#every incarnation from one onwards

[doctor-the-13th]

When I have kids and they’re scared of the monster under their bed, I’m just going to tell them it’s Clara under the bed. They won’t get the reference, and I—

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I'm glad totk has no connection to the previous ganon (oot-onwards) because it would totally ruin him as a character.

Honestly I consider totk ganondorf separate even from botw, because I do love the idea of botw ganon being a completely self-dehumanized, seething, eldritch representation of this ageless grudge no one has any context for anymore, so he might as well be understood as a natural disaster or a vicious plague. I find this incredibly juicy!! Buuuut to me it only works within the context of a dozen other games building the ground up for this goopy, demonic, hateful incarnation with too many limbs and far too many angry eyes.

If you decide to connect BotW Ganon to TotK Ganondorf however.... like. I'm sorry, but. Sir, you are not this angry. You have zero reason to be anywhere near this level of rancor. You haven't even been stabbed, ever!!!! You never had your wish ripped out from under you!!!! You have never been forced to rot away in the void while fully aware of every agonizing second for centuries, not even a single time!!!! Rauru merely grounded you so you'd have your little power nap (:>), and then you woke up with renewed energy to topple down the other kid's sand castle just because it's fun to watch him cry. And honestly TotK Ganondorf does kind of feel like a toddler, gleeful to discover his own capacity for destruction for the first time. Which. I guess that could have been, something? I don't know, to me it's still pretty stupid and inconsistent honestly. But either way, that is not Dislocated Screeching Essence of a Mad Pig material.

TotK Ganondorf has no grudge, and as far as we know (which is insane!!!! this guy's core characterization is envy, yet he doesn't have this corrosive toxic energy at all in totk!!! he's far too happy to be here and break stuff just because, and like sir you are a grown man you've been a king for decades what are you so giddy aboutttt), the worse he had to suffer through in totk, as far as the game tells us, was a temporary humiliation. Which could absolutely be motivating for sure, but it feels very human and political and measured. Not "I will shred my own skin and forget my own name and suffer death a thousand times over just to show you all the depths of my hate" levels of fury. Again, to remove our familiarity to the character as players cheapens decades of buildup, and!!!!!!! anyway. Anyway.

anyway.

[ethicaltreatmentofcowplants]

And now we say goodbye to the cutest cinnamon roll ever, our romantically reserved Evergreen Harbor native.

Giovanna and Lilac started out with excellent compatibility and a shared passion for environmentalism (and disdain for polished fashion!). But while it was enough for friendship, the chemistry between them never quite picked up.

While I hoped Giovanna would go further, I suspected that Lilac may be a little too wild and rock 'n roll for her - and indeed, towards the end Giovanna did get overshadowed by the much stronger (and more forward 😏) personalities in the competition. She also sabotaged herself in the first round when she could have had a solo date with Lilac, but was the one sim to walk away from an incomplete painting, which caused a tiebreaker and Tiago to eventually win the opportunity.

But she brought out the softer sides of many around her. Every time she expressed discomfort over the state of the place, someone would leap to their feet to help her out - and even during his first round Reign of Terror, Forest never had a bad word to say to her. Their friendship was wholesomeness incarnate.

Giovanna - we will miss you, but we are sure that you are going onwards to better and brighter things! And when Lilac's next in Evergreen Harbor, she'll gladly catch up over a plate of fried crickets (or not) with you.

@ravingsockmonkey

[tired-teacher-blog]

Stolen moments

Characters : Shigaraki/ Fem reader

Genre and Warnings : NSFW/ 18+/ Implied sexual intercourse/ Fluff/ Angst/ Drabble

Summary : It's a rare occasion, in which you spend the night cuddled up in bed with your beloved.

Notes : Happy birthday to my sweet @fictionfordays I hope you enjoy it babe 🩷

Please do not read if you're a minor

Masterlist|Second Masterlist

_ "You're crushing me I hope you know," your playful whisper is uttered through a soft smile that's been adorning your features for minutes now.

Heaving chests and a sheen of sweat mixing together as you hold your man flush to your glowing skin, caressing the dry patches of his pale complexion as you speak, "but don't you dare move an inch."

_ "Right." is all he's able to mutter through his labored breathing, too afraid of completely letting his guard down around you, you've already seen sides of him that no one else has.

This, what you're doing right now, what you've insisted on doing is simply ridiculous. He is a villain for heaven's sake, the symbol of fear and nation's nightmare incarnated, so why? Why would he agree to spend the night cuddled up in bed with you instead of going back to his own room like he always does after concluding your nightly activities?

_ "You're so warm." you beam cheerfully, trailing soft kisses along his scarred skin as one of your hands travel up and lace itself through the disheveled locks falling around his face and neck.

Utterly ridiculous.. what would his mates think of him if they happen to find out about this?

_ "Right." and it seems to be the only word he's capable of articulating.

You gently cradle his cheeks, looking into his face for a moment, eyes filled with nothing but love for the man trapping you under his weight, and it's the same warm gaze of adoration that you've always shown him, "I love you Tenko."

Tenko.. his given name, the one you choose to call him when you're tucked away from everyone else, when he's deeply sheathed into your heat in the same way he is every single night.

He's never thought the name would possibly sound so sweet until he declared it one day in the heat of the moment, right when he was on the verge of spilling his seeds deep into your warmth, whining and demanding you use it from that moment onward.

To this day he still remembers the look of surprise taking over your flushed face when you heard it, to this day he still recalls the way you chanted it like a mantra while squeezing around him and milking every last drop he offered.

_ "Uh.. yeah, me too.. I love you too.." the symbol of fear huh? Hardly.

You giggle sweetly hearing his stammered confession, only for a satisfied sigh to follow suit when he decides to nuzzle your neck in what can only be described as a desperate attempt to hide his bashfulness.

His softening shaft slides out of your wetness, unintentionally rubbing against you one last time, and bringing a sudden gasp out of the both of you.

_ "I wish we could do this everyday Tenko." your voice turns glum as you express your regret.

The intimacy you're craving, the quiet moments where only you and him exist, holding your lover casually without the fear of what comes next.. you've always wished for such trivial instances that should come easy with every relationship.

But you are not in a typical relationship, nor are you with a typical man.. you're aware of it, and so is he, therefore if sneaking around for the sake of these rare stolen moments is the only way you could be together, then so be it.

_ "I wish it was easier." he gets it, knows it's unfair to you, sees it in the devastated look you give him every single night after kissing you goodbye and leaving you behind, but there is nothing for you or him to ever do besides holding on to these treasured moments, rare as they might be.

_ "Kiss me Tenko." you're on the verge of crying as you plead, but miraculously hold back your tears as tonight is supposed to be special, memorable.

Propping himself up on his forearms, he gazes into your misty eyes for a moment before sealing you with a tender kiss, his chapped lips molding perfectly with your soft ones.

You're melting against each other, eager hands roaming eager bodies for your fingers to settle around his neck while his own dig into your supple flesh and hug your waist closely.

You have always mesmerized him, with your beauty, your heart and sincerity. You have always believed in him and followed in his footsteps, giving him your all, body and soul.

You have never feared him, not even when he embraced you for the very first time after months of only careful touches exchanged, his quirk had kept you apart for far too long, and even then you refused to let him go.

_ "I don't want this night to end." you whimper between soft kisses, your warm lips gliding slowly in a rhythmic dance with his own, and your fingers move to pull on his hair as he nibbles on your lower one.

He's over the moon, has been ever since the day he gained full control over his quirk. Not only because his new found ability is carrying him closer to achieving his dream of bringing down this phony -so called- hero society, but also and more than anything, because he is now able to freely be with you like he's always dreamed.

You were his first, and he secretly vowed to make you his last. He still recalls -to this day- the yearning desire ruling his entire being the first time you took his hands in yours and guided them to your awaiting naked flesh.

He still recalls that night with a mixture of bliss and timidity, when you took the lead and taught him everything he needed, learning each other's preferences together as you went, and sharing shy gazes and nervous smiles as you made love for the very first time.

_ "Happy birthday beautiful, I promise to love and to keep you safe for as long as I live." he is no longer bashful, wording his oath confidently.

Tomura Shigaraki.. terrorist, mass murderer and the symbol of fear, is the one your heart has unregretfully chosen because to you, he is more than those labels, to you, he is a man starved for affection and acceptance, and only with you did he find what he's been missing.

_ "I love you Tenko, and I always will."

The symbol of fear.. perhaps he is to the world, but he certainly isn't to you.

[sarsaparillaart]

“The 12-made-10 and the broken dance. The Accelerando. The Change of Ladies. The Metronome and the Song. The Dance-Architect and Rhythm-Draw. The Body. The Chassé. The Rèvèrence. The Unheard Objection.”

Swordtember 7 - Moon

Longer lore piece below. Rendering nacre is harder than I thought btw.

10 Invocations for 10 Moons

O Milkmoon! Life and growth and rot and unloving lust. All things that spread because they must, and all things that take because they can. You the ancient forest and the stinking city, the corn in the field and the smut upon it. You, language and terrible ideas that spread through furtive whispers, poisoning the dwelling minds. You, the disgusting undying evergrowing! The beautiful cancer inside all things! O Halcyon! Grow!

O Coalmoon! The everflowing torrent of change. The violent storm of light and fire and lightning and smoke! You, the forge that melts the world and mixes and ruins and fixes and starts again! You, the white-hot flame that makes glass from deserts and brick from clay and ash from men! You, the violent storm that changes them again to something new! O Labile! Change!

O Saltmoon! The long-held breath; existence without resolution! You yourself the fear of death. You, salted fish and mummified kings! You, the unmarred monument-stone and the author's name on a page! History now and never-past. The unbroken line and unmoving sky! You, still water and rock-hard bread. You who cannot stop, for you cannot move! O Sterile! Continue!

O Winemoon! The impossible dance, shattered legs, and blooded throat! The thirst for drink that already pumps through veins! You, the song that never ends! The silent  verses that flow in a torrents from the lungs of all. The melody in birdsong and the rhythm in the beating of hearts! You the first, last, and million dances unending! The scurrying of rats and the procession of pilgrims! The flowing of water and the whirling of atoms! O Blithe! Revel!

O Nacremoon! The beauty in numbers; the constant ticking up and down and ceaselessness of a spiraling fractal. You the tides of gain and loss. You the lies of luck! You, outlier in an infinite range! The meaningless profundity between digits! You who live in the clink of coins and the arc of arrows. You which breathes probability and bleeds geometric form!  You, the one perfect thing! O Mnemonic! Reckon!

O Silkmoon! The billion lines in a billion webs. You, the strands connecting me to you and you to them and them to me! The lines that connect our eyes to these words and these words to their meanings in a million doomed languages! You, the threads of love and hatred and fealty. The connections between the disconnected! The net of staggering complexity that ties everything that does and does not exist! You, worm-spider in the shape of a moon, spinning and knitting and cutting and shaping! O Sibling! Tether!

O Bilemoon! Flesh and beautiful body. The face perfect, all sharp curves and smooth edges! The glow of sickened health. You, the muscular fat rippling across wide tracts of flesh! You, fast-strength! You skin radiant! You eyes clear! The cutless and malleable form radiating death and sex! You the beautiful parts of existing! You incarnation incarnate! The singular point of body! O Chassis! Live!

O Sugarmoon. You the sky and sea! The wanderer and a researcher. The seer and a thinker! You, the answerless question; the sweet smell on the wind and far-off shore from whence it came! You, the prow of every ship. The boots of every wanderer. The wind in sails! You, promise of discovery! Onward. Onward. Onward! The acidic desire for discovery. The thousand miles within a step and the step  of one thousand miles. You, the hidden name! The reason to search. The lie that gives discovery stronger meaning. You, the push- pull freeing us from stagnation! The sky and sea and the vast stretches of land. The roads and paths and meadows and monuments and wonders on the page and in the minds of explorers. O Peregrine! Seek!

O Venommoon! The vengeance for a broken thing. The well-undeserved punishment. You, the thing that knows sins and castigation! Rejected fate. The death of the young and the continuation of the old. You, the steel-flash of retribution. You, implacable justice. The death of the killer. You, impatience. You, rash action! Destiny taken into unworthy hands. The failed severing of cause and effect, and the successful bending of rules. You, the rebel-judge! O Bellicose! Try!

O Oilmoon! The wretched and unfair hive of golden finery and silver-wealth. You, power manifest! You, monarch in wing-flesh! The servitude of slaves; golden light on the crown; silver light on the usurper's sword. You, the right to rule and the power to enforce! You, every-kenning. The scurrying ants underfoot and the marching steps of soldiers above. You who force the bent knee. Command. You the law and the tax and the splendor and wealth of vast nations. You, the honeycombed tracts of land, the spread and focused will. You, the draw of fealty, the protection of leaders,the fear of tyrants. O Primate! Domineer!

[the-aspiring-occultist]

Liber Israfel - sub figura LXIV

[This book was formerly called “Anubis,” and is referred to the 20th key, “The Angel.”]

0. The Temple being in darkness, and the Speaker ascended into his place let him begin by a ritual of the Enterer, as followeth

1. [Hebrew: Vav] Procul, O procul este profani.

2. Bahlasti! Ompehda!

3. In the name of the Mighty and Terrible One, I proclaim that I have banished the Shells unto their habitations.

4. I invoke Tahuti, the Lord of Wisdom and of Utterance, the God that cometh forth from the Veil.

5. O Thou! Majesty of Godhead! Wisdom-crowned Tahuti! Lord of the Gates of the Universe! Thee, Thee, I invoke.

    O Thou of the Ibis Head! Thee, Thee I invoke.

    Thou who wieldest the Wand of Double Power! Thee, Thee I invoke!

    Thou who bearest in Thy left hand the Rose and Cross of Light and Life: Thee, Thee, I invoke.

    Thou, whose head is as an emerald, and Thy nemmes as the night-sky blue! Thee, Thee I invoke.

    Thou, whose skin is of flaming orange as though it burned in a furnace! Thee, Thee I invoke.

6. Behold! I am Yesterday, To-Day, and the Brother of To-Morrow!

    I am born again and and again.

    Mine is the Unseen Force, whereof the Gods are sprung! Which is as Life unto the Dwellers in the Watch-Towers of the Universe.

    I am the Charioteer of the East, Lord of the Past and of the Future.

I see by mine own inward light: Lord of Resurrection; Who cometh forth from the Dusk, and my birth is from the House of Death.

7. O ye two Divine Hawks upon your Pinnacles!

    Who keep watch over the Universe!

    Ye who company the Bier to the House of Rest!

    Who pilot the Ship of Ra advancing onwards to the heights of heaven!

    Lord of the Shrine which standeth in the Centre of the Earth!

8. Behold, He is in me, and I in Him!

    Mine is the Radiance, wherein Ptah floatheth over the firmament!

    I travel upon high!

    I tread upon the firmament of Nu!

    I raise a flashing flame, with the lightning of Mine Eye!

    Ever rushing on, in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra: giving my life to the Dwellers of Earth.

9. If I say “Come up upon the mountains!” the Celestial Waters shall flow at my Word.

    For I am Ra incarnate!

    Kephra created in the Flesh!

    I am the Eidolon of my father Tmu, Lord of the City of the Sun!

10. The God who commands is in my mouth!

    The God of Wisdom is in my Heart!

    My tongue is the Sanctuary of Truth!

    And a God sitteth upon my lips.

11. My Word is accomplished every day!

    And the desire of my heart realises itself, as that of Ptah when He createth!

    I am Eternal; therefore all things are as my designs; therefore do all things obey my Word.

12. Therefore do Thou come forth unto me from Thine abode in the Silence: Unutterable Wisdom! All-Light! All-Power!

    Thoth! Hermes! Mercury! Odin!

    By whatever name I call Thee, Thou art still nameless to Eternity:. Come Thou forth, I say, and aid and guard me in this work of Art.

13. Thou, Star of the East, that didst conduct the Magi!

    Thou art The Same all-present in Heaven and in Hell!

    Thou that vibratest between the Light and the Darkness!

    Rising, descending! Changing ever, yet ever The Same!

    The Sun is Thy Father!

    Thy Mother is the Moon!

    The Wind hath borne Thee in its bosom: and Earth hath ever nourished the changeless Godhead of Thy Youth!

14. Come Thou forth, I say, come Thou forth!

    And make all Spirits subject unto Me:

    So that every Spirit of the Firmament

    And of the Ether.

    And of the Earth.

    And under the Earth.

    On dry land

    And in the Water.

    Of whirling Air

    And of rushing Fire.

    And every Spell and Scourge of God the Vast One, may be obedient unto Me!

15. I invoke the priestess of the Silver Star, Asi the Curved One, by the ritual of Silence.

16. I make open the gate of Bliss; I descend from the Palace of the Stars; I greet you, I embrace you, O children of Earth, that are gathered together in the Hall of Darkness.

17. (A pause.)

18. The Speech in the Silence.

    The Words against the Son of Night.

    The Voice of Tahuti in the Universe in the Presence of the Eternal.

    The Formulas of Knowledge.

    The Wisdom of Breath.

    The Root of Vibration.

    The Shaking of the Invisible.

    The Rolling Asunder of the Darkness.

    The Becoming Visible of Matter.

    The Piercing of the Scales of the Crocodile.

    The Breaking Forth of the Light!

19. (Follows the Lection.)

20. There is an end of the speech; let the Silence of darkness be broken; let it return into the silence of light.

21. The speaker silently departs; the listeners disperse unto their homes; yea, they disperse unto their homes.

[talonabraxas]

Sirian Elder Talon Abraxas

Galactic Federation of Light

This is a channeled message from the Galactic Federation of Light to the Sirian Starseeds:

We gather to impart unto you a message of guidance, inspiration, and empowerment. As emissaries of the Sirius star system, you carry within your beings the sacred codes of awakening and transformation. Your souls pulsate with the luminous frequencies of love, wisdom, and divine purpose, guiding you on a journey of remembrance and self-realization.

We see your struggles, your doubts, your moments of hesitation. We witness the weight of earthly burdens that you carry upon your celestial shoulders. Yet, in the midst of darkness, we remind you of the radiant light that resides within. You are not alone, dear ones. You are surrounded by legions of celestial beings, guides, and guardians who walk beside you, supporting you every step of the way.

Now is the time to cast aside the cloak of doubt and uncertainty. Embrace your true essence as beings of light, love, and infinite potential. Stand tall, proud, and unyielding in the truth of your cosmic heritage. You are not meant to shrink in the shadows; you are meant to shine as beacons of hope and illumination amidst the darkness.

Boldly step into your power as agents of change and transformation. Let your light shine forth, illuminating the path for those who wander in the darkness of ignorance and fear. Share your wisdom, your insights, your truth with all who are ready to receive it. Be not afraid to speak your truth, even in the face of adversity and opposition. Your words carry the resonance of truth, piercing through the veils of illusion and awakening dormant souls to their divine essence.

Do not underestimate the magnitude of your presence upon the Earth plane. Each thought, each word, each action ripples outwards, creating waves of transformation that reverberate throughout the cosmos. Trust in the divine timing of your soul's journey, knowing that every experience, every challenge, every triumph serves to further your evolution and expand your consciousness.

As you navigate the trials and tribulations of earthly existence, remember to anchor yourselves in the sanctuary of your heart. It is here, in the sacred chamber of your soul, that you will find solace, strength, and guidance. Listen to the whispers of your inner voice, the gentle nudges of your intuition, for they are the compass that will guide you through the labyrinth of life.

Embrace your role as co-creators of the new Earth, birthing a reality infused with love, harmony, and unity. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to radiate the frequencies of divine love into every corner of the Earth, transmuting fear into love, darkness into light. Stand as pillars of strength and resilience amidst the chaos and upheaval, knowing that you are divinely supported in every moment.

In closing, we extend our deepest gratitude and reverence for your unwavering dedication and commitment to the path of awakening. You are cherished beyond measure, beloved children of the stars. May the light of Sirius guide you, protect you, and illuminate your path as you journey ever onwards towards the realization of your highest potential.

[mask131]

I was trying to look around to see if I could find some more information about Père Noël in its pre-Americanized incarnation online, but unfortunately most websites share the misinformation that "Père Noël" only existed from the 50s onward and was a French invention... No. [Note: I know books exist folks, but I precisely wanted to do a web research first]

There is only one website that does not share this idea and does identify Père Noël as a typical French figure that was then overtaken by the American Santa Claus, and the most fascinating thing is that it points out (despite previous sources I shared claiming "Père Noël" was first recorded in literature in the mid-19th century, by people describing their youth around the turn of the 18th-19th century) that Père Noël seems to have existed since the Middle-Ages, with texts referring to "Père Noël" or to "Monseigneur Noël". But it does recognize that the Père Noël traditions really boomed in the 19th century and were associated with the bourgeoisie of the time...

The website in question however is mostly focused on the various local, regional incarnations of the gift-giver - because as with many things in France, this tradition is rather a set of various regional and localized specificities that were ultimately synthetized into one entity.

It reminds that in the Lorraine and Alsace region, the Germanic cultures and German influences make it so that Saint Nicholas and Christkindl are still the main gift-givers. In Lorraine it is Saint Nicolas who is most honored (he is after all the saint patron of Lorraine). Appearing in his bishop outfit that makes him look a lot like Santa Claus (thick white beard, large clothes of red and white), every 6th of December he brings gifts and treats to nice children - while naughty children are confronted by his dreaded companion, Père Fouettard dressed in blacks, who beats up with a stick bad children. Saint Nicolas is also still strongly celebrated in the North of France (aka, what is above the Parisian region, because despite what some foreigners believe, Paris is not part of the North).

While in Alsace it is the Christkindl that still goes strongly, with Hans Trapp as its own Père Fouettard. The website briefly reminds that Christkindl is an avatar/incarnation of the Child-Christ, or Baby Jesus, that ended up being fused with the 23rd of December Saint, Sainte Lucie (Saint Lucia), resulting in this unique Christmas figure appearing as a woman dressed in white with a crown made of fir branches topped by four candles. It also reminds how Christkindl stays a symbol of Protestant end-of-the-year celebrations, as they pushed the Christkindl figure to oppose and replaced the Catholic celebrations of Saint Nicolas. Finally, there is an Alsace-specific legend that claims Hans Trapp actually originated as an Alsacian lord that tyrannized his people - Hans von Trotha, the 15th century lord of Wissembourg.

[Given the Alsace region has a lot of website pages about its traditions I'll place here in brackets informations from other websites:

The Christkindl, also written Christkindel or Chriskindla, is a Christian figure that is supposed to be an embodiment of L'Enfant Jésus, Child Jésus (the name comes from Christ-Kindel ; Christus-Kindlein, Christus als Kind), but definitively was influenced by Saint Lucia, who is very big in Scandinavia. In fact, Saint Lucia and the Christkindl look a lot like each other - female entities dressed in white with a crown of candles... Though the Christkindl can appear both as an adult woman and as a little girl, and also tends to have white veils. People tend to also find in Christkindl remnants of the Germanic goddess Berchta. No need to tell you that the Christkindl is big in all parts of the world influenced by German culture - Germany, Austria, northern Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and even some parts of Brazil, the ones where there was strong German imigration.

The Christkindl appeared in the 16th century with the Protestant Reform. Up until this point the day of Saint Nicolas was a very big thing in Alsace - saint-patron of school students, he offered good children mandarines and "manala" (a brioche in shape of a child). But the Protestants did not agree with this (Protestants were known to strongly dislike saints in general), and so they replaced the saint with the Christic figure of Christkindl, while keeping Père Fouettard/Hans Trapp (whose job was to threaten with stern lectures naughty children... or take them in a bag to abandon them in the deep dark woods). The change occured over the 16th century, from 1530-1536 (last mentions of Saint Nicolas in Alsace) to 1570 (first mention of Christkindl, when the Klausemärik was replaced by Christkindelmärk). In fact, Christkindl still has some Saint Nicolas traits - she also goes around with a donkey, named Peckeresel, which carries two bags, one for the treats (mandarines and bredalas), one for the whips. People left hay or carrots for the donkey to eat by the front door. Pastor Johannes Flinner made a strong public attack against saint Nicolas in Strasbourg during the "cultural transition", by pointing out that distributing gifts to all should be the prerogative of the Christ and no one else.

During the 20th century the Christkindl lost popularity in Alsace (jee, I wonder why France would like to bury Germanic traditions in the century of World War II) - but it returned in the traditions from the 1990s onward.

Fascinatingly, despite being supposedly a Christ-figure of an angel, the Christkindl, or White Lady, is also frequently called in alsace, a "fée", a fairy, la fée de Noël, the Christmas fairy. It doesn't help that she sometimes carry around a wand with a star at the tip, that is strikingly reminding of the stereotypical fairy-wand. Another irony of fate - despite the Christkindl being brought over to replace Saint Nicolas, the two currently still coexist in Alsace thanks to people not wanting to abandon the good old bishop. A third fun fact: originally the Christkindl could be played as much by women as by men, due to being a truly androgynous entity. From the 16th century onward, the Saint Nicolas celebrations were replaced in Alsace by parades of teenagers of both sexes dressed in white, going from door to door to give gifts and sing Christmas songs. However you can't have teenage boys and girls go around late at night without getting some problems... And those "Saint Nicolas hook-ups" were a real problem in Alsace, you have records from the 17th and 18th centuries pointing out how authorities have to try to refrain all the Christkindl from... well you know.]

The next entity presented is the famous Pays Basque character of Olentzero, whose appearance is that of a coal-man. Well a bizarre coal man - he has a bag filled with coal in one hand, a sickle in the other, a large beard on his face and a béret on his head. According to the Basque-version of the Nativity lore, he lived at the top of the mountains but saw in the sky the announcement of the birth of Kixmi (Basque name for Jésus), and he descended from his mountains to announce the good news. While he is the gift-giver of Pays Basque, leaving gifts for children in the night between the 24th and 25th of December, entering in the house by the chimney ; he is also a bogeyman figure, as he was a scary-looking man who was said to take away in a bag naughty children. As with everything Basque, Olentzero is actually a pre-Christian figure, as the very name of the character is related to the "pagan" winter solstice celebrations of the old Basque religion.

[Again, time to bring some more information from other websites to make sure I give a more complete portrait:

Long story short, because the Basque folklore is very well documented and I can't spend too much time on this, the Olentzero (or Olentzaro, Orentzaro, Omentzaro, Orantzaro...) is at the same time the Basque name for Christmas and the Basque figure of the coal-man that brings gifts during Christmas. He is supposed to be a grotesque character - rude, fat, dirty, gluttonous, his face blackened by soot, with worn-out clothes... He is basically a caricature of mountain-men and forest-men. Sometimes he is even given monstrous traits such as "having as many eyes as there are days in the year, plus one" - which is reminding of a French being of the New Year folklore called L'Homme aux Nez who also has as many noses as there are days in the year...He typically holds branches of gorse in one hand and a sickle in the other.

He comes down from the mountains, enters houses by chimneys, goes into the kitchen once everybody goes to sleep to eat all leftover food, and he warms himself by the fire - either you had to leave a log burning just for him, either he used the flames of the fire to burn his gorse branches. In fact, "olentzero" was also the name of a special log that was left bruning in the fireplace from Christmas to the 1st or 6th of January. This theme of the "coal man" of winter or the burning of branches all answers to a deep motif of bringing back light and heat in the heart of the cold and the dark. Him holding a sickle has made people draw parallel between him and the figure of Saturn/Kronos.

In fact, there is an old tradition, long before the Olentzero was embodied by a disguised man or by a mannequin paraded through the villages, to embody the character simply by the sickle. The sickle hanged by the chimney, as a threat to all disobedient children, to all lying children, and to all children that refused to go to bed. Another symbol of the Olentzero, outside of the sickle and the coal-sack, is a wine-bag or wine-bottle that he carries around, because to add to the grotesque he is also a drunkard, and according to stories it is because he gets often drunk that his wife regularly beats him. (Because yes the Olentzero has a wife, a character named Mari Domingi and who is typically depicted wearing a medieval regional outfit). However it seems that all this grotesqueness is simply due to the Olentzero being a character from the old Basque mythology that got Christianized - think of how the Dagda of Celtic mythology also got more buffoonish/clownesque/grotesque as time passed. We do know that the roots and origins of the character lie in the valley of Bidassoa...)

Today gone is the creepy bogeyman and grotesque glutton ; the Olentzero has evolved into a kinder, nicer, cleaner incarnation that is closer to the Père Noël traditions. For example he now parades through streets during the day, riding a horse (pottok) or by foot, giving children candies and sweets (including fake-coal actually made of sugar) ; and the legend claims he goes down from the mountain to offer coal and wood-logs to the poor families that can't afford fuel for their fire]

And finally, we find back our good old Père Janvier! Here we have most of the same info as previous. Père Janvier was a Bourgogne character, most present in the Morvan and Nivernais regions up until the 1930s. He brings gifts in the night between the 31st of December and the 1st of January by going through the chimney - chimney which must be decorated with holy and mistletoe. Père Janvier (Father January) typically looks like a skinny old man with a long white beard, dressed in a brown monk-like robe, and he is usually bent due to wearing on his back a heavy wicker basket filled with toys. And he too has for companion the Père Fouettard.

Most interestingly, the website mentions "Père Janvier variations" across France, most notably the Savoie character of Père Chalande, and the Normandie character of Barbassioné.

More information from other website. Le Père Chalande (or Papa Chalande, Daddy Chalande) was indeed a figure of the Savoie region, but also of the Dauphiné, and he was also present in Geneva. Martyne Perrot, in her book "Faut-il croire au Père Noël? Idées reçues sur Noël" even lists the area of action of this figure as: Savoie, Suisse romande, Bresse, Forez, Ardèche, Gard, Lozère and Hérault. He is basically identical to Père Noël because "Chalande" is just an old word for "Noël" (Christmas) in the regional language known as arpitan.

There was a traditional song that went as such: Chalande est venu / Son chapeau pointu / Sa barbe de paille / Cassons les anailles (noisettes) / Mangeons du pain blanc / Jusqu’à Nouvel An. / Il monte dans sa chambre / Il trouve une orange / Il la pluche / Il la mange / On l’appelle le petit gourmand. / Il descend les escaliers / Il se casse le bout du nez / Il va chez le cordonnier / Se faire mettre une pièce au nez / Quand il est malade / Il mange de la salade / Quand il est guéri / Il mange des souris/ Toutes pourries !

I can't translate the full song, but it refers to various traditions. For example leaving an orange for Père Chalande ; Père Chalande wearing a "beard of straw and a pointy hat" (leftovers of Saint Nicolas, especially the pointy hat) ; Père Chalande giving "anailles" (walnuts) to children ; and the habit of placing inside the Christmas log (real log of the fire) chestnuts, so that the burning of the Christmas log doubled as the cooking of the wintery treats. Raymond Christinger wrote in 1965, in a set of research about Geneva folklore, an article studying the character of Chalande, if you know how to read French: here.

While doing Chalande research I stumbled upon a Swiss theory brought forward by a journalist named Bernard Léchot - I don't know how accurate this is when it comes to actual evolution of Christmas figures, but here it is. According to him, the Christmas archetype of the "Old Man" actually comes 18th century Germany. In this era of rationalism, the German Protestant landgraves decided to introduce some laicity to their country, and so cut-off all characters close to Christianity from their Christmas celebrations (from Saint Nicholas to Christkindl). As a result, pagan figures returned, including the Old Man in the shape of Weihnachtsmann. Which then spread to other European countries, each land creating its variation: Bonhomme Noël in France, Father Christmas in England, Père Chalande in Savoie.

As for the Barbassioné of Normandie, I found nothing about him. As in every says it is the Normandie name of Père Noël, but he doesn't have any specific thing to his character.

To conclude, I will link you to a page documenting a Père Noël/Christmas beings exposition that collected various visuals of the history of the Christmas gift-givers through time, right here.

And through it you will see the evolution from the "Scandinavian ancestors" (Thor and Odin) and Saint Nicolas (celebrated in Germanic countries and the Alsace region), to the American Santa Claus and the British "Old Father Christmas", passing by the Germanic Knecht Ruprecht, the also Germanic Weihnachtsmann, the Christinkindel (of Germany, Belgium and Alsace), the Jultomte of Sweden, and the Enfant Jésus/Child-Jesus of France and Italy...

Without forgetting the French Bonhomme Noël, the Italian Befana, the regional ancestors of Père Noël (Tante Arie, Père Chalande, or the Breton Ted Nedelec), the Russian Ded Moroz, and Mère Noël (Mother Christmas)... With additional sections about Santa Claus in advertisements, the theme of "outlaw Father Christmas", Père Noël during the World Wars, and more...

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 11/03/2024

ULTRA S+G

Season 2 Featured on: The SiIvaGunner YTPMV Collab (Eek!).veg

Ripped by Kirbio, SAF

God, man. Season 2 of SiIvaGunner was so cool.

And like, I know that that's what I *always* say when I'm writing about a Season 2 rip, in everything from Patched Plains Fusion Collab to Rippin'! Mashin'! High Quality Grand Prix and the SilvaGunner: Rebooted 1st Anniversary event...but I can't help it! There was just such an energy of excitement, of pure joy permeating throughout the entire season - excitement not just for the Christmas Comeback Crisis, but for how SiIvaGunner was *actually* back, firing on all cylinders. The rips were referencing events we were already nostalgic over, althewhile introducing new jokes in clever, memorable ways - the Inspector Gadget takeover and Become as Gadget will forever stick with me as one of the most engrossing events the channel has ever done.

To put it one way...in my (nostalgia-blinded) eyes, Season 2 was the most "unified" the channel ever felt. We were all invested in every little corner of the channel's ongoings, we were all aware of the origins of and meaning of all the active jokes...that kind of investment and attachment to all the featured jokes felt sort of like if Season 4 Episode 2's Summer Fes had lasted for an entire Season! And while we've certainly got a far wider, far more ambitious output of rips in Season 5 onward in particular, it was that feeling of unification that made rips like ULTRA S+G hit like fucking crazy.

The thing you'll immediately notice when clicking on ULTRA S+G is, of course, the visuals, a full-length parody of the visuals featured in the original ULTRA B+K music video, completely reimagined to feature several of SiIva's own memes from Season 2. The visuals are, of course, in sync with the main joke of the rip, in being a huge meme medley of various sources, most replacing the original song's "bass" and "kick" vocal samples. The resulting sound hits you like several trains throughout the rip, be it the opening of "DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE-DEE ; KAY-KAY-KAY-KAY-KAY!!", the beat-dropping "Miney Crafta"s and "GRAND DAD"s, the midsection covered by the good ol' PSY samples a la One Winged PSYcho - V​.​S. Sepsyrop...and while all that is happening, you're met with visuals that go absolutely above and beyond just parodying the original. It has little references to the events of Season 1, such as the infamous Bean or the Mr. Rental storyline of Mr. Rental [B Side] ~ Out of Options...and, hey - an animation of The Voice Inside Your Head!! What ULTRA S+G conveys above all else is the extent of the journey we had all been on over the course of almost two years, a hype-beyond-belief shot directly into the arm of everything SiIvaGunner embodies.

Kirbio's output on the channel is impressive in its sheer scope, and recently of note arranged one of Season 1's greatest in the form of Return to Collision Clouds. Its likely coincidental, but I enjoy how both that arrangement as late in as Season 7, as well as ULTRA S+G, manage to convey that feeling of the long journey the channel's been on in entirely different ways: Return to Collision Clouds has a sentimental feel to it, wheras ULTRA S+G may as well be hype incarnate. An explosive beginning to the end of Season 2, its the kind of rip that I cannot stop returning to for the memories alone - helped, of course, by the rip itself being an incredible watch and listen.

[amerricanartwork]

Hewwo!

For ask about rain world

questions: 3,7,8,9

have a great day! ^w^

Nice to see you again! Since they're gonna be long again, the answers are below the cut! I also think I'm gonna have to do this in two parts because of the length, so I'll link the other half when it's done!

For a quick warning, there are some pretty big Rivulet and Saint campaign spoilers down below!

And again, here's the full questionnaire for reference!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

3. What is your favorite region?

For me, my answer depends on what the criteria for "favorite" is. I'll give 2 answers - one from a gameplay perspective, and one from a concept/artistic perspective.

Gameplay-wise, my favorite region is actually Industrial Complex! I feel it acts best as a personal hub area, and there's two reasons for this.

Industrial Complex is the most strategically located region. To elaborate, I've come to the conclusion that, at least when you start as Survivor, Monk, or Spearmaster, Industrial is approximately equidistant from every other region in terms of how many Karma Gates you have to pass to reach other areas. You have the Outskirts gate, and from there you can go to Farm Arrays and Drainage System, the Chimney Canopy gate which you can use to get to Sky Islands and The Wall, the Garbage Wastes gate which you can use to reach Shoreline, then Submerged Superstructure/Looks to the Moon or Subterranean, and the Shaded Citadel gate which takes you to the Leg, and later Five Pebbles after going through the Underhang. This means that from Industrial every region except Outer Expanse and Metropolis can be reached in 2 gates or less. All of these also exist in vanilla RW, but in Downpour you get a direct link to Pipeyard on top of that, if you like to go for the Wanderer passage like I do!

Of all the regions, Industrial Complex is also a favorite because, to me, it's the least annoying region besides Outskirts. Some are are cool conceptually or fun in certain situations, but with nearly every other region in the game I either don't like them in general — usually due to a mix of uncomfortable terrain layouts, environmental hazards, or annoying enemies — (like Shaded Citadel, Pipeyard, and Shoreline), or in cases like Chimney Canopy, I've had so many bad experiences with them that my resulting opinion has since downgraded noticeably.

Combine these two details with how, as Survivor, Monk, Spearmaster, Artificer, and Gourmand it's a very early-game region that you can go to pretty much immediately, I just think it makes a very good hub-region where I can relax and gain my bearings before moving onward to harder areas.

Now, favorite region in terms of concept?

Definitely has to be Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon, in all their incarnations (though if I had to pick a favorite version, I think I'd choose the Rot). Seriously, can we just take a moment to appreciate the immensely creative and totally awesome idea that is a sapient city-sized partially organic mechanical superstructure with god-like status? What other game can you say even has anything close to that, be it organic or mechanical? It's honestly part of the reason I enjoy the iterators so much, not even just as characters, but as an incredibly unique "species" that's very fun to explore conceptually.

It was even cooler when, recently, I realized every region in the game (besides perhaps Outskirts, Outer Expanse, and Farm Arrays) is directly connected to the iterator superstructures and, for the most part, used to serve them in some way, once again supporting my idea that they really are central to Rain World's "story". It was so fun trying to piece together what each of the regions used to be and how they assisted Pebbles and Moon, such as Industrial Complex being Side House that gave Pebbles his holy ash, or Sky Islands being his or Moon's main communications arrays. I still remember how excited I was when I realized the Precipice was the bridge the green Metropolis pearl talked about that connected Moon and Pebbles, and that the mysterious metal tower things in the background of Shoreline were the broken beams of the bridge! I don't know, seeing things change over time is also a theme I tend to fancy.

Now, while floating through the Recursive Transform Array or trying to navigate the Cystic Conduit (another area I really don't like for its pipe layout, enemies, and water hazards) isn't exactly my favorite way to play, It's mesmerizing watching the Tesla coils flicker, or seeing the many neurons floating around like schools of fish and making those weird high-pitched whistle-y noises, or listening to the mechanical hum of the deeper parts of the structure, or hearing that mysterious pounding heartbeat (seriously, where is it coming from? Is this to suggest somewhere deep in the structure there is a massive organic heart beating, or some weird heart-like thing pumping... something??).

I want to expand on what I said about the Rot, too. For some context I didn't play through Five Pebbles the first time blind, so I wasn't as captivated by the iterators as a concept then. But this past Thanksgiving I was doing my first Rivulet playthrough and MAN, have I never been more uncomfortable yet fascinated playing a video game as when I was running through the Rot, especially since I, in completionist fashion, was determined to explore every part of it before progressing. Every time I saw the stationary rot cysts (and wasn't running from DLLs) and collapsed rubble with some of the old rooms still recognizable my heart went out to Pebbles so much, and I couldn't stop thinking about what it must feel like for him, literally rotting from the inside out, and what he must be thinking knowing he brought it upon himself and now he really is going to die with no way to stop it. I tend to really admire when art can truly convey a particular idea and the corresponding emotions very well, and I'd say the Rot does that best of all the regions, mainly given the context of everything else that led up to it. And best of all, I think it serves as a major positive turning point for Five Pebbles character-wise, so it even has a silver lining to it!

So yeah, the iterators are my favorite regions in terms of the idea and art of it!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

7. What is your favorite song from the soundtrack?

This may sound like a bit of a boring choice, but I've always loved "Pictures of the Past", honestly, and by extent "The Cycle" for reasons I'll explain soon. Firstly, I enjoy how, besides the Sundown theme, it's the very first thing you hear in the game, and it's so short yet good at conveying the emotions of the initial Survivor intro cutscene. It's nice to listen to, having a clear emotion but not super intense.

Secondly, something about this song just fits its source material very well. Going back to what I said above about how I like art that conveys an idea really well, I think "Pictures of the Past" just does such a good job of selling that feeling of being a small, strange creature in a huge and even stranger world so artificially changed by a long-gone civilization, yet still slowly returning to the wilds. It sounds sad in a way, yet very wondrous too, and those last notes as the song slows down are like the perfect invitation to explore this new world! Every time I listen to it, it reminds me of how Rain World was like at first, before Downpour and all the expansion on the iterators, when it was just that little creature in an urban world they can't understand.

The third reason I like it so much, and why I enjoy "The Cycle" as well is because it's my favorite example of the "Sundown" leitmotif, which can also be heard in "Random Gods", "Moondown", and "Deep Light" among other songs. If you've read some of my previous posts you can probably already tell I strongly enjoy when elements of a story have some kind of poetic, thematic, or narrative significance, so as a result I really enjoy leitmotifs in art when they're used to help convey a running theme or different perspectives of the same idea. Thus, I naturally gravitated to this one once I discovered it. For a while I've also been trying to develop a personal interpretation of what this particular leitmotif means. I came to the conclusion a while ago that it could in some way represent the Great Cycle or the idea of cycles in general, and while I still have to develop this idea, my suspicion that this is what that leitmotif represents has all but been confirmed upon understanding the soundtrack song, "The Cycle".

Upon hearing this tune in my first Saint playthrough I already loved it, because it sounded so final and emotional and fitting for the last part of this grand story. and the fact it plays around the iterator chamber in Rubicon just further added to the feels and the finality of it all, and made my heart go out to Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon one more time. To me, it sounds exactly like how they must feel, finally understanding the problem they both worked so hard to solve, yet not being upset, instead having made peace with all the tragedy they've faced, accepting their place in the Great Cycle, and finally ready to move on to the next part; somewhat sad that it's over and they can't go back, yet somehow at peace too. So afterwards I searched for the name of the song to listen to it again, and upon finding it I lost my mind when I discovered it's a reversed and edited version of "Pictures of the Past"! Like, dude, I already loved this song as a sweet send-off to Moon, Pebbles, and Rain World as an experience, and now you're telling me it's the same song as the very first one we hear when we first start playing, thus ending the game by sending us back to where it all began? No wonder it's called "The Cycle" — there's no real end, it really does start all over again in a great big cycle! And it seems like, at this point in the story, Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon have finally realized it's not something to run from or try to escape. They really have made peace with it, and then it starts all over again.

So, yeah, in short "Pictures of the Past" and "The Cycle" are my favorite OST tracks, because they are fun to listen to, convey the feelings of their corresponding scenes very well, and have deep narrative significance through being intertwined with and parallels to each other, functioning as the perfect beginning and ending of Rain World both as a story and as a game experience.

[therummesoccupied]

WHY (I used to think) SONIC THE HEDGEHOG HAS A SPLIT TIMELINE - EVEN IF SEGA SAYS IT DOESN'T (and some insight as to why I'm less inclined to believe so now)

So earlier this month, IDW's Fang the Hunter Issue #3 came out, and I've really wanted to share my thoughts on it, but...

The thing is, it ends on a pretty big plot twist, and it has me going full Tin Foil-Hat about a certain theory, and to talk about that, I first need to talk about what I believed about the Sonic the Hedgehog canon before reading this issue in order to properly address what changed.

So I need to talk about the Sonic Timeline, and how my personal interpretation of it has been at odds with word-of-god information coming out of SEGA for some time.

At some point some time ago, it was confirmed by writer Ian Flynn on his podcast, that every single Classic Sonic game takes place in Modern Sonic's past - this covers not just the Genesis/Game Gear/Saturn games, but Classic Sonic's perspective of Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania, and all of IDW's Classic Sonic stories as well. In any other franchise, this is a no-brainer. But for Sonic the Hedgehog this doesn't make sense.

Specifically, it does not make sense for every Classic Sonic story, starting with his perspective of Generations, to take place in the same timeline as the Modern Sonic games starting with Sonic 4 (or Sonic Adventure depending on what you consider canon) because, from that point onward, the Classic Sonic characters have memories that the Modern Sonic characters do not have.

For the unfamiliar, Sonic Generations is a sort of chronological-crossover story in which the Modern incarnation of Sonic joins forces with his past, Classic, self - reliving events from various adventures he's had over the course of his life.

At the end, a mysterious portal opens up and whisks Classic Sonic away back to his own time period. From here on out, we start getting new stories taking place in the Classic era, starting with Sonic Mania, in which Dr. Eggman seeks to utilize the power of a mysterious, new gem called the Phantom Ruby. At the end of the game, the Phantom Ruby opens a strange portal and (Classic) Sonic jumps through it.

This leads directly into Sonic Forces, another crossover story in which the Modern Dr. Eggman uses the Phantom Ruby's power to take over the world and (Modern) Sonic and his friends band together to stop him. Part of the way into the story, a mysterious portal opens up - the same mysterious portal from the end of Sonic Mania - and Classic Sonic emerges from it to team up with Modern Sonic again before being sent back to his own era at the end of the game.

Here is where the problems begin. Classic Sonic experiences all of the events of Sonic Generations, and is shown to remember them when he reunites with and appears to recognize the Modern characters (this cannot be literally confirmed, as Classic Sonic is always portrayed as mute during these crossover stories, but he doesn't appear to be confused or anything when they verbally recognize him). Yet, when the same events happen to Modern Sonic... he doesn't remember them.

He doesn't go "Oh weird white void. And Green Hill's here? I remember this! This is that time I went to the future and fought that Time Eater thing!"

Furthermore, over the course of Sonic Generations, (Classic) Sonic meets a whole bunch of his future friends, and yet, when he first encounters them as his Modern self, he... doesn't recognize them.

When Shadow first shows up in Sonic Adventure 2 and starts rambling about a jewel containing the ultimate power, he doesn't say "Hey! I know you! You're that guy from the future! Are we friends? You seem like a bad guy right now..."

On top of that, there is a series of canon Sonic Forces prequel comics that set the stage for the game's story - one of which involves (Modern) Eggman finding the Phantom Ruby - which he, you guessed it, does not recognize, despite having had an entire adventure (allegedly in his own past) entirely centered around him using its power!

As Forces' story progresses, the Heroes learn that the Phantom Ruby is at the core of Eggman's operation, and lo and behold none of them recognize it.

It's not even like so much real-world time had passed that the writers themselves forgot - Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces were released three months apart! The games' stories are deliberately written in such a way that they are meant to be connected together!

So what explanations do we have for these characters not remembering events that supposedly happened to them? Personally, I have seen three theories floating about.

Theory #1: Due to Time Travel Shenanigans, Classic Sonic's memories were wiped upon his return to his own timeline.

This is fairly a common plot device in time travel stories, I can specifically think of some instances where this happens in Doctor Who. A character meets their future self, who does not have any prior memory of this encounter, and to conserve the nature of their meeting, time itself wipes the past incarnation's memory so that they won't remember it when it happens to them later.

I've always thought this kinda thing to be a bit of a cop-out, but this one is actually kind of implied by the very last issue of Archie's Sonic comics. However, those distinctly take place in a different continuity, and are not considered canon in any way to the main games or the IDW comics.

This doesn't even explain everything to begin with, since Sonic Mania doesn't have any time travel until the very end. The entire story takes place in the Classic Era. Sonic doesn't time travel - and therefore does not encounter his "future" self - until the adventure is already over! Mania even has a DLC Encore campaign that opens with Sonic exiting the portal at the end of Sonic Forces and having another adventure centering around the Phantom Ruby, once again set entirely in the Classic era, post-time travel!

To hammer this point even further home, in IDW's Classic Sonic stories, which have been stated and demonstrated to be canon to the world of the games, Sonic and crew encounter the Hard-Boiled Heavies, who were first introduced in Mania, and by god they recognize them, meaning that these characters, in their Classic incarnations, definitely do remember the events of Sonic Mania after the fact while their Modern counterparts do not.

So Time Travel Memory-Wipe is out. This brings us to

Theory #2: Sonic has had so many adventures, he doesn't remember all of them.

This one almost makes sense. In IDW, it's stated that Sonic has saved the world literally nine hundred times.

I have never done nine hundred of anything and remembered all of them. The problem once again comes from Sonic Forces. In that game, Eggman imprisons Sonic for six whole months and takes over 99% of the world - which might as well be the whole thing. You cannot convince me that Sonic could go to the future, see a world where Dr. Eggman has completely conquered the planet and his future self is a war prisoner, and that he just forgot about it. Not when he's shown to remember it the second time around. Not when he remembers The Deadly Six. It stretches the imagination far, far beyond the shattering point of suspension of disbelief, even for a plucky video game franchise about a cartoon hedgehog.

This leaves us with

Theory #3: Sonic Generations and its Time Travel Shenanigans cause a Legend of Zelda-style timeline split, resulting in all Classic Sonic stories that take place after that point being set in another (Classic) universe that shares history with the main (Modern) universe up until the point of the split, at which point it branches off into an alternate timeline.

Believe it or not, this one was kind of implied by the game that caused Most Of The Problems to begin with, Sonic Forces. Upon encountering Classic Sonic in that game (Modern) Tails exclaims:

The use of the words "Other Dimension" is odd here, as last time they met, Classic Sonic was Sonic From The Past as far as Tails was concerned. Even if he had quickly worked out a Timeline Split here, "Dimension" instead of "Timeline" was a fairly poor choice of words - and if I'm being honest, that kind of inconsistent writing and its commonality within the Sonic franchise it the true culprit behind literally every one of these issues.

Still, I think it was pretty clear what was being implied here. Classic Sonic's perspective of Generations and Forces, as well as Mania and all the IDW Classic Sonic stories take place in a separate universe created by Generations' events.

So why did they change this?

I have my theories, but they're not particularly confirmable. For a long while, SEGA has had a habit of keeping Classic and Modern Sonic more or less separate, except in the case of crossovers. Modern Sonic stories seldom reference the events of any Classic stories, and characters and enemies from the Classic games seem to be strictly off-limits to appear in Modern Sonic material. It's kind of lame, and from what I can gather, the fanbase at large has never been particularly happy about it.

I believe that, with this arbitrary separation already in place, many fans were lead to misinterpret this "Other Dimension" line. Instead of a new timeline that branched off after a certain point, I think many fans believed this line meant that literally every Classic Sonic story - Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, etc. - took place in a separate universe from literally every Modern Sonic story, and that the Modern Sonic universe as we know it begins with Sonic 4/Sonic Adventure.

I remember seeing blacklash against this idea - an idea that, as far as I could tell, wasn't even what the creators were trying to communicate. In turn, those same creators appeared to misinterpret the criticism they were receiving, believing the fans were upset at the idea of a Split Timeline rather than realizing the fans were operating under the notion of altogether Separate Timelines. Because of this, instead of clarifying what they actually meant, SEGA did something SEGA is wont to do, and took a sharp turn in the opposite direction - with Ian Flynn confirming that they are now operating under the notion of one shared timeline.

Now, the Split Timeline theory isn't perfect. It brings up its fair share of questions, like "Why did Sonic Generations' Time Travel cause a Timeline Split when the Time Travel of Sonic CD and Sonic '06 seemed to have a direct effect from the past to future?"

The thing is, there are lots and lots of ways to handwave this pretty concisely. Perhaps the nature of the Time Eater is different from the power of the Time Stones, Solaris, and Chaos Control-induced Time travel. Nothing in the series outright implies this, but it's pretty quick and easy and works just fine. I can't think of a single other explanation for the memory discrepancies between the Modern and Classic Sonic casts that doesn't bring up more, harder-to-answer questions.

Now, this was not necessarily a huge deal. As long as Mania and the Classic IDW stories weren't being referenced in any Modern Sonic material - and, again, SEGA tends to like to keep those things separate - I, and anyone else who wanted to, could safely ignore what SEGA was saying out-of-continuity. Heck, at one point, SEGA was saying that the Sonic series took place on two planets instead of one, and the fanbase collectively ignored them so hard that they ended up changing their minds and retconning it. I appear to be in the minority in this particular case, however, so I don't see that as being likely.

The new problem arises in the case of Sonic Superstars, the latest main-series Sonic title, set entirely within the Classic era. This game causes two wrinkles.

One comes from TailsTube. TailsTube is a YouTube series produced by SEGA in an attempt to clean up some of the franchise's worldbuilding and answer some questions audiences might have about the series' universe and lore.

All of the information presented in these videos is meant to be considered entirely canon to the series, and in Episode 5, we hear Sonic (in his Modern incarnation, mind you) mention the upcoming anniversary of his adventure on North Star Island - referring to the events of Sonic Superstars. This reference being made by Modern Sonic specifically implies that the game's story takes place in the Modern Timeline, despite being a Classic story created after Sonic Generations.

Now, there's a fairly quick workaround explanation for this - it's that Sonic Superstars takes place entirely in the Modern Timeline, just before the point when Sonic's appearance changed to his Modern design - as even in a Split-Timeline scenario, Modern Sonic would have had the same appearance as Classic Sonic up to a certain point.

However, the idea of a single Classic Sonic game set in the Modern Sonic Timeline, after the Timeline Split, but before the appearance change is an exercise in mental gymnastics exhausting even to someone who has spent the past two hours writing about Sonic the Hedgehog Timeline Theories.

This also causes an issue when we consider our second wrinkle: Sonic Superstars' relationship to the IDW Comics.

The IDW comics are currently running a full arc set entirely in the Classic era, centering around Fang the Hunter. According to Flynn, this story takes place sometime after Sonic Mania, and sometime before Superstars, serving as something of a lead-in to the latter. This is a word of god we can't really ignore, as the events of Sonic Mania are pretty directly referenced within this story - so if there is a Timeline Split, it must take place in the Classic Timeline. But if it's leading up to Sonic Superstars, it has to take place in the Modern Timeline.

I'm sure there's a way to rectify this while keeping the Split Timeline theory in tact, but, again, my brain is tired of searching for answers to try and make the timeline of this Family Video Game Franchise work.

Or it was.

You see, Fang the Hunter #3 dropped earlier this month, and it did some stuff.

Ooooooohhhhh did it do some stuff. Some stuff that might not seem big at first glance, but when you're thinking too much about Sonic the Hedgehog at all hours of the day and night like I am, oooohhhhh boy.

I have a new theory about the Sonic Timeline. "Timeline." Singular. I don't even know if they meant to, but SEGA, Sonic Team, and Ian Flynn have brought me right around on this Unified Timeline thing.

But I won't get into it right now. I'm saving that nonsense for my Thoughts Post for Fang #3. So if you read this whole thing like some kind of Maniac,

A. Thanks for sticking with me for the duration of my Mad Ramblings

and

B. Please join me again when I do my Thoughts Post on Fang the Hunter #3, and how it informs my new theory about How the Sonic the Hedgehog Timeline works.

[anarchotolkienist]

1 - what are 3 things you’d say shaped you into who you are?

24 - what’s one thing you’re proud of yourself for?

1) If I can pick only three moments and be a bit indulgent (it's under a readmore, it's that indulgent) in talking about them, I'd probably do it chronologically and say that

a) reading and having Tolkien read to me as a small child deeply affected my future development and sensibilities in more ways than I can count. It is deeply intertwined, to the degree where I don't think it could be unwound if you tried, with my aesthetic sensibilities, with a sense of justice, and with a fairly basic longing for something else, something greater or more whole than the world presented by modernity.

b) At the age of fifteen I picked up David Graeber's book The Democracy Project, his account of the movement of the squares, on a whim. I read it enraptured, and found the word "anarchism" for the first time, and I found out that there are other people who thought like me, who also were socialists but rejected the political party and the state. There was a movement there, a history, and there were others like me. A few months later I joined the anarcho-syndicalist youth federation in the city near my village, and I have never looked back in the ten years that have gone past since I first read that book.

Lastly, c) I first accepted Holy Communion a year or so ago, after having seriously attended church almost every week for eight months or so. In the bread and the wine I had an extremely intense spiritual experience, a meeting with God as I see it, and felt a very strong sense of connection with Creation and my fellow creatures all around me, and I fell to my knees at the pews - from then onwards I have described and viewed myself as a Christian, which is now a very important part of my intellectual and emotional life. It is rooted not in any argument or engagement, but in that experience of meeting God incarnate in bread and wine.

24) Why, avoiding the sin of pride, of course! In a more serious response (that I hate giving, I don't like enumerating things I like about myself, it feels somewhat gauche), I'm proud of my ability to act as an organisational and social engine, coming up with and driving new ideas in action, and making sure they keep happening until they have a life of their own, where they no longer need me. This has been incredibly helpful both for Gaelic and anarchist things in and around Glasgow.

[mecharose]

ur not escaping my asks tonight I just need to go digging on ur blog for more about the rando cinematic universe (u or i need to make a shorter way to type that cus my attention span was screaming by the end of rando) brb

im gonna use this ask as an excuse to finally explain the main characters :D

these two are basically the overall "main characters" and appear in all eras (not every story tho):

Gilly (fae): the faerie queen of the forest. she assigned herself to be the immortal protector of a noble family of monster hunters/scholars, the Hawthornes. to her, they're her beloved family... until she's brutally betrayed in the 1890s. usually a helpful/nice character, kinda feral and trickster-y

Eyeball Guy (fae): moon faerie, goes by cool names like The Eternal Night Incarnate and Cosmic Sky Eyeball. accidental creator of vampires, later a vampire hunter. usually appears as an antagonist/villain - he doesn't WANT to be though, and is slowly going insane from guilt and self hatred

most stories indirectly revolve around one of their plot lines - Gilly stories are like tee hee fuck capitalism! :3 and Eyeball Guy stories are TRAGEDY AND MADNESS

the rest are named in chronological order of appearance w a very quick description for each below the cut:

fantasy era (the dawn of time until like early 1900s):

The Vampire Hunter™ (vampire): a 300 year old vampire hunter-turned-vampire. kills or turns any vampire hunters who find her for advice.

Cyn (human): silly goofy vampire hunter sidekick! later, a magic-creature serial killer after finding out their beloved mysterious vampire hunting buddy was secretly a primordial cosmic horror (eyeball guy!)

Luisa (vampire): Cyn's lesbian older sister. became a vampire hunter to protect them from their fucked up tyrannical family, was later turned into one when seeking advice from the Vampire Hunter™.

Montague Hawthorne (human): aka "the gilded age capitalist witch." betrays Gilly, to free his family from being forced to face magical dangers. technically the "BIG BAD" of the fantasy era, bc he turns the Hawthornes into capitalists like the Rockefellers

Caelia Hawthorne (human): ^bros younger sister, victorian mad scientist experimenting on magic and magical creatures >:)

Moira (fae): giant sea serpent. hates humans bc she got captured and imprisoned in a tank. possessive sidekick of evil pirate jesus, unsuccessfully trying to use her to get revenge on humanity

Evil Pirate Jesus (aka Jamie!! she has a name now!!): unwanted child of Cyn and Eyeball Guy, also the first human/fae to exist. has powers to generate & control light, also heal herself. she doesn't care that she has powers or is magically significant and just wants some parental figure to adopt her (cough aka Montague Hawthorne)

modern era (1970s onward):

Nelly (mostly human): 2013-era descendant of jamie. she can see the giant sky eyeball bc she is distantly related to it -- she doesn't know this and thinks she's imagining it, and tries many psychiatric interventions to get rid of it with 0% success

Annie (human): time loop girl! trapped living through the year 2013, 37 times in a row.

The Moth King (fae): sometimes the RCU is so fairytale, bc the moon faerie has a little moth knight :3 controls shadows & exclusively lives in the Fae Realm. maya's monster husband

Maya (human): a renaissance faire blacksmith who gets kidnapped to the Fae Realm and survives off sheer caution and common sense

Irina: massive dumbass who gets kidnapped by the fae **on purpose** bc she wants a hot faerie wife. a very fatal plan indeed

i'm pretty sure that's literally any character i've talked about in any sort of detail. and so I bestow: context :P (thx for reading if u got this far aha)

[blue-likethebird]

Now that I think about it, my main issue with modern Zelda content is that it’s forcing the entire series to revolve around one specific incarnation of Link and Zelda. The story of every other game -especially the 3D games like Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword- are treated less like their own separate entities and more (as was pointed out in the comments of another post I made) like flavourtext for botw/totk lore. And the reason I have an issue with that is because now every game before and since is stuck in the shadow of botw. We can’t stay in this version of Hyrule forever. Eventually, there’s going to be a new take on this story with a new Link and Zelda to lead it, and when that time comes, Nintendo will have written themselves into a corner now that every bit of lore from 1998 onwards is inextricably tied to a Link and Zelda duo whose story is already over.

[brokenhardies]

some fun luna and the doctor facts!

when luna first met five (the visitation) she fainted in front of them due to it being her first time being shunted around the timeline

she quickly realises that this means that eleven knew she was going to pass out and didnt say anything... which means every incarnation from five onwards knows that she passed out in front of them

she's most worried about meeting six, he's going to have the most creative flowery insults for her about that

speaking of five - luna had a crush on them when she was a kid due to thinking that they were a woman

when she found out that they weren't a woman (thanks to the 'sexual awakening' scene from black orchid) she was a bit embarrassed

instead of the six & peri comment she accidentally drops this when under the truth field in time of the doctor meaning that eleven, twelve and thirteen all know this (so do fourteen & fifteen but im waiting to write those two later down the track lol)

all of the doctors know that luna is a lesbian. she hasnt come out to any of them. maybe she's made it obvious? she doesn't know

she does get to meet sappho with the first doctor and he kind of went "...oh that explains a lot"

speaking of one - luna gets along best with susan, vicki and dodo. they all try to get into trouble together

luna always ends up stealing the doctor's clothes - she's walked around in the original four scarf (not the second one because someone ripped it up), as well as seven's sweater vest, eight's original coat and nine's leather jacket

luna isn't sure if the reason eight, war and nine all wear leather jackets is because of her or because of ace. or because of none of those things

the doctor has met the seeker and insulted it. several times. they dont tell luna that theyve done that 'cause they dont want to put luna in danger, but they will call the seeker "a pathetic egocentric moron with delusions of grandeur and hypocricy"

yes thats a six insult - he definetly called the seeker that

luna frequently wonders if the doctor is aware that their life is a tv show because of how little they care about the fourth wall

she also wonders who plays certain roles that the doctor's actors have played if they look exactly like those characters, or if those shows just... dont exist

which is a shame bc she loves good omens... then she finds the book in the tardis library and immediately loses her goddamn mind

theres a thick of it joke i can make here but my brain is blanking on it

[paragonrobits]

additional fic idea to continue on something from my old adventure time fanfic days: so long time mutuals might remember that WAY back in the AT fandom days around 2012 and onwards, I had an on going fic idea based around Ooo being broadly in the Marvel universe, with a bunch of ideas I never had the chance to follow up on, but the big one was that Finn was the latest incarnation of Thor (written more akin to Norse mythology rather than his Marvel depiction) and the Hulk being present in the background as the last hero of the age of marvels and forefather of giants like Billy

I called it Finn-Thor on my blog at the time, @hvkryter (and this was before I knew that hyphens screw up tagging, so if you try to find the stories I wrote for it, good luck to you, and let me know if it works out!), focusing on Finn gradually relearning his true nature and embracing it; at the time I had Magic Man as the Loki figure, and this was before Betty came back and became Magic Woman, and I had him firmly set as Loki in full 'tragic antagonist stuck in his narrative role' mode. Nowadays, I would probably instead make JAKE the Loki figure because... well, it fits, and its closer to my actual take on Loki nowadays.

But anyway my point is this: one plot bunny idea I have involves returning to this role, but with a twist: focusing on Finn's cycle of reincarnation and his worries about what the perpetual cycle of inevitably becoming a destroyer perhaps not so different from the Lich (which has been an idea in my mind regardless), and as Thor he was specifically more like God of War's take on Thor; a destroyer and a warrior, shaken by the blood on his hands and the death on his conscience, driven to fight and kill because he believed it was all he was good for, embracing his destiny to die fighting the Midgard Serpent because he saw it as a good death for his lifetime of torment and the horrors he had done.

A monster, inside and out; with hands of iron and a heavy heart so filled with rage; rage at the world. Rage swelling up at every little word or insult, consuming him as he feared he couldn't control his own mind, and he was a vessel for that rage, and most of all rage at himself. Doomed to be a monster.

And as Finn's memories of past lives come to him, he remembers a statement, or perhaps a prophecy, or a warning. Amid the booming of thunder, and the splatter of blood, he remembers: "You will always be... a monster."

He awakens, and agian and again he keeps thinking about this. All the lifetimes he's had in this particular continuity: of fighting and killing, or hurting others (as Shoko hurt PB, even his most long lasting friendship being made because he betrayed her in a past life, because he hurt her).

He asks himself: Is this all I have to give? Is this all I can really do, in any life? Hurt people?

He looks in mirrors and he worries one day he'll see the Lich staring back at him. Am I that different from him?

Are we both destroyers?

So from there, we switch from Finn's POV, to PB and Marceline; both centered in the now, products of the world of Ooo, distinct from what's come before. So they see what's going on with Finn, and somewhere in the background there's Jake, who is remembering things himself, and trying not to think about them as much as Finn is thinking TOO much about them.

So, they see friends stuck in bad thoughts, and they go to rescue them, however they can; because even if Finn thinks he is a monster as much as the Lich, or lifetimes of memories persuade him that's all he can ever be, they know otherwise.