#curse of the sinistrals

[lilithfairen]

Had a random thought regarding My Random RWBY/Lufia Crossover That I'll Never Actually Write:

Total sister vibes~

[pitagain]

#365DaysOfVGM Day 56:

The Final Decisive Battle (Lufia & The Fortress of Doom; other versions [2001/2010])

Not battle, but classic buildup BGM, almost as if a battle is nearby in this list!

(Length before loop [Games]: 1+ minutes, [Arrange]: 1.5+ minutes)

[teefa85]

After three-and-a-half hours, I have made it out of the Ancient Cave. New record, Floor 69. I was thinking about going all the way as, despite the shitty start with few Monster Houses and the ones that existed being full of Poison Assholes rather than Slimes or Cores, later on I got much better Monster House luck with plenty of Cores (including Gold ones that I need to learn how to best maximize EXP). Maxim was 20+ levels ahead of the Floor Curve and everything.

But then, something wonderful happened and I vowed to escape at the next chance (9 levels later).

Hero Ruby L (B10…got plenty of these) Zeus' Battleaxe (B11…already had one and don't use this weapon type for Dekar) Knight Pearl M (B17…yeah, my grid's been full since possibly even the first runthrough) Sheer Cape (B19…I've got better things for the ladies and a bevvy of these from an earlier Set Cave) Mind Jade M (B20…See B17) Ancient Armor (B30…if I need to mildly cut MDF for DEF, then at least that can help) Armored Suit (B39…I've enough for all the party members who need this) King Pearl M (B60…see B17) Blue Moon (B60…FINALLY!!! Good weapon for Selan!!)

Seriously! I'd been trying to get weapons for Selan and Tia that were halfway decent since Playthrough One! Especially Selan since I actually like controlling her. She's just joined and she's now got something awesome for me!

Since this is the Startup Cave, I can go back in at any time to go to the end. Prolly when I get Dekar since I don't have to worry about swapping out for Elemental Resistances on enemies like I do with Maxim (I'll give him a sword and can swap to a disc if need be...again, like Selan's fighting style).

[yanderefairyangel]

Knowledge in VNC : About Noé's eyes

So, we all remember that when Noé was very, very young he was injuried in one of his eye right ?

While people wonder why his left eye specifically, I might have the answer to this.

In latin, left is said "sinister" but in french it gave the word "sinistre" which means omnious and therefore lead to countless surpestition of left briging you infortune, on why you should never eat with your left hand, or that the wrong decision is always to choose the thing in the left etc. This comes from the Greek since Roman saw the left/sinister as a sign of good fortune and since VNC is full of latin/french reference it might be why.

Anyway, that answered. I'd like to point out something. In the Opening 1 of VNC, 空と虚/The sky and the void, towards the end of the 1st chorus, those lines are mentionned :

その目に僕は見えるでしょう？But those eyes can see me, can’t they?

You migh wonder why there would be such a focus on vision. Well, for a long, long time vision is associated with knowdlege which is why the word "blind" can have the literal meaning of not seeing things and the figurative meaning of not seeing them in the sense that you are ignorant about it despite the answer being right under your nose.

So to explain this I'd like to use two mythological reference : Oedipus and Tiresias.

Oedipus is know very infamous for giving it's name to something Freud called Oedipus complex, but in Sophocleus's tragedy, Oedipus king, there is an interesting play between the vision and the knowledge thanks to the use of the verb σκοπέω/skopeo which both means to see/to observes and to judge/to think. Hence the play shows us an Oedipus that has the answer to the question he has at the begining reguarding Laios's murderer and the fact that his wife Jocaste is actually his biological mother, but he doesn't see it, he is figuratively blind which causes him to not see in the sense of him making terrible decision and when he finally begin to see the truth, he is crushed by reality which causes him to blind himself literaly, saying that he is now as blind as he used to be at the beginging of the play. I could go on with this due to how interesting this auto mutilation act is, however I am supposed to focus on VNC.

Following this logic, I think that Noé's "bad eyesight" is mainly symbolic to how he is blind to some things of the world. At the begining of the story, he is mainly a child at heart, an innocent and well intentioned young man. He is pretty much a white page, he doesn't know the reality of so many thing and concept such as love or salvation. His vision is cracked to shows how much of an unreliable narrator he can be. We already had many instance of Noé's vision on an event being portrayed differently. See when he met Vani for the first time :

VS in chapter 52

We may wonder why it changed right ? well, it's because Noé vision/perception of things is shaped by what he knows of it.

An example of this in the Ball masqué arc

That's how Noé sees Vanitas. He is portrayed as radiant here, and the reason isn't just because he saved him from Naenia, but because Noé saw Vanitas saving several vampires using the Reverse operation, which gives him hope.

Vanitas is seen as a saving figure because it restored Noé's hope. After all, he experienced the loss of his childhood friend due to Curse bearer degeneration and this happen right after Naenia made him remember that.

However, when Vanitas fails to save Catherine and kills her instead, the portrayal/way Noé's view him changes

Vanitas's dialogue is in a dark bubble leading to understand the dialogue has a dark connotation which worries Noé creating a transition

The panel where darkness seems to be growing and thus contrast with the light panel where Vani's hair shines brighter with the use of trame; replaced now by ink to signify darnkess as taken over, and here it's in Noé's vision.

When we are at the point where he will kill Catherine, Noé becomes more hesistant, the look on the panel showing his anxiety and then

He remembered the face Vani made when he claimed to save all the Vampires but with the dialogue he said a bit earlier, and while many commented on how threatning this face is, the fact that Noé remember this face right as Vanitas is about to kill Catherine says a lot on how he ended up viewing him very differently from the moment Vanitas saved him.

With this example, you can see that Noé's perception is limited to what he knows of the thing he see, modeling how he sees things.

By the time of chapter 52, Vanitas could have once again appears in his soft side, having saved Chloé and having Noé learn about his own insecurities. But in this chapter, Vanitas threaten to kill his childhood, friend, hence he doesn't view him anymore as the same and is unable to focus on him. An blatant example is how he failed to notice that Vanitas made this face when he tried to attack him.

He will admits it himself, but it isn't before Jeanne, an objective watcher call hims out

That he snaps out. And even then he doesn't understand

Until he sees himself in the mirror

The fact that Noé's vision of Vanitas is shaped by what Vanitas let him see of him, coupled by his blind self makes him an unreliable narrator, especially when it comes to what VNC is about : knowing who Vanitas is.

Hence, I think Noé's eyesight is actually refering to this element, that he is figuratively blind. At least for now.

But it should also be noted that Noé and Vanitas don't view the same thing in the same way as they have different knowledge of it and I think nothing illustrates it better then their duet song, Le Formidable where the chorus goes as such :

I walk into this

useless (Vanitas)

wonderous (Noé)

world

The chorus and some of the verse are constantly showing the dichotomy of how these two sees the world, contrasting between Noé optimism view and Vanitas's pessimistiv view, and the two untertwining creates a sense of discontinuity within the lyrics as the song keeps switching between their 2 POV which is complete polar opposite and this is more notable when the song comes to the chorus where both voices finally sings together and seems to have finally meet, but to show that while they live in the same world and lives the same adventures, they don't view things in the same way.

Now talking about Tirésias. He was a mythic poet that was cursed with blindness but the gods granted him in compensation the gift to see the future and he became a famous fortune teller. This is actually linked to an old, old belief about blindness. That although they can't see, the are gifted with a knowledge unabling them to see what is invisible to the common man. And while blind people often have sharpended sense, this is also linked to the old belief that the poet as prophetic talents.

So how does it link with Noé ?

Noé is actually an entity that is double : with have past Noé, the character and present Noé, the narrator/writer of the story. Past Noé is blind, but present Noé, while a potentially unreliable narrator is the one that knows how the story ends. After all, the end of chapter 1 sounds like a premonition.

And that's because it already happen. Like for Oedipus that couldn't escape his fate, the story Noé is telling is bound to end like that because it's what the narrator already experienced. There is that critic Jean Paul Sartre made about true stories not existing arguing that the moment you tell a story when you know the ending of it, it cease be authentic because we don't know how things are supposed to end. And indeed, no one but God can know what will happen in the future. It is what is name the occult, ot "what is hidden"... what people used to believe blind people could see as compensation for their defective eyesight.

That add up to the fact Noé was shown to be literaly defective within his eyesight due to his injury. But canonically Noé has the power to know something that others vampire in particular can't. As an Archiviste, he can knows the past of someone by drinking their blood and looking into their memories, which got him to have a lot of people looking down on him for that has it's allowing him to look on what is intimate, etymologitically, what is deep inside of them, that which they occult. And in the case of Vanitas in particular, it's something that 1/ Vanitas don't want him to know 2/Noé admits in chapter 52 to not know.

However, as I mentionned the narrator knows the ending of the story, which contrast with how Noé is ignorant of the events of VNC compared to his future self narrating the story. And in chapter 56, there is finally a hint of him learning his irremediable fate

From the mouth of Vanitas, Noé learns what is future self already knew and told the audience.

This might be an indicator that Noé will manage to pass of his initial blindess as he tells the story and thus recover a proper eyesight, signifying be able to see things other then through a veil of ignorance/innocence/subjectivity.

And this can be seen as through VNC, there are clear instance of Vanitas moments focused when Noé was simply not here, and thus should not know about it, specially when Vanitas nevers tell him about it, such as his meeting with Jeanne at the ball, his discussion with her during the lunch Lucas invited them to partake, their meeting at the ball, their date in Paris or in the cabine.

There is also the fact that he relates his meeting with Ruthven in the meantime, when he should have forgotten about it. Or, the most obvious piece of evidence, the fact that he was able to convey how Vanitas felt when he attacked him even though the chapter made it clear Noé had no idea on how he looked like

This for instance, shows that Noé/narrator was able to overcome his own biais and overcome the fact he would have remained an unreliable narrator had his vision not changed.

Long story short is that Noé/narrator knows and see what Noé/character doesn't know/see and shows us the ignorance he had at the time, while keeping in mind that Noé/character doesn't know while Noé/narrator is the one who knows everything. What is going to happen, how it is going to unfold.

Thus it is very important to remember that what Noé/character sees will constantly be challenged by what his future self saw and therefore knows.

And considering that VNC heavily deals with how Noé's vision of the world is constantly challenged throughout the story, I think it is possible that his character would evolve in such a way

[yourdarlingness]

✦　Villain ~ themed　names — prns — titles

NAMES ︙　villain(e) . villainess . villauer . vile . sin . immorine . immoralle . imorelle . vile . sinistre . sinistrae . imorrae . imoraette . misery . miserette . miserae . miseralle . miserelle . atrocine . atrocitine . atro . atrocette . atrocilae . misfortunesse . misfortunia . misfortunelle

PRNS ︙　atro / atrocity . vi / villain . e / evil . cu / curse . bae / baleful . fie / fiend . sin . cat / catalyst . ⚰️ . 🖤 . 🥀 . 🌑 . 🔪

TITLES ︙　the villainous one . the scheming enemy . prn who rivals heroism . the evildoer . prn with prn antagonistic plan . the most wanted villain . the wicked enemy . the immoral villain . prn who is immoral . the one without morals . prn with prn malevolent gaze . the villain of woe . prn who orchestrated atrocities . prn who cause misfortunes . the villain of catalyst

[lacnunga]

No pressure to read it at all but here's a wee drabble about my ocs, specifically Perfidious ruining his own fucking life by telling Eustace what an asshole he's been their entire friendship

"Come in, come in, im glad to see you, Fideous," Byng said excitedly, practically grabbing my arm to pull me into his little room. It was a plain but cosy affair, unlike the stuffy little rooms aboard the Advantage which stank and putrified even with every gun hatch thrown open for air - here, the landlady at at least put pretty enough curtains on the windows and there was only a little built up dust along the edges of the floor. A pair of singlesticks had been thrown carelessly onto the narrow daybed, which was already mountainous with laundry, Roman tomes and octaves of poems and plays. Half the counterpane trailed on the floor and several half-drunk cups of tea gathered on sideboard and sea chest like girls at a party. Byng had thoroughly installed himself here.

My captain turned to me and beamed, his brown eyes glittering as the setting sun washed over him.

"What excellent timing you have; Mrs Battersea will have tea ready any moment now, and you must dine with me and we shall discuss my letter to Napier. Oh, do not look so perturbed," he laughed, having evidently seen some of my agitated state in my eyes, "all things good, I assure you."

Yes, I needed no assurance of it. I knew Byng would write only too enthusiastically of my time in his service, and it was here wherein lay the entirety of my problem. Had I never met this man I would not know myself to be one to dislike inner turmoil, for I don't make a habit of engaging in it. It was Byng who never knew when to leave well enough alone and when to leave an enemy an enemy without towing him into friendship. It had always been my curse to resent him near as much as love him.

"Please, take a seat."

I cast an eye about the room and found no available surface.

"...where, sir?" I jabbed.

"Oh! Well, you may throw down Cicero," Byng said, pronouncing the name with his usual hard 'c', "Lord knows he deserves it! Ha!"

I made a smile at his words, although not understanding the reference and not letting it bother me. He might have pressed Voltaire onto me, and Swift and Gay, but i draw the line at Romans. I took Cicero in my hands and set his papery corpse on a half-unrolled housewife; I had to restrain myself as always from following behind him and tidying up, lest I prove the jabs of my own wifeliness true and lose what has remained of my Machiavellian reputation. Although I suppose Byng had an excuse this time - at the thought, my eyes flickered guiltily to his half-wooden hand. It was clear that despite his period in the naval hospital, my captain was still struggling to change from his sinistral upbringing.

Still, it was not to critique his slovenliness that I had come to his room.

"Sir," I started, seating myself on the little space I had cleared of the footstool, "there was something....something I wanted to discuss."

"Please, you know I will always bend my ear to you, Fid," he said, before peering closer at me, "Why, your face-! Is it awful news?"

"No, I- that is-. Ah!" I did not want to look at his concerned expression. All the words had dried up in my mouth as soon as attempting to speak them; how ridiculous, to waste away the night with harrowed rehearsal only to find myself fish-jawed when it came to the opening performance. Me! He whom trouble followed in consequence of caustic wit, struck suddenly dumb!

And the longer I remained silent, the deeper the furrow between Byng's brows got.

"Is it...money?" He near whispered the last, afraid of offending some invisible etiquette teacher by mentioning finances so crudely.

I shook my head, my auburn hair flying about.

"Then I am at a loss," Byng declared, placing one hand on his hip, the other dangling unnaturally - his new asymmetry made that noxious cauldron of guilt and shame roil in my stomach, "but it cannot be as dreadful as you are putting on. Tell me all about it and we shall have the matter sorted by coffee, my friend."

"I have not been your friend," I blurted, clumsily.

There was a long pause, in which the clatter and shouting outside the boardhouse seemed to swell like a choir to fill it. For a moment I could not fathom how the entirety of my disclose was not obvious to him within those six words, forgetting that they had only consumed my reality by the throes of my own inner repetition. No, that my confession was still a secret was obvious, for instead of outraged, Byng looked only confused, and scratched at his moustache. The fine golden hairs that had escaped his pomade caught the low sun and blazed like beaten gold - my fancy saw him in that moment like the Archangel Michael with myself as always, cast as the devil himself.

"If you are still dwelling on my words about being abandoned on the hospital, I beg you to forget them. They were a bad joke and I ought to have known you would take them to heart. I understand how busy you have been," he said kindly.

I did not want his kindness. I had not wanted it at the beginning of our aquaintance and I did not want it now, when I must expose myself to him entirely. It would have suited me better if he was dismissive or pompous or selfish, but then, had he been any of those things, I would never have found myself in the position I was in.

Maybe it made it easier in the end, as his kindess irritated me and there is nothing better for loosening the tongue than irrational stress.

"We hoped you would die," I snapped, and with those savage words it was as though a damn, long rotten and straining over the years, broke within me and out came spilling a torrent of filthy, diseased water, "You often said our friendship began on the Courland expedition. It is true, I did recommend you for the negotiations to Gainsford, but not because I thought you would do well at it."

When Byng said nothing, I continued, "I don't know if you were even aware of my dislike of you. I hated all things you represented - priviledge, education, connexions. You had the impertience to be friendly and humble and forgiving and there was little I could not find a way to despise about you. Yes, I sent you off to the Governor and greatly you thanked me for that boon afterwards, but with sincerity I had done it with the presumtion that you would not come back."

It hurt to say these things to the man I now loved, but it was necessary. It was necessary - I had repeated as much to my pillow in the dark of the night - for him to know the depths of my depravity before he risked his reputation by recommending me to the Admiral on false understandings.

I was glad that it hurt.

When I risked a glance at him, Byng had gone very still and very pale. His good arm had dropped to his side.

"I see," he said woodenly. To hear his normally bonny voice so expressionless was near as debilitating as the sight of him clutching his mangled hand had been. "I...I suppose there have been queerer starts to friendships. It will be a funny thing to tell people at dinner parties, certainly." His chuckle sounded forced, "but it has been years-"

"That was not the end of it," I interrupted him. I had to dispell him of his good opinion of me, for my own honour as much as his.

"Oh?" Came the faint, reluctant question.

"Yes," I said. There was a heat building in me, like a fever reaching its climax and I believe in the moment it sent me to the very edge of madness, "I resented you your success - we all did, but I the most, for your fortune was my own doing and the praise of one so far my junior in rank but superior in society galled me to the extreme. For my own benefit, I pretended at friendship. I took your affection and betrayed it for years. Had it not been for my own sense of duty towards my superiors - I couldnt imagine where we would be now."

"You cannot be serious," Byng protested, and now he too sounded hot, "you are confused, Fidious. You've saved my life, twice over, three times if you would allow me to count Chatham!"

"My duty, as I said, sir."

"Then-, then you took me into your care when I was attacked," he pointed out triumphantly.

The memory of that winter night and Byng's staggering form bearing me dazedly to the pavement, blood running down his face, shot through my mind. A reminiscent shiver ran down my spine.

"You might have died," I pointed out, determined not to allow him to paint me as any kind of samaritan, "I may have betrayed your good opinion but I would not have allowed any man of woman to just pass in the street."

"You are making this very difficult, you know," Byng said crossly and I felt a familiar pang of satisfaction in making myself disagreeable, "there was no danger of me dying from the attention of the Duchess of Whitby, though. There was no need for your intervention but your rescue of me from matrimony when I asked it of you."

He seemed very assured of his victory there, but the shame threated to swallow me again at the reminder.

"I was glad to 'rescue' you; it was gratifying to me to deprive you of a greater fortune and a title in one fell swoop."

Byng's fine face fell.

"Tell me this is a joke," he said eventually. My words had begun to penetrate his rosy view of the world. I could feel my heart crack in tandem with his.

"I cannot," I replied, my voice wavering like a snotty's.

"I have asked you for counsel, and you have given it. I have told you my fears, and you have reassured me. I asked you to share in my joys, and you did."

"For my own benefit, sir." I swallowed the lump in my throat, "for my own advancement."

"...I introduced you to my sister."

"Yes," i whispered.

The dam had run dry. There were no more words. I had done what i had set out to; to destroy the bridge Byng had built between us over the years. As I watched, I saw the flesh fingers of his hands curl into fists, and his whole body strike up rigid. It was only those wooden fingers that sat slack and I did not miss the irony that in that moment, the only part of my captain's body not set against me was that which he had sacrificed to save my life. It was in that gory, mutilating moment that my love for him had flowered, belatedly, selfishly, only then had my eyes opened. How could I have visited him in recovery knowing, feeling now thoroughly, all those years I had plotted against him or accepted his friendship with ill feeling?

"I had been warned about you," Byng said quietly, face like procelain. "Lieutenants, midshipmen, seamen - even those Buffs you played the tables with; all seemed to have black words to say about you. But I dismissed them. Every one; I even got a little irate at some of them. My own honour felt besmirched that these people would cast aspersions on my closest friend in the world."

Each blow struck me like a sabre. Good. It was good that he make me bleed.

"Sir-" I began, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door and the impertinent entry of a white-capped maid.

She bobbed a curtesy.

"Mrs Battersea says to tell you tea's ready for you, sir - and to say there's enough for two if your friend is staying."

Byng did not take his eyes off of me.

"No. This man was just leaving."

Surely there was an ocean of blood lapping at my knees by now. It was good, and it was right, but like a drowning man taking one last breath before going under, it was instinct that moved my lips without knowing what my next words would be.

"Please-"

"I think, Mr Jones, that you have thoroughly obliterated your right to say 'please' to me, don't you?"

My last breath of air went out. Here were the consequences of my actions - Byng's blithe counternance one of stony betrayal, my commendation to the Admiral no doubt would find itself fuelling the fireplace, the hesitant understanding between myself and Lady Babington crumpling with the news of what I had done to her brother. Obliterated indeed.

"Then I will take my leave," I said. My words seemed to come from very far away to my own ears.

"Good day, sir," Byng dismissed me curtly, turning his back on me, halo fading with the approaching dusk.

"Good day."

And, with the maid looking between us askance, I left.

When later I received a summons from Napier concerning a glowing letter of commendation from his protege, I could never have felt worse.

[sinrevi-art]

Inktober #10 - Maxim (Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals) G-pen & ink, markers and gelly roll pen. (Whoops, never got around to scan this one! Saw this Maxim in my sketchbook and thought he should be on my blog.) ~photo version below~

[everydaydg]

Im interested in seeing what wins!!

Id say the one I have the most time in out of all of these is SRW W.

I am 10 scenarios away from the end

The other two games im still in reaaally early game.

[legiongamerrd]

#Gamefemerides

Hace 14 años fue lanzado Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals. Es un RPG de acción co-desarrollado por Neverland y Square Enix para Nintendo DS. Es un remake de Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, también desarrollado por Neverland, para Super Nintendo de 1995. El re-diseño de personajes estuvo a cargo del ex-diseñador de SE, Yusuke Naora.

El juego inicia con un prólogo de Gades, anunciando que los Sinistrals se enfrentarán en guerra contra la humanidad.

#LegionGamerRD #ElGamingnosune #Videojuegos #Gaming #RetroGaming #RetroGamer #CulturaGaming #CulturaGamer #GamingHistory #HistoriaGaming #GamerDominicano #GamingPodcast #Podcast #Neverland #SquareEnix #Natsume #Lufia #LufiaCurseoftheSinistrals #Nintendo #NintendoDS #JRPG #ARPG #RPG

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[theanomily]

The fact that the Voice just bypassed Lucy's mother causes not enough pain, in my humble opinion.

See, if I were to get my hands on a Sinistre in a situation of, say, revenge for hurt caused by the Voice, while not wanting any long-term involvement, one of the first things I'd do is remove the tongue.

If this happened prior to Lucy's conception, then some very careful monitoring of movement/stories + leaving the child mostly to her own devices could shield her from the gruesome truth until she was old enough to understand- except, the mother died before that could happen. Thus, Lucy could believe that the power skipped her mother through her being mute, so the crushing nature of being riddled with a curse despite a sliver of hope is retained, while introducing more suffering to her mother :)

[lilithfairen]

When you go off to listen to the Lufia DS OST and it's soooooo good but then you're like

i am not ready

[netmassimo]

Il romanzo "Curse of the Mirror Clowns" di Chris Lynch è stato pubblicato per la prima volta nel 2018. È inedito in Italia.

Lucy Wilson si sta abituando a vivere in un piccolo villaggio come Ogmore-by-Sea ma anche in un posto apparentemente sperduto sembrano esserci strani eventi. Lucy ha preso più che mai ispirazione da suo nonno Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart assumendo il ruolo di Difensore della Terra assieme al suo amico Hobo.

Quando un circo offre uno spettacolo speciale solo per una serata, Lucy non sembra interessata ma ben presto i clown mostrano caratteristiche sinistre e aliene. Un aiuto arriva da un altro alieno ed è importante perché i clown stanno cercando proprio lei.

[teefa85]

So yeah. The "do a quick AC in and out run" led to "I didn't find anything good by a very early escape portal and then proceeded to take another 30 levels to find another escape when I stayed in!"

At least I got a few nice pieces of armor. Also, I might have stayed in if I didn't have other things to do today and my 3DS didn't need charging. I had more Monster Houses of all types going down. Hell, I think I heard the Lufia 1 Random Encounter Theme more than I would if I was running one of the larger dungeons in that game.

For those of you who don't know...the first game has an infamously high encounter rate even after using the encounter repellent item...

[vazaha-tya]

the worst of the marauders is always shown as two scenes: the prank and the pantsing scene

i've talked about it before, the prank is totally on sirius and there's nothing to absolve him of that. his upbringing might have given him extenuating circumstances but that doesn't excuse him. that being said, severus was the instigator of the situation. HE was the one trying to get remus expelled or killed

and the pantsing scene was on the marauders as well and it does seem like they're doing it for their own enjoyment. but james is using a spell severus created. where did he get it? how did he know to use it that way? considering what lily says about him and his friends targetting muggle-borns, there aren't too many possible answers. most anti-marauders people would be charitable and say james had the cruelty to repurpose severus' own spell and use it against him. but i think a lot of snape's actions are downplayed by what people don't say about them.

he was a death eater who changed sides yes, but what did he do while he was still on voldemort's side? and as a spy?

he cleverly knew and invented many curses, what did he do with them? who were his targets?

it is hard to defend or condemn severus because the measure of his actions is never made explicit

that's why i can't see him as a victim even in situations where the marauders are clearly in the wrong. because what isn't said, what is only implied in subtext is as sinistre as what he throws in their faces.

severus snape is not a victim. he never allowed himself to be

to clarify

i am neutral about snape

i don't like him as a person but he's a potentially interesting character

i just don't think he's well-written

his role as a spy was barely exploited

the reasoning behind his abuse of children is flimsy

and the whole marauders-snape relationship is described so badly it can be interpreted in every direction

were the marauders bullies and snape a hapless victim of their dastardly ways? eh. we're talking abt the dude who invented a curse to make someone bleed out. how do you think remus found out snape knew more curses in first year than the rest of his classmates?

were the marauders defenders of the weak against a future death eater and his friends? probably not. the pantsing scene at the very least showed they targetted him for their own enjoyment more than anything else.

or were the schoolyard fights meant as allegories of the greater tension of the war brewing in the background? most likely. the atmosphere was tense in the castle. people were disappearing, awful laws being passed as death eaters infiltrated the ministry and pureblood rhetoric was spouted louder than ever.

i think the marauders probably didn't have the time to torment snape as much as people seem to think considering they were mapping out the school, becoming animagi, running around on the full moon, doing homework (+playing quidditch for james) and who knows what else. draco had the time to bully harry because he literally had nothing else to do. that's not the case here.

but i also think james is probably the one who antagonised snape and insulted/hexed him first, maybe called him a dark wizard and generally comforted him in his idea that he had no place in the light side. his friends also probably followed, especially sirius who never learnt what a moral compass was and who probably doesn't have a standard of what "going too far" means. can you imagine what bellatrix and him got up to as kids in grimmauld place? i hardly think he understands the concept of bullying. james was spoiled, sirius fucked up and the other two very eager to please. a recipe for disaster.

but snape didn't become a death eater because of the marauders. he already resented muggles before coming to hogwarts and knew a lot of curses which he's kind of implied to have happily used. his break from lily pushed him further down the dark path but he was already involved in purist circles. he wasn't alone, he had friends (who died in the war too if i understood it right, or went to azkaban).

the marauders weren't ganging up on him 24/7. they started the hostilities, yes, and took pleasure in humiliating him. snape and his friends apparently took pleasure in attacking muggle-borns though.

they were all shitty kids terrified to die and lashing out at each other. the thing is that the marauders didn't get to grow out of it (except remus, who did put the rivalry behind him and pettigrew who's generally ignored in this) and snape did but stewed in his hatred.

snape would have been a compelling antihero if he had been better written. if it was made clear that he is selfish and bitter yet still fighting for the right side. (i wish jkr hadn't involved lily. i'm so tired of her being only characterised by her relationship with the men in her life). if he was just a complicated man, one who isn't absolved by his tragic backstory. or if it had taught him to be better, if he had been a mentor to harry instead of another reason to think he wasn't safe anywhere

and if his spying years had actually given useful intel ffs. because what did he learn as a spy that the order used? smh

[sinrevi]

Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals - E3 2010

[starlitskvader]

A thing I like: when a video game series has a few recurring themes that play in most (if not all) of the games.

(Personally my favorite of the four is the original Lufia 1!)