#episode revenant spoilers

[zalia]

And this is why I had to delete my Reddit account to stop myself getting into fights about lore because the lack of understanding (and interest in) about how story *works* and about characters etc. was just... infuriating.

In the wider lore community, it does feel like there's a lot of people who see the narrative as a puzzle to be solved which has an objectively correct 'answer'. Or perhaps more, they see the narrative as a set of objective 'facts' that are stated clearly and can be learned so that they can list them off (as well as a perspective that they are the main character, so *obviously* the world must conform to their views and anything else is bad story). I think this is why you also get a lot of people who complain when characters aren't 'logical' or choosing the most objectively correct course of action 100% of the time. To this brand of fan, the story is a puzzle and *they* have solved it (while sitting at home on their computer in relative safety and comfort, with a surplus of time to spend thinking and dissecting every bit of info) and they don't get why the characters haven't (y'know, because of the trauma, living in a high stress situation under threat of apocalypse, where there are actual consequences for their choices - in the case of Eramis specifically... the Vanguard executing Eramis while leaving, say, Saint-14 alive, would really make it clear that the Eliksni in the City are second-class citizens who can expect harsher treatment legally, which doesn't really look great from the standpoint of ending violence). It's really frustrating to deal with, especially when it leads to 'loremasters' putting out information that is wrong or misleading, because they cannot do anything but the most surface level reading of a text - for example, one specific loremaster having a short video about how incredible Lord Shaxx is and how he's the strongest and best because he defeated Felwinter easily so many times! Ignoring that the lore is pretty clear that Felwinter was not trying to win. He was not there with the purpose of winning a fight. He was buying time and working to get Shaxx to trust him enough to side with the Iron Lords (and get access to the Seraph Bunker beneath his fortress). (I love Lord Shaxx, he is great, but we do not know how he would fare in a fair fight against Felwinter). It does feel like anything that isn't spelled out in block caps in a way a 3-year old could easily understand gets ignored or just... not understood. So I am absolutely unsurprised that Eramis and her story is being misunderstood so badly. (apologies for the rant, it is something that has been bugging me basically since I got into Destiny).

Eramis Executors are up in arms that our favorite, bitter, lesbian crab didn’t receive a bullet to her head to no one’s surprise. What happened to the overarching themes involving forgiveness and mending the wounds of the past to build a better future for everyone resonating with people? Does the Traveler and what it has been representing for 10 years mean nothing when it comes to Eramis? Were we supposed to abandon the power of friendship? Is punishment with no consideration the only way of dealing with those who have committed wrong acts that people know of?

[kayzean]

My tired ass was not listening...

Help i genuinely forgot i had the cat petting emote equipped. That was completely unintentional. Never has an emote been more perfect tho.

Bonus:

Me whenever I see Crow:

[nevertrustanoracle]

The HELM starts crashing and I’m immediately crying “*gasp* Captain Jacobson! Not the frog! 😱”

Not worried about anyone else, just the frog.

[unlucky-phantom]

Slight act 3 spoilers below!!

Anyone else think Bungie missed a trick in having us fight the Barron's.

Like it was very cool having to fight the Barron's.

But the whole time I was thinking

"Holy shit... we're gonna have to fight Taniks!!"

And then we didn't. I just thought it would have been cool.

[bladecyberstrike]

I thought it started out funny with Variks and Eramis sniping at each other, then the Apothecary told Crow to do... This lmao.

Everybody was being so mean to each other on comms, it was great

[crimsonmischief]

Oh please Crow, like you've never done something stupid for the greater good 🙄

EPISODE REVENANT ACT 2 SPOILERS ❗️❗️

now why did he say that like it was a slur 😭

+1 to Guardian nicknames tho

[abyssalcleave]

AHHH CROW HAS GROWN SO MUCH!!! i am in tears and shambles.

[ripe-beetle]

Revenant prediction

[raillue]

First vanguard op

[kelgorath]

my beautiful wife waiting for me at the altar

[snooze-mode]

yeah that's right bitch, i broke your fucking vase, whaddya gonna do about it

[ahamkara-apologist]

Here- I made a playlist of all the different Eramis monologues that I've gotten when visiting her so far. I'll probably add more if more get updated, but either way I'm having an absolute blast with this- I feel like I'm watching the Vanguard try to give a beat up old alley cat a dose of dewormer and a flea bath

[blorbologist]

Yawns, g'morning.

I'm thinking about Vaxleth and episode 51, as. Most of us are, really. Holy shit.

And I think Vax's divine nature played a role in how Ludinus was able to set and bait this trap. I don't think we'd have gotten this outcome if Vax was still a mortal Champion, like his sister. Furthermore, Keyleth’s position as Voice of the Tempest was also critical here.

Let me explain: let's say some other half of a ship could have fulfilled this orb critera. If we pretend that any Champion could do (I think they needed the divine aspect of Vax's unlife but play along here), why not bait the trap for Vex, or Pike, or Scanlan, or Yasha?

Beyond the 'Vax is practically an angel now and has orb properties' angle, I think part of it is the sheer... everything that is mortal. If Percy was captured Vex would have any number of solutions - send Trinket in, attack at range, Rogue it up, or do the sensible thing and bring in friends. The living are variable, you can't count on them to behave as you need.

Ludinus loathes gods and their servants: of course he'd expect them to be predictable - and he'd be right! Vax is not all Vax anymore (see Dalen's Closet and Tal’Dorei Reborn), he's a deathless shepherd and servant of the Raven Queen. Why would he think this through? He has no life to lose, only Keyleth’s to save. You don’t need to consider how to use a shield, you just do. People shape their plans around the steady expectations of gods, their almost immutable domains, and Vax is divine enough for that to apply to him. They'd know he would behave exactly as he did. It could be argued living!Vax would as well, and there are several songs and historical records about him, so worst came to worst Ludinus could hope that this is maintained. But that's an uncertainty, and not fitting for a centuries-long plan.

And now the second part: it had to be Keyleth. They couldn't have used Vex to draw him out, I don’t think, as much as it pains me. Either the story of Dalen's Closet was limited to the guests and any lil kids who heard the Ballad of Derrig or it proves the Champion cannot willingly approach his sister. It took a Wish for that.

Vex has had five kids, spent thirty years protecting Whitestone, and has her fingers in the financial goings on of all Tal’Dorei. By no means does she have a small impact on the world: her smallest taxation decisions could mean poverty or wealth for thousands! But many of her biggest impacts on the future, on destiny, have already come to pass. Her adventures in Vox Machina, the children she bore, the decades of decisions she's already made (I doubt she'd be on the council for even a few years without changing much of her sphere to her liking.)

Keyleth is the Voice of the Tempest. She will, hopefully, live almost two thousand years. Imagine all the lives she will impact in that time! Directly! The Matron must be so familiar with her strand of fate because it touches so many, many others!

Even if Vax, somehow, did not remember her. Even if he was a shell of himself. This is someone the Matron cannot let die before her time (hopefully a thousand plus years from now). This is one person she would have to bend the rules for and see saved, and there's just the man for the job. She would not allow intervention for Vex, or Percy, or those nieces and nephews Vax surely watches. Not Velora, not Scanlan, not Gilmore. Keyleth, with centuries of work to do in this world, with generations to guide, is too valuable.

What I'm saying is... literally no other ship could have pulled this off. None. This was built for Vaxleth, from its very bones. You could have, say, an AU where Vex is the Champion of Ravens (wink), and this would not be certain enough for Ludinus to bank on it. Very likely, but not assured (the Matron could refuse to intervene, or they could intervene in a less 'take me instead you lil red-storm shit' way, etc.).

Evil plans bank on the inevitable. Gravity, greed, time. Their love is inevitable, a law of nature.

It could not have been anyone else

[a-driftamongopenstars]

a gift for the departed; Crow & Fikrul ficlet;

i finally finished Act III and the resolution was interesting and I'll think about it more, I really wanted some closure for Crow (and Uldren!) and Fikrul. So I wrote my own :D also on ao3

It is a pilgrimage. Crow ascends the ruins of the would-be Kell's hideout as the remaining Scorn watch him out of sight. There is respect for him, yes, but there is more. There is scorn. It is something that cannot be undone, far too many wrongs.

Crow walks safely through the courtyard, through the tunnels that burrow through the rocky dungeon. With the last Scorn Barons dead, nothing but tainted cinder left in their wake, there is no need for violence.

His destination lies far ahead, across the dark maws of the Reef. Every room is an homage to Uldren's and Fikrul's dream. Awoken statues left in shambles, their sacred designs corrupted and perverted. All that the Prince and the Fanatic wanted to see but never lived to.

But the crown to that dream, the final destination, is where Fikrul's body lies. Crow's footsteps echo in the massive throne room, and he cannot look away from the pointed arch of his Sister's seat.

But that will have to wait.

Crow finds Fikrul's remains untouched. The only mark of his defeat is the poison-green webbing at his chest, where the Guardian has filled his Ether with Light and reverted what the Darkness has done. Crow is struck with a flashback, his fingers trembling, his eyes wetting with tears, as he remembers Fikrul's Ether-bleeding wounds from times ago. How he wished, oh how he wished with his whole heart, that Fikrul be spared from the Guardians' violence.

A wish granted, a son born. That is how he became a Father.

Crow shakes his head, wishing that memory away. The part of him which is Uldren weeps, and he lets it. It, too, deserves to mourn the loss.

He was not a good Father. He left his wish-made off-spring into a bodyguard, a weapon, an undying font of loyalty. And when he himself was put into the ground, his son was left stranded, bound forever to live on. Perhaps, such is the fate of children, however they come to be.

But in this outcome, Crow feels happier. The other part of him, righteous and bold, is glad that the Fanatic's rule is over. No more tortured Eliksni. No more death and rebirth, not for him, not like this.

So he turns to the other thing that calls to him. The throne that looks like a dark fork against the blood-red window.

He seats himself upon it. He reaches up for the pin in his hair and removes it, letting black strands fall in a familiar fashion down his head. His eyes, shining brightly in this dark, scout the room where everything is dead, still and unmoving.

His vision feels out of bounds and distant, yet focused entirely on this throne room. A memory once again, or, perhaps, something that never happened. A gift for the departed, a vision and a dream come true, if only for a moment.

Strange, how in order to move on, one has to return to the origins of pain. Crow finds himself in that situation more often than he wishes to. And yet, it is cathartic.

He feels Uldren's voice coat his vocal cords with bitter honey, his words elevated with the Awoken slant.

"I release you from my service," he says quietly, royally, aiming at nothing in particular and everything at once. "Now go. Be free."

The silent room echoes.

[scottishexo]

Vesper's Host weapons leaked.

[sato3tosio9g]

This week, the Echoes episode ended and the revenant　episode began. I've only played the introductory quest so far, but the thing that surprised me the most was this screenshot… Mithrax, pull yourself together!

Of course, there are many things to see, such as the scene where Crow and Fikrul reunite, the scene where the Eliksni mutate into scones, and the tranquility of the new location… lol. But at this stage, I don't know whether the shadow I saw behind Mithrax was Nezarec himself, or if it was his curse that was reflected that way.

What does this mean? I feel like we'll find out something as we progress through the episodes.

(I'm using a translation tool to write this, so the expressions may not be appropriate…)

和訳。

今週は残響のエピソードが終了して、亡霊のエピソードが始まりました。まだ導入クエストしかプレイ出来ていないのですが、一番驚いたのがスクリーンショットのこの一枚でした…ミスラックスしっかりして！

勿論、クロウとフィクルルの再会のシーンやエリクスニーがスコーンに変異したシーンや、新しいロケーションの穏やかさなど色々あるのですが…ｗしかしミスラックスの背後に見えた影は、ネザレク本人なのか、彼の呪いがそうやって映っているのか、今の段階では分からないですね。

これはどうなんだろう？エピソードを進めて行けば何か分かりそうな気もします。

(翻訳ツールを使って書いているので表現が適切でない場合があるかもしれません…)