#back in azteca

[make-dragonspyre-great-again]

FUUUUUUCK

[astral-schools]

do you remember when we felt like the only two alive?

[steve-brules-rules]

Brb busy getting my heart fucking ripped out by the ending of Novus

[frozenfirecats]

obsessing over doctor demented because why did ki go so hard on her design only to have her appear for a single fight?????

[pupuseriazag]

Nadie:

Yo, a mi mejor amigo: ESQUE MIRA, Tezcatlipoca me parece la mejor opcion para que el genere un poco de pedo en mi historia porque tecnicamente esta zona esta manejada por Quetzacoatl. Asique imaginate dice el man "Puta si le ayudo a este cacique, puede que me empiecen a venerar en sus tierras en vez de a ese cerote." y con mucha mas razon el maje se va a emputar con Atlacatl por casarse con una seguidora de Quetzacoatl o Itzqueye--

Mi amigo:

[destiny-dreamwielder]

my classmate just looked at the task bar on my computer and said "wizard101! i used to love that game!" and it took everything in me not to interrupt this class and force her to tell me everything about her experience. what school were you? did you beat malistaire? what was your wizard name? come back and play arc 2 and let me watch you finish azteca.

[oldestenemy]

So Polaris it is.

The wizard is not keen on dealing with Coleridge again—though they believe he is finally free of whatever Old Cob did to addle his poor brain. It doesn’t matter. He is a sour memory at best. He is the drawing echo of the Black Hole, the thunderous warnings of the Astral Guardians. He is a living reminder that they are naive enough to overlook traps when desperate. Worse still are the words that come out of his mouth, not the denial of help—they don’t care about that, he can drink himself to death on Polaris for all they care—but the solution he offers. The captain they should seek out. The world he is exploring.

“Something about an asteroid—”

“—comet.” the wizard corrects Taylor, voice monotone and empty.

Azteca.

They have to go back to Azteca.

“Wizard?”

Their gaze slips from Taylor to Duncan, eyes flickering—brown—gold—back. They can barely even hear him. It’s just screaming. It’s all screaming. The key is gone, the key is gone and Azteca is as good as dead, is burning and blistering under a hailstorm of glass and rock for the rest of time and—

—are they crying?

Normal tears, heat and salt, still following the path carved out for them by bitter Shadow.

“We’ll need a ship.” They manage without their voice cracking, pulling their hood up in an attempt to regain any semblance of control, of composure. “There is no key for Azteca, the doors aren’t an option—”

“—Aye, my vessel can be spared a one-way trip—as stated my skyfaring days are over.” Taylor hands them a glowing piece of some sort of crystal. “That’s connected to the fountain on board, it’ll take you straight there. Still docked in the ice floes, but I imagine you’ll manage getting her back in the sky alright. Nothing compared to our journey through the Starfall Sea.”

The wizard nods again.

They don’t know what to say.

Grief roils in their gut, mingling with guilt and old anger they feel, for once, too young to carry.

“Oh and if you see our dear friend Old Cobb—let him know he’ll always drink for free at RataTiki!”

A huff that might be a laugh, might be a noise of derision, “I’ll tell him.” the words come out in triplicate, starlight like blood on their tongue. The wizard swallows hard, shakes their head. “Enjoy the rest of your life, Captain.”

Somehow they suspect he hasn’t got much of it left.

~*~

Duncan keeps his mouth shut until they make it onto the ice where Coleridge’s ship is…less docked and more crashed. Though the wizard thinks Taylor was lucky to make it this far at all, considering the state the ship had been in when they’d found the wreck on Crescent Beach.

“Remind me why we walked here instead of using the crystal?”

The wizard doesn’t answer.

They climb the carved ladder on the side of the ship, hauling themself onto the deck. Sure enough, in the center of the upper level, by the helm, there is a fountain carved of the same crystal, spitting fine streams of what looks like, mana?

Interesting.

They wonder if there’s something like this on Baldur’s ship.

They’ve never seen so, if there is.

The wizard has, admittedly, never piloted a ship of any kind. But how hard could it be? They see sigils carved into the ship in a handful of places, at the helm, across the sides where they had stepped on board—the magic in them is different, but it’s still magic. It still feels like it would respond were they to step into place, pour energy into it.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you.” It’s not a question, and the wizard looks back at Duncan with a dead eyed smile as their only response before pulling their hood back over their face.

They do not trust themself to talk seriously right now.

They do not trust their ability to hold onto the pain.

Faking apathy is the best they can do.

“And you would? Know what you’re doing?” They raise an eyebrow he cannot see from under the hood. But their tone likely gets the point across.

“Sometimes the advantage of nobody being willing to put up with you is having to listen to Nolan Stormgate speak for more than thirty seconds.”

That…doesn’t really answer their question.

“Why would that help?”

Duncan just gives them a look. “Seriously? You’re choosing a weird time to play stupid. Just move—take care of making sure nothing hits us.”

The wizard does not move.

“What would talking to Nolan help for?”

“Did you think the name Stormgate was just for show?” He asks, pushing past them to the helm, “Remind me again how you made it this far.” There is less venom in the words than they would have expected, but it is still there. He traces some part of the circle with his boot and it lights up immediately. “I mean it by the way—if we’re headed into debris from Xiabalba you’re gonna need to put something around us, this ship will be lucky not to crash into the nearest mountain before we even make it into the sky.”

Well.

If that was what needed doing.

Part of them is hesitant to let Duncan lead—but it’s either that or waste time trying to figure out the ship on their own. They’d helped with the wards on Baldur’s ship before, so that at least, they could manage.

The worst is on the way.

But there will be time to brace for it.

Read the whole series here <3

[extravalgant]

i looove azteca from like. a narrative stand point

because we have this hero and thats you. were practically the stuff of legends by arc 2 just because of what kind of experience we have under our belt. we've never lost a fight, and it's assumed that we never will. that's how powerful the wizard is—everyone expects them to win, expects light to triumph shadow

and when we fail.... well. it shocks everyone doesnt it? people get angry. people get disappointed. to the wizard, who has never known failure or disappointment, it must feel like an entirely new thing. this culture was here for thousands and thousands of years—a culture and a people you never knew about until you were brought into the spiral.

and now because of you its gone. because you failed to save it and stop morganthe, its gone. and i think merle's passiveness about this situation hits a little differently this way—i read it more as disappointment, anyways. and to someone who has never known defeat, not to this capacity, with this many casualities and victims, the disappointment feels a little more crushing, doesn't it? the wizard is supposed to be a hero summoned from the legends, from a place not beyond a spiral where they had not heard of magic, and it feels like they let everyone down.

this imo is where morganthe truly establishes herself as a villain. i mean she already was a villain before imo BUT bringing a grieving man back from the dead to puppet around AND destroying a world is just straight up evil (and i love that). people like to complain about the malistaire bit which is valid in some cases but i think it really does sell the frivolity in which she chooses to go about things. like hey heres a man you killed with your own hands. probably when you were young. i brought him back from the dead to use as my pawn and now you have to fight him again btw. using a dead grieving man for my own goals. and then the fact that we cant beat him at the end, to 'send him back', is just another way she gets a leg up on us. she leaves us with unfinished business and xibalba destroying azteca is just icing on the already fucked up cake she's given us.

shes TAUNTING us. and this is important because it does come back to us in khrysalis—no doubt the wizard is still haunted by the sins of their past; their failure to save azteca. they have to get through this bit, to learn to let it go, before they can learn shadow magic. after all this, it's still stuck with us—our failure, one that she spearheaded.

dont even get me started on the wizard learning shadow magic maaaaaan because now they share one thing in common—they know shadow magic. they wield shadow magic. and shadow magic is so reviled that it's forbidden. no one else but her can really understand the isolation that comes with learning shadow magic, and it parallels the wizard and her even more because neither of them had a choice! the shadow magi turned morganthe into the shadow queen she is today, and we are subsequently forced to learn shadow magic and do the same if they ever have a chance at defeating her. i love it. i LOVE it. i love azteca... i love khrysalis....

[wanderingnork]

Having finished all Wizard101 worlds, I can actually make a full tier list! And yes, I know some of these are DEEPLY controversial opinions. (Polaris not being best world? Le gasp!)

I’ll explain the rankings, worst to best, below the cut.

F: Avalon. It’s the worst world. I, a myth wizard with subpar gear, soloed everything except the Indigo Giant boss, who I just needed help with because of his stupid damage output. The world design is cramped: you’ll be asked to go on an epic quest to retrieve something from a villain who lives right around the corner. The entire Lakeside area, with several distinct “biomes” (I don’t know a better word), is either the same size or smaller than the Caer Lyon area—which is a single town. The cartoony square trees and simplified textures are out of place in Arc 2’s more complex world designs. Its placement in the Arc 2 narrative is jarring. Yes, it gives us some Morganthe background, but that’s not remotely the core of the plot. Sandwiched between Zafaria (atmospheric, relatively high stakes) and Azteca (somber, arguably the highest stakes in the game), it feels…silly. It could have been a side world and if it was, I’d have a lot less beef.

D: Marleybone. While it has some redeeming qualities (I do love the steampunk elements very much and the Big Ben dungeon is a goddamn blast), it’s overall…meh. Every area is virtually identical various shades of gray—at least in Mooshu, also repetitive, the color schemes change by area. It’s terribly classist and when you look any deeper than the surface things get weird. Why the fuck are we attacking street sweepers???

D: Empyrea. My complaints about cramped world design go for this one, too. The supposedly huge Aeriel Jungle is smaller than all of the city of Zanadu. As much as I love the game’s pop culture references, this world took it too far. A wink and a nudge or a clever spin is WAY different than just dumping the cast of Star Trek into the main plot. And it’s every two steps in Part 1! The NPCs are 50/50 endearing and obnoxious to me. I adore the Aero Plains, at least. It’s one of the most aesthetically pleasing areas of any world. And Part 2’s focus on the Raven-and-Spider conflict is really good.

D: Zafaria. There’s an essay to be written on the troubling tropes at play in this world and more expert people than I have written those. Tldr, the sheer volume of stereotypes, the use of the “noble savage” trope, and mishmashed cultures are really an issue. And there isn’t a lot else going for this world, plot-wise or cool-NPC-wise. I find Zafaria forgettable, unless I’m cringing. Or thinking about the awesome giraffe librarian, who is indeed awesome.

C: Celestia. It’s just really uneven. I fuckin love the District of the Stars and Stormriven, but the Floating Land and the fact that I have to deal with Marleybonians are not thrilling. The crab empire is…fine. Quirky and par for the course. I appreciate how the story advances toward the more epic elements of the setting and the postapocalyptic history as you go along, but getting that far can be a drag.

C: Mooshu. This one shares most of Zafaria’s racial issues and suffers from Marleybone’s deeply repetitive area design. Repetitive enemies, too—monstrology on that world is visually boring as fuck. But it’s a lot less forgettable. The War dungeon is one of my favorites in the game, and the first time I can remember going “oh hey this game does more than kid’s book isekai.” Taking it as a whole, and including Catmandu and Kembaalung which have gorgeous design, it’s a perfectly average kind of world.

C: Wysteria. LORD BRAMBLE WAS RIGHT GODDAMMIT WHY CAN’T I SIDE WITH HIM??? I mean…it’s a Hogwarts Triwizard Tournament expy. It’s cute. I like having a world with no vast plot impact. The library dungeon design is absolutely kickass. But it’s just not…big enough to rate super highly. It’s there and gone. If we ever get to go *back*, I’d probably put it higher.

C: Wallaru. It’s pretty cool. The Outback area was gorgeous and as a horror fan I fucking adore Freddie Kroaker. The bosses were great, I’m a huge fan of the cheats in Wallaru (soloed almost all of them). What I couldn’t quite figure out is how I feel about the politics. It felt…off, how they handled the association between this fictional world and real Australia. I’m not educated enough to speak extensively on it, just to say that it felt Weird from what I do know. And hoooo boy. As much as I fucking adored the finale with the Doom Moon, I am N O T a fan of the sudden conspiracy reveal. Can we…not do antisemitic tropes like that? Please?

C: Aquila. It’s super cool and aesthetically gorgeous but ultimately it’s a collection of cool dungeons and epic combat challenges. As a player who primarily is here for the story, I am completely neutral on Aquila.

C: Novus. This got kicked down from B (where it belongs on plot reasons) by three things. One: the puzzle monster dungeon THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME MOTION SICK. I’m sure they were trying to get creative. N O P E. Two: while I know the NPCs needed to be unlikeable, they may have taken that too far. Mario di Mario specifically was so obnoxious I like to think my wizard actually punched him. Three: the Marleybone area was dumb as hell visually. Why the fuck did they use fire hydrants as houses? In context of all Marleybone stuff we’ve previously seen, it makes no sense.

B: Krokotopia. Suffers from somewhat repetitive level design, but the color scheme changes in every area and each area’s new theme is a banger. Especially Tomb of Storms. I adore the Manders so much. The issues of Marleybonian colonialism—which will come back all the way down the line in Novus—are at least loosely addressed. Including House of Scales, which has incredible design, music, and combat, I enjoyed pretty much everything in this world. (Caveat: Selenopolis hasn’t been released as of this list. Krokotopia position subject to change.)

B: Polaris. Wonderful world. Way too fucking cramped. Why is the Forlorn Tayg, a supposedly vast area, barely the same size as the Gulag? It also moves too fast for me, I could have done with a little more lingering and sidequesting. But I fucking love all the NPCs, I love how you meet a male ballerina wearing a tutu who’s not a joke and the penguins don’t have deranged sexual dimorphism in their designs, and the Borealis Titan is incredible.

B: Mirage. Many lovable NPCs and many beautiful areas, with special shout-outs to the Chronoverge and the Alkali Barrows. Loved the cat politics. The Pacman dungeon is hilariously brilliant and the Sands of Time are glorious. Suffers from SEVERE stereotyping and racism, I spent a lot of time absolutely cringing. Brought back deranged sexual dimorphism in character designs (why are the camels Like That). I may be the only person who didn’t like Istar and I’m okay with that.

A: Wizard City. It has its ups and downs. I include the Catacombs here, as well. There’s just so much content for so many levels, you know? I love the vast majority of it, both old and new designs. I don’t love the Gobblers, that’s…always been weird to me. Surprisingly I’m not a Catacombs fan. But everything else, the Three Streets and Unicorn Way and Ravenwood and the Commons…yeah. I love it. It really feels like home, somehow.

A: Karamelle. WE GET TO JOIN A UNION AND TEAR DOWN CAPITALISM. There are gummy bears you can fight! Fields of candy corn and orchards of gumdrop trees! I did almost this entire world solo, including the optional bosses, except the Bundozer. Has one of the creepiest areas in the entire game—you know the model town where the speakers play the Karamelle theme? Ever go to the edge of that map, where the speakers fade and the whole world goes quiet? It’s great. I don’t like gross-out humor though, so loses points for Gobblerton. And…the accents were painful.

A: Dragonspyre. While it struggles with deeply repetitive area design, there are enough unique locations—the Crystal Grove, the Great Spyre, and the Grand Chasm stand out here—that it’s not as overwhelming as Mooshu and Marleybone. More importantly, to me this is where the game gets its stakes. The threat that Malistaire presents—waking the Dragon Titan—stops being theoretical. You’re walking through the consequences of the last time the Titan woke. You get your quests from the ghosts of Dragonspyre. It’s serious now. Your eventual victory means something in a way that other victories haven’t.

S: Grizzleheim. Including Wintertusk here. Has some of the best, most unique level designs in the entire game. Areas are of reasonable size to traverse, but still give a powerful sense of scale to the world. Stunning music throughout. While I affectionately call it “Grizzlehell” for being so fucking difficult, that’s actually really amazing. It feels like a true challenge, especially when the worlds around it are speeding by. The stakes grow in a reasonable way throughout the quest line, from the easy stuff in Savarstaad Pass until it makes sense in Wintertusk that you’re here to stop the end of the world.

S: Lemuria. God. I loved this so much. It falls victim a bit to the problem of Too Many Shout-Outs that Empyrea did, but here…they mean something. The use of Silver Age/pulp fiction heroes is meant as a thematic exploration of what heroism means. It’s not pop culture for the sake of the thing, it’s an analysis of that culture through affectionate parody. What does it mean to be a hero? Is “heroism” a single thing, or something more? Can something be heroic sometimes and villainous another? It’s a good interrogation of that concept, is what I’m saying. The areas are reasonably sized for easy travel, but still have diverse “biomes” without feeling cramped. Each one is so unique! The heroes of Lemuria are endearing, and Dasein is wonderful. The unfolding plot is strong, too. I was genuinely sad when I left Lemuria and cheered aloud when I got to see the Heroes again at the end of Wallaru.

S: Azteca and Khrysalis. These two have to go together. I get why people don’t like them. They’re…kind of a lot. They’re full of “defeat and collect” quests with shitty drop rates, the bosses have insane health, and there are just so damn many quests. But…not only are they both beautiful in design with gorgeous music, they also have some of the highest stakes in the game. After so many worlds of victory, Azteca’s finale is a punch in the face. With brass knuckles. You fail. You lose. A whole world is destroyed. And the narration throughout the world, pointing out your heroism and superiority, makes it hit even harder. (As a paleo nerd, it makes me smile that Azteca is dinosaur-and-Aztec themed. The Chixulub impact crater is off the Yucatán Peninsula, home of the Aztecs—the world of non-avian dinosaurs ended there. Cool nod to real geological history.) And that failure makes Khrysalis feel intense. You now know that this game won’t always guarantee victory, so stopping Morganthe has a genuine sense od suspense—will the game makers let this be a victory? Or will Arc 3 be dealing with the fallout of the end of the Spiral as we know it? And Khrysalis is fucking dark. A whole sidequest is finding a mother’s lost child, who has been brainwashed into a military cult and may die. This was changed in a recent update, but when I played through the world the “defeat and collect” quests were “kill and collect.” It pulls no punches and never tries to make things simpler or friendlier. There are pop culture references, sure, but many are to older grim fantasy stories like those of Michael Moorcock and his contemporaries. It’s heavy. There are truly high stakes. You feel like you can fail. And to me, that story makes the combination of Azteca and Khrysalis the best worlds in the game.

[veldfulharth]

I love when the devs just say stuff about the lore like it's all casual when it completely reframes how the spiral as a whole is seen. Like the most recent live they showed the demo for ravenwood academy and the camera panned over to the blackboard and it had the magic wheel thing with all of the schools and they said The game takes place before balance magic was discovered which was already wild cus the drakes are supposedly in ravenwood already but the wild thing is that they said the game takes place 50-60 years ago. I'm sorry what? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? I can accept balance magic can spread across the spiral quickly as the spiral likes gossip but.. how does Azteca have balance magic? The world was thought to have been lost in the early spiral but there are enemies and bosses that are of the school. That could be the Aztecasaurs Also discovering it but there's still one thing, the old one's doomed situationship. How on Bartleby's green spiral did quartermane get balance magic? He's been on ice for aeons but still can cast spells like judgement? I know some spells are added to increase the decks, looking at you dyvim, but his whole school couldn't have existed back when the spiral geographic society was founded. I don't know

[mariacallous]

MADISON, Wis. — A bombshell report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel flew $26 million of cash across the U.S.-Mexico Border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca was cut off by several other U.S. banks over “risk and compliance concerns” after reporting linked it to cartel activity. An executive of the bank was recently implicated in a federal indictment detailing his attempts to bribe a member of the U.S. Congress to get U.S. banks to once again do business with the bank. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million of cash from Mexico City to Irvine, California as part of a deal with Banco Azteca last December.

This shocking revelation comes as Hovde has refused to disclose which foreign banks and governments his bank has done millions of dollars of business with. What else is Hovde hiding?

Read more below:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Democrats question Eric Hovde over his bank’s $26M deal with a troubled Mexican bank

By: Dan Bice

Banco Azteca, the 10th largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of problems in recent years.

Accused in past news stories of having links to the Mexican drug cartel.

Dropped as a financial partner by some U.S. banks because of “risk and compliance concerns.” 

And now caught up in a Texas bribery scheme with an American congressman.

But Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, doesn’t mind doing business with it.

In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four airplane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” records show. Hovde, who is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is chairman and CEO of Sunwest.

Now Democrats are questioning the deal, saying it gives voters a window into how Hovde runs his businesses by putting personal financial stakes above other issues.

Arik Wolk, spokesman of the Democratic Party, said Sunwest’s transactions with Banco Azteca are “extraordinarily concerning,” especially given the alleged past ties between Azteca and the drug cartel. He added, however, that Democrats were not suggesting Hovde or Sunwest had done anything illegal.

“Hovde is willing to do anything to enrich himself, even flying cash across the border for a bank suspected of working for criminal groups that are pouring deadly fentanyl into our state,” Wolk claimed.

As recently as 2021, Banco Azteca had no correspondent banks in the U.S. with which it could transfer U.S. currency.

Over the past decade, several news accounts, including two by Reuters, have drawn links between Banco Azteca and Mexican gangs, which are the leading suppliers of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics to the U.S.

In 2023, a Reuters reporter wrote that drug cartels are using remittances – money transfers favored by migrant workers – to send illicit earnings back to Mexico. 

The Reuters reporter said he witnessed five individuals on motorcycles collecting cash from people leaving branch offices of three banks, including Banco Azteca. Locals said these were couriers for the Sinaloa Cartel picking up drug money sent as remittances.

In a 2014 story, Reuters quoted a prominent anti-kidnapping activist saying Mexican gangs involved in kidnapping migrants ask for the money to be sent to Banco Azteca. Also, the Yale Journal of International Affairs reported that Banco Azteca was one of four banks that the Mexican cartel was using to process extortion payments.

A little more than a decade ago, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated Banco Azteca’s ties with its then-correspondent bank in the U.S., Lone Star National Bank of Pharr, and turned up money-laundering concerns. Repeatedly cited and fined, Lone Star soon ended its relationship with Banco Azteca.

Other financial institutions, including Fifth Third Cincinnati and CBW Bank, soon followed.

According to a May story in the Wall Street Journal, Banco Azteca has struggled doing business with U.S. banks since regulators began enforcing rules cracking down on money laundering from drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Many U.S. banks have cut ties with Banco Azteca because of “risk and compliance concerns.”

For years, that left Banco Azteca holding onto large sums of U.S. currency with no place to offload it.

[rug-glitch]

So I was talking with a friend this morning about a character who constantly dies and respawns and it got me thinking about the YW

Hear me out if we go based on game mechanics our wizard can never die they'll always just wake back up or respawn. That has to be so traumatizing like experiencing death firsthand over and over again. Even worse so is the fact that even in death the wizard is trapped in this world. Forever to be nothing but a weapon brought to protect the spiral. Constantly dying then fighting and dying again.

Bonus if after Azteca changes the way the YW views this process. Or any traumatic moment they go through for that matter there is so much to talk about.

[ravenwoodalum]

on karamelle, why it sucks, and redeeming azteca's reputation.

I just got to Karamelle for the second time, and good lord. I hadn't forgotten how much I hated it, but it hit me like a wall of bricks. And I'm already preparing myself to marathon it and be fucking done questing here for at least a year.

I think it breaks down like this.

Baby's first workers rights movement/sugary-sweet surveillance state Listen. I know this is a game that doesn't allow for player characters to have much individual impact on the in-game narrative. I know we've had to do errands for cops. I know we work for a war criminal. I KNOW there are flaws in the system. But there's something about the way that Karamelle's set up that makes it all feel so. much. worse. And that's the fact that Karamelle has such a stellar reputation within the Spiral before this. The happiest place in the Spiral, the sweetest treats in the Spiral. Everyone seems to fucking love this place. Almost no one outside of those actually working there seem to understand how corrupt it is. And so the YW is talked down to at every turn, like this is their first exposure to a corrupt environment. And sure, maybe it is within, canon. YW gets isekai'd at a very young age and then made into a child soldier, maybe this is actually the first time in canon that they've been introduced to these concepts. But (and this may just be me) it feels really rude to the player -- who might actually have experience with these ideas -- to make them feel like a fucking idiot with the dialogue options. Karamelle's characters just feel rude.

Oh, so the Gobblers were a fatphobic, Roald Dahl type thing from the start. Cool cool cool. Any of you ever read Roald Dahl's book "The Twits"? It's a very unremarkable story all things considered, except for this bit.

Aside from Roald Dahl's unavoidable history of antisemitism, does this remind you of anything? Honestly, this reminds me of the Gobbblers.

We first meet the Gobblers around level 10 in Wizard City -- creatures driven by consumption. And then we get to Empyrea and hear that the Alphoi -- skinny "civilized" creatures -- can become Gobblers if they eat too much or are unhealthy in their eating habits. Which makes one of our oldest running enemies a loop-around fatphobic thing, ESPECIALLY when we get to them in Karamelle, the home world of the Gobblers. Rosina, especially, just oozes fatphobia and diet culture. The literal vilification of being fat isn't even subtext, it's just text.

The Old One, The Cabal, and what to do when your escape from the world ends up shoving what you were escaping from right back in your face. When I was in sophomore year of college, fall of 2019, I had one of the worst mental health periods of my life. Antisemitism was fucking everywhere, I was always a moment away from a panic attack, and it felt like no one understood. While I'm lucky in the fact that I was able to get an official diagnosis for genetically inherited PTSD, alongside the reassurance that I wasn't fucking crazy, there was a period when I just needed to go home for a moment. So when I was going back to my dorm from the dining hall to make sure all my stuff was ready to go, I opened up tumblr and made a post on a long-gone RP sideblog I had for the Swedish Chef (y'know, from The Muppets? long story), and before I'd even gotten halfway across campus, I'd received threatening and violent messages from someone RPing as Borat, which only got worse when they realized they were talking to an actual Jewish person.

That escape from reality didn't even last five fucking minutes before the horrors I was trying to avoid found me.

Now, Wizard101 has always been a source of comfort for me. I made my account fourteen years ago, and I do not know what my life would look like if I hadn't done that. There are flaws with this game, yes, sure, but over the past five years (since I got a wiz compatible laptop) I've developed a bit of a reliance on it to get me through the horrors. No better form of escapism.

But no art form is free of the horrors.

And Wizard101 has the fucking Cabal and Old One.

The Cabal within the fiction of Wizard101 is a secret, nefarious organization pulling the strings on events across the Spiral, controlling history from the shadows. This term literally originates in antisemitic conspiracy theory, with the term 'cabal' originating from the term for Jewish mysticism, 'kabbalah'. And I promise you, you've heard plenty of applications of this conspiracy theory in real life too. It feeds into the idea that Jews (or 'global elite') control the government, the media, the banks.

And then, we get to the man in control of it all. The Old One. Whether or not this was intended, he's a walking, talking antisemitic caricature. The octopus as a symbol for the mythical Elders of Zion is a longstanding dogwhistle (see attached for a guide to this and many other visual dogwhistles). "Oh, he's based on H.P. Lovecraft-" So he's based on the works of a famous racist and antisemite, cool cool cool.

It's just exhausting, walking through a world that is so clearly modeled after Germany and other parts of eastern Europe, and finding antisemitism around every corner. And even more exhausting considering it's almost impossible to tell if they meant to do it. Antisemitism is so fucking ingrained in the world at this point that I don't actually know what they meant to do here, what they did maliciously or out of ignorance, or if any of it was put in with the purpose of turning it on its head. Over the past few years, it has become glaringly obvious that a lot of people don't realize when they're running across antisemitism, or even taking part in it. Including people I really thought would know better.

Side note. For those of you who know I see Dasein as Jewish, you may be wondering how I balance that out with the antisemitic nature of The Old One, since they share a physical form. I think of it like this. Dasein did not choose The Old One. He did not choose to resemble that, but he can attempt to reclaim it. Dasein's Judaism comes not from the resemblance he holds to the hatred that haunts us, but from the love that keeps us going. He questions authority and longstanding tradition, chooses to do what's right instead of what's expected, and is kind in the face of hatred. He literally makes himself, and a world, out of nothingness. Something out of Nothing. He's so Jewish you guys.

The Spiral's "Worst World Award" goes to... I know we all say "fuck Azteca" pretty often on this website, but I don't think it deserves to be deigned the worst world in Wiz. My main gripe with Azteca is how inaccessible it gets after Xibalba strikes -- the flashing lights aren't exactly photosensitive friendly. Which further lends frustration to my completionist nature, meaning I have to finish all quests, badges, and fishing before I finish the world (making it take forever to finish). Aside from that, there really isn't that much wrong with the world (and if you argue that it sucks because you can't save Azteca, I get it, but some tragedies are inescapable by their very nature). It's a problem of gameplay, versus a problem of plot in the case of Karamelle. And maybe its just because I'm a writer, but problems with plot feel much more egregious. I really do think Karamelle deserves more vitriol than it gets.

G-d, I can't wait to get to Lemuria.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

Cyclops Lane Post-Commentary

Nolan Stormgate is British, for some reason. Probably because he's a pompous prick.

Legit never paid enough attention to know the Trolls and Warhorns were summoned by Cyrus. Which begs the question: Why didn't he just unsummon them when he learned they were rioting? How many can one Conjurer summon at a time? And how long can they last?

I like to think that every time I curse at a fizzle, Nico does the same. He's twelve. That's old enough to know the fuck word. But Bartelby censors it to The Good Place swears.

Nolan Stormgate my beloathed.

Made it to Level 9 in Sorcery Stones when I needed to fill my potion bottle. My enjoyment of that game is ridiculous.

I dunno if its a Hallowe'en event thing or not, but I see a ghost island where the Death School used to be. Building included. It's probably the event combat tower, but it looks super cool.

Cyrus Drake you ignorant slut. "You're one of those fast talkers, aren't you?" They're mentally ill Cyrus. You're being a dick to a child.

Monquistans mentioned!! By Victor Darkwood, random clothier. Lil monkey guys we don't see til Azteca iirc.

AND THEN he says he "doesn't mind there being one less (Drake) around these days" SIR

Hot take, I actually really enjoy the fishing and crafting quests.

Nolan is so useless I swear.

How many names from mythology can they fit in here? Achilles/Akilles, Romulus (usually paired with Remus). So silly.

Hearing the Great One get so hyped up as a terrifying being only to be a cute little vampire ghost bunny is so funny to me, actually. An actual baby. Also: Darkmoor mention!!

Power Pip at level 10 let's go

Wait. Isn't "The Great One" a Lemuria thing? I haven't gotten that far, but I know the name comes back. Is it the same guy? Does he really come back? It'd be hilarious if he came back actual years later. Like a full decade or more later.

Who tf is this "we" you're talking about, Nolan? I did all the work. And even dudebro Garrick acknowledges it.

Speaking of, Garrick, I am not "Your Wiz". Stop calling me that.

Is Klortho (the guy in the library who gives you your first Wooden Skeleton Key) related to the librarian in the Arcanum? Both are grumpy monkeys with dragon wings so...

Diego and Roberto's rivalry (? sibling enemyship?) is everything to me actually. They can't fight because they promised their mom on her deathbed but also can't not fight due to a promise made to their dad on his deathbed.

The "Fear of Drowning" enemy is just La Llorona, right? It feels like she's La Llorona. She scolds you for interrupting like a mother would.

"Fear of Gentle Breezes" is so funny, actually.

Like sure I saved the world from malicious ghosts but there's gonna be a Then-Faire.

Funny Dialogue:

[m00nveil]

khrysalis and azteca were life changing for my yw luna but if i told you that she first got traumatized (like, even more so than general) in dragonspyre how would you react

it's not even just the fact that that was the time she first took a man's life. it's how tragic the entire mission was.

as a necromancer, she's more attuned to ghosts than the normal person and more connected to them. their stories, their connections to other people and dragons. she just couldn't fathom how such cruelty could happen. she never really came back the same after dragonspyre.