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yuurei20 · 1 year ago

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(This was originally an ask received through Twitter)

"Hello! Can you please elaborate on the time loop theory in book 2 that you mentioned in the tweet where you talked about your favourite theories?"

I am wary about discussing this theory as there are many others who have put much more thought into it than I have, but I can certainly try with what I was able to find :>

(The information in this thread was combined from here, here, here, and here)

The basic theory is that everything we know is repeating in a loop in an attempt to either stop something from happening or to make something happen.

The game’s tagline of “I will show you a true happy ending” (EN: “Let us show you the real happily-ever-after”) could be insinuating that there have already been less than happy endings, and we may have already seen one: while some theorize that the events of the prologue are showing us what is going to happen in the future, others say that it is both that and something that has already happened.

The theory goes that the battle with the chimera (who may or may not be an overblotted Grim) was lost and everyone (or just the prefect) is sent back to try again, thus the opening lines of the game narrated in Crowley’s voice.

(Note: I would have translated this as “I—they—you—only have a little time left. Whatever you do, don’t let go”, but the situation is so vague that anything is possible.)

(Here is a short comic insinuating that this time loop is Crowley’s unique magic (warning: blood, death, a Yuu design))

This theory seems to be largely inspired by Mickey’s comment that he has seen the same dream three times but he also says “your voice gets clearer and clearer every time.”

Since Mickey also shows up in Books 2 and 3 but we were not able to speak with him, it is possible that this is not actually hinting at two earlier loops, just earlier events within the same timeline. This does not dismiss the time loop theory and might mean that this is Mickey’s first time interacting with the loop, but there have been far more than just two or three timelines.

(This account pretends that Book 7 does not exist yet, so that is about as specific as I can get.)

The theory gets kind of wild with references to STYX’s simulation system, supposed inconsistencies with Ace and Epel, Crowley’s potential connection to STYX, etc, but one thing that everyone seems to agree on is: Leona knows.

Leona is extremely powerful and extremely private.

He has had a number of contracts with Azul who is also a powerful mage, and according to Idia he seems like “the kind of guy who always knows he’s dreaming.”

Yana has confirmed that Idia has a part in Book 7 and, with both him and Leona halfway out of their coffins in promotional art, people are wondering if Leona will be stepping up as well.

We know that Riddle’s current personality is a 180 degree change from original plans and that this change was made pretty far into development, after everything had already been approved.

There are also rumors that Leona’s Book 2 was the original Book 6, looking at older promotional information (Book 2 was originally listed between Ignihyde and Diasomnia on the official website).

It is possible that—much like Riddle’s situation—Yana came up with a better idea than what had originally been decided, and it required shoehorning Leona’s drama into an earlier Book in order to make it work.

This would mean that Book 7 used to have significant space for Leona (there is a pattern of the previous Overblotter having a role in the next Book).

That space may have been rewritten for Idia, but it is also possible that Idia’s role was added separately and a role for Leona remains to some extent, which is why they went out of their way to say that Leona knows when he is in a dream.

Theories vary from “Leona is 100% aware of what is going on, broke free from the loop and he is the only one getting older as he tries to save the world” to “Leona knows something isn’t right but not exactly what.”

The proof that people usually point to is his comment where he is unsurprised by Grim “always” eating black stones (which he shouldn’t know anything about), but the phrasing is so vague that he could just be making the connection between the stones and a potential blot-risk.

Another scene that is often referenced in the “Leona knows” conversation is an interaction with Jamil where he accurately predicts Jamil’s attack on Kalim despite how rarely they interact before Book 6.

There are also the three white chess pieces on the chessboard in Leona’s bedroom that seem to correspond to the only three characters in the game with light cosmic magic: a white rook for Rook, a white knight for Silver and a white pawn for Kalim, whom Leona literally refers to as a pawn piece in chess during Tamashima-Mina (these three chess pieces are also displayed prominently in Leona's first Birthday groovy).

Leona also seems suspicious of Crowley, suspects what really happened in Book 5 and is able to literally sniff out magic, which we have seen no other character capable of doing.

Leona is very perceptive in general: he is suspicious of Lilia in Spectral Soiree, calls him an old man when no other character outside of Diasomnia knows his true age, is the first to figure out that Malleus is pretending to be possessed and is able to tell when someone becomes injured and is trying to hide it in both Book 6 and an event.

This is not proof that Leona knows what is happening, but it may be an argument for why it is likely that he knows more than he is willing to let on.

Some versions of the time loop theory say that the same prefect is being sent back over and over again to try and save everyone (which ties into the game’s opening), while other versions say that this is the prefect’s first time being summoned into a loop that has been going on for a long time without them, in an effort by someone (Crowley?) to change the ending of the story.

While not technically part of the game, the Twst novelization supports the first pattern while the manga series supports the second, with new prefects showing up after the previous prefect presumably fails.

Knowing Yana it is possible that the game is actually a third, entirely different pattern with the novel and manga exploring alternatives that were considered for the game but not used.

#twstask #twisted wonderland #twsttheory

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hanafubukki · 1 year ago

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MC/Yuu “Blessed/Cursed” by a Fae Theory

So you know how Lilia said that MC vision state is kind of similar to when Silver falls asleep/sleepy?

And we know, in part, the cause of Silver’s sleepiness is due to the blessing he got from the three fairies.

So that makes me wonder, did someone “bless” MC to have these visions?? Was it some fae?

And since we know the carriage brought MC to NRC and they were in a coffin, the closest fae that could have done it is Dire Crowley.

I don’t remember who pointed it out (@prince-kallisto?? @moonlightequin1?? <— the two Dire Crowley experts) but didn’t someone say that ravens/crows are symbols of prophecy?? And also symbols of death and rebirth?

MC is getting visions of OBs so in a sense prophecy, though it’s not far in advance or detailed enough for them to stop it from happening.

But book 5 we see them connect the dots with Vil and they go to check on him secretly and then! At the end of book 5, we see the chimera, which this time it a vision way more ahead in the future but a future to come.

So this symbolizes not only the ability of prophecy but of death if the prologue says anything. And if some time theories are true, we are trying to stop this death event from happening so in a sense, we get rebirth.

I don’t remember book 6 visions or maybe they didn’t stand out as much given the chaos that happened, though of note, we saw more MC development and their insecurities which we haven’t seen before.

But for sure, book 5 visions were different.

With book 7 visions in the beginning, we saw for the first time one of the Great Seven being mentioned by name.

The over arching plot and small details show that something is being cooked in the background, and we’ll probably see how it all comes together, especially with three dia members who have dream/memory related UM. We’ll probably see it come to fruition in book 8.

But I wanted to point out key points:

- book 5: MC being suspicious and connecting their dreams with Vil’s OB, something they just did for the first time. Then, they get a “future” vision of the chimera and what we know happens in the prologue.

-book 6: MC insecurities and helplessness is shown for the first time. You can see them try to include MC more in the interactions but you can also see the way they feel helpless.

-book 7: first time one of great seven is named in a vision. MC dreams/vision state are compared to Silver’s dream/sleepy state, which we know was due to a blessing given by fairies.

So either, Dire Crowley gave them this “blessing” or whoever that brought MC did (Levan? (If the two aren’t the same), another fae? Could it be Queen Maleficia? Someone who hasn’t shown up yet despite her grandson is in trouble).

Another thing to note, that yes while they are in a dream, MC hasn’t had any visions yet. Which is strange given their track record and how these visions tend to warn them of danger. MC has constantly been in danger, have they not?

Could it be so this magic doesn’t get recognized? But wouldn’t Lilia have recognized a blessing on them? Unless someone was able to hide said blessing.

All of this is rather fascinating 🫶🤔

(This is especially interesting when you take into consideration that they “randomly” chucked the fact about Silver and MC being similar in the beginning of book 7 at us and then never brought it up again 🧐)

#hana queues #twst theory #twst theories #twst analysis #dire crowley #maleficia draconia #malleus draconia #twst mc #twst yuu #twst silver #lilia vanrouge

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inamindfarfaraway · 5 months ago

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Hnnng dehumanisation in Spies are Forever. Curt's “not a man, [he's] property of the United States government". Tatiana wasn't a child, she was an “instrument of war”, a “killing machine". It’s particularly poignant that Barb calls Curt property of their government, a cog in the machine, because she knows that she’s in the same boat, and in fact socially inferior to him as both a woman and a support worker to his more prestigious career. She herself has always seen and valued him as a person and is constantly trying to make him reciprocate. But he initially views her as just a cool gadget dispenser. Technology appears to be her only means of asserting her worth and earning people’s attention, which might be why she’s working on a global information network, essentially the internet - the ultimate technological platform for human connection and collaboration. Cynthia is so committed to overcoming her human vulnerability in order to be the best tool her country could possibly ask for that she poisons herself every day to build up an immunity. One of the villains is a literal Nazi who uses a literal puppet. And the other is Owen.

Owen's evil vision is "turning everyone into a spy", aka property. Instruments for him to conduct. Creating a global surveillance network, because the internet has as much power to distance and isolate people as to unite them. The machine failed him when he was a cog in it, so he aims to replace it with a more efficient one and control it this time; he cannot comprehend of any ethical improvement to or dismantling of the machine itself. His problem with spies is that they contaminate the ruthless political mechanisms with messy, fallible humanity... and vice versa. Agent Mega messed up the mission because he was human; Curt left his boyfriend for dead because he was a spy. You can’t be both. Person or tool. So Owen chooses the one that can’t be hurt. He willingly becomes a tool of CHIMERA, a living weapon. He kills and tortures hundreds of people, considers himself an actor in a story and others expendable characters, does everything he can to detach himself from ideas of personhood. “Who needs spies when a box in a room can do your job in seconds?" Humanity is worthless. Obsolete.

Except no, it isn't. Curt and his allies proves it. After the prologue, Curt simultaneously makes Owen’s mistake of binary thinking. First he wants to be purely a man, and an absolute wreck of one; then he wants to be purely the greatest spy ever, with no sentimental weaknesses. But he can’t maintain that divide. He has to be both. The team win with their skills, training and expertise and by being human - social, irrational animals, working together, loving each for the sake of it, acting spontaneously. They aren’t tools that Owen can perfectly predict and manipulate. Curt surprises him. And Owen, for all his icy calculations and grand talk, cannot escape his humanity any more than he can destroy Curt’s, as his last scene makes painfully clear. He lowers his gun like a person. His voice breaks like one. He bleeds like one. Meanwhile, Barb is a genius engineer and Tatiana is a master assassin. You’d think that their climactic moment of triumph would demonstrate Barb’s amazing technology or Tatiana’s combat skills, but instead the focus is on them simply talking to each other and even Mrs Mega. Human connection and collaboration. Human error that doesn’t negate their victory. “You can break a computer box, but you can’t break the will of a man.” That’s what Curt is. Not property. A man. He is a gay, unemployed man; Barb is a woman in STEM; Tatiana is a female ex-KGB Russian immigrant; all in the United States of America in the 1960s, a very bad time and place to be all of those things. Yet they will survive. They are not alone and they will endure. Spies are forever because they are people.

And the narrative consistently emphasises that everybody is a person! It mocks the Nazis, obviously, but even then Baron von Nazi isn’t a one-dimensional monster, he has emotions and cognitive biases and a backstory and fondness for cheeseburgers. Sergio isn’t just an interchangeable criminal, he’s a devoted family man awkwardly trying to lighten his work atmosphere. Richard Big isn’t just a crass parody, he has moral principles. We hear all kinds of characters’ thoughts and feelings: the Informant, Barb’s fellow scientists, the waiter at the casino, the guests at the gala. This affirmation that everyone has a inner life means that yes, anyone can be a spy.

#JUST DANCE #spies are forever #saf

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stackslip · 28 days ago

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i would really like to hear more of your thoughts on fma03 rose. i really love her but a lot of discussion i see is very shallow and completely ignores how she relates to the themes of the show. there's probably an essay about people's reaction to the depiction of rape in fma03 but i don't have the words for it right now.

yeah i got thoughts about 03 rose. i got so many thoughts it keeps me up at night quite literally. anyhow.

so in the manga rose is basically an audience stand-in for plot/worldbuilding exposition right? she's basically mostly made to stand there and React To the elrics’ alchemy, their basic backstory (mom died, we tried to bring her back through human transmutation) and the revelation about their bodies. she's resentful of their intervention at first, but iirc only comes up later again even after liore descends into civil war to basically thank the elrics for showing her the true light etc etc right. same as it ever is with the manga—ed is always right and apart from a few truly egregious mistakes that are never really TRULY his fault, what he does ends up being for the best. iirc (and you might correct me if im wrong bc i am not rereading the manga lol) she basically barely comes up again and not really in any plot or thematic relevant bit.

03 rose is very different in her role from the very start. sure, she's still a bit of an audience stand-in for exposition, but—her grief and desperation for her dead fiancee and how she was an orphan, her devotion to the liorite religion, her general desperation to cling onto the hope of resurrection are all strongly expanded upon and make her feel more real. not only that, she is made a direct parallel to the brothers’ own obstinacy and grief in episode 3; al far more directly relates to her, too (which is interesting when you consider his later relationship to scar). she actively is horrified by the elrics, and “betrays” them not once but twice in hope of getting her fiancé back. the chimera bird is SUUUUCH a good addition to the prologue, it's creepy and grotesque and underlines the unsettling nature of alchemy itself in 03, not just human transmutation. and the ending to episode 2 is just—chefs kiss. it's not a triumph for the elrics, or a liberation for rose. she's bitter and sad, ed tells her to move with her own two legs (a phrase that will come back to haunt him!!!!) but it sounds…. kinda hollow and doesnt do much to comfort her then. later she clings to that phrase even as her world disintegrates, and as she is the only liorite who realizes the new priest is clearly a fraud and breaks down about it. the elrics leave rose in liore, their job done—but this is just the beginning of HER story and liore’s altogether. because unlike the manga and bh, 2003 is deeply concerned with consequences, with how careless words and actions that might seem heroic or necessary, or justifications for *juuuust* a little destabilization or transmutation or fight from the people who hold all the power (specifically alchemists; more specifically dante/hohenheim and state alchemists) lead to truly horrific consequences.

and like, one of the best examples of this isnt just ed’s intervention in liore—especially as one could argue that dante’s plans were already in motion there and that war with amestris was always in the plans. but yknow, ed certainly didnt help in playing his role there. no, the best example is ep 5—years before ed and al arrive in liore, they save general hakuro from the train attack. the guy who seems like a Nice Military Man with his family attacked by evil rebels, right? well, that same man is the one who is going to lead the repression of liore and who in all likelihood is responsible for rose’s rape and abuse. ed has saved the man who is going to destroy rose’s life!

because rose really is key to the themes of 03. but not just of consequence, but of *resistance* to imperialist warmongers. when the conflict in liore breaks out, rose is shown to be protecting children—she refuses to sell out her people, she actively resists the amestrian military. when they claim they are Just Here To Help the civilian conflict it is directly juxtaposed with the army literally shooting down civilians; AND in the same episode with scar hunting and killing state alchemists as we get flashbacks of ishbal. because yes, rose and the liorites being brown is relevant to the story being told here—and it's also impossible to ignore the direct parallels to american justifications of intervention in the war in iraq. this took place the same year, for fuck’s sake! so rose’s call of this is our home, we are the ones who get to deal with this mess—feels deeply relevant. and the tragedy here to me, rose’s greatest tragedy—is that she cites edward here, talking about using her own legs!!! because she did end up connecting to the brothers on a deeply personal level, while being unaware of ed’s role in the horrors happening to her, that are about to happen to her. like. my gd, the sheer ache of it.

so much has been said by 03 detractors about what happens to rose. for years i remember being calling 2003 evil and antifeminist and gross because it features the gang rape of a female character. and i have no idea how much of it is word of mouth about what actually happens in 03—lots of people seemed convinced that there was a graphic gang rape scene that was male gazey etc—but even those who know the reality that all of this is alluded to discreetly (we never see or hear her being assaulted, there isnt even a fade to black or direct aftermath!!!) have claimed that it's inherently bad for fma 03 to have a character who is explicitly a sexual violence survivor.

and like. that's flat out reactionary. i have no other words for it. this is just reactionary shit. acting like a female character being raped in the context of a war crime, in a story that explicitly about impeialist violence, is in itself evil and bad is just… saying that you think that even implicit depiction of sexual violence is bad and antifeminist (which says a lot about how you view victims lmao); but particularly ignoring the context of it and how subtly and sympathetically it's framed?? we never get a direct vision of rose being raped; we see the aftermath. she is traumatized and her voice has literally been silenced. she got pregnant and carried a baby from this assault, who is a walking reminder of what was done to her and by extension, liore. essentially 03 is saying that amestrian imperialist and racist violence includes all forms of violence, and people throw a fit over it just like they moan that the changes to scar in 03 are supposedly bad bc bla bla his whole point is that revenge is bad. meanwhile 03 again and again says: victims of imperialist violence and genocide are the ones who understand this violence best and they have every right to resist violently, no matter the excuses from the imperialist armies or how sympathetic/funny you find their soldiers to be.

so anyhow: there's definitely a horrific tragedy to rose in the last third of 03, and her ongoing victimisation and abuse. but it's also interesting to me because it parallels how ed is being manipulated/groomed by dante in entirely different ways. rose’s gang rape, the violence against her—essentially and tragically becomes a symbol of resistance there too. the forced pregnancy and the violence against her becomes a source of reverence from liorites who see her as their leader and guide, even as she was literally silenced. but despite what ed claims, and despite dante’s intervention, it's pretty clear in the show that rose has a degree of agency. she isnt being used by scar, though they're all being manipulated by dante to some degree—she is actively helping scar in his rallying the liorites and seeing a parallel between what was done to ishbalans and what was done to liorites. she is endorsing him knowingly when he makes his plan to murder amestrian soldiers for the stone. 03 treads this delicate balance of how yes, dante is controlling everyone—but what scar is doing *is* right and is presented as such narratively. i was told recently that in an interview the creators said they'd originally planned on ending the show in liore as full circle, but then they had all this other stuff to wrap up and didnt get their extra season/mini series to expand on munich and what eventually became cos. but it's fascinating ti me anyhow.

so, rose’s connection to ed—it feels less like deliberate romance, though yeah i do think that the romantic undernotes are deliberate—there’s definitely a tragedy to it. rose’s baby’s cries remind ed throughout his entire stay in liore that he is responsible for all this. but rose doesnt hate him for it, i think she recognizes that he was manipulated—the same way she had been in ep 1 and 2. she sees her own grief reflected in him. she stands up to wrath and reclaims her voice in a moment that's kinda corny but effective. i always get emo when dante is trying to scold ed and he ignores her to thank rose for saving him and being happy she got her voice back.

and then the last season��rose’s abuse is continued until the end. dante, in many ways, is the very incarnation of alchemy at its worse: seeing people as material, state alchemy as inherently dehumanizing people and things and classifying them in various degrees of inhumanity who can be safely Unpersoned and used. liorites and ishbalans among them. dante is partially responsible for amestris’s policies, and she sees rose, a girl victim of gang rape, and decides to groom her for her own purposes and to use her body as her own. and it's very much sexual in nature, a continual sexual use and abuse of Othered bodies (including rose's baby, used in her experimentations). and unlike in liore, where rose has a degree of agency, she is completely stripped from it by dante: presumably drugged.

it's not a coincidence if dante was putting rose and ed together in that ballroom. it's not just a callback to the two first eps and how far ed and rose have come of characters, what has been done to them; their paths as he, the white amestrian state alchemist that dante plans to groom as her romantic/sexual partner and student in alchemy, and she, the brown liorite girl who fought back every step and was brutalized and dehumanized to the extreme and to dante, is just another body to use and discard and rape—theyve always been intertwined. what ed did directly affected rose's life. now rose is offered as a “reward” to ed, if he chooses to continue as an alchemist in the way he's supposed to. it feels very….. anthy as the witch, while utena is given a princess’s dress and told she will be happily ever after with akio

but anyhow ed refuses. so dante gets rid of him. she lobotomizes gluttony. she punishes wrath and takes his limbs. she is literally having al consumed alive. rose is there, in shock at the events—theres an argument to be made that she could have been more active here tbh, but the last two eps are so cram full of stuff i guess they didnt have time. but anyhow… as soon as al sacrificed himself, dantes plans were moot, bc she really is that certain of other characters’ complete lack of agency and humanity! she just gawks stupidly. it's great. and then she leaves and just…. abandons rose.

so it's full circle again. ed al and rose and her baby. al is gone. ed is shattered. the baby cries, a reminder to ed that his actions have consequences. he asks rose one last thing: to go to resenbool—a place she'll be safe—and take wrath. likely she later changed her mind and returned and realized he lied to find al where he was. ed’s last words he hears from another person in amestris are the same words he told rose in episode 2. you've got two strong legs—you can survive, and go on. rose will survive. she will live, rebuild. she will find happiness after this horror, if she looks ahead. ed does not answer. he doesnt believe he can live without al, and chooses not to. he does the exact same thing rose did all these years ago: he chooses to believe, even if there's absolutely no reason he'll get what he want and even if it's more likely to end badly. and…. he's not rewarded for it. his brother is back, but without memories. ed loses his home forever. but it's significant that he eventually meets noah—she is not rose, but she looks like rose and is also from a marginalized group, and it would be silly to suggest that ed doesn't see rose in her. i find the liore section in cos deeply silly (why is the army there!!!) but it's significant to see rose play an active role in rebuilding her town, in building a new life after the horrors. the whole show, she's been a parallel to ed, an active resistant agent to amestrian violence, and the most significant victim of that violence to the point of bearing its physical traces.

do i wish we'd gotten more of her as an active agent afterwars? yes. do i wish to have seen the version where the show was supposed to culminate in liore? also yes. do i wish id seen her own feelings on what it was like to bear a child of rape and then being praised for it? a hundred percent. but again i wish for many things in 03. in part bc it was committing to giving me what bh wouldnt even dare to throw a bone about! but anyhow. i love rose

#eli talks #fma 2003 #fma 03 #rape tw

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chimerakingdom · 6 months ago

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Chimera Kingdom Prologue, page 1

the story begins!

✧ next ->

#chimera kingdom #original comic #webcomic #comic #artists on tumblr #posting page 2 and 3 today as well!

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oddberryshortcake · 1 year ago

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Remembering Lampwick/Candlewick's fate in the original Pinocchio story itself, makes me really REALLY worried about Grim in this event and future chapters.

Twst is often very upfront about foreshadowing. Something can be staring you right in the face and you don't even realize it until after that information finally comes out.

Lab gear Ortho foreshadows both 6 and 7 at the same time (at least I feel in my gut Ortho talking about irreversible damage is alluding to what happened to Silver in 7)

But there has been a consistent theme of 'something terrible is going to happen to Grim and there's nothing MC can do about it' almost everywhere in the game.

With him constantly eating overblot rocks, him talking about how he's going to become big multiple times-

and him dressed as Lampwick- not Pinocchio, Lampwick, the character most famously remembered for meeting a terrible fate through a horrifying transformation just really seals it in that Grim is an inherently tragic character

We see him as a monster in the prologue before we even properly meet him. Our first trial battle is impossible to win, we're against a chimera Grim inside of a destroyed hall of mirrors.

And the game doesn't let you forget thAT THIS IS THE FATE OF THE LITTLE CAT YOU BOND WITH OVER THE COURSE OF ALL THE CHAPTERS

Grim as Lampwick is yet another reminder that your cat is going to try to kill you and you might have to kill him and I'm losing my mind lol

That being said, I LOVE storytelling like this

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst grim #twst playful land

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venture-through-the-mist · 5 months ago

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The amount of people I’ve seen who are shocked/upset/annoyed about the Lotus Eaters being a short quest is, quite frankly, a little astonishing. We were told from the moment it was announced that it would be short, it has been compared to Apostasy Prologue and the Prelude to War (the Chimera Prologue specifically, I believe) multiple times. If you went into the quest thinking it was going to be longer than 5-ish minutes, that’s kinda on you at this point.

#Warframe players…pls stop being dissatisfied with literally everything…it’s so tiring (yes ik this doesn’t apply to everyone)#Also…just because it’s short doesn’t mean there’s nothing to glean from it #warframe #warframe the lotus eaters

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sofasoap · 2 years ago

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Nikolai

Lastochka series:

Lastochka - little Swallow Nikolai taking an interest in a little swallow in Taskforce 141. To the dismay of the boys.

Lastochka - Part II This is the chance,for Nikolai, Captain of Chimera, to show his quality.

Lastochka - interlude Realising your feeling for the flirtatious Russian man.

Lastochka - Part III Keeping it under the radar has its benefit. until it isn’t.

Lastochka - Night Two can play the game. Lastochka - wedding night You want to please your newly wedded husband, just as he has pleased you.

Lastochka - Part IV Will they be too late?

Lastochka - Part V Denial and healling.

Lastochka - Epilogue Family.

A quiet moment - Lastochka Little Anya getting all the love from the family

Lastochka -Espionage A mission you can not refuse Lastochka - in the hanger You miss the intimate sessions with your husband after all the hectic missions and life. you decided to seek him out in the hanger.

Drabble - Por Una Cabeza Distractions and tango.

Lastochka - Raging waves

Lastochka - Raging Waves - prologue Just as everyone think life is peaceful and calm, the past comes crashing back into both your life. Malen`kaya printsessa After the chaos. the family. Nikolai's little precious princess.

Lastochka AU:

Lastochka AU : Strange taxi driver New city, new life, new job. What else can go wrong on the first day? Lastochka AU : Strange blind date The one and only time you want to twist Gaz Garrick's head off. Lastochka AU - Strange Encounter You just can't get a break, can you?

Lastochka AU - Strange marriage He wants you, and maybe you want him too?

Lastochka Au - Strange battlefield Nikolai is focusing his energy too much on protecting something that is very precious to him. His wife's backside.

Lastochka AU - Strange confession Some sickness, some realisation, some confession, some sadness.

Lastochka AU - Strange tribulation The shock, the anger, the banishment,the begging, and the finale. -- Alternative ending - what if they didn't........

Lastochka AU - Seven Seas - 1 Going against the odds of society's expectation and prejudice, you made a name for yourself as Lady Fortuna of the sea. but one day ....

#cod nikolai #nikolai cod #nikolai cod x reader #nikolai cod x f!reader #taskforce 141 #nikolai reboot call of duty #simon ghost riley #johnny soap mactavish #kyle gaz garrick #john price #call of duty #nikolai cod x female reader #cod x reader #cod x you #call of duty mw 2022 #mini mactavish #mini mactavish universe #sofasoap writes

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meatball-headache · 3 months ago

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I dont have a non-spoilery screenshot for The Sacrifice, so, please enjoy this survey!

Chiclet's not allowed to read this yet, so shhhh

Howling... full moon... heh. He's a Wereframe.

So, once again I'm captivated by Warframe's approach to storytelling. It's unique, in my experience—and I'll be glad to admit my experience is pretty limited. MMOs tend to dominate all your time, y'know?

I've heard how with The Second Dream they started to take the story in a different direction, that is, they introduced a lot more cinematic scenes—and, man, they pack a punch. Honestly, I think introducing this style later in the game, years down the road for some players and still many months for myself—it's very effective. I keep using analogies like playing Tetris to level 100 and then suddenly you get a scene that introduces the pieces' names. If Warframe had been this from the beginning, it still would have been good, but the impact of the surprise wouldn't have been there, and that moment still shines so brightly for me. The game would just be a fun grind to kill some time without it, but with that "This is what you are" scene, the whole game just took on a profound, sacred aspect that can't be topped.

...and yet...

No, no, The Sacrifice isn't better than The Second Dream, but, I am surprised. See, I've long known two things: one, you can look at the Codex and see all the quests in the game. Angels of the Zariman is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Whispers in the Walls is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Jade Shadows is there from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War."

The New War does not appear in my Codex.

The second thing I've long known? The New War is going to be a big deal.

There's something else that's been stuck in my craw for a long time. What's the Ropalolyst? There's a mission on Jupiter that can't be done because it requires the quest The Chimera: Prologue. That quest... also doesn't appear in my Codex? So, there are some quests that aren't in the Codex...

Compared to FFXIV, there's no comparison. A classic MMORPG is quest-dense with wall-to-wall dialogue and almost nonstop cutscenes. On the other end of the coin, the other type of game I'm most familiar with is Soulsbornes, where there's almost no story in-game; it's more similar to the NES classics where you turn on the game, press Start, and fight stuff until you see credits. Warframe, of course, doesn't need to be FFXIV, but what's exciting is the hint that there's something behind it all, and there's still some secrets I don't know about.

I did Apostasy: Prologue and was really surprised to find out that it's a one-mission quest that sets up the next story quest. I wonder if it released at the same time as The Sacrifice? I was thinking I'd do Apostasy tonight, The Sacrifice tomorrow... well, since Apostasy was basically just one cutscene, I had to do The Sacrifice. I'll get into the details later, but...

What the...

Well. We found the Chimera Prologue. Hell, we found the Chimera, didn't we?

This is what I mean. Once again, I'm astounded by the game's turns. So, Prelude to War has... chapters?! That's never been a thing before. That explains why Chimera Prologue wasn't in my Codex. Maybe The New War is one of these chapters? No, no, for what a big deal The New War is, it must be its whole own system. It must be something as big as Duviri. It's got to be something.

None of the quests in this game have been big enough to warrant chapters. I'm guessing it's not that each "chapter" is just its own mission, no. Each chapter must be the size of a normal quest, right? Around 3-5 missions, cutscenes between a couple...

Just want to throw this in, I really like how Warframe just doesn't give a shit about throwing something weird at you without explanation. You get an objective "Search the lab." Search for what? Is it glowing? Am I supposed to use my scanner on it? Turn into the kid and blast it with my void beam? Walk up to it and press the button? Am I looking for a console to use, an item to pick up, damage to get curious about? I appreciate that Warframe seems to trust the player to figure it out. They trust the player to figure out that there's something to figure out. ...which might be a little optimistic on their part, because I did have to look up what to do on those Kuva siphon missions...

FFXIV's narrative is massive and non-stop. I have to wait four months for the next patch, but every patch always ends with a big fight, and then Y'shtola puzzling over some magical mystery, saying, "I'll let you know when I've figured something out." When the patch comes out, you talk to her in the same place, "Perfect timing! I just wanted to let you know I've figured something out." A new player would get uninterrupted flow and never know when one patch ends and another begins, unless they clue in on the little narrative trick. But, like I said, me, I've always played patches day one, and then I have months between patches.

If I played Warframe the same way... well, the way I'm playing Warframe now, is that I'm going at an absolute snail's pace, tiptoeing my way through the quests and spending a lot of time leveling things and grinding all the time.

I'm not explaining myself properly. Let me try again.

Warframe's quests released months or more apart, as did FFXIV's. But FFXIV's are meant to be continuous. Warframe's feel like they need to have space between them, because it's not a continuous narrative from one to the next. I'm not saying the story is disjointed or makes no sense; but imagine if it were FFXIV, and you do the quest where you fight Ifrit and all that, and then the next quest is to do the banquet and fight Titan, and then the next quest is to fight Garuda. Played back to back, it'd feel like there's vast gaps between them, both narratively and level-wise.

Maybe I just have a shit memory for lore? Warframe's quests always feel like they're talking about characters I should be extremely familiar with. Or, maybe I'm just used to less-well-written games that explicitly hand you reminders of these characters that haven't been mentioned in several minutes.

So, The Sacrifice is all about Ballas. I don't really know who Ballas is, but this quest has the feeling of "Finally, we're going to take on Ballas." But, I have heard about him. In The Second Dream, we see that Margulis was talking to Ballas. He might've been mentioned in Chains of Harrow? Or, no... I think it was The Silver Grove, where we had dialogue from I don't remember who, someone who was building Warframes for Ballas, I think, and regretted it because they were doing horrible things, so her last Warframe was Titania, to protect the forest. But where I know Ballas from the most is the song, "For Narmer." I don't know the context in-game, but you can't listen to "We All Lift Together" on Youtube without getting recommended the rest. There's a lyric that says "Praise the wise and mighty Ballas" in it. I thought they were saying "balance" at first, but then I thought, are they saying someone's name?

Ballas is a little like Ludwig from Bloodborne. If you've been paying attention, you have hints and snippets of this guy's role in the story. If you're like me, you take one little hint, dwell on it, obsess over it, and when the grand reveal finally comes, oh how grand it is! Ludwig, Ballas, Ketenramm... okay, maybe not Ketenramm.

Warframe has this unshakable feeling that there was some plot between quest beats that I missed. Same thing with just... the game. Ghoul Purge! Thermia Fractures! ...do I know what that's about? Was there some quest to introduce those, and now they're just in the game? It's like fighting Yojimbo or Typhon at the Gold Saucer when you've been playing FFXIV for three weeks and you're level 37. Am I supposed to know who this is? Oh well, gotta do my dailies! Or the... Rathuum? Where you fight... I had to look up her name... Kela De Thaym, on Sedna. The thing has this feeling like we're old rivals, her dialogue suggests she's finally going to get us for all the times we've foiled her before! But, lady, we just met you. Actually, we haven't even met you! We just showed up at this new node and you're going, "Finally we settle things!"

Don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining, it's just a very unique feeling about the game's whole quest style.

There's something else, too. There always is, you know me.

You ever get into a new series, books, movies, games, whatever? There's already three seasons but you're just finding out about it now, so you eat it all up and you're excited to learn there's going to be a new season next year. It comes and you watch it and... it just feels different? They got new writers, or the pacing is weird, something's just not clicking. And then next year another new season and, yeah it's just not as good. Or, music, people do this with music all the time, right?

When I first got into Warframe, Angels of the Zariman was the new patch. I didn't play it, obviously, don't know anything about it, but, I wonder if, when I get to that point, then everything from then on is going to feel like "new" Warframe, and just not have the same impact as the "original" stuff? I know me; I'm certain I'm going to be overly aware of the dividing line, and look for changes.

Also? In The Sacrifice, we learn that Margulis was sentenced to the Jade light. There's a new Warframe named Jade, and in fact a whole new quest called Jade Shadows. Clearly, this "Jade" thing has been long foreshadowed (lol) and must tie into the story deeply. I just thought it was a cool new Warframe they made because they didn't have one starting with J already. My playing these old quests with hints of knowledge of the future is an interseting perspective; anyone playing these things back when they were new wouldn't have this "Ah, so this is where Jade comes from!" moment... but at the same time, they get what I won't, they get a "Holy shit they're finally making a Jade Warframe?!" (Now that I think about it, that does kind of explain why this warranted a whole new Eximus type...)

Now, the actual quest.

What the FUCK just happened?

After dealing with Rell's psyche and releasing or destroying Harrow in the Void, or whatever we did, there's something odd in our personal quarters. When we go in, we suddenly find ourselves on Lua, where we find... the pod containing the actual Lotus? And then Ballas just... shows up, and takes her away? But, Ballas is one of the Orokin, the people that were annihilated by the Warframes in the Old War (I think) ... how long ago? A couple years? A couple thousand years? I think there were some lore snippets along the lines of, after the Orokin fell, the Grineer and Corpus took over the system. The Grineer used to be strong and competent, but cloning errors began to creep in generation after generation, so some time must have transpore since the Old War. We have extremely overgrown Orokin ruins on Deimos. And, Ballas's dialogue suggests he's been around for a bazillion years.

What happened? Why did Ballas wait for us to arrive to take the Lotus away? Did we have to lead him to her? We found magic voices from the Lotus asking to be freed... is this what she's always wanted? Or was that a memory from when she was like, imprisoned before her execution? The other lines do seem to be the latter, so. Who was it that Ballas turned into Umbra? Does it matter? Is it supposed to be someone we know? Why does Ballas have a long Bloodborne arm? Why is Ballas a blue Orokin and Isaah is just like a dude?

All rhetorical questions, as always, but this is what I'm asking for real. Am I forgetting something? Or am I meant to wonder what's going on, try to figure out the missing pieces? These cutscenes are as cinematic as anything in Final Fantasy, but the story is as Swiss-cheesed as any Soulsborne. Pieces are missing and I don't know what's going on, but it's being presented as if I already have the setup, as if I already know the context.

And, again. I love this style. It's completely fascinating and captivating. I'm not being critical, I know it sounds like I'm just complaining about being confused, but, that's not the case. I like being confused, because it's just the right level. There's plenty of story and characters, and enough lore and just... this vibe to suggest there's more. Ordis chirps every now and then, "Do you remember the Old War? Ordis seems to have... misplaced those memories." That's enough to make you go, whoa whoa whoa, what? ...and now whenever you play, you're looking for any tangential reference to this mysterious "Old War." Nora on the radio talks about Alad V's experiments, and now you know this mad scientist is out there something, up to something strange... It's not always a throughline narrative like FF, but you get these pieces to sort of color a vibe, so to speak. The world gradually fills in, and every now and then the dam breaks and it all spills forth, and you get all the water you could ever want, but... gosh, it's pretty messy sometimes.

Somehow, I've lucked into the ideal way to play this game, I think. At least, I'm having a lot of fun. I look up builds on websites, and they'll have powerful mods like Umbral Intensify. Umbral! I know about Primed, but Umbral!? Where do I get that! ...and then, suddenly, I have it, and it's like the stars have aligned and I've achieved enlightenment. At long last, this mythical relic has entered my hand! And, not gonna lie, it's kind of a profound moment. Now I know. Now I know where this important and mysterious item comes from!

There's so much to this game. Eidolon hunts, Kuva liches, sorties—these I've just recently unlocked, in terms of progression, and I could spend ages grinding them for the latest paths to strength. And there's more out there that I know very little or nothing about. I have "Arbitration" on my menu, but I can't select it until I clear the star chart, which includes a few things I can't do, like the Ropalolyst, and things I'm not up to yet, like Zariman, and things I can't even fathom a guess at, like the half-dozen remaining nodes on Deimos. I've vaguely heard about Icarnons? Something about a special mode for weapons? And recently I was watching a video explaining damage types, and he mentioned Archon shards? I have no idea what that is! But this man is shooting a bow that explodes ten times for 1,000,000 damage each hit... I can sometimes do a million damage with Baruuk's exalted weapon's charged heavy attack... And, there's probably more cool mods out there that are just super rare from an extremely specific source... I've heard of Adaptation and Growing Power, a couple other types of "Power," I think, so those must be from... who knows? C rotation in a rescue mission on Sedna? I know Vor shows up after round 1 survival on Mot in the Void, and he drops some unique mods, so maybe other places have some weird gimmick like that? I just don't know, and I probably won't without looking it up.

There is SO. MUCH. To this game. It's absurd. I've never played anything that comes close, even FFXIV, with as huge a game as it is, its content is much more samey—consistent tomestone systems, raid loot designs, dungeon length, whatnot. Nothing compares to Warframe, it's absolutely ridiculous.

And?

All this is free. Completely free. The only things you can only get with real cash money are cosmetic skins and syandanas and color palettes, I think. You can play the entire story and campaign for free, you can get every Warframe for free—getting enough storage to keep them all is a different story, though... Nora has some slots you can grind for sometimes but mostly you gotta pay—you can get all the Prime Warframes and weapons for free, there's no paid version of the season pass, no subscribers-only zones or Warframes or quests...

If I had found Warframe before FFXIV... I probably wouldn't have liked it. Original Warframe seemed... really different. I mean, current Warframe didn't even grab me until the third or fourth time around. But, I mean, what'm I playing now? I played Dawntrail, I logged in as soon as the servers went live and I sank deep into the story for a couple months. I took my time, exploring, grinding all my jobs first, and then as soon as the story was done—I went and did the post-game dungeons and raids :p But as soon as that was done, I just kinda... stopped playing. I haven't capped tomes once in Dawntrail; I used to do it religiously. I haven't even been getting all my Arcadion NM loot. I love FFXIV, it's my absolute baby, thinking about it, reminiscing about it, listening to it—my god, Soken's a genius—pondering the story, looking at fanart... but when it comes to pure gameplay? It's... dry. Combat is great—for an MMO. I find action RPGs like Warframe, Bloodborne, these kind of things a lot more fun, in terms of pure gameplay. And, look, every dungeon is formulaic, so many of the jobs play so similarly to others... Then you go to Warframe where, yes, missions are extremely formulaic, but you also have randomized maps, Stalker attacks, Eximus waves; and every Warframe plays so different from every other. Every weapon is different! Most games seem to just be a sliding scale of "This shoots fast but does less damage," "This shoots slow and does lots of damage," "This does lots of damage but is not accurate." Warframe has "This is an assault rifle," "This is an assault rifle. If you empty the magazine then it drains life from enemies nearby." "This is an assault rifle. It shoots missiles that explode," "This shoots grenades. You have to press this button to detonate them manually."

All right, folks. I'm tired of writing. To summarize: I love Warframe, this quest was great. Thanks for reading. Good night.

#warframe #this is only 3200 words but it felt like a lot longer

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yuurei20 · 8 months ago

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Hello! I wanted to ask, but do we have any visual descriptions of the blot monster that killed Ortho? Like even just if it was big or if it had claws anything like that lol

Also this is a bit of a darker question do feel free to not answer this part but is the it ever implied or said how exactly Ortho was killed? Like did the blot monster like.. bite or maybe squash him? (Ngl I'd normally ask it in a more graphic way but I don't wanna make you uncomfortable)

Anyways I hope you have a good night/day whenever you read this <3

Hello hello! ^^ Thank you for this question!

I do not believe we have any detailed description of exactly what it is that happened to human-Ortho and, interestingly, we do not really know what happened to Idia, either!

There is a loud sound of something striking against something else and Idia says, "Everything after that is a blank for me. By the time I woke up, Ortho was gone."

What was that sound we hear after the monster lunges for Ortho? Metal against metal? Someone or something hitting a wall, or floor? How did Idia fall unconscious, and what happened in between Ortho being attacked and Idia being knocked out?

"Everything after that is a blank" may be insinuating that something happened during that "everything after," but he either can't or does not want to remember what it was. Very curious!

And there may be more to this scene than meets the eye 👀

When Ortho reacts to the creature coming down the hall, he doesn't call it a phantom: he calls it a monster.

"Monster" is one of the various ways that the cast refer to Grim (re: Animal vs. Monster vs. Cat vs. Dire Beast vs. Tanuki (pt1) / Animal vs. Monster vs. Cat vs. Dire Beast vs. Tanuki (pt2) ).

STYX labels him a dire beast in Book 6, but at the same time we learn that Grim is under a powerful spell that STYX's supercomputer can't actually analyze!

Grim might not be a direbeast at all, and we have already heard of creatures that will blend in with direbeasts in order to hide: phantoms 👀

I first came across this theory via Vtuber Toro-san (shared with permission) who points out some interesting things we know about the creature:

1. It was subject ROS-3367A, which possibly means that the phantom originally came from the Queendom of Roses, and Grim is theorized to have been at least partially based on Dinah from Alice in Wonderland.

(In Book 6 we also hear about a SUS-332OB, theorized to be from Sunset Savanna.)

2. While the weaker phantoms frozen on the higher levels of Tartarus in Book 6 mostly growl, the stronger phantoms frozen deeper inside would sometimes speak, saying, "I'm hungry, feed me flesh," "Don't go, stay with me" and "I want to be friends, too."

This is not impossible to tie back to Grim, who recalls waking up "hungry and alone," saying "it was real cold."

He follows with, "What happened after that again? It's all so foggy..."

Grim is mysterious enough on his own, not knowing where NRC is located (which begs the question: how did he get there?) and having significant gaps in his memory, in addition to being so unfamiliar with basic information of what is (presumably?) his own world that other characters often express surprise. (re: Grim's Memory / Grim's Experiences)

3. The chimera in the prologue has long been theorized to be some form of overblotted Grim. Is that his true form as a potentially flesh-eating, unfrozen phantom under a curse and/or blessing that no one understands?

We do not know! :> To the original question: it is difficult to pinpoint how exactly it was that Ortho died, as we do not know exactly what it was that killed him. (If it was the chimera in the opening, though, we have an idea of what it is he may have looked like at the time!)

We know Ortho was killed by a monster who had just escaped from a place built expressly for the purpose of housing lonely, violent, and hungry creatures--but that is all!

Perhaps a mystery to be solved as the plot thickens 👀

#twstask #twisted wonderland

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allmonstershere · 9 days ago

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[Belated] WIP Wednesday

How about the prologue for this monstrous (pun intended) collab fic I'm working on.

Calling it a Boneturner’s tale was a bit of a misnomer. An avatar of the Flesh, and its hubris-named manual, was about rolling more than just bones. To limit it would be an insult to the very fear that powered it. Flesh. Bones, yes, but also what sat on them, what connected them, what ran through them. The newest avatar had a penchant for nuance, had made a study of the body in its performance outside relative to the machinations within. It made picking up the book easy (in an academic sense; he still only had one hand at the time). Several months and one unfortunate, yet satisfying, unmaking of a previous avatar later, a Chimera had been born. Birthed in the halls of the Distortion, craving more of life, more of its knowledge, more of its *connections*, this Avatar had spilled into the streets of London to walk the world. A dead man, by all accounts (that he knew of), he had no tethers, no trappings of commitment. Only to test himself to see if he’d come undone at the slightest provocation. He tested many things. His stamina, his faith, his strength, his charisma, his tolerances, and lastly — only very lastly — his heart. You're going back. It hadn’t been a question. The Distortion - Helen - sounded more amused than it had a right to. Maybe it had always been a forgone conclusion. He had unfinished business. WE DO. He was still angry, he was still grieving. He was still incomplete. The Chimera knew of only one place where anything could hold all of this. Only knew of one man who may perhaps want what he had to offer. The newest Avatar of the Flesh picked a destination and started walking. A single light was on at the church when the Chimera arrived. Had it not been, the unfortunate secretary who’d chosen to stay late that night might have never encountered him. She could have gone home to her husband and children and slept soundly, never to have met a monster. If not her, then someone else. Blind luck. Far from lucky. Breaking in was much easier than he expected it to be. Finding her where he needed her to be was even more so. Rotten, awful luck, really. He crept behind her, silent and heavy. By the time she realized she wasn’t alone, he had a hand on the back of her neck. A scream tried to fall out of her wide-open mouth, but his fingers sank in, further, catching on muscle, pulling it back. CAREFUL, SLOW. He was still getting used to the voice on the back of his skull, heavy on his skeleton, but he didn’t mind it. It was there to guide him. It had something to gain from him doing this right. With the woman frozen in his grip, silent, he closed his eyes and remembered the book. As he did, his fingers moved under her skin, her fear blossoming over his senses in an intoxicating rush. He wavered a little. A sound slipped out of her. The Chimera let out a soft safe-for-work curse and focused harder. Sunken to the wrist just above her shoulder blades, he started to move his fingers, making an intricate cat’s cradle of nerves and vocal cords, muscle and bone. What a beautiful and complex thing a human body was. Like an instrument he’d been taught to play. He leaned down by her ear. “Are you afraid?” he asked, knowing the answer. As terror slammed into him in a delicious rush, she didn’t reply of her own volition. It was he who pulled her strings until she said, quietly, “Yes.”

#The Magnus Archives #TMA fanfic #TMA fic #TMA podcast #Tim Stoker #together or not at all #Alternate S4 #S3 spoilers

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jerreeeeeee · 5 months ago

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i also read the suffering game graphic novel. here's praises and criticisms. this one is also more negatives than positives unfortunately, i tried to be fair and thoughtful but i did not like it very much

things i liked:

-lucretia prologue establishing that she went to wonderland + talking abt missing the crew. fun & mysterious

-hi mavis and mookie :) they are cute

-HI BARRY sometimes i forget he stalked merle’s family outing. i love that freak

-magnus and angus scene!! fisher showing angus the statue drawing!! ango detective subplot!! this is a nice and natural addition since we know he was sleuthing around the BOB

-merle teasing taako about his date is kinda cute actually love seeing them be friends

-thank god they got rid of the chimera. idk if this is a hot take or anything but its probably my least favorite fight in the podcast its so out of place and unnecessary. there are lots of fights that didnt really matter in the beginning like all the gerblins and the slime swamp in rockport but they were still like getting their bearings and the show was more like a real dnd campaign than a typical actual play, but by the time you get to the suffering game there’s more interesting things to do and you're like god why are we still doing random forest encounters just get to wonderland already

-not a positive per se but i’m not that upset about sterling and his party being cut. i feel like an adaptation would’ve had an opportunity to make that little c-plot matter more, and that would’ve been awesome, but as is in the podcast, i never felt particularly strongly about it? not enough to miss it. idk like magnus and merle were already for ‘trust’ even if it were strangers and taako never seems all that regretful about it (which like. fair. he’s the pragmatist and that’s how the prisoner’s dilemma works. he played the game right because he couldn’t afford to lose, knowing they hurt some slightly-less-strangers doesn’t really change that).

-i dont remember which of the boys discovered it in the podcast but merle noticing the smoke thing is good. he actually is competent and especially in an arc that’s meant to make him feel useless that’s a good little reminder

-i do like that the liches say the bell is very powerful & is threatening to destroy them like both keeping in theme with the rest of the relics and an introduction to the idea that sharing an incredible and dangerous power between two people makes it easier to keep your sanity, similar to lichdom

-griffin getting cut off with the hunger is awesome finally we’re taking advantage of the medium. nothing more to say that choice rules

-posts on tumblr hyped me up for taako recognizing barry’s dick but unfortunately that’s not really what happened and now i’m disappointed. but the graphic novels arent canon so i’ll just have to continue with my barry/taako awkward past one night stand agenda despite it all

-i dont quite know how to feel about the umbrastaff leaping to barry to replace the “love barry, trust barry” moment. on the one hand, having lup actually speak to taako wouldn’t work super well in graphic novel form, not to mention the whole band of projected thought thing was kinda convoluted and they are clearly very limited on time, and taako choosing to trust the umbrastaff in this way is a creative way to get that same effect. on the other hand, its so unclear what even happened or why it changes taako’s mind without podcast context. that’s one of my big gripes, you’re expected to be familiar with the story already, but if you’re familiar with the story, the graphic novels are… worse in every way. also, i really really liked the original scene so even though it doesn’t work, i miss it. this isn’t as effective—we don’t find out there’s a person missing from taako’s memory, his heart doesn't swell at the sound of her voice, he doesn’t know with certainty that she’s someone dear to him. it's just like, another instance of the umbrastaff acting weird. maybe you put together that 'LUP' is a person but you don't have any indication until the moment of remembering how important she is. all of that would be really difficult to get across in a visual medium anyway, but still, yknow, it doesn’t hit as hard.

-ango!! his mage hand is coming along so well!! although. why is his wand just like a stick. did he pick it up off the ground. taako needs to take better care of his boy this reflects badly on him as a teacher lmao

-i felt this way about the eleventh hour too but there’s so many little details of taako and merle’s friendship i feel like they have little asides and jokes together a lot and i love that

-the looming dread of the hunger is done pretty well (as well as it can be with such time restraints)

-merle trying to commune with pan and seeing john instead is good. very ominous and intriguing for new readers and exciting for podcast listeners

-really liked the panel of barry in the red robe against the stars and the bond engine’s white ring as he’s remembering. very cool very cinematic

-i actually also really like the framing as taako remembers, filling in the memories we’d seen previously and clearing out the static while he looks so broken, and merle asking him what he’s remembering, and then finally speaking his sister’s name. its framed very powerfully. i wish he and lup didn’t look awful so i could actually feel something at that part. like they are my favorite characters ever their story makes me so emotional and i just. they’re unrecognizable. the character designs are terrible and taako has spent 6 books now being mischaracterized and flattened to hell so i just can’t muster any emotion. maybe i'll redraw that page someday though because the panelling is genuinely very good

-the ending lucretia monologue is good she's the narrator she's the main character she's everything. love the portraits staticking out and mirroring and changing, and ending on the beach painting is great. very cinematic and a natural way to phase into the stolen century

things i didn’t like:

-i dont think taako’s deepest desire is his own brand of fashion forward athleisure wear if i’m being quite honest. these little things irk me

-why is liches get stitches all the way in the beginning… ill portent for how the rest of this book will go

-i think they shouldve introduced the flaming raging poisoning sword of doom way earlier. the payoff isnt nearly as good without the setup of having been magnus’ white whale for like fifty episodes. maybe they did mention it in earlier books and i just forgot though

-^ i hate his stupid ugly oversexualized stereotyped ass so fucking much its unreal

-why are edward and lydia ugly :( —(they're not ugly because they're chubby they're ugly because their color schemes and outfits are fucking awful) (fr though why are all their colors so muted and dingy?? why are their outfits boring?? at least their heart attack looks are fun)

-oh so there’s just no trust or forsake at all. yeah i don’t like that. in the end no great loss since i don't think it really says anything about thb's characters that hasn't already been said, but so much of thb's characters and arcs have been cut from the gns already

-i get that they’re low on time trying to fit in reunion tour but like come on part of the suffering of the suffering game is how long and painful it is cutting it down really just. makes it not matter as much

-magnus looks no different after aging LMAO he gets like 2 gray hairs and that’s it

-edward and lydia’s lich forms are also boring unfortunately

-no tasha’s hideous laughter on the heart attack mannequin? lame. although i have for the first time realized that dnd shows kinda have a thing for characters uninterested in romance being forced by mysterious powers to be haunted by creepy puppet-like “romance partners” huh

-magnus doesn’t forget kalen?? why cut that out? i guess because there was never closure for it in the original story?

-no boss rush?? that was fun :(

-magnus and taako aren’t surprised merle has kids??? did they know???

-dupree looks terrible but i guess props to carey for giving him feathers even though it looks bad

-just axed the liches’ backstory?? that was kind of important?? the fact that they turned to necromancy out of love for their family & powered themselves with positive emotions too? that like, has relevance later…

-NO BAD LUCK FOR ARMS OUTSTRETCHED? COME ON

-the framing of magnus’ soul being removed is so anticlimactic in general like the POINT of a VISUAL adaptation is to have interesting & cinematic VISUALS its just so messy

-all of arms outstretched didnt look very good in general sorry. its just such a big important moment and to make it so mid… a tragedy

-“i guess we still needed each other after all” doesnt work anymore because they removed all of edward and lydia’s backstory and character but it was an interesting line to me that i wish had been kept. hammering in that liches need anchors is, again, pretty relevant later on, getting rid of that foreshadowing sucks, and it also humanizes these villains in an interesting way that really highlights their powerlust as their downfall rather than just, like, cruelty for evil’s sake. like yes they torture people and find it fun because they’re so distanced from their own humanity but they also truly believed it was necessary for their own safety and seemingly only became sadistic after they desensitized themselves. i wrote a post about this a while ago but idk if i’ll ever post it

-not a fan of barry killing lydia either. idk why, its not like he hasn’t killed other people to protect the boys before. but that’s earlier in the show before we know he’s not just a villain and is in fact meant to introduce him as a villain. now he’s a friend so idk if you can just go back to having him murder people? again its not a wrong choice but it feels like messy storytelling. also like i think seeing a lich grieving her anchor and a sister grieving her brother would pull some heartstrings for him. it would maybe remind him of some people he loves and garner some sympathy and give him some pause. and i liked that in the podcast even though lydia was so distanced from the idea of positive anchors, killing edward just immediately undoes her, fits in with the themes and the way we understand liches to work, another powerful example of what bonds can do, and that's kinda lost here

-magnus’ answer to the bell sucks so badddd lmao when these books NEED context they’re devoid of it but when they actually have the necessary plot points/character arc established for the reader to put something together they have to go and spell it out like the audience is stupid. there was something so raw and powerful about magnus’ original “i’d hate it. shut the fuck up.” like just shutting it down and not even considering it. that’s completely lost when he has to be like “recap time! my wife, julia,” eugh just didnt like that. there are so many powerful lines from balance that i don’t hate on principal that they’ve changed, but there was no good reason to change, and so the new version just falls flat and there was no reason not to include the original lines verbatim? i get not wanting to just deliver a podcast highlight reel and have the gns be their own story or w/e but if you’re gonna do that you have to do it well, and they just keep being worse unfortunately

-they don’t get the chance to go off the grid themselves and choose to trust barry?? come the fuck ON that is IMPORTANT to the STORY

-this may or may not be an unpopular opinion but i’m not a fan of barry’s design either. i don’t like the hair and he’s not fat enough. less egregious than others but its still another instance of being like who tf is that

-barry’s little coin monologue was kinda fun and dramatic and i (finally) liked the visuals of him falling from the sky/silhouette of the starblaster against faerun’s single sun. but i wish they’d kept more of the original. add drama that’s fine but the point of it is to humanize him after we’ve spent so long thinking of him as a villain and a ghost and a force of the story and now it turns out he’s barry bluejeans. he’s just a guy. he loves his mom. he’s allergic to dairy. he’s afraid of the dark.

-especially not a fan of cutting out the “love that defined and redeemed you” and “dull weight in your chest” in barry’s coin monologue. those are important parts of his character. whether you interpret the love and the weight to be for lup or for the whole crew, you need to know that the red robe has lost people, and that everything he does is to try to get them back. he’s the lover and he’s grief personified. his mission is to save the world AND recover his family. thats like. kinda important for his character and role in the story. if you ask me.

-again the “we’ll get em next time” magnus flashback is not BAD but it could’ve looked so much better? carey definitely has strengths as an artist but her fight scenes and character design tends to be very weak so its unfortunate that this is an adaptation of a dnd podcast where those 2 things are like, the most important. idk i feel like i should be articulating what i mean better but i’m not sure how. the fights just are often really cluttered and framed in an odd way that doesn’t look very good or dramatic or dynamic. i don’t want to say carey is a bad artist, i really don’t think she is! but i think she was not the right artist for this project. the magic of a visual medium is, well. the visuals. when they’re mid the whole story suffers.

-taako and merle not just saying magnus is dead is sorta unnecessarily confusing since everyone like assumes he’s dead anyway? idk i don’t understand that choice. kinda fucks with his moment with carey. not a big deal in the end but it does seem unnecessary

-MAGNUS DOESN’T GO SEE FISHER?? the mannequin dies in fantasy costco??? what about johann???

-“you stole half of my fucking heart” i know a lot of people loved this line but it genuinely baffles me. Why Only Half. not only referencing one of the most heartwarming (and heartbreaking) lines in the original show with no context for why its meaningful at all yet—but also minimizing it? why soften that blow? why detract from the raw intensity of that grief? why reduce a very powerful sentiment? an adaptation of balance that doesn’t allow itself to be earnest and wholehearted (ha) about its platonic bonds is not a good adaptation, straight up. maybe its not that deep but it is To Me. maybe it has no real import and i’m just being stupid but like they made that choice to write half instead of just “my heart.” Why, genuinely

-hey what the fuck happened to johann for real though. that was a really important part of the story. hey. hey. what about johann. like are we just ignoring johann. am i insane. how has no one mentioned this. what’s up with johann

so all in all, again, rushed pacing, axing of a lot of very important plot points, shoddy visuals.

it did not make me relive the emotional journey of the suffering game and reunion tour. it inspired a vague nostalgia for the first time i experienced reunion tour, reminded me of how much i love the original show, and made me want to listen to the podcast again. especially reunion tour good god i love reunion tour. and it made me desperately wish for a good adaptation. i would do fucking anything for a good adaptation. the longing is making me sick. at least we always have podcast reunion tour.

the graphic novels are just so empty and soulless compared to the original show. i wouldn’t have an issue with changes, except that the changes, at every turn, gut the emotional core of the story that makes it so special, and ruin the strong themes throughout the story. they fundamentally misunderstand what is so good about balance. and also, like, basic storytelling. they’re poorly designed and poorly written, so they don’t even stand on their own as a different story. i'm not expecting an exact replica, but i am expecting good writing, good changes when necessary, and respect for the original beloved story. without those, the soul is gone, the spark of what makes balance so compelling and emotional.

i am dreading the story and song graphic novel. i don’t think it will be any good. the themes and character arcs and plot of the show have been mangled beyond belief so nothing is really meaningful anymore. can we go back to the johann thing for a moment—

#mine #taz graphic novel #taz graphic novels #taz gns #the suffering game #the adventure zone #taz balance #the adventure zone balance #maybe they're just changing up the order of things wrt johann and maybe it'll all work out in the next book but idk #doesnt look good atm

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