#fuck you ionia

[teeto-peteto]

Brief pause to say Bilgewater has the prettiest characters. Its not a debatable fact.

[jinxpologist]

arcane only fans you are not ready for him and the absolute gay insanity he is going to bring to the screen. you are literally not prepared.

[hexite-nightmares]

The amount of ppl defending the ass writing in s2 with '' YoU jUst WaNt eveRythiNG sPOOn FeD'' is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to make up half the story or create the character beats in my head, its THEIR job to tell the story and if it lacks those connections its not the audience's fault for being disappointed

Ugh the fact so many people are agreeing is making me feel less alone in my dooming. It’s atrocious they’re making this the game canon when it’s only based on a few champs from the region plus noxian champs, ignoring Camille, Renata, Zeri and everyone else. It’s fucked! I wanna know what the hell was going thru their heads when they made viktor the fucking mage jayce meets

Also the creators seem hellbent on spoon feeding us after the show is done by confirming/denying stuff like the void, wether some characters are coming back to life or not and leaving nothing up to interpretation so there’s also that.

Anyways get ready for the Noxus Ionia spinoff where we are getting cringe yasuo and ahri and Yone permadying probably.

[blacksunemiku]

you know what if the lesson learned at the end of the day was just to fucking leave everything so you could get better then sevika, mel and ekko should’ve been booking first class flights to fuckin ionia or some shit but apparently dark skinned people are not allowed to heal i guess

[deepspaceboytoy]

The Suit

They don’t really tell you just how hot it gets under the armor. That’s what you notice first, the buildup, the whine of the fans, whir of the cooling systems. You tell yourself, before your first drop, that it’ll be the gunfire that gets to you, the booming of naval artillery and the guns of Imperial armor. But it’s the sound of your suit trying to stop you from dying from the heat that stays with you. Reminds you just how human you are. Surrounded by three thousand years of technological advancements, you can still get fucking heatstroke.  

-First Decanus Aksinya Ramirez, 1st Cohort 127 Legio “Ironmongers”, 12th Fleet, on deployment to Operation Sector Ramesses, Eastern Fringes, Provinci Nomitius, January 7th, 2732 

First drop worst drop, that’s what people tell you. Combat nerves and first-time jitters, all that stuff, that’s what’s supposed to get most rookies. Your 47th drop, though? Your hands still shake, teeth still clench, nerves still fray. No conditioning exists that can mentally prepare a human being to drop from low orbit into an ocean of enemy fire at 1400 meters a second, surrounded by less than an inch of armor in any direction. You just point your feet at the ground and hope that when you land you can reach your gun faster than the guy trying to kill you can recover from the shock. Even once you’re on the ground, you’re not much better off. A Legionary is pretty goddamned well equipped all things considered, but combined arms still rules the day. Now, instead of rolling hot with tanks and APCs, you’re on your own in hostile territory, and the other guys don’t play by your rules.  

They call it Ionia. Pretty world, if you ignore the global firestorm we touched off when we dropped the orbital artillery. Global weather patterns have turned these wildfires into a wall of heat and flame a mile high roaring along at well over 50 kph. Perfect environment for a drop assault. Our carrier, the IHNV Long Time Coming, sits in low orbit, drop bays open. Her shields are down, allowing us to take the plunge without being incinerated down to our constituent atoms, and she’s taking a hell of a beating for it. But that’s fine; it takes less than 10 seconds for all 10 cohorts to drop through the bay, and then she’s hightailing it for the protection of 12th Fleet’s Strike Flotilla 34, a shoal of escort frigates and heavy cruisers that envelop her in their shield profiles. They’ll be sitting overwatch for us and the two other legions dropping today, the 546th and 1232nd, waiting until we need them to drop some more kinetic kill vehicles on some poor unsuspecting Aberinian fuckers. Before the end of this, there’ll be a lot of poor unsuspecting Aberinian fuckers who’ve learned to dread the low moaning those cannons make as they breach atmosphere. They’ll dread the sounds we make even more.  

At 1242 hours Terran time, we jump, 15,000 fully armored Legionaries dropping in total synchronicity. 32 seconds later, 14,500 of us land in newly formed craters. The air is on fire. The ground is on fire. If it weren’t for the environmental seals on our armor, we’d be dead in minutes. With the seals, we barely notice it.  

First objective is a local Aberinian firebase coordinating aerial defenses over Ionia’s primary continent. Take it out, and Fleet can drop another couple hundred thousand Legionaries with impunity, shipping down troops and materiel at will. Fail to take it, and any transport ships closing within 2000 kilometers of the continent get turned into aerial fireballs. Simple, you might think. The Aberinian defenders have different ideas. Immediately after I land, I’m under fire, maser beams and plasma rounds turning the alpine undergrowth around me into smoldering, runny mud and patches of fused glass. Abs love their energy weapons, and in those first few seconds after we land, they reap a punishing toll. But it only lasts a few seconds. On solid ground, we thunder into action. The nearest weapons position to me, a dugout full of automatic weapons, is my first target. 1st Squad, with me leading, takes to the charge, armored boots pounding the dirt and fallen trees around us as we rocket up to almost 80 kph, arrowing down on this enemy position like lightning. Two hits, three, four, I stop counting, my shoulder armor not even glowing yet from the dispersed energy, and then we’re on the Aberinians, shouldering into the charge.  

There’s a big burly bastard standing in my way, so I choose to go through him. Impact, and he’s down on the ground, where all that famed Ab muscle mass does him no good. I look him in the eyes as I put six rounds into his brain, hearts, and redundant nerve cluster. Dead in less than half a second. Next one is smaller, smarter. This one has fought Legionaries who were on the bounce before, and they know they can’t absorb the charge. They don’t even try, immediately beating a retreat from the edge of the firing position, trying to steady themselves for a good shot on me or one of my people. A hasty shot cleaves their right arm off at the elbow, and then I steady, putting three more rounds into their chest. They punch out of ragged holes in the Ab’s back, ending up lodged in the rear of the dugout. 

1st Squad is equally clinical. Engagement time in the dugout is sitting at 6 seconds, and there’s probably ten or twelve dead Abs littering the ground. Weapons position silenced, onto the next one. We leap the back wall, throwing ourselves back into the hurricane of defensive fire. My commswoman, Gauria, takes a hit to the head, but she’s back up before we’ve even set off; her combat helm is bubbling but otherwise no worse for wear. The first Legionary mortars land near where the shot that hit her came from, and the Ab who took the shot is definitely worse for wear. We’re through the cloud of dirt and arterial spray before the Ab troops have had a chance to recover, and they’re all dead by the time we reach the back wall of their trench. 15 more dead defenders, no casualties. Engagement time, 17 seconds. We’re slowing down, I realize. The key moments of any drop landing come now, in the first minutes. Either our forces secure enough room to consolidate gains, establish a beachhead, or the entire drop force dies. Imperial Legion timing allows no errors, brooks no mistakes. We take this firebase here and now, in the next 10 minutes, or I watch the troops under my command and three whole elite legions worth of soldiers die. No pressure.  

Resistance is struggling to keep up with the speed of the assault. Elements of my 1st Cohort, along with 2nd, 5th, and 9th, have secured most of the approaches to the base. Now it’s just the bastards inside. Time to crack this thing open. First up is my squad, along with the rest of 1st Cohort. 487 of us left. Far more than enough with three more cohorts backing us up. Marilene places a demolition charge against a central span of the perimeter wall, and I nod to blow it. We’re already thudding inside as the wall is falling, reinforced layers of synthrock and steel showering us as we simply drive over top of the first defenders we encounter.  

The inside of the firebase is divided into quadrants, with barracks closest to us on the eastern side. Reserves are still suiting up outside it as we gun them down, single shots blowing craters in unarmored Aberinian torsos. Some, we don’t even have time to draw down on. Instead, single unarmed strikes pulp limbs and crater skulls. We’re pounding the interior asphalt, well on our way to the command post on the western edge of the base, when defensive fire finally reaches us. Pelted with energy bolts like rain, we gun down anyone who pokes a head up. The sleeting defensive fire slackens as 9th Cohort breaches, taking the hastily repositioned defenders in the rear. Engagement time, 1 minute 20 seconds. Casualties, 22. Dead Aberinians? Hard to count the splotches on the ground where bodies used to stand. We’ve liquified anything in our way.  

We take stock outside the command center. It’s a synthrock blockhouse, windowless, fortified and reinforced entrances. There were guards, but they aren’t combat effective with rounds drilled through their torsos. More Legionaries are streaming inside the compound, following up on breaches set by the other assault teams. Colonel Melody Moriconi, Legion commander, is pounding her way down the central asphalt thoroughfare towards us, armor shedding beam rounds and plasma like rain drops. At the compound's weapons depot, a few Abs have managed to put up a fight with the heavier artillery, but now the Legion breaching teams are inside the firebase, and they use their heavier armor to simply roll over the depot. Fighting inside the base is brief and brutal, Legion speed overwhelming the Abs’ famous resilience and feral aggression.  

Colonel Moriconi comms us halfway to the command center, giving us the go ahead to breach. Marilene places two more det charges, and we’re inside, plowing through guard and command staff alike. Quarles takes three plasma bolts to the chest, stumbling forward a few more steps before the superheated ammunition burns through his chest plate and eats his torso away. He gets two rounds off before his brain reminds him he’s dead, and he crumples. We’re stuck in it now, charging down cramped hallways and bursting into hastily reinforced rooms. Doesn’t matter what they put in front of us, we run over it, daring the Aberinians to try and slow us down. Outside the doors to the central comms room, they give it their best.  

An Ab Headhunter pack is waiting for us, heavy armor laced with trophies and tally marks. These things are Legion-killers through and through, and for the first time since drop, the Abs meet our advance. A fist bigger than my head bats my rifle away, so I lower my shoulder and shove hard, getting some room for myself. Deploying the combat blade from its port in my forearm gauntlet, I thrust with the blade, a glancing hit to the big bastard’s ribs. I can feel the crunching, but he’s barely fazed, swinging another huge paw for my head. Ducking under it, I lever a fist into his knee, hoping to shatter it, but he pivots away at the last damnable second and the best I can manage is some solid contact with his armored thigh.  

The squad is in the thick of it now, combat blades out or sidearms drawn, locked in melee with the Aberinian pack. Marilene takes a huge Ab claw to the thigh, arterial blood spraying from rent armor even as she spears the Ab through the skull, blade punching out of the crown of its head.  

The big bastard in front of me is back on me before I can survey the rest of the squad, his fangs bared and nostrils flaring. Two quick swipes pass by my head and then I’m reeling from a brutal kick to the stomach, his hoof connecting with my amor in a vicious thud. The Ab presses his advantage, trying to skewer my face on his clawed paw, but he can’t leverage the force he needs to get through my armor, and in this tiny moment I seize my chance, pushing upward and bearing him to the ground. My combat blade is buried in his chest.  

Kang, our demo expert, is first out of combat after me, putting a full sidearm mag into the brain of one of the Headhunters. The rest of the squad finishes off their opponents, minus Bannon, who is missing an arm and three quarters of his head, and we line up to breach the comms and control room. Gauria and Vento are first through, soaking up fire as a distraction while Kang chucks an armed fusion device into the room. Device armed and landed among the Abs, we fire off what’s left of our magazines and beat our retreat out of the firebase. Not 30 seconds later, we watch the fusion device make a crater of the firebase sixty feet deep. Time from drop, 6 minutes 48 seconds. It’s an overwhelming Legion victory. It will be repeated across the continent at 16 other points, although none of those strikes will be as singularly fast and brutal as ours. 127 Legio will lose 311 troopers. The Abs, though? 7200 dead and counting.  

[tanejineri]

alright chat, i swore it

i'm going sentence case for this, i have been thinking about this for a while now, and it's going to drive me fucking insaaane so bear with me here. also just a note i am autistic and this subject is a huge point of passion for me so also bear with me on that part everything underlined is a link that will take you to the sources of everything discussed if you need a refresher alrighty enjoy rahh

How Not to Transition to Human: A Psychoanalysis of Magpies and Fassad

INTRODUCTION

Hello! Hi! It's me, your favorite ibuprofen addicted love child of an asshole and autistic person resulting in an autistic kind-of asshole. To my fellow neurodivergents, I have a question for you--are you human?

If your answer is yes, you'll probably not understand this essay very well. If your answer is no, you'll understand it very concisely. I, myself, am not human. It's common for those with neurodiversity to not attach themselves to humanity and instead connect with things that aren't human, whether it be an animal, an insect, or inanimate things. Or fantastical creatures! I myself am a chimera. Not like MOTHER 3 or Fullmetal chimera, I am a hare-stone marten-coyote-porcupine-cat hybrid. Or I simply refer to myself as a jackalope.

You've probably already clicked off, thinking to yourself, "What is this guy waffling about?! I came here to read a Fassad analysis, not about what fucking animal I'd be!" Well, this is all necessary so hold on. This lack of humanity can come from being born in a way that is different, and therefore people treat you differently. Or, maybe you feel more comfortable feeling closer to identifying with those animals because you understand them more than what you were born as. Being non-human identifying is similar to being transgender, just as that is also associated with autism.

Now I'm not autism coding anyone today, but what if you weren't born human? Let's say you were born as what humans would consider an animal?

THE LINE BETWEEN HUMAN AND ANIMAL

Magpies. Not the birds, not some sports team somewhere in this world, the replacement word I use for mag******. Everyone has a different word for them, but I like to say magpie.

You are a human who just happens to run into something that looks human, seems human, but clearly there is something off about them. They could have more hair than you, maybe unnatural proportions. They could have weird feet, weird colors, weird behavior. You'd consider that an animal. Refer to the beginning of Chapter 7, when they tied up Ionia. That is what you'd do with an animal.

Magpies are human at their base--their sentience, their appearance, and their way of living is very much so human, but it seems that there are some things that clearly allude to their lack of humanity. Humanity is such a strict construct, that you could be considered an animal on some aspects. In this case their mentality, and their behavior. Magpies are hyperfeminine (by human standards), and they are, in a sense, immortal beings. Along with their strong connection to the Dragon and the Earth, this is something that a person could discriminate about.

The magpies, not being human, alienate humans from themselves as the humans do with them. Refer to Chapter 1 in Aeolia's shell at the tea party. Having just helped a boy, and not understanding the urgency of the family, considering his life as meaningless in their eyes, even laughing about it amongst one another. "Oh, get over yourselves. / We couldn't care less about you humans. Here one minute and gone the next. (...) Why would anyone bother to care about such short lives?" And even though Doria stepped up, they still talked about it as a different way of thinking. You could sympathize with their words, but it's clearly one said out of understanding and less about sympathy. "Humans worry about such short lives. / Isn't that right, Alecy-poo?"

You could try to consider magpies human as much as you please. However, this does not mean that they would consider themselves human in comparison to you. You are not a magpie in their eyes, nor are you "biologically." You never will be. Just as they'll never be human to you "biologically."

However, this doesn't mean they are locked away from identifying with humans, just as with the other way around. The border between human and animal in general is very thin, almost non-existent, as we ourselves have scientific names. What makes a human different from an animal? The answer is their way of living.

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF LOCRIA

It is never explained why Locria left. We know what Locria is, but we do not know who they are. I mean, we do know, refer to Chapter 8 and the 100 floors, but we don't know them as a person from prior to this. The magpies briefly mentioned them in passing (refer back to Chapter 1), but there seemed to be little to almost no concern on their whereabouts from the party. Overall, before they became who we know now as Fassad, they are an enigma overall. The most we can do is theorize who they were and what caused them to turn their back on the others. Hehehe. HEHEHE-

Okay, maybe I lied. This isn't very much of a scholarly essay as it is me pouring my stupid little headcanons over your head and stating them as fact. But obviously it's not fact because I just admitted to it being headcanons. Alrighty, let's dig into it.

What is the difference between a magpie and a human beyond their biological dichotomy? Look into their behaviors and their significance of their life. Refer to Chapter 7 with Doria and how eager they are to have their needle pulled. Have you ever thought about how excited they are for what is essentially their death? All of them are. The way they jump around, the way they praise Lucas for being there for them. They don't protest for the Masked Man to either. They have no control over their fates, and they have accepted that. It is the way of the Dragon and that is how they were made to fall.

Humans are afraid of death. We find the idea of lacking free will horrible, a pessimistic point of view in our eyes. To lie down and kneel to a life of no control all to a force that doesn't care for whichever way your life goes, whether the world lives or dies, is torture. What fear they have is what pushes them onto wanting to change. Whether it be themselves, or those around them, or whether they live or die, humans live for themselves. And they know that.

Fassad is comically evil. He does whatever he likes, hurts because he can, and wants to push others down. Have you considered what Locria could have been like? Certainly not the same. They were presented as kind, having a little mouse friend and taking good care of it. They could have known Kumatora when she was a baby, and this brings me into this.

Perhaps Locria has seen the beauty of human life through Kumatora. Watching her grow, the way she works around, how she can just grow up and love, to live around the castle of a family long gone. She could live anywhere. She could die anywhere. She had free will. And there is some envy you would feel knowing that you're locked to your own fate while the one you're caring for gets to flourish past you.

Humans have free will, while a magpie does not. All they do is bring prophecies to others like angels, while they sit around and gossip amongst another with nothing going on. There's only so much monotony that one can take before they snap.

TO TRANSITION TO HUMAN

Tell me, my good human. What makes a human? It's not their dichotomy. It's there behavior and actions, as well as their sentience. You look at a talking animal and don't go "That's an animal," you go "That's an anthropomorphic animal." Anthropomorphism is a term you are very much so familiar with and have experienced all throughout your life. Humans love to connect with animals by giving them humanoid traits, or even objects. Objects made to look like animals, animals made to look like toys. Give them all life with human traits. Give it a name, give it a voice, make it move.

Anthropomorphism cannot apply to something already sentient. It would rather instead be known as "human." The way people refer to elephants as "human" simply because they show emotion. Well, let's stop being all giddy and smiley all the time. Perhaps there are some concerns to voice. Let's say you don't like the idea of living an idle life of talking over and over and lounging around for hundreds of years to come. You'll express frustration. They don't like that.

Humans don't dress over the top and flaunt themselves like birds. They prefer simplicity. Some like complexity, those are the outliers, but the majority prefers things in colors you see every day. Green for the grass and leaves. Brown bark. White clouds. Snow. Blue water. Yellow flowers. Golden flowers. Okay ok ok ok ok you get it you fucking get it okay? IM JUST BEING ON THE NOSE- Perhaps you wish to be attune with that. More colors of what you see every day. You wish to be a part of nature, not a stand out against it. They don't like that.

Like animals, humans wish for survival. They live and fight to survive. Wars, pack divides, fight for dominance, establishment of hierarchy. "I'm better than you!" "Well, my mane is darker, therefore I am better than you." Rabbits have very loose napes so that they can run away from the grasp of predators when caught. Crane flies' life spans are so short that they live simply to mate and die and keep their life going on through generations before. The one thing that every living being wants to do is stay alive. So why shouldn't we? Why should we lie down when we can stand up? Perhaps I don't want to die. Perhaps I wish to live my life. I want to talk amongst the people, to love, to die in a way that is not by fate, but rather my own volition.

Nobody likes that. See, being a magpie, you are a headstone of the Dragon. You don't choose when to live, or to die, or whether or not you'll be happy or sad during that time. Everything is a flow of one direction.

To humans, that's known as pessimism. There are religions, yes, where our fates are predetermined, and the God will give us missions, struggles, to see if we make it up to their Heaven or burn in their Hells, but to the normal, every day person, this is pessimism.

Humans around negative energy are quick to react to it and wish to run away from it. We all run from death. And so does Locria.

THE FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR A HUMAN

The only human Locria interacted with was a child, Kumatora. That would be a good frame of reference if it weren't for the fact that it was a child. But let's say they were to meet another human. One who can change everything for them. Get this, someone with an offer nobody could refuse.

Hello chat, welcome to the reason why Fassad is a bitchass motherfucker. He's modelled off of Porky Minch. I KNOW, FAR FETCHED. BUT HEAR ME THE FUCK OUT. Sure, there's Alec. But how do we know when the fuck he joined in? Or how long ago all the planning took place? Okay, boom. Shot that down. Porky in MOTHER 3 is the worst thing on earth. I don't want any defenders of Porky right now, because it doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole. Okay?

Porky disregards the well-being of his citizens by creating elaborate ways to torment people who don't follow his way (refer to Thunder Tower as a whole), acts nonchalant, aggressive, and dramatically with those around him (refer to Chapter 8, post-Pork Bot fight), and sees no humanity in animals (Chimera) and even uses them for his benefit in cruel and unusual ways (refer to Chapter 5, the electric catfish). Keep all of this in mind.

Considering Locria's vulnerability and desperation during this time I would believe, it'd be easy to fall into the hands of someone who would offer you something you been wanting--invulnerability. Get this--have you noticed that they only found the Final Needle after Fassad died? Refer back to Chapter 8. Sure it could have been set up to appear that way, but have you considered that this might have been intentionally delayed while he was around? Fassad was able to live his life however he pleased, do whatever he pleased, treat everyone and everything around him as he pleased. And at the end of it all, he was a magpie according to game allusions. It was the final, yes, but why that one? Beyond the digging, they could have easily done it faster with machinery, yet they chose human labor. Food for thought, food for thought. Colon three. :3.

A chance to live your life as freely as you like. That is what the invulnerability offers you. You don't have to worry about your fate, because your fate is protected by the one who you believe will stick to his word. Looking past the assholery and manipulative feel of this person, seems like someone who will be able to help you. He has big plans, and they need you. Perhaps you could help in some way to bring this guy power. You could use the others...

There has to be an intense moral breakdown to have gotten Locria to side with Porky, let alone follow him. Some type of string pulling, words drizzled in honey, anything. What could have brought you to abandon what is essentially your family to join the side of darkness? It's obvious. Invulnerability. Safety amongst my arms. A gift of wax wings to fly however you please. So, now what?

HUMANITY IS INHERENTLY EVIL

MANKIND IS A FAILURE. FREE WILL IS A FLAW. LET THE EVIL OF THEIR OWN LIPS CONSUME THEM. THEN I SHALL BEGIN AGAIN, WITH MY WORD AS LAW.

sorry for the interest overlap teehee <3

What does an animal feel when it sees a human? Does it run? Does it hide? Does it bite? Does it investigate? And does its investigation result in its death? A lot of religions believe that humanity is an inherently evil race. Why am I talking about religion so much? Hyperfixated fuck- A lot of people believe humanity to be inherently evil. We spoil the Earth with our presence, as we were not made to progress this far.

Porky is an inherently evil person. He refuses to change even to his end (refer to Chapter 8, Absolutely Safe Capsule), he's all the things I listed prior, and so far he's the only real frame of reference that we have for a human that isn't Alec and Kumatora. He's everything that we can only look at now. Sure, people can be good, but Porky isn't. He's the example of the worst that can come of humanity.

You have to blend in with those around you, so you take from them as you go. So what does he do? He disregards the well-being of the villagers and manipulates them into doing what he wants, subtly tormenting them in ways that will get them to follow his way, acts aggressive and overreacts dramatically to the most minute things, and is needlessly cruel to an animal he needs to use for Porky's volition. All come from Chapter 3, and here¹ they² are³ in order.

I KNOW. I'M STRETCHING. BUT BUT UHHH. UM. UH- I'm always right!

So now we've reached the point of no return. Fassad mimics the bit of human he sees in Porky and increases it tenfold there-in turning against everything that he was born as when it comes onto morals, ways of living, and of course appearance. Because so far this is what a powerful human being has been. A cruel, relentless being. And the weaker ones are meek, easy to deceive. Their softness is what brings about their downfall, and overreliance on one another their playing into hands.

But it's on them. Humans are what twisted Porky to be the way that he is. All humans are evil by Fassad's standards. They hurt one another, intentional or not, and they're selfish for all their power. He follows Porky's rhetoric to a T--they'll always sign their own death warrant.

CONCLUSION

I have no idea what I'm trying to say here, to be fucking honest. Fassad is a complicated case of extreme mirroring and loss of self all because he felt different than how he was born as. Obviously, he's also transgender by definition of switching over from what he was born as. I know that's not a part of the essay, but it's something of note because the switching over to the binary was alongside his transition as a person.

Yes, the game wants you to believe that he was a magpie. And he once was! No matter how many mustaches he glues on his face, no matter how tightly he ties up his hair to hide it in his headdress, he will always be on the surface a magpie. But deep down, and even on the surface as well, he died human.

[bookishblogging]

THE ILIAD: FOR DUMMIES ☀️ MASTERPOST

just kidding you're not a dummy, you're some hot stuff right there! i will be going through the entire iliad and giving you a general overview, some interesting plot points, additional context, and some other analysis tools to better help you understand the epic!

This post will serve as a table of contents (at the end) to my Iliad posts and a general overview that I will be constantly updating! I am using the Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad, alongside my companion book by Malcom M. Wilcock

Before we get into analyzing the actual Iliad, we need to get into some essential questions and context about the book

WHAT IS THE ILIAD:

The Iliad was written by Homer (this is actually debated but we can get into that later) around 750 and 550 B.C.E.

At its core, the story is about heros and humans. It's an Iron Age poem about an event, the Trojan War, that was supposed to have taken place in the Bronze age. The Iliad is considered to be a poem comprised of multiple books, 24 to be exact

This story is only a few days of the tenth and final year of the Greek siege against the city of Troy- this means it relies on the audience already knowing most of the basic details about the Trojan war and the gods themselves (don't sorry, I will provide this for you as we go along)

WHO IS HOMER:

The age old question: who the fuck is Homer?

Literally nothing is known about this dude except that he wrote (or was credited with writing) the Odyssey and the Iliad

People have referenced his writings for EONS. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, Callinus, and even Sappho have referenced the poems of Homer in their own works. These also were popular in fine art in the late 7th century B.C.E.

There is a general consensus that Homer was from Ionia- a territory in western Anatolia or modern day Turkey that was populated by Greeks who spoke the Ionian dialect, aka the birthplace of Greek philosophy. Want more info on Ionia? Click Here!

His descendants were called the Homerids/Homeridae

There is scholarly debate on if he even wrote both the Iliad and the Odyssey, or if he only wrote one, etc etc etc. This is due to some very specific differences in the structure of the words used (like the use of short vowels, and the seemingly unimportant semivowel of the digamma being missing from the epics...yeah it's a lot)

The poems were reproduced ORALLY. This means that the poems were passed down by word of mouth, which if I were to sit and listen to this entire book via a guy singing at me...idk man I think I would leave

All of this to say, we really don't know who Homer is. There's a lot more information about what he could have looked like, if he really did write the Iliad, and a million other things, but I've already talked your ear off and we haven't even gotten into the book yet. If you want more information about Homer, check out my sources at the end of the post!

WAS THE CITY OF TROY REAL:

Yeah. There were nine layers exposed at the site of where Troy was expected to be, and nearly fifty sublayers at the mound of Hisarlik

Troy was a vassal state: meaning it had an obligation to a superior state, which happened to be the Hittite Empire

Troy had a lot more allies than original fighters in the city, meaning they had many language barriers- making the army harder to control than the unified Greek enemy.

THE STYLE OF THE ILIAD:

Cause - Effect - Solution

The poem is concluded with a mirror image of its beginning: an old man ventures to the camp of his enemy in order to ransom his child

The poem foreshadows the death of Achilles in MULTIPLE passages! He knows he is destined to die young if he fights at Troy, and the demise of his lover (don't fight me on this) Patroclus gives us an even more extended foreshadowing of the grief that is to come

When Achilles dies, Thetis (his mom) takes his body from the pyre and takes him to a place called the White Island. It's not clear whether he is immortalized BUT the reference to Achilles funeral in the Odyssey states that Achilles is cremated and his bones are placed in a golden urn along those of Patroclus, and the urn is entombed under a prominent mound (tsoa fans...you're welcome)

This isn't really necessary knowledge but moreso something I think is cool: the backstory from the Iliad of an abducted bride also appears in the Sanskirt epic Ramayana (circa 4th century B.C.E.)

okay now here is the ACTUAL important stuff

Humanity is the center of the universe in the Iliad. Humans motivations and concerns generate action in the poem, while the gods are often reduced to the role of enablers or spectators

The style of the poem collaborates with the vision that the speciousness of this epic means that every thought and gesture, spear cast and threat, intimate conversation and lament CAN be recorded. It gives a consciousness behind the demands of the iliad that these interactions MUST be recorded, this attention to detail is another way of showing centrality and the worth of the human experience (Greek OR Trojan)

The Iliad is ultimately a poem about death, the chief elements that distinguish the mortals from gods are: Death shadows every action, and death is neither abhorred nor celebrated. Instead it crystalizes by means of this one theme, death in battle, the essence of what it means to be human (Life is a struggle each person will always lose, the question is how one acts with that knowledge)

Modern readers and analysis blogs will state that one's inner spirit is somehow the "real" self, however the Iliad assumes the opposite: The psykhai (soul, spirits) of dying heroes fly off to Hades while their autous ("selves") are left behind in the form of dead bodies

Glory is INCREDIBLY important in the iliad, why? If mortals could live forever (like gods) then glory would be useless. It's a commodity to be exchanged, and because of this it has an economic and symbolic reality

Companionship is incredibly important

Pity is also very important, it's the concluding note of the poem. Even the gods feel pity

THE GODS AND THE ILIAD:

The Iliad gains depth by the divine dimension shedding glory on the humans at Troy. The gods are so intensely concerned with warriors and their fates which elevates the mortals to a special plane

Mortals are only separated from gods because they grow old and die

The symbiotic bond of gods and mortals is always see-sawing between adoration and antagonism

Humans who get too close to the gods risk being struck down, case in point, Achilles. He's young, well-made, he's a warrior but also a singer/musician (the only hero to be seen doing such a thing), he looks and acts like Apollo. THEREFORE...it's no coincidence that Apollo is ultimately the god who slays Achilles, just as he did Patroclus

Poetry supplemented or even guided ancient Greek religious interpretation much more than the activity of priests due to the lack of any official religious text. This gave ancient Hellenism a very fluid nature

This was a long post, and it's only the first of many! I will continuously update this with more sources about the Iliad and answer any FAQs that come up! I love classic literature, and as a STEM student I need to entertain my passion somehow lol. There is a table of contents at the top of the post, as well as right here. This will be updated for each book of the Iliad I write about, as well as any supplemental posts I make about certain topics and themes as I go along. I am putting a LOT of work into this series of posts, so let me know your thoughts or anything you'd like me to change/add/etc! Happy reading!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

(This is empty because this is the only post...more posts coming soon)

Sources/Citations/Additional Material

Homer- Britannica

Homerids- Britannica

Who Is Homer- The British Museum (fuck the British Museum)

Ionia Information- World Encyclopedia

The Hittites- Britannica

Ramayana Overview- British Library

Overview of Greek Mythology- Theoi

The Iliad- Overview via Britannica

Thetis- World Encyclopedia

[league-of-blorbos]

I've been working on listing as many parallels as I can between Kayn and Rhaast, because I'm just unhinged like that, so here's the ones I noticed so far under the cut:

Design:

SA Kayn has a diamond on his forehead and Rhaast has one on his chest 

Can represent their different mentalities as “brain vs heart”

Kayn is more methodical and efficient in his killings while Rhaast just likes to go in and kill as brutally as possible

Both lose their pupils after transforming and become more “inhuman” looking

Rhaast is obvious how inhuman he looks, SA’s skin turns ghostly pale and has shadows crawling up his arms (in LoR Kayn even gains claws after becoming SA)

The loss of pupils could be another way to show how removed from their humanity they’ve become, “eyes are the window to the soul”

Magic:

Kayn’s magic comes from shadows and Rhaast’s magic comes from the Sun

Day vs Night, Sun vs Moon, Light vs Dark, you get it

Their skins also play with this, Night/Dawnbringer swapped their red/blue coding but Kayn is still dark-coded and Rhaast is still light-coded, and in Odyssey Kayn is now light-coded (golden ora and bright stars) and Rhaast is dark-coded (literally a DARK star)

Kayn’s magic is “incorporeal” and Rhaast’s is “physical”

Kayn can pass through physical objects while Rhaast can use hemomancy to control minds and warp bodies

Kayn is fighting for intangible power and Rhaast is fighting for a physical body, both have what the other desires most

Backstory:

Both were soldiers with war-related trauma

Made for fight for someone else’s immoral goals; Kayn was fighting against Ionia defending from an invasion and Rhaast was fighting against Icathian slaves revolting

Can also play into how they are both reduced down to being weapons; Rhaast is literally trapped within his scythe and Kayn sees himself as a weapon crafted to fight against Noxus (“I am the weapon, you are a tool”)

Both their minds were scarred from witnessing horror they couldn’t handle; Kayn, as a developing child, couldn’t handle the violence of war and Rhaast, who began as a mortal human, couldn’t handle the existential horror of the Void

Other:

Both are fucking lonely and don’t wanna admit it

In all his versions Kayn craves companionship; base Kayn has unwavering loyalty to Zed and sees him as a father figure, Heartsteel becomes like brothers to Kayn even when he thought they’d just be another stepping stone in his career, and Odyssey Kayn sees Rhaast as a friend and still calls from him even after killing Rhaast for power

All the Darkin have been isolated in their weapons for centuries and once they’re free they try to remedy that loneliness; Naafiri embraces being a pack mother, Varus slowly opens his heart to Kai and Valmar, Aatrox calls for the other Darkin to join him for on last battle, and Rhaast chooses to toy and joke with Kayn instead of being cold towards him

Kayn and Rhaast have the potential to set aside their conflict, coexist, "allow themselves to blend" and not be lonely anymore, but both are too stubborn and selfish to even consider the possibility

[salubriwrites-blog]

Our Golden Demons, Ch 18 WIP

tl;dr Teaser for Chapter 18, Hwei took Sett's instructions to "do whatever you can to stay out of trouble with Jhin" too literally????

Oooh boy. I fucking Love this story.

I think that the JhinHwei ship is cool and all, but I love the healing nuances of SettHwei. In Our Golden Demons, we meet a version of Hwei who hasn't gone one way or the other toward darkness or light. He's just left in search of answers, meeting all sorts of people in Ionia and using his Ink Magic to soothe their own trauma. He hasn't found a cure or the strength to confront his own yet, and when he meets Sett he thinks he's found someone who might make those problems worth solving.

Spoiler: Yes he has! Also Spoiler: In this story, Hwei chooses light, and gains a mastery over his darkness with guidance from people like his loving hunk of a boyfriend/mate, and Ma. If you want a version of Hwei where the darkness envelops him, go read "My Mind, Your Mask" >:)

In Chapter 18 of Our Golden Demons, Sett and Ma have set off for Tuula, a small village on the absolute ass end of Ionia, which is - for all the lore junkies out there - is the Monastery where Jhin was incarcerated after Master Kusho apprehended him. Jhin has returned there with Hwei after a pretty sick kidnapping, and is using Hwei's power for some nefarious end that will be revealed.

I chose this specific piece to tease the chapter because it shows Hwei veering off the track that Sett had put him on. He starts to regress to a version of himself that Jhin recognizes, a version of Hwei which can be manipulated. So Jhin believes. When Sett wakes up from the nightmare, he realizes he might be running out of time to save Hwei.

Also because when I was writing this I had an intrusive thought to make a reference back to THIS little bit:

In the very first chapter of OGG, Hwei makes a bet. He'll go against one of Sett's fighters in his fighting pit, and if Hwei wins Sett has to cough up information about this person Hwei is searching for. If Sett's fighter wins, Hwei has to devote a year of servitude to Sett, including but not limited to that kind of servitude. Luckily Hwei wins, so that never gets realized, but my intrusive thoughts came in.

I played with the idea of making this dream sequence where Hwei is getting dressed up all slutty/provocative is actually his first night preparing to go to work for Sett. He comes down a sweeping staircase into the fight hall, and a bunch of Sett's investors/business partners immediately grab him, all while the real Sett watches a nightmare version of himself grab Hwei by the hair and remind him of bet he lost.

I decided against doing that cause I couldn't really justify it, but I might put it (along with some other intrusive JhinHwei smut I cooked) in its own story, because non-con is not part of this story.

Aaaaand that's it. Enjoy this snippet, and I'll be posting a link to chapter 18 once its done ^^.

I'm working on this story and towards its conclusion slowly, because my brainrot is demanding I do other stuff at the same time. But it's cooking, and it's gonna be delicious.

Once again if you read this far, thank you <3

[clefaiiiry]

Join me as I try to figure out where the FUCK Sett's arena is

Since Riot haven't even given a name for Sett's mother's tribe, you know damn well they're not going to make this easy.

But anyway, long ramble under the cut;

For starters, we know it's in a city called Qayanvi. We know this via voicelines and flavour text in Legends of Runeterra.

Legends of Runeterra Voicelines from Sett

So what do we know about Qayanvi and, more importantly, where is it?

Title Menu Splash art for Legends of Runeterra shortly after the Glory in Navori expansion dropped.

This art for the title menu on LoR shows Jack presumably before crashing Sett's arena as shown in their card arts. While is is not confirmed outright, it's pretty safe to assume. But since we know what the interior looks like via multiple card arts, we don't even have to assume.

Sett and Jack's Level 1 Card Arts from LoR

Qayanvi must have been a region that Noxus controlled - or at least had influence in - during the First Invasion, and Sett wouldn't move since he wants to stay close to his mother. This is a little harder to figure out since the interactive map on universe only shows the areas currently occupied by Noxus during the Second Invasion.

First image; Red highlights show areas occupied by Noxus. Second image shows place names.

Some of the architecture also seems to have heavy Noxian influence, with this large brutalist grey stone courtyard. We can also see in other card arts that this Noxian style of architecture is present in other locations in Ionia.

Lord Broadmane Card Art from LoR. I don't think this is Qayanvi since the Ionian buildings in the background have blue roofs rather than red ones, but it shows how the Noxian structures coexist alongside the Ionian ones across the previously occupied regions.

We also know that Qayanvi is on the coast since we can see the harbour in the background here.

It also would have been reasonable to assume Qayanvi was a coastal city even without this confirmation since trade is so important for such a crime ridden city. Sett's arena is operating out in the open and everyone knows what sort of dirty business a crime boss like that gets into. Having direct trade links with Noxus and Piltover / Zaun just makes the who operation so much easier.

Navori as a region is described as having 'notable' criminal influence and is quite unstable due to it's previous occupation.

Card Art for The Witness. I'm not as confident about this one being Qayanvi, but the sea wall looks to be similar and the buildings in the background also appear to have a similar shape / red roofs.

Biome map used during development of the Interactive Runeterra map. Link attached to image.

The coastal area that I would have assumed Qayanvi to be in is shown to be a steppe / prairie. It's hard to judge in the images we have, but this looks somewhat consistent.

So we're looking for a coastal area in Navori, not necessarily still in Noxian controlled space, but close enough to continue trade.

Location of Ionian Capital taken from the Wiki; unable to find a source. The city is officially referred to as Ionia City, and is where the Ionian Council meet for various discussions / debates.

With all this in mind, I'm gonna take a stab and estimate that Qayanvi is somewhere within this red line;

Areas in black I think are highly unlikely, areas in yellow are potential but I'm not as confident. The large area south of Ionia City and west of Weh'le I believe(?) is the area attacked by Singed's chemical weapons and therefore are too barren to sustain a city like Qayanvi.

I'm not totally happy with my guess and I'd love to see other people take a swing, but this is the closest I would be happy to guess with the information I can find.

If you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading and I hope this was interesting!

[eightspringdays]

the another league of legends series is gonna BE IN FUCKING DEMACIA, NOXUS AND IONIA??😭😭 That means... Vanye, Fiora, AHRI, AkALI😭

..LUX? That means they could make Lux and Jinx a thing since. u know.

My DAUGHTERS, seeing lightcannon being a thing would be 😭😭

Dude. LOL has like 150 champions, you can do literally anything because The Lore. Is. There. It has the whole war going on there. Like naaasty

[teeto-peteto]

new ionian champ who is an artist!

bitch this u?

hahaahhahahahahha another Ionia champ

[fireycircus]

I’ve been thinking about Mother 3 a bit and I want to share some things that I think are really cool.

First thing’s first:

I Love Ionia so much

Well I love all the Magi honestly, but Ionia is like my favorite non party member character. She’s so interesting to me with how serious she is about the dark dragon’s awakening compared to the other Magi. The Magi seem very nonchalant about the fate of the islands except for her. I think this ties into how she has more relationships with the people living there. She’s a good friend to Alec while the other Magi don’t know him and I suspect she was the main person to raise Kumatora. Its stated that the Magi were given Kumatora but I don’t think a lot of them did much with her. By how Kumatora acts with Doria when she falls at her house, it seems to me they aren’t particularly close. But Kumatora is close to Ionia. The scene at Chupichupyoi temple is one of my favorites because of this. Ionia knows and understands Kumatora probably the most out of any npc we encounter. And the way Kumatora reacts to Ionia’s disappearance fucking KILLS ME. The game doesn’t let you hang onto that moment much, but it’s always stuck out to me. Previously Kumatora hasn’t really shown much sadness, only points of anger and frustration when things upset her. So to see her genuinely sad about something tells me just how close she was to Ionia.

Random Discussion Point 2: I think it’s really neat how Psi awakenings act like a subconscious defense system. I’ll keep this one brief. Every time someone awakens to new Psi it’s because of a dangerous situation, usually massive strikes of lightening or Psi being directed at them or even the fevers they get. I like the extra context behind the nature of Psi.

And lastly, some stuff about Locria. It’s really hard to feel any empathy for Locria after we’ve known them as Fassad. However, when you think about how Porky basically corrupted them first it gets kinda sad. The mouse in Locria’s house says that they used to dote over them excessively. I think it’s important to note that the detail of goodness we get about Locria is one to do with animals. We all know that what they did to Salsa was messed up. Porky made everything on the Nowhere Islands do a complete 180 and it’s fitting that he started by making one of it’s native inhabitants who is spiritually connected to the islands his first target. I can’t imagine what he did or said to make Locria change so horrifically.

*I saw an interpretation in the reblogs that Locria was always like that and they were just given an outlet to be the worst they could be. I like this idea as well, since it still gives impact to the plot while showing that some people just aren’t redeemable or have a good reason for doing bad. I wanted to share my thoughts with the person who added that but it was a tag so I added it in editing if that’s okay.

Anyways that’s all, just had to get these thoughts out of my system

[triphimi]

Arcane season 2 review and opinions (spoilers obv):

As a show by itself it was good... not as good as 1st season I feel tho? Obviously the biggest problems s2 has are pacing issues and lack of time which resulted in a very rushed story in the whole season but especially episodes 8 and 9.

The ending is bittersweet which was expected, but the lack of connections between characters in act 3 was lame. Yes, I'm bitter about Sevika not having a single line throughout the whole act and Isha not being mentioned by name at all.

That sex scene felt so forced too ngl. I wish we still got it but in different settings cuz like Vi, your sister kinda went to kill herself. The scene itself was cool ig but why did it have to be in a prison cell bro.

I liked what they did with Viktor, Ekko was carrying the plot of act 3 and saved the day as usually, Singed got the happiest ending out of everyone which is funny and fitting to his gameplay in lol. You know, fuck around everywhere, piss off everyone and get away. Isha despite being just a plot device was a nice addition still, loved the dynamic between her and Jinx and Sevika.

Making Singed Orianna's father and the Doctor Reveck was something people were speculating about for a long time already.

Now speaking as a league of legends fan after they decided to make Arcane a main canon...

Why? Things were perfectly fine with how they were before. Sure, some things being canon are cool maybe but it sacrifices so much of the already existing story for this. And it messes up the timeline so bad. Mostly because Singed seemed to stay in P&Z and it doesn't seem like he has any more ties with Noxus after Ambessas death and he didn't seem to have any before so... who made the gas for Noxian invasion of Ionia? Did that even happen anymore. The Invasion had to happen bc Swain seemingly already has a deal with Raum (unless we want to speculate that the crow was just Raum before he made a deal with Swain but who tf knows now?)

If the invasion did happen already then either:

a) Singed did make a gas for Noxus before Arcane and it's just never mentioned that he had previous connections with them?

b) Singed didn't make the gas Noxus used in the invasion. Takes away some importance Singed had in lore but with that new one, he at least has something. With that half of Ionian champions lore isn't fucked at least

c) The invasion did happen but they didn't use the gas which messes up SO MUCH. Half of Ionian champs lore is not canon now? Did something different happen to them, who tf knows?

I know the next series will probably be set in Noxus which might explain some thing (pls timeline) but that's like another 3 years or so of waiting.

Sorry if it felt mostly negative. I don't think that season sucked completely and would still rate it 8/10, ig I was just holding it up to a higher standard than i should've. Its also bc I focused mostly on act 3 here and kinda wanted to rant about the all the main canon lore from before Arcane is now in limbo of what's canon and what's not, and unfortunately it doesn't just include P&Z and Noxus.

[blacksunemiku]

i just realized one of the the reason they probably made arcane about piltover and zaun is because piltover & zaun had the worst lore of all the regions lowkey like if you asked me anything about the lore of that place before arcane, i remember absolutely nothing about it outside of jinx lmao because ionia’s lore alone kinda blows everyone else out of the water

which is why i’m looking forward to what riot has in store and i’m glad they decided to do only 1 more season of arcane as someone who lived through both voltron and she-ra and is currently witnessing whatever the fuck is going on with miraculous ladybug

they could have easily milked the show with a shit ton of seasons and i am questioning how they’re going to end it atm BUT i’d rather a show be good and short than to be long winded and terrible lol

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Actually, what WAS Le Blanc Deal during all of this?

She engineers a situation that leads to Singed not in Noxian Custody, Ambessa out the game replaced by Mel, who is now untethered since her boytoy is now one with the arcane and his twink situationship, but also hostile toward the Rose, she gained no Demons no Weapons at best you can say she stopped the Disaster but let's face it that was literally blind luck of living in the one timeline where Time Displaced Viktor gave the "Acceleration Rune" to Jayce instead of any other rune, leading to Ekko inventing the Z-Drive in an alternate timeline where a different rune is given to Jayce (Hence the lack of an explosion and Vi's death), generating enough of a paradox to absolutely fuck over Viktor's divine self-assurance long enough to realise what's about to happen.

Like I can already tell this is one of her usual "My work here is done" "But you didn't do anything?" shenanigans, but what was exactly her goal there, since she must have reached some sort of goal somehow.

I guess Pilltover lost their hexgates which now forces them to move back to the Zeppelin model, which will ensue Noxian economic dominance within the Valorant continent once more, as well as make fertile ground for a future invasion of Ionia if they can't be reached by international aid in time from the Mainland...