#greater beast

[rainbowolfe]

I think Shamura is far more unhinged than most people give them credit for. Normal, reasonable people do not declare war against an entire pantheon.

Alt/Extra Dialogue under the cut!

[chronologically-challenged]

Everything around the Isabeau confession is so well written.

Firstly, the set up. When you're playing the game, killing the King is just a vague goal. A natural one! But other than the vague desire to hit an end point, there isn't really a strong emotional reason compelling the player forward. But Isabeau!!! Telling you he will tell you something once you beat the King!!! That!!! That is a tangible goal to lean onto especially over time as you get more and more endeared to the whole party. Even if you're not aware of it being a love confession, getting to Isabeau to hear what he has to say is still a compelling reason get to the end.

And if you're Aware of how these things go for stories like these, you may also say, "Well shit, we're not gonna get a confession until the end of the game, are we?"

Second, the interruptions. The order of the interruptions are so quietly brilliant. I can't get over it. Bonnie interrupting first is such an excellent choice. You know Bonnie!!! Bonnie has been jumping into conversations all game so far. So interrupting Isabeau doesn't seem all that out of place. Then Mirabelle interrupts next time. And you go, okay. Thats two of three.... but surely Odile won't interrupt, right? By this point, the player has seen Odile tease Isabeau multiple times about him liking Siffrin, so surely she won't interrupt... right? Right??? But she does. And despite it being obvious that she would, the player is still left in tension if she would.

The way things are set up, there's a plausible deniability each time. You don't expect the first interruption, Bonnie naturally would interrupt so Mirabelle could be surprising, and Odile interrupting feels so outside of what she'd usually do that you don't expect it.

And yet!!!! Saying all this!!! This is very tropey!!! Very time loop tropey!!! Stopping people from messing things up so you can have your moment is quintessential time loop tropes and yet!!! It doesn't feel tropey due to good characterization and story structure.

(And if you do realize that all three are going to interrupt from the beginning, you get a wave of DREAD when you realize that you're going to be here. Again and again. That you have to beat the King again and again and again... and as you watch the confession fizzle, seeing the Head Housemaiden there, despite Siffrin's happy demeanor, you can't help but feel it all about to crash down before it even happens. In that moment you have a taste of what the game is about to put you through).

Third, the family quests. I have two points here. Firstly, "yelling at your screen like it's a telenovela" is the best summary of my feelings on the stargazing scene. Even if you KNOW Isabeau isn't going to confess until the end of the game bc that's how these things go, it won't happen until the end because that's how good writing works, You Still Want It To Happen. So Badly. You want Isabeau to confess to Siffrin!!! You want that tension to release!!! But you have to watch and see that perfect confession slip away every time and it hurts to watch, especially if you do the quests multiple times. Second point is the fact you can't continue the Isabeau confessions on a family run kills me. It's so good. Like you're never going to get everything in one go no matter what you do so you have to pick and choose. And!!! That plays into Siffrin feeling like he's manipulating Isabeau!!!

Of course Siffrin isn't actually manipulating Isabeau but when you're so aware of what you're doing and how events could have played out, it's difficult not to see a situation where you changed the outcome as manipulation. Which... of course leads us to Siffrin's feelings at the end of trying to stop the interruptions...

Fourth, Isabeau stopping himself when confessing. It hurts so good. Idk just. Denying the player that payoff. Denying Siffrin that moment of confession. Because really Siffrin didn't learn the lesson needed to actually get this moment of vulnerability between the two of them. It's such a genius choice that brings that awful dread and hopelessness. And in the end, I suppose all five of them stop the confession from happening because from that point onward, Siffrin interrupts the confession every time. Siffrin doing everything they can to get what they want only to accept that they're never going to get it. Never CAN get this because he doesn't deserve it.

Finally, bad touch. People have talked about bad touch enough, so I dont need to go too far with it. I will say I appreciate how much it doubles down on subverting the "romancing someone in a time loop" narrative. These loops while in some ways made Siffrin more perceptive, they're also PAINFUL. They mess with his head, lean towards making worse and worse decisions, and a large part of that is his role in his family's lives. Especially with Isabeau!!! So yeah. Of course the surprise kiss doesn't go well. Especially with the context that Isabeau doesn't think Siffrin wants to be touched let alone kissed? It ends in disaster just like most of the sidequests do.

In general, the ongoing Isabeau plot is very well implemented. The seeds for it are planted immediately, and it takes a lot of commitment to see all the parts of it. As a result, unless you try to do a ton of runs in act 3 immediately just to get the confession, it's a very slow burn part of the story, doing well to parallel Siffrin's mental state and the growing hopelessness in the loops. It grounds the story in a tangible goal from the beginning and in many ways, once you get to the end of it, get to bad touch, you're left bereft. Something... lost after you spent so much time being aware of Isabeau. That tangible feeling that you're slowly running out of things to do, of ways to spend these two days.

(And of course, then you have act 6 confession, and the pure relief, the joy in finally having the confession after it being set up from act 1. Siffrin doesn't need to reciprocate for it to have its impact. Something has CHANGED they have changed. And finally FINALLY after all this time, the moment can happen. And it's beautiful).

[val-of-the-north]

Some random Elden Ring DLC-related doodles

[bearotonin-international]

Greetings fellow wet beasts, it's Wet Beast Wednesday

[the-greater-good-1899]

The dawn of November 1, 1945.

With the chaos of a recently graduated Tom Riddle sent out into the world, and the ministry breathing that much more down Albus Dumbledore's neck for the last few weeks after he'd been forced on "administrative leave" by the ministry while he was in their custody for the last several weeks, beaten and tortured until he gave into their demands to duel Gellert Grindelwald once more. He knew his husband's actions had grown more horrific over the years that even he could not ignore, and between that, the torture...

He had accepted.

The ministry was unaware of his possession of the resurrection stone, given to him by Flamel in case things turn for the worst in that duel. He's made enough potion to live out the next fifty years with himself and his wife- Should Albus not come home from this. Days before, he had sent out a letter. Part of him hoped it did not make it to him, or he would simply ignore his ridiculous quest for a final duel, to see who would finally come out on top. Or, in the ministries eyes.. If good would triumph over evil.

For the greater good.

Days later, he had anxiously arrived at that location, dressed in his usual attire. His wand was grasped tightly in his hand, other shoved in his pocket, wrapped tightly around the stone in his pocket. He had used illusion charms to hide what a wreck he really looked like, after what the ministry had put him through for the last several weeks. In his weakened state he might've still been quite the formidable opponent- But the ministries underestimated Grindelwald when it came to Dumbledore. He truly didn't know who would triumph this time. He hoped so desperately that the letter had not made it, or he would refuse.

But when was luck ever on Albus Dumbledore's side? @magicblooms

(template/layout credit to @seekingabettergood tysm <33)

[gellertalbus]

I understand, Albus. I truly do.

[maxdoesthings]

And now for something completely different

(Manga layout, please read the panels from right to left!)

It was such a pleasure to draw my brother's name in our Secret Santa this year! I've been wanting to draw him something meaningful with Serizawa for forever, seeing as Wawa's one of his favorite characters. Watching the entirety of Mob together with our friends is something I will forever look back on fondly. Merry Christmas, @chroama-the-brute :>

Serizawa has such a touching journey as a character and I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to show that, as well as the impact the people in his life has on him, without any dialogue.

The narration for this comic is inspired by a portion of The End Poem by Julian Gough.

[gbslament]

"GB? What happened?"

( @1llune )

SORRY, WHO ARE YOU?

I THINK YOU’VE CONFUSED ME WITH THE CRYBABY. (referring to GB)

The.. thing smiled at her, feeling nothing but pure joy when seeing her axe.

WELL, ARE YOU GOING TO HARM ME?

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Greater Gargadon

Artist: Rob Alexander TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[driften-sea-snake]

The Greater Will Doesn't Exist

There is no greater will in the universe. Existence precedes essence. Limited by our mortal, subjective perspectives, it is natural to yearn for some sort of larger design or unity. The vast, lonely distances of individual consciousness make the universe seem like a collection of tiny islands in the vast expanse of an ocean, doomed to one day sink. It seems impossible to reach across and truly understand another's experience of reality.

Elden Ring's themes concern the solitude of consciousness and the struggle to connect to a larger unity of all existence. Marika and Radagon were the same individual, but once split were forever changed by their different experiences and could not simply merge again. This is a microcosm of many stories in Elden Ring. All life was once unified in the Crucible, free of the burden of subjectivity and disparity. Whether yearning for home, rebirth, understanding or a larger purpose, so many characters in one way or another wish to return to the Crucible. Regression is the pull of all meaning, after all. As the Frenzied Flame incantations make clear, suffering is inherent to subjective experience. This is represented by these incantations expressing pain-derived spells through the eyes, a symbol of individual perception. Hyetta seeks to literally use the eyes of multiple people to surpass her own limited perspective and find a more universal truth. In the end, the Frenzied Flame seeks to return the universe to the shared harmony of unified existence. However, much like Marika and Radagon, subjectivity cannot be undone. There is no going back to the Crucible. All the characters and factions of the Lands Between can do is hope to simulate it.

The Greater Will is the ultimate manifestation of this, a childish wish by an orphan to not be alone, adrift in the cold. The Elden Beast is a lost child above all else. Its isolation is underlined by the inability of most beings to even comprehend its "language." It must be very lonely to only be heard and understood by a handful of other individuals. However, there were other beings it was supposed to share existence with. If you look at the body of the Elden Beast, it is immediately clear that it resembles an Erdtree. It has roots, a trunk, and branch-like wings. That's because it is an Erdtree, or at least was supposed to be. At the very top of the creature is a bright orb-an eye. This single eye indicates a subjective experience of the universe. The Elden Beast is an Erdtree seed that, in the aftermath of the end of the Crucible, developed consciousness. Isolated from it's brethren, by chance or by choice it traveled to a world that held an Erdtree. This one was much closer to the days of the Crucible. Indeed, the other Erdtrees in the cosmic background of the final boss arena suggest that they still share a kind of shared existence or connection. Unable to give up its individuality the Elden Beast was left with the powers of an Erdtree and an eye with which to perceive the unity it could not join.

The Golden Order is the Elden Beast's attempt to use its powers as a sentient Erdtree to try to recreate the shared unity of the Crucible. If consciousness could not be reversed, then perhaps there was a way to get around it. If every single being in the universe were to agree on the same story of life and death, united and granted purpose by a larger design, would that not be a kind of unified reality? Grace literally changes the eyes of all individuals granted it. Most inhabitants of the Lands Between have golden eyes with which to view the world. Though all those eyes connect back to subjective experiences of reality, they see things in the same way that the Elden Beast's golden eye does. With Marika as its chosen vessel and god, the people of the Lands Between share the same cosmology and faith. At death, bodies are returned to the Erdtree so that they can forever be joined in unity, now having lost their individuality.

At the center of this shared narrative is the Greater Will. It's clear that people in the Lands Between believe it is a god that literally exists. However, I don't think this definitively has to be the case. Even if the Greater Will is an Outer God, these seem to represent primordial emotions and desires more than a being hanging out somewhere in space. In any case, I believe the Greater Will doesn't actually exist. The Elden Beast is described as a "vassal" of the Greater Will. It is an adherent of the idea that inherent order and purpose exist in reality. The concept of the Greater Will suggests that the universe follows some sort of design. It is only in that case that essence can precede existence. This kind of universal truth would exist beyond tiny islands of individual consciousness. For the Elden Beast this idea offers the unity of life that the Crucible once held.

The Elden Beast doesn't literally believe that the Greater Will exists out there. However, it does believe that its own efforts have in a sense created a greater, conscious force in the universe. There is a large degree of self-awareness to the Golden Order. It is a kind of narrative construction that seeks to avoid the organic, messy material changes and human agency that actually form history. It has to constantly adapt its story, expelling and welcoming elements to compensate for the changes of the world. Even references to and signs of the Crucible were eventually purged. The Golden Order is supposed to be a bastion of unending stability; reminders of the past and omens of the future have no place in an eternal present. Change is what the Elden Beast seeks to control. It was change that ended the Crucible, that led to the development of individuality and consciousness. However, life is change, and nothing lasts forever.

By the time Elden Ring starts, the end result of the Elden Beast's attempt to recreate the Crucible is eternal stagnation. It seems content to let the current state of affairs continue forever, or perhaps it is as lost and afraid as when it first gained awareness. The Golden Order demands faith in a shared, inherent purpose in the universe. It can only trust in something that exists outside the mortal, limited perceptions of individuals. The Greater Will does not require eyes to perceive it in order to exist. The Elden Beast does not realize that this kind of truth no longer exists after the end of the Crucible. It does not know how to put faith in the idea that the eyes of another person behold the same reality as ourselves, or that it is through those same eyes that the proof of our own existence is found.

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

Teen Titans 03 AU where Robin mentions offhand that they're getting their funding through Wayne Enterprises and all their gear from Wayne Tech, on behalf of Robin being Batman's sidekick. Cyborg and Beast Boy are confused and suspicious about this and ask Robin point blank why Bruce Wayne, extravagant billionaire playboy and long time eligible bachelor, would be funding them, especially since they aren't in Gotham.

Without missing a beat, Robin replies, "Because Bruce Wayne and Batman are dating. Everyone knows that."

(This is obviously a lie and a running joke Robin has with Alfred but the Titans wholeheartedly believe it. They even tell other people about it and before long Bruce is getting asked by Gotham tabloids if he is actually dating Batman. Bruce is not amused at all.)

[velvet-apricots]

Marika Rebels

Marika kneeled before the Emissary of the Greater will, head bowed as she sat within the Erdtree. Her dusty face was streaked from tears shed. So many tears for her eldest child. 

For her boy that now rotted at the roots of the Erdtree.

Her back was marred with cracks from her shattering of the Elden Ring, a fit of rage against the being that destroyed her.

All she had left was Godwyn. Miquella and Malenia left her, Mohg and Morgott were lost to the sewers both.

And now Godwyn was gone.

The Greater Will demanded repentance. It demanded control.

It demanded order, for it was order itself.

It remained still, but its interest was waning. For life was chaos.

And there was no greater proof of its chaos then war.

Marika lifted her head, her grief fueled rage renewed. She would tear it all down. All for her sons to Godfrey, the only man who she loved. Godwyn, and the twins who’s memories she clung to.

Even her beautiful treacherous twins who left her. Because they were cursed by the Gods the Greater Will deemed the enemy.

She would bring a war unlike any other. For her remaining children were like her. Burning with flames of ambition.

 “I am the Queen Eternal. I shall not be thy dog. I shall not heel.”

The Beast reeled back at the defiance, brandishing a spear. Marika bared her teeth, resisting as Radagon tugged upon her body, demanding he be the one in control.

She was god upon the earth. She had power. She would not be silenced, tormented, and maimed into compliance. She would chase the Greater Will and its need for order out of the lands between. Banish the thing that shattered her to pieces.

“Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved…”

The spear came down and ripped through her chest, her body further cracking away. She spilled no blood, for the beast would never draw it.

She was stone, and stone did not bleed.

“Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God.”

Her children, her blood, all heard her words. 

Even Godwyn’s soulless husk heard, his milky eyes gazing skyward as death infected the golden roots which tried to claim him.

“But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices-”

Her voice caught in her throat, her own hands clasped tightly around it, squeezing as Radagon finally silenced her.

The beast loomed overhead, and she knew she would not be leaving this tree.

But she still had faith. She was the golden order. She was the god that walked upon the earth. Oh she may be strung up and tormented for an eternity, but this was her land.

It was her grace. And this was her tree. They may seal it off, prevent everyone from entering.

But nothing prevented her from reaching out.

And she had planned this. From the moment the last Giant fell and her first husband lost his grace.

She had planned to break free of her curse. If not that day, then one day.

This day. When she had nothing left.

So come ye tarnished. 

Come and return home.

Come and slay the beast that binds me.

Come and free me.

Come my one true Lord. 

Come return to mine side.

[miquella-everywhere]

Do we know exactly when the greater will left?

After the shattering?

We can only assume that the Greater Will left after the Shattering. The Narrator in the opening cutscene says that the "Shattering was a war that lead to abandonment by the Greater Will" so then this abandonment was pretty in our face from the beginning.

But now with the new Meytr lore we know that the Mother of Fingers has been calling out to the Greater Will and wishing for a response only to be met with silence because the Greater Will is gone gone.

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

I love that one of the roles fire plays in this series is to represent how all consuming desire can be, and how it’s framed as something that can be world ending when uncontrolled.

So naming unnatural, untamable green fire ‘wildfire’ is therefore a stroke of genius. It’s the representation of how we humans manufacture our own doom in the pursuit power, of how uncontrolled desire will eventually blow up in our faces.

And the fact that barrels and barrels of it sit fermenting under Kings Landing, Westeros’s breeding ground of maniac desire, and the capital the ambitious and corrupt flock to for what it promises? It’s perfection!

[the-greater-good-1899]

Electricity.

It crackled through the air, and before the spell had the chance to completely strike Credence down- They all drew their wands, just like so many decades ago back at Godric's Hollow- He'd been watching Gellert out of the corner of his eye, knowing he was prone to doing something, anything drastic when he felt he was cornered. Two brothers against Gellert Grindelwald, to protect an obscurial. If anyone was dying tonight, by Merlin's beard it would not be another obscurial he would let die by their hands, but to protect. He heard a snap as the chain on the blood troth broke, and his eyes flickered up quickly to those mismatched ones he'd fallen in love with so many years ago at Godric's Hollow, reading the look on his face.

They were suddenly surrounded in some kind of impenetrable force field, a magical fog as the blood troth hung in the air beside him. He quickly pulled out his wand, blasting spells back and fourth as the air around them crackled with electricity of the raw power between them- No holding back this time. Blasts of spells and debris and raw power crashed around them as they duelled, growing closer and closer still. Until he had his wand aimed at his lover, his best friend, his everything, his other hand resting over his heart at they stared intensely at one another.

Albus was the first to power down his wand.

He swallowed thickly at the feeling of Gellerts hand against his own chest, clenched there, silently begging him to stay. He lowered his wand, looking up when he saw the fog beginning to clear.. An opening. He held his mismatched gaze for a long time, before he forced himself to walk away. Every step away from him, after seeing him in person, so close like this, for the first time in a long time- Felt like complete agony.

"Who will love you now, Dumbledore?."

Crack.

As he continued to walk away from him, with the combined feeling of the blood troth breaking at those words- It felt as if he had used the Cruciatius curse on him. His entire body burned, mind and heart as if he was on fire the second it broke on the steps of the palace. Jaw tightened at the feeling of holding back the absolute agony coursing through his veins, and those words made it feel as if he had been punched in the gut. Eyes staring up at him as he watched him stumble back, staring like a trapped animal at the rest of them. @magicblooms

[gellertalbus]

Grindelwald fled, with his plans for seizing power and his schemes for Muggle torture, and his dreams of the Deathly Hallows. [...] Years passed. There were rumors about him. They said he procured a wand of immense power.