#and guess who destroyed he's previous safe place so now he's trying to recreate a new one in the wrong place?

[randomraytrash]

[enby-hawke]

Alright settle in for a story ya'll cause it's a long one.

At the beginning of the week I was dancing, singing, being helpful, just smiling. But you see I just needed to recover after my family kind of took my medicine in a forced detox and almost killed me. (previous legal post if you're curious) Now today I'm screaming at everyone and wanting to end my life over a lost tablet pen.

I got into a fight with my bf and it just was the last straw. I was like I don't want to go but take me to the mental hospital. If I get into one more fight something bad will happen.

I checked myself into the hospital and agreed to do a 5150 on the agreement they wouldn't send me to Merced California's Mary Greens. The head nurse bitch there told me if I ever came back there she would never let me leave. (My wife had to fight to get me out for 3 months).

They sent me to Santa Rose Behavioral Health Clinic. At first, the place seemed nice. I even got a pamphlet of my rights. Like the nerd I am I read it.

And realized that they were breaking the law left and right.

At the beginning, I asked for a space to worship and they led me around until they straight up told me they wouldn't. I asked every nurse I could and no one would work with me. I am a filipino pagan, and my religion was destroyed by Catholics so there are no clergy or Bibles I am just trying to recreate what I can by my research of the Gods of Visaya.

I even asked legal, a woman named Dory, and she straight up told me the facility couldn't provide it and with a straight face tried to convince me that was okay. I realized she was in the pockets of the company and ended my interview with her.

I didn't get to worship until the day I was released because my pagan case manager bought the supplies herself.

I wasn't trying to find dirt. I swear. I was just trying to get through my stay. I was supposed to be there 3 days but it turned into 5? 6? I don't know. The drugs they gave me made me so foggy and I am having a lot of pain and trouble since I went there.

I explained to them I wanted as little drugs as possible. I kept a journal that was supposed to be my medical journal too (I know nerd) and I started on 600mg of gabapentin but by the end of my stay without my consent I was upped to 1200mg of gabapentin. My wife gets seizures and the most they ever put her on was 900mg. A nurse there who eavesdropped on my conversation with my wife (also illegal) tried to convince me that it was okay for me to be on as much as 1800mg of gabapentin and they put the kids on more than me. I told him that didn't sound safe.

And worst of all nurse Allon. I thought he was cool. We were having a great conversation and his wife was a gender studies major and I was excited to know more. But then the first night with him I was able to write in the hallway. The next night I wasn't even allowed to write with a crayon in my room.

You see I have bipolar which gives me an energy bunny in my soul. I usually only need 4-6 hours of sleep. They kept trying to give me trazodone which I kept telling them would interact with my latuda and give me a manic episode but they didn't even switch it to another sleeping med.

I also told them I didn't want sleeping meds. As an Asian I would prefer preventative measures such as exercise, diet, herbs, and coping skills rather than just shoving medications down my throat. Well, guess what they did.

It is illegal for the staff to medicate a patient for their own convenience.

Nurse Allon 2 nights ago decided it wasn't okay for me to write in the hallway for whatever reason. I was upset as it was 3:30 and they expected me to do nothing but read study books (with no highlighter or anything to take notes with) for 4 hours or just sit and 'think'. I demanded my usual coping mechanism because it wasn't an unreasonable request. They refused. I asked for something to go back to sleep with. They refused. They sent me to my room.

So I cried. And then that turned into praying. And then that's when things got super shitty.

Nurse Allon called my episode a tantrum. I tried to call the patients advocate line or 988 but the phones were off. They coerced me into taking a drug to go to sleep. They claim it was seroquel. But that's not what I remember. They didn't release my information in a printed sheet they gave it to me on a sticky note. But I don't remember it sounding anything like seroquel.

I did my own research and tracked it down to two possible drugs. Clonazepen or clorazepate. I'm leaning towards clorazepate because I remember a 'cl' and 'r'.

Other things in my journal from my interviews.

They do not attend to the elderly. I had to harass them into doing their jobs. They were so understaffed and overworked that they just couldn't get their breaks in or do the basics. A woman I interviewed said she came from unit 500 and an elderly woman wasn't bathed and basically sat in her shit for 3 days and no one cared.

A homeless woman who wants to remain anonymous and is my friend is trapped there. She has been held there for 2 weeks without justifiable cause. A nurse named Nikki agreed and told us both that. This facility gets $2000 every day we stay there and more money for each drug.

That woman's drug chart is a fucking mess. She's on 1200mg of lithium. They're going to kill her or break her brain.

My dudes what do I do? What steps do I take?

My current plan is to gather more evidence. I want to go to each of the individuals that left bad reviews and explain to them I want to do a class action lawsuit not for money for myself (though I need to cover the cost of my lawyer) but that I want to sue that corporation into properly investing its funds so that we don't have paper thin blankets and the cheapest art supplies that never get updated.

I'm suing the hospital not for personal money, but to make sure the funds go back into the facility so it is properly run. the staff is properly paid and that there is enough of them for the patients care, that they do not use the cheapest materials, are not retaliatory to mentally ill episodes and are properly trained, and that everyone has the right to worship as they please. I want the rules to reflect fairness and kindness. I don't want this hierarchy of 'good patients' versus 'bad patients' and so much more. For the Gods sakes. We didn't even have windows to look outside. Why is sunshine a priviliege?

I don't really know...how to make this happen???? Any advice tumblr?

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

I just now realized that both Adam and Raziel are the small boys of their own duo. And by small I mean the other two are just insanely tall. This is just the second half of Part 4 of these ramblings that had to be split in two. Also, I really want Kain’s pants.

In which I chronicle my Legacy of Kain journey and bridge it with your boy Adam Warlock, and Thanos too for a bit! (Part 4.5 of many, not many SPOILERS for Soul Reaver 1 and 2)

Part 1

Part 1.5

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I ended Part 4 talking about how both Raziel and Adam can’t stay dead for long.

 In Adam’s case, whenever he is killed / is mortally wonded / just needs a bit of solitude and peace and quiet, this gross ass cocoon forms around him and keeps him safe (similar to the one that gave him birth).

He stays there dissolving and reforming, metamorphosing for an uncertain amount of time (could be an instant, could be years), and coming out a little bit changed every time.

He’s had other methods of resurrection but this is the main “normal” one.

And I want to follow that with a bit of a tangent on how this “undying business” translates into gameplay with Raziel. I think the devs made it into a very interesting mechanic in my opinion, present in both Soul Reaver 1 and 2.

 Basically, if you lose all your health, you are transported to the Spiritual Realm  - a more spooky and eerie version of the Material Realm, where architecture bends, passages open and everything gains a bluish tint. I let myself be killed here as an example:

If you get killed while in the Spectral Realm, you are transported back to the last checkpoint (in Soul Reaver 1, you would be transported to the bottom of the Abyss and have to make your way up to where you were killed). Another example:

In Soul Reaver 2, even the checkpoints have an in-lore explanation, which I think is awesome, Raziel says:

"These ancient obelisks were mysteriously attuned to my spiritual essence. By simply touching the symbol, I could safely preserve an imprint of my soul, and thus create a milestone to which I could return when weary, and from which I could resume my journey."

You can also just shift to the Spiritual Realm whenever you please without having to die. Useful to gain access to previously inaccessible places:

Yey stairs!

Here's a few examples of this mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 I found online:

But, even though you can go spiritual at will, to return to the Material Realm you need to be at specific marked points, and be at full health (done by consuming a few wandering souls):

I don't know if it is technically impressive or not for the PS1, Dreamcast and PS2 to pull this off, but I personally marvel at it every time. And I think it's an interesting way to represent immortality through gameplay, not just storywise.

I do wonder now how you would translate Adam’s resurrections into gameplay if Marvel had a game where he’s playable. I think some notes and ideas could be taken from Soul Reaver. Maybe while his body is being recreated in his cocoon, you take control of his soul, hanging out on Mistress Death’s domain, since he’s no stranger to that place. I don’t know, I guess I just want an excuse to see him and Death interact more:

Anyway... oh yeah! I spent so much time gushing all over the soul devouring mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 in my first post, that I forgot to show how it looks in Soul Reaver 2 in both Realms:

I'll be honest, I think I prefer the green flame look from the first game (probably because that was my first exposure to it), but I do like the Spiritual Realm version of the souls here with the little skulls flying about.

Ok, back to that scene between Raziel and Kain I started talking about in Part 4 when they’re at The Ruined Aerie .

I mentioned in Part 3, how it started to look like we might get a similar development for them to that of Thanos and Adam, in the sense of them going from sworn enemies to friends. And the tone of this meeting shows a nice little change in their relationship in that direction (yey! because I'm a huge unrepentant sucker for this kind of thing).

Whereas before their encounters were wholly antagonistic from Raziel's part, now it is much more ammicable. It's not sudenly smiles and hugs or anything, quite the opposite. Raziel does say that he will try and kill Kain if he even suspects that doing so will make things better. But it is noticeably different.  Instead of it being all like "face me and die monster!", like usual, we get this exchange:

Raziel:

"Oh no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens. I don't think I have the stomach for it."

Kain: (laughs softly):

"No drama this time, Raziel."

Nice.

In the last couple of scenes Raziel even openly defends Kain when talking to others, which would be unthinkable during Soul Reaver 1. Our greatest enemy in the previous game is now an ally of sorts, or the closest we have to that. And our previous benefactor, The Elder God, who rescued me form the Abyss and tasked me with destroying Kain and the vampire race, may not be as benevolant as he showed. 

Just awesome stuff here with your allies turning into foes and vice-versa the more we dig into this land's History. In fact, I'll just throw this out there, but the whole seemingly betrayal of Raziel, of Kain ripping his wings and throwing him into the Abyss...

I'm beginning to think that it may have been a necessary evil in Kain’s attempt to restore Nosgoth, and not so much a fit of jealousy as it was shown. But I'll reserve judgement. It kinda depends on when exactly did Kain stumble upon Moebius' secret lair and peered into the future. Like, if he knew that Raziel had to burn and become a wraith to help create the paradoxes. So for now it's just a random thought.

But yeah maybe Raziel's starting to see that Kain has been as much of a pawn as he is. Both forced to play out some part in a grand scheme, and both forced down a path of bad decision after bad decision. Just how Adam and Thanos get closer as they realise they’re more alike than they care to admit, especially in their flaws and shortcomings, and that each is the only person the other can really relate to on a deeper level.

I mean don't get me wrong, Kain is undeniably monstruous, but he seems to be genuinly trying to fix things and the raw deal he was given in life. So maybe we can get something like Thanos’ “redemption” years for Kain by the end of this cosmic drama:

Would like to see Kain getting out of this wiser (and Raziel too). Things seem to be pointing that way at least.

So once we do manage to travel to the distant past as we intended, to the big Vampire Purge Era (because Raziel wants to talk with this ancient vampire who supposedly knows about the Soul Reaver Sword, and is the only person who might tell me the whole truth), Soul Reaver 2 takes advantage of me and impales me through the heart:

I'll elaborate. On the next post. Where things will get very real again.

See you until then.

[darkspellmaster]

Castlevania Season 3 Trailer Theories Part 2: Locations and Scenes

So the images are not in order from the trailer, but I intend to talk about them as we go.  Since this is part two I’m going to try to strictly talk about the scenes that seem to be happening in the story. 

So let’s talk about this one. This is actually one that intrigues me because of what it appears to be. Earlier in the trailer, we see some sort of portal or energy being made, and that portal there is probably what that one weird shot with all the colors is connecting to. I’m wondering if that’s also an Evo Crystal, but we will get to that later. And the room that they are in, reminds me a lot of Curse of Darkness’s forge room for Hector. 

Now while it’s not identical the rooms offer the same sort of set up. In the center of the room, there’s an alchemy set up. This alchemy set up is designed to create monsters or innocent Devils as in the game Curse of Darkness. Each monster is made with a different set of instructions in-game, in this case, it’s from different crystals that help you make different types. 

The room that Sypha and Trevor are in looks very much like an innocent devil's room if it wasn’t like the game version of it. On top of that, there’s the leviathan cross with the added feature of Saturn from Alchemy. 

Abysmal_abyssal explains it more here in regard to what this is. 

So more than likely Trevor and Sypha ended up in one of the rooms where Hector may be making monsters. Or where someone is making them. What’s interesting here is this is a moment in time where Trevor unleashes both of his whips, the holy one with the Belmont symbol on it, and the Vampire Killer that has Sara’s soul in it, and either it’s creating that insane fire or Sypha has helped with her fire to create this epic moment. But it’s clear that Trevor is fighting something big. 

You don’t go doing this unless you’re attacking something insanely large. And given that the Cult seems to have the first part of the symbol on their armbands, I would think this is something that they created for Trevor to fight, or became. 

You can see on the very bottom of the whip that Trevor is using, it’s marked with the sign of the Belmont family, making me think this is another sort of holy whip that was given to him and is basically something that he combines with the Vampire KIller in order to unleash some really devastating attacks. 

It’s clear that this is the monster that the fire attack hits, and probably is the monster that is later reforming that Trevor and Sypha are dealing with.

 It becomes damn clear that this thing, given it’s eyes in the reforming process, is a part of Leigon and seems to be the big bad monster on the second poster. Now what role it has in the story, I’m not sure, but given the whole “Raise Hell” line in the trailer, it makes me think that that is what the cult brings into being. 

We also get a glimpse of this room when Trevor is seen readying his attack, and earlier in the trailer we get a shot with Sypha and the winged monster. 

You can catch the beast right in the upper left corner of the top picture next to the portal, thing, that seems to be letting them in. 

We also have Sypha fighting in the same room, clearly trying to help Trevor, but she’s not in all the shots. So was she hurt during this fight and that unlocked his ability to really access the power of the whip through the thought of keeping her alive and safe? 

Part of the situation with the Vampire killer is that Sara believes that every male that holds that whip is connected to Leon, or is Leon, so her power seems to be enhanced when the wielder feels that someone is in danger and needs to be protected. 

Looks like the lighting from the Monster Legion is attacking the Church, and destroying everything in a radius, this is probably tied to the priest and the soldiers coming to see what’s going on in the earlier picture. What’s interesting is that we also see one of the Legion monsters jump into this building. So I’m not sure in the timeline where the lightning strike happens.

We see this right after we see the church get hit by the storm, which shows that the Judge is connected to some military units. What for, I’m not sure, but it’s clear that it’s not exactly a good situation at all for him to be in. 

Taking a wild guess here that the village that is being blown up has something to do with the lighting blast we see in the church, as the center of the destruction. It seems to destroy a lot of the place and I’m guessing it may have to do with Legion infecting all of the places, as the humans later fall to their doom with thorn crowns on their head symbolic of Christ. 

We have this legion piece leaping at the church and going into it, though we don’t know why they’re attacking this town. this could be the same town or a different one, it’s hard to say due to the dark colors and the rain. 

The village being attacked, same sort of lights that are in the village were Trevor and Sypha are dealing with the cult, there’s an indication that someone may have summoned these things from Legion and it’s causing a mighty downfall on the village. 

We also get a moment when the Legion is discovered by a poor sop, that was in a barn. 

We later see Isaac looking out at a tower that seems to be housing Leigon, so I have to wonder if this is the same village that’s being attacked. 

There’s something about this moment that makes me think that this is the connecting thread to Miranda telling Isaac to kill them all. It looks likely that there’s going to be a fight between Legion and Isaac and the question will become who will win. I have to wonder if Germain may play a part in trying to stop him or connecting himself to Hector in this case. 

We also see Legion come down with full force as it seems to have made all the people in town turned into it’s zombie minions. 

Which seems to indicate that it’s only grown in the time that we first see it attack. Isaac seems to be the force that will control it, which is interesting given that Leigon is typically not an easy enemy to beat at all, indicating that his powers have grown exponentially by this point. 

When the body hits the devil forge weapon we see it being sucked in. This makes me think that all of this is connected to the idea that Isaac is trying to recreate the Crimson stone to bring back Dracula and is being used by Death to do so, by wrecking the hell out of Leigon’s creatures and then using them against Trevor and the others to either destroy Carmilla and Free Hector, or kill them both and Trevor and his crew for the death of his master. 

So this is a weird one. Given that there are souls in there flying towards the center, I can only guess that this is forming some sort of demon. We see that the town this is happening in is the one that Trevor and Sypha are visiting and where the evil cult is, so I guess this is part of their goal, to create some sort of portal or creature with the dead people in the fire. It honestly looks like it’s forming something. 

 S

So this is a weird one. Given that there are souls in there flying towards the center, I can only guess that this is forming some sort of demon. We see that the town this is happening in is the one that Trevor and Sypha are visiting and where the evil cult is, so I guess this is part of their goal, to create some sort of portal or creature with the dead people in the fire. It honestly looks like it’s forming something. 

This is another mystery. If you enlarge the image you’ll see four creatures that seem to be crawling over the rocks, and when panned out we see that there is more than just that one group of four. The image in the back I’ll get to when I put the picture up, the image in the front is slightly strange. So it appears to be a statue of a woman who seems to be in possibly the throws of ecstasy, seeing her body language and all. Now, why would such a huge statue need to be created? Unless this is some sort of depiction of Mathius and his first wife Elisabeth. Or showing how Incubi create Succubuses. It’s something that has me very perplexed. 

Yet another one, from a cave, looking off into the distance. If I can hazard a guess, I’d say this is something connected to Isaac’s plot in some way. The statue, as with the other one in the previous picture, shows a woman standing up with her arms over her head stretching. Now I could be wrong and this may be a man, but the hips indicate a female form. The thing she’s standing on kind of looks like a hand, but it also reminds me of the Innocent devil's cauldron where the petrified monsters are being held. 

Clearly, this is a rocky place and given the transition, we’re shown that it’s some sort of weird temple or something like that.  

aaa

So here is where I have to bring up the Crimson Stone. In the center of Isaac’s forge weapon, we see the red stone, and the Crimson stone is actually the lower phase of a philosopher stone. When Mathias beat Walter he used the crimson stone to collect his soul to complete it. Just like the Vampire Killer, the stone that Dracula has needs a soul, a vampire soul, to power it. 

Or it could be a fire orb as from the game. Though I think given what Isaac does with the Legion guy later in the trailer it’s clear that this could be the markings of a new Crimson stone. Which would be bad. 

Here’s the thing about this guy, he starts off looking like this...

As you can see, his body is very lanky like Grant DaNasty, our missing team member. and clearly he becomes a monster. The problem is that if it’s is Isaac changing him, where is he going to put him in the story? I suppose that Hector can undo this and have him help them out, but something about this moment is making me think this is just Isaac creating more of his monster army than grant showing up at that point. Though it’s important to note that the transformation is clearly done with forging, meaning that Hector can do something like this too, which probably will come into play with the whole Curse of Darkness storyline. 

aaa

Remember the image above where we have a portal. Well, this is either going to be that portal or an Evo Crystal. This is designed to be an object that helps Hector evolve or bring to life the Innocent devils in the Curse of Darkness game. There’s a center there to this, and Warren did say it’s going to be a Psychedelic Horror season and given we have Legion coming, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have Innocent devils and hints of how the Vampire Killer came about. 

This also could be the creation of a new Crimson Stone. 

A second strange woman in the trailer when Hector cracks his twin whips. I’m still trying to figure out if this is one of the vampire minions or Carmilla herself, or another unnamed character at this point. Clearly, she’s being destroyed in blinding light. She may be one of the demons as well. It’s hard to tell. But it’s clearly a woman being wrecked here. 

This is a hard one. Design-wise this is stunning, but the location is hard to place. This is where the cave with the statues is seen. The ground is clearly lava-like, and my only guess is that this may be hell. But where and how is the question? Though I have a feeling that this is not that at all and Isaac or someone has made it into this. 

This could also be the  Baljhet Mountains, which in Curse of Darkness connected to the Abandon Castle and the Garibaldi temple. Both places of significance for Hector in the main Curse of Darkness game and where he met with St. Germain and also had to fight Legion. What’s interesting here is that it looks like they’re giving a lot of that to Isaac. This could be the area that Issac is using to create his monsters. 

So we know that Isaac is doing some devil forging here to make his own army. I have to wonder if this is tied into the world we see in the above image. Though it’s clear that he’s traveling farther out to reach where Legion probably is laying in wait. 

So this is an important moment. An early shot shows Isaac hitting one of the Legion dolls and destroying it. However, when he hits it, it goes into the red stone at the bottom of his forge. This may indicate that Isaac may have some form of Crimson stone-like object attached to his forge which is what is allowing him to create the monsters that he does. Keep in mind that when the stone works right it sucks a soul in, so this may be doing that. 

Said earlier moment above shows how this is working, with the aim being to destroy the possessed person. 

Given review information, it seems like Issac is going to be going against a magician, possibly St. Germain, who may be trying to stop him from going on this path (which could lead to the resurrection of Dracula). This is probably part of that journey. 

Building in the back shows that this is the town where Trevor and Sypha are punching the cult guy in the trailer. This is also where the village is burning and other shots show that this could be used by the villains to summon Legion and bring Isaac and Trevor into contact. (It would be very weird if Isaac supplants Grant as the fourth team member. But I don’t see that.) Isaac may be controlling them, or this is the town where Legion is making its a haven. It very much seems like this is where Isaac is going to run into his main villain. 

So again, back to those weird mountains. As you can see there are beings on the lower part of the scene, but it’s hard to tell if they are just monsters or people or statues. What’s also interesting is the image of the woman and a man in a lustful embrace above, and we don’t see the man again in the other statues. I’m not sure what this is supposed to be hinting at? The creation of Alucard? Mathis and his first wife Elisabetha? How Germain came about? It’s interesting because I wasn’t expecting that, and there’s not been anything quite like it in the games. Unless I missed something in Curse or Lords of Shadow, because that’s the only ones I can think that would use this. 

So remember the flames that were coming together? This is showing how those souls are being sucked up. This may be a moment where they could join into one being, or stone. It’s clear that this is one of the people in town that is being burned and probably attacked by the Legion monster later. This also could be a named character that’s being taken in by possibly Carmilla or by Isaac or the weird cult group that seems to be coming into play. 

For sure though this scene is connected to the burning village we see earlier in the trailer and part of the whole merging of fire. I think it has ties to the weird cult that seems to be coming into being since Dracula’s death. 

This may be the death of Carmilla or one of her minions. It’s clear again that this is a woman being hit by Trevor’s whip and connected to the scene where he’s using both. If I can hazard a guess on this, I would say this may be Lenore what with the shoulder designs, but the face makes me think it’s Carmilla, which makes me wonder if this is one of the last scenes in the show where Trevor activates his true power against her. 

Honestly I kind of hope that Hector helps him out with this because we’re pulling more away from Hector as lead to his own story. 

Remember the fire with the guy in it? I think this may be the town where that’s happening with the cult. It’s clear by the architecture that this house is the main one in town and that more than likely another shot from the trailer shows the house’s interior on fire. The question is who set it, and why is this town apparently attacked twice? First with the Legion monsters (Maybe the Judge stops them back in the past) and the second has it being on fire as it rips through the town. 

Given the nature of the flames, I don’t think this is a natural fire either and that Trevor may have to save the village from the cult that’s coming into play. 

Interior of the house from the above picture. Notice the windows and designs. This is the house in question from above, the problem is that we don’t know who owns it. My guess is that this could be Sala’s place or the Captains. However, whoever owns it clearly is in for a bad time given the whole place seems to be engulfed in flames from a villain. I will say the designs are very pretty though, and the background artists did a fantastic job on it. 

See the house in the background? It has the same design as the one burning. Given this is just before Trevor punches the cult guy, I would have to guess that the two were called in to look into the situation in town and things get out of hand fast. 

This could be the Alchemy room since it seems very similar to the designs we saw earlier. But...it’s clear that Legion is there as well, so Trevor is going to have a fight with them. (You can clearly see the eyes on the monster being remade.) 

So is this Isaac or Carmilla, or the Judge, or Death doing this? 

This shot is tied to the same shot of the two female characters being killed earlier. It’s clear that Trevor is going all out on whatever is in that room, and we can see the two bodies being taken down by the light of the twin whips. I love the fact that on his back around his shoulders you can make out what could be seen as angel wings, which ties into Leon’s connection to the crusades and wanting a connection to the light to save his beloved Sara. Maybe Trevor tapped into that and is now connecting to Sara there since the whip can only be used by Male members of the Belmonts and Morris families. 

It’s an amazing use of just inks by the way. 

There’s a lot more there, but with the series only a few days away I think I’m going to cut it here for the trailer speculation and want to bring up another aspect that’s being talked about a lot going forward. 

[darkzorua100]

Well now that the initial shock has settled in and everyone is basically in agreement that our new antagonists for season 3 are more then likely going to be Human!Ai and Human!Roboppy (probably more in a henchman-like role for her though (I can already tell the dialogue between these two is going to be hilarious), I wanted to go more in depth on this because there is just so much to dissect on what Ai is planning on doing and just how far he is willing to go to complete his goal of what we can all assume just from the ending of episode 103 is to bring back the other Ignis (Flame, Aqua, Windy, Earth, and even Lightning (who is the main reason the other four are dead in the first place).

The key thing to note in this whole thing from just the simple scenes of Ai at the beginning and end of episode 103 is that he seems to be driven by guilt. The guilt of not being able to save his kin. The guilt of being the last Ignis. Maybe some guilt of not being there when the Cyberse World was destroyed by Lightning and Bohman. Maybe if he was there, he could have been able to stop Lightning before any of these tragedies were set into motion. Maybe at that time he could have been able to talk Lightning out of his plan and try and help him not seem so inferior. After all, Lightning did say that Ai was the wisest of the Ignis and the one to truly show them what it meant to have free will.

Now we have already seen first hand what guilt can drive a person to do in this series. I mean look at Ryoken for example. He has a giant guilt complex. The guilt that lead him to freeing the Lost Children because of him leading to Yusaku kidnapping and what his father was doing to him and the rest of the children. The guilt that made him feel responsible for what happened to his father because of that one simple choice. The guilt that lead him to almost nuking the whole world wide web to make up, in his eyes, his previous mistake that got his father killed. Guilt is just terrifying on what it can lead someone to do to try and set things right. The purest of people can make the worst decisions when they aren’t thinking straight if they truly believe that it will make amends to their crimes, even if it means committing another crime to do so. And that’s exactly how I see season 3 playing out in terms of what they are going to do with Ai’s character.

I don’t see Ai as the villain in the typical sense. He isn’t going to be the bad guy just to be the bad guy and turn on humanity just because he feels like it or blames humanity for what happened to the others (since again that was all Lightning’s fault (but I guess you can make a case for Earth’s death but again that wouldn’t have happened if Lightning didn’t destroy the Cyberse World in the first placing, forcing everyone to flee for their lives). Again like Ryoken in season 1, he probably thinks he’s doing the right thing even if the way he’s going to go about it will be completely wrong. Now there’s the whole debate if he has gone a little crazy (as the new opening has shown with his psycho expressions that we are all familiar with when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh villains) but it is still up in the air at the moment if when Ai took in Lightning’s remaining power, he also took in some of his madness (in a Yubel/Light of Destruction kind of situation from GX) or when he reformed himself from the backup he left in Roboppy, he didn’t come back completely the same and became corrupted over time. Still I don’t think Ai will turn pure evil because of either of these reasons. His views might just get a little warped and mix in the already existing guilt of not being able to save his kin and that just doesn’t sound like a good combination to be left unchecked. It also doesn’t help that Ai was based on Yusaku and we all know how Yusaku handled his trauma during season 1. If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with these two, revenge might just be Ai’s best medicine (btw amazing parenting right there, Yusaku).

Which leads me into what Ai is planning on doing from within SOL Technologies. Safe to say, there is a LOT Ai can gain if he’s able to take out Queen (which is what more then likely is going to happen). If he can take control of SOL, he has access to the main controls of Link Vrains and can start screwing with the system for whatever else he has planned. He will have their new androids, the SOLtiS, under his control (which he can use to give the other Ignises human bodies such as himself and Roboppy have (since I think they already stole two of them to give himself and her human forms) when he is able to bring them back or if he does go mad with power during all of this (since absolute power corrupts the mind absolutely is a thing), he will have an android army in the making). They still have some of Earth’s data (which I’m pretty sure Ai hasn’t forgotten that little detail and is probably going to enjoy murdering Queen for dissecting his friend (after all he said his famous “I’m starting to hate humans too” line after he found out what happened to Earth (again revenge is the best medicine) which he can use to find a way to bring back Earth or to use as a starting block on how to. And if all of Earth’s remaining data is still inside of Go, pretty sure SOL will still have Go’s file on hand, meaning that Ai can easily find him and take him out to get his buddy’s data back. And most importantly, Ai will have access to all the Lost Incident files. SOL Technologists was the one to cover the whole thing up so they should have records of everyone who was involved. If Ai really wants to bring everyone back, the best route, if he has no other options, might just be to recreate them from their source, aka their Origins.

I talked about this little theory of mine the other day so I’ll just quickly sum it up. Takeru, Miyu, Spectre, Jin, and WO aren’t in good positions right now and might have to go through the Lost Incident again just to bring back Flame, Aqua, Earth, Lightning, and Windy if Ai is really willing to go that far. Heck he might even guilt trip Takeru into willingly participating if he himself is missing Flame that much (since I think Soulburner is going to lose to Revolver because he doesn’t have Flame with him to help him and that’s what’s going to cause Takeru to really try and find a way to being his partner back). However they aren’t the only ones in danger. If Ai wants to recreate the Hanoi Project to a T, he might also go after the Knights of Hanoi since they were the ones to create the Ignis in the first place. Obviously since Dr. Kogami is dead, I don’t think they are going to be exactly perfect (more on that in a bit) so he’s going to go for the next best thing in Ryoken since he obviously knows the Ignis algorithm because his father taught him. He could also go after Blood Shepherd, Kusanagi, and/or Yusaku since they all also know their algorithm but Ryoken makes the most sense in this situation. Back to Ryoken, I think it might be some nice character development for him (since last episode kinda had him regress in it a bit in some people’s eyes) if he’s the one to try and get Ai to stop what he’s trying to do, not because of his whole anti-Ignis thing but because he knows what it is like to be completely driven by guilt and he also knows what it is like to lose someone dear (aka his father) and trying to being back the dead isn’t a good idea (if anyone here has seen Pet Sematary, you know what I’m talking about). 

Which leads me into the fact that if the other Ignis do come back through this way, I don’t think they are going to be the exact same. They might not be fully operational, they might not have free will anymore or their memories, or they might all just come back as super anti-human and turn on their human friends (on that note I will cry if Flame comes back and tries to kill Takeru like Windy did with his partner). We saw what happened in ARC-V when Leo tried to play god and bring back Ray. Things go horribly wrong fast. This season could very well end up like that, where all the Ignis do stay dead, with Ai joining them, with the show ending on the note that we shouldn’t let technology get this advanced or bad things happen or on a more happy note with all the Ignis do coming back and showing us humans and artificial intelligence can live together just like how Yusaku and Ai dreamed of. 

Now I want to talk about Yusaku and Ai and what the actual hell is going to happen between these two. Just from the new opening alone, these two are going to clash at some point but the question is over what? Where is the line going to be drawn between what is right and what’s wrong? I don’t anyone on Team Playmaker will object to trying to bring back the other Ignis (besides maybe Lightning) since Takeru clearly misses Flame and Aoi with Aqua. I’m willing to bet that Spectre would also want Earth to return and be able to meet his Ignis. So it has to be the method of what Ai is willing to do in order to accomplish his goal that is going to drive the wedge between these former partners. Like I stated before, if Ai is willing to try and recreate the Hanoi Project and put Takeru, Miyu, Spectre, Jin, and WO through that hell again just to recreate his family, obviously Yusaku is going to have a GIANT issue with that, even if he wouldn’t be about of it again. Yusaku has finally been able to move on from that event. Takeru finally has been able to move on. Everyone is finally looking to be able to move on (well we don’t know much about Miyu, Jin, and WO at the current moment but you get the idea). To thrust these teenagers back into this event is nothing short of just pure wrong. And Ai knows this. He knows VERY well what the Hanoi Project did to Yusaku. What it means to him to finally be able to move on from it. And yet if it means being able to bring back his kin, to fix everything that he blames himself for, a necessary evil is justified, right?

No, it isn’t. Not even in the slightest. Even if it doesn’t get to that point, going after SOL to begin with (from the looks of things) was a step in the wrong direction if Queen gets murdered next week (which again I can very well see happening if Ai is still pissed at her for murdering Earth). That’s why I see Playmaker being the one to confront Ai first, not the only way around because Ai has obviously no reason to go after Yusaku at all. He has risked his life time and time again to save his partner and might not want to bother him for something he purely blames himself for and trying to make immense to everyone he has made sad because of him not being able to save the others from within Bohman. Unless Ai goes freaking yandere crazy for some reason (which I’m not objecting to since since I’m ALL for the yanderes in this franchise (Yubel is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character for a reason) and is willing to hurt Yusaku in order to protect him (for some reason I keep thinking of a scenario where Ai tries to use his and Yusaku’s Link Sense to try and rip Yusaku’s consciousness out of his human flesh and try and throw it into an android or make him into an A.I just so he can live forever and not pass away over time (because after this guilt trip, I think Ai will lose the last bit of his sanity if something does happen to Yusaku), I don’t think he will fight Playmaker until that line is drawn and Ai comes to the realization that since Playmaker isn’t with him, he has go to against him, even if that means it will destroyed both of them emotionally, especially in terms of the dream they share together. 

So that’s pretty much my initial theories to what we could be expecting from Ai going forward into season 3. This season very well has the potential to be the best season yet for Vrains and I very much hope it doesn’t disappoint in regards to how they are going to write Ai in this role. 

On one final random note, I am curious to know though if we are just going to be seeing him in his human form 24/7 now or if he will occasionally be back in his Ignis form once in a while. I mean from what I’ve been seeing, I don’t think anyone wants to see Ignis!Ai again because damn boy, you definitely took after Ryoken in the looks department after apparently digitally puberty hit you like a truck. On that note, Yusaku and Ryoken, do something about your teenager child before he actually does murder someone!

[cantusecho-archive]

(Episode 8 !!

Good lord, this is a lot. Knew we’d get into a lot of shizz with it being titled “XV”. It really felt like the episode that would proceed episode 13 (like previous seasons when the episode is named after the season). There ended up being a pretty hype battle near the end, even playing “FINAL COMMANDER” again to top it all off.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

First off, there’s Carol. It’s SOOOOOO nice to see her back and now we get to see her fight AND sing. And as expected, she has no issues with fighting them.

One thing that I loved about this fight was that Carol was basically posing like she was a conductor as they fought.

Like the way her arms move is just...very pleasing. Lol. Plus she is still powerful. I really thought she wouldn’t come back remembering who she was because when she transferred Elfnein to her body, Carol was in an amnesiac state. She barely remembered anything so I assumed it would be the same. But nope, Carol sure knows who she is, what happened all the way back in GX and everything. (they explain later in the episode that she somehow managed to make a copy of her core personality, explaining why it was still her).

But in truth, I’m actually really happy that Carol and Elfnein can share the same body without consequences. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but maybe not them willingly sharing the same body or something.

One thing in this scene that was super sweet was Carol asking for Elfnein to make sure all the autoscorers get a proper burial. Elfnein described Carol as being someone who’s actually kind, and I think this managed to show how she can be. It was a really sweet moment, one that made me want to cry a little bit honestly.

Once Carol drives Nobel Red away, she contacts everyone at HQ to figure out a plan to help save Miku and destroy that representation of the Divine Power in the sky.

SideNote: Keywords from episode 7 have been translated in english now and helps describe what that giant/baby thing is, as well as Millaarc’s “stained glance” in detail.

Divine Power

The divine power hidden within the Vambrace of Shem-Ha overflowed due to its immense volume exceeding initial simulations. This resulted in a temporary purge of the energy outside of the Château, where it gathered. Plans were amended to allow the divine power time to materialize and fill the girl serving as its vessel.

The giant mass of energy "located" at the highest point of Château de Tiffauges does not move with any clear will of its own. Instead, it merely defends itself from approaching helicopters and Adaptors while attempting to invade its chosen "vessel" like a hermit crab searching for a shell. Its "reactions" seem limited to mere instincts and impulses.

Stained Glance

An attempt at recreating an ancient power once thought to be held by vampires, just as the name suggests, it allows the user to forcibly interfere with others minds via a cursed gaze.

It's difficult to use on someone of disciplined will and requires taking advantage of the target's weaknesses or emotions, and so can't be considered a very effective weapon.

Unless, of course, it can be mastered. In that case, it becomes a fearsome evil eye.

It can corrode the heart, impacting not only judgment but also self-esteem. This in turn can increase the target's dependence on others, causing them to exhibit a number of effects similar to suggestion or hypnosis, such as forcing them to carry out a command.

Swallowed by the rage from having witnessed such a tragedy, Tsubasa allowed herself to fall victim to her opponent's gaze, causing a seal to be carved deep into her heart.

Said seal is exploitable not only by the one who placed it, but also third parties. Using a trigger phrase, it is easy to seize control of her consciousness.

And now, the one using that trigger is the heretic Kazanari Fudou himself.

This seemed clear enough, at least the control aspect of it, but it’s still nice to know officially in more detail.

So basically, Carol teams up with everyone to destroy the Divine Power. Hibiki is still hurt so she can’t exactly help them do it.

It cuts to Noble Red getting replenishment of blood from Fudo and of course he’s still...Fudo. Lol. But as it says in the keywords about Miku (Miku literally gets her own keyword), Fudo is the one that ordered them to bring her back along with Elfnein. 

It’s stated that the information about her being a potential vessel was found out during the breach, so he made a last minute choice to use her as the vessel instead.

He still believes the power will be his though, but have no idea how he’ll actually get it. But his second sentence is referring to Hibiki, as she is considered the god-slayer. I assume he said that in terms of...using Miku as a vessel, because Hibiki wouldn’t want to fight her of course so she can’t destroy the divine power. 

But who knows, it could be about something else outside of that. Can’t say for certain.

So, all the Gear users choose to head out to try and activate the Chateau by singing their Zesshou’s to gather Phonic Gain. It originally didn’t work, and the Chateau just wasn’t reacting to their Phonic Gain. In the meantime, Carol ends up getting attacked by Noble Red again.

They try to win against her by summoning their Daedalus End/Labyrinth against her, trapping her there. However, it literally takes no time for Carol to break free from the trap, breaking the labyrinth and reducing it as useless.

She sang to get free, which as she has claimed back in GX, is literally:

more powerful than seven billion climax songs. Lol. So thanks to that, Carol single-handedly produced enough Phonic Gain for Tsubasa and the others to gain enough to use their X-Drives. 

And with that, they began their assault on the manifestation of the divine power, actually managing to get a good amount of damage onto it. But of course, just like before, it can heal itself on every dimension, so the damage doesn’t last long.

What’s a small little random tidbit I liked was that everyone’s pendants are big/wide now, like how Hibiki’s has been in each season when in her X-Drive form.

There are better closeups than this one but it’s with all them together so yeah. ^^

Also, come to find out that Fudo tainted Noble Red’s blood supply. This seems to be the moment he chooses to betray and cast them aside. Frankly, I think Noble Red knew they couldn’t exactly trust Fudo, but he was actually giving them blood for who knows how long since “saving them”. I didn’t mention the earlier scene they were talking to him, but they were asking about him giving them time to get back to being human but he immediately ends the call in the middle of Vanessa’s plea.

Clearly no one is safe from being betrayed by him. His entire role in this is still up in the air though, and I’m not even sure how he’s going to use the “Stained Glance” on Tsubasa to his advantage. Guess we can only wait and see.

After this, this is where things start getting crazy. They begin playing FINAL COMMANDER again, and they all begin fighting. They couldn’t activate the Chateau, but use their X-Drives to fight instead.

Once again, the damage they manage to do is reduced due to the divine power regenerating, and so, they end up sending Hibiki back into the battle.

This is due to her being stubborn and not wanting to rest basically. Hibiki’s been dreaming about Miku ever since she’s been knocked out and the last one she had was showing Miku being pulled away from her, Hibiki reaching out in fear that Miku was leaving her. And so;

I love her haha.

Moving on, this next part is literally too much to write about. I feel like it’s a scene that needs to be seen and heard because good lord was it amazing. I don’t know how to describe how it made me feel.

With FINAL COMMANDER playing in the background, you literally have everyone trying their best to protect Hibiki; taking hits for her, doing attacks to protect her from incoming projectiles, help guiding her closer and closer to the divine power. It was just great teamwork and something that just shows how far they’ve all come (at least that’s the feeling I got). This is the sort of scene that takes place, once again, in episode 12, fitting of the episode normally titled after the season.

Pictures cannot capture that scene well enough and I’m tempted to just post it myself honestly so people can see what I mean, haha. BUT for now, this really poor recap will do. 

I WILL say that I loved this shot of one piece of Hibiki’s headset being shot off.

Eventually, Hibiki gets close enough, but by this point, Elfnein reveals something (since she’s still in the Chateau with Miku):

This is literally seconds before Hibiki busts through to come face to face with Miku (?) herself.

And then they have...Miku going through a beautiful transformation. I didn’t talk about the other ones in depth but in terms of this one, I feel like I have to at least mention it because of the contrast and it actually being Shem-Ha.

Because what’s different here is that while she does have the vambrace on her wrist, there’s Shenshoujing as well.

The mirror behind her the entire time, showing its light against her as she’s transforming, is actually Shenshoujing. And at the end of it, the Aufwachen Waveform for SSJ shows.

One thing I didn’t mention, simply because I didn’t realize until this past Saturday, was back in episode 6 of XV, they actually showed Shenshoujing on screen. Vanessa was using it, I believe, as a means to keep the vambrace of Shem-Ha in check with its large quantity of power. She was also placing these “stones” around the vambrace as well. It very well could be that those stones were actual pieces of Shenshoujing but we can’t say yet.

All I know for sure is that she had SSJ pulled up on her ipad/tablet thing while she was setting everything up for once Elfnein and Miku got there.

But really, all this proves is that everyone was too late. Hibiki reaches out to Miku of course, calling out her name, only for her to respond with this:

And it just ends like that. Lol. BUT WHAT THEY CHOOSE TO DO IN THE CREDITS INSTEAD OF JUST A BLACK SCREEN IS JUST...SPAM EVERYONE WITH HIBIKI/MIKU MOMENTS LOL.

And from each season! I admit, I am a bum and got upset about this because...they’re just hammering it in. Everything was pretty much building to this moment. Ever since they hinted to Miku being a possible vessel at the end of AXZ, it was really only a matter of time that she’d be forced to have it as well and be used to fight against Hibiki, who’s the god-killer/slayer.

Of course...Hibiki wouldn’t want to use that ability against Miku, she’d want to save her. But what can they all do in order to free Miku from all this? There’s no telling. I feel like this is the moment where things really start getting more intense.

And that’s crazy to say since this whole season has been pretty crazy so far. But with this episode being titled “XV” and all this shizz happened already, I can’t even imagine what they have planned for the last 5.

I really don’t even know how to process this episode in words, since I didn’t know how to after watching the episode.

There’s just....yeah FFFFF.

One sad thing I will say is that they all fought SO HARD to help save Miku. Hibiki even pushed herself out of bed, saying “damn” to all her injuries, and goes out there. But in the end, they were just too late....and that makes me hurt a bit haha. As to why, like before, Hibiki’s expression when she sees Miku is just that more heartbreaking. I can’t imagine everyone else’s reaction too, which I’m sure we’ll see next episode.

Okay I think I’m done. I don’t think this one was as long, or in-depth, as the others because it was either information we already knew or just some good action scenes that are much better to be seen outside of pictures. 

Next week cannot come any faster.)