#and the god of the surface

[majosullivan]

Recently had a re-read of episode one and I am having so many thoughts about Kappa’s birth cause like…there is just so much to unpack there given what we know so far, plus, there is just something to breaking down plot points in a somewhat comedic manner.

Like think about it: the God of the Surface sent down this golden magical fish egg on what would otherwise be considered a random Tuesday in the ocean. Magical egg popped out this toddler sized baby. God of the Surface made sure that said baby’s cognitive development was sped far enough along so he could talk and would have the capability to start completing prophecies as soon as he popped out. This however did not include them making sure the baby had the ability to read. They then tell this baby what his job will be for his entire life and then just, fucks off. To where? For what reason? Are they possibly unable to speak any further with him for some reason? Are they dead? Did they get lost looking for the milk? Who knows! We certainly don’t right now. All we know is that they sent out, what by all means, is their newborn son to complete these unbreakable pacts that they made with different castles, with there being no proper guardian to look after and teach this baby in sight (the closest thing Kappa had to this being creatures in the sea keeping an eye on him so he didn’t die).

As one can likely expect from the previous facts, one day into being alive, this baby has already started the pathway towards developing an anxiety disorder and hating his assigned life role since the very first prophecy he completed did not go the way people expected and he has no way of finding out why, with his only source of information seemingly ignoring him. This isn’t even going into all the other traumatic shit Kappa goes through later in life (you know, like that time he skinned himself alive to save a dying castle but in the end, he couldn’t because of forces out of his control), and more relavently to this topic, how there is supposed to be OTHER BEACONS to help take care of prophecies from each castle.

Kappa is in clear need of therapy, but all things considered, the fact he turned out to be as much as a functioning adult as he has is impressive

[ghostie-gengar]

this is my take on sonadow

[doydoune]

names names names (3-4/4)

(1-2/4)

bonus

[tr1ppykay]

takes like these show such an immense lack of any attempt at meaningful understanding of transmasculine perspectives and experiences that it genuinely makes my head hurt. like you do realize there is a difference between not FEELING pressured to do something, and not EXPERIENCING pressure to do something, right? of course you do, but you read a few personal posts about transmascs experiencing euphoria and made a bad faith generalization on our entire social position.

sure, transmascs may feel less pressure to be attractive as personal affirmation of our masculinity. but a misogynistic society at large still continues to pressure us to be attractive and feminine. of course it is born from misogyny, but like we have been screaming for YEARS, we are still affected by misogyny.

a huge proponent of the targeted violence towards us is demonizing the effects of physical transition- about how transitioning makes us ugly (which OOP directly contributes to in this post) and ruins our value in womanhood to the potential men who want to fuck and marry and impregnate us. trans men are correctively assaulted to feminize us, largely because our oppressors see us as "deviant women who must be fixed by forcing us back into femininity, and eventually beauty." there is a literal book titled "irreversible damage" that outlines how we are "coerced into destroying our beautiful fertile bodies."

i have heard countless stories of transmascs seeking physical transition who were equally denied, because a psychiatrist deemed them as currently attractive women in their prime, who must have their value to the patriarchy preserved at all costs.

and ultimately, if despite all of this, we continue to reject white supremacist feminine beauty standards and find joy in our transition, a misogynist society that believes we have no value outside our current or potential attractiveness thinks we would be better off dead, lest we tempt other women to abandon ship.

transmascs are not your enemies! we are not experiencing wildly different things! i promise you that trans people across the spectrum will always have far more shared experiences than unique ones!

i am reaching out my hand to you, so we can stand taller and stronger against the white supremacist patriarchal pressure placed upon us both. will you reach back and grab it, or push me to the ground in an attempt to escape and save yourself?

[choccy-milky]

...nowhere is off limits for seb 🥴 (scene from the office bc ive been rewatching clips lately and when i saw this one i HAD to redraw it as them LMAO)

[anastacialy]

guys, i think the hermits are going to accidentally start a prank war again. because just like last time, a game of telephone has begun. first, false made iskall's build into ''false beans,'' her shop from the previous season. however, to give herself plausible deniability, she signs it with "love, Joel. x" due to his username, smallishbeans.

next, iskall sees this, and completely believes it. he thinks it was joel who pranked him, and as he says to pearl while showing off the sign, which he kept even after tearing the prank down, "joel gave me a kiss." in his most recent video, he pranks joel by sending him loads of anonymous messages in order to completely spam and fill his inbox, preventing him from getting any more mail, with notes such as "thinking about you. x"

of course, joel is going to have absolutely no context for this, because he didn't make the initial prank. so who is joel going to assume sent him all those messages while he was away on holiday? well, i have a guess.

etho.

[spacebubblehomebase]

"A New Day Will Dawn."

-Said some guy named Luke probably.

Welcome to my #HHStargazersAU! Stay Tuned~♡? -Bubbly💙

[waitineedaname]

"hualian invented love" well bingqiu invented telling your partner that if you were his mother you wouldn't have aborted him even if it killed you, so. im not sure what that is, but bingqiu sure invented it

[steamingstewchunks]

Chhk- someone order two Sari meals, one with a side of Bumblebee and the other with a large Megatron drink? -cchk

My preciousssssseesssss

[skeptiiciizm]

More Aphrollomes and other gods as well :-3

[feligayzed]

your beauty never ever scared me

[runningwithscizzorz]

Okay shadow the edgehog

Still getting used to animating and storyboarding again but this is genuinely really fun to get back into✨

[1296-very-good-year]

I can appreciate the interpretation that Jayce had to break his leg and go insane and suffer and climb from the bottom of the fissures to the top of Piltover as some karmic lesson to teach Jayce about Viktor's difficult life. (I think it's stupid, but I can appreciate that others might like it)

However, I CAN'T accept the idea that Jayce going through that trauma is how he came up with his awful speech at the end to talk Viktor down. It felt like he was possessed because where tf did that "accept your imperfections" philosophy come from?

WHY would Jayce breaking his leg and suffering horrendously for it make him think Viktor should have just ACCEPTED his own bad leg and terminal illness?

Jayce gets out of the pit because he built himself a brace. He used every tool and scrap of knowledge he had at his disposal to "cure" his weakness just like Viktor wanted to do! And then in the finale... Jayce suddenly believes he shouldn't have?

Where was the "accept your imperfections" you preached about Jayce? Because it looked like all you did was suffer until you managed to overcome your imperfection. With technology.

Where is all that beauty you were talking about?

Did you learn to appreciate how "beautiful" it was at the bottom of that pit with your toxic salamander friends? Do you regret that you didn't stay there? That maybe Viktor should have too???

[itsbenedict]

IT WASN'T CLOUDED GLASS

a horror story about what happened when i took a lysol wipe to the sliding glass door of my shower i've been using for years

[trappedinafantasy37]

There are multiple gods in the game that you can directly interact with and they all have ties to the narrative. You can interact with Shar via Shadowheart. You can interact with Mystra via Gale. You can interact with Myrkul via Ketheric when he takes on the avatar form. You can interact with Bhaal via Durge and in the fight with Orin. You can interact with Bane after killing Gortash and using "Speak with Dead" in which the soul you speak to is not Gortash, but Bane himself. I would include Vlaakith in this list but Vlaakith is not a god, she is a lich presenting herself as a god. And, of course, there is the Absolute which doesn't really become a god until it ascends into the Netherbrain (although that is debatable).

But, did you know that Lolth will also interact with you? As far as I am aware, Lolth is the only non-story related god in which you do have interactions with. One of them is only available if you are a Lolth-sworn drow, and the other is only available if you are a Cleric of Lolth (you do not need to be Lolth-sworn for it).

The first instance is in the goblin camp with the spiders in the pit. This does require that you are a Lolth-sworn drow and that you have the ability to speak with animals. When talking to the spiders, you will have the option to present yourself to the spiders as Lolth herself. If you fail the persuasion check, Lolth gets pissed off as she was listening to you and is not happy that you tried to present yourself as her. And she tells the spiders you are an imposter and they attack you. But if you succeed the check, Lolth doesn't do anything and the spiders will think you are Lolth. So, Lolth doesn't really have a problem with you pretending to be her. But if you are going to pretend to be her, you better do it right. If the spiders think you are Lolth, you can ask them about what's going on in the goblin camp and the spiders only talk about one thing. They immediately tell you that there is another drow in the camp who has forgotten her way and that she is forsaken. And, as I said, Lolth is here. She heard the spiders admit this. Lolth does nothing about it.

The second instance is in the Underdark with the Phalar Aluve. When you interact with the sword, you have two different checks, a Strength check and a Religion check. If you do the Strength check, you can just pull it out of the stone and be on your merry way. If you perform the Religion check, the narrator will tell you different things depending on certain conditions. If you are a Lolth-sworn drow and/or a Cleric of Lolth, the narrator will tell you that the religious rite to pull the blade from the stone is blasphemous as it pays honor to the weak. If you are of any other race and/or cleric of any other god, the narrator will tell you that the sword is of Eilistraee and the rite pays honor to the fallen. The religious rite is that you spill a little bit of your blood and the sword will rise out of the stone on its own. If you do this as a Cleric of Lolth (you don't need to be Lolth-sworn) you will feel hundreds of spiders crawl all over you as Lolth is warning you not to do shit like that ever again. Not only did you perform the religious rite of another god, you performed the religious rite of a god she hates. And she is letting you know how much she hated that.

These are the only two instances in the game that I have found in which Lolth interacts with the player but there are plenty of other moments in which Lolth could interact with you, but doesn't (such as with the Phase Spider, the baby spiders in Grymforge, Kar'niss, or the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar). Of these two moments where Lolth does interact with you, one of these instances is in the goblin camp, and the other is in the Underdark not too far away from the goblin camp. I don't think it is much of a coincidence that these two interactions occur in close proximity to Minthara. Almost as if Lolth has a reason to be in that area specifically to watch and monitor things, and you just so happened to be there. And the only things that compel her to interact with you is because you pissed her off. But, as long you don't piss her off, she will do nothing and she will say nothing.

When Minthara was being tortured by the Absolute, she prayed to Lolth and begged Lolth to give her the strength to fight her enemies. But Lolth does nothing and Lolth says nothing. In fact, that was the full extent of Lolth's "punishment" for Minthara, nothing. All Lolth did was not answer Minthara's prayers and not show up when Minthara needed her the most. Lolth did not torture Minthara like the Absolute did, Lolth did not turn her into a drider, nor did Lolth eat her. All she did, was nothing. And yes, Lolth is known for abandoning drow and no longer interacting with them. A drow has to do something incredibly awful in order for Lolth to just back away from them entirely. But you cannot convince me that Lolth is going to let one of her Baenre's go so easily. It's not as if Minthara has done anything truly awful either to make Lolth that mad.

According to Minthara, she herself has sinned against the Spider Queen, but it's not as if she chose to abandon Lolth, she was forced away and mind controlled into being devoted to another god. But would this make a difference to Lolth? Does it really matter if Minthara was compelled to have faith in another god besides Lolth? It isn't until Minthara is freed and feels the absence of Lolth that she chooses to no longer follow Lolth. Minthara even mentions how turning against Lolth is a big no-no in Menzoberranzan. Minthara herself at one point has hunted down and killed those who turn their backs from Lolth so she knows the same will be done to her if she were to ever return home. In fact, if you are a Lolth-sworn drow or a Cleric of Lolth, you are given unique dialogue options with Minthara to kill her because she is a traitor to Lolth and these options continue to show up until you recruit her into your party and she joins your roster. Despite all of this, Lolth does nothing. Minthara spews anti-Lolth rhetoric left and right, and Lolth does nothing. If you take Minthara to the tabernacle, she will spit on a shrine to Lolth, and Lolth does nothing.

Minthara is also able to walk through the Gauntlet of Shar, which is in the Underdark, and Lolth does nothing. Sure, you could argue that its connection to the Shadowfell and the fact that Shar is there via Shadowheart is enough to keep Lolth away. The lore of DnD does not make it quite clear what the relationship between these two goddesses are. But I am willing to bet that Lolth is smart enough not to step on Shar's toes because Shar would annihilate her. However, there is a small little section of the Gauntlet where it actually does spit you out directly into the Underdark and into Lolth's territory. Minthara can walk right out there just fine, and Lolth does nothing.

But most importantly, Minthara's default ending is her returning to the Underdark with the sole purpose of destroying House Baenre and then killing Lolth. Destroying House Baenre could lead to a chaotic and political disaster in Menzoberranzan, and Lolth does nothing. Minthara quite literally wants to kill Lolth and has intentions to do so after taking House Baenre, and Lolth. Does. Nothing!

If Minthara goes into the Underdark and destroys House Baenre, this will cause chaos and death. And the Baenre's won't be the only ones she has to destroy, but any and all allies of House Baenre in which they do have a lot. And Lolth will feed off of all the death and carnage and chaos that Minthara is about to bring to Menzoberranzan because Lolth loves chaos more than she hates traitors.

Maybe, Lolth has not abandoned her as Minthara thinks she has. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara has not actually upset her. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara is already doing everything Lolth wants her to do. And all it took, was making Minthara think that Lolth abandoned her. There was no need for Lolth to answer Minthara's prayers, because Minthara always had the strength to fight her enemies.

[pareris]

You know this scene?

Ofc you do.

Now please look at Val's face:

and at Vox's:

Idk but yall but this is all the proof I need to say that these two were making out before this.

BECAUSE LOOK OKAY, SURE THE LINES ARE KINDA INCONSISTENT IT FLICK IN AND OUT OF VOXS DESIGN BUT WE DONT SEE VALENTINO WITH THAT LINE ANY OTHER TIME

NO LINE.

BUT HERE?????

LINE. LINE. LINE.