous hero and Tetra.

^ Basically they found a big ass fucking island (aka. a continent) and were like Yeah this looks like a good place to reinstate the monarchy.

So, even though Hyrule gets flooded in the adult timeline, we still end up with a Hyrule on land in that same timeline.

Slight topic change. BotW (and by extension TotK) is at the end of the timeline. At least 10,100* years after whichever game was most recent, and then some more to account for the first appearance of the Calamity. (Now. I personally am a fan of the theory that the events of 10k years ago actually took place before Skyward Sword (and these events are the Imprisoning War talked about in that game) but for the purposes of this theory we're ignoring that possibility.) (*More on this later.)

That's a lotta fuckin time. A lot can change in that amount of time.

Who's to say all three timelines didn't eventually end up in the same place? Kinda like the evening out of chaos states or whatever, I dunno I'm not a physicist.

And then. this is the part that circles back ok. Hylia, who is the Goddess of Time, just smushed them all back together into one because fuck it man, they're close enough.

I explained this by saying basically, that-

"Time doesnt work like that" as an argument for anything Zelda related is nullified by the simple fact that Hylia is the Goddess of Time and Nayru has significant power over time as well, and since they're both deities they can do whatever the hell they want with it. If Zelda, who is only channeling the powers of the Goddess Hylia via her blood, which—I don't know how goddess-turned-mortal blood works but this is probably a reasonable assumption—is diluted over tens of thousands of years, can go back 10k years, easy peasy lemon squeezy, then Hylia her-fucking-self can do as she pleases.

So the end conclusion to this one is that time can in fact work like that if an ultra powerful goddess of time wants it to.

And thus we circle back. (omg just like time travel,)

Now. All of this is to explain this idea: TotK is a closed loop, but only kind of. "What the hell do you mean by this, Cat," you might be asking. Well. It's simple.

Zelda's presence (in the past) and effects (on the future of that past) are guaranteed; her actions are not.

And what do I mean by that?

I mean that Zelda is guaranteed to time travel, and she is guaranteed to lead to the sealing of Ganondorf via Rauru's hand. This is to ensure the survival of Hyrule as it is in order for this Zelda to get to the point of this time travel in the first place—likely influenced by Hylia or other goddess to be this way so things stay stable. If this Ganondorf were to succeed, then. well. Hyrule would be screwed, because he"s kinda fucking overpowered with the secret stone.

(Now is "later".) (By the way—I don't know the full lore of TotK, but I'm pretty sure this all has to happen before the first Calamity. I would assume that the Calamity only existed as it did because this Ganondorf was under the castle; that's why the Calamity comes from/starts at the castle every time. so. Zelda actually would've gone back a good bit more than 10k years. Cool!)

Now. Whatever Zelda does to make that happen and whatever she does after doesn’t super affect the survival and state of Hyrule, for whatever reason. So, those actions are not guaranteed. Hence the whole dragon and Master Sword thing—the first set of bullet points in this post.

Oh yeah, and the light dragon also doesn't exist until Zelda time travels. That, or she's up above the clouds with all the sky islands, (which is probably the case, given the carvings behind the rocks in the intro section,) but I like the idea that, while that explanation is true for her, to everyone else she just appeared in the sky—similarly to how the glyphs have history but weren't present or documented till the Upheaval.

So, yeah. TotK is a sort of closed loop and that big sentence up there is what I mean by that. I bow dramatically, the crowd goes wild, etc etc.

[shkika]

Having trouble with thinking of something to ask hrmm

What part of the rw lore do you find most interesting? Like..what are your thoughts on it? any twists you've thought up or any detail/s you just wanna rant abt?

The rainworld lore is painfully a lot and painfully little at the same time, like why are the pearls focused on garbage worms and what is noise milking oh my goddd

moon isnt lore on her own but her pearl readings are a massive source of it. so if i had to say my favorite thing would be iterators and the relationship they had with their colonies. the fact they can vary and the fact iterators have different opinions of their parents!! (one iterator talked abt havjng to sit through dark political times awkwardly like 🧍🤷 at some points. thats funny)

ahem I looove it a lot!! for example the way moon worded her existence is sad. the way she speaks about them is sad. like in short “ancients must not try very hard so we do that for them. at least i did” <- smth along the lines

she sounds bitter she dislikes them with a hidden passion even when she has 5 braincells left. Not to mention she calls them parasites with bad takes (sheesh). something people dont really ?? recognize enough or at all imo is that moon almost retired (ancients moving away from her city) and she was happy about it. Until it didnt work out and some stayed and she was pissed again.

now pebbles speaks with softness (as much as he has it in him) he liked them! he liked their art! their music! he liked witnessing their stupid arguments even when they were in his name (he found the citadel he shaded funny for being so angry)

he found a lot of things they did stupid but he also was impressed in other aspects! he liked them a lot to the point the last item that he keeps for comfort and keeps him together as a whole is a hymn of theirs. even when abandoned, he finds comfort in the company they used to bring him!!! how sad!!

Another part of the lore. Hm cycles.

I have no idea how they work. Youd believe at first that when you die. You get reborn. Pain!!! never escaping!!

But that cant be the case it has sooo many plotholes if thats the case.

1 artificers kids died! straight up GONE. theyre dead!! thats why shes so insane you cant tell me theyre just lost somewhere and also pups cant ascend (me when i reach spiritual enlightenment at 10). theyre straight up gone.

2. imagine u defeat the scav kind and he comes back an hour later.. nah. thjngs DIE

3 why did the ancients go crazy over killing themselves then idk!

4 suns was basically crying about how they dont know what theyll do if spearmaster dies. yeah no respawning then.

So then the cycle is being reborn into smth new. great. how does karma play in this. how do you raise it. time? do you have your old memories after u go into a new cycle?? i dont know!! no scug has ever been plagued with dreams of being smth else before. !!! how do you confirm its a thing!! idk!! how do you know you are in a samsara! i wish we got ancients talking about it. in pearls or smth.

i havent ascended with saint yet. (reached karma 10 and bonked the siblings) but i doubt they answer all of my questions

random kiki rw lore fact- did you know that the rot area - (riv gameplay) there is a room in it thats just called terror!!! it upsets me greatly. the place is so different because the rot literally eats his walls. it fucks me up sometimes even if it seems obvious

[violentviolette]

I'm sorry if this is unhelpful, but I just saw a post that talked about getting lost pets like dogs and cats back by putting out a familiar item they can recognize the scent of (like an article of clothing or a bed, toy or litter box) at the spot they were last seen/you think they might go to. I can't know for sure if people in the notes are telling the truth, but multiple people say this got their pet to come and wait at that spot, even after a month of them being missing. Again, I'm sorry if this doesn't help and just brings up the topic again, but I thought I should at least share it.

thanks anon, i really appreciate the thought. we've definitly been doing that from the start. some other ppl mentioned it early on and thats what so many websites said so we started doing that the very next night. we have her litterbox set up outside and we also have a dog igloo/outside house set up with our dirty laundry that we rotate out every other day. we've got some of her toys out there and have sprinkling some catnip in it too there's signs that she is using it, but we just havent been able to catch her in it yet. it seems like she doesnt stay there very long and is purposefully waiting till we go inside to come over and use it. i genuinely dont know why that is or why she's so scared of us and wont come out. there's a chance she got into a fight with a racoon or deer and is now too terrified of any other living thing to approach us. so now we're just kind of making sure she stays coming around by putting out food and water and keeping our scents around so we can hopefully catch her one of these times. we try to rotate what times we go out there and be really quiet so we can catch sight of her but so far no luck